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| Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828-1892) |
LECTURE I: CLEMENT OF ROME
The
lectures which I hope to deliver this term are intended to have for their
subject “Some early Fathers of the Church.” In this description of the proposed subject
the word “Fathers” means simply what it means in common usage, the
Christian writers of the early Christian centuries. In one literal sense they might be called
Fathers, viz. as being the parents of the Christian thought and belief and life
of later centuries, which, however modified and altered by the inward and
outward changes arising in the course of time, retain always down to the present
day important features inherited from the peculiar circumstances of the
centuries which followed the Apostolic age.
But,
although it is important to remember that our own thoughts, and the thoughts of
all
Christians everywhere, have been in a great measure thus
shaped for us by the thoughts of the early Fathers, it is not on account of
this fact that we call them Fathers, but rather in gratitude and veneration for
them as the patriarchs of Christendom, speaking to us still out of that early
dawn of the Christian period of history, and often speaking to us out of the
fiery trial of persecution. But it would
be a misuse of this legitimate reverence to treat the words of the Fathers as
oracles appointed to dictate to us what we ought to believe. If we read their words with an open and
teachable mind, we shall often find there abundant help and instruction, but
the responsibility will always lie upon us of weighing and testing what we
read, to the best of our power. We must
not be surprised if we sometimes find much dross, for each age has its own
limitations and vagaries, and, besides these, each man in each age has his own
limitations and vagaries, some more, some less.
Again it is
not really possible to measure the comparative worth of the Fathers, one with
another, merely by their comparative antiquity. There is no doubt a peculiar
freshness in the best writings of quite the earliest time, the only time which
can with any propriety share with the Apostolic Age the much misused and
slippery epithet “primitive.” But the
greatest of the Fathers belong to later times, and different later times, when
in doctrine and in institutions and in various other things pertaining to
Christian life, great and unavoidable changes had taken place, changes that
were on the whole for good and belonging to healthy growth, but also by no
means free from loss, from injurious onesidedness, and from corruption. In what we call the age of the Fathers there
was anything rather than a uniform state of things. Movement was at that time more rapid than
probably at any later time of Christian history.
There are
several comparatively distinct subjects which might properly enough be lectured
about or written about in connection with the Fathers. They might serve as a
thread for speaking about Church History generally, or about the History of
doctrine, of course in either case within the limits of their own time. Or
again they might, with more obvious fitness, be taken as the heads of the corresponding
history of Christian literature. The time at our disposal will not however
allow us to follow any of these lines, unless it be incidentally and to a small
extent. I wish rather to do what I can
towards putting before you the leading Fathers of the earliest centuries as
living men, the children of a particular time, and to give some account of the
purpose and character of their chief works, illustrated by translated extracts
which may help towards the formation of individual impressions that may remain
associated with their respective names.
It is well
to keep in mind throughout that only a small part of the actual Christian
literature of the early centuries is now preserved to us. Not only many books, but all the books of many
authors, have completely perished. Of others we possess only scanty fragments. On the other hand, when we observe the neglect
or even dislike with which the Ante-Nicene Christian literature, with very
limited exceptions, was regarded by most of the Christian theologians of later
days, we can hardly be too thankful that so much has been preserved; and
moreover that what has been preserved has so representative a character, that
is, supplies us with substantial and important examples of different times,
different schools, and different churches. Again it is a striking and encouraging fact
that so many lost works, or lost portions of works, belonging to this period
have come to light within the last forty years. Nor is there any reason to believe that we
have come to the end of discoveries of this kind.
The Fathers
of whom I propose to speak today belong to the small group to which it has been
usual for above two hundred years to give the rather unmeaning name Apostolic
Fathers, that is, preeminently Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp.
In the opinion of many the earliest extant Christian writing outside the New
Testament is the remarkable little manual of Christian morals and
ecclesiastical instruction calling itself the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,
now familiarly known as the Didache, which was discovered and published a few
years ago. It may however be considerably later, and at all events it lies too
near the edge of our subject to need more than this passing word of notice.
We begin
then with Clement of Rome. The little that is really known about him will be
best found in Dr. Lightfoot’s admirable edition, and still more in the Appendix
which he published eight years later, in which he has carefully sifted the mass
of ancient legend and modern speculation which has gathered round Clement’s name.
Some pages of his Philippians are also worth reading in the same connection. The apparent time when the Epistle was written
and the apparent personal position of Clement are both remarkable. Some thirty
years had passed, what is counted a generation, since the persecution of Nero,
some twenty-five years since the fall of Jerusalem
Vespasian’s
son Titus had succeeded, and then his other son Domitian, his reign being the
one exception to the comparative brightness of the series of eight. Always capricious and suspicious, the emperor
showed these qualities in an extreme form about the years a.d. 95, 96, the last of his life. Among
his victims were his own first cousin and niece’s husband, Flavius Clemens, the
father of the two reputed heirs to the empire. This Clemens was executed, and
his wife exiled, both apparently as having become Christians. The Clement who
wrote our Epistle was, it would seem, a freedman or freedman’s son in their
household, and had in this manner received his name. Everything in his letter
shows that he must have been long a Christian himself, so that his mind would
naturally be saturated, as we find it, with the language and ideas of the Old
Testament, the only Scriptures, properly so called, for Christians at this
early time, even if he was not previously, as is possible, a Jew of the
Dispersion.
His precise position in the Roman Church is difficult to ascertain.
Two or three generations later, when the early constitution of the European
Churches had been forgotten, he was placed in the series of early Bishops of Rome Rome
The Epistle
itself starts with a salutation resembling those of the Apostolic Epistles,
beginning “The Church of God which sojourns at Rome
to the Church of God Corinth Rome
The purpose
of this the first extant writing of a Christian Father is the promotion of
peace, the restoration of a divided and disorderly Christian community to the
concord and order implied in the very idea of Church-membership. At the outset the Roman Church commends warmly the previous
temper and conduct shown by the Corinthian
Church
These
admonitions the Roman Church then takes up as addressed equally to themselves: “we are in the same arena, and the same
contest awaits us.” “Let us hearken (9)
to His majestic and glorious purpose, and coming as suppliants of His mercy and
graciousness let us fall down [before Him] and turn to His compassions,
abandoning the laboring that is vain and the strife and the jealousy that leads
to death.” Then follow examples of those
“who have ministered perfectly to God’s majestic glory” by obedience or faith
or in other like ways, beginning with Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, the words of
the Old Testament being copiously cited as well as the lives of its holy men.
“The
humility therefore and the submissiveness of so many and so great men, who have
thus obtained a good report, hath through obedience made better not only us but
also the generations which were before us, even them that received His oracles
in fear and truth. Seeing then that we
have been partakers of many great and glorious doings, let us hasten to return unto
the goal of peace which hath been handed down to us from the beginning, and let
us look steadfastly unto the Father and Maker of the whole world, and cleave
unto His splendid and excellent gifts of peace and benefits. Let us behold Him
in our mind, and let us look with the eyes of our soul unto His long-suffering
will. Let us note how free from anger He is towards all His creatures.
Then
follows a series of chapters of religious exhortation in the same lofty strain,
ending with texts thus introduced.
“This is
the way, dearly-beloved, wherein we found our salvation, even Jesus Christ the High-priest of our offerings, the Guardian and Helper of our
weakness. Through Him let us look steadfastly unto the heights of the heavens; through
Him we behold as in a mirror His faultless and most excellent visage; through Him the eyes of
our hearts were opened; through Him our foolish and darkened mind springeth up unto the
light; through Him the Master willeth that we should taste of the immortal
knowledge; ‘Who being the brightness of His majesty is so much greater than
angels, as He hath inherited a more excellent name.’ For so it is written, ‘Who
maketh His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire’; but of His Son
the Master said thus: ‘Thou art my Son; I this day have begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I will give Thee the Gentiles
for Thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession.’ And again
He saith unto Him, ‘Sit thou on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies a
footstool for Thy feet.’ Who then are these enemies – They that are wicked and
resist His will.” [From Lightfoot, Clement of Rome
“The great
without the small cannot exist, neither the small without the great” (according
to the wise Greek proverb). “All the
members breathe together and join in one [common] subjection that the whole body
may be saved.” This spirit of order is
traced in the Mosaic legislation, and in the office and work of the apostles
who received the Gospel for us from Jesus Christ, even as He was sent forth from God. The
details of what is said about the appointments of elders or men having
oversight by the Apostles would need more time to discuss than we can give. Again and again the original evil state of things
at Corinth St. Paul in writing to that
same Corinthian Church
“These
things have they done and will do, that live as citizens of that commonwealth of God
As the end
of the Epistle draws near, the Romans by the mouth of Clement declare themselves now guiltless of the sin of the Corinthian
malcontents, should it be persevered in ; and break forth in a prayer equally memorable for its
own sake and for the large borrowings from it which arc found in various later Greek
liturgies. It begins with asking that we may hope on Thy Name, etc. “Grant unto us, Lord, that we may set our hope
on Thy Name which is the primal source of all creation, and open the
eyes of our hearts, that we may know Thee, who alone abidest Highest in the highest. Holy in the
holy; who layest low the insolence of the proud, who scatterest the imaginings of nations; who
settest the lowly on high, and bringest the lofty low; who makest rich and makest poor; who
killest and makest alive; who alone art the Benefactor of spirits and the God
of all flesh; who ‘lookest into the abysses,’who scannest the works of man; the Succour of them that are
in peril, the ‘Savior of them that are in despair’ ; the Creator and Overseer
of every spirit ; who multipliest the nations upon earth, and hast chosen out
from all men those that love Thee through Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, through
whom Thou didst instruct us, didst sanctify us, didst honor us. We beseech Thee, Lord and Master, to be our
help and succour. Save those among us who are in tribulation; have mercy on the
lowly; lift up the fallen; show Thyself unto the needy; heal the ungodly;
convert the wanderers of Thy people; feed the hungry; release our prisoners; raise
up the weak, comfort the faint-hearted. Let
all the Gentiles know that Thou art God alone and Jesus Christ is Thy Son and
we are Thy people and the sheep of Thy pasture.” [From Lightfoot,
Clement of Rome
The prayer
for the Christian community presently expands into universality (“Give concord
and peace both to us and to all that inhabit the earth”); and then, in the true
spirit of St. Paul and St. Peter, specially
makes supplication for the rulers of the Roman empire ,
“Thou through Thine operations didst make manifest the everlasting fabric of
the world. Thou, Lord, didst create the
earth. Thou that art faithful throughout all generations, righteous in Thy
judgments, marvelous in strength and excellence, Thou that art wise in creating
and prudent in establishing that which Thou hast made, that art good in the
things which are seen and faithful with them that trust on Thee, pitiful and
compassionate, forgive us our iniquities and our unrighteousness and our
transgressions and shortcomings. Lay not
to our account every sin of Thy servants and Thine handmaids, but cleanse us
with the cleansing of Thy truth, and guide our steps to walk in holiness and
righteousness and singleness of heart and to do such things as are good and
well-pleasing in Thy sight and in the sight of our rulers. Yea, Lord, make Thy face to shine upon us in
peace for our good, that we may be sheltered by Thy mighty hand and delivered
from every sin by Thine uplifted arm. And deliver us from them that hate us
wrongfully. Give concord and peace to us
and to all that dwell on the earth, as Thou gavest to our fathers, when they
called on Thee in faith and truth with holiness, that we may be saved, while we
render obedience to Thine almighty and most excellent Name, and to our rulers
and governors upon the earth.
“Thou, Lord
and Master, hast given them the power of sovereignty through Thine excellent
and unspeakable might, that we knowing the glory and honor which Thou hast
given them may submit ourselves unto them, in nothing resisting Thy will. Grant unto them therefore, O Lord, health, peace, concord, stability, that they may
administer the government which Thou hast given them without failure. For Thou, O heavenly
Master, King of the ages, givest to the sons of men glory and honor and power
over all things that are upon the earth. Do Thou, Lord, direct their counsel according to that which is good and well-pleasing in Thy sight, that,
administering in peace and gentleness with godliness the power which Thou hast
given them, they may obtain Thy favor. O Thou, who alone art able to do these
thins and things far more exceeding good than these for us, we praise Thee
through the High-priest and Guardian of our souls, Jesus Christ, through whom
be the glory and the majesty unto Thee both now and for all generations and for
ever and ever. Amen.” [from Lightfoot, Clement
of Rome, Appendix, pp. 377 foll.]
The Epistle
closes with a few more quiet sentences on its principal theme, and with the
commendation of two members of the Roman Church sent as bearers of the letter, “faithful
and prudent men, that from youth to old age have walked blamelessly among us,
who shall also be witnesses between you and us.”
The
unaffected loftiness of this Epistle of Clement of Rome, and its position at
the head of post-biblical Christian literature, have been a temptation to give
it a somewhat disproportionate amount of time. What is called the second Epistle of Clement, really an anonymous homily, a generation or two later in
date, may be left alone, though important for the history of doctrine. It is rather eccentric in character, though
less so than the early Epistle which bears the name of Barnabas. Whoever may be
the author of that Epistle, he was certainly not the Barnabas of the New
Testament; and though full of points of interest to advanced students, the Epistle
is one which for our purpose may be passed over with little loss.
After
Clement of Rome we come to Hermas of Rome. We need not trouble ourselves about
his precise date, which is much disputed. At earliest he was a contemporary of Clement,
at latest half a century later. He was a brother, possibly an
elder brother, of Pius, who was bishop of Rome Western Europe in the
Middle Ages, so that it is even found in or after the Old Testament in several
manuscripts of the Latin Bible. It has often been compared to the Pilgrim’s Progress, and with good
reason.
It contains
in an imaginative form the thoughts and broodings of a simple-minded devout
man, on whom the evil that he feels within him and sees around him lies as a
heavy burden, more especially the evil which he cannot help recognizing within
the Church itself, the holy society of God’s own chosen people. ‘Repentance’ is perhaps the idea that he
cherishes most. He is entirely free from
bitterness or arrogance; and the messages which he delivers he delivers not as
from himself but as entrusted to him by one or other kind of Divine messenger.
The first
part of the book consists of five Visions. In the first he receives a rebuke
for a sinful thought of his own; and then presently for his tolerating the
misdeeds of his children, which had brought loss upon him. The speaker in the
latter part of this vision is an aged lady in bright apparel, sitting on a seat
of snow-white wool; who in the second vision is revealed to him to be not, as
he supposed, the Sibyl, but the Church. The
third vision, a very striking one, is chiefly of a tower in process of building
upon the waters, made of squared shining stones, i.e. again the Church, built
of men (living stones, as St. Peter would say) who fit rightly into their
place, other stones being partially or wholly cast away. In the fourth vision a great monster from whose
mouth proceed fiery locusts is seen and interpreted to be the great
tribulation, which is approaching to try the faint-hearted and double-minded
that they may be purified for God’s use.
The fifth
vision in a manner includes the rest (above three-fourths) of the book. It
begins thus: “When I had
been praying in my house, and had seated myself on the bed, there came in a
certain man of glorious appearance, in the guise of a shepherd, clothed in a
white (goat’s) skin, and having a wallet on his shoulders and a staff in his
hand. And he greeted me, and I returned his greeting. And straightway he sat
down beside me and saith to me, ‘I have been sent by the angel of highest
dignity, that I may dwell with thee the remaining days of thy life’.” The shepherd presently bids him write down the
commandments and the parables which he would declare to him. He is then described as the Shepherd, the
angel of repentance. Thenceforth he
reappears several times, almost to the end of the book.
Then come
twelve Commandments, as they are called. The first is a short one, “First of all believe that God is One, He who created and frames all
things, and made all things out of what is not, [bringing them] into being, and containeth all
things, but alone is uncontained. Trust Him therefore and fear Him, and fearing practice
self-restraint. Keep these things, and thou shalt cast from thyself all
wickedness, and put on every virtue of righteousness, and shalt live to God, if
thou keepest this commandment.”
The
subjects of the other commandments are truthfulness, chastity, long-suffering,
the ways and the angels of good and of evil, right and wrong fear, right and
wrong abstinence, the need of faith for prayer, the evil of a gloomy spirit,
the true and the false prophet, good and evil desire.
After the
twelve Commandments come ten (or more strictly nine) Parables or Similitudes. They are almost wholly taken from country
scenes and agricultural or pastoral occupations, specially from vines and other
trees. Perhaps the most interesting is the eighth. The angel shows Hermas “a great willow-tree,
overshadowing plains and mountains, and under the shade of the willow had come
all that have been called by the Name of the Lord.” This mighty tree which overshadowed plains and
mountains and all the earth, is explained to be the Law of God which was given “to
go forth into all the world : and this law is the Son of God proclaimed unto
the ends of the earth ; and the peoples that are under the shade are they that
heard the proclamation and believed on Him.” These last words refer to the next incident of
the parable:
“There stood an angel of the Lord glorious exceedingly, in
height above the willow tree, holding a great reaping-hook, and he cut down
branch after branch from the willow, and gave to the people that were
overshadowed by the willow. And after
that all had received their twigs, the angel laid aside his reaping-hook, and
the tree was sound just as I had seen it before.” Presently the angel asks back the twigs, and
receives them one by one, some withered and gnawed as by a moth, others
withered only, others half withered, others half withered and cracked, and so
on in various gradations to those which were wholly green and clothed with
fresh shoots and fruit. Those who had held these last were crowned with
palm-leaves. This is perhaps the most remarkable example of the just and
truthful habit of mind which leads Hermas in various places to mark the various
gradations in which good and evil are actually mixed in the hearts and lives of
men. The Shepherd invites Hermas to join
in planting the other twigs, which in various degrees had lost their greenness,
if perchance some of them might live when they have been duly watered : for,
said the Shepherd, “He that created this tree willeth that all should live who
have received branches from this tree.”
With these
words we may part company from Hermas.
