by Adolph Harnack
translated and edited by James Moffatt
from the German, Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums
Second, enlarged and revised English edition;
London: Williams and Norgate / New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1908.
Theological Translation Library, volumes 19-20
[ to p. 88; needs lots of editing, especially from p.47 onward! insert original page numbers; change roman numerals; move footnotes; for directions in editing this material, see the Harnack TOC file, at the end]]
BOOK IV
CHAPTER II
ON THE INWARD SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
The inner spread of Christianity comes out primarily and pre-eminently in the sense, felt by Christians, of their own strength. Evidence of this feeling is furnished by the zeal they displayed in the extension of the faith, by their consciousness of being the people of God and of possessing the true religion, and also by their impulse to annex any element of worth and value. These factors have been already noticed. But the inward expansion of Christianity may be verified at other points, and in what follows we shall survey its spread (1) among the aristocratic, the wealthy, the cultured, and the official classes; (2) at court; (3) in the army; and (4) among women.
§ 1. The spread of Christianity among the aristocratic, the cultured, the wealthy, and the official classes. “You see your calling, brethren,” writes Paul in 1 Cor. i. 26-27; “not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many of noble birth -- nay, the foolish things of the world has God chosen, that he might put the wise to shame; and the weak things of the world has God chosen, that he might put the strong things to shame; and the base things of the world, and things despised, has God chosen, even things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are, so that no flesh should glory before him."\1/ Other evidence, covering the period between the primitive age and that of Marcus Aurelius, confirms the view that in the contemporary Christian communities the lower classes, slaves, freedmen, and labourers, very largely predominated. [[34]] Celsus (c. Cels., I. xxvii.; III. xviii., xliv.; VIII. lxxv., etc.) and Cæcilius (in Minucius Felix)\2/ distinctly assert this, and the apologists admit the fact.\3/ Even the officials of the Christian church frequently belonged to the lowest class (see above, vol. i. p. 168).\4/
\1/ Origen (c. Cels., III. xlviii.) observes, on this passage: "It is possible that these words have led some to suppose that no wise, cultured, or intelligent person embraces the Christian faith."
\2/ See v., viii., xii,; also Lucian's Peregrin., 12, 13, and Aristides Rhetor, Orat. 46 (Christians do not occupy seats in the civic council).
\3/ But they make it out to be an honour to Christianity.
\4/ Cp. Knopf on “The Social Composition of the Primitive Gentile Christian Churches” (Zeits. für Theol. u. Kirche, 1900, pp. 325 f.), and the same writer's Nachapostolisches Zeitalter, (1905), pp. 64 f., with several sections in von Dobschütz's Die urchristl. Gemeinden [Eng. trans., Christian Ltfe in the Primitive Churches, 1904]. The scarcity of material available for the apostolic and the sub-apostolic ages, however, prevents us from gaining much more information than what might be inferred a priori or deduced from one or two general statements. In his volume on The Share taken by Christians in Public Life durig the pre-Constantine Period (1902), Bigelmair also discusses (pp. 76 f., 125 f.) the relation of Christians to the state and to civil offices.
Even Paul, however, implies that some people who were wise and mighty and of good birth had become Christians.\5/ And this is borne out by the book of Acts. The proconsul Sergius Paulus was brought over to the faith in Cyprus (xiii. 7-12),\6/ Dionysius the Areopagite in Athens (xvii. 34), and “not a few women of good position” in Thessalonica (xvii. 4). So with Beroea (xvii. 12). From Rom. xvi. 23 we learn that Erastus, the city-treasurer of Corinth, became a believer. Priscilla, the coadjutor of Paul, must also be assigned to the upper classes, on account of her high culture (see below, under § 4); and Pliny informs Trajan that “many of all ranks” (multi omni ordinis) in Bithynia had gone over to the Christian sect. The epistle of James\7/ inveighs against hard-hearted Christian proprietors, of whom it draws a melancholy sketch, complaining [[35]] also that they are unduly favoured even at the services of the church. In Rome a distinguished lady (“insignis femina,” Tacit., Ann., xiii. 32), Pomponia Græcina, was converted, followed not long afterwards by the consul Titus Flavius Clemens and his wife Domitilla (see under § 2). These and similar results must ere long have attracted a large number of adherents to the local Christian church from the better classes.\8/ Ignatius, in his epistle to the Roman church, assumes that it was so influential as to have the power of hindering his martyrdom, a fear which would have been unreasonable had not the church contained members whose riches and repute enabled them to intervene in this way either by bribery or by the exercise of personal influence. The “Shepherd” of Hermas shows that such people did exist at Rome. We read there of Roman Christians who are “absorbed in business and wealth and friendship with pagans and many other affairs of this world” ( e)mpefurme/noi pragmatei/ais kai\ plou/tw kai\ fili/ais e)Qnikai=s kai\ a)/llais pollai=s pragmatei/ais tou= ai(w=nos tou/tou, Mand., x. 1), and of others who “have won riches and renown among pagans” ( plouth/santes kai\ geno/menoi e)/ndocoi para\ toi=s e)/Qnesin ).\9/ Hermas frequently has occasion to mention the rich members of the church, and his reproofs of their conduct are severe.\10/[[36]]
\5/ Their conversion was always hailed and recorded with special delight by the churches. Note how even Augustine, in the eighth book of his Confessions, talks of the conversion of Victorinus the famous orator; also his general remark (viii. 4 -9) on notable converts: “Quod multis noti multis sunt auctoritati ad salutem et multis præeunt secuturis” (“Because those who are known to many influence many in the direction of salvation, and lead the way for many to follow”).
\6/ See Lightfoot's article in the Contemporary Review, vol. xxxii. (1878), pp. 290 f., Kellner in the Catholik (1888), pp. 389 f., and Wendt's commentary upon Acts, pp. 227 f.
\7/ For Christian merchants who travel, cp. iv. 13 f. The frequent warning against pleoneci/a. (covetousness) which occurs in the primitive literature may apply primarily to traders.
\8/ Dio Cassius relates (lxvii. 14) that many others, besides Clemens and Domitilla, who had apostatied to Jewish customs, were condemned by Domitian on the score of “atheism” : kai\ oi(\ me\n a)pe/Qanon, oi(\ de\ tw=n gou=n ou)siw=n e)sthrh/Qhsan h( de\ Domiti/lla u(pewpi/sQh mo/non ei)s Pandatei/reian (“And some were put to death, while others were stripped at least of their property. Domitilla was merely banished to Pandetaria” ; cp. lxviii. 1, where we are told how Nerva prohibited accusations of atheism and Judaizing). All these people were evidently Christians, and indeed, to some extent at least, people of property. Cp. the inscriptions found in the catacomb of Domitilla, and de Rossi in Bullett. (1865), Pp. 17 f., 33 f., 89 f.; (1874), pp. 5 f ., 68 f., 122 f. ; (1875), pp. 5 f. Even Acilius Glabrio, the senator and ex-consul also mentioned by Dio, was possibly a Christian (cp. below, P- 46).
\9/ He continues thus: u(perhfani/an mega/lhn e)nedu/santo kai\ u(yhlo/frones e)ge/nonto kai\ kate/lipon th\n a)lh\Qeian kai\ ou)k e)kollh/Qhsan toi=s dikai/ois, a)lla) meta\ tw=n e)Qnw=n sune/zhsan, kai\ an)th n( o(do\s h(duter/ra au)toi=s e)faineto (“They invested themselves with a mighty pride and became high-minded, and abandoned the truth, nor did they cleave to the righteous but held intercourse with pagans. Such was the path of life which seemed more pleasant to them,” Sim., viii. 9).
\10/ Sim. I.: ti/ w(=de u(mei=s e)toima/zete a(grou\s kai\ parata/ceis polute/ei=s kai\ oi)kodoma\s kai\ oi)ka/mata ma/taia [cP vol. i. p. 97]; Vis., i. 1. 8, ii. 2, iii. 6. 5 f., iii. 9. 3 f., iii. II. 3; Mand., viii. 3, xii. 1-2; Sim., ii., iv., viii. 8, ix. 20. 1 f., ix. 30. 4 f., ix. 31. 1 f.
In the appendix to his Apology (II. ii.), Justin describes the conversion of a prominent Roman lady, and the Florinus mentioned by Irenæus (in Eus., H.E., v. 20. 5) must have been of good position\11/ Christianity also secured men of culture in her apologists. This was conspicuously the case with the best of the so-called “gnostic” scholars and thinkers. No one can peruse the extant fragments of Valentinus without feeling moved by the lofty spirit and choice culture of the man. And the same holds true of his pupils, Ptolemæus and Heracleon, as may be seen from the former's letter to Flora, and the latter's commentary on the gospel of John. Marcion, too, was so well off that he could present the church of Rome with 200,000 sesterces (see above, vol. i. p. 156). It is very uncertain whether we are to infer from Aristides (Apol., xv. 4) that there were several Christians in the magistracy as early as 150 A.D.\12/
\11/ ei)=don se lamprw=s pra/ssonta e0n th= basilikh av)lh= kai\ eu)dokimei=n para\ Poluka/rpw (“I saw thee faring prosperously in the royal court and endeavouring to stand well with Polycarp”). Cp. the expression of Epiphanius (Hoer., lxiv. 3) about Ambrose, the Mæcenas of Origen: Ambr. tw=n diafanw=n e)n au)lai=s basilikai=s.
\12/ “And if they are judges, they judge righteously.” It is not necessary to suppose that this means public judges.
The age of Commodus marks a distinct stage in the movement. Founding on a source which is no longer extant (see pp. 30 f.), Eusebius relates how the preaching of Christianity spread throughout all classes at this period, w(/ste h)dh kai\ tw=n e)pi\ ‘Rw/mhs eu)= ma/la plou/tw kai\ ge/nei diafanw=n plei/ous e)pi\ th\n sfw=n o(mo/se Xwrei=n panoiki/ te kai\ pallenh= swthri/an. This he proceeds to illustrate by the case of Apollonius at Rome, who belonged at any rate to the upper classes, and indeed was in likelihood a senator.\13/ Not much later than this, perhaps, we [[37]] should date the inscription from Ostia (see above, vol. i. p. 426), which proves that some members of the gens Annæa were Christians; in the same way it is indubitable that a number of the Pomponii had died as Christians by the close of the second century.\14/ Tertullian’s language\15/ tallies with this. He narrates how the pagans complained of people “of all ranks” (“omnis dignitatis,” ad Nat. i. 1, Apol. i.) going over to Christianity, and he himself claims that Christianity has gained possession of “conciliabula, castra ipsa, tribus, decurias, palatium, senatum, forum” [cp. above, p. 7]; also ad Scap., iv.-v.: “Tot viri ac feminae omnis dignitatis . . . . contubernales suos illic unusquisque cognoscet, videbit illic fortasse et tui ordinis viros et matronas et principales quasque personas et amicorum tuorum vel propinquos vel amicos......... Clarissimi viri et clarissimae feminae” (translated above on p. 8).\16/
\13/ Cp. on this Klette, Texte u. Unters., xv. Heft 2, pp. 50 f., and Neumann (op. cit.), p. 80. The Acta Petri cum Simione prove the spread of Christianity among the Roman knights since the age of Commodus. Cp. also Clem. Alex., Adumbr. (Hypotyp.), on 1 Pet. v. 13; “Marcus, Petri sectator, praedicante Petro evangelium palam Romae coram quibusdam Caesarianis equitibus, petitus ab eis,” etc. Pseudo-Linus 3 presupposes the conversion of senators under Commodus: “Innotuerant hoc eis celeri nuntio qui fuerant ex senatoribus illuminati."
\14/ See de Rossi, Rom. sott., ii. tab. 49/50, Nos. 22, 27, and tab. 41, No. 48.
\15/ Tertultian himself was a distinguished lawyer in Rome before he became a Christian (Eus., H. E., ii. 4). There is nothing, in my judgment, to prevent the hypothesis that he is the lawyer whose works are quoted in the Digests.
\16/ Clement (Strom., vi. 18. 167) asserts that not a few philosophers had already turned Christians; and it must also be taken as a sign of the times, when we find the governor of Arabia asking the prefect of Egypt to send Origen to him that be might listen to his lectures (Eus., HE., vi. 19). Compare the introduction to pseudo-Justin's “Address to the Greeks,” in the Syriac edition, which describes the author as “Ambrosius, a high dignitary of Greece, who has become a Christian,” and tells how his “fellow-senators” had raised a protest against him.
Similar testimony is borne by Clement and Origen. The former devoted a special treatise to the problem, “Quis dives salvetur?” and the volume discusses, not rich people who require conversion, but those who are Christians already.\17/ Origen tells the same tale. \18/ If it had been possible at an earlier period to declare that Christians held no offices, and that they had no seats on a civic council, if they could be [[38]] charged once upon a time with “barrenness in practical affairs” (“infructuositas in negotiis”) and “most contemptible indolence” (“contemptissima inertia”), the day for such reproaches had passed by the middle of the third century.
\17/ Cp. ii. f. The Paedagogus also proves that the church, for which its instructions were designed, embraced a large number of cultured people.
\18/ c. Cels., III. ix.: nu)n me\n ow=n ta/xa, o(/te dia\ to\ plh)Qos tw=n proserxome/nwn tw= lo/gw kai\ plou/sioi kai\ tines tw=n e)n a)ci/wmasi kai\ yunai=a ta\ a(bra\ kai\ eu)genh= a)pode/xontai tou\s a)po\ tou= lo/gou, tolmh/sei tis xe/gein dia\ to/ doca/rion proi/staQai/ tinas th=s kata\ xristianou\s didaskali/as; [cp. vol. i. p. 347]; See also II. lxxix. His friend Ambrosius became a decurion (cp. Exhort. ad Mart. xxxvi.: kai\ ma/lista ei) docasqei\s kai\ a)podexqei\s u(po\ plei/stwn oyswn po/lewn nu=n w(sperei= Pompeu/eis ai)/rwn ton stauro\n tou= Insou=, i(ere\ Ambpo/sie )
Throughout the larger churches many Christians were to be found who, by birth or wealth, belonged to good society; people who had so much to lose, that a persecution was a doubly severe test of faith, as both Cyprian\19/ and Eusebius\20/ recognize. The civil service, too, was widely permeated by Christianity. The “Octavius” of Minucius Felix plunges us\21/ into that circle at an early stage in the history of the faith, while the second rescript issued by Valerian in 258 against the Christians takes notice of none but the upper classes and the members of Caesar's household, outside the clergy (Cypr., Ep. lxxx. 1: “Ut senatores et egregii viri et equites Romani dignitate amissa etiam bonis spolientur et si adempti facultatibtis Christiani esse perseveraverint, capite quoque multentur, matronae ademptis bonis in exilium relegentur, Caesariani autem . . . . confiscentur et vincti in Caesarianas possessiones descripti mittantur” = “Senators and prominent men and Roman knights are to lose their position, and moreover be stripped of their property; if they still persist in being Christians after their goods have been taken from them, they are to be beheaded. Matrons are to be deprived of their [[39]] property and banished into exile. But members of Caesar's household are to have their goods confiscated and be sent in chains by appointment to the estates of Caesar”). This rescript shows, more clearly than any single passage\22/ could, the extent to which Christianity had already spread among the upper classes. From this rank sprang bishops like Cyprian, Dionysius of Alexandria, Anatolius, Paul of Samosata, and Phileas of Thmuis,\23/ who bore themselves like prominent statesmen -- Paul of Samosata, moreover, discharging the duties of a ducenarius in addition to his episcopal functions. Dionysius enumerates (in Eus., H.E., vii. 11. 18), among the sufferings he endured for Christianity in the reign of Decius, “Sentences, confiscations, proscriptions, seizure of goods, loss of dignities, contempt of worldly glory, scorn of praise from govenors and councillors” ( a)pofa/seis, dhmeu/seis, prografa/s, u(parxo/ntwn a(rpaga/s, a)ciwma/twn a)poqe/seis, do/chs kosmikh=s o)ligori/as, e)pai/nwn h(lemonikw=n kai\ Bouleutikw=n katafronh/seis ). He also knows of a whole class of Alexandrian Christians whom he describes as profane [...] /steroi e)n tw= ko/smw (Eus., H.E., vi. 41, viii. 11). Anatolius laboured as a statesman in Alexandria, and was a member of the local city council (Eus., H.E., vii. 32).\24/ His fellow citizens in Alexandria requested him to start a local school for the Aristotelian philosophy (Eus., H.E., vii. 32).
\19/ In de Lapsis, vi., however, he draws a repulsive picture of the entirely secular life of the rich Christians.\20/ Eus., HE., viii. 9: e)caire/tws e)kei=noi Qanmasiw/teroi, oi( plou/tw me\n kai\ eu)genei/a kai\ do/ch, lo/gw te kai\ filosofi/a diapre/yantes pa/nta ge mh=n deu/tera Qe/menoi th=s . . . . pi/stews. (“Still more wonderful were those who, though conspicuous for their wealth, birth, and high position, and though eminent in learning and philosophy, yet ranked everything second to their faith”). Even by the time that the Decian persecution broke out in Alexandria, there were many local Christians among the leading people and officials of the city; cp. Dionys. Alex. in Eus., HE., vi. 41. II: polloi\ me\n eu)Qe/ws tw=n perfianete/rwn oi( me\n a)ph/ntwn dhdio/tes, oi( de\ dhmosieu/ontes u(po\ tw=n pra/cewn h)/gonto (“And many of the more eminent people came forward at once in terror, while others, in government service, were induced by their public duties.”).
\21/ The notice (in the Acts of Calocerus and Parthenius) of a Christian consul named Æmilianus is untrustworthy, despite the alleged corroboration afforded by the catacombs (cp. Allard's Persec., iii. pp. 241 f.; Bigelmair's Die Beteil. der Christen am offentl. Leben, 1902, 151 f.). There was a consul of that name in 248 A.D.
\22/ Cp., e.g., the tale of Astyrius, who belonged to the senatorial order, in Eus., HE., vii 16 f.
\23/ Em., HE., viii. 9. 6 f., where he continues (see p. 38, note 2): oi(=os Fileas th=s Omoui+tw=n e)kklhsi/as e)pi/skopos. diapre/yas a)nh\r tai=s kata\ th\n patri/da politei/ais te kai\ leitourgi/ais. (“Such a man is Phileas, bishop of the church at Thmuis, a man eminent for his patriotism and for the services he had rendered to his country, a man of philosophic attainments also”).
\24/ On this bishop see Gomperz in Anz. d. k. Wiener Akad., Phil.-Hist., Klasse (1901), No. vii. 2. Another Christian, Eusebius by name, who afterwards became bishop of Laodicea, also played a political role at Alexandria during this period (Eus, HE., vii. 32). Compare the description of bishop Phileas of Thmuis (viii. 9). If one puts together what is known of Christianity at Alexandria during the last third of the third century and the beginning of the fourth, one gets the impression that the Alexandrian Christians were already a strong and influential party in the city, with which the political authorities had to reckon.
Eusebius (H.E., viii. 1) gives us the position of matters in the reign of Diocletian (ie., down to 303 A.D.) as follows: “The [[40]] emperors,” he says, “even trusted our members with provinces to govern ( ta\s tw=n e)qnw=n h(gemoni/as ), and exempted them from the duty of offering sacrifice.”\25/ Unfortunately, Eusebius has not told us what provinces were committed to Christian governors, just as he fails to mention (in viii. 11)\26/ the name of that town in Phrygia whose entire population, including officials, were Christians. Only two Christians of high position are mentioned by him, viz., Philoromus of Alexandria, \27/ and a certain Adauctus.\28/
\25/ The latter fact has not even yet been weighed properly in any estimate of the situation previous to Constantine. It looks like a recognition of Christianity along administrative lines. On the other hand, the fifty-sixth canon of Elvira permits the acceptance of the duumvirate, but orders the magistrate to keep away from church during his year of office (“Magistratus vero one anno quo agit duumviratum, prohibendum placet ut se ab ecclesia cohibeat"). This is the final compromise.
\26/ This valuable paragraph runs as follows: Pandhmei\ pan/ntes oi( th\n po/lin oi)kou=ntes, logisth/s te au)to\s kai\ su\n toi=s e)n te/lei pa=si kai\ o(/lw dh/mw Xristianou\s sfa=s o(mologou=ntes on)d) o(pwstiou=n toi=s prosta/ttousin ei)dw/olatrei=n e)peiqa/rxoun (“All the inhabitants of the city, together with the mayor, the governor, and all who held office, and the entire populace to boot, confessed themselves Christians, nor would they obey in the least those who bade them worship idols”).
\27/ viii. 9: Filo/rwmos a)rxh/n tina ou) th\n tuxou=san th=s kat) A)leca/ndreian baoilikh=s sioikh/sews e)gkexeirisme/nos, o(\s meta\ tou= a)ciw/matos kai\ th=s P(wmai+kh=s timh=s u(po\ stratiw/tais doruforou/menos e(ka/sths a)nekri/neto h(me/ras (“Philoromus held a high position in the imperial government of Alexandria, and dispensed justice daily, attended by soldiers, as befitted his dignity and Roman post of honour”).
\28/ viii. 11: kai\ tis e(/teros P(wmai+kh=s a)ci/as e)peilhmme/nos, A)/dauktos o)/noma, ge/nos tw=n par) I)ta/lois e)pish/mwn, dia\ pa/shs dielqw\n a)nh\r th=s para\ basileu=si timh=s, w(s kai\ ta\s kaqo/lou dioikh/seis th=s par) au)toi=s kaloume/nhs magistro/thto/s te kai\ kaqoliko/thtos a)me/mptws dielqei=n, k.t.l. (“And there was another Roman dignitary, called Adauctus, sprung from a noble Italian house, who had passed through every place of honour under the emperors, so that he had blamelessly filled the general offices of the magistracy, as it is called, and of minister of finance”).Dorymedon was a member of the civic council in Synnada (cp. Acta Dorym.), and Dativus is described as a senator in the African Acta Sat. et Dativi (cp. Ruinart, op. cit. p. 417).
We can see, then, how even prior to Constantine the Christian religion had made its way into the government service,\29/ just as it had found an entrance, thanks to Clement and Origen, into [[41]] the world of learning, although the vast majority of the aristocracy, by birth or position, still continued to be pagan.\30/ This is indirectly certified by Porphyry as well, and Arnobius writes (ii. 5) to this effect: “Tam magnis ingeniis praediti oratores, grammatici, rhetores, consulti juris ac medici, philosophiae etiam secreta rimantes magisteria haec expetunt spretis quibus paulo ante fidebant” (“Orators of such high endowments, scholars, rhetoricians, lawyers, and doctors, these, too, pry into the secrets of this philosophy, discarding what a little before they relied upon”). We also know a whole series of names of orators and grammarians who came over to Christianity. The Antiochene “sophist” Malchion, “the one man who was capable of refuting and unmasking Paul of Samosata,” was a teacher of Greek learning who had been converted. He seems to have practised his profession even as a Christian (Eus., H.E., vii. 30). Diocletian had a Latin orator and a grammarian summoned from Africa to Nikomedia, when it was discovered that both were Christians (Lactantius and Flavius; cp. Jerome, de Vir. Inlust. lxxx., and adv. Jovin. ii. 6). Arnobius himself was an orator, and only became a Christian in his later years. Possibly Victorinus of Pettau also belonged to this class prior to his Christian vocation. The author of the song “Landes Domini” is to be mentioned in this connection, while in the Gesta apud Zenophilum (under Diocletian) a converted orator appears, who is also described as a Latin grammarian.\31/ [[42]]
\29/ For Christians who took the office of flamen, see the canons of Elvira, and Duchesne's Le concile d'Eivire et les flamines chretiens (1887, Melanges Renier). The council did not prohibit acceptance of this office, but it laid stringent conditions on any Christians who were elected.
\30/ This is especially true of Rome. Even about 360 A.D. we find Augustine writing (Confess., viii. 2. 3: “sacris sacrilegis tunc tota fere Romana nobilitas inflata inspirabat populo iam et ‘omnigenum deum monstra’”) of “the sacrilegious rites to which at that time almost all the Roman nobility were addicted. They inspired the common people too with a passion for monstrous gods of all sorts.”
\31/ About seventy years after Diocletian, the author of the pseudo-Augustinian Quoestiones in Vetus et Novum Testamentum writes (nr. 114 at close): “Quodsi odio digna rea esset aut aliquid haberet fallaciae, quotidie ex Christianis fierent pagani. porro autem, quoniam haec veritas est, quotidie omni hora sine intermissione deserentes Jovem, inter quos sophistae et nobiles mundi, qui eum deum confessi erant, confugiunt ad Christum” (“If Christianity were deserving of hatred or had any element of falsehood in it, Christians would daily turn to paganism. Whereas, just because it is the truth, pagans turn to Christ at every hour of the day, unceasingly, abandoning Jove; amongst them sophists and nobles who formerly worshipped Jove as God”). This was true of the period circa 300 A.D.
It need not be said that the conversion of a dozen or two orators and professors meant nothing either way. The really decisive factor was the development of Christian learning at Alexandria and Caesarea. It adhered to the church. But it won over the educated classes to Christianity, and provided the Neoplatonist philosophers with serious rivals. In the West, where the full strength of Christian learning was not felt, the full strength of learning in general was conspicuous by its absence. Here the upper classes were brought over to the faith by the authority and stability of the church.
§ 2. The spread of Christianity at court.
Let me preface this section with a brief reference to the Jews at the imperial court.\32/ We find them there even in the days of Augustus; indeed, inscriptions tell us that they were so numerous as to possess a synagogue of their own.\33/ As we find inscriptions of Jewesses at Rome called Flavia Antonina, Aurelia, and Faustina, or of Jews called Aurelius, Claudius, and Julianus, it is natural to conjecture that they included many slaves or freedmen from the court, or their descendants.\34/ And they had great influence. It was through the good offices of Alityrus, the Jewish actor, who was a great favourite with Nero, that Joseplius was presented to the empress Poppaea in Puteoli, and obtained, by her help, the liberation of some Jewish priests (Joseph., Vita, iii.). The queen herself seems, in fact, to have been a kind of proselyte (Joseph., Antiq., xx. 8. 11). As has [[43]] been already observed (vol. i. pp. 58, 488), the Jews were probably the instigators of the Neronian outburst against the Christians; the Samaritan Thallus, a freedman of Tiberius, was able to lend the Jewish king, Herod Agrippa, a million denarii;\35/ the relations between the Herodians and the emperors of the Julian and Claudian dynasties were close; \36/ and so on. Previous to the great war, there were certainly many links between the Palestinian Jews and the imperial court, although subsequently, during the next hundred years, they must have become fewer, and finally disappeared altogether. Neither then nor afterwards had they any direct bearing upon the connection of Christians and the court.
\32/ Cp. v. Engestrom's Om Judarne I Rom undre aldre tider och deras katakomber (Upsala, I876).
\33/ Sunagwgh\ Au)gousthsi/wn: C.I.G.,9902,9903; cp.Fiorelli's Catalogo del Museo Nazionale, Iscriz. Lat., 1956, 1960; Orelli, 3222=Garucci, Dissertaz., ii. 162. 12. Engestrom, Nos. 3, 4, p. 31. Besides this, there was a sunagygh\ A)gripphsi/wn in Rome (C.I.G. 9907; Engestrom, No. 2, p. 31), connected, probably, with Agrippa, the friend of Augustus. For other Jewish synagogues in Rome, consult Engestrom; and above, vol. i. p. 443.
\34/ Flavia Antonia: Engestrom, No. 3. Quintus Claudius Synesius, No. 8; Annianus, son of Julianus, No. 9; Julianus, son of Julianus, No. 10; Lucina, No. 16; Lucilla, No. 44; Alexander, son of Alexander, No. 18 ; Va1erius, husband of Lucretia Faustina, No. 19; Gaius, No. 24; Julia, No. 27; Alexander, No. 34 ; Aurelia Camerina, No. 35 ; Aurelius Joses, husband of Aurelia Anguria, No. 36; Aelia Alexandrina, daughter of Aelia Septima, No. 37 ; Flavia Dativa Flaviae, No. 38; Marcella, No. 4I. On the Jews at the imperial court, see Remn's Antechrist, p. 9 n. 2, pp. 125 f. (German ed.), Eng. trans., PP. 4 f., 62 f.
\35/ Jos., Antiq., xviii. 6. 4. For the court intrigues of Acme, the Jewish slavegirl of the emperor Livia, see Antiq., xvii. 5. 7 f.., Bell. Jud., i. 32. 6 f.
\36/ Caracalla is reported to have had a Jewish playmate (Spart., Caracall., i.).
This latter connection has been overgrown by a luxuriant tangle of legend and romance.\37/ Peter and Paul are said to have stood before Nero,\38/ while John was condemned by Domitian in person, and dozens of their contemporaries at the [[44]] imperial court are alleged to have become Christians. All this we must simply ignore. More serious attention perhaps should be paid to Tertullian's statement about Tiberius (in Apol. v., reproduced in Eus., H.E., ii. 2), but in the end one is obliged to dismiss the whole account as unauthentic.
\37/ No attempt has yet been made to collect the opinions of Christians on the personal character and regulations of the various emperors, although ample material lies in the apologists Melito, Tertullian, Origen, Lactantius, Eusebius, etc., as well as in the Sibylline Oracles and the Apocryphal Acts.
\38/ So the Acta Petri et Pauli (Renan's Antechrist, ibid.); cp. especially c. 31. 36 f., 84. The legend assumes varied forms in many writers (cp. also the pseudo-Clementine literature, which, in its extant shape, is not perhaps earlier than the opening of the fourth century), and somewhere in the course of the sixth century it was finally shaped in the Acta Pseudo-Lini and the Acta Ner. et Achill. In the first book of the former Acts, Nero is only mentioned incidentally, but many noble ladies are described as converted, including four concubines of the prefect Agrippa (Agrippina, Eucharia, Euphemia, Dionis), and Xandippe, the wife of Albinus, “Caesaris amicissimi.” According to Book II., however, the preaching of Christianity proved far more efficacious: “Paul was visited by a mighty concourse from the imperial household, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. . . . . And besides, the instructor of the emperor [i.e., Seneca] was closely knit to him by ties of friendship, recognizing that he possessed the mind of God” (“Concursus quoque multus de dome Caesarii fiebat ad Paulum, credentium in dominum Jesum Christum . . . . sed et institutor imperatoris adeo car illi amicitia copulatus, videns in eo divinam sententiam”). A magister Caesaris reads aloud Paul's writings, and many of Nero's personal retinue (“ex familiari obsequio Neronis”) follow the apostle. Patroclus, a former page of the emperor, who was then “ad vini officium” (acting as wine-bearer), becomes a Christian. Barnabus, Justus, a certain Paul, Arion Cappadox, Festus Gallata, are all Christian servants of Nero, while a distinguished lady, named Plantilla, is a friend of Paul. A section of Nero's cowl is thus represented as having been Christians. In Pseudo-Linus, and still more in the Acta Ner. et Achill., which would more aptly be described as Acta Domitilloe, many historical names of Christians belonging to the second and third centuries (in the capital and from a wider environment) have been employed, but all the allusions to the court are imported, as is shown by the ancient martyrologies, which know nothing of such a phase (cp. Achelis in Texts u. Unters., xi. 2). It was the historical fact of Clement and Domitilla being relatives of Domitian which fired this train of fantasy, although, so far as we know, it did not start till the close of the second century. Thereafter relatives of the emperor are part of the regular stock-in-trade of the apocryphal Acts of Peter and Paul (cp. also the Acta Barnabae auctore Marco, c. 23; I)eboussai=os, suggenh\s Nerw=nos). Even Livia, Nero's consort, was reported to have been a convert. It is just possible that several Roman Christians, mentioned in the oldest Acta Petri (Vercell.), wears historical personalities. In chap. iii. we read: “Dionysius et Balbus ab Asia, equites Romani, splendidi viri, et senator nomine Demetrius adhaerens Paulo . . . . item de demo Caesaris Cleobius et Ifitus et Lysimachus et Aristeus, et duae matronae Berenice et Filostrate cum presbytero Narcisso.” And in chap. viii: Marcellus senator. In the Acts of Paul, the oldest member of this class of literature (dating from the second century), a polu\ plh=qos e\k th=s Kai/saros o)ki)as is mentioned as having listened to the preaching of the apostle and been converted. The emperor's cup-bearer, Patroclus (see above) is specially mentioned; also a oi( prw=toi tou= Ne/rwnos, Barnabas Justus, d platu/pous, Urion of Cappadocia, Festus of Galatia, the prefect Lagus, and the centurion Cestus.
Paul's epistle to the Philippians closes with these words: a)spa/contai u(ma=s pa/ntes oi( a(/gioi, ma/lista de\ oi( e)k th=s Kai/saros oi)ki/as (iv. 22). This implies that the Roman church contained a special group of Christians who belonged to the Household of the Caesar, people who either had had some previous connection with the Philippian church or had recently formed a connection with it by means of Epaphroditus, the Philippian envoy. \39/
\39/ Perhaps they had entertained him. But one must bear in mind that the town of Philippi was almost entirely Latin (or Roman), and that it would therefore be in intimate relations with the capital (cp. Acts xvi. 21).
Several years before Philippians was written, Paul wrote the epistle to the Romans. Within the ample list of greetings in the sixteenth chapter, \40/ Paul groups two sets of people: the [[45]] Christians belonging to the household of Narcissus, and those belonging to that of Aristobulus (10-11). These Christians must therefore have been members of the households of two distinguished men who were not Christians themselves. Now, as we know that during the reign of Claudius no one in Rome was so powerful and so intimate with the emperor as a certain Narcissus, and also that a certain Aristobulus (an uncle of Herod the Great) was living then at the capital as a confidential friend of Claudius, it seems likely that these were the very two persons whose households are mentioned here by the apostle. \41/
\40/ Many scholars separate this chapter from the rest of the epistle, and take it as a note to Ephesus. But the reasons for such a tour de forces do not appear to me convincing.
\41/ Narcissus died in 54/55, and in my opinion Romans was written in 53/54 (though the majority of critics put it four or five years later). On Narcissus, the freedman and private secretary of Claudius (“ab epistulis”), see Prosopogr., ii. p. 397, and Lightfoot's Philippians (third ed.), p. 173: “As was usual in such cases, his household would most probably pass into the hands of the emperor, still, however, retaining the name of Narcissus. One member of the household apparently is commemorated in an extant inscription: TI . CLAVDIO . SP . F . NARCISSIANO (Murat., p. 1150, 4).” See also Hirschfeld's remark in the Beitrage zur alten Geschichte, ii. 2, p. 294: “The pro/teron Narki/ssou ou)si/a which passed to the emperor (Wilcken's Ostraka, i. 392 f.) is rightly referred to the private secretary of Claudius.” Thus the Christians of Caesar's household mentioned in Philippians might be the members of the household of Narcissus mentioned in Romans. Aristobulus was still alive (according to Josephus, Antiq., xx. 1. 2) in 45 A.D. at any rate, but the year of his death has not been preserved. His domestic establishment also may have been transferred to the imperial household (see Lightfoot, loc. cit.).
At the close of their epistle to Corinth (the so-called First Epistle of Clement), in 95-96 A.D., the Roman Christians explain how they entrusted the delivery of the epistle to two seniors who had lived blameless lives among them from youth upwards. At the latest, then, these men must have become Christians by 50 A.D. They were called Claudius Ephebus and Valerius Bito, and Lightfoot rightly assumes that they were members of the retinue of the emperor, as the wife of Claudius (Messalina) belonged to the gens Valeria. Thus they would be among the Christians who sent greetings in Paul's letter to the Philippians.\42/ [[46]]
\42/ I pass over the alleged relations between Seneca and Paul and their forged correspondence; nor does it prove anything for our present purpose to find that some members of the gens Annaea subsequently became Christians (see vol. i. p. 426). There is no warrant for claiming Acte, one of Nero's favourite slaves, as a Christian, and it is a matter of really no moment if names (such as Onesimus, Stephanus, Phoebe, Crescens, Artemas) occur in this environment which also recur in the New Testament. On the other hand, we may note, at this point, that the early (though, of course, entirely fictitious) Acta Pauli of the second century mention a queen Tryphaena in Asiatic Antioch, who shows motherly kindness to the Christian Thekla. She is described, and described correctly, as a relative of the emperor; for Tryphaena, the consort of King Polemon of Asia Minor (in the middle of the first century), was connected with the Emperor Claudius (v. Gutschmidt, Rhein. Museum, 1864, pp. 176 f.).
T. Flavius Clemens and his wife Domitilla, who were closely related to Domitian, were certainly Christians, and it was as Christians that they were punished \43/ in 95-96. Their sons, the presumptive heirs to the throne, were brought up by a Christian mother. The contemporary presbyter-bishop of Rome, Clement, is in all likelihood different from the consul of that name; nevertheless, he may have belonged to the royal household. The murderer of Domitian, a member of Domitilla’s household, need not have been instigated by the church, although he is said to have carried out his plot in order to revenge his mistress.\44/ Of his Christianity nothing whatever is known. \45/
\43/ Dio Cassius, lxvii. 14; Suet., Domit. 15; Eus., HE., iii. 17; Bruttius, in Eus., HE., iii. 18. 5. Domitilla's person, lineage, and place of exile are matters of dispute. Perhaps there were two Christian Domitillas, both of whom were exiled (?). For her lineage, see C. 1. L., vi. 1, No. 948.
\44/ Suet., Domit., 15. 17; Dio Cassius, lxvii. 15-17; Philostr., Vita Apoll., viii. 25.
\45/ On the other hand, Acilius Glabrio, whom Domitian punished, was perhaps a Christian (Suet., Donit. to; " Complures senatores, in its aliq,@ot consulates, inte,emit, ex quibus......... Salvidienum Orfitum, Acilium GI.b,ione. in exilic quasi molitores novarum return"). There is a burial-niche of the Acilii in the catacombs, but the connection of this with Acilius Glabrio is uncertain.
The traces in Hermas of Christians at court are dim. Hadrian, that inquisitive searcher into all manner of novelties (“omnium curiositatum explorator”) may have busied himself, among other things, with judicial proceedings against Christians, but his letter to Servian is probably a forgery (Vopisc., Saturn. 8), and the statement that he wished to erect a temple to Christ is quite untrustworthy.\46/ His freedman Phlegon, who composed a chronicle of the world, perhaps with some assistance from his master, betrays indeed a superficial acquaintance with the life and miracles of Jesus, but he mixes up Christ and Peter (Orig., C. Cels., 11. xiv.). [[47]]
\46/ Lamprid, Alex- 43 : "Christo templum facere voluit eumque inter deos recipere. quod et Hadrianus cogitasse fertur, qui templa in omnibus civitatib.s sine simulacris iusserat fieri [which is possible], quae hodieque idcirco quia non [[47b]] habent numina dic,ntur Hadriani, qlia file ad h@ para... di,,btu, " ("He wished to erect a temple to Christ and to enrol him among the god,-, ,,je,t which Hadrian also is said to have entertained. For that emperor had ordered temples without images to be erected in every city, and these are to this day ,Il,d ' Hadrian's,' since they have no idols, and since they are said to bae be,, ai,,d by him for this purpose "). What follows may apply to Alexander rather than to Hadrian. The legend may have arisen, not earlier than the third century, in order to explain the Hadrianic temple nullius dei.
In the proceedings taken against Justin at Rome during the early years of M. Aurelius, one of his pupils is also implicated, Euelpistus by name. He describes himself as an imperial slave (Acta Just i, 4), so that Christianity had evidently not died out among the members of the imperial household. Perhaps the Palatine caricature of a crucifix (Mtis. Kircher) also belongs to this period; but probably it is later (reign of Alex. Severus). It proves that Christians were still to he found among the royal pages.\47/
\47/ Wunsch (Sethianische Ver@.,hiingstafein aux Rm., I 898, Pp. I 12 f.) refuses to regard this as a caricature ; be holds it is a sacred symbol of the Sethian gnosis. But this is very doubtful. Our knowledge of the Sethians during the second and third centuries is far too limited to justify us in making such a deduction. The ass's head may refer to the Typhon Seth. But what of the crucifixion?
Under Commodus we hear of Carpophorus,\48/ a Christian "of the emperor's household," whose slave rose to be bishop Callistus (Hippol., Philos., ix. 12). And Irenaeus writes (iv. 30. 1) as follows: "Quid atitern et hi qui in regaii aula sunt fideles, noniie ex eis quae Caesaris aunt habent utensilia et his qui not] habent unusquisque eorum secundum suam virttitem praestat ? " (,,And what of those who in the royal palace are believers? Do they not get the utensils they use from the emperor's property ? And does not each one contribute, according to his ability, to those who liave no such utensils ? "). Which proves that there was quite a group of Christians at court, and that their circumstances were good. For a number of years, too, the royal concubine Marcia (oOTa 95INjOE09 WaXXaK@ Kouidou) was [[48]] the most influential person at court during this period; as Hippolytus relates, the Roman bishop Victor had free access to her presence, while it was through her mediation that he secured the release of Christians who were languishing in the mines of Sardinia.\49/
\48/ This Carpophorus is probably the Carpophorus who erected a monument or tomb at Rome to himself, his household (brother, nephews, rates.. Seleicus, their freedmen and freedmeii's offspring), and his male and female freed slaves with their offspring (cp. C.I.L., vi. 13040). The date agrees, and no trace of paganism occurs in the inscription. Besides, as 0. Hirschfeld kindly points out to me, the generosity which embraces so many persons on a monument is unusual in one who is not a Christian.
\49/ For Marcia, see Neumann, ap. cit., PP. 84 f. Her fiendliness to Christians is attested also by DiO Cassius, I-xii- 4- 6 Op@o.@ l@l MaPKI'a$ was a Christian presbyter called Hyacinthus, according to Hippolytus. He negotiated between the royal lady and the Roman church, so that he probably lived at court. · We know r@othing of this lady. Tertullian speaks of her as a familiar figure, but the text is uncertain. · Tertullian (de Corona, xii.) seems to suggest that there were also Christians in the imperial bodyguard. I The 4cta Charalampi Bolland., ioth Feb., PP. 382 f.) mention a daughter of Severna who was a Christian.
As for the age of Septimius Severus, Tertullian (-4pol. xxxvii.) testifies to the presence of Christians in the royal palace; and in ad Scapulam, iv., be writes as follows: " Even Severus himself, the father of Antoninus, was mindful of the Christians. For he sought out Proculus the Christian, surnamed Torpacion, the agent of Euhodial \50/ who had once cured him by Yneaiis of oil, keeping him in the palace to the day of his death......... And both men and women of the highest rank, whom Severus knew to be members of this sect, were not i-nerely exempted by him from injury, but also had open testimony borne them by himself, and were publicly restored to us out of the hands of a raging mob" ("lpse etiam Severna, pater Antonini, Christianorum memor fuit; nam et Proculum Christianum, qui Torpacion cognominabatur, Euhodiae procuratorem, qui eum per oleum aliquando curaverat, requisivit et in palatio suo habuit usque ad mortem eius . . . . sed et clarissimm feminm et clarissimos viros Severus, sciens huius sectae esse, non modo non laesit, verum et testimonio exornavit et populo furenti in nos palam reStitit").\51/ His son, Caracalla, also was on intimate terms with this Christian (" optime noverat "), and Tertullian proceeds to describe him as having had a Christian wet-nurse (I'lacte Christiano educatus').\52/ Under him died the Christian high chamberlain Prosenes in 217 A.D.; for de Rossi is probably right in concluding from the inscription set up for him by his slaves (Imcr. Ch?-ist., i. No. 5, p. 9) that he died a [[49]] Christian.\53/ During the tbird century the court officials became more powerful thaii ever-although even in the first cetitury individual freedmen of the imperial house had come to exercise a commanding influence in the management of the tat,. Originally the court appointments and the offices of state were sharply distinguished. While the latter could not be held mve by freemen of knigbtly or senatorial rank, the former were filled up with imperial freedmen and slaves. But gmdually the knights irivaded the imperial household, while, on the other hand, freedmen and slaves were ennobled and admitted to the higher branches of the civil service. It was still customary, however, for imperial freedmed or the " Caesariani " \54/ to hold the court appointments (in which a graduated hierarchy of offices also obtained), and frequently they became the most influential persons in the state. Thus even a Cliristian, if he possessed the confidence of the emperor, could become a man of importance in the empire.
\50/
\51/
\52/
\53/ As the Christianity of P@osene, simply is an inferen,, fom th, ,,d, r@eptus ad deum " and from the lack of any pag.n pb ... e,, it i, not e,t,in. Besid@, Prosenes himself did not use these words.
\54/ For details, see Hirschfeld's Die Zai@elichen Vemaltungbe'llle, bi, auf Diocletian (2nd ed., I905), especially PP. 47, f., , th, "C,Mriani." The later group of " Cwsariani " (or " Catholiciani ") is to be distinguished from the " Cxsariani " in general. The form,r h,d t, ll,k ft,r th, ,i.... of confiscated goods. They @e referred to in Valerian's decree against Christians.
Some of the Syrian royal ladies were favourably disposed to Christianity. Julia Mammwa, we are told, summoned Origen to Antioch, and Hippolytus dedicated a volume to her,\55/ Orosius, therefore, dubs her a Christian (vii. 18). The court of her son, the emperor Alexander, was composed of many ChristianS,\56/ and he himself was so favourable to them that be was celebrated by the Christians not long after his death as one who haai been secretly a fellow-believer. His sayings prove that this " Syrian chief of the synagogue" (@mprid., -41ev. 28) [[50]] really busied himself with the Christian religion. The Christian author Julius Africanus was a friend of his.\57/
\55/ Eus., HE., Vi. 21. On Hippolytus and Mamm=, see my Hi,,,,y f Christian Literatt,,e, i. pp. 6o5 f. We do not know who the Severina is, mentioned on the statue of Hippolytus ; some have wrongly thougbt of Aquilia Severa, the consort of Elagibalus.
\56/ Eus., H. E., Vi@ 28: @p6s b@ 'AA@@@&PO@ FM. ?K Hence Orosius (Vii. 29) speaks of a " familia Cbristiana Alex."
The state of matters remained the same uiider Pbilip the Arabian, wbo also was claimed ere long as a secret Christian (Eus., H.-E., vi. 34). Origen wrote to him @d to his consort Severa (Eus., H.E., vi. 36). And qyprian, looking back on this period, writes adgrily that " the majority of the bishops, SCORDing the stewardship of God, became stewards of earthly monarchs" ("episcopi plurimi divina procuratione contempta procuratores regum saecularium facti sunt," de fap@, vi.). So that it was not merely the laity, but the ver ' v bishops m well, who pressed forward into the most influential and lucrative appointments at the royal CoUrt! \57/
\56/ We knew already that Julius Africanus had dedicated his K@w,@i to the emperor, but now Grenfell and Hunt (oxy,-hy,,I,,, 1,@fiyi, ,I. iii., I903,PP. 36f.) have discovered the conclusion of the eighteenth book of the K@a@@i on , papyrus which seems to have been written between 225 nd 265. We read he,, that " (thou wilt find these H,meri, er ... ) 4y 'Pep.V @OS TaS 'AX@l,&Spo. O@pl,.7, ep T- -xn h@ a&,6@ Tq; Africanus was also a friend of Abgar, king of Edessa, but he and his court had been avowedly Christian since the beginning of the third century (cp. the local Christian thinker and poet, Bardemnes),
\57/ Naturally, there was a constant interchange between royal officials in the capital and throughout the imperial possessions in the provinces,-For the landed property of the emperors during the first three centuries, see Hirscbf@ld's study in the Beilrdge z. allen Geschichle, Bd. 2, H. 1, PP- 45 f., H. 2, pp. 284 f. " The imperial property in the provinces was far more valuable than it was in Italy. Egypt deserves mention primarily in this connection, since Augustus had taken it over in his capacity of assignee of the Egyptian kings......... But of all the provinces of the empire (P. 295), none had so enormous an imperial property to show as Afrim'
Like Maximinus Thrax, both Decius\58/ and Valerian after Iiim purged the court of Christians. At the opening of Valerian's reigntheirnumberhadagaininereased. "Fortheemperorwas friendlyaiidfavourabletotheservaiitsof God; noneofthe previous emperors, none even of those who were said to be Christians, ever behaved with such kindness and favour to them asdidvalerian. Hetreatedthemwithquiteundisguisedfrie-iidliness and goodwill at the commencement of his reign; his whole [[51]] court wa*fuu of piou8 people; it wa8 a ve?itable church of God" (Dionys. Alex. in Ella., H.E., vii. 10). But this did not continue. And in the second rescript of 258 A.D. against the Christians, the following allusion to the "Coesariani" occurs: "Caesaiiani quicumque vel prius confessi fuerant vel none confessi fuerint confiseentur et viiicti in Caesarianas possessiones descripti mittantur " (Cypr., Ep. lxxx. ; see above, p. 49).
\58/ In the Martyrdom of St Conon (under Decius) it is stated that he was a gardener in the royal garden at Magydus in Pamphylia (cp. von Gebhardt's .4cia Mart. Selecta, p, 130).
The persecution, however, did not last. Under his son Gallienus, the Christians already made their way back into the court,\59/ and now increased at such a rate \60/ that under Diocletian (whose wife and daughter were Christians) \61/ the court at Nicomedia consisted largely of Christians .\62/ The early rescripts \63/ of Diocletian were specially designed to purge the court of them. Eusebius also states that there were Christians at the court of Constantius Chlorus (Vita Const., i. 16), and the same holds true of the court of Licinius.\64/
\59/ It is pure fantasy to assert, as has been quite recently done, that his cons.,t Cornelia Salonina was a Christian ; all we know is that she was a friend of Plotinus, as Porphyry relates (Vita Plotin. i 2). No satisfactory explanation has ken offered, however, of the legend on several of her coins, " Augusta in pace (Schiller's Gesch. d. Rim. Kaise"eit, i. 2, P. 908).
\60/ We hear, for example, of Dorotheus, the presbyter of Antioch, being appointed to superintend the imperial dye-wo,ks at Tyre (Eus., HE., vii. 32). Incidentally, Eusebius remarks (vii. i6) that Asty,ius, a Christian of senatorial mnk, owns very highly esteemed by the emperors." He gives an instance of his great candour.-The position of Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, under Zenobia is well known. He filled a high office of state. Was Zenobia a Jewess ?
\61/ Perhaps Flavia Ma.imiana Theodora, the second consort of Constanti.s Chlorus, was also a Christian. She was Ma.imian's stepdaughter ; cp. v. Schultze in Protest. Real-Eneyk4(3), x. PP. 758 f. One of their daughters was called Anastasia, and the cross appears on one of her coins (after 328) alongside of her likeness. We are no longer able to mcertain how near Constanti.s Chlorus drew to Christianity.
\62/ E@., H. E., viii. i i. Compare the parallel passage in Lactantius, de Morte Persec. iS; also the stories of the courtiers Dorotheus and Gorgonius (E.s., viii, 6) and the pagan Pettus. We may accept the death of the two martyred courtiers Sergius and Bacchus as historical, though their 4cla are unauthentic.
\63/ The epistle of Theonas, which tells of a Christian librarian of Diocletian, is a forgery ; cp. my study in Texts u. Untg'S., XXIV. 2.
\64/ See Jerome's Chron. ad arm. 2337 : " Licinius Christianos de palatio suo pellit" (Licinius e.pels the Christians from his palace ").
This sketch, which makes no pretension to be complete, may serve to indicate how Christians made their way into the court [[52]] at an early period, and how they became a factor which was occasionally quite important.
§ 3. The spread of Christianity in the army.\65/ The position of a soldier would seem to be still more incompatible with - Christianity than the higher offices of state, for Christianity prohibited on principle both war and bloodshed. Yet officers under certain circumstances were responsible for the deathpenalty, like the higher state officials, while the rank and file, even apart from manslaughter in battle, had to do all they were told. Furthermore, the unqualified military oath conflicted with the UDqualified duty of a Christian to God. Then again, the imperial cultus came specially to the front in the army ; it was almost unavoidable for each individual soldier. The officen had to sacrifice, and the soldiers had to take part. The regimental colotirs also seemed like pagan "sacra,' so that veneration for them was a sort of idolatry. Even military distinctions (like crowns, etc.) appeared to strict Christians to be tainted with idolatry. And, finally, the conduct of soldiers during peace (their extortion, their license, their police duties) was as opposed to Christian ethics as their wild debauchery and sports(e.g.,IltheMimus")atthepaganfestivals. Chrigtianity, therefore, never becavw a religion of the camp, and all represenlatioiis of Christianity which make out m if it bad diffused itself specially by means of soldiers are to be set aside (see vol. i. pp. 308, 368). Upoi) the other hand, there were Christian soldiers from a very early period, perhaps from the very first, though the " military " problem did not become acute for Christians till about the reign of Marcus Aurelius or Commodus. It is easy to understand why this was so. Down to that period Christian soldiers were still few and far between. Christianity bad won them when they were soldiers already- The rule held good, " Let every one remain in the calling wherein he was called." Other callings bad also special dangers of their own. Besides, the end was coming soon. Later on, however, Christianity [[53]] permeated the army more thoroughly, especially in the East (perhaps in Africa also).\66/ Even Christians took service freely or compulsorily, and the idea of a speedy annihilation of all thingsfadedaway. The"military"problemnowemerged: Can a Christian become or remain a soldier? \67/ And if so, how is he to conduct himself in the army? The strict party of believers tried to demonstrate that the Christian religion and the military calling were inconsistent, claiming that Christian soldiers ought to leave the service or else suffer martyrdom. They exulted over every case in which a soldier, under the impulse of his Christian conscience, deliberately committed a breach of military discipline and was marched off to prison for his offense. Yet such cases were rare. Oiie or two resignations certainly did take place, as well as acts of blunt insubordination; but Christian soldien considered that it wm quite permissible for them to observe the regulations and ceremonies cuffent in the service, while the church, relying on Luke iii. 14, and on the centurions of Capernaulii and Cwsarea (cp. also the centurion at the foot of the cross), shut one eye to such matters from the very flrst. In fact, by the opening of the third century, the large body of Christians took it amiss if any soldier endangered his fellowsoldiers (or, under certain circumstances, the whole of the loml church) by any outburst of Christian fanaticism. As for the rigorous party, they hardly made anything of their prohibitions. Why, in the prayers of the church \68/ the army was regularly mentioned next to the emperor! [[54]]
\65/ Cp. my study, Militia Chisli in den esten d,-ei jahrlunderte- (I905), Bigelmair's Die Beteiligung der Ch@iten m b@entliehez Leben in voreoistant. Zeit (1902, pp. 164 f.), de jong's Dienstwe@kemng hij de oude Chistenel (Leyden, igo5), and Guignebert's Tertullian, Itude sur ses sentimentsi P@gardde Pempire etde la socilieleiz4le (Paris, igoi, pp. igg f.).
\66/ A good deal in Christianity would appeal to soldiers : the rule of the one God, His mighty acts of warfare as told by the Old Testament, the ease with which the religion could be transported front place to place, since it needed neither temple nor images, the close bond which knit the adherents, etc.
\67/ Of course, it was something to have the power of Christ displayed in the devil's camp 1
\68/ Cp. Tert., Apol. xxx. ; Cyprian, ad Deiietr. xx. ; Arnob., iv- 36 ; and the ,4,ta Seba@tiani. The hearing of the ch.rch's pryers upon this question need not be exaggerated, however, since prayer was offered even for one's enemies, and since one could have very different ideas about the " salus Romani e.ercitus " and the army itself. Besides, the prayer it the army formed part of the " vota pro Cmsare." The emperor, even from the apocalyptic standpoint, had a certain divine right of existence as a bulwark against anarchy and the barbarian hordes ; for the " pax terrena " was a relative good, even from the strictest Christian standpoint, as being bound up with the desired " o@a fi.is " (in the sense of [[54b]] punitive judgment). Now the emperor needed soldiers to maintain this "pa. terrena. " They were part and parcel of the " sword" which (Pom. xiii- 4) is recognized m a divine attribute of authority, and which no church-fatfier ever dared to deny, in so many words, to the emperor.
And yet, even though he managed to come to some terms about the necessary regulations, the Christian soldier occupied a more perilous position than the ordinary ChristiaD. At ally moment his connection with the forbidden sect might occasiOD summary proceedings against him; besides, he might be expired to perform wtions which even the laxer Cbristian conscience forbade. Martym in the army therefore appear to have been relatively more numerous than among civilians; at any rate, they are to be met with even during periods which have no record of any other martyrs. The number of Cbi-istian officers and soldiers in the army gradually idcreased, however, after the reign of Gallienus; so much so that the military authorities began to connive at Christianity; they made allowance for it, and looked on quietly while Christian officers made the sign of the cross at the sacriflces. Moreover, they often dispensed silently witli their attendance at these sacrjfi(!es.\1/ It was only iii the ca@ of a triumph that strict measures were taken. The emperor Galerius, who was a pagan fanatic, would noL tolerate this position of affairs any IODger. Incited by the priests, be tried to check the clandestine process bv means of which the army wm beitig Christianized and the gods more and more affronted. He made Diocletian agree to introduce repressive measures. The great persecution which ensued was directed primarily against Christian soldiers, and Licinius followed it up by a special edict against them. Conversely, the public toleration and preferential treatineiit of the Christian religion began with the affiXiDg of the cross to the colours of the regiments (by Coiistantine during his expedition against M@entius). Such is, in brief, the scope covered by the theme "the
\69/ Cp. below on Eus., viL i5, and, on the other hand, Lact., de Mort. x. The church also abstained fro. making the soldier question acute by means of casuistry or decisions on the principle involved. At the great Spanish Council of Elvira, held shortly before the outburst of the Diocleti.. persecution, an eloquent silence p"vailed on this question, though the council otherwise laid down rules for the reltion f the church to the state, the community, and society in general.
[[55]]
Christian and the soldier"during the pre-Constantine period.\1/ A concise collection of the most important items now falls to be subjoined.
In 2 Tim. ii. 3 f. and Clem. Rom. xxxvii., the career or organgation of the military profession is quite frankly adduced as pattern for Christians.'-The oldest evidence for Christians, nd indeed for a fairly large number of Christians, in a legion is imished by the contemporary accounts of the iniracle of the tin under M. Aurelius (Apollinaris and 'Vertullian in Eus., r.E., v. 5). The legion in question was that of Melitene (the 2th), and it is not surprising that of all legions it should contin a considerable percentage of Christians, since it was recruited Lmm districts where Christians were particularly iiumerous.\3/ ieither then nor subsequently did any ChristiaD censure these Dldiers for their profession. Indeed, Clement of Alexandria lainly assumes that the niilitaxy vocation is consistent with the onfession of the Christian faith. \4/ Tertullian \5/ was the sternest f the stri(!t party who held that the army and Christianity ,ere irreconcilable; yet iiot merely d@s he testify to the i@nce of Christiatis in the army during his own day, but he Im enough of a politician at the same time to lay a satisfied ;ress upon this very fact before civil governors. Did it iiot @fute the accusation that Christians were idle anchorites and
\70/ On the church's use of figures and descriptions drawn from the military citing, see vol. j. PP- 414 f. The possibility of the language of the camp hvi,g Buenced the ecclesiastical dialect in Afica must be left an open question.
\71/ Among the charges brought by Eusebius against Maximinus D=a (H. E., @iii. @. II) is that of having rendered the army effeminate. E.sebius's feelings thus e those of a Iyal citizen of the e@upire.
\72/ Even at a later period the legion still had Christians in its ranks ; cp. Eus., :E-, v- 5- I, and Gregory of Nyssa's O,.I. 11. is, XL. Alatyra, (opp. Paris, 138, t- iii- P. 505 f.). The forty martyrs (see below) also belonged to this legion. ! my essay on this miracle of the rain in the Til@uTsber. d. k P,. 4kad. d. fss., z894, pp. 835 f
\73/ Proirepi., .. i@: @@ i .D ,as (,-Has knowledge come upon you in military service ? n listen to that Comniander who gives righteous orders"), which does not, @urse, mean tbatonemust give up the army. Cp. P",I. ii. II. 117, ii. 12. I21, 12. 91.
\74/ Tatian's (Oat. xi.) phrase, h, @apo,7A., (" I renounce the m") refers to the prmto@hip, but he, too, was undoubtedly opposed to the itary calling.
[[56]] gymnosophists?\1/ Nevertheless, the incompatibility of the higher positions in the army with the Christian vocation was settled for TerLullian by one consideration, viz., that such officers had to perform judicial duties amongst others; while surely the private soldier, he argues, cannot be a Christian, since a man cannot be in two camps at the same time-in that of Christ and in that of the devil-nor can a man serve two masters by the " sacramentum,' or oath of loyalty. Furthermore, in disarmiiig Peter, Christ stripped every Christian of his sword, and this renders every appeal to the soldiers who came to John or to the centurion at Capernaum quite untenable (de Idolol. xix.). The soldier who (in 211 A.D.) refused a Ynilitary crown and was executed\2/ for his refusal, was hailed with triumph by Tertullian. He devoted a special treatise to this case-which \3/ plainly proves that the case was quite unique, and that other Christians in the army accepted the military crown without any hesitation.
Origen, too, was one of the stricter party. When Celsus
\75/ Apol. xxxvii. : " Vestra omnia implevimus castra ipsa." xlvii. : II Non sumus Bmchnianae out Indorum gyninosophistae mililaus vobiscum " [cp. Vol. 1. p. 2701. For Christians in the army at La.bese, see ad Scp. iv. Here, however, he is concealing his own opinions Oust as in the -4pologia, where he simply says that Christians pray " pro mora finis " ; he is also concealing that fervid longing for the advent of Christ's kingdom which finds expression in his exposition of the words, " Thy kingdom come "). His private Views on the army are given in d, Idolol. ix. and de Co,,otia Militis (cp. also de P.Ilio, v. : non milito).
\76/ Probably this soldier, who would not break any other military rules, really wanted to secure for Christians in the army the same consideration as was shown to adherents of Mithm ; cp. my Militia Ch@sti, p, 68.
\77/ This is brought out with still greater clearness in that view of the subject which was current in Christian circles (ch. i.). "Abruptus, pracceps, oti c,pidus," such a soldier was dubbed (" headstrong, rash, and eager for death "). " Mussitant denique tam home et longam sibi pacem periclitari . . . . ubi prohibemu, coronari? " (" They murmur at their prolonged aid happy peace being en. dangered Where, they ask, are we forbidden to get crowned?"), In ch. xi. Tertullia. expounds still more sharply than in the treatise de Idololti,, the incompatibility of Christianity and the military calling. Here, too, be discusses the question, What is a soldier to do who is converted when a soldier? At one moment it sees as if he ight remain a soldier (Luke iii, I4 ; Matt. iii. to ; Acts x. i f.). There is always the possibility that one might take all pre,,u. tions against committing say irreligious action as a soldier. But Tertullian recommends only two ways out of the difficulty: either esigning one's post (" or a multis serum " - as has been done by many) or suffering martyrdom,
[[57]] demands that Christians ought to aid the emperor'\1/ by entering the army, Origeii answers by poiiiting out that they do so by their prayers ; inartial service is no iuore to be expected from them than from priests.' " We do not accompany the emperor to battle, not even when we are required to do so. But we do battle on his behalf, since we form an army of our own, an army of pietv by our prayers to God." Finally, Lactantius was another rigorist (Iiistit., vi. 20. 16): " Militare iusto non licebit, coins militia est ipsa justitia, neque vero accusare queiiiquaiii crimine capitali, quia nihil distat utrumzle ferro an verbo patios occidas, quoniam occisio ipsa prohibetur" ("It shall not be lawful for the righteous mail to engage in warfare. His true warfare is righteousness itself. Nor will he be right in accusing anyone on a capital charge, since there is no difference between killing a person by word or by the sword. Killing itself is prohibited").
But these rigorists effected no change whatever in the actual situation. There were Christians in the Melitene legion and at Lambese, and Christians were to be found in other legions also. It turned out that the soldier who led Potamiaena to martyrdom in Alexandria (202/3 A.D.) was attached to the Christian faitb, though he had not yet received baptism.\3/ A similar instance occurred once more in Alexandria under Decius (cp. Dionys. Alex. in Eus., H.E., vi. 41. 16);' but still more signifleant is the account given by Dionysius of the Decian
\78/ It is quite obvious from this that Christians were charged with a disinclination to serve in the army, and the charge was undoubtedly well founded. In actual life, however, collisions of this kind were rare, for there can hardly have been many cases of Christians being impressed gainst their will. See Mommsen's St.aesrecht, ii. 2(3), PP- 849 f- ; and in Her,,es, xix- (1883), PP. 3 f. ; also Neuann, O,P. Cit., i. Pp. I27 f
\79/ C. Cels., VIII. lxxiii. For Christians as "priests ofpeace " (sace,dotes pacis), see also Tert., de SOecl. xvi.
\80/ The story of his martyrdom corresponds to that of the soldier in the treatise de Corona. For some reason or another, Basilides (such was his name) was chal. lenged by a fellow-soldier to take an oath, which, as a Christian, he refused to do. His refusal was at first construed as a jest. But when he persisted in it, pro. ceedings were instituted against him (Eus., HE., vi. s).
\81/ A somewhat similar incident is already told by Eusebius (vi- 41- 16) in connection with the death of the apostle James. It is taken from Clement of Alexa.dria.
[[58]] persecution in the Egyptian capital, where the whole of a small commando (Tv'vTaylAa @PaTLWTIKO'V), which had been mustered for the trial of some Christians, turned out to be composed either of Christians or of their friends. " And when one who was being tried as a Christian inclined to deny his faith, they gnashed their teeth, made signs to him, held out their hands, and made gestures with all their limbs. Whereupon the attention of everybody was directed to them, but, before they could be seized by anyone, they rushed to the dmk and avowed that they were Christians' (Eus., H.E., vi. 41. 22 f.). As there had not been any intention, of course, of specially selecting Christian soldiers for this judicial duty, the incident shows how widely Christianity bad spread throughout the army I in Egypt. When the Diocletian persecution had passed, and when the question arose of subjecting the "lapsi" to a penitential discipline, the soldiers who had offered sacrifice were mentioned in Egypt m a special class by themselves (Epiph., Ha-r., lxviii. 9).
The account given by Eusebius (vii. 15) of an officer called Marinus, who was stationed at Caesarea in Cappadocia, is most instructive. He distinctly states that at this time (during the reignofGallientis)theChristianswereenjoyingpeace. Marinus was to be promoted to flll a vacant position as centurion. But another person stepped forward and declared that Marinus was a Christian, and therefore could not, " according to ancient law," hold any Roman office, since he did not sacrifice to the emperors. A trial ensued, and the judge gave Marinus, who had avowed his Christianity, some time to consider his positiod, On leaving the tribunal, he was taken by the bishop into church. Then, boldidg Out the volume of the gospels and at the same time pointing to his sword, the bishop bade him decide which he meant to choose. The officer grasped the gospels. Onreappearingbeforethejudge,headheredsteadfastly to his faith, and was executed. The story shows that among officers in the army the profession of Christianity was not tolerated, and it would even seem as though express regulations
\82/ Compare also the other statement of Dionysius (vii. i i. 20@, to the effect that soldiers were included among the victims of Valerian's persecution in Egypt.
[[59]] on the subject were in existence. But it shows also that in practice Christianity was cotinived at. The authorities always waited for some occasion of conflict to arise.
"The first objects of the persecution were believers in the army," says Eusebius (H.F.., viii. 1. 7), as he opens the story of the Diocletian persecution.' Lactantius agrees with him : "Datis ad praepositos litteris etiam milites [court officials having been previously mentioned] cogi ad nefanda sacrificia pr@epit, ut qui iion paruissent, triilitia solvereiitur. liactenus furor eius et ira processit iiec arnplius qtiicquam contra legen) atit religionem dei fecit ' (de Mort. x. : " By instructions issued to the officers, he also had soldiers forced to ofrc@r accursed sacrifices, so that those who disobeyed were discharged from the army. Thus far did his fury and anger go. Nor did he do anything further against the laws and religion of God"). Hitherto, Christian officers had been tacitly, though not legally, tolerated. The formal exemption from the duty of sacrificing which had been accorded to Christian officials by Diocletian (cp. above, p. 40) hardly applied, of course, to oflicers. Still, they were exempted tacitly in many cases, it may be. Besides,
\83/ CP- viii. 4 @-P@P @@ @P a@PaT-l'-Is bPa@ lb@ 181-I,Kb@ hp A@ @@.p@., T@@ @,pi b@ @&P 9,x.p any,@.Py@@ Ls -ip 6 8T,,s ..T. ip [cp. jerome's Ch, on. ad arm. 23 I 7: " Veturius niagister militiae Christianos milites persequitur, pa.latim ex illo iam tempo@e persecutions adversus nos incipiente " = Veturius, the military chief, persecutes Christian soldiers, and the persecution now gradually begins to be directed against s], gp,, @p&,.@ 4@,X.1p@, Ka@& Kai *6.pa-y,'.T, is @7X.@, Many soldiers were to be met with who cheerfully accepted the private life of civilians that they might net deny the reverent piety due to the creator of the universe. For when the general, whoever be was, started his persecution of the soldiers, separating them into tribes and purging those enlisted in the army, he gave them a choice : either they were to obey and thus reap the honour which was their due, or else to lose that meed of honour if they disobeyed orders. Whereupon a vast nuber of soldier, belonging to the kingdom of Christ unhesitatingly made up their minds t once to prefer his confession to the seeming glory and good fortune which they were enjoying"). Presently executions commenced, which had not originally been contemplated. In Afart. Pat., i. 20, Eusebius incidentally mentiom one confessor front the army.
a,p .. *Is .6,bp 6AWA.Y"." All
[[60]] they knew of one expedient at any rate. When the sacrifice began they made the sign of the cross, and thereby safeguarded themselves and their position. This, however, gave a handle to the priests, especially when the mcrifices proved unfavourable; and also to Galerius, with his zeal for strictness. The offence was no longer to be tolerated. Hence it was, according to @ctantius, that the persecution arose ; and his account bears all the marks of internal probability. The court and the army, the two pillars of the tbrone, were to be purged of Christians. This determination shows how numerous Christians were in the army,' and consequently the dismissal or the martyrdom of soldiers was particularly common during this persecution, while many soldiers of course came also to deny their faitli and often to sacrifice. In Melitene and Syria the army was driven to partial rebellion, and it appears that Diocletian scented the plotting of Christians at the back of this (Eus., H.E., viii. 6. 8).
Eusebius also relates how Licinius specially ptwged the army of Christians during his final efforts to hold out against Constantine (H.-E., x. 8, Vita Const., i. 54).\2/ It was then that the forty soldiers of Sebmte were martyred-oiie further witness \3/ to the existence of many Christians in the ranks of the 12th Thundering (" fulminate') legion.
Soldiers play an important role in the Acts of the martyrs, Some instances of this have already been noted, and it would lead us too far afield to state the evidence completely, especially as forgeries were extremely plentiful in this province of literary effort. Reference need only be made to Getulus,
\84/ Cp. 4cta S. M=iniliani (Ruiiiart's Acia Martyr,, Ratisbon, 1959, P- 34I): Dixit Dion proconsul: in sacro comitatu dominorum nostrorum Diocletiani et Maximiani, Constantii et Maximi milites Christiani aunt et milimnt."
\85/ Those aimed at, in the first instance, were the K.,& @4x,@ (the soldiers in the cities), ie., the police-officers and guardians of the peace, whose importance, like that of the court officials, became steadily superior with every d@ade to that of the civil @,vice.
\86/ No passage in this Testament indicates that it was written by, or that it originated with, soldiers (cp. Bonwetsch, Neue kichl. Zeitschrift, iii. I 2, PP. 705 f. ; Haussleiter, ibid., pp. 978 f. ; Bonwetsch, Studien z. Ges,h. d. Theol. U. Kirche, i. pp. 75 L ; and von Gebhardt's Acta Afar. Selecta, igo2, pp. t66 f.). The record f the martyrdom, which must be used with care and caution, is printed an pp. 171 f. of von Gebhardt's volume.
[[61]] the husband of Symphorosa, and his brother Arnantius, to the famous "passio" of Mauricius and the Thebaic legion,\1/ etc. Nereus and Achilles (ep. Achelis, in Texte u. Unters., xi. 2. 44), Polyeuctes,\2/ Maximilianus,\3/ MarcellUS,\4/ Julius the
\87/ Repeated efforts have been made to save some part of the legendary material ; cp. Bigelmair, op. pp. I94 f., as against Hanck's Kirchen@esh. Deutschland,, p. 9, note i ; P. 25, note 1. One or two martyrdoms of soldiers .y underlie the legend (cp. Linsenmayer's Die Beki,,,,Pfung des Christentums du,-ch d. Staat, 1905, PP- i8i L), but even this is doubtful.
\88/ Of the Melitene legion ; cp. Conybeare's Apol. and Acts ofapollonius (IS94), PP- 123 f.
\89/ Cp. Ruina,t, 0,P. 'it., PP. 340 f. (" Thevesti in fora " =Before the court at Theveste). " Fabius Victor temonarius est constitutus cum Valeriano Quintiano praeposito Caesariensi cum bono tirone Maximiliano filio Victoria ; quoniam probabilis est, rogo ut incumetur Maximilianus respondit: Quid autem via scire nomen nietim ? mihi non licet militare, quia Christianus sum. Dion proconsul di.it : apta illum. cumque aptaretur, Maximilianus resp.ndit : no. possum ilitare, non possum maleficere, Christianus sum. Dion proconsul dixit : Incumetur. cu.que incumatus fuisset, ex officio recitatum car : Habet pedes quinque Iquinos?), uncias decem [so that he was able-bodied]. Dion dixit ad officium : signetur. cumque resisteret Maxiilianus, responder : Non facio ; non possum militare " (" Fabius Victor, collector of the military exemption tax, was brought up with Valerianus Quintianus, prefect of C@a@ea, and with Maximilianus the son f Victor, a good recruit. 'As he is a likely man, I ask that he be measured M. answered, 'But why do you want to know my name? I dare not fight, since I am a Christian.' ' Measure him,' said Dion the proconsul ; but on being measured, M. answered, ' I cannot fight, I cannot do evil ; I am a Christian.' Said the proconsul, ' Let him be measured.' And after he had been measured, the attendant read out: he is five feet ten. Then said Dion to the attendant, 'Enrol him.' And M. @ied out, 'No, no, I cannot be a soldier"'). See also what follows. " Milito deo race ; non accipio signaculum ; iam habeo signum Christi dei mei si signaveris, rumpo illud, quia nihil valet non licet mihi plumbuni collo portare post signum saturate domini met " ("I am a soldier of my God. I refuse the badge. Already I have Christ's badge, who is my God. If you mark me, I shall annul it as invalid I cannot wear aught leaden on y neck after the saving mark of my Lord "). To the proconsul's question as to what crime soldiers practised, Maximilianus replied, " You know quite well what they do To enim scis quac faciunt "). -Here we have a scene of forcible conscription.
\90/ Cp. Riinart, PP. 343 f. (" in civitate Tingitana "). On the enipero,'s birth. day, when everybody was feasting and sacrificing, " Marcellus quidam a. centurionibus legionis Traianae rciecto cingulo militari comm signis legionis, quae tune aderant, clara vace testatus est, diceus : je5u Chtisto regi aeterno milito. abjecit quoque vitem et arms et addidit : ex h@ militare imperatoribus vestris desisto et deos @estros ligneos et lapideos adorare contemn.. si talis est condicio militantium, or this et impetatribus sacra facere compellantur, ecce proicio viteni et cingulum, renuntio signis, et militare recuso " (" A certain Marcellus, belonging to the centurions of the Trajan legion, threw aside the military belt in [[62b]]
[[62]] veteran,\1/ Typasius the veteran,\2/ Theodorus (Ruiziart, pp. 506 f.: of Amasia in PO"tul), Tarachus,\3/ Marciantis and Nicander,\4/ Dasius,\5/
front of the regimental standards, and testified in clear tones that he was a soldier of Jesus Christ, the King Etermi. He also threw away the ,,tution's staff ,d arms, addig, 'H .. ef@rth I cease to be a soldier of your emperom. I ,or@ to Worship YO@@' gldl If wood and alone. If it be a condition f military service to be obliged to do sacrifice to You, gd, .d emperors, then hereby I throw off my staff and arms. I give up the colou,s, I @fse to be a oldi,,"'). When on trial, he added that it was unbecoming for a Christian, who served his captain Christ, to serve in secular e,ggem,@t, ("non decebat Christianum hominem molestiis sec.1,@ibus militar,, qui Christo domino lilitat ").
\91/ CP- 4natelt. Bolland., . (1891), pp. 50 f. (Militia ChHsii, pp. , 19 f.) Maximo praeside Do,@@t@,i MOesiae. on P'llum praecepta di,in, ,,temn,,, et infidelis al,pl,,,e de, ,,. etenim in van, militia quando videbar create, in annis -xvii n,,quam @elestus aut litigiosus oblatu sum judici. @pties in belle eg@essus sum, et past neminem term t,ti nec S licuius inferior pugnavi. princeps me non idit aliquando create " (" I cannot set a . F., even during all the twenty-sev,n yea,, God, sort appear disloyal to my God. t naught the commands f Of -Y vanity Dd militay service, I Was e,,, h,,n to the judge as a scoundrel or quarrelsome filow. Seven lines I took the field, nd never yielded pi... to anyone, nor fought less bravely than nyone else. My captain never saw me going wrong ").
\92/ Cp. 4naleet. Bolland., ix. (xSgo), pp. i r6 f. : Tigabis in Mauretania. The Acts are of doubtful authenticity.
\93/ Cp. Ruinart, PP. 45, f. (The Acts are late and poor.) When the judge asked what was his position, be replied : @Tpr,w,k@g....... 6'. as @ xp,T"a@d, p@ .1pa, @@P a soldier......... But as I am a (" That of Christian, I now choose to wear ordinary dress "). To the further'question, how he had ever gained his freedom, Tarachus replied I besought Ful@ian the taxi.,ch, and he dismissed me " (@840,7@ @@ Tal,dpX@@, K.@ Ile met the threats of the judge with the remark (P. 464): @,' k.1 a @dA@a,. @, ..@. @.0 C.6@.'es ,. @.P.Pdp.T [cp. the rescript of Diocletian to Salustins], Ah@ @b was as @pa,T@ b ("Though it were ever so unlawful for you to put my body to the torture, yet I do not deprecate your insensate breach of military law. Wreak your will on me ").
\94/ Cp. l@uinart, pp. 571 f. (The Acts are untrustworthy.) Upon the judge remonstrating that the emperor had ordered sacrifices, Nicander replies : '@ This injunction is designed for those who are willing to sacrifice. But we are Christians, and we cannot be bound by an injunction of this kind " (" Volentibus sacrificare haec praeceptio constitute car, nos ve@o Christiani suus, et huiuscemodi praccept. tencri non possumus "). To the further question as to why they would no longer draw their pay, Nicander answers, " Because the coin of the impious taints those who desire to worship God Quia p@uni@e impiorum contagium aunt viyis deum colere cupientibus ").
\95/ Cp. 4naleel. Bolland., xvi. (1897), PP. 5 f. Dasius declined to participate in the dissolute military celebration of the Saturnalia. Cp. Parmentier in R@. de Philol., -xi. (1897) PP. 143 f. ; Wendland in He,,@,e, (i89S), 175 f. ; and Reich's Der mit der Do,,zenk,-one (1904).
[[63]] the famous Pachomius,\1/ IAUrentinUS and EgnatiUS,\2/ etc., were all soldiers.
This account of the relations between the church and military service might be contested on the basis of the twelfth canon of Nicaea, which runs as follows: " Those who are called by grace and have displayed early zeal and laid aside their military belts, but have subsequently turned back like a do@ to his vomitsome even spending ,ms of money and securing military reinstation by diiit of presents-tbese are to remain, after their three years as ' heare@,' for the space of ten years further among the I kneelers" " etc. It might be inferred from this that the synod considered Christianity incompatible with the military calling. But, on the other hand, as Hefele has rightly pointed out, in the main (Konziliez-Geseh., i."I pp. 414 f, Eng. trans., 1. pp. 417 f ), the passage has nothing whatever to do with soldiers in general, but only with such soldiers as bad resigned their position for the sake of their Christian confession and had subsequently gone back to the ranks. In the second place, the canon refers to soldiers serving in the army of Licinius, who had given up their military belts when the emperor purged the army of Christians (which is perhaps alluded to in the expression
\96/ Pachomius served (cp, his " Life ") in the army of Constantine that fought Maxe.tius. He is mid to have been won to Christianity by the brotherly love which the Christian soldiers showed. Thereafter he became a monk, and the founder of the famous monastic settlement at Tabennisi.-The 4cfa 4rchelai open with a narrative in praise of Marcellus at Carrhm. This wealthy Christian is said to have ransomed over 77@ military prisoners of way-an act which made a deep impression upon the.. " Illi admirati et ainple,i tam immensam viri pietatem munific@ntiamque et facti stupore peroti exemplo misericordiae commonentur, at plurimi e. ipsis dderentur ad fidem domini nostri jean Christi derelicts militiae cingulo , alii veto via quarta pretior.m portione suscepta ad propria castra discederent, cacteri autem parum mnino aliquid quantum iatico sufficeret accipie,tes abirent " (- ' Astounded with admiration for the man's extraordinary piety and generosity, which they enjoyed, and overcome by his exa@nple of humane kind- ness, the most f them were led to join the faith four Lord Jesus Christ, by casting away the nililary bell ; others made off to their own camp after little more than a fourth part of the money had been paid, while almost all the rest took as much as they needed for their journey, and departed "). The story is ficti.., in all likelihood ; still, it is not without value.
\97/ Cp. Cypr., Efi. xx@x. 3 (on Celeritius) Item patrons cius et avunculus Laurentinus t Egnatius in c@tris et ips! quondam saecularibus militantes, sed veri et spiritales dei milites, dum diabolum Christi confessions prosternunt, palmas domini et coronas illustri passione meruerunt,"
[[64]] T;V @p '@llv 6plA;v @vdei'eamOai), and then gone back to the army, thus denying their faith-since this army was practically pagan and enga@ed in combating Constantine. That this is the sense in which the canon is to be taken, is sbown by its close connection with the eleventh canon, which treats of those who fell away e@@ Tig Tvpaypi'dog AIKLPI'OV (" during the reign of Liciilius Our canon fits in ve@y closely to this one, The relation between the church and the state, m regards the army, (!Oncluded with the enactment of the church in the third canon of the great synod at Arles: "Those who throw away their weapoiis during peace shall be excluded from communion" (cp. ilfilitia Ch ti, pp. 87 f). Constantine also decreed (Vita Co@ist., ii. 3,3) that those who had resigned their commissions for religious reasons should have the alternative of rejoining the service or remaining where they were, with honour.
§ 4. The qpread of Christianity among wonw?z.' No one who reads the New Testament attentively, m well as those writings which immediately succeeded it, can fail to notice that iii the apostolic and sub-apostolic age women played an important r6le in the propaganda of Christianity and throughout the Christian communities .\2/ The equalising of man and woman before God (Gal. iii. 28) produced a religious independence among women,3
\98/ Cp. the discussions .. "Widows" ..d " Deaconesses" ;.I.. Zsch.rn.ck, Der Diens@ de, Frau i. d. e,,stez jahr. d. ch@,ist. Ki,-che (igo2) ; Achelis, Vi,@nes StlbintrOdIlCt" (1902) ; von der Goltz, De, Dienst der Frau in de, histl. Kirche (I905) ; and Knopfs Nachapost. ZeitaLeer, PP. 72 f. On Christian women as martyrs and on virgins, with their treatmedt by criminal law, cp. Augar in Texle Uzte,,s., x-viii- 4.
\99/Even within Judaism there were many women prosetytes, especially from the upper cl@es. josephus (Bell. @., ii. 20. 2) says that the women in Damas"s were al.ost all inclined to Judaism. Cp. Acts xiii. 5o : ol &@ @ap&,p@,.@ TZts y@vd,K.s as ..I .by @p@@.s @@ @4A@.s (Antioch in Pisidia), ..I ?@i-y.,p.@ 8,.,y,.bp i@l @@p rlaOA.y kal Bp@dS.@, also Acts vi. 13 (Philippi in Macedo.ia). Cp. Strabo's gencralimti.n upon women as the leaders in religious Superstition (i. 7. p. 297): Arabs 'Y-p @s aPXV'Y-@, .YoPT., @&, 7.d,-Kas. Clement of Alexandria emphasizes their important r6Ie in the mission of the apostolic age (Stom., III. vi- 53): &la @&P -Y-P-,K&Y K-1 @ll Th@ h @@@ .@pi.@ (" Through women the teaching of the Lord made its way, without any reproach, even into the women's apartments
\100/ Cp. Cleni. Alex., Paedag., i. 4: - - - @@ -she &P,@@ &@8Pbl @7@., d -y&p a,.Oap 6 Oe6s *Fs, @Ts 3i al 6 .Io
[[65]] which aided the Christian mission. Jesus himself had a circle of women among his adherents, in addition to the disciples; and a very ancient gloss oil Luke xxiii. 2 makes the Jews charge him before Pilate with misleading women.\1/
From I Cor. vii. 12 f. we learn that there were mixed marriages in Corinth, although it is impossible to ascertain whether it was more usual for a pagan to be wedded to a Christian woman, or the reverse. It is quite clear, however, that women appeared in the local assemblies of the church, with the consent of the apostle, and that they prayed and prophesied in public (xi. 5 f.). This fact and this permission may seem to contradict the evidence of xiv. 34 f. (" Let the women keep silence in the congregations: for they are not allowed to speak, but are to be in subjection, @ also the law enjoins. If they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is a scandal that any woman should speak in the congregation "); and, indeed, the one wav of removing the contradiction between these two passages is to suppose that in the former Paul is referring to prayers and prophecies of the ecstatic state, over which no one could exercise any control, while the speech (XaXeip) which is forbidden in the second passage denotes public instruction. At any rate, the apostle is censuring Christian women for overstepping their boUDds, not only by attempting to teach in the churches, but also by claiming to appear unveiled at worship.' In xvi. 19 Aquila
X4,s, K.,@ 8@ xal x@,@ @o@,.p Kai i ap@ a@ h &),.-yi (" Our judgment is that the virtue of man and of woman is one and the same, For, if the God of both is one, the Instructor f both is also one : one church, one temperate selfcontrol, one modesty, common food, marriage an equal yoke ; breath, sight, hearing, knowledge, hope, obedience, love- all things are alike to them. Those whow life is common have also a common grace and a common salvation; their virtue and their training are alike ").
\101/ Luke XXiii. 2 Odp..s K.@wp, 5,84P.1) Kul a.0wpi0o@a 4, 7@ya"k., xol @& The gloss occurs in Marcion's text and the Latin MSS., Palat. and Colbertinus.
\102/ Cp. Tert.Ilian's de Virginibus Velandis (and the Liber Pontif., s.v. Linus " Hic ex 1)raecepto beati Pauli constituit, or mulier in ecciesia velato capite introiret"@This he ordained by the injunction of the blessed Paul, that women mmt come to church with veiled heads).
[[66]] and Prisca (Priscilla), together with the church in their house at Ephesus, send greetings. This passage already mentions the wife along with the husband (although after bim), which is noteworthy, for as a rule the husband alone is mentioned in such mes. The woman must therefore have been of some importanm personally and in the church at their house, a fact on which some light is presently thrown by the epistle to the Romans.\1/
In Rom. xvi. I f. a certain Phoebe is commended, who is described as "one who ministers to the church at Cenebreoe.' From the subsequent description of ber m one who " has proved herself a succourer of many and of myself" (@po@@Ti@ woXX@v @-yev , Ol Ka't ello@ aOToi), it is likely that she was a wornan of property and a patroness (iiot an employee) of the church at Cenchrem. This recommendation is followed by the charge to " greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-laboumrs in Christ Jesuswho laid down their necks for my life, and to whom not only I but all the Gentile churches render thanks. Greet abo the church in their house' (Rom. xvi. 3 f.). Here the name of Prisca stands first, as also is the case, we may add, in 2 Tim. iv. 19. Plainly the woman was the leading figure of the two, so far as regards Christian mtivity at le@t. It is to her that thanks and praise are offered in the first instance. She was a fellow-labourer of Paul, i.e., a missionary, and at the same time the leader of a small church. Both of these injunctions imply that she taught, and she @ould not take part in missionary work or in teaching, unless she had been inspired and set apart by the Spirit. Otherwise, Paul would not have recognized her. Sbe may be claimed as i awo'TToXog, therefore, although Paul has not given her this title.\2/ Further greetings in Rom. xvi. (6) are addressed to a certain Mary ?'I-riV @OXXA @Ko@iacep ei'v
\103/ In i Cor. i. i i Paul mentions .1 @s XN4ns, who brought him special information al@at the state of matters in the Corinthian church ; but we do not know if Chloe was herself a Christian, nor can we tell where to look for her. '
\104/Further details on Prisca in my essays on " The two Recensions of the Story of Pri@ and Aquila in Acts xviii. 1-27 " (Silzungsb. d. Peuss. 4had. d. Wisr., igm, January it), and " Probabilia Uber die Adresse u. den Verfsser des Hebraerbriefs," Zeits. f. d. NTliche Wissensch., i. (igw), pp. i6 f.). Cp. above, vOl. i. PP. 79, 433-
[[67]] 6,uag, to Tryphena and Tryphosa T,@ ,@iouTu@ e'v Kupilw (12), to Persis 4 a',yawITI'7, #Tiv @OXXa' @KO@laT6Y & KUpi'w (12), 1 to the mother of Ruftis, whom Paul also describes as his own mother (13), to Julias, probably the wife of the Philologus with whom she is mentioned (15), and to the sister of Nereus (15). Thus no fewer than fifteen women are saluted, alongside of eighteen men,l and all these must have rendered important services to the church or to the apostle, or to both, in the shape of the work with which they are credited.\1/
From Col. iv. 15 we learn that there was a conventicle at a conven c a Coloss6, presided over by a woman called Nymph6; for it was in her house that the meetings took place.\3/
In Philippians, which contains few personal items, we read (iv. 2): "I exhort Euodia and I exhort Syntych& to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yea, I pray thee also, true yokefellow, to help these women, for they have wrought with me in the service of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.' These two women, then, had helped to found the church at Philippi, and consequently occupied a position of high honour still (perhaps as presidents of two churches in their houses, like Nymph& at Coloss&). They had at present fallen into dissension, and the apostle is careful to avoid siding with either party. He would have them find the right road themselves, with the further aid of the husband of one of them (i.e., of Syntych6)-the other being perhaps a widow, or married to a pagan, or unmarried. The affair would certainly have never been mentioned in the epistle, had it not been of moment to the whole community.
Both in Col. iii. 18 and in Eph. v. 22 the apostle insists
\105/ Counting junias, e.t to Andronicus (xvi. 7), as . man. Chrysostoii,, how. ever, took the name as feminine ( =Junia).
\106/ The overwhelming probability is that Po@,,ponia GITcina was also a Christian, but this question has been so frequently and fully discussed that it needs further investigation. Cp. above, P. 35.
\107/ 'A@4TaO@ . . . . N-pOav K.? @@ --@' ab@@ In the ,t, to Philemon, whose destination was also Coloss6 ' Phile.on's wife Apphia is mentioned (but no more) along with himself in the Opening address, as the ,te referred to a domestic affair in which the mistress of the household also had same say.
[[68]] that wives are to be subject to their husbands, and the injunctioii becomes doubly intelligible when we observe bow natural it was for Christian women to strike out on a line of their own.
The book of Acts fills up the outline sketched by Paul. In the church of Jerusalem (i. 14) Christian women were already to the front; a daily meeting was held at night in the house of Mary the mother of Mark (xii. 12). The accession of women as well as of men to the church is expressly noted (v. 14). We hear of Tabitha at Joppa (ix. 36 f.), of Lydia at Philippi,' the first Christian woman we know of in Europe (xvi. 14), of Damaris at Athens side by side with Dionysius (xvii. 34), of the four daughters of Philip who were prophetesses (xxi. 9), and of the special share taken by women of the Diaspora in the new movement (xiii. 50, at Antioch of Pisidia, ot' 'Iovdaiot @apw-rpvvav Tag creBolAevag IvyaiKag Tag cOTX)'IlAovag Kai TOUG vpt6Tov9 T@g @jX@@: xvii. 4, at Thessaloliica, @poTeKX,,pW'OIITQY T@ llau'X(p Kai T@ Y,,'Xq, T@v 7e @eboue'vwy 'EXX4pwv w@Oog @oXu yvvatK@P TE 7COP @p'@WY OOK oXt,/ot: xvii. 12, at Bercea, WOXXOI CVI'@6WaV Kai T@p'EXXnvi'8wv yvvalK@P 7@v evmx,))Ujywv ' 4p8pCov [note the precedence of the women] oOK @Xt'yot). Kai Priscilla also is mentioned, and mentioned in a way that corresponds entirely with what Paul tells us. She and her husband\2/ stand independently alongside of Paul (mviii. 2 f.). At Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome they carry on a mission work in combination with him, but in virtue of their own authority. Yet in Acts also (xviii. 18, 26) the woman is fint, and it was the woman who-as Chrysostom rightly infers from xviii. 26 @onverted Apollos, the disciple of John the Baptist. As the latter was a cultured Greek, the woman who was capable of instructing him (aKptBe'@epov @KOeivat T@v 66@y To@ 060@) must have been herself a person of soyne culture. She was not merely the mother of a church in her house. As we find from Paul
\108/ Three women, therefore, took part in the founding of the church at Philippi-Lydia, Euodia, and Syntych8. Lydia, however, may be a cognomen, in which case she ight be identified with either Euodia or Syntych6.
\109/ Aquila alone is described m a Jew from P.ntus. Does this mean that his wife was of other and higher origin?
[[69]] as well, she was a missionary and a teacher. The epistle to the Hebrews probably came from her or from her husband.\110/
In First Peter, women are also exhorted to be submissive to their husbands, but a special motive for this is appended (iii. 1): @ ' 0 LVQ Kai el 7LPC@ avetooitiv T@ Xiyip, dia' Tiq 7@v ,IvpalK@V apaT7pooiv a'veu Xo'yov KEp8,104TopTat, j@ozTeu'Ta@eg T@p e'v ojg(p Ayp@p ipatrpoo@v u/A@y. Unbelieving husbands are to be converted by the behaviour of their wives, not by sermons and instruction front them. This presupposes mixed marriag@, in which it was the women who were Christians.
In the Apocalypse we hear of a Christian, though heretical, prophetess at Thyatira, called Jezebel, who seduced the church. Which tacitly presupposes that women could be, and actually were, prophetesses. Clement of Rome I celebrates some women who were Christian martyrs.
After staying some time at Smyrna, in the course of his journey to Rome, Ignatius sends greetings in the two letters which be addressed to the local church (ad Smyrn., wl Polyc.) from Troas-letters which otherwise contain very few greetings indeed-to a certain Alk6, 70' @oOIT4v laoi O'Voua ("a Dame right dear to me "); ill One letter he also salutes " the household of Gabia,l prayiiig that she may be grounded in faith &oil love" (T6v ot'Koy I'aov'lag, q'v eu'xolaai @dpaTOat Wl@Ct Kai ay@wli), while in the other he sends greetings to T@p ToO ewttp@wou [so I read, following what seems to me to be a probable conjecture of Lightfoot instead of 'EviTpozov] @v O'Xw 7@ of' KW au7,)g Kai 7wv TCKVWV [TOig Te'Kvoig ?] (" the wife of the governor, with all her household and her children's [her children ?] "). There is some-
\110/ In Heb. i. women are included among the heroic figures of the faith, e.g., Sarah and Rahab the harlot ; cp. the remarkable vene 35.
\111/ Clem. Roin., Vi. 2: S,& C@N., B,.Xo@7a., -y@r.7.@s &auto" Kai A,pK., [ie., Christian women whom Nero murdered by making them appear in these mytho- logical displays], m.1 4.1 @T 6p6,,o@ ..I 9A.@. -y@'p.s a.0@@@7s a,6A.,, (" By reason of jealousy women were persecuted, and after suffering fearful and unholy insults as Danaids and Dircae, attained the goal of faith's course, receiving a noble reward, though weak in body "). CP. also Iv. 3 : 4@S@pa,..O@7wa, @oAA& lw&pa. Their prototypes were Judith and Esther.
\112/ This reading is more probable than T.,t,,.
[[70]] thing very attractive, too, in l,ightfoot's further conjecture that Gabia istobeidentifledwith the wife of theprocurator ("mention is made in the inscriptions at Smyrna of an officer called e'wL'Tpo@oq aTpaTIyo'g or @vt'rporog Tiv T7paTIli'av; another Sinyrnwan inscription speaks of c@itpovov 7o@ TeBa@oO, see Boeck, C.LG., 3151, 3162, 3203"). This would make the procurator's wife Gabia a Christian, while he himself was a pagan (a typical case, to which we are able to bring forward many a parallel). It would also give her a prominent position in the church. Such a position, and in fact even a more prominent one, must have been also occupied by Alk6. Ignatius does Dot go into more detail upon the matter. In the epistle of the Sinyriiwans upon the death of Polycarp (c. xvii.), however, we read of an opponent of the Christians, called Nicetm, who was " Alk6's brother," a description which would be meaningless if Alk herself had not been a very prominent lady not only in Smyrna but also in Philomeliuni (to which the epistle is addressed). Both of these passages from Ignatius, in short, throw light upon the fact that she was a Christian of particular influence and energy in Smyrna, and that her character was familiar throughout Asia. By the year 115 A.D. she was already labouriiig for the church, and as late as 150 A.D. she was still well known and apparently still living. Her brother was an energetic foe to Christianity, while she herself was a pillar of the church. And so it was with Gabia. In both cases the men were pagaus, the women Christians.
A prominent position in some unknown church of Asia must also have been occupied by the woman I to whom the second epistle of John was written, not long before the letters of Ignatius. She appears to have been distinguished for exceptional hospitality, and the author therefore warns her in a friendly way against receiving heretical itinerant teachers into her house.
The reaction initiated by Paul at Corinth against the forward position claimed by women in the churches, is carried on by the author of the pastoral epistleS.2 In I Tim. ii. 11 f. he
\113/ Though many expositors find a local church here, not a woman at all.
\114/ Also by an earlier editor of Acts ; cp. my remarks la the Situngsberkhte (as above), p. to, note 5. Probably Clement of Rome is also to be included in this
[[71]] peremptorily prohibits women from teaching.' Let them bear children aiid maintain faith, love, and holiness. The reason for this is explicitly stated ; it is because they are inferior to men. Adam was first formed, then Eve. It wm Eve, not Adam, who was seduced by the serpent.' 'nese sharp words presuppose serious encroachments on the part of Christian women, and already there had been unpleasant experiences with indolent, lascivious, and gossiping young widows (op. cit., v. 11 f.). As 2 Tim. iii. 6 shows, it was very common for such women especially to succumb to the seductions of fascinating errorists.
One fresh feature in the pastoral epistles is that the existence of a class of ecclesiastical " widows " is taken for granted, and in this connection special instructions are laid down (I Tim. v. 9 f.). Pliny's letter to Trajan mentions Christian women who were called by their fellow-members " deaconesses " (ministrx), and there wm also an order of regular female ascetics or
category. His exhortations to women (Clem. Rom., i., ..i, ) are meant to restrict them within their households, and the same holds true of Polycarp (ad Phil. iv.). In the " Shepherd " of Herm.s, women play no part whatever, which may suggest that they had flien more into the background at Rome than elsewhere.
\115/n a ome e ere. 1 .&K i@,,p@.. This ,e., to c,,flict with Tit. ii. 3, where it is enjoined that Tya............ We must take in the next clause, however a.,ppo@iCw,p as p@as 0,AdBpo@s 0,A@.'Kpo.s, K.@..\-), which shows that the writer does not mean teaching in the church.
\116/ This voiced an idea which operated still frther and was destined to prove disastrous to the Catholic church. Tertulli@ already writes thus (de Cultu Fenlin., 1. i.) : " Evam te esse nescis ? vivit sententia dei super sexum istum in hoc @culo : vivat et reatus necesse est. to es diaboli janua, to es rboris illius resignatrix, to @ divinae legis prima desertrix, to es quae cum su@isti quem diabolus aggredi non valuil to imaginem dei, hominem, tam facile elisisti. propter room meritum, id est mortem, etiam filius dei mori habuit " (" Do you not know you are an Eve? God's verdict on the sex still holds good, and the se.'s guilt must still hold also. You are the devil's gateway. You are the avenue to that forbidden tree. You are the first deserter from the law divine. It was you who persuaded him whom the devil hiself had not strength to assail, So lightly did you destroy God's image. For your deceit, for death, the very Son of God had to perish"). The figure of Mary the mother ofjesus rose all the more brilliantly u a foil to this. The wrong done, in this view, to the whole @., was to be made good by the adomtio. paid to Mary. But it must not be forgotten, apropos of Tertullian's revolting language, that his rhetoric frequently runs away with him. Elsewhere in the same book (II. i.) he writes : " Ancillae dei vivi, conservae et soro@es meae, quo iure depute, vobiscum post@emissimus equidem, co lure conservitii et fraternitatis audeo ad vos facere sermonem " (" 0 handmaidens of the living God, my fellow-ser@ts and sisters, the law that sets me, most unworthy, in your ranks, emboldens me as your fellow-ser@nt to address you").
[[72]] "virgines," wbo are perhaps referred to as early as 1 Cor. vii. 36 f.' The original relation between the church-widow, the deaconess (unknown in the Westem church), and the "virgin' lies in obscurity,' but such directions show at any rate that ecclesiastical regulations for women were drawn up at a very early period. This was quite a unique creation of the church.' But even in adtiquity it does not seem to have turned out a success; it soon waned, and indeed it never had any general or uniform popularity.
In the romantic but early lcta PaUli,\4/ women also played a prominent r6le. We are told of a prophetess in the church of Corinth, cajled Theono6,' of another prophetess in the church called Myrte,6 of Stratonik6 (the wife of Apollophanes) at Philippi, on account of whom Paul w@ imprisoned (she is thus the fourth woman mentioned by tradition in connection with that city), of Eubulla and of Artemilla at Ephesus, of Phila at Antioch, of the royal matron Tryphoena, of Nympha at Myrrha, of Aline (Alype?), of Chrysa, of Pbirmilla and PhroiitiDa, of
\117/ Recently this passage has been often discussed, e.g., by Grafe in Theol. Abeit. any d. hein. Pedigemerein, N.F., Heft 3 (1899), pp. 69 f, and jalicher in Archivf. Rel@ionswiss., vii. (1904), PP- 373 f. ("Spiritual Marriages in the Early Church "). But the spiritual and ecclesiastical interpretation of " virgines " has not been uncontested. The bitter sneer of Porphyry the pagan in Mac. Mag.es, 111. ...vi., on the Christian " virgins " is interesting : .1 @&s p@"Y. , R.1 &7t.@ @b@ 'Ina.Pp How can some of these 'virgin' women boast so loudly of the fact, declaring they are filled with the Holy Ghost like her who bore Jesus ? ").
\118/ Thorough studies by Diackhoff, Uhlhorn, Zschamack, von der Goltz, and Achelis on "Die Syr. Didasmlia " (Texte ?,. Unteri., X.V. 2. pp. 274 f. ). The differences between the provincial and the local ecclesiastical arrangements must have been specially sharp in this respect. We must beware, therefore, of any generalizations on the subject. Occasiomlly we hear of a girl nder twenty being admitted to the " ordo viduorum " (as, eg., in Africa, at Carthage ?). Cp. Tertull., de Vir@. Vel. ix.
\119/ The " mater synagogx " of Judaism is not a parallel ; it is a title of honour (cp. SchUrer's Gesch. d. jad. Volks, iii.(S) pp. 5o, 55 ; Eng. trans., ii. 2. 252)
\120/ Cp. K. Schmidt, Acia Pa.li (I9O4, and ed. 1905).
\121/ So the Coptic text.
\122/ The scraps of papyri prevent us from ascertaining where she is to be located. Like Theono8, she predicted Paut's fate for him ; her r6le is parallel to that of Agabus in the canonical Acts. The substitution of a woman for a man is charuteristic of the author of these "Acts of Paul" for women-for such we may term the ,4cla Puti.
[[73]] Lectra in Iconium, and above all of the "apostle" Tbekla at Iconium. We are told that Thekla baptized herself, aiid that she afterwards laboured and died m a missionary, " after enlightening many with the word of God " (voXXoug Ow7iTaTa 7@ X4-yq) Oco@). It is unlikely that the romancer simply invented this figure.' There inust bave really been a girl converted by a Paul at IcoDium, whose name was Thekla, and who took an active part in the Christian mission. As for the later apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, they simply swarm with tales of how women of all ranks were converted in Rome ancl in the provinces; although the details of these stories are untrustworthy, they express correctly enough in general the truth that Christianity was laid hold of by wotnen in particular, and also that the percentage of Cbristian women, especially among the upper classes, wm larger than that of Christian men. " Both sexes " (" utriusque sexus ") are emphasized as early as Pliny's letter, and other opponents of the faith laid stress upon the fact that Christian preaching wm specially acceptable to widows and to wives.\2/ This is further attested by the apologists, who have a penchant for insisting thilt the very Christiaii wornen, on account of whom Christianity is vilified as ail inferior religion, are better acquainted with divine things than the pliilosophers.\3/ Women who read the Bible are frequently mentioned.\4/ The apologists and Christian teachersnumberedwornenamongtheiraudience. Awomancalled CharitobelongedtoJustin'spupils(,IctaJustini,iv). Dionysius
\123/ Against K. Schmidt.
\124/ Cp. CEISUS in O@ig., c. Cels., Ill. xliv. Porphyry, too, still held this view (cp. Jerome, i. Isai- 3, Bev. in Poll. 82, and August., de Ci@. Dei, XIX. xxiii.). The woman whom Apulcius describes as abominable (Metam., ix. 14) seems to have been a Christian [see vol. i. p. 2 i il.
\125/ So still Augustine, e.g., de Civit. Dei, X. ii. : " Difficile fuit tanto philosopho [w. Porphyry] cunctam diabolicam societatem vel nosse vel fidenter arguere, qum quaelibet a.icula Christiana nec cunctatur ease et liberrime detestatur " (" Hard was it for so great a philosopher to understand or confidently to assail the whole fraternity of devils, which any Christian old woman would 6nhesitatingly describe and loathe with the utmost freedom ").
\126/ Cp., e.g., jerome's remark on Pamphilus (A@ol. adv. Libros Rufini, i. 9) Scripturas sinctm on ad l@gendum tantum, sed et ad habendum tribuebat promptissime, non solum iris, @d et feminis, quae vidisset lectioni deditas " (" He readily provided Bibles, not only to read but to keep, not only for en but for any woman whom he saw addicted to reading ").
[[74]] of Corinth wrote a letter to a certain Chrysophora, wi@lroT@T;lv a8eX954Y (" a most faithful sister,' Eus., H.E., iv. 23). Ptolemseus the gnostic wrote a profound theological letter to a woman named Flora (Epiph., Hcvr., xxxi. 3 f.), which gives a higb impressionofherculture. ProbablyhewasthesamePtolem@us who converted a prominent lady in Rome. Origen's womenpupils are often mentioned;' he even dedicated his essay on prayer to a woman called Tatiaiia (KOTULWT@TN Ka@ av8peloT@T,?)Marcella, the wife of his great friend Ambrosius, also shared bis studies. He spent two years in Cwsarea (Cappadocia), in the house of a lady called Julia, who evidently had literary interests in Christianity (Eus., H.E., vi. 17, Palladius, Hist. Laus., 147). Methodius dedicated his treatise on the distinction between foods to a lady (cp. Bonwetseb, Methodius, i. p. 290), and opened with the remark: "Thou knowest, Frenope, as thou hast shared our conflict and partaken with @ in much labour and prayer and fMtiDg . . . . . How much thou hast been with me in every struggle! "
Even after the middle of the second century women are still prominent, not only for their number and position as widows and deaconesses in the service of the churcb \2/ but also as prophetesses and teachers. 'rhe author of the -4 cta Thecla, is quite in love with his Thekla. It never occurs to him to object to her as a teacher. He rather extols her. As we know from Tertullian that this author was a presbyter of Asia Minor, it follows that there were even ecclesiastics about 180 A.D. wbo did not disapprove of women teaching and doing missionary work, or of them acting as prophetesses in the gatherings of the church. Even prior to the rise of monmticism we hear of women who gave up all they possessed in order to live in voluntary poverty. As Porphyry put it angrily (Macar. Magnes., 111. v.): "Not in the far past, 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
\127/ For the wealthy woman who adopted him as a boy and had theological lectures delivered in her house, cp. Eas., HE., Vi. 2.
\128/ The "rights" of women in the early church have been most thoroughly investigated by Zscharnwk, perhaps from rather too modern a point of view,
[[75]] themselves to beggary, to ask charity, and thus 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."
At Hierapolis in Phrygia the prophetic daughters of Philip enjoyed great repute ; Papias, amongst others, listened to their words. Not long after them there lived an Asiatic prophetess called Ammia, wl)ose name was still mentioned with respect at the close of the second century (Eus., H.E., v. 17). The great Montanist movement in Phrygia, during the sixth decade of the second century, was evoked by the labours of Montanus and two prophetesses called Maximilla and Priscilla.' Later on, a prophetess knonvii as Quintilla seems to have made her appearance in the same district,' while during the reign of Maximiilus Thrax a certain prophetess caused a sensation in Cappadocia (cp. Firmiliaii, in Cypr., Ep. lxxv. 10).
Among the gnostics especially \3/ women played a great r6le, for the gnostic looked not to sex but to the Spirit. Mamion was surrounded by " saiietiores feminas." I Apelles in Rome listened to the revelation of a virgin called Philumena (Tert., de Prascr., xxx., etc.). Marcellina, the Carpocratian, came to Rome, and taught there.\5/ Marcus, the pupil of Valentinus and the founder of his sect, had a remarkable number of women among his adherents; he let them pronounce the benediction, and consecrated them as prophetesses, thereby leading many
\129/ Tertullian (de Ini"ia, is.) writes : " We have with us a sister who has had a share in the spiritual gifts of revelation. For in church, during the Sabbath worship, she ndergoes ecstasies. She con@e@s@s with ang,ls, at times even with the Lord himself; she sees and hears mysteries, pierces the hearts ofseveral people, and suggests emedies to those who desire the.." From 4,post. Con,tit. (cp. T,.Ie u. Unte,s., v. part 5, P. 22) it is plain that in the case of the church@widows special endowments of grace were looked for, through the Spirit. Even otherwise visions occurred aongst widows ; cp. the case of Augusti.e's mother (Confess., vi. i, vii. I3, etc.). For the appearance of white-robed women, carrying torches, in the Montanist church, cp. Epiph., Ha@., .1i.. 2 ; they were prophetesses and preachers of repentance.
\130/ Epipb., Hay. Iix. But her personality is uncertain.
\131/ Leaving out of account, of course, the Helena f Simon Magus.
\132/ Jerome, Ep. xliii.
\133/ Is,., i. 2 5@ " Mottos externiinavit many she led away
[[76]] astray in Gaul.' The Coptic gnostic writings show the importance of women in the conventicles of the heretics.' On Flora, see above, page 74. And in general the women who belonged to the heretical societies are described by Tertullian as follows (d6Pra,8cr. xli.): " lpsae mulieres haereticae, quam procmes! quae audeant docere, contenders, exorcismos agere, curationes repromittere, forsitan et tingere " (" The very women of the heretics -how forward they are! They actually dare to teach, to debate, to exorcise, to promise cures, probably even to baptize ").
It was by her very opposition ofrered to gnosticism and Montanism that the church was led to interdict women from any activity within the church-apart, of course, from such services as they rendered to those of their own sex. Tertullian's treatise upon baptism (de Bapt@) was occasioned by the arrival at Carthage of a heretical woman who in her teaching disparaged baptism. In commencing his argument, Tertullian observes that even had her teaching been sound, she ought not to have been a teacher. He then proceeds to attack those members of the church (for evidently there were such) who appealed to the case of Thekla in defending the right of women to teach and to baptize. First of all, he deprives them of their authority; their Acts he declares are a forgery. Then he refers
\134/ len., i. 13. 2 -y.YC..s @6X.p,a@@7p .... .. mdx,w,. &@xoxc"." .1 @00'. T&S He bids women give thanks eve. in his presence . . . . he is most concerned about woen, .ad that, too, women of ra.k and position and wealth "). i- 13. 7 : lp .' s m.0' iaas is 'P.Sa@o@afas @@AAas 4@"a- T@m.a, 7@@Kas (" In our district of the Rhone they have deluded many women"). On the compulsory consecration of women to the prophetic office, till they actually felt they were prophetesses, see i. 13- 3.
\135/ The,.aOirrp,., play a r6le of their own in these writings, alongside of the A.0n@ai of j@us, which may suggest the importance of the feminine element in these sects. Jerome (Ep. cxxxiii. 4) has put together all that was known of the prominent heretical women: " Simon Magus haeresim condidit, Helenae nieretricis adiutus auxilio. Nicolaus Antiochenus, omnium immunditiarum repertor, ch.ros du.it femineos. Marcion Romum praemisit mulierem, quae decipiendos sibi animos praep@ret [a fact otherwise unknown]. Apelles Philumenam suarum comitem habuit doctrinamm. Montanus immundi spiritus praedicator multas ecclesias per Priscani et Maximillam nobiles et oputentas feminas [?) primum au@u corrupit, deinde haeresi polluit......... Arius, or orbem deciperet, sororem princinis ante decepit. Donatm per Africam, or infelices quosqtie foetentibus polluerei aquis, Lucillae opibs adiut.s est. In Hispania Agape Elpidium, mulier virum, caecum caeca, duxit in fvem, succe@oremque qui Priscillianum," etc.
[[77]] to I Cor. xiv. 34 to prove that a woman must keep silence. Even as a Montanist, it is to be noted that Tertullian adhered to this position. "Non permittitur mulieri in ecelesia loqui, sed nee docere, nee tingere, nee offerre, nee ullius virilis niuneris, iiedum sacerdotalis officii sortem sibi vindicate" (de Virg. VeL ix.).' Even the female visionary in the Montanist church did not speak "till the ceremonies were done and the people dismissed " (" post transacts solerxinia dimissa plebe," de -4nima, ix.). Origen also forbids women to teach, and rejects the appeal to Deborah, Miriam, Huldah, Hannah, and the daughters of Philip (Cramer, Cat. in Fp. L ad Cor., p. 279).
Nevertheless, women still continued to play a part in some of the subsequent movements throughout the church. Thus a sempstress in Carthage, called Paula, had to be excommunicated for agitating against Cyprian (Ep. xlii.), whilst " that factious woman" (" factiosa fem ina ") Lucilla I was also responsible for poisoning the Cartha,@inian church with the Donatist controversy at the very outset. Even by the end of the third century we hear of a famous woman teacher in the church, whose lectures were well attended,\3/ while the Iberians in the remote Caucasus reported (in the fifth century, cp. Sozom., ii. 7) that they owed their Christianity to a woman who was a prisoner of war.
\136/ " No woman is allowed to speak in church, or even to teach, or baptiw, or discharge any man's function, much less to take upon herself the priestly office." Tertullian frequently discusses the Christian problem of women in his writings ; it gave rise to many difficulties. Ob@ously at the bottom of the legend of the @-called " Apostolic Constitutions" on Martha and Mary-a legend which is dominated by tendency-there lies the question whether or no any active part is to be assigned to women in the celebration of the Lord's supper (cp. T,@le u. Unters., ii. 5. pp. 28 f. : 6@- 6 6,6dff--A-s @, &toy k@ 6 .I ,?bAA 4T" Tb O@ta P.. @.1 Tb Ty., @6K 9@@p.*@ d,, -y@.q@ When the Lord asked for the bread and the cup and blessed them, saying, This is my body and my blood, he did not bid women associate thesel@es with us ").
\137/ Cp, Optat., i. i6 ; August., E,6. Iiii. I7. 25 (ironically)t "An quia Lucillam Caecilianus (bishop of Carthage) in Africa laesit, lucem Christi orbis amisit?" ("Wm it because C=ilianus injured Lucilla that the world lost the light of Christ?").
\138/ Methodius (cp. Bonwetscb, op. cit., i. P. 383 ; cp. also his study in -4bhandl, f. a. v. Oettinge@, 1898, P. 323): "Come and let me tell you what I once heard in Lycia. The virtue of a woman who was learned in the Scriptures, @lf-controlled (i.e., ascetic), and a philosophic teacher of the Lord's doctrine," etc,
[[78]]
The number of prominent women who are described as either Christians themselves or favourably disposed to Christianity is extremely large.' In addition to those already mentioned, mention may be made especially of Domitilla, the wife of T. Flavius Clemens, of the empress Marcia, of Julia Mammsea, of the consort of Philip the Arabian, of the distinguished Roman martyr Soter (of whom Ambrose was proud to be a relative), of the sisters Victoria, Secunda, and Restituta (who belonged to a senatorial family in Carthage), of the Roman matron l.ucina, who apparently in 258 A.D. had the remains of Paul removed to their position on the road to Ostia, of the wife and daughter of the emperor Dioeletian, of St Crispina " most noble and bighly borii " (" clarissima, nobilis genere "). Tertullian (ad Scap. iv., etc.) speaks of " clarissimae feminae," while Christian " matrons," who were to be exiled, are mentioned in the second edict of Valerian. Juliana, with whom Origen stayed for two years in Cwsarea (Cappadocia), and to whom the Jewish Christian Symmachus bequeathed books (Pallad., Hist. Laus. 64, Eus., H.E., vi. 17), must have been a learned lady. Origen emphasizes the f@t that even titled ladies, wives of high state-officials, embraced Christianity (e. Cels., Ill. ix.). The story of Pilate's wife, who warned him against condemning Jesus (Matt. xxvii. 19), may be a legend, but it was typical in after-days of many all authentic case of the kind. Tertullian tells us how "Claudius Lucius Herminianus in Cappadocia treated the Christians cruelly, in hot
\139/ From Tertullian's treatise de Cultu Fenina m, as well as from the Pedag@, of Clement, it becomes still more obious that there were a considerable number of distinguished and wealthy women in the churches of Carthage sort Alexandri,. In the second book (c. i.) of the former work Tertullian declares that many Christian women dressed and went about just like " wmen of the world " (" feminae nationum "). There were e@en women who defended their finery and display on the ground that they would attract attention as Christians if they did not dress like other people (II. i.). To which Tertuilian replies (.iii.) : " Ceterum nescio an manus spatalio ci@e..dari solita in duriti.ni catenae stupes- cere sustineat. nescio an crus periscelio lactatum in ne,@um se patiatur artari. timeo ce@icem, ne margaitarum et smaragdorui laqueis occupata I.cum spathae non del " ("Yet I know not if the wrist, accustomed to be circled with a palm-leaf bracelet, will endure the numb, hand chain. I know not if the ankle that has delighted in the anklet will bear the pressure of the gyves. I fear that the neck roped with pearls and ememlds will have no room for the sword ").
[[79]] anger at his wife having gone over to this sect" ("Claudius L. H. in Cappadocia indigne ferens uxorern suam ad hanc sectam traiisisse Christianos crudeliter tractavit," ad Scap. iii.). Hippolytus narrates how some Christians who had gone out into the desert in an apocalyptic frenzy, would have been executed m robbers by a Syrian governor, had not his wife, who was a believer (oV'Ta riTTq'), interceded on their behalf (Coinm. in Dan., iv. 18). From the Acts of Philip (bishop of Herael.) we see that the wife of Bassus the proconsul was a Christian (eb. viii., cp. Ruinart's, .4ct. Mad., Ratisbon, p. 444). Eusebius has preserved for us the story of the Christian wife of the prefect of Rome under Maxeiitius (HE., viii. 14; Vit. Comt., i. 34), who, like a second Lucretia, committed suicide in order to avoid dishonour. And Justin (.4pol., 11. ii.) tells of a distinguished Roman lady who had herself divorced from a licentious husband. In all these cases the husband was a pagan, while the wife was a Christian.\140/
Neither in the pre-Deciaii period nor in subsequent years was there any difference made between men and women in a persecution.\141/ This is one of the best-established facts in the
\140/ Cp. also Mat. Satu@. et Dali@i (Roman, P. 417): " Fortunatianus, sanetissimae.a@tyris Victoriae f@ater, vir sanet.gatus,sed a@eligionis Christianae . . . . cultu . . . . alie@us " (" F., the brother of that most holy martyr, Victoria, was indeed a Roman citiwn, but he was far foni sharing in the worship of Christian religion"). The emperor Julian bitterly complained that the wives of many pagan priests were Christians (Soz., v. 16: bX 4XO.@. @al l@pi., &.@6. 4s In P(,rphyry's treatise, i ?K X.7[w (cp. Aug., de Civit Dei, xix. 23), an oracle of Apollo is cited, which bad been vouchsafed to a man who asked the god how to reclaim his wife from Christianity : " Forte magis poteris in aqua impyessis litteris scribere aut adinflans leves pinnas per aem avis volare, quam pollutae revoces impiae uxor' nsum. pergat quo 'a se modo volt inanibus fallacies pe@severans et lamentari fallacies mortuum deum mntans, quem iudicibus recta sentientibus perditum pessima in speciosis ferro vincta mors interfecit " (" Probably you could more easily write on water or manage to fly on wings through the air like a bird, than win back to a right feeling the mind of your polluted impious spouse. Let her go where she pleases, sticking to her idle deceptions and singing false laments to her dead god, who was condemned by @ight- minded judges and who perished most ignominiously by a violent death"), The difficulties met by a Christian woman with a ' pagan husband are dramatically put by Tertullian, -d Uxo,., ii. 4 f (partly quoted b.,e, vol. i. pp. i6o, 385) Cases in which the husband was a Christian, while his wife was pagan, or nominally Christian, must have @en infrequent ; cp., however, the 4eta Afa@,iani et )Vicandi and the Ata le@t @above, vOl- i, PP. 397 f.).
\141/ Cp. Angst (/,,. cit.). Origen (Ho.. in Ud., is. 1, @MM., VOI. i. P. 279) writes: "We have olten seen with out own eyes women and girls of tender age
[[80]] history of early Christianity. Consequently the number of female martyrs is, comparatively speaking, very significant. Thekla passed as the first of these, though it was said that she was miraculously preserved. After her, in the ranks of women martyrs, came Domitilla, Agnes, and Cecilia in Rome, Blandina and Biblias in Lyons, Agathonic6 in Pergamum, Chionia and Agape in Thessalonica, Marcella, Potami@na, Herais, Quinta, Apollonia, two women called Ammonarion, Mercuria, Dionvsia in Alexandria, Perpetua and Felicitas with Celerina the grandmother of Celerinus the confessor, besides Fortunata, Credula, Hereda, Julia, Collecta, Emerita, Calpumia, Maria, Januaria, Donata, Dativa, Quartillosia in Carthage, the five martyred women of Scili, the Numidian martyrs, viz. Tertulla and Antonia, the eigbteeii specially famous African women who were martyred under Diocletian, Dionysia in Lampsacus, Domnina [Donuina] and Theonilla I in Egae, Eulalia in Spain, and Afra in Augsburg. But it would lead us too far afield to enumerate even the women of whom we have authentic information as having suffered martyrdom or exile, or having abandoned lives of vice.\2/ They displayed no less fortitude and heroism than did the men, nor did the cburch expect from them any inferior response. In her commemoration of the martyrs, she even reckoned these triumphant women worthy of double honour.
In the last persecution (that of Licinius) an additional aiid extremely striking prohibition was put iD force, relating to womed. The ernperor decreed that (1) men and women were not to worship together; that (2) women were iiever to enter Places of worship; and (8) that women were to be taught religion by women only, instead of by bishops (Euseb., Vita
suffering torture and being martyred by tyrants ; their unripe years and their sex were a twofold source of weakness to them " (" Oculis nostris saepe @idius mulieres et virgines primae adhuc aetatis pro martyrio tyrannies pertutisse tormenta, quibus et infirmitatem se.us novellae adhuc vitae fragiliw addebatur "). Cp. also Cyprian, Ep. vi. 3, de Lapsis, ii., etc.
\142/ Theonilia (Ruinart, Aela M.,I., P. 31 r) describes herself as a " woman of good birth" ("ingen.a ulier"). Whe. she had to let herself be stripped before the magistrate, she declared, " Thou hist put shame not on me alone, but through me, on thine own mother and thy wife " (" Non me solam, sed et matrem tuam et uxorem confusionem induisti per me").
\143/ For an excellent survey, cp. Zscharnack, pp. 27-37.
[[81]] Con,vt., 1. Iiii.). The reasons for these orders (which were "generally derided") remain obscure. Concern for feminine morality candot have been anythidg but a pretext.' But what, then, it may he asked, was their real rnotive? Am we at liberty to infer from the decree that the emperor considered the stronghold of Christianity lay in women ?
It remains to say something about the mixed marriages which Paul had discussed at an earlier period (see above, pp. 65 f.). The apostle did not demand their dissolution. On the contrary, he directed the Christian spouse to adhere to the union and to hope for the conversion of the pagan partner. But Paul was certainly assuming that the marriage was already consummated by the time that one of the partners becarne a Christian.\2/ Not until a comparatively late period do we hear of marriages being concluded betweed ChristiaDs and pagans.\3/ At first, and for sorne time to come, these unions were never formed at all, or formed extremely seldom ; but by the close of the second century such mixed marriages were no longer unheard of. Tertullian wrote the whole of the second book in his treatise ad Uxorem in order to warn bis wife against marrying a pagan, if she became a widow; in the first and second chapters he expressly states that such unions were being consummated. He not merely looks askance at them,
\144/ Cp. pseudo-Cyprian, de Singu4 Cle@., xiii. f. : " Forsitan aiiquis dimt, ergo nee ad domum o@ati,nis debemus pa,it,, [ie., men and women] co .... ire, ne aliquis aliquem ,andalizet ? " ("Perhaps one will say, Then ought we net to go together to the house of prayer, for fear of giving offence to anyone ? ").
\145/ It is a moot point whether X Car. vii. 39 (m4.. 1, k@pie) definitely excludes the marriage of , Christian woman with a pagan. Despite Tertuilian's opinion and the weighty support of those exegetes who advocate this interpretation, I am unable to agree with it. Had the apostle desired to exclude such unions, he would probably have said so explicitly, and noticed the case of a husband as well as of a wife. Or can it be that he is merely forbidding a Christian woman to marry a pagan, and not forbidding a Christian man to choose a pagan girl ? This is not impossible, and yet such a view is improbable. The .4@.p 4@ Kvpiq, (" only in the Loyd ") means that the Christian standpoint of the married person is to be maintained, but this could be preserved intact even in the case of marriage with a pagan (cp. vii. x6). Besides, the presupposition "totally is that the Christian partner is desirous and capable of winning over the p@.
\146/ Ignatius (ad Polyc. v.) gives a decision in the matter of divorce, but clearly he is only thinking of marriages in which both parties are Christians. No other cases seem to have come under his notice.
[[82]] but severely reprobates them ("Fideles gentilium matrimonia subeuntes stupri reos esse constat et arcendos ab omni cornmunicatione fraternitatis" iii.).\147/ To bis sorrow, however, he has to record the recent utterance of one brother, who maintained that while marriage with a pagan was certainly an offence, it was an extremely trivial offence.
On this subject the church was at flat inclined to side witb the rigorists. In his Testimonia, Cyprian devotes a special section (iii. 6@) to the rule that " no marriage-tie is to be formed with pagans" ("matrimonium curn gentilibus non iungendum ll),\2/ while it was ordained at the synod of Elvira (canon xv.) that " because Cbristian rnaideiis are very numerous, they are by no means to be married off to pagans, lest their youthful prime presume and relax into an adultery of the soul' (" Propter copiam puellarum gentilibus niinime in matrimonium dandae sunt virgines Christianae, ne aetm in flore tumens in adulterium animae resolvatur'). No punishmedt is laid down, however. See also canons xvi. and xvii.3 (" If heretics are unwilling to come over to the catholic church, they are not to be allowed to marry Catholic girls. Resolved also, that neither Jews nor heretics be allowed to rnarry such, since there can be no fellowship between a believer and an unbeliever. Any parents who disobey this interdict shall be excluded from the church for five years " (" Haeretici si se transferee noluerint ad ecclesiam eatholicam, ne ipsis catholicas dandas esse puellas;
\147/ " It is agreed that believers who marry pagans are guilty of fornication, and to be excluded from any intercourse with the brotherhood " ; cp. de Coro,ta, : " Ideo non nubemus ethnicis, ne nos ad idololatriam usque deducant, a q,m spud illos nuptiae incipiunt " (II Therefore we do not marry pagans, lest they lead us astray into that idolatry which is the very stuting-point of their nuptials"). Thcallusionistothepaganceremoniesatawedding.
\148/ The passage in de LaPsis vi. proves, of course, that the church could not always interfere ; at any rate, she did not instantly excommunicate offenders. In the gleamy picture drawn by Cyprian (de Lapsts, vi.) of the condition of the Carthaginian church before the Decian persecution, mixed marriages do not fail to form one feature of the situation (" jungere cum infidelibus @nculum matrimonii, prostituere gentilibus membra Christi " = Matrimonial ties are formed with unbelievers, and Christ's members prostituted to the pagans).
\149/ These are strict canons. Jews and heretics are worse than pagans ; wont of all are pagan pti@ts, of course, since the Christian position of their Nvives was hopelessly compromised.
[[83]] sed neque Judaeis neque haereticis dam placuit, eo quod nulla possit ease societas fideli cum infidele: si contra interdictuni fecerintparentes,abstineriperquinquenniuinplacet"). "Should any parents have married their daughters to heathen priests, resolved that they shall never be granted communion" ("Si qui forte\150/ smerdotibm idolorum flli&q suas iunxerint, placuit nec in finem eis dandam esse communiodem 11).\151/
"Because Christian girls are very numerous" ("propter copiam puellarum '). This implies that girls, especially of good position, outnumbered youths in the Christian communities. Hence Tertullian had already advised Christian girls who possessed property to marry poor young men (ad Uxor., II. viii.). Why, be exclaims, many a pagan woman gives her hand to some freedman or slave, in deflance of public opinion, so long as she can get a husband from whom she need not fear any check upon her loose behaviour! These words were in all probability read by Callistus, the Roman bishop; for even in Rome there must have been a great risk of Christian girls in good position either marrying pagans or forming illicit connections with them, Nvhen they could not find any Christian man of their own rmk, and when they were unwilling to lose caste by marrying any Christian beneath them.\3/ Consequently, Callistus declared that he would allow such women to take a slave or free man, without concluding a legal marriage with him. Such sexual unions he would be willing (for ecclesiastical considerations) to recognize (Hipp., Philo8., ix. 12; ep. above, vol. i. p. 171). The church thus created an ecclesiastical law of marriage \4/ as opposed to the civil, and she did so under the constraint of circumstances. These circumstances arose from the fact of Christian girls within the church outnumbering the youths, the indulgence of Callistus itself proving unmistakably
\150/ The " forte " shows, or is meant to show, that this case is unheard of.
\151/ At the synod of Aries the church was content with a iild form of repression cp. canon i. : " De puellis fidelibus, qui gentilibus iunguntur, placuit, or aliquanto tempore a communione separentur " ("Concerning Christian maidens who have married pagans. Resolved, that they be excluded from communion for a certain period ").
\152/ Cp. the sarcastic remark of Tertullian the Montanist (in de Virg. Ve4 xiv.): Facile virgines fraternitas suscipit."
\153/ Hippolytus notices the bad effects of this extremely questionable dispensation.
[[84]] that the female element in the church, so far as the better classes were concerned, was in the majority. The same fact is plain from the eighty-first canon of the synod of Elvira: "Ne feminae suo potius absque maritorum nominibus laiciq scribere audealit, quae fideles sunt, vel litterm alicuius pacificas ad suum solum nomen scriptas accipiunt " ("Women must not write in their own nai-ne to lay Christians, or receive letters of friendship from anyone addressed only to themselves ").
[[85]]
APPENDIX ON CHURCH-BUILDING
THE history of the church's inward growth is reflected in the rise and development of special buildings for the churches. No evidence for any such is to be found prior to Commodus. Possibly some were in existence, but we know nothing of them, and it is unlikely that there were any at all.' People met iD private houses,' wbile a teacher, like Paul at Ephesus (Acts XiX. 9),\4/ might hire a school for his lectures. The " domus ' of the private house or, where this was not available, the " atrium," may bave been devoted to this purpose. The forrner was usually too small to accommodate more than a couple of dozen people. Hence, when the congregation numbered a hundred or more members, arrangements bad usually to be made somehow for rooni enough to accommodate fifty or more.
Neverthel@s, we must consider it certain that the Christians in any of the larger cities soon found it impossible to meet all in one spot. Our earliest evidence, in fact, shows that, as
\1/ Cp. Nik. Muller's article in Protest. Real-EneykL(3), Vol. .. PP. 774 f., whe@e an excellent bibliography is givcu. Fo, a philological account of ' 'church"= church-building, cp. Kret@hmer's remarks in Zeitschr. f. vergleichende Spr@h- forschung, xxxix. PP. 539 f.
\2/ In Chrysostom's age, one church at Anti@h was said to reach back to the apostolic ge (cp. Chrys., Opp,, ed. Moutfaucon, iii. p. 6o). It is not impossible that the pl.ce on which it stood w@ a Christian house or site even in the first century, for the Christian tradition at Anti@h was unintermpted.
\3/ Many ites of evidence from the very beginning of Christianity prove this.
\4/ Tradition affords no secure bmis for the @iew that worship wm usually beld in hired or bought school-buildings (eX.A.f), so that the form of such buildings detemined the later structures of the churches. 'ExwX,aia and 5,8.Tkaxeov were always distinct from on, another, though the distinction tended sometimes to be blurred (cp. vol. i. PP. 357 f.).
[[86]] far back as we can go, several meeting-Places are to be found. How the unity of the church was preserved under these circum@nces, we do not know. All that can be said on this point partakes of the nature of a @ conjecture. One thing is clear, and that is, that the idea of a special place for worship had not yet arisen. The Christian idea of God and of divine service not oniv failed to promote this, but excluded it, while the practical circumstances of the situation retarded its development.\5/
After the close of the second century, things were different. Our information about Edessa, and the writings of 'rertullian, Hippolytus, Minucius Felix, Origen, and Cyprian,\2/ show that henceforth there were special places or buildings for worship, called " domus dei," " ecclesia" or " dominicum " (KVPIaKjV). The period of their rise in all probability coincides with that of the churcws great expansion during the reign of Coinmodus, as well as with the organization of the priestly hierarchy and the parallel movement for the consecration of objects and places. The oldest definite church-building that we know of is the church of Edessa, which was destroyed by a flood in A.D. 201.
Whether special buildings for worship were built or selected, their size was always restricted, partly by the amount of means at the disposal of Christians, partly by the need of avoiding remark. Eusebius expressly observes-and his words have a general bearing-that the churches were small down to the
\5/ The passage in the Acts of Justin (ch. iii.) is explicit on this point. The prefect Rustian asks, @.@ w.@IpX@oO. (" Where do you meet ?"). Justin replies @p@aip,a,s ..I 64O.Ais la,, - -Yap @gAic", ?at @6 aD@b T.Pgp. x,aO., @yas (i.e., we R..an Christians) ; bX og,.s a.' (" Where@er e@h chooses and can. Do you imagine we all assemble together? By no means"). God is not confined to one spot ; prayer can be offered to him anywhere. The prefect retorts : ' '@.D o@@@'pX@gO@ @ Is @.7., &Op.iC.,@ @.b@ g.on,ds @.@ ; Justin answers, ?7a, ..I @.Pat 6@ xpdpop @l Ah J, [CP. above, vol. i. P. 3571. This passage throws light .. the well-known passage in the 4,pol., I. lxvii. (,n oO jAi.. A.-y.A,@'YV ja@'pq K.@a @Jx.,s h dyp@@, 4@l b .@b -yi,.@.,=On Sunday, all who stay in the towns or the country gather together). Nothing is said of one or more .eeting-places for worship in . town.
\6/ Passages in Muller ; only one r two can be added, via., Orig., Hoiii. ix. ii Levit., c. 9, nd Minuc., Oct. ix.
[[87]] reign of Gallienus (LF.E., iii. 1). Thus in the larger towns it as impossible to think of building an edifice to hold all the local members. The old custom of separating the church into sections for the purpose of worship had to be kept up. On the other hand, the smaller churches, perhaps those of medium size also, found it possible to keep strictly together in their worship, and this plainly was an excellent safeguard - against schism and the insinuation of heresy, as well as a powerful lever for the bishop in gathering and controlling the local community. The stricter development of catholicity and the nity of the individual and the general church certainly presupposed, among other things, special edifices for worship. Even where there were , umber of churches in one city, the church in Nvhich the bihop officiated naturally assumed a special prominence. The rest were superintended by presbyters. Traces of this arrangement are to be found in our extant sources. The building itself was a simple oblog with a niche on one side; examples of this are still to be seen in one or two sites and ruins throughout the East and in Africa (and Rome?).
These hall-churches did not last beyond the reign of Gallienus. The growth of the Christian congregations, the ecclesiastical consciousness, and the complicated requirements of the priesthood and the cultus (which approximated more than ever to those of paganism), involved not only larger buildings' but buildings for special purposes (eg., chapels for the martyrS).\2/ The age admitted of their erection, for an almost unbroken peace reigned from Gallienus to the beginning of the fourth century. Partly on ground which belonged to private individuals, partly OD sites which were the property of the
\7/ Cp. the interesting e.,ark f the pgan (Porphyry) in Mac. lvlagnes, IV. xxi Xp@,@@.,@l C@ @.@@ .1.0., makes @.x6.,r.s t@ T&"$ 6.@.6 .... @ (" Christians too, imi- tating the temple ed i.g@, where they meet for prayer, though th,re is nothii eeting in their own homes, since their Lord is confesse ere ").
\8/ Cp. especially Eu in Texte z,. Unfers., -iv. 4), and S=M., V. 20. Fro@ t I pas we see that several @tm., cb.@ip... w,re erected on one ! t, they have been ften quite small chapel%.
[[88]] church (for such were certainly in existence during the second half of the third century), large churches now arose, in the shape and under the name of basilicas.' Eusebius says explicitly (and we could infer it even apart from his evidence) that this was going on from the time of Gallienus. Naturally, it was not done all at once; it was very gradual, so much so that even decades afterwards many congregations had only quite modest buildings. The basilica was not a product of the age of Constantine; it bad already made its appearance within Christian architecture. The origin of the form would never have occasioned so much perplexity, bad it not been for the word " basilim,' which even yet has not been satisfactorily explained.' The basilica itself rested on the hall-church, just as that in its turn went back to the simple chamber or atrium.
Let me only add that this survey brings out the fact that no conclusions upon the size of any Christian congregation can be drawn from the small size of its church-buildings, even when the existence and use of such buildings can be proved for any given period. Even when a church edifice can be shown to have been the only one in the town, no such inferences can safely be drawn (down to the beginning of the third century); for we do not know whether worship may not have been also conducted in private houses, as a makeshift, nor do we know, as a rule, the special circumstances which may have induced a congregation to endure privation for a time and to make a poor building serve their purposes. On the other band, the establishment of numerous churches in a town is a fact of great importance for the history of the spread of Christianitv. Anything that is known about the separate churches will @e found in the following pages, in connection with their respective towns.
\9/ The name " basilica " was not confined to a church of some size ; it denoted small churches as well.
\10/ Large, stable, and sumptuous basilicas were not erected, of course, prior to Constantine ; the great church in Nicomedia could be demolished in a few hours, (ep. Lact., de Mort. i2, and Socrat., it. 38, where we are told how rapidly a church was removed from one place to another). The age of Constantine thus marks a certain epmh in the history of ecclesiastical buildings ; cp. the description of the buildings in Ty@e, by Eusebius (HE., x- 4).
//end of Harnack 4.2//