Early European History

by Hutton Webster

120. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

A preceding chapter has traced the early history of Christianity. We there saw how the new religion appeared in the Orient, how it spread rapidly over the Roman Empire, how it engaged with the imperial government in the long conflict called the Persecutions, how the emperor Constantine, after his conversion, placed it on an equality with paganism, and how at the end of the fourth century the emperor Theodosius made it the state religion. By this time the Church had become a great and powerful organization, with fixed laws, with a graded system of officers, and with councils attended by clergy from all parts of the Roman world. To this organization the word Catholic, that is, "universal," came to be applied. Membership in the Catholic Church, secured only by baptism, was believed to be essential to salvation. As St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, had said, "He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his Mother."

THE EPISCOPATE

The first three centuries of Christianity witnessed the development of the episcopal system in the Church. Each provincial city had its bishop, assisted by priests and deacons. An archbishop (sometimes called a metropolitan) presided over the bishops of each province, and a patriarch had jurisdiction, in turn, over metropolitans. This graded arrangement of ecclesiastical officers, from the lowest to the highest, helped to make the Church centralized and strong. It appears to have been modeled, almost unconsciously, on the government of the Roman Empire. [2]

THE PATRIARCHS

The development of the patriarchate calls for special notice. At the time of the Council of Nicaea [3] there were three patriarchs, namely, the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. These cities ranked among the most important in the Roman world. It was only natural, therefore, that the churches established in them should be singled out for preëminence. Some years after the removal of the capital to Constantinople, the bishop of that imperial city was recognized as a patriarch at a general council of the Church. In the fifth century the bishop of Jerusalem received the same dignity. Henceforth there were five patriarchs—four in the East but only one in the West.

CLERGY AND LAITY

The Christian Church was a very democratic organization. Patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons were drawn from all ranks of life. No special training at first was considered necessary to fit them for their duties, though the more celebrated ministers were often highly educated. To eke out their salaries the clergy sometimes carried on business as farmers and shopkeepers. Where, however, a church had sufficient funds to support its bishop, his engagement in secular affairs was discouraged and finally prohibited. In the fourth century, as earlier, priests and bishops were generally married men. The sentiment in favor of celibacy for the clergy became very pronounced during the early Middle Ages, especially in the West, and led at length to the general abandonment of priestly marriage in those parts of Europe where papal influence prevailed. Distinctive garments for clergymen did not begin to come into use until the fifth century, when some of them began to don clothing of a more sober hue than was fashionable at the time. Clerical vestments were developed from two pieces of ancient Roman dress—the tunic and the toga. [4] Thus the clergy were gradually separated from the people, or laity, by differences in dress, by their celibate lives, and by their abstention from worldly occupations.

HERESIES

While the Church was perfecting her organization, she was also elaborating her doctrines. Theologians engaged in many controversies upon such subjects as the connection of Christ with God and the nature of the Trinity. In order to obtain an authoritative expression of Christian opinion, councils of the higher clergy were held, at which the opposing views were debated and a decision was reached. The Council of Nicaea, which condemned Arianism, formed the first, and one of the most important, of these general gatherings of the Church. After the Church had once expressed itself on any matter of Christian belief, it was regarded as unlawful to maintain a contrary opinion. Those who did so were called heretics, and their teachings, heresies. The emperor Theodosius, whose severe laws finally shattered the ancient paganism, [5] devoted even more attention to stamping out heresies among his Christian subjects. He prohibited meetings of heretics, burned their books, and threatened them with death if they persisted in their peculiar doctrines. During his reign a Spanish bishop and six of his partisans were executed for holding unorthodox beliefs. This was the beginning of the persecutions for heresy.

WORSHIP

As soon as Christianity had triumphed in the Roman Empire, thus becoming the religion of the rich and powerful as well as the religion of the poor and lowly, more attention was devoted to the conduct of worship. Magnificent church buildings were often erected. Their architects seem to have followed as models the basilicas, or public halls, which formed so familiar a sight in Roman cities. [6] Church interiors were adorned with paintings, mosaic pictures, images of saints and martyrs, and the figure of the cross. Lighted candles on the altars and the burning of fragrant incense lent an additional impressiveness to worship. Beautiful prayers and hymns were composed. Some of the early Christian hymns, such as the Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum Laudamus, are still sung in our churches. Organs did not come into use until the seventh century, and then only in the West, but church bells, summoning the worshiper to divine service, early became attached to Christian edifices.

[Illustration: RELIGIOUS MUSIC From a window of the cathedral of Bourges, a city in central France. Shows a pipe organ and chimes.]

SUNDAY

The Christians from the start appear to have observed "the first day of the week" [7] in memory of Christ's resurrection. They attended public worship on the Lord's Day, but otherwise did not rigidly abstain from worldly business and amusements. The Jewish element in some churches, and especially in the East, was strong enough to secure an additional observance of Saturday as a weekly festival. Saturday long continued to be marked by religious assemblies and feasting, though not by any compulsory cessation of the ordinary occupations. During the fourth century Sunday, as the Lord's Day was now generally called, came more and more to be kept as a day of obligatory rest. Constantine's Sunday law [8] formed the first of a long series of imperial edicts imposing the observance of that day as a legal duty. In this manner Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, was dedicated wholly to the exercises of religion.

FESTIVALS

The great yearly festivals of the Church gradually took shape during the early Christian centuries. The most important anniversary to be observed was Easter, in memory of the resurrection of Christ. A period of fasting (Lent), which finally lasted forty days, preceded the festival. Whitsunday, or Pentecost, was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter. [9] Two other festivals of later adoption were Christmas, the celebration of which was finally assigned to the 25th of December, [10] and Epiphany (January 6), commemorating the baptism of Christ. In course of time many other feasts and fasts, together with numerous saints' days, were added to the calendar of the "Christian Year."