Early European History Part 63

[9] See page 302.

[10] See page 219.

[11] So named from one of their leaders.

[12] The word _slova_ means "speech"; the Slavs are those who speak the same language.

[13] See pages 309, 315.

[14] A more accurate designation than Servia. Originally, all Slavic peoples called themselves Serbs.

[15] See page 284.

[16] Of the eight sieges to which Constantinople was subjected in medieval times, only two succeeded. In 1204 A.D. it was captured by the Venetians and in 1453 A.D., by the Ottoman Turks. See pages 477 and 492.

CHAPTER XV

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST TO 1054 A.D. [1]

120. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

A preceding chapter has traced the early history of Christianity. We there saw how the new religion appeared in the Orient, how it spread rapidly over the Roman Empire, how it engaged with the imperial government in the long conflict called the Persecutions, how the emperor Constantine, after his conversion, placed it on an equality with paganism, and how at the end of the fourth century the emperor Theodosius made it the state religion.

By this time the Church had become a great and powerful organization, with fixed laws, with a graded system of officers, and with councils attended by clergy from all parts of the Roman world. To this organization the word Catholic, that is, "universal," came to be applied. Membership in the Catholic Church, secured only by baptism, was believed to be essential to salvation. As St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, had said, "He can no longer have G.o.d for his Father who has not the Church for his Mother."

THE EPISCOPATE

The first three centuries of Christianity witnessed the development of the episcopal system in the Church. Each provincial city had its bishop, a.s.sisted by priests and deacons. An archbishop (sometimes called a metropolitan) presided over the bishops of each province, and a patriarch had jurisdiction, in turn, over metropolitans. This graded arrangement of ecclesiastical officers, from the lowest to the highest, helped to make the Church centralized and strong. It appears to have been modeled, almost unconsciously, on the government of the Roman Empire. [2]

THE PATRIARCHS

The development of the patriarchate calls for special notice. At the time of the Council of Nicaea [3] there were three patriarchs, namely, the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. These cities ranked among the most important in the Roman world. It was only natural, therefore, that the churches established in them should be singled out for preeminence.

Some years after the removal of the capital to Constantinople, the bishop of that imperial city was recognized as a patriarch at a general council of the Church. In the fifth century the bishop of Jerusalem received the same dignity. Henceforth there were five patriarchs--four in the East but only one in the West.

CLERGY AND LAITY

The Christian Church was a very democratic organization. Patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons were drawn from all ranks of life. No special training at first was considered necessary to fit them for their duties, though the more celebrated ministers were often highly educated. To eke out their salaries the clergy sometimes carried on business as farmers and shopkeepers. Where, however, a church had sufficient funds to support its bishop, his engagement in secular affairs was discouraged and finally prohibited. In the fourth century, as earlier, priests and bishops were generally married men. The sentiment in favor of celibacy for the clergy became very p.r.o.nounced during the early Middle Ages, especially in the West, and led at length to the general abandonment of priestly marriage in those parts of Europe where papal influence prevailed. Distinctive garments for clergymen did not begin to come into use until the fifth century, when some of them began to don clothing of a more sober hue than was fashionable at the time. Clerical vestments were developed from two pieces of ancient Roman dress--the tunic and the toga.

[4] Thus the clergy were gradually separated from the people, or laity, by differences in dress, by their celibate lives, and by their abstention from worldly occupations.

HERESIES

While the Church was perfecting her organization, she was also elaborating her doctrines. Theologians engaged in many controversies upon such subjects as the connection of Christ with G.o.d and the nature of the Trinity. In order to obtain an authoritative expression of Christian opinion, councils of the higher clergy were held, at which the opposing views were debated and a decision was reached. The Council of Nicaea, which condemned Arianism, formed the first, and one of the most important, of these general gatherings of the Church. After the Church had once expressed itself on any matter of Christian belief, it was regarded as unlawful to maintain a contrary opinion. Those who did so were called heretics, and their teachings, heresies. The emperor Theodosius, whose severe laws finally shattered the ancient paganism, [5] devoted even more attention to stamping out heresies among his Christian subjects. He prohibited meetings of heretics, burned their books, and threatened them with death if they persisted in their peculiar doctrines. During his reign a Spanish bishop and six of his partisans were executed for holding unorthodox beliefs. This was the beginning of the persecutions for heresy.

WORSHIP

As soon as Christianity had triumphed in the Roman Empire, thus becoming the religion of the rich and powerful as well as the religion of the poor and lowly, more attention was devoted to the conduct of worship.

Magnificent church buildings were often erected. Their architects seem to have followed as models the basilicas, or public halls, which formed so familiar a sight in Roman cities. [6] Church interiors were adorned with paintings, mosaic pictures, images of saints and martyrs, and the figure of the cross. Lighted candles on the altars and the burning of fragrant incense lent an additional impressiveness to worship. Beautiful prayers and hymns were composed. Some of the early Christian hymns, such as the _Gloria in Excelsis_ and the _Te Deum Laudamus_, are still sung in our churches. Organs did not come into use until the seventh century, and then only in the West, but church bells, summoning the worshiper to divine service, early became attached to Christian edifices.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RELIGIOUS MUSIC From a window of the cathedral of Bourges, a city in central France. Shows a pipe organ and chimes.]

SUNDAY

The Christians from the start appear to have observed "the first day of the week" [7] in memory of Christ's resurrection. They attended public worship on the Lord's Day, but otherwise did not rigidly abstain from worldly business and amus.e.m.e.nts. The Jewish element in some churches, and especially in the East, was strong enough to secure an additional observance of Sat.u.r.day as a weekly festival. Sat.u.r.day long continued to be marked by religious a.s.semblies and feasting, though not by any compulsory cessation of the ordinary occupations. During the fourth century Sunday, as the Lord's Day was now generally called, came more and more to be kept as a day of obligatory rest. Constantine's Sunday law [8] formed the first of a long series of imperial edicts imposing the observance of that day as a legal duty. In this manner Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, was dedicated wholly to the exercises of religion.

FESTIVALS

The great yearly festivals of the Church gradually took shape during the early Christian centuries. The most important anniversary to be observed was Easter, in memory of the resurrection of Christ. A period of fasting (Lent), which finally lasted forty days, preceded the festival.

Whitsunday, or Pentecost, was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter.

[9] Two other festivals of later adoption were Christmas, the celebration of which was finally a.s.signed to the 25th of December, [10] and Epiphany (January 6), commemorating the baptism of Christ. In course of time many other feasts and fasts, together with numerous saints' days, were added to the calendar of the "Christian Year."

121. EASTERN CHRISTIANITY

EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST

By the time of Constantine, Christianity had spread widely throughout the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Asia Minor was then largely Christian.

Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and Greece were all ecclesiastical provinces with their own metropolitans. Many Christians were found in Syria and Egypt. Churches also existed in Mesopotamia and Arabia, and even beyond the boundaries of the empire in Armenia and Persia. Between the time of Constantine and that of Justinian, Christianity continued to expand in the East, until the gospel had been carried to such distant regions as Abyssinia and India.

UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Most of the Christian communities in the Orient owed allegiance to the patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The Roman emperor, however, was the supreme religious authority in the East.

He felt it as much his duty to maintain the doctrines and organization of Christianity as to preserve the imperial dominions against foreign foes.

Since he presided over the Church, there could be no real independence for its officers. Bishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs were in every respect subordinate to his will. This union of Church and State formed one of the most characteristic features of Christianity in the East.

THEOLOGICAL DISPUTES; HERESIES

Eastern Christians, far more than those in the West, devoted themselves to theological speculations. Constantinople and the great h.e.l.lenistic cities of Antioch and Alexandria contained many learned scholars who had prolonged and heated arguments over subtle questions of belief. After the Arian controversy had been settled in the fourth century, other disputes concerning the true nature of Christ broke out. These gave rise to many heresies.

NESTORIANISM

The heresy known as Nestorianism, from Nestorius, a patriarch of Constantinople, spread widely in the East. Nestorian missionaries even penetrated to India, China, and Mongolia. The churches which they established were numerous and influential during the Middle Ages, but since then most of them have been destroyed by the Mohammedans. Members of this sect are still to be found, however, in eastern lands. [11]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT Evidence of Nestorian missions in China is afforded by the famous monument at Chang-an, province of Shensi. The stone, which was set up in 781 A.D., commemorates by an inscription in Chinese characters and the figure of a cross the introduction of Christianity into northwestern China. A replica of the Nestorian monument was taken to the United States in 1908 A.D. and was deposited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.]

ORTHODOXY

After the formation of the Nestorian and other heretical sects, the orthodox faith was preserved in the East only by the Greeks of Asia Minor and Europe. The Greek Church, which calls itself the "Holy Orthodox Church," for a time remained in unity with the Roman Church in the West.

The final separation of these two churches occurred in the eleventh century. [12]

122. WESTERN CHRISTIANITY: RISE OF THE PAPACY

THE PAPACY