The miracles of the primitive church, af_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

sanction of ages, have been lately attacked in a very free and

ingenious inquiry, 79 which, though it has met with the most

favorable reception from the public, appears to have excited a

general scandal among the divines of our own as well as of the

other Protestant churches of Europe. 80 Our different sentiments

on this subject will be much less influenced by any particular

arguments, than by our habits of study and reflection; and, above

all, by the degree of evidence which we have accustomed ourselves

to require for the proof of a miraculous event. The duty of an

historian does not call upon him to interpose his private

judgment in this nice and important controversy; but he ought not

to dissemble the difficulty of adopting such a theory as may

reconcile the interest of religion with that of reason, of making

a proper application of that theory, and of defining with

precision the limits of that happy period, exempt from error and

from deceit, to which we might be disposed to extend the gift of

supernatural powers. From the first of the fathers to the last of

the popes, a succession of bishops, of saints, of martyrs, and of

miracles, is continued without interruption; and the progress of

superstition was so gradual, and almost imperceptible, that we

know not in what particular link we should break the chain of

tradition. Every age bears testimony to the wonderful events by

which it was distinguished, and its testimony appears no less

weighty and respectable than that of the preceding generation,

till we are insensibly led on to accuse our own inconsistency, if

in the eighth or in the twelfth century we deny to the venerable

Bede, or to the holy Bernard, the same degree of confidence

which, in the second century, we had so liberally granted to

Justin or to Irenæus. 81 If the truth of any of those miracles is

appreciated by their apparent use and propriety, every age had

unbelievers to convince, heretics to confute, and idolatrous

nations to convert; and sufficient motives might always be

produced to justify the interposition of Heaven. And yet, since

every friend to revelation is persuaded of the reality, and every

reasonable man is convinced of the cessation, of miraculous

powers, it is evident that there must have been _some period_ in

which they were either suddenly or gradually withdrawn from the

Christian church. Whatever æra is chosen for that purpose, the

death of the apostles, the conversion of the Roman empire, or the

extinction of the Arian heresy, 82 the insensibility of the

Christians who lived at that time will equally afford a just

matter of surprise. They still supported their pretensions after

they had lost their power. Credulity performed the office of

faith; fanaticism was permitted to assume the language of

inspiration, and the effects of accident or contrivance were

ascribed to supernatural causes. The recent experience of genuine

miracles should have instructed the Christian world in the ways

of Providence, and habituated their eye (if we may use a very

inadequate expression) to the style of the divine artist. Should

the most skilful painter of modern Italy presume to decorate his

feeble imitations with the name of Raphæl or of Correggio, the

insolent fraud would be soon discovered, and indignantly

rejected.

79 (return) [ Dr. Middleton sent out his Introduction in the year

1747, published his Free Inquiry in 1749, and before his death,

which happened in 1750, he had prepared a vindication of it

against his numerous adversaries.]

80 (return) [ The university of Oxford conferred degrees on his

opponents. From the indignation of Mosheim, (p. 221,) we may

discover the sentiments of the Lutheran divines. * Note: Yet many

Protestant divines will now without reluctance confine miracles

to the time of the apostles, or at least to the first century.—M]

81 (return) [It may seem somewhat remarkable, that Bernard of

Clairvaux, who records so many miracles of his friend St.

Malachi, never takes any notice of his own, which, in their turn,

however, are carefully related by his companions and disciples.

In the long series of ecclesiastical history, does there exist a

single instance of a saint asserting that he himself possessed

the gift of miracles?]

82 (return) [ The conversion of Constantine is the æra which is

most usually fixed by Protestants. The more rational divines are

unwilling to admit the miracles of the ivth, whilst the more

credulous are unwilling to reject those of the vth century. *

Note: All this appears to proceed on the principle that any

distinct line can be drawn in an unphilosophic age between

wonders and miracles, or between what piety, from their

unexpected and extraordinary nature, the marvellous concurrence

of secondary causes to some remarkable end, may consider

providential interpositions, and miracles strictly so called, in

which the laws of nature are suspended or violated. It is

impossible to assign, on one side, limits to human credulity, on

the other, to the influence of the imagination on the bodily

frame; but some of the miracles recorded in the Gospels are such

palpable impossibilities, according to the known laws and

operations of nature, that if recorded on sufficient evidence,

and the evidence we believe to be that of eye-witnesses, we

cannot reject them, without either asserting, with Hume, that no

evidence can prove a miracle, or that the Author of Nature has no

power of suspending its ordinary laws. But which of the

post-apostolic miracles will bear this test?—M.]

Whatever opinion may be entertained of the miracles of the

primitive church since the time of the apostles, this unresisting

softness of temper, so conspicuous among the believers of the

second and third centuries, proved of some accidental benefit to

the cause of truth and religion. In modern times, a latent and

even involuntary scepticism adheres to the most pious

dispositions. Their admission of supernatural truths is much less

an active consent than a cold and passive acquiescence.

Accustomed long since to observe and to respect the invariable

order of Nature, our reason, or at least our imagination, is not

sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible action of the Deity.

But, in the first ages of Christianity, the situation of mankind

was extremely different. The most curious, or the most credulous,

among the Pagans, were often persuaded to enter into a society

which asserted an actual claim of miraculous powers. The

primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their

minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most

extraordinary events. They felt, or they fancied, that on every

side they were incessantly assaulted by dæmons, comforted by

visions, instructed by prophecy, and surprisingly delivered from

danger, sickness, and from death itself, by the supplications of

the church. The real or imaginary prodigies, of which they so

frequently conceived themselves to be the objects, the

instruments, or the spectators, very happily disposed them to

adopt with the same ease, but with far greater justice, the

authentic wonders of the evangelic history; and thus miracles

that exceeded not the measure of their own experience, inspired

them with the most lively assurance of mysteries which were

acknowledged to surpass the limits of their understanding. It is

this deep impression of supernatural truths which has been so

much celebrated under the name of faith; a state of mind

described as the surest pledge of the divine favor and of future

felicity, and recommended as the first, or perhaps the only merit

of a Christian. According to the more rigid doctors, the moral

virtues, which may be equally practised by infidels, are

destitute of any value or efficacy in the work of our

justification.

Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part V.

IV. But the primitive Christian demonstrated his faith by his

virtues; and it was very justly supposed that the divine

persuasion, which enlightened or subdued the understanding, must,

at the same time, purify the heart, and direct the actions, of

the believer. The first apologists of Christianity who justify

the innocence of their brethren, and the writers of a later

period who celebrate the sanctity of their ancestors, display, in

the most lively colors, the reformation of manners which was

introduced into the world by the preaching of the gospel. As it

is my intention to remark only such human causes as were

permitted to second the influence of revelation, I shall slightly

mention two motives which might naturally render the lives of the

primitive Christians much purer and more austere than those of

their Pagan contemporaries, or their degenerate successors;

repentance for their past sins, and the laudable desire of

supporting the reputation of the society in which they were

engaged. 83

83 (return) [ These, in the opinion of the editor, are the most

uncandid paragraphs in Gibbon’s History. He ought either, with

manly courage, to have denied the moral reformation introduced by

Christianity, or fairly to have investigated all its motives; not

to have confined himself to an insidious and sarcastic

description of the less pure and generous elements of the

Christian character as it appeared even at that early time.—M.]

It is a very ancient reproach, suggested by the ignorance or the

malice of infidelity, that the Christians allured into their

party the most atrocious criminals, who, as soon as they were

touched by a sense of remorse, were easily persuaded to wash

away, in the water of baptism, the guilt of their past conduct,

for which the temples of the gods refused to grant them any

expiation. But this reproach, when it is cleared from

misrepresentation, contributes as much to the honor as it did to

the increase of the church. The friends of Christianity may

acknowledge without a blush that many of the most eminent saints

had been before their baptism the most abandoned sinners. Those

persons, who in the world had followed, though in an imperfect

manner, the dictates of benevolence and propriety, derived such a

calm satisfaction from the opinion of their own rectitude, as

rendered them much less susceptible of the sudden emotions of

shame, of grief, and of terror, which have given birth to so many

wonderful conversions. After the example of their divine Master,

the missionaries of the gospel disdained not the society of men,

and especially of women, oppressed by the consciousness, and very

often by the effects, of their vices. As they emerged from sin

and superstition to the glorious hope of immortality, they

resolved to devote themselves to a life, not only of virtue, but

of penitence. The desire of perfection became the ruling passion

of their soul; and it is well known that, while reason embraces a

cold mediocrity, our passions hurry us, with rapid violence, over

the space which lies between the most opposite extremes. 83b

83b (return) [The imputations of Celsus and Julian, with the

defence of the fathers, are very fairly stated by Spanheim,

Commentaire sur les Cesars de Julian, p. 468.]

When the new converts had been enrolled in the number of the

faithful, and were admitted to the sacraments of the church, they

found themselves restrained from relapsing into their past

disorders by another consideration of a less spiritual, but of a

very innocent and respectable nature. Any particular society that

has departed from the great body of the nation, or the religion

to which it belonged, immediately becomes the object of universal

as well as invidious observation. In proportion to the smallness

of its numbers, the character of the society may be affected by

the virtues and vices of the persons who compose it; and every

member is engaged to watch with the most vigilant attention over

his own behavior, and over that of his brethren, since, as he

must expect to incur a part of the common disgrace, he may hope

to enjoy a share of the common reputation. When the Christians of

Bithynia were brought before the tribunal of the younger Pliny,

they assured the proconsul, that, far from being engaged in any

unlawful conspiracy, they were bound by a solemn obligation to

abstain from the commission of those crimes which disturb the

private or public peace of society, from theft, robbery,

adultery, perjury, and fraud. 84 841 Near a century afterwards,

Tertullian, with an honest pride, could boast, that very few

Christians had suffered by the hand of the executioner, except on

account of their religion. 85 Their serious and sequestered life,

averse to the gay luxury of the age, inured them to chastity,

temperance, economy, and all the sober and domestic virtues. As

the greater number were of some trade or profession, it was

incumbent on them, by the strictest integrity and the fairest

dealing, to remove the suspicions which the profane are too apt

to conceive against the appearances of sanctity. The contempt of

the world exercised them in the habits of humility, meekness, and

patience. The more they were persecuted, the more closely they

adhered to each other. Their mutual charity and unsuspecting

confidence has been remarked by infidels, and was too often

abused by perfidious friends. 86

84 (return) [ Plin. Epist. x. 97. * Note: Is not the sense of

Tertullian rather, if guilty of any other offence, he had thereby

ceased to be a Christian?—M.]

841 (return) [ And this blamelessness was fully admitted by the

candid and enlightened Roman.—M.]

85 (return) [ Tertullian, Apolog. c. 44. He adds, however, with

some degree of hesitation, “Aut si aliud, jam non Christianus.” *

Note: Tertullian says positively no Christian, nemo illic

Christianus; for the rest, the limitation which he himself

subjoins, and which Gibbon quotes in the foregoing note,

diminishes the force of this assertion, and appears to prove that

at least he knew none such.—G.]

86 (return) [ The philosopher Peregrinus (of whose life and death

Lucian has left us so entertaining an account) imposed, for a

long time, on the credulous simplicity of the Christians of

Asia.]

It is a very honorable circumstance for the morals of the

primitive Christians, that even their faults, or rather errors,

were derived from an excess of virtue. The bishops and doctors of

the church, whose evidence attests, and whose authority might

influence, the professions, the principles, and even the practice

of their contemporaries, had studied the Scriptures with less

skill than devotion; and they often received, in the most literal

sense, those rigid precepts of Christ and the apostles, to which

the prudence of succeeding commentators has applied a looser and

more figurative mode of interpretation. Ambitious to exalt the

perfection of the gospel above the wisdom of philosophy, the

zealous fathers have carried the duties of self-mortification, of

purity, and of patience, to a height which it is scarcely

possible to attain, and much less to preserve, in our present

state of weakness and corruption. A doctrine so extraordinary and

so sublime must inevitably command the veneration of the people;

but it was ill calculated to obtain the suffrage of those worldly

philosophers who, in the conduct of this transitory life, consult

only the feelings of nature and the interest of society. 87

87 (return) [ See a very judicious treatise of Barbeyrac sur la

Morale des Peres.]

There are two very natural propensities which we may distinguish

in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love of

pleasure and the love of action. If the former is refined by art

and learning, improved by the charms of social intercourse, and

corrected by a just regard to economy, to health, and to

reputation, it is productive of the greatest part of the

happiness of private life. The love of action is a principle of a

much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger,

to ambition, and to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense

of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every

virtue, and if those virtues are accompanied with equal

abilities, a family, a state, or an empire may be indebted for

their safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single

man. To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the

agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most of the

useful and respectable, qualifications. The character in which

both the one and the other should be united and harmonized would

seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature. The

insensible and inactive disposition, which should be supposed

alike destitute of both, would be rejected, by the common consent

of mankind, as utterly incapable of procuring any happiness to

the individual, or any public benefit to the world. But it was

not in _this_ world that the primitive Christians were desirous

of making themselves either agreeable or useful. 871

871 (return) [ El que me fait cette homelie semi-stoicienne,

semi-epicurienne? t’on jamais regarde l’amour du plaisir comme

l’un des principes de la perfection morale? Et de quel droit

faites vous de l’amour de l’action, et de l’amour du plaisir, les

seuls elemens de l’etre humain? Est ce que vous faites

abstraction de la verite en elle-meme, de la conscience et du

sentiment du devoir? Est ce que vous ne sentez point, par

exemple, que le sacrifice du moi a la justice et a la verite, est

aussi dans le coeur de l’homme: que tout n’est pas pour lui

action ou plaisir, et que dans le bien ce n’est pas le mouvement,

mais la verite, qu’il cherche? Et puis * * Thucy dide et Tacite.

ces maitres de l’histoire, ont ils jamais introduits dans leur

recits un fragment de dissertation sur le plaisir et sur

l’action. Villemain Cours de Lit. Franc part ii. Lecon v.—M.]

The acquisition of knowledge, the exercise of our reason or

fancy, and the cheerful flow of unguarded conversation, may

employ the leisure of a liberal mind. Such amusements, however,

were rejected with abhorrence, or admitted with the utmost

caution, by the severity of the fathers, who despised all

knowledge that was not useful to salvation, and who considered

all levity of discours as a criminal abuse of the gift of speech.

In our present state of existence the body is so inseparably

connected with the soul, that it seems to be our interest to

taste, with innocence and moderation, the enjoyments of which

that faithful companion is susceptible. Very different was the

reasoning of our devout predecessors; vainly aspiring to imitate

the perfection of angels, they disdained, or they affected to

disdain, every earthly and corporeal delight. 88 Some of our

senses indeed are necessary for our preservation, others for our

subsistence, and others again for our information; and thus far

it was impossible to reject the use of them. The first sensation

of pleasure was marked as the first moment of their abuse. The

unfeeling candidate for heaven was instructed, not only to resist

the grosser allurements of the taste or smell, but even to shut

his ears against the profane harmony of sounds, and to view with

indifference the most finished productions of human art. Gay

apparel, magnificent houses, and elegant furniture, were supposed

to unite the double guilt of pride and of sensuality; a simple

and mortified appearance was more suitable to the Christian who

was certain of his sins and doubtful of his salvation. In their

censures of luxury the fathers are extremely minute and

circumstantial; 89 and among the various articles which excite

their pious indignation we may enumerate false hair, garments of

any color except white, instruments of music, vases of gold or

silver, downy pillows, (as Jacob reposed his head on a stone,)

white bread, foreign wines, public salutations, the use of warm

baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which, according to

the expression of Tertullian, is a lie against our own faces, and

an impious attempt to improve the works of the Creator. 90 When

Christianity was introduced among the rich and the polite, the

observation of these singular laws was left, as it would be at

present, to the few who were ambitious of superior sanctity. But

it is always easy, as well as agreeable, for the inferior ranks

of mankind to claim a merit from the contempt of that pomp and

pleasure which fortune has placed beyond their reach. The virtue

of the primitive Christians, like that of the first Romans, was

very frequently guarded by poverty and ignorance.

88 (return) [ Lactant. Institut. Divin. l. vi. c. 20, 21, 22.]

89 (return) [ Consult a work of Clemens of Alexandria, entitled

The Pædagogue, which contains the rudiments of ethics, as they

were taught in the most celebrated of the Christian schools.]

90 (return) [ Tertullian, de Spectaculis, c. 23. Clemens

Alexandrin. Pædagog. l. iii. c. 8.]

The chaste severity of the fathers, in whatever related to the

commerce of the two sexes, flowed from the same principle; their

abhorrence of every enjoyment which might gratify the sensual,

and degrade the spiritual nature of man. It was their favorite

opinion, that if Adam had preserved his obedience to the Creator,

he would have lived forever in a state of virgin purity, and that

some harmless mode of vegetation might have peopled paradise with

a race of innocent and immortal beings. 91 The use of marriage

was permitted only to his fallen posterity, as a necessary

expedient to continue the human species, and as a restraint,

however imperfect, on the natural licentiousness of desire. The

hesitation of the orthodox casuists on this interesting subject,

betrays the perplexity of men, unwilling to approve an

institution which they were compelled to tolerate. 92 The

enumeration of the very whimsical laws, which they most

circumstantially imposed on the marriage-bed, would force a smile

from the young and a blush from the fair. It was their unanimous

sentiment that a first marriage was adequate to all the purposes

of nature and of society. The sensual connection was refined into

a resemblance of the mystic union of Christ with his church, and

was pronounced to be indissoluble either by divorce or by death.

The practice of second nuptials was branded with the name of a

legal adultery; and the persons who were guilty of so scandalous

an offence against Christian purity, were soon excluded from the

honors, and even from the alms, of the church. 93 Since desire

was imputed as a crime, and marriage was tolerated as a defect,

it was consistent with the same principles to consider a state of

celibacy as the nearest approach to the divine perfection. It was

with the utmost difficulty that ancient Rome could support the

institution of six vestals; 94 but the primitive church was

filled with a number of persons of either sex, who had devoted

themselves to the profession of perpetual chastity. 95 A few of

these, among whom we may reckon the learned Origen, judged it the

most prudent to disarm the tempter. 96 Some were insensible and

some were invincible against the assaults of the flesh.

Disdaining an ignominious flight, the virgins of the warm climate

of Africa encountered the enemy in the closest engagement; they

permitted priests and deacons to share their bed, and gloried

amidst the flames in their unsullied purity. But insulted Nature

sometimes vindicated her rights, and this new species of

martyrdom served only to introduce a new scandal into the church.

97 Among the Christian ascetics, however, (a name which they soon

acquired from their painful exercise,) many, as they were less

presumptuous, were probably more successful. The loss of sensual

pleasure was supplied and compensated by spiritual pride. Even

the multitude of Pagans were inclined to estimate the merit of

the sacrifice by its apparent difficulty; and it was in the

praise of these chaste spouses of Christ that the fathers have

poured forth the troubled stream of their eloquence. 98 Such are

the early traces of monastic principles and institutions, which,

in a subsequent age, have counterbalanced all the temporal

advantages of Christianity. 99

91 (return) [ Beausobro, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, l. vii.

c. 3. Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustin, &c., strongly incline

to this opinion. Note: But these were Gnostic or Manichean

opinions. Beausobre distinctly describes Autustine’s bias to his

recent escape from Manicheism; and adds that he afterwards

changed his views.—M.]

92 (return) [ Some of the Gnostic heretics were more consistent;

they rejected the use of marriage.]

93 (return) [ See a chain of tradition, from Justin Martyr to

Jerome, in the Morale des Peres, c. iv. 6—26.]

94 (return) [ See a very curious Dissertation on the Vestals, in

the Memoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. iv. p. 161—227.

Notwithstanding the honors and rewards which were bestowed on

those virgins, it was difficult to procure a sufficient number;

nor could the dread of the most horrible death always restrain

their incontinence.]

95 (return) [ Cupiditatem procreandi aut unam scimus aut nullam.

Minutius Fælix, c. 31. Justin. Apolog. Major. Athenagoras in

Legat. c 28. Tertullian de Cultu Foemin. l. ii.]

96 (return) [ Eusebius, l. vi. 8. Before the fame of Origen had

excited envy and persecution, this extraordinary action was

rather admired than censured. As it was his general practice to

allegorize Scripture, it seems unfortunate that in this instance

only, he should have adopted the literal sense.]

97 (return) [ Cyprian. Epist. 4, and Dodwell, Dissertat.

Cyprianic. iii. Something like this rash attempt was long

afterwards imputed to the founder of the order of Fontevrault.

Bayle has amused himself and his readers on that very delicate

subject.]

98 (return) [ Dupin (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. i. p. 195)

gives a particular account of the dialogue of the ten virgins, as

it was composed by Methodius, Bishop of Tyre. The praises of

virginity are excessive.]

99 (return) [ The Ascetics (as early as the second century) made

a public profession of mortifying their bodies, and of abstaining

from the use of flesh and wine. Mosheim, p. 310.]

The Christians were not less averse to the business than to the

pleasures of this world. The defence of our persons and property

they knew not how to reconcile with the patient doctrine which

enjoined an unlimited forgiveness of past injuries, and commanded

them to invite the repetition of fresh insults. Their simplicity

was offended by the use of oaths, by the pomp of magistracy, and

by the active contention of public life; nor could their humane

ignorance be convinced that it was lawful on any occasion to shed

the blood of our fellow-creatures, either by the sword of

justice, or by that of war; even though their criminal or hostile

attempts should threaten the peace and safety of the whole

community. 100 It was acknowledged that, under a less perfect

law, the powers of the Jewish constitution had been exercised,

with the approbation of heaven, by inspired prophets and by

anointed kings. The Christians felt and confessed that such

institutions might be necessary for the present system of the

world, and they cheerfully submitted to the authority of their

Pagan governors. But while they inculcated the maxims of passive

obedience, they refused to take any active part in the civil

administration or the military defence of the empire. Some

indulgence might, perhaps, be allowed to those persons who,

before their conversion, were already engaged in such violent and

sanguinary occupations; 101a but it was impossible that the

Christians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, could assume

the character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes. 102b

This indolent, or even criminal disregard to the public welfare,

exposed them to the contempt and reproaches of the Pagans, who

very frequently asked, what must be the fate of the empire,

attacked on every side by the barbarians, if all mankind should

adopt the pusillanimous sentiments of the new sect. 103 To this

insulting question the Christian apologists returned obscure and

ambiguous answers, as they were unwilling to reveal the secret

cause of their security; the expectation that, before the

conversion of mankind was accomplished, war, government, the

Roman empire, and the world itself, would be no more. It may be

observed, that, in this instance likewise, the situation of the

first Christians coincided very happily with their religious

scruples, and that their aversion to an active life contributed

rather to excuse them from the service, than to exclude them from

the honors, of the state and army.

100 (return) [ See the Morale des Peres. The same patient

principles have been revived since the Reformation by the

Socinians, the modern Anabaptists, and the Quakers. Barclay, the

Apologist of the Quakers, has protected his brethren by the

authority of the primitive Christian; p. 542-549]

101a (return) [ Tertullian, Apolog. c. 21. De Idololatria, c. 17,

18. Origen contra Celsum, l. v. p. 253, l. vii. p. 348, l. viii.

p. 423-428.]

102b (return) [ Tertullian (de Corona Militis, c. 11) suggested

to them the expedient of deserting; a counsel which, if it had

been generally known, was not very proper to conciliate the favor

of the emperors towards the Christian sect. * Note: There is

nothing which ought to astonish us in the refusal of the

primitive Christians to take part in public affairs; it was the

natural consequence of the contrariety of their principles to the

customs, laws, and active life of the Pagan world. As Christians,

they could not enter into the senate, which, according to Gibbon

himself, always assembled in a temple or consecrated place, and

where each senator, before he took his seat, made a libation of a

few drops of wine, and burnt incense on the altar; as Christians,

they could not assist at festivals and banquets, which always

terminated with libations, &c.; finally, as “the innumerable

deities and rites of polytheism were closely interwoven with

every circumstance of public and private life,” the Christians

could not participate in them without incurring, according to

their principles, the guilt of impiety. It was then much less by

an effect of their doctrine, than by the consequence of their

situation, that they stood aloof from public business. Whenever

this situation offered no impediment, they showed as much

activity as the Pagans. Proinde, says Justin Martyr, (Apol. c.

17,) nos solum Deum adoramus, et vobis in rebus aliis læti

inservimus.—G. ——-This latter passage, M. Guizot quotes in Latin;

if he had consulted the original, he would have found it to be

altogether irrelevant: it merely relates to the payment of

taxes.—M. — —Tertullian does not suggest to the soldiers the

expedient of deserting; he says that they ought to be constantly

on their guard to do nothing during their service contrary to the

law of God, and to resolve to suffer martyrdom rather than submit

to a base compliance, or openly to renounce the service. (De Cor.

Mil. ii. p. 127.) He does not positively decide that the military

service is not permitted to Christians; he ends, indeed, by

saying, Puta denique licere militiam usque ad causam coronæ.—G.

——M. Guizot is. I think, again unfortunate in his defence of

Tertullian. That father says, that many Christian soldiers had

deserted, aut deserendum statim sit, ut a multis actum. The

latter sentence, Puta, &c, &c., is a concession for the sake of

argument: wha follows is more to the purpose.—M. Many other

passages of Tertullian prove that the army was full of

Christians, Hesterni sumus et vestra omnia implevimus, urbes,

insulas, castella, municipia, conciliabula, castra ipsa. (Apol.

c. 37.) Navigamus et not vobiscum et militamus. (c. 42.) Origen,

in truth, appears to have maintained a more rigid opinion, (Cont.

Cels. l. viii.;) but he has often renounced this exaggerated

severity, perhaps necessary to produce great results, and he

speaks of the profession of arms as an honorable one. (l. iv. c.

218.)— G. ——On these points Christian opinion, it should seem,

was much divided Tertullian, when he wrote the De Cor. Mil., was

evidently inclining to more ascetic opinions, and Origen was of

the same class. See Neander, vol. l part ii. p. 305, edit.

1828.—M.]

103 (return) [ As well as we can judge from the mutilated

representation of Origen, (1. viii. p. 423,) his adversary,

Celsus, had urged his objection with great force and candor.]

Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part VI.

V. But the human character, however it may be exalted or

depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return by degrees to

its proper and natural level, and will resume those passions that

seem the most adapted to its present condition. The primitive

Christians were dead to the business and pleasures of the world;

but their love of action, which could never be entirely

extinguished, soon revived, and found a new occupation in the

government of the church. A separate society, which attacked the

established religion of the empire, was obliged to adopt some

form of internal policy, and to appoint a sufficient number of

ministers, intrusted not only with the spiritual functions, but

even with the temporal direction of the Christian commonwealth.

The safety of that society, its honor, its aggrandizement, were

productive, even in the most pious minds, of a spirit of

patriotism, such as the first of the Romans had felt for the

republic, and sometimes of a similar indifference, in the use of

whatever means might probably conduce to so desirable an end. The

ambition of raising themselves or their friends to the honors and

offices of the church, was disguised by the laudable intention of

devoting to the public benefit the power and consideration,

which, for that purpose only, it became their duty to solicit. In

the exercise of their functions, they were frequently called upon

to detect the errors of heresy or the arts of faction, to oppose

the designs of perfidious brethren, to stigmatize their

characters with deserved infamy, and to expel them from the bosom

of a society whose peace and happiness they had attempted to

disturb. The ecclesiastical governors of the Christians were

taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of

the dove; but as the former was refined, so the latter was

insensibly corrupted, by the habits of government. In the church

as well as in the world, the persons who were placed in any

public station rendered themselves considerable by their

eloquence and firmness, by their knowledge of mankind, and by

their dexterity in business; and while they concealed from

others, and perhaps from themselves, the secret motives of their

conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all the turbulent

passions of active life, which were tinctured with an additional

degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the infusion of spiritual

zeal.

The government of the church has often been the subject, as well

as the prize, of religious contention. The hostile disputants of

Rome, of Paris, of Oxford, and of Geneva, have alike struggled to

reduce the primitive and apostolic model 1041 to the respective

standards of their own policy. The few who have pursued this

inquiry with more candor and impartiality, are of opinion, 105

that the apostles declined the office of legislation, and rather

chose to endure some partial scandals and divisions, than to

exclude the Christians of a future age from the liberty of

varying their forms of ecclesiastical government according to the

changes of times and circumstances. The scheme of policy, which,

under their approbation, was adopted for the use of the first

century, may be discovered from the practice of Jerusalem, of

Ephesus, or of Corinth. The societies which were instituted in

the cities of the Roman empire were united only by the ties of

faith and charity. Independence and equality formed the basis of

their internal constitution. The want of discipline and human

learning was supplied by the occasional assistance of the

_prophets_, 106 who were called to that function without

distinction of age, of sex, 1061 or of natural abilities, and

who, as often as they felt the divine impulse, poured forth the

effusions of the Spirit in the assembly of the faithful. But

these extraordinary gifts were frequently abused or misapplied by

the prophetic teachers. They displayed them at an improper

season, presumptuously disturbed the service of the assembly,

and, by their pride or mistaken zeal, they introduced,

particularly into the apostolic church of Corinth, a long and

melancholy train of disorders. 107 As the institution of prophets

became useless, and even pernicious, their powers were withdrawn,

and their office abolished. The public functions of religion were

solely intrusted to the established ministers of the church, the

_bishops_ and the _presbyters;_ two appellations which, in their

first origin, appear to have distinguished the same office and

the same order of persons. The name of Presbyter was expressive

of their age, or rather of their gravity and wisdom. The title of

Bishop denoted their inspection over the faith and manners of the

Christians who were committed to their pastoral care. In

proportion to the respective numbers of the faithful, a larger or

smaller number of these _episcopal presbyters_ guided each infant

congregation with equal authority and with united counsels. 108

1041 (return) [ The aristocratical party in France, as well as in

England, has strenuously maintained the divine origin of bishops.

But the Calvinistical presbyters were impatient of a superior;

and the Roman Pontiff refused to acknowledge an equal. See Fra

Paolo.]

105 (return) [ In the history of the Christian hierarchy, I have,

for the most part, followed the learned and candid Mosheim.]

106 (return) [ For the prophets of the primitive church, see

Mosheim, Dissertationes ad Hist. Eccles. pertinentes, tom. ii. p.

132—208.]

1061 (return) [ St. Paul distinctly reproves the intrusion of

females into the prophets office. 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35. 1 Tim. ii.

11.—M.]

107 (return) [ See the epistles of St. Paul, and of Clemens, to

the Corinthians. * Note: The first ministers established in the

church were the deacons, appointed at Jerusalem, seven in number;

they were charged with the distribution of the alms; even females

had a share in this employment. After the deacons came the elders

or priests, charged with the maintenance of order and decorum in

the community, and to act every where in its name. The bishops

were afterwards charged to watch over the faith and the

instruction of the disciples: the apostles themselves appointed

several bishops. Tertullian, (adv. Marium, c. v.,) Clement of

Alexandria, and many fathers of the second and third century, do

not permit us to doubt this fact. The equality of rank between

these different functionaries did not prevent their functions

being, even in their origin, distinct; they became subsequently

still more so. See Plank, Geschichte der Christ. Kirch.

Verfassung., vol. i. p. 24.—G. On this extremely obscure subject,

which has been so much perplexed by passion and interest, it is

impossible to justify any opinion without entering into long and

controversial details.——It must be admitted, in opposition to

Plank, that in the New Testament, several words are sometimes

indiscriminately used. (Acts xx. v. 17, comp. with 28 Tit. i. 5

and 7. Philip. i. 1.) But it is as clear, that as soon as we can

discern the form of church government, at a period closely

bordering upon, if not within, the apostolic age, it appears with

a bishop at the head of each community, holding some superiority

over the presbyters. Whether he was, as Gibbon from Mosheim

supposes, merely an elective head of the College of Presbyters,

(for this we have, in fact, no valid authority,) or whether his

distinct functions were established on apostolic authority, is

still contested. The universal submission to this episcopacy, in

every part of the Christian world appears to me strongly to favor

the latter view.—M.]

108 (return) [ Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity, l. vii.]

But the most perfect equality of freedom requires the directing

hand of a superior magistrate: and the order of public

deliberations soon introduces the office of a president, invested

at least with the authority of collecting the sentiments, and of

executing the resolutions, of the assembly. A regard for the

public tranquillity, which would so frequently have been

interrupted by annual or by occasional elections, induced the

primitive Christians to constitute an honorable and perpetual

magistracy, and to choose one of the wisest and most holy among

their presbyters to execute, during his life, the duties of their

ecclesiastical governor. It was under these circumstances that

the lofty title of Bishop began to raise itself above the humble

appellation of Presbyter; and while the latter remained the most

natural distinction for the members of every Christian senate,

the former was appropriated to the dignity of its new president.

109 The advantages of this episcopal form of government, which

appears to have been introduced before the end of the first

century, 110 were so obvious, and so important for the future

greatness, as well as the present peace, of Christianity, that it

was adopted without delay by all the societies which were already

scattered over the empire, had acquired in a very early period

the sanction of antiquity, 111 and is still revered by the most

powerful churches, both of the East and of the West, as a

primitive and even as a divine establishment. 112 It is needless

to observe, that the pious and humble presbyters, who were first

dignified with the episcopal title, could not possess, and would

probably have rejected, the power and pomp which now encircles

the tiara of the Roman pontiff, or the mitre of a German prelate.

But we may define, in a few words, the narrow limits of their

original jurisdiction, which was chiefly of a spiritual, though

in some instances of a temporal nature. 113 It consisted in the

administration of the sacraments and discipline of the church,

the superintendency of religious ceremonies, which imperceptibly

increased in number and variety, the consecration of

ecclesiastical ministers, to whom the bishop assigned their

respective functions, the management of the public fund, and the

determination of all such differences as the faithful were

unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous judge.

These powers, during a short period, were exercised according to

the advice of the presbyteral college, and with the consent and

approbation of the assembly of Christians. The primitive bishops

were considered only as the first of their equals, and the

honorable servants of a free people. Whenever the episcopal chair

became vacant by death, a new president was chosen among the

presbyters by the suffrage of the whole congregation, every

member of which supposed himself invested with a sacred and

sacerdotal character. 114

109 (return) [ See Jerome and Titum, c. i. and Epistol. 85, (in

the Benedictine edition, 101,) and the elaborate apology of

Blondel, pro sententia Hieronymi. The ancient state, as it is

described by Jerome, of the bishop and presbyters of Alexandria,

receives a remarkable confirmation from the patriarch Eutychius,

(Annal. tom. i. p. 330, Vers Pocock;) whose testimony I know not

how to reject, in spite of all the objections of the learned

Pearson in his Vindiciæ Ignatianæ, part i. c. 11.]

110 (return) [ See the introduction to the Apocalypse. Bishops,

under the name of angels, were already instituted in the seven

cities of Asia. And yet the epistle of Clemens (which is probably

of as ancient a date) does not lead us to discover any traces of

episcopacy either at Corinth or Rome.]

111 (return) [ Nulla Ecclesia sine Episcopo, has been a fact as

well as a maxim since the time of Tertullian and Irenæus.]

112 (return) [ After we have passed the difficulties of the first

century, we find the episcopal government universally

established, till it was interrupted by the republican genius of

the Swiss and German reformers.]

113 (return) [ See Mosheim in the first and second centuries.

Ignatius (ad Smyrnæos, c. 3, &c.) is fond of exalting the

episcopal dignity. Le Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 569) very bluntly

censures his conduct, Mosheim, with a more critical judgment, (p.

161,) suspects the purity even of the smaller epistles.]

114 (return) [ Nonne et Laici sacerdotes sumus? Tertullian,

Exhort. ad Castitat. c. 7. As the human heart is still the same,

several of the observations which Mr. Hume has made on

Enthusiasm, (Essays, vol. i. p. 76, quarto edit.) may be applied

even to real inspiration. * Note: This expression was employed by

the earlier Christian writers in the sense used by St. Peter, 1

Ep ii. 9. It was the sanctity and virtue not the power of

priesthood, in which all Christians were to be equally

distinguished.—M.]

Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the Christians

were governed more than a hundred years after the death of the

apostles. Every society formed within itself a separate and

independent republic; and although the most distant of these

little states maintained a mutual as well as friendly intercourse

of letters and deputations, the Christian world was not yet

connected by any supreme authority or legislative assembly. As

the numbers of the faithful were gradually multiplied, they

discovered the advantages that might result from a closer union

of their interest and designs. Towards the end of the second

century, the churches of Greece and Asia adopted the useful

institutions of provincial synods, 1141 and they may justly be

supposed to have borrowed the model of a representative council

from the celebrated examples of their own country, the

Amphictyons, the Achæan league, or the assemblies of the Ionian

cities. It was soon established as a custom and as a law, that

the bishops of the independent churches should meet in the

capital of the province at the stated periods of spring and

autumn. Their deliberations were assisted by the advice of a few

distinguished presbyters, and moderated by the presence of a

listening multitude. 115 Their decrees, which were styled Canons,

regulated every important controversy of faith and discipline;

and it was natural to believe that a liberal effusion of the Holy

Spirit would be poured on the united assembly of the delegates of

the Christian people. The institution of synods was so well

suited to private ambition, and to public interest, that in the

space of a few years it was received throughout the whole empire.

A regular correspondence was established between the provincial

councils, which mutually communicated and approved their

respective proceedings; and the catholic church soon assumed the

form, and acquired the strength, of a great fœderative republic.

116

1141 (return) [ The synods were not the first means taken by the

insulated churches to enter into communion and to assume a

corporate character. The dioceses were first formed by the union

of several country churches with a church in a city: many

churches in one city uniting among themselves, or joining a more

considerable church, became metropolitan. The dioceses were not

formed before the beginning of the second century: before that

time the Christians had not established sufficient churches in

the country to stand in need of that union. It is towards the

middle of the same century that we discover the first traces of

the metropolitan constitution. (Probably the country churches

were founded in general by missionaries from those in the city,

and would preserve a natural connection with the parent

church.)—M. ——The provincial synods did not commence till towards

the middle of the third century, and were not the first synods.

History gives us distinct notions of the synods, held towards the

end of the second century, at Ephesus at Jerusalem, at Pontus,

and at Rome, to put an end to the disputes which had arisen

between the Latin and Asiatic churches about the celebration of

Easter. But these synods were not subject to any regular form or

periodical return; this regularity was first established with the

provincial synods, which were formed by a union of the bishops of

a district, subject to a metropolitan. Plank, p. 90. Geschichte

der Christ. Kirch. Verfassung—G]

115 (return) [ Acta Concil. Carthag. apud Cyprian. edit. Fell, p.

158. This council was composed of eighty-seven bishops from the

provinces of Mauritania, Numidia, and Africa; some presbyters and

deacons assisted at the assembly; præsente plebis maxima parte.]

116 (return) [ Aguntur præterea per Græcias illas, certis in

locis concilia, &c Tertullian de Jejuniis, c. 13. The African

mentions it as a recent and foreign institution. The coalition of

the Christian churches is very ably explained by Mosheim, p. 164

170.]

As the legislative authority of the particular churches was

insensibly superseded by the use of councils, the bishops

obtained by their alliance a much larger share of executive and

arbitrary power; and as soon as they were connected by a sense of

their common interest, they were enabled to attack, with united

vigor, the original rights of their clergy and people. The

prelates of the third century imperceptibly changed the language

of exhortation into that of command, scattered the seeds of

future usurpations, and supplied, by scripture allegories and

declamatory rhetoric, their deficiency of force and of reason.

They exalted the unity and power of the church, as it was

represented in the episcopal office, of which every bishop

enjoyed an equal and undivided portion. 117 Princes and

magistrates, it was often repeated, might boast an earthly claim

to a transitory dominion; it was the episcopal authority alone

which was derived from the Deity, and extended itself over this

and over another world. The bishops were the vicegerents of

Christ, the successors of the apostles, and the mystic

substitutes of the high priest of the Mosaic law. Their exclusive

privilege of conferring the sacerdotal character invaded the

freedom both of clerical and of popular elections; and if, in the

administration of the church, they still consulted the judgment

of the presbyters, or the inclination of the people, they most

carefully inculcated the merit of such a voluntary condescension.

The bishops acknowledged the supreme authority which resided in

the assembly of their brethren; but in the government of his

peculiar diocese, each of them exacted from his _flock_ the same

implicit obedience as if that favorite metaphor had been

literally just, and as if the shepherd had been of a more exalted

nature than that of his sheep. 118 This obedience, however, was

not imposed without some efforts on one side, and some resistance

on the other. The democratical part of the constitution was, in

many places, very warmly supported by the zealous or interested

opposition of the inferior clergy. But their patriotism received

the ignominious epithets of faction and schism; and the episcopal

cause was indebted for its rapid progress to the labors of many

active prelates, who, like Cyprian of Carthage, could reconcile

the arts of the most ambitious statesman with the Christian

virtues which seem adapted to the character of a saint and

martyr. 119

117 (return) [ Cyprian, in his admired treatise De Unitate

Ecclesiæ. p. 75—86]

118 (return) [ We may appeal to the whole tenor of Cyprian’s

conduct, of his doctrine, and of his epistles. Le Clerc, in a

short life of Cyprian, (Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. xii. p.

207—378,) has laid him open with great freedom and accuracy.]

119 (return) [ If Novatus, Felicissimus, &c., whom the Bishop of

Carthage expelled from his church, and from Africa, were not the

most detestable monsters of wickedness, the zeal of Cyprian must

occasionally have prevailed over his veracity. For a very just

account of these obscure quarrels, see Mosheim, p. 497—512.]

The same causes which at first had destroyed the equality of the

presbyters introduced among the bishops a preeminence of rank,

and from thence a superiority of jurisdiction. As often as in the

spring and autumn they met in provincial synod, the difference of

personal merit and reputation was very sensibly felt among the

members of the assembly, and the multitude was governed by the

wisdom and eloquence of the few. But the order of public

proceedings required a more regular and less invidious

distinction; the office of perpetual presidents in the councils

of each province was conferred on the bishops of the principal

city; and these aspiring prelates, who soon acquired the lofty

titles of Metropolitans and Primates, secretly prepared

themselves to usurp over their episcopal brethren the same

authority which the bishops had so lately assumed above the

college of presbyters. 120 Nor was it long before an emulation of

preeminence and power prevailed among the Metropolitans

themselves, each of them affecting to display, in the most

pompous terms, the temporal honors and advantages of the city

over which he presided; the numbers and opulence of the

Christians who were subject to their pastoral care; the saints

and martyrs who had arisen among them; and the purity with which

they preserved the tradition of the faith, as it had been

transmitted through a series of orthodox bishops from the apostle

or the apostolic disciple, to whom the foundation of their church

was ascribed. 121 From every cause, either of a civil or of an

ecclesiastical nature, it was easy to foresee that Rome must

enjoy the respect, and would soon claim the obedience, of the

provinces. The society of the faithful bore a just proportion to

the capital of the empire; and the Roman church was the greatest,

the most numerous, and, in regard to the West, the most ancient

of all the Christian establishments, many of which had received

their religion from the pious labors of her missionaries. Instead

of one apostolic founder, the utmost boast of Antioch, of

Ephesus, or of Corinth, the banks of the Tyber were supposed to

have been honored with the preaching and martyrdom of the two

most eminent among the apostles; 122 and the bishops of Rome very

prudently claimed the inheritance of whatsoever prerogatives were

attributed either to the person or to the office of St. Peter.

123 The bishops of Italy and of the provinces were disposed to

allow them a primacy of order and association (such was their

very accurate expression) in the Christian aristocracy. 124 But

the power of a monarch was rejected with abhorrence, and the

aspiring genius of Rome experienced from the nations of Asia and

Africa a more vigorous resistance to her spiritual, than she had

formerly done to her temporal, dominion. The patriotic Cyprian,

who ruled with the most absolute sway the church of Carthage and

the provincial synods, opposed with resolution and success the

ambition of the Roman pontiff, artfully connected his own cause

with that of the eastern bishops, and, like Hannibal, sought out

new allies in the heart of Asia. 125 If this Punic war was

carried on without any effusion of blood, it was owing much less

to the moderation than to the weakness of the contending

prelates. Invectives and excommunications were _their_ only

weapons; and these, during the progress of the whole controversy,

they hurled against each other with equal fury and devotion. The

hard necessity of censuring either a pope, or a saint and martyr,

distresses the modern Catholics whenever they are obliged to

relate the particulars of a dispute in which the champions of

religion indulged such passions as seem much more adapted to the

senate or to the camp. 126

120 (return) [ Mosheim, p. 269, 574. Dupin, Antiquæ Eccles.

Disciplin. p. 19, 20.]

121 (return) [ Tertullian, in a distinct treatise, has pleaded

against the heretics the right of prescription, as it was held by

the apostolic churches.]

122 (return) [ The journey of St. Peter to Rome is mentioned by

most of the ancients, (see Eusebius, ii. 25,) maintained by all

the Catholics, allowed by some Protestants, (see Pearson and

Dodwell de Success. Episcop. Roman,) but has been vigorously

attacked by Spanheim, (Miscellanes Sacra, iii. 3.) According to

Father Hardouin, the monks of the thirteenth century, who

composed the Æneid, represented St. Peter under the allegorical

character of the Trojan hero. * Note: It is quite clear that,

strictly speaking, the church of Rome was not founded by either

of these apostles. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans proves

undeniably the flourishing state of the church before his visit

to the city; and many Roman Catholic writers have given up the

impracticable task of reconciling with chronology any visit of

St. Peter to Rome before the end of the reign of Claudius, or the

beginning of that of Nero.—M.]

123 (return) [ It is in French only that the famous allusion to

St. Peter’s name is exact. Tu es Pierre, et sur cette pierre.—The

same is imperfect in Greek, Latin, Italian, &c., and totally

unintelligible in our Tentonic languages. * Note: It is exact in

Syro-Chaldaic, the language in which it was spoken by Jesus

Christ. (St. Matt. xvi. 17.) Peter was called Cephas; and cepha

signifies base, foundation, rock—G.]

124 (return) [ Irenæus adv. Hæreses, iii. 3. Tertullian de

Præscription. c. 36, and Cyprian, Epistol. 27, 55, 71, 75. Le

Clere (Hist. Eccles. p. 764) and Mosheim (p. 258, 578) labor in

the interpretation of these passages. But the loose and

rhetorical style of the fathers often appears favorable to the

pretensions of Rome.]

125 (return) [ See the sharp epistle from Firmilianus, bishop of

Cæsarea, to Stephen, bishop of Rome, ap. Cyprian, Epistol. 75.]

126 (return) [ Concerning this dispute of the rebaptism of

heretics, see the epistles of Cyprian, and the seventh book of

Eusebius.]

The progress of the ecclesiastical authority gave birth to the

memorable distinction of the laity and of the clergy, which had

been unknown to the Greeks and Romans. 127 The former of these

appellations comprehended the body of the Christian people; the

latter, according to the signification of the word, was

appropriated to the chosen portion that had been set apart for

the service of religion; a celebrated order of men, which has

furnished the most important, though not always the most

edifying, subjects for modern history. Their mutual hostilities

sometimes disturbed the peace of the infant church, but their

zeal and activity were united in the common cause, and the love

of power, which (under the most artful disguises) could insinuate

itself into the breasts of bishops and martyrs, animated them to

increase the number of their subjects, and to enlarge the limits

of the Christian empire. They were destitute of any temporal

force, and they were for a long time discouraged and oppressed,

rather than assisted, by the civil magistrate; but they had

acquired, and they employed within their own society, the two

most efficacious instruments of government, rewards and

punishments; the former derived from the pious liberality, the

latter from the devout apprehensions, of the faithful.

127 (return) [ For the origin of these words, see Mosheim, p.

141. Spanheim, Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 633. The distinction of

Clerus and Iaicus was established before the time of Tertullian.]

Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part VII

I. The community of goods, which had so agreeably amused the

imagination of Plato, 128 and which subsisted in some degree

among the austere sect of the Essenians, 129 was adopted for a

short time in the primitive church. The fervor of the first

proselytes prompted them to sell those worldly possessions, which

they despised, to lay the price of them at the feet of the

apostles, and to content themselves with receiving an equal share

out of the general distribution. 130 The progress of the

Christian religion relaxed, and gradually abolished, this

generous institution, which, in hands less pure than those of the

apostles, would too soon have been corrupted and abused by the

returning selfishness of human nature; and the converts who

embraced the new religion were permitted to retain the possession

of their patrimony, to receive legacies and inheritances, and to

increase their separate property by all the lawful means of trade

and industry. Instead of an absolute sacrifice, a moderate

proportion was accepted by the ministers of the gospel; and in

their weekly or monthly assemblies, every believer, according to

the exigency of the occasion, and the measure of his wealth and

piety, presented his voluntary offering for the use of the common

fund. 131 Nothing, however inconsiderable, was refused; but it

was diligently inculcated that, in the article of Tithes, the

Mosaic law was still of divine obligation; and that since the

Jews, under a less perfect discipline, had been commanded to pay

a tenth part of all that they possessed, it would become the

disciples of Christ to distinguish themselves by a superior

degree of liberality, 132 and to acquire some merit by resigning

a superfluous treasure, which must so soon be annihilated with

the world itself. 133 It is almost unnecessary to observe, that

the revenue of each particular church, which was of so uncertain

and fluctuating a nature, must have varied with the poverty or

the opulence of the faithful, as they were dispersed in obscure

villages, or collected in the great cities of the empire. In the

time of the emperor Decius, it was the opinion of the

magistrates, that the Christians of Rome were possessed of very

considerable wealth; that vessels of gold and silver were used in

their religious worship, and that many among their proselytes had

sold their lands and houses to increase the public riches of the

sect, at the expense, indeed, of their unfortunate children, who

found themselves beggars, because their parents had been saints.

134 We should listen with distrust to the suspicions of strangers

and enemies: on this occasion, however, they receive a very

specious and probable color from the two following circumstances,

the only ones that have reached our knowledge, which define any

precise sums, or convey any distinct idea. Almost at the same

period, the bishop of Carthage, from a society less opulent than

that of Rome, collected a hundred thousand sesterces, (above

eight hundred and fifty pounds sterling,) on a sudden call of

charity to redeem the brethren of Numidia, who had been carried

away captives by the barbarians of the desert. 135 About a

hundred years before the reign of Decius, the Roman church had

received, in a single donation, the sum of two hundred thousand

sesterces from a stranger of Pontus, who proposed to fix his

residence in the capital. 136 These oblations, for the most part,

were made in money; nor was the society of Christians either

desirous or capable of acquiring, to any considerable degree, the

encumbrance of landed property. It had been provided by several

laws, which were enacted with the same design as our statutes of

mortmain, that no real estates should be given or bequeathed to

any corporate body, without either a special privilege or a

particular dispensation from the emperor or from the senate; 137

who were seldom disposed to grant them in favor of a sect, at

first the object of their contempt, and at last of their fears

and jealousy. A transaction, however, is related under the reign

of Alexander Severus, which discovers that the restraint was

sometimes eluded or suspended, and that the Christians were

permitted to claim and to possess lands within the limits of Rome

itself. 138 The progress of Christianity, and the civil confusion

of the empire, contributed to relax the severity of the laws; and

before the close of the third century many considerable estates

were bestowed on the opulent churches of Rome, Milan, Carthage,

Antioch, Alexandria, and the other great cities of Italy and the

provinces.

128 (return) [ The community instituted by Plato is more perfect

than that which Sir Thomas More had imagined for his Utopia. The

community of women, and that of temporal goods, may be considered

as inseparable parts of the same system.]

129 (return) [ Joseph. Antiquitat. xviii. 2. Philo, de Vit.

Contemplativ.]

130 (return) [ See the Acts of the Apostles, c. 2, 4, 5, with

Grotius’s Commentary. Mosheim, in a particular dissertation,

attacks the common opinion with very inconclusive arguments. *

Note: This is not the general judgment on Mosheim’s learned

dissertation. There is no trace in the latter part of the New

Testament of this community of goods, and many distinct proofs of

the contrary. All exhortations to almsgiving would have been

unmeaning if property had been in common—M.]

131 (return) [ Justin Martyr, Apolog. Major, c. 89. Tertullian,

Apolog. c. 39.]

132 (return) [ Irenæus ad Hæres. l. iv. c. 27, 34. Origen in Num.

Hom. ii Cyprian de Unitat. Eccles. Constitut. Apostol. l. ii. c.

34, 35, with the notes of Cotelerius. The Constitutions introduce

this divine precept, by declaring that priests are as much above

kings as the soul is above the body. Among the tithable articles,

they enumerate corn, wine, oil, and wool. On this interesting

subject, consult Prideaux’s History of Tithes, and Fra Paolo

delle Materie Beneficiarie; two writers of a very different

character.]

133 (return) [ The same opinion which prevailed about the year

one thousand, was productive of the same effects. Most of the

Donations express their motive, “appropinquante mundi fine.” See

Mosheim’s General History of the Church, vol. i. p. 457.]

134 (return) [ Tum summa cura est fratribus (Ut sermo testatur

loquax.) Offerre, fundis venditis Sestertiorum millia. Addicta

avorum prædia Foedis sub auctionibus, Successor exheres gemit

Sanctis egens Parentibus. Hæc occuluntur abditis Ecclesiarum in

angulis. Et summa pietas creditur Nudare dulces

liberos.——Prudent. Hymn 2. The subsequent conduct of the deacon

Laurence only proves how proper a use was made of the wealth of

the Roman church; it was undoubtedly very considerable; but Fra

Paolo (c. 3) appears to exaggerate, when he supposes that the

successors of Commodus were urged to persecute the Christians by

their own avarice, or that of their Prætorian præfects.]

135 (return) [ Cyprian, Epistol. 62.]

136 (return) [ Tertullian de Præscriptione, c. 30.]

137 (return) [ Diocletian gave a rescript, which is only a

declaration of the old law; “Collegium, si nullo speciali

privilegio subnixum sit, hæreditatem capere non posse, dubium non

est.” Fra Paolo (c. 4) thinks that these regulations had been

much neglected since the reign of Valerian.]

138 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 131. The ground had been public;

and was row disputed between the society of Christians and that

of butchers. Note *: Carponarii, rather victuallers.—M.]

The bishop was the natural steward of the church; the public

stock was intrusted to his care without account or control; the

presbyters were confined to their spiritual functions, and the

more dependent order of the deacons was solely employed in the

management and distribution of the ecclesiastical revenue. 139 If

we may give credit to the vehement declamations of Cyprian, there

were too many among his African brethren, who, in the execution

of their charge, violated every precept, not only of evangelical

perfection, but even of moral virtue. By some of these unfaithful

stewards the riches of the church were lavished in sensual

pleasures; by others they were perverted to the purposes of

private gain, of fraudulent purchases, and of rapacious usury.

140 But as long as the contributions of the Christian people were

free and unconstrained, the abuse of their confidence could not

be very frequent, and the general uses to which their liberality

was applied reflected honor on the religious society. A decent

portion was reserved for the maintenance of the bishop and his

clergy; a sufficient sum was allotted for the expenses of the

public worship, of which the feasts of love, the _agapæ_, as they

were called, constituted a very pleasing part. The whole

remainder was the sacred patrimony of the poor. According to the

discretion of the bishop, it was distributed to support widows

and orphans, the lame, the sick, and the aged of the community;

to comfort strangers and pilgrims, and to alleviate the

misfortunes of prisoners and captives, more especially when their

sufferings had been occasioned by their firm attachment to the

cause of religion. 141 A generous intercourse of charity united

the most distant provinces, and the smaller congregations were

cheerfully assisted by the alms of their more opulent brethren.

142 Such an institution, which paid less regard to the merit than

to the distress of the object, very materially conduced to the

progress of Christianity. The Pagans, who were actuated by a

sense of humanity, while they derided the doctrines, acknowledged

the benevolence, of the new sect. 143 The prospect of immediate

relief and of future protection allured into its hospitable bosom

many of those unhappy persons whom the neglect of the world would

have abandoned to the miseries of want, of sickness, and of old

age. There is some reason likewise to believe that great numbers

of infants, who, according to the inhuman practice of the times,

had been exposed by their parents, were frequently rescued from

death, baptized, educated, and maintained by the piety of the

Christians, and at the expense of the public treasure. 144

139 (return) [ Constitut. Apostol. ii. 35.]

140 (return) [ Cyprian de Lapsis, p. 89. Epistol. 65. The charge

is confirmed by the 19th and 20th canon of the council of

Illiberis.]

141 (return) [ See the apologies of Justin, Tertullian, &c.]

142 (return) [ The wealth and liberality of the Romans to their

most distant brethren is gratefully celebrated by Dionysius of

Corinth, ap. Euseb. l. iv. c. 23.]

143 (return) [ See Lucian iu Peregrin. Julian (Epist. 49) seems

mortified that the Christian charity maintains not only their

own, but likewise the heathen poor.]

144 (return) [ Such, at least, has been the laudable conduct of

more modern missionaries, under the same circumstances. Above

three thousand new-born infants are annually exposed in the

streets of Pekin. See Le Comte, Memoires sur la Chine, and the

Recherches sur les Chinois et les Egyptians, tom. i. p. 61.]

II. It is the undoubted right of every society to exclude from

its communion and benefits such among its members as reject or

violate those regulations which have been established by general

consent. In the exercise of this power, the censures of the

Christian church were chiefly directed against scandalous

sinners, and particularly those who were guilty of murder, of

fraud, or of incontinence; against the authors or the followers

of any heretical opinions which had been condemned by the

judgment of the episcopal order; and against those unhappy

persons, who, whether from choice or compulsion, had polluted

themselves after their baptism by any act of idolatrous worship.

The consequences of excommunication were of a temporal as well as

a spiritual nature. The Christian against whom it was pronounced

was deprived of any part in the oblations of the faithful. The

ties both of religious and of private friendship were dissolved:

he found himself a profane object of abhorrence to the persons

whom he the most esteemed, or by whom he had been the most

tenderly beloved; and as far as an expulsion from a respectable

society could imprint on his character a mark of disgrace, he was

shunned or suspected by the generality of mankind. The situation

of these unfortunate exiles was in itself very painful and

melancholy; but, as it usually happens, their apprehensions far

exceeded their sufferings. The benefits of the Christian

communion were those of eternal life; nor could they erase from

their minds the awful opinion, that to those ecclesiastical

governors by whom they were condemned, the Deity had committed

the keys of Hell and of Paradise. The heretics, indeed, who might

be supported by the consciousness of their intentions, and by the

flattering hope that they alone had discovered the true path of

salvation, endeavored to regain, in their separate assemblies,

those comforts, temporal as well as spiritual, which they no

longer derived from the great society of Christians. But almost

all those who had reluctantly yielded to the power of vice or

idolatry were sensible of their fallen condition, and anxiously

desirous of being restored to the benefits of the Christian

communion.

With regard to the treatment of these penitents, two opposite

opinions, the one of justice, the other of mercy, divided the

primitive church. The more rigid and inflexible casuists refused

them forever, and without exception, the meanest place in the

holy community, which they had disgraced or deserted; and leaving

them to the remorse of a guilty conscience, indulged them only

with a faint ray of hope that the contrition of their life and

death might possibly be accepted by the Supreme Being. 145 A

milder sentiment was embraced, in practice as well as in theory,

by the purest and most respectable of the Christian churches. 146

The gates of reconciliation and of heaven were seldom shut

against the returning penitent; but a severe and solemn form of

discipline was instituted, which, while it served to expiate his

crime, might powerfully deter the spectators from the imitation

of his example. Humbled by a public confession, emaciated by

fasting and clothed in sackcloth, the penitent lay prostrate at

the door of the assembly, imploring with tears the pardon of his

offences, and soliciting the prayers of the faithful. 147 If the

fault was of a very heinous nature, whole years of penance were

esteemed an inadequate satisfaction to the divine justice; and it

was always by slow and painful gradations that the sinner, the

heretic, or the apostate, was readmitted into the bosom of the

church. A sentence of perpetual excommunication was, however,

reserved for some crimes of an extraordinary magnitude, and

particularly for the inexcusable relapses of those penitents who

had already experienced and abused the clemency of their

ecclesiastical superiors. According to the circumstances or the

number of the guilty, the exercise of the Christian discipline

was varied by the discretion of the bishops. The councils of

Ancyra and Illiberis were held about the same time, the one in

Galatia, the other in Spain; but their respective canons, which

are still extant, seem to breathe a very different spirit. The

Galatian, who after his baptism had repeatedly sacrificed to

idols, might obtain his pardon by a penance of seven years; and

if he had seduced others to imitate his example, only three years

more were added to the term of his exile. But the unhappy

Spaniard, who had committed the same offence, was deprived of the

hope of reconciliation, even in the article of death; and his

idolatry was placed at the head of a list of seventeen other

crimes, against which a sentence no less terrible was pronounced.

Among these we may distinguish the inexpiable guilt of

calumniating a bishop, a presbyter, or even a deacon. 148

145 (return) [ The Montanists and the Novatians, who adhered to

this opinion with the greatest rigor and obstinacy, found

themselves at last in the number of excommunicated heretics. See

the learned and copious Mosheim, Secul. ii. and iii.]

146 (return) [ Dionysius ap. Euseb. iv. 23. Cyprian, de Lapsis.]

147 (return) [ Cave’s Primitive Christianity, part iii. c. 5. The

admirers of antiquity regret the loss of this public penance.]

148 (return) [ See in Dupin, Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom.

ii. p. 304—313, a short but rational exposition of the canons of

those councils, which were assembled in the first moments of

tranquillity, after the persecution of Diocletian. This

persecution had been much less severely felt in Spain than in

Galatia; a difference which may, in some measure account for the

contrast of their regulations.]

The well-tempered mixture of liberality and rigor, the judicious

dispensation of rewards and punishments, according to the maxims

of policy as well as justice, constituted the _human_ strength of

the church. The Bishops, whose paternal care extended itself to

the government of both worlds, were sensible of the importance of

these prerogatives; and covering their ambition with the fair

pretence of the love of order, they were jealous of any rival in

the exercise of a discipline so necessary to prevent the

desertion of those troops which had enlisted themselves under the

banner of the cross, and whose numbers every day became more

considerable. From the imperious declamations of Cyprian, we

should naturally conclude that the doctrines of excommunication

and penance formed the most essential part of religion; and that

it was much less dangerous for the disciples of Christ to neglect

the observance of the moral duties, than to despise the censures

and authority of their bishops. Sometimes we might imagine that

we were listening to the voice of Moses, when he commanded the

earth to open, and to swallow up, in consuming flames, the

rebellious race which refused obedience to the priesthood of

Aaron; and we should sometimes suppose that we heard a Roman

consul asserting the majesty of the republic, and declaring his

inflexible resolution to enforce the rigor of the laws. “If such

irregularities are suffered with impunity,” (it is thus that the

bishop of Carthage chides the lenity of his colleague,) “if such

irregularities are suffered, there is an end of EPISCOPAL VIGOR;

149 an end of the sublime and divine power of governing the

Church, an end of Christianity itself.” Cyprian had renounced

those temporal honors which it is probable he would never have

obtained; but the acquisition of such absolute command over the

consciences and understanding of a congregation, however obscure

or despised by the world, is more truly grateful to the pride of

the human heart than the possession of the most despotic power,

imposed by arms and conquest on a reluctant people.

[ Gibbon has been accused of injustice to the character of

Cyprian, as exalting the “censures and authority of the church

above the observance of the moral duties.” Felicissimus had been

condemned by a synod of bishops, (non tantum mea, sed plurimorum

coepiscorum, sententia condemnatum,) on the charge not only of

schism, but of embezzlement of public money, the debauching of

virgins, and frequent acts of adultery. His violent menaces had

extorted his readmission into the church, against which Cyprian

protests with much vehemence: ne pecuniæ commissæ sibi fraudator,

ne stuprator virginum, ne matrimoniorum multorum depopulator et

corruptor, ultra adhuc sponsam Christi incorruptam præsentiæ suæ

dedecore, et impudica atque incesta contagione, violaret. See

Chelsum’s Remarks, p. 134. If these charges against Felicissimus

were true, they were something more than “irregularities,” A

Roman censor would have been a fairer subject of comparison than

a consul. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the charge

of adultery deepens very rapidly as the controversy becomes more

violent. It is first represented as a single act, recently

detected, and which men of character were prepared to

substantiate: adulterii etiam crimen accedit. quod patres nostri

graves viri deprehendisse se nuntiaverunt, et probaturos se

asseverarunt. Epist. xxxviii. The heretic has now darkened into a

man of notorious and general profligacy. Nor can it be denied

that of the whole long epistle, very far the larger and the more

passionate part dwells on the breach of ecclesiastical unity

rather than on the violation of Christian holiness.—M.]

149 (return) [ Cyprian Epist. 69.]

[ This supposition appears unfounded: the birth and the talents of

Cyprian might make us presume the contrary. Thascius Cæcilius

Cyprianus, Carthaginensis, artis oratoriæ professione clarus,

magnam sibi gloriam, opes, honores acquisivit, epularibus cænis et

largis dapibus assuetus, pretiosa veste conspicuus, auro atque

purpura fulgens, fascibus oblectatus et honoribus, stipatus

clientium cuneis, frequentiore comitatu officii agminis honestatus,

ut ipse de se loquitur in Epistola ad Donatum. See De Cave, Hist.

Liter. b. i. p. 87.—G. Cave has rather embellished Cyprian’s

language.—M.]

In the course of this important, though perhaps tedious inquiry,

I have attempted to display the secondary causes which so

efficaciously assisted the truth of the Christian religion. If

among these causes we have discovered any artificial ornaments,

any accidental circumstances, or any mixture of error and

passion, it cannot appear surprising that mankind should be the

most sensibly affected by such motives as were suited to their

imperfect nature. It was by the aid of these causes, exclusive

zeal, the immediate expectation of another world, the claim of

miracles, the practice of rigid virtue, and the constitution of

the primitive church, that Christianity spread itself with so

much success in the Roman empire. To the first of these the

Christians were indebted for their invincible valor, which

disdained to capitulate with the enemy whom they were resolved to

vanquish. The three succeeding causes supplied their valor with

the most formidable arms. The last of these causes united their

courage, directed their arms, and gave their efforts that

irresistible weight, which even a small band of well-trained and

intrepid volunteers has so often possessed over an undisciplined

multitude, ignorant of the subject and careless of the event of

the war. In the various religions of Polytheism, some wandering

fanatics of Egypt and Syria, who addressed themselves to the

credulous superstition of the populace, were perhaps the only

order of priests 150 that derived their whole support and credit

from their sacerdotal profession, and were very deeply affected

by a personal concern for the safety or prosperity of their

tutelar deities. The ministers of Polytheism, both in Rome and in

the provinces, were, for the most part, men of a noble birth, and

of an affluent fortune, who received, as an honorable

distinction, the care of a celebrated temple, or of a public

sacrifice, exhibited, very frequently at their own expense, the

sacred games, 151 and with cold indifference performed the

ancient rites, according to the laws and fashion of their

country. As they were engaged in the ordinary occupations of

life, their zeal and devotion were seldom animated by a sense of

interest, or by the habits of an ecclesiastical character.

Confined to their respective temples and cities, they remained

without any connection of discipline or government; and whilst

they acknowledged the supreme jurisdiction of the senate, of the

college of pontiffs, and of the emperor, those civil magistrates

contented themselves with the easy task of maintaining in peace

and dignity the general worship of mankind. We have already seen

how various, how loose, and how uncertain were the religious

sentiments of Polytheists. They were abandoned, almost without

control, to the natural workings of a superstitious fancy. The

accidental circumstances of their life and situation determined

the object as well as the degree of their devotion; and as long

as their adoration was successively prostituted to a thousand

deities, it was scarcely possible that their hearts could be

susceptible of a very sincere or lively passion for any of them.

150 (return) [ The arts, the manners, and the vices of the

priests of the Syrian goddess are very humorously described by

Apuleius, in the eighth book of his Metamorphosis.]

151 (return) [ The office of Asiarch was of this nature, and it

is frequently mentioned in Aristides, the Inscriptions, &c. It

was annual and elective. None but the vainest citizens could

desire the honor; none but the most wealthy could support the

expense. See, in the Patres Apostol. tom. ii. p. 200, with how

much indifference Philip the Asiarch conducted himself in the

martyrdom of Polycarp. There were likewise Bithyniarchs,

Lyciarchs, &c.]

When Christianity appeared in the world, even these faint and

imperfect impressions had lost much of their original power.

Human reason, which by its unassisted strength is incapable of

perceiving the mysteries of faith, had already obtained an easy

triumph over the folly of Paganism; and when Tertullian or

Lactantius employ their labors in exposing its falsehood and

extravagance, they are obliged to transcribe the eloquence of

Cicero or the wit of Lucian. The contagion of these sceptical

writings had been diffused far beyond the number of their

readers. The fashion of incredulity was communicated from the

philosopher to the man of pleasure or business, from the noble to

the plebeian, and from the master to the menial slave who waited

at his table, and who eagerly listened to the freedom of his

conversation. On public occasions the philosophic part of mankind

affected to treat with respect and decency the religious

institutions of their country; but their secret contempt

penetrated through the thin and awkward disguise; and even the

people, when they discovered that their deities were rejected and

derided by those whose rank or understanding they were accustomed

to reverence, were filled with doubts and apprehensions

concerning the truth of those doctrines, to which they had

yielded the most implicit belief. The decline of ancient

prejudice exposed a very numerous portion of human kind to the

danger of a painful and comfortless situation. A state of

scepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But

the practice of superstition is so congenial to the multitude,

that if they are forcibly awakened, they still regret the loss of

their pleasing vision. Their love of the marvellous and

supernatural, their curiosity with regard to future events, and

their strong propensity to extend their hopes and fears beyond

the limits of the visible world, were the principal causes which

favored the establishment of Polytheism. So urgent on the vulgar

is the necessity of believing, that the fall of any system of

mythology will most probably be succeeded by the introduction of

some other mode of superstition. Some deities of a more recent

and fashionable cast might soon have occupied the deserted

temples of Jupiter and Apollo, if, in the decisive moment, the

wisdom of Providence had not interposed a genuine revelation,

fitted to inspire the most rational esteem and conviction,

whilst, at the same time, it was adorned with all that could

attract the curiosity, the wonder, and the veneration of the

people. In their actual disposition, as many were almost

disengaged from their artificial prejudices, but equally

susceptible and desirous of a devout attachment; an object much

less deserving would have been sufficient to fill the vacant

place in their hearts, and to gratify the uncertain eagerness of

their passions. Those who are inclined to pursue this reflection,

instead of viewing with astonishment the rapid progress of

Christianity, will perhaps be surprised that its success was not

still more rapid and still more universal. It has been observed,

with truth as well as propriety, that the conquests of Rome

prepared and facilitated those of Christianity. In the second

chapter of this work we have attempted to explain in what manner

the most civilized provinces of Europe, Asia, and Africa were

united under the dominion of one sovereign, and gradually

connected by the most intimate ties of laws, of manners, and of

language. The Jews of Palestine, who had fondly expected a

temporal deliverer, gave so cold a reception to the miracles of

the divine prophet, that it was found unnecessary to publish, or

at least to preserve, any Hebrew gospel. 152 The authentic

histories of the actions of Christ were composed in the Greek

language, at a considerable distance from Jerusalem, and after

the Gentile converts were grown extremely numerous. 153 As soon

as those histories were translated into the Latin tongue, they

were perfectly intelligible to all the subjects of Rome,

excepting only to the peasants of Syria and Egypt, for whose

benefit particular versions were afterwards made. The public

highways, which had been constructed for the use of the legions,

opened an easy passage for the Christian missionaries from

Damascus to Corinth, and from Italy to the extremity of Spain or

Britain; nor did those spiritual conquerors encounter any of the

obstacles which usually retard or prevent the introduction of a

foreign religion into a distant country. There is the strongest

reason to believe, that before the reigns of Diocletian and

Constantine, the faith of Christ had been preached in every

province, and in all the great cities of the empire; but the

foundation of the several congregations, the numbers of the

faithful who composed them, and their proportion to the

unbelieving multitude, are now buried in obscurity, or disguised

by fiction and declamation. Such imperfect circumstances,

however, as have reached our knowledge concerning the increase of

the Christian name in Asia and Greece, in Egypt, in Italy, and in

the West, we shall now proceed to relate, without neglecting the

real or imaginary acquisitions which lay beyond the frontiers of

the Roman empire.

152 (return) [ The modern critics are not disposed to believe

what the fathers almost unanimously assert, that St. Matthew

composed a Hebrew gospel, of which only the Greek translation is

extant. It seems, however, dangerous to reject their testimony. *

Note: Strong reasons appear to confirm this testimony. Papias,

contemporary of the Apostle St. John, says positively that

Matthew had written the discourses of Jesus Christ in Hebrew, and

that each interpreted them as he could. This Hebrew was the

Syro-Chaldaic dialect, then in use at Jerusalem: Origen, Irenæus,

Eusebius, Jerome, Epiphanius, confirm this statement. Jesus

Christ preached himself in Syro-Chaldaic, as is proved by many

words which he used, and which the Evangelists have taken the

pains to translate. St. Paul, addressing the Jews, used the same

language: Acts xxi. 40, xxii. 2, xxvi. 14. The opinions of some

critics prove nothing against such undeniable testimonies.

Moreover, their principal objection is, that St. Matthew quotes

the Old Testament according to the Greek version of the LXX.,

which is inaccurate; for of ten quotations, found in his Gospel,

seven are evidently taken from the Hebrew text; the threo others

offer little that differ: moreover, the latter are not literal

quotations. St. Jerome says positively, that, according to a copy

which he had seen in the library of Cæsarea, the quotations were

made in Hebrew (in Catal.) More modern critics, among others

Michaelis, do not entertain a doubt on the subject. The Greek

version appears to have been made in the time of the apostles, as

St. Jerome and St. Augustus affirm, perhaps by one of them.—G.

——Among modern critics, Dr. Hug has asserted the Greek original

of St. Matthew, but the general opinion of the most learned

biblical writer, supports the view of M. Guizot.—M.]

153 (return) [ Under the reigns of Nero and Domitian, and in the

cities of Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, and Ephesus. See Mill.

Prolegomena ad Nov. Testament, and Dr. Lardner’s fair and

extensive collection, vol. xv. Note: This question has, it is

well known, been most elaborately discussed since the time of

Gibbon. The Preface to the Translation of Schleier Macher’s

Version of St. Luke contains a very able summary of the various

theories.—M.]

Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part VIII.

The rich provinces that extend from the Euphrates to the Ionian

Sea were the principal theatre on which the apostle of the

Gentiles displayed his zeal and piety. The seeds of the gospel,

which he had scattered in a fertile soil, were diligently

cultivated by his disciples; and it should seem that, during the

two first centuries, the most considerable body of Christians was

contained within those limits. Among the societies which were

instituted in Syria, none were more ancient or more illustrious

than those of Damascus, of Berea or Aleppo, and of Antioch. The

prophetic introduction of the Apocalypse has described and

immortalized the seven churches of Asia; Ephesus, Smyrna,

Pergamus, Thyatira, 154 Sardes, Laodicea, and Philadelphia; and

their colonies were soon diffused over that populous country. In

a very early period, the islands of Cyprus and Crete, the

provinces of Thrace and Macedonia, gave a favorable reception to

the new religion; and Christian republics were soon founded in

the cities of Corinth, of Sparta, and of Athens. 155 The

antiquity of the Greek and Asiatic churches allowed a sufficient

space of time for their increase and multiplication; and even the

swarms of Gnostics and other heretics serve to display the

flourishing condition of the orthodox church, since the

appellation of heretics has always been applied to the less

numerous party. To these domestic testimonies we may add the

confession, the complaints, and the apprehensions of the Gentiles

themselves. From the writings of Lucian, a philosopher who had

studied mankind, and who describes their manners in the most

lively colors, we may learn that, under the reign of Commodus,

his native country of Pontus was filled with Epicureans and

_Christians_. 156 Within fourscore years after the death of

Christ, 157 the humane Pliny laments the magnitude of the evil

which he vainly attempted to eradicate. In his very curious

epistle to the emperor Trajan, he affirms that the temples were

almost deserted, that the sacred victims scarcely found any

purchasers, and that the superstition had not only infected the

cities, but had even spread itself into the villages and the open

country of Pontus and Bithynia. 158

154 (return) [ The Alogians (Epiphanius de Hæres. 51) disputed

the genuineness of the Apocalypse, because the church of Thyatira

was not yet founded. Epiphanius, who allows the fact, extricates

himself from the difficulty by ingeniously supposing that St.

John wrote in the spirit of prophecy. See Abauzit, Discours sur

l’Apocalypse.]

155 (return) [ The epistles of Ignatius and Dionysius (ap. Euseb.

iv. 23) point out many churches in Asia and Greece. That of

Athens seems to have been one of the least flourishing.]

156 (return) [ Lucian in Alexandro, c. 25. Christianity however,

must have been very unequally diffused over Pontus; since, in the

middle of the third century, there was no more than seventeen

believers in the extensive diocese of Neo-Cæsarea. See M. de

Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiast. tom. iv. p. 675, from Basil and

Gregory of Nyssa, who were themselves natives of Cappadocia.

Note: Gibbon forgot the conclusion of this story, that Gregory

left only seventeen heathens in his diocese. The antithesis is

suspicious, and both numbers may have been chosen to magnify the

spiritual fame of the wonder-worker.—M.]

157 (return) [ According to the ancients, Jesus Christ suffered

under the consulship of the two Gemini, in the year 29 of our

present æra. Pliny was sent into Bithynia (according to Pagi) in

the year 110.]

158 (return) [ Plin. Epist. x. 97.]

Without descending into a minute scrutiny of the expressions or

of the motives of those writers who either celebrate or lament

the progress of Christianity in the East, it may in general be

observed that none of them have left us any grounds from whence a

just estimate might be formed of the real numbers of the faithful

in those provinces. One circumstance, however, has been

fortunately preserved, which seems to cast a more distinct light

on this obscure but interesting subject. Under the reign of

Theodosius, after Christianity had enjoyed, during more than

sixty years, the sunshine of Imperial favor, the ancient and

illustrious church of Antioch consisted of one hundred thousand

persons, three thousand of whom were supported out of the public

oblations. 159 The splendor and dignity of the queen of the East,

the acknowledged populousness of Cæsarea, Seleucia, and

Alexandria, and the destruction of two hundred and fifty thousand

souls in the earthquake which afflicted Antioch under the elder

Justin, 160 are so many convincing proofs that the whole number

of its inhabitants was not less than half a million, and that the

Christians, however multiplied by zeal and power, did not exceed

a fifth part of that great city. How different a proportion must

we adopt when we compare the persecuted with the triumphant

church, the West with the East, remote villages with populous

towns, and countries recently converted to the faith with the

place where the believers first received the appellation of

Christians! It must not, however, be dissembled, that, in another

passage, Chrysostom, to whom we are indebted for this useful

information, computes the multitude of the faithful as even

superior to that of the Jews and Pagans. 161 But the solution of

this apparent difficulty is easy and obvious. The eloquent

preacher draws a parallel between the civil and the

ecclesiastical constitution of Antioch; between the list of

Christians who had acquired heaven by baptism, and the list of

citizens who had a right to share the public liberality. Slaves,

strangers, and infants were comprised in the former; they were

excluded from the latter.

159 (return) [ Chrysostom. Opera, tom. vii. p. 658, 810, (edit.

Savil. ii. 422, 329.)]

160 (return) [ John Malala, tom. ii. p. 144. He draws the same

conclusion with regard to the populousness of antioch.]

161 (return) [ Chrysostom. tom. i. p. 592. I am indebted for

these passages, though not for my inference, to the learned Dr.

Lardner. Credibility of the Gospel of History, vol. xii. p. 370.

* Note: The statements of Chrysostom with regard to the

population of Antioch, whatever may be their accuracy, are

perfectly consistent. In one passage he reckons the population at

200,000. In a second the Christians at 100,000. In a third he

states that the Christians formed more than half the population.

Gibbon has neglected to notice the first passage, and has drawn

by estimate of the population of Antioch from other sources. The

8000 maintained by alms were widows and virgins alone—M.]

The extensive commerce of Alexandria, and its proximity to

Palestine, gave an easy entrance to the new religion. It was at

first embraced by great numbers of the Theraputæ, or Essenians,

of the Lake Mareotis, a Jewish sect which had abated much of its

reverence for the Mosaic ceremonies. The austere life of the

Essenians, their fasts and excommunications, the community of

goods, the love of celibacy, their zeal for martyrdom, and the

warmth though not the purity of their faith, already offered a

very lively image of the primitive discipline. 162 It was in the

school of Alexandria that the Christian theology appears to have

assumed a regular and scientific form; and when Hadrian visited

Egypt, he found a church composed of Jews and of Greeks,

sufficiently important to attract the notice of that inquisitive

prince. 163 But the progress of Christianity was for a long time

confined within the limits of a single city, which was itself a

foreign colony, and till the close of the second century the

predecessors of Demetrius were the only prelates of the Egyptian

church. Three bishops were consecrated by the hands of Demetrius,

and the number was increased to twenty by his successor Heraclas.

164 The body of the natives, a people distinguished by a sullen

inflexibility of temper, 165 entertained the new doctrine with

coldness and reluctance; and even in the time of Origen, it was

rare to meet with an Egyptian who had surmounted his early

prejudices in favor of the sacred animals of his country. 166 As

soon, indeed, as Christianity ascended the throne, the zeal of

those barbarians obeyed the prevailing impulsion; the cities of

Egypt were filled with bishops, and the deserts of Thebais

swarmed with hermits.

162 (return) [ Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l. 2, c. 20, 21, 22,

23, has examined with the most critical accuracy the curious

treatise of Philo, which describes the Therapeutæ. By proving

that it was composed as early as the time of Augustus, Basnage

has demonstrated, in spite of Eusebius (l. ii. c. 17) and a crowd

of modern Catholics, that the Therapeutæ were neither Christians

nor monks. It still remains probable that they changed their

name, preserved their manners, adopted some new articles of

faith, and gradually became the fathers of the Egyptian

Ascetics.]

163 (return) [ See a letter of Hadrian in the Augustan History,

p. 245.]

164 (return) [ For the succession of Alexandrian bishops, consult

Renaudot’s History, p. 24, &c. This curious fact is preserved by

the patriarch Eutychius, (Annal. tom. i. p. 334, Vers. Pocock,)

and its internal evidence would alone be a sufficient answer to

all the objections which Bishop Pearson has urged in the Vindiciæ

Ignatianæ.]

165 (return) [ Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 16.]

166 (return) [ Origen contra Celsum, l. i. p. 40.]

A perpetual stream of strangers and provincials flowed into the

capacious bosom of Rome. Whatever was strange or odious, whoever

was guilty or suspected, might hope, in the obscurity of that

immense capital, to elude the vigilance of the law. In such a

various conflux of nations, every teacher, either of truth or

falsehood, every founder, whether of a virtuous or a criminal

association, might easily multiply his disciples or accomplices.

The Christians of Rome, at the time of the accidental persecution

of Nero, are represented by Tacitus as already amounting to a

very great multitude, 167 and the language of that great

historian is almost similar to the style employed by Livy, when

he relates the introduction and the suppression of the rites of

Bacchus. After the Bacchanals had awakened the severity of the

senate, it was likewise apprehended that a very great multitude,

as it were _another people_, had been initiated into those

abhorred mysteries. A more careful inquiry soon demonstrated that

the offenders did not exceed seven thousand; a number indeed

sufficiently alarming, when considered as the object of public

justice. 168 It is with the same candid allowance that we should

interpret the vague expressions of Tacitus, and in a former

instance of Pliny, when they exaggerate the crowds of deluded

fanatics who had forsaken the established worship of the gods.

The church of Rome was undoubtedly the first and most populous of

the empire; and we are possessed of an authentic record which

attests the state of religion in that city about the middle of

the third century, and after a peace of thirty-eight years. The

clergy, at that time, consisted of a bishop, forty-six

presbyters, seven deacons, as many sub-deacons, forty-two

acolytes, and fifty readers, exorcists, and porters. The number

of widows, of the infirm, and of the poor, who were maintained by

the oblations of the faithful, amounted to fifteen hundred. 169

From reason, as well as from the analogy of Antioch, we may

venture to estimate the Christians of Rome at about fifty

thousand. The populousness of that great capital cannot perhaps

be exactly ascertained; but the most modest calculation will not

surely reduce it lower than a million of inhabitants, of whom the

Christians might constitute at the most a twentieth part. 170

167 (return) [ Ingens multitudo is the expression of Tacitus, xv.

44.]

168 (return) [ T. Liv. xxxix. 13, 15, 16, 17. Nothing could

exceed the horror and consternation of the senate on the

discovery of the Bacchanalians, whose depravity is described, and

perhaps exaggerated, by Livy.]

169 (return) [ Eusebius, l. vi. c. 43. The Latin translator (M.

de Valois) has thought proper to reduce the number of presbyters

to forty-four.]

170 (return) [ This proportion of the presbyters and of the poor,

to the rest of the people, was originally fixed by Burnet,

(Travels into Italy, p. 168,) and is approved by Moyle, (vol. ii.

p. 151.) They were both unacquainted with the passage of

Chrysostom, which converts their conjecture almost into a fact.]

The western provincials appeared to have derived the knowledge of

Christianity from the same source which had diffused among them

the language, the sentiments, and the manners of Rome.

In this more important circumstance, Africa, as well as Gaul was

gradually fashioned to the imitation of the capital. Yet

notwithstanding the many favorable occasions which might invite

the Roman missionaries to visit their Latin provinces, it was

late before they passed either the sea or the Alps; 171 nor can

we discover in those great countries any assured traces either of

faith or of persecution that ascend higher than the reign of the

Antonines. 172 The slow progress of the gospel in the cold

climate of Gaul, was extremely different from the eagerness with

which it seems to have been received on the burning sands of

Africa. The African Christians soon formed one of the principal

members of the primitive church. The practice introduced into

that province of appointing bishops to the most inconsiderable

towns, and very frequently to the most obscure villages,

contributed to multiply the splendor and importance of their

religious societies, which during the course of the third century

were animated by the zeal of Tertullian, directed by the

abilities of Cyprian, and adorned by the eloquence of Lactantius.

But if, on the contrary, we turn our eyes towards Gaul, we must

content ourselves with discovering, in the time of Marcus

Antoninus, the feeble and united congregations of Lyons and

Vienna; and even as late as the reign of Decius we are assured,

that in a few cities only, Arles, Narbonne, Thoulouse, Limoges,

Clermont, Tours, and Paris, some scattered churches were

supported by the devotion of a small number of Christians. 173

Silence is indeed very consistent with devotion; but as it is

seldom compatible with zeal, we may perceive and lament the

languid state of Christianity in those provinces which had

exchanged the Celtic for the Latin tongue, since they did not,

during the three first centuries, give birth to a single

ecclesiastical writer. From Gaul, which claimed a just

preeminence of learning and authority over all the countries on

this side of the Alps, the light of the gospel was more faintly

reflected on the remote provinces of Spain and Britain; and if we

may credit the vehement assertions of Tertullian, they had

already received the first rays of the faith, when he addressed

his apology to the magistrates of the emperor Severus. 174 But

the obscure and imperfect origin of the western churches of

Europe has been so negligently recorded, that if we would relate

the time and manner of their foundation, we must supply the

silence of antiquity by those legends which avarice or

superstition long afterwards dictated to the monks in the lazy

gloom of their convents. 175 Of these holy romances, that of the

apostle St. James can alone, by its singular extravagance,

deserve to be mentioned. From a peaceful fisherman of the Lake of

Gennesareth, he was transformed into a valorous knight, who

charged at the head of the Spanish chivalry in their battles

against the Moors. The gravest historians have celebrated his

exploits; the miraculous shrine of Compostella displayed his

power; and the sword of a military order, assisted by the terrors

of the Inquisition, was sufficient to remove every objection of

profane criticism. 176

171 (return) [ Serius trans Alpes, religione Dei suscepta.

Sulpicius Severus, l. ii. With regard to Africa, see Tertullian

ad Scapulam, c. 3. It is imagined that the Scyllitan martyrs were

the first, (Acta Sincera Rumart. p. 34.) One of the adversaries

of Apuleius seems to have been a Christian. Apolog. p. 496, 497,

edit. Delphin.]

172 (return) [ Tum primum intra Gallias martyria visa. Sulp.

Severus, l. ii. These were the celebrated martyrs of Lyons. See

Eusebius, v. i. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p. 316.

According to the Donatists, whose assertion is confirmed by the

tacit acknowledgment of Augustin, Africa was the last of the

provinces which received the gospel. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast.

tom. i. p. 754.]

173 (return) [ Raræ in aliquibus civitatibus ecclesiæ, paucorum

Christianorum devotione, resurgerent. Acta Sincera, p. 130.

Gregory of Tours, l i. c. 28. Mosheim, p. 207, 449. There is some

reason to believe that in the beginning of the fourth century,

the extensive dioceses of Liege, of Treves, and of Cologne,

composed a single bishopric, which had been very recently

founded. See Memoires de Tillemont, tom vi. part i. p. 43, 411.]

174 (return) [ The date of Tertullian’s Apology is fixed, in a

dissertation of Mosheim, to the year 198.]

175 (return) [ In the fifteenth century, there were few who had

either inclination or courage to question, whether Joseph of

Arimathea founded the monastery of Glastonbury, and whether

Dionysius the Areopagite preferred the residence of Paris to that

of Athens.]

176 (return) [ The stupendous metamorphosis was performed in the

ninth century. See Mariana, (Hist. Hispan. l. vii. c. 13, tom. i.

p. 285, edit. Hag. Com. 1733,) who, in every sense, imitates

Livy, and the honest detection of the legend of St. James by Dr.

Geddes, Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 221.]

The progress of Christianity was not confined to the Roman

empire; and according to the primitive fathers, who interpret

facts by prophecy, the new religion, within a century after the

death of its divine Author, had already visited every part of the

globe. “There exists not,” says Justin Martyr, “a people, whether

Greek or Barbarian, or any other race of men, by whatsoever

appellation or manners they may be distinguished, however

ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they dwell under tents,

or wander about in covered wagons, among whom prayers are not

offered up in the name of a crucified Jesus to the Father and

Creator of all things.” 177 But this splendid exaggeration, which

even at present it would be extremely difficult to reconcile with

the real state of mankind, can be considered only as the rash

sally of a devout but careless writer, the measure of whose

belief was regulated by that of his wishes. But neither the

belief nor the wishes of the fathers can alter the truth of

history. It will still remain an undoubted fact, that the

barbarians of Scythia and Germany, who afterwards subverted the

Roman monarchy, were involved in the darkness of paganism; and

that even the conversion of Iberia, of Armenia, or of Æthiopia,

was not attempted with any degree of success till the sceptre was

in the hands of an orthodox emperor. 178 Before that time, the

various accidents of war and commerce might indeed diffuse an

imperfect knowledge of the gospel among the tribes of Caledonia,

179 and among the borderers of the Rhine, the Danube, and the

Euphrates. 180 Beyond the last-mentioned river, Edessa was

distinguished by a firm and early adherence to the faith. 181

From Edessa the principles of Christianity were easily introduced

into the Greek and Syrian cities which obeyed the successors of

Artaxerxes; but they do not appear to have made any deep

impression on the minds of the Persians, whose religious system,

by the labors of a well-disciplined order of priests, had been

constructed with much more art and solidity than the uncertain

mythology of Greece and Rome. 182

177 (return) [ Justin Martyr, Dialog. cum Tryphon. p. 341.

Irenæus adv. Hæres. l. i. c. 10. Tertullian adv. Jud. c. 7. See

Mosheim, p. 203.]

178 (return) [ See the fourth century of Mosheim’s History of the

Church. Many, though very confused circumstances, that relate to

the conversion of Iberia and Armenia, may be found in Moses of

Chorene, l. ii. c. 78—89. Note: Mons. St. Martin has shown that

Armenia was the first nation that embraced Christianity. Memoires

sur l’Armenie, vol. i. p. 306, and notes to Le Beæ. Gibbon,

indeed had expressed his intention of withdrawing the words “of

Armenia” from the text of future editions. (Vindication, Works,

iv. 577.) He was bitterly taunted by Person for neglecting or

declining to fulfil his promise. Preface to Letters to

Travis.—M.]

179 (return) [ According to Tertullian, the Christian faith had

penetrated into parts of Britain inaccessible to the Roman arms.

About a century afterwards, Ossian, the son of Fingal, is said to

have disputed, in his extreme old age, with one of the foreign

missionaries, and the dispute is still extant, in verse, and in

the Erse language. See Mr. Macpher son’s Dissertation on the

Antiquity of Ossian’s Poems, p. 10.]

180 (return) [ The Goths, who ravaged Asia in the reign of

Gallienus, carried away great numbers of captives; some of whom

were Christians, and became missionaries. See Tillemont, Memoires

Ecclesiast. tom. iv. p. 44.]

181 (return) [ The legends of Abgarus, fabulous as it is, affords

a decisive proof, that many years before Eusebius wrote his

history, the greatest part of the inhabitants of Edessa had

embraced Christianity. Their rivals, the citizens of Carrhæ,

adhered, on the contrary, to the cause of Paganism, as late as

the sixth century.]

182 (return) [ According to Bardesanes (ap. Euseb. Præpar.

Evangel.) there were some Christians in Persia before the end of

the second century. In the time of Constantine (see his epistle

to Sapor, Vit. l. iv. c. 13) they composed a flourishing church.

Consult Beausobre, Hist. Cristique du Manicheisme, tom. i. p.

180, and the Bibliotheca Orietalis of Assemani.]

Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part IX.

From this impartial though imperfect survey of the progress of

Christianity, it may perhaps seem probable, that the number of

its proselytes has been excessively magnified by fear on the one

side, and by devotion on the other. According to the

irreproachable testimony of Origen, 183 the proportion of the

faithful was very inconsiderable, when compared with the

multitude of an unbelieving world; but, as we are left without

any distinct information, it is impossible to determine, and it

is difficult even to conjecture, the real numbers of the

primitive Christians. The most favorable calculation, however,

that can be deduced from the examples of Antioch and of Rome,

will not permit us to imagine that more than a twentieth part of

the subjects of the empire had enlisted themselves under the

banner of the cross before the important conversion of

Constantine. But their habits of faith, of zeal, and of union,

seemed to multiply their numbers; and the same causes which

contributed to their future increase, served to render their

actual strength more apparent and more formidable.

183 (return) [Origen contra Celsum, l. viii. p. 424.]

Such is the constitution of civil society, that, whilst a few

persons are distinguished by riches, by honors, and by knowledge,

the body of the people is condemned to obscurity, ignorance and

poverty. The Christian religion, which addressed itself to the

whole human race, must consequently collect a far greater number

of proselytes from the lower than from the superior ranks of

life. This innocent and natural circumstance has been improved

into a very odious imputation, which seems to be less strenuously

denied by the apologists, than it is urged by the adversaries, of

the faith; that the new sect of Christians was almost entirely

composed of the dregs of the populace, of peasants and mechanics,

of boys and women, of beggars and slaves, the last of whom might

sometimes introduce the missionaries into the rich and noble

families to which they belonged. These obscure teachers (such was

the charge of malice and infidelity) are as mute in public as

they are loquacious and dogmatical in private. Whilst they

cautiously avoid the dangerous encounter of philosophers, they

mingle with the rude and illiterate crowd, and insinuate

themselves into those minds whom their age, their sex, or their

education, has the best disposed to receive the impression of

superstitious terrors. 184

184 (return) [ Minucius Felix, c. 8, with Wowerus’s notes. Celsus

ap. Origen, l. iii. p. 138, 142. Julian ap. Cyril. l. vi. p. 206,

edit. Spanheim.]

This unfavorable picture, though not devoid of a faint

resemblance, betrays, by its dark coloring and distorted

features, the pencil of an enemy. As the humble faith of Christ

diffused itself through the world, it was embraced by several

persons who derived some consequence from the advantages of

nature or fortune. Aristides, who presented an eloquent apology

to the emperor Hadrian, was an Athenian philosopher. 185 Justin

Martyr had sought divine knowledge in the schools of Zeno, of

Aristotle, of Pythagoras, and of Plato, before he fortunately was

accosted by the old man, or rather the angel, who turned his

attention to the study of the Jewish prophets. 186 Clemens of

Alexandria had acquired much various reading in the Greek, and

Tertullian in the Latin, language. Julius Africanus and Origen

possessed a very considerable share of the learning of their

times; and although the style of Cyprian is very different from

that of Lactantius, we might almost discover that both those

writers had been public teachers of rhetoric. Even the study of

philosophy was at length introduced among the Christians, but it

was not always productive of the most salutary effects; knowledge

was as often the parent of heresy as of devotion, and the

description which was designed for the followers of Artemon, may,

with equal propriety, be applied to the various sects that

resisted the successors of the apostles. “They presume to alter

the Holy Scriptures, to abandon the ancient rule of faith, and to

form their opinions according to the subtile precepts of logic.

The science of the church is neglected for the study of geometry,

and they lose sight of heaven while they are employed in

measuring the earth. Euclid is perpetually in their hands.

Aristotle and Theophrastus are the objects of their admiration;

and they express an uncommon reverence for the works of Galen.

Their errors are derived from the abuse of the arts and sciences

of the infidels, and they corrupt the simplicity of the gospel by

the refinements of human reason.” 187

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The miracles of the primitive church, after obtaining the