ST. LINUS AND THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST CENTURY

New Zealand Tablet, 23 September 1915, Page 17

ST. LINUS AND THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST CENTURY

(For the N.Z. Tablet. by the. Rev. J. Kelly, Ph.D.)

On September 23 we keep the feast of St. Linus, the first successor of . St. Peter. Of this saint very little is known to us. However, his feast serves as an occasion to bring our minds back to the beginnings of the Church; and while we try’to get a comprehensive view of its history during the first century of the Christian era, we will recall all there is to be told of St. Linus.

First, a word as to the Christian Era itself. In the year 5239 of the Julian Period, dr 1280 after the foundation of Rome (A.U.C.), Dionysius introduced the system of calculating the years from the Birth of Christ, or rather from His Incarnation, both of which, according to him, occurred in 754 A.U.C. Later writers are agreed that Dionysius was wrong in fixing the beginning of the Christian Era so late. The most probable date for the Nativity seems to be December 25, 747, A.U.C., so that Christ was already in His seventh year. at the date from which Dionysius began to count. It is important to remember this fact and to take account of it in fixing the events of our Lord’s life according to the chronology of the Dionysian era now followed. Thus, if it were true that Christ died in the year 33 of our era, He would then have been in His thirty-ninth year. The year of His death is commonly supposed to be the year 29, A.D.

After such a lapse of time and in such dearth of listorical documents to fix the important dates is no asy task. Some it is possible to determine with a failmount of certainty, and they in their turn help us pproximately to assign others. Thus we can accurately get the date of St. Paul’s imprisonment at Jerualem, 53, A.D. From the Acts of the Apostles we. mow that the Council of Jerusalem was held about we and a half years before this, that is in 47, A.D. Indent martyrologies tell us that St. Paul’s convex - -' ion occurred the second year after our Lord’s Ascenion, i.e. 31, A.D. These dates fit in with what St. ’aul tells us himself in Gal. i. 15, sqq, that seventeen ears elapsed from his conversion until his second comng to Jerusalem. About the year 35, St. Peter is supposed to have ecome Bishop of Antioch. _ This is borne out by the radition that he held that see for seven years for the ear 42 seems beyond doubt the date of his journey to tome. On the feast of Pentecost, 53, St. Paul was mprisoned at Jerusalem. Thence three days later he /as brought to Caesarea, where lie was detained two ears under Antonins Felix. In the summer of 55, ’ontius Festus succeeded Felix. By him Paul, having ppealed to Caesar, was sent to Rome. In the '27th ,nd 28th chapters of the Acts, St. Luke tells us of the ’augers and vicissitudes of the Apostle’s voyage. He rrived in Rome in the spring of 56, was delivered up o Burrus, then praetorian prefect, and detained in ustody until the beginning of the year 58. At this time the population of Rome was about wo millions. In the beginning the Christian religion /as not proscribed by law, and amid the unspeakable orruptions of the great city it quickly gained adhernts. That in St. Peter’s time there were many thouands of Christians in Rome is certain : that they beonged to every class of society, slaves as well as nobles, s clear from many documents of these early years. Ind from Rome there went forth into Spain and Gaul ,nd Africa and the islands of the Mediterranean ireachers of the Gospels who brought the Faith to very shore washed by the waves of the great water lighway of the Empire. Paulinus preached in Lucca, lomulusin Fiesole, Photinus in Benevento, Maurus in lari, Philip and Mercian in Secelea, all sent by St. > eter.

Rome had long fallen from her primitive austerity of morals. She had .conquered the world, and to her own, gods had added those of the conquered Rations.

Her gods, and the , worship of her gods; " had become sources of debauchery and license. Public, and private life was rotten to ; the core. Her greatest philosophers, her tenderest poets, her proudest matrons were all tainted by the universal corruption. Through Rome, and through Rome’s ■ immorality,'; the powers of: hell had gained on earth a stronghold that no human power could overthrow. For vice had become a religion, and as such was bound up in a hundred ways with the national, social, and domestic life of the people. And no human' power did overthrow it. The power lay in the Fisherman of Galilee, who came to Rome as the representative of Him Whom a Roman governor had crucified on Calvary; • . The Church was founded in Rome in peace. " But the peace was of short duration. Tacitus tells how Nero burned Rome, and how, to escape the popular fury, he threw the blame on the Christians —‘ Enjo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit re os, et qndesitissimis jioenis affecit, quo-s per fiar/itia in visas Christianas vulyus apptllabat . ’

July 19, 64, was the date of the burning of Rome. Over the conflagration the insane monster Nero, dressed like an actor, chanted of the burning of Troy. But his mad delight changed to terror when he discovered that he had gone too far, and that the people were likely to call him to account for the awful destruction of the city. Skilfully he made the Christians the objects of the popular fury. And there ensued a day of carnage and bloodshed, the solemnest in our annals after the day of Calvary. The great massacre took place about the 4th August, 64. The gardens of Nero in the Vatican quarter were the scene of these barbarities which I will let Renan, a writer who had no bias in favor of Christianity, describe:—' Roman annals had known few days so extraordinary. The Indus watutinus , usually devoted to fights between animals, saw an unheard-of procession. The victims, covered with the skins of wild beasts, were driven Into the arena, where they were torn to pieces by dogs, others were crucified, while yet others, clad in tunics soaked in oil, pitch, or resin, found themselves tied to stakes and reserved to light up the evening festivities. . . . By the light of those hideous torches, Nero, who had made evening races fashionable, showed himself in the arena, now -mingling with the populace in jockey costume, now driving his chariot and seeking for applause. . . . Matrons and virgins were included in these horrible sports, and the nameless indignities which they had to undergo formed part of the entertainment. . . . The most honored Christian ladies had to lend themselves to these monstrosities. . . . Some of the Christian women sacrificed in this manner were of feeble strength ; their courage was supernatural, but the infamous rabble had eyes only for their bodies rent open and their torn bosoms.’

No such day ever dawned again in the history of the Church. But thenceforth and long after' it persecutions continued, and in spite of them and through them the Church grew in numbers and in strength. If not in this same year it was not long after till St. Peter and St. Paul watered the seed they had sown with their own blood. The year 64, or more probably 67, A.D., was the date of the crucifixion of the first Pope. And so eminent a writer as Grisar thinks it nob unlikely that he was martyred beneath the obelisk which still stands on the site of Nero’s gardens, in front of the grandest of the world’s basilicas, beneath which his remains now rest. ‘After the martyrdom of Paul and Peter, Linus first received the episcopacy of Rome,’ says Eusebius. ‘ He,’ says the same historian, ‘ is mentioned by Paul in the Epistle which he wrote from Rome to Timothy, amongst the greetings which are read at the end of the epistle ; Eusebius greets thee, and Pudens, Linus, and Claudia. ...

St. Linus was an Italian by birth. He reigned eleven or twelve years. Probably he was associated with St. Peter in the government of the Church. By his direction it was constituted that women should

appear in church with the head veiled. He condemned the followers of Menander, a disciple of Simon Magus, and decreed that the God of the Old Law was the Creator of all things, and that nothing in nature was of itself evil. During his reign Jerusalem fell; and the Christians saw the triumphs of Vespasian and Titus, fulfilling the prophecies of Christ. The Catalogus Felicianus , written in the sixth century, states that Linus was martyred. Some dispute this on the grounds that there was no general persecution raging at that time. However, even in the intervals individual Christians were frequently put ‘to death, and there is no sound reason to doubt that Linus, like his predecessor, shed his blood for the Faith. Of his great labors and sufferings and of his holiness the fact that his name is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass is a voucher. The same Catalogus mentions that his body was buried beside St. Peter’s. And when, under Urban VIII., the Confession of St. Peter was being restored, a sarcophagus -was discovered bearing the simple inscription, ‘ Linus.’

In 79, St. Cletus (or Anacletus) succeeded St. Linus. This Pope was a Roman. He reigned twelve years, and ended his life by martyrdom. The fact that he ordained twenty-five priests at one ordination, mentioned in the Catalogus Feliciamis, may be taken as an indication of the growth of Christianity in the city. Whether Anacletus was identical with Cletus or a distinct Pope remains uncertain. Many writers say they were the same person, and the chronology seems to bear out this view.

St. Clement succeeded about the year 91, A.D. ‘ln the third place,’ says St. li'enaeus, 1 from the Apostles the episcopacy came to Clement, who saw the Apostles themselves and conferred with them.’ According to a Roman tradition he came of a noble family related to Vespasian. His church is said to stand on the site of his home, and to this day keeps his memory green in the Eternal City. During his pontificate the second persecution broke out under Domitian. This tyrant, who assumed the name of ‘ Lord and god,’ looked with unfavorable eyes on the spread of Christianity, the more so as many members of the imperial family were now Christians. He feared, too, that the second coming of Christ was a menace to his reign, and according to ITegisippus, ordered all Jews descended from David and kin to Christ to be brought to Rome. However, seeing their poverty, and their hands hardened with rough toil, he let them go. Clement wrote an Epistle to the Corinthians, which is of great dogmatic value, as a glorious vindication of the primacy and authority of the successor of St. Peter. According to Eusebius Clement died in the third year of the reign of Trajan. As Trajan succeeded Nerva, in January, 98, the date of Clement’s death is 100, A.D. Ancient traditions say that he was martyred in exile.

in eiiiie. From the coming of Peter to the death of Clement fifty-eight years elapsed. Horace compares the Roman Republic to the oak in the forest which seems to draw new vigor from the blows of the axe Ab ipso dlicit open), animamqiie ferro. But the Republic had become the Empire, and the Empire was losing its strength in years of peace and prosperity while the young Church flourished in spite of all the powers of darkness marshalled against it in the name of the same proud Empire. In these fifty-eight years it had sustained two persecutions. In Rome and throughout Rome’s dominions every attempt had been made to exterminate Christianity. But laws, fire, and sword notwithstanding, the followers of the Galilean Fisherman, who was himself a follower of Christ, Whom Rome crucified, were victorious all along the line. Pliny the Younger, writing to Trajan, tells him how the numbers of Christians are increasing ‘ in the cities, in the towns, in the fields,’ and how the temples are deserted. St. Justin, martyr, says, Nor is there one nation, of barbarians, or of Greeks, or of any other name whatever . . . amongst whom, through the name of Jesus Crucified, prayers and thanks are not offered up to the Father and Creator of the universe.’ And TertullTan boldly proclaims: ‘.We are of yesterday, and we are every -

where amongst you, filling your cities, islands, castles,’ municipalities, councils ... .. we have left you only your temples.’ How vain it is for Gibbons, for Hobbes, and other infidels to ascribe such a marvellous growth to natural causes! No created cause could achieve such results. The religion of Rome was humanly impregnable. No rude, unlettered, despised men could of themselves overthrow it. However admirable their lives, the mere force of example was not enough to arouse the Romans from their vicious habits. The Gospel they preached might awaken their minds to a recognition of its beauty, but it would not move their wills to embrace its stern precepts, so contrary to all their customs, so emphatic in condemnation of their lives. Like Pilate they might ask, ‘ What is Truth?’ and like Pilate, face to face with the Truth they would shut their eyes to it—their eyes and their hearts too.

Christianity and the spread of Christianity had no merely natural causes. If you go to-day and stand on the site of Nero’s gardens you will see there the same Egyptian obelisk under which St. Peter died for

the Faith. And you can read on it now an inscription which explains all. It is this:—Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands.