Page:The early Christians in Rome (1911).djvu/182

 VII

THE ASCETIC AND THE MORE PRACTICAL SCHOOLS OF TEACHING

The members of the Christian Brotherhood were not left without guidance as to their behaviour in the world of Rome. There were two schools among the Christian teachers of authority in the primitive Church.

The one which we will term the school of "Rigourists" or "ascetics" found a brilliant and able exponent in the stern African Father, Tertullian, who taught and wrote in the latter years of the second and the earlier years of the third centuries. From the burning and impassioned words of this famous African teacher we can form a generally accurate idea of what was taught and pressed home in the school of "Rigourists."

No compromise was ever suggested by these hard, stern teachers—no "via media" was even hinted at.

The artisan must forsake his calling if it even was connected in the most remote degree with idol worship,[1] with the games loved of the people, with anything which appeared antagonistic to any of the Master's commands. These words must be understood in their strict literal sense, and must be obeyed.

The soldier must abandon his colours, the civil servant his profession. The slave must at all risks refuse his obedience when that obedience involved acquiescence in any form of idolatry. The Christian wife, the son or daughter in a pagan family, must gently but firmly decline to share even in the formal ancestral worship, or to be present at the public games of the arena, or the performances in the theatre. In their dress and ornaments, in their very language, in their hours of play and work, they must hold themselves aloof.

1 See, for instance, Tert. De Idolat. viii., where the various trades connected with idols and temples are enumerated.