Volume I Part 22 (2/2)
The existence of those ill.u.s.trious men who, on account of their useful lives or excellent example, had, by the pious ages of old, been sanctified or even deified, was denied, or, if admitted, they were regarded as the exaggerations of dark and barbarous times. It was thus with aesculapius, Bacchus, and Hercules. And as to the various forms of wors.h.i.+p, the mult.i.tude of sects into which the pagan nations were broken up offered themselves as a spectacle of imbecile and inconsistent devotion altogether unworthy of attention, except so far as they might be of use to the interests of the state.
[Sidenote: Their irresolution.]
Such was the position of things among the educated. In one sense they had pa.s.sed into liberty, in another they were in bondage. Their indisposition to encounter those inflictions with which their illiterate contemporaries might visit them may seem to us surprizing: they acted as if they thought that the public was a wild beast that would bite if awakened too abruptly from its dream; but their pusillanimity, at the most, could only postpone for a little an inevitable day. The ignorant cla.s.ses, whom they had so much feared, awoke in due season spontaneously, and saw in the clear light how matters stood.
[Sidenote: Surrender of affairs in the illiterate cla.s.ses,]
[Sidenote: and consequent debas.e.m.e.nt of Christianity in Rome.]
Of the Roman emperors there were some whose intellectual endowments were of the highest kind; yet, though it must have been plain to them, as to all who turned their attention to the matter, in what direction society was drifting, they let things take their course, and no one lifted a finger to guide. It may be said that the genius of Rome manifested itself rather in physical than in intellectual operations; but in her best days it was never the genius of Rome to abandon great events to freedmen, eunuchs, and slaves. By such it was that the ancient G.o.ds were politically cast aside, while the government was speciously yielding a simulated obedience to them, and hence it was not at all surprizing that, soon after the introduction of Christianity, its pure doctrines were debased by a commingling with ceremonies of the departing creed. It was not to be expected that the popular mind could spontaneously extricate itself from the vicious circle in which it was involved.
Nothing but philosophy was competent to deliver it, and philosophy failed of its duty at the critical moment. The cla.s.sical scholar need scarcely express his surprize that the Feriae Augusti were continued in the Church as the Festival St. Petri in Vinculis; that even to our own times an image of the holy Virgin was carried to the river in the same manner as in the old times was that of Cybele, and that many pagan rites still continue to be observed in Rome. Had it been in such incidental particulars only that the vestiges of paganism were preserved, the thing would have been of little moment; but, as all who have examined the subject very well know, the evil was far more general, far more profound. When it was announced to the Ephesians that the Council of that place, headed by Cyril, had decreed that the Virgin should be called ”the Mother of G.o.d,” with tears of joy they embraced the knees of their bishop; it was the old instinct peeping out; their ancestors would have done the same for Diana. If Trajan, after ten centuries, could have revisited Rome, he would, without difficulty, have recognized the drama, though the actors and scenery had all changed; he would have reflected how great a mistake had been committed in the legislation of his reign, and how much better it is, when the intellectual basis of a religion is gone, for a wise government to abstain from all compulsion in behalf of what has become untenable, and to throw itself into the new movement so as to shape the career by a.s.suming the lead. Philosophy is useless when misapplied in support of things which common sense has begun to reject; she shares in the discredit which is attaching to them. The opportunity of rendering herself of service to humanity once lost, ages may elapse before it occurs again. Ignorance and low interests seize the moment, and fasten a burden on man, which the struggles of a thousand years may not suffice to cast off. Of all the duties of an enlightened government, this of allying itself with Philosophy in the critical moment in which society is pa.s.sing through so serious a metamorphosis of its opinions as is involved in the casting off of its ancient invest.i.ture of Faith, and its a.s.sumption of a new one, is the most important, for it stands connected with things that outlast all temporal concerns.
CHAPTER IX.
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF INQUIRY.
THE PROGRESSIVE VARIATION OF OPINIONS CLOSED BY THE INSt.i.tUTION OF COUNCILS AND THE CONCENTRATION OF POWER IN A PONTIFF. RISE, EARLY VARIATIONS, CONFLICTS, AND FINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY.
_Rise of Christianity.--Distinguished from ecclesiastical Organization.--It is demanded by the deplorable Condition of the Empire.--Its brief Conflict with Paganism.--Character of its first Organization.--Variations of Thought and Rise of Sects: their essential Difference in the East and West.--The three primitive Forms of Christianity: the Judaic Form, its End--the Gnostic Form, its End--the African Form, continues._
_Spread of Christianity from Syria.--Its Antagonism to Imperialism; their Conflicts.--Position of Affairs under Diocletian.--The Policy of Constantine.--He avails himself of the Christian Party, and through it attains supreme Power.--His personal Relations to it._
_The Trinitarian Controversy.--Story of Arius.--The Council of Nicea._
_The Progress of the Bishop of Rome to Supremacy.--The Roman Church; its primitive subordinate Position.--Causes of its increasing Wealth, Influence, and Corruptions.--Stages of its Advancement through the Pelagian, Nestorian, and Eutychian Disputes.--Rivalry of the Bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Rome._
_Necessity of a Pontiff in the West and ecclesiastical Councils in the East.--Nature of those Councils and of pontifical Power._
_The Period closes at the Capture and Sack of Rome by Alaric.--Defence of that Event by St. Augustine.--Criticism on his Writings._
_Character of the Progress of Thought through this Period.--Destiny of the three great Bishops._
[Sidenote: Subject of the chapter.]
From the decay of Polytheism and the decline of philosophy, from the moral and social disorganization of the Roman empire, I have now to turn to the most important of all events, the rise of Christianity. I have to show how a variation of opinion proceeded and reached its culmination; how it was closed by the establishment of a criterion of truth, under the form of ecclesiastical councils, and a system developed which supplied the intellectual wants of Europe for nearly a thousand years.
[Sidenote: Introduction to the study of Christianity.]
The reader, to whom I have thus offered a representation of the state of Roman affairs, must now prepare to look at the consequences thereof.
Together we must trace out the progress of Christianity, examine the adaptation of its cardinal principles to the wants of the empire, and the variations it exhibited--a task supremely difficult, for even sincerity and truth will sometimes offend. For my part, it is my intention to speak with veneration on this great topic, and yet with liberty, for freedom of thought and expression is to me the first of all earthly things.
[Sidenote: Distinction between Christianity and ecclesiastical organizations.]
But, that I may not be misunderstood, I here, at the outset, emphatically distinguish between Christianity and ecclesiastical organizations. The former is the gift of G.o.d; the latter are the product of human exigencies and human invention, and therefore open to criticism, or, if need be, to condemnation.
[Sidenote: Moral state of the world at this period.]
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