Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/420

 CORINTHIANS

364

CORINTHIANS

bay of Corinth and the gulf of itEgina, about four miles in length, was opened 8 November, 1893; it had been begun by Nero, and is in great part cut through the solid rock.

St. Paul preached successfully at Corinth, where he lived in the house of Aquila and Priscilla (Acts, xviii, 1), where Silas and Timothy soon joined him. After his dejjarture he was replaced by Apollo, who had been sent from Ephesus by Priscilla. The Apostle visited Corinth at least once more. He wrote to the Corintliians in 57 from Ephesus, and then from Mace- donia in the same year, or in 58. The famous letter of St. Clement of Rome to the Corintliian church (about 96) exhibits the earliest evidence concerning the ecclesiastical primacy of the Roman Chiu-ch. Be- sides St. Apollo, Lequien (II, 155) mentions forty- three bishops: among them, St. Sosthenes (?), the disciple of St. Paul. St. Dionysius; Paul, brother of St. Peter, Bishop of Argos in the tenth century; St. Athanasius, in the same century; George, or Gregory, a commentator of liturgical hymns. Corinth was the metropolis of all Hellas. After the Byzantine em- direction, Corinth appears as a mofropcilis with seven suffragan sees; at the beginnins <il flic i i;;litoenth cen- tury there were only two unite i in mir title. Since 1890 Corinth, for the Greeks, has bei-n a simple bishopric, but the first in rank, Athens being the sole archbishopric of the Kingdom of Greece. Le- quien (III, 883) mentions twenty Latin prelates from 1210 to 1700, the later ones being only titular. But Eubel (I, 218; II, 152) mentions twenty-two arch- bishops for the period from 1212 to 1476.
 * Jcrors had violently withdrawn Illyricum from papal

Lebas and Fotjcart, Inscripticms du Peloponncse; Beule, L'art grec avant Pericles; Perrot and Chipiez, Hist, de Vart darts I'antiquite; Spon, Voyage d'ltalie, de Dalmaiie, de Grtre et du Levant (Amsterdam. 1679), II, 22.3 sq.; Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (London, 1878), I, 674-86.

S. Petridks.

Corinthians, Epistles to the. — iNTRODUCTORy. — St. Paul Founds the Church at Corinth. — St. Paul's first visit to Europe is graphically described by St. Luke (Acts, xvi-xviii). When he reached Troas, at the north-west corner of Asia Minor, on his second great missionary journey in company with Timothy and Silvan us, or Silas (who was a "prophet" and had the confidence of The Twelve), he met St. Luke, probably for the first time. At Troas he had a vision of "a man of Macedonia standing and beseech- ing him, and saying: Pass over in to Macedonia and helj] us." In response to this appeal he proceeded to Philippi in Macedonia, where he made many con- verts, but was cruelly beaten with rods according to the Roman custom. After comforting the brethren he travelled southward to Thessalonica, where some of the Jews " believed, and of those that served God, and of the Gentiles a great multitude, and of noble women not a few. But the Jews, moved with envy, and taking unto them some wicked men of the vulgar sort, set the city in an uproar. . . . And they stirred up the people and the rulers of the city hearing these things. But the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night to Beroea. Who, when they were come thither, went into the synagogue of the Jews, and many of them believed, and of honourable women that were Gentiles and of men not a few." But imbelieving Jews from Thessalonica came to Beroea "stirring up and troubling the multitude". " And immediately the brethren scut a wtiy Paul to go to the sea ; but Silas and Timothy remained there. .A.nd they that conducted Paul brought him as far a.s Athens"— then reduced to the position of an old university town. At Athens he preached his famous philosophical discourse in the Areopagus. Only a few were converted, amongst these being St. Dionysius the Areopagite. Some of bb frivolous hearers mocked him. Others said that

that was enough for the present ; they would listen to more another time.

He appears to have been very disappointed with Athens. He did not visit it again, and it is never mentioned in his letters. The disappointed and soli- tary Apostle left Athens and travelled westwards, a distance of forty-five miles, to Corinth, the then capi- tal of Greece. The fearful scourging at Philippi com- ing not very long after he had been stoned and left for dead at Lystra, together with all his ill-treatment by the Jews, as described in II Cor., must have greatly weakened him. As we are not to suppose that he, any more than his Master, was miraculously saved from pain and its effects, it was with physical pain, nervousness, and misgiving that the lonely Apostle entered this great pagan city, that had a bad name for profligacy throughout the Roman world. To act the Corinthian was synonymous with leading a loose life. Corinth, which had been destroyed by the Romans, was re-established as a colony by Julius Ca?sar, 46 B. c, and made the capital of the Roman Province of Achaia by Augustus. It was built on the southern extremity of the isthmus connecting the mainland with the Morea, and was on the great line of traffic between East and West. Its two magnificent har- bours, one at eacli side of the isthmus, were crowded with shipping and were the scenes of constant bustle and activity. Corinth was filled with Greeks, Ro- mans, Syrians, Egyptians, and Jews, many of the last having lately come from Rome on account of their ex- pulsion by Claudius ; and its streets were thronged by tens of thousands of slaves. Crowds, too, came from all parts every four years to be present at the Isthmian games. On the summit of the hill to the south of the city was the infamous temj^le of Venus, with its tliousand female devotees dedicated to a life of shame.

It was to this centre of traffic, excitement, wealth, and vice that St. Paul came, probably about the end of \. D. 51 ; and here he spent upwards of eighteen months of his Apostolic career. He took up his resi- dence with two Christian Jews, Aquila and his wife Priscilla (refugees from Rome), because they were of the same trade as himself. Like all Jews he had " learnt a trade in his youth, and in their house he sup- ported himself by working at this trade, viz., that of tentmaker, as he had determined not to receive any support from the money-loving Corinthians. He be- gan by preaching in the synagogue every Sabbath; and he persuaded the Jews and the Greeks". Of this period he says that he was with them "in weak- ness, and fear, and much trembling ". The ill-usage he had received was still fresh in his memory, as, writing a month or two later to the Thessalonians, he recalls how he had been "shamefully treated at Philippi". But when he was joined by Silas and Timothy, who brought him pecuniary aiil from Mace- donia, he became more bold and confident, and "was earnest in testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the| Christ. But they gainsaying and blasphennng, he shook his garments and said to them: Your blood be' upon your owni heads ; I am clean: from henceforth 1' will go imto the Gentiles." He then began to prc;icl in the house of Titus Justus, adjoining the synagogue Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, and his family andseveral of the Corinthians were converted and bap tized. Amongst these were Cains, Stcphanius, and hi household, and the house of Fortunatus and Achaii-us "the firstfruits of .\chaia" (I Cor., i, 14, 16; xvi, 1.')^ The growing opposition of the Jews, however, and th wicked state of the city had a depressing iiitiucnc upon him ; but "the Lord said to Paul in thr night, h; ii vision: Do not fear, but speak; and hold not th; peace, because I am with thee; and no man shall si' upon thee to hurt thee ; for I have much people in tlii city. Andhestayed there a year and six months, teach ing among them the word of God" (.\cts, xviii, 0-11' Many were convertcxl ; some of them noble, wealth_\

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