Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Number of quotes: 104
Book ID: 214 Page: 30
Section: 2C
Since the birthplace of Christianity was Palestine . . .
Quote ID: 5255
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 214 Page: 31
Section: 2E2
. . . Cynics, itinerant philosophic missionaries who were the mendicant monks of paganism . . .
Quote ID: 5256
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 214 Page: 35
Section: 2C,3B
(According to the Roman historian Tacitus . . .)Consequently, to be rid of the rumor, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace.....
Quote ID: 5259
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 214 Page: 45
Section: 3B
On August 10, AD 70, the soldiers of Titus burnt the Temple and pillaged its treasures, including the seven-branched candlestick, which was to feature both in the eventual triumph at Rome and on the arch of Titus. By September 8, all resistance throughout the city had ceased and Jerusalem passed into the hands of the Romans.
Quote ID: 5260
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 214 Page: 46
Section: 3B
Shortly before the city was finally invested, the Christian community, warned of the impending disaster by a prophecy, according to Eusebius, withdrew to Pella in Perea, on the east side of Jordan.Traces of Jewish Christianity are to be found in the following centuries, but the fall of Jerusalem reduced them to a position of complete insignificance for the future history of the Church.
Quote ID: 5261
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 214 Page: 46
Section: 1A
The first Christians did not think of the Church primarily as an organized society; . . .It was a divine-human organism, established by the direct action of God in history, and those who belonged to it were unconcerned about questions of constitutional order. Nevertheless, from the second century the Church possessed an ordained ministry, consisting of bishops, priests and deacons, the origins of which must be sought in the period under review. Unfortunately the evidence at the disposal of the historian is fragmentary and ambiguous; any and every account therefore partakes of that uncertainty which is inseparable from conjecture on the basis of insufficient material, and the facts to be gleaned from the relevant documents have been differently related.
Quote ID: 5262
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 214 Page: 47
Section: 2C
Hence Paul addresses the Christians at Philippi ‘with the bishops (or overseers) and deacons’. Nevertheless, this statement may refer to functions rather than to distinct orders and indeed to sketch the history of the early ministry is to attempt to trace the process whereby the one hardened into the other.
Quote ID: 5263
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 214 Page: 69
Section: 2B2
Yet this developing religious revival was not simply a return to the old gods; their distinctiveness had become blurred and they tended to lose their individuality in a form of a universalism whereby the several divine beings became identified. Thus in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses the goddess addresses him:Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names, and propitiated with all manner of different rites, yet the whole round earth venerates me. The primeval Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, Mother of the gods; the Athenians, sprung from their own soil, call me Cecropian Artemis; for the islanders of Cyprus I am Paphian Aphrodite; for the archers of Crete I am Dictynna; for the trilingual Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine; and for the Eleusinians their ancient Mother of the Corn. Some know me as Juno, some as Bellona of the Battles; others as Hecate, others again as Rhamnubia, but both races of the Ethipians, whose lands the morning sun first shines upon, and the Egyptians, who excel in ancient learning and worship me with ceremonies proper to my godhead, call me by my true name, namely, Queen Isis.
Quote ID: 5265
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 69
Section: 4A
Philosophy 2nd CenturyThe pagan religious revival tended to coalesce with the renewed interest in philosophy.
Quote ID: 5266
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 76
Section: 3B
One of the new governor’s first acts was to issue an edict forbidding all clubs, for Trajan regarded them as disturbers of the peace and it was his view that ‘whatever title we give them, and whatever our object in giving it, men who are banded together for a common end will all the same become a political association, and so he would have ‘all societies of this nature prohibited’. When, on these grounds, the Emperor refused to sanction even a fire brigade, it was not to be expected that he would look with favour on the Church.
Quote ID: 5267
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 214 Page: 79
Section: 3A2A
Death, however, in a legalized form was an ever-present possibility for the Christians of the second century, and the influence of this element in their background upon their conduct and thought was by no means slight.
Quote ID: 5268
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 79
Section: 2C
Under the heading of the ‘Apostolic Fathers’, a title first used in the seventeenth century.....
Quote ID: 5269
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 214 Page: 87
Section: 2D3B,3A3A
Charges against the ChristiansThe anti-Christian polemic arose in large measure from ignorance and misrepresentation. Believers were charged with atheism: ‘why have they no altars, no temples, no images?’ They were held guilty of disloyalty, of treason and lack of patriotism, in that they refused to participate in the emperor cult, were known to be looking for another kingdom, played no part in public life and were therefore no better than misanthropists. Their secret meetings, to which the unbaptized were not allowed entrance, were held to be occasions for immorality. Garbled accounts of the eucharist resulted in rumours that Christians practised cannibalism and incest.
Quote ID: 5270
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 214 Page: 90
Section: 2D3A
Montanism was condemned by the Church because it claimed to supersede the revelation contained in the gospels, because its doctrine of the Holy Spirit was extravagant and because it was a disruptive force at a time when there was a desperate need for unity.COPIED
Quote ID: 5271
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 91
Section: 2D3A
Imperial laws were promulgated against them after the days of Constantine and although they disappeared some two hundred years after their foundation, their attitude continued to live on under other forms and names: faith in revelations of the Holy Spirit in the persons of men and women specially endowed with grace, passionate contempt for the world and complete surrender to the expectation of the Second Advent.COPIED
Quote ID: 5272
Time Periods: 245
Book ID: 214 Page: 93
Section: 2D1
The importance of the Roman church rested in part upon its prestige as the church of the imperial capital and in part upon its association with Peter and Paul.
Quote ID: 5273
Time Periods: 24
Book ID: 214 Page: 93
Section: 2D1
2nd Century The idea that Peter was the first bishop of Rome was not current in this period. Yet the pre-eminence of the church there is evident from numerous incidents,.....
Quote ID: 5274
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 103
Section: 2A1,2D3B
That the Gnostics should have been baptized, despite their depreciation of material things, seems initially somewhat illogical, nor did all their sects make use of it. There were some, according to Irenaeus, who ‘reject all these practices and maintain that the mystery of the unspeakable and invisible power ought not to be performed by visible and corruptible creatures’.
Quote ID: 5275
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 104
Section: 2A2
The EucharistThe account of baptism by Justin Martyr, mentioned above, indicates that it culminated in a celebration of the Eucharist. He continues:
Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss. There is then brought to the president of the brethren bread and a cup of wine mixed with water; and he, taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at his hands. And when he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying Amen. This word Amen is the Hebrew for ‘so be it’. And when the president has given thanks, and all the people have expressed their assent, those of us who are called deacons give to each of those present to partake of the bread and the wine mixed with water over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and to those who are absent they carry away a portion.
Quote ID: 5276
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 104
Section: 2E4
(Mid second century). The community assembled each week, still in a private house, on the Sunday ‘because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.’
Quote ID: 5277
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 110
Section: 4B
The Church accepted slavery without demur as an integral part of the social and economic fabric of the empire; but in terms of its own inner life it was a matter of indifference; . . .
Quote ID: 5278
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 214 Page: 112
Section: 2B
This devotion to Serapis was perpetuated by their son, Caracalla, who erected a temple to him on the Quirinal, and the climax of this orientalization was reached by Elagabalus when he sought to introduce the worship of the Syrian Baal, enthroning the black stone of Emesa in a shrine on the Palatine. This identification of the solar religion with one of its local forms was, however, too much for the Romans and was in part responsible for the opposition to Elagabalus that resulted in his assassination.
Quote ID: 5279
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 214 Page: 113
Section: 2A5
There is indeed every reason to accept the accuracy of the statement of Arnobius, written at the opening of the fourth century: ‘the gods are neglected, and in the temples there is now a very thin attendance. Former ceremonies are exposed to derision, and the time-honoured rites of institutions once sacred have sunken before the superstitions of new religions’. Here was both the opportunity for and the partial result of the advance of Christianity.PJ: This is in the file "Extracted Notes"
Quote ID: 5280
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 115
Section: 3B
Alexander Severus (222-35), who had included a statue of Jesus in his pantheon.
Quote ID: 5281
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 214 Page: 118
Section: 3B2
. . . for the first time in its history Christianity, by a rescript of 261, obtained the position of a religio licita.
Quote ID: 5282
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 214 Page: 120
Section: 2B2,3C
Thus in 321 he made Sunday an obligatory holiday, but while the law was cast in a pagan form, referring to the day as venerabilis dies solis, there can be little doubt that its inspiration was Christian. Granted this necessary ambiguity, the emperor’s conduct is quite consistent with a genuine belief in Christianity, progressively deepening as the years passed after his triumph in 312. Christianity was well on the way to becoming the official religion of the Empire.
Quote ID: 5283
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 120
Section: 3B2
Christian writings surviving from the first and second centuries have two common characteristics: they are all written in Greek and they are relatively meagre in quantity. From the third century however the literature becomes more extensive and Latin is added to Greek as a language of theological utterance.
Quote ID: 5284
Time Periods: 123
Book ID: 214 Page: 121
Section: 2D3A
The pioneer in the creation of ecclesiastical Latin was Tertullian. Born c. 160 at Carthage, son of a centurion of the proconsular cohort, he practised law in Rome, . . .His [Tertullian] On Baptism (c. 200) attacks heretical baptism but at the same time describes contemporary catholic practice being the sole pre-Nicene treatis on any of the sacraments.
On Modesty, after his conversion to Montanism, he goes so far as to regard certain sins as unpardonable.
[Tertullian]. . .combining Punic fervour with Roman practical sense; in theological thought he laid the basis of both the later Trinitarian and Christological formulations,..
COPIED
Quote ID: 5285
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 214 Page: 123
Section: 4A
Convinced that ‘the way of truth is one, but into it, as into a perennial river, streams flow from all sides’, Clement sought a synthesis of Christian thought and Greek philosophy.
Quote ID: 5286
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 124
Section: 2B1
. . .while his Discourse with Heraclides shows him opposing a bishop’s doubtful opinions regarding the trinitarian question.Pastor John’s note: ? in reference to “his”
Quote ID: 5287
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 214 Page: 127
Section: 2E3
By AD 300 there were even as many as forty basilicas in Rome.
Quote ID: 5288
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 128
Section: 2A3
The way to conversion was also eased by certain evangelists who were prepared to present the faith as a transformed popular religion. This would seem to have been the case in North Africa and there is direct evidence that this was the method of Gregory Thaumaturgus in Pontus.Gregory [Thaumaturgus] thus substituted the cult of the martyrs for the old pagan local cults and in so doing achieved remarkable success.
After the persecution (of Decius) was over, when it was permissible to address oneself to Christian worship with unrestricted zeal, he [Thaumaturgus] again returned to the city, and, by travelling over all the surrounding country, increased the people’s ardour for worship in all the churches by holding a solemn commemoration in honour of those who had contended for the faith.
Here one brought bodies of martyrs, there another. So much so, that the assemblies went on for the space of a year, the people rejoicing in the celebration of festivals in honour of the martyrs. This also was one proof of his great wisdom, viz. That while he completely altered the direction of everyone’s life in his own day, turning them into an entirely new course, and harnessing them firmly to faith and to the knowledge of God, he slightly lessened the strain upon those who had accepted the yoke of the faith, in order to let them enjoy good cheer in life. For as he saw that the raw and ignorant multitude adhered to idols on account of bodily pleasures, he permitted the people - so as to secure the most vital matters, i.e. the direction of their hearts to God instead of to a vain worship - he permitted them to enjoy themselves at the commemoration of the holy martyrs, to take their ease, and to amuse themselves, since life would become more serious and earnest naturally in process of time, as the Christian faith came to assume more control of it.
Quote ID: 5289
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 214 Page: 130
Section: 2C
‘It is not persecution alone that is to be feared,’ according to Cyprian, ‘the enemy is more to be feared and to be guarded against when he creeps on us secretly.’ Cyprian had in mind the schismatics, who ‘have broken the Lord’s peace with the madness of discord’, and against these he asserted the oneness of the Church with the episcopate as its centre of unity: ‘the episcopate is one, each part of which is held by each one for the whole.’ He further declared: ‘they are the Church who are a people united to the priest, and the flock which adheres to its pastor. Whence you ought to know that the bishop is in the Church, and the Church is the bishop; and if any one be not with the bishop, that he is not in the Church.
Quote ID: 5290
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 214 Page: 133
Section: 2C
But a process of clericalization began as the Church expanded and function was displaced by position.Thus the process was under way whereby the ministry would be set over against the Church and the idea of function would be subordinated to that of office and privilege.
Quote ID: 5291
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 135
Section: 2D3A
The first councils or synods known to history were the result of the Montanist controversy. Synods met in Asia and in Thrace to condemn these enthusiasts.COPIED
Quote ID: 5292
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 214 Page: 135
Section: 2D1
By the end of the second century a primacy of honour but not of jurisdiction was being accorded to the bishops of Rome.
Quote ID: 5293
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 136
Section: 2D1
It was Stephen who first used the Petrine text on behalf of the Roman pre-eminence. ‘He contends,’ reports Firmilian, ‘that he holds the succession from Peter, on whom the foundations of the Church were laid.’
Quote ID: 5294
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 214 Page: 137
Section: 2B1
About the year 190 a Byzantine leather-worker named Theodotus came to Rome, teaching that Jesus was a mere man adopted as God’s son at his baptism when the divine power descended upon him.
Quote ID: 5295
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 214 Page: 138
Section: 3C1
The bishop of Alexandria was charged with separating the Father and the Son, with denying the latter’s eternity, with failing to describe him as homoousios (of one substance) with the Father, and with stating that he was a creature.
Quote ID: 5296
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 140
Section: 2B1
Tertullian’s trinitarian doctrine eventually became the norm for the western Church,. . . .
Quote ID: 5297
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 214 Page: 142
Section: 2B1,3C1
(Origen) So he declared that the Son is transcended by the Father in as great a degree as he himself transcends the best of all other beings. He could even call the Word a creature, in applying to him the Wisdom text of Prov. Viii.22: ‘God created me in the beginning of his ways.’
Quote ID: 5298
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 144
Section: 2C,2D3A
But upon his conversion to Montanism, he changed his ground, asserting that the Church is composed exclusively of spiritual men and that the episcopate was irrelevant.
Quote ID: 5299
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 214 Page: 145
Section: 4B
This same materialism is to be found in Cyprian with his quaint argument against cosmetics since they might prevent God’s recognizing the individual at the resurrection.
Quote ID: 5300
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 214 Page: 145
Section: 2A3
It is to be supposed that such a belief would not commend itself to the Alexandrians with their strong Platonic leaning. Clement was emphatic that the resurrection body is not one of flesh. Origen too had no hesitation in siding with the pagans in their objections to physical reanimation. ‘Neither we, nor the Holy Scriptures, assert that with the same bodies, without a change to a higher condition, shall the dead arise’, and ‘we do not affirm that God will raise men from the dead with the same flesh and blood’. Consequently, he advanced the same arguments that Justin, Athenagoras and Irenaeus had attempted to refute . . .
Quote ID: 5301
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 214 Page: 153
Section: 2E3
“Appoint the places for the brethren with care and gravity. And for the presbyters let there be assigned a place in the eastern part of the house; and let the bishop’s throne be set in their midst, and let the presbyters sit with him. And again, let the laymen sit in another part of the house toward the east.” Didascalia (After Constantine
Quote ID: 5304
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 214 Page: 153
Section: 2E4
The CalendarAccording to Cyprian, “he who remembers that he has renounced the world knows no day of worldly appointment, neither does he who hopes for eternity from God calculate the seasons of earth any more.” Such an attitude serves to explain the relatively late date of the development of an ecclesiastical calendar.
The Church’s year, as it was to be arranged eventually, was the result of the fusion of two elements: the festivals of the martyrs, referred to by Tertullian, which were often local in character, and the festivals of Christ, which were universally accepted.
Quote ID: 5305
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 214 Page: 154
Section: 2E4
This very meagre calendar perpetuated in part the eschatological outlook of the first Christians, and it was not until the conversion of Constantine, the consequent reconciliation of Church and State and more a sympathetic interest in the affairs of the world and so in time and history, that it underwent any extensive elaboration.
Quote ID: 5306
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 155
Section: 2E4
Some - washing of hands and putting off of cloaks before and sitting down on a bed afterwards - were condemned as superstitious; others - standing with arms outstretched, like Christ on the cross, and facing the east - were recommended. The sign of the cross was an habitual practice: ‘in all our travels and movements, in all our comings-in and goings-out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.’ Cyprian
Quote ID: 5307
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 214 Page: 155
Section: 2E4
In the Apostolic Tradition seven hours are listed - as soon as one wakes; at the third, sixth and ninth hours; before sleep; at midnight and finally at cockcrow. The second, third and fourth of these corresponded with the main divisions of the day in the Roman world and were Christianized by relating the third hour to Christ’s crucifixion, the sixth to the darkness and the ninth to the piercing with the lance.
Quote ID: 5308
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 214 Page: 158
Section: 2D3B,4B
Hence Clement could devote page after page to describing and condemning pagan luxury and lack of temperance and advocating frugality and a plain diet for the faithful, even listing the kinds of food they may eat, e.g. olives, herbs, milk, cheese, fruit, cooked foods without sauces, and a little meat but boiled rather than roast.The same condemnation of extravagance extended to clothes. Tertullian could trace female ornament back to the fallen angels. Clement had no doubt that ‘our life ought to be anything but a pageant’, and Cyprian regarded ostentation in dress as fit only for prostitutes. Complicated hair-styles were not tolerated and Christian men were expected not to shave but to preserve their natural beards.
Quote ID: 5309
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 214 Page: 159
Section: 2C
Constantine himself retained the office of Pontifex Maximus, as did his successors down to 383, and he protected the freedom of worship of his pagan subjects.
Quote ID: 5310
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 159
Section: 3C
Constantine’s sons, in particular Constantius, moved slowly into deliberate opposition, and by a law of 356 all temples were to be closed and all sacrifices discontinued.
Quote ID: 5311
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 160
Section: 3C2
The paganism that Julian intended to substitute for the Christianity he had renounced owed much to the latter. He appreciated its institutional, its moral and its theological aspects. He therefore sought to create a pagan ‘Church’, and under himself as Pontifex Maximus he appointed high priests in every province, corresponding to the Christian bishop, and by making their tenure life-long superseded the old system whereby leading laymen performed priestly functions for a year only.Each village was to have its priest, thus paralleling the parochial organization of Christianity. Julian also sought to regulate their lives and conduct, insisting that they were to be charitable, grave, and chaste, and that they were not to frequent theatres or taverns nor associate with jockeys, actors or dancers. They were provided with funds to distribute to the poor; some were organized in communities on the lines of the Christian monasteries; fasting was approved, a sermon was introduced into the acts of worship and a psalter of pagan hymns was issued. Undoubtedly this was the most effective side of Julian’s scheme. He saw that the weakness of the old religion lay in its lack of organization and this he provided, but his attempt to co-ordinate the disconnected elements of pagan belief into a coherent theology was less successful.
Quote ID: 5312
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 162
Section: 1A,3B
Indeed the main threat to the pax Romana came from the Church itself, which was rent by schisms and doctrinal strife.
Quote ID: 5313
Time Periods: 1234
Book ID: 214 Page: 163
Section: 3C
The peace of the Church transformed the relationship between the government and Christianity. Whereas previously the emperor Constantine had been the enemy of the Church, he now became its patron and protector so that henceforth the history of the Church is not something apart but inextricably bound up with society and with imperial policy.Constantine’s victory was ascribed by the Christians to the divine aid and the emperor was acclaimed as a new David by historian Eusebius. This interpretation of Constantine’s role meant that he was regarded as a God-given ruler and that his authority was not limited the secular sphere. So Constantine concerned himself with the affairs of the Church, acting to preserve its unity whenever he saw it threatened.
Similarly, he intervened in the Arian controversy and himself summoned the Council of Nicaea in an attempt to bring it to an end. The Church was quite content that he should do these things, its unity with the State being close and amicable.
When in 340 the empire was divided between Constans in the West and Constantius in the East, the same relationship continued as under their father. It was, however, a somewhat anomalous situation. Constans was a supporter of the Nicene orthodoxy, as were the majority of western Christians, while Constantius was more favourably disposed towards the Arian cause, as were the majority of eastern Christians.
Quote ID: 5314
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 163
Section: 3C1
The pressure of these contemporary circumstances therefore led to a changed conception of Church-State relations which found its clearest expression in a letter of Hosius of Cordova to Constantius when he was ordered to communicate with the Arians in 355:
Quote ID: 5315
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 163
Section: 3C
“Intrude not yourself into ecclesiastical matters, neither give commands concerning them; but learn from us. God has put into your hands the kingdom; to us he has entrusted the affairs of his Church; and, as he who would steal the empire from you would resist the ordinance of God, so likewise fear on your part lest by taking upon yourself the government of the Church, you become guilty of a great offence. It is written, ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.’ Neither, therefore, is it permitted unto us to exercise an earthly rule, nor have you, Sire, any authority to burn incense.” Martin of ??
Quote ID: 5316
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 164
Section: 3A2A,3C
There, Gratian having been murdered in 383, Ithacius appealed to Maximus and a synod was held at Bordeaux in the following year. Priscillian refused to acknowledge its authority and appealed to the emperor. In 383 he was brought to trial at Trier, found guilty of magic and executed, it being apparent that, although the charge was a civil one, he had been condemned for heresy.
Quote ID: 5317
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 164
Section: 3A2,3C
In these events, the precedent was set for the later handing over of heretics to be executed by the secular power, and the opposing view of Martin, that Church and State should occupy themselves with their own affairs, is clearly stated. But Martin’s dualism, while commendable in its simplicity and certainly applicable where a pagan State and the Christian Church are in opposition, is scarcely adequate where there is a Christian ruler. In such circumstances the distinction between the separate spheres becomes blurred and this was especially so in the fourth century.
Quote ID: 5318
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 167
Section: 3C1
Already in 363-5 Basil had issued Against Eunomius, in which the consubstantiality of the three divine persons is maintained, . . .
Quote ID: 5319
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 170
Section: 2C,3C
Indeed he was prepared to style himself as bishop of those outside the Church. (Constantine)
Quote ID: 5320
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 171
Section: 3A2B
Martin [PJ: of Tours 316–397] became an active and energetic missionary to the whole district. He led his monks in preaching, in destroying temples and in baptizing.
Quote ID: 5321
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 172
Section: 3B1
Some of the barbarians however were already converted before their entry into the empire.
Quote ID: 5322
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 176
Section: 2B1,3C1
Donatism was indeed a running sore in the side of the African Church, but it was confined to one area. Arianism set the whole of the empire afire, disrupting the Church’s life at all levels.
Quote ID: 5323
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 214 Page: 182
Section: 3C1
Then in May 381 the second Ecumenical Council met in Constantinople and adopted a statement of faith, the ‘Nicene’ Creed, anathematized all heresies, and condemned Sabellianism, Eunomianism and Pneumatomachianism. The work of the council was furthered by other gatherings at Aquileia and Rome. Arianism was now crushed and its surviving adherents, split into rival groups, formed only obscure and powerless sects. It was only among the nations beyond the frontiers that it continued to exercise any influence.
Quote ID: 5324
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 194
Section: 3C1
The only priority of the Father is a logical, not a temporal one since the Son and the Spirit derive from him as their source; but this priority involves no superiority. ‘The doctrine of the Trinity, as formulated by the Cappadocians, may be summed up in the phrase that God is one object in himself and three objects to himself. Further than that illuminating paradox it is difficult to see that human thought can go. It secures both the unity and the trinity.’ G. L. Prestige book God Patristic Thought 1936 pg 49Eudoxius: ‘we believe. . .in one. . .Lord. . ..who was made flesh but not man. For he did not take a human soul...He was not two natures. . .
Quote ID: 5325
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 194
Section: 3C1
According to Athanasius, the Word ‘prepared in the Virgin the body as a temple for himself, and personally appropriates this as an instrument, being made known in it and dwelling in it’; he was ‘born and appeared in a human body’.
Quote ID: 5326
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 199
Section: 3C1
The overthrow of Arianism made possible the promulgation of a formula that could be universally accepted and this was the ‘Nicene’ Creed approved and issued by the Council of Constantinople in 381. More theological than the baptismal creeds, this statement is the only one which the Church as a whole has ever received.
Quote ID: 5327
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 199
Section: 2E1,2E3,3C
In the year 326 or 327 Constantine wrote to Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, concerning his projected church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the following terms:“I desire, therefore, especially that you should be persuaded of that which I suppose is evident to all beside, namely, that I have no greater care than how I may best adorn with a splendid structure that sacred spot...a spot which has been accounted holy from the beginning in God’s judgement, but which now appears holier still, since it has brought to light a clear assurance of our Saviour’s passion.”
Quote ID: 5328
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 199
Section: 3C,2E3
This is only one of the many churches, in Palestine and elsewhere, for which the emperor was responsible, and the erection of these large and imposing buildings necessarily had an effect upon Christian worship. Whereas hitherto the gatherings of the faithful had preserved their domestic character, which went back ultimately to the Last Supper, henceforth the worship was public worship and that which had been suitable for a dining-room at Dura Europos or Cirta required adaptation if it were to be fitting for a great hall. Moreover the semi-converts who now thronged the churches were in need of instruction and so worship became more elaborate, not only to express the community’s devotion but to impress the large congregations. A comparison therefore of the forms of worship in the fourth century with those existing previously reveals a development which, while preserving the basic patterns, seeks to make them more imposing and to bring out their meaning, with the concomitant risk of obscuring the primitive emphases.
Quote ID: 5329
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 200
Section: 2A1
Cyril’s exposition of the rite provides much fuller information and the meaning of the separate elements is also clearly defined. The candidates assembled in the vestibule of the baptistery and facing the West, the region of darkness, stretched out their hands and uttered the renunciation: ‘I renounce thee, Satan, and all thy works, and all thy pomp, and all thy service’. Turning from West to East, the region of light, they made a brief confession of faith: ‘I believe in the Father, and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and in one baptism of repentance’. Passing into the dressing-room, they disrobed, as ‘an image of putting off the old man with his deeds’, so becoming imitators of Christ who hung naked on the cross and was borne naked to the tomb. Entering the inner chamber, they were anointed with exorcized oil to chase away all the invisible powers of the evil one. They were next led to the font ‘as Christ was carried from the cross to the sepulchre’, and made a second confession, descending three times into the water and ascending again, symbolizing the three days’ burial of Christ. Unction by the bishop followed: on the forehead that they might be delivered from shame; on the ears that they might be open to hear divine mysteries; on the nostrils that they might say: ‘We are to God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved’; lastly on the breast, that having put on the breast-plate of righteousness they might stand against the wiles of the devil. Dressed in white robes, signifying that they had put off the covering of sin and put on the chaste garments of innocence, and bearing each a lighted taper - ‘the torches of the bridal train’ - they went in procession, singing: ‘Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered’, to join in the baptismal eucharist.
Quote ID: 5330
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 214 Page: 201
Section: 2A1
The understanding of the editor of the Apostolic Constitutions is revealed by two prayers, the one for the blessing of the water, the other at the end of the rite:“Look down from heaven and sanctify this water and give it grace and power, that so he that is to be baptized, according to the command of thy Christ, may be crucified with him, and may die with him, and may be buried with him and may rise with him to the adoption which is in him, that he may be dead to sin and live to righteousness.”
Quote ID: 5331
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 204
Section: 5D
Of primary importance was the acceptance in the West of Latin as its liturgical language. The immediate effect of this was to create a distinction between eastern and western liturgies. 4th Century
Quote ID: 5332
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 214 Page: 205
Section: 2A2
Cyril’s account of the method of communion is not without its interest as an indication of fourth-century devotional practices:“As you approach them, come not with your wrists extended or your fingers open, but make your left hand a kind of throne by placing it under your right which is about to receive the King, and in the hollow of your hand receive the body of Christ, replying Amen. Carefully hallow your eyes with the touch of the holy body, and then partake of it, seeing to it that you lose no particle. . . Then, after the communion of Christ’s body, approach also the cup of his blood, not stretching forth your hands, but bending forward in an attitude of adoration and reverence, and saying Amen, be hallowed as well by the reception of the blood of Christ. And while the moisture thereof is still on your lips, touch it with your hands and hallow both your eyes and brow and other senses.”
Quote ID: 5333
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 209
Section: 2E1
Within the churches the main item of furniture was the altar, which continued to have the form and shape of a dining-table. . .Constantine presented S. Peter’s with a silver altar ‘inlaid with gold, decorated with green and white jewels and jacinths on all sides, the number of the jewels being 400, the weight 350 lb’.
Facing the nave was a seated figure of Christ, 5 feet high and weighing 120lb., flanked by two apostles, each 5 feet tall and 90 lb. In weight; along the sides were disposed the remaining apostles and at the rear, facing the apse, was another seated Christ with two angels, weighing 105 lb. Each and holding rods; the whole structure was of pure gold.
Next in importance to the altar as an article of furniture was the bishop’s seat, usually known as the throne in the East and the cathedra in the West. This kind of chair was common in the early days of the empire and was later adopted by rhetoricians and philosophers, the bishops readily transferring to the basilica the seat from which many had given lessons in the schools.
Readings from the Scriptures, however, took place from a special desk no doubt taken over from the synagogue.
Quote ID: 5334
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 210
Section: 2E1
The ‘desk’ soon assumed the shape of a pulpit, and as it was ascended (anabaino) by a flight of stairs it was given the name ambon.
Quote ID: 5335
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 214 Page: 210
Section: 2E3
The sexes were strictly separated, with either the men in front and the women behind, or the men on the right and the women on the left. Seating was negligible, since the worshippers were expected to stand for most of the service, but some few benches were provided for the aged and infirm.
Quote ID: 5336
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 214 Page: 210
Section: 2E4
Whereas previously there had been few festivals and their predominating note had been eschatological, there now took place an elaboration and an historicization which was the outcome of a changed outlook consequent upon the reconciliation between Christianity and the State, following the conversion of Constantine. The purpose of the new liturgical cycle was to set the facts of the gospel before the many nominal Christians who flocked into the Church. This is clearly shown by the institution of Christmas Day on December 25th to commemorate Christ’s nativity. The date was chosen deliberately and principally to draw the converts away from the pagan solemnities associated with the day since the establishing of the Natalis Solis Invicti by Aurelian in 274. It appears to have been accepted in Rome c. 336.
Quote ID: 5337
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 214 Page: 211
Section: 2E4
Gradually the whole year was being organized to set forth the facts of the ministry and the meaning of the gospel.
Quote ID: 5338
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 214 Page: 214
Section: 2B2,4B
It was in this way, by both precept and practice, that the Church sought to baptize the whole of daily life into Christianity, . . .
Quote ID: 5340
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 215
Section: 3A1B,2C,3C
Gratian, however, under the influence of Ambrose did not assume the title of pontifex maximus, and in 382 withdrew the funds that had supported the public cult and removed the altar of Victory from the Curia. The pagan caucus in the senate led by Symmachus, carried on a struggle throughout the next decade to have the altar restored, but the offensive against paganism was renewed by Theodosius, who issued a series of laws prohibiting pagan worship throughout the empire.
Quote ID: 5341
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 215
Section: 3D
With Theodosius’ victory on 6th September 394 the pagan renaissance collapsed and the unsuccessful struggle for a lost cause came to an end. Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West promulgated laws prohibiting sacrifice and temple worship - henceforth the only religion was to be Christianity.
Quote ID: 5342
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 214 Page: 216
Section: 3D
In the year 388 the Christians of Callinicum, a small town on the Euphrates, burnt down a Jewish synagogue and some monks had also fired a church belonging to a group of Valentinian Gnostics. Theodosius ordered the local bishop to rebuild the synagogue at his own expense and the monks to be punished for their disorderly conduct. Ambrose then saw fit to intervene, arguing that this was in effect a condemnation of the bishop to martyrdom, since this was the only way he could avoid the apostasy he would certainly commit were he to obey the imperial command. When Theodosius directed that the cost of the rebuilding was to be borne by the State, Ambrose was still not satisfied, declaring that in a Christian State public money should not be spent on non-Christian worship, and as for the plea that the State must maintain order, religion was more important than even that. The bishop followed this with a sermon, directly aimed at the emperor who was in the congregation, and indeed he was prepared to forbid him communion if he did not withdraw his decision. Theodosius gave way and the civil authority thus bowed to that of the Church.The second clash between Ambrose and the emperor arose in connexion with happenings at Thessalonica in 390. A charioteer, idolized by the populace, attempted to rape a Gothic officer by the name of Butheric and was cast into prison. Riots took place and Butheric was killed. Theodosius sent orders for a secret massacre; soldiers were to surround the ampitheatre when the people gathered to see the games and were then to slaughter the spectators. Although the emperor relented and sent a revocation of his order, it arrived too late and seven thousand were butchered. Ambrose accordingly excommunicated him and it was only after a penance lasting several months that Theodosius was restored to communion. In this incident many have seen the beginning of the road to Canossa, where in 1070 Henry IV was humiliated before Gregory VII, and of the claim of the medieval popes to the right to depose emperors.
Quote ID: 5343
Time Periods: 47
Book ID: 214 Page: 218
Section: 3D
Finally Romulus Agustulus (475-6) resigned the purple to Zeno, thus bringing the western empire to its inglorious end. It is a testimony to the strength of the Church that it survived all this turbulence and destruction and emerged in the West as the one unifying and civilizing influence, gradually converting the Semi-Arian Goths and Vandals to orthodoxy and spreading the faith among the pagan Franks and Burgundians who now lived within the bounds of the old Roman empire.
Quote ID: 5344
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 214 Page: 220
Section: 3A1,3D
....the relations of Church and State in the East, where the former came to be dominated by the latter, and the contrast with the situation in the West, as evidenced by the exchanges between Ambrose and Theodosius, where the Church came to dominate the State.
Quote ID: 5345
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 228
Section: 2E3
In city after city, Christians, assisted by a detachment of soldiers, attacked and destroyed the ancient temples, the most famous to suffer this fate being the Serpeum at Alexandria. In other centres temples were not razed but were transformed into Christian churches, e.g. the basilica of Junius Bassus on the Espuiline became the church of St Andrew in 470, while the Parthenon was eventually dedicated to all the martyrs under Boniface IV (608-15).
Quote ID: 5346
Time Periods: 4567
Book ID: 214 Page: 229
Section: 3D
....by the middle of the fifth century the anti-pagan writings had all but ceased; educated men were now in the main Christian, and the non-Christian barbarians required other methods.
Quote ID: 5347
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 214 Page: 232
Section: 3A2
The situation, however, steadily deteriorated, violence becoming widespread, until the Catholics determined upon open persecution. The development of Augustine’s own thought to this point has been outlined by him in a letter to the Donatist Vicentius:“At first, it was my view that no one should be led by force into the unity of Christ, that action should be confined to words, combat to discussion, and victory to the exercise of reason, and that furthermore, we were concerned with false Catholics and not with out-and-out heretics. That was my view. It has had to give way before that of my contradictors, not before their words but before the facts they have adduced. In the first place, they opposed me with the history of my native town Thagaste, which at one time belonged entirely to the Donatist party and which, since then, has been brought over to the Catholic unity through fear of the imperial laws: . . . ”
Quote ID: 5348
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 214 Page: 233
Section: 2D2
Helvidius denied the widely held belief in the perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary. He argued that references in the gospels to Jesus’ ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ indicated that Mary and Joseph had subsequent issue and that his view was supported by Tertullian, as indeed it was. Jerome, writing in 383, argued, somewhat speciously, that those mentioned were either children of Joseph by a former marriage or cousins of Jesus, being the children of Mary’s sister.
Quote ID: 5349
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 214 Page: 241
Section: 2E2
. . .although Pachomius only began his work in 323, by the turn of the century there were over seven thousand Pachomian monks and houses were being founded in all parts of the empire and beyond its frontiers.They needed control; their spirituality wanted guidance and they were required regulation.
Canon 4 of the Council of Chalcedon subjected the monasteries to episcopal control:
Let those who truly and sincerely lead the monastic life be counted worthy of becoming honour; but, forasmuch as certain persons using the pretext of monasticism bring confusion both upon the churches and into political affairs by going about promiscuously in the cities, and at the same time seeking to establish monasteries for themselves; it is decreed that no one anywhere build or found a monastery or oratory contrary to the will of the bishop of the city; . . .
Quote ID: 5350
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 214 Page: 242
Section: 2E2
And no slave shall be received into any monastery to become a monk against the will of his master.
Quote ID: 5351
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 214 Page: 242/243
Section: 2E2
Evagrian spirituality, with its Origenistic basis, was made familiar to the West by the work of John Cassian, the founder of monasteries at Marseilles c. 415 and the author of two widely influential books on the monastic life, . . .“Take heed to continue even to the end in that state of nakedness in which you make profession in the sight of God and of his angels. For not he who begins these things, but he who endures in them to the end shall be saved. The beginning of our salvation and the safeguard of it is the fear of the Lord.” [John Cassian]
Quote ID: 5352
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 214 Page: 244
Section: 2E2
In contrast to the individualism of the hermits and the large measure of personal preference allowed by Pachomius, Benedict, like Basil, legislated for a community life free from excesses. The monks were to live as a family under the government of the abbot to whom they were to promise utter obedience. They were to observe poverty, chastity and stability, i.e. they were not to pass from house to house. They had to share in the agricultural and domestic work, read and learn the psalms. Their timetable was regulated by the performance of the divine office - Vigils at 2.0 a.m., Lauds at dawn, Prime at six, Terce at nine, Sext at noon, None at three, Vespers at four-thirty and Compline at six. This was the system, partly through its intrinsic merit and partly through the influence of such men as Gregory the Great, that was gradually adopted throughout Europe, replacing even the vigorous Celtic monasticism that had flourished in comparative isolation on the extreme confines of the western empire.
Quote ID: 5353
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 214 Page: 246
Section: 3A4
Church orderThe ferment of events that issued in the disappearance of the western empire was not without its effect upon the role of the bishop; there were indeed four factors that influenced it considerably. First, the imperial policy of centralization, which was to preserve unity and prevent anarchy, resulted in the sapping of local initiative. Second, the episcopal exercise of the power of jurisdiction, granted by the civil power, and of the right of intercession with imperial officials increased. Third, legacies and grants of property made bishops responsible for many large estates. Finally, the urban civilization of the empire was replaced, after the incursion of the barbarians, by a predominantly rural system, which had the social effect of sweeping away absentee city-dwelling landowners and their substitution by local proprietors living upon their own estates. As a consequence of these changes prominent men were drawn to the episcopate as the sole sphere within which they could find adequate scope for their talents and they became more and more the leaders of the entire local community in civil no less than in ecclesiastical affairs. Their importance was further enhanced and they acquired a position of preeminence in the countryside because of their possession of large estates. Here indeed lay the origins of the later system of feudal prelacy. Thus the function of a bishop became more general than that of the chief local minister of religion.
Quote ID: 5354
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 214 Page: 248
Section: 2D1,3A1
The Roman primacyThe disruption of the western empire which so affected the role of the diocesan bishop also influenced that of the bishop of Rome, for as organized government broke down the pope emerged as the one stable and dominant figure acknowledged by all. The eighty years from the Council of Constantinople to the death of Leo the Great witnessed the final stages of the growth of the Roman primacy.
Quote ID: 5355
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 214 Page: 249
Section: 2D1
Boniface I (418-22): In his first letter Boniface declared that the Roman see is the see of Peter and that Peter lives on in his see. In his second he wrote of the Roman see that ‘this church, as it were, a head over the members; and if anyone is separate from it he is an alien to the Christian religion as having failed to remain in the body’.
Quote ID: 5356
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 214 Page: 250
Section: 2D1
Leo the Great (440-61): He interpreted the Petrine text to mean that supreme authority was bestowed by Jesus upon Peter. Next he held Peter to have been the first bishop of Rome, and his authority to have been perpetuated in his successors. He further conceived of this authority as enhanced by a mystical presence of Peter in the Roman see. He therefore drew the consequences that the authority of all bishops, other than the pope, is derived not immediately from Christ but mediately through Peter and that it is limited to their own dioceses, whereas his was a plenitudo potestatis over the whole Church.
Quote ID: 5357
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 214 Page: 250
Section: 1A
It has been said with some cynicism but with some truth that the Roman Church was the ghost of the Roman Empire sitting on the grave thereof; and indeed much of the prestige of the old civil power passed, at its defeat, to the bishop of Rome as the head of the western Church throughout what are usually called the Dark and the Middle Ages.
Quote ID: 5358
Time Periods: 16
Book ID: 214 Page: 251
Section: 3C1
. . .the property of the Father is to beget, that of the Son, to be begotten and that of the Spirit to proceed. This was not independent speculation nor was it completely identical with the eastern belief, as Ambrose’s pupil, Augustine, fully realized: ‘for the sake of speaking of things ineffable, that in some way we may be able to express what we are in no way able to express fully, our Greek friends have spoken of one essence and three substances, but the Latins of one essence or substance and three persons’. Either position is legitimate for ‘the transcendence of the Godhead surpasses the power of ordinary speech’.
Quote ID: 5359
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 262
Section: 2A1
In speaking of the rite of baptism it is possible to make three generalizations: first, the same essential elements are to be found in all areas;The common elements can be listed as follows: (i) Removal of clothes; (ii) Unction; (iii) Renunciation; (iv) Blessing of Font; (v) Declaration of Faith; (vi) Baptism in Water; (vii) Putting on White Robes.
Quote ID: 5360
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 263
Section: 2A1
According to Chrysostom, ‘what the womb is to the embryo, the water is to the believer, for in the water he is fashioned and formed.’
Quote ID: 5361
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 276
Section: 3D
Since Christianity was now the official religion of the empire, both East and West, all citizens were nominally Christians.
Quote ID: 5362
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: 279
Section: 3D
Under Honorius an eastern ascetic named Telemachus or Almachius came to Rome and, attending a show in the amphitheatre, threw himself between two contestants, only to be stoned to death by the spectators, furious at being deprived of their sport. Honorius, informed of this happening, forthwith declared that all bloody contests were to cease.
Quote ID: 5363
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 214 Page: vii
Section: 1A
It has been held that the early history of the Church represents a perversion of the simple primitive gospel preached by Jesus; the story of the Church then becomes an account of the obscuring of Christian truth.
Quote ID: 5253
Time Periods: 12
End of quotes