Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/226

 208 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. vidiial in style as the epistles of Paul, whom one almost feels in reading them. Like Paul, Ignatius makes occasional use of antithesis,^ which by itself indicates little ; for, although antithesis was carefully developed in Greek rhetoric, it is also a natural form of fiery utterance. Ignatius is no more a rhetorician than Paul, nor under the influence of Greek literary style. Like the apostle, the apostolic Father makes his own Greek, mangling his periods as the spirit moves him. Thus, from a literary point of view, there is little that is Hellenic in these Greek Christian epistles of the apostolic and post-apostolic time. Ordinarily the language adopted by a writer modifies the expression of his thought. But in these epistles the Greek lan- guage does not affect the thought as much as the thought and feeling distort the Greek diction. The language has been compelled to express thought and feeling alien to its genius. Such violent Christianiz- ing of the Greek tongue might not endure among Christians of Hellenic birth or education. These early Greek epistles had no more literary influence than the Greek gospels upon the subsequent development of Greek Christian literature.^ When Kome became the mistress of the East and West, many Roman acquaintances found themselves "^ E.g., in the passages: "Three mysteries to be cried aloud which were wrought in the silence of God." — Ign., Eph. xix. " I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread." — Ign., Rom. iv. 2 Cf. Overbeck, " Ueber die Anfange der patristischen Literatur," HUtorische Zeitschnft, Neue Folge, XII (1882). This is also true of the Shepherd of Hernias.