then
systems of philosophy, and their then traditional instruction, wrote to
them at Philippi,[81] "Beware lest any man spoil you through {73}
philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments
(or elements) of this world, and not after Christ." Then St. Paul, guarding
the early Christians so carefully, writes to the faithful in Thessaly, "Now
we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye
withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not
after the tradition which ye have received _of us_,"[82] &c. When St. Paul
preached on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to
break bread, it was in an upper chamber where they were gathered
together.[83] At an earlier date, the first day of the week after the
crucifixion, in the evening, "when the doors were shut where the disciples
were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst,"
&c.[84] When Pliny was proconsul in Judea, such charges were made against
the Christians on account of their secrecy, as caused severe persecution,
not for matters of religion, but for supposed cannibalism. He writes to
Trajan, that he took all pains to inform himself as to the character of the
Christian sect. To do this he questioned such as had for many years been
separated from the Christian community, but though apostates rarely speak
well of the society to which they formerly belonged, he could find out
nothing. He then applied torture to two female-slaves, deaconesses, to
extort from them the truth. After all, he could learn only that the {74}
Christians were in the habit of meeting together on a certain day; that
they then united in a hymn of praise to their God, Christ; and that they
bound one another--not to commit crimes, but to refrain from theft, from
adultery, to be faithful in performing their promises, to withhold from
none the property intrusted to their keeping; and then separated and
afterward assembled at a simple and innocent meal.[85]

Evidently, the Christian mysteries were preserved secret from the Romans as
from the Jews, or such crime could never have been imputed to them.
Alluding to the secret traditional instruction prevalent in Judea and
adopted by the early church, St. Augustin writes, "You have heard the great
mystery. Ask a man, 'Are you a Christian?' He answers you, 'I am not.'
'Perhaps you are a pagan, or a Jew?' But if he has answered 'I am not;'
then put