Dark Freedom: The Rise of Western Lawlessness - Chapter Five
by C.W. Steinle
Copyright 2015 by C.W. Steinle
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Part II - The Legacy of the Manmade Church
The Unorthodox Kingdoms of Rome and Constantinople
As we continue to unearth the
foundations of the present state of lawlessness it is necessary to understand the
catastrophic failure of the Western
Church Rome 's
deficiencies in order to justify the existence of their own denomination. What is rarely acknowledged is the damage
inflicted on the world outside the Church.
And the world also reacted with its own equitable opposition. The alternatives to authoritative government
and the revival of the Humanities during the Renaissance can be greatly
attributed to the atrocious conduct of the Church Militant.
Before reviewing the period from
the Apologetic Age to the Middle Ages we must take care to acknowledge that the
Church Triumph has prevailed, and will prevail, regardless of man's
blunders. Later chapters of this book
will further identify Christ's Church and biblical Christianity. But as the Nation of Israel has foreshadowed
the Israel of God under the new covenant, the same application can be made that
Paul made of Israel when he
said that not all who were of Israel
were actually Israel . "For
they are not all Israel who
are of Israel
It is critical, then, that we make the same distinction concerning the
Church. Within the institutional Church
there are some members who have faith in God and His Son. There are some members who do not have faith,
but who belong to the Church as one would belong to a club or society. Paul states in his Second Letter to Timothy: "Nevertheless the solid foundation of God
stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let
everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’ But in a great house there are not only
vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some
for dishonor." - II Tim. 2:19-20
In this illustration let us assume that the Church is that "great
house." God knows those who have
faith and are truly His.The second part of the "seal" mentioned in these verses begins with "Let," which is a directive and not a fact. This brings us to a secondary division of members. Both the faithful members and the faithless members of the Church are capable of sin, the former because of weakness, the latter because they remain under the bondage of sin. Next Paul encourages the faithful to walk according to their high calling so that they might live honorably. "Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work." – II Tim. 2:21 As we examine the iniquity of those in high office we must remember that only the Lord knows whether these individuals' names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
The world is not able to make these distinctions. Those outside the Church were given the impression that Christ's Church had failed. But Christ's true Church has not failed. Only sinful men have failed. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ's true Church cannot fail, and will never fail. Christ will faithfully shepherd His remnant of followers to the end of the age no matter how wildly Christian leaders might stray. Neither false doctrines nor false prophets will defeat Christ's Church. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on!43
The word "orthodoxy"
means "correct belief." As we learned
in earlier chapters, biblical Orthodox Judaism was already under siege by the
doctrines of men in the pre-Christian era.
This chapter and the next are not so much focused on orthodoxy, but on
orthopraxy - that is, the practices of the Church and the conduct of the
clergy. The Church has always struggled
against, and in some ways comingled with, the ways of the world in which it
abides. But the Early Church Corinthian Church
"For I think that God has displayed us,
the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a
spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are
fools for Christ’s sake, but you are
wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are
distinguished, but we are
dishonored! To the present hour
we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands.
Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we
entreat. We have been made as the filth
of the world, the offscouring of all things until now." - I Cor. 4:9-13
The waywardness of the Western Church Byzantine Church
For at least the first centuries
of the church, elders were appointed to oversee the individual
congregations. According to the Didache45 (an account
of Early Church
In the first centuries after
Christ, cities that were established and visited by the Apostles were given
special honor. These included Jerusalem , Antioch , Rome , Corinth , and Ephesus . Because of the Apostle's faithfulness in
carrying out the great commission, the Christian Church expanded rapidly. By the end of the second century the church
leaders in the larger cities began to be elevated above the leaders of rural
churches, as though they were more capable and authoritative than the leaders
of the smaller country churches. Soon the
city churches assumed an implied authority over the country churches, thereby
overriding, to some extent, the significance of direct apostolic
appointment. Until this time, each
church leader was the overseer of his own congregation. In order to clarify the presumed authority of
the city overseers to oversee the surrounding smaller fellowships, a
distinction in nomenclature had to be made.
The title of "overseer" was retained by the city pastors and
the smaller church pastors were given the title of priests. The common English title of "bishop"
is derived from the Old English words for priest or overseer, "bisceop"
or "biscop." Instead of having
oversight of a congregation, the city overseer became the overseer of the area
of his authority - his "see."
In the Eastern Church the dominance of the city overseers was more
obviously designated by the title of "metropolitan."
Ten waves of persecution in
various sectors of the Empire had not been able to stifle the Church. After nearly three hundred years of expansion,
the Christian population of the eastern half of the Roman
Empire had to be recognized by the state. Although the Apostles had carried
Christianity to the extremities of the known world, the Eastern
Mediterranean continued to be the center of Christianity for the
first five centuries. Below are two maps
showing the churches mentioned in the Bible and the churches attending the
Nicene Council.
 |
 |
The Edict of Milan in 313 A.D.
legalized Christianity. At the same time,
Constantine, who had won the title of Emperor under the banner of Christ, began
to undertake the standardization of Christian doctrine. The Council of Nicaea was held near Constantinople to formalize doctrine and to identify
heresies. Thus, Constantine
brought the Church under the wings of the Eastern Roman
Empire which, at that time, was still the center of Christianity. But the old ruling families of Rome and their wealth remained in Italy . By 380 A.D., Theodosius made Christianity the
Empire's official religion.
It should be noted that most
religions throughout history have been state-supported. Israel ,
and the nations surrounding Israel ,
built temples for worship. The ruins of
the temples built by Greece
and Rome still stand throughout the Mediterranean as monuments to the ancient tradition of
state sponsorship. The modern State of
Israel was established to be a Jewish nation, and, appropriately, neighborhood synagogues
have been provided by the government.
Only in America
has a popular religion been denied the support of the government. The denial of state support for the popular
faith implies an underlying distrust in the goodness of that faith. America 's
arrangement can be directly linked to the Roman Catholic Church's attempt to
take over the governments of Europe; a saga so unpleasant that the American
founding fathers determined it would not be allowed to happen in the New World .
In the fourth century, the
popular religion had never been separated from any state; therefore, the
Christian Church had no reason to think that support by the state would be in
any way detrimental. Protection by the
state was certainly a comforting alternative to the persecution that the church
had endured during the three prior centuries.
But the Church's fusion with the Empire did have its undesirable
consequences.
These evil results may be summed up under the general
designation of the secularization of the church. By taking in the whole population of the Roman Empire the church became, indeed, a church of the
masses, a church of the people, but at the same time more or less a church of
the world. Christianity became a matter
of fashion. The number of hypocrites and
formal professors rapidly increased; a strict discipline, zeal, self-sacrifice,
and brotherly love proportionally ebbed away; and many heathen customs and
usages, under altered names, crept into the worship of God and the life of the
Christian people. The Roman state had
grown up under the influence of idolatry, and was not to be magically
transformed at a stroke. With the
secularizing process, therefore, a paganizing tendency went hand in hand.49
Under Constantine the church began to adopt the
political structure of the empire. Christendom
was divided into four prefectures consisting of the Orient, Illyria ,
Italy , and Gaul . Although Constantinople
was never visited by the Apostles, the city was designated as having its own
see on a par with the other apostolic sees.
The next adaptation to the Church's new political environment was the
exaltation of the empire's four great capitals; Constantinople, Rome , Alexandria , and Antioch . Jerusalem
was given an honorary place with the four capitals. These five greater sees became the five
Patriarchates of the Church. Thus, the
honor of the Biblical churches was transferred to the most important cities of
the Roman Empire, although according to early traditions, the church at Alexandria was established
by John Mark rather than by one of the Twelve.
The Emperor Constantine likewise increasingly perceived himself as God's
appointed administrator over the Christian World.
Because Constantinople
was located near the center of the empire's Christian community, it quickly
grew and became a gathering place for bishops and the logical place for doctrinal
discussions. The twenty-eighth canon of
the Council of Chalcedon, held in 451 A.D., claimed Constantinople
(New Rome) to be the primary see having authority over all of Christendom. "The
bishop of New Rome shall enjoy the same honor as
the bishop of Old Rome Pontus , of Asia, and of Thrace , as well as the Barbarian bishops shall
be ordained by the bishop of Constantinople ."51 This declaration granted Constantinople
the authority to appoint the bishop of Rome (Pontus
Constantinople's bid for control
was quickly countered by Rome 's
own Council, and the battle for control began.
But, in the fifth and sixth centuries, Muslims gained such a foothold in
the eastern sees of Jerusalem , Antioch ,
and Alexandria that the continuing influence of Constantinople was thwarted. In the meantime, because Old Rome was the
only designated Patriarchate of the Western Mediterranean ,
she became the new hub of the Christian world.
The Eastern Orthodox Church has
never, to this day, acknowledged the superiority of Rome. Nevertheless, even the churches of the
eastern empire began to look to Old Rome for advice in the midst of
controversies following the Muslim invasion of the Eastern Mediterranean.
The union of Christianity with the Roman Empire corrupted both the
Byzantine and the Roman churches.
The world's influence in the East was most profoundly manifested in glamour
and wealth. Much like today's
church-goers dress up for weekly worship, the nationalized Church felt that it
should express the dignity and splendor of the kingdom of Christ
The secularization of the church appeared most strikingly in
the prevalence of mammon worship and luxury compared with the poverty and
simplicity of the primitive Christians.
The aristocracy of the later empire had a morbid passion for outward
display and the sensual enjoyments of wealth, without the taste, the
politeness, or the culture of true civilization. The gentlemen measured their fortune by the
number of their marble palaces, baths, slaves, and gilded carriages; the ladies
indulged in raiment of silk and gold ornamented with secular or religious
figures, and in heavy golden necklaces, bracelets, and rings, and went to
church in the same flaunting dress as to the theatre. Chrysostom addresses a patrician of Antioch : "You count
so and so many acres of land, ten or twenty palaces, as many baths, a thousand
or two thousand slaves, carriages plated with silver and gold." Gregory Nazianzen, who presided for a time in
the second ecumenical council of Constantinople in 381, gives us the following
picture, evidently rhetorically colored, yet drawn from life, of the luxury of
the degenerate civilization of that period: "We repose in splendor on high
and sumptuous cushions, upon the most exquisite covers, which one is almost
afraid to touch, and are vexed if we but hear the voice of a moaning pauper;
our chamber must breathe the odor of flowers, even rare flowers; our table must
flow with the most fragrant and costly ointment, so that we come perfectly
effeminate. Slaves must stand ready,
richly adored and in order, with waving, maidenlike hair, and faces shorn
perfectly smooth, more adorned throughout than is good for lascivious eyes; some,
to hold cups both delicately and firmly with the tips of their fingers, others,
to fan fresh air upon the head. Our
table must bend under the load of dishes, while all the kingdoms of nature,
air, water and earth, furnish copious contributions, and there must be almost
no room for the artificial products of cook and baker. . . . The poor man is content with water; but we
fill our goblets with wine to drunkenness, nay, immeasurably beyond it. We refuse one wine, another we pronounce
excellent when well flavored, over a third we institute philosophical
discussions; nay, we count it a pity, if he does not, as a king, add to the
domestic wine a foreign also."
Still more unfavorable are the pictures which, a half century later, the
Gallic presbyter, Salvianus, draws of the general moral condition of the
Christians in the Roman Empire .
It is true, these earnest protests against degeneracy
themselves, as well as the honor in which monasticism and ascetic contempt of
the world were universally held, attest the existence of a better spirit. But the uncontrollable progress of avarice,
prodigality, voluptuousness, theatre going, intemperance, lewdness, in short,
of all the heathen vices, which Christianity had come to eradicate, still
carried the Roman empire and people with rapid strides toward dissolution, and
gave it at last into the hands of the rude, but simple and morally vigorous
barbarians. When the Christians were
awakened by the crashings of the falling empire, and anxiously asked why God
had permitted it, Salvian, the Jeremiah of his time, answered: "Think of
your vileness and your crimes, and see whether you are worthy of the divine
protection." Nothing but the divine
judgment of destruction upon this nominally Christian, but essentially heathen world
could open the way for the moral regeneration of society. There must be new, fresh nations, if the
Christian civilization prepared in the old Roman Empire
was to take firm root and bear ripe fruit.
The unnatural confusion of Christianity with the world culminated
in the imperial court of Constantinople, which, it is true, never violated
moral decency so grossly as the court of a Nero or a Domitian, but in vain pomp
and prodigality far outdid the courts of the better heathen emperors, and
degenerated into complete oriental despotism.
The household of Constantius, according toe the description of Libanius,
embraced no less than a thousand barbers, a thousand cup bearers, a thousand
cooks, and so many eunuchs, that they could be compared only to the insects of
a summer day. This boundless luxury was
for a time suppressed by the pagan Julian, who delighted in stoical and cynical
severity, and was fond of displaying it; but under his Christian successors the
same prodigality returned; especially under Theodosius and his sons. These emperors, who prohibited idolatry upon
pain of death, called their laws, edicts, and palaces "divine," bore
themselves as gods upon earth, and, on the rare occasions when they showed
themselves to the people, unfurled an incredible magnificence and empty
splendor.
"When Arcadius," to borrow a graphic description
from a modern historian, "condescended to reveal to the public the majesty
of the sovereign, he was preceded by a vast multitude of attendants, dukes,
tribunes, civil and military officers, their horses glittering with golden
ornaments, with shields of gold set with precious stones, and golden
lances. They proclaimed the coming of
the emperor, and commanded the ignoble crowd to clear the streets before
him. The emperor stood or reclined on a
gorgeous chariot, surrounded by his immediate attendants, distinguished by
shields with golden bosses set round with golden eyes, and drawn by white mules
with gilded trappings; the chariot was set with precious stones, and golden
fans vibrated with the movement, and cooled the air. The multitude contemplated at a distance the
snow-white cushions, the silken carpets, with dragons inwoven upon them in rich
colors. Those who were fortunate enough
to catch a glimpse of the emperor, beheld his ears loaded with golden rings,
his arms with golden chains, his diadem set with gems of all hues, his purple
robes, which with the diadem, were reserved for the emperor, in all their
sutures embroidered with precious stones.
The wondering people, on their return to their homes, could talk of
nothing but the splendor of the spectacle: the robes, the mules, the carpets,
the size and splendor of the jewels. On
his return to the palace, the emperor walked on gold; ships were employed with
the express purpose of bringing gold dust from remote provinces, which was
strewn by the officious care of a host of attendants, so that the emperor
rarely set his foot on the bare pavement."
The Christianity of the Byzantine court lived in the
atmosphere of intrigue, dissimulation, and flattery. Even the court divines and bishops could
hardly escape the contamination, though their high office, with its sacred
functions, was certainly a protecting wall around them. One of these bishops congratulated Constantine , at the celebration
of the third decennium of his reign (the tricennalia), that he had been
appointed by God ruler over all in this world, and would reign with the Son of
God in the other! This blasphemous
flattery was too much even for the vain emperor, and he exhorted the bishop
rather to pray God that he might be worthy to be one of his servants in this
world and the next. Even the church
historian and bishop Eusebius, who elsewhere knew well enough how to value the
higher blessings, and lamented the indescribable hypocrisy of the sham
Christianity around the emperor, suffered himself to be so far blinded by the
splendor of the imperial favor, as to see in a banquet, which Constantine gave
in his palace to the bishops at the close of the council of Nice, in honor of
his twenty years’ reign (the vicennalia), an emblem of the glorious reign of
Christ upon the earth!
And these were bishops, of whom many still bore in their body
the marks of the Diocletian persecution.
So rapidly had changed the spirit of the age. While, on the other hand, the well-known
firmness of Ambrose with Theodosius, and the life of Chrysostom, afford
delightful proof that there were not wanting, even in this age, bishops of
Christian earnestness and courage to rebuke the sins of crowned heads.52
Only to this extent will we
examine the Eastern Church. The rest of
this chapter and the next will focus on Rome and
her influence on greater Europe . The Western Church Rome 's distance from Constantinople
became its greatest advantage. Her
remoteness enabled her to avoid the doctrinal conflicts disputed at Constantinople by sending emissaries to the ecumenical
councils, while at the same time holding her own Latin councils.
The old ruling families of Rome rekindled their determination that Rome should once again become the center of
civilization. But there is simply no indication
from Scripture that God has ever desired to have His name placed upon any city
other than Jerusalem . Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well:
"Woman, believe Me, the hour is
coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem
Peter did, in fact, die outside
of Rome ; but reasonable evidence indicates that
he did so near the end of his life, and that he was not the founder of the
Church at Rome . Because this book is not intended to be a
history book, we will merely list the evidence for this conclusion and leave
further investigation to the reader.
- Peter carried out much of his ministry around
- Peter appointed his successor at
Chrysostom, for instance, calls Ignatius of Antioch a
"successor of Peter, on whom, after Peter, the government of the church
devolved," and in another place says still more distinctly: "Since I have named Peter, I am reminded
of another Peter [Flavian, bishop of Antioch], our common father and teacher,
who has inherited as well the virtues as the chair of Peter. Yea, for this is the privilege of this city
of ours [Antioch ],
to have first had the coryphaeus of the apostles for its teacher. For it was proper that the city, where the
Christian name originated, should receive the first of the apostles for its
pastor. But after we had him for our
teacher, we did not retain him, but transferred him to imperial Rome ."53
There is no indication that Jesus' reference to the keys of
the kingdom applied to anything other than spiritual matters. Many Church Fathers attest that the keys were
given equally to all of the Apostles.
- Many Church Fathers assert that the "rock" upon which the Church was founded applies to "all believing Christians."
- There is no record of Peter having authority over the other Disciples. He was called to account by Paul in Galatians; and James, rather than Peter, made the final decision at the first Church Council of Jerusalem.
- There is no record that the offices of the Twelve Apostles were intended to be perpetual "seats" which should be filled after the original Twelve. (If so, where are the other eleven chairs?)
- Of the many Christian leaders addressed by Paul in
his Letter to the Romans, Peter is not recognized as being present in
- Eusebius, the first Church Historian, writing at the
beginning of the fourth century, refers to the overseer at
- The first use of the word "pope" to refer to a church leader was during the bishopric of Heraklas, the thirteenth Bishop of Alexandria, from 232 to 249.
- John I. was the first Bishop of Rome to go by the title of "pope", around the year 525.
- The claim of
In the first place, even in Italy, several metropolitans
maintained, down to the close of our period, their own supreme headship,
independent of Roman and all other jurisdiction. The archbishops of Milan , who traced their church to the apostle
Barnabas, came into no contact with the pope till the latter part of the sixth
century, and were ordained without him or his pallium. Gregory I., in 593, during the ravages of the
Longobards, was the first who endeavored to exercise patriarchal rights there: he reinstated an excommunicated presbyter,
who had appealed to him. The
metropolitans of Aquileia , who derived their
church from the evangelist Mark, and whose city was elevated by Constantine the
Great to be the capital of Venetia and Istria, vied with Milan ,
and even with Rome ,
calling themselves "patriarchs," and refusing submission to the papal
jurisdiction even under Gregory the Great.
The bishop of Ravenna
likewise, after 408, when the emperor Honorius selected that city for his
residence, became a powerful metropolitan, with jurisdiction over fourteen
bishoprics. Nevertheless he received the
pallium from Gregory the Great, and examples occur of ordination by the Roman
bishop.54
Neither did the British church
recognize Rome
as its head for the first five centuries.
The early British church held from the first a very isolated
position, and was driven back by the invasion of the pagan Anglo-Saxons, about
the middle of the fifth century, into the mountains of Wales , Cornwallis, Cumberland , and the still more secluded
islands. Not till the conversion of the
Anglo-Saxons under Gregory the Great did a regular connection begin between England and Rome .55
- Lastly, even if a successor of Peter were to occupy his supposed "seat", the notion of that seat morphing into the seat of Christ on earth is a vain imagination and is blasphemous. Furthermore, anyone who would claim such authority would appropriately be called an antichrist.
In preparation for the next
chapter, we must take the time to understand the development of the Roman
Church’s authority in civil affairs.
Part of Rome 's claim to civil authority was
based on the premise that Constantine himself had handed over the Roman
Empire's authority of the Western Empire to
the Church by the so-called Donation of Constantine. This matter will be covered as we follow the
development of Canon Law.
The misdirection of the Church eventually
turned the Western World away from God's law and His government. This religious fiasco prepared the soil of Europe for the germination and growth of lawlessness. It is important to know how the Roman law was
established, and how the Roman version of government rose to dominate the Western Empire . The
remainder of this chapter discusses the development of Church laws. The next chapter will follow the rise of Rome 's government.
The Canon laws were at last
rejected, in part because of their inhumane oppression, and in part because
they were discovered to be based upon fraudulent information. These frauds were created solely by the
design of a Church that was disillusioned by the belief that it was divinely
ordained to establish the kingdom
of God
Under the Roman state, the religious laws - the jus sacrum, jus pontificium - were not a
distinct body of legislation. In the
Christian Church the conception of a distinct and superior divine law existed
from the beginning. The formulation of a
written code followed the meeting of Christian synods and their
regulations. As the jurisdiction of the
hierarchy and the institution of the mediaeval papacy were developed, this
legislation came to include civil obligations and all civil penalties except
the death penalty. The Church encroached
more and more upon the jurisdiction of the civil court. Conflict was inevitable. Not only was the independence of civil law as
a distinct branch of procedure threatened, but even its very existence. It was not till the fourteenth century that
the secular governments were able successfully to resist such encroachments and
to regain some of the just prerogatives of which the civil courts had been
robbed. "Oh, that the canon law
might be purged from the superfluities of the civil law and be ordered by
theology," exclaimed Roger Bacon, writing in the thirteenth century. "Then would the government of the Church
be carried on honorably and suitably to its high position."56
The universal councils, through their disciplinary enactments
or canons, were the main fountain of ecclesiastical law. To their canons were added the decrees of the
most important provincial councils of the fourth century, at Ancyra (314),
Neo-Caesarea (314), Antioch (341), Sardica (343), Grangra (365), and laodicea
(between 343 and 381); and in a third series, the orders of eminent bishops,
popes, and emperors. From these sources
arose, after the beginning of the fifth century, or at all events before the
council of Chalcedon, various collections of the church laws in the East, in
North Africa, in Italy, Gaul, and Spain; which, however, had only provincial
authority, and in many respects did not agree among themselves.] A codex
canonum ecclesia universae did not exist.
The earlier collections became eclipsed by two, which, the one in the
West, the other in the East, attained the highest consideration.
The most important Latin collection comes from the Roman,
though by descent Scythian, Abbot Dionysius Exigutus, who also, notwithstanding
the chronological error at the base of his reckoning, immortalized himself by
the introduction of the Christian calendar, the "Dionysian Era." It was a great thought of this
"little" monk to view Christ as the turning point of ages, and to
introduce this view into chronology.
About the year 500 Dionysius translated for the bishop Stephen of Salona
a collection of canons from Greek into Latin, which is till extant, with its prefatory
address to Stephen. It contains, first,
the fifty so-called Apostolic Canons, which pretend to have been collected by
Clement of Rome, but in truth were a gradual production of the third and fourth
centuries; then the canons of the most important councils of the fourth and
fifth centuries, including those of Sardica and Africa; and lastly, the papal
decretal letters from Siricius (385) to Anastasius II. (498). The Codex
Dionysii was gradually enlarged by additions, genuine and spurious, and through
the favor of the popes, attained the authority of law almost throughout the
West. Yet there were other collections
also in use, particularly in Spain
and North Africa .
Some fifty years after Dionysius, John Scholasticus,
previously and advocate, then presbyter at Antioch, and after 564 patriarch of
Constantinople, published a collection of canons in Greek, which surpassed the
former in completeness and convenience of arrangement, and for this reason, as
well as the eminence of the author, soon rose to universal authority in the
Greek church. In it he gives eighty-five
Apostolic Canons, and the ordinances of the councils of Ancyra (314) and Nicaea (325), down to that of Chalcedon (451), in fifty titles, according
to the order of subjects. The second
Trullan council (Quinisextum, of 692), which passes with the Greeks for
ecumenical, adopted the eighty-five Apostolic Canons, while it rejected the
Apostolic Constitutions, because, though, like the canons, of apostolic origin,
they had been early adulterated. Thus
arose the difference between the Greek and Latin churches in reference to the
number of the so-called apostolic canons; the Latin Church retaining only the
fifty of the Dionysian collection.
The same John, while patriarch of Constantinople, compiled
from the Novelles of Justinian a collection of the ecclesiastical state-laws,
or nomoi, as they were called in
distinction from the synodal church-laws or kanones. Practical wants then led to a union of the
two, under the title of Nomocanon.
These books of ecclesiastical law served to complete and
confirm the hierarchical organization, to regulate the life of the clergy, and
to promote order and discipline; but they tended also to fix upon the church an
outward legalism, and to embarrass the spirit of progress.57
During the chaotic confusion under the Carolingians, in the
middle of the ninth century, a mysterious book made its appearance, which gave
legal expression to the popular opinion of the papacy, raised and strengthened
its power more than any other agency, and forms to a large extent the basis of
the canon law of the Church of Rome . This is a collection of ecclesiastical laws
under the false name of bishop Isidor of Seville (died 636), hence called the
"Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals."
He was the reputed (though not the real) author of an earlier
collection, based upon that of the Roman abbot, Dionysius Exiguus, in the sixth
century, and used as the law-book of the church in Spain, hence called the
"Hispana." In these earlier
collections the letters and decrees (Epistolae
Decretales) of the popes from the time of Siricius (384) occupy a prominent
place. A decretal in the canonical sense is an authoritative rescript of a
pope in reply to some questions, while a decree
is a papal ordinance enacted with the advice of the Cardinals, without a
previous inquiry. A canon is a law
ordained by a general or provincial synod.
A dogma is an ecclesiastical law relating to doctrine. The earliest decretals had moral rather than
legislative force. But as the questions
and appeals to the pope multiplied, the papal answers grew in authority. Fictitious documents, canons, and decretals
were nothing new; but the Pseudo-Isidorian collection is the most colossal and
effective fraud known in the history of ecclesiastical literature.
1. The contents of
the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals. The book
is divided into three parts. The first
part contains fifty Apostolical Canons from the collection of Dionysius, sixty
spurious decretals of the Roman bishops from Clement (d. 101) to Melchiades (d.
314). The second part comprehends the
forged document of the donation of Constantine ,
some tracts concerning the Council of Nicaea, and the canons of the Greek,
African, Gallic, and Spanish Councils down to 683, from the Spanish
collection. The third part, after a
preface copied from the Hispana, gives in chronological order the decretals of
the popes from Sylvester (d. 335) to Gregory II (d. 731), among which
thirty-five are forged, including all before Damasus; but the genuine letters
also, which are taken from the Isidorian collection, contain
interpolations. In many editions the Capitula Angilramni are appended.
All these documents make up a manual of orthodox doctrine and
clerical discipline. They give dogmatic
decisions against heresies, especially Arianism (which lingered long in Spain),
and directions on worship, the sacraments, feasts and fasts, sacred rites and
costumes, the consecration of churches, church property, and especially on
church polity. The work breathes
throughout the spirit of churchly and priestly piety and reverence.
2. The sacerdotal
system. Pseudo-Isidor advocates the
papal theocracy. The clergy is a
divinely instituted, consecrated, and inviolable caste, mediating between God
and the people, as in the Jewish dispensation.
The priests are the "familiares
Dei," the "spirituales,"
the laity the "carnales." He who sins against them sins against
God. They are subject to no earthly
tribunal, and responsible to God alone, who appointed them judges of men. The privileges of the priesthood culminate in
the episcopal dignity, and the episcopal dignity culminates in the papacy. The cathedra
Petri is the fountain of all power.
Without the consent of the pope no bishop can be deposed, no council be
convened. He is the ultimate umpire of
all controversy, and from him there is no appeal. He is often called "episcopus universalis," notwithstanding the protest of Gregory
I.
3. The aim of the
Pseudo-Isidor is, by such a collection of authoritative decisions to protect
the clergy against the secular power and against moral degeneracy. The power of the metropolitans is rather
lowered in order to secure to the pope the definitive sentence in the trials of
bishops. But it is manifestly wrong if
older writers have put the chief aim of the work in the elevation of the
papacy. The papacy appears rather as a
means for the protection of the episcopacy in its conflict with civil
government. It is the supreme guarantee
of the rights of the bishops.
4. The genuineness
of Psedo-Isidor was not doubted during the middle ages (Hincmar only denied the
legal application to the French church), but is now universally given up by
Roman Catholic as well as Protestant historians.
The forgery is apparent.
It is inconceivable that Dionysius Exiguus, who lived in Rome , should have been
ignorant of such a large number of papal letters. The collection moreover is full of
anachronisms: Roman bishops of the second and third centuries write in the
Frankish Latin of the ninth century on doctrinal topics in the spirit of the
post-Nicene orthodoxy and on mediaeval relations in church and state; they
quote the Bible after the version of Jerome as amended under Charlemagne;
Victor addresses Theophilus of Alexandria, who lived two hundred years later,
on the paschal controversies of the second century.
The Donation of Constantine, which is incorporated in this
collection, is an older forgery, and exists also in several Greek texts. It affirms that Constantine, when he was
baptized by pope Sylvester, A.D. 324 (he was not baptized till 337, by the
Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia), presented him with the Lateran palace and
all imperial insignia, together with the Roman and Italian territory. The object of the forgery was to antedate by
five centuries the temporal power of the papacy, which rests on the donations
of Pepin and Charlemagne. The only
foundation in fact is the donation of the Lateran palace, which was originally
the palace of the Lateran family, then of the emperors, and last of the
popes. The wife of Constantine, Fausta,
resided in it, and on the transfer of the seat of empire to Constantinople ,
he left it to Sylvester, as the chief of the Roman clergy and nobility. Hence it contains to this day the pontifical
throne with inscriptions: "Haec est
papalis sedes et pontificalis."
There the pope takes possession of the see of Rome .
But the whole history of Constantine
and his successors shows conclusively that they had no idea of transferring any
part of their temporal sovereignty to the Roman pontiff.
5. The authorship
must be assigned to some ecclesiastic of the Frankish church, probably of the
diocese of Rheims ,
between 847 and 865 (or 857), but scholars differ as to the writer. Pseudo-Isidor literally quotes passages from
a Paris Council of 829, and agrees in part with the collection of Benedictus
Levita, completed in 847; on the other hand his is first quoted by a French
Synod at Chiersy in 857, and then by Hincmar of Rheims repeatedly since
859. All the manuscripts are of French
origin. The complaints of ecclesiastical
disorder, depositions of bishops without trial, frivolous divorces, frequent sacrilege,
suit best the period of the civil wars among the grandsons of Charlemagne. In Rome
the Decretals were first known and quoted in 865 by pope Nicolaus I.
From the same period and of the same spirit are several
collections of Capitula or Capitularia, i. e. of royal ecclesiastical ordinances which under the
Carolingians took the place of synodical decisions. Among these we mention the collection of
Ansegi, abbot of Fontenelles (827), of Benedictus Levita of Mayence (847), and
Capitula Angilramni, falsely ascribed to bishop Angilramnus of Metz (d. 701).
6. Significance of
Pseudo-Isidor. It consists not so much
in the novelty of the views and claims of the mediaeval priesthood, but in
tracing them back from the ninth to the third and second centuries, and
stamping them with the authority of antiquity.
Some of the leading principles had indeed been already asserted in the
letters of Leon I. and other documents of the fifth century, yea the papal animus may be traced to Victor in the
second century and the Judaizing opponents of St. Paul .
But in this collection the entire hierarchical and sacerdotal system,
which was the growth of several centuries, appears as something complete and
unchangeable from the very beginning. We
have a parallel phenomenon in the Apostolic Constitutions and Canons which
gather into one whole the ecclesiastical decisions of the first three
centuries, and trace them directly to the apostles or their disciple, Clement
of Rome.58
The work of Gratian superseded these earlier compilations,
and it enjoys the honor of being the monumental work on canon law. Gratian, a Camaldulensian monk, and an
Italian by birth, taught at the convent of St. Felix, Bologna , at the same time that Irnerius was
teaching civil law in the same city. No
details of his life have been handed down.
His biography is his great compilation which was made about
1140-1150. Its original title, A
Concordance of Differing Canons, concordantia
canonum discordantium, has given way to the simple title, Decretum, the Book of Decrees. The work was a legal encyclopedia, and at once
became the manual in its department, as the Sentences
of the Lombard, Gratian's contemporary, became the manual of theology.59
Gratian's aim was to produce a work in which all real or
apparent contradictions between customs and regulations in vogue in the Church
should be removed or explained. This he
secured by exclusion and by comments called the dicta Gratiani, sayings of Gratian.
The work is divided into three parts.
The first, in one hundred and one sections or distinctiones, treats of the sources of canon law, councils and the
mode of their convention, the authority of decretals, the election of the Roman
pontiff, the election and consecration of bishops, the papal prerogative, papal
legates, the ordination of the clergy, clerical celibacy, and kindred
topics. The second, in thirty-six
sections or causae, discusses
different questions of procedure, such as the ordination and trial of bishops
and the lower clergy, excommunications, simony, clerical and church property,
marriage, heresy, magic, and penance.
The third part is devoted to the sacraments of the eucharist and baptism
and the consecration of churches. The
scholastic method is pursued. A
statement is made and objections, if any, are then formally refuted by citation
of synodal acts and the testimony of the Fathers, popes, and other
churchmen. The first distinction opens with the statement
that the human race is governed by two principles, natural law and
customs. Then a number of questions are
propounded such as what is law, what are customs, what kinds of law there are,
what is natural law, civil law, and the law of nations?60
The canon law attempted the task of legislating in detail for
all phases of human life - clerical, ecclesiastical, social, domestic - from
the cradle to the grave by the sacramental decisions of the priesthood. It invaded the realm of the common law and
threatened to completely set it aside.
The Church had not only its own code and its specifically religious
penalties, but also its own prisons.
This body of law was an improvement upon the arbitrary and
barbaric severity of princes. It, at least,
started out from the principles of justice and humanity. But it degenerated into an attempt to do for
the individual action of the Christian world what the Pharisees attempted to do
for Jewish life. It made the huge
mistake of substituting an endless number of enactments, often the inventions
of casuistry, for inclusive, comprehensive moral principles. It put a crushing restraint upon the progress
of thought and bound weights, heavy to be borne, upon the necks of men. It had the virtues and all the vices of the
papal system. It protected the clergy in
the commission of crimes by demanding that they be tried in ecclesiastical
courts for all offences whatsoever. It
became a mighty support for the papal claims.
It confirmed and perpetuated the fiction of the pseudo-Isidorian
decretals and perpetrated new forgeries.
It taught that the decisions of Rome
are final. As Christ is above the law,
even so is the pope.61
These principles, set forth in clear statements, were
advocated by Thomas Aquinas and the other Schoolmen and asserted by the
greatest of the popes. At last the
legalistic tyranny became too heavy for the enlightened conscience of Europe to
bear, as was the case with the ceremonial law in the days of the Apostles,
against which Peter protested at the council of Jerusalem and Paul in his Epistles. The Reformers raised their voices in protest
against it. Into the same flames which
consumed the papal bull at Wittenberg, 1520, Luther threw a copy of the canon
law, the one representing the effrontery of an infallible pope, the other
intolerable arrogance of a human lawgiver in matters of religion, and both
destructive of the liberty of the individual.
In his Address to the Christian
Nobles, Luther declared that it did not contain two lines adapted to
instruct a religious man and that it includes so many dangerous regulations
that the best disposition of it is to make of it a dung heap.62
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