,transcriber's ,note3 ,every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully aspossible1 including some inconsistencies of hyphenation4 ,some changes of spelling and punctuation have been made4 ,they are listed at the end of the text4 ,italic text has been marked with underscores4 ,the ,university of ,chicago ,,the ,,transformation ,,of ,,early ,,christianity ,,from ,,an ,,eschatological ,,to ,a ,,socialized ,,movement ,a ,,dissertation ,,submitted ,,to ,,the ,,faculty ,,of ,,the ,,graduate ,,school ,,of ,,arts ,,and ,,literature ,,in ,,candidacy ,,for ,,the ,,degree ,,of ,,doctor ,,of ,,philosophy ,,department ,,of ,,church ,,history ,,in ,,the ,,graduate ,,divinity ,,school ,,by ,,lyford ,,paterson ,,edwards ,the ,collegiate ,press ,,george ,,banta ,,publishing ,,company ,,menasha1 ,,wisconsin #aiai ,,contents ,chapter ,i4 ,political ,theories of the ,early ,christians #a ,chapter ,,ii4 ,the ,early ,church and ,property ,concepts #bd ,chapter ,,iii4 ,the ,early ,church and the ,populace #ej ,chapter ,,iv4 ,chiliasm and ,patriotism #gj ,chapter ,v4 ,chiliasm and ,social ,theory #hc ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,political ,,theories ,,of ,,the ,,early ,,christians ,when ,christianity came into the world it found a number of different political theories already in existence4 ,these various conflicting concepts2 ,hebrew1 ,greek and ,roman1 influenced ,christianity in varying degrees and in varying degrees were influenced by ,christianity4 ,christianity as such added no new ideas to the current stock of political notions4 ,the ,hebrew ,christian retained his ,jewish theory2 as did the ,greek and the ,roman in perhaps a less degree4 ,the development of the ,christian conception of the state1 the ,church1 and history generally is a process of elimination1 selection1 adaptation1 and synthesis of the various elements of political theory current in contemporary ,hebrew and pagan thought4 ,the characteristic modern separation of ,church and ,state1 the divorce between religion and government1 existed as a matter of fact in early ,christianity4 ,but it was forced upon the ,christians by the historical situation4 ,as an idea it was foreign alike to ,jews and ,christians1 ,greeks and ,romans4 ,it was contrary to the whole body of contemporary political theory4 ,the union of ,church and ,state in the ,fourth century1 which has been so deplored by many modern historians and moralists was in reality perfectly inevitable4 ,the social mind of the whole ancient world made any other course impossible either to ,christians or ,pagans once ,christianity had developed to the point where it was the most powerful religious force in society4 ,the theocratic nature of ,jewish thought and practice is generally recognized but the close connection of religion and government in the pagan educational system is not perhaps so much emphasized4 ,to quote ,pollock3 ,it costs us something to realize the full importance of philosophy to the ,greek or ,roman citizen who had received a liberal education4 ,for him it combined in one whole body of doctrine all the authority and influence which nowadays are divided1 not without contention1 by science1 philosophy1 and religion in varying shares4 ,it was not an intellectual exercise or special study1 but a serious endeavor to gather up the results of all human knowledge in their most general form1 and make them available for the practical conduct of life4#a ,it was this fact which made ,christianity's progress among the educated classes so slow4 ,once it had made its way1 however1 the taking over of political control by the ,church was both easy and natural4 ,one of the most notable characteristics of the ,new ,testament and of all early ,christianity in its relation to the existing political system was the doctrine of obedience to the constituted authorities4 ,that a man like ,st4 ,paul should advocate submission to a man like ,nero seems like the negation of elementary morality4 ,the reasons for this attitude are many4 ,in this paper we are concerned only with one of them--but possibly the most important one4 ,the submissiveness of the early ,christians to tyranny and despotism was not due primarily to impotence nor yet to excessive mildness of disposition4 ,many emperors before ,constantine were deposed and slain by political groups smaller and feebler than the ,christians4 ,st4 ,paul and ,st4 ,ignatius1 to go no farther1 were not by nature pacifists4 ,it would be difficult to find a book of a more militant tone than the ,revelation of ,st4 ,john4 ,the main reason for the political non-resistance of the early ,christians is to be sought in their philosophy2 their views of the world4 ,these views were of a very special and very peculiar kind4 ,they were in large part either directly inherited from ,jewish thought or adapted from it4 ,while they are in some respects inconsistent with one another1 they have a common element4 ,they are all catastrophic4 ,in all of them the catastrophe is more or less immediately imminent4 ,the ,old ,testament ,prophets taught the establishment1 in the indefinite future1 of an eternal ,messianic kingdom on this present earth4 ,for a long time this hope was cherished by every ,jew4 ,but some time before the beginning of the ,first ,century ,b4,c4 a change took place4 ,the old conception was abandoned1 slowly indeed1 but at last absolutely4 ,in its place arose a belief which developed into ,chiliasm or ,millenarianism4 ,perhaps the first clear statement of this new idea is to be found in the book known as ,i ,enoch4 ,in this work which dates from #ajd-ie ,b4,c41 the ,messianic kingdom is for the first time conceived of as of temporary duration4 ,the resurrection and final judgment which in the preceding form of belief were the prelude to the everlasting ,messianic kingdom on earth1 are now transposed to the end of the transitory1 early kingdom of the ,messiah4 ,this temporary earthly kingdom is no longer the final abode of the risen righteous4 ,they are to enjoy a blessed immortality in the eternal heaven4#b ,we have in this author a practically complete statement of later ,christian ,chiliasm4 ,there is indeed one important feature missing4 ,the specific duration of the ,messianic kingdom is not given4 ,the advent of the kingdom also is not pressingly imminent4 ,in the ,parables #id-fd ,b4,c4 we find certain other elements4 ,this writer holds to the eternal ,messianic kingdom but the scene of this kingdom is not the earth as at present existing but a new heaven and a new earth4 ,the ,messiah is no longer a mere man but a supernatural being4 ,four titles characteristic of the ,new ,testament are for the first time applied to him3 ,the ,christ1 ,the ,righteous ,one1 ,the ,elect ,one1 ,the ,son of ,man4 ,he executes judgment on man and enjoys universal dominion4 ,the resurrection is not of the old body but of a body of glory and light1 of an angelic nature1 in short a spiritual body1 though the specific word spiritual is not used4#c ,in the other eschatological works of this period3 e4g4 ,psalms of ,solomon #gj-dj ,b4,c4 ,judith 7circa #ej ,b4,c47 one reference2 ,the ,sibylline ,oracles ,,iii #a-fb 7before #ca ,b4,c472 ,the ,epitomiser of ,jason of ,cyrene 7between #ajj-dj ,b4,c47 and the fragmentary ,zadokite ,work1 #ah ,b4,c41 the tradition of the temporary kingdom is carried on but without the addition of any concepts essential to our purpose4 ,in the first century ,a4,d41 still confining ourselves to specifically ,jewish ,apocalyptic literature we find various changes taking place4 ,the eternal ,messianic kingdom passes largely out4 ,the temporary ,messianic kingdom becomes an eternal national one4 ,the interest of the individual ,jew comes to center on his own lot in the future life4#d ,we have to pass a number of writers2 ,assumption of ,moses1 ,philo1 etc41 before we come to the specific statement of ,chiliasm proper1 i4e41 the duration of the ,messianic kingdom for #ajjj years4 ,in the ,book of ,the ,secrets of ,enoch commonly known as ,,ii ,enoch 7#a-ej ,a4,d47 we find for the first time the doctrine which was taken over to make the ,christian ,millennium4 ,the writer of ,,ii ,enoch was an ,egyptian ,jew4 ,he says that as the world was made in six days1 its course will run for six thousand years4 ,the #fjjj years will be followed by a ,messianic kingdom of rest and blessedness lasting #ajjj years4 ,after that follows the final judgment1 ,the great day of the ,lord4 ,passing now to the ,new ,testament1 it is only necessary for our purpose to enumerate three different concepts of the ,messianic kingdom that are found therein4 ,in these concepts contemporaneous ,jewish ideas are taken with more or less transformation4 ,the first conception perhaps holds the idea of a present world kingdom but puts emphasis on the futurity of the kingdom4 ,its ultimate consumation is not by gradual1 natural development1 but by the catastrophic reappearance of ,christ4 ,this ,second ,advent is to be preceded by tremendous portents of the most terrible sort4 ,the second conception is that the kingdom is already present in ,christ's appearance as the ,messiah4 ,it is to grow by the natural laws of spiritual development to its full realization4 ,a considerable length of time is conceived as necessary for the attainment of mature growth4 ,the consumation of the kingdom in the ,second ,advent is to be unexpected and sudden and none but the ,father knows when it will take place4 ,the third conception1 that of ,chiliasm1 is that the ,second ,advent of ,christ is close at hand4 ,anti ,christ and his confederates are to be destroyed at ,megiddo4 ,satan is to be bound for #ajjj years during which is the ,millennium1 when the martyrs are raised in the first resurrection and reign with ,christ at ,jerusalem4 ,this conception is found in the ,revelation and perhaps ,i ,cor4 ,,xv1 #bd-bg4 ,all the essential elements of it are to be found in pre-existing sources1 e4g41 the #ajjj years in ,,ii ,enoch1 the reign of the saints in ,testaments of the ,,xii ,patriarchs1 etc4 ,these three conceptions were variously confused in early ,christianity4 ,all the ,new ,testament writers hold1 for instance1 to the immediately imminent ,second ,advent4 ,how many of them were ,chiliasts we have no way of knowing4 ,the earliest1 ,christian writing extant outside the ,new ,testament1 which deals with this subject is perhaps ,papias1 #gj-aee ,a4,d4 ,he is a most materialistic ,chiliast and quotes ,,ii ,baruch as an authentic utterance of ,christ handed to himself by apostolic tradition4#e ,barnabas is another apostolic ,chiliast4 ,he expressly teaches a millennial reign of ,christ on earth4 ,the six days of creation are the type of six periods of #ajjj years each4 ,the seventh day is the millennium1 since with ,god one day is as a thousand years4 ,the earthly1 millennial sabbath is to be followed by an eighth and eternal day in heaven4 ,the ,millennium is near at hand4 ,barnabas does not quote ,revelation4 ,his views can be drawn equally well or better from ,,ii ,enoch1 ,i ,enoch and other ,jewish sources4 ,the first ,chiliast we know of to get into disrepute was the famous heretic1 ,cerinthus1 7last part of first century74 ,his heresy had nothing to do with his ,chiliasm1 as it seems to have been a sort of ,judaistic ,gnosticism and ,gnosticism in general was not favorable to ,chiliasm4 ,however the fact that so abhorrent a heretic held ,chiliastic views did not help those views in the judgment of later ,christians4 ,about the end of the first century also ,chiliasm came into rather disreputable prominence as a leading doctrine of the ,ebionites1 a sect of antitrinitarian ,judaistic-,christian heretics4 ,this sect was wide spread though not particularly numerous and aroused the bitter antagonism of the orthodox4 ,as in the case of ,cerinthus1 their heresy had nothing necessarily to do with ,chiliasm4 ,but here again ,chiliasm had the misfortune to get into bad company4 ,in the middle of the second century ,chiliasm appears to have been the belief of the majority of ,christians though it never found formal expression in any creed4 ,justin ,martyn1 #aaj-afe ,a4,d41 tells us that ,christ is to reign with the patriarchs for #ajjj years in a rebuilt ,jerusalem4 ,he bases this belief on ,rev4 ,,xx1 #d-e and says he holds this doctrine as part of the body of ,christian faith4 ,he adds1 however1 that many good and true ,christians think otherwise4 ,this later statement is the more notable as it is the only difference between orthodox ,christians which he mentions4 ,he places the ,ebionites outside the ,christian pale4 ,the first non-,chiliasts we meet with in ,christian history are the ,gnostics4 ,of their actual position on ,chiliasm we know practically nothing except by inference4 ,they did not apparently fight it4 ,they simply tacitly ignored it4 ,in the long and minute descriptions of various ,gnostic systems that have come down to us nothing is said on the subject2 but the systems as outlined leave no place for the ,chiliastic doctrines4 ,the first open enemies of ,chiliasm that are to be found in the ,church are the ,alogi1 a sect that flourished in ,asia ,minor about #afj-ahj ,a4,d4 ,according to ,harnack3 ,the representatives of this movement were1 as far as we know1 the first in the ,church to undertake a historical criticism1 worthy of the name1 of the ,christian scriptures and the ,church tradition4#f ,they were rationalisticly inclined1 desired to keep prophecy out of the ,church and denied on essentially the same internal grounds as modern students1 the ,johannine authorship of the ,revelation and also of the ,fourth ,gospel4 ,with less reason they ascribed the ,revelation to the heretic ,cerinthus4 ,unfortunately we know but little about them4 ,hippolytus wrote against them and defended the apostolic authorship of ,revelation and the ,fourth ,gospel in two books now lost4 ,but the ,alogi are criticised only mildly1 and indeed ,irenaeus does not class them as heretics at all4 ,opposition to ,chiliasm was manifestly not looked upon as an important matter in the last quarter of the second century--at least in ,rome4#g ,to this same period belong the writings of ,gaius of ,rome who asserts that the ,heretic ,cerinthus wrote the ,revelation1 and also those of ,bishop ,melito of ,sardis1 a saint of great repute1 who was an ardent ,chiliast4 ,so that at this period both ,chiliasm and non-,chiliasm would seem to be perhaps equally wide spread and certainly equally permissable4 ,irenaeus1 ,bishop of ,lyons #abj-bjb ,a4,d41 was a strong ,chiliast4 ,he describes in minute detail the overthrow of the ,roman ,empire1 the reign of ,anti-,christ for #abfj days 7three and half years7 the visible advent of ,christ1 the binding of ,satan1 the joyful reign of ,christ in the rebuilt ,jerusalem with the risen saints and martyrs over the nations of the world for a thousand years4 ,then follows the temporary raging of ,satan1 the last victory1 the general resurrection and judgment1 and the consumation of all things in a new heaven and a new earth4 ,the ascription of genuine divine inspiration to the ,sibylline ,oracles by the early ,church writers is well known4 ,it is a noteworthy fact that the ,chiliasts#h seem to be much more inclined to quote the ,oracles than the non-,chiliasts4 ,the ,christians' addiction to the ,oracles called forth the derision of ,celsus4#i ,origen makes no defense and it is at least possible to conjecture that the reason is that he disapproved of the use made of the ,oracles by the ,chiliasts4 ,the ,oracles were of course made use of by all sorts of agencies which for any reason wished ill to the ,roman authority and yet dared not indulge in secular sedition4 ,some enthusiastic ,chiliast put forth an ,oracle1 probably in the reign of ,marcus ,aurelius1 which was more definite than prudent4 ,according to this prediction the end of ,rome and the final consumation of all things was due in the year #aie-aif ,a4,d4#aj ,there is reason to believe that this prophecy represented the belief of a considerable number of ,christian ,chiliasts4 ,while there is no extant evidence to that effect1 it is a rational deduction1 that when the year #aie-aif ,a4,d4 passed without any unusual occurrences1 the prestige of the persons trusting the ,oracle would be damaged4 ,so far as these persons were ,chiliasts1 ,chiliasm would suffer in repute4 ,that this was actually the case is as nearly certain as any logical conclusion about psychological reactions well can be4 ,about the year #aef ,a4,d4 there arose in ,phrygia the movement called ,montanism4 ,essentially it was a reaction against the growing secularization of ,christianity4 ,it spread to the rest of ,asia ,minor1 ,egypt1 ,italy1 ,spain1 and especially ,carthage and surrounding districts in ,north ,africa4 ,it was the strongest movement in favor of a revival of primitive ,puritanism that occurs in early ,church history4 ,it lasted in the ,east almost till the ,arab ,invasion2 in the ,west it did not die out until the time of ,augustine4 ,the ,montanists are the most pronounced ,chiliasts we meet with4 ,not indeed in their theory but in their practice4 ,one ,syrian ,montanist bishop ,persuaded many brethren with their wives and children to go to meet ,christ in the wilderness2 another in ,pontus induced his people to sell all their possessions1 to cease tilling their lands1 to conclude no more marriages1 etc41 because the coming of the ,lord was nigh at hand4#aa ,the ,montanist prophetess1 ,prisca1 about #afe ,a4,d4 said3 ,after me there will come no other prophetess but the end4 ,a peculiarity of eastern ,montanistic ,chiliasm was the idea that ,christ would reign not in ,jerusalem but in ,pepuza1 a small town in ,phrygia4 ,in accord with this idea ,montanus tried to get all believers to settle in this town to await the ,lord's coming4 ,the western ,montanists however1 of whom ,tertullian was chief1 held to the regular belief that the ,messianic kingdom would be centered in ,jerusalem4 ,because of certain theological beliefs aside from ,chiliasm1 the ,montanists aroused the antagonism of the ,church authorities4 ,the earliest ,church councils to be met with after ,new ,testament times were called for the purpose of dealing with ,montanism which was finally denounced as a heresy and after the triumph of the ,church some imperial edicts were issued against the sect4 ,for the first time in the attack on ,montanism at the end of the second and early part of the third ,century we find ,chiliastic beliefs referred to as 'carnal and ,jewish4' ,there is no formal condemnation of ,chiliasm as such1 but once more1 and much more seriously than in the case of the ,ebionites1 ,chiliasm suffered from being associated in the minds of orthodox ,christians with heresy and schism4 ,it would however be very easy to exaggerate the effect of this and it is necessary to bear in mind that while the literature of ,montanism is fairly considerable1 ,chiliasm is an entirely subordinate matter in the controversy and indeed seems sometimes to be mentioned merely casually4 ,the ,chiliastic writers are perhaps more inclined to view ,montanism leniently4 ,irenaeus does not include it in his list of heresies4 ,its association with ,montanism brought ,chiliasm into disrepute and suspicion with the ,church hierarchy and it is not surprising that beginning with the last years of the second century we find a deliberate system of suppression adopted by certain ecclesiastical authorities--notably in ,egypt4 ,as we shall try to show later1 the declension of ,chiliasm can be only very imperfectly explained by official antagonism4 ,but so far as this declension can be ascribed to individuals1 the three great ,alexandrian divines2 ,clement1 ,origen1 and ,dionysius have a prominent part4 ,the influence of these men counted the more as it was consistently exercised in the same locality with increasing force during a period of more than half a century4 ,the first of these writers1 ,clement 7#aej-baf ,a4,d47 does not specifically refer to the ,chiliasts but there are a number of passages where he evidently has them in mind4#ab ,however the probability is that this very refraining from direct attack made his efforts the more successful4 ,he emphasizes the fact that scriptural statements--particularly scriptural numbers--are not to be taken literally but are to be understood as of mystical significance4 ,if ,clement consciously aimed at the extirpation of ,chiliasm 7which is not absolutely certain7 he at any rate took the most effective means for accomplishing that result4 ,the great presupposition upon which ,christian ,chiliasm has been based is that of the literal interpretation of ,scripture4 ,by attacking that presupposition ,clement caused the doctrine to be questioned by many persons whose attachment to ,chiliasm would doubtless have only been strengthened by direct attack upon that tenet in particular4 ,he prepared the way for the open and far more powerful attacks upon ,chiliasm made by his great successor in the ,catechetical ,school1 ,origen 7#ahe-bed ,a4,d474 ,the position of this great theologian is the most equivocal of any writer who has attained eminence in ,christian theology4 ,how far anything he wrote is to be considered as orthodox is a most difficult matter to determine4 ,the fact that ,origen opposed ,chiliasm1 taken by itself1 apart from the subsequent fate of the doctrine1 could just as easily be made a commendation as a condemnation of that belief4 ,almost alone among ,christian men ,origen has been removed from the calendar of ,catholic saints after having been duly received as a saint for the space of more than a hundred and fifty years4 ,this unique fact1 which is of course of far more importance for theology than for history1 has nevertheless a bearing on our subject4 ,the condemnation of ,origen came too late to save the ,chiliastic apologetic in the ,east but it very possibly may have had an indirect influence in the matter of continuing the repute of western ,chiliasm4 ,origen attacked ,chiliasm in two vital points3 ,first he insisted even more strongly than ,clement upon the figurative or mystical or 'typical' interpretation of ,scripture4 ,in this regard he specifically quotes a number of ,chiliastic passages of scripture and definitely says that their meaning is to be taken figuratively4#ac ,but more important than that1 he definitely substitutes the theory of progressive development of the intellectual and spiritual element of man for the physical and sensuous earthly kingdom of the ,chiliasts4 ,this was certainly a great gain for the anti-,chiliastic theory which for the first time took a logical and comprehensible if a somewhat metaphysical form4 ,however it must be admitted that the argument of ,origen though wonderfully clear headed and almost miraculously modern#ad is too purely intellectual and cast in too philosophical a form to have any direct influence on ordinary individuals4 ,it was doubtless quite in place in the ,catechetical ,school and among scholars in the great centers of ancient learning but outside those limits its influence--at least directly--must have been very small4 ,nepos1 an ,egyptian bishop1 answered ,origen in a book entitled3 ,refutation of ,allegorists4 ,this book is lost but we know that it was considered by the ,chiliasts to be a work of the most powerful and indeed irrefutable sort4 ,in the ,arsinoite nome 7on the west bank of the ,nile south of ,memphis7 the ,chiliastic doctrines were held by whole villages together and ,dionysius the ,great 7,bishop of ,alexandria #bdg-bfd ,a4,d47 found it necessary to visit this region and hold a public argument and instruction in order to avert a schism4 ,by the tact and conciliatory attitude of the ,bishop the ,chiliasts were either won over to the non-,chiliastic view or at least expressed their gratification at the conference4 ,it would appear1 however1 as if this synod or meeting was not sufficient to destroy the influence of ,nepos' book so ,dionysius wrote in refutation of it two books ,on the ,promises4 ,except for a few fragments these books have perished4 ,we know merely that the first book contained a statement of the non-,chiliastic view and the second a detailed discussion of the ,revelation in relation to ,chiliasm and to the views of ,nepos4 ,however1 ,dionysius1 who was well aware that as long as the ',revelation of ,st4 ,john' was received as a genuine work of the ,apostle it would be difficult to oppose ,chiliasm1 gives a very strong argument against the apostolic authorship while diplomatically saying at the beginning of his discussion that he is able to agree that the ,revelation is the work of a holy and inspired man4#ae ,there is no reason to doubt that this refutation of ,nepos by ,dionysius met with success wherever ,christian ,hellenisticism exercised influence4 ,but it by no means extirpated ,chiliasm in ,egypt4 ,for many generations after its author's death ,chiliasm was still believed by the monks of the ,thebiad4 ,in fact a large number of ,jewish ,apocalypses which the early ,christians accepted as inspired are preserved to us bound up in ,coptic and ,ethiopic copies of the scriptures4 ,the ,alexandrians had1 however1 succeeded so well that in the subsequent period there are only two defenders of ,chiliasm in the ,eastern ,church that are worthy of mention4 ,these two are ,methodius of ,tyre and ,apollinaris of ,laodicea4 ,methodius #bfj-cab ,a4,d4 was bishop first of ,olympus and ,patara in ,lycia and afterwards of ,tyre in ,phoenicia4 ,he is notable for his opposition to ,origen and for his relatively more spiritualized ,chiliasm4 ,he maintains that in the ,millennium1 death will be abolished and the inhabitants of the earth will not marry or beget children but live in all happiness like the angels without change or decay4 ,he is very careful to insist upon the literal resurrection of the body1 however1 and emphasizes the fact that the risen saints while like the angels do not become angels4#af ,he died a martyr at ,chalcis in ,greece4 ,apollinaris of ,laodicea 7#cjj8-cij ,a4,d47 is a notable figure in ,christological controversy but unfortunately very little that he wrote has come down to us1 and of that little the authenticity is not entirely unimpeachable4 ,we are constrained to get his ,chiliastic views from the writings of his theological opponents and unfortunately there is not wanting evidence to the effect that these opponents1 ,basil the ,great and ,gregory ,nazianzen1 notable ,christians as they were1 were not lacking in bias4 ,gregory#ag calls the ,chiliastic doctrine of the ,apolinarians 'gross and carnal1' a 'second ,judaism' and speaks of 'their silly thousand years delight in paradise4' ,basil#ah calls the ,chiliasm of ,apolinaris 'mythical or rather ,jewish1' 'ridiculous1' and 'contrary to the doctrines of the ,gospel4' ,this is1 so far as the writer is aware1 the first instance in which any great theologian goes to such extremes and ,basil's language1 though strong1 is not altogether without an element of hesitation and questioning4 ,in short it would seem that he asserted more than he felt sure of being able to prove--no rare phenomenon unfortunately in certain of the great contraversialists4 ,if ,basil's statements are to be taken at their face value ,apollinaris was indeed the most ,judaizing ,christian in his ,chiliasm of any of whom we have record4 ,he would seem to justify ,basil's jibe 'we are to be altogether turned from ,christians into ,jews1' for in his ,messianic kingdom not only is the ,temple at ,jerusalem to be restored but also the worship of the old ,law1 with high priest1 sacrifices1 the ashes of a heifer1 the jealousy offering1 shew bread1 burning lamps1 circumcision and other such things which ,basil indignantly denounces as 'figments1' 'mere old wives' fables' and 'doctrines of ,jews4'#ai ,although ,apollinarianism was condemned by a council at ,alexandria as early as #cfb ,a4,d4 and ,roman councils followed suit in #cgg and #cgh and the second ,ecumenical ,council in #cha and though ,imperial degrees were issued against it in #chh1 #cig and #dbh it persisted for many generations4 ,the last condemnation on record is that of the ,quinisextum ,synod #fia ,a4,d4 ,in this case1 as in others mentioned1 we see the unfortunate fate of ,chiliasm in getting mixed up with heresies with which it1 as such1 had nothing to do4 ,the extraordinary detestation which overtook ,apollinaris as arch-heretic par excellence seems to have finally discouraged ,chiliasm in the ,eastern ,church4 ,it was reckoned as a heresy thereafter and though it appears sporadically down to our own day it is of no more interest for our purpose4 ,in the ,western ,church ,chiliasm prevailed until the time of ,augustine4 ,it seems to have provoked very little discussion or controversy4 ,hippolytus1 #bce ,a4,d41 carries on the ,chiliastic tradition of ,irenaeus but with a certain degree of assured futurity about the ,second ,advent not found in the earlier writers4 ,this pushing of the ,second ,advent into the future is a marked feature of ,western ,chiliasm4 ,by a weird use of 'types' ,hippolytus proves with entire conclusiveness to himself that the ,second ,advent is to occur in the year #ejj ,a4,d4#bj ,the overthrow of ,rome has a prominent part in his elaborate description of the last times but he veils his statements with a certain amount of transparent discretion4#ba ,he has in all other essential respects the same ideas as ,irenaeus but expressed in a less nave form4 ,he is a transition figure4 ,his ,second ,advent is far enough off to allow some considerable latitude for the building up of the ecclesiastical hierarchy which was the business of ,rome and he emphasizes the point that the gospel must first be preached to all nations4 ,john the ,baptist reappears as the precursor of ,christ4 ,commodianus1 a ,north ,african bishop1 #bdj ,a4,d41 represents the generation after ,hippolytus4 ,his two poems present rather different versions of ,chiliasm4 ,the first is a simple and rather pleasing version4#bb ,the only notable variation it contains is that the risen saints in the ,millennial ,kingdom are to be served by the nobles of the conquered anti-,christ4 ,the second poem is an apologetic against ,jews and ,gentiles4 ,the author expects the end of the world will come with the seventh persecution4 ,the ,goths will conquer ,rome and redeem the ,christians2 but then ,nero will appear again as the heathen anti-,christ1 reconquer ,rome and rage against the ,christians three years and a half4 ,he will in turn be conquered by the ,jewish and real anti-,christ from the ,east1 who1 after the defeat of ,nero and the burning of ,rome1 will return to ,judea1 perform false miracles and be worshipped by the ,jews4 ,at last ,christ appears with the lost tribes1 as his army1 who had lived beyond ,persia in happy simplicity and virtue4 ,under astounding phenomena of nature he will conquer anti-,christ and his host1 convert all nations and take possession of the holy city of ,jerusalem4#bc ,this double anti-,christ is perhaps the most notable variation4 ,this idea reappears later1 as does the ,nero return which would seem to have been current belief4 ,there are perhaps only two other writers before ,augustine that are worthy of mention1 ,victorinus and ,lactantius4 ,victorinus1 bishop of ,poetovio1 i4e41 ,petair in ,austria1 martyred #cjd ,a4,d41 is the earliest exegete of the ,latin ,church4 ,his ',commentary on the ,apocalypse' has come down to us in bad shape4 ,the ,chiliasm is of a type which may be described as formal and ritualistic in the sense that it is expressed in a matter of fact way as something not needing explanation1 much less proof4 ,there are only two new ideas3 ,the first resurrection is now of the souls that are by the faith1 which does not permit men to pass over to the second death#bd and ,those years wherein ,satan is bound are in the first advent of ,christ even to the end of the age2 and they are called a thousand according to that mode of speaking wherein a part is signified by the whole--although they are not a thousand4#be ,lactantius the preceptor of ,crispus1 son of ,constantine1 brings us to the ,chiliasm of the established ,church4 ,the end of the present age and the coming of the millennial kingdom are at the latest #bjj years in the future1 probably nearer1 but the event instead of being looked toward to1 is dreaded4 ,the forthcoming destruction of ,rome is bewailed4 ,the world is safe as long as ,rome stands4 ,nero is to be anti-,christ4 ,they who shall be alive in their bodies shall not die1 but during those thousand years shall produce an infinite multitude1 and their offspring shall be holy and beloved of ,god2 but they who shall be raised from the dead shall preside over the living as judges4 ,the nations shall not be entirely extinguished1 but some shall be left as a victory for ,god1 that they may be the occasion of triumph to the righteous and may be subjected to perpetual slavery4#bf ,the ,chiliasm of ,lactantius is proved from the ,sibylline ,oracles and from the philosopher ,chrysippus1 a ,stoic4 ,for the rest ,lactantius repeats the traditional ,christian and pre-,christian ,jewish ,chiliastic concepts with very little variation1 but it is evident that the fact that the fall of ,rome is dreaded will work out a change4 ,the ,chiliasm of ,lactantius is unstable1 not that there is the slightest breath of doubt about it1 but that the attitude of mind which looked forward with dread to the ,second ,advent could be depended upon to find a theory for postponing it4 ,chiliasm is ready for its transformation4 ,in the century between ,lactantius and ,augustine there is no ,chiliast of note in the west4 ,it is abundantly evident however1 from the works of ,augustine that ,chiliasm was common during that period as well as in the time of ,augustine4 ,indeed ,augustine himself was a ,chiliast though probably not an exceedingly literal one1 during his early period in the ,church4#bg ,it is certain that he never regarded the doctrine as heretical4 ,even in the very book in which he puts forth the doctrine which eventually superseded ,chiliasm he says3 ,this opinion would not be objectionable if it were believed that the joys of the saints in that ,sabbath#bg shall be spiritual and consequent on the presence of ,god4#bh ,we have in this quotation a hint as to the reason why he abandoned ,chiliasm4 ,he elaborates this in the immediately following passage3 ,as they say that those who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets1 furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate1 but even to surpass the measure of credulity itself1 such assertions can be believed only by the carnal4#bi ,disgust with this literal interpretation of the scripture was thus one of the reasons which drew ,augustine away from ,chiliasm4 ,a more direct reason was that he had an idea of his own as to how the ,chiliastic ,scriptural passage#cj should be interpreted4 ,the discussion in which he vanquishes the ,chiliastic concept is a model of contraversial method4 ,it would be difficult to find its superior either in sacred or profane polemics4 ,perfectly conscious of his own powers to make ,chiliasm appear at once absurd and ridiculous he refrains from doing so4 ,abundantly able though he was to refute the ,millennians point by point he deliberately foregoes that method of attack4 ,his argument which overthrew an ancient1 famous1 and widespread doctrine of primitive ,christianity contains hardly a line either of refutation or condemnation4 ,it is perhaps the finest example in ,christian literature of the 'positive apologetic4' ,the ,chiliastic literature1 even that which has come down to us1 contains so much that is fantastic and ludicrous that it would have been very easy for a man of far less power than ,augustine to hold it up to contempt and scorn4 ,it abounds in the same kind of absurdities and incongruities as the pagan myths which provoked so many stinging pages from the early apologists and from ,augustine himself4 ,the fact that ,augustine did not yield to the temptation to make his opponents ridiculous is in the highest degree creditable to his head and his heart4 ,he did not violate the precepts of ,christian charity and he obtained a victory greater than would have been within even his power had he yielded to the natural temptation of a great intellect to show up the mental inferiority of his opponents4 ,it is interesting to compare ,augustine's treatment of ,chiliasm with ,origen's4 ,the two men are very comparable as regards extent and variety of knowledge1 intellectual power1 and philosophic insight4 ,they are very unlike however1 in their treatment of the subject4 ,origen simply explains away the whole ,chiliastic concept or rather so spiritualizes it that nothing resembling the original idea is left4 ,his whole insistence is that it must be taken figuratively1 and without the least warrant he asserts that his interpretation is according to the understanding of the apostles4#ca ,he makes the whole subject so subjective1 so intellectual1 so metaphysical that there is left no content for the ordinary man to hold to in place of that which is demolished4 ,in the overthrow of ,eastern ,chiliasm ,origen holds as conspicuous a position as ,augustine in the overthrow of ,western4 ,he did away with a doctrine1 too carnal perhaps1 but at any rate concrete and comforting1 and he substituted an intellectual abstraction4 ,for instance in explaining1 or better explaining away1 the ,chiliastic feasts in the ,new ,jerusalem he says3#cb ,the rational nature growing by each individual step1 enlarged in understanding and in power of perception is increased in intellectual growth2 and ever gazing purely on the causes of things it attains perfection1 firstly1 viz41 that by which it ascends to the truth1 and secondly that by which it abides in it1 having problems and the understanding of things and the causes of things as the food on which it may feast4 ,and in all things this food is to be understood as the contemplation and understanding of ,god1 which is of a measure appropriate and suitable to this nature1 which was made and created1 etc4 ,this kind of thing is the intellectual equivalent of the process in physics by which the scientist takes some tangible solid body and proceeds first to liquify it1 then to volitilize it and finally to blow it entirely away4 ,we strongly suspect that the ,eastern ,chiliasts felt that the whole thing was a kleptistic legerdemain by which they were deprived of a favorite doctrine without receiving anything in place of it4 ,augustine's method differs toto caelo from this4 ,while ,origen handles the subject like a metaphysician1 ,augustine handles it like a statesman4 ,his doctrine is just as concrete as the one he displaces4 ,he takes nothing away without giving something equally tangible and of better quality in its place4 ,the transition from ,chiliasm to the ,origenistic conception of the future1 would be1 for the ordinary person1 an incredible and almost impossible intellectual feat4 ,the transition from ,chiliasm to the ,augustinian conception of the future is natural1 easy1 and perfectly within the power of a very ordinary and commonplace mentality4 ,as a matter of fact it made its way without the smallest difficulty into the religious consciousness of the whole of western ,christianity4 ,any person who aims at changing the theological opinions of others can find no better manual of method than the twentieth book of the ,city of ,god4 ,augustine was very careful to keep all the symbols1 catch words1 and paraphernalia of ,chiliasm4 ,he was careful not only to keep them all but to keep them all in their literal sense4 ,he explains away none of them and allegorizes none of them4 ,by carefully preserving the ancient shibboleths he was easily able to empty them of their former content4 ,he holds to the millennium1 the idea that is1 of thousand years1 as firmly as any ,chiliast but he says the thousand years is to be reckoned as dating from the establishment of the ,church on earth i4e41 the first coming of ,christ4 ,so he is careful to preserve the phrase3 ,the ,reign of the ,saints2 he merely substitutes for the ,chiliastic content of that phase the very comfortable and plausable doctrine that the saints are his own ,christian contemporaries4 ,he is very skillful1 not to say flattering1 in his method of 'putting this across4' ,so he retains similarly the old formula about the two resurrections--but makes the first resurrection out to be the marvelous transformation and participation in the resurrection of ,christ which the ,christian experiences by virtue of the sacrament of baptism4 ,more important still is his new content for the phrase ,kingdom of ,heaven4 ,this instead of a state of future blessedness becomes the already existing church on earth4 ,finally he indulges in a long and apparently straight faced discussion as to whether the reign of anti-,christ--which he preserves in its most literal form with the regulation duration of three years and a half--whether this is to be reckoned as part of the thousand years or not4 ,this inconsequential detail is labored at length in such a manner as to delight the soul of any good ,bible reading ,chiliast4 ,by preserving till the last this single element of ,chiliasm which he leaves untouched and then treating it in the good1 old1 religious fashion of ,irenaeus or some other primitive worthy1 he very skillfully disarms criticism and it is only by a strong effort that the reader realizes what a tremendous blow has been struck at the original ,chiliastic doctrine4 ,let us see what the changes of ,augustine amount to4 ,it is not less than the total destruction of ,chiliasm1 or at the very least the postponement of the end of the world till the year #ajjj ,a4,d4 ,augustine's doctrine is essentially that of the ordinary1 orthodox1 ,bible ,christian today4 ,sometime in the future--,augustine said possibly in the year #ajjj ,a4,d4--,christ was to come again to the earth4 ,then follows the resurrection of the dead1 the final judgment1 and heaven and hell4 ,the questions about the three years and a half of anti-,christ1 together with ,gog and ,magog--great favorites with the ,chiliasts--are held to be insoluble as to the time of their appearance2 whether to be reckoned as part of the thousand years or immediately succeeding it4 ,it is commonly said that ,augustine is responsible for the belief that the world was to come to an end in the year #ajjj ,a4,d4 ,this is not strictly correct4 ,augustine nowhere makes that direct assertion4 ,he nowhere--so far as the writer is aware--even implies it4 ,what he does is to offer it as a possible alternative hypothesis to the idea that the thousand years1 7since #ajjj is the cube of #aj17 is to be taken as a statement of the total duration of the world4 ,as the matter is of some interest we give the original passage in ,dod's translation3#cc ,now the thousand years may be understood in two ways so far as occurs to me3 either because these things happen in the sixth thousand of years or sixth millennium 7the latter part of which is now passing7 as if during the sixth day1 which is to be followed by a sabbath which has no evening1 the endless rest of the saints1 so that1 speaking of a part under the name of the whole1 he calls the last part of the millennium--the part that is which had yet to expire before the end of the world--a thousand years2 or he used the thousand years as an equivalent for the whole duration of this world1 employing the number of perfection to mark the fullness of time4 ,for a thousand is the cube of ten4444 ,for the same reason we cannot better interpret the words of the psalm4 ,the word which he commanded to a thousand generations1 than by understanding it to mean1 to all generations4 ,the above sketch summarizes essentially all that has survived about the ,chiliasm of the early ,church4 ,the ,chiliastic passages in the ,church literature up to and including ,augustine1 though rather widely scattered1 are not great in bulk4 ,if printed together they would make only a moderate sized pamphlet4 ,but their importance is by no means to be measured by their size4 ,chiliasm1 better than any other movement of the early period1 serves as a standard for measuring the degree of the socialization of ,christianity4 ,it comprises the only body of doctrine which passed from practically universal acceptance to practically universal repudiation during the period when the ,church changed from a small esoteric cult to a dominant factor of society4 ,considered from this point of view1 the causes of the decline of ,chiliasm possess a historical importance out of all proportion to the importance of ,chiliasm itself4 ,more than any other religious movement of the time ,chiliasm was free from the direct pressure of distinctly religious influences4 ,its declension was more nearly a case of unconscious social and psychological determinism than any other contemporary theological phenomenon4 ,its chief supporters and opponents are not to be regarded so much as factors in its history1 as points where the socializing forces operating in the early ,church become for the moment visible4 ,certain facts stand out even in the short epitome we have given4 ,chiliasm never became powerful in the great cities4 ,it survived longest and was most popular in regions#cd comparatively cut off from the great centers of civilization4 ,hellenizing influences were unfavorable to it1 ,romanizing influences indifferent to it4 ,the reasons for this are numerous and most of them have been treated sufficiently by previous investigators1 but in the writer's judgment certain other important influences have been either slighted or entirely ignored4 ,we shall consider one or two4 ,the supremely important fact in early ,christian history is the development of the concept of ,the ,church as an independent1 self-existing1 metaphysical entity4 ,this metaphysical entity was conceived as embodying itself in the whole body of believers2 living1 dead1 and yet to be born4 ,the entity was eternal1 indestructible1 and in its essence immutable4 ,although partially embodied in a visible society its essential being was conceived as independently sustained in the nature of the universe4 ,it was an idea in the strict ,platonic sense4 ,no concept like this is found in the contemporary pagan cults4 ,even the ,jewish concept of the 'chosen people' is ethnic or national rather than purely religious and it has no tinge of that metaphysical existence which is the most notable element in the ,catholic concept of the ,church4 ,the elements out of which 'the ,church' concept was constructed were four3 two ,roman1 one ,greek and one ,hebrew4 ,the ,roman lawyers1 in the process of fitting a municipal legal system to a world empire1 evolved the twin legal entities1 'state' and 'sovereignty4' ,these entities were endowed with divers qualities2 eternity1 immutability1 etc41 but especially with the quality of having existential reality apart from any individual embodiment thereof4 ,greek philosophy contributed the idea of the ,cosmopolis1 the ideal world-city in which the fullest development of human personality was to be attained4 ,this concept was as purely metaphysical as the self-existing1 absolute 'state' of the ,roman law1 but unlike the ,roman concept it had no concrete existence4 ,the ,jewish contribution was that of the 'chosen people1' 'the elect nation4' ,these four concepts were transferred from their original loci to the ,christian society4 ,the fact that all of these concepts were combined and centered on the same social group and the further fact that each of these concepts supplemented the others in a remarkable way resulted in the formation of one of the most powerful ideas in religious history4 ,this ,church concept1 thus built up1 had already become widespread in the time of ,augustine and this fact helps us to understand the otherwise unintelligible success of that saint in combatting ,chiliasm4 ,the real truth is seen to be that ,augustine's ideas succeeded because they were not peculiarly his at all--they already existed1 implicitly but really1 in the mind of the generation which he addressed4 ,the elements of the concept 'the ,church' being what they were1 ,augustine's explanation of1 or rather abolition of1 ,chiliasm follows of inevitable logical and intellectual necessity4 ,it was the genius of ,augustine that he recognized and gave formulated1 concrete expression to this accomplished fact and it is no derogation of his genius to say that had he never existed the accomplished fact would eventually have been given expression to by some one else4 ,another little considered element in ,chiliasm is that of masochism1 and sadism1 the two being merely the opposite sides of the same psychical phenomenon4 ,this element is found more or less prominently in all the ,chiliastic literature from the early fragment of ,papias to the elaborate discussions of ,augustine4 ,the masochistic phenomena are the most remarkable characteristics of the early martyrdoms and if a collection were made of the masochistic passages of the writings of the ,chiliasts1 the bulk of them would be as great as that of the ,chiliastic passages proper4 ,it is necessary to bear in mind that masochism necessarily1 in any advanced society1 disguises itself under some socially acceptable form of sentiment or emotion1 i4e41 admiration for the constancy of the confessors or martyrs1 suffering as a mark of the true ,church1 etc4 ,it is always associated with the reality or idea of struggle4 ,it has a high 'survival value' in the struggle for existence by heightening individual power in conflict4 ,like other human characteristics it is seen most clearly in the exaggerated form it assumes in its crowd manifestations4 ,its most evident expression is in the 'mob mind4' ,our problem1 then1 is to discover how the declension of ,chiliasm is to be explained by the transfer of the masochistic element in it to other vehicles of expression4 ,the masochistic element was a vital factor in ,chiliasm2 without it almost the whole force of 'the thousand years reign of the saints' is lost4 ,the explanation of the transfer is difficult4 ,undoubtedly some of the masochistic values of ,chiliasm were taken over by the various1 previously mentioned concepts that combined to make up the idea of the ,catholic ,church4 ',extra ecclesia nulla salus' accounts for part of the phenomena previously expressed ,chiliastically4 ,it is notable in this connection that there is no word of ,chiliasm in ,cyprian4 ,but a more important transfer was that which took place in the course of the development of the doctrine of purgatory4 ,it may perhaps seem incongruous to say that purgatory took over the values of the millennium and from the point of view of formal theology it is so4 ,but the only point we are trying to make here1 namely1 the fundamental fact of the expression of masochistic impulses1 is as evidently shown in the purgatory as in the millennium concept4 ,the desire for a heightened sense of self-realization1 a richer content of experience1 is the cause of the appearance of both concepts and they are closely allied psychologically4 ,this fact comes out in the large part played by the ,chiliasts in the evolution of the purgatory concept4#ce ,what we find here is a concurrent declension of ,chiliasm and development of purgatory4 ,for about two centuries the two concepts existed side by side2 then the superior social value of purgatory asserting itself1 that doctrine gradually took over the masochistic values of ,chiliasm2 the supersession of the later being rendered thereby more rapid and easy4 ,however it is probably that the transfer of the psychological values from ,chiliasm was more to be ascribed to the rising asceticism of the early ,church than to the concept of the ,church as such1 or even to the rise of the purgatory concept4 ,asceticism in some form is a permanent element in any wide spread religion and the values later expressed in ,christian asceticism were in the earlier period mediated through ,chiliasm4 ,when ,st4 ,paul advocated abstinence from marriage 'because the time is short' he was not expressing asceticism4 ,he was expressing a sensible idea based on belief in one of the chief ,chiliastic doctrines1 the immediate imminence of the ,second ,advent4 ,in the case of such teachers as ,tertullian the doctrine of marriage is the result of a combination of ,chiliasm and asceticism4 ,at a later date asceticism took over the doctrine of celibacy as meritorious on its own account but it never outgrew the original ,chiliastic view that it was a logical preparation for the ,second ,advent4 ,in other words restriction in matrimony whether ,chiliastic or monastic is due to the same inherent element in human nature1 i4e41 the masochistic4 ,similarly those good ,phrygian ,chiliasts who abandoned all their possessions and went out into the desert to meet the ,lord were moved by the same psychological impulse that actuated the monks of the ,thebaid4 ,historically the one set of concepts imperceptibly gave way to the other4 ,those same ,thebaid monks are a good illustration of the fact4 ,some of them1 at least in the earlier stages of the movement1 were influenced more by ,chiliastic concepts than by monastic ones4 ,many were influenced by both4 ,here again the superior value of the ascetic concepts for the ecclesiastical organization determined the eventual survival of the monastic institution4 ,but whatever the conceptual images employed to give expression to the masochistic impulse1 that impulse was psychologically the same4 ,organized monachism furnished a more convenient outlet for the stronger masochistic impulses than ,chiliasm and so superseded it4 ,the fact that monachism grew in proportion as ,chiliasm declined is in this respect merely a case of trans-shipment4 ,the vehicle was different but the goods carried were the same4 ,there are numerous other social and psychological1 as well as economic causes for the declension of ,chiliasm but they can perhaps be more conveniently considered in connection with the socialization of the early ,church4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,f4 ,pollock1 ,essays in ,jurisprudence and ,ethics1 p4 #cad4 #b ,cf4 ,i ,enoch ,,xci-,,civ4 #c ,cf4 ,parables in ,i ,enoch ,,xxxvii-,,lxxi4 #d ,cf4 ,apocalypse of ,baruch2 #d ,ezra1 #d ,maccabees4 #e ,irenaeus ,adv4 ,haer4 ,v #cc4 ,,ii ,baruch ,,xxix4 #f ,hist4 of ,dogma1 ,vol4 ,,iii1 p4 #ai4 #g ,ens4 ,h4 ,e4 ,,vi #bg-b4 #h ,justin ,martyn1 ,tertullian1 ,lactantius4 #i ,ad4 ,celsus ,,lxi4 #aj ,sib4 ,orac4 ,,viii1 #adh seq4 #aa ,hippolytus1 ,com4 on ,daniel4 #ab ,strom4 ,,vii1 #ag2 ,,vi #af2 ,,iv #be2 ,v #f1 #ad4 #ac ,de ,princ1 ,,ii1 #aa4 #ad ,cf4 e4g41 ,a4 ,r4 ,wallace1 ,the ,world of ,life4 #ae ,eus4 ,h4 ,e4 ,,vii #be4 #af ,discourse on the ,resurrection1 ,i1 #i seq4 ,see also ,conviv4 ,,ix1 #a1 #e4 #ag ,ep4 ,,cii1 #d4 #ah ,ep4 ,,cclxiii1 #d4 #ai ,cp4 ,,cclxv1 #b4 #bj ,frag4 ,dan4 ,i1 #e1 #f4 #ba ,de ,christo et ,antic4 #ej4 #bb ,instructions1 ,,lxxx4 #bc ,schaff ,hist41 ii1 #hee4 ,sec4 ,,lxvii of poem4 #bd ,comm4 ,,xx #d4e4 #be ,comm4 ,,xx #a4c4 #bf ,div4 ,ins4 ,bk4 #g ,,xxiv4 #bg ,c4,d4 ,,xx #g4 #bh ,i4e41 the ,millennium4 #bi ,c4,d4 ,,xx #g4 #cj ,rev4 ,,xx4 #ca ,de ,prin4 ,,ii1 #aa1 #c4 #cb ,de ,prin4 ,,ii1 #aa1 #g4 #cc ,city of ,god in ,nicene and ,post ,nicene ,fathers1 #ast ,series1 ,vol4 ,,ii1 p4 #dbg4 #cd ,e4g41 ,lydia1 ,phrygia1 ,the ,thebaid4 #ce ,clem4 ,alex4 ,paed41 iii1 ,strom4 ,,vii4 ,origen1 ,hom4 on ,num41 ,,xxv4 ,hom4 on ,ps4 ,,xxvi4 ,lactantius1 ,,vii1 #bj4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,early ,,church ,,and ,,property ,,concepts ,the ,chiliasm of the early ,christians had a direct bearing upon their attitude toward the property institutions and property concepts of the time4 ,neither the declension of ,chiliasm nor the progressive socialization of the ,church can be understood without some consideration of the attitude of the ,christians toward property1 and conversely the effect of the existing economic system upon the ,christians4 ,the early ,church made its appearance in a world where the institution of private property was supreme in fact and very largely unquestioned in theory4 ,it is recognized with perfect clearness by all the ancient thinkers who refer to the subject that their civilization was based upon the property rights of man in man4 ,it is not true that slavery was invariably considered part of the unalterable law of nature4 ,aristotle expressly states that a sufficient development of mechanistic technology would abrogate slavery4 ,but such a technological development was not expected nor indeed wished for4 ,contempt for mechanical processes of industry was universal1 with the dubious exception of the application of science to military engines4 ,there is a similar unanimity in regard to commercial enterprise4 ,money obtained by ordinary mercantile methods was considered as dishonestly acquired4 ,it was assumed as self-evident that the merchant had to be a thief4 ,interest on money was of course reprobated as contrary to nature4#a ,return from landed property was almost the only socially reputable form of income--with the exception of spoils of war4 ,free wage labor was so unimportant that the ,roman law did not even develop a set of legal principles regarding it4 ,the ,jewish property system1 which originally had some notable peculiarities of its own1 had by the first century ,a4,d4 become of necessity so like the ,roman that the differences may for our purposes be disregarded4 ,the more so as ,christianity very early came almost exclusively under the influence of the ,roman institutions and concepts in this regard4 ,it is perhaps unnecessary to add that ,roman practice in regard to property was widely at variance with ,roman theory1 with the result that serious moral disintegration came over persons engaging in commercial enterprises4 ,the moral lapses of the early ,christians are largely to be set down to this cause1 on the principle that a destruction of moral integrity in one respect makes other delinquencies easy4 ,with respect to the attitude of ,christ towards contemporary property institutions1 it is unnecessary for our purpose to regard any conclusions of modern criticism4 ,the synoptic gospels were uncritically accepted by the early ,church and we are concerned merely with what was commonly accepted as the teaching of ,christ4 ,perhaps as convenient a way as any of illustrating the breadth of view in ,christ's attitude toward property institutions would be to take a single illustration and apply to it the whole range of property concepts found in the teachings of ,christ4 ,no single illustration is so applied in the ,gospels as we have them1 but the principles will be the clearer for the consistent use of the same illustration4 ,we shall take as our type case one which ,christ himself used2 the case of a thief who steals a coat4 ,the teachings of ,christ about property can conveniently be put down under four heads1 each illustrating1 by a different way of treating the thief1 a different property concept4 ,first3 ,the ordinary or conventional manner of treating the thief1 based on the concept of the morality and sacredness of private property2 i4e41 catching the thief1 recovering the stolen property and punishing the crime by fine or imprisonment or torture4 ,this conventional standard of morality and attitude towards property is illustrated1 e4g41 in the story of the man with one talent in the parable4 ,it is very concisely summed up in the expression3 ,to him that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance and from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath4 ,second3 ,what may be called for convenience the socialistic manner of treating the thief--no implications either good or bad being intended by the use of the term socialistic4 ,this treatment would consist of catching the thief1 recovering the stolen property but letting the thief go free with merely an admonition to future good behavior4 ,this treatment is based on the concept that the institution of private property has only a partial validity and that violations of private property rights are to be blamed not alone upon the violator but upon society at large in equal degree4 ,this attitude is illustrated in the case of the woman taken in adultery3 ,neither do ,i condemn thee2 go and sin no more4 ,the illustration is perhaps more apt than appears at first glance for female chastity is and was legally possessed of tangible economic value i4e41 adultery was viewed as a violation of a property right belonging to the husband of the adultress4 ,third3 ,what may be termed the anarchistic manner of treating the thief--here again no implications either good or bad are intended by the employment of the term anarchistic4 ,this treatment consists essentially in pacificism1 in ,tolstoi's non-resistance4 ,it is purely negative and allows the thief to get away with the stolen coat without anyone making any move to recover the property4 ,this treatment is based on the concept that private property institutions have no validity at all1 but that the only valid property arrangement is that of pure communism4 ,this attitude toward property is illustrated by such sayings of ,christ as ,of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again2 ,resist not him that is evil1 etc4 ,fourth3 ,what may be distinguished as the specifically ,christian manner of treating the thief--using the word ,christian as appertaining strictly to the founder of the ,church4 ,this treatment consists of running after the thief not for the purpose of capturing and punishing him2 not even for the purpose of recovering the stolen coat but for the purpose of giving him a vest and an overcoat in addition to what he has stolen4 ,it amounts to the direct encouragement and reward of the thief for doing what is presumably a meritorious action by stealing4 ,this way of treating a thief is not socialistic1 or communistic2 it is not even anarchistic4 ,it is something as far beyond anarchy1 as anarchy is beyond socialism1 or socialism beyond ordinary conventional individualism4 ,it is specifically and peculiarly and uniquely ,christian1 using that word as above defined4 ,this treatment is not based on any concept of any kind of property institution4 ,its logical1 intellectual position is the denial of the validity or worth of any property institutions1 private or communistic4 ,it involves indeed the destruction of the very concept property as implying possession by right of social agreement4 ,this attitude of ,christ toward property finds expression in such sayings as3 ,from him that taketh away thy cloke withhold not thy coat also4 ,blessed are ye poor4 ,woe unto you that are rich4 ,it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle1 etc4 etc4 ,the great bulk of ,christ's statements about property are to be classified under this fourth head4 ,the views are probably connected1 with just what degree of closeness it is impossible to say1 to the belief in the immediately imminent catastrophe of the world4 ,with somewhat less certainty1 it may be ventured that certain of ,christ's sayings which we have listed as anarchistic are perhaps influenced by the same idea4 ,it is of course obvious that the above four fold division is not exact in the strict scientific sense1 or that any teaching of ,christ concerning property can be unhesitatingly classified under one head or another4 ,still less is anything intended to be implied as to the existence or non-existence of any underlying1 universal1 theological principle which would reconcile apparent divergencies4 ,theological metaphysics as such1 lie outside the scope of this chapter which is intended as an objective study of concepts of property4 ,from an objective point of view it is evident that the four divisions imperceptibly shade into one another and form a continuous series1 nevertheless for the sake of convenience it may be considered as approximating a rational organization of the material under distinct heads4 ,immediately after the time of ,christ the ,christians in ,jerusalem developed a communistic organization4 ,all that believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men1 as every man had need4 ,neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own2 but they had all things common4 ,neither was there any among them that lacked2 for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them1 and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet2 and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need4#b ,it is doubtless true that the participants in this communistic society believed themselves to be living according to the principles and precepts of ,christ4 ,yet there is some evidence which would lead to the conclusion that perhaps this experiment was less a deliberate and reasoned out endeavor to organize a permanent society on a new economic basis1 than an instinctive movement1 entered upon under the influence of a belief in the immediately imminent second advent of ,christ and therefore expected to be of only very limited duration4 ,the collections subsequently taken up in other ,christian communities 'for the relief of the poor saints in ,jerusalem' would seem to lend color to this view of the matter4 ,in ,st4 ,paul's teaching about property there is a fundamental inconsistency4 ,he makes statements which taken separately are applicable to particular situations but which are not in harmony with one another4 ,he loyally supported the established right of private property1 even in slaves4 ,but at another time he pronounced that property right depended upon service rendered4 ,in one place we have3 ,slaves obey your masters in another3 ,if any will not work neither let him eat4 ,but if a man's slaves obey him he can eat without working4 ,there is no suggestion of communism in ,st4 ,paul's writings4 ,if all the 'property passages' in the epistles are collected and read in connection with their contexts two facts come into prominence1 ,first3 ,property institutions as such have only a relative validity4 ,they are not viewed as ends valuable in themselves but are subordinated to religious ends1 and the concept of an immediately imminent second advent lies at the base of this relative valuation4#c ,second3 ,economic arrangements of the existing social order1 like similar political arrangements1 are to be strictly conformed to1 in spite of their merely relative validity1 for fear of jeopardizing the more important religious movement4#d ,st4 ,paul whether consciously or not1 is1 in regard to social institutions1 an evolutionary revolutionist4 ,he would doubtless have been the first to admit that his doctrine of human brotherhood1 for example1 would eventually overthrow his doctrine of slavery1 supposing--as there is no ground for thinking he did suppose--that time enough elapsed for his doctrine of brotherhood to permeate the general social consciousness4 ,in so far as property concepts are concerned it would probably be difficult to maintain that there is any essential divergence between the teachings of ,st4 ,paul and some at least of the teachings of ,christ4 ,st4 ,paul was by nature an ecclesiastical statesman4 ,he seems to have taken such of ,christ's property concepts as served his purposes and ignored the others4 ,in the epistle of ,st4 ,james are to be found very bitter complaints as to the working of property institutions4 ,these complaints are so serious as to suggest the inevitable attempt to make over the institutions and the fact that no such attempt is indicated is due to the manifestly lively expectation of the second advent4 ,yet even so it was necessary for the writer to council patience to his brethren4#e ,in the ,revelation there is a passage1 xviii1 #ab seq41 quite in the manner of the most violent of the ancient prophets or the modern anarchists4 ,in this passage property is conceived as evil and the destruction of civilization as it then was1 is conceived as a cause of rejoicing to saints1 apostles1 and prophets4 ,on the other hand the ,new ,jerusalem in the same book#f is a 'wholesale jewelers paradise' and involves the property concepts of those cities of ,asia ,minor who did most of the jewelry manufacturing of the ,roman ,empire4 ,it is very doubtful how far anything in such a description can be said to embody property concepts but the ideal put forth is the communistic enjoyment of incredible luxury4 ,the epistle of ,clement of ,rome has only incidental references to property4 ,they can be well summed up in the quotation3#g ,let the rich man provide for the wants of the poor2 and let the poor man bless ,god1 because ,he hath given him one by whom his need may be supplied4 ,there is manifestly no question of tampering with received property institutions and concepts on the part of the writer of such a sentence4 ,it is equally evident that such an attitude in regard to property is eminently well calculated to enable the holder to propagate specifically theological opinions with a minimum of interested opposition4 ,the ,didache holds a nave and touching communistic creed4#h ,thou shalt not turn away from him that hath need but shalt share all things with thy brother and shalt not say that they are thine own4 ,this passage1 the only one on the subject in the ,didache1 would seem to indicate that the institution of private property existed as a matter of fact in the writer's community1 but that the validity of it was not acknowledged4 ,the position may perhaps be called one of conceptual and constructive communism4 ,the ,epistle of ,barnabas holds exactly the same view in almost exactly the same words3#i ,thou shalt communicate to thy neighbor all that thou hast1 thou shalt not call anything thine own4 ,early in the second century we come upon the ,ebionites who in the matter of property held very strong views4#aj ,the stricter of them made poverty a condition of salvation4 ,they refused to acknowledge the validity of the concept property--that is in theory4 ,in practice some of them seem to have been influenced by the doctrine and practice of the ,essenes in regard to communism4 ,all through the second century we find a continuous succession of heretical sects1 ,gnostics and others1 who held either the doctrine of the wickedness of property-ownership as such1 'holy poverty1' or else objected to individual ownership of property and preached or practiced communism in such degree as might be possible under the circumstances4 ,of these sects it is sufficient to name the ,marcionites #aaj ,a4,d4 ,the ,carpocratians #ace ,a4,d4 ,the ,procidians #afj ,a4,d4787 ,the ,basilidians #ach ,a4,d4 ,it is evident that there was in progress in the second century an ascetic movement which later took on the forms of ,manichaeism and ,christian asceticism4 ,the ,church consistently opposed all these sects and maintained the validity of private property without condemning communism as such1 except in extreme cases1 such as that of ,epiphanes of ,alexandria1 a ,carpocriation1 who in a book on ,justice1 #abe ,a4,d41 defined virtue as consisting in absolute communism of goods and women4 ,to return to orthodox ,christianity1 ,hermas shows very clearly the inconsistencies which beset ,christian theory and practice in the first half of the second century4 ,all who are rich must be deprived of their wealth in order to be good ,christians4#aa ,yet this deprivation of wealth must be only relative2 there must be wealth enough left for the giving of alms4#ab ,there is no trace of communism in ,hermas and no praise of poverty as such4 ,the chief justification for the existence of property institutions would seem to be that they are social structures which can be utilized for the giving and receiving of alms4 ,perhaps one paragraph is worth quoting as giving possibly the earliest formulation extant of the property concepts that finally became dominant4 ,the rich man has much wealth but is poor in matters relating to the ,lord because he is distracted about his riches and he offers very few confessions and intercessions to the ,lord and those which he does offer are small and weak1 and have no power above4 ,but when the rich man refreshes the poor and assists him in his necessities1 believing that which he does to the poor man will be able to find its reward with ,god--because the poor man is rich in intercessions and confession and his intercession has great power with ,god--then the rich man helps the poor in all things without hesitation2 and the poor man1 being helped by the rich1 intercedes for him1 giving thanks to ,god for him who bestows gifts upon him4 ,and he still continues earnestly to interest himself for the poor man1 that his want may be constantly supplied4 ,for he knows that the intercession of the poor man is acceptable and influential with ,god4 ,both accordingly accomplish their work4 ,the poor man makes intercession2 a work in which he is rich1 which he received from the ,lord1 and with which he recompenses the master who helps him4 ,and the rich man in like manner1 unhesitatingly bestows upon the poor man the riches which he received from the ,lord4 ,and this is a great work and acceptable before ,god1 because he understands the object of his wealth and has given to the poor of the gifts of the ,lord and rightly discharged his service to ,him4#ac ,the inconsistent and irreconcilable nature of the evidence about early ,christian property institutions is well illustrated in ,justin ,martyr4 ,two short extracts are sufficient for the purpose4 ,we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions1 now bring what we have into a common stock and communicate to every one in need4#ad ,we carry on us all we possess and share everything with the poor4#ae ,the second of these passages would indicate that the first is not to be taken in a too literal and comprehensive sense4 ,it may perhaps be ventured as an opinion that the truth of the matter1 as regards the ,christians of whom ,justin wrote1 is that the concept of private property was largely invalidated and that personal possessions were thought of as owned in common while the 'common stock' consisted in reality of contributions--it may be large contributions--given for the relief of necessity among the members4 ,the account preserved to us in ,lucian of the ,christian communities of ,judea in the later half of the second ,century would seem to bear out this opinion4 ,lucian says3 ,the activity of these people in dealing with any matter that affects their community is something extraordinary4 ,they spare no trouble1 no expense4 ,peregrine all this time was making quite an income on the strength of his bondage4 ,money came pouring in4 ,you see these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time1 which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self devotion which are so common among them and then it was impressed upon them by their original law giver that they are all brothers from the moment that they are converted and deny the gods of ,greece and worship the crucified sage and live after his laws4 ,all this they take quite on trust with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike1 regarding them merely as common property4#af ,in ,tertullian we find the same contradiction as regards private ownership and communism which has already been noted in ,justin4 ,the contradiction is more glaring1 but possibly the explanation of the real situation is similar4 ,the following two extracts from the same chapter bring this contradiction out in high relief3 ,family possessions which generally destroy brotherhood among you1 create fraternal bonds among us4 ,one in mind and soul1 we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another4 ,all things are common among us but our wives4 ,on the monthly collection day1 if he likes1 each puts in a small donation2 but only if it be his pleasure and only if he be able1 for there is no compulsion1 all is voluntary4#ag ,tertullian was a ,montanist and one of the most serious charges made against the ,montanists was that some of their prophets received interest on money loaned by them4#ah ,tertullian is above suspicion in this respect4 ,he demonstrates by quotations from both the ,old and ,new ,testaments that it is absolutely contradictory to ,christianity4 ,interest on money is the only property institution in regard to which the teaching of the early ,church is consistent4 ,every reference we have in regard to this practice condemns it--not mildly as a venial offense--but fiercely and savagely as a heinous crime like incest or murder4 ,fenerare est hominem occidere is a favorite formula4 ,in this respect the most pronounced apologists of private wealth like ,clement of ,alexandria are in perfect accord with the most pronounced communists like ,tertullian4 ,the only difference to be noted is one of emphasis4 ,in the earlier writers there are relatively few references to interest1 which may perhaps be due to the fact that in the earlier time there were relatively few ,christians possessed of surplus means requiring investment4 ,as might naturally be expected1 the writers of the period after the establishment of ,christianity as a legal religion make more frequent and more bitter reference to the matter4 ,the vehemence of denunciation indulged in by these later writers almost exceeds credibility4 ,the most improbable and strained exegesis is resorted to in an effort to explain away the words of ,christ in the parables of the pounds and talents4 ,but this vehemence is by no means confined to the ,nicene and post-,nicene fathers4 ,so statesmanlike a bishop as ,cyprian1 in a long railing accusation against certain opposition bishops brings forth as their final sin that they had multiplied gain by usury4#ai ,usury is not to be taken1 of course1 in its present sense of excessive or burdensome interest and it is evident that ,cyprian did not use it in such a sense4 ,he is simply condemning interest as such4 ,in the minds of the early ,christians the difference between taking five percent interest or fifty percent was exactly the same as the difference between stealing one dollar or ten4 ,the sin was essentially the same irrespective of the particular amount involved4 ,indeed this comparison is scarcely a valid one2 for taking interest was conceived as a much worse sin than plain robbery4 ,it is perhaps worth noting that the moral distinction between interest and usury is of very late development4 ,the credit1 if it be such1 of making it1 is to be ascribed to ,calvin and is not unconnected with the predilection of certain types of pecuniary interest for that reformer's system of ecclesiastical polity4 ,the ,roman law did indeed fix a maximum legal rate of interest1 varying at different times and even at the same time for different forms of commercial risk4 ,during the first three centuries ,a4,d4 it was1 for example1 consistently twelve percent on ships and varied from six to twelve percent on other forms of investment4 ,but this has little moral connotation4 ,early ,christian condemnation of interest on loans was by no means confined to the expression of opinion by church writers4 ,council after council legislated against it with ever increasing severity4 ,the forty-fourth ,apostolic ,canon prohibited the practice to clerics4 ,the ,council of ,elvira #caj ,a4,d4 forbade it to both clerics and laity4 ,the ,council of ,arles #cad ,a4,d4 provided that clerics guilty of the practice should be deposed from the ministry4 ,the seventeenth canon of the ,council of ,nicea #cbe ,a4,d4 provided that they should be excommunicated4 ,the penalty is reiterated in the twelfth canon of the ,first ,council of ,carthage #cde ,a4,d4 ,there is no need to continue the list4 ,it is sufficient to say that nearly every council whose canons have come down to us has legislation against interest4 ,again and again it is absolutely forbidden to clergy and laity alike under the severest ecclesiastical penalties--and it is necessary to remember that after #cbe ,a4,d4 these penalties could1 if need be1 be enforced by governmental authority4 ,this attitude of the early ,church toward interest on loans is a matter of very considerable historical importance4 ,although1 as we shall endeavor to show later1 the ecclesiastical laws were frequently and largely evaded1 they still had such influence that their contribution to the sum of economic forces which accomplished the overthrow of ancient civilization is by no means an insignificant one4 ,nor did the influence of this attitude cease at the fall of ,rome4 ,it rather increased thereafter and for several centuries1 the so-called ,dark ,ages1 civilization was strangled by the power of this idea of the sin of usury4 ,to this day the ,roman ,church regards interest on money as a reprehensible thing which1 however1 is not1 for practical reasons1 to be spoken of as sinful by the clergy4#bj ,this attitude has been no inconsiderable factor in the relatively late industrial development in ,catholic countries4 ,the early ,christian concept of interest was not an idea original with ,christianity4 ,it was not derived from ,christ at all4 ,it was taken over bodily from ,old ,testament ,judaism and contemporary pagan philosophy4 ,it is a well known fact that the views of ,plato and ,aristotle1 of ,cicero and ,seneca on interest1 correspond in a very astonishing way to the views of ,deuteronomy and ,isaiah1 of the ,psalms and ,ezekiel4 ,the strength of the concept in the early ,church was due to this fact4 ,in regard to no other concept was there such a unanimity of opinion4 ,the ,christian convert found that the sacred scriptures of his new faith confirmed in the strongest language the condemnation of interest which he had become familiar with from the writings of the noblest pagan philosophers4 ,when reason and religion were in accord it is not wonderful that their judgment was accepted--as a theory4 ,in spite of this union of pagan philosophers and ,hebrew prophets1 of ,christian ,fathers and ,ecclesiastical ,canons1 the condemnation and prohibition of interest on money was a theory only4 ,a very ordinary knowledge of classical civilization is sufficient to explain the reason of this4 ,more nearly than any other institution1 the financial machinery of antiquity corresponds to that of modern life4 ,trusts and millionaires were phenomena of their economic life as of ours4 ,banks were numerous and ubiquitous4 ,they were of all sizes and degrees2 from the great metropolitan corporation with correspondents all over the civilized world1 to the hated money lender in a shabby office on a side street4 ,the great bankers were men of the first importance in society4 ,from their number were regularly recruited the officials of the imperial treasury4 ,they were almost without exception men of the strictest financial integrity4 ,the ,roman banking laws protected the depositor more securely than the laws of any modern nation1 and these ,roman laws were rigidly enforced4 ,every banking institution had to obtain government authorization in order to do business and this authorization was withdrawn on the discovery of the smallest discrepancy in the accounts4 ,the regular rate of interest on ordinary deposits was four percent2 under certain peculiar conditions the rate went as low as two and a half and as high as six percent4 ,the rate published by a bank had to be paid even though payment swept away the banker's entire private property4 ,the banker lost everything before the depositor lost anything4 ,the banks were used by the government in carrying out such fiscal measures as could not be conveniently handled by the treasury department directly4 ,they played a still more important part in the ordinary commercial life of the times4 ,a relatively small volume of business was1 or could be1 carried on by transfers of specie4 ,the great bulk of commercial transactions were of necessity carried on by checks1 drafts1 discounts1 bills of exchange and similar instruments of credit4 ,it was a matter of simple impossibility for any man in ordinary commercial or industrial life to carry on his business for even a single day without participating directly or indirectly in transactions involving loans and interest4 ,our excuse for reciting these commonplace details of ,roman commercial life is that their very commonplaceness explains the discrepancy between early ,christian theory and practice in the matter of interest4 ,it would be an easy task to convict the early ,christians of hypocritical pretense in this regard4 ,nothing more would be necessary than to print their theory in one column and their practice in a parallel one4 ,yet the early ,christians were not hypocrites4 ,as regards sincerity of profession they compare very favorably with any religionists of any age4 ,as a matter of fact the historians have long ago shown that it is altogether impossible and unjust to argue from a sect's opinions to their feelings and actions4 ,to quote ,macauley#ba ,only imagine a man acting for one single day on the supposition that all his neighbors believe all that they profess or act up to all that they believe4 ,imagine a man acting on the supposition that he may safely offer the deadliest injuries and insults to everybody who says that revenge is sinful2 or that he may safely intrust all his property without security to any person who says it is wrong to steal4 ,such a character would be too absurd for the wildest farce4 ,the law which is inscribed on the walls of the synagogues prohibits covetousness4 ,but if we were to say that a ,jew mortgagee would not foreclose because ,god had commanded him not to covet his neighbor's house1 everybody would think us out of our wits4#bb ,yet that ,jew is no hypocrite in his religion4 ,he is sincerely and honestly devoted to his faith and will sacrifice time and money2 will undergo social obloquy and contempt in support of it4 ,so it was with the early ,christians4 ,by the process of abstracting their theory and practice of interest from the social matrix which alone makes the theory or practice intelligible1 it is easy to show a logical inconsistency4 ,it would be equally foolish and false to deduce from this inconsistency any conclusions one way or the other as to early ,christian morality4 ,it is if course no aim of this thesis to attack or defend any religious or moral opinions4 ,it is a matter entirely apart from our present concern to evaluate interest or non-interest in ethical terms4 ,our purpose is not to explain away the inconsistency of the early ,christians4 ,admitting the inconsistency in the fullest degree1 our aim is to explain it as natural1 and1 under the social conditions then prevailing1 practically inevitable4 ,the early ,christians left funds to care in perpetuity for the family burial lot4#bc ,under any religious creed2 ,pagan1 ,jewish1 or ,christian1 decent provision for the care of graves of relatives was not only admissible1 it was a positive demand of social reputability2 to say nothing of the demand of natural affection4 ,similarly annual agapes were established by bequests as a charity to the poor brethren4#bd ,these agapes were no innovation4 ,as an institution they were perfectly familiar and in universal observance among the pagans4 ,the agapes were simply ordinary ,roman silicernia with the name changed4 ,to the ,romans1 founding a silicernium was like wearing a toga or going to a bath4 ,it possessed the sanction of law and the benediction of religion2 but its real compulsion lay in social custom4 ,no person could escape this pressure of the mores and retain self respect1 to say nothing of the respect of others4 ,the pagan silicernium was morally respectable2 it perpetuated friendship and promoted good feeling4 ,there was no reason for avoiding it1 if avoidance had been possible--as it was not4 ,the ,christians not only preserved this pious institution2 they improved it4 ,their annual agapes fed the poor1 which the silicernia1 excellent as they were1 seldom did4 ,the explanation we have endeavored to give of the endowment of family burial lots and annual agapes is applicable1 mutis mutandis1 to other cases of interest4 ,it therefore is not surprising to learn that ,callixtus 7pope #bah-bbc ,a4,d47 was a banker previous to his elevation to the papacy2 that large numbers of ,christians1 particularly widows and orphans--entrusted their money to his bank1 and that he had large loans out at good interest to ,jewish bankers4#be ,the truth is that the early ,christian horror of interest1 while absolutely honest and even desperately sincere1 was a strictly legalistic1 ceremonial1 and ritualistic horror4 ,it was purely formal and was not at all concerned with any economic principle4 ,the thing that was wicked1 was not income from capital invested1 but income in the form of interest on money4 ,to own a ship and sail it and make profits from ownership by freight charges was perfectly honest1 but to invest money in a shipping corporation and receive dividends was wicked4 ,so it was honest to own a building and get money as rent4 ,it was immoral to invest money in the construction company that erected that building and receive income in the form of interest4 ,rent1 profit1 and interest are merely three forms of the same thing1 income from invested capital4 ,any endeavor to distinguish between them in this respect is entirely devoid of moral or economic justification4 ,the ancient ,church fathers were as well aware of this as we are4 ,the real point and importance of their concept of interest was their defense of that concept4 ,that defense was a curious one and illustrates the difference between ancient and modern reasoning on economic matters--and on other matters also4 ,the difference in a word is that of mistaking means for ends on the theory of course that we moderns are right and the prophets1 philosophers1 ,christian fathers1 et al4 wrong4 ,according to modern social science1 interest is merely a means adopted for the attainment of certain ends--economic1 educational1 religious or whatever4 ,the goodness or badness of interest is to be judged strictly and solely by the convenience and economy with which it serves these ends4 ,if any other property institution can1 in a given situation1 serve a given end more easily and more cheaply than the institution of interest1 then1 in that situation1 the institution of interest--other things being equal--is immoral and should be abolished4 ,if1 in the given situation1 no other property institution can serve the given end more easily and more cheaply than the institution of interest1 then that institution is moral and should be retained4 ,that is1 from the modern sociological point of view1 the institution of interest is inconceivable except as a means to some end outside itself4 ,as a means it is to be judged in a purely objective and pragmatic manner by the ordinary standards of cost price1 economic1 social1 and other4 ,the method of the ancients is entirely otherwise4 ,assuming still the correctness of the modern viewpoint1 which viewpoint be it said is not unassailable and indeed is assailed by divers radicals1 socialists and others1 but for the most part persons lacking in pecuniary reputability2 the mistake then1 that the ,early ,church fathers make is that of taking the means for an end4 ,they have many arguments against interest but all these arguments can be criticised for this one error4 ,the fathers elevate interest to the dignity of an end in itself4 ,interest1 qua interest1 is condemned4 ,it is taking advantage of a brother's necessity4 ,it is grinding the face of the poor4 ,it is producing pride1 luxury1 and vice4 ,as soon as moral value is attached to anything1 it of course1 is viewed as an end in itself4 ,if it be true that interest is an end in itself1 then the fiercest diatribes of the fathers are none too severe4 ,assuming their premises1 their conclusions follow inevitably4 ,the modern man--he is not unknown--who talks about the sacred rights of private property is guilty of the same error as the ancient ,christians1 the error of mistaking means for ends4 ,the early ,christians could not see that the property institution of interest is neither good nor bad except as it is good or bad for something4 ,the something determines the judgment4 ,as a matter of historical fact the condemnation of interest developed in certain early stages of human civilization and at those stages interest was socially detrimental4 ,at those stages1 however1 it was exceedingly rare and correspondingly infamous4 ,in any country where there is abundance of good1 free land the phenomenon of interest on money will disappear1 provided labor is free4 ,so it disappeared in the northern states of this ,union in the later part of the #ahth century4 ,these phenomena caused the southerners to adopt slavery though all their ,english traditions had declared it immoral for more than three centuries4 ,the relation of interest to slavery under a condition of free land is the relation of cause and effect1 i4e41 the requirement of interest will produce slavery and the abolition of interest will abolish slavery4#bf ,these social phenomena are of importance in our consideration of the early ,christian doctrine of interest4 ,that doctrine was largely evaded and disobeyed but it still had great effect and that effect was toward the abolition of slavery4 ,we do not mean that this economic doctrine alone resulted in the abolition of slavery1 or even that it was a chief cause in the abolition of slavery1 it was not obeyed well enough to be such a chief cause2 but so far as it was obeyed1 it tended in that direction4 ,the net result of all ,christian teaching together was to prolong the existence of the institution of slavery for two centuries1 perhaps for three4 ,the doctrine of the sinfulness of interest however1 worked toward emancipation and forced slavery in its later end to become almost wholly agricultural1 i4e41 to yield income as rent4 ,slaves cannot be employed in commerce or industry in sufficient numbers to be profitable where the institution of interest is banned as it was in the 'dark ages4' ,the ,christian concept of interest undermined ancient civilization by abrogating1 slowly but surely1 the institution of property by which such gangs of 'manufacturing slaves' as made the fortune of ,crassus1 could alone be made profitable4 ,it is an historical curiosity that it accomplished this result without any attack on the institution of slavery itself4 ,as soon as ,christian doctrines became widespread enough to produce important social results we find ,christian slave owners manumitting their slaves in considerable numbers4 ,it is no derogation to the influence of the doctrine of human brotherhood or to the humanity of the ,christian slave owners to mention the fact that the doctrine of the sinfulness of interest1 by tending to make slavery unprofitable1 aided in the process of bringing to light the real content of the doctrine of human brotherhood1 and of making the humane practice of manumission easier by the removal of certain economic impediments4 ,in order to understand properly the working of the prohibition of interest and its relation to manumission1 it is necessary to carry the analysis one step farther to its ultimate physical basis1 which was the conditioning factor of actual practice and eventually of theory also4 ,the exhaustion of the soil of western ,europe which was the result of ancient methods of agriculture1 together with the rising standard of living and the competition of other more fertile agricultural regions like ,egypt and ,north ,africa resulted in the substitution of the latifundi for small landholdings4#bg ,as the pressure continued the latifundi in turn became economically unprofitable under forced labor 7slavery7 and large tracts of land were abandoned4 ,in order to put this land under agriculture again the charge upon it had to be reduced by the substitution of 7relatively7 free associated labor1 villeinage or serfdom4 ,but this change cut off the economic margin upon which the structure of ancient civilization was built and is the ultimate economic reason assignable for the fall of ,rome4 ,of course the collapse of the empire could1 theoretically1 have been avoided had the ,romans of the first three centuries ,a4,d4 been content to live the toilsome and frugal life of the ,romans of the early republic4 ,but this was an utter impossibility in practice4 ,this slowly working and hardly understood decline in the relative and actual ability of ancient agriculture to sustain the weight imposed upon it1 enables us to see why the sinfulness of interest could be steadily indoctrined even though steadily evaded1 by ,christians from the beginning1 while manumission was not taught at all in the beginning and only worked up to the dignity of a pious action relatively late4#bh ,it also explains why manumission of household and personal slaves preceded that of agricultural slaves4 ,of course there is nothing peculiarly ,christian about this later phenomenon and the operation of other causes is discernable1 but it is important for our purpose to observe that ,christian practice1 and ,christian theory in property matters in the long run1 followed the broad lines of the underlying economic evolution4#bi ,the application of this to the origin of ,christian monasticism and to the revival of communistic theories by the later ,church fathers lies at the very outside limit of our study but will be briefly touched on after we have considered the final overthrow of the communistic property concept as they appear in the earlier fathers up to and including ,tertullian4 ,clement of ,alexandria #aec-bag ,a4,d4 has the distinction of being the first ,christian theological writer who clearly expounds the concept of private property which has held sway without substantial change in the ,church until the present time4 ,this statement does not apply to the doctrine of receiving interest on money4 ,in respect to this doctrine ,clement is in perfect accord with all other early ,christians both before and after himself4 ,indeed he specifically states that the ,mosaic prohibition against taking interest from one's brother extends in the case of a ,christian to all mankind4 ,but in regard to all other property institutions ,clement's attitude is essentially that of any modern ,christian of generous disposition4 ,in all that ,clement has to say about property1 and the 'bulk' of his 'property passages' is as great as that of all previous ,christian writers together1 he speaks like a man on the defensive4 ,indeed there has come down to us no other ,christian writing earlier than his time which presents his view1 with the dubious exception of some passages in ,hermas4 ,the fact seems to be that while ,clement is undoubtedly presenting an apologetic for the existing practice in the ,church of his day1 that practice was felt to be more or less open to attack in the light of certain scripture passages4 ,communism as an existential reality was gone by the time of ,clement--whatever may have been the extent--probably a limited one--to which it had existed in the earlier ages4 ,but while communism as a fact was dead1 communism as an idea or ideal of ,christian economy was not dead4 ,indeed ,clement's views about the morality of wealth were so different from those of previous writers that a great modern economist#cj in treating of this subject ventures the opinion1 though doubtfully1 that the reason why ,clement1 alone among the great early theologians1 was never canonized by the ,church was that he ran counter to popular belief on this subject4 ,this opinion is probably erroneous4 ,clement's theological opinions have a semi-,gnostic tinge quite sufficient to explain the absence of his name from the calendar of saints4 ,clement justifies the institution of private property4 ,he justifies1 on the highest ethical and philosophical principles1 the possession by ,christians of even the most enormous wealth4 ,his apologetic is not an original one4 ,he borrows it bodily from ,plato4 ,indeed he quotes ,plato verbatim1 invocation to ,pan and the other heathen gods included4#ca ,the originality lies in applying this ,platonic doctrine to the exposition of ,christian scripture4 ,clement's method is strictly that of ,biblical exegesis4 ,in the well known sermon or essay on3 ,who is the ,rich ,man that shall be saved he takes up practically all of the scriptural passages which seem opposed to the institutions of private property and explains them in so modern a spirit that the whole sermon might be delivered today in any ordinary ,church and would be readily accepted as sound and reliable doctrine4 ,his thesis is that wealth or poverty are matters in themselves indifferent4 ,that riches are not to be bodily gotten rid of1 but are to be wisely conserved and treated as a stewardship intrusted to the owner by ,god4 ,that charity to the poor should be in proportion to one's wealth and that a right use of wealth will secure salvation to the upright ,christian even though he possesses great riches all his life and leaves them to his heirs4 ,the wealth that is dangerous to the soul is not physical possessions1 but spiritual qualities of greed and avarice4 ,his views can be best expressed by himself4 ,we give two characteristic passages from the sermon above referred to4#cb ,rich men that shall with difficulty enter into the kingdom1 is to be apprehended in a scholarly way1 not awkwardly1 or rustically1 or carnally4 ,for if the expression is used thus1 salvation does not depend upon external things1 whether they be many or few1 small or great1 or illustrious or obscure or esteemed or disesteemed2 but on the virtue of the soul1 on faith and hope and love and brotherliness1 and knowledge1 and meekness and humility and truth the reward of which is salvation4 ,sell thy possessions4 ,what is this8 ,he does not1 as some off hand conceive1 bid him throw away the substance he possesses and abandon his property2 but he bids him banish from his soul his notions about wealth1 his excitement and morbid feeling about it1 the anxieties1 which are the thorns of existence which choke the seed of life4 ,and what peculiar thing is it that the new creature1 the ,son of ,god intimates and teaches8 ,it is not the outward act which others have done1 but something else indicated by it1 greater1 more godlike1 more perfect1 the stripping off of the passions from the soul itself and from the disposition1 and the cutting up by the roots and casting out of what is alien to the mind4 ,one1 after ridding himself of the burden of wealth1 may none the less have still the lust and desire for money innate and living2 and may have abandoned the use of it1 but being at once destitute of and desiring what he spent may doubly grieve both on account of the absence of attendance and the presence of regret4#cc ,we have now come to the beginning of what is in many respects the most interesting period in the history of property concepts4 ,it is a period in which everything is upside down and wrong end to4 ,in that strange age we find a famous archbishop1 one of the world's noblest orators1 a man of the most spotless integrity and the most saintly life1 publicly preaching in the foremost pulpit of ,christendom doctrines of property1 the implications of which1 the most hardened criminal would scarcely venture to breathe to a gang of thieves4#cd ,we find the most learned scholar of the century1 in the weightiest expositions of ,christian ,scripture1 penning the most powerful apologetic of anarchy that is to be found in the literature of the world4#ce ,we find one of the greatest of the popes1 a man whose genius as a statesman will go down to the latest ages of history1 setting forth in a manual for the instruction of ,christian bishops1 property concepts more radical than those of the fiercest ,jacobins in the bloodiest period of the ,terror4#cf ,stranger still1 these incredible performances are the strongest proofs of the wisdom and piety of the men responsible for them4 ,these men are today honored as the saviors of civilized religion and their images in bronze and marble and painted glass adorn the proudest temples of the most conservative denominations of ,christians4 ,the strange history of these famous men3 ,athanasius1 the two ,gregories1 ,basil and ,chrysostom in the ,east2 ,augustine1 ,ambrose1 ,jerome and ,gregory in the ,west1 lies outside the limits of our study4 ,but the explanation of their desperate and uncompromising communism can be given in a word4 ,it was the communism of crisis3 the communism of shipwrecked sailors forced to trust their lives to a frail lifeboat with an insufficient supply of provisions4 ,these great ,christian scholars1 enriched by all the accumulated culture of their civilization1 saw that culture falling into ruin all around them2 they felt the foundations of that civilization trembling beneath their feet4 ,to vary the figure1 they beheld the rising tide of ignorance and barbarism rapidly engulfing the world and with desperate haste they set to work rebuilding and strengthening the ark of the ,church that in it1 religion1 and so much of civilization as possible1 might be saved till the flood subsided4 ,their task1 perhaps the most important and most urgent1 that men have ever had to perform1 was of such a nature that they cared not what they wrecked in order to accomplish it4 ,they ripped up the floor of the bridal chamber for timber and took the doors of the bank-safe for iron4 ,these rhetorical figures are violent2 but they are less violent than the reality they are intended to express4 ,monasticism was the last desperate hope of civilized ,christianity and these men knew it4 ,to establish monasticism they degraded the sanctity of marriage and denounced the sacredness of property4 ,they conferred the most sacred honors upon the lowliest drudgery2#cg they turned princes into plowmen and nobles into breakers of the soil4 ,some historians1 judging them by the different standards of a later age1 have pronounced them fanatics led astray by vulgar superstition4 ,but judged by the needs of their own age1 judged by the inestimable services rendered to the world by the monastic system they instituted1 they are entitled to a place far up in the list of the wisest and the ablest of the human kind4 ,sketchy and imperfect as the above study necessarily is1 it nevertheless gives the primary facts which are essential to an understanding of the important part played by property concepts and property institutions in the transformation of early ,christianity from a predominantly eschatological to a practically socialized movement4 ,we have seen1#ch that the earliest generations of ,christians took over from contemporary ,judaism a strongly ,chiliastic eschatology4 ,the logical consequence of such an eschatology is an indifference to1 or undervaluation of1 the existing social arrangements including the property concepts and institutions4 ,one form easily taken by this indifference and undervaluation is that of practical communism4 ,we accordingly find in the ,acts and in such early writings as the ,didache and the ,epistle of ,barnabas a distinctly communistic theory and the traces of more or less effort to put this theory into some degree of practical effect4 ,chiliasm and communism in these writers go together naturally4 ,pari passu with this logical1 communistic ,chiliasm we can trace the development of an illogical1 individualistic ,chiliasm in ,st4 ,paul1 ,clement of ,rome and ,hermas4 ,it is already manifest even at this early stage1 that the weight of influence and power of control in the ,christian societies is on the side of the individualists4 ,this is due to two causes4 ,in the first place the communists among the ,christians worked under a great handicap4 ,the underlying economic institutions of society can indeed be changed4 ,but they can be changed--on any considerable scale--only very slowly and by enormous effort4 ,at any attempt to change them a thousand interested and determined antagonists at once arise4 ,it is not too much to say that had all ,christians insisted upon communism as an essential element of the ,christian faith and practice1 ,christianity in the ,roman world could never have developed into anything more than an unimportant sect4 ,the very fact that ,christianity spread as rapidly as it did in the first century of its existence is proof that the communists in the ,church made very little headway4 ,it was hard enough to combat pagan religion and philosophy4 ,had the property institutions been attacked also1 the primary religious objects would have been lost sight of in the conflict4 ,in the second place the more practical minded ,christian leaders would be antagonistic to a doctrine and practice which alienated many persons who might otherwise be won to the ,church1 and practically minded persons outside the ,church regarded the individualists with more favor and were more easily influenced by them to become ,christians themselves4 ,the early importance attained by the ,church of ,rome is to be largely ascribed to the predominance in its councils of such practical persons4#ci ,communism had no hold there at all and ,chiliasm was never allowed to interfere with the practical workings of society4 ,by the time of ,justin the three concepts2 ,chiliasm1 ,communism1 and ,individualism had arrived at a modus vivendi4 ,according to this arrangement ,chiliasm and ,communism held sway as theories while individualism ruled in the world of fact4 ,this agreement proved very satisfactory and for more than half a century was the accepted thing4 ,it is seen in full force in ,tertullian4 ,there is a general tendency1 due to the natural effects of use and disuse1 for theories which do not correspond to realities to become discredited1 even as theories4 ,conversely realities which at first lack theoretical justification tend to accumulate such justification with the lapse of time4 ,it is therefore not surprising to find by the beginning of the ,third ,century1 a movement to discard theoretical ,chiliasm and communism and to validate by theoretical apologetic the actually existing individualism4 ,these two processes in the nature of the case are closely connected with one another and it is not by mere chance that they find a common exponent in ,clement of ,alexandria4 ,that famous opponent of ,chiliasm is equally well known as the justifier of an extreme individualism4 ,he greatly facilitated the spread of ,christian theology by liberating it from the burden of an eschatological theory increasingly hard to reconcile with reality and also by bringing the economic teachings of ,christianity into conformity with current practice4 ,as noted above1 there was one economic doctrine which neither he nor any other early ,christian teacher ever attempted to reconcile with the facts1 and it is undoubtedly true that the doctrine of the sinfulness of interest was alike detrimental to the spread of ,christianity and to the general well being of society as it then existed4 ,the reasons why this particular reality i4e41 interest on money1 was so slow in receiving its theoretical justification are numerous4 ,the only ones that need concern us here are that the opposition to be overcome in this case was much more formidable than in the cases of ,chiliasm and communism and the fact that this inconsistency on the part of the ,christians did not in reality offer any very serious obstacle to the growth of the ,church4 ,communism had no great body of ,biblical authority at its back4 ,there are indeed some texts in its favor but there are plenty of an opposite nature4 ,the doctrine had no great popular prejudice in its favor4 ,in addition it was insuperably difficult of realization in fact4 ,it was otherwise with interest4 ,the theoretical prejudice against interest was almost as great among the ,jews and ,pagans as among the ,christians themselves4 ,the ,scriptures were unequivocal in their denunciation of it4 ,furthermore the correlative institutions of rent and profit offered so many opportunities to disguise the fact of interest that it was exceedingly easy to retain the theoretical opposition without ceasing the actual practice4 ,although ,clement's condemnation of interest was probably merely an inherited prejudice it is by no means impossible that he considered that an attempt to justify it would endanger his defense of the more fundamental institution of private property4 ,at any rate his course can be defended as a practical one under the circumstances4 ,whatever may be said of its consistency1 the ,christian custom of condemning the theory and winking at the practice of interest worked well4 ,the inconsistency which seems so glaring to us1 was probably very largely unperceived by the ancient pagans--they had exactly the same inconsistency themselves4 ,in regard to ,chiliasm and property1 practically the same attitude prevailed4 ,it worked indeed even more easily4 ,in the ,west there seems to have been a considerable ,chiliastic tradition4 ,so long as this tradition did not result in any practices which interfered with the actual progress of the ,church1 the ,fathers were content to let it alone4 ,it did not1 till at least the ,third ,century1 hinder the acceptance of ,christian doctrine by the pagans and may even have aided the process among some of the lower classes4 ,its long survival can be taken as sure proof that it did not effect either the development of the hierarchy or the institution of property4 ,as regards property of man in man1 the superior power of the ,christian religion to keep slaves in subjection accounts in no small measure for its relatively rapid rise to power in the ancient world4 ,the pagan religion was inferior in usefulness to the ,christian religion because it could not keep the slave contented with his position4 ,the next world in the pagan theology was only a worse copy of this world4 ,christianity1 in glaring contrast to paganism1 proclaimed that the despised and afflicted were to sit on golden thrones in the next life4 ,the more they were exploited in this life1 the brighter their crown in the next one4 ,the pagan slave was dangerous4 ,the whole pre-,christian literature of ,classical antiquity shows the ever present fear of a servile outbreak4 ,there were good grounds for that fear4 ,outbreaks were frequent and of a most ferocious character4 ,on more than one occasion they threatened the very existence of the ancient civilization4 ,christianity was able to make the slave contented to be a slave4 ,it was economically an enormous advance over paganism4 ,a master whose slaves were ,christians was not afraid of being murdered by them4 ,not only was the master's life secure1 his property was secure also4 ,the pagan slaves were notorious thieves4 ,the ,christian slave did not rob his master4 ,these facts gave ,christianity an enormous leverage in its efforts to force its way into social recognition4 ,it went far toward securing a favorable disposition toward the new religion on the part of the influential1 wealthy1 and conservative elements in the population4 ,into the general economic changes which began to operate toward the end of our period it is not our purpose to enter1 but it is worth notice that the efforts made by the ,church to save itself in the general ruin which overtook the ancient world1 chiefly the institution of monasticism1 were such as to secure more firmly than ever the hold of the ,church upon society4 ,the ,church rapidly became an economic factor of the first importance4 ,the only secure basis of lasting social influence is economic4 ,christianity by teaching the virtues of honesty1 frugality1 simplicity1 and charity laid the foundations of her subsequent triumph1 and when she had great societies of men and women working hard and living plainly and adding all their accumulations to institutions belonging to the ,church and directly under the supervision and control of the ecclesiastical authority1 the ,church paved the way for her subsequent domination of the civil government4 ,monastic communism1 being economically superior to ,chiliastic ,communism1 inevitably superseded it4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,cf4 ,plato1 ,laws1 ,v1 #gdb4 ,aristotle1 ,politics1 #a3,x1 ,,xi4 ,cicero1 ,de ,officus1 ,,ii1 ,,xxv4 ,seneca1 ,de ,beneficus1 ,,vii1 ,x4 #b ,acts ,,iv4 #c ,i4 ,cor4 vii #cj4 #d ,rom4 xiii #c4 #e ,jas4 ,chap4 ,v4 #f ,chaps4 #ba-bb4 #g ,chap4 xxxviii4 #h ,did4 ,,iv4 #h4 #i ,barn4 ,,xiv4 #af4 #aj ,schaff1 ,vol4 #a4 #aa ,past4 ,v4 vi4 #f4 #ab ,past4 ,s4 ,,ix4 ,,xxx4 #e4 #ac ,past ,,iii4 #b4 #ad ,apol4 ,i4 ,,iv4 #ae ,apol4 ,i4 xiv4 #af ,de ,mort4 ,per4 ,,xiv4 #ag ,apol4 ,,xxxix4 #ah ,eus41 ,e4 ,h41 ,v4 #ah4 #ai ,de ,lapsis1 ,,vi4 #bj ,see ,pronouncement of the ,sacred ,penitentiary1 #aa ,feb41 #ahcb4 #ba ,sir ,james ,macintosh4 #bb ,civil ,disabilities of the ,jews4 #bc ,lourie1 ,monuments of the ,early ,church1 ,chap4 ,,ii4 #bd ,lourie1 ibid4 #be ,cf4 ,hypolytus4 #bf ,a4 ,loria4 ,cf4 ,economic ,basis of ,society4 7,int47 #bg ,cf4 ,a4 ,loria1 ,economic ,foundations of ,society4 7,int47 #bh ,circa #bjj7874 #bi ,cf4 ,k4 ,marx1 ,das ,kapital1 ,vol4 #a4 #cj ,f4 ,nitti in ,catholic ,socialism4 #ca ,phaedus1 ,the ,laws1 in ,strom4 ,,ii1 #f4 #cb ,chap4 ,,xiv4 #cc ,chap4 ,,xxxi4 #cd ,chrysostom1 ,sermons ,rich ,man and ,lazarus1 etc4 #ce ,jerome1 ,commentaries4 #cf ,gregory1 ,pastoralis ,cura4 #cg ,laborare est orare4 #ch ,chap4 ,i4 #ci ,e4g41 ,clement and ,hermas4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,early ,,church ,,and ,,the ,,populace ,the transformation of early ,christianity from an eschatological to a socialized movement was the result of the interaction of three social groups--three 'publics'--the ,jewish1 the ,pagan1 and the ,christian4 ,it was a single movement1 working itself out through these three 'crowds'4 ,christianity1 like all other great religions1 was in its first beginnings essentially a mob phenomenon--that is to say it was a very slow movement which had a long history back of it4 ,perhaps no current opinion is more unfounded than the notion that mob movements are sudden and unpredictable4 ,they are almost incredibly slow of development4 ,the range of action found in the mob is more narrowly and rigidly circumscribed than in almost any other social group4 ,a crowd is open to suggestions that are in line with its previous experience1 and to no others4 ,the initial success of ,christ with the ,jewish crowds was only possible because for generations the whole ,jewish public had been looking forward to a ,messiah and a ,messianic kingdom4 ,in so far as ,christ appeared to fulfill this preconceived expectation he gained popular support4 ,when he disappointed it1 he lost his popularity and his life4 ,the early and enormous success of the apostles on the day of ,pentecost and immediately afterwards was due primarily to the fact that the ,chiliastic expectation preached to the ,jerusalem crowds was very closely in line with their inherited beliefs4 ,as soon as ,christianity began to develop doctrines and practices even slightly at variance with those traditional to ,judaism it lost the support of the ,jewish public4 ,beginning as a strictly ,jewish sect1 it alienated practically the whole ,jewish race within little more than a generation4 ,this alienation was the inevitable effect of an idea of universalism opposed to the hereditary ,jewish nationalism4 ,this idea of universalism was not a new thing4 ,it was to be found in the ancient ,jewish scriptures4 ,but it had never become popularized4 ,it formed no part of the content of contemporary public opinion among the ,jews4 ,christianity met with success in the great cosmopolitan centers1 like ,antioch and ,alexandria1 where universalism was a tradition and had become a part of the crowd sentiment4 ,it succeeded best of all in ,rome where universalism reached its highest development4 ,yet even here a limitation is to be noted4 ,christianity was universal in its willingness to receive people of all races and nations4 ,it was not universal in its willingness to acknowledge the validity of other religions4 ,this variation from the traditional ,greek and ,roman universalism had momentous results4 ,it made the propagation of the ,christian ,gospel much more difficult and involved the church1 at least temporarily1 in the current syncretism which was a popular movement4 ,so e4g41 we find ,justin calling ,socrates a ,christian and asserting that the stories of ,noah and ,deucalion are merely versions of the same event4 ,the main characteristics of crowd psychology are familiar enough4 ,crowds do not reason4 ,they accept or reject ideas as a whole4 ,they are governed by phrases1 symbols1 and shibboleths4 ,they tolerate neither discussion nor contradiction4 ,the suggestions brought to bear on them invade the whole of their understanding and tend to transform themselves into acts4 ,crowds entertain only violent and extreme sentiments and they unconsciously accord a mysterious power to the formula or leader that for the moment arouses their enthusiasm4 ,any movement in order to become popular1 in order to 'get over' to the general public1 has to operate within the limits set by this psychology4 ,the amount of change1 adaptation1 and development necessary before a movement can fit into these limitations and express itself powerfully within them is so considerable that no historical example can probably be found where the required accommodation has been accomplished in less than three generations4 ,it is the purpose of this chapter to trace1 so far as the surviving source material permits1 the steps of this accommodation in the case of early ,christianity4 ,for some time before ,christ the ,jewish people had been restless4 ,their desires and aspirations for national and religious greatness had been repressed and inhibited4 ,the unrest thus generated took various forms2 patriotic uprisings1 religious revivals1 etc4 ,christ was at first considered merely as another ,theudas or ,judas of ,galilee or ,john the ,baptist4 ,in the pagan world the pax ,romana produced a somewhat similar restlessness4 ,travel increased2 wandering1 much of it aimless1 characterized whole classes of people2#a there was a marked increase in crime1 vice1 insanity1 and suicide which alarmed all the moralists4 ,this condition of affairs was eminently suitable for the first beginnings of a crowd movement2 indeed no great crowd movement can begin except under such circumstances4 ,the wanderings of ,st4 ,paul and the other ,christians apostles--called missionary journeys--were really only particular cases of a general condition4 ,the same organic demand for new stimulation1 the same sense of shattered religious and philosophic ideals prevailed in the pagan as in the ,jewish world4 ,it would be hard to find a greater contrast of character than ,christ and ,lucian4 ,yet the fiery earnestness with which ,christ denounces contemporary ,jewish religiosity and the cool cynicism with which ,lucian mocks at the pagan piety of the same age have a like cause4 ,economic pressure on the lower strata of society contributed to the unrest4 ,the slave1 the small shopkeeper1 and the free artisan had a hard time of it in the ,roman world4 ,economically oppressed classes are material ready to the hand of the agitator1 religious or other4 ,in the crowd movements recorded in the ,acts we can trace the first beginnings of the ,christian populace4#b ,in ,iconium a great multitude both of ,jews and of ,greeks believed but the ,jews that were disobedient stirred up the souls of the ,gentiles and made them evil affected against the brethren4 ,but the multitude of the city was divided and part held with the ,jews and part with the apostles4 ,at ,lytra there was a typical case of mob action where the apostles were first worshipped and then stoned4 ,in the cases of the mobs at ,philippi and ,ephesus we see the economic motive1 the threatened loss of livelihood1 entering along with anger at an attack on the received religion4 ,in the case of the ,jerusalem and ,athenian crowds we see acceptance1 or at least acquiescence1 on the part of the crowd up to the point where ,christianity breaks with their tradition4 ,in general we see anger on the part of the crowds only after agitation deliberately stirred up by interested parties2 priests1 sorcerers1 craftsmen or the like4 ,generally speaking the antipathy is no part of the crowd psychology1 and on occasion the crowd may be on the side of the missionaries of the new religion4 ,in general also the ,christians were not sufficiently numerous to make a counter crowd demonstration of their own4 ,in ,pliny's letter to ,trojan1 although it is a generation later than the ,acts and refers to a region where ,christianity had been preached for a considerable period of time1 we find a marked instability in the attitude of the public3 ,many of every age1 every rank and even of both sexes are brought into danger and will be in the future4 ,the contagion of that superstition has penetrated not only the cities but also the villages and country places and yet it seems possible to stop it and set it right4 ,at any rate it is certain enough that the temples deserted until quite recently begin to be frequented1 that the ceremonies of religion1 long disused1 are restored and that fodder for the victims comes to market1 whereas buyers for it were until now very few4 ,from this it may easily be supposed that a multitude of men can be reclaimed if there be a place of repentence4#c ,there seems no reasonable ground for doubting that ,pliny's judgment was correct4 ,while the blood of the martyrs is doubtless the seed of the church1 a continuous1 general1 and relentless persecution can extirpate a religion in a given nation2 as the history of the ,inquisition abundantly proves4 ,still more easily can propaganda for the older religion win back its former adherents of the first and second generations4 ,it is not1 in general1 till a generation has grown up entirely inside a new religion that such a religion is well established4 ,the generation which at maturity makes the rupture with the older faith can be brought back to it by less expenditure of energy than was expended by them in breaking away in the first place4 ,the success of the ,jesuits e4g41 is quite inexplicable on any other hypothesis4 ,the generation who are children at the time their parents make the break with the old religion are notoriously undependable in the religious matters4 ,it was in all probability these people that ,pliny had to deal with4 ,it is at least permissable to hazard the guess that the ,laodiceans who aroused the wrath of the author of the ,revelation were of this generation4 ,it is certain that many of the ',lapsi' who caused so much trouble to ,christian apologists and church councils belonged in this chronological class4 ,in ,justin ,martyr we have a hint of a further development in the crowd attitude toward the ,christians4 ,justin says3 ,when you 7,jews7 knew that ,he had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven as the prophets foretold ,he would1 you not only did not repent of the wickedness you had committed1 but at that time you selected and sent out from ,jerusalem chosen men through all the land to tell that the godless heresy of the ,christians had sprung up and to publish those things which all they1 who knew us not1 speak against us4 ,so that you are the cause not only of your own unrighteousness but that of all other men4#d ,irrespective of the exact historical accuracy of this statement1 it is indicative of the process1 technically known as 'circular interaction1' which is so essential a step in the development of popular opinion and the building up of crowd sentiment4 ,before any group of people can become either popular or unpopular there must be a focusing and fixation of public attention upon them4 ,even in the new ,testament we find the ,jews sending emissaries from city to city to call attention to the ,christian propaganda4 ,prejudice against the ,christians was thus aroused in persons who had never either seen or heard them4 ,the basis of 'circular interaction' is unconscious or subconscious emotional reaction4 ,a's frown brings a frown to the face of ,b4 ,b's frown in turn intensifies ,a's4 ,this simple process is the source of all expressions of crowd emotion4 ,by multiplication of numbers and increase in the stimuli employed it is capable of provoking a vicious circle of feeling which eventually causes individuals in a crowd to do things and feel things which no individual in the crowd would do or feel when outside the circle4 ,it is to the credit or discredit of the ,jews that they first set this 'vicious circle' in operation against the ,christians4 ,of course the same psychological principle operated to produce zeal and enthusiasm and contempt of pain and death in the ,christian 'crowd'4 ,by this process of 'circular interaction' the name1 ',christian1' had already in the time of ,justin become a mob shibboleth4 ,it seems to have operated precisely as the shibboleth 'traitor' operates on a patriotic crowd in war time1 or 'scab' on a labor group4 ,it became a shibboleth of exactly opposite significance in the ,christian 'crowd'4 ,the way was thus prepared for the next step in the process of developing the ultimate crisis4 ,this step--the disparate 'universe of discourse'--is exhibited in process of formation in the account of the martyrdom of ,polycarp4 ,the account1 as we have it1 undoubtedly contains later additions1 but these additions even of miraculous elements1 do not necessarily invalidate those portions of the story with which we are alone concerned4 ,the martyrologist certainly had no intention of writing his story for the purpose of illustrating the principles of group psychology and the undesigned and incidental statements of crowd reactions are precisely the ones of value for our purpose4 ,a few brief excerpts are sufficient to illustrate the stage reached in the growth of the disparate 'universe of discourse4' ,the whole multitude1 marvelling at the nobility of mind displayed by the devout and godly race of ,christians cried out3 ,away with the ,atheists3 let ,polycarp be sought out4#e ,he went eagerly forward with all haste and was conducted to the ,stadium where the tumult was so great that there was no possibility of being heard4#f ,polycarp has confessed that he is ,christian4 ,this proclamation having been made by the herald1 the whole multitude both of the heathen and ,jews who dwelt in ,smyrna cried out with uncontrollable fury and in a loud voice3 ,this is the teacher of ,asia1 the father of the ,christians and the overthrower of our gods1 he who has been teaching many not to sacrifice or to worship the gods4 ,speaking thus they cried out and besought ,phillip1 the ,asiarch1 to let loose a lion upon ,polycarp4 ,but ,philip answered that it was not lawful for him to do so seeing the shows of beasts were already finished4 ,then it seemed good to them to cry out with one voice that ,polycarp should be burned alive4#g ,this then was carried into effect with greater speed than it was spoken1 the multitude immediately gathering together wood and fagots out of the shops and baths1 the ,jews especially1 according to custom eagerly assisting them in it4#h ,we afterwards took up his bones1 as being more precious than the most exquisite jewels and more purified than gold and deposited them in a fitting place1 whither1 being gathered together as opportunity is allowed us1 with joy and rejoicing the ,lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom both in memory of those who have already finished their course and for the exercising and preparation of those yet to walk in their steps4#i ,in the disparate universe of discourse in its complete form common shibboleths produce entirely different mental reactions--usually antagonistic ones4 ,there is also complete accord as to the shibboleths4 ,the cry here is at one time against the ,atheists1 then against the ,christians4 ,but the ,christians could and did deny the charge of ,atheism4 ,they were as antagonistic to ,atheism as the ,pagans4 ,an incomplete development of crowd feeling is evident on the part of the pagans4 ,the ,jews are still the inciters and leading spirits of the mob4 ,the very statement that the ,jews acted 'according to custom' shows that mobbing ,christians was still looked upon as a peculiarly ,jewish trait4 ,it was not yet entirely spontaneous on the part of the pagan public4 ,most noticeable of all is the indifference of the mob toward the ,christians' adoration of relics of the martyrs4 ,no effort was made to prevent the ,christians from obtaining the bones of ,polycarp4 ,either the cult of relics was not known to the pagans and ,jews--though it seems to be firmly established among the ,christians--or else1 the effect of the cult in perpetuating ,christianity had not yet had time to make itself manifest to the pagan public--or to the ,jewish4 ,in any case we have here the plain evidence of the imperfectly developed condition of the crowd mind1 owing perhaps to a too short tradition4 ,our next evidence is the martyrdoms of ,lyons and ,vienne preserved in a letter quoted by ,eusebius4 ,they 7the ,christians7 endured nobly the injuries inflicted upon them by the populace1 clamor and blows and draggings and robberies and stonings and imprisonments and all things which an infuriated mob delight in inflicting on enemies and adversaries4#aj ,when these accusations were reported all the people raged like wild beasts against us1 so that even if any had before been moderate on account of friendship1 they were now exceedingly furious and gnashed their teeth against us4 ,when he 7,bishop ,pothinus7 was brought to the tribunal accompanied by a multitude who shouted against him in every manner as if he were ,christ himself1 he bore noble witness4 ,then he was dragged away harshly and received blows of every kind4 ,those men near him struck him with their hands and feet1 regardless of his age1 and those at a distance hurled at him whatever they could seize1 all of them thinking that they would be guilty of great wickedness and impiety if any possible abuse were omitted4 ,for thus they thought to avenge their own deities4#aa ,but not even thus was their madness and cruelty toward the saints satisfied4 ,wild and barbarous tribes were not easily appeased and their violence found another peculiar opportunity in the dead bodies4 ,for they cast to the dogs those who had died of suffocation in the prison and they exposed the remains left by the wild beasts and by fire mangled and charred4 ,and some gnashed their teeth against them1 but others mocked at them4 ,the bodies of the martyrs having thus in every manner been exposed for six days were afterwards burned and reduced to ashes and swept into the ,rhone so that no trace of them might appear on the earth4 ,and this they did as if able to conquer ,god and prevent their new birth2 'that'1 as they said1 'they may have no hope of a resurrection through trust in which they bring to us this foreign and new religion4' #ab ,we have in this account a marked advance1 as regards the development of the mob mind1 over what is found in the martyrdom of ,polycarp4 ,many of the 'crowd' phenomena are indeed the same but the differences are even more striking than the similarities4 ,we find in ,lyons no body of ,jews or other especially interested persons leading the mob on by manifestations of peculiar zeal and forwardness4 ,when the accounts are compared in their entirety it becomes at once manifest that there is a consistency of attitude1 a whole heartedness in the actions of the ,lyons mob that is lacking in the case of the ,syrmnaens4 ,there is a degree of familiarity with ,christian doctrine--especially the doctrine of the resurrection--which denotes a much more thorough permeation of the public mind by ,christianity4 ,there may be no difference in the hatred of the two mobs for the new faith1 but it had more content in the mind of the ,gallic crowd4 ,the degree of thought and pains taken by the ,lyonese persecutors--the guards placed to prevent the ,christians from stealing the relics of the martyrs1 the elaborate efforts to nullify the possibility of a resurrection--the very extent and thoroughness and duration of the persecution are different from anything to be found in the other martyrdom4 ,the difficulty to be explained--if it is a difficulty--from the point of view of crowd psychology is that there is difference of only eleven years--taking the ordinary chronology--between the two persecutions4 ,it is true that the ,lyons persecution is the later1 but the difference in the mob behavior is such as might well demand the lapse of a generation had the phenomena been exhibited by the public of the same city4 ,there must unquestionably have been a great difference in the demotic composition of the populations of ,lyons and ,smyrna2 the reference to barbarians in ,lyons shows as much1 but the behavior of mobs as controlled by the time needed for the focusing and fixation of attention and the development of a disparate universe of discourse is very little effected by difference of demotic composition4 ,it has indeed been suggested by one critic1#ac that the persecution at ,lyons belongs in the reign of ,septimus ,severus instead of that of ,marcus ,aurelius4 ,this would explain away the difficulty1 but there seems no necessary reason for adopting this opinion4 ,it would rather appear that there existed peculiar conditions in ,lyons and vicinity which account for the fact that the persecution1 so far as we know1 was confined to that locality and also for the fact that the mob mind was in a maturer state of antagonism to ,christianity4 ,just what these peculiar conditions were1 it is impossible to say with entire certainty4 ,however there is at least a very suggestive hint in a paragraph by the greatest modern authority on ,roman ,gaul#ad contained in his well known volume on ,ancient ,france4#ae ,the paragraph is also worth quoting as giving a valuable insight into the psychology of the peoples of the ancient ,roman ,world4 ,the ,roman ,empire was in no wise maintained by force but by the religious admiration it inspired4 ,it would be without a parallel in the history of the world that a form of government held in popular detestation should have lasted for five centuries4 ,it would be inexplicable that the thirty legions of the ,empire should have constrained a hundred million men to obedience4 ,the reason of their obedience was that the ,emperor1 who personified the greatness of ,rome was worshipped like a divinity by unanimous consent4 ,there were altars in honor of the ,emperor in the smallest townships of his realm4 ,from one end of the ,empire to the other a new religion was seen to arise in those days which had for its divinities the ,emperors themselves4 ,some years before the ,christian era the whole of ,gaul1 represented by sixty cities1 built in common a temple near the city of ,lyons in honor of ,augustus4 ,its priests1 elected by the united ,gallic cities1 were the principal personages in their country4 ,it is impossible to attribute all this to fear and servility4 ,whole nations are not servile and especially for three centuries4 ,it was not the courtiers who worshipped the prince1 it was ,rome1 and it was not ,rome merely but it was ,gaul1 it was ,spain4 ,it was ,greece and ,asia4 ,while no dogmatic assertion is justified1 it does not1 perhaps1 exceed the limits of reasonable inference to suppose that the existence of this noted center of ,emperor worship in the immediate neighborhood of ,lyons may account1 in part at least1 for the especial hatred of the populace of that city for persons who refused to sacrifice to the ,emperor and also for the maturity of their feeling against the ,christians1 who were as far as we are aware1 probably the only persons who refused thus to sacrifice4 ,this stray bit of evidence is admittedly not conclusive4 ,it is offered merely for what it may be worth4 ,there is evidence that by the middle of the second ,century popular opinion was sufficiently inflamed against the ,christians to render the administration of justice precarious because of mob violence4 ,edicts of ,hadrian and ,antonius ,pious specifically declared that the clamor of the multitude should not be received as legal evidence to convict or to punish them1 as such tumultuous accusations were repugnant both to the firmness and the equity of the law4#af ,this attitude seems to have persisted with relatively little change for about a century4 ,during this period the official 'persecutions' were neither numerous nor severe4 ,from the very few scattered and incidental references which have alone survived regarding the mob feeling of the time1 we can assert no more than that it was an exasperated one1 likely to break out upon provocation but under ordinary circumstances more or less in abeyance4 ,on the whole it was undoubtedly more violent at the end of the period than at the beginning4 ,fortunately from the middle of the third ,century onwards we have a fairly continuous history of a single 'public' 7,alexandria7 which is lacking before this time4 ,the ,alexandrian populace were noted for their tumultuous disposition1 but we have no reliable account of their behavior towards the ,christians until the time of ,severus1 #bjb ,a4,d4 ,in the account given by ,eusebius of the martyrdom of the beautiful virgin1 ,potamiaena1 it is stated that3 the people attempted to annoy and insult her with abusive words4 ,as however the intervention of a single officer sufficed to protect her from the people on this occasion1 the public sentiment cannot have been inflamed to any alarming extent4 ,if we may trust ,palladius1 her martyrdom was the result of a plot of a would-be ravisher and in any case it was not the product of any spontaneous popular movement4 ,in the period between #bjb ,a4,d4 and #bdi ,a4,d4 a well developed tradition of hatred and violence grew up in the popular mind4 ,we have no record of the steps in the process but the extant accounts of the ,decian and ,valerian persecutions in ,alexandria leave no doubt of the fact4 ,these persecutions can only be called 'legal' by a violent stretch of verbal usage4 ,they were mob lynchings1 sometimes sanctioned by the forms of law1 but quite as often without even the barest pretense of judicial execution4 ,they were quite as frequent and as savage in the later part of the reign of ,philip1 as in the time of ,decius4 ,they were not called forth by any imperial edict--they preceded the edict by at least a year and were of a character such as no merely governmental1 legal process would ever1 or could ever1 take on4 ,mobbing ,christians had become a form of popular sport1 a generally shared sort of public amusement--exciting and not dangerous4 ,the letter of ,bishop ,dionysius makes this very clear4 ,to quote3 ,the persecution among us did not begin with the royal decree but preceded it an entire year4 ,the prophet and author of evils to this city moved and aroused against us the masses of the heathen rekindling among them the superstition of their country and finding full opportunity for any wickedness4 ,they considered this the only pious service of their demons that they should slay us4 ,then follows a long list of mob lynchings of which we take a single specimen3 ,they seized ,serapion in his own house and tortured him and having broken all his limbs1 they threw him headlong from an upper story4#ag ,and there was no street1 nor public read1 nor lane open to us night or day but always and everywhere all them cried out that if anyone would not repeat their impious words1 he should be immediately dragged away and burned4 ,and matters continued thus for a considerable time4 ,but a sedition and civil war came upon the wretched people and turned their cruelty toward us against one another4 ,so we breathed for a while as they ceased from their rage against us4#ah ,the mob broke loose against the ,christians again the following year1 but there is no object in cataloguing the grewsome exhibitions of crowd brutality4 ,it is evident that what we have in this account is no exhibition of political oppression by a tyrannical government1 but a genuine outbreak of group animosity which had been long incubating in the popular mind4 ,all the phenomena which are characteristic of fully matured public feeling are found complete2 circular interaction1 shibboleths1 sect isolation devices and the rest4 ,when public feeling has developed to such a degree of intensity as this1 the accumulated sentiment and social unrest must of necessity discharge themselves in some form of direct group action4 ,this direct action however may take the from either of physical violence or1 under certain conditions1 of some sort of mystical experience2 conversion1 dancing1 rolling on the ground1 etc4 ,in exceptional cases the two forms are combined4 ,an illustration of this latter phenomenon is given by ,bishop ,dionysius in this same letter2 ,in ,cephus1 a large assembly gathered with us and ,god opened for us a door for the word4 ,at first we were persecuted and stoned but afterward not a few of the heathen forsook their idols and turned to ,god4#ai ,it is necessary to mention perhaps the largest1 and certainly the most dignified and respectable crowd that is to be met with in connection with this persecution--that of ,carthage on the occasion of the martyrdom of ,bishop ,cyprian4 ,we find here neither rage on one side nor unseemly exaltation on the other4 ,pagans and ,christians alike behaved with decent seriousness at the death of that famous man who was equally respected by all classes of the population4 ,but martyrs of the social eminence of ,cyprian were very rare1 and orderly behaviour in such a vast multitude as witnessed his end was still rarer4 ,to return to the populace of ,alexandria4 ,the long peace of the ,church which intervened between the persecution of ,valerian and that of ,diocletian witnessed in ,alexandria1 as elsewhere1 a great growth of ,christianity in numbers1 influence1 and wealth4 ,it would perhaps be going beyond the evidence to say that in this interval1 the majority of the population of the city were won over to the new faith1 but it is certain that the number of ,christians became so great as to intimidate the pagan portion of the people4 ,the ,alexandrian mob was still very much in evidence but it gradually ceased to harrass the ,christians except under the most exceptional circumstances4 ,the dangers of such action became so considerable and the chances of success so problematical that we find a period when a practice of mutual forbearance governed the behavior of the hostile groups4 ,the study of crowd psychology presents no more impressive contrast than that exhibited by the people of ,alexandria during the ,diocletian persecution compared with their behavior during that of ,decius4 ,in the last and greatest of the persecutions1 in the most tumultuous city of the empire1 the mob took no part4 ,like the famous image of ,brutus1 it is more conspicuous by its absence than it would be by its presence4 ,the persecution was a purely governmental measure officially carried out by judges and executioners in accordance with orders4 ,in one obscure and doubtful instance we are told that the bystanders beat certain martyrs when legal permission was given to the people to treat them so4 ,in another case we are told that the cruelty of the punishments filled the spectators with fear4 ,these are the only references to the public that occur in the long and minute account of an eye witness of famous events extending over a considerable number of years4 ,both before and after this period the mob of the ,egyptian metropolis exhibits the utmost extreme of religious fanaticism4 ,during this period that mob had to be most carefully considered by the government in other than religious matters4 ,but as a religious power it did not exist4 ,had the persecution of ,diocletian happened a generation earlier it could have counted on a very considerable degree of popular support1 had it happened a generation later it would have caused a revolt that could only have been put down by a large army4 ,happening at the precise time it did1 it provoked no popular reaction at all4 ,this strange apathy is not peculiar to ,alexandria4 ,practically without exception the authentic acts of the martyrs of this persecution are court records taken down by the official stenographers in the ordinary course of the day's work4 ,they are dry1 mechanical1 and repetitious to a degree4 ,they exhibit1 in general1 harrassed and exasperated judges driven to the infliction of extreme penalties in the face of a cold and skeptical public4 ,one imperial decree ordered that all men1 women1 and children1 even infants at the breast1 should sacrifice and offer oblations1 that guards should be placed in the markets and at the baths in order to enforce sacrifices there4 ,the popular reaction in ,caesarea is thus recorded3 ,the heathen blamed the severity and exceeding absurdity of what was done for these things appeared to them extreme and burdensome4#bj ,he 7the ,judge7 ordered the dead to be exposed in the open air as food for wild beasts2 and beasts and birds of prey scattered the human limbs here and there1 so that nothing appeared more horrible even to those who formerly hated us1 though they bewailed not so much the calamity of those against whom these things were done as the outrage against themselves and the common nature of man4#ba ,the one thing to be said of this type of mob mind is manifestly that it is transitional4 ,the pendulum has swung through exactly half its arc and for the brief instant presents the fallacious appearance of quiescence4 ,how transitory this quiet was on the part of the ,alexandrian mob is evidenced by the history of ,athanasius4 ,that great statesman conciliated and consolidated public opinion in ,egypt4 ,backed by this opinion he practically cancelled the power of the civil authorities of the country and negotiated as an equal with the emperors4 ,for the first time in more than three centuries the will of the common people again became a power able to limit the military despotism which dominated the civilized world4 ,the re-birth of popular government in the ,fourth century through the agency of ,christian mobs is the most important preliminary step in the growth of the political power of the ,catholic ,church4 ,a study of the mobs of ,alexandria1 ,rome1 ,constantinople and other great cities shows beyond question that the political power of the ,church had its origin in no alliance with imperial authority1 but was independent of and generally antagonistic to that authority4 ,the history of these ,christian mobs lies outside the limits of our study but it is worth while in the case of the ,alexandrian populace to give two or three brief extracts illustrating the final steps of the process which changed a fanatically pagan mob into an equally fanatical ,christian one4 ,what we have to consider is only the last stage of an evolution already more than half complete at the time of the ,nicene ,council4 ,under extreme provocation and certain of imperial complacency at their excesses1 the pagan mob during the reign of ,julian indulged in one last outburst against the exceedingly unpopular ,george of ,cappadocia who had been forcibly intruded into the seat of ,athanasius4 ,to quote the ,historian ,socrates3 ,the ,christians on discovering these abominations went forth eagerly to expose them to the view and execration of all and therefore carried the skulls throughout the city in a kind of triumphal procession for the inspection of the people4 ,when the pagans of ,alexandria beheld this1 unable to bear the insulting character of the act1 they became so exasperated that they assailed the ,christians with whatever weapons chanced to come to hand1 in their fury destroying numbers of them in a variety of ways and1 as it generally happens in such a case1 neither friends or relations were spared but friends1 brothers1 parents1 and children imbued their hands in each others blood4 ,the pagans having dragged ,george out of the church1 fastened him to a camel and when they had torn him to pieces they burned him together with the camel4#bb ,in this account we see the last expiring efforts of the pagan mob movement4 ,any mob movement collapses rapidly when it turns in upon itself1 and the evil results of its violence react immediately upon the members of the mob4 ,by this time it is evident that the number of ,christians in ,alexandria was so large that any public persecution of them brought serious and unendurable consequences upon the populace generally4 ,then the movement ended4 ,but in the two centuries or more that the pagan movement lasted1 a contrary ,christian mob movement had been developing along the same general lines as the other4 ,this movement1 being later in its inception1 came to a head correspondingly later and reached its crisis under the patriarch ,cyril4 ,its violence was first directed against the ,jews whom the ,christians appear to have hated even more than they hated the pagans4 ,the ,jews were the weaker and less numerous faction opposed to the ,christians and as the ,pagans seem to have liked them too little to support them against the ,christians1 it is not surprising that the ,christian mob1 which had pretty well reduced the political authorities to impotence1 should vent its rage against the ,jews and their synagogues4 ,cyril accompanied by an immense crowd of people1 going to their synagogues1 took them away from them and drove the ,jews out of the city1 permitting the multitude to plunder their goods4 ,thus the ,jews who had inhabited the city from the time of ,alexander were expelled from it4#bc ,sometime after the expulsion of the ,jews1 the ,christian mob1 now directing its spite against the rapidly disappearing paganism1 perpetrated perhaps the most atrocious crime that stains the history of ,alexandria--the murder of ,hypatia4 ,this beautiful1 learned1 and virtuous woman1 'the fairest flower of paganism' is one of the very few members of her sex who has attained high eminence in the realm philosophical speculation4 ,she enjoyed the deserved esteem of all the intellectual leaders of her age--,christian as well as pagan--and to the latest ages her name will be mentioned with respect by all those speculative thinkers whose respect can confer honor4 ,socrates describes her murder as follows3 ,it was calumniously reported among the ,christian populace that it was she who prevented ,orestes from being reconciled to the bishop4 ,some of them therefore hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal1 whose ringleader was a reader named ,peter1 waylaid her returning home and dragged her from her carriage2 they took her to the church called ,ceasareum where they completely stripped her and then murdered her with oyster shells4 ,after tearing her body in pieces1 they took her mangled limbs to a place called ,cinaron and there burned them4#bd ,christian crowd sentiment when hardly yet at its full power was deprived of its original object of animosity by the collapse of paganism4 ,being under the psychological necessity of expressing itself1 this mob feeling happened to take as shibboleths some current theological catchwords4 ,the subsequent history of ,alexandria and other great cities presents therefore the strange scene of rival sects disturbing public order and profoundly agitating vast throngs of people in a struggle over the most abstruse and recondite metaphysical concepts4 ,for the sake of clear thinking it is necessary for us to remind ourselves that these concepts are merely weird garments fortuitously snatched up to cover the nakedness of a profound social and economic revolution4 ,the above sketch1 imperfect as it is and full of lacunae due to the inadequacy of the primary source material1 is yet perhaps complete enough to enable us to summarize the chief steps in the process of the socialization in its aspect of a crowd movement4 ,we have seen that this crowd movement1 like all others1 had its origin in social unrest due to shattered private and community ideals4 ,the customary forms of expression being inhibited or repressed1 the balked disposition experienced an organic demand for new stimulation4 ,this new stimulation was sought in various ways2 aimless or practically aimless travelling or local wandering1 local disorder and agitation1 increase in crime--and insanity4 ,gradually this unrest focused itself and public attention became fixed on ,christianity4 ,by the process of circular interaction1 the so-called 'vicious circle'1 public sentiment increased in intensity1 the name ',christian' became a shibboleth4 ,when applied to an individual it let loose upon him the pent up emotion of the mob--an emotion or unreflective rage and anger4 ,by the further process of idealization or sublimation1 using the terms in their technical sense1 the populace came to believe that ,christianity was the great and superhuman 7daemoniac7 source of all evils2 earthquakes1 disease epidemics1 famine etc4 ,seeking release for psychic tensions which were not understood and largely subconscious1 they found it in a reversion to the oldest of the 'releasing instincts' that of hunting4 ,the primary thing about the persecutions is that they were man hunts4 ,the cruelty exhibited1 while also serving as a tension release for mob feeling1 is psychologically a secondary form of such release--though a very old form4 ,the discharge of the accumulated public sentiment and of the severe social tensions produced group action of two kinds3 7a7 ,direct action3 tearing the victim in pieces1 gathering wood to burn him1 striking him with sticks1 stones1 etc4 7b7 ,expressive action1 taking the form of shouts1 cries and ejaculations which became customary and traditional1 ',christianos ad leones4' ,the very methods of lynching became ceremonial and even ritualistic4 ,the beasts were first choice1 then burning and then other forms in descending scale4 ,the narrow range of the mob mind is illustrated by the closeness with which it adhered to contemporary judicial methods of punishment4 ,the most obvious method of killing1 and one which had the advantage of enabling a great number of people to see what was going on1 the method of hanging1 which is in such common use by mobs of our day1 does not seem to have been employed by the ancient crowds--at any rate its use was rare in the modern form1 strangling4 ,there are some cases of hanging naked women by one foot4 ,expressive action also took the form of wild and fantastic legends of cannibalism1 child murder and such like4 ,the crisis of this pagan mob movement came about the middle of the third century4 ,the ,decian persecution appears to have been 'popular' in the strict etymological sense of that word4 ,the persecution of ,diolection1 though the most severe1 seems to have had no great force of pagan public sentiment behind it4 ,that sentiment was not hostile2 it was neutral4 ,the populace did nothing to hinder the measures of the government and it did nothing to help them4 ,in another generation the pagan movement had spent itself4 ,this analysis of the pagan mob sentiment against the ,christians is applicable mutatis nominibus1 to the ,christians' mob movement against the pagans and to the movement of the 'orthodox' ,christians against the 'heretics4' ,perhaps we should say here1 in defense of human nature1 that these mob movements were not due to human depravity2 they were1 in strict literalness1 diseases1 epidemics of nervous disorder induced by pathological social conditions4 ,before any persecuting attitude became habitual to the pagan populace pagan common sense had exhausted argument1 persuasion1 expostulation and every other intellectual device4 ,only after reason and religion 7in the pagan sense7 had been employed in vain2 only after long exasperation at a hopeless situation1 when absolutely nothing else could be done1 was popular violence aroused4 ,social conditions being what they were1 traditional mental attitudes common to pagan and ,christians alike required that something be done and mob action was the last desperate alternative to the admission of a new intellectual concept4 ,the function of ,chiliasm in this crowd movement is plain from its history as previously sketched4 ,it was a ,christian shibboleth peculiarly valuable for securing group cohesion1 and for arousing individual staying power in times of persecution4 ,of the numerous characteristics of successful 'sect shibboleths' three are perhaps especially note worthy3 7a7 ,satisfaction of the demand for mystical experience4 7b7 ,operation as an isolating device4 7c7 ,revolt against the prevailing moral order4 ,in the period of greatest need ,chiliasm fulfilled these requirements very well4 ,many a ,christian of little education was lifted out of himself to endure martyrdom by somewhat crass imaginations of participation in the reign of the saints in the rebuilt ,jerusalem4 ,many a little band of sectaries maintained their group solidarity because of the belief that they were the elect people 'chosen of ,god' for future glory in the millennial kingdom4 ,many a faithful one who would otherwise have given up in despair1 must have gained strength and courage from the thought of that happy era1 soon to come1 when the cruel persecutors of the church would be slaves suffered to live only that their servitude might augment the dignity and honor of the saints in the beatific kingdom4 ,the relation of the ,chiliastic expectation to that strange insensibility to pain which was so remarkable a characteristic of the early martyrs cannot be stated with exactness4 ,it was probably close--at least in numerous cases4 ,we have what seems to be entirely trustworthy evidence that not only strong men but even delicate and sensitive women exhibited the power of inhibiting the normal reactions to the most excruciating torments4 ,this almost incredible power of inhibition can only be explained as the result of the building up of a pathologically intense1 ecstatic1 mental state4 ,this ecstatic mental state would appear to have been acquired by a series of psychic changes and organic1 neuronic adjustments requiring1 ordinarily1 a fairly considerable amount of time4 ,this peculiar psychological condition had not merely to be built up4 ,it must have attained an extraordinary degree of habituation in order to render its subjects impervious to such extreme sensory excitations4 ,the requisite degree of imperviousness can hardly have been acquired without such permeation of consciousness by imagination as constituted a complete subjective universe4 ,many of the martyrs would seem to have lived1 more or less habitually1 in a mental world of their own which shut them off from susceptibility to external stimuli4 ,this condition is frequently found in artists and thinkers1 and with the accompanying insensibility to pain1 is a common phenomenon in the 'trance' state as well as in some forms of insanity4#be ,it would go beyond the evidence to claim that ,chiliastic concepts functioned exclusively1 or even predominantly1 in the production of the 'martyr psychosis1' but the evidence does point to the conclusion that apocalyptic expectations held a more prominent place in the consciousness of the martyrs than in that of the generality of ,christians4 ,it is certain that ,chiliasm became especially manifest in times of persecution but ,chiliasm must have operated even in ordinary times to produce the phenomena which persecution brought into prominence4 ,even today1 in the entire absence of persecution1 ,chiliastic excitement among certain groups of secretaries produces types of religious psychosis closely similar to those exhibited by the martyrs4#bf ,on the whole the conclusion appears warranted that the increasing power and progressive socialization of the church1 which made persecution at first hopeless and at last impossible1 rendered ,chiliasm1 as a crowd shibboleth1 gradually useless and finally pernicious to the ecclesiastical hierarchy4 ,had further persecutions been possible ,chiliasm would no doubt have been retained longer1 but its usefulness was fatally impaired when the majority of people nominally embraced ,christianity4 ,it was of little or no value in those struggles with heretical ,christian sects which engaged the activities of orthodox mobs from the time of ,constantine onwards4 ,other shibboleths such as ',the ,church' and ',catholicism' were more effective in this contest4 ,similarly for the larger purpose of ecclesiastical polity1 agencies like monasticism and missionary enterprise were employed1 which conserved the shibboleth values of ,chiliasm and were free from its defects as an instrument of hierarchical ambition4 ,the aims of the rulers of the ,church became increasingly social and political and with such aims ,chiliasm was fundamentally incompatible4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,e4g41 the pagan philosophers4 #b ,acts #ad3a-f4 #c ,pliny1 ,ep4 xcvi4 #d ,dialogue ,,xviii4 #e ,mart4 ,poly4 ,,iii4 #f ,ibid41 ,,viii4 #g ,ibid41 ,,xii4 #h ,ibid41 ,,xiii4 #i ,ibid41 ,,xviii4 #aj ,hist4 ,ecc4 ,,vi4 #aa ,hist4 ,ecc4 ,v1 ,i4 #ab ,hist4 ,ecc4 ,v1 ,,ii4 #ac ,prof4 ,j4 ,w4 ,thompson4 #ad ,fustel de ,coulanges4 #ae ,hist4 des insts4 politique de l'ancienne ,france4 ,par4 ,,ii4 #af ,eus4 ,h4 ,e4 ,,iv1 #bf4 #ag ,eus4 ,his4 ,ecc4 ,,vi1 #da4 #ah ,eus4 ,his4 ,ecc4 ,,vi1 #da4 #ai ,his4 ,ecc4 ,,vii1 #aa4 #bj ,eus4 ,mart4 ,pal4 ,,ii4 #ba ,ibid41 ,chap4 ,,ii4 #bb ,hist4 ,ecc4 ,,iii1 #a4 #bc ,socrates ,hist4 ,ecc4 ,,iiii1 #ac4 #bd ,hist4 ,ecc4 ,,vii1 #ae4 #be ,cf4 ,e4 ,underhill ',mysticism4' #bf ,e4g41 ,the ,dukhabours4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,chiliasm ,,and ,,patriotism ,perhaps the most pronounced characteristic of pre-,christian1 ,judaistic ,chiliasm is its nationalistic or ethnic patriotism4 ,of course any attempt to rigidly differentiate the nationalistic and religious concepts of the ,hebrews of the two centuries preceding the advent of ,christianity would be foredoomed to failure4 ,never perhaps were patriotism and religion more nearly synonymous than at this period among this people4 ,that their ,chiliasm has a strongly nationalistic content is therefore natural and inevitable4 ,the same patriotic animus is to be found in a great number of their other religious tenets and practices4 ,the emphasis is perpetually upon the enhancement of the value of the ,jewish race and nation and the corresponding depreciation of other nations and faiths4 ,but while it is true1 that1 owing to the inseparable integration of ,church and ,state in ,judea1 in the first two centuries before ,christ1 we find a very considerable proportion of the religious beliefs and observances highly charged with nationalistic patriotism2 this is perhaps more noticeable in the case of ,chiliasm than in the case of any other contemporary theological concept4 ,the nature of the ,millennial belief was such as qualified it to function with especial ease and success in that particular historical situation4 ,for considerably more than half a century before the birth of ,christ the dominant fact in ,hebrew history is the increase of the power and influence of the ,roman state in the political life of the ,jewish people4 ,this increase was perfectly natural4 ,indeed it was inevitable4 ,that the petty ,judean state would eventually be absorbed in the world wide republic was a fact patent to any reasonably intelligent student of the situation4#a ,under the circumstances it could hardly fail to take place even without any direct provocation to overt action on the part of either ,jews or ,romans4 ,it is not our purpose to follow the long1 hopeless struggle of the ,jews against the inevitable extinction of their political independence4 ,the ,jew was fighting against fate4 ,from the first interference of ,rome in the affairs of ,palestine to the last execution of ,bar ,cochba rebels1 the end was never in real doubt--humanly speaking4 ,the inevitableness of the catastrophe in this long drawn out tragedy is1 in the writer's judgment1 in some measurable degree connected both with the nature and subsequent history of ,jewish ,chiliasm4 ,later ,hebrew ,chiliasm is a very peculiar form of belief4 ,it is characterized by what can only be called a crass and exaggerated anthropomorphic supernaturalism4 ,it would seem as if pari passu with the increasing conviction of the futility of opposition to the power of ,rome1 there was an increasing conviction of a catastrophic supernal manifestation1 which manifestation in its details became ever more and more crude and vulgar4 ,the developing knowledge and conviction of the invincible power of ,rome is sufficient to explain the increasing dependence upon supernatural aid for deliverance--but the peculiar crassness of the supernaturalism is the arresting element in the later ,jewish ,chiliastic writings4 ,when every allowance has been made for the natural exuberance of the ,oriental imagination something still remains to be accounted for4 ,it is at least possible that the1 to our taste1 repulsive features of supernalistic vengeance and glory are the result of a long process of selection4 ,in no people of whom we have historical knowledge is the spirit of nationalistic patriotism more deeply rooted than in the ,jew4 ,we may take it that practically all the ,hebrews of the generations under discussion believed in an eventually triumphant ,jewish state4 ,differences of education1 and religious faith1 however1 conditioned the opinions as to the time when this triumphant state would appear and still more the method by which it would appear4 ,the better educated ,jews1 who were conversant with the political conditions of the contemporary world and whose belief in supernatural aid was perhaps weakest1 appear to have adopted a laissez-faire attitude4 ,they seem to have been advocates of a pro-,roman policy2 to make the best of the existing ,roman supremacy waiting for the unpredictable time when ,rome should follow the path of ,egypt1 ,assyria1 and other world powers who in their several ages had subjugated the children of ,abraham4 ,this party would perhaps have been willing to take advantage of any condition of affairs which offered a reasonably safe opportunity of successful revolt but under existing conditions they were opposed to armed resistance to the mistress of the world4 ,at the other end of the scale was a party of bigotedly and fanatically zealous patriots obsessed with the idea that immediate supernatural assistance would be forthcoming in the event of armed revolt4 ,between these two parties was another party--if it may be called such--partaking in various degrees of the characteristics of these two extremists parties4 ,the ,apocaliptic and ,chiliastic literature of the period was extensive4 ,it would be possible to arrange even such fragments as remain1 according to the preponderance of supernal elements4 ,it would seem to be a rational deduction that if we possessed this literature in its completeness we should be able 7bearing in mind that we are dealing with a relatively considerable period of time7 to follow the whole process of the supersession of more rational ,chiliastic concepts in favor of the more crudely supernaturalistic ones4 ,rome was at once strongly repressive of movements for political liberty and tolerant of religious liberty4 ,those writings in which ,chiliastic expectations took the form of advocating the active preparing for and co-operating with the expected ,messiah would suffer extinction4 ,on the other hand those ,chiliastic beliefs which inculcated absolute and entire dependence upon supernatural aid for the achievement of national independence would be politically harmless and exuberance in such imaginings might flourish unhindered4 ,the more fantastic and absurd the expectations the less likely they were to be suppressed by the imperial authorities4 ,whatever the measure of truth in the above conjecture it is certain that ,jewish ,chiliasm developed to the last extreme of extravagance4 ,with the doubtful exception of some ,hindu legends1 there is nothing1 which more exceeds the bounds of reason and common sense1 in the literature of the world4 ,it is perhaps not too much to say that ,jewish ,chiliasm died of excess development--a method of extinction of which nature makes liberal use4 ,the later history of ,jewish ,chiliasm does not concern us4 ,under the constantly repeated blows of disappointment it changed its form and content into the more rational concept of salvation and glorification of the individual human soul after death4 ,what does concern us is that this ,jewish ,chiliasm in all but its most extreme form was taken over by ,christianity4 ,the intellectual background of ,hebrew patriotism of course persisted in the ,christians of the first generation who were largely ,jews or ,proselytes4 ,the imminent divine kingdom of ,christ does indeed take the place of the lower concept of a rigidly nationalistic kingdom4 ,the kingdom of ,christ even to the first generation of ,christians must have had a larger content than the previous ,jewish belief which it fulfilled and supplemented4 ,yet the essential thing to remember is that so far at least as the ,jewish ,christians were concerned ,chiliastic expectations1 though somewhat further extended1 were still a form of expression for the forces of ,hebrew nationalistic patriotism4 ,the kingdom of the ,jews had been transformed1 or perhaps better1 transmogrified1 into the ,kingdom of ,christ and his saints#b but its essential content was unchanged and so long at least as a considerable proportion of ,christians were converted ,jews this condition of affairs persisted4 ,the constant criticism of ,chiliasm by ,gentile ,christians is that it is ,judaizing4 ,it is perhaps not exceeding the limits of permissable hypothesis to suppose that one of the reasons why ,chiliasm failed to make a permanent place for itself in the belief of the universal church is to be found in this very fact that it was in essence a form of political1 ,jewish1 nationalistic patriotism1 to which the other portions of the ,christian world1 perhaps unconsciously1 but not the less effectively1 objected4 ,the success of ,roman imperialism in denationalizing conquered peoples was truly remarkable4 ,in this most difficult task of practical statesmanship its accomplishments far surpass those of any other empire1 ancient or modern4 ,but this success1 great and unparalleled as it was1 nevertheless was not absolute4 ,except in particular cases it was never really complete4 ,the measure of its accomplishment was very different in different parts of the empire4 ,in ,italy1 ,gaul1 ,spain1 and perhaps ,britain its success may fairly be considered complete1 but these were countries where the proportion of ,roman settlers and colonists was very large4 ,they were countries1 furthermore1 which were early conquered--countries1 which1 at the time of the ,roman conquest1 had not advanced a great distance toward the attainment of national solidarity in politics1 religion1 art1 literature1 war or social intercourse4 ,this lack of development of local1 national institutions and psychology left the ground relatively free for the development of distinctively ,roman civilization and habits of thought4 ,the comparative freedom of these ,western provinces of the empire from religious heresies at the time that the ,eastern provinces were so prolific of them1 is commonly ascribed to inferior aptitude of these ,western peoples for metaphysical speculation4 ,we do not attempt to deny such inferiority1 though the subsequent development of metaphysical speculation in ,western ,europe during the time that the reviving sense of nationality first began to be felt in the ,middle ,ages and ,reformation ,era1 suggests another cause as operative4 ,if we consider three regions where ,chiliasm1 and also unquestionable heresies1 were particularly rife2 i4e41 ,phrygia1 ,egypt1 and ,roman ,africa we see at once that these regions were seats of old1 deeply rooted1 and thoroughly developed civilizations4 ,to go into the subject merely a little way we find that a nationalistic tradition existed in ,phrygia at the time of the composition of the ,iliad4#c ,this nationalistic tradition was considerably more than a thousand years old at the time of the introduction of ,christianity4 ,roman political power had by this time been thoroughly established in the country and there is no reason to believe that political rebellion was contemplated at the time of the rise of ,chiliasm and the heresies4 ,but while armed revolt may not have been considered as practicable1 or even as desirable1 the fundamental1 nationalistic characteristics of the underlying strata of the population do not seem to have been very greatly altered4 ,long before the advent either of the ,roman political power or the ,christian religion a homogenous1 national psychology had become characteristic of the ,phrygian population4 ,the ,phrygian seems to have put on ,christianity very much as he put on the toga4 ,he wore the toga regularly and easily enough it may be1 but in gestures and action1 in speech and manner1 he was still a ,phrygian4 ,this typical ,phrygian seems to have been commonly regarded in the contemporary world as a bucolic sort of individual1 much perhaps as a ,kansan is regarded in the ,united ,states1 and with perhaps as much or as little reason4 ,the fact is that while ancient ,phrygia without question possessed a large rural population1 it also possessed numerous cities where the graces and amenities of life were as fully developed as in any of the neighboring provinces which did not suffer from the attribution of rusticity4 ,the human instinct to botanize a neighboring people while doubtless adding to the gaiety of nations has to be taken magno cum grano salis by the historian4 ,whatever may be said of their other cultural institutions it is a fact that the ,phrygians at the time of the introduction of ,christianity had already developed certain distinctively national1 religious characteristics which marked them off from their neighbors4 ,the ,phrygian ,mysteries while doubtless in certain broad characteristics similar to the ,eleusinian ,mysteries had peculiarities of their own and were cherished by the people as something particularly expressive of their especial form of the philosophy of life4 ,in spite of any decay and degradation which may have overtaken these mysteries in the course of a long history1 it is certain that their primary object was the elevation and enhancement of life4 ,the national religious consciousness of ,phrygia was peculiar in the prominent place given to women4 ,to this day it is impossible to say with certainty whether the superior place in their religious system is held by the male or female concepts of deity4 ,perhaps on the whole the female concept preponderates4#d ,what is true of theology is also true of cultus4 ,priestesses and prophetesses held a position of marked prominence and importance4 ,possibly the most pronouncedly distinctive mark of ,phrygian religion was the emphasis upon inspiration1 immediate divine revelation1 exstatic conditions of religious excitation1 the well known ,phrygian ,frenzy4 ,if now1 with even this meagre1 historical1 nationalistic background in view1 we examine the expression of ,chiliasm in ,phrygia we see at once how it took the form and color of the national psychology4 ,the most pronounced ,chiliastic expectations are found in ,montanism1 which was so strongly marked by characteristics of its place of origin that it was known throughout the rest of the ,christian world as the ',phrygian ,heresy4' ,so strong was the influence of national sentiment that a very marked change was introduced in one1 most important particular4 ,christian ,chiliasm1 originating as a ,jewish form of nationalistic patriotism1 emphasized the fact that in the ,millennium ,christ was to reign in ,jerusalem1 which was to supplant ,rome as the center and ruler of the world4 ,in this respect ,phrygian ,chiliasm makes a complete break with the ,hebrew tradition4 ,christ was to appear and reign1 not in ,jerusalem1 but in ,pepuza4 ,an insignificant town of ,phrygia was to become the capital of the world wide kingdom of ,christ on earth1 displacing both ,rome and ,jerusalem4 ,nationalistic patriotism--not to say megalomania--could scarcely go farther4 ,so too ,phrygian ,chiliasm is remarkable for the prominence and importance of the position of women in the movement4 ,the women1 ,prisca and the others1 seem to have been fully as prominent in the movement as ,montanus himself and they exercised a degree of influence to which it would be difficult to find a parallel in contemporary ,christian movements in other countries4 ,similarly1 visions1 revelations1 inspirations1 extraordinary conditions of religious excitation are a marked feature of ,phrygian ,chiliasm4 ,they are of course the old ',phrygian ,frenzy' in ,christian guise4 ,not to pursue this phase of the subject in more detail1 it is evident that ,phrygian ,chiliasm bore in a marked degree the impress of the national1 religious psychology4 ,those bishops of ,pontus and ,syria who persuaded their people to settle all their worldly affairs and go out into neighboring deserts to await the coming of ,christ in glory1 exhibit in a more nave form the power of local group habits of thought to transform concepts intruded from outside the group4 ,in the case of ,egypt it is gratuitous labor to dwell upon the fact that the native population at the advent of ,christianity had developed a nationalistic like-mindedness4 ,this nation even in the year #a ,a4,d4 had an historical antiquity greater than any other nation can show today--with the doubtful exception of ,china4 ,in no other nation in the world has there been such an opportunity for climatic and geographic influences to work their full effect in producing psychological homogeneity among a population on the whole remarkably little disturbed in demotic composition4 ,it is to be remarked also that the climatic and geographic environments are themselves remarkably homogeneous throughout the whole extent of the nation4 ,the deterministic school of historians have a model made to hand in the history of ,egypt--a model of which it must be confessed they have made very skillful use4#e ,this is not the place1 even if the writer had the requisite knowledge1 to enter into any extended discussion of the national psychology of the ,egyptian populace4 ,it is sufficient to mention one predominating feature of that psychology1 a feature so persistent and ubiquitous that the study of it alone1 enables the investigator to obtain a true insight into much that is otherwise obscure in almost every variety of social expression among the ,egyptians2 law1 politics1 government1 art1 science1 literature1 and religion4 ,this predominating feature can perhaps be best defined as a certain low estimate of the value of individuality in the common man1 a cheap appraisal of the worthwhileness of the life of the ordinary person4 ,it seems to have a relatively slight ethnic element--if indeed it can be truthfully said to have any4 ,it makes its appearance substantially unchanged in all subtropical countries situated in the same general physical environment as ,egypt2 e4g41 ,southern ,china1 ,india1 ,mesopotamia1 ,mexico and ,yucatan2 in all countries that is1 where the natural conditions for sustaining and propagating human life are relatively easy and where the economic surplus of productive physical1 as opposed to intellectual1 labor is unusually great4 ,nevertheless the fact that ,egypt is in this category is due to a highly special geographic phenomenon1 the overflow of the river ,nile4 ,so that by comparison with the nations immediately contiguous to ,egypt1 this psychology may be truly said to be distinctively national in spite of its similarity to that of other peoples more remote geographically4 ,it is perhaps unnecessary to do more than mention a very few of the ways in which this characteristic of ,egyptian psychology has affected the national life4 ,it has rendered the population largely passive under the successive yolks of ,persians1 ,greeks1 ,romans1 ,arabs1 ,turks1 and ,englishmen1 to mention only some of the more prominent exploiters4 ,it has made possible the erection of those vast pyramids of stone1 devoid alike of necessity or use1 which remain to this day one of the wonders of the world4 ,it has enabled religions at once superstitious and debasing to flourish in the midst of a high degree of material civilization4 ,for our purpose it is sufficient to call attention to the fact that this mental bias makes any change1 even in the acquired concepts of the people1 especially difficult of accomplishment4 ,this is very well illustrated1 in the study of ,egyptian ,chiliasm4 ,in no other country were the efforts necessary to overthrow ,chiliastic concepts so long drawn out1 so persistent1 so futile of immediate success4 ,indeed they did not finally succeed till long after the period embraced in this study4 ,when the good bishop ,dionysius of ,alexandria #bdg-bfd ,a4,d41 held his conference with the village ,chiliasts of the ,arsinoite nome1 some of them were indeed won over1 but we are told that 'others expressed their gratification at the conference'4 ,it is evident that they were 'of the same opinion still'1 ,dionysius himself#f was not the first of the ,alexandrians to oppose ,chiliasm4 ,there was much effort1 both by him and others1 to eradicate the concept before and after this ,arsinoite conference4 ,yet we know that later on1 villagers from this region became monks in the ,thebiad1 and manuscripts still surviving from the ,thebiad1 show that apocalyptic and ,chiliastic literature was popular with the monks1 generations1 and even centuries1 after the death of ,dionysius4 ,it is a notable example of the national character of the ,egyptians4 ,they let their aggressive and dominating superiors have their own way in appearance--but in appearance only4 ,the underlying currents of thought remained essentially unchanged among the commonality4 ,the resistance was passive--perhaps almost imperceptible--but it was real and persistent4 ,in the case of ,roman ,africa--the country north of the ,sahara ,desert and west of ,egypt--the problem is more complicated4 ,in ,roman times down to the ,vandal invasion1 the population of this region1 leaving out of account certain small and relatively negligible numbers of ,greeks1 ,egyptians and others found mainly in the larger cities1 the population was composed of three distinct strata4 ,at the top were the dominant ,romans1 insignificant in point of numbers but having the monopoly of government1 law1 and administration4 ,they were practically undisguised exploiters2 government officials whose main business was to forward corn and oil to ,rome and incidentally enrich themselves2 agents of the great ,roman landlords intent on transmitting rents to their patrician employers--already in the time of ,nero the ,senatorial ,province of ,africa was owned by as few as nine landlords--absentee landlords living in ,rome1--and finally1 the numerous body of inferior agents2 lawyers1 money lenders1 and estate managers whose services were indispensable to the carrying on of the vast system of economic exploitation4 ,beneath this thin1 dominant1 ,roman upper crust was a vast population of artisans1 tradesmen1 agricultural and other laborers1 serfs1 and slaves4 ,this great body of the commonality was to a remarkable degree still very purely ,punic even in late ,roman times4 ,they differed ethnically1 linguistically1 religiously1 and otherwise from their rulers4#g ,we find ,st4 ,augustine1 centuries after the ,roman conquest1 writing a letter in ,latin to one of his clergy1 but requesting him to translate it into ,punic and communicate it to his congregation4 ,it is useful to remind ourselves of the fact that the population of north ,africa in the first centuries of the ,christian era was much greater than it is now4 ,centuries of ,mohammedan mis-government account for this in part but the chief cause is to be found in those profound climatic changes1 the origins of which are still obscure1 that have reduced to desolate and barren wilderness whole regions which in ,roman times abounded in populous cities and in rich and fertile agricultural lands4 ,this large population had the cohesion which results from centuries of similar and essentially unchanged social habits and it had also that sense of strength which comes from large numbers1 and that pride which results from the inheritance of a proud history4 ,they never wholly lost that spirit which had made their ancestors great4 ,they never forgot that in former ages they had competed as the equals of ,rome for the lordship of the world4 ,to the ,south toward the ,desert and the ,atlas ,mountains dwelt a third section of the population4 ,they were nomads or semi-nomads1 troglodytes1 and mountain peoples4 ,their manner of life remains essentially the same today as it was in ,roman times and as it was for centuries before ,rome set foot in ,africa4 ,the ,romans never succeeded in subduing this population except temporarily and for short periods4 ,the imperial government did what it could1 and by means of military posts and patrols kept a kind of order1 but its success was only moderate4 ,christianity in ,roman ,africa reflects this threefold division of the population1 as is to be expected4 ,cyprian1 in spite of the sincere religious faith and high moral character which elevates him so high above the social class to which he belonged1 is still the most typical hierarch of his age4 ,in his writings we find the whole philosophy of the governing class translated into ecclesiastical language4 ,it is highly significant that in all the numerous and voluminous writings of this ,father there is not a line about ,chiliasm4 ,ideas of such a nature found little reception in the minds of men daily engaged in the practical duties of making as much as possible out of the management and control of a vast population economically and politically subordinated to them4 ,it would seem that ,chiliasm was in fact very largely confined to the ,punic commonality4 ,tertullian is the great representative of this class4 ,the very considerable success of his views can only be ascribed to their being acceptable to the general body of his local1 ,christian contemporaries4 ,it is at least imaginable this success was due to the fact that the personal characteristics of this great ,african2 his impetuosity1 his boldness1 his sternness1 his pride1 his vengeful spirit were truly representative of the psychology of the people whose spokesman he was4 ,it is notable that he was perhaps the greatest of the ,chiliasts4 ,the reader who has followed the argument thus far may be saying to himself at this point3 ,if it be granted that the national characters of the peoples of ,phrygia1 ,egypt1 ,north ,africa or elsewhere1 conditioned their acceptance of ,chiliastic beliefs and the ways in which these beliefs found expression1 what has that to do with the subject of this chapter which is ,chiliasm and ,patriotism8 ,it is to that point we shall now direct our attention1 but what has been said above is necessary to the proper consideration of the matter4 ,we have endeavored to show that in ,phrygia1 ,egypt1 and ,north ,africa there existed nationalistic psychologies in the commonality4 ,it will be recalled that we have shown in an earlier chapter the curious fact that ,chiliasm1 though originally a perfectly orthodox doctrine--indeed one of the most important portions of the true faith1 nevertheless in the course of its historical development1 became mixed up with heresies to a degree beyond any rational explanation by the law of chance or the rule of average4 ,it would seem almost as though there was some natural affinity between this particular orthodox doctrine and almost any heresy2 which finally resulted in its being itself condemned as heretical4 ,the reason for this was that ,chiliasm1 like the heresies1 was a psychic equivalent for patriotism4 ,no stranger or more unwarranted delusion is to be found in the whole range of church history than the one still unfortunately common1 to the effect that for several centuries at the beginning of the ,christian era the populace of whole religions were obsessed with incredible zeal over the most abstruse1 metaphysical speculations4 ,it is indeed true that the ostensible objects of the conflict were philosophical ideas but the realities behind these symbols were tangibles of a very genuinely mundane order2 economic exploitation1 social inequality1 and suppressed national patriotism4 ,this is evident enough in cases like the ,donatists in ,africa1 but a little consideration of the evidence in the light of the developments of the ,freudian psychology1 will make it clear in almost all of the heresies1 and in the case of orthodoxy also1 when the imperial government chanced to be itself heretical4 ,so far as the writer is aware no study of any great length has been made of this matter1 which would richly repay investigation2 but our concern is more directly with ,chiliasm and the larger problem must be left to others for solution4 ,freud has shown beyond reasonable hope of successful refutation1 that experiences which the mind has completely forgotten leave emotional 'tones' which remain active and are the determining cause of physical and mental conditions4 ,a thought 'complex' is a system of ideas or associations with an especially strong emotional tone4 ,a complex may be of extreme interest to an individual by reason of his social education and hereditary mentality and yet be out of harmony with e4g41 security of life and property3 so a conflict arises in the mind4 ,this conflicting complex is gotten rid of in various ways2 rationalization1 repression1 disassociation1 or what not1 but the energy or interest which initiated the complex remains none the less and something must become of its force4 ,this undirected emotional force is the cause of dreams1 neuroses1 and psychic trauma4#h ,such in the most sketchy outline is ,freud's idea4 ,the application to the case under consideration is obvious4 ,patriotism was a repressed 'complex' to the peoples of ,phrygia1 ,egypt1 and ,roman ,africa4 ,the mental conflict brought on by the repression was rationalized easily enough1 no doubt1 so far as the conscious mind of the populace was concerned1 but the disassociated emotional energy was let loose on other concepts with which it had no proper connection originally1 i4e41 problems of philosophical speculation4 ,chiliasm was a speculative concept of a sort to make an especial appeal under the circumstances4 ,so far as his conscious mind was concerned the ,phrygian might be perfectly reconciled to ,roman political supremacy4 ,he might rationally prove to his own satisfaction that such political supremacy was really to his own advantage in the long run4 ,any idea of resistance was sure to be repressed by the certainty of losing his property and life4 ,yet the emotional energy of his patriotism remained and it naturally associated itself with any idea that lay at hand4 ,chiliasm happened to be at hand4 ,the glorified1 divine kingdom of the ,saints of ,god on earth was the psychic equivalent of that ,phrygian kingdom whose national existence had been forever extinguished by ,rome4 ,similarly that national patriotism which under other historical circumstances might have found satisfaction in the glory of an independent ,egypt now found expression in the borrowed phraseology of ,jewish and ,christian apocalyptical literature4 ,the same is true of course of the ,punic and ,nomadic strata of the population of ,roman ,africa4 ,to the new ,jerusalem which was to come down out of heaven from ,god1 these peoples transferred their now useless and hopeless longing for the ,carthage of the days of ,hannibal and for ,jugurthan ,numidia4 ,if1 as we have endeavored to show1 ,chiliasm represented the strivings of repressed1 national patriotisms1 we can readily understand the increasing opposition it encountered on the part of the great dignitaries of the ,church4 ,as the ,christian hierarchy became increasingly perfected1 the desire of the prelates for unity and cohesion in the ,church became correspondingly greater4 ,but national patriotism is essentially a disrupting and disintegrating force to any imperialistic organization1 civil or ecclesiastical4 ,chiliasm being associated with this separatist tendency1 naturally came to be regarded as heretical1 and as such1 was suppressed4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,cf4 ,r4 ,charles1 ,doctrine of a ,future ,life4 #b ,cf4 ,s4 ,j4 ,case1 ,the ,messianic ,hope4 #c ,cf4 ,il41 ,,iii1 #ahg4 #d ,cf4 ,w4 ,m4 ,ramsay41 ,art4 ,phrygians1 ,enc4 of ,religion and ,ethics4 #e ,cf4 ,buckle1 ,intro4 to the ,hist4 of ,civilization in ,england4 #f ,cf4 ,eusebius1 ,eccl4 ,hist41 ,,vii1 #bd seq4 #g ,cf4 ,alex4 ,graham1 ,roman ,africa4 #h ,cf4 ,a4 ,h4 ,ring1 ,psychoanalysis4 ,,chapter ,v ,,chiliasm ,,and ,,social ,,theory ,we have seen that in the first generations of the ,church's existence the rapidly approaching end of the world was a doctrine firmly held by almost all ,christians4 ,we have seen how by the fifth century this doctrine1 though doubtless still believed by small numbers of individuals and isolated groups1 was practically dead4 ,we have endeavored to show some of the more important political1 economic1 social1 and religious effects of this belief and of its declension4 ,the changes which took place almost imperceptibly during the course of more than three centuries in the status of this doctrine make any evaluation of its influence very difficult4 ,it is1 however1 probably well within the truth to say that the transformation of early ,christianity from an eschatological to a socialized movement is1 in some respects1 one of the most important changes in its history4 ,the change was actual and objective rather than formal and theoretical4 ,it profoundly influenced the practical lives of ,christians1 but it produced no alteration whatever in the creeds of the ,church4 ,as has been shown in the preceding chapters it is for these reasons at once more difficult to investigate and more troublesome to evaluate4 ,the difficulties of the subject itself1 considerable as they are2 lack of adequate source material1 doubt as to the authenticity and reliability of such sources as we have2 and ever present theological prepossession1 these difficulties after all do not offer such hindrances to fruitful investigation as another factor1 the present condition of sociological methodology4 ,the writer is not learned in the various forms of scientific method1 but he doubts whether any other science is1 in this respect1 in such a chaotic condition as sociology4 ,it is reasonable to expect of any science that it will have some general rules for the investigation of the data in its field1 and some general principles for the interpretation of the results of investigation4 ,sociology is no exception in this respect4 ,in fact the number of sociological 'principles1' so called1 is almost incredibly great4 ,a mere descriptive enumeration of them1 and a by no means exhaustive one1 fills a considerable volume4#a ,but so far as the writer is aware1 no effort has been made to apply these principles or any considerable number of them1 systematically1 to the elucidation of any movement1 contemporary or historical4 ,in general each principle has had its own advocates who have applied it to varying ranges of historical phenomena--generally to the total or at least considerable1 exclusion of other principles4 ,these sociological principles are not only very numerous--they are of very various value4 ,no successful classification of them has thus far been made4 ,it is very possible that in the present state of the science no successful classification can be made4 ,yet no study of an historical movement can1 without loss1 dispense with the aid given by these general sociological principles4 ,the writer will1 therefore1 in the briefest possible manner1 try to show some of the aspects of early ,chiliasm as they appear in the light of a few of these principles4 ,the list of principles employed is not an exhaustive one4 ,it can not even claim to be comprehensive of all the principles which might fairly be said to be important4 ,on the other hand it perhaps includes some principles which some sociologists would probably consider of minor importance4 ,there is as yet1 unfortunately1 no considerable agreement on this matter among sociologists of different nationalities and schools4 ,the reason of course1 is that the social reality which these principles endeavor to explain contains facts which are intellectually incompatible but which nevertheless1 do actually exist together4 ,one of the most important and one of the most convenient methods of investigating social phenomena is the statistical method4 ,in all cases of social pathology this method is so valuable as to be almost indispensable4 ,in other cases its use needs to be more carefully guarded4 ,in the problem we have considered the use of the statistical method has been evidently impossible except in the most incidental manner4 ,we do not know how many ,christians expected any particular kind of ,second ,advent to take place within any given length of time4 ,if we had information for each decade to the time of ,augustine1 of the number of 'convinced' ,chiliasts and the number of 'adherents' who were inclined toward that belief1 together with information as to the number of years within which each of these groups expected the ,second ,advent1 it is needless to say that such facts would enable us to judge the movement with a considerable approach to historical certainty4 ,even such incidental and fragmentary information as has come down to us in regard to the number of ,chiliastic believers is most valuable and such use has been made of it as may be4 ,if the use of the statistical method has not been more extensive1 it is because of lack of data4 ,perhaps the most widely known of all sociological principles is that called ,economic ,determinism1 or the ,economic ,interpretation of ,history1 or ,historical ,materialism4 ,more and more1 of recent years1 this principle has been employed by historians4 ,the classic statement of the doctrine is found in the ,communist ,manifesto4 ,the ,introduction to the second edition states3 ,in every historical epoch the prevailing mode of economic production and exchange and the social organization necessarily following from it1 form the basis upon which is built up1 and from which alone can be explained1 the political and intellectual history of that epoch2 that consequently the whole history of mankind 7since the dissolution of primitive tribal society holding land in common ownership7 has been a history of class1 struggles1 contests between exploiting and exploited1 ruling and oppressed classes4#b ,in the application of this principle to our subject we are lead to expect a genuine1 though not necessarily direct1 connection between the declension of eschatological expectations1 the increase of socialization in early ,christianity and such broad economic movements as resulted from the soil exhaustion of ,western ,europe and the decreased productivity of compulsory associated labor4 ,in the substitution of serfdom for slavery and in the growth of monasticism we certainly have two movements which profoundly affected the ,church1 and had a considerable part in altering the attitude of mind which made ,chiliastic expectations tenable4 ,it is probably true that what we have here is considerably more than a mere coincidence of time1 i4e41 that ,chiliasm declined as serfdom developed and was dead by the time the patronage system was established on the great estates4 ,indeed1 in the ,west at least1 ,chiliasm was dead before the country regions were to any measurable degree ,christian at all4 ,it is not too much to say that the apologetic used by ,st4 ,augustine to extirpate primitive1 ,chiliastic belief was only made plausable1 or even possible1 by profound changes1 of an economic nature1 in the early ,church4 ,the central point of ,augustine's apologetic is that the ,church1 as actually existing at the time1 was the promised kingdom of ,christ and the reign of the ,saints on earth4 ,such an explanation would have been absurd in the days when the ,christian ,church consisted only of a few1 small companies of sectaries1 lost among the lower strata of the population of the cities on the ,mediterranean litoral4 ,but by ,augustine's time the ,church was something quite different4 ,it was enormously wealthy2 owning farms1 orchards1 vineyards1 olive yards1 mines1 quarries1 timberlands1 horses1 cattle1 sheep1 goats1 slaves and serfs1 to say nothing of the purely ecclesiastical properties like ,churches1 schools1 bishops' residences and similar structures1 and the land they occupied4 ,the possession of this great wealth inevitably brought with it social position1 prestige1 and political power4 ,the psychical reaction produced by wealth1 rank1 and power was naturally unfavorable to the growth of any lively desire for the termination of the existing order of things4 ,indeed it was an active force in displacing and eliminating ,chiliasm from the minds of the hierarchy4 ,on the reverse side we have seen that the times of persecution1 when the property of the ,church was confiscated and the lives and liberty of ,christians endangered or lost1 coincided with the recrudescence of ,messianic expectations4 ,so that1 whichever way the subject is approached1 it would seem that the contentions of the advocates of the economic interpretation of history can make out a very good case in the instance of the early ,christian ,church and ,chiliasm4 ,without raising economic determinism to the rank of a dogma and while admitting that it has very real limitations1 it would nevertheless appear from the present study1 that the following contention of one of its leading exponents contains an important degree of truth4 ,the relations of men to one another in the matter of making a living are the main1 underlying causes of men's habits of thought and feeling1 their notions of right1 propriety1 and legality1 their institutions of society and government1 their wars and revolutions4#c ,a principle somewhat allied to the doctrine of ,economic ,determinism1 is that of progress by ',group ,conflict4' ,perhaps the most notable exponent of this principle is the ,austrian sociologist1 ,ludwig ,gumplowicz1 who states3 ,when two distinct 7heterogen7 groups come together the natural tendency of each is to exploit the other to use the most general expression4 ,this indeed is what gives the first impulse to the social process4#d ,according to this principle we should expect to find the cause of the transformation of early ,christianity in the conflicts of various groups within the ,christian community and in the conflicts between the ,christians as a group1 and various other groups in the world of that time4 ,the truth of this is so obvious that it is a mere waste of words to point it out4 ,that ,christian theology evolved by a series of conflicts with various pagan theologies on the one side1 and with various groups within the ,church on the other side1 which were successively branded as heretical1 is the most patent fact in the theological history4 ,what is true of the theology in general is true of ,chiliasm in particular4 ,it was very largely during the conflicts with a long series of heretical groups2 ,gnostics1 ,ebionites1 ,alogi1 ,montanists and ,apolinarians that the blows were given which finally vanquished ,chiliasm4 ,its elimination1 or at least the rapidity of its elimination1 was very measurably due to the fact that it was involved in these group conflicts1 and as it was almost invariably associated with the losing group1 it suffered the natural fate of the vanquished4 ,while the principle of which ,gumplowicz was so able a supporter leads us to expect changes in the ,chiliastic doctrine wherever it appears in connection with the phenomenon of group conflict1 both within and without the ,church1 this principle does not1 in itself1 enable us to state anything definitely concerning the nature of these changes4 ,there is1 however1 another sociological principle which we can call to our aid--the principle of ,imitation4 ,according to ,m4 ,tarde3 ,the unvarying characteristic of every social fact whatever is that it is imitative and this characteristic belongs exclusively to social facts4 ,this imitation however1 is not absolute and the various degrees of exactness in imitation and the complexes resulting from the various combinations and oppositions of imitations form the dynamic of progress4#e ,by the help of this principle we can in a certain measure estimate the general nature of the changes which took place in early ,christianity during the process of its socialization4 ,the conversion of the ,roman ,empire to ,christianity is1 according to this principle1 merely half of the actual occurrence4 ,the other half might be called the conversion of ,christianity to the ,roman ,empire4 ,the fact that this second conversion took place2 that the ,christian ,church became a hierarchic1 bureaucratic1 legalistic1 monarchical imperialism is evidence enough that the principle of ,imitation operated powerfully in early ,christian history4 ,what is true of the early ,church as a whole is true of ,chiliasm in particular4 ,there was no very powerful ,second ,adventist or other ,chiliastic influence in the heathen world with which the early ,christians were in contact4 ,their beliefs were1 therefore according to this theory1 weakened by dilution2 vice versa the pagans were gradually converted to an enfeebled eschatological belief by imitation of the ,christians1 but the net result was a compromise1 i4e41 a far off and indefinite eschatology4 ,the concrete evidence in support of this contention is not abundant being confined to a few lines in the ,sibylline ,oracles1 ,hippolytus1 ,lactantius and ,augustine4 ,such as the evidence is1 however1 it is entirely on the side of the theory of imitation4 ,it is moreover a very defensible position that if we were not dealing with such a stereotyped literary form1 the evidence would be much stronger4 ,one arresting feature of the ,chiliastic passages that have come down to us1 is their uniformity4 ,they are repetitions1 very often actual1 verbal repetitions of one another4 ,what is of real interest in this connection however1 is not the form of words1 used1 but the varying degrees of earnestness1 sincerity1 and eagerness with which the beliefs1 embodied in the form1 were held4 ,this is a thing difficult if not impossible of measurement4 ,practically our only means of arriving at the facts is to compare the relatively slight changes in the form of the ,chiliastic tradition4 ,this has already been done#f and favors the contention which the theory of ,imitation seeks to maintain4 ,the passage in the ,oracles1 while undoubtedly ,chiliastic1 is doubtfully orthodox and is found in a context showing the influence of paganism in almost every line4 ,similarly ,hippolytus and still more ,lactantius and ,augustine being situated so as to be peculiarly susceptible to the pagan environment show a marked tendency to make the ,second ,advent a far off event4 ,st4 ,augustine1 whose contact with the contemporary pagan world was more complete at more points than that of any other ,church father1 puts the ,second ,advent out of all connection with his own generation4 ,another sociological principle of considerable importance for our purpose is that sometimes spoken of as the transfer of the allegiance of the unproductive laborers4 ,the most prominent upholder of this principle is probably the ,italian economist ,achille ,loria4 ,according to ,loria1 the history of civilization is the history of the struggle for the economic surplus4 ,the existence of an economic margin above the necessities of subsistence at once divides society into three classes3 exploiters1 unproductive laborers1#g and productive laborers4 ,in order to exert moral suasion enough to pervert the egoism of the oppressed classes1 the cooperation of unproductive laborers is required4 ,the decomposition of an established system of capitalistic economy carried with it a progressive diminution of the income from property and consequently involves a corresponding falling off in the unproductive laborers' share therein4 ,this in turn dissolves their partnership with capital and puts an end to their task of psychologically coercing the productive laborers4 ,the bandage is thus suddenly removed from the eyes of the oppressed and the systematic perversion of human egoism up to this time in force1 is abruptly brought to an end4 ,but scarcely has the inevitable course of events hounded to its grave the existing order of oppression1 when there arises another4 ,under the new system of suppression the ancient alliance between capital and unproductive labor is reestablished and at once inaugurates a new process better adapted to pervert the egoism of the productive laborers4#h ,the importance of this principle for the understanding of our subject cannot easily be overstated4 ,the socialization of early ,christianity proceeded in almost direct ratio to the number of 'unproductive' laborers coming over to it4 ,if ,christianity had had in the ,first ,century1 such an array of theologians1 philosophers1 apologists1 statesmen1 and intellectuals generally1 as it had in the ,fourth ,century1 there can be no reasonable doubt that its triumph would have been much more rapid and complete4 ,on the other hand had the ,pagan cults been able to show as numerous and as able a body of intellectual defenders in the ,fourth ,century as in the ,first1 the success of the ,church must have been much retarded4 ,the declension of the artistic1 literary1 and general intellectual level of ancient1 pagan civilization during the first three or four centuries of the ,christian era is a fact so well known as to call for no remark4 ,what is not perhaps1 so well recognized is that during the very time that the pagan world presents an almost incredible degree of intellectual feebleness and sterility1 the actual proportion of intellectually able men in society was remarkably great4 ,rome1 never1 perhaps in her whole history1 had to her credit so many men of statesman-like ability as at the time her empire was falling to pieces4 ,the explanation is simple4 ,the men of genius and ability were no longer interested in the political fortunes of the pagan empire4 ,they had gone over to a new allegiance1 and expended in the foundation of the ,catholic ,church a degree of intelligence and ability which1 had it been placed at the service of the ,empire1 might very conceivably have enabled that ,empire to survive to this day4 ,it is certain that one of the leading causes of the collapse of the pagan cults was their increasing inability to command the support of the intellectual leaders in society1 and it is no less true that the increasing success of the ,church was to be ascribed to the ever larger number of men of intellectual gifts who enrolled themselves in her support4 ,the fact1 of course1 is that ,christianity offered increasingly an outlet for the expression of abilities and capacities of mind and soul such as no pagan cult could provide4 ,the most superficial comparison of the intellectual forces for and against ,christianity in the first century1 with the corresponding array in the fourth or fifth centuries is sufficient to show the enormous progress made by the process of socialization in the interval4 ,our more particular concern is1 however1 with the eschatological concepts4 ,a comparison of the supporters and opponents of ,chiliasm at different periods brings into clear view the rate of its decline4 ,without repeating what has been dealt with already1#i it is sufficient to recall that in the first century ,chiliasm had the support of men like ,st4 ,paul and the authors of the ,gospels and other ,new ,testament books1 notably ,revelation4 ,indeed1 as far as we can judge1 every intellectual leader of the ,christian movement for nearly a century supported the apocolyptic concepts4 ,but as time went on the proportionate number and ability of its defenders declines4 ,finally in the person of ,origen in the ,east and ,augustine in the ,west we find the undisputed intellectual leaders turning the whole intellectual class against it1 and so bringing about its overthrow4 ,still another sociological principle of high importance because of its pervasiveness and ubiquity is that propounded by ,prof4 ,veblen in what is perhaps the best known of ,american works on sociology4#aj ,this principle1 which may be summed up by the words ,conspicuous ,honorific ,consumption1 is that beliefs and customs1 in order to establish themselves and to survive as socially reputable1 must involve their holders in purely honorific consumption of time and economic goods4 ,this consumption may be1 and in fact very largely is1 vicarious4 ,in this case the functionaries of the vicarious extravagance must be distinguished from their masters by the introduction of the element of personal inconvenience into the performance of their functions4 ,of the various sociological principles1 so far brought to our attention this one of ,conspicuous ,honorific ,consumption gives us what is probably the most useful clew to follow for the understanding of the relatively rapid decline and the immediately subsequent social disrepute of the eschatological elements in early ,christianity4 ,no set of theological concepts can be easily imagined which are more antagonistic to the canon of honorific1 conspicuous consumption than are the eschatological ones4 ,but the principle of the reputability of waste is so intercalated into every form of social usage2 it plays so large a part in all moral1 religious1 literary1 artistic1 political1 military1 and other judgments1 that in a society like that of the ,roman ,empire where pecuniary emulation and invidious comparison were the forms taken by the 'instinct of workmanship'--the propensity for achievement--no set of beliefs or observances which ran counter to this principle could1 in a prolonged contest1 stand the smallest chance of success4 ,in this respect1 early ,christianity was the more unequal to the struggle in so much as it was the strongest in the cities4 ,the trend of affairs is observable in the ,church as early as the appearance of the ,epistle of ,james4 ,under urban conditions the law of conspicuous consumption works with peculiar power and it tended toward the rapid elimination of those doctrines and observances which operated to keep out of the ,church the wealthy1 powerful1 and fashionable elements of society4 ,within a relatively short time1 by the operation of this principle1 the originally respectable doctrine of ,millenananism was rendered disreputable and even heretical4 ,it was an important agency in bringing into sharp relief the distinction of clergy and laity1 while in the appearance of monasticism we see the working out of this principle among the strongest 7theoretical7 opponents4 ,had ,christianity in the beginning found a considerable proportion of its adherents among the laboring classes in the rural regions there can be very little doubt that it would have maintained the purity of its early doctrines for a much more considerable period of time than was actually the case4 ,there is no reason to doubt that1 in that event1 ,chiliastic expectations would have survived in ,christian theology far longer than they did4 ,among the working classes in a sedentary community which is at an agricultural stage of industry in which there is a considerable subdivision of property and whose laws and customs secure to these classes a more or less definite share of the product of their industry1 pecuniary emulation tends in a certain measure to such industry and frugality as serve to weaken in some degree the full force of the principle of honorific1 and more especially of vicariously honorific wastefulness4 ,that is to say such conditions tend to conservatism in general and possibly to religious conservatism in particular4 ,but for this very reason ,christianity made its way only very slowly into the rural regions4 ,in the ,west1 indeed1 ,chiliasm was already dead before the ,church had won any great headway among the agricultural population--which was not until the sixth and seventh centuries4 ,had ,chiliasm been able to hold its own until the conversion of the rural regions1 it would certainly have survived there for generations if not centuries--even if it had died out in the urban centers4 ,in the ,east1 where ,christianity made its way among the rural population1 at least in some degree1 considerably earlier than was the case in the ,west1 ,chiliasm did get a hold in certain agricultural regions of ,phrygia1 ,syria1 ,egypt1 and elsewhere1 and it was in precisely such regions1 as we have already seen1 that it was held most tenaciously and abandoned most slowly4 ,prof4 ,f4 ,h4 ,giddings of ,columbia ,university is the sponsor of the last sociological principle which will be mentioned in this connection4 ,his principle is known as the ,consciousness of ,kind4 ,according to ,prof4 ,giddings3 ,consciousness of ,kind is that pleasurable state of mind which includes organic sympathy1 the perception of resemblance conscious or reflective sympathy1 affection and the desire for recognition4#aa ,this consciousness is a social and socializing force1 sometimes exceedingly delicate and subtle in its action1 sometimes turbulent and all powerful4 ,assuming endlessly varied modes of prejudice and of prepossession1 of liking and of disliking1 of love and of hate1 it tends always to reconstruct and to dominate every mode of association and every social grouping4#ab ,by means of this very comprehensive principle many otherwise merely stray and isolated items of information that have come down to use regarding early ,christianity can be given a place and a meaning in the graduated series of phenomena which mark the transition from the eschatological to the socialized movement4 ,such1 for instance1 are the exhibitions of consciousness of kind according to differences and similarities of sex1 age1 kinship1 language1 political beliefs1 occupations1 rank1 locality1 wealth1 and the like4 ,the very number of ways in which consciousness of kind exerts influence makes this principle of very great use when the task is that of forming a general conclusion from the investigation of sources which are incomplete1 inconclusive and sometimes contradictory4 ,the different sociological principles mentioned above are intended as specimens only4 ,the list is not in any sense complete4 ,no attention is paid to other principles held as coordinates or as correlates of those referred to4 ,whole classes of principles1 the anthropological and geographic1 for instance1 are consciously omitted4 ,the list is in the highest degree a hit-and-miss selection and the more casual it is1 the better for the purpose in hand4 ,this purpose is to show that any given series of principles elucidated by students of our contemporary modern civilization1 will be found to have been operating in discernable fashion in the case of an obscure form of theological speculation in the first centuries of the ,christian era4 ,that ,chiliasm was the natural result of the heredity and environment of the early ,christians1 or perhaps better1 the natural result of the reaction of inherited elements in vital contact with the contemporary world1 will probably be admitted readily enough by anyone who has followed the discussion thus far4 ,but the aim of this thesis1 particularly of this last chapter1 is something more than that4 ,its aim is to uphold the contention that the forces now operating in society to shape and reshape beliefs and opinions are the very same in kind as operated in the society of the ,roman ,empire4 ,in short1 any explanation of early ,christian ,chiliasm which seeks to bring in the operation of any social principles which cannot be shown to be objectively operative in contemporary society is to be viewed with a certain measure of doubt1 if not of suspicion4 ,it may be taken as a safe assumption that all attempts to obtain a complete explanation of any historical event in terms of one principle of one science are foredoomed to failure4 ,the same is true1 in less degree1 even if we take all the so far discovered principles of any one science4 ,in order to give anything like a really comprehensive explanation of the historical process which forms the subject of this thesis there would be required the contributions of the principles of economics1 political science1 psychology1 and the other social sciences4 ,such a synthesis of principles is beyond the ability of any one individual4 ,the application of them all to our subject would be a task requiring the cooperation of many specialists in many lines for some not inconsiderable period of time4 ,the writer's task will not perhaps have been utterly in vain1 if he has1 even in the slightest measure1 helped to bring home to a single reader1 this important fact4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,l4 ,m4 ,bristol1 ,social ,adaptation1 ,harvard ,economic ,studies1 ,vol4 ,,xiv4 ,cambridge #aiae4 #b ,communist ,manifesto4 ,authorized ,english ,translation1 ,chicago1 #ahih4 #c ,w4 ,j4 ,ghent1 ,mass and ,class1 ,chap4 #a4 ,new ,york1 #aije4 #d ,grundriss der ,sociologie2 ,moore's ,translation1 p4 #he4 ,annals ,am4 ,acad4 ,pol4 ,sci4 ,phil4 #ahii4 #e ,g4 ,tarde1 ,social ,laws1 p4 #da4 ,new ,york1 #ahii4 ,the ,laws of ,imitation1 p4 #bb4 ,new ,york1 #aijc4 #f ,see ,chap4 ,i4 #g i4e41 ,the so-called1 ,intellectuals4 #h ,economic ,foundations of ,society1 pp4 #ea seq4 ,new ,york1 #ahhi4 #i ,cf4 ,chap4 ,i4 #aj ,the ,theory of the ,leisure ,class4 ,new ,york1 #ahii4 #aa ,inductive ,sociology1 p4 #ii1 ,new ,york1 #aija4 #ab ,descriptive and ,historical ,sociology1 p4 #bge1 ,new ,york1 #aijf4 ,transcriber's notes3 ,the following is a list of changes made to the original4 ,the first line is the original line1 the second the corrected one4 ,in all of them the catastrophy is more or less immediately ,in all of them the catastrophe is more or less immediately and final judgement which in the preceding form of belief were and final judgment which in the preceding form of belief were is to be preceeded by tremendous portents of the most terrible sort4 is to be preceded by tremendous portents of the most terrible sort4 ,thebiad4 ,in fact a large number of ,jewish ,apocalyses which the ,thebiad4 ,in fact a large number of ,jewish ,apocalypses which the ,he maintains that in the ,mellennium1 death will be abolished ,he maintains that in the ,millennium1 death will be abolished ,apolinaris was indeed the most ,judaising ,christian in his ,chiliasm ,apollinaris was indeed the most ,judaizing ,christian in his ,chiliasm indignantly denounces as 'figments1' 'mere old wives fables' and indignantly denounces as 'figments1' 'mere old wives' fables' and 'doctrines of ,jews4'#ai ,although ,apolinarianism was condemned 'doctrines of ,jews4'#ai ,although ,apollinarianism was condemned of note in the west4 ,it is aboundantly evident however1 from the of note in the west4 ,it is abundantly evident however1 from the and incongruities as the pagan myths which proviked so many and incongruities as the pagan myths which provoked so many ,chiliasts--are held to be insoluable as to the time of their appearance2 ,chiliasts--are held to be insoluble as to the time of their appearance2 dead1 and yet to be born4 ,the entity was eternal1 indestructable1 dead1 and yet to be born4 ,the entity was eternal1 indestructible1 the otherwise unintelligible success of that saint in combatting the otherwise unintelligible success of that saint in combating expression to this accomplished fact and it is no derrogation of his expression to this accomplished fact and it is no derogation of his words restriction in matrimony whether ,chilastic or monastic is due words restriction in matrimony whether ,chiliastic or monastic is due of the movement1 were influenced more by ,chilastic concepts than of the movement1 were influenced more by ,chiliastic concepts than #c ,cf4 ,parables in ,i ,enoch ,,xxxvii-,,ixxi4 #c ,cf4 ,parables in ,i ,enoch ,,xxxvii-,,lxxi4 #d ,cf4 ,apocalypse of ,baurch2 #d ,ezra1 #d ,maccabees4 #d ,cf4 ,apocalypse of ,baruch2 #d ,ezra1 #d ,maccabees4 ,fourth3 ,what may be distinguished as the specifically ,christain ,fourth3 ,what may be distinguished as the specifically ,christian the pupose of giving him a vest and an overcoat in addition to what the purpose of giving him a vest and an overcoat in addition to what and rightly discharged his service to ,him4#ac and rightly discharged his service to ,him4#ac ,the inconsistent and irreconciliable nature of the evidence about ,the inconsistent and irreconcilable nature of the evidence about references to interest1 which may perhpas be due to the fact that in references to interest1 which may perhaps be due to the fact that in condeming interest as such4 ,in the minds of the early ,christians the condemning interest as such4 ,in the minds of the early ,christians the prediliction of certain types of pecuniary interest for that reformer's predilection of certain types of pecuniary interest for that reformer's system of eccliastical polity4 ,the ,roman law did indeed fix a system of ecclesiastical polity4 ,the ,roman law did indeed fix a or act up to all thay they believe4 ,imagine a man acting on the or act up to all that they believe4 ,imagine a man acting on the institution they were perfectly familar and in universal observance institution they were perfectly familiar and in universal observance ,it was immoral to invest money in the consrtuction company that ,it was immoral to invest money in the construction company that economic and matters--and on other matters also4 ,the difference in a economic matters--and on other matters also4 ,the difference in a ,as soon as ,christain doctrines became widespread enough to ,as soon as ,christian doctrines became widespread enough to villange or serfdom4 ,but this change cut off the economic margin villeinage or serfdom4 ,but this change cut off the economic margin that of ,bibical exegesis4 ,in the well known sermon or essay on3 that of ,biblical exegesis4 ,in the well known sermon or essay on3 pyhsical possessions1 but spiritual qualities of greed and avarice4 physical possessions1 but spiritual qualities of greed and avarice4 that shall with difficulty enter into the kingdom1 is to be apprehended that shall with difficulty enter into the kingdom1 is to be apprehended the reward of which is salvation4 ,sell thy possessions4 ,what is the reward of which is salvation4 ,sell thy possessions4 ,what is expositions of ,christian ,scripture1 penning the most powerful apologitic expositions of ,christian ,scripture1 penning the most powerful apologetic honors upon the lowliest drugery2#cg they turned princes into plowmen honors upon the lowliest drudgery2#cg they turned princes into plowmen institutions of society can indeed be changed4 ,but they can be changed--or institutions of society can indeed be changed4 ,but they can be changed--on lack theoritical justification tend to accumulate such justification lack theoretical justification tend to accumulate such justification the spread of ,chriatian theology by liberating it from the burden the spread of ,christian theology by liberating it from the burden influence is economic4 ,christianity by teaching the virtues of honesty influence is economic4 ,christianity by teaching the virtues of honesty1 ,penticost and immediately afterwards was due primarily to the fact ,pentecost and immediately afterwards was due primarily to the fact began to develope doctrines and practices even slightly at began to develop doctrines and practices even slightly at motive1 the threatened loss of livlihood1 entering along with anger motive1 the threatened loss of livelihood1 entering along with anger of the crowds only after agitation diliberately stirred up by interested of the crowds only after agitation deliberately stirred up by interested also the villages and country places and yet it sees possible to stop it and also the villages and country places and yet it seems possible to stop it and teaching many not to sacrifice or to worship the gods4 ,speaking teaching many not to sacrifice or to worship the gods4 ,speaking pagan public4 ,most noticable of all is the indifference of the mob pagan public4 ,most noticeable of all is the indifference of the mob clamor and blows and draggings and roberies and stonings and clamor and blows and draggings and robberies and stonings and more through permeation of the public mind by ,christianity4 ,there more thorough permeation of the public mind by ,christianity4 ,there very extent and throughness and duration of the persecution very extent and thoroughness and duration of the persecution belongs in the reign of ,septimus ,severns instead of that of ,marcus belongs in the reign of ,septimus ,severus instead of that of ,marcus circumstances more or less in obeyance4 ,on the whole it was undoubtedly circumstances more or less in abeyance4 ,on the whole it was undoubtedly more violent at the end of the period tham at the beginning4 more violent at the end of the period than at the beginning4 ,serverus1 #bjb ,a4,d4 ,in the account given by ,eusebius of the martydom ,severus1 #bjb ,a4,d4 ,in the account given by ,eusebius of the martyrdom case it was not the product of any spontanious popular movement4 case it was not the product of any spontaneous popular movement4 ,they were not called forth by any imperial edict--they preceeded the ,they were not called forth by any imperial edict--they preceded the governmental1 legal precess would ever1 or could ever1 take on4 governmental1 legal process would ever1 or could ever1 take on4 persecution among us did not begin with the royal decree but proceeded persecution among us did not begin with the royal decree but preceded accumlated sentiment and social unrest must of necessity discharge accumulated sentiment and social unrest must of necessity discharge perhaps be going beyong the evidence to say that in this interval1 perhaps be going beyond the evidence to say that in this interval1 away from them and drove the ,jews out of the city1 permiting the away from them and drove the ,jews out of the city1 permitting the being reconciled to the bishop4 ,some of them therefore hurrried being reconciled to the bishop4 ,some of them therefore hurried people in a struggle over the most obstruse and recondite metaphysical people in a struggle over the most abstruse and recondite metaphysical to the ,christians mob movement against the pagans and to the to the ,christians' mob movement against the pagans and to the experience4 7b7 ,operation as an isolating device 7c7 ,revolt against experience4 7b7 ,operation as an isolating device4 7c7 ,revolt against were free from its defects as an instrument of hierarchial ambition4 were free from its defects as an instrument of hierarchical ambition4 town of ,phrygia was to become the capitol of the world wide kingdom town of ,phrygia was to become the capital of the world wide kingdom produced no alternation whatever in the creeds of the ,church4 ,as produced no alteration whatever in the creeds of the ,church4 ,as ever possible1 by profound changes1 of an economic nature1 in the even possible1 by profound changes1 of an economic nature1 in the of men to ane another in the matter of making a living are the main1 of men to one another in the matter of making a living are the main1 associated with the loosing group1 it suffered the natural fate of the associated with the losing group1 it suffered the natural fate of the ,but scarcely has the inevitable course of events hounded to its ,but scarcely has the inevitable course of events hounded to its