Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/60

 50 A T F A T Martyr, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, Tertullian, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Among the post-Nicene fathers may be mentioned Ambrose, Athanasius, Augustine, Basil, Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Cyril of Alexandria, Epiphanius, Gregory of Nazianzum, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory the Great, Hilary, Jerome, and Leo. A distinction is usually recognized between the patres and those who were merely scriptores ecclesiastic!, and it is to the latter cate gory that such writers as Eusebius and Socrates the his torians most properly belong. The Eastern and the West ern Church have each four authors of note whom they recognize as fathers par excellence. Those of the Eastern are Athauasius, Basil, Chrysostom, and Gregory of Nazi- anzum, Those of the Western are Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory,- the fathers respectively of her monastic system, of her sacerdotal authority, of her scientific theology, and of her popular religion (Milman, Latin Christianity, b. ii. c. 4). The study of the fathers has sometimes been regarded as constituting a distinct discipline called patrology or pntristic, which, however, practically resolves itself into the church history of the first six centuries. For information on the individual fathers and on the influence they exerted upon one another and upon the thought and life of the church the rsader is referred to the various articles, biogra phical, archa3ological, and historical, relating to that period. The much-disputed question as to the authority of the fathers resolves itself into the more general one as to the place of tradition considered as a source of dogma and a rule of life apart from the scriptures (see vol. v. p. 759). There seems to be no sufficient evidence for the statement made by Turrettin and others to the effect that some Catholic writers set the writings of the fathers individually on a level with the canonical scriptures ; and it is certainly an exaggeration to say that Cardinal Cajetan regarded them as having no authority at all. 1 The Tridentine doctrine is that no one is entitled to interpret scripture in a sense con trary to the interpretations of holy mother church or to the unanimous consent of the fathers. 2 Roman Catholic writers accordingly as a rule attach comparatively little weight to the peculiarities of individual fathers, and hold themselves committed to nothing that is not established by what they consider to be unanimous and unvarying tradition. They distinguish, moreover, between the func tion of the fathers as witnesses and their function as instructors. As witnesses to the tradition and teaching of the church, they give testimony which is binding on the Catholic conscience ; as independent teachers, they are en titled to be listened to with deference and respect, but their interpretations and arguments are to be freely accepted or as freely rejected according to their merits. 3 Protestant writers, while fully admitting the merits, literary and other, of many of the fathers, usually dwell much upon the admitted fact of their fallibility, and strive to show that the attempt to establish an unambiguous tradition by their means is in very many cases much more illusory than Catholic writers are disposed to allow. 4 They do not, how ever, deny that on many important points there is such a thing as a consensus patrum ; but this they regard as hav ing at best no other authority than what is merely human and ecclesiastical, the Bible alone being the supreme rule of faith and life. The fundamental Protestant antithesis to the Tridentino doctrine according to which the canonical books and the traditions preserved by the church are to be received and reverenced &quot;pari pietatis effectu ac reverentia&quot; 1 Turrettin, loc. ii. qu. 21. Muhler, Si/mbolik, sec. 42. 8 Cone. TriJ., sess. iv. Compare the Forma juramenti professionis fiilei prepared by Pius IV. 3 Mobler, ut sitp.; Pen-one, utsnp. 4 Chemnitz, Examen Concilii Tride.ntini, De traditionibus ; Daille, De usu patrum; Barbeyrac, DC la Morale des Fires, aud others. is very clearly expressed in the sixth Article of the Church of England which declares that &quot; Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation ; so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.&quot; The first writer in patrology may be said to Lave been Jerome, himself one of the greatest of the fathers. His work, De Viris lllustribus, sive Catalogus scriptorum ccdesiasticorum, vasrepriuted, along with the similar works of Gennadius of Marseilles, Isidore of Seville, and lldefonso of Toledo, by Fabricius in his Bibliothcca Ecdcsiastica (1718). Among modern -writers on this subject Mohler (Patrologic, 1842), Alzog (Gru ndriss der Patrol ogie, 1866), Engelhardt (Litterarische Lcitfadcn zu Vorlcsungcn iibcr die Pat- ristik, 1823), and J. E. L. Danz (Initia doctrince patristiac, 1839} may be referred to. See also Cave s Apostolici (1677) and Ecclcsi- astici (1683), Ittigii Tractatus de Bibl. Pair. (Lips. 1707), and Bowling s Notitia Scriptorum SS. Patrum (Oxon. 1839). The most important collective editions of the fathers are the Latin Magna Bibliothcca Vderum Patrum of De la Bigne (Paris, 1575), of which the Maxima Bibliothcca (Lyons, 1677) is an improved reprint, and the exhaustive Patrol oglcR cursus complctus of Migne, in which the collection of Latin authors, brought down to the time of Innocent III., occupies 221 volumes (Paris, 1844-1855), while the Greek division, extending to the council of Florence, is completed in ICG vols. (Paris, 1857-1866). (J. S. BL.) FATHIPUR, or FUTTEHPOOR, a district of British India in the Allahabdd division, under the jurisdiction of the lieutenant-governor of the North- Western Provinces, lies between 25 26 15&quot; and 26 13 0&quot;K lat,, and 80 19 0&quot; and 81 25 0&quot; E, long. It is bounded on the N. by Rai Bareli and Sultanpur, E. by Allahabad, S. by Ilamirpur and Ban da-, and W. by Cawnpur. Fathipur district is situated in the extreme south-eastern corner of the dudb or tract of the country between the Ganges and the Jumna, which respectively mark its northern and southern boundary. The whole district consists of an alluvial plain formed by the deposits of the two great rivers. The central part is almost perfectly level, and consists of highly cultivated land, in terspersed with tracts impregnated with saltpetre (usar) and jungle. A ridge of higher land, forming the watershed of the district, runs along it from east to west at an average distance of about five miles from the Ganges. Fathipur therefore consists of two inclined planes, the one five miles broad, sloping down rapidly to the Ganges, and the other, from fifteen to twenty miles broad, falling gradually to the Jumna. The country near the banks of the two rivers is cut up into ravines and nalds running in all directions, and is almost entirely uncultivable. Besides the Ganges and Jumna, the only rivers of importance are the Paudu, a tributary of the Ganges, and the Fund and Nun, which both fall into the Jumna. The census of 1872 returned the population of Fathipur at 663,877, of whom 593,256 were Hindus, 70,554 Mahometans, and 5 Christians. The area of the district is 1586 square miles, of which 871 are returned as cultivated, and 172 as cultivable. Two harvests are gathered during the year, the Icharifor autumn crop, consist ing chiefly of rice, jodr, and bdjrd, and the rabi or spring crop, consisting principally of wheat, barley, gram, oats, pease, &c. The principal lines of road are the grand trunk road, which runs through the whole length of the district from east to west, the Mughal road to Khajwa, and the Banda road. The East Indian railway runs through the district parallel to the grand trunk roads, having stations at Khaga, Barhampur, Fathipur, Malwa, aud Mohar. The civil station and principal town is Fathipur, situated on the grand trunk road in 25 57 N. lat. and 80 54 E. long.; population 19,879. It is also constituted a muni cipality, the municipal income in 1875 amounting to 1314, and the expenditure to 1196. The town carries on a considerable trade in grain, hides, grease, and soap. The other important trading towns are Binki, the largest grain and cattle mart in the district; Khajwd, noted for its brass and copper work ; Korah, with a trade in metal