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DIVISION I

EARLY CHRISTIANITY OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE

 

(a) Eusebius; Socrates; Sozomen; Theodoret; Philostorgius; Aphraates, Homilies; Auxentius; Jornandis, Roma et Getica (edited by Mommsen), 1882.

(b) Harnack, Expansion of Christianity, Book iv. chap. iii.; Neale, Patriarchate of Antioch, pp. 40, 74–78, 114–133, 146–150; Duchesne, Les Missions Chrétiens au sud de l'empire Romain, 1896; C. A. Scott, Ulfilas, the Apostle of the Goths, 1885; Bessell, Ueber das Leben des Ulfilas, etc., 1860.

 

Before proceeding to sketch in brief outline the continuous story of the various Eastern Churches down the ages till our own day, it may be well to revert to the earliest period of the spread of Christianity in the outer world, and gather up the chief events in connection with the origin and growth of primitive churches beyond the confines of the Roman Empire. Much of this is shrouded in the mists of legend; but even that fact comes into history because the mere existence of the legends is significant, as an indication of the condition of the contemporary districts to which they refer. If we come upon the story of the conversion of any place, we may be sure that Christianity was well established there at least by the time when that story was afloat, however fantastic it may be in itself. While we cannot accept the alleged correspondence between Jesus Christ and King Abgar recorded by Eusebius,^[1] or place any reliance on his account of the labours of Thomas and Thaddæus, the flourishing condition of Christianity in Edessa in the second century, when Tatian produced his Harmony for the use of

1. Hist. Eccl. i. 13.

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