1. The first century presents a view of institutions in their germ, which, at a later period, were developed in the bosom of the Church. Unlike human society, the Church was not left to be perfected by time. Her constitution, established by God, contained, in its origin, the same elements which the course of history has developed in all their fullness, by exhibiting their influence on mankind. The study of this century is, therefore, of the highest importance; because all the dogmas which heresy has attacked, as well as most of the institutions which, through error, have been calumniated or rejected, find a signal confirmation in the Apostolic teachings and traditions.
For the sake of method, we shall treat this subject under four principal heads: the doctrine of the Church, her government, her discipline, and her worship.
§ I. DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH.
2. The first point to be observed in the Apostolic teaching is the authority, as witnesses, of the disciples who were instructed by the Saviour Himself, and who alone form the link between the Divine Word and the faith of succeeding ages.
3. From this principle of authority arose the simplicity which marked their doctrine. They expounded the faith in the face of Judaism and of pagan philosophy, without the resources of eloquence or any of the artifices of human language, with a force of conviction derived from well-known, recent, and incontestable facts. But this divine simplicity cannot be attributed, solely, to the character of the Apostles, illiterate as they were. It entered into the designs of Providence to proportion the evangelical teaching to the intelligence of the poor and the lowly, by whom Christianity began her conquests in the world: so that it is no slight proof of the divinity of the Church, to find that the simplicity of her Apostles, which, humanly speaking, would have been the first and greatest obstacle to her progress, was, on the contrary, the most influential cause of her triumphs.
4. The teaching of the Apostles derived also a supernatural force from the wonderful miracles which attested its truth. We have seen that the shadow of St. Peter healed the sick. His alms were—to the infirm, health; to the deaf, hearing; to the blind, sight. The disciples of Jesus Christ wrought more miracles in proof of His teaching than He had wrought Himself. The power of performing miracles, which God imparted to His Church, and which she has always possessed, was exhibited to a remarkable extent in the first century, in confirmation of a doctrine, so marvellous in itself that it has been said, “That the conversion of the world to Christianity, without the aid of miracles, would have been the most wonderful of all miracles.”
5. This doctrine was transmitted by the oral teaching of the Apostles to their disciples, for Jesus Christ did not, like Moses, write His law. The new dispensation was to be engraven on the heart by charity, before being set forth in books. Besides this, the oral teaching of the Apostles was as much divinely revealed as are the Holy Scriptures. To assert the contrary would be to deny the Apostles a prerogative which all succeeding ages have accorded them. And, in fact, the Church could not have lasted, without some guarantee that the teaching of its founders was infallible. It is therefore a fundamental error to neglect the teaching of tradition, and admit no other authority than that of the Scriptures, in deciding all questions of dogma, morals, discipline, and worship.
A great many regulations were prescribed to the early Christians concerning the rising institutions, the external ceremonies which should accompany the celebration of the holy mysteries, and the rites to be observed in the administration of the sacraments, which form no part of the Scriptures. The Apostles, in obedience to the command of their divine Master, went about the world—not composing treatises like the philosophers, nor disputing like sophists or rhetoricians, but teaching with authority. Souls were drawn to them by the supernatural force of grace. The principal points of faith having been explained to these new converts, they were baptized and admitted to the communion of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The imposition of hands conferred upon them the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and the Apostles then left them, and went in pursuit of other conquests.
6. But, when the Christians increased greatly in numbers, the Apostles, notwithstanding the activity and fruitfulness of their zeal, were unable to convey orally to all their disciples the teachings of divine truth. Moreover, false doctrines threatened to corrupt the deposit of tradition, and it became necessary to refute them. Jews and Gentiles were equally hostile to the Christian faith, and they must be combated. Hence it was of the highest consequence to fix with certainty, and in writing, the doctrine of Jesus Christ. And the New Testament, the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, came forth from the consecrated hands of the Evangelists and Apostles.
7. Never before was the human tongue employed to teach truths so sublime; never were truths taught with such simplicity. The Gospel is not only the recital of the wondrous actions of a God descended among men, it is also a code of laws which has regenerated mankind. Without it, there is neither salvation for individuals nor repose for society. It is a clear and precise revelation of the divine law, infinitely surpassing, in every respect, the highest conceptions of the most celebrated philosophers of antiquity; it is a system of moral precepts so perfect, that no higher idea of virtue can be conceived of than is therein set forth; yet, nevertheless, so adapted to all the wants of mankind, that this sublime virtue has become popular among the disciples of the Gospel. To the teachings of this divine book alone can be attributed the heroic sanctity of thousands of virgins, confessors, and martyrs, of every age and condition, at all times, in all countries of the world. We find in it, not the ordinary forms of human reasoning, nor the scientific methods of the moralists and orators,—but each of its words is like an immediate revelation from the Divinity. We feel at every page that the most exalted authority, the most merciful omnipotence condescends to come down to the level of the intellect and heart of man.
8. The early Fathers, followed by all the doctors of the Church, have compared the four Evangelists to the four symbolic creatures, who, in the vision of Ezekiel, formed the car of God. The Man is employed as emblematic of St. Matthew, who begins his Gospel with the recital of the human genealogy of Jesus Christ. The Lion is the emblem of St. Mark, who begins with the “voice of one crying in the desert.” The Ox, an animal used for sacrifice, is the emblem of St. Luke, whose Gospel commences with the sacrifice of Zachary. Finally, the Eagle, with his lofty flight, his intrepid mien, is the emblem of St. John, whose vigorous wing elevates him above the things of earth, whose eye penetrates even unto the throne of the Divinity!
9. The Acts of the Apostles were written, at Rome, by Saint Luke, two years after St. Peter had made this capital the centre of Catholicity. They contain the history of the first years of the Church, and a narrative of the voyages and labors of the Apostles, particularly of St. Paul, of whom St. Luke had been, for some time, the companion. They conclude with the arrival of St. Paul at Rome, where, having appealed to Caesar, he was to be judged.
10. The fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, addressed to the Romans, Corinthians, Hebrews, &c., follow next after the Acts of the Apostles, in the catalogue of the canonical books as arranged by the Church. This arrangement does not imply any supremacy or claim over St. Peter, whose epistles are placed third in order, but is owing to their number, their excellence, and the importance of the subjects they treat of. Their sublimity surpasses all human eloquence and reasoning. They were addressed to persons who had been recently converted from the darkness of paganism to the light of the Gospel, and were intended as spiritual nourishment for children in the faith, as the milk of the word, to be dispensed to the little ones and the weak; yet this has not hindered men of the loftiest genius, from St. Chrysostom to Bossuet, from finding in the teaching of St. Paul an inexhaustible source of fruitful inspiration and of admirable precepts.
11. We have already mentioned the Epistle of St. James, addressed to the whole Catholic Church. It is placed immediately after the epistles of St. Paul in the canonical books of the New Testament. This monument of the holy bishop of Jerusalem is so much the more precious, because it is the only one of the inspired books which expressly mentions the sacrament of Extreme Unction (chap. v. 14). Catholic tradition shows, that the Church has always interpreted this passage in the same manner that she does at present. Heretics have labored, on their side, to alter this clear and precise text of the Apostle. Some have entirely suppressed it; so that it is not found in the Bibles published by some of their societies established to propagate Protestantism.
The two Epistles of St. Peter, the three Epistles of St. John, and the Catholic Epistle of St. Jude, complete the series of letters written by the Apostles to the churches they had evangelized. Received with the respect due to the word of God, read in the assemblies of the faithful before the celebration of the divine mysteries, commented on by the bishops or priests who presided at these assemblies, communicated to various churches, they have been transmitted, as a sacred deposit, to future ages. The severest penalties were enacted against those who should alter the text or change its sense. The solicitude of the primitive Christians for the preservation of the Scriptures, is, for us, a sure guarantee of their integrity. The vigilance with which they condemned all private interpretations confirms the certitude of tradition, which has preserved for us, through the succession of Fathers and doctors, the true spirit of the Gospel, a living and sound intelligence, within the bosom of the Catholic Church.
12. Finally, the Apocalypse of St. John completes the list of the sacred Scriptures. With that eagle glance which penetrates the future, even to the gates of eternity, he closes the sacred volume in a wonderful manner. In the Old Testament, four thousand years of expectation form, so to speak, an immense avenue which ends in Jesus Christ. In the Apocalypse, the world goes onward from Jesus Christ the Redeemer to Jesus Christ the Supreme Judge—the glory of the elect, the terror of the condemned. Between the first and the last coming of our Lord there can be no new dispensation, because there cannot be a second redemption. The design of the Apocalypse is to disclose to us, in a special manner, the great work of God, whose justice inflicts terrible chastisements upon the enemies of His Church, and makes her triumph, not only in heaven, where He crowns the martyrs with eternal glory, but even on earth where He establishes her, with all the lustre which had been foretold by the prophets.
There are two ways of interpreting this mysterious book. One is general, the plan of which is traced by Saint Augustine, in his great work, The City of God. This method of interpretation is to consider, in history, two empires mingled physically, but morally separate. One is the empire of Babylon, which signifies confusion and trouble; the other is that of Jerusalem, which signifies peace. The former is the world, the latter is the Church, but the Church in her highest character, that is, in the Saints, in the elect: In that, Satan reigns; in this, Jesus Christ: impiety and pride rule in that; in this is the seat of religion and truth: in that there is the joy which shall be changed into eternal woe; in this, the suffering which shall lead to eternal happiness. Wherever we find the world vanquished, or Jesus Christ victorious, there we shall meet with a wise interpretation of this divine prophecy. We may even feel assured, according to the rule laid down by St. Augustine, that we have divined in some degree the intention of the Holy Spirit, who from all eternity has foreseen every meaning which would be given to His Scriptures, and has always approved those which were good, and were edifying to the children of God.*
The second manner of interpreting the Apocalypse, is purely historical. It consists in applying the symbols, described by St. John, to particular events. “This book,” says St. Dionysius of Alexandria, “contains a wonderful but deeply hidden knowledge, of what happens every day.” With the exception of some of those remarkable portions, of which the early Christian tradition has preserved the meaning, such as the application to pagan Rome of the character attributed by St. John to Babylon, interpretations of every kind have been given to the Apocalypse. The Church has passed sentence only upon such of these interpretations as attacked principles of the faith; so that, after the labors of the most erudite commentators, the opinion of St. Jerome is still sustained in all its force: “The Apocalypse,” says this great doctor, “is as full of mysteries as of words.”
13. The Holy Scriptures, those venerable monuments of the Apostolic age, were, from their origin, received with the respect due to the word of God. We find them quoted in the Pastor of Hermas, in the letters of St. Clement, and in the letter to Diognetus. Heretics endeavored, either to alter the sacred text, or to introduce apocryphal gospels, under the names of the Apostles, such as the “Gospel of the Infancy,” the “Proto-Gospel,” attributed to St. James, &c. But their efforts to corrupt the Apostolic teaching at its source, have ended only in demonstrating the importance which the Church attached from the beginning to the preservation of the New Testament pure from all foreign admixtures.
The sacred books and the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, which have come down to us, do not form a collection of works in which the Christian doctrines are set forth in a didactic manner, but rather their history and morals. The Discipline of the Secret, which was so inviolably observed in the face of paganism, or of Judaism, explains sufficiently this reserve of the ecclesiastical authors. From this reserve, or silence, Protestants have sought to draw conclusions adverse to all points of dogma, or discipline, that are not explicitly mentioned by those early writers. Their arguments rest on a capital historic error. They argue, as if religious initiation had been effected in the first century by written instructions; whereas it is the contrary which is true. Oral instruction, or the setting forth of the truth, without any medium but the living voice, was the striking characteristic of Apostolic teaching. Such is the sacred origin of that tradition, or oral transmission of religious truth, which began with the Saviour, and has pursued its course amid persecutions and heresies, always unchangeable, always respected. Tradition completes the written doctrine, the sacred text confirms tradition; we cannot separate one from the other; we cannot shake either of these two columns of the temple without crumbling the whole edifice.
“When we hear the Fathers of the eleventh century proclaim the existence of oral tradition and the secret transmission of doctrine as a fundamental and preliminary article; when we find them laying down as a final rule the authority of tradition, in determining matters of Christian faith; when we see all the succeeding Fathers recognizing the force of tradition, and appealing in the last resort to the tradition and authority of the ancient Fathers in determining the teachings of the Church, it is scarcely possible to conceive the bad faith which has dared to reject it.”*
If, also, we examine, in detail, the particular points of doctrine set forth here and there in several passages of Holy Writ, and by the writers of the Apostolic age, we shall find, contained in them, nearly the whole of Catholic theology:
1st. The origin and reason of our existence; the root of Christianity in the history of the Hebrew people, who were only the continued promise, the prophecy and figure of it; the mystery of the Redemption, which was a necessary consequence of the dogma of original sin; the Adam of the new law of love, who was to redeem the first Adam—the Adam of the law of fear.
2d. The precise and marked distinction between the law of Christ and the law of Moses; the extension of the kingdom of God over all people; the diffusion, among all nations, of the truth, which, until then, was confined to one privileged people: The Decalogue, or the moral law of the Jews, become the moral code of the universe, while the ceremonial prescriptions, particular rites, and legal observances of Moses ceased to have any obligatory force.
3d. The divine inspiration of the Scriptures recognized and proclaimed.
4th. The establishment of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in its degrees of order and of rank: St. Peter taking the first place in the council of Jerusalem; bishops appointed by the Apostles, and placed at the head of the new churches; and the orders of priests and deacons.
5th. The three fundamental mysteries of Catholic dogma: the Trinity, the Incarnation, the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ; the redemption or satisfaction made by Jesus Christ; and His Grace, the fruit of that redemption.
6th. The sacraments, channels of grace, the sources of spiritual life and regeneration.
7th. Morality, of which their notion was the same as that which obtains now. We can borrow from the writers of the Apostolic age their own expressions, to exhort to good works, to penitence, fasting, detachment from the world, and prayer.
This doctrine of the early Church is the same that she will continue to teach during all succeeding ages. The necessity of upholding the truth against heretical attacks will lead to the successive development of each particular point of doctrine; but the Popes and councils, in defining each dogma, will accept only the tradition which comes directly from the Apostles.
§ II. GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH.
14. The integrity of doctrine and the purity of tradition required for their preservation the guaranty of a regularly constituted government. The first century of the Church, the Apostolic age, while the first ministers of the good tidings were dispersed throughout the world to preach the name of Jesus Christ, could present, it will readily be conceived, only the elements of a hierarchy, which, at a later period, when the world should become Christian, would be organized in a definite form. But these elements sufficed to establish then the principles which are still in vigor in the government of the Church.
The primacy of St. Peter is evident from the facts themselves: he it was who presided at the election of Matthias; he was the first to preach to the Jews; it was he whom St. Paul came to see and to study, as Bossuet expresses it; it was he who presided at the Council of Jerusalem, and promulgated its decision; it was he who proclaimed the mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles, which was a scandal in the minds of the Jews; it was he who founded the Patriarchal See of Antioch, which became the first in the East, because St. Peter had his seat there; it was he who came to plant the cross in Rome, the capital of the world, and, since then, the centre of Catholicity; it was he who sent from Rome his disciple St. Mark to establish the Church of Alexandria, which also became a Patriarchal See in memory of St. Peter, who had founded it through his envoy. These marks of honor, these singular prerogatives would be inexplicable, if we did not presuppose the principle of the primacy of the pontificate, legitimately exercised and unanimously recognized in the person of Peter, by the other Apostles.
No personal advantages could be attributed to St. Peter over any of the other Apostles. Was not St. John the disciple whom Jesus loved, to whom in dying He confided His mother? And yet it was not St. John who presided, who opened councils, who promulgated decisions. Was not St. Paul, by the miracle of his conversion, by the grandeur of his eloquence, by the depth and sublimity of his doctrines, more especially pointed out for the veneration of the faithful? And, nevertheless, it is St. Paul who comes to St. Peter to give an account of his apostleship. Even from the fact of the famous discussion between the Apostles, is it not to be supposed that to St. Peter were referred the questions of dogma and discipline which required an authoritative decision? The words of Jesus Christ, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,” were interpreted in the first century in the same sense which we now give to them. They constituted supremacy in the pontificate and unity in its authority. The primacy of St. Peter existed and was exercised under a paternal form, as was in accordance with the wants of the infant Church.
15. Bishops constitute the second rank of the hierarchy. The election of St. Matthias to the apostleship long served as a model to the Church in the choice of bishops. When the suffrages were found to be balanced between two persons equally worthy of this honor, they recurred to a choice by lot, thus leaving the decision to God alone. Bishops were also elected by assemblies of the clergy and people, and consecrated by other bishops. It is a fact worthy of remark, that nearly all the bishops of the first centuries were inscribed in the catalogue of the saints. The heritage of virtue seemed as if transmitted with the episcopal dignity. The example came from the See of Rome, where, up to A.D. 500, scarcely three or four Popes can be found who are not acknowledged as saints.
In the second century, the Emperor Alexander Severus referred to the example of the Christians, to show what strictness should be observed in the choice of public officers. “The bishop was elected, in the presence of the people, by the bishops of the province, assembled in the cathedral church of the vacant see, to the number of at least two or three; for in those times it was difficult to hold large councils, except in the intervals between persecutions, and occasionally some of the sees remained a long time vacant. The presence of the people was deemed necessary, so that all being persuaded of the merit of the candidate elected, should obey him the more willingly.”*
St. Paul made a law against the elevation of neophytes to the episcopal dignity, in order to prevent the government of the Church from being committed to the domination of proud or ambitious men, or the deposit of tradition to the imperfect knowledge of a new Christian. The bishop was, at once, the father and the judge of the Christians in the primitive ages. His decisions terminated the disputes which arose among the faithful. He was charged with the care of the poor, of the widows, and the orphans, and he presided at the distribution of the alms which the early Christians placed at his disposal. These alms are frequently mentioned in the Epistles of St. Paul, under the name of “collections.” It was also the duty of bishops to preach; the ministry of the word was, for a long time, almost their exclusive privilege. Early in the fifth century, we see that Valerius, the aged bishop of Hippo, made a glorious exception to this usage, in confiding to St. Augustine, then only a priest, the honor of taking his own place in the pulpit.
The election of bishops was, therefore, an event of extreme importance in the various churches. It was always preceded by public fasting and prayers. Usually the election was made during Saturday night or Sunday morning; the consecration followed, of which the principal ceremony has always been the imposition of hands; and this was immediately preceded by the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We find, in ancient authors, that while performing sacred rites the bishops wore some exterior mark of their dignity. Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, at the close of the second century, writes that the Apostle St. John wore on his head a plate of gold. St. Epiphanius relates the same thing of St. James, the first bishop of Jerusalem. Others make a like observation relative to St. Mark, first bishop of Alexandria.
“For the rest, the government of the bishops was a government of charity. The clerics and, above all, the priests formed a sort of permanent council for the bishop. They assisted him in all public functions, as disciples who followed their master; for they were attached to him as the Apostles were to Jesus Christ.”* The bishops never failed to preside at the public offices and prayers, to explain the Holy Scriptures, and to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass on Sundays and Holydays. In the canons of the first centuries, we find a prohibition against the celebration of the holy mysteries by a priest in the church of a bishop, unless the latter be hindered by sickness from fulfilling this august function. The dignity of the bishop was held by the faithful in the highest honor; and St. Polycarp remarks, that they vied with each other in trying to be first to take off his shoes. These testimonials of veneration, of which we find traces in the remotest ages of the Church, are a sufficient reply to the calumnies of that party spirit which presumes to accuse the episcopacy of having usurped, in later times, distinctions and honors unknown to the Apostolic age.
16. Next to the bishops ranked the presbyteri, seniores, or priests chosen, as their name indicates, either from among the elders, or the clerics most esteemed for the purity of their morals and their holiness of life. The bishop often selected them in accordance with the requests of the people, or at least with their participation, and always with the counsel of his clergy, and after a careful examination. They were often obliged, in the Apostolic and earlier times of the Church, to constrain those who were to be ordained to accept an honor which their humility induced them sometimes positively to refuse. The priests of each church were almost always chosen from among those who had been baptized and who had exercised the duties of clerics during several years. After ordination it became their duty to reside in their diocese, unless their own bishop yielded them to another. They received an appointed stipend, on account of their ministry, and lived by the altar, fulfilling the counsel of the Apostle. The Church furnished from her treasury all that was needful for the subsistence of her clergy, and each of them received, by the week or month, a portion, in kind or in money. The distribution of these salaries was usually confided to a deacon, who, we find, as far back as the second century, was called archdeacon in the annals of the Roman Church.
We have already seen that deacons were instituted by the Apostles, to aid them in dispensing the alms of the Church. To this function they united others of a more elevated character, viz., to administer, in default of priests, the Sacrament of the Eucharist to the faithful, and even to preach the Gospel, as may be observed in the example of St. Stephen, the first of the deacons and martyrs. The priesthood and the diaconate were, up to the twelfth century, the only orders termed major or holy. This fact is made known by a canon of the Council of Benevento, A.D. 1091, under the presidency of Urban II. “We term,” said he, “the diaconate and the priesthood holy orders.” The elevation of the sub-diaconate to the rank of holy orders is attributed to Innocent III., at the end of the twelfth century. However this may be, “it is known,” and these are the words of the Council of Trent, “that from the foundation of the Church the name and particular functions of the orders of subdeacon, of acolyte, of exorcist, of reader, and porter, were in use.”
From the first century, ecclesiastical celibacy was rigorously exacted from the two holy orders, the diaconate and priesthood. St. Epiphanius and St. Jerome, who attest this tradition, leave no doubt in regard to it. They affirm that the usage of the three great patriarchates of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch was, to ordain none but virgin or continent clerics; and that if they had been married before their ordination, they ceased from that moment to live in common with their wives.
In the first century we find also the germ of religious orders, who were destined to become afterwards the soul of the Church. There were from that time Christians called to a higher perfection, who voluntarily practised all the exercises of penance, training themselves in piety, after the model of St. Paul, “by chastising their body, and reducing it to servitude.” They were called ascetics, that is to say, exercitants. They lived in retreat and in continence, and they joined to Christian frugality extraordinary abstinence and fasting. They practised xerophagy—eating only dry food—sleeping on the bare earth, and dividing their time between prayer, the study of the Scriptures, and manual labor. “We have seen,” says St. Paul, “these men, of whom the world is not worthy, wandering in deserts, in mountains, covered with skins, living in dens, and in caves of the earth.”
From the first century we find also virginity, that other glory of the Church, practised in the midst of the disorders and immorality of the pagan world. If, in the transformation wrought at once by the Gospel in pagan society, all were not equally exemplary, we must still regard it as an extraordinary miracle of heroism to behold generations of youthful maidens arise, offering to God the sacrifice of all the joys of the world, to bury their lives in retirement, in fasting, watching, and mortification. Such examples had no parallel either in Judaism, where virginity was regarded as an opprobrium, or in paganism, where the most infamous passions had their gods, their priests, and their altars. The Christian virgins of the primitive age led an ascetic life in the bosom of their families, renouncing even the most innocent indulgence in dress or amusements. Silence, retirement, poverty, labor, abstinence, and continual prayer were the objects of their preference; and thus the rising Church was edified by the spectacle of their virtues, and by their meritorious prayers and good works.
Another institution, which lasted only during the first ages, had its origin from the Apostles. It is that of deaconesses. Widows, the most sensible and experienced, were selected for this honor. The age for admission was first fixed at sixty years, but afterwards at forty. The deaconesses exercised towards women a part of the functions of deacons. Their charge was to visit all persons of their sex whom poverty, sickness, or other misfortunes rendered fit subjects for the care of the Church. They instructed the catechumens, under the direction of the priests, presented them for baptism, and moulded the newly baptized in the Christian life. In the assemblies they guarded the doors of the women’s side, taking care that each was placed according to her rank, and observed silence and modesty. The deaconesses gave an account of all their functions to the bishop, and, by his order, to the priests and deacons. The institution of deaconesses went out of use by degrees.
Such is the form under which the first century presents the Catholic hierarchy and the government of the Church.
§ III. DISCIPLINE.
17. The regeneration of the moral nature of man, effected by the coming of the Redeemer, was to exhibit itself in the bosom of Christianity by a new life, and by manners unknown to the corruption of ancient society. The picture of the rising Church forms a striking contrast between the virtues inspired by the doctrines of the Gospel and the vices of the pagan world. The first church at Jerusalem was composed of three thousand converts; these converts heard the instructions of the Apostles, prayed together, and in private houses broke bread together. They placed their goods in common, and sold their inheritances to distribute the price among their brethren. Their mode of life, which conformed to the counsels of evangelic perfection, has been depicted by the apologists of the first centuries.
“Among us,” says Athenagoras, “will be found: the ignorant, the poor, laborers, and old women, who cannot perhaps prove, by reasoning, the truth of our doctrine; they do not enter into discussions, but they do good works. Loving our neighbor as ourselves, we have learned not to strike those who strike us; not to go to law against those who have robbed us; if any one gives us a blow on one cheek, we present the other; if they ask of us our coat, we offer them also our cloak. Allowing for the difference of years, we regard some as our children, others as our brethren and sisters. The most aged we honor as our fathers and mothers. The hope of another life makes us despise the present, even in the midst of lawful pleasures. Marriage with us is a holy vocation, which imparts the grace necessary to bring up our children in the fear of the Lord. We have renounced your bloody spectacles, being persuaded that there is very little difference between looking on murder and committing it. The pagans expose their children to get rid of them; we consider this action as homicide.”
“We are accused of being factious.* The factiousness of Christians is to be united in the same religion, in the same morals, in the same hope. We conspire to pray to God in common, and to read the Holy Scriptures. If any one of us has sinned, he is deprived of communion, and of taking part in our assemblies of prayer, until he has done penance. Old men, whose wisdom merits this honor, preside in these assemblies. Every one contributes a monthly sum, according to his means and inclination. This treasure serves to feed and bury the poor, to support orphans, shipwrecked sufferers, exiles, and those condemned, for the cause of God, to the mines or to prisons. Every thing is in common among us, except women. Our repasts in common are explained by their name of agape, which signifies charity.”
Certainly there must have been a strange blindness in the pagan world not to have been seized with admiration at the view of such noble sentiments and generous actions, in the midst of the general enervation of manners and debasement of character. There was found also a pretext for the disdain which the pagans at first affected for the religion of Jesus Christ, in the choice of the persons from whom it seemed that recruits were taken by preference. According to them, the Christians were nothing more than coarse, ignorant, fanatical sectaries, who would neither give nor discuss the reasons for their worship, and were accustomed to reply, “Do not inquire about it; the wisdom of this life is an evil, and its folly is good.”*
In the first century, the pagans confounded the religion of Jesus Christ with Judaism, and treated it with equal contempt. But the rapid propagation of the Gospel called the general attention to a doctrine which controlled the most exalted intellects as well as the humblest, and which at the same time invaded every country on the globe. The ruin of Jerusalem, by separating Judaism in so decided a manner from Christianity, no longer permitted them to be confounded with each other. The pagan world, alarmed at the view of its deserted temples, its gods despised, its sacrifices fallen into neglect, its morals, superstitions, and fables so boldly combated, essayed to resuscitate its dying institutions by the sword, and to drown Christianity in a sea of blood. The popular hatred, skilfully directed by the emperors, magistrates, and priests of the false gods, subserved their projects of vengeance, and history presents the unheard of spectacle of three centuries of massacres, of murders, and of judicial tortures, publicly perpetrated against thousands of victims of every age, and rank, and sex, in all parts of the world, without the elevation of a single voice among the spectators to utter, in the face of their murderers, even one cry of indignation!
In the quotations from Athenagoras and Tertullian which we have made, we find the principal features of the discipline practised in the primitive age. We propose to examine them a little more in detail.
Baptism was usually administered by immersion. The subject was three times plunged in the water, and each time the minister named one of the Divine persons of the Trinity; but baptism by aspersion was judged sufficient in cases of necessity—as, for example, for sick persons. The people gave the name of Clinics to those who had been baptized in this way in their beds. To baptism was united the anointing with oil blessed at the altar. The newly baptized were presented to the bishop, and, by the imposition of hands, they received the Holy Ghost, or the Sacrament of Confirmation. They were given honey to eat, to mark their entrance into the true land of promise, and their spiritual infancy. During the first week, the neophytes wore a white robe which they had received on rising from the holy laver of water, as a type of the innocence which they ought to preserve. Adults did not always change their names—as we find in the first century many saints whose names were derived from false gods, as Dionysius, Demetrius, &c. The custom of changing the name, to take that of a martyr or confessor, was not introduced until after the Council of Nicaea. Solemn baptism was conferred only on Easter eve, in order that the neophytes should rise with Jesus Christ, or on the eve of Pentecost, that they might receive the Holy Ghost with the Apostles. The sacrament of the Eucharist was immediately administered to them. None were admitted to baptism but after long and serious trial. Gladiators, comedians, circus-riders, women of bad lives, and diviners, could be baptized only after having renounced their former modes of living, and given marks of a true and sincere conversion.
The Christians had for their rallying sign, or as an abridged creed, the sign of the cross, which preceded each of their actions. All their works—their labor, the seed-time, the harvest, and the gathering of fruits—began and ended with prayer. A house newly constructed, or newly inhabited, received a special benediction, and each meal always began with prayer. The study and meditation of the Holy Scriptures was the constant occupation of every Christian family. Many saints of the primitive ages have been found buried with the book of the Gospels on their breast. The austerity of their lives fostered the spirit of prayer in the early Christians. They at first counted as fasting days of obligation only those which preceded Easter, now called Lent. The Church observed them in memory of the passion of Jesus Christ. The fast of Wednesday and Friday was not obligatory, being left to the devotion of the faithful. All these fasts were in different degrees, according to their duration and their rigor. Those of Wednesday and Friday lasted until None—three hours after midday. Those of Lent, much more rigorous, extended to vespers, that is, to sunset, nearly six o’clock in the evening. The reason of fasting until None, was to honor the death of Jesus Christ; to vespers, to honor His burial. The degrees of abstinence were also different: some observed homophagy—abstinence from all cooked food; others xerophagy, which consisted in partaking only of dry fruits, such as nuts, almonds, and things of that kind; others contented themselves with bread and water.
The agape, or repast of Christians in common, had been instituted in memory of the supper, when Jesus Christ gave His body and blood as food and drink to His Apostles. Each contributed his part towards furnishing it. St. Paul specifies certain abuses which were introduced into these assemblies. In their origin, the agape were preceded by the breaking of bread, or the reception of the Eucharist; but as early as the end of the first century, from respect to this august mystery, the custom had already prevailed in many churches, to administer it only in the morning, and to those who were fasting. The frequent persecutions had given rise to a peculiar custom. Each Christian conveyed occasionally to his dwelling the eucharistic species, to communicate himself, in case of necessity.
Much has been said in these latter times of the community of goods, which seems to be indicated by the passage in the Acts of the Apostles: “The Christians sold their property, and brought the price, and laid it at the feet of the Apostles.” Recent systems, which, under the modern name of Socialism, seek to renew in the public mind the Utopias of the ancient spoliators, have striven to place themselves under the patronage of the primitive Church, and to have it believed that their principles were the principles of the Gospel. There is in this a double error of fact and of right, which needs only to be noted. In fact, the placing of the goods of the faithful in a common fund, never was, even in the first century, a general measure. The widow Tabitha, whose liberality is praised in the Acts of the Apostles, had reserved to herself the administration of her fortune. St. Paul said to the rich, who complained of the simplicity of the agape, that they were at liberty to provide better things in their own houses. As to the point of law, the community of goods was not obligatory upon the early Christians; it only afforded to some an occasion to practise in a special manner evangelic perfection. Thus, when Ananias and Sapphira brought to the Chief of the Apostles only a part of their possessions, St. Peter said to them: You were free to keep all your fortune in your own hands; but because you have intended to deceive the Lord, behold, His hand will fall heavily on you. To extend to all Christians of the present day the community of goods, would be the same error as to declare as obligatory and universal the vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity, which members of religious communities impose on themselves.
From the first century public penance for great faults was introduced into the Church. The various degrees of this penance were successively regulated by the canons.
§ IV. WORSHIP.
18. Public prayers occupied much time in the life of the early Christians. Each congregation assembled on Sunday,* which the pagans named the day of the sun, and which, immediately after the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, was substituted by the Apostles for the Saturday of the Jews. The place of meeting was at first one of those dining-halls which the Latins called coenacles, and which were in the upper part of the house. Such was the hall from which the young Eutychius fell, whom St. Paul restored to life. Later, the persecutions obliged them to retreat into the crypts, or subterranean caverns formed by quarries out of the city. Such were the catacombs, which still exist in Rome, and which are so well described in the magnificent works on the Catacombs.
The great object of these assemblies was the celebration of the sacrifice, to which the different names were given, of the Lord’s Supper, the Breaking of Bread, the Oblation, the Collect (collecta—assembly), Eucharist (act of thanksgiving), the Liturgy (public office). There was but one daily sacrifice in each church; it was offered by the bishop, assisted by his priests. The celebration could be made by priests only in the absence or illness of the bishop. The order of the Liturgy has changed, according to times and places; certain ceremonies have been added or retrenched; but the essentials have always remained intact. From the earliest times, as we learn from their writers, after the prayers they read certain passages, first from the Old Testament, afterwards from the New. The reading of the Gospel was followed by a discourse upon it from the bishop, who added exhortations suited to the wants of his flock. This first part of the sacrifice was the only one at which the catechumens, who were being instructed in the faith, but were not yet baptized, had a right to be present. After they had withdrawn, the gifts were offered, viz., bread and wine mixed with water, which were to become the elements of the sacrifice. The people then gave to each other the kiss of peace—the men to men, the women to women—as a sign of perfect union. The action of the sacrifice now commenced; the words of consecration were pronounced over the sacred species; the Lord’s Prayer was recited; the celebrant received the Holy Communion, and caused it to be distributed by the deacons to all present.* Regularly, all who came within the Church communicated: even children received the sacrament of the altar. The Communion was distributed under both species.
The agape, which followed the celebration of the holy mysteries, was an ordinary repast, composed of offerings from each of the Christians. All the ministers of the altar had a right to a special portion of it. * The celebrant distributed only the Eucharistic wine through the deacons.—Note of the Commission for the Examination of Books, appointed by the Archbishop of Avignon to give an account of this History of the Church.
This fact explains the origin of the distributions in kind, of which the custom was maintained, even in France, until the Revolution of 1793. Several chapters still retain traces of it. Besides the celebration of the holy mysteries, the Christians assembled for public prayers at different hours, both morning and evening. The recitation or chanting of the Psalms occupied the greatest part in these offices. Matins seem to have succeeded to the morning sacrifice of the ancient law. Vespers took the place of the evening sacrifice, and they were instituted to sanctify the beginning of the night. They were sometimes called Lucernarium—the prayer of lamps—because it was the hour when they were lighted. The prayers of tierce, sext, and none, passed also into the use of the Christians, who adopted them from the Jews. We find traces of them in the Acts of the Apostles, and in authors of the first centuries. The use of varied chants, kneeling and prostration during prayer, lighted lamps, incense, holy water, all belong to the Apostolic age, in which we also find all the elements of public worship as it is regulated at the present day.
Whatever regarded the Liturgy was then carefully veiled in mystery; and it is important to establish this fact, since it explains the silence of the writers of those ages on a multitude of questions and details. The fear of exposing the evangelical doctrine and the sacraments to the profanation and raillery of the infidels, caused them to be enveloped in inviolable secrecy. Not only did the priests never celebrate the mysteries in the presence of a pagan, even of a catechumen, but they regarded it a crime to mention to them what passed there, or even to pronounce the solemn words in their presence, or speak of the nature of the sacrament. In their writings or public discourses, if the mysteries were alluded to, only obscure or enigmatic expressions were employed. Thus, in the New Testament, to break bread signifies to consecrate and distribute the Eucharist; but the pagans could not understand it. This law of silence gave occasion for the most absurd calumnies against the Christians. The apologists then spoke, and the necessity of defending the Church from the accusations of her enemies overcame the less important rule of secrecy.*
19. It has been shown, that the first age of the Church presents to the view of the observer a doctrine, a hierarchy, a discipline, and a worship, regularly constituted and solemnly recognized. At the moment when the Church, founded by Jesus Christ, took her place in pagan society, and announced publicly her intention to overcome the world, she united all the elements of strength and unity which could secure her duration. Scarcely come forth from the hand of the Man-God, she bore within her, in her constitution and laws, the character of her divinity. We shall behold her in the coming ages, with an unbounded expansion, extend her power throughout the world, speak the language of every people, and bend all to her yoke; her discipline will be modified according to the wants of her new children; her worship will display the most solemn and majestic pomp; her government will enlarge its resources and multiply its means in proportion to the increase of her empire; her doctrine, attacked by heresy, will be vindicated, and all questions will be successively defined, by her Sovereign Pontiffs and her councils; but this development, in time or space, will lead to no new dogma, no rule, no measure, no law, which does not find its warrant in the time of the Apostles, from whom it is derived through a legitimate and uninterrupted tradition.
Men pass away; empires, forms of government, institutions, human laws fall, one after the other, each paying their tribute to the decay which awaits every work of man: the Church alone remains to-day as she was yesterday, and such as she will be at the consummation of ages, having sustained from time, the great spoiler of all human institutions, neither radical change nor tarnish, because she has within herself the truth, which naught can modify nor change—Justificata in semetipsa, * This important point of discipline, which throws so much light on many things connected with the usages of the early Church, was called the Disciplina Arcani—A. B.
