Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/711

Rh CHRISTIANITY 097 things and contrasting it with that moral law which is written by nature on the heart of men ; and the pure lives of the Christians in the midst of this sea of iniquity had a wonderful effect. There is no contrast more wonderful than that which may be drawn between the grandeur of Roman law and the debasement of the ordinary social life of the Roman people ; but Roman law was founded much The social more on economic than on moral foundations. But when influence of Christianity entered into the Roman empire, and when it at last hud made head against paganism, the imperial law found an ally in Christian ethics which it had been without during the reign of paganism, and discovered, too, a higher sanction for its precepts than mere economic interests. From the time of Constantino onwards the influence of Christianity on Roman law is remarkable, and always on the side of morality in the highest sense of the term. We find from the Acts of the Apostles that the first organiza tion of Christians was for the better distribution of charity to those in need of it, and one of the earliest results of the political triumph of Christianity in the empire was the pro mulgation of laws ensuring the protection of the feeble and the helpless. The nineteen years of civil war which pre ceded the final victory of Constantino had produced the usual scenes of misery, and great numbers of orphan children were thrown upon the world without protection. The influ ence of the celebrated Lactantius, to whose care Constantino had committed the education of his son Crispus, was able to secure the publication of a law declaring that the emperor was the father of all these children, and that the expense of their upbringing was to be defrayed by the state. At the same time the exposure for sale of unfortunate children was sternly forbidden, and those who so exposed them were condemned to the amphitheatre. The condition of slaves was also greatly ameliorated by the new spirit of Christianity which was then working in society. Slavery was not abolished, but various laws were made restricting the power of slave-holders. The master was deprived of the arbitrary power of life and death. It was ordained that when royal estates were divided the families of slaves of the soil were not to be separated. New laws breathing a more Christian spirit regulated the relation of the sexes. Divorce was made a much more difficult matter. The laws against rape and seduction were made more severe, and adultery became a capital offence. The nameless crime, which was the disgrace of Greek and Roman civilization, was made punishable by death. The making of eunuchs vras forbidden, and it was enacted that slaves who had suffered this mutilation might claim their freedom. But the silent revolution which Christianity wrought in social morality cannot be measured by legislation. It is to be traced in a purer literature, a higher moral life, a better public spirit, and, above all, in the establishment of buildings for the reception of strangers (ei/&amp;lt;2&amp;gt;ves), alms-houses for the poor (7rTw^oTpo&amp;lt;^eta), hospitals and orphan-houses for the sick and the forsaken, and houses of refuge for the support of helpless old men and women. All these were due to the church, and the bishops vied with each other in the proper exercise of a munificent charity. One of the most celebrated of these establishments was the Basil ias of Basil of Caesarea, where strangers were hospitably entertained, and medical attendance and nursing were provided for those sick of whatever disease. In the Basilias everything was on the most magnificent scale. The physicians of the establishment resided within the walls, and workshops were provided for all the artizans and labourers whose services were needed. The presence of such institutions, and the Christian charity to which they bore witness, must have had a wonderfully restorative influence on the corrupt pagan society in which they were set up. Law and religion became allied, not opposing forces. The political influence of Christianity is as marked as its The inHu- moral power, and had as great an effect upon the paganism entM | * into which it was thrown. It was Christianity which gave Ch &quot; sti &quot; to the world those two great factors in civil liberty, a politics&quot; consolidated public opinion and an efficient system of repre sentative government. Gibbon has gone out of his way to sneer at the passive resistance of the early Christians, and has lent the weight of his authority to the idea that a struggle for civil liberty is opposed to the whole tenets of primitive Christianity ; but whatever the views of the Christians were on these points, it is plain that Christianity put a new public life into the Roman empire which greatly retarded its final fall. It has been frequently remarked that Christianity did as much for Constantine as he did for it, and the history of the time amply justifies the observation. Whatever be the truth about the sincerity of his conversion, it is undoubted that he, from first to last, looked at the church from a political point of view, and made use of it accordingly for his own political aggrandizement. It should be remembered that the Roman empire hung badly together, and that apart from the sentiment which may be called belief in the genius of Rome there was no common life and no common nationality. There was no popular life, such as we are accustomed to in modern Europe. From the beginning the empire had been a military tyranny. The emperor was imperator, and ruled because he commanded the state as an army, and the rule in the provinces was really military. It was imposed on the people from without and did not spring from themselves. There was not even that solidarity in it which an hereditary absolutism begets. Of course such an empire had very little cohesion, and was only kept together by the feeling of the genius of Roms and by the grand system of Roman law. But there was within the empire a new corporate life, a new kingdom, which subsisted in virtue of the life which was in it, held together by the inward power of growth. When Constan- tius and Constantine looked at the Christian church with the eyes of statesmen, they saw before them a great self- regulating organization which had a common life, a cohesion, and a corporate character quite unlike anything else in the empire. It was impossible to touch the church anywhere without the whole body being thrilled throughout from end to end, so thoroughly was it one. If the emperor could bring any influence to bear on the Christian organi zation, he might hope to move these hidden spiritual springs of action which are so much more powerful than anything lying at the command of a mere military government. The organization of Christianity was such that all over the empire and beyond it there was, without undue centralization, a confederation of local churches whose government was thoroughly democratic and based on the principle of repre sentation by means of office-bearers elected by the people, which produced a unity of sympathy and action. Besides all this the common life was kept up by active sympathy between the various churches. If there was a famine in Africa, the churches in Spain and Gaul sent grain. If Christian Gauls had been carried off into captivity by the pagan Germans, the wealthy African and Roman churches sent money for their redemption. The military roads, the system of posts, the relays of ships which Rome kept up to bring intelligence and produce from the provinces, were all used by the church for the purpose of keeping up a lively communication between all the various parts of tie Christian world. In this way Christianity within the empire was the one organization for creating, stimulating, and guiding public opinion. It was that one part of the Roman empire which, scattered over all its extent, had common feelings and all those various common instincts which go to make up a commonwealth. This was the force that Constantine sought to put himself at the head V 88 V. oo