93. Holy Seasons and Holy Days-Discussion on the Paschal Fes- tival-Places in which the Christians assembled................. 440 FROM THE EDICT OF PACIFICATION OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT TO THE END OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY-THE CHAPTER I. Complete Victory of Christianity over Paganism in the Roman Empire-Its Further Propagation beyond the Limits of the Latter-En- croachments of Mohammedanism upon Christendom. 2 97. Relations of Constantine the Great to the Catholic Church..... 463 98. Condition of the Cath. Church under the Sons of Constantine. 474 99. The Church under Julian the Apostate.................... CHAPTER II. Development of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church Occa- sioned by the Rise of Heresies-It is Cast into Scientific Form. ? 107. Character of the Doctrinal Development of this Epoch.......... 506 108. Sources of the Doctrine of the Church-Holy Scripture and Tradition-Canon and Ecclesiastical Interpretation of Holy 109. The Catholic Idea of the Church and of the Sacrament of Pen- 110nce, as brought out by the Donatist Controversy. Doctrine of the Catholic Church on the Son of God, as opposed 111. Continuation of the Arian Controversy-Athanasius the Great. 527 112. Gradual Decline of Arianism-Second Ecumenical Council.... 544 113. Origen persecuted as the Author of Arianism-St. Jerome, Ru- 119. Heresy of Nestorius-Ecumenical Council of Ephesus........... 592 120. Heresy of Eutyches-Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon......... 604 121. Parties among the Monophysites-Efforts of the Emperors to 123. Establishment of an Independent Monophysite Church....................... 631 124. The Monothelites, the Patriarch Sophronius and Abbot Maxi- 139. Orders, Matrimony, Extreme Unction, Burials. 140. Religious and Moral Life of the Christians...... 141. Origin, Aim, and Scope of Monastic Life....................... 143. Adversaries of Christian Life--Priscillian Audius, the Messa- lians, Aëtius, Jovinian, Vigilantius, Helvidius, Bonosus, the EXPLANATION OF SIGNS USED IN THIS WORK.—†=A reliable author. *=An SCIENTIFIC INTRODUCTION. Sources of InforMATION.—†* Fleury, Préface de l'Historie Ecclésiastique, ? IXI. †*Moehler, Introduction to Church History, complete edition, Vol. II. † Gams, Moehler's Letters on Church History, Vol. II., pp. 1–82. Schleiermacher, History of Christian Church, Berlin, 1840, pp. 1–47. CHAPTER I. OUTLINE AND DEFINITION OF CHURCH HISTORY. §1. Religion. Church. Christian Church. Religion is a condition to the existence of a church, and, as such, must be the basis of Christian church history. Religion, in its objective sense, is a divinely appointed connection between man and his God; in its subjective sense, it is the voluntary acceptance of the conditions of this connection; that, by the acknowledgment and worship of a Supreme Being, man may become like Him and be united with Him." The knowledge of a God and the necessity, thence arising, of seeking happiness in a union with Him, is natural to man, but not less so is his need of living together with his fellow-men and enjoying their society. And as man prospers in the affairs of this world only when working in harmony 2 'Plato speaks repeatedly of the duoiwois veç karà Svvaróv, as, for instance, Theaet., p. 176; de Republica, lib. X., p. 320, ed. H. Stephani. The word religio is, by Lactantius, derived from religando, i. e., a binding of man to God, an obligation (Divin. Instit. IV., 28); still better, by Cicero, from relegendo, i. e., considering attentively, and hence conscientiousness, devotion (de Natura Deorum, II., 28; de Inventione, II., 53). St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Ficinus connected both, as, nos ipsos relegendo, religantes Deo religiosi sumus, but this seems arbitrary and inadmissible. †Stiefelhagen, Theology of Paganism, Ratisbon, 1858, p. 41, seq. 2 Cicero de Legg. I. 8: Ex tot generibus nullum est animal praeter hominem, quod habeat notitiam aliquam Dei, ipsisque in hominibus nulla gens est neque tam immansueta neque tam fera, quae non etiamsi ignoret qualem habere debeat, tamen habendum sciat. VOL. I-1 with his kind, so, also, in his relations with God, spiritual life being preserved and religious fervor quickened and sustained by the harmony and energetic action of religious bodies. Religious communities were the natural outgrowth of this idea, and partook of the nature of those who composed them. These being men, who are a union of a perishable body and an immortal soul, gave both a secular and a religious, a' human and a divine phase, to religious community life. We find associations of a cognate character among nations from which, in consequence of original sin, the light of primitive revelation had almost entirely faded away; among those who had "changed the glory of an incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds and four-footed beasts, and of creeping things," and thus fell into Polytheism and Pantheism. Such associations, however, give but a faint idea of a church, for so closely were they bound up with the state, both as regards their internal constitution and external development, and so intimately were the political and religious interests blended, that the church became an integral part of the state, without even a separate existence or name of its The words used in the Old Testament, own. 2 p Kehal Jehovah, though of limited application, give an idea of a church widely differing from these, and incomparably more perfect. They designate the people of Israel as a nation set apart from others, chosen of God, dedicated to His service, and destined to enlarge their tents and receive all the nations of the world.3 The Septuagint translates the words from Numbers by ovvarwyn zupiov, the synagogue of the Lord, and those of Deuteronomy by èxxkqoia zupiov, the church of the Lord. Christianity alone was capable of realizing the true idea of a church. Christ revived among men the primitive knowledge of God, and by the religion which he preached, 1 Rom. i. 23. 2 Num. xx. 4; Deut. xxiii. 1. 3 Gen. xxii. 18. |