Curiosities of Christian History Prior to the Reformation

by James Paterson

The name of cardinal was merely a synonym for presbyter and deacon, and came to be given specially to those rectors or presbyters whom the Pope made use of in the government of the Churches in Rome. Till the end of the tenth century these cardinals were of lower rank than the bishops who met in Church councils. The rectors of the seven Churches which were situated nearest to Rome and helped the Pope in celebrations of the liturgy began at first to be called Roman bishops, and in the eleventh century cardinal bishops of the Lateran Church, as being assistants in Divine service in the Lateran Church. By degrees these began to obtain precedence over other bishops. In 1059 they were allowed to have the chief voice in electing the Pope, and their authority was continually increasing, and in the twelfth century the election of a Pope was taken away from the people and clergy of Rome and vested in the cardinals exclusively. After that the cardinals used to be called the “Pope’s holy senate,” “princes of the world,” and “judges of the earth,” taking precedence of all other bishops. In the fourteenth century the number of cardinals was fixed by Urban VI. and directed not to exceed twenty; in another century they became twenty-four; in 1514 they reached thirty-nine, and in 1535 reached to forty, and then to seventy. They began in the thirteenth century to wear a purple dress and a red hat, which in shape was like a very small cap, with scarcely any brim. A silk mitre of damascene work and a red hood followed.

PAUL OF SAMOSATA, THE DEGRADED BISHOP (A.D. 260).

When the severity of persecution relaxed in the first three centuries, the effect was seen in the growing vice of unprincipled persons assuming the Christian religion and using it as a cloak for licentiousness. One Paul of Samosata was made Bishop of Antioch in 260, and contrived to make the service of the Church a lucrative profession. He extorted frequent contributions from the faithful, and appropriated to his own use much of the public revenue. His pride and luxury soon made him odious. Crowds of suppliants and petitioners frequented his house for evil ends. When he harangued his people from the pulpit, he affected the figurative style and theatrical gestures of an Asiatic sophist, whilst the cathedral resounded with the loudest and most extravagant acclamations in the praise of his Divine eloquence. He was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable to his enemies; but he relaxed the discipline and lavished the treasure of the Church on his dependent clergy, who were, like himself, given up to dissipation. Some errors of his as to the Trinity excited the indignation of the other bishops. They often met and obtained promises and treaties; but eighty of them of their own authority took on themselves at last to excommunicate him; and as they did so somewhat irregularly, it took four years to turn him out of possession. The Emperor Aurelian was appealed to; and after hearing both sides, he resolved to execute the sentence of the other bishops, and to expel Paul from the possession of his see.

THE DIGNITY OF EMPEROR AND THE FIRST ABDICATION (A.D. 305).

The Emperor Diocletian, who joined in 303 in a persecution of the Christians, and who died in 313, was the first who made the throne of dazzling splendour in the eyes of the people. Up to his time the emperors assumed no airs and talked familiarly to the citizens. But Diocletian introduced the Persian habits, which approached adoration towards the king. Not content with the robe of purple, like his predecessors, he assumed the diadem, a broad white fillet set with pearls. His robes were silk and gold, his shoes studded with the most precious gems. The avenues of the palace were guarded by schools of officials and the interior apartments by eunuchs. When an audience was allowed, the subject was obliged to fall prostrate on the ground, as if adoring the great lord and master. The whole ceremony resembled a theatrical performance. All this naturally led to a great increase of taxation. After enjoying supreme power twenty-one years, this emperor had the glory of giving to the world the first example of a voluntary resignation, though he did not, like his successor Charles V., enter a monastery and live like a monk. When Diocletian abdicated, he was of the age of fifty-five, and Charles was fifty-nine. Diocletian had, soon after the ceremony of his triumph, caught a chill during the cold and rainy winter of 304, which brought his body down to a state of emaciation and caused him to seek repose, and it was said that he was averse to enforce his edict against the Christians. The ceremony of his abdication was performed in a spacious plain, three miles from Nicomedia. He ascended a lofty throne, and in a speech full of reason and dignity declared his intention. As soon as he divested himself of the purple, he withdrew from the public gaze and in a covered chariot to his favourite retirement of Salona, in Dalmatia, his native country. He spent his leisure hours in building, planting, and gardening. He prided himself on his cabbages; but he covered ten acres of ground with his new palace, and it was said that the stately rooms had neither windows nor chimneys, but were heated with pipes. It was said to be doubtful how he died in 313, some surmising that it was by suicide.

AN EARLY BISHOP BUILDING A WORKHOUSE (A.D. 373).

Though the care of the poor was long viewed as properly falling under the province of the Church, and after the time of Elizabeth it was transferred by English law to the occupiers of lands in each parish, a great outcry was made against St. Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea, about 373, for establishing a large workhouse or hospital. The Phocotropheion, or hospital, for the reception and relief of the poor, was erected by Basil in the suburbs of Cæsarea. His enemies denounced this project to the governor of the province as a dangerous innovation. It was called sometimes “the new town,” and at a later date the Basilead, after its founder. It was a gigantic structure, and included a church, a palace for the bishop, residences for the clergy; hospices for the poor, sick, and wayfarers; workshops for the artisans and labourers connected with the building, and their apprentices. There was also a special department for lepers, with arrangements for their proper medical treatment, and great care was taken of these loathsome patients. By this enormous establishment Basil’s enemies said he was aiming at an invasion of the civil power. But he adroitly parried the accusation by pointing out that there were also apartments in his establishment provided for the governor of the province, and that, after all, the chief glory of the structure would redound to the latter. This view pacified the angry critics.

TWO BISHOPS STRIVING FOR A CHURCH SITE (A.D. 420).

About 420 two bishops in Libya had set their hearts on securing, as a site for a new church, a place which had been formerly kept as a strong refuge, well fortified against the incursions of the barbarians. Each intended to convert it into a magnificent temple according to a plan of his own. In order to secure the spot one of them resorted to the following stratagem: He pressed his way in by force, caused an altar to be instantly set up, and then and there consecrated upon it the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. According to the superstition or settled faith of the time, this was deemed equivalent to consecration, after which the place could not be used for any secular purpose of social life. When this incident was reported by Bishop Synesius to Theophilus, Patriarch of Constantinople, he condemned it as sharp practice and a debasing of holy things to unworthy purposes, most unbecoming to any genuine Christian.

HOW BISHOPS WERE MADE IN THE FIFTH CENTURY (A.D. 448).