fourth edict, all persons professing the religion of Jesus, of all ranks and sexes, were handed over to the secular arm, to be tortured, by every means, into a compliance with the Emperor's wishes.

It was four months before these edicts reached Africa; but when her season of conflict arrived, it might well be said that the furnace was heated 66 one seven times more than it was wont to be." Eusebius has left us a terrible picture of the sufferings endured by the Christians in Egypt. Entire families, he tells us, were put to death in various ways: they were burned, drowned, and beheaded, after enduring fearful tortures with scraping and the rack; some were stoned to death; others crucified, either in the usual way, or with their heads downward, and thus left to perish by hunger.* In Thebais every satanic device was employed to inflict torture: many were torn asunder by distorted boughs of trees; and sometimes ten, thirty, sixty, and on one occasion a hundred, men, women, and children, were destroyed by various torments. In fact, says Eusebius, the executioners were wearied, and their instruments of death blunted, with the numbers they were employed to slay; while the Christians endured all with the utmost faith and patience. They even expressed joy and triumph, and with their latest breath sung the praises of God, in psalms and spiritual songs. In vain their Judges implored them to have compassion on themselves, their wives, and children: Christ was now the supreme object of their love, and for him they were beheaded.†

66

We have a fragment of a letter written by Phileas, Bishop of the Thmuitæ, in Africa, while he was in prison at Alexandria, to his own church, giving an account of the persecution in that city, which presents us with a lively representation of these horrors, and of the feelings of the sufferers. "The martyrs," he writes, "fixing sincerely the eye of their mind on the supreme God, and cheerfully embracing death for the sake of godliness, held immovably their calling; knowing that our Lord Jesus Christ was made man for us, that he might remove all sin, and afford us the necessary preparation for an entrance into eternal life." He then quotes Phil. ii. 5—11. Coveting the best gifts, the martyrs, who carried Christ within, underwent all sorts of torments over and over again; and while the guards insulted them in word and deed, they were preserved secure and unbroken in spirit, because 'perfect love casteth out fear.' But what eloquence can do justice to their fortitude? Free leave was given to any to injure them. Some beat them with clubs, others with rods; some scourged them with thongs of leather, others with ropes. Some, having their hands tied behind them, were hung about a wooden engine,§ and every limb of their bodies distended by certain machines. The torturers rent their whole bodies with iron pincers, which were applied not only to the sides, as in the case of murderers, but also to their bellies, their legs,

* Eusebius, b. viii., c. viii.

+ Eusebius, b. viii., c. ix. Among the sufferers in Thebais, Eusebius mentions one Philoromus, a person of rank at Alexandria; one who administered justice, and was attended by a military guard.

MapTupes Xploтopopoi, Martures Christophori, the "Christ-bearing Martyrs," those who bore everything for Christ; and, by a strong synecdoche, said to bear Christ himself. The same idea is expressed in the name Theophorus, "Godbearing," given to Ignatius.

§ The Roman eculeus or equuleus, so called because it was in the form of a horse, and constructed, that the person who was suspended on it had his limbs stretched by screws like the cross, it was applied, at first, only to slaves.

and their cheeks; others were suspended by one hand to a portico, and underwent the most severe distention of all their joints; others were bound to pillars face to face, their feet being raised from the ground, that their hands, being distended by the weight of their bodies, might be closer drawn together; and this they endured almost a whole day, without intermission. The Governor ordered them to be bound with the greatest severity; and when they breathed their last, to be dragged on the ground. No care,' said he, ́ought to be taken of these Christians: let all treat them as unworthy of the name of men.' Some, after they had been scourged, lay in the stocks, both their feet being stretched to the fourth hole; so that they were obliged to lie with their faces upwards, unable to stand, on account of the wounds caused by the stripes. Some expired under their tortures. Others, having been recovered by methods taken to heal them, and being reduced to the alternative of sacrificing or dying, cheerfully preferred the latter. For they knew what was written: Whosoever sacrificeth to other gods shall be destroyed;' and, 'Thou shalt have none other gods but me.""

6

We have already encroached on our limits with these accounts of Christian suffering and devotedness, and must hasten to conclude this part of our sketch. In Numidia and Mauritania the same terrific tragedies were performed, and the glorified Head of the church fulfilled his promises to his afflicted saints. When they walked through the fire, they were not burnt; for He was with them, and they had no hurt. Their bodies were dissolved, but their souls were burnished, in the flames; and the enemies of the church, instead of triumphing in their schemes, were exasperated at the failure of their attempts to shake the constancy of the disciples of the cross. In spite of medals and monuments made to represent the extirpation of the Christians and their religion, "the virgin, the daughter of Zion, despised her tyrants, and laughed them to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem shook her head at them." (2 Kings xix. 21.) For their sins, indeed, and their unfaithfulness to Him who died for them and rose again, they were deservedly visited with the rod of His power; but, though "persecuted, they were not forsaken; though cast down, they were not destroyed." Satan tried a system of violence carried to its utmost length, and failed: he had other plans in reserve, which, unhappily, he was but too successful in adopting.

Those who are acquainted with the history and fate of the African church, must feel disposed to join, with special devotion, in that deprecatory petition which the Church of England puts into the mouth of her worshippers: "From all false doctrines, heresy, and schism, good Lord deliver us;" for never does vegetation spring up in her prairies more rapid or rank, after the autumnal rains, than did unscriptural notions and fanatical sects succeed each other in the devoted church of Africa: Donatists, Arians, Monophysites, Basilidians, Carpocratians, Valentinians, Ophites, Sabellians, Meletians, and, we may add, Novatians. These, and other schismatics which might be named, had their origin in Africa, and tended, more or less, to the disruption of the body of Christ, and the consequent weakening of his cause. It was this substitution of human passions and prejudices for the simple "truth as it is in Jesus," that provoked the last and most fatal scourge of an insulted God,-"strong delusion to believe a lie," which embraced the doctrines of the false Prophet in the Eastern, and of the Beast in the Western, church.

We shall give a brief account of the two principal of those sectaries, the

Donatists and Arians, as representing the two great subjects of ecclesiastical controversy,-discipline and doctrine; and having, moreover, produced more permanent effects than the others. We begin with the Donatists.

On the death of Mensurius, Bishop of Carthage, in 311, the neighbouring Bishops and Clergy assembled to choose his successor; and owing to the stratagems of two of the Clergy, Botrus and Celestius, who aspired to the vacant office, the Council was worse attended than usual: Cæcilian, a Deacon, was, however, the person selected. The Numidian Bishops were absent on this occasion,-a circumstance which had never before occurred, and at which, on learning Cæcilian's election, they were greatly incensed; the two disappointed candidates for the bishopric having exerted themselves to the uttermost to awaken their resentment against their successful competitor. These Bishops-to the number of seventy, several of whom history stigmatizes with the odious name of Traditors *-assembled themselves at Carthage, and summoned Cæcilian before them, to give an account of his conduct. Cæcilian refused to submit himself to their judgment, and was, in consequence, deposed by them, and another Bishop elected, one Marjorinus, servant to a superstitious lady, who had a grudge against Cæcilian, and who, it is said, distributed a large sum of money amongst the Numidian Bishops to secure his condemnation. Thus the Carthaginian church was split into two factions, ranging themselves under their respective Bishops, Cæcilian and Marjorinus. The latter were called Donatists, either from Donatus, Bishop of Casa Niger, who was one of the most virulent opponents of Cæcilian, or, more probably, from another of the same name, who succeeded Marjorinus as Bishop and head of the faction; and who, from his learning and virtue, received from them the title of Donatus the Great.

Besides objecting to the irregularity of the ordination, the Numidian Bishops declared themselves opposed to Cæcilian on personal grounds: they alleged that he was a Traditor; that, while a Deacon, he had treated the confessors and martyrs, during the late persecution, with harshness and neglect; and, lastly, that he now acted with insolence and contumacy, in refusing to obey their summons, when they commanded him to appear before them. They likewise retorted on their opponents the charge, that several of the Bishops by whom Cæcilian was elected were Traditors, and therefore disqualified from exercising so solemn an office.

The Donatists appealed to Constantine the Great, now occupying the imperial throne, and, as our readers know, the first Christian Emperor, and who established Christianity throughout his dominions. The appeal was answered by the appointment of Milchiades, Bishop of Rome, to investigate the matter, and of eighteen other Bishops to assist him. The result was in favour of Cæcilian. The Donatists rejected the decision of only nineteen Bishops against seventy; and Constantine, to satisfy them, assembled a numerous Council at Arles, in the year 314, composed of Bishops from Italy, Gaul, Germany, and Spain. Here the Donatists were again defeated, and they now appealed to the Emperor in person. He examined into the case, in the year 316, at Milan,§ and confirmed the decision of the

*See page 861.

The appeal to the Emperor, and not to the Bishop of Rome, does not look like an acknowledgment of Papal supremacy in the latter.

A city in France, in the department of the Mouths of the Rhone.

§ The capital of Western Lombardy, in Italy. Towards the end of the fourth century, it ranked as the sixth town in the Roman empire; and, in the sixth cen

Judges at Rome and Arles. The enraged Donatists accused the Emperor of partiality and corruption, which so incensed him, that he deprived them of their churches in Africa, and banished the Bishops from their sees. From this period, until the suppression of Christianity in Africa, the most fearful commotions distracted the unhappy church. The Donatists were numerous and powerful; and a number of them banding together, under the name of Circumcelliones, and arming themselves against their opponents, overran the entire province of Africa with murder, rapine, and every species of violence and disorder. Filled with a spirit of the most daring ferocity, no danger could affright, no punishments subdue, and no succession of defeats reduce, them. Originally peasants of Numidia and Mauritania, their hardy nature and barbaric valour sustained them through every reverse, and their delirious zeal carried them headlong into every desperate scheme of hatred or retaliation. Their leaders assumed the title of Captains of the Saints; and their well-known war-cry, "Praise be to God!" diffused consternation wherever it was heard. To prevent the horrors of a civil war, Constantine was obliged, by the advice of the Governors of Africa, to abolish the laws which he had enacted against the Donatists, and leave every one free to embrace the party which he liked

the best.

Constans, the son of Constantine, to whom Africa was allotted, on the partition of the empire, sent thither Paulus and Macarius, to try and accommodate the differences between the rival parties. The Donatists refused every concession with most unyielding obstinacy. Headed by Donatus, their Bishop, and the Circumcelliones, they pursued their career of blood with unmitigated fury. Recourse was then had to arms, and the Donatist party suffered a signal defeat, and for thirteen years were most severely visited with the vengeance of their enemies.

On the accession of the Emperor Julian, in 362, the Donatists returned from exile, and were restored to their churches. The greatest part of Africa now embraced their cause; and, towards the close of this century, they could boast of four hundred Bishops. Divisions, however, that neverfailing source of decay, soon arose among them, and the party began to exhibit symptoms of decline; so that when their illustrious opponent, Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, appeared in the lists against them, their power and influence were evidently much circumscribed. His hostility, as it was active and ardent, was productive of the greatest injury to their cause. By his influence, the Emperor Honorius was induced to interfere in the controversy; and Marcellinus, the Tribune, was sent into Africa, in the year 410, to bring it to a conclusion, if possible. The Tribune assembled a solemn Conference at Carthage, in 411, attended by two hundred and eighty-six Catholic Bishops, and two hundred and seventy-nine Bishops of the Donatist party; and, after having the case on both sides argued for three days, he at length decided against the Donatists, who appealed against the decision to the Emperor, but without effect.

tury, as inferior only to Rome itself in extent and population. Under the latter Emperor it was the capital of the western empire, and was considered the Athens of Northern Italy. Milan was attached to the crown of Spain until the year 706, when, on the extinction of the Spanish branch of the House of Austria, it reverted to the German empire. Napoleon made it the capital of his kingdom of Italy. It is now the capital of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, and the residence of an Austrian Viceroy. 3 0

VOL. I.-FOURTH SERIES.

On the occupation of Africa by the Vandals, in 427,* Genseric, whom they had greatly assisted in his conquest, took them under his patronage, and their condition and numbers rapidly improved. This state of prosperity they enjoyed for more than a century, until the Vandals were subdued by Belisarius, in the year 533, and driven out of Africa, when their cause again declined, although they continued to exist as a sect until the close of the sixth century, when, by the exertions of Gregory, Bishop of Rome, they were reduced to the verge of extinction, and their very name perished amid the ruins of the Christian church in Africa,—themselves, in part, the instruments of the destruction in which both were involved.

The Arian heresy next invites our attention. Although far more important, as a subject of Christian inquiry, than the schism of the Donatists, it does not require to be so particularly described, as, unhappily, it has not yet ceased to afflict the church, and afford to Christians an object of humbling contemplation and just abhorrence.†

For three centuries there had been no dispute in the church concerning the co-equal Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This doctrine was always admitted, although the Doctors of the church differed sometimes in their way of announcing or illustrating the mystery of the Trinity in Unity. For instance: Origen, whose views on the subject were by no means sound, held that the Son was in the Father after a similar manner as reason is in man, and answering a similar end; and that the Holy Ghost was nothing more than the divine energy or active power: thus destroying the personality of the two latter, which was a heresy in itself. But this opinion was rather explanatory than dogmatical, and hence no serious controversy arose on the subject; but, in the year 317, the church was visited with the most daring contradiction of the established doctrine which had yet been attempted on this or any other point, by a Presbyter of Alexandria, named Arius, in an assembly of Presbyters, convened by Alexander, at that time Bishop of that see, who had just expressed his opinion that the Son was not only of the same eminence and dignity, but of the same essence, with the Father. To this Arius replied, that as the Son is begotten of the Father, there must have been a time when the Son was not; that he was the first and noblest of beings, whom the Father had created out of nothing; and that by his subordinate operation the Father formed the universe: therefore, the Son was inferior to the Father.

This blasphemous and unscriptural notion was no sooner promulgated, than it found ready adherents in Egypt, where the seeds of heathen philosophy had been for a long time springing up, and bearing fruit of a most pernicious tendency; and the most furious contests ensued between the Arians and the orthodox upon this new ground of unchristian warfare, which were beheld with malicious pleasure by the pagan population around

* Or, 429.

+ The Donatists were singularly regardless of human life, whether their own or that of others. The Circumcelliones were noted murderers and suicides; and it is curious to note how they preserved this twofold feature of their character to the last. In revenge, they assisted the Vandals to possess themselves of Africa, who, as Arians, they knew would seek to uproot their own creed, which was certainly orthodox.

Sabellianism.