Books: History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science

J >> John William Draper >> History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science

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IN a political sense, Christianity is the bequest of the Roman
Empire to the world.

At the epoch of the transition of Rome from the republican to the
imperial form of government, all the independent nationalities
around the Mediterranean Sea had been brought under the control
of that central power. The conquest that had befallen them in
succession had been by no means a disaster. The perpetual wars
they had maintained with each other came to an end; the miseries
their conflicts had engendered were exchanged for universal
peace.

Not only as a token of the conquest she had made but also as a
gratification to her pride, the conquering republic brought the
gods of the vanquished peoples to Rome. With disdainful
toleration, she permitted the worship of them all. That paramount
authority exercised by each divinity in his original seat
disappeared at once in the crowd of gods and goddesses among whom
he had been brought. Already, as we have seen, through
geographical discoveries and philosophical criticism, faith in
the religion of the old days had been profoundly shaken. It was,
by this policy of Rome, brought to an end.

MONOTHEISM IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. The kings of all the conquered
provinces had vanished; in their stead one emperor had come. The
gods also had disappeared. Considering the connection which in
all ages has existed between political and religious ideas, it
was then not at all strange that polytheism should manifest a
tendency to pass into monotheism. Accordingly, divine honors were
paid at first to the deceased and at length to the living
emperor.

The facility with which gods were thus called into existence had
a powerful moral effect. The manufacture of a new one cast
ridicule on the origin of the old Incarnation in the East and
apotheosis in the West were fast filling Olympus with divinities.
In the East, gods descended from heaven, and were made incarnate
in men; in the West, men ascended from earth, and took their seat
among the gods. It was not the importation of Greek skepticism
that made Rome skeptical. The excesses of religion itself sapped
the foundations of faith.

Not with equal rapidity did all classes of the population adopt
monotheistic views. The merchants and lawyers and soldiers, who
by the nature of their pursuits are more familiar with the
vicissitudes of life, and have larger intellectual views, were
the first to be affected, the land laborers and farmers the last.

THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY When the empire in a military and
political sense had reached its culmination, in a religious and
social aspect it had attained its height of immorality. It had
become thoroughly epicurean; its maxim was, that life should be
made a feast, that virtue is only the seasoning of pleasure, and
temperance the means of prolonging it. Dining-rooms glittering
with gold and incrusted with gems, slaves in superb apparel, the
fascinations of female society where all the women were
dissolute, magnificent baths, theatres, gladiators, such were the
objects of Roman desire. The conquerors of the world had
discovered that the only thing worth worshiping is Force. By it
all things might be secured, all that toil and trade had
laboriously obtained. The confiscation of goods and lands, the
taxation of provinces, were the reward of successful warfare; and
the emperor was the symbol of force. There was a social splendor,
but it was the phosphorescent corruption of the ancient
Mediterranean world.

In one of the Eastern provinces, Syria, some persons in very
humble life had associated themselves together for benevolent and
religious purposes. The doctrines they held were in harmony with
that sentiment of universal brotherhood arising from the
coalescence of the conquered kingdoms. They were doctrines
inculcated by Jesus.

The Jewish people at that time entertained a belief, founded on
old traditions, that a deliverer would arise among them, who
would restore them to their ancient splendor. The disciples of
Jesus regarded him as this long-expected Messiah. But the
priesthood, believing that the doctrines he taught were
prejudicial to their interests, denounced him to the Roman
governor, who, to satisfy their clamors, reluctantly delivered
him over to death.

His doctrines of benevolence and human brotherhood outlasted that
event. The disciples, instead of scattering, organized. They
associated themselves on a principle of communism, each throwing
into the common stock whatever property he possessed, and all his
gains. The widows and orphans of the community were thus
supported, the poor and the sick sustained. From this germ was
developed a new, and as the events proved, all-powerful
society--the Church; new, for nothing of the kind had existed in
antiquity; powerful, for the local churches, at first isolated,
soon began to confederate for their common interest. Through this
organization Christianity achieved all her political triumphs.

As we have said, the military domination of Rome had brought
about universal peace, and had generated a sentiment of
brotherhood among the vanquished nations. Things were, therefore,
propitious for the rapid diffusion of the newly-established--the
Christian-- principle throughout the empire. It spread from Syria
through all Asia Minor, and successively reached Cyprus, Greece,
Italy, eventually extending westward as far as Gaul and Britain.

Its propagation was hastened by missionaries who made it known in
all directions. None of the ancient classical philosophies had
ever taken advantage of such a means.

Political conditions determined the boundaries of the new
religion. Its limits were eventually those of the Roman Empire;
Rome, doubtfully the place of death of Peter, not Jerusalem,
indisputably the place of the death of our Savior, became the
religious capital. It was better to have possession of the
imperial seven hilled city, than of Gethsemane and Calvary with
all their holy souvenirs.

IT GATHERS POLITICAL POWER. For many years Christianity
manifested itself as a system enjoining three things--toward God
veneration, in personal life purity, in social life benevolence.
In its early days of feebleness it made proselytes only by
persuasion, but, as it increased in numbers and influence, it
began to exhibit political tendencies, a disposition to form a
government within the government, an empire within the empire.
These tendencies it has never since lost. They are, in truth, the
logical result of its development. The Roman emperors,
discovering that it was absolutely incompatible with the imperial
system, tried to put it down by force. This was in accordance
with the spirit of their military maxims, which had no other
means but force for the establishment of conformity.

In the winter A.D. 302-'3, the Christian soldiers in some of the
legions refused to join in the time-honored solemnities for
propitiating the gods. The mutiny spread so quickly, the
emergency became so pressing, that the Emperor Diocletian was
compelled to hold a council for the purpose of determining what
should be done. The difficulty of the position may perhaps be
appreciated when it is understood that the wife and the daughter
of Diocletian himself were Christians. He was a man of great
capacity and large political views; he recognized in the
opposition that must be made to the new party a political
necessity, yet he expressly enjoined that there should be no
bloodshed. But who can control an infuriated civil commotion? The
church of Nicomedia was razed to the ground; in retaliation the
imperial palace was set on fire, an edict was openly insulted and
torn down. The Christian officers in the army were cashiered; in
all directions, martyrdoms and massacres were taking place. So
resistless was the march of events, that not even the emperor
himself could stop the persecution.

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPEROR. It had now become evident that the
Christians constituted a powerful party in the state, animated
with indignation at the atrocities they had suffered, and
determined to endure them no longer. After the abdication of
Diocletian (A.D. 305), Constantine, one of the competitors for
the purple, perceiving the advantages that would accrue to him
from such a policy, put himself forth as the head of the
Christian party. This gave him, in every part of the empire, men
and women ready to encounter fire and sword in his behalf; it
gave him unwavering adherents in every legion of the armies. In a
decisive battle, near the Milvian bridge, victory crowned his
schemes. The death of Maximin, and subsequently that of Licinius,
removed all obstacles. He ascended the throne of the Caesars--the
first Christian emperor.

Place, profit, power--these were in view of whoever now joined
the conquering sect. Crowds of worldly persons, who cared nothing
about its religious ideas, became its warmest supporters. Pagans
at heart, their influence was soon manifested in the paganization
of Christianity that forthwith ensued. The emperor, no better
than they, did nothing to check their proceedings. But he did not
personally conform to the ceremonial requirements of the Church
until the close of his evil life, A.D. 337.

TERTULLIAN'S EXPOSITION OF CHRISTIANITY. That we may clearly
appreciate the modifications now impressed on
Christianity--modifications which eventually brought it in
conflict with science--we must have, as a means of comparison, a
statement of what it was in its purer days. Such, fortunately, we
find in the "Apology or Defense of the Christians against the
Accusations of the Gentiles," written by Tertullian, at Rome,
during the persecution of Severus. He addressed it, not to the
emperor, but to the magistrates who sat in judgment on the
accused. It is a solemn and most earnest expostulation, setting
forth all that could be said in explanation of the subject, a
representation of the belief and cause of the Christians made in
the imperial city in the face of the whole world, not a querulous
or passionate ecclesiastical appeal, but a grave historical
document. It has ever been looked upon as one of the ablest of
the early Christian works. Its date is about A.D. 200.

With no inconsiderable skill Tertullian opens his argument. He
tells the magistrates that Christianity is a stranger upon earth,
and that she expects to meet with enemies in a country which is
not her own. She only asks that she may not be condemned unheard,
and that Roman magistrates will permit her to defend herself;
that the laws of the empire will gather lustre, if judgment be
passed upon her after she has been tried but not if she is
sentenced without a hearing of her cause; that it is unjust to
hate a thing of which we are ignorant, even though it may be a
thing worthy of hate; that the laws of Rome deal with actions,
not with mere names; but that, notwithstanding this, persons have
been punished because they were called Christians, and that
without any accusation of crime.

He then advances to an exposition of the origin, the nature, and
the effects of Christianity, stating that it is founded on the
Hebrew Scriptures, which are the most venerable of all books. He
says to the magistrates: "The books of Moses, in which God has
inclosed, as in a treasure, all the religion of the Jews, and
consequently all the Christian religion, reach far beyond the
oldest you have, even beyond all your public monuments, the
establishment of your state, the foundation of many great
cities--all that is most advanced by you in all ages of history,
and memory of times; the invention of letters, which are the
interpreters of sciences and the guardians of all excellent
things. I think I may say more--beyond your gods, your temples,
your oracles and sacrifices. The author of those books lived a
thousand years before the siege of Troy, and more than fifteen
hundred before Homer." Time is the ally of truth, and wise men
believe nothing but what is certain, and what has been verified
by time. The principal authority of these Scriptures is derived
from their venerable antiquity. The most learned of the
Ptolemies, who was surnamed Philadelphus, an accomplished prince,
by the advice of Demetrius Phalareus, obtained a copy of these
holy books. It may be found at this day in his library. The
divinity of these Scriptures is proved by this, that all that is
done in our days may be found predicted in them; they contain all
that has since passed in the view of men.

Is not the accomplishment of a prophecy a testimony to its truth?
Seeing that events which are past have vindicated these
prophecies, shall we be blamed for trusting them in events that
are to come? Now, as we believe things that have been prophesied
and have come to pass, so we believe things that have been told
us, but not yet come to pass, because they have all been foretold
by the same Scriptures, as well those that are verified every day
as those that still remain to be fulfilled.

These Holy Scriptures teach us that there is one God, who made
the world out of nothing, who, though daily seen, is invisible;
his infiniteness is known only to himself; his immensity
conceals, but at the same time discovers him. He has ordained for
men, according to their lives, rewards and punishments; he will
raise all the dead that have ever lived from the creation of the
world, will command them to reassume their bodies, and thereupon
adjudge them to felicity that has so end, or to eternal flames.
The fires of hell are those hidden flames which the earth shuts
up in her bosom. He has in past times sent into the world
preachers or prophets. The prophets of those old times were Jews;
they addressed their oracles, for such they were, to the Jews,
who have stored them up in the Scriptures. On them, as has been
said, Christianity is founded, though the Christian differs in
his ceremonies from the Jew. We are accused of worshiping a man,
and not the God of the Jews. Not so. The honor we bear to Christ
does not derogate from the honor we bear to God.

On account of the merit of these ancient patriarchs, the Jews
were the only beloved people of God; he delighted to be in
communication with them by his own mouth. By him they were raised
to admirable greatness. But with perversity they wickedly ceased
to regard him; they changed his laws into a profane worship. He
warned them that he would take to himself servants more faithful
than they, and, for their crime, punished them by driving them
forth from their country. They are now spread all over the world;
they wander in all parts; they cannot enjoy the air they breathed
at their birth; they have neither man nor God for their king. As
he threatened them, so he has done. He has taken, in all nations
and countries of the earth, people more faithful than they.
Through his prophets he had declared that these should have
greater favors, and that a Messiah should come, to publish a new
law among them. This Messiah was Jesus, who is also God. For God
may be derived from God, as the light of a candle may be derived
from the light of another candle. God and his Son are the
self-same God--a light is the same light as that from which it
was taken.

The Scriptures make known two comings of the Son of God; the
first in humility, the second at the day of judgment, in power.
The Jews might have known all this from the prophets, but their
sins have so blinded them that they did not recognize him at his
first coming, and are still vainly expecting him. They believed
that all the miracles wrought by him were the work of magic. The
doctors of the law and the chief priests were envious of him;
they denounced him to Pilate. He was crucified, died, was buried,
and after three days rose again. For forty days he remained among
his disciples. Then he was environed in a cloud, and rose up to
heaven--a truth far more certain than any human testimonies
touching the ascension of Romulus or of any other Roman prince
mounting up to the same place.

Tertullian then describes the origin and nature of devils, who,
under Satan, their prince, produce diseases, irregularities of
the air, plagues, and the blighting of the blossoms of the earth,
who seduce men to offer sacrifices, that they may have the blood
of the victims, which is their food. They are as nimble as the
birds, and hence know every thing that is passing upon earth;
they live in the air, and hence can spy what is going on in
heaven; for this reason they can impose on men reigned
prophecies, and deliver oracles. Thus they announced in Rome that
a victory would be obtained over King Perseus, when in truth they
knew that the battle was already won. They falsely cure diseases;
for, taking possession of the body of a man, they produce in him
a distemper, and then ordaining some remedy to he used, they
cease to afflict him, and men think that a cure has taken place.

Though Christians deny that the emperor is a god, they
nevertheless pray for his prosperity, because the general
dissolution that threatens the universe, the conflagration of the
world, is retarded so long as the glorious majesty of the
triumphant Roman Empire shall last. They desire not to be present
at the subversion of all Nature. They acknowledge only one
republic, but it is the whole world; they constitute one body,
worship one God, and all look forward to eternal happiness. Not
only do they pray for the emperor and the magistrates, but also
for peace. They read the Scriptures to nourish their faith, lift
up their hope, and strengthen the confidence they have in God.
They assemble to exhort one another; they remove sinners from
their societies; they have bishops who preside over them,
approved by the suffrages of those whom they are to conduct. At
the end of each month every one contributes if he will, but no
one is constrained to give; the money gathered in this manner is
the pledge of piety; it is not consumed in eating and drinking,
but in feeding the poor, and burying them, in comforting children
that are destitute of parents and goods, in helping old men who
have spent the best of their days in the service of the faithful,
in assisting those who have lost by shipwreck what they had, and
those who are condemned to the mines, or have been banished to
islands, or shut up in prisons, because they professed the
religion of the true God. There is but one thing that Christians
have not in common, and that one thing is their wives. They do
not feast as if they should die to-morrow, nor build as if they
should never die. The objects of their life are innocence,
justice, patience, temperance, chastity.

To this noble exposition of Christian belief and life in his day,
Tertullian does not hesitate to add an ominous warning to the
magistrates he is addressing-- ominous, for it was a forecast of
a great event soon to come to pass: "Our origin is but recent,
yet already we fill all that your power acknowledges--cities,
fortresses, islands, provinces, the assemblies of the people, the
wards of Rome, the palace, the senate, the public places, and
especially the armies. We have left you nothing but your temples.
Reflect what wars we are able to undertake! With what promptitude
might we not arm ourselves were we not restrained by our
religion, which teaches us that it is better to be killed than to
kill!"

Before he closes his defense, Tertullian renews an assertion
which, carried into practice, as it subsequently was, affected
the intellectual development of all Europe. He declares that the
Holy Scriptures are a treasure from which all the true wisdom in
the world has been drawn; that every philosopher and every poet
is indebted to them. He labors to show that they are the standard
and measure of all truth, and that whatever is inconsistent with
them must necessarily be false.

From Tertullian's able work we see what Christianity was while it
was suffering persecution and struggling for existence. We have
now to see what it became when in possession of imperial power.
Great is the difference between Christianity under Severus and
Christianity after Constantine. Many of the doctrines which at
the latter period were preeminent, in the former were unknown.

PAGANIZATION OF CHRISTIANITY. Two causes led to the amalgamation
of Christianity with paganism: 1. The political necessities of
the new dynasty; 2. The policy adopted by the new religion to
insure its spread.

1. Though the Christian party had proved itself sufficiently
strong to give a master to the empire, it was never sufficiently
strong to destroy its antagonist, paganism. The issue of the
struggle between them was an amalgamation of the principles of
both. In this, Christianity differed from Mohammedanism, which
absolutely annihilated its antagonist, and spread its own
doctrines without adulteration.

Constantine continually showed by his acts that he felt he must
be the impartial sovereign of all his people, not merely the
representative of a successful faction. Hence, if he built
Christian churches, he also restored pagan temples; if he
listened to the clergy, he also consulted the haruspices; if he
summoned the Council of Nicea, he also honored the statue of
Fortune; if he accepted the rite of baptism, he also struck a
medal bearing his title of "God." His statue, on the top of the
great porphyry pillar at Constantinople, consisted of an ancient
image of Apollo, whose features were replaced by those of the
emperor, and its head surrounded by the nails feigned to have
been used at the crucifixion of Christ, arranged so as to form a
crown of glory.

Feeling that there must be concessions to the defeated pagan
party, in accordance with its ideas, he looked with favor on the
idolatrous movements of his court. In fact, the leaders of these
movements were persons of his own family.

CHRISTIANITY UNDER CONSTANTINE. 2. To the emperor--a mere
worldling--a man without any religious convictions, doubtless it
appeared best for himself, best for the empire, and best for the
contending parties, Christian and pagan, to promote their union
or amalgamation as much as possible. Even sincere Christians do
not seem to have been averse to this; perhaps they believed that
the new doctrines would diffuse most thoroughly by incorporating
in themselves ideas borrowed from the old, that Truth would
assert her self in the end, and the impurity be cast off. In
accomplishing this amalgamation, Helena, the empress-mother,
aided by the court ladies, led the way. For her gratification
there were discovered, in a cavern at Jerusalem, wherein they had
lain buried for more than three centuries, the Savior's cross,
and those of the two thieves, the inscription, and the nails that
had been used. They were identified by miracle. A true
relic-worship set in. The superstition of the old Greek times
reappeared; the times when the tools with which the Trojan horse
was made might still be seen at Metapontum, the sceptre of Pelops
at Chaeroneia, the spear of Achilles at Phaselis, the sword of
Memnon at Nicomedia, when the Tegeates could show the hide of the
Calydonian boar and very many cities boasted their possession of
the true palladium of Troy; when there were statues of Minerva
that could brandish spears, paintings that could blush, images
that could sweat, and endless shrines and sanctuaries at which
miracle-cures could be performed.

As years passed on, the faith described by Tertullian was
transmuted into one more fashionable and more debased. It was
incorporated with the old Greek mythology. Olympus was restored,
but the divinities passed under other names. The more powerful
provinces insisted on the adoption of their time-honored
conceptions. Views of the Trinity, in accordance with Egyptian
traditions, were established. Not only was the adoration of Isis
under a new name restored, but even her image, standing on the
crescent moon, reappeared. The well-known effigy of that goddess,
with the infant Horus in her arms, has descended to our days in
the beautiful, artistic creations of the Madonna and Child. Such
restorations of old conceptions under novel forms were everywhere
received with delight. When it was announced to the Ephesians
that the Council of that place, headed by Cyril, had decreed that
the Virgin should be called "the Mother of God," with tears of
joy they embraced the knees of their bishop; it was the old
instinct peeping out; their ancestors would have done the same
for Diana.

This attempt to conciliate worldly converts, by adopting their
ideas and practices, did not pass without remonstrance from those
whose intelligence discerned the motive. "You have," says Faustus
to Augustine, "substituted your agapae for the sacrifices of the
pagans; for their idols your martyrs, whom you serve with the
very same honors. You appease the shades of the dead with wine
and feasts; you celebrate the solemn festivities of the Gentiles,
their calends, and their solstices; and, as to their manners,
those you have retained without any alteration. Nothing
distinguishes you from the pagans, except that you hold your
assemblies apart from them." Pagan observances were everywhere
introduced. At weddings it was the custom to sing hymns to Venus.

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