1 Pope from A. D. 590 to 604.
2 So Hallam, with reference to the Eastern empire. " The appearance of Muhammad, and conquests of his disciples, present an epoch in the history of Asia even more important and definite than the subversion of the Roman empire in Europe. Hence the boundary line between the ancient and modern divisions of Byzantine history will intersect the reign of Heraclius." Middle Ages, ii. 162.
3 Rev. 14:7
4 So Dupin, v. 123, in speaking of the apprehensions of some at the time referred to says ; "Whenever there have been great revolutions, Christians have easily persuaded themselves that the end of the world was approaching,"
5 It will he useful on more than one account, as well as interesting to the reader, to subjoin a somewhat copious abstract of the opinions of these eminent fathers of the fourth century, on the great cognate prophecies respecting Antichrist of Daniel, St. Paul, and the Apocalypse; opinions involving the point alluded to, &))out the Roman empire's dissolution into a new decem-regal form, as the event that would be introductory to his manifestation.-Intermixed will occur notices also of their opinions as to the nature of the predicted apostasy, (whether in the church, or out of it,) to which I may refer again at the close of this chapter. This will be a sequel to that given at pp. 215, 216, 220, of the sentiments of the earlier fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian Lactantius.
Cyril ordained Bishop of Jerusalem A D. 350, died 386.
He, like the Fathers before him, explained the four wild Beasts of Dan.7 to be the Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian and Roman empires, and identified he fourth Beast's little horn with St. Paul's Man of Silt and St. John's Antichrist. Further the judged that the time of his coming was to be when the times of the then Roman empire were fulfilled, and it was dissolved into ten kingdoms, kingdoms rising up cotemporaneously, but in different places: that then Antichrist, ("some great man raised up by the devil,") falsely calling himself the Christ, and so seducing the Jews, would by magical arts and false miracles seize on and usurp the power of the Roman empire, eradicate three of the ten kings, and subjugate the other seven: that at first mild in semblance, and prudent, and the abolisher of idols, (all with a view to self-exaltation) he would afterwards show himself as God, sitting in the Jewish temple; (" for God forbid it should be that in which we are; ") and for three years and a half persecute the Church: finally that the apostasy St. Paul spoke of as Antichrist's precursor, meant a religious apostasy, " from the right faith, from truth, and from good works." (So Catech. xv.)
Ambrose; ordained Bishop of Milan A.D.374, died 398.
The only prophetical notices on the point proposed in the genuine writings of this father, are those in his Comment on Luke 21: 20; Book 10 chap 15-18. He there (like Cyril) explains the apostasy of St. Paul to mean an apostasy from true religion: that it would be the Jewish inner or mental temple in which Antichrist would sit: and that then, seizing on the kingdom, (I presume the Roman kingdom or supremacy.) he would claim for himself a throne of divine authority. In the Comment on 2 Thes. 2 of the Pseudo-Ambrose, the hindrance to Antichrist's manifestation is explained to be the Roman empire; its defection a-is) or abolition, being the occasion of his appearance, and that he would then restore freedom to the Romans, "sub suo numine"-that the mystery of iniquity spoken of by St. Paul was Nero's persecuting spirit against Christians, which still afterwards had continued to actuate succeeding Pagan emperors down to Diocletian and Julian; finally that he would " in domo Domini, in sede sedest Christi, et ipsurn Deum se asserat."
Chrysostom; ordained A.D. 380, made Bishop of Constantinople 398, died 407.
He too (on Daniel) expounded Nebuchadnezzar's quadripartite Image, and Daniel's four Beasts, as the other fathers. "The days of those kings," said of the time of the stone being cut out, he explains as the days of the Romans: and that in smiting and destroying the Roman kingdom it would destroy the others too, as included Also in his Hom. 4 on 2 Thess. 2 he made the Roman empire to be the let or hindrance to Antichrist's manifestation meant by St. Paul; and explained the temple in which he would sit, to be rather the Christian churches everywhere, than the Jewish temple. The mystery of iniquity he thought might be Nero, as in spirit Antichrist. The apostasy Chrysostom identifies pretty much with Antichrist himself. He adds that as Rome succeeded Greece, so Rome would be succeeded by Antichrist, and Antichrist by Christ.
Jerome; ordained A.D. 378, died 420.
On Dan. ii. he expounds the gold, silver, brass, and iron of the symbolic Image to be the same four kingdoms as the other fathers: the stone cut out of the mountain without hands being Christ born of a virgin; whose kingdom, upon the destruction of all the other kingdoms, was finally to fill the whole earth. The breaking of the iron legs into ten toes,-part iron, part clay,-he explained of the weakness of the Roman empire at the time he wrote,-about A.D. 407, according to the Benedictines: On Dan. 7 he explains the four Beasts of the same four empires; the four heads of the third or Macedonian Beast indicating its subdivisions, on Alexander's death, into the kingdoms of Ptolemy, Seleucus, Philip, Antigonus. On the divisions of the fourth, or Roman, he writes: that this eleventh king is to be a num, with Satan's spirit indwelling, the same as St. Paul's man of sin: also that the Roman empire is to be finally destroyed on account of this Antichrist's blasphemies, and with it all earthly kingdoms.
Further, on Jer. xxv (written A D. 416) he explains the lot or hindrance in the way of Antichrist's manifestation (2 These. ii) to be the then existing Roman empire: " adding that St. Paul did not mention this, for fear of stirring up persecution against the then infant Christian church. He also explains the mystery of iniquity, even then working when St. Paul wrote, to be the evils and sins with which Nero then oppressed the Church, and prepared for Antichrist; and the apostasy, to be a Political apostasy or defection of the nations from the Roman empire, that Antichrist's self-exaltation over all that was called god, and that the temple he would sit in would not be the temple at Jerusalem, but the church. It should be observed in the above that he makes a two-fold destruction of the Roman empire: the one its desolation and dissolution by a breaking up into ten kingdoms, introductory to Antichrist's manifestation; the other its total and final destruction, to take place on account of Antichrist's blasphemies at Christ's coming.
Finally, on Dan. 11, he explains that Antichrist is to rise from the small nation of the Jews; at first to be low and despised, and not have royal honor: then through fraud, falsely pretending to be the chief of God's law and covenant, and falsely pretending to chastity also, to obtain the supremacy, break and subdue the Roman people opposing him, and gain (what no Jew ever pined before) the empire of the world: and that he will then fight against the holy covenant.
Augustine, C. D. xx. 19, 23, notices and agrees in Jerome's view of the four Beasts, and as to the identity of the fourth Beast's little Horn with St. Paul's. man of Pin and St. John's Antichrist. He explains the apostasy in 2 Thess. ii. of a religious apostasy; indeed, (expounding the abstract of the concrete as the apostate Antichrist himself; also as to the temple he would sit in, that it seemed to him dubious whether it meant Solomon's temple, or the Christian Church: that at any rate it could not be an idol's or demon's temple; because that would not be called God's temple: further that the W or hindrance in Antichrist's way, might not absurdly be taken to mean the Roman empire, though he professed his own ignorance in the matter: that as to the ten kings the number might be perhaps indefinitely meant, ten for the whole number:-that the mystery of iniquity might be said of Nero's spirit and actions ; Although the idea of his personal resurrection was absurd. Or, as others thought, that it might signify the unsound and bad in the professing church, until grown to a number sufficient to make up a great people for Antichrist. Finally that it seemed to him doubtful whether Antichrist's miracles would be pretended only, or real.
6 Cyril spoke of the wars without. and the religious schisms, divisions, and mutual hatred of Christians within, (which last seemed to him to he the working of the mystery of iniquity &a signs that Antichrist's manifestation was near at hand. He noted too the fact (or supposed fact) of the gospel having been then nearly preached over the whole world, as a further corroborative proof. This wax about A.D. 350 or 360.
Ambrose too, writing about A.D. 386, (so the Benedictines date it on Luke 21 9, refers to the then recent wan, especially those of the Goths against the Ro mans in which Valens perished, and which had resulted in their occupation of Illyricum, as well as to the rumors of war, pestilences, as evidence that the world was near its end.
7 This occurs in the second Book of his Sacred History, written, as he tell us afterwards, fifteen years after Priscillian's execution, (an event of the year 385,) and consequently A.D.400, or 401. The passage is a remarkable one. Speaking of the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar's symbolic image.
The allusion is evidently to the occupation of the Illyrian provinces by the Goths, begun under Valens, some by forcible seizure, some by surrender on the part of the Roman emperors: the same that Ambrose alludes to in the extract given in the Note preceding, and Jerome also some years later; see Note 1, p. 340.-This being the commencement of that overflowing of the Roman empire by the Goths, whence the Gothic-Romano kingdoms afterwards rose, Bishop Newton was hardly, I think, so incorrect in quoting Sulpicius, by way of illustration to his exposition, as Mr. Maitland would make him.
8 Augustine's Letters am numbered 197, 199. chief objection, (besides that it was not for men to know the times and seasons) was that the gospel was not yet preached to all nations; which Christ said must first be, and that then the end should come. To which Hesychius Augustine's answered what St. Paul had said of the Gospel having been preached, even in his time, to every creature under heaven.
9 Theodoret explains the four kingdoms and the little horn, in Dan. 2 and 7, as the preceding fathers. In St. Paul he expounds the apostasy as Antichrist, he being the great apostate from the truth, the let as the Pagan idolatry, that was to he removed to make way for his worship; the mystery of iniquity as the heresies of apostolic times, preparing for him, the temple as Christian Churches. Theodoret wrote his Comment on St. Paul's Epistles after 431 A.D.
10 In the Oxford Tracts on Antichrist, (No 83 of the Series, p. 24), the following statement is made. "Another expectation of the early Church was that the Roman monster, after remaining torpid for centuries, would wake up at the end of the world and be restored: &c'' I presume the writer refers to the wild idea mooted by some, that Nero would rise again to act the part of Antichrist. (See p. 65 Note 4 supra.) But instead of "the early church" embracing the idea, it was but a few individuals, and none of great eminence: the view of Chrysostom, and men like him, only referring to Nero's spirit, not person. (See the abstract pp. 363-365 supra) Moreover even the Sybil's wilder notion had to do with the Beast's head, an individual; not the beast or empire collectively, so as the Oxford writer, in order to suit his argument, would represent it. The idea of its " lying torpid for many centuries," was an idea the most alien, if I mistake not, from patristic expectations.
11 I have preferred the reading angel to eagle, for the reasons stated at the beginning of this chapter. But let me observe in passing, should any one get over the difficulty of supposing a work of proclamation consigned to such an agency, and, on account of its superior external evidence, wish to adopt the reading eagle, that the eagle still continued to Papal, as to Pagan Rome, a characteristic ensign.
12 Mosheirn vi. 2. 2. I.-The title had been, it seems, in the century preceding addressed to Pope Leo by certain oriental correspondents, but not adopted subsequently thus far by his successors. In disputing this title with Gregory, John the Faster is assimilated by Baronius (ad ann. 595) to the apostate Angel rising against the most High God; a comparison, says Dean Waddington, i. 299. not fir removed from blasphemy.
13 Gregory, then a deacon, was Pelagius' delegate on this occasion to Constantinople: and from the similarity of the Papal protestation, then given in by him, to those that he wrote and published afterwards, it has been conjectured that Gregory was probably himself the composer of it.
14 The reader will find copious extracts from these letters of Gregory in Daubuz, ad loc. p. 393, &c. He was indeed so struck with Gregory's protestations and warnings on Antichrist's near approach, as to have explained the woe-denouncing in the vision altogether of them. In the which notice he was preceded by Pareus.
15 Alike Ambrose, the two Cyrils, Chrysostom, and other fathers of the close of the fourth century, already then used such strong language about the character and effect of these " tremendous " mysteries, an might well awe men's minds into a very superstitious view of the sacrament; and also pave the way for the transubstantiation of the middle age. These views, and this language, continued in vogue afterwards; not the simpler and more scriptural views of Augustine. The latter viewed the Lord's Supper as a commemorative rite, though with grace accompanying it to the faithful participant. See his Epist. xcviii. 9. Contra Faust. xx. 18, 21. Contra Adimant. xii. 3, Doctr. Christ. iii. 24, and on Psalm iii. I.-I refer the reader to an elaborate review of the origin and progress of the doctrine of Transubstantiation in the American Bibliotheca Sucra, No. 1.
16 Mr. Palmer, in his valuable work on the Origines Liturgicat, i. 278, notices the freedom of the ancient Oriental Litanies from the invocation of saints; and that it was not admitted into the Roman Litany till, the seventh century. But, in fact, Litanies of this character had been long before chanted in the East ; as on the memorable occasion of Nestorius' condemnation at Constantinople, A.D. 431. "A long order of monks and hermits, carrying burning tapers in their hands, chanted litanies to the Mother of God." Gib. viii. 295. Mr. P. suggests further that where that invocation of saints was practiced, it was rather "prayer made to God for the intercession of saints" than direct invocation of them. I suppose he means through the saints; so an in Pope Gregory's Sacmmentary. But surely, even so, neither the guilt nor the folly of the supplicants were diminished thereby; for it was a worship that involved the supersession and neglect of Christ, (just as depicted in that most striking Apocalyptic figuration of the incense-offering scene. Apoc. viii. 3-5.) &like in his character of man's propitiatory atonement, and man's one great and divinely appointed Mediator!
Fleury ascribes Gregory's settlement of the Roman worship, to the year A.D. 599. His septiform Litany seems to have been instituted in 590. Cave, Hist. Lit.
17 So by the Church, as once by Gnostics, Christ as the Mediating God-man was set aside.
18 Such is Dr. Burton's general view of the early church's prayers for the dead: (p. 3 18;) it being understood that the Christians of the 2nd century, and part of the 3rd, expected that the saints' resurrection would precede that of the wicked, and take place at the Millennium; also, according to Tertullian, that during the Millennium the order of the saints rising would be in order of merit.
19 The prayer after consecration of the sacramental elements, Cyril of Jerusalem tells us, had these words:
"We offer these sacrifices in memory of all that have fallen asleep" &c. ; i. e. in the communion of the church: consequently those about whom charity might entertain hope, in all hope's various degrees.
20 So especially Chrysostom. "They, the wicked," are not so much to be lamented, as succored with prayers and alms. For not in vain does he who stands at the altar when the tremendous mysteries are celebrated, cry, We offer unto thee for all those that sleep in Christ. The common propitiation of the whole world is before us: and we may obtain a general pardon for them by our prayers and alms." Again he says, " that prayers were made (or all deceased in the faith (i. e. professedly;) and that none were excluded from the benefit but catechumens, dying in a voluntary neglect of baptism."
Epiphimius in one passage said that prayer should be made even for sinners; in another, that after death there can be obtained no help.-The same inconsistency attaches to Ambrose. and even Augustine; supposing certain passages adduced by Romanists from the latter to be genuine. But some of these we know are not genuine: while any other passages in Augustine are express to the effect that after death there is no change.
21 Every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it; because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is.. .. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he him. self shall be saved, yet so an by fire." I Cor. iii. 13, 15.
22 See the patristic expositions in Mr. Hall. Origen, Jerome and Augustine thought that the apostle meant the fire of temporal tribulation before death; which even Gregory I himself allowed might be the sense. Lactantius, Basil, Ambrose referred it to the general conflagration at the day of judgment; Gregory Nazienzen, Chrysostom, and Theodoret, to hell itself. In the Judgment Augustine thought it not unlikely that sincere but inconsistent Christians might have temporal suffering to go through.
23 See p. 266, 269 supra. " The Jewish priests," says Chrysostom, " had power to remove the leprosy of the body; or rather to examine only the cleansed, and not any power to cleanse: and you know how that office was contended for. Whereas Christian priests have received authority, not to remove the bodily leprosy but the corruption of the mind; not merely to verify the removal, but to remove it entirely.
24 I might say canonizer; only that it was not till the tenth century that the canonization of saints was actually solemnized. See Mosheim x. 2. 3. 4.
25 Polidore Virgil, in his work De Inventor. viii. 1. (published A.D. 1499), refers the origin of the Romish doctrine of indulgences, as afterwards developed, i. e. as including the remission of the guilt of sin, as well as of its temporal punishment, to the time of Gregory 1. For the assignment of which late date to it, his Book was put into the Index Expurgatorius. Bingham, vi. 595.
26 On the injunction by Pope Leo I, Dean Waddington, after noticing its connection both as effect and cause with the increased immorality of the times, has the following important observations. "But another consequence which certainly flowed from this measure, and which, in the eye of an ambitious churchman, might counterbalance its demoralizing effect, was the vast addition of influence it gave to the clergy. When he delivered over the consciences of the people into the hands of the priest, when he consigned the most secret acts and thoughts of individual imperfection to the torture of private inquisition and scrutiny. Leo had indeed the glory of laying the first and comer stone of the papal edifice; that on which it rose and rested. and without which the industry of his successors would have been vainly exerted." i. 253. See too Mosheim, v. 2. 4. 3.
The practice existed earlier in the Eastern church; but was, about A.D. 390, discarded in consequence of abuses resulting. Socrat. v. 19; Sozom. H. E. vii. 16. it was however soon restored, and has been ever since continued. See Waddington on the Greek Church, p. 51.
27 Said Ignatius, in a fragment preserved by J. Damascenus, (ap. Galland. Bibl. L 288. ) in his comment on I Tim. iv. 1, (" Forbidding to marry,") that it was not the approbation of celibacy, but the legal enforcement of it, that was to mark the apostasy meant.
28 So the Koran, ch. ix, charges it against the Christians of Mahomet's time:
They take their priests and monks for their lords, besides GOD." Sale ii. 8.
29 I. e. of the Herulian and Ostro-Gothic dynasties, each of which embraced Rome in their kingdoms, Lad exercised royal power over it. See Mosheirn vi. 2. 2. 2. The Lombard kingdom, which followed after Narses' final conquests, had nothing to do with Rome: which was then a dependency (though very much independent in action) of the Constantinopolitan Exarchate or Vice-royalty of Ravenna. Other results of Belisarius' expedition were but transient. The existence of such a man as Gregory at this conjuncture, to take advantage of it, was assuredly a very remarkable coincidence.
30 The appellation moreover of Pope, hitherto the general designation of Bishops, in the West as well as the East, was now by an order of Gregory I applied exclusively to the Bishop of Rome.
31 Ennodios in his Apolog. pro Synodo, on occasion of the contest A.D. 503 between Symmachus and Laurentius for the papacy, wrote " Vice Dei judicare Pontificem; and the Roman Council adopted it. See Mosh. vi. 2. 2. 2.4 ; Hard. ii. 983. I say in the text distinctively, because the phrase ascribed to him, or something similar, had been ascribed in earlier times to bishops generally.
32 Take for example the following from the Old Testament. Isa 5:20; " Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness," &c: Isa 30: 1 ; " Woe to the rebellious children that take counsel, but not of me; and cover with a covering, but not of my spirit. " Jer. 28:1 "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture: Ezek. 13:3: " Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing: "Hos. 7:13; " Woe unto them; for they have tied from me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me: " Hab. 2:19; " Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake! to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! It is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it."
And from the New Testament: Matt. 23:13 ; " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; ye neither go in yourselves, nor suffer them that are entering to go in: Woe unto you, hypocrites, for ye devour widows houses," &c. Jude 11; " Woe unto them ! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward"