DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4680#0154
1. CHRISTIANS AND PAGANS. 485
better than they would otherwise have been. In several points his
results have modified or guided my opinion; in many his indepen-
dent agreement has strengthened my confidence in my own results.
M. Cumont had not seen the articles on Early Chr. Monuments in
Phrygia I-V, which I wrote in the Expositor some years ago ; and
the agreement in our main views1 may perhaps be considered as
a proof that they are natural and necessary inferences from the facts.
M. Cumont has included in his Catalogue only those inscr. which
he counts certainly Chr., a prudent and wise restriction. I have had
the advantage of a wider range of facts (possessing several unpublished
inscr. which throw some important side-lights on the problem); and
the attempt will here be made to show that several inscr. which
he left out of his list may be either reckoned as probably Chr. or
suspected. In the former case they are printed among the Chr. inscr. ;
in the latter they are placed among the non-Chr., but the suspicion
is stated and justified.
The progress of our knowledge tends, in general, to push back
the dates which I at first ventured to name. In several cases the
' third ' has to be substituted for the ' fourth ' century, and the ' second'
for the ' third.' Desirous not to exaggerate the antiquity of the docu-
ments, I erred sometimes in stating too late a date.
Christianity, when establishing itself amid an alien society, did not
immediately re-make the whole fife and manners of its converts. They
continued to live in many respects as before : they were characterized
by most of the habits, and some, or many even, of the faults, of their
old life and of the society in which they lived. That is clearly shown
in St. Paul's letters to his early converts : it is the experience of
missionaries in pagan countries: it is the lesson we learn from
the Chr. inscriptions of Phrygia. ' It took centuries for Christianity
to disengage itself from its surroundings and to re-make society and
the rules of life2.' We find very few strictly Chr. names or social
customs in the early period; we watch the gradual creation of
a Chr. system of names during the third and fourth centuries.
Even Tertullian, who was disposed to go further than most in the
direction of separating Chr. from pagan society, speaks of the former
1 My theory there stated of the dif- given there of the typical early convert
fusion of Christianity over Phiygia from will be justified in the following chapter,
different sources is not within the I believe that the above paragraph,
scope of M. Cumont's article. One which is fundamental in this investiga-
inscr., which I admit as Chr., is not tion, is admitted in a general way by
accepted as such by him (no. 412). all. It is essentially the Pauline prin-
2 See my St. Paul p. 208 ; the picture ciple of life.
better than they would otherwise have been. In several points his
results have modified or guided my opinion; in many his indepen-
dent agreement has strengthened my confidence in my own results.
M. Cumont had not seen the articles on Early Chr. Monuments in
Phrygia I-V, which I wrote in the Expositor some years ago ; and
the agreement in our main views1 may perhaps be considered as
a proof that they are natural and necessary inferences from the facts.
M. Cumont has included in his Catalogue only those inscr. which
he counts certainly Chr., a prudent and wise restriction. I have had
the advantage of a wider range of facts (possessing several unpublished
inscr. which throw some important side-lights on the problem); and
the attempt will here be made to show that several inscr. which
he left out of his list may be either reckoned as probably Chr. or
suspected. In the former case they are printed among the Chr. inscr. ;
in the latter they are placed among the non-Chr., but the suspicion
is stated and justified.
The progress of our knowledge tends, in general, to push back
the dates which I at first ventured to name. In several cases the
' third ' has to be substituted for the ' fourth ' century, and the ' second'
for the ' third.' Desirous not to exaggerate the antiquity of the docu-
ments, I erred sometimes in stating too late a date.
Christianity, when establishing itself amid an alien society, did not
immediately re-make the whole fife and manners of its converts. They
continued to live in many respects as before : they were characterized
by most of the habits, and some, or many even, of the faults, of their
old life and of the society in which they lived. That is clearly shown
in St. Paul's letters to his early converts : it is the experience of
missionaries in pagan countries: it is the lesson we learn from
the Chr. inscriptions of Phrygia. ' It took centuries for Christianity
to disengage itself from its surroundings and to re-make society and
the rules of life2.' We find very few strictly Chr. names or social
customs in the early period; we watch the gradual creation of
a Chr. system of names during the third and fourth centuries.
Even Tertullian, who was disposed to go further than most in the
direction of separating Chr. from pagan society, speaks of the former
1 My theory there stated of the dif- given there of the typical early convert
fusion of Christianity over Phiygia from will be justified in the following chapter,
different sources is not within the I believe that the above paragraph,
scope of M. Cumont's article. One which is fundamental in this investiga-
inscr., which I admit as Chr., is not tion, is admitted in a general way by
accepted as such by him (no. 412). all. It is essentially the Pauline prin-
2 See my St. Paul p. 208 ; the picture ciple of life.