At the time of his crucifixion his disciples numbered scarcely one hundred persons. For some years after his death his disciples remained in Jerusalem, preaching that he was the Messiah or Christ, whom the Hebrew people had long expected, and making converts to the idea. Later in Samaria, Damascus, and Antioch they made additional converts among the Jews. Up to this point the Christians had been careful to keep up all the old Jewish customs, and it was even doubted at first whether any but Jews could properly be admitted to the new faith. A new convert, Saul of Tarsus, a Jew who had studied in the Greek university there and who afterwards became the Apostle Paul, did much to open the new faith to the Gentiles, as the men of other nations were known. Speaking Greek, and being versed in Greek philosophy, and especially Stoicism, he gave thirty years of most effective service to the establishment of Christian churches [7] in Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece (R. 29), and Italy (R. 28). His work was so important that he has often been called the second founder of the Christian Church.
THE CHALLENGE OF CHRISTIANITY. Into a Roman world that had already passed the zenith of its greatness came this new Christian faith, challenging almost everything for which the Roman world had stood. In place of Roman citizenship and service to the State as the purpose of life, the Christians set up the importance of the life to come. Instead of pleasure and happiness and the satisfaction of the senses as personal ends, the Christians preached denial of all these things for the greater joy of a future life. In a society built on a huge basis of slavery and filled with social classes, the Christians proclaimed the equality of all men before God. To a nation in which family life had become corrupt, infidelity and divorce common, and infanticide a prevailing practice, the Christians proclaimed the sacredness of the marriage tie and the family life, and the exposure of infants as simple murder. In place of the subjection of the individual to the State, the Christians demanded the subjection of the individual only to God. In place of a union of State and religion, the Christians demanded the complete separation of the two and the subordination of the State to the Church. Unlike all other religions that Rome had absorbed, the Christians refused to be accepted on any other than exclusive terms. The worship of all other gods the Christians held to be sinful idol-worship, a deadly sin in the eyes of God, and they were willing to give up their lives rather than perform the simplest rite of what they termed pagan worship (R. 28). To the deified Emperor the Christians naturally could not bend the knee (Rs. 30 b, 31 a-b, 34).
At first the new faith attracted but little attention from anybody of education or influence. Its converts were few during the first century, and these largely from among the lowest social classes in the Empire. Workmen and slaves, and women rather than men, constituted the large majority of the early converts to the new faith. The character of its missionaries [8] also was against it, and its challenge of almost all that characterized the higher social and governmental life of Rome was certain to make its progress difficult, and in time to awaken powerful opposition [9] to it. Yet, notwithstanding all these obstacles, its progress was relatively rapid.
THE VICTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. By the close of the first century there were Christian churches throughout most of Judea and Asia Minor, and in parts of Greece and Macedonia. During the second century other churches were established in Asia Minor, in Greece, and along the Black Sea, and at a few places in Italy and France; and before four centuries had elapsed from the crucifixion Christian churches had been established throughout almost all the Roman world. This is well shown by the map on the opposite page. The message of hope that Christianity had to offer to all; the simplicity of its organization and teachings; the great appeal which it made to the emotional side of human life; the hope of a future life of reward for the burdens of this which it extended to all who were weary and heavy laden; the positiveness of conviction of its apostles and followers; and the completeness with which it satisfied the religious need and longings of the time, first among the poor and among women and later among educated men—all helped the new faith to win its way. The unity in that Rome had everywhere established; [10] the Roman peace (pax Romana) that Rome had everywhere imposed; the spread of the Greek and Latin languages and ideas throughout the Mediterranean world; the right of freedom of travel and speech enjoyed by a Roman citizen, and of which Saint Paul and others on their travels took advantage; [11] the scatterment of Jews throughout the Empire, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.—all these elements also helped.
[ILLUSTRATION: FIG. 27. THE GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE END OF THE FOURTH CENTURY]
That Christianity made its headway unmolested must not be supposed. While at first the tendency of educated Romans and of the government was to ignore or tolerate it, its challenge was so direct and provocative that this attitude could not long continue. Under the Emperor Claudius (41-54 A.D.) "all the Jews who were continually making disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus" were unsuccessfully ordered banished from Rome. In the reign of the Emperor Nero, in 64 A.D., many horrible tortures were inflicted on this as yet small sect. It was not, however, till later, when the continued refusal of the Christians to offer sacrifices to the Emperor brought them under the law as disloyal (R. 30 a) subjects, that they began to be much punished for their faith (R. 31 a-b). The times were bad and were going from bad to worse, and the feelings of many were that the adverse conditions in the Empire—war, famine, floods, pestilence, and barbarian inroads—were due to the neglect of the old state religion and to the tolerance extended the vast organized defiance of the law by the Christians. In the first century they had been largely ignored. In the second, in some places, they were punished. In the third century, impelled by the calamities of the State and the urging of those who would restore the national religion to its earlier position, the Emperors were gradually driven to a series of heavy persecutions of the sect (R. 30 a). But it had now become too late. The blood of the martyrs proved to be the seed of the Church (R. 35). The last great persecution under the Emperor Diocletian, in 303 (R. 33), ended in virtual failure. In 311 the Emperor Galerius placed Christianity on a plane of equality with other forms of worship (R. 36). In 313 Constantine made it in part the official religion of the State [12] and ordered freedom of worship for all. He and succeeding Emperors gradually extended to the Christian clergy a long list of important privileges (R. 38) and exemptions, [13] analogous to those formerly enjoyed by the teachers of rhetoric under the Empire (R. 26), and likewise began the policy, so liberally followed later, of endowing the Church. In 391 the Emperor Theodosius forbade all pagan worship, thus making the victory of Christianity complete. In less than four centuries from the birth of its founder the Christian faith had won control of the great Empire in which it originated. In 529 the Emperor Justinian ordered the closing of all pagan schools, and the University of Athens, which had remained the center of pagan thought after the success of Christianity, closed its doors. The victory was now complete.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY. We have now before us the third great contribution upon which our modern civilization has been built. To the great contributions of Greece and Rome, which we have previously studied, there now was added, and added at a most opportune time, the contribution of Christianity. In taking the Jewish idea of one God and freeing it from the narrow tribal limitations to which it had before been subject, Christianity made possible its general acceptance, first in the Roman world, and later in the Mohammedan world. [14] With this was introduced the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and his love for man, the equality before God of all men and of the two sexes, and the sacredness of each individual in the eyes of the Father. An entirely new conception of the individual was proclaimed to the world, and an entirely new ethical code was promulgated. The duty of all to make their lives conform to these new conceptions was asserted. These ideas imparted to ancient society a new hopefulness and a new energy which were not only of great importance in dealing with the downfall of civilization and the deluge of barbarism which were impending, but which have been of prime importance during all succeeding centuries. In time the church organization which was developed gradually absorbed all other forms of government, and became virtually the State during the long period of darkness known as the Middle Ages.
It remains now to sketch briefly how the Church organized itself and became powerful enough to perform its great task during the Middle Ages, what educational agencies it developed, and to what extent these were useful.
II. EDUCATIONAL AND GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION OF THE EARLY CHURCH
SCHOOLING OF THE EARLY CHURCH; CATECHUMENAL INSTRUCTION. The early churches were bound together by no formal bond of union, and felt little need for such. It was the belief of many that Christ would soon return and the world would end, hence there was little necessity for organization. There was also almost no system of belief. An acknowledgment of God as the Father, a repentance for past sins, a godly life, and a desire to be saved were about all that was expected of any one. [15] The chief concern was the moral regeneration of society through the moral regeneration of converts. To accomplish this, in face of the practices of Roman society, a process of instruction and a period of probation for those wishing to join the faith soon became necessary. Jews, pagans, and the children of believers were thereafter alike subjected to this before full acceptance into the Church. At stated times during the week the probationers met for instruction in morality and in the psalmody of the Church (R. 39). These two subjects constituted almost the entire instruction, the period of probation covering two or three years. The teachers were merely the older and abler members of the congregation.