Europe: A History (43 page)
The most recent research tends to suggest that Christianity and Judaism did not completely part company for perhaps two centuries. For many decades, the two overlapping communities may have shared the same messianic hopes. Judaic texts from the period 200
BC-AD
50, located in newly released sections of the Dead Sea Scrolls, bear a striking resemblance to the Christian gospels. One assessment maintains that the final break between Christians and Jews occurred in
AD
131, when the leader of the second Jewish revolt against Rome, Simon Bar-Kokhba, proclaimed himself the Messiah, thereby severing the bond.
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[PASCHA]
Whatever the date of the final split, the Jewish presence alongside Christianity has never been extinguished. Every week for two millennia, the celebration of the Jewish Sabbath on Friday evening has always preceded the Christian Sabbath on Sundays. After the lighting of the candles and the prayers for peace, the service culminates in the opening of the Ark of the Covenant and a reading from the Book of the Law, the
Torah:
The Ark is Opened
The Torah is a tree of life to those
who hold it fast, and those who
cling to it are blessed. Its ways
are ways of pleasantness, and all
its paths are peace.
The Ark is closed; Congregation is seated
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Early Christianity had many rivals. In the first two centuries of the Empire the mystery cults of Isis, Cybele, and the Persian sun-god Mithras were thriving. They shared several important traits with early Christianity, including the ecstatic union with the divinity, the concept of a personal Saviour or Lord, and initiation rites akin to baptism. The anthropological approach to religion would stress these similarities.
Gnosticism, too, had much in common with Christianity. In origin the Gnostics were philosophers, ‘seekers after knowledge’, but they attracted a following of a more religious character. They borrowed heavily from both Judaism and increasingly from Christianity, to the point where they were sometimes regarded as a Christian sect. They held to a distinction between the Creator or
Demiurge
, who was responsible for an evil world, and the Supreme Being; also, in the nature of Man, to a distinction between his vile, physical existence and the spark of divine essence which gives people the capacity to reach for the heavenly spheres. Simon Magus is mentioned in the New Testament. Valentinus was active in Rome, c.136–65, Basilides in Alexandria. Marcion (d. 160) founded a gnostic sect that lasted until the fifth century. He taught that Christ’s body was not real, and hence that the Resurrection could not have taken place in any physical sense; and he rejected the Old Testament, holding that the Jewish Jehovah was incomplete without the God of Love as revealed by Jesus. This ‘Docetism’ launched the long-running christological debate about the true nature of Christ.
The disputes between Christians and Gnostics revealed the need for a recognized canon of scripture. Which of the holy writings were God-given, and which were merely man-made? This question preoccupied Christians at the turn of the second and third centuries, though the definitive statement was not made until the
Festal Letter
of Athanasius in 367. The core of the New Testament—the four Gospels and the 13 letters of St Paul—was accepted c.130, and the Old Testament—that is, the Hebrew canon less the Apocrypha—c.220. Other books, especially the Apocalypse or Revelation, were disputed much longer.
[
APOCALYPSE
]
PASCHA
E
ASTER
is the prime festival of the Christian calendar. It celebrates Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It is preceded by the forty days of the Lenten fast, and culminates in the eight days of Holy Week, starting on Palm Sunday. It reaches its most sombre point during Passiontide, which begins at the hour of the Crucifixion at noon on Good Friday, only to erupt in an outburst of joy on the Third Day, on Easter Morning, when the Tomb was found empty.
In most European languages Easter is called by some variant of the late Latin word
Pascha
, which in turn derives from the Hebrew
pesach
, ‘passover’. In Spanish it is
Pascua
, in French
Pâques
, in Welsh
Pasg
, in Swedish
Pask
, in Russian and Greek
Paskha
. In German, however, it is
Ostern
, which derives, like its English equivalent, from the ancient Germanic goddess of springtime Eostro (Ostara). From this it appears that the Christians adapted earlier spring festivals marking the renewal of life after winter. They also appropriated the Jewish symbolism of Passover, with the crucified Christ becoming the ‘Paschal Lamb’.
The difference in names also recalls ancient controversies over the date of Easter. Those early Christians who followed the practices of the Jewish Passover fixed Easter on the fourteenth day of the moon following the vernal equinox. In 325 the Council of Nicaea decided that Easter day should fall on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox.
But the matter could not rest there, since several rival astronomical cycles were in existence for calculating solar years and lunations. Originally the great observatory at Alexandria was charged with the mathematics; but soon important discrepancies crept in between the Greek and Latin Churches, and between different provinces within the Latin Church. In 387 Easter was held in Gaul on 21 March, in Italy on 18 April, and in Egypt on 25 April. Subsequent attempts at standardization succeeded only partially, though 21 March and 25 April have remained the extreme limits. The Orthodox and Catholic Easters were never harmonized. Since Easter is a movable feast, all other festivals in the annual Christian calendar which depend on it, from Whitsun (Pentecost) to Ascension Day must move with it.
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Easter finds no mention in the Bible, except for an isolated mistranslation in the English Authorized Version of 1613 where, in Acts 12: 4, ‘Easter’ appears in place of ‘Passover’.
For nearly two millennia Christendom has resounded at Easter-time to triumphal hymns about Christ’s ‘victory over Death’. For non-Christians these hymns can sound threatening. For the faithful, they express the deepest sense of their existence. The ancients sang the fourth-century
Aurora Lucis rutilat
(‘The day draws on with golden light’),
Finita iam sunt proelia
(‘The strife is o’er, the battle done’ or
Victimae Paschali Laudes)
. The best known Easter hymns, including
Salve, festa dies
(‘Welcome, happy including
Salve, festa dies
(‘Welcome, happy morning”),
Vexilia regis
(‘The royal banners forward go’), and
Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis
(‘Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle’) were composed by Venantius Fortunatus (c.530–610), sometime Bishop of Poitiers. The best Greek counterparts, such as
Anastaseos Imera
(‘The day of resurrection’), sometimes sung to the melody of ‘Lancashire’, were composed by St John of Damascus (c.675–749). Germans sing the
Jesus lebt!
of Christian Furchtegott Gellert; the French,
À Toi la gloire, O résuscitél;
the Poles,
Chrystus zmartwychstan jest;
the Greeks,
Hristos Anestil
The English-speaking world sings ‘Christ the Lord is risen today’ to words by Charles Wesley:
Vain the Stone, the watch, the seal;
Christ has burst the gates of hell.
Death in vain forbids his rise.
Christ has opened Paradise.
Lives again our Glorious King;
Where, O Death, is now thy sting?
Once he died, our souls to save;
Where thy victory, O grave?
Hallelujahl
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DIABOLOS
A
LL
the main traditions from which European civilization was fused were strongly conscious of the Evil One. In prehistoric religion, as in pagan folklore, he often took the form of a horned animal—the dragon, the serpent, the goat-man of the witches’ sabbath, the seductive Gentleman who could not quite conceal his horns, his tail, and his hooves. In classical mythology he was a lord of the underworld, with a pedigree that can be traced to the encounter of Gilgamesh with Huwawa.
[
EPIC
]
In the Manichean tradition
[BOGUMIL]
,
he was the Prince of Darkness. To Aristotle, he may have been no more than the absence of the Good. But to the Platonists, he was already the
diabolos
, the opponent, the Old Enemy. In the Old Testament, especially in the Book of Job, he was the agent of sin and inexplicable suffering. In Christian lore, the tempter of Christ in the wilderness becomes the Satan and the Lucifer of the Fall. He finds a central place in medieval demonology and in St Augustine’s discussion of free will and of God’s licence for evil, as in the master-works of Milton and Goethe. In recent times Europeans have dropped their guard. But a history of Europe without the Devil would be as odd as an account of Christendom without Christ.
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Theological disputes foreshadowed the need for some form of ecclesiastical authority to resolve them. One solution was provided by Clement of Rome (d. c.90), who furthered the doctrine of the apostolic succession. Christian leaders had authority if they could trace their appointment to one of the twelve apostles, or to the apostles’ recognized successors. Clement himself, who was probably third in line to St Peter as ‘bishop’ at Rome, based his own claim on the text ‘Thou art Peter, and on this rock I shall build my church’. The same point was made with greater force by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130–200), in his writings against the Gnostics:
The greatest and most ancient of churches, known to all, [is that] established at Rome by the apostles Peter and Paul… Every other church, that is, the faithful from all other parts, ought to be harmonized [with Rome], by virtue of the authority of its origins. And it is there that Tradition, derived from the apostles, has been preserved…
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Here already was the essence of the Roman Catholic tradition. (See Appendix III, p. 1224.)
For the time being, several competing authorities prevailed, and the apostolic succession, as interpreted in Rome, never gained universal acceptance. Direct contact with Christ’s apostles, however, obviously carried kudos. Apart from St Clement, the Apostolic Fathers included Ignatius of Antioch, Papias of Hierapolis, and St Polycarp of Smyrna (c.69–155), who was burned at the stake.
The persecution of early Christians is a matter of some controversy, and its true extent cannot be disentangled from the martyrology of the most interested party. ‘The ecclesiastical writers of the fourth and fifth centuries’, wrote Gibbon, ‘ascribed to the magistrates of Rome the same degree of implacable and unrelenting zeal which filled their own breasts.’
33
Still, fitful repressions did occur. Nero made Christians into scapegoats for the great fire of Rome in 64. This was contrary to the general toleration extended to national cults, such as Judaism, to which Christianity was judged to belong. Domitian, who demanded that he be worshipped as
Dominus et Deus
, executed Christian recalcitrants for ‘atheism’. Marcus Aurelius sanctioned a severe repression at Lyons in 177. But it was not until 250 that the Emperor Decius (249–51) ordered that all his subjects sacrifice to the state gods on pain of death. After another interval, Diocletian ordered in 303 that all Christian churches be destroyed and all bibles burnt. This Great Persecution lasted thirteen years, and was the prelude to the general toleration proclaimed in the following reign. Excessive repression had proved counterproductive. The Roman Empire’s surrender to Christianity was irrigated by the blood of martyrs,
[
CATACOMBI
]
The growth of clergy—as a separate estate from the laity—seems to have been a gradual matter. The offices of
Episcopos
or ‘bishop’ as communal leader, and of
diaconus
or ‘deacon’, preceded that of the
presbyter
or ‘priest’ with exclusive sacerdotal functions. The title of Patriarch, the ‘Father’ of the bishops in any particular province or country, was long used very inconsistently. No special status was accorded to the bishop of Rome. The prestige which accrued from leading the Christian community in the capital of the Empire was diminished when the imperial government ceased to reside there. And it exposed the Christians of Rome to greater persecution. Throughout the early centuries there was a line of bishops on the ‘throne of St Peter’; but they did not emerge as a leading force in the Church until the fifth or, some might reckon, the seventh century.
CATACOMBI
B
ELIEF
in the resurrection of the dead gave burial a special role in the early Christian community; and two miles beyond Rome’s Aurelian Walls, in the vicinity of the Appian Way, lay a district,
Ad Catacumbas
, where for safety early Christians buried their dead in underground galleries. Forty-two such catacombs have been identified since their rediscovery in the sixteenth century, each of them a warren of tunnels on five or six levels linking the maze of chambers and family
loculi
or ‘notches’. The earliest tombs, such as that of Flavia Domitilla, wife of the consul for
AD
95, date from the end of the first century. But the greatest number date from the era of persecutions in the third century. The catacombs were never lived in; but later, under Christian rule, they became a favourite meeting-ground, where festivals were held and chapels built in honour of the popes and martyrs. Most of the inscriptions were cut at that time. For example, in the Catacomb of Praetextus, there is an inscription to one of Pope Sixtus’ martyred deacons, St lanuarius, arrested with him on 6 August 258: BEATISSIMO MARTYRI IANUARIO DAMASUS EPISCOP FECIT (Bishop Damasus made [this monument dedicated] to the Blessed Martyr lanuarius).
The largest complex, the Catacomb of St Callistus, was built by the ex-slave who became pope in 217–22. It includes the papal chamber, containing burials up to Pope Miltiades (d. 314), the crypt of St Cecilia, and in the Crypt of the Sacraments an extraordinary collection of mural paintings. Catacomb art was highly symbolic of the spiritual life and the world to come. Its favourite motifs included the dove, the anchor, the dolphin, the fisherman, the Good Shepherd, and Jonah, precursor of the Resurrection.
Pillaging by Goths and Vandals in the fifth century caused many relics to be withdrawn to churches within the city; and the postponement of the Second Coming caused the gradual abandonment of underground burial. St Sebastian’s crypt was one of the few sites to remain frequented. It was sought out by medieval pilgrims seeking protection from the plague.
Beside the Catacomb of Basileo stands a church which marks Rome’s most famous Christian legend. Fleeing from persecution along the Appian Way, St Peter met Christ on the road and asked him
Domine, quo vadis?
(Lord, where are you going?) Christ answered, ‘To Rome, for a second crucifixion.’ Peter turned back, and was martyred.
Three of the forty-two catacombs—at Villa Torlonia, at Vigna Randatini, and at Monte Verde—are Jewish.
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