The greater abundance of literature from the fourth and early fifth century make this period a convenient time to review some major developments in the early history of Christianity. This was a significant period in regard to monasticism, missionary expansion, the relation of Christianity to Roman society, and the elaboration of the liturgy.

I. MONASTICISM#

A. Origins#

In its monastic expression, Christianity has close approximations to some other world religions, most notably Buddhism.

Tributaries of Christian monasticism include the following:

1. Jewish#

Judaism, although generally non-ascetic in its approach to life, in the first century included some ascetic strands. We know of celibate Essenes and, perhaps related to them, the Therapeutae in Egypt, who maintained a separation of male and female members. Moreover, some of the Old Testament prophets and later figures like John the Baptist offered potential models of solitary, seemingly homeless religious life.

2. Pagan#

Pythagoreans were vegetarians and exercised a disciplined life that may have been the model for the Therapeutae. The Gnostics typically viewed matter as evil. Some Cynics “denied the world” in an uncompromising protest against the norms of society.

3. Eastern#

The Manichaeans may have provided precedents of celibate communities. The Hellenistic world was also intrigued by reports of the gymnosophists (naked wise men), holy men in India.

4. New Testament#

Jesus’ sayings, such as “sell your possessions and give to the poor” (Matthew 19:21), had a great influence in monastic circles. Jesus and the Twelve became images of ideal monks. The Apocryphal Acts brought the ascetic motif into prominence.

5. Secular#

Social factors, such as escape from the burdens of society, led pagans to withdraw to the deserted regions bordering the settled Nile valley.

6. Christian#

Asceticism in varying degrees of self-denial (in matters of marriage and diet) had been practiced by some Christians from the early days of the church. Largely this was individual, with the person maintaining his or her home with the family or in personal quarters. So, the early asceticism was not withdrawn from everyday life.

In contrast to unorthodox ascetic practices (in Marcionism, perhaps Encratism, and some forms of Gnosticism), early asceticism did not regard matter as evil. Instead, it adopted self-denial as the renunciation of the good in pursuit of a higher life and to be more fully dedicated to religious ministry.

Many females adopted the ascetic life, something obscured by the fact that most of the literature was written by males for males. Although women seem to have preceded men in living an ascetic life at home or together in small groups for mutual support, men in greater number made the break to withdraw into the desert areas.

By the end of the third century the ascetic impulse began to express itself in a greater degree of withdrawal from society

• At first near cities and villages

• Soon by flight to greater solitude in the uninhabited or sparsely inhabited regions near the Nile valley

In Egypt, Manichaean and Melitian communities arose at least as early as did organized communities among the orthodox. The connection of the Nag Hammadi codices with a Pachomian monastery suggests that asceticism was sometimes more important than ideology in bringing the early ascetics together.

Although the Egyptian contributions to Christian monasticism are better known, asceticism in Syria had earlier and deeper roots (Encratism, Marcionism, and within orthodox circles ascetics living with the mainstream community), with the result that the Syrian church had a strong ascetic impulse from an early date.

Terms employed for ascetics included “monk” (a solitary man, one who lived alone), “anchorite” (one who withdraws), and “hermit” (from the word for a deserted region).

• Monk has become the general word

• Both anchorite and hermit are used for those who adopted a solitary life

Some form of community life is described as “cenobite,” from the Greek for “common” or “community life.” Ascetics living together in small groups — whether in cities, towns, or villages — were called apotaktikoi.

The ascetic flight from the world, taking the form of a spatial separation from society, exploded in popularity in the fourth century and left an indelible impact on Christianity in subsequent centuries. Champions of monasticism treated it not as a special form of the Christian life, as it came to be later, but as the actualization of what was in principle a life demanded of all Christians.

At the beginnings of the movement, however, monasticism often competed with the church and was, in a sense, a rejection of it, until ecclesiastical statesmen (Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, Augustine) captured and domesticated the monastic impulse as a part of the total life of the church.

Three forms of monasticism developed in Egypt:

1. the hermit life, where individual monks lived an isolated and austere life of spiritual struggle in prayer and meditation, typified by Anthony

2. the cenobitic or communal model, where a group of monks lived, prayed, and worked together under a superior, a model developed by Pachomius

3. an intermediate form, where a loosely organized group of small settlements (of 2 to 6 persons) in close proximity looked to a common spiritual leader, a type pioneered by Ammun.

Similar to the last was the laura that developed in Palestine. Cells or caves for individuals were located in close enough proximity that a person could live as a hermit, but come together with others for worship and other occasions. Among the several who developed lauras, Saba(s) (439–532) is most famous.

In Syria a distinctive development of the hermit life was living on a small platform atop an abandoned column. The first of these “pillar saints” was Symeon Stylites (c. 390–459), who progressively raised the height of his pillar to increase his separation from the earth and people. Other Stylites followed his example.

B. Motifs of Monasticism#

The literature of monasticism included lives of the monks (e.g., Athanasius, Life of Anthony, and the anonymous Life of Pachomius, preserved in various forms), collections of sayings by the desert fathers (Apopththegmata Patrum), histories that are largely biographical and anecdotal (Palladius, Lausiac History, and Theodoret, History of the Monks of Syria), and rules for monasteries (Basil of Caesarea and later Benedict of Nursia).

From this literature certain motifs emerge as prominent interpretations of the monastic life.

1. Military#

The monks were the fourth-century Christian soldiers. Military imagery had been prominent in the popular philosophers and was employed by Paul in the New Testament and by pre-Nicene Christian writers. As nominal Christianity became more common and the best minds were occupied with theology, many who wanted to go back to the ideal of moral Christianity interpreted their spiritual struggles as warfare against evil. Some took their military mission too literally and employed violence against pagan temples and philosophers and even against other Christians in the fifth-century Christological conflicts.

2. Martyr#

The monks saw the martyrs as important prototypes and sought to imitate their sacrifice for the Lord. A new kind of persecution was afflicting the secularized church, requiring “athletes of piety” to champion the faith. The monks came to be regarded as the successors of the martyrs, the spiritual equivalent of the confessors in times of persecution.

3. Demonic#

The warfare of the monks and their resistance to enemies of Christianity were directed against “demons.” In Justin Martyr the demons were external enemies, causing persecution and heresy. In Origen, the demons were still external but worked inside persons, causing temptations. In Athanasius’ Life of Anthony, where the demonic element is prominent, the demons are internalized, psychologized as the temptations themselves.

4. Angelic#

As opposed to the demonic forces, namely the fallen angels who tempted them, the monks lived the angelic life. Renouncing sexual relations in order to live “like the angels” (Luke 20:36), they anticipated the life in paradise. Sustained by grace, they hoped to restore paradise by keeping women (and sexuality) out of their life. Of course, women too undertook this style of life.

5. Gnostic#

Clement of Alexandria and Origen had appropriated many Gnostic motifs for Christian spirituality. Claiming this legacy, many intellectual monks saw their intense contemplation of the truth as removing the need for the ordinary communion and discipline of the church. The goal of the monks was the “imitation of God,” to become “like God.” They sought to know God not just intellectually, but in an experiential way.

6. Philosophic#

Philosophy had become a “way of life,” and the “philosophic life” was equated with asceticism. Christian authors developed this terminology, so that to live as a philosopher was to live ascetically. One branch of Greek philosophy in particular, the Cynics, provided a precedent for the lifestyle of Christian monks. Even as many had previously sought guidance for life from philosophers, so now many individual Christians went out into the desert to seek spiritual guidance from these new heroes of the faith.

7. Baptismal#

Becoming a monk was described in baptismal terms. Adopting the monastic life was a new birth. The abbot (abba) was the spiritual father of the monks. (The monasticizing of the clergy that soon began encouraged the clergy also to be called “Father”—Papas was already in use for the bishops of Alexandria and Carthage by the third century.)

8. Eschatological#

The theme of paradise recovered is prominent. The cells and caves of the monks were called a paradise. There was present in the Bible an ambiguous attitude toward the desert. On the one hand, the wilderness was a place of testing for Israel and for Jesus. On the other hand, the wilderness was God’s honeymoon time with Israel and it could be interpreted positively in the post-conversion experience of Paul.

So, this place of discipline, where the serpents and scorpions represented the devil tempting the saints, was also the place of contemplating nature as idyllic. It was a place, supposedly, where there was no disharmony between creatures and where even the wild animals recognized the true saint.

C. Early Leaders#

Many of the important leaders in the early history of monasticism are discussed elsewhere:

1. Athanasius’s Life of Anthony set the style for lives of monks and popularized the hermit type of monasticism, while claiming its energies for the cause of doctrinal orthodoxy.

2. Basil of Caesarea encouraged a communal monasticism based on love and integrated monasticism into the Great Church.

3. Jerome, an early Western exponent of the monastic life, established a monastery at Bethlehem and encouraged women in the ascetic life.

4. Augustine was influential in providing a model for combining monastic life with pastoral duties.

IMPORTANT NAMES IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF MONASTICISM

Anthony was not the first hermit, for Athanasius says that he took counsel from an old man who had lived as a hermit from his youth in a nearby village. Yet Anthony became, by his withdrawal into the desert east of the Nile and by his holiness, the exemplar for future hermits. The imitation of God was Anthony’s basic motif.

Anthony’s counterpart among the cenobites was Pachomius, whose monasteries first developed in connection with villages as an extension of the earlier forms of asceticism, only later expanding to fringe and desert areas. Pachomius’s rule was mildly rigorous, but made provision for those who wanted to work harder at the ascetic life.

Other important names in the history of Egyptian monasticism include:

• Ammun, who founded semieremitic communities of cells of hermits living in close proximity to one another

• Shenoute, whose writings in Sahidic, the dialect of Coptic used in upper Egypt, represent the indigenization of monasticism among the native Copts in Egypt

Evagrius of Pontus spent his later life in Egypt. Under the spell of Origen’s theology, he carried some of Origen’s ideas to lengths judged unacceptable by most in the church, but he became the philosophical theorist of the monastic life. His spiritual writings stated a high theology for monasticism that was quite influential in spite of his rejected ideas.

Whereas Evagrius was the philosophical theorist of monasticism, Basil of Caesarea in Cappadocia was its practical theorist who gave institutional organization to Greek monasticism. Quite common were double monasteries of men and women in one community under one head, but with separate living quarters for men and women. Basil’s older sister Macrina was the real originator of what is known as Basilian monasticism.

As Jerome was a Western champion of monasticism who went East, so John Cassian was an easterner who went West (see chapter 14). Cassian’s Conferences and Institutes brought the wisdom and ideals of the Egyptian monks to southern Gaul. He thought of the cenobite life as training for the higher spiritual life of the hermit. Benedict of Nursia (sixth century) disagreed on this evaluation of the hermit. Otherwise, Cassian’s writings were influential enough that if Benedict is the father of Western monasticism, then Cassian is the grandfather.

Martin of Tours was one of the early Western adherents of monasticism. After his conversion, he evangelized northern Gaul and became an important influence on British monks. After he became bishop of Tours, he continued a monastic type life, living on the edge of town, and thus set an example of monastic clerical life. Martin exemplified the important role monks came to play in missions, for many became traveling missionaries.

An Eastern example of the influence of the monks in evangelization was Symeon Stylites, who became so famous that crowds came out to seek his advice, and many conversions of pagans resulted.

II. MISSIONARY EXPANSION IN THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES#

The fourth and fifth centuries provided one of the significant periods in the history of Christian missions. Especially important for Western history was the mission work of Ulfilas among the Goths.

Although often undertaken with the blessing of bishops, mission work in the fourth century was not officially organized and directed by ecclesiastical authority. The missionary movement was more spontaneous and resulted from the initiative of individual Christians in very special circumstances.

A. Syria#

Syriac-speaking Christianity emerged within the borders of the Roman Empire relatively early. Syriac translations of parts of the New Testament were present in the second century, but these Old Syriac versions were revised and eventually replaced by the Peshitta, associated with the name of Rabbula, bishop of Edessa (411–35), who endorsed it. Syriac-speaking Christianity spread outside the borders of Roman rule and continued vital for centuries.

A late legend claimed that Addai, sent by the apostle Thomas, converted King Abgar of Osrhoene, whose capital was Edessa. The story pushed back into apostolic times the claim of the conversion of Abgar VIII (177–212), supposedly the first Christian king. Edessa was the first center of Syriac-speaking Christianity, already in the latter half of the second century, but soon followed by Nisibis.

During the fourth century a Syriac literary culture flourished. The first major writer was Afrahat (Aphraates in Latin, early fourth century), known as the “Persian Sage,” who wrote essays on Christian doctrine and practice, many of which treat points at issue with Jews. The greatest representative of Christian Syriac is Ephraem (chapter 11).

Syriac Christianity exhibited the following characteristics:

1. Emphasis on schools—educational establishments, perhaps continuing the Jewish emphasis on religious education, trained especially clergy but others as well.

2. A missionary thrust—Syriac-speaking Christians carried the faith as far as India (how early is disputed), and eventually China, and many regions on the way.

3. Asceticism—celibacy was highly prized. Among the “Sons and Daughters of the Covenant” or “Covenanters,” single persons were devoted to various forms of service to the church. Yet a married clergy (including bishops) was permitted.

4. Doctrinal separation—due to theological, political, and geographical reasons, most Syrians and those influenced by them followed a different Christology than most Greek and Latin churches.

B. Persia#

Syriac-speaking Christians early spread the faith into Mesopotamia and Persia. By the time the Sassanid dynasty overthrew the Parthians about the year 225, there were a number of Christian congregations in Persia. The Sassanians made Zoroastrianism the state religion, but Christians, persecuted by Persia’s long-standing opponent, the Roman Empire, enjoyed peace.

When Constantine espoused Christianity and ill-advisedly wrote to the Persian emperor on behalf of the Christians, the loyalty of Christians became suspect. Not only did they not recognize the official religion, but they belonged to the religion now favored by the Roman enemy.

Persecution of the Persian Christians began in 339 and lasted forty years, producing more martyrs and fewer apostacies than the Roman persecutions of the preceding three centuries. The fifth-century Christian historian Sozomen claimed that the names of 16,000 martyrs were known.

Another period of persecution began in 420, but in 424 a synod of bishops declared their independence from the jurisdiction of Roman and Greek bishops and reached a working agreement with the government.

Already in 410 a synod at Seleucia-Ctesiphon had recognized its bishop as leader of the whole Persian church (the title “catholicos” was in use by the end of the fifth century).

C. Armenia#

Armenia was the first country as a nation to accept Christianity. In a pattern to be followed at many places later, it was the work of a single great man—in this case Gregory the Illuminator (the “Baptizer”)— who converted the king (Tiridates III, d. 314). Christianity then spread from the king and aristocracy down.

The church was organized around a single see, now known as Echmiadzin, occupied by Gregory and then by his descendants. The title “catholicos” for this head of the Armenian church has been used in an official sense from the fifth century. The bishop Nerses (339–73) deepened the religious life of the country.

During the fifth century, with the encouragement of the Catholicos Sahak, Mashtots (Mesrob) and his disciples (notably Eznik, who wrote Against the Sects) developed a written alphabet for the Armenian language and established an important school of Christian literature.

The impetus for this was translation of the Bible, undertaken from Syriac about 415 and from the Greek about 435. Mission work has often gone hand in hand with translation of the Scriptures, and for peoples without a written language this has required the creation of an alphabet.

D. Georgia#

The Caucasus region, including Georgia, was evangelized from Armenia, and Mashtots was credited also with the creation of the Georgian alphabet, making possible a national Christian literature. There were Christians in Georgia already in the third century, and the royal court accepted Christianity in the fourth century.

The conversion of the land was due to the miracles and virtues of Nino (c. 330), a Christian slave girl from Cappadocia who healed the queen Nana of a serious illness. Her conversion was followed by that of king Mirian. Adherence to the Greek tradition was more a cultural than a doctrinal move. Close connections were also maintained with Jerusalem.

The Bible was translated into Georgian in the fifth and sixth centuries, either from the Syriac or the Armenian, but with strong influence from both. The “Syrian Fathers” in the sixth century founded monastic communities on the Syriac model.

From the sixth century the Georgian church has been an independent national church whose Catholicos resides in Tbilisi. The patron saint is George, but not because his name has any connection with the name of the country.

E. Ethiopia#

Two young men from Tyre, Frumentius and Edesius, were the sole survivors of a voyage that met disaster on the Red Sea coast of Ethiopia (or Abyssinia). Made slaves, they were carried to Axum, the capital. They rose to high positions and had charge of the education of the royal children.

When allowed to return home, Edesius returned to Tyre but Frumentius went to Alexandria and requested that a bishop be sent to Ethiopia. Athanasius ordained him, and he returned to Axum, which is still the ecclesiastical capital of the Ethiopian church, although no longer the political capital of the country. The king Ezana was baptized before AD 350.

The “Nine Saints,” monks of possibly Syrian origin who arrived in the late fifth century, spread Christianity among the populace and promoted monasticism, which has maintained a dominant influence in Ethiopic Christianity.

At some point traditions associated with Jewish history became influential, including the claim to possession of the ark of the covenant from the temple in Jerusalem.

The national language, Ge‘ez, had developed a form of writing derived from a south Arabic alphabet. It is the only Semitic language that normally takes note of vowels and is written left to right. The translation of the Bible was completed between the fifth and seventh centuries, and a national Christian literature emerged, a feature of the Christianizing of each of these lands.

The Ethiopic church has a broader definition of the canon of Scripture than other churches, counting eighty-one books in its canon, which includes Jewish pseudepigraphal writings and Christian works of church order.

Ge‘ez continues as the language of the liturgy, but today it has been replaced by Amharic as the spoken language.

III. CHRISTIAN LIFE AND SOCIETY#

The steady growth of the church within the Roman Empire reached its climax in the fourth and early fifth centuries. The fourth century saw Christianity become the official religion of the Roman world. The process of Christianizing Europe was slow and before completion received the setback of the barbarian invasions of the fifth and subsequent centuries.

The empire’s peasants of the countryside and its cultivated aristocracy, these opposite ends of the social scale being traditionally the most conservative elements of a society, offered the greatest resistance to Christianity. But steadily over time (often extending into the fifth and sixth centuries) even they were penetrated with the new religion.

• Statues of the gods were torn down, defaced, or abandoned.

• Temples were burned, converted into churches, or left as spoils for new building projects.

• Pagan deities and sacred sites saw their functions and rituals taken over by Christian saints and ceremonies.

More than once, the “Christianization” of pagan practices went so smoothly that the church replaced the pagan sanctuary with no interruption in the continuity of the life of a given district. Pagan festivals began to die out or be replaced by Christian counterparts.

Gradually a Christianizing of space and time occurred. For many, however, the old pagan mentality continued to persist.

A. Imperial Support of Christianity#

Constantine began a policy of imperial favor for Christianity, some of his measures having social ramifications.

• In 318 he permitted churches to receive legacies.

• Out of deference it seems for Christian ascetics, Constantine repealed the legislation of Augustus (seldom enforced) requiring marriage.

• The care of orphans was left to the church.

• Christian emblems began to appear on coins and in other official places.

• Overtly anti-pagan legislation was rare, but private haruspicy (taking of omens) was forbidden in 319.

Constantius II took a more vigorous official stand against paganism, prohibiting all pagan sacrifice in 341 and ordering the closing of temples in 356, but his measures were not uniformly enforced.

Julian sought to reverse the tide, revoking the privileges of the “Galilaeans” and restoring those of paganism. In his efforts to remove Christians from positions of privilege he forbade them to teach pagan literature, which was the basis of the educational curriculum and so of the path to advancement. Apollinaris of Laodicea went beyond those who fought for the Christian right to teach pagan literature with a Christian interpretation. In association with his father, who had the same name, Apollinaris rewrote some of the biblical books in classical meter and classical style in order to provide an alternative curriculum.

Jovinian, Valentinian, and Valens relegated paganism to its position under Constantine, but did not further molest it.

Gratian (375–83) in the West renounced the title Pontifex Maximus, discontinued state subsidies of pagan temples, confiscated the revenue of pagan priests and landed property of temples, and removed the altar of Victory from the Senate house in Rome.

Similarly severe was Theodosius I (379–95), under whom came the climax of imperial legislation making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. In addition to his edict of 380 establishing the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria as the standard of official orthodoxy, and his edict of 381 depriving heretics of their places of worship and forbidding their holding assemblies in cities, he sought the suppression of paganism. His decrees of 391–92 forbade even private pagan worship. Later emperors renewed the laws against paganism, showing that it was by no means dead.

The Jews also fell under Christian emperors’ repressive measures. Constantine in c. 335 ordered the manumission of Christian slaves belonging to Jews and forbade Jewish attacks on Christian converts from Judaism. Constantius II required Christian converts to Judaism to forfeit their property to the state. Measures aimed at restricting Jewish social and political influence came mainly in the fifth century under Theodosius II (408–50)—prohibiting mixed marriages, barring Jews from political office, forbidding the building of synagogues, and prohibiting proselytizing.

No doubt the imperial support of Christianity was a significant factor in the growth of the church in the fourth century. The church developed further the catechumenate, which had begun by the end of the second century (chapter 8), to handle the influx of new members (see further below).

Despite the many advantages of accepting the Christian faith, Christian emperors at least did not execute pagans, although Constantius II threatened to do so in some cases.

B. Christian Influence on the Roman World#

Christian influence on life in the Roman world was not as great as might have been expected. Nevertheless, one can see that influence in a number of positive ways in the legislation of the Christian emperors.

• Married men were forbidden to keep a concubine.

• Adultery and rape were severely treated, and obstacles were put in the way of divorce.

• Infanticide was forbidden in 374, presumably including the exposure of children.

• Measures were taken to improve the condition of slaves, and the church encouraged emancipation.

• There were efforts to introduce a little humanity into prison conditions.

Christian preachers continued, as they had before, to protest against the immoralities and expenses associated with public entertainments—the mimes and pantomimes at the theater, the chariot races at the circus, and the gladiator and wild beast contests at the amphitheater. In regard to the last, state action banned gladiator fights in 325, but this ban was not fully applied until the 430s. The public entertainments were closely bound with the calendar of pagan and state festivals, but slowly the Christian calendar began to regulate the rhythm of social and business life.

Churches took the initiative in establishing charitable institutions—shelters for travelers, the sick, and the poor. In one crucial area of cultural life Christianity had a negligible impact during the fourth and fifth centuries—the educational system. Christians trained in the classical studies. But it was only slowly that a significantly modified educational curriculum emerged.

Christians depended on the religious instruction in the Bible and in the faith that took place in the home and in church to counter the pagan influence in the schools. Basil, John Chrysostom, and Jerome offered specific recommendations on religious teaching and how to select proper works from classical literature according to their moral quality.

C. Negative Factors in the Late Empire#

There were negative factors built into the society of the ancient Roman world that mitigated Christian influence.

• More and more Christians had come to serve in the army during the third century

• Christian involvement in the affairs of state in the fourth century now meant even larger numbers were participating in war.

This seemed an inevitable part of taking responsibility for the empire with its many external enemies.

It was no easy task to Christianize the pagan society of the Roman world.

• The Christian emperors inherited a totalitarian regime that was accustomed to coercion and cruelty.

• The increasing barbarism of the late empire was reflected in the frequent use of torture, and treason was broadly interpreted.

In the church itself, religious intolerance toward paganism and Judaism was extended to variant forms of Christian doctrine.

On the social and economic level, the church was not in a position to make fundamental changes in the trend toward feudal structures, nor to make basic reforms in the power of the great landlords.

As the numbers of Christians increased, discipline was relaxed, many were nominal Christians, and the level of Christian life was shallow. That seems to be the story of human nature. It was in that atmosphere that the monastic life appealed to many “athletes of virtue.”

We should not overlook, however, the many ordinary Christians who sought to give Christian expression to their fundamental human religiosity.

D. Pious Practices#

The fourth century saw distinctive Christian developments of certain aspects in Greco-Roman religious life. The basic elements in the cult of the saints were already in place during the third century. The cult of the saints had a Christian development, but pagan ideas influenced it, and more so as time went along. The ways in which beliefs and veneration for the saints were expressed largely stemmed from traditional practices.

When peace came to the church, the Christian enthusiasm for the martyrs could not be restrained. By the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth centuries the cult of the saints was fully developed.

• The annual commemoration of the martyr’s death took on more the character of a popular feast than of a solemn religious occasion.

• Great numbers of the faithful participated. There was a procession.

• An oration extolled the example of the martyr.

• The burial places had previously been places of prayer, and now martyria (shrines or church buildings) were set up over the tombs of martyrs.

Martyria, unlike the rectangular basilicas, were typically constructed on a central plan in order to focus on the tomb or sacred place.

In the fourth century, calendars of martyrs were compiled. New names were added to martyrologies, and the churches borrowed one another’s saints’ days. The relics of the martyrs became popular and were thought to have power over demons and to effect healings.

Christian leaders like Ambrose declared that the saints were neighbors to the living.

• The saints knew the weakness of the flesh and could intercede for the weakness of others.

• Since they shared human infirmities, their perfection could be imitated.

In the panegyrics and lives of saints, edification was more important than historical accuracy. So began the huge production, which continued in subsequent centuries, of hagiographies with their accounts of extraordinary miracles and exaltation of specific moral virtues.

Believers preferred to be buried in the vicinity of a martyr’s tomb. The faithful gave the name of a holy person to their children.

A characteristic phenomenon was the finding of relics hitherto forgotten or unknown, usually as the result of a dream or a vision. Three types of relics came to be recognized:

1. The body or body parts of a holy person

2. Objects closely related to the person (such as clothing)

3. Objects such as sand, oil, or water that touched these remains and was stored in ampullae (small flasks).

Toward the end of the fourth century the sentiment against disturbing a grave began to be overcome, and relics of martyrs were moved to be placed under the altar of churches. Thus the cult of the martyrs brought a change in burial practice, so that dead bodies were no longer considered impure (a major change from the Jewish roots of Christianity). Instead of being buried outside the cities (as in Greco-Roman practice), dead bodies began to be brought into the churches. This uniting of the relics of the saints with the eucharistic altar was important in bringing the cult of the saints under the supervision of bishops and priests.

Also, during the fourth century cultic veneration began to be extended from martyrs to include monks and bishops, whose ascetic sacrifice and service to the church were equivalent to that of the martyrs. Origen, denied the martyrdom he desired, had already spiritualized ascetic piety as an interior martyrdom. This ideal became the spiritual basis of Christian monasticism.

Before the fourth century, Christians spoke of holy persons, the holy church, and the holy Scriptures, but in the fourth century they began to speak of holy places.

Although Christians had made journeys to Palestine for religious reasons from the early days of the church, pilgrimages as acts of religious devotion to sites associated with the life of Jesus and the apostles began to be extensively documented in the fourth century.

Going on pilgrimage combined various elements: devotion to the historical roots of the Christian faith, the ascetic and in some cases penitential discipline of the journey, curiosity and sight-seeing, and sometimes emotional restlessness.

During the fourth century journeys were undertaken to visit holy people as well as holy places. Many went to observe the life of the desert monks and to consult them for spiritual advice. The more superstitious took back blessed oil, water, or soil from the site associated with the holy person.

As the practice of pilgrimage grew, great pilgrim churches began to be built in the fifth and sixth centuries at sites associated with popular saints—e.g., Abu Mena in Egypt, Qal‘at Sim‘an (Symeon Stylites) in Syria, and St. John at Ephesus.

IV. WORSHIP#

The maintaining of the Jewish Scriptures as part of the Bible of the church meant that many concepts from the Old Testament ended up influencing Christian practice even without direct contact with Jews. Thus, the distinction between clergy and laity was reinforced by the Old Testament distinction of priests from the people. A priestly understanding of ministry, a sacrificial understanding of worship, and the view of the church building as a holy temple, were among the religious ideas that developed under the influence of the Old Testament.

A. The Liturgy of Baptism and Eucharist#

The Catechetical Lectures delivered in 348 by Cyril of Jerusalem, who represented “orthodox” Trinitarian thought in the East, and the Apostolic Constitutions (especially book 7), compiled probably in Syria or Asia Minor in the late fourth century by someone of “Arian” sympathies, provide descriptions of baptismal practice not greatly different from what appeared in the West a century earlier.

Ordinary catechumens, the “hearers” (audientes), were allowed to remain at the Sunday service for the Scripture readings and sermon, but were dismissed before the eucharist. No one was allowed to witness the “mysteries” of baptism and the eucharist, or hear them described, until the time of initiation.

Those desiring to receive baptism turned in their names shortly after the beginning of the new year. During the forty days of Lent there was instruction in the Christian faith, based primarily on the creed, but giving some attention to the biblical story of the history of salvation.

There was also teaching on Christian morals but, in comparison to doctrinal instruction, considerably less than in the second century.

Baptism was administered on Easter Sunday. The special preparation for baptism involved not only instruction, but also time spent in penitence and confession of sin. Several exorcisms were performed to remove the person from the sphere of evil forces. Those undergoing the immediate preparation for baptism were called in Greek photizomenoi (“those being enlightened”) and in Latin competentes (“candidates”).

The ceremony of baptism itself began with a renunciation of Satan. The candidate, facing west and stretching forth the hand, said, “I renounce you, Satan, and all your works, and all your pomp, and all your worship.” Then, turning to the east, the candidate made profession of faith, “I associate myself with Christ,” and recited the creed.

The candidate put off the undergarment as a symbol of putting off the old person and received an anointing with oil. The priest invoked the Holy Spirit on the water to consecrate it with a new power of holiness. Standing in the water, the candidate made the “saving confession,” in question-and-answer form, and was immersed three times.

There followed an anointing with consecrated ointment, which Cyril regarded as representing the anointing of Jesus by the Spirit at his baptism. The church in Syria, in contrast, made the pre-baptismal anointing the symbol of reception of the Holy Spirit and so a central act of the ceremony.

During the week following the baptism there was instruction on the meaning of baptism, eucharist, and chrism (anointing).

Liturgy of the word and liturgy of the table#

By the late fourth century the Sunday service took the shape it was to maintain for centuries. There were individual differences in different regions, and these came to be recorded in the written liturgies of the subsequent centuries. The women sat apart from the men. There is a clear separation of the liturgy of the word, which all could attend, from the liturgy of the table for the faithful.

The first part of the service might include up to four Scripture readings: from the Law, the Prophets, the Epistles or Acts, and the Gospels. Between the Old Testament and New Testament readings, a cantor sang psalms, to which the people sang responses. A presbyter or the bishop delivered a homily. Then came the dismissal of the catechumens, those possessed by evil spirits, and those under discipline.

From Cyril of Jerusalem’s Catechetical Lecture 23, Mystagogical Catecheses 5 (which some, probably incorrectly, have ascribed to Cyril’s successor, John), “On the Sacred Liturgy and Communion,” we may learn a sample liturgy of the faithful as celebrated in Jerusalem.

The presbyters began with a ceremonial washing of their hands (the Lavabo) as a symbol of freedom from sin. At the invitation of the deacon there was exchanged the kiss of peace, signifying brotherly love and reconciliation.

The presiding priest called out “Lift up your hearts” (Sursum corda), to which the people replied, “We lift them up to the Lord.” Then the priest said, “Let us give thanks to the Lord,” and began the prayer of thanksgiving. This led into the singing of the Sanctus (“Holy, Holy, Holy” from Isaiah 6:2–3).

The Epiclesis called on God to send his Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine.

In the Great Intercession, “over that sacrifice of propitiation,” a prayer was offered to God, first on behalf of the living and then in commemoration of the dead.

There was controversy on the subject of prayers for the dead in Cyril’s time and he tries to answer some of the objections. There is nothing in any other early liturgy corresponding to Cyril’s expectation that “at their prayers and intercessions God would receive our petition.”

Next, there was recited the Lord’s Prayer. Then the priest invited to communion with the words, “Holy things for the holy,” to which the people replied, “One is Holy, One is Lord, Jesus Christ.”

The chanter sang Psalm 34, verses 8 and 11. The bread and the cup were received reverently with a voiced “Amen.” A thanksgiving and benediction closed the service.

B. Sacraments#

The word sacrament in English derives from the Latin sacramentuman - “oath.” Tertullian used the word in a Christian sense in reference to the oath of loyalty to the heavenly commander at the time of one’s baptism. By a broadening of meaning the word was extended to other rites.

The Greeks used the word musterion, “mystery,” a secret sacred ceremony. Jews and the apostle Paul had used the word for God’s secret counsels that he then revealed to human beings, but since Clement of Alexandria some Christians had appropriated the terminology of the Greek mystery religions for comparison to Christian rites. During the fourth century some Christian ceremonies began to be treated in the same way as the Greek “mysteries,” that is, as secret ceremonies revealed only to the initiated.

By the fourth century three acts had sacramental significance according to the later theological definition of a sacrament: baptism (water), eucharist (bread and wine), and chrism (oil of anointing). There was significant development also in regard to other acts that later were considered sacraments.

A sacrament is the use of material elements or outward actions as channels of inner spiritual blessing

Baptism from the earliest times of the church had been the initiation into the people of God, who were defined now by faith and not by race (in contrast with Judaism). Water in the ancient Near East had been ambiguous:

• A necessity of life

• A representing chaos and death

Christians appropriated these ideas in interpreting baptism as the means of imparting life and understanding the passing through the waters of immersion as a deliverance from the forces of evil.

The blessing of the font served to emphasize the water as imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit.

• The Church Fathers of the fourth century made frequent use of imagery identified with baptism from an earlier time—regeneration, new birth, death and resurrection, washing, illumination, and seal.

• They associated baptism with grace, confession of faith, forgiveness of sins, freedom from slavery to the devil, and the beginning of a new moral life

All of which concepts belonged to earlier baptismal theology, only now more elaborated.

What became known as confirmation in the later Western church was not clearly separated from baptism, for the imposition of hands and the anointing that symbolized the imparting of the Holy Spirit, whether administered before (as in Syria) or after the baptism (as elsewhere), were a part of the baptismal ceremony itself.

As infant baptism grew, the anointing was often separated in time from baptism, at least in the West, where it was administered by the bishop, unlike in the East where the officiating priest could also anoint as well as baptize.

The use of oil in the baptismal ceremony is first confirmed among the Valentinians in the second century, but whatever its origins it quickly became common. It enforced:

• The imagery of dying with Jesus Christ (for oil was used in embalming)

• The idea of cleansing (for it was used by athletes to clean the body and by everyone following a bath)

• The preparation of the bride for the heavenly bridegroom

Moreover, for the Christian to be anointed, as was Jesus Christ, enforced the idea of the royal priesthood.

The baptismal oil (“chrism”) was described by several of the church leaders as sacramental, representing the Holy Spirit. Cyril of Jerusalem, it seems, regarded baptism as conveying both remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, but as signifying only the former with chrism signifying the latter. It prepared the person for an active participation in Christian duties through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The eucharist was the center of the Sunday assembly from the beginning of the church, and by the fourth century was being observed in some churches on Saturday as well. The commemorative and eschatological features of the early eucharist were by the fourth century being supplanted by other understandings.

• In the Eastern churches the eucharist was viewed as an epiphany of the divine with an emphasis on the epiclesis of the Holy Spirit.

• In the West it was viewed as a sacrifice with an emphasis on the words of institution.

But the two ideas intermingled, and both components were often found together in the liturgies.

The belief in the presence of Jesus Christ with his people gathered for the breaking of bread, and the association of the elements with his body and blood, went back to the beginning of the church. Third century authors sometimes spoke realistically of the identification of the elements with the body and blood. At other times they spoke of the elements as “symbols” (Greek) and “figures” (Latin).

Some fourth-century bishops began to speak of a change in the elements effecting the presence of the body and the blood.

• The Mystagogical Catecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem said that the Holy Spirit “made the bread the body of Christ and the wine the blood of Christ,” a marked advance over earlier statements.

• Gregory of Nyssa coined a word to express his thought: “By the power of the benediction through which he transelements the natural quality of these visible things to that immortal thing.”

• Ambrose identified the consecration that made the bread into the body and the cup of wine and water into the blood with the repetition by the priest of Jesus’ words of institution.

The view that the elements were changed, not just in their function but in a realistic sense, gained greater currency in subsequent centuries. This realistic understanding of the presence of Jesus Christ in the elements preceded by several centuries the doctrine of “transubstantiation,” which is a theory of how the change occurs, not the fact of a change itself.

Sacrificial ideas associated with prayer and thanksgiving were explicitly related to the eucharist by the second century if not earlier (Didache). Cyprian in the third century had used the language of sacrifice freely for the eucharist, declaring that the priest (bishop), while imitating what Christ did at the Last Supper, “offers a true and full sacrifice.”

Sacrificial ideas were fully developed in Ambrose, Cyril of Jerusalem, and the Apostolic Constitutions.

• Ambrose stays closer to earlier thought in saying that “the holy bread and cup of eternal life” are a “spotless offering, reasonable offering, unbloody offering.”

• The Mystagogical Catecheses mark the future development by combining the real presence with the sacrifice: “We offer up the Christ who was sacrificed for our sins, propitiating . . . the merciful God.”

The penitential discipline of the church was well developed by the end of the second century, and Tertullian had called the public humiliation and confession of sins a “second plank” of salvation after shipwreck.

In the third century Gregory Thaumaturgus in his Canonical Epistle had listed the classes of penitents:

1. mourners, who had to stay outside the door of the church, where they implored the faithful — as they entered — to pray for them

2. hearers of the word, who could stand inside the door to hear the Scriptures and the preaching

3. kneelers, who were within the assembly room, but were still dismissed before the eucharist

4. bystanders, who were associated with the faithful but did not commune

5. restored ones, who now shared in communion

In the fourth century the canonical legislation elaborated this structure with prescribed periods in each category for each sin, but the bishop ultimately decided on the amount of penance. The forms of penitential exercises and reconciliation remained the same as in the third century.

The term “confession” (exomologesis) continued to be the regular designation for public discipline, but a confession before the faithful (in addition to a private confession to a priest) was not always obligatory. The rule of only one post-baptismal penance continued to be affirmed.

We hear of punishments for moral offenses mainly in the canonical legislation, and most references to excommunication occur in the efforts to enforce doctrinal uniformity. A systematic theology of penance as a sacrament did not come until the twelfth century.

The ancient practice of election of the bishop by the people maintained itself in post-Nicene times, but more influence was wielded by the clergy, neighboring bishops, or even (in the case of some sees) imperial authority.

Consecration of a bishop ordinarily required three bishops. The manner continued to be prayer and the laying on of hands. The laying on of hands was understood as conferring the Holy Spirit.

The sacramental character of ordination was slow in evolving, but in the fourth century Gregory of Nyssa gave expression to the idea of a sacramental change in the status of the one ordained.

• He paralleled the changes in regard to the elements in baptism, eucharist, and chrism to the change in the person ordained.

• He attributed to the prayer of benediction the Spirit’s transformation of a person who had been one of the common mass of people and who remained in outward appearance the same.

• By an inner grace and power the individual was transformed into “a guide, a president, a teacher of righteousness, an instructor of mysteries.”

It remained for Augustine, however, to lay the basis for the sacramental understanding of ordination by formulating its indelible character.

The place of the laity in the liturgy came to be reduced to a minimum.

The diaconate became a rung on the ladder of advancement, not a particular lifetime office. Canon 18 adopted at Nicaea decreed that presbyters pass the elements of the eucharist to the deacons, reversing the earlier practice of deacons serving the presbyters, who were the only ones to have seats in the house churches. The canon made clear that the presbyters were definitely priests (with functions delegated by the bishop), and that the deacons were servants of the presbyters as well as of the bishop. The bishops became more administrative officials, at least in the larger cities, and were the only ones with votes in the councils.

C. The Church Calendar#

The commemoration of saints days added to the number of festival days, but the main contours of the church calendar depended on the feasts of salvation.

The Jewish religious calendar provided Christianity with its observance of Pascha and Pentecost. With the outcome of the Quartodeciman conflict of the second century Christianity had departed from the Jewish calculations for Passover and moved the observance to Sunday.

Each year the bishop of Alexandria sent a Paschal Letter announcing the date for Easter of that year. The Council of Nicaea determined that the Paschal Sunday would be the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.

The major new fourth-century addition to the Christian calendar was the celebration of the birthday of Jesus.

The followers of the Gnostic teacher Basilides in Egypt celebrated the manifestation (epiphany) of Jesus in his baptism on January 6, a day important in the cult of Dionysus and associated in Egypt with the beginning of a new year. When orthodox Christians in Egypt and the East observed the day, they associated Jesus’ appearance with his birth.

There were various other speculations about the day of Jesus’ birth, centering mainly on the spring, but for the first three centuries the church realized the day of Jesus’ birth was unknown and attached no theological importance to it. There are accounts in the East of both the birth and the baptism of Jesus remembered on January 5–6.

Christmas was a Western feast, first celebrated in Rome in the second quarter of the fourth century. The date of December 25 was influenced by the sun cult, which was promoted by third-century emperors and continued to be recognized by Constantine. December 25 as the birthday of Jesus began to be introduced into the eastern part of the empire at the end of the fourth century. This date forced a separation from Epiphany.

In the West January 6 became associated with the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus, but in the East the day continued an association with the baptism of Jesus, and in Armenia maintained itself as the birthday of Jesus. Theological considerations were important in the spread of the festival, because of the emphasis on the incarnation.

As Jerusalem became more important as a pilgimage site in the fourth century, a celebration of Palm Sunday a week before Easter developed there by about 400.

D. Basilicas and Art#

The churches built under Constantine set the pattern for church buildings over the next few centuries.

• The Christian basilicas were rectangular halls, normally with a narthex (an entrance room), an apse (the semi-circular focal point on the opposite end from the narthex), a clerestory supported by columns above the central nave, and two (sometimes four) side aisles.

• The rectangular shape focused attention on the altar and the seating for the presbyters and the bishop’s chair at one end.

Although not true of all Constantinian basilicas, most church buildings were oriented to the east.

With support from the emperor and other wealthy patrons, fine marble was incorporated in the construction, and furnishings and communion vessels were made of precious metals.

Evidence of the decoration of Christian meeting places becomes more extensive in the fourth century. At the beginning of the fourth century, Bishop Theodore of Aquileia covered the floor of his new church building with mosaics that incorporated biblical motifs and nautical and floral designs. The apse of basilicas was the most important place to make an artistic statement. It was adorned with pictures in mosaic or fresco of Jesus Christ as lawgiver or teacher.

The figural decoration of the catacombs became much more extensive, and more elaborate sarcophagi began to be produced, with the repertory of biblical scenes expanded. In general terms there was a move in content from a primarily symbolic to a more “historical” art.

There was also in the Theodosian age the beginning of some of the features that would characterize later Byzantine art—frontality, symmetry, and abstract idealizing. The various portrayals of Jesus Christ showed him taking over the features of pagan deities.