“This season of external prosperity was improved by the ministers of the church for the exertion of new claims and the assumption of powers with which they had not previously been invested.”—p. 52.
“Several alterations in the form of church government appear to have been introduced during the third century. Some degree of pomp was thought necessary to render so singular an institution respectable to the minds of a gross multitude who are only capable of judging from external appearances. As their numbers increased their labors became proportionally greater, and it was necessary to provide assistance and more agreeable to good order to assign to each his proper function. Inferior ministers were therefore instituted, who derived their appellations from the office they filled.
“These ministers probably derived their emoluments, not merely from the precarious bounty of the society, but from a certain proportion of the fixed revenues of the church. The principal of them had obtained before the close of this century the possession of several considerable estates, which had been bequeathed or presented to the church. The external dignity of the ministers of religion was accompanied by a still greater change in its discipline. The simple rules prescribed by the apostles for the preservation of good order in the church branched out into so many luxuriant shoots that it was difficult to recognize the parent stem.”—p. 53.
“A regular form of discipline began to take place during the third century in every matter which fell within the cognizance of the church.” p. 51.
Following this, Ruter gives an account of the penitents seeking salvation who had to proceed step by step. The first degree was to prostrate themselves in the avenues of the church building. Here they were called flentes. In the second degree they were allowed to enter the building and hear the sermon. Here they were called audientes. In the third degree they were allowed to unite in prayers offered in their own behalf. Here they were called genuflectentes. In the fourth degree they were allowed to approach the altar and were called consistentes. In the taking of these degrees the penitents were compelled to appear in sackcloth and ashes, and in some places the men were obliged to shave their heads and the women to wear veils. The duration of their penitence was regulated by the bishop. He could make the time of taking these degrees short, or extend it to any length. This was called an indulgence.
This is shocking in the extreme. Where in the humble acts of Jesus and his apostles do you hear of such an order of things? Truly at this time the sun was darkened, and the moon did not give her light, and the stars had fallen. How true now appears the prophecy of Isaiah: “The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.” Isa. 63:18. Jesus says, “Lay [pg 379] not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth,” and Paul says to the bishop to be “not greedy of filthy lucre”; and Peter says, “Taking the oversight not for filthy lucre's sake”—and here before the close of the third century we find the bishops coming into possession of large estates through the revenues of the church, and as Cyprian has said of the bishops of this time, “Our principal study is to get money and estates.”
We have before us Mosheim's Church History. In speaking of the internal history of the church in the third century he says that “the bishops of Rome, Antioch and Alexandria had a kind of preeminence over all others, and particularly the bishop at Rome.” There was a change in the form of government and this change was followed by a train of vices. “Many of those who had the administration of the church affairs were sunk,” he says, “in luxury and voluptuousness, puffed up with vanity, arrogance and ambition; possessed with a spirit of contention and discord. They appropriated to their evangelical function the splendid ensigns of temporal majesty: a throne, surrounded with ministers, exalted above his equals, the servant of the meek and humble Jesus.... The titles of subdeacons, acolythi, ostairii, readers, exorcists, copiatæ, would never have been heard of in the church if its rulers had been assiduously and zealously employed in promoting the interest of truth and piety by their labors and their example.” He gives an account of the [pg 380] trouble in the church of Rome between Cornelius and Novatian, in the year 250, who were aspirants for the Roman See.
Eusebius tells of the increasing vices, schisms, quarrelings of the bishops, of their greed for money and preeminence in the last half of the third century. In speaking of the bishops and pastors who had the administration of church government in the year 260, he says: “But some that appeared to be our pastors, deserting the law of piety, were inflamed against each other with mutual strifes, only accumulating quarrels and threats, rivalship, hostility and hatred to each other, only anxious to assert the government as a kind of sovereignty for themselves.” Then he adds, “As Jeremiah says, ‘The Lord in his anger darkened the daughter of Sion [the church or moon], and hurled from heaven to earth the glory of Israel.’ ”
By this we learn that Eusebius would place the darkening of the church, or the beginning of the dark noonday, near the year 260 A.D. Quotations could be transcribed from Coleman, Marsh, Waddington and others, in which they all place the close of the morning light and the rise of the apostasy or dark noonday between the years 260 and 280 A.D. To our knowledge, Joseph Milner is the only non-contemporary historian that fixes the date to any definite time. He says, “I know it is common for authors to represent the great declension of Christianity to have taken place only after its external establishment under Constantine. [pg 381] But the evidence of history has compelled me to dissent from this view of things. In fact we have seen that for a whole generation previous to the persecution, few marks of superior piety appeared. Scarce a luminary of godliness existed, and it is not common in any age for a great work of the Spirit of God to be exhibited but under the conduct of some remarkable saint, pastor and reformers. This whole period as well as the whole scene of the persecution is very barren of such characters. Not but that many precious children of God suffered in much patience and charity. But those who suffered with very much of a different spirit, found no pastor to discountenance their self-will and false zeal: a sure sign that the true spirit of martyrdom was less pure than it had formerly been. Moreover the prevalence of superstition on the one hand, and the decay of evangelical knowledge on the other, are equally apparent. Christ crucified, justification purely by faith, and the effectual influences of the Holy Ghost, ... were ideas at least very faintly impressed at that day on Christian minds. It is vain to expect Christian faith to abound without Christian doctrine. Moral and philosophical and monastical instructions will not effect for men what is expected from evangelical doctrine. And if the faith of Christ was so much declined (and its decayed state ought to be dated from about the year 270) we need not wonder that such scenes as Eusebius hints at without any circumstantial detail took [pg 382] place in the Christian world.”—Century IV, p. 31.
After searching history we find no objection in making use of the year 270 A.D. as the date of the beginning of the dark noontime. Milner says at this time, “Scarcely a luminary of godliness existed. The great luminaries, or lights, were eclipsed and darkness reigned. Some of our contemporary writers have fixed upon this year as the date of the rise of the beast power, which created this darkness.” “The real papacy was set up, not at the Nicene Council, A.D. 325, as some affirm; but we find vivid traces of the very same beast authority as early as A.D. 270.”—Biblical Trace of the Church. In the city of Nice in Bithynia, A.D. 325, was held what is called “The First General Council.” There was present at this council the Emperor Constantine, as the historian says, “Like an angel of God exceeding all his attendants in size, gracefulness and strength, and dazzling all eyes by the splendor of his dress, showing the greatest humility, seated in a chair covered with gold.” There were present at this meeting three hundred and eighteen bishops, and a number of deacons and subdeacons, amounting in all to two thousand and forty-eight persons. Here was drawn up a creed, declaring to be the only true and orthodox faith. It bears the title of Nicene. This creed was at once confirmed at Rome by two hundred and seventy-five bishops, and was the setting up of the Roman hierarchy. This council can not however with [pg 383] propriety be said to be the true setting up of the beast power. Nearly all the forms and doctrines of this creed had been observed and taught by the bishops and pastors for several decades. The most sensible date, and most consistent with revelation, for the bringing in of the dark noontime of the gospel day is A.D. 270. We feel confident that no one can rightfully object to us making use of this date for this work. Those who do so must do it through prejudice or ignorance.