Church History - The Third Century

The Christian Church lived in relative peace from the death of Marcus Aurelius (185) to the time of the Emperor Decius (249). When Decius came to power, he inaugurated a universal persecution of Christians throughout the whole empire. The persecutions by Decius were continued in force by Valerian (253-260). During this time, not only were the Christians forced to sacrifice to the imperial gods, but the clergy were sought out to be killed and all Christian properties were to be confiscated and destroyed. There was an all-out attempt to purge the Church of its leadership and to destroy it completely.

After Valerian, however, Gallienus, his son, stopped the policy of general persecution and the Christians once more lived in relative peace until the end of the century. During this period, there was an astounding growth in Church membership which perhaps reached up to ten percent of the population of the empire.

The Lapsed

The persecutions by Decius and Valerian, as well as the peaceful times which preceded and followed, brought a great interior crisis to the Christian Church in the third century. The question arose about what to do with those Christians who denied Christ under the threat of torture and execution, and who lapsed from Christian life into sin in times of peace. The maximalists in the Church urged that there could be no repentance for grave sins committed after baptism. They denied repentance to those who "lapsed" from the Christian life and opposed the bishops who agreed to allow the repentance and readmittance of sinners to Holy Communion after periods of penance. Thus, there were a number of schisms in the Church which caused some people to leave the Church for what they considered to be a more pure and rigorous form of Christianity. Among those who left was Tertullian d.c. 220), the great father of Latin theology in North Africa, and a prolific writer of Christian treatises of every kind. Tertullian joined the heretical movement of Montanus which began in the end of the second century and claimed to be the church of the "new prophecy" of the Holy Spirit which was more perfect than that of the "second testament" of Christ.

The great defender of the Catholic Church at this time was Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage (d. 258), who nimself died a martyr's death after opposing the so-called "pure" Church of Novatian in Rome which opposed the reintegration of the "lapsed" into the communion of the Church. Although a great reader of the theology of Tertullian, Cyprian defended the Catholic Church of the apostolic and episcopal succession against the spiritualistic "pure" churches of the self-styled maximalists. He insisted that the Church, as Christ, exists to save sinners and that "outside of the Church there is no salvation." (Letter 73):

"Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith? Does he who strives against and resists the Church trust that he is in the Church . . .? This unity we ought to hold and assert, especially those of us that are bishops who preside in the Church, that we may also prove the episcopacy to be one and undivided . . . The episcopate is one, each part of which is held wholly by each one. The Church also is one . . ." (On the Unity of the Church 4, 5)

"It is not possible to have God as Father who does not have the Church as mother." (On the Unity of the Church 6)

"He is not a Christian who is not in the Church of Christ." (Letter 55)

Development of Theology

The third century also witnessed the emergence of the first formal school of Christian theology. It was located in Egypt, in Alexandria, founded by Pantaenus, developed by Clement (d.c. 215), and crowned by the outstanding theologian and scholar Origen (d. 253). Whereas Tertullian, the father of Latin theology, absolutely rejected any alliance between "Athens" and "Jerusalem," that is, between pagan philosophy and Christian revelation, the Alexandrians insisted that Greek philosophy was a sound preparation for the Christian Gospel and that the truths of the pagans could be and should be united to and fulfilled in the truths of the Christian faith. Thus, Origen wrote to his disciple Saint Gregory the Wonderworker:

"I desire you to take from Greek philosophy those spheres of knowledge which are potentially an introduction to Christianity, and whatever information from geometry and astronomy may serve to explain the sacred books . . ."

The work of Origen was phenomenal. He wrote numberless treatises on many themes. He did the first truly systematic and literary studies of the books of the Bible. His work laid the foundation for virtually all subsequent Greek theology in the Church. Much of the teaching of Origen was judged by the Church to be false, however, and, because of its persistence among his disciples, its author was formally condemned by the fifth ecumenical council in the year 553.

Among the theologians of the third century who must be mentioned with Tertullian, Cyprian, Clement and Origen are Dionysius of Alexandria (d. 265). Hippolytus of Rome (d. 235), Gregory the Wonderworker in Cappodocia (d.c. 270) and Methodius of Olympus (d. 311). All of these men developed Orthodox Christian theology, and particularly laid the foundation for the doctrine of the Holy Trinity which would cause such controversy in the fourth century. Paul of Samosata and Lucian of Antioch also lived at the end of the third century and are known for their "heretical teachings concerning the Trinitarian character of God.

Liturgical Development

Writings also exist from the third century which give an insight into the canonical and liturgical life of the Church of this time. These are the so-called Teachings of the Apostles from Syria, and the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome (d. 235) who wrote in Greek. The former gives regulations concerning the hierarchal offices and the sacramental practices in the Church of Syria, and describes the liturgical assembly. The latter also gives similar information, in a more engthy and detailed way about the Church in Rome. It contains the text of the oldest fixed eucharistic prayer in Church history that we possess, as well as the form for the sacraments of baptism, chrismation and ordination.

From: Bible and Church History by Fr. Thomas Hopko, Dept. of Religous Education - Orthodox Church in America, Crestwood, New York