Session 5: Ministry and Expansion of the Early Church
Session 5 Ministry and Expansion of the Early Church
INTRODUCTION
This lesson reviews the development of church offices, and
the roles of pastors and priests in the first centuries of the church. We will
also see how monasticism began, reasons for it, and its early development. The
church expanded in Western Europe prior to A.D.600 through such people as
Martin of Tours and Patrick of Ireland.
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, participants should
• understand the opinions and
insights of key early theologians regarding the ministry
• compare and contrast the
ministry in their own places and time to those of
the
Early Church
• show the numerous factors that
led to the formation of the monastic way of
life
• understand and appreciate
monasticism as a search for the holy life
• identify the types of
monasticism in this time period and know the
advantages
and disadvantages of each
• give an overview of
monasticism from Anthony to Benedict
• understand monasticism as a
response to culture and social pressures
• understand some of the methods
and strategies, as well as some of the key
figures,
used to expand the church in Western Europe
Prepare Before Class
A. Read: Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, chapters
12 and 16
Write a Big
Idea paragraph from your reading.
B. Read the following articles and give a one paragraph
answer to the question asked.
1 Ministry
in the Early Church
How
does ministry today compare with ministry in the Early Church?
2.Monasticism
in the Early Church
What is the ideal of holiness expressed through monasticism?
3.
The Expansion of the Church in Western Europe
What
methods or strategies were used to expand the Church is Western Europe?
C. Write in your journal. Reflect on and respond to the
following:
AUGUSTINE’S
CONFESSIONS, READING 5
Ministry in the Early Church
The Ministry in the Ante-Nicene Church (to 315)
Refer to Resource 5-1 in the Student Guide.
The apostles themselves were the first leaders of the primitive
church. They had been called to their work by Christ Jesus himself. The term
meant “ones sent out” as authorized messengers. If they were like Paul, who recognized
himself as one of the apostles, having the highest authority and responsibility
for a certain segment of the church (Gal 1—2), they too were itinerant
evangelists. As an apostle, Paul preached the gospel; established, visited, and
supervised churches; and exhorted believers. He carried the burden for the work.
He sent others, such as Timothy and Titus, as his emissaries, and appointed
them as pastors. He wrote letters that gave his opinions about moral questions.
He warded off schisms, corrected disorder sin worship, clarified Christian
teachings and doctrines, and smoothed relationships. He raised money for others
and supported himself by his own work. Apparently, Paul had no wife. At the
same time, he recognized that the church was greater than himself. It is
apparent that others in the primitive church were acting similarly to Paul, if
in lesser spheres of influence.
Paul himself listed various types of offices in the church:
apostles, prophets, those who served others, teachers, those who encouraged
others, those who contributed to the needs of others, those who gave generously,
those who worked miracles, those with gifts of healing, those able to help
others, those gifted in leadership and administration, those able to show mercy,
and those able to speak in different languages (1 Cor 12:28 and Rom 12:6-8).
These offices were related to the various spiritual gifts of individuals. The church
had to assume full responsibility for new converts, many of whom were cut off
from their family and community, and to provide for their needs.
From other sources we know that articular leaders became responsible for
various duties. Some ordered the services, some entertained visitors, some
settled disputes between members, some visited the sick, and others attended to
the needs of the poor, orphaned, or widowed. It was clear that none had all of
these roles in the church.
There was no distinction in the Early Church between
“charismatic” and “institutional” ministries. Women shared in the work. In
Ignatius’s time, in the early second century, the ministry roles of the deacon,
presbyter, and bishop—along with the elder, apostle, prophet, and priest—were
often fluid and sometimes interchangeable. All ministers were both recipients
of and agents of the same Spirit. All were to be doulos, slaves or
servants of Christ.
Refer to Resource 5-2 in the Student Guide.
Though there were no superior or inferior functions in the
church, of primary rank were prophets and teachers (1 Cor 14:1 and Acts 13:
1-3). • Prophets proclaimed the good news of God’s redemption through Christ.
To believers, they communicated the meaning of new life in Christ. • Teachers
instructed others, setting forth the gospel in systematic form. They
transmitted the tradition or teaching (didache) of the apostles. In the
early second century writers such as Justin Martyr considered there to be a
succession of faith passed on from one generation of teachers to the next. Both
prophets and teachers centered their work in the cities and worked by extension
from there.
The word for ministry, diakonia, meant, in common usage,
“waiter.” Deacons, who included women, were the church’s primary helpers. The
church instituted the position of deacon when it appointed and ordained, by
praying and the laying on of hands, Stephen and six others to serve the
neglected Greek widows (Acts 6:1- 6). They were ministers who served under
bishops and presbyters (Phil 1:1 and 1 Tim 3:8).
As the church developed, the tasks of deacons varied from
place to place, and included reading the Scripture at the Lord’s Supper,
receiving the offerings, directing the prayers of the people, and collecting
and distributing charitable gifts. In large cities, an “archdeacon” became the
bishops’ principal administrative officer.
Presbyters made up the council of elders, governing local
congregations and serving as “shepherds” to the people (Acts 11:30 and 15:22,
and 1 Pet 5:1-3). The church borrowed this practice from the Jewish synagogues,
which were governed by sanhedrins, or councils of elders. Originally, the
presbyter was synonymous with the overseer or episcopos (Acts 20: 17,
Phil 1:1, Titus 1:5-7).
Clement of Rome drew the analogy between the Old Testament
priesthood and the ministry of the leaders of churches. As the church grew, and
bishops served as administrators over several local churches, presbyters
pastored local congregations and had the privilege of serving the Lord’s
Supper. As this became a central part of Christian worship, the presbyters were
looked upon as representatives of the new priesthood of Christ. The presbyters
became “priests.” Along with this analogy to Old Testament rites, by A.D. 190
the communion table was being called an “altar.”
There were a variety of ministries but a need also for
leaders. Very early in the church’s history James had functioned as the leader
of the church in Jerusalem. The office of the bishop emerged in the second
century as the president or presider over the church’s council of elders or
presbyters. At Rome, in A.D. 150, the leader of the church was called the
“president”—the one who presides over the church and the Lord’s Supper.
Gradually, as the number of churches grew in a locality, the
bishops had more of a supervisory role over several local churches. Ignatius,
for instance, was an early bishop of Antioch, Onesimus of Ephesus, and Polycarp
of Smyrna. Having one bishop presiding over a geographical area was widespread
by A.D. 200. Their geographical area of responsibility or diocese usually
encompassed a city.
Although the presbyters administered the Lord’s Supper,
bishops baptized all persons in their diocese. They performed a necessary
leadership role for the unity and efficiency of the church, guarded the
traditions, and spoke for the apostles. It became crucial, as the church faced
heresies and schisms, that these bishops could trace their authority to the
apostles themselves in an historical succession. By 200, the ordination of both
bishops and priests was done by bishops laying hands on the ones being ordained.
This act symbolized the succession of spiritual authority being passed on from
the apostles in the church.
Refer to Resource 5-3 in the Student Guide.
Justin Martyr provided a glimpse of worship in Rome in the
second century:
The
memoirs of the apostles or the writing of the prophets are read as long as time
permits. When the lector has finished, the president in a discourse invites us
to the imitation of these noble things. Then we all stand up together and offer
prayers. And bread is brought, and wine and water, and the president similarly
sends up prayers and thanksgiving and the congregation assents, saying the
Amen; the distribution and reception of the consecrated elements by each one
takes place and they are sent to the absent by the deacons. This food we call
Eucharist, for we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink,
but as flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus. Those who prosper, and who so
wish, contribute, each one as much as he chooses to. What is collected is deposited
with the president, and he takes care of orphans and widows, and those who are
in bonds, and the strangers who are sojourners among us.
The Early Church had high expectations for holy living among
its members. Baptism was supposed to signal the end of sinning. For this
reason, many postponed baptism until shortly before death. But as the church
increasingly practiced the baptism of the children of Christians, the
expectation for sinlessness following baptism was not met.
The church established certain procedures to deal with those
who sinned. Repentance demanded restitution. Some areas of the church were more
rigorous than others in the requirements for restitution. Penitential
discipline, as it developed, made provision for the restoration of those who
had sinned.
Two concepts guiding discipline were metanoia, or
repentance, and exomologesis, confession. Sometimes repentance became
indistinguishable from “fruits meet for repentance.” By 150 confession had
become a common part of the Sunday services. Confession was done publicly, and
was intentionally aimed to bring public humiliation upon the sinner.
Tertullian stressed that a Christian was given only one
repentance, no more. This was the only way, he thought, to keep the church away
from a too-easy disregard for the moral law. For Tertullian, confession was a
discipline of “prostration and humiliation.” The penitent one wore sackcloth
and ashes, wept, moaned, and kneeled at the presbyter’s feet to show his or her
deep contrition.
Tertullian wrote:
Repentance
is a discipline which leads a man to prostrate and humble himself. It
prescribes a way of life that, even in the matter of food and clothing, appeals
to pity. It bids him to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to cover his body with
filthy rags, to plunge his soul into sorrow, to exchange sin for suffering. Moreover,
it demands that you know only such food and drink as is plain; this means it is
taken for the sake of your soul, not your belly. It requires that you
habitually nourish prayer by fasting, that you sigh and weep and groan day and
night to the Lord your God, that you prostrate yourself at the feet of the
priests and kneel before the beloved of God, making all the brethren
commissioned ambassadors of your prayer for pardon.
Tertullian would not accept repentance from anyone for the
capital sins of fornication, apostasy, or homicide. But others, including the
bishop of Rome, Callistus, allowed repentance even for capital offenses.
Tertullian criticized Callistus for his seeming laxity on sexual offenses.
Nonetheless, as late as the 500s the general rule was “one baptism, one
penance” over major issues.
Refer to Resource 5-4 in the Student Guide.
The third-century church developed a plan of advancement for
the penitent through stages. They began as weepers and advanced to kneelers,
standers—without taking communion, to “saints” allowed full participation in
the Lord’s Supper. These procedures were given sanction at the Nicean Council
in 325. Some churches used “discipliners,” special presbyters, to guide the
penitent through these stages.
At the same time, priests and deacons consoled those going
through persecution and calamity. Sometimes utilizing Stoic ideas about
accepting fate, pastors gave comfort to those who faced death and promised
reunion with family members in heaven.
By the early third century in Rome, the role of the bishop
was to baptize, to administer the Lord’s Supper, to preside over love feasts,
and to ordain presbyters by the laying on of hands. By 250 the bishop was
becoming a “majestic figure” claiming authority to “bind and loose on earth
with heavenly power.” He was thought to be a judge, an interpreter of the Law,
and the “vice regent” of God.
The presbyters headed local assemblies, administered the
Lord’s Supper, and served as confessors. “Presbyters prior” served larger
congregations. Still, bishops rather than presbyters baptized. Deacons received
ordination from bishops only but were not considered an order of clergy.
“Widows” had no liturgical duties but were set apart for prayers and ministry
to women. “Teachers” could be clergy or
laypersons. In addition, the Roman church employed lectors and acolytes
(altar attendants), and exorcists— charged with caring for the mentally ill.
Practices varied outside of Rome. In North Africa presbyters
were bowed to at a rite of repentance. Some gifted women regularly prophesied.
In Alexandria, in the third century, “bishop” and “presbyter” were still used
interchangeably. Teachers in Alexandria were called “doctor ecclesiae” and were
autonomous. Origen, for instance, was encouraged “by God’s grace to bring forth
new truth.”
In rural areas, the church was less structured. Rural
bishops, called chorepiskopoi, in comparison to city bishops, possessed
limited powers. They could ordain presbyters only for their own dioceses. The
deacons, meanwhile, often went unsupervised to rural areas.
Cyprian, who was bishop of Carthage from 249 to 253, found
it necessary to call upon apostolic succession to assert his authority. Yet,
Cyprian affirmed, each bishop was supreme in his own diocese.
Cyprian was faced with the problem of the restoration of the
lapsed after the persecution of Decius after A.D. 250. The lapsed could be
redeemed and taken back into the church, which was, after all, he said, the
only “ark of salvation.” There was no salvation outside of the church. The
restoration of the lapsed who were genuinely troubled in conscience over their
actions should be done, Cyprian believed, with discipline and order, under a
bishop’s guidance.
Cyprian devised works of penance the lapsed might do—some
for the rest of their lives. In no case would a lapsed priest or bishop be
readmitted to the clergy. However, those who had remained true during the
persecution opposed these attempts of Cyprian to bring the lapsed back into
communion with the church. Cyprian called these opponents schismatics and
ordered their excommunication. For centuries thereafter two churches existed in
North Africa: one that opposed reacceptance of the lapsed and one that found
ways to welcome them back.
A subsequent question arose. Should a person’s baptism in a
schismatic church be considered a real baptism? Cyprian favored rebaptizing
those baptized at the hands of schismatics. A Council of Carthage affirmed this
decision. Rome, on the other hand, facing a similar situation, decided
otherwise—to accept the baptism of those baptized in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
Cyprian’s certainty about his position on rebaptism led him
to oppose the bishop of Rome and to revise his thinking on the sovereignty of
Rome over all churches. Cyprian believed differing customs should be tolerated
in difference dioceses, and that all churches need not follow the practices of
Rome. Cyprian himself underwent imprisonment and execution under the emperor in
258.
Various types of preaching could be found in the church
during this period. Prophets undertook “revelatory” preaching, evangelists
“missionary” preaching. “Testamentary” preaching echoed of the farewell
discourses of the martyrs, or Christ himself. “Cultic” preaching was directed
to those entering the church or to new believers or to the faithful. It
included eulogies about Christ and His passion, or the martyrs, homilies, or
expository discourses, and talks on a variety of themes.
By the time of official toleration under Constantine, it may
be concluded, the bishops and the presbyters—or priests—constituted the
hierarchy of the church. There was already a movement toward the collective
authority of bishops, and emphasis upon the strategic role of the bishops who
presided over capital cities in the empire.
The Ministry in the Later Patristic Period, 314-451
Refer to Resource 5-5 in the Student Guide.
The role of the clergy changed with Constantine’s Edict of
Toleration. With their new duties and obligations came new temptations. The job
functions of the ministers became more distinct. By this time the presbyters,
who had become “priests,” and the bishops together formed the sacerdotium or
priesthood. With the deacons, who also were ordained, these three orders—and
lesser orders sometimes—formed the “clergy.”
Ordination itself now implied a blotting out of all carnal
sin, making the clergy a higher state of Christian life. As such, celibacy was
more and more a way of life for clergy, though it was imposed more strictly in
certain geographic regions than in others during this time. Celibacy was
endorsed at the Synod of Elvira (305) and at the Council of Carthage (390).
The bishops were the chief judges of the church. As an
office, the “episcopacy,” composed of the bishops, was officially established
at the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon. After this, bishops were chosen by a
synod of bishops, not by the people. There was a widening gulf between the
bishops and the people, and even between the bishops and the presbyters.
After 343 the rural office of chorepiskopoi ended.
Church laws were increasingly codified, and the bishops served as the
authoritative interpreters of law as well as dogma. Since the bishops were
given civil judicial duties, the emperor became involved in their appointment.
The symbols of the position of bishop became analogous to secular positions.
The bishops began wearing distinctive insignia and rings, and sat on thrones
imitative of the emperor’s. In the West, especially, this model of ministry was
patterned after the Papacy itself.
The deacons were assistants to the priests and were the
clergy most in close contact with the people and new converts. Deaconesses, who
were ordained by bishops after reaching the age of 40, were commonly from the
higher classes. Sometimes they presided over the mass.
Lesser orders of ministry included the subdeacons, lectors,
doorkeepers, gravediggers, exorcists, altar attendants, singers, interpreters,
visitors of the sick, and servants of the parish house. Indeed the households
of bishops grew into sorts of cathedral monasteries.
Refer to Resource 5-6 in the Student Guide.
By the fourth century there were various conceptions of the
pastoral office. Ambrose (339-397), bishop of Milan from 374, taught that
ministers should be the most exemplary embodiment of Christian ethics. The
bishop was to be both a priest and a prophet in the Old Testament sense,
healing and rebuking. Ambrose believed the bishop’s authority rested on the
apostles, and ultimately on Christ.
Yet Ambrose did not think of Peter as the chief apostle, but
only as the representative one. Ambrose spoke of the priest at the altar during
the Lord’s Supper calling down the Holy Spirit from heaven. Ambrose also argued
for the independence of the church from civil control. Ambrose was known as an
able preacher and theologian. He encouraged monasticism in northern Italy. As a
pastor, Ambrose extolled the Latin virtues of wisdom, justice, fortitude, and
temperance.
Another particularly influential voice on the ministry was
that of Chrysostom (345-407). He was educated in the law at Antioch, then he
shifted to theology and felt called to monastic life. He became a hermit for
eight years, 373-381. He became a deacon in 381 and a priest in Antioch in 386.
He became known for his preaching, which was directed to the people of what was
now only a nominally Christian city.
To them, Chrysostom stressed that “grace does not come to us
randomly. It comes only to those who want it and struggle for it. In fact, it
is precisely within the power of those who want it and struggle for it to
become children. Unless they first yearn for it, the gift does not come, nor
does it do anything in them.” He further warned: “Beloved, let us not then
think that faith suffices for our salvation if we do not give evidence of
purity of life.” In 387, when the populace in Antioch rioted against the emperor’s
taxes, Chrysostom both scolded them and calmed them with his oratory.
Chrysostom opposed the allegorical exegesis then popular
among those influenced by Alexandria. Chrysostom, and those from Antioch in
general, preferred literal interpretations of Scripture
Chrysostom became bishop or patriarch of Constantinople in
398. Preferring the contemplative life of a monk, he believed a bishop should
be willing to perish for his “sheep” and sensed the awesome power of a bishop
to loose and to unloose people from their sins. Seeing himself as a prophet,
something like John the Baptist, he attempted to reform the imperial city,
beginning with the rulers themselves.
Chrysostom’s perceived “tactlessness” angered the Empress
Eudoxia. In the meantime, Chrysostom also had won the ire of Theophilus, the
patriarch of Alexandria, who charged Chrysostom with heresy and secured his
condemnation at a synod in 403. Chrysostom was briefly restored to the
patriarchy, only to continue his controversy with the empress. In spite of
support from Pope Innocent I, Chrysostom was deposed in 404 and exiled to
Antioch.
One of Chrysostom’s most significant writings was On the
Priesthood, written in 386, when he was just beginning his own ministry as
a priest. It described the responsibilities of the pastor. Chrysostom believed
penance should suit the person and the person’s offense. The priest, as a
“curer of souls,” dispenses spiritual medicine. The priest has the power to
regenerate souls through baptism, which enables persons to escape from
damnation.
Like Ambrose, Chyrsostom spoke of the priestly act at the
Lord’s Supper as one comparable to Elijah at Mount Carmel. The priest brings
down not fire but the Holy Spirit from heaven. This should fill the priest with
“awesome dread,” to the extent that the priest must be pure—as if he were
standing in heaven itself. The priest, Chyrsostom wrote, ministers salvation
and has the power to loose from sin or, by means of penance, to bind.
“For if no one can enter into the kingdom of Heaven except
he be regenerate through water and the Spirit,” wrote Chrysostom, “and he who
does not eat the flesh of the Lord and drink his blood is excluded from eternal
life, and if all these things are accomplished only by means of those holy
hands, I mean the hands of the priest, how will any one, without these, be able
to escape the fire of hell, or to win those crowns which are reserved for the
victorious?”
By the fifth century private confession had replaced public
confession in most areas of the church. This was made explicit by Pope Leo the
Great (440-461), who condemned the practice of compelling the penitents to read
detailed confessions publicly. The priest, hearing private confessions,
developed skills as a spiritual counselor or “physician” of the soul. Pastors
used various types of discipline, admonition, and consolation, and “tended,”
writes John McNeill, “to rely rather upon the enlistment of the human will than
upon the life-giving experience of which the early Christians were aware.”
Holiness became an ascetic discipline, viewed as constant combat with besetting
sins. The authority of the pastor was enhanced in the process, but the
liberating power of the gospel was lessened.
Monasticism in the Early Church
Beginnings of Monasticism
Refer to Resource 5-8 in the Student Guide.
The early Christian example of persecution set an example
for holiness. Just as Christianity was gaining toleration, it was losing, in
some people’s minds, its call to sacrifice and piety. Monasticism was an
attempt to find the Spirit by escaping from the world, especially from the
city.
One approach to spiritual formation is anchorite
monasticism. Here the image is of the hermit or desert monk. John the Baptist
was the prototype. Christ is perceived as in radical contrast to culture. It
meant escape and withdrawal, a lonely flight from the world. Yet it was
self-exalting for its time in the sense of being marked by a strong
individualism.
Anthony (250-356) was the most famous hermit monk. He had
been born rich and had distributed his possessions to the poor. At age 35
Anthony moved to a desert across the Nile, going back occasionally to assist
others in their monastic callings. In the desert Anthony battled and overcame
demons, and performed miracles in the name of Christ, until his death past 100
years of age.
Anthony represented a movement of protest against the
accommodation of the church to the world. In a sense he fled from the church as
much as from the world. The world and all it contained seemed under the power
of the Evil One. Anthony saw the utter fallenness of God’s creation—humanity.
Human beings possessed only the ability to descend. If “man” alone was immoral,
“men” in community compounded the evil. So it was better to stand alone.
Sincere Christians wanted solitude their increasingly urban life could not
provide, and heard the call: “Come ye apart,” and “Therefore come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you”
(2 Cor 6:17).
Athanasius’s Life of Anthony, written about 357, publicized
this type of monasticism. The book became prominent partly because of
Athanasius’s standing in the church. Athanasius himself withdrew to the desert
(356-362) in order to escape arrest at the hands of the emperor over a
theological controversy. In the book, Athanasius admonished persons to love and
trust the Lord, avoid bad habits and fleshly pleasures, disdain a full stomach,
be humble, pray continually, sing psalms, memorize the commands of Scripture,
remember the saints, avoid anger, and undergo frequent self-examination.
The anchoritic is a “true solitary” who withdraws from the
world and lives in great simplicity in order to banish anything that might
prevent union with God. The anchoritic renounces all, does penance for sin, and
strictly disciplines the body. The anchoritic is the rugged individual, living
either physically apart or emotionally and spiritually apart from the rest of
humanity. He or she stands apart, thinks apart, prays apart, exists apart.
In a life of seclusion individuals must take upon themselves
the heavy task of working out their own salvation by self-discipline,
self-purification, study, thought, meditation, and concentration. Anchorite
monasticism represented a kind of spiritual idea that was individualistic and
world-rejecting. As Thomas Gannon and George Traub summarize regarding
monasticism in general, anchoritism preserved two great truths: without
discipline there can be no holiness, and discipline that costs nothing that is
not renunciation in some form or other is valueless.
Soon there developed three identifiable types of
monasticism:
•
Eremetical or anchorite—like Anthony, centering on
an individual alone
• Laural, which was a small
group of monks
•
Cenobitic, which was influenced by Pachomius (290-346), an Egyptian monk who
drew
a number of disciples. They followed a communal life, and Pachomius organized a
monastery. Pachomius’s monasticism stressed fellowship, worship, and work. Few
of his monks were educated. They surrendered their wills to that of the
monastery leader.
Further Development of Monasticism
Refer to Resource 5-9 in the Student Guide.
During these centuries, the monks assumed pastoral roles
whether or not they were ordained. They had the power to forgive sins, and in
the eyes of the people, were esteemed more and more as they separated
themselves from some of the formalities of the church and spent their lives
ministering to the lowly. Likewise, they were independent of the state control
that was encroaching upon the church. They were known for their purity. They
even showed pastoral love toward schismatics and shepherdless groups. They did
many of the evangelizing and missionary tasks of the church, both in the cities
and in the countryside.
The monks represented an ideal for ministry, including
celibacy, that some priests were falling short of. As such, monasticism
represented a reform movement. Homilies springing from the monastics, like
those of Macarius the Egyptian (300-390), set high goals for Christian holiness
and spiritual purity. In the eastern wing of the church especially, the higher
clergy—such as Basil (330-379), who became bishop of Caesarea, and Chrysostom,
who became bishop of Constantinople—were recruited from among the monks.
However, as the monastic movement grew, their leaders, called abbots, began to
assume immense power.
Unlike the earlier Egyptian hermits, Basil (330-379) was
well-educated in pagan traditions in Caesarea, Constantinople, and Athens. One
of the Cappadocian Fathers, and brother of Gregory of Nyssa, Basil left the
world, so to speak, in 357 to find spiritual direction. He toured Palestine and
Egypt. He was most impressed with the Pachomian communities he encountered.
As a result, in 358, he entered monastic life. At first he
lived as a hermit; then he concluded that communal life was a better way, and
founded a community at Caesarea. This monastic community became the model for
other monasteries in the Eastern Church.
During this time Basil developed a “Rule” to organize
monastic life. His rule was written in the form of questions and answers. To
Basil, monasticism was a means of service to God and was achieved in community
under obedience. The Rule stipulated hours of liturgical prayer, manual labor,
and other work. It imposed both poverty and chastity. Monks trained children
and tested whether some might be called to monastic life. Monks cared for the
poor.
Basil believed the monks living together formed a spiritual
family, based on the social nature of human beings. Whereas the solitary life
benefited one individual, communal life reflected love and charity for others.
Solitary or eremitical monastic life offered no opportunity to reflect
Christian virtues. “If you live alone,” Basil asked, “whose feet will you
wash?” Members of a monastic community must respect its head, Basil taught.
Each monk surrendered his will and became fully obedient, just as even Christ
was obedient to the Father. Basil expected no fanatical ascetical practices,
but he stressed the virtue of work within the monastery. Monks were taught
trades, if they did not already have one, and the monastery used these skills,
whether shoemaking, weaving, or farming, for the relief of the poor. In
comparison to others, Basil’s teachings on monasticism were moderate and
rational, reflecting his broad education.
In 364, Basil was called upon by Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea
to defend orthodoxy against Arianism. Six years later Basil himself became
bishop of Caesarea, where he remained in the thick of church battles and
debates. He defended homoousiuos, tried to convince the homoiousios party
that the two were the same, stressed the unity of the Person of Christ, and
helped bring an end to the Arian controversy. As bishop he was a talented
organizer, and he carefully planned for relief efforts among the poor in
Caesarea. He encouraged monasticism, and helped to bring it under the church’s
hierarchy.
Basil’s Rules
influenced much of later monasticism, including the monasteries formed under
the inspiration of Benedict of Nursia (480-550), known as the father of Western
monasticism. Communal life was the essential way of holiness, these leaders
demonstrated, but there must be rules for life together, including obedience to
the abbot, liturgical prayers, manual labor, and quietness. The aim was
obedience to a perfect following of Christ. Private prayer, spiritual reading,
and work filled the day. The monastery becomes a home, Benedict said, the
abbot—who was elected by the monks—the father, and fellow monks brothers.
Benedict’s communalism was essentially contemplative, but, unlike purely
ascetic forms of monasticism, was called also to be apostolic. Various monastic
groups used his Rules and gradually the Benedictine Order grew out of this
movement.
The Expansion of the Church in Western Europe
Martin of Tours and the Evangelization of Gaul
in the Fourth Century
For centuries before Christianity, Gaul had its “water
sanctuaries” devoted to healing and cures. The waters or baths made a cure in a
traditional and ritual sense of the curative powers of water. To the pagans who
used them, the curative properties of water were strictly a matter of faith on
the part of the patients, physicians, and priests. Some undoubtedly were cured
at these water sanctuaries.
When they journeyed to these water sanctuaries, the sick
made carvings of the part of their body that was ailing. These carvings might
be of deformed or ulcerated hands, arms, legs, or lungs. Other seekers were
blind. Water, in pagan lore, was particularly related to sight. Some had
lesions. A few were paralyzed. These were diseases that affected the mental
state of both the patient and his or her family.
Before a journey was made to a water sanctuary, the ill
person consulted a local healer. For many other types of ailments, water
sanctuaries were not necessary. There were folk remedies made of wine or herbs.
The water sanctuary cure was something of a last resort, when the condition was
desperate, though not usually fatal. Therapy at the water sanctuary involved
both medication and prayer.
Physicians in Gaul practiced several types of cures common
at the time:
• bleeding
• purging—pharmaceutical
remedies, which wereapplied either orally or externally
• dietary
Even nervous disorders were subject to bleedings and purging
under the care of a physician. Anxiety-related illnesses were common in Gaul,
given that the people lived in constant threat that Rome would increase its
taxation upon them. A fourth-century Christian medical writer, Marcellus,
compiled a popular handbook of cures—a “pharmacopeia” of ingredients taken from
animals and plants in Gaul. He advised that cures be prescribed when the stars
were in certain alignments
This shows that physicians generally mixed popular beliefs
with cures in the administering of medicines. In Gaul, in particular, a
dominant pagan religion was Druidism, which was devoted to the veneration of
plants and trees. A physician might fashion an object or an animal to be worn
on the neck, wrist, or finger of the patient. The prayers and incantations
indicated that the people believed evil powers from outside were causing an
illness, and these powers could be made to depart through treatment, if so
allowed by divine will.
The physician asked the patients themselves to pray. The
cure was placed in their own hands, but the patient was not deemed responsible
for the illness. The patient was “a plaything of unknown powers.” Through the
mediation of a physician the patients became engaged in a divine healing of
themselves in body and soul. The waters were supernaturally purifying, the
people believed. All this was rational in the pagan world of Gaul in the fourth
century.
Refer to Resource 5-10 in the Student Guide.
Into this cultural setting stepped Martin (d. 397), who
effected many conversions through his healing powers. Son of a pagan, he served
in the Roman army as a medic and learned the medical practices of the time.
After being discharged from the army in 360 he joined the ministry of Hilary
(317-367), the bishop of Poitiers and a leading Latin theologian and defender
of orthodoxy against the Arians. Hilary believed Christian words could drive
out demons. Martin became an exorcist, working mostly among the unbaptized.
Martin helped establish a monastery in Liguge, the first one in Gaul. Martin
established another monastery in Tours, and evangelized in the vicinity.
Knowing exorcist formulas as well as medicinal cures, Martin
wielded strong charismatic powers. He used the cross as a sign to ward off
danger. He related dreams to make points against the devil or to relate some
Christian truth. His dreams equated the pantheon of gods, Jupiter, Mercury,
Venus, or Minerva, gods commonly appealed to by the local people, with the
devil. Whenever he drove out demons and asked their names, they gave their
names as “Jupiter,” or “Mercury”—one of the most prominent gods of the water
sanctuaries—or one of the other pagan gods.
In doing so, Martin put in sharp contrast the God he was
serving and the ineffective and malevolent pagan gods the people had been
serving. The implication was that these gods had been the cause of the
people’s illness. Paganism accounted for their maladies, including their
subservience to Rome, said Martin. He destroyed
sacred pagan shrines, and wherever he did so, built a Christian church or
monastery on the site.
The people successfully clamored to make Martin a bishop,
and so he became in 370. He was unlike other bishops of his time, who tended to
be better educated and attached to the nobility classes. One story is that one
day, entering a city on a winter day, a beggar stopped Martin. He had no money
to give the beggar, but he saw this man shivering, and so took off his own
shabby cloak, divided it into two and gave half to the beggar. That night,
Martin had a dream. He saw Jesus wearing a torn, shabby cloak. An angel asked
him, “Master, why are you wearing that old cloak?” Jesus answered, “My servant
Martin gave it to me.”
There were two broad classes of miracles attributed to
Martin. The first were those done on the basis of Martin’s charismatic powers.
For instance, like the prophets Elijah and Elisha, Martin, lay upon a body that
had been presumed dead for three days, and brought the person back to life.
Even animals seemed to obey him, as did the sea, hail, and fire.
The second class was those miracles done through medicine.
Martin used the skill he had learned as an army medic. Martin cured paralysis
and various eye diseases. But even here “his achievements were attributed to
the God who brought about the cure thanks to Martin’s prayers.” Martin made use
of classical cures, but in associating them with the powers of Christ over
evil, he added new definitions.
Martin used all of his powers with missionary zeal to
convert the people. His accomplishments convinced all that he was working for
God. His miracles were for those who would have tried the water sanctuaries.
Men and women appealed to Martin, as they had gone to the water sanctuaries,
when all other channels for healing had failed.
Conversions occurred mostly through the healing, rather than
through preaching. Healing converted households. Sometimes whole crowds called
upon Martin to demonstrate his power. In all cases, the people believed Martin
was a man possessed by God. They saw virtue in his power. A curing relation was
established between a people accustomed to inanimate water sanctuaries, and a
person. It almost seemed the common people had more faith in Martin than faith
in Christ or God. At least, Martin was deemed a powerful intermediary between
them and God. People dreamed of
Martin and his powers. In order for them to remain well, they needed to remain
dependent upon God.
It seemed that all that he touched possessed healing powers.
Oil that Martin had blessed was curative. The cult that developed around Martin
was an indication of ways the people were making “saints” of those associated
with miracles, and deemed holy. Even after he died, for several centuries his
tomb seemed to permeate grace, and oil placed near his tomb was thought to
possess healing powers. His tomb became in every way a substitute for the water
sanctuary
Patrick and the Evangelization of Ireland
Refer to Resource 5-11 in the Student Guide.
Patrick evangelized Ireland in the 400s (about 390- 446). By
460 Ireland was largely Christianized. Irish or “Celtic” Christianity became
known for its evangelistic monasticism.
Patrick was born in Britain, the son of a deacon. Though he
was brought up as a Christian, he had no deep piety. At the age of 16 he was
captured by Irish pirates and spent 6 years as a herder. As a slave, he not
only mastered the Irish language but turned to God. Believing it was God’s
will, he escaped to the southeast coast of Ireland and persuaded sailors to
return him to Britain. They did so, and eventually Patrick returned to his
relatives. He felt God leading him to evangelize Ireland. He felt called, as
few had before in Christian history, to be “a slave of Christ to a foreign
people.” He prepared for Christian ministry. He gained knowledge of the Latin
Bible. During this time he probably made a visit to Gaul.
He spent the rest of his life planting Christianity firmly
in Ireland—evangelizing, establishing monasteries, educating sons of
chieftains, and ordaining clergy. He prayed that God would “never allow me to
be separated from his people whom he has won in the ends of the earth.”
Patrick’s Confession canvasses his life. It is the
story of a man deeply immersed in both the Bible and the call of God to
missions. Patrick recorded that “many people through me were reborn to God, and
afterward confirmed and brought to perfection. And so then a clergy was
ordained to care for them everywhere, to care for this people freshly brought
alive in their faith. They are those whom the Lord has chosen ‘from the ends of
the earth”.’
Patrick was able to see that whereas the people of Ireland
formerly had worshiped idols and “impure things,” they were “suddenly made the
people of the Lord, so that they are now called children of God.” He continued:
“So many sons and daughters of the kings of the Irish are now proud to be
counted monks and virgins of Christ.”
By the time of his death, Ireland was largely a Christian
country. Unlike other Christian countries, however, the monastery was more
central in the life of the Irish church than the cathedral. With the exaltation
of monasticism came a deep acceptance of sacrifice and mission—set by Patrick’s
example. A poem and prayer attributed to Patrick, though perhaps written later,
has come through the history of the church:
Refer to Resource 5-12 in the Student Guide.
I
arise today in a mighty strength, calling upon the
Trinity,
believing in the Three Persons saying they
are
One, thanking my Creator.
I
arise today strengthened by Christ’s own baptism,
made
strong by his crucifixion and his burial, made
strong
by his resurrection and his ascension, made
strong
by his descent to meet me on the day of
doom.
I
arise today strengthened by cherubims’ love of
God,
by obedience of all angels, by service of
archangels,
by hope in reward of my resurrection,
by
prayers of the fathers, by predictions of
prophets,
by preachings of apostles, by the faith of
confessors,
by shyness of holy virgins, by deeds of
holy
men.
I
arise today through strength in the sky: light of
sun,
moon’s reflection, dazzle of fire, speed of
lightning,
wild wind, deep sea, firm earth, hard
rock.
I
arise today with God’s strength to pilot me; God’s
might
to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s
eye to look ahead for me, God’s ear to hear
for
me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to
defend
me, God’s way to lie before me, God’s shield
to
protect me, God’s host to safeguard me: against
devil’s
traps, against attraction of sin, against pull
of
nature, against all who wish me ill near and far,
alone
and in a crowd.
I
summon all these powers to protect me—against
every
cruel and wicked power that stands against
me,
body and soul, against false prophets’ wild
words,
against dark ways of heathen, against false
laws
of heretics, against magic and idolatry, against
spells
of smiths, witches, and wizards, against
every false lore that snares body and soul.
Christ
protect me today against poison, against
burning,
against drowning, against wounding so
that
I may come to enjoy your rich reward.
Christ
ever with me, Christ before me, Christ
behind
me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me,
Christ
above me, Christ to my right side, Christ to
my
left, Christ in his breadth, Christ in his length,
Christ
in depth, Christ in the heart of every man
who
thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man
who
speaks to me, Christ in every eye that sees
me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I
arise today in mighty strength making in my
mouth
the Trinity, believing in mind Three Persons,
confessing
in heart they are One, thanking my
Creator.
Salvation
is from the Lord. Salvation is from the
Lord.
Salvation is from Christ. May your salvation,
three Lords, be always with us.
AUGUSTINE’S CONFESSIONS, READING
5 BOOK FOUR
This is the story of his years
among the Manicheans. It includes the account of his teaching at Tagaste, his
taking a mistress, the attractions of astrology, the poignant loss of a friend
that leads to a searching analysis of grief and transience. He reports on his
first book, De pulchro et apto, and his introduction to Aristotle’s Categories
and other books of philosophy and theology, which he mastered with great
ease and little profit.
CHAPTER I
1. During this period of nine
years, from my nineteenth year to my twenty-eighth, I went astray and led
others astray. I was deceived and deceived others, in varied lustful
projects—sometimes publicly, by the teaching of what men and women style “the
liberal arts”; sometimes secretly, under the false guise of religion. In the
one, I was proud of myself; in the other, superstitious; in all, vain! In my
public life I was striving after the emptiness of popular fame, going so far as
to seek theatrical applause, entering poetic contests, striving for the straw
garlands and the vanity of theatricals and intemperate desires. In my private
life I was seeking to be purged from these corruptions of ours by carrying food
to those who were called “elect” and “holy,” which, in the laboratory of their
stomachs, they should make into angels and gods for us, and by them we might be
set free. These projects I followed out and practiced with my friends, who were
both deceived with me and by me. Let the proud laugh at me, and those who have
not yet been savingly cast down and stricken by you, O my God. Nevertheless, I
would confess to you my shame to your glory. Bear with me, I beseech you, and
give me the grace to retrace in my present memory the devious ways of my past
errors and thus be able to “offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving.” For
what am I to myself without you but a guide to my own downfall? Or what am I,
even at the best, but one suckled on your milk and feeding on you, O Food that
never perishes? What indeed is any man, seeing that he is but a man? Therefore,
let the strong and the mighty laugh at us, but let us who are “poor and needy”
confess to you.
Preparation
for Session 6
A. Read: Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, chapters
13, 14 and 15
Write a Big
Idea paragraph from your reading.
B. Read the following articles and give a one paragraph
answer to the question asked.
1.
Augustine
What
are the differences between Augustine and Pelagius views concerning
Grace?
2. The Rise of the Papacy
What
is the danger in the Church having civil power?
3.The Rise
of Eastern Christianity
What
was the Eastern Church’s understanding of holiness, i.e. Christian
perfection?
C. Write in your journal. Reflect on and respond to the
following:
AUGUSTINE’S CONFESSIONS, READING 5
Comments
Post a Comment