The  honourable  history  and  the  steadfast  loyalty  of  the
Pergamenian  Church,  however,  had  been  tarnished  by  the
error  of  a  minority  of  the  congregation,  which  had  been
convinced  by  the  teaching  of  the  Nicolaitans.  This  school
of  thought  and  conduct  played  an  important  part  in  the


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum     299

Church  of  the  first  century.  Ephesus  had  tried  and  rejected
it;  the  Smyrnaean  congregation,  despised  and  ill-treated  by
their  fellow-citizens,  had  apparently  not  been  much  affected
by  it ;  in  Pergamum  a  minority  of  the  Church  had  adopted
its  principles  ;  in  Thyatira  the  majority  were  attracted  by
it,  and  it  there  found  its  chief  seat,  so  far  as  Asia  was
concerned.  Probably  the  controversy  with  regard  to  the
Nicolaitan  views  was  fought  out  and  determined  in  Asia
more  decisively  than  in  any  other  Province,  though  the
same  questions  must  have  presented  themselves  and  de-
manded an  answer  in  every  Province  and  city  where  the
Graeco-Roman  civilisation  was  established.  The  character
of  this  movement,  obscure  and  almost  unknown  to  us,
because  the  questions  which  it  raised  were  determined  at
so  early  a  date,  will  be  most  conveniently  treated  under
Thyatira  ;  but  it  is  necessary  here  to  point  out  that  it  was
evidently  an  attempt  to  effect  a  reasonable  compromise
with  the  established  usages  of  Graeco-Roman  society  and
to  retain  as  many  as  possible  of  those  usages  in  the  Chris-
tian system  of  life.  It  affected  most  of  all  the  cultured
and  well-to-do  classes  in  the  Church,  those  who  had  most
temptation  to  retain  all  that  they  could  of  the  established
social  order  and  customs  of  the  Graeco-Roman  world,  and
who  by  their  more  elaborate  education  had  been  trained
to  take  a  somewhat  artificial  view  of  life  and  to  reconcile
contradictory  principles  in  practical  conduct  through  subtle
philosophical  reasoning.
