century witnessed the development and spread of monasticism, for which Egypt afterwards became famous. One reason why the Church in Egypt increased more rapidly and developed on more stable foundations than it did in many other countries, was the fact that the Bible was translated into at least three Coptic dialects, of which the oldest, the Upper Egyptian, dates from the second half of the third century. The earliest monks in the Nitrian desert probably possessed copies of the Bible in their own language. Abyssinia was converted to the Christian faith in the fourth century, the first bishop being Frumentius, who was consecrated by Athanasius. In the sixteenth century the country was overrun by Moslem forces who burned all the Christian churches, and Abyssinian Christianity today incorporates many Moslem customs and some Moslem teachings. Among those present in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost were Jews "from the parts of Libya about Cyrene". It is possible that some of these acted as the first Christian missionaries to north-west Africa. Before the end of the second century the Church of Carthage was firmly established and was apparently more vigorous than the churches of Rome or Alexandria. In north-west Africa, as in Italy, the majority of the early converts were won from those who had come into contact with Greek or Roman culture. Their numerical increase may be roughly gauged by the increase in the number of Christian bishops. Harnack reckons the number of bishops in north-west Africa in A. D. 200 as between seventy and ninety, in A. D. 250 as nearly one hundred and fifty, in A. D. 300 as hardly less than two hundred and fifty, and in A. D. 400 as about six hundred. When in the seventh century the forces of Islam spread over north-west Africa, they eventually swept out of existence this Church which had been one of the largest churches in Christendom. It has been suggested that the complete disappearance of this Church can best be explained by the fact that it had been conspicuously lacking in missionary zeal, and had failed to make any serious effort to commend its faith to the native tribes of the interior. In support of this suggestion it may be pointed out that the voluminous writings of the two great bishops of north-west Africa, Cyprian of Carthage and Augustine of Hippo, apparently contain no references to the duty of evangelizing these natives. While it is dangerous to rely upon negative evidence, and the traces of ancient Christianity found in the interior of Tunis and Algeria suggest at least a possibility of the former existence of churches recruited from the native tribes, it is impossible to deny that missionary enthusiasm, especially during the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, was at a low ebb, or contest the statement that a Church which makes no effort to do missionary work is itself in danger of its life. Two other reasons which may be alleged to account for the disappearance of the Church are its failure to translate the Bible into the language spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of the country, and the internecine quarrels that long disgraced the Christians of north-west Africa prior to the destruction of their Church. CHAPTER XXXV MISSIONS IN THE BALKAN PENINSULA The chief missionary effort of the early Church was directed towards the West, and by the year A.D. 1000 the Western countries, as far north as Scandinavia, had all come within the Christian pale. Most of these countries had formerly been under Roman rule, but had now fallen back into barbarism. It was the missionaries who prepared the way for a new and higher civilization. Wo E learn from the New Testament that before the end of the first century Christian communities had been established at Philippi; Thessalonica and Berea in Macedonia; Nicopolis in Epirus; Athens, Corinth, and Cenchrea in Greece; and in Illyria and Dalmatia. Two centuries later the number of bishoprics in Greece was not less than twenty, but of the means by which the Christian faith had been spread we know nothing. In Greece the majority of the pagan temples remained intact till nearly the end of the fourth century. At Sardica, the modern Sofia, a Church council was held in 343. At the end of the fourth century the Goths, who had recently become Christians, overran Greece and destroyed most of its temples, including those of Olympia and Eleusis. In 531 the Emperor Justinian issued a decree ordering all the people of Greece to be baptized and threatening with death those who continued to worship idols. The Goths, who in the middle of the fourth century were living in what is now northern Serbia and Bulgaria, and in the districts immediately north of the Danube were converted to the Christian faith chiefly as a result of the labors of Ulfilas. After his death in 381 no further attempts appear to have been made to convert the inhabitants of Bulgaria, and the Christian |