The Mission
by Adolph (von) Harnack
translated and edited by James Moffatt
Second, enlarged and revised English edition;
Theological Translation Library, volumes 19-20
From the German, Die
[[being updated (also consulting the 4th German edition) and adapted by RAK
for use in 2004
CHAPTER
IV
ΤΗΕ
GOSPEL OF LOVE AND CHARITY \1/
\1/ In his work, Die christliche
Liebestgitigkeit in der alter Kirche (1st ed., 1882 ; Eng, trans.,
Christian Charity in the Ancient Church,
“I was hungry, and ye fed me; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was
sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came to me. In as much as ye
did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me."
These
words of Jesus have shone so brilliantly for many generations in his church, and exerted so powerful an influence, that
one may further describe the Christian preaching as the preaching of love
and charity. From this standpoint, in fact, the proclamation of the Saviour
and of healing would seem to be; merely
subordinate, inasmuch as the words “I was sick, and ye visited me"
form but one link in the larger chain.
Among
the extant words and parables of Jesus, those which inculcate love and charity are especially numerous, and with them we must rank many a story of
his life. \2/ Yet, apart altogether from the number of such sayings, it is
plan that whenever he had in view the relations of mankind, the gist of his preaching
was to enforce brotherliness and ministering love, and the surest part of the
impression he left behind him was in his own life and labours he displayed both
of these very qualities.
-------------------------------------------------
\2/ One recalls particularly the parable of the good
Samaritan, with its new definition of " neighbor" and also the
parable of the lost son ; among the stories, that of the rich young man. The
gospel of the Hebrews tells the latter incident with especial impressiveness. "Then
said [he Lord to him, How canst thou
say, `I have kept the law and the prophets,' when it is written in the law,
`Thou shall love, thy neighbor as thyself'? And look, many of thy brethren, sons of Abraham, are lying in dirt and dying of hunger, while
thy house is full of many possessions, and sever a gift comes from it to
them."
===============================
" One is your Master, and ye
are all brethren "; ”Whoso would be first among you shall be servant of
all; for the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to
give his life a ransom for many." It is in this sense that we are to
understand the commandment to love one's neighbour. How unqualified it is, becomes
evident from the saying, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you;
\1/ that ye may be sons of your Father in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise
on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." “Blessed
are the merciful "-that is the keynote of all that Jesus proclaimed, and
as this merciful spirit is to extend from great things to trifles, from the
inward to the outward, the saying which does not pass over even a cup of cold
water (Matt. x. 42) lies side by side with that other comprehensive
saying, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
Brotherliness is love on a footing of equality; ministering love means to give
and to forgive, and no limit is to be recognized. Besides, ministering
love is the practical expression of love to God.
While Jesus himself was exhibiting this love, and making it a life and a power, his disciples were learning the highest and holiest thing that can be learned in all religion, namely, to believe in the love of God. To then the Being who had made heaven and earth was “the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort"-a point on which there is no longer any dubiety in the testimony of the apostolic and post-apostolic ages. Now, for the first tine, that testimony rose among men, which cannot ever be surpassed, the testimony that God is Love. The first great statement of the new religion, into which the fourth evangelist condensed its central principle, was based entirely and exclusively on love : “We love, because He first loved us," “God so loved the world," “A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another." And the greatest, strongest, deepest thing Paul ever wrote is the hymn commencing with the words : “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels; but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal." The new language on the lids of Christians was the language of love.
--------------------------------
\1/ The saying " Fast for them that persecute
you " is also traditional (Didache, i. ):
=====================
But it was more than a language, it was a
thing of power and action. 'the Christians really considered themselves brothers
and sisters, and their actions corresponded to this belief. On this point we
possess two unexceptionable testimonies from pagan writers. Says Lucian of the Christians:
“Their original lawgiver had taught them that they were all brethren, one of
another. They become incredibly alert when anything of this kind occurs, that
affects their common interests. On such occasions no expense is grudged."
And Tertullian (Apolog., xxxix.) observes : “It is our care for the
helpless, our practice of loving kindness, that brands us in the eyes of many
of our opponents. ‘Only look,' they say, ‘look how they love one another!'
(they themselves being given to mutual hatred). Look how they are
prepared to die for one another!' (they themselves being readier to kill each other)."
\1/ Thus had this saying became a fact: “Hereby shall all men know that ye are
my disciples, if ye have love οne to another."
The gospel thus became a social message. The preaching which laid hold of the outer man, detaching him from the world, and uniting him to his God, was also a preaching of solidarity and brotherliness. The gospel, it has been truly said, is at bottom both individualistic and socialistic. Its tendency towards mutual association, so far from being an accidental phenomenon in its history, is inherent in its character. It spiritualizes the irresistible impulse which draws one man to another, and it raises the social connection of human beings from the sphere of a convention to that of a moral obligation. In this way it serves to heighten the worth of man, and essays to recast contemporary society, to transform the socialism which involves a conflict of interests into the socialism which rests upon the consciousness of a spiritual unity and a common goal. This was ever present to the mind of the great apostle to the Gentiles. In his little churches, where each person bore his neighbor’s burden, Paul's spirit already saw the dawning of a new humanity, and in the epistle to the Ephesians he has voiced this feeling with a thrill of exultation. Far in the background of these churches - i.e., when they were what they were meant to be-like some unsubstantial semblance, lay the division" between Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian, great and small, rich and door. For a new humanity had now appeared, and the apostle viewed it as Christ's body, in which every member served the rest and each was indispensable in his own place. Looking at these churches, with all their troubles and infirmities, he anticipated, in his exalted moments of enthusiasm, what was the development of many centuries. \2/
----------------------------
\1/
Also Csecilius (in Miuuc. F~lix, ix.): "They recognise each other by means of secret marks and signs, and love οne another almost before they are acquainted."
\2/ Warnings against
unmercifulness, and censures of this temper, must have begun, of course,
at quite an early period; see the epistle
of James (iv.-v. ) and several sections
in the "Shepherd" of Hermas.
=================
We cannot undertake to collect from the literature of the first three centuries all the passages where love and charity are enjoined. This would lead us ton far a field, although we should come across much valuable material in making such a survey. We would notice the reiteration of the summons to unconditional giving, which occurs among the sayings of Jesus, whilst on the contrary we would be astonished to find that passages enforcing the law of love are not more numerous, and that they are so frequently overshadowed by ascetic counsels; we would also take umbrage at the spirit of a number of passages in which the undisguised desire of being rewarded for benevolence stands out in bold relief. \1/ Still, this craving for reward is not in every case immora1, and no conclusion can be drawn from the number of times when it occurs. The important thing is to determine what actually took place within the sphere of Christian charity and active love, and this we shall endeavour to ascertain.
--------------------------------------
\1/ All these points are illustrated throughout the
literature, from the Didache and Hermas downwards. For unconditional giving,
see Did.I. 5 f.: <g> ~av~l p hwSol
á~ai' yáp
oa ó p mv l~l~v ~a~wv. ~os ó oJs aá τήν dv~ov' á~s p d' oval p avww yáp p~av wvávs, q €a~' ó j fa~aδίκην, Ywal r 'Y wowóos dp, gal ούκ dp~r o úxoS~" áóv ov ~o8~áv </g> (" Give to everyone who asks of thee, and ask not back
again ; for the Father desireth gifts to be given to all men from his own
bounties. Blessed is he who gives according to the commandment, for he is guiltless. But woe to him
who receives ; for if a man receives who
is in need, he is guiltless, but
if he is not in need he shall give satisfaction as to why and wherefore he received, and being
confined he shall be examined upon his deeds, and shall not come out till he
has paid the uttermost farthing "). The counsel of unconditional giving,
which is frequently repeated, is closely bound up with the question of earthly
possessions i~ the early church, and consequently with the question of
asceticism. Theoretically, from the very outset, there was to be neither
property nor wealth at all; such things belong to the world which Christians
were to renounce. Consequently, to devote one's means to other people was a
proceeding which demanded a fresh point of view; to part with one's property
was the authorized and most meritorious course of action, nor did it matter in
the first instance, who was the recipient. In practical life, however, things
were very different, and this was constantly the result of "(Ice very
theory just mentioned, since it never gave up the voluntary principle (even the
attempt at communism in
A great deal has been written upon early Christian "communism,"
but nothing of the kind ever existed in the great Gentile church-for we need
not take any account of an isolated phenomenon like the semi-pagan sect of the
Carpocratians and their communism. Monastic "communism” is only called
such by a misuse of the term, any:, besides, it is irrelevant to our present
subject. Even on the soil of Jewish Christianity, no communism flourished, for
the example of the Essenes was never followed. Uhlhorn remarks truly (gyp,
cit., p. 68; Eng. trans., 74) that "we cannot more radically misconceive
the so-called 'communism' of early Christianity than by conceiving it as an
institution similar to those which existed among the Essenes and the Therapeuts.
It is far more correct to represent the state of things as an absence of all
institutions whatsoever." Directions not infrequently occur (e.g., Barn.,
xix. 8 ; Tert,, Apol., xxxix. ) which have a communistic ring, but
they are not to be taken in a communistic sense. The common formula <g>ú ~ir Yivae </g> (" thou shalt not say these
things are thine own ") simply enjoins liberality, forbidding a man to use
his means merely for his own advantage.
I have already remarked that, upon the whole, the
voluntary principle was ever abandoned in the matter of Christian giving and
the scale of gifts. This statement, however, admits of one qualification. While
the West, so far as I can judge, knew nothing as yet of the law of first-fruits
and tithes throughout our epoch (for Cyprian, de Unit., xxvi., is not to
be understood as implying the law of tithes), in some quarters of the East the
law of first-fruits was taken over at a very early period (see Didache, xiii.
). From the Didache it passed, as an apostolic regulation, into all the
Oriental apostolic constitutions. Origen, however, does not appear to regard it
yet as a law of the church, though even he admits the legitimacy of it (in
Num. Homt., xi. 1; in Jos. Nav. Hom, xvii.).
=======================
Three passages may be brought
forward to show the general activities which were afoot.
In the official writing sent by the Roman to the Corinthian
church c. 96 A.D., there is a description of the first-rate condition of the
latter up till a short time previously (1 Clem., i., ii.), a description which
furnishes the pattern of what a Christian church should be, and the approximate
realization of this ideal at Corinth. "Who that had stayed with you did
not approve your most virtuous and steadfast faith? Who did not admire your
sober and forbearing Christian piety? Who did not proclaim the splendid style
of your hospitality? Who did not congratulate you on your perfect and
assured knowledge? For you did everything without respect of persons; you walked
by the ordinances of God, submitting to your rulers and rendering due honour to
your senior men. Young persons also you charged to have a modest and grave
mind; women you instructed to discharge all their tasks with a blameless,
grave, and. pure conscience, and to cherish a proper affection for their
husbands, teaching them further to look after their households decorously, with
perfect discretion. You were all lowly in mind, free from vainglory, yielding
rather than claiming submission, more ready to give than to take ; content
with the supplies provided by God and holding by them, you carefully laid up
His words in your hearts, and His sufferings were ever present to your minds.
Thus a profound and unsullied peace was bestowed on all, with an insatiable
craving for beneficence…...... Day
and night you agonized for all the brotherhood, that by means of compassion
and care the number of God's elect might be saved. You were sincere,
guileless, and void of malice among yourselves. Every sedition and every schism
was an abomination to you. You lamented the transgressions of your
neighbours and judged their shortcomings to be your own. You never rued an act
of kindness, but were ready for every good work."
Then Justin concludes the description of Christian worship in his Apology (c. lxvii.) thus: "Those who are well-to-do and willing, give as they choose, each as he himself purposes; the collection is then deposited with the president, who succours orphans, widows, those who are in want owing to sickness or any other cause, those who are in prison, and strangers who are on a journey."
Finally, Tertullian (Apolog., xxxix.) observes : "Even if there does exist a sort of common fund, it is not made up of fees, as though we contracted for our worship. Each of us puts in a small amount one day a month, or whenever he pleases; but only if he pleases and if he is able, for there is no compulsion in the matter, everyone contributing of his own free will. These monies are, as it were, the deposits of piety. They are expended upon no banquets or drinking-bouts or thankless eating-houses, but on feeding and burying poor people, on behalf of boys and girls who have neither parents nor money, in support of old folk unable now to go about, as well as for people who are shipwrecked, or who may be in the mines or exiled in islands or in prison-so long as their distress is for the sake of God's fellowship-themselves the nurslings of their confession."
In what follows we shall discuss, so far as may be relevant to our immediate purpose-
1. Alms
in general, and their connection with the cultus and officials of the church.
2. The
support of teachers and officials.
3. The
support of widows and orphans.
4. The
support of the sick, the infirm, and the disabled.
5. The
care of prisoners and people languishing in the mines.
6. The
care of poor people needing burial, and of the dead in general.
7. The
care of slaves.
8. The
care of those visited by great calamities.
9. The
churches furnishing work, and insisting upon work.
10. The care of brethren on a journey (hospitality), and of churches in poverty or any peril.
1. Alms in general and in connection with the cultus.-
Liberality was steadily
enjoined upon Christians; indeed, the head quarters of this virtue were to lie
within the household, and its proof was to be shown in daily life. From the
apostolic counsels down to Cyprian's
great work ale Ohere
et Eleenwsynis, there stretches one
long line of injunctions, in the course of which ever-increasing stress is
laid upon the importance of alms to the religious position of the donor,
and upon the prospect of a future recompense. These points are already prominent
in Hermas, and in 2 Clem. we are told that “almsgiving is good as a repentance from sin; fasting is
better than prayer, but almsgiving is better than either" <g> (óvoúv
súvoxupupvνηστεία pos, uiváp}.</g>
Cyprian develops
alms \1/ into a formal means of grace, the only one indeed
which remains to a Christian after baptism; in fact he goes still further, representing alms as a spectacle which the Christian offers to God. \2/
-------------------------------------
\1/ De Op. et Eleem, i.: "
\2/ Op cit.,
xxi.: "Quale moons cows editio deo spetate celebratur! Si in gctiliu
nunere gxande et glorosum vdetur rocosules vet ineratores hahere resetes, et
apparatus ac smtus aud nuneraris naior est ut ssin lacere airibus-qanto
inlustrr nuneris et maior estgloria deu et Christu sectatres hahere, qanto
istic et apaatus uberior et suntus largior exhibendus est, obi ad sectaclum
coweiunt caelorum vitutes, conveiunt angeli mes, bi nerario on quadrga vel
cusulatus petitur sed vita aeterna aestatur, nee caplatur in2is et temoiaius
favor vulgi sed peipetuum x1eiun egn caelestis acciitur" (" What a
gift is it which is set forth for praise in the sight of God ! If, when the
Gentiles offer gifts, it seems a great and glorious thing to have proconsuls or
emperors present, and if their better classes make greater preparations and
display in order to Tease the authorities-how much more illustrious, and splendid
is the glory of having God and Christ as the spectators of a gift ! How much
more lavish should be the preparation, how much more liberal the outlay, in
such case, when the powers of heaven
muster to the spectacle, when all the angels gather when the donor seeks no
chariot or consulship, but life eternal is the boon; when no fleeting and
fickle popularity is craved for, but the lasting reward of the kingdom of
heaven is received ! ").
========================
It is not our business to follow up this aspect of almsgiving, or to discuss the amount of injury thus inflicted on a practice which was meant to flow from a pure love to men. 'the point is that a great deal, a very great deal, of alms was given away privately throughout the Christian churches. \1/ As we have already seen, this was well known to the heathen wor1d. \2/
But so far from being satisfied
with private almsgiving, \3/ early Christianity instituted, apparently from the
first, a church fund (Tertullian's arca), and associated charity very
closely with the cultus and officials of the church. From the ample materials
at cur disposal, the following' outline may be sketched:- Every Sunday (cp.
already 1 Cor. xvi. 2}, or once a month (Tertullian), or whenever one chose,
gifts in money or kind (stips) were brought to the service and entrusted
to the president, by whom they were laid on the Lord's table and so consecrated
to God. \4/
------------------------------------
\1/ The pagan in Macarius Magnes (iii. 5) declares
that several Christian women had become beggars by their lavish donations.
"Not in the far fast, but only yesterday, Christians read Matt, xix• 21 to
prominent women and persuaded them to share all their possessions and goods
among the poor, to reduce themselves to beggary,
to ask charity, and then to sink from
independence into unseemly pauperism, reducing themselves from their former
good position to a woebegone condition, and being finally obliged to knock at
the doors of those who were better off."
\2/ With Clement of
\3/ One recommendation very frequently made, was to
stint oneself by means of fasting in order to give alms. In this way, even the
poor could afford something. See Hermas, Sim., v. ; Aistides, Apol., xv. (" And if anyone among them is poor or
needy, and they have no food to share, they fast for two or three days, that
they may meet the poor man's need of sustenance ") ; Apost. Corstit, v. I, etc. The habit also
prevailed in pre-Christian ages. Otherwise, whenever the question is raised,
how alms are to be provided, one is pointed to work; in fact, this is almost
the only point at which work is taken into consideration at all within the
sphere of the religious estimate. See Eph. iv. 28 (" Let him that stole,
steal no more, but rather work with his hands at honest work, so that he may
have something to give the needy") ; and Barn. xix. 10: <g> pr ov p,
wpo áp o </g> [the reference being to alms]. Cp. my short
study (in the "Evangelisch-Sozial" Magazine, 1905, pp. 48 f.) on
"The Primitive Christian Conception of
the Worth of Labour."
\4/
The relation of stips and oblationes is a question which} has not been cleared yet, and need not be raised here.
======================
Hence the recipient obtained them
from the hand of Gοd." "Tis God's grace and philanthropy that
support you," wrote bishop Cornelius (Eus., L., vi. 43). The
president decided who were to be the recipients, and how much was to be
allocated to each, a business in which he had the advice of the deacons, who
were expected to be as familiar as possible with the circumstances of each
member, and who had the Further task of distributing the various donations,
partly at the close of worship, partly in the homes of the indigent. In
addition to regular voluntary assessments-for, as the principle of liberty of
choice was strictly maintained, we cannot otherwise describe these
offerings-there were also extraordinary gifts, such as the present of 200,000
sesterces brought by Marcion when, as a Christian from Asia, he entered the Roman
church about the year 139. \1/
Among
these methods of maintenance we must also include the love-feasts, or agapae,
with which the Lord's Supper was originally associated, but which persisted
into a later age. The idea of the love-feast was that the poor got food and
drink, since a common meal, to which each contributed as he was able, would
unite rich and poor alike. Abuses naturally had to be corrected at an early
stage (cp. 1 Cor. xi. 18 f.), and the whole affair (which was hardly a copy of
the pagan feasts at the Thiasoi) ever seems to have acquired any particular
importance upon the whole. \2/
-------------------------------------
\1/ See on this point Book
IV. Chap. I (I). The money was returned.
\2/
Cp. also Jude ver. 12 ; Tert., Apol., xxxix. ; de Ieiuz., xvü. ; Clem., Paed.,
ii i. We need not enter into the
controversies over the agapae;; cp. Keating's The Agape and the Eucharist
(1901), Batiffol's L'tudes l'hzst. et de thct. positive (goz), pp. 279 f., and
Funk on "L'Agae"(Rev. d'list. eatlsinstiyze, t. iv. I 1903. In later
days the feasts served to satisfy the poor at the graves of the martyrs.
========================
From the very first, the president appears to have had practically an absolute control over the donations; \1/ but the deacons had also to handle them as executive agents. The responsibility was heavy, as was the temptation to avarice and dishonesty; hence the repeated counsel, that bishops (and deacons) were to be <g> áápyvpo</g>, "no lovers of money." It was not until a later age that certain principles came to be laid down with regard to the distribution of donations as a whole, from which no divergence was permissible.
This
system of organized charity in the churches worked side by side with private
benevolence-as is quite evident from the letters and writings of Cyprian. But
it was inevitable that the former should gradually handicap the latter, since
it wore a superior lustre of religious sacredness, and therefore, people were
convinced, was more acceptable to God. Yet, in special cases, private
liberality was still appealed to. One splendid instance is cited by Cyprian (Epist.
lxii), who describes how the: Carthaginian churches speedily raised 100,000
sesterces (between £850 and £1000).2
In
250 A.D. the Roman church had to support about 100 clergy and 1500 poor
persons. Taking the yearly cost of supporting one man at 7,10s.(which was
approximately the upkeep of one slave), we get an annual sum of 12,000. If, however
(like Uhlhorn, op. cit., p. 153; Eng, tras., p. 154), we allow sixty
Roman bushels of wheat per head a year at 7s. 6d., we get a total of about 4300.
It is safe to say, the, that about 250 A.D.. the Roman church had to expend
from half a million to a million sesterces (i,.e., from 5000 to 10,000) by way
of relief.
The demands made upon the church funds were heavy, as will appear in the course of the following classification and discussion.
------------------------------------
\1/ On the traces of an
exception to this rule in the Apostolic Constitutions, see Texte . Uutersch.,
ii. 5, pp. 12 f., 58.
\2/ For special collections
ordered by the bishop, see Tertull., de jejun. xiii., and Clem., Hom., iii. 71:
<g> ú6 ph wós 6po pós ó áiayaov ywo, rca o vs w </g> ("
Whenever any funds are needed, club together, all of you ").
======================
2. The support of teachers and
officials. –
The Pauline principle \1/ that the rule about a "labourer being worthy of his hire" applied also to missionaries and teachers, was observed without break or hesitation throughout the Christian churches. The conclusion drawn was that teachers could lay claim to a plain livelihood, and that this claim must always have precedence of any other demand upon the funds. When a church had chosen permanent officials for itself, these also assumed the right of being allowed to claim a livelihood, but only so far as their official duties made inroads upon their civil occupations. Here, too, the bishop had discretionary power; he could appropriate ad hand over to the presbyters and deacons whatever he thought suitable and fair, but he was bound to provide the teachers (i.e., missionaries and prophets) with enough to live on day by day. Obviously, this could not fail to give rise to abuses. From the Didache and Lucian we learn that such abuses did arise, and that privileges were misemployed. \3/
------------------------------------
\1/ Paul even describes the principle as a direction
of Jesus himself ; see I Cor. ix. 14: <g> á pos aw os L ayov ayyovw
Éκ ov vyo {.. </g>
\2/
The circumstances are not quite clear; still, enough is visible to corroborate
what has been said above. Church officials were not, in the first instance,
obliged to abandon their civil calling, and so far as that provided then with a
livelihood they had no claim on the church’s funds. But in the course of time
it became more and more difficult, in the larger churches, to combine civil
employment with ecclesiastical office. There is one very instructive account in
the Clementine homilies (iii. 71) which indicates that some people were
skeptical upon the duty of supporting the bishop and clergy. The author writes
: <g> Zo [the bishop] óos úáw óos auDv ái $oώs, iw wv gal
u" ocw, gyms ya y ávayaiar
p(`w v; ol Goyóv w nr óis
τοϋ Sv a" p6va
, o awws abv ás ah, oo yáp Rós
έστιν' áov
wa i) w'o ow Soai' s gal óμεϊs o , } yáwo $ "Ycós
έστιν ó dpyc(s o o avv"; yώ i' Owv ó pv apalS 6os wa; ywao' Y s ηάρ
έχων 6 ay oúos
áóv óyov- έχων o v pw áv pofj,
s jai ó pos a w tvor gal os,
ov έχων ó ls as v έχων,
ova áapáv. áooóDs oúá /á [by an hoorarum] pwpovs aás, óovs plous, fjpas w 9las, ópwos ώs das va </g> (" Zacchaeus alone
has devoted himself wholly to your interests; he needs food, and yet has no
time to provide for himself; how then is he to get the requisitive provisions
for a livelihood? Is it not reasonable that you should all provide for his
support? Do not wait for him to ask you---asking is a beggar’s ro1e, and he
would rather die than stoop to that. Shall not you also incur punishment for
failing to consider that ` the labourer is worthy of his hire'? Let no one say,
`Then is the word which was given freely, to be sold?' God forbid. If any man
has means and yet accepts any help, he sells the word. But there is no sin in a man without means
accepting support in under to live-as the Lord also accepted gifts at supper
and among his friends, he who had nothing though he was the Lord of all things.
Honor, then, in appropriate fashion the elder catechists, useful deacons,
respectable widows, and orphans as children of the church"). A fixed
monthly salary, such as that assigned by the
\3/ Details will be found below, in the chapter [Book III.
Chap. I] on the mission agents.
=========================
3. The support of widows and orphans. \1/ -
Wherever the
early Christian records mention poor persons who require support, widows and
orphans are invariably in the foreground. 'this corresponds, on the one hand,
with the special distress of their position in the ancient world, and on the
other hand with the ethical injunctions which had passed over into Christianity
from Judaism. As it was, widows and orphans formed the poor '<g> ai1v
</g>. The church had them always with her. "The Roman church,"
wrote bishop Cornelius,. "supports 1500 widows and poor persons"
(Eus., H.E., vi. 3). Only widows, we note, are mentioned side by side
with the general category of recipients of relief. Inside the churches, widows
had a special title of honour, viz., " God's altar," \2/ and
even Lucian the pagan was aware that Christians attended first and foremost to
orphans and to widows (Peregrán., xü.). The true worship, James had already
urged (i. 27), is to visit widows and orphans in their distress, and Hermas (Mand.,
viii. 10) opens his catalogue of virtues with the words : <g> pas
pw, ópavoús á prvos ra </g> (" to serve widows and visit the
forlorn ad orphans "). \3/ It
is beyond question that the early church made an important contributions to the
amelioration of social conditions among the lower classes, by her support of
widows. \4/ We need not dwell on the fact, illustrated as early as the epistles
to Timothy, that abuses crept into this department. Such abuses are constantly
liable to occur wherever human bungs are relieved, in whole or in part, of the
duty of caring for themselves. \5/
--------------------------------------
\1/ In the liturgy,. widows
and orphans are also placed immediately after the servants of the church.
\2/
See Polycarp, ad Phil., iv.; Test., ad Uxor., i.; pseudo-Ignat., Tars.,
9 ; and Apps. Constit., ii. 26 (where the term is applied also to
orphans; cp. iv, 3). I shall not discuss the institution of Widows, already
visible in the first epistle to Timothy, which also tended to promote their
interests. The special attention devoted to widows was also meant to check the
undesirable step of re-marriage.
\3/ In Vis., II. 4. 3, it is remarkable also
how prominent are widows and orphans. See Aristides, Apo1., xv.:
"They do not avert their attention from widows, and they deliver orphans
from anyone who oppresses them." Instances
of orphans being adopted into private families are not wanting. Origen,
for example, was adopted by a Christian woman (Eus., H.E., .vi. 2) ; cp. Acta
Perpet. et F'etc., xv. ; Apost, Cst., iv. . Lactantius (Instit., v. z) adduces yet another special
argument for the duty of supporting widows and orphans: " God commands
them to be cared for, in order that no one may be hindered from going to his
death for righteousness' sake on the plea of regard for his dear children, but
that he may promptly and boldly encounter death, knowing that his beloved ones
are left in God's cage and will never lack protection."
\4/ See, further, Herm., Simil. i., v. 3, ix, 26-27,
x. 4 ; Polyc., Epist. vi. I; Barn., xx. 2; Ignat., Smyrn., vi. (
propos of heretics : " They care not for love, or for the widow, or
for the orphan, or for the afflicted, or for the prisoner or ransomed, or for
the hungry or thirsty " <g> p1 s oú vos, on p! pas, o pl ópavov, ov pl ww,
oú 1 ww ' wo, fj 2 ywos üyos), -ad Plyc.,</g> iv. ; Justin's Apol.,
\5/ Scandalmongering, avarice, drunkenness, and
arrogance had all to be dealt with in the case of widows who were being
maintained by the church. It even happened that some widows put out to usury
the funds they had thus received (c. Didsc. Apst., xv. ; Texts u. Unters., xxv. z, p. 8, 2¢ f. ) But there were
also highly gifted widows. In fact (cp. Apost. Coutit. ), it was
considered that true widows who persevered in prayer received revelations.
======================
4. The support of the sick, the infirm, the poor, and the disabled.-
Mention has already been made of
the cure of sick people; but where a cure was impossible the church was bound
to support the patient by consolation (for they were remembered in the prayers
of the church from the very first; cp. 1 Clem. lix. 4), visitation, \1/
and charitable gifts (usually in kind). Next to the sick came those in trouble and
people sick in soul (ov u, Herm.,
Mánd., viii. 10) as a rule, then the helpless and disabled (Tertullian
singles out expressly sens domestii), finally the poor in general.
--------------------------------
\1/ See Tert., ad Uxor., ii 4 on the difficult
position of a Christian woman whose husband was a pagan: " Who would be
willing to let his wife go through street after street to other men's houses,
end indeed to the poorest cottages, in order to visit the brethren?"
===================
To quote passages would be
superfluous, for the duty is repeatedly inculcated; besides, concrete examples
are fairly plentiful, although our records - only mention such cases
incidentally and quite accidentally. \1/ Deacons, " widows," and deaconesses
(though the last-named were apparently confined to the East) were set apart for
this work. It is said of deacons in the Apostolic Constitutions (see Texte
u. Utters., ü. 5. 8 f.): “They are
to be doers of good works, exercising a general supervision day and night,
neither scorning the poor nor respecting the person of the rich; they must ascertain
who are in distress and not exclude them from a share in the church funds,
compelling also the well-to-do, to put money aside for good works." Of “widows"
it is remarked, in the same passage, that they should render aid to women afflicted
by disease, and the trait of (a lover of the poor) is expected among the other
qualities of a bishop. \2/ In an old
legend dating from the Decian persecution, there is a story of the deacon Laurentius
in
----------------------------------
\1/
Naturally, nether private nor, for the matter of that, church charity was to
step in where a family was able to support some helpless member; but it is
evident, from the sharp remonstrance I Tim. v. 8, that there were attempts made
to evade this duty (" If anyone does got provide for his own people, and
especially for his own household, he has renounced the faith and is worse than
an infidel ").
\2/ Apost. Constit., in Texte i. Unters. ,ii. 5. 8 f.. In the Vita
Polycraps (Pionius) traits of this bishop are described which remind us of
St Francis. On the female diaconate, see Uhlhorn (op. cit., 159-171 ;
\3/
It was not possible, of course, to relieve all distress, and Tertullian (de
Idolat., xxiii.) mentions Christians who had to borrow money from pagans. This
does not seem to have been quite a rare occurrence.
\4/
We may certainly conclude that a register was kept of those who bad to be
maintained. This very fact, however, was a moral support to poor people, for it
made them sure that they were not being neglected.
====================
Julian attests not only the excellence of the church's system of relief, but its extension to non-Christians. He wrote to Arsacius (Sozom. v. 16): “These godless Galileans feed not only their own poor but ours; our poor lack our care.” This testimony is all the more weighty inasmuch as our Christian sources yield no satisfactory data on this point. Cp., however, under (8), and Paul's injunction in Gal. vi. 10: "Let us do good to all, especially to those who belong to the household of the faith." "True charity," says Tertullian (Apol., xlii.), "disburses more money in the streets than your religion in the temples." The church-funds were indeed for the use of the brethren alone, but private beneficence did not restrict itself to the household of faith. In a great calamity, as we learn from reliable evidence (see below), Christians did extend their aid to non-Christians, even exciting the admiration of the latter.
5. Care for prisoners
and for people languishing in the mines.-
The third point in the catalogue of virtues given by Hermas is: <g> avayKwv AurpouoOat Toir' Sot Xoυs roi Oeo~ </g> (" Redeem the servants of God from their bonds "). Prisoners might be innocent for various reasons, but above all there were people incarcerated for their faith or imprisoned for debt, and both classes had to be reached by charity. In the first instance, they had to be visited and consoled, and their plight alleviated by gifts of food. \1/ Visiting prisoners was the regular work of the deacons, who had thus to run frequent risks; but ordinary Christians were also expected to discharge this duty.
-----------------------------------------
\1/
Heb. X. 34, <g> roil a€s,4otr .TUY~~aOfjrra1-e </g> Clem.
=========================
If the prisoners had been arrested for their faith, and if they were rather distinguished teachers, there was no hardship in obeying the command; in fact, many moved heaven and earth to get access to prisoners, \1/ since it was considered that there was something sanctifying about intercourse with a confessor. In order to gain admission they would even go the length of bribing the gaolers, \2/ and thus manage to smuggle in decent meals and crave a blessing from the saints. The records of the martyrs' are full of such tales. Even Lucian knew of the practice, and pointed out the improprieties to which it gave rise. Christian records, particularly those of a later date, \3/ corroborate this, and as early as the Montanist controversy it was a burning question whether or no any prominent confessor was really an impostor, if, after being imprisoned for misdemeanors, he made out as if he had been imprisoned on account of the Christian faith. Such abuses, however, were inevitable, and upon the whole their number was not large. The keepers, secretly impressed by the behavior of the Christians, often consented of their own accord to let them communicate with their friends (Acta Perpet., ix: " Pudens miles optio, praepositus carceris, nos magnificare coepit, intelligens magnam virtutem esse in nobis ; qui multos ad nos admittebat, ut et nos et illi nvicem refrigeraremus" (" Pudens, a military subordinate in charge of the prison, began to have a high opinion of us, since he recognized there was some great power of God in us. He let many people in to see us, that we and they might refresh one another ").
-------------------------------------
\1/ Thekla, in the Acla
Thecke, is one instance, and there are many others ; e.g., n Tertull., ad
Uxor., ii. 4.
\2/ As in Thekla's case; see
also Lucian's Peregr., xii., and the Epist. Lugd., in Euseb., HE., v. i. 61.
\3/
Cp. Lucian, Peregr., xii., xiii., xvi. ("costly meals "). Tertullian,
at the close of his life, when he was filled with bitter hatred towards the
Catholic church, wrote thus in de Jejun., xii : "Plainly it is your way to
furnish restaurants for dubious martyrs in the gaols, lest they miss their
wonted fare and so grow weary of their life, taking umbrage at the novel
discipline of abstinence ! One of your recent martyrs (no Christian he!) was by
no means reduced to this hard regime. For after you had stuffed him during a
considerable period, availing yourselves of the facilities of free custody, and
after he had disported himself in all sorts of baths (as if these were better
than the bath of baptism), and in all resorts of pleasure in high life (as if
these were the secret retreats of the church), and with all the seductive
pursuits of such a life (preferable, forsooth, to life eternal)-and all this, I
believe, just in order to prevent any craving for death-then on the last day,
the day of his trial, you gave him in broad daylight some medicated wine (in
order to stupefy him against the torture) ! "
======================
If any Christian brethren were sentenced to the mines, they were still looked after, even there. \1/ Their names were carefully noted; attempts were made to keep in touch with them; efforts were concocted to procure their release, \2/ and brethren were sent to ease their lot, to edify and to encourage them. \3/ The care shown by Christians for prisoners was so notorious that (according to Eusebius, H.E. v. 8) Licinius, the last emperor before Constantine who persecuted the Christians, passed a law to the effect that “no one was to show kindness to sufferers in prison by supplying them with food, and that no one was to show mercy to those who were starving in prison.” "In addition to this," Eusebius proceeds to relate, “a penalty was attached, to the effect that those who showed compassion were to share the fate of the objects of their charity, and that those who were humane to the unfortunate were to be flung into bonds and imprisonment and endure the same suffering as the others." This law, which was directly aimed at Christians, shows, more clearly than anything else could do, the care lavished by Christians upon their captive brethren, although much may have crept in connection with this which the State could not tolerate.
----------------------------------
\1/
Cp. Dionysius of
\2/
Cp. the story told by Hippolytus (Philos., ix, 12) of the Roman bishop Victor,
who heft a list of all Christians sentenced to the nines in Sardinia, and
actually procured their liberty through the intercession of Marcia to the
Emperor Commodus.
\3/
Some extremely beautiful examples of this occur in the treatise of Eusebius
upon the Palestinian martyrs during the Diocletian persecution. The Christians
of Egypt went to the most remote mines, even to
=======================
But they did more than try to merely alleviate the lot of prisoners. Their aim was to get them ransomed. Instances of this cannot have been altogether rare, but unfortunately it is difficult for us to form any judgment on this matter, since in a number of instances, when a ransom is spoken of, we cannot be sure whether prisoners or slaves are meant. Ransoming captives, at any rate, was regarded as a work which was specially noble and well-pleasing to God, but it never appears to have been undertaken by any church. To the last it remained a monopoly of private generosity and along this line individuals displayed a spirit of real heroism. \1/
6. Care of poor people
requiring burial, and of the dead in general –
We may begin here with the words of Julian, in his letter to Arsacius (Soz., v. 15): “This godlessness (i.e., Christianity) is mainly furthered by its philanthropy towards strangers and its careful attention to the bestowal of the dead." Tertullian declares (see p. 153) that the burial of poor brethren was perfumed at the expense of the common fund, and Aristides (Apol., xv.) corroborates this, although with him it takes the form of private charity. “Whenever," says Aristides, “one of their poor passes from the world, one of them looks after him and sees to his burial, according to his means." We know the great importance attached to an honorable burial in those days, and the pain felt at the prospect of having to forego this privilege.
----------------------------------------
\1/
Herm., Sim.,
I: <g> áv~l áyp
áyo~dSus B~~w~s, ás uv6s </g> ("
Instead of fields buy souls in trouble, as each of you is able ") ; Sim., X. v
2 f. Clem Rom, lv. 2: <g> áo~~~bt.w i/~w a~pa6s ov's á, $mows povs wov~a~ ' a! ~a~~obs av oiav, ~~2 6váás
ώv έτέροντ
w </g> (" We know that many of our own number have given themselves up to be captives, in
order to ransom others; many have sold themselves to slavery, and with the
price of their own bodies they have fed others "); Apost. Constit iv. 9: <g>AJ~~st.
C~ttstit., iv. q : δικαίου ~6~ouo~Só~w~ ~p{
ó~a~do~ovys ops ~~u~ ~yiw ~u6~woous l al~~aus, iovs,
dp(~~w~us, >f~ov~~s a, (" All
monies accurately from honest labour do ye appoint and apportion to the redeeming of the saints, ransoming thereby
slaves and captives, prisoners, people who are sore abused or condemned by
tyrants," etc. ), cp. v. 1-2. In Idolol., xxiii., Tertullian refers to
release from imprisonment for debt, or to the efforts made by charitable
brethren to prevent such imprisonment. When the Numidian robbers carried off
the local Christians, the Carthaginian church soon gathered the sum of 100,000
sesterces as ransom-money, and declared it was ready to give still ampler aid
(Cypr., Ep. lxii), When the Goths captured the Christians in Cappadocia about
the year 255, the Roman church sent contributions in aid of their ransom
(Basil., Ep. ad Dam. lxx). See below (10) for both of these cases. The
ransoming of captives continued even in later days to be reckoned a work of
special merit. Le Blant has published a number of Gallic inscriptions dating
from the fourth and fifth centuries, in which the dead person is commended
because "he ransomed prisoners."
===========================
In this respect the Christian church was meeting a sentiment which even its opponents felt to be a human duty. Christians, no doubt, were expected to feel themselves superior to any earthly ignominy, but even they felt it was a ghastly thing not to be buried decently. The deacons were specially charged with the task of seeing that everyone was properly interred (Const. Ap, iii. 7), \1/ and in certain cases they did not restrict themselves to the limits of the brotherhood. “We cannot bear," says Lactantius (Instit., vi. 12), " that the image and workmanship of God should be exposed as a prey to wild beasts and birds, but we restore it to the earth from which it was taken, \2/ and do this office of relatives even to the body of a person whom we do not know, since in their room humanity must step in." \3/ At this point also we must include the care of the dead after burial. These were still regarded in part as destitute and fit to be supported. Oblations were presented in their name and for the welfare of their souls, which served as actual intercessions on their behalf. This primitive custom was undoubtedly of immense significance to the living; it comforted many an anxious relative, and added greatly to the attractive power of Christianity. \4/
----------------------------------
\1/
A certain degree of luxury was even allowed to Christians; cp. Tertull., Apol.,
xlii: " If the Arabians complain of us [for giving them no custom], let
the Sabeans be sure that the richer and more expensive of their wares are used
as largely in burying Christians as in fumigating the gods.'' Another element
in a proper burial was that a person should lie among his companions in the
faith. Anyone who buried his people beside nun-Christians needlessly incurred
severe blame. Yet about the middle of the third century we find a Spanish
bishop burying his children among the heathen; cp. Cyprian, Ep. lxvii 6 :
" Martialis [episcopus] raeter gentiliam turpia et lutulenta convwa n
collegio du f~equentata filios in eoden collegio exterarum getiun more apud
rofana seulcra deosuit et alienigenis consepelivit" (" Martialis
himself frequented for long the shameful and filthy banquets of the heather in
their college, and placed his sons in the same college, after the custom of
foreign nations, amid profane sepulchres, burying them along with strangers").
Christian graves have been found now and then in Jewish cemeteries.
\2/
Christians were therefore opposed to cremation, and tried to gather even the
fragments of their brethren who had been martyred in the flames. The belief of
the " simplices" about the resurrection of the body wavered a little
in view of the burning of the body, but the theologians always silenced any
doubts, though even they held that burning was a Piece of wickedness. Cp.
Epist. Lugd. (Eus., H.E., v. I, towards the close; Tert., de Anima, li.:
"Nec ignibus funerandum aiunt (i.e., some pagans), arcentes sueftuo animae
(i.e., because particles of the soul still clung to the body). Alia est auten
ratio ietatis istius (i.e., of Christianity), non rehqis ainae adulatrix, sed
crudelitats etan cooris nomne aversatrix, quod et ipsum homo non mereltur
poenali exitu impendi"; Tert., de Resurr., i : " Ego magis ridebo
vulgs, tu quoque, cum isos defunctos atrocissme exuit, quos postmom guhsossin~e
nutrit. Oetatem de crudelitate ludentem!" (" I have greater derision
for the crowd, particularly when it inhumanely burns its dead, only to pamper
them afterwards with luxurious indulgence. . .. Out upon the piety which mocks
its victims with cruelty! "). The reasons which seem to have led
Christians from the first to repudiate cremation have not beep preserved. We
can only surmise what they were.
\3/
The question of the relation between the churches and the collegia tenuiorum
(collegia funeraticia) may be left aside. Besides, during the past decade it
has passed more and mire out of notice. No real light has been thrown by such
guilds upon the position of the churches, however convincing may be the
inference that the rights obtained by these collegia nay have been for a time
available to Christians as well. Cp. Neumann, Rom. Staat and Kirche, i.102 f.
\4/
Tertullian is our first witness for this custom. It did not spring up independently
of pagan influence, though it may have at least one root within the Christian cultus itself. Tertullian
attacked the common pagan feasts of the dead and the custom of bringing food to
the graves; but this rooted itself as early as the third century, and was never
dislodged.
==========================
7. Care for slaves.-
It is a mistake to suppose that
any “slave question" occupied the early church. The primitive Christians
looked on slavery with neither a more friendly nor a more hostile eye than they
did upon the State and legal ties. \1/ They never dreamt of working for the
abolition of the State, nor did it ever occur to them to abolish slavery for
humane or other reasons not even amongst themselves. The New Testament
epistles already assume that Christian masters have slaves (not merely that
pagan masters have Christian slaves), and they give no directions for any
change in this relationship. On the contrary, slaves are earnestly admonished
to be faithful and obedient. \2/
---------------------------------------
\1/
The Didache (iv II) even bids slaves obey their (Christian) masters <g>ás
Gw oü
</g>(" as a type of God
").
\2/
The passages in Paul's epistles are well known; see also I Peter. In his letter
to Philemon, Paul neither expects nor asks the release of the slave Onesimus.
The only possible sense of I Cor. vii. 20 f. <g> (~~a~~os €v lj €, €v aúw€~w ' ovs €fjs
; ' á' gal ~Gva~a~ €~w~p~s yw€ay ~ü~~w) </g> is that the apostle counsels
slaves not even to avail themselves of the chance of freedom. Any alteration of
their position would divert their minds to the things of earth-such seems to be
the writer’s meaning. It is far from certain whether we may infer from this
passage that Christian slaves begged from Christian masters the chance of
freedom more often than their pagan fellows. Christian slave-owners often
appear in the literature of the second and third centuries. Cp. Athenag.,
Suppl., xxxv; Acta Perpetue; etc.
============================
Still, it would not be true to assert that
primitive Christianity was indifferent to slaves and their condition. On the
contrary, the church did turn her attention to them, and effected some change in
their condition. This fellows from such considerations as these:
(a) Converted slaves, male or female, were regarded in the full sense of the term as brothers and sisters from the standpoint of religion. Compared to this, their position in the world was reckoned a matter of indifference. \1/
(b) They shared the rights of church members to the fullest extent. Slaves could even. become clergymen, and in fact bishops. \2/
(c) As personalities (in the
moral sense) they were to be just as highly esteemed as freemen. The sex of
female slaves had to be respected, nor was their modesty to be outraged.
-------------------------------------
\1/
Paul is followed on this point by others; e.g., Tatian, Orat., xi; Tertull., de
Corona, xiii; and Lactantius, Instit., v. 16, where, in rely to the opponents
who cry out, "You too have masters and slaves! Where then is your
so-called equality?" the answer is given, "Alfa causa nulls est cur
nobis invicen fratrun nme imetianus isi qia pares else ns credmus.
\2/
The Roman presbyter or Bishop, Pies, the brother of Hermas, must have belonged
to the class of slaves. Callistus, the Roman bishop, was originally a slave.
Cp. the eightieth canon of Elvira : "ProhiUendum ut liberti, qorum atroni
in saeculo ferint, ad clem non romoveantur" ("It is forbidden to
hinder freemen from being advanced to the rank of clergy, whose owners may be
still alive ").
==========================
The same virtues were expected from slaves as from freemen, and consequently their virtues earned the same honor. \1/
(d) Masters and mistresses were strictly charged to treat all their slaves humanely, \2/ but, on the other hand, to remember that Christian slaves were their own brethren. \3/ Christian slaves, for their part, were told not to disdain their Christian masters, i.e., they were not to regard themselves as their equals. \4/
--------------------------------------------
\1/
Ample material on this point is to be found in the Acts of the martyrs.
Reference may be made in especial to Blandina, the
\2/
A beautiful instance of the esteem and position enjoyed by a Christian female
slave in a Christian hone, is afforded by Augustine in his description of the
old domestic (" famula decrepita ") belonging to his maternal
grandfather's house, who had nursed his grandfather as a child (“sicut doso
gandiuscularum puellarum pawuli portr solent "=as little children are
often carried on the backs of older girls); i.e., she was
active
as early as the year 300 A.D. "On account of her age and her excellent
character, she was highly respected by the heads of that Christian home. Hence
the charge of her master's daughters [i.e., including Monica] was given her,
and she fulfilled her duty thoroughly [better than the mother did]. When
necessary, she was strict in restraining the girls with a holy firmness, and in
teaching them with a sober judgment " (" Proμter senectam
acmores optimal in domo christiana labs a dominis honorabatur ; unde etiam
curam fliarum dominicarum commissam diligenter gerebat, et erat in eis
coercendis, cum opus esset, sancta severitate vehemens atque in docendis sobria
prudentia," Confess., ix. 8. 57). The basis of Augustine's own piety rested
on this slave!
\3/
A long series of testimonies, from the
\4/ As early as I Tim. vi. i
f. It proves that Christianity must have been in many cases
"misunderstood" by Christian slaves.
=======================
(e) To set a slave free was looked upon, probably from the very beginning, as a praiseworthy action; \1/ otherwise, no Christian slave could have had any claim to be emancipated. Although the primitive church did not admit any such claim on their part, least of all any claim of this kind on the funds of the church, there were cases in which slaves had their ransom paid for out of such funds. \2/The church never condemned the rights of masters over slaves as sinful; it simply saw in them a natural relationship. In this sphere the source of reform lay, not in Christianity, but in general considerations derived from moral philosophy and in economic necessities.
From one of the canons of the Council of Elvira (c. 300 A.D.), as well as from other minor sources, we learn that even in the Christian church, during the third century in particular, cases unfortunately did occur in which slaves were treated with revolting harshness and barbarity. \3/ In general, one has to recollect that even as early as the second century a diminution of the great slave-establishment can be detected-a diminution which, on economic grounds, continued during the third century. The liberation of slaves was frequently a necessity; it must not be regarded, as a rule; in the light of an act prompted by compassion or brotherly feeling.
------------------------------------
\1/ Authentic illustrations
of this are not available, of course.
\2/
From the epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp (iv.) two inferences may be drawn (1)
that slaves were ransomed with money taken from the church collections, and (2)
that no claim to this favor was admitted. <g> Io~~ovs Ira! &arAas,eb &AA&ai,-ol
bvrroOrOwiray </g> [Christian slaves could easily lose their feelings of
deference towards Christian owners], <g>
&AA' Eli ~d av OEa& ,rAE'oy &ovAEv Tw,rav,
iva
IcpE(Trot'os rAEuOspfas a,r OEUi /hI ?pciTwrraY /xr ro ~owoi 'AeuOepoio-Orer,
rya cj &ov"?,.o, rr)p~8mow ?rriOu4as </g>(" Despise not
male or female slaves. Yet let not these again be puffed up, but let them be
all the better servants to the glory of God, that they may obtain a better freedom
from God. Let theist not crave to be freed at the public cost, lest they be
found to be slaves of lust ").
\3/
Canon v.: "Si qua femina furore zeli accensa fiagris verberaverit ancillam
suam, ita ut intra tertium diem animam cun cruciatu effundat," etc.
(" If any mistress, in a fit of passion, scourges her handmaid, so that
the latter expires within three days," etc.). Canon xli also treats of
masters and slaves. We do not require to discuss the dispensation given by
Callistus, bishop of
=========================
8. Care for people
visited by great calamities.-
As early as Hebrews x. 32 f. a church is commended for having nobly stood the test of a great persecution and calamity, thanks to sympathy and solicitous care. From that time onward, we frequently come across counsels to 'Christian brethren to show themselves especially active and devoted in any emergencies of distress; not counsels merely, but also actual proofs that they bore fruit. We shall not, at present, go into cases in which churches lent aid to sister churches, even at a considerable distance; these fall to be noticed under section 10. But some examples referring to calamities within a church itself may be set down at this stage of our discussion.
When the plague
raged in
A similar tale
is related by Cyprian of the plague at
------------------------------
\1/ Cp. Cyprian, per Pont.,
ix.: " Jacebant interim tots civitate vicatin non jam corpora, sed
cadavers luriou" (" Meanwhile all over the city lay, not bodies now,
but the carcasses of many ").
==================
By means of examples drawn from the sacred lessons, he teaches them… Then he proceeds to add that there is nothing remarkable in cherishing merely our own people with the due attentions of love, but that one might become perfect who should do something more than heathen men or publicans, one who, overcoming evil with good, and practicing a merciful kindness like to that of God, should love his enemies as well. ...
What should a Christian people do a people whose very name was derived from faith? The contributions are always distributed then according to the degree of the men and of their respective ranks. Many who, on the score of poverty, could not make any show of wealth, showed far more than wealth, as they made up by personal labor an offering dearer than all the riches in the world. Thus the good done was done to all men, and not merely to the household of faith, so richly did the good works overflow ").
We hear exactly the same story of practical sympathy and self-denying love displayed by Christians even to outsiders, in the great plague which occurred during the reign of Maximinus Daza (Eus., M:E., ix. 8): “Then did they show themselves to the heathen in the clearest light. For the Christians were the only people who amid such terrible ills showed their fellow feeling and humanity by their actions. Day by day some would busy themselves with attending to the dead and burying them (for there were numbers to whom no one else paid any heed); others gathered in one spot all who were afflicted by hunger throughout the whole city, and gave bread to them all. When thin became known, people glorified the Christians' God, and, convinced by the very facts, confessed the Christians alone were truly pious and religious."
It may be inferred with certainty, as Eusebius himself avows, that cases of this kind made a deep impression upon those who were not Christians, and that they gave a powerful impetus to the propaganda.
9. The churches
furnishing work and insisting upon work. -
Christianity at the outset spread chiefly among people who had to work hard. The new religion did not teach its votaries “the dignity of labor" or “the noble pleasure invariably afforded by work.” What it inculcated was just the duty of work. \1/ "If any will not work, neither let him eat" (2 Thess. iii. 10). Over and again it was enunciated that the duty of providing for others was conditioned by their incapacity for work. The brethren had soon to face the fact that some of their numbers were falling into restless and lazy habits, as well as the sadder fact that these very people were selfishly trying to trade upon the charity of their neighbors. This was so notorious that even in the brief compass of the Didache there is a note of precautions which are to be taken to checkmate such attempts, while in Lucian's description of the Christians he singles out, as one of their characteristic traits, a readiness to let cunning impostors take advantage of their brotherly love. \2/
Christianity cannot be charged at any rate with the desire of promoting mendicancy or with underestimating the duty of work. \3/ Even the charge of being “infructuosi in negotiis"(of no use in practical affairs) was repudiated by Tertullian. “How so?” he asks. “How can that be when such people dwell beside you, sharing your way of life, your dress, your habits, and the same needs of life? We are no Brahmins or Indian gymnosophists, dwelling in woods and exiled from life…We stay beside you in this world, making use of the forum, the provision-market, the bath, the booth, the workshop, the inn, the weekly market, and all other places of commerce. We sail with you, fight at your side, till the soil with you, and traffic with you; we likewise join our technical skill to that of others, and make our works public property for your use" (Apol, xlii.).\4/ Even clerics were not exempted from making a livelihood, \5/ and admirable sayings on the need of labor occur in Clement of Alexandria as well as in other writers.
--------------------------------------------
\1/
At the same time there was a quiet undercurrent of feeling expressed by the
maxim that absolute devotion to religion was a higher plane of life-" The
heavenly Father who feeds the ravens and clothes the lilies will provide for
us." Apostles and prophets (with the heroes of asceticism, of course, from
the very outset) did not require to work. The idea was that their activity in
preaching demanded their entire life and occupied all their time.
\2/
The pseudo-Clementine de Virgin i. II, contains a sham warning against the
"otiosi," or lazy folk, who chatter about religion instead of
attending to their business.
\3/
Cp. 2 Thess. iii. 6: <g> xpyyow ú v óvda o v(w I. X. v$s Qáó aós áov paoüvs, </g>cp. ver. I2.
\4/ " Tertullian at this point is suppressing his personal views; he speaks from the standpoint of the majority of Christians. In reality, as we see from the treatise de Idolotria, he was convinced that there was hardly a single occupation or business in which any Christian could engage without soiling his conscience with idolatry.
\5/
The earliest restrictions on this point occur in the canons of the Synod of
Elvira (canon xix,). They are very guarded. "Eiscoi, presbyteres et
diacones de locis suis [this is the one point of the pohibtion] negotiandi
causa non discedant . sane ad victum sibi conquirendum aut filium, aut
libertum, aut nercenarium, aut anicum, aut quenhbet nittant ; et si voluerint
egutiari, itra povincian negotientur " (" Let no bishop or presbyter
or deacon leave his place for the purpose of trading ... he can, of course,
send his son, or his freedman, or his hired servant, or a friend, or anyone
else, to procure provisions ; but if he wishes to transact business, he must
confine himself to his own sphere").
======================================
We have already observed (pp. 155 f.) that one incentive to work was found in the consideration that money could thus be gained for -the purpose of supporting other people, and this idea was by no means thrown out at random. Its frequent repetition, from the epistle to the Ephesians onwards, shows that people recognized in it a powerful motive for the industrious life. It was also declared in simple and stirring language that the laborer was worthy of his hire, and a fearful judgment was prophesied for those who defrauded workmen of their wages (see especially Jas. v. 4 f.). It is indeed surprising that work was spoken of in such a sensible way, and that the duty of work was inculcated so earnestly, in a society which was so liable to fanaticism and indolence.
But we have nut yet alluded to what was the really noticeable feature in this connection. We have already come across several passages which would lead us to infer that, together with the recognition that every Christian brother had the right to a bare provision for livelihood, the early Christian church also admitted its obligation to secure this minimum either by furnishing him with work or else by maintaining him. Thus we read in the pseudo-Clementine homilies (cp. Clem., viii.) : " For those able to work, provide work; and to those incapable of work, be charitable." \1/ Cyprian also (Ep. ii.) assumes that if the church forbids some teacher of dramatic art to practice his profession, it must look after him, or, in the event of his being unable to do anything else, provide him with the necessaries of life. \2/
-------------------------
\1/
s apos a s úpowvs s ás . os Ryos v dAdv
dννούμενοι ids poás s Rvayaas os'
vf yov, ápa o (" Providing supplies with all kindliness … furnishing those
who have no occupation with employment, and thus with the necessary means of
livelihood. To the artificer, work; to the incapable, alms ").
\2/
" Si paenurian tales et necessitatem auertats oUtendit, potest inter
celeros qui ecclesiae ahnentis sustinentur huius quoque necessitates adiuvari,
s tamen contentus sit rugahorihus et inocentiUus cibs -nee putt salario se esse
edimendum, ut a peccatis cesset " (" Should such a person allege
penury and the necessities of poverty, his wants may also be met among those of
the other people who are maintained by the church's aliment-provided always
that he is satisfied with plain and frugal fare. Nor is he to imagine he must
be redeemed by means of an allowance of money, in order to cease. from sins
").
===============
We were not aware, however, if this was really felt to be a duty by the church at large, till the discovery of the Didache. This threw quite a fresh light on the situation. In the Didache (xii.) it is ordained that no brother who is able to work is to be maintained by any church for more than two or three days. The church accordingly had the right of getting rid of such brethren. But the reverse side of this right was a duty. “If any brother has a trade, let him follow that trade and earn the bread he eats. If he has too trade, exercise your discretion in arranging for him to live among you as a Christian, but not in idleness. If he will not do this (i.e., engage in the work with which you furnish him), he is trafficking with Christ <g> (χριστέμ•ιrοροs) </g> Beware of men like that." It is beyond question, therefore, that a Christian brother could demand work from the church, and that the church had to furnish him with work. What bound the members together, then, was not merely the duty of supporting one another--that was simply the ultima ratio; it was the fact that they formed a guild of workers, in the sense that the churches had to provide work for a brother whenever he required it. This fact seems to me of great importance, from the social standpoint. The churches were also labor unions. The case attested by Cyprian proves that there is far more here than a merely rhetorical maxim. The Church did prove in this way a refuge for people in distress who were prepared to work. Its attractive power was consequently intensified, and from the economic standpoint we must attach very high value to a union which provided work for those who were able to work, and at the same time kept hunger from those who were unfit for any labor.
10. Care for brethren on a journey (hospitality) and for churches in poverty or peril. \1/
The diaconate
went outside the circle of the individual church when it deliberately extended
its labors to include the relief of strangers, i.e., in the first instance of
Christian brethren on their travels. In our oldest account of Christian worship
on Sunday (Justin, Apol., I, lxvii; see above, p. 153), strangers on their
travels are included in the list of-those who receive support from the
church-collections. This form of charity was thus considered part of the
church's business, instead of merely` being left to the goodwill of
individuals; though people had recourse in many ways to the private method,
while the virtue of hospitality was repeatedly inculcated on the faithfu1. \2/
In the first epistle of Clement to the Corinthian church, it is particularly
noted, among the distinguishing virtues of the church, that anyone who had
stayed there praised their splendid sense of hospitality. \3/ But during the
early centuries of Christianity it was the Roman church more than any other
which was distinguished by the generosity with which it practiced this virtue.
In one document from the reign of Marcus Aurelius, a letter of Dionysius the
bishop of
----------------------------------
\1/
I have based this section on a study of my own which appeared in the Monatsschrift
f. Diakonie und innere
\2/
Rom. xii. 13, "Communicating to the necessities of the saints, given to
hospitality"; I Pet. iv. 9, "Using hospitality one towards another
without murmuring"; Heb. vi, 10, xiii. 2, "Forget not to show love to
strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Individuals
are frequently commended by Paul to the hospitality of the church; e.g, Rom.
xvi. I f., " Receive her in the Lord, as becometh the saints” See also 3
John 5-8. In the "Shepherd'' of Hermas (Mand., viii. 10) hospitality is
distinctly mentioned in the catalogue of virtues, with this remarkable comment
: <g> w yáp owh, úpf youfs o </g> (" for benevolence from time
to time to found in hospitality "), while in Sim., viii. 10. 3, praise is
assigned to those Christians who <g> ús oYovs aw ώs úavo oús oovs
áoú ov" </g> (" gladly welcomed God's servants into their
houses "). Aristides, in his Apology (xv), says that if Christians
"see any stranger, they take him under their roof and rejoice over him as
over a very brother" <g> (ww 8v Yww, L yv you l fpoww ' aú s á á). </g> The exercise of hospitality by private
individuals towards Christian brethren is assumed by Tertullian to be a duty
which no one dare evade; for, in writing to his wife (ad Uxor., ii. 4), he
warns her against marrying a heathen, should he (Tertullian) predecease her, on
the ground that no Christian brother would get a spiritual reception in an
alien household. But hospitality was
inculcated especially upon officials of the church, such as elders (bishops)
and deacons, who practiced this virtue in the name of the church at large; cp.
I Tim. iii. 2, Tit. i. 8 ( I Tim. v. 10). In Hermas (Sim., ix. 27. 2)
hospitable bishops form a special class among the saints, since "they
gladly received God's servants into their houses at all times, and without
hypocrisy." In the Didache a comparatively large amount of space is taken
up with directions regarding the care of travelers, and Cyprian's interest in
strangers is attested by his seventh letter, written to his clergy at
\3/
Clem i. 2: <g> ifs y apaQas wpbs úáás . b yoaps s os úv Jos o dpw
</g> ("What person who has sojourned among you … has not proclaimed
your splendid, hospitable disposition? "); cp, above, p 152.
===================
" Your worthy bishop Soter
has not merely kept up this practice, but even extended it, by aiding the
saints with rich supplies, which he sends from time to time, and also by
addressing blessed words of comfort to brethren coming up to Rome, like a
loving father to his children " (Eus., HE., iv. 23. 10). We shall return
to this later on; meanwhile it may be pointed out, in this connection, that the
Roman church owed its rapid rise to supremacy in Western Christendom, not simply
to its geographical position within the capital of the empire, or to the fact
of its having been the seat of apostolic activity throughout the West, but also
to the fact that it recognized the special obligation of caring for Christians
in general, which fell to it as the church of the imperial capital. A living
interest in the collective church of Christ throbbed with peculiar intensity
throughout the Roman church, as we shall see, from the very outset, and the
practice of hospitality was one of its manifestations.: At a time when
Christianity was still a homeless religion, the occasional travels of the
brethren were frequently the means of bringing churches together which
otherwise would have had no common tie ; while in an age when Christian
captives were being dragged off; and banished to distant spots throughout the
empire, and when brethren in distress sought shelter and solace, the practical
proof of hospitality must have been specially telling. As early as the second
century one bishop of
--------------------------------------
\1/ Melito οf Sardes,
according to Eusebius (H.E., iv. 26. 2).
\2/ I Clem.x 7, xi. I, xii I.
\3/
===========================
It was easy to take advantage of
a spirit so obliging and unsparing (e.g., the case of Proteus Peregrinus, and
especially the churches sad experience of so-called prophets and teachers). Heretics
could creep in, and so could loafers or impostors. We note, accordingly, that
definite precautions were taken against, these at quite an early period. The
new arrival is to be tested to see whether or not he is a Christian (cp. 2 and
3 John; bid., xii.). In the case of an itinerant prophet, his words are to be compared
with his actions. No brother is to remain idle in any place for more than two
days, or three at the very most; after that, he must either leave or labor
(Did., xii.). Later on, any brother on a journey was required to bring with him
a Passport from his church at home. Things must have come to a sad pass when
(as the Didache informs us) it was decreed that any visitor must be adjudged a
false prophet without further ado, if during an ecstasy he ordered a meal and
then partook of it, or if in an ecstasy he asked for money. Many a traveler,
however, who desired to settle down, did not come with empty hands; such
persons did not ask, they gave. Thus we know (See above) that when Marcion came
from
Care lavished on brethren on a journey blossomed naturally into a sympathy and care for any distant churches in poverty or peril. The keen interest shown in a guest could not cease when he left the threshold of one's house or passed beyond the city gates. And more than this, the guest occupied the position of a representative to any church at which he arrived; he was a messenger to them from some distant circle of brethren who were probably entire strangers and were yet related to them. His account of the distress and suffering of his own church, or of its growth and spiritual gifts, was no foreign news. The primitive churches were sensible that their faith and calling bound them closely together in this world; they felt, as the apostle enjoined, that “if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, while if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it" (1 Cor. xii. 26). And there is no doubt whatever that the consciousness of this was most vigorous and vital in the very ages during which no external bond as yet united the various churches, the latter standing side by side in almost entire independence of each other. These were the ages when the primitive article of the common symbol, "I believe in one holy church," was really nothing more than an article of faith. And of course the effect of the inward ties was all the stronger when people were participating in a common faith which found expression ere long in a brief and vigorous confession, or practicing the same love and patience and Christian discipline, or turning their hopes in common to that glorious consummation of Christ's kingdom of which they had each received the earnest and the pledge. These common possessions stimulated brotherly love; they made strangers friends, and brought the distant near. "By secret signs and marks they manage to recognize one another, loving each other almost before they are acquainted"; such is the description of Christians given by the pagan Caecilius (Min. Felix, ix. 3). Changes afterwards took place; but this vital sense of belonging to one brotherhood never wholly disappeared.
In the great prayers of thanksgiving and supplication offered every Sabbath by the churches, there was a fixed place assigned to intercession for the whole of Christendom throughout the earth. Before very long this kindled the consciousness that every individual member belonged to the holy unity of Christendom, just as it also kept them mindful of the services which they owed to the general body. In the epistles and documents of primitive Christianity, wherever the church-prayers emerge their ecumenical character becomes clear and conspicuous. Special means of intercourse were provided by epistles, circular letters, collections of epistles, the transmission of acts or of official records, or by travelers and special messengers. When matters of importance were at stake, the bishops themselves went forth to settle controversial questions or to arrange a common basis of agreement. It is not our business in these pages to describe all this varied intercourse. We shall confine ourselves to the task of gathering and explaining those passages in which one church comes to the aid of another in any case of need.
-------------------------------------
\1/ Cp. i Clem. lix. 2 f, with my notes ad loc. Polyc., Phil., xii. 2 f.
======================
Poverty, sickness, persecution, and suffering of all kinds formed one class of troubles which demanded constant help on the part of churches that were better off; while, in a different direction, assistance was required in those internal crises of doctrine and of conduct which might threaten a church and in fact endanger its very existence. Along both of these lines the brotherly love of the churches had to prove its reality.
The first case
of one church supporting another occurs at the very beginning of the apostolic
age. In Acts xi. 27 f. we read that Agabus in
--------------------------------
\1/
No doubt, the account (in Acts) of the Antiochene donation and of the journey
of Barnabas and Paul to
\2/
The meaning of Heb. vi. 10 is uncertain. I may observe at this point that more
than three centuries later Jerome employed this Pauline collection as an
argument to enforce the duty of all Christians throughout the
===================
When some churches were in
distress, their possessions seized \1/ and their existence imperilled, the
others could not feel happy in their own undisturbed position. Succour of their
persecuted brethren seemed to them a duty, and it was a duty from which they
did not shrink. Justin (loc. cit.) tells us that the maintenance of imprisoned
Christians was one of the regular objects to which the church collections were
devoted, a piece of information which is corroborated and enlarged by the
statement of Tertullian, that those who languished iii the mines or were exiled
to desert islands or lay in prison all received monies from the church. \2/
Neither statement explains if it was only members of the particular church in
question who were thus supported. This, however, is inherently improbable, and
there are express statements to the contrary, including one from a pagan
source. Dionysius of
-------------------------------
\1/ Even by the time of
Domitian, Christian churches were liable to poverty, owing to the authorities
seizing their goods; cp. Heb. x. 34 (if the epistle belongs to this period),
and Eus., H.E., iii. 17.
\2/ Tert., Apol., xxxix.:
"Si qui in metallis et si qui in insulls, vel in custodiis, dumtaxat ex
causa dei sectae, alumni suac confessionis bunt" (cp. p. 153).
======================
Basil the Great informs us that
under bishop Dionysius (259-269 A.D.) the Roman church sent money to Cappadocia
to purchase the freedom of some Christian captives from the barbarians, an act
of kindness which was still remembered with gratitude in Cappadocia at the
close of the fourth century. \1/ Thus Corinth, Syria, Arabia, and Cappadocsia,
all of them churches in the East, unite in testifying to the praise of the
church at Rome; and we can understand, from the language of Dionysius of Corinth,
how Ignatius could describe that church as the <g> m poxa0riµevq -rig
aya7rris, </g> "the leader of love." \2/ Nor were other
churches and their bishops behindhand in the matter. Similar stories are told
of the church at
"Cypriaf to Januarius, Maximus, Proculus, Victor, Modianus, Nemesianus, Nampulus, and Honoratus, the brethren: greeting." With sore anguish of soul and many a tear have I read the letter which in your loving solicitude you addressed to me, dear brethren, with regard to the imprisonment of our brothers and sisters. Who would not feel anguish over such misfortunes?
-----------------------------------
\1/
Basil, Ep. ad Damascum Papain (lxx).
\2/
Ign., ad
=====================
Who would not make his brother's grief his own? For, says the apostle Paul: Should one member suffer, all the others Suffer along with it; and should one member rejoice, the others rejoice with it also. And in another place he says: Who is Weak, and I am not weak? We must therefore consider the Present imprisonment of our brethren as our imprisonment, reckoning the grief of those in peril as our grief. We form a single body in our union, and we ought to be stirred and strengthened by religious duty as well as by love to redeem our members the brethren.
"For as the
apostle Paul once more declares: Know ye not that ye are God's temple and that
the Holy Spirit dwelleth in you? Though love failed to stir us to succour the
brethren, we must in this case consider that it is temples of God who are imprisoned,
nor dare we by our procrastination and neglect of fellow-feeling allow temples
of God to remain imprisoned for any length of time, but must put forth all our
energies, and with all speed manage by
mutual service to deserve the grace of Christ our Lord, our Judge, our God. For
since the apostle Paul says: So many of you as are baptized into Christ have
have put on Christ, we must see Christ in our imprisoned brethren, redeeming from the peril of imprisonment him who redeemed us from the peril of death. He who took us from the jaws of the devil, who bought us with his blood upon the cross, who now abides and dwells in us, he is now to be redeemed by us for a sum of money from the hands of the barbarians …. Will not the, feeling of humanity and the sense of united love incline each father among you to look upon those prisoners as his sons, every husband to feel, with anguish for the marital tie, that his wife languishes in that imprisonment?" Then, after an account of the special dangers incurred by the consecrated “virgins” – “our church, having weighed and sorrowfully examined all those matters in accordance with your letter, has gathered donations for the brethren speedily, freely, and liberally; for while, according to its powers of faith, it is ever ready for any work of God, it has been raised to a special pitch of charity on this occasion by the thought of all this suffering. For since the Lord says in his gospel;, I was sick and ye visited me, with what ampler reward for our alms will he now say I was in prison and ye redeemed me? And since again he says I was in prison and ye visited me, how much better will it be for us on the day of judgment, when we are to receive the Lord's reward, to hear him say: I was in the dungeon of imprisonment, in bonds and fetters among the barbarians, and ye rescued me from that prison of slavery! Finally, we thank you heartily for summoning us to share your trouble and your noble and necessary act of love, and for offering us a rich harvest-field wherein to scatter the seeds of our hope, in the expectation of reaping a very plentiful harvest from this heavenly and helpful action. We transmit to you a sum of a hundred thousand sesterces [close upon £1000 collected and contributed by our clergy and people here in the church over which by God's mercy we preside; this you will dispense in the proper quarter at your own discretion.
"In conclusion, we trust that nothing like this will occur in future, but that, guarded by the power of God, our brethren may henceforth be quit of all such perils. Still, should the like occur again, for a test of love and faith, do not hesitate to write of it to us; be sure and certain that while our own church and the whole of the church pray fervently that this may not recur, they will gladly and generously contribute even if it does take place once more. In order that you may remember in prayer our brethren and sisters who have taken so prompt and liberal a share in this needful act of love, praying that they may be ever quick to aid, and in order also that by way of return you may present them in your prayers and sacrifices, I add herewith the names of all. Further, I have subjoined the names of my colleagues (the bishops) and fellow-priests, who like myself were present and made such contributions as they could afford in their own name and in the name of their people; I have also noted and forwarded their small sums along with our own total. It is your duty - faith and love alike require it - to remember all these in your prayers and supplications.
“Dearest brethren, we wish you
unbroken prosperity in the Lord. Remember us."
Plainly the Carthaginian church is conscious here of having done something out of the common. But it is intensely conscious also of having thus discharged a duty of Christian love, and the religious basis of the duty is laid down in exemplary fashion. It is also obvious that so liberal a grant could not be taken from the proceeds of the ordinary church-collections.
Yet another example of Cyprian's care for a foreign church is extant. In the case (cp. above, p. 175) already mentioned of the teacher of the histrionic art who is to give up his profession and be supported by the church, if he has no other means of livelihood, Cyprian (Ep. ii.) writes that the man may come to Carthage and find maintenance in the local church if his own church is too poor to feed him.\1/
Lucian's satire
on the death of Peregrinus, in the days of Marcus Aurelius, is a further
witness to the alert and energetic temper of the interest taken in churches at
the outbreak of persecution or during a period of persecution. The governor of
----------------------------
\1/
"Si illic ecclesia non sufficit ut laborantibus praestat alimenta, poterit
se ad transferre (i.e., to Carthage), et hic quod sibi ad victum atque ad
vestitum essarium fuerit accipere" (" If the local church is not able
to support those who need labour, let it send them on to us to get the needful
food and clothing ").
\2/
It maybe observed at this point that there were no general collections in the
early church, like those maintained by the Jews in the Imperial age. The
organization of the churches would not tend greatly to promote any such undertakings,
since Christians had no headquarters such as the Jews possessed in
=================
The seven epistles of Ignatius
form, as it were, a commentary upon these observations of the pagan writer. In
them we find the keen sympathy shown by the churches of
---------------------------------------------
\1/ Eph., xxi. 2; Trall.,
xiii. x; Magn., xiv.
\2/
Even here Ignatius remembers to commend the church at
===========================
A few days afterwards Ignatius found himself at
in thanking God for the deliverance. "Since I am informed," he writes
to the Philadelphians (x. 1 f.), "that, in answer to your prayers and love
in Jesus Christ, the church of Antioch is now at peace, it befits you, as a
church of God, to send a deacon
your delegate with a message of God for that church, so that he may
congratulate the assembled church and glorify the Name. Blessed in Jesus Christ
is he who shall be counted worthy of such a mission; and ye shall yourselves be
glorified. Now it is not impossible for you to do this for the name of God, if
only you have the desire." The same counsel is given to
-----------------------------------
\1/ Philad., xi. 2; Smyrn.,
xii. 1.
=====================
Polycarp undertakes to do so. In fact, he even holds out the prospect of conveying the letter himself. As desired by them, he also transmits to them such letters of Ignatius as had come to hand, and asks for reliable information upon the fate of Ignatius and his companions. \1/
Such, in outline, is the situation as we find it in the seven letters of Ignatius and in Polycarp's epistle to the Philippians. What a wealth of intercourse there is between the churches! What public spirit! What brotherly care for one another! Financial support retires into the background here. The foreground of the picture is filled by proofs of that personal cooperation by means of which whole churches, or again churches and their bishops, could lend mutual aid to one another, consoling and strengthening each other, and sharing their sorrows and their joys. Here we step into a whole world of sympathy and love.
From other
sources we also learn that after weathering a persecution the churches would
send a detailed report of it to other churches. Two considerable documents of
this kind are still extant. One is the letter addressed by the
---------------------------------------------
\1/ Polyc., ad Phil., xiii.
\2/
It is preserved, though not in an entirely complete form, by Eusebius (HE., v.
i f.). The Smyrniote letter also occurs in an abbreviated form in Eusebius (iv.
15); the complete form, however, is also extant in a special type of text, both
in Greek and Latin.
===========================
Thus the Smyrniote church speaks very decidedly against the practice of people
delivering themselves up and craving for martyrdom. It gives one melancholy
instance of this error (Mart. Polyc., iv.). The churches of
able also to describe the tender compassion shown by their own confessors. It
was otherwise with the church of Rome. She exhorted the
local church. The fact was, no greater disaster could befall a church in a
period of distress than the loss of its clergy or bishop by death or
dereliction of duty. In his treatise on
“Flight during a Persecution," Tertullian relates how deacons, presbyters,
and bishops frequently ran away at the outbreak of a persecution, on the plea
of Matt. x. 23: "If they persecute you in one city, flee unto another."
The result was that the church either collapsed or fell a prey to heretics. \3/
The more dependent the church became upon its clergy, the more serious were the
consequences to thee church of any failure or even of any change in the ranks
of the latter.
---------------------------
\1/ Ep. Viii in Cyprian's
correspondence (ed. Hartel).
\2/
Cp. my study (in the volume dedicated to Weizsacker, 1892) on "The letters
of the Roman clergy from the age of the papal vacancy in 250 A.D." There
is also an interesting remark of Dionysius of Alexandria in a letter addressed
to Germanus which Eusebius has preserved (HE., VII. xi. 3). Dionysius tells how
"one of the brethren who were present from
\3/
"Sed cum ipsi auctores, id est ipsi diaconi et presbyteri et episcopi
fugiunt" modo laicus intellegere potuerit, qua ratione dictum : Fugite de
civitate in litatem? (Tales) dispersum gregem faciunt et in praedam esse
omnibus bestiis i, dum non est pastor illis. Quod nunquam.magis fit, quam cum
in persecutione destituitur ecclesia a clero " (" But when the very
authorities themselves-deacons, I mean, and presbyters and bishops-take to
flight, how can a layman see the real meaning of the saying, 'Flee from city to
city'? Such shepherds scatter the flock and leave it a prey to every wild beast
of the field, by depriving it of a shepherd. And this is specially the case
when a church is forsaken by the clergy during persecution ").-De Fuga,
xi.
====================
This was well understood by the ardent persecutors of the
church in the third century, by
Hitherto we have been gleaning from the scanty remains of the primitive Christian literature whatever bore upon the material support extended by one church to another, or upon the mutual assistance forthcoming in a time of persecution. But whenever persecutions brought about internal crisis and perils in a church, as was not infrequently the case, the sympathetic interest of the church extended to this sphere of deed as well, and attempts were made to meet the situation. Such cases now fall to be considered-cases in which it was not poverty or persecution, but internal abuses and internal dangers, pure and simple, which drew a word of comfort or of counsel from a sister church or from its bishop.
In this connection we possess one document dating from the very earliest period, viz., the close of the first century, which deserves especial notice. It is the so-called first epistle of Clement, really an official letter sent by the Roman church to the Corinthian. \1/ Within the pale of the latter church a crisis had arisen, whose consequences were extremely serious. All we know, of course, is what the majority of the church thought of the crisis, but according to their account certain newcomers, of an ambitious and conceited temper, had repudiated the existing authorities and led a number of the younger members of the church astray. \2/ Their intention was to displace the presbyters and deacons, and in general to abolish the growing authority of the officials (xl.-xlviii.) sharp struggle ensued, in which even the women took some part. \3/ Faith, love, and brotherly feeling were already threatened with extinction (i.-iii.). The scandal became notorious throughout Christendom, and indeed there was a danger of the heathen becoming acquainted with the quarrel, of the name of Christ being blasphemed, and of the church's security being imperilled . \4/ The Roman Church stepped in. It had not been asked by the Corinthian church to interfere in the matter; on the contrary, it spoke out of its own accord. \5/ And it did so with an affection and solicitude equal to its candor and dignity.
------------------------------------
\1/ Cp. the inscription.
\2/ Cp. i. 1, iii. 3, xxxix.
I, xlvii. 6, etc.
\3/ This is probable, from i.
3, xxi. 6.
\4/ Cp. xlvii. 7, i. I.
\5/ i. I, xlvii. 6-7.
======================
It felt bound, for conscience'
sake, to give a serious and brotherly admonition, conscious that God's voice,
spoke through its words for peace, \1/ and at the same time for the strict
maintenance of respect towards the authority of the officials (cp. xl. f.).
Withal it never forgets that its place is merely to point out the right road to
the Corinthians, not to lay commands upon them; \2/ over and again it expresses
most admirably its firm confidence that the church knows the will of God and
will bethink itself once more of the right course. \3/ It even clings to the
hope that the very agitators will mend their ways (cp. liv.). But in the name
of God it asks that a speedy end be put to the scandal. The transmission of the
epistle is entrusted to the most honored men within its membership. "They
shall be witnesses between us and you. And we have done this that you may know
we 'have had and still have every concern for your speedy restoration to
peace" (lxiii. 3). The epistle concludes by saying that the Corinthians
are to send back the envoys to
---------------------------------
\1/' Cp. lix. i, lvi. I,
lxiii. 2.
\2/ Cp. especially lviii. 2:
,<g> SIlaa•BE T*v o uµ$ouA*v ij i&v </g> ("accept our
counsel ").
\3/ Cp. xl. 1, xlv. 2 f., liii. I,
lxii. 3.
====================
The bishop lets it be seen that
the church's treatment of the case does not appear to him to have been entirely
correct. He exhorts them to moderate their passion and to be gentle. But, at
the same time, in so doing he is perfectly conscious of the length to which he
may venture to go in opposing an outside church. When Ignatius, bishop of
After the close of the second century a significant change came over these relationships, as the institution of synods began to be adopted. The free and unconventional communications, which passed between the churches (or their bishops), yielded to an intercourse conducted upon fixed and regular lines. A new procedure had already come into vogue with the Montanist and Quartodeciman controversies, and this was afterwards developed more highly still in the great Christological controversies and in the dispute with Novatian. Doubtless we still continue to hear of cases in which individual churches or their bishops displayed special interest in other churches at a distance, nor was there any cessation of voluntary sympathy with the weal and woe of any sister church. But this gave place more than ever both to an interest in the position taken up by the church at large in view of individual and particular movements, and also to the support of the provincial churches." Keen interest was shown in the attitude taken up by the churches throughout the empire (or their bishops) upon any critical question. On such matters harmony could be arranged, but otherwise the provincial churches began to form groups of their own. Still, for all this, fresh methods emerged in the course of the third century by which one church supported or rallied another, and these included the custom of inviting the honored teachers of one church to deliver addresses in another, or of securing them, when controversies had arisen, to pronounce an opinion, to instruct the parties, and to give a judgment in the matter. Instances of this are to be found, for example, in the career of the great theologian Origen. \2/ Even in the fourth and fifth centuries, the material support of poor churches from foreign sources had not ceased; Socrates, in his church history (vii. 25), notes one very brilliant example of the practice.
-------------------------------
\1/ Instances of this occur,
e.g. in the correspondence of Cyprian and of Dionysius of Alexandria.
\2/ Cp. Eus., HE., vi. 19.
15; 33. 2; 37; 32. 2.
==================