Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/107

 V] DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 89 tic terms: Hierarchs (itpapxfiv to^is)? Light-bearers (iiyray(oyLKr) Toi^i?), Servitors (keiTovpyuiv to^i?) ; to wit, the consummate interpreters of the Sacraments, the light-bringers who administer them in Communion, and the purifiers who prepare them. The third and lowest triad consists of the monks, who are in a state or process of perfection, the initiated laity, who are in a state of illumination, and the catechumens, who are in a probationary state of purification. This treatise finds in all worship a celebration of holy mysteries, and many of its terms suggest the pagan mysteries. It was a systematic presentation of the symbolical significance of all acts of worship. Perhaps the noblest of the Areopagite's work is that on the Divine Names, which follows the Ecclesi- astical Hierarchy. It is a discussion of the qualities which may be predicated of God, according to the war- rant of the terms applied to Him in Scripture. This work, however, was not unique, like the Celestial Hierarchy. It was occupied with a Neo-platonized Christian discussion of the Divine Nature. In such fields the Areopagite had many rivals. The fourth and least of the Areopagite^ s main works is that on Mystic Theology; in which is ex- plained the function of symbols, and how he who would know God truly must rise above them and above all conceptions of God drawn from sensible things ; for all these things are not He.* The work of the Areopagite was a representative 1 There exist also ten letters ascribed to the Areopagite ; and the extant writings refer to other works which either are lost or never existed.