Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/27

 FATHERS

FATHERS

bere raerearaini in cirlis" ("Synociifa ad Episc." in Mansi, XIII, S97-S). And an excellent act of faith in the tradition of the Churcli is that of Charlemagne (ibid., 902) made on the same occasion: "Apostolica; scdi et antiquis ab initio iiascentis ecclesise et cath- olicis traditionibus tota mentis intentione, tota cordis ahicritate, me conjungo. Quicquid in illorum legitur libris, qui divino Spiritu affiati, toti orbi a Deo Christo dati sunt doctores, indubitanter teneo ; hoc ad salutem animaj mea; sufficere credens, quod sacratissimse evangelicic veritatis pandit historia, quod apostolica in suis epistolis confirmat auctoritas, quod eximii Sacra? Scriptura; tractatores et prajcipui CliristianiB fidei doctores ad perpetuam posteris scriptiun reliquerunt memoriam."

("lassification of Patristic Writings. — In oriier to get a good view of the patristic period, the l'"athers may be divided in various ways. One favour- ite method is by periods; the Ante-Nicene Fathers till '.i'lo; the Great Fathers of the fourth century and lialf the fifth (325-151); and the later Fathers. A more obvious division is mto Easterns and Westerns, anil the Easterns will comprise writers in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Coptic. A convenient division into smaller groups will be by periods, nationalities and character of writings; for in the East and West there were many races, and some of the ecclesiastical writers are apologists, some preachers, some historians, some commentators, and so forth.

A. After (1) the Apostolic Fathers come in the second century (2) the Greek apologists, foUow^ed by (3) the Western apologists somewhat later, (4) the Gnostic and Marcionite heretics with their apocry- phal Scriptures, and (5) the Catholic replies to them.

B. The third century gives us (1) the Alexandrian writers of the catechetical school, (2) the writers of Asia Minor and (3) Palestine, and the first Western writers, (4) at Rome, Hippolytus (in Greek), and Novatian, (5) the great African writers, and a few others.

C. The fourth century opens with (1) the apolo- getic and the historical works of Eusebius of Ca>sarea, with whom we may class St. Cyril of Jerusalem and St. Epiphanius, (2) the Alexandrian writers Athana- sius, Didymus, and others, (3) the Cappadocians, (4) the Antiochenes, (5) the Syriac writers. In the West we have (6) the opponents of Arianism, (7) the Italians, including Jerome, (8) the Africans, and (9) the Spanish and Gallic writers.

D. The fifth century gives us (1) the Nestorian controversy, (2) the Eutychian controversy, including the \\'estern St. Leo; (3) the historians. In the West ( t) the school of Lerins, (5) the letters of the popes.

E. The sixth century and the seventh give us less important names and they must be grouped in a more mechanical way.

A. (1) If we now take these groups in detail we fiii<l the letters of the chief Apostolic Fathers, St. Clement, St. Ignatius, and St. Polycarp, venerable not merely for their antiquity, but for a certain sim- plicity and nobility of thought and style which is very moving to the reader. Their quotations from the New Testament are quite free. They offer most important information to the historian, though in somewhat homoeopathic quantities. To these we add the Didache (q. v.), probably the earliest of all; the curious allegorizing anti-Jewish epistle which goes under the name of Barnabas ; the Shepherd of Hernias, a rather dull series of visions chiefly connected with penance and pardon, composed by the brother of Pope Pius l.and long appended to the New Testament as of almost canonical importance. The works of Papias, the disciple of St. John and Aristion, are lost, all but a few precious fragments.

1 2) The apologists are most of them philosophic in their treatment of Christianity. Some of their works were presented to emperors in order to disarm

persecutions. We must not always accept the view given to outsiders by the apologists, as representing the whole of the Christianity they knew and practised. The apologies of Quadratus to Hadrian, of Aristo of Pella to the Jews, of Miltiades, of ApoUinaris of IlierapolLs, and of Melito of Sardis are lost to us. But we still possess several of greater importance. That of Aristides of Athens was presented to Antoninus Pius, and deals principally with the knowledge of the true Ciod. The fine apology of St. Justin with its appendix is above all interesting for its description of the Liturgy at Rome c. 150. His arguments against the Jews are found in the well-composed " Dialogue with Trypho", where he speaks of the Apostolic ' authorship of the Apocalj'pse m a manner which is of first-rate importance in the mouth of a man who was converted at Ephesus some time before the year 132. The "Apology" of Justin's Syrian disciple Tatian isa less conciliatory work, and its author fell into her- esy. Athenagoras, an Athenian (c. 177), addressed to Marcus Aurelius and Commodus an eloquent refuta- tion of the absurd calumnies against Christians. Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, about the same date, wrote three books of apology addressed to a certain Autolycus.

(3) All these works are of considerable literary ability. This is not the case with the gi-eat Latin apology which closely follows them in date, the " Apologeticus" of TertuUian, which is in the uncouth and untranslatable language affected by its author. Nevertheless it is a work of extraordinary genius, in interest and value far above all the rest, and for energy and boldness it is incomparable. His fierce "Ad Scapulam" is a warning addressed to a perse- cuting proconsul. "Adversus Judceos" is a title which explains itself. The other Latin apologists are later. The "Octavius" of Minucius Felix is as pol- ished and gentle as TertuUian is rough. Its date is uncertain. If the " Apologeticus " was well calculated to infuse courage into the persecuted Christian, the "Octavius" was more likely to impress the inquiring pagan, if so be that more flies are caught with honey than with vinegar. With these works we may mention the much later Lactantius, the most perfect of all in literary form ("DiviniE Institutiones", c. 305-10, and " De Mortibus persecutorum", c. 314). Greek apolo- gies probably later than the second century are the "Irrisiones" of Hennias, and the very beautiful " Epistle " to Diognetus. (4) The heretical writings of the second century are mostly lost. The Gnostics had schools and philosophized ; their writers were numerous. Some curious works have come down to us in Coptic. The letter of Ptolemteus to Flora in Epiphanius is almost the only Greek fragment of real importance. Marcion founded not a school but a Church, and his New Testament, consisting of St. Luke and St. Paul, is preserved to some extent in the works written against him by TertuUian and Epiphanius. Of the writings of Greek Montanists and of other early here- tics, almost nothing remains. The Gnostics composed a quantity of apocrj-phal Gospels an<l Acts of individ- ual Apostles, large portions of which are preserved, mostly in fragments, in Latin revisions, or in Syriac, Coptic, Arabic, or Slavonic versions. To these are to be added such well-known forgeries as the letters of Paul to Seneca, and the Apocalypse of Peter, of which a fragment w-as recently found m the Fayum.

(5) Replies to the attacks of heretics form, next to the apologetic against heathen persecutors on the one hand and Jews on the other, the characteristic Catho- lic literature of the second century. The "SjTitagma" of St. Justin against all heresies is lost. Earlier yet, St. Papias (already mentioned) had directed his ef- forts to the refutation of the rising errors, and the same preoccupation is seen in St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp. Ilcgesippus, a converted Jew of Palestine, journeyed to Corinth and Rome, where he stayed from the epis-