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The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire




[Footnote 91: Beausobro, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, l. vii.
c. 3. Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustin, &c., strongly incline
to this opinion.
Note: But these were Gnostic or Manichean opinions.
Beausobre distinctly describes Autustine's bias to his recent
escape from Manicheism; and adds that be afterwards changed his
views. - M.]

[Footnote 92: Some of the Gnostic heretics were more consistent;
they rejected the use of marriage.]

[Footnote 93: See a chain of tradition, from Justin Martyr to
Jerome, in the Morale des Peres, c. iv. 6 - 26.]

[Footnote 94: See a very curious Dissertation on the Vestals, in
the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. iv. p. 161 -
227. Notwithstanding the honors and rewards which were bestowed
on those virgins, it was difficult to procure a sufficient
number; nor could the dread of the most horrible death always
restrain their incontinence.]

[Footnote 95: Cupiditatem procreandi aut unam scimus aut nullam.
Minutius Faelix, c. 31. Justin. Apolog. Major. Athenagoras in
Legat. c 28. Tertullian de Cultu Foemin. l. ii.]

[Footnote 96: Eusebius, l. vi. 8. Before the fame of Origen had
excited envy and persecution, this extraordinary action was
rather admired than censured. As it was his general practice to
allegorize Scripture, it seems unfortunate that in this instance
only, he should have adopted the literal sense.]
[Footnote 97: Cyprian. Epist. 4, and Dodwell, Dissertat.
Cyprianic. iii. Something like this rash attempt was long
afterwards imputed to the founder of the order of Fontevrault.
Bayle has amused himself and his readers on that very delicate
subject.]

[Footnote 98: Dupin (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. i. p. 195)
gives a particular account of the dialogue of the ten virgins, as
it was composed by Methodius, Bishop of Tyre. The praises of
virginity are excessive.]
[Footnote 99: The Ascetics (as early as the second century) made
a public profession of mortifying their bodies, and of abstaining
from the use of flesh and wine. Mosheim, p. 310.]

The Christians were not less averse to the business than to
the pleasures of this world. The defence of our persons and
property they knew not how to reconcile with the patient doctrine
which enjoined an unlimited forgiveness of past injuries, and
commanded them to invite the repetition of fresh insults. Their
simplicity was offended by the use of oaths, by the pomp of
magistracy, and by the active contention of public life; nor
could their humane ignorance be convinced that it was lawful on
any occasion to shed the blood of our fellow-creatures, either by
the sword of justice, or by that of war; even though their
criminal or hostile attempts should threaten the peace and safety
of the whole community. ^100 It was acknowledged, that, under a
less perfect law, the powers of the Jewish constitution had been
exercised, with the approbation of Heaven, by inspired prophets
and by anointed kings. The Christians felt and confessed that
such institutions might be necessary for the present system of
the world, and they cheerfully submitted to the authority of
their Pagan governors. But while they inculcated the maxims of
passive obedience, they refused to take any active part in the
civil administration or the military defence of the empire. Some
indulgence might, perhaps, be allowed to those persons who,
before their conversion, were already engaged in such violent and
sanguinary occupations; ^101 but it was impossible that the
Christians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, could assume
the character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes. ^102
This indolent, or even criminal disregard to the public welfare,
exposed them to the contempt and reproaches of the Pagans who
very frequently asked, what must be the fate of the empire,
attacked on every side by the barbarians, if all mankind should
adopt the pusillanimous sentiments of the new sect. ^103 To this
insulting question the Christian apologists returned obscure and
ambiguous answers, as they were unwilling to reveal the secret
cause of their security; the expectation that, before the
conversion of mankind was accomplished, war, government, the
Roman empire, and the world itself, would be no more. It may be
observed, that, in this instance likewise, the situation of the
first Christians coincided very happily with their religious
scruples, and that their aversion to an active life contributed
rather to excuse them from the service, than to exclude them from
the honors, of the state and army.

[Footnote 100: See the Morale des Peres. The same patient
principles have been revived since the Reformation by the
Socinians, the modern Anabaptists, and the Quakers. Barclay, the
Apologist of the Quakers, has protected his brethren by the
authority of the primitive Christian; p. 542 - 549]
[Footnote 101: Tertullian, Apolog. c. 21. De Idololatria, c. 17,
18. Origen contra Celsum, l. v. p. 253, l. vii. p. 348, l. viii.
p. 423 - 428.]
[Footnote 102: Tertullian (de Corona Militis, c. 11) suggested to
them the expedient of deserting; a counsel which, if it had been
generally known, was not very proper to conciliate the favor of
the emperors towards the Christian sect.

Note: There is nothing which ought to astonish us in the
refusal of the primitive Christians to take part in public
affairs; it was the natural consequence of the contrariety of
their principles to the customs, laws, and active life of the
Pagan world. As Christians, they could not enter into the
senate, which, according to Gibbon himself, always assembled in a
temple or consecrated place, and where each senator, before he
took his seat, made a libation of a few drops of wine, and burnt
incense on the altar; as Christians, they could not assist at
festivals and banquets, which always terminated with libations,
&c.; finally, as "the innumerable deities and rites of polytheism
were closely interwoven with every circumstance of public and
private life," the Christians could not participate in them
without incurring, according to their principles, the guilt of
impiety. It was then much less by an effect of their doctrine,
than by the consequence of their situation, that they stood aloof
from public business. Whenever this situation offered no
impediment, they showed as much activity as the Pagans. Proinde,
says Justin Martyr, (Apol. c. 17,) nos solum Deum adoramus, et
vobis in rebus aliis laeti inservimus. - G.

This latter passage, M. Guizot quotes in Latin; if he had
consulted the original, he would have found it to be altogether
irrelevant: it merely relates to the payment of taxes. - M.

Tertullian does not suggest to the soldiers the expedient of
deserting; he says that they ought to be constantly on their
guard to do nothing during their service contrary to the law of
God, and to resolve to suffer martyrdom rather than submit to a
base compliance, or openly to renounce the service. (De Cor. Mil.
ii. p. 127.) He does not positively decide that the military
service is not permitted to Christians; he ends, indeed, by
saying, Puta denique licere militiam usque ad causam coronae. -
G.

M. Guizot is. I think, again unfortunate in his defence of
Tertullian. That father says, that many Christian soldiers had
deserted, aut deserendum statim sit, ut a multis actum. The
latter sentence, Puta, &c, &c., is a concession for the sake of
argument: wha follows is more to the purpose. - M.
Many other passages of Tertullian prove that the army was
full of Christians, Hesterni sumus et vestra omnia implevimus,
urbes, insulas, castella, municipia, conciliabula, castra ipsa.
(Apol. c. 37.) Navigamus et not vobiscum et militamus. (c. 42.)
Origen, in truth, appears to have maintained a more rigid
opinion, (Cont. Cels. l. viii.;) but he has often renounced this
exaggerated severity, perhaps necessary to produce great results,
and be speaks of the profession of arms as an honorable one. (l.
iv. c. 218.) - G.

On these points Christian opinion, it should seem, was much
divided Tertullian, when he wrote the De Cor. Mil., was evidently
inclining to more ascetic opinions, and Origen was of the same
class. See Neander, vol. l part ii. p. 305, edit. 1828. - M.]

[Footnote 103: As well as we can judge from the mutilated
representation of Origen, (1. viii. p. 423,) his adversary,
Celsus, had urged his objection with great force and candor.]

Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.

Part VI.

V. But the human character, however it may be exalted or
depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return by degrees to
its proper and natural level, and will resume those passions that
seem the most adapted to its present condition. The primitive
Christians were dead to the business and pleasures of the world;
but their love of action, which could never be entirely
extinguished, soon revived, and found a new occupation in the
government of the church. A separate society, which attacked the
established religion of the empire, was obliged to adopt some
form of internal policy, and to appoint a sufficient number of
ministers, intrusted not only with the spiritual functions, but
even with the temporal direction of the Christian commonwealth.
The safety of that society, its honor, its aggrandizement, were
productive, even in the most pious minds, of a spirit of
patriotism, such as the first of the Romans had felt for the
republic, and sometimes of a similar indifference, in the use of
whatever means might probably conduce to so desirable an end.
The ambition of raising themselves or their friends to the honors
and offices of the church, was disguised by the laudable
intention of devoting to the public benefit the power and
consideration, which, for that purpose only, it became their duty
to solicit. In the exercise of their functions, they were
frequently called upon to detect the errors of heresy or the arts
of faction, to oppose the designs of perfidious brethren, to
stigmatize their characters with deserved infamy, and to expel
them from the bosom of a society whose peace and happiness they
had attempted to disturb. The ecclesiastical governors of the
Christians were taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with
the innocence of the dove; but as the former was refined, so the
latter was insensibly corrupted, by the habits of government. If
the church as well as in the world, the persons who were placed
in any public station rendered themselves considerable by their
eloquence and firmness, by their knowledge of mankind, and by
their dexterity in business; and while they concealed from
others, and perhaps from themselves, the secret motives of their
conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all the turbulent
passions of active life, which were tinctured with an additional
degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the infusion of spiritual
zeal.

The government of the church has often been the subject, as
well as the prize, of religious contention. The hostile
disputants of Rome, of Paris, of Oxford, and of Geneva, have
alike struggled to reduce the primitive and apostolic model ^104
to the respective standards of their own policy. The few who
have pursued this inquiry with more candor and impartiality, are
of opinion, ^105 that the apostles declined the office of
legislation, and rather chose to endure some partial scandals and
divisions, than to exclude the Christians of a future age from
the liberty of varying their forms of ecclesiastical government
according to the changes of times and circumstances. The scheme
of policy, which, under their approbation, was adopted for the
use of the first century, may be discovered from the practice of
Jerusalem, of Ephesus, or of Corinth. The societies which were
instituted in the cities of the Roman empire, were united only by
the ties of faith and charity. Independence and equality formed
the basis of their internal constitution. The want of discipline
and human learning was supplied by the occasional assistance of
the prophets, ^106 who were called to that function without
distinction of age, of sex, ^* or of natural abilities, and who,
as often as they felt the divine impulse, poured forth the
effusions of the Spirit in the assembly of the faithful. But
these extraordinary gifts were frequently abused or misapplied by
the prophetic teachers. They displayed them at an improper
season, presumptuously disturbed the service of the assembly,
and, by their pride or mistaken zeal, they introduced,
particularly into the apostolic church of Corinth, a long and
melancholy train of disorders. ^107 As the institution of
prophets became useless, and even pernicious, their powers were
withdrawn, and their office abolished. The public functions of
religion were solely intrusted to the established ministers of
the church, the bishops and the presbyters; two appellations
which, in their first origin, appear to have distinguished the
same office and the same order of persons. The name of Presbyter
was expressive of their age, or rather of their gravity and
wisdom. The title of Bishop denoted their inspection over the
faith and manners of the Christians who were committed to their
pastoral care. In proportion to the respective numbers of the
faithful, a larger or smaller number of these episcopal
presbyters guided each infant congregation with equal authority
and with united counsels. ^108
[Footnote 104: The aristocratical party in France, as well as in
England, has strenuously maintained the divine origin of bishops.

But the Calvinistical presbyters were impatient of a superior;
and the Roman Pontiff refused to acknowledge an equal. See Fra
Paolo.]

[Footnote 105: In the history of the Christian hierarchy, I have,
for the most part, followed the learned and candid Mosheim.]

[Footnote 106: For the prophets of the primitive church, see
Mosheim, Dissertationes ad Hist. Eccles. pertinentes, tom. ii. p.
132 - 208.]
[Footnote *: St. Paul distinctly reproves the intrusion of
females into the prophets office. 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35. 1 Tim.
ii. 11. - M.]
[Footnote 107: See the epistles of St. Paul, and of Clemens, to
the Corinthians.

Note: The first ministers established in the church were the
deacons, appointed at Jerusalem, seven in number; they were
charged with the distribution of the alms; even females had a
share in this employment. After the deacons came the elders or
priests, charged with the maintenance of order and decorum in the
community, and to act every where in its name. The bishops were
afterwards charged to watch over the faith and the instruction of
the disciples: the apostles themselves appointed several bishops.

Tertullian, (adv. Marium, c. v.,) Clement of Alexandria, and many
fathers of the second and third century, do not permit us to
doubt this fact. The equality of rank between these different
functionaries did not prevent their functions being, even in
their origin, distinct; they became subsequently still more so.
See Plank, Geschichte der Christ. Kirch. Verfassung., vol. i. p.
24. - G.
On this extremely obscure subject, which has been so much
perplexed by passion and interest, it is impossible to justify
any opinion without entering into long and controversial details.

It must be admitted, in opposition to Plank, that in the New
Testament, several words are sometimes indiscriminately used.
(Acts xx. v. 17, comp. with 28 Tit. i. 5 and 7. Philip. i. 1.)
But it is as clear, that as soon as we can discern the form of
church government, at a period closely bordering upon, if not
within, the apostolic age, it appears with a bishop at the head
of each community, holding some superiority over the presbyters.
Whether he was, as Gibbon from Mosheim supposes, merely an
elective head of the College of Presbyters, (for this we have, in
fact, no valid authority,) or whether his distinct functions were
established on apostolic authority, is still contested. The
universal submission to this episcopacy, in every part of the
Christian world appears to me strongly to favor the latter view.
- M.]

[Footnote 108: Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, l. vii.]

But the most perfect equality of freedom requires the
directing hand of a superior magistrate: and the order of public
deliberations soon introduces the office of a president, invested
at least with the authority of collecting the sentiments, and of
executing the resolutions, of the assembly. A regard for the
public tranquillity, which would so frequently have been
interrupted by annual or by occasional elections, induced the
primitive Christians to constitute an honorable and perpetual
magistracy, and to choose one of the wisest and most holy among
their presbyterians to execute, during his life, the duties of
their ecclesiastical governor. It was under these circumstances
that the lofty title of Bishop began to raise itself above the
humble appellation of Presbyter; and while the latter remained
the most natural distinction for the members of every Christian
senate, the former was appropriated to the dignity of its new
president. ^109 The advantages of this episcopal form of
government, which appears to have been introduced before the end
of the first century, ^110 were so obvious, and so important for
the future greatness, as well as the present peace, of
Christianity, that it was adopted without delay by all the
societies which were already scattered over the empire, had
acquired in a very early period the sanction of antiquity, ^111
and is still revered by the most powerful churches, both of the
East and of the West, as a primitive and even as a divine
establishment. ^112 It is needless to observe, that the pious and
humble presbyters, who were first dignified with the episcopal
title, could not possess, and would probably have rejected, the
power and pomp which now encircles the tiara of the Roman
pontiff, or the mitre of a German prelate. But we may define, in
a few words, the narrow limits of their original jurisdiction,
which was chiefly of a spiritual, though in some instances of a
temporal nature. ^113 It consisted in the administration of the
sacraments and discipline of the church, the superintendency of
religious ceremonies, which imperceptibly increased in number and
variety, the consecration of ecclesiastical ministers, to whom
the bishop assigned their respective functions, the management of
the public fund, and the determination of all such differences as
the faithful were unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an
idolatrous judge. These powers, during a short period, were
exercised according to the advice of the presbyteral college, and
with the consent and approbation of the assembly of Christians.
The primitive bishops were considered only as the first of their
equals, and the honorable servants of a free people. Whenever
the episcopal chair became vacant by death, a new president was
chosen among the presbyters by the suffrages of the whole
congregation, every member of which supposed himself invested
with a sacred and sacerdotal character. ^114
[Footnote 109: See Jerome and Titum, c. i. and Epistol. 85, (in
the Benedictine edition, 101,) and the elaborate apology of
Blondel, pro sententia Hieronymi. The ancient state, as it is
described by Jerome, of the bishop and presbyters of Alexandria,
receives a remarkable confirmation from the patriarch Eutychius,
(Annal. tom. i. p. 330, Vers Pocock;) whose testimony I know not
how to reject, in spite of all the objections of the learned
Pearson in his Vindiciae Ignatianae, part i. c. 11.]
[Footnote 110: See the introduction to the Apocalypse. Bishops,
under the name of angels, were already instituted in the seven
cities of Asia. And yet the epistle of Clemens (which is
probably of as ancient a date) does not lead us to discover any
traces of episcopacy either at Corinth or Rome.]
[Footnote 111: Nulla Ecclesia sine Episcopo, has been a fact as
well as a maxim since the time of Tertullian and Irenaeus.]

[Footnote 112: After we have passed the difficulties of the first
century, we find the episcopal government universally
established, till it was interrupted by the republican genius of
the Swiss and German reformers.]
[Footnote 113: See Mosheim in the first and second centuries.
Ignatius (ad Smyrnaeos, c. 3, &c.) is fond of exalting the
episcopal dignity. Le Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 569) very bluntly
censures his conduct, Mosheim, with a more critical judgment, (p.
161,) suspects the purity even of the smaller epistles.]

[Footnote 114: Nonne et Laici sacerdotes sumus? Tertullian,
Exhort. ad Castitat. c. 7. As the human heart is still the same,
several of the observations which Mr. Hume has made on
Enthusiasm, (Essays, vol. i. p. 76, quarto edit.) may be applied
even to real inspiration.

Note: This expression was employed by the earlier Christian
writers in the sense used by St. Peter, 1 Ep ii. 9. It was the
sanctity and virtue not the power of priesthood, in which all
Christians were to be equally distinguished. - M.]

Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the
Christians were governed more than a hundred years after the
death of the apostles. Every society formed within itself a
separate and independent republic; and although the most distant
of these little states maintained a mutual as well as friendly
intercourse of letters and deputations, the Christian world was
not yet connected by any supreme authority or legislative
assembly. As the numbers of the faithful were gradually
multiplied, they discovered the advantages that might result from
a closer union of their interest and designs. Towards the end of
the second century, the churches of Greece and Asia adopted the
useful institutions of provincial synods, ^* and they may justly
be supposed to have borrowed the model of a representative
council from the celebrated examples of their own country, the
Amphictyons, the Achaean league, or the assemblies of the Ionian
cities. It was soon established as a custom and as a law, that
the bishops of the independent churches should meet in the
capital of the province at the stated periods of spring and
autumn. Their deliberations were assisted by the advice of a few
distinguished presbyters, and moderated by the presence of a
listening multitude. ^115 Their decrees, which were styled
Canons, regulated every important controversy of faith and
discipline; and it was natural to believe that a liberal effusion
of the Holy Spirit would be poured on the united assembly of the
delegates of the Christian people. The institution of synods was
so well suited to private ambition, and to public interest, that
in the space of a few years it was received throughout the whole
empire. A regular correspondence was established between the
provincial councils, which mutually communicated and approved
their respective proceedings; and the catholic church soon
assumed the form, and acquired the strength, of a great
foederative republic. ^116

[Footnote *: The synods were not the first means taken by the
insulated churches to enter into communion and to assume a
corporate character. The dioceses were first formed by the union
of several country churches with a church in a city: many
churches in one city uniting among themselves, or joining a more
considerable church, became metropolitan. The dioceses were not
formed before the beginning of the second century: before that
time the Christians had not established sufficient churches in
the country to stand in need of that union. It is towards the
middle of the same century that we discover the first traces of
the metropolitan constitution. (Probably the country churches
were founded in general by missionaries from those in the city,
and would preserve a natural connection with the parent church.)
- M.
The provincial synods did not commence till towards the
middle of the third century, and were not the first synods.
History gives us distinct notions of the synods, held towards the
end of the second century, at Ephesus at Jerusalem, at Pontus,
and at Rome, to put an end to the disputes which had arisen
between the Latin and Asiatic churches about the celebration of
Easter. But these synods were not subject to any regular form or
periodical return; this regularity was first established with the
provincial synods, which were formed by a union of the bishops of
a district, subject to a metropolitan. Plank, p. 90. Geschichte
der Christ. Kirch. Verfassung - G]
[Footnote 115: Acta Concil. Carthag. apud Cyprian. edit. Fell,
p. 158. This council was composed of eighty-seven bishops from
the provinces of Mauritania, Numidia, and Africa; some presbyters
and deacons assisted at the assembly; praesente plebis maxima
parte.]

[Footnote 116: Aguntur praeterea per Graecias illas, certis in
locis concilia, &c Tertullian de Jejuniis, c. 13. The African
mentions it as a recent and foreign institution. The coalition
of the Christian churches is very ably explained by Mosheim, p.
164 170.]

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