Interactions in Christendom in the first three centuries

One of the striking features of our ending century, undoubtedly, is the speed of mutual communication, which had no idea in previous centuries. Now, for us, such phenomena as the fact that in just two weeks we receive letters and newspapers from America, which for previous generations, even long after its discovery by Columbus, was depicted as some immeasurably distant, inaccessible world, have become completely commonplace. Moreover: thanks to the power of electricity, through a network of telegraph wires, as if entangling the whole earth with iron nerves, the very next day, if not the same day in the evening, we receive information about what happened important, and sometimes unimportant - in Constantinople, Japan, India, Australia and Africa, and Queen Victoria on the day of her jubilee had only to press the electric button in her office for her message of gratitude to her people: “From I thank my kind and faithful people with all my heart,” along these nerves of the earth instantly spread to all parts of the world and the next day was already read in newspapers in the most remote countries of our planet. If one of the statesmen of the last century had risen up and seen all this - had seen how, for example, heads of state in some week make a ceremonial trip to the capital of another distant state, and how all the details of this trip with its ceremonial meetings and farewells are learned the next day in all countries of the globe, then he, of course, would have been extremely amazed by this wonderful phenomenon for him, to which even the most ardent fantasy of the dreamers of his time could not rise. This speed of means of transportation gave the most unique imprint to the life of our century, and even we, having been brought up in the conditions of this life, could not help but be amazed by, for example, the fact that high Anthony, Archbishop of Finland, having left St. Petersburg on June 2, was already solemnly welcomed in London on June 5, and on June 6 the entire Orthodox-Russian world was already notified of the details of this meeting. One can imagine how much time such a trip would have required in the last century and how long it would have taken to receive news about the details of the Orthodox hierarch’s stay in England. And, nevertheless, humanity did not remain without mutual communication in previous centuries. Moreover, if we take mutual communication in the Christian world itself, then in ancient times, despite the slowness of communication routes, it was even more vital, and if the trip is highly Anthony to England was now something extraordinary for us and, in any case, a rare and exceptional phenomenon, but in ancient times such long journeys of bishops were commonplace, and the Christian world, then still undivided, was in such living and close intercommunication with each other, which even our fast-moving age does not know. We think that a brief outline of mutual communication in the ancient Christian world will be of interest both in the sense of understanding the difference in methods of communication in the ancient and modern world, and in the sense of becoming familiar with the close spiritual communication in which the Christians of the ancient undivided church lived 1 . The world in which Christianity first began to spread was a small world compared to the present. Not to mention the then undiscovered countries, even in those three parts of the world that are centered around the Mediterranean Sea, only a few countries were actually accessible to the peoples who were then the bearers of world history: in Africa only the northern coastal strip and the Nile Valley, in Asia only the western part to the Euphrates, in Europe only that part that is south of the Danube and west of the Rhine. If sometimes enterprising merchants penetrated to the shores of the Baltic Sea and even to China, if from year to year numerous Alexandrian traders traveled to the East Indies, then in the true sense the world, as they said then 2, was the Roman Empire, which, with minor fluctuations, was limited to the indicated limits. Where the inhospitable sea did not pose barriers, there either the hostility of the barbarians who lived next to the Roman fortifications, or heavy duties constituted a kind of Chinese wall that separated the world in the proper sense from all other parts of the globe. But this Roman Empire, limited by such limits, was in reality a world empire. How many once powerful or generally independent peoples were contained within the boundaries of this empire, and all of them were in close trade or other interaction, and in many places merged into a new nation! Long before the Romans achieved worldwide dominion, many countries had completely or partially lost their original rulers, their native language and customs. In the western Mediterranean, the Romans first had to destroy the Phoenician trading state of Carthage in order to take possession of the northern shores of Africa, Spain and Sicily. The nimble Greeks, whose numerous colonies in southern Italy gave it the name of “Magna Graecia,” had long dominated Sicily and even settled in some coastal places, while the Romans were left to sit in their place and pave wider paths for them to spread in the Western countries those peaceful arts in which they were masters. In the east, Greek culture, with Alexander the Great, set out for worldwide conquest in the fullest sense of the word. When the Roman legions marched into Asia and then penetrated into Egypt, they first of all encountered not Syrians and Egyptians, but Greek-speaking and Greek-educated rulers and cities. True, it cannot be said that at the beginning of our era Hellenic culture touched the natives in Africa or, especially in Asia Minor, where the Greeks had a strong foothold since much more ancient times, to the extent that it is usually imagined. The latest discoveries clearly show that the Greek language was really dominant only on the outskirts of countries, in large cities located near the coast, in the Greek colonies of the mainland. Thanks to inscriptions, now and occasional indications from writers can be given more meaning than before. Quite by chance we learn, for example, from the book of the Acts of the Apostles that the inhabitants of Lystra, at a moment of great excitement, expressed their surprise at the miraculous action of the Apostle Paul in their native Lycaonian language 3 . We cannot imagine Syria and Egypt as completely Greek countries. The native language of the local population asserted itself even at the very gates of large Greek residences 4 . But at the same time, the Greek language was understood, and in trade turnover it was often used, even in the depths of these countries. From it the Syrians borrowed foreign words to denote the most common objects, just as we borrow from the French. Even the very particles meaning “because” and “but” were borrowed by them from the Greeks. The need to study native languages ​​was felt only by a few. Palestine also came under strong Greek influence. There were many Jews in Jerusalem who spoke Greek, and most at least understood something of the language. The Jews of the Diaspora, who numbered up to a million in Egypt alone, partly even completely forgot their native language, so that even for the scholars among them, the Greek translation of the Bible was at least more convenient than the original text. They read Greek poets and philosophers, just as the Jews living among us now read the works of our writers. With all this mixture of peoples and languages, cultures and worldviews, independent and mutually competing kingdoms and small states continued to exist in the east, until the Romans, before the beginning of the Christian era, subjected them all to their rule and connected them with the Western cultural countries into one empire. Only from this time, but with full right, can we talk about global intercommunication. Then, for the first time, the necessary conditions for it were created. The Greek language has now become a world language to an extent that has never been the case before. Anyone whom everyday need brought, for example, from the depths of Asia to the far West, with knowledge of this language, without which he could hardly manage in his homeland, could count on the opportunity to communicate everywhere and with everyone. He heard it on the streets in Rome and Marseille. He was not even required to study the Roman language. The more educated Romans, like their mostly eastern-born slaves, mostly knew the Greek language perfectly. Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote in Greek, like Frederick the Great in French, although the Roman did not show alienation from the culture of his people. In this regard, he was not alone among the Roman writers of his time. To this facilitation of mutual communication, achieved thanks to the prevalence of a language suitable for any use, was added external security, which was vividly recognized by everyone as a gift of the new time. Of course, not everything was “peace on earth” even after the angels sang it; but wars, and moreover, the most dangerous of them, were now mostly fought on the outskirts of the empire and did not significantly disrupt mutual communication within. Maritime robbery, which had previously severely depressed trade in the eastern half of the Mediterranean, was eradicated. On the high roads, wherever the march of Roman soldiers was heard - from England to the Euphrates, much greater security prevailed than now in Sicily and in most of the Asian countries under the rule of the Sultan. Greeks and Jews, Christians and pagans unanimously praised this universal peace, which they owed to Rome and its emperors 5 . An extensive network of excellent Roman roads connected the capital of the world with the remotest outskirts of the empire, and in its very ruins it still testifies to the buried culture in these now savage countries. Built initially for military purposes, these roads also served for general communication. For people and goods, they provided no less convenient means of communication than those that existed in European countries before the construction of railways. True, the imperial post served only for business relations between officials or those private individuals who, unlike others, thanks to their connections with high dignitaries, or on the occasion of a temporary official assignment, could enjoy the privileges that belonged to officials. But besides the fact that in ancient times they traveled on roads on foot more often than now, in the civilized parts of the empire a well-organized paid carriage was available to everyone, which only in exceptional cases deprived travelers of the opportunity to properly move towards their goal, as during large public festivals, for example, during the famous Olympic Games, when it often happened that even a person who had the opportunity to pay well could not get himself a cart, since everyone rushed home en masse from the festival 6 . Sea routes of communication were less perfect. Navigation was usually limited to the time from early March to late autumn; sea ​​travel in winter was generally done rarely and reluctantly. The imperfection of sea navigation was also revealed in the fact that sailors, whenever possible, stayed close to the coasts and harbors, and if where it was possible to partially use the land road, then they preferred repeated transfers to a long sea voyage. But, since the sea that connected the most important countries of the world at that time was in fact an inland (Mediterranean) sea, which did not pose any high demands on navigation, even then, in favorable weather, travel was accomplished quite quickly. The journey from the Italian harbor of Puteola (where the prisoner Apostle Paul once landed) to Alexandria took 12 days. There were cases that ships reached the same harbor from Corinth in 5 days 7 . If, therefore, traveling in those centuries for a person who did not have extensive means was undoubtedly fraught with greater difficulties than now, then, on the other hand, even then there was hardly less incentive to travel frequently and far. As now, so then, of course, there were many sick people who sought cure in a warmer climate and in remote places of sea or mineral bathing; There were quite a few tourists who wanted to see the wonders of the world, works of art, and historical monuments, especially in Greece and Egypt. The most tireless travelers then, as now, were traders. It is not surprising that they should have even become a proverb, and we read how an old merchant from the Phrygian city of Hierapolis is praised on the tomb erected to him by his sons for having made 72 journeys from Asia Minor to Italy 8 . But there are also classes of people who now lead a comparatively more sedentary life than then. First of all, the life of scientists and students was much more mobile then. At that time there already existed higher schools that had some similarities with our universities, for example, in Athens, Alexandria, and Rome. It was there that young people, eager for education, flocked from all countries of the vast empire, so that foreign students often outnumbered native ones. But even those who had such educational institutions at home were by no means satisfied with them. The Romans sought to study in Athens; young people from Asia often went to Rome, many back and forth. It even became a kind of rule that anyone who wanted to devote himself to science had to leave his homeland, family and go to foreign countries, 9 and not only for years of study, but also for many years of teaching. There were, of course, permanent teachers of eloquence and philosophy who received remuneration from the state. But there were many more teachers for whom “the whole world was home.” Having no permanent residence, they settled for a while in one city or another, opened classrooms, and when the charm of novelty in their teaching began to weaken, they undertook a new journey. So, they thought, depending on who was guided by what beliefs - lofty or low, they could best achieve their goal - either the dissemination of the most important truths they had developed, or the acquisition of fame and wealth. It was the same with doctors - both in their own education and in the use of their art. The highest state dignitaries also for the most part led a peripatetic life. It was not uncommon for a man who began his life's career in Rome to continue it at various intervals on the banks of the Rhine, in northern Africa or in Asia Minor, until, having achieved the last and highest honors, he returned again to his homeland to die peacefully in Rome or on his estates in Italy. The highest rulers of the provinces usually remained in office for a short time, and the rulers of the so-called senatorial provinces usually only for one year. They brought with them all their bureaucratic personnel and together with them, after a one-year period, they gave way to a completely new administration. The same thing happened, finally, with employees from the lower class, for example, with slaves, who were of great importance for the church. Although slaves for the most part remained throughout their lives in the possession and household of one master, hardly half of them were born where they died. The more than 900,000 male and female slaves, as their number was determined in Rome during the Empire, were almost exclusively of foreign origin. If not all, then undoubtedly many of them arrived in the capital of the world from distant countries - either as war booty or as an object of trade. In a word, in the main cities, the number of inhabitants of which approached a million, or even more, as in Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, as well as in trading places and coastal harbors of a smaller volume, we can hardly imagine all the diversity of the mixture of the population, all the speed of the ebb and flow of the tide and, in general, all the liveliness of world intercourse of that time. How did Christians relate to this world interaction? First of all, it must be said that they took an active part in it. In addition to special reasons, which lay in the very tasks of the church and in the special inclinations of Christians, this depended on the fact that the ancient church had a predominantly urban character. And this character, first of all, is explained by the very method of the apostolic mission. The Apostle Paul, who worked more than all other missionaries of the apostolic age and about whose missionary activity we have the most information, did not feel called to conquer the world step by step with the Gospel and, one by one, wherever it happened, to bring those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death to Christ, but from the very beginning he strove for large centers of world life and, limiting himself to founding in such centers viable communities, independent centers of Christian life, he hurried further, from the largest cities of Asia - Antioch, heading towards the very capital of the world - Rome. In both of these cities, regardless of whether the Apostle Paul or another missionary laid the foundation of the church in them, Christian communities arose precisely thanks to world intercommunication, which, together with other people and other spiritual and material objects, most easily attracted Christians to large cities, and with them also Christian teaching. Large cities of the second rank included those where the Apostle Paul voluntarily stayed the longest, fulfilling his calling. Corinth, where he worked without interruption for 1 ½ years, was the main political center and the most prosperous city in Greece; Ephesus, in which he stayed for 2 ½ years, although he had already twice tried in vain to get there 10, was at that time the first city of Asia Minor. And almost all those places where, according to available evidence, Christian communities arose in apostolic and post-apostolic times were more or less the same cities. In any case, these were cities, not villages 11. By chance we learn the fact that during the first two centuries there was no shortage of Christians in the villages either. Thus, Jewish Christians in Palestine and the regions bordering it in the northeast lived mostly in villages. When one day, as they say, Emperor Domitian, frightened by the hope cherished by Christians for the future kingdom of Christ, ordered to call to Rome two descendants of the house of David who believed in Christ - the grandchildren of Judas, the brother of the Lord, and asked them about their condition, they estimated their entire fortune at approximately 1 ½ thousand rubles. It consisted of plots of land, and the calluses on their hands clearly confirmed their belief that they cultivated these plots with their own hands 12 . From the letter of their great-uncle James (4:1-9) it can be seen that among the Christians of Palestine and the surrounding regions to which this letter was sent, already in very ancient times there were many landowners and field laborers. But this same Jacob, before the villagers, mentions merchants who, not submitting to the will of God in their plans, say: “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and live there for one year, and we will trade and make a profit” (4:13). The insignificant spread of Christianity throughout the villages in ancient times, at least partly, explains why, after the rise of Christianity to the level of a state religion, paganism, in addition to literary circles and the highest aristocracy, persisted with particular tenacity among the rural population 13. The Christians of the first centuries were, therefore, predominantly city dwellers, namely residents of large cities, and for this reason alone they belonged to the most mobile components of the population of the Roman Empire. This was greatly facilitated by the fact that the first Christian communities, at their founding, almost everywhere adjoined the synagogue and attracted to themselves a more or less significant part of the Jewish communities of the dispersion: perhaps these Jews outside the Holy Land were a mobile people who felt at home wherever they could find work. Everywhere where a colony of people related by faith and tribe was founded, a synagogue soon arose there, in which traveling rabbis sometimes preached (Acts 13:15), and one could hope to attract even pagans to it, bringing them under the yoke of the paternal law (Matthew 23:15). It should not be surprising, therefore, that Christian communities in large and medium-sized cities were rapidly multiplying societies, consisting of representatives of all kinds of peoples and countries. At the end of the book of Romans we read a long list of Roman names, or more correctly, Roman Christians, whom the Apostle Paul greets. The Apostle Paul had not yet been to Rome, but precisely because he was not yet personally acquainted with this large community, he tried, both in the presentation of the teaching itself and in the description of his apostolic work, and in external personal relations to expose all the threads that connected him with the Roman Church. But how significant these threads are already! At the head of the members of the Roman Church he knew were the couple Aquila and Priscilla, well known to him. These Jews, originally from Pontus, on the southern shore of the Black Sea, had already been engaged in their trade in Rome, namely, the manufacture of tents and materials for them. By virtue of the decree of Emperor Claudius, by which the Jews were expelled from Rome, they moved to Corinth, where the Apostle Paul met them, and in their craft, which he had once studied himself, he found work for himself, and remained in their house for a long time. Their home life, obviously, was not insignificant, since it is repeatedly said that their house was a gathering place for liturgical meetings of Christians. But this did not stop them when the Apostle Paul, after a year and a half, left Corinth to move with him to Ephesus and thus again prepare a place of residence for the apostle for the entire duration of his activities in this city. Shortly before the apostle left Ephesus, they were still living there (1 Cor. 16:19). When the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to Rome a few months later, Aquila and Priscilla settled in Rome for the second time and a Christian community gathered in their house (Rom. 16:3-5). It is clear that both their previous migrations and this one were in connection with the missionary plans of the Apostle Paul. The apostle praises the selfless services they rendered him, for which all the Gentile churches should be grateful. But these people chose this unstable way of life for themselves not at first for the sake of the Gospel, but their very previous way of life became a serving instrument for the Gospel. When the Apostle Paul, during his second and last prisoner in Rome, lived there awaiting the decision of his fate from Caesar, Aquila and Priscilla again lived in Ephesus. Perhaps they, along with other Christians, during the outbreak of Nero’s persecution, fled from Rome for the second time in order to settle a second time in the main city of Asia Minor, but from here they, as well as another Asian Christian Onesiphorus, probably a resident of the city of Iconium, made a trip to Rome to visit the apostle left in prison by his friends and ease his situation 14. In addition to this pious couple, at the time when the Apostle Paul wrote to Rome, we also meet many other Christians there, especially from the Jews, who until recently lived in the east. Thus (we will give only the most outstanding examples), his letter mentions Andronicus and Jonah, who already before the Apostle Paul turned to the faith of Christ and enjoyed great respect in Jerusalem from the apostles. There, a certain Rufus is greeted with his mother, whom the Apostle Paul, for the sake of the maternal love he once experienced from her, also calls his mother. She also probably lived in the east, because the Apostle Paul had not yet been to Rome. In the Gospel of St. Mark, written in Rome and primarily intended for Roman Christians, mentions Simon of Cyrene, who was supposed to carry the cross instead of Jesus Christ to the place of His execution and who is called the father of Alexander and Rufus. This Rufus, mentioned in the Gospel intended for the Romans, whose father Simon, being from Cyrene, which lay to the west of Egypt, lived in Jerusalem or in its environs at the time of the crucifixion of Christ, and Rufus, mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans, whose mother came to Rome from the east, are probably one and the same person. How many changes in place of residence and in the position itself we see in this once Jewish, and then became a Christian family! Let's focus our attention a little more on Rome and move forward to a whole century later. We have evidence of the interrogation to which seven Christians in Rome were subjected in 165 before the city prefect. Here we see a motley society, the diversity of which depended not on the fact that these people were Christians, but on the fact that they found themselves together thanks to world interaction. One of them is a slave of the imperial palace, but was born in Cappadocia of Christian parents; the other, apparently also a slave, was forcibly taken from his city of Iconium. Next to 4 men and one woman with a Greek name, we see two men with Roman-sounding names. But one of them is not Roman at all. This is the Christian philosopher and martyr Justin. He, as the son of pagan parents and as a Christian of the Greco-Roman colony of Flavius-Naples, was born and raised in the area of ​​​​ancient Shechem in Palestine. The desire for such philosophical knowledge that would equally satisfy both the mind and the heart prompted him to go to a foreign land, move from city to city and from one philosophical school to another, until he, having met an unfamiliar old man on the seashore in Ephesus, was convinced from a conversation with him that all his previous aspirations were unattainable and became acquainted with the writings of the prophets and the followers of Christ. So he became a Christian, and very soon became a teacher of Christianity, spreading it through preaching and writing. The wandering life that he led as a student of pagan philosophy, he continued as a Christian missionary, and he used the general education he received as a defender of Christians. He kept even the cloak with which philosophers were distinguished at that time, so that he could more easily start a conversation with pagans and Jews and lead them to true philosophy, i.e. to Christian wisdom. He spent a long time in Rome, but from there he began his wanderings again. When he arrived in Rome for the second time, as a preacher of the new faith he was condemned to death along with other Christians, in whose company we meet him 15. From Rome, about the special attractiveness of which for Christians we will talk later, we turn to southern France. We have a message from two closely related Christian churches - Lyons and Vienna, probably the oldest in France - a message in which they inform the Christians of Asia and Phrygia about the bloody persecution they have just suffered in 177. The narrator writes in Greek not only so that he can be understood by fellow Christians in the East, but also because probably most of the people on whose behalf he writes were of Greek origin. Both of these cities did not belong to the Greeks, like Marseille and others, but to the Roman colonies of southern France. But the ruler of both churches, the Bishop of Lyon, who became a victim of persecution, bears the Greek name Potina. His successor St. Irenaeus was from Asia Minor. In his youth he lived in Smyrna, near St. Polycarp. According to one recently discovered testimony, at the time of the death of his teacher (in 155), he was already a teacher in Rome. At this time he was a presbyter, and soon afterwards became the bishop of Lyons. Among the few martyrs there who are mentioned by name in the letter are the physician Alexander of Phrygia, then the noble and Roman citizen Attalus of Pergamum - both long-standing members of the Church of Lyons. Several other men and women with Latin names are also mentioned (Maturius, Saint, Blandina), but if it is clearly said about one that he answered the judge who interrogated him in Latin, and also about Attalus, that after terrible torture he proved the injustice of the slander brought against him in Latin, then a twofold conclusion follows from this, namely, that the city was predominantly Roman, and the Christian community predominantly consisted of Greeks There was also a third language in use, namely the language of the native Celts. The bishop, who wanted to win over the semi-wild people of the surrounding area to the faith of Christ, of course, had to study his language 16. Not everywhere, of course, Christian communities represented such a motley mixture as here, at this junction of three languages, and not everywhere the population was as mixed as in Rome. There were provincial churches that were more homogeneous and stable in character, such as the churches in the front part of Asia Minor. If the bishop of Ephesus at the end of the second century could boast that seven members of his family had already occupied the episcopal position before him, then this itself indicates great perseverance. But this fact can also lead us to the opposite thought, when the bishop adds that he met with his brothers all over the world and from them, as well as from his ancestors and from the Scriptures, he learned what was recognized as true and fair in the church. Christians of that time traveled an amazing amount, first of all, like other people - voluntarily and involuntarily, as slaves and artisans, as merchants 17 and doctors. For them, as Christians, who everywhere recognized themselves as strangers and strangers on earth, in some respects it was even easier to settle down everywhere than for others, and they could sooner get used to feeling at home in a foreign land. Everywhere they found fellow believers who considered it their sacred duty to welcome their brothers from abroad. The virtue of hospitality in general was held in greater esteem in ancient times and was more generously practiced than among us. This was rather a consequence than a cause of the fact that the hotel business, in comparison with the later cultural state, was still very undeveloped even during the times of the Roman Empire. Those who could avoid inns willingly provided them to cab drivers and sailors 18 . A noble person often took with him a whole household item and a comfortably arranged tent for the duration of his trip. After each day's march, Roman officials stopped at state-maintained post houses, where they found accommodation for themselves. Anyone who had some close acquaintance in a foreign place, even a friend of his father or grandfather, could be sure of a warm welcome. He established strong friendly and hospitable ties, which continued to be continuously maintained in families through letters of recommendation, or through special badges, which, according to ancient custom, were exchanged when establishing hospitable friendship as an eternal memory, and branched out wider and wider. Christians generally had this exact relationship with each other. They called the confession of faith, which everyone learned by heart before baptism and pronounced during the sacrament itself, their distinctive sign, their symbol, by which people who did not know each other personally could recognize each other as hospitable friends 19 . Of course, the Christian confession and one fraternal name were not enough in this sinful world. Both were often abused. A clear idea of ​​this is given by the famous book “Teachings of the Twelve Apostles,” which probably dates back to the beginning of the second century. Unlike missionaries and other itinerant teachers, it, by the way, says about every itinerant Christian: “Every itinerant Christian must be received, but then you must test and know him, because you must reveal intelligence to the right and to the left. If he is passing through, then help him as much as possible, but he should stay with you no more than two days, or, if necessary, three days. If he wants to settle with you and there is a person engaged in a craft, then let him work and eat. If he does not have any providence, then take care of him as much as you can, so that not a single Christian lives among you idly. If he does not want to work, then he is the kind of person who abuses his Christianity as a craft - beware of such people” 20. A Christian who had to travel in a place where he had no personal acquaintance, and therefore from the very beginning was unlikely to set off without a letter of introduction; and even if he did not lack personal connections, he had to present a written certificate from the abbot of his community to that foreign community with which he came into contact while passing through, or which he chose as his place of long-term residence. No examples of such church travel passports have come down to us from antiquity, but from the letters that have been preserved as worthy of attention for the general content contained in them, we see in what a simple tone this kind of recommendation certificates were compiled. There is a well-known recommendation with which the Apostle Paul sent the deaconess Phoebe from Cenchrea to Rome 21. At the end of his letter to the Philippians at the beginning of the second century, the bishop of Smyrna says: “I am sending you this letter with Crescentus, whom I previously recommended to you on this occasion and now recommend again. He lived impeccably among us, and I hope that he will behave the same among you. And I recommend his sister to you in case she also came to you” 22. Such letters of recommendation were even a source of vanity. Those who, during persecution, despite danger or torture, courageously professed the faith of Christ, sometimes expressed a desire to be called confessors in a letter of recommendation, so that at one council it was found necessary to decide that such a vain desire should not be paid attention to, but rather to testify to the Christian behavior of everyone. Anyone who went to a foreign land with such a recommendation could count on the fact that wherever there were Christians, he would meet a friendly welcome, as well as “assistance in every endeavor.” The word of the divine Judge: “I was a stranger - and you accepted Me,” and the example of the forefather Abraham, who “unknowingly received angels,” are repeated every now and then in ancient Christian literature. In the second century, one outstanding writer, Melito of Sardis, had already chosen hospitality as the subject of a special essay. Hospitality was considered a matter of honor for communities and even a measure of their spiritual state 23 . Bishops especially had to take care of this, not only in the sense that they set a good example for others, but they also had to take care that, first of all, the wanderers who turned to them found welcome in the community and, as far as they needed assistance, they received it from the funds of the church. In ancient times, this need was satisfied by the voluntary hospitality of wealthier Christian homes. From the third century, in large cities, on busier roads, Christian hotels began to be established at monasteries. One extremely wealthy layman in the far east of the empire and the Christian world founded on the road leading to the Persian border five inns a day's journey away from each other and appointed innkeepers to them, who were supposed to serve all Christians and specifically only Christians without compensation 24 . A century later, anyone who visited large monastic monasteries in Egypt could live in a hotel house for free for a week; if he wanted to stay longer, he was assigned to work in the garden, in the kitchen or in the monastery bakery, and he, like other monks, had to earn his own bread by his own labor. More educated visitors were also given a book to read 25 . In larger cities, such hotels were ecclesiastical institutions in the closer sense of the word, under the jurisdiction of bishops, and often represented shelters for the poor and sick 26 - as is still recalled by the name “hospital”, which was originally a hotel house and only later came to mean a shelter for the sick. In Rome in the 4th century there were already special presbyters who were entrusted with the responsibility of caring for Christians arriving from foreign lands. These Christian institutions spread so quickly and were maintained so well that the Emperor Julian, who through imitation of Christian institutions wanted to support the declining paganism and in this respect even get ahead of the church, among other things, ordered the establishment of hospitable houses and, completely according to the Christian model, introduced travel passports, which gave poorer travelers the right to be accepted into them. Christian hotels were also mainly intended for poorer travelers. One noble Roman, who founded a magnificent hospice in the port of the harbor of Rome, was especially glorified for the fact that he took care of receiving not only the poor, but also such travelers who could pay something 27. Hospice institutions, which early began to be founded by wealthy Christians, bishops and entire monasteries, themselves represented a new and unusual phenomenon for the ancient pagan world, so it was not without reason that the apostate Emperor Julian, with his characteristic insight in the matter of statehood, found it necessary to establish similar institutions among the pagans in imitation of Christians. But he did not take into account one thing, that the essence of the matter lies not in these external institutions, but in that inner spirit of love for mankind, which animated Christians and which was alien to the pagans. And, indeed, one of the most striking features of the ancient Christians was precisely this spirit of brotherly mutual love, which was especially manifested in centuries of persecution and general socio-political oppression, when many, out of need, resorted to wandering, looking for ways to feed themselves and better support in a foreign land. Christians, in addition, often resorted to the pilgrim’s staff in matters of their faith. And there were many of them. Christians not only took part in the living intercommunication of the world of that time, they also had their own special internal and external motivations that forced them to undertake distant wanderings. One of their first impulses was the commandment of their Lord to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Already in the first century, the apostolic calling of the church set in motion its noblest sons, who did not hesitate at any obstacle. Everyone, of course, is well aware of the history of the works and missionary travels of the Apostle Paul, and it would be in vain to describe in a few lines how this great Christian, almost without giving himself peace and rest, preached the gospel of Christ over a vast area from Syria to Spain. How often did he, when written communication turned out to be insufficient to maintain influence in the churches he founded, again went in person to the places of his activity; how he repeatedly visited Jerusalem in order to prevent communication between the Jewish mother church and the pagan church from breaking; like many other persons he involved in the work of his ministry, as assistants in the work of preaching, as envoys to communities, bearers of messages, temporary deputies - when more important duties or the bonds he bore prevented him from appearing there in person. Apparently, no one has yet carried out missionary work on such a large scale as the Apostle Paul, but, probably, we would have drawn a different impression from the history of missionary work of that time if the life of the apostles and modern missionaries of the second and third degree had appeared in as clear a historical light as the work of the Apostle Paul. Unfortunately, the activities of most of these preachers are shrouded in darkness. The only thing that is certain for us is that before the death of the last apostle, on almost all the paths that served as a means of mutual communication in the world of that time, preachers of Christianity were constantly encountered in significant numbers. By the end of the second century, it becomes quite probable for us what history tells us, namely, that during this century many missionary journeys were undertaken even in areas where the Gospel had not yet penetrated. The conversion to Christianity of the royal house and of the king himself of Edessa in Mesopotamia about 170 was not at all a spontaneous act of igniting Christian faith, but was the fruit of the labor of missionaries or a missionary who probably came from Palestine. There was no complete calm in this regard even when the limits of the Roman Empire had already been reached, and in some places they had been crossed. Often Christians, who for the most part settled among the pagan population, did not even need to travel far in order to satisfy the spirit and duty of their missionary work. Sometimes, however, this happened. One teacher of the theological school in Alexandria and a Christian philosopher from Sicily, who later became famous as a teacher of the theological school in Alexandria, Panten, while living in Alexandria, involuntarily felt ashamed that the merchants of the city he inhabited year after year set out on their trading ships with various goods from the harbor of the Red Sea to the East Indies, and he remained motionless with the stock of his Christian philosophy in Alexandria. Therefore, he went with them one day and, stopping for some time on the southern coast of Arabia to spread Christianity, to his surprise he found Christians of Jewish origin already there who showed him the Gospel in Hebrew 29 . There were few such forgotten and almost lost Christian communities. All the communities scattered throughout the world of that time were in very lively official communication with each other, which, testifying to the universal spirit of the ancient Christians, at the same time contributed to the vital maintenance of this spirit. It even partially compensated for the lack of a canonical organization that would administratively link together the individual communities scattered throughout the primacy of the church. According to the very history and nature of the spread of Christianity, at first every local community was an independent church headed by a primate, who usually came from within it, and there were no formal decrees yet on the subordination of its individual communities to the highest ecclesiastical authority. It is not surprising that between the churches of different countries there were differences in terms of church customs, forms of worship and church government, and this difference was smoothed out only little by little and not without struggle, so that sometimes it even reached long-term divisions. But the consciousness of the unity of all Christians, as sons of one heavenly Father, was not only not weakened at all due to their wide dispersion in the world, but was also strengthened due to the fact that this world generally treated them as enemies. The more or less oppressed position in which they found themselves, the changes that took place thanks to the general conditions of mutual communication in the Christian population itself, the internal dangers that threatened the well-being of the church, the errors that appeared one after another, the encouragement that flowed from the consciousness of the world-encompassing task of the church and the immutable essence of Christian truth, especially through contact with Christians in distant countries - all this contributed to the fact that even outside the local community and country, communication was maintained with the consciousness of that the church itself demands this. Christians diligently took advantage of every opportunity to strengthen the consciousness of the unity and community of their faith in the largest possible circle, and they presented themselves with very many such cases. If any controversial issue arose in any community that could not find a fully satisfactory solution, then it turned to another community for advice and not always to the nearest neighboring church, where, perhaps, a similar circumstance might interfere with an impartial judgment, but most of all to some great church founded by the apostles themselves, in which Christian customs and teachings were based on immutable evidence, or to where some eminent bishop was respected and trusted far and wide beyond the borders of his church. In addition, even without any request, a person who enjoyed high church respect sometimes himself addressed words of edification or admonition to a community to which she did not belong. It often happened that one church, without any request, took part in the affairs of other communities. We have a detailed message with which the Roman Church at the end of the first century addressed the Corinthian Church, so that the excommunication of several local elders, carried out in it by some restless people, would again be canceled and generally restore the shaken order of the local church life. The Romans do not say that the Corinthians asked their advice; Nor could they refer to the historically justified dependence of the local church on the Roman one. These two greatest churches of Greece and Italy were completely equal in rights with each other, and if any of them, then it was the Corinthian one that could make more ancient and undoubted claims to being founded by the apostles. But she comes to terms with the fact that the Roman Church from across the sea enjoys the Christian right of fraternal council. The latter, in turn, does this in a dignified, even respectful manner, although with the same jealousy as helping to put out a fire in a neighbor’s house. A hundred years later it became customary that in individual provincial churches representatives of communities, whether on a specific occasion to settle current religious issues and difficult disciplinary cases, or at certain periods, gathered in councils. It was the lively interaction between different parts of the church that often served as the reason for drawing up councils, and Christians arriving from afar did not always agree to sacrifice their local traditions in favor of the one that they found dominant in their new fatherland. But this precisely determined the fact that controversial issues, which at first occupied the cathedral and only a separate local church, quickly became the subject of general discussion in all churches. In 170, a dispute arose in Asia Minor about the time of celebrating Easter, a dispute whose religious significance cannot be expressed in a few words. Twenty years later this issue was the subject of heated discussion between the Asia Minor and Roman churches. Soon, throughout the vast area from France to the Euphrates, local councils took place, which considered it their duty to discuss this issue and report the result of their meetings to the disputing churches. It was, so to speak, an ecumenical council, which lacked only a common meeting place. At that time there were no church magazines through which one could find out what was going on and what had happened on the other side of Christendom. And, however, then all the churches were incomparably more alive than in today’s divided Christianity, aware of how and what some member in the body of the universal church suffered. At the beginning of the second half of the 2nd century, a villager named Montanus spoke in a Phrygian village, who, in a very exalted mood, began to preach about the corruption of the church, about the imminent end of the world, about the revelation in him of the Comforter of the Spirit. Two women joined him as prophetesses, and, apparently, the saying that prophets have no honor in their own country was not fulfilled. They found many followers in their homeland. But even before a firm and general opinion had been formed about this movement in the very region of its origin, it moved to the West and soon acquired extremely great importance in the history of the internal development of the church. From that time on, it became a rule that controversial church issues of fundamental importance were to be discussed and decided by the church at councils composed of representatives of churches in all three parts of the world. But it was not only major issues of church life that served as an impetus for lively interaction between individual Christian churches. They took an active part in mutual joys and sorrows, and it was precisely in such circumstances that the power of the community-brotherly spirit was most strongly revealed among Christians, which made an extraordinary impression on the pagans. Christianity seemed to be the last thing in the world of a conspiracy of madmen who had no fatherland and were hostile to any state. As soon as one of them was arrested, at least somewhere far from his homeland, like-minded people and fellow believers immediately appeared around him, who welcomed and consoled him and were ready to provide him with any help from community funds. They show incredible speed, says one pagan, as soon as the question comes about a communal matter. “They sacrifice, in a word, everything.” This was revealed one day in a particularly touching way, when it was Bishop Ignatius, sentenced in his homeland in Antioch to fight wild animals, who was escorted through Asia Minor to the place of execution - to Rome. Many of his flock took the shortest route to Rome in order to be with him in the last hours of the life of their beloved shepherd and provide him with all possible help. Wherever during his forced journey he stopped in a place where there were Christians, the latter appeared with greetings to him and provided him with all kinds of services, as far as they were allowed by the leniency of the military escort. More than once he was accompanied by Christians along significant areas of the journey. News of his march to martyrdom was far ahead of him, so that in Smyrna he was met not only by the local Christians and their bishop Polycarp, but also by representatives from several churches located at a distance from his path. When soon afterwards the joyful news that the storm of persecution in Antioch had calmed down was brought to him by an Antiochian Christian, who hastily caught up with him, St. Ignatius inspired the representatives of the communities with whom he had recently become acquainted so that they would continue to maintain, established by his involuntary journey, the bonds of communication both among themselves and with the distant church through messages and messengers, mutual good wishes and news. He himself took advantage of the short days of rest during this difficult journey in order, if possible, to thank many in writing for the love shown to him. In a foreign land he felt at home. Not many Christians, of course, who, thanks to their open and courageous confession of faith in Christ, came into conflict with the laws of the state, had to go to death as long a path as St. Ignatius. But many of them were also sentenced to hard labor in mines and quarries, where they were often exiled from afar. This circumstance brought Christians from the most distant countries of the world closer together. Christian masons from Rome met the Bishop of Antioch in the quarries of Slavonia 30 . The richer communities sent financial aid to Christian convicts in the mines and made no distinction between foreign Christians and their own fellow members. A group of such convicts from Greece, who probably worked in Sardinia or in Spain and there experienced the charity of the Roman community, returned around 170 to their homeland through Rome, and the cordial reception they received there gave rise to the Corinthian bishop to express his gratitude for this in the most ardent terms to the bishop of the Roman church 31. When a hundred years later the Gothic military horde passed through Asia Minor, plundering everything and taking with them thousands of Christians, especially young and female ones, Bishop Dionysius not only sent a consoling message to distant Caesarea, Cappadocia, but also a special envoy with funds to ransom the prisoners 32 . The churches sent detailed messages about the suffering and courage of their martyrs to all countries of the earth. Such messages did not go unanswered; At the same time, it was not considered an unreasonable luxury to send simply good wishes from one church to another on the occasion of the end of persecution or the occupation of a vacant bishop's chair 33. The importance attached to such mutual communication is evident from the way these church messages were transmitted. The public mail of that time naturally contributed as little to the Christian Church in this regard as to any other society or private individuals. Letters had to be sent either on occasion or through their own messengers. Often this service was provided by junior members of the clergy. But if the matter was important, and the distance was not particularly great, then it was the custom to entrust its execution to prominent members and leaders of the church - persons who were able to support the written word with their oral testimony and who, by their mere appearance, testified to how highly the matter of maintaining church intercommunication was valued. In the above-mentioned letter of the Romans to the Corinthians, which in itself, by its great thoroughness, testifies to the lively participation of the capital community in Corinthian affairs, the Romans say at the end of their letter: “We sent (with this message) trusted and prudent men who from their youth to old age remained with us blamelessly; they will be witnesses between you and us. We did this so that you can be convinced that we have taken care and are taking care that you will soon come to peace.” This message ends with the words: “Together with Fortunatus, the persons sent from us to you, Claudius Ephebus and Valerius Biton, immediately send back to us with peace and joy, so that they can report to us as soon as possible about the desired and expected restoration of peace and harmony, so that we, too, may rejoice as quickly as possible in the good state of affairs with you.” Named together with these commissioners from the Romans, but obviously distinguished from them and only mentioned as a companion on the road to Corinth, Fortunatus was apparently a Corinthian who arrived in Rome to ask for help from the Roman church. This was probably one of those presbyters who had turned gray in the service of the Corinthian church and were removed from office there, and, undoubtedly, the same one who, 40 years earlier, as a young man, served as a mediator in the relations of the Apostle Paul with the Corinthians 34 . Sometimes simply written communication between churches was replaced by visits from prominent personalities. St. Polycarp of Smyrna, shortly before his death, already almost a hundred years old, undertook a long journey from Smyrna to Rome to consult with the Roman bishop about church affairs. One can imagine what a deep impression it made on everyone that the venerable elder, who had seen several other apostles with his own eyes and heard from their own lips what they knew about Jesus Christ, celebrated the Eucharist in Rome on one Sunday instead of the Bishop of Rome. The remoteness of time, which even then separated the church from its origins, as well as the vastness of the spaces that separated its scattered members from one another, seemed to be completely destroyed at such a moment. Despite his advanced years, St. Polycarp was not yet a decrepit old man at that time, but with bodily vigor and spiritual freshness, which a year later still amazed his persecutors and executioners, he testified to the reality of those events on which the faith of Christians rests, and could thus convince of their truth those who began to hesitate regarding them. Such a visit was, of course, even more useful to the Romans themselves than to their distinguished guest. Many of the Christians then traveled in order to receive the best theological education, expand their ecclesiastical and religious horizons, and personally become acquainted with places of the famous past and centers of church life. Anyone who in the 2nd century wanted to acquire a scientific theological education, insofar as such education could be discussed at that time, had to necessarily look for some outstanding teacher. One of them, who later himself became a teacher of many, namely Clement of Alexandria, tells us how he alternately found teachers for himself, first in Greece, then in Lower Italy, then in the East, and, by the way, also in Palestine, until finally he was tied to himself for a long time by one teacher, whom he found in Alexandria in the person of the head of the so-called catechetical school. This school, which originally had as its purpose the preparation for baptism of educated pagans who needed an introduction to Christianity, developed into a kind of higher school of Christian theology, to which young people flocked from the most distant countries who wanted scientific preparation for the highest service in the church. The greatest teacher of this school, Origen, after many years of activity in Alexandria, was forced, due to disagreements with his bishop, to find a place of residence in Caesarea Palestine, but even there, students soon gathered around him, spreading his theological views in wide circles. This theological school, distinguished by a very original character, bound its students in all countries with the closest ties. Even those of them who had never seen each other considered themselves spiritual relatives, quickly mastered the issues of the times and stuck together during the struggle of church parties 35 . There is no need to explain in detail on the basis of Origen’s life, filled with all sorts of vicissitudes, how few obstacles were posed to the broad activities of this famous man by both the general situation of the world and the state of church affairs at that time; how Origen from Alexandria and then from Caesarea was invited by bishops and councils that lacked his theological learning, now to Greece, now to Arabia, to Antioch and to Athens, or by Roman dignitaries and members of the imperial house, who wanted to get acquainted with Christianity from this famous scientist, whose fame had spread even among the pagans. To get a complete picture of the participation of Christians in all the benefits of the then world intercommunication, next to Origen one can place Julius Africanus, who lived a little earlier. Already in his youth, he, probably while still a pagan, visited the princely court in Edessa; at a more mature age, he lived in Nicopolis, in Palestine, and accompanied an embassy from his fellow citizens to Rome, sent to ask Emperor Elagabalus for city rights for Nicopolis. He also traveled to Alexandria to listen to the famous teacher there. Quite casually he mentions in his world chronicle that he also visited Parthia and Phrygia. Such extensive exposure to the world was, of course, rare. But Origen serves as an example of what often happened even then, since before his settlement in Palestine he had already visited the Holy Land twice and, as he himself says, “walked in the footsteps of Jesus, His disciples and prophets” 36. He was not the first to be drawn there by a pious desire to worship the holy places. Already in the middle of the 2nd century, Bishop Meliton of Sardis, as he himself testifies, made a great journey through the East, by which, first of all, by the very place of his residence one can understand Mesopotamia; but he continued his journey to the place where, as he says, “eternal salvation was preached and accomplished.” From the local Jews or Judaizing Christians, he collected the most accurate information about the volume of their Old Testament 37. About 50 years later, Bishop Alexander of Cappadocia or Cilicia, who had once studied theology in Alexandria, went to Palestine to pray there and personally visit holy places. The Holy Land so tied him to itself that he considered himself forced to leave his native church and ended his life in the rank of Bishop of Jerusalem 38 . One of the members of the clergy of the city of Smyrna, who in 250 was brought to account for his faith before the court of a pagan judge, says that he traveled all of Palestine, was at the Dead Sea and saw with his own eyes the traces of God's judgment over Sodom and Gomorrah 39 . However, only from the 4th century, after Emperor Constantine and his pious mother Helen decorated the holy places with magnificent buildings, and the monks covered the entire country with their monasteries, did Palestine become the subject of especially private visits by pious Christians. Rome had an even greater attractive force on the Christians of the first centuries, although, of course, not because the city, which was the place of death of the apostles Peter and Paul, became more sacred to them than Golgotha ​​and Bethlehem, as Palestinian pilgrims later reproached opponents of pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Of course, the churches, in the depths of which this or that apostle rested in God, even then pointed with reverence to their grave, but the movement of wandering Christians in general was directed not to tombs, but to places of the busiest and most varied life. The Apostle Paul himself set an example in this, saying: “After this I must see Rome.” The holy martyr Ignatius, condemned to death, rejoiced that he was sent to Rome to carry out his execution, so that his long-standing desire to see this great church was involuntarily fulfilled. Origen once stopped his studies in Alexandria to "visit the primitive church of the Romans." One member of the Roman clergy, whose scientific interests were associated with Origen, did not even fail to point out in his sermon the presence of the famous guest from Alexandria 40 . Already around the middle of the 2nd century, one Jewish Christian from Palestine, Hegesippus, who subsequently outlined his travel notes in a large work consisting of five books, took a trip to the West to get acquainted with the most important churches there. He stayed in Corinth for several days, and Rome detained him for several years. Almost around the same time, one wealthy Christian, Averky Markell, traveled from Phrygia to Rome and rejoiced that he was able to see the emperor and empress, and especially the Christian church there. This journey, like another which he later made from his homeland to the far East, to Nizibia in Mesopotamia, he immortalized on the tombstone, which he himself erected at the age of 72, as the most memorable of the events of his life. Several years ago, a fragment of this tombstone, the inscription on which was previously known only through an unreliable legend, was found in that very place 41. Many of those wise men also went to Rome who, not being satisfied with the usual faith of the church, tried to spread creeds independent of it and, as it seemed to them, the highest understanding of Christianity. Anyone who hoped to influence the widest possible circle in the church had to establish a foothold in Rome as the center of all world interaction. And this is precisely what the false teachers of the 2nd century sought, most of whom, unfortunately, became the founders of sects. Whether they sought the transformation of the church or, as was the case with most of them, they demanded only tolerance for their peculiar teaching, as a private matter of the school or as the religion of more gifted natures, in any case, they all did not doubt their world calling. Therefore, Rome was a gathering point for them, where they flocked from everywhere - from Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and most of them never left Rome again. Until the 3rd century, Rome remained a gathering place for all kinds of heretical teachers and their teachings. The reason why these teachers for the most part did not end their work where they began it, and why generally independent minds in the ancient church often changed their place of residence, was also that those who came into conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities in one church could hope to find a more favorable reception, or at least a more lenient attitude towards themselves, in another country, in any case, they could find new ground for their activities there. To a certain extent, the ancient church was lenient about this. She recognized that, under certain circumstances, it was better in all respects if the difficulty that had begun could end thanks to the voluntary eviction of its perpetrators. During the well-known church turmoil in Corinth, which was already mentioned above, the Roman church demanded that the perpetrators confess their wrongdoing and again submit to the majority of the church, which they wanted to subjugate through fear. But even if they were subjugated, it seemed incredible that peaceful and favorable cohabitation could be restored with those whose peace they had violated. The Roman Church therefore appeals to the sense of nobility of these people and of all those whose presence might serve as an obstacle to the restoration of lasting peace, and demands that they leave Corinth. The Romans wrote: “Who is noble among you? Who is merciful or loving? Let him say: if because of me there are turmoil, disputes and strife, then I must go where you want and do what the majority commands me, so that only the flock of Christ lives in peace with its appointed elders. Whoever does this gains great glory for himself in Christ, and every locality will accept him. For the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” This is how, in reality and in general, the Christians of those ancient times looked at the matter. “Every foreign land is your fatherland, and every fatherland is a foreign land” 42. This is what they taught not simply because of their lack of rights in a pagan state, but primarily because of their belief in inalienable citizenship in the heavenly and future kingdom of God - which citizenship they considered not the privilege of any one people or any privileged classes, but the general gift of God to humanity. If Christians looked upon the whole world without distinction as a soil which, by the blessing of God, could everywhere bear the noblest flowers and fruits, if they placed humanity above individual peoples and mutual communication based on free conviction above the state based on birth, right and coercion, then this was greatly facilitated by the very state of the world and the spirit of that time. But the most decisive step from phrase to deed in this regard was made only by the Christian Church. While, for example, a Greek-educated pagan, be he a Roman or an Asiatic or, indeed, a Greek, in spite of all cosmopolitan rantings, continued to look with contempt at the actual barbarians, Christians often and willingly testified that the forefathers of the despised Jewish people are their spiritual ancestors and the crucified king of the Jews is their Lord, and His Gospel is true, although "barbarian philosophy". And they not only spoke, but also acted like this. If in certain circles of Jewish Christianity national pride, which apparently found some religious justification in the religious and historical advantage of Israel, turned out to be a force that brought division into the church, then, in any case, the thinly concealed arrogance with which they treated pagan Christians, and the ardent hatred with which the Jews persecuted both in word and in writing the great apostle of languages, as far as we know, did not find any the slightest correspondence in the churches composed of pagan converts. In the great church among the pagan peoples, the Jew was in fact valued no less than the Greek, and both no more than the Scythians or any barbarian at all (Colossians 3:11). This is precisely what the church was especially famous for: that people who could neither speak one of the world languages, nor write any language at all, each professed the common faith of the church in their own language. We do not know that differences in nationality or differences in degrees of education within pagan-Christian communities anywhere led to a disruption of church peace. The ancient Christians did not see any danger in the rapid change of the population belonging to the church and in the motley composition of communities in large cities. On the contrary, one of the reasons for the ever-increasing importance of the Roman Church was precisely the fact that Christians from all other countries constantly poured into it and gave the tradition of the apostolic truth here an even more solid and broad foundation. The history of the ancient church fully confirms this idea. Jewish Christians in the villages of eastern Palestine and Syria shunned communication with the entire church, even if they were not at all imbued with hatred of pagan Christians. They, perhaps, even more firmly than the unbelieving Jews adhered to their nationality; They read the Old Testament only in their native language and had in use only one Gospel written in Hebrew, but by this they, so to speak, tightly tied up their veins and for centuries led a miserable, alienated existence. Perhaps an even more striking example, proving the harm of alienation from a vital connection with the common church, is the Church of Asia Minor. There were thriving communities there, planted by the Apostle Paul and his co-workers, and nurtured by the Apostle John and other apostolic men until the end of the 1st century, densely seated in the populous cities. In the 2nd century, this local church was undoubtedly the most significant, the most spiritually vibrant, and, finally, the most literary and productive of all, but soon after the beginning of the 3rd century it seemed to immediately disappear from history. Not a single fact of more or less general ecclesiastical significance, not a single name of any writer, not a single title of a book shows us that the church still continued to exist there. The obvious reason for this sudden change is that the previously mentioned dispute over the celebration of Easter, in which the Asia Minor Christians stubbornly asserted their regional independence against the decisions of the majority of the churches, ended in church division. The Roman bishop excommunicated the Asia Minor people, although, of course, not with general consent. This course of action there at one time provoked protest from other bishops, who argued that the bonds of church unity were not the uniformity of church customs, but the sameness of faith. But the consequence of this event was that the churches of Ephesus and Smyrna remained out of communication with the universal church. The bishops of the West, in their relations with the distant East, extended their hand to him, so to speak, through them, as, for example, Cyprian of Carthage in his relations with Firmilian of Caesarea 43. With their alienation from church world communication, stagnation came in their very lives. When Constantine the Great subsequently finally achieved the elimination of this almost forgotten division, it was already too late for this local church; it never again acquired its former significance. So, the presented essay sufficiently shows in what lively and close mutual communication the Christian churches were in ancient times, despite the inconvenience and difficulty of the then means of communication, as well as the difficulty of the situation of Christianity itself, which was subjected to persecution by the pagan world. Obviously, it is not external means of communication that serve as the main condition for this close mutual communication, but the spirit of brotherhood and love that animated the leading churches and which merged all the communities scattered across the face of the universe into a single church, glorifying its Lord Christ with one mouth and one heart. Let us pray that this spirit of mutual love and brotherhood will be sent down to us, the sons of a distant age, and then this unity will soon come, the desire for which has manifested itself among representatives of the Christian world, tired of division. For this we use Zahn’s excellent essay in his Skizzen aus dem Leben der alten Kirche, 1894, pp. 156 et seq. Phalon in Leg. ad Caium § 2 calls the countries lying between the Euphrates and the Rhine “the most important parts of the world, which can be properly called the world.” Ev. Luke understands by the whole world or universe (ἡ οἰκουμένη) the Roman Empire (Luke 2:1; Acts 11:28). Acts 14:11. Gogarth in Journal of Hellenic studies 1890 p. 157 considers it certain that this “Lycaonian” language was a later Phrygian dialect, which was used in eastern Phrygia and Lycaonia until the 5th or 6th century. Especially Ramsay in his Hist. geography of Asia Minor p. 24 and in other places notes that the Hellenization of the internal countries of Asia Minor even in the 3rd century. according to R. Chr. was much more superficial than we are usually accustomed to imagine. This actually applies to the particles γαp and δε. Iren. IV, 30, 3: Sed et mundus pacem habet per eos (i.e. the Romans), et nos sine timore in viis ambulamus et navigamus, quocumque voluerimus (“but the world also enjoys the world through them (i.e. the Romans), and we walk the roads without fear and sail wherever we want”). Wed. Athenag. suppl. I; Orig. C. Celsum II, 30; Praep. Ev. I, 4. 4, etc. For Jewish and pagan evidence, see Friedlander. Often, however, in Christian literature there are references to roadside robbers: Lk. 10:30; 2 Cor. 11:26; Clem Alex. Qui dives § 42 in the vicinity of Ephesus; Eleseb. V, 18, 9 in the same province; Grieg. Chudtv. Paneg. in Orig. With. 16 on the way from Palestine to Pontus. And Tatian’s painting in Orat. 18, especially at the end, seems to be taken from life. Lucian. De morte Peregrini 35. An example of the use of state mail from pre-Constantinian Christ. literature is from Grigory Chudtv. Paneg. in Orig. With. 5. Mentioned there next to the “right to use public ships and chariots” σύμβολα are advisory maps and indicators of premises, perhaps tesserae hospitals. In the biography of Porphyry of Gaza, there are several indications of this kind: from Ascalon to Thessalonica, in favorable weather, it took 13 days of travel, even 12 days back (Migne, ser. grec. 65, col. 1214); from Gaza to Constantinople 20 days; back in 10 days; another, who left 3 days earlier, arrived 7 days later, also 20 days (Col. 1224). Corp. J. Gr. no. 3920. In the commentary to it Vol. III, 37, like Friedlander, it is said that by έpγαστὴς here we mean negotiator. Lucian. Somn. c. 7 as a reproach of science in the mouth of the grain craft, p. 15 as praise in the mouth of science itself and its last student. In addition to the second missionary journey, the first one seems to be taken into account here. The direction of the route from Perga to Pisidian Antioch apparently indicates an intention to penetrate the large cities of the western coast. “Everywhere in the church” according to ancient Christian statistics means “in every city” (Egesippus in Euseb. Ist., II, IV, 22:3). Wed. "outer cities" Herm. Vis. II, 4; "from city to city" Jgn. ad Rom. 9, 3. – Christians in villages are mentioned in Clem. I ad Corinth. 42, 4; Plin. ad Traj. 96, 9; Justin Apol. I 67; Mart. Polycarpi. c. 5–7, where in any case the courtyards of Christian villagers are meant, probably the possessions of Bishop Polycarp. Wed. Lightfoot s. 6. Montan was from a village community - Eus. V, 16, 7; in Phrygia the first example of a bishop in a village is Eus. V, 16, 17, although, however, there is known evidence about the rural clergy only from the half of the 3rd century. Tertullian in Apology I says: “in agris, in castellis, in insulis Christianos” (cf. Ad uxor. II, 4). Origen also in C. Celsum III, 9 calls the field of work of the missionaries of his time “not only cities, but also villages and courtyards.” Eus. Ts.I. III, 19, 20. It is not known, however, whether these grandsons of Judah were landowners from the city of Nazareth, or, in the proper sense, peasants from the “village of Kokaba” (Epiph. Haer. 29, 7; 30:2). Descendants of St. families according to Africanus spread from both of these places, which he calls "Jewish villages" (Eus. I, 7:14). This is where the very meaning of the word pagani in Oros comes from. Hist. I, prol. § 9. This opinion, however, does not stand up to criticism. 2 Timothy 1:16ff., 4:19. His origins from Iconium are evidenced by the Acts of Thecla. Acta Justini (Just. opp. ed. Otto II 268). That Ephesus was the place of conversation with Tryphon and so on. Justin's appeal about this see Zahn art. in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. VIII, 37–66. Iren. I proem. cf. I, 10, 2; III, 4, 2. St. Irenaeus says: “We all have a moderate or large possession, which we acquired from the mammon of unrighteousness. After all, where do we have the houses in which we live, the clothes that we wear, the vessels that we use, and everything else that belongs to our everyday life, if not from the means that we acquired through greed while still pagans, or received from our pagan parents, relatives or friends, who acquired them in untruth - not to mention the fact that we still acquire them in the same way, being in faith. After all, who sells and does not want benefit from the buyer? Who buys and does not want to receive from the seller what he is buying at a profit? Who conducts trade for any other purpose than to profit? And even the Christians at the imperial court - don’t they receive everything they need for life from the imperial funds, and doesn’t each of them share it with those in need according to their ability?” (Iren. IV, 30:1). St. Cyprian (De lapsis 6) speaks of bishops who left their dioceses and looked for markets in foreign provinces where they could make a good turnover, and even of those who increased their capital by usury - which, of course, was looked upon with extreme condemnation in the ancient church. To the heretic Valentinus (in Klim. Strom. II, § 114) the hotel seems to be a place in which everyone behaves indecently and drunkenly. This meaning of the word “symbol” will be clear if we compare and contrast two places - Tert. Praescr. 20 (contesseratio hospitalitatis etc.) and p. 36 (quid [sc. ecclesia Romana] cum Africanis quoque ecclesiis contesserarit). “Teaching of the 12 Apostles” ch. 12. The last word (χpιστέμποpος - selling Christ) must be understood in accordance with 1 Tim. 4:5): “people who are strangers to the truth think that godliness is for gain.” Rom. 16:1 et seq.: “I present to you Phoebe, our sister, deaconess of the church of Cenchreia: accept her for the Lord, as is fitting for saints, and help her whatever she needs, for she was a helper to many and to myself.” Wed. 1 Corinthians 16:10; Col. 4:10, Titus. 3:14 and especially what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Cor. 3:1 regarding the false apostles who came from Palestine to Corinth. Third Epistle of St. John also partly represents this kind of letter of recommendation. Pol. ad Philipp. 14. Further see Hefele, Konciliengesch, I-e, 165 about 25 can. Elvira Cathedral. Clem. I. ad Corinth. 1, 2, Can. Antioch. 25 and Can. Apost. 40 suggest that the bishop personally, but from church funds, had to provide hospitality. Wed. Just. Apol. I, 67. The evidence is reliable and dates back to 280 or 300 AD. Pallad. Histor. Lausiaca, ed. Meursius p. 21. For the monastic inns near Bethlehem, see Hieron. ep. 66, 14 ad Pammachium. Epiphan. Haer. 75, 1; Wed § 2, 3 Basil. ep. 94 (Ed. Paris 1730, III, 188). Hieron. ep. 77, 10 ad Oceanum; ep. 66, 11 ad Pammachium. Eus. N. E. Sh. 37 in relation to the time of Trajan; Wed his own interpretation of Ps. 67:12 (Montfaucon, Coll. nova I, 351). Zahn. Gesch, d. Kanons II 66 et seq. See Büclinger's Untersuchungen III, 328, 337. This is how you can think about it in basic terms. Eus. N.E. IV 23, 10. Basilii ep. 70. According to the remark of Eusebius (N. E. IV. 23:9), the Roman Church observed this noble custom until the last great persecution. For the first, see Ign. ad Philad, 10; Smyrn. 11: ad Pol. 7–8:1; Pol. ad Philipp. 13 1; regarding the second - the letter of Alexander to the Antiochians in Eus. V, II, 5; concerning both also the epistle of Dionysius of Corinth to the Athenians in Eus. V, 23b 2 et seq. Clem. 1Cor. 63 and 65 regarding Fortunatus (1 Cor. 16:7). Clement of Alexandria, whom Bishop Alexander commissioned to carry the letter to Antioch, was known to the Antiochians as a writer (Euseb. V, II, 6). At St. Cyprian's letter-bearers were often deacons, subdeacons, readers, and acoluths. Wed. letter of Alexander to Origen in Eus. N. E. VI. 14, 8 et seq. and the famous Συλλουκιανίστα Aria in Epiph. Haer. 69, 6. Gesch. d. Kanons II, 665, approx. 2.3. Acta pionii p. 4 (Ruinart, Acta sincera. 1689, p. 126). One cannot help but regret that Blessed. Jerome did not name those bishops, martyrs and scholars who visited Palestine in former times (Epist. 46:9). There is no reason to doubt this testimony of Jerome. For more details see Zahn's Forschungen V, 57–99. So in the Epistle to Diognetus V, 5. This can be concluded from the significant passage of St. Irenaeus (III, 3:2). The famous letter of Firmilian among the letters of Cyprian (No. 75) constitutes a response to Cyprian's letter to him.