--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Talmage, James Edward collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 13 number: 1 published: 1909-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'James E. Talmage, "The Great Apostasy," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 1 (November 1909): 1–12.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1301unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1301unse start_page: 1 end_page: 12 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1301unse publication_year: 1909 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Great Apostasy IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. NOVEMBER, 1909. No. 1. The Great Apostasy. -• Considered in the Light of Sacred and Secular History. BY DR. JAMES E. TALMAGE. [The Great Apostasy is a new forthcoming work of ten chapters, by Dr. James E. Talmage. By kind permission of the author, the Improvement Era is permitted here to present to its readers chapter 6, which relates to the internal causes of the apostasy. Many are the demands that have been made for a book treating upon this important subject. Its appear- ance now is especially timely since the Young Ladies' M. I. A. classes are this year studying the apostasy. We are confident this book will satisfy the demand and meet the want and requirements of students as well as general readers who are looking for a short, yet pointed and pronounced, historical and scriptural exposition of "The Great Apostasy." Chapter 6 here given is as it will appear in the book, except that paragraph headings are omitted here. Preceding chapters deal with: 1. "The establishment of the Church by Jesus Christ;" 2. The Great Apostasy predicted;" 3. "Beginnings of the Apostasy;" 4. "Ex- ternal causes of the Apostasy;" and chapters following the sixth are 7, 8, 9, "Internal causes of the Apostasy;" 10. "Sequel to the Great ' Apostasy. ' —Editors.] CAUSES OF THE APOSTASY — INTERNAL CAUSES. The cruel persecution to which the adherents of Christianity and the Church as an organized body were subjected during the Copyright by James E. Talmage, 1909. 2 IMPROVEMENT ERA. first three centuries of our era have been treated as external causes, contributing at least indirectly to the general apostasy. Details of Judaistic and heathen opposition have been given with sufficient fulness to show that the unpopular Church had a troubled existence, and that such of its members as remained faithful to the tenets and principles of the gospel were martyrs in spirit if not in fact. As would naturally be expected, the immediate effect of per- sistent persecution on those who professed a belief in the divinity of the Lord Jesus was diverse and varied; indeed it ranged from un- restrained enthusiasm expressed in frenzied clamoring for martyr- dom, to ready and abject apostasy with ostentatious display of de- votion in idolatrous service. Many of the Christian devotees developed a zeal amounting to mania, and, disregarding all prudence and discretion, gloried in the prospect of winning the martyr's crown. Some who had been left unassailed felt themselves aggrieved, and became their own accusers, while others openly committed acts of aggression with intent to bring resentment upon themselves.* These extravagances were doubtless encouraged by the excessive veneration accorded the memories and the bodily remains of those who had fallen as victims in the cause. The reverential respect so rendered devel- oped later into the impious practice of martyr worship. Commenting on the imprudent enthusiasm of the early Chris- tians, Gibbon says: "The Christians sometimes supplied by their voluntary dec- laration the want of an accuser, rudely disturbed the public ser- vice of paganism, and, rushing in crowds round the tribunal of the magistrates, called upon them to pronounce and to inflict the sen- tence of the law. The behavior of the Christians was too remark- able to escape the notice of the ancient philosophers; but they seem to have received it with much less admiration than astonish- ment. Incapable of conceiving the motives which sometimes trans- ported the fortitude of believers beyond the bounds of prudence and reason, they treated such an eagerness to die as the strange See note 1, end of -chapter. THE GREAT APOSTASY. 3 result of obstinate despair, of stupid' insensibility or of supersti- tious frenzy." * But there is another side to the picture. While imprudent zealots invited dangers from which they might have remained ex- empt, others, affrighted at the possibility of being included among the victims, voluntarily deserted the Church and returned to heathen allegiances. Milner, speaking of conditions existing in the third century, and incorporating the words of Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who lived at the time of the incident described, says: "Vast numbers lapsed into idolatry immediately. Even before men were accused as Christians, many ran to the forum and sacri- ficed to the gods as they were ordered; and the crowds of apos- tates were so great, that the magistrates wished to delay numbers of them till the next day, but they were importuned by the wretched suppliants to be allowed to prove themselves heathens that very night." f In connection with this individual apostasy of Church members under the pressure of persecution, there arose among the pro- vincial governors a practice of selling certificates or "libels" as these documents were called, which "attested that the persons therein mentioned had complied with the laws and sacrificed to the Roman deities. By producing these false declarations, the opulent and timid Christians were enabled to silence the malice of an informer, and to reconcile, in some measure, their safety with their religion." $ A modification of this practice of quasi-apostasy consisted in procuring testimonials from persons of standing, certifying that the holders had abjured the gospel; these documents were presented to the heathen magistrates, and they, on receipt of a specified fee, granted exemption from the requirement of sacrificing to the pagan gods.§ As a result of these practices, whereby under favorable cir- cumstances the wealthy could purchase immunity from persecu- * Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapt. 16. t Milner, Ch. Hist., Cent. Ill, chapt. 8. % Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapt. 16. § See Milner, Hist, of the Ch., Cent. Ill, chapt. 9. . 4 IMPRO VEMENT ERA tion, and at the same time maintain a semblance of standing in the Church, much dissension arose, the question being as to whether those who had thus shown their weakness could ever be received again into communion with the Church. Persecution at most was but an indirect cause of the decline of Christianity and the perversion of the saving principles of the gospel of The greater and more immediate dangers Christ. threatening the Church must be sought within the body itself. Indeed, the pressure of opposition from without served to restrain the bubbling springs of internal dissension, and actually delayed the more destructive eruptions of schism and heresy.* A general review of the history of the Church down to the end of the third century shows that the periods of comparative peace were periods of weakness and decline in spiritual earnest- ness, and that with the return of persecution came an awakening and a renewal in Christian devotion. Devout leaders of the people were not backward in declaring that each recurring period of per- secution was a time of natural and necessary chastisement for the s n : and corruption that had gained headway within the Church.f As to the condition of the Church in the middle of the third century, Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage thus speaks: "If the cause of our miseries be investigated, the cure of the wound may be found. The Lord would have his family to be tried. And because long peace had corrupted the discipline divinely re- vealed to us, the heavenly chastisement hath raised up our faith, which had lain almost dormant: and when, by our sins, we had de- served to suffer still more, the merciful Lord so moderated all things, that the whole scene rather deserves the name of a trial than a persecution. Each had been bent on improving his patri- mony; and had forgotten what believers had done under the apos- tles, and what they ought always to do: — they were brooding over the arts of amassing wealth :-^the pastors and the deacons each forgot their duty: Works of mercy were neglected, and discipline was at the lowest ebb. —Luxury and effeminacy prevailed: Mere- tricious arts in dre.^s were cultivated: Frauds and deceit were * See note 2, end of chapter, t See note 3, end of chapter. DR. JAMES E. TALMAGE. 6 IMPROVEMENT ERA. practiced among brethren. — Christians could unite themselves in matrimony with unbelievers; could swear not only without rever- ence, but even without veracity. With haughty asperity they despised their ecclesiastical superiors: They railed against one an- other with outrageous acrimony, and conducted quarrels with determined malice: — Even many bishops, who ought to be guides and patterns to the rest, neglecting the peculiar duties of their stations, gave themselves up to secular pursuits: — They deserted their places of residence and their flocks: They traveled through distant provinces in quest of pleasure and gain; gave no assistance to the needy brethren; but were insatiable in their thirst of money: — They possessed estates by fraud and multiplied usury. What have we not deserved to suffer for such a conduct? divine word hath foretold us what we might expect, — Even the 'if his chil- dren forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, I will visit their offenses with the rod, and their sin with scourges.' These things had been denounced and foretold, but in vain. Our sins had brought our affairs to that pass, that because we had despised the Lord's directions, we were obliged to undergo a correction of * our multiplied evils and a trial of our faith by severe remedies." Milner, who quotes approvingly the severe arraignment of the Church in the third century as given above, cannot be charged with bias against Christian institutions, inasmuch as his declared purpose in presenting to the world an additional "History of the Church of Christ" was to give due attention to certain phases of the subject slighted or neglected by earlier authors, and notably to emphasize the piety, not the wickedness, of the professed fol- lowers of Christ. This author, avowedly friendly to the Church and her votaries, admits the growing depravity of the Christian sect, and declares that toward the end of the third century the effect of the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit had become exhausted, and that there remained little proof of any close re- lationship between Christ and the Church. Note his summary of conditions: "The era of its actual de- clension must be dated in the pacific part of Diocletian's reign. During this whole century the work of God, in purity and power, As quoted by Milner, 'History of the Church, Cent. Ill, chapt. 8. THE GREAT APOSTASY. 7 had been tending^to decay. The connection with philosophers was one^of the principal causes. Outward peace and secular advantages completed the corruption. Ecclesiastical discipline, which had been too strict, was now relaxed exceedingly; bishops and people were in a state of malice. Endless quarrels were fomented among contending parties, and ambition and covetousness had in general * gained the ascendency in the Christian Church. The faith of Christ itself appeared now an ordinary business; and here terminated, or nearly so, as far as appears, that first great effusion of the Spirit of God, which began at the day of Pentecost. Human depravity effected throughout a general decay of godliness; and one generation of men elapsed with very slender proofs of the spiritual presence of Christ with his Church." * If further evidence be wanted as to the fires of disaffection smoldering within the Church, and so easily fanned into destruc- tive flame, let the testimony of Eusebius be considered with re- spect to conditions characterizing the second half of the third century. And, in weighing his words, let it be remembered that he had expressly recorded his purpose of w riting in defense of the r Church, and in support of her institutions. He bewails the tran- quility preceding the Diocletian outbreak, because of its injurious effect upon both officers and members of the Church. These are his words: ''But when by excessive liberty we sunk into indolence and sloth, one envying and reviling another in different ways, and we were almost, as it were, on the point of taking up arms against each another, and were assailing each other with words, as with darts and spears, prelates inveighing against prelates, and people rising up against people, and hypocrisy and dissimulation had arisen to the greatest heights of malignity, then the divine judgment, which usually proceeds with a lenient hand, whilst the multitudes were yet crowding into the Church, with gentle and mild visita- tions began to afflict its episcopacy; the persecution having begun * with those brethren that were in the army. * But some that appeared to be our pastors, deserting the law of were inflamed against each other with mutual strifes, only piety, accumulating quarrels and threats, rivalry, hostility, and hatred Milner, Hist, of the Church, Cent. Ill, chapt. 17, 8 IMPROVEMENT ERA. to each other, only anxious to assert the government as a kind of sovereignty for themselves." * As further illustrative of the decline of the Christian spirit toward the end of the third century, Milner quotes the following observation of Eusebius, an eye-witness of the conditions de- scribed. "The heavy hand of God's judgments began softly, by little * and little, to visit us after his wonted manner; but we were not at all moved with his hand, nor took any pains to return to God. We heaped sin upon sin, judging like careless Epicureans that God cared not for our sins, nor would ever visit us on account of them. And our pretended shepherds, laying aside the rule of godliness, practiced among themselves contention and division." He adds that the "dreadful persecution of Diocletian was then inflicted on the Church as a just punishment, and as the most proper chastisement for their iniquities." f It will be remembered that the great change whereby the Church was raised to a place of honor in the state, occurred in the early part of the fourth century. It is a popular error to assume that the decay of the Church as a spiritual institution dates from that time. The picture of the Church declining as to spiritual power in exact proportion to her increase of temporal influence and wealth has appealed to rhetoricians and writers of sensational literature; but such a picture does not present the truth. The Church was saturated with the spirit of apostasy long before Constantine took it under his powerful protection, by according it official standing in the state. In support of this statement, I quote again from Milner, the avowed friend of the Church: "I know it is common for authors to represent the great declension of Chris- tianity to have taken place only after its external establishment under Constantine. But the evidence of history has compelled me to dissent from this view of things. In fact we have seen that for a whole generation previous to the [Diocletian] persecution, few marks of superior piety appeared. Scarce a luminary of godliness * Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., Book VIII, chapt. 1. See note 4, end of chapter. f Milner, Hist, of the Church, Cent. Ill, chapt. 17. . THE GREAT APOSTASY. 9 existed; and it is not common in any age for a great work of the Spirit of God to be exhibited but under the conduct of some re- markable saints, pastors, and reformers. This whole period as well as the whole scene of the persecution is very barren in such characters. * * Moral and philosophical and mon- astical instructions will not effect for men what is to be expected from evangelical doctrine. And if the faith of Christ was so much declined (and its decayed state ought to be dated from about the year 270), we need not wonder that such scenes as Eusebius hints at without any circumstantial details, took place in the Christian world. * * He speaks also of the ambitious spirit of many, in aspiring to the offices of the Church, the ill judged and unlawful ordinations, the quarrels among confessors them- selves, and the contentions excited by young demagogues in the very relics of the persecuted Church, and the multiplied evils which their vices excited among Christians. How sadly must the Christian world have declined which could thus conduct itself under the very rod of divine vengeance? Yet let not the infidel or the profane world triumph. It was not Christianity, but the departure from it, which brought on these evils."* The foregoing embodies but a few of the many evidences that could be cited in demonstration of the fact that during the period immediately following the apostolic ministry —the period covered by the persecutions of the Christians by the heathen nations, — the Church was undergoing internal disintegration, and was in a state of increasing perversion. Among the more detailed or specific- causes of this ever widening departure from the spirit of the gospel of Christ, this rapidly growing apostasy, the following may be considered as important examples: 1 The corrupting of the simple principles of the gospel by the admixture of the so-called philosophic systems of the times. 2. Unauthorized additions to the ceremonies of the Church, and the introduction of vital changes in essential ordinances. 3. Unauthorized changes in Church organization and govern- ment. * Milner, Hist, of the Church, Cent. IV. chapt. 1. The Italics are introduced by the present writer. See also note 5, end of chapter. — . 10 IMPRO VEMENT ERA We shall consider in order each of the three causes here specified. NOTES. 1. — Inordinate Zeal Manifested by some of the Early Chris- tians: "The sober discretion of the present age will more readily censure than admire, but can more easily admire than imitate, the fervor of the first Christians; who, according to the lively expression of Sulpicius Sev- erus, desired martyrdom with more eagernes than his own contempora- ries solicited a bishopric. The epistles which Ignatius composed as he was carried in chains through the cities of Asia, breathe sentiments the most repugnant to the ordinary feelings of human nature. He earnestly beseeches the Romans that when he should be exposed in the amphi- theatre, they would not by their kind but unreasonable intercession, de- prive him of the crown of glory, and he declares his resolution to provoke and irritate the wild beasts which might be employed as the instruments of his death. Some stories are related of the courage of martyrs who actually performed what Ignatius had intended: who exasperated the fury of the lions, pressed the executioner to hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into the fires which were kindled to consume them, and discovered a sensation of joy and pleasure in the midst of the most exquisite tor- ture." (Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. XVI). 2. Internal Dissension During Time of Peace: As stated in the text the early part of Diocletian's reign — the period immediately preced- ing the outburst of the last great persecution to which the Christians were subjected— was a time of comparative freedom from opposition, and this period was characterized by internal disturbances and dissensions within the Church. Illustrative of the tolerance shown by the emperor before he became hostile to the Church, and the accompanying decline of spiritual earnestness among the Christians themselves, Gibbon says: "Diocletian and his colleagues frequently conferred the most important offices on those persons who avowed their abhorrence of the worship of the gods, but who had displayed abilities proper for the service of the state. The bishops held an honorable rank in the respective provinces, and were treated with distinction and respect, not only by the people, but by the magistrates themselves. Almost in every city the ancient churches were found insufficient to contain the increasing multitudes of proselytes; and in their place more stately and capacious edifices were erected for the public worship of the faithful. The corruption of man- ners and principles so forcibly lamented by Eusebius, may be considered : — THE OREA T APOSTA SY. 11 not only as a consequence, but as a proof, of the liberty which the Christians enjoyed and abused under the reign of Diocletian. Prosperity had relaxed the nerves of discipline. Fraud, envy, and malice prevailed in every congregation. The presbyters aspired to the episcopal office, which everyday became an object more worthy of their ambition. The bish- ops who contended with each other for ecclesiastical pre-eminence, ap- peared by their conduct to claim a secular and tyrannical power in the church; and the lively faith which still distinguished the Christians from the Gentiles, was shown much less in their lives than in their controversial writings." (Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. XVI). 3. The Effect of Peace on the Early Church. "Disastrous as the persecutions of the early Christian centuries were, still more mischiev- ous to the Church were those periods of tranquility which intervened be- tween the outbursts of rage which prompted them. Peace may have her victories no less renowned than those of war; and so, too, she has her calamities, and they are not less destructive than those of war. War may destroy nations, but ease and luxury mankind corrupt — the body and the mind. Especially is peace dangerous to the church. Prosperity relaxes the reins of discipline; people feel less and less the need of a sustaining providence; but in adversity the spirit of man feels after God, and he is correspondingly more devoted to the service of religion. We shall find the early Christians no exception to the operation of this in- fluence ofrepose. Whenever it was accorded them, either through the mercy or the indifference of the emperors, internal dissensions, the intrigues of aspiring prelates, and the rise of heresies, characterized those periods." (B. H. Roberts, A New Witness for God, p. 70). 4. Schisms and Heresies in the Early Church. Eusebius, whose writings date from the early part of the fourth century, cites the writings of Hegesippus, who lived in the first quarter of the second cen- tury, as follows: "The same author [Hegesippus] also treats of the beginning of the heresies that arose about this time, in the following words 'But after James the Just had suffered martyrdom, as our Lord had for the same reason, Simeon, the son of Cleophas, our Lord's uncle, was appointed the second bishop [of Jerusalem] whom all proposed as the cousin of our Lord. Hence they called the church as yet a virgin, for it was not yet corrupted by vain discourses. Thebuthis made a beginning, secretly to corrupt it on account of his not being made bishop. He was one of those seven sects among the Jewish people. Of these also was Simeon, whence sprung the sect of Simonians; also Cleobius, — 12 IMPROVEMENT ERA. from whence come the Cleobians; also Dositheus, the founder of the Dositheans. Prom these also sprung the Gorthoeonians, from Gorthoeus; and also Masbotheans from Masbothoeus. Hence also the Meandrians, and Marcionists, and Carpocratians and Val- entinians, and Basilidians, and the Saturnilians, every one introducing his own peculiar opinions, on3 differing from the other. From these sprung the false Christs and false prophets and false apostles,who divided the unity of the church by the introduction of corrupt doctrines against God and against his Christ.' "(Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., Book IV, chap. XXII). 5. Early Decline of the Church: Milner, summing up the con- ditions attending the church at the end of the second century, says: "And here we close the view of the second century, which, for the most part exhibited proofs of divine grace, as strong, or nearly so, as the first. We have seen the same unshaken and simple faith of Jesus, the — same love of God and of the brethren; and that in which they singu- larly excelled modern Christians — the same heavenly spirit and victory over the world. But a dark shade is enveloping these divine glories. The Spirit of God is grieved already by the ambitious intrusions of self- righteous, argumentative refinements, and Pharisaic pride; and though it be more common to represent the most sensible decay of godliness as commencing a century later, to me it seems already begun." (Milner; Hist. of the Church, Cent. II, chap. IX). Mosheim, writing of conditions attending the closing years of th3 third century, says: The ancient method of ecclesiastical government seemed in general still to subsist, while, at the same time, by impercep- tible steps, it varied from the primitive rule and degenerated towards the form of a religious monarchy. * * * This change in the form of ecclesiastical government was soon followed by a train of vices, which dishonored the character and authority of those to whom the adminis- tration of the church was committed. For, though several yet contin- ued to exhibit to the world illustrative examples of primitive piety and Christian virtue, yet many were sunk in luxury and voluptuousness, puffed up with vanity, arrogance and ambition, possessed with a spirit of contention and discord, and addicted to many obher vices that cast an undeserved reproach upon the holy religion of which they were the un- worthy professors and ministers. This is testified in such an ample man- ner by the repeated complaints of many of the most respectable writers of this age, that truth will not permit us to spread the veil, which we should otherwise be desirous to cast over such enormities among an order so sacred. The bishops assumed in many places a princely au-