Catholic Church History
Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) I. Preparation for the Church
1. Divine Preparation: Revealed Religion
I
Preparation for the Church
1. DIVINE PREPARATION: REVEALED RELIGION
Theme: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the
fathers by the prophets, last of all in these days has spoken to us by His Son, whom He
appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world; who, being the brightness of His
glory and the image of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, has
effected man's purgation from sin and taken His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high."
(Heb. 1:1).
A. Origin of Religious History
(1) THE CREATOR
Intrinsic plenitude. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the
Word was God" (John 1:1). Alone in a void of nothingness there existed from all eternity God, the
Supreme Being, completely and self-sufficiently subsisting in three divine Persons. His being
was and is and will be not static, but dynamic. His is a true life of perpetual act wherein it is
eternally true that the Father generates the Son, the Word or personal enunciation of divine
intelligence, and the Father and the Son spirate the Holy Ghost, the Spirit or personal sigh of
divine love, who by passive spiration returns this immanent relation to the spirating co-principle.
In all this there is no cause, for the Father is not properly the cause of the Son, nor the Father and
the Son of the Holy Ghost. In all this there is no succession of acts, no change, no time, no
history. Instead there is but one simultaneous perfect "now" existing throughout eternity.
External benevolence. This all-sufficing God needed nothing outside of Himself; thus in
solitary grandeur might He have lived forever. Yet in order that this dazzling brilliance of life and
of activity might in some manner be reflected to His external, but nonessential glory, "this one true
God by His goodness and omnipotent power, not to increase His beatitude nor to acquire it, but to
manifest His perfection through the goods which He imparts to creatures, by a most free counsel,
at the same time from the beginning of time created out of nothing creatures, spiritual and
corporeal, that is angelic and earthly, and then human, as it were constituted alike of spirit and
body" (Vatican Council, iii, 1: D. 1783). This was the beginning of change and of time; this was
the origin of history.

(2) THE CREATURES
Human beginnings. History deals primarily with mankind. Hence after affirming the
creation of the irrational world by God, the historian need not be concerned prior to man's arrival.
The Biblical Commission sanctions interpretation of the "days" of creation as ages of indefinite
duration. If geology and paleontology can afford any confirmation of the work and order of the
first five "days," well and good; it is not the business of history in a strict sense. But on the sixth
"day" God created man and had this fact recorded in inspired history. Though God thus
condescended to write the first chapter of human history, He has not supplied the date. Biblical
genealogies are not statistical, and vary considerably in the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Greek texts.
Probably they are schematic: arbitrarily fixed according to some norm unknown to us and chosen
for mnemonic purposes. "No proof has as yet been advanced for the origin of man during the
Tertiary Age; nevertheless estimates which placed European Paleolithic man at 20,000 B.C. are
now abandoned. Neanderthal man has been conservatively dated to about 100,000 B.C., with
Sianthropus, Peking man, Protanthropus Heidelbergensis, etc., about 200,000. These figures
apply primarily to Europe where man appeared after he had existed in other parts of the world."
The place of man's origin would seem to be suggested by the reference in Genesis to the
Mesopotamian rivers of Tigris and Euphrates; as equivalents for the unidentifiable Pishon and
Gihon, St. Augustine suggested the Ganges and the Nile (Gen. ad Lit., viii, 7). At least within this
area lies the traditional cradle of civilization.
Origin of man's soul by creation is not open for question on solid grounds of faith and
reason. Nor can true science adduce the slightest evidence of any evolution of man's mental
powers from lower forms. Rather the earliest human remains thus far discovered give
unmistakable indications of rationality in the use of tools and the custom of burial. Measured by
material standards, primitive man may not have been a genius, but there is no ground for
supposing that his spiritual nature was intrinsically inferior in any way to that of modern man;
extrinsically these protopioneers faced titanic obstacles that retarded progress.
Origin of man's body has been the subject of much dispute. The traditional, literal
interpretation that man's body was immediately created by God from inorganic matter obviously
presents no problem for religious history. It would also seem the more easily harmonized with the
descent of all men from Adam and the formation of Eve from Adam (D. 2123). Some Catholic
evolutionists, however, offer hypotheses not contradicted by faith or science for the infusion of a
rational soul into an animal body perfected by evolution in such wise that it could still constitute a
peculiaris creatio required by the Biblical Commission. Father Schmidt, for one, inclines to the
theory that today's Pygmy most closely approximates primordial man, and regards favorably the
theory that man's evolution is recapitulated in the womb. Some evolutionists point out that
Neanderthal man, whose unprepossessing appearance has been exaggerated, was not an
original but a secondary type. In any event gradual evolution of the human body would seem no
more repugnant to human dignity than each individual's embryonic development. Yet however
plausible their arguments, no evolutionist has thus far brought forward incontestable proofs. Pius
XII warned that, "those go too far and transgress this liberty of discussion who act as if the origin
of the human body from pre-existing and living matter were already fully demonstrated by the
facts up to now discovered . . ." (Humani generis: 1950 A.D.).
B. Progress of Religious History
(1) PRIMITIVE REVELATION
Created fallibility. Intellectual creatures were made to God's image in mind and will. But
no created will is impeccable, for He alone is such whose will coincides with the supreme rule of
morality. Hence creatures were rather deficient than efficient causes. Left to themselves, they
can do nothing, but they could sin. Each class in turn succumbed to an inordinate desire of
imitating God. But for the angels, "I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the
Most High," was followed by: "How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, who didst rise in the
morning?" (Isa. 14:12, 14) Again for men, the lure, "God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes
will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:4-5), produced only: "In
the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, since out of it you were
taken; for dust you are and unto dust you shall return" (ibid. 3:19).
The angels, pure intelligences, were incapable of repentance because unable to reverse
their deliberate, unimpeded, intuitive judgments. Hence they went immediately to heaven or hell.
Throughout human history they will reappear in supporting roles, but of them there is no further
chronicle.
Man, laboriously deducing conclusions from premises themselves with difficulty
abstracted from matter, could be deceived. He was capable of pardon because he could reverse
his decision and repent. Man was capable of pardon but not entitled to it. Through a primitive
revelation he had been raised to a supernatural state. He had been given sufficient knowledge of
the existence and nature of God and of man's subjection to Him in virtue of creation and
government. In Eve had been indicated the spiritual affinity of the race to be propagated by these
protoparents. God offered Himself to Adam and Eve as their ultimate end to be attained through
knowledge and love, provided that they would heed God's warning against an inordinate curiosity
about good and evil. But such a command seemed excessive to Adam and Eve, and they were
induced to defy it by an envious angel. Thereby they obtained a knowledge of good and evil,
indeed, but only to become aware of their physical and moral nakedness. In this wholly destitute
condition they and their descendants were worthy of eternal damnation.
Prospect of redemption. All history hung in the balance, therefore, as the shamefaced
Adam and Eve cowered before their Creator. Then came reprieve: "I will put enmity between you
and the woman, between your seed and her seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall he in
wait for His heel" (Gen. 3:15). God's designs for humanity would not be frustrated by a defeated
rebel. God will give mankind divine assistance to resist their tormentor. This assistance will be
not merely the supernatural accident of grace, but also substantial, incarnate Holiness, the Godman,
Jesus Christ. He will be a "Second Adam," chief-designate of redeemed humanity. The full
implication of these promises was doubtless unknown to the first parents, but they did understand
that they had received another chance to work out their salvation, this time with physical and
spiritual pain, and that their only hope lay in the mysterious Messiah to come.
(2) PATRIARCHAL REVELATION
Rise of the Two Cities. Sorrowful, but not despairing, Adam and Eve set out upon a new
life. It was their business alike to propagate the human race and to band on primitive revelation
with its obscure but glorious promise. One of their children, Abel, dutifully accepted instruction
and honored his Creator with the sacrifice of first fruits incidentally the same used by primitive
tribes long afterwards. Abel was laying the foundations of a City of God. But another son, Cain,
envied this building, slew its architect, and began the rival City of Self which in time assumed the
proportions of a Tower of Babel. Once again God intervened by giving Adam and Eve another
obedient son, Seth, who continued the line of the "children of God."
Henoch. From Cain, however, had gone forth a generation of "sons and daughters of
men" in whom the primitive revelation was progressively blunted. Accordingly God at certain
intervals raised up among the patriarchs men who would preserve the true religion, and gradually
enhance it by divine inspiration. Tradition regards Henoch as the first of such patriarchal religious
leaders.
Noah. The second was Noah, who was preserved from a cataclysm to continue the true
religion. To him after the Deluge God renewed the primitive revelation with some additional
precepts, and restricted the fulfillment of the protoevangelion to Sem's descendants: "Blessed be
the Lord, the God of Sem" (Gen. 9:26). And all Semites seem at least to have preserved a
primitive name of the true God: "El."
Abraham. As time progressed and mankind was again in danger of losing sight of
primitive revelation, God called a new spokesman from Ur of the Chaldees. This Abram,
renamed Abraham, "father of a multitude," successfully passed a test of fidelity greater than that
imposed on Adam. Only after he had displayed his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac to God,
was he assured that, "in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because
you have obeyed Me" (Gen. 22:18). This paragon of divine faith is regarded as the founder of
God's chosen nation, the Hebrews, to whom the Messianic Redeemer was promised anew.
Similar assurance was given to Isaac and Jacob, Abraham's son and grandson, and the latter
was inspired to predict which of the twelve Hebrew tribes would produce the Messiah: "The
sceptre shall not depart from Juda, nor the staff from between his feet, until He comes to whom it
belongs. To Him shall be the obedience of nations" (Gen. 49:10).
(3) OLD TESTAMENT REVELATION
Egyptian bondage. As these revelations receded into memory, the City of God was again
overgrown with the weeds of surrounding infidelity. This was especially the case when the
chosen dynasty sojourned for some four hundred years in Egypt, land of bondage symbolic of
mankind's slavery to Satan. Here the remembrance of the divine promises faded as the
Hebrews', despite their hardships, became reconciled to the easy morality of the Worldly City-as
is clear from their frequent backward glances during their journey to the Promised Land of
Palestine. It was indeed against their perverted inclinations that God intervened to raise them
above themselves, to lead them out of bondage, and rebuild the City of God.
Mosaic covenant. This time, however, God gave them a detailed code with an elaborate
ceremonial. Since the world at large had not yet sufficiently experienced its own religious
incapacity, God chose to manifest this new revelation to a single nation until the time when the
Messiah would make a yet more perfect revelation available to all. Accordingly through His proxy,
Moses, God deigned to sign with this insignificant Semitic people a formal contract, the first or old
Testament: "Therefore, if you hearken to My voice and keep My covenant., you shall be My
special possession, dearer to Me than all other people. . . . So shall the Israelites observe the
Sabbath, keeping it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. Between Me and the
Israelites it is to be an everlasting token" (Exod. 19:5; 31:16).
Davidic dynasty. To this people God eventually permitted a king, and promised that his
dynasty would be eternal in the person of the Messiah (2 Kings 7:11). Thus did the
protoevangelion receive its final determination in the family of David, whence would come in due
time Christ, "Son of David." But even the citizens of the City of God have ever proved themselves
of a vitiated stock. Neither memory of revelation past nor hope of redemption to come sufficed to
keep them faithful. Repeatedly they broke the Covenant, were chastised, repented, only to fall
again. Yet by means of a series of fearless prophets God kept at least a nucleus, a "faithful
remnant," loyal until the date when the Old Covenant would expire and a new one would be
sealed in the blood of Christ. Under the prophets' inspired gaze the figure of the Messiah, the
"Servant of Yahweh," the "Son of man," was more clearly delineated: His birthplace at Bethlehem,
His Virgin Mother, His Galilean headquarters, His capital at Sion, His preaching career, and its
still mysterious tragi-glorious close. Perhaps even the exact time was predicted. Though many
exegetes would refer the sixty-nine weeks of Daniel (9:25) to the Maccabean era, a literal
interpretation is possible which would compute 483 years from 453 B.C. to 30 A.D.
Fullness of time. Whatever the validity of this estimate, many eminent scholars agree on
30 A.D. as the most likely year for the Crucifixion, and pending precise certainty, this date will be
adopted as tentative. According to this chronology, Christ, Savior of mankind, died at the ninth
hour on the fourteenth Nisan of the year 783 A.U.C.; or at three o'clock in the afternoon of April 7,
30 A.D. This was that "fullness of time" when "the veil of the Temple was rent in two from top even
to the bottom," suggesting dissolution of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New; dividing
history into ancient and modern; closing the restricted milieu of the synagogue, and opening the
doors of the "world-wide Catholic Church."
Catholic Church History
Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) I. Preparation for the Church
2. Human Preparation: Natural Religion
I
Preparation for the Church
2. HUMAN PREPARATION: NATURAL RELIGION
A. Disfiguration of Primitive Religion
Theme: "While professing to be wise, they have become fools, and they have changed
the glory of the incorruptible God for an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and fourfooted
beasts and creeping things. Therefore God has given them up in the lustful desires of
their heart to uncleanness, so that they dishonor their own bodies among themselves-they who
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the
Creator" (Rom. 1:22).
Introduction: In the preceding topic, God as efficient cause was seen preparing for the
perfect Christian revelation through a series of providential dispositions. But man as deficient
cause also prepared for the Church in a negative way by the errors in which he involved himself.
These were of such magnitude and their consequences so shameful, that man, at last
disillusioned about his own natural religious capacity, was better disposed to heed the Christian
supernatural message when delivered "in the fullness of time." Here, after a survey of the process
of disfiguration of primitive religion, attention will be confined to those peoples that first came into
contact with the Church by reason of their absorption into the Graeco-Roman Empire.
(1) CAUSES OF DISFIGURATION
Primitive dependence on God. "A strong feeling of dependence on the Creator
characterizes the religion of primitive peoples and is shown especially in the first-fruits sacrifice.
The cause of this is certainly not unrelated to the peculiarity of the collecting stage, which is the
economic condition of these peoples: they rely for their food entirely on what nature brings forth of
herself, and nature is evidently ruled by a Creator. This feeling was only intensified by the fact
that the majority of these peoples made no provision for the future and thus had to go out each
day for their means of subsistence; thus each day their dependence on the Creator was borne in
on them anew."
Economic independence. "This idea only underwent a radical change when, in the
primary culture, man began to take in band the active production from nature, and by horticulture,
by the higher hunting, or by raising cattle, to increase and to assure its products firmly. The
accumulation of provisions through their own work and skill naturally had the effect of lessening
their sense of dependence on nature and its Creator, and of increasing their own selfconsciousness.
These twin results were not propitious for the development of religion, using the
word to signify the sense of dependence of man on the Supreme Being, and so we must be
prepared to find religion declining in primary cultures. The more the external possessions of man
increase, through richer and more lasting vegetable produce, and through more advanced
methods of hunting and raising cattle, so much the more increases the danger to religion. While
this development gives rise to further self-consciousness on the one hand, on the other it fills
time, takes energy, occupies thoughts, creates desires, and to a great extent at the expense of
religion."
Social inequality. "With the increase of his possessions comes also man's egotism, and
he runs further and further away from the altruistic laws and rites which filled primitive culture and
which attributed all things to the Supreme Being, the ultimate Possessor of all earthly things. This
is shown in the family especially; those who are strong physically or who have become
economically powerful assert their superiority, and the weaker are robbed of their rights, thus
upsetting that organic equilibrium which had previously obtained as between man and woman,
and parents and children, so that now the balance is tilted either in favor of the man, or of the
woman, or of the elders. And this displacement and distortion of the natural family, which had
been in the first place set up by the Supreme Being Himself, has a deteriorating effect on
religion."
(2) TYPES OF DISFIGURATION
Father Wilhelm Schmidt, whose theory we are here following, contends that during the
primary culture-the interval between primitive and secondary, i.e., historical, civilizations-socialeconomic-
religious development occurred in three main directions.
Matriarchal-agrarian culture evolved from woman's economic predominance in societies
featuring horticulture. Female religiosity tended toward moon worship, passive magic, dread of
ghosts, hysteria, convulsion, and possession. It provoked the socially inferior male to resort to
secret societies, head-bunting, human sacrifice, and cannibalism.
Patriarchal-totemist culture, on the other hand, evolved from male economic
preponderance through skill in higher hunting. This pursuit prompted men to try to promote
animal fertility by magic or totems; thence a perverted religious trend passed on to human sexual
orgies, sun-worship, active magic, medicine men, etc. The mixture of the foregoing two cultures,
Schmidt believes, produced the city-state in historic times, e.g., in Greece and Italy.
Patriarchal-nomad culture developed from the domestication of cattle. This large-scale
capitalistic venture fostered the formation of large Patriarchal families with great economic, and if
need be, military power. Yet this sort of life was compatible with preservation of a relatively
superior type of religion, e.g., among the Hebrews, since the feeling of dependence on God was
maintained by the close ties with nature. Societies of this type developed a gift for domination
and a love of travel. Eventually they created the great kingdoms of antiquity, e.g., Egypt and
Babylonia, by invading and conquering other cultures. In this process of amalgamation, however,
they took on certain religious elements from baser cultures. The foregoing reconstruction is
based on Schmidt's brilliant hypotheses; it must be remembered, however, that it does not wholly
transcend the realm of conjecture.
B. Aberrations of Secondary Cultures
(1) EGYPTIAN RELIGION
Polytheistic naturalism. Though Egyptians did not adore the sun, moon, heaven, earth,
or the Nile, yet all their religious symbols were borrowed from the visible world. These images
came to be identified with the gods they represented, and during the last centuries before Christ
were scarcely distinguishable from them. Political union of the country seems to have promoted
the fusion of civic and tribal gods into national pantheon. Amon-Ra, the sun-god, though
worshipped under variety of names, was clearly supreme. No creator, he made all gods and men
out of preexisting chaos. Several divine attributes were well understood, but were divided among
inferior gods and goddesses generated from Ra. Of these, Isis, goddess of earth, was wedded to
and made fertile by Osiris, god of water, the Nile. The most celebrated myth represents Osiris as
slain by an envious Set, god of the desert, but revived by Ra at the pious grief of Isis, and made
judge of afterlife. Piety toward the gods distinguished the better days of Egyptian culture and
inspired their great buildings.
Morality. Egyptians firmly believed in the soul's immortality, and accordingly paid great
attention to burial. Belief in judgment after death had a salutary effect on morality. According to
the Book of the Dead, the just were rewarded by a life similar to the present, though free from
suffering: Ra, the sun, spent the night with them in Amenti, the underworld. Degeneration of the
Egyptian religion progressed during the six centuries before Christ. Images of men were placed
in tombs to be animated and enslaved in place of the dead for performance of the labor deemed
necessary in afterlife. Animals were now regarded as sacred, permitted to roam the streets-one
might not resist a sacred crocodile-and finally embalmed in vast cemeteries. The educated
classes abandoned the national religion for Greek philosophy, but all Egyptians relinquished
pagan beliefs with comparative alacrity once the Christian religion was made known to them.
(2) MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGION
Frank polytheism prevailed, a result of the fusion of civic gods under Marduk, god of
Babylon, the dominant city. Parodies of the Creation and Deluge were either disfigurations of
primitive revelation or borrowings from a biblical source. "No student of Babylonian history can
fail to be struck by the many expressions betraying a mentality and a tradition common to both
Sumer and Israel. . . . Christian apologists, curiously enough, have hitherto shamefacedly tried to
explain them away, instead of seeing in them the divine design of a praeparatio evangelica,
conceded so readily to Greek and Latin paganism . . ." All the Babylonian gods were given
female consorts, but only Ishtar, goddess of love and fecundity, had an enthusiastic cult. Often
she was mistakenly honored by sexual perversions.
Magic. Much of Babylonian and Assyrian attitude to divinity can be summed up in magic.
The gods were to be coerced rather than entreated. oracles and magicians professed to reveal
the divine will through incantations or observations of the stars. Everything had ominous
significance: "If an ewe gives birth to a lion with a pig's eye, the princess will die." Insofar as this
is religion, Babylonians were religious: the gods appear in their own names and their letters
mention prayers for one another. But the afterlife was gloomy for all but the great; lack of proper
burial might transform the dead into vampires. Hence Mesopotamians were chiefly interested in
long life in this world. The Code of Hammurabi stresses secular motives of punishment rather
than religious sanctions for retribution.
(3) SEMITIC RELIGIONS
Polytheism was again the rule among the Semitic peoples of Syria, Palestine, Arabia,
Phoenicia, and Carthage. Prevalence of "El" as a name for deity has been taken as a
remembrance of primitive revelation, but the divine attributes came to be subdivided among many
local Baalim and Astartes. Baal under the name of Moloch often received human sacrifices, and
Astarte-which corresponded to Ishtar-was the object of the foulest of sexual prostitutions.
Morality was permeated with the notion of legal uncleanness, though without the Hebraic
safeguards. Springs, trees, stones, and seasons were sacred. Sacrifices resembled those of the
Hebrews, though little is known of their belief in afterlife. Semites especially needed Christ's
admonition to worship God "in spirit and in truth."
(4) GREEK RELIGION
Mythology. Greek Mythology may be a corruption of primitive revelation. Perhaps the
initial Golden Age during which men lived at ease under a beneficent Chronos was a sensual and
warped view of Eden. Titans and Cyclops, spirits of darkness, who rebelled against heaven and
were deposed, resemble demons. Pandora curiously opening her box of God-given treasures
could be a memory of Eve, for from this box, prematurely opened, escaped all diseases and evils
of the world, leaving only hope. Finally, Zeus, Dis, and Poseidon, sons of Chronos, succeeded to
dominion, punished the Titans by a deluge, and peopled the world with gods of human
characteristics and morality. Heroic men were occasionally promoted to semi-divine rank, but for
the mass of men the next life was to be an unpleasant, shadowy existence. The gods were
supposed to dwell on Mt. Olympus, and give their orders through the Oracle at Delphi. Yet
somewhere in the mythological background were the Fates who could lay down the law even to
Zeus, "father of gods and men."
Mysteries acquired a prominent part in Greek religion when these fables lost their hold on
men's feelings. In the indigenous or imported Orphic cults special revelations were supposed to
be imparted, enabling initiates to strive for special intimacy with the gods and assuring them of
happy afterlife through ablutions, fasts, dramas, etc. From the North came the god Dionysus as
symbol of ecstasy: during the Bacchanalia, feasts of inebriation, wine was supposed to "liberate
the god" within men. Other rites were held at night and produced a high emotional frenzy. Thrillseekers
or philosophers, such were the Greeks, "always seeking some new thing."
Cult. "We can safely say that the characteristic of the Greek and of his religion was
vitality. In a sense this is universally true; but for the Greek it remained so. His cult was full of
vegetation festivals and women had a remarkable series of festivals of their own"-to implore
fertility. Another feature was the Pharmakos, the symbolic purgation from sin through an animal
or slave deputed somewhat after the manner of the Hebrew emissary goat. Greek heroes were
"so to say, Saints minus holiness ."
C. Roman Synthesis of Paganism
(1) EARLY ROMAN RELIGION
Animism, not excluding belief in the gods Jupiter, Mars, and Janus, was the earliest
Roman religion. "The Roman's world was populated with what he called numina. . . . These nonmaterial
existences knew what was happening and disliked being interfered with. . . . But the
Roman, unlike the Greek, made no myths about them. . . . What was being sought was the pax
deorum--the active harmonious good will between all concerned: 'I have paid my vow with right
good will' said the Roman, 'as was fitting.' There was no emotion, ecstasy, wild superlatives;
everything was done fittingly, but with good will, almost genially. 'A sober cult,' says the Christian
Tertullian approvingly. A men's religion rather than a woman's?"
Degeneration began during the Punic Wars when the desperate Romans sought out
foreign gods and cults. Once an entry had been made, alien religions increased with the spread
of Roman territory. Greek mythology invaded Rome. But while the Greek could mock the gods
and yet believe in them, the Roman could not. Indifferentism ensued and personal religion at
Rome declined with the Republic.
(2) IMPERIAL RELIGION
Emperor-worship. Alarmed at this trend, Emperor Augustus planned a religious revival.
The temples, colleges of pontiffs and augurs, and traditional rites were given external
magnificence. By becoming pontifex maximus himself, Augustus became head of the religious
revival. Cautiously he allowed the hero-worship of his remarkable career to evolve into emperorworship,
a development not fantastic to pagans who failed to distinguish precisely between
heroes and gods. Orientals had long been accustomed to worship their rulers, and the cult
fostered imperial unity. Hence worship of imperial authority proceeded so rapidly throughout the
Empire that by 79 A.D. even the hardheaded, cynical Vespasian said on his deathbed: "I think
that I am becoming a god" though a few years before Seneca had in satire turned Claudius into a
pumpkin! Worship of the goddess Roma and of the emperor merged to constitute an official
religion for the Empire and to become identified with imperial patriotism. It was an earthly,
businesslike, utilitarian religion appealing to all who appreciated that the Pax Romana was the
best rule the world had experienced.
Deficiencies. Of course this merely formal official cult failed to satisfy true religious
yearnings. In consequence the Romans once again turned toward the mystery cults for "private
religion," and to Stoic philosophy. These substitutes were far from satisfactory, but Romans of the
Augustan Age were still hoping that something would turn up from the East, traditional source of
religion. As from an abyss, bewildered Roman pagans groped with Vergil for a Savior: "Chaste
Lucina, be propitious to the Child now born by whom the Iron Age shall cease, and the Golden
Age arrive for all the world" (Ecologues, 4).
Catholic Church History
Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) I. Preparation for the Church
3. Greek Preparation: Intellectual Environment
I
Preparation for the Church
3. GREEK PREPARATION: INTELLECTUAL ENVIRONMENT
A. Introduction
(1) GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Theme: "Pilate wrote an inscription and had it put on the cross. And there was written,
'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.' Many of the Jews therefore read this inscription,
because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in
Greek, and in Latin" (John 19:19).
Three cultures. After the consideration of the religious condition of the Mediterranean
lands before Christ, it will be well to survey the environment in which Christ lived and in which He
established His Church. This background was threefold, for three civilizations were expressed by
the inscription placed over the Cross, three cultures joined in Christ's death, and yet among these
same three environments, with their advantages and their disadvantages, the Christian Church
would inaugurate the preaching of His Gospel. These three cultural settings were the Greek,
predominantly philosophical; the Roman, chiefly political; and the Jewish, providentially religious.
(2) SPECIAL INTRODUCTION
Greek cultural characteristics. "Despite the turn of Hellenistic philosophy toward the
moral and religious, and despite the profound change in its structure brought about by the influx
of Oriental culture, the Greek spirit even in the Christian centuries, remained, above all, the spirit
of science, philosophy, and culture. The problems which arise from contact with Christianity will
be primarily philosophical in nature. The Greeks will seek to harmonize the teaching of the new
religion with their own forms and habits of thought, they will attempt in some way to grasp religion
philosophically. Hence, precisely in this setting arises the fundamental problem of faith and
science and the connected problem of the philosophical foundation and defense of the faith-in
other words, the problem of theology. in this sphere arise doctrinal speculation and dogmatic
controversies. And though it is the sphere of philosophical independence and error, it is also the
sphere of the elaboration and formulation of dogma. Throughout the entire history of the ancient
Church this problem of faith and reason is bound up with the Greek setting." Lortz's analysis
discovers three advantages for Christianity in this Greek setting: (1) in its best philosophies were
elements capable of predisposing men for Christianity and capable of utilization in her theology;
(2) polytheism had been undermined and monotheism at least suggested; (3) Greek intellectual
power was adaptable to Christian truths. Yet there was also one danger--"the urge to know by its
very nature tends to exaggerate the right of reason and leads to heresy" (Ibid.).
B. Political Survey
(1) HELLENIC BACKGROUND
The city-state. Greek political life centered about the polis, or city-state. This cherished
invention of Greek genius survived the attack of Persian monarchy. But city-states, restricted
democracies except for Spartan totalitarianism, were so jealous of their independence that they
proved unwilling to acquiesce permanently in the leadership of Athens, Sparta, or Thebes, which
successively aspired to the rule of Greece. Neither could they unite in time in any effective
federation. Hence eventually they succumbed to the superior might of Macedonia. Hellenic
culture, thereby cheapened and diluted, was nonetheless rendered accessible to all of the
Levant, and ultimately to Rome and the West as well.
(2) PROCESS OF HELLENIZATION
Philip of Macedon. The Macedonians, uncivilized but Greeks, were welded into a
national monarchy by the fourth century before Christ. King Philip II (359-336) applied lessons
which he had learned as a Greek hostage. His efforts to give Macedonia the military leadership
of Greece brought him into conflict with Athens which controlled the Chalcidice, the natural
seaport for Macedon. After defeating Athens, Philip posed as champion of Greek religion by
chastising Phocis for absconding with the Delphic treasury. Phocis was outlawed; Macedonia
succeeded to its membership in the Delphic Amphyctony, and thus entered the Greek cultural
circle. Athens, stirred by Demosthenes to regard this intrusion as a barbarian usurpation,
organized a league of cities against Philip. But by a decisive victory at Chaeronea (338) the latter
emerged as the arbiter of Greek politics and acknowledged commander for a proposed war of
vengeance against Persia.
Alexander the Great. When his father was assassinated before he had a chance to carry
out the latter design, Alexander III (336-323) transformed the war into one of conquest. In three
years of campaigns culminating in the battle of Arbela (331), he subdued Asia Minor, Syria,
Palestine, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Less permanent conquests followed in Persia and Upper
India. Early in his reign Alexander conceived the idea of fusing Greek and Oriental civilizations
into a cosmopolitan culture. By founding or colonizing cities with Greeks, by ordering
intermarriage, by promoting interchange of customs, he achieved a large measure of success
even though political unity barely survived him. The Hellenistic culture thus begun became truly
ecumenical: rapidly embracing the Levant, it eventually passed on to Rome. To a considerable
degree this Hellenistic civilization survived until the capture Of Constantinople by the Turks in
1453 A.D. Thus Alexander the Great is first of the world's imperial statesmen. In the political
preparation for the Church he ranks second only to Caesar. Alexander gave the original impulse
to the Hellenization of the Western world just as Caesar ensured its Romanization. In the
Hellenistic environment founded by Alexander, the Church made its first advance outside
Palestine; it was in its "koiné" Greek that the New Testament and the earliest Christian theology
were composed.
(3) ABSORPTION INTO ROME
Division of Hellas. Wars for the succession to Alexander's vast domain followed his
premature death. Even while his son Alexander IV (323-310) nominally ruled, Alexander's
generals were transforming regencies into separate kingdoms. In 310 Cassander deposed the
boy king and assumed the Macedonian crown; his example was followed by Seleucus in Syria
and Ptolemy in Egypt, as well as by lesser potentates. In spite of intermittent warfare, the leading
states of Macedonia, Syria, and Egypt maintained an uneasy balance of power for a century.
Rise of Rome. Presently fear of what the Aetolian League had termed the "cloud in the
West" induced Philip V of Macedon and Antiochus III of Syria to favor Carthage in her contest
with Rome. Though she was powerless until she had defeated Hannibal, no sooner had she
done so than she acceded to frantic appeals from Pergamum, Rhodes, Athens, and Egypt, whose
independence was imperiled by the predatory royal pair. At Cynoscephalae (197) and Magnesia
(190) Rome defeated Macedon and Syria respectively. Though left independent, they ceased to
be great powers. Greece was ostentatiously freed, but continued Macedonian intrigues for its
control and renewed discord among the city-states led to Roman intervention, annexation of
Macedonia, and erection of a protectorate over Greece by 146 B.C. In 133 the will of Attalus of
Pergamum gave Rome a foothold in Asia. Despite the ambitions of Mithridates of Pontus, this
control was extended and finally rounded out by Pompey's annexation of a much reduced Syria in
63 B.C. Egypt, already a protectorate, was annexed in 31 B.C. and Alexander's heritage fell to
Rome.
C. Social and Economic Conditions
(1) GOVERNMENTAL ABSOLUTISM
Statolatry. Except for a few city-states surviving in dependence, Hellenistic governments
followed the immemorial Oriental model of the bureaucratic monarchy. Eastern peoples took
such regimes as a matter of course, and to them the Greeks gradually and reluctantly conformed,
at least in central government. The Roman conquest was merely to substitute a world emperor
for rival kings, and a single set of officials for several bureaucracies. This system of deified
absolute monarchs finally triumphed in the West also, if not with Augustus, at least with
Diocletian.
(2) URBAN COSMOPOLITANISM
Alexandria was the largest of the Hellenistic cities. Nearly a million people dwelt in this
Eastern metropolis of broad avenues, imposing multistoried buildings, and busy docks dominated
by the Pharos lighthouse. Alexandria had a half million papyri rolls in its library, which attracted
academies of scholars and scientists. It is not surprising, therefore, that this city should become
the chief see of early Eastern Christendom, that here a famous catechetical school should be
established, and that thence would emanate the most learned works of the primitive Church,
works, however, often contaminated by philosophies of the pagan vicinity.
Antioch on the Orontes was the Syrian metropolis. Though but half the size of
Alexandria, it was also an influential city. It had a cosmopolitan population which included many
Jews. Antioch was only a secondary center of learning, but a leading mart. Easy of access to
Jerusalem, it can readily be seen how at Antioch "the disciples were first called Christians"; how
here also a patriarchal see and catechetical academy would emerge; and how these latter would
be prone to continue in ecclesiastical affairs and theology the old secular rivalry with Alexandria.
Athens had lost its commercial supremacy to Ephesus, Miletus, Corinth, and boom towns
of the Hellenistic Age, but had retained its fame as an intellectual center. All the educated,
leisured, and business classes of these cities adopted a common language, outlook, customs,
and pastimes; through these urban centers a veneer of Hellenism was laid on the Near East.
"Trade and finance are stimulated by an enlarged area of the market, while the release of
a great hoard of gold taken from the Persian emperor, aids the development of money and credit.
Postal roads are available, highway maps are drawn. Boats are bigger, harbors are better, and
Egypt or Rhodes sweeps the pirates off the sea for a time." Industry did exist in the large cities,
but the competition of slaves prevented the free workmen from doing more than eke out a living.
The riots and strikes of the latter were frequent, but seldom improved matters; the Hellenistic was
a rich man's world.
(3) RURAL CONSERVATISM
Oriental peasants continued to live in their villages but slightly influenced by Hellenism.
Many, especially in Egypt and Pergamum, were slaves on the domains of the magnates. For a
century or more up to the time of Christ, these peasants were hounded by the publicans or taxfarmers
from whom the Roman Empire belatedly freed them. The rural folk of these Oriental
nations long remained averse to Christian as well as to Greek influence, and this unconverted
national element would eventually take its revenge on both in the Monophysite and
Mohammedan movements.
D. Intellectual Contributions
(1) HELLENIC PHILOSOPHY
Early philosophers, as Maritain has pointed out, at first impressed by what strikes the
senses, sought to determine the constitutive principles of the world. Unable to conceive of
invisible principles, they began by assigning some sensible element, such as water, air, fire, as a
universal material out of which all things were formed. Heraclitus, over-impressed by becoming,
imagined everything in flux; Parmenides, concentrating upon stability, declared that everything
was immutable being-thus were set the extreme limits of speculation. Pythagoras, however, rose
to mathematical abstraction, and Anaxagoras suggested a ruling mind.
Socrates recalled philosophy from the blind alley of Sophistry. By insisting on definition
of the essence, he directed speculation to a search for metaphysical truth. He pioneered in
ethics, though his doctrine that knowledge begets virtue contains a fallacy. Socrates taught men
bow to think, but did not himself construct a complete system of philosophy.
Plato erected a brilliant but unsubstantial metaphysical world with the clues given him by
Socrates. He attained to an Idea of the Supreme Good which all men should imitate. It was this
achievement that recommended him to the Christian fathers, who found him easiest to adapt to
Christian theology. Yet Platonism was erected on a false foundation of eternally subsisting real
ideas, of which all sensible things are but the shadow. Purified later by St. Thomas as divine
exemplars, these Platonic ideas would be of service, but first they contributed to the Origenist
error of pre-existence of souls. St. Augustine's illuminist psychology is also traceable to a
Platonic source. Platonic Ethics developed the Socratic; in sociology it commended absolute
communism. If Platonism had unsubstantial foundations, it yet represented helpful progress
toward a philosophia perennis.
Aristotle successfully refuted most of the Platonic mistakes. A realistic metaphysician
and experimental scientist, he supplied the profound concepts of pure act, the prime mover,
potentiality and act, matter and form, the categories, the transcendentals, the four causes. in
place of Platonic ideas he proposed a theory of universals gained by abstraction from the world of
sense. In politics he criticized absolute communism and made an acute analysis of the types of
government. Errors there were in Aristotle, but in essentials he built a philosophic basis for
Thomistic theology. Yet for centuries the chief Aristotelian doctrines would be ignored or
disfigured; only in the thirteenth century after Christ would he be styled "the Philosopher."
(2) HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY
Pragmatism. Hellenistic philosophers turned from speculative to practical philosophies
more in keeping with the needs of their sensate, busy, and fatalistic age. The Stoics reverted to
sensism, materialism, and pantheism. With some affinity for Oriental thought, Stoic ethics
inculcated a morality aiming at insensibility or apathy to external surroundings. This did furnish a
code of decency for a life terminable at death, and gave some hints for the philosophical
expression of Christian morality, but more and more it degenerated into quietism and fatalism.
The Epicureans, after explaining all things by chance concurrence of atoms, after relegating the
gods to insouciance, after firmly denying an afterlife, bade men concentrate on making
themselves happy. Though Epicurean theory enjoined a certain moderation in this, its practice
tended to license.
Scepticism. Sceptics, finally, by adopting an agnostic attitude toward everything,
precluded genuine philosophy with their pose of bored indifference. With scepticism pre-Christian
research turned full circle to the point where the ancients had begun. Latter day dilettantes asked
of Christ: "What is truth?"