S. IV.]

THE THERAPEUTE.

73

Lere comprised in the former; they were excluded from the atter.

of th The extensive commerce of Alexandria, and its proximity bo Palestine, gave an easy entrance to the new religion. It was at first embraced by great numbers of the Therapeuta, bor Essenians of the lake Mareotis, a Jewish sect which had bated much of its reverence for the Mosaic ceremonies. The austere life of the Essenians, their fasts and excommuications, the community of goods, the love of celibacy, their zeal for martyrdom, and the warmth though not the parity of their faith, already offered a very lively image of the primitive discipline. It was in the school of Alexantria that the Christian theology appears to have assumed regular and scientifical form; and when Hadrian visited Egypt, he found a church composed of Jews and of Greeks, fficiently important to attract the notice of that inqusitive prince. But the progress of Christianity was for a long time confined within the limits of a single city, which was itself a foreign colony; and till the close of the second century the predecessors of Demetrius were the only preates of the Egyptian church. Three bishops were consetrated by the hands of Demetrius, and the number was increased to twenty by his successor Heraclas. The body of the natives, a people distinguished by sullen inflexibility of temper,§ entertained the new doctrine with coldness and reluctance; and even in the time of Origen, it was rare to meet with an Egyptian who had surmounted his early pre

to the learned Dr. Lardner. Credibility of the Gospel History, vol. xii, P 370. * Basnage (Histoire des Juifs, lib. 2, c. 20-28) has examined, with the most critical accuracy, the curious treatise of Philo, which describes the Therapeuta. By proving that it was composed as early as the time of Augustus, Basnage has demonstrated, in spite of Eusebius (lib. 2, c. 17), and a crowd of modern Catholics, that the Therapeuta were neither Christians nor monks. It still remains probable that they changed their name, preserved their manners, adopted some new articles of faith, and gradually became the fathers of the Egyptian Ascetics + See a letter of Hadrian, in the Augustan History, p. 245. For the succession of Alexandrian bishops, consult Renaudot's History, p. 24, &c. This curious fact is preserved by the patriarch Eutychius, (Annal. tom. i, p. 334, vers. Pocock.) and its internal evidence would alone be a sufficient answer to all the objections which Bishop Pearson has urged in the Vindiciae Ignatianæ. [See Clinton' Catalogue; (F. R. ii, 535.) Demetrius became bishop of Alexandria, AD. 190, and Heraclas succeeded him in 233.—ED.]

Ammian

74

THE CHRISTIANS IN BOME.

[CH. X

A

judices in favour of the sacred animals of his country.* soon, indeed, as Christianity ascended the throne, the zeal those barbarians obeyed the prevailing impulsion; the citi of Egypt were filled with bishops, and the deserts of Theba swarmed with hermits.

A perpetual stream of strangers and provincials flowe into the capacious bosom of Rome. Whatever was strang or odious, whoever was guilty or suspected, might hope, i the obscurity of that immense capital, to elude the vigilanc of the law. In such a various conflux of nations, every teacher, either of truth or of falsehood, every founder whether of a virtuous or a criminal association, might easily multiply his disciples or accomplices. The Christians o Rome, at the time of the accidental persecution of Nero, are represented by Tacitus as already amounting to a very great multitude,† and the language of that great historian is almost similar to the style employed by Livy, when he relates the introduction and the suppression of the rites of Bacchus. After the Bacchanals had awakened the severity of the senate, it was likewise apprehended that a very great multitude, as it were another people, had been initiated into those abhorred mysteries. A more careful inquiry soon demonstrated, that the offenders did not exceed seven thousand; a number indeed sufficiently alarming, when considered as the object of public justice. It is with the same candid allowance that we should interpret the vague expres sions of Tacitus, and in a former instance, of Pliny, when they exaggerate the crowds of deluded fanatics who had forsaken the established worship of their gods. The church of Rome was undoubtedly the first and most populous of the empire; and we are possessed of an authentic record which attests the state of religion in that city about the middle of the third century, and after a peace of thirtyeight years. The clergy, at that time, consisted of a bishop, forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, as many sub-deacons, forty-two acolythes, and fifty readers, exorcists, and porters. The number of widows, of the infirm, and of the poor, who were maintained by the oblations of the faithful, amounted Marcellin. 22, 16. * Origen contra Celsum, lib. 1, p. 40.

+ Ingens multitudo, is the expression of Tacitus, 15, 44.

T. Liv. 39, 13, 15-17. Nothing could exceed the horror and consternation of the senate on the discovery of the Bacchanalians, whose depravity is described, and perhaps exaggerated, by Livy.

XV.]

CHURCHES OF GAUL AND AFRICA.

75

fifteen hundred. From reason, as well as from the anagy of Antioch, we may venture to estimate the Christians Rome at about fifty thousand. The populousness of that eat capital cannot perhaps be exactly ascertained; but the ost modest calculation will not surely reduce it lower than million of inhabitants, of whom the Christians might contute at the most a twentieth part.t

The western provincials appeared to have derived the owledge of Christianity from the same source which had fused among them the language, the sentiments, and the ners of Rome. In this more important circumstance, Africa, as well as Gaul, was gradually fashioned to the imi cation of the capital. Yet notwithstanding the many fa urable occasions which might invite the Roman missionies to visit the Latin provinces, it was late before they passed either the sea or the Alps, nor can we discover in ose great countries any assured traces either of faith or persecution that ascend higher than the reign of the Antonines.§ The slow progress of the gospel in the cold imate of Gaul was extremely different from the eagerness with which it seems to have been received on the burning nds of Africa. The African Christians soon formed one the principal members of the primitive church. The actice introduced into that province, of appointing bishops the most inconsiderable towns, and very frequently to the most obscure villages, contributed to multiply the

Eusebius, lib. 6, a. 43. The Latin translator (M. de Valois) has thought proper to reduce the number of presbyters to forty-four.

This proportion of the presbyters and of the poor, to the rest of the people, was originally fixed by Burnet, (Travels into Italy, 168), and is approved by Moyle, (vol. ii, p. 151). They were both acquainted with the passage of Chrysostom, which converts their conjecture almost into a fact. Serius trans Alpes, religione Dei scepta. Sulpicius Severus, 1. 2. These were the celebrated martyrs of Lyons. See Eusebius, 5. 1. Tillemont, Mém. Ecclesiast. tom. ii, 316. According to the Donatists, whose assertion is confirmed by the tacit acknowledgment of Augustin, Africa was the last of the provinces which received the Gospel. Tillemont, Mém. Ecclesiast. tom. i, P. 754. [It was natural that Christianity should advance slowly in the west, where the way had not been opened for it by philosophy. The doctrines of the Greek schools, which had been for four centuries working onward round their birth-places, had only been recently Introduced into Rome, and were still but "a more refined species of luxury, and a kind of table furniture, set apart for the entertainment of the great." (Div. Leg. book 3, sec. 3).—ED.] § Tum primum intra Gallias martyria visa. Sulp. Severus, 1. 2. With regard to Africa, see

76

CHURCHES OF SPAIN AND BRITAIN. [сн. :

splendour and importance of their religious societies, whi during the course of the third century, were animated the zeal of Tertullian, directed by the abilities of Cypria and adorned by the eloquence of Lactantius. But if, the contrary, we turn our eyes towards Gaul, we content ourselves with discovering, in the time of Marc Antoninus, the feeble and united congregations of Lyo and Vienna: and even as late as the reign of Decius, v are assured, that in a few cities only, Arles, Narbonn Thoulouse, Limoges, Clermont, Tours, and Paris, son scattered churches were supported by the devotion of small number of Christians. Silence is indeed very co sistent with devotion; but as it is seldom compatible wit zeal, we may perceive and lament the languid state Christianity in those provinces which had exchanged th Celtic for the Latin tongue; since they did not, during th three first centuries, give birth to a single ecclesiastica writer. From Gaul, which claimed a just pre-eminenc of learning and authority over all the countries on thi side of the Alps, the light of the gospel was more faintl reflected on the remote provinces of Spain and Britain and if we may credit the vehement assertions of Tertullian they had already received the first rays of the faith, whe he addressed his apology to the magistrates of the empero Severus. But the obscure and imperfect origin of the western churches of Europe has been so negligently re corded, that if we would relate the time and manner o their foundation, we must supply the silence of antiquity by those legends which avarice or superstition long afterwards dictated to the monks in the lazy gloom of their convents. Of these holy romances that of the apostle St. James can alone, by its singular extravagance, deserve Tertullian ad Scapulam, c. 3. It is imagined, that the Scyllitan martyrs were the first. (Acta Sincera, Ruinart. p. 34). One of the adversaries of Apuleius seems to have been a Christian. Apolog p. 496, 497, edit. Delphin. Rara in aliquibus civitatibus ecclesiæ, paucorum Christianorum devotione, resurgerent. Acta Sincera, p. 130. Grego y of Tours, 1. 1, c. 28. Mosheim, p. 207. 449. There is some reason to believe that, in the beginning of the fourth century, the extensive dioceses of Liege, of Treves, and of Cologne, composed a single bishopric, which had been very recently founded. See Memoires de Tillemont, tom. vi, part 1, p. 43. 411. The date of Tertul lian's Apology is fixed, in a dissertation of Mosheim, to the year 198. In the fifteenth century, there were few who had either inclination or courage to question, whether Joseph of Arimathea founded the

IV.]

EXAGGERATED STATEMENTS.

77

rabe mentioned. From a peaceful fisherman of the lake of ennesareth, he was transformed into a valorous knight,

charged at the head of the Spanish chivalry, in their attles against the Moors. The gravest historians have lebrated his exploits; the miraculous shrine of Composdisplayed his power; and the sword of a military der, assisted by the terrors of the inquisition, was suffint to remove every objection of profane criticism.' The progress of Christianity was not confined to the man empire; and according to the primitive fathers, who terpret facts by prophecy, the new religion, within a tury after the death of its divine author, had already ted every part of the globe. "There exists not," says atin Martyr, "a people, whether Greek or barbarian, or other race of men, by whatsoever appellation or manthey may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts agriculture, whether they dwell under tents, or wander hout in covered waggons, among whom prayers are not red up in the name of a crucified Jesus to the Father d Creator of all things." But this splendid exaggeraton, which even at present it would be extremely difficult reconcile with the real state of mankind, can be condered only as the rash sally of a devout but careless iter, the measure of whose belief was regulated by that his wishes. But neither tre belief nor the wishes of the thers can alter the truth of history. It will still remain undoubted fact, that the barbarians of Scythia and Gerany, who afterwards subverted the Roman monarchy, were volved in the darkness of Paganism; and that even the Conversion of Iberia, of Armenia, or of Ethiopia was not ttempted with any degree of success till the sceptre was in the hands of an orthodox emperor. Before that time, the Farious accidents of war and commerce might indeed diffuse monastery of Glastonbury, and whether Dionysius the Areopagite preferred the residence of Paris to that of Athens. * The stu

pendous metamorphosis was performed in the ninth century. See Mariana, (Hist. Hispan. 1. 7, c. 13, tom. i, p. 285, edit. Hag. Com. 1733), who, in every sense, imitates Livy, and the honest detection of the legend of St. James by Dr. Geddes, (Miscellanies, vol. ii, p. 221).

Justin Martyr, Dialog. cum Tryphon. p. 341. Irenæus ady, Hæres. L. 1, c. 10. Tertullian adv. Jud. o. 7. See Mosheim, p. 203.

See the fourth century of Mosheim's History of the Church, Kany, though very confused circumstance, that relate to the conver