The lives of the popes

THE POPES ! How ominous is the name to the ear of every educated Protestant! What a train of fantastic and strangely assorted images, dismal, comic, and grand, sweeps rapidly through the mind at the very mention of the too familiar word! All gorgeous emblems of pomp and power-the triple crown, the purple robe, and the gilded throne, followed in close succession by the uncouth and hideous symbols of bigotry and persecution-the gibbet, the wheel, the thumbscrew, and the rack! What a tangled web must that be which interweaves such incongruous materials as these emblems and instruments of corruption, cruelty, and pride, with the pure, amiable, and meek religion of Jesus! Nevertheless, it will be our aim, in the following narrative, to disengage from this web one conspicuously glittering thread that gathers

its contexture, and runs through it from the beginning to the end.

The title of pope, or more correctly papa, was, in the earliest days of Christianity, spontaneously applied, by the love and reverence of believers, to those who were "over them in the Lord," and whom they justly regarded as their spiritual fathers. It was the common distinction of the presbyters and bishops from all the other members of the church, who styled each other, in the same spirit of Christian simplicity and affection, "brethren" and "sisters,” and received new converts into their communion, as new members into a family, with a fraternal kiss. Not till the eleventh century was the title of pope claimed by the bishop of Rome as his exclusive right. From that time, however, it has been generally employed to distinguish the Roman bishop from all others holding the episcopal office in the Christian church, and has been applied to such as preceded the above-named epoch, as well as to those who have more lately occupied the papal chair.

The bishops of Rome did not attain, during the first two centuries, to any high degree of pre-eminence over their brethren; and there is, therefore, considerable doubt respecting the very names of some who then sustained the pastorate of the church which apostolical labours had cultivated, though not planted, in the metropolis of the world. It is believed, however, that LINUS, mentioned by Paul when

writing from Rome to Timothy, (2 Tim. iv. 21,) and CLEMENT, (Phil. iv. 3,) whom the same apostle designates his "fellow-labourer" during the time of his imprisonment at Rome, were among the first who presided over the infant church.

In those days of primitive simplicity, there were few honours or emoluments attached to the office of a bishop, whatever of moral dignity it possessed. Revered for his character, and supported by the voluntary offerings of the devout, the bishop shared with his fellowChristians in the privations and sufferings to which most of the churches were subjected during the reigns of the persecuting emperors. He endeared himself to the people by his solicitude for both their temporal and spiritual welfare, and justly earned the honourable name of "father," by his assiduous zeal for the prosperity and happiness of his charge. In times of contagious and pestilential sickness, he often risked his own life that he might give consolation to the dying, in which noble example he was followed by the Christians generally, to the utter amazement of their pagan observers; for the latter, in visitations of the plague, would remorselessly abandon their dearest friends, casting them half dead into the streets, and leaving their bodies unburied.

It is pleasing to observe that this genuine spirit of Christianity continued to display itself, at least in some churches, till far into the third century, for we then find Cyprian, the renowned

bishop of Carthage, on occasion of a dreadful pestilence, exhorting his church to the performance of similar acts of charity. The pagans had, according to their habit, forsaken the sick and dying, and the streets were strewed with dead bodies. Cyprian called the members of his church together, and after commending them for the care they had taken of each other, said further," But if we do good only to our own we do no more than the publicans and heathens. If we are the children of God, who makes his sun to rise, and sends his rain on the just and the unjust alike, we must show it by our actions, striving to be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect; blessing those that curse us, and doing good to them who despitefully use us." Animated by such generous words, the members of the church quickly divided the work among them. The rich gave their money, the poor their labour, and in a short time the streets were cleared of their ghastly incumbrances, and the city was set free from the plague.

The city of Rome was far from being the most important centre of Christianity in those early times. Antioch especially, and many other eastern cities, took precedence of it as places of Christian resort; and the authority of the church of Antioch, in questions of doctrine or discipline, was highly esteemed, even before the Roman church could be said to have been thoroughly established. The earlier bishops of Rome, therefore, occupy no prominent place in

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Books

The lives of the popes, Volumes 1-2