It seems probable that most of the Apostles had entered into rest before the Destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70, and that St. John the Divine was the only one of the Apostolic body who long survived that event.
St. Peter began to found the Church, St. John completed its foundation.
To St. Peter, one of the "pillars" of the Church, it had been given to begin the great work of laying the foundation of the Mystical Temple of God; to St. John, the other of the two, was allotted the task of perfecting what had been begun, so that a sure and steady basis should not be wanting on which the New Jerusalem might rise through time to eternity[1].
A.D. 67.
Purposes of the Second Council.
There is good reason for believing[2] that after the martyrdoms of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and about the time of the invasion of the Holy City by Vespasian, a Second Council of such of the Apostles as still survived was held for the purpose of electing a successor to the See of Jerusalem, and definitely settling the future government of the Church.Bishops only rarely appointed at first,Bishops had already been consecrated in certain cases, as at Ephesus, Crete, and Rome; but during the time that the Apostles were still engaged in founding and governing the different branches of the great Christian community, the appointment of Bishops (in the sense of heads of the Church) seems to have been the exception rather than the rule.but now everywhere to replace the Apostles.A new era was, however, now coming upon the Church; her Founders were gradually being withdrawn from her, and it was necessary that she should receive such a complete and permanent organization as would enable her to transmit to succeeding ages the saving grace of which the Apostles had been the first channels, that so what had been founded through their instrumentality might be continued and extended through the ministry of others.
The establishment of the Apostolical Succession the special work of St. John,
This work of organization was fitly entrusted to St. John, who for so many years was left upon earth to "tarry" for the Lord, on Whose Breast he had leaned, and Whose teaching had filled his soul with adoring love, and with those depths of spiritual knowledge which are stored up for us in the "Theological Gospel."and the necessary consequence of his teaching.It seems natural that he to whom it was given most fully to "enlighten" the Church respecting the Blessed Mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Two Holy Sacraments, should also be charged with the care of providing for the continual transmission of the sacramental grace of the Incarnation through the "laying on of hands," and that he who saw and recorded the glorious ritual belonging to the Heavenly Altar, should organize that system by which Priests might be perpetually raised up to show forth the same Offering in the Church below.
Thus, though up to the time of St. Paul's martyrdom (A.D. 67) Episcopal rule, as distinct from Apostolic, would seem to have been exceptional, before the death of St. John (A.D. 100), government by the Bishops had undoubtedly become the recognized rule and system of the Church.
Before entering into any details respecting the final settlement by St. John of the Order, Discipline, and Worship of the Church, it may be well to remind ourselves that the Mystical Body of Christ only gradually attained her full shape and constitution, following, like God's other works, His law of growth anddevelopment, and adapting herself, according to her Lord's designs for her, to the needs of her members.Development in the minds of the Apostles as to the work of the Church.There is no reason to suppose that the Apostles, even after the Day of Pentecost, had clear ideas of the destiny which was in store on earth for the Church which they were engaged in founding. The gathering in of the Gentiles, the existence of the Church entirely apart from the Temple and its services, the place she was to occupy in the long reach of years before the Day of Judgment[3], all these were only made known to them by the course of events and the teaching of experience, conjointly with, as well as subordinate to, the general guidance of the Holy Spirit. So, too, as regards doctrine.As to doctrine.We cannot for a moment doubt that the Apostles, who had been taught by the Incarnate Truth Himself, and inspired by the Holy Ghost, held firmly "all the Articles of the Christian Faith;" but we may also believe that their insight into these verities would be deepened, and their expression of them become clearer, as adoring meditation and the Teaching of the Comforter brought more and more to their remembrance the Words and Works of their Lord, and unbelieving cavils forced them more and more fully "to give a reason of the Hope that" was in them[4]. The same thing may be noticedrespecting the Faith of the Church.Development of the teaching of the Church.Held firmly in its fulness from the beginning, it was yet only gradually set forth in Creeds, Liturgies, and Definitions of Faith, according as the love and belief of Christians required expression, or the errors of heretics drew forth clearer teaching on the truths they attacked.Reserve in the teaching of the Church.To this we may add, that the early Church was very careful to keep the knowledge of the deep mysteries of the Faith from those who were not Christians. It was only after their initiation by Holy Baptism that those who had, as Catechumens, been instructed in the rudiments of Christian doctrine, were admitted to a full knowledge of the belief and practice of the Church, especially as regarded the Holy Eucharist, which was very commonly spoken of under the name of the Holy Mysteries.
St. John's work at Ephesus.
About the time that Jerusalem was besieged by the armies of Vespasian (A.D. 67), St. John withdrew to Ephesus (whence for a while he was banished to Patmos by the Emperor Domitian[6]); and from this city he travelled about through the neighbouring country, organizing, amongst others, those Seven Churches of Asia Minor, to whose Angels or Bishops he was bidden to write the Seven Epistles contained in the Apocalypse.
Fitness of Ephesus as a centre of organization,
Here in Ephesus, the eye of Asia, the great mercantile seaport of the then known world, his influence could most easily make itself felt amongst the far-off members of the Christian body, which by this time had extended throughout the whole Roman empire. All the civilized world was then subject to the sway of Rome, except India and China; and it may be that even these two latter countries were not excluded from the influence of the Gospel. It is not, of course, meant that Christianity was the recognized religion of all or any of the Roman provinces; but that in each of them the Church had a corporate existence, and was a living power, drawing into herself here one, and there another of the souls who were brought into contact with her, and really, though gradually, spreading through and leavening the earth.
and of orthodox teaching.
Again, at Ephesus St. John could best combat and confute, both by his words and writings, the subtle and deadly heresies which were especially rife there. "False Christs," such as Simon Magus, the first heretic, Menander, Dositheus, and others, no longer troubled the Infant Church with their blasphemous impostures, but in their stead false teachers had arisen, seeking to "draw away disciples after them" into the more subtle error of misbelief about our Lord and His Incarnation.Errors of the Corinthians.The Docetae, and other variations of Gnosticism.Thus the Jew Corinthus taught that Christ was a mere man, born like other men, though united to Divinity from His Baptism to His Crucifixion; whilst to the errors of the Corinthians the Docetae added that the Body in which our Blessed Saviour suffered, was only a phantom, and a body but in appearance; both these heresies,and others of a similar nature, appear to have been variations of that Gnosticism to which St. Paul refers in his Epistles, as "science" (or gnosis) "falsely so called[7]," and which was long a source of danger and trouble to the Church. Gnosticism may be traced back to that Simon Magus, with whom St. John first came in contact at Samaria, and in all its varied distortions of the great Catholic doctrine of the Incarnation, through an admixture of Jewish and heathen error, there was always an unvarying denial of our Lord's Divinity.
St. John's universal patriarchate.
For about a third of a century St. John continued to exercise a kind of universal patriarchate over the Church, being regarded, we cannot doubt, with almost unbounded reverence and affection by all its members, and perhaps first presenting that idea of one visible earthly head of the Church, which afterwards found its expression in the popedom.
St. John's writings close the Canon.
The Gospel, Epistles, and Revelation of St. John, written as they were at a long interval after the rest of the New Testament, and closing the Canon of Sacred Scripture, may be usefully referred to, as giving us some idea of the appearance of the Church when its government and theology were finally settled.
How his Gospel differs from the other three.
St. John's Gospel differs from those of the other three Evangelists in having been written for men who from their infancy had grown up in the Faith of Christ, and whowere thus more ready to enter into and profit by deep sacramental doctrine; whilst at the same time the dangerous heresies which were beguiling souls from the truth, called for more detailed and dogmatic teaching than had at first been needed.Dwells on our Lord's Divinity,Hence in place of an account of our Lord's Human Birth, St. John sets forth His Eternal Godhead and wonderful Incarnation, leaving no space for unbelief or cavil, when he proclaims for the instruction of the Church, that "the Word was God," and yet that He also "was made Flesh."and on the two Sacraments.Again, the last Gospel does not bring before us the Institution of the two great Sacraments of the Christian Covenant; though it, and it alone, does record the teaching of our Blessed Lord Himself with regard to the New Birth in Holy Baptism, and the constant Nourishment of the renewed life in the Holy Eucharist.
The Epistles correct heresies.
Having established the Faith in His Gospel, St. John in his Epistles sternly censures heresy and schism, thus witnessing to the end of time that the charity of the Church must never lead her to countenance false doctrine.
The Apocalypse sets forth Discipline and Worship.
We may look to the Book of the Revelation for some light as to the discipline and worship of the Church of St. John's days. We have there in the mention of the Seven Angels or Bishops, each ruling over his own Church and answerable for its growth in holiness, a confirmation of the fact that episcopacy was now fullyorganizedas the one form of Church government which had replaced the extinct hierarchy of the former dispensation. Nor does it seem unreasonable to believe that St. John's vision of the Worship of Heavenwas intended to supply to the Christian Church a model to be copied so far as circumstances should permit in the courts of the Lord's House on earth, much as the elaborate system of Temple Worship, which was entirely swept away with the destruction of Jerusalem, had been in all things ordered "according to the pattern" which the Lord had "showed" first to Moses and afterwards to David. That the Primitive Church did thus consider the Heavenly Ritual set forth in the Apocalypse as the ideal of worship on earth, is proved by the accounts which have come down to us of the arrangement of Churches and the manner of celebrating the Holy Eucharist in early times.
Arrangement of Churches in primitive times.
"The form and arrangement of Churches in primitive times was derived, in its main features, from the Temple at Jerusalem. Beyond the porch was the narthex, answering to the court of the Gentiles, and appropriated to the unbaptized and to penitents. Beyond the narthex was the nave, answering to the court of the Jews, and appropriated to the body of worshippers. At the upper end of the nave was the choir, answering to the Holy Place, for all who were ministerially engaged in Divine Service. Beyond the choir was the Berna or Chancel, answering to the Holy of Holies, used only for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, and separated from the choir by a closed screen, resembling the organ screen of our cathedrals, which was called the Iconostasis. As early as the time of Gregory Nazianzen, in the fourth century, this screen is compared to the division between the present and the eternal world, and the sanctuary behind it was ever regarded with the greatest possible reverence as the most sacredplace to which man could have access while in the body; the veiled door, which formed the only direct exit from it into the choir and nave, being only opened at the time when the Blessed Sacrament was administered to the people there assembled[3]. The opening of this door, then, brought into view the Altar and the Divine Mysteries which were being celebrated there.Its resemblance to what the Apocalypse tells us of Heaven.And when St. John looked through the door that had been opened in Heaven, what he saw is thus described: 'And behold a Throne was set in Heaven … and round about the Throne were four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold … and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the Throne … and before the Throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal.' Here is exactly represented an arrangement of the altar familiar to the whole Eastern Church and to the early Church of England, in which it occupies the centre of an apse in front of the seats of the Bishop and Clergy, which are placed in the curved part of the wall. And, although there is no reason to think that the font ever stood near the altar, yet nothing appears more likely than that the 'sea of glass like unto crystal' mystically represents that laver of regeneration through which alone the altar can be spiritually approached. Another striking characteristic of the ancient Church was the extreme reverence which was shown to the Book of the Gospels, which was always placed upon the altar and surmounted by a cross. So'in the midst of the Throne, and round about the Throne,' St. John saw those four living creatures which have been universally interpreted to represent the four Evangelists or the four Gospels, their position seeming to signify that the Gospel is ever attendant upon the altar, penetrating, pervading, and embracing the highest mystery of Divine Worship, giving 'glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the Throne, who liveth for ever and ever.' In the succeeding chapter St. John beholds Him for whom this altar is prepared. 'I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the Throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as It had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.' It cannot be doubted that this is our Blessed Lord in that Human Nature on which theseptiformis gratiawas poured without measure; and that His appearance in the form of 'the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing,' represents the mystery of His prevailing Sacrifice and continual Intercession. But around this living Sacrifice there is gathered all the homage of an elaborate ritual. They who worship Him have 'every one of them harps' to offer Him the praise of instrumental music; they have 'golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of saints,' even as the angel afterwards had 'given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar which was before the Throne;' they sing a new song, mingling the praises of 'the best member that they have' with that of their instrumental music; and they fall down before the Lamb with the lowliest gesture of their bodies in humble adoration. Let italso be remembered that one of the Anthems here sung by the Choirs of Heaven is that sacred song, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come;' the Eucharistic use of which is traceable in every age of the Church[9]."
The ritual of the early Church naturally gathered round the Holy Eucharist as the central act of worship in which the Lord was most especially present, and therefore to be most especially honoured. From the first days of the Church this had been the one distinctively Christian service; and now that the Temple services had ceased, it became more apparently even than before, the fulfilment and continuation of the sacrifices of the elder dispensations[10]: whilst it was also the Memorial of the Sacrifice of the Cross and the Representation on earth of the continual offering-up of "the Lamb as It had been slain," before the Throne of God in Heaven.
[1] St. Peter and St. John had been specially trained by their Divine Master for their special work. They with St. James, the first Apostolic martyr, had witnessed His Transfiguration, His Agony, His raising of Jairus's daughter, and had been admitted into more intimate communion with Him than the other Apostles.
[2] From passages in the works of St. Irenaeus and Eusebius. See "Some Account of the Church in the Apostolic Age," by Professor Shirley, pp. 136-140.
[3] The Apostles appear to have believed at first that our Lord's Ascension would be very speedily followed by His triumphal return to Judgment, and the glorification of His faithful people.
[4] On this point we may remember that St. John, who saw deepest into the Divine Life, did not write his Gospel till near the end of his earthly labours, almost sixty years after the Day of Pentecost.
[5] Ephesus is known to this day by the name of Aya-soluk, from Agios Theologos, or holy Divine, the title given to St. John.
[6] Or perhaps by Nero, as some ancient writers say. Nero's full name was Nero Claudius Domitianus, which may have caused this confusion.
[7] 1 Tim. vi. 20.
[8] As St. Chrysostom says, "When thou beholdest the curtains drawn up, then imagine that the heavens are let down from above, and that the Angels are descending."
[9] Annotated Book of Common Prayer, Ritual Introduction, pp. xlix, 1.
[10] We are told that St. John adopted the vestments of the High Priest of the old covenant, and especially "the plate of the holy crown," with its inscription, "Holiness to the Lord," thus exhibiting very forcibly the continuity of the two priesthoods.
Persecution increases round the Church.
We have already had occasion to notice the beginnings of the persecution which the Church was to undergo for the sake of her Head and Spouse, not only those of a local and unorganized character, which are spoken of in the Book of Acts, but also some of a more cruel and systematic nature under the Roman Emperors Nero and Domitian. From the death of the last of the Apostles to the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, A.D. 312, the Church passed through a succession of fierce trials, in which her members were called to undergo similar sufferings to those which had been borne by the holy Apostles St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John, and their fellow-martyrs[1].
In considering the causes which led to the persecution of the Church by the heathen around her, wemust, of course, place first as the root and ground of all, the malice of Satan, and his hatred of God, and of the means appointed by God for saving souls.Satan's enmity the great cause of persecution.The Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan must ever be at war, and the fierce and varied sufferings inflicted by the cruel heathen on all who bore the name of Christ were so many assaults of the great adversary seeking to overthrow the Church in an open and deadly struggle. But the life-giving Presence of her Incarnate Lord, and "the patience and the faith of the Saints," were mightier weapons than "all the fiery darts of the Wicked," and "the gates of Hell" were not suffered to "prevail against her."
Other minor causes.
There were, however, other and secondary causes which led to the persecution of the Church. The Romans were not usually intolerant of religions which they did not themselves profess; their worship of their own false gods had come to be a form, as far as the educated classes were concerned, and what belief they had was given to philosophy rather than religion. Hence they were not unwilling that the nations they conquered should keep to their own respective creeds and religious ceremonies, so long as they did not interfere with Roman authority. But the religion of Christ required more than this. It could not be confined to any one country, nor be content with bare toleration, nor rank itself with the many forms of Pagan misbelief. It claimed to be the only True Religion, the only Way of Salvation, before which the superstitions of the ignorant, and the philosophy of the learned must alike give way. It made its way even into "Caesar's household." Besides this, Christians, owing to the nationality of the First Foundersof the Church, were often confounded with, and called by the same name as the Jews, who had a bad repute under the empire for rebellious and seditious conduct, and we know how, even in the days of St. Paul, the charge of sedition had begun to be most unjustly fastened upon the followers of the Meek and Lowly Jesus. This charge of disaffection to the powers of the state received an additional and plausible colouring from the fact that the consciences of the faithful members of the Church would not suffer them to pay, what they and the heathen around them considered to be Divine honour, to the emperor or the heathen deities, by sacrificing a few grains of incense when required thus to show their loyalty to their ruler and his faith. Over and over again was this burning of incense made a test by which to discover Christians or to try their steadfastness, and over and over again was its rejection followed by agonizing tortures and a cruel death.
Nero's persecution.
The persecution in the reign of Nero is immediately traceable to the accusation brought against the Christians by the emperor, that they had caused the terrible fire at Rome, which there seems little doubt was in reality the result of his own wanton wickedness, whilst that under Domitian appears to have been connected with the conversion of some of the members of his own family, his cousin Flavius Clemens being the first martyr sacrificed in it.
The following table[2] will show how the early days of the Church were divided between times of persecution and intervals of rest.
Chronological Table of Persecutions and Intervals of Rest.A.D.64-68. Persecution under Nero. Martyrdom ofSt. Peter and St. Paul.68-95. Time of peace.95-96. Persecution under Domitian. Banishment ofSt. John.96-104. Time of peace.104-117. Persecution under Trajan. Martyrdom ofSt. Ignatius.117-161. Time of peace. Apologies of Aristides,Quadratus, and Justin Martyr.161-180. Persecution under Marcus Aurelius. Martyrdomof St. Polycarp, and the martyrs of Lyons.180-200. Time of peace.200-211. Persecution under Severus. Martyrdom ofSt. Perpetua and others in Africa.211-250. Time of peace, excepting--235-237. Partial persecution under Maximinus.250-253. Persecution under Decius. Martyrdom ofSt. Fabian.253-257 Time of peace. Disputes concerning thelapsed.257-260. Persecution under Valerian. Martyrdom ofSt. Cyprian.260-303. Time of peace, excepting--262. Persecution in the East under Macrianus.275. Persecution threatened by Aurelian.303-313. Persecution under Dioclesian, Galerius, andMaximinus.
Terrors of persecution.
Words can hardly be found strong enough to express the many and varied tortures which were inflicted on the Christians of the Primitive Church by their heathen countrymen. Death itself seemed too slight a punishment in the eyes of these cruel persecutors, unless it was preceded and accompanied by the most painful and trying circumstances. It was by crucifixion, and devouring beasts, and lingering fiery torments that the great multitude of those early martyrs received their crown. Racked and scorched, lacerated and torn limb from limb, agonized in body, mocked at and insulted, they were objects of pity even to the heathen themselves. Persecuting malice spared neither sex nor age, station nor character; the old man and the tender child, the patrician and the slave, the bishop and his flock, all shed their blood for Him Who had died for them, rather than deny their Lord.
We have no possible means of estimating the number of this vast "cloud of witnesses," but authentic accounts have come down to us which prove that some places were almost depopulated by the multitude of martyrdoms; and when we remember the length of time over which the persecutions extended, the blood-thirsty rage of the persecutors, and the firm perseverance with which the immensely large majority of Christians kept the Faith to the end, we may form some idea as to the "multitude" of this noble army of martyrs "which no man could number."
Persecution did not check the growth of the Church,
So widely did the Church spread during the ageof persecution, in the face of all the fierce opposition of her enemies, that it was found at times to be impossible to carry out in their fulness the cruel laws against Christians, on account of the numbers of those who were ready to brave all for the sake of Christ. As has been often said, "The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church."
nor revive decaying heathenism,
Paganism was gradually dying away in the Roman world, notwithstanding all the craft and power of Satan, whilst no number of martyrdoms seemed to check the growth of the Body of Christ. Vain and short-sighted, indeed, was the boast of the Emperor Dioclesian during the last and most bitter of all the persecutions, that he had blotted out the very name of Christian. No sooner had the conversion of Constantine brought rest to the Church, than she rose again from her seeming ruins, ready and able to spread more and more through "the kingdoms of this world," that they might "become the kingdoms of Christ."
and thus helped to prove the Divine origin of the Church.
We may well believe that no institution of human appointment could have stood firm against such terrible and reiterated shocks. Nothing less than a Divine Foundation, and a strength not of this world could have borne the Church through the ages of persecution, not only without loss of all vital principle, but even with actual invigoration and extension of it.
The fierce trials of the age of persecution were not without their influence on the inner life of the Church, both as regarded Worship and Discipline.
The cruel oppressions to which they were constantly liable, drove Christians to conceal their Faith from the eyes of the heathen world whenever such concealment did not involve any denial of their Lord, or any faithless compliance with idolatrous customs.Seeking martyrdom forbidden.Indeed, it was a law of the Church that martyrdom was not to be unnecessarily sought after, and the wisdom of this provision was more than once shown by the failure under torture of those who had presumptuously brought upon themselves the sufferings they had not strength to bear, and which did not come to them in the course of God's Providence.
Holy Rites and Books kept hidden.
The strictest secrecy was enjoined upon Christians as to the religious Rites and sacred Books of the Church, and we read of many martyrs who suffered for refusing to satisfy the curiosity of their Pagan judges respecting Christian worship, or for persisting in withholding from them the Christian writings.
Church ritual temporarily checked.
Another natural effect of persecution was to check for a time the development of the ritual of the Church, and to render necessary the use of the simplest and most essential forms even in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The immense subterranean excavations at Rome, known by the name of the Catacombs, are an abidingproof to us of the straits to which the primitive martyrs and their companions were reduced, when these sand-galleries were at once their Church and their burying-place, and in some instances the scene of their martyrdom also.
Church discipline very severe
The discipline of the Church was made extremely strict by the lengthened continuance of severe persecution. In those days when so many gave proof of the strength and reality of their Faith by their persevering endurance of unspeakable agonies, any shrinking back was looked upon as very unworthy cowardice, and as an almost hopeless fall, to be hindered if possible by the merciful severity of the Church as shown in warnings and punishments. Even those who had so far succumbed to trial as to give up the Sacred Books were called "Traditores," and considered as very criminal; those who had consented to pay Divine honours to the emperors or to the heathen gods, fell under still more severe censure, whilst such Christians as led sinful and immoral lives were considered most worthy of blame and punishment. Very heavy penances were laid upon all who thus fell away, in proportion to their guilt, before they were again admitted to the Communion of the Church; and in some extreme cases the punishment was life-long, and only allowed to be relaxed when the penitent was actually in danger of death.for a time.But this very severe discipline was temporary in its nature, as was the danger to the Church which called it forth, and was somewhat modified by the Letters of Peace which martyrs and confessors were allowed to give to excommunicated persons, authorizing their readmission to Church privileges.
Church government modified also for a time.
A temporary modification in the government of theChurch was also brought about by these times of suffering. Bishops, under the pressure of persecution, were sometimes forced to leave their flocks, or were first tortured and then banished, and their places had to be filled as far as they could be by the presbyters, with the advice of the distant Bishop; whilst at Rome, in the middle of the third century, there was a year's vacancy in the see after the martyrdom of Fabian, on account of the impossibility of bringing neighbouring Bishops into the midst of a storm which was raging with especial fury against the rulers of the Church.
[1] St. John was a martyr in will, though not in deed, being miraculously preserved from injury in the caldron of boiling oil, into which he was plunged by order of Nero or Domitian.
[2] From Dr. Steere's "Account of the Persecutions of the Early Church under the Roman Emperors."
Persecution arrested by conversion of Constantine.
Outward triumph of the Church.
The conversion of the Emperor Constantine to the Faith worked a great change in the condition of the Christian Church. Even so early as the year 312, when the appearance to him of the luminous Cross in the sky was followed by victory over his enemies, Constantine began to issue edicts of toleration in favour of the Christians; and from the time of his sole supremacy, A.D. 324, Christianity and not Paganism became the acknowledged religion of the Roman empire.
Consequent change in discipline and ritual.
Such a change in the outward circumstances of the Church could not but produce a corresponding alteration in its discipline and mode of worship. The Kingdom of God on earth became a great power visible to the eyes of men, no longer hid like the leaven, but overshadowing the earth like the mustard-tree; and the power and influence of Imperial Rome were employedin spreading the Faith instead of seeking to exterminate it. Christians were not now forced to shun the notice of their fellow-men; banished Priests and Bishops came back to their flocks; heathen temples were converted into Churches, and new Churches were built with great splendour. The vast resources of Roman wealth and refinement were employed to render the Worship of Almighty God costly and magnificent, and the ritual of the Church was probably more fully developed and brought more into harmony with the prophetic vision of St. John than circumstances had ever before allowed.
The first Christian city.
In Constantinople, built by the Emperor Constantine on the ruins of Byzantium, we have the first instance of a city which, from the time of its foundation, was entirely Christian.
Endowment of the Church.
The Church was now no longer dependent on the alms of private Christians; the revenues which had formerly been devoted by the state to the maintenance of the heathen temples and their ministers, were transferred to the support of Christian Churches and their Clergy, and to the relief of the poor. Christian schools were also founded and endowed by the emperors; and learning, as well as wealth, was thus brought in contact with the Faith.
Church honoured by the world.
Christian Rome soon became a great instrument in God's hands for extending the influence of the Church even amongst little-known and uncivilized nations; and as persecution ceased to try the earnestness of those who embraced the religion of Christ, and the name of Christian came to be treated with respect instead of with scorn, the Church began to assume a position somewhat like that which she holds in our own day.Discipline relaxed.The profession ofChristianity under these circumstances was naturally more of a matter of course with many of those who had grown up under its shadow, than when, in earlier times, such a profession was likely to involve loss and suffering, and even death itself, and discipline was gradually and necessarily relaxed from the severity needful in the days of persecution.
Heresy gathers strength in prosperity,
The Church being thus firmly settled and delivered from outer enemies, was now to find troubles within. Even from the days of St. John the Divine heresies respecting the Person of our Blessed Lord had been rife; but these open denials of the Divinity of the Great Head of the Church had been successfully opposed without their leaving behind them any very lasting trace.and is of a more dangerous nature.Errors of a more subtle class followed, amounting in reality to unbelief in our Saviour's Godhead, but expressing that unbelief by assailing the teaching of the Church respecting His nature as Very God or as Very Man.
Arianism.
This species of error culminated in the heresy of Arius, who denied that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity was co-equal, co-eternal, and of One Substance with the Father, and whose false teaching was more widely listened to and followed than that of any of his predecessors in misbelief. Arianism, and various forms of error consequent upon it, long afflicted the Church, especially in the East, and the Emperor Constantine himself seems at one time to have had a leaning towards the theories of Arius.
The remedy provided for heresy.
The full tide of the Arian heresy was, however, not suffered to come upon the Church without a barrier being raised up by God to stem the torrent. The Emperor Constantine was providentially guided to call together a Council of Bishops from every part of the world, to decide what was and always had been the Faith of the Church respecting the Nature of our Blessed Lord. This is the first instance of what are known by the name of General Councils of the Church. Other councils, called provincial synods, had indeed been frequently held from the earliest times; but they were of a much more limited and partial character, and their decrees were binding only on the province in which they were held, and not on the Church at large.
Nature of General Councils.
General Councils were called together by the Christian emperors, and, from the nature of their constitution, were not possible until all or nearly all the Christian world was governed by a ruler professing the Faith of Christ; nor has such a general synod been held since the breaking up of the universal empire of Rome helped to overthrow the external unity of the Church[1].Their number.Four General Councils are officiallyacknowledged by the Church of England as binding on her members, and to these are commonly added two, held somewhat later at Constantinople.
I. Council.
I. The First General Council was called together by Constantine the Great, A.D. 325. It was held at Nicaea in Bithynia, and was attended by 318 Bishops. The great work of this Council was the positive and explicit assertion of what the Church had always implicitly believed concerning the Nature of our Divine Lord, and His Oneness with the Father. It was at this Nicene Council that the great St. Athanasius, then only a deacon, first distinguished himself by his opposition to the heresies of Arius. The teaching of the Council was embodied in the creed which is known to us as the Nicene Creed[2], and which was signed by all the assembled Bishops with only two exceptions, these being probably personal friends of Arius. Besides the condemnation of Arius, the Council settled the time of keeping Easter, and passed twenty Canons which were confirmed by the Emperor.
II. Council.
II. The Second General Council was held at Constantinople, A.D. 381, in the reign of Theodosius the Great. It was summoned principally to condemn the heresy of Macedonius, who had been Patriarch of Constantinople, and who had added to the Arian heresy a denial of the Divinity of God the Holy Ghost. At this Council 150 Bishops were present, and it is especially remarkable for having completed the Creed of Nicaea[3], which is hence also called the Creed of Constantinople.