IV What Was Said and Done in These Assemblies and Meetings of the Brethren
Justin Martyr in his first Apology, which was written, before A.D. 139, gives us a good picture of one of these primitive Christian assemblies in Rome. The early date of this writing enables us to form an accurate idea of the outward procedure of one of these most important factors in the Christian life in the first half of the second century.
Justin has been explaining the nature of the Eucharist; he then goes on to say: “We continually remind each other of these things. And the rich among us help the poor, and we always keep together; and for all things which are given us, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the ‘Memoirs of the Apostles’ or the writings of the Prophets are read, as time allows; then when the reader has done, the president (of the assembly), in an address, instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of the good things (which had formed the subject of the address). Then we all rise and pray; and when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president offers prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability; and the people assent, saying, Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given; and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.
“And they who are well-to-do and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows, and those who through sickness or any other cause are in want, and those who are in bonds, and the stranger sojourning among us—in a word, takes care of all who are in need.
“Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly.”
Justin goes on to explain the reason of the choice of Sunday, dwelling especially on the fact of Jesus Christ having risen from the dead on that day.
Such is a sketch of the framework of one of these primitive meetings of the Christian Brotherhood, drawn by an eye-witness some time in the first half of the second century, at most thirty or forty years after S. John’s death.
It is a little picture of a gathering composed of all sorts and conditions of men and women, of slaves and freedmen, of artisans, tradesmen, and soldiers, with a certain admixture of cultured and wealthy persons, drawn together in the first instance by the pressure of the burden of the awful sadness of life, by a belief, hazy at first, but growing clearer and more definite every day, as the congregation listened to these teachers who dwelt on the words and acts of the Divine Redeemer who had visited this earth for their sakes.
For they came together to hear more of the Redeemer who had sojourned so lately among men. They listened while the Christian teacher who presided over the gathering explained the historic words, the commandments and promises of that pitiful, loving Master who had entered into their life; they would then partake of the mystic Eucharist feast together; and as they partook of the sacred bread and wine as He had bidden His followers to do in memory of Him and His death and suffering for their sakes, they would feel He was indeed in their midst, and that new life, new hope were theirs.
The dogmatic teaching in these early assemblies was very simple, but strangely sublime. It was given in a language every one could understand. It went home to the hearts of all—of the wise and unlearned alike. The story of the Gospels, the wonderful words of the Master—were at once the text and subject of every sermon and exposition.
We have among our precious reliquiæ of the earliest days enough to show us what was the groundwork of this primitive teaching.
An atonement had been made by the Divine One who had come among men; He had suffered for them, and by His suffering had redeemed them. In all the earliest Christian writings which we possess, this great truth is repeated again and again. With adoring gratitude the Christian Brotherhood loved and worshipped Him. Jesus Christ was the centre of all their hopes—the source of their strange, newly found happiness.60
Very briefly we will quote a very few of these important dogmatic sayings pressed home to the believers when they met together.
Clement of Rome—circa A.D. 95:
“Let us fix our eyes on the blood of Christ, and understand how precious it is unto His Father, because being shed for our salvation.”—Ep. i. 7.
“Let us fear the Lord Jesus whose blood was given for us.”—Ep. i. 11.
“Jesus Christ our Lord hath given His blood for us, by the will of God... His life for our lives.”—Ep. i. 49.
Ignatius of Antioch—circa A.D. 107–10.
“It is evident to me that you are living not after men but after Jesus Christ who died for us, that believing on His death ye might escape death.”—Ep. ad Trall. 2.
“Him (Jesus Christ) I seek, who died on our behalf; Him I desire, who rose again (for our sake).”—Ep. ad Rom. 6.
After relating the passion of the Cross, Ignatius went on to say: “For He suffered these things for our sakes (that we might be saved).”—Ep. ad Smyrn. 1, 2.
“Even the heavenly beings, and the glory of the angels, and the rulers visible and invisible, if they believe not in the blood of Christ (who is God), judgment awaiteth them also.”—Ep. ad Smyrn. 6.
“Await Him... the Eternal, the Invisible, who became visible for our sakes; the Impalpable, the Impassible, who suffered for our sake, who endured in all ways for our sake.”—Ep. ad Polycarp, 3.
Epistle to Diognetus,—early in second century,—an anonymous writing:
“He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the Holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for them that are mortal.”
“For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other One was it possible that we, the wicked and the ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God?”
“Oh sweet exchange! Oh unsearchable operation! Oh benefits surpassing expectation! that the wickedness of many shall be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors!”
“Having therefore convinced us in the former time that our nature was unable to attain to life, and having now revealed the Saviour who is able to save even those things which it was (formerly) impossible to save, by both these facts He desired to lead us to trust in His kindness, to deem Him our Minister—Father—Teacher—Counsellor—Healer—our Wisdom, Light, Honour, Glory, Power and Life.”—Ep. ad Diog. ix.
Shepherd of Hermas—written circa A.D. 140.
“He Himself (the Son of God) then having purged away the sins of the people, showed them the paths of life, by giving them the law which He received from His Father.”
Epistle of Barnabas—written circa A.D. 120–50:
“For to this end the Lord endured to deliver up His flesh to corruption, that we might be sanctified through the remission of sins, which is effected by His blood of sprinkling.”—Ep. Barnabas, v.
“If, therefore, the Son of God, who is Lord (of all things), and who will judge the living and the dead, suffered, that His stroke might give us life, let us believe that the Son of God could not have suffered except for our sakes.”—Ep. Barnabas, vii.
“Thou shalt love Him that created thee, thou shalt glorify Him that redeemed thee from death.”—Ep. Barnabas, xix.
Justin Martyr—writing between circa A.D. 114 and A.D. 165:
“Isaiah,” wrote Justin, “did not send you to a laver, there to wash away murder and other sins; but those who repented were purified by faith through the blood of Christ, and through His death, who died for this very reason.”—Dial. with Trypho, xiii.
Writing of Jesus Christ, Justin comments thus on the words written by Moses as prophesied by the patriarch Jacob: “He shall wash his garments with wine, and his vesture with the blood of the grape.” This signified that “He (Jesus Christ) would wash those who believe in Him with His own blood.”—Dial. with Trypho, liv.
“If, then, the Father of all wished His Christ to take upon Him the curses of all, knowing that after He had been crucified and was dead, He would raise Him up”....
“For although His Father caused Him to suffer these things in behalf of the human family”....
“If His Father wished Him to suffer thus in order that by His stripes the human race might be healed.”—Dial. with Trypho, xcv.
“And as the blood of the Passover saved those who were in Egypt, so also the blood of Christ will deliver from death those who have believed.”—Dial. with Trypho, cxi.
In well-nigh all these reliquiæ of the earliest Christian teaching, copious use was made of that wonderful 53rd chapter of Isaiah, in which the Hebrew seer sketched with a startling accuracy of detail some of the leading features of the awful drama of the Divine Atonement for all sin.61 The scene of this drama was the storied Holy City, and the One who made the great Atonement was He who on earth was known as Jesus Christ and in heaven as the Son of God.
The above “Catena Aurea” (golden chain) of passages is taken from the works we possess of the earliest teachers of Christianity who wrote in the fifty years immediately following the passing of S. John the beloved apostle, and they tell us exactly what was the doctrine pressed home to the Brotherhood in the early assemblies of Christians of which we are here speaking.
There were other dogmas, no doubt, included in the teaching of these early assemblies and meetings, such as the resurrection of the flesh; the great reckoning before the Judge, at which even the just would tremble were it not that the Judge was at the same time their Redeemer and loving Friend. The unspeakable joys of Paradise, the garden of their God and Saviour, were constantly dwelt upon, and the good glad tidings would fall like dew from heaven upon the world-weary, sad-eyed listeners.
But the great doctrine of the “Atonement,” at once simple and sublime, so repeatedly pressed home in the above-quoted words of the earliest teachers, was no doubt the strongest inducement which drew the Christian folk to meet often together—was the link which bound them into one brotherhood, and knit them at the same time to the loving Master.
It was a new preaching, this secret of the great love of God which passeth understanding, and one that excited wonderful and soul-stirring fears and hopes, and which filled the small dark corridors and low-browed chapels of the Roman catacombs which the faithful often used as meeting-homes for teaching and for prayer, with what seemed to the groups of worshippers verily a Divine light; and to these early Christian worshippers, the gloomy rough-hewn sleeping-places of the dead, through which the pilgrim traveller now wanders and wonders, seemed to them the very ante-chambers of heaven.
We have dwelt with some insistence upon the dogmatic teaching which without doubt formed a part, and that by no means an inconsiderable part, of the procedure of the primitive gatherings of Christians; for it is often urged that the great bond which united the brethren of the very early Church was only the beautiful mutual love and charity urged in these gatherings.
There is some truth in this assertion. It was a new life which was preached, and to a certain extent lived, by the Christian Brotherhood. It was a life quite different to anything which had existed before the Redeemer went in and out among men. We shall dwell on it presently; but it must never be forgotten that the mainspring of this new life was the doctrine of the Cross—of the Atonement made by that Divine One who had founded the new religion.
The belief in the supreme Divinity of Jesus, who had come from heaven to redeem men, was the foundation story of the wonderful love and boundless charity which lived in their midst,—a love which charmed the hearts of all sorts and conditions of men, and attracted more and ever more weary and heavy-laden men and women to join the company of Christians.
Almsgiving
The duty and delight of materially assisting the poor and sad-eyed brothers and sisters of the community became an absorbing passion in the lives of very many of the rich and well-to-do members of each congregation; and in populous centres the abundance of the alms publicly contributed or privately given is a sure indication that many well-to-do and even wealthy persons were at an early date numbered among the Christians.
The splendid charities of the Church of the first days no doubt did much to bring about the rapid progress of the religion of Jesus. There was an intense reality in the love of the Christians of the first days for one another. “See,” says Tertullian (Apol. xxxix.), quoting from the pagan estimate of the new society, “how they love one another.” So Cæcilius (in Minucius Felix, ix.) tells us “they love one another almost before they are acquainted.”
Justin Martyr, in his picture already quoted of a Christian assembly in the first half of the second century, speaks, as we have seen, in detail of the destination of the alms collected.62
Tertullian, writing in the last years of the same century on what took place at these meetings of the brethren, relates how “each of us puts in a small amount one day in the month, or whenever he pleases, but only if he pleases, and if he is able; for there is no compulsion in the matter, every one contributing of his own free will. The amounts so collected are expended on poor orphans, in support of old folk,... on those who are in the mines, or exiled, or in prison, so long as their distress is for the sake of God’s fellowship.”
We notice how often it is repeated that all these offerings are purely voluntary—the idea of communism63 was absolutely unknown in the Church of the first days. The fact that there were rich and poor is ever acknowledged. This is especially marked in the tombs of the catacombs, where the rich were laid to sleep in costly and even in splendidly adorned chambers, leading out of the corridors where the bodies of the poorer ones were tenderly and reverently buried, but in far humbler and unadorned resting-places.
In less that fifty years after Tertullian’s time, Cornelius, bishop of Rome, in a letter written circa A.D. 250 (quoted by Eusebius, H. E. vi. 43), gives us a fairly exhaustive catalogue of the officials and the persons in distress supported by the voluntary contributions of the Roman Brotherhood. He enumerates forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty-two acolytes, fifty-two exorcists, readers, and doorkeepers, together with fifteen hundred widows and persons in poverty maintained constantly by the alms of the faithful.
It is evident from the references in writings of the second century that almsgiving in the Church of the first days occupied in the hearts of believers a higher place, a far more important position, than it filled in the dogmatic teaching of mediæval and yet later times.
The immeasurable work effected by the blessed Redeemer is never minimized by the earliest and most weighty of the Christian teachers, as we have seen in our little chain of quoted passages; but it is indisputable that they considered that something might be done by men themselves. Alms, according to these early instructors, held a very high position in the new beautiful life they taught men who loved the Lord to strive after.
We will quote a few prominent examples of this very early teaching which, of course, was pressed home to the Brotherhood who gathered together in these primitive assemblies; and to a large extent we see that this somewhat peculiar dogmatic teaching concerning the value of almsgiving had a marked and striking effect upon the listeners.
For instance, in the Didaché (Teaching of the Apostles), written in the last years of the first century, we read:
“If thou possessest (anything) by thy hands, thou shalt give a ransom for thy sins.”—Didaché, iv.
This was no new idea in Hebrew theology; see Dan. iv. 27: “Break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shoving mercy to the poor.” See Prov. xvi. 6, and also Tob. xii. 8, 9.
So in the Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs, put out in the first quarter of the second century:
“For in proportion as a man is pitiful to the poor, will the Lord be pitiful towards him” (Zabulon 7).
“Almsgiving therefore is a good thing, even as repentance from sin. Fasting is better than prayer, but almsgiving than both; and ‘love covereth a multitude of sins,’64 but prayer out of a good conscience delivereth from death. Blessed is every man that is found full of these. For almsgiving lifteth off the burden of sin.”—2nd Epistle of Clement (part of an ancient homily put out circa A.D. 130 to 150).65
S. Cyprian about the middle of the third century develops almsgiving into a formal means of grace, and indeed assigns a distinct propitiatory value to alms, representing them as a means of prolonging the effectiveness of baptism and abolishing subsequent frailties.66
Lactantius—Inst. vi. 12—circa end of fourth century:
“Mercy has a great reward (magna est misericordiæ merces), for God promises to it that He will remit all sins.”
S. Chrysostom speaks of this as “the medicine for our sins.”
In the Apostolical Constitutions, vii. 12 (probably put out in the form that we possess them circa the end of the fourth or early in the fifth century), we read:
“If thou hast (acquired anything by the work of thy hands) give, that thou mayest labour for the redemption of thy sins; for by alms and acts of faith sins are purged away.”
All this is somewhat an exaggerated development of a teaching which in the primitive Church undoubtedly elevated almsgiving to a chief place in Christian practice; but that charity and kindness to the poor and needy in primitive times often were regarded positively as a formal means of grace, is clear from the weighty early references just quoted, such honoured names as Cyprian and later even Chrysostom appearing among the supporters of this view. That it was an exaggerated estimate is, however, clear from the plain words of Paul in his exquisite Psalm of Love (1 Cor. xiii.), where under the general term of love or charity he expressly includes much besides mere almsgiving.
But, apart from this somewhat curious development and perhaps exaggerated view, there remains the undisputed fact that almsgiving was urged upon the primitive congregations of Christians with a force and insistency quite unknown in mediæval and modern times; and the splendid voluntary generosity to the poor and needy and forlorn on the part not only of the well-to-do, but of all who had anything to give, however little, was no doubt a most important element in the rapid extension of the Christian religion. It demonstrated, as nothing else could, the real and intense love of Christians one for the other. It was verily a brotherhood, and constantly, even in the most exalted quarters,67 evoked the grudging admiration of the bitterest foes of the religion of Jesus.
So numerous, so touching, so insistent are the early references here, that it would be simply impossible to quote even a small part of them. But a very few examples from early writings will, however, show what was the nature of the exhortations and teaching here which we know were pressed home in every one of these early gatherings of the Christian Brotherhood.
The 1st Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians (circa A.D. 90 or earlier) has been well described as matchless in early Christian literature as an elaborate and effective piece of writing, lit up with all the brotherly affection of the Church.
Such sentences as these occur in the Epistle: “Who did not proclaim your splendid hospitality (to strangers)—you did everything without respect of persons... you are more ready to give than to take. Day and night you agonized for all the Brotherhood, that by means of comparison and care the number of God’s elect might be saved. You never rued an act of kindness, but were ready for every good work.”
In the Didaché (Teaching of the Apostles) we come across such directions as—
“To every one that asketh thee give, and ask not back; for to all the Father wishes to give of His own gracious gifts.”
“Blessed is he that giveth.... Let thine alms drop like sweat into thy hands, so long as thou knowest to whom thou givest.” This last injunction, from the way it is introduced, is probably a reference to some unwritten traditional saying spoken by our Lord Himself.—Didaché, i.
“Thou shalt not hesitate to give, nor in giving shalt thou murmur.”—Didaché, iv.
“Thou shalt not turn away from the needy, but thou shalt share all things with thy brother; and thou shalt not say that they are thine own: for if ye are fellow partakers in that which is immortal, how much more in things which are mortal.”—Didaché, iv.
Aristides—circa A.D. 130–40:
“They (the Christians) love one another, and from the widows they do not turn away their countenance, and they rescue the orphan... and he who has, gives to him who has not without grudging... and if they hear that any of their number is imprisoned or oppressed for the name of their Messiah, all of them provide for his needs.... And if there is among them a man that is poor and needy, and they have not an abundance of necessaries, they fast two or three days, that they may supply the needy with their necessary food.”68—Apol. xv.
Hermas—Shepherd—circa A.D. 135–40:
“You know that you, servants of God, dwell in a foreign land, for your city is far from this city. If, then, you know the city where you are to dwell, why provide yourselves here with fields and costly luxuries? He who makes such provision for this city has no mind to return to his own city.... Instead of fields, then, buy souls in trouble as each of you is able. Visit widows and orphans, and neglect them not; expend on such fields and houses, God has given you your wealth and all your gains. The Master endowed you with riches that you might perform such ministries for Him.
“Far better is it to buy fields, possessions, houses of this kind. Thou wilt find them in thine own city when thou dost visit it. Such expenditure is noble and joyous: it brings gladness, not fear and sorrow.”—Simil. i.
Harnack, Mission, etc., of Christianity (book ii. chap. i.), commenting on this passage of the Shepherd, has an interesting and suggestive Note, in which he says: “For all the vigour of his counsel, however, it never occurs to Hermas that the distinction between the rich and the poor should cease within the Church. This is plain from the next Similitude or Parable (ii.). The saying of Jesus, too, S. John xii. 8, ‘The poor ye have always with you,’ shows that the abolition of the distinction between rich and poor was never contemplated in the Church.”
Hermas—Shepherd.—“Not hesitating as to whom you are to give or not to give, for God wishes His gifts to be shared by all.”—Comm. 2.
“Rescuing the servants of God from necessities—being hospitable, for in hospitality good-doing finds a field.”—Comm. 8.
Polycarp—Epistle (written early in the second century):
“In love of the brotherhood, kindly affectioned one to another... when ye are able to do good, defer it not, for pitifulness delivereth from death.”—Epistle, 10.
A short sketch of the practical side of the teaching current at these meetings of the brethren will complete our description of these primitive Christian gatherings. The teaching dwelt on duties for the most part absolutely novel to the Roman world of the first and second centuries of our era. The inescapable duties pressed home to the listeners were duties generally quite unknown to noble, artisan, or slave in Roman society of the first three centuries. If carried out they would essentially change the old view of life current in all grades of the Roman world.
As before, we draw our information exclusively from the remains of very early Christian letters (Epistles) and tractates of well-known and honoured teachers in the Brotherhood which have been preserved to us.
The practical side of the teaching current in the gatherings was very largely based on the strange, beautiful, but perfectly novel saying of the Founder of the religion. It was, in fact, a new language which was used:
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” The instructions given in the early assemblies defined the term “neighbour,” and explained how the love enjoined was to be especially shown.
Now in all the early Christian writings the persons to be helped in the first place seem invariably to have been “the widows and orphans” of the new Society; for example, S. James, the Lord’s disciple, writes how “pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction,” etc. (i. 27).
Hermas—circa A.D. 135–40—in his list of good deeds which ought to be done, after faith and the fear of the Lord—love, concord, words of righteousness, truth, patience—places “the helping widows, looking after orphans.”—Shepherd, Comm. viii.
Aristides—circa A.D. 130–40—has been already quoted.
Clement of Rome—circa A.D. 90—gives as one of his quotations: “He—the Master of the Universe—saith,... Give judgment for the orphan, and execute righteousness for the widows.”—1 Epistle, 8.
Lactantius—circa last years of fourth century—in his catalogue of the different kinds of benevolence and works of mercy which had especially been enjoined on Christians, twice dwells on this peculiar work, and then writes: “Nor is it less a great work of justice to protect and defend orphans and widows who are destitute and stand in need of assistance, and therefore that Divine Law prescribes this to all,” etc.... And again: “For God, to whom everlasting mercy belongs, commands that widows and orphans should be defended and cherished, that no one through regard and pity for his loved ones should be prevented from suffering death (i.e. martyrdom)”... “but should meet it with promptitude and faith, since he knows that he leaves his beloved ones to the care of God, and that they will never want protection.” This last telling argument repeated by Lactantius had been, no doubt, frequently taught in the days of stress and trial.
These very early references might be multiplied; we find this injunction again and again repeated. It is no exaggeration to assert that among the poor and sad-eyed ones placed before the congregations of believers to help, the poor widow and the orphan occupy the first place.
The Sick.—The visiting the sick and distributing the alms of the brethren, public and private, were also urged as an inescapable duty. This stood in the forefront of all their exhortations, and the injunction was ever generously responded to. To quote references here, where they are so very numerous, would be superfluous. Lactantius’ words, in his summary above referred to, will suffice to show what was the mind of the Church, and how this wish of the Master’s had been constantly urged.
Justin Martyr has well summarized the loved duty—“To undertake the care and support of the sick, who need some one to assist them, is the part of the greatest kindness, and is of great beneficence; and he who shall do this, will both offer a living sacrifice to God, and that which he has given to another for a time he will himself receive from God for eternity.”—Justin, vi. 12.
So prominent a place did the giving of alms to the sick occupy among the exhortations addressed to the Christians of the first days, that the injunctions to succour the sick sufferers seem not infrequently to have been extended beyond the circle of the “Household of faith.” We find S. Cyprian, for instance, on the occasion of the great plague of Carthage, A.D. 252, telling, in one of his addresses, his audience that to cherish our own people was nothing wonderful, but surely he who would become perfect must do more; he must love even his enemies, as the Lord admonishes and expects.
“It is our duty not to fall short of our splendid ancestry.” In the saintly bishop’s own grand untranslatable words—“Respondere nos decet natalibus nostris.”69 The Christians of Carthage, as their reply, at once raised amongst themselves an abundant fund, and forming a company for the succour of the sick, absolutely helped all without any inquiry as to whether the sick sufferers were pagan or Christian.—Pontius, Life of Cyprian.
Eusebius (H. E. ix. 8) gives a pathetic picture of the great pestilence which raged at the end of the third century, and notices the devoted behaviour of the Christians to all the sick and dying, without reference to the sufferer’s creed.
This splendid altruism of the “Godless Galilean” was markedly referred to by the Emperor Julian—“Not only their own poor, but ours do they care for,” wrote the great Emperor; “our poor lack our care,” was his bitter reproach to paganism.—Letter to Arsacius.
Hospitality was another urgent recommendation pressed home by the early Christian teachers to their flocks. Clement of Rome (quoted above) in the first century dwells on this special virtue in his Letter to the Corinthian Church.
The Didaché—circa end of first century—dwells on this. “If he who comes is a traveller, help him to the best of your ability” (chap. xii.).
Much is said in this very early treatise on the duty of caring for strangers, but care is specially enjoined to guard against any imposture here.
Hermas in the Shepherd writes: “In hospitality, good-doing finds a field” (Comm. viii.).
Aristides, quoted above, tells us how Christians “when they see the stranger, bring him to their dwellings, and rejoice over him as over a true brother.”
Justin Martyr (quoted above), in his picture of a Christian meeting on Sunday, especially directs that out of the alms contributed by the faithful, among those who were to be succoured were “the strangers sojourning amongst us.”—1 Apol. lxvii.
Melito of Sardis—so Eusebius, H. E. iv. 26, tells us—wrote a treatise “on hospitality.”
Cyprian expressly directs that the expenses of any stranger who may happen to be in want, be paid out of certain moneys he had left for that purpose.—Ep. vii.
Among other direct references to this duty may be quoted Tertullian, ad Uxor. ii. 4, and the Apost. Constit. iii. 3; the Emperor Julian in his Letter to Arsacius wishes the pagans would imitate these Christian practices.
This striking and unique custom, which no doubt very largely contributed to the feeling of Christian brotherhood, was, of course, based upon the directions so often repeated in the New Testament Epistles.
“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares,” Heb. xiii. 2. “Distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality,” Rom. xii. 13. “Use hospitality one to another, without grudging,” 1 Pet. iv. 9. “Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers,” 3 John 5, etc.
This urgent recommendation to practise hospitality in the New Testament Epistles of Peter and Paul, of John and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, repeated with insistence and earnestness by writers of the second and third centuries, was, as Justin Martyr tells us in his picture of the Sunday gathering of Christians, incorporated among the special exhortations to the brethren urging them to generous almsgiving.
The duty of “hospitality” thus pressed home at these gatherings as important enough to rank with the claims of the widow and the orphan and the sick poor, needs a few words of explanation.
In the early days of Christianity it must be borne in mind that the widely extended world of Rome was not as in mediæval and modern times, made up of different nations and peoples, but that the Roman world was all one, that men were fellow-subjects of one great Empire, and that the passing to and fro from land to land was far more common than in after times; and that Christians, whether belonging to Asia or to Greece, to Italy or to Gaul, made up one great Brotherhood.
For a Christian coming into a strange city to find there at once a home and a warm welcome, and if poor and needy, help and assistance, would constitute a very powerful inducement to very many to join the new Society in which lived such a spirit of loving brotherhood and kindness.
Special means of intercourse through letters and messages and other means were provided. Cæcilius in Minucius Felix (c. ix.), an early writing, as we have said, belonging to the middle of the second century or even earlier, especially tells us that “Christians recognize each other by means of secret marks and signs, and love one another almost before they are acquainted.”
It was to give effect to this far-reaching spirit of brotherhood that the apostles and their successors insisted so earnestly upon the new and beautiful duty of “hospitality.” It was a practical proof that all Christians were really brothers and sisters—“that goodness among the Christians was not an impotent claim or a pale ideal, but a power which was developed on all sides, and was actually exercised in common everyday life.”
We have dwelt at some length upon what were the principal objects to which the alms of the Brotherhood, asked so earnestly at the various weekly assemblies, were devoted; there were, however, other “causes” pleaded for besides these—no doubt principally in such great centres as Rome, where a proportion of rich and well-to-do persons formed part of the little gatherings; of these, relief and assistance to “prisoners of the faith” occupy a prominent place.
There were many Christians, especially in the more acute periods of persecution, who were arrested and imprisoned by the government, and not a few condemned to the harsh discipline of the mines. Justin Martyr especially names assistance to imprisoned Christians as one of the regular objects to which a portion of the collections at the “meetings” was devoted. It was ever a matter of love, if not of absolute duty, to help and succour these. “If,” wrote Aristides in his Apology quoted above, “the Christians learn that any one of their number is imprisoned or is in distress for the sake of the Name of Christ, they should all render aid to such a one in his necessity.”—Apol. xv.
See, too, among other references, Heb. x. 34; Tert. ad Mart. i., and Apol. xxxix.
Another and special object of almsgiving pressed upon the faithful was help to other and perhaps distant Churches who from one cause or other were in want. We find this urged upon Christian congregations even in apostolic days.
In S. Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians, Romans, and Corinthians we find various appeals to the generosity of these early communities to assist the Church at Jerusalem. The deep poverty of this famous Church we have already suggested was probably owing to the attempt of the Jerusalem Christians literally to carry out the idea of community of goods.
In the Letter of Dionysius of Corinth to the Roman Church written circa A.D. 170, quoted by Eusebius, H. E. iv. 23, we find this generosity referred to as a well-known custom of the comparatively wealthy Roman congregation. “From the very first,” wrote Dionysius, “you have had this practice of aiding all the brethren in many ways, and of sending contributions to many Churches in every city... by these gifts you keep up the hereditary custom of the Roman Christians, a practice which your bishop, Soter, has not only kept up, but even extended.” In the third century, Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, writing to Stephen, bishop of Rome, alludes to the generous help given to the poor Churches of Syria and Arabia. “To them,” he says, “you send help regularly.”—Euseb. H. E. viii. 5.
Ignatius, referring to this noble generosity of the Roman congregations as early as the first years of the second century, styles the Church of Rome as “the leader of love.”
Cyprian, in the middle of the third century, several times mentions how the Church at Carthage, evidently a wealthy community, was in the habit of sending help to other and needy communities.
But there was one department in the novel teaching pressed home by the early Christian teachers which seems at once to have riveted the attention of the listeners, and its universal acceptance at once won extraordinary, possibly an undreamed of popularity in the Christian ranks. It was an entirely new departure from any custom prevalent in the world of Rome—the injunction reverently to care for the bodies of the dead poor.
The Emperor Julian in his summary of what he considered the chief points in the hated Christian system which had won them so many hearts, especially calls attention to this. He wrote this remarkable comment here:
“This godlessness (i.e. Christianity) is mainly furthered by its charity towards strangers, and its careful attention to the bestowal of the dead.”—Letter to Arsacius, in Soz. v. 15.
Lactantius in his review of the Christian virtues urged by the great teachers of the new religion, and to a great extent practised in the early centuries, gives a prominent and detailed notice of this pious and loving custom, and strikingly writes as follows: “The last and greatest office of piety is the burying of strangers and the poor,” adding that the noblest pagan teachers of virtue and justice had never touched at all upon this inescapable duty. These had left this, he adds, quite out, because they were unable to see any advantage in it.
Some of these pagan teachers, he goes on to say, even esteemed burial as superfluous, adding that it was no evil to lie unburied and neglected.
The great fourth century writer proceeds at some length to give some of the reasons which had influenced Christians so tenderly to care for their brethren who had fallen asleep: “We will not suffer the image and workmanship of God to lie exposed as a prey to beasts and birds, but we will restore it to earth from which it was taken; and although it be in the case of an unknown person, we will supply the place of relatives, whose place, since they are wanting, let benevolence take.”—Lactantius, Inst. vi. 12.
Aristides—middle years of second century—thus dwells upon the tender solicitude of the Christian folk for their dead: “When one of their poor passes away from the world, one of them (the brethren) looks after him, and sees to his burial according to his means.”—Apol. xv.
Aristides is here referring to the private charity of individual members of the community, which was often very lavish in the early centuries. Tertullian, on the other hand, writing on the same duty of caring for the brethren, includes the cost of “burying the poor” as coming out of the common fund made up of the money contributed at the public meetings of the Brotherhood.—Apol. xxxix.
As the amount required for these burials and the subsequent care bestowed on the places of Christian sepulture was very considerable, the public collections made in the assemblies were necessarily often largely supplemented by private alms.
All this loving care for the remains of the deceased went home to numberless hearts among the survivors of the loved, and evidently ranked high among the reasons which attracted many into the ranks of the Christian Brotherhood.
In our little picture of very early Christian life, Rome and its powerful Church has been generally selected as the scene of the life in question. In this primitive custom of reverent care for the dead,—a care which embraced the very poor as well as the rich and well-to-do, we discern the reasons which led to the first beginnings of the vast city of the Christian dead,—the wonderful city known as the Roman catacombs. This will be carefully described at some length in this work: the building and excavating of the endless corridors, the private chambers, the chapels and meeting-rooms, began even before the close of the first century of the Christian era, and went on for some two centuries and a half—the long-drawn-out age of persecution.
They constitute a mighty and ever-present proof of the accuracy of much that has been advanced in the foregoing pages on the subject of the life led—of the hopes and ideals cherished among the disciples of Jesus in that first stage of anxious trial and sore danger.
The pictures painted below in the chapters treating of the catacombs of Rome are admirable contemporary illustrations of what the writings of Aristides, Tertullian, and Lactantius tell us of the solemn duty to the dead which was insisted upon with such touching eloquence to the primitive congregations of the faithful.