FIRST CHURCH OF JERUSALEM; ITS CHARACTER CENOBITICAL.
The custom of living in a community professing one identical faith, and
indulging in one and the same expectation, necessarily produced many
habits common to all the society. Very soon rules were enacted, and
established a certain analogy between this primitive church and the
cenobitical establishments with which Christianity became acquainted
at a later period. Many of the precepts of Jesus conduced to this; the
true ideal of the gospel life is a monastery--not a monastery closed
in with iron gratings, a prison of the type of the Middle Ages, with
the separation of the two sexes, but an asylum in the midst of the
world, a place set apart for the spiritual life, a free association or
little confraternity, tracing around it a rampart which may serve to
dispel cares that are hurtful to the kingdom of God. All, then, lived
in common, having only one heart and one mind.[5.1] No one possessed
aught which individually belonged to him. On becoming disciples of
Jesus, they sold their goods and presented to the society the price of
them. The chiefs of the society then distributed the common possessions
according to the needs of each member. They dwelt in one neighborhood
only.[5.2] They took their meals together, and continued to attach to
them the mystic sense which Jesus had ordered.[5.3] Many hours of the
day they spent in prayer. These prayers were sometimes improvised in
a loud voice; oftener they were silent meditations. Their states of
ecstasy were frequent, and each one believed himself to be incessantly
favored with the Divine inspiration. Their harmony was perfect; no
quarrelling about dogmas, no dispute respecting precedence. The tender
recollection of Jesus prevented all dissensions. A lively and deeply
rooted joy pervaded their hearts.[5.4] Their morals were austere, but
marked by a sweet and tender sympathy. They assembled in houses to pray
and abandon themselves to ecstatic exercises.[5.5] The remembrance of
those two or three years rested upon them like that of a terrestrial
paradise, which Christianity would henceforth pursue in all its dreams,
and to which it would endeavor to return in vain. Who, indeed, does not
see that such an organization could only be applicable to a very little
church? But, later on, the monastic life will resume on its own account
this primitive ideal, which the church universal will hardly dream of
realizing.
That the author of the "_Acts_," to whom we owe the picture of this
first Christianity at Jerusalem, has somewhat overcolored it, and in
particular has exaggerated the community of goods which prevailed
there, is quite possible. The author of the "_Acts_" is the same as the
author of the third Gospel, who, in his life of Jesus, is accustomed
to shape his facts according to his own theories,[5.6] and with whom
a tendency to the doctrine of "_ebionism_"[5.7]--that is to say, of
absolute poverty--is very perceptible. Nevertheless, the story of the
"_Acts_" cannot be entirely without foundation. Although even Jesus
would not have given utterance to any of those communistic axioms
which we read of in the third Gospel, certain it is that a renunciation
of the goods of this world and a giving of alms, carried so far as even
the despoiling of self, was entirely conformable to the spirit of his
preaching. The belief that the world is coming to an end has always
been conducive to a cenobitical life and to a distaste for the things
of this world.[5.8] The story of the "_Acts_" is, in other respects,
perfectly conformable to what we know of the origin of other ascetic
religions--of Buddhism, for example. These sorts of religion invariably
commence with the cenobitical life. Their first adepts are a species
of mendicant monks. The laity are only introduced into them at a
more advanced period, and when these religions have conquered entire
societies, or the monastic life could only exist under exceptional
circumstances.[5.9] We admit, then, in the Church of Jerusalem a period
of cenobitical life. Two centuries later, Christianity produced still
on the pagans the effect of a communistic sect.[5.10] We must remember
that the Essenians or Thereapeutians had already produced the model of
this description of life, which sprang very legitimately from Mosaism.
The Mosaic code being essentially moral, and not political, naturally
produced a social Utopia; church, synagogue, and convent--not a civil
régime, nation, or city. Egypt had had, for many centuries, recluses
both male and female supported by the State, probably in fulfilment of
charitable bequests, near the Serapeum of Memphis.[5.11] Above all, it
must be remembered that such a life in the East is by no means such as
it has been in our West. In the East, one can abundantly enjoy nature
and life without possessing anything. Man, in those countries, is
always free because he has few cares; the slavery of labor is there
unknown. We willingly suppose that the communism of the primitive
Church was neither so rigorous nor so universal as the author of the
"_Acts_" would lead us to believe. What is certain about it is, that
it had a large community of poor people at Jerusalem, governed by the
apostles, and to whom donations from all the places where Christianity
existed were sent.[5.12] This community was, doubtless, compelled to
establish rules of a sufficiently rigorous nature, and some years later
it became necessary to keep it in due order, even to employ terror.
Frightful legends were circulated, according to which, the simple fact
of having retained anything besides that which had been presented
to the community, was treated as a capital crime and punished with
death.[5.13]
The porticos of the temple, especially Solomon's porch, which commanded
the valley of Cedron, was the place where the disciples usually
assembled in the day-time.[5.14] There they recalled the remembrance
of those hours which Jesus had passed in the same spot. In the midst
of the immense activity which existed all about the temple, they would
be little remarked. The galleries which formed part of this building
were the seat of numerous schools and sects, and the arena of many a
dispute. The faithful of Jesus would no doubt be taken for devotees
of great precision of manner; for they scrupulously observed all the
Jewish customs, praying at the appointed hours,[5.15] and observing
all the precepts of the law. They were Jews, only differing from the
others in their belief that the Messiah had already come. People who
were not well versed in their concerns (and these were the immense
majority), looked upon them as a sect of Hasidim, or pious people.
By being affiliated with them, they became neither schismatics nor
heretics,[5.16] any more than a man ceases to be a Protestant on
becoming a disciple of Spener, or a Catholic because he is a member
of the order of St. Francis or St. Bruno. They were beloved by the
people on account of their piety, their simplicity, and sweetness
of temper.[5.17] The aristocrats of the temple, no doubt, regarded
them with disfavor. But the sect made little noise; it was quiet and
tranquil, thanks to its obscurity. At eventide, the brethren returned
to their quarters and partook of the meal, divided into groups[5.18]
as a mark of brotherhood and in remembrance of Jesus, whom they always
saw present in the midst of them. The head of the table brake the
bread, blessed the cup,[5.19] and handed them round as a symbol of
union in Jesus. The commonest act of life thus became the most holy
and reverential one. These family repasts, always favorites with the
Jews,[5.20] were accompanied by prayers and pious ejaculations, and
abounded in a pleasant sort of joyfulness. They thought again of the
time when Jesus cheered them by His presence; they fancied that they
saw Him; and soon it was bruited abroad that Jesus had said: "As often
as ye break the bread, do it in remembrance of me."[5.21]
The bread itself became, in a certain manner, Jesus; regarded as the
only source of strength for those who had loved him, and who still
lived by him. These repasts, which were always the principal symbol of
Christianity and the very life of its mysteries,[5.22] were at first
served every night;[5.23] but soon custom restricted them to Sunday
evenings[5.24] only; and later, the mystic repast was transferred to
the morning.[5.25] It is probable that at the period of the history
which we are now treating, the holiday of each week was still, with
the Christians even, the Saturday.[5.26] The apostles chosen by Jesus,
and who were supposed to have received from Him a special command to
announce to the world the kingdom of God, had, in the little community,
an undoubted superiority. One of their first cares, as soon as they
saw the sect quietly settled at Jerusalem, was to fill up the void
which Judas of Kerioth had left in its ranks.[5.27] The opinion that
this Judas had betrayed his Master and became the cause of his death,
became more generally received. The legend was mixed up with him, and
daily they learned some new circumstance which increased the blackness
of his deed. He had bought for himself a field near the old necropolis
of Hakeldama, to the south of Jerusalem, and there he lived a retired
life.[5.28] Such was the artless excitement which pervaded the whole
of the little church, that in order to replace him they had recourse
to the plan of casting lots. In general, in times of great religious
excitement, this method of deciding is preferred, for it is admitted
on principle that nothing is fortuitous, that the matter in hand is
the principal object of the Divine attention, and that the part which
God takes in any matter is greater in proportion to the weakness of
man. The only condition was, that the candidates should be selected
from the number of the older disciples, who had been witnesses of the
entire series of events since the baptism by John. This considerably
reduced the number of those who were eligible. Only two were found in
the ranks, Joseph Bar-Saba, who bore the name of Justus,[5.29] and
Matthias. The lot fell upon Matthias, who from that time was counted
in the number of the Twelve. But this was the only example of such a
replacing. The apostles were considered hitherto as having been named
by Jesus once for all, and as not proposing to have any successors.
The idea of a permanent college, preserving in itself all the life
and strength of association, was judiciously rejected for a time. The
concentration of the Church into an oligarchy did not occur until much
later.
We must guard, moreover, against the misunderstandings which this
appellation of "apostle" may induce, and which it has not failed
to occasion. From a very remote period the idea was formed, by
some passages of the Gospels, and above all by the analogy of the
life of St. Paul, that the apostles were essentially travelling
missionaries, distributing amongst themselves in a certain way the
world in advance, and traversing as conquerors all the kingdoms of
the earth.[5.30] A cycle of legends was invented in respect to this
gift, and imposed upon ecclesiastical history.[5.31] Nothing is more
opposed to the truth.[5.32] The twelve disciples were permanently
settled at Jerusalem; up to the year 60, or thereabouts, they did not
leave the holy city, except on temporary missions. And in this way
is explained the obscurity in which the greater part of the central
council remained; very few of them had any particular duty to perform.
They formed a sort of a sacred college or a senate,[5.33] unequivocally
destined to represent tradition and a conservative spirit. In the
end they were discharged from all active duty, because they had only
to preach and to pray;[5.34] as yet the brilliant feats of preaching
had not fallen to their lot. Scarcely were their names known out
of Jerusalem; and about the year 70 or 80 the catalogues which were
published of these twelve primary elect ones only agreed in the
principal names.[5.35]
The "brothers of the Lord" appear to have been often with the
"apostles," although they were distinguished from them.[5.36] Their
authority was at least equal to that of the apostles. These two groups
constituted, in the nascent Church, a sort of aristocracy, based
entirely upon the greater or less intimacy which they had had with
the Master. It was these men whom St. Paul called "pillars" of the
Church of Jerusalem.[5.37] We see, moreover, that no distinctions of
ecclesiastical hierarchy were yet in existence. The title was nothing;
the personal authority was everything. The principle of ecclesiastical
celibacy was already well established;[5.38] but it required time to
conduct all these germs to their full development. Peter and Philip
were married, and were the fathers of sons and daughters.[5.39]
The term by which the assembly of the faithful was distinguished,
was the Hebrew word _Kahal_, which was rendered by the essentially
democratic word ἐκκλησία, _Ecclesia_, which means the convocation of
the people in the ancient Grecian cities, the summons to assemble at
the Pnyx or the _Agora_. Commencing about the second or third century
before Jesus Christ, Athenian democracy became a sort of common law
wherever the Hellenic language was spoken; many of these terms,[5.40]
on account of their being used in the Greek confraternities, were
introduced into the language of Christianity. It was in reality the
popular life, for centuries kept under restraint, which reasserted its
power under entirely different forms. The primitive Church is, in its
own way, a little democracy. The election by ballot, however--that mode
so cherished by the ancient republics--is only rarely reproduced.[5.41]
Far less harsh and suspicious than the ancient cities, the church
readily delegated its authority; like every theocratic society, it had
a tendency to abdicate its functions into the hands of the clergy, and
it was easy to foresee that one or two centuries would scarcely elapse
before all this democracy would resolve into an oligarchy.
The powers which they ascribed to an assembled Church and to its
chiefs was enormous. All mission was conferred by the Church, which
was entirely guided in its choice by signs given by the spirit.[5.42]
Its authority extended as far as the death penalty. They related how,
at the voice of Peter, guilty persons fell backwards and expired
immediately.[5.43] St. Paul, at a later period, was not afraid, when
excommunicating an incestuous person, "to deliver him to Satan for
the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day
of the Lord Jesus.{5.44}" Excommunication was considered equivalent
to a sentence of death. They doubted not that an individual whom
the apostles or chiefs of the Church had cut off from the body of
the saints and delivered over to the power of the Evil One, was
lost.[5.45] Satan was considered to be the author of the diseases; to
deliver to him the infected member was to hand him over to the natural
executioner. A premature death was ordinarily considered as the result
of one of those secret judgments, which, according to the expressive
Hebrew term, "cut off a soul from Israel."[5.46] The apostles believed
themselves to be invested with supernatural powers; while pronouncing
such condemnations, they believed that their anathemas could not fail
to be effectual.
The terrible impression which these excommunications made, and the
hatred of all the brethren towards the members thus cut off, were
powerful enough in fact to produce death in many cases, or at least
to compel the guilty person to expatriate himself. The same frightful
ambiguity was found in the old law. "Extirpation" implied, at once
decease, expulsion from the community, exile, and a solitary and
mysterious death.[5.47] To kill the apostate, or blasphemer, to beat
his body in order to save his soul, would seem quite lawful. It must be
remembered that we are treating of the times of zealots, who considered
it a virtuous act to assassinate any one who failed in obedience to
the law;[5.48] nor must we forget that some of the Christians were,
or had been, zealots.[5.49] Stories like that of the death of Ananias
and Sapphira[5.50] raised no scruples. The idea of the civil power was
so strange to all this world situated outside of the Roman law, they
were so persuaded that the Church was a complete society sufficient
for all its own needs, that nobody regarded the death or mutilation of
an individual as an outrage punishable by the civil law. Enthusiasm
and burning faith covered all, yea, excused all. But the frightful
danger which these theocratic maxims entailed on the future was easily
perceived. The Church is armed with a sword; excommunication will be a
sentence of death. There is henceforth in the world a power above that
of the State which disposes of the lives of citizens. Assuredly if the
Roman power had limited itself to the repression among the Jews and the
Christians of such abominable principles, it would have been a thousand
times in the right. Only in its brutality it confounded the most
legitimate of liberties, that of worshipping according to one's own
conviction, with abuses which no society has ever been able to endure
with impunity.
Peter had a certain primacy amongst the apostles; the result of his
daring zeal and activity.[5.51] In these early times he is scarcely
ever separated from John, the son of Zebedee. They went together almost
always,[5.52] and their perfect concord was doubtless the corner-stone
of the new faith. James, brother of the Lord, was nearly their equal
in authority, at least in one section of the Church. In respect to
certain intimate friends of Jesus, like the women of Galilee and the
family of Bethany, we have already observed that we have no more to do
with them. Less anxious to organize and found a society, the faithful
companions of Jesus were satisfied to love in death Him whom they had
loved when alive. Totally occupied with their waiting, these noble
women, who have established the faith of the world, were almost unknown
to the important men of Jerusalem. When they died, the most important
traits in the history of nascent Christianity were buried in the tomb
with them. The active characters alone became renowned; those who are
content to love secretly remain in obscurity, but assuredly they have
the better part.
It is superfluous to remark that this little group had no speculative
theology. Jesus kept himself far removed from everything metaphysical.
He had only one dogma, His own divine Sonship and the divine authority
of His mission. Every symbol of the primitive Church might be contained
in one line: "Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God." This belief rested
upon a peremptory argument, the fact of the resurrection, of which the
disciples claimed to be witnesses. In reality, no one (not even the
Galilean women) declared that they had seen the resurrection.[5.53] But
the absence of the body and the apparitions which had followed appeared
to be equivalent to the fact itself. To attest the resurrection of
Jesus was the task which all considered as being specially imposed
upon them.[5.54] They quickly entertained the idea that the Master had
predicted this event. They recollected different sayings of His, which
they fancied that they had never thoroughly understood, and in which
they saw too late an announcement of the resurrection.[5.55] Belief
in the next glorious manifestation of Jesus was universal.[5.56] The
secret word which the associated brethren used among themselves for
purposes of mutual recognition and confirmation was _Maranatha_, "The
Lord will come."[5.57] They fancied that they remembered a declaration
of Jesus, according to which their preaching would not have time to
reach to all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man appeared in His
majesty.[5.58] In the meanwhile, Jesus risen is seated at the right
hand of His Father. There He remains until the solemn day on which He
shall come, seated on the clouds, to judge the quick and the dead.[5.59]
The idea which they had of Jesus was the very same which Jesus had
given them of Himself. Jesus had been a mighty prophet in word and in
deed,[5.60] a man elect of God, having received a special mission in
behalf of mankind,[5.61] a mission the truth of which he had proved by
His miracles, and, above all, by His resurrection. God anointed Him
with the Holy Spirit and endued Him with power; He went about doing
good and healing those who were under the power of the devil;[5.62]
for God was with Him.[5.63] He is the Son of God, that is, a man
entirely sent of God, a representative of God on earth; He is the
Messiah, the Saviour of Israel announced by the prophets.[5.64] The
perusal of the books of the Old Testament, above all of the Psalms
and the prophets, was a constant habit of the sect. In these readings
one fixed idea ever accompanied them, and that was to discover, above
all other considerations, the type of Jesus. They were persuaded that
the ancient Hebrew books were full of Him, and, from the very first,
He was moulded into a collection of texts drawn from the prophets
and the Psalms and certain of the apocryphal books, wherein they
were convinced that the life of Jesus was foretold and described in
advance.[5.65] This arbitrary mode of interpretation was, at that
time, that of all the Jewish schools. The Messianic allusions were
a description of witty trifling, analogous to the use which the
ancient preachers made of passages of the Bible, diverted from their
natural meaning, and received as simple ornaments of sacred rhetoric.
Jesus, with His exquisite tact in religious matters, had instituted
no new ritual movement. The new sect had not, as yet, any special
ceremonies.{5.66} Habits of piety were Jewish habits. The assemblies
had nothing precisely liturgic about them; they were the sessions
of confraternities, in which they devoted themselves to prayer, to
glossological or prophetic{5.67} exercises, and to the reading of
correspondence. There was nothing yet of sacerdotalism. There was
no priest (cohen, or ἱερεύς); the _presbyter_ is the "elder" of the
community, nothing more. The only priest is Jesus;{5.68} in another
sense, all the faithful are priests.{5.69} Fasting was considered a
very meritorious usage.{5.70} Baptism was the sign of entrance into
the sect.{5.71} The rite was the same in form as the baptism of John,
but it was administered in the name of Jesus.{5.72} Baptism was always
considered an insufficient initiation into the society. It should be
followed by a conferring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit,{5.73} which
was produced by means of a prayer pronounced over the head of the
neophyte with the imposition of hands.
This imposition of hands, already so familiar to Jesus,{5.74} was
the crowning sacramental act.{5.75} It conferred inspiration, inward
illumination, the power of working wonders, of prophesying and of
speaking languages. This was what they called the baptism of the
Spirit. They believed that they recollected a saying of Jesus: "John
baptized you with water: but as for you, you shall be baptized with
the Spirit."{5.76} Little by little these ideas became confused, and
baptism was conferred "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost."{5.77} But it is not probable that this formula,
at the early period which we are describing, was as yet employed. The
simplicity of this primitive Christian worship is evident. Neither
Jesus nor the apostles had invented it. Certain Jewish sects had
adopted, before them, grave and solemn ceremonies, which appear to
have come partly from Chaldæa, where they are still practised with
special liturgies, by the Sabæans and Mendäites.{5.78} The Persian
religion contained, likewise, many rites of the same description.{5.79}
The beliefs in popular medicine, which had accompanied the strength
of Jesus, continued to be held by his disciples. The power of healing
was one of the marvellous graces conferred by the Spirit.{5.80} The
first Christians, like all the Jews of the age, regarded diseases
as the punishment due to a fault,{5.81} or the work of a malicious
demon.{5.82} The apostles, as well as Jesus, passed for powerful
exorcists.{5.83} They imagined that anointings with oil, administered
by them, with imposition of hands and invocation of the name of Jesus,
were all-powerful to wash away the sins which were the causes of the
disease, and to cure the sick.{5.84} Oil has always been in the East
the chiefest of medicines.{5.85} Of itself, moreover, the imposition
of hands by the apostles was supposed to have the same effect.{5.86}
This imposition was conferred by immediate contact with the person;
and it is not impossible that, in certain cases, the warmth of the
hands, being sensibly communicated to the head, produced some little
relief to the sick man. The sect being young and few in number, the
question of the dead was only subsequently brought under their notice.
The effect caused by the first deaths which took place in the ranks of
the brotherhood was strange.{5.87} They disquieted themselves about the
condition of the departed; they inquired if they would be less favored
than those who were reserved to see with their eyes the second advent
of the Son of Man. They generally came to the conclusion that the
interval between death and the resurrection was a sort of blank in the
recollection of the defunct.{5.88} The idea, expressed in the _Phædon_
that the soul exists before and after death; that death is a benefit;
that it is even the state above all others favorable to philosophy,
because the soul is then altogether free and disengaged--this idea,
I say, was in no respect entertained by the first Christians. They
appear generally to have believed that man has no existence apart from
his body. This persuasion lasted a long time, and only gave way when
the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, in the sense of the Greek
philosophy, had been received into the Church, and become associated,
for good or for evil, with the Christian dogma of the resurrection
and universal restoration. At the time of which we speak, a belief in
the resurrection prevailed almost alone.{5.89} The funeral rites were
doubtless Jewish. No importance was attached to them; no inscription
pointed out the name of the departed. The great resurrection was at
hand; the body of the faithful had only to sojourn for a very short
time in the rock. They took but little pains to come to an agreement
upon the question whether the resurrection would be universal--that is
to say, whether it would embrace both good and wicked, or would apply
to the elect only.{5.90}
One of the most remarkable phenomena of the new religion was the
reappearance of prophecy. For a long time previous, prophets in Israel
were scarcely mentioned. This peculiar kind of inspiration appeared to
revive in the little sect. The primitive Church had many prophets and
prophetesses,{5.91} answering to those of the Old Testament. Psalmists
reappeared also. The model of the Christian Psalmody is, no doubt, to
be found in the Canticles, which Luke loves to scatter about the pages
of his Gospel,{5.92} and which are imitated from the Canticles of
the Old Testament. These Psalms and prophecies are, in point of form,
destitute of originality; but an admirable spirit of tenderness and
piety animates and pervades them. It is like an attenuated echo of the
later productions of the sacred lyre of Israel. The book of Psalms
was, in some sort, the calyx of the flower from which the Christian
bee stole its first juice. The Pentateuch, on the contrary, was, as it
appears, but little read and less pondered; allegories were substituted
in the form of Jewish _midraschim_, in which all the historical meaning
of the books was suppressed.
The chanting with which they accompanied the new hymns{5.93} was
probably that species of groaning without distinct notes, which is
still the chant of the Greek Church, of the Maronites, and of the
Eastern Christians in general.{5.94} It is not so much a musical
modulation as a manner of forcing the voice, and of emitting through
the nose a sort of groaning, in which all the inflexions follow each
other with rapidity. They performed this extraordinary melopœia
standing, with fixed eye, knit forehead, and contracted eyebrows, using
an appearance of effort. The word _amen_, above all, was uttered in a
tremulous voice with bodily shaking. This word was of great importance
in the liturgy. After the manner of the Jews,{5.95} the new faithful
employed it to mark the assent of the people to the word spoken by
the prophet or precentor.{5.96} They perhaps already attributed to it
concealed virtues, and it was only pronounced with a certain emphasis.
We know not whether the primitive ecclesiastical chant was accompanied
with instruments.{5.97} As to the inward chant, which the faithful
"sang in their hearts,"{5.98} and which was nothing else than the
overflowing of those tender spirits, ardent and dreamy as they were,
they performed it no doubt like the slow chants of the Lollards of
the Middle Ages, in a sort of whisper.{5.99} In general, joyousness
manifested itself in these hymns. One of the maxims of the sages of the
sect was, "If thou art sad, pray; if thou art merry, sing."{5.100}
Moreover, this first Christian literature, designed as it was entirely
for the edification of the assembled brethren, was not committed to
writing. It entered into the mind of none to compose books. Jesus
had spoken; they remembered his words. Had he not promised that that
generation of his hearers should not pass away before he re-appeared
among them?{5.101}