The Winning of the Countryside1

W. H. C. Frend

doi:10.1017/S0022046900070263

The Winning of the Countryside1

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

W. H. C. Frend

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W. H. C. Frend: Affiliation:
University Lecturer in Divinity and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

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The Christian ministry of bishops, priests and deacons is essentially an urban one. It developed in the two generations after the fall of Jerusalem when the Church, though practically destroyed in Palestine, emerged as a religious and cultural force among the synagogues of the Dispersion. These were predominantly urban communities, and their organisation had developed accordingly. Except, however, for the final phase in Jerusalem, Jesus's message had been directed almost exclusively to the inhabitants of rural Palestine. The Greek cities he had passed by: he had preached in the territory of Caesarea Philippi, but not in Caesarea itself (cf. Mk. viii. 27) and the illustrations for his parables were drawn from the daily life of the Palestinian countryside. In this paper I propose to trace briefly how this message ultimately penetrated the countryside of the Graeco-Roman world and beyond, and to suggest how its inhabitants, finding the plain words of Jesus's teaching more intelligible than the philosophic commentaries of the urban Christians, may have played their part in shaping the development of thought and doctrine in the early Church.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , April 1967 , pp. 1 - 14

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900070263 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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References

^{page 1 note 2} Reported in Newsweek, 10 February 1964, to be published fully by Y. Yadin.

^{page 2 note 1} Pliny, Ep., x. 96. 9 and 10.

^{page 2 note 2} Ibid., 10.

^{page 2 note 3} Acta Justini (ed. Knopf, and Krüger, , Tübingen 1929), ivGoogle Scholar. In general, see the author's article, ‘A note on the influence of the Greek immigrants on the spread of Christianity in the West’, Mullus (= Festschrift Th. Klauser, 1964), 125–9.

^{page 2 note 4} For instance, Socrates, Hist. Ecc., iv. 28.

^{page 2 note 5} The best account of Montanism is still to be found in de Labriolle, P., La crise montaniste, Paris 1913Google Scholar.

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^{page 2 note 7} E.g. Papias cited in Irenaeus, Adv. Haereses, v. 33. 3–4; Eusebius, H.E., iii. 39. 13.

^{page 3 note 1} Eusebius, H.E., v. 19. 3.

^{page 3 note 2} Calder, W. M., ‘Philadelphia and Montanism’, Bull, of John Rylands Library, vii (1923), 309 ff.CrossRef Google Scholar, and for a defence of these inscriptions as Montanist, see ‘Early Christian Epitaphs in Phrygia’, Anatolian Studies, v (1955), 27–31Google Scholar.

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^{page 3 note 4} Dura, Preliminary Excavation Report, Yale University 1933–52, iv. 105–19.

^{page 3 note 5} Ibid., v. 238 ff. and vi. 309 ff.

^{page 4 note 1} CIL., viii. 10570. See Charlesworth, M. P., ‘Providentia and Aeternitas’, Harvard Theological Review, xxix (1936), 119Google Scholar.

^{page 4 note 2} Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua, viii. 424.

^{page 4 note 3} For the spread of Christianity in the third century eastwards beyond the Roman frontier, see the evidence collected by Mingana, A., ‘The Early Spread of Christianity in Central Asia and the Far East’, Bull, of John Rylands Library, ix (1925), 297–371 (especially 300 ff.)CrossRef Google Scholar.

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^{page 4 note 5} Gregory of Nyssa, De Vita Gregorii Thaumaturgi: P.G., xlvi. 909C and 954D (only 17 pagans on his death whereas there had been only 17 Christians on his arrival!).

^{page 4 note 6} Ibid., 954C

^{page 4 note 7} Theodoret, Graecorum affectionum curatio, viii: P.G., lxxxiii. 1033. For a similar retention of traditional rites by the Church, connected with rain-making, Acta Archelai, 2.

^{page 5 note 1} Acts of Sharbil (printed in A.N.C.L. xx. ii, Syriac Documents, 56–60). See also, F. C. Burkitt's comments in Cambridge Ancient History, xii. 499–500.

^{page 5 note 2} For instance in my ‘The Failure of the Persecutions in the Roman Empire’, Past and Present, xvi (1959), 10–30Google Scholar and in ch. xiv of my Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church, Oxford, 1965Google Scholar.

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^{page 5 note 5} Athanasius, Vita Antonii, 16.

^{page 6 note 1} Eusebius, Martyrs of Palestine (ed. Lawlor and Oulton), viii. 1; cf. xi. 7.

^{page 6 note 2} Note inter alia the ‘Donatus miles’ inscription from Henchir Bou Said illustrated in DACL., s.v. ‘Circumcellions’, and in general, my The Donatist Church, Oxford 1952, 171 ffGoogle Scholar.

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^{page 6 note 4} Socrates, Hist. Eccl., i. 13.

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^{page 7 note 1} Vita Pachomii, iv: P.L., lxxiii. 233.

^{page 7 note 2} Gesta apud Zenophilum (ed. Ziwsa, CSEL., xxvi), 187. Silvanus the sub-deacon who was elected bishop of Cirta in 305 was strongly supported by the country people round about Cirta (ibid., 196).

^{page 7 note 3} Sozomen, Hist. Eccl., v. 15. 14. Hilarion himself had been born in Thabatha, a village south of Gaza, of pagan parents, but converted in Egypt c. 310.

^{page 7 note 4} Theodoret, Historia religiosa, xvii: P.G., lxxxii. 1421–3.

^{page 7 note 5} Ibid., xxviii.

^{page 7 note 6} Pilgrimage of Etheria (Eng. tr. McClure and Feltoe), 36–9.

^{page 7 note 7} Libanius, Pro Templis (ed. van Loy, R., Byzantion, viii (1933), 7–39Google Scholar) 8.

^{page 8 note 1} Theodoret, Hist. Eccl., v. 29: P.G., lxxxii., 1257.

^{page 8 note 2} Ambrose, Ep., xli. 27: P.L., xvi. 1120.

^{page 8 note 3} J. Leipoldt, Schenute von Atripe (Texte und Untersuchungen, xxv, Leipzig 1904), 175–81.

^{page 8 note 4} Augustine, Contra Epistolam Parmeniani, i.ix. 15: P.L., xliii. 44 and Contra Gaudentium 1. 28. 32: ibid., 725: ‘Vovebant autem Pagani iuvenes idolis suis quis quot occiderent’.

^{page 8 note 5} John of Ephesus, Vitae sanctorum, Orationes, xl, xliii and xlvii and Hist. Eccl., ii. 44. See Jones, A. H. M., The Later Roman Empire, Oxford 1964, 939Google Scholar.

^{page 8 note 6} Augustine, Enarratio in Ps. 88, Sermo ii. 14: P.L., xxxvii. 1140.

^{page 9 note 1} Socrates, Hist. Eccl., ii. 22.

^{page 9 note 2} Ibid., i. 6, and Epiphanius. Panarion, lxviii. 4. 1. For the strength of the Meletian movement among the Copts, see Hardy, E. R., Christian Egypt: Church and People, Oxford 1952, 53Google Scholar.

^{page 9 note 3} The title of E. L. Woodward's work on the character of religious dissent in the fourth and fifth centuries (London 1916).

^{page 9 note 4} Or. Grace. Insc. sel., 608. See Harnack, A., ‘Die älteste Kircheninschrift’, Sitzungsberkhte der Kgl. preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 28 Oct. 1915, 746–66Google Scholar.

^{page 9 note 5} Theodoret, Hist. Eccl., v. 31.

^{page 9 note 6} Theodoret, Epp., lxxxi, civ, cxiii: P.G., lxxxiii. 1259, 1261, 1298, 1316.

^{page 9 note 7} Epiphanius, Panarion, Iviii. 1. 1.

^{page 9 note 8} As shown by the hoard of Manichaean documents found at Medinet Madi in 1931.

^{page 9 note 9} See the Novatianist inscriptions discussed by Leclercq, H., ‘Novatiens’ in DACL xii. 2, 1758–9Google Scholar, as well as the Montanist inscriptions published by W. M. Calder, loc. cit.

^{page 10 note 1} I have summarised the evidence in my ‘Influence of Greek Immigrants on the Spread of Christianity in the West’, Mullus, 125–9.

^{page 10 note 2} Augustine, Ep., xciii, 43.

^{page 10 note 3} See my ‘Religion in Roman Britain during the Fourth Century’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 3rd series, xviii (1955), 11Google Scholar.

^{page 10 note 4} R. E. M., and Wheeler, M. V., Lydney Park (Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries, ix) Oxford 1932, 60 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 10 note 5} Wheeler, R. E. M., Maiden Castle (Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries, xii) Oxford 1943, 75Google Scholar. The original temple dated to 367 or later.

^{page 10 note 6} Gildas, De Excidio (ed. Th. Mommsen, Chron. Minora, iii), 9: ‘licet ab incolis tepide suscepta sunt’ (praecepta Christi).

^{page 11 note 1} Sulpicius Severus, Vita Sancti Martini (ed. Halm, CSEL. i), 13. 9: ‘immo paene nulli in illis regionibus Christi nomen receperant’. See H. Leclercq, ‘Paganisme’, DACL, xiii, 1, 329–34.

^{page 11 note 2} Ibid., 14. 3.

^{page 11 note 3} Ibid., 15.

^{page 11 note 4} Ibid., 12. 2.

^{page 11 note 5} Bede, Hist. Eccl., ii. 13.

^{page 11 note 6} See L. de Vesly, Les Fana ou les petits temples gallo-romains de la région normande, Rouen 1909, 78 and 113.

^{page 11 note 7} Bede, HE., i. 26.

^{page 11 note 8} Ibid., iii. 4. On the validity of the traditions preserved in Bede and Aelred concerning the life of Ninian, see Chadwick, N. K., ‘St. Ninian: a Preliminary Study of Sources’, Trans, of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, xxvii (1950)Google Scholar; Thompson, E. A., Scottish Historical Review, 1958Google Scholar; Anderson, M., St. Ninian, London 1964Google Scholar (somewhat uncritical).

^{page 12 note 1} Nennius, Historia Brittonum, xli (ed. Th. Mommsen, Chronica Minora, iii, 129).

^{page 12 note 2} G. H. Doble, ‘Saint Congar’, Antiquity, xix (1945), 32 ff., 85 ff.

^{page 12 note 3} Bowen, E. G., ‘The Settlements of the Celtic Saints in South Wales’, Antiquity, xix (1945), 175CrossRef Google Scholar. See also, the same author's ‘The Travels of the Celtic Saints’, ibid., xviii (1944), 16 ff.

^{page 12 note 4} Fawtier, R., ‘La Vie de Saint-Sampson’, Bibl. de l'École des Hautes Études, cxcvii (1912), 60Google Scholar, and Vita (ed. Fawtier, ibid., cc. 48–9).

^{page 12 note 5} He got a poor reception there, especially from the local king and his consort; Vita, 55–8.

^{page 12 note 6} Letters of Vigilius, bishop of Trent, to Simplicianus of Milan: P.L., xiii. 549–58. Their mission was to a ‘barbarian nation’ where Christian peace was ‘new’.

^{page 12 note 7} Maximus of Turin, Sermo, ci: P.L., lvii. 734 A.

^{page 12 note 8} H. Leclercq, ‘Paganisme’, in DACL., xiii. i, 359.

^{page 13 note 1} Gregory of Tours, Liber Vitae Patrum xvii (De Sancto Nicetio), Mon. Germ. Hist. Scriptorum rerum Merovingicarum, i. 732–33: ‘soluseram inter illam rusticorum multitudinem christianus’.

^{page 13 note 2} Council of Serdica, Canon 6. Discussed by Hess, H., The Canons of the Council of Serdica, Oxford 1958, 101 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 13 note 3} Leo, Ep. xii. 10: P.L., liv. 654.

^{page 13 note 4} Levison, W., England and the Continent in the Eighth Century, Oxford 1946, 66–8Google Scholar.

^{page 13 note 5} Godfrey, C. J., The Church in Anglo-Saxon England, Cambridge 1962, 53–7Google Scholar.

^{page 13 note 6} Sozomen, Hist. Eccl., viii. 19. For eastern Syria, see Theodoret, Ep., cxvi.

^{page 13 note 7} Synesius, Epp., lxvii and lxxvi. In general, A. H. M.Jones, Later Roman Empire, 877.

^{page 13 note 8} See Jones, A. H. M., The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, Oxford 1937, 184–6Google Scholar.

^{page 14 note 1} Canon 14 of the Council of Neocaesarea.

^{page 14 note 2} Canon 13 of the Council of Ancyra (c. 314) and Canon 10 of the Council of Antioch (341).

^{page 14 note 3} The phrase is Brisson, J. P.'s in Autonomisme et Christianisme dans l'Afrique romaine, Paris 1958, 325 ffGoogle Scholar.

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