V.
If they deny that their prophets have taken gifts, let them confess thus much, that if they be convicted of having taken them, they are not prophets; and we will adduce ten thousand proofs that they have. It is proper, too, that all the fruits of a prophet should be examined. Tell me: does a prophet dye his hair? Does a prophet use stibium on his eyes? Is a prophet fond of dress? Does a prophet play at gaming-tables and dice? Does a prophet lend money on interest? [3810] Let them confess whether these things are allowable or not. For my part, I will prove that these practices have occurred among them.
------------------------
[3796] Routh, Rel. Sac., vol. i. pp. 465-485.
[3797] Westcott, Canon, p. 433.
[3798] In Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., v. 18.
[3799] axiopiston.
[3800] katechein.
[3801] sunagonizesthai tois tes kainophonias logois.
[3802] Or, "whom many of them (the Montanists--reading auton for auto, worship."
[3803] opisthodomos, a chamber at the back of the temple of Minerva, in which public money was kept.
[3804] Matt. x. 9.
[3805] Matt. xii. 33.
[3806] parabates, here meaning an apostate.
[3807] This is explained by Rufinus to mean: "When certain brethren who had influence with the judge interceded for him, he pretended that he was suffering for the name of Christ, and by this means he was released."
[3808] paroikia.
[3809] upostasin, from uphistemi, probably in the sense of substituting one thing for another.
[3810] tablais kai kubois.
Pantænus, [3811] the Alexandrian Philosopher.
[a.d. 182-192-212.] The world owes more to Pantænus than to all the other Stoics put together. His mind discovered that true philosophy is found, not in the Porch, but in Nazareth, in Gethsemane, in Gabbatha, in Golgotha; and he set himself to make it known to the world. We are already acquainted with the great master of Clement, [3812] "the Sicilian bee," that forsook the flowers of Enna, to enrich Alexandria with what is "sweeter than honey and the honey-comb;" and we remember that he became a zealous missionary to the Oriental Ethiopia, and found there the traces of St. Matthias' labours, and those also of St. Bartholomew. From this mission he seems to have returned about a.d. 192. Possibly he was master of the Alexandrian school before he went to India, and came back to his chair when that mission was finished. There he sat till about a.d. 212, and under him this Christian academy became famous. It had existed as a catechetical school from the Apostles' time, according to St. Jerome. I have elsewhere noted some reasons for supposing that its founder may have been Apollos. [3813] All the learning of Christendom may be traced to this source; and blessed be the name of one of whom all we know is ennobling to the Church, and whose unselfish career was a track of light "shining more and more unto the perfect day."
I. [3814]
"In the sun hath He set His tent." [3815] Some affirm that the reference is to the Lord's body, which He Himself places in the sun; [3816] Hermogenes, for instance. As to His body, some say it is His tent, others the Church of the faithful. But our Pantænus said: "The language employed by prophecy is for the most part indefinite, the present tense being used for the future, and again the present for the past."
II. [3817]
This mode of speaking Saint Dionysius the Areopagite declares to be used in Scripture to denote predeterminations and expressions of the divine will. [3818] In like manner also the followers of Pantænus, [3819] who became the preceptor of the great Clement the Stromatist, affirm that they are commonly used in Scripture for expressions of the divine will. Accordingly, when asked by some who prided themselves on the outside learning, [3820] in what way the Christians supposed God to become acquainted with the universe, [3821] their own opinion being that He obtains His knowledge of it in different ways,--of things falling within the province of the understanding by means of the understanding, and of those within the region of the senses by means of the senses,--they replied: "Neither does He gain acquaintance with sensible things by the senses, nor with things within the sphere of the understanding by the understanding: for it is not possible that He who is above all existing things should apprehend them by means of existing things. We assert, on the contrary, that He is acquainted with existing things as the products of His own volition." [3822] They added, by way of showing the reasonableness of their view: "If He has made all things by an act of His will (and no argument will be adduced to gainsay this), and if it is ever a matter of piety and rectitude to say that God is acquainted with His own will, and if He has voluntarily made every several thing that has come into existence, then surely God must be acquainted with all existing things as the products of His own will, seeing that it was in the exercise of that will that He made them."
------------------------
[3811] Vol. ii. p. 342; Westcott, Canon, pp. 90, 381; Routh, R. S., vol. i. pp. 375-379.
[3812] Vol. ii. pp. 165, etc., and p. 301, note 9; also p. 342, Elucid. II., this series.
[3813] Vol. vi. p. 236. St. Luke, in the company of Apollos, may have met a catechumen of his in that "excellent Theophilus" of his writings (St. Luke i. 4, Greek), whose history shows that catechetical teaching was already part of the Christian system.
[3814] In Extracts from the Prophets, written probably by Theodotus, and collected by Clement of Alexandria or some other writer.
[3815] Ps. xix. 4.
[3816] Phasi to soma tou Kuriou en to helio auton apotithesthai.
[3817] In the Scholia of Maximus on St. Gregory the Divine.
[3818] Thelemata.
[3819] Hoi peri Pantainon. [Vol. ii. pp. 165-167, this series.]
[3820] Ten exo paideusin.
[3821] Ta onta.
[3822] Os idia thelemata.
Pseud-Irenæus.
[a.d. 177.] This letter should have been made a preface to the works of Irenæus, or at least an appendix. It is worthy of his great name; "the finest thing of the kind in all antiquity," says Lardner. Critics of no mean name have credited it to Irenæus; but, as this cannot be proved, I have accordingly marked it as a pseudonym. The same writer condenses the arguments of others, on which he decides to adhere to the later chronology of Eusebius, assigning its date to the seventeenth year of Marcus Aurelius. [3823] Naturally humane and comparatively gentle in other respects he was; but Stoicism, as well as heathenism, showed what it could exact of such a character in maintenance of the popular and imperial superstitions. Terrible is the summary of Lightfoot concerning the barbarities of this darling of the "philosophers:" "It is a plain fact, that Christian blood flowed more freely under M. Aurelius than at any time previously during the half century since the Bithynian martyrdoms under Trajan, or was yet to flow at any time during the decades which would elapse before the Severian persecution. These persecutions extend throughout his reign: they were fierce and deliberate; aggravated, at least in some cases, by cruel tortures. They had the emperor's direct personal sanction. They break out in all parts of the empire,--in Rome, in Asia Minor, in Gaul, in Africa, possibly also in Byzantium."
Bishop Lightfoot accounts for the fact, that, in spite of this sanguinary character of the period, little complaint is heard from the suffering Church, by a simple statement which is honourable to Aurelius as a Roman and an emperor. He was such a contrast to the Neros and Caligulas, that the wretched Romans loved him as a father; to reproach him was, therefore, poor policy for Christians. They would have been answered, practically: "If so good a sovereign finds it necessary to punish you, the fault is your own; you have only to be as we are, and he will treat you as well as he does us."
Of this awful outbreak in Lyons and Vienne, says Lightfoot: [3824] "The persecution was wholesale, so that it was not safe for any Christian to appear out of doors. No difference of age or sex was made. The prisoners were put to the most cruel tortures. All the elements of power combined to crush the brethren."
To forbear threatenings, to revile not again, to conquer through patient suffering, to persevere, "looking unto Jesus," and to be silent, like Him, before their murderers, was therefore the world-wide conduct of the saints. This golden letter shows what they were called to endure, and how they glorified Christ by their deaths, from the utmost Orient to the extreme limits of the West.
The Letter of the Churches of Vienna and Lugdunum to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia. [3825]
It began thus:--"The servants of Christ who sojourn in Vienna and Lugdunum of Gaul to the brethren throughout Asia and Phrygia, who have the same faith and hope of redemption as ourselves, peace, grace, and glory from God the Father, and from Christ Jesus our Lord."
After some further preliminary remarks the letter proceeds:--"The greatness of the tribulation in this region, and the exceeding anger of the heathen nations against the saints, and the sufferings which the blessed Witnesses [3826] endured, neither are we competent to describe accurately, nor indeed is it possible to detail them in writing. For with all his strength did the adversary assail us, even then giving a foretaste of his activity among us which is to be without restraint; and he had recourse to every means, accustoming his own subjects and exercising them beforehand against the servants of God, so that not only were we excluded from houses, [3827] baths, and the forum, but a universal prohibition was laid against any one of us appearing in any place whatsoever. But the grace of God acted as our general against him. It rescued the weak; it arrayed against him men like firm pillars, who could through patience bear up against the whole force of the assaults of the wicked one. These came to close quarters with him, enduring every form of reproach and torture; and, making light of grievous trials, they hastened on to Christ, showing in reality that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.' [3828] And first they nobly endured the evils which were heaped on them by the populace,--namely, hootings and blows, draggings, plunderings, stonings, and confinements, [3829] and everything that an infuriated mob is wont to perpetrate against those whom they deem bitter enemies. And at length, being brought to the forum by the tribune of the soldiers, and the magistrates that had charge of the city, they were examined in presence of the whole multitude; and having confessed, they were shut up in prison until the arrival of the governor.
"After this, when they were brought before the governor, and when he displayed a spirit of savage hostility to us, Vettius Epagathus, one of the brethren, interposed. For he was a man who had contained the full measure of love towards God and his neighbours. His mode of life had been so strict, that though he was a young man, he deserved to be described in the words used in regard to the elderly Zacharias: He had walked therefore in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.' [3830] He was also eager to serve his neighbour in any way, he was very zealous for God, and he was fervent in spirit. Such being the character of the man, he could not bear that judgment should be thus unreasonably passed against us, but was moved with indignation, and requested that he himself should be heard in defence of his brethren, undertaking to prove that there is nothing ungodly or impious amongst us. On this, those who were round the judgment-seat cried out against him, for he was a man of distinction; and the governor, not for a moment listening to the just request thus made to him, merely asked him if he himself were a Christian. And on his confessing in the clearest voice that he was, he also was taken up into the number of the Witnesses, receiving the appellation of the Advocate of the Christians, [3831] and having himself the Advocate, the Spirit, [3832] more abundantly than Zacharias; which he showed in the fulness [3833] of his love, in that he had of his own good-will offered to lay down his own life in defence of the brethren. For he was and is a genuine disciple of Christ, following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.' [3834]
"After this the rest began to be distinguished, [3835] for the proto-martyrs were decided and ready, and accomplished the confession of their testimony with all alacrity. But there appeared also those who were unprepared and unpractised, and who were still feeble, and unable to bear the tension of a great contest. Of these about ten in number proved abortions; causing great grief and immeasurable sorrow amongst us, and damping the ardour of the rest who had not yet been apprehended. For these, although they suffered every kind of cruelty, remained nevertheless in the company of the Witnesses, and did not forsake them. But then the whole of us were greatly alarmed on account of our uncertainty as to confession, not because we feared the tortures inflicted, but because we looked to the end, and dreaded lest any one should fall away. Those who were worthy, however, were daily apprehended, filling up the number of the others: so that out of the two churches all the excellent, and those to whom the churches owed most of all their establishment and prosperity, were collected together in prison. Some heathen household slaves belonging to our people were also apprehended, since the governor had given orders publicly that all of us should be sought out. These, through the instigation of Satan, and through fear of the tortures which they saw the saints enduring, urged on also by the soldiers, falsely accused us of Thyestean banquets and OEdipodean connections, and other crimes which it is lawful for us neither to mention nor think of; and, indeed, we shrink from believing that any such crimes have ever taken place among men. When the rumour of these accusations was spread abroad, all raged against us like wild beasts; so that if any formerly were temperate in their conduct to us on account of relationship, they then became exceedingly indignant and exasperated against us. And thus was fulfilled that which was spoken by our Lord: The time shall come when every one who slayeth you shall think that he offereth service to God.' [3836]