Monks from the frontiers of Palestine labored zealously during the fourth and fifth centuries among the nomadic tribes. The most distinguished of these were Hilarion of the fourth and Euthymius of the fifth century, the latter of whom converted Ashebetus, the chief of a Saracenic tribe, and, having baptized him and given him his own Christian name Peter, consecrated him bishop. Symeon the Stylite also exercised a lasting influence over the nomadic tribes of the East. The roving and unsettled life of the Arabians and the influence of the Jews, great numbers of whom inhabited these regions, greatly retarded the progress of Christianity; and when, in the sixth century, the country passed under the domination of the Jewish king Dunaan (Dhu-Novas), the Christians experienced all the rigors of a cruel persecution. The city of Negran was treacherously burnt (A. D. 523) by order of the king, and during the conflagration more than twenty thousand Christians lost their lives.2 Elesbaan, king of Abyssinia, hastened to render aid to his brethren in the faith, engaged and defeated the Jews under Dunaan, and from this period Christian sovereigns ruled over the country until its subsequent subjugation-first by the arms of Persia, and afterward by Islamism, when the Church, weakened by internal divisions, and deprived of her legitimate influence by the favor shown to the Nestorians, was no longer able to resist the religion of Mohammed.

From the fourth century onward, the Persian Christians established many churches in India. Cosmas Indicopleustes (Indianeer, then monk) in the year 635 formed Christian, communities in Taprobane (Ceylon), Malo (Malabar?), and at Calliana (Calecut? or Calamina, and still later, Meliapore),3 and in the last-named place, he met a bishop. These communities being dependent on Persia, fell under the influence of Nestorianism. It is said that the Nestorian priest Jaballah

4

1Vita Euthymii, in Cotelerii monum. eccl. gr. T. II., c. 18 sq., 38 sq.

2 This martyrdom is also mentioned in the Koran, Sure 85, verse 4. Acta S. Aretae (anecdota graeca, ed. Boissonade, T. V., Paris, 1833). Cf. Assemani, bibl. Orient. T. I., p. 365 sq. Cf. Abrah. Ecchelensis, hist. Arabum, p. 171. 3Cf. Assemani bibl. Oriental. III. 2, 33.

4 Euseb. Caes. comm. in Jes. (Montfaucon, collect. nova. etc., T. II. 521.)

carried the faith into China in the seventh century, and enjoyed the favor and protection of the emperor.1

§ 106. Propagation of Christianity in Africa.

During the reign of Constantine the Great, Frumentius and Aedesius, two youths who accompanied Meropius, a learned merchant of Tyre, on a commercial voyage to the shores of Abyssinia, first preached the Gospel in that country. They had the good fortune to excite the sympathy and escape the cruelty of the pirates who captured the vessel of their friend on its return from Abyssinia, and murdered both him and his crew. The two youths were taken captive, admitted into the service of the king, and by their ability and attainments rapidly rose to favor and influence. Frumentius, having been intrusted with the education of Prince Aizana, succeeded in converting him to Christianity, and, during his minority, administered the government. About the year 326 he was consecrated bishop of Abyssinia by Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, and took up his residence at Axuma, the capital of the country. Aedesius returned to his own country, and related the events that had transpired during his absence to Rufinus, at Tyre.2 Frumentius, by his energy and activity, built up and firmly established the Church of Abyssinia, and the Homerites had reason to bless his memory when, in the sixth century, the descendants of those whom he had converted to Christianity liberated them from the horrors of a bloody persecution. After the Monophysite heresy had gained

Cosmas Indicopleustes, тоrоyрapía xpioriaviký (A. D. 535), libb. III. 179. (Montfaucon, 1. 1., T. II. Galland. bibl. T. IX. Migne, ser. gr. T. 88.)

1 According to a Syro-Chinese lapidary inscription, found in 1625 now placed in the (principal) Library of Paris. Cf. Kircheri, China illustrata, Rom. 1667, fol. Mosheim, hist. eccl. Tartarorum, Appendix, nr. 111. Panthier, de l'authenticité de l'inscription Nestorienne de Si-ngan-fou relative à l'introduction de la religion chrétienne en Chine dès le septième siècle de notre ère, Paris, 1857. By the same, Chinese text, with Latin and French transl. and beautiful fac-simile, Paris, 1858.

2 Rufin. X. 9. After him, Socrat. h. e. I. 19. Sozom. h. e. II. 24. Theodoret. h. e. I. 22. Athanas. apol. ad Constant., n. 31. Cf. iobi Ludolfi. historiae Aethiopicae, libb. IV., Francft. 1681, fol.; ejusdem. comm. ad hist., Aeth. 1691, fol. Le Quien, Oriens Christian. T. II., p. 642.

a foothold at Alexandria, it unfortunately made its way into Abyssinia also.

It is rather a striking and significant circumstance, that the Church founded by this holy bishop has continued to exist after so many changes and vicissitudes, and surrounded by Pagan and Mohammedan people and institutions, and that so many Christian churches are to be found, even at this day, scattered up and down through Abyssinia. It may be that what remains of the once flourishing church of this country is still destined, under the providence of God, to become a blessing to the whole continent.1

But while the command, given by our Lord to His Apostles, to announce the Gospel to all nations, is daily approaching nearer its fulfillment, and the Church is extending her limits in every clime and country; there is, on the other hand, an inscrutable providence, known to the Invisible Head of the Church, but hidden from our weak minds, by which the glorious churches of St. Cyprian and St. Augustine, and so many others in northwestern Africa, were doomed, toward the close of the fifth century, to pass through a sea of troubles, brought upon them by the Vandals and their kings, Geiseric and his successor Huneric, only to be afterward, together with the churches of entire countries of Asia, entirely lost in the flood of Islamism, that swept over these ill-fated lands.

OBSERVATION.-The conversion of the Goths, Vandals, Alans, Suevi, Lombards, Franks, and other nations of either Germanic or Slavic origin, which had already taken place, and the propagation of Christianity among the immigrant Saxons of the British islands, belong, at least in their historic development, to the Second Period of this history, where a general and comprehensive survey will be taken of all the missions established among these nationalities, and where, therefore, the history of Christianity among the former nations will be most conveniently and appropriately treated. For a similar reason, the history of Mohammedanism, and its encroachments upon Christianity in Asia and Africa, will be given in the same period.

1 The strong love and unalterable attachment to the Blessed Virgin, which is so characteristic of that country, and to which Oviedo and Nunnez bore witness in a past age, and Abbadie in our own day, may be taken as an earnest that this hope will yet be realized. (Tr.)

CHAPTER II.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, OC

CASIONED BY THE RISE OF HERESIES-IT IS CAST INTO
SCIENTIFIC FORM.

†Petavii Theolog. Dogmat. T. IV., V., de incarnatione Verbi, libb. XVI., T. III. de Pelagianor. et Semipelagianor. dogmat. hist., p. 307 sq. †Hock, Outlines of a Hist. of Philos. during the First Eight Centuries. (Bonn. Period. of Philos. and Cath. Theol., No. 17.) +Schwane, Hist. of Dogmas during the Age of the Fathers, Münster, 1867, Vol. II. State interference in this doctrinal development exposed by †Riffel, in 1. c., p. 273–480, and in Hefele's Hist. of Councils, Vols. II., III. passim.

§ 107. Character of the Doctrinal Development of this Epoch. (Cf. §§ 80, 81.)

There is properly no history of the doctrines of the Church. They suffer no change, and are at present precisely what they have been from the beginning; there are no new doctrines. to-day, and no modification of the old. We are not, therefore, giving here a history, but a development of the Church's doctrine; that is to say, we propose to show, as St. Vincent of Lerins aptly remarks, how a doctrine, while remaining one and immutable, may gradually acquire a more precise expression, a more determinate outline and shape, and a more rigorous definition; may, in a word, undergo a process analogous to what takes place in the human body, which, while preserving its essential identity and retaining the same number of members and the same character of organs, increases and assumes a more fixed and recognizable mold as time goes on.1

1.

1 Sed forsitan dicet aliquis: Nullusne ergo in ecclesia Christi profectus habebitur intelligentiae? habetur plane et maximus: sed ita tamen, ut vere pro fectus sit ille fidei, non permutatio. Si quidem ad perfectum pertinet ut in semet ipsa unaquaeque res amplificetur, ad permutationem vero, ut aliquid ex alio in aliud transvertatur.-Imitetur animarum ratio rationem corporum, quae licet annorum processu numeros suos evolvant et explicent, eadem tamen, quae

During the present epoch, there were many circumstances. which called forth such a development of Christian doctrine: 1. The attacks made by Pagan philosophers on the teachings of the Church; 2. The rise of numerous heresies, and the necessity of having them refuted by men, such as the Doctors of the Church, who, besides being skillful theologians, were also thoroughly acquainted with classic literature; 3. The bearing of Christian doctrine on the different forms of scientific research, and the controversies to which these gave rise. There is perhaps no age of ecclesiastical history in which these various circumstances exercised so vital an influence upon the development of Christian doctrine. Indeed, the very life of the Church depends upon the successful and triumphant defense of her doctrine, and at no time in her history has it been so violently assailed or so definitely brought out, or made so distinctively the common property of all the faithful, as during the present epoch, when numerous ecumenical councils put its precise meaning into rigorous formulæ.

In the East the controversy turned on the nature and object of the Church, on the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ, and on the divinity of the Holy Ghost; and in the West on Christian anthropology. The heroic devotion and the unflinching courage, which animated the champions who fought the battles and gained the victories and secured the triumphs of the Church during this season of conflict and trial, compensate, in great measure, to the historian for the deplorable acts of violence and outbursts of passion which he so often finds interwoven with the ecclesiastical affairs.

erant, permanent. Vincent. Lerin. commonit., c. 29. Similarly in the sixteenth century, Melchior Canus, the celebrated Dominican: Nullusne in Christi ecclesia profectus habetur intelligentiae? Minime vero gentium; possumus enim vetustis novitatem dare, obsoletis nitorem, obscuris lucem, fastiditis gratiam, dubiis fidem, omnibus naturam suam et naturae suae omnia. Loc. theolog., libb. VII., cap. 4. †Lorinser, Development and Progress of the Church's Doctrine according to Dr. Newman, Breslau, 1847.