Part II—CHRISTIANITY FROM THE SECOND CENTURY TO THE RISE OF ISLAM
Chapter I—Scope and Character of the Unestablished Church
§ 1. Numbers and Inner Life
Gibbon’s fifteenth chapter is still valuable here. Compare Hatch, Organization; Renan, Saint Paul, concluding chapter; and the church historians generally. As to Britain, see Wright’s The Roman, the Celt, and the Saxon, 4th ed. 1885. On the personnel and emotional life of the early church compare Louis Ménard, Études sur les origines du Christianisme, 1893; Loisy, L’Évangile et L’Église, 1904; Renan, L’Église Chrétienne and Marc Aurèle; Tertullian, passim; J. A. Farrer, Paganism and Christianity; Dr. John Stoughton, Ages of the Church (pp. 42–43—orthodox admissions).
§ 2. Growth of the Priesthood
Hatch, as before cited, is here a specially good guide; and Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church (trans. in Bohn Lib.), gives a copious narrative (vol. i, sect. ii). On episcopal policy compare the series of popular monographs under the title “The Fathers for English Readers” (S.P.C.K.) and the anonymous treatise On the State of Man Subsequent to the Promulgation of Christianity (1852), Part II, ch. iv. Mosheim (Reid’s ed. of Murdock’s trans.) here deserves study. The question of priestly morals is handled in almost all histories of the Church. Cp. Gibbon, chs. xxi, xxv, xxxviii. Lea’s History of Sacerdotal Celibacy (2nd ed. 1884) is a full and valuable record. As to the papacy see references given below, Part III, ch. i, § 3.
§ 3. The Gnostic Movement in the Second Century
Baur’s Die christiche Gnosis (1835) remains perhaps the most comprehensive study of this subject; but C. W. King’s The Gnostics and their Remains adds to his elucidations. Matter’s Histoire critique du Gnosticisme (2e édit. 1843–44) remains worth study; as is Neander’s general account of the Gnostic sects in vol. ii of his General History. See shorter accounts in Baur’s Church History (vol. i), in Mosheim’s, and in that of Jeremie (1855).
§ 4. Marcionism and Montanism
Neander, Hatch, and Baur, as last cited, give good views. Tertullian, who wrote a treatise Against Marcion, and himself became a Montanist, is a primary authority. See also De Soyres, cited on p. 98.
§ 5. Rites and Ceremonies
Bingham’s Christian Antiquities (rep. 1855) gives abundant details; but see also Smith’s Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. Mosheim traces the development century by century.
§ 6. Strifes over Primary Dogma
These may be followed in brief in Mosheim, or at length in Harnack’s History of Dogma, or in Hagenbach’s earlier manual, which is more concise. Hatch’s Influence of Greek Ideas is light-giving at some points; and Dr. Albert Réville’s Histoire du dogme de la divinité de Jésus Christ (2e édit. 1876) is a good conspectus of its subject. For a briefer general view see Stoughton’s Ages of the Church, Lect. v and vii. The history of the so-called Apostles’ Creed is fully discussed by M. Nicolas, Le Symbole des Apôtres, 1867, and in Harnack’s work on the same subject (Eng. tr. 1901).
Chapter II—Relations of Church and State
§ 1. Persecutions
Consult Gibbon, ch. xvi; Niebuhr, Lectures on Roman History, Eng. tr. Lect. cxli; and Boissier, La Fin du Paganisme (2e édit. 1894), tom. i, Appendice, for critical views, as distinguished from those of the ecclesiastical historians. Compare also Milman’s account in the first chapter of his History of Latin Christianity. The alleged Neronian persecution is specially sifted by Hochart, Études au sujet de la persécution des Chrétiens sous Néron, 1885. For a complete record of the cult of the emperors see Le Culte Impérial, son histoire et son organisation, par l’Abbé E. Beurlier, 1891.
§§ 2, 3, 4. Establishment and Creed-Making; Reaction under Julian; Re-establishment; Disestablishment of Paganism.
Boissier’s La Fin du Paganisme goes very fully into the question of Constantine’s conversion and policy, but does not supersede Beugnot, Histoire de la destruction du paganisme en occident, 1835, 2 tom. (Both are misleading on the subject of the labarum, as to which see the variorum notes in Reid’s Mosheim, and in Bohn Gibbon, ad loc.) Compare Gibbon, chs. xix–xxv, and Hatch, Organization. A good modern survey is Victor Schultze’s Geschichte des griechischrömischen Heidentums, 2 Bde. 1887. Newman’s Arians of the Fourth Century gives an intensely orthodox view of its subject. Mosheim and Milman and Neander are more judicial. See also Harnack’s Outlines, and the references given above to ch. i, § 6. On Manichæism it is still well to consult Beausobre, Histoire critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme. Compare Mosheim, Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians, vol. iii, and the account of Neander, General History, vol. ii. The legend of Manichæus is discussed in the author’s Pagan Christs. Rendall’s The Emperor Julian: Christianity and Paganism, 1879, is a learned and competent research, usually fair, and gives light on the previous reigns, as well as on Julian’s. Gibbon’s survey here remains important. On Gregory of Nazianzun there is a monograph by Ullmann (Eng. tr. 1851). See Milman as to the falsity of the death-legend concerning Julian. As to the disestablishment of paganism, Beugnot and Schultze are the best guides, but Boissier is discursively instructive. Chapter III—Failure with Survival
The narrative may be checked throughout by Neander’s General History of the Christian Religion and Church (trans. in Bohn Lib.); by Mosheim, with the variorum notes of Reid’s edition; by Gibbon’s chapters; by the histories of dogma; by the above-cited monographs on the Fathers, St. Chrysostom’s Picture of his Age (S.P.C.K. 1875), and Rev. W. E. Stephens’s St. Chrysostom, His Life and Times (1872); by Milman’s History of Latin Christianity, vols. i and ii; by Finlay’s History of Greece (Tozer’s ed.), vols. i and ii; and by Bury’s History of the later Roman Empire (two vols. 1889). On the intellectual life compare further Boissier, La Fin du Paganisme; Ampère, Histoire littéraire de la France, 1839, tom. i and ii; and Lecky’s History of European Morals.