Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/136

 / ioo THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE giving the money to the poor, and, in place of the neg- ative injunctions of the Hebrew Ten Commandments, with their "Thou shalt not," preached a positive gospel of love. During the first and second centuries the Christians seem to have come mainly from the poorer and lower classes of The early society. Christ had said, "Come unto me all ye Christian who labor and are heavy laden and I will give ommum les y ou re st." Rich men, on the other hand, were warned that they would have difficulty in entering the kingdom of God and were advised to dispose of their prop- erty first and to give unto the poor. The disciples were sent forth penniless to preach the Gospel — an ideal of apos- tolic poverty which was to have great influence throughout the Middle Ages. The first Christian communities shared their goods in common and awaited expectantly the end of this world and the coming of a better. Even when they gave up the notion that the second coming of Christ was close at hand and returned to a more normal mode of life, they still reckoned things spiritual as of more importance than ordinary human interests and activities, and the pros- pect of eternal life in the next world as of more moment than citizenship in the Roman Empire. Ignatius, one of the earliest Christian writers, even went so far as to assert that "nothing visible is good." This tendency was accentuated by the persecution to which the Christians were often subjected by the outside world, and by the fact that they lived in an atmosphere of miracle, prophecy,, and martyr- dom. Various apostles and wandering missionaries like Paul had founded numerous scattered churches, of whose local organization we at first know little, except that they had officials called overseers or episcopi or bishops, elders or presbyters or priests, and deacons. From these are de- rived the present names of such churches as the Episco- palian and Presbyterian. At first Christian sentiment seems to have favored great liberty in "prophesying"; that is, in preaching by any one who was so moved by the Holy Spirit. One early Christian declared that the truth or falsity of a