Elucidations.
Elucidations.
I
Who first propounded these heresies, p. 11.
Hippolytus seems to me to have felt the perils to the pure Gospel of many admissions made by Clement and other Alexandrian doctors as to the merits of some of the philosophers of the Gentiles. Very gently, but with prescient genius, he adopts this plan of tracing the origin and all the force of heresies to "philosophy falsely so called." The existence of this "cloud of locusts" is (1) evidence of the antagonism of Satan; (2) of the prophetic spirit of the apostles; (3) of the tremendous ferment produced by the Gospel leaven as soon as it was hid in the "three measures of meal" by "the Elect Lady," the Ecclesia Dei; (4) of the fidelity of the witnesses,-that grand, heroic glory of the Ante-Nicene Fathers,-who never suffered these heresies to be mistaken for the faith, or to corrupt the Scriptures; and (5) finally of the power of the Holy Spirit, who gave them victory over errors, and enabled them to define truth in all the crystalline beauty of that "Mountain of Light," that true Koh-i-noor, the Nicene Symbol. Thus, also, Christ's promises were fulfilled.
II
Caulacau, p. 52.
See Irenaeus, p. 350, vol. i., this series, where I have explained this jargon of heresy. But I think it worth while to make use here of two notes on the subject, which I made in 1845,(76) with little foresight of these tasks in 1885.
Fleury (tom. ii.) makes this statement: "Les Nicolaites donnaient une infinite de noms barbares aux princes et aux puissances qu'ils mettaient en chaque ciel. Ils en nommaient un caulaucauch, abusant d'un passage d'Isaie, ou se lisent ces mots hebreux: cau-la-cau, cau-la-cau, pour representer l'insolence avec laquelle les impies se moquaient du prophete, en repetant plusieurs fois quelques-unes de ses paroles." Compare Guerricus, thus: "Vox illa taedii et des-perationis, quaeapud Isaiam (Isaiah 28:13) legitur, quia, viz., moram faciente Domino, frequentibus nuntiis ejus increduli et illusores insultare videntur: manda remanda, " etc. See the spurious Bernardina, "de Adventu Dom., serm. i.," S. Bernard., opp. Paris (ed. Mabillon), vol. ii. P. 1799.
III
The Phrygians call Papa, p. 54.
Hippolytus had little idea, when he wrote this, what the word Papa was destined to signify in mediaeval Rome. The Abba of Holy Writ has its equivalent in many Oriental languages, as well as in the Greek and Latin, through which it has passed into all the dialects of Europe. It was originally given to all presbyters, as implied in their name of elders, and was a title of humility when it became peculiar to the bishops, as (1 Peter 5:3) non Domini sed patres. St. Paul (1 Corinthians 4:15) shows that "in Christ"-that is, under Him-we may have such "fathers; "and thus, while he indicates the true sense of the precept, he leads us to recognise a prophetic force and admonition in our Saviour's words (Matthew 23:1), "Call no man your father upon the earth." Thus interpreted, these words seem to be a warning against the sense to which this name, Papa, became, long afterwards, restricted, in Western Europe: Notre St. Pere, le Pape, as they say in France. This was done by the decree of the ambitious Hildebrand, Gregory VII. (who died a.d. 1085), when, in a synod held at Rome, he defined that "the title Pope should be peculiar to one only in the Christian world." The Easterns, of course, never paid any respect to this novelty and dictation, and to this day their patriarchs are popes; and not only so, for the parish priests of the Greek churches are called by the same name. I was once cordially invited to take a repast "with the pope," on visiting a Greek church on the shores of the Adriatic. It is said, however, that a distinction is made between the words papav and papav; the latter being peculiar to inferiors, according to the refinements of Goar, a Western critic. Valeat quantum. But I must here note, that as "words are things," and as infinite damage has been done to history and to Christian truth by tolerating this empiricism of Rome, I have restored scientific accuracy, in this series, whenever reference is made to the primitive bishops of Rome, who were no more "Popes" than Cincinnatus was an emperor. It is time that theological science should accept, like other sciences, the language of truth and the terminology of demonstrated fact. The early bishops of Rome were geographically important, and were honoured as sitting in the only apostolic see of the West; but they were almost inconsiderable in the structural work of the ante-Nicene ages, and have left no appreciable impress on its theology. After the Council of Nice they were recognised as patriarchs, though equals among brethren, and nothing more. The ambition of Boniface III. led him to name himself "universal bishop." This was at first a mere name "of intolerable pride," as his predecessor Gregory had called it, but Nicholas I. (a.d. 858) tried to make it real, and, by means of the false decretals, created himself the first "Pope" in the modern sense, imposing his despotism on the West, and identifying it with the polity of Western churches, which alone submitted to it. Thus, it was never Catholic, and came into existence only by nullifying the Nicene Constitutions, and breaking away from Catholic communion with the parent churches of the East. Compare Casaubon (Exercit., xiv. p. 280, etc.) in his comments on Baronius. I have thus stated with scientific precision what all candid critics and historians, even the Gallicans included, enable us to prove. Why, then, keep up the language of fiction and imposture,(77) so confusing to young students? I believe the youthful Oxonians whom our modern Tertullian carried with him into the papal schism, could never have been made dupes but for the persistent empiricism of orthodox writers who practically adopt in words what they refute in argument, calling all bishops of Rome "Popes," and even including St. Peter's blessed name in this fallacious designation.(78) In this series I adhere to the logic of facts, calling (1) all the bishops of Rome from Linus to Sylvester simply bishops; and (2) all their successors to Nicholas I. "patriarchs" under the Nicene Constitutions, which they professed to honour, though, after Gregory the Great, they were ever vying with Constantinople to make themselves greater. (3) Nicholas, who trampled on the Nicene Constitutions, and made the false decretals the canon law of the Western churches, was therefore the first "Pope" who answers to the Tridentine definitions. Even these, however, were never able to make dogmatic(79) the claim of "supremacy," which was first done by Pins IX. in our days. A canonical Primacy is one thing: a self-asserted Supremacy is quite another, as the French doctors have abundantly demonstrated.
IV
Contemporaneous heresy, p. 125.
Here begins that "duplicating of our knowledge" of primitive Rome of which Bunsen speaks so justly. A thorough mastery of this book will prepare us to understand the great Cyprian in all his relations with the Roman Province, and not less to comprehend the affairs of Novatian.
Bunsen, with all respect, does not comprehend the primitive system, and reads it backward, from the modern system, which travesties antiquity even in its apparent conformities. These conformities are only the borrowing of old names for new contrivances. Thus, he reads the cardinals of the eleventh century into the simple presbytery of comprovincial bishops of the third century,(80) just as he elsewhere lugs in the Ave Maria of modern Italy to expound the Evening Hymn to the Trinity.(81) In a professed Romanist, like De Maistre, this would be resented as jugglery. But let us come to facts. Bunsen's preliminary remarks(82) are excellent. But when he comes to note an "exceptional system" in the Roman "presbytery," he certainly confuses all things. Let us recur to Tertullian.(83) See how much was already established in his day, which the Council of Nicaea recognised a century later as (ta arxaia e qh) old primitive institutions. In all things the Greek churches were the exemplar and the model for other churches to follow. "Throughout the provinces of Greece," he says, "there are held, in definite localities, those councils," etc. "If we also, in our diverse provinces, observe," etc. Now, these councils, or "meetings," in spite of the emperors or the senate who issued mandates against them, as appears from the same passage, were, in the Roman Province, made up of the comprovincial bishops: and their gatherings seem to have been called "the Roman presbytery; "for, as is evident, the bishops and elders were alike called "presbyters," the word being as common to both orders as the word pastors or clergymen in our days. According to the thirty-fourth of the "Canons Apostolical," as Bunsen remarks, "the bishops of the suburban towns, including Portus, also formed at that time an integral part of the Roman presbytery." This word also refers to all the presbyters of the diocese of Rome itself; and I doubt not originally the laity had their place, as they did in Carthage: "the apostles, elders, and brethren" being the formula of Scripture; or, "with the whole Church," which includes them,-omni plebe adstante.(84) Now, all this accounts, as Bunsen justly observes, for the fact that one of the "presbytery" should be thus repeatedly called presbyter and "at the same time have the charge of the church at Portus, for which (office) there was no other title than the old one of bishop; for such was the title of every man who presided over the congregation in any city,-at Ostia, at Tusculum, or in the other suburban cities.
Now let us turn to the thirty-fourth(85) "Apostolical Canon" (so called), and note as follows: "It is necessary that the bishops of every nation should know who is chief among them, and should recognise him as their head by doing nothing of great moment without his consent; and that each of them should do such things only as pertain to his own parish and the districts under him. And neither let him do any thing without the consent of all, for thus shall there be unity of heart, and thus shall God be glorified through our Lord Jesus Christ." I do not pause to expound this word parish, for I am elucidating Hippolytus by Bunsen's aid, and do not intend to interpolate my own theory of the primitive episcopate.
Let the "Apostolical Constitutions" go for what they are worth:(86) I refer to them only under lead of Dr. Bunsen. But now turn to the Nicene Council (Canon VI.) as follows: "Let the ancient customs prevail in Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis, so that the Bishop of Alexandria have jurisdiction in all these provinces, since the like is customary in Rome also. Likewise in Antioch and the other provinces, let the churches retain their privileges." Here the Province of Rome is recognised as an ancient institution, while its jurisdiction and privileges are equalized with those of other churches. Now, Rufinus, interpreting this canon, says it means, "the ancient custom of Alexandria and Rome shall still be observed; that the one shall have the care or government of the Egyptian, and the other that of the suburbicary churches." Bunsen refers us to Bingham, and from him we learn that the suburbicary region, as known to the Roman magistrates, included only "a hundred miles about Rome."(87) This seems to have been canonically extended even to Sicily on the south, but certainly not to Milan on the north. Suffice it, Hippolytus was one of those suburbicarian bishops who sat in the Provincial Council of Rome; without consent of which the Bishop of Rome could not, canonically, do anything of importance, as the canon above cited ordains. Such are the facts necessary to a comprehension of conflicts excited by "the contemporaneous heresy," here noted.
V
Affairs of the Church, p. 125.
"Zephyrinus imagines that he administers the affairs of the Church-an uninformed and shamefully corrupt man." This word imagines is common with Hippolytus in like cases, and Dr. Wordsworth gives an ingenious explanation of this usage. But it seems to me to be based upon the relations of Hippolytus as one of the synod or "presbytery," without consent of which the bishop could do nothing important. Zephyrinus, on the contrary, imagined himself competent to decide as to the orthodoxy of a tenet or of a teacher, without his comprovincials. This, too, relieves our author from the charge of egotism when he exults in the defeat of such a bishop.(88) He says, it is true, "Callistus threw off Sabellius through fear of me," and we may readily believe that; but he certainly means to give honour to others in the Province when he says,"We resisted Zephyrinus and Callistus; ""We nearly converted Sabellius; ""All were carried away by the hypocrisy of CalIistus, except ourselves." This man cried out to his episcopal brethren, "Ye are Ditheists," apparently in open council. His council prevailed over him by the wise leadership of Hippolytus, however; and he says of the two guilty bishops, "Never, at any time, have we been guilty of collusion with them." They only imagined, therefore, that they were managing the "affairs of the Church." The fidelity of their comprovincials preserved the faith of the Apostles in apostolic Rome.
VI
We offered them opposition, p. 125.
Here we see that Hippolytus had no idea of the sense some put upon the convenire of his master Irenaeus.(89) It was not "necessary" for them to conform their doctrines to that of the Bishop of Rome, evidently; nor to "the Church of Rome" as represented by him. To the church which presided over a province, indeed, recourse was to be had by all belonging to that province; but it is our author's grateful testimony, that to the council of comprovincials, and not to any one bishop therein, Rome owed its own adhesion to orthodoxy at this crisis.
All this illustrates the position of Tertullian, who never thinks of ascribing to Rome any other jurisdiction than that belonging to other provinces. As seats of testimony, the apostolic sees, indeed, are all to be honoured. "In Greece, go to Corinth; in Asia Minor, to Ephesus; if you are adjacent to Italy, you have Rome; whence also (an apostolic) authority is at hand for us in Africa." Such is his view of "contemporaneous affairs."
VII
Heraclitus the Obscure, p. 126.
"Well might he weep," says Tayler Lewis, "as Lucian represents him, over his overflowing universe of perishing phenomena, where nothing stood; ... nothing was fixed, but, as in a mixture, all things were confounded." He was "the weeping philosopher."
Here let me add Henry Nelson Coleridge's remarks on the Greek seed-plot of those philosophies which were begotten of the Egyptian mysteries, and which our author regards as, in turn, engendering "all heresies," when once their leaders felt, like Simon Magus, a power in the Gospel of which they were jealous, and of which they wished to make use without submitting to its yoke. "Bishop Warburton," says Henry Nelson Coleridge, "discovered, perhaps, more ingenuity than sound judgment in his views of the nature of the Greek mysteries; entertaining a general opinion that their ultimate object was to teach the initiated a pure theism, and to inculcate the certainty and the importance of a future state of rewards and punishments. I am led by the arguments of Villoison and Ste. Croix to doubt the accuracy of this." In short, he supposes a "pure pantheism," or Spinosism, the substance of their teaching.(90)
VIII
Imagine themselves to be disciples of Christ, p. 126.
This and the foregoing chapter offer us a most overwhelming testimony to the independence of councils. In the late "Council of Sacristans" at the Vatican, where truth perished, Pius IX. refused to all the bishops of what he accounted "the Catholic universe" what the seven suburbicarian bishops were able to enforce as a right, in the primitive age, against two successive Bishops of Rome, who were patrons of heresy. These heretical prelates persisted; but the Province remained in communion with the other apostolic provinces, while rejecting all communion with them. All this will help us in studying Cyprian's treatise On Unity, and it justifies his own conduct.
IX
The episcopal throne, p. 128.
The simple primitive cathedra,(91) of which we may learn something from the statue of Hippolytus, was, no doubt, "a throne" in the eyes of an ambitious man. Callistus is here charged, by one who knew him and his history, with obtaining this position by knavish words and practices. The question may well arise, in our Christian love for antiquity, How could such things be, even in the age of martyrdoms? Let us recollect, that under the good Bishop Pius, when his brother wrote the Hermas, the peril of wealth and love of money began to be imminent at Rome. Tertullian testifies to the lax discipline of that see when he was there. Minucius Felix lets us into the impressions made by the Roman Christians upon surrounding heathen: they were a set of conies burrowing in the earth; a "light-shunning people," lurking in the catacombs. And yet, while this fact shows plainly that good men were not ambitious to come forth from these places of exile and suffering, and expose themselves needlessly to death, it leads us to comprehend how ambitious men, studiosi novarum rerum, could remain above ground, conforming very little to the discipline of Christ, making friends with the world, and yet using their nominal religion on the principle that "gain is godliness." There were some wealthy Christians; there were others, like Marcia in the palace, sufficiently awakened to perceive their own wickedness, and anxious to do favours to the persecuted flock, by way, perhaps, of compounding for sins not renounced. And when we come to the Epistles of Cyprian,(92) we shall see what opportunities were given to desperate men to make themselves a sort of brokers to the Christian community; for selfish ends helping them in times of peril, and rendering themselves, to the less conscientious, a medium for keeping on good terms with the magistrates. Such a character was Callistus, one of "the grievous wolves" foreseen by St. Paul when he exhorted his brethren night and day, with tears, to beware of them.How he made himself Bishop of Rome, the holy Hippolytus sufficiently explains.
X
Unskilled in ecclesiastical definitions, p. 128.
It has been sufficiently demonstrated by the learned Dollinger, than whom a more competent and qualified witness could not be named, that the late pontiff, Pius IX., was in this respect, as a bishop, very much like Callistus. Moreover, his chief adviser and prime minister, Antonelli, was notoriously Callistus over again; standing towards him in the same relations which Callistus bore to Zephyrinus. Yet, by the bull Ineffabilis, that pontiff has retrospectively clothed the definitions of Zephyrinus and Callistus with infallibility; thus making himself also a partaker in their heresies, and exposing himself to the anathemas with which the Catholic councils overwhelmed his predecessor Honorius and others. That at such a crisis the testimony of Hippolytus should come to light, and supply a reductio ad absurdum to the late papal definitions, may well excite such a recognition of divine providence as Dr. Bunsen repeatedly suggests.
XI
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