MISSIONS, CHRISTIAN, FOREIGN (ante). The foundation of the work of mis sions is the command of Christ given to his disciples immediately before his ascension, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Tracing the apostles and early Christians in their fulfillment of this_command, we find at the close of the 1st c. many large churches in Asia Minor, Macedonia, Italy, Greece, and the islands of the Mediterranean, and in Northern Africa. In the beginning of the 2d c. the per secutor Pliny, in his official report to toe emperor Trajan, says: "Many persons of every rank are accused [of Chriatianityl. Nor has the contagion of this superstition pervaded cities only, tut the villages and open country." Justin Martyr, A.D. 100, says, " There is not a nsticn, Grzet or barbarian among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and Creator in the name of the crucified Jesus," Tertullian, in his "Apology" about the middle of the 2d c. says, "Though of yesterday, we have filled every sphere of life•the exchange, tiro camp, the populace, the palace, the forum." Such an extension of Christianity in the face of stripes, imprisonment. and death. speaks strongly for the missionary zeal of early times; •t the 2d and 3d centuries we find that missionaries have been successful in Gaul, southern Germany, Arabia, and Ethiopia. Early in the 4th c. Constantine, constrained by the prevalence of Christianity among all classes of his people, immediately subsequent to the terrible persecution by Diocletian, published, A.D. 312, his edict of toleration throughout the Roman empire. There is evidence that the Nestorians began in the 4th c. and for a thousand years carried on missions in central and eastern Asia. But no missions were more successful in these early times than those from Ireland to continental Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries. In the 5th c., the gospel was preached in Ireland by Patrick, who, born of Christian parents, and instructed in the gospel. having been twice taken captive by pirates, and carried to Ireland as a slave,-felt impelled, after escaping the second time, to return to the land of his bondage, and make known there the gospel. He preached with such power that the island became nominally Christian before his death. Born in France, or in Scotland, he was ordained in France; he seems to have had no close attach ment to the Roman church; and his successors long resisted the efforts of the pope to bring them under control. He established schools for educating the people in the gospel, and for training a native ministry and missionaries. At his death there were in Ireland ninny of these institutions, from which missionaries went forth in the 6th and 7th centuries to evangelize the barbarians of central Europe. Here also they established many schools, one of which was at Erfurt, where Luther studied centuries later. Columba went in the 6th c. from the institution of Bangor, Ireland (sometimes con founded with Bangor in Wales), with 12 associates, founded the celebrated school in Iona, which attained a high reputation for biblical studies, and from which missionaries went to the northern and southern Picts of Scotland, to the eastern coast of England, and to the European continent. Columbanus from the same institution took 12 young men, and carried the gospel to the Burgundians, Franks, Swiss, and Italians; also to the Bavarians and other Germanic nations. His pupil Gallus, also an Irishman, was the
apostle of Switzerland. Neander says that when Columbanus entered Germany at the close of the 7th c. it was almost wholly heathen, but before 720 the gospel had been proclaimed by himself and his countrymen, and "all the German tribes were obedient to the faith as taught by the Irish missionaries." "Their teachings," as shown by Ebrard, "consisted in reading the Scriptures in the original text, translating them wherever they went, expounding them to the congregations, and recommending their diligent perusal. These were their only rule of faith." These missions and institutions were in the 8th c. absorbed by the Roman church, and in the 12th c. the Irish clergy were subjected to its sway. Iceland, Christianized in the 10th c., sent out missionaries in the exploring ships of the Norsemen, and is believed to have carried the first knowledge of Christ to the Greenlanders in the 12th century. • Returning to the Roman empire we find that the cessation of persecution, though most just and beneficent, opened the way for evils which hitherto had lacked opportu nity of development. The state having become reconciled to the church, the church in turn became reconciled to the state, caught its spirit and imitated its modes. Christ had said to his disciples, " The princes of the Gentiles exercise authority, but it shall not be so among you." The church lost sight of this, and pastors, who had hitherto served the dock, and won honor by their service, began to change the crook into the rod. Not at once, or rapidly, but gradually the spirit of domination grew. Those who gained po,vei sought to extend it by increasing the number of nominal converts, and proselytism rather than conversion became the passion of the time. Gregory the Great in 596 sew Augustine with 40 monks to effect the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. The Irish mis slims from the school of Iona had already introduced the gospel along the eastern shorn. of England. Ethelbert, king of Kent, had married a Christian princess, and yielding ts, the eloquence of Augustine, or the persuasions of his wife, was baptized. Many of his subjects followed his example, 10,000 being received into the church on one occasion. Augustine was made archbishop, and claimed to govern the older Christian churches, :IS well as his own converts. Those churches indignantly objected, saying, "We are all prepared to hearken to the pope of Rome and to every pious Christian, so as to manifest to all perfect charity. What other duty we owe to him whom you call pope, we do not know." The influence of Augustine with the Saxon kings, however, gave him the advantage in the contest, and before the Norman invasion few ventured to dissent from the Roman forms of worship. In 718 Gregory II. sent Boniface to Germany, not so much to convert heathen as to bring over to the Roman see the churches which had received the gospel through missionaries from Ireland, Burgundy, and Byzantium. Thenceforward the secular arm was often used for the extension of the faith, and where power was lacking for coercion, resort was often had to other measures which were at utter variance with the spirit of Christianity.