Course:  Church History (1)

Course Title:  Church History and the Standard of the New Testament

Section One: Departure from the simplicity of the New Testament Church.  

Lesson Three: Sacraments, Buildings and Monasticism.

 

Text:  ‘…the simplicity that is in Christ’ 2 Corinthians 11:3.

 

Introduction:  Believers meeting together.   

Holy Spirit ministry within the body of Christ, 1 Corinthians 12-14.

Manifestations of the Spirit – the whole body operating the gifts of the Spirit.

The ministry gifts given for building up the body of Christ.

The New Testament Church was not carnal.  It was led by the Holy Spirit, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Simplicity of worship in the early church. 

·                    Love feast, 1 Corinthians 11. Breaking of bread part of love feast.

·        Acts 20:7 Troas - believers met to break bread on the first day of the week. Paul preached. 

 

Introductory Story:   Simplicity of worship still evident in mid 2nd century. 

Justin Martyr First Apology 67 (c150AD).

·        Believers met on the first day of the week.

·        Read scriptures

·        Broke bread and wine and water.

·        Extempore prayer by the leader called ‘the president’.

·        Singing

·        Bread and wine taken to the believers who are not present by the deacons.

·        Offering – leader has charge of the finances. 

·        Distributes to those in need.

Breaking of bread not always a part of the love feast.

Note: Seventh Day Adventists claim that worship on the first day of the week was introduced by the Emperor Constantine but here is clear evidence that the first day of the week was recognised as the day kept by the believers in the 2nd century.

 

 

Main Points:

1.      Church buildings - Where did the people meet?

·        In the New Testament – they met anywhere.

They met in houses (Acts 2).

They met at the Temple in Jerusalem (Acts 2).

They met by the river at a prayer group (Acts 16).

Paul had a Bible school in a school (Acts 19).

 

  • Priscilla and Aquila were the leaders of a house church.  1 Corinthians 16:19,  ‘The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.’

 

  • The practice of meeting in homes was widely accepted.  There is little record of Christianity in England in the first three centuries but there was a strong church. English Church

3 bishops were sent by the English church to the Council in 314.

Pelagius was an English theologian (emphasised freewill).

Met in houses, no remains – some mosaics in the homes of rich Christians.

 

 

What happened?  The Church became like the world in its hierarchical form of leadership and the buildings resembled the great Roman basilicas.

 

·        Oldest church building found at Dura-Europos on the Euphrates River on the border of Syria and Iraq.  Dates from about c.240AD.  Assembly hall, baptistry and baptismal font. 

 

·        Basilicas – Churches built in style of Roman buildings. Conversion of the Emperor Constantine brought in the demand for more elaborate church buildings.  Constantine built Basilica in Rome. 

 

  • Later invention of steeples – higher the building, greater the prestige.

Christianity took on the characteristics of the pagan religion of Rome.

 

 

2.      The sacraments

The New Testament shows two sacraments were practised by the Early Church.  The bread and the wine, which came to be known as the Eucharist (giving thanks), and Baptism in water.  These sacraments are symbolic in nature and are an outward witness to an inward faith.

 

Sacramentalism.

When the Church moved away from the New Testament Standard it developed a sacramental form of Christianity.  The two sacraments became seven and faith in Christ was replaced by faith in the sacrament.  The sacrament was not only regarded as symbolic but that it also contained the grace it signified (‘ex opera operato’).

See the Council of Trent 1547 (7th Session) – ‘7 sacraments contain the grace they signify’.

 

a.      The Real Presence - The Eucharist.  New Testament – ‘in remembrance of me’ 1 Corinthians 11.   The association of the Eucharist with the literal body of Christ happens very soon after the Apostolic era. 

 

  • Ignatius (Bishop of Antioch d.117)  - Bread and wine is the Lord’s body. 

 

‘They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, [1016] because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect, [1018] that they also might rise again. It is fitting, therefore, that ye should keep aloof from such persons, and not to speak of them either in private or in public, but to give heed to the prophets, and above all, to the Gospel, in which the passion [of Christ] has been revealed to us, and the resurrection has been fully proved. But avoid all divisions, as the beginning of evils.’

(Ignatius - Epistle to Smyrna Chapter 7).

 

  • By claiming the Real Presence of Christ was in the Eucharist, the position of the Bishop could be elevated as the only lawful administrator of the sacrament.

 

Ignatius associated the Eucharist with the office of the Bishop

‘See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it.

 

‘Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid.’

(Ignatius - Epistle to Smyrna Chapter 8).

 

  • The sacrament of the Eucharist soon became a re-enactment of Calvary.  The priest offered Christ as a sacrifice.  In the Roman Catholic the priest offers the sacrifice of the Mass.  The Roman Catholic priesthood is based on the Old Testament.  The New Testament Standard is that all believers are to offer spiritual sacrifices to God

 

 

The doctrine of Transubstantiation.  

Although the doctrine that the bread and wine became the literal body of Christ was held very soon after the Apostolic era, it was not until the 13th century that Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).  formulated the doctrine of transubstantiation to explain how this change happened.  Thomas Aquinas was familiar with the writings of Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) on substances.  He explains that the substance of the bread and wine is changed when consecrated by the priest, but the outward properties remain.  

 

Thomas Aquinas is to the doctrine of the Mass what Darwin is to the theory of Evolution.  He did not invent the theory but he gave an explanation of how it worked.

 

Note:  Even if the bread and wine did become the literal body of Christ there would be no benefit in eating it except in remembering the finished work of Christ. Jesus said ‘the flesh profits nothing’.

 

b.      Baptism

  • The baptism of John was a baptism of repentance.  Baptism after the resurrection was a confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 8:37-38).  Representing new life in Christ Jesus. 

 

·        Didache (written about 100 AD)   Instructions regarding how to baptise.

Now about baptism: this is how to baptize. Give public instruction on all these points, and then "baptize" in running water, "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." 2 If you do not have running water, baptize in some other.3 If you cannot in cold, then in warm. If you have neither, then pour water on the head three times "in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." 4 Before the baptism, moreover, the one who baptizes and the one being baptized must fast, and any others who can. And you must tell the one being baptized to fast for one or two days beforehand.’

 

 

 

3.      The development of monasteries.  Jesus said ‘Let your light so shine that they may see your good works’.  Christians must be active within the community.  No suggestion in scripture of isolation.  ‘Let a man deny himself, take up his cross and follow me’ does not mean extreme asceticism and isolation.  It means living under the Lordship of Christ in daily life.

 

Monasticism developed for two reasons

1.      A rejection of the worldliness seen in the church.

2.      The desire to spread the gospel message.

But the error of monasticism is that it is carnal thinking. 

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

Asceticism, Great acts of self denial; Celibacy; Separation from society, do not produce holiness.

Holiness is the outworking of the new life of Christ in the believer.

 

Colossians 2:20-23 ‘Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.’

 

Four Stages of the development of Monasteries (Schaff).

  • First Stage

Asceticism and acts of self denial.

Still closely associated with the Church in society.

           

  • Second Stage

Anthony c 251-356)

Living as a hermit.  Separation from society.

Moved to mountain caves.

Some remained on a high pillar

Simeon Stylites (c.390-459) – father of  the pillar saints.

 

  • Third Stage

Development of Monasteries

Pachomius (c.290-c.346) - first to organise monastic communities in the East.

Gathered a community of hermits. Having all things common.

Over 3000 monks.

  • Fourth Stage

Development of monastic orders in the West: 

Arose around leaders.  

Began with Martin of Tours (c.335-c.400)

Celibacy

Strict lifestyle

Totally submitted to authority of the Church

 

Rise of different monastic orders:

Benedictine – Founded c.529 by Benedict of Nursia (c480 –c.543)

Cluniac - Founded in 910 at the abbey of Cluny, France.

Cistercian - Founded by Bernard of Clairvaux 1090-1153.

Franciscan - Founded by Francis of Assissi 1182-1226.

Dominican - Founded by Dominic de Guzman 1170-1221

Augustinian - Order founded 1244 by Pope Innocent IV d.1254.

Following the Rule of St. Augustine.

 

 

 

29. Development of Monasticism. (Schaff)

 

In the historical development of the monastic institution we must distinguish four stages. The first three were completed in the fourth century; the remaining one reached maturity in the Latin church of the middle age.

  • The first stage is an ascetic life as yet not organized nor separated from the church.
  • The second stage is hermit life or anchoretism.  It arose in the beginning of the fourth century, gave asceticism a fixed and permanent shape, and pushed it to even external separation from the world.
  • The third step in the progress of the monastic life brings us to coenobitism or cloister life, monasticism in the ordinary sense of the word.  It originated likewise in Egypt, from the example of the Essenes and Therapeutae, and was carried by St. Pachomius to the East, and afterward by St. Benedict to the West.
  • The same social impulse, finally, which produced monastic congregations, led afterward to monastic orders, unions of a number of cloisters under one rule and a common government. In this fourth and last stage monasticism has done most for the diffusion of Christianity and the advancement of learning, has fulfilled its practical mission in the Roman Catholic church, and still wields a mighty influence there.

 

 

 

Summary:

  1. Simplicity of worship of the early church continued into the 2nd century but their was an increasing adherence to sacramental religion. 
  2. Simplicity of worshipping in homes and other public places was lost when church buildings took over the large basilicas built under the Roman empire.
  3. The simplicity of holiness and temperance became organised in the monastic orders

 

 

 

Church History (1)

Lesson Two:  Sacraments, Buildings and Monasticism.

 

Notes

 

 

Justin Martyr First Apology 67 (c150AD).

CHAP. LXVII.--WEEKLY WORSHIP OF THE CHRISTIANS.

And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost.

And on the day called Sunday,

(1) all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability,

(2) and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given,

(3) and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.

 

The Council of Trent
The Seventh Session

The canons and decrees of the sacred
and oecumenical Council of Trent
,
Trans. J. Waterworth (London: Dolman, 1848), 53-67.

[Page 53] Celebrated on the third day of the month of March, MDXLVII.

DECREE ON THE SACRAMENTS

Proem.

For the completion of the salutary doctrine on Justification, which was promulgated with the unanimous consent of the Fathers in the last preceding Session, it hath seemed suitable to treat of the most holy Sacraments of the Church, through which all true justice either begins, or being begun is increased, or being lost is repaired. With this view, in order to destroy the errors and to extirpate the heresies, which have appeared [Page 54] in these our days on the subject of the said most holy sacraments,-as well those which have been revived from the heresies condemned of old by our Fathers, as also those newly invented, and which are exceedingly prejudicial to the purity of the Catholic Church, and to the salvation of souls,-the sacred and holy, oecumenical and general Synod of Trent, lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, the same legates of the Apostolic See presiding therein, adhering to the doctrine of the holy Scriptures, to the apostolic traditions, and to the consent of other councils and of the Fathers, has thought fit that these present canons be established and decreed; intending, the divine Spirit aiding, to publish later the remaining canons which are wanting for the completion of the work which It has begun.

ON THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL

CANON I.-If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ, our Lord; or, that they are more, or less, than seven, to wit, Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony; or even that any one of these seven is not truly and properly a sacrament; let him be anathema.

CANON II.-If any one saith, that these said sacraments of the New Law do not differ from the sacraments of the Old Law, save that the ceremonies are different, and different the outward rites; let him be anathema.

CANON III.-If any one saith, that these seven sacraments are in such wise equal to each other, as that one is not in any way more worthy than another; let him be anathema.

CANON IV.-If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law are not necessary unto salvation, but superfluous; and that, without them, or without the desire thereof, men obtain of God, through faith alone, the grace of justification;-though all (the sacraments) are not ineed necessary for every individual; let him be anathema.

CANON V.-If any one saith, that these sacraments were instituted for the sake of nourishing faith alone; let him be anathema.

[Page 55] CANON VI.-If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law do not contain the grace which they signify; or, that they do not confer that grace on those who do not place an obstacle thereunto; as though they were merely outward signs of grace or justice received through faith, and certain marks of the Christian profession, whereby believers are distinguished amongst men from unbelievers; let him be anathema.

CANON VII.-If any one saith, that grace, as far as God's part is concerned, is not given through the said sacraments, always, and to all men, even though they receive them rightly, but (only) sometimes, and to some persons; let him be anathema.

CANON VIII.-If any one saith, that by the said sacraments of the New Law grace is not conferred through the act performed, but that faith alone in the divine promise suffices for the obtaining of grace; let him be anathema.

CANON IX.-If any one saith, that, in the three sacrments, Baptism, to wit, Confirmation, and Order, there is not imprinted in the soul a character, that is, a certain spiritual and indelible Sign, on account of which they cannot be repeated; let him be anathema.

CANON X.-If any one saith, that all Christians have power to administer the word, and all the sacraments; let him be anathema.

CANON XI.-If any one saith, that, in ministers, when they effect, and confer the sacraments, there is not required the intention at least of doing what the Church does; let him be anathema.

CANON XII.-If any one saith, that a minister, being in mortal sin,-if so be that he observe all the essentials which belong to the effecting, or conferring of, the sacrament,-neither effects, nor confers the sacrament; let him be anathema.

CANON XIII.-If any one saith, that the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church, wont to be used in the solemn [Page 56] administration of the sacraments, may be contemned, or without sin be omitted at pleasure by the ministers, or be changed, by every pastor of the churches, into other new ones; let him be anathema.

Hanover Historical Texts Project
Scanned by
Hanover College students in 1995.
The page numbers of Waterworth's translation appear in brackets.

 

 

The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,
Commonly Called the Didache

‘Now about baptism: this is how to baptize. Give public instruction on all these points, and then "baptize" in running water, "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

2 If you do not have running water, baptize in some other.

3 If you cannot in cold, then in warm. If you have neither, then pour water on the head three times "in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

4 Before the baptism, moreover, the one who baptizes and the one being baptized must fast, and any others who can. And you must tell the one being baptized to fast for one or two days beforehand.’

 

For full text see website:  http://www.ccel.org/

 

 

 

Medieval Sourcebook:
Evagrius: St. Simeon Stylites
from Ecclesiastical History, I.13

Very early after their inception, the monks of the Greco-Oriental church ran off into practices which the more rational Latin church of the West never imitated. What passed for "extreme holiness" in Syria in the fifth century A.D. is shown by this story of St. Simeon of the Pillar. Attempts in Gaul to imitate this man were wisely frowned upon by the Church authorities.

Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History, I.13:

In these times [about 440 A.D.] flourished and became illustrious, Simeon, of holy and famous memory, who originated the contrivance of stationing himself on the top of a column, thereby occupying a space of scarce two cubits in circumference. This man, endeavoring to realize in the flesh the existence of the heavenly hosts, lifts himself above the concerns of earth, and overpowering the downward tendency of man's nature, is intent on things above. He was adored by all the countryside, wrought many miracles, and the Emperor Theodosius II listened to his advice and sought his benediction.

Simeon prolonged his endurance of this mode of life through fifty-six years; nine of which he spent in the first monastery where he was instructed in divine knowledge, and forty-seven in the "Mandra" as it was called; namely, ten in a certain nook; on shorter columns, seven; and thirty upon one of forty cubits. After his departure [from this life] his holy body was conveyed to Antioch, escorted by the garrison, and a great concourse guarding the venerable body, lest the inhabitants of the neighboring cities should gather and carry it off. In this manner it was conveyed to Antioch, and attended, during its progress, with extraordinary prodigies.

The body has been preserved nearly entire until my time [about 580 A.D.]; and in company with many priests, I enjoyed a sight of his sacred head, in the episcopate of the famous Gregory, when Philippicus had requested that precious relic of the saints might be sent him for the protection of the Eastern armies. The head was well preserved save for the teeth some of which had been violently removed by the hands of the pious [for relics].

According to another writer, Theodoret, in Simeon's lifetime, he was visited by pilgrims from near and far; Persia, Ethiopia, Spain, and even Britain. To these at times he delivered sermons. He wore on his body a heavy iron chain. In praying, "he bent his body so that his forehead almost touched his feet." A spectator once counted 1244 repetitions of this movement, and then gave up reckoning. Simeon took only one scanty meal per week, and fasted through the season of Lent. It is alleged that the devil having afflicted him with an ulcer in his thigh as reward for a little self-righteousness, Simeon, as penance, never touched the afflicted leg upon the pillar again, and stood for the remaining year of his life upon one leg.

Source.

From: William Stearns Davis, ed., Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources, 2 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13), Vol. II: Rome and the West, pp. 348-349.

Scanned in and modernized by Dr. Jerome S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton.

 

 

 

29. Development of Monasticism. (Schaff)

 

In the historical development of the monastic institution we must distinguish four stages. The first three were completed in the fourth century; the remaining one reached maturity in the Latin church of the middle age.

The first stage is an ascetic life as yet not organized nor separated from the church. It comes down from the ante-Nicene age, and has been already noticed. It now took the form, for the most part, of either hermit or coenobite life, but continued in the church itself, especially among the clergy, who might be called half monks.

The second stage is hermit life or anchoretism.  It arose in the beginning of the fourth century, gave asceticism a fixed and permanent shape, and pushed it to even external separation from the world. It took the prophets Elijah and John the Baptist for its models, and went beyond them. Not content with partial and temporary retirement from common life, which may be united with social intercourse and useful labors, the consistent anchoret secludes himself from all society, even from kindred ascetics, and comes only exceptionally into contact with human affairs, either to receive the visits of admirers of every class, especially of the sick and the needy (which were very frequent in the case of the more celebrated monks), or to appear in the cities on some extraordinary occasion, as a spirit from another world. His clothing is a hair shirt and a wild beast’s skin; his food, bread and salt; his dwelling, a cave; his employment, prayer, affliction of the body, and conflict with satanic powers and wild images of fancy. This mode of life was founded by Paul of Thebes and St. Anthony, and came to perfection in the East. It was too eccentric and unpractical for the West, and hence less frequent there, especially in the rougher climates. To the female sex it was entirely unsuited. There was a class of hermits, the Sarabaites in Egypt, and the Rhemoboths in Syria, who lived in bands of at least two or three together; but their quarrelsomeness, occasional intemperance, and opposition to the clergy, brought them into ill repute.

The third step in the progress of the monastic life brings us to coenobitism or cloister life, monasticism in the ordinary sense of the word.  It originated likewise in Egypt, from the example of the Essenes and Therapeutae, and was carried by St. Pachomius to the East, and afterward by St. Benedict to the West. Both these ascetics, like the most celebrated order-founders of later days, were originally hermits. Cloister life is a regular organization of the ascetic life on a social basis. It recognizes, at least in a measure, the social element of human nature, and represents it in a narrower sphere secluded from the larger world. As hermit life often led to cloister life, so the cloister life was not only a refuge for the spirit weary of the world, but also in many ways a school for practical life in the church. It formed the transition from isolated to social Christianity. It consists in an association of a number of anchorets of the same sex for mutual advancement in ascetic holiness. The coenobites live, somewhat according to the laws of civilization, under one roof, and under a superintendent or abbot.  They divide their time between common devotions and manual labor, and devote their surplus provisions to charity; except the mendicant monks, who themselves live by alms. In this modified form monasticism became available to the female sex, to which the solitary desert life was utterly impracticable; and with the cloisters of monks, there appear at once cloisters also of nuns.  Between the anchorets and the coenobites no little jealousy reigned; the former charging the latter with ease and conformity to the world; the latter accusing the former of selfishness and misanthropy. The most eminent church teachers generally prefer the cloister life. But the hermits, though their numbers diminished, never became extinct. Many a monk was a hermit first, and then a coenobite; and many a coenobite turned to a hermit.

The same social impulse, finally, which produced monastic congregations, led afterward to monastic orders, unions of a number of cloisters under one rule and a common government. In this fourth and last stage monasticism has done most for the diffusion of Christianity and the advancement of learning, has fulfilled its practical mission in the Roman Catholic church, and still wields a mighty influence there. At the same time it became in some sense the cradle of the German reformation. Luther belonged to the order of St. Augustine, and the monastic discipline of Erfurt was to him a preparation for evangelical freedom, as the Mosaic law was to Paul a schoolmaster to lead to Christ. And for this very reason Protestantism is the end of the monastic life.