The first century following the departure of the apostles produced few Christian writers — few men of learning or note. For the most part the Christians of those days were concerned to live Christianity and they found in the Scriptures all that was necessary to their salvation and edification.
An epistle has been preserved that is said to have been written to the Corinthians by the Clement whom Paul mentions in Philippians 4. It is for the most part a simple and homely exhortation to the Corinthian church to observe peace and unity among themselves. Some doubt, however, has been expressed as to whether the companion of Paul was the Clement who wrote the epistle.
Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, is the next figure that claims attention. An ancient manuscript, said to have been written by contemporaries at the time of his martyrdom, thus describes him:
“He was a man in all things like to the apostles. As a good governor by the helm of prayer and fasting, by the constancy of his doctrine and spiritual labor, he opposed himself to the floods of the adversary. He was like a divine lamp illuminating the hearts of the faithful by his exposition of the Holy Scriptures, and lastly to preserve his church, he scrupled not freely to expose himself to a bitter death.”
Ignatius suffered in the reign of Trajan in the year 107 A.D. Though an aged man, he was condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts at Rome. On his way there he rested at Smyrna, where he met Polycarp who was bishop of that place and who, like Ignatius, had himself known the Apostle John. Deputies came too from various churches in Asia to console him; there was indeed quite a convocation. While at Smyrna, he wrote letters to the churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles and Rome. These epistles seem to have suffered from interpolations, but scholars have to some extent purged the false from the genuine. Ignatius insists strongly on submission to the local bishop. The constant attacks of heretics and schismatics doubtless made him feel that the recognition of the authority of the bishop was a safeguard of unity. As this was but a few years after the last of the apostles had left the scene, we see how early the original ordering of the Church under local elders gave place to the presidency of one man. A unity imposed by obedience to one man was hardly the unity of the Spirit enjoined by the New Testament, though if the bishop himself were subject to the Holy Spirit he would exert a powerful and benevolent influence over his congregation. In his letter to the Roman Christians, Ignatius entreated them to do nothing to save him from martyrdom. It was an honor he coveted.
“My worldly affections,” he says, “are crucified. The fire of God’s love burns within me and cannot be extinguished. It lives; it speaks and says, ‘Come to the Father.’”
He stopped again on his journey at Troas, whence he wrote three further letters which are full of Christian ardor and fatherly exhortation. At the Port of Ostia he was met by Roman Christians. He speedily received his condemnation, and after praying with some of the brethren, he was led into the amphitheater and thrown to the wild beasts without further delay.
One, Quadratus, who had become the leader of the Church at Athens, which was in poor state, seems to have been used greatly at this time to edify and unite them. It is interesting to observe the seed sown by Paul thus bearing fruit one hundred years later. On the occasion of the visit of the Emperor Hadrian during a time of persecution, Quadratus presented to him a defense of the Christian faith. He was seconded by another Christian apologist named Aristides. This seems to have had a favorable influence on Hadrian, who in reply to a letter from the pro-consul of Asia made it clear that Christians should not be punished unless they actually broke the laws.
Justin Martyr, one of the very few learned men among the Christians of the second century, was born in Samaria. His father, a Greek, gave him a good education. He studied philosophy and traveled widely. He had, however, an ardent desire to know the true God, and God answered his desire. One day, walking by the sea, he met an aged stranger who, hearing of his admiration of the philosophers, drew his attention to the Hebrew prophets as more ancient than the philosophers and then spoke of Christianity. “Pray,” said he, “above all things that the gates of light may be opened to you, for they are not discernible nor understood by anyone except God and His Christ enable a man to understand.” Justin saw the stranger no more, but a fire was kindled in his heart and he soon became a believer. He wrote the apology for Christianity already referred to and a number of other works. Later he wrote a second apology addressed to Marcus Antoninus, who was, however, an inveterate enemy of Christians. Justin was accused of the crime of being a Christian. The prefect endeavored to persuade him to sacrifice to the gods. Angered at his refusal, the prefect threatened that he would be tormented without mercy if he persisted.
“We desire,” said Justin, “nothing more sincerely than to endure tortures for our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The sentence imposed on Justin, and several others accused with him, was that they should first be scourged and then beheaded, which was immediately carried into effect. Thus, in or about the year 163 A.D., Justin, the converted philosopher, sealed his testimony with his blood. Many of his works have been lost and others tampered with.
A few years later, Polycarp, another distinguished Christian of this century, died for the faith. He had served the Church of Smyrna, history tells us, as its bishop for over seventy years. On the occasion of his martyrdom a letter was sent from his church of Smyrna to that of Philomelium (in Lycaonia) giving details of his sufferings and those of his companions. He was burned at the stake at Smyrna in the year 167 after witnessing a bold confession.
Irenaeus, who presided over the Church in Lyons, received his early Christian instruction from Polycarp. In a vivid passage from a letter written by him to one Florinus, who had departed from the truth, he says, “I can describe the very spot on which Polycarp sat and expounded, and his coming in and going out and the very manner of his life, and the figure of his body, and the sermons which he preached to the multitude and how he related to us his converse with John and with the rest of those who had seen the Lord — how he mentioned their particular expressions and what things he had heard from them of the Lord and of His miracles and of His doctrine. As Polycarp had received from the eyewitnesses of the Word of Life, he told us all things agreeable to the Scriptures.”
Irenaeus wrote a book against heresies, which were very numerous at that time. He suffered torture and death when the terrible persecution overtook the Christians of Lyons and Vienne in the year 202 A.D. It is said that almost all Christians in Lyons were put to death.
Tertullian was a Christian writer whose life covered the latter part of the second and the earlier part of the third centuries. He was a native of northern Africa where the power of Carthage once held sway. Christianity seems early to have entered these parts and spread and flourished exceedingly. A few lines from Tertullian’s apology will throw an interesting contemporary light on the Church of his days.
“We pray,” he says, “for the safety of the emperors to the eternal God, the true, the living God, whom emperors themselves would desire to be propitious to them above all others who are called gods. ...
“Will ye kill the good subject who supplicates God for the Emperor? ...
“Were we disposed to return evil for evil it were easy for us to revenge the injuries we sustain, but God forbid that His people should vindicate themselves by human fire. ... Were we disposed to act the part of open enemies, should we want forces and numbers? Are there not multitudes of us in every part of the world? It is true we are but of yesterday, and yet we have filled all your towns, cities, islands, castles, boroughs, camps, courts, palaces, senate forum. We leave you only your temples. ... If we were to make a general secession from your dominions, you would be astonished at your solitude.”
Thus in the very midst of persecution and in spite of the repeated attempts of successive emperors and the opposition of the heathen, Christianity was a flowing and irresistible tide. This was before the days of Constantine when it paid to be a Christian; it was in the days when to confess the name of Christ might, and often did, mean torture and a barbarous death.
Tertullian adds his testimony to the character of Christians of his day!
“We are dead to all ideas of worldly honor and dignity; nothing is more foreign to us than political concerns; the whole world is our republic; we are a body united in one bond of religion, discipline and hope. We meet in our assemblies for prayer. We are compelled to have recourse to the divine oracles for caution and recollection on all occasions. We nourish our faith by the Word of God. We erect our hope, we fix our confidence and we strengthen our discipline by repeatedly inculcating precepts, exhortations and corrections and by excommunication when it is needful. This last, as being in the sight of God, is of great weight and is a serious warning of the future judgment, if anyone behave in so scandalous a manner as to be debarred from holy communion. Those who preside among us are elderly persons, not distinguished for opulence, but worthiness of character. Everyone pays something into the public chest once a month or when he pleases and according to his ability and inclination, for there is no compulsion. These gifts are as it were the deposits of piety. Hence we relieve and bury the needy, support orphans and decrepit persons, those who have suffered shipwreck, and those who for the Word of God are condemned to the mines or imprisonment. This very charity of ours has caused us to be noticed by some. ‘See,’ they say, ‘how these Christians love one another!’”
A touching picture this is of those early believers — their love, their unity, their unworldliness and their readiness to sacrifice all, even life itself, for Christ’s sake.
Tertullian himself was inclined to asceticism and legality. At one time he joined a sect which was regarded as heretical, the Montanists, but leaving them in the end he founded a sect of his own. He is said to be the first Christian author to use the words “Trinity” and “Person” in relation to the Godhead.
Origen, a man of unusual talent, was born in the year 185. While he was a boy, the cruel persecution under Severus was raging. His father, Leonidas, was put to death, and only with the greatest difficulty could he be restrained from voluntary martyrdom with his father. That pious man had taught his son the Holy Scriptures from his youngest days. At his father’s death, he was left at seventeen years of age with his mother and six other children. A godly woman took him into her home. He studied diligently and had soon learned all his teachers could teach him. He was devoted to the martyrs and exposed himself to constant danger by his visits to prisons and dungeons and his attendance on them even at the place of execution. By a remarkable overruling of Providence he escaped again and again. His insatiable love of learning led him to study Greek philosophy. He took over, while still young, the Christian school at Alexandria and continued for many years in this employment — an amazing monument both of industry and self-denial. Not only the day but the greater part of the night was spent in religious studies. He was so abstemious as to endanger his health. The warning in the Epistle to the Colossians (ch. 2:8) seems very fitted to his case and it seems a pity that one who knew the word so well should not have heeded it. Many of his pupils suffered martyrdom.
About the year 210 Origen went to Rome, but he soon returned. He then began to study Hebrew. He published the Hexapla, which gave in parallel columns the Hebrew text, the same in Greek letters, the well-known Septuagint version and three others. Heretics and philosophers attended his lectures, and he wrote much on philosophy and religion and won over many of the intelligentsia of his day by his arguments. The effect was to mingle philosophy and Christianity, to the great detriment of the latter. Nevertheless, he held in the main to the basic truths of Christianity. He quoted the case of the dying thief to show that a believer is justified by faith and not works. His appeal, however, was to the learned who could follow his arguments. On the other hand, he pursued a fanciful and allegorical method of interpreting the Scriptures rather than teaching the plain sense of the Word. His methods of interpretation set a fashion for after ages which was not seriously checked until Reformation times. His later years were spent in Palestine. He suffered severely but patiently in the Decian persecution and died in 254.
In 246 A.D. a valuable gift was bestowed on the Christian Church by the conversion of Cyprian, a wealthy nobleman of Carthage. When forty-five years of age, he came under the influence of divine grace. His life was changed. He gave away much of his wealth to the poor. Apparently it was at the request of the people of Carthage that he became bishop. He accepted the office reluctantly, but having done so he devoted himself without stint to the service of God and was wonderfully helped by the Holy Spirit. His mind was well trained but clear and simple. He did not bring the theories of philosophers into his teaching. He followed the plain apostolic line and his labors were greatly blessed. His career was limited to thirteen years, during which there was much persecution, and was cut short by a martyr’s death. Yet in those few years he was the instrument of a great revival in Carthage and the effects spread far and wide. He was one of the outstanding Christian leaders of the third century. If he had a fault, it was his strong insistence on the authority of the bishop, yet even this proceeded from pious motives and not from any desire to lord it over the flock.
His exaltation of the episcopal office is said to have contributed to the development of that theory of church government which bore such baneful fruit in aftertimes. He is also credited with having laid the doctrinal basis of the distinction between clergy and laity. When we consider how brief was his period of service, we may be justified in assuming that these were ideas imbibed rather than originated by him. And we have already observed the seeds of such notions developing in the previous century. As the power of the Holy Spirit became less in evidence in the Church, so that living organism became more and more — outwardly, at any rate — an organization.
In the year 258 he was arrested, and, after a brief appearance before the pro-consul at Carthage, on refusing to worship the gods, he was condemned to die by the sword and was beheaded shortly after. Few Christians in any age have done so much in so short a time. We will close this brief account with a brief extract from his writings. It comes from a treatise he wrote concerning those who had lapsed from the faith and shows how he viewed the furious persecution of Decius which continued during most of Cyprian’s Christian life. It also sheds light on the decline in faith and virtue which had taken place during the years of peace and quietness. He says, “If the cause of our miseries be investigated, the cure of the wound may be found. The Lord would have His family to be tried. And because long peace had corrupted the discipline divinely revealed to us, the heavenly chastisement has raised up our faith, which had lain almost dormant, and when by our sins we had deserved to suffer still more, the merciful Lord so moderated all things that the whole scene rather deserves the name of a trial than a persecution.” Cyprian then proceeds to enumerate the sad defects in the conduct of professing Christians, indicating that with many a low and unchristian state prevailed. It is not surprising that when tested in the crucible of persecution, the number of apostates was very great. Crowds hastened to prove that they were, after all, genuine pagans.