for public worship sprang up on every side. But it soon Drocletian. had to pass through the ordeal of another most bloody persecution. The Hieracites. A.D. 296. 145. Towards the close of the third century, about the year 296, the sect of the Hieracites was formed in Egypt by one Hierax, whose notions have sometimes been erroneously confounded with those of Manes. Believing that the great business of Christ was to promulgate a new law, more perfect and more strict than that of Moses, he prohibited the use of wine, flesh, marriage, and whatever was grateful to the senses. Yet possibly he supposed that severe injunctions of this nature were imposed by Christ only upon those who aspired to the highest attainments in virtue. He denied the resurrection; excluded children dying before years of discretion from the kingdom of Heaven; distinguished the substance of the Son from that of the Father; taught that Melchisedech was the Holy Ghost; obscured the Sacred Volume with allegorical interpretations; and maintained that Paradise was no sensible thing, but only the joy and satisfaction of the soul. Doctrine, Government &c., in the third Century. 146. Platonic Christianity and the habit of allegorizing Scripture prevailed exten sively in the third century. And with the opinions, Christian teachers assumed the manners and dress, of the philosophic schools. The belief that solitude and abstinence were necessary to elevate the soul to a knowledge of Divine 145. What was the heresy of Hierax? When did it arise? 146. Give some occount of the doctrine, government, and discipline of the Church in the third century. DIOCLETIAN. truth gained ground, and out of it sprang monkery. Some new doctrines concerning the state of the soul after death were entertained: the undistinguished believer was consigned to purification after this life, preparatory to his participation in the joys of Heaven; but the martyr was supposed to be received into eternal glory immediately upon the dissolution of the body. Convenient edifices were erected for religious worship; and the assumption of new powers by the ministers probably laid a foundation for the encroachments which were afterwards made upon the rights of the whole Christian community. The government of the Church by Bishops was well established, and in each province there was one invested with a kind of pre-eminence over the rest. With the growing numbers of Christians, new orders of ministers were appointed, whose duty it was to attend to the inferior offices in the Church. Gold and silver vessels were used in the Lord's Supper, which was administered by some in the morning, by some in the afternoon, and by others in the evening. The sacrament of Baptism was publicly administered, in the presence of those already initiated, after the catechumen had been publicly exorcised, had acknowledged himself to be under the influence of a malignant spirit, and had submitted to a long preparation. Confirmation, by anointing with holy oil and the imposition of hands, followed. A regular form of discipline took place in every matter which fell within the cognizance of the Church: penitents were compelled to appear in sackcloth, and the time appointed for penitence was contracted or extended by the Bishop, according to marks of contrition. Fasting grew into high esteem, and there was an increasing passion for austerities. The Diocletian Persecution. } MAXIMIANUS.- 147. In the year 286, Diocletian DIOCLETIAN. associated with himself in the empire Maximianus Herculius, with the title GALERIUS. of Augustus. At a later period, about 291, the two emperors strengthened themselves by choosing two coadjutors, Constantius Chlorus and Galerius, who ex ercised a somewhat inferior authority under the title of Cæsars. Constantius ruled in Spain, Gaul, and Britain, and Gallerius in Illyricum. Under these four associated emperors the Church at first had peace: but at length the calm was interrupted, and a persecution more bloody than any which had gone before began, and lasted for ten years. A foretaste of what was coming was experienced in 298, when an edict was issued to the effect that all persons in office about the court or in the army should be present at the heathen sacrifices. Constantius was the only one of the four heads of the empire who had no part in this order. But it was not until the year 303 that the Diocletian (more correctly the Galerian) persecution broke out in its fury. Galerius, instigated partly by his own inclination and partly by pagan priests, obtained from his father-in-law, Diocletian, who was then at Nicomedia, an edict enjoining that the Churches and books of the Christians should be destroyed, and all their rights and privileges annulled. The persecution commenced at once by the demolition of the principal 147. How was the government of the empire conducted under Diocletian ? Give an account of the persecution at this time. Is it correctly called the Diocletian persecution? *[Note.] What do you mean by the term Tradi CONSTANTIUS. GALERIUS. DIOCLETIAN. Church in the city. Irritated at this, a Christian tore MAXIMIANUS. down the edict from the conspicuous position in which it was placed, and suffered for his temerity by being roasted alive. A breadful fire in the palace of Nicomedia was attributed to the Christians, who were put to horrible torments in consequence. This catastrophe was succeeded by several edicts against the Christians, ordering that all Bishops should be thrown into prison, and by all ways imaginable compelled to sacrifice; and subsequently that all Christians should sacrifice to the Gods, or be put to the torture. The most fiery of all the trials which the Church had undergone now approached, and persecution raged with unbounded fury thronghout the empire, except in Gaul and Britain, where Constantius protected the persons of the Christians, although he allowed the demolition of their Churches. Human imagination was almost exhausted in inventing a variety of tortures. Some were impaled alive; some were roasted by slow fires; some had melted lead poured down their throats; some had their flesh torn off with shells; and some had splinters of reeds thrust under their nails. Those who were not capitally punished had their limbs and features mutilated. It would be endless to enumerate the victims. The Bishops of Nicodemia, Tyre, Sidon, and Emessa; many matrons and virgins of the purest character; and a nameless multitude of plebeians arrived at immortality through the flames of martyrdom. Wearied at length * * It was thought that Chris- | emperor recorded his supposed tianity was extinct, and the victory in monumental inscrip tores? What was the nature of the edicts issued against the Christians at this time? *[Note.] What was the boast of the emperor? When did the with contention, or moved by the excruciating anguish CONSTANTIUS. which he himself suffered from a loathsome disease, GALERIUS. Galerius, in the year 311, after the abdication of Diocletian,* indulged his Christian subjects with a transient respite from their sufferings, and issued an edict permitting them to have buildings for religious worship. His successor, however, continued the persecution, though with some intermission and mitigation, until Constantine became invested with the sole dominion of the Roman world. The Meletian } 148. The Meletians were so called from Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis, in Egypt, who was deposed by the Council of Alexandria because he had sacrificed in the Diocletian persecution. After his deposition, however, Meletius continued to assume the title and exercise the functions of his office; and when Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, sought safety by tions. His haughty boast was | 306), and Licinius; and the former that "the name of Christians, at length turned his arms against the destroyers of the republic, Licinius, who was the last comis abolished, and their supersti-petitor that opposed his greattion everywhere destroyed." * Diocletian abdicated in 305, and his colleague, Maximianus, soon followed his example. Years of discord and confusion succeeded, and the Roman government was at one period administered by six emperors. The rival princes, however, gradually fell before the united arms of Constantine (who succeeded his father, Constantius Chlorus, upon the death of the latter at York, in ness. We may here remark that CONSTANTINE. persecution terminate? *[Note.] Give an account of the first British martyr, 148. Mention the cause of the Meletian schism. |