Latest / Short History of the Christian Church / 031 - 30 The Close of the Early Period

Transcript

031 - 30 The Close of the Early Period · Short History of the Christian Church

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Book one, chapter thirty of Short History of the Christian
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is in
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the public domain, chapter thirty. The close of the early period.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: This rapid extension of Christianity was the most notable characteristic
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of the borderland between the Early Church and the medieval period.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Missions were promoted by the very growth of the papacy.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: The bishops saw that their hopes of territorial power could
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: be realized in the west and north rather than in
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the East, and each strove to surpass his predecessor in
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the good work. Missionaries and church officers were sent out
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: from Rome with authority to plant missions, build up a literature,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and indoctrinate the people in the truths of Christianity. In
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: many instances, these attempts failed, the missionaries were killed and
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the old Heathenism of the provinces triumphed over the young Christianity.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: But the tide of religious truth was too strong for
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: final resistance. New efforts were made, and finally the old
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: idols were removed, the temples were destroyed, and Christian chapels
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: were erected in their place. Christianity carried with it the
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: disposition to create a literature. The missionary was often a
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: man of ardent theological tastes, and immediately began to adapt
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the growing literature of Christianity to the new people. Schools,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: as at Folda in Germany, were at once organized. Here,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the scriptures were copied, elementary books were written, and small
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: libraries were collected. Centers of theological learning were thus formed.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: The development of a literary taste was never interrupted, even
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: amid the convulsions of the Middle Ages. The Christian pen
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and school were never disturbed by the storms of warfare
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: with false faiths. The venerable Bead represented the patient and
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: scholarly class of his whole age. He was born in Durham, England,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: about eighty six seventy three, spent his laborious life of
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: a century at the monastery of Wearmouth and Yarrow, and
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: reared a literary monument of forty different works, twenty five
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: of which were on biblical subjects. History and kindred topics
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: were treated in the remaining fifteen. He died in great joy,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: singing psalms with his pupils, immediately after concluding his Anglo
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Saxon translation of John's Gospel. Wordsworth in a beautiful fancy
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: thus rebukes the idler by presenting the picture of the
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: toiling bead. But what if one, through grove or flowery mead,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: indulging thus at will, the creeping feet of a voluptuous
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: indolence should meet thy hovering shade, o venerable bead. The saint,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the scholar, from a circle freed of toil, stupendous in
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: a hollowed seat of learning, where thou herdst the billows
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: beat on a wild coast rough monitors to feed perpetual industry.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Sublime reclues. The recreant soul that dares to shun the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: debt imposed on human kind must first forget thy diligence,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: thy unrelaxing use of a long life, and in the
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: hour of death, the last dear service of thy passing breath.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Christian doctrines assumed by the close of the Early period
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: a settled condition. The Church had elaborated its theological standards,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: while its creeds were now repeated from the deserts of
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Africa to the forests of Britain and the shores of
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the North Sea. The larger heresies had still a constituency,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: but were in rapid progress of disintegration. They throve only
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: in the remoter provinces, more especially in the East, and
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: were alienated from the sympathy of the great body of
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Christian people in all lands. When the Middle Ages began,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: other controversies arose, which were largely speculative and had but
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: little relation to the Aryan and other great strugles. Roman
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: centralization constantly gained strength, Church offices multiplied rapidly, and the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: close of the Early Period was the signal for larger
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: measures for Roman primacy. The Bishops of Rome were the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: real rulers of southern Europe from the Constantinian dynasty to
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the reign of Charlemagne. The great wealth which had been
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: at the command of the empire was now largely diverted
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: into ecclesiastical channels and was used to build large churches,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: organize missions, support a rapidly growing clergy, found schools, and
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: create a literature. Superstition was the darkest colors in the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: picture of the Church at this transitional period. Miraculous powers
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: were attributed to the dust of the saints. The places
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: where they died were hallowed and were regarded as most
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: fit sites for stately sacred buildings. The saintly calendar increased rapidly.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Festivals were organized in memory of each one who had
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: risen above the surface of his times as an exemplar
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: of piety, devotion, and sacrifice. The condition of the people
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: may account in large measure for the prevalence and force
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: of the tendency towards superstition. When Constantine made Christianity the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: state religion, the many millions of the Roman Empire were
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: thrust upon the Church for training and development. The burden
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: was altogether too great. The people of the centers were
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: still beneath the spell of the pagan traditions and gross
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: superstitions which had grown out of polytheistic systems. The populations
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: of the prophecees were in even worse plight. Their ancestral
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: faiths were a rude conglomeration of fetishism. There was not
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: even a social elevation on which to build. It is
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: not a matter of wonder, therefore, that when such heterogeneous
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: and untrained multitudes were thrust suddenly upon the Church for
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: its care, the superstitious habit should be slow to yield
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to the new Christian conditions. When the Church passed into
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the darkness of the Middle Ages, the question was could
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: it endure the ordeal of vast wealth, superstition, and clerical assumption.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: When the Reformation came, the question was answered. Much was
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: lust during the long night, but light came at last.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: The power of the Church to purify itself is the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: greatest proof of its divine origin and the clearest prophecy
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: of its certain conquest of the world. End of Chapter thirty,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: end of Book one,