The Christian Church lived in
relative peace from the death of Marcus Aurelius (185) to the time of the
Emperor Decius (249). When Decius came to power, he inaugurated a universal
persecution of Christians throughout the whole empire. The persecutions by
Decius were continued in force by Valerian (253-260). During this time, not
only were the Christians forced to sacrifice to the imperial gods, but the
clergy were sought out to be killed and all Christian properties were to be
confiscated and destroyed. There was an all-out attempt to purge the Church
of its leadership and to destroy it completely.
After
Valerian, however, Gallienus, his son, stopped the policy of general
persecution and the Christians once more lived in relative peace until the
end of the century. During this period, there was an astounding growth in
Church membership which perhaps reached up to ten percent of the population
of the empire.
The Lapsed
The
persecutions by Decius and Valerian, as well as the peaceful times which
preceded and followed, brought a great interior crisis to the Christian
Church in the third century. The question arose about what to do with those
Christians who denied Christ under the threat of torture and execution, and
who lapsed from Christian life into sin in times of peace. The maximalists
in the Church urged that there could be no repentance for grave sins
committed after baptism.
They denied repentance to those who "lapsed" from
the Christian life and opposed the bishops who agreed to allow the
repentance and re-admittance of sinners to Holy Communion after periods of
penance. Thus, there were a number of schisms in the Church which caused
some people to leave the Church for what they considered to be a more pure
and rigorous form of Christianity. Among those who left was Tertullian d.c.
220), the great father of Latin theology in North Africa, and a prolific
writer of Christian treatises of every kind. Tertullian joined the heretical
movement of Montanus which began in the end of the second century and
claimed to be the church of the "new prophecy" of the Holy Spirit which was
more perfect than that of the "second testament" of Christ.
The
great defender of the Catholic Church at this time was Cyprian, the bishop
of Carthage (d. 258), who himself died a martyr's death after opposing the
so-called "pure" Church of Novatian in Rome which opposed the reintegration
of the "lapsed" into the communion of the Church. Although a great reader of
the theology of Tertullian, Cyprian defended the Catholic Church of the
Apostolic and Episcopal succession against the spiritualistic "pure"
churches of the self-styled maximalists. He insisted that the Church, as
Christ, exists to save sinners and that "outside of the Church there is no
salvation." (Letter 73):
"Does
he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith?
Does he who strives against and resists the Church trust that he is in the
Church . . .? This unity we ought to hold and assert, especially those of us
that are bishops who preside in the Church, that we may also prove the
episcopacy to be one and undivided . . . The episcopate is one, each part of
which is held wholly by each one. The Church also is one . . ." (On the
Unity of the Church 4, 5)
"It
is not possible to have God as Father who does not have the Church as
mother." (On the Unity of the Church 6)
"He
is not a Christian who is not in the Church of Christ." (Letter 55)
Development of Theology
The
third century also witnessed the emergence of the first formal school of
Christian theology. It was located in Egypt, in Alexandria, founded by
Pantaenus, developed by Clement (d.c. 215), and crowned by the outstanding
theologian and scholar Origen (d. 253). Whereas Tertullian, the father of
Latin theology, absolutely rejected any alliance between "Athens" and
"Jerusalem," that is, between pagan philosophy and Christian revelation, the
Alexandrians insisted that Greek philosophy was a sound preparation for the
Christian Gospel and that the truths of the pagans could be and should be
united to and fulfilled in the truths of the Christian faith. Thus, Origen
wrote to his disciple Saint Gregory the Wonderworker:
"I
desire you to take from Greek philosophy those spheres of knowledge which
are potentially an introduction to Christianity, and whatever information
from geometry and astronomy may serve to explain the sacred books . . ."
The
work of Origen was phenomenal. He wrote numberless treatises on many themes.
He did the first truly systematic and literary studies of the books of the
Bible. His work laid the foundation for virtually all subsequent Greek
theology in the Church. Much of the teaching of Origen was judged by the
Church to be false, however, and, because of its persistence among his
disciples, its author was formally condemned by the fifth ecumenical council
in the year 553.
Among
the theologians of the third century who must be mentioned with Tertullian,
Cyprian, Clement and Origen are Dionysius of Alexandria (d. 265). Hippolytus
of Rome (d. 235), Gregory the Wonderworker in Cappodocia (d.c. 270) and
Methodius of Olympus (d. 311). All of these men developed Orthodox Christian
theology, and particularly laid the foundation for the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity which would cause such controversy in the fourth century. Paul of
Samosata and Lucian of Antioch also lived at the end of the third century
and are known for their "heretical teachings concerning the Trinitarian
character of God.
Liturgical Development
Writings also exist from the third century which give an insight into the
canonical and liturgical life of the Church of this time. These are the
so-called Teachings of the Apostles from Syria, and the Apostolic Tradition
of Hippolytus of Rome (d. 235) who wrote in Greek. The former gives
regulations concerning the hierarchal offices and the sacramental practices
in the Church of Syria, and describes the liturgical assembly. The latter
also gives similar information, in a more engthy and detailed way about the
Church in Rome. It contains the text of the oldest fixed Eucharistic prayer
in Church history that we possess, as well as the form for the sacraments of
baptism, chrismation and ordination.
From: Bible and Church History by
Fr. Thomas Hopko, Dept. of
Religious Education -
Orthodox Church in America, Crestwood, New York
