The paganism of the late empire. In spite of the tremendous impulse given to the spread of Christianity by Constantine’s policy of toleration and by its adoption as the religion of the imperial house, the extinction of paganism was by no means rapid. While the chief pagan religions during the fourth century were the Oriental cults and the Orphic mysteries of Eleusis, which strongly resembled them in character, the worship of the Graeco-Roman Olympic divinities still attracted numerous followers. But, although paganism persisted in many and divers forms, these, by a process of religious syncretism, had come to find their place in a common theological system. This development had its basis in the common characteristics of the Oriental cults, each of which inculcated the belief in a supreme deity, and received its stimulus through the conscious opposition of all forms of paganism to Christianity, which they had come to recognize as their common, implacable foe. The chief characteristic of later paganism was its tendency to monotheism—a belief in one abstract divinity of whom the various gods were but so many separate manifestations. The development of a harmonious system of pagan theology was greatly aided by Neoplatonic philosophy, which may be regarded as the ultimate expression of ancient paganism. Neoplatonism was essentially a pantheism, in which all forms of life were regarded as emanations of the divine mind. But Neoplatonism was more than a philosophical system; it was a religion, and, like the Oriental cults, preached a doctrine of salvation for the souls of men. Such was the paganism by which the Christians of the late empire were confronted, and which, because of its many points of resemblance to their own beliefs and practices, they admitted to be a dangerous rival. At the same time, this similarity made the task of conversion less difficult.
[pg 386]Causes of the persistence of paganism. There were several reasons for the persistence of paganism. The Oriental and Orphic cults exercised a powerful hold over their votaries, and made an appeal very similar to that of Christianity. Stoicism, with its high ideal of conduct, remained a strong tradition among the upper classes of society; and Neoplatonism had a special attraction for men of intelligence and culture. Roman patriotism, too, fostered loyalty to the gods under whose aegis Rome had grown great, and until the close of the fourth century the Roman Senate was an indefatigable champion of the ancient faith. But more potent than all these causes was the fact that, apart from some works of a theological character, the whole literature of the day was pagan in origin and in spirit. This was the only material available for instruction in the schools, and formed the basis of the rhetorical studies which constituted the higher education of the time. Thus, throughout the whole period of their intellectual training, the minds of the young were subjected to pagan influences.
The persecution of paganism. Constantine the Great adhered strictly to his policy of religious toleration and, although an active supporter of Christianity, took no measures against the pagan cults except to forbid the private sacrifices and practice of certain types of magical rites. He held the title of pontifex maximus and consequently was at the head of the official pagan worship. With his sons, Constantius and Constans, the Christian persecution of the pagan began. In 341 they prohibited public performance of pagan sacrifices, and they permitted the confiscation of temples and their conversion into Christian places of worship. With the accession of Julian this persecution came to an end, and there was in the main a return to the policy of religious toleration, although Christians were prohibited from interpreting classical literature in the schools. The attempt of Julian to create a universal pagan church proved abortive and his scheme did not survive his death. His successors, Jovian, Valentinian I and Valens, adhered to the policy of Constantine the Great.
Gratian was the first emperor to refuse the title of pontifex maximus, and to deprive paganism of its status as an official religion of Rome. In 382 he withdrew the state support of the priesthoods of Rome, and removed from the Senate house the altar and statue of Victory, which Julian had restored after its temporary removal by [pg 387]Constantius. This altar was for many of the senators the symbol of the life of the state itself, and their spokesman Symmachus made an eloquent plea for its restoration. However, owing to the influence of Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, the emperor remained obdurate, and a second appeal to Valentinian II was equally in vain. Although the brief reign of Eugenius produced a pagan revival in Rome, the cause of paganism was lost forever in the imperial city. In the fifth century the Senate of Rome was thoroughly Christian.
Theodosius the Great was even more energetic than his colleague Gratian in the suppression of paganism. In 380 he issued an edict requiring all his subjects to embrace Christianity. In 391 he ordered the destruction of the great temple of Serapis at Alexandria, an event which sounded the death knell of the pagan cause in the East. The following year Theodosius absolutely forbade the practice of heathen worship under the penalties for treason and sacrilege. Theodosius II continued the vigorous persecution of the heathen. Adherence to pagan beliefs constituted a crime, and in the Theodosian Code of 438 the laws against pagans find their place among the laws regulating civic life. It was during the reign of Theodosius II, in 415, that the pagan philosopher and mathematician, Hypatia, fell a victim to the fanaticism of the Christian mob of Alexandria.
Still, many persons of prominence continued to be secret devotees of pagan beliefs, and pagan philosophy was openly taught at Athens until the closing of the schools by Justinian. The acceptance of Christianity was more rapid in the cities than in the rural districts. This gave rise to the use of the term pagan (from the Latin paganus, “rural”) to designate non-Christian; a usage which became official about 370. And it was among the rural population that pagan beliefs and practices persisted longest. However, between the fifth and the ninth centuries paganism practically disappeared within the lands of the empire.
The long association with paganism and the rapid incorporation of large numbers of new converts into the ranks of the church were not without influence upon the character of Christianity itself. The ancient belief in magic contributed largely to the spread of the belief in miracles, and the development of the cult of the saints was stimulated by the pagan conception of inferior divinities, demigods, and daemons, while many pagan festivals were Christianized and made festivals of the church.
The emperor and the church. The religious policy of Constantine the Great had the effect of making Christianity a religion of state and incorporating the Christian church in the state organism. Thereby the clergy gained the support of the imperial authority in spreading the belief of the church and in enforcing its ordinances throughout the empire. Yet this support was won at the price of the recognition of the autocratic power of the emperor over the church as well as in the political sphere. Subsequently, however, this recognition was only accorded to orthodox emperors; that is those who supported the traditional doctrine of the church as sanctioned in its general councils.
Constantine made use of his supremacy over the church to enforce unity within its ranks. However, he did not champion any particular creed but limited his interference to carrying into effect the decisions of the church councils or synods which he summoned to pass judgment upon questions which threatened the unity of the church and the peace of the state.
These councils were a development from the provincial synods, which had previously met to decide church matters of local importance. Procedure in the councils was modelled upon that of the Roman Senate; the meetings were conducted by imperial legates, their decisions were issued in the form of imperial edicts, and it was to the emperor that appeals from these decrees were made. The first of the great councils was the Synod of Arles, a council of the bishops of the western church, summoned by Constantine in 314 to settle the Donatist schism in the church in Africa. This was followed in 325 by the first universal or ecumenical council of the whole Christian church which met at Nicaea to decide upon the orthodoxy of the teachings of Arius of Alexandria.
Constantine’s successors followed his example of summoning church councils to settle sectarian controversies, though, unlike him, many of them sought to force upon the church the doctrines of their particular sect. As the general councils accentuated rather than allayed antagonisms, the eastern emperor Zeno substituted a referendum of the bishops by provinces. But this precedent was not followed. Justinian was the emperor who asserted most effectively his authority [pg 389]over the church. He issued edicts upon purely theological questions and upon matters of church discipline without reference to church councils, and he received from the populace of Constantinople the salutation of “High Priest and King.”18 The decision of the council of 553 provoked an attack upon the sacerdotal power of the emperor by Facundus, bishop of Hermiana in Africa, who declared that not the emperor but the priests should rule the church. Nevertheless, this opposition had no immediate effect, and Justinian remained the successful embodiment of “Caesaro-papism.”
The growth of the papacy. The late empire witnessed a rapid extension of the authority of the bishopric of Rome, which had even previously laid claim to the primacy among the episcopal sees. In the West the title “pope” (from the Greek pappas, “father”) became the exclusive prerogative of the bishop of Rome. The papacy was the sole western patriarchate, or bishopric, with jurisdiction over the metropolitan and provincial bishops, and was the sole representative of the western church in its dealings with the bishops of the East. At the council of Serdica (343 A. D.) it was decided that bishops deposed as a result of the Arian controversy might refer their cases to the Pope Julius for final decision, and, in the course of the fifth century, eastern bishops frequently appealed to the decision of the pope on questions of orthodoxy. However, the eastern church never fully admitted the religious jurisdiction of the papacy. The ideal of the papacy became the organization of the church on the model of the empire, with the pope as its religious head.
The claims of the papacy were pushed with vigor by Innocent I (402–417 A. D.) and Leo I (440–461 A. D.). The latter laid particular stress upon the primacy of Peter among the Apostles and taught that this had descended to his apostolic successors. It was Leo also who induced the western emperor Valentinian III in 455 to order the whole western church to obey the bishop of Rome as the heir to the primacy of Peter. The Pope Gelasius (492–496 A. D.) asserted the power of the priests to be superior to the imperial authority, but the establishment of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy and the reconquest of the peninsula by the eastern emperor weakened the independence of the Roman bishopric. Justinian was able to compel the popes to submit to his authority in religious matters.
[pg 390]The patriarchate of Constantinople. A rival to the papacy developed in the patriarchate of Constantinople, which at the Council of Constantinople in 381 was recognized as taking precedence over the other eastern bishoprics and ranking next to that of Rome, “because Constantinople is New Rome.” However, the primacy of the bishop of Constantinople in the eastern church was challenged by the older patriarchates of Ephesus, Antioch and Alexandria, all of which had been apostolic foundations, while the claims of Constantinople to that honor were more than dubious. Between 381 and 451 the bishops of Alexandria successfully disputed the doctrinal authority of the see of Constantinople, but at the council of Chalcedon (451 A. D.) Pulcheria and Marcian reasserted the primacy of the patriarch of the capital. At this time also the bishopric of Jerusalem was recognized as a patriarchate. The patriarch of Constantinople was now placed on an equality with the pope, a recognition against which the Pope Leo protested in vain. However, the patriarchs of Constantinople never acquired the power and independence of the popes. Situated as they were in the shadow of the imperial palace, and owing their ecclesiastical authority to the support of the throne, they rarely ventured to oppose the will of the emperor. Under Justinian the patriarch held the position of a “minister of state in the department of religion.”
The temporal power of the clergy. When Christianity became a religion of state it was inevitable that the Christian clergy should occupy a privileged position. This recognition was accorded them by Constantine the Great when he exempted them from personal services (munera) in 313 and taxation in 319 A. D. Those who entered the ranks of the clergy were expected to abandon all worldly pursuits, and an imperial edict of 452 excluded them from all gainful occupations. In addition to their ecclesiastical authority in matters of belief and church discipline, the bishops also acquired considerable power in secular affairs. In the days of persecution the Christians had regularly submitted legal differences among themselves to the arbitration of their bishops, rather than resort to the tribunals of state. Constantine the Great gave legal sanction to this episcopal arbitration in civil cases; Arcadius, however, restricted its use to cases in which the litigants voluntarily submitted to the bishop’s judgment. The bishops enjoyed no direct criminal jurisdiction, al[pg 391]though since the right of sanctuary was accorded to the churches, they were frequently able to intercede with effect for those who sought asylum with them. In the enforcement of moral and humanitarian legislation the state called for the coöperation of the bishops.
The influential position of the bishops as the religious heads of the municipalities led to their being accorded a definite place in the municipal administration. In protecting the impoverished taxpayers against the imperial officers they were more effective than the “defensores plebis.” And in the days of the barbarian invasions, when the representatives of the imperial authority were driven from the provinces, the bishops became the leaders of the Roman population in their contact with the barbarian conquerors.
Sectarianism. The history of the church from Constantine to Justinian is largely the history of sectarian strife, which had its origin in doctrinal controversies. While the western church in general abstained from acute theological discussions and adhered strictly to the orthodox or established creed, devoting its energies to the development of church organization, the church of the East, imbued with the Greek philosophic spirit, busied itself with attempts to solve the mysteries of the Christian faith and was a fruitful source of heterodoxy. Strife between the adherents of the various sects was waged with extreme bitterness and frequently culminated in riots and bloodshed. Toleration was unknown and heretics, like pagans, were classed as criminals and excluded from communion with the orthodox church. Of the many sects which arose in the fourth and fifth centuries, two were of outstanding importance. These were the Arians and the monophysites.
Arianism. Arianism had its rise in an attempt to express with philosophical precision the relation of the three members of the Holy Trinity; God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. About 318 A. D., Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, taught that God was from eternity but that the Son and the Spirit were his creations. Over the teaching of Arius, a controversy arose which threatened the unity of the church. Accordingly, Constantine intervened and summoned the ecumenical council of Nicaea to decide upon the orthodoxy of Arius. [pg 392]The council accepted the formula of Athanasius that the Son was of the same substance (homo-ousion) as the Father, which was the doctrine of the West. Arius was exiled.
The struggle, however, was by no means over, for the Nicene creed found many opponents among the eastern bishops who did not wish to exclude the Arians from the church. The leader of this party was Eusebius of Caesarea. In 335 they brought about the deposition of Athanasius, who had been bishop of Alexandria since 328. After the death of Constantine, Athanasius was permitted to return to his see, only to be expelled again in 339 by Constantius, who was under the influence of Eusebius. He took refuge in the West, where the Pope Julius gave him his support. At a general council of the church held at Serdica (Sofia) in 343 there was a sharp division between East and West, but the supporters of Athanasius were in the majority, and he and the other orthodox eastern bishops were reinstated in their sees (345 A. D.).
When Constantius became sole ruler of the empire (353 A. D.) the enemies of Athanasius once more gained the upper hand. The emperor forced a general council convoked at Milan in 353 to condemn and depose Athanasius, while the Pope Liberius, who supported him, was exiled to Macedonia. A new council held at Sirmium in 357 tried to secure religious peace by forbidding the use of the word “substance” in defining the relation of the Father and the Son, and sanctioned only the term homoios (like). The adherents of this creed were called Homoeans. Although they were not Arians, their solution was rejected by the conservatives in both East and West. In 359 a double council was held, the western bishops meeting at Ariminum, the eastern at Seleucia. The result was the acceptance of the Sirmian creed, although the western council had to be almost starved before it yielded. Under Julian and Jovian the Arians enjoyed full toleration, and while Valentinian I pursued a similar policy, Valens went further and gave Arianism his support.
In the meantime, however, the labors of the three great Cappadocians,—Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa—had already done much to reconcile the eastern bishops to the Nicaean confession and, with the accession of Theodosius I, the fate of Arianism was sealed. A council of the eastern church met at Constantinople in 381 and accepted the Nicene creed. The Arian bishops were deposed and assemblies of the heretics forbidden by im[pg 393]perial edicts. Among the subjects of the empire Arianism rapidly died out, although it existed for a century and a half as the faith of several Germanic peoples.
The monophysite controversy. While the point at issue in the dogmatic controversies of the fourth century was the relation of God to the Son and the Holy Spirit, the burning question of the fifth and sixth centuries was the nature of Christ. And, like the former, the latter dispute arose in the East, having its origin in the divergent views of the theological schools of Antioch and Alexandria. The former laid stress upon the two natures in Christ—the divine and the human; the latter emphasized his divinity to the exclusion of his humanity, and hence its adherents received the name of monophysites. The Antiochene position was the orthodox or traditional view of the church, and was held universally in the West, where the duality of Christ was accepted without any attempt to determine the relationship of his divine and human qualities. Beneath the doctrinal controversy lay the rivalry between the patriarchates of Alexandria and Constantinople, and the awakening national antagonism of the native Egyptian and Syrian peoples towards the Greeks. The conflict began in 429 with an attack of Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, upon the teachings of Nestorius, the patriarch of Constantinople. Cyril, taking the view that the nature of Christ was human made fully divine, justified the use of the word Theotokos (Mother of God), which was coming to be applied generally to the Virgin Mary. Nestorius criticized its use, and argued in favor of the term Mother of Christ. In the controversy which ensued, Cyril won the support of the bishop of Rome, who desired to weaken the authority of the see of Constantinople, and Nestorius was condemned at the council of Ephesus in 431.
The next phase of the struggle opened in 448, when Dioscorus, the occupant of the Alexandrine see, assailed Flavian, the patriarch of the capital, for having deposed Eutyches, a monophysite abbot of Constantinople. At the so-called “Robber Council” of Ephesus (449 A. D.) Dioscorus succeeded in having Flavian deprived of his see. But the pope, Leo I. pronounced in favor of the doctrine of the duality of Christ, and in 451 the new emperor Marcian called an ecumenical council at Chalcedon which definitely reasserted the primacy of the see of Constantinople in the East, approved the use of Theotokos, and declared that Christ is of two natures. The attempt [pg 394]to enforce the decisions of this council provoked disturbances in Egypt, Palestine and the more easterly countries. In Palestine it required the use of armed force to suppress a usurping monophysite bishop. In Egypt the enforcement led to a split between the orthodox Greek and the monophysite Coptic churches.
As the opposition to the decree of Chalcedon still disturbed the peace of the church, the emperor Zeno in 482, at the instigation of the patriarchs Acacius of Constantinople and Peter of Alexandria, sought to settle the dispute by exercise of the imperial authority. He issued a letter to the church of Egypt called the Henoticon, which, while acknowledging the councils of Nicaea and Constantinople, condemned that of Chalcedon, and declared that “Christ is one and not two.” This doctrine was at once condemned by the Pope Silvanus. The rupture with Rome lasted until 519, when a reconciliation was effected at the price of complete submission by the East and the rehabilitation of the council of Chalcedon. This in turn antagonized the monophysites of Syria and Egypt and caused Justinian to embark upon his hopeless task of reëstablishing complete religious unity within the empire by holding the western and winning back the eastern church.
Justinian hoped to reconcile the monophysites by an interpretation of the discussions of the council of Chalcedon which would be acceptable to them. This led him, in 544, to condemn the so-called Three Chapters, which were the doctrines of the opponents of the monophysites. And although this step implied a condemnation of the council of Chalcedon itself, and was consequently opposed in the West, he forced the fifth ecumenical council of Constantinople in 553 to sanction it. However, neither this concession nor the still greater one of the edict of 565 availed to win back the extreme monophysites of Egypt and Syria, where opposition to the religious jurisdiction of Constantinople had taken a national form, and the religious disunion in the East continued until these lands were lost to the empire.
The origin of monasticism. Monasticism (from the Greek monos, “single”), which became so marked a feature of the religious life of the Middle Ages, had its origin in the ascetic tendencies of the early Christian church, which harmonized with the eastern religious [pg 395]and philosophic ideal of a life of pure contemplation. The chief characteristics of early Christian asceticism were celibacy, fasting, prayer, surrender of worldly goods, and the adoption of a hermit’s life. This renouncement of a worldly life was practised by large numbers of both men and women, especially in Egypt. It was there that organized monastic life began early in the fourth century under the influence of St. Anthony in northern and Pachomius in southern Egypt.
Anthony and Pachomius in Egypt. Anthony was the founder of a monastic colony, which was a direct development from the eremitical life. He laid down no rule for the guidance of the lives of the monks, but permitted the maximum of individual freedom. It was Pachomius who first established a truly cenobitical monastery, in which the monks lived a common life under the direction of a single head, the abbot, according to a prescribed rule with fixed religious exercises and daily labor. The organization of convents for women accompanied the foundation of the monasteries. However, the Antonian type of monkhood continued to be the more popular in Egypt, where monasticism flourished throughout the fourth, but began to decline in the fifth, century.
Eastern monasticism. From Egypt the movement spread to Palestine, but in Syria and Mesopotamia there was an independent development from the local eremitical ideals. Characteristic of Syrian asceticism were the pillar hermits who passed their lives upon the top of lofty pillars. The founder of the Greek monasticism was Basil (c. 360 A. D.), who copied Pachomius in organizing a fully cenobitical life. He discouraged excessive asceticism and emphasized the value of useful toil. The eastern monks were noted for their fanaticism and they took a very prominent part in the religious disorders of the time. The abuses of the early, unregulated monastic life led to the formulation of monastic rules and the subjection of the monks to the authority of the bishops.
Monasticism in the west: Benedict. Monasticism was introduced in the West by Athanasius, who came from Egypt to Rome in 339. From Italy it spread to the rest of western Europe. The great organizer of western monasticism was Benedict, who lived in the early sixth century, and founded the monastery at Monte Cassino about 520 A. D. His monastic rule definitely abandoned the eremitical ideal in favor of the cenobitical. In addition to worship and [pg 396]work, the Benedictine rule made reading a monastic duty. This stimulated the collection of libraries in the monasteries and made the monks the guardians of literary culture throughout the Middle Ages.
As yet no distinct monastic orders had developed, but each monastery was autonomous under the direction of its own abbot.
General characteristics. The period between the accession of Diocletian and the death of Justinian saw the gradual disappearance of the ancient Graeco-Roman culture. In spite of Diocletian’s reëstablishment of the empire, there was a steady lowering of the general cultural level. This was due chiefly to the progressive barbarization of the empire and to the decline of paganism which lay at the roots of ancient civilization. The one creative force of the time was Christianity, but, save in the fields of religion and ethics, it did little to stem the ebbing tide of old world culture.
Literature. The dying out of this culture is clearly to be seen in the history of the Greek and Roman literatures of the period, each of which shows the same general traits. In the fourth century, under the impulse of the restoration of Diocletian, there is a brief revival of productivity in pagan literature. But this is characterized by archaism and lack of creative power. The imitation of the past produces not only an artificiality of style, but also of language, so that literature loses touch with contemporary life and the language of the literary world is that of previous centuries, no longer that of the people. Rhetorical studies are the sole form of higher education, and are in part responsible for the archaism and artificiality of contemporary literature, owing to the emphasis which they laid upon literary form to the neglect of substance. In the fifth century, following the complete triumph of Christianity, pagan literature comes to an end.
The recognition of Christianity as an imperial religion by Constantine, its subsequent victorious assault upon paganism, and the intensity of sectarian strife gave to Christian literature a freshness and vigor lacking in the works of pagan writers, and produced a wealth of apologetic, dogmatic and theological writings. But the Christian authors followed the accepted categories of the pagan literature, and while producing polemic writings, works of translation and of religious [pg 397]exegesis, they entered the fields of history, biography, oratory and epistolography. Thus arose a profane, as well as a sacred, Christian literature. And since Christian writers were themselves men of education and appealed to educated circles, their works are dominated by the current rhetorical standards of literary taste. Yet in some aspects, in particular in sacred poetry and popular religious biography, they break away from classical traditions and develop new literary types.
But after the first half of the fifth century originality and productivity in Christian literature also are on the wane. This is in part due to the effects of the struggle of the empire with barbarian peoples; in part to the suppression of freedom of religious thought by the orthodox church. Even after the extinction of paganism the classical literatures of Greece and Rome afforded the only material for a non-religious education. And since they no longer constituted a menace to Christianity, the church became reconciled to their use for purposes of instruction, and it was to the church, and especially to the monasteries, that the pagan literature owes its preservation throughout the Dark Ages.
A symptom of the general intellectual decline of the later empire is the dying out of Greek in the western empire. While up to the middle of the third Christian century the world of letters had been bi-lingual, from that time onwards, largely as a result of the political conditions which led to a separation of the eastern and western parts of the empire, the knowledge of Greek began to disappear in the West until in the late empire it was the exception for a Latin-speaking man of letters to be versed in the Greek tongue.
Pagan Latin literature. A wide gulf separated the pagan Latin literature of the fourth century from that of the early principate. Poetry had degenerated to learned tricks, historical writing had taken the form of epitomies, while published speeches and letters were but empty exhibitions of rhetorical skill. The influence of rhetorical studies made itself felt in legal phraseology, which now lost its former clarity, directness and simplicity. Still there are a few outstanding literary figures who deserve mention because they are so expressive of the tendencies of the time or because they have been able to attain a higher level.
Ausonius and Symmachus (c. 345–405 A. D.). The career of Ausonius, a professor of grammar and rhetoric at Bordeaux, whose [pg 398]life covers the fourth century, shows how highly rhetorical instruction was valued. His ability procured him imperial recognition, and he became the tutor of Gratian, from whom he received the honor of the consulate in 379. His poetical works are chiefly clever verbal plays, but one, the Mosella, which describes a voyage down the river Moselle, is noteworthy for its description of contemporary life and its appreciation of the beauty of nature. Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, city prefect, and the leader of the pagan party in Rome under Gratian and Valentinian II, is a typical representative of the educated society of the time which strove to keep alive a knowledge of classical literature. He left a collection of orations and letters, poor in thought, but rich in empty phrase.
Ammianus Marcellinus, fl. 350–400 A. D. A man of far different stamp was Ammianus Marcellinus, by birth a Greek of Antioch, and an officer of high rank in the imperial army. Taking Tacitus as his model, he wrote in Latin a history which continued the former’s work for the period from 96 to 378 A. D. Of this only the part covering the years 353 to 378 has survived. His history is characterized by sound judgment and objectivity, but is marred by the introduction of frequent digressions extraneous to the subject in hand and by a strained rhetorical style. However, it remains the one considerable pagan work in Latin prose from the late empire.
Claudius Claudianus and Rutilius Namatianus (both fl. 400 A. D.). The “last eminent man of letters who was a professed pagan” in the western empire was Claudius Claudianus. Claudian was by birth an Egyptian Greek who took up his residence in Rome about 395 A. D. and attached himself to the military dictator, Stilicho. He chose to write in Latin, and composed hexameter epics which celebrated the military exploits of his patron. He also wrote mythological epics and elegiacs. Claudian found his inspiration in Ovid and reawakened the charm of Augustan poetry. A contemporary of Claudian, and, like him a pagan, was Rutilius Namatianus, who was a native of southern Gaul but a resident of Rome where he attained the highest senatorial offices. His literary fame rests upon the elegiac poem in which he described his journey from Rome to Gaul in 416 A. D., and revealed the hold which the imperial city still continued to exercise upon men’s minds.
Christian Latin literature: Lactantius (d. about 325 A. D.). It is among the writers of Christian literature that the few great [pg 399]Latin authors of the time are to be found. At the beginning of the fourth century stood Lactantius, an African, who became a teacher of rhetoric in Nicomedia, where he was converted to Christianity. His chief work was the Divinae Institutiones, an introduction to Christian doctrine, which was an attempt to create a philosophical Christianity. His purity of style has caused him to be called the “Christian Cicero.”
Ambrose, (d. 397 A. D.). Ambrose, the powerful bishop of Milan, who exercised such great influence with Gratian and Theodosius the Great, also displayed great literary activity. In general, his writings are developments of his sermons, and display no very great learning. Their power depended upon the strength of his personality. More important from a literary standpoint are the hymns which he composed for use in church services to combat in popular form the Arian doctrines. In his verses Ambrose adhered to the classic metrical forms, but in the course of the next two centuries these were abandoned for the use of the rhymed verse, which itself was a development of the current rhetorical prose.
Jerome, 335–420 A. D. The most learned of the Latin Christian writers of antiquity was Jerome (Hieronymus), a native of northern Bosnia, whose retired, studious life was in striking contrast to the public, official career of Ambrose. A Greek and Hebrew scholar, in addition to his dogmatic writings he made a Latin translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew (the basis of the later Vulgate), and another of the Greek Church History of Eusebius.
Augustine, 354–430 A. D. The long line of notable literary figures of the African church is closed by Augustine, the bishop of Hippo who died during the siege of his city by the Vandals in 430 A. D. In his early life a pagan, he found inspiration and guidance in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. But while Jerome was still dominated by Greek religious thought, Augustine was the first Latin Christian writer to emancipate himself from this dependence and display originality of form and ideas in his works. Of these the two most significant are the Confessions and On the City of God. The Confessions reveal the story of his inner life, the struggle of good and evil in his own soul. The work On the City of God was inspired by the sack of Rome by Alaric in 410 and the accusation of the pagans that this was a punishment for the abandonment of the ancient deities. In answer to this charge Augustine develops a philosophical inter[pg 400]pretation of history as the conflict of good and evil forces, in which the Heavenly City is destined to triumph over that of this world. His work prepared the way for the conception of the Roman Catholic Church as the city of God.
Boethius (d. 524 A. D.) and Cassiodorus (c. 480–575 A. D.). Between the death of Augustine and the death of Justinian the West produced no ecclesiastical literary figure worthy of note. However, under the Ostrogothic régime in Italy, profane literature is represented by two outstanding personalities—Boethius and Cassiodorus. The patrician Boethius while in prison awaiting his death sentence from Theoderic composed his work On the Consolation of Philosophy, a treatise embued with the finest spirit of Greek intellectual life. Cassiodorus, who held the posts of quaestor and master of the offices under Theoderic, has left valuable historical material in his Variae, a collection of official letters drawn up by him in the course of his administrative duties. His chief literary work was a history of the Goths, of which unfortunately only a few excerpts have remained. In his later years Cassiodorus retired to a monastery which he founded and organized according to the Benedictine rule. There he performed an inestimable service in fostering the preservation of secular as well as ecclesiastical knowledge among the brethren, thus giving to the Benedictine monks the impulse to intellectual work for which they were so distinguished in medieval times.
Greek Christian literature; Religious prose. It was in the fourth century that Greek Christian prose literature reached its height. Among its leading representatives were Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria who fought the Arian heresy; Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, the founder of church history; Gregory of Nazianzus, church orator and poet; and Basil, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, the organizer of Greek monasticism. Above them all in personality and literary ability stood John Chrysostom (the Golden-mouth), patriarch of Constantinople under Arcadius. With the fifth century came a decline in theological prose; men resorted to excerpts and collections. But at this time began the development of the popular monastic narratives and lives of the saints which served as the novels and romances of the time.
Religious poetry. It was subsequent to the fourth century also that Christian religious poetry attained its bloom. Here a break was made with classical tradition in the adoption of accentual in place of [pg 401]quantitative verse. This was in harmony with the disappearance of distinctions of syllabic quantity from popular speech. The use of rhythm in verse was introduced by Gregory of Nazianzus, but the chief and most productive representative of the new poetry was Romanus, a converted Syrian Jew whose activity falls in the reign of Justinian.
Greek profane literature. Contemporary profane Greek literature exhibits less originality and interest. Historical writing was continued in strict imitation of classical models by both Christian and pagan writers. Of exceptional historical value are the works of Procopius, the historian of the wars of Justinian, who like Ammianus Marcellinus shared in an official capacity in the events which he described. A more popular form of historical writing was the compilation of chronicles of world history, collections of excerpts put together for the most part by men who failed to understand their sources. The profane verse of the time is represented by narrative poems, such as the Dionysiaca and the metrical version of the Gospel of St. John composed by Nonnus in Egypt (c. 400 A. D.), and by a rich epigrammatic literature.
In the eastern empire literary productivity continued, although on the decline, slightly longer than in the West, but by the middle of the sixth century there also it had come to an end.
Art. The art of the late empire exhibits the same general characteristics as the literature. Not only was there a general lack of originality and creative capacity, but even the power of imitating the masterpieces of earlier times was conspicuously lacking. The Arch of Constantine erected in 312 A. D. affords a good illustration of the situation. Its decoration mainly consists of sculptures appropriated from monuments of the first and second century, beside which the new work is crude and unskilful. A comparison of the imperial portraits on the coins of the fourth century with those of the principate up to the dynasty of the Severi reveals the same decline in taste and artistic ability.
In the realm of art as in literature Christianity supplied a new creative impulse, which made itself felt in the adaptation of pagan artistic forms to Christian purposes. The earliest traces of Christian art are to be found in the mural paintings of the underground burial vaults and chapels of the Roman catacombs, and in the sculptured reliefs which adorned the sarcophagi of the wealthy. These [pg 402]were popular branches of contemporary art and the influence of Christianity consisted in the artistic representation of biblical subjects and the employment of Christian symbolical motives. These forms of Christian art decayed with the general cultural decline that followed the third century.
The most important and original contribution of Christianity to the art of the late empire was in the development of church architecture. To meet the needs of the Christian church service, which included the opportunity to address large audiences, there arose the Christian basilica, which took its name from the earlier profane structures erected to serve as places for the conduct of public business, but which differed considerably from them in its construction. In general the basilica was a long rectangular building, divided by rows of columns into a central hall or nave and two side halls or aisles. The walls of the nave rose above the roof of the aisles, and allowed space for windows. The roof was flat or gabled, and, like the wall spaces, covered with paintings or mosaics. The rear of the structure was a semicircular apse which held the seats of the bishop and the lower clergy. To the original plan there came to be added the transept, a hall at right angles to the main structure between it and the apse. This gave the basilica its later customary crosslike form.
While the basilica became the almost universal form of church architecture in Italy and the West, in the East preference was shown for round or polygonal structures with a central dome, an outgrowth of the Roman rotunda, which was first put to Christian uses in tombs and grave chapels. A rich variety of types, combining the central dome with other architectural features arose in the cities of Asia and Egypt. The masterpiece of this style was the church of St. Sophia erected by Justinian in Constantinople in 537 A. D. Another notable example from the same period is the church of San Vitale at Ravenna.
In the mosaics which adorn these and other structures of the time are to be seen the traces of a Christian Hellenistic school of painting which gave pictorial expression to the whole biblical narrative. These mosaics and the miniature paintings employed in the illuminated manuscripts survived as prominent features of Byzantine art.