[956] P. Gardner, The Growth of Christianity, 1907, p.
2. Cp. some remarks of Prof. Conway in Virgil's
Messianic Eclogue, p. 39 foll.
[957] The phrase "enthusiasm of humanity" is, of course,
that of the author of Ecce Homo, a most inspiring book
for all students of religious history, as indeed for all
other readers.
[958] Dobschütz on "Early Christian Eschatology," in
Transactions of the Third Congress for the History of
Religions, vol. ii. (Oxford, 1908), p. 320.
[959] The words are those of Mr. Glover in the last page
of his Studies in Virgil.
[960] It should be understood that these legacies, with
the exception of the last (the vocabulary), were only
taken up by the Church after the first two centuries of
its existence. And even the vocabulary of the early
Roman Church was mainly Greek (Gwatkin, Early Church
History, ii. 213), and it was not till the rise of the
African school of writers (Tertullian, Arnobius,
Augustine) that the Latin vocabulary really established
itself. Any real assimilation of Christian and pagan
forms of worship was not possible until the latter were
growing meaningless; then "the assimilation of
Christianity to heathenism from the third century is
matter of history" (Gwatkin, i. 269).
[961] Caird, Gifford Lectures, vol. ii. p. 353, has
some interesting remarks on this point.
[962] See above, p. 211.
[963] Growth of Christianity, p. 144.
[964] See Roman Festivals, p. 308.
[965] Confessions, i. 14.
[966] Westcott, Religious Thought in the West, p. 246.
Gwatkin writes (vol. ii. 236) that all Augustine's
conceptions are shaped by law and Stoicism. Cp. p. 237.
So, too, of Tertullian.
[967] By W. Otto, in the Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft, vol. xii. (1909) p. 533 foll.
[968] De Inventione, ii. 161.
[969] De Legibus, ii. 10. 25.
[970] Ib. 10. 23.
[971] Lucretius i. 101.
[972] E.g. Octavius 38. 2; and again at the end of
that chapter.
[973] Lactantius, bk. v. (de Iustitia) ch. 19. I may
note here that the paragraph in the text where this is
quoted was first published in the Transactions of the
Congress for the History of Religions (Oxford, 1908),
vol. ii. p. 174. I may also add that the restricted
sense of the word religio as meaning the monastic
life is, of course, comparatively late. This restrictive
use of heathen words, from the third century onwards, is
the subject of some valuable remarks by Prof. Gwatkin in
his Early Church History, vol. i. p. 268 foll.
[974] See Roman Festivals, p. 299, and the references
there given.
[975] Livy i. 32, ix. 8. 6; Wissowa, R.K. p. 476;
Greenidge, Roman Public Life, p. 56.
[976] Lactantius iv. 3 (de vera sapientia).
[977] Ib. v. (de Iustitia) ch. 10.
[978] Aen. xi. 81.
[979] Marquardt, 145, note 5.
[980] Aen. xii. 648.
[981] Servius, ad Aen. xii. 648.
[982] The original meaning of sanctus as applied to
things, e.g. walls and tombs, was probably
"inviolable"; Nettleship, Contributions to Latin
Lexicography, s.v. "sanctus," who also suggests a
connection between the word and the attitude of the
Roman towards his dead: thus Cicero in Topica 90
writes of aequitas as consisting of three
parts,--pietas, sanctitas, and iustitia,--meaning
man's relation to the gods, the Manes, and his
fellow-men. Nettleship also quotes Aen. v. 80 (salve
sancte parens), Tibull. ii. 2. 6, and other passages,
which show that the word was specially used of the dead
and their belongings. But when used of persons living,
as frequently in the last century B.C., it expresses a
certain purity of life, not without a religious
tincture, which could not so well be expressed by any
other word, owing to the original meaning being that of
religious inviolability. Thus Cicero uses it in the 9th
Philippic of his old friend Sulpicius, one of the best
and purest men of his time; and long before Cicero, Cato
had used it of an obligation at once ethical and
religious: "Maiores sanctius habuere defendi pupillos
quam clientem non fallere." It is interesting to notice
that it was used later on of Mithras and other oriental
deities (Cumont, Mon. myst. Mithra, i. p. 533; Les
Religions orientales, p. 289, note 45); in the case of
Mithras, at least, this meant that his life was pure,
and that he wished his worshippers to be pure also.
[983] Marquardt, p. 318, note 4; Mommsen, Strafrecht,
pp. 902, 1026. See also Greenidge, Roman Public Life,
p. 56; Festus, p. 347.
[984] Greenidge, op. cit. p. 154.
[985] Cumont, Mysterien von Mithras, p. 116 of the
German edition. See also De Marchi, La Religione nella
vita privata, vol. ii. 114. It may be worth noting that
the idea of life as the service of a soldier bound to
obedience by his oath is found also in Stoicism; see
Epictetus (Arrian), Discourses, i. 14, iii. 24,
99-101, ii. 26, 28-30; (Crossley's Golden Sayings of
Epictetus, Nos. 37, 125, 132, 134).
[986] Arnobius, adv. Nationes, i. 3.
[987] Ib. ii. 6.
[988] Tertull., ad Martyr. c. 3. Cp. de Corona
Militiae, c. 11.
[989] It is curious that the word sacerdos did not
find its way into the Christian vocabulary. Apparently
it had its chance; for Tertullian uses it in several
ways, e.g., "summus sacerdos" for a bishop (de Bapt.
17; "disciplina sacerdotalis," de Monog. 7. 12; and
for other examples see Harnack, Entstehung und
Entwickelung der Kirchenverfassung und des Kirchenrechts
in den zwei ersten Jahrhunderten, 1910, p. 85). But the
words finally adopted for the grades of the priesthood
were Greek: bishop, priest, and deacon. Nevertheless,
the general word for the priesthood, as distinguished
from the laity, is Latin (ordo); hence "ordination"
and holy "orders." It is not of religious origin, but
taken from the language of municipal life, ordo et
plebs being contrasted just as they were contrasted in
municipia as senate (decuriones) and all
non-official persons. See Harnack, op. cit. p. 82.
[990] This is, of course, in one light, the legitimate
development of the union of religion and morality in the
Hebrew mind. "For the Israelite morality, righteousness,
is simply doing the will of God, which from the earliest
age is assumed to be ascertainable, and indeed
ascertained. The Law in its simplest form was at once
the rule of morality and the revealed will of God." "The
central feature of O.T. morality is its religious
character" (Alexander, Ethics of St. Paul, p. 34). In
the religious system we have been occupied with,
religion can only be reckoned as one of the factors in
the growth of morality; it supplied the sanction for
some acts of righteousness, but (in historical times at
least) by no means for all.
Prof. Gwatkin, in his Early Church History, vol. i. p.
54, states the relation of early Christianity to
morality thus: "Christ's person, not His teaching, is
the message of the Gospel. If we know anything for
certain about Jesus of Nazareth, it is that He steadily
claimed to be the Son of God, the Redeemer of mankind,
and the ruler of the world to come, and by that claim
the Gospel stands or falls. Therefore, the Lord's
disciples went not forth as preachers of morality, but
as witnesses of his life, and of the historic
resurrection which proved his mightiest claims. Their
morality is always an inference from these, never the
forefront of their teaching. They seem to think that if
they can only fill men with true thankfulness for the
gift of life in Christ, morality will take care of
itself." I cannot but think that this is expressed too
strongly, or baldly; but it is in the main in keeping
with the impression left on my mind by a study of St.
Paul. It must, however, be remembered that the Pauline
spirit is not exactly that of early Christianity in
general: see Gwatkin, vol. i. p. 98. In the Didache,
e.g., there is no trace of St. Paul's influence (104).
[991] In a book which had just been published when I was
delivering these lectures at Edinburgh (The Ethics of
St. Paul, by Archibald Alexander), I found a very
interesting chapter on "The Dynamic of the New Life," p.
126 foll. The word which for the author best expresses
that dynamic is faith, which is "the spring of all
endeavour, the inspiration of all heroism" (p. 150). "It
brings the whole life into the domain of spiritual
freedom, and is the animating and energising principle
of all moral purpose." What exactly is here understood
by faith is explained on p. 151 to the end of the
chapter, of which I may quote the concluding words:
"Faith in Christ means life in Christ. And this complete
yielding of self and vital union with the Saviour, this
dying and rising again, is at once man's supreme ideal
and the source of all moral greatness."
[992] Döllinger, The First Age of Christianity and the
Church (Oxenham's translation), p. 344 foll.