Sources

FOOTNOTES:

[131:1] Epiphanius, ch. 29, 30, 53.

[131:2] Notably Celsus, who declared that the Christians "were divided and split up into factions, each individual desiring to have his own party."

[132:1] Irenæus, i., ch. 26; Hippolytus, ix., ch. 13-17; Epiphanius, ch. 29, 30, 53; Euseb., Eccl. Hist., iii., ch. 27; Schaff, ii., 420; Neander, i., 341; Moeller, i., 97; various histories of dogma and encyclopedias.

[132:2] Euseb., Eccl. Hist., iii., ch. 27.

[132:3] Irenæus, Against Heresies; Hippolytus, Refutation of all Heresies; Tertullian; Origen; Epiphanius; Gieseler, i., 129; ii., 442; Moeller, i., 129; King, The Gnostics and their Remains; Neander, i., 566; Mansel, The Gnostic Heresies; Baur, i., 185; Bright, Gnosticism and Irenæus.

[133:1] Archelaus in Ante-Nic. Lib.; Epiphanius, 66; Augustine in Nic. and Post-Nic. Fathers, 1st ser., iv.; Pressensé, Her. and Chr. Doctrine; Gieseler, i., 203; Schaff, ii., 498; Moeller, i., 289; Neander, i., 478; Mozley, Manichæans; histories of dogma and encyclopedias.

[134:1] Augustine, the greatest Latin Father, was a Manichæan for many years, as some maintain.

[134:2] See History of Doctrine by Fisher, Shedd, Sheldon, Hagenbach, Baur, Loofs, and Harnack; Dorner, The Person of Christ; Conybeare, The Key of Truth; encyclopedias.

[135:1] Tertullian; Euseb., Eccl. Hist., v., ch. 14-18; Epiphanius, Heresy, 48, 49; Sozomen, ii., 32; Pressensé, Heresy and Chr. Doctr., 101; Mossman, Hist. of Early Chr. Ch., 401; Neander, i., 508; Schaff, ii., 405; Moeller, i., 156; De Sayres, Montanism; Uhlhorn, Conflict of Christ'y with Heathenism; Baur, i., 245; ii., 45; Ramsay, 434; encyclopedias.

[135:2] Euseb., Eccl. Hist., vi., ch. 43, 45; vii., ch. 8; Cyprian, Ep., 41-52; Socrates, iv., 28; Neander, i., 237; Gieseler, i., 254; Moeller, i., 263; encyclopedias.

[136:1] Augustine in Nic. and Post-Nic. Fathers, iv.; Hefele, i.-ii.; Neander, ii., 214; Schaff, iii., 360; various works on history of doctrine; encyclopedias.

[137:1] Milman, Hist. of Christ., i., 65.

[137:2] The Bishop of Rome held a synod in which these ideas were denounced and the orthodox view upheld.

[137:3] For the controversy see the histories of Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Philostorgius; Epiphanius, Heresy, 69; Athanasius; Hilary; Basil; Ambrose; Augustine; the two Gregories and Rufinus; Newman, Arians in the Fourth Cent.; Gwatkin, Studies of Arianism.

[138:1] Socrates, i., ch. 5.

[138:2] Harnack, Hist. of Dogma, pt. ii., ch. 7.

[138:3] Socrates, i., 6. See Neander, ii. 403; Schaff, ii., 616; Gibbon, ch. 21; Stanley, Lect., 2-3; Moeller, i., 382; Kurtz, i., 317.

[138:4] Socrates, i., 5; ii., 35.

[138:5] Theodoret, i., 4; cf. Philostorgius, i., 3.

[138:6] See two letters in Socrates, i., 6.

[138:7] Ibid.

[139:1] Theodoret, i., 5.

[139:2] Ibid.

[139:3] Euseb., Life of Const., iii., ch. 4.

[139:4] Euseb., Life of Const., ii., ch. 64-72; Socrates, i., 7.

[139:5] Euseb., Life of Const., iii., 6.

[140:1] Historians disagree about the number; Eusebius gives 250; Theodoret, 300; Milman, 323; Döllinger, 318; Gwatkin, 223; etc.

[140:2] Gwatkin, 21.

[140:3] Euseb., Life of Const., iii., 7; Socrates, i., 14; Sozomen, i., 17; Milman, i., 99.

[140:4] Socrates, i., 8; Sozomen, i., 17, 18.

[140:5] Euseb., Life of Const., iii., ch. 10.

[141:1] Euseb., Life of Const., iii., 12; Theodoret, i., 7; Hefele, Hist. of the Ch. Councils, 280, 281.

[141:2] Hefele, i., 281; Moeller, i., 336, suggests Eustathius of Antioch and Alexander of Alexandria.

[141:3] No minutes in the modern sense were kept. After measures were agreed upon they were signed and thus promulgated. See Hefele, i., 262.

[142:1] Theodoret, i., 12; Nic. and Post-Nic. Fathers, 2d ser., xiv., 1.

[142:2] The Nicene Creed of the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican churches is not this one but "the baptismal creed of the Church of Jerusalem" enlarged in 362-373.

[142:3] The Latin list of names numbers 228, though the original Greek lists certainly had more. Hefele, i., 296.

[142:4] Sozomen, i., 9, 21; Theodoret, i., 7, 8.

[142:5] Sozomen, i., 21; Socrates, i., 9.

[142:6] Euseb., Life of Const., iii., 15.

[142:7] Univ. of Pa., Transl. and Rep., iv., No. 2; Schaff, iii., 631; Fulton, Index Canonum.

[143:1] Univ. of Pa., Transl. and Rep., iv., No. 2. Cf. Hefele, i., 355 ff.

[143:2] Excellent discussion of the whole question in Hefele, i., sec. 37.

[143:3] About 350 the canons were interpolated so as to give the Bishop of Rome a primacy.

[143:4] Socrates, i., ch. 11; Sozomen, i., 23; Schaff, ii., 411; Hefele, i., 435.

[144:1] Hefele, ii.

[145:1] Pope Liberius was reinstated, after the death of Felix II., on subscribing to the Arian articles.

[145:2] Univ. of Pa., Transl. and Rep., iv., No. 2, p. 11; Nic. and Post-Nic. Fathers, 2d ser., xiv., 163.

[145:3] See Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders.

CHAPTER IX
RISE OF THE PAPACY

Outline: I.—Favourable conditions when the Christian era began. II.—Forces at work up to 313. III.—Description of the Roman Church in 313. IV.—Growth of the Papacy from 313 to 604. V.—Condition of the Papacy at the close of this period, 604. VI.—Sources.

To see how a handful of outlawed, persecuted Christians in Rome became the omnipotent hierarchy of the Middle Ages is to comprehend the most marvellous fact in European history. But when the conditions and forces, which produced this wonderful organisation, are clearly understood, the miracle becomes a natural and an inevitable product.

In the first century of the Christian era Rome was the heart and mistress of the world.[148:1] The Apostle Paul gloried in having introduced Christianity into the great metropolis.[148:2] The Roman Empire had developed an imperial and provincial system of government which was to serve as the model for the organisation of the Christian Church. This decaying Empire, after a futile contest with Christianity, was to become its servant. The mighty Catholic Church was little more than the Roman Empire baptised. Rome was transformed as well as converted. The very capital of the old Empire became the capital of the Christian

Empire. The office of Pontifex Maximus was continued in that of Pope. The deeply religious character of the Romans on the one hand, and the inadequate and degenerate religion which they held on the other, were positive and negative forces enabling the Christian Church to make rapid conquests in territory and numbers. Even the Roman language has remained the official language of the Roman Catholic Church down through the ages. Christianity could not grow up through Roman civilisation and paganism, however, without in turn being coloured and influenced by the rites, festivities, and ceremonies of old polytheism. Christianity not only conquered Rome, but Rome conquered Christianity. It is not a matter of great surprise, therefore, to find that from the first to the fourth century the Church had undergone many changes. During the first half of the third century the hierarchical scheme of Church government appeared to reach a very advanced stage of organisation. Cyprian gives us the boldest and broadest claim of the Bishop of Rome to the heirship of Peter. By the fourth century the hierarchical and monarchial principles were fully developed, and the Papacy had begun its wonderful career.

The leading forces operating to develop the Roman hierarchy up to 313 will now be indicated.

1. The fundamental factor which first attracts attention in the consideration of this problem is the obvious advantage in location. In the origin of the civilisation of Western Europe three cities have been conspicuous for their contributions—Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome. Jerusalem, the sacred city, gave Christianity to the West and through the West to the world. Athens, the city of culture, bequeathed philosophy,

art, ideals, and science to the Romans, and through them to the Celts, Teutons, and all peoples. Rome, the city of power, overthrew Jerusalem, took Athens captive, received the contributions of both as her right, and on the ruins of both built up her universal sovereignty. The rise of Rome to world dominion is one of the deepest mysteries in history. Rome possessed the matchless capacity of appropriating everything on earth that would contribute to her greatness. When Jesus appeared to give the world Christianity, Rome was the centre of all power and influence.

Rome was in the highest degree adapted to spread civilisation abroad. From Rome influences could be sent out into the world which could not possibly have emanated from Jerusalem or Athens. In fact anything connected with Rome assumed, in consequence, an importance by virtue of Rome's greatness that no other part of the world could give. Christianity in its cosmopolitan character resembled Rome and was drawn thither irresistibly as the best centre for propagandism. Hence, from the outset, the Roman Christian Church was a church of world-wide importance and power, and her bishop the most influential. Out of the ruins of political Rome, arose the great moral Empire in the "giant form" of the Roman Church. In the marvellous rise of the Roman Church is seen in strong relief the majestic office of the Bishop of Rome.[150:1]

2. In addition to the favourable location and extraordinary opportunity that site gave, the fact that the Church, planted in Rome and there organised by

Peter and Paul, was thus established on a double apostolic foundation gave to the Bishop of Rome a respected and commanding position from the very outset.[151:1] No other church west of the Adriatic could claim such a distinguished origin. It was both easy and logical, therefore, to make the Bishop of Rome not only a commanding leader in the universal Church, but more particularly the conspicuous head of the Church of the West.[151:2]

3. The theory about Peter's primacy,[151:3] asserted certainly as early as the second century and generally accepted in the third century, gave an indelible character to both the person and office of the Bishop of Rome, and elevated him high above all other officers in the Church. The actual belief in this theory, a fact which cannot be questioned, made possible the realisation of the papal hierarchy. It seems to be an actual fact, likewise, that before the end of the second century the pontiffs of Rome had assumed a title implying a jurisdiction over the whole Christian world as successors and representatives of Peter, the Prince of Apostles. Irenæus said: "Because, therefore, of her apostolic foundation, and the regular succession of bishops, through whom she hath handed down that which she received from them [the Apostles], all churches, that is, all the faithful around her and on all sides, must on account of her more powerful pre-eminence resort to this church, in which the tradition, which is from the Apostles, is preserved."[151:4] Tertullian, after he

had joined the heretical Montanists, accused the Bishop of Rome of assuming the titles of "Pontifex Maximus" and "Bishop of Bishops."[152:1] He complains also that the "Supreme Pontiff" was in the habit of quoting the decisions of his predecessors as conclusive on all disputed questions, and that he furthermore claimed that he himself sat in the chair of St. Peter. These charges show how early the Petrine claims were made and recognised.[152:2]

4. The missionary zeal of the Roman Church soon led to the formation of a number of suburban branches and within a comparatively short period to the spread of Christianity throughout Italy and to other sections of Western Europe.[152:3] These local churches naturally looked to the head of the Church in the great capital for assistance and instruction, and were willing to acknowledge his jurisdiction and pretensions. The episcopal organisation of the Church in the West, which was probably present from the beginning,[152:4] made the transition to the hierarchy comparatively simple. At Rome the process may be more plainly traced than in connection with any other church.

5. The persecutions of the Christians[152:5] centred in Rome and, consequently, made the Bishop of Rome a conspicuous leader, with social and political, as well as religious duties, whose office was frequently sanctified by martyrdom. The persecutions helped to emphasise the necessity of a better organisation on a monarchio-episcopal basis. That organisation

became very exclusive,[153:1] and made a responsible head imperative. Who else but the Bishop of Rome could meet the demands? To him was given, by general consent in the West, the headship of the Church and he began to act as the conscious Pope of Christendom.

6. The Bishop of Rome was the only official organ of communication between the East and West. He was the sole Patriarch of all the united West, while the East had four Patriarchs,[153:2] and the sixth canon of the Council of Nicæa confirmed his jurisdiction as an "ancient custom." From Clement (95), whose writings are the earliest of any Bishop of Rome preserved, onward, he speaks in an authoritative tone, not only to the churches of Carthage, Italy, and Gaul, but also to Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, and Alexandria. Notwithstanding the fact that Alexandria and Antioch also claimed Peter for their founder, yet not one of the four patriarchates attempted to contest Rome's claim to priority of rank.[153:3]

7. The head of the Roman Church was the champion of orthodoxy and kept the Western Church free from schism. The Church of Rome stood consistently for purity in doctrine and steadfastly opposed that Oriental mysticism which polluted the Eastern churches with a host of heretic and theosophic jugglers. Epiphanius gives a list of forty-three distinct heresies in his day. It

was no easy matter for the Church of Rome to faithfully combat all these theological vagaries and point out the straight but narrow way. As a reward of her fight for the simple gospel-truth the provincial churches bestowed upon her their affection, confidence, and obedience. They frequently referred for their own guidance to her spiritual experience, in deference and respect they sought her counsels, they watched her course with anxiety and faithfully imitated it, and all these things gave her a singular spiritual influence and authority in this early period, which was not unlike the political power exercised by the city of Rome. Again and again the Bishop of Rome was requested to pass judgment on the various heresies.

8. After the apostolic days, the multitudes who embraced Christianity seemed in many instances to lack the original fervour and spirituality. Hence to control the erring, to correct the heretical, to expel those who brought disgrace to the society, and to protect the faithful, it became necessary to develop some more efficient form of government.[154:1] The Roman model of imperial and local government naturally suggested itself and was either consciously or unconsciously imitated. The gradual transformation of the Bishop of Rome into the Pope of Rome was the product.

9. In the apostolic days the practice generally prevailed of referring all civil, as well as ecclesiastical, disputes between Christians to the arbitrament of their superior ecclesiastical officials. St. Paul even went so far as to forbid his converts to resort to the pagan tribunals.[154:2] This work devolved upon the bishop, as a matter of course, who acted, however, rather with

paternal authority and through moral influence, than in accordance with fixed Church law. Thus special duties were laid upon the Bishop of Rome because of his superior rank and extended jurisdiction.

So rapidly did his prerogatives develop that he was early recognised both East and West as, practically, a court of appeal. About 95 A.D., Clement of Rome wrote letters of remonstrance and admonition to settle a wrangle in the church at Corinth, and so respected were these epistles that for a century they were publicly read in the churches. About the year 150 one Marcian was excommunicated by his bishop and appealed to Rome for admission to communion. The petition was refused but it shows the influence of the Bishop of Rome. Polycarp of Smyrna showed at least a dutiful deference in going to Rome to lay before Bishop Anicetus (152) the disputed paschal question. When the East and the West were divided, about 190 A.D., upon the proper day for celebrating Easter, Bishop Victor of Rome assumed the authority to decide on the correct day and insisted that all Christendom conform to his decision. The Eastern churches refused to obey him, it is true, but the Council of Nicæa enforced universal conformity to the day chosen by Victor.[155:1] When Fortunatus and Cyprian of Carthage quarrelled over the former's claim to the title of bishop, Fortunatus appealed to the Bishop of Rome, Cornelius, for official recognition. Cornelius assumed the right to remonstrate with Cyprian and to demand an explanation of his conduct. Cyprian repudiated foreign jurisdiction in the domestic affairs of the African Church, but at the same time recognised Rome as "the

chair of Peter—that principal Church whence the sacerdotal unity takes its rise."[156:1] In 252, two Spanish bishops, Basileides and Martialis, were deposed for misconduct by a synod of their province. They appealed to Stephen, Bishop of Rome, who peremptorily ordered that both be reinstated.[156:2] The bishops of Gaul applied to Stephen for advice as to what to do with Marcian, the Bishop of Arles, who had embraced Novatianism.[156:3] In the West, it seems, therefore, that practically all disputes and misunderstandings were referred to the recognised head of the Church for advice and settlement. Again and again the Eastern Patriarchs appealed to the Patriarch of the West for support and his support was usually decisive. Likewise the various factions in the many Eastern schisms strove for favourable decisions from the Roman Bishop. In 260 Bishop Dionysius of Rome called the Patriarch of Alexandria to account for false doctrines. Even a Roman Emperor, Aurelian (270), declared that no one, not appointed by the "bishops of Italy and Rome," should remain in the See of Antioch.[156:4] As a result of these appeals, the power and authority of the Roman Bishop were magnified so that, gradually, he came to claim this exercise as his right, and, in addition, precedents were set which were to become ecclesiastical laws in the next period.[156:5]

10. The idea of one Catholic Church seems to have

resulted from the intense struggle against the various forms of heresy, which had divided the early Christians into sects somewhat like the various Protestant denominations of to-day. This conception of ecclesiastical unity and universality had two sides: doctrine and ceremony. To teach the true doctrine and to perpetuate sacramental unity the priesthood was created. The persecutions emphasised the fundamental doctrines which united all Christians and made them conscious of this unity of belief. In order to enforce this uniformity the Bishop of Rome exercised the power of excommunication. Victor took it upon himself to excommunicate the Bishop of Ephesus and his fellow-officials for refusing to conform to the mode of celebrating Easter in the West (190). Irenæus emphasised the necessity and value of a spiritual unity in the Church,[157:1] and to "the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church" of Rome he conceded the most accurate apostolic tradition.[157:2] He declared that it was "a matter of necessity that every church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre-eminent authority."[157:3] Tertullian spoke of the Catholic Church as if its eternal unity were a common concept.[157:4] It was left to Cyprian, however, to boldly hold up the occupant of the See of Rome as the representative of both the organised and the sacramental unity of the Church beyond which there could be no salvation. In his book on the Unity of the Church, Cyprian asked:

He that abideth not in the unity of the church, doth he

believe that he holdeth to the faith? He that struggleth against and resisteth this church, he that deserteth the Chair of St. Peter, upon which the church is founded, can he have any assurance that he is in the church? . . . Likewise . . . Paul teacheth the sacrament of unity saying: "There is one body and one spirit and one hope of our calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God." . . . The episcopate is indeed one . . . the church also is one . . . there is also but one head and one source. . . . Whoever is excluded from the church . . . is severed from the promises of the church. . . . He is a stranger, an outcast, and enemy. He cannot have God for his father, who hath not the church for his mother. . . . He that doth not hold this unity doth not hold the law of God . . . he partaketh not of life or of salvation.[158:1]

The power of excommunication to preserve the doctrinal unity and purity of the Church implied some share in appointment and administration. From the very beginning, no doubt, the Bishop of Rome had ordained all provincial bishops, and few matters of great importance had been transacted without his consent or approval.[158:2]

The same tendencies and influences that led to the evolution of the bishop in the early local churches for the sake of order and efficiency, produced a centralisation of power in the universal Church. With the growth of the idea that the Church had an outward organisation developed the conscious need of a supreme bishop who could rule the Church somewhat as the Emperor ruled the state. That such a unifying authority was generally understood to exist by the time of Cyprian seems very clear from contemporary

testimony. But it took two hundred and fifty years to develop that leadership. There were not wanting, either, on all sides evidences of earlier local independence. The rise of the Papacy was the logical culmination of the episcopal system. It must be remembered that by the time of Bishop Cyprian the Church had undergone a series of wonderful changes. The Church had spread outwardly until the whole Empire was covered and included all ranks. The Church had come to be naturalised in the Empire and was gradually compromising with conditions. Some conception of the part Christianity was to play in the world began to dawn on men's minds. The ascendency of the See of St. Peter was regarded, therefore, quite generally as a necessity.

11. The centralisation of wealth in Rome rendered the Church there the wealthiest in Christendom. These riches were lavishly used, during the first three hundred years, to aid the poorer communities.[159:1] Such favours could not be solicited, or received, without an appreciable sacrifice of independence on the part of the recipients. Ignatius, considering the munificence of the Roman Church, and wishing to confer some special distinction, calls her "the fostering mistress of charity."[159:2]

12. From the time of Peter to Constantine the Great, thirty-two bishops occupied the chair of the Prince of Apostles. The number and character of the members of the Roman Church led to the selection of the ablest of the Western Christians to occupy that important office. These successive bishops, from the weight of their personal influence, transmitted a gradually increasing power. The labours of a few of these remarkable

men who filled the Roman See, like Clement, Victor, Callistus, and Stephen, helped powerfully to lay the foundations for the Papacy. Clement's attitude was "almost imperious." Victor in his presumption on the Easter question, Zephyrinus on the assumption of his proud title of Pontifex Maximus and Bishop of Bishops, Callistus concerning lapsed heretics, and Stephen on the baptism of heretics, were all guilty of "hierarchical arrogance."[160:1] Cyprian (d. 258) looked upon Rome as the Cathedra Petri and the Roman Church as the head of the universal Church.[160:2] Thus it may be accepted as an established fact that the Bishop of Rome was generally accepted as Peter's successor, at least in the West, when Emperor Constantine legalised the Christian religion and made it free to complete its organisation and to carry on its propagandism openly. He also increased the wealth and power of the Roman See and made its bishop the undisputed head of the Western Church. At the same time, in removing his capital to Constantinople, Constantine permitted the Roman Bishop to assume imperial prerogatives and encouraged the completion of the Church organisation after the imperial model.

A comparison of the Church in 313 with the Apostolic Church reveals the fact that many pronounced changes and developments had occurred. In extent the Roman Church had spread from the Eternal City over the entire Italian peninsula and then to Spain, France, England, Germany, and Africa, and numbered perhaps 10,000,000 members. In organisation the Church had changed from a democracy to an absolute monarchy, from many local centres of authority to one great

world power based on an imperial hierarchy, from communism to paternalism, from decentralisation to centralisation, from apostolic simplicity to worldly grandeur, and from a spiritual organisation to one largely political. The spiritual shepherd of the flock at Rome had come to claim and to exercise superior prerogatives over Western Europe and to serve the Roman Emperor as virtually his spiritual adviser. In wealth and culture, too, the Church had become a powerful social, industrial, and educational factor.

In institutions, rites, and ceremonies, as well as in organisation, the Church of the third and fourth centuries was very different from that of the first. A pompous ritualism with suggestions of image worship had been introduced.[161:1] Great emphasis had come to be laid upon the sanctity and power of holy water,[161:2] sacred relics and places, pilgrimages, and the use of the cross.[161:3] The development of new ideas in reference to the merit of external works resulted in asceticism and a celibate priesthood, fanatical martyrdom, indiscriminate almsgiving, and various patent methods for spiritual benefits. At the same time the number of Church festivals had greatly increased and now included Easter, Pentecost, Epiphany, and various saints' days.[161:4]

These new ideas and practices naturally gave the priest the lofty position of mediator between God and man. A differentiation in the ministry gradually crept in as an outcome of the hierarchical spirit. The Bishop of Rome was elevated above all bishops as

God's chosen representative on earth. The bishops were exalted above all the presbyters or priests. The priests in turn held a position far superior to the subordinate officials, who had now come to include sub-deacons, readers, acolytes, precentors or cantors, janitors, exorcists,[162:1] and other officials of minor importance.[162:2] These under officers likewise were cut off from the laity by a pronounced gulf.[162:3]

To conduct the general affairs of the Church, synods and councils of the clergy came into existence as early as the second century.[162:4] Roman or Greek assemblies may have suggested the form of the synod, though it is more probable that they sprang spontaneously out of the needs of the Church. These meetings at first were irregular and very informal and resulted either in resolutions with no binding force on the dissentient minority, or in a letter. There were four classes of councils: (1.) The synod of a single diocese which probably existed from the beginning. (2.) The provincial council of the bishops of several dioceses. This type began early in the second century. (3.) General councils consisting of the bishops of several provinces. (4.) Universal councils representing the whole Church. When Constantine gave Christianity legal recognition, councils became more common for the purpose of formulating common rules and dogmas, as for instance Arles (314). After the Council of Nicæa in 325 the validity of earlier decisions was recognised and given the force of imperial law. Thus had the councils

changed in a few years from local to general, from recommending to sovereign bodies.[163:1]

Paralleling this remarkable evolution in the organisation of the Church was a marked departure from the simplicity and purity of the early Christian life on the part of both clergy and laity. The "Apostolical Constitutions," the "Canons of the Holy Apostles," and the decrees of the councils of Elvira (306), Arles (314), Neo-Cæsarea (314), and Nicæa (325) all reveal the worldliness of the clergy in the laws passed against their engaging in worldly pursuits, frequenting taverns and gambling houses, accepting usury, habits of vagrancy, taking bribes, and immorality. Because the multitude of pagan converts were carrying their ideas and practices into the Church, many corrective measures were enacted against this degeneration. The licentiousness of the clergy became a still more crying sin among the laity, for it was unreasonable to expect the rank and file to be better than their leaders.

FOOTNOTES:

[148:1] Acts xix., 21; xxiii., 11; xxv., 11; xxviii., 14 ff.

[148:2] Rom. i., 8.

[150:1] Gregorovius, i., 5.

[151:1] Greenwood, Cathedra Petri, i., 104, 107.

[151:2] The East had four Patriarchs: Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople.

[151:3] See [Chap. VI.]

[151:4] Against Heresies, iii., c. 3.

[152:1] On Modesty, § 1.

[152:2] Greenwood, Cathedra Petri, i., 107-108.

[152:3] Gibbon, i., 579 ff. See [Chap. V.]

[152:4] Greenwood, Cathedra Petri, i., 175.

[152:5] See [Chap. VII.]

[153:1] Origen said: "Extra hanc domum, i.e., extra ecclesiam nemo salvator." Hom. 3.

St. Cyprian of Carthage asked: "Do they that are met outside of the Church of Christ think that Christ is with them when they meet? . . . It is not possible for one to be a martyr who is not in the church." _Unity of the Church_, ch. 13, 14.

[153:2] Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Alexandria, and, later, Constantinople. The four early patriarchates were of apostolic foundation.

[153:3] Greenwood, Cathedra Petri, i., 193.

[154:1] Greenwood, Cathedra Petri, i., 164, 165.

[154:2] 1 Cor. vi., 1, 13.

[155:1] See Smith and Cheetham, Dict. of Christ. Antiq., for a full discussion of the paschal controversy.

[156:1] Cyprian, Ep. 49, 55. Greenwood, i., 168, thinks this quotation a later interpolation.

[156:2] Cyprian, Ep. 68.

[156:3] Ibid., Ep. 67.

[156:4] Euseb., Eccl. Hist., vii., 30.

[156:5] It must be remembered that Rome had no monopoly of these appeals and that her decisions were not always accepted in these early days. Cf. Greenwood, i., 171 ff.

[157:1] Euseb., Eccl. Hist., v., 23-25.

[157:2] Irenæus, Against Heresy, iii., 3.

[157:3] Library of Ante-Nic. Fathers, v.

[157:4] Ibid., xv.

[158:1] Library of Ante-Nic. Fathers, viii.

[158:2] Greenwood, Cathedra Petri, i., 192.

[159:1] Euseb., Eccl. Hist., iv., 23; vii., 6.

[159:2] To Corinth, Ep. i., c. 44.

[160:1] Schaff, iii., 351.

[160:2] Ep., 43: 5; 55: 8; 59: 14; Lib. of Ante-Nic. Fathers, viii.

[161:1] Apost. Const., viii., 6-15; Alzog, i., §§ 92, 93.

[161:2] Apost. Const., viii., 28.

[161:3] Alzog, § 95.

[161:4] Ibid., § 93.

[162:1] Euseb., Eccl. Hist., vi., 43.

[162:2] Alzog, i., 393.

[162:3] Hatch, Org. of the Early Christ. Churches, 143 ff.

[162:4] Euseb., Eccl. Hist., v., 16; Tertullian, De Jejunus, 13; Cyprian, Ep. 75; Hatch, Org. of the Early Christ. Churches, 169, 170.

[163:1] See Hefele, Hist. of Ch. Councils, i., § 1-17.

CHAPTER X
RISE OF THE PAPACY—Continued

The growth of the Papacy from 313 to 604 was very marked and may be traced with little difficulty. In fact from the fourth century onward the proofs that papal supremacy was both asserted and recognised are so numerous that it is only necessary to select typical cases and illustrations. Certain formative influences and forces noticeable in the period prior to 313 were continued into the later epoch and will be considered in order here.

1. The missionary zeal of the Roman Church accomplished wonders. By the fourth century Spain and Gaul had sufficient Christians to warrant the division of the territory into bishoprics. Some of the Gallic bishops were imbued with a remarkably active spirit of propagandism, notably, St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers (350-66), who fought the Arians incessantly; Honoratus, Bishop of Arles, who inspired others to labour; St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, called the "Apostle to the Gauls," and St. Denis, Bishop of Paris, who suffered martyrdom for the cause. Similar workers were found in Spain. About the same time Celtic missionaries from the north were working southward to join the work spreading northward from Rome. Columba laboured among the Scots and Picts; Aidan, in Northumbria; Columbanus, with the Burgundians;

Gallus, in Switzerland; and Amania and Kilian in Thuringia. From Rome went forth the famous missionary expedition to England under Augustine (596), which succeeded in winning the Anglo-Saxons to a belief in the Roman faith and to a recognition of Roman authority.

In return a counter-wave of missionary activity spread from England back to the continent, led by Wilfrid in Friesland; Willibrord around Utrecht; the Ewald brothers among the Saxons; Swidbert on the Ems and Yssel; Adelpert in Holland; and Boniface, the "Apostle to the Germans," among various Teutonic tribes. This widespread missionary work resulted in eventually bringing all Western Europe under the subjection of the Roman Church. Thus new blood, a more primitive enthusiasm, and an intense devotion were called to her service, and all powerfully aided the rise of the Papacy.

2. The continued orthodoxy of the Western Church made it a pillar of strength, and gave its head a commanding position in dealing with heresy and schism. To him, more than ever, did people East and West look for final decisions in disputed matters of doctrine,[165:1] and contested cases of jurisdiction, rank, territory, and authority. St. Jerome in eloquent words besought the "Sun of righteousness—in the West" to teach him the true doctrine because "here in the East all is weed and wild-oats."[165:2]

3. The claim of the Bishop of Rome to appellate jurisdiction, which had been exercised more or less from an early date, received a sweeping confirmation and a new impetus in 347 through the Council of Sardica.

In 340, Athanasius, the Patriarch of Alexandria, the champion of orthodoxy, appealed to Julian I. from an unjust decision against him in the episcopal courts of the East. Julian I. called a council, to which he invited the Eastern bishops, who refused to attend, reversed the decision,[166:1] and completely acquitted Athanasius. He wrote a strong letter of reproof to the Arians in which he asserts Rome's canonical supremacy in initiating conciliar proceedings against ecclesiastical offenders.[166:2] The Council of Sardica confirmed the resolutions of the Roman Synod.[166:3]

It was decreed that any bishop, who might feel himself aggrieved by an unfair trial, could have the judges write to the Bishop of Rome asking for a new trial at which, if it seemed wise, priests representing the Bishop of Rome could be present.[166:4] Meanwhile, pending the trial, no successor to the office of the accused could be named. This action made the Bishop of Rome referee to decide, however, not the case itself, but whether there ought to be a new trial. The right was conferred "in honour of the memory" of St. Peter and hence it was soon claimed as an inherent prerogative of the apostolical See of the West. Later on it was positively asserted that these canons gave an appeal to the Church of Rome in all episcopal cases. Whatever the original intent may have been, the fact remains that this new power was an important factor in the evolution of papal supremacy. The Pope was given a power previously possessed exclusively by the

Emperor.[167:1] In 378, Emperor Gratian added civic sanction to the judicial authority of the Bishop of Rome by compelling accused bishops to go to Rome for trial.[167:2] Ultimate appellate jurisdiction was definitely assigned to the Pope by Emperor Valentinian III. in 445, when, of his own motion, causes could be called to Rome for papal decision.[167:3] Emperor Gelasius (496) approved in very positive terms the judicial supremacy of the Bishop of Rome.[167:4] And Gregory the Great (604) assumed it as an indisputable fact that every bishop is subject to the See of Peter.[167:5]

After this period cases were continually referred to Rome for adjustment. St. Basil, Archbishop of Cæsarea, appealed to Damasus I., the latter part of the fourth century, for protection. In 398 the Emperor ordered Flavian of Antioch to proceed to Rome for trial. He refused to go, but compromised with the Pope. St. John Chrysostom, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and head of the whole Eastern Church, early in the fifth century, appealed to Innocent I. against the persecutions of Empress Eudoxia and for restoration to his see.[167:6] Apiarius, a priest of Africa, appealed to Pope Zosimus against the censure of his bishop in 416. The Pope vindicated the priest against his bishop, and ordered the latter either to revoke the

censure or to appear at Rome for trial.[168:1] St. Augustine's letter to Pope Celestine in 424 shows that it was a common thing to refer disputes to Rome for settlement.[168:2] Both St. Cyril and the Nestorians appealed to Pope Celestus, who decided in favour of St. Cyril. Theodoret, the Church historian, when condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 449, appealed to Leo I., who asserted that he could hear appeals from any source as a court of first and last resort.[168:3] These appeals, and many other similar cases, which could be cited both East and West,[168:4] show the growing power of the Roman Pope, and enabled him to make real the theory of his supremacy. To enable the successor of St. Peter to adjudicate cases more easily, vicars were appointed in various parts of the papal empire to decide finally on all cases, not reserved by the Pope. This arrangement greatly enlarged papal jurisdiction by encouraging and facilitating appeals.

4. The removal of the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330, left the Western Church, practically free from imperial power, to develop its own form of organisation. The Bishop of Rome, in the seat of the Cæsars, was now the greatest man in the West, and was soon forced to become the political as well as the spiritual head. To the Western world Rome was still the political capital—hence the whole habit of mind, all ambition, pride, and sense of glory, and every social prejudice favoured the evolution of the great city into the ecclesiastical capital. Civil as well as religious disputes were referred to the

successor of Peter for settlement. Again and again, when barbarians attacked Rome, he was compelled to actually assume military leadership. Eastern Emperors frequently recognised the high claims of the Popes in order to gain their assistance. It is not difficult to understand how, under these responsibilities, the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, established in the pre-Constantine period, was emphasised and magnified after 313. The importance of this fact must not be overlooked. The organisation of the Church was thus put on the same divine basis as the revelation of Christianity. This idea once accepted led inevitably to the mediæval Papacy. The priesthood came, in consequence, to assume all the powers of the great Founder. The Mosaic forms, as well as the Roman Empire, suggested convenient models and authoritative examples for the new structure. It is not difficult to detect in the oligarchical Church polity of the fourth and fifth centuries a yearning for unity. It was but natural, therefore, that Rome should boldly take the remedy into her own hands and pose as the authorised representative of the visible unity demanded by the Christian world. The position Rome had already attained and the worthy part played in the organisation and spread of the gospel gave her a superior advantage, and enabled, nay compelled, her bishop to become the one high-priest, the "universal bishop."

5. In the fourth and fifth centuries the Petrine theory was generally accepted by the Church Fathers East and West.[169:1] The theory had become a dogmatic principle of law founded upon historical facts. Optatus, the African Bishop of Mileve (c. 384), strongly asserted the visible unity of the Church and the

immovable Cathedra Petri, with the Roman Bishop as Peter's successor.[170:1] Ambrose of Milan (d. 397) gave the Bishop of Rome the same position in the Church that the Emperor had in the Empire,[170:2] and recognised him as the great champion of orthodoxy, but at the same time called Peter's primacy one of confession and faith, not of rank. He put Paul on an equality with Peter. Jerome (d. 419) recognised the Pope as the successor of Peter and said, "Following none but Christ, I am associated in communion with . . . the chair of Peter. On that rock I know the Church to be built."[170:3] Innocent I. (414) made a magnificent defence of the theory. Augustine (d. 430), the greatest of the Latin Fathers, admitted the primacy of Peter and recognised the Roman Bishop as his successor.[170:4] In his remarkable book, the City of God, he did more than all the Fathers to idealise Rome as the Christian Zion. Maximus of Turin (d. 450) and Orosius (d. 5th century) bore similar testimony. The Greek Fathers uniformly spoke of Peter in lofty terms as the "Prince of Apostles," the "Tongue of the Apostles," the "bearer of the keys," the "keeper of the kingdom of Heaven," the "Pillar," the "Rock," et cetera, but they held generally that Peter's primacy was honorary, and that he transferred his power to both the Bishop of Antioch and the Bishop of Rome.[170:5] But these modifications of the Petrine theory did not arrest the evolution of the papal power. The important historical

fact to be taken into account is, that the belief in the supremacy of St. Peter's successor was quite generally recognised and accepted.

6. The growth of conciliar prerogatives tended to advance the development of papal authority. The Council of Nicæa (325) gave the Western Church the Nicene Creed, practically made the Bishop of Rome its defender, and recognised him as the sole Patriarch of the West with ten provinces as his diocese.[171:1] The Council of Sardica (343), in reality only a local Western body, decreed that deposed bishops might appeal to the Bishop of Rome for a new trial, that vacant bishoprics could not be filled till his decision was received, and that he could delegate his power to a local synod. This gave him a kind of appellate and revisory jurisdiction in the case of deposed bishops even in the East.[171:2] It is claimed that this was a new grant for a specific case and in deference to Pope Julian alone. This power was confirmed by Emperors Valentinian I. (364-375) and Gratian (375-383).[171:3] In this manner the Roman Popes were furnished the opportunity to claim universal jurisdiction. The Council of Aquileia (381) begged Emperor Gratian to protect "the Roman Church, the head of the whole Roman world and that sacred faith of the Apostles."[171:4] The African councils of Carthage and Mileve (416) sent their actions against Pelagius to Innocent I., for his approval. The councils of Ephesus

(431) and Chalcedon (451) gave the Bishop of Rome a primacy in rank and honour, which he soon made a primacy in power.[172:1] The latter body recognised the necessity of obtaining the Pope's confirmation to insure legality. Here again the Bishop of Rome had usurped a prerogative claimed by Constantine and his successors. Later the Popes called most of the councils, presided over them in person or through legates, and confirmed their proceedings in order to give them legality.

7. The power of excommunication, an authority inherent in all societies, was early developed and exercised by the Roman Bishop. This right was clearly recognised in the New Testament.[172:2] The power of excommunication was originally put into the hand of the local bishops. They expanded the biblical precepts into a penal code, and assumed the right to act as judges and to pronounce censure or final excommunication. The apostolic constitutions and canons reveal a direct substitution of the authority of the bishops for that of Christ in these particulars. Excommunication, for the first three centuries of the Christian era, was looked upon as a remedial and corrective measure to prevent a breach of discipline, disobedience, and heresy. It is a significant fact, therefore, that the Roman bishops, by the third century, claimed the power to put out of communion, not only individuals, but whole communities, who did not conform to Roman usages and beliefs, even though the sentence could not always be enforced. Innocent I., imbued by the lofty idea of the prerogatives of his office, did not hesitate to pronounce sentence of excommunication

against the heretics, Pelagius and his pupil Cœlestius.[173:1] Thus the right of universal censure grew and Rome came to have her own officers to execute the law.

8. From the fifth century onward the title of "papa" or "pope" was unvaryingly used by the bishops of Rome. This title is an abbreviation of the words "pater patrum"—father of fathers—and was at first given as a title of respect to ecclesiastics generally. In the Eastern churches it has continued to the present day, and in the Roman Church the general use of "father" may be regarded as the continuation of a variation of the original word. The next step in the early Church was the restriction of the term "papa" as a special title for bishops. By the fourth century it had been gradually reserved for the metropolitans and patriarchs. After the fifth century it was claimed and borne as the badge of the supreme rank of the successor of St. Peter among the churches of Christendom. Not until 1073, however, did Gregory VII. formally prohibit the assumption of the title by other ecclesiastics. This unique transfer of a distinction first from all to a few, and then from a few to one, indicates a concentration of rank, dignity, and power in the one thus distinguished. A term, originally one of filial respect and reverence, becomes one of authority. The name and the office react on each other.

9. The letters of the Roman bishops gradually came to be regarded in the Western Church as apostolic ordinances, and laid the foundation for the vast ecclesiastical legal system.[173:2] Siricius (384-398) wrote the first decretal which had the force of law.[173:3] A typical

illustration of the character and power of papal letters is seen in the commanding communication of Pope Celestine sent in 428 to the bishops of Vienne and Narbonne concerning ceremonial abuses in their provinces. "Inasmuch," he wrote, "as I am appointed by God to watch over the whole Church, it is my duty everywhere to root out evil practices and to substitute good ones; for my pastoral superintendence is restrained by no bounds, but extends to all places where the name of Christ is known and adored."[174:1] The Gallic churches received this pronouncement without a whisper of disapproval. The Council of Chalcedon (451) accepted a letter from Leo I., settling a disputed point in theology.[174:2] Gelasius I. (494) instructed Emperor Anastasius on the superiority of the spiritual over the temporal power.[174:3] The decretals of Gregory the Great spoke with a bold, undisputed authority.[174:4]

10. The Edict of Milan in 313 did not make Christianity the state religion, but merely put it on a legal equality with paganism. It was not long, however, until this new status enabled Christianity to outstrip its old rival and actually become the constitutional faith. State patronage prepared the way for a conscious and natural adaptation and assimilation of forms of imperial polity. Accordingly the admonition of the early period assumed the tone of mandates; interferences, whether for advice or arbitration, took the character of appeals, rescripts, and ordinances; and the model of discipline and ritual for all churches emanated from Rome.

11. Constantine, fully aware of the pre-eminence and power of the Roman Church, took special pains to bestow upon it his imperial munificence. The Bishop of Rome was transferred from a humble dwelling to a spacious palace, possibly to the Lateran, owned to this day by the Pope. Confiscated property was restored and money donated. Splendid churches were erected.[175:1] With grateful hearts the Christians gladly accepted the sovereignty of the Emperor. As Roman citizens there was no conception in their minds of the spiritual government of the Church independent of the imperial power. When Constantine called councils like Arles and Nicæa, heard appeals, made appointments, and legislated for the Church it was all accepted as a matter of course. The Church of Rome gained obviously more than any other spiritual body-corporate of the Christian world. This advantage, coupled with the wide-reaching claims set forth for at least two centuries, carried her by a mighty leap far above all other churches and made her head, in theory and fact, if not in name, the Pope. Thus all the contentions of the Petrine claim of ecclesiastical government fell into a natural harmony with the plans of the Empire. The rise of provincial churches corresponded to the provincial system of the Empire. The elevation of the Bishop of Rome to a primacy over all churches created a counterpart to the Emperor. The union of the Empire and Papacy was not only easy and natural—it was inevitable.

12. No sooner did the Church rise from persecution to a great world power than the necessity was felt everywhere of some central authority to preserve its unity. The divisions in the Arian controversy clearly revealed

that need. The Emperor, in a way, sought to meet the requirement, but, when he failed, he called the Council of Nicæa to serve that end. A universal council might be of great service in a crisis but it could not easily be in perpetual session. The Roman Church saw its chance at this juncture and embraced every opportunity to pose as the supreme unifying power in Christendom. It was a long and not always an easy struggle, but the effort was at length successful. It was not long after the day of Constantine that it may be said that the Church had gained control of the Empire. That conquest gave the Church an unprecedented pre-eminence. In this movement the Church of Rome played the leading role. The next great problem was to enable the Pope to get control of the Church and in this way wield absolute sway over the Christianised Empire, or, to state it the other way, over the imperialised Church.

Nothing seems clearer, after taking into account all the factors, than that the rise of papal power was a natural, logical, historical process which began with the planting of the Church in Rome. Numerous incidents mark the different stages of development to show that every new assumption of papal prerogative was disputed and contested. Indeed nothing more distinctly marks the growth of papal authority than the fact that these protests were so numerous and so widely scattered.

In the beginnings of ecclesiastical organisation bishops enjoyed and exercised an equality of power and rank. The persistence of this idea may be seen long after the period of Constantine. But hierarchical tendencies began very early and are very conspicuous in connection with Rome. In the opening decades of the

history of the Church it was customary for Christians eminent in station or piety to address letters, advisory or hortatory, to other churches on general points of creed or discipline, or on special local questions. Thus wrote Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Ignatius, and others. Not infrequently churches appealed to prominent bishops for assistance and advice. Often one bishop would censure another for the manifestation of unwarranted assumptions. Thus Irenæus reprehended Victor for excommunicating the heretical bishops of Asia and did it as an equal.[177:1] Tertullian, after he joined the heretical Montanists, scornfully denies the powers claimed by the Bishop of Rome by asking, "How comes it that you take to yourself the attribute of the Catholic Church?" He answers by denying the whole Petrine theory.[177:2] Hippolytus, Bishop of Pontus, in a controversy with Calixtus I., shows how the claim of the Bishop of Rome was denied in the beginning of the third century.[177:3] Origen also repudiated the Petrine claims.[177:4] While the great Cyprian did so much to create the concept of the one Catholic Church under the leadership of Rome, yet, at the same time, he strongly asserted episcopal equality and independence.[177:5]

This important historical fact must never be forgotten in considering the rise of the Papacy, namely, that the change was not directly from democracy to monarchy, but from democracy indirectly through oligarchy to monarchy. In addition to the instances of episcopal equality and independence already given,

the Apostolic Canons in canon 35 ordered each province to determine for itself which one of its churches should hold the primacy. This idea persisted long after the time of Constantine and, indeed, the Council of Antioch in 341 repeats the rule as if recognising a long established regulation. The Council of Nicæa in 325, while assigning the highest rank to the Apostolic Sees of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, at the same time reserved to every province the rights of its own church. In the second universal council held in 381 at Constantinople, when the great provinces of the Church were defined and the honourable primacy of Rome clearly asserted, no interference was allowed with the autonomy of the provincial churches.

In the West, however, local autonomy and provincial primacy were not so much emphasised as in the East. Rome and St. Peter's successor residing there early established a predominance over Spain, Gaul, and Britain. In Africa, Carthage for the most part obeyed Rome, and in Italy, Ravenna and Milan occasionally showed stubborn resistance.

13. The civil government naturally approved a system of Church polity which was in harmony with that of the state. It is no surprise, therefore, that imperial edicts supported the lofty position of the Bishop of Rome.[178:1] Did he not represent the Church of the great Empire and the faith of the Emperor himself? Besides it was always easiest to deal with him as a representative of the entire Church. In fact there was a sentiment in the Church that it was much better to carry on all business with imperial authorities through him. To this end the Council of Sardica in 347 decreed that all prelates visiting Rome for the purpose of obtaining

civic favours should present their petitions through the Bishop of Rome.[179:1] Theodosius (380) commanded that all subjects "should hold that faith which the divine Peter, the Apostle, delivered to the Roman Bishop."[179:2] Valentinian III. (445) commanded all bishops to recognise the Bishop of Rome as their leader in both judicial and administrative matters.[179:3] Later Emperors lavished on the Roman Church wealth, immunities, and exemptions which greatly enhanced its power and magnified the importance of its head.[179:4]

Justinian, in a decree of 532, declared that he had been very diligent in subjecting all the clergy of the East to the Roman See. He also expressed a firm resolution never to allow any business affecting the general welfare of the Church to be transacted, without notifying the head of all the churches.[179:5] Such a positive and sweeping assertion by such a powerful ruler shows the height to which papal power had climbed by the sixth century. Pope John II. was highly pleased with the useful acknowledgment of Justinian, complimented him on his "perfect acquaintance with ecclesiastical law and discipline," and added: "preserving the reverence due the Roman See, you have subjected all things unto her, and reduced all churches to that unity which dwelleth in her alone, to whom the Lord, through the Prince of the Apostles, did delegate all power; . . . and that the Apostolic See is in verity the head of all churches, both the rules of the fathers and the statutes of the princes do manifestly

declare, and the same is now witnessed by your imperial piety."[180:1]

The emancipation of the Church and the great inflow of wealth and pagan converts wrought a woeful change in its character and habits. A heathen historian declared that candidates would stoop to any means to secure the pontifical office because "the successful candidate gains the opportunity of fattening upon the oblations of matrons; of being conveyed about in stall-carriages; of appearing in public in costly dresses; of giving banquets so profuse as to surpass even royal entertainments."[180:2] The Fathers of the Church like Hilary, Jerome, and Basil deplored the vices, thus rebuked, in terms of even greater severity.

14. The barbarian invasions on the whole strengthened both the spiritual and temporal supremacy of the Holy See. They gave the death blow to paganism in Rome.[180:3] Once converted to Roman Christianity, the Germans became the staunch supporters of the papal hierarchy and enabled the Pope to enforce his prerogatives in the West.[180:4] Backed by these sturdy Teutons, the Pope became the most powerful individual in Christendom and soon declared his independence of the Byzantine court.

15. Another factor of no small moment was the extraordinary ability of some of the successors of St. Peter. Among them were men of commanding leadership, men of brains and faith, fearless administrators, aggressive judges, and men conscious of the tremendous part the Papacy was destined to play in the world's history. Conscious of their own power, and standing

on their lofty assumptions, they took advantage of every condition and circumstance to increase their authority and prerogatives. Thus the office of the Bishop of Rome continually grew in power and jurisdiction. Julian I. (337-352), the supporter of Athanasius, held lofty ideas of his power as Pope[181:1] and gave his famous decision on the eucharist in the Council of Sardica (343).[181:2] Damascus (366-384), staunch defender of orthodoxy and champion of celibacy, insisted on the recognition of his jurisdiction over East Illyricum, and, as a warm friend of Jerome, established the authority of the Vulgate.[181:3] Siricius (385-398) upheld the jurisdiction of the Holy See and issued the first decretal now extant.[181:4] In legislating about discipline and abuses in the Spanish Church his words were intended to convey universal authority on baptism, marriage, and celibacy. Speaking in conscious virtue of the authority of the Apostolic See he said: "We bear the burdens of all that are heavy laden; nay, rather the blessed Apostle Peter bears them in us, who, as we trust, in all things protects and guards us, the heirs of his administration."

Innocent I. (402-417) accepted, as a matter of unquestioned right, all that had been claimed by his predecessors, and surpassed all of them by the wide range of his pretensions. He sought to obliterate all distinction between advice and command. He spoke in a dogmatic and imperative tone on all questions pertaining to doctrine, discipline, and government in the Church of the West. "It is notorious to all the world," he said, "that no one save St. Peter and his

successors have instituted bishops and founded churches in all the Gauls, in Spain, Africa, Sicily, and the adjacent islands."[182:1] Nor did the West deny the maternity of Rome. Consequently he asserted complete jurisdiction over Illyria, assumed that the African churches were dependent upon the See of Rome, formulated fourteen rules for the Gallic bishops, settled controversies in Spain, and manifested a lofty attitude toward the churches of the East. He played a prominent part in repelling the attacks of the barbarians on Rome.[182:2] He was the first to claim a general prerogative, as "the one single fountain-head which fertilises the whole world by its manifold streamlets," to revise the judgment of provincial synods[182:3] and thus to legislate by his own fiat for the whole Church. As the great guardian of orthodoxy, he condemned Pelagius and excommunicated him. "Unstained in life, able and resolute, with a full appreciation of the dignity and prerogatives of his see, he lost no opportunity of asserting its claims; and under him the idea of universal papal supremacy, though as yet somewhat shadowy, appears already to be taking form."

"The first Pope in the proper sense of the word" was Leo I., called the Great (440-461). "In him the idea of the Papacy . . . became flesh and blood. He conceived it in great energy and clearness, and carried it out with the Roman spirit of dominion so far as the circumstance of the time at all allowed."[182:4]

Before his elevation to the Papacy in 440 very little is known about Leo. His place of birth, nationality, and early education are all shrouded in obscurity. For ten years prior to his election, Leo was perhaps the most prominent man in Rome and noted for his learning and piety. While absent on a civil mission in Gaul, he was chosen Pope. At that time the Empire was in a very weak condition. Women, surrounded by their court of eunuchs and parasites, ruled at Constantinople and Ravenna. Barbarians were pressing in from all sides. Heresies rent the East and ignorance was fast covering the West. Western Christendom must be consolidated and disciplined so that it could meet the crudeness and heresy of the powerful invaders and overcome both. The See of St. Peter must replace the tottering imperial power. The law of Rome must once more be obeyed over the Empire, but this time as the ecclesiastical law. Leo was the only great man in Church or state, so the burden was thrust upon his shoulders.

Leo possessed those qualifications which made him the master spirit of his age and the "Founder of the mediæval Papacy." Lofty in his aims, severe and pure in life, of indomitable courage and perseverance, inspired by a fanatical belief in the Petrine theory, uncompromisingly orthodox, the great first theologian in the Roman Chair, he made the first clear-cut exposition of the extreme limits and prerogatives of the mediæval Papacy.[183:1] He asserted and exercised the superabounding power of the Pope to regulate every

department of Church government without any human limitations. Driven on by a dream of the universal dominion of Rome and Christianity, a great orator who swayed the Romans at will, he acted as a resolute Christian monarch conscious of his divine mission. Possessed of a capacity for complex rule, an extraordinary organiser and administrator, he used all his ability to make Christianity and the Papacy the one great world power. Twice he saved Rome from the barbarians, once in 452 when Attila, King of the Huns, was persuaded to withdraw without attacking the city, and again in 455 when the Vandal leader, Genseric, was induced to spare the capital from fire and murder. He drove heresy out of Italy and suppressed it in Spain. He forced the African Christians to submit to his authority (443), regained the papal power lost in East Illyria, compelled the Gallic bishops to obey his mandates,[184:1] and even asserted his supremacy over the Eastern Church. Through a legate he presided over the fourth ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, guided its theological discussions, and was "the finisher of the true doctrine of the presence of Christ."

Pope Leo laid the greatest possible emphasis upon the fact that there is one God, one Church, one universal bishop, one faith, and one interpreter of that faith, and that the recognition of this basic fact alone could bring unity and efficiency to Christendom. He very wisely cultivated a close alliance with the state and secured from Valentinian III. the promulgation of an imperial edict in 445, which raised him to the exalted position of "spiritual director and governor" of the

Universal Church. Thus the Pope would issue his laws for the Church, just as the Emperor did for the Empire.

After Leo the Great, who died in 461, no important Pope filled the Chair of St. Peter until the time of Gregory I., called the Great (590-604). If Leo drew the outline of the mediæval Papacy, Gregory made it a living power. He issued the first declaration of independence and assumed actual jurisdiction over the whole Western Church. His high ideal was completely realised so that even Gibbon calls his pontificate the most edifying period of Church history.[185:1]

Gregory I. was born at Rome in 540 of a rich, pious, senatorial family. His great-grandfather was Pope Felix II. (483-492). His father was a wealthy lawyer and senator. His mother and two aunts were canonised. He was very well educated for that period as a "saint among the saints" as John the Deacon, his biographer, declared. In grammar, rhetoric, and logic he was second to none in Rome.[185:2] He studied law preparatory to public life and was well versed in the inspiring history of Rome and in current events. At thirty he was a distinguished senator and three years later Emperor Justin II. made him Prætor of Rome.

From his mother Gregory inherited a profound religious temperament, hence he naturally became imbued with the ascetic religious ideas of the age. The monastic crusade of the West, now at its height, found

him a willing convert. Upon his father's death, Gregory used his vast wealth for charity and for founding seven monasteries. Persuaded by his pious mother, he himself became a monk in 575. Selling all his costly furniture, fine clothes, and jewels for the poor, he turned his own house into a monastery and almost killed himself by his vigorous fasts and ascetic vigils. Soon he gained great fame as a monk, was chosen abbot, founded six monasteries in Sicily and enforced a tyrannical discipline.[186:1]

Gregory was a man of too great ability, however, to be penned up in a monastery; consequently Pope Benedict called him to his court as one of the seven deacons of Rome. In 579 he was sent, as a papal nuncio, to Constantinople to reconcile the Emperor and the Pope and to unite the Eastern and Western churches, while at the same time he was instructed to solicit military aid against the troublesome Lombards. For six years he remained at Constantinople on this mission and gained much fame as a theologian and diplomat. Although he failed to reunite the two branches of the Christian Church, he did bring about an amicable understanding between the Pope and the Emperor and got some help against the Lombards. In a discussion with the Patriarch of Constantinople over the nature of the body after resurrection, Gregory won a signal victory. During his stay in the East he wrote his renowned work Magna Moralia. In 585 he returned to Rome, resumed his duties as abbot,

became a popular preacher, and was recognised generally as the most able man in the Church.

When Pope Pelagius II. died in 590, the western part of Europe was in a very critical condition. The Teutonic barbarians had overrun the Empire from England around to Constantinople, destroying or burying nearly all that was best in the civilisation of old Rome. Justinian, to be sure, had recaptured Rome in 556, and it was to remain nominally under imperial rule until the time of Charles the Great (800), but the Emperor's hold on the West was limited and precarious. His representative, the exarch, lived mostly at Ravenna. The Pope, however, acknowledged the sovereignty of the Emperor both in theory and practice. As a result of the weakness and inactivity of the exarch, nearly all Italy lay prostrate before the fierce Lombards, and no efficient help came from the East.

The city of Rome was in a miserable condition. The Tiber had overflowed its banks and had swept away the granaries of corn, thus entailing famine and starvation. A dreadful pestilence had swept away thousands, among them the Pope himself. In a letter, Gregory compared the Roman See to an old shattered ship, letting in the waves on all sides, tossed by daily storms, its planks rotten and gnawed by rats—almost a wreck![187:1] An imperial organisation was needed to give Latin-Teutonic Europe the highest type of an organised, Christian civilisation under one law and one faith, and thus to preserve for future generations the best that was in old Greece and Rome, as well as the best that was in the Germans. "It is impossible to conceive

what had been the confusion, the lawlessness, the chaotic state of the Middle Ages, without the mediæval Papacy."[188:1] A man of heart, power, and lofty purpose—a ruler who saw the opportunity and need of the Christian Church in Western Europe, who felt her new impulses, and who could guide her through a crucial period to a great and useful career—such a man the Roman senate, clergy, and people believed that they had found in the monk Gregory. He alone could save them from Teutonic anarchy, on the one hand, and from Roman decay on the other.

Although elected Pope unanimously by the senate, clergy, and people of Rome, Gregory did not want the office. He felt unworthy of it and feared its duties might lure him to worldliness—hence he fled the city and wrote the Emperor beseeching him not to confirm the election. But the Roman prefect intercepted the letter and sent instead a petition urging the confirmation. Gregory was captured at last and forcibly consecrated Supreme Pontiff. He was the best qualified man in all Christendom for the place. He represented the best in Rome and the best in Christianity. His comprehensive policy, his grasp of fundamental issues, his political training, his capacity for details, made him the man for the hour. He merged the office of Roman Emperor and Christian bishop into essentially one and thus became the real founder of the mediæval Papacy. His pontificate, therefore, was an era in the history of the Church.

Gregory's policy was to uphold and extend the Petrine theory to the utmost, although personally refusing the title of "Universal Bishop." He censured

the ambitious Patriarch of Constantinople for assuming that title and wrote to John of Syracuse: "With regard to the church of Constantinople, who doubts that it is subject to the Apostolic See? . . . The Apostolic See is the head of all churches."[189:1] To the Patriarch of Alexandria he wrote: "In the preface of the epistle . . . you have thought fit to make use of a proud title, calling me Universal Pope. But I beg your most sweet Holiness to do this no more."[189:2] Again he exclaimed: "Whoever calls himself Universal Bishop is Antichrist."[189:3] Gregory meant to exercise as much autonomy as possible in ruling the West but, at the same time, to submit to imperial authority in all instances of conflicting claims.[189:4] He planned to unify and purify the Church and to extend Christianity over the known world.

Under Gregory's able management papal power was consolidated and made supreme in Western Europe. He systematised papal theology, and perfected and beautified the Church liturgy until it took three hours to celebrate the mass.[189:5] He regulated the calendar of festivals. He checked heresies by driving Manichæism and Arianism out of Italy, Spain, and Gaul, and even advised the persecution of African Donatists (591). The Jews, however, were tolerated and efforts made to convert them. To get rid of simony he personally

refused all presents and abolished all fees in his court. From priest to bishop he corrected the clergy and urged upon them celibacy.[190:1] He restored discipline throughout the Church and patronised all sorts of charity. He fought paganism fiercely by denouncing the Roman classics and even boasting of his own ignorance of them,[190:2] while at the same time he sent missionaries over most all of Western Europe. Monasticism, which he himself had adopted with all his heart, he encouraged and improved by restoring the early rigid discipline; by separating monks and clergy; by restricting admission to religious houses to persons above the age of eighteen years; by insisting on a probation of two years; by condemning deserters to life imprisonment; and by favouring the Benedictine Rule as the model. The papal court was reorganised, and clergy were substituted for boys and secular adults to attend the Pope. Even some efforts were made to check the European slave-trade.

In administrative power Gregory was perhaps inferior to Leo I. The Church was very wealthy, owning lands by this time all over Western Europe and in Africa. The Pope had to rule these vast estates as a mighty landlord. Subdeacons were his agents. Tenants were controlled politically as well as religiously. The surplus income was given to the clergy, papal domestics, monasteries, churches, cemeteries, almshouses, and hospitals. On the first of every month he distributed to the poor corn, wine, cheese, vegetables, oil, fish, meat, clothes, and money. The country was full of tramps and poor clergy; these he provided for and also supported impoverished nobles.[190:3] His letters

are full of items about law-suits, disputes over weights and measures, collection of rents, emancipation of slaves, marriage of tenants, produce accounts, and a multitude of other affairs.

In addition to these multitudinous duties, he was virtual King of Italy. He denounced the corrupt exarch and drilled the Romans for military defence, though he always laboured for peace. He held the haughty Lombards in check and converted them to Christianity. He extended his authority over Africa, Spain, Gaul, England, and Ireland and even claimed jurisdiction over the East. He was the first Pope to become in act and in influence, if not in name, the temporal sovereign of the West. He paved the way for Hildebrand and Innocent III.

In culture Gregory was a true son of an age of credulity and superstition. He believed all the current tales about ghosts, miracles, and supernatural manifestations. The linen of St. Paul and his bondage-chains, he declared genuine and possessed of miracle-working power.[191:1] To the converted Visigothic King in Spain he sent a key made from Peter's chain, a piece of the true cross, and some hairs from the head of John the Baptist. Indeed this was a practice which he followed in the case of many of his friends whom he desired to especially favour.[191:2] The "monuments of classic genius" he despised, asserting that it was his wish to be unknown in this world and glorified in the next. He very severely censured the profane learning of a bishop who taught grammar, studied the Latin poets, and pronounced Jupiter and Christ in the same breath. It was his

constant habit, on the other hand, to enforce upon all Christians—clergy and laity alike—the great duty of reading the Bible. Still his own literary work was rather voluminous. He wrote 850 letters—more than all his 69 predecessors together—on all topics and to all Christendom. In addition he produced his Magna Moralia,[192:1] some homilies, a book on pastoral rule, and liturgical treatises. His productions are below mediocrity and he cannot compare with Leo I. as a critic, expositor, or original thinker. He had but a slight knowledge of Greek and knew no Hebrew, nor did he possess a deep acquaintance with the Church Fathers. Yet for that age he was a cultured man and enjoyed a high reputation for piety and learning, and spoke to unborn generations.

"By his writings and the fame of his personal sanctity, by the conversion of England and the introduction of an impressive ritual, Gregory the Great did more than any other Pontiff to advance Rome's ecclesiastical authority."[192:2] His virtues and faults, his simplicity and cunning, his pride and humility, his ignorance and his learning—all were suited to the times and made him "the greatest of all the early Popes."[192:3] He closes the period of the Church Fathers and opens the Middle Ages. For 150 years there were no material acquisitions of ecclesiastical power, hence the history of the Papacy becomes very uninteresting and comparatively unimportant.[192:4]

When Gregory the Great closed his remarkable career (604) the Papacy of the Middle Ages had been

born and in form resembled the Empire.[193:1] The head of the Church was known as "Pope." Because of his peculiar personal holiness he could be judged by none,[193:2] though himself judge of all. The hierarchy of officers had been practically completed.[193:3] The laity was distinctly cut off from the clergy, and deprived of powers exercised in the first and second centuries. The election of the clergy had changed from a democratic to an aristocratic process. There was a marked evolution in rites and ceremonies. Art and music were now employed. The mass gradually became the powerful, mysterious centre of all worship, while public worship became imposing, dramatic, theatrical. Festivals were multiplied almost without number. The worship of martyrs and saints[193:4] became so widespread and popular that a "calendar of saints" was formed. Pilgrimages grew to be very numerous and the use of relics[193:5] developed such a craze that the fathers, councils, Popes, and at last the Emperor himself sought to check it. Religious pageants were multiplied and the use of images and pictures of saints were encouraged in the churches. The Virgin Mary was exalted to the eminence of divinity. In imitation of the court-calendar, loftier titles of spiritual dignity were adopted or invented for the higher ecclesiastics. The dogma of the "unity of outward representation"

had acquired not merely a material and visible, but also a sacramental, character. Thus the Church was the only channel of spiritual graces, hence union with the Church was absolutely indispensable to salvation. The Church had become immensely wealthy in lands, buildings, and furniture. This corrupting familiarity with secular affairs was early seen and denounced. St. Chrysostom sharply rebuked the bishops who "had fallen to the condition of land-stewards, hucksters, brokers, publicans, and pay-clerks." The Council of Chalcedon ordered the bishops to appoint land-stewards to look after their estates.[194:1]