religion; but professed to be divinely commissioned to perfect and give efficiency to the moral discipline taught by Christ and his apostles; for he supposed that Christ and his apostles had conceded too much to the weakness of the people of their age, and thus had given only an incomplete and imperfect rule of life. He therefore would have fasts multiplied and extended, forbade second marriages as illicit, did not allow churches to grant absolution to such as had fallen into the greater sins, condemned all decoration of the body and female ornaments, required polite learning and philosophy to be banished from the church, ordered virgins to be veiled, and maintained that Christians sin most grievously by rescuing their lives by flight, or redeeming them with money in time of persecution. I pass by others of his precepts, equally austere and rigid. § 24. A man who professed to be a holier moralist than Christ himself, and who would obtrude his severe precepts upon Christians for divine commands and oracles, could not be endured in the Christian church. Besides, his dismal predictions of the Roman state's approaching downfall, and the like, might bring the Christian community into imminent danger. He was therefore, first by the decisions of some councils, and afterwards by one of the whole church, excluded from all connexion with that body. But the severity of his discipline itself led many persons of no mean condition to put confidence in him. Pre-eminent among these were two opulent ladies, Priscilla and Maximilla, who themselves, with others, uttered prophecies, after the example of their master, who called himself the Paraclete.1 Hence it was easy for Montanus to found a new church, which was first established at Pepuza, a little Ardaban, a village in that part of Mysia which was contiguous to Phrygia, while Gratus was proconsul of Asia; that many persons were induced to believe him divinely inspired, particularly two females, Maximilla and Priscilla, or Prisca, who also pretended to possess the same prophetic gifts; that the fallacy of their pretensions was exposed, and their doctrine condemned, and that they themselves were excommunicated by different synods held in Asia. The same anonymous author adds, that Montanus and Maximilla hanged themselves; and that Theodotus, one of the earliest supporters of their cause, was taken up into the air, and dashed to pieces by the Spirit of falsehood, to whom he had consigned himself, under the expectation that he should be conveyed into heaven. Our author, however, tells us that he does not vouch for the truth of either of these stories." (The Ecclesiastical History of the Second and Third Centuries, illustrated from the writings of Tertullian, 22. 12.) It is easy to account for the popularity of Montanus. He had prophecies and supernatural converse for the credulous and vain, rigid austerities for the gloomy and severe. Ed.] [Or Comforter. Tr.] town of Phrygia, but which spread in process of time through Asia, Africa, and a part of Europe. Of all his followers, the most learned and distinguished was Tertullian, a man of genius, but austere and gloomy by nature; who defended the cause of his preceptor, by many energetic and severe publications.2 See Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. 1. v. cap. 16, and especially Tertullian, in his numerous books; and then all writers, both ancient and modern, who have treated professedly of the sects of the early ages. Quite recently, and with attention and great erudition, the history of the Montanists has been illustrated by Theoph. Wernsdorf, in his Commentatio de Montanistis sæculi secundi vulgo creditis hæreticis. Dantzik, 1751, 4to. [The Montanists were also called Phrygians, or Cataphrygians, from the country where they resided and originated; also Pepusians, from the town where Montanus had his habitation, and which he pretended was the New Jerusalem spoken of in the Revelation of St. John. It appears likewise, that from Priscilla they were called Priscillianists; though this name, on account of its ambiguity, has in modern times been disused. Tertullian denominated those of his faith the Spiritual (Spirituales); and its opposers the Carnal (Psychikoi); because the former admitted Montanus' inspirations of the Holy Spirit, which the latter rejected. The time when Montanus began to disturb the church is much debated. Those who follow Eusebius, who is most to be relied upon, place this movement in the year 171, or 172. Wernsdorf's conjecture that Montanus was the bishop of Pepuza, is not improbable. He and Priscilla and Maximilla pretended to have divine revelations, which the Paraclete imparted to them, in order to supply by them what further instruction the Christian church needed. The instruction, said they, which the Holy Spirit gives to men, is progressive. In the Old Testament, instruction was in its infancy. Christ and his apostles advanced it to its youthful stature. By Montanus and his coadjutors, it is brought to its perfect manhood. In the Old Testament God conceded much to the hardness of the people's hearts, and Christ was indulgent to the weakness of the flesh, but the Comforter is unsparing to both, and presents the virtues of Christians in their full splendour.-Their revelations related to no new doctrines of faith, but only to rules of practice. Some of them, too, were historical. But all these revelations seem to have been the effect of their melancholy temperament, and of an excessively active imagination.See, concerning Tertullian, Hamberger's account of the principal writers, vol. ii. p. 492, and J. G. Walch, Hist. Eccles. N. Test. p. 648, &c.; and concerning the Montanists, C. W. F. Walch, Historie der Ketzereyen, vol. i. p. 611, &c. Schl. -Also A. Neander, Kirchengesch. vol. i. pt. iii. p. 870—893. Tr.] CENTURY THIRD. PART I. THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. THE PROSPEROUS EVENTS OF THE CHURCH. § 1. Rights and immunities of Christians enlarged.—§ 2. Under various emperors. Good-will of Alexander towards Christ.-§ 3. Other emperors favourable to the Christians. The religion of the emperor Philip.-§ 4. The number of Christians augmented: from causes, partly, divine-§ 5. and, partly, human.—§ 6. Countries added to the kingdom of Christ.—§ 7. State of the church in France, Germany. § 1. THAT Christians suffered very great evils in this century, and were not perfectly secure during any part of it, admits of no controversy. For, not to mention the popular tumults raised against them by the pagan priests, the governors and magistrates could persecute them, without violating the empire's ancient laws, as often as either superstition, or avarice, or cruelty prompted. Yet, it is no less certain that the rights and liberties of the Christians were increased more than many have supposed. In the army, in the court, and among all ranks, there were many Christians whom no one molested at all; and under most of the Roman emperors who reigned in this century, Christianity presented no obstacle to the attainment of public honours. In many places also, with the full knowledge of the emperors and magistrates, they had certain houses in which they assembled for the worship of God. Yet it is probable, nay, more than probable, that the Christians com monly purchased this security and these liberties with money; although some of the emperors had very kind feelings towards them, and were not greatly opposed to their religion. § 2. Antoninus, surnamed Caracalla, the son of Severus, came to the throne in the year 211; and during the six years of his reign he neither oppressed the Christians himself, nor suffered others to oppress them.' Antoninus Heliogabalus 2, though of a most abandoned moral character, had no hostility towards the Christians.3 His successor Alexander Severus1, an excellent prince, did not, indeed, repeal the laws which had been enacted against the Christians, so that instances occur of Christians suffering death in his reign; yet from the influence of his mother, Julia Mammaa, to whom he was greatly attached, he showed kind feelings towards them in various ways, and whenever occasion was offered; and even paid some worship and honour to our Saviour. For Julia thought most favourably of the Christian religion; and at one time invited to court Origen, the celebrated Christian doctor, that she might profit by his conversation. But those who conclude that Julia and Alexander actually embraced Christianity, have not testimony to adduce which is unexceptionable. Yet it is certain that Alexander thought the Christian religion deserved toleration [From a passage in Tertullian, (ad Scapul. cap. 4,) asserting that Caracalla had a Christian nurse: lacte Christiano educatum fuisse: and from one in Spartianus, (life of Caracalla, in Scriptor. Histor. Aug. vol. i. p. 707, cap. 1,) asserting that he was much attached to a Jewish play-fellow, when he was seven years old; it has been inferred that he was half a Christian, and on that account was indulgent to the followers of Christ. But it is much more probable that they purchased his indulgence with their gold. See Mosheim, de Rebus Christ. &c. p. 460. Tr.] 2 [A. D. 218-222. Tr.] Lampridius, Vita Heliogabali, cap. 3. p. 796. [Dicebat præterea (Imperator), Judæorum et Samaritanorum religiones et Christianam devotionem illuc (Romam) transferendam, ut omnium cultarum secretum Heliogabali sacerdotium teneret: which Dr. Mosheim (de Rebus Christ. &c. p. 460,) understands to mean, that Heliogabalus wished the Jewish, Samaritan, and Christian religions to be freely tolerated at Rome, so that the priests of his order might understand all the arcana of them, having them daily before their eyes. Tr.] [A. D. 222-235. Tr.] 5 See Lampridius, de Vita Severi, c. 29, p. 930, and Car. Hen. Zeibich, Diss. de Christo ab Alexandro in larario culto; which is found in the Miscell. Lips. Nova, tom. iii. p. 42, &c. [Most of the modern writers make Julia Mammaa to have been a Christian. See J. R. Wetstein's preface to Origen's Dial, contra Marcionitas. But the ancient writers, Eusebius, (H. E. vi. 21,) and Jerome, (de Scriptor. Illustr. c. 54,) express themselves dubiously. The former calls her deoσ€6€σTárny, and the latter religiosam (devout);! and both state that she invited Origen to her court, then at Antioch, in order to hear him discourse on religion. But neither of them intimates that she obeyed his precepts and adopted the Christian faith. And in the life of Julia, there are clear indications of superstition, and of reverence for the pagan gods. Schl. from Mosheim, de Rebus Christ. &c. p. 461.] |