EARLY CLAIMS OF SUPREMACY. 126 clergy. 173 artfully connected his own cause with that of the eastern bishops, and, like Hannibal, sought out new allies in the heart of Asia.125 If this Punic war was carried on without any effusion of blood, it was owing much less to the moderation than to the weakness of the contending prelates. Invectives and excommunications were their only weapons; and these, during the progress of the whole controversy, they hurled against each other with equal fury and devotion.* The hard necessity of censuring either a pope, or a saint and martyr, distresses the modern Catholics, whenever they are obliged to relate the particulars of a dispute in which the champions of religion indulged such passions as seem much more adapted to the senate or to the camp.1 The progress of the ecclesiastical authority gave birth to the memorable distinction of the Laity and laity and of the clergy, which had been unknown to the Greeks and Romans." The former of these appellations comprehended the body of the Christian people; the latter, according to the signification of the word, was appropriated to the chosen portion that had been set apart for the service of religion; a celebrated order of men, which has furnished the most important, though not always the most edifying, subjects for modern history. Their mutual hostilities sometimes disturbed the peace of the infant church, but their zeal and activity were united in the common cause, and the love of power, which (under the most artful disguises) could insinuate itself into the breasts of bishops and martyrs, animated them to increase the number of their subjects, and to enlarge the limits of the Christian empire. They were destitute of any temporal force, and they were for a 125 See the sharp epistle from Firmilianus, bishop of Cæsarea, to Stephen, bishop of Rome, ap. Cyprian. Epistol. 75. 126 Concerning this dispute of the rebaptism of heretics, see the epistles of Cyprian, and the seventh book of Eusebius. 127 For the origin of these words, see Mosheim, p. 141. Spanheim, Hist. Ecclesiast. p 633. The distinction of Clerus and Laicus was established before the time of Tertullian. *Nothing can exceed in intensity the hatred and ferocity engendered between Christians by a difference in creeds and dogmas. Religious wars have ever proved the most bloody and cruel in the history of mankind. When blind fanaticism is aroused, reason is dethroned, love is quenched, mercy is forgotten, and the mistaken enthusiast sincerely believes he is doing a service to a wise and merciful God by cruelly injuring and murdering his fellow men. Says Moore, in Lalla Rook! Oh! the lover may "Distrust that look which steals his soul away; "The babe may cease to think that it can play "The shining gold their crucibles give out; "To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last."-E. 174 COMMUNITY OF GOODS. long time discouraged and oppressed, rather than assisted, by the civil magistrate; but they had acquired, and they employed within their own society, the two most efficacious instruments of government, rewards and punishments; the former derived from the pious liberality, the latter from the devout apprehensions, of the faithful. Oblations and revenue of the church. 130 I. The community of goods, which had so agreeably amused the imagination of Plato,128 and which subsisted in some degree among the austere sect of the Essenians,129 was adopted for a short time in the primitive church. The fervor of the first proselytes prompted them to sell those worldly possessions which they despised, to lay the price of them at the feet of the apostles, and to content themselves with receiving an equal share out of the general distribution. The progress of the Christian religion relaxed, and gradually abolished, this generous institution, which, in hands less pure than those of the apostles, would too soon have been corrupted and abused by the returning selfishness of human nature; and the converts who embraced the new religion were permitted to retain the possession of their patrimony, to receive legacies and inheritances, and to increase their separate property by all the lawful means of trade and industry. Instead of an absolute sacrifice, a moderate proportion was accepted by the ministers of the gospel; and in their weekly or monthly assemblies, every believer, according to 128 The community instituted by Plato is more perfect than that which Sir Thomas More has imagined for his Utopia. The community of women, and that of temporal goods, may be considered as inseparable parts of the same system. 129 Foseph. Antiquitat. xviii. 2. Philo, de Vit. Contemplativ. 130 See the Acts of the Apostles, c. 2, 4. 5. with Grotius's Commentary, Mosheim, in a particular dissertation, attacks the common opinion with very inconclusive arguments.* *This is not the general judgment on Mosheim's learned dissertation. There is no trace in the latter part of the New Testament of this community of goods, and many distinct proofs of the contrary. All exhortations to almsgiving would have been unmeaning if property had been in common. — MILMAN. Dean Milman has here told the exact truth. The doctrines and teachings of Jesus were soon perverted. The Community he established was soon suppressed. The great and powerful church founded in his name was diametrically opposed to the principles he inculcated. "And all that believed were together, and had "all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to "all men, as every man had need." (Acts ii. 44-45.) And the multitude of "them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them "that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things "that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was "made unto every man according as he had need." (Acts iv. 32, 34, 35.) This is the doctrine taught by the Communist Mazdak, in Persia; by Pythagoras in Greece; by the Essenes in Alexandria; and by Jesus in Palestine; but it was not, and it is not the doctrine of the Church of Rome. - E. AMONG THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 131 133 175 the exigency of the occasion, and the measure of his wealth and piety, presented his voluntary offering for the use of the common fund.' Nothing, however inconsiderable, was refused; but it was diligently inculcated that, in the article of Tithes, the Mosaic law was still of divine obligation; and that, since the Jews, under a less perfect discipline, had been commanded to pay a tenth part of all that they possessed, it would become the disciples of Christ to distinguish themselves by a superior degree of liberality," and to acquire some merit by resigning a superfluous treasure, which must so soon be annihilated with the world itself."3 It is almost unnecessary to observe the revenue of each particular church, which was of so uncertain and fluctuating a nature, must have varied with the poverty or the opulence of the faithful, as they were dispersed in obscure villages, or collected in the great cities of the empire. In the time of the emperor Decius it was the opinion of the magistrates, that the Christians of Rome were possessed of very considerable wealth; that vessels of gold and silver were used in their religious worship; and that many among their proselytes had sold their lands and houses to increase the public riches of the sect; at the expense, indeed, of their unfortunate children, who found themselves beggars because their parents had been saints. We should listen with distrust to the suspicions 134 131 Justin Martyr. Apolog. Major, c. 89. Tertullian, Apolog. c. 39. 132 Irenæus ad Heres, 1. iv. c. 27, 34. Origen in Num. Hom, ii. Cyprian de Unitat. Eccles Constitut. Apostol. Í. ii. c. 34, 35, with the notes of Cotelerius. The Constitutions introduce this divine precept, by declaring that priests are as much above kings as the soul is above the body Among the tithable articles, they enumerate corn, wine, oil, and wool. On this interesting subject, consult Prideaux's History of Tithes, and Fra Paolo delle Materie Beneficiarie; two writers of a very different character. ap 133 The same opinion, which prevailed about the year one thousand, was productive of the same effects. Most of the Donations express their motive, propinquante mundi fine." See Mosheim's General History of the Church, vol. i. p. 457. 134 Tum summa cura est fratribus Prudent. περὶ στεφάνων. Hymn 2. The subsequent conduct of the deacon Laurence only proves how proper a use was made of the wealth of the Roman church; it was undoubtedly very considerable; but Fra Paolo (c. 3) appears to exaggerate, when he supposes that the successors of Commodus were urged to persecute the Christians by their own avarice, or that of their Prætorian præfects. 176 OBLATIONS OF THE FAITHFUL. of strangers and enemies on this occasion, however, they receive a very specious and probable color from the two following circumstances, the only ones that have reached our knowledge, which define any precise sums, or convey any distinct idea. Almost at the same period, the bishop of Carthage, from a society less opulent than that of Rome, collected a hundred thousand sesterces (above eight hundred and fifty pounds sterling), on a sudden call of charity to redeem the brethren of Numidia, who had been carried away captives by the barbarians of the desert.135 About a hundred years before the reign of Decius, the Roman church had received, in a single donation, the sum of two hundred thousand sesterces from a stranger of Pontus, who proposed to fix his residence in the capital.136 These oblations, for the most part, were made in money; nor was the society of Christians either desirous or capable of acquiring, to any considerable degree, the encumbrance of landed property. It had been provided by several laws, which were enacted with the same design as our statutes of mortmain, that no real estates should be given or bequeathed to any corporate body, without either a special privilege or a particular dispensation from the emperor or from the senate; who were seldom disposed to grant them in favor of a sect, at first the object of their contempt, and at last of their fears and jealousy. A transaction, however, is related under the reign of Alexander Severus, which discovers that the restraint was sometimes eluded or suspended, and that the Christians were permitted to claim and to possess lands within the limits of Rome itself. The progress of Christianity, and the civil confusion of the empire, contributed to relax the severity of the laws; and, before the close of the third century, many considerable estates were bestowed on the opulent churches of Rome, Milan, Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, and the other great cities of Italy and the provinces. 138 137 The bishop was the natural steward of the church; the public stock was intrusted to his Distribution care without account or control; the presbyters were confined to their spiritual functions; and of the revenue. 136 Tertullian de Præscriptione, c. 30. 135 Cyprian, Epistol. 62, 137 Diocletian gave a rescript, which is only a declaration of the old law; "Col"legium, si nullo speciali privilegio subnixum sit, hæreditatem capere non posse, "dubium non est." Fra Paolo (c. 4) thinks that these regulations had been much neglected since the reign of Valerian. 138 Hist. August. p. 131. The ground had been public; and was now disputed between the society of Christians and that of butchers.* Popinarii, rather victuallers. - MILMAN. DISTRIBUTION OF CHURCH REVENUE. 177 the more dependent order of deacons was solely employed in the management and distribution of the ecclesiastical revenue.19 If we may give credit to the vehement declamations of Cyprian there were too many among his African brethren, who, in the execution of their charge, violated every precept, not only of evangelic perfection, but even of moral virtue. By some of these unfaithful stewards the riches of the church were lavished in sensual pleasures; by others they were perverted to the purposes of private gain, of fraudulent purchases, and of rapacious usury.140 But as long as the contributions of the Christian people were free and unconstrained, the abuse of their confidence could not be very frequent; and the general uses to which their liberality was applied, reflected honor on the religious society. A decent portion was reserved for the maintenance of the bishop and his clergy; a sufficient sum was allotted for the expense of the public worship, of which the feasts of love, the agapa, as they were called, constituted a very pleasing part. The whole remainder was the sacred patrimony of the poor. According to the discretion of the bishop, it was distributed to support widows and orphans, the lame, the sick, and the aged, of the community; to comfort strangers and pilgrims, and to alleviate the misfortunes of prisoners and captives, more especially when their sufferings had been occasioned by their firm attachment to the cause of religion. A generous intercourse of charity united the most distant provinces, and the sinaller congregations were cheerfully assisted by the alms of their more opulent brethren. Such an institution, which paid less regard to the merit than to the distress of the object, very materially conduced to the progress of Christianity. The Pagans, who were actuated by a sense of humanity, while they derided the doctrines, acknowledged the benevolence of the new sect." 143 The prospect of immediate relief and of future p tection allured into its hospitable bosom many of th 141 |