Chapter XXXVII: Section 4: Intellectual Development in the Church

[Sidenote: Christian learning developed in peace.]

This portion of the History of the Church, comprising as it does the first period in which the master-minds within her fold were left free by the cessation of outward persecution to resist the increasing attacks of heresy, may be looked upon as offering to our view the greatest intellectual development which the Church has experienced since the times of the Apostles. [Sidenote: The Fathers.] Learned and eloquent men abounded, "mighty in the Scriptures" and "steadfast in the Faith," and their commentaries and sermons have come down to us as an abiding heritage and a continual witness to the teaching of the Church in early times. St. Athanasius, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, and St. Augustine, are but a few out of many whose writings are still held in honour by our own as well as by every other branch of the Catholic Church.

[1] A General Council is the highest possible way in which the voice of the Church can be heard. But its authority is much increased by the fact that to become really a _general_ Council its decrees must be generally received by the Christian world. This was the case with the first six General Councils, but has not been entirely so with any similar gatherings of later ages.

[2] That part of the Creed which follows the words, "I believe in the Holy Ghost," was added later.

[3] The subsequent addition in the clause, "Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son," will be noticed later.

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