Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/217

 CHAP, vm] CHRISTIANIZED STYLE 199 tury, moreover, a steadily increasing proportion of the intellect of the Empire is to be found among the Chris- tians, until at the end of the fourth century there are Greek and Latin Christians who are great writers, while there is no pagan to compare with them. In this century the Christian triumph checked the decline of art ; and the same period produced a body of writ- ings of great power, constituting a revival of literature in a time of literary emptiness. In both cases the inspiration was the Christian faith and the Christian situation. The first Christian writings^ constituted a group unlike anything in classical Greek and Latin litera- ture. Their theme was the Christian faith and the spiritual and temporal needs of Christians ; they pre- sented a view and way of life contrasting with all that was Greek and Roman. Another fundamental contrast was presented by their emotional contents. Through the classical periods of Greek and Roman literature a deepening of emotional capacity may be traced and a quickening of sympathy, which culminate in VirgiPs great human heart with its pity for all mortal life. This was a growth of feeling touching fellow-men. Pagan literature has nothing like the fear and love of God, and the accompanying sense of sinfulness, felt and uttered by the prophets and psalm- ists of the Old Testament. In the New Testament these feelings are Christianized ; they are perfected in 1 The New TMtament, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd qf Hemuu, the Didach4 of the Twelve Apostle* ; then the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, Ignatius, Polycarp, Clement of Rome. The language is Qreek.