Several condtries receive

VI. That the limits of the church were extended in this, century, is a matter beyond all controversy. It is not, however, equally certain in what manner, the light of by what persons, or in what parts of the world, the gospel. this was effected. Origen, invited from Alexandria by an Arabian prince, converted, by his assiduous labours, a certain tribe of wandering Arabs to the Christian faith." The Goths, a fierce and warlike people, who inhabited the countries of Mysia and Thrace, and who, accustomed to rapine, vexed the neighbouring provinces by perpetual incursions, received the knowledge of the gospel by the means of certain Christian doctors sent thither from Asia. The holy lives of these venerable teachers, and the miraculous powers with which they were endowed, attracted the esteem, even of a people educated to nothing but plunder and devastation, and absolutely uncivilized by letters or science; and their authority and influence grew so great, and produced, in process of time, such remarkable effects, that a great part of this barbarous people became the disciples of Christ, and put off, in a manner, that ferocity that was become so natural to them.

Among others

many.

VII. The Christian assemblies, founded in Gaul by the Asiatic doctors in the preceding century, were few in number, and of very little extent; but both Gauland Gertheir number and their extent were considerably increased from the time of the emperor Decius. Under his reign Dionysius, Gatian, Trophymus, Paul, Saturninus, Martial, Stremonius, men of exemplary piety, passed into this province, and amidst dangers and trials of various kinds, erected churches at Paris, Tours, Arles, and several other places. This was followed by a rapid progress of the gospel among the Gauls, as the disciples of these pious teachers spread, in a short time, the knowledge of Christianity through the whole country. We must also place in this century the origin of several German churches, such as those of Cologn, Treves, Metz, and others, of which Eucharius, Valerius, Maternus, and Clemens, were the principal founders.' The historians of Scotland inform us,

h Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xix. p. 221.

1

i Sozomenus, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. vi. Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Miscell. lib. ii. cap. xiv. Philostorgius, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. v. p. 470.

k See the history of the Francks by Gregory de Tours, book i. ch. xxviii. p. 23. Theodor. Ruinart, Acta Martyr. sincera, p. 109.

1 See Aug. Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, tom. i. dissert. i. p. 7. Jo. Nicol. ab Hontheim, Historia Trevirensis, tom. i. ubi Diss. de æra fundati Episcopatus Trevirensis.

that the light of Christianity arose upon that country during this century; but, though there be nothing improbable in this assertion, yet it is not built upon incontestable authority.

CHAPTER II,

CONCERNING THE CALAMITOUS EVENTS WHICH HAPPENED TO THE CHURCH IN THIS CENTURY.

The perse

Severus.

1. In the beginning of this century, the Christian church suffered calamities of various kinds throughout ention under the provinces of the Roman empire. These sufferings increased in a terrible manner, in consequence of a law made, in the year 203, by the emperor Severus, who, in other respects, was certainly no enemy to the Christians, by which every subject of the empire was prohibited to change the religion of his ancestors for that of the Christian or Jewish." This law was, in its effects, most prejudicial to the Christians; for, though it did not formally condemn them, and seemed only adapted to put a stop to the further progress of the gospel, yet it induced rapacious and unjust magistrates to persecute even unto death the poorer sort among the Christians, that thus the richer might be led, through fear of like treatment, to purchase their tranquillity and safety at an expensive rate. Hence many of the disciples of Christ, both in Egypt, and also in several parts of Asia and Africa, were put to death in consequence of this law. Among these Leonidas, the father of Origen, Perpetua and Felicitas, those two famous African ladies, whose acts are come down to our times, Potamiena Marcella, and other martyrs of both sexes, acquired an illustrious name by the magnanimity and tranquillity with which they endured the most cruel sufferings. II. From the death of Severus to the reign of Maximin, the condition of the Christians was, in some places, prosperous, and in all, supportable. But with Maximin the face of affairs changed. This unworthy emperor having animated the Roman soldiers to assassinate Alexander Severus, dreaded the resentment of the Chris

That under Maximin.

m See Usher et Stillingfleet, Antiquit. et Origin. Ecclesiar. Brit. Sec also George Mackenzie, De Regali Scotorum prosapia, cap. viii. p. 119.

n Eusebius, Eccles. Histor. lib. vi. cap. i. Spartianus in Severo, cap. xvi. xvii. p. 61。 Theod. Ruinart, Acta Martyr. p. 90.

Many Christians,in consecruelty of Dechargeable

quence of the

cius, become

with defec

tians, whom that excellent prince had favoured and protected in a distinguished manner; and for this reason, he ordered the bishops, whom he knew that Alexander had always treated as his intimate friends, to be seized and put to death. During his reign, the Christians suffered in the most barbarous manner; for, though the edict of this tyrant extended only to the bishops and leaders of the Christian church, yet its shocking effects reached much further; as it animated the heathen priests, the magistrates, and the multitude, against Christians of every rank and order." III. This storm was succeeded by a calm, in which the Christians enjoyed a happy tranquillity for many years. The accession of Decius Trajan to the imperial throne, in the year 249, raised a new tempest, in which the fury of persecution fell in a dreadful manner upon the church of Christ. For tion. this emperor, either from an ill-grounded fear of the Christians, or from a violent zeal for the superstition of his ancestors, published most terrible and cruel edicts; by which the pretors were ordered, upon pain of death, either to extirpate the whole body of Christians without exception, or to force them, by torments of various kinds, to return to the pagan worship. Hence, in all the provinces of the empire, multitudes of Christians were, during the space of two years, put to death by the most horrid punishments," which an ingenious barbarity could invent. The most unhappy circumstance of all these cruelties was, their fatal influence upon the faith and constancy of many of the sufferers; for as this persecution was much more terrible than all those that preceded it, so a great number of Christians, dismayed, not at the approach of death, but at the aspect of those dreadful and lingering torments, which a barbarous magistracy had prepared to combat their constancy, fell from the profession of their faith, and secured themselves from punishment, either by offering sacrifices, or by burning incense, before the images of the gods, or by purchasing certificates from the pagan priests. Hence arose the opprobrious names of Sacrificati, given to those who

p Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. xxviii. p. 225. 509.

Orosius, Hist. lib. vii. cap. xix. p.

q Origen. tom. xxviii. in Matth. opp. tom. i. p. 137. See also Firmilianus in Cypriani Epistolis, p. 140.

r Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. xxxix. p. 234, cap. xli. p. 238. Gregorius Nyss. in vita Thaumaturgi, tom. iii. opp. p. 568. Cyprianus, De Lapsis, p. 182.

sacrificed; Thurificati, to those who burned incense; and Libellatici, to those who produced certificates."

Warm con

tests occasioned by the

defection of

Christians.

Pacis.

IV. This defection of such a prodigious number of Christians under Decius was the occasion of great commotions in the church, and produced debates of a very difficult and delicate nature. For the lapsed, or those that had fallen from their Christian profession, were desirous to be restored to church communion, without submitting to that painful course of penitential discipline, which the ecclesiastical laws indispensably required. The bishops were divided upon this matter; some were for showing the desired indulgence, while others opposed it with all their might. In Egypt and Africa, many, in order to obtain more speedily the pardon of their apostacy, interested the martyrs in their behalf, and received from them letters of reconciliation and peace,* i. e. * Libellos a formal act by which they, the martyrs, declared, in their last moments, that they looked upon them as worthy of their communion, and desired of consequence that they should be restored to their place among the brethren. Some bishops and presbyters readmitted into the church with too much facility, apostates and transgressors, who produced such testimonies as these. But Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, a man of severe wisdom and great dignity of character, acted in quite another way. Though he had no intention to derogate from the authority of the venerable martyrs, yet he opposed with vigour this unreasonable lenity, and set limits to the efficacy of these letters of reconciliation and peace. Hence arose a keen dispute between him and the martyrs, confessors, presbyters, and lapsed, seconded by the people; and yet, notwithstanding this formidable multitude of adversaries, the venerable bishop came off victorious."

Is These certificates were not all equally criminal, nor supposed all a degree of apostacy equally enormous. It is therefore necessary to advertise the reader of the following distinctions omitted by Dr. Mosheim: these certificates were sometimes no more than a permission to abstain from sacrificing, obtained by a fee given to the judges, and were not looked upon as an act of apostacy, unless the Christians, who demanded them, had declared to the judges, that they had conformed themselves to the emperor's edicts. But, at other times, they contained a profession of paganism, and were either offered voluntarily by the apostate, or were subscribed by him, when they were presented to him by the persecuting magistrates. Many used certificates, as letters of security, obtained from the priests at a high rate, and which dispensed them from either professing or denying their sentiments. See Spanheim. Historia Christiana, p. 732, 733. See also Prud. Maranus in vita Cypriani, operibus ejus præmissa, § 6, p. 54.

t Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. xliv. Cypr. Epistolæ, in many places.

u The whole history of this controversy may be gathered from the epistles of Cyprian. See also Gabr. Albaspinæus; Observat. Eccles. lib. i. observ. xx. p. 94. pænis et satisfactionibus humanis, lib. vii. cap. xvi. p. 706.

Dalalus, De

W tions under

v. Gallus, the successor of Decius, and Volusianus, son of the former, reanimated the flame of persecu- The persecu tion, which was beginning to burn with less fury. And, beside the sufferings which the Christians Volusianus. had to undergo in consequence of their cruel edicts, they were also involved in the public calamities that prevailed at this time, and suffered grievously from a terrible pestilence, which spread desolation through many provinces of the empire. This pestilence also was an occasion which the pagan priests used with dexterity to renew the rage of persecution against them, by persuading the people that it was on account of the lenity used toward the Christians, that the gods sent down their judgments upon the nations. In the year 254, Valerian being declared emperor, made the fury of persecution cease, and restored the church to a state of tranquillity.

rian.

VI. The clemency and benevolence which Valerian showed to the Christians, continued until the fifth Under Valeyear of his reign. Then the scene began to change, and the change indeed was sudden. Macrianus, a superstitious and cruel bigot to paganism, had gained an entire ascendant over Valerian, and was his chief counsellor in every thing that related to the administration of the government. By the persuasion of this imperious minister, the Christians were prohibited to assemble themselves together, and their bishops and doctors were sent into banishment. This edict was published in the year 257, and was followed, the year after, by one still more severe; in consequence of which a considerable number of Christians, in all the different provinces of the empire, were put to death, and that by such cruel methods of execution, as were much more terrible than death itself. Of those that suffered in this persecution, the most eminent were Cyprian, bishop of Carthage; Sixtus, bishop of Rome; and Laurentius, a Roman deacon, who was barbarously consumed by a slow and lingering fire. An unexpected event suspended, for a while, the sufferings of the Christians. Valerian was made prisoner in the war against the Persians; and his son Gallienus, in the year 260, restored peace to the church."

w Euseb. Hist. Eccles, lib. vii. cap. i. p. 250. x Vid. Cypriani Lib. ad Demetrianum.

Cyprian. Epist. Ivii. Iviii.

y Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. x. xi. p. 255. Acta Cypriani, as they are to be found in the Acta Martyrum Ruinarti, p. 216. Cypriani Epist. Ixxvii. p. 158, edit. Baluz. lxxxii. p. 167.