may be expected that, to many, the first two chapters will prove more tedious than the rest of the work. In the second Period, while it has been my principal object to give a full account of all those fathers, who, during that time, advocated or favored Universalism, I have also aimed to present a correct view of the opinions entertained, the meanwhile, by the christian world at large, on that point. In the third Period I have pursued nearly the same course; leaving, however, the common sentiment of the church concerning the doctrine in question, to be gathered from the controversies and quarrels which then occurred, and which I have minutely described. Thus far, I may venture to pronounce the History complete, in one sense: it contains an account of every individual of note, whom we have now the means of knowing to have been a Universalist.

In the Appendix the plan is very different, as a regular and connected history of Universalism, from the Fifth General Council to the Reformation, is, with me, utterly impracticable. Here, therefore, nothing but a sketch is attempted, pointing out those traces of the doctrine, which I have happened to discover in the course of reading.

I would also take this opportunity, once for all to apprize my readers of the sense in whichthey will find certain terms and phrases used in the following work. The title, bishop, is supposed to have signified, at first, only the chief minister of a city, or territory; though afterwards it became confined in its application to a distinct and superior order of clergy. By the popular terms orthodox and heretic, I mean, not the true and the false creed, but the predominant, or catholic, and the dissenting, or anathematized. To conclude, I have frequently spoken of the Western or Latin Churches, in distinction from the Eastern or Greek; though they were not actually separated from each others' communion, till the ninth century.

Roxbury, Oct. 22d, 1828.

THE

ANCIENT HISTORY

OF

UNIVERSALISM

CHAPTER I.

[From A. D. 90, to A. D. 150.]

A. D. 90.] I. Ar the date with which this history begins, none of the apostles are supposed to have been alive, except the venerable St. John, who then resided, at a very advanced age, in the great city of Ephesus. St. Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome, more than twenty years before; and St. James the Great, and St. James the Less, at Jerusalem, still earlier. Of the deaths of the other apostles, nothing can be pronounced with confidence, notwith-" standing the accounts of their martyrdom, given by some ancient writers, and adopted by many of the moderns.

Nor must we pretend to define the extent to which Christianity had now spread; as, on this subject, it is often impossible to distinguish the true from the fabulous accounts of early historians. It is, however, prob

able that some churches were established in most of the Roman provinces, especially in the eastern. But the number of professed christians must still have been very small in proportion to the whole mass of community, and composed, with some exceptions, of the lower classes of people. The rich and the noble were, for the most part, attached to the ancient forms and institutions; and the men of great learning, and those of refined genius, did not wander, as indeed they seldom do, from the limits of that popular course where they might find reward, or at least hope for admiration.

The Christians were, nevertheless, not an obscure sect. Their religion was so novel, so different from every other, and they were so zealous and successful in its cause, that it drew much attention wherever it was established. It was not, indeed, very well understood by the public at large; nor did it escape considerable misrepresentations among its particular enemies. These injurious misrepresentations operated, undoubtedly, to countenance the complaints of the heathen priests, who felt their long unmolested repose disturbed by the growing desertion of their temples, and neglect of their services. Still it must be remarked, that the christians had suffered very little persecution, except slander, since the death of the cruel Nero, more than twenty years before. But the time drew near when they were

a. Plinii Epist. 97. Lib. x. and Taciti Annal. Lib. xv. cap. 44. Afterwards, or towards the year 150, we find the most outrageous calumny heaped upon the christians: they were commonly called Atheists; and all sorts of licentiousness, even such as cannot, for decency's sake, be mentioned in the present age, were charged upon them. To refute and expose these slanderous falsehoods, was a grand object with several of the early christian writers.