MIJSTORY OF WSIE CM U R OM I HISTORY OF THE CHURCH Edited by HUBERT JEDIN and JOHN DOLAN Volume I FROM THE APOSTOLIC COMMUNITY TO CONSTANTINE by KARL BAUS With a General Introduction to Church History by HUBERT JEDIN CROSSROAD • NEW YORK 1982 The Crossroad Publishing Company 575 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Translated from the Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte, edited by Hubert Jedin Vol. I: Von der Urgemeinde zur fruchristlichen Grosskirche, 3rd ed. © Verlag Herder KG Freiburg im Breisgau 1962 English translation © 1965 Herder KG All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of The Crossroad Publishing Company. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte. English. History of the church. Translation of: Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte. Vols. previously issued under title: Handbook of church history. Includes bibliographies and indexes. Contents: v. 1. From the apostolic community to Constantine / by Karl Baus — — v. 3. The church in the age of feudalism / by Friedrich Kempf. . . [et al.] — v. 4. From the High Middle Ages to the eve of the Re¬ formation / by Hans-George Beck . .' [et al.] 1. Church history—Collected works. I. Jedin, Hubert, 1900- II. Dolan, John Patrick. III. Title. 82-5037 BR145.2.H3613 1982 ISBN 0-8245-0314-7 270 AACR2 CONTENTS Preface.ix Preface to the English Edition.xi List of Abbreviations.xiii-xxiii General Introduction To Church History. 1 I. The Subject Matter, Methods, Ancillary Sciences, and Divisions of Church History, and its Relevance for Today. 1 II. The Writing and Study of Church History.11 The Writing of Church History: Its Beginning in Antiquity.11 The Writing of History in the Middle Ages: Christian History, not Church History. 15 The Flowering of Church History from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century 23 Church History as a Theological Discipline.32 Church History as an Historical and Theological Science in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.35 Church History in England and America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.47 PART ONE: THE BEGINNINGS Section One: Jewish Christianity.59 Chapter 1: Judaism in the Time of Jesus.59 The Religious Situation among Palestinian Jewry.60 The Qumran Community.63 The Jewish Diaspora.66 Chapter 2: Jesus of Nazareth and the Church.70 Chapter 3: The Primitive Church at Jerusalem.74 The External Events and Early Environment.74 Organization, Belief, and Piety.77 Section Two: The Way Into The Pagan World.86 Chapter 4: The Religious Situation in the Graeco-Roman World at the Time of its Encounter with Christianity.86 V CONTENTS Decline of the Ancient Greek and Roman Religions. 86 The Emperor Cult. 88 The Eastern Mystery Cults.90 Popular Religion. 94 Chapter 5: The Apostle Paul and the Structure of the Pauline Congregations . . 98 The Religious History of the Apostle Paul. 99 The Mission of Paul.100 Organization of the Pauline Congregations.105 Religious Life in the Pauline Congregations.108 Chapter 6 : Peter’s Missionary Activity and his Sojourn and Death in Rome . . Ill Extra-Pauline Gentile Christianity. m Sojourn and Death of the Apostle Peter at Rome. 112 The Tomb of Peter.115 Chapter 7: The Christianity of the Johannine Writings.119 Section Three: The Post-Apostolic Age.124 Chapter 8 : The Conflict between Christianity and the Roman State Power . . 125 The Beginnings of the Conflict. 125 The Persecutions under Nero and Domitian.128 The Court Trials of Christians under Trajan and Hadrian.132 Chapter 9: The Religious World of the Post-Apostolic Age as Mirrored in its Writings.137 Chapter 10 : The Development of the Church’s Organization.146 Chapter 11 : Heterodox Jewish-Christian Currents.153 Section Four: The Church In The Second Century.159 Chapter 12 : The Position of the Church under the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Martyrdom of the Congregations of Lyons and Vienne . . . . 159 Chapter 13: Literary Polemic against Christianity.164 Celsus ..167 Chapter 14: The Early Christian Apologists of the Second Century .... 171 Chapter 15: The Dispute with Gnosticism.181 Basic Ideas of Gnosticism.183 The Principal Manifestations of Gnosticism.187 Marcion.190 The Church’s Self-Defence and the Importance of the Christian Victory . . 192 Chapter 16: The Rise of Montanism and the Church’s Defence against it . . . 199 Chapter 17: The Expansion of Christianity down to the End of the Second Century.205 PART TWO: THE GREAT CHURCH OF EARLY CHRISTIAN TIMES (c. A.D. 180-324) Introduction. 215 Section One: The Inner Consolidation Of The Church In The Third Century.217 vi CONTENTS Chapter 18: The Attack of the Pagan State on the Church.217 The Persecutions under Septimius Severus.217 The Persecution under Decius.222 Valerian and Gallienus.226 Chapter 19: Further Development of Christian Literature in the East in the Third Century.229 The Beginnings of the Theological School of Alexandria.229 Christian Schools in the East.230 Clement of Alexandria.231 Origen.234 Dionysius of Alexandria; Methodius; Lucian of Antioch and his School . . . 240 Chapter 20: The Development of Christian Literature in the West in the Third Century. 243 The Rise of Early Christian Latin and the Beginning of a Christian Literature in Latin. Minucius Felix.243 Hippolytus.244 Novatian.247 Tertullian .248 Cyprian.252 Chapter 21: The First Christological and Trinitarian Controversies .... 254 Modalist Monarchianism.256 Chapter 22: Manichaeism.261 Chapter 23: Further Development of the Liturgy.268 Easter and the Easter Controversy.268 Catechumcnate and Baptism ..275 The Celebration of the Eucharist.281 The Beginnings of Christian Art.285 Chapter 24: Spiritual Life and Morality in the Communities of the Third Century 288 Baptismal Sprituality.288 Devotion to Martyrdom.292 The Asceticism of the Third Century.295 Prayer and Fasting in Early Christian Spirituality.299 Early Christian Morals.306 Marriage and the Family.307 Early Christian Works of Mercy.308 The Attitude of Early Christianity to Secular Civilization and Culture . . . 313 The Early Christian Church and the Pagan State.316 Chapter 25: The Holiness of the Christian and his Church.318 Penance in the Shepherd of Hermas.321 Tertullian’s Two Views of Penance.324 Penitential Discipline in North Africa in Cyprian’s Time.330 The Roman Controversy on Penance and the Schism of Novatian .... 334 Doctrine and Practice of Penance in the East in the Third Century .... 338 Disputes Concerning Penance after the Persecution of Diocletian .... 344 Chapter 26: The Development of the Church’s Constitution in the Third Century 346 The Clergy.346 The Bishop and his Church.352 Forms of Organization Larger than the Local Community.353 The Pre-eminent Position of Rome and its Bishop.355 The Controversy about Heretical Baptism.360 Devotion to the Church in the Third Century.365 vii CONTENTS Chapter 27: The Extent of Christianity prior to the Diocletian Persecution . . 367 The East.369 The West.379 Section Two: The Last Attack Of Paganism And The Final Victory Of The Church.389 Chapter 28: The Intellectual Struggle against Christianity at the End of the Third Century.389 Chapter 29: Outbreak and Course of the Diocletian Persecution down to Galerius’ Edict of Toleration 311.396 Chapter 30: The Definitive Turning-Point under Constantine the Great . . . 405 Reverse under Maximinus Daia.405 Constantine’s “Conversion” to Christianity.407 From the Convention of Milan, 313, to the Beginning of Sole Rule, 324 . . . 416 Chapter 31: The Causes of the Victory of the Christian Religion. The Scope and Import of the “Constantinian Turning-Point”.426 Bibliography.433 Bibliography to the General Introduction.435 General Bibliography to Volumes I and II.447 Bibliography to Individual Chapters.459 General Index To Volume I.507 PREFACE As any historical work of this kind must do, the handbook seeks first of all to give a reliable account of the principal events and leading figures in Church history. In the second place — and here it is distinguished from most previous manuals — it examines not only the Church’s external career in the world but also her inner life, the development of her doctrine and preaching, her ritual and devotion. Our presentation does not follow the usual lines but attempts to evoke the fruitful plenitude of the mystery which is the Church by shedding light on the interaction between her outward vicissitudes and her inner life. With this end in view (and in order to avoid duplication as far as possible) the collaborators drew up a complete table of contents in 1958, and at their last meeting in Trier, in 1960, submitted specimen chapters which indicated the arrangement and orientation of the book. We discovered in the course of this work how difficult it is to give the most comprehensive possible account of the facts in a readable style. Each collaborator has had to wrestle with this problem; with what success, we must leave the critics to judge. No less difficult was the problem of sources and literature. The handbook must after all provide an introduction to these if it is to be useful not only at university level but also for religious instruction in secondary schools and for adult education. Now bibliographies of every sort abound. But who is in a position to collect the material there cited — scattered as it is all over the world —, to read it, and to sift the important information from the unimportant? We had to content ourselves with a limited bibliog¬ raphy relevant to our purpose and selected on the following principles: we must indicate the most important sources and such of the older literature as is still indispensable, and cite the most recent books and articles in which further bibliography can be found. The Bibliography at the back of the book contains a section for each chapter. Reference to sources and literature on special subjects, as well as some biographical material in the ix PREFACE sections on modern times, are given in the footnotes, which we have purposely kept to a minimum. The chief editor, Professor Jedin, has attempted in the General Intro¬ duction to Church History to point out the basic method of this discipline and to show in more detail than has been done hitherto how the Church’s consciousness of her history evolved into an academic study. It is a first attempt and the writer is by no means unaware of its shortcomings. The author of this volume on the pre-Constantinian Church, Professor Baus, was only entrusted with his task in 1958. Some of his decisions regard¬ ing choice of material and the scope of particular chapters were taken in view of the following considerations: The apostolic age might have been given much fuller treatment on the basis of the history of New Testament times, but the volume would then have far exceeded the size proposed. The author has therefore tried to summarize those features of the early Church which continue to characterize her during her subsequent history. The bibliog¬ raphy for this period sufficiently indicates his indebtedness to special studies. In contrast with most textbooks, considerable space is here devoted to the development of Christian literature, a factor of such importance for the Church’s inner life that its neglect would seriously distort the general picture. Finally, the special aims of the handbook made it necessary to include comparatively detailed chapters on the growth of early Christian liturgy, on the sacrament of penance, and on the life of the Christian community, which in certain respects — for example the spirituality of baptism and martyrdom — are still an almost untouched field. In the course of preparing this volume the author received help from many quarters, help which was most welcome when it took the form of criticism. He is indebted in the first place to the other collaborators, but particularly so to the general editor, Hubert Jedin, to his former teacher J. A. Jungmann, and to Oskar Kohler, head of the Lexicographical Institute at the publishing house of Herder. A special word of thanks is also due to the staff of the library of the Theological Faculty at Trier, who showed such zeal in finding important literature. This first volume of the handbook appears during the deliberations of the Second Vatican Council. The authors hope that their work may contribute in some measure to a deeper understanding of the Church and a greater love for her. Hubert Jedin , Karl Baus x PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION It is sincerely hoped that the appearance of the English version of the Handbuch der Kirchengeschicbte so soon after the original German edition will fill a long neglected need in this area of study. Over half a century, unparalleled in productive historical research, has passed since the publi¬ cation in English of Funk’s Manual of Church History. Similar works available in translation have, for the most part, failed to utilize much of the post-war scholarship in scriptural and patristical studies. Unlike tradi¬ tional manuals of this type, with their skeletal outlines and perfunctory narrative, the present work combines a wealth of current and scholarly research with an accompanying text that is equally scholarly in presentation and interpretation. The Handbuch not only offers the student precise infor¬ mation on the important events and personalities in the history of the Church, it also focuses considerable attention on all that expresses or reflects its internal life — the development of dogma, liturgy, ecclesiastical organization, the spiritual and moral life, and the literary activity of the Christian communities. The ample treatment given the Dead Sea scrolls and the discoveries at Nag Hammadi is extremely relevant as theologians continue to rethink the attitude of the primitive Church toward Judaism and to examine the syncre- tistic aspects of early Christianity and its reaction to the ancient mytho¬ logical image of the world. The international and non-sectarian composition of the secondary source material gives the book an ecumenical dimension, while the objective treatment of such problems as the Vatican excavations and the political turn of Constantine to Christianity are representative of its avoidance of the polemic and confessional partisanship often latent in Church histories. Professor Jedin’s masterful introductory essay on the historical devel¬ opment of Church history from Christian antiquity to the present day is a forthright declaration of the serious academic nature of ecclesiastical history and may well prove a literary landmark in the final emancipation xi PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION of that discipline from the lingering effects of the rationalistic attack on the theological interpretation of history. It confronts the anti-historical mentality, so dominant since Trent — with its tendency to isolate dogma from the living fabric of history —, with a bold affirmation of the need for examining the Church in its concrete and contingent development. The neglect of the study of Church history in seminaries and the curious lack of chairs of ecclesiastical history in Catholic universities point only too clearly to a need for some kind of reappraisal. Above all the Handbuch aims at implementing the conviction that theology is an activity within the historic organism of the Church, and that Church history must not only provide the necessary framework and documentary material for this activity, it must also communicate the life and the mind of the Church as well. John P. Dolan LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AAB AAG AAH AAM Abel HP ACO ActaSS ACW ADipl Aegyptus AElsKG AGG AH AHVNrh AkathKR AKG Altaner ALW AnBoll ANF AnGr Abhandlungen der Deutschen (till 1944: Preussischen) Akademis der Wissen- schaften zu Berlin . Phil.-hist. Klasse, Berlin 1815 seqq. Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenscbaften in Gottingen (down to Series III, 26, 1940: AGG), Gottingen 1949 seqq. Abhandlungen der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenscbaften , Phil.-hist. Klasse, Heidelberg 1913 seqq. Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenscbaften , Phil.-hist. Klasse, Munich 1835 seqq. F.-M. Abel, Histoire de la Palestine depuis la conquete d 3 Alexandre jusqu'a l 3 invasion arabe , I—II, Paris 1952. Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum, ed. by E. Schwartz, Berlin 1914 seqq. Acta Sanctorum, ed. Bollandus etc. (Antwerp, Brussels, Tongerloo) Paris 1643 seqq., Venice 1734 seqq., Paris 1863 seqq. Ancient Christian Writers , ed. by J. Quasten and J. C. Plumpe, Westminster, Md.-London 1946 seqq. Archiv fiir Diplomatik, Schriftgeschichte, Siegel- und Wappenkunde , Mun¬ ster-Cologne 1955 seqq. Aegyptus, Rivista Italiana di Egittologia e Papirologia, Milan 1920 seqq. Ardjiv fiir elsdssische Kirchengeschichte, publ.by the Gesellschaft fur elsassische Kirchengeschichte, ed. by J. Brauner, Rixheim im Oberelsass 1926 seqq.; since 1946 ed. by A. M. Burg, Strasbourg. Abhandlungen der Gesellschaft der Wissenscbaften zu Gottingen (after Series III, 27, 1942: ^4^4G), Gottingen 1843 seqq. Analecta Hymnica, ed. by G. Dreves and C. Blume, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922. Annalen des Historischen Vereins fiir den Niederrhein, insbesondere das alte Erzbistum Koln, Cologne 1855 seqq. Archiv fiir katholisches Kirchenrecht , (Innsbruck) Mainz 1857 seqq. Archiv fiir Kulturgeschichte, (Leipzig) Munster and Cologne 1903 seqq. B. Altaner, Patrology, Freiburg-London-New York, 2nd imp. 1960. Archiv fiir Liturgiewissenschaft (formerly JLW ), Regensburg 1950 seqq. Analecta Bollandiana, Brussels 1882 seqq. Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo Collection) 1804-86. Analecta Gregoriana cura Pontiftciae Universitatis Gregorianae edita, Rome 1930 seqq. Xlll LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ANL AnzAW Ante-Nicene Christian Library (Edinburgh Collection) 1866-72. Anzeiger der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften , Vienna 1864 AOG seqq. Archiv fur osterreichische Geschichte , Vienna 1865 seqq. APhilHistOS Annuairc de I’institut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales et Slaves , APraem ArSKG Brussels 1932 seqq. Analecta Praemonstratensia , Tongerloo 1925 seqq. Archiv fur schlesische Kirchengeschichte, publ. by K. Engleberr, I-VI, Breslau 1936-41, VII ff., Hildcsheim 1949 seqq. ARW Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft (Freiburg i. Br., Tubingen), Leipzig 1898 AST ATh AttiPontAc AuC seqq. Analecta Sacra Tarraconensia , Barcelona 1925 seqq. Vannee thcologique , Paris 1940 seqq. Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia , Rome 1923 seqq. F. J. Dolger, Antike und Christentum , I-VI and supplementary vol., Munster 1929-50. AUF Archiv fur Urkundenforschung , Berlin 1908 seqq. Augustiniana Augustiniana. Tijdschrift vor de studie van Sint Augustinus en de Augu- AZ stijneorde, Louvain 1951 seqq. Archivalische Zeitschrift, Munich 1876 seqq. BA The Biblical Archaeologist , New Haven, Conn. 1938 seqq. BAC Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos , Madrid 1945 seqq. (138 vols. so far issued). Bachtold-Staubli H. Bachtold-Staubli, Handworterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens , 10 vols., Berlin-Leipzig 1927 seqq. Bardenhewer O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur> 5 vols., Freiburg i.Br. 1902 seqq. Bauer W. Bauer, Griechisch-Deutsches Worterbuch z u den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der ubrigen urchristlichen Literatur , Berlin, 5th ed. 1957. Bauerreiss Baumstark R. Bauerreiss, Kirchengeschichte Bayerns t I-V, St. Ottilien 1949-55. A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschlufl der christ- lich-palastinensischen Texte , Bonn 1922. BECh Beck Bibliotheque de PEcole des Chartres , Paris 1839 seqq. H.-G. Beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im Byzantinischen Reich; Munich 1959. Bedjan Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum (syriace), ed. by P. Bedjan, 7 vols., Paris 1890-7. BHG BHL Bibliotheca hagiographica graeca , ed. socii Boilandiani, Brussels, 3rd cd. 1957. Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis , ed. socii Bollan- diani, 2 vols., Brussels 1898-1901; Suppl. editio altera, Brussels 1911. BHO Bibl BIFAO Bijdragen BJ Bibliotheca hagiographica orientalis , ed. by P. Peeters, Brussels 1910. Biblica, Rome 1920 seqq. Bulletin de iTnstitut fran$ais d’Archeologie Orientale , Cairo 1901 seqq. Bijdragen. Tijdschrift voor Filosofie en Theologie , Nijmegen 1938 seqq. Bursians Jahresbericht iiber die Fortschritte der klassischen Altertumswissen- BJRL BKV schaft , Leipzig 1873 seqq. The Bulletin of the John Rylands Library , Manchester 1903 seqq. Bibliothek der Kirchenvater , ed. by O. Bardenhewer, T. Schermann (after vol. 35, J. Zellinger) and C. Wcymann, 83 vols., Kempten 1911 seqq. BLE BollAC Bulletin de litterature ccclesiastique y Toulouse 1899 seqq. Bollettino di archeologia cristiana , ed. by G. B. de Rossi, Rome 1863-94. XIV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS B re hier BThAM ByZ Byz(B) ByzNGrJb BZ BZThS L. Brehier, Le monde byzantin , I—III, Paris 1947-50. Bulletin de Theologie Ancienne et Medievale, Louvain 1929 seqq. Byzantinische Zeitschrift , Leipzig-Munich 1892 seqq. Byzantion y Brussels 1924 seqq. Byzantinische-Neugriechische Jahrbiichery Athens-Berlin 1920 seqq. Biblische Zeitschrift , Freiburg i. Br. 1903-24; Paderborn 1931-9, 1957 seqq. Bonner Zeitschrift fur Theologie u. Seelsorge , Diisscldorf 1924-31. CahArch Cath CathEnc Cahiers Archeologiques. Fin de PAntiquite et Moyen-age , Paris 1945 seqq. Catholica. Jahrbuch fiir Kontroverstheologie, (Paderborn) Miinster 1932 seqq. The Catholic Encyclopediay ed. by C. Herbermann et al. 15 vols., New York 1907-12; index vol. 1914, supplementary vol. 1922. Catholicisme Catholicisme, Hier — Aujourd’hui — Demain, cd. by G. Jacquemet, Paris 1948 seqq. CBQ CChr The Catholic Biblical Quarterly , Washington 1939 seqq. Corpus Christianorum y seu nova Patrum collectio, Turnhout-Paris 1953 CH Chalkedon seqq. Church History , New York-Chicago 1932 seqq. Das Konzil von Chalkedon. Geschichte u. Gegenwart, ed. by A. Grillmeier ChQR CHR CIG and H. Bacht, I—III, Wurzburg 1951-4. The Church Quarterly Review , London 1875 seqq. The Catholic Historical Review , Washington 1915 seqq. Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum y begun by A.Boeckh, continued by J. Franz, CIL E. Curtius and A. Kirchhoff, 4 vols., Berlin 1825-77. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum , ed. by the Berlin Academy, Berlin 1863 CivCatt CIP COH CSCO CSEL CSL CT seqq. La Civiltd Cattolica t Rome 1850 seqq. (1871-87 Florence). Clavis Patrum Latinorum, ed. by E. Dekkers, Steenbrugge, 2nd ed. 1961. Het Christelijk Oosten en Herenigingy Nijmegen 1949 seqq. Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientaliumy Paris 1903 seqq. Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum , Vienna 1866 seqq. Corpus scriptorum latinorum Paravianum , Turin. Concilium Tridentinum. Diariorum, Actorum, Epistularum, Tractatuum nova Collectio, edidit Societas Goerresiana promovendis inter Catholicos Germaniae Litterarum Studiis, 13 vols. so far, Freiburg i. Br. 1901 seqq. Denzinger H. Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum , Definitionum et Declarationum de rebus fidei et morum , Freiburg i. Br., 31st ed. 1960. DA Deutsches Archiv fur Erforschung des Mittelalters (1937-43: fiir Geschichte des Mittelalters, Weimar), Cologne-Graz 1950 seqq. (cf. AM). DACL Dictionnaire d’archeologie chretienne et de liturgie , ed. by F. Cabrol and DBS H. Leclercq, Paris 1924 seqq. Dictionnaire de la Bible , Supplementy ed. by L. Pirot, cont. by A. Robert, DDC Paris 1928 seqq. Dictionnaire de droit canonique , ed. by R. Naz, Paris 1935 seqq. Delehaye OC H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs , Brussels, 2nd ed. 1933. Delchaye PM H. Delehaye, Les passions des martyrs et les genres litteraires , Brussels 1921. Delehaye S H. Delehaye, Sanctus. Essai sur le culte des saints dans Pantiquitc , Brussels, DHGE 2nd ed. 1954. Dictionnaire d'histoire et de geographie ecclesiastiques y ed. by A. Baudrillart et al., Paris 1912 seqq. XV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Diehl E. Diehl, Inscriptions christianae latinae veteres y 3 vols., Berlin, 2nd ed. 1961. Dolger Reg Corpus der griechischen Urkunden des Mittelalters und der neueren Zeit. Reihe A, Abt. 1: Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des ostromischen Reiches, ed. by F. Dolger. Dominican Studies, Oxford 1948 seqq. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, ed. Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 1941 seqq. Dictionnaire de Spiritualite ascetique ct mystique. Doctrine et Histoire, ed. by M. Viller, Paris 1932 seqq. Divus Thomas (before 1914: Jahrbuch fur Philosophic und spekulative Theologie; from 1954 Freiburger Zeitschrift fur Theologie und Philosophic) y Fribourg. Dictionnaire de theologie catholique, ed. by A. Vacant and E. Mangenot, cont. by E. Amann, Paris 1930 seqq. Liber Pontificals, ed. by L. Duchesne, 2 vols., Paris 1886-92. Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift fiir Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, Halle 1923 seqq. Enciclopedia Cattolica, Rome 1949 seqq. Estudios ecclesidsticos, Madrid 1922-36, 1942 seqq. A. Ehrhard, Oberlieferung und Bestand der hagiographischen und homileti- schen Literatur der griechischen Kirche von den Anfangen bis zum Ende des 16. ]h. (TU 50-52), I-III, Leipzig 1937-52. Ephemerides Liturgicae, Rome 1887 seqq. Echos d’Orient, Paris 1897 seqq. (from 1946 R£B). Eranos-Jahrbuch, Zurich 1933 seqq. Estudios Biblicos, Madrid 1941 seqq. Etudes Bibliques, Paris 1907 seqq. Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, Bruges 1924 seqq. Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica (to 324) ed. by E. Schwartz (GCS 9, 1-3) Berlin 1903-9. Evagrius Scholasticus, Historia Ecclesiastica (431-594), ed. by J. Bidez and L. Parmentier, London 1898. FC The Fathers of the Church, New York 1947 seqq. FF Forschungen und Fortschritte, Berlin 1925 seqq. FKDG Forschungen zu Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte, Gottingen 1953 seqq. Fliche-Martin Histoire de Veglise depuis les origines jusqu’d nos jours, ed. A. Fliche and V. Martin, Paris 1935 seqq. FlorPatr Florilegium Patristicum, ed. by J. Zellinger und B. Geyer, Bonn 1904 seqq. Gams P. Gams, Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae, Regensburg 1S73; supple¬ ment ibid. 1879-86. Garcia-Villada Z. Garcia-Villada, Historia eclesiastica de Espana, 2 vols., Madrid 1929. GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte, Leip¬ zig 1897 seqq. Gelas.HE Gelasius, Historia Ecclesiastica, ed. by G. Loeschke und M. Heinemann (GCS 28) Berlin 1918. GhellinckP J. de Ghellinck, Patristique et Moyen Age. Etudes d'histoire littcraire et doctrinale, I, Paris, 2nd ed. 1949, II-III, Brussels 1947-8. DomSt DOP DSAM DTh DThC Duchesne LP DVfLG ECatt EE Ehrhard ELit EO Eranos EstB EtB EThL Euseb. HE Evagrius HE XVI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Gn Gnomon. Kritische Zeitschrift fiir die gesamte klassische Altertumswissen- schaft (Berlin) Munich 1925 seqq. Gr Gregorianum, Rome 1920 seqq. Grumel Reg V. Grumel, Les Regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople, Kadikoi- Bucharest 1/1 1932,1/2 1936, 1/3 1947. GuL Geist und Leben. Zeitschrift fiir Aszese und Mystik (to 1947, ZAM ), Wurz¬ burg 1947 seqq. Hanssens J. M. Hanssens, Institutiones liturgicae de Ritibus Orientalibus , I-V, Rome 1930 seqq. Hamack DG A. von Hamack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte , 3 vols., Tubingen, 4th ed. 1909 seq. (photographic reprint, Tubingen, 5th ed. 1931 seq.). Hamack Lit A. von Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, 3 vols., Leipzig 1893-1904. Harnack Miss A. von Harnack, Die Mission u. Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, 2 vols., Leipzig, 4th ed. 1924. Hauck A. Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, I-IV, Leipzig 1906-14, V 1929, I-V, Berlin-Leipzig 8th ed. 1954. HAW Hand buck der Altertumswissenschaft, founded by I. von Muller, newly ed. by W. Otto, Munich 1929 seqq.; new ed. 1955 seqq. HDG Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte, ed. by M. Schmaus, J. Geiselmann, A. Grillmeier, Freiburg i. Br. 1951 seqq. HE Historia Ecclesiastic a. Hcfele- Leclercq Histoire des Conciles d y apres les documents originaux, by C. J. Hefele, translated by H. Leclercq, I-IX, Paris 1907 seqq. Hennecke —Schneemelcher Neutestamentliche Apokryphen in deutscher Vbersetzung f Founded by E. Hennecke, ed. by W. Schneemelcher, I—II, Tubingen, 3rd ed. 1959-64. Hermes Hermes. Zeitschrift fur klassische Philologie, Berlin 1866 seqq. HJ Historisches Jahrbuch der Gorres-Gesellschaft (Cologne 1880 seqq.), Munich 1950 seqq. HNT Handbuch zum Neuen Testament, founded by H. Lietzmann (now ed. by G. Bornkamm), 23 parts, Tubingen 1906 seqq. HO Handbuch der Orientalistik, ed. by B. Spuler, Leiden 1948 seqq. HThR The Harvard Theological Review, Cambridge, Mass. 1908 seqq. HZ Historische Zeitschrift, Munich 1859 seqq. IER The Irish Ecclesiastical Record , Dublin 1864 seqq. IKZ Internationale Kirchliche Zeitschrift, Berne 1911 seqq. IThQ The Irish Theological Quarterly , Dublin 1864 seqq. JA Journal Asiatique, Paris 1822 seqq. JbAC Jahrbuch fiir Antike und Christentum, Munster 1858 seqq. JBL Journal of Biblical Literature, published by the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, Boston 1881 seqq. Jdl Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archdologischen Instituts, Berlin 1886 seqq. JEH The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, London 1950 seqq. Jerphanion G. de Jerphanion, La voix des monuments, I—II, Paris 1932-8. JLH Jahrbuch fiir Liturgik und Hymnologie, Kassel 1955 seqq. JLW Jahrbuch fiir Liturgiewissenschaft, Munster 1921-41 (now ALW). jOByzG Jahrbuch der osterreichischen Byzantinischen Gesellschaft, Vienna 1951 seqq. XVII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS JQR JRS JSOR JThS Jugie K Karst G Katholik KIT Konig H Kraus RE Krumbacher KuD Kunstle Lanzoni Lebreton Lietzmann L] LNPF LQ LThK LuM MAH Mai B Mai C MaiS MAMA Manitius Mansi MartHieron xviii The Jewish Quarterly Review, Philadelphia 1888 seqq. The Journal of Roman Studies, London 1910 seqq. Journal of the Society of Oriental Research, Chicago 1917-32. The Journal of Theological Studies, London 1899 seqq. M. Jugie, Theologia dogmatica Christianorum orientalium ab ecclesia cath- olica dissidentium, I-V, Paris 1926-35. C. Kirch-L. Ueding, Enchiridion fontium historiae ecclesiasticae antiquae, Freiburg i. Br., 8th ed. 1960. J. Karst, Litterature georgienne chretienne, Paris 1934. Der Katholik, Mainz 1821 seqq. (General index for 1821-89). Kleine Texte, ed. by H. Lietzmann, Berlin 1902 seqq. Christus u. die Religionen der Erde. Handbuch der Religionsgeschichte, ed. by F. Konig, I—III, Vienna, 2nd ed. 1956. F. X. Kraus, Real-Encyclopadie der Christlichen Altertiimer, 2 vols., Frei¬ burg i. Br. 1882-6. K. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantischen Literatur, Munich 1890; 2nd ed. by A. Ehrhard and H. Gelzer, Munich 1897. Kerygma und Dogma, Gottingen 1955 seqq. K. Kunstle, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, I, Freiburg i. Br. 1928; II, Freiburg i. Br. 1926. F. Lanzoni, Le Diocesi d'ltalia dalle origini al principio del secolo VII, 2 vols., Faenza, 2nd ed. 1927. J. Lebreton, Histoire du dogme de la Trinite, I—II, Paris, 4th ed. 1928. H. Lietzmann, Geschichte der alten Kirche, I, Berlin 2nd ed. 1937 (3rd ed. 1953), II-IV 1936-44 (2nd ed. 1953). Liturgisches Jahrbuch, Munster 1951 seqq. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo and New York 1886-90). Liturgiegeschichtliche Q uellen, Miinster 1918 seqq. Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche, ed. by J. Hofer and K. Rahner, Frei¬ burg i. Br., 2nd ed. 1957 seqq. Liturgie und Monchtum. Laacher Hefte, (Freiburg i. Br.) Maria Laach 1948 seqq. Melanges d'archeologie et d’histoire, Paris 1880 seqq. Nova Patrum bibliotheca, I-VII by A. Mai, Rome 1852-7; VIII-X by J. Cozza-Luzi, Rome 1871-1905. A. Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio e vaticanis codicibus edita, 10 vols., Rome 1815-38. A. Mai, Spicilegium Romanum, 10 vols., Rome 1839-44. Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua. Publications of the American Society for Archeological Research in Asia Minor, 7 vols., Manchester 1928-56. M. Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, Munich, I 1911, II 1923, III 1931. J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, 31 vols., Florence-Venice 1757-98; new impression and continuation ed. by L. Petit and J. B. Martin in 60 vols., Paris 1899—1927. Martyrologium Hieronymianum, ed. by H. Quentin and H. Delehaye (ActaSS Nov. II, 2), Brussels 1931. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS MartRom MCom MD MF MG Martyrologium Romanum y ed. by H. Delehaye, Brussels 1940. Miscelanea Comillas, Comillas-Santander 1943 seqq. Maison-Dieu, Paris 1945 seqq. Miscellanea francescana, Rome 1886 seqq. Monumenta Germaniae Historica inde ab a. C. 500 usque ad a. 1500; indexes by O. Holder-Egger and K. Zeumer, Hanover-Berlin 1826 seqq. Sections: MGAuctant Auctores antiquissimi. MGSS Scriptores. MiscMercati Miscellanea Giovanni Mercati, 6 vols., Rome 1946. MiscMohlberg Miscellanea Liturgica in honorem L. Cuniberti Mohlberg, Rome 1948. Moricca U. Moricca, Storia della Letteratura latina cristiana y 3 vols. in 5 tomes, Turin 1924-34. MSR MThZ Muratori Melanges de science religieuse y Lille 1944 seqq. Miinchener theologische Zeitschrift, Munich 1950 seqq. L. A. Muratori, Rerum italicarum scriptores ab anno aerae christianae 500 ad 1500 y 28 vols., Milan 1723-51; continuation by Tartini 1748-70. andN. G. Mittarelli 1771; new ed. by G. Carducci and V. Fiorini, Citdi di Castello 1900 seqq. Museon Le Museon, Louvain 1881 seqq. NA Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft fur altere deutsche Geschichtskunde zur Be- forderung einer Gesamtausgabe der Quellenschriften deutscher Geschichte des Mittelalters y Hanover 1876 seqq. (from 1937, DA). NAG Nachrichten von der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gottingen (till 1940, NGG) y Gottingen 1941 seqq. NBollAC Nuovo Bollettino di archeologia cristiana y Rome 1895-1923 (Continuation of BollAC). NC Nouvelle Clio. Revue mensuelle de la decouverte historique, Brussels 1947 Nilles seqq. N. Nilles, Kalendarium manuale utriusque ecclesiae orientalis et occidentals, 2 vols., Innsbruck, 2nd ed. 1896 seq. NovT NRTh NTS NZSTh Novum Testamentum, Leiden 1956 seqq. Nouvelle Revue Theologique , Tournai-Louvain-Paris, 1879 seqq. New Testament Studies , Cambridge-Washington 1954 seqq. Neue Zeitschrift fur Systematische Theologie , Berlin 1959 seqq. OrChr OrChrA Oriens Christianus, (Leipzig) Wiesbaden 1901 seqq. Orientalia Christiana (Analecta), Rome (1923-34: Orientalia Christiana; 1935 seqq: Orientalia Christiana Analecta). OrChrP OrSyr OstKSt OxP Orientalia Christiana Periodica, Rome 1935 seqq. UOrient Syrien, Paris 1956 seqq. Ostkirchliche Studien, Wurzburg 1951 seqq. The Oxyrhynchos Papyri, London 1898 seqq. Pauly-Wissowa Paulys Realencyklopddie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, new ed. by G. Wissowa and W. Kroll (with K. Mittelhaus), Stuttgart 1893 seqq. PG Patrologia Graeca, ed by J.-P. Migne, 161 vols., Paris 1857-66. Philostorgius HE Philostorgius, Church History (down to 425), ed. by J. Bidez (GCS 2), Berlin 1913. XIX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PhJ Pitra A Pitra S PL POR PrOrChr PS PSI QF1AB Q Hasten P R Raby Chr RAC RAM RB RBen RD REA RIB R£G REL RET RevEAug RevSR RGG RH RHE RHEF RHLR RhMus RHPhR RHR RicRel Righetti RivAC RM ROC RPAA Philosophisches Jahrbucb der Gdrres-Gesellscbaft, Fulda 1888 seqq. J. B. Pitra, Analecta sacra Spicilegio Solesmensi parata, 8 vols., Paris 1876-91. J. B. Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense, 4 vols., Paris 1852-8. Patrologia Latina, ed. by J.-P. Migne, 217 vols. and 4 index vols., Paris 1878-90. Patrologia Orientals, ed. by J. GrafFin and F. Nau, Paris 1903 seqq. Le Proche-Orient chretien, Jerusalem 1951 seqq. Patrologia Syriaca, ed. by R. GrafFin, 3 vols., Paris 1894-1926. Papiri greci e latini della Societa Italiana y Florence 1912 seqq. Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken , Rome 1897 seqq. J. Quasten, Patrology y Utrecht-Brussels, I 1950, II 1953, III 1960. M, J, Rouet de Journel, Enchiridion Patristicum, Freiburg i. Br., 19th ed. F. J. E. Raby, A History of Christian Latin Poetry, Oxford, 2nd ed. 1953. Reallexikon fiir Antike und Christentum, ed. by T. Klauser, Stuttgart 1941 (1950) seqq. Revue d’ascetique et de mystique, Toulouse 1920 seqq. Revue biblique y Paris 1892 seqq.; new series since 1914. Revue benedictine, Maredsous 1884 seqq. M. J. Rouet de Journal and J. Dutilleul, Enchiridion asceticum y Freiburg i. Br., 5th ed. 1958. Revue des Etudes Anciennes y Bordeaux 1899 seqq. Revue des Etudes byzantines (Continuation of EO) y Paris 1946 seqq. Revue des Etudes Grecques, Paris 1888 seqq. Revue des Etudes latines, Paris 1923 seqq. Revista Espanola de teologia , Madrid 1941 seqq. Revue des Etudes Augustiniennes (Continuation of U Annee Theologique Augustinienne), Paris 1955 seqq. Revue des Sciences Religieuses, Strasbourg 1921 seqq. Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Tubingen 1909-13; 2nd ed. 1927-32; 3rd ed. 1956 seqq. Revue historique y Paris 1876 seqq. Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique, Louvain 1900 seqq. Revue d'histoire de Feglise de France , Paris 1910 seqq. Revue d’histoire et de litterature religieuses , Paris 1896-1907. Rheinisches Museum fur Philologie, Bonn 1833 seqq. Revue d’histoire et de philosophic religieuses, Strasbourg 1921 seqq. Revue de Vhistoire des religions, Paris 1880 seqq. Ricerche Religiose, Rome 1925 seqq. M. Righetti, Manuale di storia liturgica, Milan, I: Introduzione generale, 2nd ed. 1950; II: L’anno liturgico. II Breviario, 2nd ed. 1955; III: L’Euca- ristica sacrificio e sacramento, 1949; IV: Sacramenti — Sacramentali, 1953. Rivista di archeologia cristiana, Rome 1924 seqq. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaelogischen Instituts, Romische Abteilung, Rome 1886. Revue de I’Orient chretien, Paris 1896 seqq. Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, Rome 1923 seqq. XX RQ LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Romische Quartalschrift fur christliche Altertumskunde und fiir Kirchen- geschichte , Freiburg i. Br. 1887 seqq. RQum RSO RSPhTh RSR RSTI RThAM Rufin. HE Revue de Qumran, Paris 1958 seqq. Rivista degli studi orientali, Rome 1908 seqq. Revue de sciences philosophiques et theologiques , Paris 1907 seqq. Recherches de science religieuse , Paris 1910 seqq. Rivista della storia della chiesa in Italia , Rome 1947 seqq. Recherches de Theologie anciennne et medievale , Louvain 1929 seqq. Rufinus of Aquileia, Translation of Eusebius’s Church History , ed. by T. Mommsen in GCS 9, Berlin 1909. SA SAB Studia Anselm'tana , Rome 1933 seqq. Sitzungsberichte der Deutschen (till 1944: Preussischen) Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Phil-hist. Klasse, Berlin 1882 seqq. Saeculum SAH Saeculum. Jahrbuch fur Universalgeschichte , Freiburg i. Br. 1950 seqq. Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Phil.-hist. SAM Klasse, Heidelberg 1910 seqq. Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Phil.-hist. SAW Abt., Munich 1871 seqq. Sitzungsberichte der (after 225, 1, 1947: Osterreichischen) Akademie der SC SCpr SE Seeherg Wissenschaften in Wien , Vienna 1831 seqq. Scuola Cattolica , Milan 1873 seqq. Scriptores christiani primaevi , The Hague 1946 seqq. Sacris Erudiri. Jaarboek voor Godsdienstwetenschapen , Bruges 1948 seqq. R. Seeberg, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte , Leipzig, I—II, 3rd ed. 1922 seqq.; Ill, 4th ed. 1930; IV, 1, 4th ed. 1933; IV, 2, 3rd ed. 1920 (I-IV new impression, Basle 1953-4). SO Symbolae Osloenses , ed. by the Societas Graeco-Latina, Oslo 1922 seqq. Socrates HE Socrates, Historia Ecclesiastica (305-439), ed. by R. Hussey, 3 vols., Oxford SourcesChr Sozom. HE 1853. Sources chretiennes , ed. by H. de Lubac and J. Danielou, Paris 1941 seqq. Sozomen, Historia Ecclesiastica (324-425), ed. by J. Bidez and G. C. Hansen in GCS 50, Berlin 1960. S peculum SQS Speculum. A Journal of Medieval Studies y Cambridge, Mass. 1926 seqq. Sammlung ausgewahlter Kirchen- und dogmengeschichtlicher Quellen- schriften, Tubingen 1893 seqq. StC SteT StrP Studia Catholica y Roermund 1924 seqq. Studi e Testi , Rome 1900 seqq. Stromata Patristica et Medievalia, ed. by C. Mohrmann and J. Quasten, StTh Utrecht 1950 seqq. Studia Theologica , cur a Ordinum Theologicorum Scandinavicorum edita , StudiBiz StudGen Lund 1948 seqq. Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici , Rome 1925 seqq. Studium Generale. Zeitschrift fiir die Einheit der Wissenschaften im Zusammenhang ihrer Begriffsbildung und Forschungsmethoden, Berlin- Gottingen-Heidelberg 1948 seqq. Sulp.Sev.Chron Sulpicius Severus, World Chronicle (to 400), ed. by C. Halm (CSEL 1), Vienna 1866. TD Textus et Documenta y Series Theologica , Rome 1933-5. ThBl Theologische Blatter , Leipzig 1922 seqq. xxi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Theodoret HE Theodoret, Historia Ecclesiastica , ed. by L. Parmentier, 2nd ed. by ThJ ThLL ThLz ThQ ThR ThRv ThSt ThW F. Scheidweiler GCS 44 (19) Berlin 1954. Theologische Jahrbiicher, Leipzig 1842 seqq. Thesaurus Linguae Latinae , Leipzig 1900 seqq. Theologische Literaturzeitung, Leipzig 1878 seqq. Theologische Quartalscbrift, Tubingen 1819 seqq.; Stuttgart 1946 seqq. Theologische Rundschau, Tubingen 1897 seqq. Theologische Revue , Munster 1902 seqq. Theological Studies , Baltimore 1940 seqq. Theologisches Worterbuch zum Neuen Testament , ed. by G. Kittel, cont. by G. Friedrich, Stuttgart 1933 seqq. ThZ Tixeront Theologische Zeitschrift , Basle 1945 seqq. L. J. Tixeront, Histoire des dogmes dans Vantiquite chretienne , 3 vols., Paris, 11th ed. 1930. Tr TSt TThZ TU Traditioy New York 1943 seqq. Texts and Studies, ed. Armitage Robinson, Cambridge 1891. Trierer Theologische Zeitschrift (till 1944: Pastor Bonus ), Trier 1888 seqq. Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur. Archiv fur die griechisch-christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei ]ahr- hundertey Leipzig-Berlin 1882 seqq. Tiichle H. Tiichle, Kirchengeschichte Schwabens y I—II, Stuttgart 1950-4. Ueberweg F. Ueberweg, Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophiey Berlin, I, 12th ed. 1926 by K. Praechter; II, 11th ed. 1928 by B. Geyer; III, 12th ed. 1924 by M. Frischeisen-Kohler and W. Moog; IV, 12th ed. by K. Osterreich 1923; V, 12th ed. by K. Oesterreich 1928. VigChr ViVr VS Vigiliae Christianae, Amsterdam 1947 seqq. Bu^avxiva Xpovixa. Vizantiyskiy Vremennik , St Petersburg 1894 seqq. La Vie Spirituelley (Liguge, Juvisy) Paris 1869 seqq. Wattenbach-Levison W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter , Wilpert Vorzeit und Karolinger y vols. I—III ed. by W. Levison and H. Lowe, Weimar 1952-7. G. Wilpert, I Sarcofagi cristiani antichi , 3 vols., Rome 1929-36. Zacharias Rhetor Zacharias Rhetor, Church History {circa 450-540), ed. by E. W. Brooks, ZAM CSCO 83-84, Paris 1919-21. Zeitschrift fur Aszese und Mystik (from 1947 GuL ), (Innsbruck, Munich) ZBIB ZBLG ZDMG ZDPV ZKG ZKTh ZMR Wurzburg 1926 seqq. Zentralblatt fiir Bibliothekswesen, Leipzig 1884 seqq. Zeitschrift fiir Bayerische Landgeschichte y Munich 1928 seqq. Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschafty Leipzig 1847 seqq. Zeitschrift des deutschen Paldstina-Vereins , Leipzig 1878 seqq. Zeitschrift fiir Kirchengeschichte , (Gotha) Stuttgart 1878 seqq. Zeitschrift fiir Katholische Theologie , (Innsbruck) Vienna 1877 seqq. Zeitschrift fiir Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschafty vols. 34 ff. Munster 1950 seqq. (Zeitschrift fiir Missionswissenschaft } 1-17, Munster 1911-27; Zeitschrift fur Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschafty 18-25, Munster 1928-35; Zeitschrift fiir Missionswissenschaft, 26-27, Munster 1935-7; Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschafty 28-33, Munster 1938-41, 1947-9). xxii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ZMkRd Zeitschrift fur Missionskunde und Religionswissenschaft, Berlin 1884 seqq. ZNW Zeitschrift fiir die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der dlteren Kirche, Giessen 1900 seqq., Berlin 1934 seqq. ZRGG Zeitschrift fiir Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, Marburg 1948 seqq. ZSavRGkan Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fiir Rechtsgeschichte, Kanonistische Ab- teilung, Weimar 1911 seqq. ZSavRGrom Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fiir Rechtsgeschichte, Romanistische Ab- teilung, Weimar 1880 seqq. ZSKG Zeitschrift fiir Schweizer Kirchengeschichte, Fribourg 1907 seqq. ZThK Zeitschrift fiir Theologie und Kirche, Tubingen 1891 seqq. XX111 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY /. The Subject Matter, Methods, Ancillary Sciences, and Divisions of Church History , and its Relevance for Today The Subject Matter Church history treats of the growth in time and space of the Church founded by Christ. Inasmuch as its subject matter is derived from and rooted in the Faith, it is a theological discipline; and in this respect it differs from a history of Christianity. Its theological point of departure, the idea of the Church, must not however be understood as though it were based on the structure of the Church as revealed in her dogma: a kind of preconceived pattern which history must follow and demonstrate, limiting or hindering the empirical establishment of facts based on historical sources. It refers solely to the Church’s divine origin through Jesus Christ, to the hierarchic and sacramental order founded by Him, to the promised assistance of the Holy Spirit and to the eschatological consummation at the end of the world: the very elements, in fact, in which her essential identity consists, namely her continuity in spite of changing outward forms. The image of the “ship of the Church”, sailing fully rigged and unchanged over the ocean of the centuries, is less apt than the comparison made by Vincent of Lerins wherein he compares it with the growth of the human body and of the seed which is sown, a growth “which involves no injury to its peculiar qualities nor alteration of its being” ( Commonitorium, c. 29). As the grain of wheat germinates and sprouts, produces stalk and ear, yet always remains wheat, so does the Church’s nature manifest itself in changing forms during the course of history, but remains always true to itself. The historical character of the Church rests ultimately on the Incar¬ nation of the Logos and Its entry into human history. It rests, above all, on the fact that Christ willed his Church to be a society of human 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY beings, the "people of God” under the leadership of men: the apostolic college, the episcopate and the papacy. Thus He made her dependent on human actions and human weakness; but He has not left her entirely to her own devices. Her suprahistorical, transcendent entelechy is the Holy Spirit, who preserves her from error, produces and maintains holiness within her, and can testify to His presence by the performance of miracles. His presence and working in the Church, like those of grace in the individual soul, can be inferred from historically comprehensible effects, but belief in them is also necessary; and it is in the co-operation of these divine and human factors in time and space that Church history has its origin. The understanding and interpretation of Church history depend then ultimately on the notion which a writer holds of the Church. To the philosophers of the Enlightenment, the Church appeared as a "natural society which exists alongside many others in the State”; 1 according to their view the Church is indeed "founded by God, but God’s spirit did not dwell in her”: rather is she dominated by men. J. Mohler 2 opposed this anthropocentric conception with his own theocentric view, and defined Church history as "the series of developments of the principle of light and life imparted to men by Christ, in order to unite them once more with God and to make them fit to glorify him”. Later, at the close of the nineteenth century, the fashion in historical writing required that Church history should be merged in secular history, that the ecclesiastical historian should become a profane historian, 3 and Albert Ehrhard then introduced the term "historical theology”. He defined the task of the general Church historian as "the investigation and presentation of the actual course of the history of Christianity, in its organized manifestation as a Church, through all the centuries of its past, in the whole of its duration in time and in all aspects of its life”. 4 The beginning and end of Church history rest on a theological basis. It does not begin with the Incarnation, or even the choosing and sending forth of the apostles, but with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the primitive community at the first Pentecost; 5 and it ends with the Second Coming of our Lord. Within these chronological limits it has for its subject all the manifestations of the Church’s life. These may be divided into external and internal factors: the former being the spread of the Church 1 E. Sager, Die Vertretung der Kirchengeschichte in Freiburg (Freiburg i. Br. 1952), 68. 2 J. A. Mohler, Ges. Schriften und Aufsdtze, ed. J. J. I. Dollinger, II (Regensburg 1840), 272. 8 R. Fester, “Die S’akularisation der Historic”, HV 11 (1908), 441-59. 4 Festschrift S. Merkle (Diisseldorf 1922), 122. 5 H. Zimmermann, “Ober das Anfangsdatum der Kirchengeschichte” in AKG 41 (1959), 1-34. 2 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY through the whole world, her relations with the non-Christian religions and the separated Christian communions and her relations with the State and society; the latter being the development and establishing of her dogma in the struggle against heresy, aided by the science of theology, the proclaiming of the Faith by preaching and teaching. To these internal activities must be added the fulfilling of her sacramental nature by the celebration of the liturgy and the administration of the sacraments, together with the preparation for these by pastoral care and their effect in works of Christian charity. Finally, there is the development of the Church’s organization as a supporting framework for the fulfilment of the offices of priest and teacher, as well as the irradiation by the Church’s work of every sphere of cultural and social life. That the conception of the Church is fundamental for the definition of the subject and purpose of Church history is clear if we compare the notions of the Church as defined by non-Catholic ecclesiastical historians. Church history cannot be conceived in the Hegelian sense as the dialectical movement of an idea (F. C. Baur), for the Church is not only a divine idea but also an historical fact. Its subject is not merely the “Church of the Word” (W. von Loewenich), the “history of the interpretation of Holy Scripture” (G. Ebeling), “the history of the Gospel and its effects in the world” (H. Bornkamm), or the Church as we find it in the New Testament (W. Delius): all these definitions being derived from the Protestant idea of the Church. Of the more recent definitions by Protestant historians the nearest to ours are those of K. D. Schmidt, for whom the Church is “Christ continuing to work in the world, His Body which is led by the Holy Spirit to all truth and whose history is wholly God’s work, but also wholly man’s”, and of J. Chambon, who speaks of “the history of the Kingdom of God on earth”. These later definitions safeguard the character in Church history as a theological discipline, but they are still influenced by the underlying Protestant conception of the Church, inasmuch as this is determined in the case of Schmidt by the writings of Luther, and in that of Chambon by the Calvinist doctrine of the Church. The Methods of Church History In fulfilling its task, Church history makes use of the historical method, whose application to the subject as defined above, namely the Church of faith which is also the visible Church, suffers no limitations arising from the subject itself. But it can sometimes lead to tensions between faith or theological postulates (which are identified with faith), on the one hand, and positively or apparently established historical fact, on the other; and this may confront the ecclesiastical historian with difficult decisions. The scientific honesty of Church history is not thereby affected: it is 3 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY both theology and historical science in the strict sense; and the application of the historical method to it is carried out in three stages. Firstly, like all history, Church history is bound by its sources. It can reveal about events and conditions in the past only what it finds in its sources, correctly interpreted: so much and no more. The sources (monumen¬ tal and written remains, literary sources) must be sought out, tested for their genuineness, edited in accurate texts and investigated for their historical content. The first object of historical research thus conducted is the estab¬ lishment of dates and facts which form the framework of all history. Without the knowledge of these, every further step (the tracing of origins, the determining of intellectual relationships and the evaluation of information) becomes unreliable or sinks to the level of mere conjecture. Only through the accessibility of the sources and by their critical study has Church history since the seventeenth century developed into a science. On this level of research, Church history is indebted for many important results to scholars outside the Church who do not acknowledge its character as a theological discipline. Even the denominational point of view is hardly noticeable here. But, in the second stage, the causal connexion of the facts related, research into the motives of individuals and consequent judgments on ecclesiastical personalities, the assessment of spiritual and religious movements and of whole periods: all these go beyond the mere establish¬ ment of facts, and are based on presuppositions and standards of value which cannot be derived from history itself, yet cannot be separated from it. The recognition of human freedom of decision prevents the creation of determinist historical laws. Historical causality must remain open to the intervention and co-operation of transcendent factors; the possibility of extraordinary phenomena (such as mystical phenomena and miracles) must not be excluded a priori . The concepts which Church history has created or adopted for grouping together facts and religious or intellectual currents are based on judgments of value, especially when terms such as "Golden Age”, “Decline”, “Abuse” or “Reform” are used. The standards for judging persons and events must not be those of our own time, but must be adapted to the period in the Church’s historical development with which we are dealing. Human failure and human sin are not in this way made relative, nor is human responsibility removed. There are historical guilt and historical merit; but the judgment of history is not a sentence pronounced upon the Church’s past. The historian’s philosophical and religious point of view will demand respect at this second stage, that of historical presentation, if he is at pains to achieve the highest degree of objectivity and impartiality. Conflicts with philosophical systems, such as historical materialism, Spengler’s biological view of history, or sociological schools of historical 4 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY writing, are not part of the Church historian’s task. It is, however, inevitable that these will influence not only judgments but also the selection of material and the literary form. The forms of presentation most frequently used today are the biography, the monograph and the essay. The biography seeks to understand a person of historical significance both as an individual and as a point of intersection of the forces at work in his period; if it is to achieve anything more than a statement of the bare facts and dates, personal utterances must also be included, derived from such sources as letters and diaries. The monograph, confined to a particular time and place, may deal with a period (as Duchesne and Lietzmann treated of the primitive Church, and H. von Schubert of the early Middle Ages), a single country (as Hauck wrote on the Church history of Germany, G. Villada on that of Spain, and Tomek on that of Austria) or a diocese; with institutions such as the papacy and the religious orders, events such as the General Councils, or religious and intellectual move¬ ments (as Borst wrote on the Cathari, and Maass on Josephinism). Alongside the strictly scientific monograph, the essay has in recent times become of increasing importance. It aims in the most concise and perfect literary form to interpret the essential character of historical persons and events, and to make this knowledge available to a wider reading public, but dispenses with sources and bibliographical references. Yet, in the third and final stage, Church history as a whole can be understood only as the history of salvation: its ultimate meaning can be apprehended only by the eye of faith. It is the abiding presence of the Logos in the world and the fulfilment, in the "people of God”, of Christ’s community, in which ministry and grace work together. It is the growth of the Body of Christ: not a continuous falling away from the ideal of the early Church, as some would have us believe; nor yet a continuous progress, as the men of the Enlightenment imagined. The growth of the Church is sometimes hindered through internal or external causes; she suffers sickness, and experiences both reverses and periods of renewed vitality. She does not appear as the Bride without spot or stain, as those who believe in a purely "spiritual” Church in all ages have fondly thought her to be, but covered with the dust of centuries, suffering through the failures of men and persecuted by her enemies. Church history is therefore the theology of the Cross. Without injury to her essential holiness, the Church is not perfect: semper reformanda , she is in constant need of renewal. Although she is never to be superseded in the world of space and time by a "spiritual” church, she retains a provisional character and awaits perfection. When that goal is attained, in the Parousia, the path she has travelled during the course of history will be fully illuminated, the true meaning of all events will be understood and the finally valid judgments of human guilt and merit will be made. Only at the end of the world 5 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY will the history of the Church, profane history and the history of salvation merge into one. Ancillary Sciences of Church History Church history makes use of the same ancillary sciences as general history, just as it makes use of the same methods. Chronology, epigraphy, palaeog¬ raphy, diplomatics, the use of archives and libraries, heraldry: all these are of practical importance; and so too in a wider sense are geography, cartog¬ raphy, and statistics. For a detailed treatment of these sciences, see the bibliography at the back of the book. The Divisions of Church History The divisions of Church history cannot be based on abstract historico- philosophical categories, any more than on the divine plan of salvation, whose details remain unknown, though its outlines are given in Revelation. They cannot be dependent on the relationship between the Church and her milieu, for "the Catholic Church is not identified with any civiliza¬ tion ”. 6 Any division into periods which corresponds with the facts and facilitates our understanding of them must take into consideration this truth: the inward and outward growth of the Church, brought about by the Holy Spirit in co-operation with human free will, is achieved by her constantly coming to terms with civilization. In her spreading over the whole earth and in her penetration of mankind and civilizations, peoples and societies, the Church makes use of the historical circumstances and she adapts herself to them: Church history is something midway between universal history and history of salvation . 7 Division into periods became a problem only when the patterns of medieval historiography and the annalistic method of the Centuriators and Baronius had been superseded. The usual threefold division into Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modern Times, popularized since the seventeenth century by Cellarius (Christoph Keller), was adopted comparatively recently, by Mohler , 8 and has never become universal. A division that is convincing in all respects and generally accepted has not yet been found. If one considers primarily the unity of the Church and regards as epoch- making the breaking away of sects which followed the councils of the fifth century, the Greek Schism, and the Protestant Reformation, one 6 “The Catholic Church does not identify herself with any civilization”: Pius XII in his address to the Tenth International Congress of Historians on 7 September 1955. 7 O. Kohler in HJ 77 (1958), 257. 8 K. Heussi, Altertum , Mittclaltcr und Neuzcit in der Kircbengeschichtc (Tubingen 1921), 18 f. 6 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY ignores no less important events inside the Church, her expansion and her relations with civilization. The end of the old Canon Law (discussed by R. Sohm) and the rise of the papacy after the eleventh century are, from the constitutional point of view, the great dividing line; but all other viewpoints cannot be left out of account. The fourfold division adopted in this book seems to embrace the whole phenomenon of the Church through¬ out the changing ages, and to take into consideration both internal and external factors of development. 1. The expansion and formation of the Church in the Hellenistic Roman world. Growing outward from her native Jewish soil, the Church spread within the area of Hellenistic-Roman civilization over the whole Roman Empire and beyond its frontiers in the East, officially unrecognized and repeatedly persecuted until the time of Constantine, and then during the fourth century as the Church of the Empire. Her hierarchical system of government was organized with reference to the divisions of the Empire, the ecumenical councils were imperial councils; the primacy of the bishop of Rome did not infringe the extensive autonomy of the eastern patriarchates. After the rise of the Greek apologists in the second century, Christianity came to terms with the culture and religion of the East and the Hellenistic world, made use of Greek philosophy at the first four councils in the formulation of her trinitarian and christological dogmas, and employed forms of expression taken from Antiquity in her worship and art. As a consequence of the christological disputes, the national churches beyond the eastern frontiers of the Empire separated themselves from the imperial Byzantine church, while Germanic Christian kingdoms of both Arian (Ostrogothic and Visigothic) and Roman (Frankish) observance were formed in the western Empire. The rise of the specifically Roman Church of Gregory the Great and the Arab invasions of the seventh century marked the turning-point: the flourishing churches of North Africa and Syria withered away, and the Germano-Roman West became estranged from Byzantium. 2. The Church as the entelechy of the Christian nations of the West: a.d. 700-1300. While the Greek church concentrated on the preservation of the traditions of primitive Christianity, the acceptance of the Catholic faith of the Roman Church by the Franks and the Anglo-Saxons, the consequent “germanizing” of Christianity and the alliance of the papacy with the Frankish empire in the eighth century created the only possibility of permeating with the Christian spirit the Germano-Roman nations (to the community of which were now added the converted western Slavs), encircled as they were by Islam and only loosely connected with Byzantium, and of passing on to them the treasures of ancient civilization. 7 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY The prevailing form of government in the feudal structure of society, which the Church found already existing and did not itself create, was the theocratic kingship of the renewed Western Empire, until, from the mid-eleventh century, the papacy, revitalized by the Gregorian reforms, rose through repeated conflicts with the secular power (most notably in the Investiture Controversy and in the struggles with the Hohenstaufen emperors Frederick I and Frederick II) to a position of dominating power and arbiter of the West, creating the Roman Curia as the instrument of the Church’s central government. But the Church, as a result, became increasingly involved in power-politics and thus entangled with “the World”. A more individual and highly subjective piety drove liturgical, objective devotion into the background; scholastic philosophy and Canon Law projected a Christian system of thought and order, not uniform indeed, but complete in its main outlines, which was developed at the universities.The mendicant orders of the thirteenth century took up the idea of poverty and devoted themselves principally to pastoral work in towns. Russia’s attachment to Byzantium, as well as the Eastern Schism, increased the isolation of the West; the Crusades enlarged its horizons; the Mongol invasion made possible a temporary breach in the encircling wall of Islam and missionary attempts in the Far East. Boniface VIII, in conflict with Philip the Fair, formulated a theory of the papacy that was conditioned by the times, but was defeated by the catastrophe of Anagni. 3. The break-up of the western Christian world; reforms and Reformation; the transition to world-wide missionary activity. The universalism of the two highest powers faded before the rise of the national states of western Europe. The unity of the Church, threatened by the Schism, was restored at the Council of Constance. Philosophical unity was lost through Nominalism, and the Church’s monopoly of education through the spread of Humanism. Within the feudal social order the bourgeois culture of the cities and the beginnings of Capitalism confronted the Church with new problems which were never satisfactorily solved. The Church, so much in need of reform, became herself a problem, as the writings of Marsiglio of Padua and Wycliffe and the Conciliar Movement bear witness. The “Reformers”, Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin, claimed to bring at last the long-demanded reform, and separated all northern Europe and part of central Europe from the papacy. After the Council of Trent the Church opposed the Protestant Reformation with a Catholic Reform, renewed her religious life and was even able in the Counter-Reformation to win back lost territory. Missions in newly- discovered America and Asia enlarged the sphere of her activities. With the dying-down of denominational conflicts the secularization of the 8 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY European mind began; the papacy was unable to assert itself against the absolutist states. Western thought was no longer guided by the Church in the period of the so-called Enlightenment; and Revolution and secularization broke the external forms inherited from feudal times. 4. The world-wide Church in the industrial age. The development of the Church in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries shows three recognizable tendencies. One trend involves the separation of the Church from the laicized State, the accentuation of the contrast between Christian and modern thought, together with an evolution to constitutional and democratic forms of government, the encouragement of lay activity at all social levels by means of modern methods of influencing the masses (as through trades-unionism and the press) and the taking up of the social question by the Church. A further tendency is seen in the intensification of religious life by means of the liturgical movement, the lay apostolate and new forms of pastoral work, and new religious orders. And, in a third context, the definitions of the First Vatican Council concerning the primatial power of the pope assured the latter’s position within the Church, while the loss of the Temporal Power marked the beginning of an increase in his religious and moral authority over the Church’s members. Through the world-wide missionary activity, which in the nineteenth century followed colonial expansion and in the twentieth began to detach itself from colonialism and European connexions, the Church became in fact a world religion and was forced to come to terms with the others (most notably with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam) and with atheistic Communism. At the same time she began to encourage efforts towards the re-establishment of Christian unity. The Relevance of Church History for Today Church history is not the Church’s cabinet of antiquities; it is her under¬ standing of herself and therefore an integral part of ecclesiology. He who studies the development and growth of the Church in the light of faith enters into her divine-human nature, understands her as she is, not as she ought to be, learns to know the laws by which she lives and himself gains a clear view of her from within; his sentire Ecclesiam becomes sentire cum Ecclesia , and he will stand fast in every crisis. A prerequisite of this pragmatic way of writing Church history must of course be a strictly scientific investigation and an impartial presentation of the facts. If these tasks are carried out, Church history can and must draw conclusions that will be important for the understanding of the present day and modern problems. The history of the general councils throws light upon the present council, for this is but the most recent link in a long chain. The 9 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY student of earlier attempts at reunion gains a view of ecumenical strivings which is balanced and free from illusions. The history of religious orders is more than the history of individual orders: these are branches on the tree of the Church, witnesses to the element of grace that is active within her and responses to the questions that face her in every age. When missionary history is concerned with the problems of adaptation and europeanization, it is making an important contribution towards a defini¬ tion of the relations between civilization and the Church. Church history makes clear the original meaning of ecclesiastical institutions and opens the eyes to the need for reform: the question of the liturgy is an example of this. In any case: “We cannot understand the Church at the present day if we have not first understood the whole of the Christian past .” 9 To limit Church history to what is at present alive in the Church, or what is thought to be so, would be a form of pragmatism which, though indispen¬ sable as a principle of teaching, is unacceptable as a foundation for research and for the presentation of facts, inasmuch as it would endanger the scientific character of historical writing. Nevertheless, Church history is constantly being faced with the problems of the present day, as in the discussions about an ecumenical council or in the questions raised by the ecumenical movement. The value of Church history for religious education lies in the fact that it opens up the rich possibilities of the Christian life, and faces squarely the problems of the human element in the Church, of power, of sin and failure. But it can only achieve its object if it is presented in its entirety, not merely in summaries of religious history or in extracts of an apologetic nature. In its completeness it is the Church's most effective apologia; without it a purified love of the visible Church is hardly conceivable. The ecclesiastical historian must have not only, like every historian, “a love of history” (J. G. Droysen), he must also bring to his task “Christian feeling and a Christian spirit ”; 10 that is, he must first have the Faith in order to explain it, and then he becomes “the interpreter of the working of the Holy Ghost upon earth ”. 11 He does not passively let the Church’s past move before his eyes like a cinema film, because he is conscious that, as its interpreter, he is taking an active part in it. His relation to Church history is determined by his point of view within the Church; his faith is not prejudicial to his inner freedom in the search for truth and his will to judge impartially men and events. His metahistorical standard excludes relativist writing, but not the writing of true history. 9 J. A. Mohler, op. cit. II, 287. 10 J. A. Mohler, op. cit. II, 282. 11 J. Sporl, Grundformen hochmittelalterlicher Geschichtsanschauungen (Munich 1935), 20 . 10 II. The Writing and Study of Church History The Writing of Church History: its Beginning in Antiquity “The sense of history, which was comparatively active when the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles described the work of Christ and his apostles, remained almost without expression in the period when the Church was developing out of Christ’s revelation and was acquiring its historical character, in the midst of struggles and persecutions” (Altaner). Amid a flood of apocryphal writings and legends, the genuine and ancient Acts of the Martyrs bear witness to this historical sense, in such sources as the Martyrium Polycarpi , the Acts of St Justin Martyr and of the Scillitani. So also do the historical accounts which the apologists, like Hegesippus and Irenaeus, inserted to support their proofs of Christianity. Somewhat later, attempts were made in the “World Chronicles” of Sextus Julius Africanus 1 (f post 240) and Hippolytus of Rome 2 (f 235) to fit the histor¬ ical facts of the Incarnation and the rise and growth of the Church into profane and Old Testament history. The World Chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea (f 339), published in 303, was, in the free Latin version by Jerome, to set the pattern of this type of Christian historiography for more than a thousand years. But it was Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History (’ExxATqaiatmxY) Icrropia) which made him the “Father of Church History”. Published in its original form in seven books before the Diocletian persecution, it was afterwards continued down to 324 to include later events and enlarged to ten books. At the outset the author states his plan as follows: “I have decided to give an account in writing of the successors of the holy apostles and of the times that have gone by from the days of our Redeemer to ours; of the great and numerous events in the history of the Church, of all the excellent leaders and heads of the most respected congregations, of all those who have served the Word of God whether by speaking or writing; of the number and the times of those persons who, out of a desire for novelty, have allowed themselves to be led astray by the worst of errors, and have then proclaimed themselves as guides to a new wisdom which is no wisdom, like ravening wolves who rush without pity on Christ’s flock; furthermore, of the fate that befell the Jewish people after their crime against our Saviour, and of the numerous grievous attacks to which the Word of God was exposed at the hands of the pagans; of the heroes who again and again fought for the Faith amid tortures and bloodshed, and 1 The surviving fragments are in PG 10, 63-94. 2 The World Chronicle has been ed. by A. Bauer and R. Helm (Berlin, 2nd ed. 1955) GCS 46; cf. LThK V, 379 f. 11 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY finally of the witnesses to the Faith in our own days and of the ever- gracious, ever-loving mercy of our Redeemer.” In accordance with this programme (and making use also of the uncanonical sources Philo and Flavius Josephus), Eusebius describes in roughly chronological order the activities of Jesus and the apostles as well as the post-apostolic period: these matters are dealt with in Books I—III. Following these, Books IV—VII contain lists of bishops of the apostolic churches of Rome, Antioch and Jerusalem; but they also give an account of the heresies that arose, of the great ecclesiastical writers, and of persecutions by Jews and pagans. Books VIII and IX are devoted to “the persecution of our days”; and Book X to the victory of Christianity under Constantine. This last part has a supplementary account of the martyrs of Palestine and the laudatory life of Constantine by the same author. Eusebius in his history of the Church was “still unable to give an account that showed clearly the relation of cause and effect” (Altaner). However, by getting away from the eschatological viewpoint, he was the first to venture on a “solitary and untrodden path”, to demonstrate in the history of Christ’s chosen “people of God” the victory of God over the Devil and to “edify his readers” (III, 24). Because of his transcription of numerous documents and the excerpts he gives from writings now lost (such as those of Papias), Eusebius’s work is by far the most important historical source for the first three centuries. The documents and the lists of bishops are fitted into the chronological framework of the emperors’ reigns; the literary form follows the example of profane history, but it is written with “no mean skill” (E. Schwartz); its original contribution is its metaphysical basis. Eusebius was followed by three continuators who all treat more or less of a common period. Socrates (f 439), a lawyer of Constantinople, groups the ecclesiastical events of the years 305-439 around the great emperors; he uses good sources, is less involved than his predecessor in theological conflicts, and is therefore more impartial; above all, he is more lenient towards heretics. Sozomen, who was also a lawyer of Constan¬ tinople and who knew Socrates, was superior to the latter in literary skill but not in reliability or critical powers; in his presentation of events in the period 324-425 (dealt with in detail only to 421), his own point of view is kept entirely in the background. Theodoret of Cyrus, on the other hand, writes as a supporter of the Antiochian school and is often silent about the defects of his heroes; but, a versatile writer, he could describe events perceptively and vividly. In his account of the years 323-428 he has included many synodal decisions and letters, as well as other documents, though he is sometimes cursory and inexact in his chronology. Evagrius Scholasticus (f 600), with his Ecclesiastical History , is the successor to the three continuators of Eusebius already mentioned. 12 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY He relates from a strictly orthodox but truthloving point of view the christological disputes of the period 432-594. The three continuations in Greek of Eusebius’s History were put together and extended to 527 by Theodorus Lector, whose work, however, only survives in an epitome. The later Byzantine chroniclers (such as Theo- phanes Confessor and Xantopulos) borrowed from his work. The chronicle written by the Monophysite John of Nikiu is important for the seventh century; it is written in Coptic but survives only in Ethiopian. The later Byzantine historiographers, although in the first place treating of State history, also recorded the theological disputes, particularly Georgios Pachymeres (t 1310) and Nikephoros Gregoras (f 1359-60). The Latin Church meanwhile took over from the Greek historians. A Latin version of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History was made in 403 by Rufinus of Aquileia, who added two more books, for which perhaps (according to Heseler) the lost history of the Church by Gelasius of Caesarea served as a pattern. Cassiodorus arranged for the monk Epiphanius to translate into Latin the three continuators of Eusebius and, on the model of an already-existing Greek work by Theodorus Lector, to combine them into an Historia tripartita . Rufinus’s version and the Historia tripartita became the basic ecclesiastical histories of the Middle Ages. The various subjects dealt with by Eusebius soon came to be treated separately. Between 374 and 377 Epiphanius of Salamis collected together eighty heresies in his “Medicine Chest” (llavapiov). 3 In 392 Jerome published the first catalogue of Christian writers, comprising 135 names, which was augmented c. 480 by the semi-Pelagian Gennadius, and in the seventh century by Isidore of Seville and Ildefonsus of Toledo. 4 5 In the fourth century, lists of bishops began to be compiled, not with traditional dates but with regnal years worked out by reckoning backwards: such were the list of bishops of Jerusalem given by Epiphanius (66, 19 f.) and the catalogue of Roman bishops in the chronicle of 354; 5 the earliest version of the Liber Pontificals (down to Felix IV, 526-30) dates from the sixth century. In both East and West the collecting of synodal canons concerning ecclesiastical discipline began in the second half of the fourth century. The oldest extant Greek collection is the systematically arranged collection of Johannes Scholasticus, compiled c. 550. In the West, that of Dionysius Exiguus dates from 500, and was the first of a long series of similar 3 Ed. K. Holl, 3 vols. (Berlin 1915, 1921, 1933) GCS 25, 31, 37; Altaner 367 f. 4 De viris illustribus, PL, 23, 631-760; the new ed. by G. Herding (Leipzig 1924) also contains the continuation of Gennadius. For Isidore of Seville, see PL, 83, 1081-106; for Ildephonsus of Toledo, PL, 96, 195-206; cf. Altaner 10. 5 Ed. by T. Mommsen, MGAuctant IX, 13-196; for list of Roman bishops, ibid., 73-76; cf. RAC II, 407-15 (L. Koep). 13 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY collections. 8 The oldest Acts of an ecumenical council to be preserved are those of Ephesus (431). Optatus of Mileve, between 330 and 347, collected documents to serve as a history of the Donatist heresy; and in 417 Augustine edited an account of the origins of the Pelagian dispute. To the second half of the sixth century belongs a collection made at Rome of letters of popes and emperors, which is known as the Collectio Avellana from the place where it was found. Christian biography of the pre-Constantinian period was aimed primarily at edification. Examples of this kind are the Life of Cyprian by Pontius, that of Antony by Athanasius, that of Macrina by Gregory of Nyssa, the Vita Ambrosii by Paulinus and the Vita Augustini by Possidius. In the monastic biographies of Palladius which appeared in the East and in the Historia Lausiaca , the historical account is overshadowed by demonism and miracle seeking. The influence which Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History exercised on later histories of the Church through Rufinus’ version and the Historia tripartita has been noted above. In a similar fashion Eusebius’ World Chronicle , in Jerome’s version, influenced later histories of the world and of salvation. Of less worth were the short “World Chronicles” of Sulpicius Severus (down to 400) and Prosper of Aquitaine (to 455); the Chronicon of Isidore of Seville (to 615) attained a higher reputation. But far more important for the historical thought of the Middle Ages than these collections was Augustine’s De civitate Dei in twenty-four books, written in the period 413-26. Herein, the City of God, equated with the Church as a sacramental fellowship, is in incessant conflict with the Civitas terrena y which is not identified with any particular State, not even the Roman. The struggle between faith and disbelief is in this context the main theme of world history, conceived as the history of man’s salvation. Like Augustine’s De civitate Dei , the almost contemporaneous Historiae adversus paganos of Paulus Orosius provide an apologia for Christianity; he seeks to prove that Christianity is not responsible for the disasters of the age. The history of the world and of salvation is usually divided according to one of two basic plans, though these show many variations. With reference to Psalm 89:4, which says that a thousand years are as a day in God’s sight, and by analogy with the six days of Creation, history had been divided in Jewish Messianic writings into six millenia, which the Messianic kingdom was to follow as the seventh. Justin Martyr and Irenaeus had taken over this division and interpreted it chiliastically: the 6 PL y 67, 139-316; for all older collections, C. Turner’s Ecclesiae occidentals monumenta juris antiquissimi , 3 vols. (Oxford 1899-1913) is still fundamental; cf. also E. Schwartz, “Die Kanonessammlungen der alten Reichskirche” in ZSavRGkan 25 (1936), 1-114. 14 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY world will be consummated in as many “days” as were spent in its creation; after the year 6000 the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth will follow. Hippolytus and Lactantius converted the eschatological schema into a chronological one, which forms the basis of Jerome’s World Chronicle and was also known to Augustine. Here, moreover, we find a parallel with the six ages of man ( infantia , pueritia , adolescentia , juventus , gravitas, and senectus ) and the threefold division from the viewpoint of human salvation: ante legem , sub lege , and sub gratia. The doctrine of the six ages of the world (aetates mundi) was bequeathed to the Middle Ages by Jerome and Augustine via Isidore of Seville and Bede’s De sex aetatibus mundi. The second schema divides world history according to the four empires: the Assyrian-Babylonian, the Persian, the empire of Alexander and the Roman Empire. This schema also is of non-Christian origin (it was used in the time of Augustus by Pompeius Trogus); but it was incorporated into Christian thought by Jerome with reference to the prophet Daniel (2:36ff.): the christianized Roman Empire will, as the last of the world- empires, remain until the end of the world. Sleidan clung to this view as late as the sixteenth century. The Writing of History in the Middle Ages: Christian History, not Church His'tory Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History found no imitators throughout the Middle Ages, even though the expression “Church history” occurs occasionally from the twelfth century onwards. During the transitional period the subjects of Christian historical writings are not the Church as such, but the christianized Germanic peoples and, later, monasteries, bishoprics, and saints. The medieval chronicler and annalist, in so far as he is not continuing the chronicle of Jerome, usually augments his account of contemporary events with information taken over uncritically from earlier authors, intended to serve as general historical background. He is concerned with world history and religious history, but not Church history. Three historians of the transitional period stand out: the Roman Gregory of Tours (f 594) with his History of the Franks (to which is appended a short history of the bishops of Tours), the history of that people being regarded as the victory of the True Faith; 7 the Visigoth Isidore of Seville (f 636), 8 with his Chronica Majora down to 615 (and in a second version to 625), famous also for his literary history, the 7 Historiarum libri X , ed. R. Buchner, 2 vols. (Darmstadt 1955); Wattenbach- Levison , I, 99-108. 6 MGAuctant XI, 391-506; Wattenbach-Levison , I, 86 ff. 15 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY Etymologies , and his History of the Visigoths; the Anglo-Saxon Bede the Venerable (f 735) with his Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum , in which he shows how his people “became the Church of Christ”. 9 Through his De sex aetatibus mundi and his method of calculating Easter, Bede became “the teacher of the whole of the Middle Ages” (Levison). The “Christian era” established by Dionysius Exiguus in the Easter table of 532, which fixed Christ’s birth in the year 754 ab urbe condita as the central point of time, marks in the field of chronology the triumph of the school which saw human history as the history of salvation. World history begins with man’s creation by God, follows the human race in its God-directed course under the Old and New Covenants, and finally relates the history of the Kingdom of Christ on earth, in which the Christian State and the Church form one body containing both good and evil men, until at the end of time the Lord will separate the former from the latter and the New Jerusalem will become a reality. The amalgamation of the concept of the Kingdom of God with the Church had for its result that the Middle Ages did indeed produce Christian history, but not Church history in the modern sense of the term: “Ecclesiastical historiography takes up the whole historical field” (Zimmer- mann). By the climax of the Middle Ages this kind of historical writing had developed three literary forms: the world chronicle, annals, and biography. The numerous world chronicles not only draw their material about early periods from the chronicles of Eusebius and Jerome, and their continuators, but also retain the view of history established in the post- Constantinian “imperial” Church: the regnal years of the emperors form the chronological framework into which the succession of popes and other secular or ecclesiastical events are fitted. The closer they come to the author’s own period, the more frequent are the events narrated from personal knowledge and the higher the value of the chronicles as sources. The Chronicon of Regino of Priim provides a typical example: 10 starting from the birth of Christ, it is a mere compilation to the reign of Louis the Pious; but from there till its conclusion in 906 it becomes a good source for the late Carolingian period. The Chronicon Augiense of Hermann the Lame of Reichenau (f 1054), 11 which reflects the many-sided knowledge 9 Ed. C. Plummer, 2 vols. (Oxford 1896), I, 73: “nostrum gentem ... Christi fecit Ecclesiam”; W. Levison: “Bede as Historian” in Aus rheinischer und frdnkischer Friih - zeit (Diisseldorf 1948), 347-82. 10 Ed. F. Kurze (Hanover 1890); H. Lowe, “Regino von Priim und das historische Weltbild der Karolingerzeit” in Rhein. Vierteljahresbldtter 17 (1952), 151-79, new off¬ print in Lammers (ed.), Ausgewahlte Aufsdtze und Arbeiten aus den Jahren 1933-1959 (Darmstadt 1961), 91-134. 11 MGSS V, 67-133; R. Buchner, “Geschichtsbild und Reichsbegriff bei H. von R. in AKG 42 (1960), 27-60. 16 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY of its author, is pre-eminent for its careful use of older models; and in its later part it develops into a history of the Empire. Sigebert of Gembloux takes pains in his prosaic and summary chronicle (finished before 1105) to arrange the events of imperial and ecclesiastical history in correct chronological order, and bases his work on a wealth of source material. 12 Frutolf of Michelsberg and Ekkehard of Aura make use of him in their chronicle, one of the masterpieces of medieval historiography, which extends to 1106 and 1125, and contains valuable information on the Investiture Dispute. Otto of Freising ("f* 1185), the greatest German historian of the Middle Ages, does indeed indicate in the title of his work 13 that Augustine, not Eusebius through Jerome, was his master. For him the Empire is only “the shadow of a great name”; he believes in the realization of the Civitas Dei in a Christian empire, and addresses himself with his eschatological outlook more to the religious reader than to the enquiring historian. 14 The primary concern of the annalists, when they were not officially employed in writing State annals, was the recording of events, whether known by tradition or from personal experience, which affected their own diocese or abbey. If through family or personal relationships they were involved in matters of more general importance, their range of vision was widened, as in the case of Thietmar of Merseburg (f 1018). Diocesan annals were compiled in episcopal cities which, through their schools, took part in the flourishing intellectual life of the age of the Saxon and Salian emperors, as did Hildesheim, Magdeburg, Liege, and Trier. But few of these can be ranked as histories, save perhaps the history of the church of Rheims by Flodoard (| c. 966) and the Gesta Hamma- burgensis ecclesiae pontificum by Adam of Bremen (f 1081), the best part of which is the biography of Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen. 15 Obit books and necrologies, in which dates of death are noted in the calendar, 12 MGSS VI, 300-74; Manitius III, 344ff. 18 Chronicon sive Historia de duabus civitatibus, ed. A. Hofmeister (Hanover-Berlin, 2nd ed. 1912); Manitius III, 376-88; H. M. Klinkenberg, “Der Sinn der Chronik Ottos von Freising”, Festschrift G. Kallen (Bonn 1957), 63-76; E. Meuthen, “Der ethische Charakter der civitates bei Augustinus und ihre platonische Fehldeutung”, ibid., 43-62; J. Koch, “Die Grundlagen der Geschichtsphilosophie Ottos von Freising” in MThZ 4 (1953), 79-94, reprinted in Lammers, op. cit. 321-49; O. von FrGedenkgabe zu seinem 800. Todesjahr (Freiburg i. Br. 1958), with contributions by J. Sporl, J. Staber etc. 14 “Sic de utraque dicere proposuimus, ut tenorem hystoriae non omittamus, quatinus et religiosus auditor, quid in mundanis rebus ob innumeras mutationum miserias abhorren- dum sit, animadvertat ac studiosus seu curiosus indagator non confusam rerum preteritarum seriem inveniat”: Hofmeister's ed., 9. 15 Flodoard, MGSS XIII, 404-599. Adam of Bremen: B. Schmeidler (Hanover-Berlin, 3rd ed. 1917); there is a rather unsatisfactory interpretation in M. Misch, Geschichte der Autobiographic (Frankfurt 1955-62), III, 1, 251-61. 17 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY owe their origin to the desire to include founders and benefactors in the community of prayer and sacrifice; and the lists kept in many monasteries, such as Fulda and St Blasien, show a continuous record of the deaths of inmates and benefactors. In the Vita or biography, which is usually but not invariably the life of a saint, the main purpose is edification. The Vitae of extraordinary men are designed to serve as examples of virtue, and their nearness to God is demonstrated by miracles. Virtues and miracles are therefore their main theme. This tendency, together with the use made of classical or Christian models (including Suetonius, Sallust, and Sulpicius Severus), by no means excludes concrete facts with definite literary intentions. Ruotger, in his Life of Bruno of Cologne (written in 967-9), portrays a bishop of the Empire as he ought to be; 16 abbot Norbert of Iburg, in his Life of Bishop Benno of Osnabriick (written between 1090 and 1108), does not conceal his subject’s human weaknesses, so that the reader may therefore pray for the soul of the abbey’s founder. The Life of Anselm of Canter¬ bury by Eadmer (composed soon after the saint’s death in 1109) is based on information supplied by Anselm himself and on an intimate knowledge of his personality: his holiness is illustrated not by miracles, but by his constant fidelity to the monastic ideal. From the thirteenth century, hagiographical literature came under the influence of the collections of exempla compiled with a view to preaching. Such is the Life of Engelbert of Cologne by the Cistercian Caesarius of Heisterbach, which shows a clear relationship with the same author’s collections of exempla . 17 The Vitae of the great founders of orders, such as St Francis of Assisi, owe their origin to the desire of the orders to possess a model picture of their founders. The reform movement of the eleventh century and the Investiture Dispute seem to have provided a new impulse to the writing of Church history, perhaps even to mark a turning-point. The struggle for the independence of the spiritual power, against lay domination, once more made the Church as such a subject for historiography. In the literature of reform the primitive Church appears as the ideal towards which the Church of the present, her clergy and monks, must strive: that is, not 16 Ed. I. Ott (Weimar 1951, new impression 1958); F. Lotter, Die Vita Brunonis des Ruotger (Bonn 1958). A new impression of H. Bresslau’s ed. of the genuine Vita Bennonis (1902) also appeared in 1956. For Eadmer see M. Misch, Geschichte der Autobiographic , (Frankfurt 1955-62), III, 1, 215-61. 17 The old ed. of the Dialogus miraculorum by J. Strange (2 vols., Cologne 1851) has been supplied with an index in the new impression (1922), but has not been replaced by a new ed.; the Life of Engelbert has been edited by F. Zschaeck: Die Wundergeschichten des Caesarius von Heisterbach y III (Bonn 1937), 225-328. For a general survey of medieval exempla literature, see A. Hilka, ibid., I (Bonn 1933). 18 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY merely the primitive Church of apostolic times, but the “ancient Church”; and even the phrase “Church history” reappears. In the prologue to his Historia ecclesiastic a , the second version of which was finished in 1110, Hugh of Fleury promises to lead the reader to the hidden secrets of the Church concealed in history; but his title hides merely a further compilation of sacred and profane history. 18 Neither does the work of Ordericus Vitalis, bearing the same title and ending with the year 1141, by any means fulfill its author’s claims, in spite of its originality: Ecclesia Dei means for him both the whole Church and individual churches; the gesta Dei happen in her and to her, not through her. 19 For John of Salisbury (f 1180), the keenly observant secretary of Thomas Becket and later Bishop of Chartres, the history of the Church, whose beginnings are related in the Acts of the Apostles and whose growth Eusebius has described, is already a history of the priesthood and thus of the papacy, 20 as it was also for the Dominican Bartholomew of Lucca (J 1326) writing two centuries later. The latter’s Historia ecclesiastica nova 21 identifies the kingdom of Christ with the reign of the Roman pontiffs: for the contemporary of Boniface VIII and John XXII the dualism of the two kingdoms no longer existed. But Bartholomew’s work, again, was no real Church history. The germ of a new method of writing Church history which appeared in the creative twelfth century never in fact developed. On the contrary, the Church became at that time the subject of “historical theology”. Rupert of Deutz (*f* 1129) associates creation, redemption, and sanctification with the three persons of the Trinity; sanctification occurs through the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, who works in the Church. 22 Like Rupert, Gerhoh of Reichersperg, who followed in his wake, is not interested in reporting 18 MGSS IX, 349-64 (little more than the prologues); PL , 163, 821-54; cf. Manitius III, 518 If. The words referred to in the Prologue are: “Praeterea hujus historiae liber nimis profunda latenter continet ecclesiae sacramenta” (350). 10 PL 188, 15-984. In the Prologue, Ordericus justifies this title: he writes "de rebus ecclesiasticis ut simplex ecclesiae filius ... unde praesens opusculum ecclesiasticam historiam appellari affecto” (16). Cf. H. Wolter, Ordericus Vitalis. Ein Beitrag zur kluniazensischen Geschichtsschreibung (Wiesbaden 1955); see also T. Schieffer, ZKG 62 (1955-6), 336 ff. 20 Historia Pontificalis, ed. M. Chibnall (London 1956); H. Hohenleutner, "John of Salisbury in der Literatur der letzten zehn Jahre” in H] 77 (1958), 493 ff. A history of the popes preserved in a MS at the abbey of Zwettl also dates from the twelfth century: cf. K. Ross, Die Historia Pontificum Romanorum aus Zwettl (Greifswald 1932). 21 Muratori XI, 753-1216: cf. M. Grabmann, Mittelalterliches Geistesleben I, 354ff. 22 PL , 167-170. For the critical ed. now in preparation, cf. R. Haacke, "Die Oberlieferung der Rupertus-Schriften” in DA 16 (1960), 397-436; W. Kahles, Geschichte als Liturgie . Die Geschichtstheologie des Rupertus von Deutz (Munster 1960): the attitude is unhistorical. 19 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY facts but in interpreting them and finding their symbolic relationships. 23 Anselm of Havelberg (“f* 1158) developed an interpretation of the Apocalypse which he found already existing. He divided the history of the Church into seven parts: the white horse of the Apocalypse is the primitive Church, the red horse the age of persecutions, the black horse the attacks of heretics, the pale horse signifies the false brethren, rendered harmless by the monks; the subsequent periods belong to the final age which will precede the end of the world. The Holy Spirit renews the world by means of the monks. He is the principle of progress in the Church. 24 From Anselm it is but a step to Joachim of Floris (f 1202), the Calabrian Cistercian abbot, who in his commentary on the Apocalypse divides the history of salvation into three periods: the age of the Father, or the Old Testament, in which the Law ruled; the age of the Son, or the New Testament, in which faith and grace rule, and the imperfections of which will be removed in the third age: the approaching age of the Holy Spirit, who will bring the fullness of grace and the dominion of love. Instead of the present, imperfect, Petrine Church there will appear at a time which can be calculated from Holy Scripture (about the year 1260) the perfect Johannine Church of the Spirit, in which the eternal gospel will be proclaimed. 25 The Church of the present is not the final form of Christ’s Church; it can and will be superseded by a church of the Spirit. Joachim’s view of history determined not only the historical inter¬ pretation of the Franciscan spiritual writers such as Ubertino of Casale and Peter John Olivi, 26 who saw in Francis of Assisi the proclaimer or at least the precursor of the “eternal gospel”; his influence is traceable even in such a lively historian as Salimbene of Parma. And for Bona- venture himself the actual purpose of studying history is “not the under¬ standing of the past, but prophecy about what is to come”. 27 Late medieval 23 PL, 193 and 194; Opera inedita , ed. P. Classen, I (Rome 1955); E. Meuthen, Kirche und Heilsgeschehen bei G. von R. (Cologne 1959); P. Classen, G. von REine Biograpbie (Wiesbaden 1960); H. Hiirten in H] 80 (1961), 265-9. 24 PL 188, W. Kamlah, Apokalypse und Geschichtstheologie (Berlin 1935); K. Fina, “Anselm von Havelberg”, APraem 32 (1956), 69-101 and 193-227; W. Berges, Jahrbuch fiir Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands 5 (1956), 39 ff. 25 The collected ed. by E. Buonaiuti, for the Fonti per la storia d’Italia, is not yet complete. Cf. H. Grundmann, Studien iiber J. von F. (Leipzig 1927); idem, Neue Forschungen iiber ]. von F. (Marburg 1950); M. W. Bloomfield, “J. of F., a Critical Survey” in Tr 13 (1957), 249-311. 20 R. Mansclli, La Lectura super apocalypsim di P. G. Olivi (Rome 1955); also important is Alexander Minorita, Expositio in Apocalypsim, ed. A. Wachtel (Weimar 1955). 27 J. Ratzinger, Die Geschichtstheologie des hi. Bonaventura (Munich 1959), 22; Salimbene’s Chronica , ed. F. Bernini, 2 vols. (Bari 1942); N. Scivoletto, Fra Salimbene da Parma e la storia politica e religiosa del secolo XIII (Bari 1950). 20 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY studies of the Apocalypse frequently follow Joachim’s lines of thought. 28 Nicholas of Cusa draws a parallel between the historical life of Jesus and that of His mystical body the Church: to every year of our Lord’s life corresponds a period of fifty years in the history of the Church. As the Precursor appeared in Jesus’s twenty-ninth year, so will the Holy Spirit awake in the Church about the year 1450, and the kingdom of God will be spread by saints throughout the world; but then, corresponding to the thirtieth year of our Lord’s age, will begin the passion of the Church and her persecution by Antichrist. These systems of historical theology had their origin in the unsatis¬ factory condition of the Church of the time, which was so much in need of reform; and, with the Church’s past in mind, they developed into the so-called theory of decadence: namely, that the history of the Church is that of a continuous falling away from the ideal state of the primitive Church. 29 Sometimes this theory is expressed in the form of a division into periods: the Golden Age of the martyrs was succeeded by the Silver Age of the great Fathers of the Church, the Bronze Age of the monks and finally by the contemporary Iron Age, in which moral decay provokes the judgment of God. The theory of decadence does not, like the theologies of history and the apocalyptic interpretations, involve the undervaluing of historical facts; apart from reforming works, it is to be found in the writings of such important historians as Dietrich of Niem and Thomas Ebendorfer. 30 But knowledge of the Church’s historical past was hardly increased between the thirteenth century and the end of the fifteenth. Writers were content to recapitulate what already existed, as did Vincent of Beauvais (f 1264) in his Speculum bistoriale , 31 or to reduce it to synoptic form, as did Martin of Troppau (f 1278) in his tabular chronicle of emperors and popes, which had many continuators and was translated into several languages. 32 These two, as well as Bernard Gui 28 J. Rohr’s “Die Prophetie im letzten Jahrhundert vor der Reformation als Geschichts- quelle und Geschichtsfaktor” in H] 19 (1898), 22-56 and 447-66, has not yet been superseded; cf. ibid., 32 f., concerning the work De eversione Europae , falsely ascribed to St Vincent Ferrer; N. Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millenium (London 1957), concerns mainly the earlier Middle Ages. For the Franciscan J. Hilten (c. 1500) and his commentary on Daniel and the Apocalypse, see H. Volz in ZKG 67 (1955-6), 111-15. 29 No thorough research on this subject has yet been done; cf. E. Seeberg, Gottfried Arnold (Meerane 1923), 285 ff. 80 Thomas Ebendorfer’s Schismentraktat , ed. H. Zimmermann in AOG 120 (1954), 45-147; A. Lhotsky, T. Ebendorfer (Stuttgart 1957), 109 f. and 125 f.. 81 Cf. K. Young, “The Speculum Majus of V. of B", The Yale University Library Gazette 5 (1930), 1-13; B. L. Ullmann, “A Project for a new Edition of V. of B.”, Speculum 8 (1933), 212-26. 32 MGSS XXII, 377-475. For continuations, see H. Schmidinger, “Das Papstbild in der Geschichtsschreibung des spaten Mittelalters”, Rom. Hist. Mitteilungen 1 (1958), 106-29 21 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY (f 1331) 33 and Antoninus of Florence (*f* 1459), belonged to the Dominican order. The latter’s chronicle had for its purpose the promotion of virtuous actions by historical examples. 34 The numerous compendia of papal history show new and individual characteristics specifically for the popes of the period. 35 The strong nationalistic tones, already audible in Matthew Paris 36 and Alexander of Roes 37 grow louder in the French biographies of the popes of the Avignon epoch and the years of the Great Schism. Catalogues of bishops and abbots were compiled, and the great orders wrote their chronicles. The literary history of the Church, whose ancient standard works (by Jerome, Gennadius and Isidore of Seville) had been continued in the twelfth century by Sigebert of Gembloux and Honorius of Autun, was little advanced by the catalogue of Henry of Brussels (formerly ascribed to Henry of Ghent) or by that of Arnold Geylhoven of Rotterdam (t 1442) more than a century later, or by other works of that kind. 38 Only the list of writers compiled by the Benedictine abbot Johannes Trithemius (f 1516) is based on extensive researches, but it is disfigured by many errors and confusions. 39 esp. 113 f. and 120. One of the few critical editions of late medieval papal and imperial chronicles is that of Andreas of Regensburg: Chronica Pontificum et lmperatorum Romanorum, ed. G. Leidinger (Munich 1903). 33 For Gui's Flores chronicorum y the Catalogus brevis Pont. Rom. et lmperatorum and the Tractatus de temporibus et annis generalium et particularium conciliorum , all written in the second decade of the fourteenth century, cf. HistLittFranee XXXV, 139-232; DHGE VIII, 667 ff. (G. Mollat). 34 R. Mor^ay, St Antonin (Tours-Paris 1914), 322ff.; B. Walker, The Chronicles of St Antonin (Washington 1933). 85 Excerpts from the Actus Romanorum Pontificum of Amalricus Augerii are in Baluze and Mollat, Vitae paparum Avenionensium, I 89 ff., 183 ff., and 405 ff.; for Ebendorfer’s Chronica Pont. Rom ., see Lhotsky, op. cit. 59 ff. 36 Chronica Majora , ed. H. R. Luard, 7 vols. (London 1872-84); R. Vaughan, Matthew of Paris (Cambridge 1958). 37 A. von R., Schriften ed. and trans., H. Grundmann and H. Heimpel (Weimar 1949); Heimpel, “A. von R. und das deutsche SelbstbewuBtsein des 13. Jh.” in AKG 26 (1935), 19ff.; idem, “Ober den Pavo des A. von R.” in DA 13 (1957), 171-227, reprinted in Lammers, op. cit. 350-417. 88 P. Lehmann, “Literaturgeschichte im Mittclalter”, Erforschung des MA I, (Stuttgart 1941), 82ff.; F. Pelster, “Der Heinrich von Gent zugeschriebene Catalogus Virorum Illustrium und sein wirklicher Verfasser” in HJ 39 (1919), 234-64; Lehmann, “Der Schriftstellerkatalog des A. G. von Rotterdam” in Erforschung des MA (Stuttgart 1961), 216-36; A. Auer, Ein neugefundener Katalog der Dominikanerschriftsteller (Paris 1933); T. F. Bonmann, Die literaturkundlichen Quellen des Franziskanerordens im MA (Fulda 1937). 39 De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis , completed in 1494 and printed in the same year at Mainz; for the sources, see I. Silbernagl, /. Trithemius (Regensburg 1885), 61 ff.; H. Jedin, “Fra contcmporanei del Tritemio” in Benedictina (1948), 231-6. 22 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY The great events of ecclesiastical history did of course find their historians. Dietrich of Niem, Ludolf of Sagan, and Martin of Alpartil wrote of the Schism 40 and John of Segovia of the Council of Basle. 41 But for the period after the thirteenth century the scope and value of their work are swallowed up by the rapidly swelling stream of documents, letters, deeds, and other records of the most varied kinds, as well as liturgical books and rubrics. The papal registers have been preserved from 1198 onwards, albeit with some gaps; the register of petitions, which begins with Clement VI, comprises 7,365 volumes, down to the pontificate of Leo XIII. The collections of documents and regesta of the German bishoprics and provinces, as well as of the cities that were ever increasing in importance, became more and more extensive, 42 and are augmented by lists of property, copies of deeds, account-books, and tax-lists. Letters and collections of letters make possible the writing of genuine, vivid biographies; and the admittedly still sporadic reports of ambassadors (like those of the Aragonese ambassadors at the Curia and of the participants in the Councils of Basle and Constance), and the acts of the councils and imperial diets give us a glimpse into the conduct of ecclesiastical affairs. The Flowering of Church History from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century The contribution of Humanism to the revival of Church history was the result of the Humanists’ cry: "Ad fontes!” By making the sources (and first of all those for the history of the early Church) flow again, they broke the drought of the late medieval compendia. As regards the earlier period, the papal biographies of Bartolomeo Platina (f 1481) were no more than a stylistic rewriting of the Liber Pontificalis. AZ Lorenzo Valla’s criticism of the Donation of Constantine 44 marked a new beginning, which 40 Dietrich of Niem, De Schismate, ed. G. Erler (Leipzig 1890); cf. Heimpel, Dietrich von Niem (Munster 1932), 181-268; Ludolf of Sagan: De Longevo Schismate , ed. G. Lo- serth in AOG 60 (1880), 411 ff.; Martin of Alpartil: Chronica actitatorum temporibus D. Benedicti XIII , ed. by F. Ehrle (Paderborn 1906). 41 Historia gestorum generalis synodi Basiliensis, in Monumenta Cone. gen. saeculi XV, II—IV (Vienna-Basle 1873-1935); cf. U. Fromherz, Johann von Segovia als Geschichts- schreiber des Konzils von Basel (Basle 1960). 42 For a general survey of narrative sources for the history of German bishoprics and cities, see Jacob and Weden, Quellenkunde der deutschen Gcschichte im MA (5th ed. Berlin 1952), III, 128-142. The marked lack of information on sources for Church history from this time forward has been partly remedied for Germany by G. Wolf in Quellenkunde der deutschen Reformationsgeschichte, 2 vols. (Gotha 1915-22). 43 The Liber de vita Christi et pontificum (Venice 1479) ends at 1474, but numerous later editions and continuations take it beyond that date. 44 L. Valla, De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione declamatio , written 1440, 23 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY could however be further developed only when the art of printing had begun not only to multiply single works by the Fathers and by later ecclesiastical writers, but also to produce collected editions. In the preliminary work of this kind questions of authenticity arose, the feeling for literary form was awakened, authors began to enter into the language and spirit of the early Church and learnt to know her institutions. Although Erasmus was by nature a philologist, not an historian, we cannot leave him out of account in connexion with the revival of the historical sense. It was from his circle that the earliest editions of the ancient Christian histories issued. Beatus Rhenanus edited in 1523 the Latin version of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History and the Historia tripartita ; 45 in 1544 the works of Eusebius and Theodoret were published in the original Greek. About the same time there appeared the still very imperfect editions of the councils by Merlin and Crabbe. Sources which had hitherto been employed only in derivative form and at second hand (such as Gratian’s Decretum) were now directly accessible. That they were used for the writing of a history of the Church was, it must be admitted, a result of the Reformation. Luther’s historical view of the Church was determined by his conviction that the true, biblical, doctrine of salvation had been falsified through the guilt of the papacy and by Aristotelean scholasticism, and that a thorough reform of the Church was possible only by a return to that doctrine of salvation and a laying aside of “human ordinances”. This view, which gave quite a new turn to the theory of decadence, demanded a Church history that would justify it. The Historia ecclesiastical written by the strict Lutheran Matthias Flacius (actually Vlacich, 1520-75) with the help of Johannes Wigand and other collaborators, and generally known because of its divisions and place of origin as the Magdeburg Centuries , sought to prove by a wealth of systematically arranged references to sources that Lutheranism, and not the papal Church, was in agreement with the doctrine of the early Church. In 1556 this work was preceded by a catalogue of witnesses to evangelical truth in papal times. This powerful attack at once provoked a series of replies, partly inadequate ed. W. Schwalm (Leipzig 1928). For later medieval discussions of its authenticity, see D. Laehr, “Die Konstantinische Schenkung in der abendlandischen Literatur des aus- gehenden MA” in QFIAB 23 (1931-2), 120-81; Jedin, Studien iiber Domenico de Domenichi (Wiesbaden 1958), 264-8. 45 Auctores historiae ecclesiasticae (Basle 1523) contains only the Latin versions of Eusebius’ Church History by Rufinus, the Historia Tripartita and texts from Theodoret; a new and improved ed. was published at Basle in 1544. 46 Fourteen vols. (Basle 1559-74): the last, incomplete, ed. was published at Nuremberg 1757-65; W. Preger, M. Flacius Illyricus und seine 2eit t 2 vols. (Erlangen 1859-61); P. Polman, “Flacius Illyricus, Historien de l’Eglise” in RHE 27 (1931), 27-73; M. Mirkovic, Matia Vlacic Ilirik (Zagreb 1960). 24 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY and partly unfinished, (by Conrad Braun, Wilhelm Eisengrein and Peter Canisiu$); 47 then came Bigne’s systematically arranged collection of early ecclesiastical writers, 48 and finally the epoch-making Annales ecclesiastici of the Oratorian Caesar Baronius (f 1607), based on lectures delivered by him in the Oratory of Philip Neri, and giving in twelve volumes the history of the Church down to Innocent III. He makes use of a vast amount of source material, some of it quoted verbatim, but makes no attempt at a division into periods. 49 Baronius was fully aware that he was producing something new; he wrote his Annales with an apologetic purpose: “in defence of the antiquity of hallowed traditions and of the authority of the Holy Roman Church, especially against the innovators of our time”. 50 His work was continued down to Pius V by the Pole Abraham Bzovius (f 1637), further and better continued by the Oratorians Odoricus Raynaldus (f 1671) and Jacob Laderchi (f 1738), and remained till the nineteenth century the standard text of Catholic ecclesiastical history, which somewhat unjustly overshadowed other not less important achievements in the field of historical research. A decisive factor in dissociating Church history from profane and from purely religious history was the disruption of Christian unity, which led to a more sharply defined understanding of the idea of the Church. The true Church of Christ, recognizable by certain signs, was opposed by a false church; 51 but she must be historically proved to be the true Church. The apostolicity of her doctrine, the continuity of her teaching office and 47 On C. Braun, Admonitio Catholica (Dillingen 1565), see N. Paulus in H] 14 (1893) 544 f. On W. Eisengrein, Descriptionis rerum in orthodoxa et apostolica Cbristi ecclesia gestarum (Ingolstadt 1566), see L. Pfleger, “W. Eisengrein, ein Gegner des Flacius Illyr.”, HJ 25 (1904), 774-92; the commission of the Jesuit General Borgia to Canisius is in his Epistolae et Acta y ed. O. Braunsberger, V (Freiburg i. Br. 1910) 480 f. (31 March 1567). 48 Bibliotheca veterum Patrum et antiquorum scriptorum ecclesiasticorum, 9 vols. (Paris 1575-9). 49 Vols. I-XII (Rome 1588-1605); Vols. XIII-XXI (Rome 1646-77), by O. Raynaldus, to 1564; Vols. XXII—XXIV (Rome 1728-37), by J. Laderchi, to 1571; for the continuation by A. Theiner (Rome 1856) and other eds., see LThK I, 1271 f. An unsatis¬ factory but still unsuperseded biography is G. Calenzio’s La vita e gli scritti del Card. C. Baronio (Rome 1907); G. Mercati, ‘Ter la storia della Biblioteca Vaticana, bibliotecario C. B. M , Opere minori , III (Vatican City 1937) 201-74; A. Walz, Studi historiografici (Rome 1940), 5-27: the bibliography given there is enlarged in the new imp. by G. De Luca of A. Roncalli's, II Card. C. Baronio (Rome 1961), 47 ff. 50 In the Preface addressed to Sixtus V: “Praesertim contra novatores nostri temporis, pro sacrarum traditionum antiquitate ac S. Romanae Ecclesiae potestate.” 51 Thus Michael Buchinger’s Historia ecclesiastica nova (Mainz 1560) was significantly a revised version of the work De ecclesia which appeared in 1556. Cf. Paulus, “M. B., ein Colmarer Schriftsteller und Prediger des 16. Jh.” in AElsKG 5 (1930), 199 ff. For the doctrine of the marks of the true Church, see G. Thils, Les notes de Feglise dans Vapologetique catholique depuis la Reforme (Gembloux 1937). 25 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY the antiquity of her institutions must be demonstrated by reference to genuine sources. Thus, controversial theology had from the beginning an emphasis on tradition and history. 52 Evidence was sought and found in the Fathers and in the ancient liturgies for the sacrifice of the Mass and the Real Presence, for the papal primacy and the authority of councils; original texts were published, sometimes for the first time, with a definitely apologetic purpose. 63 Guglielmo Sirleto (f 1584) provided the legates at the Council of Trent, Cervini and Seripando, with patristic material to serve as a basis for the Tridentine definitions, 54 the Augustinian Hermit, Onofrio Panvinio (f 1569) collected material for the history of the popes, the college of cardinals and the churches of Rome. 55 After the rediscovery of the catacombs in the pontificate of Gregory XIII, Antonio Bosio (f 1629) founded Christian archaeology. 56 The need for information about theological writers of ancient and modern times gave a new impetus to the study of ecclesiastical literary history. The printing of the ancient catalogues of authors by Suffridus Petri (1580) was followed at short intervals by the Epitome of Angelo Rocca (1594), the comprehensive Apparatus sacer of Antonio Possevino (1606) and Bellarmine’s booklet De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (1613), destined to serve practical ends; the Belgian Albert le Mire (f 1640) extended the catalogue of Trithemius. At the end of the seventeenth century the Jansenist Louis-Ellies du Pin produced the Nouvelle bibliotheque des auteurs ecclesiastiques (1684-91), which with its continuations formed by far the most complete work of reference for the history of ecclesiastical literature; the Histoire generate des auteurs sacres et ecclesiastiques (23 vols., 1729-33) by the Benedictine Remi Ceillier concludes with the thirteenth century. Although the predominantly apologetic tendency of the period some¬ times prevented the acceptance even of results definitely established by 52 P. Polman, Velement historique 284 ff. Melchior Cano states (De locis theologicis, XI 2): Quod autem in dissertatione adversum fidei Christianae inimicos rerum gestarum monumenta theologo peropportuna sint, clarissimorum virorum usus aperte confirmat. G. Gieraths, “M. Cano und die Geschichtswissenschaft” in FZThPb 9 (1962), 3-29. 53 Thus the controversial theologian J. Cochlaeus prepared eds. of Cyprian, Optatus of Mileve, Gregory Nazianzen and Chrysostom, and in 1525 published the decrees of the ancient councils: cf. bibliography in M. Spahn, /. Cochlaeus (Berlin 1898), 341-72. In 1546 Georg Witzel edited the Liturgia S. Basilii nuper e tenebris eruta; and Franciscus Torres published the Apostolic Constitutions for the first time in 1563. 54 Excerpts from the letters to Cervini (1545-7) are in CT X, 929-55; cf. S. Merkel, “Ein patristischer Gewahrsmann des Tridentinums,’* in Festgabe A. Ehrhard (Bonn 1922), 342-58. The letters to Seripando (1562-43) have not yet been published; cf. Jedin, G. Seripando , II (Wurzburg 1937) 300 ff. 55 D. A. Perini, O. Panvinio e le sue opere (Rome 1899); there is no adequate modern biography. 58 Pastor , IX, 194 ff., Eng. tr. vol. XIX, 269 ff. 26 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY Protestant criticism (as with the proof adduced by Blondel of the forgery of the Pseudo-Isidore ), the publication of extensive groups of sources led inevitably to the improvement of the historico-critical method, and so to the establishment of Church history as a science. The earlier histories of the councils had already taken their material from sources anterior to the medieval collections of canons, and now the Editio Romana (1608-12) for the first time published Greek texts. Subsequently the Jesuit Hardouin (f 1729) produced the best, and J. D. Mansi (f 1769) the most comprehen¬ sive, edition of the general and many provincial councils. These works were paralleled by the collections of national councils made by Sirmond for France, Aguirre for Spain, Hartzheim for Germany, and Wilkins for England. 57 The collections of saints* Lives, the publication of which was intended to stimulate and defend the worship of saints, followed a comparable line of development from an initially uncritical accumulation of material to a critical outlook. Luigi Lippomani (f 1559), supported by G. Hervet and G. Sirleto, wrote a preliminary compilation; and the Carthusian Laurentius Surius (f 1578), basing his work on this but far surpassing it, published “authenticated lives of the saints”; 58 then the Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde drew up in 1607 a project of publishing the ancient Vitae Sanctorum in their authentic texts, not as rewritten by the Humanists, nor based on manuscripts accidentally discovered but on manuscripts systematically sought out. In spite of Bellarmine’s warning, Rosweyde’s fellow-Jesuits Johannes Bolland (*(* 1665) and Gottfried Henskens (t 1681) began to carry out this plan in 1643, arranging the Acta Sanctorum according to the calendar. 59 Against literary attacks and the Spanish Inquisition, 57 Details of the great eds. of the councils are in Quentin, ].-D. Mansi et les grandes collections conciliaires (Paris 1960); see also S. Kuttner, UEdition romaine des conciles generaux et les actes du premier Concile de Lyon (Rome 1940). The most important national collections are: Concilia antiqua Galliae , ed. J. Sermond, 3 vols. (Paris 1629), with supplement by P. Dalande (Paris 1666); Collectio maxima conciliorum omnium Hispaniae et novi orbis , ed. J. Saenz de Aguirre, 4 vols. (Rome 1693): 2nd ed., J. Catalanus, 6 vols. (Rome 1753-5); Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, ed. D. Wilkins, 4 vols. (London 1737); Concilia Germaniae , ed. J. F. Schannat and J. Hartz¬ heim, 11 vols. (Cologne 1759-90). For the collection of decrees and canons of the general and provincial councils ed. by the Augustinian C. de Wulf, of Louvain (Louvain 1665, Brussels 1673), cf. A. Legrand and L. Ceyssens Augustiniana 8 (1958), 200-36 and 328-55. 58 P. Holt, “Die Sammlung von Heiligenleben des L. Surius** in NA 44 (1922), 341-64. 59 The first two vols. of the Acta Sanctorum , covering the month of January, bore the title: “Acta Sanctorum, quotquot toto orbe coluntur vel a catholicis scriptoribus celebrantur, quae ex antiquis monumentis latinis, graecis aliarumque gentium collegit, digessit, notis illustravit Johannes Bollandus; operam et studium contulit Godefridus Henschenius.** For the whole work, cf. Peeters, UCEuvre des Bollandistes (Brussels, 2nd ed. 1961). 27 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY Daniel Papebroch (f 1714), Bolland’s outstanding successor, defended the method employed by the Bollandists in his Responsia of 1696-7. Fifty-two folio volumes issued from the Museum Bollandianum in Antwerp down to the time of its suppression in 1788. Working concurrently with the Bollandists as critical investigators of ecclesiastical sources were the Maurists: the Benedictines of the French congregation of St Maur. They also continued what had been begun in the sixteenth century: replacing the editions of the Fathers, which had become largely a Protestant monopoly, with Catholic editions printed at Rome, Louvain, and elsewhere. 60 After the turn of the century there followed at short intervals bilingual editions of the Greek Fathers, mostly printed at Paris. 61 The Jesuit Dionysius Petavius (Denis Petau, 1652), himself the editor of Epiphanius of Salamis, opened the way to historical proof in systematic theology, and was the founder of scientific chronolgy. 62 These not insignificant achievements were however far surpassed by the Maurist editions, the fruit of exemplary co-operation: especially the edition of Augustine by Thomas Blampin (f 1710) and Pierre Coustant (1721), which appeared in the years 1679-1700; and that of Chrysostom by Bernard Montfaucon (f 1741), which had been preceded in 1667 by an edition of the works of Bernard of Clairvaux by the greatest of the Maurist scholars and the founder of palaeography, Jean Mabillon (f 1707). Mabillon and his pupil Edmond Martene (f 1739) became the initiators of the scientific study of the liturgy with their De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus (1700-2). The extensive journeys undertaken by the Maurists to visit libraries in France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy led to the discovery of numerous hitherto unpublished sources. 63 To the Bollandists and Maurists Church history owes the principle that every historical statement must be based upon authentic sources, edited according to the strict rules of philological criticism. All historical research stands upon their shoulders, and the texts which they produced are to some extent still in use. They share this distinction with the great editions of early texts made by Italian scholars of the eighteenth century, such as L. A. Muratori (f 1750), the incomparable editor of medieval Italian sources, and the brothers Pietro and Girolamo Ballerini. Besides these 60 An ed. of Augustine appeared at Louvain in 1577, of Jerome at Rome in 1565-72, and of Ambrose also at Rome in 1579-87. 81 Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, Epiphanius of Salamis, and Chrysostom; further details will be given later, in Volume IV. 82 P. di Rosa, “ Denis Petau e la cronologia ” in AH SI 29 (I960), 3-54. 88 The first of these collections of unpublished works, so characteristic of the period, was J.-L. d’Achery’s Spicilegium (Paris 1655-77). This was followed by the Mart^ne-Durand Thesaurus anecdotorum (Paris 1717) and Amplissima collectio (Paris 1724-33). Equally excellent were the accounts of journeys: e.g., Montfaucon’s Diarium ltalicum (Paris 1702; new imp. 1962). 28 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY there are the authors of the great statistical works on papal and diocesan history and on that of the religious orders, which appeared in the seven¬ teenth and eighteenth centuries. The Dominican Alphonse Chacon (Giaconius, f 1599) in his posthumously printed Vitae et res gestae Pontificum Romanorum et S. R. E. Cardinalium (1601-2) created the first reference work on papal history, subsequently continued by Agostino Oldoini. 64 The Italia sacra of the Cistercian Ferdinando Ughelli (f 1670), a collection of lists of bishops of the Italian dioceses, 65 admittedly uncritical as regards the earlier period, was the model for the Gallia Christiana of the brothers St Marthe, which far surpassed it. Martene and his collaborators were commissioned by the assembly of the French clergy in 1710 to revise this work, 66 which in turn encouraged the Spanish Augustinian Enrico Florez to compile his Espaha Sagrada , 67 the Jesuit Farlati to compile his Illyricum sacrum™ and abbot Gerbert of St Blasien to resume earlier projects for a Germania Sacra . 69 Like the latter, the project of an Orbis christianus , embracing the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy, conceived by the prefect of the Vatican Archives, Giuseppe Garampi (f 1792), did not get beyond the preliminary stages. 70 More perhaps was done for the history of the religious orders. The Annales ordinis Minorum of the Irish Franciscan Luke Wadding (f 1657), 71 and the supplementary catalogue of Franciscan authors prompted other orders to bring out similar comprehensive historical works, 72 foremost among them being Mabillon’s Annales OSB , which were preceded by the Acta Sanctorum OSB. The Dominicans received from the hands of J. Quetif and J. Echard the best catalogue of their authors, and from P. Ripoll and A. Bremond the most comprehensive bullarium. The Franciscan Flelyot attempted for the first time a general history of the religious orders. 73 When one further considers that at the same time 64 The 3rd ed., prepared by Oldoini, comprised 4 vols.; the 4th (1751), 6 vols. 65 Nine vols. (Rome 1643-62); the 2nd ed., by N. Coleti, was in 10 vols. (Venice 1717-22). 66 Gallia Christiana (nova), 13 vols. (Paris 1715-85); cf. LThK IV, 497. 67 Espana Sagrada. Teatro geogrdfico-historico de la Iglesia de la Espana, 51 vols. (Madrid 1754-1879). 68 Eight vols.; V-VIII by J. Coleti (Venice 1751-1819). 69 G. Pfeilschifter, Die St Blasianische Germania Sacra (Munich 1921); for the extraor¬ dinarily interesting ed. of Gerbert’s correspondence by Pfeilschifter and W. Muller, see LThK IV, 710 f. 70 P. Dengel, “Sull* Orbis christianus di G. Garampi**, Atti del II Congresso Nazionale di Studi Romani (Rome 1931), 497 ff. 71 Father Luke Wadding: Commemorative Volume (Dublin 1957); for the “Wadding Papers 1614-38’*, ed. B. Jennings (Dublin 1953), cf. Irish Historical Studies 10 (1956), 228-36 (F. X. Martin); C. Mooney, “The Letters of L. W.’* in IER 88 (1957), 396-409. 72 F. Roth, “Augustinian Historians of the XVIIth Century’* in Augustiniana 6 (1956), 635-58. 73 For further details see my article: “Ordensgeschichte” in LThK VII, 1201-4. 29 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY many dioceses and monasteries were producing well-documented histories, 74 and that reference works, excellent in many respects, were being written, especially in Italy, 75 as a contribution to the biography of ecclesiastical personages, one cannot but ask the question: what use did historiography make of all these sources and aids to historical research which were accumulated during the course of two centuries? Writers of Church history were not in a position to keep pace with this widening horizon and improvement in methods of research. The attitude which regarded Church history as equivalent to the history of man’s salvation, which still persisted and found its last classic expression in Bossuet’s Discours™ need not have been an impediment. On the other hand, it is undeniable that on the Protestant side the separation of ecclesiastical from profane history, first made by Melanchthon, uninten¬ tionally promoted its secularization while contributing to its independence. The Pietist viewpoint represented in Gottfried Arnold’s Unpartheyische Kir chert- und Ketzerhistorie (2 vols., 1699-1700), namely that personal piety, not dogmas and institutions, was the real subject of Church history, seems hardly to have any effect on Catholic writing. Even after the end of the wars of religion, when eirenic tendencies were gaining ground, the dispute with Protestantism went on: the monographs of the Jesuit Louis Maimbourg provide an example of this tradition. 77 The history of the Council of Trent by the Servite Paolo Sarpi attracted far more attention than any controversial work, because under the appearance of a sober, factual account it was a large-scale attack on the post-Tridentine papacy. The reply of the Jesuit Pietro Sforza Pallavicino, based on far better sources and skilfully written, was intended as an historical apologia. 78 The impulse to comprehend and organize Church history as a whole was lacking in the education of the time. The same Jesuit general Aquaviva, who in 1609 was considering a plan 79 to establish courses for advanced students in ecclesiastical history, especially the history of the 74 E.g., N. Hontheim, Historia Trevirensis, 3 vols. (Augsburg 1750); S. H. Wiirdtwein, Dioecesis Moguntia, 5 vols. (Mannheim 1768-90); also the letters published by H. Raab in AHVNrh 153-4 (1953), 170-200. 75 E.g., the index of authors published by G. Fantuzzi for Bologna: by G. Agnostini for Venice; and, surpassing all others, Tiraboschi's classic Storia della letteratura Italiana. 76 In the Discours sur l’histoire universelle (1618), as W. Kaegi and others have shown, the old outlook is permeated and transformed by new ideas; cf. O. Brunner in Lammers op. cit. 444 f. 77 Histoire du Grand Schisme d'Occident (Paris 1676); Histoire du Lutheranisme (Paris 1680); Histoire du Calvinisme (Paris 1682); the first two have indexes. 78 Jedin, Der Quellenapparat der Konzilsgeschichte Pallavicinos (Rome 1940); followed by a general survey, 61-118. 79 P. de Leturia, “L’insegnamento della storia ecclesiastica nella Roma delPUmanesimo e del Barocco” in CivCatt (1945), IV 393-402. 30 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY councils, had excluded the subject from the normal curriculum in his Ratio Studiorum , which dominated higher education for two hundred years. At Rome, Church history was indeed studied in private circles, 80 but only in 1714 was a chair of ecclesiastical history founded at the Roman College. 81 The works dealing with the subject which had been appearing since the middle of the seventeenth century in France, the dominating country at that time in intellectual matters, were not the product of instruction: They served more or less to justify Gallican ideas of the Church. By far the best achievement were the Selecta bistoriae ecclesiasticae capita et ... dissertationes , by the Dominican Alexander Natalis (| 1724): a collection of 230 topics, mainly on points of doc¬ trine and arranged according to centuries. 82 These were placed on the Index on account of their Gallican views, but were nevertheless repub¬ lished in 1699 without significant corrections, under the title Historia ecclesiastica veteris novique Testamenti , and there were eight subsequent editions. The Memoires of L. S. Lenain de Tillemont (f 1698), pieced together like a mosaic of selections from early sources, were confined to Church history down to the year 513; Claude Fleury (f 1723) brought his twenty-volume Histoire ecclesiastique (1691-1720) down to the Council of Constance. 83 Its critical acumen and pleasing style assured the success of the work, but its Gallican tendencies called forth a reply from the Dominican G. A. Orsi, whose Istoria ecclesiastica (1747-62) covered only the first six centuries. Nevertheless, it had many continu- ators and was still being reprinted in the nineteenth century. 84 To these many-volumed works the Breviarium bistoriae ecclesiasticae usibus aca- demicis accommodatum by the Augustinian Gianlorenzo Berti (f 1766) formed a modest exception: yet it marks a turning-point because it was intended for instruction. 85 80 P. Paschini, “La Conferenza dei Concili a Propaganda Fide” in RSTI 14 (1960), 371-82. 81 P. de Leturia, “El P. Filippo Bebei y la fondacion de la catedra de historia eclesiastica en el ColegioRomano 1741” in Gr30 (1949), 158-92. The chair of ecclesiastical history founded by Alexander VII in 1657 at the Roman Sapienza had no influence on the education of the clergy; those established after 1725 at Madrid, Barcelona, and Calatayud, were in colleges conducted by the Jesuits for the nobility. 83 Twenty six vols. (Paris 1676-86); there is a list of later eds. in A. Hanggi, Der Kirchenhistoriker Natalis Alexander (Fribourg 1955), 189. According to its preface, the work was intended “for the benefit and advantage of those who study sacred antiquity and positive theology”. 83 F. Gaquere, La vie et les oeuvres de C . Fleury (Paris 1925). 84 Fifty vols. (Rome 1838). 85 B. van Luijk, “Gianlorenzo Berti Agostiniano” in RSTI 14 (1960), 235-62 and 383-410. 31 Church History as a Theological Discipline The introduction of Church history into the curriculum of the uni¬ versities had begun in Protestant Germany. During the period of recon¬ struction after the Thirty Years* War, the University of Helmstedt had received its own chair of ecclesiastical history in 1650, and nearly all the other Protestant universities of Germany had followed suit. In the numerous textbooks of Church history written for academic instruction, 86 biblical history, especially that of the Old Testament, was gradually superseded by specifically Church history. Slowly, too, the division into centuries yielded to one based on periods. The pedagogic aim and the polemic attitude remained: the latter found expression mainly in dealing with and passing judgments on the Middle Ages. The Compendium Gothanum , designed for instruction at the grammer school (or Gymnasium) in Gotha, was published in 1666 by Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, who, like his later continuators E. S. Cyprian and C. W. F. Walch, was outstanding as an historian of the Reformation. One-third of this work was still devoted to the Old Testament, and the division by centuries was likewise retained; but the beginnings of a division into periods is also discernible: the Primitive Church is treated as one period, and further divisions are made at the times of Constantine, Charlemagne, and Luther. The Summarium historiae ecclesiasticae (1697) of the Leipzig professor Adam Rechenberg distinguished five periods corresponding with phases of the Church: Ecclesia plantata, from the first to the third century; Ecclesia libertate gaudens , from the fourth to the sixth century; Ecclesia pressa et obscurata, from the seventh to the tenth century; Ecclesia gemens et lamentans , from the eleventh to the fifteenth century; and Ecclesia repurgata et liberata, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But it was Johann Lorenz Mosheim (f 1755), the “father of Protestant Church history”, 87 who paved the way for a scientific view of Church history as a whole. In his Institutiones historiae ecclesiasticae antiquioris (1737), he defined it as “the careful and true narration of all external and internal events in the society of men which takes its name from Christ, for the purpose of recognizing the workings of Divine Providence through the connexion of cause and effect in its foundation and preservation, in order that we may learn piety and wisdom”. Without excluding God’s action in the history of the Church, man is placed at its centre, and the Church is examined in its development as a human community, according to laws valid for history in general. Mosheim’s view of history and his 86 The titles of the works mentioned here are in E. C. Scherer, Geschichte und Kirchen - geschichte an den deutschen Universitdten (Freiburg 1927), 493-9. 87 K. Heussi, Johann Lorenz Mosheim (Tubingen 1906); for more recent discussion, cf. RGG, 3rd ed. IV, 1157 f. (M. Schmidt). 32 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY marked pragmatism lead on to the Enlightenment, which makes its appearance in the Historia religionis et ecclesiae Christianae (1777) by his pupil Johann Schrockh. 88 And in this “enlightened” form Church history was transplanted to the Catholic universities, after the mid-eighteenth century, firstly to those in the Habsburg empire. The curriculum prescribed by the empress Maria Theresa in 1752, which had been drawn up by the Jesuit Gerhard van Swieten, regarded “spiritual history” as a compulsory subject. In what spirit instruction was to be imparted appears from the directive to teachers inspired by abbot Rautenstrauch (1775): it was to be pragmatical, that is “useful and profitable for practical application”; it was to show “the true limits of the spiritual and temporal powers” (in a sense, of course, that gave supremacy to the State), and to deal mainly with the early centuries and with more recent times (but not with the Middle Ages); the teacher was to “discuss” ecclesiastical matters, in order thus to sharpen his pupils’ judgment and to influence them morally. 89 Other German Catholic universities followed the Austrian example: Ingolstadt, Heidelberg, Mainz, and Bonn. Since Berti’s Breviarium did not follow the prevailing autocratic tendency, anti-Roman and “enlight¬ ened,” Joseph II introduced the Protestant textbook by Schrockh. Later, after Archbishop Magazzi of Vienna had protested, this was replaced in 1788 by the Institutiones loistoriae ecclesiasticae Novi Testamenti by the Swabian Matthias Dannenmayr which appeared in a German edition as Leitfaden in der Kirchengeschichte (4 vols., 1790). Dannenmayr’s book was moderately “enlightened”, but decidedly anti-Roman. It divided Church history into five epochs, the divisions being made at the reigns of Constantine, Charlemagne, and Gregory VII, and at the time of Luther, and dealt with each according to a uniform scheme: expansion, organi¬ zation, authors, doctrine, heresies, liturgy, discipline, and councils. If one ignores the basic attitude due to Schrockh’s influence, the author’s attempt at an intellectual mastery of the subject and the boldness of his frequently quite acute judgment must be acknowledged. Similar “guides” and “introductions” for students were produced under different titles by Alioz (1791), Aschenbrenner (1789), Batz (1797), Becker (1782), Gmeiner (1787), Gollowitz (1791), Jung (1776), Lumper (1788), Pelka (1793), Pronat (1779), Sappel (1783), Schmalfufi (1792-3), Schneller (1777), Wiesner (1788) and Wolf (1793-1803). The Christliche Religions - und Kirchengeschichte (4 vols., 1789-95) by Kaspar Royko and the Geschichte der Christlichen Religion und Kirche (2 vols., 1792-3) by Milbiller, the 68 Schrockh’s principal work is the intolerably prolix Christliche Kirchengeschichte, 45 vols. (Leipzig 1768-1813); see RGG, 3rd ed. V. 1545 ff. 89 E. C. Scherer, op. cit. 400 ff.; for Dannenmayr, cf. ibid. 408-15. 33 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY latter of which appeared anonymously, were decidedly rationalistic. More moderate successors with an “enlightened” point of view continued to write in the nineteenth century: thus, Die grofien Kirchenversammlungen des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts by J. H. von Wessenberg appeared as late as 1840. In England J. Milner and in America the Unitarian J. A. Priestley turned away from the Enlightenment history, the former with his History of the Church of Christ (1794-1809), the latter in his General History of the Christian Church (1802-3). However dangerous the intrusion of the Enlightenment was, and even of Rationalism, the introduction of Church History into theological instruction and the consequent need of many new textbooks contributed to the opening up of a new view of Church history, under new auspices indeed and on a different basis. In marked reaction against the Enlightenment with its delight in passing judgments, its Caesaro- papism and its contempt for the Middle Ages, Romantic writers strove to feel their way lovingly and with faith into the Church’s great past, especially in the hitherto-despised Middle Ages, and they discovered the greatness of the papacy. Chateaubriand’s Genie du Christianisme (1802), and Joseph de Maistre’s Du Pape (1819), however uncritical they were in their reporting of facts, 90 opened the eyes of contemporaries to the great religious tradition and the cultural achievements of the Church, to which Rationalism and the anti-Romanism of the age of Enlightenment had blinded them. In England Sharon Turner in his History of England from the Norman Conquest to 1509 (1814) could speak of the Middle Ages as that period “in which our religion, literature, language, manners, laws, and constitution have been chiefly formed”. Friedrich Leopold, Count Stolberg (fl819), in his Geschichte der Religion ]esu Christi (15 vols., 1806-18) revived the opinions of Augustine and Bossuet, to whom the history of the Church meant that of man’s salvation. He even returned to pure chronography, renouncing any division into periods: he was writing a history of the religion of Christ, not of the Church. But since he recognized its ultimate significance to be the “firmer grounding of the Faith by the help of history”, 91 his book became “an epoch-making work for the reawakening of the serious study of Church history and especially for the revival of Christian feeling” (Janssen). Stolberg’s basic religious attitude was shared by Theodor Katerkamp, a member of the Munster circle, in his Kirchengeschichte (5 vols., 1823-4); but he had more regard than the former for the natural causes of events. The historical writers 90 S. Merkle, “Die Anfange franzdsischer Laientheologie im 19. Jh.”, Festgabe Karl Muth (Munich 1927), 325-57. 91 L. Scheffczyk, F. L. zu Stolbergs Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi (Munich 1952), 133. 34 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY of the Enlightenment had looked upon the Church as an institution useful to the State in raising the standard of morality and popular education; now her transcendent, supernatural essence, her independence from the State and her universality were being rediscovered. Church History as an Historical and Theological Science in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries The re-establishment of Church history as a theological and historical science was the work of Johann Adam Mohler (1796-1838). Under the influence of the “pectoral theologian” Neander in Berlin, and even more under that of Johann Sebastian Drey (f 1853), the dogmatician of the Tubingen school, and in opposition to the German idealism of such writers as Hegel and F. C. Baur, Mohler discovered the essential historicity of Christianity as an organic development from supernatural revelation. He forsook the “spiritual” idea of the Church expressed in his early work Die Einheit der Kirche (1825); and by his definition of the Church (discussed in Section I, above), he restored to Church history its universality,which it had lost through the Enlightenment and Josephinism. The scientific work of this author, who died so young, was certainly fragmentary; but his successor at Tubingen, Carl Joseph Hefele (1809-93), completed in his Conciliengeschichte (7 vols., 1855-74) the most lasting achievement of German historical science in the ecclesiastical field. Though now outdated in many details, Hefele’s work has not yet been superseded; 92 and his successor, F. X. Funk (f 1907), showed himself by his researches into early Church history to be the keenest critic produced by the Tubingen school. 93 Whereas Mohler had treated of the general history of the Church only in lectures, published posthumously by P. Grams in 1867-8, Johann Joseph Dollinger (1799-1890) made three attempts to write a general Church history: the first was his version of Hortig’s Handbuch der Christlichen Kirchengeschichte (1828); the second a Lehrbuch (1836) of his own conception; and the third his two large-scale monographs, Heidentum und Judentum als Vorhalle des Christentums (1857) and Christentum und Kirche in den ersten drei ]ahrhunderten (1860): but neither of these were finished. Denominational differences, which had been blurred by the Enlightenment and more sharply emphasized again in Mohler’s Symbolik , inspired Dollinger’s Reformation (1846-8). At the height of his activity 92 S. Losch, ThQ 119 (1939), 3-59; A. Hagen, Gestalten aus dem schwabischen Katho- lizismus II, 7-58. 98 Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen , 3 vols. (Paderborn 1897 to 1907). 35 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY he was indisputably the most learned ecclesiastical historian of his time, surpassed in depth of thought only by John Henry Newman. The influence of his school at Munich reached beyond Germany to France and England (to such as Lord Acton); but he came into conflict both with neo-Scholasticism and with the Roman Curia: first on the question of the Temporal Power, and then on the doctrine of Infallibility. Failing to submit on this issue to the Vatican Council, he was excommunicated. This catastrophe resulted in a severe setback for historical studies in Germany, but it could not in the long run prevent their further progress. The theological foundations were laid, and constructive work continued with the opening up of new sources and with specialized research, both closely connected with the mighty flowering of historical science in the nineteenth century. The first step was to make the great editorial achieve¬ ments of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries more accessible. The enterprising abbe Migne (f 1875) reproduced in his two patrological series only the texts already available at the time; A. Tomasetti’s new edition of the Bullarium Romanum (named Taurinense after Turin, its place of publication, 1857-72) was but a re-impression of Cocqueline’s work (1739-44). The Viennese Academy of Sciences in the Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum (from 1860) and the Berlin Academy in Griechische Christliche Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte (from 1897) produced new texts of the Fathers on improved philological principles. The editing of medieval and more recent historical sources in the best texts attainable, a task recognized and promoted as a national obligation, was to the advantage of Church historians. In the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (founded in 1819 and taken over by the Imperial goverment in 1874) there appeared such important documents as the Letters of Gregory the Great and St Boniface, the Libri Carolini, the Register of Gregory VII and the Chronicle of Otto of Freising. Textual and literary criticism, initiated by the Bollandists and the Maurists, were vastly improved by the collaborators in the Monumenta . In documentary research Theodor Sickel took over and improved the methods of Delisle and his £cole des chartes; M. Tangl, E. von Ottenthal and Paul Kehr, above all the last named, applied them to the study of papal documents. For more recent times there was an enormous increase of source-material from the great national collections, as a result of the opening of state archives following the July and March revolutions: the Collection des Documents inedits sur Phistoire de France (from 1835), the Coleccion de documentos ineditos (from 1842) and the Calendar of State Papers (from 1856). At the same time the Vatican archivist Augustin Theiner (f 1874) began to edit, in extensive Monumenta , sources for the history of the Papal States, Ireland, and the western and southern Slavonic peoples; and the convert Hugo Laemmer (| 1918) gave some idea of the riches of the 36 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY Roman archives and libraries for the history of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. 94 The throwing open of the Vatican archives for research, by Pope Leo XIII (in the Regolamento of 1 May 1884), marked a new epoch and led to the foundation of numerous national institutes of history at Rome. 95 It also made possible such large-scale undertakings as the publishing of nuncios* reports from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Concilium Tridentinum of the Gorres Society, the pioneering researches of the Dominican H. Denifle (| 1905) 96 and the Jesuit Franz Ehrle (*(' 1934), 97 and finally the Gescbichte der Pdpste of Ludwig von Pastor (f 1928), the most detailed work of Church history produced in the past century. 98 Like the Gescbichte des Deutschen Volkes by his teacher Johann Janssen (*j* 1891), Pastor’s work was the outcome of the defensive attitude into which German Catholicism had been driven since the outbreak of the Kulturkampf. The rapid increase of source material, the constant improvement in methods and aids, and the growing number of scientific monographs and separate investigations did not discourage the work of synthesis in the nineteenth century, as they had in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, if only because academic instruction required textbooks and manuals of Church history. The many-volumed Histoire universelle de I’Eglise catholique by R. F. Rohrbacher (29 vols., 1842-9) was intended for a wider public, but the academic historians were obliged both to keep pace with research and to compete with the numerous and in some respects excellent Protestant works of this kind: the Church histories of J. K. L. Gieseler (5 vols., 1824-57), F. C. Baur (5 vols., 1853-63), K. R. Hagenbach (7 vols., 1869-72), and W. Moller and G. Kawerau (3 vols., 1889-1907). The earlier editions of the Handbuch of J. J. Ritter (f 1857) were still composed under the influence of G. Hermes (3 vols., 1826-35); the leading work of the middle of the century, Johann Alzog’s (J 1878) Universalgeschichte der Christlicben Kirche , was based on Mohler’s lectures. After the first Vatican Council Alzog’s study was superseded by the Handbuch der 94 For A. Theiner and the authors Ritter and Alzog of textbooks mentioned below, see Jedin, “Kirchenhistoriker aus Schlesien in der Ferne” in ArSKG 11 (1953), 243-59; for Laemmer, see J. Schweter, H. Laemmer (Glaz 1926): an inadequate study; for principal works, LThK VI, 767 f. 95 K. A. Fink, Das V atikanische Archiv (Rome, 2nd ed. 1951), 155-67. 90 A. Walz, Analecta Denifleana (Rome 1955); for principal works in LThK III, 227. 97 Obituaries by H. Finke, HJ 54 (1934), 289-93; K. Christ, ZblB 52 (1935), 1-47; M. Grabmann, Ph] 56 (1946), 9-26; bibliography in Miscellanea F. Ehrle , I (Rome 1924), 17-28. 98 Diaries, letters and memoirs, ed. W. Wiihr (Heidelberg 1950); also A. Schnutgen, AHVNrh 151-2 (1952), 435-45; A. Pelzer in RHE 46 (1951), 192-201; obituary by P. Dengel, H] 49 (1929), 1-32. 37 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY Allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte by Joseph Hergenrother (| 1890), who was raised to the cardinalate in 1879. Passing through several revisions, the last complete edition being published by J. P. Kirsch (4 vols., 1911-17), this work survived into the twentieth century. Specially written for academic use were the textbooks, first published in 1872-5, of F. X. Kraus," who was also important as an art historian and archaeologist, and of Alois Knopfler (1895), and F. X. Funk (1866). Both these scholars were of the Tubingen school, though the former taught in Munich. Their books went through many editions and were the most useful textbooks of their time; but they were very insistent in a critico-positivist way on the exact reporting of facts. In this respect the instructional works of Heinrich Briick (1874), of the Mainz school, and of Jacob Marx (1903), a professor at Trier, show a marked contrast in their strict ecclesiasticism. At present, the Kirchengeschichte (3 vols., 12th ed. 1951, 1948, and 1956) of Karl Bihlmeyer (f 1942), based on Funk and revised since his death by H. Tiichle, is the best general account of moderate size, distinguished by its concise formulation and its wealth of bibliographies. There is also an Italian edition by J. Rogger in four volumes. The second volume in English appeared in 1963 translated by V. Mills and F. Muller. Like most of the preceding textbooks, Bihlmeyer’s work took over from profane history the customary threefold division into Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Age, although this in comparison with many textbooks of the Enlightenment represents a backward step. Die Katho- lische Kirche im Wandel der Zeiten und Volker by A. Ehrhard 100 and W. Neuss (4 vols., 1959) and the Geschichte der Kirche in ideengeschicht- licher Betrachtung by J. Lortz (21st ed., 1962-4) are aimed at a wider public. The Geschichte der Pdpste (6 vols., 2nd ed., by G. Schwaiger since 1954) by F. X. Seppelt spans the whole of Church history, as does the same author’s one-volume Papstgeschichte. Only after the turn of the century, when Church history in France had received a new impetus, especially from the fundamental researches and publications of Louis Duchesne (f 1922) and Pierre Batiffol (f 1929) on Christian antiquity, did there appear in that country also textbooks on the German model, such as those of L. Marion and V. Lacombe (1905) and of C. Poulet (1926), and comprehensive manuals, like F. Mourret’s Histoire generate de PPglise (9 vols. 1909 21) or the Histoire de I'Eglise under the editorship of A. Fliche and V. Martin, planned in twenty-four volumes but not yet completed (since 1935). An Italian version of this 99 F. X. Kraus, Tagebiichcr , ed. H. Schiel (Cologne 1957); with a remarkably complete bibliography, 765-88. 100 A. Dempf, Albert Ehrhard (Colmar 1944); J. M. Hoeck, “Der Nachlafl Albert Ehrhards und seine Bedeutung fur die Byzantinistik” in ByZ 21 (1951), 171-8. 38 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY project was begun in 1938. The English version is published in four volumes (1942-8). In Italy textbooks have been written by L. Todesco (6 vols., 1922-30), A. Saba (3 vols., 1938-43), and P. Paschini (3 vols., 1931); and in England by Philip Hughes (3 vols., 1934-47). In the many textbooks and general accounts, which it would be both impossible and unnecessary to enumerate in full, we can see that the idea of the Church’s historical character has been generally accepted and that Church history has been recognized as a theological discipline. Having become a science, it is subject to those tendencies which are commonly observable in the science of our time. The pre-eminence of research has led to the founding of numerous periodicals and series of publications dealing with ecclesiastical history, to the collecting of the results of work in institutes and the training in seminars of future researchers. Progressive specialization has resulted in the separation of large fields of study from general Church history and in their becoming independent. As a reaction against specialization and also against the positivism of the nineteenth century, there has been since the second world war a marked tendency towards a theology of history and ecclesiology. The upsurge of research made the foundation of special periodicals and series of publications necessary. 101 The Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte , founded by the Protestant theologian T. Brieger in 1876, which at first concerned itself mainly with researches on the Reformation period, was joined in 1887 by the Romische Quartalschrift fiir Cbristlicbe Archdo- logie und Kirchengeschichte y which published work on Roman archaeology and newly-discovered source-material in the Vatican archives, under the direction of Anton de Waal (f 1917), H. Finke and S. Ehses. The Historisches Jahrbuch of the Gorres Society also contained numerous contributions to Church History. The Revue d’histoire ecclesiastique, founded at Louvain by Alfred Cauchie in 1900, became an indispensable organ of research, since, besides containing essays and critiques, it also published a complete bibliography of all the works important for the study of Church history. In Italy, in spite of the collaboration of such eminent scholars as G. Mercati and P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, the Miscel¬ lanea di Storia Ecclcsiastica (1902) and the Rivista storico-critica delle Scienze teologiche (1904) had to close down as a consequence of the Modernist Dispute. On the other hand, the Zeitschrift fiir Schweizerische Kirchengeschichte (1907) and the Revue d’histoire de I’Eglise de France (1910) continued to appear, playing an influential part in the growth of historical studies of the Church in Switzerland and France. In North America, P. Guilday, who had been trained at Louvain, founded the 101 R. Aubert, “Un demi-sieclc de revues d’histoire ecclesiastique” in RSTl 14 (1960), 173-202. 39 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY Catholic Historical Review (1917); and Holland had possessed the Neder- lands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis since 1900. Periodicals for diocesan history had been established in Germany since the nineteenth century, like the Annalen des Historischen Vereins fur den Niederrhein , hes . das alte Erzbistum Koln (1855) and the Freiburger Didzesanarchiv (1865); and the number of these increased in the twentieth century, as by the Archiv fur Elsdssische Kirchengeschichte (1926), the Archiv fur Schlesische Kirchengeschichte (1936) and the Archiv fur Mittelrheinische Kirchen¬ geschichte (1949). Even before the first world war, several of the greatest orders had started periodicals for the study of their own history: Among these were the Studien und Mitteilungen aus dem Benediktiner- und Zisterzienserorden (1880), the Revue Mabillon and the Analectes de Vordre de Premontre (both 1905), the Archivum Franciscanum historicum (1908), and the Archivo Ibero-Americano (1914). The results of research which were too extensive for the periodicals were published in series: H. Schrors and M. Sdralek had been editing their Kirchengeschichtliche Studien since 1891; and from these Sdralek branched out into his Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen. The Veroffentlichungen des Kirchenhistorischen Seminars Miinchen (1899) and the Forschungen zur Christlichen Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte (1900), edited by A. Knopfler, were of a similar character; the latter included A. Ehrhard as one of its editors. The preponderance of Reformation history at that time found simultaneous expression in the founding of three series of publications: Erlauterungen und Ergdnzungen zu Janssens Geschichte des Deutschen Volkes (1898) by L. Pastor, Vorreformationsgeschichtliche Forschungen (1900) by H. Finke, and Reformationsgeschichtliche Studien und Texte (1905) by J. Greving. 102 These had been preceded by Harnack’s Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Altchristlichen Literatur (1882). In addition to the periodicals, numerous series of publications edited by ecclesiastical universities, faculties and religious orders assembled the results of research in the field of Church history. These developments were made easier by the steady improvement of scientific aids. While the Series episcoporum (1873) of the Benedictine B. Gams was based only on printed sources, the Hierarchia catholica (from 1898) of the Franciscan Conrad Eubel and his successors drew upon the newly opened Vatican archives for their historical statistics of the episcopate. 103 The Nomenclator litterarius of the Jesuit Hugo Hurter (5 vols., 3rd ed., 1903-13) was unable to replace the old lexica of writers of the religious orders, but went beyond du Pin and Ceillier. Works of 102 Jedin, Joseph Greving (Munster 1954). 103 Jedin, “Die Hierarchia Catholica als universalgeschichtliche Aufgabe”, in Saeculum 12 (1961), 169-80. 40 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY such exhaustive learning as U. Chevalier’s Repertoire (first published 1877-86), his Topo-Bibliographie (1894-1903) and P. Jaffa’s Regesta pontificum Romanorum (1851, 2nd ed. 1885-8) had not been at the disposal of earlier generations of students. Excellent bibliographies, such as Dahlmann-Waitz’s Quellenkunde der Deutschen Geschichte (9th ed., 1931) for Germany, made information about early works readily available. The historical content of theological encyclopedias was continually being augmented, as can be seen if we compare the second edition of Wetzer and Welte’s Kircbenlexikon (1822-1901) with M. Buchberger’s Kirch- liches Handlexikon (1904-12) and the Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche (1930-8, 2nd ed. from 1957). On the Protestant side, the copiousness and completeness of the Realencyclopadie fiir Protestantische Theologie und Kirche (3rd ed. by A. Hauck, 1896-1913) have not been surpassed, even by the excellent but differently planned Religion in Geschichte und Gegen- wart (3rd ed. from 1957). The Dictionnaire de theologie catholique (1902-50) has been joined by the Dictionnaire d 3 archeologie chretienne et de liturgie (1924-53) and the Dictionnaire d'histoire et de geographic ecclesiastique (begun in 1912 but not yet completed). The rise of Modernism and the circumstances of the first world war hindered but did not interrupt the growth of historical enquiry. Hitherto, Germany, France, and Belgium had been the foremost countries in promoting its advance; now the reorganization of ecclesiastical studies by Pope Pius XI was of great importance in extending its influence beyond their frontiers. The constitution Deus Scientiarum Dominus of 24 May 1931 enjoined theological faculties and ecclesiastical colleges to establish seminars for the provision of methodical training. 104 At the Gregorian University a faculty of Church history was set up in 1934 to train teachers and archivists, especially for Italy, Spain, and Latin America. About the same time the Jesuits, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Capuchins established institutes for the study of the history of their orders, to which were entrusted the editing of sources and the publication of periodicals. Several new periodicals have appeared during and since the end of the second world war: Traditio (from 1943) in America; the Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia (from 1947) in Italy; Hispania Sacra (from 1948) in Spain; and the interdenominational Journal of Ecclesiastical History (from 1950) in England. 105 The specialization of research has led to the independence of certain disciplines and their separation from general Church history, as is shown 104 AAS 29 (1931), 254. 105 Jedin, “Drei neue Zeitschriften fiir Kirschengeschichte in Italien, Spanien, und Eng¬ land” in ZKG 63 (1950-1), 201-4. K. Aland, “Der Stand der patristischen Forschung in Deutschland”, Misc. hist. eccl. (Louvain 1961), 119-36. 41 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY by the establishment of special professional chairs and periodicals and the writing of specialized textbooks. History of ecclesiastical literature, which had been incorporated in the theological curriculum along with Church history in the eighteenth century, has been deepened in method and narrowed down in time to patrology, in the study of which the German Protestant school, represented by Adolf von Harnack’s Texte und Unter- suchungen zur Geschichte der Altchristlicben Literatur (from 1882), has distinguished itself, the results of its work being collected in textbooks and manuals. In Germany the lead was taken by Otto Bardenhewer’s Ge¬ schichte der Altkirchlichen Liter atur (5 vols., 1913-32) and B. Altaner’s Patrologie (6th ed. 1960, Eng. tr. Patrology , 1960); in France by the Patrologie of F. Cayre (3 vols., 3rd ed. 1945-55), to which is attached a history of theology (Eng. tr. A Manual of Patrology ), and in the English- speaking world by J. Quasten’s Patrology (3 vols., 1950-60). The Bulletin d’ancienne litterature of the Revue benedictine gave information about new publications, as from 1959 onwards did the Bibliographia patristica, based on international co-operation; the Vigiliae Christianae (from 1947) are devoted mainly to linguistic research. The history of medieval theological literature became partly the province of Middle Latin philology (as in the work of L. Traube, M. Manitius, P. Lehmann, and E. R. Curtius) and partly that of Scholastic research, flourishing since the turn of the century (as exemplified in the work of H. Denifle, F. Ehrle, C. Baeumker, M. Grabmann, B. Geyer, and A. Landgraf). For such extensive fields as that of medieval biblical interpretation and the history of preaching, research is still only at the beginning; and for this aspect the contribution of F. Stegmuller should be noted. A concise but comprehensive Geschichte der Theologie seit der Vaterzeit (1933) has been written by M. Grabmann. By a process similar to that which has taken place in the case of history of Christian Literature, Christian archaeology has detached itself from classical archeology. Gianbattista de Rossi ("f* 1894) raised it to the rank of a science and made it his object to render monuments, inscriptions, and patristic texts available to students of early Christian life. At first the area of interest of this kind was exclusively Roman, as in the extensive and important works of Joseph Wilpert (f 1940) on the paintings in the Catacombs and on Christian sarcophagi and mosaics. But the situation has now been remedied as a result of excavations in the Christian East by J. Strzygowski, C. M. Kaufmann, and others, and by a detailed study of the relations between Classical antiquitiy and Christianity, in the work of F. J. Dolger (f 1940) loa and T. Klauser’s Reallexikon fur Antike und 106 T. Klauser, F. ]. Dolger, Leben und Werk (Munster 1956); with bibliography by K. Baus. 42 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY Christentum (from 1941). The Bollettino di archeologia cristiana, founded by de Rossi in 1863, became in 1924 the Rivista di archeologia cristiana . At the same time Pius XI established the Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology, of which J. P. Kirsch (f 1941) became the first director. The College of Bollandists, refounded in 1837, flourished again under three outstanding directors: Charles de Smedt (f 1911), Hippolyte Dele- haye (f 1941) and Paul Peeters (f 1950). Hagiography acquired its leading periodical in the three “libraries”: the Bibliotheca h agio graphic a: graeca, latina , and orientalis . 107 Patrology, Christian archaeology, and hagiography were the offspring of ecclesiastical history. A number of other special disciplines arose through reciprocal action with other sciences, especially when these had an historical orientation and therefore concerned themselves with certain spheres of the Church’s activity. On the Catholic side, the history of dogma has been least able to detach itself from dogmatic theology. The incomplete essays of H. Klee, J. Schwane, and J. Bach in the nineteenth century have indeed been followed by many not insignificant individual researches and in 1905-12 by a history of dogma in the ancient Church by L. J. Tixeront; but there has been no general account comparable to the Protestant histories of dogma by A. von Harnack, R. Seeberg, and F. Loofs. The Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte of M. Schmaus and A. Grillmeier (from 1951, Eng. tr. Herder History of Dogma , from 1964) is concerned with the history of individual dogmas only. In the study of Greek Orthodox literature and liturgy, Leo Allatius (f 1669), Joseph Assemani (f 1768) and his nephew of the same name, followed in the nineteenth century by cardinals Angelo Mai (f 1854) and J. B. Pitra (f 1889), all did meritorious work. But only after Karl Krumbacher (f 1909) had established Byzantine studies as an independent discipline did Albert Ehrhard write, at Krumbacher’s instigation, the first history of theological literature in the Byzantine Empire (1897); and this was superseded only in 1959 by H. G. Beck’s Kirche und Theologische Literatur im Byzantinischen Reich. During the pontificate of Leo XIII, who was himself interested in questions concerning the Eastern Church, were founded the first periodicals dealing with the history of other Eastern churches as well as the Byzantine: the Revue de VOrient chretien (1896), Echos d’Orient (1897) and Oriens Christianus (1901). The latter was founded by Anton Baumstark (f 1948), whose Geschichte der Syrischen Literatur (1922) together with the Geschichte der Christlichen Arabischen Literatur (5 vols., 1944-53) by Georg Graf became the standard works on Eastern Christian studies. The Pontifical Oriental Institute established 107 Peeters, L'CEuvre des Bollandistes y 77-208; R. Aigrain, VH agio graphic, ses sources, ses methodes, son histoire (Paris 1953). 43 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY in 1917 has been publishing Orientalia Christiana periodica since 1935; and since 1951 the Ostkirchliche Studien have been appearing in Wurz¬ burg. In liturgical studies, the publication of sources by E. Martene, Eusebius Renaudot’s Collectio liturgiarum Orientalium (1716), and L. A. Muratori’s Liturgia Romana vetus (1748) had paved the way towards overcoming the symbolic explanation of the liturgy. The Enlightenment’s desire for liturgical reform was unfavourable to liturgical history; even more so was the nineteenth-century degeneration of liturgical study to that of mere rubrics. Only by the pioneering researches of L. Duchesne, P. Batiffol, S. Baeumer, E. Bishop, A. Franz, J. Braun, C. Mohlberg, and J. Jungmann did the historical view of the liturgy prevail, while at the same time the source-material was extended by the Bradshaw Society (from 1890), the Analecta hymnica (from 1886) of M. Dreves and C. Blume, which were later followed by the editions of the Ordines Romani and the Pontificate Romanum by M. Andrieu (f 1956), and the survey of the French liturgical manuscripts by V. M. Leroquais (f 1946). The Jahrhuch fur Liturgie- wissenschaft founded in 1291 by Odo Casel, and renamed the Archiv fiir Liturgiewissenschaft since 1950, gave its annual reports an almost complete survey of new works in this field. At the University of Notre Dame a programme of liturgical studies was introduced in 1947 which has produced a series of scholarly volumes entitled Liturgical Studies to which L. Bouyer, J. Danielou, and J. Jungmann have contributed. In other liturgical periodicals, such as Ephemerides liturgicae (from 1887), the historical viewpoint now dominates. This has had considerable influence on the development of the liturgical movement, in consequence of which liturgical science has now become an independent theological discipline. In the study of Canon Law history, development was otherwise. This sub¬ ject could build on the great achievements by Thomassin and Benedict XIV; in the nineteenth century it was aided by the school of legal history and reached its peak in the Protestant canonist Paul Hinschius (J 1889) and his pupil Ulrich Stutz (f 1938), who founded in 1908 the leading organ of the history of canon law: the canonistic section of the Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fiir Rechtsgeschichte. For the history of the sources and literature of canon law Johann Friedrich von Schulte (f 1914) wrote what is still in spite of many defects an indispensable work of reference: Die Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des canonischen Rechts (3 vols., 1875-80). This branch of study was promoted at the same time by Fried¬ rich Maassen (f 1900), later by Paul Fournier (f 1935), and most recently by Stephen Kuttner, who founded an institute for the history of medieval Church law at Washington in 1955. Among systematic studies of canon law, besides the classic Kirchenrecht (6 vols., 1869-97; new impression, Graz, 1959) by Hinschius, the textbook by the Tubingen canonist 44 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY J. B. Sagmiiller (f 1942) is noteworthy for its painstaking regard for legal history: the final complete version of this work was the third edition in 1914; the fourth edition remained unfinished after the promulgation of the new Codex Juris Canonici. Still unsurpassed is the Verfassungs - geschichte der Deutschen Kirche im Mittelalter by Albert Werminghoff (2nd ed., 1913). The outlines by A. M. Koniger (1926), I. Zeiger (1940-7), and Bertrand Kurtscheid (1941-3) were intended for academic instruction; the best general accounts in German are by H. E. Feine, a pupil of Stutz, (4th ed., 1964) and W. M. Plochl (Vienna, I 2nd ed., 1960; II 2nd ed., Vienna 1962; III 1st ed., Vienna 1959). The history of Missions became an independent study only after missionary science had been born. In Protestant Germany the way was prepared by Gustav Warneck (f 1910). The first occupant of a Catholic chair for missionary science (1914) was the Church historian Joseph Schmidlin (f 1944), who occupied himself from the beginning with missionary history in the Zeitschrift fiir Missionswissenschaft (1911) and in the series Missionswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen und Texte , which he founded. His Katbolische Missionsgeschichte (1925) was the first convenient textbook on the subject. The establishment of further chairs and of a missiological faculty at the Gregorian University in 1932 by Pius XI was followed by the appearance of other textbooks: by P. Lesourd (1937), F. J. Montalban (2nd ed. 1952), T. Ohm’s Wichtige Daten der Missionsgeschichte (2nd ed. 1961), and A. Mulders’s Missions - geschichte (1960); and by longer works: the Histoire universelle des Missions catholiques (4 vols., s. d.), edited by S. Delacroix, and K. S. Latourette’s A History of the Expansion of Christianity (7 vols., 1937-47). In the Bibliotheca Missionum (22 vols. so far since 1916), founded by R. Streit, missionary history received an almost complete bibliography, which has been supplemented since 1935 by the current Bibliografia missionaria of J. Rommerskirchen and others. Numerous periodicals, such as the Revue d'historie des Missions (1924) and the Neue Zeitschrift fiir Missionswissenschaft (1946), and series of publications like the Studia missionalia (1943) of the Gregorian University, all these help research, which is always facing new problems arising from missionary methods: baptismal practice, the question of the vernacular, adaptation to native customs, and a native clergy. How important the introduction of a new discipline into the theological curriculum can be for the development of a special science related to Church history is demonstrated by the history of asceticism and mysticism which has been built up during recent decades. Ascetic and mystical theology was made a subject on instruction by the constitution Deus Scientiarum Dominus (1931); a corresponding chair at the Gregorian University had already been established in 1919. In the meantime there 45 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY had appeared H. Bremond’s Histoire litteraire du sentiment religieux en France (12 vols., 1916-38) and P. Pourrat’s La spiritualite chretienne (4 vols., 1918-28). Periodicals treating the subject from an historical angle were founded: such as the Revue d’ascetique et de mystique (1920) and the Zeitschrift fur Aszese und Mystik (1926; since 1947 under the title Geist und Leben); from their beginnings, such periodicals as these dealt with the subject historically, but other and older publications to an increasing degree treated the subject in a similar way: an example of this kind is the Etudes carmelitaines (from 1913). The Dictionnaire de spiritualite has been since 1937 an excellent work of reference. The great religious orders are working on their own traditions of asceticism, produc¬ ing editions of their classics such as the writings of Ignatius or Teresa of Avila, publishing these works both in monographs and in general accounts, as in J. de Guibert’s La spiritualite de la Compagnie de Jesus (1953). Much preliminary work has to be done towards carrying out the task of writing a general history of Catholic piety; in this connexion may be mentioned the study of religious folklore by L. A. Veit (f 1939), G. Schreiber, and others. Although the specialized sciences mentioned above have become independent and belong at the same time both to neighbouring theological disciplines and to other branches of learning (as do also the history of Christian art and that of Church music, which we have not touched upon), dogma, law, liturgy, and Missions belong particularly to the realm of general Church history. The latter must continue to study and write about these if it is to fulfill its task. It is the mother-science; they the daughters; together they constitute historical theology. As in all branches of science, the progress of knowledge in Church history is effected by special research, which has become so extensive that no scholar is in a position to survey the whole field. General accounts such as that in the Fliche and Martin series and in the present manual had therefore to be shared out among several authors. If we talk about a "reaction” to this development, we do not mean that special research could or should be abandoned. The “reaction” is not directed against research, but aims beyond it. It seeks to escape from the practical positivism which predominated at the turn of the century, and to offer more than merely an exact exposition and interrelation of facts. It tends towards pragmatism inasmuch as it judges events ecclesiologically, as by Y. Congar, H. Lubac, J. Danielou, and K. and H. Rahner, or ecumenically as by J. Lortz. It tends towards a theology of history inasmuch as it relates the history of the Church to that of man’s salvation, and thus leads back to the attitude which prevailed till the seventeenth century, but has since been pushed into the background by research into sources and narration of the course of history. Finally, it 46 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY discusses the problems in the writing of history which have been raised by E. Troeltsch and F. Meinecke and the historicity of the Church as such. Only the future will tell if, and how much, these new ways of looking at things broaden and deepen our knowledge of the history of the Church. Church History in England and America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 108 In England as on the continent the status of ecclesiastical history in the nineteenth century was largely determined by the reactions of the Romantic movement to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. Enlightened historians of the eighteenth century, Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, studied and wrote history because they found it a useful teacher of private virtue and correct public policy. Hume in The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688 (1761) conceived the medieval Church as a corrupt political monolith, and consequently interpreted the dissolution of the Church in the sixteenth century as something politically and economically advantageous to the State. Gib¬ bon regarded his classic The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88) as a chronicle of the triumph of superstition and barbarism and described the Church as the great obstacle to progress and the advance of learning during the Middle Ages. Yet in spite of his rationalism he was the first of the English historians to appreciate fully the importance of the element of continuity in history. The romantic historians, on the other hand, cultivated an appreciation for the Church’s past by approaching its history in unprejudiced fashion and attempting to judge it according to its own standards. As a result their work was characterized by an enthusiasm for the past and a concern for historical continuity. By seeking the roots for the social organization of modern England, they succeeded in making the Middle Ages a respectable period of investigation and thus prepared the way for the scientific study of ecclesiastical history. The publication of source material was supported by Parliament. In the late eighteenth century the House of Commons established the Records Commission to calendar, restore, and publish manuscripts. In 1822, under the editorship of Henry Petrie, keeper of the records in the Tower of London, work began on the Monumenta Britannica Historica which was to collect the medieval sources of national history but the first volumes did not appear until 1848. Nine years later the Treasury approved the Master of the Roll’s proposal to publish critical editions of the rare and valuable sources of British history from the invasion of the Romans to the reign of Henry VIII. 108 Additional part written by the editor of the English edition. 47 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY Probably the most widely read ecclesiastical history in the first half of the nineteenth century was Joseph Milner’s (1744-97) History of the Church of Christ (1794-1809). Newman said in his Apologia pro vita sua that reading Milner’s Church history awakened his interest in patristic Christianity. Milner’s intention was to provide an antidote for histories of the Church like Mosheim’s which he thought too much concerned with recording its failures, heresies, and disputes. “The terms ‘church’ and ‘Christian,’” said Milner, “in their natural sense respect only good men. Such a succession of pious men in all ages existed, and it will be no contemptible use of such a history as this if it proves that in every age there have been real followers of Christ.” The Bible, which gave man a glimpse of himself as 'he really is—a creature fallen but retaining elements of his original glory—opened the meaning of history for Milner. As an Evangelical vicar he knew through the experience of conversion what the Fall and Redemption meant, and, consequently, he could appreciate die significance of continued failure in the world. If the Fall of man was apparent in secular history, the Redemption of man was equally apparent in Church history: God is operative among His people. The guide-line which enabled Milner to cut neatly through Christian Church history was the fact that he wrote about no special institution, but about the invisible collectivity of believers which Evangelicals recognized as the Church. Milner’s principle of including only those believers who accepted the doctrine of justification by faith alone as Evangelicals understood it turned the book into a polemical rewriting of ecclesiastical history. But although the History of the Church of Christ was intended to provide an inter¬ pretation satisfactory to Evangelicals, Milner was not averse to praising good in the Roman Church when he saw it. Joseph Strutt (1749-1802) is typical of the growing interest in eccle¬ siastical history that was fostered by romanticism and nationalism. More interested in social antiquities than political theories, he delved into the Anglo-Saxon medieval past, examining in great detail the religious and cultural aspects of early English ecclesiastical history. His The Regal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England from Edward the Confessor to Henry the Eighth provided a font of information that was to stimulate a more critical interest among later historians. During the 1830’s and 1840’s this interest bore fruit in the appearance of the Caxton Society, the English Historical Society, and the Camden Society. At Cambridge the work of the “Ecclesiologists” gave an impetus to the study of church architecture and hymnology and laid the groundwork for the English liturgical revival. The publication of The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments by J. Neale and W. Webb in 1843, a translation in part of the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum of William Durandus with selections from Hugh of Saint Victor, was a milestone in the increasing 48 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY interest in the history of the liturgy. Neale was also the first English historian to produce important works on the eastern churches. August Pugin (1812-52), a convert to Catholicism, was probably the most well known of the gothic revivalists. In 1850 as Professor of Architecture and Ecclesiastical Antiquities at Oscott College, he published An Earnest Appeal for the Revival of Ancient Plain Song which voiced an appeal for a return to historical sources similar to the works of Chateaubriand and Gorres. He constantly berated his co-religionists for their lack of historical perspective and was appalled by the parodies of the liturgy he witnessed in Rome and Cologne. An interest in the historical origins of the liturgy continued throughout the nineteenth century in the editions of Feltoe, Wilson, and Bradshaw. Easily the most significant English Church historian in the first half of the nineteenth century was John Lingard (1771-1851). The Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church (1806), which Lingard intended to be an apologia for the Roman Catholic Church in England, was a pioneer accomplishment in scientific history. It was the product of extensive research in and careful exegesis of Latin and Anglo-Saxon sources, a remarkable achievement in itself, since neither the Rolls Series nor any other printed collections were then in existence. Lingard recounted the birth of Christi¬ anity in Britain, gave a detailed survey of the life and practices of the Anglo-Saxon Church, and concluded with an account of the Danish invasions, the consequent decay and later revival of Church discipline, and a final, somewhat unsatisfactory section of the Anglo-Saxon missions. In order not to offend non-Catholics, Lingard avoided direct reference to the Mass, referred to the Pope as the Bishop of Rome and to priests as presbyters. Throughout he dismissed evidences of the miraculous in the Anglo-Saxon Church as lately-acquired popularizations and he refrained from canonizing anyone. In 1819, when the first three volumes of Lingard’s History of England were published, many Protestants were attracted to this Roman Catholic priest who could write history with such candour and truth. Lingard did not share the romantic fervour of his co-religionists for things medieval and was hardly of a “pro-Catholic” predisposition. As could be expected, Catholics rankled when they read about St Joan of Arc’s “mental delusion”. His treatment of the Reformation was aimed at dispelling miscon¬ ceptions and commonly accepted misstatements. He admitted the need for reform in head and members during the fifteenth century and made no apologies for the wordly popes of the Renaissance. He frankly stated in his interpretation of the Reformation, founded on a careful examination of the sources, that it was a revolution based in contemporary political upheaval. The secular power in England triumphed over the spiritual power 49 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY at the expense of civil liberties. Because Lingard found the roots of the Reformation more directly in Luther and Calvin than in a calm reading of Scripture and Church history, he asserted that it had broken the historical tradition of English institutions. Although Newman (1801-90) cannot be strictly regarded as an historian, he, nevertheless, as the greatest figure in the Oxford Movement, contributed to the study of ecclesiastical history in England. He found the neglect of ecclesiastical history in England, even among Anglican divines, a sign that Protestants must realize that they were not representative of the Christianity of History. “It is a melancholy to say it”, he wrote, “but the chief, perhaps the only English writer who has any claim to be considered an ecclesiastical historian, is the unbeliever Gibbon.” 109 He spoke equally well of the Romanticist, Walter Scott, as a writer who “has contributed by his works in prose and verse, to prepare men for some closer and more practical approximation to Catholic truth.” The subject of ecclesiastical history was in fact a field that in a certain sense projected him into the public eye in England. Patristical studies, especially the Alexandrians, formed the background of all his theological thinking. His first important work was to have been a history of the councils. But he “lost himself in a task for which a lifetime had been insufficient”. The result of this effort was his Arians of the Fourth Century (1833) which however gives sparse notice to the councils. Yet the main thesis of the work, that Antioch rather than Alexandria was the source of Arianism and that its underlying philosophy was Aristotelian rather than Platonic, evoked the praise of Dollinger. He reached conclusions through conjecture and without critical apparatus that were later arrived at by continental scholars, notably Neander. Newman’s contribution to the Library of the Fathers , a pioneering effort in patristics, was the Select Treatise of St Athanasius and has been described as among the richest treatises of English patristic literature. He also published in the British Magazine between 1833 and 1836 a series of essays entitled Church of the Fathers which appeared in 1840 as a one-volume work. It was a most effective instrument in the propagation of Tractarian opinions. A further historical project that was never completed was a series of essays on the three periods of Christian education, ancient medieval, and modern, represented by the three great founders of religious orders, Benedict, Dominic, and Ignatius, and subtitled the poetic, the scientific, and the practical eras. It was, however, in his famous Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845) that Newman presented his theory of antecedent probability and confirmed his philosophy of history as an attempt to grasp the sacred meaning of 109 J. Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (London 1846), 5. 50 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY the promise of Christ “I am with you all the days even to the consum¬ mation of the world.” Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868) gave nineteenth century Englishmen their best look at the medieval history of the Church. The History of Christianity under the Empire (1840), which cautious clergymen made it a point to ignore, served as an introduction to Milman’s later compact survey of the medieval Church from Theodosius down to the eve of the Reformation. The History of Latin Christianity down to the death of Pope Nicholas V (1854-5) is a masterpiece of Victorian literature. The author traces the modifications of Christianity, by which it accommodated itself to the spirit of successive ages and portrays the genius of the Christianity of each successive age, demonstrating the reciprocal influence of civilization. The same attitude through which Milman de-emphasized the miraculous in his History of the Jews (1829) led him to focus attention on the secular activity and life of the Church in his later works. He was not interested in theological controversy, and as a consequence he avoided the anti-Catholic polemic so common among Protestant scholars of his time. Froude termed the History of Latin Christianity “the finest historical work in the English language” and Gooch praised him as an historian who did not write for the edification of his readers but portrayed the Church as an institution rather than as an influence. 110 Along with Milman, William Stubbs (1825-1901) is accredited with the introduction of German historical methodology in England. He made his first important contribution to the study of Church history in the Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum which traced the succession of bishops through the centuries. In 1863 Stubbs, who had criticized the Records Commission for publishing too many sources of only secondary importance, was commissioned as an editor for the Rolls series. Through the magnificent contributions he made during the next twenty-five years, he inaugurated the critical study of medieval sources in England. His classic, the Consti¬ tutional History of England down to 1485 (1873-8) had a wider range than the title indicated. It was, in effect, a history of England from Julius Caesar down to the accession of the Tudors. In 1866 Stubbs became professor of Modern History at Oxford. His inaugural lecture indicates his efforts to emancipate “the history of the Church as a whole” from its theological heritage. By this Stubbs meant that Church history was beginning to be considered as a discipline inde¬ pendent from theology. Ecclesiastical history was broadened to a more universal study, and freed from its former restriction to the first Christian centuries and the general councils. It became ‘the study of the Church as a whole ... as the life of the Christian Church itself, the whole history 110 G. P. Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (Boston 1962), 499. 51 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY of the body of which the modern nations claim in their spiritual character to be members”. Stubbs considered this study of universal Church history as one with the study of Modern History: “The study of Modern History is, next to theology itself ... the most thoroughly religious training the mind can receive. It is no paradox to say that Modern History, including Medieval History in the term, is co¬ extensive in its field of view, in its habits of criticism, in the persons of its most famous students, with Ecclesiastical History. We may call them sister studies, but if they are not really one and the same, they are twin sisters, so much alike that there is no distinguishing between them.” 111 Lord Acton (1834-1902), the first Catholic to hold the chair of Modern History at Cambridge, with Stubbs would not separate ecclesiastical and profane history, but for different reasons. Acton perceived that the only unifying element in history was the conception of freedom and his fondest plan, which he never realized, was to write a universal history of human liberty. The Church, in Acton’s vision of world history, cannot withdraw from the confusion of modern politics with the excuse that its kingdom is not of this world. The Church is incarnate in the temporal, political order, so that its history is a part of this world’s experience. “Religion”, wrote Acton, “had to transform the public as well as the private life of nations, to effect a system of public right corresponding with private morality and without which it is imperfect and insecure.” The Church’s role in history binds her to work on and influence temporal order, and as a consequence, her history has universal significance. In Acton’s political theory the Church is a guardian of free conscience and a barrier against political despotism in any shape, whether it be absolute monarchy or rationalist democracy. The Church was the only force powerful enough to ensure human freedom against the rise of omnipotent States. Acton was critical of the Reformation and the establish¬ ment of Protestant States because it weakened the institution whose mission included the preservation of human freedom. The other side of the coin — the tendency of churchmen in authority to curtail freedom of conscience — was impressed upon Acton through bitter personal experience. In 1859 at the age of twenty-five Acton became the editor of the Rambler, a liberal Catholic journal which insisted thematically in every issue that scientific truth could not but vindicate the true religion. If unsavoury truths in the history of the Church are covered up, Acton said, the authority of the Church confuses its heavenly goal with a perverse attachment to earthly power and property. When it became apparent thet the Rambler was about to be suppressed, in 1862 111 B. W. Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Medieval and Modem History (Oxford 1887), 10. 52 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY Acton began publishing it under a new name, The Home and Foreign Review , but he did not change the editorial policy. The journal collided head on with the hierarchy in 1863 by supporting Dollinger, Acton’s mentor, in his plea made at a Munich Catholic Congress for the Church to end its hostility to historical criticism. The Pope’s response was a demand for prior censorship of Catholic writing in Germany. With disaster portending for the Home and Foreign Review , Acton closed it in April, 1864, rather than provoke a showdown with the hierarchy in which he would either have to suspend his principles or disobey authority. Acton never wrote his History of Liberty or any other complete, systematic work, but his vision of history in general and his appreciation of truth and free conscience in particular commend themselves as standards to the writer of ecclesiastical history. "It is the duty of the historian”, wrote Acton in an appendix to a letter to Mandell Creighton, "to extricate himself from the influence of social groups, political parties, Church, and the like, which tend to interfere with conscience.” This is an accurate summary of Acton’s opinion on his own situation. The condemnation of the final heresy by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors , reads like a declara¬ tion of Acton’s principles: "The Roman Pontiff can and ought to reconcile himself to, and agree with, progress, liberalism, and recent civilization.” The attitude towards the historical interpretation of the papacy was the point of difference between Acton and Mandell Creighton (1843-1901). As a curate of Bishop Lightfoot in the Northumberland village of Embleton, he began to write A History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome (1887-94). "It would fill a void”, said Creighton of his book, "between Milman, which becomes very scrappy towards its close, and Ranke’s Topes’, and my object is to combine the picturesqueness of the one with the broad political views of the other.” 112 Creighton’s interest in political and diplomatic technique gave the History of the Papacy a broader scope than the title indicates, for he used the papacy as a focal point to study the changes in European history during the sixteenth century. On Creighton’s request Lord Acton reviewed the first two volumes which appeared in 1882 and praised Creighton for his "sovereign impartiality”. What Acton found lacking was concern for the force of ideas in history, and what he objected most to was the favourable verdict on conciliarism. Creighton finished the next two volumes in 1887, three years after he was appointed first Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge and two years after he became the first editor of the English Historical Review . Again he requested Acton’s review and when Acton responded with a severe critique, naked of all the usual, softening academic amenities, he found himself in the unenviable position 112 Quoted in Gooch, op. cit. pp. 349, 350. 53 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY of an editor who requested, received, and was about to publish a condem¬ nation of his own work. Acton’s objections were two. In the first place he criticized Creighton’s evading moral judgments on the papacy, and secondly, he thought Creighton’s attention to life and action was a superficial substitute for thought and law. He was also critical of Creighton’s remarks in the preface, indicating his willingness to explain away the questionable activities of the popes. Neither Acton nor Creighton were surprised with evil when they found it in history, but Creighton was more tolerant of weakness and less quick to judge. For example, he did not cover up the vices of Pope Alexander VI, but he salvaged what he could of the Pope’s reputation by praising him for not adding hypocrisy to his sins. Acton would not yield his stand that the office could not absolve the man; the exchange of letters between him and Creighton concerning Acton’s review occasioned Acton’s famous dictum “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Acton toned down the language but did not alter the content of his article. Downside Abbey has given England a number of ecclesiastical historians. William Bernard Ullathorne (1806-89), monk of Downside and Bishop of Birmingham for thirty-eight years, wrote a small octavo History of the Restoration of the English Hierarchy which he published in 1871. The first of several abbots of Downside who made significant contributions to the study of Church history was Francis Neil Gasquet (1846-1929). Gasquet was forty years old when he began to research the history of monasticism in England during the Tudor period. He was the first scholar to treat the papers of Cromwell methodically and the first to use the records of the Court of Augmentations and the pension list of Cardinal Pole. Working seven or eight hours daily in the British Museum, the Public Records Office, and with private collections, in three years he produced Henry VIII and the English Monasteries. Edward VI and the Book of Common Prayer followed in 1890. In 1900 Gasquet published The Eve of the Reformation which grew out of the article he had submitted to Lord Acton for the Cambridge Modern History . Acton returned the article because Gasquet’s standard ofl impartiality was somewhat different from his and the difference was never settled. Although he was a gifted antiquary credited with many discoveries and with recognizing the value of wills, library records, inventories, and bishops’ registers for historical interpretation, Gasquet was not only a careless scholar, but he also lacked the fidelity demanded of an editor. “Towards the end of his life, indeed,” observed David Knowles, “Gasquet’s capacity for carelessness amounted almost to genius.” “In his transcription of the Acton correspondence ... Gasquet consistently omitted or even altered without indication passages of phrases which might ... cause personal offence or exhibit Acton’s critical or petulant 54 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY attitude toward venerable ecclesiastics. Thus he would print ‘Newman’ where Acton had written ‘old Noggs’, and the forthright remark ‘Pius IV was an ass’ appears in the anodyne form ‘Pius IV was no good’.” 113 Because of his friendship with Gasquet, Edmund Bishop (1846-1917), although not one of its sons, will always have his name associated with Downside Abbey. Before Bishop became a Catholic in 1867 he had served a year as literary secretary to Thomas Carlyle (1864). He demonstrated his gift for scholarship in his discovery, transcription, and analysis of the Collectio Britannica which consisted in some three hundred papal briefs from the fifth to the twelfth centuries previously unknown. Bishop, unable to have them published in England, edited them for the Monumenta Germanica Historica and won praise from Mommsen himself. He was a student of early and medieval Church history and his knowledge of the western liturgies far surpassed that of any of his contemporaries. His interest in liturgical studies went beyond the textual and ritual to a much broader dimension. He was, in effect, an historian of Christian social and religious life. His natural equipment for research, especially his vast memory, helped him make his works a treasure-house for other scholars, including his friend Gasquet. Some of these works were collected and published in 1918 under the title Liturgica Historica . In 1919, Dom Cuthbert Butler, another abbot of Downside, published Benedictine Monachism , which was not merely a history, but a fully appreciative mystical, ascetical and constitutional study of the Benedictine spirit. In his discussion on Cassian’s Conference on Prayer and the chapter “Is Benedictine Life Contemplative?”, he raised the question which became the topic for his next book, Western Mysticism which appeared in 1922. In 1930 Butler published the History of the Vatican Council which has not made so favourable an impression. The book’s weakness has two sources. On one hand, it grew out of Ullathorne’s letters, which are not of first importance because the Bishop, not one for theological or diplomatic warfare, was not attuned to subtle undertones or overtones in the council wrangling. Moreover, he was not by training an historian of political and intellectual life and could not deal adequately with the complex cross-currents of the mid-nineteenth century. It remains, however, the only satisfactory history of the Council in English. Dom David Knowles, former Professor of Medieval and Modern History at Cambridge is the finest scholar of Downside. The Monastic Order in England which he published in 1940 begins amid the tenth century, because it was then that St Dunstan founded anew Anglo-Saxon monasticism which disappeared during the Danish invasions. In the first half of the book Knowles studies the influence of various continental 1,3 D. Knowles, The Historian and Character (Cambridge 1963), 256. 55 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH HISTORY houses on monastic foundations and reforms in England, noting especially the distinctions between Cluniac attitudes of withdrawal from the world and the tendency of Norman monasticism to fit itself into society. The second half studied the internal life and structure of the monasteries. In the first two volumes of the Religious Orders of England Knowles continued the history of the Benedictine revival down to the end of the Wars of the Roses. Volume III, The Tudor Age , appeared in 1959, thirty years after he began his initial research. It is the history of the decline and deep-rooted decay of monasticism in England before the destruction by Henry VIII. Mention must also be made of two other contemporary English Church historians, H. O. Evenett, whose study on Charles Guise, The Cardinal of Lorraine and the Council of Trent is a substantial contribution to the Counter-Reformation period, and Philip Hughes. The latter’s History of the Church, 3 vols. (1934-47) and his The Reformation in England , 3 vols. (1950-4) are standard works in English-speaking lands. The first history of the Church to be written and published in the United States was the six-volume A General History of the Christian Church (1802-3) by the Unitarian J. A. Priestley. The author held high regard for Fleury whom he used extensively and for Mosheim although he criticized the latter for his “artificial and unnatural” division by centuries. He particularly deplored the artful insinuations of Gibbon. Milner and Mosheim continued to be read by American Protestants but were gradually replaced by translations of Gieseler and Neander. P. SchafPs History of the Christian Church (1882-1910) is typical of the strong German influence on American Protestant historiography during the later nineteenth century. The layman, John G. Shea (1824-92), may be regarded as the foremost Catholic Church historian of the nineteenth century in America. Although lacking in formal professional training, he nevertheless produced work of a highly scientific nature. His four-volume History of the Catholic Church in America (1886-92) was the first comprehensive work of this kind. Since most of the documentary material relating to the early Church in America, deposited in the archives of the Propaganda de Fide, has not been utilized, there is as yet no adequate “History of the Church in America”. Peter Guilday (1884-1947), who studied under A. Cauchie at Louvain, directed most of his research into the colonial period. The Life and Times of John Carroll Archbishop of Baltimore (1922) set the pattern for subsequent Catholic historians in America who have concentrated for the most part in writing biographies of the hierarchy. Guilday’s An Introduc¬ tion to Church History (1925) and Church Historians (1926), the latter a collection of essays on Eusebius, Orosius, Mohler, Lingard, Pastor, and others, were the first attempts to stimulate an interest in the serious study of ecclesiastical history among American Catholics. 56 PART ONE The Beginnings SECTION ONE Jewish Christianity Chapter 1 Judaism in the Time of Jesus The New Testament account of salvation history tells us that Jesus Christ came into this world “when the fullness of time was come” (Gal 4:4, Mk 1:14). A longing for the promised Messiah was certainly alive in Jewry at that time, but it was more generally rooted in the political distress of the people than in religious motives. For more than half a century the Jewish people had lived under Roman domination, which was all the more hated because it was exercised by a man who had deeply offended their most sacred national and religious feelings. Herod the Great, the son of Caesar’s friend Antipater — an Idumaean and therefore a foreigner — had contrived to obtain from the Roman Senate the title of King of the Jews, in return for which he had to pledge himself to protect Roman interests in the politically important Near East, especially against the dangerous Parthians. He had first to conquer his kingdom by force of arms, and from the moment that he first trod upon Palestinian soil he was met by the hatred of the people, who under the leadership of the Hasmonaean prince Antigonus offered violent resistance to him. Herod overcame this with Roman assistance and took Jerusalem in 37 b.c. He ruthlessly exterminated the Hasmonaean dynasty, which more than a century earlier, under Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers, had defended Jewish religious freedom in an heroic struggle against Syrian overlordship. Herod managed to hold in check the seething fury of the people, but in his efforts to win the hearts of his subjects by rebuilding the Temple, founding new cities, and promoting the economic and cultural life of his kingdom, he failed. In his will he divided the kingdom among his three younger sons: the central part, Judaea, with Samaria and Idumaea, was left to Archelaus, who was also to inherit the royal title. The adjacent territory to the north went to Herod Antipas, the provinces of Batanaea, Trachonitis, and Auranitis in the north-east, to Philip. However, the change of ruler led in Judaea to serious disturbances, which could be put down only with the help of the Roman army. The Romans, 59 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY seeing that Archelaus was unable to guarantee peace and security, deposed him in 6 b.c. Augustus gave the country a new administration in the person of a Roman procurator who had Caesarea as his official residence and who was responsible, in association with the Roman governor in Syria, for the military security and economic control of the region, while the Sanhedrin, a purely Jewish body under the presidency of the high priest, was made competent for Jewish internal affairs. But even this arrangement failed to bring the awaited civil peace. For the Jews, it was a grave affront to their national consciousness that a Roman cohort was always stationed in Jerusalem and that their taxes were fixed by Romans. Many a procurator overplayed his role as representative of the Roman master-race with too much emphasis and so fed the flames of hatred against foreign domination. The root cause of the continued strained relations between political overlords and subject people is, however, to be found in the latter’s unique intellectual and spiritual character, for which a Roman could hardly have had much understanding. The Religious Situation among Palestinian Jewry The Jewish people was, in the eyes of surrounding nations, characterized above all by the peculiarity of its religious convictions, which it sought to defend in the midst of utterly different currents of thought and forms of worship. While not avoiding contact with this surrounding world in every-day life, the Jews had held fast to the essential features of their faith and religious life with remarkable persistence, even when it cost them heavy sacrifices and resulted in isolation from other peoples. The central point of the Jewish religion was its monotheism; the Jews were conscious of being led, throughout all the phases of their history, by the one true God, Jahweh, for he had often revealed himself to them as their only Lord by his immediate intervention or by the word of his prophets. This belief in the guidance of a just and faithful God might, indeed, waver in its degree of intensity and immediacy, and it might in later times be exposed through the speculations of many rabbis to the danger of a certain rigidity, yet the people never lost it. The pious Jew planned his daily life out of his belief in God’s faithful and merciful guidance: the people as a whole knew themselves to have been chosen before all the nations of the world by the Covenant which he had made with them, so that one day salvation for all men might go forth from them. This faith was nourished by the hope in a future Saviour and Redeemer, whom the prophets had unwearyingly proclaimed as the Messiah. This hope constantly raised up again both individuals and people. The Messiah was to spring from among them and to establish in Israel the kingdom of God, thus raising Israel above all the kingdoms of the world, and he was to be king over them. 60 JUDAISM IN THE TIME OF JESUS This expectation of the Messiah and of the kingdom of God was, in times of grave peril for the religious and political freedom of the people, their chief source of strength. With merging of religious and political life, the idea of the Messiah easily took on an all too earthly tinge, coloured by the daily distresses of the Jewish people, so that many saw in the Messiah predominantly the saviour from worldly tribulations, or later, quite concretely, the liberator from the hated Roman yoke. But there were also in contemporary Jewry circles which did not lose sight of the essentially religious mission of the Messiah, as foretold by the prophets, and who awaited in him the king of David’s stock who would make Jerusalem all pure and holy, who would tolerate no injustice, no evil, who would reign over a holy people in a holy kingdom (cf. Dan 7:9, 13, 27). Out of such a glowing hope were born those religious canticles which are called the psalms of Solomon, 1 and which, following the pattern of the biblical psalms, express in living and convincing accents the longing for the promised Saviour, as for instance the seventeenth psalm: “Behold, O Lord, and raise up unto them their king, the son of David, at the time in the which Thou seest, O God, that he may reign over Israel Thy servant. Gird him with strength, that he may cast down the lord of wickedness; cleanse Jerusalem from the heathen who so pitifully oppress her... Then shall he gather together a holy people which he shall rule with justice, and he shall raise up the tribes of the people which the Lord his God hath blessed... He shall keep the Gentiles under his yoke, that they may serve him; he shall glorify the Lord before all the world. He shall make Jerusalem all holy and all pure, as it was in the beginning ... Injustice shall be done no more among them in his time, for all shall be holy and the Lord’s anointed shall now be their king... Blessed is he who shall live in those days! O God, let his grace soon appear over Israel: let him save us from defilement by unholy enemies. The Lord is Himself our king for ever and ever.” Besides belief in one God and the expectation of the Messiah, the Law was of decisive importance in Judaism at that time. To observe the Law was the daily task of every pious Jew, and its fulfilment was his most serious endeavour; if he transgressed against it, even unwittingly, he must make atonement. His fidelity to the Law had its reward, even in this life, in those blessings of modest well-being which the Lord gives; but its true reward would come when the Last Judgment confirmed that upon earth he had been just and could enter into eternal life. The Law was given to every Jew in the Holy Scriptures, into the spirit of which he was initiated 1 Eighteen of these psalms have been preserved in a Greek translation; text in A. Rahlfs, Septuaginta, II, 471-89; English translation in Charles, The Apocrypha a?jd Pseud- epigrapha of the Old Testament (Oxford 1913), II, 631-52, 61 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY in early childhood by his parents and which he was later taught in special schools. Participation in divine worship in the Temple, or in a synagogue such as were to be found in all the principal towns of Palestine, kept alive his knowledge of the Scriptures which were expounded there in sermons. As the Law did not provide ready-made answers that covered every situation in life, its interpretation was entrusted to special scholars (known as Scribes) who became an important institution in the religious life of the Jews. In their fundamental reverence for the Law all Jews were agreed; yet the Law itself became the occasion of a division of the people into several parties, based upon the differing degrees of importance that they attached to its influence on the whole of life. Even before the beginning of the Maccabaean wars there had arisen the movement of the Hassidim or Hasideans, a community of serious-minded men who, for their religious life, sought the ultimate will of God that lay behind the Law. This will of God seemed to them so sublime that they wanted to build “a fence around the Law”, so as to make every transgression, even involuntary, impossible. 2 They wished to serve the Law with an unconditional obedience even unto death, and thus they helped to create that attitude of heroic sacrifice which distinguished the people in the time of the Maccabees. The Hasideans, however, did not gain a universal following; in particular, the noble families and the leading priests held aloof from them. These were the circles which are called Sadducees in the New Testament; they subscribed to a sort of rationalism which rejected belief in angels and spirits and ridiculed the idea of the resurrection of the dead. For them, the five books of Moses, the Tora proper, were the principal authority. In political questions they inclined towards an opportunistic attitude in dealing with their overlords. They were a minority, though an influential one. 3 The most considerable religious party at the beginning of the first Christian century, not in numbers but in the esteem in which it was held by the people, was that of the Pharisees. Although their name signifies “the separated ones”, they sought consciously to influence the whole people and to spread their opinions, an attempt in which they largely succeeded. They regarded themselves as the representatives of orthodox Judaism, and their conception of the Law and its observance was at that time the typical expression of Jewish religion. They took over from the Hasideans the basic idea of the overriding importance of the Law in the life of the individual as well as of the people as a whole, and in this respect the Pharisees may be regarded as their successors. But they made the “fence 2 Cf. W. Foerster, Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschicbte, I, 2 (Hamburg 1956), 45 ff. 3 E. M. Smallwood, “High Priests and Politics in Roman Palestine” in JTS 13 (1962), 13-34. 62 JUDAISM IN THE TIME OF JESUS around the Law” even more impenetrable in as much as they wished to lay down the line of conduct required by the Law for every situation in life. This detailed interpretation of the Law found expression in the Mishna and the Talmud, in which great importance was attached to the opinions of earlier teachers, so that, in succeeding times, tradition played a predom¬ inant part in the study of the Law. The attempt to apply the Law to every conceivable situation of daily life led to an exegesis in which every particle was of great moment, and which could draw the most abstruse conclusions from incidentals. More fateful was the consequent casuistic attitude in all moral questions, which either rendered free moral decision on the part of the individual impossible or gave it a spurious basis. At the same time the Pharisaic Scribes were induced in particular cases to make concessions which contradicted their own principles, since they had after all to make decisions which could be followed by the whole people. With such a casuistic attitude, differences of opinion among the Scribes were unavoidable, and schools of interpretation grew up as for example the school of Shammai or the school of Hillel. In public life the Pharisees were at pains to serve as living models for the fulfilment of the Law, and accepted certain honours in return, such as the title Rabbi or the first places in the synagogues. Sometimes there is traceable, even in their personal piety, a vain self-complacency on account of their fidelity to the Law, which looked down with a mixure of pity and contempt on sinners and on “the multitude that knoweth not the Law” (Jn 7:49). In the face of such an attitude, the great fundamental idea of the God of Israel as the Lord of History, to whose will men had to bow down in humility and trust and whose mercy they might implore in hopeful prayers, receded into the background. The Pharisees did not, however, succeed in permeating the whole of contemporary Judaism with their religious opinions. The group known as the Zealots likewise wished to observe the Law faithfully, but their attitude was markedly warlike, ready for martyrdom. They actively rejected all that was pagan and refused to pay tribute to Caesar; they even called for open resistance to heathen domination, because they considered that obedience to the Law demanded such a holy war. 4 The Qumran Community Fidelity to the Law and zeal for its complete and pure fulfilment drove another group of the Jewish people, the Essenes, out of public life into the 4 M. Hengel, Die Zeloten, Untersuchungen zur judischen Freibeitsbewegung in der Zeit von Herodes 1 bis 70 n. Chr. (Leiden - Cologne 1961), esp. 235-92; N. Oswald, “Grund- gedanken zu einer pharisaischen rabbinischen Theologie” in Kairos 5 (1963), 40-59. 63 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY wilderness. The numerous literary and archaeological discoveries which have been made since 1947 among the ruins of Hirbet Qumran, west of the Dead Sea (a centre of this sect), have greatly enriched the picture which Pliny 5 and Flavius Josephus drew of them. Their beginnings go back to the time of the Maccabees and they flourished about the year 100 b.c. The Essenes believed that Belial, as Satan was usually called in Qumran, had spread three nets over Israel: unchastity, ill-gotten riches, and pollution of the Temple. 6 They meant by this the enrichment of the leaders of the people with heathen booty and the very lax way in which some of them interpreted the marriage laws (Lev 18:13). To the Essenes it seemed that the service of the Temple could no longer be carried out without defilement by priests holding such lax views; and, when their representations were not followed by removal of the evil, they ceased to attend the Temple or to take part in its services, renouncing all communion with “the men of corruption”. In practice this meant a schism of the Hasideans into the party of the Pharisees and the numerically smaller group of the Essenes, who now felt themselves to be the “holy remnant” of the true Israel. Their leadership was assumed by a person who, in the Qumran texts, is called the “Teacher of Righteousness” and to whom the first organization of their community is attributed. This teacher proclaimed a new interpretation of the Law which consisted in the total fulfilment of the will of God, as expressed in it. Here there were no half-measures: one could only love God entirely or reject him utterly, walk in his ways or consciously persist in the obstinacy of one’s own heart. He who did not join the Essenes in their unconditional obedience to the Law as understood by them was of necessity godless. The will to observe the Law completely led to such concrete results as the reform by the Essenes of the Jewish calendar, so that the feasts might be kept annually on the same day of the week. The Teacher of Righteousness further proclaimed a new interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies. The last age foretold by them had already begun; the final struggle between the sons of light and the children of darkness was at hand, and its outcome would bring, for the sons of light, the Essenes, the commencement of an eternity of peace and salvation. Two Messiahs were to play a part in this final combat, the high priest of the last age, the “Anointed of Aaron ”, and the prince of the last age, the “Anointed of Israel ”. The Essenes’ consciousness of being specially chosen went with a reverent recognition of the divine omnipotence, which had sorted men out through a kind of predestination; some were given to the spirit of truth and light, some to the spirit of darkness and wickedness. The salvation of the children of light was an unmerited grace. 6 J.-P. Audet, “Qumran et la notice de Pline sur les esseniens” in RB 68 (1961), 346-87. ® W. Foerster, op. cit. 58 f. 64 JUDAISM IN THE TIME OF JESUS This radical doctrine and the practice based upon it led to an organized union of the Essenes, which, in the Qumran group, took on the character of a religious order. Here the community of God developed into a quasi¬ monastic brotherhood into which a man was received as a full member after a period of probation, a novitiate, whereupon he swore an oath to observe the rules of the order. The property of a new member became the property of the brotherhood. Meals and consultations in common brought the members together. On these occasions a rigid order of precedence prevailed, the priests taking a higher position. Special regulations governing ritual cleanliness required numerous and repeated washings; the brother¬ hood in Qumran was celibate, but in the neighbourhood of the settlement there lived married followers, and there must have been individual Essenes all over Palestine. There was no pity for the godless man; he was regarded with merciless hatred and the wrath of God was called down upon him. The non-biblical writings which have been found at least in fragmentary form at Hirbet Qumran show the strong interest of the group in the so-called apocalyptic literature, the themes of which are the great events which are to take place at the end of the world: the final victory over evil, the resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and the glory of the ever¬ lasting age of salvation. Fragments of works of this kind already known, such as the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Enoch, and the Jewish prototype of the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, suggest with great probability the Essene origin of those writings. Other fragments, such as that of a Book of Noah, a Book of Mysteries, and a manuscript on the New Jerusalem, confirm the supposition that the number of “apocalypses” was much larger than what now survives. Certain features of this apocalyptic literature of the Essenes indicate that a change took place in the community’s views during the course of time. A more merciful attitude towards the godless and towards sinners appears; the hate theme recedes into the back¬ ground and the duty of loving one’s neighbour embraces those who do not belong to the community, even the enemy and the sinner. The age of salvation came later to be understood as a kind of return of Paradise on earth; no more than the Qumran texts of the earlier period do the apocalyptic texts point to a clearly defined Messiah-figure. The literature so far known permits no complete reconstruction of the Essene movement. Only Josephus, writing after the destruction of Jeru¬ salem 7 goes into detail. According to him, there was no far-reaching inner development among them; they maintained unshaken their demand for heroic fidelity to the Law, and Josephus also describes their charitable assistance even to non-members, though the duty of hating the godless remained. Whether the Essenes also took part in the fight against the Romans 7 Josephus, AntiquitateSy 20, 5, 4, sect. 113-17. 65 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY during the rebellion of a.d. 66-70, is not definitely stated, but it appears probable, since that conflict might easily have been interpreted by them as the final battle of the sons of light against those of darkness. Josephus is quite silent about their Messianic ideas at that time; he mentions neither John the Baptist nor Jesus of Nazareth in this connexion, so the most faithful to the Law of all Jewish groups probably knew hardly anything about the latter. Nor can a close relationship with or dependence of Jesus on the Qumran sect be proved. 8 The monastic centre of Qumran was destroyed by the Romans in a.d. 68; the remnant of the community was probably so decimated in the Bar Cochba rebellion (a.d. 132-5) that reorganization was impossible. The Essene movement has no importance in the subsequent history of the Jewish religion; the leading role passed to their great opponents, the Pharisees. The Jewish Diaspora Outside Palestine there dwelt large numbers of Jews who were to have a decisive influence on the expansion of Christianity in the Hellenistic world. Since the eighth century b.c. they had spread in repeated waves, of forced settlement or of voluntary emigration, over the Near East and the whole Mediterranean basin, and at the beginning of the Christian era they considerably outnumbered the inhabitants of Palestine. The great centres of Hellenistic culture had a special attraction for them; thus, for instance there were powerful Jewish colonies at Antioch, Rome, and especially Alexandria, where two of the five districts of the city were allotted to them. Their fellow-citizens saw in their strong community feeling an especially striking characteristic. Wherever their numbers allowed, they organized themselves into congregations, of which about one hundred and fifty are known to have existed in the coastal areas of the Mediterranean when the apostles first began their mission. The centre of each congregation was the synagogue, presided over by an archisynagogus as leader of their prayer- meetings, while a council of elders, with an archon at its head, concerned itself with civil matters. The bond which held the Diaspora Jews together was their religious faith. It was this principally which prevented them from being contaminated in greater numbers by their pagan surroundings. They had skilfully contrived to win from the city or State authorities a great deal of special consideration, a number of exceptions and privileges which respected their religious opinions and manner of worship. This only emphasized all the more their peculiarity and their unique position in public life. They belonged mostly to the middle class; in Asia Minor and Egypt many of 8 J. Carmignac, Le docteur de justice et Jesus-Christ (Paris 1955). 66 JUDAISM IN THE TIME OF JESUS them were engaged in agriculture as workers on the land or as tenant farmers, but some were independent farmers or estate-owners. One trade had a special attraction for them, that of weaving and clothmaking. Inscriptions also mention the occupations of tax-collector, judge, even officer in the army, although such examples are rare. In the great city of Alexandria they early played a considerable role in banking; but here they did not enjoy the unqualified approval of their pagan neighbours. Their new milieu had in many respects exercised its influence on the Jews of the Diaspora without leading to actual infringement of the Law. Like all immigrants they gave up their mother-tongue after a while and adopted the international Greek language, the koine, a fact which led to the use of this language in the worship of the synagogue. Here Egyptian Jewry had shown the way when it translated over a long period the individual books of the Old Testament into Greek and thus created the Septuagint, which was used throughout the Diaspora in the first century a.d. as the recognized translation of the Bible. The reading of the Scriptures in Greek was followed by prayers in Greek, of which some have been adopted by the Christian Church. It was even more necessary that the explanatory sermon should be in the new tongue. The use of Greek in the religious sphere inevitably exposed the Jews to the cultural influences of Hellenism in a wider sense, and in a narrower sense to the effect of Hellenistic religious currents. Such influence was strongest in Alexandria, intellectually the most active centre of the Diaspora. This city was the home of the Jew Philo (f c. 40 a.d.), whose extensive writings seem like the final echo of those inner conflicts which the intellectual world of Hellenism might have caused in the mind of an educated and intellectually alert Diaspora Jew. In his work, preserved for posterity by Christianity, we feel the effects of the different philosophical tendencies of his time. From the Stoics the Jews took over the allegorical method of scriptural interpretation which apparently was taught at a special school of exegetics for Jews in Alexandria. Without giving up the literal sense of the biblical description of events in the great Jewish past, the new teachers found a deeper secret meaning beneath it, which saw in Adam for instance the symbol of human reason, in Eve that of sensuality, and in the tree of life that of virtue. Paradise itself was an allegory of the wisdom of God, and the four rivers that flowed from it were the cardinal virtues. More even than the Stoics, the “most holy Plato” influenced the intellectual world of Philo, who took from him not only his philosophical terminology but also his high esteem for the intellect and his longing for a spiritualized life, as well as his idea of the imperfection of the material world. Philo’s doctrine of creation has also a Platonic colouring, especially his notion of the “middle powers” which exist between 67 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY a perfect God and the imperfect world; they are called “thoughts of God”, and the highest of them is the Logos, Reason itself, which was to play such an important part in the theology of the first Christian centuries. Philo also explained the ritual laws of the Jews in an allegorical sense and developed from them, using the philosophical terminology of Hellenism, ethical principles, culminating in the demand for ascetic control of the life of instinct; only thus could the soul free itself from the prison of the body and become capable of that mystical rapture which unites it with God in “sober intoxication” and loving surrender. Despite this enthusiasm for the Hellenistic philosophy of his time, Philo remained a convinced Jew by religion. What he took over from Hellenistic philosophy was after all, he believed, only an earlier gift from the Jews to the pagans, whose teacher, unknown to them, had been Moses. His God remains the eternal God of the Old Testament, whose name men cannot utter, to whose mercy and goodness they owe all, and on whose grace they depend. He is to be honoured by observance of the Sabbath and by the other precepts of the Law, upon which Israel’s former greatness was based. Philo remained inwardly and outwardly united with the Jewish people; he shared their belief in a Messiah who would bring them victory over all the nations of the earth and give them a new Paradise. If the faith of a Jew so receptive to Greek ideas as Philo, was not endan¬ gered in its innermost citadel, the loyalty of the average Diaspora Jew to the faith of his Fathers was even more secure. An essential part of it was the spiritual and practical attachment to the Palestinian homeland which he unwaveringly maintained. Jerusalem and its Temple were the focus of this attachment. In the consciousness of every adult Diaspora Jew the Temple was the supreme symbol of his religious origin, and with great conscientious¬ ness he made his annual financial sacrifice, the Temple tax; it was his earnest desire to pray there one day with his Palestinian co-religionists at the time of the Pasch. A further support for his faith was the aforementioned close association of all the Diaspora Jews, which led to an exclusiveness often criticized by their pagan neighbours, and which played its part in causing those recurrent waves of anti-Semitism that swept over the Roman Empire. But all the mockery and scorn, all the slights and persecutions which from time to time were the lot of the Diaspora Jews did not prevent them from carrying out enterprising and methodical propaganda for their convictions and their religion which met with considerable success. This propaganda was served by a not inconsiderable body of writings which, adapting itself to the literary tastes of the Hellenistic reader, sought to inform the latter that the orginal source of all culture, including religious culture, was to be found in Moses and his people. To this literature 68 JUDAISM IN THE TIME OF JESUS belonged, for example, the so-called Letter to Aristeas, 9 which by its skilfully told legend of the origin of the Septuagint directed the reader’s interest to the sacred scriptures of the Jews and included an attractive description of Jerusalem, its temple and worship, and of the Jewish priesthood. Books Three to Five of the Oracula Sibyllina are also an advertisement for the Jewish religion. These praise monotheism and draw from the fulfilment of ancient prophecies in the history of the Jewish people an allegorical interpretation of history as a whole; with the prophecy of an approaching Last Judgment they endeavour to persuade the pagans to embrace the Jewish religion. Josephus’s book Contra Apionem was openly apologetic in tone, painting an impressive picture of the history of the Jewish people with all its vicissitudes and describing in enthusiastic terms its great leaders, prophets and martyrs, religious laws and customs, with a view to winning converts to the Jewish faith. Its representation of Jewish theocracy, based upon unconditional monotheism, and its references to the undeniable effects of Jewish piety and ethics on the life of the people could not fail to make an impression on many a Hellenistic reader in search of religious truth. The success of this propaganda, supplemented no doubt by the spoken word, is shown by the great number of pagans who entered into closer relations with the Jewish religion. Those who formally went over to the Jewish faith and by circumcision, ritual bath, and offering of sacrifice, became fully-fledged Jews, were known as proselytes and undertook all the obligations of the Jewish Law. Considerably larger was the number of the “God-fearing”, who would not indeed accept circumcision — painful to pagan sensibilities — but could not resist the attraction of monotheistic belief and the services of the synagogue. They joined in the celebration of the Sabbath and many other religious exercises; their children usually took the final step of formal conversion. The sources give no information as to the precise numbers of either group, but they were no doubt represented in most Jewish congregations of the Diaspora. The Jewish Diaspora has a significance for the early Christian Missions which cannot be overlooked. It performed an important preliminary work in this connexion, firstly by preparing the Septuagint, which at once became the Bible of the early Christians, secondly by preaching monotheism and the Commandments of Moses, which were also the foundation of Christian morality. Since the synagogues were often the starting-place of Christian missionaries, the latter found there, above all among the God-fearing and the proselytes, hearts ready to receive their message. In the conflict which 9 Edition of the Greek text with French translation by A. Pelletier, Sources chretiennes 84 (Paris 1962); English translation in Charles, op. cit. II, 83 ff. See also A. Pelletier, Flavius Josephe } Adaptateur de la lettre d'Aristee (1962). 69 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY soon ensued between Christian preachers and Diaspora Jews, the struggle to win the souls of these two groups was — along with the doctrinal differences — an essential factor. That the Christian met with greater success is shown not least by the reaction of the born Diaspora Jews, who now gave up the Septuagint and made other translations to replace it, because they saw their former Bible being employed so successfully by the Christians. They rejected too the allegorical method of writers like Philo, as the Christians had taken it over and used it in particular to dispute the claim of the Mosaic Law to continued validity. A rigid emphasis was placed on the 7 ora , the strict rabbinical interpretation of which now prevailed even among the Jews of the Diaspora. On the other hand, many features of the developing Christian liturgy, much in the worship and preaching of the primitive Christians, in early Christian literature, and in the text of prayers, is an inheritance from the world of the Diaspora, an inheritance which was sometimes taken over directly by the Christians to serve the purposes of anti-Jewish propaganda. Chapter 2 Jesus of Nazareth and the Church The history of the Church has its roots in Jesus of Nazareth, who was born into the intellectual and religious world of Palestinian Jewry which has just been described. His life and work, by which the Church was founded, are therefore a necessary preliminary to a history of the latter. The sources which tell us of that life and its significance for the Church are of a quite exceptional nature. Apart from a few references in pagan and Jewish works, which are valuable because they place beyond discussion any attempt to deny the historical existence of Jesus, the main sources are the writings of the New Testament, especially the first three gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and some of the letters of St Paul. None of these was intended to be an historical biography of Jesus of Nazareth, to tell the story of his life from beginning to end with all the details we would like to know. The three synoptic gospels are the outcome of the apostolic preaching about Jesus and accordingly give the image of him which remained vivid in the minds and hearts of his first disciples when they proclaimed him after his ascension as the crucified and risen Messiah. That image is shaped by the requirements of the apostles’ preaching and the faith which supported it. We are not on that account forced to adopt an attitude of radical scepticism when faced with the question whether such sources can ever lead us to a true picture of the “historical” Jesus. 70 JESUS OF NAZARETH AND THE CHURCH True, an actual “Life of Jesus” cannot be obtained from them. But these New Testament writings are always going back to that Life, giving prominence to single facts and events, to actions and worlds of Jesus in his earthly life which have a special significance for the proclamation of the apostolic message, bearing witness to them at the same time as important historical facts of his life. The preaching of the apostles was expressly intended to prove that the earthly Jesus of Nazareth was the same Christ that they proclaimed, from whom came salvation for all men. Thus a series of individual facts and characteristics can, with all the scrupulous care that historical criticism demands, be built up from these sources and presented as a kind of outline of the life of Jesus. Four or five years before the beginning of our era, Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary. Forty days after circumcision the child was presented to the Lord in the Temple as a first-born son, in accordance with Jewish Law, on which occasion two pious Israelites, Simeon and Anna, spoke prophetically of his Messianic mission. Dangers which threatened the infant from King Herod forced his mother and his foster-father Joseph to sojourn for a long period in Egypt, until, after Herod’s death, the family was able to settle at Nazareth in Galilee. The boy grew up in this quiet village, perhaps without ever attending a rabbinical school. Only once did something of his future greatness shine forth, when at twelve years of age he spoke with the Scribes in the Temple about religious questions, showing knowledge superior to theirs and excusing himself to his parents with the words: “I must be about my Father’s business” (Lk 2:49). About thirty years after his birth Jesus left his parental home and began his work among the people of his homeland. First he took a remarkable step, seeking out the great preacher of penance, John the Baptist 10 by the Jordan and accepting baptism from him, whereby God “anointed him with the Holy Spirit”, who descended upon him in the form of a dove while the voice of the Father bore witness from Heaven that this was his “beloved Son” (Mt 3:13 f.). Conscious of his Messianic mission and his divine sonship, which he was able to confirm by numerous miracles, Jesus now proclaimed in word and deed that the kingdom of God was come, and that all men, not only Israelites, were called to the kingdom, provided they served God with true piety. The supreme law of the religion he preached was the unconditional love of God and a love of one’s neighbour that embraced men of all nations. In clearly recognizable opposition to 10 E. Lohmeyer, Das Urchristentum, I: Johannes der Taufer (Gottingen 1932); C. H. Kraeling, John the Baptist (New York 1951); H. W. Brownlee, “John the Baptist in the New Light of the Ancient Scrolls” in Interpretation 9 (1955), 71-90; J. Stcinmann, St John the Baptist and the Desert Tradition (New York 1963). 71 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY Pharisaical practice 11 with its outwardly correct observance of the Law, he declared purity of mind and intention to be the basis of moral behaviour, thus giving to the individual conscience the decisive role in the sphere of religion. Jesus furthermore re-established the true priority of obligations, derived from that life of inward union with the Father which he preached as the ideal: more important than scrupulous observance of the Sabbath is a helpful action performed for our neighbour — of more value than the prescribed prayers recited in the Temple is silent converse with the Father in the solitude of one’s own room. Shocking for many was his message that publicans and sinners, the poor and infirm, whom God seemed so obviously to have punished, had the first right to expect a welcome in the house of the Father. The self-righteousness of the Pharisees was deeply shaken by the news that there is more joy in Heaven over one sinner who does penance than over ninety-nine just men; they did not understand that in the coming kingdom of God all human actions count for nothing, that only he is just to whom the Father graciously grants it. The poor were called blessed, because they were free from earthly cares about possessions and riches, which all too easily take up in men’s hearts the place that belongs to God alone. But consoling though his message was for those who had hitherto been despised and lowly among the people, great though the effects of his miraculous powers were upon those marked by lameness, blindness, leprosy, and spiritual diseases, no less strict were the conditions which Jesus imposed upon those who would enter the kingdom of God. The whole man was called upon to follow him without regard for previous friendships, family ties, or possessions; he who set his hand to the plough and looked back was unworthy of the kingdom (Lk 9:62). Such demands dispel any idea of a peaceful family idyll; his words cut like a sword through all existing social and familiar bonds. But the new and unique thing in his teaching was this above all: no man could come to the Father except through Jesus. He demanded a discipleship that was quite impossible without painful self-denial; the man who would truly be his disciple must be able to lay aside his own life (Lk 14:26). All those, however, who made up their minds to follow him and were thus called to the kingdom formed a new community. Jesus’ words and deeds tend unmistakably towards the creation and development of such a community. He proclaimed no kind of only individual piety or religion, but a message which binds together those who hear it and are filled by it as brothers in a religious family that prays together to the Father for the forgiveness of its sins. Jesus himself on one occasion called this community his Church, and he claimed that he was establishing it by his 11 W. Beilner, Christus und die Pharisder (Vienna 1959). 72 JESUS OF NAZARETH AND THE CHURCH work (Mt 16:18). He carefully prepared the ground for the foundation of this religious society. If, at times, because of his miracles, great multitudes greeted him with loud acclamations, it was but a minority of the people who accepted to become his disciples. From this group he selected twelve men, 12 who occupied a special position among his followers; they were the object of his special attention: with them he discussed the special tasks for which he intended them in the community that was to be. They were to take up and continue the mission which the Father in Heaven had entrusted to him; “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn 20:21). The Gospels emphasize again and again with unmistakable clarity the special position of the Twelve, who received the name of apostles, envoys. 13 The content of their mission was the proclamation of the kingdom of God; to fulfill it, the apostles were expressly appointed as teachers, whose word the nations must believe and trust like that of Jesus himself (Lk 10:16; Mt 28:20), to whose judgment they must submit as if it were a verdict of the Lord (Mt 18:18). Finally, to the Twelve, who were to carry out his own office of High Priest in the new community, Jesus gave priestly powers (Jn 17:19; Mt 20:28). They were to nourish and sanctify its members through a mysterious, sacramental life of grace. From the group Jesus chose Peter for a special task: he was appointed to be the rock foundation on which his Church should stand. With a singular form of words he was given the mission to feed the sheep and the lambs and to strengthen his brothers. (Mt 16:18; Jn 21:15). Thus the foundation prepared by Jesus before his resurrection received an organic framework, perceptible even from without, which would now grow in space and time, according to laws of growth implanted in it by its founder. Its purely supernatural basis lies indeed elsewhere: it is ultimately founded on the death of Jesus, through which alone salvation can be newly given to men, from which alone the new structure of the salvation community of the redeemed receives its mysterious life. With his death, which completed the work of atonement and redemption, and his resurrection, which gloriously confirmed that work, the founding of the 12 B. Rigaux, “Die ‘Zwolf’ in Geschichte und Kerygma” in H. Ristow and K. Matthiae, Der historische Jesus und der kerygmatische Christus (Berlin 1960), 468-86; G. Klein, Die zwolf Apostel , Ursprung und Gehalt einer Idee (Gottingen 1961). 13 K. H. Rengstorf in ThW IV, 406-46; Eng. tr.: K.H. Rengstorf, Apostleship , Bible Key Words 6 (London 1962); H. v. Campenhausen, “Der urchristliche ApostelbegrifF” in StTh 1 (1947), 96- 130; E. M. Kredel, “Der Apostelbegriff in der neueren Exegese” in ZKTh 78 (1956), 169-93, 257-305; K. H. Schelkle, Jiingerschaft und Apostelamt (Freiburg i. Br. 1957); J. Dupont, “Le nom d’apotre a-t-il £t£ donne aux Douze par J4sus?” in OrSyr 1 (1956), 267-90, 466-80; W. Schmithals, Das kirchliche Apostelamt (Gottingen 1961); P. Blaser, “Zum Problem des urchristlichen Apostolats: Unio-Christianorum” in Fest¬ schrift L. Jaeger (Paderborn 1962), 92-107. 73 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY Church was complete, and her historical existence began with the descent of the Spirit. Jesus had to go to his death because the majority of his people closed their ears to his message. The religious leaders of Jewry decisively rejected his Messianic claims and persecuted him as a sedition-monger with ever- increasing hatred, which finally led them to plan his violent death. The Roman procurator allowed himself, albeit unwillingly, to be won over and he delivered Jesus into their hands to be crucified. The crucifixion took place on the fourteenth or fifteenth day of Nisan in a year between 30 and 33 of the Christian era. So the labours of Jesus among his own people come to a sudden end, which in the eyes of those who did not believe in his mission meant too the end of the kingdom which he announced. But after three days he rose again from the dead as he had foretold, and during a period of forty days appeared to his disciples on many occasions, until he was taken up into heaven. Belief in his second coming, which was promised to the disciples by two angels at the time of his ascension, was one of the main supports of the young Church’s now growing structure. Chapter 3 The Primitive Church at Jerusalem The External Events and Early Environment The most important source for the fortunes of the primitive Church immediately after the ascension of our Lord is the account given in the first seven chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. This does not indeed give a complete picture of events, because the author chose for his subject only what served his purpose, which was to show that the tidings of the Kingdom, though first addressed to the Jews, were then, in accordance with God’s will, to be delivered to the Gentiles, and that the Jewish Christian Paul, with the approval of the apostles and commissioned by them, had become the legitimate missionary to the Gentiles. Therefore only about the first fifteen years of the origin and growth of the community are described; of its later history mention is made only in occasional references to Jerusalem. It was the fact, at first hardly comprehensible, of the resurrection of the Crucified One that brought together the scattered disciples and united them in a community sharing the same belief and profession of faith. When the story of the Acts begins, a group of 120 believers has re-assembled. Firm in their belief that their Lord who has ascended into heaven will 74 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AT JERUSALEM return, they are determined to carry out the instructions he gave them during the forty days between his resurrection and his ascension. First of all under Peter’s leadership they hold an election to complete the apostolic college, the number twelve being considered as sacrosanct; the candidate must, like the others, be a reliable witness to the life and work of the Lord. The result of the election is entrusted in prayer to God, who makes his will known when the lot falls upon Matthias. 14 The events of the first Pentecost, 15 when the promised Holy Spirit, to the accompaniment of extraordinary phenomena — a mighty wind and tongues of fire — descended upon the assembled believers, gave them a great access of strength and courage to bear witness in public. The enthusiasm of that day caused Peter to preach a sermon before the people in which he proclaimed the crucified and risen Jesus as the true Messiah. The external growth of the community reflected its inward strengthening: as a result of Peter’s preaching about three thousand Jews professed their faith in Jesus. The healing of a man born lame by Peter and John, and another sermon by the former, brought further successes. Soon the number of members of the community had risen to five thousand (Acts 3-4:4). Such success disturbed the Jewish authorities, who sent for the apostles - to examine them. Peter was their spokesman, and here too he boldly proclaimed the message of the Crucified. A threatening warning to the apostles to keep silent for the future was rejected in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:5-22). When fresh miracles and repeated preaching further increased the number of the faithful, all the apostles were again arrested, whereupon they dared to say before the Sanhedrin that God must be obeyed rather than men (Acts 5:29). A first scourging with rods, to which the leaders of the Church at Jerusalem were sentenced, and renewed prohibition to speak in the name of Jesus, were preliminaries to the first persecution. As the tasks to be carried out in the community increased with the number of members, some organization became necessary; the apostles must remain free to preach, and therefore seven men were appointed to serve the tables, to care for the poor and to help the apostles in their pastoral activities (Acts 6: 1-6). These were ordained for their work with prayer and the laying on of hands. The Greek names of these men indicate that the number of Hellenistic Jews from the Diaspora was not inconsiderable in the community. It is clear that tension arose between them and the Palestinian Jewish Christians. Among the Hellenistic Christians Stephen 18 14 K. H. Rengstorf, “Die Zuwahl des Matthias” in StTh 15 (1961), 35-67. 15 N. Adler, Das erste christlicbe Pfingstfest (Munster 1938); E. Lohse in ThW VI, 44-53; G. Kretschmar, “Himmelfahrt und Pfingsten” in ZKG 66 (1954), 209-53. 18 Besides the commentaries on the Acts of the Apostles, cf. F. Biichsel in ZNW 30 (1931), 202 f., 33 (1934), 84-87; MnSimon, St. Stephen and the Hellenists in the Primitive Church (London 1958); J. Bihler, “Der Stephanusbericht” in BZ 3 (1959), 252-70. 75 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY was especially distinguished for his courage and skill in debate; but he suffered a martyr’s death by stoning when he was bold enough to say to the Jews that through Christ’s work the Old Testament had been superseded. The death of Stephen was the signal for a persecution, which fell most heavily upon the Hellenistic members of the Jerusalem community. While the apostles themselves remained in Jerusalem, many Christians evaded persecution by flight. However, they now took to preaching the Gospel in the countryside, especially in Judaea and Samaria. 17 The Samaritan mission of the Hellenist Philip was particularly successful. This spread of the faith outside the capital was the occasion for a journey of inspection by the apostles Peter and John to the newly won Christians in Samaria, upon whom they laid their hands that they might receive the Holy Spirit. The two apostles were also active as missionaries on this journey and preached in many places in Samaria. Later Peter paid another visit to the brethren outside Jerusalem — “the saints” as the Acts call them — and the presence of Jewish Christians in cities like Joppa and Lydda shows how strong the movement had become in the more remote parts of Palestine. The peace that had followed the persecution w’as again threatened by Herod Agrippa, who caused the arrest of the leading apostles, Peter and James the Elder, and the execution of the latter (a.d. 42 or 43), in order to please the Jews of the capital (Acts 12:2). 18 Perhaps Peter would have shared the same fate if he had not then finally left Jerusalem and betaken himself to “another place” (Acts 12:17). The leadership of the congregation then passed to James the Younger. The sudden death of Herod in 44 again brought more peaceful times for the Church and made possible a more widespread preaching of the Word. For about twenty years James was able to work in Jerusalem, surrounded by his congregation and highly respected by the other apostles — Paul calls him, together with Peter and John one of the “pillars” of the primitive Church (Gal 2:9). His strictly ascetic life and his loyalty to Jewish traditions earned him the name of “the Just”. He was, however, also concerned for the Jewish Christian congregations outside the capital, to whom he wrote a letter which has been accepted into the canon of the New Testament. 19 His authority carried great weight at the so-called Council of the Apostles, 20 where he played the part of mediator (Acts 17 O. Cullman, Samaria and the Origins of the Christian Mission in the Early Church (London 1956), 185-92. 18 J. Blinzler, “Rechtsgeschichtliches zur Hinrichtung des Zebedaiden Jakobus” (Acts 12:2) in NovT 5 (1962), 191-206. 19 H. v. Campenhausen, “Die Nachfolge des Jakobus” in ZKG 63 (1950), 133-44; P. Gachter, “Jakobus von Jerusalem” in ZKTh 76 (1954), 129-69. 20 A. Lemmonyer, DBS II, 113-20; S. Giet in Mel. Lehreton , I (Paris 1951), 201-20; 76 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AT JERUSALEM 15:13-21). He too met a martyr’s death in 62, when the high priest Ananus was able to vent his hatred upon him, the post of Roman procurator being vacant owing to the death of Festus. They cast the old man from the pinnacle of the Temple, and, while he still lived, they stoned him and beat him to death. Following the example of his Lord he prayed for his enemies as he lay dying. A few years later the independence of the Jerusalem congregation came to an end, when the rebellion against the Romans turned into a catastrophe for the whole nation. The Jewish Christians obviously did not wish to take part in this struggle and emigrated in 66-67 to the land east of the Jordan, where some of them settled in the city of Pella. The fortunes of the young Church took a new turn. Under Peter’s leadership in Palestine there had already been individual conversions from paganism. Now Philip received the chamberlain of Queen Candace of Ethiopia into the Church by baptism, and Peter himself, by the reception of the pagan captain Cornelius, made it clear that the message of the Gospel was not for the Jews alone. Even while the original community was still in Jerusalem, a considerable number of former pagans had formed a Christian congregation in the Syrian capital of Antioch, 21 the care of which was entrusted to the Cypriot levite Barnabas. Here the designation Xpumavot was first applied to the followers of the new faith, although it is an open question as to whether this term was introduced by the local pagan authorities, was a popular slang word, or, which seems more likely, was an expression used by the Christians to distinguish themselves from official Judaism and from Jewish sects (see Acts 1:6-8 and Peter 4:16). 22 The future of the young Church after the destruction of Jerusalem lay with the pagan nations of the eastern Mediterranean area, whose evangelization had already been successfully begun by the Jewish Christian Paul. Organization, Belief, and Piety “Sect of the Nazarenes”, yj tcov Noc^copatcov ocipeau;, their Jewish opponents called the disciples of Jesus (Acts 24:5), who had formed themselves into a special community; “congregation, assembly”, cxxXy)< na, is the name that the Jewish Christians had for this community of theirs P. Gachter in ZKTh 76 (1954), 139-46; V. Kerich: St Vladimir*s Quarterly 6 (1962), 108-17; P. Gachter in ZKTh 85 (1963), 339-54; T. Fahy in IThQ 30 (1963), 232-61. 21 J. Kollwitz in RAC I, 461-9; H. Dieckmann, Antiochien ein Mittelpunkt christlicher Missionstdtigkeit (Aachen 1920). 22 E. Peterson, “Christianus’' in MiscMercati , I (Rome 1946), 355-72; H. B. Mattingly “The Origin of the Name Christiani” in JThS NS 9 (1958), 26-37; B. Lifschitz, “L’origine du nom dcs chretiens” in VigChr 16 (1962), 65-70. 77 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY (Acts 5:11; 8:1 etc.) 23 They were therefore not merely a group of Jews, who shared the conviction that Jesus was the true Messiah, but who otherwise led their own individual religious lives; rather did that conviction bring them together and cause them to organize themselves as a religious community. This community was, from the beginning (as a glance at the Acts of the Apostles clearly shows), an hierarchically ordered society, in which not all were of equal rank. There were in it persons and groups of persons to whom special tasks and functions in the life of the community were assigned by higher authority. The first of such groups was the college of the apostles, disinguished in a unique way from all other members of the community; by them were carried out the special tasks which Jesus had given to the chosen Twelve before his ascension and for which he had trained them. The community felt the number twelve to be sacred, so that after the departure of Judas the complement had to be made up by an election at which Matthias was chosen. This election had, however, a purely religious character; it was begun with prayer, and God himself made the decision by means of lots, so that it became unequivocally clear that a man could be called to the office of an apostle only by the supreme authority of God. The principal task of an apostle was to bear witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Linked with this was the duty of leading the community in the solemnities of the cult, when it met together united in faith: to administer the baptism by which a man became a member of the community, to preside at the religious meal which symbolically expressed the sense of belonging together, to undertake the laying on of hands by which members were consecrated for special tasks — in a word, to be mediators between Christ and his Church through the exercise of priestly functions. Christ himself gave the apostles power to work signs and wonders in his name (Acts 2:42; 5:12). Bound up with that power was the right to rule with authority in the community, to ensure discipline and order and to found new congregations of believers (Acts 8:14f.; 15:2). Nevertheless, the apostle was not so much lord as rather servant and shepherd in the Church, which was firmly based upon the apostolic office (Mt 16:18; 24: 45; Acts 20:28). 24 Among those holding the office of apostle, Peter displayed an activity which shows that he, in this turn, occupied a leading place among the Twelve, which could have been given him only by a higher authority. The 23 K. L. Schmidt in ThW III, 502-39; M. Goguel, The Primitive Church (London-New York 1964); J. M. Nielen, “Zur Grundlegung einer neutestamentlichen Ekklesiologie” in Festschrift F. Tillmann (Dusseldorf 1950), 370-97; H. Schlier, Die Zeit der Kirche (Frei¬ burg i. Br., 3rd ed. 1962). 24 See above, note 13 and E. M. Farrer, “The Ministry in the New Testament” in K. B. Kirk, The Apostolic Ministry (London, 2nd ed. 1957), 119-83. 78 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AT JERUSALEM account of the fortunes of the primitive Church clearly shows this special position: Peter conducts the election to the college of apostles, he composes the prayer recited on that occasion and he is the spokesman of the disciples at the first Pentecost (Acts 2:15 ff.). He preaches after the healing of the man born lame (Acts 3:1). He is again the spokesman of the apostles before the Scribes and Elders (Acts 4:8). as well as before the Sanhedrin (Acts 5:20). He appears with judicial authority in the episodes of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:3) and with Simon Magus (Acts 8:19). His visits to the “saints” outside Jerusalem have the character of a visitation (Acts 9:32). His decision to admit the pagan Cornelius to baptism was of great significance for the future, because it authoritatively proclaimed that the Gospel was not addressed exclusively to “those of the circumcision” but also to the Gentiles and thus had a universal character. This step did indeed lead to a dispute with some of the Jewish Christians, but by that very fact it shows Peter to have been the responsible leader of the primitive Church. The picture which the author of the Acts draws of Peter’s position is significantly confirmed by Paul. The latter, after his flight from Damascus, went to Jerusalem “to visit Cephas” (Gal 1:18); obviously Paul’s recognition by the community depended on him. Even though James, as local leader of the Jerusalem congregation, presided at the Council of the Apostles, Paul clearly gives us to understand that Peter’s attitude was the deciding factor in the dispute as to whether the Gentile Christians were subject to the Mosaic Law or not. It cannot be objected that Peter on another occasion appears not to act with authority towards James; this was rather due to his hesitant character than to his official position. The whole of his work in the primitive Church up to the time when he finally left Jerusalem to engage actively in the mission to the Gentiles can be rightly understood only if one regards it as the fulfilment of the task given to him by his Master, of which not only Matthew but also Luke and John tell us when they write that Peter was called by the Lord to strengthen the brethren and to feed Christ’s flock. 25 There was another office in the primitive Church of which we learn from Acts 6:1—7. It was that of the above-mentioned seven men who were to assist the apostles in their labours and to take over the service of the tables among the poor of the community. The appointment of these seven did not take the form of an election, but it was done with prayer and laying on of hands by the apostles. In the Acts the work of the seven is repeatedly mentioned, and the accounts make it clear that it went far beyond purely charitable activities. One of them, Stephen, played a leading role in the theological dispute with the Jews about the mission of Christ and the 25 E. Stauffer, “Petrus und Jakobus in Jerusalem” in Festschrift O. Karrer (Frankfurt a. M., 2nd ed. 1960), 361-72. 79 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY validity of the old Law (Acts 6:8 ff.). and Philip was an active missionary; he preached among the Samaritans and in many other places (Acts 21:8). No special name is given to this group in the Acts of the Apostles, but their work is described by the verb “to serve” Staxovetv (Acts 6:2). Whether they can be regarded as precursors of the deacons in the Pauline congrega¬ tions is difficult to decide, for the work of the latter is not easily discernible. The duties of the seven were determined by the needs of the Church. 20 The sphere of activity of a third group, whom the Acts call “Elders”, 7 ip£a( 3 uT£poL, is not so clearly defined as that of the seven (Acts 11:30). The name was not newly coined by the Christians, for there had long been Elders, heads of Jewish patrician families, in the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, and Elders of the synagogues in the Jewish communities of Palestine. In the primitive Church of Jerusalem these “Elders” are always to be found in the company of the apostles or of James as leader of the congregation; they take part in the decisions of the apostolic Council (Acts 15:2ff.). They were therefore assistants to the apostles or to the pastor of Jerusalem in the administration of the community. 27 Only once in connexion with the Jerusalem community are “prophets” mentioned (Acts 15:32); these were Judas Barsabas and Silas, who were chosen and sent to Antioch that they might inform the Christians there of the decisions of the Council. Their task was not therefore one that belonged to a permanent office; they were selected because of their special gifts to carry out such a commission and to encourage and strengthen the brethren in Antioch. The existence of such office-holders, the apostles, the Elders and the seven, shows clearly that there was already in the primitive Church a division among the members into groups, consecrated by a religious ceremony for special tasks, apart from the main body of the faithful. Even at that time, therefore, there existed clergy and laity, the division between whom, however, was not felt to be a separating gulf, because the Jews in the community were already familiar with an official priesthood which was highly respected, especially by the pious Jews who eagerly awaited the Messiah. The new and revolutionary event that brought about the formation of the followers of Jesus into a community, the resurrection of the Lord, had been experienced as a fact by all those who had witnessed one of the appearances of the risen Christ. But it was also one of the fundamental 26 T. Klauser in RAC III, 88S-909; P. Gachter, Petrus und seine Zeit (Innsbruck 1958), 105-54; H. Zimmermann, “Die Wahl der Sieben” in Festschrift fur Kurd. ]. Frings (Cologne 1960), 364-78. 27 W. Michaelis, Das Altestenamt der christlichen Gemeinde im Lichte der Hi. Scbrift (Berne 1958), and P. Gachter in ZKTh 76 (1954), 226-31; H. v. Campcnhausen, Kirch- liches Amt und geistliche Vollmacht in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (Tubingen 1953). 80 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AT JERUSALEM elements of the religious faith by which the primitive Church lived, and it was the pivot upon which the apostolic message hinged. 28 It had therefore to be accepted by all who wished to follow the Gospel. Both as an historical event and as part of the faith the fact of the resurrection was confirmed by the descent of the Spirit at the first Pentecost (Acts 2:1 ff.), which gave its final clarity and direction to the apostolic message. From then on the apostles, in their preaching, emphasized the new element which separated them in their belief from their Jewish brethren. This was primarily the conviction that the Risen One whom they proclaimed was none other than the earthly Jesus of Nazareth, and from this identification all that Jesus taught by word and deed before his death derived its validity and its claim to be preached by them. Therefore they bore witness that it was Almighty God who had raised Jesus from the dead, as he had wrought miracles through him during his life on earth. Equally radical and new when compared with the beliefs till then held by the Jews was the conviction of the Christians that Jesus was the true and promised Messiah. That their Master was the Messiah could not be proved more clearly and compellingly to the apostles than by his resurrection. The belief that in Jesus they possessed the Messiah expressed itself in the various titles which the preaching of the apostles and the piety of the faithful bestowed on him. More and more he came to be called “the Christ”, a designation that was used as a kind of surname to Jesus. The apostles preached “the Gospel of Jesus Christ” (Acts 5:42); it was “Jesus Christ” who healed through the apostles (Acts 9:34). Because Jesus was the Messiah he was called the Kyrios, 29 which he had been called by God himself (Acts 2:36); he belonged therefore at the right hand of God, and the title of Kyrios could be given to him as properly as to God (Acts 1:21; 7:59; 9:1, 10ff., 42; 11:17). So the Church addressed the Kyrios in prayer with all confidence; from its midst came the cry “ Marana-tha” Come, O Lord!” (1 Cor 16:22), a prayer preserved for us by Paul. To Stephen it was so natural to pray to “the Lord Jesus” that even in the hour of death the words came spontaneously to his lips (Acts 7:59). Other titles likewise place the risen Jesus close to God; in Acts 10:42 he is the 28 J. Gewiess, Die urapostolische Heilsverkundung nach der Apostelgeschichte (Breslau 1939); M. Meinertz, Theologie des Neuen Testaments I (Munster 1950), 212-47; J. Schmitt, Jesus resuscite dans la predication apostolique (Paris 1949), 175-248; F. X. Durwell, La resurrection de Jesus (Paris 1954); J. Sint, “Die Auferstehung Jesu in der Verkiindigung der Urgemeinde” in ZKTh 84 (1962), 129-51; H. Grass, Ostergeschehen und Osterberichte (Gottingen, 2nd ed. 1962). 29 W. Foerster, ThW III, 1038-98; J. Gewiess, op. cit. 57-70; I. Hermann, Kyrios und Pneuma (Munich 1960); S. Schulz, Maranatha und Kyrios Jesus” in ZNW 53 (1962), 125 to 144; F. Hahn, Christologische Hoheitstitel im Neuen Testament (Gottingen 1963); W. Kramer, Christos , Kyrios , Gottessohn (Zurich 1963). 81 JEWISH CHRISTIANITY judge of the living and the dead who now reigns in heaven but will come again at the end of the world (Acts 1:11; 3:20fF.). He is furthermore “the Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14), the apx*/]Y in Atti Accad. Scienze Torino 91 (1956-7), 1-77. 45 I. Ortiz de Urbina, “Trama e carattere del Diatessaron di Taziano” in OrChrP 25 (1959), 326-57. 178 CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS OF THE SECOND CENTURY Only the Three Books to Autolykos survive out of the considerable body of writings left by Theophilos, a men of Hellenistic education who, after his conversion about the year 180, became head of the Christian congregation at Antioch. 46 Autolykos was his pagan friend, to whom he wished to prove, in a pleasing Greek style, that the Scriptures of the Chris¬ tians (that is, the Old Testament) were superior, both in antiquity and in religious and philosophical content, to everything that the Greek intellect had produced. The line of argument and the defence against pagan calumnies follow the usual course. In Theophilos 5 account of the faith we meet for the first time in a Christian writer the designation Tpia q (Trinity) (2:15), for the persons of which he always uses the terms ©eo<; (God), Aoyo<; (Logos), Socpiot (Sophia) (1:7; 1:10; 2:18). The evangelists were for him, like the prophets, bearers of the Spirit; their writings, with the epistles of Paul, were the “holy, divine word 55 (2:22; 3:13-14). The human soul was potentially immortal; immortality would be given as a reward for freely choosing to observe the commandments of God (2:27). Except for a few fragments, the apologia of Bishop Melito of Sardes, as well as the works of the rhetor Miltiades of Asia Minor and Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis, are lost. 47 With courage and dignity Melito pointed out to Marcus Aurelius the unjust plundering and persecution to which the Christians were exposed, whereas the benevolent attitude of the emperor’s predecessors, except Nero and Domitian, had brought God’s blessing on the Roman Empire. 48 Eusebius has preserved a list of the other works of this much respected bishop, the titles of which show the astonishing range of his interests. 49 It is highly probable that a homily on Exodus 12, rediscovered in a papyrus of the fourth century, is by Melito. This, preached no doubt at a Paschal celebration of the Quartodecimans, gives important information about early Christian teaching in Asia Minor on original sin, on the redemptive act of Christ, on baptism, and on the character of sermons at that time. A hymn in the same papyrus fits so well with the Easter liturgy of the Quartodecimans and with the ideas of Melito that it too has been claimed for the Bishop of Sardes. 50 There are finally two other apologetical writings which belong to the closing years of the second century or the beginning of the third. The anonymous Letter to Diognetus attracted attention more by its elegant Greek than by its theological content; it has repeatedly tempted scholars to identify its author, but it is difficult to prove anything. A short criticism 46 Euseb. HE 4, 24; Jerome, De vir. ill. 25; Ep. 121, 6, 15. 47 See Quasten P , I, 228 f. 48 Euseb. HE 4, 26, 5-11. 49 Ibid. 4, 26, 2. 50 The Easter Hymn has been edited with a commentary by O. Perler, Ein Hymnus zur Ostervigil von Melitonf (Fribourg 1960); see also J. Dani^lou in RSR 48 (1960), 622-5. 179 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY of the Jewish and pagan religions is followed by the oft-quoted hymnic chapter on the Christians’ daily life: “Every foreign place is their home, and their home is a foreign place to them; ... they dwell on earth, but their conversation is in heaven; they love all men and are persecuted by all; they are poor and enrich many. They are despised and are thereby glorified. They are insulted and they bless; they are mocked and show honour to those that mock them; punished with death, they rejoice as if they were awakened unto life. In brief, what the soul is to the body, the Christians are to the world” (chapters 5 and 6). The reality, it is true, did not in the year 200 everywhere correspond to the ideal. The satire of Hermias, Ataaupp,o<; tcov e£co cptXoc^tov, is rather an audacious pamphlet than a reasoned study. It makes fun of the contradictions in the teachings of various philosophers or schools of philosophy about God, the universe and the human soul. A general appreciation of the achievement of the second century apologists can no longer defend, without qualification, the thesis that their endeavours to make Christianity intelligible to the Hellenistic world played a decisive part in hellenizing the Church. The genuinely Christian content of apologetical literature is too unequivocal to support such a thesis, especially when we remember its purpose. In their efforts to appeal to pagans and Jews the apologists could not give a complete exposition of Christian theology. For this reason also they had to renounce any intention of describing in detail the Christian mysteries. Compared with the apostolic fathers, however, they show a considerable development in their teaching about God, in the christology of the Logos, in the doctrine of the Trinity, and in Christian anthropology. Great progress was made in biblical studies; a start was made at establishing a canon; the doctrine of inspiration began to be developed, and the Old Testament became the foundation of a christology based on the Bible. Finally, in the works of the apologists we get valuable information on the building up of the inner life of the Church in the second century, notably for instance in the liturgical parts of Justin, in the accounts of the relations between Church and State and of the missionary activity of the young Church. The question as to the success of the second century apologists is, of course, difficult to answer. They did not attain one of their objects, which was to place the Christian religion on the same footing as other cults and thus put an end to persecution by the State. But their works may well have increased the self-confidence of the Christians not a little; and the missionary and propagandist purpose which motivated the work of the apologists certainly played a considerable part in the expansion of Christianity before the end of the second century, especially in the East. 180 Chapter 15 The Dispute with Gnosticism If the literary polemic of paganism represented no great danger to the Christian community, there arose in so-called Christian Gnosticism an adversary which, from the first decades of the second century, constituted to an increasing degree a threat to her very existence. It was part of the manifestation of late classical religious syncretism which, based on oriental dualism, united Jewish religious ideas with certain elements of the Chris¬ tian revelation, albeit in a distorted form. Now, as a mighty current bent on sweeping all before it, it came flooding in from the East. Gnosticism had a great attraction for Hellenistic man; it made a real appeal to him, demanding that he make up his mind. Its impetus was derived ultimately from its claim to bring to religious-minded persons a valid interpretation of the world and of themselves — the claim made by Christianity itself. Its message was expressed in a copious literature, often of considerable stylistic beauty, and proclaimed by teachers and heads of philosophical schools with respected names. The power of Gnosticism to win recruits was supported by a liturgy which borrowed its forms from the mystery cults or from Christianity and which made skilful use of its symbolic content. The Gnostics carried on a well-planned propaganda, which employed sacred hymns as well as fascinating novels, and they strove to organize their newly-won adherents into a close-knit community. With a sure instinct, Gnosticism felt the Church to be a serious competitor, and it made a bold attempt to conquer her from within, to infiltrate into her congregations and to disrupt them by forming Gnostic cells inside them. The existence of ecclesiastically organized Christianity depended on whether the heads of the Christian congregations saw this danger and were able to sustain a defensive struggle that would tax all their energies. Until recently, the incompleteness of our sources prevented the writing of any satisfactory account of the basic teachings of Gnosticism and of its manifestations. Only a few works of Gnostic origin were known in the original, as, for instance, the Pistis Sophia , which is fairly late, and the Books of ]eu , containing alleged revelations of Christ to his disciples. The reason for this state of affairs is that after the victory of Christianity a large part of Gnostic literature — which, in the second century, must certainly have exceded Christian literature in quantity — was destroyed or else perished through lack of interest. To a great extent therefore the only available material was that contained in quotations and excerpts preserved in the works of Christian anti-Gnostics, especially in those of Irenaeus, Tertullian and Hippolytus, and to a lesser degree in the writings 181 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY of Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and the later authors, Epiphanius of Salamis and Filastrius of Brescia. But even anti-Gnostic literature survives only in part. Thus, what was perhaps the earliest work of this kind, Justin’s Against all Heresies , written at the time when Gnosticism was most flourishing, is now lost. 51 The anti-Gnostic literature of the Church was naturally polemical, deliberately picking out from Gnostic works that which it was most easy to attack; this selection therefore hardly permits us to form a complete picture of the whole realm of Gnostic ideas, for the Christian writers’ account of it could not be other than one-sided. A completely new situation with regard to source-material was brought about by the discovery in 1945-6 of the extensive library of a Gnostic community near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in the vicinity of the former Pachomian monastery of Chenoboskion. It contained in thirteen papyrus manuscripts more than forty hitherto unknown works in the Coptic language, mostly direct translations from the Greek. These translations belong to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century; the Greek originals were probably written in the second century. Many of the titles of the newly-found treatises at first led to the supposition that they were already known Christian apocrypha; but closer inspection revealed that their contents are quite new. For example, there are apocryphal gospels of Thomas and Philip, a “Gospel of the Egyptians” and a “Gospel of Truth”. There are Acts of the apostles Peter and Matthias. Apocalyptic literature is particularly well represented by apocalypses of Peter, Paul, John, James (three), Dositheos, and Seth (Sem). As in many of the manuscripts the prophet Seth plays a central role, we may assume that the library of Nag Hammadi belonged to the Sethian sect, which is often mentioned by early Christian writers. There are, moreover, works of Hermes Trismegistos, doctrinal works by Gnostic leaders such as Silvanos and Eugnostes; others claim to be an “Ex¬ planation of Gnosis” or an account of the nature of the archons. 52 Up till now only a fraction of the newly discovered manuscripts is available in the original language or in translations; 53 only the publication of all the texts will make possible an account of Gnosticism that will be accurate in detail. 51 Justin refers to this work in Apol. 1, 26. 52 Cf. the general account in J. Doresse, Les livres secrets des gnostiques d'Egypte (Paris 1958), 165 ff. and W. C. van Unnik Evangelium aus dem Nilsand (Frankfurt a. M. 1960), 26 ff., Eng. tr. Newly Discovered Gnostic Writings (London 1960). 88 To the texts named above in the Sources may be added: “Abhandlung iiber den Ursprung der Welt” in Museon 72 (1959), 349-52; “Traktat iiber die drci Naturen” in ThLZ 84 (1959), 243-56. 182 Basic Ideas of Gnosticism On first acquaintance, Gnostic writings convey an overall impression of a confusing mass of ideas and questions, often expressed in strange forms. When examined, however, they reveal a basic theme which recurs in all the variations of Gnostic opinion and can be reduced to one question and the attempt to answer it. The question is: How can man find the true knowledge which will explain the riddle of the world and the evil therein, as well as the riddle of human existence? The Gnostic, Theodotos, gave a rough definition of gnosis. Knowledge (Gnosis) of the answers to the following questions gives freedom: “Who were we? What have we become? Where were we? Whither have we been cast? Whither do we hasten? From what will we become free? What is birth? What is rebirth?” 54 In the answers to these questions the same basic ideas recur: man’s inmost being longs for union with the true, perfect, but unknown God. Man, however, by a peculiar destiny has been banished to this imperfect world, which is not the creation of the supreme God, but can only be the work of a lesser, imperfect being, who rules it with the help of evil powers. Man can be free of their domination only if he rightly knows himself and is aware that he is separated from the perfect God. Only this knowledge makes possible his return to the upper world of light where the true God dwells. This basic theme of Gnosticism, giving mankind an interpretation of the universe and of being, cannot in the present state of research be ascribed to any single, clearly comprehensible and generally recognized source. Rather are its elements derived from different religious movements which are known to have existed during the syncretic period in the Near East and the eastern Mediterranean area. These elements were connected with one another in a variety of ways, so that Gnosticism continually appears under different aspects according to the regions to which it spread and the formulations of its leading representatives. The observer is not con¬ fronted with any compact system of clearly defined concepts or dogmatic teachings, but with a multicoloured stream of religious ideas and opinions, which can look different from different points along its banks. Never¬ theless, certain currents are discernible which show from which tributaries the river as a whole was formed. First of all, there already existed a certain substratum of Gnostic ideas independent of any contact with Christianity. 55 Among these was a strongly marked dualism, which made an absolute opposition between light and darkness, between good and evil. The home of this dualism is to be found in ancient Iran. When these Iranian ideas met the Genesis account of Creation, this was interpreted in a Gnostic sense. The Creator God of 54 Excerpta ex Tbodoto 78, on which see W. C. van Unnik, op. cit. 33. 65 Compare J. Doresse, op. cit. 332. 183 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY the Old Testament became the Demiurge who did not know the light. Another source whose waters flowed into the Gnostic stream was astrological learning. Since the time of Alexander the Great, astrology had spread through the Hellenistic world from its Babylonian place of origin and had had a far-reaching effect with its doctrine of the influence of the planets on the destinies of man and the world. If such concepts were already widespread in Hellenistic times, it was in the Gnostic movement that they acquired a special force, as we can see from the speculations about the constellations, about the Pole star as the beginning of the kingdom of light, and about the spheres of the seven evil planets or archons. The new discoveries at Chenoboskion stress the fact that Egypt was a fruitful soil for the growth of Gnostic ideas. It is true that the influence of Egyptian religion needs to be more closely studied, but the hermetic writings in the library at Nag Hammadi certainly point to an undeniable connexion between Egyptian Hermetism and Gnosis. Even though in these writings a demiurge plays no part in the creation of the world and the bizarre figures of the demons are lacking, the opposition which they proclaim between light and darkness, the encounter of a higher being with matter, the liberation of man who is tied to matter and his ascent to God once he is free — all this is part of Gnostic thought, only here the biblical and Christian elements are absent. The relationship between Judaism and Gnosis constitutes a difficult problem. 56 It is generally admitted that the world of the Old Testament played a significant part in Gnostic literature. The latter is, besides, full of images and ideas such as were current in Jewish apocalyptic works. Biblical influence is particularly strong (even though the Gnostics disagreed with the Bible) in the Gnostic account of Creation. It seems not impossible that late Jewish sectarianism exercised a mediatory function between Iranian and Hellenistic religious currents on the one side and the Gnostic movement on the other, since it can be proved that there were Jewish heretics who were prepared to accept dualistic ideas. One feels compelled to ask if there were not here and there connecting links between Essenes and Gnostics. The Qumran community imposed, like the Gnostics, a strict commandment of absolute secrecy regarding certain parts of its doctrine; the Book of Discipline further teaches that God, when he created man, appointed two spirits to govern him, the spirit of truth and the spirit of wickedness, which could make a man into a son of light or a son of darkness — a fundamentally dualistic conception which is strongly 56 G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York 1943); J. Maier, “Das Gef’ahrdungsmotiv bei der Himmelreise in der Jiidischen Apokalyptik und "Gnosis*” in Kairos 5 (1963), 18-40; see also the works of H. J. Schoeps. 184 THE DISPUTE WITH GNOSTICISM reminiscent of similar ideas in Gnosticism. It has also been suggested that remnants of the Qumran community survived in Gnostic circles. 57 Lastly there were the religiously-tinged philosophical currents of Hellenism, which undeniably found expression in syncretic Gnosticism. Certain themes of Gnostic theology are already foreshadowed in the Platonic doctrine of the fall of the soul and its attachment to the matter of the body. Stoicism too contributed its share to Gnostic thought. The Gnostic writings of Chenoboskion eagerly take up the allegorical inter¬ pretations of Homer and Hesiod which Hellenism had developed. Probably, however, the borrowings of Gnosticism from Hellenistic philosophy were in its terminology rather than in its ideas. When syncretism was at the peak of its development, Christianity entered the Hellenistic world from its Palestinian birthplace and, in the syncretic climate of the time, it became the object of growing interest. Many men of that age could not but listen when a new redemption was promised to them through a person who was also the bringer of hitherto unknown revelations. Moreover, the new tidings of salvation came accompanied by a corresponding form of worship whose mysterious rites were alleged to ensure salvation. Such a message and such a cult offered many points of contact through which a connexion with the prevailing religious syncretism might be attempted. Even, though the process of adopting Christian elements is no longer possible to follow in detail, nevertheless the figure of Christ had soon be¬ come a part of Gnostic thought, and many who followed syncretic tenden¬ cies were soon claiming to be Christians. About the year 160 Justin mentions men of his time who called themselves Christians, acknowledging Jesus as Lord, but who saw in the Creator of the world only an evil god; there were already several groups of such Christians, who were named after their leaders Valentinians, Marcionites, or Basilidians. 58 A little later Celsus refers to Christian communities known to him as Valentinians and Gnostics. 59 Both Justin and later Origen emphasize, however, that such groups did not represent true Christianity and did not belong to the Church. The syncretic character of such sects is even more clearly shown in Irenaeus’ account of a certain Marcellina, who came to Rome in the time of Bishop Anicetus and tried with some success to make converts to her ideas. Her adherents called themselves Gnostics. Among the images of the religious leaders whom they revered was to be found, beside those of Pythagoras and Plato, that of Christ, which supposedly came from Pilate. 60 57 Cf. J. Doresse, op. cit. 326 f. and R. M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity (London-New York 1959). 68 Justin, Dial. 35, 1-6. 59 Origen, Contra Celsum 5, 61. 60 Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 1, 25, 6. 185 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY The leaders of such Gnostic communities appealed in support of their teachings to apostolic tradition or to the words of Christ himself; Ptole- maeos, for instance, a pupil of Valentinus, in his Letter to Flora . 61 Others incorporated in their systems Christian ideas in a distorted form, as for example the Valentinians when they stressed the need for redemption, without which no man could reach the pleroma or “fulfilment”; the baptism of Jesus effected the remission of sins, but only redemption by Christ, who had descended into him, brought perfection. One became a partaker of this redemption by a mysterious rite and certain formulas to be recited during its performance. Thus the redeemed was to say: “ I am confirmed and redeemed; I redeem my soul from this aeon and from all that derives from it, in the name of Jao, who redeemed this soul in Christ, the Living One.” 62 Besides echoes of New Testament phraseology, what is here chiefly remarkable is the splitting of the person of the redeemer into an earthly Jesus and a heavenly Christ in a way quite unacceptable to the Christian Church. Although Christian writers give no precise information on the subject, it may be presumed that the teachers and proselytizers of Gnosis found some of their adherents among the members of the Church, who often lacked the critical power to recognize at once the heterodox character of such opinions. Two factors may have contributed to the success of Gnostic propaganda. First there was the stress laid on ecclesiastical tradition, on which the doctrine of the “true Gnosis” and the salvation to be attained through it alone was supposed to be based; this tradition, because of its exalted nature, could be transmitted only in secret and was clothed in parables that could be explained only to those who were capable of understanding them. 63 Was not this what the gospel of Mark said (4:33-34): “And with many such parables he spoke to them the word, according as they were able to hear. And without parables he did not speak to them: but apart, he explained all things to his disciples”? From this secret source came the abundance of Gnostic scriptures, which invoked now this apostle or disciple, now that, as the specially chosen messenger of revelation. The very fact that the contents of these revelations were so wrapped in mystery was bound to make them interesting to many Christians, particularly when their attention was directed to them by veiled allusions. Moreover, the success of the Gnostics in winning ad¬ herents was founded upon the thesis that they, as Christians of a higher rank, “spiritual men” (7rveu[xaTtxof), alone possessed the true interpretation of cosmic events and were thus the only ones capable of attaining to 91 Ptolemy, Ep. ad Flor. 7, 8-9. 9i Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 1, 33, 3-7. « Ibid. 1, 3, 1. 186 THE DISPUTE WITH GNOSTICISM perfect knowledge of God. He who, like the great mass of Christians, tried to work out his salvation merely by faith and good works, remained for ever on a lower level, a lesser Christian or, “psychic”. 64 It was unavoidable that a far-reaching conflict should arise between the prophets of such a distorted form of Christianity and the leaders of the Church, if the latter did not wish the substance of their faith to be dissolved. The Principal Manifestations of Gnosticism Though the different currents in Gnosticism show a certain basis of opinions held in common, they also show equally clearly how much room there was in the movement as a whole for variations and even contradictions. The Syrian group belongs to the early phase of Gnosticism and it formed around Menander and Satornil (called Saturninus by Irenaeus) with its centre at Antioch. Menander, a Samaritan by origin, is said to have proclaimed himself as the Redeemer, who had been sent into this world by the invisible powers. The author of the Philosopboumena gives more details about the teachings of Satornil. The unknown supreme Father created the angels, powers and aeons of the upper world; the lower, earthly world, however, was the work of seven lower spirits, the highest of whom was identified with the God of the Jews, the Creator of Genesis. To them, man owed his wretched existence, since they had not been able to create him in the image of the Supreme Being. But the Power from above had sent him also a spark of life, which after his death would enable him to return to those higher beings whom he could claim as his kindred. 65 Satornil is said to have been the first Gnostic to mention Jesus; but he was also regarded as a pupil of Simon Magus, in whom Christian apologists saw the actual founder of Gnosis. The Basilidian school owed its origin to the Syrian Basilides. It ushered in the golden age of Gnosticism and attained great influence, especially at Alexandria, but it also had adherents at Rome. Basilides was very active as an author and, among other works, wrote a commentary on the Gospels in twenty-four books, besides hymns and prayers. A Christian, Agrippa Castor, is said to have attempted a refutation of Basilides in a lost work, Elenchos. This Gnostic addressed himself to the Christians with the claim that he was the recipient of secret doctrines which the Redeemer had entrusted to the apostle Matthias in special conversations before his ascension. 66 He was familiar with Persian dualism and taught an elaborate 84 Ibid 1, 6, 1-2. 65 Philosopboumena 7, 28. 8 ® J. Doresse, op. cit. 21. 187 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY doctrine of emanation; according to him innumerable angels inhabited the four heavens and their 365 firmaments. Christ was sent into the world by his unbegotten Father to save from the power of the archons those who believed in him; it was only apparently that he took a human form, and Simon of Cyrene died on the cross in his stead. The Egyptian Valentinus was evidently Gnosticism’s most gifted exponent. In the form in which he preached it, with lofty religious and poetic enthusiasm, it became the most dangerous threat to genuine Christianity. He began to teach at Alexandria about the year 135 and then propagated his opinions in Rome for nearly thirty years. There he seems to have played a leading part in the Christian community, but after a quarrel with the Roman Christians he returned to the East. His teachings were spread by means of letters, hymns, and sermons, and a Treatise on the Three Natures is also attributed to him. Irenaeus mentions a Gospel of Truth which was said to have been written by Valentinus, and among the finds at Nag Hammadi is a work of this title, the contents of which do not contradict what we know of Valentinus’ doctrines. Many of these can be gleaned from writings or fragments of works by his pupils, for example Ptolemaeos, who in his Letter to Flora is a moderate propagandist for the Gnostic religion; or Heracleon, who had a predilection for the Gospel of John and wrote commentaries on it which Origen was later to discuss. Perhaps another work of Heracleon survives among the manuscripts at Chenohoskion. Valentinus’ Christian opponents reproached him with having borrowed his wisdom largely from Pythagoras and Plato; they rightly saw that the Gnostic’s ideas were similar to those of these philosophers. He also, how¬ ever, frequently follows Pauline lines of thought and employs words of Christ, interpreted in a Gnostic sense, and this gives his teaching a biblical colouring that may have made it seem familiar to many Christians. The basis of his doctrine of the universe is the common Gnostic myth of the invisible Father, from whom the “syzygies” of the emanations proceed, of which the thirty highest aeons form the pleroma. This is the upper spiritual world, wherein all earthly events have their origin, and to return to which is the longing of imperfect creation. 67 The latter is the work of the Demiurge, who created man and breathed into him the psychic or “natural” element which binds him to matter. Unknown to the Demiurge, however, man also received a pneumatic or “spiritual” element; if this has been awakened and formed by the true Gnosis which the Redeemer brought to earth, the spiritual part of man will be saved at the end of the world and can be again united with the light. In order to make possible the ascent of the lower world towards the light, Jesus became man, and 67 H. Leisegang, Die Gnosis (Stuttgart, 4th ed. 1955), 297. 188 THE DISPUTE WITH GNOSTICISM upon him at his baptism the Spirit descended. For the passage to the light, which led the soul through the realm of the hostile powers, the dying Gnostic was, among the Valentinians, prepared by anointings and secret formulas, in which he said to the angels of the Demiurge that he possessed the true knowledge (gnosis) about himself and whence he came, so that they could not harm him. 68 On the fringe of these main Gnostic schools, there existed also various sectarian groups representing a highly popularized Gnosticism in which now this, now that particular doctrine often blossomed forth in the most luxuriant forms. Among such sects, anti-Gnostic literature mentions in particular the Barbelo-Gnostics, the Ophites, Naassenes, and Sethians. The first of these took their name from Barbelo, a female emanation of the Father who had the functions of the Logos. In their dualistic interpretation of the universe they employed the Old Testament, allegorically explained; the Apocryphon Johannis belongs to this sect, whose adherents were mainly in Egypt and Syria. 69 In the mythology of the widespread sect of the Ophites 70 a special place was given to the serpent, a religious and cosmic symbol in various pagan cults; it represented the son of Jaldaboath, the creator of the heavens and of the angels and demons, who had rebelled against the supreme Father and God. The first human couple was cast out of Paradise by Jaldabaoth, but the serpent too was banished to earth and there he sowed discontent among men and sought, with his six sons, to prevent their return to the supreme Father. But one of the highest aeons, Christ, came into the world in the man Jesus, through whom he proclaimed the truth to mankind. Since his resurrection, the elect had been initiated by Jesus into the mysteries and thus could escape the domination of the Demiurge. Not all Ophite groups regarded the serpent as evil; to some he was neutral, to others the symbol of saving knowledge. The Naassenes probably represented a large sub-group among the Ophites, who, according to Hippolytus, considered themselves to be the true Gnostics and found confirmation of their opinions in all religions. 71 The sect of the Sethians, both by its use of the serpent-symbol and its borrowings from Greek mythology, closely resembled the Ophites and Naassenes. The author of the Philosophoumena, in describing their teachings, mentions a holy book of this sect called the Paraphrase of Seth . In its myth of creation, there are not two but three principles in the universe: light, darkness, and between the two, a pure pneuma resembling the per- 68 Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 1, 21, 5. 69 Cf. L. Cerfaux, “Barbelo-Gnostiker” in RAC I, 1176-80. 70 Cf. E. Amman, “Ophites” in DThC XI, 1063-75; G. Kretzschmer, “Ophiten und Naassencr” in RGG, 3rd ed. IV, 1659. 71 Philosophoumena 5, 6. 189 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY fume of balsam. These three forces are reflected in many forms throughout the cosmos, especially in the symbol of the womb, which through the co-operation of light, darkness, and pneuma gives birth to man. The perfect Logos also had to enter into the womb of a virgin; but he was able to cleanse himself and drink the cup of living water, without which no man can find salvation. In one of the manuscripts of Nag Hammadi, entitled Paraphrase of Sem y we find the same doctrine of the three prin¬ ciples of the universe (light, darkness, and pneuma) y so that there is hardly any doubt that it is a Coptic version of the work mentioned in the Philosophoumena . 72 The myth of the triad of world principles is thus a characteristic of the Sethian sect. As other manuscripts in the library of Chenoboskion refer to the prophet Sem or Seth or claim to have been written by him, it may be presumed that the whole collection belonged to a Sethian community, and that further knowledge about the doctrines of the sect may be expected from it. Even now, a preliminary inspection of its contents shows that its ideas were often clothed in a mantle of Christianity, 73 so that the Sethians can undoubtedly be regarded as representatives of a Christian form of Gnosticism. Marcion Even if Marcion cannot be called a Gnostic in the full sense, he never¬ theless adopted so much of Gnostic thought in his teaching that he may not unjustly be included here as representing a Christian Gnosticism of his own. The facts of his life show us a man of strong will, energy, and initiative combined with organizing ability. A well-to-do native of Asia Minor (he owned a shipping business at Sinope in Paphlagonia), he came into conflict while still quite young with the leaders of the local Christian community, probably because of differences of opinion about the inter¬ pretation of Pauline doctrines. His exclusion from the congregation in his own city was followed by his rejection on the part of leading Asiatic Christians such as Papias and Polycarp of Smyrna. About the year 140 Marcion came to Rome, where he joined the Christian congregation, which he supported with generous financial contributions. His connexion with the Syrian Gnostic Cerdon, who also lived in Rome, no doubt made him more closely acquainted with Gnostic ideas, from which he took especially his doctrine about the Old Testament Creator. The latter was not for Marcion the true God, the Father of 72 J. Doresse, op. cit. 171 ff. 72 Ibid. 215-37, 237-56. 190 THE DISPUTE WITH GNOSTICISM Jesus Christ, but only the strict and just God who in the Mosaic Law laid upon the Jewish people an unbearable yoke. In Rome too, Marcion’s peculiar opinions met with no recognition, and in the autumn of 144 he left the Christian Church, albeit unwillingly. He at once began with skill and energy to win over adherents, to whom he gave a close-knit organization. Everywhere there arose, alongside the Christian congregations, Marcionite associations, governed by bishops who in turn were assisted by presbyters. As their liturgy continued to follow closely the usage of the Catholic Church, 74 the change-over to Marcion’s church was for many Christians not too difficult; and the initial success of the Marcionites, which was evidently considerable, was no doubt largely due to the influx from Christian circles. The strict organization of his establishment distinguished Marcion’s community from the other Gnostic groups and gave it a special impetus which made it a serious danger to the Church. She soon recognized this threat, and the majority of ecclesiastical writers from Justin to Tertullian felt obliged to take up the pen against Marcion and his doctrines. Only when their irreconcilability with apostolic tradition was convincingly proved could their attraction for orthodox Christians be neutralized. Marcion’s teaching was based upon a clearly defined canon of scripture, from which the whole of the Old Testament was a priori excluded, for therein spoke the God of justice, the creator of the universe, the Demiurge, who was a stranger to goodness and love. The good God revealed himself only when he sent Christ as the Redeemer, who brought to tormented mankind the Gospel of the love of God. Paul was the only apostle who accepted this Gospel without falsifying it. It found expression in his epistles and in the Gospel of Luke, though even these writings had been corrupted by interpolations due to the apostles who adhered to the Old Testament God. Therefore everything had to be removed from them which sought to introduce into the revelation of Christ the justice and legalism of the Old Testament. Marcion wrote a commentary on these purified scriptures, the Antitheses, preserved only in a few fragments, which was primarily concerned with explaining his fundamental thesis, the contrast between the Old and the New Testament. Marcion’s thesis, with its dualistic approach, was a direct attack on the Christian concept of God, which did not permit of a division between a strict, merely just Creator and a God of love unknown till the coming of Christ. This doctrine alone might have caused the Christian writers to include Marcion among the Gnostic teachers. But his christology also justified them in doing so; it was less its modalistic colouring than its 74 Tertullian, Adv. Marc. 3, 22. Even Augustine, De Bapt. contra Donatistas 7, 14, 31, recognizes the validity of Marcionite baptism. 191 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY Docetism which provoked their opposition. For Marcion, the idea that the Redeemer Christ sent by the good God should have chosen impure human flesh to be the bearer of the Deity was impossible; a real human birth would have subjected Christ to the dominion of the Demiurge. The Christian adversaries of Marcion, who pointed out that the latter’s doctrine of the apparent birth of Christ led to the conclusion that his death on the cross was also apparent and that therefore the redemption was ineffective, were difficult to refute, even though Marcion tried to maintain the reality of the crucifixion. The fact that his pupil Apelles corrected him on this very point clearly shows the weakness of the Marcionite doctrine compared with that of the Catholic Church. In the eyes of his opponents Marcion was finally placed in the Gnostic camp by his rejection of marriage, which, in consequence of his view of the body as a part of evil matter, he forbade to all baptized persons. Marcion’s theology was indeed free from the bizarre speculations of Gnosticism about the emanations of the pleroma, free from astrological beliefs, from fantastic cosmogony and from the overestimation of pure gnosis as opposed to faith with its consequent gradation of Christians into "pneumatic” and "psychic”. The Gnostic ideas which he adopted were enough, however, to make him suspect in the eyes of the Church and to make his teaching seem in an increasing degree a grave danger to essential features of the Christian faith. That the Church opposed him and his sect with more determination and energy than she did many other Gnostic groups was due to his disturbing success, to which the gravity of his ascetic demands and, perhaps most of all, his strong personality contributed. Like no other figure in the Gnostic world, Marcion compelled the Church to consider and to reconsider her own attitude to Scripture and criteria of faith, to overhaul her organization and to deploy her whole inner strength in face of such a menace. The Church’s Self-Defence and the Importance of the Christian Victory The Church’s campaign against the threat to her existence caused by the manifold attractions of Gnosticism was waged in two ways, each supplementing and supporting the other. First, the leaders of individual congregations immediately took practical steps against those Gnostics who endeavoured to infiltrate into them, or who, having previously belonged to the congregation, sought from within to win over its members to their new faith. Secondly there were the theological writers of the time, who attacked the Gnostic movement on the literary plane, demon¬ strating the irreconcilability of its doctrine with Christian revelation and 192 THE DISPUTE WITH GNOSTICISM opposing its main theses with the corresponding truths of Christianity, now more precisely formulated as the result of profound study and development. The defensive struggle at the pastoral level naturally left little evidence in the literary sources and it is therefore harder to reconstruct it in detail. The immediate object was bound to be the suppression of centres of infection within the congregations; that is, the exclusion of the bearers of Gnostic doctrine from the community and the prevention, for the future, of the formation of Gnostic cells in their midst. Only the excommunication of Marcion himself found much of an echo in early Christian literature, but it serves as an example for many similar occurrences that are not mentioned. Probably it was already his Gnostic convictions at their earliest stage, which led to his expulsion from the Christian congregation of his home town, Sinope. Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna also cast him out; in Rome likewise the leaders of the church came to recognize that the exclusion of such a wealthy and influential man was the only means of protecting the Christians from the errors which he preached. 75 Similar measures were no doubt taken in all places where the danger of the formation of Gnostic cells within Christian congregations was seen. The complaint of many Gnostics that the Catholics would have nothing to do with them and called them heretics, although they held the same doctrines, implies such defensive action on the part of the senior clergy. Other Gnostics voluntarily separated themselves from the Christian congregations when they found themselves isolated and unable to carry on their activities; such isolation was itself due to the initiative of the Church authorities or to the congregations’ own efforts. Valentinus seems to have been late in breaking with the Church, but he had been repeatedly reprimanded in the congregations to which he had belonged. The eradication of Gnostic cells was accompanied by sermons explaining the insidious nature of false doctrines, and Christians were warned by their pastors of the danger to the true faith. Irenaeus gives excerpts from the sermons of an Asiatic priest which he had himself heard; 76 they are entirely affirmative in tone and are concerned with expounding the orthodox Catholic teaching, but they unmistakably constitute a refutation of characteristic Marcionite doctrines, without any mention of Marcion by name. We are led to suppose that instruction and immunization against the Gnostic menace was the practice of most Christian leaders of the time. That this form of defence was not merely local is shown by the example 75 A. von Harnack, Marcion (Leipzig, 2nd ed. 1924), 24-27; for the documentary proofs, see ibid. 3*-5*, 15* f. 76 Adv. haer. 4, 27-31. 193 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY of Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth about the year 170. Eusebius devotes some informative lines to his pastoral activities. 77 Dionysius carried on a lively correspondence not only with the churches in Greece itself but even with Asia Minor and far-off Pontus, seeking to build up a broad defensive front against the heresies of the age. He urged the Christians of neighbouring Athens and the island of Crete to hold fast to the true doctrine and warned them against false teachings, just as he warned the congregations of Amastris and Nicomedia in Bithynia. The heresy of his time was primarily Gnosticism; indeed, his letter to Nicomedia expressly names Marcion, to whose errors he opposed the “Canon of Truth”. The special situation in which Christianity found itself placed with regard to Gnosticism made the bishops more fully aware of their duties as guardians of orthodoxy, and the increased activity of the heads of congregations which resulted made the faithful more conscious of the monarchical episcopate and of its significance for the future. Parallel to this activity of the bishops in combating Gnosticism ran that of the theological writers, to whom the rise and growth of the Gnostic movement acted as a powerful stimulus. An extensive body of literature from the Catholic side supported the Church authorities and provided a theological basis for the counter-attack. Most of this anti-Gnostic literature has perished, especially since the fourth century, when, because of the completely changed situation, there was no need to take any interest in the products of the second. A considerable part of these writings was still extant when Eusebius wrote, and he mentions a number of authors who were active in their production, but he evidently gives only a selection. Among them were Agrippa Castor, who opposed Basilides, Rhodon from Asia Minor who wrote against Marcion and his pupil Apelles, and Modestus, whose refutation of Marcion was specially praised by Eusebius. 78 Bishops who wrote anti-Gnostic works include Melito of Sardes, Philip of Gortyna in Crete and Theophilos of Athens, all of whom were concerned with refuting Marcion; this shows how much importance was attached to the man and his work. He was also the object of attacks by Justin Martyr and several other theologians whom Eusebius does not name. 79 Certain apocryphal writings on the Catholic side, such as the Acta Pauli 80 and the Epistula Apostolorum 81 were also of anti-Gnostic tendency and were intended as the orthodox counterpart to similar literature of 77 Euseb. HE, 4, 23, 2-6. 78 Ibid. 4, 25. 79 Ibid. 80 Cf. C. Schmidt, Acta Pauli (Leipzig, 2nd ed. 1905); npa£et<; IlauXoo (Hamburg 1936). 81 C. Schmidt, Gesprache Jesu (Leipzig, 1919); H. Duensing in Hennecke-Schnee- melcher, I, 126-55. 194 THE DISPUTE WITH GNOSTICISM Gnostic provenance. Hegesippus, who was of oriental origin, wrote his Memorials (of which some fragments are extant) against the Gnostics; soon after the middle of the second century, seeking instruction in the true doctrine in view of the widespread success of Gnosticism, he came to Rome. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, in his “Unmasking and Refutation of the False Gnosis”, gives an analysis of Gnosticism based on his own reading of Gnostic writings, which is of outstanding merit. Another work which he planned to write against Marcion seems not to have been carried out. To his account of Gnostic systems Irenaeus added a refutation of their errors. He opposed them, using his own exact knowledge of Scripture and tradition, with the true doctrine of the Church. The author’s interest in his subject and the soundness of his work make us forget any stylistic failings; his achievement was not surpassed by any of the anti- Gnostic writers who succeeded him. Of equal merit is the author of the Philosophoumena or Refutatio, which is generally ascribed (though not with absolute certainty) to the priest Hippolytus, who came from the East and was active in Rome at the beginning of the third century. 82 His work presupposes a knowledge of Irenaeus; but he brought a new point of view into the discussion, inasmuch as he sought to show that the opinions of the Gnostics were not taken from Holy Scripture but from the works of the Greek philosophers, from the mysteries, from writers on astrology and magic — in fact, from non-Christian sources. Hippolytus’ account of the catholic attitude is concise and jejune compared with that of Irenaeus and gives little information about the nature of the Church’s campaign against Gnosticism. In this respect his work resembles the Syntagma , 83 a review of the heresies that had arisen down to the author’s time. The original is lost, but it can be reconstructed from the writings of later users. More important are the works of the only Latin writer who engaged in the controversy with Gnosticism, Tertullian of Carthage, who, however, did not write until the third century. The two short treatises, De came Christi and De resurrectione carnis prove positively from Scripture that two of the Gnostics’ theses were untenable: their doctrine of Christ’s “apparent” body and their rejection of the resurrection of the body. Three other writings were directed against particular Gnostics: Hermogenes, the Valentinians, and Marcion. To the last work, consisting of five books, Tertullian devoted special care; it gives a detailed account of the principal 82 Ed. by P. Wendland, GCS 26 (Berlin 1916). For discussion of the authorship, see P. Nautin, Hippolyte et Josipe (Paris 1947); idem in RHE 47 (1952), 5-43; RSR 41 (1954), 226-57 (against Hippolytus); G. Bardy and M. Richard in MSR 1948, 1950-1, 1953 are in favour of Hippolytus. Further bibliography in Altaner 185. 63 P. Nautin, Hippolyte , Contre les heresies (Paris 1949). 195 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY Marcionite doctrines followed by a skilful refutation based on reason and the Bible. In De praescriptione haereticorum SA he explains the meaning and value of apostolic tradition as opposed to the claim of the heretics, especially the Gnostics, to possess the true doctrine of Christ. The language he uses is that of the Roman law courts. On the basis of this surviving anti-Gnostic literature we are able to give some account of the character and quality of the theological struggle against Gnosticism, at least in its main features. In general one may say that the Church’s theologians thought out anew and established on a firmer foundation those points of Christian revelation which were particularly attacked and threatened by Gnostic teachings. The claim of the heretics to be the sole possessors of the revelation imparted by Christ to his apostles meant nothing less than a depreciation of the Christian scriptures, which dated from apostolic times, and of the other, extra-biblical apostolic traditions; furthermore it implied a rejection of the Christian bishops’ claim to be the only lawful witnesses to that body of tradition. If this Gnostic thesis were correct, then the whole foundation crumbled on which the inner cohesion of the Church had hitherto rested. The Christian theologians set to work to prevent the threatened collapse by bringing into the foreground the concepts of apostolic tradition and succession , and by deciding and confirming what constituted the Christian scriptures. A starting-point for the establishment of a canon of New Testament scriptures was already given in the books of the Old Testament, recognized as sacred; these served as a model and an encouragement to accord rank and respect to books from the period of the primitive Church. Even though we can no longer clearly discern the beginnings of this development, it is evident that two originally separate collections, the four Gospels and the Pauline epistles, gradually came closer together, although the latter were not yet accorded parity of esteem with the Gospels. According to Melito of Sardes, in the years 170-80, books of the New Testament were placed on the same level as those of the Old. No doubt the example of Marcion, who declared a clearly defined canon of New Testament writings to be necessary, hastened a development already begun in the Church. She did not however copy Marcion, but, in sharp contrast to him, accepted the Old Testament as sacred scriptures — the Christian understanding of them being made easier by developing allegorical interpretation — and then incorporated in her New Testament canon other books rejected by Marcion, notably the Acts of the Apostles and the Apocalypse. In the controversy with Gnosticism this canon became widely accepted, and in the “Muratorian 84 The works mentioned are in CSEL 47 (1906) and 70 (1942); reprinted in CCbr 1-2 (1952-3). 196 THE DISPUTE WITH GNOSTICISM Fragment”, a list (made by the Roman congregation or one closely at¬ tached to it) of the New Testament books held to be canononical, it is already approaching its final form before the end of the second century. 85 In deciding which individual writings were to be included, the Church had to be able to invoke an undisputed, objective principle. This was to be found in ecclesiastical tradition . 8fl Only those books could be recognized as canonical which went back to apostolic times and had from an early date been particularly esteemed in the traditions of the whole Christian community. The only guarantors of the genuineness of such traditions were those leaders of congregations who could trace their unbroken succession back to the apostles. The positive effect of this principle of apostolic succession was to assure the place of tradition as an essential element of the Church’s faith and theology. Its negative effect was to strip the Gnostic apocrypha and doctrinal works of their authority and cut them off from the Church, for in no case could they claim to be acknowledged by the witnesses and guardians of apostolic tradition. A second principle was employed by the Christian theologians in their war against error, that which Irenaeus calls the Canon of Truth , 87 given to the faithful at baptism. This seems to refer to the baptismal “symbol” or profession of faith, or at least to the summary of truths to which the catechumens had been introduced during their instruction before baptism. Whoever compared the teachings of the Gnostics with this norm or rule of faith could immediately see how they contradicted the true doctrine. The profession of faith at baptism had in fact about the middle of the second century been expanded in a christological sense 88 to affirm more emphatically the reality of the human birth and of the Passion and death of Christ. This was a blow at the Docetism of many Gnostic sects and a declaration of the historicity of our Lord’s miracles in the face of “spiritualist” attempts to explain them away. The same creed proclaimed the one God and Lord and Creator of the universe and thus rejected all Gnostic speculations about the origin of the cosmos as well as Marcion’s doctrine of two gods. The Christian conviction of the resurrection of the body contrasted with the Gnostics’ contempt for the body as part of matter, held by them to be radically evil. 85 Cf. Wikenhauser, New Testament Introduction (Freiburg-New York-London, 3rd ed. 1963), 20-40, and O. Cullmann, Tradition (Zurich 1954), 42-54. 86 J. Ranft, Der Ursprung des katholischen Traditionsbegriffes (Wurzburg 1931); H. von Campenhausen, Kirchliches Amt (Tubingen 1953), 163-94; A. Ehrhardt, The Apostolic Succession in the First Two Centuries of the Church (London 1953), and esp. H. E. W. Turner, The Pattern of Truth (London 1954), 241-58, 322-48. 87 Adv. hacr. 1, 9, 4; 1, 22, 1, on which see Turner, op. cit. 349ff. 88 The texts are in Denzinger nos. 1-12 and H. Lietzmann, KIT 17-18, (Berlin, 4th ed. 1935); see also Bibliography. 197 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY During the course of the conflict some individual theologians were moved to lay stress on certain truths of revelation which were endangered or distorted by Gnostic opinions. Thus Irenaeus made it his special concern, in the face of the dualistic misunderstanding of original sin, to expound the true doctrine of the Fall, and in oppostion to Gnostic self-redemption to emphasize the gratuitousness of the gift of grace. 89 The exaggeration by the Gnostics of the value of “knowledge” for redemption was later the occasion for Clement of Alexandria and Origen to consider more deeply the relationship between faith and knowledge and to acquire a Christian understanding and a true theological appreciation of Gnosis. 90 The Christian doctrines and principles brought into prominence by the opponents of the Gnostics do not of course contain any hitherto completely unknown elements of the faith. The Church could hardly have saved her independence, threatened as it was by the innovations of Gnostic pro¬ paganda, by combating them with novelties of her own. For the Church, the rise of the Gnostic heresy was nevertheless a very efficient stimulus to reconsider the truths she possessed, to formulate some of them more clearly and to emphasize them more decidedly. Marcionitism in particular hastened the process of the development of dogma and of the Church’s consciousness of her own identity, and thus it played its part in forming the character of the “Great Church” of the future. But it would be a distortion of historical reality to see in that Church merely an anti- Marcionite movement. Her inner riches exceeded the sum-total of the doctrines defended in the attack on Marcionitism; the very strength of the independence with which the young Church defeated Marcion and the other Gnostics reveals the extent of those riches. The decisive victory in the Church’s favour occurred before the end of the second century; within a few decades the poison had been ejected, and Gnosticism was thrown back upon itself. Marcion’s church, because of its strict organization, lasted longer; but the other Gnostic groups lost all cohesion and lapsed into sectarianism, even though their ideas exercised a certain power of attraction upon educated members of Christian con¬ gregations in the big cities down to the middle of the third century, as the works of the Alexandrines, of Hippolytus and Tertullian testify. After that time, anti-Gnostic polemic writings appeared only sporadically, and 89 Esp. Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 1 , 3, 4; 3, 18, 2; 3, 18, 7; 3, 23, 1; see E. Scharl, Recapitu- latio Mundi. Der Rekapitulationsbegriff des Irenaeus (Freiburg i. Br. 1941); A. Houssiau, La christologie de S. Irenee (Louvain 1955). 90 O. Casel, “Glaube und Gnosis” in JLW 15 (1951), 164-95; T. Camelot, Foi et gnose chez Clement d’Alexandrie (Paris 1945); J. Moingt, “La gnose de Clement d’Alexandrie dans ses rapports avec la foi et la philosophic” in RSR 37 (1950), 195-251, 398-421, 537-64, 38 (1951), 82-118; W. Volker, Der wahre Gnostiker nach Klemens von Alexandrien (Berlin 1952). 198 THE DISPUTE WITH GNOSTICISM their complete cessation in the fourth century proves that the once so powerful movement had become insignificant. The actual importance of this swift and permanent victory lies in the fact that the Church, faced by the Gnostic attack, preserved her special character as a supernatural community sharing the same faith and way of life and founded by Christ. Thus she escaped the danger of being swallowed up and of perishing in the sea of Hellenistic syncretism. Chapter 16 The Rise of Montanism and the Church's Defence The conflict with Gnosticism was not yet over when a new movement arose in the bosom of the Church which called itself the “New Prophecy”. Its opponents called it the “heresy of the Phrygians”, thus indicating the geographical area which saw its birth. Only in the fourth century was the term “Montanism” invented, when it was desired to emphasize the part played by Montanus in originating it. The name “New Prophecy” aptly describes the basic idea of this movement. It took up again that form of religious enthusiasm, so much esteemed in the primitive Church, which regarded certain individual believers as specially favoured messengers of the Spirit and as prophets who placed their gifts at the service of the community. False prophets, illusionaries and swindlers among them had indeed, here and there, brought discredit on prophecy and created mistrust of any new “bearers of the Spirit” that might arise. There had also been tension between those favoured by the Spirit and those who wielded ecclesiastical authority; but good relations had always been restored, for charismatic gifts and the authority of the clergy were not necessarily mutually exclusive. This time, however, it came to a clash between prophecy and authority, which led to the exclusion of adherents of the movement from the community of the Church. The development of the Montanist movement had an early phase, then a period when it underwent modification by Tertullian, and finally a stage of decline after the Church had defeated it. The early phase began about 170, when the recently baptized Montanus, in the village of Ardabau on the borders of Phrygia and Mysia, proclaimed to his fellow-Christians, with ecstatic behaviour and in strange, obscure language, that he was the mouthpiece and prophet of the Holy Spirit, who was now, through him, to lead the Church to all truth. At first this message was received with some doubts; but when two women, Priscilla and Maximilla, joined 199 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY Montanus and in a similar ecstatic manner uttered their prophecies, while Montanus himself promised his adherents a higher place in the approaching heavenly Jerusalem, 91 a wave of enthusiasm swept away all hesitation. No connexion can be proved between the old Phrygian cults and the New Prophecy, though the population of the interior of Asia Minor does seem to have had a certain tendency towards religious excesses. The initial success of the three prophets was considerable, although they confined themselves to oral propaganda and at first had no writer of consequence to proclaim their message to the world. For this very reason the prophecies of Montanus and his female companions were treasured by the followers of the movement, and they were soon collected and circulated. Only a few of these oracula are to be found in the works of anti-Montanist writers or of Tertullian, so that we have to rely largely on the accounts of opponents to find out what the New Prophecy consisted of. The most prominent feature of it was its eschatological message: the second coming of the Lord was at hand and with it the heavenly Jerusalem would be set up in the plain near the Phrygian town of Pepuza. In many parts of the empire men were not unprepared for this message, due to the grave tribulations which pestilence, war, and social distress under Marcus Aurelius had brought in their train. Hippolytus relates that a Syrian bishop had gone out at the head of his congregation to meet Christ, whom he intended to await in the desert, and that a bishop in Pontus had announced what had been revealed to him in a dream — that the last judgment would take place in a year’s time. There would be no need to believe the Scriptures any more (this bishop had added) if his prophecy were not fulfilled. 92 Probably the Montanist movement would have had little effect either in depth or in extent if it had confined itself to the proclamation of its eschatological message; when the prophesying ceased, a more sober frame of mind would, as in similar cases, have returned. But the prophets drew consequences from their alleged heavenly mandate which involved far-reaching interference with the existing practice of the Church and eventually forced the ecclesiastical authorities to condemn the whole movement. Fasting suggested itself as a means of spiritual preparation for the coming of Christ, for it had long been recognized as a form of inner sanctification, and the official fasts known as “stations” had also been instituted from eschatological motives. 93 Hitherto these fasts had been limited to two half-days in the week and recommended by the Church 91 Epiphanius, Haer. 48, 10; Tertullian, De exhort, cast. 10. 92 Hippolytus, In Daniel. 4, 18-19. 93 Cf. H. Kraft, “Die altchristliche Prophetie und die Entstehung des Montanismus*’ in ThZ 11 (1955), 258 ff. 200 THE RISE OF MONTANISM AND THE CHURCH’S DEFENCE to the faithful as a voluntary exercise. Montanus went beyond the previous practice when he made continual fasting a matter of precept for all Christians, since Christ’s return might be expected at any hour. When it did not take place, the fast was confined to the customary stational days but prolonged till the evening and two weeks of abstinence were added, during which only dried food was permitted. 94 The same eschatological attitude lay behind the second demand of the Montanist prophets, that which forbade the Christian who was waiting for his Lord to make any attempt at flight from martyrdom. Evasion would have meant a renewed attachment to this world, which was after all approaching its end. Earthly possessions, too, had no value any more, so it should not have been difficult for Montanists to give up their gold, silver, and other valuables to pay for the support of their preachers and prophets. The Montanists’ demand for the renunciation of marriage (as far as this was possible) was bound to have the most decisive effect. In their eyes it was marriage that most strongly attached men and women to this world. Both prophetesses set a good example by ceasing to live with their husbands; they evidently represented it as a duty that others should imitate this example and forbade marriages to take place in the brief span of time before the second coming of the Lord. Tertullian later amended this rule to prohibition of second marriages. Priscilla had a further reason for requiring total continence: it made one better able to see prophetic visions and to utter prophetic messages. 95 Montanism naturally showed most enthusiasm in its early phase. New communities in Lydia and Galatia soon added to its already numerous adherents in Phrygia. From the provinces of Asia Minor it passed to Syria (ever receptive to new ideas), where it was especially successful at Antioch; soon it appeared in Thrace also. The Gallic congregations of Lyons and Vienne heard about the Montanist movement surprisingly early, as appears from Eusebius, 96 who writes of a correspondence between those congregations and “brethren” in Asia and Phrygia in which it figures. Eleutheros, Bishop of Rome, was independently informed of the rise of the New Prophecy, but he clearly did not regard it as a serious danger, for he uttered no judgment upon it. Perhaps he was confirmed in this attitude by the Christians of Lyons, who sent their presbyter Irenaeus to Rome with a letter which likewise did not condemn the Phrygian move¬ ment. Pope Zephyrinus (199-217) also looked favourably upon it at first, for he sent its members letters of peace, which were the expression of 94 Tertull., De ieiun . 1, 2, 10. 95 Euseb. HE 5, 18, 3. 96 Ibid. 5, 3, 4. 201 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY fellowship within the Church. Tertullian ascribes the later change in Pope Zephyrinus’ attitude to Praxeas of Asia Minor, who had given him more detailed information, admittedly somewhat distorted, about the prophets and their churches. 97 The Roman bishops, then, were at first unaware of the danger which the New Prophecy represented to the existence of the ecclesiastical organization and of an ordered congregational life. The first setback to the further spread of the movement was the death of the three original bearers of the prophecy. Maximilla died in 179. It was she who had announced: “After me no other prophet will come, but there will be the consummation of all things.” 98 She had with these words enabled many followers to form a judgment upon the genuineness of her prophesying, and it could not be other than unfavourable. Perhaps the movement would have declined more rapidly — certainly the conflict with it would have taken a different form on the Church’s side — if a man of the stature of Tertullian had not joined it and, on the level of literary discussion at least, given it a new importance. We have no evidence as to when and how the African writer came into contact with the New Prophecy. From about the years 205-6 onwards his writings show not only that he knew its basic teaching and its demands on the faithful, but that he approved of them. Even in a man of the spiritual greatness of Tertullian one might have assumed there would be a period of inner struggle preceding the change from Catholic to fanatical Montanist, for his new faith involved a contrast, patent to all the world, with his previous convictions; he now scorned in unmeasured invective what he had once ardently defended and respected. What it was that appealed to him in the New Prophecy is not difficult to see when we read his Montanist writings. He found in it an attitude towards the Christian way of life which, in its pitiless severity to all that was mediocre, corresponded to his own rigoristic approach, but which could not in any way be connected with the Gnostic heresy or with the false doctrines of a man like Praxeas. What attracted him even more perhaps was that in the Montanist form of Christianity one could directly invoke the Holy Spirit in support of one’s opinions; before this highest court of appeal all others had to be silent — the martyrs, the episcopal Church, the Bishop of Rome himself. Tertullian was not, however, the man to accept the New Prophecy quite uncritically. He thought out afresh its doctrines and organization and modified it so much in detail that Tertullian’s Montanism is some¬ thing altogether different from that of the early days. The three great prophets of that first phase were for him no inviolable authority. He 97 Tertull., Adv. Praxean 1. * 8 Epiphan., Haer. 48, 2, 4. 202 THE RISE OF MONTANISM AND THE CHURCH^ DEFENCE possessed indeed a collection of their prophetic utterances, but he made sparing use of them and preferred to lend weight to his views by appealing to the Paraclete directly. Especially did he deny to women in the Montanist community, as conceived by him, a rank like that accorded to Priscilla and Maximilla. They were not to hold any priestly function, nor were they to be allowed to teach or to speak at divine worship, even if they possessed the gift of prophecy; their use of it, if so endowed, was to be confined to private utterances. 99 He also disavowed the more concrete prophecies referring to the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem — Pepuza he never mentions. One gets the impression that he wished to detach the New Prophecy from its connexion with the personalities of its early phase and its local associations with Asia Minor and to give it a universal character. His grand design, of which neither Montanus nor his female assistants were capable, is clear from the new basis in salvation history which Tertullian gave the movement. Its real mission consisted, according to him, in bringing Christianity and mankind in general to adult maturity through the working of the Paraclete. 100 Tertullian’s principal Montanist writings 101 repeat the rigoristic demands of the New Prophecy with undiminished severity and in passionate language. With a sophistry that sometimes borders on the acrobatic he defends the prohibition against flight in time of persecution, and represents one marriage only as a commandment of the Paraclete that admits of no exception (secundae nuptiae adulterium). 102 In like manner he proves the obligation to fast, which the “natural men” or “psychics”, whom he reviles in unmeasured terms, refused to accept. His attack on the Church’s practice in the matter of penance is of ruthless severity towards sinners and the fallen. It was his attitude on this question that made him into an opponent in principle of the episcopal Church and led him finally to break away from ecclesiastical authority based upon the apostolic succession. He soon had to give up his attempt to win over the Christian congregation in his home town of Carthage to the Montanist movement. It is remarkable that after Tertullian’s time the sources are at first completely silent about Montanism; in no work or letter of Cyprian is there even a remote echo of it. Evidently the exaggerated rigorism of its African advocate had been unable to gain any large body of adherents among the simple Christian folk of that region. Tertullian’s writings, however, undoubtedly found readers; their literary quality and the 88 TertulL, De virg. vel. 9. 100 Ibid., 1. 101 De fuga in persecutions, De monogamia, De ieiunio adversus psychicos, De pudicitia. 102 De monog. 15. 203 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY uniqueness of their contents would have ensured that. But there were only readers, not converts. Shortly before Augustine’s death a remnant of Tertullianists rejoined the Church in Africa and brought their basilica into Catholic possession. The defensive campaign of the ecclesiastical authorities against Montanism began, as we have said, slowly, because the latter’s opposition to the Christian way of life and to the tradition of the Church became apparent only on closer examination. Emphasis on fasting and readiness for martyrdom, as well as praise for high moral standards in marriage had always been staple themes of Christian preaching; even the renewal of esteem for the prophetic gifts of the early Church gave no cause for alarm. In the message of the New Prophecy there was, moreover, no connexion to be seen with the errors the Church had hitherto been fighting against. Only when it became clear that its genuinely Christian aims were distorted by an immoderate exaggeration of their real significance, and that they represented a falsification of Christian tradition, did defensive action become necessary. The bishops of Asia Minor must sooner or later have had to face the question, which is bound to arise in the case of every enthusiastic move¬ ment, whether the claims of the New Prophecy were not based upon an illusion. Some of them therefore tried to test the genuineness of these prophetic gifts, but they were repulsed by the Montanists. The bishops repeatedly took counsel together (the first example of such synods in the history of the Church) and came to the conclusion that it was not the Spirit of God which spoke through the new prophets. They were there¬ fore to be excluded from the fellowship of the Church together with their adherents. Even towards the middle of the third century a synod of bishops in Iconium was concerned with Montanism; splinter groups were to be found in Spain at the end of the fourth, in Rome at the beginning of the fifth, and in the East even as late as the ninth century. The victory of the Church over Montanism had consequences for her which brought her unique nature into greater prominence and determined her future development. By refusing to make the excessively ascetic programme of the Montanists a norm binding on all Christians, she escaped the danger of sinking to the level of an insignificant sect of enthusiasts and preserved herself for the task of bringing the message of Christ to all men and making it possible for that message to be effective in every cultural milieu. Moreover, by eliminating uncontrollable religious subjectivism as represented by the Phrygian prophets, with its claim to the sole leadership of the faithful, the Christian community was assured of objective guidance by the traditional office-holders whose calling was based on objective criteria. Finally by renouncing an eschatological hope which believed its fulfilment to be impending, it became possible for the Church to consider 204 THE RISE OF MONTANISM AND THE CHURCH’S DEFENCE with an objective eye her tasks for the present and the future and to embark upon them with confidence: these were her own inner strengthen¬ ing and her further missionary activity in the Hellenistic world. Chapter 17 The Expansion of Christianity down to the End of the Second Century The question of the Church’s expansion in the second century brings us back to Palestine again. The Jewish war of the first century had, for the time being, put an end to the missionary work of the Jerusalem congrega¬ tion and of the Christians dwelling in the countryside. Many of the Christians who had fled to Pella, east of the Jordan, probably did not go back to Palestine; those who returned were faced with the task of rebuilding community life in and outside Jerusalem, so that by the years 73-74 a new period of Palestinian Jewish Christianity had begun. Its centre was again at Jerusalem, where the congregation was presided over by Simeon until his martyrdom about the year 107. 103 Regarding the size of the congregation our sources make only vague statements; but a remark of Eusebius is noteworthy, according to which ‘Very many of the cir¬ cumcision had come to the faith in Christ” down to the time of Simeon’s death. 104 From this it is clear that the new community, like its predecessor, engaged in missionary activity; for Jews in large numbers had settled again in the city after the catastrophe of the seventies, but they now lacked a Temple as a centre for their religious life. Hegesippus states that at this time there were also Christians outside Jerusalem, especially in Galilee, and this information is confirmed by rabbinical sources. 105 The missionary efforts of the Christians certainly encountered enormous difficulties. First of all they had to deal with heterodox Jewish Christianity, which, partly at least, continued to assert that the Law was still binding on all Christians and recognized Jesus of Nazareth as a great prophet indeed, but not as the Messiah and Son of God; moreover, it had been permeated by Gnostic ideas, as formulated by Simon Magus, Dositheos, Menander and Kerinthos. 106 Samaria especially 103 Euseb. HE 3, 32, 1-3. 104 Ibid., 3, 35. 105 Ibid., 3, 20, 6; 3, 32, 6; cf. A. Schlatter, Die Geschicbte der ersten Christenheit (Giitersloh 1927), 363. 106 J. Daniclou, La theologie du judeo-christianisme (Paris 1958), 67-89, Eng. tr. The Theology of Jewish Christianity (London 1964). 205 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY was under the influence of Simon and Menander and offered little scope to the Christian mission. 107 The Christians met the most determined opposition from orthodox Palestinian Jewry, based as it was upon a profound hatred of the “apostates” who had renounced the Sabbath and proclaimed as Messiah him whom the Jews had nailed to the cross. 108 According to the evidence of Justin, 109 not only was this hatred deliberately fomented in the synagogues of Palestine, but it led to powerful missionary counter¬ activity; from Palestine the Jews sent forth “chosen men” who were to work against the spread of the Christian faith everywhere, especially in the main centres of the Jewish Diaspora. The denunciation of Bishop Simeon also came from anti-Christian circles in Palestine. He was denoun¬ ced before the proconsul Atticus as being a descendant of David and a Christian, and in the year 107 he was, according to the principle of Trajan’s later rescript, crucified after steadfastly professing the faith. 110 Accessions from paganism were probably not considerable in Palestine; the only convert from paganism who is mentioned is Aquila, the translator of the Bible, who, according to the late account of Epiphanios, joined the Church at Jerusalem, but because of his superstitious tendencies was subsequently excluded from the congregation. 111 As the Jewish war had brought to an end the original community, so did the rebellion of Bar Cochba in the years 132-5 conclude the second phase of Palestinian Christianity and with it the possibility of missionary work among the Jews of Palestine. Persecution by the leader of the rebellion caused the deaths of many Jewish Christians; 112 others again fled beyond the Jordan. As no person of Jewish race was allowed to live in the city of Aelia Capitolina, built on the site of Jerusalem, a Christian con¬ gregation could be recruited only from pagan converts. Its first bishop, Mar¬ cus, was therefore, as Eusebius states, a Greek; and all his successors down to the middle of the third century bore Greek or Roman names. 113 The Gentile-Christian congregation of Jerusalem played no remarkable role during the rest of the second century, at the end of which the bishopric of Aelia ranked below that of Caesarea. In the rest of Palestine too, the Christians were now mainly Greeks, dwelling almost exclusively in the towns. All attempts at christianizing the Jewish rural population failed 107 Justin, Dial. 120, 6; Apol. 26 56. 108 Euseb. HE 3, 27, 5. 109 Justin, Dial 133, 6; 137, 2; 17, 1; 108, 2. 110 Euseb. HE 3, 32, 3-6. 111 Epiph., De mensuris 14-15; Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 3, 21, 1, calls him a proselyte. 112 Justin, Apol. 31. 113 Euseb. HE 4, 6, 4. 206 THE EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY down to the time of Constantine, because of determined hostility towards everything Christian. 114 In neighbouring Syria the Christian churches dating from apostolic times maintained themselves or increased in importance. The Christians in Damascus, Sidon, and Tyre, likewise had increased in numbers during the course of the second century, while the Phoenician countryside remained largely pagan. In Antioch especially — its earliest important mission- centre — Christianity gained in consideration on account of its bishop, Ignatius, and acquired new converts from among the Greek-speaking population. The letter of Bishop Theophilos, written shortly after 180 to Autolykos, 115 is both apologetical and propagandist in tone and shows that missionary work was going on among the pagan upper class. In the second half of the second century new territory was opened up to Christianity in the east Syrian district of Osrhoene, when the Jewish Christian Addai began to work in Edessa and its immediate neighbourhood. His labours were continued by the future martyr Aggai and the leaders of the Edessan congregation, Hystaspes and Aggai, the latter of whom had to excommunicate Bardesanes (converted to Christianity in 179) on account of his Gnostic errors. The existence of Christians between Nisibis and the Euphrates in the second half of the second century is suggested by the Aberkios inscription. 116 At that time other congregations were established around Edessa, among which we must presume there existed a certain degree of organized union, for a synod at Edessa discussed the question of the date of Easter. 117 Tatian may have compiled his Diatessaron for these communities. The consecration of Bishop Palut for the see of Edessa, which took place at Antioch about the year 190, shows Antioch’s interest in this promising mission-field, which was soon to be contested by various heretics. That the royal house was converted to Christianity in the second century and that Christianity was established as the State religion has often been accepted as fact; it remains, however, open to question. 118 The destruction of a Christian church at Edessa in the flood of 201 is evidence of a well developed ecclesiastical organization. Bardesanes mentions regular Sunday assemblies and fasting on particular days. 119 It is characteristic of the young Syrian church that it did not confine itself to the cities, but from the beginning concerned itself with the evangelization of the country folk. From Edessa Christianity 114 Cf. Harnack Miss 638-43. 115 See above, chapter 14. 116 Cf. I. Ortiz de Urbina, Gr 15 (1934), 84-86. 117 Euseb . HE 5, 23, 4. 118 I. Ortiz de Urbina, loc. cit., 86-91. 119 Cf. H. H. Schaeder, “Bardesanes von Edessa” in 2KG 51 (1932), 21-74, esp. 72. 207 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY penetrated farther east into Mesopotamia, thanks to the labours of the missionary Addai. Whereas southern Arabia appears to have had no Christians for a long time, northern Arabia or Transjordan shows evidence that Christianity was known there in the first and second centuries. “Arabs” were represented among the Jews and proselytes staying in Jerusalem at the first Pentecost (Acts 2:11). The faith may also have been brought to the lands east of the Jordan by Jewish Christians fleeing from Jerusalem and Palestine. The apologist Ariston, who wrote his Dialogue between Jason and Papiskos concerning Christ shortly before the middle of the second century, belonged to the congregation of Pella. 120 But before the third century there can have been only individual Arab conversions, most likely in cities such as Bostra, which had come into contact with Hellenistic civilization. The beginnings of Christianity in Egypt are obscure, in spite of the discovery of numerous papyri of the first and second centuries. As the account of the founding of the Egyptian church by Peter is based on later legends, 121 the fragment of John’s Gospel on papyri of the early second century may be regarded as the earliest proof of the presence of Christians on Egyptian soil. 122 We must also bear in mind that the Gnostic mission had more initial success there than orthodox Christianity, of the existence of which in Alexandria we have no clear evidence dating from before the last two decades of the second century. Pantaenus is the first mentioned preacher of the Christian faith; about the year 190 Bishop Demetrios was the head of an already considerable congregation, consciously preparing for the growth of the Church in the third century. Besides the district of Osrhoene, the provinces of Asia Minor were the most receptive to Christian preaching in the second century. Both inland and on the west coast, missionaries could continue to build on the foundations laid by Paul. Even by the end of the first century a number of cities in the west of Asia Minor had organized churches (Apoc 2-3) in addition to those founded by the apostle. Ignatius of Antioch maintained relations with these and with the churches of Magnesia and Tralles. The testimony of Pliny is particularly significant: he states that about the year 112 there was in Bithynia a considerable Christian rural population. 123 In the following decades the names of cities in Asia Minor in which Christianity had gained a footing continued to multiply; they are found in nearly all provinces. 124 The correspondence of Dionysius, Bishop of 120 Quasten P , I, 195 f. 121 Euseb. HE 2, 16. 122 See above, chapter 7, note 4. 123 Pliny the Younger, Ep . 10, 96. 124 Harnack Miss 737 f. 208 THE EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY Corinth, of which Eusebius tells us, 125 is addressed to a whole series of congregations, such as those of Nicomedia, Amastris, and “the communities in Pontus”. It shows us a well-organized Christianity, able, in the synods of the eighties, effectively to oppose the Montanist movement. 126 Bishop Polycrates of Ephesus could point to the glorious Christian tradition of his congregation, which gave it a special place among those of the west coast. 127 In Crete the churches of Gortyna and Knossos are now known by name, as the correspondence of Dionysius of Corinth shows, 128 whereas we have no information about the growth of the Pauline foundations in Cilicia and Cyprus during the second century. Compared with the rapid expansion of Christianity in Asia Minor, the areas of Greece and Macedonia evangelized by Paul clearly lagged behind. Corinth surpassed all other churches in the intensity of its life, which, under Dionysius, attained a high degree of ecclesiastical organization. Athens, at this time gave to the Church the apologist Aristides. We have no reliable information about attempts at christianizing the Danubian provinces in the second century; Christians among the soldiers stationed there may have won occasional converts to their faith. 129 In the Latin West, the growth of the Christian congregation at Rome was probably greatest. The letter of Clement, Bishop of Rome, to the church of Corinth shows that despite the persecutions under Nero and Domitian the Gospel had gained many more believers before the end of the first century, though these may have been largely non-Romans. 130 The respect in which the Roman church was held appears from the powerful attraction it exercised upon the Christians of the eastern provinces; Ignatius speaks of it, as we have seen, with expressions of the deepest reverence. Marcion, Aberkios, Hegesippus and Irenaeus, Valentinus and Theodotos, Justin, Tatian, and Polycarp of Smyrna — all travelled for various reasons to the capital in the West; some to seek recognition for their peculiar doctrines, others to learn there the true Christian teaching or to work for the peace of the Church. Hermas, still writing in Greek, gives us a glimpse of ecclesiastical life in Rome with its everyday problems. With Bishop Victor towards the end of the second century the Latin element begins to predominate. 131 The educated Greek Justin set himself 125 Euseb. HE 4, 23, 1-13. 126 Ibid. 5, 16, 10. 127 Ibid. 5, 24, 1-6, on which see V. Schultze, Altchristliche Stadte und Landschaften, II/2 (Gutcrsloh 1926), 107 f. 128 Euseb. HE 4, 23, 5 7-8. 129 Cf. RAC IV, 166 f. 130 The list of popes (cf. Harnack Miss 818-32) shows predominantly Greek names during this period. 131 Jerome, De vir. ill. 53. 209 THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY a missionary task in Rome when, in a school like those of classical Greece, he taught “the true philosophy” to interested persons among the intellec¬ tuals of the capital. From the extensive charitable activity which the Roman congregation was able to carry on in the second half of the century 182 we may conclude that its membership was considerable. There is little evidence concerning Christian advances in other parts of Italy during the second century. One might well expect there to have been missionary expeditions from the capital, but, quite possibly, the fact that the majority of the congregation consisted of non-Latins made such undertakings too difficult. At the most, we can say that in the second half of the century some bishoprics had been established south of Rome. Whereas Sicily does not appear to have been touched by Christian missionaries before the third century, Roman North Africa proved relatively early to be a profitable field for their activity, although we do not know their names nor the route they followed. The first document that gives information about African Christians, the Acts of the martyrs of Scili, 133 already presupposes the existence there of Latin Christianity, for the six Christians who were put to death in July 180 (a later addition to the Acts shows that other Christians of the province fell victims to the persecution) evidently possessed the epistles of Paul in Latin. The place in which a large Christian community first grew up was, naturally enough, the capital, Carthage, where the catechetical and literary work of Tertullian about the year 200 was so extensive that it would have been possible only in a Christian group that was already numerically strong. The way in which the Roman, Scapula, proceeded against the Christians 134 also compels us to assume that a considerable number of Christians had existed for some time in Africa. And if Bishop Agrippinus, about 220, could summon seventy bishops to a synod, 135 we may conclude that intensive evangelization had been going on in the countryside for a considerable period. North Africa is the only large area of the Latin West at this time which can in any way be compared with the mission fields of eastern Syria and Asia Minor. The populations of the delta and middle valley of the Rhone owed their first contact with Christianity to the commercial relations between Asia Minor and the south coast of Gaul. For the old Greek colony of Massilia this contact must have come quite early. 136 The numerical strength 132 Dionysius of Corinth thanks the Roman church for its support of many congrega¬ tions: Euseb. HE 4, 23, 10. 133 Knopf-Kriiger, Ausgewahlte Mdrtyrerakten (Tubingen, 3rd ed. 1929), 28 f. 134 TertuIl., Ad Scapulpassim. 135 Cyprian, Ep. 71, 4. 136 E. Griffe, La Ganle chretienne , I (Paris 1947), 45. 210 THE EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY of the churches of Lyons and Vienne, which is implied in the account of forty or fifty Christians of those cities martyred under Marcus Aurelius, also presupposes a long period of development. Irenaeus of Lyons can be regarded as a missionary bishop, concerned for the Celtic population of his adopted homeland; no doubt he intended to preach the Gospel among the Gauls, although, as he himself hints, the language problem was a source of difficulties. 137 To him too we owe our knowledge of Christian congrega¬ tions then existing “in the Germanies” — probably in the Rhenish provinces with their chief towns of Cologne and Mainz — and in the Spanish provinces. 138 But if Christianity had already penetrated to the frontier towns on the Rhine, it had certainly also reached Trier, situated further inside the frontier and much more frequented by traders. Its relations with the cities of the Rhone valley suggest too the way by which the faith reached the Moselle. This survey of the expansion of Christianity in the course of the second century gives a clear impression that the missionary enthusiasm of the primitive Church was still fresh and active. Intensive work continued in the original mission fields of the apostles, with great success in the parts of Asia Minor, where Paul had preached. New areas were opened up, especially in east Syria and Mesopotamia in the Orient, in North Africa, Gaul, Germany, and Spain in the West. The bearers of the Gospel were primarily the congregations and the enthusiasm of individual Christians; there is no indication of a central direction and organization of missionary work. The names of the missionaries are for the most part unknown. Besides the type of preaching familiar from the apostolic period, new ways of proclaiming the Gospel were being employed. First there was the written word, used by the apologetical writers of the second century, whose intentions were also missionary and propagandist. Then there were some Christians who made use of the classical system of education; as teachers in private schools, they expounded the Christian faith. Finally, the heroic behaviour of the martyrs in times of persecution became a missionary factor of the first importance, gaining for Christianity a body of new adherents which, if not numerically great, was spiritually of the highest quality. 187 Irenaeus, Adv. haerpraef. 1, 3; see E. Griffe, op. cit. 43. 138 Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 1, 10, 2. 211 PART TWO The Great Church of Early Christian Times (c. A.D. 180 - 324 ) Introduction The transition to the third century introduces the period of the early Christian Church in which it finally became the “great Church” through a combination of external expansion and inner development. In a space of some one hundred and thirty years an interior stability was attained in organization, ritual, day-to-day parish life and clarity of aim in theological studies. Upon attainment of external freedom, it was immediately possible for the Church to assume the tasks inherent in the promising new situation. In the first place the decisive missionary advance within the Roman Empire was successfully continued through the third century. This gave both previously existing and new communities of Christians a numerical strength which provided a large degree of immunity to deliberate attack. The organization necessary to cope with this growth was supplied by the formation of larger associations of churches. These developed around certain centres: Antioch in Syria, Alexandria in Egypt, Ephesus in Asia Minor, Caesaria in Pontus, Carthage in North Africa, and Rome, which served the rest of the Latin West. Rome, under such bishops as Callistus, Stephen, and Dionysius, developed a remarkable initiative in the domain of dogmatic teaching, revealing an increasingly distinct awareness of a duty, and a corresponding claim, to leadership within the one great Church. Everywhere within the Church new forms in liturgy and parish life were created and testify to an intense determination to lead the Christian life. Systematic organization of the catechumenate shows a clear pastoral awareness of the importance of serious introduction to the sacramental world of Christianity. The differentiation of the lower grades of the sacra¬ mental order illustrates the clergy’s ability to adapt itself to growing pastoral demands. The shock resulting from the large number of Christian defections during the Decian persecution led to thorough reflection, and the regulation of the practice of penance. The rise of the order of ascetics and of the early eremitical movement demonstrated a serious striving after Christian 215 INTRODUCTION perfection, and laid the foundations for the full growth of monasticism in the fourth century. Various ecclesiastical ordinances served to stabilize liturgical forms in the life of the parish communities; and, in addition, there were at least the beginnings of the separate rites and liturgies which were to characterize the greater groupings within the Church. Christianart developed, and testifies to the growing sureness and confidence of Christian feeling and attitude towards life. The most enduring effect resulted from the further elaboration of Christian theology in the third century. This development received new impulses from pagan opponents and writers, and from controversies within the Church. The encounter with Middle Platonism proved especially valuable, for it contributed to the rise of the theological school of Alexandria, which had Origen as its outstanding creative figure. Through the work of scholars from Alexandria and Antioch the central position of the Bible in the work of theology was recognized, and great commentaries expounded its significance for faith and religious life. The Trinitarian question formed the centre of an important theological discussion. The monarchical attempt at a solution to this problem was rejected, but a subordinationism was advanced which held the seeds of the fourth century’s great dogmatic controversy. 216 SECTION ONE The Inner Consolidation of the Church in the Third Centuiy Chapter 18 The Attack of the Pagan State on the Church The Persecutions under Septimius Severus With the accession of the Syrian dynasty’s founder Septimius Severus (193-211), a tranquil phase of potential development, both internally and externally, seemed to begin for Christianity. This emperor soon publicly demonstrated his goodwill towards individual Christians. His contemporary, and fellow-African, Tertullian gives definite and impressive proofs of this attitude. 1 Christians held influential positions at court, as they had under Commodus. For example, Proculus, who had once succeeded in curing the emperor of an illness, lived until the end of his life in the imperial palace; and Prince Caracalla’s nurse was a Christian woman. Men and women of Roman senatorial families, whose adherence to the Christian faith was known to the emperor, were openly protected against the mob, while he vouched for their loyalty. It is possible that the emperor’s tolerance was encouraged by the Syrian princesses who accompanied his wife Julia Domna to court, for they looked sympathetically on all religious trends, especially those of oriental origin. It is a further indication of the freedom of Christi¬ anity in the first years of his reign that, about the year 196, the bishops were able to meet in synods at which the date of Easter was discussed. 2 It is true that proceedings against individual Christians were not unknown, for the legal situation created by the rescript of Trajan was still unaltered. Tertul- lian’s Liber apologeticus (c. 197) was provoked by the occurrence of such cases. It was not until the tenth year of his reign that Septimius’s attitude altered drastically and created a completely new situation for Christianity. In the year 202 an imperial edict was issued forbidding conversion to Judaism or Christianity under pain of heavy penalties. 3 In practice this 1 Tertullian, Ad Scap. 3-4. 1 Euseb. HE 5, 23-5. s Spartianus, Septim. Sever. 16, 9: “Iudaeos fieri sub gravi poena vetuit; idem etiam de Christianis sanxit.” Schwarte disputes the genuineness of the last part in “Das angebliche Christengesetz des Septimus Severus” in Historia 12 (1963) 185-208. 217 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY meant the abandonment of Trajan’s principle conquirendi non sunt (they are not to be searched out), for the new ordinance could only be implemented by police supervision of the Church’s activities. It was not only the individual Christian who was at the mercy of a denunciation; the Church as an organization was affected. Every activity which aimed at winning new members could be punished; therefore all missionary work would be made impossible and Christianity would slowly die out within the empire. This change in the emperor’s attitude is intelligible only if we believe that he had come to recognize that Christians had not attained new religious convictions merely as isolated individuals. He must have realized that their faith bound them together in a universal organized community of belief possessing a strong cohesive power of resistance. For practical reasons of State this development may have seemed undesirable to him, so he hoped to avert it by cutting the Church’s artery and making her further growth impossible. The voices of a few Christians who refused military service 4 may have strengthened Septimius in the conviction that the Christian religion was just as dangerous to the maintenance of the order of the State as was the radical opposition of the Montanists to everything connected with it. It was this anxiety which was expressed by Dio Cassius, when he made Maecenas warn Augustus to abhor and punish those who wished to introduce foreign customs into the native Roman religion. They could only give rise to conspiracies and revolutionary machinations against the monarchy, counselled Maecenas, and for the same reason no atheism or black magic should be tolerated. 5 The immediate consequences of the imperial edict showed its purpose even more clearly. In Alexandria and Carthage two places within the empire possessing large Christian communities, the persecution now affected catechumens and newly baptized persons, for they particularly transgressed the new edict. The Christian school of Alexandria, which had led many a pagan religious inquirer to the new faith, was now subjected to such supervision that its teachers were compelled to leave the town in a.d. 202. Six pupils of Origen, who was working at that time as a Christian teacher, were executed. Two of them were still catechumens, and another had only just been baptized. 6 At the beginning of the year 203, a group of catechumens were arrested, and their heroic bearing at their execution forms the theme of one of the most precious accounts of a martyrdom surviving from the third century. 7 The noble Perpetua and her 4 Tertullian, De cor. passim; Origen, Contra Cels. 5, 33; 7, 26; 8, 70, 73; cf. A. Harnack, Militia Christi (Tubingen 1905), 55-75. 5 Dio Cassius, Hist. Rom. 52, 36. 6 Euseb. HE 6, 3, 1; 4, 1-3. 7 Passio ss. Perpetuae et Felicitatis, ed. J. van Beek (Nijmegen 1956); an editio minor, FlorPatr 43 (Bonn 1938). On Chap. 7 of th ePassio 3 see F. J. Dolger, AuC II (1930), 1-40; and on Chap. 10, ibid. Ill (1932), 177-91. 218 THE ATTACK OF THE PAGAN STATE ON THE CHURCH slave Felicitas, together with her teacher Saturus and fellow catechumens Revocatus, Saturninus and Secundulus, were never forgotten in the African Church. The account of their act of testimony to the faith, which may well have been composed by Tertullian, was read and re-read during divine service down to the days of Augustine. 8 Proceedings against Christians as individuals were also continued. In one instance three Christians of Carthage were condemned to death at the stake; another died in prison. 9 Augustine himself was acquainted with the record of a woman martyr of Carthage, Gudentis, beheaded in 203. 10 From occasional references by Tertullian we can infer that the anti-Christian attitude of various individual Roman officials or the hostility of the pagan populace prompted renewed recourse to the rescript of Trajan. Tertullian’s early work To the Martyrs (a.d. 197) 11 was addressed to Christians in prison awaiting trial. His later work concerning flight in time of persecution, indicates that under Septimius Severus many African Christians including clerics, escaped arrest through timely flight, or obtained their safety by bribing the police. One such persecution, which took place in Egypt in 202, is expressly attributed by Eusebius to the edict of Septimius against the catechumens. The prefects Laetus and Aquila secured the arrest of Christians from as far away as the Thebaid and had them brought to Alexandria, where they were executed, in many instances after repeated torture. 12 The most outstanding figures among these were Origen’s father Leonides, the virgin Potamiaina (who was later held in high honour), her mother Marcella, and the soldier Basilides, who had been prompted by the example of Potamiaina to adopt the Christian faith. 13 One Christian writer was so impressed by the harshness of this wave of persecution that he saw in it the coming approach of Antichrist. 14 For other provinces of the empire the available sources are scanty. In Cappadocia the governor Claudius Herminianus persecuted the Christians because he could not forgive the conversion of his wife to the new faith. 15 It is possible that Alexander, later Bishop of Jerusalem, confessed the faith at this time with other Christians of Cappadocia, just as Bishop Asclepiades of Antioch stood firm under persecution. 16 No reliable information is available on the course of the persecutions in Rome. They either abruptly ceased or died away gradually in the last years of Septimius’s reign. 8 Cf. J. Moreau, La persecution du christianisme (Paris 1956), 82. 9 Passio ss. Perpetuae et Felicitatis 11, 9. 10 Augustine, Sermon 294: “in natale martyris Gudentis*’; see also 284 and 394. 11 New critical edition by A. Quacquarelli (Rome 1963). 12 Euseb. HE 6, 1; 6, 2, 2. 13 Ibid. 6, 5, 1-7. 14 Ibid. 6, 7. 15 Tertullian, Ad Scap. 3. 18 Euseb. HE 6, 8, 7; 6, 11, 4-5. 219 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY Certainly Caracalla (211-17) inaugurated a period of religious tolera¬ tion which was of considerable advantage to Christianity, as was recognized by the early Christian writers themselves. It has indeed been thought that an anti-Christian motive lay behind the so-called Constitutio Antoniniana (by which Caracalla in 212 granted Roman citizenship to all free men in the empire), because it made it easier to bring a charge of laesa maiestas. But this contention is refuted both by the unrestricted praise that Augustine accords this act 17 and by Caracalla’s whole attitude to Christians whom he knew personally. We find them once again in influential positions at court: the freedman Prosenes was private chamberlain under Caracalla, 18 and when, on the emperor’s accession to the throne, an amnesty was granted to deportees, Christians were not excepted from it. The proceedings of the proconsul Scapula (211-12) against the Church in the three North African provinces are, therefore, not to be ascribed to an order of Caracalla, but were rather provoked by rigorist tendencies among African Christians. Tertullian was their constant spokesman, advocating rigid principle in such works as On the Soldier’s Crown y a rejection of military service for Christians. 19 Scapula may have been led to take the steps he did by the jurist Ulpian’s publication of the various existing imperial rescripts concerning Christians, in his De officio proconsulis . 20 Tertullian leaves no doubt that the methods of execution employed were particularly cruel, though he names only one of the victims: the Christian Mavilus from Hadrumet, who was thrown to the wild beasts. 21 The short reign of Heliogabalus (218-22) 22 records no event by which his attitude to Christianity can be judged, unless it be his plan to make the cult of the sun-god of Emesa obligatory in the empire. This favourable situation for Christianity improved still further under his successor, Severus Alexander (222-35). The intellectual and religious atmosphere of the court was determined by the emperor’s gifted mother, Julia Mamaea. She may be judged to have had definite leanings towards Christianity; a hagio- grapher of the fifth century actually considered her a Christian. During a stay in Antioch she sent for Origen requesting his presence to discuss religious questions; 23 and Hippolytus of Rome dedicated one of his treatises to her. 24 Her tolerance is reflected in the attitude of the young emperor, 17 Augustine, De civitate dei , 5, 17. 18 Cf. L. Hertling-E. Kirschbaum, Die romischen Katakomben und ihre Martyrer (Vienna, 2nd ed. 1955), 213. 19 De cor. passim; De idol. 17. 20 Lactantius, De inst. div. 5, 11, 18. 21 Cf. Ad. Scap. as a whole; and on Mavilus, ibid. c. 3. 22 K. Gross, “Elagabal” in RAC IV, 998 ff. 23 Euseb. HE 6, 21, 3-4. 24 Q uasten P , II, 197. 220 THE ATTACK OF THE PAGAN STATE ON THE CHURCH who accepted numerous Christians among his closer associates and entrusted the building of the library near the Pantheon to the Christian Julius Africanus. 25 His policy of religious toleration is accurately characterized by a phrase of his biographer in the Historia Augusta , which states that he left the Jews their privileges and allowed the Christians to exist. 20 This latter assertion is borne out by the unhampered development of Christian life in the East. Christian inscriptions of this period are found in great numbers in Asia Minor, and it was possible to erect a Christian place of worship in Dura-Europos before 234. In the West Christian burial was now organized quite freely at Rome. 27 It is characteristic that no legal proceedings against a Christian and no Christian martyrdom can with certainty be assigned to Alexander’s time. A reaction did not occur until the reign of the former guards officer Maximinus (235-8). The change of policy first affected the numerous Christians at court; but, as Eubesius emphasizes, 28 it was directed principally against the Church’s leaders. To that extent it introduced a new note into the anti-Christian actions of an emperor. Had this reign lasted longer, it could have been of grave consequence for the Church. In Rome itself, it can be established that the two Christian leaders there, namely Bishop Pontianus and the priest Hippolytus, were deported to Sardinia, where both died. 29 Origen reports the danger to some Christians; it was at this time that he dedicated his Exhortation to Martyrdom to his friend Ambrose and the priest Protoctetus. A typical reaction of the pagan masses produced an attack on the Christians in Cappadocia following an earthquake, for which they regarded the Christians as responsible. 30 The struggle for power by the soldier emperors who followed left them no leisure to occupy themselves with the question of the Christians. But in Philippus Arabs (244-9) a ruler came to power who showed such sympathy for the Christians that a complete reconciliation seemed possible between Christianity and the government of the Roman State. Indeed Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria tells us that about twelve years after Philippus’ death many people were saying that the emperor had been in fact a Christian; Eusebius mentions the claim as merely talk. 31 On the basis of another unconfirmed rumour that the emperor once joined the crowd of 25 Ibid. 138. 26 Lampridius, Alex. Sev. 22, 4: “Iudaeis privilegia reservavit, Christianos esse passus est.” 27 Cf. also A. Alfoldi in Klio 31 (1938), 249-53, on his decision favourable to the Christians in a land dispute. 28 Euseb. HE 6, 28. 29 G. Bovini in RivAC 19 (1942), 35-85. 30 Euseb. HE 6, 28; Firminian of Caesarea in Cyprian, Ep. 75, 10. 31 Euseb. HE 6, 34; 7, 10, 3. 221 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY penitents in a Christian congregation before Easter, hagiography wove the assertion that Philippus was the first Roman emperor to have accepted Christianity. But on 21 April 248 the emperor still took an active part in a celebration of the official worship on the thousandth anniversary of the foundation of Rome. And the idea that he was secretly a Christian, but publicly an adherent of the State religion, is not in accord with the attitude of the men of antiquity, to whom a sophistical distinction of that sort was alien. Nevertheless, the rumours indubitably had their root in the high degree of goodwill towards Christianity exhibited by Philippus’ government. The consul in office in the year 249 was certainly a Christian. 32 And the emperor’s personal inclination and that of his wife Severa are mirrored in the correspondence between the imperial pair and Origen, which Eusebius had, at least in part, available to him. 33 But not even so much sympathy could protect the Christians of Alexandria from an outburst of popular rage in the year 249. A refusal to revile their religion 34 cost many of them their lives. A retrospective survey of the relations between the Roman State and Christianity in the first half of the third century makes it clear that the phases of really peaceful co-existence, and sometimes of positive toleration, predominate over the waves of harsh persecution. Only twice can the features of a systematic policy against Christianity be observed: first when Septimius Severus made adherence to Christianity an indictable offence; and secondly when Maximinus Thrax took action against the leaders of the Christian communities. For the rest, the haphazard, unsystematic proceedings against individual Christians reveal the vacillating religious policy of the holders of power in the State and of their subordinate authorities in the provinces. The unsettled course adopted by these officials was partly a result of the political decline of the empire under the soldier emperors. At the beginning of the second half of the century the possibility of a definitive reconciliation between State and Church which had emerged under Philippus Arabs, was brusquely reduced to a utopian dream. The emperor Decius came to power and determined to re-establish the old brilliant reputation of the Roman State by restoring its ancient religion. The Persecution under Decius The first measures of the new emperor might appear as a typical or common reaction against the rule of a predecessor. Christians were arrested as early as December 249, and in January 250 the head of the Roman community, 32 J. Moreau, op. cit. 92. 33 Euseb. HE 6, 36, 3. 34 Ibid. 6, 41,1-9. 222 THE ATTACK OF THE PAGAN STATE ON THE CHURCH Bishop Fabian, was put to death. 85 A general edict in 250, however, soon proved that Decius was pursuing aims concerning the Christians which far exceeded those of his predecessors. The text of his edict has not been preserved, but its contents can be largely reconstructed from contemporary sources. All the inhabitants of the empire were summoned to take part in a general sacrifice to the gods, a supplicatio. This appeared to be a summons to the people for the purpose of invoking the protection of the gods. They were to entreat for the well-being of the empire by an impressive and unanimous demonstration. But it was significant that, at the same time, exact supervision of the edict's implementation was ordered throughout the empire. Commissions were set up to see that the sacrifice was performed, and to issue everyone with a certificate, or libellus. 36 Before a certain date the libelli were to be exhibited to the authorities; and anyone refusing to sacrifice was thrown into prison, where attempts were often made to break his resistance by torture. Although the decree did not explicitly condemn the Christians, their leading representatives and writers rightly considered it to be the most serious attack that their Church had yet sustained. It is impossible to state with precision what motive exercised greater influence upon the emperor: the opportunity to determine the exact number of adherents to Christianity, or the expectation of a mass return to the old State religion. The undoubted initial success of the measures favours the latter motive. The bitter laments of the bishops Dionysius of Alexandria and Cyprian of Carthage leave no doubt that the number of those who in one way or another met the demand of the edict especially in Egypt and North Africa, far exceeded the number of those who refused it. What Origen had recently remarked was verified to a terrifying extent: the heroic days of his youth were past. That former spirit had yielded to the laxity and barrenness of the present. 37 Some of the Christians of Alexandria appeared before the commission trembling with fear, and performed the sacrificial rite as required; others denied that they had ever been Christians, and still others fled. Many offered sacrifice when on the point of arrest; others endured a few days in prison refusing to sacrifice until they were due to appear in court; and some submitted only after torture. 38 In North Africa many Christians thought they could avoid a decision by not actually offering sacrifice. They secured for themselves from a member of the verification commission, through bribery or other means, a certificate of having done so. These were the so-called libellatici, whose fault was not considered as grave as that of the thurificati who offered incense or of the sacrificati who offered 35 Cyprian, Ep. 37, 2; 6, 3-9, 1. Cf. Duchesne LP> I 4. 58 Forty-three such libelli have been found so far on Egyptian papyri. 37 Origen, In lerem. hom. 4, 3. 38 Euseb. HE 6, 41, 10-13. 223 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY a full sacrifice before the image of the gods. 39 In Rome, some Christians resorted to the device of having their libelli taken and attested by intermediaries. 40 The large number of the lapsi in North Africa is proved by Cyprian’s statement that, when the danger slackened, they flocked to those who had confessed the faith, in order to obtain “letters of peace” from them and facilitate their readmission into the Christian community. 41 The Bishop of Carthage felt it particularly disturbing that two of his own fellow- bishops in North Africa were among those who fell away. One of them had even persuaded the majority of his flock to offer sacrifice, and the other subsequently wished to remain in office without making atonement. He had also to number two Spanish bishops among the libellatici . 42 In the East, the martyr Pionius saw his own bishop zealously arranging the precise accomplishment of the ritual of sacrifice. 43 In contrast to these, however, there was in every province of the empire an elite ready to answer for their belief with their lives. Here, too, Cyprian’s letters provide the most informative account of the situation in North Africa. He had sought out a place of refuge in the neighbourhood of Carthage, but was able to keep in touch with his flock by correspondence and convey words of encouragement and consolation to the Christians who were already under arrest. Those in prison, including many women and children, showed an intense and genuine longing for martyrdom that was not always fulfilled, for many were released even before the end of the persecution. Cyprian deplored the pride and moral lapses by which some of these latter detracted from the worth of their true confession of faith, but he was able to enroll others among his clergy, so exemplary was their behaviour. Cyprian does not give exact figures regarding those who offered the sacrifices, and names only a few of the confessores. AA Naturally, the number of those put to death, the martyres coronati or consummati , was smaller by comparison. Cyprian mentions two by name, but presupposes a larger number. The confessor Lucianus once mentions sixteen by name, most of whom were left to die of hunger in prison. 45 In Rome, too, Christians were released from gaol after resolutely confessing their faith, among them a certain Celerinus whose brave bearing so impressed the emperor Decius that he gave him his freedom; Cyprian later ordained him lector. 46 The case of the two Spanish bishops mentioned above reveals that the commission 39 Cyprian, De laps, passim, and Ep. 55, 2. 40 Ibid. Ep. 30, 3. 41 Ep. 20, 2. 42 Ep. 65, 1;59, 10; 67, 6. 43 Mart. Pionii 15, 2; 16, 1; 18, 12. 44 Cyprian, Ep. 6, 10, 13, 38, 40. 43 Ep. 10 and 22. 46 Ep. 37 and 39. 224 THE ATTACK OF THE PAGAN STATE ON THE CHURCH was effective in Spain, but we have no certain information about Gaul. For Egypt, Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria mentions the kind of death suffered by fourteen martyrs: ten of them died at the stake and four by the sword. But he knew of numerous other martyrs in the towns and villages of that country, just as he knew that many Christians died of hunger and cold while fleeing from persecution. Finally, he mentions also a group of five Christian soldiers who voluntarily confessed their faith when they encouraged a waverer to stand fast; because of their outspoken courage the court left them unmolested. 47 In neighbouring Palestine Bishop Alexander of Jerusalem died a martyr’s death at that time, as did Bishop Babylas, the leader of the Antioch community. 48 The aged Origen’s longing for martyrdom was at least partly satisfied in Caesaria where he was subjected to cruel torture. The fundamentally trustworthy account of the five Christians of Smyrna who were imprisoned, and of whom Pionius was burnt to death, is the only echo of the effects of the Decian persecution in Asia proconsularis. 49 Gregory of Nyssa provides late and vague reports about events in Pontus: he tells us that numerous Christians were arrested under Decius, while their bishop, Gregory Thaumaturgus, fled with many others. 50 A host of further accounts of early Christian martyrs places the death of their heroes in Decius’s reign. As sources they are worthless, for the cult of these alleged martyrs cannot in any way be substantiated and perhaps their martyrdom was attributed to Decius’s persecution only because he had acquired the reputation in later times of being one of the cruellest persecutors of the Christians. 51 The rapid cessation of the Decian persecution is in a sense surprising. One would have expected that the considerable initial success attained by such shock tactics would have been exploited and deepened by further systematic measures. The impression gained is that the administrative apparatus was overtaxed by so extensive an undertaking. The departure of the emperor for the Danubian provinces, occasioned by a new invasion of the Goths, halted it completely; and his death on the battle-field prevented its rapid resumption. From the point of view of Roman government, no tangible and lasting success was gained by this calculated and systematic attack on the Catholic Church. The great mass of those who had fallen away soon clamoured to be received into the Church again, while many Ubellatici atoned for their fault by a new confession of faith shortly after their lapse. The number of former Christians won over to the State religion does not 47 Euseb. HE 6, 41, 14-23; 6, 42, 1-4. 48 Ibid. 6, 39, 2-5. 49 Text in Knopf-Kruger, Ausgewdhlte Martyrerakten (Tubingen, 3rd ed. 1929), 45-57; on this cf. Delehaye PM, 28-37. 50 Gregory of Nyssa, Panegyr. in Greg. Thaumat. in PG 46, 944-53, esp. 945 D. 51 Delehaye PM, 239 ff. 225 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY seem to have been particularly high. The Christian community, for its part, recognized that much within it was decayed and ready to crumble. Conscious leaders of communities, like Cyprian, were spurred by this condition to serious reflection, which after long controversies about the question of penance, was to lead to a regeneration of the Church. Valerian and Gallienus The ensuing seven years of tranquillity for the Church (250-7) were disturbed only by a short wave of persecution in Rome. The emperor Trebonius Gallus had Cornelius, the head of the Christian community in Rome, arrested and exiled to Centum Cellae (Civita Vecchia), where he died in 253. 52 The latter’s successor, Lucius (253-4), 53 was likewise banished, but the death of the emperor soon permitted his return to Rome. Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, reports arrests in Egypt also occurring at that time. 54 Gallus’s repressive action was probably aimed at indulging popular sentiment, which blamed the Christians for the plague then devastating the empire. The first years of the reign of his successor, Valerian (253-60) produced for the Church a situation which Dionysius of Alexandria celebrates in enthusiastic tones. No predecessor of Valerian had been so well-disposed towards the Christians. Indeed so friendly was Valerian’s attitude that his household was, so to speak, one of God’s communities. 55 But the fourth year of the emperor’s reign brought a surprising change, introducing a short but extremely harsh and violent persecution. Like that of Decius, this policy could have proved a severe threat to the Church, because it too was based on a well-considered plan. Dionysius blames the emperor’s minister and later usurper, Macrianus, for this reaction. Macrianus certainly may have suggested the idea of remedying the precarious financial state of the empire by confiscating the property of wealthy Christians. Valerian was probably also impelled by the threatening situation of the empire in general. He sought to counter a possible threat from within by a radical move against the Christians. The plan is clear even in the edict of 257: the blow was to strike the clergy; bishops, priests, and deacons were to be obliged to offer sacrifice to the gods and any of them celebrating divine worship or holding assemblies in the cemeteries were to be punished with death. 56 In North Africa and Egypt, 62 Duchesne LP, I, 150 fF.; Cyprian, Ep. 60 and 61. 53 Cyprian, Ep. 61, 1. 34 Euseh. HE 7,1. 35 Ibid. 7, 10, 3. 33 Cf. A. Alfoldi, “Der Rechtsstreit zwischen der romischen Kirche und dem Verein der popinarii” in Klio 31 (1938), 323-48. 226 THE ATTACK OF THE PAGAN STATE ON THE CHURCH the leaders of the churches, Cyprian and Dionysius, were at once arrested; and, in addition, many Christians of the African provinces were condemned to forced labour in the mines. The edict of 258 took a further decisive step: clerics who refused the sacrifice were to be immediately put to death. But this time the leading laity in the Christian communities were also included. Senators and members of the order of knights were to lose their rank and possessions, as were their wives; the latter could be punished with banishment and their husbands with execution, if they refused to offer sacrifice to the gods. Imperial officials in Rome and the provinces, the caesariani , were also threatened with forced labour and the confiscation of their possessions for similar offence. 57 The aim of this policy was clear: the clergy and prominent members of the Christian communities, who enjoyed wealth and position, were to be eliminated; and the Christians, thus deprived of leaders and influence, were to be condemned to insignificance. The victims were numerous, especially among the clergy. North Africa lost its outstanding bishop in Cyprian, who met his death with unforgettable dignity. His flock showed their love and respect once again when he was beheaded, soaking cloths in his blood and interring his remains with reverent joy. 58 Rome had its most distinguished martyr in Pope Sixtus II, who was joined in death by his deacons. 59 There is an authentic account of the death of the Spanish bishop, Fructuosus of Tarragona, and two of his deacons. 00 The head of the Egyptian church, Dionysius of Alexandria, was condemned only to an exile which he survived. 61 The victims were also numerous among the lower clergy: in May 259, the deacon James and the lector Marianus 62 died in Lambaesis, North Africa; there were clerics also in the group with Lucius and Montanus. 63 The deacon Laurence, later transfigured by legend, achieved the greatest posthumous fame among the Roman victims of this persecution. 64 The report of the historian Socrates that Novatian also died for his Christian convictions in the reign of Valerian was formerly treated with some reserve. It has recently received considerable support from the discovery of an epitaph which a certain deacon Gaudentius dedicated “to the blessed martyr Novatian”. 65 The proportion of laity 57 Cyprian, Ep. 80. 58 Acta Cypr. in CSEL 3, 3, CX-CXIV; Knopf-Kruger, op. cit. 62-64 (with biblio¬ graphy). 59 Cyprian, Ep. 80, I. 80 Text in Knopf - Kruger, op. cit. 83-85; on this cf. P. Franchi de Cavalieri in SteT 65 (1935), 183-99, and J. Serra-Vilard, Fructuos , Auguri i Ettlogi , martirs sants de Tarragona (Tarragona 1936). 61 Euseb. HE 7, 11, 4-6. 62 Martyr, ss. Mariani et Iacobi , Knopf-Kruger, op. cit. 67-74. 88 Ibid. 74-82. 64 H. Delehaye in AnBoll 51 (1938), 34-98. 65 Socrates HE 4, 28; cf. C. Mohlberg in ELit 51 (1937), 242-9; and A. Ferrua in CivCatt 4 (1944), 232-9. 227 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY among the victims of the persecution was not inconsiderable: it was probably quite large in Egypt 60 and highest in North Africa. The persecution ceased with the tragic end of the emperor who was taken prisoner by the Persians in 259 and soon died. The general impression left by the attitude of the Christians on this occasion is far more favourable than in their previous tribulation. Only in one African record of martyrdom is there a mention of lapsed Christians. The shock of the Decian persecution had produced its salutary effect; the Christians met this trial with far more calm determination than they had displayed eight years previously, and withstood it extremely well. The political situation both at home and abroad would have prevented Valerian’s son and successor, Gallienus (260-8), from continuing the fight against the Christians. But he was not content, with a merely tacit cessation of the persecution and issued an edict of his own in the Christians’ favour. This is referred to in a further rescript of 262 to Dionysius of Alexandria. In this the emperor says that he had restored their places of worship to the Christians some time previously, and that nobody was to molest them in these places. 67 This recognition of ecclesiastical property by the highest civil authority represented a far- reaching act of toleration, and had a favourable effect on the future of the Church. Although Christianity was not yet officially recognized thereby as a religio licita, nevertheless there began with Gallienus’ edict a period of peace which lasted more than forty years, and which could not but further its development both within and without. It was with good cause that Eusebius celebrated this time as a period of glory and freedom for Christianity. It was possible to build churches without hindrance, and preach to the barbarians and Greeks, while Christians occupied high offices of State, and enjoyed warm sympathy everywhere. 68 68 Cyprian, Ep. 76 and 80, and Euseb. HE 7, 11, 18-26. 67 Euseb. HE 7, 13. 68 Ibid. 8, 1, 1-6. 228 Chapter 19 Further Development of Christian Literature in the East in the Third Century The Beginnings of the Theological School of Alexandria The inner consolidation of Christianity in the third century is particularly evident and impressive in the domain of early patristic literature. More and more frequently, members of the ruling classes joined the new faith and felt impelled to serve it by word and writing in ways which corresponded with their level of culture. This created an essential condition for the development of a learned theology. The earliest attempts of this kind are found of course as early as the second century, when educated converts such as Justin and his pupil Tatian presented themselves publicly in Rome as teachers of the “new philosophy”, and gave a well-grounded introduction to the understanding of the Christian faith to a relatively small circle of pupils. 1 The “schools” of these teachers were not, however, institutions of the Roman Christian community itself, but private undertakings by learned Christians. Out of a sense of missionary obligation, and in the manner of philosophical teachers of the time, these men expounded their religious beliefs to a circle of those who might be interested, and substantiated them by constant comparison with other religious trends. In a similar manner Gnostics like Apelles, Synerus, and Ptolemy, appeared in Rome as private teachers; and men like Theodotus from Byzantium and perhaps Praxeas, too, tried within the framework of such private schools to win support for their particular Monarchian views. While no objection was raised against the teaching activities of orthodox laymen like Justin, the author¬ ities of the Roman community took exception to the activities of Gnostic or Monarchian teachers, and finally excluded them from the community of the Church. These problems induced the Roman bishops of the third century to seek to bring private Christian schools under their control and to transform them into a purely ecclesiastical institution which would administer the instruction of the catechumens. No theological school within the proper sense of the word developed either in Rome or elsewhere in the Latin West, because certain conditions of an intellectual kind were just not present. Neither were the personalities to whom they might have been of use. But both prerequisites were existent in great quantity in the East. 1 Tatian’s pupil Rhodon must also be reckoned among these; he attracted some attention by his controversy with the Marcionite Apelles, cf. Euseb. HE 5, 13, 5-7. 229 Christian Schools in the East In the Greek East the Egyptian capital, Alexandria, with its scientific tradition and the interest generally shown by its educated upper classes in religious and philosophical questions, was to prove the most favourable soil for the development of a Christian theology on a learned intellectual basis. By establishing the two great libraries of the Sarapcion and the Museion, the first Ptolemies had laid the foundation of that lively interest in the most varied branches of learning which had developed in Alexander’s city during the Hellenistic period. This cultural development, especially in the areas of Hellenistic literature and neo-Platonic philosophy, helped to create a general atmosphere which was to prove particularly fruitful when it encountered Christianity. Educated Alexandrians who had adopted the Christian religion were inevitably moved to confront it with the intense cultural life around them; and those of them who felt impelled publicly to account for their faith became the first Christian teachers in the Egyptian capital. The available sources of information about the beginnings of Christian teaching in Alexandria are not very rich; only Eusebius speaks of them in any detail, and his treatment is relatively late and rather un¬ critical. Nevertheless, the intensive research of recent years has produced some reliable results. According to these sources it is impossible to speak of a “school of catechists in Alexandria” as early as the end of the second century. The first Christian teacher whose name is known is Pantainus, of Sicilian origin, who was giving lessons about the year 180, expounding and defend¬ ing his Christian view of the world; but he was teaching without ecclesias¬ tical appointment, just as Justin or Tatian had earlier done in Rome. Any interested person, pagan or Christian, could frequent this private school, and the syllabus was entirely a matter for the teacher’s judgment. Clement of Alexandria must be considered to have been the second teacher of this kind, but he cannot be regarded as the successor of Pantainus at the head of any school. He publicly taught the “true gnosis” independently of, and perhaps even simultaneously with Pantainus. The first phase of Origen’s teaching activity still had this private character. At the request of some friends who were interested in the Christian religion, he gave up his position in a grammar school and devoted himself as an independent teacher to instruction in the Christian religion, which was clearly open to Christians and pagans alike. It was only later, 2 perhaps about 215, that he undertook the instruction of catechumens at the request of Bishop * There are contradictions in Eusebius’s account. It seems extremely unlikely that a young man of seventeen would be placed in charge of a school for catechumens; cf. M. Hornschuh, in 2KG 71 (1960), 203-7. 230 DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE EAST Demetrius, 3 and so became the ecclesiastically-appointed head of a catechetical school. He soon further expanded this role assigning the actual teaching of the catechumens to his friend Heraclas, certainly with the consent of the bishop. He provided a circle of educated persons and advanced students with a systematic exposition of the philosophic knowl¬ edge of the age, crowned by instruction in the Christian religion. 4 In this respect, Origen had taken a decisive step; the work which Clement before him had undertaken as a private teacher was now placed directly at the service of the church of Alexandria, which thereby received a school of its own in which instruction in the Christian religion was given in no way inferior in quality to the contemporary pagan course of education. This institution alone has a claim to the title of a theological school. It is true that its real importance was due to the intellectual quality of the man who was its leader and soul until the year 230. And it is not surprising that Origen’s bold step was received with some reserve: he soon had to defend himself against the accusation of attributing too much importance to profane philosophy, 5 but the success and enthusiastic support of his students made him keep to the path he had taken. When the rift between Origen and Bishop Demetrius led to his quitting the country, the Alexandrian school of theologians quickly reverted to a simple school for catechumens, giving to those seeking baptism their first introduction to the Christian religion. Origen took the nature and spirit of his foundation with him to Caesarea and Palestine. Here he tried until his death to realize his ideal of a Christian institute for advanced teaching, this time with the full approval of the Palestinian episcopate. After Origen’s death, it is only possible to speak of an Alexandrian theological school in a wider sense; we can only denote a theology bearing the characteristic marks which the two first great Alexandrians, Clement and Origen, gave it: namely, the drawing of philosophy into the service of theology, a predilection for the allegorical method of scriptural exegesis, and a strong tendency to penetrate by speculation on an idealistic basis the supernatural content of the truths of revelation. Clement of Alexandria While none of the writings of the first Alexandrian teacher, has come down to us, 6 three longer works and a small treatise survive from the pen of 5 Euseb. HE 6, 14, 11. 4 Ibid. 6, 18, 3^1. Origen expounds his educational ideal in a letter to his pupil Gregory of Neo-Caesarea: Ep. ad Greg. 1. 5 Euseb. HE 6, 19, 13-14. c H.-I. Marrou considers he may well be the author of the Letter to Diognetus; cf. Marrou’s ed., SourcesChr 33 (1951), 266 ff. 231 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY Clement. Though they are merely the remnants of a more extensive production, they permit us to form an impression of his characteristics as a writer, his theological interests, and the aim of his teaching. Clement was the son of a pagan family of Athens, became a Christian in adult life and, after extensive travels, reached Alexandria towards the end of the second century. There he was active as a Christian teacher until the persecution under Septimius Severus forced him to emigrate to Asia Minor about the year 202, and he died still in this area, about 215. Clement’s secular learning is shown by the very title of the first of the three main works mentioned above. On the model of Aristotle, Epicurus, and Chrysippus, he too wrote a Protrepticus, a discourse of admonition and propaganda, which presupposes educated pagan readers who are to be won over to his “philosophy”. His aim is, therefore, in fact the same as that of previous apologists, but his work is far superior to their writings in form and tone. Naturally, in a Christian apologia, polemic against pagan polytheism could not be lacking, but it is conducted by Clement in a calm and thoughtful manner. He concedes that many of the pagan philosophers, Plato above all, were on the way to a knowledge of the true God; but full knowledge, and with it eternal salvation and the satisfaction of all human aspiration, was only brought by the Logos, Jesus Christ, who summons all men, Hellenes and barbarians, to follow him. A level of discourse on the Christian faith was here attained that had not been known before, and one which could appeal to a cultivated pagan. Many a discern¬ ing reader must have had the impression that inquiry into this religion and discussion with its enthusiastic spokesman might be worthwhile. Anyone who allows himself to be won over as a follower of the Logos must entrust himself absolutely to the latter’s educative power. Clement’s second main work, the Paidagogus , is therefore intended as a guide in this respect, and at the same time as an aid to training in Christian things. The fundamental attitude required is first developed: the Logos-Paidagogos has provided by his life and commands in Holy Scripture the standards by which the life of a Christian should be directed; the Christian who acts in accordance with them fulfills to a higher degree the “duties” to which, for example, an adherent of the Stoic philosophy knows he is obliged, since the demands of the Logos are in the fullest sense “in conformity with reason”. Clement illustrates the application of this basic principle with many examples from daily life, and displays a gift of discernment and a balanced and fundamentally affirmative attitude to cultural values. Both Christian ascesis and Christian love of one’s neighbour must prove themselves in the actual circumstances of civilization. The magnificent hymn to the Paidagogus Christ, which ends this work, 7 effectively 7 Paidag . 3, 12, 101. 232 DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE EAST emphasizes the position occupied by the person of Christ in Clement’s personal piety. Their formal treatment and intellectual structure show that the Pro - trepticus and the Paidagogus are essentially related works. The second further suggests 8 that Clement intended to complete a literary trilogy with another work, the Didascalos , which was to follow the others and offer a systematic exposition of the chief doctrines of Christianity. But the third surviving work, the Stromata , cannot be considered as the conclusion of this trilogy, for its themes are quite different from those announced, and in style and form it in no way corresponds to the first and second studies. The title itself indicates its literary category: a number and variety of questions are treated in an informal manner, as in the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus, or the Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, and are intended in the first place to appeal to pagans interested in religious and philosophical matters. There is good reason to think that these questions relate to the themes which Clement treated in his oral teaching, and that consequently their very form reveals the marks of their origin. 9 One purpose certainly pervades the whole work: to prove by reasoned confrontation with contemporary Gnosticism that the Christian religion is the only true gnosis, and to represent the faithful Christian as the true Gnostic. At baptism every Christian receives the Holy Spirit and thereby the capacity to rise from simple belief to an ever more perfect knowledge; but only those rise to attain it in fact who perpetually strive to do so, and who struggle for ever greater perfection in their manner of life. Only by an increasing effort of self-education and by penetrating more and more deeply into the gospel, and that solely within the Church, which is the “only virgin Mother”, 10 does a man become a true Gnostic and so surpass the cultural ideal of the “wise man” of pagan philosophy. That pagan ideal certainly represents a value which must be acknowledged, but it is only a preliminary stage. The model of the Christian Gnostic is the figure of Christ, whom he must come to resemble, and by following whom he becomes an image of God. 11 Linked with this is a perpetual growth in the love of God, which makes possible for the Gnostic a life of unceasing prayer, makes him see God and imparts to him a resemblance to God. This ascent from step to step, does not, however, remove the true Gnostic from the company of his brethren to whom such an ascent has not been granted; rather does he serve them, ever ready to help, and summons them 8 Ibid. 1, 1, 3. 9 Cf. A. Knauber in TThZ 60 (1951), 249 ff. 10 Paidag. 1, 6, 42. 11 Strom . 7, 13, 2. 233 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY to follow his path by the example of the purity of his life. Such practical questions of actual living stand in the centre of Clement’s thought and teaching. Speculative theological problems occupy only the fringe of his interests. He takes over the idea of the Logos from St John, but does not penetrate more deeply into it. The Logos is united with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the divine Trias; the world was created by him, and he revealed God with increasing clarity, first in the Jewish Law, then in Greek philosophy, and finally in becoming man. By his blood mankind was redeemed, and men still drink his blood in order to share in his immortality. 12 The Redeemer Christ recedes, for Clement, behind the Logos as teacher and lawgiver. He did not further speculative theology properly so-called, but he is the first comprehensive theorist of Christian striving after perfection, and posterity allowed him to be forgotten far too readily. Origen Fortune did not favour the life-work of Origen, the greatest of the Alexandrian teachers and the most important theologian of Eastern Christianity. The greater part of his writings has perished because the violent quarrels which broke out concerning his orthodoxy led to his condemnation by the Synod of Constantinople in 553. As a consequence, his theological reputation suffered for a long time, and the reading of his works was proscribed. Few of these works remain in his Greek mother- tongue, and the greater part of his biblical homilies has survived only in Latin translations, notably those by Jerome and Rufinus. Friends and admirers in the third and fourth centuries preserved a little of his canon and this helps to throw light on the aim and purpose of his life’s work, the most useful of this evidence being preserved in the sixth book of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History . Though this sketch is transfigured by retrospect vision, Eusebius had at his disposal a collection of Origen’s letters, and obtained many details from men who had known him personally in Caesarea. The first decisive influence on Origen was that of the Christian atmos¬ phere of his parents’ home. 13 There he inherited and never lost the high courage to confess his faith, and the constant readiness to be active in the ecclesiastical community. An excellent education in secular studies made it possible for him, after the martyr’s death of his father, Leonides, to support the family by teaching in a grammar school. Quite soon, while 12 Paidag. 2, 19, 4. 18 Eusebius’s precise details are to be preferred in this to Porphyry’s vague allusions to a pagan period in Origen’s life. It is certainly correct that Origen was familiar with Greek culture. 234 DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE EAST instructing interested pagans in the Christian faith on his own initiative, he felt the need of a deeper philosophical training; and this he found in the lectures of the neo-Platonist Ammonius Saccas, whose influence on him was strong and lasting. Journeys in his early manhood took him to Caesarea in Palestine, where he became a friend of the bishop, Theoctistus, and of Alexander, the head of the Jerusalem community, to Arabia at the invitation of the imperial governor; and also to the West, where he travelled to Rome. These journeys gave him a vivid idea of the life of the Church as a whole, and strengthened his inclination to work everywhere through his lectures for a deeper understanding of Scripture and belief. His appointment as teacher of the catechumens and his duties as head of the theological school in Alexandria brought his rich intellectual and spiritual powers to full development, and initiated the creative period of his life. This was not fundamentally disturbed when, in the years 230-1, conflict with Bishop Demetrius forced him to transfer his activities to Caesarea in Palestine. The ostensible cause of his estrangement from the local bishop was his ordination to the priesthood without the former’s knowledge. It was conferred on him by Palestinian bishops, although Origen, being a eunuch (he had castrated himself in a youthful excess of asceticism), was not, according to the views of the time, a suitable candidate. The deeper reason, however, was the bishop’s inability to have a man of such high reputation and intellectual quality by his side. The understanding which was shown to Origen in his second sphere of activity, namely in Palestine, was munificently repaid by him; for, in addition to his actual teaching, he served the life of the Church directly, both by his tireless preaching and by public theological discussions about problems of the day, which repeatedly took him as far as Arabia. He had occasion to crown his fidelity to faith and Church by manfully confessing the faith during the Decian persecution, when he was imprisoned and subjected to cruel torture. About the year 253 or 254 he died in Tyre as a result of this treatment, when nearly seventy years of age. The kernel of Origen’s theological achievement was his work on the Bible, his efforts for its better understanding and the use made of it to create a right attitude in belief and true piety. The bulk of his literary production derived from this concern. It took the form of critical and philological work on the text of Scripture, scientific commentaries on individual books, and finally in his abundant discourses on the Bible, which were recorded by stenographers and later published. These are works of edification; not merely intellectually stimulating, they delve into the ultimate depths of Christian life. The impressive undertaking of the Hexapla 14 served to establish a trustworthy text of the Bible. It presented 14 See Quasten P , II, 44 ff., and G. Mercati, Psalterii Hexapli reliquiae I (Rome 1958). 235 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY in six parallel columns the original Hebrew in Hebrew characters, a Greek transcription, the translations by Aquila and Symmachus, the Septuagint and the Theodotion translation. What was probably the only copy of this work was placed in the library of Caesarea, where it could still be consulted in the time of Jerome and even later. A particularly hard fate overtook the great scriptural commentaries; many of which perished completely, or did so with the exception of a few fragments, such as the commentaries on Genesis, the Psalms, Proverbs, Isaias, Ezechiel, the Minor Prophets, Luke, and most of the Epistles of St Paul. Larger portions of the commen¬ taries on the Canticle of Canticles, the Gospels of St Matthew and St John were preserved, partly in Greek and partly in Latin translations. The works which most frequently survived were homilies, particularly esteemed for their pastoral use of the Old Testament. About six hundred of them have come down to us, but only twenty-one in the original Greek. It was with an attitude of deepest reverence that Origen undertook this service of Holy Scripture; for in it he encountered the living word of God which it embodies. Consequently, the understanding of Holy Scripture is for him “the art of arts” and “the science of sciences”. 15 And just as all events take place in mysteries, so Scripture also is full of mysteries which unveil themselves only to one who implores this revelation in insistent prayer. 16 From this consideration sprang Origen’s spontaneous appeals to “his Lord Jesus” to show him the way to a right interpretation of a difficult passage of Scripture. 17 He knew that this is only found when the deeper spiritual and divine sense is recognized, that which is hidden behind the letter is the treasure hidden in a field. That is why the allegorical inter¬ pretation of Scripture was not for Origen merely a traditional and easily applied method, taken over from the exposition of secular texts. It was often a compelling necessity for him, absolutely essential if what is sometimes offensive in the purely literal sense of Scripture is to be transcended. Origen was fully aware that allegory has its limits. 18 Nevertheless, in the hand of the master and despite all errors in detail, this method remains the path that leads him to the very heart of Scripture, affording ultimate religious insight and knowledge. The daily reading of Scripture, to which Origen exhorts us, 19 became for him the well-spring of his personal religious life; and it also made him a teacher of the Christian ideal of striving after perfection, whose subsequent influence was immeasurable: first on Eastern monasticism, and then in the Latin West, by way of St Ambrose. The ultimate goal of the ascent to 15 In loannem comm. 13, 46. 16 In Exod. horn. 1, 4; Ep. ad Greg. 4. 17 In Levit. horn. 1, 1; 5, 5; In Matth. comm. 10, 5. 18 In Num. horn. 9, 1. 19 In Gen. horn. 10, 3. 236 DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE EAST perfection is the resemblance to God, to which man was called when God created him in his own image and likeness. The surest way to this goal is the imitation of Christ; and to be so centred on Christ is the characteristic attitude of Origen’s piety, just as later the principle “Christus” was the basic concept of his pupil, Ambrose of Milan. 20 A man who imitates Christ chooses life and chooses light. 21 A presupposition for the success of this imitation is correct self-knowledge, which brings awareness of one’s own sinfulness; and this, in turn, imposes a stubborn fight against the perils which threaten from world and from one’s own passions. Only a person who has reached apatheia is capable of further mystical ascent, but this cannot be attained without a serious ascetic effort, in which fasting and vigils have their place just as much as the reading of Scripture and the exercise of humility. 22 Those who, following Christ’s example, freely choose a celibate life and virginity will more easily reach the goal. 23 The ascent to mystical union with the Logos takes place by degrees, a progress which Origen sees prefigured in the journey of the people of Israel through the desert to the promised land. 24 The profound yearning for Christ is fulfilled in a union with him which is accomplished in the form of a mystical marriage; 25 Christ becomes the bridegroom of the soul, which in a mystical embrace receives the vulnus amoris. 26 Origen here is not only the first representative of a profound devotion to Jesus, but also the founder of an already richly developed Christocentric and bridal mysticism, from which the medieval Christocentric spirituality of William of St Thierry and Bernard of Clairvaux derived, and from which it drew considerable substance. In this way the personality of the great Alexandrian had its deepest ultimate influence precisely where it is most authentically evident: in its calm, limpid, and yet ardent love for Christ. While in Alexandria, Origen wrote a systematic exposition of the chief doctrines of Christianity. He gave this first dogmatic handbook in the history of Christian theology the title Ilepl apycov (Concerning Principles), and dealt in four books with the central questions concerning God, the creation of the world, the fall of man, redemption through Jesus Christ, sin, freedom of the will, and Holy Scripture as a source of belief. The Greek original has perished, as has also the literal Latin translation made by Jerome. This surviving version by Rufinus, has smoothed down or eliminated entirely many things to which 20 Cf. K. Baus, in RQ 49 (1954), 26-29. 21 In Levit. horn. 9, 10. 22 In lerem. hom. 8, 4; In Exod. hom. 13, 5. 23 In Num. hom. 24, 2; In Cant. comm. 2, 155. 24 In Num. hom. 27. 25 In Cant. comm. 1. 26 Ibid. 2, 8. 237 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY objection might be raised. There is, consequently, some uncertainty about the precise view which Origen held on certain questions. 27 In his introduction, Origen speaks with great clarity about the principles of method which guided him in his work; Scripture and tradition are the two primary sources for his exposition of Christian doctrine. He knows that they cannot be approached with a philosopher's inquiry, but only with the attitude of a believer. The Old and New Testaments, the books of Law, the Prophets and the Epistles of St Paul: all contain the words of Christ and are a rule of life for the Christian, because they are inspired. 28 The authority of the Church guarantees that no spurious writings intrude; only what is accepted in all the communities as indubitably Holy Scripture is free from the suspicion of being apocryphal. 29 Only that truth can be received in faith which does not contradict ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition, and this is found in the teaching of the Church which per successions ordinem was handed down from the apostles. 30 Consequently, the Church is not only intended to be the guardian of Holy Scripture, but is also its authentic interpreter, for she alone has received from Christ the light which enlightens those who dwell in darkness. 31 She is the true Ark in which alone men can find salvation: the house which is marked with the blood of Christ and outside which there is no redemption. 32 She is like a fortified city, and anyone who remains outside her walls is captured and killed by the enemy. 33 Men enter Jesus' house by thinking like the Church and living according to her spirit. 34 As the rule of faith contains only the necessary fundamental doctrines preached by the apostles, without giving further reasons for them or showing in any detail their inner connexions, a wide field of activity remains open to theology. According to Origen, this is where the task lies for those who are called to it by the Holy Spirit through the special gifts of wisdom and knowledge. Theirs is the vocation of penetrating deeper into the truths of revelation and of framing by an appropriate method a theological system from Scripture and tradition. 35 The execution of his own project makes it plain that Origen was not a born systematizer; he had not the power to carry through his conception on a strictly logical plan. But of much greater 27 Cf. M. Harl, “Recherches sur le Ilepl 7 rep ’Qptysvooc;, or Defence of Origen , in six books, of which only the first survives in the Latin translation by Rufinus. 46 The writer Methodius is included in the opposition that formed against Origen. According to Jerome and Socrates, 47 he was Bishop of Olympus in Lycia, but more probably he lived as an ascetic and as a private Christian teacher. In his discussion of Origen he rejected the latter’s doctrine of the pre-existence of souls and the theory of a cycle of several creations of the world, but could not free himself from Origen’s allegorical interpretation of Scripture. For his literary works he 44 Fragments in R. Routh, Reliquiae sacrae 3 (Oxford 1846), 405-35; cf. L. B. Radford, Three Teachers of Alexandria , Theognostus , Pierius and Peter (Cambridge 1908). 45 W. Reichardt, Die Briefe des S. Julius Africanus (Leipzig 1909); E. Blakeney, “Jul. Africanus” in Theology 29 (1934), 164-9. 46 Euseh. HE 6, 32, 3; PG 17, 521-616. 47 Jerome, De vir. ill. 83; Socrates HE 6, 13. 241 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY preferred the dialogue form, and he displays a good knowledge of Plato. 48 His Symposium was in fact an important work, especially in its influence on the history of spirituality. It praises the Christian ideal of virginity and ends with a famous hymn to Christ the bridegroom and his bride the Church. The beginnings of the second theological school in the East are no less obscure than those of the Alexandrian school. It sprang up in the Syrian capital of Antioch, an important centre of the Hellenic world where conditions were similar to those in Alexandria. Tradition unanimously names the Antiochan priest Lucian as founder of the school, which may have been preceded by undertakings on a smaller scale and more private in character. In the time of Bishop Paul of Samosata, a priest named Malchion enjoyed a considerable reputation in Antioch for wide learning, but was a teacher in a secular Greek school. He demonstrated his superior theological training in the controversy with Paul of Samosata at the Synod of Antioch (268) which led to the latter’s condemnation. 49 Another priest of Antioch whose biblical interests and knowledge of Hebrew were praised, was Dorotheus, a contemporary of Lucian, but he is not expressly said to have been a Christian teacher. 50 It is only w r ith Lucian that the records in the sources become more precise. The fact that Lucian was one of the clergy of Antioch permits the assumption that his activity as a Christian teacher was authorized by his bishop. His theological learning, which is praised by Eusebius, 51 did not find expression in extensive publications. His real interest was in biblical work and more particularly in a new recension of the Septuagint, for which he consulted the Hebrew original. It enjoyed high repute and was widely used in the dioceses of Syria and Asia Minor. Lucian’s exegetical method must be gathered from the biblical works of his pupils; it takes principally into account the literal sense and only employs typological interpretation where the text itself demands it. Similarly, it is only from the works of his pupils that it is possible to form an idea of Lucian’s other theological characteristics. He always starts from biblical data, not from theological presuppositions, and attains, among other things, a strict Subordinationism in the doctrine of the Logos. This was represented soon after by Arius and some of his fellow-pupils, the so-called Syllucianists, and they expressly referred to their teacher for it. The characteristics of the Antioch school became fully clear only in the great age of the Fathers, in connexion with the Trinitarian and Christological controversies. 48 Cf. M. Margheritis, “L’influenza di Platone sul pensiero e sull’arte di s. Metodio d’Olimpo” in Studi Ubaldi (Milan 1937), 401-12. On the dialogue technique, cf. G. Luz- zati, ibid. 117-24. 49 Euseb. HE 7, 29, 2. 50 Ibid. 7, 32, 3-4. » Ibid. 9, 6, 3. 242 Chapter 20 The Development of Christian Literature in the West in the Third Century The Rise of Early Christian Latin and the Beginning of a Christian Literature in Latin. Minueius Felix The essentially different course taken by the development of Christian literature in the West in the third century, particularly in Rome, was determined by the linguistic tradition of the Roman Christian community, which at first was composed for the most part of Greek-speaking members and consequently used Greek for preaching and the liturgy. Only with the disappearance of the Greek majority did the necessity arise for trans¬ lating the Holy Scriptures of the new faith into Latin, of preaching in Latin, and finally of using Latin as a liturgical language too. The first traces of the existence of a Latin Bible extend back, as far as Rome is concerned, into the latter half of the second century, for the Latin trans¬ lation of the First Letter of Clement must have been made at that time. In Africa, at the turn of the century, Tertullian also quoted from a Latin Bible which he had at hand. The unknown translators thereby initiated the development of early Christian Latin, and with this achievement created the conditions for the rise of an independent Christian literature in the Latin tongue. Old Christian Latin was firmly based in one respect on the colloquial language of the common people, to whom the missionaries at first addressed themselves. On the other hand, it borrowed certain words from the Greek, for many Latin words were impossible to employ because of their previous use in pagan worship. And, finally, for many central concepts of Christian revelation and preaching, existing Latin terms had to be given a new content. In this way there arose, by a lengthy and extremely important process, a sector of early Christian Latin within the wider field of later Latin. It is clearly distinct from the language of secular literature, possessing its own unmistakable style. No single person, there¬ fore, created early Christian Latin: not even Tertullian, the first writer to attest its existence through his writings. Naturally, it took a certain time for this Christian Latin to acquire such flexibility and clarity that it could be used for more important literary works. It is characteristic that the theological discussions in Rome at the end of the second and in the third centuries were still conducted to a large extent in Greek. Justin wrote his Apologia in Greek; Marcion and the early disputants in the Trinitarian controversies were from Asia Minor; and even Hippolytus, the first theologian of rank to live and write in Rome, was of Eastern origin, and published his works in the Greek language. 243 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY A further characteristic of Latin Christian theology in the third century was that it was not developed in theological schools as was its Eastern counterpart. There was no lack of institutions for the instruction of catechumens at key points of Christianization such as Rome and Carthage; but schools where important theological teachers of Origen’s kind provided an introduction to the Christian religion for cultivated pagans were unknown in the West. Tertullian, it is true, exercised a strong influence, and Novatian was certainly a theologian of importance; but neither of them was head of a school in its proper sense. The Octavius Dialogue of Minucius Felix presents a defence of Chris¬ tianity written in a distinguished and polished style by a lawyer trained in philosophy who was particularly influenced by Stoic thought. Caecilius, the pagan speaker in this dialogue, views pagan polytheism with marked scepticism, but, because Rome owed its greatness to it, would give it preference over the Christian religion, whose invisible God seemed to him a figment of the imagination, whose adherents were without culture and gave themselves up to shameless orgies. The Christian Octavius proves by purely philosophical arguments, without any appeal to Holy Scripture, that a sceptical standpoint on religious questions is untenable, and he rejects as calumnies the accusations made against the Christians. The dialogue does not go deeper into the content of the Christian faith. Its diction is still free from the typical features of early Christian Latin, and its style still strongly recalls the artistically cultivated prose of the later Antonines. One may for these reasons be inclined to date this elegant apologia before Tertullian’s Apologeticum in the much-disputed and still open question of priority. Hippolytus Hippolytus can be regarded as a link between East and West. His person and work even today present many unsolved problems for research. It can be said with certainty that he was not a Roman by birth but a man from the East, thinking Greek and writing Greek, whose home was possibly Egypt and very likely Alexandria: a true Roman would scarcely have expressed as low an opinion of Rome’s historical past as Hippolytus does. 1 He came to Rome probably as early as Pope Zephyrinus’s time and belonged as a priest to the Christian community there, in which his culture and intellectual activity assured him considerable prestige. His influence is evident in all the theological and disciplinary controversies which stirred Roman Christianity in the opening decades of the third century. His high conception of the functions of a priest, among which he emphatically 1 See in particular J.-M. Hanssens, La liturgie d’Hippolyte (Rome 1959), 290 f. 244 DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE WEST reckoned the preservation of apostolic traditions, did not permit him to shrink from bold criticism of the Roman bishops when he thought those traditions threatened by their attitude and measures. The position he assumed in the controversy over Modalism must be mentioned later. His rigoristic attitude on the question of penance made him an irreconcilable opponent of Bishop Callistus (217-22), and the leader of a numerically small but intellectually important opposition group. Nevertheless, the conjecture that he had himself consecrated bishop at that time, and so became the first anti-pope in the history of the Church, finds no adequate support in the sources. And there is just as little reliable evidence that it was the writer Hippolytus whom the emperor Maximinus Thrax banished to Sardinia with Pope Pontian, that it was he who was there reconciled to the latter and died in exile. 2 But it is possible that Hippolytus lived on through the period of the Novatian schism, belonged to this movement for a while and after being received once more into the Christian com¬ munity survived until later than 253. 3 Both Eusebius and Jerome give a list of his writings; 4 and their titles reveal him as a writer having such notable breadth of interest as to suggest comparison with Origen, though certainly he never achieved the latter’s originality and depth. If the statue of a teacher which was discovered in 1551 actually represents Hippolytus — an incomplete catalogue of his works and an Easter calendar are carved on the side of the teacher’s chair — it is tangible evidence of his reputation. Hippolytus most clearly shares with Origen an inclination to the study of Scripture, which he expounds in the same allegorical way, though a more sober use of this method is unmistakable in his case. It is true that only a small remnant of his biblical writings has survived, but among them is a significant commentary on Daniel in the Greek original, and an exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, complete but in translation. In the Susanna of the Book of Daniel he considers that the Church, the virgin bride of Christ, is prefigured, persecuted by Jews and pagans. Likewise the bride and bridegroom of the Canticle of Canticles are understood as Christ and his Church, and sometimes the bride is considered to be the soul that loves God, an interpretation that was taken up particularly by St Ambrose in his exposition of Psalm 118, and so transmitted to the Middle Ages. 2 There are sound reasons for supposing that confusion later occurred with another Hippolytus, who was also a priest and who was honoured as a martyr: cf. Hanssens, op. cit. 317—40. It would then be the latter Hippolytus who was referred to in the Depositio martyrum of 354. 8 The supposition is based chiefly on a letter written to Rome in 253 by Dionysius of Alexandria, which presupposed that Hippolytus was still alive; cf. Euseb. HE 6, 46, 5, and Hanssens, op. cit. 299 f. 4 Enseb. HE 6, 12, and Jerome, De vir. ill. 61. 245 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY Anxiety for the preservation of apostolic traditions was the second motive determining Hippolytus’s work as a writer. They seemed to him threatened in doctrine and in the performance of divine worship. Con¬ sequently, he wrote a Church Order designed to ensure the maintenance of traditional forms in the most important rules and formulas for con¬ ferring Orders, the various functions of ecclesiastical offices, the conferring of baptism, and the celebration of the eucharist. This Traditio Apostolica no longer survives in its original language, but it forms the kernel of a series of further Church Orders such as the Apostolic Order , the Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ , the Canons of Hippolytus and the eight books of the Apostolic Constitutions . Its principle impact was felt in the East, especially in Egypt, as the many translations into Coptic, Ethiopic, and Arabic show, while the Latin version (c. 500) is incomplete. For Hippolytus, his Church Order probably represented an ideal form which was not designed for the needs of a particular community, but intended to provide a norm by which the Church leaders could test the conformity of their liturgical prescriptions with apostolic tradition. 5 It drew its material chiefly from Eastern sources, and consequently cannot be regarded as a Ritual which Hippolytus based on the liturgical forms customary in Rome at the beginning of the third century. The anti-heretical dogmatic writings of Hippolytus served to safeguard apostolic tradition in doctrine. An early work was his Syntagma against thirty-two heresies, treating of the erroneous doctrines which had appeared in the course of history down to his own day. Unfortunately only its concluding part, which refutes the teaching of Noetus, is extant. Another anti-heretical work is attributed to Hippolytus: The Refutation of All Heresies , also called the Philosophoumena , which indicated in its first part the errors of pagan philosophers and the aberrations of pagan religions (Book 1-4), and then proceeded to oppose the Gnostic systems in particular (Books 5-9). The argument in this work owes a great deal to Irenaeus. The Tenth Book provides a recapitulation of the whole work, and adds a brief account of the content of Christian belief. The chief purpose of the author is to demonstrate his thesis that the root of all heresies is that they did not follow Christ, Holy Scripture, and tradition, but reverted instead to pagan doctrines. 6 The historical transmission of this work is extremely confused. The First Book was ascribed to Origen, but the manuscript containing Books 4-10 was not discovered until 1842 and names no author. Only the fact that the writer refers to other works of Hippolytus as his own writings 7 — his Chronicle and his study On the Universe — makes the 6 See Trad, apost., ed. E. Hauler, Didascaliae Apostolorum Fragment a Veronensia (Leipzig 1900), 56,1-13; 78, 30—5; 80, 30-5. • Refut., praef. 7 Ibid. 10, 30 and 32. 246 DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE WEST attribution to Hippolytus at all possible. The Philosophoumena have very much the character of a compilation, and give the impression of being a first draft which did not receive further revision. The polemic is caustic and oversteps all bounds when a personal opponent is attacked, so that an Hippolytus different from the author of his other works seems to be speaking here. 8 The concept of the Church, which the Philosophoumena express, is particularly striking. In the commentary on Daniel and the exposition of the Canticle of Canticles the Church appears as the spotless bride of Christ, permitting no place for a person who has incurred grievous moral guilt, but here in the controversy with Callistus the Church is addressed as the bearer and safeguard of truth, whose purity and authentic¬ ity have to be watched over by bishops in legitimate apostolic succession. The author turns passionately against those who forget their task and who, though appointed members of the hierarchy, open too wide to sinners the gate of the Church of the saints. Novatian Novatian may be considered as the first Roman theologian of importance, but his culture and gifts had to overcome manifold contradictions within the Roman community. Although he had received only the baptism of the sick, and so, according to the conception of the time, displayed a lack of courage to confess the Faith, Pope Fabian had nevertheless ordained him priest; 9 and about the year 250 he played a decisive role in the Pope’s collegium. When the papal see was vacant, he continued the correspondence of the Roman Church with other communities abroad, and in two or three letters to Cyprian 10 expounded the Roman position concerning the treat¬ ment of those who had lapsed during persecution, a position identical with Cyprian’s prudent practice. About 250 Novatian wrote his chief theological treatise on the Trinity. Here he made use of the work of earlier theologians, especially Hippolytus and Tertullian, and carefully formulated the state of the question in clear language of much formal distinction. The theology of Marcion is rejected in his treatise, as well as the Modalist conception of the Monarchians; Novatian propounds a very definite Subordinationism, which however much it emphasizes Christ’s Godhead subordinates him to 8 This caused P. Nautin to ascribe the Philosophoumena , the Chronicle, and the work On the Universe to another author, whom he called Josipos. Even if his arguments are not convincing on this, he clearly perceived and rightly emphasized the striking difference of style and particular range of themes in the Philosophoumena as compared with the other writings of Hippolytus. 9 See Euseh. HE 6, 43, 6-22; cf. also ibid, for the one-sided characterization of Novatian by Cornelius. 10 In Cyprian’s Letters , nos. 30, 36, and perhaps 31. 247 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY the Father almost more strictly than in earlier theology. He expresses himself very briefly on the relation of the Holy Spirit to the Son and the Father, but here too emphasizes the subordination of the Spirit to the Son. He lays great stress on the role of the Holy Spirit within the Church, which is preserved by his gifts inviolate in holiness and truth. This work of Novatian brought the theology of the Trinity in the West before Con¬ stantine’s time provisionally to an end, until Augustine later revived dis¬ cussion on the subject. Novatian’s other writings are pastoral in character and belong to the later phase of his life when, after leaving the Roman community, he led his own rigoristic, strictly organized society, as its bishop. His separation from the Roman community was due in the first place to personal motives especially aroused when Cornelius was preferred to him in the election of bishop in 251. The rift became irreparable when Novatian tried to justify his own secession by a concept according to which there could be no place for a mortal sinner in the Church of the saints, however ready he might be to atone by penance. While African circles, contrary to Novatian’s expectation, ultimately refused him a following, he found numerous adherents in the East, who regarded themselves as the Church of the “pure” (xocOapot). 11 Dionysius of Alexandria had difficulty in preventing a greater defection than occurred, 12 and in the West a synod of sixty bishops under the leadership of Pope Cornelius clarified the situation by excommunicating Novatian and his followers. The first of Novatian’s three pastoral letters to his communities deals with the question of the obligation of Jewish food laws, which he rejected; the second adopts a negative position on visits to the pagan theatre and circus; the third, De bono pudicitiae, presents a lofty exposition of the early Christian ideal of chastity in which marital fidelity and high esteem of virginity are forcefully proclaimed. Regarding Novatian’s end, we have only the report of Socrates that he died as a martyr in the persecution by Valerian. An epitaph found in a catacomb in Rome in 1932, which reads: “Novatiano beatissimo martyri Gaudentius diaconus fecit”, appears to confirm this report. 13 Tertullian The contribution made by the young African Church to early Christian literature in the third century was of greater weight and consequence. All evidence seems to indicate that Christianity found its way from Rome to these provinces beyond the sea, and that the first missionaries still used 11 Euseb. HE 6, 43, 1. 12 He tried to persuade Novatian to return; see his letter in Euseb. HE 6, 45. 13 Socrates HE 4, 28; see Chapter 18, above. 248 DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE WEST Greek in their preaching. Towns provided the earliest points of contact for Christian teaching, especially and above all Carthage, which had flourished again under Roman rule and where the upper classes were quite familiar with Greek. 14 But the transition to Latin for preaching and liturgy took place earlier in Africa than in Rome. The Acts of the Martyrs of Sciliy the first dated Latin document of Christian origin (a.d. 180), probably already presupposes a translation of the Pauline epistles into Latin; a few years later Tertullian used a Latin translation of the Bible, which was not to his taste; and, about the middle of the third century, Cyprian quoted it so habitually that it must have been generally known by that time. 15 The Christian literature which begins with Tertullian vividly reflects the special features of the world of African Christianity in the third century. This area was exposed to most grievous tribulations in the per¬ secutions of the time and had to pay a very heavy toll in blood for its steadfastness in the faith, which was rewarded by a proportionately rapid growth of the Church. The African church was characterized to an almost equal extent by the internal controversies which it suffered with the Gnostic sects and Montanism, by the struggles for its unity which it waged against the schismatical movement of Novatian and Felicissimus and, after the middle of the third century, by the quarrel concerning baptism conferred by heretics. All this left its mark on the early Christian literature of North Africa, and gives it its lively and sometimes pugnacious quality. At the same time the first differences which were to divide the Greek and Latin literature more and more sharply from each other are already apparent within it. The latter was not as much concerned as was the East, in grasping the metaphysical content of revelation and demonstrating its superiority over Hellenistic religious trends. Its prime interest lay, rather, in directly practical questions of actual living in pagan surroundings, such as logically follow from the Christian doctrine of redemption; and it was concerned, furthermore, with the translation of belief into action, which demands a fight against sin, and with the positive practice of virtue as a contribution of the individual Christian to ensuring salvation. In Tertullian we meet the first and at the same time the most productive and distinctive writer of pre-Constantinian literature in North Africa. Born about 160 in Carthage, he was the son of a pagan captain, received a solid general education in the humanities, and pursued special studies in law and 14 See J. Mesnage, Le christianisme en Afrique , I (Paris 1915); C. Cecchelli, Africa Christiana , Africa Romana (Rome 1936); G. Barely, La question des langues dans Veglise ancienne (Paris 1948), 52-72. 15 See G. D. Aalders, Tertullianus ’ citaten uit de Evangelien (Amsterdam 1932); B. Botte in DBS 5 (1952), 334-7; H. J. Vogels, Handhuch der neutestamentlichen Textkritik (Bonn, 2nd ed. 1955). 249 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY Greek. He entered the Church as an adult, as a result of the impression made on him by Christians* fidelity to their beliefs under persecution, and immediately placed his wealth of gifts at her service. The sources do not make it clear whether he became a priest or remained a layman. The period of his activity as a writer covers approximately a quarter of a century (c. 195-220), and comprises two parts of roughly equal length but of quite contrasting nature. Until c. 207 he was a convinced and declared member of the Catholic Church, but then he joined the Montanist movement and rejected wholesale what he had previously revered. This change accounts for a double feature in Tertullian*s nature which is apparent to every reader of his works. He is a man who gives himself utterly and uncompromisingly to whatever he professes at any given moment: anyone who thinks differ¬ ently than he is not only an opponent of his views but is morally suspect. His temperament, which inclined him to extremes, led him almost inevitably out of the Church when he encountered in Montanism a form of Christian belief in which the utmost rigorism was the law. For the defence of his conviction of the moment, he had at his command a mastery of contem¬ porary Latin such as no other writer of those years possessed. In expounding his own position, he employed an impressive eloquence supported by comprehensive learning in every field, which he drew upon with brilliant effect. He had also the gift of that brief incisive turn of phrase which holds the reader’s interest. His acute intellect relentlessly uncovered the weakness of an opponent’s argument, and helds up to ridicule those who differed from him. There can be no doubt that Tertullian’s work was read, but its power of conviction is open to suspicion. It seems that even Montanism was not in the end sufficient for his excessive and immoderate nature; and Augustine credibly reports that before his death he became the founder of a sect named, after himself, the Tertullianists. 16 In a series of writings Tertullian tried to place before the pagans a true picture of the Christian religion. After a first attempt in Ad nationes , he found in the Apologeticum a form that suited his ideas. The work is directly addressed to the praesides of the Roman provinces, but indirectly to paganism as a whole. Tertullian takes in each case ideas familiar to the pagans as the starting point of his argument, and contrasts them with Christian doctrine and Christian life. He effectively makes it clear that the most grievous injustice is done to the Christians by condemning them without knowing the truth about them. Tertullian therefore asks not for acquittal but for justice based on impartial investigation of the truth. In this way his apologetics advances in content beyond that of the Greeks of 19 De haeres. 86. G. Saflund, De pallio und die stilistische Entwicklung Tertullians (Lund 1955), would like to consider Tertullian’s De pallio as his last work, and as giving the defence of that step; but Saflund’s arguments are not convincing. 250 DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE WEST the second century, and at the same time achieves an artistic form superior to any coming before. Tertullian also defended the claim of the Church to truth and her possession of truth against the heresies of the age and especially against Gnostic trends. This he accomplished in a treatise on principles which makes brilliant use of his legal knowledge: the De praescriptione haere- ticorum demonstrates that Christianity, as opposed to heresy, can sub¬ stantiate a clear legal claim to the possession of truth. Long before heresies appeared, Christian teachers were preaching that message which they had received from the apostles and which had been entrusted to the latter by Christ. Consequently, Holy Scripture is in the possession of the Church alone; only she can determine its true sense and so establish the content of belief. A series of monographs was also directed by Tertullian against individual Gnostics or their particular tenets; such a work was that against Marcion, mentioned above, which refutes his dualism and defends the harmony between Old and New Testaments. He seeks to safeguard the Christian doctrine of Creation, the resurrection of the body and the status of martyrdom against volatilization by the Gnostics; and against Praxeas he expounds the Church’s conception of the Trinity with a clarity hitherto unknown. He deals with practical questions of Christian daily life in his short works on the meaning and effects of baptism, prayer, theatrical shows, patience, and the spirit and practice of penance. A rigoristic strain is often perceptible even here, and it becomes predominant in the works of the Montanist period. In this latter phase he made demands in utter contradiction of his earlier views, as for instance when he opposes second marriages in his De monogamia , military service and all trades in any way connected with idolatry in the De corona and De idolatria, and proclaims the most rigorous practice of fasting in De ieiunio . His fight against the Church took particularly harsh forms; he disputed her right to remit sins, which he reserved in the De pudicitia to the Montanist prophets alone. Viewed as a whole, Tertullian’s interests as a writer were not of a speculative kind, and he gives no systematic exposition of Christian doctrine. His importance in the history of dogma rests on the value of his writings as evidence of the stage of development which various particular doctrines had reached in his time; but it must also be borne in mind that his adherence to Montanism essentially modified his views. He was speaking as a Montanist essentially about the nature of the Church when he rejected an official priesthood and affirmed: ubi tres, ecclesia est , licet laid . 17 A pre-eminent position with the power of binding and loosing belonged only to Peter, and was not therefore conferred on later bishops. 18 The 17 De exhort, cast. 7; cf. De fuga 14; De pud. 21, 17. 18 De pud. 21, 9-11. 251 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY conception of original sin as a vitium originis was familiar to him, in the sense that through Adam’s sin evil concupiscence has poisoned human nature, but he does not infer the necessity of infant baptism from this . 19 Tertullian thinks in very concrete terms about the Eucharist; those who take part in the orationes sacrificiorum receive the body of the Lord which is just as truly the real body of Christ as was the body on the cross; and the soul is nourished on the body and blood of Christ . 20 In Christology and the theology of the Trinity, he employs a terminology which influenced subsequent developments in the Latin West: according to him, Jesus Christ is true God and true man, both natures are united in one person but not confused . 21 The expression “Trinitas” as well as the term “persona”, is found for the first time in Latin literature in Tertullian : 22 in this Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are “unius substantiae et unius status et unius potestatis ”. 23 The Logos existed already before the creation of the world, but only became Son at the creation, and consequently as such is not eternal . 24 The more precise relation of Father and Son is viewed in a Subordinationist manner: the Father alone has the fullness of the Godhead; the Son has only a derivative part . 25 The Holy Spirit too is thought of as a person: he is the real teacher in the Church, who first of all led the apostles into all truth, but who is also operative as the representative of God and Christ in every Christian community , 26 especially through Holy Scripture which is his work and in which his voice is audible . 27 Cyprian A notable influence on posterity was also exercised by Bishop Cyprian of Carthage as a writer of the African Church. The authenticity of his personality and the example of his pastoral care stamped characteristic features on the Christianity of his native land . 28 The interest taken in his writings was likewise due to the deep impression produced by these qualities. In theology he owed much to Tertullian, whom he called his master and 19 De an. 41; De bapt. 18. 20 De or. 19; De cor. 3; De pud. 9, 16; Adv. Marc. 3, 19; De res. earn. 8. 21 Adv. Prax 27; De came Christi 5. 22 Adv. Prax. 3. 28 Ibid. 12. 24 Ibid. 7; Adv. Hermog. 3. 25 Adv. Prax. 9, 13; B. Piault, “Tertullien a-t-il £t£ subordination?” in RSPhTh (1936), 181-204. 28 De bapt. 6, 12; De praescr. 22, 8-10; 13, 5. 27 Adv. Hermog. 22, 1; De idol. 4, 5. 28 For Cyprian’s influence on Augustine, see J. B. Bord in RHE 18 (1922), 445-68; also B. de Margerie in Sciences Ecclesiastiques 15 (1963), 199-211. 252 DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE WEST whose works he constantly read . 29 His treatises and letters deal mostly with the solution of questions of the day, as they arose through persecution and the threat to ecclesiastical unity from sectarian divisions. A personal note is struck in the little worked Donatum, in which the religious certainty attained in baptism after long search finds attractive expression. Cyprian as a pastor turned with a word of consolation to the Christians of North Africa in time of plague, and summoned them to be ready to make sacrifices in order to perform works of mercy. This he did in his De mortalitate and De opere et eleemosynis. He extols the Christian ideal of virginity and utters warnings against the destructive consequences of dissension in the De habitu virginum and De zelo et livore and here too he takes up the ideas of Tertullian in his writings on the Our Father and on patience. His treatise On the Unity of the Church shows greater independence both in content and in the personal position it reveals; and it has greater value as evidence of the concept of the Church held in the mid-third century. The represent¬ ative and guarantor of ecclesiastical unity is the bishop, who is united with his fellow bishops through the common basis of the episcopate in the apostolic office . 30 Among the holders of the latter, Peter had objectively and legitimately a special position which rested on the power of binding and loosing imparted to him alone . 31 As this was committed by Christ to only one apostle, the unity that Christ willed for the Church was established for ever . 32 Cyprian does not yet infer from this an effective jurisdiction of Peter over his fellow apostles, nor a transmission of his personal prerogatives to his successor as Bishop of Rome. Rather does there belong to the Roman church a position of honour, founded on the fact of Peter’s work and death in Rome . 33 Cyprian unambiguously rejects a Roman right of direction, for instance in the question of the validity of baptism for heretics. The individual bishop is responsible to God alone for the guidance of his community even in such matters . 34 Cyprian sets a very high value on membership in the Church of Christ: nobody has a claim to the name of Christian who has not his own name in this Church; only in her is his salvation assured, according to the pregnant formula: “salus extra ecclesiam non est .” 35 Children, too, should share in the membership of the Church as early as possible, and so infant baptism is a practice which Cyprian takes for granted . 36 Fidelity to the Church in persecution merits the highest 29 See Jerome, De vir. ill. 53. 30 Ep. 54, 1; 68, 5. 31 De eccl. unit. 4. 32 Ibid. 7. 33 Ep. 71, 3. 34 Sent, episc. init. f CSEL 3, 1, 435 f. 35 Ep. 73, 21; 55, 24. 30 Ep. 64, 2 and 5. 253 INNER CONSOLIDATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY recognition; those who in martyrdom have sealed their testimony to Christ and his Church with the sacrifice of their lives obtain immediately the vision of God. 37 In this belief, Bishop Cyprian himself accepted a martyr’s death in a manner which kept his name in undying remembrance in the African Church. Chapter 21 The First Christological and Trinitarian Controversies The apologists of the second century in their discussions of pagan poly¬ theism emphasized above all strict monotheism which they did not consider imperilled by their conception of Logos-Christology. In the Church’s defensive action against Gnosticism, the emphatic stress on the unity of the divine nature was similarly prominent, and so theology in the second century did not concern itself in great detail with the problem of the relation between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was obscurely felt that, in the one indivisible God, certain distinctions were present which were manifested particularly in the Creation and the Redemption. The apologist Theophilus had even employed the term “Trias” for this reality, 1 but a deeper conceptual penetration of this truth of revelation and a correspond¬ ing linguistic formulation of it had not been attained. Theological reflection was now, at the end of the second century, to concern itself precisely with the question of the Trinity. The Logos-Christology presented by the apologists, and further developed by the second-century writers, was defective to the extent that it subordinated the Son to the Father. According to this concept, the Logos, existing from all eternity within God (Xoyo<; evStaOcTOt;), came forth from the Father only as Creator and ruler of the world (Xoyo<;7rpo