{
  "bookName": "HISTORY OF THE MISSIONS",
  "authorName": "BERNARD DE VAULX",
  "publisherName": "HAWTHORN BOOKS PUBLISHERS",
  "publicationYear": 2026,
  "chapterNumber": 2,
  "chapterName": "The Roman Empire and Its Border Territories",
  "pageFrom": 19,
  "pageTo": 29,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 19,
      "ocrText": "CHAPTER II\nTHE ROMAN EMPIRE AND\nITS BORDER TERRITORIES\nWe should know nothing of the Christian centres founded\nthroughout the Empire from the beginning of the second cen-\ntury onwards, were it not for a few passages dealing with the\nattitude of the imperial authority towards them. In the begin-\nning this attitude was generally one of contempt based on the\nproud certitude that Graeco-Roman civilization had an out-\nstanding, universal and imperishable value. It did not order\npersecutions a priori; it left Christians the choice between\nacceptance of the official worship or death. It is by means of\nthe documents which give an account of the application of these\nregulations that we are able to follow the first trials and the\nfirst victories of Christianity.\nWere it not for the terrible persecution of 177, we should\ncertainly not know that it had taken firm enough root in the\nLyons region to give seven martyrs to the Church of Gaul:\nBlandina, Biblis, Pothinus, bishop of Lyons and a native of\nAsia Minor (he was ninety years old at the time), Maturus,\nSanctus, Ponticus and Attalus (?). Irenaeus, Pothinus' suc-\ncessor, a Greek and also a native of Asia, suffered martyrdom\nabout the year 200. A passage from one of his letters gives us\na useful summary of the situation of Christianity in the early\nyears of the third century. \"There are divers languages in the\nworld, but the tradition of the faith is everywhere the same.\nThe belief of the Churches of Germany is in no way different",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 20,
      "ocrText": "20\nTHE ROMAN EMPIRE AND ITS BORDER TERRITORIES\nfrom that of those in Iberia or among the Celts, or from that\nof those in Egypt and Palestine.\"\nExcept during the reigns of Decius, Valerian and Diocletian,\nwho openly persecuted the Christians, the third century was\non the whole a period of toleration. The Edict of Valerian,\nwithdrawing from the Christians the right to form burial boards\nwhich had been granted to them by Septimius Severus, was\nespecially directed against the upper classes. Christianity was\ntherefore making sufficient progress to worry the public\nauthorities. The philosopher Porphyry (233-304), a commen-\ntator and disciple of Plotinus, drew attention to this and was\nscandalized by it: \"We come across them [the Christians]\neverywhere.\" Diocletian ordered the death penalty for civil\nservants who refused to abjure the Christian faith. Constantius\nChlorus far from adopting the same attitude showed prefer-\nence for these recalcitrant people. In his view, their resistance\nwas a proof of their uprightness and fidelity. Lactantius men-\ntions a town in Phrygia where all the inhabitants, including\nthe civil and military chiefs and all the civil serv servants, were\nChristians.\nEgypt and the part of Africa corresponding to the modern\nTunisia were Christian. Christianity had taken root in Illyricum\n(now Yugoslavia), in Britain, along the Moselle, at Trier and\nMetz, along the Rhine (Cologne), at Lutetia, Rheims and in\nSpain.\nThe situation varied from province to province. Christians\nwere in the majority in Asia Minor, southern Thrace, Cyprus,\nArmenia and the kingdom of Edessa. Their numbers equalled\nthose of the pagans in Syria, Egypt, Greece, central and\nsouthern Italy, in proconsular Africa, southern Gaul and Spain.\nTheir number was small in Palestine, Phoenicia, Arabia, the\nDanubian provinces, northern and eastern Italy, Mauritania\nand Tripolitania. Finally, they were only a tiny minority in the\nformer Philistia, on the north and north-west coasts of the\nBlack Sea, in the extreme north-west of Italy, the centre and\nnorth of Gaul, Belgium, Germany and Britain.",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 21,
      "ocrText": "THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND ITS BORDER TERRITORIES\n21\nConstantine's victory over Maxentius (312) brought in its\ntrain the public recognition of Christianity. The attempted\nrejuvenation and humanization of paganism made by Julian\nthe Apostate, who was Emperor from 361 to 363, came to\nnothing. Gratian (375-83) refused the title of Pontifex Maxi-\nmus, which his predecessors, including Constantine, had borne.\nThe last defender of paganism, Symmachus, prefect of Rome,\ntried about the year 383 to restore the altar of the tutelary\ngoddess of the city in the Senate House. Two years previously,\na considerable number of senators had rejected a similar\nrequest and made it clear that they would no longer go to the\nSenate House if it were complied with. St Ambrose had only\nto recall this precedent for Symmachus' motion to be defeated.\nIt was Ambrose who told the Emperors how they should\nbehave in regard to Church affairs. A few years later, Theo-\ndosius promulgated anti-pagan legislation. Paganism, devoid\nof faith, as Mgr Batiffol has written, and increasingly a mere\nmatter of form, had become secularized.\nChristianity, then, was preached to begin with by a handful\nof men, most of them very simple men. True, the Holy Spirit\ndwelt in them but who was aware of this? In slightly more\nthan three centuries Christianity had succeeded in taking root\nthroughout the Roman Empire. Bossuet considered this was\nthe result of miracles greater even than those that accompanied\nthe preaching of Jesus Christ. Miracles are God's business and\nbeyond our grasp, but the historian may legitimately examine\nthe human means used by the divine power to bring them\nabout, in a word, the play of secondary causes.\nOne of these appears in the Jewish communities which pro-\nvided the apostles with their first audiences. Side by side with\nthe resident Hebrews, there were, as the Acts tell us, Greeks,\nthat is, Hebrews who came from abroad and were not Pales-\ntinians. They were in many cases people of importance enjoy-\ning a kind of monopoly in the economic life of the Empire.\nThe Diaspora had scattered them abroad. But Rome had\ngranted them a privileged status which allowed them the free",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 22,
      "ocrText": "22\nTHE ROMAN EMPIRE AND ITS BORDER TERRITORIES\npractice of their religion. Strabo, who died in 25 B.C., said that\nit would have been difficult to find a place \"where this people\nhad not been welcomed\". Their professional activities made\nthose who became converts valuable propagators of the faith.\nWe might even say that they put Catholicism \"on the map\",\nand all the more successfully because they were in the main\nincomparable apostles.\nIn any case, the characteristic mark of the early Church was\nthe apostolic zeal of its converts, whether of Jewish or pagan\norigin, patricians or members of the lower classes (and these\nwere by far the most numerous). Pagan writers whose evidence\ncannot be gainsaid provide us with this information. Celsus is\none example with his description of what he had seen in\nRoman families. He despised the Christians both because of\ntheir inferior social status and because they could neither read\nnor write, and he shows them insinuating themselves into the\npatrician families to do their work of conversion:\nAs soon as they can take to one side the children or a few\nwomen as senseless as themselves, they begin to exhibit their\nwonderful wares. They are the only people worth believing. The\nfather of the family and its teachers are gasbags, dunderheads,\nunable either to know what is good or to achieve it. [The bolder\nspirits do not hesitate to egg the children on to rebellion. They\nare to cast off their masters as soon as they can and listen to\nthe good news] in the wool carder's, the cobbler's and the\nlaunderer's work places. There they will learn perfect wisdom.\nThis is the way the Christians set about gaining converts.\nThe work of conversion was confined to one spot in the case\nof some while for others it was done from place to place as is\nmade clear in the following passage from Eusebius of\nCaesarea's Ecclesiastical History:\nThey [the converts] began by following the Saviour's advice\nand distributing their goods to the poor. Then leaving their\ncountry behind them, they went forth to fulfil their mission as\nevangelists, their ambition to preach the word of faith to those\nwho had as yet heard nothing of it, and to hand on the books",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 23,
      "ocrText": "THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND ITS BORDER TERRITORIES\n23\nof the divine Gospels. They were content to lay the foundations\nof the faith among foreign peoples and then established other\npastors there, and to these they gave the task of nourishing\nthose they had brought to the faith. Having done so, they went\non to other lands and other nations by the grace and with the\nhelp of God.\nThe majority of these itinerant preachers have remained\nnameless, like all the saints whom the Church glorifies on the\nfirst of November. Yet a few are known to us: Timothy, son\nof a Jewish mother and a Greek father and the best loved of\nSt Paul's companions; Titus, a Greek whom the great apostle\nmade responsible for the collection at Corinth on behalf of the\n\"saints\" in Macedonia; Lucian, a Roman priest who exercised\nhis zealous apostolate in the Beauvais district. It is believed\nthat Diocletian ordered him to be beheaded about the year\n290. Then there is St Sebastian, a soldier, who had chosen a\nmilitary career so that he might help persecuted Christians\nwithout exciting suspicion. Diocletian tolerated him for a long\ntime because of his eminent professional qualities, but then,\nexasperated by his ardent faith, ordered him to be beaten to\ndeath. We may also mention St Hilary who fought against the\nArian heresy far beyond the limits of his own diocese. And\nthere are so many more we could name!\nChristianity made its first appearance as it was propagated\nalong the Roman roads by missionaries or simply by converts\nof various types, soldiers, civil servants, merchants in the\nconvoys sent out by the Roman power. The effort at evangeliza-\ntion during the first half of the third century was confined to\nthe Provincia Narbonensis and the north-eastern region crossed\nby the roads which went from Lyons towards Paris, Rheims\nand Trier. The latter city was the most important administra-\ntive and military centre on the boundary of the limes. On the\nother hand, the western area from the Pyrenees to the North\nSea was neglected for the time being. As Canon Griffe points\nout in his book La Gaule chrétienne à l'époque romaine\n(Toulouse, 1947), bishops \"from Rome or elsewhere\" naturally",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 24,
      "ocrText": "24\nTHE ROMAN EMPIRE AND ITS BORDER TERRITORIES\ndid their work in the districts that were most romanized \"or\nat least where the Roman or Eastern element was most in\nevidence\". Meanwhile, therefore, there was no question of a\nnative episcopate. Trier had a bishop as early as the third\ncentury, says Canon Griffe. The date of the earliest known\nbishop of Autun, Reticius, is 313, but he probably had one or\neven several predecessors.\nOpinions vary as to the number of bishops in Gaul during\nthe fourth century. The more prudent scholars give thirty-four\nas the figure for the year 346. In any case, at about this time\nthe network of dioceses was fairly close-knit and Christianity\nwas sufficiently rooted in the towns to allow a beginning to be\nmade in the evangelization of the country districts.\nThis new apostolate found itself up against a different kind\nof paganism from that of the towns. It arose from and was\nsustained by the hopes and fears awakened in the peasant mind\nby the elements of water, fire, earth and heaven, and it was\npart and parcel of every act in men's lives and hence all the\nmore difficult to eradicate. St Martin waged a successful war\nagainst it. The Life by Sulpicius Severus, which Fr Monceaux\nconsidered to be \"a historical document\", gives us an idea of\nwhat the apostolic \"rounds\" of the bishop of Tours were like.\nIn the story of the destruction of a sacred tree we see him at\nwork, not alone but surrounded by monks, in a township where\nstood a very ancient temple. St Martin was able to have it\ndemolished without encountering any opposition. But when he\nordered the sacred pine tree to be felled, a clamour arose and\nall his efforts to convince the peasants that a tree-trunk could\nhave nothing divine about it were of no avail.\nA pagan then ventured to say: \"If you have any confidence\nin the God you say you adore, we will cut down this tree our-\nselves, only on condition that you stand underneath it when it\nfalls. If your Lord is with you as you claim he is, you will\nescape.\" St Martin allowed himself to be put where the people\nwanted him to be. Just as the pine was about to crush him, he\nlifted his hand and the tree \"was hurled back as though by the",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 25,
      "ocrText": "THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND ITS BORDER TERRITORIES\n25\nforce of a whirlwind\" and fell on the opposite side so that \"the\npeasants who thought they were safe\" only just avoided being\nground to powder. A great cry rose heavenwards, continues\nSulpicius Severus, the pagans were dumbfounded, the monks\nwept for joy. So great was the shock that there was scarcely\nanyone \"unwilling to abandon the errors of impiety\".\nSeveral details are worth nothing in this episode. First of all\nthe failure of the bishop when he tried to make his audience\nunderstand that a tree-trunk could not possess any divine\nattributes. Nothing however justifies us in thinking that he\nfound it difficult to preach a doctrinal sermon. Sulpicius\nSeverus is anxious, on the contrary, to assure us, as against\ncertain ill-intentioned contemporaries of his, that St Martin's\nwords were \"full of learning\" and his eloquence generous and\npure. He adds: \"Doubtless this is a tribute of little value when\nwe think of St Martin's virtues, but the amazing thing is that\nthis particular merit should have been found in an unlettered\nman.\" But as far as the rude and superstitious audience to\nwhom he was speaking was concerned, his arguments were far\nless effective than the manifestations of power. Hence the\nchange of attitude that took place when they saw the pine\nmove away from the bishop and threaten themselves.\nThe characteristic mark of St Martin's apostolate was the\nabundance of miraculous gifts with which he was favoured, still\nmore the understanding love he showed towards the peasants.\nIt caused him to limit to the strictly necessary minimum the\nsacrifices he demanded of them and the renunciations he im-\nposed. Once they had become believers, what point was there\nin causing them pain or in humiliating them? Hence St Martin\ndid not hesitate to have a church built near the spring or the\nclearing which had formerly been venerated and to which their\npagan fathers and they themselves had come. There was\nnothing to stop them returning to it on the days on which\nthey had been accustomed to visit it since Christianity had\ntaken the place of paganism in their minds and at the very\nplaces where they had been in the habit of meeting.",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 26,
      "ocrText": "26\nTHE ROMAN EMPIRE AND ITS BORDER TERRITORIES\nOutside the Empire and long before its dissolution, Christian\ncommunities had been established during the first four cen-\nturies of the Christian era and almost exclusively in Asia.\nThe boundary of the Empire at the end of the second century\nfollowed the upper basin of the Tigris and rejoined the\nEuphrates in the middle of its course and so included north-\nwestern Mesopotamia. These Aramean lands gave a hearty\nwelcome to Christianity. In about the year 200, the kingdom\nof Osrhoene, whose capital was Edessa, became Christian.\nSoon after, the reformed and militant Mazdean religion set up\na vigorous resistance but was unable to prevent Christianity\nreaching Ctesiphon on the Tigris and from establishing out-\nposts as far as the Persian Gulf by the end of the fourth\ncentury, and even in peninsular India where it is said to have\nbeen introduced by St Thomas.\nIn Armenia about the year 300, a solitary apostle, Gregory\nthe Illuminator, converted Tiridates II. The aristocracy and\nthe common people followed the example of their sovereign.\nSoon after, thanks to the learned monk Mesrob, Armenia had\na translation of the Bible in its own dialect and even obtained\nits own liturgy.\nIn Georgia, a slave woman of unknown nationality who is\ncalled by her Christian name alone, Nina (cristiana), seems to\nhave played a part similar to that of Clotilda among the\nFranks. Her reputation as a miracle worker, founded on several\namazing cures, came to the ears of the queen who was wasting\naway because of a mysterious disease. She called her to her\nbedside but Nina refused to come. The queen came to her and\nwas healed. She and Mirian the king offered her presents which\nshe refused saying: \"The only thing that can bring me pleasure\nis for you and the king to accept the Christian religion.\" The\nqueen was converted but the king delayed his own decision\nuntil, threatened by death while hunting, he promised like\nClovis at Tolbiac to be baptized if he were spared.\nUlfilas, well known for his translation of the New Testament\ninto the Gothic dialect, converted the Goths who had settled",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 27,
      "ocrText": "THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND ITS BORDER TERRITORIES\n27\nin the Dobrudja along the lower Danube. Later, several of his\ndisciples fell into Arianism and introduced it to the West\nduring their mass invasion.\nCatholicism spread to the south of the Iranian Empire\nthrough the Syrian desert to the tribes of queen Mawia who\nwere evangelized by the monk Moses in the reign of the\nemperor Valens, and in the following century to certain tribes\nof the Yemen.\nNone of these solitary apostles had turned his attention to\nAbyssinia but eventually two Tyrians were taken by force to\nthat country. Their names were Frumentius and Edesius. The\nEthiopians had massacred the whole crew of the ship that had\nbrought them to Africa and they were the sole survivors. They\nhad been spared on account of their youth and innocence.\nTheir captors offered them to the king at Axum. He made\nEdesius his butler and Frumentius his treasurer. After the\nking's death Frumentius went to St Athanasius and begged him\nto appoint a bishop in Abyssinia. The patriarch of Alexandria\nreplied: \"Who is more full of the Holy Spirit than you your-\nself? Who is more suited to undertake this responsibility?\"\nFrumentius received episcopal consecration, returned to\nEthiopia and established Christianity there.\nGregory the Illuminator, Nina, Frumentius, Moses, Ulfilas\nwere all solitary apostles. The first four based their apostolate\non the conversion of the sovereign. All were foreigners in the\ncountries they christianized. Some had been taken to these\nplaces by force and all, at least to begin with, acted without any\nmandate. In this respect they illustrate the essentially mis-\nsionary character of the early Church. These converts and we\nmay learn a lesson from them-regulated their behaviour and\ntheir whole life in accordance with the words of the Psalm,\n\"because I have believed, I have spoken\", and this even when\nthere was grave danger in so doing.\nIreland, the only Western country outside the boundaries of\nthe Empire to receive the Gospel, was evangelized by a man\nof the same type and the same fervour as the others. Patrick too",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 28,
      "ocrText": "28\nTHE ROMAN EMPIRE AND ITS BORDER TERRITORIES\nwas a solitary apostle and a \"displaced person\". About the\nyear 405, Scots pirates (the Irish were called Scots at the\ntime) during a raid on the south-west coast of Britain had\ncaptured him and then sold him as a slave in Ireland where\nfor a time he was a shepherd. Patrick had been brought up a\nCatholic. After six years of slavery, he managed to escape and\ncrossed to the Continent. The trial he had endured had revived\nhis somewhat lukewarm faith and he went to make a retreat at\nLérins after which he returned to his native land.\nBut it was Ireland he wanted to evangelize. Before going\nthere, he crossed the Channel once more and asked the bishop\nof Auxerre for the diaconate. Meanwhile Palladius, the bishop\nsent by Pope Celestine to the Scots, had died. It is not even\ncertain that he ever reached Ireland. Patrick, after consecration\nby St Germanus of Auxerre, was appointed to succeed Palladius\n(432).\nThus began one of the most extraordinary missions of that\ntime, even if we confine ourselves to authenticated facts and\nleave to one side the mass of legendary episodes. The Irish,\nunder the influence of abundant charismatic gifts comparable\nto those enjoyed by St Martin, renounced the druids and their\nceremonies just as the peasants of Touraine had forsaken their\nidols.\nAfter some ten years devoted to this miraculous apostolate,\nPatrick returned for the third time to the Continent which had\nbeen everywhere overrun by the barbarians during the preced-\ning half-century. He had evidently in no sense abandonedor\nso it would seem-the pressing urge to move about from place\nto place that apparently possessed the clerics of that time.\nTrue, Patrick's goal was Rome and his intention, a wholly\nspiritual one, was to strengthen the ties between the Christian\ncommunities of Ireland and the papacy. On his return he estab-\nlished his episcopal see at Armagh about the year 444. During\nthe remaining ten years of his life he was to complete the con-\nversion of Ireland and make it \"the island of saints\".\nThe Church of Ireland is peculiar in the sense that it",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 29,
      "ocrText": "THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND ITS BORDER TERRITORIES\n29\ndeveloped in a country that had not been colonized by Rome.\nFor the first time in the West, Catholicism had come into\ndirect contact with a religion with customs and institutions\nthat owed nothing to the Graeco-Roman civilization which so\nmany considered the most favourable environment for the\nestablishment of Catholicism. And it had won a complete\nvictory. The first mission to Ireland therefore developed in\nsurroundings comparable to those which were to be encoun-\ntered by modern missions. This is only a detail and should not\nmake us forget the common and essential characteristic of all\nthe Christian communities during the first few centuries. In\nIreland, as elsewhere, their founders all hastened to place them\nin the charge of bishops.\nThe propagation of the Gospel, Mgr Batiffol has written,\nwas \"a multiplication of Churches analogous to a proliferation\nof cells\". And their proliferation took place for the most part\nwithout any intervention on the part of Rome-another charac-\nteristic of the early Churches. When the barbarians were\nevangelized during the following period, missionaries in our\nsense of the word were to appear on the scene, missionaries,\nthat is, who were envoys of the papacy.",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}