CENT. 11. looked upon those Christians as guilty of a most heinous transgression, who saved their lives by flight, from the persecuting sword, or who ransomed them by money, from the hands of their cruel and mercenary judges. I might mention many other precepts of the same teacher, equal to these in severity and rigor.

The success

of Montanus and his doctrine.

XXIV. It was impossible to suffer, within the bounds of the church, an enthusiast, who gave himself out for a communicator of precepts superior in sanctity to those of Christ himself, and who imposed his austere discipline upon Christians, as enjoined by a divine authority, and dictated by the oracle of celestial wisdom, which spoke to the world through him. Besides, his dismal predictions concerning the disasters that were to happen in the empire, and the approaching destruction of the Roman republic, might be expected to render him obnoxious to the govern ing powers, and also to excite their resentment against the church, which nourished such an inauspicious prophet in its bosom. Montanus, therefore, first by a decree of certain assemblies, and afterwards by the unanimous voice of the whole church, was solemnly separated from the body of the faithful. It is, however, certain, that the very severity of his doctrines gained him the esteem and confidence of many, who were far from being of the lowest order. The most eminent among these were Priscilla and Maximilla, ladies more remarkable for their opulence than for their virtue, and who fell with a high degree of warmth and zeal into the visions of their fanatical chief, prophesied like him, and imitated the pretended paraclete in all the variety of his extravagance and folly. Hence it became an easy matter for Montanus to erect a new church, which was first established at Pepuza, and afterwards spread abroad through Asia, Africa, and a part of Europe. The most eminent. and learned of all the followers of this rigid enthusiast was Tertullian, a man of great learning and genius, but of an austere and melancholy temper.

This great man, by adopting the sentiments of CENT. II. Montanus, and maintaining his cause with fortitude, and even vehemence, in a multitude of books written upon that occasion, has exhibited a mortifying spectacle of the deviations of which human nature is capable, even in those in whom it seems to have approached the nearest to perfection d.

d For an account of the Montanists, see Euseb. Eccles. History, book v. ch. xvi., and all the writers ancient and modern (especially Tertullian) who have professedly written of the sects of the early ages. The learned Theophilus Wernsdorff published, in 1751, a most ingenious exposition of whatever regards the sect of the Montanists, under the following title: Commentatio de Montanistis Sæculi secundi, vulgo creditis Hæreticis.

CENT. 111.

PART I.

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

Which contains the prosperous Events that happened to the Church during this Century.

I. THAT the Christians suffered, in this century, calamities and injuries of the most dreadful kind, is a matter that admits no debate; nor was there, indeed, any period in which they were secure or free from danger. For, not to mention the fury of the people, set in motion so often by the craft and zeal of their licentious priests, the evil came from a higher source; the prætors and magistrates, notwithstanding the ancient laws of the emperors in favor of the Christians, had it in their power to pursue them with all sorts of vexations, as often as avarice, cruelty, or superstition, roused up the infernal spirit The rights of persecution in their breasts. At the same time, it nities of the is certain, that the rights and privileges of the Christians Christians were multiplied, in this century, much

and immu

increased,

more than some are apt to imagine. In the army, at court, and, indeed, in all the orders of the nation, there were many Christians who lived entirely unmolested; and, what is still more, the profession of Christianity was no obstacle to public preferment under most of the emperors that reigned in this century. It is also certain, that the Christians had,

in many places, houses where they assembled for the CENT purposes of divine worship, with the knowlege and connivance of the emperors and magistrates. And though it be more than probable, that this liberty was, upon various occasions, and even for the most part, purchased at a high rate, yet it is manifest, that some of the emperors were very favorably inclined toward the Christians, and were far from having an aversion to their religion.

rors.

II. Caracalla, the son of Severus, was proclaimed under vaemperor in the year 211, and, during the six years of rious empehis government, he neither oppressed the Christians himself, nor permitted any others to treat them with cruelty or injustice. Heliogabalus also, though in other respects the most infamous of all princesa, and, perhaps, the most odious of all mortals, shewed no marks of bitterness or aversion to the disciples of Jesus. His successor, Alexander Severus, who was The beniga prince distinguished by a noble assemblage of the nity of Alexmost excellent and illustrious virtues, did not, indeed, ward the abrogate the laws that had been enacted against the Christians. Christians; and this is the reason why we have some examples of martyrdom under his administra

tion. It is nevertheless certain, that he shewed them, in many ways, and upon every occasion that was offered to him, the most undoubted marks of benignity: he is even said to have gone so far as to pay a certain sort of worship to the divine author of our religion. The friendly inclination of this prince toward the Christians probably arose, at first, from the instructions and counsels of his mother, Julia Mammæa, for whom he had a high degree of love and veneration. Julia had very favorable sentiments of the Christian religion: and, being once at Antioch, sent for the famous Origen from Alexandria, in order to enjoy the pleasure and advantage of his conversa

a Lampridius, Vita Elagabali.

b Lamprid. de Vitâ Severi, cap. xxix. Vide Carol. Henr. -Zeibichii Dis. de Christo ab Alexandro in larario culto, in Miscellan. Lips. nov. tom. iii.

ander to

CANT. III. tion and instructions. Those who assert, that Julia, and her son Alexander, embraced the Christian religion, are by no means furnished with unexcep→ tionable testimonies to confirm this fact, though we may affirm, with confidence, that this virtuous prince looked upon Christianity as meriting, beyond all other religions, toleration and favor from the state, and considered its author as worthy of a place among those who had been distinguished by their sublimé virtues, and honored with a commission from above c.

Other emperors favorable to

tians.

III. Under Gordian, the Christians lived in tranquillity. His successors the Philips, father and son, the Chris- proved so favorable, and even friendly to them, that these two emperors passed, in the opinion of many, for Christians; and, indeed, the arguments alleged to prove that they embraced, though in a secret and clandestine manner, the religion of Jesus, seem to render this point highly probable. But, as these concerning arguments are opposed by others equally specious, of the em- the famous question, relating to the religion of Philip peror Philip. the Arabian and his son, must be left undecided d

Question

the religion

Neither side offers reasons so victorious and unanswerable, as to produce a full and complete conviction; and this is therefore one of those many cases, where

c Vide F. Spanhemii Dis. de Lucii, Britonum Regis, Juliæ Mammææ et Philipporum, conversionibus, tom. ii. op. p. 400. Item, Paul Jablonski, Dis. de Alexandro Severo sacris Christianis per Gnosticos initiato, in Miscellan. Lips. nov. tom. iv.

d The authors of the Universal History have determined the question which Dr. Mosheim leaves here undecided; and they think it may be affirmed, that Philip and his son embraced the Gospel, since that opinion is built upon such respectable authority as that of Jerom, Chrysostom, Dionysius of Alexandria, Zonaras, Nicephorus, Cedrenus, Ruffinus, Syncellus, Orosius, Jornandes, Ammianus Marcellinus, the learned cardinal Bona, Vincentius Lirinensis, Huetius, and others. Mosheim refers his readers, for an account of this matter, to the following writers: Spanheim, de Christianismo Philip. tom. ii. op. p. 400.-Entretiens Historiques sur le Christianisme de l'Empereur Philippe, par P. De L. F.-Manımachii Origines et Antiqu, Christianæ, tom, ii. p. 252.-Fabric, de Luce Evang. &c. p. 252.

Dr.