Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/26

 FATHERS

FATHERS

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which were read on the motion of Flavian, Bishop of Phihppi. They were from Peter I of Alexandria, Martyr, Athanasius, Popes Julius and Felix (forgeries), Theophilus, Cyprian, Ambrose, Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Atticus, Amphilochius. On the other hand Eutyches, when tried at Constanti- nople by St. Flavian, in 449, refused to accept either Fathers or councils as authorities, confining himself to Holy Scripture, a position which horrified his judges (see Eutyches). In the following year St. Leo sent his legates, Abundius and Asterius, to Constantinople with a list of testimonies from Hilary, Athanasius, Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, Theophilus, Greg- ory Nazianzen, Basil, Cyril of Alexandria. They were signed in that citjr, but were not produced at the Council of Chalcedon m the following year. Thence- forward the custom is fixed, and it is unnecessary to give examples. However, that of the sixth council in 680 is important: Pope St. Agatho sent a long series of extracts from Rome, and the leader of the Monothelites, Macarius of Antioch, presented another. Both sets were carefully verified from the library of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and sealed. It should be noted that it was never in such cases thought necessary to trace a doctrine back to the earliest times; St. Vincent demanded the proof of the Church's belief before a doubt arose — this is his notion of antiquitas; and in conformity with this view, the Fathers quoted by councils and popes and Fathers are for the most part recent (Petavius, De Incarn., XIV, 15, 2-5).

In the last years of the fifth century a famous docu- ment, attributed to Popes Gelasius and Hormisdas, adds to decrees of St. Damasus of 382 a list of books which are approved, and another of those disapproved. In its present form the list of approved Fathers com- prises Cyprian, Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, Athanasius, Chrysostom, Theophilus, Hilary, CjtU of Alexandria (wanting in one MS.), Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Prosper, Leo ("every iota" of the tome to Flavian is to be accepted under anathema), and "also the trea- tises of all orthodox Fathers, who deviated iu nothing from the fellowship of the holy Roman Church, and were not separated from her faith and preaching, but were participators through the grace of God until the end of their life in her communion; also the decretal letters, which most blessed popes have given at various times when consulted by various Fathers, are to be received with veneration". Orosius, Sedul- ius, and Juvencus are praised. Ruiinus and Origen are rej ected. Eusebius's " History " and " Chronicle " are not to be condemned altogether, though in another part of the list they appear as "apocrypha" with Tertullian, Lactantius, Africanus, Commodian, Cle- ment of Alexandria, Arnobius, Cassian, Victorinus of Pettau, Faustus, and the works of heretics, and forged Scriptural documents. The later Fathers constantly used the writings of the earUer. For instance, St. CEBsarius of Aries drew freely on St. Augustine's ser- mons, and embodied them in collections of his own; St. Gregory the Great has largely founded himself on St. Augustine; St. Isidore rests upon all his prede- cessors; St. John Damascene's great work is a synthesis of patristic theology. St. Bede's sermons are a cento from the greater Fathers. Eugippius made a selection from St. Augustine's writings, which had an immense vogue. Cassiodorus made a collection of select commentaries by various writers on all the books of Holy Scripture. St. Benedict especially recommended patristic study, and his sons have ob- served his advice: "Ad perfectionem conversationis qui festinat, sunt doctrinse sanctorum Patrum, quarum observatio perducat hominem ad celsitu- dinem perfectionis . . . quis liber sanctorum catholi- corum Patrum hoc non resonat, ut recto cursu perveniamus ad creatorem nostrum?" (Sanet Regula,

bcxiii). Florilegia and catens became common from the fifth century onwards. They are mostly anonymous, but those in the East which go under the name of Qicumenius are well known. Most famous of all throughout the Middle Ages was the "Glossa ordin- aria" attributed to Walafrid Strabo. The "Catena aurea" of St. Thomas Aquinas is still in use. (See Catenae, and the valuable matter collected by Turner in Hastings, Diet, of the Bible, V, 521.)

St. Augustine was early recognized as the first of the Western Fathers, with St. Ambrose and St. Jerome by his side. St. Gregory the Great was added, and these four became " the Latin Doctors". St. Leo, in some ways the greatest of theologians, was excluded, both on account of the paucity of his WTitings, and by the fact that his letters had a far higher authority as papal utterances. In the East St. John Chrysostom has always been the most popular, as he is the most voluminous, of the Fathers. tVith the great St. Basil, the father of monachism, and St. Gregory Nazianzen, famous for the purity of his faith, he made up the triumvirate called "the three hierarchs", familiar up to the present day in Eastern art. St. Athanasius was added to these by the Westerns, so that four might answer to four. (See Doctors of the Church.) It will be observed that many of the writers rejected in the Gelasian list lived and died in Catholic com- munion, but incorrectness in some part of their writings, e. g. the Semipelagian error attributed to Cassian and Faustus, the chiliasm of the conclusion of Victorinus's commentary on the Apocalypse (St. Jerome issued an expurgated edition, the only one in print as yet), the unsoundness of the lost "Hypo- typoses" of Clement, and so forth, prevented such writers from being spoken of, as Hilary was by Jerome, "inoffenso pede percurritur". As all the more im- portant doctrines of the Church (except that of the Canon and the Inspiration of Scripture) may be proved, or at least illustrated, from Scripture, the widest office of tradition is the interpretation of Scripture, and the authority of the Fathers is here of very great importance. Nevertheless it is only then necessarily to be followed when all are of one mind: "Nemo . . . contra unanimum consensum Patrum ipsam Scrip- turam sacram interpretari audeat", says the Council of Trent; and the Creed of Pius IV has similarly: ". . .nee eam unquam nisi juxta unanimum consensum Patrum accipiam et interpretabor". The Vatican Council echoes Trent: " nemini licere . . . contra unanimum sensum Patrum ipsam Scripturam sacram inter- pretari."

A consensus of the Fathers is not, of course, to be expected in very small matters: "Qu;c tamen antiqua sanctorum patrum consensio non in omnibus divina; legis quiBstiunculis, sed solum certe pra^cipue in fidei regula magno nobis studio et investiganda est et sequenda" (Vincent, xxviii, 72). This is not the method, adds St. Vincent, against widespread and inveterate heresies, but rather against novelties, to be applied directly they appear. A better mstance could hardly be given than the way in which Adop- tionism was met by the Coimcil of Frankfort in 794, nor could the principle be better expressed than by the Fathers of the Council: "Tenete vos intra termi- nos Patrum, et nolite novas versare quiestiunciilas; ad nUiilinn enim valent nisi ad subversionem audien- tium. Sufficit enim voliis sanctorum Patrum vestigia sequi, et illorum dicta firraa tenere fide. Illi enim in Domino nostri exstiterunt doctores in fide et due- tores ad vitam; quorum et sapientia Spiritu Dei plena libris legitur inscripta, et vita meritorum miraculis clara et sanctissima; quorum aniraa; apud Deum Dei Filium, D. N. J. C. pro magno_ pietatis labore regnant in ca^lis. Hos ergo tota animi virtute, toto caritatis affcctu sequimini, beatissimi fratres, ut horum inconcussa firmitate doctrinis adhairentes, consortium a^terna; beatitudinis . . . cum illis ha-