Chinese documents of the age of Domitian. Their khan or tanjou, Tchun Goei, had founded a powerful empire beyond the northern edge of the desert of Kobi, by whose successors the Manchoos or Eastern Tartars were subdued. The Chinese, who vainly opposed their great wall to check these incursions, were reduced by the Tanjous; but fortune changing, the Emperor Vou-ti expelled them from his country, and the Manchoos also threw off their yoke. A prey to dreadful famine and intestine wars, the Huns abandoned the steppes of Tartary, and in two great bodies marched to the westward. The white Huns, or Nepthalites, settled in Transoxiana, whence they annoyed the Persians; while the other tribes to the north of the Caucasus, and between the Volga and the Don, encountered the Alani, a people almost as savage as themselves. These they carried along with them in their course, and the two hordes, now confounded in one, arrived on the borders of the Ostrogoths. They did not force the vanquished inhabitants to quit their lands, but compelled them to supply a certain number of guides to lead them to the attack of the Visigoths. These latter tribes, at the approach of this terrible scourge, fled in multitudes towards the Danube, and supplicated Valens, 376, to receive and protect them on the right bank; promising that when they were once sheltered by this barrier, they would consecrate their services to the defence of the empire. How the declarations of this million of suppliants were kept, the reader will find detailed elsewhere. THE CHURCH. The Christian religion, although severely persecuted, resembled the herb that flourishes best when most trodden upon. The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church, and hence converts rapidly spread over the empire, and to the remotest parts of the world. Heresy and schism, no doubt, arose simultaneously with the propagation of the Gospel; nevertheless, within three centuries, Paganism was entirely abolished. But the Arian controversy threatened more serious danger than external persecution; the believers were for a long period disunited, and the bond of evangelical brotherhood was broken. With the death of Constantine began the two principal innovations which still divide the Catholic (or Universal) Church, and which have proved the source of all the corruptions that have degraded Christianity: by the one the doctrine was contaminated, and by the other the government of the independent Episcopal churches was destroyed. It ought to be remembered that every church was a society complete in itself, governed in all its branches by one episcopal head, who was liable to be deposed if he violated the faith,-even the patriarchs of the three royal cities, Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria, with those of Constantinople and Jerusalem, scarcely forming an exception to the general rule. Certain large ecclesiastical provinces, such as Persia, Armenia, and Abyssinia, which lay beyond the limits of the empire, had also their patriarchs or catholics. Lastly, there were in it a few provinces united with a metropolitan, who took the name of archbishop, as Canterbury in England, Vienne in Gaul, Seville in Spain, and Milan in Italy. As to the bishops or overseers (episcopi), their establishment dates from the 155 first ages of Christianity: elected by the people and clergy of their diocese, their spiritual authority was equal to that of the metropolitans and patriarchs, on whom, from the exigencies of the times, the church had conferred certain exterior privileges. Below the bishops were the elders (presbyters or priests), charged by them with the exercise of a spiritual authority over those members of their diocese whom they themselves could not reach. The deacons or servants were destined to perform the humbler functions of the ministry. The equality of this spiritual republic was, nevertheless, modified by its discipline; for the priest was inferior to the bishop, and both to the provincial council in which the metropolitan presided. The errors of Arius, 318, convulsed the church during three centuries. Rejecting the plain declaration of the Bible and the evidence of antiquity, he taught that Jesus Christ was essentially distinct from the Father, and only the first and noblest of created beings. These heretical tenets led to the summoning of the general councils of the bishops and doctors of the church,-at NICE, 325; CONSTANTINOPLE, 381; EPHESUS, 431; CHALCEDON, 451,-by which the opinions of the primitive Christians were confirmed on the subject of the person of Christ, of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Atonement.* But the savage inroads of the barbarians, the extinction of learning, and an almost universal mental abasement, prepared the way for the establishment of Popery and Mohammedanism-the rival enemies of pure religion in the West and East. The church of Rome began early to assume authority over the others, as well from the number and wealth of its converts as from its position. in the capital city. Many circumstances, especially the Athanasian controversy and its results, concurred to augment the influence of its bishop, although his usurpation and ambition were for a time vigorously repelled. Irenæus of France, in 195, reproved the presumption of Victor of Rome, who had excommunicated the Asiatic churches which did not observe Easter after his fashion. The Romish mandates were peremptorily rejected by the African church, 250; and Spain a few years afterwards refused to submit to the pontiff. The transference of the seat of power to Constantinople increased the authority of the western church, by conferring the chief magistracy on the bishop. To this must be added the sanction given by Gratian and Valentinian to the custom of appeals to Rome, the frequent pilgrimages to the tombs of St. Peter, St. Paul, and other martyrs. * The Council of Constantinople was convoked by Theodosius the Great, and the patriarchs of Alexandria and Constantinople presided in succession. St. Gregory of Nazianzum was among the number. The symbol of the mass, afterwards received by the whole Romish church, was here proposed. The Council of Ephesus was convoked by Theodosius the younger. St. Cyril of Alexandria presided; the Nestorians and Pelagians were condemned. The Council of Chalcedon was convoked by the Emperor Marcian. One of the canons then enacted, by which Constantinople ought to enjoy the same advantages as Rome in the ecclesiastical order, was the germ of schism which afterwards separated the Greek from the Western church. †The most magnificent temple in the world was raised over the traditionary tomb of St. Peter; but whatever may be the decisions of the critics as to his visit to Rome and martyrdom in that city, there can be no reasonable doubt that neither he nor St. Pau was the founder of the Christian church in that metropolis. GENERAL TABLE OF COUNCILS. The teacher should furnish the pupil with the particulars from Milner, Mosheim, or any more authentic source. Remarks on the Establishment of Christianity by Constantine. It is uncertain whether faith or patriotic philanthropy induced the Roman emperor to distribute the ministers of Christ over his dominions, and to assign .hem a territorial revenue. Contemporaneously with this establishment was the progress of a great and general corruption which had arisen from other causes two centuries before. Superstition and ignorance had invested the ecclesiastics with a power which they exerted to their own aggrandizement, supplanting the authority of Scripture by a discipline and doctrine which blinded the souls of men. In this alone which the establishment should have restrained and corrected-originated the despotism of priests, and by it they were enabled to rule at will over the consciences of their deluded votaries. In consequence of the new arrangement, the religion of Christ spread from the cities and towns over all the rural districts, and the Pagans (i. e. villagers, in a literal sense) were brought into the Christian fold. An unfailing succession of ministers was thus secured; a refuge during the dark and stormy ages, already impending over the empire, was prepared; virtue found a safe retreat; and learning was sheltered till brighter days arose. The religion of the Gospel could never have perished; but the sufferings consequent upon the barbarian invasions would have been increased tenfold, and all literature and science would have disappeared in the wreck of the governments. HERESIES.-The great heresies in the early Christian church may be traced to three sources:-1. Pagan Philosophy; 2. Opinions as to the Nature of Christ; and, 3. Doctrines in regard to the Human Will and Original Sin. I. PHILOSOPHY.-The Gnostics rejected the law of Moses, with some parts of the New Testament, and regarded Christ as an intermediate being between God and man, an emanation from the Pleroma, or fulness of the Godhead, sent into the world to deliver the human being from the empire of the genii, and to withdraw souls from the malignant influence of matter. Some abstained from marriage, and by fasting and maceration endeavoured to free the soul from the fleshly prison to which it was confined; others of the Gnostics indulged in every kind of vice, as they attached no idea of good or evil to any of the different modifications of matter. The Manichees derive their name and creed from the Persian Mani, whose belief was a mixture of Christianity and Sabaism, founded on the oriental tradition of two principles of Good and Evil. He rejected the Old Testament, and published a gospel of his own, meant by him to complete the imperfect revelation of Jesus. He identified the God of the Old Testament with the evil spirit; rejected all religious ceremonials; and taught the doctrine of the metempsychosis, with the triple division of human souls. He was put to death by order of Varanes I., after a dispute with the Magians, and his skin, stuffed with straw, was placed over the gate of the city of Shahpoor, 275. His doctrines spread even to Spain; they were adopted by Priscilian, bishop of Abyla, who suffered as a heretic-the first victim-at Treves, 385. Carpocrates founded the sect which bears his name. He taught the preexistence of the soul, and that everything was a matter of indifference, except faith and charity. By this he appears to inculcate the contempt of all laws, and that, as our passions were given us by God, we should satisfy .hem at all risks He added to this licentious doctrine the principle, that excess in debauchery is a more certain, speedy, and, at the same time, a more agreeable method of destroying the burdensome body than the practice of self-mortificatia. His creed was partly Gnostic. Nicolas, deacon of Jerusalem, chief of the Nicolaitans, formed a sect which, by an unlimited extension of the community of goods, degraded men to brutes, and sapped the foundations of society. A physician, Montanus, desirous of perfecting the moral precepts of Christ, proscribed all pleasures, dress, the arts, and philosophy. Rigorous fasts were enjoined marriage was tolerated as a necessary evil, but second nuptials were considered an inexpicable sin; and all religion was resolved into an inward emotion. The eloquent Tertullian was one of his proselytes. His followers were called Montanists.-The Valesians and Origenists went to still greater excesses. II. OPINIONS AS TO THE NATURE OF CHRIST.-The Macedonians, Sabellians, and Monarchists preceded Arius, who denied the proper divinity of the Saviour. This heresy was first taught at Alexandria, in a spirit of opposition to the patriarch; it gradually divided the church, and was formally condemned by the Council of Nice, 325. The Nestorians imagined a useless and dangerous distinction between the human and divine nature of Christ. They were condemned by the Council of Ephesus, 431.-The Eutychians, called also Jacobites, fell into the opposite error, and were censured by the Council of Chalcedon, 451. III. DOCTRINES IN REGARD TO THE HUMAN WILL AND ORIGINAL SIN.Two monks, Pelagius, a Briton, and the Irish Celestius, wholly rejected the doctrine of original sin, and of the influence of divine grace, and asserted the entire freedom of the will. St. Augustin was the great champion of orthodoxy against these opinions. The Donatists and Iconoclasts belong to a different class. They did not object to the Nicene creed; their errors were not doctrinal; they were rather schismatics or rebels. The first sect arose out of the disputes concerning the succession to the bishopric of Carthage. The opinions of Donatus were condemned by the conference at Carthage, 411.-An account of the Iconoclasts is given in the history of the eighth century. The preceding brief list of heresies can give but a feeble and imperfect idea of the numberless and unmeasured aberrations into which the passion of dogmatizing and the seductions of an unsubstantial glory led away many proud spirits. Who can tell what sufferings these deep wounds inflicted on the church! The hand of God had supported it during the persecutions of the Pagans; it found in its own ministers men armed with prudence and courage to defend it from internal enemies. At first it opposed to its misled children the authority of the Holy Scriptures and pure tradition only; but when the princes of the earth had recognised the reign of Christ, the civil power lent its support to the laws of the church. The mere errors of conscience were assimilated to crimes. and often met with the same punishment. 14 ROME. FIFTH CENTURY. FOUNDATION OF MODERN STATES. Eastern Empire. — 395, Alaric.—408, Theodosius II.-420, Persia VENICE.-452, Commencement of the Republic. GAUL.-420, Pharamond.-428, Clodion.-448, Merovens.-186, Clovis. DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE. Each empire was now divided into two prefectures; these into two dioceses, and subdivided into provinces. The cities with their dependencies formed the lowest division in this political scale. Dioceses. 1. East. 2. Egypt. 3. Asia. 4. Pontus. 5. Thrace. Provinces. 3 Palestines, Phoenicia. 2 Galatias, Bithynia, Pontus. 2 Armenias, Helenopontus, Polemonium. (1. Macedonia. Crete, Thessaly. II. ILLYRIA (Eastern). 2. Dacia. I. ITALY. II. GAUL. 1. Italy (sub divided into the Dioceses of Italy and 2. Illyria (Western). 3. Africa. (1. Spain. 2. Gaul. 3. Britain. Maxima and Cæsariensis, Valentia. Prepare: Maps of the two empires with the preceding divisions. |