History for ready reference, Volume 1, A-Elba

by J. N. Larned

mountaineers had been incited to take arms by a so-called
prophet Scheick Mansur, but he was seized and banished to
Solovetsk, on the White Sea. In 1820 a Mollah, Kasi by name,
made his appearance in Daghestan, and began to preach the
'Kasawat,' that is, holy war against the Russians. To him
succeeded another equally fanatical adventurer, Hamset Beg.
The work which they had begun was carried on by Schamyl, who
far surpassed his predecessors in all the qualities which make
up a successful guerilla chief, and who maintained the unequal
conflict against the enemies of his country for 25 years with
singular good fortune, undaunted courage, untiring energy, and
conspicuous ability. He was of the tribe of the Lesghians in
Daghestan, and was born in 1796, in the village of Gimri, of
poor shepherd parents. In spite of his humble origin he raised
himself to the rank of an Imaum, surrounded himself with a
strong body-guard of devoted adherents, whom he named Murides,
and succeeded in fanning to a flame the patriotic ardour of
his fellow-countrymen. The capture of the mountain fastness of
Achulgo in 1839 seemed to be the death-blow of Schamyl's
cause, for it brought about the loss of the whole of
Daghestan, the very focus of the Murides' activity.
{401}
Schamyl barely escaped being made a prisoner, and was forced
to yield up his son, Djammel-Edden, only nine years of age as
a hostage. The boy was sent to St. Petersburg and placed in a
cadet corps, which he left at the conclusion of his military
education somewhere about 1850 and returned to his native
country in 1854 where he died a few years later. In 1840 the
Tchetchens, who had previously been pacified, rose in arms
once more, and Daghestan and other parts of the country
followed their example. The country of the Tchetchens was a
specially favourable theatre for the conflict with the
Russians; its long mountain chains, rocky fastnesses,
impenetrable forests, and wild precipices and gorges rendered
ambuscades and surprises of constant and, to the Russians,
fatal occurrence. During the earlier stages of the war, Russia
had ransomed the officers taken prisoners by the mountaineers,
but, subsequently, no quarter was given on either side. At
last, by means of a great concentration of troops on all the
threatened points, by fortifying the chief central stations,
find by forming broad military roads throughout the district,
the Russians succeeded in breaking down Schamyl's resistance.
He now suffered one reverse after another. His chief
fastnesses, Dargo, Weden, and Guni, were successively stormed
and destroyed; and, finally, he himself and his family were
taken prisoners. He was astonished and, it is said, not
altogether gratified to find that a violent death was not to
close his romantic career. He and his family were at first
interned at Kaluga in Russia, both a house and a considerable
sum of money for his maintenance being assigned to him. But
after a few years he was allowed to remove to Mecca, where he
died. His sons and grandsons, who have entirely adopted the
manners of the Russians, are officers in the Circassian guard.
In 1864 the pacification of the whole country was
accomplished, and a few years later the abolition of serfdom
was proclaimed at Tifiis. After the subjugation of the various
mountain tribes, the Circassians had the choice given them by
the Government of settling on the low country along the Kuban,
or of emigrating to Turkey. The latter course was chosen by
the bulk of the nation, urged, thereto, in great measure, by
envoys from Turkey. As many as 400,000 are said to have come
to the ports, where the Sultan had promised to send vessels to
receive them; but delays took place, and a large number died
of want and disease. Those who reached Turkey were settled on
the west coasts of the Black Sea, in Bulgaria and near Varna,
and proved themselves most troublesome and unruly subjects.
Most of those who at first remained in Circassia followed
their fellow-countrymen in 1874."
H. M. Chester, Russia, chapter 18.
ALSO IN:
F. Mayne, Life of Nicholas I., part 1, chapter 11 and 14.
S. M. Schmucker, Life and Reign of Nicholas I., chapter 21.
CAUCASUS, The Indian.
"The real Caucasus was the most lofty range of mountains known
to the Greeks before [Alexander's conquests], and they were
generally regarded as the highest mountains in the world.
Hence when the army of Alexander came in sight of the vast
mountain barrier [of the Hindoo Koosh] that rose before them
as they advanced northward from Arachosia, they seem to have
at once concluded that this could be no other than the
Caucasus." Hence the name Caucasus given by the Greeks to
those mountains; "for the name of Hindoo Koosh, by which they
are still known, is nothing more than a corruption of the
Indian Caucasus."
E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 12, note Q.
CAUCI, The.
See IRELAND, TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
CAUCUS.
In 1634--the fourth year of the colony of Massachusetts
Bay--the freemen of the colony chose Dudley instead of
Winthrop for governor. The next year they "followed up the
doctrine of rotation in office by choosing Haynes as governor,
a choice agreed upon by deputies from the towns, who came
together for that purpose previously to the meeting of the
court--the first instance of 'the caucus system' on record."
R. Hildreth, History of the U. S., volume 1, page 224.
See also, CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.
CAUDINE FORKS, The Romans at the.
See ROME: B. C. 343-290.
CAUSENNÆ, OR ISINÆ.
A town of some importance in Roman Britain. "There can be no
doubt that this town occupied the site of the modern Ancaster,
which has been celebrated for its Roman antiquities since the
time of Leland."
T. Wright, Celt, Roman and Saxon, chapter 5.
CAVALIERS, The party of the.
See ENGLAND: A.. D. 1641 (OCTOBER);
also, ROUNDHEADS.
CAVE DWELLERS.
"We find a hunting and fishing race of cave-dwellers, in the
remote pleistocene age, in possession of France, Belgium,
Germany, and Britain, probably of the same stock as the
Eskimos, living and forming part of a fauna in which northern
and southern, living and extinct, species are strangely
mingled with those now living in Europe. In the neolithic age
caves were inhabited, and used for tombs, by men of the
Iberian or Basque race, which is still represented by the
small dark-haired peoples of Europe."
W. B. Dawkins, Cave Hunting, page 430.
CAVE OF ADULLAM.
See ADULLAM, CAVE OF.
CAVOUR, Count, and the unification of Italy.
See ITALY: A. D. 1856-1859, and 1859-1861.
CAVOUR, Treaty of (1561).
See SAVOY: A. D. 1559-1580.
CAWNPUR, OR CAWNPORE: A. D. 1857.
Siege by the Sepoy mutineers.
Surrender and massacre of the English.
See INDIA: A. D. 1857 (MAY-AUGUST),
and 1857-1858 (JULY-JUNE).
CAXTON PRESS, The.
See PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1476-1491.
CAYENNE, Colonization of.
See GUIANA: A. D. 1580-1814.
CAYUGAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY.
CEADAS, The.
See BARATHRUM.
CEBRENES, The.
See TROJA.
CECIL, Sir William (Lord Burleigh),
The reign of Elizabeth.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1558-1598.
CECORA, Battle of (1621).
See POLAND: A. D. 1590-1648.
CECROPIA.--CECROPIAN HILL.
The Acropolis of Athens.
See ATTICA.
{402}
CEDAR CREEK, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D.1864 (AUGUST-OCTOBER: VIRGINIA).
CEDAR MOUNTAIN OR CEDAR RUN, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(JULY-AUGUST: VIRGINIA).
CELESTINE II., Pope, A. D. 1143-1144.
Celestine III., Pope, A. D. 1191-1198.
Celestine IV., Pope, A. D. 1241..
Celestine V., Pope, A. D. 1294, July to December.
CELTIBERIANS, The.
"The Celtiberi occupied the centre of Spain, and a large part
of the two Castiles, an elevated table land bordered and
intersected by mountains. They were the most warlike race in
the Spanish peninsula."
G. Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, chapter 1.
"The appellation Celtiberians indicates that in the
north-eastern part of the peninsula [Spain] there was a
mixture of Celts and Iberians. Nevertheless the Iberians must
have been the prevailing race, for we find no indications of
Celtic characteristics in the people."
W. Ihne, History of Rome, book 5, chapter 6, note.
See, also, NUMANTIAN WAR.
CELTS, The.
"The Celts form a branch of the great family of nations which
has been variously called Aryan, Indo-European, Indo-Germanic,
Indo-Celtic and Japhetic, its other branches being represented by
the Italians, the Greeks, the Litu-Slaves, the Armenians, the
Persians and the chief peoples of Hindustan. ... The Celts of
antiquity who appeared first and oftenest in history were
those of Gallia, which, having been made by the French into
Gaule, we term Gaul. It included the France and Switzerland of
the present day, and much territory besides. This people had
various names. One of them was Galli, which in their language
meant warriors or brave men; ... but the Gauls themselves in
Cæsar's time appear to have preferred the name which he wrote
Celtæ. This was synonymous with the other and appears to have
meant warriors. ... The Celtic family, so far back as we can
trace it into the darkness of antiquity consisted of two
groups or branches, with linguistic features of their own
which marked them off from one another. To the one belonged
the ancestors of the people who speak Gaelic in Ireland, the
Isle of Man and the Highlands of the North. ... The national
name which the members of this group have always given
themselves, so far as one knows, is that of Gaidhel,
pronounced and spelt in English Gael, but formerly written by
themselves Goidel. ... The other group is represented in point
of speech by the people of Wales and the Bretons. ... The
national name of those speaking these dialects was that of
Briton; but, since that word has now no precise meaning, we
take the Welsh form of it, which is Brython, and call this
group Brythons and Brythonic, whenever it is needful to be
exact. The ancient Gauls must also be classified with them,
since the Brythons may be regarded as Gauls who came over to
settle in Britain."
J. Rhys, Celtic Britain, chapter 1.
See, also, ARYANS, and APPENDIX A, volume 1.
CELTS:
Origin and first meaning of the name.
"Who were the Keltre of Spain? the population whose name
occurs in the word Celtici and Celtiberi, Keltic Iberians or
Iberian Kelts? ... I think, that though used to denominate the
tribe and nations allied to the Gauls, it [the word Celt or
Kelt] was, originally, no Gallic word--as little native as
Welsh is British. I also think that even the first populations
to which it was applied were other than Keltic in the modern
sense of the term. I think, in short, that it was a word
belonging to the Iberian language, applied, until the time of
Cæsar at least, to Iberic populations. ... By the time of
Cæsar, however, a great number of undoubted Gauls were
included under the name Celtæ: in other words, the Iberian
name for an Iberian population was first adopted by the Greeks
as the name for all the inhabitants of south-western Gaul, and
it was then extended by the Romans so as to include all the
populations of Gallia except the Belgæ and Aquitanians."
R G. Latham, Ethnology of Europe, chapter 2.
----------CELTS: Origin: End----------
CELTS.
A name given among archæologists to certain prehistoric
implements, both stone and bronze, of the wedge, chisel and
axe kind. Mr. Thomas Wright, contends that the term is
properly applied only to the bronze chisels, which the old
antiquary Hearne identified with the Roman celtis, or
chisel--whence the name. It has evidently no connection with
the word Celt used ethnologically.
CELYDDON, Forest of (or Coed Celydon).
See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.
CENABUM.
See GENABUM.
CENOMANIANS, The.
See INSUBRIANS.
CENSORS, The Roman.
"The censorship was an office so remarkable that, however
familiar the subject may be to many readers, it is necessary
here to bestow some notice on it. Its original business was to
take a register of the citizens and of their property; but
this, which seems at first sight to be no more than the
drawing up of a mere statistical report, became in fact, from
the large discretion allowed to every Roman officer, a
political power of the highest importance. The censors made
out the returns of the free population; but they did more;
they divided it according to its civil distinctions, and drew
up a list of the senators, a list of the equites, a list of
the members of the several tribes, or of those citizens who
enjoyed the right of voting, and a list of the ærarians,
consisting of those freedmen, naturalized strangers, and
others, who, being enrolled in no tribe, possessed no vote in
the comitia, but still enjoyed all the private rights of Roman
citizens. Now the lists thus drawn up by the censors were
regarded as legal evidence of a man's condition. ... From
thence the transition was easy, according to Roman notions, to
the decision of questions of right; such as whether a citizen
was really worthy of retaining his rank. ... If a man behaved
tyrannically to his wife or children, if he was guilty of
excessive cruelty even to his slaves, if he neglected his
land, if he indulged in habits of extravagant expense, or
followed any calling which was regarded as degrading, the
offence was justly noted by the censors, and the offender was
struck off from the list of senators, if his rank was so high;
or, if he were an ordinary citizen, he was expelled from his
tribe, and reduced to the class of the ærarians. ... The
censors had the entire management of the regular revenues of
the state, or of its vectigalia. They were the commonwealth's
stewards, and to their hands all its property was entrusted.
... With these almost kingly powers, and arrayed in kingly
state, for the censor's robe was all scarlet ... the censors
might well seem too great for a free commonwealth."
T. Arnold, History of Rome, chapter 17.
See, also, LUSTRUM.
{403}
CENTRAL AMERICA:
Ruins of ancient civilization.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MAYAS, and QUICHES;
also, MEXICO, ANCIENT.
CENTRAL AMERICA: Discovery and early settlement.
See AMERICAN: A. D. 1498-1505; 1500-1511; 1513-1517.
CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1821-1871.
Separation from Spain, and Independence.
Attempted federation and its failures.
Wars and revolutions of the five Republics.
"The central part of the American continent, extending from
the southern boundary of Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama,
consisted in the old colonial times of several Intendancies,
all of which were united in the Captaincy-General of
Guatemala. Like the West Indian Islands, it was a neglected
part of the Spanish Empire. ... Central America has no history
up to the epoch of independence. ... It was not until the
success of the Revolution had become certain on both sides of
them, both in Mexico and New Granada, that the Intendancies
which made up the Captaincy-General of Guatemala declared
themselves also independent of Spain. The cry of liberty had
indeed been raised in Costa Rica in 1813, and in Nicaragua in
1815; but the Revolution was postponed for six years longer.
Guatemala, the seat of government, published its declaration
in September, 1821, and its example was speedily followed by
San Salvador and Honduras. Nicaragua, on proclaiming its
independence, together with one of the departments of
Guatemala, declared its adhesion to what was known in Mexico
as the plan of Ignala [see MEXICO: A. D. 1820-1826]. As there
were no Spanish troops in Central America, the recusant
Spanish official party could make no resistance to the popular
movement; and many of them crossed the sea to Cuba or returned
to Spain. ... The Revolution of Central America thus stands
alone in the history of independence, as having been
accomplished without the shedding of blood." During the brief
empire of Iturbide in Mexico [see as above] the Central
American states were annexed to it, though with strong
resistance on the part of all except Guatemala. "On the
proclamation of the Federal Republic in Mexico [1824], the
whole of Central America, except the district of Chiapas,
withdrew from the alliance, and drove out the Mexican
officials as only a year before they had driven out the
Spanish officials. The people now had to face the task of
forming a government for themselves: and ... they now resolved
on combining in a federation, in imitation of the great United
States of North America. Perhaps no states were ever less
suited to form a federal union. The petty territories of
Central America lie on two Oceans, are divided by lofty
mountains, and have scarcely any communication with each
other: and the citizens of each have scarcely any common
interest. A Central American federation, however, was an
imposing idea, and the people clung to it with great
pertinacity. The first effort for federation was made under
the direction of General Filisola. All the Intendancies
combined in one sovereign state; first under the name of the
'United Provinces,' afterwards (November 22, 1823) under that
of the 'Federal Republic' of Central America. ... A
constitution of the most liberal kind was voted. This
constitution is remarkable for having been the first which
abolished slavery at once and absolutely and declared the
slave trade to be piracy. ... The clerical and oligarchic
party set their faces stubbornly against the execution of the
constitution, and began the revolt at Leon in Nicaragua. The
union broke down in 1826, and though Morazan [of Honduras]
reconstituted it in 1829, its history is a record of continual
rebellion and reaction on the part of the Guatemaltec
oligarchy. Of all South American conservative parties this
oligarchy was perhaps the most despicable. They sank to their
lowest when they raised the Spanish flag in 1832. But in doing
this they went too far. Morazan's successes date from this
time, and having beaten the Guatemaltecs, he transferred the
Federal government in 1834 to San Salvador. But the Federal
Republic of Central America dragged on a precarious existence
until 1838, when it was overthrown by the revolt of Carrera in
Guatemala. From the first the influence of the Federalists in
the capital began to decay, and it was soon apparent that they
had little power except in Honduras, San Salvador and
Nicaragua. The Costa Ricans, a thriving commercial community,
but of no great political importance, and separated by
mountainous wastes from all the rest, soon ceased to take any
part in public business. A second Federal Republic, excluding
Costa Rica, was agreed to in 1842; but it fared no better than
the first. The chief representative of the Federalist
principle in Central America was Morazan, of Honduras, from
whose government Carrera had revolted in 1838. On the failure
of the Federation Morazan had fled to Chile, and on his return
to Costa Rica he was shot at San José by the Carrerists. This
was a great blow to the Liberals, and it was not until 1847
that a third Federation, consisting of Honduras, San Salvador,
and Nicaragua, was organized. For some years Honduras, at the
head of these states, carried on a war against Guatemala to
compel it to join the union. Guatemala was far more than their
match: San Salvador and Nicaragua soon failed in the struggle,
and left Honduras to carry on the war alone. Under General
Carrera Guatemala completely defeated its rival; and to his
successes are due the revival of the Conservative or Clerical
party all over Central America. ... The government of each
state became weaker and weaker: revolutions were everywhere
frequent: and ultimately ... the whole country was near
falling into the hands of a North American adventurer [see
NICARAGUA: A. D. 1855-1860]. In former times the English
government had maintained some connection with the country
[originating with the buccaneers and made important by the
mahogany-cutting] through the independent Indians of the
Mosquito coast, over whom, for the purposes of their trade
with Jamaica, it had maintained a protectorate: and even a
small English commercial colony, called Greytown, had been
founded on this coast at the mouth of the river San Juan.
Towards the close of Carrera's ascendancy this coast was
resigned to Nicaragua, and the Bay Islands, which lie off the
coast, to Honduras: and England thus retained nothing in the
country but the old settlement of British Honduras, with its
capital, Belize. After Carrera's death in 1865, the Liberal
party began to reassert itself: and in 1871 there was a
Liberal revolution in Guatemala itself."
E. J. Payne, History of European Colonies, chapter 21.
ALSO IN:
H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States.
----------CENTRAL AMERICA: End----------
{404}
CENTRAL ASIA.
See ASIA, CENTRAL.
CENTRE, The.
See RIGHT, &c.
CENTREVILLE, Evacuation of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861-1862 (DECEMBER-MARCH: VIRGINIA).
CENTURIES, Roman.
See COMITIA CENTURIATA.
CENTURION.
The officer commanding one of the fifty-five centuries or
companies in a Roman legion of the empire.
See LEGION, ROMAN.
CENWULF, King of Mercia, A. D. 794-819.
CEORL.
See EORL, and ETHEL.
CEPEDA, Battle of(1859).
See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1819-1874.
CEPHISSUS, Battle of the (A. D. 1311).
See CATALAN GRAND COMPANY.
CERAMICUS OF ATHENS.
The Ceramicus was originally the most important of the
suburban districts of Athens and derived its name from the
potters. "It is probable that about the time of Pisistratus
the market of the ancient suburb called the Ceramicus (for
every Attic district possessed its own market) was constituted
the central market of the city. ... They [the Pisistratidæ]
connected Athens in all directions by roadways with the
country districts: these roads were accurately measured, and
all met on the Ceramicus, in the centre of which an altar was
erected to the Twelve Gods. From this centre of town and
country were calculated the distances to the different country
districts, to the ports, and to the most important sanctuaries
of the common fatherland. ... [In the next century--in the age
of Pericles--the population had extended to the north and west
and] part of the ancient potters' district or Ceramicus had
long become a quarter of the city [the Inner Ceramicus]; the
other part remained suburb [the Outer Ceramicus]. Between the
two lay the double gate or Dipylum, the broadest and most
splendid gate of the city. ... Here the broad carriage-road
which, avoiding all heights, ascended from the market-place of
Hippodamus directly to the city-market of the Ceramicus,
entered the city; from here straight to the west led the road
to Eleusis, the sacred course of the festive processions. ...
From this road again, immediately outside the gate, branched
off that which led to the Academy. ... The high roads in the
vicinity of the city gates were everywhere bordered with
numerous and handsome sepulchral monuments, in particular the
road leading through the outer Ceramicus. Here lay the public
burial-ground for the citizens who had fallen in war; the vast
space was divided into fields, corresponding to the different
battle-fields at home and abroad."
E. Curtius, History of Greece,
book 2, chapter 2, and book 3, chapter 3.
ALSO IN:
W. M. Leake, Topography of Athens, section 3.
CERESTES, OR KERESTES, Battle of (1596).
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1595-1606.
CERIGNOLA, Battle of (1503).
See ITALY: A. D. 1501-1504.
CERISOLES, Battle of (1544).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547.
CERONES, The.
See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.
CERRO GORDO, Battle of.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1847 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
CESS.
A word, corrupted from "assess," signifying a rate, or tax;
used especially in Scotland, and applied more particularly to
a tax imposed in 1678, for the maintenance of troops, during
the persecution of the Covenanters.
J. H. Thompson, A Cloud of Witnesses, page 67.
The Imp. Diet.
CEUTA, A. D. 1415.
Siege and capture by the Portuguese.
See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1415-1460.
CEUTA: A. D. 1668.
Ceded to Spain.
See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1637-1668.
----------CEUTA: End----------
CÉVENNES,
The prophets of the (or the Cévenol prophets).
The Camisards.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1702-1710.
CEYLON,
3d Century B. C.
Conversion to Buddhism.
See INDIA: B. C. 312-.
CEYLON: A. D. 1802.
Permanent acquisition by England.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1802.
----------CEYLON: End----------
CHACABUCO, Battle of (1817).
See CHILE: A. D. 1810-1818.
CHACO, The Gran.
See GRAN CHACO.
CHÆRONEA, Battles of (B. C. 338).
See GREECE: B. C. 357-336.
CHÆRONEA:(B. C. 86).
See MITHRIDATIC WARS.
CHAGAN.
See KUAN.
CHA'HTAS, OR CHOCTAWS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY.
CHALCEDON.
An ancient Greek city, founded by the Megarians on the Asiatic
side of the Bosphorus, nearly opposite to Byzantium, like
which city it suffered in early times many changes of masters.
It was bequeathed to the Romans by the last king of Bithynia.
CHALCEDON: A. D. 258.
Capture by the Goths.
See GOTHS: A. D. 258-267.
CHALCEDON: A. D. 616-625.
The Persians in possession.
See PERSIA: A. D. 226-627.
----------CHALCEDON: End----------
CHALCEDON, The Council of (A. D. 451).
See NESTORIAN AND MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY.
CHALCIS AND ERETRIA.
"The most dangerous rivals of Ionia were the towns of Eubœa,
among which, in the first instance, Cyme, situated in an
excellent bay of the east coast, in a district abounding in
wine, and afterwards the two sister-towns on the Euripus,
Chalcis and Eretria, distinguished themselves by larger
measures of colonization. While Eretria, the 'city of rowers,'
rose to prosperity especially by means of purple-fisheries and
a ferry-navigation conducted on a constantly increasing scale,
Chalcis, the 'bronze city,' on the double sea of the Bœotian
sound, contrived to raise and employ for herself the most
important of the many treasures of the island--its copper. ...
Chalcis became the Greek centre of this branch of industry; it
became the Greek Sidon. Next to Cyprus there were no richer
stores of copper in the Greek world than on Eubœa, and in
Chalcis were the first copper-works and smithies known in
European Greece."
E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 2, chapter 3.
The Chalcidians were enterprising colonists, particularly in
Thrace, in the Macedonian peninsula, where they are said to
have founded thirty-two towns, which were collectively called
the Chalcidice, and in southern Italy and Sicily. It was the
abundant wealth of Thrace in metallic ores which drew the
Chalcidians to it. About 700 B. C. a border feud between
Chalcis and Eretria, concerning certain "Lelantian fields"
which lay between them, grew to such proportions and so many
other states came to take part in it, that, "according to
Thucydides no war of more universal importance for the whole
nation was fought between the fall of Troja and the Persian
war."
E. Curtius, History of Greece, volume 1, book 2, chapter 1.
Chalcis was subdued by the Athenians in B. C. 506.
See ATHENS: B. C. 509-506;
also KLERUCHS, and EUBŒA.
{405}
CHALCUS.
See TALENT.
CHALDEA.--CHALDEES.
See BABYLONIA.
CHALDEAN CHURCH.
See NESTORIANS.
CHALDIRAN, Battle of (1514).
See TURKS: A. D. 1481-1520.
CHALGROVE FIELD, Fall of Hampden at.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
CHALONS, Battles at (A. D. 271).
Among the many pretenders to the Roman imperial throne--"the
thirty tyrants," as they were called--of the distracted reign
of Gallienus, was Tetricus, who had been governor of
Aquitaine. The dangerous honor was forced upon him, by a
demoralized army, and he reigned against his will for several
years over Gaul, Spain and Britain. At length, when the
iron-handed Aurelian had taken the reins of government at
Rome, Tetricus secretly plotted with him for deliverance from
his own uncoveted greatness. Aurelian invaded Gaul and
Tetricus led an army against him, only to betray it, in a
great battle at Chalons (271), where the rebels were cut to
pieces.
E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 11.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717
CHALONS: A. D. 366.
See ALEMANNI, INVASION OF GAUL BY THE.
CHALONS: A. D. 451.
See HUNS: A. D. 451, ATTILA'S INVASION OF GAUL.
----------CHALONS: End----------
CHALYBES, The.
The Chalybes, or Chalybians, were an ancient people in Asia
Minor, on the coast of the Euxine, probably east of the Halys,
who were noted as workers of iron.
E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geog., chapter 22, note A.
CHAMAVI, The.
See BRUCTERI;
also, FRANKS;
also, GAUL: A. D. 355-361.
CHAMBERS OF REANNEXATON, French.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1679-1681.
CHAMBERSBURG, Burning of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (JULY:
VIRGINIA-MARYLAND).
CHAMPAGNE:
Origin of the county.
In the middle years of the revolt that dethroned the
Carlovingians and raised the Capetians to a throne which they
made the throne of a kingdom of France, Count Herbert of
Vermandois allied himself with the party of the latter, and
began operations for the expanding of his domain. "The
Champaign of Rheims, the 'Campania Remensis'--a most
appropriate descriptive denomination of the region--an
extension of the plains of Flanders--but not yet employed
politically as designating a province--was protected against
Count Herbert on the Vermandois border by the Castrum
Theodorici--Château Thierry. ... Herbert's profuse promises
induced the commander to betray his duty. ... Herbert, through
this occupation of Château Thierry, obtained the city of
Troyes and all the 'Campania Remensis,' which, under his
potent sway, was speedily developed into the magnificent
County of Champagne. Herbert and his lineage held Champagne
during three generations, until some time after the accession
of the Capets, when the Grand Fief passed from the House of
Vermandois to the House of Blois."
Sir F. Palgrave, History of Normandy and England,
volume 2, page 192.
CHAMPEAUBERT, Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).
CHAMPIGNY, Sortie of(1870).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1870-1871.
CHAMPION'S HILL, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (APRIL-JULY: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).
CHAMPLAIN, Samuel.
Explorations and Colonizations.
See CANADA (NEW FRANCE): A. D. 1603-1605; 1608-1611;
and 1611-1616.
CHAMPLAIN, Lake: A. D. 1776.
Arnold's naval battle with Carleton.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1777.
CHAMPLAIN, Lake: A. D. 1814.
Macdonough's naval victory.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (SEPTEMBER).
----------CHAMPLAIN, End----------
CHAMPS DE MARS.--CHAMPS DE MAI.
When the Merovingian kings of the Franks summoned their
captains to gather for the planning and preparing of
campaigns, the assemblies were called at first the Champs de
Mars, because the meeting was in earliest spring--in March.
"But as the Franks, from serving on foot, became cavaliers
under the second [the Carlovingian] race, the time was changed
to May, for the sake of forage, and the assemblies were called
Champs de Mai."
E. E. Crowe, History of France, chapter 1.
See, also, MALLUM,
and PARLIAMENT OF PARIS.
CHANCAS, The.
See PERU: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
CHANCELLOR, The.
"The name [of the Chancellor], derived probably from the
cancelli or screen behind which the secretarial work of the
royal household was carried on, claims a considerable
antiquity; and the offices which it denotes are various in
proportion. The chancellor of the Karolingian sovereigns,
succeeding to the place of the more ancient referendarius, is
simply the royal notary; the archi-cancellarius is the chief
of a large body of such officers associated under the name of
the chancery, and is the keeper of the royal seal. It is from
this minister that the English chancellor derives his name and
function. Edward the Confessor, the first of our sovereigns
who had a seal, is also the first who had a chancellor; from
the reign of the Conqueror the office has descended in regular
succession. It seems to have been to a comparatively late
period, generally if not always, at least in England, held by
an ecclesiastic who was a member of the royal household and on
a footing with the great dignitaries. The chancellor was the
most dignified of the royal chaplains, if not the head of that
body. The whole secretarial work of the household and court
fell on the chancellor and the chaplains. ... The chancellor
was, in a manner, the secretary of state for all departments."
William Stubbs, Constitutional History of England,
chapter 11, section 121.
{406}
"In the reign of Edward I. we begin to perceive signs of the
rise of the extraordinary or equitable jurisdiction of the
Chancellor. The numerous petitions addressed to the King and
his Council, seeking the interposition of the royal grace and
favour either to mitigate the harshness of the Common Law or
supply its deficiencies, had been in the special care of the
Chancellor, who examined and reported upon them to the King.
... At length, in 1348, by a writ or ordinance of the 22d year
of Edward III. all such matters as were 'of Grace' were
directed to be dispatched by the Chancellor or by the Keeper
of the Privy Seal. This was a great step in the recognition of
the equitable jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, as
distinct from the legal jurisdiction of the Chancellor and of
the Courts of Common Law; although it was not until the
following reign that it can be said to have been permanently
established."
T. P. Taswell-Langmead, English Constitutional History,
pages 173-174.
"The Lord Chancellor is a Privy Councillor by his office; a
Cabinet Minister; and, according to Lord Chancellor Ellesmere,
prolocutor [chairman, or Speaker] of the House of Lords by
prescription."
A. C. Ewald, The Crown and its Advisers, lecture 2.
ALSO IN:
E. Fischel, The English Constitution, book 5, chapter 7.
CHANCELLOR'S ROLLS.
See EXCHEQUER.--EXCHEQUER ROLLS.
CHANCELLORSVILLE, Battles of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (APRIL-MAY: VIRGINIA).
CHANCERY.
See CHANCELLOR.
CHANDRAGUPTA, OR CANDRAGUPTA, The empire of.
See INDIA: B. C. 327-312, and 312.
CHANEERS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.
CHANTILLY, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(AUGUST-SEPTEMBER: VIRGINIA).
CHANTRY PRIESTS.
"With the more wealthy and devout [in the 14th, 15th and 16th
centuries] it was the practice to erect little chapels, which
were either added to churches or enclosed by screens within
them, where chantry priests might celebrate mass for the good
of their souls in perpetuity. ... Large sums of money were ...
devoted to the maintenance of chantry priests, whose duty it
was to say mass for the repose of the testator's soul. ... The
character and conduct of the chantry priests must have become
somewhat of a lax order in the 16th century."
R. R. Sharpe, Introduction to "Calendar of Wills in
the Court of Husting, London," volume 2, page viii.
CHAOUANONS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SHAWANESE.
CHAPAS, OR CHAPANECS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ZAPOTECS, &c.
CHAPULTEPEC, Battle of.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1847 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
CHARCAS, Las.
The Spanish province which now forms the Republic of Bolivia.
Also called, formerly, Upper Peru, and sometimes the province
of Potosi.
See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1580-1777;
and BOLIVIA: A. D. 1825-1826.
CHARIBERT I.,
King of Aquitaine, A. D. 561-567.
Charibert II., King of Aquitaine, A. D. 628-631.
CHARITON RIVER, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A.. D. 1862
(JULY-SEPTEMBER: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).
CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE.
See
FRANKS (CARLOVINGIAN EMPIRE): A. D. 768-814;
ROMAN EMPIRE: A. D. 800;
LOMBARDS: A. D. 754-774;
SAXONS: A. D. 772-804;
AVARS: 791-805;
and SPAIN: A. D. 778.
CHARLEMAGNE'S SCHOOL OF THE PALACE.
See SCHOOL OF THE PALACE.
CHARLEROI: A. D. 1667.
Taken by the French.
See NETHERLANDS (THE SPANISH PROVINCES): A. D. 1667.
CHARLEROI: A. D. 1668.
Ceded to France.
See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A.. D. 1668.
CHARLEROI: A. D. 1679.
Restored to Spain.
See NIMEGUEN, THE PEACE OF.
CHARLEROI: A. D. 1693.
Siege and capture by the French.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1693 (JULY).
CHARLEROI: A. D. 1697.
Restored to Spain.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1697.
CHARLEROI: A. D. 1713.
Ceded to Holland.
See UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.
CHARLEROI: A. D. 1746-1748.
Taken by French and ceded to Austria.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1746-1747,
and AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, THE CONGRESS.
----------CHARLEROI: End----------
CHARLES
(called The Great--Charlemagne),
King of Neustria, A. D. 768;
of all the Franks, A. D. 771;
of Franks and Lombardy, 774;
Emperor of the West, 800-814.
Charles of Austria, Archduke, Campaigns of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER);
1796-1797 (OCTOBER-APRIL);
1797 (APRIL-MAY);
1798-1799 (AUGUST-APRIL);
1799 (AUGUST-DECEMBER);
also GERMANY: 1809 (JANUARY-.JUNE), (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
Charles of Bourbon,
King of Naples or the Two Sicilies, 1734-1759.
Charles
(called The Bold), Duke of Burgundy, 1467-1477.
Charles I.,
King of England, 1625-1649.
Trial and execution.
See ENGLAND: A. D.1649 (JANUARY).
Charles I. (of Anjou),
King of Naples and Sicily, 1266-1282;
King of Naples, 1282--1285.
Charles I.,
King of Portugal, 1889-.
Charles II. (called The Bald),
Emperor, and King of Italy, A. D. 875-877;
King of Neustria and Burgundy, 840-877.
Charles II.,
King of England, 1660-1685.
(By a loyal fiction, supposed to have
reigned from 1649, when his father was beheaded;
though the throne was in Cromwell's possession).
Charles II., King of Naples, 1285-1309.
Charles II., King of Navarre, 1349-1387.
Charles II., King of Spain, 1665-1700.
Charles III. (called The Fat),
Emperor, King of the East Franks (Germany),
and King of Italy, A. D. 881-888;
King of the West Franks (France), 884-888.
Charles III. (called The Simple),
King of France, A. D. 892-929.
Charles III., King of Naples, 1381-1386.
Charles III., King of Navarre, 1387-1425.
Charles III., King of Spain, 1759-1788.
Charles IV.,
Emperor, and King of Italy, 1355-1378;
King of Bohemia, 1346-1378;
King of Germany, 1347-1378;
King of Burgundy, 1365-1378.
Charles IV.,
King of France, and of Navarre (Charles I.),1322--1328.
Charles IV., King of Spain, 1788-1808.
Charles V.,
Emperor, 1519-1558;
Duke of Burgundy, 1506-1555;
King of Spain (as Charles I.) and of Naples,
or the Two Sicilies, 1516-1556.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1496-1526.
Charles V. (called The Wise), King of France, 1364-1380.
Charles VI.,
Germanic Emperor, and King of Hungary and Bohemia, 1711-1740.
Charles VI. (called The Well-loved), King of France, 1380-1422.
Charles VII. (of Bavaria) Germanic Emperor, 1742-1745.
Charles VII., King of France, 1422-1461.
{407}
Charles VIII., King of France, 1483-1498.
Charles IX., King of France, 1560-1574.
Charles IX., King of Sweden, 1604-1611.
Charles X., King of France
(the last of the House of Bourbon), 1824-1830.
Charles X., King of Sweden, 1654-1660.
Charles XI., King of Sweden, 1660-1697.
Charles XII., King of Sweden, 1697-1718.
Charles XIII., King of Sweden, 1809-1818.
Charles XIV. (Bernadotte), King of Sweden, 1818-1844.
Charles XV., King of Sweden, 1859-1872.
Charles Albert, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia, 1831-1849.
Charles Emanuel, Duke of Savoy, 1580-1630.
Charles Emanuel II., Duke of Savoy, 1638-1675.
Charles Emanuel III., Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia, 1730-1773.
Charles Emanuel IV.,
Duke of Savoy
and King of Sardinia, 1796-1802.
Charles Felix,
Duke of Savoy
and King of Sardinia, 1821-1831.
Charles Martel,
Duke of Austrasia and Mayor of the Palace (of the King of the
Franks), A. D. 715-741.
Charles Robert, or Charobert, or Caribert,
King of Hungary, 1308-1342.
Charles Swerkerson,
King of Sweden, 1161-1167.
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1680.
The founding of the city.
See SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1670-1696.
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1706.
Unsuccessful attack by the French.
See SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1701-1706.
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1775-1776.
Revolutionary proceedings.
See SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1775 and 1776.
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1776.
Sir Henry Clinton's attack and repulse.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (JUNE).
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1780.
Siege by the British.
Surrender of the city.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (FEBRUARY-AUGUST).
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1860.
The splitting of the National Democratic Convention.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1860.
The adoption of the Ordinance of Secession.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860
(NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1860.
Major Anderson at Fort Sumter.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (DECEMBER).
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1861 (April).
The Beginning of war.
Bombardment of Fort Sumter.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (MARCH-APRIL).
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1863 (April).
The attack and repulse of the Monitor fleet.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (APRIL: SOUTH
CAROLINA).
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1863 (July).
The Union troops on Morris Island.
Assault on Fort Wagner.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (JULY: SOUTH CAROLINA).
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1863 (August-December).
Siege of Fort Wagner.
Bombardment of the city.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-DECEMBER: SOUTH CAROLINA).
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1865 (February).
Evacuation by the Confederates.
Occupation by Federal troops.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (FEBRUARY: SOUTH CAROLINA).
----------CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: End----------
CHARLESTOWN, Massachusetts: A. D. 1623.
The first settlement.
See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1629-1630.
CHARTER OAK, The.
See CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1685-1687.
CHARTER OF FORESTS.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1216-1274.
CHARTERHOUSE, OR CHARTREUSE.
See CARTHUSIAN ORDER.
CHARTISTS.--CHARTISM.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1838-1842 and 1848.
CHARTRES, Defeat of the Normans at.
The Norman, Rollo, investing the city of Chartres, sustained
there, on the 20th of July, A. D. 911, the most serious
defeat which he and his pirates ever suffered.
Sir F. Palgrave, History of Normandy and England,
book 1, chapter 5.
CHARTREUSE, La Grande.
See CARTHUSIAN ORDER.
CHASIDIM, OR CHASIDEES, OR ASSIDEANS, The.
A name, signifying the godly or pious, assumed by a party
among the Jews, in the second century B. C., who resisted the
Grecianizing tendencies of the time under the influence of the
Græco-Syrian domination, and who were the nucleus of the
Maccabean revolt. The later school of the Pharisees is
represented by Ewald (

History of Israel, book 5, section
2) to have been the product of a narrowing transformation
of the school of the Chasidim; while the Essenes, in his view,
were a purer residue of the Chasidim "who strove after piety,
yet would not join the Pharisees"; who abandoned "society as
worldly and incurably corrupt," and in whom "the conscience of
the nation, as it were, withdrew into the wilderness."
H. Ewald, History of Israel, book 5, section 2.
A modern sect, borrowing the name, founded by one Israel Baal
Schem, who first appeared in Podolia, in 1740, is said to
embrace most of the Jews in Galicia, Hungary, Southern Russia,
and Wallachia.
H. C. Adams, History of the Jews, page 333.
ALSO IN:
H. Graetz, History of the Jews, volume 5, chapter 9.
CHASUARII, The.
See FRANKS: ORIGIN, ETC.
CHÂTEAU CAMBRESIS, Treaty of (1559):
See FRANCE: A. D. 1547-1559.
CHÂTEAU GALLAIRD.
This was the name given to a famous castle, built by Richard
Cœur de Lion in Normandy, and designed to be the key to the
defences of that important duchy. "As a monument of warlike
skill, his 'Saucy Castle,' Château Gaillard, stands first
among the fortresses of the Middle Ages. Richard fixed its
site where the Seine bends suddenly at Gaillon in a great
semicircle to the north, and where the Valley of Les Andèlys
breaks the line of the chalk cliffs along its bank. The castle
formed part of an intrenched camp which Richard designed to
cover his Norman capital. . . . The easy reduction of Normandy
on the fall of Chateau Gaillard at a later time [when it was
taken by Philip Augustus, of France] proved Richard's
foresight."
J. R. Green, Short History
of the English People, chapter 2, section 9.
CHATEAU THIERRY, Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).
CHATEAUVIEUX, Fête to the soldiers of.
See LIBERTY CAP.
CHATHAM, Lord; Administration of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1757-1760; 1760-1763, and 1765-1768.
And the American Revolution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (JANUARY-MARCH).
CHATILLON, Battles of (1793).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY-DECEMBER).
CHATILLON-SUR-SEINE,
Congress of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).
{408}
CHATTANOOGA:
The name.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER: TENNESSEE).
CHATTANOOGA: A. D. 1862.
Secured by the Confederates.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (JUNE-OCTOBER: TENNESSEE-KENTUCKY).
CHATTANOOGA: A. D. 1863 (August).
Evacuation by the Confederates.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER: TENNESSEE).
CHATTANOOGA: A. D. 1863 (October-November).
The siege.
The battle on Lookout Mountain.
The assault of Missionary Ridge.
The Routing of Bragg's army.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER: TENNESSEE).
----------CHATTANOOGA: End----------
CHATTI, OR CATTI, The.
"Beyond [the Mattiaci] are the Chatti, whose settlements begin
at the Hercynian forest, where the country is not so open and
marshy as in the other cantons into which Germany stretches.
They are found where there are hills, and with them grow less
frequent, for the Hercynian forest keeps close till it has
seen the last of its native Chatti. Hardy frames, close-knit
limbs, fierce countenances, and a peculiarly vigorous courage,
mark the tribe. For Germans, they have much intelligence and
sagacity. ... Other tribes you see going to battle, the Chatti
to a campaign."
"The settlements of the Chatti, one of the chief German
tribes, apparently coincide with portions of Westphalia,
Nassau, Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Cassel. Dr. Latham assumes
the Chatti of Tacitus to be the Suevi of Cæsar. The fact that
the name Chatti does not occur in Cæsar renders this
hypothesis by no means improbable."
Tacitus, Germany, translated by Church and Brodribb,
and note.
See, also, SUEVI.
CHAUCER, and his times.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1350-1400.
CHAUCI AND CHERUSCI, The.
"The tribe of the Chauci ... beginning at the Frisian
settlements and occupying a part of the coast, stretches along
the frontier of all the tribes which I have enumerated, till
it reaches with a bend as far as the Chatti. This vast extent
of country is not merely possessed but densely peopled by the
Chauci, the noblest of the German races, a nation who would
maintain their greatness by righteous dealing. Without
ambition, without lawless violence, ... the crowning proof of
their valour and their strength is, that they keep up their
superiority without harm to others. ... Dwelling on one side
of the Chauci and Chatti, the Cherusci long cherished,
unassailed, an excessive and enervating love of peace. This
was more pleasant than safe, ... and so the Cherusci, ever
reputed good and just, are now called cowards and fools, while
in the case of the victorious Chatti success has been
identified with prudence. The downfall of the Cherusci brought
with it also that of the Fosi, a neighbouring tribe."
"The settlements of the Chauci ... must have included almost
the entire country between the Ems and the Weser--that is,
Oldenburg and part of Hanover--and have taken in portions of
Westphalia about Munster and Paderborn. The Cherusci ...
appear to have occupied Brunswick and the south part of
Hanover. Arminius who destroyed the Roman army under Varus,
was a Cheruscan chief. ... The Fosi ... must have occupied
part of Hanover."
Tacitus, Minor Works, trans. by Church and Brodribb: The
Germany, with Geographical notes.
Bishop Stubbs conjectures that the Chauci, Cherusci, and some
other tribes may have been afterwards comprehended under the
general name "Saxon."
See SAXONS.
CHAZARS, The.
See KHAZARS.
CHEAT SUMMIT, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (AUGUST-DECEMBER: WEST VIRGINIA).
CHEBUCTO.
The original name of the harbor chosen for the site of the
city of Halifax.
See NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1749-1755, and
HALIFAX: A. D. 1749.
CHEIROTONIA.
A vote by show of hands, among the ancient Greeks.
G. F. Schömann, Antiquity of Greece: The State,
part 3, chapter 3.
CHEMI.
See EGYPT: ITS NAMES.
CHEMNITZ, Battle of (1639).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1634-1639.
CHERBOURG.
Destroyed by the English.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1758 (JULY-AUGUST).
CHEROKEE WAR, The.
See SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1759-1761.
CHEROKEES, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CHEROKEES.
CHERRONESUS, The proposed State of.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1784.
CHERRY VALLEY, The massacre at.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (JUNE-NOVEMBER)
CHERSON.
See BOSPHORUS: A. D. 565-574.
CHERSON: A. D. 988.
Taken by the Russians.
"A thousand years after the rest of the Greek nation was sunk
in irremediable slavery, Cherson remained free. Such a
phenomenon as the existence of manly feeling in one city, when
mankind everywhere else slept contented in a state of
political degradation, deserved attentive consideration. ...
Cherson retained its position as an independent State until
the reign of Theophilus [Byzantine emperor A. D. 829-842], who
compelled it to receive a governor from Constantinople; but,
even under the Byzantine government, it continued to defend
its municipal institutions, and, instead of slavishly
soliciting the imperial favour, and adopting Byzantine
manners, it boasted of its constitution and self government.
But it gradually lost its former wealth and extensive trade,
and when Vladimir, the sovereign of Russia, attacked it in
988, it was betrayed into his hands by a priest, who informed
him how to cut off the water. ... Vladimir obtained the hand
of Anne, the sister of the emperors Basil II. and Constantine
VIII., and was baptised and married in the church of the
Panaghia at Cherson. To soothe the vanity of the Empire, he
pretended to retain possession of his conquest as the dowry of
his wife. Many of the priests who converted the Russians to
Christianity, and many of the artists who adorned the earliest
Russian churches with paintings and mosaics, were natives of
Cherson."
G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire from 716 to
1057.
CHERSONESE, The Golden.
See CHRYSE.
CHERSONESUS.
The Greek name for a peninsula, or "land-island," applied most
especially to the long tongue of land between the Hellespont
and the Gulf of Melas.
CHERUSCI, The.
See CHAUCI.
{409}
CHESAPEAKE AND SHANNON, The fight of the.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A.D. 1812-1813.
CHESS, Origin of the game of.
"If we wished to know, for instance, who has taught us the
game of chess, the name of chess would tell us better than
anything else that it came to the West from Persia. In spite
of all that has been written to the contrary, chess was
originally the game of Kings, the game of Shahs. This word
Shah became in Old French eschac, Italian scacco, German
Schach; while the Old French eschecs was further corrupted
into chess. The more original form chec has likewise been
preserved, though we little think of it when we draw a cheque,
or when we suffer a check, or when we speak of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer. The great object of the chess-player is to
protect the king, and when the king is in danger, the opponent
is obliged to say 'check,' i. e., Shah, the king. ... After
this the various meanings of check, cheque, or exchequer
become easily intelligible, though it is quite true that if
similar changes of meaning, which in our case we can watch by
the light of history, had taken place in the dimness of
prehistoric ages, it would be difficult to convince the
sceptic that exchequer, or scaccarium, the name of the
chess-board was afterwards used for the checkered cloth on
which accounts were calculated by means of counters, and that
a checkered career was a life with many cross-lines."
F. Max Müller, Biog. of Words, chapter 4.
CHESTER, Origin of.
See DEVA.
CHESTER, The Palatine Earldom.
See PALATINE, THE ENGLISH COUNTIES;
also WALES, PRINCE OF.
CHESTER, Battle of.
One of the fiercest of the battles fought between the Welsh
and the Angles, A. D. 613. The latter were the victors.
CHEVY CHASE.
See OTTER BURN, BATTLE OF.
CHEYENNES, OR SHEYENNES, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.
CHIAPAS: Ruins of ancient civilization in.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MAYAS; and MEXICO, ANCIENT.
CHIARI, Battle Of(1701).
See ITALY (SAVOY AND PIEDMONT): A. D. 1701-1713.
CHIBCHAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CHIBCHAS.
CHICAGO: A. D. 1812.
Evacuation of the Fort Dearborn Post, and massacre of most of
the retreating garrison.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812 (JUNE-OCTOBER).
CHICAGO: A. D. 1860.
The Republican National Convention.
Nomination of Lincoln.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).
CHICAGO: A. D. 1871.
The great Fire.
"The greatest event in the history of Chicago was the Great
Fire, as it is termed, which broke out on the evening of Oct.
8, 1871. Chicago was at that time [except in the business
centre] a city of wood. For a long time prior to the evening
referred to there had been blowing a hot wind from the
southwest, which had dried everything to the inflammability of
tinder, and it was upon a mass of sun and wind-dried wooden
structures that the fire began its work. It is supposed to
have originated from the accidental upsetting of a kerosene
lamp in a cow barn [Mrs. O'Leary's] on De Koven Street, near
the corner of Jefferson, on the west side of the river. This
region was composed hugely of shanties, and the fire spread
rapidly, very soon crossing the river to the South Side, and
fastening on that portion of the city which contained nearly
all the leading business houses, and which was built up very
largely with stone and brick. But it seemed to enkindle as if
it were tinder. Some buildings were blown up with gunpowder,
which, in connection with the strong southwest gale, prevented
the extension of the flames to the south. The fire swept on
Monday steadily to the north, including everything from the
lake to the South Branch, and then crossed to the North Side,
and, taking in everything from the lake to the North Branch,
it burned northward for a distance of three miles, where it
died out at the city limits, when there was nothing more to
burn. In the midst of this broad area of devastation, on the
north side of Washington Square, between Clark Street and
Dearborn Avenue, the well-known Ogden house stands amid trees
of the ancient forest and surrounded by extensive grounds, the
solitary relic of that section of the city before the fiery
flood. The total area of the land burned over was 2,100 acres.
Nearly 20,000 buildings were consumed; 100,000 people were
rendered homeless; 200 lives were lost, and the grand total of
values destroyed is estimated at $200,000,000. Of this vast
sum, nearly one-half was covered by insurance, but under the
tremendous losses many of the insurance companies were forced
to the wall, and went into liquidation, and the victims of the
conflagration recovered only about one-fifth of their aggregate
losses. Among the buildings which were burned were the
court-house, custom-house and post office, chamber of
commerce, three railway depots, nine daily newspaper offices,
thirty-two hotels, ten theatres and halls, eight public
schools and some branch school buildings, forty-one churches,
five elevators, and all the national banks. If the Great Fire
was an event without parallel in its dimensions and the
magnitude of its dire results, the charity which followed it
was equally unrivalled in its extent. ... All the civilized
world appeared to instantly appreciate the calamity. Food,
clothing, supplies of every kind, money, messages of
affection, sympathy, etc., began pouring in at once in a
stream that appeared endless and bottomless. In all, the
amount contributed reached over $7,000,000. ... It was
believed by many that the fire had forever blotted out Chicago
from the list of great American cities, but the spirit of her
people was undaunted by calamity, and, encouraged by the
generous sympathy and help from all quarters, they set to work
at once to repair their almost ruined fortunes. ... Rebuilding
was at once commenced, and, within a year after the fire, more
than $40,000,000 were expended in improvements. The city came
up from its ruins far more palatial, splendid, strong and
imperishable than before. In one sense the fire was a benefit.
Its consequence was a class of structures far better, in every
essential respect, than before the conflagration. Fire-proof
buildings became the rule, the limits of wood were carefully
restricted, and the value of the reconstructed portion
immeasurably exceeded that of the city which had been
destroyed."
Marquis' Handbook of Chicago, page 22.
{410}
"Thousands of people on the North Side fled far out on the
prairie, but other thousands, less fortunate, were
hemmed in before they could reach the country, and were driven
to the Sands, a group of beach-hillocks fronting on Lake
Michigan. These had been covered with rescued merchandise and
furniture. The flames fell fiercely upon the heaps of goods,
and the miserable refugees were driven into the black waves,
where they stood neck-deep in chilling water, scourged by
sheets of sparks and blowing sand. A great number of horses
had been collected here, and they too dashed into the sea,
where scores of them were drowned. Toward evening the Mayor
sent a fleet of tow-boats which took off the fugitives at the
Sands. When the next day [Tuesday, October 10] dawned, the
prairie was covered with the calcined ruins of more than
17,000 buildings. ... This was the greatest and most
disastrous conflagration on record. The burning of Moscow, in
1812, caused a loss amounting to £30,000,000; but the loss at
Chicago was in excess of this amount. The Great Fire of
London, in 1006, devastated a tract of 430 acres, and
destroyed 13,000 buildings; but that of Chicago swept over
1,900 acres, and burned more than 17,000 buildings."
M. F. Sweetser, Chicago ("Cities of the World," volume 1).
The following is the statement of area burned over, and of
property destroyed, made by the Chicago Relief and Aid
Society, and which is probably authoritative: "The total area
burned over in the city, including streets, was 2,124 acres,
or nearly three and one-third square miles. This area
contained about 73 miles of streets, 18,000 buildings, and the
homes of 100,000 people."
A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago, volume 2, page 760.
ALSO IN:
E. Colbert and E. Chamberlain, Chicago and the Great
Conflagration.
CHICAGO: A. D. 1886-1887.
The Haymarket Conspiracy.
Crime of the Anarchists.
Their trial and execution.
"In February, 1886, Messrs. McCormick, large
agricultural-machine makers of Chicago, refusing to yield to
the dictation of their workmen, who required them to discharge
some non-Union hands they had taken on, announced a
'lock-out,' and prepared to resume business as soon as
possible with a new staff. Spies, Lingg, and other German
Anarchists saw their opportunity. They persuaded the ousted
workmen to prevent the 'scabs,'--anglicé, 'blacklegs,'--from
entering the works on the day of their reopening. Revolvers,
rifles, and bombs were readily found, the latter being
entrusted principally to the hands of professional 'Reds.' The
most violent appeals were made to the members of Unions and
the populace generally; but though a succession of riots were
got up, they were easily quelled by the resolute action of the
police, backed by the approval of the immense majority of the
people of Chicago. Finally, a mass meeting in arms was called
to take place on May 4th, 1886, at 7.30 p.m., in the
Haymarket, a long and recently widened street of the town, for
the express purpose of denouncing the police. But the
intention of the Anarchists was not merely to denounce the
police: this was the pretext only. The prisons were to be
forced, the police-stations blown up, the public buildings
attacked, and the onslaught on property and capital to be
inaugurated by the devastation of one of the fairest cities of
the Union. By 8 p. m. a mob of some three or four thousand
persons had been collected, and were regaled by speeches that
became more violent as the night wore on. At 10 p. m. the
police appeared in force. The crowd were commanded to disperse
peaceably. A voice shouted: 'We are peaceable.' Captain
Schaack says this was a signal. The words were hardly uttered
when a spark flashed through the air. It looked like the
lighted remnant of a cigar, but hissed like a miniature
sky-rocket.' It was a bomb, and fell amid the ranks of the
police. A terrific explosion followed, and immediately
afterwards the mob opened fire upon the police. The latter,
stunned for a moment, soon recovered themselves, returned the
fire, charged the mob, and in a couple of minutes dispersed it
in every direction. But eight of their comrades lay dead upon
the pavement, and scores of others were weltering in their
blood around the spot. Such was the Chicago outrage of May
4th, 1886."
The Spectator, April 19, 1890 (reviewing Shaack's "Anarchy
and Anarchists").
The Anarchists who were arrested and brought to trial for this
crime were eight in number,--August Spies, Michael Schwab,
Samuel Fielden, Albert H. Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George
Engel, Louis Lingg, and Oscar W. Neebe. The trial began July
14, 1886. The evidence closed on the 10th of August; the
argument of council consumed more than a week, and on the 20th
of August the jury brought in a verdict which condemned Neebe
to imprisonment for fifteen years, and all the other prisoners
to death. Lingg committed suicide in prison; the sentences of
Schwab and Fielding were commuted by the Governor to
imprisonment for life; the remaining four were hanged on the
11th of November, 1887.
Judge Gary, The Chicago Anarchists of 1886 (Century Mag.,
April, 1893).
ALSO IN:
M. T. Schaack, Anarchy and Anarchists.
CHICAGO: A. D. 1892-1893.
The World's Columbian Exposition.
"As a fitting mode of celebrating the four hundredth
anniversary of the landing of Columbus on Oct. 12, 1492, it
was proposed to have a universal exhibition in the United
States, The idea was first taken up by citizens of New York,
where subscriptions to the amount of $5,000,000 were obtained
from merchants and capitalists before application was made for
the sanction and support of the Federal Government. When the
matter came up in Congress the claims of Chicago were
considered superior, and a bill was passed and approved on
April 25, 1890, entitled 'An Act to provide for celebrating
the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by
Christopher Columbus, by holding an international exhibition
of arts, industries, manufactures, and the products of the
soil, mine, and sea in the city of Chicago, in the State of
Illinois.' The act provided for the appointment of
commissioners who should organize the exposition. ... When the
organization was completed and the stipulated financial
support from the citizens and municipality of Chicago assured,
President Harrison, on Dec. 24, 1890, issued a proclamation
inviting all the nations of the earth to participate in the
World's Columbian Exposition. Since the time was too short to
have the grounds and buildings completed for the summer of
1892, as was originally intended, the opening of the
exposition was announced for May, 1893. When the work was
fairly begun it was accelerated, as many as 10,000 workmen
being employed at one time, in order to have the buildings
ready to be dedicated with imposing ceremonies on Oct. 12.
1892. in commemoration of the exact date of the discovery of
America."
Appleton's Annual Cyclopædia, 1891, page 837.
SEE ALSO
C. D. Arnold and H. D. Higinbotham,
Official Views Of The World's Columbian Exposition
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22847
On May 1, 1893, the Fair was opened with appropriate
ceremonies by President Cleveland.
{411}
CHICASAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY;
also, LOUISIANA: A. D. 1719-1750.
CHICHIMECS, The.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1325-1502.
CHICKAHOMINY,
Battles on the (Gaines' Mill, 1862; Cold Harbor, 1864).
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JUNE-JULY: VIRGINIA);
and 1864 (MAY-JUNE: VIRGINIA).
CHICKAMAUGA, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER: TENNESSEE).
CHICORA.
The name given to the region of South Carolina by its Spanish
discoverers.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1519-1525.
CHILDEBERT I.
King of the Franks, at Paris, A. D. 511-558.
Childebert II., King of the Franks (Austrasia), A. D. 575-596;
(Burgundy), 593-596.
Childebert III., King of the Franks
(Neustria and Burgundy), A. D. 695-711.
CHILDERIC II.,
King of the Franks (Austrasia), A. D. 660-673.
Childeric III., King of the Franks (Neustria), A. D. 742-752.
CHILDREN OF REBECCA.
See REBECCAITES.
CHILDREN'S CRUSADE, The.
See CRUSADES: A. D. 1212.
CHILE:
The Araucanians.
"The land of Chili, from 30° Ssouth latitude, was and is still
in part occupied by several tribes who speak the same
language. They form the fourth and most southern group of the
Andes people, and are called Araucanians. Like almost all
American tribal names, the term Araucanian is indefinite;
sometimes it is restricted to a single band, and sometimes so
extended as to embrace a group of tribes. Some regard them as
a separate family, calling them Chilians, while others, whom
we follow, regard them as the southern members of the Andes
group, and still others class them with the Pampas Indians.
The name Araucanian is an improper one, introduced by the
Spaniards, but it is so firmly fixed that it cannot be
changed. The native names are Moluche (warriors) and Alapuche
(natives). Originally they extended from Coquimbo to the
Chonos Archipelago and from ocean to ocean, and even now they
extend, though not very far, to the east of the Cordilleras.
They are divided into four (or, if we include the Picunche,
five) tribes, the names of which all end in 'tche' or 'che,'
the word for man. Other minor divisions exist. The entire
number of the Araucanians is computed at about 30,000 souls,
but it is decreasing by sickness as well as by vice. They are
owners of their land and have cattle in abundance, pay no
taxes, and even their labor in the construction of highways is
only light. They are warlike, brave, and still enjoy some of
the blessings of the Inca civilization; only the real, western
Araucanians in Chili have attained to a sedentary life. Long
before the arrival of the Spaniards the government of the
Araucanians offered a striking resemblance to the military
aristocracy of the old world. All the rest that has been
written of their high stage of culture has proved to be an
empty picture of fancy. They followed agriculture, built fixed
houses, and made at least an attempt at a form of government,
but they still remain, as a whole, cruel, plundering savages."
The Standard Natural History (J. S. Kingsley, editor),
volume 6, pages 232-234.
"The Araucanians inhabit the delightful region between the
Andes and the sea, and between the rivers Bio-bio and
Valdivia. They derive the appellation of Araucanians from the
province of Arauco. .... The political division of the
Araucanian state is regulated with much intelligence. It is
divided from north to south into four governments. ... Each
government is divided into five provinces, and each province
into nine counties. The state consists of three orders of
nobility, each being subordinate to the other, and all having
their respective vassals. They are the Toquis, the
Apo-Ulmenes, and the Ulmenes. The Toquis, or governors, are
four in number. They are independent of each other, but
confederated for the public welfare. The Arch-Ulmenes govern
the provinces under their respective Toquis. The Ulmenes
govern the counties. The upper ranks, generally, are likewise
comprehended under the term Ulmenes."
R. G. Watson, Spanish and Portuguese South America,
volume 1, chapter 12.
ALSO IN:
J. I. Molina, Geographical, Natural and Civil History
of Chili, volume 2, book 2.
CHILE: A. D. 1450-1724.
The Spanish conquest.
The Araucanian War of Independence.
"In the year 1450 the Peruvian Inca, Yupanqui, desirous of
extending his dominions towards the south, stationed himself
with a powerful army at Atacama. Thence he dispatched a force
of 10,000 men to Chili, under the command of Chinchiruca, who,
overcoming almost incredible obstacles, marched through a
sandy desert as far as Copiapo, a distance of 80 leagues. The
Copiapins flew to arms, and prepared to resist this invasion.
But Chinchiruca, true to the policy which the Incas always
observed, stood upon the defensive, trusting to persuasion
rather than to force for the accomplishment of his designs.
... While he proffered peace, he warned them of the
consequences of resisting the 'Children of the Sun.'" After
wavering for a time, the Copiapins submitted themselves to the
rule of the Incas. "The adjoining province of Coquimbo was
easily subjugated, and steadily advancing, the Peruvians, some
six years after their first entering the country, firmly
established themselves in the valley of Chili, at a distance
of more than 200 leagues from the frontier of Atacama. The
'Children of the Sun' had met thus far with little resistance,
and, encouraged by success, they marched their victorious
armies against the Purumancians, a warlike people living
beyond the river Rapel." Here they were desperately resisted,
in a battle which lasted three days, and from which both
armies withdrew, undefeated and unvictorious. On learning this
result, the Inca Yupanqui ordered his generals to relinquish
all attempts at further conquest, and to "seek, by the
introduction of wise laws, and by instructing the people in
agriculture and the arts, to establish themselves more firmly
in the territory already acquired. To what extent the
Peruvians were successful in the endeavor to ingraft their
civilization, religion, and customs upon the Chilians, it is
at this distant day impossible to determine, since the
earliest historians differ widely on the subject.
{412}
Certain it is, that on the arrival of the Spaniards the Incas,
at least nominally, ruled the country, and received an annual
tribute of gold from the people. In the year 1535, after the
death of the unfortunate Inca Atahuallpa, Diego Almagro, fired
by the love of glory and the thirst for gold, yielded to the
solicitations of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, and
set out for the subjection of Chili, which, as yet, had not
been visited by any European. His army consisted of 570
Spaniards, well equipped, and 15,000 Peruvian auxiliaries.
Regardless of difficulties and dangers this impetuous soldier
selected the near route that lay along the summits of the
Andes, in preference to the more circuitous road passing
through the desert of Atacama. Upon the horrors of this march,
of which so thrilling an account is given by Prescott in the
'Conquest of Peru,' it is unnecessary for us to dwell; suffice
it to state that, on reaching Copiapo no less than one-fourth
of his Spanish troops, and two-thirds of his Indian
auxiliaries, had perished from the effects of cold, fatigue
and starvation. ... Everywhere the Spaniards met with a
friendly reception from the natives, who regarded them as a
superior race of beings, and the after conquest of the country
would probably have been attended with no difficulty had a
conciliatory policy been adopted; but this naturally
inoffensive people, aroused by acts of the most barbarous
cruelty, soon flew to arms. Despite the opposition of the
natives, who were now rising in every direction to oppose his
march, Almagro kept on, overcoming every obstacle, until he
reached the river Cachapoal, the northern boundary of the
Purumancian territory." Here he met with so stubborn and
effective a resistance that he abandoned his expedition and
returned to Peru, where, soon after, he lost his life [see
PERU: A. D. 1533-1548] in a contest with the Pizarros.
"Pizarro, ever desirous of conquering Chili, in 1540
dispatched Pedro Valdivia for that purpose, with some 200
Spanish soldiers and a large body of Peruvians;" The invasion
of Valdivia was opposed from the moment he entered the
country; but he pushed on until he reached the river Mapoclio,
and "encamped upon the site of the present capital of Chili.
Valdivia, finding the location pleasant, and the surrounding
plain fertile, here founded a city on the 24th of February,
1541. To this first European settlement in Chili he gave the
name of Santiago, in honor of the patron saint of Spain. He
laid out the town in Spanish style; and as a place of refuge
in case of attack, erected a fort upon a steep rocky hill,
rising some 200 feet above the plain." The Mapochins soon
attacked the infant town, drove its people to the fort and
burned their settlement; but were finally repulsed with
dreadful slaughter. "On the arrival of a second army from
Peru, Valdivia, whose ambition had always been to conquer the
southern provinces of Chili, advanced into the country of the
Purumancians. Here history is probably defective, as we have
no account of any battles fought with these brave people. ...
We simply learn that the Spanish leader eventually gained
their good-will, and established with them an alliance both
offensive and defensive. ... In the following year (1546) the
Spanish forces crossed the river Maulé, the southern boundary
of the Purumancians, and advanced toward the Itata. While
encamped near the latter river, they were attacked at dead of
night by a body of Araucanians. So unexpected was the approach
of this new enemy, that many of the horses were captured, and
the army with difficulty escaped total destruction. After this
terrible defeat, Valdivia finding himself unable to proceed,
returned to Santiago." Soon afterwards he went to Peru for
reinforcements and was absent two years; but came back, at the
end of that time, with a large band of followers, and marched
to the South. "Reaching the bay of Talcahuano without having
met with any opposition, on the 5th of October, 1550, he
founded the city of Concepcion on a site at present known as
Penco." The Araucanians, advancing boldly upon the Spaniards
at Concepcion, were defeated in a furious battle which cost
the invaders many lives. Three years later, in December, 1553,
the Araucanians had their revenge, routing the Spaniards
utterly and pursuing them so furiously that only two of their
whole army escaped. Valdivia was among the prisoners taken and
was slain. Again and again, under the lead of a youthful hero,
Lautaro, and a vigorous toqui, or chief, named Caupolican, the
Araucanians assailed the invaders of their country with
success; but the latter increased in numbers and gained
ground, at last, for a time, building towns and extending
settlements in the Araucanian territory. The indomitable
people were not broken in spirit, however; and in 1598, by an
universal and simultaneous rising, they expelled the Spaniards
from almost every settlement they had made. "In 1602 ... of
the numerous Spanish forts and settlements south of the
Bio-Bio, Nacimiento and Arauco only had not fallen. Valdivia
and Osorno were afterward rebuilt. About the same time a fort
was erected at Boroa. This fort was soon after abandoned.
Valdivia, Osorno, Nacimiento, and Arauco still remain. But of
all the 'cities of the plain' lying within the boundaries of
the haughty Araucanians, not one ever rose from its ashes;
their names exist only in history; and the sites where they
once flourished are now marked by ill-defined and grass-grown
ruins. From the period of their fall dates the independence of
the Araucanian nation; for though a hundred years more were
wasted in the vain attempt to reconquer the heroic people ...
the Spaniards, weary of constant war, and disheartened by the
loss of so much blood and treasure, were finally compelled to
sue for peace; and in 1724 a treaty was ratified,
acknowledging their freedom, and establishing the limits of
their territory."
E. H. Smith, The Araucanians, chapter 11-14.
ALSO IN:
R. G. Watson, Spanish and Portuguese S. Am.,
volume 1, chapter 12-14.
J. I. Molina; Geographical, Natural and Civil History of Chili,
volume 2, book 1, 3-4.
CHILE: A. D. 1568.
The Audiencia established.
See AUDIENCIAS.
{413}
CHILE: A. D. 1810-1818.
The achievement of independence.
San Martin, the Liberator.
"Chili first threw off the Spanish yoke in September, 1810 [on
the pretext of fidelity to the Bourbon king dethroned by
Napoleon], but the national independence was not fully
established till April 1818. During the intermediate period,
the dissensions of the different parties; their disputes as to
the form of government and the law of election; with other
distracting causes, arising out of the ambition of turbulent
individuals, and the inexperience of the whole nation in
political affairs; so materially retarded the union of the
country, that the Spaniards, by sending expeditions from Peru,
were enabled, in 1814, to regain their lost authority in
Chili. Meanwhile the Government of Buenos Ayres, the
independence of which had been established in 1810 [see
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1806-1820], naturally dreaded that
the Spaniards would not long be confined to the western side
of the Andes; but would speedily make a descent upon the
provinces of the River Plate, of which Buenos Ayres is the
capital. In order to guard against this formidable danger,
they bravely resolved themselves to become the invaders, and
by great exertions equipped an army of 4,000 men. The command
of this force was given to General Don José de San Martin, a
native of the town of Yapeyu in Paraguay; a man greatly
beloved by all ranks, and held in such high estimation by the
people, that to his personal exertions the formation of this
army is chiefly due. With these troops San Martin entered
Chili by a pass over the Andes heretofore deemed inaccessible,
and on the 12th of February, 1817, attacked and completely
defeated the royal army at Chacabuco. The Chilians, thus freed
from the immediate presence of the enemy, elected General
O'Higgins [see PERU: A. D. 1550-1816] as Director; and he, in
1818, offered the Chilians a constitution, and nominated five
senators to administer the affairs of the country. This
meritorious officer, an Irishman by descent, though born in
Chili, has ever since [1825] remained at the head of the
government. It was originally proposed to elect General San
Martin as Director; but this he steadily refused, proposing
his companion in arms, O'Higgins, in his stead. The remnant of
the Spanish army took refuge in Talcuhuana, a fortified
sea-port near Conception, on the southern frontier of Chili.
Vigorous measures were taken to reduce this place, but, in the
beginning of 1818, the Viceroy of Peru, by draining that
province of its best troops, sent off a body of 5,000 men
under General Osorio, who succeeded in joining the Spaniards
shut up in Talcuhuana. Thus reinforced, the Royal army,
amounting in all to 8,000, drove back the Chilians, marched on
the capital, and gained other considerable advantages;
particularly in a night attack at Talca, on the 19th of March
1818, where the Royalists almost entirely dispersed the
Patriot forces. San Martin, however, who, after the battle of
Chacabuco, had been named Commander-in-chief of the united
armies of Chili and Buenos Ayres," rallied his army and
equipped it anew so quickly that, "on the 5th of April, only
17 days after his defeat, he engaged, and, after an obstinate
and sanguinary conflict, completely routed the Spanish army on
the plains of Maypo. From that day Chili may date her complete
independence; for although a small portion of the Spanish
troops endeavoured to make a stand at Conception, they were
soon driven out and the country left in the free possession of
the Patriots. Having now time to breathe, the Chilian
Government, aided by that of Buenos Ayres, determined to
attack the Royalists in their turn, by sending an armament
against Peru [see PERU; A. D. 1820-1826]--a great and bold
measure, originating with San Martin."
Capt. B. Hall, Extracts from a Journal, volume 1, chapter 1.
ALSO IN:
J. Miller, Memoirs of General Miller, chapter 4-7 (volume 1).
T. Sutcliffe, Sixteen Years in Chili and Peru chapter 2-4.
Gen. B. Mitre, The Emancipation of S. America:
History of an Martin.
CHILE: A. D. 1820-1826.
Operations in Peru.
See PERU: A. D. 1820-1826.
CHILE: A. D. 1833-1884.
A successful oligarchy and its constitution.
The war with Peru and Bolivia.
"After the perfection of its national independence, the
Chilean government soon passed into the permanent control of
civilians, 'while the other governments of the west coast
remained prizes for military chieftains.' Its present
constitution was framed in 1833, and though it is only half a
century old 'it is the oldest written national constitution in
force in all the world except our own, unless the Magna Charta
of England be included in the category.' The political history
of Chile during the fifty years of its life has been that of a
well ordered commonwealth, but one of a most unusual and
interesting sort. Its government has never been forcibly
overthrown, and only one serious attempt at revolution has
been made. Chile is in name and in an important sense a
republic, and yet its government is an oligarchy. Suffrage is
restricted to those male citizens who are registered, who are
twenty-five years old if unmarried and twenty-one if married,
and who can read and write; and there is also a stringent
property qualification. The consequence is that the privilege
of voting is confined to an aristocracy: in 1876, the total
number of ballots thrown for president was only 46,114 in a
population of about two and a quarter millions. The president
of Chile has immense powers of nomination and appointment, and
when he is a man of vigorous will he tyrannically sways public
policy, and can almost always dictate the name of his
successor. The government has thus become practically vested
in a comparatively small number of leading Chilean families.
There is no such thing as 'public opinion' in the sense in
which we use the phrase, and the newspapers, though ably
conducted, do not attempt, as they do not desire, to change
the existing order of things. 'History,' says Mr. Browne,
'does not furnish an example of a more powerful political
"machine" under the title of republic; nor, I am bound to say,
one which has been more ably directed so far as concerns the
aggrandizement of the country, or more honestly administered
so far as concerns pecuniary corruption.' The population of
Chile doubled between 1843 and 1875; the quantity of land
brought under tillage was quadrupled; ... more than 1,000
miles of railroad were built; a foreign export trade of
$31,695,039 was reported in 1878; and two powerful iron-clads,
which were destined to playa most important part in Chilean
affairs, were built in England. Meanwhile, the constitution
was officially interpreted so as to guarantee religious
toleration, and the political power of the Roman Catholic
priesthood diminished. Almost everything good, except home
manufactures and popular education, flourished. The
development of the nation in these years was on a wonderful
scale for a South American state, and the contrast between
Chile and Peru was peculiarly striking. ... Early in 1879
began the great series of events which were to make the
fortune of Chile. We use the word 'great,' in its low,
superficial sense, and without the attribution of any moral
significance to the adjective.
{414}
The aggressor in the war between Chile and Peru was inspired
by the most purely selfish motives, and it remains to be seen
whether the just gods will not win in the long run, even
though the game of their antagonists be played with heavily
plated iron-clads. ... At the date last mentioned Chile was
suffering, like many other nations, from a general depression
in business pursuits. Its people were in no serious trouble,
but as a government it was in a bad way. ... The means to keep
up a sinking fund for the foreign debt had failed, and the
Chilean five per cents were quoted in London at sixty-four. 'A
political cloud also was darkening again in the north, in the
renewal of something like a confederation between Peru and
Bolivia.' In this state of things the governing oligarchy of
Chile decided, rather suddenly, Mr. Browne thinks, upon a
scheme which was sure to result either in splendid prosperity
or absolute ruin, and which contemplated nothing less than a
war of conquest against Peru and Bolivia, with a view to
seizing the most valuable territory of the former country.
There is a certain strip of land bordering upon the Pacific
and about 400 miles long, of which the northern three quarters
belonged to Peru and Bolivia, the remaining one quarter to
Chile. Upon this land a heavy rain never falls, and often
years pass in which the soil does not feel a shower. ... Its
money value is immense. 'From this region the world derives
almost its whole supply of nitrates--chiefly saltpetre--and
of iodine;' its mountains, also, are rich in metals, and great
deposits of guano are found in the highlands bordering the
sea. The nitrate-bearing country is a plain, from fifty to
eighty miles wide, the nitrate lying in layers just below a
thin sheet of impacted stones, gravel, and sand. The export of
saltpetre from this region was valued in 1882 at nearly
$30,000,000, and the worth of the Peruvian section, which is
much the largest and most productive, is estimated, for
government purposes, at a capital of $600,000,000. Chile was,
naturally, well aware of the wealth which lay so close to her
own doors, and to possess herself thereof, and thus to
rehabilitate her national fortunes, she addressed herself to
war. The occasion for war was easily found. Bolivia was first
attacked, a difficulty which arose at her port of Antofagasta,
with respect to her enforcement of a tax upon some nitrate
works carried on by a Chilean company, affording a good
pretext; and when Peru attempted intervention her envoy was
confronted with Chile's knowledge of a secret treaty between
Peru and Bolivia, and war was formally declared by Chile upon
Peru, April 5, 1879. This war lasted, with some breathing
spaces, for almost exactly five years. At the outset the two
belligerent powers--Bolivia being soon practically out of the
contest--seemed to be about equal in ships, soldiers, and
resources; but the supremacy which Chile soon gained upon the
seas substantially determined the war in her favor. Each
nation owned two powerful iron-clads, and six months were
employed in settling the question of naval superiority. ... On
the 21st of May, 1879, the Peruvian fleet attacked and almost
destroyed the Chilean wooden frigates which were blockading
Iquique; but in chasing a Chilean corvette the larger Peruvian
iron-clad--the Independencia--ran too near the shore, and was
fatally wrecked. 'So Peru lost one of her knights. The game
she played with the other--the Huascar--was admirable, but a
losing one;' and on the 8th of October of the same year the
Huascar was attacked by the Chilean fleet, which included two
iron-clads, and was finally captured' after a desperate
resistance.'... From this moment the Peruvian coast was at
Chile's mercy: the Chilean arms prevailed in every pitched
battle, at San Francisco [November 16, 1879], at Tacna [May
26, 1880], at Arica [June 7, 1880]; and finally, on the 17th
of January, 1881, after a series of actions which resembled in
some of their details the engagements that preceded our
capture of the city of Mexico [ending in what is known as the
Battle of Miraflores], the victorious army of Chile took
possession of Lima, the capital of Peru. ... The results of
the war have thus far exceeded the wildest hopes of Chile. She
has taken absolute possession of the whole nitrate region, has
cut Bolivia off from the sea, and achieved the permanent
dissolution of the Peru-Bolivian confederation. As a
consequence, her foreign trade has doubled, the revenue of her
government has been trebled, and the public debt greatly
reduced. The Chilean bonds, which were sold at 64 in London in
January, 1879, and fell to 60 in March of that year, at the
announcement of the war, were quoted at 95 in January, 1884."
The Growing Power of the Republic of Chile (Atlantic
Monthly, July, 1884).
ALSO IN:
H. Birkedal, The late War in South America (Overland Monthly,
January, February, and March, 1884).
C. R. Markham, The War between Peru and Chile.
R. N. Boyd, Chile, chapter 16-17.
Message of the President of the U. S., transmitting Papers
relating to the War in South America, January 26, 1882.
T. W. Knox, Decisive Battles since Waterloo; chapter 23.
See, also, PERU: A. D. 1826-1876.
CHILE: A. D. 1885-1891.
The presidency and dictatorship of Balmaceda.
His conflict with the Congress.
Civil war.
"Save in the one struggle in which the parties resorted to
arms, the political development of Chili was free from civil
disturbances, and the ruling class was distinguished among the
Spanish-American nations not only for wealth and education,
but for its talent for government and love of constitutional
liberty. The republic was called 'the England of South
America,' and it was a common boast that in Chili a
pronunciamiento or a revolution was impossible. The spirit of
modern Liberalism became more prevalent, ... As the Liberal
party became all-powerful it split into factions, divided by
questions of principle and by struggles for leadership and
office. ... The patronage of the Chilian President is
enormous, embracing not only the general civil service, but
local officials, except in the municipalities, and all
appointments in the army and navy and in the telegraph and
railroad services and the giving out of contracts. The
President has always been able to select his successor, and
has exercised this power, usually in harmony with the wishes
of influential statesmen, sometimes calling a conference of
party chiefs to decide on a candidate. In the course of time
the more advanced wing of the Liberals grew more numerous than
the Moderates. The most radical section had its nucleus in a
Reform Club in Santiago, composed of young university men, of
whom Balmaceda was the finest orator. Entering Congress in
1868, he took a leading part in debates. ...
{415}
In 1885 he was the most popular man in the country; but his
claim to the presidential succession was contested by various
other aspirants--older politicians and leaders of factions
striving for supremacy in Congress. He was elected by an
overwhelming majority, and as President enjoyed an unexampled
degree of popularity. For two or three years the politicians
who had been his party associates worked in harmony with his
ideas. ... At the flood of the democratic tide he was the most
popular man in South America. But when the old territorial
families saw the seats in Congress and the posts in the civil
service that had been their prerogative filled by new men, and
fortunes made by upstarts where all chances had been at their
disposal, then a reaction set in, corruption was scented, and
Moderate Liberals, joining hands with the Nationalists and the
reviving Conservative party, formed an opposition of
respectable strength. In the earlier part of his
administration Balmaceda had the co-operation of the
Nationalists, who were represented in the Cabinet. In the last
two years of his term, when the time drew near for selecting
his successor, defection and revolt and the rivalries of
aspirants for the succession threw the party into disorder and
angered its hitherto unquestioned leader. ... In January,
1890, the Opposition were strong enough to place their
candidate in the chair when the House of Representatives
organized. The ministry resigned, and a conflict between the
Executive and legislative branches of the Government was
openly begun when the President appointed a Cabinet of his own

selection. ... This ministry had to face an overwhelming
majority against the President, which treated him as a
dictator and began to pass hostile laws and resolutions that
were vetoed, and refused to consider the measures that he
recommended. The ministers were cited before the Chambers and
questioned about the manner of their appointment. They either
declined to answer, or answered in a way that increased the
animosity of Congress, which finally passed a vote of censure,
in obedience to which, as was usual, the Cabinet resigned.
Then Balmaceda appointed a ministry in open defiance of
Congress, with Sanfuentes at its head, the man who was already
spoken of as his selected candidate for the presidency. He
prepared for the struggle that he invited by removing the
chiefs of the administration of the departments and replacing
them with men devoted to himself and his policy, and making
changes in the police, the militia, and, to some extent, in
the army and navy commands. The press denounced him as a
dictator, and indignation meetings were held in every town.
Balmaceda and his supporters pretended to be not only the
champions of the people against the aristocracy, but of the
principle of Chili for the Chilians."
Appleton's Annual Cyclop., 1891, pages 123-124.
"The conflict between President Balmaceda and Congress ripened
into revolution. On January 1, 1891, the Opposition members of
the Senate and House of Deputies met, and signed an Act
declaring that the President was unworthy of his post, and
that he was no longer head of the State nor President of the
Republic, as he had violated the Constitution. On January 7
the navy declared in favour of the Legislature, and against
Balmaceda. The President denounced the navy as traitors,
abolished all the laws of the country, declared himself
Dictator, and proclaimed martial law. It was a reign of
terror. The Opposition recruited an army in the Island of
Santa Maria under General Urrutia and Commander Canto. On
February 14 a severe fight took place with the Government
troops in Iquique, and the Congressional army took possession
of Pisagua. In April, President Balmaceda ... delivered a long
message, denouncing the navy. ... The contest continued, and
April 7, Arica, in the province of Tarapaca, was taken by the
revolutionists. Some naval fights occurred later, and the
iron-clad Blanco Encalada was blown up by the Dictator's
torpedo cruisers. Finally, on August 21, General Canto landed
at Concon, ten miles north of Valparaiso. Balmaceda's forces
attacked immediately and were routed, losing 3,500 killed and
wounded. The Congress army lost 600. On the 28th a decisive
battle was fought at Placilla, near Valparaiso. The Dictator
had 12,000 troops, and the opposing army 10,000. Balmaceda's
forces were completely routed after five hours' hard fighting,
with a loss of 1,500 men. Santiago formally surrendered, and
the triumph of the Congress party was complete. A Junta,
headed by Señor Jorge Montt, took charge of affairs at
Valparaiso August 30. Balmaceda, who had taken refuge at the
Argentine Legation in Santiago, was not able to make his
escape, and to avoid capture, trial, and punishment, committed
suicide, September 20, by shooting himself. On the 19th
November Admiral Jorge Montt was chosen by the Electoral
College, at Santiago, President of Chili, and on December 26
he was installed with great ceremony and general rejoicings."
Annual Register, 1891, page 420.
CHILIARCHS.
Captains of thousands, in the army of the Vandals.
T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, book 3, chapter 2.
CHILLIANWALLAH, Battle of (1849).
See INDIA: A. D. 1845-1849.
CHILPERIC I.,
King of the Franks (Neustria), A. D. 561-584.
Chilperic II., King of the Franks, A. D. 715-720.
CHILTERN HUNDREDS,
Applying for the Stewardship of the.
A seat in the British House of Commons "cannot be resigned,
nor can a man who has once formally taken his seat for one
constituency throw it up and contest another. Either a
disqualification must be incurred, or the House must declare
the seat vacant." The necessary disqualification can be
incurred by accepting an office of profit under the
Crown,--within certain official categories. "Certain old
offices of nominal value in the gift of the Treasury are now
granted, as of course, to members who wish to resign their
seats in order to be quit of Parliamentary duties or to
contest another constituency. These offices are the
Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds [Crown property in
Buckinghamshire], of the manors of East Hendred, Northstead,
or Hempholme, and the escheatorship of Munster. The office is
resigned as soon as it has operated to vacate the seat and
sever the tie between the member and his constituents."
Sir W. R. Anson, Law and Custom of the Const.,
volume 1, page 84.
CHIMAKUAN FAMILY, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CHIMAKUAN FAMILY.
CHIMARIKAN FAMILY, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CHIMARIKAN FAMILY.
{416}
CHINA:
The names of the Country.
"That spacious seat of ancient civilization which we call
China has loomed always so large to western eyes, ... that, at
eras far apart, we find it to have been distinguished by
different appellations according as it was regarded as the
terminus of a southern sea-route coasting the great peninsulas
and islands of Asia, or as that of a northern land route
traversing the longitude of that continent. In the former
aspect the name applied has nearly always been some form of
the name Sin, Chin, Sinæ, China. In the latter point of view
the region in question was known to the ancients as the land
of the Seres; the middle ages as the Empire of Cathay. The
name of China has been supposed, like many another word and
name connected with trade and geography of the far east, to
have come to us through the Malays, and to have been applied
by them to the great eastern monarchy from the style of the
dynasty of Thsin, which a little more than two centuries
before our era enjoyed a brief but very vigorous existence.
... There are reasons however for believing that the name of
China must have been bestowed at a much earlier date, for it
occurs in the laws of Manu, which assert the Chinas to have
been degenerate Kshatryas, and in the Mahabharat, compositions
many centuries older than the imperial dynasty of Thsin. ...
This name may have yet possibly been connected with the Thsin,
or some monarchy of like dynastic title; for that dynasty had
reigned locally in Shensi from the 9th century before our era;
and when, at a still earlier date, the empire was partitioned
into many small kingdoms, we find among them the dynasties of
the Tcin and the Ching. ... Some at least of the circumstances
which have been collected ... render it the less improbable that
the Sinim of the prophet Isaiah ... should be truly
interpreted as indicating the Chinese. The name of China in
this form was late in reaching the Greeks and Romans, and to
them it probably came through people of Arabian speech, as the
Arabs, being without the sound of 'ch,' made the China of the
Hindus and Malays into Sin, and perhaps sometimes into Thin.
Hence the Thin of the author of the Periplus of the Erythraean
Sea, who appears to be the first extant author to employ the
name in this form; hence also the Sinæ and Thinæ of Ptolemy.
.. . . If we now turn to the Seres we find this name mentioned
by classic authors much more frequently and at an earlier date
by at least a century. The name is familiar enough to the
Latin poets of the Augustan age, but always in a vague way.
... The name of Seres is probably from its earliest use in the
west identified with the name of the silkworm and its produce,
and this association continued until the name ceased entirely
to be used as a geographical expression. ... It was in the
days of the Mongols ... that China first became really known
to Europe, and that by a name which, though especially applied
to the northern provinces, also came to bear a more general
application, Cathay. This name, Khitai, is that by which China
is styled to this day by all, or nearly all, the nations which
know it from an inland point of view, including the Russians,
the Persians, and the nations of Turkestan; and yet it
originally belonged to a people who were not Chinese at all.
The Khitans were a people of Manchu race, who inhabited for
centuries a country to the north-east of China." During a
period between the 10th and 12th centuries, the Khitans
acquired supremacy over their neighbours and established an
empire which embraced Northern China and the adjoining regions
of Tartary. "It must have been during this period, ending with
the overthrow of the dynasty [called the Leao or Iron Dynasty]
in 1123, and whilst this northern monarchy was the face which
the Celestial Empire turned to Inner Asia, that the name of
Khitan, Khitat, or Khitaï, became indissolubly associated with
China."
H. Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither: Preliminary
Essay.
CHINA:
The Origin of the People and their early History.
"The origin of the Chinese race is shrouded in some obscurity.
The first records we have of them represent them as a band of
immigrants settling in the north-eastern provinces of the
modern empire of China, and fight their way amongst the
aborigines, much as the Jews of old forced their way into
Canaan against the various tribes which they found in
possession of the land. It is probable that though they all
entered China by the same route, they separated into bands
almost on the threshold of the empire, one body, those who
have left us the records of their history in the ancient
Chinese books, apparently followed the course of the Yellow
River, and, turning south-ward with it from its northernmost
bend, settled themselves in the fertile districts of the
modern provinces of Shansi and Honan. But as we find also that
at about the same period a large settlement was made as far
south as Annam, of which there is no mention in the books of
the northern Chinese, we must assume that another body struck
directly southward through the southern provinces of China to
that country. The question then arises, where did these people
come from? and the answer which recent research [see BABYLONIA
PRIMITIVE] gives to this question is, from the south of the
Caspian Sea. ... In all probability, the outbreak in Susiana
of, possibly, some political disturbance, in about the 24th or
23rd century B. C., drove the Chinese from the land of their
adoption, and that they wandered eastward until they finally
settled in China and the countries south of it. ... It would
appear also that the Chinese came into China possessed of the
resources of Western Asian culture. They brought with them a
knowledge of writing and astronomy, as well as of the arts
which primarily minister to the wants and comfort of mankind.
The invention of these civilising influences is traditionally
attributed to the Emperor Hwang-te, who is said to have
reigned from B. C. 2697-2597. But the name of this sovereign
leads us to suppose that he never sat on the throne in China.
One of his names, we are told, was Nai, anciently Nak, and in
the Chinese paleographical collection he is described by a
character composed of a group of phonetics which read
Nak-kon-ti. The resemblance between this name and that of
Nak-hunte, who, according to the Susian texts, was the chief
of the gods, is sufficiently striking, and many of the
attributes belonging to him are such as to place him on an
equality with the Susian deity.
{417}
In exact accordance also with the system of Babylonian
chronology he established a cycle of twelve years, and fixed
the length of the year at 360 days composed of twelve months,
with an intercalary month to balance the surplus time. He
further, we are told, built a Ling tai, or observatory,
reminding us of the Babylonian Zigguratu, or house of
observation, 'from which to watch the movements of the
heavenly bodies.' The primitive Chinese, like the Babylonians,
recognised five planets besides the sun and moon, and, with
one exception, knew them by the same names. ... The various
phases of these planets were carefully watched, and portents
were derived from every real and imaginary change in their
relative positions and colours. A comparison between the
astrological tablets translated by Professor Sayce and the
astrological chapter (27th) in the She ke, the earliest of the
Dynastic Histories, shows a remarkable parallelism, not only
in the general style of the forecasts, but in particular
portents which are so contrary to Chinese prejudices, as a
nation, and the train of thought of the people that they would
be at once put down as of foreign origin, even if they were
not found in the Babylonian records. ... In the reign of Chwan
Hu (2513-2435 B. C.), we find according to the Chinese
records, that the year, as among the Chaldeans, began with the
third month of the solar year, and a comparison between the
ancient names of the months given in the Urh ya, the oldest
Chinese dictionary, with the Accadian equivalents, shows, in
some instances, an exact identity. ... These parallelisms,
together with a host of others which might be produced, all
point to the existence of an early relationship between
Chinese and Mesopotamian culture; and, armed with the
advantages thus possessed, the Chinese entered into the empire
over which they were ultimately to overspread themselves. But
they came among tribes who, though somewhat inferior to them
in general civilisation, were by no means destitute of
culture. ... Among such people, and others of a lower
civilisation, such as the Jungs of the west and the Teks, the
ancestors of the Tekke Turcomans, in the north, the Chinese
succeeded in establishing themselves. The Emperor Yaou
(2356-2255 B. C.) divided his kingdom into twelve portions,
presided over by as many Pastors, in exact imitation of the
duodenary feudal system of Susa with their twelve Pastor
Princes. To Yaou succeeded Shun, who carried on the work of
his predecessor of consolidating the Chinese power with energy
and success. In his reign the first mention is made of
religious worship. ... In Shun's reign occurred the great
flood which inundated most of the provinces of the existing
empire. The waters, we are told, rose to so great a height,
that the people had to betake themselves to the mountains to
escape death. The disaster arose, as many similar disasters,
though of a less magnitude, have since arisen, in consequence
of the Yellow River bursting its bounds, and the 'Great Yu'
was appointed to lead the waters back to their channel. With
unremitting energy he set about his task, and in nine years
succeeded in bringing the river under control. ... As a reward
for the services he had rendered to the empire, he was
invested with the principality of Hea, and after having
occupied the throne conjointly with Shun for some years, he
succeeded that sovereign on his death, in 2208 B. C. With Yu
began the dynasty of Hea, which gave place, in 1766 B. C., to
the Shang Dynasty. The last sovereign of the Hea line, Kieh
kwei, is said to have been a monster of iniquity, and to have
suffered the just punishment for his crimes at the hands of
T'ang, the prince of the State of Shang, who took his throne
from him. In like manner, 640 years later, Woo Wang, the
prince of Chow, overthrew Chow Sin, the last of the Shang
Dynasty, and established himself as the chief of the sovereign
state of the empire. By empire it must not be supposed that
the empire, as it exists at present, is meant. The China of
the Chow Dynasty lay between the 33rd and 38th parallels of
latitude, and the 106th and 119th of longitude only, and
extended over no more than portions of the provinces of Pih
chih-li, Shanse, Shense, Honan, Keang-se, and Shan-tung. This
territory was re-arranged by Woo Wang into the nine
principalities established by Yu. ... Woo is held up in
Chinese history as one of the model monarchs of antiquity. ...
Under the next ruler, K'ang (B. C. 1078-1053), the empire was
consolidated, and the feudal princes one and all acknowledged
their allegiance to the ruling house of Chow. ... From all
accounts there speedily occurred a marked degeneracy in the
characters of the Chow kings. ... Already a spirit of
lawlessness was spreading far and wide among the princes and
nobles, and wars and rumours of wars were creating misery and
unrest throughout the country. ... The hand of every man was
against his neighbour, and a constant state of internecine war
succeeded the peace and prosperity which had existed under the
rule of Woo-wang. ... As time went on and the disorder
increased, supernatural signs added their testimony to the
impending crisis. The brazen vessels upon which Yu had
engraved the nine divisions of the empire were observed to
shake and totter as though foreshadowing the approaching
change in the political position. Meanwhile Ts'in on the
northwest, Ts'oo on the south, and Tsin on the north, having
vanquished all the other states, engaged in the final struggle
for the mastery over the confederate principalities. The
ultimate victory rested with the state of Ts'in, and in 255 B.
C., Chaou-seang Wang became the acknowledged ruler over the
'black-haired' people. Only four years were given him to reign
supreme, and at the end of that time he was succeeded by his
son, Heaou-wan Wang, who died almost immediately on ascending
the throne. To him succeeded Chwang-seang Wang, who was
followed in 246 B. C. by Che Hwang-te, the first Emperor of
China. The abolition of feudalism, which was the first act of
Che Hwang-to raised much discontent among those to whom the
feudal system had brought power and emoluments, and the
countenance which had been given to the system by Confucius
and Mencius made it desirable--so thought the emperor--to
demolish once for all their testimony in favour of that
condition of affairs, which he had decreed should be among the
things of the past. With this object he ordered that the whole
existing literature, with the exception of books on medicine,
agriculture, and divination should be burned. The decree was
obeyed as faithfully as was possible in the case of so
sweeping an ordinance, and for many years a night of ignorance
rested on the country. The construction of one gigantic
work--the Great Wall of China--has made the name of this
monarch as famous as the destruction of the books has made it
infamous.
{418}
Finding the Heung-nu Tartars were making dangerous inroads
into the empire, he determined with characteristic
thoroughness to build a huge barrier which should protect the
northern frontier of the empire through all time. In 214 B. C.
the work was begun under his personal supervision, and though
every endeavor was made to hasten its completion he died (209)
leaving it unfinished. His death was the signal for an
outbreak among the dispossessed feudal princes, who, however,
after some years of disorder, were again reduced to the rank
of citizens by a successful leader, who adopted the title of
Kaou-te, and named his dynasty that of Han (206). From that
day to this, with occasional interregnums, the empire has been
ruled on the lines laid down by Che Hwang-te. Dynasty has
succeeded dynasty, but the political tradition has remained
unchanged, and though Mongols and Manchoos have at different
times wrested the throne from its legitimate heirs, they have
been engulfed in the homogeneous mass inhabiting the empire,
and instead of impressing their seal on the country have
become but the reflection of the vanquished. The dynasties
from the beginning of the earlier Han, founded, as stated
above, by Kaou-te, are as follows:
The earlier Han Dynasty B. C. 206-A. D. 25;
the late Han A. D. 25-220;
the Wei 220-280;
the western Tsin 265-317;
the eastern Tsin 317-420;
the Sung 420-479;
the Ts'e 479-502;
the Leang 502-557;
the Ch'in 557-589.
Simultaneously with these--
the northern Wei A. D. 386-534;
the western Wei 535-557;
the eastern Wei 534-550;
the northern Ts'e 550-577;
the northern Chow 557-589.
The Suy 589-618;
the T'ang 618-907;
the later Leang 907-923;
the later T'ang 923-936;
the later Tsin 936-947;
the later Han 947-951;
the later Chow 951-960,
the Sung 960-1127;
the southern Sung 1127-1280;
the Yuen 1280-1368;
the Ming 1368-1614;
the Ts'ing 1644.
Simultaneously with some of these--
the Leaou 907-1125;
the western Leaou 1125-1168;
the Kin 1115-1280.
R. K. Douglas, China, chapter 1.
ALSO IN
D.C. Boulger, History of China, volume 1-2.
CHINA:
The Religions of the People.
Confucianism.
Taouism.
Buddhism.
"The Chinese describe themselves as possessing three
religions, or more accurately, three sects, namely Joo keaou,
the sect of Scholars; Fuh keaou, the sect of Buddha; and Taou
keaou, the sect of Taou. Both as regards age and origin, the
sect of Scholars, or, as it is generally called, Confucianism,
represents pre-eminently the religion of China. It has its root
in the worship of Shang-te, a deity which is associated with
the earliest traditions of the Chinese race. Hwang-te (2697 B.
C.) erected a temple to his honour, and succeeding emperors
worshipped before his shrine. ... During the troublous times
which followed after the reign of the few first sovereigns of
the Chow Dynasty, the belief in a personal deity grew
indistinct and dim, until, when Confucius [born B. C. 551]
began his career, there appeared nothing strange in his
atheistic doctrines. He never in any way denied the existence
of Shang-te, but he ignored him. His concern was with man as a
member of society, and the object of his teaching was to lead
him into those paths of rectitude which might best contribute
to his own happiness, and to the well-being of that community
of which he formed part. Man, he held, was born good, and was
endowed with qualities which, when cultivated and improved by
watchfulness and self-restraint, might enable him to acquire
godlike wisdom and to become 'the equal of Heaven.' He divided
mankind into four classes, viz., those who are born with the
possession of knowledge; those who learn, and so readily get
possession of knowledge; those who are dull and stupid, and
yet succeed in learning; and, lastly, those who are dull and
stupid, and yet do not learn. To all these, except those of
the last class, the path to the climax reached by the 'Sage'
is open. Man has only to watch, listen to, understand, and
obey the moral sense implanted in him by Heaven, and the
highest perfection is within his reach. ... In this system
there is no place for a personal God. The impersonal Heaven,
according to Confucius, implants a pure nature in every being
at his birth, but, having done this, there is no further
supernatural interference with the thoughts and deeds of men.
It is in the power of each one to perfect his nature, and
there is no divine influence to restrain those who take the
downward course. Man has his destiny in his own hands, to make
or to mar. Neither had Confucius any inducement to offer to
encourage men in the practice of virtue, except virtue's self.
He was a matter-of-fact, unimaginative man, who was quite
content to occupy himself with the study of his fellow-men,
and was disinclined to grope into the future or to peer
upwards. No wonder that his system, as he enunciated it,
proved a failure. Eagerly he sought in the execution of his
official duties to effect the regeneration of the empire, but
beyond the circle of his personal disciples he found few
followers, and as soon as princes and statesmen had satisfied
their curiosity about him they turned their backs on his
precepts and would [have] none of his reproofs. Succeeding
ages, recognising the loftiness of his aims, eliminated all
that was impracticable and unreal in his system, and held fast
to that part of it that was true and good. They were content
to accept the logic of events, and to throw overboard the
ideal 'sage,' and to ignore the supposed potency of his
influence; but they clung to the doctrines of filial piety,
brotherly love, and virtuous living. It was admiration for the
emphasis which he laid on these and other virtues which has
drawn so many millions of men unto him; which has made his
tomb at Keo-foo heen to be the Mecca of Confucianism, and has
adorned every city of the empire with temples built in his
honour. ... Concurrently with the lapse of pure Confucianism,
and the adoption of those principles which find their earliest
expression in the pre-Confucian classics of China, there is
observable a return to the worship of Shang-te. The most
magnificent temple in the empire is the Temple of Heaven at
Peking, where the highest object of Chinese worship is adored
with the purest rites. ... What is popularly known in Europe
as Confucianism is, therefore, Confucianism with the
distinctive opinions of Confucius omitted. ... But this
worship of Shang-te is confined only to the emperor. The
people have no lot or heritage in the sacred acts of worship
at the Altar of Heaven. ... Side by side with the revival of
the Joo keaou, under the influence of Confucius, grew up a
system of a totally different nature, and which, when divested
of its esoteric doctrines, and reduced by the
practically-minded Chinamen to a code of morals, was destined
in future ages to become affiliated with the teachings of the Sage.
{419}
This was Taouism, which was founded by Laou-tsze, who was a
contemporary of Confucius. An air of mystery hangs over the
history of Laou-tsze. Of his parentage we know nothing, and
the historians, in their anxiety to conceal their ignorance of
his earlier years, shelter themselves behind the legend that
he was born an old man. ... The primary meaning of Taou is
'The way,' 'The path,' but in Laou-tsze's philosophy it was
more than the way, it was the way-goer as well. It was an
eternal road; along it all beings and things walked; it was
everything and nothing, and the cause and effect of all. All
things originated from Taou, conformed to Taou, and to Taou at
last returned. ... 'If, then, we had to express the meaning of
Taou, we should describe it as the Absolute; the totality of
Being and Things; the phenomenal world and its order; and the
ethical nature of the good man, 'and the principle of his
action.' It was absorption into this 'Mother of all things'
that Laou-tsze aimed at. And this end was to be attained to by
self-emptiness, and by giving free scope to the uncontaminated
nature which, like Confucius, he taught was given by Heaven to
all men. ... But these subtleties, like the more abstruse
speculations of Confucius, were suited only to the taste of
the schools. To the common people they were foolishness, and,
before long, the philosophical doctrine of Laou-tsze of the
identity of existence and non-existence, assumed in their eyes
a warrant for the old Epicurean motto, 'Let us eat and drink,
for to-morrow we die.' The pleasures of sense were substituted
for the delights of virtue, and the next step was to desire
prolongation of the time when those pleasures could be
enjoyed. Legend said that Laou-tsze had secured to himself
immunity from death by drinking the elixir of immortality, and
to enjoy the same 'privilege became the all-absorbing object
of his followers. The demand for elixirs and charms produced a
supply, and Taouism quickly degenerated into a system of
magic. ... The teachings of Laou-tsze having familiarised the
Chinese mind with philosophical doctrines, which, whatever
were their direct source, bore a marked resemblance to the
musings of Indian sages, served to prepare the way for the
introduction of Buddhism. The exact date at which the Chinese
first became acquainted with the doctrines of Buddha was,
according to an author quoted in K'ang-he's Imperial
Encyclopædia, the thirtieth year of the reign of She Hwang-te,
i. e., B. C. 216. The story this writer tells of the
difficulties which the first missionaries encountered is
curious, and singularly suggestive of the narrative of St.
Peter's imprisonment."
R. K. Douglas, China, chapter 17.
ALSO IN:
R. K. Douglas, Confucianism and Taouism.
"Buddhism ... penetrated to China along the fixed route from
India to that country, round the north-west corner of the
Himalayas and across Eastern Turkestan. Already in the 2nd
year B. C., an embassy, perhaps sent by Huvishka [who reigned
in Kabul and Kashmere] took Buddhist books to the then Emperor
of China, A-ili; and the Emperor Ming-ti, 62 A. D., guided by
a dream, is said to have sent to Tartary and Central India and
brought Buddhist books to China. From this time Buddhism
rapidly spread there. ... In the fourth century Buddhism
became the state religion."
T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhism, chapter 9.
ALSO IN
J. Legge, The Religions of China.
J. Edkins, Religion in China.
J. Edkins, Chinese Buddhism.
S. Beals, Buddhism in China.
S. Johnson, Oriental Religions: China.
CHINA: A. D. 1205-1234.
Conquest by Jingis Khan and his son.
"The conquest of China was commenced by Chinghiz [or Jingis
Khan], although it was not completed for several generations.
Already in 1205 he had invaded Tangut, a kingdom occupying the
extreme northwest of China, and extending beyond Chinese
limits in the same direction, held by a dynasty of Tibetan
race, which was or had been a vassal to the Kin. This invasion
was repeated in succeeding years; and in 1211 his attacks
extended to the Empire of the Kin itself. In 1214 he ravaged
their provinces to the Yellow River, and in the following year
took Chungtu or Peking. In 1219 he turned his arms against
Western Asia; ... but a lieutenant whom he had left behind him
in the East continued to prosecute the subjection of Northern
China. Chinghiz himself on his return from his western
conquests renewed his attack on Tangut, and died on that
enterprise, 18th August. Okkodai, the son and successor of
Chinghiz, followed up the subjugation of China, extinguished
the Kin finally in 1234 and consolidated with his Empire all
the provinces north of the Great Kiang. The Southern provinces
remained for the present subject to the Chinese dynasty of the
Sung, reigning now at Kingssé or Hangcheu. This kingdom was
known to the Tartars as Nangkiass, and also by the
quasi-Chinese title of Mangi or Manzi, made so famous by Marco
Polo and the travellers of the following age."
H. Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither.
Preliminary Essay, section 91-92.
See, also, MONGOLS: A. D. 1153-1227.
CHINA: A. D. 1259-1294.
The Empire of Kublai Khan.
Kublai, or Khubilai Khan, one of the grandsons of Jingis Khan,
who reigned as the Great Khan or Supreme lord of the Mongols
from 1259 until 1294, "was the sovereign of the largest empire
that was ever controlled by one man. China, Corea, Thibet,
Tung-King, Cochin China, a great portion of India beyond the
Ganges, the Turkish and Siberian realms from the Eastern Sea
to the Dnieper, obeyed his commands; and although the chief of
the Hordes of Jagatai and Ogatai refused to acknowledge him,
the Ilkhans of Persia ... were his feudatories. ... The
Supreme Khan had immediate authority only in Mongolia and
China. ... The capital of the Khakan, after the accession of
Khubilai, was a new city he built close to the ancient
metropolis of the Liao and Kin dynasties."
H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, volume 1,
pages 216-283.
"Khan-Bálig (Mong., 'The Khan's city'), the Cambalu of Marco,
Peking ... was captured by Chinghiz in 1215, and in 1264
Kublai made it his chief residence. In 1267 he built a new
city, three 'li' to the north-east of the old one, to which
was given the name of Ta-tu or 'Great Court,' called by the
Mongols Daïdu, the Taydo of Odoric and Taidu of Polo, who
gives a description of its dimensions, the number of its
gates, etc., similar to that in the text. The Chinese accounts
give only eleven gates. This city was abandoned as a royal
residence on the expulsion of the Mongol dynasty in 1368, but
re-occupied in 1421 by the third Ming Emperor, who built the
walls as they now exist, reducing their extent and the number
of the gates to nine. This is what is commonly called the
'Tartar city' of the present day (called also by the Chinese
Lau-Chhing or 'Old Town'), which therefore represents the
Taydo of Odoric."
H. Yule,
Cathay and the Way Thither, volume 1, page 127, footnote.
ALSO IN
Marco Polo, Travels, with Notes by Sir H. Yule, book 2.
See, also, MONGOLS: A. D. 1229-1294,
and POLO, MARCO.
{420}
CHINA: A. D. 1294-1882.
Dissolution of the Empire of Kublai Khan.
The Ming dynasty and its fall.
The enthronement of the present Manchu Tartar Dynasty, of the
Tsings or Ch'ings.
The appearance of the Portuguese and the Jesuit Missionaries.
"The immediate successors of Kublai, brought up in the
luxuries of the imperial palace, the most gorgeous at that
time in the world, relied upon the prestige with which the
glory of the late emperor invested them, and never dreamed
that change could touch a dominion so vast and so solid. Some
devoted themselves to elegant literature and the improvement
of the people; later princes to the mysteries of Buddhism,
which became, in some degree, the state religion; and as the
cycle went round, the dregs of the dynasty abandoned
themselves, as usual, to priests, women, and eunuchs. ... The
distant provinces threw off their subjection; robbers ravaged
the land, and pirates the sea; a minority and a famine came at
the same moment; and in less than ninety years after its
commencement, the fall of the dynasty was only illumined by
some few flashes of dying heroism, and every armed Tartar, who
could obtain a horse to aid his flight, spurred back to his
native deserts. Some of them, of the royal race, turning to
the west, took refuge with the Manchows, and in process of
time, marrying with the families of the chiefs, intermingled
the blood of the two great tribes. The proximate cause of this
catastrophe was a Chinese of low birth, who, in the midst of
the troubles of the time, found means to raise himself by his
genius from a servile station to the leadership of a body of
the malcontents, and thence to step into the imperial throne.
The new dynasty [the Ming] began their reign with great
brilliance. The emperor carried the Tartar war into their own
country, and at home made unrelenting war upon the abuses of
his palace. He committed the mistake, however, of granting
separate principalities to the members of his house, which in
the next reign caused a civil war, and the usurpation of the
throne by an uncle of the then emperor. The usurper found it
necessary to transfer the capital to Peking, as a post of
defence against the eastern Tartars, who now made their
appearance again on this eventful stage. He was successful,
however, in his wars in the desert, and he added Tonquin and
Cochin China to the Chinese dominions. After him the fortunes
of the dynasty began to wane. The government became weaker,
the Tartars stronger, some princes attached themselves to
literature, some to Buddhism or Taoism: Cochin China revolted,
and was lost to the empire, Japan ravaged the coasts with her
privateers; famine came to add to the horrors of misrule."
Leitch Ritchie, History of the Oriental Nations,
book 7, chapter 1 (volume 2).
"From without, the Mings were constantly harassed by the
encroachments of the Tartars; from within, the ceaseless
intriguing of the eunuchs (resulting in one case in the
temporary deposition of an Emperor) was a fertile cause of
trouble. Towards the close of the 16th century the Portuguese
appeared upon the scene, and from their 'concession' at Macao,
some time the residence of Camoens, opened commercial
relations between China and the West. They brought the
Chinese, among other things, opium, which had previously been
imported overland from India. They possibly taught them how to
make gunpowder, to the invention of which the Chinese do not
seem, upon striking a balance of evidence, to possess an
independent claim. About the same time [1580] Rome contributed
the first instalment of those wonderful Jesuit fathers, whose
names may truly be said to have filled the empire 'with sounds
that echo still,' the memory of their scientific labours and
the benefits they thus conferred upon China having long
survived the wreck and discredit of the faith to which they
devoted their lives. And at this distance of time it does not
appear to be a wild statement to assert that had the Jesuits,
the Franciscans, and the Dominicans, been able to resist
quarrelling among themselves, and had they rather united to
persuade Papal infallibility to permit the incorporation of
ancestor worship with the rites and ceremonies of the Romish
church--China would at this moment be a Catholic country, and
Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism would long since have
receded into the past. Of all these Jesuit missionaries, the
name of Matteo Ricci [who died in 1610] stands by common
consent first upon the long list. ... The overthrow of the
Mings [A. D. 1644], was brought about by a combination of
events, of the utmost importance to those who would understand
the present position of the Tartars as rulers of China. A
sudden rebellion had resulted in the capture of Peking by the
insurgents, and in the suicide of the Emperor who was fated to
be the last of his line. The Imperial Commander-in-chief, Wu
San-kuei, at that time away on the frontiers of Manchuria,
engaged in resisting the incursions of the Manchu Tartars, now
for a long time in a state of ferment, immediately hurried
back to the capital, but was totally defeated by the insurgent
leader, and once more made his way, this time as a fugitive
and a suppliant, towards the Tartar camp. Here he obtained
promises of assistance, chiefly on condition that he would
shave his head and grow a tail in accordance with Manchu
custom, and again set off with his new auxiliaries towards
Peking, being reinforced on the way by a body of Mongol
volunteers. As things turned out Wu San-kuei arrived at Peking
in advance of these allies, and actually succeeded, with the
remnant of his own scattered forces, in routing the troops of
the rebel leader before the Tartars and the Mongols came up.
He then started in pursuit of the flying foe. Meanwhile the
Tartar contingent arrived; and on entering the capital, the
young Manchu prince in command was invited by the people of
Peking to ascend the vacant throne. So that by the time Wu
San-kuei re-appeared he found a new dynasty [the Ch'ing or
Tsing dynasty of the present day] already established, and his
late Manchu ally at the head of affairs. His first intention
had doubtless been to continue the Ming line of Emperors; but
he seems to have readily fallen in with the arrangement
already made, and to have tendered his formal allegiance on
the four following conditions:
{421}
(1.) That no Chinese woman should be taken into the Imperial
seraglio.
(2.) That the first place at the great triennial examination
for the highest literary degrees should never be given to a
Tartar.
(3.) That the people should adopt the national costume of the
Tartars in their everyday life; but that they should be
allowed to bury their corpses in the dress of the late
dynasty.
(4.) That this condition of costume should not apply to the
women of China, who were not to be compelled either to wear
the hair in a tail before marriage (as the Tartar girls do) or
to abandon the custom of compressing' their feet.
The great Ming dynasty was now at an end, though not destined
wholly to pass away. A large part of it may be said to remain
in the literary monuments which were executed during its three
centuries of existence. The dress of the period survives upon
the modern Chinese stage; and when occasionally the present
alien yoke is found to gall, seditious whispers of
'restoration' are not altogether unheard. ... The age of the
Ch'ings is the age in which we live; but it is not so familiar
to some persons as it ought to be, that a Tartar, and not a
Chinese sovereign, is now seated upon the throne of China. For
some time after the accession of the first Manchu Emperor
there was considerable friction between the two races, due,
among other natural causes, to the enforced adoption of the
peculiar coiffure in vogue among the Manchus--i. e., the tail,
or plaited queue of hair, which now hangs down every
Chinaman's back. This fashion was for a long time vigorously
resisted by the inhabitants of southern China, though now
regarded by all alike as one of the most sacred
characteristics of the 'black-haired people.' ... The
subjugation of the empire by the Manchus was followed by a
military occupation of the country, which has survived the
original necessity, and is part of the system of government at
the present day. Garrisons of Tartar troops were stationed at
various important centres of population. ... Those Tartar
garrisons still occupy the same positions; and the descendants
of the first battalions, with occasional reinforcements from
Peking, live side by side and in perfect harmony with the
strictly Chinese populations. These Bannermen, as they are
called, may be known by their square, heavy faces, which
contrast strongly with the sharper and more astute
physiognomies of the Chinese. They speak the dialect of
Peking, now recognised as the official language par
excellence. They do not use their family or surnames--which
belong rather to the clan than to the individual--but in order
to conform to the requirements of Chinese life, the personal
name is substituted. Their women do not compress their feet,
and the female coiffure and dress are wholly Tartar in
character. Intermarriage between the two races is not
considered desirable, though instances are not unknown. In
other respects, it is the old story of 'vida victrix;' the
conquering Tartars have been themselves conquered by the
people over whom they set themselves to rule. They have
adopted the language, written and colloquial, of China. ...
Manchu, the language of the conquerors, is still kept alive at
the Court of Peking. By a State fiction, it is supposed to be
the language of the sovereign. ... Eight emperors of this line
have already occupied the throne, and 'become guests on high;'
the ninth is yet [in 1882] a boy less than ten years of age.
Of these eight, the second in every way fills the largest
space in Chinese history. K'ang Hsi (or Kang Hi) reigned for
sixty-one years. ... Under the third Manchu Emperor, Yung
Cheng [A. D. 1723-1736], began that violent persecution of the
Catholics which has continued almost to the present day. The
various sects--Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans--had been
unable to agree about the Chinese equivalent for God, and the
matter had been finally referred to the Pope. Another
difficulty had arisen as to the toleration of ancestral
worship by Chinese converts professing the Catholic faith. ...
As the Pope refused to permit the embodiment of this ancient
custom with the ceremonies of the Catholic church, the new
religion ceased to advance, and by-and-by fell into
disrepute."
H. A. Giles, Historic China, chapter 5-6.
ALSO IN
S. W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom,
chapter 17, and 19-20 (volume 2).
C. Gutzlaff, Sketch of Chinese History,
volume 1, chapter 16, volume 2.
J. Ross, The Manchus.
Abbé Hue, Christianity in China, volume 2-3.
CHINA: A. D. 1839-1842.
The Opium War with England.
Treaty of Nanking.
Opening of the Five Ports.
"The first Chinese war [of England] was in one sense directly
attributable to the altered position of the East India Company
after 1833. [See INDIA: A. D. 1823-1833.] Up to that year
trade between England and China had been conducted in both
countries on principles of strict monopoly. The Chinese trade
was secured to the East India Company, and the English trade
was confined to a company of merchants specially nominated for
the purpose by the Emperor. The change of thought which
produced the destruction of monopolies in England did not
penetrate to the conservative atmosphere of the Celestial
Empire, and, while the trade in one country was thrown open to
everyone, trade in the other was still exclusively confined to
the merchants nominated by the Chinese Government. These
merchants, Hong merchants as they were called, traded
separately, but were mutually liable for the dues to the
Chinese Government and for their debts to the foreigners. Such
conditions neither promoted the growth of trade nor the
solvency of the traders; and, out of the thirteen Hong
merchants in 1837, three or four were avowedly insolvent.
(State Papers, volume 27, page 1310.) Such were the general
conditions on which the trade was conducted. The most
important article of trade was opium. The importation of opium
into China had, indeed, been illegal since 1796. But the
Chinese Government had made no stringent efforts to prohibit
the trade, and a Select Committee of the House of Commons had
declared that it was inadvisable to abandon an important
source of revenue to the East India Company. (State Papers, volume
29, page 1020.) The opium trade consequently throve, and grew
from 4,100 chests in 1796 to 30,000 chests in 1837, and the
Chinese connived at or ignored the growing trade. (Ibid., p.
1019). ... In 1837 the Chinese Government adopted a fresh policy.
{422}
It decided on rigourously stopping the trade at which it had
previously tacitly connived. ... Whether the Chinese
Government was really shocked at the growing use of the drug
and the consequences of its use, or whether it was alarmed at
a drain of silver from China which disturbed what the
political arithmeticians of England a hundred years before
would have called the balance of trade, it undoubtedly
determined to check the traffic by every means at its
disposal. With this object it strengthened its force on the
coast and sent Lin, a man of great energy, to Canton [March,
1839] with supreme authority. (State Papers, volume 29, page
934, and Autobiography of Sir H. Taylor, volume 1, appendix,
page 343.) Before Lin's arrival cargoes of opium had been
seized by the Custom House authorities. On his arrival Lin
required both the Hong merchants and the Chinese merchants to
deliver up all the opium in their possession in order that it
might be destroyed. (State Papers, volume 29, page 936.) The
interests of England in China were at that time entrusted to
Charles Elliot. ... But Elliot occupied a very difficult
position in China. The Chinese placed on their communications
to him the Chinese word 'Yu,' and wished him to place on his
despatches to them the Chinese word 'Pin.' But Yu signifies a
command, and Pin a humble address, and a British
Plenipotentiary could not receive commands from, or humble
himself before, Chinese officials. (State Papers, volume 29,
pages 881, 886, 888.) And hence the communications between him
and the Chinese Government were unable to follow a direct
course, but were frequently or usually sent through the Hong
merchants. Such was the state of things in China when Lin,
arriving in Canton, insisted on the surrender and destruction
of all the opium there. Elliot was at Macao. He at once
decided on returning to the post of difficulty and danger;
and, though Canton was blockaded by Chinese forces and its
river guarded by Chinese batteries, he made his way up in a
boat of H. M. S. 'Larne,' and threw himself among his
imprisoned countrymen. After his arrival he took the
responsibility of demanding the surrender into his own hands,
for the service of his Government, of all the British opium in
China, and he surrendered the opium which he thus obtained,
amounting to 20,283 chests, to the Chinese authorities, by
whom it was destroyed. (Ibid., pages 945, 967.) The imminent
danger to the lives and properties of a large number of
British subjects was undoubtedly removed by Elliot's action.
Though some difficulty arose in connection with the surrender,
Lin undertook gradually to relax the stringency of the
measures which he had adopted (ibid., page 977), and Elliot
hoped that his own zealous efforts to carry out the
arrangement which he had made would lead to the raising of the
blockade. He was, however, soon undeceived. On the 4th of
April Lin required him, in conjunction with the merchants, to
enter into a bond under which all vessels hereafter engaged in
the opium traffic would have been confiscated to the Chinese
Government, and all persons connected with the trade would
'suffer death at the hands of the Celestial Court.' (Ibid.,
page 989.) This bond Elliot steadily refused to sign (ibid.,
page 992); and feeling that 'all sense of security was broken
to pieces' (ibid., page 978), he ordered all British subjects
to leave Canton (ibid., page 1004), he himself withdrew to the
Portuguese settlement at Macao (ibid., page 1007), and he
wrote to Auckland, the Governor-General of India, for armed
assistance. (Ibid., page 1009.) These grave events naturally
created profound anxiety. A Select Committee of the House of
Commons had formally declined to interfere with the trade. The
opium monopoly at that time was worth some £1,000,000 or
£1,500,000 a year to British India (ibid., page 1020); and
India, engaged in war with Afghanistan and already involved in
a serious deficit, could not afford to part with so large an
amount of its revenue (ibid., page 1020). Nine-tenths of the
British merchants in China were engaged in the illegal trade
(ibid., page 1030), while Elliot, in enforcing the surrender
of the opium, had given the merchants bonds on the British
Government for its value, and the 20,000 chests surrendered
were supposed to be worth from 600 to 1,200 dollars a chest
(ibid., page 987), or say from £2,400,000 to £4,800,000. ...
As the summer advanced, moreover, a fresh outrage increased
the intensity of the crisis. On the 7th July some British
seamen landed near Hong Kong, and engaged in a serious riot. A
native was unfortunately killed on the occasion, and though
Elliot, at his own risk, gave the relations of the victim a
large pecuniary compensation, and placed the men engaged in
the riot on their trial, Lin was not satisfied. He moved down
to the coast, cut off the supplies of British subjects, and
threatened to stop the supplies to Macao if the Portuguese
continued to assist the British. (Ibid., pages 1037-1039.) The
British were in consequence forced to leave Macao; and about the
same time a small schooner, the 'Black Joke,' was attacked by
the Chinese, and a British subject on board of her seriously
wounded. Soon afterwards, however, the arrival of a ship of
war, the 'Volage,' in Chinese waters enabled Elliot to assume
a bolder front. He returned to Macao; he even attempted to
procure supplies from the mainland. But, though he succeeded
in purchasing food, 'the Mandarin runners approached and
obliged the natives to take back their provisions,' and
Elliot, exasperated at their conduct, fired on some war junks
of the Chinese, which returned the fire. A week afterwards
Elliot declared the port and river of Canton to be in a state
of blockade. (Ibid., page 1066.) The commencement of the
blockade, however, did not lead to immediate war. On the
contrary, the Chinese showed considerable desire to avert
hostilities. They insisted, indeed, that some British sailor
must be surrendered to them to suffer for the death of the
Chinaman who had fallen in the riot of Hong Kong. But they
showed so much anxiety to conclude an arrangement on this
point that they endeavoured to induce Elliot to declare that a
sailor who was accidentally drowned in Chinese waters, and whose
body they had found, was the actual murderer. (State Papers,
volume 30, page 27.) And in the meanwhile the trade which Lin
had intended to destroy went on at least as actively as ever.
Lin's proceedings had, indeed, the effect of stimulating it to
an unprecedented degree. The destruction of vast stores of
opium led to a rise in the price of opium in China. The rise
in price produced the natural consequence of an increased
speculation; and, though British shipping was excluded from
Chinese waters, and the contents of British vessels had to be
transferred to American bottoms for conveyance into Chinese
ports, British trade had never been so large or so
advantageous as in the period which succeeded Lin's arbitrary
proceedings.
{423}
Elliot was, of course, unable to prevent war either by the
surrender of a British sailor to the Chinese, or by even
assuming that a drowned man was the murderer; and war in
consequence became daily more probable. In January, 1840,
operations actually commenced. Elliot was instructed to make
an armed demonstration on the northern coasts of China, to
take possession of some island on the coast, and to obtain
reparation and indemnity, if possible by a mere display of
force, but otherwise to proceed with the squadron and thence
send an ultimatum to Pekin. In accordance with these orders
the Island of Chusan was occupied in July, and the fleet was
sent to the mouth of the Peiho with orders to transmit a
letter to Pekin. But the sea off the Peiho is shallow, the
ships could not approach the coasts, and the Chinese naturally
refused to yield to an empty demonstration. The expedition was
forced to return to Chusan, where it found that the troops
whom they had left behind were smitten by disease, that one
out of every four men were dead, and that more than one-half
of the survivors were invalided. Thus, throughout 1840, the
Chinese war was only attended with disaster and distress.
Things commenced a little more prosperously in 1841 by the
capture of the Chinese position at the mouth of the Canton
river. Elliot, after this success, was even able to conclude a
preliminary treaty with the Chinese authorities. But this
treaty did not prove satisfactory either to the British
Government or to the Chinese. The British saw with dismay that
the treaty made no mention of the trade in opium which had
been the ostensible cause of the war. The Whig Government

accordingly decided on superseding Elliot. He was recalled and
replaced by Henry Pottinger. Before news of his recall reached
him, however, the treaty which had led to his supersession had
been disavowed by the Chinese authorities, and Elliot had
commenced a fresh attack on the Chinese force which guarded
the road to Canton. British sailors and British troops, under
the command of Bremer and Gough, won a victory which placed
Canton at their mercy. But Elliot, shrinking from exposing a
great town to the horrors of an assault, stopped the advance
of the troops and admitted the city to a ransom of £1,250,000.
(Sir H. Taylor's Autobiography, volume 1, appendix, pages
353-363.) His moderation was naturally unacceptable to the
troops and not entirely approved by the British Government. It
constituted, however, Elliot's last action as agent in China. The
subsequent operations were conducted under Pottinger's
advice."
S. Walpole, History of England from 1815, Note, volume 5,
pages 287-291.
"Sir Henry Pottinger, who arrived as Plenipotentiary on the
10th of August, took the chief direction of the affairs. ...
To the end of 1841 there were various successes achieved by
the land and naval forces, which gave the British possession
of many large fortified towns, amongst which were Amoy,
Ting-hai, Chin-hai, Ning-po, and Shang-hai. The Chinese were
nevertheless persevering in their resistance, and in most
cases evinced a bravery which showed how mistaken were the
views which regarded the subjection of this extraordinary
people as an easy task. ... The British fleet on the 13th of
June [1842] entered the great river Kiang, and on the 6th of
July advanced up the river, and cut off its communication with
the Grand Canal, by which Nanking, the ancient capital of
China, was supplied with grain. The point where the river
intersects the canal is the city of Chin-Kiang-foo. ... On the
morning of the 21st the city was stormed by the British, in
three brigades. The resistance of the Tartar troops was most
desperate. Our troops fought under a burning sun, whose
overpowering heat caused some to fall dead. The obstinate
defence of the place prevented its being taken till six
o'clock in the evening. When the streets were entered, the
houses were found almost deserted. They were filled with
ghastly corpses, many of the Tartar soldiers having destroyed
their families and then committed suicide. The city, from the
number of the dead, had become uninhabitable."
C. Knight, Popular History of England., volume 8, chapter 25.
"The destruction of life was appalling. ... Every Manchu
preferred resistance, death, suicide, or flight, to surrender.
Out of a Manchu population of 4,000, it was estimated that not
more than 500 survived, the greater part having perished by
their own hands. ... Within twenty-four hours after the troops
landed, the city and suburbs of Chinkiang were a mass of ruin
and destruction. ... The total loss of the English was 37
killed and 131 wounded. ... Some of the large ships were towed
up to Nanking, and the whole fleet reached it August 9th, at
which time preparations had been made for the assault. ...
Everything was ready for the assault by daylight of August
15th;" but on the night of the 14th the Chinese made overtures
for the negotiation of peace, and the important Treaty of
Nanking was soon afterwards concluded. Its terms were as
follows: "1. Lasting peace between the two nations. 2. The
ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuhchau, Ningpo, and Shanghai [known
afterwards as the Treaty Ports] to be opened to British trade
and residence, and trade conducted according to a
well-understood tariff. 3. 'It being obviously necessary and
desirable that British subjects should have some port whereat
they may careen and refit their ships when required,' the
island of Hongkong to be ceded to her Majesty. 4. Six millions
of dollars to be paid as the value of the opium which was
delivered up 'as a ransom for the lives of H. B. M.
Superintendent and subjects,' in March, 1839. 5. Three
millions of dollars to be paid for the debts due to British
merchants. 6. Twelve millions to be paid for the expenses
incurred in the expedition sent out 'to obtain redress for the
violent and unjust proceedings of the Chinese high
authorities.' 7. The entire amount of $21,000,000 to be paid
before December 31, 1845. 8. All prisoners of war to be
immediately released by the Chinese. 9. The Emperor to grant
full and entire amnesty to those of his subjects who had aided
the British." Articles 10 to 13 related to the tariff of
export and import dues that should be levied at the open
ports; to future terms of official correspondence, etc. The
Treaty was signed by the Commissioners on the 29th of August,
1842, and the Emperor's ratification was received September
15th.
S. W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom, chapter 22-23.
ALSO IN
D. C. Boulger, History of China, volume 3, chapter 5-7.
E. H. Parker, Chinese Account of the Opium War.
{424}
CHINA: A. D. 1850-1864.
The Taiping Rebellion.
"The phrase 'Taiping Rebellion is wholly of foreign
manufacture; at Peking and everywhere among those loyal to the
government the insurgents were styled 'Chang-mao tseh,' or
'Long-haired rebels,' while on their side, by a whimsical
resemblance to English slang, the imperialists were dubbed
'imps.' When the chiefs assumed to be aiming at independence
in 1850, in order to identify their followers with their cause
they took the term 'Ping Chao,' or 'Peace Dynasty,' as the
style of their sway, to distinguish it from the 'Tsing Chao,'
or 'Pure Dynasty' of the Manchus. Each of them prefixed the
adjective 'Ta' (or 'Tai,' in Cantonese), 'Great,' as is the
Chinese custom with regard to dynasties and nations; thus the
name Tai-ping became known to foreigners."
S. W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom, chapter 24 (volume 2).
"This remarkable movement, which at one time excited much
interest in Western lands, originated with a man named Hung
Sew-tseuen [or Hung Siu-tseuen], son of a humble peasant
residing in a village near Canton. On the occasion of one of
his visits to the provincial city, probably in the year 1833,
he appears to have seen a foreign Protestant missionary
addressing the populace in the streets, assisted by a native
interpreter. Either then or on the following day he received
from some tract-distributor a book entitled 'Good Words for
Exhorting the Age,' which consisted of essays and sermons by
Leang A-fah, a well-known convert and evangelist. Taking the
volume home with him, he looked it over with some interest,
but carelessly laid it aside in his book-case. A few years
afterward he attended for the second time the competitive
literary examination with high hopes of honor and distinction,
having already passed with much credit the lower examination
in the district city. His ambitious venture, however, met with
severe disappointment, and he returned to his friends sick in
mind and body. During this state of mental depression and
physical infirmity, which continued for some forty days, he
had certain strange visions, in which he received commands
from heaven to destroy the idols. These fancied revelations
seem to have produced a deep impression on his mind, and led
to a certain gravity of demeanor after his recovery and return
to his quiet occupation as a student and village schoolmaster.
When the English war broke out, and foreigners swept up Canton
River with their wonderful fire-ships, ... it is not
surprising that Hung should have had his attention again
attracted to the Christian publication which had lain so long
neglected in his library. ... The writings of Leang A-fah
contained chapters from the Old and New Testament Scriptures,
which he found to correspond in a striking manner with the
preternatural sights and voices of that memorable period in
his history [during his sickness, six years before]; and this
strange coincidence convinced him of their truth, and of his
being divinely appointed to restore the world, that is China,
to the worship of the true God. Hung Sew-tseuen accepted his
mission and began the work of propagating the faith he had
espoused. Among his first converts was one Fung Yun-san, who
became a most ardent missionary and disinterested preacher.
These two leaders of the movement traveled far and near
through the country, teaching the people of all classes and
forming a society of God-worshippers. All the converts
renounced idolatry and gave up the worship of Confucius. Hung,
at this time apparently a sincere and earnest seeker after
truth, went to Canton and placed himself under the
instructions of the Reverend Mr. Roberts, an American missionary,
who for some cause fearing that his novitiate might be
inspired by mercenary motives, denied him the rite of baptism.
But, without being offended at this cold and suspicious
treatment, he went home and taught his converts how to baptize
themselves. The God-worshippers rapidly increased in numbers,
and were known and feared as zealous iconoclasts. ... For a
year after Hung Sew-tseuen had rejoined the God-worshippers
that society retained its exclusively religious nature, but in
the autumn of 1850 it was brought into direct collision with
the civil magistrates, when the movement assumed a political
character of the highest aims." It was soon a movement of
declared rebellion, and allied with a rebel army of bandits
and pirates which had taken arms against the government in
south-eastern China.
L. N. Wheeler, The Foreigner in China, chapter 13.
"The Hakka schoolmaster proclaimed his 'mission' in 1850. A
vast horde gathered to him. He nominated five 'Wangs' or
soldier sub-kings from out of his clan, and commenced his
northward movement from Woosewen in January, 1851. Through the
rich prosperous provinces his desultory march, interspersed
with frequent halts, spread destruction and desolation. The
peaceful fled shudderingly before this wave of fierce,
stalwart ruffianhood, with its tatterdemalian tawdriness, its
flaunting banners, its rusty naked weapons. Everywhere it
gathered in the local scoundrelism. The pirates came from the
coast; the robbers from the interior mountains rallied to an
enterprise that promised so well for their trade. In the
perturbed state of the Chinese population the horde grew like
an avalanche as it rolled along. The Heavenly King [as Hung
now styled himself] met with no opposition to speak of, and in
1853 his promenade ended under the shadow of the Porcelain
Tower, in the city of Nanking, the second metropolis of the
Chinese Empire, where, till the rebellion and his life ended
simultaneously, he lived a life of licentiousness, darkened
further by the grossest cruelties. The rebellion had lasted
nearly ten years when the fates brought it into collision with
the armed civilization of the West. The Imperialist forces had
made sluggishly some head against it. Nanking had been
invested after a fashion for years on end. 'The prospects of
the Tai-pings,' says Commander Brine, 'in the early spring of
1860, had become very gloomy.' The Imperialist generals had
hemmed Tai-pingdom within certain limits in the lower valley
of the Yantsze, and the movement languished further 'from its
destructive and exhausting nature, which for continued
vitality constantly required new districts of country to
exhaust and destroy.' But in 1859 China and the West came into
collision. ... The rebellion had opportunity to recover lost
ground. For the sixth time the 'Faithful King' relieved
Nanking. The Imperialist generals fell back, and then the
Tai-pings took the offensive, and as the result of sundry
victories, the rebellion regained an active and flourishing
condition. ... Shanghai, one of the treaty ports, was
threatened."
A. Forbes, Chinese Gordon, chapter 2.
{425}
"Europe ... has known evil days under the hands of fierce
conquerors, plundering and destroying in religion's name; but
its annals may be ransacked in vain, without finding any
parallel to the miseries endured in those provinces of China
over which 'The Heavenly King,' the Tai-ping prophet, extended
his fell sway for ten sad years. Hung Sew-tsuen (better known
in China by his assumed title, Tien Wang) ... had read
Christian tracts, had learnt from a Christian missionary; and
when he announced publicly three years afterwards that part of
his mission was to destroy the temples and images, and showed
in the jargon of his pretended visions some traces of his New
Testament study, the conclusion was instantly seized by the
sanguine minds of a section set upon evangelizing the East,
that their efforts had produced a true prophet, fit for the
work. Wedded to this fancy, they rejected as the inventions of
the enemies of missions the tales of Taiping cruelty which
soon reached Europe: and long after the details of the
impostor's life at Nankin, with its medley of visions,
executions, edicts, and harem indulgence, became notorious to
the world, prayers were offered for his success by devotees in
Great Britain as bigoted to his cause as the bloodiest
commander, or 'Wang,' whom he had raised from the ranks of his
followers to carry out his 'exterminating decrees.' The
Taiping cause was lost in China before it was wholly abandoned
by these fanatics in England, and their belief in its
excellence so powerfully reacted on our policy, that it might
have preserved us from active intervention down to the present
time, had not certain Imperialist successes elsewhere, the
diminishing means of their wasted possessions, and the
rashness of their own chiefs, brought the Taiping arms into
direct collision with us. And with the occasion there was
happily raised up the man whose prowess was to scatter their
blood-cemented empire to pieces far more speedily than it had
been built up."
C. C. Chesney, Essays in Military Biog., chapter 10
"The Taiping rebellion was of so barbarous a nature that its
suppression had become necessary in the interests of
civilization. A force raised at the expense of the Shanghai
merchants, and supported by the Chinese government, had been
for some years struggling against its progress. This force,
known as the 'Ever Victorious Army,' was commanded at first by
Ward, an American, and, on his death, by Burgevine, also an
American, who was summarily dismissed; for a short time the
command was held by Holland, an English marine officer, but he
was defeated at Taitsan 22 February, 1863, Li Hung Chang,
governor-general of the Kiang provinces, then applied to the
British commander-in-chief for the services of an English
officer, and Gordon [Charles George, subsequently known as
'Chinese Gordon'] was authorised to accept the command. He
arrived at Sung-Kiong and entered on his new duties as a
mandarin and lieutenant-colonel in the Chinese service on 24
March 1863. His force was composed of some three to four
thousand Chinese, officered by 150 Europeans of almost every
nationality and often of doubtful character. By the
indomitable will of its commander this heterogeneous body was
moulded into a little army whose high-sounding title of
'ever-victorious' became a reality, and in less than two
years, after 33 engagements, the power of the Taipings was
completely broken and the rebellion stamped out. The theatre
of operations was the district of Kiangsoo, lying between the
Yang-tze-Kiang river in the north and the bay of Hang-chow in
the south." Before the summer of 1863 was over, Gordon had
raised the rebel siege of Chanzu, and taken from the Taipings
the towns of Fushan, Taitsan, Quinsan, Kahpoo, Wokong,
Patachiaow, Leeku, Wanti, and Fusaiqwan. Finally, in December,
the great city of Soo-chow was surrendered to him, Gordon was
always in front of all his storming parties, "carrying no
other weapon than a little cane. His men called it his 'magic
wand,' regarding it as a charm that protected his life and led
them on to victory. When Soo-chow fell Gordon had stipulated
with the Governor-general Li for the lives of the Wangs (rebel
leaders). They were treacherously murdered by Li's orders.
Indignant at this perfidy, Gordon refused to serve any longer
with Governor Li, and when on 1 Jan, 1864 money anti rewards
were heaped upon him by the Emperor, declined them all. ...
After some [two] months of inaction it became evident that if
Gordon did not again take the field the Taipings would regain
the rescued country," and he was prevailed upon to resume his
campaign, which, although badly wounded in one of the battles,
he brought to an end in the following April (1864), by the
capture of Chan-chu-fu, "This victory not only ended the
campaign but completely destroyed the rebellion, and the
Chinese regular forces were enabled to occupy Nankin in the
July following. The large money present offered to Gordon by
the emperor was again declined, although he had spent his pay
in promoting the efficiency of his force, so that he wrote
home: 'I shall leave China as poor as when I entered it.'"
Colonel R. H. Veitch, Charles George Gordon
(Dictionary of Nat. Biog.)
ALSO IN:
A. E. Hake, The Story of Chinese Gordon, chapter 3-8.
W. F. Butler, Charles George Gordon, chapter 2.
S. Mossman, General Gordon in China.
Private Diary of Gen. Gordon in China.
Mm. Callery and Yvan, History of the Insurrection in China.
CHINA: A. D. 1856-1860,
War with England and France.
Bombardment and capture of Canton.
The Allies in Pekin.
Their destruction of the Summer Palace.
Terms of peace.
The speech from the throne at the opening of the English
Parliament, on February 3, 1857, "stated that acts of
violence, insults to the British flag, and infractions of
treaty rights, committed by the local authorities at Canton,
and a pertinacious refusal of redress, had rendered it
necessary for her Majesty's officers in China to have recourse
to measures of force to obtain satisfaction. The alleged
offences of the Chinese authorities at Canton had for their
single victim the lorcha 'Arrow.' The lorcha 'Arrow' was a
small boat built on the European model. The word 'Lorcha' is
taken from the Portuguese settlement at Macao, at the mouth of
the Canton river. It often occurs in treaties with the Chinese
authorities. On October 8, 1856, a party of Chinese in charge
of an officer boarded the 'Arrow,' in the Canton river. They
took off twelve men on a charge of piracy, leaving two men in
charge of the lorcha, The 'Arrow' was declared by its owners
to be a British vessel.
{426}
Our consul at Canton, Mr. Parkes, demanded from Yeh, the
Chinese Governor of Canton, the return of the men, basing his
demand upon the Treaty of 1843, supplemental to the Treaty of
1842. This treaty did not give the Chinese authorities any
right to seize Chinese offenders, or supposed offenders, on
board an English vessel. It merely gave them a right to
require the surrender of the offenders at the hands of the
English. The Chinese Governor, Yeh, contended, however, that
the lorcha was a Chinese pirate vessel, which had no right
whatever to hoist the flag of England. It may be plainly
stated at once that the 'Arrow' was not an English vessel, but
only a Chinese vessel which had obtained by false pretences
the temporary possession of a British flag. Mr. Consul Parkes,
however, was fussy, and he demanded the instant restoration of
the captured men, and he sent off to our Plenipotentiary at
Hong Kong, Sir John Bowring, for authority and assistance in
the business. Sir John Bowring ... ordered the Chinese
authorities to surrender all the men taken from the 'Arrow,'
and he insisted that an apology should be offered for their
arrest, and a formal pledge given that no such act should ever
be committed again. If this were not done within forty-eight
hours, naval operations were to be begun against the Chinese.
The Chinese Governor, Yeh, sent back all the men, and
undertook to promise that for the future great care should be
taken that no British ships should be visited improperly by
Chinese officers. But he could not offer an apology for the
particular case of the 'Arrow,' for he still maintained, as
was indeed the fact, that the 'Arrow' was a Chinese vessel,
and that the English had nothing to do with her. Accordingly
Sir John Bowring carried out his threat, and had Canton
bombarded by the fleet which Admiral Sir Michael Seymour
commanded. From October 23 to November 13 naval and military
operations were kept up continuously. Commissioner Yeh
retaliated by foolishly offering a reward for the head of
every Englishman. This news from China created a considerable
sensation in England. On February 24, 1857, Lord Derby brought
forward in the House of Lords a motion, comprehensively
condemning the whole of the proceedings of the British
authorities in China. The debate would have been memorable if
only for the powerful speech in which the venerable Lord
Lyndhurst supported the motion, and exposed the utter
illegality of the course pursued by Sir John Bowring. The
House of Lords rejected the motion of Lord Derby by a majority
of 146 to 110. On February 26 Mr. Cobden brought forward a
similar motion in the House of Commons. ... Mr. Cobden had
probably never dreamed of the amount or the nature of the
support his motion was destined to receive. The vote of
censure was carried by 263 votes against 247--a majority of
16. Lord Palmerston announced two or three days after that the
Government had resolved on a dissolution and an appeal to the
country. Lord Palmerston understood his countrymen." In the
ensuing elections his victory was complete. "Cobden, Bright,
Milner Gibson, W. J. Fox, Layard, and many other leading
opponents of the Chinese policy, were left without seats. Lord
Palmerston came back to power with renewed and redoubled
strength." He "had the satisfaction before he left office [in
1858] of being able to announce the capture of Canton. The
operations against China had been virtually suspended ... when
the Indian Mutiny broke out. England had now got the
cooperation of France. France had a complaint of long standing
against China on account of the murder of some missionaries,
for which redress had been asked in vain. There was,
therefore, an allied attack made upon Canton [December, 1857],
and of course the city was easily captured. Commissioner Yeh
himself was taken prisoner, not until he had been sought for
and hunted out in most ignominious fashion. He was found at
last hidden away in some obscure part of a house. He was known
by his enormous fatness. ... He was put on board an English
man-of-war, and afterwards sent to Calcutta, where he died
early in the following year. Unless report greatly belied him
he had been exceptionally cruel, even for a Chinese official.
The English and French Envoys, Lord Elgin and Baron Gros,
succeeded in making a treaty with China. By the conditions of
the treaty, England and France were to have ministers at the
Chinese Court, on certain special occasions at least, and
China was to be represented in London and Paris; there was to
be toleration of Christianity in China, and a certain freedom
of access to Chinese rivers for English and French mercantile
vessels, and to the interior of China for English and French
subjects. China was to pay the expenses of the war. It was
further agreed that the term 'barbarian' was no longer to be
applied to Europeans in China. There was great congratulation
in England over this treaty, and the prospect it afforded of a
lasting peace with China. The peace thus procured lasted in
fact exactly a year. ... The treaty of Tien-tsin, which had
been arranged by Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, contained a clause
providing for the exchange of the ratifications at Pekin
within a year from the date of the signature, which took place
in June 1858. Lord Elgin returned to England, and his brother,
Mr. Frederick Bruce, was appointed in March 1859 Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China. Mr. Bruce
was directed to proceed by way of the Peiho to Tien-tsin, and
thence to Pekin to exchange the ratifications of the treaty.
Lord Malmesbury, who was then Foreign Secretary ... impressed
upon Mr. Bruce that he was not to be put off from going to the
capital. Instructions were sent out from England at the same
time to Admiral Hope, the Naval Commander-in-Chief in China,
to provide a sufficient force to accompany Mr. Bruce to the
mouth of the Peiho. The Peiho river flows from the highlands
on the west into the Gulf of Pecheli, at the north-cast corner
of the Chinese dominions. The capital of the Empire is about
100 miles inland from the mouth of the Peiho. It does not
stand on that river, which flows past it at some distance
westward, but it is connected with the river by means of a
canal. The town of Tien-tsin stands on the Peiho near its
junction with one of the many rivers that flow into it, and
about forty miles from the mouth. The entrance to the Peiho
was defended by the Taku forts. On June 20, 1859, Mr. Bruce
and the French Envoy reached the mouth of the Peiho with
Admiral Hope's fleet, some nineteen vessels in all, to escort
them. They found the forts defended; some negotiations and
inter-communications took place, and a Chinese official from
Tien-tsin came to Mr. Bruce and endeavoured to obtain some
delay or compromise.
{427}
Mr. Bruce became convinced that the condition of things
predicted by Lord Malmesbury was coming about, and that the
Chinese authorities were only trying to defeat his purpose. He
called on Admiral Hope to clear a passage for the vessels.
When the Admiral brought up his gunboats the forts opened
fire. The Chinese artillerymen showed unexpected skill and
precision. Four of the gunboats were almost immediately
disabled. All the attacking vessels got aground. Admiral Hope
attempted to storm the forts. The attempt was a complete
failure. Admiral Hope himself was wounded; so was the
commander of the French vessel which had contributed a
contingent to the storming party. The attempt to force a
passage of the river was given up and the mission to Pekin was
over for the present. It seems only fair to say that the
Chinese at the mouth of the Peiho cannot be accused of
perfidy. They had mounted the forts and barricaded the river
openly and even ostentatiously. ... It will be easily imagined
that the news created a deep sensation in England. People in
general made up their minds at once that the matter could not
be allowed to rest there, and that the mission to Pekin must
be enforced. ... Before the whole question came to be
discussed in Parliament the Conservatives had gone out and the
Liberals had come in. The English and French Governments
determined that the men who had made the treaty of
Tien-tsin--Lord Elgin and Baron Gros--should be sent back to
insist on its reinforcement. Sir Hope Grant was appointed to
the military command of our land forces, and General Cousin de
Montauban, afterwards Count Palikao, commanded the soldiers of
France. The Chinese, to do them justice, fought very bravely,
but of course they had no chance whatever against such forces
as those commanded by the English and French generals. The
allies captured the Taku forts [August, 1860], occupied
Tien-tsin, and marched on Pekin. The Chinese Government
endeavoured to negotiate for peace, and to interpose any
manner of delay, diplomatic or otherwise, between the allies
and their progress to the capital. Lord Elgin consented at
last to enter into negotiations at Tungchow, a walled town ten
or twelve miles nearer than Pekin. Before the negotiations
took place, Lord Elgin's secretaries, Mr. Parkes and Mr. Loch,
some English officers, Mr. Bowlby, the correspondent of the
'Times,' and some members of the staff of Baron Gros, were
treacherously seized by the Chinese while under a flag of
truce and dragged off to various prisons. Mr. Parkes and Mr.
Loch, with eleven of their companions, were afterwards
released, after having been treated with much cruelty and
indignity, but thirteen of the prisoners died of the horrible
ill-treatment they received. Lord Elgin refused to negotiate
until the prisoners had been returned, and the allied armies
were actually at one of the great gates of Pekin, and had
their guns in position to blow the gate in, when the Chinese
acceded to their terms. The gate was surrendered, the allies
entered the city, and the English and French flags were
hoisted side by side on the walls of Pekin. It was only after
entering the city that Lord Elgin learned of the murder of the
captives. He then determined that the Summer Palace should be
burnt down as a means of impressing the mind of the Chinese
authorities generally with some sense of the danger of
treachery and foul play. Two days were occupied in the
destruction of the palace. It covered an area of many miles.
Gardens, temples, small lodges, and pagodas, groves, grottoes,
lakes, bridges, terraces, artificial hills, diversified the
vast space. All the artistic treasures, all the curiosities,
archaeological and other, that Chinese wealth and Chinese
taste, such as it was, could bring together, had been
accumulated in this magnificent pleasaunce. The surrounding
scenery was beautiful. The high mountains of Tartary ramparted
one side of the enclosure. The buildings were set on fire; the
whole place was given over to destruction. A monument was
raised with an inscription in Chinese, setting forth that such
was the reward of perfidy and cruelty. Very different opinions
were held in England as to the destruction of the Imperial
palace. To many it seemed an act of unintelligible and
unpardonable vandalism. Lord Elgin explained, that if he did
not demand the surrender of the actual perpetrators, it was
because he knew full well that no difficulty would have been
made about giving him a seeming satisfaction. The Chinese
Government would have selected for vicarious punishment, in
all probability, a crowd of mean and unfortunate wretches who
had nothing to do with the murders. ... It is somewhat
singular that so many persons should have been roused to
indignation by the destruction of a building who took with
perfect composure the unjust invasion of a country. The allied
powers now of course had it all their own way. England
established her right to have an envoy in Pekin, whether the
Chinese liked it or not. China had to pay a war indemnity, and
a large sum of money as compensation to the families of the
murdered prisoners and to those who had suffered injuries, and
to make an apology for the attack by the garrison of the Taku
forts. Perhaps the most important gain to Europe from the war
was the knowledge that Pekin was not by any means so large a
city as we had all imagined it to be, and that it was on the
whole rather a crumbling and tumble-down sort of place."
J. McCarthy, Short History of our own Time, chapter 12, 15,
17 (chapters 30 and 42, volume 3, of larger work).
ALSO IN:
L. Oliphant, Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission,
volume 1.
H. B. Loch, Personal Narrative.
S. W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom, chapter 25 (volume 2).
Colonel Sir W. F. Butler, Charles George Gordon, chapter 3.
CHINA: A. D. 1857-1868.
Treaty with the United States.
The Burlingame Embassy and the Burlingame Treaties.
"The government of the United States viewed with anxiety the
new breaking out of hostilities between Great Britain,
supported by France as an ally, and China, in the year 1856.
President Buchanan sent thither the Honorable William B. Reed to
watch the course of events, and to act the part of a mediator
and peacemaker when opportunity should offer. In this he was
sustained by the influence of Russia. Mr. Reed arrived in Hong
Kong, on the fine war steamer Minnesota, November 7, 1857. He
at once set himself to remove the difficulties between the
English and Chinese, and save if possible the future effusion
of blood. He endeavored in vain to persuade the proud and
obstinate governor Yeh to yield, and save Canton from
bombardment.
{428}
He proceeded to the north, and made on behalf of his
government a treaty of peace with China which was signed June
18. The first article of the treaty contains a significant
reference to the posture of the United States in relation to
the war then in progress, as well as to any which might
thereafter arise. The article says: 'There shall be, as there
have always been, peace and friendship between the United
States of America and the Ta-Tsing Empire, and between their
people respectively. They shall not insult or oppress each
other for any trifling cause, so as to produce an estrangement
between them; and if any other nation should act unjustly or
oppressively, the United States will exert their good offices,
on being informed of the case, to bring about an amicable
arrangement of the question, thus showing their friendly
feelings.' A subsequent article of this treaty is to be
interpreted by keeping in view the bitter root of the
difficulties between Great Britain and China which led to the
previous war of 1839 to '42, and to this war. After stating
the ports where Americans shall be permitted to reside and
their vessels to trade, it continues in the following
language: 'But said vessels shall not carry on a clandestine
and fraudulent trade at other ports of China not declared to
be legal, or along the coasts thereof; and any vessel under
the American flag violating this provision shall, with her
cargo, be subject to confiscation to the Chinese government;
and any citizen of the United States who shall trade in any
contraband article of merchandise shall be subject to be dealt
with by the Chinese government, without being entitled to any
countenance or protection from that of the United States; and
the United States will take measures to prevent their flag
from being abused by the subjects of other nations as a cover
for the violation of the laws of the empire.'... The
development of the foreign trade with China during the brief
time which has passed [1870] since the last war has been very
great. ... The American government has been represented most
of the time by the Honorable Anson Burlingame, who has taken the
lead, with remarkable ability and success, in establishing the
policy of peaceful co-operation between the chief
treaty-powers, in encouraging the Chinese to adopt a more wise
and progressive policy in their entercourse with foreign
nations and in the introduction of the improvements of the
age. ... Mr. Burlingame, who had been in China six years,
determined [in 1867] to resign his post and return to America.
The news of it excited much regret among both Chinese and
foreign diplomatists. The former endeavored in vain to
dissuade him from his purpose. Failing to accomplish this, he
was invited by Prince Kung to a farewell entertainment, at
which were present many of the leading officers of the
government. During it they expressed to him their gratitude
for his offices to them as an intelligent and disinterested
counselor and friend. And they seem to have conceived at this
time the thought of putting the relations of the empire with
foreign countries upon a more just and equal basis, by sending
to them an imperial embassy of which he should be the head.
They promptly consulted some of their more reliable friends
among the foreign gentlemen at the capital, and in two days
after they tendered to Mr. Burlingame, much to his surprise,
the appointment of minister plenipotentiary of China to the
Western powers. ... Mr. Burlingame left the Chinese capital on
the 25th of November, 1867. The embassy consisted, besides the
principal, of Chih-kang and Sun Chia-ku, a Manchu and a
Chinese officer, each wearing the red ball on his cap which
indicates an official of a rank next to the highest in the
empire; J. McLeary Brown, formerly of the British legation,
and M. Deschamps, as secretaries; Teh Ming and Fung I as
Chinese attachés, and several other persons in subordinate
positions. ... It went to Shanghai, thence to San Francisco,
where it was most cordially welcomed by both the American and
Chinese mercantile communities. It reached Washington in May,
1868. The embassy was treated with much distinction at the
American capital. No American statesman was so capable and
disposed to enter cordially into its objects as the Secretary
of State at that time, the Honorable William H. Seward, whose mind
had long apprehended the great features of the policy which
American and foreign nations should pursue in relation to the
Chinese empire. On the 16th of July the Senate of the United
States ratified a treaty which he had made in behalf of this
country with the representative of the Chinese government. The
treaty defines and fixes the principles of the intercourse of
Western nations with China, of the importance of which I have
already spoken. It secures the territorial integrity of the
empire, and concedes to China the rights which the civilized
nations of the world, accord to each other as to eminent
domain over land and waters, and jurisdiction over persons and
property therein. It takes the first step toward the
appointment of Chinese consuls in our seaports--a measure
promotive of both Chinese and American interests. It secures
exemption from all disability or persecution on account of
religious faith in either country. It recognizes the right of
voluntary emigration and makes penal the wrongs of the coolie
traffic. It pledges privileges as to travel or residence in
either country such as are enjoyed by the most favored nation.
It grants to the Chinese permission to attend our schools and
colleges, and allows us to freely establish and maintain
schools in China. And while it acknowledges the right of the
Chinese government to control its own whole interior
arrangements, as to railroads, telegraphs and other internal
improvements, it suggests the willingness of our government to
afford aid toward their construction by designating and
authorizing suitable engineers to perform the work, at the
expense of the Chinese government. The treaty expressly leaves
the question of naturalization in either country an open one.
... It is not necessary to follow in detail the progress of
this first imperial Chinese embassy. In England it was
received at first very coldly, and it was some months before
proper attention could be secured from the government to its
objects. At length, however, on November 20, it was presented
to the queen at Windsor Castle. ... What heart is there that
will not join in the cordial wish that the treaties made by
the embassy with Great Britain, France, Prussia and other
European powers may be the commencement of a new era in the
diplomatic and national intercourse of China with those and
all other lands of the West!"
W. Speer, The Oldest and the Newest Empire, ch, 14.
ALSO IN:
Treaties and Conventions between the
U. S. and other Powers (1889), page 159 and 179.
{429}
CHINA: A. D. 1884-1885.
War with France.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1875-1889.
CHINA: A. D. 1892.
Exclusion of Chinese from the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1892.
CHINA: A. D. 1893.
The future of the Chinese.
A speculation.
"China is generally regarded as a stationary power which can
fairly hold its own, though it has lost Annam to France, and
the suzerainty of Upper Burmah to England, and the Amoor
Valley to Russia, but which is not a serious competitor in the
race for empire. There is a certain plausibility in this view.
On the other hand, China has recovered Eastern Turkestan from
Mahommedan rule and from a Russian protectorate, is dominating
the Corea, and has stamped out a dangerous rebellion in
Yunnan. No one can doubt that if China were to get for
sovereign a man with the organising and aggressive genius of
Peter the Great or Frederick the Second, it would be a very
formidable neighbour to either British India or Russia.
Neither is it easy to suppose that the improvements, now
tentatively introduced into China, will not soon be taken up
and pushed on a large scale, so that railways will be carried
into the heart of Asia, and large armies drilled and furnished
with arms of precision on the European model. In any such case
the rights which China has reluctantly conceded or still
claims over Annam and Tonquin, over Siam, over Upper Burmah,
and over Nepaul, may become matters of very serious
discussion. At present the French settlements arrest the
expansion of China in the direction most dangerous to the
world. Unfortunately, the climate of Saigon is such as no
European cares to settle in, and the war to secure Tonquin was
so unpopular that it cost a French premier his tenure of
office. ... 'Whatever, however, be the fortune of China in
this direction, it is scarcely doubtful that she will not only
people up to the furthest boundary of her recognised
territory, but gradually acquire new dominions. The history of
our Straits Settlements will afford a familiar instance how
the Chinese are spreading. They already form half the
population predominating in Singapore and Perak, and the best
observers are agreed that the Malay cannot hold his own
against them. They are beginning to settle in Borneo and
Sumatra, and they are supplanting the natives in some of the
small islands of the Pacific, such as Hawaii. The climate of
all these countries suits them, and they commend themselves to
governments and employers by their power of steady industry;
and they intermarry freely up to a safe point with the women
of the country, getting all the advantages of alliance, yet
not sacrificing their nationality. Several causes have
retarded their spread hitherto: the regions enumerated have
mostly been too insecure for an industrial people to flourish
in, until the British or the Dutch established order; the
government of China has hitherto discouraged emigration;
English administrations have been obliged to be rather wary in
their dealings with a people who showed at Sarawak and Penang
that they were capable of combining for purposes of massacre;
and the Chinese superstition about burial in the sacred soil
of the Celestial Empire made the great majority of the
emigrants birds of passage. All these causes are disappearing.
... Europeans cannot flourish under the tropics, and will not
work with the hand where an inferior race works. What we have
to consider, therefore, is the probability that the natives
who are giving way to the Chinese in the Malay Peninsula will
be able to make head against them in Borneo or Sumatra. Borneo
is nearly six times as big as Java, and if it were peopled
like Java would support a population of nearly 100,000,000.
... In the long run the Chinese, who out-number the Malays as
sixteen to one, who are more decidedly industrial, and who
organise where they can in a way that precludes competition,
are tolerably certain to gain the upper hand. They may not
destroy the early settlers, but they will reduce them to the
position of the Hill tribes in India, or of the Ainos in
Japan. Assume fifty years hence that China has taken its
inevitable position as one of the great powers of the world,
and that Borneo has a population of 10,000,000, predominantly
Chinese, is it easy to suppose in such a case that the larger
part of Borneo would still be a dependency of the Netherlands?
or that the whole island would not have passed, by arms or
diplomacy, into the possession of China? ... There are those
who believe that the Chinaman is likely to supersede the
Spaniard and Indian alike in parts of South America. Without
assuming that all of these possibilities are likely to be
realised, there is surely a strong presumption that so great a
people as the Chinese, and possessed of such enormous natural
resources, will sooner or later overflow their borders and
spread over new territory, and submerge weaker races."
C. H. Pearson, National Life and Character,
pages 45-51.
----------CHINA: End----------
CHINANTECS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ZAPOTECS, ETC.
CH'ING OR TSING DYNASTY, The.
See CHINA: A. D. 1294-1882.
CHINGIS KHAN, Conquests of.
See MONGOLS: A. D. 1153-1227;
and INDIA: A. D. 977-1290.
CHINOOK, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CHINOOKAN FAMILY.
CHIOGGIA, The War of.
See VENICE: A. D. 1379-1381.
CHIOS.
The rocky island known anciently as Chios, called Scio in
modern times, was one of the places which claimed Homer's
birth. It is situated in the Ægean Sea, separated by a strait
only five miles wide from the Asiatic coast. The wines of
Chios were famous in antiquity and have a good reputation at
the present day. The island was an important member of the
Ionian confederation, and afterwards subject to Athens, from
which it revolted twice, suffering terrible barbarities in
consequence.
See ASIA MINOR: THE GREEK COLONIES.
CHIOS: B. C. 413.
Revolt from Athens.
See GREECE: B. C. 413-412.
CHIOS: A. D. 1346.
Taken by the Genoese.
See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1348-1355.
CHIOS: A. D. 1681.
Blockade and attack by the French.
See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1664-1684.
CHIOS: A. D. 1770.
Temporary possession by the Russians.
See TURKS: A. D. 1768-1774.
CHIOS: A. D. 1822.
Turkish massacre of Christians.
See GREECE: A. D. 1821-1829.
----------CHIOS: End----------
CHIPPEWA, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
{430}
CHIPPEWAS, OR OJIBWAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY,
AND OJIBWAS.
CHIPPEWYANS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES ATHAPASCAN FAMILY.
CHITON, The.
"The chiton [of the ancient Greeks] was an oblong piece of
cloth arranged round the body so that the arm was put through
a hole in the closed side, the two ends of the open side being
fastened over the opposite shoulder by means of a button or
clasp. On this latter side, therefore, the chiton was
completely open, at least as far as the thigh, underneath of
which the two ends might be either pinned or stitched
together. Round the hips the chiton was fastened with a ribbon
or girdle, and the lower part could be shortened as much as
required by pulling it through this girdle. ... Frequently
sleeves, either shorter and covering only the upper arm, or
continued to the wrist were added to the chiton. ... The
short-sleeved chiton is frequently worn by women and children
on monuments. Of the sleeveless chiton, worn by men over both
shoulders, it is stated that it was the sign of a free
citizen. Slaves and artisans are said to have worn a chiton
with one hole for the left arm, the right arm and half the
chest remaining quite uncovered. ... It appears clearly that
the whole chiton consists of one piece. Together with the open
and half-open kinds of the chiton we also find the closed
double chiton flowing down to the feet. It was a piece of
cloth considerably longer than the human body, and closed on
both sides, inside of which the person putting it on stood as
in a cylinder."
E. Guhl and W. Koner, Life of the Greeks and Romans,
part 1, section 41.
"The principal, or rather, the sole garment, of the Dorian
maidens was the chiton, or himation made of woolen stuff, and
without sleeves, but fastened on either shoulder by a large
clasp, and gathered on the breast by a kind of brooch. This
sleeveless robe, which seldom reached more than half way to
the knee, was moreover left open up to a certain point on both
sides, so that the skirts or wings, flying open as they
walked, entirely exposed their limbs. ... The married women,
however, did not make their appearance in public 'en chemise,'
but when going abroad donned a second garment which seems to
have resembled pretty closely their husbands' himatia."
J. A. St. John, The Hellenes, book 3, chapter 6.
CHITTIM.
See KITTIM.
CHIVALRY.
"The primitive sense of this well-known word, derived from the
French Chevalier, signifies merely cavalry, or a body of
soldiers serving on horseback; and has been used in that
general acceptation by the best of our poets, ancient and
modern, from Milton to Thomas Campbell. But the present
article respects the peculiar meaning given to the word in
modern Europe, as applied to the order of knighthood,
established in almost all her kingdoms during the middle ages,
and the laws, rules, and customs, by which it was governed.
Those laws and customs have long been antiquated, but their
effects may still be traced in European manners; and,
excepting only the change which flowed from the introduction
of the Christian religion, we know no cause which has produced
such general and permanent difference betwixt the ancients and
moderns, as that which has arisen out of the institution of
chivalry. ... From the time that cavalry becomes used in war,
the horseman who furnishes and supports a charger arises, in
all countries, into a person of superior importance to the
mere foot-soldier. ... In various military nations, therefore,
we find that horsemen are distinguished as an order in the
state. ... But, in the middle ages, the distinction ascribed
to soldiers serving on horseback assumed a very peculiar and
imposing character. They were not merely respected on account
of their wealth or military skill, but were bound together by
a union of a very peculiar character, which monarchs were
ambitious to share with the poorest of their subjects, and
governed by laws directed to enhance, into enthusiasm, the
military spirit and the sense of personal honour associated
with it. The aspirants to this dignity were not permitted to
assume the sacred character of knighthood until after a long
and severe probation, during which they practised, as
acolytes, the virtues necessary to the order of Chivalry.
Knighthood was the goal to which the ambition of every noble
youth turned; and to support its honours, which (in theory at
least) could only be conferred on the gallant, the modest, and
the virtuous, it was necessary he should spend a certain time
in a subordinate situation, attendant upon some knight of
eminence, observing the conduct of his master, as what must in
future be the model of his own, and practising the virtues of
humility, modesty, and temperance, until called upon to
display those of a higher order. ... In the general and
abstract definition of Chivalry, whether as comprising a body
of men whose military service was on horseback, and who were
invested with peculiar honours and privileges, or with
reference to the mode and period in which these distinctions
and privileges were conferred, there is nothing either
original or exclusively proper to our Gothic ancestors. It was
in the singular tenets of Chivalry,--in the exalted,
enthusiastic, and almost sanctimonious, ideas connected with
its duties,--in the singular balance which its institutions
offered against the evils of the rude ages in which it arose,
that we are to seek those peculiarities which render it so
worthy of our attention. ... The education of the future
knight began at an early period. The care of the mother, after
the first years of early youth were passed, was deemed too
tender, and the indulgences of the paternal roof too
effeminate, for the future aspirant to the honours of
chivalry. ... To counteract these habits of indulgence, the
first step to the order of knighthood was the degree of Page.
The young and noble stripling, generally about his twelfth
year, was transferred from his father's house to that of some
baron or gallant knight, sedulously chosen by the anxious
parent as that which had the best reputation for good order
and discipline. ... When advancing age and experience in the
use of arms had qualified the page for the hardships and
dangers of actual war, he was removed, from the lowest to the
second gradation of chivalry, and became an Eseuyer, Esquire,
or Squire. The derivation of this phrase has been much
contested. It has been generally supposed to be derived from
its becoming the official duty of the esquire to carry the
shield (Escu) of the knight his master, until he was about to
engage the enemy. Others have fetched the epithet (more
remotely certainly) from Scuria, a stable, the charger of the
knight being under the especial care of the squire.
{431}
Others, again, ascribe the derivation of the word to
the right which the squire himself had to carry a shield, and
to blazon it with armorial bearings. This, in later times,
became almost the exclusive meaning attached to the
appellative esquire; and, accordingly, if the phrase now means
anything, it means a gentleman having a right to carry arms.
There is reason, however, to think this is a secondary meaning
of the word, for we do not find the word Escuyer, applied as a
title of rank, until so late as the Ordonnance of Blois, in
1579. ... In actual war the page was not expected to render
much service, but that of the squire was important and
indispensable. Upon a march he bore the helmet and shield of
the knight and led his horse of battle, a tall heavy animal
fit to bear the weight of a man in armour, but which was led
in hand in marching, while the knight rode an ambling hackney.
The squire was also qualified to perform the part of an
armourer, not only lacing his master's helmet and buckling his
cuirass, but also closing with a hammer the rivets by which
the various pieces were united to each other. ... In the
actual shock of battle, the esquire attended closely on the
banner of his master, or on his person if he were only a
knight bachelor, kept pace with him during the melee, and was
at hand to remount him when his steed was slain, or relieve
him when oppressed by numbers. If the knight made prisoners
they were the charge of the esquire; if the esquire himself
fortuned to make one, the ransom belonged to his master. ... A
youth usually ceased to be a page at 14, or a little earlier,
and could not regularly receive the honour of knighthood until
he was one-and-twenty. ... Knighthood was, in its origin, an
order of a republican, or at least an oligarchic nature;
arising ... from the customs of the free tribes of Germany

[see COMITATUS], and, in its essence, not requiring the
sanction of a monarch. On the contrary, each knight could
confer the order of knighthood upon whomsoever preparatory
noviciate and probation had fitted to receive it. The highest
potentates sought the accolade, or stroke which conferred the
honour, at the hands of the worthiest knight whose
achievements had dignified the period. ... Though no positive
regulation took place on the subject, ambition on the part of
the aspirant, and pride and policy on that of the sovereign
princes and nobles of high rank, gradually limited to the
latter the power of conferring knighthood. ... Knights were
usually made either on the eve of battle, or when the victory
had been obtained; or they were created during the pomp of
some solemn warning or grand festival. ... The spirit of
chivalry sunk gradually under a combination of physical and
moral causes; the first arising from the change gradually
introduced into the art of war, and the last from the equally
great alteration produced by time in the habits and modes of
thinking in modern Europe. Chivalry began to dawn in the end
of the 10th, and beginning of the 11th century. It blazed
forth with high vigour during the crusades, which indeed may
be considered as exploits of national knight-errantry, or
general wars, undertaken on the very same principles which
actuated the conduct of individual knights adventurers. But
its most brilliant period was during the wars between France
and England, and it was unquestionably in those kingdoms that
the habit of constant and honourable opposition, unembittered
by rancour or personal hatred, gave the fairest opportunity
for the exercise of the virtues required from him whom Chaucer
terms 'a very perfect gentle knight.' Froissart frequently
makes allusions to the generosity exercised by the French and
English to their prisoners, and contrasts it with the dungeons
to which captives taken in war were consigned both in Spain
and Germany. Yet both these countries, and indeed every
kingdom in Europe, partook of the spirit of chivalry in a
greater or less degree; and even the Moors of Spain caught the
emulation, and had their orders of Knighthood as well as the
Christians. But even during this splendid period, various
causes were silently operating the future extinction of the
flame, which blazed thus wide and brightly. An important
discovery, the invention of gunpowder, had taken place, and
was beginning to be used in war, even when chivalry was in its
highest glory. ... Another change, of vital importance, arose
from the institution of the bands of gens-d'armes, or men at
arms in France, constituted ... expressly as a sort of
standing army. ... A more fatal cause had, however, been for
some time operating in England, as well as France, for the
destruction of the system we are treating of. The wars of York
and Lancaster in England, and those of the Huguenots and of
the League, were of a nature so bitter and rancorous, as was
utterly inconsistent with the courtesy, fair play, and
gentleness, proper to chivalry. ... The civil wars not only
operated in debasing the spirit of chivalry, but in exhausting
and destroying the particular class of society from which its
votaries were drawn."
Sir W. Scott, Essay on Chivalry.
ALSO IN: G
P. R. James, History of Chivalry.
H. Hallam, State of Europe during the Middle
Ages, chapter 9, part 2 (volume 3).
F. P. Guizot, History of Civilization in France, 6th lecture,
2d course (volume 4).
C. Mills, History of Chivalry.
H. Stebbing, History of Chivalry and the Crusades.
L. Gautier, Chivalry.
K. H. Digby, The Broadstone of Honour.
Dr. Doran, Knights and their Days.
See, also, KNIGHTHOOD, ORDERS OF.
CHLAMYS, The.
"The chlamys [worn by the ancient Greeks] ... was an oblong
piece of cloth thrown over the left shoulder, the open ends
being fastened across the right shoulder by means of a clasp;
the corners hanging down were, as in the himation, kept
straight by means of weights sewed into them. The chlamys was
principally used by travellers and soldiers."
E. Guhl and W. Koner, Life of the Greeks and Romans,
part 1, section 42.
CHOCIM.
See CHOCZIM.
CHOCTAWS, OR CHA'HTAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY.
CHOCZIM (KHOTZIM, CHOTYN, KHOTIN, CHOCIM, KOTZIM): A. D. 1622.
Defeat of the Turks by the Poles.
See POLAND: A. D. 1590-1648.
CHOCZIM: A. D. 1672.
Taken by Sobieska and the Poles.
Great defeat of the Turks.
See POLAND: A. D. 1668-1696.
CHOCZIM: A. D. 1739.
Captured by the Russians and restored to the Turks.
See Russia: A. D.1725-1739.
CHOCZIM: A. D. 1769.
Taken by the Russians.
Defeat of the Turks.
See TURKS: A. D. 1768-1774.
{432}
CHOCZIM: A. D. 1790.
Defeat of the Turks by the Russians.
See TURKS: A. D. 1776-1792.
----------CHOCZIM: End----------
CHOLET, Battles of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY-DECEMBER).
CHOLULA: Pyramids at.
See MEXICO, ANCIENT: THE TOLTEC EMPIRE.
CHOLULA: A. D. 1519.
The Massacre at.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1519 (OCTOBER).
----------CHOLULA: End----------
CHONTALS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CHONTALS.
CHONTAQUIROS, OR PIRU, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS.
CHORASMIA.
See KHUAREZM.
CHOREGIA.
See LITURGIES.
CHOTUSITZ, OR CZASLAU, Battle of.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1742 (JANUARY-MAY).
CHOTYN.
See CHOCZIM.
CHOUANS.--CHOUANNERIE.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1796.
CHOUT.
The blackmail levied by the Mahrattas.
See INDIA: A. D. 1805-1816.
CHOWANS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: IROQUOIS TRIBES OF THE SOUTH.
CHREMONIDEAN WAR, The.
See ATHENS: B. C. 288-263.
CHRIST, Knights of the Order of.
See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1415-1460.
CHRISTIAN I.,
King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, A. D. 1448-1481.
Christian II., A. D. 1513-1523.
Christian III., King of Denmark and Norway, A. D. 1534-1558.
Christian IV., A.. D. 1588-1648.
Christian V., A. D. 1670-1699.
Christian VI., A. D. 1730-1746.
Christian VII., A. D. 1766-1808.
Christian VIII., King of Denmark, A. D. 1839-1848.
Christian IX., A. D. 1863-.
CHRISTIAN COMMISSION, The United States.
See SANITARY COMMISSION.
CHRISTIAN ERA.
See ERA, CHRISTIAN.

CHRISTIANITY:
"Historical geography has of late years become an integral
part of the historical science. Recent investigations have
opened up the subject and a solid beginning has been made--but
it is only a beginning. It is clearly recognized that the land
itself as it appears at different periods is one of those
invaluable original documents upon which history is built, and
no stone is being left unturned to clear away mysteries and to
bring to our aid a realism hitherto unknown to the science.
... But the special branch of this vast and complicated theme
of historical geography which interests us most and which I
desire briefly to bring to your attention is that which deals
with the Christian Church. ... Our eyes first rest upon that
little group at Jerusalem that made up the Pentecostal Church.
Its spread was conditioned by the extent and character of the
Roman Empire, by the municipal genius of that empire, its
great highways by land and sea; conditioned by the commercial
routes and the track of armies outside the bounds of
civilization; conditioned by the spread of languages--
Aramaic, Greek, and Latin,--and, most important of all,
conditioned by the whereabouts of the seven million Jews
massed in Syria, Babylonia, and Egypt, and scattered
everywhere throughout the Empire and far beyond its
boundaries."
H. W. Hulbert, The Historical Geography of the Christian
Church (American Society of Church History, volume 3).
"When we turn from the Jewish 'dispersion' in the East to that
in the West, we seem in quite a different atmosphere. Despite
their intense nationalism, all unconsciously to themselves,
their mental characteristics and tendencies were in the
opposite direction from those of their brethren. With those of
the East rested the future of Judaism; with them of the West,
in a sense, that of the world. The one represented old Israel
groping back into the darkness of the past; the other young
Israel, stretching forth its hands to where the dawn of a new
day was about to break. These Jews of the West are known by
the term Hellenists. ... The translation of the Old Testament
into Greek may be regarded as the starting point of Hellenism.
It rendered possible the hope that what in its original form
had been confined to the few, might become accessible to the
world at large. ... In the account of the truly representative
gathering in Jerusalem on that ever-memorable Feast of Weeks,
the division of the 'dispersion' into two grand sections--the
Eastern or Trans-Euphratic, and the Western or
Hellenist--seems clearly marked. In this arrangement the
former would include 'the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and
dwellers in Mesopotamia,' Judæa standing, so to speak, in the
middle, while 'the Cretes and Arabians' would typically
represent the farthest outrunners respectively of the Western
and Eastern Diaspora. The former, as we know from the New
Testament, commonly bore in Palestine the name of the
'dispersion of the Greeks', and of 'Hellenists' or 'Grecians.'
On the other hand, the Trans-Euphratic Jews, who 'inhabited
Babylon and many of the other satrapies,' were included with
the Palestinians and the Syrians under the term 'Hebrews,'
from the common language which they spoke. But the difference
between the 'Grecians' and the 'Hebrews' was far deeper than
merely of language, and extended to the whole direction of
thought."
A. Edersheim. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,
volume 1, book 1, chapter 2-3, and 1.
"Before Pentecost an assembly of the believers took place, at
which the post vacated in the number of the apostles by the
suicide of the traitor Judas of Kerioth, was filled up by the
election of Matthias by lot. On this occasion the number of
the assembled brethren amounted to about 120 men. ... At the
feast of Pentecost ... a very considerable accession was made
to the formerly moderate band of believers in Jerusalem; ...
about 3,000 souls received the word and were joined to the
Church by baptism (Acts ii. 41). We must not, however, at once
credit the Church in Jerusalem with this increase. For among
the listeners to the apostolic discourse there were
Israelitish guests and proselytes from near and distant
countries (ii. 5, 9-11, 14), whence we may infer that of those
newly converted many were not living in Jerusalem itself, but
partly in Judæa and Galilee, partly in countries beyond
Palestine, who therefore returned home after the feast days
were ended.
{433}
Some of these might, under certain circumstances, form
the centre of a small Church in the dispersion, so that
gradually Churches may have arisen to which also James may
possibly have addressed his Epistle. ... So abundantly did God
bless with success the activity of the early apostles though
limited to the nation of Israel and the land of Canaan, and
their fidelity within a circumscribed sphere. Hence there
existed at the end of the period of which we treat numerous
Christian Churches in Jerusalem and the whole country of Judæa
(comp. Galatians i. 22, etc.: Acts xi. 1), also on the coast (Acts
ix. 32-35, etc.) in Samaria and Galilee, and finally in Syria,
Phenicia, and Cyprus, (Acts ix. 2, 10, 25, xi. 19), some of
which were directly, some indirectly, founded by the Twelve,
and were, in any case, governed and guided by them.' In the
above named districts outside Palestine, it might not, indeed,
have been easy to find a Christian Church consisting
exclusively of believing Jews, for as a rule they consisted of
believing Jews and individual Gentiles. On the other hand, we
shall scarcely be wrong in regarding the Christian Churches
within Palestine itself as composed entirely of believing
Israelites. But even among these there were many distinctions,
e. g., between Palestinians and Hellenists."
G. V. Lechler, The Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Times,
volume 1, pages 30-35.
"We find the early [Jewish] Christians observing the national
feasts and holidays (Acts ii. 1: xviii. 21: xx. 6, 16: Romans
xiv. 5). They take part in the worship of the temple and the
synagogue; they pray at the customary hours (chapters ii. 46;
iii. 1; volume 42; x. 9). They observe the fasts, and undergo
voluntary abstinence, binding themselves by special vows like
all pious Jews (xiii. 2: xvii. 18; xxi. 23). They scrupulously
avoid unlawful food, and all legal defilement (x. 14). They
have their children circumcised (xv. 5; xvi. 3; 65493 volume 2).
... This scrupulous piety won for them the esteem and
admiration of the people (chap. volume 13)." At first their creed
was "comprised in a single dogma: 'Jesus is the Messiah.' ...
Their preaching of the Gospel strictly followed the lines of
Messianic tradition (i. 7; ii. 36; iii. 20). ... But in
reality all this formed only the outside of their life and
creed. ... Herein lies the profound significance of the
miracle of Pentecost. That day was the birthday of the Church,
not because of the marvelous success of Peter's preaching, but
because the Christian principle, hitherto existing only
objectively and externally in the person of Jesus, passed from
that moment into the souls of His disciples. ... And thus in
the very midst of Judaism we see created and unfolded a form
of religious life essentially different from it--the Christian
life."
A. Sabatier, The Apostle Paul, pages 35-36.
"By the two parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven,
Christ marked out the two sides or aspects of His truth--its
external growth from the least to the greatest, and its
internal action on society at large--as setting up a ferment,
and making a new lump out of the unkneaded mass of the old
humanity. With these two symbols in view we may gauge what the
gospel was designed to be and to do. It was to grow into a
great outward society--the tree of the Church; but it was also
to do a work on secular society as such, corresponding to the
action of leaven on flour. The history of Christianity has
been the carrying out of these two distinct and contrasted
conceptions; but how imperfectly, and under what drawbacks."
Reverend J. B. Heard, Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theology
Contrasted, page 186.
"The organic connection of Jewish Christians with the
synagogue, which must, in accordance with the facts before us,
be regarded as a rule, is certainly not to be taken as a mere
incidental phenomenon, a customary habit or arbitrary
accommodation, but as a moral fact resting upon an internal
necessity, having its foundation in the love of Jewish
Christians to their nation, and in the adhesion of their
religious consciousness to the old covenant. To mistake this
would be to underrate the wide bearing of the fact. But lest
we should over-estimate its importance, we must at once
proceed to another consideration. Within Judaism we must
distinguish not only the Rabbinical or Pharisaic tradition of
the original canonical revelation, but also within the canon
itself we have to distinguish the Levitical element from the
prophetic, ... taking the latter not in a close but a wide
sense as the living spiritual development of the theocracy."
G. V. Lechler, The Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Times,
volume 1, page 54.
"Moreover the law had claims on a Hebrew of Palestine wholly
independent of his religious obligations. To him it was a
national institution, as well as a divine covenant. Under the
Gospel he might consider his relations to it in this latter
character altered, but as embodying the decrees and usages of
his country it still demanded his allegiance. To be a good
Christian he was not required to be a bad citizen. On these
grounds the more enlightened members of the mother-church
would justify their continued adhesion to the law. Nor is
there any reason to suppose that St. Paul himself took a
different view of their obligations."
J. B. Lightfoot, Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
page 67.
"The term 'Jewish-Christianity' is applicable exclusively to
those Christians who really retained, entirely or in the
smallest part, the national and political forms of Judaism and
insisted upon the observance of the Mosaic Law without
modification as essential to Christianity, at least to the
Christianity of the Jewish-born converts, or who indeed
rejected these forms, but acknowledged the prerogative of the
Jewish people also in Christianity."
A. Harnack, Outlines of the History of Dogma, page 75.
CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 33-100.
The Rise of the Churches.
Jerusalem.
"After the miraculous healing of the cripple and the discourse
of the Apostle Peter on that occasion, the historian goes on
to say, Many of them which heard the word believed, and the
number of the men was about 5,000' (iv. 4). It seems as if in
consequence of this event, which made no little stir, a larger
number joined themselves to the Church. Nor is it probable
that this healing took place until a long time after the
beginning of the Church. The miracle, with the effect which it
had, serves as a resting place at which the result of the
previous growth of the Church may be ascertained. And here the
number again incidentally mentioned refers without doubt to
the Church at Jerusalem."
G. V. Lechler, The Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Times,
volume 1, page 32.
{434}
The early history of the Churches "falls into three periods
which mark three distinct stages in its progress:
(1) The Extension of the Church to the Gentiles;
(2) The Recognition of Gentile Liberty;
(3) The Emancipation of the Jewish Churches.
... And soon enough the pressure of events began to be felt.
The dispersion was the link which connected the Hebrews of
Palestine with the outer world. Led captive by the power of
Greek philosophy at Athens and Tarsus and Alexandria,
attracted by the fascinations of Oriental mysticism in Asia,
swept along with the busy whirl of social life in the city and
court of the Cæsars, these outlying members of the chosen race
had inhaled a freer spirit and contracted wider interests than
their fellow-countrymen at home. By a series of insensible
gradations--proselytes of the covenant--proselytes of the
gate--superstitious devotees who observed the rites without
accepting the faith of the Mosaic dispensation--curious
lookers-on who interested themselves in the Jewish ritual as
they would in the worship of Isis or of Astarte--the most
stubborn zealot of the law was linked to the idolatrous
heathen whom he abhorred and who despised him in turn. Thus
the train was unconsciously laid, when the spark fell from
heaven and fired it. ... Meanwhile at Jerusalem some years
passed away before the barrier of Judaism was assailed. The
Apostles still observed the Mosaic ritual; they still confined
their preaching to Jews by birth, or Jews by adoption, the
proselytes of the covenant. At length a breach was made, and
the assailants as might be expected were Hellenists. The first
step towards the creation of an organized ministry was also
the first step towards the emancipation of the Church. The
Jews of Judæa, 'Hebrews of the Hebrews' had ever regarded
their Hellenist brethren with suspicion and distrust; and this
estrangement reproduced itself in the Christian Church. The
interests of the Hellenist widows had been neglected in the
daily distribution of alms. Hence 'arose a murmuring of the
Hellenists against the Hebrews' (Acts vi. 1), which was met by
the appointment of seven persons specially charged with
providing for the wants of these neglected poor. If the
selection was made, as St. Luke's language seems to imply, not
by the Hellenists themselves but by the Church at large (vi.
2), the concession when granted was carried out in a liberal
spirit. All the names of the seven are Greek, pointing to a
Hellenist rather than a Hebrew extraction, and one is
especially described as a proselyte, being doubtless chosen to
represent a hitherto small but growing section of the
community. By this appointment the Hellenist members obtained
a status in the Church; and the effects of this measure soon
became visible. Two out of the seven stand prominently forward
as the champions of emancipation, Stephen the preacher and
martyr of liberty, and Philip the practical worker."
J. B. Lightfoot, Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
pages 50-52.
"The Hellenist Stephen roused deep-stirring movements chiefly
in Hellenist circles. ... The persecution of the Jerusalem
community--perhaps specially of its Hellenist part--which
followed the stoning of Stephen, became a means of promoting
the spread of the Christian faith to ... Cyprus, at last to so
important a centre as Antioch, the imperial capital of the
East. To the winning of the Jews to faith in Jesus there is
already added the reception into the Christian community of
the pious Gentile Cornelius, a proselyte of the gate. ...
Though this appears in tradition as an individual case
sanctioned by special Divine guidance, in the meantime
Hellenist Christians had already begun to preach the Gospel to
born Greeks, also at Antioch in Syria, and successfully (Acts
xi. 19-26), Barnabas is sent thither from Jerusalem."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church,
page 53-54.
"Philip, driven from Jerusalem by the persecution, preached
Christ to the Samaritans. ... The Apostles who had remained at
Jerusalem, hearing of the success of Philip's preaching, sent
two of their number into this new and fruitful field of labor.
... Peter and John return to Jerusalem while the Deacon Philip
is called, by a new manifestation of the will of God, yet
further to extend the field of Christian missions. It is not a
Samaritan but a pagan, whom he next instructs in the truth.
... He was an Ethiopian eunuch, a great dignitary of the court
of Meroë, treasurer of the Queen. ... This man, a pagan by
birth, had taken a long journey to worship the true God in the
temple of Jerusalem."
E. De Pressensé, The Early Years of Christianity,
pages 71-74.
"For the sake of the popular feeling Herod Agrippa laid hands
on members of the community, and caused James the brother of
John (the sons of Zebedee) to be put to death by the sword, in
the year 44, for soon thereafter Herod Agrippa died. Peter
also was taken prisoner, but miraculously escaped and
provisionally left Jerusalem. From this time on James the
brother of the Lord appears ever more and more as really
bearing rank as head of the Jerusalem community, while Peter
more and more devotes himself to the apostolic mission abroad,
and indeed, more accurately, to the mission in Israel."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church, page 55.
"The accounts which we have regarding the apostle Peter,
represent him as preaching the gospel from the far east to
distant parts of the west. ... According to his own words, he
founded churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia, and according to the testimony of ancient historians
of the Church in the east also; in Syria, Babylon,
Mesopotamia, Chaldaea, Arabia, Phoenicia and Egypt, and in the
west, at Rome, in Britain, Ireland, Helvetia and Spain."
J. E. T. Wiltsch, Hand Book of the Geography and
Statistics of The Church, volume 1, pages 19-20.
"Three and three only of the personal disciples and immediate
followers of our Lord hold any prominent place in the
Apostolic records--James, Peter, and John; the first the
Lord's brother, the two latter the foremost members of the
Twelve. Apart from an incidental reference to the death of
James the son of Zebedee, which is dismissed in a single
sentence, the rest of the Twelve are mentioned by name for the
last time on the day of the Lord's Ascension. Thenceforward
they disappear wholly from the canonical writings. And this
silence also extends to the traditions of succeeding ages. We
read indeed of St. Thomas in India, of St. Andrew in Scythia;
but such scanty notices, even if we accept them as
trustworthy, show only the more plainly how little the Church
could tell of her earliest teachers. Doubtless they laboured
zealously and effectively in the spread of the Gospel; but, so
far as we know, they have left no impress of their individual
mind and character on the Church at large. Occupying the
foreground, and indeed covering the whole canvas of early
ecclesiastical history, appear four figures alone, St. Paul,
and the three Apostles of the Circumcision."
J. B. Lightfoot, Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
page 46.
{435}
"While Peter (as it appears) is occupied with the work of
preaching to the Jews outside of Palestine, the community at
Jerusalem, and indeed the Palestinian communities in general,
stand under the leadership of the brother of the Lord, James,
as their recognised head. They remain strictly in the life of
the law, and still hold securely to the hope of the conversion
of the whole of God's people (which Paul had for the present
given up). The mission to the Gentiles is indeed recognised,
but the manner of its conduct by Paul and the powerful
increase of Pauline communities excite misgivings and
dissensions. For in these mixed communities, in the presence
of what is often a preponderating Gentile element, it becomes
ever clearer in what direction the development is pressing;
that, in fact, for the sake of the higher Christian communion
the legal customs even of the Jewish Christians in these
communities must inevitably be broken down, and general
Christian freedom, on principle, from the commands of the law,
gain recognition."
Dr. Wilhelm Moeller, History of the Christian Church,
page 73.
"The fall of Jerusalem occurred in the Autumn of the year 70
[see JEWS: A. D. 66-70]. And soon the catastrophe came which
solved the difficult problem. ... Jerusalem was razed to the
ground, and the Temple-worship ceased, never again to be
revived. The Christians foreseeing the calamity had fled
before the tempest. ... Before the crisis came, they had been
deprived of the counsel and guidance of the leading apostles.
Peter had fallen a martyr at Rome; John had retired to Asia
Minor; James, the Lord's brother, was slain not long before
the great catastrophe. ... He was succeeded by his cousin
Symeon, the son of Clopas and nephew of Joseph. Under these
circumstances the Church was reformed at Pella. Its history in
the ages following is a hopeless blank."
J. B. Lightfoot, Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
page 68.
"While Cæsarea succeeded Jerusalem as the political capital of
Palestine, Antioch succeeded it as the centre of Christendom."
A. Plummer, Church of the Early Fathers, chapter 3.
CHRISTIANITY: Antioch.
"Under Macedonian rule the Greek intellect had become the
leading intellectual power of the world. The great
Greek-speaking towns of the East were alike the strongholds of
intellectual power, the battlefields of opinion and systems,
and the laboratories of scientific research, where discoveries
were made and literary undertakings requiring the combination
of forces were carried out. Such was Antioch on the Orontes,
the meeting point of Syrian and Greek intellect; such, above
all, was Alexandria."
J. J. von Döllinger, Studies in European History,
page 165.
"The chief line along which the new religion developed was
that which led from Syrian Antioch through the Cilician Gates,
across Lycaonia to Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome. One subsidiary
line followed the land route by Philadelphia, Troas, Philippi,
and the Egnatian Way to Brindisi and Rome; and another went
north from the Gates by Tyana and Cæsareia of Cappadocia to
Amisos in Pontus, the great harbour of the Black Sea, by which
the trade of Central Asia was carried to Rome. The maintenance
of close and constant communication between the scattered
congregations must be presupposed, as necessary to explain the
growth of the Church and the attitude which the State assumed
towards it. Such communication was, on the view advocated in
the present work, maintained along the same lines on which the
general development of the Empire took place; and politics,
education and religion grew side by side."
W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, page 10.
"The incitement to the wider preaching of the Gospel in the
Greek world starts from the Christian community at Antioch.
For this purpose Barnabas receives Paul as a companion (Acts
xiii., and xiv.) Saul, by birth a Jew of the tribe of
Benjamin, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, educated as a Pharisee;
and although indeed as a Hellenist, he had command of Greek
and had come into contact with Greek culture and Greek life,
yet had not actually passed through the discipline of Greek
culture, was introduced by Gamaliel to the learned study of
the law, and his whole soul was seized with fiery zeal for the
Statutes of the fathers. ... After [his conversion and] his
stay in Damascus and in Arabia and the visit to Peter (and
James) at Jerusalem, having gone to Syria and Cilicia, he was
taken to Antioch by Barnabas."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church, page 57.
"The strength and zeal of the Antioch Christian society are
shown in the sending forth of Paul and Barnabas, with Mark, a
cousin of Barnabas, for their companion for a part of the way,
on a preaching tour in the eastern districts of Asia Minor.
First they visited Cyprus, where Sergius Paulus, the
proconsul, was converted. Thence they sailed to Attalia, on
the southern coast of Pamphylia, and near Perga; from Perga
they proceeded to Antioch in Pisidia, and from there eastward
to Iconium, and as far as Lystra and Derbe in Lycaonia.
Retracing their steps, they came back to Attalia, and sailed
directly to Antioch. ... This was the first incursion of Paul
into the domain of heathenism."
G. P. Fisher, History of the Christian Church, page 22.
"How then should Paul and Barnabas proceed? To leave Syria
they must go first to Seleuceia, the harbour of Antioch, where
they would find ships going south to the Syrian coast and
Egypt, and west either by way of Cyprus or along the coast of
Asia Minor. The western route led toward the Roman world, to
which all Paul's subsequent history proves that he considered
himself called by the Spirit. The Apostles embarked in a ship
for Cyprus, which was very closely connected by commerce and
general intercourse with the Syrian coast. After traversing
the island from east to west, they must go onward. Ships going
westward naturally went across the coast of Pamphylia, and the
Apostles, after reaching Paphos, near the west end of Cyprus,
sailed in one of these ships, and landed at Attalia in
Pamphylia."
W. M. Ramsay. The Church in the Roman Empire, page 60.
"The work starting from Antioch, by which access to the faith
is opened to the Gentiles, the formation of (preponderatingly)
Gentile Christian communities, now introduces into the
original Christian development an important problem, which
(about the year 52, probably not later), (Galatians ii.; Acts xv.)
leads to discussions and explanations at the so-called
Apostolic Council [at Jerusalem]. ... For Paul, who has risen
to perfect independence by the energy of his own peculiar
stamp of gospel, there now begin the years of his powerful
activity, in which he not only again visits and extends his
former missionary field in Asia Minor, but gains a firm
footing in Macedonia (Philippi), Athens, and Achaia (Corinth);
then on the so-called third missionary journey he exercises a
comprehensive influence during a stay of nearly three years at
Ephesus, and finally looks from Achaia towards the metropolis
of the world."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church, pages 57-59.
{436}
"If the heathen whom he (Paul) had won to the faith and
received into the Church were to be persuaded to adopt
circumcision and the law before they could attain to full
participation in the Christian salvation, his preaching had
fallen short of his aim, it had been in vain, since it was
very doubtful whether the Gentiles gained over to believe in
the Messiah would submit to the condition. Paul could only
look on those who made such a demand as false brethren, who
having no claim to Christian brotherhood had forced themselves
into the Church at Antioch in an unauthorized way (Galatians ii.
4), and was persuaded that neither the primitive Church as
such, nor its rulers, shared this view. In order therefore to
prevent the Gentile Christians from being disturbed on this
point, he determined to go to Jerusalem and there to challenge
a decision in the matter that should put an end to the strife
(ii. 2). The Church at Antioch also recognized this necessity;
hence followed the proceedings in Jerusalem [about A. D. 52],
whither Paul and Barnabas repaired with other associates (Galatians
ii. 1, Acts xv. 2 ff). ... It is certain that when Paul laid
his (free) gospel before the authorities in Jerusalem, they
added nothing to it (Galatians ii. 2-6). i. e., they did not
require that the gospel he preached to the Gentiles should,
besides the sole condition of faith which he laid down, impose
Judaism upon them as a condition of participation in
salvation. ... Paul's stipulations with the authorities in
Jerusalem respecting their future work were just as important
for him as the recognition of his free gospel (Galatians ii. 7-10).
They had for their basis a recognition on the part of the
primitive apostles that he was entrusted with the gospel of
the uncircumcision, to which they could add nothing (ii. 6),
just as Peter (as admittedly the most prominent among the
primitive apostles) was entrusted with that of the
circumcision."
Bernhard Weiss, A Manual of Introduction to the New
Testament, volume 1, pages 172-175, 178.
"It seems clear that the first meetings of the Christians as a
community apart--meetings that is of a private rather than a
proselytising character--took place, as we see from Acts i.
13-15, in private apartments, the upper rooms or large
guest-chambers in the houses of individual members. Such a
room was doubtless provided by the liberality of Titus Justus
(Acts xviii. 7), such a room again was the upper chamber in
which St. Paul preached at Troas (Acts xx. 7, 8); in such
assembled the converts saluted by the Apostle as the church
which is in the house of Aquila and Prisca, of Nymphas and of
Philemon. ... The primitive Roman house had only one story,
but as the cities grew to be more densely populated upper
stories came into use, and it was the custom to place in these
dining apartments, which were called cenacula. Such apartments
would answer to the 'upper rooms' ... associated with the
early days of Christianity. ... The Christian communities
contained from an early period members of wealth and social
position, who could accommodate in their houses large
gatherings of the faithful; and it is interesting to reflect
that while some of the mansions of an ancient city might be
witnessing in suppers of a Trimalchio or a Virro, scenes more
revolting to modern taste than almost anything presented by
the pagan world, others, perhaps in the same street, might be
the seat of Christian worship or of the simple Christian
meal."
G. B. Brown, From Schola to Cathedral, pages 38-43.
CHRISTIANITY: Asia Minor and Greece.
"Our knowledge of the Apostle Paul's life is far from being
complete. We have only a brief sketch of journeys and toils
that extended over a period of thirty years. Large spaces are
passed over in silence. For example, in the catalogue of his
sufferings, incidentally given, he refers to the fact that he
had been shipwrecked three times, and these disasters were all
prior to the shipwreck on the Island of Malta described by
Luke. Shortly after the conference at Jerusalem he started on
his second missionary tour. He was accompanied by Silas, and
was joined by Timothy at Lystra. He revisited his converts in
Eastern Asia Minor, founded churches in Galatia and Phrygia,
and from Troas, obedient to a heavenly summons, crossed over
to Europe. Having planted at Philippi a church that remained
remarkably devoted and loyal to him, he followed the great
Roman road to Thessalonica, the most important city in
Macedonia. Driven from there and from Berea, he proceeded to
Athens [see ATHENS: A. D. 54 (?)]. In that renowned and
cultivated city he discoursed on Mars Hill to auditors eager
for new ideas in philosophy and religion, and in private
debated with Stoics and Epicureans. At Corinth, which had
risen from its ruins and was once more rich and prosperous, he
remained for a year and a half. It was there, probably, that
he wrote his two Epistles to the Thessalonian Christians.
After a short stay at Ephesus he returned to Antioch by way of
Cesarea and Jerusalem. It was not long before Paul--a second
Alexander, but on a peaceful expedition--began his third great
missionary journey. Taking the land route from Antioch, he
traversed Asia Minor to Ephesus, a flourishing commercial
mart, the capital of the Roman province of Asia. There, with
occasional absences, he made his abode for upwards of two
years. From Ephesus, probably, he wrote the Epistle to the
Galatians. ... From Ephesus Paul also wrote the First Epistle
to the Corinthians. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians he
probably wrote from Philippi. ... Coming down through Greece,
he remained there three months. There he composed his Epistle
to the Romans. ... The untiring Apostle now turned his face
towards Jerusalem. He desired to be present at the festival of
the Pentecost. In order to save time, he sailed past Ephesus,
and at Miletus bade a tender farewell to the Ephesian elders.
He had fulfilled his pledge given at the conference, and he
now carried contributions from the Christians of Macedonia and
Achaia for the poor at Jerusalem."
G. P. Fisher, History of the Christian Church,
pages 27-28.
"We may safely say that if Saul had been less of a Jew, Paul
the Apostle would have been less bold and independent. His
work would have been more superficial, and his mind less
unfettered. God did not choose a heathen to be the apostle for
the heathen; for he might have been ensnared by the traditions
of Judaism, by its priestly hierarchy and the splendours of
its worship, as indeed it happened with the church of the
second century. On the contrary God chose a Pharisee. But this
Pharisee had the most complete experience of the emptiness of
external ceremonies and the crushing yoke of the law. There
was no fear that he would ever look back, that he would be
tempted to set up again what the grace of God had justly
overthrown (Galatians ii. 18). Judaism was wholly vanquished
in his soul, for it was wholly displaced."
A. Sabatier, The Apostle Paul, page 69.
{437}
"Notwithstanding the opposition he met from his countrymen, in
spite of all the liberal and the awakened sympathies which he
derived from his work, despite the necessity of contending
daily and hourly for the freedom of the Gospel among the
Gentiles, he never ceased to be a Jew. ... The most ardent
patriot could not enlarge with greater pride on the glories of
the chosen race than he does in the Epistle to the Romans. His
care for the poor in Judæa is a touching proof of the strength
of this national feeling. His attendance at the great annual
festivals in Jerusalem is still more significant. 'I must
spend the coming feast at Jerusalem.' This language becomes
the more striking when we remember that he was then intending
to open out a new field of missionary labour in the far West,
and was bidding perhaps his last farewell to the Holy City,
the joy of the whole earth."
J. B. Lightfoot, Biblical Essays, pages 209-210.
"The Macedonian Churches are honorably distinguished above all
others by their fidelity to the Gospel and their affectionate
regard for St. Paul himself. While the Church of Corinth
disgraced herself by gross moral delinquencies, while the
Galatians bartered the liberty of the Gospel for a narrow
formalism, while the believers of Ephesus drifted into the
wildest speculative errors, no such stain attaches to the
brethren of Philippi and Thessalonica. It is to the Macedonian
congregations that the Apostle ever turns for solace in the
midst of his severest trials and sufferings. Time seems not to
have chilled these feelings of mutual affection. The Epistle
to the Philippians was written about ten years after the
Thessalonian letters. It is the more surprising therefore that
they should resemble each other so strongly in tone. In both
alike St. Paul drops his official title at the outset, ... and
in both he adopts throughout the same tone of confidence and
affection. In this interval of ten years we meet with one
notice of the Macedonian Churches. It is conceived in terms of
unmeasured praise. The Macedonians had been called upon to
contribute to the wants of their poorer brethren in Judæa, who
were suffering from famine. They had responded nobly to the
call. Deep-sunk in poverty and sorely tried by persecution,
they came forward with eager joy and poured out the riches of
their liberality, straining their means to the utmost in order
to relieve the sufferers. ... We may imagine that the people
still retained something of those simpler habits and that
sturdier character, which triumphed over Greeks and Orientals
in the days of Philip and Alexander, and thus in the early
warfare of the Christian Church the Macedonian phalanx offered
a successful resistance to the assaults of an enemy, before
which the lax and enervated ranks of Asia and Achaia had
yielded ignominiously."
J. B. Lightfoot, Biblical Essays, pages 249-250.
At Jerusalem, "the Apostle was rescued by a detachment of the
Roman garrison from a mob of Jewish malignants, was held in
custody for two years at Cesarea, and was finally enabled to
accomplish a long-cherished intention to go to Rome, by being
conveyed there as a prisoner, he having made an appeal to
Cæsar. After being wrecked on the Mediterranean and cast
ashore on the Island of Malta, under the circumstances related
in Luke's graphic and accurate description of the voyage, he
went on his way in safety to the capital."
G. P. Fisher, History of the Christian Church, page 29.
"Paul's apostolic career, as known to us, lasted ...
twenty-nine or thirty years; and it falls into three distinct
periods which are summarized in the following chronological
table:
First Period
Essentially Missionary:
35 A. D.,
Conversion of Paul, Journey to Arabia;
38,
First visit to Jerusalem;
38-49,
Mission in Syria and Cilicia-Tarsus and Antioch;
50-51,
First missionary journey Cyprus, Pamphylia and Galatia
(Acts xiii., xiv.);
52,
Conference at Jerusalem (Acts xv.; Galatians ii.);
52-55,
Second missionary journey
Epistles to the Thessalonians (from Corinth).
Second Period
The Great Conflicts, and the Great Epistles:
54,
Return to Antioch
Controversy with Peter (Gal. ii. 12-22);
55-57,
Mission to Ephesus and Asia;
56,
Epistle to the Galatians;
57 or 58 (Passover),
First Epistle to the Corinthians
(Ephesus);
57 or 58 (Autumn),
Second Epistle to the Corinthians.
(Macedonia);
58 (Winter),
Epistle to the Romans.
Third Period
The Captivity:
58 or 59 (Pentecost),
Paul is arrested at Jerusalem;
58-60, or 59-61,
Captivity at Cæsarea
Epistles to Philemon, Colossians and Ephesians;
60 or 61 (Autumn),
Departure for Rome;
61 or 62 (Spring),
Arrival of Paul in Rome;
62-63,
Epistle to the Philippians;
63 or 64,
End of the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles."
A. Sabatier, The Apostle Paul, pages 21-22.
"The impression that we get from Acts is, that the
evangelisation of Asia Minor originated from St. Paul; and
that from his initiative the new religion gradually spread
over the country through the action of many other missionaries
(Acts xix. 10). Moreover, missionaries not trained by him,
were at work in South Galatia and in Ephesus as early as 54-56
A. D. (Gal. volume 7-10; Acts xviii. 25). ... The Christian Church
in Asia Minor was always opposed to the primitive native
character. It was Christianity, and not the Imperial
government, which finally destroyed the native languages, and
made Greek the universal language of Asia Minor. The new
religion was strong in the towns before it had any hold of the
country parts. The ruder and the less civilised any district
was, the slower was Christianity in permeating it.
Christianity in the early centuries was the religion of the
more advanced, not of the 'barbarian' peoples; and in fact it
seems to be nearly confined within the limits of the Roman
world, and practically to take little thought of any people
beyond, though in theory, 'Barbarian and Scythian' are
included in it. ... The First Epistle of John was in all
probability 'addressed primarily to the circle of Asiatic
Churches, of which Ephesus was the centre.'"
W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire,
pages 284, 44, 303.
{438}
"Unless we are prepared to reject without a hearing all the
traditions of Christianity, we cannot refuse to believe that
the latest years of the Apostle St. John were spent in the
Roman province of Asia and chiefly in Ephesus its capital.
This tradition is singularly full, consistent and
well-authenticated. Here he gathered disciples about him,
organized churches, appointed bishops and presbyters. A whole
chorus of voices unite in bearing testimony to its truth. One
who passed his earlier life in these parts and had heard his
aged master, a disciple of St. John himself, recount his
personal reminiscences of the great Apostle; another, who held
this very see of Ephesus, and writing less than a century
after the Apostle's death was linked with the past by a chain
of relatives all bishops in the Christian Church; a third who
also flourished about the close of the century and numbered
among his teachers an old man from this very district--are the
principal, because the most distinct; witnesses to a fact
which is implied in several other notices of earlier or
contemporary writers. As to the time at which St. John left
his original home and settled in this new abode no direct
account is preserved; but a very probable conjecture may be
hazarded. The impending fall of the Holy City was the signal
for the dispersion of the followers of Christ. About this same
time the three other great Apostles, St. Peter, St. Paul and
St. James, died a martyr's death; and on St. John, the lust
surviving of the four great pillars of the Church, devolved
the work of developing the theology of the Gospel and
completing the organization of the Church. It was not
unnatural that at such a crisis he should fix his residence in
the centre of a large and growing Christian community, which
had been planted by the Apostle of the Gentiles, and watered
by the Apostle of the Circumcision. The missionary labours of
St. Paul and St. Peter in Asia Minor were confirmed and
extended by the prolonged residence of their younger
contemporary. At all events such evidence as we possess is
favourable to this view of the date of St. John's settlement
at Ephesus. Assuming that the Apocalypse is the work of the
beloved Apostle, and accepting the view which assigns it to
the close of Nero's reign or thereabouts, we find him now for
the first time in the immediate neighbourhood of Asia Minor
and in direct communication with Ephesus and the neighbouring
Churches. St. John however was not alone. Whether drawn
thither by the attraction of his presence or acting in
pursuance of some common agreement, the few surviving personal
disciples of the Lord would seem to have chosen Asia Minor as
their permanent abode, or at all events as their recognised
headquarters. Here at least we meet with the friend of St.
John's youth and perhaps his fellow-townsman, Andrew of
Bethsaida, who with him had first listened to John the
Baptist, and with him also had been the earliest to recognise
Jesus as the Christ. Here too we encounter Philip the
Evangelist with his daughters, and perhaps also Philip of
Bethsaida, the Apostle. Here also was settled the Apostle's
namesake, John the Presbyter, also a personal disciple of
Jesus, and one Aristion, not otherwise known to us, who
likewise had heard the Lord. And possibly also other Apostles
whose traditions Papias recorded [see J. B. Lightfoot,
Apostolic Fathers, page 527], Matthew and Thomas and James,
may have had some connexion, temporary or permanent, with this
district. Thus surrounded by the surviving disciples of the
Lord, by bishops and presbyters of his own appointment, and by
the pupils who gathered about him and looked to him for
instruction, St. John was the focus of a large and active
society of believers. In this respect he holds a unique
position among the great teachers of the new faith. St. Peter
and St. Paul converted disciples and organized congregations;
St. John alone was the centre of a school. His life prolonged
till the close of the century, when the Church was firmly
rooted and widely extended, combined with his fixed abode in
the centre of an established community to give a certain
definiteness to his personal influence which would be wanting
to the wider labours of these strictly missionary preachers.
Hence the notices of St. John have a more solid basis and
claim greater attention than stories relating to the other
Apostles."
J. B. Lightfoot, Biblical Essays, pages 51-53.
"In the parable of Jesus, of which we are speaking, it is said
that 'the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself;'--that is,
to transfer the Greek term into English, 'automatically.' That
epithet is chosen which denotes most precisely a self-acting,
spontaneous energy, inherent in the seed which Jesus, through
his discourses, his acts of mercy and power, and his patience
unto death, was sowing in the world. This grand prophetic
declaration, uttered in a figure so simple and beautiful, in
the ears of a little company of Galileans, was to be
wonderfully verified in the coming ages of Christian history."
G. P. Fisher, The Nature and Method of Revelation, page 47.
CHRISTIANITY: Alexandria.
"Plutarch looked upon it as the great mission of Alexander to
transplant Grecian culture into distant countries, and to
conciliate Greeks and barbarians, and to fuse them into one.
He says of him, not without reason, that he was sent of God
for this purpose; though the historian did not divine that
this end itself was only subsidiary to, and the means of, one
still higher--the making, viz., the united peoples of the East
and West more accessible to the new creation which was to
proceed from Christianity, and by the combination of the
elements of Oriental and Hellenic culture the preparing for
Christianity a material in which it might develop itself. If
we overlook this ulterior end, and do not fix our regards on
the higher quickening spirit destined to reanimate, for some
new end, that combination which already bore within itself a
germ of corruption, we might well doubt whether that union was
really a gain to either party; whether, at least, it was not
everywhere attended with a correspondent loss. For the fresh
vigour which it infused into the old national spirit must have
been constantly repressed by the violence which the foreign
element did to it. To introduce into that combination a new
living principle of development, and, without prejudice to
their original essence, to unite peculiarities the most
diverse into a whole in which each part should be a complement
to the other, required something higher than any element of
human culture. The true living communion between the East and
the West, which should combine together the two peculiar
principles that were equally necessary for a complete
exhibition of the type of humanity, could first come only from
Christianity. But still, as preparatory thereto, the influence
which, for three centuries, went forth from Alexandria, that
centre of the intercourse of the world, was of great
importance."
A. Neander, General History of the
Christian Religion and Church, volume 1, introduction.
{439}
"The Greek version [of the Old Testament, the Septuagint],
like the Targum of the Palestinians, originated, no doubt, in
the first place, in a felt national want on the part of the
Hellenists, who as a body were ignorant of Hebrew. Hence we
find notices of very early Greek versions of at least parts of
the Pentateuch. But this, of course, could not suffice. On the
other hand, there existed, as we may suppose, a natural
curiosity on the part of the students, specially in
Alexandria, which had so large a Jewish population, to know
the sacred books on which the religion and history of Israel
were founded. Even more than this, we must take into account
the literary tastes of the first three Ptolemies (successors
in Egypt of Alexander the Great), and the exceptional favour
which the Jews for a time enjoyed."
A. Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,
volume 1, page 24.
CHRISTIANITY: Rome.
"Alongside of the province of Asia Minor, Rome very early
attains to an outstanding importance for young Christianity.
If, as we have supposed, the community here which emancipated
itself from the synagogue was mainly recruited from among the
proselyte circles which had formed themselves around the
Jewish synagogue, if Paul during the years of his captivity,
and Peter also, influenced this preponderatingly
Gentile-Christian community, we must, however, by no means
undervalue for the Christian community the continuous
influence of Judaism on the Roman world, an influence which
was not lessened but rather increased by the destruction of
Jerusalem. Many thousands of Jewish captives had arrived here
and been sold as slaves--Rome was the greatest Jewish city in
the Empire, ... and in part it was an enlightened and liberal
Judaism. Jewish Hellenism had already long availed itself of
the weapons of Hellenic philosophy and science ... in order to
exalt the Jewish faith. ... Under this stimulus there was ...
developed a proselytism which was indeed attracted by that
monotheism and the belief in providence and prophecy and the
moral ideas allied therewith, and which also had a strong
tendency to Jewish customs and festivals--especially the
keeping of the Sabbath--but which remained far from binding
itself to a strictly legal way of life in circumcision, etc.
We may suppose that Roman Christianity not only appeared in
the character of such a proselytism, but also retained from it
a certain Jewish colouring."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church:
A. D. 1-600, pages 83-84.
"The last notice of the Roman Church in the Apostolic writings
seems to point to two separate communities, a Judaizing Church
and a Pauline Church. The arrival of the Gentile Apostle in
the metropolis, it would appear, was the signal for the
separation of the Judaizers, who had hitherto associated with
their Gentile brethren coldly and distrustfully. The presence
of St. Paul must have vastly strengthened the numbers and
influence of the more liberal and Catholic party; while the
Judaizers provoked by rivalry redoubled their efforts, that in
making converts to the Gospel they might also gain proselytes
to the law."
J. B. Lightfoot, Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
page 94.
"Historical information of any certainty on the latter period
of Paul's life is entirely wanting. While the epistles require
this unknown period, and a second captivity, as a basis for
their apostolic origin, on the other hand, the hypothesis of a
second captivity scarcely finds any real foundations except in
the three Pastoral letters."
A. Sabatier, The Apostle Paul, page 269.
It only remains for us, returning to the close of the
apostle's life, to put together the slender indications that
we have of its date. He embarked for Rome in the autumn of 60
(or 61) A. D.; but was compelled by shipwreck to winter in the
island of Malta, and only reached the Eternal City in the
spring of 61 (62). Luke adds that he remained there as a
prisoner for two years, living in a private house under the
guard of a soldier; then his narrative breaks off abruptly,
and we are confronted with the unknown (Acts, xxviii. 30).
Paul is supposed to have perished in the frightful persecution
caused by the fire of Rome in July 64 A. D. All that is
certain is that he died a martyr at Rome under Nero
(Sabatier).
[The purpose of what follows in this article is to give a
brief history of Christianity in some of its relations to
general history by the method of this work, and in the light
of some of the best thought of our time. The article as a
combination of quotations from many authors attempts a
presentation of historic facts, and also a positive and
representative view, so far as this may be obtained under the
guidance of ideas common to many of the books used. Some of
these books have had more influence on the development of the
article than others: entire harmony and a full presentation of
any author's view would manifestly be impossible.
Nevertheless, the reader may discover in the article
principles and elements of unity derived from the literature
and representing it. Unfortunately, one of the essential parts
of such a history must be omitted--biography.]
CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 100-312.
The Period of Growth and Struggle.
"Christian belief, Christian morality, the Christian view of
the world, of which the church as a religious society and
institution is the focus, as fluid spiritual elements permeate
humanity as it becomes Christian, far beyond the sphere of the
church proper; while conversely the church is not assured
against the possibility that spiritual elements originally
alien to her may dominate and influence her in their turn. ...
In this living interaction the peculiar life of the church is
unfolded, in accordance with its internal principles of
formation, into an extraordinarily manifold and complicated
object of historical examination. ... For this purpose it is
necessary to elucidate the general historical movement of the
church by the relative separation of certain of its aspects,
without loosening the bond of unity."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church:
A. D. 1-600, pages 1-3.
"Such, in fact, has been the history of the Faith: a sad and
yet a glorious succession of battles, often hardly fought, and
sometimes indecisive, between the new life and the old life.
... The Christian victory of common life was wrought out in
silence and patience and nameless agonies. It was the victory
of the soldiers and not of the captains of Christ's army. But
in due time another conflict had to be sustained, not by the
masses, but by great men, the consequence and the completion
of that which had gone before. ... The discipline of action
precedes the effort of reason. ... So it came to pass that the
period during which this second conflict of the Faith was
waged was, roughly speaking, from the middle of the second
to the middle of the third century."
B. F. Westcott, Essays in the History of Religious
Thought in the West, pages 194-197.
{440}
"Philosophy went on its way among the higher classes, but laid
absolutely no hold on men at large. The reformation which it
wrought in a few elect spirits failed utterly to spread

downward to the mass of mankind. The poor were not touched by
it; society was not helped by it; its noblest men, and they
grew fewer and fewer, generation by generation, bewailed
bitterly the universal indifference. The schools dwindled into
a mere university system of culture; Christianity developed
into a religion for the civilised world. ... New ideas it had
in abundance, but new ideas were not the secret of its power.
The essential matter in the Gospel was that it was the history
of a Life. It was a tale of fact that all could understand,
that all could believe, that all could love. It differed
fundamentally from Philosophy, because it appealed not to
culture, but to life. ... It was the spell of substantial
facts, living facts, ... the spell of a loyalty to a personal
Lord; and those who have not mastered the difference between a
philosopher's speculations about life, and the actual record
of a life which, in all that makes life holy and beautiful,
transcended the philosopher's most pure and lofty dreams, have
not understood yet the rudiments of the reason why the Stoic
could not, while Christianity could and did, regenerate
society."
J. B. Brown, Stoics and Saints, pages 85-86.
The "period, from the accession of Marcus Aurelius (A. D. 161)
to the accession of Valerian (A. D. 253) was for the Gentile
world a period of unrest and exhaustion, of ferment and of
indecision. The time of great hopes and creative minds was
gone. The most conspicuous men were, with few exceptions,
busied with the past. ... Local beliefs had lost their power.
Even old Rome ceased to exercise an unquestioned moral
supremacy. Men strove to be cosmopolitan. They strove vaguely
after a unity in which the scattered elements of ancient
experience should be harmonized. The effect can be seen both
in the policy of statesmen and in the speculations of
philosophers, in Marcus Aurelius, or Alexander Severus, or
Decius, no less than in Plotinus or Porphyry. As a necessary
consequence, the teaching of the Bible accessible in Greek
began to attract serious attention among the heathen. The
assailants of Christianity, even if they affected contempt,
shewed that they were deeply moved by its doctrines. The
memorable saying of Numenius, 'What is Plato but Moses
speaking in the language of Athens?' shews at once the feeling
after spiritual sympathy which began to be entertained, and
the want of spiritual insight in the representatives of
Gentile thought."
B. F. Westcott, Essays in the History of Religious
Thought in the West, pages 196-197.
"To our minds it appears that the preparation of philosophy
for Christianity was complete. ... The time was ripe for that
movement of which Justin is the earliest [complete]
representative."
G. T. Purves, The Testimony of Justin Martyr,
page 135.
"The writing in defense of Christianity is called the apology,
and the writer an apologist. ... There were two classes of
apologists, the Greek and the Latin, according to the
territory which they occupied, and the language in which they
wrote. But there were further differences. The Greeks belonged
mostly to the second century, and their writings exhibited a
profound intimacy with the Greek philosophy. Some of them had
studied in the Greek schools, and entered the church only in
mature life. They endeavored to prove that Christianity was
the blossom of all that was valuable in every system. They
stood largely on the defensive. The Latins, on the other hand,
were aggressive. They lived mostly in the third century. ...
The principal Greek apologists [were] Aristo, Quadratus,
Aristides [A. D. 131], Justin [A. D. 160], Melito [A. D. 170],
Miltiades, Irenaeus, Athenagoras [A. D. 178], Tatian, Clement
of Alexandria [A. D. 200], Hippolytus, and Origen [A. D. 225]."
J. F. Hurst, Short History of the Christian Church,
page 33.
Lightfoot assigns to about A. D. 150 (?) the author of the
Epistle to Diognetus. "Times without number the defenders of
Christianity appeal to the great and advantageous change
wrought by the Gospel in all who embraced it. ... 'We who
hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their
different manners would not receive into our houses men of a
different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live
familiarly with them. We pray for our enemies, we endeavor to
persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the
beautiful precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become
partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from
God, the Ruler of all.' This distinction between Christians
and heathen, this consciousness of a complete change in
character and life, is nowhere more beautifully described than
in the noble epistle ... to Diognetus."
Gerhard Uhlhorn, The Conflict of Christianity with
Heathenism, page 166.
"For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind
either in locality or in speech or in customs. For they dwell
not somewhere in cities of their own, neither do they use some
different language, nor practise an extraordinary kind of
life. ... But while they dwell in cities of Greeks and
barbarians as the lot of each is cast, and follow the native
customs in dress and food and the other arrangements of life,
yet the constitution of their own citizenship, which they set
forth, is marvellous, and confessedly contradicts expectation.
They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners;
they bear their share in all things as citizens, and they
endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign country is a
fatherland to them, and every fatherland is foreign. ... Their
existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.
They obey the established laws, and they surpass the laws in
their own lives. They love all men and they are persecuted by
all. ... War is urged against them as aliens by the Jews, and
persecution is carried on against them by the Greeks, and yet
those that hate them cannot tell the reason of their
hostility."
J. B. Lightfoot, Translation of the Epistle to Diognetus
(The Apostolic Fathers, pages 505-506).
"These apologists rise against philosophy also, out of which
they themselves had arisen, in the full consciousness of their
faith open to all and not only to the cultured few, the
certainty of which, based upon revelation, cannot be replaced
by uncertain human wisdom, which, moreover, is
self-contradictory in its most important representatives. On
the other hand, they willingly recognise in the philosophy by
means of which they had themselves been educated, certain
elements of truth, which they partly derive from the
seed-corns of truth, which the divine Logos had scattered
among the heathen also, partly externally from a dependence of
Greek wisdom on the much older wisdom of the East, and
therefore from the use of the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
To the reproach that they had deserted the religion which had
been handed down from their ancestors and thereby made sacred,
they oppose the right of recognised truth, the right of
freedom of conscience; religion becomes the peculiar affair of
personal conviction, against which methods of force do not
suffice: God is to be obeyed rather than man."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church:
A. D. 1-600, page 179.
{441}
"Such a morality, as Roman greatness was passing away, took
possession of the ground. Its beginnings were scarcely felt,
scarcely known of, in the vast movement of affairs in the
greatest of empires. By and by its presence, strangely
austere, strangely gentle, strangely tender, strangely
inflexible, began to be noticed. But its work was long only a
work of indirect preparation. Those whom it charmed, those
whom it opposed, those whom it tamed, knew not what was being
done for the generations which were to follow."
R. W. Church, The Gifts of Civilization, page 159.
"The more spiritual and profound historians of the Church
recognize it as a manifestation of this divine life flowing
into human history. But this is true of the organized church
only with important qualifications. The life must manifest
itself in an organization; but the organization is neither the
only nor the complete exposition of the life. ... The life
which creates the organization penetrates and purifies also
the family and the state, renovates individuals, and blooms
and fructifies in Christian civilizations; and these are also
historical manifestations."
S. Harris, The Kingdom of Christ on Earth, page 87.
It was the great formative period of the world's new life, and
all streams tended to flow together. The influence of Greek
thought on Roman law had led, under the circumstances of Roman
commercial life, to the development of an ideal "jus gentium,"
a kind of natural law discovered by the reason. This
conception transformed the Roman law and brought it into touch
with the new sense of human relations. "It was by means of
this higher conception of equity which resulted from the
identification of the jus gentium with the jus naturale--that
the alliance between law and philosophy was really made
efficient."
W. C. Morey, Outlines from Roman Law, page 114.
"There were three agencies whose influence in working
simultaneously and successively at this identical task, the
developing and importing of the jus gentium, was decisive of
the ultimate result. These were the praetorian edict [which
reached its climax under the Republic and was completed under
Hadrian], Roman scientific jurisprudence [which developed its
greatest ability about A. D. 200] and imperial legislation."
R. Sohm, Institutes of Roman Law, page 46.
"The liberal policy of Rome gradually extended the privileges
of her citizenship till it included all her subjects; and
along with the 'Jus suffragii,' went of course the 'Jus
honorum.' Even under Augustus we find a Spaniard consul at
Rome; and under Galba an Egyptian is governor of Egypt. It is
not long before even the emperor himself is supplied by the
provinces. It is easy to comprehend therefore how the
provincials forgot the fatherland of their birth for the
fatherland of their citizenship. Once win the franchise, and
to great capacity was opened a great: career. The Roman Empire
came to be a homogeneous mass of privileged persons, largely
using the same language, aiming at the same type of
civilisation, equal among themselves, but all alike conscious
of their superiority to the surrounding barbarians."
W. T. Arnold, The Roman System of Provincial
Administration, page 37.
"As far as she could, Rome destroyed the individual genius of
nations; she seems to have rendered them unqualified for a
national existence. When the public life of the Empire ceased,
Italy, Gaul, and Spain were thus unable to become nations.
Their great historical existence did not commence until after
the arrival of the barbarians, and after several centuries of
experiments amid violence and calamity, But how does it happen
that the countries which Rome did not conquer, or did not long
have under her sway, now hold such a prominent place in the
world--that they exhibit so much originality and such complete
confidence in their future? Is it only because, having existed
a shorter time, they are entitled to a longer future? Or,
perchance, did Rome leave behind her certain habits of mind,
intellectual and moral qualities, which impede and limit
activity?"
E. Lavisse, Political History of Europe, page 6.
Patriotism was a considerable part of both the ancient
religion and the old morality. The empire weakened the former
and deeply injured the latter by conquest of the individual
states. It had little to offer in place of these except that
anomaly, the worship of the emperor; and a law and justice
administered by rulers who, to say the least, grew very rich.
"The feeling of pride in Roman citizenship ... became much
weaker as the citizenship was widened. ... Roman citizenship
included an ever growing proportion of the population in every
land round the Mediterranean, till at last it embraced the
whole Roman world. ... Christianity also created a religion
for the Empire, transcending all distinctions of nationality.
... The path of development for the Empire lay in accepting
the religion offered it to complete its organisation. Down to
the time of Hadrian there was a certain progress on the part
of the Empire towards a recognition of this necessity."
W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire,
pages 373, 191-192.
The relations of the laws of the Empire to Christianity may be
briefly stated, but there are differences of opinion which
cannot be noted here: "A. D. 30 to 100, Christians treated as
a sect of the Jews and sharing in the general toleration
accorded to them. A. D. 100 to 250, Christians recognized, ...
and rendered liable to persecution: (1st) For treason and
impiety. (2nd) As belonging to illegal associations, but at
the same time protected in their capacity of members of
Friendly or Burial Societies of a kind allowed by the law. A.
D. 250 to 260, Christianity recognized as a formidable power
by the State. Commencement of an open struggle between
Christianity and the secular authority. ... The cemeteries of
the Christians now for the first time interfered with and
become places of hiding and secret assembly. A. D. 260 to 300,
Persecutions cease for a time, 40 years Peace for the Church.
Time of much prosperity when, as Eusebius writes, 'great
multitudes flocked to the religion of Christ.' A. D. 300 to
313, Last decisive struggle under Diocletian."
G. B. Brown, From Schola to Cathedral.
{442}
"The judges decided simply in accordance with the laws, and,
in the great majority of cases, did so coolly, calmly, without
passion, as men who were simply discharging their duty. ...
Not the priests, but the Emperors led the attack. ... It is
true the Christians never rebelled against the State. They
cannot be reproached with even the appearance of a
revolutionary spirit. Despised, persecuted, abused, they still
never revolted, but showed themselves everywhere obedient to
the laws, and ready to pay to the Emperors the honor which was
their due. Yet in one particular they could not obey, the
worship of idols, the strewing of incense to the Cæsar-god.
And in this one thing it was made evident that in Christianity
lay the germ of a wholly new political and social order. This
is the character of the conflict which we are now to review.
It is a contest of the spirit of Antiquity against that of
Christianity, of the ancient heathen order of the world
against the new Christian order. Ten persecutions are commonly
enumerated, viz., under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian,
Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximinus the Thracian,
Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian. This traditional enumeration
is, however, very superficial, and leaves entirely
unrecognized the real course of the struggles. ... Though
times of relative tranquillity occurred, Christianity
remained, notwithstanding, a prohibited religion. This being
the case, the simple arrangement of the persecutions in a
series makes the impression that they were all of the same
character, while in fact the persecution under Nero was wholly
different from that under Trajan and his successors, and this
again varied essentially from those under Decius and
Diocletian. The first persecution which was really general and
systematically aimed at the suppression of the Church, was the
Decian [see ROME: A. D. 192-284]. That under Trajan and his
successors [see ROME: A. D. 96-138, 138-180, and 303-305]
consisted merely of more or less frequent processes against
individual Christians, in which the established methods of
trial were employed, and the existing laws were more or less
sharply used against them. Finally, the persecutions under
Nero and Domitian [see ROME: A. D. 64-68, and 70-96] were mere
outbreaks of personal cruelty and tyrannical caprice. ...
Christianity is the growing might; with the energy of youth it
looks the future in the face, and there sees victory beckoning
onward. And how changed are now its ideas of that triumph! The
earlier period had no thought of any victory but that which
Christ was to bring at his coming. ... But in the time of
Cyprian the hopes of the Christians are directed towards
another victory: they begin to grasp the idea that
Christianity will vanquish heathenism from within, and become
the dominant religion in the Roman Empire. ... It is true that
the Christians were still greatly in the minority. It is
generally assumed that they formed about one-twelfth of the
whole population in the East, and in the West about
one-fifteenth. Even this is perhaps too high an estimate. But
there were two things which gave a great importance to this
minority. First, that no single religion of the much divided
Heathenism had so many adherents as the Christian. Over
against the scattered forces of Heathenism, the Christians
formed a close phalanx; the Church was a compact and strongly
framed organization. Second, the Christians were massed in the
towns, while the rural population was almost exclusively
devoted to Heathenism. There existed in Antioch, for instance,
a Christian church of fifty thousand souls."
G. Uhlhorn, The Conflict of Christianity with
Heathenism, book 2.
"The Encyclopedia of Missions" on the authority of the late
Professor R. D. Hitchcock states that there are on record "the
names of churches existing at this period [at the close of the
persecutions] in 525 cities: cities of Europe 188, of Asia
214, of Africa 123." (See Appendix D.) There were tendencies
at work in many of these against that toward general catholic
(universal) organization, but in suffering and sympathy the
Christian Churches formed a vast body of believers. "Such a
vast organisation of a perfectly new kind, with no analogy in
previously existing institutions, was naturally slow in
development. ... The critical stage was passed when the
destruction of Jerusalem annihilated all possibility of a
localised centre for Christianity, and made it clear that the
centralisation of the Church could reside only in an
idea--viz., a process of intercommunication, union and
brotherhood. It would be hardly possible to exaggerate the
share which frequent intercourse from a very early stage
between the separate congregations had in moulding the
development of the Church. Most of the documents in the New
Testament are products and monuments of this intercourse; all
attest in numberless details the vivid interest which the
scattered communities took in one another. From the first the
Christian idea was to annihilate the separation due to space,
and hold the most distant brother as near as the nearest. A
clear consciousness of the importance of this idea first
appears in the Pastoral Epistles, and is still stronger in
writings of A. D. 80-100. ... The close relations between
different congregations is brought into strong relief by the
circumstances disclosed in the letters of Ignatius: the
welcome extended everywhere to him; the loving messages sent
when he was writing to other churches; the deputations sent
from churches off his road to meet him and convoy him; the
rapidity with which news of his progress was sent round, so
that deputations from Ephesus, Magnesia, and Tralles were
ready to visit him in Smyrna; the news from Antioch which
reached him in Troas, but which was unknown to him in Smyrna;
the directions which he gave to call a council of the church
in Smyrna, and send a messenger to congratulate the church in
Antioch; the knowledge that his fate is known to and is
engaging the efforts of the church in Rome."
W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire,
pages 364-366.
"The fellowship ... thus strongly impressed by apostolic hands
on the infant Church, is never wholly lost sight of throughout
all the ages, and its permanent expression is found in the
synod, whether œcumenic, provincial, or diocesan. This becomes
fainter as we reach the age in which a presbyter, told off
from the body to a distinct parish, attains gradual isolation
from his brethren. But this comes some centuries later. ...
Everywhere, till that decline, the idea is that of a
brotherhood or corporate office, a unity of function pervaded
by an energy of brotherly love. ... It is no mere confluence
of units before distinct."
H. Hayman, Diocesan Synods
(Contemporary Review, October, 1882).
{443}
"It is the age when the New Testament writings begin to come
together to form a generally recognized canon. The opposition
too to the sovereign spirit of Montanist prophecy undoubtedly
increased the need for it. ... After the example of the
Gnostics, a beginning is also made with exegetical explanation
of New Testament writings; Melito with one on the Revelation
of John, a certain Heraclitus with one on the Apostles. ...
Finally, in this same opposition to the heretics, it is sought
to secure the agreement of the different churches with one
another, and in this relation importance is gained by the idea
of a universal (Catholic) Church. So-called catholic Epistles
of men of repute in the church to different communities are
highly regarded. As illustrations take those of Bishop
Dionysius of Corinth to Lacedæmon, Athens, Crete, Paphlagonia,
Pontus, Rome (Euseb. 4, 23)."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church,
pages 183-184.
"This period [100-312] may be divided into the Post-Apostolic
Age which reaches down to the middle of the second century,
and the Age of the Old Catholic Church which ends with the
establishment of the Church under Constantine. ... The point
of transition from one Age to the other may be unhesitatingly
set down at A. D. 170. The following are the most important
data in regard thereto. The death about A. D. 165 of Justin
Martyr, who marks the highest point reached in the
Post-Apostolic Age and forms also the transition to the Old
Catholic Age; and Irenaeus, flourishing somewhere about A. D.
170, who was the real inaugurator of this latter age. Besides
these we come upon the beginnings of the Trinitarian
controversies about the year 170. Finally, the rejection of
Montanism from the universal Catholic Church was effected
about the year 170 by means of the synodal institution called
into existence for that purpose."
J. H. Kurtz, Church History, volume 1, page 70.
"If every church must so live in the world as to be a part of
its collective being, then it must always be construed in and
through the place and time in which it lives."
A. M. Fairbairn, The Place of Christ in Modern
Theology.
"The Church of the first three centuries was never, except
perhaps on the day of Pentecost, in an absolutely ideal
condition. But yet during the ages of persecution, the Church
as a whole was visibly an unworldly institution. It was a
spiritual empire in recognized antagonism with the
world-empire."
F. W. Puller, The Primitive Saints and The See of Rome,
page 153.
All the greater forces of the age, political and legal, and
commercial, aided those working within the church to create an
organic unity. "Speaking with some qualifications, the
patristic church was Greek, as the primitive church had been
Jewish, and the mediæval church was to be Latin. Its unity,
like that of the Greek nation, was federative; each church,
like each of the Grecian states, was a little commonwealth. As
the Greece which resisted the Persians was one, not by any
imperial organization, but by common ideas and a common love
of liberty, so the church of the fathers was one, not by any
organic connection, but by common thoughts and sympathies,
above all by a common loyalty to Christ. Naturally the
questions which agitated such a church were those which
concern the individual soul rather than society. Its members
made much of personal beliefs and speculative opinions; and so
long as the old free spirit lasted they allowed one another
large freedom of thought, only requiring that common instinct
of loyalty to Christ. Happily for the world, that free spirit
did not die out from the East for at least two centuries after
Paul had proclaimed the individual relationship of the soul to
God. ... The genius of the Greek expressing itself in thought,
of the Latin in ruling power, the Christianity which was to
the former a body of truth, became to the latter a system of
government."
G. A. Jackson, The Fathers of the Third Century,
pages 154-156.
The Apostolic ideal was set forth, and within a few
generations forgotten. The vision was only for a time and then
vanished. "The kingdom of Christ, not being a kingdom of this
world, is not limited by the restrictions which fetter other
societies, political or religious. It is in the fullest sense
free, comprehensive, universal. ... It is most important that
we should keep this ideal definitely in view, and I have
therefore stated it as broadly as possible. Yet the broad
statement, if allowed to stand alone, would suggest a false
impression, or at least would convey only a half truth. It
must be evident that no society of men could hold together
without officers, without rules, without institutions of any
kind; and the Church of Christ is not exempt from this
universal law. The conception in short is strictly an ideal,
which we must ever hold before our eyes. ... Every member of
the human family was potentially a member of the Church, and,
as such, a priest of God. ... It will hardly be denied, I
think, by those who have studied the history of modern
civilization with attention, that this conception of the
Christian Church has been mainly instrumental in the
emancipation of the degraded and oppressed, in the removal of
artificial barriers between class and class, and in the
diffusion of a general philanthropy untrammelled by the
fetters of party or race; in short, that to it mainly must be
attributed the most important advantages which constitute the
superiority of modern societies over ancient. Consciously or
unconsciously, the idea of an universal priesthood, of the
religious equality of all men, which, though not untaught
before, was first embodied in the Church of Christ, has worked
and is working untold blessings in political institutions and
in social life. But the careful student will also observe that
this idea has hitherto been very imperfectly apprehended; that
throughout the history of the Church it has been struggling
for recognition, at most times discerned in some of its
aspects but at all times wholly ignored in others; and that
therefore the actual results are a very inadequate measure of
its efficacy, if only it could assume due prominence and were
allowed free scope in action. ... It may be a general rule, it
may be under ordinary circumstances a practically universal
law, that the highest acts of congregational worship shall be
performed through the principal officers of the congregation.
But an emergency may arise when the spirit and not the letter
must decide, The Christian ideal will then ... interpret our
duty. The higher ordinance of the universal priesthood will
overrule all special limitations. The layman will assume
functions which are otherwise restricted to the ordained
minister."
J. B. Lightfoot, Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
pages 137-140, 237.
"No Church now existing is an exact counterpart of the
Apostolic Church. ... Allusions bear out the idea that the
Church at Corinth was as yet almost struetureless--little more
than an aggregate of individuals--with no bishop, presbyter or
deacon."
J. W. Cunningham, The Growth of the Church in its
Organization and Institutions, pages 73, 18.
{444}
"Some time before the middle of the second century heresy
began sadly to distract the Christian community; and to avoid
imminent danger of schism, it was deemed expedient in a few
great towns to arm the chairman of the eldership with
additional power. A modified form of prelacy was thus
introduced."
W. D. Killen, The Old Catholic Church, page 51.
Respecting the rise of the Episcopate as a distinct office
there is a difference of opinion among scholars,--some
holding that it was expressly ordained by the Apostles, others
that it arose quite independently of them; a third class think
that it was developed gradually out of the eldership, but not
without the sanction of one or more of the Apostles. "For the
Church is a catholic society, that is, a society belonging to
all nations and ages. As a catholic society it lacks the bonds
of the life of a city or a nation--local contiguity, common
language, common customs. We cannot then very well conceive
how its corporate continuity could have been maintained
otherwise than through some succession of persons such as,
bearing the apostolic commission for ministry, should be in
each generation the necessary centres of the Church's life."
C. Gore, The Mission of the Church, pages 10,11.
"Jewish presbyteries existed already in all the principal
cities of the dispersion, and Christian presbyteries would
early occupy a not less wide area. ... The name of the
presbyter then presents no difficulty. But what must be said
of the term bishop? ... But these notices, besides
establishing the general prevalence of episcopacy, also throw
considerable light on its origin. They indicate that the
relation suggested by the history of the word 'bishop' and its
transference from the lower to the higher office is the true
solution, and that the episcopate was created out of the
presbytery. ... They seem to hint also that, so far as this
development was affected at all by national temper and
characteristics, it was slower where the prevailing influences
were more purely Greek, as at Corinth and Philippi and Rome,
and more rapid where an Oriental spirit predominated, as at
Jerusalem and Antioch and Ephesus. Above all, they establish
this result clearly, that its maturer forms are seen first in
those regions where the latest surviving Apostles (more
especially St. John) fixed their abode, and at a time when its
prevalence cannot be dissociated from their influence or their
sanction."
J. B. Lightfoot, Dissertations on the Apostolic
Age, pages 151, 190, 191.
"Since then in the constitution of the church two elements met
together--the aristocratic and the monarchical--it could not
fail to be the case that a conflict would ensue between them.
... These struggles between the presbyterial and episcopal
systems belong among the most important phenomena connected
with the process of the development of church life in the
third century. Many presbyters made a capricious use of their
power, hurtful to good discipline and order in the
communities."
A. Neander, General History of the Christian Religion
and Church, volume 1, section 2.
"As a rule Christianity would get a footing first in the
metropolis of its region. The lesser cities would be
evangelized by missions sent from thence; and so the suffragan
sees would look on themselves as daughters of the metropolitan
see. The metropolitan bishop is the natural center of unity
for the bishops of the province. ... The bishops of the
metropolitan sees acquired certain rights which were delegated
to them by their brother bishops. Moreover, among the most
important churches a certain order of precedence grew up which
corresponded with the civil dignity of the cities in which
those churches existed; and finally the churches which were
founded by the apostles were treated with peculiar reverence."
F. W. Puller, The Primitive Saints and the See of Rome,
pages 11 and 18.
"The triumph of the episcopal system undoubtedly promoted
unity, order, and tranquillity. But, on the other hand, it was
unfavourable to the free development of the life of the
church; and while the latter promoted the formation of a
priesthood foreign to the essence of that development of the
kingdom of God which the New Testament sets forth, on the
other hand a revolution of sentiment which had already been
prepared--an altered view of the idea of the priesthood--had
no small influence on the development of the episcopal system.
Thus does this change of the original constitution of the
Christian communities stand intimately connected with another
and still more radical change,--the formation of a sacerdotal
caste in the Christian church. ... Out of the husk of Judaism
Christianity had evolved itself to freedom and
independence,--had stripped off the forms in which it first
sprang up, and within which the new spirit lay at first
concealed, until by its own inherent power it broke through
them. This development belonged more particularly to the
Pauline position, from which proceeded the form of the church
in the Gentile world. In the struggle with the Jewish elements
which opposed the free development of Christianity, this
principle had triumphantly made its way. In the churches of
pagan Christians the new creation stood forth completely
unfolded; but the Jewish principle, which had been vanquished,
pressed in once more from another quarter. Humanity was as yet
incapable of maintaining itself at the lofty position of pure
spiritual religion. The Jewish position was better adapted to
the mass, which needed first to be trained before it could
apprehend Christianity in its purity,--needed to be disabused
from paganism. Out of Christianity, now become independent, a
principle once more sprang forth akin to the principles of the
Old Testament,--a new outward shaping of the kingdom of God, a
new discipline of the law which one day was to serve for the
training of rude nations, a new tutorship for the spirit of
humanity, until it should arrive at the maturity of the
perfect manhood in Christ. This investiture of the Christian
spirit in a form nearly akin to the position arrived at in the
Old Testament, could not fail, after the fruitful principle
had once made its appearance, to unfold itself more and more,
and to bring to light one after another all the consequences
which it involved; but there also began with it a reaction of
the Christian consciousness as it yearned after freedom, which
was continually bursting forth anew in an endless variety of
appearances, until it attained its triumph at the
Reformation."
A. Neander, General History of the Christian Religion
and Church, volume 1, section 2, B.
{445}
"Though the forms of [pagan] religion had broken away, the
spirit of religion was still quick; it had even developed: the
sense of sin, an almost new phenomenon, began to invade
Society and Philosophy; and along with this, an almost
importunate craving after a revelation. The changed tone of
philosophy, the spread of mysticism, the rapid growth of
mystery-worship, the revived Platonism, are all articulate
expressions of this need. The old Philosophy begins not only
to preach but to pray: the new strives to catch the revealed
voice of God in the oracles of less unfaithful days. ... In
the teeth of an organised and concentrated despotism a new
society had grown up, self-supporting, self-regulated, a State
within the State. Calm and assured amid a world that hid its
fears only in blind excitement, free amid the servile,
sanguine amid the despairing, Christians lived with an object.
United in loyal fellowship by sacred pledges more binding than
the sacramentum of the soldier, welded together by a stringent
discipline, led by trained and tried commanders, the Church
had succeeded in attaining unity. It had proved itself able to
command self-devotion even to the death. It had not feared to
assimilate the choicest fruits of the choicest intellects of
East and West. ... Yet the centripetal forces were stronger;
Tertullian had died an heresiarch, and Origen but narrowly and
somewhat of grace escaped a like fate. If rent with schisms
and threatened with disintegration, the Church was still an
undivided whole."
G. H. Rendall, The Emperor Julian, Paganism and
Christianity, pages 21-22.
"The designation of the Universal Christian Church as Catholic
dates from the time of Irenaeus. ... At the beginning of this
age, the heretical as well as the non-heretical Ebionism may
be regarded as virtually suppressed, although some scanty
remnants of it might yet be found. The most brilliant period
of Gnosticism, too, ... was already passed. But in Manichæism
there appeared, during the second half of the third century, a
new peril of a no less threatening kind inspired by Parseeism
and Buddhism. ... With Marcus Aurelius, Paganism outside of
Christianity as embodied in the Roman State, begins the war of
extermination against the Church that was ever more and more
extending her boundaries. Such manifestation of hostility,
however, was not able to subdue the Church. ... During the
same time the episcopal and synodal-hierarchical organization
of the church was more fully developed by the introduction of
an order of Metropolitans, and then in the following period it
reached its climax in the oligarchical Pentarchy of
Patriarchs, and in the institution of œcumenical Synods."
J. H. Kurtz, Church History, volume l, pages 72-73, to which
the reader is also referred for all periods of church
history.
See, also,
P. Schaff, History of the Christian Church;
For biography,
W. Smith and H. Wace, A Dictionary of Christian
Biography.
"Missionary effort in this period was mainly directed to the
conversion of the heathen. On the ruins of Jerusalem,
Hadrian's colony of Ælia Capitolina was planted; so that even
there the Church, in its character and modes of worship, was a
Gentile community. Christianity was early carried to Edessa,
the capital of the small state of Osrhene, in Mesopotamia.
After the middle of the second century, the Church at Edessa
was sufficiently flourishing to count among its members the
king, Abgar Bar Manu. At about this time the gospel was
preached in Persia, Media, Parthia, and Bactria. We have
notices of churches in Arabia in the early part of the third
century. They were visited several times by Origen, the
celebrated Alexandrian Church teacher (185-254). In the middle
of the fourth century a missionary, Theophilus, of Diu, found
churches in India. In Egypt, Christianity made great progress,
especially at Alexandria, whence it spread to Cyrene and other
neighboring places. In upper Egypt, where the Coptic language
and the superstition of the people were obstacles in its path,
Christianity had, nevertheless, gained a foothold as early as
towards the close of the second century. At this time the
gospel had been planted in proconsular Africa, being conveyed
thither from Rome, and there was a flourishing church at
Carthage. In Gaul, where the Druidical system, with its
priesthood and sacrificial worship, was the religion of the
Celtic population, several churches were founded from Asia
Minor. At Lyons and Vienne there were strong churches in the
last quarter of the second century. At this time Irenæus,
Bishop of Lyons, speaks of the establishment of Christianity
in Germany, west of the Rhine, and Tertullian, the North
African presbyter, speaks of Christianity in Britain. The
fathers in the second century describe in glowing terms, and
not without rhetorical exaggeration, the rapid conquests of
the Gospel. The number of converts in the reign of Hadrian
must have been very large. Otherwise we cannot account for the
enthusiastic language of Justin Martyr respecting the
multitude of professing Christians. Tertullian writes in a
similar strain. Irenæus refers to Barbarians who have believed
without having a knowledge of letters, through oral teaching
merely."
G. P. Fisher, History of the Christian Church,
pages 45-46.
CHRISTIANITY: Alexandria.
"Christianity first began its activity in the country among
the Jewish and Greek population of the Delta, but gradually
also among the Egyptians proper (the Copts) as may be inferred
from the Coptic (Memphytic) translation of the New Testament
(third century). In the second century, Gnosticism [see
GNOSTICS], which had its chief seat here as well as in Syria,
and, secondly, towards the close of the century, the
Alexandrian Catechetical School, show the importance of this
centre of religious movement and Christian education."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church, page 105.
"Never perhaps has the free statement of the Christian idea
had less prejudice to encounter than at Alexandria at the
close of the second century. Never has it more successfully
vindicated by argument its right to be the great interpreter
of the human spirit. The institutions of the great metropolis
were highly favourable to this result. The Museum, built by
the Ptolemies, was intended to be, and speedily became, the
centre of an intense intellectual life. The Serapeum, at the
other end of the town, rivalled it in beauty of architecture
and wealth of rare MSS. The Sebastion, reared in honour of
Augustus, was no unworthy companion to these two noble
establishments. In all three, splendid endowments and a rich
professoriate attracted the talent of the world. If the
ambition of a secured reputation drew many eminent men away to
Rome, the means of securing such eminence were mainly procured
at Alexandria. ... The Christian Church in this city rose to
the height of its grand opportunity. It entered the lists
without fear and without favour, and boldly proclaimed its
competence to satisfy the intellectual cravings of man.
Numbers of restless and inquiring spirits came from all parts
of the world, hoping to find a solution of the doubts that
perplexed them. And the Church, which had already brought
peace to the souls of the woman and the slave, now girded
herself to the harder task of convincing the trained
intelligence of the man of letters and the philosopher."
C. T. Cruttwell, A Literary History of Early
Christianity, book 4, chapter 1 (volume 2).
{446}
"The question ... came up for decision towards the close of
the sub-apostolic age, as to what shape the Church was finally
to take. Two types were set before her to choose from--one the
Hebrew-Latin type, as we may call it, into which ... she
finally settled down; the other the Hellenist type of a Demos,
or commonwealth of free citizens, all equal, all alike kings
and priests unto God, and whose moral and spiritual growth was
left very much to the initiative of each member of the
community. In Alexandria, as the meeting-point of all
nationalities, and where Judaism itself had tried to set up a
new type of thought, eclectic between Hebraism and Hellenism,
and comprehending what was best in both, naturally enough
there grew up a Christian type of eclecticism corresponding to
that of Philo. ... Into this seething of rival sects and races
the Alexandrian school of catechists threw themselves, and
made a noble attempt to rescue the Church, the synagogue, and
the Stoics alike from the one bane common to all--the
dangerous delusion that the truth was for them, not they for
the truth. Setting out on the assumption that God's purpose
was the education of the whole human family, they saw in the
Logos doctrine of St. John the key to harmonise all truth,
whether of Christian sect, Hebrew synagogue, or Stoic
philosophy. ... To educate all men up to this standard seemed
to them the true ideal of the Church. True Gnosis was their
keynote; and the Gnostic, as Clemens loves to describe
himself, was to them the pattern philosopher and Christian in
one. They regarded, moreover, a discipline of at least three
years as imperative; it was the preliminary condition of
entrance into the Christian Church."
J. B. Heard, Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theology
Contrasted, pages 37-38.
The two great Christian writers of Alexandria were Clement and
Origen. "The universal influence of Origen made itself felt in
the third century over the whole field of Greek theology. In
him, as it were, everything which had hitherto been striven
after in the Greek field of theology, had been gathered
together, so as, being collected here in a centre, to give an
impulse in the most various directions; hence also the further
development of theology in subsequent times is always
accustomed to link itself on to one side or the other of his
rich spiritual heritage. ... And while this involves that
Christianity is placed on friendly relations with the previous
philosophical development of the highest conceptions of God
and the world, yet on the other hand Christian truth also
appears conversely as the universal truth which gathers
together in itself all the hitherto isolated rays of divine
truth. ... In the great religious ferment of the time there
was further contained the tendency to seek similar religious
ideas amid the different mythological religious forms and to
mingle them syncretistically. This religious ferment was still
further increased by the original content of Christianity,
that mighty leaven, which announced a religion destined to the
redemption and perfecting of the world, and by this means a like
direction and tendency was imparted to various other religious
views likewise. The exciting and moving effect of Gnosticism
on the Church depended at the same time on the fact, that its
representatives practically apprehended Christianity in the
manner of the antique religious mysteries, and in so doing
sought to lean upon the Christian communities and make
themselves at home in them, according as their religious life
and usages seemed to invite them, and to establish in them a
community of the initiated and perfect; an endeavour which the
powerful ascetic tendency in the church exploited and
augmented in its own sense, and for which the institution of
prophecy, which was so highly respected and powerful in the
communities, afforded a handle. In this way the initiated were
able to make for themselves a basis in the community on which
they could depend, while the religio-philosophical
speculations, which are always intelligible only to a few, at
the same time propagated themselves and branched out
scholastically."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church,
pages 215, 213, 130-131.
"At Alexandria, Basilides (A. D. 125) and Valentine exerted in
turn an extraordinary influence; the latter endeavored to
establish his school at Rome about the year 140. The Gnostics
of Syria professed a more open dualism than those of Egypt.
The Church of Antioch had to resist Saturnin, that of Edessa
to oppose Bordesanes and Tatian."
E. De Pressensé, The Early Years of Christianity;
The Martyrs and Apologists, page 135.
"There was something very imposing in those mighty systems,
which embraced heaven and earth. How plain and meagre in
comparison seemed simple Christianity! There was something
remarkably attractive in the breadth and liberality of
Gnosticism. It seemed completely to have reconciled
Christianity with culture. How narrow the Christian Church
appeared! Even noble souls might be captivated by the hope of
winning the world over to Christianity in this way. ... Over
against the mighty systems of the Gnostics, the Church stood,
in sober earnestness and childlike faith, on the simple
Christian doctrine of the Apostles. This was to be sought in
the churches founded by the apostles themselves, where they
had defined the faith in their preaching."
G. Uhlhorn, The Conflict of Christianity with
Heathenism, book 2, chapter 3.
"Greek philosophy had joined hands with Jewish theosophy, and
the Church knew not where to look for help. So serious did the
danger seem, when it was assailed at once and from opposite
sides by Jewish and Greek types of Gnosticism, the one from
the monotheistic point of view impugning the Godhead, the
other for the Docetic side explaining away [us a spiritual
illusion] the manhood of Christ, that the Church, in despair
of beating error by mere apology, fell back on the method of
authority. The Church was the only safe keeper of the deposit
of sacred tradition; whoever impugned that tradition, let him
be put out of the communion of saints."
Reverend J. B. Heard, Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theology
Contrasted, page 41.
{447}
"The interest, the meaning, of Gnosticism rest entirely upon
its ethical motive. It was an attempt, a serious attempt, to
fathom the dread mystery of sorrow and pain, to answer that
spectral doubt, which is mostly crushed down by force--Can the
world as we know it have been made by God? 'Cease,' says
Basilides, 'from idle and curious variety, and let us rather
discuss the opinions, which even barbarians have held, on the
subject of good and evil.' 'I will say anything rather than
admit that Providence is wicked.' Valentinus describes in the
strain of an ancient prophet the woes that afflict mankind. 'I
durst not affirm,' he concludes, 'that God is the author of
all this.' So Tertullian says of Marcion, 'like many men of
our time, and especially the heretics, he is bewildered by the
question of evil.' They approach the problem from a
non-Christian point of view, and arrive therefore at a
non-Christian solution. ... Many of them, especially the later
sectaries, accepted the whole Christian Creed, but always with
reserve. The teaching of the Church thus became in their eyes
a popular exoteric confession, beneath their own Gnosis, or
Knowledge, which was a Mystery, jealously guarded from all but
the chosen few."
C. Bigg; The Christian Platonists of Alexandria,
pages 28-29.
CHRISTIANITY: Cæsarea.
"The chief points of interest in the history of the Church of
Cæsarea during this period are the residence of Origen there
(first between A. D. 215 and 219 and again after his final
departure from Alexandria in 231), the education of Eusebius,
the foundation of the great library by Pamphilus, and the
martyrdoms during the Diocletian persecution. Most of these
will come before us again in other connexions, but they
require mention here. It would be difficult to over-estimate
the effect of what they imply on the Church at large. Had the
work of Origen, Pamphilus, and Eusebius at Cæsarea remained
unrecorded, there would be a huge blank in ecclesiastical
history, rendering much that is otherwise known scarcely
intelligible. Had that work never been done, the course of
ecclesiastical history would have been very different. In the
whole of the second and third centuries it would be difficult
to name two more influential Christians than Origen and
Eusebius; and Pamphilus laboured earnestly to preserve and
circulate the writings of the one and to facilitate those of
the other. It was from the libraries of Pamphilus at Cæsarea
and of Alexander at Jerusalem that Eusebius obtained most of
his material" for his "Ecclesiastical History," which has
preserved titles and quotations from many lost books of
exceeding value.
A. Plummer, The Church of the Early Fathers, chapter 3.
CHRISTIANITY: Edessa.
"Edessa (the modern Urfa) was from the beginning of the third
century one of the chief centres of Syrian Christian life and
theological study. For many years, amid the vicissitudes of
theological persecution, a series of flourishing theological
schools were maintained there, one of which (the 'Persian
school') is of great importance as the nursery of Nestorianism
in the extreme East. It was as bishop of Edessa, also, that
Jacob Baradæus organized the monophysite churches into that
Jacobite church of which he is the hero. From the scholars of
Edessa came many of the translations which carried Greek
thought to the East, and in the periods of exciting
controversy Edessa was within the range of the theological
movements that stirred Alexandria and Constantinople. The
'Chronicle of Edessa,' as it is called because the greater
number of its notices relate to Edessene affairs, is a brief
document in Syriac contained in a manuscript of six leaves in
the Vatican library. It is one of the most important
fundamental sources for the history of Edessa, contains a long
official narrative of the flood of A. D. 201, which is perhaps
the only existing monument of heathen Syriac literature, and
includes an excellent and very carefully dated list of the
bishops of Edessa from A. D. 313 to 543."
Andover Review, volume 19, page 374.
The Syriac Versions (of the Gospel) form a group of which
mention should undoubtedly be made. The Syriac versions of the
Bible (Old Testament) are among the most ancient remains of
the language, the Syriac and the Chaldee being the two
dialects of the Aramaean spoken in the North. Of versions of
the New Testament, "the 'Peshito' or the 'Simple,' though not
the oldest text, has been the longest known. ... The
'Curetonian' ... was discovered after its existence had been
for a long time suspected by sagacious scholars [but is not
much more than a series of fragments]. ... Cureton, Tregelles,
Alford, Ewald, Bleek, and others, believe this text to be
older than the Peshito [which speaks for the Greek text of the
second century, though its own date is doubtful]. ... Other
valuable Syriac versions are 'Philoxenian' ... and the
'Jerusalem Syriac Lectionary' ... a service-book with lessons
from the Gospels for Sundays and feast days throughout the
year ... written at Antioch in 1030 in a dialect similar to
that in use in Jerusalem and from a Greek text of great
antiquity." A recent discovery renders these facts and
statements of peculiar interests.
G. E. Merrill, The Story of the Manuscripts, chapter 10.
CHRISTIANITY: Rural Palestine.
"If Ebionism [see EBIONISM] was not primitive Christianity,
neither was it a creation of the second century. As an
organization, a distinct sect, it first made itself known, we
may suppose, in the reign of Trajan: but as a sentiment, it
had been harboured within the Church from the very earliest
days. Moderated by the personal influence of the Apostles,
soothed by the general practice of their church, not yet
forced into declaring themselves by the turn of events, though
scarcely tolerant of others, these Judaizers were tolerated
for a time themselves. The beginning of the second century was

a winnowing season in the Church of the Circumcision. ... It
is a probable conjecture, that after the destruction of
Jerusalem the fugitive Christians, living in their retirement
in the neighbourhood of the Essene settlements, received large
accessions to their numbers from this sect, which thus
inoculated the Church with its peculiar views. It is at least
worthy of notice, that in a religious work emanating from this
school of Ebionites the 'true Gospel' is reported to have been
first propagated 'after the destruction of the holy place.'"
J. B. Lightfoot, Dissertation on the Apostolic Age,
pages 78-80.
{448}
CHRISTIANITY: Carthage.
"If the world is indebted to Rome for the organisation of the
Church, Rome is indebted to Carthage for the theory on which
that organisation is built. The career of Carthage as a
Christian centre exemplifies the strange vicissitudes of
history. The city which Rome in her jealousy had crushed,
which, not content with crushing, she had obliterated from the
face of the earth, had at the bidding of Rome's greatest son
risen from her ashes, and by her career almost verified the
poet's taunt that the greatness of Carthage was reared on the
ruin of Italy. For in truth the African capital was in all but
political power no unworthy rival of Rome. It had steadily
grown in commercial prosperity. Its site was so advantageous
as to invite, almost to compel, the influx of trade, which
ever spontaneously moves along the line of least resistance.
And the people were well able to turn this natural advantage
to account. A mixed nationality, in which the original Italian
immigration lent a steadying force to the native Punic and
kindred African elements that formed its basis, with its
intelligence enriched by large accessions of Greek settlers
from Cyrene and Alexandria--Carthage had developed in the
second century of our era into a community at once wealthy,
enterprising and ambitious. ... It was no longer in the sphere
of profane literature, but in her contributions to the cause
of Christianity and the spiritual armoury of the Church, that
the proud Queen of Africa was to win her second crown of fame.
... The names of Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine, at once
suggest the source from which Papal Rome drew the principles
of Church controversy, Church organisation, and Church
doctrine, which have consolidated her authority, and to some
extent justified her pretensions to rule the conscience of
Christendom."
C. T. Cruttwell, A Literary History of Early
Christianity, book 5, ell. 2 (volume 2).
"At the end of the second century the African Tertullian first
began to wrestle with the difficulties of the Latin language
in the endeavour to make it a vehicle for the expression of
Christian ideas. In reading his dogmatic writings the struggle
is so apparent that it seems as though we beheld a rider
endeavouring to discipline an unbroken steed. Tertullian's
doctrine is, however, still wholly Greek in substance, and
this continued to be the case in the church of the Latin
tongue until the end of the fourth century. Hilary, Ambrose,
even Jerome, are essentially interpreters of Greek philosophy
and theology to the Latin West. With Augustine learning begins
to assume a Latin form, partly original and
independent--partly, I say, for even later compositions are
abundantly interwoven with Greek elements and materials. Very
gradually from the writings of the African fathers of the
church does the specific Latin element come to occupy that
dominant position in Western Christendom, which soon, partly
from self-sufficient indifference, partly from ignorance, so
completely severed itself from Greek influences that the old
unity and harmony could never be restored. Still the Biblical
study of the Latins is, as a whole, a mere echo and copy of
Greek predecessors."
J. I. von Döllinger, Studies in European History,
pages 170-171.
From Carthage which was afterward the residence of "the
primate of all Africa ... the Christian faith soon
disseminated throughout Numidia, Mauritania and Getulia, which
is proved by the great number of bishops at two councils held
at Carthage in 256 and 308. At the latter there were 270
bishops, whose names are not given, but at the former were
bishops from (87) ... cities."
J. E. T. Wiltsch, Handbook of the Geography and
Statistics of the Church.
CHRISTIANITY: Rome.
"In the West, Rome remains and indeed becomes ever more and
more the 'sedes Apostolica,' by far the most important centre
where, alongside of the Roman element, there are to be found
elements streaming together from all points of the Empire.
Greek names, and the long lasting (still dominant in the
second century) maintenance of Greek as the written language
of Roman Christianity are here noteworthy. ... Rome was the
point of departure not only for Italy and the Western
Provinces, but without doubt also for Proconsular Africa,
where in turn Carthage becomes the centre of diffusion. ...
The diffusion in the Græco-Roman world as a whole goes first
to the more important towns and from these gradually over the
country. ... The instruments however of this mission are by no
means exclusively apostolic men, who pursue missions as their
calling; ... every Christian becomes a witness in his own
circle, and intercourse and trade bring Christians hither and
thither, and along with them their Christian faith."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church, pages 105-107.
"It has been contended, and many still believe, that in
ancient Rome the doctrines of Christ found no proselytes,
except among the lower and poorer classes of citizens. ... The
gospel found its way also to the mansions of the masters, nay,
even to the palace of the Cæsars. The discoveries lately made
on this subject are startling, and constitute a new chapter in
the history of imperial Rome. ... A difficulty may arise in
the mind of the reader: how was it possible for these
magistrates, generals, consuls, officers, senators, and
governors of provinces, to attend to their duties without
performing acts of idolatry? ... The Roman emperors gave
plenty of liberty to the new religion from time to time; and
some of them, moved by a sort of religious syncretism, even
tried to ally it with the official worship of the empire, and
to place Christ and Jupiter on the steps of the same
'lararium.' ... We must not believe that the transformation of
Rome from a pagan into a Christian city was a sudden and
unexpected event, which took the world by surprise. It was the
natural result of the work of three centuries, brought to
maturity under Constantine by an inevitable reaction against
the violence of Diocletian's rule. It was not a revolution or
a conversion in the true sense of these words; it was the
official recognition of a state of things which had long
ceased to be a secret. The moral superiority of the new
doctrines over the old religions was so evident, so
overpowering, that the result of the struggle had been a
foregone conclusion since the age of the first apologists. The
revolution was an exceedingly mild one, the transformation
almost imperceptible. ... The transformation may be followed
stage by stage in both its moral and material aspect. There is
not a ruin of ancient Rome that does not bear evidence of the
great change. ... Rome possesses authentic remains of the
'houses of prayer' in which the gospel was first announced in
apostolic times. ... A very old tradition, confirmed by the
'Liber Pontificalis,' describes the modern church of S.
Pudentiana as having been once the private house of the same
Pudens who was baptized by the apostles, and who is mentioned
in the epistles of S. Paul. ... The connection of the house
with the apostolate of SS. Peter and Paul made it very popular
from the beginning. ... Remains of the house of Pudens were
found in 1870. They occupy a considerable area under the
neighboring houses. ...
{449}
Among the Roman churches whose origin can be traced to the
hall of meeting, besides those of Pudens and Prisca already
mentioned, the best preserved seems to be that built by
Demetrias at the third mile-stone of the Via Latina, near the
'painted tombs.'... The Christians took advantage of the
freedom accorded to funeral colleges, and associated
themselves for the same purpose, following as closely as
possible their rules concerning contributions, the erection of
lodges, the meetings, and the ... love feasts; and it was
largely through the adoption of these well-understood and
respected customs that they were enabled to hold their
meetings and keep together as a corporate body through the
stormy times of the second and third centuries. Two excellent
specimens of scholæ connected with Christian cemeteries and
with meetings of the faithful have come down to us, one above
the Catacombs of Callixtus, the other above those of Soter."
This formation of Christian communities into colleges is an
important fact, and connects these Christian societies with
one of the social institutions of the Empire which may have
influenced the church as an organization. "The experience
gained in twenty-five years of active exploration in ancient
Rome, both above and below ground, enables me to state that
every pagan building which was capable of giving shelter to a
congregation was transformed, at one time or another, into a
church or a chapel. ... From apostolic times to the
persecution of Domitian, the faithful were buried, separately
or collectively, in private tombs which did not have the
character of a Church institution. These early tombs, whether
above or below ground, display a sense of perfect security,
and an absence of all fear or solicitude. This feeling arose
from two facts: the small extent of the cemeteries, which
secured to them the rights of private property, and the
protection and freedom which the Jewish colony in Rome enjoyed
from time immemorial. ... From the time of the apostles to the
first persecution of Domitian, Christian tombs, whether above
or below ground, were built with perfect impunity and in
defiance of public opinion. We have been accustomed to
consider the catacombs of Rome as crypts plunged in total
darkness, and penetrating the bowels of the earth at
unfathomable depths. This is, in a certain measure, the case
with those catacombs, or sections of catacombs, which were
excavated in times of persecution; but not with those
belonging to the first century. The cemetery of these members
of Domitian's family who had embraced the gospel--such as
Flavius Clemens, Flavia Domitilla, Plautilla, Petronilla, and
others-reveals a bold example of publicity. ... How is it
possible to imagine that the primitive Church did not know the
place of the death of its two leading apostles? In default of
written testimony let us consult monumental evidence. There is
no event of the imperial age and of imperial Rome which is
attested by so many noble structures, all of which point to
the same conclusion,--the presence and execution of the
apostles in the capital of the empire."
R. Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome,
chapter 1, 3 and 7.
The Church at Rome "gave no illustrious teachers to ancient
Christianity. ... All the greatest questions were debated
elsewhere. ... By a sort of instinct of race, [it] occupied
itself far more with points of government and organization
than of speculation. Its central position, in the capital of
the empire, and its glorious memories, guaranteed to it a
growing authority."
E. De Pressensé, The Early Years of Christianity: The
Martyrs and Apologists, page 41.
CHRISTIANITY: Gaul.
"Of the history of the Gallican Churches before the middle of
the second century we have no certain information. It seems
fairly probable indeed that, when we read in the Apostolic age
of a mission of Crescens to 'Galatia' or 'Gaul,' the western
country is meant rather than the Asiatic settlement which bore
the same name; and, if so, this points to some relations with
St. Paul himself. But, even though this explanation should be
accepted, the notice stands quite alone. Later tradition
indeed supplements it with legendary matter, but it is
impossible to say what substratum of fact, if any, underlies
these comparatively recent stories. The connection between the
southern parts of Gaul and the western districts of Asia Minor
had been intimate from very remote times. Gaul was indebted
for her earliest civilization to her Greek settlements like
Marseilles, which had been colonized from Asia Minor some six
centuries before the Christian era; and close relations appear
to have been maintained even to the latest times. During the
Roman period the people of Marseilles still spoke the Greek
language familiarly along with the vernacular Celtic of the
native population and the official Latin of the dominant
power. When therefore Christianity had established her
headquarters in Asia Minor, it was not unnatural that the
Gospel should flow in the same channels which already
conducted the civilization and the commerce of the Asiatic
Greeks westward. At all events, whatever we may think of the
antecedent probabilities, the fact itself can hardly be
disputed. In the year A. D. 177, under Marcus Aurelius, a
severe persecution broke out on the banks of the Rhone in the
cities of Vienne and Lyons--a persecution which by its extent
and character bears a noble testimony to the vitality of the
Churches in these places. To this incident we owe the earliest
extant historical notice of Christianity in Gaul."
J. B. Lightfoot, Essays on the work entitled Supernatural
Religion, pages 251-252.
"The Churches of proconsular Africa, of Spain, of Italy, and
of Southern Gaul constitute, at this period, the Western
Church, so different in its general type from the Eastern.
With the exception of Irenaeus [bishop of Lyons] and
Hippolytus [the first celebrated preacher of the West, of
Italy and, for a period, Lyons] who represent the oriental
element in Gaul and at Rome, the Western Fathers are broadly
distinguished from those of the East. ... They affirm rather
than demonstrate; ... they prefer practical to speculative
questions. The system of episcopal authority is gradually
developed with a larger amount of passion at Carthage, with
greater prudence and patience in Italy."
E. De Pressensé, The Early Years of Christianity: the
Martyrs and Apologists.
CHRISTIANITY: Spain.
"Christians are generally mentioned as having existed in all
parts of Spain at the close of the second century; before the
middle of the third century there is a letter of the Roman
bishop Anterus (in 237) to the bishops of the provinces of
Bœtica and Toletana; ... and after the middle of the same
century a letter of Cyprian's was addressed to ... people ...
in the north ... as well as ... in the south of that country."
J. E. T. Wiltsch, Handbook of the Geography and
Statistics of the Church, pages 40-41.
{450}
CHRISTIANITY: Britain.
"All that we can safely assert is that there is some reason
for believing that there were Christians in Britain before A.
D. 200. Certainly there was a British Church with bishops of
its own soon after A. D. 300, and possibly some time before
that. Very little can be known about this Celtic Church; but
the scanty evidence tends to establish three points, (1) It
had its origin from, and remained largely dependent upon, the
Gallic Church. (2) It was confined almost exclusively to Roman
settlements. (3) Its numbers were small and its members were
poor. ... That Britain may have derived its Christianity from
Asia Minor cannot be denied; but the peculiar British custom
respecting Easter must not be quoted in evidence of it. It
seems to have been a mere blunder, and not a continuation of
the old Quarta-deciman practice. Gaul is the more probable
parent of the British Church. ... At the Council of Rimini in
359 Constantius offered to pay out of the treasury the
travelling expenses of all the bishops who attended. Out of
more than four hundred bishops, three from Britain were the
only clergy who availed themselves of this offer. Neither at
Rimini, any more than at Arles, do the British representatives
make any show: they appear to be quite without influence."
A. Plummer, The Church of the Early Fathers, chapter 8.
CHRISTIANITY: Goths.
"It has been observed that the first indisputable appearance
of the Goths in European history must be dated in A. D. 238,
when they laid waste the South-Danubian province of Moesia as
far as the Black Sea. In the thirty years (238-269) that
followed, there took place no fewer than ten such inroads. ...
From these expeditions they returned with immense booty,--corn
and cattle, silks and fine linen, silver and gold, and
captives of all ranks and ages. It is to these captives, many
of whom were Christians, and not a few clergy, that the
introduction of Christianity among the Goths is primarily due.
... The period of the inroads, which so strangely formed a
sowing-time for Christianity, was followed by a long period of
tranquillity, during which the new faith took root and spread.
... It is to the faithful work and pure lives of [Christian]
men ... who had fled from Roman civilisation for conscience
sake, to the example of patience in misfortune and high
Christian character displayed by the captives, and to the
instruction of the presbyters sprinkled among them, that we
must look, as the source of Christianity among the Goths. ...
The fact (to which we shall have to refer later), that, of all
the sea raids undertaken by the Goths between the years 238
and 269, the Visigoths took part in only two, while the
Ostrogoths, who were settled in Southern Russia along the
coast of the Euxine from the Crimea to the Dneister, were
engaged probably in all of them, makes it very unlikely that
the captives mentioned by Philostorgius were carried anywhere
else than the eastern settlements. To the influence of these
Asian Christians, exerted mainly, if not entirely upon the
Ostrogoths, must be added the ever-increasing intercourse
carried on by sea between the Crimea and both the southern
shore of the Euxine and Constantinople. To these probabilities
has now to be added the fact that the only traces of an
organised Gothic Church existing before the year 341 are
clearly to be referred to a community in this neighbourhood.
Among the bishops who were present at the Council of Nicaea
(A. D. 325), and who signed the symbol which was then
approved, we find a certain Theophilus, before whose name
stand the words, 'de Gothis,' and after it the word
'Bosphoritanus.' There can be little doubt that this was a
bishop representing a Gothic Church on the Cimmerian
Bosphorus; and if, following the Paris MSS., we read further
down the list the name Domnus Bosphorensis or Bosphoranus, we
may find here another bishop from this diocese, and regard
Theophilus as chief or arch-bishop of the Crimean churches.
The undoubted presence at this council of at least one bishop
of the Goths, and the conclusion drawn therefrom in favour of
the orthodoxy of the Gothic Church in general, led afterwards
to the greatest confusion. Failing to distinguish between the
Crimean and Danubian communities, the historians often found
their information contradictory, and altered it in the
readiest way to suit the condition of the Church which they
had specially in view. ... The conversion of that section of
the nation, which became the Gothic Church, was due to the
apostolic labours of one of their own race,--the great
missionary bishop Ulfilas [see GOTHS: A. D. 341-381]. But to
him too was to be traced the heresy in which they stopped
short on the way from heathenism to a complete Christian
faith."
C. A. A. Scott, Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths, pages 19-30.
"The superstitions of the barbarians, who had found homes in
the empire, had been exchanged for a more wholesome belief.
But Christianity had done more than this. It had extended its
influence to the distant East and South, to Abyssinia, and the
tribes of the Syrian and Lybian deserts, to Armenia, Persia,
and India."
G. P. Fisher, History of the Christian Church,
page 98.
"We have before us many significant examples of the facility
with which the most intelligent of the Pagans accepted the
outward rite of Christian baptism, and made a nominal
profession of the Faith, while they retained and openly
practiced, without rebuke, without remark, with the indulgence
even of genuine believers, the rites and usages of the
Paganism they pretended to have abjured. We find abundant
records of the fact that personages high in office, such as
consuls and other magistrates, while administering the laws by
which the old idolatries were proscribed, actually performed
Pagan rites and even erected public statues to Pagan
divinities. Still more did men, high in the respect of their
fellow-Christians, allow themselves to cherish sentiments
utterly at variance with the definitions of the Church."
C. Merivale, Four lectures on some Epochs of Early
Church History, page 150.
"We look back to the early acts and policy of the Church
towards the new nations, their kings and their people; the
ways and works of her missionaries and lawgivers, Ulfilas
among the Goths, Augustine in Kent, Remigius in France,
Boniface in Germany, Anschar in the North, the Irish Columban
in Burgundy and Switzerland, Benedict at Monte Cassino; or the
reforming kings, the Arian Theodoric, the great German
Charles, the great English Alfred. Measured by the light and
the standards they have helped us to attain to, their methods
no doubt surprise, disappoint--it may be, revolt us; and all
that we dwell upon is the childishness, or the imperfect
morality, of their attempts.
{451}
But if there is anything certain in history, it is
that in these rough communications of the deepest truths, in
these [for us] often questionable modes of ruling minds and
souls, the seeds were sown of all that was to make the hope
and the glory of the foremost nations. ... I have spoken of
three other groups of virtues which are held in special regard
and respect among us--those connected with manliness and hard
work, with reverence for law and liberty, and with pure family
life. The rudiments and tendencies out of which these have
grown appear to have been early marked in the German races;
but they were only rudiments, existing in company with much
wilder and stronger elements, and liable, amid the changes and
chances of barbarian existence, to be paralysed or trampled
out. No mere barbarian virtues could by themselves have stood
the trial of having won by conquest the wealth, the lands, the
power of Rome. But their guardian was there. What Christianity
did for these natural tendencies to good was to adopt them, to
watch over them, to discipline, to consolidate them. The
energy which warriors were accustomed to put forth in their
efforts to conquer, the missionaries and ministers of
Christianity exhibited in their enterprises of conversion and
teaching. The crowd of unknown saints whose names fill the
calendars, and live, some of them, only in the titles of our
churches, mainly represent the age of heroic spiritual
ventures, of which we see glimpses in the story of St.
Boniface, the apostle of Germany; of St. Columban and St.
Gall, wandering from Ireland to reclaim the barbarians of the
Burgundian deserts and of the shores of the Swiss lakes. It
was among men like these--men who were then termed
emphatically 'men of religion'--that the new races saw the
example of life ruled by a great and serious purpose, which
yet was not one of ambition or the excitement of war; a life
of deliberate and steady industry, of hard and uncomplaining
labour; a life as full of activity in peace, of stout and
brave work, as a warrior's was wont to be in the camp, on the
march, in the battle. It was in these men and in the
Christianity which they taught, and which inspired and
governed them, that the fathers of our modern nations first
saw exemplified the sense of human responsibility, first
learned the nobleness of a ruled and disciplined life, first
enlarged their thoughts of the uses of existence, first were
taught the dignity and sacredness of honest toil. These great
axioms of modern life passed silently from the special homes
of religious employment to those of civil; from the cloisters
and cells of men who, when they were not engaged in worship,
were engaged in field-work or book-work,--clearing the forest,
extending cultivation, multiplying manuscripts--to the guild
of the craftsman, the shop of the trader, the study of the
scholar. Religion generated and fed these ideas of what was
manly and worthy in man."
R. W. Church, The Gifts of Civilisation,
pages 279-283.
CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 312-337.
The Church and the Empire.
"Shortly after the beginning of the fourth century there
occurred an event which, had it been predicted in the days of
Nero or even of Decius, would have been deemed a wild fancy.
It was nothing less than the conversion of the Roman Emperor
to the Christian faith. It was an event of momentous
importance in the history of the Christian religion. The Roman
empire, from being the enemy and persecutor of the Church,
thenceforward became its protector and patron. The Church
entered into an alliance with the State, which was to prove
fruitful of consequences, both good and evil, in the
subsequent history of Europe. Christianity was now to reap the
advantages and incur the dangers arising from the friendship
of earthly rulers and from a close connection with the civil
authority. Constantine was born in 274. He was the son of
Constantius Chlorus. His mother, Helena, was of obscure birth.
She became a Christian--whether before or after his
conversion, is doubtful. ... After the death of Constantine's
father, a revolt against Galerius augmented the number of
emperors, so that, in 308, not less than six claimed to
exercise rule. The contest of Constantine was at first in the
West, against the tyrannical and dissolute Maxentius. It was
just before his victory over this rival at the Milvian Bridge,
near Rome, that he adopted the Christian faith. That there
mingled in this decision, as in most of the steps of his
career, political ambition, is highly probable. The strength
of the Christian community made it politic for him to win its
united support. But he sincerely believed in the God whom the
Christians worshipped, and in the help which, through his
providence, he could lend to his servants. ... Shortly before
his victory over Maxentius there occurred what he asserted to
be the vision of a flaming cross in the sky, seen by him at
noonday, on which was the inscription, in Greek, 'By this
conquer.' It was, perhaps, an optical illusion, the effect of
a parhelion beheld in a moment when the imagination ... was
strongly excited. He adopted the labarum, or the standard of
the cross, which was afterwards carried in his armies. [See
ROME: A. D. 323.] In later contests with Licinius, the ruler
in the East, who was a defender of paganism, Constantine
became more distinctly the champion of the Christian cause.
The final defeat of Licinius, in 323, left him the master of
the whole Roman world. An edict signed by Galerius,
Constantine, and Licinius, in 311, had proclaimed freedom and
toleration in matters of religion. The edict of Milan, in 312,
emanating from the two latter, established unrestricted
liberty on this subject. If we consider the time when it was
issued, we shall be surprised to find that it alleges as a
motive for the edict the sacred rights of conscience."
G. P. Fisher, History of the Christian Church,
pages 87-88.
"Towards the end of the year Constantine left Rome for Milan,
where he met Licinius. This meeting resulted in the issue of
the famous edict of Milan. Up to that hour Christianity had
been an 'illicita religio,' and it was a crime to be a
Christian. Even in Trajan's answer to Pliny this position is
assumed, though it forms the basis of humane regulations. The
edict of Milan is the charter of Christianity; it proclaims
absolute freedom in the matter of religion. Both Christians
and all others were to be freely permitted to follow
whatsoever religion each might choose. Moreover, restitution
was to be made to the Christian body of all churches and other
buildings which had been alienated from them during the persecution.
{452}
This was in 313 A. D. ... But the causes of dissension
remained behind. Once more (323) the question between paganism
and Christianity was to be tried on the field of battle, and
their armies confronted one another on the plains of
Hadrianople. Again the skill of Constantine and the trained
valour of his troops proved superior to the undisciplined
levies of Licinius; while at sea Crispus, the eldest and
ill-fated son of Constantine, destroyed the enemy's fleet in
the crowded waters of the Hellespont, sowing thereby the seeds
of his father's jealousy. Byzantium fell, but not without a
vigorous resistance; and, after one more crushing defeat on
the site of the modern Scutari, Licinius submitted himself to
the mercy of Constantine. ... What we notice in the whole of
these events is the enormous power which still belonged to
paganism. The balance still wavered between paganism and
Christianity. ... Constantine had now, by a marvellous
succession of victories, placed himself in a position of
supreme and undisputed power. At this juncture it is of
interest to observe that ... the divided empire, which
followed the reign of Constantine, served to sustain
Catholicity at least in one half of the world. ... The
foundation of Constantinople was the outward symbol of the new
monarchy and of the triumph of Christianity. ... The choice of
this incomparable position for the new capital of the world
remains the lasting proof of Constantine's genius. ... The
magnificence of its public buildings, its treasures of art,
its vast endowments, the beauty of its situation, the rapid
growth of its commerce, made it worthy to be 'as it were a
daughter of Rome herself.' But the most important thought for
us is the relation of Constantinople to the advance of
Christianity. That the city which had sprung into supremacy
from its birth and had become the capital of the conquered
world, should have excluded from the circuit of its walls all
public recognition of polytheism, and made the Cross its most
conspicuous ornament, and the token of its greatness, gave a
reality to the religious revolution. ... The imperial centre
of the world had been visibly displaced."
A. Carr, The Church and the Roman Empire, chapter 4.
With the first General Council of the Church, held at Nicæa,
A. D. 325 (see NICÆA), "the decisions ... of which received
the force of law from the confirmation of the Emperor, a
tendency was entered upon which was decisive for the further
development; decisive also by the fact that the Emperor held
it to be his duty to compel subordination to the decisions of
the council on penalty of banishment, and actually carried out
this banishment in the case of Arius and several of his
adherents. The Emperor summoned general synods, the fiscus
provided the cost of travel and subsistence (also at other
great synods), an imperial commissioner opened them by reading
the imperial edict, and watched over the course of business.
Only the bishops and their appointed representatives had
votes. Dogmatic points fixed ... were to be the outcome of
unanimous agreement, the rest of the ordinances (on the
constitution, discipline and worship) of a majority of votes."
W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church, page 337.
"The direct influence of the emperor, however, does not appear
until the Emperor Marcian procured from the Council of
Chalcedon the completion of the Patriarchal system. Assuming
that Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch were Patriarchates by the
recognition of their privileges at the Council of Nicæa
(though the canon of that council does not really admit that
inference), the Council of Chalcedon, by its ninth,
seventeenth and twenty-eighth canons, enlarged and fixed the
patriarchal jurisdiction and privileges of the Church of
Constantinople, giving it authority over the Dioceses of
Thrace, Asia and Pontus, with the power of ordaining and
requiring canonical obedience from the metropolis of those
Dioceses, and also the right to adjudicate appeals in causes
ecclesiastical from the whole Eastern Church. The Bishop of
Jerusalem also obtained in this council patriarchal authority
over Palestine. The organization of the Church was thus
conformed to that of the empire, the patriarchs corresponding
to the Prætorian Prefects, the exarchs, to the governors of
the Dioceses, and the metropolitans to the governors of the
provinces--the Bishop of Rome being given by an edict of
Valentinian III., of the year 445, supreme appellate
jurisdiction in the West, and the Bishop of Constantinople, by
these canons of Chalcedon, supreme appellate jurisdiction in
the East. ... Dean Milman remarks that the Episcopate of St.
John Chrysostom was the last attempt of a bishop of
Constantinople to be independent of the political power, and
that his fate involved the freedom of the Church of that
city."
J. H. Egar, Christendom: Ecclesiastical and Political, from
Constantine to the Reformation, pages 25-27.
"The name of patriarch, probably borrowed from Judaism, was
from this period the appellation of the highest dignitaries of
the church, and by it were more immediately, but not
exclusively, designated the bishops of Constantinople,
Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. One patriarch accordingly
presided over several provinces, and was distinguished from
the metropolitan in this, that the latter was subordinate to
him, and had only the superintendence of one province or a
small district. However the designation applied only to the
highest rulers of the church in the east, and not to those in
the west, for here the title of patriarch was not unfrequently
given, even in later times, to the metropolitan. The first
mention of this title occurs in the second letter of the Roman
bishop, Anacletus at the beginning of the second century, and
it is next spoken of by Socrates; and after the Council of
Chalcedon, in 451, it came into general use. The bishop of
Constantinople bore the special title of œcumenical bishop or
patriarch; there were also other titles in use among the
Nestorians and Jacobites. The Primates and Metropolitans or
Archbishops arose contemporaneously. The title of Eparch is
also said to have been given to primates about the middle of
the fifth century. The metropolitan of Ephesus subscribed
himself thus in the year 680, therefore in the succeeding
period. There was no particular title of long continuance for
the Roman bishop until the sixth century; but from the year
536 he was usually called Papa, and from the time of Gregory
the Great he styled himself Servus Servorum Dei."
J. E. T. Wiltsch, Handbook of the Geography and
Statistics of the Church, pages 70, 71 and 72.
{453}
"Christianity may now be said to have ascended the imperial
throne: with the single exception of Julian, from this period
the monarchs of the Roman empire professed the religion of the
Gospel. This important crisis in the history of Christianity
almost forcibly arrests the attention to contemplate the
change wrought in Christianity by its advancement into a
dominant power in the state; and the change in the condition
of mankind up to this period, attributable to the direct
authority or indirect influence of the new religion. By
ceasing to exist as a separate community, and by advancing its
pretentions to influence the general government of mankind,
Christianity to a certain extent, forfeited its independence.
It could not but submit to these laws, framed, as it might
seem, with its own concurrent voice. It was no longer a
republic, governed exclusively--as far, at least, as its
religious concerns--by its own internal polity. The
interference of the civil power in some of its most private
affairs, the promulgation of its canons, and even, in some
cases, the election of its bishops by the state, was the price
which it must inevitably pay for its association with the
ruling power. ... During the reign of Constantine Christianity
had made a rapid advance, no doubt, in the number of its
proselytes as well as in its external position. It was not yet
the established religion of the empire. It did not as yet
stand forward as the new religion adapted to the new order of
things, as a part of the great simultaneous change which gave
to the Roman world a new capital, a new system of government,
and, in some important instances, anew jurisprudence. ... The
religion of the emperor would soon become that of the court,
and, by somewhat slower degrees, that of the empire. At
present, however, as we have seen, little open aggression took
place upon paganism. The few temples which were closed were
insulated cases, and condemned as offensive to public
morality. In general the temples stood in all their former
majesty, for as yet the ordinary process of decay from neglect
or supineness could have produced little effect. The
difference was, that the Christian churches began to assume a
more stately and imposing form. In the new capital they
surpassed in grandeur, and probably in decoration, the pagan
temples, which belonged to old Byzantium. The immunities
granted to the Christian clergy only placed them on the same
level with the pagan priesthood. The pontifical offices were
still held by the distinguished men of the state: the emperor
himself was long the chief pontiff; but the religious office
had become a kind of appendage to the temporal dignity. The
Christian prelates were constantly admitted, in virtue of
their office, to the imperial presence."
H. H. Milman, History of Christianity, book 3, chapter 4.
"As early as Constantine's time the punishment of crucifixion
was abolished; immoral practices, like infanticide, and the
exhibition of gladiatorial shows, were discouraged, the latter
of these being forbidden in Constantinople; and in order to
improve the relation of the sexes, severe laws were passed
against adultery, and restrictions were placed on the facility
of divorce. Further, the bishops were empowered, in the name
of religion, to intercede with governors, and even with the
emperor, in behalf of the unfortunate and oppressed. And
gradually they obtained the right of exercising a sort of
moral superintendence over the discharge of their official
duties by the judges, and others, who belonged to their
communities. The supervision of the prisons, in particular,
was entrusted to them; and, whereas in the first instance
their power of interference was limited to exhortations
addressed to the judges who superintended them, in Justinian's
reign the bishops were commissioned by law to visit the
prisons on two days of each week in order to inquire into,
and, if necessary, report upon, the treatment of the
prisoners. In all these and many other ways, the influence of
the State in controlling and improving society was advanced by
its alliance with the Church."
H. F. Tozer, The Church and the Eastern Empire,
pages 56-57.
"The Christians were still a separate people. ... It can
scarcely be doubted that the stricter moral tone of
Constantine's legislation more or less remotely emanated from
Christianity. ... During the reign of Constantine Christianity
continued to advance beyond the borders of the Roman empire,
and in some degree to indemnify herself for the losses which
she sustained in the kingdom of Persia. The Ethiopians appear
to have attained some degree of civilization; a considerable
part of the Arabian commerce was kept up with the other side
of the Red Sea through the port of Adulis; and Greek letters
appear, from inscriptions recently discovered, to have made
considerable progress among this barbarous people. ... The
theological opinions of Christianity naturally made more rapid
progress than its moral influence. The former had only to
overpower the resistance of a religion which had already lost
its hold upon the mind, or a philosophy too speculative for
ordinary understandings and too unsatisfactory for the more
curious and inquiring; it had only to enter, as it were, into
a vacant place in the mind of man. But the moral influence had
to contest, not only with the natural dispositions of man, but
with the barbarism and depraved manners of ages. While, then,
the religion of the world underwent a total change, the Church
rose on the ruins of the temple, and the pontifical
establishment of paganism became gradually extinct or suffered
violent suppression; the moral revolution was far more slow
and far less complete. ... Everywhere there was exaggeration
of one of the constituent elements of Christianity; that
exaggeration which is the inevitable consequence of a strong
impulse upon the human mind. Wherever men feel strongly, they
act violently. The more speculative Christians, therefore, who
were more inclined, in the deep and somewhat selfish
solicitude for their own salvation, to isolate themselves from
the infected class of mankind, pressed into the extreme of
asceticism; the more practical, who were in earnest in the
desire of disseminating the blessings of religion throughout
society, scrupled little to press into their service whatever
might advance their cause. With both extremes the dogmatical
part of the religion predominated. ... In proportion to the
admitted importance of the creed, men became more sternly and
exclusively wedded to their opinions. ... While they swept in
converts indiscriminately from the palace and the public
street, while the emperor and the lowest of the populace were
alike admitted on little more than the open profession of
allegiance, they were satisfied if their allegiance in this
respect was blind and complete. Hence a far larger admixture
of human passions, and the common vulgar incentives of action,
were infused into the expanding Christian body.
{454}
Men became Christians, orthodox Christians, with little
sacrifice of that which Christianity aimed chiefly to
extirpate. Yet, after all, this imperfect view of Christianity
had probably some effect in concentrating the Christian
community, and holding it together by a new and more
indissoluble bond. The world divided into two parties. ...
All, however, were enrolled under one or the other standard,
and the party which triumphed eventually would rule the whole
Christian world."
H. H. Milman, History of Christianity,
book 3, chapter 4-5.
"Of this deterioration of morals we have abundant evidence.
Read the Canons of the various Councils and you will learn
that the Church found it necessary to prohibit the commission
of the most heinous and abominable crimes not only by the
laity, but even by the clergy. Read the homilies of such
preachers as Chrysostom, Basil, and Gregory, and you may infer
what the moral tone of a Christian congregation must have been
to which such reproofs could be addressed. Read, above all,
the treatise on Providence, or De Gubernatione Dei, written at
the close of our period by Salvian, a presbyter of Marseilles.
The barbarians had over-spread the West, and Christians had
suffered so many hardships that they began to doubt whether
there was any Divine government of human affairs. Salvian
retorted that the fact of their suffering was the best
evidence of the doctrine of Providence, for the miseries they
endured were the effects of the Divine displeasure provoked by
the debauchery of the Church. And then he proceeds to draw up
an indictment and to lend proof which I prefer not to give in
detail. After making every allowance for rhetorical
exaggeration, enough remains to show that the morality of the
Church had grievously declined, and that the declension was
due to the inroads of Pagan vice. ... Under this head, had
space permitted, some account would have been given of the
growth of the Christian literature of this period, of the
great writers and preachers, and of the opposing schools of
interpretation which divided Christendom. In the Eastern
Church we should have had to notice [at greater length the
work of] Eusebius of Cæsarea, the father of Church History and
the friend of Constantine; Ephrem the Syrian, the
poet-preacher; the three Cappadocians, Basil of Cæsarea,
Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus, each great in his
own way, the first as a preacher and administrator, the second
as a thinker, the third as a poet and panegyrist; Chrysostom,
the orator and exegete; Theodore of Mopsuestia and Theodoret
of Kyros, along with Chrysostom the most influential
representatives of the School of Antioch. In the Western
Church we should have had to speak of Ambrose, the eloquent
preacher and voluminous writer; of Jerome, the biblical
critic; and of Augustine, the philosopher and
controversialist, whose thoughts live among us even at the
present day."
W. Stewart, The Church of the 4th and 5th Centuries (St.
Giles' Lectures, 4th series).
See ROME: A. D. 323, to 391-395.
"Hitherto Christian asceticism had been individualistic in its
character. ... In the third century hermits began to form a
class by themselves in the East and in Africa; in the fourth
they began to be organized into communities. After the
institution of monastic societies, this development of
Christian asceticism spread far and wide from the deserts of
the Thebaid and Lower Egypt; Basil, Jerome, Athanasius,
Augustine, Ambrose, were foremost among its earliest advocates
and propagators; Cassian, Columbanus, Benedict, and others,
crowned the labours of their predecessors by a more elaborate
organization."
I. Gregory Smith, Christian Monasticism, pages 23-25.
CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 318-325.
The Arian Controversy and the Council of Nicæa.
See ARIANISM:
and NICÆA, THE FIRST COUNCIL OF.
CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 330-1054.
The Eastern (Greek, or Orthodox) Church.
"'The Eastern Church,' says a well-known writer, 'was like the
East, stationary and immutable; the Western, like the West,
progressive and flexible. This distinction is the more
remarkable, because at certain periods of their course, there
can be no doubt that the civilization of the Eastern Church
was far higher than that of the Western.'"
G. F. Maclear, The Slavs, page 25.
It is the more remarkable because this long-continuing
uniformity, while peculiarly adapted to a people and a church
which should retain and transmit an inheritance of faith and
culture, stands in singular contrast to the reputed character
of the Greek-speaking peoples of the East. The word Greek,
however, has, as an adjective, many meanings, and there is
danger of wrong inference through inattention to these; some
of its distinctive characters are therefore indicated in
brackets in various places in the following matter. "The New
Rome at the time of its foundation was Roman. ... But from the
first it was destined to become Greek; for the Greeks, who now
began to call themselves Romans--an appellation which they
have ever since retained--held fast to their language,
manners, and prejudices, while they availed themselves to the
full of their rights as Roman citizens. The turning-point in
this respect was the separation of the empires of the East and
the West in the time of Arcadius and Honorius; and in
Justinian's time we find all the highest offices in the hands
of the Greeks, and Greek was the prevailing language. But the
people whom we call by this name were not the Hellenes of
Greece proper, but the Macedonian Greeks. This distinction
arose with the establishment of Greek colonies with municipal
government throughout Asia by Alexander the Great and his
successors. The type of character which was developed in them
and among those who were Hellenised by their influence,
differed in many respects from that of the old Greeks. The
resemblance between them was indeed maintained by similarity
of education and social feelings, by the possession of a
common language and literature, and by their exclusiveness,
which caused them to look down on less favoured races; but
while the inhabitants of Greece retained more of the
independent spirit and of the moral character and patriotism
of their forefathers, the Macedonian Greeks were more
cosmopolitan, more subservient, and more ready to take the
impress of those among whom they were thrown: and the
astuteness and versatility which at all times had formed one
element in the Hellenic character, in them became the leading
characteristic. The influence of this type is traceable in the
policy of the Eastern Empire, varying in intensity in
different ages in proportion to the power exercised by the
Greeks: until, during the later period of the history--in the
time of the Comneni, and still more in that of the
Palæologi--it is the predominant feature."
H. F. Tozer, The Church and the Eastern Empire,
pages 9-10.
{455}
"What have been the effects of Christianity on what we call
national character in Eastern Christendom? ... The Greeks of
the Lower Empire are taken as the typical example of these
races, and the Greeks of the Lower Empire have become a byword
for everything that is false and base. The Byzantine was
profoundly theological, we are told, and profoundly vile. ...
Those who wish to be just to [it] ... will pass ... to the ...
equitable and conscientious, but by no means, indulgent,
judgments of Mr. Finlay, Mr. Freeman, and Dean Stanley. One
fact alone is sufficient to engage our deep interest in this
race. It was Greeks [Hellenist Jews] and people imbued with
Greek ideas who first welcomed Christianity. It was in their
language that it first spoke to the world, and its first home
was in Greek households and in Greek cities. It was in Greek
[Hellenistic] atmosphere that the Divine Stranger from the
East, in many respects so widely different from all that
Greeks were accustomed to, first grew up to strength and
shape; first showed its power of assimilating and reconciling;
first showed what it was to be in human society. Its earliest
nurslings were Greeks; Greeks [Hellenist Jews] first took in
the meaning and measure of its amazing and eventful
announcements; Greek sympathies first awoke and vibrated to
its appeals; Greek obedience, Greek courage, Greek suffering
first illustrated its new lessons. Had it not first gained
over Greek mind and Greek belief, it is hard to see how it
would have made its further way. ... The Roman conquest of the
world found the Greek race, and the Eastern nations which it
had influenced, in a low and declining state--morally,
socially, politically. The Roman Empire, when it fell, left
them in the same discouraging condition, and suffering besides
from the degradation and mischief wrought on all its subjects
by its chronic and relentless fiscal oppression. ... These
were the men in whose childish conceit, childish frivolity,
childish self-assertion, St. Paul saw such dangers to the
growth of Christian manliness and to the unity of the
Christian body--the idly curious and gossiping men of Athens;
the vain and shamelessly ostentatious Corinthians, men in
intellect, but in moral seriousness babes; the Ephesians,
'like children carried away with every blast of vain
teaching,' the victims of every impostor, and sport of every
deceit; the Cretans, proverbially, 'ever liars, evil beasts,
slow bellies;' the passionate, volatile, Greek-speaking, Celts
of Asia, the 'foolish' Galatians. ... The Greek of the Roman
times is portrayed in the special warnings of the Apostolic
Epistles. After Apostolic times he is portrayed in the same
way by the heathen satirist Lucian, and by the Christian
preacher Chrysostom; and such, with all his bad tendencies,
aggravated by almost uninterrupted misrule and oppression, the
Empire, when it broke up, left him. The prospects of such a
people, amid the coming storms, were dark. Everything, their
gifts and versatility, as well as their faults, threatened
national decay and disintegration. ... These races whom the
Empire of the Cæsars left like scattered sheep to the mercy of
the barbarians, lived through a succession of the most
appalling storms, and kept themselves together, holding fast,
resolute and unwavering, amid all their miseries and all their
debasement, to the faith of their national brotherhood. ...
This, it seems to me, Christianity did for a race which had
apparently lived its time, and had no future before it--the
Greek race in the days of the Cæsars. It created in them, in a
new and characteristic degree, national endurance, national
fellowship and sympathy, national hope. ... It gave them an
Empire of their own, which, undervalued as it is by those
familiar with the ultimate results of Western history, yet
withstood the assaults before which, for the moment, Western
civilisation sank, and which had the strength to last a
life--a stirring and eventful life--of ten centuries. The
Greek Empire, with all its evils and weaknesses, was yet in
its time the only existing image in the world of a civilised
state. ... The lives of great men profoundly and permanently
influence national character; and the great men of later Greek
memory are saints. They belong to the people more than
emperors and warriors; for the Church is of the people. ...
The mark which such men left on Greek society and Greek
character has not been effaced to this day, even by the
melancholy examples of many degenerate successors. ... Why, if
Christianity affected Greek character so profoundly, did it
not do more? Why, if it cured it of much of its instability
and trifling, did it not also cure it of its falsehood and
dissimulation? Why, if it impressed the Greek mind so deeply
with the reality of the objects of faith, did it not also
check the vain inquisitiveness and spirit of disputatiousness
and sophistry, which filled Greek Church history with furious
wranglings about the most hopeless problems? Why, if it could
raise such admiration for unselfishness and heroic nobleness,
has not this admiration borne more congenial fruit? Why, if
heaven was felt to be so great and so near, was there in real
life such coarse and mean worldliness? Why, indeed? ...
Profoundly, permanently, as Christianity affected Greek
character, there was much in that character which Christianity
failed to reach, much that it failed to correct, much that was
obstinately refractory to influences which, elsewhere, were so
fruitful of goodness and greatness. The East, as well as the
West, has still much to learn from that religion, which each
too exclusively claims to understand, to appreciate, and to
defend."
R. W. Church, The Gifts of Civilisation,
pages 188-216.
"The types of character that were developed in the Eastern