Chapter III: Theological Science and Literature (2)

c. =Marius Victorinus= from Africa, often confounded with
the martyr of the same name (§ 31, 12), was converted
to Christianity when advanced in life, about A.D. 360,
while occupying a distinguished position as a heathen
rhetorician in Rome. He gave proof of his zeal as a
neophyte by the composition of controversial treatises
against the Manichæans, _Ad Justinum Manichæum_, and
against the Arians, _Lb. iv. adv. Arium, De generatione
divina ad Candidum, De_ ὁμοουσίῳ _recipiendo_. In his
treatise, _De verbis scripturæ_, Gen. i. 5, he shows
that the creative days began not with the evening, but
with the morning. He composed three hymns _de Trinitate_,
and an epic poem on the seven brothers, the Maccabees.

d. =Hilary of Poitiers=--_Hilarius Pictavienses_--styled
the Athanasius of the West, and made _doctor ecclesiæ_
by Pius IX. in A.D. 1851, was sprung from a noble pagan
family of Poitiers (Pictavium). With wife and daughter
he embraced Christianity, and was soon thereafter,
about A.D. 350, made bishop of his native city. In
A.D. 356, however, as a zealous opponent of Arianism,
he was banished to Phrygia, from which he returned in
A.D. 360. Two years later he travelled to Milan, in
order if possible to win from his error the bishop of
that place, Auxentius, a zealous Arian. That bishop,
however, obtained an imperial edict which obliged him
instantly to withdraw. He died in A.D. 366. The study
of Origen seems to have had a decided influence upon
his theological development. His strength lay in the
speculative treatment of the groundworks of doctrine. At
the same time he is the first exegete proper among the
Western fathers writing the Latin language. He follows
exactly the allegorical method of the Alexandrians. His
works embrace commentaries on the Psalms and the Gospel
of Matthew, several polemical lectures (§ 50, 6), and
his speculative dogmatic masterpiece _de Trinitate_
in xii. books.

e. =Zeno, bishop of Verona=, who died about A.D. 380,
left behind ninety-three _Sermones_ which, in beautiful
language and spirited style, treat of various subjects
connected with faith and morals, combat paganism and
Arianism, and eagerly recommend virginity and monasticism.

f. =Philaster=, bishop of Brescia, contemporary of Zeno, in
his book _De hæresibus_, described in harsh and obscure
language, in an uncritical fashion and with an extremely
loose application of the word heresy, 28 pre-Christian
and 128 post-Christian systems of error.

g. =Martin of Tours=,[146] son of a soldier, had before
baptism, but after his heart had been filled with the
love of Christ, entered the Roman cavalry. Once, legend
relates, he parted his military cloak into two pieces in
order to shield a naked beggar from the cold, and on the
following night the Lord Jesus appeared to him clothed in
this very cloak. In his eighteenth year he was baptized,
and for some years thereafter attached himself to Hilary
of Poitiers, and then went to his parents in Pannonia.
He did not succeed in converting his father, but he
was successful with his mother and many of the people.
Scourged and driven away by the Arian party which there
prevailed, he turned to Milan where, however, he got
just as little welcome from the Arian bishop Auxentius.
He then lived some years on the island of Gallinaria,
near Genoa. When Hilary returned from banishment to
Pictavium, he followed him there, and founded in the
neighbourhood a monastery, the earliest in Gaul. He was
guilefully decoyed to Tours, and forced to mount the
episcopal chair there in A.D. 375. He converted whole
crowds of heathen peasants, and, according to the
legend given by Sulpicius Severus and Gregory of Tours
(§ 90, 2), wrought miracle after miracle. But he was
himself with his holy zeal, his activity in doing good,
his undoubted power over men’s hearts, and a countenance
before which even the emperor quailed (§ 54, 2), the
greatest and the most credible miracle. He died about
A.D. 400 in the monastery of Marmontiers [Marmoutiers],
which he had founded out from Tours. His tomb was
one of the most frequented places of pilgrimage. He
was wholly without scholarly culture, but the force
of intellect with which he was endowed lent him a
commanding eloquence. The _Confessio de s. Trinitate_
attributed to him is not genuine.

§ 47.15.

g. =Ambrose, bishop of Milan=, sprung from a prominent Roman
family, was governor of the province of Milan. After the
death of the Arian Auxentius in A.D. 374 violent quarrels
broke out over the choice of a successor. Then a child is
said to have cried from the midst of the crowd “Ambrose is
bishop,” and all the people, Arians as well as Catholics,
agreed. All objection was vain. Up to this time only a
catechumen, he received baptism, distributed his property
among the poor, and eight days after mounted the episcopal
chair. His new office he administered with truly apostolic
zeal, a father of the poor, a protector of all oppressed,
an unweariedly active pastor, a powerful opponent of heresy
and heathenism. His eloquence, which had won him a high
reputation in the forum, was yet more conspicuous in the
service of the church. To ransom the prisoners he spared not
even the furniture of the church. To a peculiarly winning
friendliness and gentleness he added great strength of
character, which prevented him being checked in his course
by any respect of persons, or by any threatening and danger.
He so decidedly opposed the intrigues of the Arian Empress
Justina, during the minority of her son Valentinian II.,
that she, powerless to execute her wrath, was obliged to
desist from her endeavours (§ 50, 4). With Theodosius the
Great he stood in the highest esteem. When the passionate
emperor had ordered a fearful massacre without distinction of
rank, age and sex, without enquiry as to guilt or innocence,
of the inhabitants of Thessalonica on account of a tumult
in which a general and several officers had been murdered,
Ambrose wrote him a letter with an earnest call to repentance,
and threatened him with exclusion from the communion of the
church and its services. The emperor, already repenting of
his hastiness, took patiently the rebuke administered, but
did nothing to atone for his crime. Some time after he went
as usual to church, but Ambrose met him at the entrance of
the house of God and refused him admission. For eight months
the emperor refrained from communion; then he applied for
absolution, which was granted him, after he had publicly done
penance before the congregation and promised never in future
to carry out a death sentence within thirty days of its being
pronounced. Theodosius afterwards declared that Ambrose was
the only one truly deserving the name of a bishop. Ambrose
was also a zealous promoter of monasticism in the West.
In his sermons he so powerfully recommended virginity
that many families forbade their daughters attending them.
He deserves special credit for his contributions to the
liturgical services (_Officium Ambrosianum_, _Cantus Ambr._,
Hymn Composition, § 59, 4-6). On all dogmatic questions he
strongly favoured the realism of the North African school,
while in exegesis he did not surmount the allegorical
method of the Alexandrians. To the department of morals
and ascetics belong the 3 bks. _De Officiis Ministrorum_,
a Christian construction of Cicero’s celebrated work and
the most important of all Ambrose’s writings; also several
treatises in recommendation of virginity. The book _De
Mysteriis_ explains baptism and the Lord’s Supper to the
neophytes. The 5 bks. _De fide_, the 3 bks. _De Spiritu S._
and the tract _De incarnatîonis sacramento_, treat of the
fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith in opposition
to Arians, Sabellians, Apollinarians, etc. These are
somewhat dependent upon the Greeks, especially Athanasius,
Didymus and Basil. His expositions of Old Testament histories
(_Hexaëmeron_, _De Paradiso_, _De Cain et Abel_, _De Noë
et arca_, _De Abraham_, _De Jacob et anima_, etc.) are
allegorical and typical in the highest degree. More important
are his _Sermones_ and 92 Epistles. But all his writings are
distinguished by their noble, powerful and popular eloquence.

h. =Ambrosiaster= is the name given to an unknown writer
whose allegorizing Commentary on Paul’s Epistles was long
attributed to Ambrose. This work, highly popular on account
of its pregnant brevity, was perhaps the joint work of
several writers. In its earliest portions it belongs to
the age of Damasus, bishop of Rome, who died in A.D. 384,
who is named as a contemporary. Augustine names a Hilary,
not otherwise known, as author of a passage quoted from it.

i. =Pacianus=,[147] bishop of Barcelona, who died about
A.D. 390, wrote in a clear style and correct Latinity three
Epistles against the Novatians, from the first of which,
_De Catholico nomine_, is borrowed the beautiful saying:
_Christianus mihi nomen est, Catholicus cognomen_. He also
wrote a _Liber exhortatorius ad pœnitentiam_ and a _Sermo
de baptismo_.

§ 47.16. =During the Period of Origenistic Controversy.=

a. =Jerome=[148]--_Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus_--of Stridon
in Dalmatia, received his classical training under the
grammarian Donatus at Rome. In A.D. 360 he was baptized by
bishop Liberius, but afterwards fell into sensual excesses
which he atoned for by penitential pilgrimages to the
catacombs. During a journey through Gaul and the provinces
of the Rhine and Moselle he seems to have formed the fixed
resolve to devote himself to theology and an ascetic life.
Then for more than a year he stayed at Aquileia, A.D. 372,
where he formed an intimate friendship with Rufinus. He next
undertakes a journey to the East. At Antioch in a vision,
during a violent fever, placed before the throne of the
judge of all, having answered the question Who art thou? by
the confession that he was a Christian, he heard the words
distinctly uttered: Thou liest! thou art a Ciceronian and no
Christian! He then sentenced himself to severe castigation
and promised with an oath to give up the reading of the
heathen classics which he had so much enjoyed. He afterwards
indeed excused himself from the fulfilment of this twofold
obligation; but this had sealed his devotion to an ascetic
life, and the desert of Chalcis, the Syrian Thebaid, became
for him during many years the school of ascetic discipline.
Worn out with privations, penances and sensual temptations
he returned in A.D. 379 to Antioch, where he was ordained
presbyter but without any official district being assigned.
Urged by Gregory of Nazianzum [Nazianzen], he next spent
several years in Constantinople. From A.D. 382 to A.D. 385
he again lived in Rome, where bishop Damasus honoured him
with his implicit confidence. This aroused against him the
envy and enmity of many among the Roman clergy, while at
the same time his zeal for the spread of monasticism and
virginity, as well as his ascetic influence with women, drew
upon him the hatred of many prominent families (§ 44, 4). On
the death of his episcopal patron in A.D. 384 his position
in Rome thus became untenable. He now returned to the East,
visited all the holy places in Palestine, and also made
an excursion to Alexandria where he stayed for four weeks
in the school of the blind Didymus. He then settled down at
Bethlehem, founded there with the means of his Roman lady
friends an establishment for monks, over which he presided
till his death in A.D. 420; and an establishment for
nuns over which St. Paula presided, who with her daughter
Eustochium had accompanied him from Rome. As to his share
in the Origenistic controversies into which he allowed
himself to be drawn, see § 51, 2. His character was not
without defects: vanity, ambition, jealousy, passionateness,
impatience and intense bitterness in debate, are only all
too apparent in his life. But where these, as well as his
scrupulous anxiety for the maintaining of a reputation
for unwavering orthodoxy and by zeal for monasticism
and asceticism, did not stand in the way, we often find
in him an unexpected clearness and liberality of view.
Comp. § 17, 6; 57, 6; 59, 1; 61, 1. To the instructions
of the Jew Bar Hanina he was indebted for his knowledge
of Hebrew and Chaldee. The greatest and most enduring
service was rendered to the study of holy scripture by his
pioneer labours in this direction. He is at his weakest
in his dogmatic works, which mostly are disfigured by
immoderately passionate polemic. In exegesis he represents
the grammatico-historical method, but nevertheless
frequently falls back again into allegorico-mystical
explanations. His style is pure, flowing and elegant, but
in polemic often reckless and coarse even to vulgarity. In
the department of exegesis the first place belongs to his
translation of the bible (§ 59, 1). We have also a number
of Commentaries--on Genesis, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Daniel, Minor Prophets, Matthew, Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians and Philemon. His _Onomasticon s. de
situ et nominibus locorum Hebr._ is a Latin reproduction of
the Τοπικά of Eusebius. In the department of dogmatics we
have polemics against Lucifer of Calaris (§ 50, 3), against
Helvidius, Jovinian and Vigilantius (§ 63, 2), against John
of Jerusalem (§ 51, 2) and in several treatises against
Rufinus, and finally against the Pelagians (§ 53, 4). In
the department of history we have his Latin adaptation and
continuation of the second part of the Eusebian Chronicle,
his _Catalogus Scriptorum ecclest. s. de viris illustr._,
which tells in anecdotal form about the lives and writings
of biblical and ecclesiastical writers, 135 in number,
from Peter down to himself, with the avowed purpose of
proving the falseness of the reproach that only ignorant
and uncultured men had embraced Christianity. It was
afterwards continued by the Gaul =Gennadius= of Marseilles
down to the end of the fifth century. Finally, the romancing
legendary sketches of the lives of the famous monks Paul of
Thebes (§ 39, 4), Hilarion (§ 44, 3) and Malchus, were added.
His 150 Epistles are extremely important for the church
history of his times. Of his translations of the Greek
fathers only those of Didymus, _De Spiritu S._ and that
of 70 _Homilies_ of Origen, are now extant.

§ 47.17.

b. =Tyrannius Rufinus= of Aquileia after receiving baptism
lived for a long time in monastic retirement. His enthusiasm
for monasticism and asceticism led him in A.D. 373 to Egypt.
At Alexandria he spent several years in intercourse with
Didymus. He contracted there that enthusiastic admiration
of Origen which made his after life so full of debate and
strife. He next went in A.D. 379 to Jerusalem, where bishop
John ordained him presbyter. Here he found Jerome, with whom
he had become acquainted at Aquileia, and the two friends
were brought more closely together from their mutual love for
Origen, although afterwards this was to prove the occasion of
the most bitter enmity (§ 51, 2). About A.D. 397 he returned
to Italy. He died in A.D. 410. His literary activity was
mainly directed to the transplanting of the writings of
Greek fathers to Latin soil. To his zeal in this direction
we owe the preservation of Origen’s most important work Περὶ
ἀρχῶν, _De principiis_, and of no fewer than 124 Homilies.
The former, indeed, has been in many places altered in an
arbitrary manner. He also translated several Homilies of
Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, Pamphilus’ Apology for Origen,
the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions (§ 28, 3), etc. There
are extant of his own works: the Continuation of his Latin
reproduction of the Church History of Eusebius, down to
A.D. 388, the romancing _Historia eremitica s. Vitæ Patrum_,
biographies of 33 saints of the Nitrian desert (§ 51, 1),
an _Apologia pro fide sua_, the _Invectivæ Hieron._ in
2 bks. the treatise _De benedictionibus Patriarcharum_,
an exposition of Genesis xlix. in the spirit and style of
Origen, and an _Expositio symboli apost._

c. =Sulpicius Severus=[149] from Aquitania in Gaul, had gained
great reputation by his eloquence as an advocate, when the
death of his young wife disgusted him with the world, and
led him to withdraw into a monastery. He died about A.D. 410.
In his _Chronica_ or _Historia sacra_ (§ 5, 1), a summary
of biblical and ecclesiastical history, he imitates not
unsuccessfully the eloquence of Sallust, so that he has
been called “the Christian Sallust.” His _Vita_ of Martin
of Tours is a panegyric overflowing with reports of miracles.
The three dialogues on the virtues of Eastern Monks and on
the merits of St. Martin, may be regarded as a supplement to
the _Vita_.

d. =Petrus [Peter] Chrysologus= is the name by which Peter,
bishop of Ravenna, is best known. He also received the title
_Chrysostomus Latinorum_. He died in A.D. 450. Among the
176 _Sermones_ ascribed to him, the discourses expository
of the baptismal formula are deserving of special mention.
Of his Epistles, one in Latin and Greek addressed to Eutyches
(§ 52, 4) is still preserved, in which the writer warns
Eutyches against doctrinal errors.

§ 47.18. =The Hero of the Soteriological
Controversy.=--=Augustine=--_Aurelius Augustinus_--was born in
A.D. 354 at Tagaste in Numidia. From his pious mother Monica he
early received Christian religious impressions which, however,
were again in great measure effaced by his pagan father the
_Decurio_ Patricius. While he studied in Carthage, he gave way
to sensuality and worldly pleasure. Cicero’s Hortensius first
awakened again in him a longing after higher things. From about
A.D. 374 he sought satisfaction in the tenets of the Manichæan
sect, strongly represented in Africa, and for ten years he
continued a catechumen of that order. But here, too, at last
finding himself cruelly deceived in his struggle after the
knowledge of the truth, he would have sunk into the most utter
scepticism, had not the study of the Platonic philosophy still for
awhile held him back. In A.D. 383 he left Africa and went to Rome,
and in the following year he took up his residence in Milan as a
teacher of eloquence. An African bishop, once himself a Manichæan,
had comforted his anxious mother, who followed him hither, by
assuring her that the son of so many sighs and prayers could
not be finally lost. At Milan too the sermons of Ambrose made
an impression on Augustine’s heart. He now began diligently to
search the scriptures. At last the hour arrived of his complete
renewal of heart and life. After an earnest conversation with
his friend Alypius, he hastened into the solitude of the garden.
While agonizing in prayer he heard the words thrice repeated:
_Tolle, lege_! He took up the scriptures, and his eye fell upon
the passage Rom. xiii. 13, 14. This utterance of stern Christian
morality seemed as if written for himself alone, and from this
moment he received into his wounded spirit a peace such as he had
never known before. In order to prepare for baptism he withdrew
with his mother and some friends to the country house of one of
them, where scientific studies, pious exercises and conversations
on the highest problems of life occupied his time. Out of
these conversations sprang his philosophical writings. At
Easter A.D. 387 Ambrose baptized him, and at the same time his
illegitimate son Adeodatus, who not long afterwards died. His
return journey to Africa was delayed by the death of his mother
at Ostia, and at last, after almost a year’s residence in Rome,
he reached his old home again. In Rome he applied himself to
combat the errors of Manichæism, arguing with many of his old
companions whom he met there. After his return to Africa in
A.D. 388, he spent some years on his small patrimonial estate
at Tagaste engaged in scientific work. During a casual visit to
Hippo in A.D. 391 he was, in spite of all resistance, ordained
presbyter, and in A.D. 395 colleague of the aged and feeble
bishop Valerius, whose successor he became in the following year.
Now began the brilliant period of his career, in which he stands
forth as a pillar of the church and the centre of all theological
and ecclesiastical life throughout the whole Western world. In
A.D. 400 began his battle against the Donatists (§ 63, 1). And
scarcely had he brought this to a successful end in a religious
discussion at Carthage in A.D. 411, when he was drawn into a far
more important Soteriological controversy by Pelagius and his
followers (§ 53), which he continued till the close of his life.
His death occurred in A.D. 430 during the siege of Carthage by
the Vandals. He has written his own life in his _Confessiones_
(Engl. translat., Oxf., 1838; Edin., 1876). In the form of an
address to God he here unfolds before the Omniscient One his
whole past life with all its errors and gracious providences
in the language of prayer full of the holiest earnestness and
most profound humility, a lively commentary on the opening
words: _Magnus es, Domine, et laudabilis valde.... Fecisti nos
ad te, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te._
The biography of his disciple Possidius may serve as a supplement
to the Confessions.--Augustine was the greatest, most powerful,
and most influential of all the fathers. In consequence of his
thoroughly Western characteristics he was indeed less perfectly
understood and appreciated in the East; but all the greater was
his reputation in the West, where the whole development of church
and doctrine seemed always to move about him as its centre. The
main field of his literary activity in consequence of his own
peculiar mental qualities, his philosophical culture, speculative
faculty, and dialectic skill, as well as the ecclesiastical
conflicts of his time, to which his most important works are
devoted, was Systematic Theology, Dogmatics and Ethics, Polemics
and Apologetics. He is weakest as an exegete; for he had little
interest in philological and grammatico-historical research into
the simple literal sense of scripture. He was unacquainted with
the original language of the Old Testament, and even the New
Testament he treats only in a popular way according to the Latin
translations. Neither does he deal much with the exegetical
foundations of dogmatics, which he rather develops from the
Christian consciousness by means of speculation and dialectic,
and from the proof of its meeting the needs of humanity. Over
against philosophy he insisted upon the independence and
necessity of faith as the presupposition and basis of all
religious knowledge. _Rationabiliter dictum est per prophetam:
Nisi credideretis non intelligetis. Credamus ut id quod credimus
intelligere valeamus._

§ 47.19. =Augustine’s Works.=

a. =Philosophical Treatises= belonging to the period preceding
his ordination. The 3 bks. _Contra Academicos_ combat
their main position that men cannot attain to any certain
knowledge; the treatise _De Vita beata_ shows that true
happiness consists in the knowledge of God; the 2 bks. _De
Ordine_ treat of the relation of good and evil in the divine
order of the world; the 2 bks. _Soliloquia_ are monologues
on the means and conditions of the knowledge of supernatural
truths, and contain beside the main question an Appendix _De
immortalitate animæ_, etc.

b. =Dogmatic Treatises.= The most important are: _De Trinitate_
in 15 bks. (Engl. transl., Edin., 1874), a speculative
dogmatic construction of the dogma, of great importance
for its historical development; _De doctrina christiana_
in 4 bks. (Engl. transl., Edin., 1875), of which the first
three bks. form a guide to the exposition of scripture after
the analogy of faith, while the 4th book shows how the truth
thus discovered is to be used (Hermeneutics and Homiletics);
finally, the two bks. _Retractationes_, written in his
last years, in which he passes an unfavourable judgment
on his earlier writings, and withdraws or modifies much in
them. Among his =Moral-ascetic writings= the bk. _De bono
conjugali_ is of special interest, called forth by Jovinian’s
utterances on non-meritoriousness of the unmarried state
(§ 62, 2); he admits the high value of Christian marriage,
but yet sees in celibacy genuinely chosen as a means to
holiness a higher step in the Christian life. Also the
bk. _De adulterinis conjugis_ against second marriages,
and two treatises _De Mendacium_ and _Contra Mendacium ad
Consentium_, which in opposition to the contrary doctrine
of the Priscillianists (§ 54, 2), unconditionally repudiates
the admissibility of equivocation.

c. =Controversial Treatises.= Of 11 treatises against the
Manichæans (§ 54, 1) the most important is that _C. Faustum_
in 33 bks. (Engl. transl., Edin., 1875), interesting as
reproducing in quotations the greater part of the last work
of this great champion of the Manichæans. Then came the
discussion with the Donatists (§ 63, 1), which he engaged
in with great vigour. We have ten treatises directed against
them (Engl. transl., Edin., 1873). Of far greater importance
was the conflict which soon after broke out against the
Pelagians and then against the semi-Pelagians (§ 53, 4, 5),
in which he wrote fourteen treatises (Engl. transl.,
3 vols., Edin., 1873-1876). Also the Arians, Priscillianists,
Origenists and Marcionites were combated by him in special
treatises, and in the bk. _De hæresibus_ he gave a summary
account of the various heresies that had come under his
notice.

d. Among his =Apologetical Treatises= against pagans and
Jews, by far the ablest and most important is the work _De
Civitate Dei_, in 22 bks., a truly magnificent conception
(Engl. transl., 2 vols., Edin., 1873), the most substantial
of all apologetical works of Christian antiquity, called
forth by the reproach of the heathens that the repeated
successes of the barbarians resulted from the weakening and
deteriorating influence of Christianity upon the empire.
The author repels this reproach in the first four bks.
by showing how the Roman empire had previously in itself
the seeds of decay in its godless selfishness, and thence
advancing immorality; Ilium was and continued pagan, but
its gods could not save it from destruction. Ilium’s Epigone,
haughty Rome, meets the same fate. It owed its power only to
God’s will and His government of the world, and to His using
it as a scourge for the nations. The next five books show
the corruption of the heathen religions and the inadequacy
of heathen philosophy. Then the last 12 bks. point out
the contrast between the kingdom of God and the kingdom
of the world in respect of their diverse foundations,
their entirely different motive powers, their historical
development and their ultimate disposal in the last judgment.

e. The most important and complete of his =Exegetical Works=
are the 12 bks. _De Genesi ad litteram_, a gigantic
commentary on the three first chapters of Genesis, which
in spite of its title very often leaves the firm ground
of the literal sense to revel in the airy regions of
spiritualistic and mystical expatiation. Of his _Sermones_,
400 are recognised as genuine (Engl. transl., Hom. on N.T.,
2 vols., Oxf., 1844 f.; Hom. on John and 1st John, 2 vols.,
Oxf., 1848; Comm. on Psalms, 6 vols., Oxf., 1847 f.; Harmony
of Evangelists, and Serm. on Mt., Edin., 1874; Commentary
on John, 2 vols., Edin., 1875). His correspondence still
preserved comprises 270 Epistles (Engl. transl., 2 vols.,
Edin., 1874, 1876).

§ 47.20. =Augustine’s Disciples and Friends.=

a. =Paulinus=, deacon of Milan, who wrote, at Augustine’s
request, the life of Ambrose, awakened in A.D. 411 the
Pelagian controversy by the charges which he made, and
took part in it himself by writing in A.D. 417 the _Libellus
c. Cœlestium ad Zosimum Papam_.

b. =Paulus [Paul] Orosius=, a Spanish presbyter, who visited
Augustine in Africa in A.D. 415 to urge him to combat
Priscillianism, took part with him there in his conflict
with the Pelagians. He has left behind a _Commonitorium de
errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum ad Augustinum_;
an _Apologeticus de arbitrii libertate c. Pelagium_ and
_Hist. adv. Paganos_ in 7 bks. The last named work was
written at Augustine’s urgent entreaty, and pursues in a
purely historical manner the same end which Augustine in his
_City of God_ sought to reach in a dogmatico-apologetic way.

c. =Marius Mercator= was a learned and acute layman, belonging
to the West, but latterly resident in Constantinople. He
made every effort to secure the condemnation of Pelagianism
even in the East, and so wrote not only against its Western
leaders but also against its Antiochean supporters, Nestorius
and Theodore of Mopsuestia (§ 53, 4).

d. =Prosper Aquitanicus=, also a layman and an enthusiastic
follower of Augustine, not only wrote several treatises
against the semi-Pelagians of his native Gaul (§ 53, 5),
but also poured out the vials of his wrath upon them in
poetic effusions (§ 48, 6). He died about A.D. 460.

e. =Cæsarius, bishop of Arelate=, now Arles in Gaul, originally
a monk in the monastery of Larinum, was one of the most
celebrated, most influential, and in church work most
serviceable of the men of his times. It is also mainly
due to him that in A.D. 529 moderate Augustinianism gained
the victory over semi-Pelagianism. He died in A.D. 543.
His treatise _De gratia et libero arbitrio_ is no longer
extant, but two rules for monks and nuns composed by him,
_Ad monachos_, _Ad virgines_, as well as a considerable
number of _Sermones_, the best of their time, are still
preserved.

f. =Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe= in Africa, on account of
his zeal for the Catholic doctrine, was banished by the
Arian Vandal king Thrasimund, but returned after the
king’s death in A.D. 523. He was one of the stoutest
champions of Augustinianism. His writings against Arians
and semi-Pelagians have been often printed. He died in
A.D. 555. His scholar and biographer was =Fulgentius
Ferrandus=, deacon at Carthage about A.D. 547. Alongside
of and after him we meet with bishop =Facundus= of Hermiane,
and the archdeacon =Liberatus of Carthage=, who with
characteristic African energy defend the _Tria Capitula_
(§ 52, 6) basely surrendered by the Roman bishop Vigilius.

§ 47.21. =Pelagians and semi-Pelagians.=

I. =Pelagius=, a British monk, the originator of the heresy
named after him (§ 53, 3, 4), left behind a considerable
number of writings, of which, however, for the most part
we have now only fragments in the works of his opponents.
References in Augustine, Marius Mercator, and others show
that to him belong the _Lb._ xiv. _Expositionum in Epistt.
Pauli_, which have been ascribed to Jerome and included
among his works, scholia-like explanations with good sound
grammatico-historical exegesis. The wish to make this
useable and safe for the Catholic church led at an early
date to various omissions and alterations in it. Afterwards
its heretical origin was forgotten which notwithstanding
the purifying referred to is still quite discernible. Two
epistles addressed to Roman ladies recommending virginity
have also got a place among the works of Jerome.--=Julianus,
bishop of Eclanum= in Italy, is the only one among the
followers of Pelagius who can be regarded as of scientific
importance. He was an acute but frivolous and vulgar
opponent of Augustine, whom he honoured with the epithets
_amentissimus et bardissimus_ (comp. § 53, 4).

II. At the head of the semi-Pelagians or Massilians stands:

a. =Johannes Cassianus=. Gennadius designates him as
_natione Scythus_; but he received his early education
in a monastery at Bethlehem. He then undertook a
journey in company with the abbot to visit the Egyptian
monks, stayed next for a long time with Chrysostom at
Constantinople, and after his banishment resided some
years in Rome, and finally in A.D. 415 settled down at
Massilia (Marseilles), where he established a monastery
and a nunnery, and organised both after the Eastern
model. He died about A.D. 432. His writings were held
in high esteem throughout the Middle Ages. In the
_De institutis Cœnobiorum_ he describes the manner
of life of the Palestinian and Egyptian monks, and
then treats of the eight vices to which the monks were
specially exposed. The 24 _Collationes Patrum_ report
the conversations which he had with the Eastern monks
and hermits about the ways and means of attaining
Christian perfection. The 13th _Collatio_ is, without
naming him, directed against Augustine’s doctrine,
and develops semi-Pelagian Synergism (§ 53, 5). Both
writings, however are certainly calculated to serve
the development of his own monkish ideal as well as his
own dogmatic and ethical views, rather then to afford
a historically faithful representation of the life and
thinking of oriental monasticism of that time. The 7 bks.
_De incarnatione Christi_ combat not only Nestorianism
but also Pelagianism as in its consequences derogatory
to the divinity of Christ.

b. =Vincentius [Vincent] Lerinensis=, monk in the Gallic
monastery of Lerinum, was Cassianus’ most distinguished
disciple. He died about A.D. 450. On his often printed
_Commonitorium pro cath. fidei antiquit. et universit._,
comp. § 53, 5.

c. =Eucherius, bishop of Lyons=, left behind him several
ascetical works (_De laude eremi; De contemtu mundi_),
Homilies, and a _Liber formularum spiritualis
intelligentiæ_ as guide to the mystico-allegorical
interpretation of Scripture. He died about A.D. 450.

d. =Salvianus=, presbyter at Marseilles, was in his
earlier days married to a heathen woman whom he
converted, and with her took the vow of continency.
He died about A.D. 485. He wrote _Adv. avaritiam_
Lb. iv., in which the support of the poor and surrender
of property to the church for pious uses are recommended
as means of furthering the salvation of one’s own soul.
In consequence of the oppression of the times during
the convulsions of the migration of the peoples and
the reproach of the heathen again loudly raised that
the weakness of the Roman empire was occasioned by the
introduction of Christianity, he wrote _De providentia
s. de gubernatione Dei et de justo præsentique judicio_,
Lb. viii., which in rhetorical and flowery language
depicted the dreadful moral condition of the Roman
world of that day.

e. =Faustus of Rhegium=, now Riez in Provence, in his
earlier years an advocate, then monk and abbot of the
cloister of Lerinum, and finally bishop of Rhegium, was
the head of the Gallic semi-Pelagians of his times. In
his writings he stated this doctrine in a moderate form.
He died in A.D. 493.

f. =Arnobius the Younger=, the contemporary and
fellow-countryman of Faustus, wrote a very important
work entitled _Prædestinatus_, which in a very thorough
and elaborate manner contests the doctrines of Augustine.
Comp. § 53, 5.

§ 47.22. =The Most Important Church Teachers among the Roman
Popes.=

a. =Leo the Great= occupied the papal chair from A.D. 440 to
A.D. 461. While but a deacon he was the most distinguished
personage in Rome. On assuming the bishopric he gave the
whole powers of his mind to the administration of his office
in all directions. By the energy and consistency with which
he carried out the idea of the Roman primacy, he became the
virtual founder of the spiritual sovereignty of Rome. With
a strong arm he guided the helm of the church, reformed
and organized on every side, settled order and discipline,
defended orthodoxy, contended against heretics (Manichæans,
Priscillianists, Pelagians, Eutychians), and appeased the
barbarians (Attila). Of his writings we have 96 _Sermones_
and 173 Epistles, which last are of the utmost importance
for the church history of his times. He is also supposed
to be the author of a talented work _De vocatione Gentium_
(§ 53, 5).

b. =Gelasius I.=, A.D. 492 to A.D. 496, left behind him a
treatise _Adv. hæresin Pelagianem_, another _De duabus
in Christo naturis_, and a work against the observance of
the Lupercalia which some prominent Romans wished to have
continued. He also wrote 18 Decretals. The celebrated
_Decretum de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis_, in
a sense the oldest _Index prohibitorum_, is ascribed to
him. The first section, wanting in the best MSS., contains
a biblical canon corresponding to that of the Synod of
Hippo, A.D. 393 (§ 59, 1); the second section treats of
the pre-eminence of the Church of Rome granted by our Lord
Himself in the person of Peter; the third enumerates the
œcumenical Councils; and the fourth, the writings of the
fathers received by the Roman Church; the Chronicle and
Church History of Eusebius are found fault with (_quod
tepuerit_) but not rejected; in respect to the writings of
Origen and Rufinus the opinion of Jerome is approved. The
fifth section gives a list of books not to be received--the
New Testament Apocrypha, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria,
Arnobius, Cassianus, Faustus of Rhegium, etc.

c. =Gregory the Great=, A.D. 590 to A.D. 604, born in Rome
about A.D. 540, sprung from a distinguished old Roman
family, held about A.D. 574 the office of city prefect,
after his father’s death founded on his inherited estates,
six monasteries, and himself withdrew into a seventh,
which he built in Rome. Ordained deacon against his will in
A.D. 579, he was entrusted with the important and difficult
office of a papal _apocrisiarius_ in Constantinople, and was
constrained in A.D. 590, after a long persisted-in refusal,
to mount the papal chair, which obliged him to abandon
the long-cherished plan of his life, the preaching of the
gospel to the Anglo-Saxons (§ 77, 4). Gregory united a rare
power and energy of will with real mildness and gentleness
of character, deep humility and genuine piety with the
full consciousness of his position as a successor of Peter,
insight, circumspection, yea even an unexpected measure of
liberal-mindedness (comp. _e.g._ § 57, 4; 75, 3) with all
monkish narrowness and stiff adherence to the traditional
forms, doctrines and views of the Roman Church. He himself
lived in extremest poverty and simplicity according to
the strictest monastic asceticism, and applied all that he
possessed and received to the support of the poor and the
help of the needy. It was a hard time in which he lived,
the age of the birth throes of a new epoch of the world’s
history. There is therefore much cause to thank the good
providence which set such a man as spiritual father, teacher
and pastor at the head of the Western Church. He took special
interest in fostering monasticism and such-like institutions,
which were, indeed, most conducive to the well-being of
the world, for during this dangerous period of convulsion,
monasticism was almost the only nursery of intellectual
culture. The Roman Catholic church ranks him as the last
of the Fathers, and places him alongside of Ambrose, Jerome
and Augustine, the four greatest teachers of the church,
_Doctores ecclesiæ_, whose writings have been long reverenced
as the purest and most complete vehicles of the Catholic
tradition. Among the Greeks a similar position is given to
Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen and Chrysostom. The
rank thus assigned to Gregory is justifiable inasmuch as
in him the formation and malformation of doctrine, worship,
discipline and constitution peculiar to the ancient church
are gathered up, completed and closed. His most complete
work is the _Expositio in b. Jobum s. Moralium_, Ll. xxxv.,
(Engl. transl., Lib. of Fath., 3 vols., Oxf., 1844-1850)
which, by dragging in all possible relations of life which
an allegorical interpretation can furnish, is expanded into
a repertory of moral reflections. His _Regula pastoralis
s. Liber curæ pastoralis_ obtained in the West a position
of almost canonical authority. In his “Dialogues,” of which
the first three books treat “_de vita et miraculis Patrum
Italicorum_,” and the 4th book mostly of visionary views of
the hereafter (heaven, hell and purgatory), “_de æternitate
animarum_,” we meet with a very singular display of the most
uncritical credulousness and the most curious superstition.
Besides these we have from him Homilies on Ezekiel and
the Gospels, as well as a voluminous correspondence in
880 Epistles of great importance for the history of the
age. To Gregory also is attributed the oft quoted saying
which compares holy scripture to a stream _in quo agnus
peditat et elephas natat_.

§ 47.23. =The Conservators and Continuators of Patristic Culture.=

a. =Boëthius=, Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus, was
descended from a distinguished Roman family, and stood high
in favour with the Ostrogoth Arian king Theodoric. Accused,
however, by his enemies of treasonable correspondence with
the Byzantine court, he was, after a long imprisonment,
condemned unheard and executed, A.D. 525. In prison
he composed the celebrated treatise, _De consolatione
philosophiæ_, which, written in pure and noble language,
was the favourite book of the Latin Middle Ages, and was
translated into all European languages: first of all by
Alfred the Great into Anglo-Saxon, and often reprinted in
its original form. The book owed its great popularity to the
mediæval tradition which made its author a martyr for the
Catholic faith under Arian persecution; but modern criticism
has sought to prove that in all probability he was not even
a Christian. Still more decidedly the theological writings
on the Trinity and the Two Natures of Christ bearing his
name are repudiated as irreconcileable with the contents
and character of the _De consolatione_; though, on the
other hand, their authenticity has again found several
most capable defenders. Finally, Usener has conclusively,
as it seems, in a newly discovered fragment of Cassiodorus,
brought forward a quite incontestable witness for their
authenticity. In any case Boëthius did great service in
preserving the continuity of Western culture by his hearty
encouragement and careful prosecution of classical studies
at a time when these were threatened with utter neglect. Of
special importance was his translation of a commentary on
the logical works of Aristotle as the first and for a long
time almost the only philosophical groundwork of mediæval
scholasticism (§ 99, 2).

c. Magnus Aurelius =Cassiodorus=, surnamed Senator, belonged
to Southern Italy and held the highest civil offices under
Odoacer and Theodoric for fifty years. About A.D. 540,
he retired to the cloister of Vivarium founded by him in
Southern Italy, and devoted the rest of his life to the
sciences and the instruction of the monks. He collected a
great library in his monastery, and employed the monks in
transcribing classical and patristic writings. He died about
A.D. 575 when almost a hundred years old. His own writings
show indeed no independence and originality, but are all
the more important as concentrated collections of classical
and patristic learning for the later Latin Middle Ages. His
twelve books of the History of the Goths have come down only
in the condensed reproduction of Jordanes or Jornandes. His
twelve books _Variarum_ (_sc. epistolarum et formularum_),
which consist of a collection of acts and ordinances of the
period of his civil service, are important for the history
of his age. His _Historia ecclest. tripartita_ (§ 5, 1),
was for many centuries almost the only text book of church
history, and his _Institutiones divinarum et sæcularum
litterarum_ had a similar position as a guide to the study
of theology and the seven liberal arts (§ 90, 8). Also his
commentary on the Psalms and the most of the books of the
New Testament, made up of compilations, was held in high
esteem.

c. =Dionysius Exiguus=, a Scythian by birth, who became a Roman
abbot, and died about A.D. 566, may also be placed in this
group. He translated many Greek patristic writings, by his
_Cyclus paschalis_ became founder of the Western reckoning
of Easter (§ 56, 3), and also the more universally adopted
so-called Dionysian era. By his _Codex Canonum_ he is also
the founder of the Western system of Canon Law (§ 43, 3).

§ 48. BRANCHES OF THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN POETRY.

§ 48.1. =Exegetical Theology.=--Nothing was done in the way
of criticism of the original biblical text. Even Jerome was
only a translator. For the Old Testament the LXX. sufficed,
and the divergences of the Hebrew text were explained as
Jewish alterations. Hebrew was a _terra incognita_ to the
fathers, Polychronius and Jerome only are notable exceptions.
The allegorical method of interpretation was and continued to be
the prevalent one. The Antiocheans, however, put limits to it by
their theory and practice of the right of historico-grammatical
interpretation. Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia
contested the principles of Origen, while Gregory of Nyssa in his
_Proemium in Cant._ undertook their defence. The first attempt
at a system of =Hermeneutics= was made by the learned Donatist
Tychonius in his book the _Regulæ_ vii. _ad investigandam
intelligentiam ss. Scr._ More profound is Augustine’s _De
Doctrina Chr._ The Εἰσαγωγὴ τῆς θείας γραφῆς of the Greek
Adrianus with its opposition to the immoderate allegorizing
that then prevailed, deserves mention here. Jerome contributed
to biblical =Introduction= by his various _Proœmia_. The
first attempt at a scientific introduction to biblical study
(isagogical and biblico-theological in the form of question
and answer), is met with in the 2 bks. _Instituta regularia
div. legis_ of the African Junilius, a prominent courtier at
Constantinople, about A.D. 550. There is a Latin rendering made
by Junilius at the request of Primasius, bishop of Adrumetum,
of a treatise composed originally in Syriac, by Paul the Persian,
teacher of the Nestorian seminary at Nisibis, which he had
collected from the works of Theodore of Mopsuestia, for the
purposes of instruction. The title _Departibus div. legis_,
usually given to the whole, properly belongs only to the first
part of the treatise. A more popular guide is Cassiodorus’
_Institutio divinarum litt._ Some contributions were made
to biblical archaeology by Eusebius and Epiphanius. Of the
allegorical =Exegetes= of the East, the most productive was
Cyril of Alexandria. The Antiochean school produced a whole
series of able expositors of the grammatico-historical sense
of scripture. In the commentaries of Chrysostom and Ephraem
[Ephraim] the Syrian, that method of interpretation is applied
in a directly practical interest. The Westerns Hilary, Ambrose,
Ambrosiaster, Jerome and Augustine, as well as their later
imitators, all allegorize; yet Jerome also applied himself very
diligently to the elucidation of the grammatical sense. Only
Pelagius is content to rest in the plain literal meaning of
scripture. From the 6th century, almost all independent work in
the department of exegesis ceased. We have from this time only
_Catenæ_, collections of passages from commentaries and homilies
of distinguished fathers. The first Greek writer of Catenæ, was
Procopius of Gaza, in the 6th century; and the first Latin writer
of these was Primasius of Adrumetum, about A.D. 560.

§ 48.2. =Historical Theology.=--The writing of Church history
flourished especially during the 4th and 5th centuries (§ 5, 1).
For the history of heresies we have Epiphanius, Theodoret,
Leontius of Byzantium; and among the Latins, Augustine,
Philastrius [Philaster], and the author of _Prædestinatus_
(§ 47, 21f). There are numerous biographies of distinguished
fathers. On these compare the so-called _Liber pontificalis_, see
§ 90, 6. Jerome laid the foundation of a history of theological
literature in a series of biographies, and Gennadius of
Massilia continued this work. With special reference to monkish
history, we have among the Greeks, Palladius, Theodoret and
Joh. Moschus; and among the Latins, Rufinus, Jerome, Gregory
the Great and Gregory of Tours (§ 90, 2). Of great importance
for ecclesiastical statistics is the Τοπογραφία χριστιανική
in 12 bks., whose author _Cosmas Indicopleustes_, monk in the
Sinai peninsula about A.D. 540, had in his earlier years as an
Alexandrian merchant travelled much in the East. The connection
of biblical and profane history is treated of in the Chronicle
of Eusebius. Orosius too treats of profane history from the
Christian standpoint. The _Hist. persecutionis Vandalorum_
(§ 76, 3), of Victor, bishop of Vita in Africa, about A.D. 487,
is of great value for the church history of Africa. For chronology
the so-called _Chronicon paschale_, in the Greek language, is of
great importance. It is the work of two unknown authors; the work
of the one reaching down to A.D. 354, that of the other, down to
A.D. 630. These chronological tables obtained their name from the
fact that the Easter cycles and indictions are always carefully
determined in them.

§ 48.3. =Systematic Theology.=

a. =Apologetics.= The controversial treatises of Porphyry
and Hierocles were answered by many (§ 23, 3); that of
the Emperor Julian also (§ 42, 5), especially by Gregory
Nazianzen, Chrysostum [Chrysostom] (in the Discourse on
St. Babylas), and most powerfully by Cyril of Alexandria.
Ambrose and the poet Prudentius answered the tract of
Symmachus, referred to in § 42, 4. The insinuations of
Zosimus, Eunapius, and others (§ 42, 5) were met by Orosius
with his _Historiæ_, by Augustine with his _Civ. Dei_,
and by Salvian [Salvianus] with his _De gubernatione
Dei_. Johannes Philoponus wrote against Proclus’ denial
of the biblical doctrine of creation. The vindication of
Christianity against the charges of the Jews was undertaken
by Aphraates, Chrysostom, Augustine, and Gregentius, bishop
of Taphne in Arabia, who, in A.D. 540, disputed for four
days amid a great crowd with the Jew Herban. Apologies of
a general character were written by Eusebius of Cæsarea,
Athanasius, Theodoret and Firmicus Maternus.

b. In =Polemics= against earlier and later heretics, the
utmost energy and an abundance of acuteness and depth of
thought were displayed. See under the history of theological
discussions, § 50 ff.

c. Positive =Dogmatics=. Origen’s example in the construction
of a complete scientific system of doctrine has no imitator.
For practical purposes, however, the whole range of Christian
doctrine was treated by Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of
Nyssa, Apollinaris, Epiphanius, Rufinus (_Expositio Symboli
Apost._), Augustine (in the last book of the _Civ. Dei_, in
first book of his _De Doctrina Chr._, and in the _Enchiridium
ad Laurentium_). The African Fulgentius of Ruspe (_De regula
veræ fidei_), Gennadius of Massilia (_De fide sua_), and
Vincentius [Vincent] of Lerinum in his _Commonitorium_. Much
more important results for the development of particular
dogmas were secured by means of polemics. Of supreme
influence on subsequent ages were the mystico-theosophical
writings of the Pseudo-Areopagite. This mysticism, so far
as adopted, was combined by the acute and profound thinker
Maximus Confessor with the orthodox theology of the Councils.

d. =Morals.= The _De officiis ministr._ of Ambrose is a system
of moral instruction for the clergy; and of the same sort
is Chrysostom’s Περὶ ἱερωσύνης; while Cassianus’ writings
form a moral system for the monks, and Gregory’s _Exposit.
in Jobum_ a vast repertory on general morality.

§ 48.4. =Practical Theology.=--The whole period is peculiarly
rich in distinguished homilists. The most brilliant of the Greek
preachers were: Macarius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory
Nazianzen, Ephraem [Ephraim] the Syrian, and above all Chrysostom.
Of the Latins the most distinguished were Ambrose, Augustine,
Zeno of Verona, Petrus [Peter] Chrysologus, Leo the Great, and
Cæsarius of Arles. A sort of Homiletics is found in the 4th of
Augustine’s _De Doctr. Chr._, and a directory for pastoral work,
in the _Regula pastoralia_ of Gregory the Great. On Liturgical
writings, comp. § 59, 6; on Constitutional works, § 43, 3-5.

§ 48.5. =Christian Poetry.=--The beginning of the prevalence of
Christianity occurred at a time when the poetic art had already
ceased to be consecrated to the national life of the ancient
world. But it proved an intellectual power which could cause to
swell out again the poetic vein, relaxed by the weakness of age.
In spite of the depraved taste and deteriorated language, it
called forth a new period of brilliancy in the history of poetry
which could rival classical poetry, not indeed in purity and
elegance of form, but in intensity and depth. The Latins in
this far excelled the Greeks; for to them Christianity was more
a matter of experience, emotion, the inner life, to the Greeks
a matter of knowledge and speculation. Among the =Greeks= the
most distinguished are these: =Gregory Nazianzen=. He deserves
notice mainly for his satirical _Carmen de vita sua_, περὶ ἑαυτοῦ.
Among his numerous other poems are some beautiful hymns and
many striking phrases, but also much that is weak and flat.
The drama Χριστὸς πάσχων, perhaps wrongly bearing his name,
modelled on the tragedies of Euripides and in great part made
up of Euripidean verses, is not without interest as the first
Christian passion-play, and contains some beautiful passages;
_e.g._ the lament of Mary; but it is on the whole insipid
and confused. =Nonnus of Panopolis=, about A.D. 400, wrote
a Παράφρασις ἐπικὴ τοῦ Εὐαγγ. κατὰ Ἰωάννην, somewhat more
useful for textual criticism and archaeology, than likely
to afford enjoyment as poetry. Of the poetical works of the
Empress =Eudocia=, wife of Theodosius II., daughter of the
pagan rhetorician Leontius of Athens, hence called Athenais
(she died about the year 460), only fragments of their renderings
in the Cyprian legends have come down to us. The loss of her
_Homero-centoes_ celebrated by Photius, _i.e._ reproductions
of the biblical books of the New Testament in pure Homeric words
and verses, is not perhaps to be very sorely lamented. On the
other hand, the poetic description of the church of Sophia, built
by Justinian I. and of the ambo of that church which =Paulus
Silentiarius= left behind him, is not only of archaeological
value, but also is not without poetic merit.