BV 4207 .M68 1859 
 Moule, Horace M. 
 Christian oratory 
 
CHRISTIAN ORATORY; 
 
 AN INQUIRY INTO ITS HISTORY DURING 
 THE FIRST FIVE CENTURIES. 
 
 HORACE M. MOULE, 
 
 OF QUEENS' COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 OTambrftrge : 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AXD 23, HENRIETTA STEEET, COVENT GAEDEN, LONDON. 
 1859. 
 
 [TVic rlijlit of Translation is reserved.^ 
 
vTT^p UpKXToO odv irpeffj^evofiev. 
 
 ovK kv (jo(f)la \6yov. 
 
 jSaint Paul. 
 
 Non eloquimur magna, sed vivimus. 
 
 MiNUCIUS YZLIX. 
 
TO MY FATHER, 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 
 
THIS ESS A Y OBTA IN ED THE HULSEAN PRIZE IN THE UNI- 
 VERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE IN THE YEAR 1858. 
 
 Clauses directed hy the Founder to he always prefixed 
 to the HuLSEAN Dissertation. 
 
 CLAUSES from the WILL of the Rev. JOHN 
 HULSE, late of Elworth, m the County of Chester, 
 clerk, deceased : dated the twenty-first day of July, 
 in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hun- 
 dred and seventy-seven ; expressed in the words 
 of the Testator, as he, in order to prevent mistakes, 
 thought proper to draw and write the same him- 
 self, and directed that such clauses should every 
 year be printed, to the intent that the several per- 
 sons, whom it might concern and be of service to, 
 might know that there were such special donations 
 or endowments left for the encouragement of Piety 
 and Learning, in an age so unfortunately addicted 
 to Infidelity and Luxury, and that others might 
 be invited to the like charitable, and, as he humbly 
 hoped, seasonable and useful Benefactions. 
 
 He directs that certain rents and profits 
 (now amounting to about a hundred pounds yearly) 
 be paid to such learned and ingenious person, in the 
 University of Cambridge, under the degree of Master 
 of Arts, as shall compose, for that year, the best 
 Dissertation, in the English language, on the Evi- 
 dences in general, or on the Prophecies or Miracles 
 in particular, or any other particular Argument, 
 
Vlll 
 
 whether the same be direct or collateral proofs of the 
 Christian Religion, in order to evince its truth and 
 excellence; the subject of which Dissertation shall be 
 given out by the Vice-Chancellor, and the Masters of 
 Trinity and Saint John's, his Trustees, or by some of 
 them, on New Year's Day annually ; and that such 
 Dissertation as shall be by them, or any two of them, 
 on Christmas Day annually, the best approved, be also 
 printed, and the expense defrayed out of the Author's 
 income under his Will, and the remainder given to 
 him on Saint John the Evangelist's Day following; 
 and he who shall be so rewarded, shall not be 
 admitted at any future time as a Candidate again in 
 the same way, to the intent that others may be 
 invited and encouraged to write on so sacred r.nd 
 sublime a subject. 
 
 He also desires, that immediately following the last 
 of the clauses relating to the prize Dissertation, this 
 invocation may be added : " May the Divine Bless- 
 ing for ever go along with all my benefactions ; and 
 may the Grreatest and the Best of Beings, by his 
 all-wise Providence and gracious influence, make the 
 same effectual to His own glory, and the good of my 
 fellow-creatures !" 
 
 Subject proposed by the Trustees for the Year 1858 : 
 
 TJie History of CJtrtstian Oi^atory during the First Five 
 Centuries. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE provisions of the foregoing document will have 
 made plain both the occasion of my writing, and the 
 reason of my publishing, this ' Inquiry.' But even when 
 going into print has not been directly a matter of his own 
 choice, an author would be glad to think that his pains 
 have not been quite thro^ni away upon others. And I will 
 here very briefly state how far it seems to me that these 
 pages may be of use. 
 
 They may serve, first, to map out for the reader the five 
 earliest centuries of our era; or to suggest new thoughts 
 about their divisions and characteristics, where a tolerably 
 distinct conception of them exists already. They may 
 help also to bring out into greater prominence — obviously 
 not for theological scholars, but only for less accurately in- 
 formed persons — the large amount of literary and antiqua- 
 rian interest which is bound up with the study of Patristic 
 Literature. On this point I will quote some words of Mr 
 Isaac Taylor, a writer who will not be suspected of an un- 
 due reverence for the relics of ' ancient Christianity,' but 
 who has recently expressed himself thus ^: — 
 
 ' Treasures, convertible to the purposes of Christian edi- 
 fication, as well as of entertainment, are yet entombed in 
 
 ^ See the paper called Nilus in the series entitled Logic in Theology and 
 other Essays. 
 
X Preface. 
 
 the folios of the Patristic Literature. But if it be so, why 
 have not these riches been made more generally available 
 for the benefit of the Christian community of these times ? 
 This is a question which it is natural and reasonable to 
 ask, and for an answer to which we need not go far. The 
 reader of this Essay, for one, and the writer of it for anotlier, 
 may each of us find it in or among his own prepossessions, 
 his preoccupations — whether theological or ecclesiastical : 
 or let now the reader and the writer be quite candid and 
 confidential — for no one is listening at the door; it is in 
 your prejudice, kind reader, perhaps, and in mine, that w^e 
 must look for tlie obstruction which shuts us out from the 
 enjoyment of an inheritance whereupon otherw^ise we might 
 forthwith enter — an inheritance left to us by our predecessors 
 in the Christian life. 
 
 ' If, in opening the voluminous records and remains of 
 the Christian life of the early ages, I seek to enhearten my- 
 self for a labour so arduous as is implied in the perusal of 
 this mass, by help of some new-born zeal in behalf of this 
 or that religious whim, or superstition, or sectarian belief — 
 if I do this, I shall gather, as I go, the chaff — I shall leave 
 untouched the precious grain.' . 
 
 That is a true testimony, as it certainly is an unbiassed 
 one ; and it is hoped that the pages of this ' Inquiry ' may 
 do something to corroborate it. They may help to suggest 
 the important place which the Church Fathers may fairly 
 challenge, not only as an interesting study, but as a per- 
 sonally useful one. The extreme of neglect with which 
 their works have been treated is even harder to be account- 
 ed for, when they have grown to some extent upon our 
 acquaintance, than the extreme of veneration. For, when 
 we are reading Tertullian or Chrysostom or Augustine, we 
 
Preface. xi 
 
 are examining the relics and entering into the spirit not 
 only of devout Christians, but of remarkable men ; of men 
 belonging to a remote period, a period of paramount im- 
 portance in its bearing upon European history ; of men who 
 spoke and wrote in languages at once foreign and familiar 
 to us, and of which the great models are early put into our 
 hands ; lastly, of men who lived under social and political 
 institutions widely differing from our own, much more 
 strongly marked with great blots of obvious evil, and there- 
 fore presenting a far more severe gymnasium than we com- 
 monly enter, for the athletic practice, first of constancy and 
 fortitude, afterwards of moral and intellectual self-control. 
 
 Now, when we take up an ordinary Biblical commen- 
 tary written by one of our contemporaries or immediate 
 predecessors, the level is indeed dull and unrelieved. It is 
 not so with the average of commentaries and sermons which 
 were written fifteen hundred years ago. In this case we 
 are looking at the documents of Christian Faith, as it were 
 over the shoulders of students and expositors with whom, 
 Christianity apart, we have nothing, or very little, in com- 
 mon. The very act of translating their language wakens 
 the attention ; the efibrt necessary to transport us from our 
 own point of view to theirs throws a new light into the 
 numberless passages of real merit, and often freshens those 
 that are dull. And this has been the feeling of more than 
 one modern divine, whose predilections may be generally 
 considered to have led him in another direction. Among 
 the well-scored books of Archbishop Leigh ton at Dunblane, 
 there were few more frequently marked with the pencil, 
 than the Homilies of St Chrysostom, and the Minor Treatises 
 of St Augustine ^ 
 
 ^ Burgon's Memoir of P. F. Tytler, p. 251, 
 
xii Preface, 
 
 I will only add, that where in any case, as in the in- 
 stance of St Gregory of Nazianzum, there seemed to me to 
 be noticeable weakness or fault, I have not hesitated to 
 speak of it as fully as my narrow limits permitted. 
 
 H. M. MOULE. 
 
 April, 1859. 
 
CONTENTS^ 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introductory. The Eeligious and Artistic Elements in 
 Preaching considered, and a Method of Criticism sug- 
 gested ; . . . . 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 An Historical Review of the prescribed Period 
 
 (1) The Empire 
 
 (2) The Persecutions 
 
 (3) The Heretics 
 
 (4) The Pagan Schools of Thought 
 
 17 
 19 
 28 
 38 
 43 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Triple division of the first five Centuries, into 
 
 (1) The Apostolic Period .... 48 
 
 (2) The Philosophic and Mystic . . ib. 
 
 (3) The Oratorical Proper ... 49 
 Reasons db priori why, in the first two of these Periods, 
 
 Christianity was likely to be indebted for its extension 
 and influence rather to other means than to Oratory, 
 both without and within its own pale .... ib. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Some Remarks on the Antiquities of Christian Preaching . 53 
 
 ^ It may, at first sight, seem to ners. It was felt, however, that the 
 
 be an omission that no separate chap- frequency with which this characte- 
 
 ter has been allotted to Chrysostom, ristic is mentioned, in almost every 
 
 Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine in Church History, would justify the 
 
 their character of Painters of Man- course that has been here pursued. 
 
xiv Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 The Apostolic Period. St Peter, St Paul, Polycarp . . 59 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 The Philosophic and Mystic Period, (l) . . . . 69 
 
 § 1. Clemens Alexandrinus ... 70 
 
 2. Origen 75 
 
 3. Tertullian 81 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 The Philosophic and Mystic Period. (2) .... 88 
 
 § 1. Cyprian 90 
 
 2. Arnobius 94 
 
 3. Lactantius 96 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 The Oratorical Period. (1) 102 
 
 § 1. Athanasius ib 
 
 2. Ambrose 108 
 
 3. Basil, Gregory Naz., Gregory Nyss. 114 
 
 4. Hilary of Poitiers . . . 123 
 
 5. Jerome 127 
 
 6. Paulinus of Nola . . . 130 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Oratorical Period Proper. (2) 131 
 
 Chrysostom ib. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Oratorical Period Proper. (3) 162 
 
 Augustine ib. 
 
Contents. 
 
 
 XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 
 
 The Oratorical Period Proiicr. (4) 
 
 
 183 
 
 §1. Cyril of Alexandria 
 
 , 
 
 . ib' 
 
 2. Synesius of Cyrene . 
 
 . 
 
 185 
 
 3. Gaudentius . 
 
 , 
 
 188 
 
 4. Cliromatius. Asterius. 
 
 Basil, Jun. 
 
 189 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 A few Remarks on the Christian Preachers of the First Five 
 Centuries, in their relation (1) to ancient Models, (2) to 
 some Preachers of Modern Europe . . . . 191 
 
 ^CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Concerning a conjectural estimate of what the Church Fa- 
 thers of the First Five Centuries would have been apart 
 from Catholic Christianity ; and concerning some Hereti- 
 cal Preachers. [A Postscript] 212 
 
CHAPTER I. •'••iWTO^-v-" 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The Religious and Artistic Elements in Preaching con- 
 sidered, and a Method of Criticism suggested. 
 
 OvTcos 77 6vTws (XO(pla /cat 97 optojs TraiSeucTLS oiidh erepou ecrriv, aW r} 
 6 Tov Qeov 06/3os. 
 
 Chrtsostom. Ojaera, ii8d, (Adversus Oppugn. Vit. Monach.iii.) 
 
 PEOFESSOE, BLUNT, in his instructive Lecture on chap. i. 
 Sermons \ takes occasion to allude to the passa2:e in a remark hy 
 Fenelon, where the styles oi Cicero and Demosthenes ^yq f^sor Biunt 
 contrasted. The mere eulogy of ' O le bel Orateur,' is set ^ 
 against the practical victory implied in the words ' Allons ! 
 battons Philippe.' And this latter result is characterised 
 as the only effect of eloquence which the servant of God 
 should for a moment think of. 
 
 Now in reviewing the history of Christian Oratory, as 32^^*1 
 it waxed or waned through the five centuries which we SmSw"^ 
 have here to consider, the principle thus laid down is all- 
 important. It suggests a method of criticism, by following 
 out which we may arrive at a juster estimate than is com- 
 monly taken, whether of the excellencies or the short- 
 comings of the early Christian Preachers. And some such 
 method we most assuredly want amidst the conflicting 
 opinions of this age : when it is so usual to hear over-esti- 
 mates or under-estimates of the Church Fathers generally, 
 
 1 Duties of a Parish Priest, p. 1 7 1. a fact, did not always respond to the 
 There is no need of pointing out the noble appeals of the ' opposition- 
 historical inaccuracy implied in F^- speaker.' — Grote, XI. 460. 
 nylon's words. The Athenians, as 
 
2 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 pronounced on more or less insufficient grotinds, and held 
 in obedience rather to some foregone determination, than to 
 any sound conclusion from the facts. The suggestiveness 
 of Blunt's remark amounts to this ; that it indicates the limits 
 of the Christian and the artistic elements, which should be 
 observed in any age and in any kind of preaching. The 
 discussion of these limits is intended to constitute the subject 
 of this introductory cliapter ; and the method of criticism 
 mentioned above will shape itself into form as we proceed. 
 
 The popular view of preaching appears to go upon a 
 misapprehension, sometimes of the essence of Christianity, 
 sometimes of the construction and aim of sermons. It 
 places the Christian preacher in a false position, on this 
 side towards his subject-matter, and on that towards his 
 hearers. The prevailing method of reasoning seems to be 
 of this sort^ That it is the preacher's business to urge 
 upon men their duty as moral and religious beings ; to 
 deter them from vice and excite to the practice of virtue, to 
 encourage, elevate, and solemnize the mind by the prospect 
 of immortality. That the topics which arise naturally out 
 of these, or which depend upon them, are of transcendent 
 importance, and ought to be profoundly interesting to all 
 classes of mankind. That thus no subjects are so easily 
 susceptible of being made impressive as those which the 
 preacher has to deal with ; and that these absolutely teem 
 with oratorical capabilities. That, in consequence of this, 
 the rhetoric of the pulpit should be, even artistically, the 
 best kind of rhetoric ; and the pulpit orator be raised above 
 the head of all other public speakers. And that there is, 
 therefore, fair ground for surprise and disappointment at 
 the fewness of those who have acquired oratorical distinc- 
 tion while proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 Inferences such as these are untrue, in the first place, to 
 
 It 
 
 is opposed, 
 
 first, to a riaht . p i i ? 
 
 uZ^'irmchefs ^ .P'*^^ couception 01 tlic prcachcr s siihject-matter, 
 
 sabjccl- mat- 
 ter. 1 See the Penny Ci/dopcudia, xxi. Art. Oratory. 
 
 IS 
 
CHAP. 
 
 Introdactory. 3 
 
 manifestly to liis advantage, on the score of mere art, that 
 he should have a dignified, an impressive, a moving theme. 
 But it is quite possible that a suhject-matter should be, and 
 as a fact Christianity is now and has ever been, too absorb- 
 ing and too impressive for the requirements of pure art. 
 Gibbon may round off a period' by talking of an union 
 of profane eloquence with orthodox piety : and may ap- 
 parently endorse the popular comparison of Basil and 
 Gregory with the old Greek masters of oratory. But no 
 one knew better than Gibbon did, that such an union as 
 this was really an impossibility, and such a comparison 
 really beside the mark ; or, to speak more strictly, that the 
 results of such an union could not by any possibility be 
 made successful, artistically speaking, because they would 
 be heterogeneous and incomplete; while the comparison 
 of which he speaks would manifestly stand or fall on the 
 same issue. 
 
 That issue involves all the manifold distinctions between Essenvai 
 
 dtsttnchon 
 
 the so-called Eomantic and Classic schools of thought^. p^J^^^and 
 When we come really to reflect that Demosthenes and S^S*"/'*''^'^ 
 Cicero held the warm and waking present to be the sole "^"^ 
 reality, and regarded a limitless future only as a dream 
 in the obscnre distance, while to Ambrose and Chry- 
 sostom life was the shadow, and immortality the impe- 
 rious fact ; — we learn to feel something of the vast chasm 
 which Christianity had laid open between the heroes of the 
 B^ia or the K^stra and those of the pulpit. What a 
 strange bewilderment must have been felt by the episco- 
 pal ex-pupils of the unwearied and often disappointed 
 Libanius, when they felt the familiar props of profane Art 
 tottering, swaying, and at length subsiding beneath the 
 stress of some awakening appeal, which came rushing from 
 the depths of their souls independently of Art altogether. 
 
 / ^ Gibbon, chap, xxvii. Vol. Y, t8. 
 
 2 See the remarks of A. W. Schlegel in Dramatic Literature, Lect. i. 
 
 1—2 
 
4 Introductory. 
 
 CHAP. I. Dean Milman^ has entered somewhat at length into the 
 
 uLustratedhy qucstions raisecl by the poems which the great Nazianzen 
 GmlorTNi composed in his last years; and has pointed out how 
 thoroughly incompatible are Christian thoughts and images 
 with the language^ of Homer and the Tragedians. The 
 profound self-scrutiny and elaborate exposition of his 
 moral being on the part of the poet, could only have been 
 undertaken by a man with whom immortality was the one 
 all-important idea, investing even the emotions of an indi- 
 vidual with a peculiar and a momentous interest. To him 
 those emotions could no longer be the subjects of cold 
 analysis and investigation ; but were deserving of the mi- 
 nutest record and most anxious inquiry, as elements of life 
 and death not only in a soul that was to live for ever, but 
 in a soul that was to stand before the judgment-seat^ The 
 ' old order ' was rapidly changing, and giving place, not 
 to the new only, but to the alien and the incongruous. 
 And if the recognition of this truth is rightly applied in the 
 case of verse- writing, we may use the same criterion, in a 
 less degree, in judging of oratory as well. The Greek and 
 Latin channels, of prose and verse alike, refused to hold 
 ! the unusual torrent, sweeping along with its turbid and 
 irrersistible flow. 
 Hcrmonsare It must be bome in mind, however, that we decline to 
 asessenhaiiy weia'h the carly Christian Sermons (in common with all 
 
 spiritual ad- n J ^ ^ 
 
 urcsses. other sermons properly so called) in the balance of pure 
 Art, not only because they belonged, more or less, to a 
 particular school, but because they were, in their very 
 essence, earnest spiritual addresses. Thus it would be un- 
 j just at the present day to compare, on one and the same 
 principle of criticism and as homogeneous compositions, a 
 I good Sermon and a good Speech at the Bar or in Parlia- 
 
 ^ Hist, of Clirktianity, in. 197. written in hexameters. 
 
 2 The first of Gregory's poems ^ Cf. Milman, Hist, of Christian- 
 consists of rather more than two iti/, III. 265. 
 thousand iambics : the second was 
 
Introductory. 5 
 
 ment. And for tlils reason : that the relation of the end to chap. i. 
 
 the means in those sacred, as set against the similar relation 
 
 in secular, compositions, is beyond all comparison important, 
 
 and oftentimes absolutely overwhelmins^. I know of no more Parallel 
 
 *' ^ _ drawn from 
 
 ready illustration of our principle, so far as it has at present {JJX'^X''"^ 
 evolved itself, than is supplied by the Oxford method of S^roSfi''* 
 treating the Scriptures in the case of candidates for a class \ doiT"^'^' 
 The parallel is, briefly, this. What we look for in candi- 
 dates for University honours is an educated activity and 
 vigour of intellect. Yet a man may be a thorough prac- 
 tical student of the Bible, and may make the very best 
 practical use of it, without possessing any intellectual 
 activity whatever. It is therefore declined at Oxford to 
 class a man's Biblical knowled2:e with matters which are 
 subjected to the purely intellectual tests. Similarly, we 
 look for Art in Oratory generally. Yet the Christian, 
 preacher may be eloquent without any conscious use of' 
 art, often without any use of it at all. We therefore de- 
 cline to employ merely artistic tests in the examination of r 
 Christian Oratory. And thus we are not to weigh Sermons, 
 composition against composition, with merely artistic or 
 secular speeches; the subject-matter forbids it. And the 
 popular opinion, which throws blame upon preachers for 
 not outshining all other orators on their own ground, is 
 therefore founded on a defective conception of Christianity, 
 in reference to its subject-matter. 
 
 The historical groundwork of Christianity, as opposed 2'/,"^£!;'.^'^'' 
 to a foundation resting on a system of ideas : the miraculous havebmf' 
 agency employed at first : the single aim and lofty standard mnterlm " 
 which have constituted its grand characteristics from the oratoru. 
 beginning even until now, being sometimes more apparent 
 on the surface, sometimes less— all these and many more 
 
 1 A similar method has been a- Delegates' Pamphlet (Parker) and Mr 
 
 dopted at Oxford in the recent exa- T. D. Acland's Account of the Origin 
 
 minations of persons who are not and Objects of the New Oxford Exa- 
 
 members of the University. See the minations. 
 
ry^' 
 
 6 Introductory. 
 
 CHAP. I. points have been handled by writers on Christian Oratory, 
 ~~ some arguing from them the probable superiority, some the 
 inferiority^ of the preacher, when compared with public 
 speakers of other kinds. 
 
 Passing by these considerations, however, it will be 
 much more directly useful to our present purpose of 
 framing some preliminary method by which to guide our 
 iTic popular estimate of the early Christian discourses, if we turn to a 
 r^om?^** second defect in the popular view oi preaching mentioned 
 Ti^^huon- above, and notice briefly the antagonism between that view 
 prmche?s^^^^ and a due recognition of the relation in which a preacher 
 wards his should staiid towards Ms hearers. The Christian preacher 
 
 hearers. ^ ^ ^ *- ^ 
 
 in every age is bound to ' lay himself out to put down sin 
 and save a brother's soul'"^.' A momentous work like this, 
 when honestly taken up, often proves itself to be a strange 
 leveller in the matter of intellectual distinction. This ' lay- 
 ing out' of a man's self has operated not unfrequently to 
 the entire removal of a morbid nervousness and self-depre- 
 ciation, not to speak of the mitigation of positive disad- 
 vantages, such as defective utterance, or imperfect education. 
 And none the less has its influence been felt in an opposite 
 direction. A preacher, that is to say, who has lost sight of 
 this ultimate object, and who has spent himself, however 
 successfully, in the choice of words, and the construction of 
 sentences, has often proved, and will always be liable to 
 prove, utterly powerless, where an artless but faithful and 
 Aini.Be earnest man has performed a s:reat and solid work. ' Caven- 
 dum est enim,'' says Augustine^ in a treatise to which we 
 shall have to make frequent reference, '' ne fugiant ex amino 
 quce dicenda sunt, dum attenditur^ ut arte dicantur.^ 
 
 It is hardly possible to overrate, and the Church Fathers 
 
 ^ Blair, in his feeble 2gt\\ Leo- nature of his subject. 
 
 ture, has given a kind of parallel ^ Blunt, Duties of a Parish Priest, 
 
 statement of the advantages and dis- p. 171. 
 
 advantages which a preacher of ^ /)g Boctrina Christiana, IV. 3. 
 Christianity has to expect from the 
 
 Do'ctr 
 Christ, iv. 3. 
 
Introductory. 7 
 
 of the fourth century were the very last to underrate, (all at cKAr. i. 
 least m theory and almost all in a noble practice), this 2%c <»-i/e fin ii 
 
 •' ^ . eloqvieiitia? 
 
 importance of th^^jnoraLelemenHn preaching, as weighed ^M'w;;«:ff 
 a^ainstthe artistic: this great fact that a man must he 'ij'^'^'^l,^''^''- 
 something towards his hearers, before he can say anything 
 to them so as actually to arrive adfinem eloquenticB. The 
 art-loving Quinctilian, as is well known, defines his Orator 
 to be a ' ^od man jkilled^ in speaking \' Insisting very 
 strongly upon moral goodness, as an essential quality, 
 he finds not unnaturally some trouble in qualifying the 
 paradox. In the case of the Christian orator no qualifica- 
 tion would be needed. He must be a ' good man.' And 
 an unsoundness or depravity in his moral being Avill, in 
 the long run, as surely tell against the most brilliant intel- 
 lectual endowments, as wholeheartedness and moral energy 
 will enhance the effect of the very meanest. The fourth 
 century of the Church, the golden age of its eloquence, was 
 especially characterized by the great moral triumphs of its 
 leaders. And the influence which such victories must have Moral 
 
 . . . triumphs of 
 
 had upon the power of then* eloquence, it is not easy to f^"*^,^^f?^ 
 exaggerate. Who can read of Valens before Basil, of Theo- -P'«'^«-*- 
 dosius before Ambrose, or of the calm and fearless de- 
 meanour of Chrysostom towards the Council of the Oak, 
 without feeling the intensity which those commanding 
 characters must have thrown into those more than eloquent 
 tongues ■? ' Know you not,' said Modestus to BasiP, having 
 been sent before by Valens to sound the Archbishop, ' that 
 I have power to strip you of all your possessions, to banish 
 you, to deprive you of life ? ' To this Basil replied, ' He 
 who possesses nothing, can lose nothing : all you can take 
 from me is the wretched garments I wear, and the few 
 books, which are my only wealth. As to exile, the earth 
 
 1 Instit. Orator, xii. i : < Sit ergo ^ Milraan, Hist, of Christianity, 
 
 nobis orator vir bonus, dicendi ill. 126. 
 
 peritus.' 
 
8 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 CHAP. I. is the Lord's^ : everywhere it will be my country, or rather 
 my place of pilgrimage. Death will be a mercy : it will 
 but admit me into life; I have long been dead to this 
 world.' And on Modestus expressing his wonder at this 
 unusual tone of address, ' You have never then,' said the 
 unshaken prelate, ' conversed before with a bishop.' It 
 was this inward completeness, this entire education of the 
 soul in the school of Christ, that formed the real main- 
 spring of Basil's authority, and that has been the inspira- 
 tion of many another Christian minister, inferior to him in 
 natural endowment, but his equal in spiritual influence. 
 And by the side of this sterling preparation of heart, how 
 insignificant must have appeared in his own eyes, as they 
 do in ours, all the appliances of his profane education, — 
 the studies at Constantinople under Libanius, and the sub- 
 sequent Attic training. 
 
 None of the Church Fathers was more deeply pene- 
 trated than Augustine with a sense of the responsibilities 
 of the Christian orator, and of the entire subordination 
 of means to end which should pervade all his efforts. 
 ' It is the duty,' he says^, ' of the eloquent preacher, when 
 he is urging any point of practice, not only to teach so as 
 to instruct, nor to please so as to get a hold of his hearer, 
 but so to influence as that he may gain the mastery over 
 him.' There is another passage in the same treatise^, 
 pregnant with sound practical suggestion, where he draws 
 a distinction between the officium and the finis of preach- 
 ing ; and in which, without in the smallest degree detracting 
 from the importance of the first, and of the means which 
 should be adopted with a view to its discharge, he points 
 out its complete dependence upon the other. The very 
 
 ^ Cf. the Antitheta in the sermon 
 ascribed to Chrysostom at the pe- 
 riod of the Council of the Oak. — 
 Milman, Hist, of Chnstianity, ill. 
 22g. 
 
 2 De Boctr. Christ, iv. 13. The 
 whole passage has a reference to Cic. 
 Orat. 21: ' ita dicere debere eloquen- 
 tem, ut doceat, ut detectet, ut flectat.' 
 
 "* Ibid. 25. 
 
Introductory, 9 
 
 spirit of Augustine's teaching with regard to sermons is chap. i. 
 this ; that a preacher may delight in multiplying the meshes 
 of rhetorical argument and illustration ; but that he has no 
 right to weave that net, and will have no solid success in 
 weaving it, without the distinct and constant recognition of 
 its being but a means wherewithal ' to catch men.' 
 
 There is one consideration which affects the preacher Popular viexv 
 more nearly in his own person, and which strono-ly mili- tnirdiiy.Voa 
 
 •z ... *"'•''''*' estimate 
 
 tates against the merely artistic estimate of sermons. This %Mchisin^ 
 is the intense and unremitting labour, which has necessarily fo%r!t'!rate 
 to be bestowed on the composition of any discourse that ^''^'"'^' 
 can lay claim on artistic grounds to ^first-rate excellence. 
 The cultivation of those powers on which concise argu- 
 mentation and continuous harangue depend, has proved no 
 insignificant task, no mere Trapepyov of intellectual training, 
 to those who have achieved the rank of masters in the 
 performance. There were periods in the histories both Practical 
 
 f r^ T-r^ ^ T • r* i • ' inducements 
 
 of Greece and Kome, when this sort of cultivation was '^ ^^'teme 
 
 ' oratorical 
 
 most intimately bound up with the practical business of ^^,^^"[/'" 
 life. Mr Grote has given a clear account^ of this state 
 of things, in reference to the fourth century B. c, the golden / 
 age of Grecian eloquence. It was the interest alike of 
 public and private men to gain some power of persuading 
 and confuting, of defending one's self against accusation, and 
 in cases of necessity of accusing others. On the one hand, 
 political life among the Grecian cities had become much 
 more clearly pronounced than formerly, so as to demand 
 a corresponding increase of talent in the working poli- 
 ticians. And, on the other, the great number and peculiar 
 organization of the courts of justice, more particularly the 
 necessity of personal advocacy wherever a man required 
 redress for wrong offered to himself, or was accused of 
 wrong by another, made it a point at once of honour or 
 
 ^ Grote, History of Greece, chap. Ixvii. Vol. viii. 463. 
 
10 Introductory. 
 
 CHAP. I. expediency witli every citizen laying claim to character' or 
 position, that lie should acquire some skill in the art of 
 
 u Rome. speaking. How much there was to be gained in Rome by 
 the same means, is well known to every reader of those 
 parts of Cicero, which bear directly on the subject of 
 oratory, or on his own personal history. It was not with- 
 out practising the strictest self-denial, not without a rigid 
 abstinence from the commonest and most allowable kinds 
 of relaxation^, that he had himself amassed that amount 
 of reading which makes a ' full man,' a storehouse from 
 the abundance of which his own mouth spoke, and which 
 he justly held to be an essential requisite in every iirst-rate 
 orator. His more direct and special oratorical training was 
 also of the most laborious kind 2. 
 
 But, though this special training is not absolutely be- 
 yond the Christian preacher's attainment, and though the 
 preachers in the fourth century had opportunities before 
 their ordination of going through a most efficient course of 
 it, which opportunities not a few of them embraced, yet the 
 very nature of their office precluded their taking advantage 
 of them in the same degree as the secular orator. The im- 
 perative necessity in the Christian preacher's case of his 
 speaking by character as much as, or rather far more than 
 by words, and the engrossing importance of his end in 
 speaking, the setting before his hearers their eternal in- 
 terests, and the persuading them to secure their eternal 
 happiness, — somewhat different ends from the Aristotelian 
 ra <jv\jb(^kpovTa and ev^atjjLovia^, — these considerations would 
 seem to place it beyond his power ever to acquire an artistic 
 perfection in eloquence, if for no other reason at least for 
 this, that they would forbid the necessary expenditure of 
 time. And what he must abate of preparation in coming 
 
 ^ Q\CQro, 'pro ArcTiia, 6. tia putanda est.' This passage with 
 
 2 Cicero, Brutus, 90 : ' Studiosis- the immediate context is quoted 
 
 sime in dialectica versabar, quje by Mr Grote (viii. 464). 
 
 quasi contracta et astricta eloquen- '^ Arist. Rliet. i. 5. 6. 
 
Introductory. 11 
 
 to tlie trial, we must abate of a pure artistic criterion in chap. i. 
 estimating the results. " 
 
 But, when once we have made such abatements as 
 these, and have honestly recognised them, and have thus 
 cleared our minds of many false conceptions and vain ex- 
 pectations about the oratory of the pulpit, we may confi- 
 dently and thankfully lay claim on its behalf to a very high 
 rank in the scale of human eloquence. Christian Oratory, ^Jaf rf'' 
 an expression which implies the adaptation of art to sul)-l SS/t-/i« 
 jects which transcend all art and all science alike, is how-' *" ^'"""'^' 
 ever no_^ontradiction in terms. For, in the first place, j-oz-.tirst, 
 Christianity requires of us, or rather it almost unconsciously im-oivcTan 
 
 1 . y . r-i -I n T, -, universal 
 
 involves, an universal consecration to (jrod oi all that we (consecration 
 
 of our 
 
 possess : not of one endowment, or one acquirement only, J"^"-''^^'^- 
 but emphatically of all. A complete regeneration or re- 
 vivification is contemplated, with a distinct view to action. 
 This is a regeneration not necessarily of the intellect nor 
 solely of the affections. It should be said rather to seize 
 hold upon the whole moral nature of the man in such a 
 way, as tliat to every one his own proper labour is made to 
 wear a different aspect ; art and science and history to the 
 educated man, the daily labour of his hands to the unedu- 
 cated. The difference will soon be made to give external 
 evidence of its existence ; and if a man has been trained in 
 the art of speaking, he will consecrate that art to the new 
 and higher end of ' confessing with his mouth the Lord 
 Jesus.' He will find it, as we have seen, powerless or im- 
 becile in many instances, in many others entirely super- 
 seded; but the art will go for what it is worth. Thus ^ 
 Augustine, whom nothing escaped that was of practical 
 service to the spread of Christianity, points out how useful 
 rhetoric may be, and how expedient it is that it should be 
 enlisted on the side of Christianity^ ' Shall the adversaries Aug. De y 
 of the faith be able to state what is untrue with brevity, otrM. iv. 2. 
 
 1 Le Doctr. Christ, iv. 2. 
 
12 Introductory. 
 
 CHAP. I. clearness, and plausibility ; while we give so poor an ac- 
 t count of the truth, that it makes people weary to listen to 
 •^ it, prevents them from gaining any insight into its real 
 meaning, and leaves them disinclined to believe it ?' 
 
 Vmisost. Op. And thus Chrvsostom, who is most explicit in the 
 subordination of human aids, and who goes so far as to say 
 that the essential skill and the essential training of the 
 Christian orator are nothing else than the fear of God\ 
 nevertheless takes care to qualify his zealous renunciation. 
 ' Let no one,' he says, ' suppose that I am laying down a 
 rule, which would exempt youths from mental training 
 i altogether. Only make me sure that they possess the 
 things needful, and I would be the last to hinder the 
 addition to their abundance of this blessing besides.' 
 The precise value which he would assign to the orator's 
 training may be best gathered from the words which fol- 
 
 ffc.nsE. low^: 'As when the foundations are tottering, and the 
 dwelling-house and entire fabric are in danger of falling 
 down, it would be the last extreme of madness and folly to 
 run to the plasterers, and not to the builders ; just so on 
 the other hand, when the walls are standing, safely and 
 firmly, it would argue an impertinent obstinacy [aKalpov 
 (j)tXov€CKLa<;) to stand in the way of any one who wished to 
 plaster them.' These ought ye to have done might have 
 expressed in brief words his feelings with regard to the 
 preacher's substantive education. But not to leave the other 
 undone would have been added none the less, on behalf of 
 the special artistic equipment^. 
 
 1 Chrysostom, Opera, ii8d {Ad- orators, but instruct them in Chris- 
 
 vcrsus Oppuijn. Vit. Monach. 3): oil- / tian wisdom. If they he deficient 
 
 Tcos 77 ovTUis (TO<pia Kai -q oVroJS iralbev- \j in eloquence it mattereth not; but if 
 
 ris ovdev erepou iariv, dXK rj 6 rod Christian wisdom be wanting, the 
 
 Qeov <p6l3os. greatest eloquence will profit no- 
 
 ^ Ibid. ii8e. thing. Everything comes of holi- 
 
 3 Cf. Horn, ad EpJies. 11 (on chap. ness, not eloquence: of humility, not 
 
 vi. I — 3) and the advice he there oratory : of deeds, not words.' — 
 
 gives to parents. ' I hear Paul say- Neander, Life of Chrysostom, p. 
 
 ing, Bring them up in the nurture, 408. 
 
 (Sec. Seek not then to render them " And this passage is followed al- 
 
Introductory. 13 
 
 Again, we sliall feel still less inclined to regard Chris- chap, i, 
 itian Oratory as a contradiction in terms, if we remember And, sccond- 
 Sthe distinct and palpable existence which was imparted by unity gives 
 iChristianity to a moral self-consciousness. Xo quality of "y^''"j-/^-f' 
 Hvhich om* nature is capable was so likely as this was, to "^■*- 
 generate tliat ' abundance ' in the heart, out of which ' the 
 mouth speaketh.' It is this that awakens a thousand new S^£'J/^ 
 sensibilities in a heart inanimate before; and tunes the 
 strings, whether joyous or grave, that go to make up the 
 harmony of the human soul. It is tliis that makes us 
 sometimes sit and weep by the waters, hanging our harps 
 upon the trees ; and that sometimes fills our mouth with 
 laughter and our tongue with joy, as when the Lord turned 
 again the captivity of Zion. For this it is that unveils and 
 interprets the whole spiritual significance to us of those 
 ancient hymns of unutterable sorrow and joy. It makes us 
 thrill w4th the hazardous turning-points and the tremendous 
 issues of the great spiritual conflict, the internecine war 
 that is for ever being waged between the law of the mem- 
 bers and the law of the mind ; and gives such an intensity 
 to the words ' bondage ' and ' liberty ' as was unknown 
 even to the ancient Hellenic haters of despotism. As it 
 v/as of old, so now it is, and ever shall be ; the captivity is 
 no sooner turned, than the tongue is loosed. And this 
 truth stands out in vastly magnified proportions when, as 
 at long intervals it happens, a great crisis becomes visible 
 in the spiritual conflicts of nations. Such a period was the 
 period of the Reformation ; such was the fourth century of 
 the Christian Church. 
 
 At epochs like these (and this will form our last con- ai nreat 
 
 _ -■- ^ ^ crises in the 
 
 sideration), it has generally been found that the greatest |P«jj«^^'«y^«*- 
 intellects and noblest natures have been attracted to the ^!^m'a%^^^ 
 
 found to take 
 part in the 
 most immediately by these qualify- education, but to prevent your ex- *'^''"^/i'*^- 
 ing words: *I say not this to pre- pending your care solely thereupon.' 
 vent your giving them a learned — Ibid. 
 
14 Introductory. 
 
 CHAP. I. struggle, and compelled to take an active part. There is 
 
 ~~ ~ unlimited scope in such movements for the employment of 
 
 the highest power and the highest goodness. There is 
 
 ahvavs a fi<2rht to be carried on, demandino; at once the 
 
 exercise of vigour and of discretion, first against external 
 
 foes, and presently afterwards against enemies and mur- 
 
 murers within the very precincts of the camp. And this 
 
 fight was strenuously fought, in the period of which we 
 
 are now to treat, by those two great men, so difierent in 
 
 natural constitution, so thoroughly one in loyalty to the 
 
 tiuchwerc Cross, St Johu Chry^stoui and St Augustine. So fought 
 
 andAatjus- also the Q^oodlv plialanx that rank beneath them, stronc^ 
 
 tine, and ^ . . \ . . , ^ 
 
 fm'dexree ^"^ cmment m themselves, but yet not attaninig to the 
 first two ; from Basil and Gregory in the East, and Am- 
 brose in the West, down through a cloud of less illustrious 
 witnesses. 
 
 Dean Milman, in a masterly paragraph^, has sketched 
 the prominent characteristics of some of the chief leaders : 
 — the commanding sway of Chrysostom over the popular 
 mind in Constantinople; the comprehension and system of 
 Augustine's intellect, animated by the vehement African 
 passion; the link that was supplied by Jerome between 
 the East and West, the translation by him of Syrian mo- 
 nasticism into Europe, and of European dialect into Syria ; 
 the strong practical character and moral energy of Am- 
 brose ; the Trinitarian pertinacity of Hilary at Poitiers, an 
 outpost of Christianity upon the very borders of civiliza- 
 tion ; the missionary zeal of St Martin of Tours ; the modi- 
 fied Orientalism of Basil and the Gregories ; and the almost 
 paternal relation to all these, in point of orthodo.^y, which 
 was held by Athanasius, its well-nigh eponymous champion. 
 But it is obviously upon the names of Chrysostom and 
 of Augustine that we wish here to insist, inasmuch as they 
 were emphatically the two men who would have attained 
 
 ^ Hist, of Christianity, ill. 187 sq. 
 
Introductory. 15 
 
 certain eminence in any age, and wliose commanding quali- chap. r. 
 ties were drawn out to tlieir full extent by being enlisted ~ 
 in tlie conflict of the fourth century on the side of Catholic 
 Christianity. Augustine was indeed, as we shall hereafter 
 see, the leading mind that laid the stamp of its supremacy 
 not onl}' on his own age, but on many succeeding ages of 
 the Church. When men of this calibre become bound up 
 with any great movement of the human mind, there never 
 fail to come from them utterances worthy the most earnest 
 attention of the theological, or philosophical, or historical 
 student. 
 
 It will now, perhaps, be sufficiently clear where we summwn vp 
 
 , -, -, -, , . . -, . , . of the first 
 
 would place and now it is proposed to estimate the oratori- chapur. 
 cal remains of the Church Fathers. They are the works , 
 of men, more or less eminent in their own right : but who ! 
 had become thoroughly interpenetrated v^dth an absorbing 
 transcendental agency, the influence of which is to be traced 
 in their writings, almost always to an equal, and often to a 
 far greater extent, than that of their education in the prin- 
 ciples of human Art. The subject-matter is therefore pecu- 
 liar : the end is paramount over the means. ' 
 They are consequently to be judged by a standard which 
 reaches higher and wider than that of Art alone^: higher, 
 that it may embrace what lies far above the sphere of Art ; 
 wider, that so opportunities may be gained of viewing, as 
 
 ^ Chry^ostom not only regarded cause ; for, since the Apostles, igno- 
 
 the Apostles (including even St Paul) rant as they were and gifted with no 
 
 in a kindred spirit to that which is art of speech, could overthrow the 
 
 here intended, but he endeavoured systems of the ancient philosophers, y 
 
 to persuade others so to regard and and amidst so many difficulties ac- 
 
 estimate them. A passage from complish what ncne of those philo- 
 
 Hom. in t Cor. iii. will make this sophers had been able to effect, — 
 
 plain. He had overheard a zealous this of itself was the best proof that 
 
 Christian maintaining against a hea- not human wisdom but the grace of 
 
 then, that Paul excelled Plato in God had worked through them.' — 
 
 eloquence and learning. Upon this Neander, Life of Chrysostom, p. 305. 
 he remarks that 'the Christian was The epithet 'ignorant' is, of course, 
 
 contending against the very point to be understood in a very quahfied 
 
 which was most favourable to his sense as applied to St Paul. 
 
16 Introductory, 
 
 CHAP. T. it were, in perspective the varied edifice of Christian oratory, 
 T and that we may never mistake what is due only to the j 
 style for essential parts of the building, nor, on the other 
 hand, deny to style and ornamentation the welcome irradia- 
 tion they often diffuse, the practical uses they sometimes 
 subserve. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Ail Historical Review of the prescribed Period. 
 
 To draw, to sheathe a useless sword, 
 To fool the crowd with glorious lies, 
 To cleave a creed in sects and cries, 
 
 To change the bearing of a word, 
 » * * 
 
 I see in part 
 
 That all, as in some piece of art. 
 
 Is toil cooperant to an end. 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 WE have thus indicated something of the spirit in which ^^^^- ii 
 this inquiry should be undertaken. And we may now 
 advance more hopefully to the real subject in hand, the 
 arrangement of which it is proposed to conduct in some- 
 thing like the following order. 
 
 This present chapter will contain a review of the history Tiie design of 
 of the Roman world, political and ecclesiastical, during the piained. 
 wonderful period, or rather the series of periods, through 
 which we have to pass. Going on to the third chapter, we 
 shall perhaps see reason to adopt a threefold division of 
 the prescribed centuries, recognising, first, the Apostolic > 
 era, then the Philosophic and Mystic, and, lastly, the Ora- ) 
 torical proper. We shall then come to examine certain' 
 h priori reasons why, in the first two of our divisions, 
 Christianity was likely, beyond its own pale, to be indebted 
 to other means than to oratory for its extension : and un- 
 dikely, within its own pale, to have needed any such stimu- 
 las as is implied in the idea of oratory. Having briefly 
 noticed in the fourth chapter what may be termed the 
 Antiquities of Preaching as they relate to the third, fourth, 
 
 2 
 
18 All Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. II. and fifth ages of Christianitj, we shall come to the particu- 
 
 lar examination of individual Church Fathers, during the 
 Apostolic period, in Chapter v., during the Philosophic and 
 Mystic in Vi. and vii., and during the Oratorical Proper 
 in the four chapters next in order. The last cliapter but 
 one will be occupied on comparisons or parallels of the 
 great rhetorical Church Fathers, on one side with their 
 predecessors, the Hellenic and Roman masters of eloquence, 
 on the other with some of their successors among the Chris- 
 tian preachers of modern Europe. A proposal for a conjec- 
 tural estimate of what their merits would have been, apart 
 from a connexion with Catholic Christianity, and for a 
 notice of certain heretical preachers, will form the subject of 
 the thirteenth and concluding chapter. 
 Tiie utility To comc uow to the historical review of the period. 
 
 ofdistmct ^ ^ ^ i 
 
 '^iwipSr^ There will surely be no need of pointing out how useful, or 
 rather how indispensable, it is to secure a distinct concep- 
 tion of chronological and other limits in an investigation of 
 phenomena relating to the mental or spiritual history of 
 man. And, if this is true generally, it is more especially 
 true of the first five Christian centuries. Here we have 
 men whose names are familiarly quoted in juxtaposition, 
 Tertullian and Athanasius, for instance, or Cyprian and 
 Ambrose, yet who were separated from each other notwith- 
 standing by long intervals of time, and in many instances 
 by a strongly pronounced individuality. By the concep- 
 tion of them all in common as Church Fathers, our view of 
 them as living men is dimmed, or, to use a striking figure 
 of Niebuhr's\ it hecomes for esJiortened. He has remarked 
 how apt we are to forget, that the period of time between 
 Plautus and Claudian was equal to that which separates us 
 from the Minnesingers. And just so we may fail to realise, 
 that Cyril of Alexandria was as far from St Paul as we are 
 
 1 The passage referred to occurs found in Vol. III. of Niehuhr's Life 
 in a Paper on Antiquities, to be cmd Letters. 
 
of the prescrihed Period. 19 
 
 from the Wars of the Roses ; Origen as far behind Am- chap. ri. 
 brose, as a Queen Anne writer is behind om* own day ; or 
 forget that Cyprian was a man battling for his very life : 
 Athanasius, a hmidred years later when Christian lives 
 were no longer in peril from without, a combatant for or- 
 thodox integrity ; and Chrysostom, later still, for a more 
 than monastic morality and an unshackled episcopate. 
 
 Without more to say, therefore, on the practical utilitv 
 of the plan, it is proposed at once and very briefly to recal 
 the leading features, within the prescribed limits, of the 
 Roman Imperial succession, of the Persecutions, of the 
 Heretics (with a few remarks on the Schisms) , and of the 
 most eminent Pagan Schools of Thought. 
 
 I. (The Empire.) In the case of the Imperial Sue- The Empire, 
 cession, from the earliest limit of our period down to the ^amthlf%m- 
 death of Constantine, we cannot do better than follow the *'""^*"^- 
 arrangement which has been pointed out by Milman* as 
 the natural one. It marks out the years into four periods, 
 of distinct character but unequal length. The first extends 
 as far as the death of Xero (68) : the second, to the acces- 
 sion of Trajan, twenty years later: the third, of greater 
 length than the first two taken together, and of greater 
 splendour than any other equal period of Roman History, 
 ends with the death of M. Aurelius : the fourth, longer still, 
 reaching to the establishment of Christianity as the reli- 
 gion of the State in 324. 
 
 All these four periods were marked by certain political 
 characteristics, in which we, the children of a long-esta- 
 blished Christianity, may fancy that we can always discern 
 something advantageous to the religion. And, in a certain 
 sense, we are right. The purely despotic and selfish spirit 
 of the sovereigns in the first period, was likely enough to 
 be blind or indifferent to the real progress and the real 
 strength of Christianity. Hostile tcf'all palpable and overt 
 
 1 Milman, History of Christianity, in, 49. 
 
 2—2 
 
20 An Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. II. acts of innovation, such a tyranny wants the intelligence, 
 or, which comes to much the same thing, the patience, 
 requisite for the fathoming or probing that which is yet 
 
 Nero. hidden and remote. But, on the other side, it was a state 
 
 of terrible uncertainty that could admit of such results as 
 followed the accident of Nero's fire, and gave the despot 
 scope for the exhibitian of that colossal self-will in its naked 
 reality. Scarcely less terrible in the second period, and 
 almost more monstrous in idea, was the complete system 
 
 nomuian. oi Delation established by Domitian. The unprecedented 
 confiscations, which became matters of ordinary occurrence, 
 secured an eager and efficient staff of informers ; and the 
 fates of Flavins Clemens and Domitilla point to a secret 
 mainspring of the Emperor's hatred within the bosom of 
 his own family. 
 
 During the greater part of the tliird period, the advan- 
 tages enjoyed by Christianity from tlie character of tlie 
 Emperors may be measured by this fact, that, so far as it 
 gained any notice at all, it was the attention of great men 
 that was paid to it. Yet how little positive benefit was 
 likely to accrue from even this advantage, at least under 
 the reign of Trajan, will appear more plainly if we remem- 
 ber the uncertain conceptions of Christianity which pre- 
 vailed among even tlie great minds of that day. While 
 Pliny \ with a rare freedom and impartiality of judgment, 
 was regarding the Christians in the light only of harmless 
 delinquents, his friend Tacitus saw in them the hierophants 
 of an exitiahilis super stitio, sontes et novissima exemjpla me- 
 ritos\ Not that there is anything surprising, when we 
 remember the shameless foreign importations, particularly 
 from the East, which are recorded in the burning language 
 of Juvenal as well as by the more indifferent Horace and 
 Martial, that the most ready assent should have been often 
 
 1 Neander, Church History, I. 135. (ed, Bohn). 
 
 2 Tac. Ann. XV. 44. 
 
 Trajan. 
 
 rUiui and 
 'racitiis. 
 
of the 'prescribed Period. 21 
 
 given to the stories of Thyestean and kindred horrors cuap. ii. 
 among the Christians. What is important to be observed 
 is this : that even a great mind like that of Tacitus, a mind 
 accustomed to the weighing of evidence and familiar with 
 the misrepresentations of design or ignorance, was not proof 
 against these grossly erroneous and often grossly malicious 
 attacks. 
 
 The profound genius* of Hadrian, though he Avas far iiadrkm. 
 enough from having any positive leaning towards Christi- 
 anity, and the noble philanthropy of Antoninus Pius, were jnumiaui 
 very great and very solid advantages to the rising faith. 
 During the forty-four years of their sovereignty \ the out- 
 rages of Barcochba in Palestine formed almost the only 
 interruption to the prosperity of the Christians. But in 
 the very second year of Aurelius the horizon began to be -i^- AureUus. 
 overcast : not the horizon of Christianity only, but of the 
 Empire as well. The public ear was soon appalled with 
 gloomy reports from the frontier-lines, and with the news 
 of the consuming pestilence brought by the army of Verus 
 from the shores of the Euphrates, to fill up the measure of 
 the annus calarmtosus^. The precise nature of Aurelius' s 
 standpoint towards Christianity, so far as it has been ap- 
 preciated by the most enlightened of modern Church his- 
 torians, will be drawn out more clearly a little further on^, 
 when we come to take a special notice of the persecutions. 
 In this reign fell Justin Martyr, the aged Polycarp, and 
 the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne. 
 
 Meantime, we find the fourth period opening with a 
 succession of emperors who shewed an actual leaning to- 
 wards Christianity. Whether it were an ignorance of, or 
 want of sympathy with, the spirit of old Rome, or an 
 actual foreign extraction, or the natural consequences of a 
 long foreign residence on military service, as was the case 
 
 1 A.D. 117 — 161. ^ A,D. 166, 8 gee below, p, 35. 
 
99! 
 
 A7i Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. II. with some of the imperial adventurers, or finally, whether 
 it were a besotted and indifferent sensualism, with which 
 it is hard not to contrast (favourably to the latter) the 
 military vigour of Trajan, and the unspotted austerity of 
 Aurelius, — whichever of these circumstances was in opera- 
 tion as the cause, the new religion at all events found pro- 
 tectors during this period wearing the imperial purple. 
 
 ^ommodus. The favouritc mistress of Commodus, the celebrated Martia, 
 is said to have had a connexion of some sort with the 
 Christians ; and so is the nurse of Caracalla. The taste 
 for Oriental superstitions, which led captive the wretched 
 mind of Elagabalus, had a twofold operation ; weakening 
 the influence of the established hierarchy, and encouraging 
 
 ikxmider. the tolcration of a faith which came from Palestine. Alex- 
 ander i, who followed him, was a philosopher rather than a 
 statesman; he had adopted a syncretic system, and was 
 willing to allot a place to our Lord and to Abraham, 
 among the objects of devotion which his private chapel 
 contained. With regard to the emperor Philip, the gravest 
 authorities^ report that he was actuall}^ a Christian. At 
 any rate there were Christians who believed him so to 
 be ; and the tendency of his government must have been 
 emphatically in their favour to admit of such a belief, 
 notwithstanding the unusual splendours with which he 
 celebrated the religious rites of the Romans. 
 
 This state of comparative repose, broken in upon only 
 by the accidental tempest under Severus, and the short- 
 lived^ brutality of Maximin, was terminated at last by 
 the systematic antagonism of Decius, which found its 
 expression not now in the repeal of restrictive edicts only, 
 but in the regular and energetic enlistment of state-influence 
 on the side of popular fanaticism. 
 
 Philip 
 
 ^ His Z/ararl 117)1, mentioned below, 
 contained also busts of Orpheus and 
 Apollonius of Tyana. — (Cf. Neander, 
 
 Chtirch History, I. 173.) 
 
 2 Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. VI. 34. 
 
 3 A.D. 235—238. 
 
of the pi'escrihed Period. 23 
 
 This may be regarded as the half-Avay point in our chap. ii. 
 fourth Ante-Constantine period. The concessions of Va- 
 lerian to a minister who opposed Christianity in the interest Sftw' 
 of Egyptian mysteries, the liberal edicts of Gallienus, com- ^"*'^"'^"- 
 bining with a restoration of peace to the oppressed faithful, 
 some portion of dignity to their ministers, the hostile inten- 
 tions of Aurelian, the carrying out of whicli was prevented 
 by his death, — these were the chief fluctuations in that long 
 season of almost undisturbed but dangerous security, which 
 separated the Decian from the Diocletian scourge. Tre- 
 mendous as was this last visitation, when the whole 
 bitterness of the priestly and philosophic parties in unison 
 animated the whole strength of the civil power in one con- 
 centrated attack, edicts and rescripts of ever-increasing 
 barbarity being showered more especially upon the minis- 
 ters of the Church, still Christianity had its roots far too 
 deeply planted, and was far too vigorous in its growth, not 
 to endure the shock. We understand something of the 
 utter hopelessness, and, by consequence, of the intense 
 fierceness of the movement, when we reflect that there were 
 but ten short years^ between the Edict of Nicomedia and 
 the Edict of Milan. 
 
 The a2:e of Constantine brino;s us to the close of Mil- Endofuu- 
 man's periods. But one hundred and forty years intervene "<''^*- 
 between the death of the first Christian Emperor and the 
 fall of the Western Empire. 
 
 For the sake of adopting a well-known date, and one 
 which marks ajvast crisis in human liistory, we may sub- 
 tract a few years from the exact number proposed in the 
 title of this Essay, and assume 476 instead of 500 to be its The Faii of 
 forward limit. It is true that this proceedins; will exclude Empire {m) 
 
 - . -^ 1 • 1 . 1 taken as the 
 
 from our subsequent review a lew names, which mio-ht f or imrd 
 
 J- ' o limtt of this 
 
 otherwise have found a place there, though little more than "^^*'*'*^- 
 a place. Such are the names of Primasius, in Africa, in 
 
 1 A.D, 303—313- 
 
omitted. 
 
 24 An Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. II. whose case a tolerable substratum of original power bad 
 been cultivated by attendance upon Augustine's teaching : 
 Primasius, of Salviau^ and Honoratus, at Marseilles, the former of 
 Honoraius, wliom was distinguished by a real purity of style, and an 
 nittSi^'"' ' earnest though narrow conception of Christian duty, the 
 latter by a reputation for extempore preaching ; and, lastly, 
 of Gelasius, Bishop of Rome, who continued the discus- 
 sion of the ' supremacy ' question, (a legacy from his prede- 
 cessor Felix II.,) with the See of Constantinople, and whose 
 book, De Duahus Naturis, is quoted against transubstanti- 
 ation. A general comprehension, however, of the early 
 Christian Orators loses little in accuracy by the omission of 
 names like these : and to elaborate such a comprehension 
 into a minute and particular one, falls obviously beyond 
 the scope of an Essay. 
 
 Adopting, therefore, the fall of the Western Empire as 
 our extreme forward limit, we may assist the memory by 
 arranging into four brief periods the hundred and thirty- 
 nine years which preceded it. The first will extend from 
 the death of Constantine in 337 to the Division of the 
 Empire in June, 364 : the second, from 364 to 395, the 
 last year of Theodosius I. : the third, from 395 to 429, 
 when Genseric landed in Africa : and the fourth, from 429 
 to the memorable year of Extinction, 476. 
 
 Almost the whole of the first in these four sections of 
 time Avas occupied by the civil contests amongst each other 
 of the sons of Constantine, by the struggle of Constantius 
 with Magnentius and Vetranio, and of the same Emperor 
 
 1 Compare the following passage works are extremely interesting on 
 
 of Niebulir {Lectures on Roman account of their political tendency, 
 
 History, in. 339): 'The writings which is quite different from that we 
 
 of Salvianus, presbyter, or bishop, find in Orosius.' Then follow some 
 
 of Marseilles, are very remark- very interesting remarks on tbe 
 
 able. He wrote on the government republican leaning of Salvian, and 
 
 of God and against avarice. The its connexion in the history of the 
 
 language is Galilean ; his rhetorical Church, 
 tendency may be censured, but his 
 
of the 'prescribed Period. 25 
 
 afterwards with Julian. The death of Constantine had chap, ii 
 also been the signal for external disturbances in the rise 
 of the long-protracted Persian War. In the very year 
 when the prestige of Constantine's military fame ceased to 
 exist, Sapor began that struggle which terminated twenty- 
 six years later in the death of Julian, and the cession of 
 the five provinces beyond the Tigris. The last two years 
 of the period are marked by the short reign of Julian 
 with all his military impatience, his strange retrogressive 
 fanaticism, and his intellectual grace; and by the still 
 shorter reign of Jovian, in which, however, he had time 
 to publish the wisest edict on record of Eoman toleration. 
 
 The second section starts with the formal division oi second mh- 
 
 1 T-i • TT 1 • • . 1 -r-i division. 
 
 the l^mpire, Valens reignnig m the East, Valentinian in 364-395. 
 the West, the Imperial armies being fully occupied, during 
 their sway, in Germany, in Britain, on the Danube, and 
 in Africa. Valentinian observed an universal toleration, 
 alike of heretics and pagans ; and the vehement Arianism of 
 Valens has become famous through his celebrated inter- 
 view with Basil. Theodosius, however, headed vigorously, 
 what Gratian and Valentinian II. had feebly countenanced, 
 a thorough establishment of Catholic orthodoxy. The 
 Edict ^ (380) for the universal acceptance of the Catholic 
 Faith and the expulsion of the Arians from the churches, 
 of which they had gained a very wide-spread possession, 
 was couched in terms which shew that all forms of hetero- 
 doxy were to the mind of Theodosius, and vv^ould become 
 in the eye of his executive, as far as it lay in his power 
 to make them so, religiones non licitce'^. Meantime, the 
 noble spectacles of moral dignity presented by Basil and 
 Ambrose in this, and Chrysostom at the beginning of the 
 ensuing section, shewed clearly enough that, if the Church 
 
 ^ Published in the joint names of longed sometimes, for the power of 
 Theodosius, Gratian,andValentinian, applying to each other the old Pagan 
 " How eagerly the sects must have formula, ' non licet esse vos.' 
 
Vvidication 
 of Episcopal 
 cli(jnUti 
 diirimi these 
 two subdi- 
 visions. 
 
 26 An Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. 11. was to be governed exclusivelj by ortliodox Catliollcs, it 
 would have no lack of commanding genius and a sublime 
 courage among its governors. The solemn words, ' Thou 
 hast imitated David in his sin, imitate him therefore in his 
 repentance,' fearlessly addressed to one of the very greatest 
 statesmen and most successful soldiers that had ever adorned 
 the imperial purple, proclaim in no dubious tones the real 
 majesty of the Bishop and of his religion. The second 
 embassy of Ambrose to the usurper Maximus, undertaken 
 in the very heat of the feud with Justina, and solely 
 for the benefit of her son, furnishes a less striking but not 
 less convincing test of his spiritual greatness. 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten that, during the nearly sixty 
 years occupied by these two sections, the zealous vindica- 
 tion of episcopal dignity on the parts of its representatives, 
 had been of the very greatest benefit, not to Christianity 
 only, but to the world \ The influence of the religion for 
 good as an intermediate power, a harmonizing principle, 
 between the Koman civilization and the invading bar- 
 barism, was beyond all calculation : and was, no doubt, 
 present to many a reflecting and forecasting mind, as a 
 suggestive and consoling phenomenon in the midst of terror 
 and bewilderment, such as that which attended the crisis of 
 Hadrianople^ And this positive assumption of dignity by 
 its leading ministers, this unhesitating, though as far as 
 physical force was concerned, this unsupported challenge 
 made by the Christian Bishop to an equal footing with the 
 barbarian chief or conquering noble, was an indispensable 
 element in the obtaining or substantiating influence of such 
 a kind. 
 FouHhSub- ^^^ ^^^ concluding sections may be easily disposed of. 
 tS>-m.'and Scarcely more than three years had elapsed from the death 
 429-476. ^£ Theodosius^ when St John Chrysostom was raised, by 
 
 1 WAmMi, History of Christianity, ^ a.d. 378. 
 
 III. 127. 3 i^rom Jan. 395 to Feb. 398. 
 
of the ijrescrUjed Period. 27 
 
 the common consent of court, clergy, and people, to the chap. ii. 
 
 archiepiscopal chair of Constantinople. The Empire was 
 
 shared nominally between Arcadius in the East and Hono- 
 rius in the West, really between Kufinus (soon afterwards 
 Eutropius) and the strongminded and formidable Stilicho. 
 No sooner had Stilicho submitted his neck to the sword 
 of the Count Heraclian^ than the Goths began the first 
 siege of Eome. The second siege took place in the follow- 
 ing year ; and August of 410 witnessed the third siege 
 and terrible sack of the devoted and venerable city, which 
 was destined to two more^ similar visitations before the 
 final humiliation. Thirteen years afterwards Honorius 
 died: and Valentinian III. has still many years of his 
 reign to run out, when the landing of Genseric in Africa 
 (429) brings this section to a close. 
 
 In the East, the death of Chrysostom had preceded by 
 one year that of the feeble Arcadius. Theodosius II., who 
 succeeded, was never more than a cipher in the govern- 
 ment, which was for sometime conducted by Eudocia, his 
 wife, Pulcheria, his sister, and Placidia, mother of Valen- 
 tinian III., who married the daughter of Theodosius in 437. 
 It was the designing perfidy of Aetius, one of the two 
 generals of the West under Placidia, that drove the un- 
 suspecting Boniface to treat with the Vandals, and that 
 brought on the invasion of Africa by Genseric, the third 
 with Alaric and with Attila. Ten years later the conquest 
 and separation of Africa were completed ; and by this act 
 of dismemberment the internal prosperity of the Empire 
 was irretrievably destroyed. 
 
 The great Fathers of the Church were now fast dying Beatha of 
 out. Augustine expired^ at his post, only a year after the ^V^'^h 
 landing of the Vandals, and when the siege of Hippo had 
 lasted but three out of its fom'teen months. Cyril followed 
 in 444 ; Leo the Great in 467. He died during the progress 
 
 ^ A.D. 408. 2 ^ J) ^"2 and 472. 3 ^j)_ ^^Q^ 
 
28 An Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. II. of those memorable twenty years, when nine emperors 
 successively disappeared between Yalentinian and Au- 
 gustulus ; and Hilary sat in the chair of St Peter when 
 the first barbarian monarch, Odoacer, supplanted the last 
 miserable Caesar. 
 
 For twelve years in this concluding section the whole 
 of the civilized world was smarting under the ' Scourge of 
 God ;' the Eastern Empire from the Euxine to the Adriatic 
 between 441 and 450, and the Western Empire from 450 
 to 453. The sudden death of Attila in this latter year, was 
 soon followed by the murder of the worthless Valentinian, 
 a catastrophe which he had brought upon himself by his 
 own murder of Aetius ; and the reigns of Marcian, the two 
 Leos, and Zeno, bring the century to a close. 
 
 II. (The Persecutions.) If there were no other rea- 
 son for adjusting our notions respecting the Persecutions in 
 The Persecu- a treatise on Christian Oratory, there is this ; that the suffer- 
 
 tions. ! _ ^ y ' _ _ ^ 
 
 jetiV^nb-o^'S'^E,'^ of the antc-Niccne Christians furnished the most am- 
 
 duccd. )pj^ material for sermons, panegyric and hortatory, dm'ing 
 
 I the latter part of their own, and during many succeeding, 
 
 \ ' ages. An estimate of heathen opposition, somewhat more 
 
 evenly balanced than what we might gather from the 
 
 Church Fathers themselves, is a most desirable acquisition 
 
 before approaching the writings of Athanasius, Gregory of 
 
 ^n'the notions Naziauzum, Jcromc, Chrysostom, and Augustine. Already 
 
 trdtni"'^' with them the conception of martyrdom has become greatly 
 
 complicated. The martyr's death is now not merely an 
 
 euthanasia, dutiful and happy, honourable in itself and 
 
 likely to bring fortli good fruit for those that come after : 
 
 it is rather a claim to instantaneous sanctifi cation of a very 
 
 peculiar degree, and to a species of veneration differing 
 
 from worship only in name ; a manifestation of sentiment, 
 
 the enthusiasm of which is easily pardonable, but which is 
 
 based on wholly supposititious ideas of human constancy, 
 
 and of its value in the sight of God. 
 
of the prescribed Period. 29 
 
 But, besides this, the persecutions may be looked upon chap. ii. 
 as the inspiration in some sort of the first attempt at a persecutions 
 Christian literature. It was one of the numerous outbreaks hispiraiim 
 
 ' 1-T ii/»i'T ^ r 1 • of a distinct 
 
 of unauthorized or halt-authorized popular luiy, that m- g^^**'/"" 
 duced Quadratus and Aristides to present the Emperor 
 Hadrian with their apologetic addresses ; and Justin Martyr 
 under Antoninus Pius, Athenagoras and Melito under his 
 successor \ were moved by similar circumstances. Later 
 still Tertullian was impelled, by the persecutions which 
 befell the Christians in North Africa, to compose his Apo- 
 logy for Christianity and Christians, in which he himself 
 names Septimius Severus as tlie reigning emperor^. It 
 would be hardly possible entirely to separate the more 
 official character of these apologies, wi'itten as they were in 
 the fulness of conviction, from the didactic and expository 
 tone which is often assumed : and hence the persecutions 
 may be regarded as their originating cause, even more than 
 the contemporary existence of men like Lucian, Celsus, 
 Porphyry, and Hierocles. 
 
 And now, with regard to the number and chronological ^ccurXin 
 distribution of the persecutions. Nothing can be more un- ^^aH^t/re'^t 
 philosophical than the common proceeding of setting down Zcufml^''' 
 ten persecutions in a row, apparently for the sole reason of 
 getting a round number, and thus classing indiscriminately 
 in one uncritical category the names of Nero, Domitian, 
 Trajan, Hadrian, Severus, Maximin, Decius, Valerian, Au- 
 relian, and Diocletian. A useful summary of facts on the 
 question of number is to be found in the history of Wad- 
 dington^; from which it appears that the enumeration of 
 ten persecutions was an invention of the fifth century, and 
 arose from an arbitrary interpretation of obscure prophecy, 
 rather than from anything deserving the name of historical 
 
 ^ Athenagoras wrote at a specially ^ Neander, Antignosfihts, i. § i. 
 
 •unpropitious time, a.d. i66, thie ^ History of the Church, chap, iv, 
 
 annus calainitosus. p. 42 (note). 
 
30 An Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. II. evidence. Lactantius^, in the fourth century, enumerates 
 onlj six; while Eusebius, who specifies no number, ap- 
 pears to mention nine. Sulpicius Severus, writing about 
 417, believed that it was reserved for Antichrist to add a 
 tenth and crowning persecution at the end of the world : 
 the utterly arbitrary character of which announcement may 
 shew us what was the common temper of criticism in that 
 age when ten came to be the popular computation. 
 markfonthe ^^'^^ followiiig rcmarlvS may tend more fully to substan- 
 perseaitwns. \\^iq g^ Condemnation of the list mentioned above. The 
 Hero. persecution under Nero, although one of the most horrible 
 
 visitations that ever fell upon the Church, originated not 
 in the deliberate will of the tyrant, but in a pure accident, 
 Bomuian. iiamcly, the fire of E-ome. The hostility of Domitian, more- 
 over, was entirely different from that of Aurelius or of 
 Decius. A mystery seems to envelope the precise nature 
 of his feelings ; but we can hardly doubt that the bosom 
 of his own family contained a something which powerfully 
 stimulated his suspicions against the Christians. The pas- 
 sage of Suetonius^ relating to the tragic end of Flavins 
 Clemens has an oppressive and ominous obscurity about 
 it. It runs as follows : ' Denique Flavimn Clementem pa- 
 truelem suum contemptissimm inertice, cujus filios etiam par- 
 vulos successores palam destinaverat ; . . .rejjente ex tenuissimCt 
 suspicione tantiim non ipso ejus consulatu interemit.'' United 
 with this hateful suspiciousness was cupidity ; which, if not 
 the origin of his fatal delative system, no doubt came to be 
 a prime cause of its duration and efiiciency. 
 
 So far from Trajan deserving to be classed among sys- 
 tematic persecutors, it is more than probable that, notwith- 
 standing the acute sufterings of the Christians during his 
 reign, he unintentionally shielded them from worse inflic- 
 tions. The safe obscurity in which the religion had con- 
 
 * This is stated on Dean Waddington's authority. 
 2 Suetonius, Domitian, c. 15. 
 
 Trajan. 
 
of the jyr escribed Period. 31 
 
 tinued for some time after its foundation, was fast giving chap. ii. 
 way to an obnoxious and dangerous notoriety. An Em- 
 peror less humane, less devotedly military, and more in- 
 clined to investigate the hidden workings of human thought, 
 might have headed at this era an onslaught of almost com- 
 plete extermination : whereas the utmost limit of Trajan's 
 positive hostility reached only so far as this, that in his 
 famous Rescript he gave expression to the ' illicitness ' of 
 Christianity, which had before been but tacitly assumed. 
 The effects of this rescript, however, were calamitous 
 enough to the faithful in more than one subsequent reign, 
 as they gave a constant handle to the fanatical rage of 
 chance mobs, which could now plead the letter of the law 
 as a justification of their excesses. On the other hand, 
 when the step, which had been so often declined by empe- 
 rors apparently more strongly attached to Christianity, had 
 at length been taken by Gallienus^ and the new religion GaUienus. 
 was now raised to the rank of a religio Ucita, many a 
 prince^ who would not have hesitated before in adopting 
 measures of persecution, began to have scruples about at- 
 tacking a corporation established by law. 
 
 Hadrian's rescript" to Minucius Fundanus is evidence Hadrian. 
 
 enough of the wide difference between his view of Chris- 
 
 tianity, and that held by his companions in this list, by De- 
 cius or Diocletian. And, in fact, by far the worst passages 
 of persecution during his reign were attributable, the first 
 to the admirable opportunity given to popular fury by the 
 Emperor's progress through Greece and initiation into the 
 Hellenic rites, (124); the second, to the adventurer Bar- 
 cochba, who, claiming to be the Messiah, headed the Jews 
 
 1 His famous edict was first issued ^ ^g^ for instance, Aurelian, A.D. 
 
 on his accession in -259, but did not 270. — (Neander, Church History, 1. 
 
 come into operation in Egypt and 195O 
 
 the East until the overthrow of Ma- ^ Neander, Church Huiory , 1. 140. 
 crianus, in 261. 
 
32 
 
 An Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. II. in an insane insurrection, and maltreated the Christians for 
 not joining tliem. 
 
 The name of Martia and her reported connexion with 
 the Christians were perhaps reason sufficient for the exclu- 
 
 'jommodus. siou of Cominodus froiii superficial catalogues like that to 
 which we are now alluding. Yet he made no change by 
 any express edict in favour of the persecuted religion: 
 whose followers remained, therefore, at the mercy of indi- 
 vidual governors, such as was Arrius Montanus, in Asia 
 Minor. There is an expression of Clement of Alexandria^ 
 who wrote shortly after the death of Commodus, to the fol- 
 lowing effect : ' Many martyrs are daily burned, crucified, 
 or beheaded before our eyes.' This, however, refers only 
 to the time of the civil war between Niger from the East, 
 Claudius Albinus from Gaul, and" Septimius Severus in 
 
 sn-erus. Romc. The first nine years of Severus' s reign ^, as is well 
 known, aftbrded the Christians a welcome respite from 
 suff'ering, and were particularly remarkable for the respect 
 shewn at that time by the Emperor to many distinguished 
 believers ^ And the barbarous inflictions, especially in 
 Egypt, which disgraced his later years, were, as far as we 
 can now understand the merits of the question, only indi- 
 rectly chargeable upon his edict, the letter of which appears 
 to have been confined to the prohibition of further conver- 
 sion, whether to Judaism or to Christianity. 
 
 Unless, indeed, we are to pass him over altogether as 
 a madman, a catalogue in which Severus is enrolled as a 
 
 ".aracaiia. persecutor should contain the name of Caracalla also. It 
 goes a very little way to say that this cruel Emperor did 
 not himself set on foot any new persecution. There had 
 been time enough between the edict of Severus and Cara- 
 
 ^ Clem. Alex, ii, 414, Siromat. 
 (quoted by Neancler,(,%. Hist. 1. 165). 
 '^ A.D. 193 — 201 inclusive. 
 
 3 *Non modo non Iffisit verura 
 et testimonio ornavit.' — Tertull. ad 
 JScap. IV. 
 
of the prescribed Period. 33 
 
 calla's accession, to sliew tliat the real working of that law chap. ii. 
 was most iniquitous and oppressive. And a sovereign who 
 did nothing to curb the consequent popular outrages, and 
 to allay the fury of inflamed prejudices which his predeces- 
 sor had kindled, can hardly decline the responsibility which 
 attaches to a more positive and outspoken agent. 
 
 The malice which was entertained by the savage Maxi- Maximm. 
 min against the bishops of the Church, a sentiment which 
 was shared by Decius after him, was rendered still more 
 deadly in its general effects, by the concurrence of tAvo ad- 
 verse circumstances in this reign. On one hand there was 
 the eruption of earthquakes \ especially in Cappadocia and 
 Pontus, the terror and agitation consequent upon which 
 would be sure to drive a large number of Christians before 
 the governors, a heavy percentage having first been claimed 
 by unlicensed outrage ; and, on the other, it so happened 
 that there was a particularly hostile staff of governors to 
 receive them. So that of the sharp and cruel inflictions 
 which were endured under him, perhaps not more than a 
 third part are directly attributable to the personal influence 
 of the imperial Thracian. 
 
 And, with regard to the insertion into the list of Aure- AureUan. 
 lian's name, we must remember that his five years of sove- 
 reignty^ were on the wane before he began to think of perse- 
 cution at all. He seems then to have bethought himself of 
 the gods, and to have been willing to conciliate their good- 
 will towards his Thracian enterprises, by proceeding to ex- 
 tremities against the Christians. But whatever intentions 
 he may have had, they were wholly frustrated by his mur- 
 der : the divine vengeance overtaking him, to use the lan- 
 guage of Eusebius^, and restraining him from his design at 
 the very elbow. 
 
 It will have been, perhaps, sufficiently clear that the 
 
 ^ Cf. Neander, Church History, i. ^ a.d. 270 — 275. 
 
 174, 3 Euseb. Hist. Eccl. Vii. 30. 
 
 3 
 
34 An Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. II. object of tliese remarks on certain persecuting Emperors 
 has been anything rather than to exonerate their memory 
 from the burden of reprobation which rests upon them. 
 The intention has been rather this : to eliminate, as it 
 were, from the field of our observation, the accidental bru- 
 tality of Nero, the mysterious suspiciousness of Domitian, 
 the military or statesmanlike aspect in the conduct of 
 Trajan and Hadrian, the indirect hostility of Severus, the 
 mixed character of the inflictions under Maximin, and the 
 abortive severity of Aurelian, — toning down at the same 
 time any excess of odium which may attach to certain indi- 
 viduals in the popular list referred to, by reminding our- 
 selves of the less apparent, but not the less real guilt of 
 sovereigns like Commodus and Caracalla; — in order that 
 the ex animo and successful persecutors may stand out in 
 
 Scitr^^*"* the more prominent relief before our eyes, M. Aurelius, 
 Decius, Valerian, and (uniting with this last the name of 
 the Ccesar Galerius as well) the cautiously prudent, but 
 afterwards the implacable, Diocletian. 
 
 The design of Decius was worthy of a man, who, in 
 spite of his obscure Pannonian birth, bore the name of those 
 illustrious plebeians that fell self-devoted under Mount Ve- 
 suvius and at Sentinum\ The principle on which it was 
 based was nothing less than the constraining all subjects 
 of the empire to return to the religion of their forefathers, 
 and, as a consecfuence, the entire suppression of Christi- 
 anity. The Emperor himself was remarkable for a violent 
 hatred of the higher Church-officers : and is said to have 
 been better able to endure a competition for the purple, 
 than the presence of a Bishop in the capital. This special 
 antipathy, however, did not prevent a strict universality 
 in the persecution. The lowest confessors, as well as the 
 highest authorities, of the Church were consigned to exile 
 
 ^ In the first and second Samnite wars. 
 
 Valerian, 
 
of the prescrihed Period. 35 
 
 or death : and the rack and coHar were shared with Ori- chap. ir. 
 gen\ by a crowd of less ilhistrious victims. " 
 
 The policy of Decius became narrowed and specialized vaunan. 
 in the hands of Valerian. Of his seven years of power, the 
 last three only were devoted to the more vigorous and 
 severe measures ; the prime object of which was, to deprive 
 tlie Christians of their spiritual heads, and to check the 
 progress of Christianity in the higher classes ^ Under 
 Valerian's persecution fell Thascius Cyprian, who had 
 wisely stood aloof during the Decian troubles, but who 
 now met his death at Sexti, in a manner worthy of the 
 author of the eighty-third epistle\ The Acts of Cyprian 
 are so simple and unvarnished, but at the same time so 
 circumstantial, that almost every history of the Church 
 contains a translation from them : and no passage in the 
 annals of ancient martyrdom has become more familiar 
 than the last scene of this Bishop's life. 
 
 A similar consideration of necessary notoriety renders it 
 impertinent to so limited a work as this that any account 
 should be introduced of the great and crowning persecution 
 under Diocletian. The fire in the palace of Nicomedia Dwc/etow. 
 served to rouse the darkest suspicions in that (at first) 
 prudent and temperate ruler, and the individual acts of 
 Diocletian cannot be distinguished in severity from those 
 which were prompted by Galerius. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius, however, demands a more particular m. AureUus, 
 
 ■—7— - ■ *- — i yjj^y fig Ig ,.^,. 
 
 mention; and we have reserved him for the last place, 
 that his image might the more readily remain upon the 
 mind as the ideal of an enlightened and determined perse- 
 cutor. It is hard to explain how so many writers should 
 have thought it strange for an advanced philosopher to 
 adopt persecution : as though any ethical system of that 
 
 ^ Cf, Euseb. Eccl. Hist, vi, 39. celebrated Confessors of this reign. 
 Fabienus, Bishop of Rome, Alexan- ^ Neander, Church History, I. 193. 
 
 der of Jerusalem, and Babylas of ^ Cypriani Opera (Caillau), p. 
 
 Antioch, were also among the more 332. 
 
 3-2 
 
 tainecl for the 
 last place. 
 
36 An Historical Review 
 
 :hap. II. day liad come to recognise the universal rights of man, 
 religious freedom and liberty of conscience, or had (at least 
 among Eoman thinkers) any higher ultimate object tlian 
 the State. The differentia of this great Emperor as con- 
 nected with the Christians may be thus stated; namely, 
 that he presents, in his own proper person, an epitomized 
 form of the two influences which so often originated or 
 fostered the spirit of persecution. He was devoted to the 
 State, and ultimately became panic-stricken with reference 
 to its prospects ; and, he was a Stoic philosopher. 
 
 /(•* alarm. Alamicd bcyoud measure at the pestilence brought by 
 
 the soldiers of Verus from the shores of the Euphrates, he 
 was so intent upon restoring the Pagan worsliip in its 
 minutest particulars, as actually to put off a military expe- 
 dition^ for the sake of carrying out his religious restora- 
 
 P' tion. This panic, which was in no way relieved by the 
 
 y news of grave calamities on many parts of the frontier- 
 
 line^, brought him into contact with the Christians, the 
 public and avowed enemies of the gods, the apostates on 
 whom the neglected altars might most readily be visited, 
 and whose religion had actually brought about that neglect, 
 at least in an equal proportion with the Epicurean indif- 
 ferentism, which overlay in those times the Pagan world 
 of thought. 
 
 'lu stoieim. And, uo sooucr had Aurelius been brought to turn his 
 attention towards the Christians, than the Stoic influence 
 came into play. There is, perhaps, no more pungent cause 
 of envy and jealousy, than the discovery on the part of an 
 impostor that another is in the actual possession of what he 
 is oidy pretending to : pretending, it may be, with a tem- 
 porary success in the appearance, but with a coiToding 
 consciousness of the unreality. And a sense of hollowness 
 no doubt stimulated the animosity of many a Stoic and 
 
 1 Against the Marcomannians. ^ Milman, Hist, of Christianity, 
 
 — (Neaiider, Church History, i. 147.) il. iSi. 
 
of the frescribed Period. 37 
 
 Cynic in tliat restless and degenerate age, who imposed chap. ir. 
 upon themselves to a certain extent, but felt at every time 
 of pressure how far they were from possessing the stamina 
 of a dying Socrates, or — and here lay the sting — the 
 stamina of a dying Christian. It is an ungracious sup- 
 position in one aspect, but a deeply tragic one in another^ 
 that the celebrated critique of Aurelius upon Christian 
 martyrdom^, the imputation of yjrtkrjv Trapdra^tv as opposed 
 to the calm results of a dignified reflection, was dictated 
 by a jealousy, whether conscious or not, of the warm vital- 
 ity in the resignation of the Faithful, which he must have 
 respected and perhaps coveted, while he affected to contemn. 
 
 One word, before we pass to the Heresies, on Ante- %'I^^J^fl"ll^ 
 Nicene persecution generally. Except in a very few in- J?^^,^'''"*^*^"' 
 stances, all that was said about reh'giones licitce^ and no7i 
 licitce, though weighty results sometimes hung upon the 
 distinction, was mere surface-talk. It was like the hing- 
 ing of a whole national discontent and abhorrence upon 
 the running counter to some ancestral act of prcemuiiire. 
 Popular feeling, as we have seen, anticipated some of the 
 sanguinary edicts, and lent an awful intensity to the ope- 
 ration of all. There was a vague, but almost universal, 
 apprehension among all classes with regard to the new faith ; 
 an instinctive persuasion that if the old weapons and the 
 old maxims were used, ' the scythe of Saturn ' might be 
 defied; but that a set of men were abroad, trifling with ( 
 all that was prescript and venerable, making light of "{ 
 Jupiter, Mars, Romulus, the augurs and the ancilia, not 
 worshipping the old Powers, not swearing by the Fortune ; 
 of Rome. 
 
 Over and above the actual refusal, there was the man- 
 ner of it. It was not as if the Christians were invited or 
 
 1 Meditations, XI. 3 : (quoted by are the much-quoted passages on 
 Neander, Church History, i. 146.) this subject. 
 
 ^ Cic. Legg. 11. 8, and Liv. iv. 30, 
 
38 
 
 A7i Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 / 
 
 The Ante- 
 Nicene phases 
 of thought 
 
 compelled by the proconsuls to the expression of any 
 earnest belief. On the contrary, the meaning of the sacri- 
 ficial act was distinctly given : it was a mere token of 
 loyalty to the Empire. Could a man decline the scanty 
 handful of incense, the lightest and most elastic form of 
 religious test ever proposed, — could he thus go out of his 
 way to insult the State, and then come with a grave face, 
 and profess a heartfelt loyalty? Yet this Avas what the 
 Christians did, neglecting or doing violence to the (so- 
 called) time-honoured and h-umanizing usages of society, 
 and throwing down a challenge to the sovereign of the 
 world. The obstinacy or singularity of the thing was, at 
 the best of times, vexatious ; but when fire, and plague, 
 and famine were abroad, wdien Goths were forgetting what 
 was due to the Roman frontier, and the public were pro- 
 portionately unwilling that a single altar should go un- 
 honoured, it then became by rapid degrees, detested, in- 
 tolerable, doomed. With statesmen, philosophers, and the 
 general public alike, it was always a nuisance, except when 
 it occasionally rose to be a hideous doubt, a half-perceived 
 and entirely dreaded reality. There must have been an 
 especial terror to thinking minds, in the failure of a well- 
 organized persecution, such, for instance, as was that of 
 Decius ; just as though a man should strike hard at a 
 spectre, and see the naked sword pass harmless through 
 the unmoved figure. 
 
 III. (The Heresies and Schisms). Some disposition 
 of the peculiar mental tendencies in the Church during 
 these early ages, is imperatively necessary in a review of 
 any department whatever in the early Christian Literature. 
 The briefest possible space is all that can be here allotted 
 to the subject. 
 
 And, first, of the phases of thought in the Ante-Mcene 
 age. In the most general conception that can be taken of 
 this vast and deeply-interesting subject, it will not be easy 
 
of the prescribed Period, 39 
 
 to find a clearer fundamental division tlian the twofold chap. ii. 
 one of Idealism and Realism^. The first term we may 
 accept as the symbol of the yvMo-i^; in all its forms, whether 
 akriOival or -^ev^wvv^oi, a generalization which will recal 
 to the mind the names of Basilides and Valentinus as well divided into 
 
 • mi T 1 ^^'^ Idealistic 
 
 as those of Clement and Origen. The second embraces and Realistic. 
 Ebionism^ on the one hand and Montanism on the other, 
 with all their ramifications and varieties. 
 
 The very lowest of the former class of tendencies ad- ciall^lend- 
 mitted, if it did not actually presuppose, the notion of s.prJ^eTsive.- 
 progressive development ; the latter class was eventually conservative. 
 conservative, if not retrogressive, ^oiitanisni in particular^ 
 yearned towards the rejection and condemnation of existing 
 elements of culture ; while an endeavour to reconcile with 
 Christianity the contemporary results of human enlighten- 
 ment was the characteristic of the Alexandrian School. 
 At the same time we must modify a too rigid application 
 of this antithetical mode of conception, by remembering 
 another principle common to all the Gnostic schools, and 
 closely connected with the Alexandrian eclecticism*, although 
 not actually arising from it. This was the endeavour to 
 remove as far as possible from the supreme and invisible 
 God every participation in the production of a world so 
 thoroughly impregnated with evil as our own system^. 
 The Creator of this world came, as a natural consequence, 
 to be regarded sometimes as merely distinct from, some- 
 times as directly antagonistic to, the high God. From the 
 
 ^ See Neander, Introduction to the der, Ch. Hist. I. 477. 
 Antigno&tikus. We shall have to re- ^ Neander, Church Hist. II. 224. 
 
 turn to the subject below, Chap. VI. ^ Compare on the eclectic spirit 
 
 in the notice of TertuUian. the very words of Clemens : (piXoao- 
 
 ^ Orig. ill Alatth. xy'i. 12 : repeal- (piau de ov ttjv Utoilktiv Xeycv, ovd^ 
 
 ojveLu) /cat tttcox^'JOvti irepl ttjv els r-qv TLXaTdJVLKrju ovde ttju 'ApLcrroreXt- 
 
 'Irjaovv Triariv — and the same Father ktjv, dXX oaa etprjTacTrap' eKdary t(2v 
 
 (c. Cels. II. i) : eirdovvixoL rrjs Kara aipiaeuiv rodroiv KaXcSs. — Stromata, 
 
 TTJV eKdoxvv TTTUxelas rov vo/xov — are I. 7. 
 
 interesting passages on the etymo- ^ Conybeare's Bampton Lectures, 
 
 logy of the name, quoted by Nean- p. 268. — (Lect. V.) 
 
40 
 
 Ail Historical Review 
 
 evil source of matter was derived the sensitive and merely 
 animal vitality of our nature ; while the heavenly spark of 
 the rational soul proceeded from the inaccessible denizen of 
 the Pleroma. 
 
 Descending, now, somewhat more into detail, we shall 
 find the Chevalier Bunsen's^ arrangement and classification 
 full of suggestive analysis. His landmarks bring us down 
 to the death of Origen, just beyond the middle point of the 
 third century. Seven sections of time are recognised as 
 occupying the interval between our Lord's death and the 
 year 254. There is first the age of 8t Peter and St Paul, 
 embracing the history of the rising Cliurch from the Pente- 
 costal starting-point to the death of the two leading Apo- 
 stles, about the year 65, and the destruction of Jerusalem 
 (70). This is followed by the age of 8t John and Clemens 
 Bomanus, the last Apostle, and the first historical Bishop : 
 and the third section is called the age of Ignatius and Bast- 
 tides. The great imperial soldier and the profound imperial 
 statesman fall within this third division ; Ignatius suffered 
 martyrdom under the former, and the earliest Apologists, 
 with the elder apostles of the 7z^a)o-t?, Cerinthus andBasilides, 
 made their appearance under the sway of the latter. The 
 fourth age is tJiat of Poly carp and Valentinus, during which 
 the Gnostic Philosophies and the Christian Literature con- 
 tinue to progress side by side ; and the fifth, that of Ire- 
 nmus; a period in which the dualistic systems are regarded 
 as having begun to yield to Catholic science, under the 
 influence of Theodotus and Panttenus in the East, and of 
 L-enseus himself in the West. To this succeeds the age of 
 Clemens at Alexandria, and Victor at Borne, which reaches 
 down to the death of Caracalla (217), and witnesses the 
 consolidation of Catholic science, as well as a very decided 
 advance in hierarchical assumption. The last age is that 
 
 1 The reference is to the Chronological Tables in Hijppolytus and His Age, 
 Vol. I. pp. 235—237. 
 
of the 'prescribed Period. 41 
 
 of Origen, witli Alexander Severus the syncretist, and chap. ii. 
 Maximin and Decius the ruder and the more systematic q/ origm. 
 persecutors, as the prominent names among the Emperors ; 
 ajid Hippolytus (his later writings only belong to this 
 period), Callistus, Urbanus, Pontianus and Cornelius, as 
 the principal working Churchmen. 
 
 Upon this arrangement of periods is superinduced a ^l^^'i'^flff.^^- 
 threefold classification of the contemporary Heresies. The %,raryHerc' 
 three classes are the Gnostic, the Ebionite and Mixed\ ^^'^' 
 and the Ecclesiastical, the members of the last class being 
 orthodox in their opinions concerning God and Christ, but 
 having some more or less erroneous belief on other points. 
 The historical origin of the Gnostic systems is placed in 
 the Johannean age, before the writing of St John's Gospel, 
 and somewhere between the years 70 and 99. The chief ^"^•''^^ *^^^*- 
 Gnostic leaders are thickly scattered over the first five 
 sections of time, the more eminent names being those of 
 Simon, Menander (at Antioch), Basilides, Yalentinus^, 
 Saturninus, and Marcion. Basilides and Yalentinus agreed 
 on almost all their fundamental doctrines ; their differences 
 consisting, in fact, almost entirely in a variously elaborated 
 expansion of primary conceptions which were present to 
 the minds of both^. 
 
 The Ebionite and Mixed class also ranges over the f^Sf""""* 
 first five sections. The names of Carpocrates, Cerinthus, 
 Theodotus of Byzantium, Cerdon, Apelles, the Doceta3, 
 Tatian, and Hermogenes, stand out in the greatest pro- 
 minence. Apelles had been a disciple of Marcion, but 
 indulged in various speculations foreign to the primitive 
 
 ^ Containing, that is, a mixture ^ Who, according to Irenaeus (Eu- 
 
 of Gnosticism and Ebionism. Vid. seb. iv. ii), 'came to Eome under 
 
 Eippohftus and His Age, in loc. It Hyginus, was in his prime under 
 
 was obviously possible for these Pius, and lived till the time of Ani- 
 
 sects to exchange certain false posi- cetus.' 
 
 tions, without surrendering their fun- ^ Cf. Neander, Church History, 
 
 damentally difl'erent principles of ir. 71, and Bishop Kay e's -4 ceo itn^ c/ 
 
 thought. Clement, p. 276, ff. 
 
42 Ati Historical Review 
 
 CHAP. II. Marcionite system. Carpocrates belongs more strictly, as 
 also do the licentious Nicolaites, to the sects who inclined 
 towards various forms of Paganism, such as were the pan- 
 theistic Ophites, the Cainites, and the pseudo-Basilideans. 
 
 Ecciesias- Finally, the Ecclesiastical Class makes itself felt durinsr 
 
 the filth, sixth, and seventh sections, comprising the 
 Quartodecimans, the Encratites, the Callistians, the Elcha- 
 saites, the Montanists, and the Noetians. The Patri- 
 passian Noetus was imitated subsequently by Beryllus; 
 by Sabellius, condemned in a Synod held at Rome 
 (263) ; and by Paul of Samosata, who was the 'protege of 
 Zenobia^ and was condemned by the Synod of Antioch 
 in 269. 
 
 Thi Schisms. Of Schisms, the Novatian properly finds a place within 
 the chronological limits of Bunsen's arrangement, 250 be- 
 ing the date of the election of Cornelius. The Meletian 
 Schism was settled at Nice ; the Donatist struggle, that 
 most unchristian contest for the primacy of the African 
 Church, was not finally quelled until the seventh century. 
 The exceeding bitterness which characterised this last- 
 named movement may be judged of by the way in which 
 the Donatists indiscriminately applied to the Catholics the 
 invidious title of Traditors^. 
 
 Hani. The great heretical feature of the latter half of the third 
 
 century is obviously the appearance of Mani, a noble 
 Persian of the sacred Magian order, who atoned for the 
 offence which his system caused the hierarchy, by being 
 flayed alive under the orders of the king Baharam, about 
 the year 276. Whatever may have been the cause, it is 
 certain that the wild doctrines of Mani made a deep and 
 lasting impression upon both oriental and occidental na- 
 tions. The implacable hostility of all other religions to 
 
 ^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall, il. ^ Milman, Hist, of ChristianitT/, 
 
 457. II- 367. 
 
of the ^prescribed Period. 4t3 
 
 Maniclieeism\ and the manner in whicli it lias become a chap. ii. 
 bj-word of religious animosity in Europe and Asia alike, put 
 the question of its success beyond the possibility of doubt. 
 To us the chief point of interest lies in the fact of ^i Auomtima 
 Augustine having been for a time held captive in the m^ii^ ^ 
 trammels of this system. To a man of acute sensibility 
 ' and commanding intellect, lately awakened from the dreams 
 of sensuality, the rigorous dualism of Mani must have had 
 a great power of attraction. But most of all must Augus- 
 tine's attention have been arrested by the wildly poetical 
 conflict of the ' Primal Man,' defending the borders of the 
 beautiful and peaceful regions of light against the pesti- 
 ferous visitants from the realm of darkness. There is a 
 certain sublimity, moreover, in the idea that the celestial 
 bodies, wdiich had been formed out of the living spirit of 
 the purer element, were the witnesses of the great strife, 
 and co-operators in it'"^. 
 
 For the remaining two centuries of the period pre- The Trinna- 
 scribed in the title of this Essay, it must suffice, and it^S"*'"^ 
 will be enough, to mention the mere names of the great 
 Trinitarian Controversy, with all the subordinate divisions 
 of Semi-Arians, Homoousians, Anomoians, or Eunomians ; 
 the Paschal Controversy ; the contest of Catholic doctrine Ti^g paschai, 
 with Pelagianism, its off-shoots and its compounds ; and, an/limo- 
 lastly, the Nestorian and Monophysite controversies, so trSversies. 
 calamitous to the Oriental Church, so disastrous in their 
 effects upon practical Christianity. 
 
 IV. (The Pagan Schools of Thought). It is plain, |J^^^f«y 
 upon the bare presumption of heretical systems, that exist- thought. 
 ing modes of philosophy retained a hold upon the Christian, 
 at the same time that Christianity in a widely different 
 sense was acquiring a hold upon the Pagan. It is also 
 plain, that, even where a man was by nature free from any 
 
 1 Milman, Hist, of Christianity, ii. 338. 
 
 2 Ihid. II. 333. 
 
44 
 
 An Historical Rei 
 
 new 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 strong inclination towards moral and mental science, he 
 " might be, and often was, forced upon the subject by the 
 imperative exigences of controversy. The necessity of 
 replying to the attacks of Heathen adversaries, and of 
 forming into a whole the solutions which were offered from 
 time to time of the questions and cavils of their opponents, 
 — these, and similar causes brought the Christians into 
 close and continual contact with the contemporary Schools 
 of Thought. And what were these Schools of Thought ? 
 
 They were, principally, the Stoic and Cynic ; the 
 Peripatetic ; the New-Pythagorean ; the New- Sceptic of 
 the Empiric School ; and — by far the most important of 
 all — the Neo-Platonist. 
 
 The stoics. The Stoic SchooP had naturally a great advantage 
 
 under the Roman Empire, particularly among a class of 
 men which the nature of the executive rendered a very 
 numerous one; namely, the chiss which comprised men 
 of severe moral character and strong natural power of in- 
 tellect, but devoted by the force of circumstances to public 
 affairs. It is true that with such men the doctrines of the 
 Porch disengaged themselves in a very decided degree 
 from speculative subtilties, and acquired a more practical 
 spirit ; but the unbiassed judge will hardly set this down 
 as a disadvantage to the system. The most prominent 
 names which fall within our period are those of Pufus, 
 Cornutus, Chaeremon, Dio Chrysostom, Epictetus (born at 
 Hierapolis in Phrygia, and a teacher after his banishment 
 from Pome, at Nicopolis in Epirus), Arrian, Seneca, and 
 
 The Cynics, the Empcror M. Aurelius^ liimself. The principal Cynic 
 teachers were Demonax^, a man of a sober practical bent 
 of mind, with almost the Socratic view of super-terres- 
 
 1 Tennemann, Hist, of Philosophy, 
 § 182. 
 
 2 He was the disciple of Q. Sex- 
 tus, a grandson of Plutarch. — (Ten- 
 
 nemann, § 182.) 
 
 2 See the account given of him 
 by Neander, Church History, 1. 13. 
 
of the j)r escribed Period. 45 
 
 trial inquiiy ; Peregrlnus (or Proteus) of Pariiim in Mysia, chap. ii. 
 who is said to have ended by burning liimself at some time " 
 in the reign of M. Aurelius ; and, finally, Crescens of 
 Megalopolis, the malicious and successful opponent of Jus- 
 tin Martyr. 
 
 Of the Peripatetics and New-Pythao:oreans very little t^ veripa- 
 
 ^ ^ 'I <-> 'I teiics and 
 
 need be said, especially with regard to the former. The f^^^'-ans^^' 
 practical character of the Eoman mind was so manifestly 
 unsuited to the study of much that had been the very food 
 of the Stagyrite speculations, that Alexander of ^g^e, one 
 of the preceptors of Nero, and Adrastus and Alexander of 
 Aphrodisias^, who flourished in the second century after 
 Christ, can claim only a subordinate rank in our enumera- 
 tion. Yet there is a depth of meaning, and a wealth of 
 suggestive matter that it is hard to pass over, in the dis- 
 tinction drawn by the later Alexander with reference to 
 the nature of the soul, separating the notion of simple ov- 
 crta, from that of elBo^; tl tov o-wjjiaTo^ opyavt/cov. The 
 mysterious element in the doctrines of Pythagoras was 
 more than likely to have its due effect in an age when 
 Religion had given way, and Superstition was busy at 
 work. Nearly one hundred and twenty years before 
 Tiberius, a Roman conqueror, seven times Consul, had 
 carried about with him a Syrian astrologer. And the 
 tampering with Babylonian numbers was not unfamiliar 
 to the coterie of Horace. Secundus of Athens and Nico- 
 machus of Gerasa^ endeavoured, in different ways, to follow 
 in the steps of the great Samian leader; the former by 
 a naturalist application of some of the first principles of 
 the Pythagorean philosophy, the latter by a supposed dis- 
 covery, in the doctrine of numbers, of a profound and occult 
 science. Throughout the whole of the workings of both 
 these schools, the influence of Plato and Orientalism must 
 be borne carefully in mind, and is easily to be traced. 
 
 1 Tennemann, § 183. ^ Ibid. § 184. 
 
46 An Historical Beview 
 
 ■ 
 
 CHAP. IT. Sextus Empiricus, the leading name of the ISTew Sceptic ' 
 
 TheNewScep- school, followecl (about A.D. 190') almost immediately after 
 the galaxy of Antonine authors — Lucian, Pausanias, Pollux, 
 Aulus Gellius, Galen, Apuleius, Maximus the Tyrian, and . 
 last, though by no means latest, Quinctilian, had supported 
 the literary claims of the century that preceded him. They 
 were strange laurels that Sextus essayed to bind around 
 his brow. Long before him Pyrrho and Democritus had 
 been exploded by the Academy ; and what sort of intellec- 
 tual system was patronised by Democritus we have an 
 opportunity of knowing from Metrodorus the Chian, who 
 is quoted by Cicero to the following effect'^: ' I say that 
 we are entirely ignorant whether what we know is some- 
 thing or nothing ; whether there is such a thing as know- 
 ing or not knowing ; or indeed, to come to the root of the 
 matter, as being or not being.' Sextus himself wished 
 to institute such a normal comparison of Phenomena and 
 Nooumena as to arrive ultimately at a suspension of all judg- 
 ment on objects the nature of which is obscure to us ; and 
 from this process he hoped to attain a complete repose and 
 equanimity (drapa^la koI /uLerptoTradela^). The very men- 
 tion of Christianity, as a parallel and contemporary agency, 
 is sufficient to indicate how entirely a system like this would 
 clash with the existing tendencies of the human reason. 
 It was too weak to secure the much desiderated object of 
 mental repose in an age like that of the second and third 
 Christian centuries; and, apart from this ultimate object, 
 it seemed to want sympathy with almost every other de- 
 velopment of contemporary thought. 
 TheNeo-pid- Far morc attractive to the thinkino; minds of this pe- 
 
 'onists. 
 
 riod, and none the less so that it admitted so freely of adap- 
 tations from the Christian doctrines, was the system of 
 
 * See Prof. Jeremie's article in quotation is from Metrodorus's book 
 
 the Encyd. Metropol. on Sextus Em- irepl (pjjaecos. 
 p'iricus, and the Pyrrhonlsts. ■^ Tennemann, § 190. 
 
 2 Cic. Acad. Prior. 11. 23. The 
 
of the prescribed Feriod. 47 
 
 Neo-Platonism ; which may be loosely characterised as a chap. ii. 
 melange of sundry remains from the ancient Hellenic sys- 
 tems, and liberal supplies of fresh matter from the theories 
 of the East. Philo, Numenius, and Atticus^ were early 
 exponents of this mystical speculation; Ammonius Saccas 
 and the memorable Longinus were also distinguished mem- 
 bers of the school ; but the great Neo-Platonist teachers 
 were Plotinus and Porphyry, in the earlier and later half 
 of the third century ; lamblichus in the beginning of the 
 fourth; and Proclus in the fifth. Plotinus died in the year 
 270, at Eome : Porphyry in 304 ; lamblichus in 333 ; and 
 Proclus, probably, in 465 ^ 
 
 Neander has given a most instructive estimate of the 
 degrees in which the Platonic tendencies were likely to act, 
 on the one side as a preparatory agency to Christianity, on 
 the other as a hostile power ^. The aristocratic exclusive- 
 ness was a clear loss ; but the philosophy of religion let in 
 a tumult of thought and feeling which nothing could effec- 
 tively influence but ' the peace that passeth all under- 
 standing.' 
 
 1 Tennemann, § 197. 2 mg^ g| 204 — 320. 
 
 3 Neander, Cliurck Hutory, i. 47. 
 
f 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 A triple division, for our more iinmediate purpose, of th 
 first five centuries ; and reasons a priori why Chris- 
 tianity came to he indehted for its extensioii and in- 
 fluence, during the first two divisions, to other means 
 rather than to Oratory, hoth within and loithout its own 
 pale. 
 
 Ou "yap ev Xoyw tj j3a<XL\eia tov Qeov, dXV iv Swd/meL. 
 
 St Paul. 
 
 C HAP. III. 'T'T'TE now come to a final demarcation of tlie prescribed 
 Afinaide- f f period; a demarcation, which, without some such 
 
 ni'ir ration of ^ ' ' ^ 
 
 fadariS!^ preliminary review as is contained in the preceding chapter, 
 it would have been impertinent to adopt ; but which, it is 
 hoped and believed, will be found thoroughly consistent 
 with the historical facts. 
 
 The Apostolic The first division extends from the foundation of the 
 Church to the accession of M. Aurelius, and it will be dis- 
 tinguished by the general name of the Apostolic Period, 
 although this proceeding will involve an obvious deviatio 
 fi-om the usual acceptation of the term. Still, as that which 
 is Apostolic constitutes the great characteristic of this divi- 
 sion, and as the idea was to include within it the latest 
 personal companion of an Apostle, it seemed better to adopt 
 this simpler title, than to fall back upon the elaborately 
 formed ' Apostolico-Patristic,' or some other equally cum- 
 brous appellation. 
 
 ThePhiio- The second division bears tlie name of the Philosophic 
 
 'Mystic PC- and Mystic Period, a title which will be, perliaps, suffi- 
 ciently justified by the mention of Sextus Empiricus, Plo- 
 tinus, and Porphyry among the Pagans, and of Origen 
 and Clemens Alexandrinus among the Church Fathers. 
 
Triple, division of the first five Centuries. 49 
 
 Cypiian, towards the latter half of the third century, gives chap. hi. 
 evidence of the degree to which a mystic spirit had entered 
 into the interpretation of the Scriptures ; and the more de- 
 veloped forms of Gnosticism at its commencement \ with 
 the wild notions of Mani towards its close, impart a tone 
 and colouring to the whole century. This second division 
 extends down to the establishment of Christianity as the 
 religion of the empire (324). Athanasius was at that time 
 nearly thirty years old, and even at that early age was only 
 two years behind his Archiepiscopal election ; while the 
 birth-dates of Gregory, Basil, his brother of j^yssa^, Jerome, 
 Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Augustine, were, some of them 
 close at hand, some drawing on apace. 
 
 The third division, therefore, will naturally claim tlie iiieorato- 
 
 ' T c% ■> /->. -T TMi 1 rical Period, 
 
 title 01 the Oratorical proper, and will occupy the space that 
 intervenes between the establishment of Christianity and 
 the fall of the Western empire. 
 
 The present is the proper place very briefly to adduce cnmes which 
 certain causes, which operated during the first two of the inthe'hack- 
 above-mentioned divisions so as to keep Oratory in ^^^^frsttwo^^ 
 background, whether as a means of the further extension, ^^'■'^^' 
 or of the internal edification of the Church. And, first, of 
 the enlargement beyond existing limits. 
 
 There were three distinct manifestations of the nature 
 . of Christianity, which rendered the power of speech during 
 the first three ages a merely secondary agency to those 
 without ^ There was, first, the singuhirity of conduct on (d ax a 
 the part of believers : next, their blameless and virtuous tendbifithe 
 lives ; and, lastly, their heroic constancy and bold confes- i^'fl^^^ence; 
 sion under the pains of persecution. 
 
 The points of contrast between heathen and Christian 
 
 ^ At which period, also, Tertul- ^ -phe instructive 5th and 6th 
 
 lian lapsed from Catholic doctrine. chapters in Blunt's Church in the / 
 
 ^ Gregory of Nyssa was the First Three Centuries, present these 
 
 younger brother of Basil, born at Cse- phenomena in a striking manner 
 
 sarea in Cappadocia, about A.D. 331. and within a small compass. 
 
 4 
 
50 Triple division of the first five Centuries. '^ 
 
 III. manners would strike even an obtuse observer at every 
 turn. So early as the days of St Paul there had been the 
 difficulty about resorting to the Pagan tribunals \ By a 
 similar scruple transactions in borrowing or lending were 
 very frequently impeded, great embarrassment taking place 
 in the execution of deeds, bonds, and contracts ^ Then 
 there was the absenting themselves from many of the public 
 festivals, from public executions, and promiscuous baths; 
 besides the yet more constantly recurring singularities at 
 the shambles and statuary-shops, and in the demeanour 
 towards slaves. Even the rings and seals ^ of the Chris- 
 , tians contained a moral : a dove, a fish , a ship under sail, 
 a lyre, an anchor. 
 
 When the attention had been drawn towards the new 
 religion and its faithful confessors by these most powerful 
 and frequent appeals, it would soon be discovered that a 
 virtuous and blgjneless life lay at the bottom of all the 
 external signs ; and if they were so many voices demand- 
 ing attention, this was a still more eloquent voice, calling 
 for esteem. 
 
 But, more constraining even than this quiet influence 
 of character and example, the most eloquent voice of all 
 was the heroic behaviour of the faithful at the hour of their 
 bitter trials. Nothing can be more striking, nothing more 
 truthful on the very face of the matter, than the words of 
 
 y' Tertullian in a very memorable passage"*: — 'All your re- 
 finements of cruelty can accomplish nothing : on the con- 
 
 ' trary, they do but serve to win men over to this sect. Our 
 
 number increases the more you persecute us. The blood of 
 
 "the martyrs is the seed of the Christians. Your philoso- 
 
 pliers, who exhort to the endurance of pain and death, make 
 
 fewer disciples by their words than the Christians by their 
 
 ^ I Cor. vi. I. 289. 
 
 2 Tertullian, De Idololat. § -23 : ^ The translation of this passage 
 quoted by Blunt. in the Apology is taken from Nean- 
 
 3 Clemens Alex. Pcedag. in. 11, der. Church Hist. i. 106. 
 
Trijple division of the first five Centuries. 51 
 
 deeds. That obstinacy wliicli you reproacli us with is a chap. hi. 
 teacher : for who that beholds it is not urged to inquire 
 into its cause ? And who, when he has inquired, does not ^ 
 come over to us ; and when he has come over, is not him- 
 self willing to suffer for it ?' 
 
 Parallel with these, which we may call the external (2) tw a • 
 causes of the secondary position held by Oratory during '^^^^H^^ 
 our first two periods, there were others operating within the JJ^^^'"'*'*-^'*'" 
 pale of the Church itself. Foremost among such causes 
 must be mentioned the great danger attending the assem- 
 blies of the ante-Nicene Church in the times of persecution, 
 which may be fairly said to have been, in one part or 
 another of the Christian community, an almost constant 
 visitation. The assemblies in the Catacombs at Kome, or 
 in those African caves, which had been employed, first by 
 the aborigines of the country, then by the Phoenician 
 colonists, and lastly for the concealment of Christians, may 
 have been, and undoubtedly were, means for the rousing 
 of irresistible emotions, occasions when the Sursum corda 
 burst forth fresh and warm from the very fountains of 
 feeling; but they were not fitting opportunities for the 
 delivery of elaborate sermons. 
 
 The reading of the Scriptures and, above all, the ad-\ 
 ministration of the Sacraments occupied a far more im-' 
 portant place in the hearts of those earnest worshippers. It ' 
 was desirable^ that every Christian should be familiar with 
 the sacred writings ; and when manuscripts were costly and 
 the bulk of every congregation consisted of poor persons, 
 hearing the word was a necessary substitute for private 
 reading, and was therefore one of the most important parts >- 
 of public worship. And, on the other hand, Baptism, the 
 sign of first admission into communion with the Eedeemer 
 and His Church^, and the Lord's Supper, the sign of a con- 
 
 1 See Neander's remarks, Church History, i. 419. 
 
 2 Neander, Id. I. 421. 
 
 4—2 
 
52 Triiiile division of tlte first five Centuries. 
 
 stant and persevering growth, had a palpable union with 
 the things signified, the inward and divine realities, w4iich 
 it required the lively Christian feelings of those early be- 
 lievers fully to appreciate. 
 
 Lastly, in a society w^hich was continually receiving or 
 contemplating accessions to its numbers from those who 
 had arrived at years of discretion, there was sure to be an 
 extraordinary demand for catechetical instruction with a 
 proportionate limitation upon the number of sermons proper. 
 Clemens Alexandrinus magnifies the importance of this 
 method of instruction in a twofold image. On one occasion 
 he says that ' the meat mentioned by St Paul (1 Cor. iii. 2) 
 is faith converted into a foundation by catechetical teach- 
 ing^:' on another, ' that milk is catechetical teaching, being 
 as it were the first nourishment of the soul: while meat 
 is the full contemplation of the mysteries [rj iTroTrriKrj 
 Secopia^).^ 
 
 These and similar causes may be fairly regarded as 
 having stood in the way of the development of elaborate 
 preaching during the ante-Nicene period, that is to say, 
 during our first two divisions of time. In the fourth 
 century, however, sermons soon began to occupy a more 
 prominent position in the Christian Worship; and the 
 antiquities of the subject now demand a few remarks. 
 
 1 Quoted by Bishop Kaye {Account of dement, p. 444), from Pcedaj. i. 
 I, 120, and Stromata, v. 685. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Some Remarks on the Antiquities of early Christian 
 Preaching, 
 
 'As to the relation of the Sermon to the whole office of worship, 
 this is a point on which we meet with the most opposite errors of judg- 
 ment.' 
 
 Neander, {Church History, lii. 448,) ed. Bohn. 
 
 WHEN the Churches of the early Christians began to chap, iv 
 assume a form more or less fixed and generally adopt- 
 ed, the arrangement was commonly the following. 
 
 There was, first, the Bema (Lat. suggestum), or part 2%c ornan/7«- 
 allotted to the clergy ; then the Naos (Nave) , allotted to '^^'^j.^^^^, 
 the faithful commmiicants, in other words, to the baptized 
 lay portion of the congregation : and, lastly, the Narthex 
 (Ante-temple), of an oblong or dromical shape, resembling 
 in this respect a rod or staff {ferula, vdpOr}^^). Other names 
 for the Bema were a/yiov, Trpecr/SvTTjpiov, Ovacao-rrjpcov, and 
 ahvTov or a/Sarov. Theodoret^ mentions the name locus 
 intra cancellos, [ra evSov tcdv /ccyKXlScov, 'the Chancel'), a 
 title taken from the partition of rails which resembled a 
 net-work [cancelli). And at a subsequent period, about 
 the time of the two later Councils of Toledo (682—696), 
 tlie Jiame Cliorus (Choir) came into use, taken from the 
 chanting of the clergy, and confined chiefly to the Western 
 Churches. The Nave was variously called oratorium 
 populi, eKKkrj<jla, and quadratum populi, where there 
 was an apsidal Bema to contrast with its square or oblong 
 form. The other names of the narthex were chiefly the 
 obvious ones of 7rp6vao<;, irpoTTvXeia, ^jorticus, &c. 
 
 1 "Riddle, Christian Antiquities, 683. 
 
 2 Theod. Hist. Eccl. v. 18 : quoted by Eiddle, p. 6S4. 
 
54 Some Remarks on the Antiqm ^es of 
 
 CHAP. IV. Now it was mostly from liis seat in thq cliancel tliat 
 tlic preacher addressed tlie people. But i;his was not 
 always the case. There was situated in the upper part of 
 the nave a desk, called variously amho {dvajSaivetv) , sugges- 
 / turn lectoris [Prjfjua tcov dvajvcocTTcov) , and, by Cyprian S 
 pulpitum and tribunal ecclesice. The Holy Scriptures, Epis- 
 tles from foreign Churches, and an}- other documents of 
 public interest, were read from this placo, • As the Christian 
 congregations grew larger, and the size of churches in- 
 creased, it grew more and more difficult for the officiating 
 Bishop or Presbyter to be heard from his place in the 
 chancel. Hence, not only was the amho resorted to by 
 preachers who really wished to be effective, but a moveable 
 pulpit was frequently placed in front of the screen or parti- 
 tion between the chancel and the nave. The practical 
 energy of Chrysostom led him to occupy this position; and 
 thi: celebrated sermon in reproof of the fallen Prime Minis- 
 ter was delivered from one of these portable suggesta. ' While 
 Eutropius lay under the altar, and was terrified with fear, 
 the Bishop sitting^ in the 'pulj)it (out of which it had before 
 been his usage to preach, in order to his being heard more 
 easily), made an Oration in reproof of him\' Both Chrysos- 
 tom and Augustine preached also from the ambo"^, willingly 
 leading the way in quitting the accustomed hema, that so 
 their words might fall with greater force upon the congre- 
 gation. 
 Wi^e Bishops It would hardly seem that the Bishops reserved to 
 /'reaches? thcmselvcs for any length of time the exclusive office of 
 .'preaching, though this seems at one period to have been 
 ' usuaP. It was impossible to keep an Athanasius or an 
 Augustine long waiting : and no doubt many a bishop was 
 
 ^ The passage occurs in Cypr. J^, ^ Socrates, Hist. EccJ. vi. 5. 
 
 34, De laterino lectore ordinato. ^ 'RA(\(\[e, Christian Ant' qq. -p. 6S6. 
 
 2 See below on the posture, p. ^ Mihnan, Hisi of Christianity, 
 
 56. m. 4S2. 
 
early Christian PrmcMng. 55 
 
 ready to imitate Flavian of Antiocli, who raised Chryso- chap, iv 
 stom, immediately upon his ordination, to the post of prin- 
 cipal teacher in that city. The iron energy of Chrysostom 
 in the rebuking of vice and the upholding a firm and lofty 
 moral standard, an energy which accompanied him through 
 prosperous and adverse fortune alike up to the very last 
 scenes of his life, must have rendered him a far more effi- 
 cient minister in that luxurious and effeminate city, than 
 the aged Bishop, Avho was liberal-minded enough to pro- 
 mote him in consequence. 
 
 With reference to the sermons of Laymen, Binsrham* xhepreach- 
 
 '' ^ *-> inp of lay- 
 
 (quoted by Riddle) believes that they never officiated in "*^"- 
 the church itself, but only in the baptisteries, or decanica. 
 'Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria,' he says, 'is said by 
 Ruffin to have authorized Origen to teach as catechist in y 
 the church, which cannot be understood of teaching pub- 
 licly in the church; for Origen was then but eighteen 
 years old, and not in orders, when he first entered upon 
 the catechetical school ; but it must mean his private teach- 
 ing in the school of the church. Which, whether it was 
 in the catechumema within the church, or in the haptisteria 
 or pastojjlioria without the church, is not very easy, nor 
 very material, to be determined.' We have, however, am- 
 ple reason to infer that the laity were for a long time j 
 allowed to address the people in the absence of the clergy. ' 
 Dean Milman points out that Demetrius, Bishop of Alex- 
 andria, was called in question, not on the score of allowing 
 Origen to preach, but to preach while the Bishop was in the 
 church. Bishop Demetrius was, however, defended by 
 some episcopal contemporaries of his own^, on the ground 
 that many distinguished laymen had been already exhorted 
 to address the people, as for instance, Paulinus at Iconium 
 
 ^ Bingham, Antiq. viii. 7, 12. — ted by Milman in the passage refer- 
 Eiddle, 693. red to. (ill. 482, n.) 
 
 2 Euseb. Hist. Eccl. VI. 19 : quo- 
 
56 
 
 Some Remarhs on the Antiquities of 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 by Celsus, and Theodore at Sjnnada in Phrygia by Atti- 
 cus. Monks were at first forbidden to preach \ a prohibi- 
 tion which was altogether lost sight of in the middle ages. 
 
 The following is a brief summary of facts ^ bearing 
 generally upon the manner of the early preaching. 
 
 Proofs exist in the Avritings of Basil the Great, Gregory 
 of Nyssa, Jerome, Theodoret, Chrysostom and Augustine, 
 that not one only, but several consecutive discourses were_ 
 often delivered in the same assembly by different preach- 
 ers ^ These discourses may naturally be supposed to have 
 followed the reading of different passages of Scripture, and 
 to have been therefore more or less closely allied to the 
 homiletic character. We must realise to ourselves the far 
 greater freshness with which narratives and expositions of 
 doctrine taken from the Scriptures fell upon the ear of 
 those early congregations, who, as we have seen, had to de- 
 pend almost entirely on hearing, rather than on personal 
 reading. 
 
 The length of Sermons was, of course, liable to as 
 many fluctuations then, as it is now. But it may be re- 
 marked^ as a general rule, that the discourses of the Greek 
 Fathers are the longer, and of the Latin Fathers very con- 
 siderably the shorter of the two. The delivery of the 
 latter could rarely have occupied more than half an hour ; 
 often not more than ten minutes^. 
 
 It was usual in some parts of the ancient community, 
 for the preacher to sit'^ and the people to stand during the 
 delivery of the sermon. The custom prevailed, probably, 
 most widely in the African and Gallican Churches^; 
 
 m 
 
 ^ See the authorities quoted by 
 Riddle, p. 410, n. 
 
 2 Most of these details may be 
 found at greater length in Riddle, 
 p. 411 ff. 
 
 ^ Riddle (4 to) from Bingham. 
 
 4 Riddle, 411. 
 
 ^ Cf. Augustine's Sermons, passim. 
 Many of them occupy barely a co- 
 
 lumn in the Benedictine folio. But 
 the short-hand writers probabl}^ con- 
 densed. 
 
 6 Cf. supr. p. 54. 
 
 '' Riddle, 411. Information on 
 this point is to be found in Au- 
 gustine, Serm. de Dlv. 49, De Cat. 
 Jiud. 13, and Jerome, Fp. 22, ad 
 Eustoch. 
 
early Christian Preaching. 57 
 
 though there was no general rule, and a very great variety chap. iv. 
 of practice therefore existed. How entirely accidental 
 such variations often are may be inferred from the discre- 
 pancy between our own habits of devotion and those of the 
 Scotch, who very generally sit during the psalm or hynln, 
 and stand while at prayer. 
 
 The appLause^ with which it was customary to greet Applause. , 
 any extraordinary display of eloquence has been too gene- 
 rally mentioned to need anything more than a mere refer- 
 ence here. It has not been so often pointed out, however, 
 that while the holy seriousness of Chrysostom was griev- 
 ously offended by these noisy testimonials (Kporo^;), and 
 rebuked the supererogatory approbation without reserv^e^, 
 the more rhetorical Gregory of Nazianzum was by no 
 means proof against the vanity which this custom tended 
 to foster. His farewell discourse at Constantinople s, in- 
 deed, contains an actual valete, et plaudite. In the same short-hand 
 sermon there is an allusion to the short-hand writers^; whose 
 occupation, (among many other references,) we find men- 
 tioned by Gaudentius of Brescia^, who observes in the 
 Preface to his Sermons that the note-takers had inaccu- 
 rately transcribed his words. To this inaccuracy may be 
 traced the different recension we have of so many of the 
 ancient homilies. The distinction which Gregory draws 
 between 'public and private pens' seems to point to two 
 sets of notaries, the one recognised, as it were, profession- 
 
 ^ Eiddle, (412, 413,) from Bing- even in that case it would be signi- 
 
 ham. See below, the chapter on ficant. 
 
 Chrysostom, in the present Essay. ■* x^'-P^'^^ ypa(pi8e$ ^avepal Kal 
 
 ^ Chrj^sost. Horn, in Matih. 17, Xavddvovaai. 
 
 and in innumerable passages be- ^ Neander, Ch. Hist. iii. 450, n., 
 
 sides. from whence also is taken the remark 
 
 2 Quoted by Neander (Ch. Hist. on the recensions. Cf, also Socrates, 
 
 III. 449) : KpoTTjaare x^ 'pa?, o^i) /So??- Hist. Eccl. II. 30 : ' Basiiius, who at 
 
 (Tare, dpare els v\pos rov prjTopa v/xiSv. that time presided over the Church 
 
 A very different construction would, at Ancyra, opposed Photinus, tJie 
 
 of course, be put upon this passage, oiotaries taking their words in writ- 
 
 if we suppose tou prjTopa to refer ing.' Basil of Ancyra must be dis- 
 
 to Gregory's successor. (Villemain, tiuguished from Basil the Great, and 
 
 Tableau de V Eloquence, p. 131.) But his namesake of Seleucia. 
 
58 Some Remarks on the Antiquities, (^c, 
 
 CHAP. IV. ally, the other consistmg of amateurs. This point receives 
 ~ "" further illustration from the alleged^ refusal of Origen, 
 until his sixtieth year, to admit of regular short-hand writ- 
 ers taking down his sermons ; and from the passage in 
 Augustine^, where he speaks of his brethren as receiving 
 his words, not only with their ears and heart but with their 
 pens likewise. 
 prShlg ^^^^ early preachers followed 3, with apparently very 
 
 rare exceptions, the practice of extemporaneous preaching, 
 understanding by that general term all kinds of delivery 
 short of reading from a complete MS., or from very full 
 notes. It was reckoned a desirable if not an essential 
 requisite in a preacher, that he should be able to discourse 
 to the congregation on a part of Holy Scripture, from tlip 
 pure inspiration of the moment. 
 
 In the Church of the fourth century*, as in that of the 
 nineteenth, there were the two extreme sections, on the 
 one hand of those who unduly depreciated the value of 
 sermons as weighed against the sensible mediation of the ' 
 priests, and on the other of those who would say, ' sermons 
 we can hear nowhere but at church ; but we can pray just 
 as well at home^.' 
 
 1 Euseb. Hist. Ecd. vi, 36. * Neander, Church History, iii. 
 
 2 Enarr. in Ps. li. 449. 
 
 3 Eiddle, 415. ^ Chrysost. Horn. in. de Incompr. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 27^6 Apostolic Period. St Peter, St Paul, Polycarj). 
 
 To, pTjfxara a. deScoKas /jlol, 5^5w/ca avrocs, Kal avrol fKa^ov, kol 
 iyvuKav a\r]dQs OTL irapa crov i^ijXdov. 
 
 Woi'ds of our Lord, 
 
 To deXtjfia rod Qeov yevecrdo}. 
 
 Eccles. Stnyrn. Ep. § 7. 
 
 T^O have omitted any attempt at a critique, whether on chap. v. 
 '^- the divinely-commissioned Apostles whose names stand 
 ttt the head of this chapter, or on their immediate fol- 
 lowers, the Apostolical Fathers, of whom we have named 
 Polycarp as the type, would have been an easy and easily 
 justifiable course to pursue. As, however, the Apostolic 
 Sermons have been treated of, by Neander at considerable 
 length, and more briefly by Milman^ it seemed desirable 
 to introduce a brief analysis of what Neander has said in 
 each case, with allusions, and in the case of St Paul's 
 Athenian discourse with more than an allusion, to the clear 
 and suggestive remarks of the Dean. A very few obser- 
 vations on Polycarp, as the type of the Apostolical Fathers, 
 .vill bring this chapter to a close. 
 
 To begin, then, with St Peter's Sermon on the Day of st Peter's 
 Pentecost, what has been said by Neander may be thus Address. 
 stated^ __ 
 
 The Apostles held it to be their duty to defend the 
 Christian community against superficial objections, and to 
 take advantage of the impression made by the late spec- 
 
 1 Neander, Planting of Christian- 38 7 — 390, Vol, ii. pp. i4ff. 
 ify, Vol. I. pp. 18/41, 186. Milman, ^ planting of Christianity, I. 18 ff. 
 
 History of Christianity, Vol. i. pp. 
 
60 The Apostolic Period. 
 
 CHAP. V. tacle, so as to lead them to a living faith in the Master of 
 such divine power. St Peter, speaking for the rest, shews, 
 
 That the unwonted appearances then before them were 
 not the effects of ebriety, but the signs of the Advent 
 of the Messianic era, predicted by Joel (ii. 29 — 32); 
 the manifestations of an extraordinary and general ef- 
 fusion of the Spirit. This era will be distinguished 
 by many portents, precursors of the epoch of Judg- 
 ment. But believers in the Messiah need not fear this 
 judgment ; they may look for salvation. 
 
 Now Jesus, whose miracles verified his Divine Mission, 
 is the Old Testament Messiah. Do not urge against 
 him his ignominious death. It was necessary to the 
 completion of his work. It was pre-ordained. Sub- 
 sequent events, namely, his resurrection and ascension, 
 prove this : and, from the present miracle, you see the 
 divine energy with which he now works on believers. 
 The heavenly Father has promised that the Messiah 
 shall fill them all with the Spirit ; this is now being 
 fulfilled. — Learn, then, from these events, learn from this 
 fulfilment of the prophecies, the nothingness of your 
 attempts against him. Know that God has exalted 
 him whom you crucified, to be Messiah, the Euler of 
 God's kingdom : and that through Divine Power He 
 will overcome all his enemies. 
 
 Such is the analysis of Neander's paraphrase in the 
 
 t<crmon after casc of tlic Pcutccostal Addrcss. The following is the 
 
 th^.iamcmayi. Scmion delivered to that wondering crowd, who gathered 
 
 round the Preacher and St John, as they left the temple, 
 
 accompanied by the man who had been lame^ : — 
 
 ihcmh- Why look ye so earnestly on us, as if our own power or 
 
 Zander's hoHncss had done this deed? It is the work of the 
 
 Paraphrase. 
 
 1 Planting of Ckristianity, i. 42. 
 
St Peter, St Paul, Polycarp. 61 
 
 Holy One whom yon delivered np to the Gentiles, chap, v 
 
 whose death you demanded when even the heathen "" 
 
 judge saw cause to release Him. 
 
 (This was the charge which St Peter had used since the 
 Day of Pentecost, in order to lead the Jews to conviction 
 and repentance.) 
 
 God Himself has by subsequent events justified Him, 
 and proved your guilt— God, who was with our fathers 
 revealed to them by miracles, has now revealed Him- 
 self by the glorification of the condemned Jesus— You 
 slew Him (God having destined this, to give us 
 eternal blessedness) ; God has raised Him, and we are 
 witnesses of the fact. The believing confidence, which 
 He has put into our hearts, ha& wrought the miracle 
 you now see. 
 
 (St Peter spoke to them, not as to reprobates, but as to 
 men whom he hoped to convince ; inasmuch as he trusted) 
 
 That their guilt was extenuated by ignorance ; they were 
 over-ruled by the necessity and eternal counsel of God. 
 Now was the time to prove this ignorance, by allow- 
 ing this miracle to bring them to a sense of their un- 
 righteousness ; by repenting; by believing in, and 
 seeking pardon from, this Messiah. Thus only could 
 they expect deliverance from evil, and full salvation ; 
 for He was now hidden from sight, working from 
 heaven by miracle invisibly. But when the great 
 Fulfilment, the completion of all things, should come. 
 He would appear again on earth to effect it : for Moses 
 and the Prophets have spoken of His work as the 
 consummation. And they were the persons in whom 
 the prophecies would be fulfilled. The Promise to 
 Abraham and the Fathers of blessing through them 
 to all the earth, belonged to this generation. As one 
 
62 
 
 The Apostolic Period. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 day the blessing from the promised seed should ex- 
 tend to the whole world, so it would be first fulfilled 
 in them, if they turned from their sins to Him. 
 
 Turning now to St Paul's memorable Sermon at Athens, 
 we proceed to furnish an analysis of Neander's account of 
 that also^ St Paul views the whole religion of the Athe- 
 nians as the worship of a God unknown to themselves; 
 and presents himself as a person who is ready to lead them 
 to a clear self-consciousness respecting the object of their 
 deeply-seated religious sentiment^. 
 
 I announce to you Him whom you worship without 
 knowing it. He is the God who created the world 
 and all things therein. He, Lord of Heaven and 
 Earth, requires no temple, no human service. All- 
 sufficient, He has given all life, and breath, and all 
 things — He too is the originator of our race, and con- 
 ducts its development to one great end. He has caused 
 all nations to descend from one man ; 
 
 (Quite a new idea to the Greeks, and bound up with 
 Monotheism.) 
 
 and has not allowed them to spread by chance ; for in 
 this He is all-controlling, appointing their dwelling- 
 places, their eras, their development in time and space. 
 Thus God has revealed Himself in the vicissitudes of 
 nations, that men may be led to seek after Him, to 
 try if they can know and find Him, which they might 
 easily do, since He is near us all, the Root of Our ex- 
 istence. 
 
 (As a proof of the consciousness of this original relation- 
 
 1 Planting of Christianity, i. 191. 
 
 2 It is a very obvious objection to 
 urge that the 'Altar to the Unknown 
 God ' need not imply this amount of 
 religious feeling. (Cf. Acts xvii. 21,) 
 
 A careful meditation, however, on 
 St Paul's words will probably incHne 
 us to agree with the opposite view. 
 See the note (p. 64) on Eichhorn's 
 view of the 'Altar.' 
 
St Peter, St Paul, Pohjcarp. 63 
 
 ship to God, lie quotes the words of Aratus, a heathen, one chap. v. 
 of themselves;) 
 
 ' For we are the offspring of God.' Since we are so, 
 we ought not to believe that the Divinity is like any 
 earthly material, any work of human art. 
 
 This negative assertion manifestly includes a positive 
 one. And now, instead of carrying on the argument against 
 idolatry, St Paul leaves his hearers to decide for them- 
 selves, and assuming the consciousness of sin (without 
 attempting to develop it) proceeds with the annunciation of 
 the Gospel. 
 
 After God had with great long-suffering endured the 
 times of this ignorance, He now revealed the truth to 
 all, and required all to acknowledge it and repent. 
 With this is connected the annunciation of the Re- 
 deemer, of forgiveness to be obtained through Him, of 
 His Resurrection as confirming His doctrine, and a 
 pledge of the Resurrection of believers to a blessed 
 life, as well as of the Judgment He would pass on all 
 mankind. 
 
 As long as the Apostle confined himself to the general 
 doctrine of Theism, he was heard with attention. But 
 when he touched on the Resurrection, the Christian as 
 markedly opposed to the heathen view of the world, he 
 was met either by ridicule, or by a courteous request to 
 defer the question. 
 
 Milman^ is particularly clear, with reference to this substance of 
 
 . . ^ . \ Milman's 
 
 bermon, m pomtmg out the passages which would meet remarks. 
 with assent or disapproval at the hands of either Epicureans 
 or Stoics. At first all were agreed or, at least, were in- 
 clined to be acquiescent. To the proclamation of a higher 
 conception of the Supreme Being, as the universal Father 
 
 1 History of Christianity, ii. i8. 
 
64 
 
 The Apostolic Period. 
 
 CHAP. V. and the Fountain of life, who disdained to dwell in a temple, 
 and needed nothing from the hand of man^, the Philosopher 
 of the Garden as well as of the Porch might listen with 
 wonder and admiration. 
 
 But the agency of the Atomic Theory and the govern- 
 ment of Chance (Epicurus) were soon invaded by the as- 
 sumption of God's Providence as the conservative, ruling, 
 and ordaining principle. And though the Stoic would ap- 
 prove the condemnation of idolatry, he would soon feel the 
 difference between his own inexorable Necessity and the 
 Christian notion of God's Providence, on one side ; and, on 
 the other, he would be scandalized, though the moral value 
 of human action was fixed at the very highest level, by the 
 utter abasement of the ' perfect man,' who would be set to 
 learn repentance in the school of Christ, side by side with 
 the outcasts of intellect and morality alike. 
 
 The Stoic, however, would receive with suspension of 
 judgment, while the Epicurean would only ridicule, the 
 last great and crowning point in the solemn address, the 
 Christian doctrine of tlie llesurrection of the dead^. 
 
 There is little or nothing to be added to the critiques of 
 these two historians of the Early Church. It may be sub- 
 mitted, however, and it is submitted with the most un- 
 feigned diffidence, that in both the histories there is the 
 Excessive tendency to carry an admiration of these Apostolic remains 
 of these ser- too far, as rcmaius of eloquence. Their very brevity warns 
 
 mons, as re- ' ^ ^ ^ ^ *' "^ 
 
 "ilumce^^^^' ^s *^^^* ^^^^J ^° ^^^ indicate the lines of thought and argu- 
 ment which were in each case adopted and pursued in 
 
 ^ Milman alludes to the Lucretian 
 'nihil indiga nostri.' (i. 6i.) 
 
 2 A large collection of opinions 
 bearing on the 'Altar to the Un- 
 known God' may be found in Ne- 
 ander's first volume of the Planting. 
 Milman (iL i8) considers that of 
 Eichhorn to be the most ' ingenious 
 and natural.' It is this: that there 
 
 were very ancient altars, older than 
 the art of writing, or on which time 
 had effaced the inscriptions, and that 
 the piety of later days had re-dedi- 
 cated them to 'the Unknown.' Pau- 
 sanias {Attic. I. 4, Eliac. v. 14) and 
 Philostratus ( Vit. Apoll. Tyan. VI. 3), 
 are loci classici on this point. 
 
St Peter, St Paul, Pohjcarj?. 65 
 
 obedience to the Holy Spirit of God ; of the manner in chap. v. 
 which these arguments were urged upon the audience we 
 have, in fact, no means of judging. It is idle to talk of 
 looking at the effects, when miracles went side by side with 
 speech : and hasty inferences from the three thousand con- 
 verts of St Peter 1 may precipitate us into equally fallacious 
 ones in another direction, when we read of ' certain men ' 
 as the scanty fruit of St Paul's Athenian discourse^ 
 
 The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, which is indeed The second 
 
 „ . P • 1 Epistle to 
 
 a mirror of many most important features m the great JJ^J^^^'j'*"" 
 Apostle's personal character, has been ransacked to gain 
 evidence for or against the eloquence of its author as a 
 preacher. As a specimen of the uncritical character of much 
 or most that has been written on this subject, it may be 
 mentioned that ' the thorn in the flesh ' has been regarded^ 
 as a temporary obscuration of St Paul's brilliant oratorical 
 powers, and the ' weak and contemptible bodily presence' 
 as the outward manifestation of the inward rebuke. A 
 great deal more of a similar character may be found in that 
 bulky repertory, Pool's Synopsis Criticorum, which is only 
 an abridgment and digest of a still vaster collection, the 
 Critici Sacri, published in 1660, by a bookseller named 
 Bee, nine years before the appearance of Pool's work. 
 
 The fact of Bentley havina; lent the wei2:ht of his Bentieii's 
 
 •J <~> ^ opinion on 
 
 authority to that opinion which would regard St Paul as g^,^^"/!^,.,,. 
 a student of Greek Literature, has given the question a *"^- 
 vitality which it does not deserve, and which it would 
 otherwise probably have missed. Certainly, with all the 
 deference which that great name secures to itself, it may be 
 
 ^ Acts ii. 41. thorn) as something strictly perso- 
 
 2 Acts xvii. 34. nal, aflfecting him not as an Apostle, 
 
 ^ This is one of the innumerable but as Paul ; though, in the absence 
 
 turns which have been given to this of any information as to its charac- 
 
 qucEstio vexaia. The words of Nean- teristics, it would be foolish to de- 
 
 der, as quoted in Kitto's Cyclopcedia cide more precisely what it was,' — 
 
 of Bibl. Lit., are well worth tran- Apostol. Zeit. I. 228. 
 scription : * We must regard it (the 
 
(>(> 
 
 Tlie Ajiostollc Period. 
 
 CHAP. V. iidmitted tliat the tliree actuaP, and several supposed, 
 references to Greek Authors, are hardly sufficient to 
 counteract the antecedent improbahility'^, even under the 
 guidance of the tolerant and large-minded Gamaliel, of St 
 Paul having found time for their study in the course of 
 that eager Pharisaical education. 
 
 Ii^(/S'ih^s: ^^^ ^^^^11 bring this chapter to a close by a few remarks 
 on the Apostolical Fathers, so nearly the contemporaries of 
 the Apostles, yet so different from them : to whose writings, 
 from the Sacred Canon, the transition is so abrupt, as to 
 form of itself a striking witness to the Divine agency which 
 specially worked in the souls of the Apostles. 
 
 cimait Ro- Qf Clcmcns Romanus there is but little to be said in 
 
 manus. 
 
 connexion with our subject. His celebrated Epistle to the 
 Corinthians^ consists for the most part of exhortations to 
 concord, humility, and other Christian virtues, expressed 
 in a simple and artless style. The sublime prayer at its 
 conclusion will be found translated a little below. 
 
 Ignatius. Ignatius was, probably, a teacher of real ability and 
 
 zeal at Antioch, a worthy precursor at nearly three hundred 
 years' distance, of the moral though not the intellectual 
 greatness of Chrysostom. The very names, however, of 
 Pearson's Vmdtcim Ignatiance and of Cureton's Corpus 
 Ignatianum may remind us that there is an Ignatian Con- 
 troversy of almost fabulous dimensions between us and this 
 Church Father. 
 
 Poiycarp. With Polycarp it is not so. Of his Epistles we have 
 
 only one extant, supposed to have been written soon after 
 the martyrdom of Ignatius* ; and of this only a part has 
 been preserved in the original Greek, though an old Latin 
 translation remains of the entire epistle. We have, how- 
 
 ^ From the Pluvnomena {z) of A- 
 ratus, his countryman. (Acts xvii. 
 28.) From a lost play of Menander. 
 (1 Cor. XV. 33.) From Epimenidea. 
 Crit. i. 12.) 
 
 2 Cf. Neander, Planting of Chris- 
 tianity, I. 80. 
 
 •^ Written probably about A.D, 96. 
 
 '* Cf. Jacobson, Patres Ajpostolici, 
 Vol. I. 
 
St Peter, St Paul, Polycmy. 67 
 
 ever, the affecting account of his martyrdom which his ^hap. y. 
 own Chm'ch forwarded to the opposite extremity of the 
 Asiatic peninsula \ and which bears every mark of authen- 
 ticity. He is there spoken of^ as a ' distinguished teacher,' 
 no less than an eminent martyr ; and we know from other 
 sources that he ranked at the time of his martyrdom as the 
 foremost Christian in the East, and had sat at the feet of 
 the Apostle John. His reported words to Marcion^, 'Ett^- ;^*^Sf* ^^ 
 ^ivwdKw rov TTpcoTOTOKov Tov "ZaTava, and his words before mfpri^'^ ' 
 the Pro-consul*, Aipe ro^? dOeov^, may be taken as symbols ^^"*" ' 
 of his rigid orthodoxy and calm fortitude. We are not 
 surprised at finding Jews and Heathens alike joining in 
 an overwhelming shout. This man is the teacher ofallAsia'^, 
 the overthrower of our deities, who teaches so many not to 
 sacrifice and not to do worship. 
 
 The source of all this power is best learnt from the 
 tranquil and simple prayer {Ep. ^ 14) which has been thus 
 translated by Milman : — 
 
 ' O Lord God Almighty, the Father of thy well-beloved His prayer. 
 and ever-blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have 
 received the knowledge of Thee : the God of angels, 
 powers, and of every creature, and of the whole race 
 of the righteous who live before thee, I thank thee that 
 thou hast graciously thought me worthy of this day 
 and of this hour, that I may receive a portion in the 
 number of thy martyrs, and drink of Christ's cup, for 
 the resurrection to eternal life both of body and soul 
 in the incorruptibleness of the Holy Spirit : among 
 whom may I be admitted this day, as a rich and 
 acceptable sacrifice, as thou, O true and faithful 
 God, hast prepared and foreshewn and accomplished. 
 
 1 The dedication is: rfj e/c/cX??- ^ Eccles. Smyrn. Ep. § 19: ZM- 
 
 (rlq. TOV GeoO r^ TrapoiKovar) iu <i>t\o- cr/caXos iiriaTjfjLos. 
 fi7]\i({}. Jacobson, 562. 'Philome. ^ Irenseus, iii. 3, 4. 
 
 Hum or Philadelphia.' — Milman, il. ^ Eccles. Smyrn. Ep. § 9. 
 
 184. 5 Ibid. § 12. 
 
 5—2 
 
68 The Apostolic Period. 
 
 CHAP. V. Wherefore I praise thee for all thy mercies : I bless 
 
 ~ thee, I glorify thee, with the eternal and heavenly 
 
 Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son, to whom with Thee 
 and the Holy Ghost be glory, now and for ever.' 
 
 To this the noble prayer of Clement^ will form a fit- 
 ting sequel : — 
 Thcprayer < May the all-seeing God, the ruler of spirits and Lord 
 of all flesh, who hath chosen the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and us by him for a peculiar people, grant unto 
 every soul that calls upon his name, (glorious and 
 holy,) faith, fear, peace, patience, long-suffering, 
 temperance, holiness and wisdom, unto all well- 
 pleasing, through our high-priest and advocate Jesus 
 Christ: through whom be unto Him all glory, ma- 
 jesty, might, and honour, now and for ever.' 
 
 The late Dean Conybeare has said^ that, in reading 
 the Epistles of Clement and Polycarp, we find them 
 breathing a spirit so truly Apostolical, as to make us 
 almost feel the 'mantle' of St Paul. This is true of the 
 spirit. But we miss the authority of inspiration in the 
 language, and look in vain for human ' style.' 
 
 1 At the end of the genuine EpistU. Translated in Riddle {Christian 
 Antiq. p. lo). 
 
 2 Bainpton Lectures, p. 112. 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 The Philosophic and Mystic Period. (1) Clemens Ahxan- 
 drinus, Origen, Tertidlian. 
 
 ..Knowledge is of things we see; 
 
 And yet we trust it comes from thee ; 
 A beam in darkness ; let it grow. 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 *0f Tertullian it especially holds good, that he can be understood 
 only from within : — that we must possess a mental consanguinity with the 
 spirit which dwelt in him, in order to recognise in the defective form that 
 higher quality which it contains, and to set it free from that confined 
 form— and this is always the business of genuine historical composition.* 
 
 Neandkb, Antignostihus. 
 
 NEXT to the Apostolical Fathers in the series of Chris- ,„^.. ,, 
 tian witnesses come the Apologists, of whom the neApoio~ 
 nature of our present subject precludes a special notice. ^*^*' 
 Yet the study of their remains is full of interest*; and the 
 history of the second century is far from being complete 
 without the diligent perusal of Justin Martyr and Athen- 
 agoras. 
 
 The names of these Christian writers introduce us to 
 the subject of this chapter, in so far as Clemens and Ori- 
 gen are concerned. Justin at any rate had visited Alex- 
 andria ; and it is said, though on very doubtful authority, 
 that Athenagoras was at one time president of the Cate- 
 chetical SchooP. This widely-celebrated School, whether 
 founded by St Mark or not^, was in a very flourishing 
 condition in the reign of Commodus, about one hun- 
 dred and twenty years after that traditionary foundation. 
 
 1 See a critique on Gibbon's re- ^ Conybeare's Bampton lectures, 
 
 marks (c. xv.) in Bishop Kaye, iv, p. 191. 
 Tertullian, p. 133. 3 According to tradition in A.D. 60. 
 
70 The PhilosopMc and Mystic Period. 
 
 CHAP. VI. PantasnusS originally a Stoic philosopher, and said to 
 have been a missionary in India before the close of his life, 
 was president at that time ; and he has gained a vicarious 
 reputation beyond his own, which is not inconsiderable, 
 ckmens. by havmg had for a pupil, Titus Flavins Clemens. This 
 man, the first of the three whom we have taken as the 
 representatives of the earlier half of the present period, is 
 the philosophizing teacher among the group : Origen is the 
 profoundly inquisitive and learned expositor of the Scrip- 
 tm-es : Tertullian is the great man. We proceed to remark 
 briefly upon them in order. 
 
 § 1. Clemens. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Clemens was born probably about 150 
 
 „ flourished under Severus and Caracalla 192 — 217 
 
 ,, died probably about 220 
 
 JfomestiH The followiuff^ is Jerome's list of his works: (1) The 
 
 of hu works. <-> ^ ' 
 
 Stromata, in eight books : (2) The Hypotyposes^, in eight 
 books : One book addressed to the Gentiles : Pcedagogusy 
 in four books : A Book concerning Easter : A Discom'se 
 concerning Fasting: the famous Discourse entitled T/9 o 
 aco^o/jLevo^ TfXovcroo^ ; — one Book on Slander : and one on 
 the Ecclesiastical Canons, dedicated to Alexander, Bishop 
 of Jerusalem. Of these we possess, nearly entire, The Poi- 
 dagogus; The Stromata ; The Address to the Gentiles : and 
 the tract Who is the Rich Man, &c. All the rest, which 
 are described by Jerome as being replete with learning and 
 eloquence, and embracing both sacred and profane litera- 
 ture, are represented to us only by fragments. 
 JTicAoyo? Neander* traces one connecting idea running through 
 
 "OS- and being developed in the Protreptic Discourse (to the 
 
 ^ Euseb. Eccl. Hist. vi. 6. by it the delineation, form, or out- 
 
 ^ Kaye, Clemens, p. 5. line of a thing. 'Shadings' has been 
 
 * Rufinus translates this word not inaptly suggested. 
 
 'adumbrationes.' Clement expresses ^ Church History, li. ^fj^). 
 
Clemens AlexdndriuuH, (Jrujen TertalUan. 71 
 
 Gentiles), this being an apologetic production, intended, as chap. vi. 
 it were, to break ground for what should follow; in the 
 Peedagogus ; and in the Stromata. This idea is, that the 
 Logos (Divine Teacher) first conducts the rude heathen, 
 sunk in sin and idolatry, to the faith ; then still further 
 reforms their lives by moral precepts : and finally elevates 
 the morally purified to that profounder knowledge of divine 
 things, which he calls the yv(jocrt<;. Thus the Logos has a 
 threefold agency, converting, informing, initiatory. The 
 prevailing feature of the mind of Clement, and abundant 
 evidences are furnished even in the portions of his writings 
 which remain to us, was a want of system and a tendency 
 to fragmentary thought. Yet there are thoughts sketched 
 out here and there with a masterly vigour, and with bright 
 flashes of intellect that clearly explain to us how great a 
 stimulus he was capable of giving to the minds of his 
 scholars, as he did to Origen in particular. 
 
 We shall now proceed to give a few specimens of his 
 power of eloquence, confining the selection of passages to 
 the A0709 T[poTpe7rTLfc6<i, and adopting the translations 
 either of Bishop Kaye or Dean Conybeare, This Address 
 was an especial favourite with the latter of these writers, 
 who speaks of iti as written in a style of earnest and glow- 
 ing eloquence. It is occasionally, as he also remarks, de- itscharac- 
 fective in taste, too declamatory and diffuse, abounding in 
 repetition, and altogether having more the character of an 
 extemporaneous harangue, than of a studied written com- 
 position. But these defects are far more than compen- 
 sated^ by the warmth of piety and depth of feeling with 
 which the author has endeavoured to apply the great prin- 
 ciples of Christianity. 
 
 Having remarked^ that the Greeks believed the old 
 myths of Orpheus and of Amphion, 
 
 1 Bamjoton ZectM-es, iv. p. 19^. 2 ^jf chapter i. of this Essay. 
 
 ^ Clemens, Log. Proir. cap. 1. 
 
72 
 
 The Pltilosopliic and Mystic Period. 
 
 ' though the face of truth is now re- 
 
 * Yet, ' he proceeds 
 
 vealed to them in all its brightness, they look on it with 
 / suspicious eyes. Let us leave them to their Cithseron 
 and Helicon, and the feasts of Bacchus, and their dra- 
 matic exhibitions, which are chiefly founded on the cala- 
 mities and crimes of man. Let us turn to the mountain 
 of God, and to the holy prophetic choir, and draw down 
 from heaven Truth, with her companion, Wisdom : that, 
 diifusing her light around, she may enlighten all who 
 are involved in darkness, and may free men from error, 
 extending to them intelligence (avveatv) as it were a 
 hand to guide them to salvation. Orpheus, Amphion, 
 Arion, and the Greek musicians employed their skill 
 in confirming the perverseness of man, and leading 
 him to idols, and stocks, and stones. Not so the 
 Christian musician; he comes to destroy the bitter 
 tyranny of demons ; to substitute in its place the mild 
 and gentle yoke of piety; to raise to heaven those 
 who had been cast down upon the earth. He alone 
 has tamed man, the most savage of beasts ; and 
 has indeed made men out of stones, by raising up a 
 Holy Seed from among the Gentiles who believed in 
 stones^. Such is the power of the New Song : it has 
 converted stones and beasts into men. They who were 
 dead, without any portion of the real life, have revived 
 at the mere sound'^' 
 
 Custom is a great point of attack with Clemens. Custom 
 induces men to drink to excess, to commit injuries, to deify 
 dead men, to worsliip idols. He thus tries to arouse the 
 attention of those minds, with whom idol-worship has be- 
 come a thine: of habit : 
 
 ^ This is precisely the kind of 
 turn we might look for in a sermon 
 of Gregory of Nazianzum, or indeed 
 
 almost any preacher of the 4th cen- 
 tury, not excepting Chrysostom. 
 '^ Kaye, Clemens, pp. 10, 11. 
 
Clemens Alexandrmus, Ori'gen, TertulUan. 73 
 
 * Though 4he artizan can make an idol, he has never made chap, v 
 a breathing image, or formed soft flesh out of earth. 
 Who liquefied the marrow ? Who hardened the bones ? 
 Who extended the nerves? who inflated the veins? who 
 infused the blood into them ? who stretched the skin 
 around them ? Who made the eye to see ? Who breathed 
 the soul into the body? Who freely gave righteousness? 
 Who has promised immortality ? The Creator of all 
 things alone, the Supreme Artizan, made man a living 
 image: but your Olympian Jove, the image of an 
 image, far difl'ering from the truth, is the dumb work 
 of Attic hands. The image of God is His Word ; the 
 legitimate Son of Intelligence, the Divine Word, the 
 original Light of light : and the image of the Word is 
 the true man, the mind which is in man, who on this 
 account is said to be in the image and likeness of God, 
 being assimilated to the Divine Word (or Keason) by 
 the understanding in his heart, and therefore rational. 
 But the earthly image of the visible man, the man 
 sprung from the earth, the resemblance of man, ap- 
 pears as it were a momentary impression {eKfuayetov) ^ 
 far removed from the truth \' 
 
 The following passage is full of solemn fervour' : ciemens. 
 
 Log. Protr. 
 
 ' Remember, that unless ye become children by a new ''' "" 
 birth, the Scripture plainly testifieth that ye shall 
 never be able to recover your true Father, nor to enter 
 His heavenly kingdom: for that is inaccessible to the 
 stranger and the alien, and he alone who is enrolled 
 and made free of that city, and hath regained his hea- 
 venly Father, shall there dwell in that Father's house, 
 receive his inheritance, and enjoy communion with 
 His true and beloved Son. Such is the Church of the 
 first-begotten written in the heavens, and rejoicing 
 
 1 Clemeng, Log. Pr. 78. s K&je, Clemens, p. 25. 3 Clemens, Log. Pr. 9. 
 
74 
 
 The Philosojphic and Mystic Period. 
 
 cHAP.vi. around the divine tlirone with myriads of angels. 
 
 Does God freely offer so great salvation, and -^ill you 
 
 still blindly rush into destruction? ''Awake," He 
 
 saith, " thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 
 and Christ shall give thee light." " To-day if ye will 
 hear His voice, harden not yoin- hearts :" and this to- 
 day shall last till that phrase can be used no more. 
 For the day of instruction shall endure until the con- 
 summation of time itself: until the real and unfading 
 day of God shall be co-extended through eternity. Oh, 
 if an entrance into that eternity could be purchased, 
 were not the whole of Pactolus too small a price? 
 Yet to you it is freely offered : and requires but the 
 treasure of a living faith, and love placed in your own 
 possession. Yet how many cling to this world, as the 
 sea-weed to the rocks of the shore, and regard not this 
 glorious immortality ; but true religion can be learned 
 effectually from God alone ; He is the only perfect 
 teacher: He alone has power to renew in man the 
 likeness of His own imaged' 
 
 General re- Thc uiaiu poiuts iu thc systcm of Clemens which would 
 
 marks on his ^ . , . ^ c ^ 
 
 genius, ])q hkely to militate against his success as a preacher oi the 
 Gospel, may be most readily appreciated by an examina- 
 tion of the various descriptions scattered by him throughout 
 the Stromata, and tending to illustrate his conception of 
 the true Gnostic character. The summary given by Bishop 
 Kaye (229 — 262) is at once moderate in compass and clear 
 in the execution. Perhaps the most conspicuous deformity 
 in the system is the exaggerated refinement of mysticism 
 and quietism^, after the manner of Madame Guyon in 
 modern times. He attributes to our Lord the aTraOela to 
 which he would have the Christian attain ; on which point 
 the remark of Scultetus is quoted by Conybeare : — ' Atqui, 
 
 ^ Conybeare, Bampton Lectures, IV. p, 199. 
 2 (;f_ Clem. Stromata, vi. 9. 
 
Clemens AlexandrinuSy Origen^ TertulUan. 75 
 
 o Clemens, Christiis ehaKpvaev ad sepulcrum Lazari ; idem- chap. vi. 
 que rj^yaXKido-aTO rS irvevfjiaTi.^ 
 
 § 2. OrigEN. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Origen was born probably in 185 (or 1S6) 
 
 „ died 253 (or 254) 
 
 It is universally allowed^ tliat few men of his age OHgen. 
 equalled Origen in piety and active benevolence: that, in 
 point of learning and industry, he occupied the very first 
 rank ; and that a greater amount of valuable knowledge, 
 both sacred and profane, might be derived from his writings 
 than from those of any other ecclesiastical author. Not 
 that he was by any means exempt from eccentricities and 
 practical errors : but they were in general calculated to 
 hurt nobody but himself; and in consideration of his ac- 
 knowledged merits, they might have been overlooked, or, * 
 at all events, opposed with calmness and moderation. Kndi His great 
 
 ^ ir L ^ ^ merits recog- 
 
 this was, in fact, the course taken by Athanasius, Basil, ''^^f^^l^i'^ 
 Gregory of Nazianzum, and other illustrious Fathers oi^calurl 
 the Church. They speak of him with respect while they 
 combat his errors. They fully admit that ' ubi ben^ nemo 
 melius,' while they conscientiously insist upon it that 'ubi 
 male nemo pejus.' Above all, they thankfully bear witness 
 to the benefit which they derived from his w^orks. 
 
 But, unfortunately, there was an influential party in ^«>^o?v 
 the Church, composed of men of small capacity, strong 
 prejudices, and a meddling unquiet disposition, who de- 
 liberately undertook to work out, as far as in them lay, the 
 ruin of his reputation. The abstract of St Pamphilus's 
 Apology for Origeti, preserved by Eufinus, sufficiently de- 
 scribes the character and motives of this clique. We learn 
 from that source that the opponents of Origen were, some 
 
 1 For many of the following re- Canon Cureton's Corpus Ignaiianum, 
 marks, I am indebted to a review of in the Edinb. Rev. of July, 1849. 
 
76 The Philosophic and Mystic Period, 
 
 CHAP. VI. of them grossly ignorant, some wickedlj malicious. And 
 the consequences have been seriously detrimental to the 
 cause of learning and truth in a variety of ways. Origen 
 was long held up as an object of odium throughout the 
 greater part of Christendom. Many of his most important 
 works have been completely suppressed : and much of what 
 remains has been so much meddled with by enemies or in- 
 judicious friends, that a calm inquirer of the present day 
 can only avail himself to a very limited degree of the fruits 
 of Origen' s researches ; and has only suspicious and garbled 
 data for ascertaining his real opinions. There would have 
 been a very different sort of treatment bestowed on this 
 Church Father, if he had been only a Pagan commentator 
 on Aristotle^. 
 
 Hii ivorks. It is indeed only a wreck of Origen that we now possess, 
 
 even if the accounts of his prolific genius are to some ex- 
 tent overdone. The Philocalia is but a chrestomathy of 
 his writings, being the result and the monument of the 
 joint studies pursued by Basil and Gregory Nazianzen 
 during the period of their youthful friendship. His most 
 important labours consisted of the Editions of the Hebrew 
 Text and Greek Versions of the Old Testament. The 
 Tetrapla contained the four Greek Versions of Aquila, 
 Symmachus, the Septuagint, and Theodotion, arranged in 
 four columns. And the Hexapla was formed by the ad- 
 dition of the Hebrew text in one column, and of the same 
 
 ^rinarkf^ lu Grcck charactcrs in another. Coleridge''^ has lamented 
 the loss of this last labour, more than any other loss which 
 Biblical Literature has ever sustained. The sounds, as 
 known in the third century, would have been by this means 
 fixed for us. ' I never can digest,' he says in another place, 
 
 1 A similar, though mitigated, rature, and in the defence of Catho- 
 
 fate has befallen the writings of Eu- lie doctrine against its Pagan im- 
 
 sebius of Ccesarea, a man eminent pugners. 
 
 alike in the promotion of sacred lite- ^ Xable Talk, p. 281. 
 
Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, TertuUian, 77 
 
 * the loss of most of Origen's works \' He was inclined to chap. yi. 
 adopt a very enthusiastic view of Origen's relative position 
 among the Church Fathers ; considering him far superior to 
 Jerome'^, and calling him the only scholar and genius com- 
 bined, among the number. It is probable, however, that 
 this was only one of Coleridge's hasty dicta, which ought 
 either never to have been committed to the page of a per- 
 manent book, or to have been very carefully qualified by 
 the editor. If he meant ' biblical scholar ' in the passage 
 referred to, there would be more of truth in the assertion. 
 But even then it would be hard to deny that the genius of 
 Augustine and of Chrysostom as well, as applied to exe- 
 gesis, did not far surpass that of Origen, and more than 
 compensate for his very great superiority in technical scho- 
 larship. 
 
 Of the Hexapla, as well as of the Stromata and Prin- Theiiexapia. 
 cipia {irepl dp^cop), only fragments now remain. Eufinus's fr'^i^Halion 
 translation of the Principia, made in the fourth century^, ^(^''"^ ^"°<=^- 
 does indeed exist entire ; but so much has been added by 
 him, on his own confession, to the original text, that his 
 work cannot be regarded as a fair exhibition of the great 
 scholar's opinions. 
 
 The Answer to Celsus (A0709 'AX?;^?)?), who lived in ^tj^aoyo? 
 the reigns of Hadrian and the Antonines, has always been ''^''^''^• 
 regarded even by his enemies as one of the best apologies 
 ever written for the Christian religion, besides being a 
 satisfactory reply to his direct opponent. One of the most 
 favourable specimens of the sound sense displayed in this 
 work is to be found in the answer to an objection made by 
 the Jews in Celsus, impugning the validity of Christ's 
 
 1 Table Talk, p. 307. phrast in his treatment, not only of 
 * We shall see below, chap. VIII., Origen, but of some portions of Gre- 
 that this was not Niebuhr's view of gory of Nazianzum and Basil as 
 Jerome. well. Aquileia was his birthplace : 
 ^ Rufinus was bom about the he travelled much in Egypt and Pa- 
 middle of the 4th century, and died leatine, and died in Sicily. 
 in 410. He was a thorough meta- 
 
78 The Philosophic and Mystic Period. 
 
 CHAP. VI. resurrection on the score of certain fabulous returns from 
 the dead\ 
 
 With all the unnatural notions of estrangement from 
 human passion, and the false conceptions about the nature 
 rn'M^arlyr- ^^ Hiartjrdom, which pervade it, the treatise on Martyr- 
 *""• dom, addressed to two confessors^ under the persecution 
 
 of Maximin, is full of noble passages, and presents a good 
 specimen of that style which Augustine called the temperata 
 dictio^. The following extracts, taken from p. 4 and p. 37, 
 are translated in Neander's History \ 
 
 ' I could wish that you two, keeping in mind through 
 the whole conflict that awaits you the exceeding great 
 reward in heaven for those who suffer persecution and 
 reproach for the sake of righteousness and of the Son 
 of man, may rejoice and be glad, as the apostles once 
 rejoiced when they were found worthy to suffer re- 
 proach for the name of Christ. But if anguish should 
 ever enter your souls, may the Spirit of Christ that 
 dwells within you, tempted though you may be on 
 your part to dispossess it, enable you to cry, " Why 
 troublest thou me, my soul, and why art thou dis- 
 quieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet 
 praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and 
 my God^" May it, however, never be troubled: but 
 even before the tribunal itself, and under the naked 
 sword aimed at your necks, may it be preserved by 
 that peace of God which passeth all understanding.' 
 
 In the second passage he says to them, 
 
 ' Since the word of God is quick and powerful, and 
 sharper than any two-edged sword, and is a discerner 
 
 ^ Contr. Cels. II. 56. his scientific labours. 
 
 * One of these was Ambrosius, '^ See below, chap. X. 
 
 called by Origen his ipyodnLKTrjs, ^ Neand. Ch. Hist. II. 475. 
 
 from the special interest he took in ^ Ps. Ixiii. 5. 
 
Clemens Alexcoidrinus, Origen, Tertullian. 79 
 
 of the tliouglits and intents of the heart, so let this chap. vi. 
 Divine Word, at tliis time especially, cause to reign 
 in our souls, as He did in His apostles, that peace 
 which passeth all understanding: but he has cast a 
 sword between the image of the earthly and the image 
 of the heavenly within us, that he may for the present 
 receive our heavenly man to himself: so that when 
 we have so far attained as to need no more separation^, 
 he may make us altogether heavenly. And he came 
 not only to bring the sword, but also to send fire on 
 the earth ; concerning which he says, " What will I, 
 if it be already kindled^?" May this fire then be 
 kindled even in you, and consume every earthly feel- 
 ing in you; and cause you to be joyfully baptized 
 with that baptism of which Jesus spake. And thou, 
 Ambrosius, who hast a wife, and children, brothers 
 and sisters, remember the words of the Lord; " Who- 
 ever Cometh unto me, and hateth not his father, mo- 
 ther, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, cannot be 
 my disciple." But both of you be mindful of the 
 words, " If any man cometh unto me, and hate not 
 even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." ' 
 
 Very similar to this is the prevailing style of the TheHomUies. 
 Homilies. Origen laid his prohibition upon the regular 
 notaries', until his sixtieth year, when his severe determi- 
 nation relented, and above a thousand of his discourses 
 were taken down before his death. 
 
 But, notwithstanding the reports of his eloquence during 
 the passage through Antioch of the Empress Mammgea, 
 mother of Alexander Severus"*, reports which were sure to 
 obtain credit in the case of any man of half the learning or 
 
 1 Separation, that is, of the earthly ^ See above, p. 113. 
 
 and heavenly. * Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ii. 
 
 ^ St Luke xii. 49. . .n. 
 
Origen a 
 Scholar ra- 
 ther than a 
 Preacher. 
 
 80 The Philosophic and Mystic Period. 
 
 CHAP. VI. half the celebrity among his contemporaries which Origen 
 possessed, it will be as a Scholar rather than a Preacher 
 that a perusal of his works will always cause him to be 
 regarded. As a Lecturer to young men his ability must 
 have been of a first-rate order, inasmuch as he succeeded 
 Clemens in the management of the Catechetical School 
 at the early age of eighteen, recalling to our minds the early 
 eminence of Melancthon in another age of the Church; 
 and also, after his removal to Palestine, a circle of youths 
 was always around him\ being trained under his influence 
 to fill the posts of theologians and of church-teachers. 
 
 This notice shall be brought to a close by a transcript 
 
 Hisunu'ea- of Ori2:en's own account of his indefatisiable industry as a 
 
 rtea industry '-' o ./ 
 
 a^aStucknt. Scliolar. 
 
 ' The collation of manuscripts,' he says, ' leaves me 
 no time to eat: and after meals I can neither go 
 out nor enjoy a season of rest : but even at these times 
 I am compelled to continue my philological investiga- 
 tions and the correction of manuscripts. Even the 
 night is not granted me for repose ; but a great part 
 of it is claimed for these philological inquiries. I will 
 not mention the time from early in the morning till 
 the ninth and sometimes the tenth hour of the day : 
 for all who take pleasure in such labours employ 
 those hours in the study of the divine word, and in 
 reading^' 
 
 We omit any mention of L-enceus, whose reputation is 
 entirely that of a controversialist, and pass to the great 
 Latin Father of this period. The ' Elenchus ' of IrenaBUS 
 has been carefully analyzed by Kiddle^. 
 
 1 Neander, Ch. Hist. n. 474. ^ Origenis Opera, i. 3 (De la Rue). 
 
 '^ Christian Antiquities, p. 32 flf. 
 
Clemens Alexmidrinus, On'gen, TertulUan. 81 
 
 § 3. Tertulltan. chap. yi. 
 
 '*-°- Terhdlian. 
 
 Sept. "2, Florens Tertullianus born (Tillemont) 160^ 
 
 „ became a Montanist 200 (?) 
 
 ,, wrote the Ad Scapulam 216 
 
 „ died 'at a great age' (Jerome, De 
 
 Vir. Ill 53). 
 
 We will begin by stating what lias been said of Ter- 
 tullian by Niebuhr^. After speaking of A. Geliius and 
 Fronto, be says — 
 
 * At a somewliat later period there arose a peculiar ^'iehuhr-x 
 
 ■L i remarku on 
 
 school called the African, which continued to the time S""e"** 
 of Arnobius, about the middle of the third century. ichoT 
 The writers of this school combined refinement of 
 thought with that of language 3, and thus separated 
 themselves from the Homan school. They are spoken 
 of as if they had written in a peculiar dialect, and it 
 might therefore seem strange that the language of 
 Apuleius and Tertullian, who were both Africans and 
 // belonged to this school, has never been censured for 
 / any dialectic peculiarities. But the notion that their 
 language had anything provincial in it is quite erro- 
 neous. Its only peculiarity is that it abounds in 
 words and expressions taken from the ancient Latin 
 writers, which they collected and employed. This 
 system was at the same period adopted to a certain 
 extent in Greek literature also^. Apuleius and Ter- 
 tullian, however, were both men of great talent 
 
 Their works are real storehouses of ancient Latin, 
 though the hunting after ancient words was, with men 
 
 like these, in reality no more than a fanciful whim 
 
 Tertullian too produced some spirited and substantial 
 
 1 The date of his birth has been exception to this characteristic of 
 placed as early as 135. the school. 
 
 2 Lectures on Roman History, edit- ^ He mentions Hadrian in a note, 
 ed by Dr Schmitz, iii. 242. and instances the Lexiphanes of Lu- 
 
 "^ Tertullian was, of course, an cian. 
 
 6 
 
82 The Philosoj^Mc and Mystic Period. 
 
 CHAP. VI. works; when, e.g. lie writes against the theatres, and 
 
 has to treat of a reality, he shews that he is a great 
 author, and is very instructive ; while Aristides, in 
 his declamation on the battle of Leuctra, is trying to 
 entertain his readers with idle and silly trash i. Ter- 
 tuUian is one of those writers whom I can recommend 
 to every one, not merely to theologians on account of 
 his importance in ecclesiastical history, but to scholars 
 also, who should devote more attention to the eccle- 
 siastical fathers in general, and thus follow the ex- 
 ample of Scaliger, Hemsterhuys, Valckenaer, and 
 others.' 
 
 PaxxaOi'S 
 from Tertul- 
 li-nn. 
 
 Let us now turn to Tertullian himself, and look at some 
 of his own manly and earnest words in the tract De 8pec- 
 taculis, which was perhaps occasioned by the celebrations 
 on the news of the victories of the Emperor Septimius 
 Severus^, and in which he is indeed ' treating of realities.' 
 The following is a passage where he is appealing to the 
 judgment of the heathen themselves, in whose eyes abs-i 
 tinence from the Shows was one mark of a Christian^: — 
 
 T^e spcct. ' No one goes over to the enemy's camp, without hav- 
 
 ing first thrown away his own arms, without having 
 first deserted the standard and oaths of his own chief, 
 and having set his hand (as it were) to his own de- 
 struction at the same moment that those oaths become 
 void. Will he think concerning God at that very 
 time when he finds himself in a place where there is 
 nothing of God at all? Will he have peace in his 
 soul, who is contending for the charioteer ? Will he 
 learn modesty, who is staring at the buffoons? Mo- 
 desty, indeed! When in all the show nothing more 
 
 ^ The five Leuctric Orations of ^ Neander, Antignostikus, b. 1. 
 
 Aristides occupy no less than 69 ^ Tertull. De Sped. 24, 25. This 
 
 pages in the first volume of Jebb's tract is one of those published in 
 
 Oxford edition. (i7'22.) Currey's useful edition. 
 
Clemens Alexandrmus, Origen, Tertullian, 83 
 
 offensive is to be met with, than the excessive adorn- chap. vi. 
 
 ing of men and women. The chief concern of every 
 
 one who goes there is to see and to be seen.* 
 
 Thus furnishing practical evidence of the absence of 
 modesty. He continues, — 
 
 ' While the tragedian is vociferating, will you meditate 
 on the exclamations of a prophet? and during the 
 melodies of an effeminate player, will you be meditating 
 on a Psalm ? During the contests of the Athlette, will 
 you say that we are not to retm-n a blow ? and can he 
 be moved to pity, whose attention is fixed on the bites 
 of bears, and the sponges of them that fight with 
 
 nets? What a thing it is, to go from the church 
 
 of God to the church of the devil! to weary those 
 hands in applauding a player, which thou hast been ^ 
 lifting up to God ! to give a testimony to a gladiator 
 with a mouth that has said ''Amen''' to the Holy 
 Ghost! to say " Fo7^ ever and ever " to any being save 
 to God and to Christ^.'' 
 
 The whole soul of Tertullian was stirred to its lowest 
 depths by the abominable nature of these cruel and licen- 
 tious shows. In the nineteenth chapter of this treatise, he ©e spect. 
 says that no one who has not been an actual spectator, can '^ 
 adequately describe these scenes, and that he would himself 
 rather fail in describino- them than think of them ao-ain. It ^im treatise 
 
 1 . . • P r. T 1 affords the 
 
 IS owmg to this mtensity ot leelmg on the subject, that the 2j^/t/j ^ 
 tract De Spectaculis is, perhaps, the very best place in the ^^'^^""'^'^• 
 whole of his works, from whence to extract specimens of 
 his powers of eloquence. One more shall be here intro- 
 duced, in which he is contrasting the joys which the 
 Christian gains with those which he gives up^; — 
 
 ^ The words in the text are ds vos; with which Dion tells us that 
 ai(ava$ utt' alGivos. Tertullian alludes Commodus was greeted. 
 to the cry of viKat viKrjaeis air' at'w- - TertuU, De Sjiect. 28, 29. 
 
 6—2 
 
84 The Philosophic and Mystic Period. 
 
 CHAP. VI. ' What else is our desire, but that of the Apostle ; to 
 
 Dc spect. depart from the world ; to be received with the Lord ? 
 
 Where our desire is, there is our delight. 
 
 ' And then, if you do but reflect that even this life too is 
 to be spent in delights, how can you be so ungrateful 
 as not to be content with, and not to acknowledge, the 
 many and the great pleasures that God bestows upon 
 you ? For what is more delightful than reconciliation 
 with God, our Father and our Lord? than the reve- 
 lation of truth? than the discovery of errors? than 
 the pardon of so grievous offences past ? What greater 
 pleasure than a distaste for pleasure itself? than a 
 contempt for the whole world? tlian true liberty? 
 than a pure conscience? than a blameless life? than 
 no fear of death ? than to tread under foot the gods of 
 the Gentiles ? to cast out daemons ? to perform cures ? 
 to seek for revelations ? to live unto God ? These are 
 the pleasures, these the shows, of Christians, holy, 
 
 everlasting, gratuitous If knowledge, if literature 
 
 delight a man's mind, we have enough of books, enough 
 of verses, enough of maxims, enough also of song, 
 enough of music ; no stage-plots, but verities, no cun- 
 ningly wrought stanzas, but simple strains. Would- 
 est thou have fightings and wrestlings ? Behold, im- 
 modesty cast down by chastity, perfidy slain by fidelity, 
 cruelty crushed by compassion, arrogance eclipsed by 
 modesty. Such are our contests in whicli we gain the 
 crown. Wouldest thou also somewhat of blood? 
 Thou hast Christ's.' 
 
 And these are the concluding words, confident, and 
 beautiful^: — 
 
 i>c Spect. ' To behold a spectacle such as this, [the final establish- 
 
 ment of the kingdom of God,] to glory over triumphs 
 ^ Tert. De S^ect. c. 30. 
 
Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Tertullian. 85 
 
 equal to these, what pr^tor, or consul, or priest, shall of chap. vi. 
 his own bounty bestow upon thee ? And yet we have 
 them now in some sort present to us {quodammodo 
 per Jldem rej^rcesentata) , through faith in the imagina- 
 tion of the spirit. But what are those things, which 
 eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered 
 into the heart of man ? Greater joys, metJiinks, than 
 the circus, greater than hoth the theatres, greater than 
 any race-course.^ 
 It truly matters very little, as Neander has said, to fix Teriuiuans 
 
 . "^ . . adoption of 
 
 the precise date when Tertullian became a Montanist. -i^^oiHaniim. 
 Born in Carthage, the son of a Pagan Proconsul, versed 
 thus in the ways of the world from the very first, and such 
 a w^orld as God was enduring in North Africa at the close 
 of the second century ; — then becoming, probably not be- 
 fore complete manhood, overwhelmingly impressed by the 
 solemn and lovely influence of Christianity, but retaining 
 all the rugged strength of a harsh and angular natural cha- 
 racter; — how could he fail of looking away 'from this 
 'naughty world,' and yearning towards a better, not in- 
 deed with wisdom always, nor always with due submission, 
 semper ceger calorihus impatientice^ , beating and chafing 
 against his prison-bars, and longing for a present, an im- 
 mediate, realisation of the supernatural? Yet, while we 
 can with ease trace his line of aberration, it would be found 
 a difiicult though a worthy task, to emulate the intense 
 and abiding earnestness with which he loved and pursued 
 the narrow way. 
 
 Having alluded to his consciousness of a deficiency on 
 the score of Christian patience, we may bring forward an 
 instance of the beautiful mode in which he has conceived 
 of this quality as being perfected in the incarnation of the 
 Divine Logos "\ 
 
 ' God suffers himself to be conceived in the womb of a DePatientia. 
 
 •^ c. 3. 
 
 1 De Patient, c. i. ^ Be Patient, c. 3. 
 
86 The Philosophic and Mystic Period. 
 
 CHAP. VI. mother, and abides the time of being born : endures 
 
 to grow up into youth : and being an adult is not 
 eager to be known, but puts a further slight'^ upon 
 himself, is baptized by his own servant, and repels 
 the attacks of the tempter by words only. When 
 from the "Lord" he became the "Master," teaching 
 man to escape death, having well learned the forgiving 
 spirit of offended patience, he strove not, he cried not 
 
 a bruised reed he broke not, the smoking flax he 
 
 quenched not he rejected none who wished to ad- 
 here to him : he despised no one's table or house. 
 He poured out water to wash his disciples' feet. He 
 despised not publicans and sinners. He was not 
 wroth with the city which had refused to receive him, 
 when even his disciples wished that fire from heaven 
 should hastily descend on the insolent town. He 
 healed the unthankful, and gave place to those who 
 laid snares for him. This were but little, if he had 
 not had even his betrayer with him, without constantly 
 pointing him out. But when he was delivered up, 
 when he was led as a sheep to the sacrifice, he opened 
 not his mouth any more than a lamb under the hands 
 of the shearer. He whom, if he had wished, at one 
 word legions of angels would have attended from hea- 
 ven, would not approve of a disciple's avenging sword. 
 The patience of the Lord was icounded in the person of 
 
 Malchus He who had proposed to hide himself 
 
 in the form of a man, imitated nothing of man's impa- 
 tience. Herein especially, ye Pharisees, ye ought to 
 have recognised the Lord : such patience as this none 
 of mere human kind could carry through. The great- 
 ness of these proofs of patience is for the nations a 
 cause of refusing belief, but for us a reason and a 
 building up of faith.' 
 
 ^ He heaps together words and expressions denoting the exercise of patience. 
 
cinder's 
 emarks. 
 
 Cleme?2s Alexandrinus, Origen, TertulUan. 87 
 
 The passages which have been cited are in his best chap. vi. 
 and noblest manner. Many more, of even a more striking some of Ms 
 though not a higher character, might be adduced from the 
 De Corona Militis, the Apologeticus, and the De Oratione^ 
 the last two of which treatises will be again mentioned 
 below, when we come to speak of Cyprian. But the design 
 of this Essay in its present form admits of no more quota- 
 tions at length ; and we will only now add the pregnant 
 words of a loving critic. ' TertuUian, though an enemy of -^' 
 philosophical speculation,... was not destitute of a specula- 
 tive spirit: but it wanted the scientific ^on/i. Feeling and 
 imagination prevailed above the purely intellectual. An 
 inward life filled with Christianity outran the development 
 of his understanding. A new inward world was opened 
 to him by Christianity : feelings and ideas poured them- 
 selves into his living ardent soul, which he wanted adequate 
 words to express. The new super ahundant spirit first formed 
 Ms language. The African Latin was, in this case espe- 
 cially, a foreign material, which was deficient in imagery. 
 Hence the struggle between living feelings and concep- 
 tions, and a language which hampered and confined the 
 living spirit \' 
 
 1 Neander, Introduction to the For Lactantius's critique on Ter- 
 Antignostikus. Neander traces am- tuUian (omni genere literarum pe- 
 ple evidence of an eaidy rhetorical ritus, eloquendo parum facilis, mi- 
 training, and, perhaps, a forensic nils comptus, multum obscurus,) see 
 practice, in the writings of Tertullian, Div. Instit. v, i: where he also re- 
 but does not seethe smallest ground mai-ks on Minucius Felix, and Cy- 
 for identifying him \\dth Tertyllia- prian. 
 
 nus or Tertullianus, a Roman jurist See, a little below, Gibbon's esti- 
 
 of whose writings some fragments mate of TertuUian. 
 are preserved in the Pandects. 
 
rewarks on 
 the latter 
 half of the 
 ilUrd'ccn- 
 iiirij. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Fhiloso])liic and Mystic Period. (2) Cyprian, Arno- 
 hius, Lactantius. 
 
 Vellem igitur Ciceronera paulisper ab iuferis surgere, ut vir eloquentissi- 
 mus ab homunculo non diserto doceretur. 
 
 Lactantius, Blv. Inst. iii. 13. 
 
 CHAP. VII. t;^ passing from the earlier to tlie later half of the third 
 Niebvhr's JL centuiy, we may again turn with advantage to Niebuhr\ 
 Avho gives the most dismal account of the literary condition 
 of the western world during the second of these two periods. 
 After mentioning the terrible plague which began with the 
 reign of Decius (249), and which seems to have been a 
 repetition of the scourge which was brought from the banks 
 of the Euphrates by the army of L. Verus, about eighty years 
 before, he says that the countries between the Danube and 
 Gaul were overrun by barbarians, and that talent and art 
 had become extinct in the same degree as the world had 
 become desolate. The manifest barbarity which now over- 
 spread the west, continued even down to the times of Con- 
 stantine, and it aifected all departments alike both of art 
 and science. Nemesian's Cynegetica, and the Eclogce of 
 Calpurnius shew that poetry was nothing more than verse- 
 making. These Eclogce^ which are more correctly divided 
 between Calpurnius and Nemesian, are stigmatized by Pro- 
 fessor Conington^ as being compositions no less unreal than 
 Virgil's own, and ' wanting that exquisite grace which 
 
 ^ Niebubr, Lechires on the Uist. of tion of Virgil, The critiqnje)?«Slluded 
 
 Rome, III. 307. to is to be found in the Essay on The 
 
 2 In his recent valuable instal- Later Bucolic Poets of Rome, which 
 
 ment of the Bibliotheca Classica edi- is inserted after the Tenth Eclogue. 
 
Cyprian, Arnohms, Lactantius. 89 
 
 makes us deliglit in the poem when we cannot recognise chap. vii. 
 the genuine pastoral.' 
 
 Meantime, prose was at an equally low ebb. ' Arnobius,' onAmohius. 
 says Niebuhr, ' the author of the work Adversus Gentes, 
 is one of the earliest Christian writers in the Latin lan- 
 guage. He is very interesting, and his learning is of con- 
 siderable value to us : but there is nothing original about 
 him.' 
 
 Of Lactantius, however, who reaches down to the very on lactan- 
 extreme limits of our present period or, rather, goes beyond 
 it by one year\ he gives a very different account. ' He 
 adopted completely the style of Cicero, whom he repro- 
 duced in form. Just as Curtius had reproduced Livy. He 
 is a very important writer, even if we look at him apart 
 from his character as a theological author^ ; but he is the 
 only writer of that period deserving of mention: his seventh 
 book shews real imagination.' 
 
 Of the decline of literature mentioned above the Pas^ans Decline of 
 
 . literature 
 
 charged the Christians with being the cause. And Cyprian, 
 whose last writings belong to this period, that is to say, to 
 the earliest years of it, makes no answer to the charge, as 
 knowing very well that such an answer would have pro- 
 duced no effect. It may be perhaps suggested as not an 
 improbable explanation of his silence, that the acquaintance 
 and sympathy with literature which his profession as a 
 rhetorician must have involved, caused him in fact to fall 
 in with this opinion of the heathen cavillers ; while, on the 
 other hand, his affinities with Christianity led him to accept 
 the fact with calmness if not with complacency, and to 
 look beyond a transition state of intellectual degradation 
 to a glorious future of spiritual regeneration. Be this as ^"^/^^,f ^* 
 it may, his remarkable work against Demetrianus^ openly 
 
 ^ Christianity became the religion tullian above, p. 8i of this Es- 
 
 of the Empire in 324. Lactantius say. 
 
 died, probably, in 325. '^ Cypriani 0;pera (Caillau), pp. 
 
 2 See what Niebuhr says of Ter- 431 — 449. 
 
90 The Pliilosophic and Mystic Period, 
 
 CHAP. VII. admits the gradual spread of barbarism. From tbis work 
 of Cyprian's we shall proceed to bring forward some speci- 
 mens, first stating the probable dates of 
 
 Cuprian. §1- CyPRIAN. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Thascius Csecilius Cyprianus, born in Africa \ about 200 
 
 „ converted by Caecilius, a presbyter 245 
 
 „ elected Bishop of Carthage ^4^ (?) 
 
 ,, retreats under Decian Persecution 249 (?) 
 
 ,, returns on Death of Decius "251 
 
 „ banished to Curabis^ 257 
 
 ,, a martyr under Valerian 258 
 
 Hd'ii'Setri- The Liher ad Demetrianum was called out by the as- 
 
 ''°""'' sertions of the heathen generally, and of Demetrianus, a 
 
 magistrate at Carthage, in particular, to the effect that the 
 great pestilence then raging was caused by the impieties 
 and crimes of the Christians. It is a very superior speci- 
 men of the apologetic writing among the early Christians. 
 The following passage contains some of the admissions 
 about barbarism, of which Niebuhr speaks, and also gives 
 a fair notion of his method of handling the whole subject. 
 A passage on < You liavc said^ that all the ao'itation and depression, 
 
 the ailvaitce. ^ *■ 
 
 ofbarbarism. ^^^ g^ prevalent throughout the world, comes of us 
 
 Christians, and ought to be laid at our door, because 
 we decline to worship your gods. Now, ignorant as 
 you clearly are of heavenly knowledge, and a stranger 
 to heavenly truth, you ought to be first made to under- 
 stand this fact : namely, that the world has grown old, 
 and no longer stands in the same strength that for- 
 merly it stood in, nor feels the sinews of that vigorous 
 energy which formerly it felt. Even supposing that 
 we (Christians) were wholly silent on this point, and 
 had no evidence to produce from the Holy Scriptures 
 and from communications with heaven, the world itself 
 
 1 Probably at Carthage. ^ About 40 miles from Carthage. 
 
 3 Cypriani Opera (Caillau), p. 433. 
 
Cyprian^ Arnohius, Lactantius. 91 
 
 is speaking, and bearing witness of its decline in the chap. vii. 
 marks of a general state of decay {rerum Idbentium 
 probatione) . 
 
 ' In winter-time, we miss the wonted supply of rain 
 for the fertilization of the seeds : in smiimer, the old 
 violence of the sun that used to ripen our corn : we 
 have none of the fertility {sata Iceta) of a bygone day in 
 the happy season of spring ; none of the old autumnal 
 abundance in the produce of our fruit-trees. Our hills 
 are wearied out with excavation, and refuse to furnish 
 any more layers of marble ; our mines are exhausted, 
 and yield no more piles of gold or silver wealth ; the 
 meagre veins of metal grow shorter and less valuable 
 day by day; there is no labourer in the field, no 
 sailor on the sea, no soldier in the camp, no pm*ity in 
 public life, no equity in the courts of law, no sympathy 
 in ties of friendship, in art no high culture, in morals 
 no worthy tone^ 
 
 ' Know, however, that all these things have been pre- 
 dicted : and know also that they happen, not as you 
 ignorantly assume, because we worship not your gods, 
 but because God is not worshipped by you. For, 
 since He is the Lord and Kuler of the Universe, and 
 all things obey His will, and nothing ever happens 
 but by His hand or His permission, when such events 
 occur as manifest His wrath, they occur not because 
 of us who worship God, but because of your iniquities, 
 who will not seek the Lord, nor fear Him ; who will 
 not desert your vain superstitions and acknowledge 
 the true religion : so that God, who is the same God 
 over all, may by all be alone worshipped and suppli- 
 cated.' 
 
 1 Having translated the passage Cyprian), slightly altering some ex- 
 down to this point, I conclude with pressions. 
 the version of Dr Hook {Eccl. Biog. 
 
92 
 
 The Philosophic and Mystic Period, 
 
 TJie cruelties 
 practised 
 aqainst the 
 Christians. 
 
 CHAP. VII. He afterwards proceeds to mention tliose cruelties with 
 wliicli the Christians were everywhere overwhelmed^ : 
 
 Nor are you satisfied with depriving ns of life by a 
 quick and simple process : you inflict the most cruel 
 and lingering death, and are not content with torturing 
 us except with some new invention, and by the ex- 
 ercise of a savage ingenuity. How insatiable your 
 cruelty ! Your vengeance how implacable ! 
 * Christianity either is or is not a crime. If it is, why 
 do you not at once execute the man who confesses his 
 guilt ? and, if not, why do you persecute the innocent ? 
 Again : allowing it to be a crime, those who are im- 
 plicated in it, but obstinately withhold a confession of 
 their guilt, are the proper objects of torture : but we 
 confess, we proclaim our adherence to the Christian 
 cause, and our contempt for your gods. Why then 
 are we tortured, as if we suppressed our guilt ? What 
 is the meaning of this attempt upon the weakness of 
 our bodies ; the weakness of that which is but earthly 
 in us ? Rather enter the lists with our minds ; tiy 
 the strength of our reason ; see if you can subvert our 
 faith with argument ; and if you must conquer, con- 
 quer by an appeal to our understandings.' 
 
 7V Epist. ad There is a stirring and noble passage in the Epistle to 
 the Thiberitans^, containing an exhortation in the prospect 
 of martyrdom : — 
 
 Men are trained and exercised for victory in the 
 secular games ; and they account it no slight accession 
 to their glory, if they receive the prize before a crowded 
 assembly, in the presence of the Emperor. Behold, 
 then, our sublime, our mighty contest ! glorious as it 
 
 ^ Cypriani Opera (Caillan), p. 440. by extravagant views of the value 
 
 2 Cyprvdm 0}}era (Caillau), p. 189. of martyrdom than the Epistola ad 
 
 The Epist. ad Thiberifanos, de ex- Fortunatum on the same subject. 
 
 hortaiione mariyrii, is less vitiated (Caillau, 522.) 
 
 Exhortation 
 in prospect of 
 martyrdom. 
 
Cyprian, Arnohius, Lantantius. 93 
 
 is witli the guerdon of a heavenly crown ! Behold, chap. vii. 
 God Himself, the witness of our struggle ; and gra- 
 ciously looking upon those whom He condescends to 
 call His children, Himself rejoicing in our victory! 
 How great a joy to contend in the sight of God ! to 
 be crowned by the arbitration of Christ ! Let us arm, 
 beloved, let us arm for the fight with an entire use of 
 our energies, with our mind unpolluted, a faith intact, 
 and a devoted valour! Let those who are hitherto 
 untouched take arms again, lest they lose the glory 
 heretofore achieved. And let those who have fallen gird 
 on their harness, that they may recover the glory here- 
 tofore lost. Let every man be summoned to the field : 
 the faithful by their honour, by remorse the lapsed ! ' 
 About Cyprian's own flight from Carthage there can be cmian-^ 
 little doubt, when we consider the special nature of the 
 Decian persecution \ that he acted with Christian prudence 
 and a most worthy discrimination. Thascius Cyprian, who, 
 when Galerius pronounced his doom, quietly thanked his 
 God and said no more, was not the man to run from faint- 
 heartedness : still less was he the man to exact a humiliat- 
 ing penance^ from Sacrificati or Lihellatici, had he been 
 conscious of a similar infirmity within. The only pity is 
 that, in deference to the outrageous views of some contem- 
 poraries on the subject, and perhaps in accordance with his 
 own, he should ever have thought it necessary to give 
 laborious explanations of his retirement, or seemed to vacil- 
 late in doing so. The ' Deus ut secederem jussit ' of the 
 ninth Epistle is perhaps, though by no means certainly, in- 
 validated by the ' a TertuUo fratre ratio reddetur ' of the 
 fifths. 
 
 Cyprian possessed the African temperament of character, cyprian and 
 
 ^ See above, Chap. ii. of this Es- controversy De Lapsis. 
 say. ^ Cypriani Opera (Caillau), pp. 31 
 
 2 His judicious compromise in the and 50. 
 
94 The Philosophic and Mystic Period. 
 
 CHAP. VII. and may perhaps be said to belong to the African school in 
 style, if such a school there is to be\ The words ' Da ma- 
 gistrnm ' which he used to apply when asking for a volume 
 of Tertullian, have become inseparable from onr conception 
 of Cyprian, and do in fact point to much that it is useful to 
 notice in his remains. He falls behind his forerunner in 
 energy and pregnant conciseness^, but is much his superior 
 in fluency and clearness. Of his treatises, the De Vamtate 
 Idolorum, De Pattentid, De Zelo et Livore, De Eleemosynis, 
 De HaMtu Virginum, De Exhortatiojie Martyrii (both that 
 addressed to the Thiberitans, and that to Fortunatus,) De 
 Calamitatihus, De Ilortalitate, De Oratione Dominica^ may 
 be regarded more or less in the light of duplicates on Ter- 
 tullianic subjects. Neander^ thinks that, in order to see 
 what use he makes of Tertullian, we should compare more 
 especially the De Oratione and De Pattentid in both au- 
 thors, and the De Vanitate Idolorum, with the Apologeticus. 
 
 Ancient opi- "Wc sliall havc occasiou to mention Cyprian hereafter in 
 
 nions con- ^ ^ ^ , i«i-r«T- 
 
 cerningCif- conucxion with Auo'ustine's view of his style. Prudentius 
 and Jerome {Epist. ad Paidin.) are decided panegyrists of 
 his. We will conclude with the words of Lactantius'^: — 
 ' His style was easy, rich, agreeable, and — a thing 
 which for sermon- writing is an especial excellence — it 
 was clear. And you would be hard put to in deter- 
 mining to which of his gifts you should award the 
 palm — his florid and elaborate diction, his happy ex- 
 egesis, or the art he had of powerfid persuasion.' 
 
 Armhius. § 2. ARNOBIUS. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Arnobius Afer born at Sicca, about 270 
 
 „ viYoiQ\i\'& Adver&us Gentes 304?"* 
 
 „ died [uncertain] 
 
 1 See above, p. 81 of tliis Essay. ^ Lactantius, Div. Instit. v. i, 
 
 2 Milman, Hist, of Cltrktlanitij, sub fin. 
 
 II. 247. ^ The chronology of Arnobius is 
 
 2 Neander, Ch. Hut. 11. 446 n. very doubtful ; but Jerome's asser- 
 
Cyprian, Arnobms, Lactantius. 95 
 
 We have already seen (p. 89) what Niebuhr says of chap. vir. 
 this Church Father. His book Adversus Gentes^ was The hook 
 written by him on the prompting of some inward impulse, Gentcs"^ 
 which led him first to seek baptism, and then (probably) 
 to compose this Apology in order to convince the doubting 
 bishop of his fitness. 
 
 Voss^, in consideration no doubt of his learnins;, and ^f/^?r''o' 
 
 , . . . . ^ oflheFa- 
 
 the importance which his book possesses in an antiquarian ^ ^^'■*- 
 point of view, calls him the ' Varro ' of the Fathers. 
 
 He himself^ thus speaks of the change which had been 
 wrought in him by Christianity : 
 
 ' blindness ! But a short time ago I worshipped the 
 images which had just come from the furnace of the 
 smith ; gods that had been shaped by the anvil and 
 the hammer. When I saw a smooth worn stone, be- "is own re- * 
 
 1 . 1 •! X 1 1 T • • . marks o)t his 
 
 smeared with oil, i addressed it as if a living power <^on^->-'''''WTi. 
 were there, and prayed to the senseless stone for bene- 
 fits to myself, thus doing foul dishonour even to the 
 gods, whom I esteemed as such, when I supposed 
 them to be wood, stone, or bones, or imagined that 
 they dwelt in such things. Now that I have been led 
 by so great a Teacher in the way of truth, I know 
 what all that is*.' 
 
 It is, perhaps, not going too far to say that we may ms charac- 
 learn at least so much as this from the above passage: 
 namely, that Arnobius had been a simple-minded, honest, 
 
 tion {De Y.Illust. 79), that his book the persecution of Diocletian, which 
 
 was written in the 20th year of Con- began in 303. There is nothing 
 
 stantine, is pLainly an anachronism. harsh in assuming an inaccuracy on 
 
 Arnobius himself {Adv. Gent. I. 13) his part to this extent. See Nean- 
 
 says, 'Three himdred years, more or der, Ch. Hist. ll. 451. 
 
 less, have nearly passed away, since ^ There was also a Lc Institutione 
 
 the foundation of our religion.' And Jihetoricd, now lost. 
 
 again {Id. ii. 71), 'It is now 1050 ^ Biogr. Univ. s. v. Arnobius. 
 
 years, or not much less, since the ^ A dvers. Gent. I. 39, 
 
 building of E.ome.' It was, in re- ■* Translated in Neauder, Ch. H. 
 
 ality, seven or eight years more, for II. 450. 
 
 his first volume contains allusions to 
 
96 The Fliilosopliic and Mystic Period, 
 
 CHAP. VII. and pains-taking idolater, and had offered real prayers to 
 tlie gods for real benefits. Sucli a person was especially 
 likely to pursue the ardent and supererogatory course which 
 he did with regard to obtaining his baptism. 
 
 We now proceed at once to Lactantius, having only 
 mentioned Arnobius as one more member of the possible 
 African School, as having attracted the notice of Niebuhr 
 and won a title from Yoss, and as having been (according 
 to Jerome) the instructor of Lactantius. 
 
 Ladantiiit. § 3. LaCTANTIUS. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 L. Gael, (or Csecil. Firmianus) Lactantius born ? 
 
 ,, began to teach rhetoric at Nicomedia 300 ? 
 
 „ died probably about 325 
 
 As Lactantius has been already mentioned at the be- 
 ginning of this chapter, and the opinion of Niebuhr has 
 been there quoted, according to which the seventh Book is 
 the representative part of the Institutions as the Institu- 
 '"^ ^^^' tions themselves manifestly must represent Lactantius, 
 we shall do nothing more here, in the brief remaining 
 space, than give a Summary of the Book in question (7), 
 and translate some specimens from it. 
 
 The seventh Book^ of the Divince Institutiones treats of 
 the future rewards of righteousness, the immortality of the 
 soul, and the end of the world. The end of the present 
 order of things is here fixed at six thousand years after the 
 Creation : and the troubles of the latter days, together with 
 the final triumph of Messiah over Antichrist, are described 
 in accordance with the writer's views of the prophecies of 
 Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Apocalypse: but without men- 
 tioning any of those books, and with great latitude of in- 
 terpretation. 
 
 The author, then, in the next place, gives a description, 
 mostly fanciful, of the proceedings of the Day of Judgment, 
 
 1 This summary is principally taken from Riddle, Christian Antiquities, 
 p. no. 
 
Cyprian, Arnohius, Lactantms. 97 
 
 and of the mode in which separation will be made between chap. vii. 
 the righteous soul and the wicked professor of religion. ^ ~ 
 Now, Lactantius was infected with Chiliasm, that common ciunasm. 
 form of exaggerated belief in the early times, through 
 which it was so natural that crushed ambition or oppressed 
 poetical feeling should find a vent, in the contemplation, 
 however fictitious, of a golden future in the distance. Ac- 
 cordingly, we find him next discoursing upon the Millen- 
 nium ; the subsequent rebellion of Satan and his hosts, 
 followed by a peace so profound, that no tree will be cut 
 down for the space of seven years, because the weapons of 
 war, no longer needed, will serve for firewood; the final 
 exaltation of the righteous ; the second resurrection of the 
 wicked ; and their doom to everlasting torments. TertuUian 
 confidently fixes the beginning of the Millennium at the 
 expiration of 200 years from the date of his writing, which 
 would have been the 6000th year of the world, according 
 to the then current chronology. 
 
 Such, says Lactantius, in conclusion, is the doctrine 
 of the holy prophets which we Christians receive ; he then 
 eulogizes the Emperor Constantine, to whom he had dedi- 
 cated his work^ : and earnestly calls upon the heathen to 
 embrace Christianity. 
 
 We now proceed to translate c. viii. of this extra- J'^^'f^jJ^'^" 
 ordinary seventh book. It is entitled Be Immortalitate ^"^*o°«^ "^"■ 
 
 1 • De Immor- 
 
 AmmCB : talltate Ani- 
 
 inae. 
 
 ' The one highest good, then, is Immortality, to a capa- 
 city for which we have been formed from eternity, 
 and were brought into the world with a view to it. 
 To this we bend our course, to this is directed the 
 aim of man's nature, to this virtue bears us on. We 
 
 ^ See some useful remarks on the before the Diocletian persecution. 
 
 Institutions, in Elliott's Hone Apo- and dedicated to Constantine on its 
 
 cah/pticce, iv. 311 flF. He believes publication many years later, 
 the whole work to have been written 
 
98 The Fldlosopliic and Mystic Period. 
 
 have thus apprehended it as a blessing; one more 
 task then awaits ns ; — namely, to remark on Immor- 
 tality itself. 
 
 'The arguments of Plato \ although contributing much 
 to the subject-matter, have but little strength and 
 weight in proving the truth and filling up what is 
 wanting to it : since he had not reckoned up and col- 
 lected into one term the whole of this great mystery ; 
 nor had he grasped its character as the greatest bless- 
 ing. For, though we grant that his ideas of the 
 immortality of the soul were true, yet what he says 
 of it is not said as if it were the higliest good. Now 
 we can elicit the truth by more trustworthy signs, as 
 not gathering it from flickering suspicion ; but know- 
 ing it for a fact through divine revelation [divind 
 traditione), Plato, on his part, argued thus : — "What- 
 ever is independently conscious, as well as independ- 
 ently endowed with perpetual motion, is immortal; 
 because that which has no beginning of motion will 
 have no end, inasmuch as it cannot be deserted by its 
 own proper essence [semetipso)y But this argument 
 would give immortality to dumb animals as well as 
 to men^ unless he had made a distinction by throwing 
 intelligence into the scale. 
 
 ' Accordingly, in order to escape such a community with 
 animals, he added that the soul of man must be of 
 necessity immortal ; since its wonderful cleverness in 
 invention, quickness in imagination [cogitandi), facility 
 in perception and receiving instruction, recollection of 
 the past, foresight into the future, and expertness in 
 arts that often seem innumerable, (all which qualities 
 other beings are destitute of,) have the evident ap- 
 
 ^ In the Pliccdo, the Meno, the JlcpuhJlc, and the Laws. 
 
Cyprian, Arnohius, Lactantius. 99 
 
 pearance of being divine and heavenly. Besides all chap. vii. 
 which, the origin of this soul, whose capacity for re- 
 ception and retention is so great, is found nowhere on 
 earth, having no admixture of the concrete and the 
 earthy. Whatever then is weighty and dissoluble in 
 man, must necessarily become earth again : while that 
 which is rare and subtile cannot be divided, but, set 
 free from the habitation of the body as from a dungeon, 
 takes its flight to heaven, and to its proper nature 
 there ^ Such is a brief and general abstract of Plato's 
 arguments, which in his own works are unfolded 
 widely and fully. 
 
 ' Of a like opinion was Pythagoras also, who lived before ^fj'^f^^^ 
 Plato's time ; and Pherecydes, the pra^ceptor of Py- ^•''^'• 
 thagoras, whom Cicero records^ as the first man who 
 disputed on the eternity of spirits. These, we grant, 
 excelled their opponents in eloquence. Yet those who 
 wrote against the opinion, Dicajarchus, Democritus, ^'J',^oTHing]' 
 and lastly Epicurus, had, on this controversy at least, curt£^^' 
 no less authority.; so much so that the subject on 
 which they contended came to be classed as a doubtful 
 point. Finally, even Tullius,....has distinctly said 
 that he cannot tell which opinion contains the truth. 
 His words are, '' Which of these doctrines is the true 
 one, let some god decide ^"... 
 
 * We have no need of divination. To us Divinity itself 
 has laid bare the truth.' 
 
 It is hard to believe, on reading this quiet and rational 
 examination of the great writers of antiquity, that the critic 
 was at other times capable of abandoning himself to the 
 
 ^ Cf. Cicero, Tusc. Quasi, i, 48, sanfe: fuit enim meo regnante gen- 
 
 4p. till Hanc opinionem discipulus 
 
 2 Cicero, Tusc. Qucest. I. 16. *Phe- ej usPy thagoras maxime con firmavit.' 
 
 recydes Syrus primum dixit, animos "^ Cicero, Tusc. Quc^si. i. ri. 'Ha- 
 
 hominum esse sempiternos : antiquus rum sententiarum,' etc. 
 
 7—2 
 
100 Tlie PMlosopMc and Mystic Period. 
 
 CHAP. VII. wildest fancies in the interpretation of Scripture. The 
 Lactanthts following cxtract is one of the most subdued among his 
 moretancifui oiatorical passao'es : but it serves well to shew on how 
 
 vein. ... 
 
 slight a foundation in analogy he could build so illogical 
 a superstructure of fancied prediction^ : — 
 
 A'chiiiastic' <^g [yi six davs the whole sum of God's works was per- 
 Div. rnstit. fected, it is through six ages, that is 6000 years, that 
 
 this world must of necessity abide in its present state. 
 For the great day of God is terminated in a cycle of 
 one thousand years, as is shewn hy the Prophet^ who 
 says, ^^ In thy eyes, Lord, a thousand years are as 
 one dayT And as through those six days God la- 
 boured in the working out such mighty things, even 
 so in these 6000 years must Religion and Truth labour, 
 while vice prevails and has the upper hand^. x\nd 
 again as, after the completion of His works, He rested 
 on the seventh day, and blest it, so at the end of the 
 6000th year, must all vice be blotted out from the 
 earth, and Justice must reign for 1000 years, and 
 there must be tranquillity and repose after those 
 labours which the world has endured so long.... We 
 have often remarked how small matters may be the 
 images of great ones, small specimen-models of them ; 
 and so, this day of ours, bounded by the rising and 
 setting of the sun, has the features of the great day, 
 whose boundary is the circuit of 1000 years ^.' 
 
 It is as Niebuhr has said, the imagination is finely and 
 clearly worked out; while, on a careful study, even the 
 
 ^ Lactantius, Biv. Instit. vii. 14. Lactantius, that point in the first 
 
 The argument from 'necessity' is limb of the analogy which was re- 
 
 certainly somewhat premature. sponded to by this repugnance of 
 
 2 It would appear that the still- 'vice' in the second, 
 
 resistent though ever- decreasing ^ He goes on to infer the future 
 
 opposition of matter to the Divine organization of the ' Heavenly Peo- 
 
 Demiurge, during the six days of pie,' from the form and fashion of 
 
 Creation, was, in the intention of the individual man. 
 
Cyprian, Arnohius, Lactantius. 101 
 
 wildest parts are full of suggestiveness. And there have chap. vii. 
 been quite as illogical theorizers in days when there was 
 less extenuation for a want of elementary correctness in 
 argument. 
 
 Voss, who styled Arnobius the ' Christian Varro,' gaA^e lactanthts^ 
 to Lactantius the name of the ' Christian Cicero.' And we o/theFathert 
 
 , according to 
 
 have seen above that Niebuhr considered him to have done ^''**- 
 in the case of Cicero, what Curtius did with Livy. The 
 result has been, at least in the Institutions, a clearness and 
 elegance of style far beyond what was attained by any 
 other Christian writer of the ante-Nicene age, and, speaking 
 generally, beyond Augustine as well. 
 
 His two treatises, De Ira Dei, a series of arguments mmr i 
 against the position that God is incapable of wrath or 
 hatred, based on the principle that a love of good implies 
 its opposite, and De Ojnficio Dei, a kind of Natural Theo- 
 logy, inferring the divine wisdom and providence from the 
 construction of the human frame, fall considerably below 
 the best parts of the Institutions, both in conception and 
 style. 
 
 The De Mortihus Persecutorum is valuable for the his- 
 torical matter it contains, but is not certainly attributable 
 to Lactantius \ 
 
 ^ See, a little below, Gibbon's estimate of Lactantius. 
 
 rea- 
 lises. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 The Oratorical Period. (1) Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, 
 Gregory of Nazianzum, Gregory of Nyssa, Hilary of 
 Poictiers, Jerome, PauUnus. 
 
 Tt ydp; Tr\r\v iravTi Tp6Tr(i}....XpiaT6s Karayy^WeTac. 
 
 St Paul. 
 
 CHAP.Vin. 
 
 27k; kadbvj 
 mind of tiie 
 Jirst half of 
 I he fourth 
 century. 
 
 § 1. Athanasius. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Athanasius, born at Alexandria, probably 296 
 
 ,, attended Archbishop Alexander to Nice 3-25 
 
 „ elected Archbishop 326 
 
 „ Synod of Tyre. First exile (to France) 335 
 
 ,, Arian Synod of Antioch^. Second exile (to Italy) 341 
 ,, Triumphant return, partly by warlike prepara- 
 tions of Constans 349 
 
 „ Death of Constans 350 
 
 ,, Synod of Milan, Third exile (to deserts of 'i 355 
 
 Egypt), Lowest ebb of Athanasius' affairs j 356 
 
 ,, Return on the Death of Constantius 362 
 
 [after which, with the exception of two short 
 interruptions, under Julian and Valens, called 
 sometimes his Fourth and Fifth persecutions, 
 he enjoyed his see in peace, until] 
 
 „ His death at Alexandria 373 
 
 ATHANASIUS was the informing practical mind of 
 l\_ the first half of the fourth century. But for him, 
 Ambrose would have wanted something of that vigorous 
 and determined energy which was his great characteristic, 
 and which was materially assisted, if it was not altogether 
 supported, by an intense dogmatic conviction. We might 
 
 1 Acting under the direct influence 
 of Constantius. The Synod of Sar- 
 dica, in Thrace, affirmed his doc- 
 
 trines six years later, while Constans 
 was still alive to counteract in some 
 measure the hostility of Constantius. 
 
Atliayiasius, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., d^c. 103 
 
 expect therefore to find what is, in fact, the case; that, for chapviu. 
 the most part, the writings of this great Church Father are Tiis writings 
 models, not of oratorical skill, but of polemical disquisition.' rat/je^ S" 
 And, even on this score, the merit oi acuteness, oi a sub- 
 tlety which is sometimes truly wonderful, constitutes hi[> 
 almost single claim to intellectual distinction. There is, 
 as Milman has pointed out\ no dispassionate examination, 
 no candid philosophical inquiry. There are, on the con- 
 trary, many of the very gravest faults which have marred 
 in later days much of the divinity that belongs to the 
 Reformation period, and much that disfigures our own. 
 There is no acknowledgment of the infinite perplexi- 
 ties of the subject, no admission that language may per- 
 chance be inadequate to the task of unravelling them: 
 above all, no calm and fair statement of the adversaries 
 case, perhaps resulting from an inability to comprehend it^. 
 And thus it is that we discover, without any surprise, the 
 baTrenness of his style in splendour and in tenderness alike, 
 his failure to touch the heart, or his neglect of the attempt. 
 We are bound to believe, and the brave and noble life of 
 the Archbishop renders the task comparatively easy, that 
 the vital power and energy, the truth, and the consolatory 
 force of Christianity, were in his mind firmly and insepa- 
 rably bound up with the exaltation of the Saviour to the 
 • absolute and uncompromising position of Equality. 
 
 Bearing all this in mind, we can read with no small 
 degree of pleasure tlie peremptory and dictatorial passages, 
 full of an imperious sort of logic, with which his Four 
 Orations against the Arians abound. 
 
 ' It lies upon our adversaries,' he says in one place ^, ' to ^^f^^^^ 
 shew, that the Son is not the Son, but a creature made '^'•»«"^- 
 
 1 Milman, Hist, of Christianity, were too subtle for the mere under- 
 ill, 28. standing of Athanasius. 
 
 2 Or, more strictly speaking, to '^ Athanasius, Orat. c. Arian. I. 
 sympathize with it. Few points § 14. 
 
104 
 
 The Oratorical Period. 
 
 i. § 14- 
 
 cHAP.vrii. of nothing; and, when they have done this, we will 
 
 allow them to talk as much as thej please about hi.^ 
 not heing before he began to be ; for it is most cer- 
 tainly true, that all created beings once were not. 
 But then if it be true, as God the Father declares of 
 him, and the Holy Scriptures clearly and freely assure 
 us, that he is the Son ; and if the essence and sub- 
 stance of the Son flows from the Essence and Sub- 
 stance of the Father; and, if that which flows from 
 and is of the Essence of the Father be His Word, His 
 Wisdom, and the brightness of His glory ; — what shall 
 
 we call the assertion of these men but an attempt 
 
 and enterprize to rob God of His Son, to make it be 
 believed that heretofore, however long since. He was 
 destitute of His own Light and Word and Wisdom, 
 a Light that did not always shed forth emanations 
 of splendour, a Fountain that formerly sent out no 
 streams?' 
 
 An analysis of this single passage will bring out all 
 the really salient points of the genius of Athanasius. The 
 manner in wdiich his nature imperatively demanded, for 
 itself and for the world, an exactly defined object of wor- 
 ship, may be illustrated no less clearly, though from an- 
 other point of view, by an examination of his Oration 
 against the Gentiles^. 
 
 'And who is the Creator?' he asks^; ' For it is necessary 
 that loe should he fully determined upon this question, 
 before we proceed further. For if we know not who 
 
 this Creator is, we may mistake another for him 
 
 And who is this God, but the most holy and infinitely 
 perfect Father of Christ, who as an all-wise and mighty 
 
 ^ If it has not been already drawn by a comparative analysis of Cle- 
 
 by some Patristic scholar, I can nient's Hortatory Address, and this 
 
 imagine few more suggestive paral- Oration of Athanasius. 
 lels than that which would be gained ^ Athanasius, Oral. c. Gent. § 40. 
 
 §40. 
 
Atkanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., c&c. 105 
 
 potentate and ruler prescribes such laws and measures chap.viii. 
 as he thinks fit for his creatures, and puts them in 
 execution by His essential Word and Wisdom Jesus 
 Christ?' 
 
 There is a very striking and really eloquent description, 
 contained in this Oration, of the different gradations through 
 which the soul has fallen from the worship of her great 
 Father and Author to the very lowest depths of idolatrous 
 sensualism \ 
 
 ' Upon the soul's revolt and flight from the only author § 9. 
 of her being, and true fountain of her happiness, she 
 plunged every day deeper and deeper, and fell through 
 an ocean of vain and sophistical consequences and 
 determinations. The first of the creature-rivals, that 
 were set in the Throne of God by the rebellious ima- 
 gination of man, were the Sun, the Moon, and other 
 luminaries of heaven.... The deifiers of these went on, 
 and, from adoring the superior bodies, soon stooped 
 to the inferior. And now another set of imaginary 
 deities came into play.... Their allegiance was let down 
 to the Air, and to all the Meteoric phgenomena of the 
 atmosphere. This reign had not lasted long, before 
 they grew impatient for a new election : and so the 
 elements, and constituent principles and particles of 
 the grosser bodies, the Hot and the Cold, the Dry and 
 the Moist, were voted into a partnership of Divinity. 
 And now being got as low as dirt and mud, these 
 bemired souls moved and crawled in the filth, like 
 cockles or muscles in the ooze or purging of the 
 water.... They made gods of one another, and of the 
 pictures and images of dead men... and made over the 
 incommunicable style and title to trunks of trees and 
 
 ^ Athanasius, Orat. c. Gent. § 9. These translations are chiefly taken 
 from an old and careful Oxford version. 
 
106 The Oratorical Period. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. lumps of stones, to all the reptiles and vermin of water 
 
 and earth, and to the fierce and ravenous beasts of the 
 field.' 
 
 8 1- The dignified and truthful words which open this Ora- 
 
 tion^ are well worth transcribing, and deserve a place in 
 any account of the genius of Athanasius. 
 
 ' He who confines his desire of knowledge to the prin- 
 ciples of pure E-eligion and solid Reason, has no oc- 
 casion to make the tour of human learning, and spend 
 his life in libraries. This is a science, which obtrudes 
 herself upon him, and will make him understand her, 
 whether he will or not. The Theatre of the Universe 
 is her school, the several classes of creatures so many 
 subjects of speculation and proofs of her positions, and 
 the Word of God her volume or system of infallible 
 authorities and divine institutions.' 
 
 T]ie dhcovery We must uot pass ou to St Ambrosc, without first ad- 
 
 o/?/tC Festal . ^ c k ^ 
 
 Mhanasius ^^^^^^^g ^^^ morc truly noble passage from Athanasius. It 
 occurs in the far-famed Festal Letters which have at- 
 tracted so much attention of late years, not only on account 
 of their great philological and chronological value, but from 
 the romantic circumstances of their preservation and their 
 acquisition by the British Museuml The convent of St 
 Mary Deipara in the valley of the Natron Lakes was their 
 hiding-place : and the names of Dr Tattam and Mr Cureton 
 are inseparably associated with their happy recovery. The 
 theme of the following extract is one which must indeed 
 have been often present to the lieart of Athanasius ; it is, 
 that ' temporal ills are no just cause of troubled' 
 
 1 Atlianasius, Orat. c. Gent. § t . is taken from the translation in the 
 
 2 The Edinburgh Revieio of April, Library of the Fathers, by the Rev. 
 1857, contains a complete and deeply H. G. Williams. 
 
 interesting account of the whole ^ Festal Letters of S. Athanasius. 
 
 transactions connected with i\\G Fes- Letter x. [a.d. 338]. Library of the 
 tal Letters. The extract in the text Fathers, xxxviii. 75. 
 
Atha7iasms, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., dhc. 107 
 
 * Oh ! my dearly beloved, if we shall gain comfort from chap.viii. 
 afflictions ; if rest from labours : if health after sick- Letter x^ 
 ness : if after death there is immortality ; it does not 
 become ns to be much distressed by the temporal ills 
 that afflict mankind. It is not right to be greatly 
 moved by the trials that befal us. It is not right to 
 fear if the host tliat contended with Christ, should 
 conspire against godliness ; but we should the more 
 please God through these things, and should consider 
 such matters as the probation and exercise of a vir- 
 tuous life. For how shall patience be looked for, if 
 there have not previously been labours and sorrows? 
 Or how can experience be afforded of fortitude, when 
 there has not been first an assault from enemies? or 
 how can a spectacle of [magnanimity] ^ be exhibited, 
 when contumely and injustice have not preceded? Or 
 how can long-suffering be expected, when opposition 
 on the part of Antichrists has not first existed ? And, 
 finally, how can a man hope to witness virtue, when 
 the iniquity of the very wicked has not previously dis- 
 played itself? Thus even our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ comes before us [as an example], when he would 
 
 shew men how to suffer that we might behold in 
 
 Him the image of all that is virtuous and immortal ; 
 and all of us, conducting ourselves after these exam- 
 ples, might truly tread on serpents and scorpions, and 
 on all the power of the enemy ^' 
 
 One word in conclusion, on the origin of Festal or oripino/ 
 Paschal Letters^. Among the most important matters dis- Pasckai 
 cussed at Nice, was the question respecting the day on 
 
 1 Cf, Festal Letters, p. 75, notem. ralleLs not only ^^itli places in the 
 
 2 The Oxford editor has pointed De Pass, et Cruce, but in the De In- 
 out a strong similarity between this cam. as well. 
 
 passage aiid one in the De Passione ^ See Mr. Cureton's account, 
 
 et Cruce Domini, p. 73, § \g. There quoted in the Edivb. Rev. April, 
 is a frequent recurrence of such pa- 1857. 
 
108 TJie Oratorical Period, 
 
 CHAP. VIII. which Easter was to be celebrated. And, when the cele- 
 ""■ bration had been settled for the first Lord's Day after the 
 Jewish Passover, the duty of determining accurately^ and 
 for the whole of Christendom, the day on which Easter 
 was to be observed, became delegated to the Patriarch of 
 Alexandria. Immediately, therefore, after the festival of 
 Epiphany, the Patriarch sent to all the towns and monas- 
 teries within his jurisdiction, a notification of the day on 
 which they were to commence the Fast of Lent, as well as 
 of that on which they were to keep the Feast of Easter. 
 And these notices were the origin of Festal Letters. We 
 learn from Synesius, that the bearers of such letters were 
 well received in all the places to which they came, supplied 
 with everything they needed, and furnished with fresh 
 beasts to continue their journey \ 
 
 It is no wonder that, when circumstances permitted 
 him any leisure for the performance, Athanasius should 
 have found his heart often stirred within him on the trans- 
 mission of annual circulars so widely spread abroad. 
 
 § 2. Ambkose. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Ambrosius, son of a Praetorian Prefect, born at Treves 340 
 
 made Consular of Liguria and Emilia, ^ about 365 
 
 consecrated Bishop, 8 days after Baptism 374 
 
 Opposition to the Empress Justina begins 379 
 
 serves her by deterring Maximus from Italy ... 383 
 
 disputes about the Pordian Basilica 384 
 
 Theodosius's penance for Thessalonican massacre 390 
 
 death 397 
 
 The nature of The eloquencc of Ambrose is most emphatically the 
 
 his cluquencc. ^ ^ nii* 
 
 expression of his character. Dean Milman has called him 
 the spiritual ancestor of the Hildebrands and the Innocents. 
 
 1 The Festal Letters, fragmentary the fourth century, 326 — 370. 
 or complete, are forty-five in num- ^ Qf which province Milan was 
 
 ber, and are traced to the middle of the capital. 
 
Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., &c. 109 
 
 In the first chapters of his De Officiis^, he has himself chap.viii. 
 maintained the proposition that ' The fit office of a Bishop 
 is to instruct the people.' To this primary function, how- 
 ever, he added in his own case, and added successfully, that 
 of a spiritual dictatorship over the supreme magistrate, by 
 the exercise of which he confronted the throne not only 
 with an equal authority, but with that which, in its very 
 essence, claimed to be infinitely superior. And thus we 
 find his eloquence, wanting indeed in the richness, imagina- 
 tive variety, and dramatic power of the Grecian orator ; 
 but hard and vigorous, (to employ again the words of Mil- 
 man^,) truly and essentially Roman, forensic, and practical. 
 
 He had indeed another side to his theological character, The mystic 
 and the proofs are to be found abundantly supplied in the theoiooicai 
 
 J- . . . . character. 
 
 Hexaemeron. A mystic subtlety of exegesis, far more akin 
 to what we meet with in the Homilies of Ephrem, than 
 to the vigorous sense of Ambrose when employed upon 
 afi'airs of business, or dealing with men in general, — a pro- 
 pensity to treat the Scriptures as one vast allegory, and to 
 pursue to their latest and most fanciful terminations recon- 
 dite analogies and significations of isolated words, — these 
 are characteristics, of which the instances are widely scat- 
 tered over his theological works ^. 
 
 But, though it requires mention, this aspect of his cha- 
 racter demands, here at least, no more than mention, where 
 we are obviously engaged only with the oratorical, the 
 public Ambrose. It will be more satisfactory to our pur- 
 pose, and more suitable to the limits of an Essay, that we 
 should contemplate the position and the language of Am- 
 brose in the famous contest with Symmachus*. This was spmmachvs. 
 indeed a struggle of transcendent interest; so much more 
 
 ^ A work which his foolish pane- ^ See the note in Milman, III. 251. 
 
 gyrists have ventured to naention '^ Gibbon, v. 96. Milman, ill. 
 
 with that of Cicero. 168. Villemain {Tableau de I'Uo- 
 
 ^ Milman, Hist, of Christianity, quence au ^me liecle) p. 527. 
 III. 241. 
 
110 The Oratorical Period. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. than a mere logomachy, so clearly a final trial of strength 
 by proxy between expiring Polytheism and advancing 
 ^AmiH-ofe Christianity. On one side was Symmachus, a wealthy, 
 towards htm. jjoble, and eloquent senator, who united the sacred character 
 of pontiff and augur, with the civil dignities of proconsul of 
 Africa, and prefect of the city. To these advantages of 
 position he added all the respect and attachment which 
 attend the person of an upright and uncorrupt magistrate. 
 He deprecated the increasing burdens of unnecessary taxes : 
 and, in the elections to public offices, he dared to uphold 
 merit alone as the proper test, against the eager solicitations 
 of interest. On the other side was Ambrose, able, confi- 
 dent; with the full tide of popular feeling on religious 
 matters in his favour, and the fervid and careless energy of 
 a man, who has 7iot to obviate objections, not to reconcile 
 difficulties, but whose easy and only business it is to in- 
 flame existing zeal, and to quicken present scorn. 
 J^Suon^ The ostensible point of contention was the altar of Vic- 
 lem. |-Qj.y^ whicli had adorned the Hall or Temple in which the 
 Senate met, and wdiich was surmounted by a statue \ re- 
 presenting a majestic female standing on a globe, with 
 flowing garments and expanded wings, and a crown of 
 laurel in her outstretched hand. The fortunes of this altar 
 iiir Altar had been uncertain in no common dcOTee. Under Con- 
 
 of I ictvry. , , ^ y 
 
 stantine it had been sufl'ered to remain : it had been removed 
 by order of his son Constantius ; Julian re-established it : 
 Yalentinian respected it, in spite of his zeal for the Church, 
 a sentiment which in his breast competed for the first place 
 with the thirst for glory: and Gratian, his successor, 
 amongst the severities which he employed towards the 
 Pagan worship, the emoluments and privileges of which he 
 suppressed, once more destroyed this altar, which shocked 
 tlie eyes of the Christian minority in the Senate. The 
 greater part of the assembly, with Symmachus as their 
 
 ^ Gibbon quotes Moiitfaucon's^i?i^/2«i7?cs, i. 341. 
 
Athanasms, Amhrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., d:c. Ill 
 
 moutli-piece, applied to tlie Emperor for its restoration : chap.viii. 
 the Christians, however, had "been beforehand in laying 
 their protestations before the throne, and Symmachus was 
 not even heard. At length, in the year 383, Gratian was 
 murdered, and Sjnnmachus appealed to the justice, the 
 sympathies, and the fears of the young and feeble Valen- 
 tinian. 
 
 Heyne^ has expressed himself strono'ly in favour of the iiemescri- 
 
 •i i- '-->'> tiqiie on the 
 
 superior merit of Symmachus, as an eloquent writer, over ^^^tf"^^'^' 
 Ambrose ; applying no less invidious terms than verhosam 
 and manem to the productions of the latter. This would 
 not be the general opinion upon a comparison of the two 
 writers. Not but that the palm of grace and dignity is 
 lairly due to the Pagan. He has also on his side that 
 indulgent sympathy which we involuntarily feel towards 
 the weaker combatant.. But we must remember that, had 
 not proper feeling at the time rendered close argument 
 superfluous, the Christian orator might easily have done 
 much to repel the sarcasm implied in the w^ord manem, 
 Symmachus, in his appeal, had boldly and effectively in- 
 troduced a personification of Rome pleading sorrowfully to 
 the Senate : — 
 
 ' Most excellent Princes, Fathers of our country, respect ^^^f^'^^h^ 
 my years, and permit me still to practise the religion So^io/'""^ 
 of my ancestors, in which I have grown old. Grant ^'^^^'^' 
 me but the liberty of living according to my ancient 
 usage of freedom. This religion has subdued the world 
 to my dominion; these rites repelled Hannibal from 
 my walls, the Gauls from the Capitol. Have I lived 
 thus long to be rebuked in my old age for my reli- 
 gion ? It is too late : it would be discreditable to 
 amend in my old age. I entreat but peace for the 
 gods of Kome, the tutelary gods of our country ^ 
 
 1 Quoted by Milmar, iii. 169. 
 
 2 Milman, Hist, of Christianity, iir. 170. 
 
112 
 
 The Oratorical Period. 
 
 CHAP.VIII. 
 
 Amhros. 
 Epist. I. IS. 
 \t. III. 973 ed. 
 Ben.} The re- 
 tort. 
 
 To tliis Ambrose replies, with the disadvantage indeed 
 of an imitative retort, but vigorously and well : 
 
 ' This is not what Kome had bid you declare ; she speaks 
 in far other language : " Wherefore," she says, " do you 
 stain me daily with the barren sacrifice of so many 
 herds? It is not in the fibres of the quivering vic- 
 tims, but in the valour of the warriors that victory 
 
 is found it was with arms in his hand that Ca- 
 
 millus swept away the Gallic standards from the 
 Capitol, and hurled them back to the slain violaters of 
 the Tarpeian Rock. Courage vanquished those whom 
 
 the gods had failed to repulse Why meet me with 
 
 the example of our ancestors ? / hate the religion of 
 Nero. I repent me of my past errors ; I blush not, 
 even in age, to change when the whole world changes. 
 It is never too late to learn. There is nothing shame- 
 ful in changing to a side which is better than the 
 former. This was the one point which I had in com- 
 mon with the barbarous nations ; I knew not God. 
 Your sacrifices go no further than the mere shedding 
 of the blood of beasts. Do you look for the voice of 
 God in the entrails of victims ? Come, and enter on 
 earth a heavenly army ; it is in this that we live, that 
 we combat. Let me learn the mysteries of heaven by 
 the witness of the God who created it, and not by that 
 of man, who does not know himself. Whom shall I 
 trust to tell me of God, sooner than God himself? 
 How can I trust you, you who confess you know not 
 what you worship^?" ' 
 
 We must weigh this vigorous apologetic language with 
 a reference to the ideas of the fourth century, not of the 
 nineteenth ; and very little surprise will be caused by 
 learning that the populace of Milan was enthusiastically on 
 
 1 Symmach, Ep. x. 6i. Ambros, Ep. i. i8. [t. iil. 973, ed, Ben.] 
 
Atkanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., d)c. 113 
 
 the side of Ambrose. But Ambrose himself was only the chap.viii. 
 exponent of a mightier power, which had already seized 
 not only Milan but the Roman world. The passage just 
 quoted well expresses the true principle of human progress 
 as bound up with the cause of Christianity. 
 
 One more extract from Ambrose shall be adduced, 
 which forms part of his remonstrance with the usurper 
 Maximus, who, after the murder of Gratian, refused the 
 body to the pious and pressing entreaties of his brother 
 Valentinian ^: 
 
 ' Valentinian,' he says, ' has sent you back your brother Amhros. 
 alive ; return him at least the lifeless remains of his. ^?«''«- .. 
 You fear lest the return of his mortal spoils should Jj^^^Sr 
 rekindle the anger of the soldiers. This, at least, is''^** 
 your pretext. But ah! those who abandoned him 
 while he was alive, will they defend him now he is 
 dead ? How can you fear him in his tomb, now that you 
 have killed him, though you might have saved him ? 
 I have but slain my enemy, you say : no, he was not 
 your enemy ; it was only you who were his. It is, 
 surely, the usurper who begins the war ; the emperor 
 defends his rights. Can you then refuse to give up 
 the remains of him whom you ought not to have 
 caused to perish ? Let Valentinian at least obtain the 
 ashes of his brother as a pledge of peace. How can 
 you maintain that you did not order the murder of 
 Gratian, when you forbid his burial? Can any be- 
 lieve that you did not grudge life to one, to whom you 
 gTudge even his tomb ?' 
 
 W^e need make no more than a passing allusion to the Ambrose and 
 sublime conduct of Ambrose in the humbling of Theo- 
 dosius, when, as Gibbon has remarked^, he adopted most 
 
 1 Ambros. Ep. i. 24 [in. 1036, ed. Ben.] 
 
 2 Gibbon^ Decline and Fall, v. 70. The quotation just below is from v. 69 n. 
 
 8 
 
114 TJie Oratorical Period. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. truly the tone and language of an ambassador of Heaven: 
 ' You have imitated David in his guilt : imitate him in his 
 repentance,' may be accepted as the symbol of this prelate's 
 real power. It was moral, far more than intellectual. 
 
 Qihhon on Gibboii would probably have subscribed in full to the 
 
 depreciatory verdict of Heyne, which has been already 
 quoted \ His words are these: 'Ambrose could act better 
 than he could write. His compositions are destitute of 
 taste or genius ; without the spirit of Tertullian, the copious 
 elegance of Lactantius, the lively w^it of Jerome, or the 
 grave energy of Augustine.' 
 
 ^'khullr. It is satisfactory to find that Niebuhr, without the 
 
 severity of either Gibbon or Heyne, has allotted to Am- 
 brose precisely the kind of importance indicated at the 
 beginning of this notice. ' Of Lactantius,' he says, ' I 
 have already spoken ; he is very important ; others, such as 
 St Ambrose, are less so as authors'^.'" 
 
 3. Basil and the GregoriesI 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Basil. Biisllius born at Ccesarea in Cappadocia 326 
 
 ,, having studied at Antioch, Constantinople, and 
 
 Atliens, where he met Gregory, he returns home 355 
 ,, Tour of monastic inspection in Egypt, Syria, and 
 
 Libya, and an Order founded by him in Pontus . 356 (357) 
 
 ,, succeeds Eusebius in See of Csesarea 370 
 
 ,, Interview with Valens (Modestus preceding) 371 
 
 ,, dies on January I 379 
 
 Grerjory) Naz. Gregorius Nazianzenus, boni at Arianza"^ about 326 
 
 ^ See above, p. in. informs us that the antiphonal sys- 
 2 Wiehuhr, Lectures on Roman His- tem was revealed to Ignatius in a 
 tory (ed. Schmitz), ill. 338. For vision, in which he heard the angels 
 his words on Lactantius, see above, thus praising the Trinity. The mas- 
 p, 89. culine Cantus Ambrosianus is said 
 •^ In passing to these Church by Milman to survive in the Church 
 Fathers, we necessarily omit, for of Milan. Hilary of Poitiers was also 
 want of space, any notice of the cele- a Church musician, (see p. 127). 
 brity of Ambrose as a prime mover ^ In Cappadocia, during his fa- 
 in Church music, especially in anti- ther's episcopate at Nazianzum ; to 
 phonal chanting. Compare A ug. the^dmission of which date Milman 
 Conf. IX, 7, 2 and X. 33, 3, quoted states that even Tillemont gives his 
 by Milman (ill. 523). Socrates (vi. 8) reluctant consent. 
 
Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., d;c. 115 
 
 A.D. CHAP.VIII. 
 
 „ appointed Bishop of Sasima by Basil ^ 272 
 
 Archbishop of Constantinople 379 
 
 „ resigns the see 381 
 
 „ dies 389 
 
 Gregorius Nyssenus ^ bom at Caesarea, about 33T Gregory Syss. 
 
 „ Banished by Valens. Eecalled by Gratian 375 — 378 
 
 ,, took active part in Constant. Concil. I. and II, ... 381 — 394 
 
 „ dies about 396 
 
 Unlike^ Atlianasius, still more unlike the Apostles, 2kcir chief 
 
 ' _ ^ ^ ' character is- 
 
 these three Church-Fathers present us with specimens of ^^'■"''^*- 
 conscious orators, who dressed their ideas in the most 
 elaborate clothing which the language of Greece could 
 afford. We now begin to find an eloquence, less apolo- 
 getic ; less employed in rousing the soul of the hearer to a 
 necessary courage, a constant and practical self-control; 
 and lastly, less controversial. The intense moral earnest- 
 ness lives again in Chrysostom and Augustine; but in 
 Basil and Gregory Nazianzen its place is very largely sup- 
 plied by consolatory, epitaphian, and generally sentimental 
 strains of oratory. A more intellectual^, but still somewhat 
 imaginative Orientalism animates the writings of Basil : in 
 a less degree, those of Gregory Nazianzen : in a less, those 
 of Gregory of Nyssa. This brief verdict on the three comes 
 from the pen, and is quite in the pointed manner, of the 
 Dean of vSt Paul's. We find in another place that he re- 
 gards Basil more especially as a ' purist ' among the 
 Church Fathers of this period, observing that his style 
 did no discredit to his Attic education, but rather placed 
 him, for taste and for simplicity, not only above the 
 other Christian Sophists, but above the heathen writers 
 
 ^ In apparent violation of their ^ In the remaining portion of this 
 
 friendship. See Gibbon, v. 18 ; who chapter there is a frequent reference 
 
 illustrates Gregory's complaint in the to M. Villemain's Tableau de VElo- 
 
 Poem De Vita Sad {Opera, ii. 8) by quence. 
 
 Helena's speech in the Midsummer ^ Alilman, ill. 187. More intel- 
 
 Nighfs Dream. lectual, that is, than the effusions of 
 
 2 Brother of St Basil. Ephrem. 
 
 8—2 
 
116 
 
 The Oratorical Period. 
 
 cHAP.Yiii. of his age. 
 
 We shall see reason below for not subscrib- 
 ing very heartily to the praise given on the score of sim- 
 plicity. 
 
 Basil and Gregory Nazianzen were fellow-students^ with 
 the Emperor Julian, but they carefully avoided his influence 
 in later years. The death of Julian called forth the elo- 
 quence of both. Gregory speaks with considerable acrimony 
 and invective, betraying the extent, real or fancied, of the 
 late peril. Basil is more calm, more grave and forcible. 
 And this tone well consists with the energetic element in 
 his character, which stands out so forcibly^ in the famous 
 interview with Modestus, the officer of Valens, and in which 
 we are reminded strongly of Ambrose and of Chrysostom. 
 The spirit of Gregory, on the other hand, is marked with 
 that kind of ' vivacious asperity ' which would become 
 querulousness under adverse circumstances, and which ap- 
 pears so natural in a man who could say, ejjLol he ixe'yiaTT) 
 wpa^Lf; eariv r] onrpa^id^. This weakness of disposition, 
 this want of a substantive force in his own acts and the in- 
 tentions from which they sprang, are still more remarkably 
 brought out in his panegyric orations. The eulogy of 
 Cyprian in particular, shews a decided failure in the per- 
 ception of the Martyr's robust and thorough sanctity, of the 
 prime elements of strength in his truly noble character; 
 and dilutes its better and purer parts in a flood of tumid 
 eloquence^. 
 
 To turn now more especially to the Archbishop of 
 Ca?sarea. During his twenty years' episcopate his life is 
 not a stirring one, like that of Athanasius or Jerome. It 
 was rather an equable exhibition of a virtuous ability in 
 the administration of his diocese, marred by occasional 
 
 1 Under Libanius, who was born 
 in 314, and was still living (see his 
 E'p. ad Priscum) in 390. 
 
 2 Cf. chap. I. of this Essay. 
 
 3 Gregor. Naz. Epist. xxxill. p. 
 
 797. 
 
 ^ This oration has received hard 
 measure at the hands of a writer 
 whose natural strength of style was 
 rendered almost acrimonious by the 
 
Athanaaius, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., c&c. 117 
 
 clouds of religious controversy. His genius was happily chap.viii. 
 
 exercised in liis discourses to the poor of Csesarea, which 
 
 are perhaps amono; the most beautiful of his remains. In ^atureo/his 
 
 i. r o discourses to 
 
 them he teaches his hearers the lessons of creation and pro- '^^ ^^^^- 
 vidence^ ; concealing the science of the Athenian rhetorician 
 under a persuasive and popular style. Every morning and 
 evening he explained to a devoted audience the order of the 
 seasons, the motions of the sea, the instinct or migration 
 of animals, the existence of man, and the wonders of his 
 nature, not, to be sure, with the science of Ptolemy and 
 Hipparchus, but with a lofty and soul-compelling spi- 
 rituality. It is impossible not to feel that there was this 
 rare influence at work among the crowds that flocked to hear 
 him ; otherwise the bursts of elaborate rhetoric, such as an 
 inference from the visible of the splendour of the invisible, 
 and a comparison between the sea and the human sea before 
 him, would have been lost upon the mechanics of C^sarea. 
 That he sometimes sacrificed orthodoxy to eloquence is 
 notorious among even superficial readers of his 'works; with 
 his ardent love of Greek literature, this was inevitable. 
 
 Many of his homilies are merely moral treatises on 2%e HomUes 
 avarice, envy, abuse of riches, and similar subjects. But 
 the unction of the Gospel, the unmistakable mark of a 
 fervent study of the Scriptures, gives them a new character 
 in his hands. The vanity of all earthly pleasures, the 
 brevity of life, and every varying phasis of human suffering, 
 are portrayed by him in a truly inexhaustible flow of 
 language. And we can hardly wonder, that, when his 
 weak constitution at length gave way to disease, the whole 
 province assisted at his funeral, and men envied the ©vfiara ihs funeral. 
 i7rtTa(j)ca, in other words, the unfortunate persons who were 
 crushed to death in the crowd. " Their end," says Gre- 
 
 circumstances of the time when he that time. 
 
 wrote the particular work alluded to ^ Basilii Opera, I. 30 (quoted in 
 
 {Ancient Christianity, I. '206). His Villemain, 119); the subject of the 
 
 style has altered materially since Hexameron Sermons, 
 
118 
 
 The Oratorical Feriod. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. gory \ ' may "be accounted liappy, as they followed liim : 
 and a more fervent enthusiast might say, they were victims 
 to grace his funeral.' 
 
 We will now adduce an extract in the usual manner of 
 Basil's more elaborate passages, and hardly compatible with 
 Dean Milman's verdict of simplicity : — 
 
 ' Psalmody is the calm of the soul, the repose of the 
 spirit, the arbiter of peace. It silences the wave, and 
 conciliates the whirlwind of our passions, soothing the 
 impetuous, tempering the unchaste. It is an engen- 
 derer of friendship, a healer of dissension, a reconciler 
 of enemies. For who can longer count him his enemy, 
 with whom to the throne of God he hath raised the 
 strain?.... Psalmody repels the demons; it lures the 
 ministry of angels ; a weapon of defence in nightly 
 terrors ; a respite from daily toil. To the infant it is 
 a presiding genius ; to manhood a crown of glory ; a 
 balm of comfort to the aged ; a congenial ornament to 
 women^.' 
 
 The following passage, enforcing, or rather illustrating, 
 the duty of praise, is elaborate, but very beautiful : 
 
 1 Gregorii Naz. Paneg. in Basil. 
 
 "^ Basilii Horn, in Ps. i. (trans- 
 lated by Boyd). 
 
 Boyd has brought a charge of 
 plagiarism against Hooker in con- 
 nexion with this passage. In the 
 Ecclesiast. Pullt. v. 38, 'Of Music 
 with Psalms,' there occurs a long 
 translation taken and duly acknow- 
 ledged as coming from this Homily. 
 In the page preceding Boyd de- 
 clares that Hooker has stolen the 
 most splendid part of Basil's exor- 
 dium, and made no kind of refer- 
 ence. 
 
 That there is a similarity between 
 the passage in Hooker and that 
 in Basil, is certainly clear on com- 
 
 paring the two. But I can find no 
 greater resemblance than might na- 
 turally be expected when two men 
 of feeling and imagination come to 
 write on the same subject, especially 
 when the later has been a diligent 
 student of the earlier, and has im- 
 bibed and, as it were, assimilated 
 many of his modes of thought. 
 
 Boyd has added that the famous 
 passage on ' Law ' at the close of 
 the First Book of the Ecclesiastical 
 Polity is ' a collection of spoils from 
 Gregory Nazianzen.' I have not 
 been able to examine this charge: 
 but I suspect that it is based upon 
 a faulty conception of parallel pas- 
 
Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., d:c. 119 
 
 ' ''What reward shall we give unto the Lord, for all the chap.viii. 
 benefits he hath bestowed ?" From the cheerless gloom on the duty of 
 of non-existence He waked us into being ; He ennobled 
 us with understanding ; He taught us arts to promote 
 the means of life ; He commanded the prolific earth to 
 yield its nurture ; He bade the animals to own us as 
 their lords. For us the rains descend ; for us the sun 
 sheddeth abroad its creative beams ; the mountains 
 rise, the valleys bloom, affording us grateful habita- 
 tion and a sheltering retreat. For us the rivers flow ; 
 for us the fountains murmur ; the sea opens its bosom 
 to admit our commerce ; the earth exhausts its stores ; 
 each new object presents a new enjoyment ; all nature 
 pouring her treasures at our feet, through the bounteous 
 grace of Him who wills that all be ours ^' 
 
 Before turning to Gregory of Nazianzum, we may say Gregory of 
 a few words concerning the brother of the CaBsarean Pre- 
 late, the serene Gregory of Nyssa. He, like so many 
 others among the Church Fathers, was at first a teacher of 
 rhetoric; and the circumstance of persons (holding and 
 exercising that profession) becoming Christian ministers in 
 the numbers that they did, may shew us at once the extent 
 to which all the stronger thought and feeling was becoming 
 bound up with the new Faith, and also the effect which 
 despotism had had, in closing to eloquence the channels of ^ 
 politics, and leaving open only those of divinity and the 
 pastoral office. The theology of Gregory is often encum- m^ thcnhoi,, 
 bered with an abstract philosophical tone, pointing to the ofhissujie. 
 tenacity with which he clung to literature long after he had 
 entered the priesthood. Having been appointed by his 
 brother's influence to the see of Xyssa^, he appeared at the 
 court and in the Councils of Theodosius's reign, and pro- 
 
 ^ Basilii Opera. Paneg. in B. Mart. ^ A small town in Cappadocia, 
 
 Jiditt. near the river Halys. 
 
120 The Oratorical Period. 
 
 cHAP.viii. nounced the funeral orations of Flaccilla and her daughter, 
 the elder Pulcheria^ He, too, has a Hexameron : but he 
 falls behind his brother in imagination and oriental colour- 
 ing, and goes beyond him in over-refined and far-fetched 
 allegory. There is a serenity, however, about his style 
 which cannot fail of being observed ; and which constitutes 
 his chief excellence. 
 
 SaS?/"^' Gregory of Nazianzum was probably superior, not only 
 to Basil and his brother, but even to Chrysostom himself, 
 so far as a natural capacity and endowment of oratorical 
 talent is concerned. In the use he made of these, however 
 he falls behind many a Christian minister far less richly 
 
 Hgluralid cudowcd by uaturc. We have already alluded to the 
 imbecility of his character, as reflected in the unsatis- 
 factory manner in which he has handled the far stronger 
 Cyprian^. Let us lo©k at an instance of his bad taste 
 in another panegyric oration, the Funeral Sermon on 
 St Basil : 
 
 o)TS/^ ' ^^^^ I peruse his Hexameron, I feel inspired, rege- 
 nerated, transformed; I feel as if I were conversing 
 with God himself, and hearing from his lips the his- 
 tory of the universe When I read his expositions 
 
 of the Holy page, I stop not at the letter, I rest not at 
 the superficial meaning of the word; but, soaring on 
 ^ renovated wings, I ascend from discovery to discovery, 
 
 from light to light, till I reach the sublimest point, 
 and sit enthroned on the riches of revelation^.' 
 
 This unhappy strain of verbiage is produced to a still 
 greater length of empty absurdity : ' Sorrow had eclipsed 
 perora- the light of reasou,' when Basil was on his death-bed : ' and 
 each one was desirous to impart a portion of his own life to 
 
 1 Not the 'St Pulcheria, virgin, ^ T. ii6 of this Essay. Cf. also 
 
 and empress/ of Tilleinont(i¥emow'e6- Aiicient Christianity, i. 206. 
 Eccles. XV. 171 sqq.). ^ Gregorii Naz. Paneg. in Basil* 
 
 ITie 
 lion 
 
Athanasius, Amhrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., (&c. 121 
 
 him. How fruitless the desire! The empyrean gates chap.viii . 
 were open, and marshalled angels gave the solemn man- 
 date. Piety ascended to its native heaven ; eloquence lan- 
 guished ; learning faded ; and genius drooped, when Basil 
 died\" 
 
 We must of course bear in mind the strong Oriental 
 affinities which a preacher, Cappadocianborn, would be sure 
 to possess ; and also what a tide of chequered feeling must 
 have flowed in upon the soul of Gregory, 'when Basil 
 died.' He had, moreover, a power of beautifully touching ^Jf^r^ 
 the real springs of consolation at a time of death. The 
 following extract from his Funeral Oration on his father 
 will bear witness : 
 
 ' O my Mother, the nature of God and man is not the orat. Fun. ir 
 same, nor even of celestial and terrestrial beings ^ 
 
 They are unchangeable and immortal But how is 
 
 it with us? Our contingencies dissolve and perish, the 
 
 victims of perpetual decay and change There is 
 
 one life to look forward to, the life above. There is 
 one death. It is to commit sin. That destroys the 
 
 soul O my Mother, if we would reason thus, we 
 
 should neither depend too much on life, nor grieve im- 
 moderately at death. What loss have we sustained, if 
 
 we are translated to a real existence Thou wilt 
 
 tell me thy widowhood afflicts thee. Take comfort in 
 looking forward. Thy separation grieves thee. But it 
 is not grievous unto him. And where would be the 
 sweet virtue of charity, if a man choosing for himself 
 the smoothest path, should leave the more rugged and 
 toilsome way to his neighbours^?' 
 
 1 Gregorii Paneg. in Basil. sage in the Antigone:— 
 
 2 It is interesting to compare, dWd deos roc Kal eeo-yevvqs, 
 though the paraUel is little more -nfieh U ^porol Kal d^vroyepeh- 
 than in the language, which Gre- Soph. Ant. 834. 
 gory may well have studied, the pas- ^ Gregorii Orai. Funeb. in Pair. 
 
122 
 
 The Oratorical Period. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. The querulous and unmanly element in the character of 
 sasima. The Grcgorj was brought into great prominence by the appoint- 
 o/'areljorPs'^ mcut to the remote See of Sasima^. which he clearly con- 
 sidered to be a gross violation of friendship on the part of 
 Basil ; who, if his motive in making the selection had been 
 a reliance on his friend's willingness to undertake a difficult 
 and therefore honourable post, must have been grievously 
 disappointed. Gregory soon retired to Nazianzum, wliere 
 his activity in assisting his father made some amends for 
 the preceding want of vigour. The real glory of his life, 
 however, was the restoration of the Catholic cause in Con- 
 stantinople^. But he remained at his post scarcely more 
 than a year and a half (379—381). Yet his Farewell 
 Sermon, preached in the Church of St Sophia, is on the 
 whole one of the noblest remains of his eloquence. The 
 following is taken from the peroration : — 
 
 ' And now by that Trinity which we all adore, by our 
 mutual hopes, and by the concord of this people, I 
 entreat this grace of you. Dismiss me with your 
 prayers; let them be the tokens of my conduct; grant me 
 
 these as testimonials of my discharge And, if it be 
 
 your will, dismiss me with applause, that I may depart 
 with honour. If otherwise, I complain not, as long as 
 I am shielded by the arm of God. 
 ' But you will begin to ask, whom shall we elect ? The 
 Lord will provide a pastor for the office, as once He 
 
 drooping cause, he began his mi- 
 nistry in the 'Anastasia' or 'Resur- 
 rection Chapel/ mentioned in his 
 Farewell Sermon, perhaps the /u.iKp(^ 
 OLKiaKcp of Socrates (iv. 17). His elo- 
 quence fairly began to change the 
 aspect of affairs, when Theodosius 
 ascended the throne, and restored all 
 the churches, St Sophia being carried 
 by assault. It is, perhaps, unneces- 
 sary to go into the causes of his re- 
 signation, the speedy acceptance of 
 which seems to have vexed Gregory. 
 
 ^ Gihhoii, Decline and Fall. y. 18, 
 Milman, iii. 199, and Greg. Poem, 
 de Vita Sua. 
 ' Was this the fruit of Athens ? This 
 
 the fruit 
 Of mutual toils in learning's bound- 
 less field, 
 The life we lived together ? ' 
 
 2 Valens had deprived the Ca- 
 tholics of all the Constantinople 
 churches. And when Gregory was 
 summoned to the See, as a man 
 whose ability was likely to raise the 
 
Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., d:c. 123 
 
 found a lamb for the burnt-offering. This one thing I chap.viii. 
 charge you , elect a man whose virtues may excite 
 emulation, not one whose failings may excite pity. 
 JSTot one who in all things will yield to all men, but 
 who will honestly offend, rather than desert the truth. 
 The one may be more agreeable just now : the other 
 will profit more hereafter. Kow attend me with your 
 blessings and your prayers \' 
 
 Having thus withdrawn himself from the world, Gre- 2SKr?-'" 
 gory lingered on eight years more in the composition of his '"■'^'"^'*^- 
 poems. They can hardly have been to him a task of penance, 
 as he is said to have pronounced them to be^; although there 
 is more reality of feeling in twenty lines of the De Vita 
 Sua than in many of the pulpit rhapsodies, and the compo- 
 sition may have been proportionately fatiguing, especially 
 through the medium of Hexameters and Iambic Senarii. 
 These poems have confirmed a title which the Sermons 
 might have been sufficient to secure ; that of the ' Bard of 
 Oriental Christianity,' distinct on the one hand from Bar- 
 desanes, the Poet of Gnosticism, and on the other from 
 Ephrem, who represents in verse almost entirely the peni- 
 tential side of the religion ^ But it is sad to see a man 
 who, old as he was, might have been still doing the work 
 of Christ in the world, becoming an ''ignavice sectator^,'' and 
 w^asting his declining days in traversing soul-theories and 
 meditating metaphysic sadnesses. 
 
 §4 Hilary. ^^ Sa!' 
 
 Hilarius, born at Poitiers about 320 
 
 „ made Bishop of Poitiers 350 
 
 ,, attends Synod of Seleucia in Isauria^ 359 
 
 „ denotinces Auxentius of Milan 364 
 
 „ dies 367 
 
 ^ Gregorii Naz. Opera, l. 766. by Valens to the Monks. 
 
 2 Milman, in. 205. ^ Held by the Semi-Arian party. 
 
 ^ Ibid. III. 190. Hilary attended in order to lift the 
 
 ^ The contemptuous term applied Trinitarian standard. 
 
124 
 
 The Oratorical Period, 
 
 CHAP. VIII. We will begin by adducing three specimens of Hilary's 
 His style. ncrvous and outspoken style, the true representative of his 
 
 character : — 
 
 The first is taken from an address to Constantius on 
 
 Toleration : 
 
 Jlilarr/ on 
 Toleration. 
 
 Charges 
 against Con- 
 stantius. 
 
 ' You^ are ever on the watch that all your subjects may 
 enjoy the benefits of liberty. Now the knowledge of 
 God is to man a gift granted him by God, more than 
 a task imposed on him. God, inspiring by an admi- 
 ration for His wonders respect for His commandments, 
 disdains the forcing of the will to adore Him. Were 
 a like means^ employed for the support of the true 
 faith, episcopal wisdom would oppose it, and would 
 say, "God is the Lord of all; He desires no forced 
 homage, no forced confession of faith ; we must not 
 deceive but serve him." It is more for our own sakes 
 than for His that we ought to adore Him.' 
 
 The next is from an Oration against the same Em- 
 peroi*^ : — 
 
 * I declare to thee, O Constantius, what I would have 
 said to Nero as well, and what Decius and Maximin 
 should have heard from my mouth. Thou warrest 
 against God ; thou persecutest His Saints, and hatest 
 the preachers of Christ. Thou art the tyrant, not of 
 things human, but of things divine. This thou hast 
 in common with the heathen Emperors. Now, see 
 what thou hast thyself alone. Thou pretendest a 
 lying Christianity, and yet thou art a new enemy of 
 Christ. Thou dost take profit of the precursor of 
 
 1 Hilarii Opera, f. 1221. 
 
 2 That is, like tliis ' forcing, ' which 
 God rejects. The whole spirit of this 
 extract is worthy of a dignified de- 
 fender of the Faith. 
 
 ^ After the Council of Seleucia, 
 
 he prayed the Emperor for less re- 
 straint in formal matters, and liberty 
 to dispute publicly with the Arians. 
 Constantius refused: and was then 
 assailed with the bold invective of 
 which this is a part. 
 
Athanasius, Ambrose^ Easily Gregory Naz.^ &c. 125 
 
 Anticlirist, and beginnest his mysteries of iniquity, chap.viii. 
 Thou forgest professions of faith, and livest contrary '~~ 
 
 to the faith ; thou dost trouble that which is ancient, 
 and soilest that which is new^' 
 
 Auxentius, Bishop of Milan, was a timeserver, Arian 
 and Catholic by turns. Hilary wrote against him : upon 
 which Auxentius summoned him before the Quaestor. 
 The accused prelate addressed the Bishop and people 
 thus' : 
 
 ' We are forced to compassionate the misery of our age, miary and 
 to groan over the foolish opinions of a time, when they MUati. 
 think men can protect God, and when they labour to 
 defend Jesus Christ by the intrigues of the age. 
 Bishops ! you who are such indeed, I demand of you, 
 what patronage did the Apostles use for the preaching 
 of the Gospel? What authority did they lean upon... 
 to make well nigh every nation turn from idols to the 
 true God ? Looked they for any credit at court, when 
 they sung hymns to God from the depth of a dungeon, 
 in the midst of chains, and after the torture ? Was it 
 by the edicts of a Prince that Paul, given for a spec- • 
 
 tacle in the circus, formed a church to Jesus Christ ? 
 ...When the Apostles supported themselves by the 
 labour of their hands, and assembled in upper cham- 
 bers, traversing towns and villages in spite of senato- 
 rian decrees and royal edicts, must we not think that 
 they had the keys of heaven, and did not the grace of 
 God manifest itself then against the hatred of man?... 
 But now, O grief and sorrow, earthly protections 
 recommend the faith divine. Christ is despoiled of 
 his grace, while they are intriguing in His name. 
 The Church threatens exile and the dungeon, she 
 
 ^ Hilarii Opera, f, 1353. 2 Hilarii Opera, f. 1267. 
 
126 The Oratorical Period. 
 
 cHAP.Tiii. who was once believed in, in spite of exile, in spite 
 
 of the dungeon.' 
 
 Hilary ales- Hilary was one of those able defenders of the Faith 
 
 ^sius. whom the spread of Arianism in the fourth century called 
 
 forward into notice. He was another Athanasius in a little 
 Gallic town. Born in a wealthy Pagan family, he received 
 an ample education, which the Schools of Gaul were then 
 well able to afford ; and, having married, he settled down 
 to a life of studious ease. But Philosophy led him, as it" 
 led so many in that and the two preceding ages, to Chris- 
 tianity : and he found, first a Divinity, then the true God, 
 then the Divine Mediator, then the full meaning of an im- 
 mortal soul. He has traced the conflicts he went through, 
 
 27ie De Trini- in the ' Twclvc Books De Trinitate^ a heavy publication 
 written shortly after his elevation to the episcopate. This 
 book is very unequal: rarely rising above the common 
 level of thought and expression, and very often falling be- 
 low it. When he rises, it is to a noble simplicity of style: 
 and he sinks to a tedious pursuit of profitless and over- 
 refined detail. But he exhibits the Augustinian vigour of 
 faith, and it often operates to relieve his literary deficien- 
 cies. The thorough way in which true toleration ani- 
 mates the first extract recorded above, is almost too good 
 for it to last throughout the whole of his eventful struggle 
 with prejudice and wicked oppression. It is kept up, in- 
 deed, in an address of a similar strain to the Emperor 
 
 iTie Address Joviau ou the subicct of toleration for Pas-anism. Like the 
 
 to Jovian on J *^ ^ 
 
 Toleration, argument to Constantius, this address takes the high and 
 truly dignified standing-point : freedom in religious matters 
 grounded on the greatness of God. But Hilary's tone 
 
 ymrf'^'' degenerated into a free invective, less becoming a Christian 
 orator, when the Emperor Constantius refused to hear his 
 jn-ayer after the Council of Seleucia in Isauria. (359). The 
 dispute with Auxentius, of Milan, had the effect of causing 
 him to retire finally to Poitiers, where he occupied the 
 
Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Naz., &c. 127 
 
 short remainder of his life with Church music ^ and an chap.viii. 
 Exposition of the Psalms^ 
 
 § 5. Jerome. jeroim. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus Sopnronius) born in Dabnatia 340 
 
 ,, intimacy witb Damasus of Rome about^ 383 
 
 „ retiremeait to Bethlehem 390 
 
 ,, dies 420 
 
 A very brief and fragmentary notice of Jerome is all 
 that can be here attempted. He would obviously, in a 
 freer arrangement, demand a special chapter. 
 
 As we have done in the case of other Church Fathers, Niehuhn 
 remarked upon by N iebuhr, we will first see what that great 
 historical critic has to say about the recluse of Bethlehem*. 
 ' St Jerome and St Augustine,' he remarks, ' are two great 
 men, or rather giants : what I know of them justifies me in 
 giving them high praise. The literary and critical writings 
 of St Jerome are dry and barren ; but, in his other works, he 
 displays animation, elasticity of mind, learning to an immense 
 extent, and wit which continues till his old age, and consti- 
 tutes the jyredominant feature of Ms character. Had he not 
 been an ecclesiastical writer, he might have shone by his wit 
 in the same manner as Pascal did^.' Coleridge, differing coicrUige. 
 apparently from Niebuhr, ranked Jerome as one among the 
 
 ^ See above, p. 114, n. of this 
 Essay: and Milman, in. 523. 
 
 2 Neander (iii. 451) and Niebuhr 
 (^Lectures, in. 339) seem not quite 
 agreed as to Hilary in connexion 
 with Church music and Church 
 hymns. The truth seems to be 
 this : that Hilary of Poitiers was 
 an active mover in Church music, 
 while Pope Hilary, the successor of 
 Leo the Great (461 — 467), was the 
 author of the hymns which go by his 
 name. 
 
 ^ It was not long before the death 
 
 of Damasus that Jerome, who, how- 
 ever, had early visited Rome, became 
 his secretary. And Damasus died, 
 Siricius (hostile to Jerome) succeeding 
 after a brief schism, in the year 385. 
 
 4 Niebuhr, Lectures on Roman 
 History, in. 339. 
 
 ^ The itahcs in the j&rst instance 
 are my own, and are meant to draw 
 attention to the frequency with which 
 this quality in Jerome is alluded to 
 by Milman and other writers. In 
 the second instance the italics of Dr 
 Schmitz are represented. 
 
128 The Oi-atorical Period. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. three great Chiircli Fathers in respect of theology \ the 
 other two being Origen and Augustine : and this trio being 
 corresponded to on the side of oratory by Basil, Gregory 
 Nazianzen, and Chrysostom. It is interesting to remark, 
 in connexion with the observation of Coleridge, that it was 
 Gregory Nazianzen who first directed the attention of 
 Jerome to Origen's exegetical writings^: and that from 
 that time he availed himself of them to a large extent, 
 
 Luther. translating also several of his homilies into Latin. Luther^ 
 was for excluding Jerome from the list of the Church 
 Fathers altogether, regarding him simply as a heretic ; but, 
 in another place Luther informs us of his belief, that if Pru- 
 dentius had lived in the x4ugustan age of letters, he would 
 have been considered superior to Horace. 
 
 Ills retire- It was after settling: at Bethlehem, where the widow 
 
 7ne.nL, and fits c5 ^ 
 
 labours. Paula and her daughter Eustochia joined him, that he ap- 
 plied himself seriously to literature. A Jew, who came to 
 him by night, was his master in Hebrew, and at last the 
 difficult language was thoroughly acquired. He translated 
 Origen, revised the Septuagint, and pursued the Latin 
 translation (with prefaces and commentaries) of the Bible. 
 Men of learning resorted to him from all parts, and he 
 taught Eome from the cave of Bethlehem. 
 
 The controversy with Rufinus, formerly his close friend, 
 affords the best opportunity for estimating both the moral 
 and the literary character of Jerome. It cannot here be 
 entered into, but its rise was this. Rufinus had translated 
 some heresy-tainted works of Origen, and had made use, of 
 Jerome's name in the preface. On this, Jerome, who was 
 ever jealous of his orthodoxy, disclaimed all agreement 
 with the work, and instantly the controversy broke out 
 all over the Christian world. Rufinus fastened on Jerome's 
 new translation, as having an unsettling tendency : and as 
 
 1 Table Talk, p. 48. 3 Li;ther's Table Talk, 539. The 
 
 2 Neander,(7/ntrcAiy/sfory,lV.454. passage about Prudentius is in 532. 
 
 Jerome and 
 Rufinus. 
 
Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Na2., &c. 129 
 
 giving tlie heathen a handle for accusing the Christians of chap.viii. 
 changing their law at pleasure. He charged Jerome, 
 moreover, with an undue attention to profane literature ^ 
 Jerome replied with vehement ardour : proudly contrasting 
 his own humility and self-abasement Avith the dignity kept 
 up by Rufinus. No answer was returned: Eufinus died 
 soon after receiving Jerome's reply in Sicily, as the bar- 
 barians were in occupation of great part of Italy. 
 
 To this period is to be ascribed the correspondence be- ja-omc ror- 
 
 . r\ ' 1 responds icitlt 
 
 tween Jerome and Augustine. Orosius, who was the mes- Aunnstine. 
 senger of Augustine, found the former to the last full of 
 admiration for his great rival. This correspondence, which 
 will be referred to again below, turned very much on ques- 
 tions relating to Jerome's translation. Of this work M. 
 Villemain remarks^, that the sublime melancholy which 
 characterizes it is to be ascribed to the darkness of the 
 times : in the crash of the falling empire he heard the 
 echo of the prophecies fulfilled. The violent conduct of 
 Pelagius in Judsea^ and the death of Eustochia, added 
 greatly to his gloom. 
 
 He reached eternal rest at last, says the author of the iiu end. 
 Tableau, when ninety years old. ' It was the only refuge 
 for his dark melancholy.' He was, as compared with 
 Augustine by the same critic, much the truer Eoman, at 
 least in language, and incomparably the better Greek 
 scholar. Jerome was more practical, and less speculative, j^,.^,,,.^ and 
 Augustine the broader and gentler ' mind-ruler ' of the two. ^"^"*'"*^- 
 Augustine breathed the spirit of a lofty and Christianised 
 
 1 See Neander (iv. 432) for an qute non eum iterum Ciceronia- 
 
 account of Jerome's vision relating num pronuntiet, ubi non dicat ; 
 
 to profane literature, and the use sed Tullius noster, sed Flaccus 
 
 Eufinus made of it against him. The noster, sed Maro. Jam vero 
 
 following are some of Rufinus's Chrysippum, Aristidem, Empe- 
 
 words about his opponent's learning : doclem, .... tanquam fumos et 
 
 (Hieron. Oj). ii. 285, ed, Martianay, nebulas lectoribus spargit.' 
 
 quoted by Neander):— 2 Tableau de V Eloquence, p. 349. 
 
 'Eeleganturnunc quaeso quae scri- ^ He was at length driven out by 
 
 bit; si una ejus operis pagina est, the governor of Jerusalem. 
 
 9 
 
180 
 
 The Oratorical Period. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. humanity, Jerome, as an assailant and satirist, had much 
 of the spirit of Juvenal : in Christian practice, he wor- 
 shipped sacrifice and effort. 
 
 ^«""""*- § 6. Paulinus. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Pontius Meropius Paulinus, born at Bordeaux 353 
 
 „ made Consul by Gratian through influence of 
 
 Ausonius 378 
 
 „ ordained through the persuasion of Ambrose ... 395 
 
 ,, Bishop of Nola 409 
 
 „ dies 431 
 
 TheExhor- Of Pauliuus the only work that remains to us is an 
 
 tation to ... . i • i i 
 
 Almsgiving, eloqueut cxhortatiou to almsgiving, a subject on which he, 
 if any man, had a right to be heard, and which he was 
 likely to enforce wherever an unflinching example is valued 
 as the companion of a precept. His family was a sena- 
 torial one, and, through the influence of Ausonius, who had 
 been his tutor in eloquence, he was himself made consul 
 by Gratian. He afterwards married one of the richest 
 ladies of Spain ; but, on his baptism, sold all his posses- 
 Hisremm- sious, and distributed them among the poor. This made 
 wealth on Ms him bccomc au outcast to his former friends : and estranged 
 tiseA loses evcu Ausouius. But he secured instead the warm affection 
 
 nun Ausom- 
 
 AvgStt'' ^^^ esteem of Augustine. 
 
 Hischarader Unobtrusivc aiid really humble, Paulinus had not the 
 influence and authority of the great orators. A work on 
 paganism, which he undertook, was never finished : and 
 in a correspondence with Augustine on some speculative 
 points, the inferiority of his intellect and imagination is 
 very apparent. The Exhortation to Almsgiving, however, 
 and some graceful verse-remains, shew that he was far 
 from being deficient in powers of expression; and these, 
 with so thorough, so devoted, and so unselfish a soul to 
 prompt them, were enough to earn a large and well-merited 
 contemporary reputation \ 
 
 ^ Villemain, Tableau de V Eloquence, 359 — 365. 
 
Chrysostom. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Oratorical Period Projper. (2) Chrysostom. 
 
 Oi) yap ii7re(XTei\d/Ji7]v tov /xri dvayyelXat vfuu irdcrav ttjv ^ovKrjv tov 9eoG. 
 
 St Paul. 
 
 The prejudicial effect which the prevailing system of rhetoric had 
 upon him as a preacher cannot be overlooked, although in him more than 
 in Gregory Nazianzen it was softened down by a Christian simplicity of 
 
 character, and by a depth of mind 
 
 Neandeb [Life, p. 7]. 
 
 Chrysostom. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Johannes Chrysostomus, born at Antioch 354? [347^, Milman] CHAP. IX. 
 
 baptized by Bishop Meletius 377 
 
 ascetic life near Antioch — Learns Bible by heart... 378-9 
 
 ordained Deacon and begins preaching 381 
 
 ordained Priest by Flavian, Meletius' successor ... 386 
 
 The outbreak at Antioch 3S7 
 
 [The taxation excites disaffection and revolt. Im- 
 perial statues throwQ down. Anger of the Em- 
 peror and panic at Antioch. Flavian goes to Con- 
 stantinople; and Chrysostom preaches. — Horn. 
 XIX. ad Pop. Ant.] 
 
 election to the See of Constantinople 397-^ 
 
 [Death of Nectarius. Press of candidates. Election 
 
 of Chrysostom through influence of Eutropius,] 
 deposes thirteen Bishops of Lydia and Phrygia ... 399 
 disgrace of Eutropius, who is saved by the influence 
 
 of Chrysostom 400? 
 
 requested to reform the Church of Antioch 400 
 
 [During his absence the faction against him gains 
 ground. Theophilus of Alexandria comes to 
 Constantinople, to answer the accusation of the 
 d5e\0oi fjLaKpoi. He conducts himself with inso- 
 lent hostility, and labours to expel Chrysostom, 
 who refuses to submit to the * Council of The Oak ' 
 at Chalcedon, and] 
 is exiled by the Emperor to Nicsea ,... 403 
 
 ^ 3,14 and 349 are also given. Cf. Hook's Eccles. Biog. 
 
 9—2 
 
Hu varidy. 
 
 132 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 A.D. 
 [an insurrection forces his recal two days after- 
 wards. He continues to preach with increasing 
 plainness against the Empress Eudoxia, and] 
 „ is again banished to Cucusus in Mount Taurus ... 404 
 [afterwards, for greater security, to Pityus, on the 
 Euxine. On the road to that place, when about 
 nine miles distant from Comana, in Pontus, he] 
 ,, dies Sep. 14, 407I 
 
 CHEYSOSTOM is empliaticallj a study for a lifetime^ 
 The great variety of his works, and the variety of 
 circumstances under which they were produced from time to 
 time, at some periods literally from day to day, during his 
 eventful life, render the antiquities alone of his remains a 
 long and intricate study. The voluminousness of the hom- 
 ilies he left, without taking account of any other kind of 
 discourse, is indeed surprising. Sixty-five on Genesis, ex- 
 cluding nine on single passages in the same book : ninety 
 on St Matthew: eighty-seven on St John; fifty-four on 
 the Acts ; thirty-two on the Epistle to the Komans ; forty- 
 four on the First Epistle to the Corinthians ; thirty on the 
 Second ; twenty-four on the Ephesians ; fifteen on the 
 Philippians ; twelve on the Colossians ; eleven on the First 
 Epistle to the Thessalonians ; five on the Second ; eighteen 
 on the First Epistle to Timothy ; ten on the Second ; six 
 on Titus; three on Philemon; and thirty-four on the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews : — this is a formidable array of 
 matter for the patristic student to analyse or to digest. 
 The number of Sermons, moreover, whose authority is 
 doubtful, is very large. One hundred and seventeen of 
 these are to be found in Savile's seventh volume; and 
 sixty more in his fifth, which also contains sixty-two 
 Sermons on various isolated texts, and thirty-four pane- 
 gyrics. 
 
 1 With regard to the ancient es- represents, naturally, the extreme of 
 timates of different points in his partiality, and Socrates that of criti- 
 carear we may remark that Palladius cal severity. 
 
Chrysostom. 133 
 
 To ascertain tlie exact chronology of this large collec- chap. ix. 
 tion, is an almost impossible task, and not more difficult Difficulty of 
 than barren. Dupin agrees. with Photius in laying it down^hrmofolicai 
 as a general rule', that the Sermons preached at Antioch '"■'*""^""^"^' 
 by Chrysostom were more ' elaborate ' than those preached 
 at Constantinople. But it will be abundantly evident that, 
 in so extensive a collection, a rule so little defined as this is 
 can be but of little service. At any rate, many plain dis- 
 courses were delivered at Antioch, though perhaps on the 
 other hand, fewer elaborate ones, in proportion at Constan- 
 tinople. Meantime, it must be remarked that internal evi- 
 dence abounds, relating to the ' place where.' Thus on one 'Sf^l-f}'^- 
 occasion he speaks of his hearers as being accustomed to 
 boast that they lived in the city where Christians first 
 received the name; and, in another, he makes express 
 mention of Daphne, the suburb of Antioch, as belonging to 
 the place in which he was ministering. In a preacher so 
 much given to plain-spoken allusion as Chrysostom was, 
 this is no more than we should be inclined to expect. 
 
 Further, detached Sermons and series of Sermons have 
 been sufficiently determined to a particular date. Thus the 
 nine Sermons on particular passages in Genesis have been 
 decided to belong, the first eight to the year 386, and the !>«?«; 0/ Gen. 
 ninth to a date certainly later than that of the Homilies, 
 that is to say, than 395 or 396^; just eleven years before 
 the Archbishop's death. These first eight Sermons contain The firsteuiht 
 very varied specimens of Chrysostom's style, and well re- tlnflim' 
 pay a perusal. The openino;^ of the first is far too florid to specimens of 
 suit a modern and northern taste, and would be a good 
 case in point to support the critique of Photius, which 
 ascribes a greater elaborateness to the Antiochene dis- 
 courses. The fourth and eighth contain admirable in- 
 
 ^ Dupin, III. 15 n. See below p. iv. 746, and Montfaucon himself. 
 
 160, for the probable chronology of Preface, vii. 
 the De Sacerdotio. ^ Chrysost. Gen. Serni. I. i. 
 
 2 Tillemont quoted by Montfaucon, 
 
134 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. IX. stances^ of facile application, a subject which will be freely 
 illustrated below. And for a dignified practical exhorta- 
 tion we need go no further than the same eighth sermon^, 
 which, though short, is an extremely beautiful discourse. 
 
 Without now going into any greater length of prelimi- 
 nary remark, it is proposed to adduce a series of illustra- 
 tions to various points in the character of Chrysostom and 
 of his remains : with a distinct and heartfelt consciousness 
 how far it is beyond the power of any student, who cannot 
 reckon the years of his apprenticeship and after-service 
 almost by decades, to do more than skirt the borders of this 
 wide and fruitful field. 
 His rmthcr The great Christian orator had nearly doomed himself, 
 
 sostomto'the in tlic hastv and enthusiastic zeal of youth — he was but 
 
 Church. . •/ . -^ . ,. 
 
 mneteen at the time — to a perpetual silence; intending, 
 with an equally zealous friend, to seek in a Syrian her- 
 mitage the perfection of that monastic seclusion which w^as, 
 indeed, his ideal of Christian life : but to which, as we 
 shall see hereafter, he did not adhere in practice so blindly 
 as did many of his contemporaries. His mother saved him 
 to the Church: and the name of Anthusa stands blessed 
 among the names of women, side by side with Monica 
 and Nonna. "We will gather, from the records that remain 
 in the touching eloquence of the son, how the mother 
 pleaded : 
 
 De sacerrt. ' When she pcrccivcd that this was my intention, she 
 '■ ^' took me by the right hand, and led me into her own 
 
 private chamber : she made me sit beside her on the 
 bed where she had brought me forth : and unlocked 
 the fountains of tears, adding thereto words more 
 piteous far than tears ; and such was the mournful 
 burden of woe that she poured forth to me : 
 
 1 Chrysost. Gen. Serin,, iv. 3, and viii. i. Cf. also the Horn, in Oen. vi. 
 2 Chrysost. Gen. Serm. viii. 2. 
 
Chrysostom. 135 
 
 * It was for no long time, my son, that I was permitted chap. ix. 
 to enjoy thy father's excellent nobility of soul. God 
 willed it so. For his death followed hard upon the 
 anguish that I endured in bringing thee forth: and 
 brought down untimely orphanhood on thee, untimely 
 widowhood on me, whose miseries they alone who 
 have endured it can know to their full depth. For 
 what words can attain to the story of that storm and 
 tempest under which the young wife must stand, who, 
 having just left her father's house, and all unknowing 
 of the busy world, is suddenly cast about in anguish 
 and sorrow, and forced to bear up under cares too 
 weighty for her age and her sex. I tell thee she 
 must correct the slothfulness of her servants ; she must 
 resist the plots of her kindred : she must nobly endure 
 the mijust dealing of the publicans, and their liard- 
 heartedness in the gathering of the tribute. And, 
 moreover, if he that is gone left a little child, if she 
 be a daughter, even thus is care brought upon the 
 mother, although she cause little expense and little 
 anxiety. But a son doth fill her every day full of ten 
 thousand fears and a host of disquietudes. I forbear 
 to tell of the expense that she is forced to bear, if she 
 desire to bring him up as befitteth a noble youth. 
 But none of these things did move me : neither would 
 I look on a second bridal: nor bring another bride- 
 groom into this thy father's housed But I did hold 
 on and abide in the surge and the tumult, and did not 
 fly from the iron furnace of my widowhood. Chiefly 
 indeed I was aided from on high : but it brought me no 
 
 ^ Chrj^sostom, Ad Vicluam Jun, astonished: and, turning to those 
 
 I. § 2, relates that, when he told the present, cried out with a loud voice, 
 
 Sophist {probably Libanius) that his ' Oh ! wonder, what wives the 
 
 mother was a widow of forty years Christians have!' Neander, Life, 
 
 and that it was twenty years since p. 4, n. 
 she lost her husband, he was utterly 
 
136 The Oratorical Period Froj^er. 
 
 CHAP. IX. little strength in my woes, to look stedfastly on thy 
 
 face, and there to keep safe an image of him that is 
 dead, quickened with life and drawn with lovely accu- 
 racy. Wherefore even when thou wast but a tender 
 infant, even before thou hadst learnt to talk, when 
 children chiefly delight those that bore them, thou 
 gavest me more than pleasure, even consolation. Yea, 
 and thou hast not even this cause of complaint against 
 me, that though I bore my widowhood nobly, yet I 
 diminished the inheritance which thou hadst, to sup- 
 port me therein ; a lot, which I well know many have 
 endured, that have had grievous orphanhood to suffer. 
 I kept it all whole and untouched, and spared not 
 to expend out of my own substance, which I brought 
 with me when I left my father's house, whatever was 
 needful for thy reputation. Nay, think not that to 
 praise myself I say all this ; but for all these things 
 I beg of thee one sign of gratitude, that thou wouldst 
 not involve me in a second widowhood, nor stir up 
 again the grief that begins already to be lulled in 
 sleep ^ ; only wait for the time of my departure ; per- 
 haps, a while thereafter, thou mayest hence remove. 
 For to them that are young, is hope allowed to attain 
 even to extreme old age ; but to us who are already 
 there, nought is left to look forward to but the 
 grave. 
 ' Therefore, when thou hast given my body to the earth, 
 and mingled my bones with the bones of thy father, 
 then set forth on long travels, and sail whatsoever sea 
 thou wilt, no man forbidding thee. But until I have 
 breathed my last breath, suffer the abiding with me : 
 and rush not blindly on an offence against God, by 
 
 ^ * * wherefore wake 
 
 The old bitterness again, and break 
 The low beginnings of content. 
 
Chrysostom, 137 
 
 involving in such miseries thy mother who hath never chap. ix. 
 done thee wrong. For if thou hadst this to accuse me 
 of, that I am catching and dragging thee into the 
 cares of this life, and compelling thee to take care 
 of my affairs, think no more with respect of the 
 laws of nature, of thy education, of thy life with me ; 
 but shun me as an enemy and conspirator. If, how- 
 ever, I have done my very all to provide for thee 
 a passage through this life in unbroken leisure, 
 though no other chain can bind thee to me, yet let 
 this. Yea, even if thou didst say that ten thousand 
 loved thee, there is not one that will afford thee the 
 enjoyment of such a liberty: for, indeed, there is not 
 one among them all whose care for thy reputation is 
 like unto my care.' 
 
 The next extract, a panegyric on St PauP, was preached ^^'g^Jf^^y 
 at Antioch : and what must the force of his words have 
 been, when, in the city where the Apostle's house was 
 still pointed out, Chrysostom celebrated Rome chiefly 
 because of the memory of Paul, and thus by this one name 
 united the two Churches. 
 
 ' I love Rome, for Paul wrote to the Romans, and loved hoS^'s?™ 
 them. In his life he talked with them : amongst them S^J;.)' 
 he ended his days : with them are preserved his sacred 
 remains. From this one thing Rome reaps more glory 
 than from aught else ; Paul and Peter will from thence 
 be caught up to heaven. Think with wonder and 
 astonishment of the sight which Rome will see. Paul 
 rising from that sepulchre with Peter, and borne up- 
 wards to a meeting with the Lord. How fair a rose 
 is this for Rome to present to her God! Oh the 
 
 ^ Chrysost. Opera, ix, 678. {In of the Homily are here strung to- 
 Ep. Rom. Horn, xxxii.) Several gether. 
 passages from this point to the end 
 
 Horn. 32 
 (IX. (378. e,d. 
 
138 The Oratorical Period Proper, 
 
 IX. crowns with which that city is crowned! Oh the 
 
 golden chains with which she is encircled ! the fount- 
 ains of waters that she hath within her gates ! It is 
 not for her treasures that I admire her, not for her 
 monuments, nor for the rest of her pomp : but for the 
 possession of these two pillars of the Church. Who 
 will grant me to touch the corpse of St Paul ? to bend 
 over his tomb? to gaze on the dust of that body 
 that... received the martyr's seal, and published every- 
 where the sacred word ? I could wish to look upon the 
 dust of hands that were bound with chains, hands 
 through whose imposition the Holy Ghost was given, 
 hands that penned this — "Ye see with what large 
 letters I have written unto you with mine own hand,'^ 
 — and this — " The salutation of me Paul with mine 
 own hand:" a hand which the viper saw, and dropped 
 upon the blazing wood. I could wish to look upon 
 the dust of eyes well nigh blinded, and yet gazing 
 abroad again unto the salvation of the whole world, 
 and counted worthy to behold Christ in the body. 
 And I could wish to look upon the dust of those 
 feet, that wearied not of travelling over the earth, that 
 were made fast in the stocks when the prison was 
 shaken, and measured out the roads of habitable and of 
 desert lands alike. 
 * Let us imitate him, brethren : for he was a man of like 
 nature with ourselves^; but as he shewed for Christ so 
 great a love, he has overpassed the wall of heaven^, 
 and gained a place amidst the angels. If we will make 
 the effort, and kindle within ourselves the like flame, 
 we too shall have strength to imitate the holy Apostle. 
 
 1 Compare this tone of language, supr. p. ico. 
 
 relating too to an Apostle, with the ^ Hac arte... 
 
 rhapsodies of Gregory Nazianzen Enisus arces attigit igneas. 
 relating to the departed Basil. Cf. 
 
Chrysostom. 139 
 
 Were this impossible he would never have said, " Be chap. ix. 
 ye followers of me, as I am a follower of Christ." ' 
 
 Another passage beautifully describes the influence of 
 St Paul upon the early Christians ^ : — 
 
 ' With such trials before their eyes, when the pain was ^« p^^vs 
 
 '' ^ treatment of 
 
 actually ^Aere,but the gain felt by hope only, and the pro- chrutlans 
 mise still afar off, when the furnace, the oven, the sword, (S'.iJm'^f^* 
 nay, every form of torment and death was felt not in 
 fear only, but in real agony ; when those who were to 
 enter the combat were not yet wholly detached from 
 the heathen altars, the idols, the pleasures of the be- 
 sotted world, when they were not used to lofty con- 
 templations of eternal life, but were still bound to 
 things below, and seemed as if they must grow feeble 
 and almost yield, if incessantly attacked. 
 , * Look at what Paul did for them, the man so confident of 
 celestial truths, and listen with attention to his wis- 
 dom. He speaks to them incessantly of the life to 
 come: he lays their reward before their eyes; he 
 shews them their crown, and comforts them with the 
 hope of eternal gain. What says he then ? He says, 
 " I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are 
 too weak, too unworthy of the glory that shall be re- 
 vealed in us." That is to say, why meet me with the 
 executioner, with punishment, poverty, and imprison- 
 ment? Threaten me with all that is formidable to 
 man. Nothing you can tell me of can weigh with that 
 reward, that crown, that exchange that I look for. 
 The one is exhausted, and comes to an end in this life ; 
 the other finds no end in eternity.' 
 The following is an instance of Chrysostom's manner in 
 making an appeal for the poor^: — 
 
 1 Chrysost. Opera, ill. 158. (ed. Ben.). The sermon is entitled De 
 Ben.) De Gloria in Trib. Eleemosynd. 
 
 2 Chrysost. Opera, ill. 261 (ed. 
 
140 
 
 The Oratorical Period Prober. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 I come before you to-day, to discharge an erabassy that 
 is just, that is useful, that is honourable for you. I 
 am the delegate of none other than the poor who in- 
 habit your city. It is no popular decree, nor delibera- 
 tion of a senate that brings me here: but it is the 
 spectacle of most cruel sufferings. As, hastening to 
 you, I passed by the public square, and the cross- 
 ing of the streets, I saw grovelling on the ground so 
 many wretched beings, some maimed, others deprived 
 of sight, others covered with incurable sores, that 1 felt 
 there was an excess of inhumanity in your neglecting 
 to succour these miserable men ; when so many mo- 
 tives, as well as this Easter at which we have arrived, 
 incite us to such conduct with so much force. At all 
 times it is fit for us to exhort to almsgiving ; for at all 
 times we have need of the mercy of God. But, more 
 than ever, when the cold is intense, as now it is \ In 
 summer the genial warmth of the season is a relief to 
 the poor. Though scarcely clothed, they can go out into 
 the open air, and the heat of the sun stands to them in- 
 stead of clothing. They can lie on the stones : they can 
 pass the night beneath the open sky. They require 
 neither shoe, nor wine, nor tender meats. They have 
 enough of fresh water from the fountains, they have a 
 few roots, nature herself furnishing an easy table for 
 them. Another advantage, the opportunity of labour, 
 is then assured to them. Those who build houses, 
 those who conduct trenches through the earth, those 
 who navigate the sea, all these have need of the arm 
 of the poor man. In fact, Ms hody is to the poor man, 
 very much of what his fields, his houses, and his other 
 possessions, are to the rich. It is all his revenue : 
 he draws none from any other source. Thus the 
 
 1 This practical and circumstan- vivid picture of the condition of the 
 tial exhortation gives us a very working classes in Antioch. 
 
Chrysostom. 141 
 
 summer brings some relief to indigence. But winter chap. ix. 
 wages against it a rude warfare ; and attacks it within 
 by hunger, without by cold ; rendering the flesh, as it 
 were, dead. It then needs a more substantial food ; a 
 warmer clothing : a roof; a bed; and a hundred other 
 things. And then, at this very moment, occupation 
 fails. Therefore, as now it is that there is greater need, 
 and need even of the necessaries of life, come, and at 
 this time when no one gives to the poor man wages, no 
 one occupation, let us set ourselves, men of pitying 
 hearts, in the place of workmasters ; and let us have 
 for a partner in this work the holy Paul, friend and 
 guardian of the poor.' 
 
 In the passage that follows \ the earnest Chrysostom op. m. 179. 
 expresses his fervent desire, that the attention he claims jg^fj- '^^ «=^^- 
 should be an enthusiastic attention, and should communicate 
 itself from one to the other. Of each of his hearers he 
 makes an apostle, and enjoins it upon him to attract other 
 disciples, and to edify even those whom he does not 
 attract : — 
 
 'That your attendance here may not be useless, I hQ^ Those who 
 you to turn Irom then- errors those brethren, whom \sMvshouid 
 
 *' ^ trii to bring ' 
 
 have so often besought you to bring in amongst us, ^'^^'■*- 
 whom I ever shall beseech you to bring. Give them 
 counsel, not by words only but by deeds : for the best 
 instruction comes from example. Though you utter 
 no words to them, yet if the calm of yoiu- demeanour 
 as you leave the church, if your look, if your voice, 
 reveal to those who have not entered, the profit which 
 your soul has made, that will suffice for exhortation 
 and for recommendation. 
 ' We ought to depart from this place, as from a sanctuary 
 of the initiated, as better men ; as more loyal to the 
 
 1 Chrysost. Opera, III. 179. (ed. Ben.) In illud, Si esurierit, &c. 
 
142 Tlie Oratorical Period Froi^er, 
 
 CHAP. IX. true wisdom; as governed in all our actions, and in 
 
 The due re- ^11 oui' words. Lct the wifc wlio sees her husband, the 
 
 ucworFhij^'. father who sees his son, the son who sees his father, 
 
 the slave who sees his master, the friend who sees his 
 friend, the enemy who sees his enemy coming forth 
 from the church, yea, let all in this assembly receive 
 the proof of the benefit which is thence carried away. 
 And this proof they will receive, if they see you are 
 become gentler in heart, more thoughtful, more re- 
 ligious.' 
 
 And now, before we come to speak more directly of the 
 labours of Chrysostom in connexion with the city and 
 people of Antioch, it will be desirable to take a very brief 
 survey of the place, and set it in some manner more before 
 our eyes. 
 ^^AriS^ To Chrysostom himself we are indebted for much of 
 the very minute knowledge we possess of this city in an- 
 cient times. It was, indeed, ' beautiful for situation,' a 
 royal residence, and worthy of being patronised by Empe- 
 rors \ The river Orontes, from its sources in the valley of 
 Coele-Syria, flows north for 120 miles; and then, making 
 a bold sweep, west and west by south, forces its way to the 
 sea, through the sublime defile between the mountain-ranges 
 of Casius and Amanus. At the bend is a spacious alluvial 
 plain, the north section of which is a lake and morass. This 
 plain gradually converges towards the defile, the river 
 winding through the midst of it. In the plain or valley 
 on the left bank of the Orontes, near the mouth of the 
 defile, stands the city of Antioch. It communicates easily 
 with the coast through the defile, and with Southern Syria 
 up the valley of the Orontes : with Mesopotamia and the 
 East by Aleppo and the Euphrates, and with Cilicia and 
 
 1 Trajan remained there for some Basilica marked the patronage of 
 time, and the famous Constantine the first Christian Emperor. 
 
Chrysostom, 143 
 
 Asia Minor through the Belian Pass, which crosses the chap. ix. 
 ridge of Amanus to the plain of Issus\ Such was the site, 
 and such the advantages of the place where Chrysostom 
 exercised his powerful ministry. Yet the population had 
 all the vices and dissipation of a worthless rabble. Their xjie character 
 passion for the theatre and the races was a continual drain buants. 
 upon their energies : and the Oriental element of super- 
 stition and imposture, worked out by a large and constant 
 staff of Chaldee and Jewish agents, was a means of still 
 worse mischief; while supreme over all these reigned a 
 complete, a despotic licentiousness. Nor was there any 
 possibility of its being otherwise, when wealth and Oriental 
 pomp luxuriated side by side with the worst results of 
 pauperism and idleness^. 
 
 This exorbitant wealth may serve to introduce us to 
 the notice of some of Chrysostom's characteristics in dealing 
 with the Antiochians. We learn some astonishing particu- 
 lars from himself with regard to its extent. ' Thou verily,' chrimstnm 
 
 , o „ , , onihc wealthy 
 
 he says m one place , ' countest so many acres of land ; c^«*«*;*- 
 ten, twenty, or more houses ; as many baths ; one or two 
 thousand servants : and chariots, covered with silver and 
 gold.' The slaves of the principal citizens were covered 
 with gold ; even their beds were of ivory, inlaid with silver 
 and gold. We learn, however, from the Homilies*, that 
 the proportion of those who could be called rich was only 
 one- tenth of the whole population. The poor he reckoned 
 at another tenth ; and the middle class made up the re- 
 maining eight parts. 
 
 A very natm-al consequence of this abundance was, that 
 superstitious persons hoped to atone for their sins by making 
 
 1 I have been greatly assisted to ^ gee the picture of pauperism 
 
 a clear conception of the site of above, p. 140. 
 
 Antioch, by a book, the title of ^ Horn. Matih. LXiii. § 4. Cf. also 
 
 which has perhaps a tendency to Ho7n,. i Cor. xxi. § 6, and Concio 
 
 lower the estimate of its real value i. De Lazaro, § 7. These are brought 
 
 to the scholar; Mr Murray's Hand- forward in Neander's Life, 
 
 look for Syria and Palestine. ^ Hom.Matth. LXVi. (7,630,ed.Ben.) 
 
Op VII. 508 
 (ed. Ben.) 
 
 144 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. IX. splendid presents to the cliurclies, and offering costly ves- 
 sels to the altars. The high and eminently practical tone 
 of morality which is the grand featm-e of Chrysostom's 
 ministrations throughout his entire career, displays itself 
 admirably in connexion with this vice : — 
 
 theo^lf''" 'L^t US not believe,' he says', 'that, after defrauding 
 aims!jivt7H,. widows aud orphans, we shall ensure our salvation by 
 
 giving to the altar a golden cup, adorned with precious 
 stones. If thou wishest to honour the sacrifice of the 
 Lord, offer as a gift thy soul, for which he suffered 
 death. Let that be of gold : for if thy soul he inferior 
 to lead, or to thejpotter s clay, what profiteth it thee, that 
 the vessel of thy offering he g olden f Let us not then 
 look to offering golden vessels only, but let us rather 
 offer good works. For they are more precious than 
 gold : being obtained without avarice or robbery. The 
 Church is neither a magazine of silver nor of gold, 
 but a community of angels ; wherefore we have need 
 of souls ; and it is for the sake of our souls that God 
 is pleased to accept such presents.' 
 
 With the same unwavering faithfulness we find him 
 uttering an eloquent rebuke against those who had taken part 
 in the great Festival which ushered in the new year. Many 
 heathen rites, with a superabundance of heathen licence 
 and sensuality, remained among the Christian body in the 
 celebration which lasted from the end of December to the 
 sixth of January ; and the following extract from a Sermon 
 preached on the first day of the new year, came therefore 
 as a check upon those who might be inclined to refrain 
 themselves, immediately after the debauch of the first day's 
 commemoration^ : 
 
 ^ Horn. Matih. L. (ed. Ben. 7, 508.) Bened.) This passage is translated 
 ^ Horn, in Kal. Jan. (3, 955, ed. in Neander's Life. 
 
Chrysostom. 145 
 
 ' It were the extreme of folly to expect good fortune chap. ix. 
 throughout the year from the good fortune of a single q^ ^/.^ ^^,„ 
 day : nor were it folly merely, but the very suggestion va^'^ ^^'^^^' 
 of the devil, to refer the character of our lives, not to (&. hln.) ""' 
 our own exertion and zeal, but to the mere revolution 
 of days. The whole year will be to you fortunate — 
 not if ye be drunken at the new moon of the first 
 month, but if upon the new moon and every day you 
 do that which is pleasing to God. — Each day is good 
 or evil, not through any character of its own ; for one 
 day differeth not from any other day, except as we 
 are diligent or slothful. If you work righteousness, 
 the day will be to you good ; if sin, then it will be 
 evil, and full of condemnation.' 
 Most truly has Keander said that the ministry of Chry- 
 sostom at Antioch between the outbreak of 387 and his 
 removal to Constantinople, is a miniature of his entire life. 
 One lifelong protest against vice and villany of every kind, 
 in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, — this was the callino- cfirj/xosioms 
 
 ' O Ministry ai 
 
 of the ' priest John,' of the illustrious Archbishop, of the ^»^*<'^'*- 
 exiled and suffering Saint. — And it was in Antioch at that 
 time more especially that such a protest Avas demanded 
 from him. The mean and evasive element in the character 
 of the inhabitants, which must often have afflicted his lofty 
 soul more than any mere display of rampant vice, is vividly 
 portrayed in the frantic or stupid terror which succeeded 
 the insane acts of insurrection and statue-violation that 
 marked the year 387. And it was the earnest resolution of -^^<' serwons 
 uhrysostom to adopt that time with all its intense agonies ^^'^^• 
 as a fresh start-point for still more diligent labours than 
 heretofore, if by any means he might make some sort of 
 impression upon the dissolute and thoughtless thousands 
 under his care. If he had ever before had the most latent, 
 the most darkly concealed fear of consequences, he now 
 knew that fear no more. 
 
 10 
 
ily. 
 
 146 The Oratorical Period Proper, 
 
 CHAP. IX. And with a freedom and boldness that no Christian 
 minister has ever surpassed, he inveighed against the pre- 
 vailing corruptions in every rank of society, even when 
 they appeared under a Christian guise. That he would do 
 so was clearly enough foreshadowed in the noble and out- 
 spoken application which he made of the calamity itself at 
 the time of Flavian's mission. 
 f>v. II. i7u. ' Do you grieve,' he said, when Antioch had been 
 po™j^?t 17 degraded to the position of a town under the jurisdic- 
 
 tion of Laodicgea\ ' because the dignity of our city has 
 been taken away? Learn then wherein the dignity 
 On ihedeora- of a citv Kcth ! and know, that if the city be betrayed 
 
 not by its people, no one hath power to deprive it 
 of its dignity. It consisteth not in the rank of metro- 
 polis, nor in the size and beauty of its buildings, nor 
 in the number of its columns and public walks, nor in 
 the precedence over other cities ; — but in the piety of 
 the people. This is the dignity, ornament, and security 
 of a city : and if it have not piety, it is of all cities the 
 most degraded, though honours innumerable be con- 
 ferred upon it by the Emperors. Would ye know the 
 true dignity of your city, and be made acquainted with 
 its ancestral glories? I will inform you of them, not 
 only that you may know, but likewise emulate them. 
 It was at Antioch that the disciples were first called 
 Christians. This is a singular honour: enjoyed not 
 even by the city of Romulus. Wherefore Antioch 
 may confront the whole earth, because of this love 
 for Christ, because of this fearless confession of its 
 faith.' 
 
 In a strain of cheerful exhortation he congratulates and 
 advises them upon the arrival of the messenger, with the 
 news from Flavian of the entire amnesty^: 
 
 1 Chr3'sost. Horn, ad Pop, Ant. xvii. (ii. 176, ed. Ben.) 
 
 2 Bqvi. ad Pop. Ant, xxi. (ii. 220, ed. Ben.) 
 
 On the am- 
 
Chrysostom. 147 
 
 ' As ye then did when ye crowned the market with chap. ix. 
 wreaths of flowers, kindled the lights, extended the 
 carpets before the workshops, and celebrated as it were 
 the birthday of a city, do always, but in a different 
 manner. Crown, not the forum with flowers, but 
 your souls with virtue. Kindle the light of good 
 works in your souls ; and rejoice with a spiritual 
 gladness. Let us not cease to thank God for the 
 mercy which He hath shewn to us ; and let us confess 
 our great obligations to Him.' 
 
 A very profitable portion of the remains of Chrysostom, 77ieSernioiies 
 
 •^ •• ^ ...... 1" Annam, 
 
 with regard to an understanding of his ministerial position ^•^^"- '^^• 
 at Antioch, is the series of six sermons* on the example of 
 Hannah, the mother of Samuel, as the pattern of a Chris- 
 tian wife and mother. Two of these sermons have been 
 translated into Latin by Erasmus : who also translated the &a.?mu*'* 
 
 Tx'iioi c* ^ ' ^ ' translation. 
 
 three on David and Saul, many parts of which are m a 
 very high style of pathetic eloquence. In the fourth sermon 
 of this course on Hannah he powerfully contrasts the 
 impatience of the sight-seeing multitude when at church 
 with their unwearied endurance at the Hippodrome^ : 
 
 'Here we behold even the chief place in the church The difference 
 
 ^ ^ between the 
 
 unoccupied ; but there not only the hippodrome, but '^'f'^^'/^^Jf * 
 also the upper seats, houses, roofs, steep walls, and a ^eiPittlf^' 
 thousand other places are filled. And neither poverty, ^^pp"'^''^"*-- 
 nor business, nor infirmity of body, nor any other 
 hindrance, restraineth this incontrollable madness. 
 But men weighed down by age hasten thither more 
 eagerly than the young, who are in life's full vigour : 
 disgracing hoar hairs, dishonouring their advanced 
 years, and bringing ridicule upon old age itself. 
 
 ^ Sermones in Annam. The se- ^ Chrysostom, Serm. in Annam, 
 
 cond and third are those which IV. (iv. 660 ed. Ben.) 
 Erasmus translated. 
 
 10—2 
 
Op. IV. 46( 
 {cd. lien.) 
 
 14S The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. IX. When tliey enter this place, they resemble squeamish 
 
 persons, and feel their attendance irksome: they fall 
 asleep while hearing the divine word ; and plead in 
 their defence the confined space, the suffocating heat, 
 and similar excuses. But there, while the sun striketh 
 upon their bare heads \ while they are trodden upon, 
 pushed to and fro, pressed together with great violence, 
 and suffering a thousand other inconveniences, they 
 seem to be as much regaled, as though they tarried 
 amid fragrant meadows.' 
 
 No special Hc poiuts out, iu the same sermon, that though Hannah 
 
 rirtiifi in the L ' '~^ ^ 
 
 " went into the temple to pour out her prayer, there is no 
 
 virtue t7i the 
 nature of 
 consecriiied 
 
 place. special virtue in the natm'e of a consecrated place, merely 
 
 as such ; and the sober and discreet words of this ancient 
 Preacher have a living significance in the present day : 
 
 Op. IT. 6G7. ' Let us not allege as an excuse [for omitting the duty] 
 that no house of prayer is near : since, if we be watch- 
 ful, the grace of the Spirit hath made ourselves to be 
 the temples of God. For our worship is not such as 
 existed formerly amongst the Jews, having many out- 
 ward ceremonies, and requiring much performance. 
 The Jew, when about to pray, needed to go up into 
 the temple to buy a dove, to take in his hands wood 
 and fire : to lay hold of a knife and stand near the 
 altar; and to perform many other ordinances. But 
 with us no such things are required. Wherever thou 
 art, thou bearest with thee altar, knife, and victim: 
 being thyself priest, altar, and sacrifice. Wherever 
 thou art, thou mayest erect an altar, if only thou 
 manifest a sober will. The place shall be no hin- 
 drance, the time no obstacle : and, though thou bend 
 not thy knees, nor beat thy breast, nor raise thine 
 
 ^ See below the pa3sage from Horn. Gen, vi. 
 
Chrysostom. 149 
 
 hands to heaven, but only discover a warm heart, thy chap, ix: 
 prayer shall be deficient in nought \' 
 
 The Homilies and Sermons on Genesis contain some Fxiempom 
 good illustrations of the readiness with which Chrysostom paxsino 
 made extempore allusion to passing events, and the skilful 
 way in which he worked out such allusions : 
 
 ' The concourse of clouds,' he says on the appearance of op. iv. m. 
 a sudden storm, ' has made it somewhat overcast for us 
 to-day. But the presence of our teacher^ has rendered 
 it brighter. For the sun, when he darts his beams 
 from the midst of the central summit of heaven, casts 
 no such light upon our bodies, as the presence of 
 paternal affection pours a brilliance into our souls, 
 darting its beams from the midst of the [episcopal] 
 throned' 
 
 The fourth Sermon on texts from Genesis has in it the 
 curious passage about the lighting of the lamps during 
 divine service : 
 
 ' lifthtino 
 
 ' Let me beg you to arouse yourselves, and to put away 2v , 
 that sluggishness of mind. But why do I say this ? ^"^ '^ ""'^'' 
 At the very time when I am setting forth before you 
 the Scriptures, you are turning your eyes away from 
 me, and fixing them upon the lamps, and upon the 
 man who is lighting the lamps. Oh ! of what a slug- 
 gish soul is this the mark, to leave the preacher and 
 tm-n to him. I too am kindlinsr the fire of the Scriiv op. iv. 597. 
 
 T , . , . ^ (ed.Ben.) 
 
 tures : and upon my tongue there is bm-ning a taper, 
 the taper of sound doctrine. Greater is this light, and 
 better, than the light that is yonder. For, unlike that 
 man, it is no wick steeped in oil, that I am lighting 
 
 ^ Chrysost. Sermones in Annam, just returned from his Mission to 
 IV. (IV. 697, ed. Ben.) Theodosius. 
 
 ^ The Bishop Flavian, who was '^ Gen. Serm.viu.{iy. 61 2, ed.Ben.) 
 
150 The Oratorical Period Proper, 
 
 up. I am rather inflaming souls, moistened with piety, 
 by the desire of heavenly discourse i.' 
 
 Again, in the Third Homily on David and Saul, having 
 perceived among the audience some persons who had 
 attended the Theatre instead of the Church the Sunday 
 before, he opens the discourse by expressing his regret 
 that he could not distinguish them with certainty, that so 
 he might exclude them from a participation in the Holy 
 Communion. He could have found a cordial assent to a 
 measure of this sort in the ardent and enthusiastic spirit of 
 Tertullian^ 
 
 The following extract contains an allusion to the noble 
 proportions, and interior accommodation of the Church 
 where they w^ere assembled. 
 
 ' Here, if we do but a little prolong our discourse, many 
 are annoyed and ill at ease, pleading pain and fatigue 
 of body, all the while that this wonderful roof is 
 affording them ample comforts : for they can feel no 
 inconvenience, either from cold, or from rain, or from 
 the violence of the winds : but there, though the rain 
 comes pouring down in torrents, and the winds blow 
 violent gusts, and the sun at other times darts down 
 its beams full warm upon them, they will linger on, 
 not one or two hours only, but the greater part of 
 a whole day^.' 
 
 One of the first acts of Chrysostom in connexion with 
 political affairs, after his removal to Constantinople, and 
 one of the noblest in his long and noble life, was the pro- 
 tection of the fallen minister Eutropius. The army had 
 forced the imbecile Arcadius to sign the sentence of dis- 
 missal ; and no sooner had the imperial favour been with- 
 drawn than Eutropius fled to that Asylum, the limits of 
 
 1 Gen. Serm. iv, (iv. 597, ed. Ben.) ^ See above, Chap. vi. 
 
 3 Jlom. Gen. Vi. (iv. 56, ed. Ben.) 
 
Op. in. 39 
 {ed. Ben.) 
 
 Chrysostom. 151 
 
 whose sanctity had been invaded by his own decree'. The chap. ix. 
 manly courage of Chrysostom, however, and his great in- 
 fluence, saved the wretched favourite for a time. He was 
 banished to Cyprus'"; but afterwards brouglit back and be- 
 headed at Chalcedon. 
 
 The following is an extract from Chrysostom' s first 
 Sermon on Eutropius, delivered the day after the fallen 
 minister had taken sanctuary in the church^ : — 
 
 'This day a most brilliant spectacle is presented to 
 
 my eyes. The church is thronged as at Easter ; and 
 this culprit, with a silence more eloquent than the 
 trumpet's voice, summons the city hither. 
 
 ' Ye virgins, abandoning your chambers, ye matrons, quit- nt wrrse. 
 ting your retirements, ye men, leaving the forum 
 empty, have flocked together here : that you might be- 
 hold the true nature of man demonstrated, the nothing- 
 ness of human grandeur publicly revealed, and yon 
 meretricious countenance, which yesterday and the 
 day before was bright with the colours of youth, now 
 betraying the grim wrinkles of age and disease. This 
 reverse of fortune, like a dripping sponge, has wiped 
 away the paint of the fictitious charm. Such is the 
 potency of this hapless day. It has rendered the 
 proudest of nature's tyrants the meanest, the most ab- 
 ject of her children. 
 
 ' Let the rich man enter here : abundant will be his gain. 57^^ tcrson n, 
 For, beholding the common scourge of nations de- 
 graded from such an elevation, tamed of his savage 
 nature, and become more timid than the most timid 
 animals, bound without fetters to that pillar, and girt 
 
 '^Milmst.n, Hist, of Ch'istian.111.22^. ^ Eutropius was cowering under 
 
 2 Quisquis adhuc similes eunuchus the Altar during the delivery of 
 
 tendit in actus, the Sermon. Unus turn et asyli 
 
 Bespiciens Cyprum desinat et Eutropii defensor fuit Clirysosto- 
 
 esse ferox. 7?iws. 
 
 Claudian, In Eutrop. ii. 75. 
 
 t/ie rich mm. 
 
The lexson to 
 t lie pour man. 
 
 The dutii of 
 Jorgh-encsa. 
 
 152 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. IX. around with fear as with a chain ; he calms the frenzy 
 
 of his pride, he quells his rising spirit, and learning 
 wisdom concerning man's state, as it is fitting he 
 should, he retires, learning from experience and feeling 
 with conviction, that all flesli is grass, and all the 
 glory of man as the flower of the field. 
 ' The poor man entering here, and gazing on yon 
 spectacle of woe, accounts not himself as vile, and 
 grieves not that he is poor. Nay, rather, he renders 
 thanks to his poverty, because it hath been to him an 
 asylum most secure, a harbour most tranquil, a citadel 
 
 girt about with much strength It now remains 
 
 that the application be made unto your hearts. Oh 
 what mercy, what pardon do you expect, if, when the 
 Emperor who has been insulted forgets the injury, you 
 who have sustained no insult can cherish such an 
 enmity. When this assembly shall be dissolved, w^ill 
 you have the hardihood to approach the mysteries, 
 and to repeat that prayer in which we are commanded to 
 say, "Forgive us, even as we forgive our debtors," 
 whilst ye are exacting justice of your debtor?' 
 
 Whatever may have been the cause of the bitter enmity 
 which was borne by Theophilus of Alexandria against 
 the L^imcii of Chry sostom — whether a real spirit of rivalry between the 
 two principal sees of the East, or a real conviction that the 
 assumption of authority by Chrysostom during his visita- 
 tion of Asia Minor was questionable, and ought to be 
 checked, or a private and personal pique of which the cause 
 is unknown to us — that bitter enmity soon became success- 
 ful hostility. Yet what was the tone of Chrysostom while 
 the ' Council of the Oak ' was pending ? — 
 
 ' What can I fear'? Will it be death ? But you know 
 
 The tone of 
 Chri/nostom 
 duriuri the 
 xessions of 
 
 Op. III. 427. 
 \,ed. Ben.) 
 
 1 Chrysostom, Opera, ill. 427, the sentiment is repeated again and 
 (ed. Ben.) The extract is from the again in the sermons of that pe- 
 little Homilia ante Exsilium : and riod. 
 
Clirysostom. 153 
 
 that Christ is my life, and that I shall gain by death, chap. ix. 
 Will it be exile ? But the earth and all its fulness is 
 the Lord's. Will it be the loss of wealth ? But we 
 have brought nothing into the world, and can carry no- 
 thing out. Thus all the terrors of the world are con- 
 temptible in my eyes ; and I smile at all its good things. 
 Poverty I do not fear. Kiches I do not sigh for. ^p- '"• ^35. 
 Death I do not shrink from, and life I do not desire, 
 
 save only for the progress of your souls But you 
 
 know\ my friends, the true cause of my fall. It is 
 that I have not lined my house with rich tapestry. It 
 is that I have not clothed me in robes of silk. It is 
 that I have not flattered the effeminacy and sensuality 
 of certain men, nor laid silver and gold at their feet. 
 
 But why need I say more? Jezebel is raising 
 
 her persecution, and Elias must fly : Herodias is taking 
 
 her pleasure, and John must be bound with chains : 
 
 the Egyptian wife tells her lie, and Joseph must be 
 
 thrust into prison. And so, if they banish me, I shall 
 
 be like Elias; if they throw me into the mire, like 
 
 Jeremiah ; if they plunge me into the sea, like the 
 
 prophet Jonah ; if into the pit, like Daniel ; if they 
 
 stone me, it is Stephen that I shall resemble ; John 
 
 the Forerunner, if they cut off my head ; Paul, if they 
 
 beat me with stripes ; Isaiah, if they saw me asunder.' 
 
 And then follow expressions resembling the famous — 
 
 ' Herodias again maddens : again she demands the head 
 
 of John ; again she dances for it.' These words, which are 
 
 the exordium of a later Sermon, are to be received with 
 
 great caution. Neander doubts their genuineness ^ 
 
 ^ Chrysost. Opera, in. 435, {Cum new plots {if indeed his language has 
 
 iret, &c.) been re-ported to us in its original 
 
 ^ The Sermon HoXlv fiaipeTai is form) to begin a discourse, &c.' 
 marked as spurious in Montfaucon's {Church Hist. iv. 476). The 'new- 
 edition. Neander's doubt is thrown plots* followed immediately after 
 into a parenthesis. ' He was hur- the affair of the silver statue of Eu- 
 ried along by his indignation at these doxia. 
 
154 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. IX. The following noble expression of gratitude to God in 
 iiis gratitude all circumstances whatever, was uttered soon after his re- 
 
 to God on his , , r^ . , • i i 
 
 restoration, tum to bonstantmople : — 
 
 Op. III. 439. ' Blessed be the Lord ! I said it when I departed. On 
 my return, I repeat it : and I ceased not from saying 
 it in my absence. You remember that on the last day 
 I recalled to you the image of Job, and his words, 
 " Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever." It is 
 the pledge that I left with you as I was departing ! it 
 is the thanksgiving that I bring back to you. The 
 situations are different. The hymn of gratitude is the 
 same. In exile I was always blessing. Returned 
 from exile I am blessing still. Winter and summer 
 work to the same end, the fertility of the earth. 
 Blessed be God who allowed me to go forth : blessed 
 again and again, in that He has called me back to you. 
 Blessed be God who unchains the tempest : blessed be 
 
 God who stills it, and has made a calm Through 
 
 all the diversity of time the temper of the soul is the 
 same ; and the pilot's courage has been neither relaxed 
 
 by the calm, nor overwhelmed by the tempest See 
 
 what the snares of my enemies have done ; they have 
 increased affection, and kindled regret for me, and have 
 won me six hundred admirers^. At other times it is 
 our own body alone who love me. To-day the very 
 
 Jews do me honour it is not the enemies that I 
 
 thank for their change of mind, but God, who has 
 turned their injustice to my honour. The Jews cruci- 
 fied the Lord and the world is saved ; yet it is not the 
 Jews that I thank, but the Crucified. May they see 
 that which our God sees ; the peace, the glory that 
 their snares have been worth to me. At other times 
 the church alone used to be filled. Now the public 
 
 ' Chrysost. Op. in. 439. (ed. Ben.) congregation, or to the surplus on 
 2 Alluding to the number of the the ordinary number. 
 
Chrysostom. 155 
 
 square is become the church . All heads are as im- chap. ix. 
 
 moveable as if they were one. All are silent, though 
 
 no one orders silence. All are contrite, too. There are 
 
 games in the Circus to-day : but no one assists at them. 
 
 All flow to the temple like a torrent. The torrent is 
 
 your multitude. The river's murmur is your voices, 
 
 that rise up to heaven, and tell of the love you bear to 
 
 your Father. Yom* prayers are to me a brighter crown 
 
 than all the diadems of earth.' 
 
 These extracts shall now be brought to a close by a Extracts on 
 selection of three short ones on the following^ subiects, The otnce.on 
 
 <^ "^ ' rusting, and 
 
 Priestly Office, Fasting, and the Presence of God in Social slncYofOod 
 and Domestic Life. It would be very easy to string toge- *" "'^ ^'^"*** 
 ther what are popularly called ' gems ' of eloquence : — pas- 
 sages on prayer, for instance, on the sufferings or triumph 
 of our Lord, on the endurance and blessed exaltation of the 
 martyrs, on the wonders of nature, or the glories of heaven. 
 It has been our intention, however, rather to bring forward 
 extracts, which may be at once specimens of the preacher's 
 oratory, and illustrations of his character and position. 
 With regard to the first of the remaining three, it consists 
 of an antithetical series on the limits of ecclesiastical and 
 secular authority. And it will be remembered that, if these 
 limits are somewhat rigorously stated, no man had a better 
 right than Chrysostom to speak freely and as of authority 
 upon the subject ; taking, as he did, the most sublime 
 views of his office, of its mission and of its authority, being, 
 as he was, severe to the last extreme in his demand for 
 purity, blamelessness, and moral superiority to the rest of 
 mankind. 
 
 Let the king* remain within his own boundaries ; for onthe 
 the boundaries of royalty are one thing, those of the '^'^'''• 
 priesthood another ; and these last are greater than the 
 
 1 Horn, in illud, Vid. Dom. IV. (vi. 126, ed. Ben.) 
 
156 The Oratorical Period Froper, 
 
 CHAP. IX. former. The king has received power to administer 
 
 0^7^126. the things which are in the worlds but the right of the 
 
 '^^'^ ^'"'■^ priest's office comes down from above. To the king 
 
 have been committed the things which are present: 
 
 to me, the things of heaven. When I saj to me, I 
 
 mean to priests Bodies have been entrusted to the 
 
 king, but souls to the priest ; the king remits arrears 
 of money, the priest arrears of sins. The one compels, 
 the other exhorts ; one enforces a law, the other gives 
 counsel ; one wields the arms of the flesh, the other the 
 arms of the spirit ; he wages war with Barbarians, but 
 my warfare is against devils. Mine is the mightier 
 princedom.' 
 
 or» Failing. The followiug similc, on Fasting \ is drawn out simply 
 
 enough, but rather more in the sentimental and diluted 
 style of Nazianzen's less worthy passages, than in the 
 energetic manner of Chrysostom. We must, of course, 
 bear in mind that fasting was to him a real duty, a real 
 privilege : — 
 Op. IV. 581. ' Sweet is the spring to sailors, and sweet to tillers of 
 the ground. But not to sailors, and not to tillers of 
 the ground is spring so sweet, as to the lovers of true 
 Wisdom is the season of fasting sweet, the spiritual 
 spring-time of our souls, the real calm of our imagina- 
 tions. For to husbandmen spring is sweet, because 
 they see the earth then garlanded with flowers, and, 
 like a garment spread over it on every side, the bud- 
 ding growth of the herbs; and to sailors spring is 
 sweet, because they can sail with safety over the broad 
 backs of the sea, now that the waves are levelled, and 
 the dolphins are playing in the deep calm, and are 
 floundering ever and anon against the very bulwarks 
 of the vessel. But sweet to us is the spring of fasting, 
 
 ' Chrysost, Serm, Gen. I. i. (iv. 581, ed. Ben.) 
 
Chrysostom. 157 
 
 a spring that will soothe within us waves, not of chap. ix. 
 waters, but of ungoverned desires ; and will crown us 
 with a garland not made with flowers, but with the 
 graces of the Spirit.' 
 
 Lastly, I adduce a passage^ from the Sermons on chap- 
 ters in Genesis, the quiet grace of which appears to me 
 equal to anything that has come under my own notice in 
 the remains of either ancient or modern times, and far sur- 
 passes many extracts of a more showy kind that are often 
 made from Chrysostom himself. It may seem strange that 
 the same man who delivered the following exhortation 
 should have penned the Adversus Oppugnatores. None 
 but a shallow judgment, however, would ground upon the 
 identity a charge of inconsistent thought. We should 
 rather call it an evidence of the utter earnestness that per- 
 vaded Chrysostom, the hearty and sympathetic fellowship 
 that he entertained towards every expression whatever in 
 act of that which was morally good and true. 
 
 ' Nothing is sweeter than discourse on divine things. The. Presence 
 
 r\ ^ ^ ^ ^ t\ ^ p • xt of God in tfic 
 
 (Jnly near what the rrophet says oi it : " How sweet g^«''^- ^^^ 
 are thy sayings to my taste ; beyond honey and the ^*^' ■^^"•* 
 honeycomb to my mouth." 
 
 * Set then this honeycomb upon your evening table ^, 
 
 that you may fill it full of spiritual delight. You 
 
 1 Chrysost. Serm. Gen. viii. 2. Their object, and their subject, 
 (iv. 619) ed. Ben. and their hope ; 
 
 2 We may compare with the whole They felt what it became them 
 passage the lines in Cowper's Con- much to feel, 
 
 versation : And, wanting him to loose the 
 
 * Now their's was converse, such as sacred seal, 
 
 it behoves Found him as prompt as their de- 
 Man to maintain : and such as sire was true 
 
 God approves : To spread the new-born glories in 
 
 Their views, indeed, were indis- their view.' 
 
 -,inct and dim The thoughts are very similar, 
 
 Bu t yet successful, being aimed at ^^^^^ ^o those at the close of Latimer's 
 
 i-iJ""^' J -L- t. J. ^1 • 1 Sermon on The Marriage in Cana 
 Cfc rist and his character their only ^f Galilee 
 jcope, 
 
158 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. IX. know tlie custom of rich men ; when their meals are 
 
 over they call in harpists and flute-players. While 
 they are thus turning their private dwelling-houses 
 into theatres, do you make of yours a heaven. And 
 you will do so, not by changing the walls, nor alter- 
 ing the foundations, but by calling down upon your 
 table the very Lord of Heaven. God is not ashamed 
 of meals like these ; for where spiritual teaching is, 
 there is temperance, there gravity and godliness: 
 where a husband, and a wife, and children are bound 
 together in harmony and love, and all the bonds of 
 virtue, there is Christ in the midst of them. 
 
 * Yes, it is no golden roof, nor splendour of pillars, nor 
 fair beauty of marbles that He seeks ; but it is the 
 bloom of the soul, and an excellent shaping of the 
 understanding, and a table furnished with righteous- 
 ness, and bearing the fruits of mercy. 
 
 ' And when He beholds a table set out in such wise, 
 quickly does He become a partaker in that company, 
 and makes Himself one among them.' 
 
 ' Sodom had its towers,' he says elsewhere^, ' Abram 
 had his tent ; yet the angels turned aside from Sodom, 
 and bent their way to the tent. For they sought not 
 a splendid edifice : but they looked around for holi- 
 ness, the beauty of the soul.' 
 
 It has always seemed to me probable, that if a person 
 
 who had read only the lives of Chrysostom and Augustine, 
 
 being ignorant of their writings, were to meet with the 
 
 neander's preface to Ncaudcr's First Edition of Chrysostom's Life, 
 
 that chrysos- hc would bclicve that he had fallen on a misprint. ' The 
 
 torn resem- ^ 
 
 andAifgu"-' Biographics,' he says, ' of the two great Fathers, Augustine 
 ^^"john. ^nd Clirysostom, the former of whom may he said to resemble 
 
 ^ Horn, in illud, Vid. Bom. IV. passage in Isaiah vi. : *I sa.v the 
 (The fourth of five Homilies on the Lord upon a throne.'; 
 
Clirysostom. 159 
 
 8t John, and the latter St Paul, afford matter of peculiar chap. ix. 
 interest,' &c. The person whom I am supposing, remem- ~ 
 
 bering in connexion with the seventh chapter of the Epistle 
 to the Komans the severe crisis brought on in the soul of 
 Augustine by the predominance of wild passions, and re- 
 membering also that the development of Chrysostom had 
 been comparatively a quiet and harmonious one, carried on 
 under the influence of scripture-study and of pious friends 
 and associates, would wish to transpose the words 'former' 
 and Matter.' He would, probably, be confirmed in this 
 opinion by the circumstance of Augustine's Confessio^is 
 being so largely made use of in the compilations of his 
 life ; and indeed, though differences become very prominent 
 on a closer examination, there seems at first to be every 
 resemblance between the spirit of the Confessions and the 
 spirit of ' wretched man.' 
 
 On an examination of even a small portion of their its validity. 
 works, however, we find that the Preface of Neander is not 
 faulty, but only that it is based on a knowledge of the two 
 men, and not alone on a perusal of their lives. We do not 
 know how far the words of St Paul are to bear a literal 
 and personal meaning : and whatever presumption may be 
 allowed us, is decidedly in favour of his having passed a 
 regular and studious youth. Gamaliel was the Libanius of 
 St Paul ; and, different as the two cases really were, there 
 was much to be done for Judaism similar to what Libanius 
 hoped that Chrysostom might do for Paganism. But, 
 whatever degree of literal and personal interpretation is to 
 be applied to the text in point, we come to understand on 
 reading the De Sacerdotio, and on considering the lofty 
 and severe ideal there drawn and consecrated, what a real 
 sympathy Chrysostom must have had with a conflict such 
 as is described in the seventh of Komans, and how thoroughly 
 a share in it — though not the sort of share Avhicli Augustine 
 had — would have come within his own experience. 
 
160 The Oratorical Period Projper, 
 
 CHAP. IX. The De Sacerdotio ^ is considered by some critics to 
 TTte De Sa- havc bccn writtcii when the author was very young. So- 
 crates thinks that he wrote it during his Deaconate : 
 Dupin, with greater probability, assigns it to the period 
 of retirement immediately preceding his entering Deacon's 
 Orders, that is to say, he places it about the year 378. But 
 whenever the great Minister wrote this Treatise on his own 
 holy calling, he was clearly penetrated already with the one 
 deep consciousness that pervades his whole public life. 
 He was in his own eyes, — and he almost shuddered at the 
 responsibility while his soul rose to the dignity — a Priest 
 of the most High God, and an Ambassador of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Of both characters did he appreciate the 
 very essence : and having laboured by prayer, and fasting, 
 and much solitude, and many tears, to acquaint himself if 
 it might be with the whole counsel of God, he shunned 7iot^ 
 — the Homilies are a proof for us — to declare it all. 
 airyxostom's I havc heard on ffood authority, that in carryino- on the 
 
 Homilies , . t . i t • \t -i 
 
 d^fedink, ^^^^^ ^^ evangelization at the present day m Madras, a 
 Tanni. studcut of Chiysostom has been in the habit of rendering 
 the Homilies or extracts from them almost verhatim into 
 the Tamil Language ; and that the experiment has been 
 full of success, attended with ease and profit to the trans- 
 lator, as well as with a ready effect produced upon the people. 
 Now this appears to me to be at once most natural, and 
 to give by illustration a fair summary of Chrysostom's 
 great virtue as a Preacher. For it is the conscience of man, 
 not his opi7iions^, that he chiefly addresses. It is the fruits 
 of a theology, elevated and purified, that he lays before 
 his hearers. And the technicalities of theology itself he, 
 for the most part, eschews. Moreover in treating Scrip- 
 
 ^ Dupin. III. 2 9. \eiav (tkovovvO' viroaT elXaadat ire- 
 
 2 It is interesting to find Demos- pi cov vfuv crvficpipeLv i^yovfiai. — Dem, 
 
 thenes using St Paul's very word 14 A. (First Olynthiac.) 
 
 (vir€(rT€L\d.ur}v—see Motto of Chap. ^ Milman, Hist, of Christianity/, 
 
 ix.) in a precisely similar sense: — III. 210. 
 
 oil ixriv oT{J.ac decy ttjv iUav dacpd- 
 
Chrysostom. 
 
 161 
 
 illus- 
 trates his 
 
 eat virtve 
 as aPreucher. 
 
 ture\ though a perfect master of illustration, he avoids the chap. 
 speculative allegory which had been so common among his This 
 predecessors, and continues throughout to be plain, severe, %\ 
 practical. 
 
 A man who values his position in the Church of Christ, 
 and with simple childlike spirit yearns towards that yearn- 
 ing bosom, its consolations, and its nourishment, will be 
 aware of a well-spring of dutiful affection uprising within 
 his heart, as he names the name of St John Chrysostom, 
 and thankfully calls him ' Father.' 
 
 ^ The following extract bearing 
 on 1 Cor. Horn. 33 is curious, as re- 
 cording a probable * slip' on the part 
 of Chrysostom relating to the au- 
 thorship of the Psalms : — 
 
 'In his 33rd Homily on i Cor. 
 [Chrysostom] has these words : " Es- 
 pecially not all things spoken by 
 David in the Psalms are spoken in 
 the person of David. For it is he 
 himself who saith, / have dwelt in 
 the tents of Kedar, and by the waters 
 of Babylon there we sat and wept. 
 But he never saw Babylon nor the 
 
 tents of Kedar." There may not be 
 sufl&cient grounds to determine ac- 
 curately who was the author of either 
 of these two Psalms cited by Chry- 
 sostom : but there can be no doubt 
 in the mind of any reflecting person, 
 even though he be not skilled in the 
 criticism of the Book of Psalms, that 
 the 137th cannot be anterior to the 
 captivity of Babylon.' — Edinburgh 
 Review, Jan. 1853. 
 
 [In a review of Hippolyti(s and 
 His Age.] 
 
 11 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Oratorical Period Proper. (3) Augustine. 
 
 "Q, pdOos irKovTov Kal aocpias Kal yvdoaeus Qeov. 
 
 St Paul. 
 
 Augustine, by the extraordinary adaptation of his genius to his own age, 
 the comprehensive grandeur of his views, the intense earnestness of his 
 character, his inexhaustible activity, the warmth, vigour, and perspicuity 
 of his style, had a right to command the homage of Western Christendom. 
 
 MiLMAN. 
 
 Augustine. 
 
 CHAP. X. A.D. 
 
 Aurelius Augustinus bom at Tagastb in Numidia 354 
 
 Augutline. . ^^ joins the Manichees about 373 
 
 [having turned from immoral habits at Carthage 1, 
 and devoted liimself to philosophy.] 
 
 ,, Professor of Rhetoric at Tagaste 375 
 
 ,, ,, „ at Carthage 376? 
 
 ,, Faustus at Carthage 384 
 
 [Augustine joins the Academics, and writes De 
 Apto et Pulchro. He leaves the Manichees.] 
 
 „ Augustine at Milan 384 
 
 .,, conversion to the Catholic Faith 386 
 
 [Monica dies.] 
 
 ,, returns to Africa 388 
 
 „ ordained Presbyter on visit to Hippo 389 
 
 ,, consecrated Bishop-Coadjutor 395 
 
 ,, „ full Bishop 396 
 
 ,, conference with the Donatists 411 
 
 „ Controversy with Pelagius begins 412 
 
 [Rome taken by Alaric, 410. This causes the Pa- 
 gans to attack Christianity, and casts a spirit of de- 
 spondency over the Christians. On which account] 
 
 ,, the 'City of God' written 413 — 426 
 
 ,, Genseric entei-s Africa 429 
 
 [under pretence of supporting the Donatists, Hippo 
 besieged. The siege lasts 14 months, in the third 
 of which number, Augustine] 
 ,, dies Aug. 28, 430 
 
 In consequence of a perusal of Cicero's Hortensius. (Aug. Conf. ) 
 
Augustine. 163 
 
 WE will begin by giving some account of Hippo, tlie chap. x. 
 see which, though humble, w^as adhered to by 
 Augustine with a faithful tenacity throughout his whole 
 Christian ministry. 
 
 Hippo Regius, now called Bona, was a considerable ^Reguu. 
 city on the Numidian coast of Northern Africa. The 
 name ' Regius ' was given to it in consequence of its 
 having been granted by the Romans to King Masinissa, 
 who made it a royal residence. The name was also a dis- 
 tinctive one: as there was another Hippo — Hippo Zarytus 
 — further to the East. 
 
 The Episcopal seat of Augustine held no mean rank ^orthcrn^^ 
 among the cities of North Africa, though it suffered ter- ^•^'"*'^"' 
 ribly in the Vandal invasion. It would have been reason- 
 able to suppose, with regard to the whole of that coast, 
 that its position relatively to the untamed barbarians of 
 Northern Europe would be comparatively secure; that it 
 would prove, as it were, an Ulysses to the barbarian Cy- 
 clops; that even when devoured, it would be devoured, so 
 to speak, kindly: in other words, that it would be overrun 
 by barbarians who had almost ceased to be barbarians, 
 and who had been tempered and softened by previous 
 contact with the civilised nations who lay between them 
 and Africa. This, however, was not the case. During 
 the whole of Augustine's episcopate, excepting only the 
 last year, it did indeed present the appearance of being 
 one of the most happy, or the least unfortunate portions of 
 the Roman Empire. That year reversed the whole aspect Thf siege of 
 of affairs. In 429 Genseric crossed the narrow seas: and, 
 after the defeat of Count Boniface, the seven fruitfuP 
 provinces, from Tangier to Tripoli, were completely over- 
 whelmed^. Hippo sustained a siege of fom-teen months, 
 Augustine refusing to quit his post, but being gently 
 
 ^ Hor. Carm. I. i, lo and iii. i6, 31, 'Libycis areis,' 'Fertilis Africse.' 
 ^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vi. 20. 
 
 11—2 
 
164 
 
 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 llic internal 
 capabilUics 
 of the 
 ciiuntri/. 
 
 Ttw climate. 
 
 The moder 
 tmrii. 
 
 released when only three months had past. Gibbon, who 
 thinks that a consideration of what was advantageous to 
 the Vandals themselves must lead us to regard the ac- 
 counts of their barbaric measures as greatly exaggerated, 
 admits nevertheless that the calamities of war appeared in 
 a horribly aggravated form. 
 
 It is pleasant to turn from the external calamities to 
 the great internal capabilities and resources of this region. 
 The western part of the north belt of Africa is the most 
 favoured region of the whole continent. Its coast, unlike 
 the straight flat shore of the eastern half of the belt, is 
 lofty, picturesque, and (comparatively) deeply indented 
 with harbours. One of the best of these was that of 
 Hippo Regius. Juvenal mentions^ the umhriferi saltus 
 of Tabraca: and Hippo was perhaps equally mountainous, 
 and equally woody. The modern Bona^ is built at the 
 foot of a hill which rises to the north and north-west 
 of the town; the hill being part of a coast-range. Into 
 its bay flows the Seiboos, anciently Ubus, one of the 
 many streams which, never appearing in prominence as 
 great rivers, yet beautify and fertilize the northern belt 
 of Africa. 
 
 The climate of Hippo, in common with the rest of the 
 country, is more splendid than happy: the combined 
 effects of much wood, moderate water, a neighbouring 
 desert, and a neighbouring sea, operating upon it. It is 
 far more salubrious than that of the western coast; more 
 genial and tolerable than that of the east and south. Bona 
 (the name being corrupted from Hippon) is now in the 
 possession of the French; it has a population of ten thou- 
 sand, six thousand of whom are Europeans. The mud- 
 
 1 Juv, Sat. X. 194, 
 
 2 Hippo was finally destroyed by 
 the Arabs in the 7th century : the 
 new town, two miles distant, was 
 raised from the old materials : and it 
 
 contained, in the 1 6th century, about 
 three hundred families of industri- 
 ous, but turbulent, manufacturers, — 
 Gibbon, VI. 22. 
 
Augustine. 165 
 
 choked harbour lias been cleared; the town fortified; and chap. x. 
 it now has a character far more French than African. 
 
 In this African town there laboured, for the last few ^^tia^^r' 
 years of the fourth century and the first thirty of the fifth, '^"^/"*'""^- 
 a man quite of another type than that of the great Ori- 
 ental commemorated in the preceding chapter ; of another 
 type, moreover, than his own predecessors in the direction 
 of Western Christendom; if, indeed, Tertullian and Cy- 
 prian, provincials by birth like Augustine, but men who 
 continued to be provincials, can be said to have held the 
 spiritual direction of the Western world in any sense in 
 which Augustine held it. He was a man whose grasp of 
 intellect was enormous, his energy intense, and, above all 
 (a feature which Milman has pointed out), his appearance 
 was happily timed, so that his mental action was precisely 
 suited to the period during which he lived. After his 
 earlier phasis of Manicheeism, he passed through a period 
 of Platonism to a cordial acceptance of the Christian 
 Faith. Tennemaim^ has worked out a little summary oi Augmtine 
 
 • c -i -I 1 ^ c 1 hefore his 
 
 his tenets, as they manifested themselves before the srreat <^oiiiHon wuh 
 
 ' «^ _ c" Fclagiamsm. 
 
 mind of Augustine came into collision with Pelagianism, 
 and was driven, by influences arising out of that collision, 
 to a more confident dogmatism, a more defined system. 
 The works which Tennemann, writing it must be remem- 
 bered not altogether unbiassed, has employed chiefly in 
 the compilation of his summary, are the De Arhitrio Liber o, 
 the De Quantitate Animce (a most remarkable work), and 
 some parts of the De Civitate Dei. He finds the necessary 
 existence of God; His manifestation as Creator of the 
 world, and as the Eternal Law of Truth and Right; His 
 design that all reasonable beings shall reach happiness 
 through the practice of virtue, and consequently His en- 
 dowment of them with reason and free-will, the use of 
 
 1 Manual of the History of Philosophy, § 233. 
 
166 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. X. whicli is committed to the option of the agent. He finds, 
 further, that man has a certain intuitive ideal perception of 
 God ; and that God is in fact, according to Augustine, the 
 summum honum of the spiritual world, to whom we labour 
 to reunite ourselves. Augustine's theory of the Universe 
 appears to be, according still to Tennemann, a perfect sum 
 of existences, comprising all possible beings in all possible 
 degrees. Bj this theory he would obviate many a diffi- 
 culty that was vexing the Oriental mind ; for instance, he 
 would explain the existence of evil men, as a necessary 
 complement to the sum of the Universe. 
 
 His later- After the disputes with Pelagius, Augustine entirely 
 
 remodelled this system, denying that man is possessed of 
 free-will, so far as the doing of good is concerned, but not 
 as affects the commission of evil ; and deducing the dogmas 
 of Absolute Predestination and Irresistible Grace \ It is 
 from this later sj^stem, which is what is commonly under- 
 stood by the term Augustinianism, that so much of modern 
 divinity has been derived. It underlies the popular theo- 
 logy^ of most of the protestant sects; it was reduced by 
 Luther into a system, less logical and complete, perhaps, 
 but less discrepant with the real spirit of Augustine, than 
 the more uncompromising Calvinism ; and Jansenius mould- 
 ed it into the Koman Catholic doctrine. 
 
 Nifimhr'sre- To tliis summary of his mental and. religious develop- 
 ment we may add the brief and general critique of Niebuhr^, 
 who says that St Augustine possessed a truly philosophic, 
 mind ; and that he was as much guided by a desire to form 
 an unbiassed conviction as any other of the great philo- 
 sophers. In addition to this, he calls his language ' very 
 noble;' and says that, though not witty like St Jerome, 
 
 1 The books of the De Civitate 12), (xxii, 30). 
 Dei, referred to by Tennemann, at ^ Milman, iii. 264. 
 
 this point, are (x. 10), (xv, 21), (xxi. ^ Niebuhr, Lectures, ill. 339. 
 
Augustine. 167 
 
 he is truly eloquent. A little higher on the same page he chap. x. 
 applies the term ' giants ' to these two Saints. 
 
 I shall proceed now to give a short account of two 
 among Augustine's vastly voluminous writings ; nor need it 
 excite surprise if the De Civitate Dei, the first of the two, 
 should be found to occupy considerably less space in the 
 consideration, than the second, which is forty or fifty times 
 smaller; namely, the Fom^th Book of the De Doctrind 
 Christiana. The object is, to get the grandeur of con- T(ot rcprc- 
 ception m the mi2;hty work, which occupied thirteen years portions of 
 of Augustine's lifetime, brought out before our eyes in ^''"■*'- 
 something like bold relief; and then to turn to the minuter 
 details of the De Doctrind iv., which contains for us a truly 
 valuable collection of rules and suggestions on preaching. 
 The remarks on the first are borrowed chiefly from Milman^; 
 the analysis of the second I have carefully made from the 
 small Tauchnitz edition of the De Doctrind and the Enchi- 
 ridion. The Benedictine heading to the Fourth Book is com- 
 plete as far as it goes : but it was hardly to be supposed 
 that a treatise of thirty-one chapters should be adequately 
 described for purposes such as the present in the space of 
 seven or eight lines. 
 
 The capture of Eome by Alaric in 410 had appalled the The occasion 
 whole Empire. Murmurs were very widely heard, impeach- <^i^"itate Dei. 
 ing the new religion as the cause of this catastrophe ; and 
 Pagan ceremonies were actually performed in the hour of 
 peril, to avert at the last moment, if yet that might be, the 
 impending ruin. The Roman aristocracy were scattered over 
 the world : and were quite sure for every reason to spread 
 the notion of alienated deities as the cause of the disastrous 
 overthrow. The feeling of uneasiness, then, was becoming 
 general, and this last stir of men's hearts on behalf of the 
 dying or dead superstitions required some sort of quietus, 
 when Augustine stepped forward ; and in the great work 
 1 A.D. 313 — 426. 2 Milman, in. 278 — 282. 
 
168 
 
 The Oratorical Period Pi 
 
 roper. 
 
 CHAP. X. which bears the name of the City of God, pronounced at 
 " once the funeral oration of the ancient Society, and the gra- 
 lifnfstd ^^^^^^J panegyric on the birth of the new. The design is, 
 SctiVe^" therefore, divided into two great portions. The first ten 
 books are devoted to the question of the connexion between 
 prosperity and the Pagan religion. Five treat of the influence 
 of Paganism in this world, and five of the same influence 
 in the world to come. He denies the necessary connexion 
 of worldly prosperity and divine favour ; he also denies the 
 exemption of the old Romans from disgrace and distress, 
 in right of the worship paid to their ancient gods ; and 
 ascribes their former success to valour and virtue, their 
 ruin to proud ambition and enervating vice. His whole 
 force of intellect is employed in the last half of this decade, 
 not so much in overthrowing the old popular religion, 
 which he despises, as in combating the mystic Platonism 
 of a later period. He had the warrant of his own expe- 
 rience that Platonism was a worthy antagonist. 
 
 The last twelve books are, on the contrary, constructive. 
 They ' place in contrast the origin, the pretensions, the 
 fate, of the new city, that of God; he enters at large 
 into the evidences of Christianity ; he describes the sancti- 
 fying effects of the faith ; but pours forth all the riches of 
 his imagination and eloquence on the destinies of the 
 church at the Resurrection \' A new social system had 
 emerged from the ashes of the old; and this system was 
 to go on fighting its way, until the whole world itself has 
 experienced a total change. He has most ably avoided, in 
 treating of the Resurrection, the material grossness of 
 Chiliastic theories as one extreme, and the subtle unreali- 
 ties of Pantheism as another. 
 
 I now proceed to analyse, chapter by chapter, the Fourth 
 Book of the Treatise, De Doctrind Christiana; and I think 
 it will appear that Augustine, whose mind was compre- 
 1 Milman, ill. c8i. 
 
Augustine. 169 
 
 hensive enough to originate and to carry out the very chap. x. 
 splendid design just described, possessed also the sagacity 
 requisite to point out the best practical rules for himself 
 and for those of less power than he had, in the matter of 
 preaching the GospeL 
 
 ANALYSIS. 
 
 Pref. AuG:ustine has already written three books, ' Of i>e Dootr. 
 
 o *' 5 "^ Christ. IV. 
 
 finding out\' He will now essay a last, ' Of setting forth.' 
 [De Inveniendo. De Froferend6\, 
 
 § 1. He warns off any who expect to gain mere precepts 
 of Rhetoric. 
 
 § 2. Yet Rhetoric is useful, and should be enlisted on 
 behalf of the Truth. 
 
 § 3. The Art of Rhetoric should be acquired by a man 
 when young; and chiefly by hearing good models. 
 But the study of Ecclesiastical Literature, both canoni- 
 cal and extra-canonical, is of incalculable benefit. It 
 may make men able to speak well. But, if not that, 
 it may do better ; and cause them to act well. 
 
 § 4. The preacher, therefore, as a champion of the true 
 faith and an opponent of error, sliould tend all Ms best 
 efforts to teaching good and unteacMng evil. Sub- 
 ordinately to this end, he may be called on to employ 
 various styles of address [e.g. simple narrative, en- 
 treaty, rebuke, animated appeal, &c.] according as the 
 hearer is to be merely instructed, or roused to a prac- 
 tical sense of what he knows already. 
 
 § 5^ It is far better to speak with true knowledge 
 (sapienter) than with mere Art (eloquenter) . And a 
 man is said to speak with more or less of true know- 
 
 ^ Cf. De Doctr. Christ, i, i. be understood, and the method of 
 
 * There are two things on which all setting forth what has been under- 
 
 treatment of the Scriptures depends ; stood.' 
 
 the method oi finding out what is to ^ Qf j)^ Doctr. Christ, i. 5. 
 
170 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 ;hap. X. ledge, as he has made a greater or less advance in the 
 
 ' study of t?ie Scriptures. This Scripture-knowledge 
 
 may go a great way as a substitute for artistic elo- 
 ^ quence. But an union of the two is rather desirable. 
 
 § 6. The question may be raised, ' Are the authors of 
 the Scriptures possessed of true knowledge merely, or 
 are they eloquent as well?' Augustine discerns in 
 them an eloquence of their own ; as truly suited to 
 their holy character as a young man's talk is suited to 
 youth, and an old man's to age. So perfect is the 
 congruity in passages recognised as eloquent, that the 
 words seem less to have been chosen by the author, 
 than to have belonged by a kind of necessity to the 
 subject. 
 
 § 7. [An examination of three passages, Rom. v. 3 fF. ; 
 2 Cor. xi. 16 if; Amos vi. 1 ff.] The examination 
 goes on to prove the congruity spoken of in the last 
 chapter : and the passages are explained as presenting 
 an union of ' sapientia ' and ' eloquentia^.' 
 
 § 8. With regard to the obscure parts of Scripture, the 
 minister is by no means to allow himself in any imita- 
 tion of them. Perspicuity is to he the aim of him who 
 would ' set forth ' well. 
 
 § 9. Certain points which it is not wise to bring for- 
 ward in public assemblies may be expounded in 
 ^ private, provided that clearness not artistic merit be 
 regarded in the exposition. 
 
 § 10. The idea of clearness is expanded in a series of 
 most useful practical remarks, the spirit of which is 
 thus summed up ; ' that he is the best preacher, who 
 provides that his hearer hears the truth, and that what 
 he hears he understands.' 
 
 § 11. [A very suggestive little chapter.] The province 
 
 1 Absolute truthfulness and relative beauty. 
 
Augustine. 171 
 
 of didactic eloquence is to hrmg to light what is hidden: chap. x. 
 and, however roughly this may be done, the intelligent 
 hearer will value its being done. What is the use of a 
 golden key, if it will not act; and what the disad- 
 vantage of a wooden one, if it will ? Still, to change 
 the simile, some intellectual food must always be 
 served up spiced. This leads to 
 
 § 12. A description of Cicero's dictum^, ' probare neces- 
 sitatis est, delectare suavitatis, flectere victoria.' The 
 paramount importance of truthful teaching is in- 
 sisted on. 
 
 § 13. Additional charms are not to be neglected ; but 
 all is to be held subservient to the great end, viz. of 
 bending the hearer to action. And that is the preacher's ^ 
 victory. 
 
 § 14. Attractiveness in preaching must always be tem- 
 pered (1) by sound doctrine, and (2) by gTavity. With 
 regard to the first, Jeremiah v. 30 points to a period 
 in the Jewish Church when sound doctrine was sacri- 
 ficed to a meretricious eloquence. (' The 'prophets j^r o- 
 phesy falsely^ &c.') Ah ! how far more terrible, more 
 pure, more forcible is this rebuke, than any of the re- 
 buked strains of eloquence could have been ! And as 
 to the lack of gravity, even where orthodoxy is pre- 
 served, we may learn from an epistle of Cyprian^ how 
 bad the result is even in the case of so great a Father ; 
 always remembering that Cyprian may have had a 
 special reason for here transgressing his usual custom. 
 
 § 15. It is, in truth, more by the Christian fervour of 
 his Sermons than by any endowments of his intellect, 
 
 1 Cicero, Orat. xxi. Augustine which Augustine regards the pas- 
 has substituted the word ' docere' sage, which begins with the word 
 for 'probare.' Petanius, about 12 lines from the 
 
 ^CyT[>T'ia.n. Episiol. 1. ad Donaium. commencement, and ends at tecta 
 
 It is curious to notice the way in fecerunt. 
 
172 The Oratorical Period Frojper. 
 
 ;hap. X. that the minister must hope to inform the understand- 
 
 ^ ings, and catch the affections, and bend the will of his 
 hearers. The Holy Spirit will come to his assistance. 
 Promised (Matt. x. 19) to those who for Christ were 
 delivered over to persecution, it will not be withheld 
 from those who are engaged in delivering Christ into 
 the hands of learners. 
 
 § 16. Nothing, however, is more unwise in itself, and 
 more alien to the spirit and to the letter of the Di- 
 vine Economy, than to suppose that the gifts of the 
 Spirit justify us in relaxing our efforts. 
 
 § 17. In brief, then, this is the legitimate object of 
 every one who endeavours by speaking to persuade 
 men of what is good ; namely, that he be so heard as 
 to^ inform the understanding, secure the affections, and 
 bend the will of his auditors. Cicero seems to hint at 
 this triple division^ when he says, Is eritigitur eloquens 
 {ut idem illud iteremiis) qui poterit parva suinmiss^^ 
 modica temperate, magna graviter dicer e.' 
 
 § 18. In Christian Oratory, however, there can be no 
 such distinctions of subject, morally, as are implied in 
 the terms ' little,' ' middling,' ' great.' The radii of a 
 small ring are as much equal to one another as those 
 of a large-sized disk. And in like manner. Righteous- 
 ness is one and the same, in that which is little and in 
 that which is much. No believer would think of 
 undervaluing our Lord's promised reward to humble 
 charity^, merely because a cup of cold water is in itself 
 trifling, and almost valueless. 
 
 § 19. Bearing in mind, therefore, the importance of his 
 subject-matter*, we may safely lay down the following 
 
 1 To be heard, that is, intelligen- ^ St Matt. x. 42. 
 
 ter, libenter, obedienter. Or, accord- ^ * That it is always magna, never 
 
 ing to the other formula, parva or modica, never of less than 
 
 P^^^^^n, delectare, flectere. momentous interest, in a moral 
 
 docere S pomt ol view. 
 
 2 Cicero, Orator. 29. 
 
Augustine. 17b 
 
 distinctions of style to be observed by tlie preacher, ch^, x. 
 according to the several exigencies of application. Is ~ 
 
 he conveying instruction ? he should use the low and 
 gentle style. Is he bestowing praise or blame ? the 
 even and regulated style. Is he rousing the sluggish 
 or diseased^ will to a performance of duty ? the lofty 
 and impressive. 
 
 § 20. Examples of all these styles are extracted from 
 the writings of St Paul. The low and quiet (suhmissa 
 dictio) is illustrated from Gal. iv. 21 ff. and iii. 15 ff. ; 
 in the first of which passages the Judaizing Galatians 
 are met by an allegory ; and in the second the redemp- 
 tion of the world through Christ is vindicated against 
 the exclusive claims of the special covenant. 
 
 Several passages are brought forward in explanation of 
 the even and regulated mode of speech [temperata 
 dictio)', the chief of them being Eom. xii. 1, xii. 6^, 
 xiii. 6, xiii. 12 ^ 
 
 The lofty and impressive style {grande dicendi genus) 
 is nobly represented by 2 Cor. vi. 2*, and Eom. viii. 
 28 ff^. And the chapter is brought to a close by an 
 extract from Gal. iv. 10 ff^, which is characterised by 
 Augustine as the one ' lofty ' passage in a production, 
 the general tone of which is 'low and quiet,' diver- 
 sified by the ' even and regular ' style at the begin- 
 ning and the end. 
 
 § 21. To these passages are subjoined extracts from 
 SS. Cyprian and Ambrose, each Father being made 
 to illustrate all three styles of speaking^. 
 
 ^. 
 
 1 A distinction which hints at a ■* Behold, now is the accepted 
 
 very important variety of means to possessing all things. 
 
 be employed by the skilful Preacher. ^ We know that all things work 
 
 2 Having then gifts one to- Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
 ward another. ^ Ye observe days stand in 
 
 ■^ The night is far spent lusts doubt of you. 
 
 thereof. '' There is no need of drawing up 
 
OHAr^- X. 
 
 174 The Oratorical Period Prober, 
 
 . § 22. A yariety of usage should be employed, one style 
 being made to relieve another. But, above all, care 
 must be taken not to prolong the ' lofty and impres- 
 sive ' style beyond judicious limits. The very strain 
 upon the mind which it involves, and upon which its 
 effect depends, cannot be long kept up. 
 
 § 23. Care should be taken in the method of interchange. 
 ^ The ' even ' is the very foundation of the ' lofty,' and 
 
 the ' low and quiet ' suits well with either of the others. 
 It should be chiefly used, however, where there is a 
 knot to be untied, or where an eifect is wanted to be 
 produced by the supervention of one of the more pow- 
 erful styles upon it. 
 
 § 24. The legitimate effect of the impressive is not to 
 draw down men's approbation, but to move their feel- 
 ings. It is the tear and not the shout, that forms its 
 proper result. Augustine brings forward as an instance 
 the effect of his own words in quelling a tumult in 
 Mauretanian Ca3sarea\ The ' low ' is best in all cases 
 of instruction or of proof, as distinct from active in- 
 fluence. But, at best, these styles are only imperfect 
 means to an end : and 
 
 § 25. The End, i. e. Right Persuasion, is all in all. 
 
 § 26. All the three styles are mutually interdependent. 
 It is a false principle that would lead us so to sepa- 
 rate them, as that one should be regarded as the sole 
 instrument in mastering the understanding, one the 
 affections, one the will. 
 
 a complete list of these places. They tine alludes to the event of his jour- 
 are chiefly taken from Cyprian's ney to Coesarea as 'eight years ago.' 
 Letters and from his Treatise Be But we know it to have taken place 
 Hahitu Virginum. ; and from the in 418. Therefore this treatise was 
 treatises of Ambrose, entitled De written in the year 4'26, just four 
 Virginihus and De Spiritit. years before the death of the great 
 ^ This passage fixes the chrono- Prelate. It thus gives us the re- 
 logy of the De Doctrind. Angus- suits of his most mature experience. 
 
Augustine. 175 
 
 §§ 27, 28, 29. But, more important than anytliing else chap. x. 
 is the Life of the Preacher : and no rules of Art will 
 ever have the least chance of supplying the void which 
 must result from an unsoundness in that. 
 
 § 30. In conclusion, let not prayer be forgotten. Did 
 Esther pray for an evpvOfjLov \6yov, when pleading for 
 the temporal safety of her people ? And shall we neg- 
 lect to do the same when the eternal welfare of man- 
 kind is at stake? 
 
 § 31. The Book is long [alluding, of course, to all four 
 Parts, of which this Lib. IV. is the last and slightly 
 the shortest], but perhaps not too long. And now, 
 let thanks be rendered to God for what has been ac- 
 complished in it. 
 
 To the principles and practical advice furnished by 27ie Tract 
 
 , . ^1 • • • T-i n ^ . "^ De Catechi- 
 
 this most Christian treatise, we could rind no more fitting zandis kucu- 
 sequel than is furnished by a passage in the Tract, Be 
 CatecMzandis. Two specimen sermons are contained in 
 the latter part of this Treatise, the one twenty-six chap- 
 ters in length (24—49), the other four (52—55.) It ap- 
 peared on the whole that a far clearer insight was to be 
 obtained into the mind of Augustine on the subject of 
 preaching by a minute review of the book just analyzed, 
 than by any detailed examination of these Sermons. Still 
 the De CatecMzandis abounds with instructive and charac- 
 teristic passages, and the following is certainly not one of 
 the least instructive^: 
 
 * There are moreover some who come fresh from the dc catech. 
 
 13 
 
 most frequented schools of the Grammarians and 
 Orators, men whom you would not think of reckoning 
 among the uneducated, but not any the more among 
 those of the profoundest learning, whose mind has 
 
 ^ Augustine, De Catechiz. Hud. 13. The Treatise is addressed to 
 Deogratias, a deacon at Carthage. 
 
176 
 
 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP, X. 
 
 Cntifionx 
 
 concerning 
 
 Preaching. 
 
 Specimenx 
 from the Ser- 
 mons of Au- 
 gustine. 
 
 been exercised by an inquiry into lofty things. Now 
 when these, who clearly surpass the others in the art 
 of speaking, come to be made Christians, we ought 
 to pay all the more attention to them. For they 
 require to be constantly reminded, that they should 
 clothe themselves in Christian humility; and so learn 
 not to despise those, whom thei/ may find avoiding 
 faults of conduct more carefully than faults of oratory ; 
 and that, as to a practised tongue, they must no 
 longer venture even to place it side by side with a 
 pure heart, however they may have been accustomed 
 beforetime to place it far beyond. But chiefly such 
 men must be taught to listen to the Divine Scriptures, 
 in such a way that its solid eloquence shall not sound 
 mean to their ears (sordeat aurihus), only because 
 it is not bombastic:... For it is most especially profit- 
 able to these persons to be made aware, that the 
 thought should he preferred above the word, precisely 
 as the mind is preferred above the body. The result of 
 ' which is that they ought to prefer true to elegant^ 
 sermons, just as they ought to prefer having prudent 
 to having handsome friends.' 
 
 I shall now insert a few examples from Augustine's 
 own sermons. The first two are intended to shew how 
 very closely he could keep to his own ideal of submissa 
 dictio; the next two furnish specimens of his ordinary 
 mode of exposition in preaching, the first of the two dis- 
 playing sound sense and laying down a most instructive 
 rule of practical interpretation, the second running into 
 a strange medley of assumption and dogmatic rendering ; 
 and the last is brought forward as a specimen of that 
 antithetical exhortation, which was so usual (as we have 
 
 ^ [diserdores — the productions of very close parallel which exists be- 
 an accomplished scholarship.] It is tween the whole of this extract and 
 surely unnecessary to point out the much of De Doctrind, iv. 
 
Augustine, 177 
 
 seen) among Lis brethren of tlie East. He is here speak- chap. x. 
 
 ing of the spiritual conflict, with a deep sense of its 
 
 reality : 
 
 ^ Two^ principles there are in this one man, Charity and Thenihuuai 
 Lust. For Charity, let it be born in thee if it be not 
 born already ; and if born, let it be fostered, let it be 
 nourished, let it grow. But as for that Lust, though 
 in this life it cannot utterly be blotted out — for if 
 we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves — yet in 
 so far as Lust doth in us live, in that degree do we 
 fail of being free from sin. And, in order that here- 
 after it [Charity] may be brought to perfection, let 
 Lust be consumed.' 
 
 In the following passage we are strongly reminded of 
 some passages in Luther's sermons. The very simplest 
 truths are simply stated ; 
 
 ' How^ loveth he himself, who loveth his flesh, 2a\d. Tiie lovc nf 
 
 ' _ _ one's neiffh- 
 
 hateth his soul ? To his own calamity, to the calamity ^''«'- 
 of his soul, and of his flesh. And who loveth his 
 soul? Even he who loveth God with all his heart, and 
 with all his mind. Now to such a neighbour as this 
 do I enjoin, " Love ye your neighbours as your own 
 selves." But who, saith one, is my neighbour? 
 Every human creature is he. Have we not each man 
 two parents? Brute beasts of each several race are 
 neighbours one to the other ^ dove to dove, leopard to 
 leopard, serpent to serpent, cattle to cattle ; and is not 
 man neighbour to man?' 
 The language in this coming extract is at first sight 
 rather involved ; in which respect Augustine might some- 
 times have applied to himself his own language in the 
 De Doctrind, relating to St Paul's occasional complexity of 
 
 1 August. ;S'em. 14 (ed. Sirm.), p. ^ I have adopted in the case of 
 160. these Sermons the most simple 
 
 2 Hid. 14 (ed. Sirm.), p. 161. manner of rendering. 
 
 12 
 
178 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 speech. But the sober and wholesome sense of the inter- 
 pretation needs no pointing out^ : 
 
 'I have said above that there is an obscurity in this 
 passage; namely "He shall possess the Earth, and 
 inhabit my holy mountain." For, if we receive it 
 carnally, we shall not purify ourselves from all pol- 
 lution of the flesh and of the spirit : and without 
 cause hath God provided for us an object at all, if, 
 because of the possessing of an earthly " mountain," 
 we prepare ourselves to covetousness, and not to holi- 
 ness. But what ought we to understand by this 
 ''mountain"? It is obscure wherefore He spake of 
 a "mountain." Yet if God had forsaken us, he 
 would not in any place say openly what the " moun- 
 tain" meaneth. But where he doth say it openly^ there 
 love thou the " mountain.''' Where he openly commend- 
 eth to thee the "mountain," and the Scripture itself 
 revealeth to thee wherefore He speaketh of a " moun- 
 tain," there love thou it. Moreover, when thou hearest 
 such a " mountain" promised, follow after the promise; 
 such as thou lovest it when it is 2^lciinly revealed, even 
 such understand it when it is ohscure^.'' 
 A Sermon on St Paul, though it contains many pas- 
 sages full of beauty and instruction, is yet burdened by the 
 following strange specimen of interpretation, which con- 
 trasts unfavourably with the preceding : 
 
 ' We have heard the words of an Apostle, nay, rather, 
 
 1 August. Serin. 12 (ed. Sirm.), of Isaiah, sucli an allusion was the 
 p. 131. The verse occurs in Isai. most likely of any to be made, shews 
 Ivii. 13. one of two things. It either indi- 
 
 2 The sober sense spoken of in the cates a ' slip' on the preacher's part, 
 text obviously belongs only to the similar to that of Chrysostom men- 
 principle of interpretation here laid tioned in Chap. ix. {suh fin.) ; or else 
 down. That Augustine should have it is an instance of the implicit be- 
 found anything 'obscure' in the men- lief and uncritical spirit with which 
 tion of a 'mountain' in this con- the eai-ly Christians took to them- 
 nexion, or rather that he should have selves all Scripture, as being a di- 
 failed to perceive that, in the mouth rect message of God to them. 
 
Augustine. 179 
 
 through the Apostle we have heard the words of chap. x. 
 Christ, speaking by him whom from a persecutor he 
 made a preacher, smiting him and making him 
 whole ; slaying and giving life ; He, the Lamb slain 
 by the wolves, and then making lambs out of wolves. 
 For it had been foretold in that glorious prophecy, 
 when Jacob, the holy Patriarch, was blessing his sons, 
 laying hold of things present, but looking into things 
 to come; it had been foretold, I say, what should 
 come to pass in Paul. For Paul, as he himself doth a spedmm 
 testify, was of the tribe of Benjamin. Now, when exrcmtion. 
 Jacob in blessing his sons had come to Benjamin 
 to bless him, he saith of him, " Benjamin is a ravenous 
 wolf." What therefore? If he were a ravenous wolf, 
 should he be always ravenous ? Not so, surely. But 
 what followeth? "In the morning he shall take the 
 prey, and at evening he shall divide the spoil." This 
 hath been fulfilled in the Apostle Paul, even because 
 it was foretold of him. And now, if it please you, 
 let us see him taking the prey in the morning, 
 and dividing the spoil at evening. "Morning" and 
 " Evening" are the same as if he should have said 
 "at first" and "afterwards." Therefore, let us take 
 them so. ^^ At first he shall take the prey, and after- Fanned prc- 
 
 " ^ r J ^ J dictions re- 
 
 wards he shall divide, &c." Look now at the taker S«7 '^ '"' 
 of prey. "Saul," he saith, even as the Acts of the 
 Apostles witness, " having received letters from the 
 chief priests, went on his way ; that wheresoever he 
 should find followers of the way of God, he might 
 di'ag them forth, and bring them to be punished ; he 
 went out breathing and gaping forth slaughter." 
 Now, this is he when taking his prey in the morning. 
 For, even when Stephen was stoned, Saul also was 
 publicly present to help. And with such zeal did he 
 help them that stoned, that it sufiiced him not to 
 
 12—2 
 
I/ear' H Fcsii- 
 
 180 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. X. stone him with his own hands alone. For that he 
 
 might move in the hands of all that stoned, he him- 
 self kept the raiment of all, shewing fiercer rage bj 
 helping all, than by stoning with his own hands ^' 
 
 The antithetical exhortation that now follows was pro- 
 nounced by Augustine on the occasion of the annual festi- 
 vities at the commencement of the year, which (as we have 
 already seen in the case of Chrysostom) caused so much 
 vexation of spirit to the earnest Church-teachers of that 
 day':— 
 
 at fh,', time of ' In Order to follow the example of the Redeemer, who 
 hath purchased you with his blood, be not conformed 
 to the heathen either in your manners or your actions. 
 They give presents (strenas) on the new year ; give ye 
 alms. They entertain themselves with the songs of 
 lustfulness ; entertain yourselves with the reading of 
 the Scriptures. They hasten to the theatres ; hasten ye 
 to the church. They drink ; do ye fast. And, if ye 
 cannot fast this day, eat at least with moderation^. So 
 shall ye have sung that verse in a becoming manner.' 
 
 ' That verse ' was the 47th of the 106th Psalm—' Save 
 us, Lord our God ; and gather us from among the hea- 
 then, to give thanks unto Thy holy name.' Augustine 
 desired that this verse should be always sung on the first 
 day of the year, while the heathen celebrations were 
 going on. 
 
 I had intended, but am compelled to forego the inten- 
 tion, to translate as instances of a solemn and quiet beauty 
 
 1 August. Serm. 24. (ed. Sirm.) pose it to occur in the jEwarr. Ps. cvi. 
 p. 279. He then goes on in the same '^ I can hardly suppose that so 
 
 strain to force the remainder of St obvious a passage as this has not 
 
 Paul's life into a fulfilment of the already been ventilated in relation 
 
 latter half of the prophecy. to the ancient practice in Fasting ; 
 
 ^ I have taken this passage from and merely refer to it in passing as 
 
 Neander's Life of Chrysostom, where one which appears to me to be worth 
 
 it is quoted at length, p. 3-22. I sup- notice. 
 
Augustine. 181 
 
 in the Sermons of Augustine, part of his 234th and part of chap. x. 
 his 393rd Sermons. The first of the two is entitled^ De Aunusujie's 
 Itesurrectione Christi secundum Lucam, and begins with the 393rd bcr- 
 words Oognito enim Ohristo et ab eis discedente, dixerunt 
 apud se, Nonne cor,' &c. The other^ sermon opens with a 
 sad and stern tone of rebuke : ' Poenitentes, poenitentes, poe- 
 nitentes (si tamen estis poenitentes, et non potius estis irri- 
 dentes),' &c. 
 
 I had also wished to compare, as a proof of the ' Eea- His metfwd of 
 
 11 5PA • •!• 1TP ^ • dealing inth 
 
 sonabieness oi Augustme m his method oi approachmg f^f^^^f^J^ 
 obscure or disputed points, the whole of the sermon ^ j)^ points. 
 Resurrectione Corporum^ contra Gentiles. The following 
 method of quashing a foolish and unprofitable question 
 may serve as a specimen of what I mean. The objection 
 is started, '/Si mtia non resurgant, cur in Christo cicatrices?^ 
 To which Augustine gives the calm and ingenious reply, 
 satisfactory to all but the hankerer after some wonder, or 
 some loophole for self-indulgence, ' In ilia carne cicatrix 
 vulneris sanavit vulnus incredulitatis.' 
 
 Further, any one who mio-ht wish to s:et a a'ood notion a reference to 
 
 <^ <-? th7'€6 SU006S- 
 
 of the difference between Eastern and Western modes of <*^'«i'«**«5^*- 
 treating the same subject, would do well to consider three 
 passages on obvious and constantly recurring subjects, all 
 three contained in the fifth volume of the Benedictine 
 Edition. The first is on Hope, the second on the Resur- 
 rection, the third on Heaven^. 
 
 Lastly, of Augustine it may most truly be said, that he, conciudinq 
 
 -, -, 1 -. . n ^ 1 • • 1 15 remarks on 
 
 if any man, had had experience oi that phasis m the soul s Aufimtim. 
 history when ' the tongue cleaves even to the roof of the 
 mouth,' and when silence is kept, ' even from good words.' 
 It was not only his being a Prelate of the West instead of 
 a Prelate of the East, that occasioned the wide difference 
 between himself and Basil, Gregory, or even Chrysostom. 
 
 ^ Aug. Serm. 234, ed. Ben. ^ Ibid. 242, ed. Ben. 
 
 2 IbM,. 293, ed. Ben. ^ Ibid. 198, 242, and 56, ed. Ben. 
 
182 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. X. The intense passion of his temperament, which imparted so 
 \ much energy to his intellectual operations, and which is 
 often the cause of the rich and vigorous flow of his lan- 
 guage, produces also that quiet rejection of rhetorical 
 ornament which we find so prevalent throughout his un- 
 pretending Sermons. The De Civitate Dei has, as might 
 be expected, a good store of florid language, some specimens 
 exhibiting the very highest style of beauty. But his sub- 
 ject in that case not only was suited to elaborate ornament ; 
 it sometimes imperatively demanded the very grandest 
 utterance. 
 
 The general tone of Augustine was, however, that of a 
 man who, while he was too sensible to despise the aids of 
 artistic eloquence, was himself for the most part far above 
 them. His words bearing directly upon the subject are 
 tinged with a speaking sadness : eloquence is ' another 
 stream of Babylon^;' it is one more of the many objects 
 ' quae amantur et transeunt^;' it is a mere ' frigus et Aquilo V 
 compared with the genial breezes of God, the ' Auster trans- 
 latus de coelo".' 
 
 ^ Enarr. inPsalm.cxxxvi. (cxxxvii. of our Version), 
 of our Version). ^ Some further remarks on Au- 
 
 2 Ibid. gustine are necessarily reserved for 
 
 ^ Enarr. in Psalm. IxKYu. ({xxviii. Chap. xii. See p. 195. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Tlie Oratorical Period Proper. (4) Cyril of Alexandria. 
 Synesius of Cyrene, and others. 
 
 CYRIL. 
 
 Trapovpyos wu Kal d€Lp6s dudpuiros Trpdyfxacri xp^cr^ai. 
 
 Demosthenes. 
 
 SYNESIUS. 
 
 He was a shepherd, and no mercenarie. 
 
 Chaucer. 
 
 § 1. /~\F Cyril, the nephew and congenial successor chap xr. 
 
 \J of Theophilus, the persecutor of Chrysos- ^^^ 
 torn, I shall only bring forward one extract ; and that 
 with the sole view of shewing that there was, or at least 
 that there was exhibited in his Sermons, another sort of 
 disposition altogether in him, than that repulsive mixture 
 of a Wolsey and a Gardiner which was the prevailing 
 colour of his life. A violent, persecuting spirit against m, charac- 
 Jews, pagans, and heretics, an unwearied effort, not to 
 'take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and 
 contempt for the word ' of his blessed Lord, not to ' fetch 
 them home ' so far as in him lay to the kind precincts 
 of His flock, but to hunt them down with the half-insane 
 fanatics of the Natron Lakes, and the deadly pertinacity 
 of Peter the Reader — this was one side of his normal 
 character. And another was that unbounded ambition, 
 for which the throne of the Alexandrian Patriarchate was 
 but as a footstool, and which never scrupled to resort to 
 force and to political means, for the sake of securing its 
 ends. Neander\ who suggests every possible consideration 
 for the extenuation of his conduct, gives it entirely up 
 
 1 Neander, Church History, iv. 1 34. 
 
184 
 
 The Oy-atorical Period Prope7\ 
 
 cTTAP. XI. and believes that the less violent commencement of the 
 Nestorian struggle only marked a preparation with cunning 
 policy for the more decided steps which were to follow. 
 
 iivpaha. ji^^^^ ^g ^^ ^j^g Qj^g indelible stain which must for ever attach 
 to the person of the Archbishop, the murder of that young 
 and beautiful daughter of Theon the Mathematician, there 
 is nothing in the caustic narrative^ of Gibbon, nor in the 
 powerful and enthusiastic tale of Mr Kingsley, that can 
 compare for ominous and convincing accusation with the 
 little chapter in Socrates, beginning, ' There was a woman 
 in Alexandria, by name Hypatia^.' 
 
 An extract Tlic passagc I am now about to quote from the Homilies 
 
 Homilies. ' of Cyril is one which seems hardly to comport with the 
 preacher's general character, and may perhaps be regarded 
 as indicating intervals of more Christian feeling, not how- 
 ever destined to produce any lasting effect upon his acts. 
 The subject is the beautiful one of ' God dealing with us as 
 Vv^ith children '"^i' — 
 
 "Wi chil- 
 
 ' See how, when we become grown-up men we change 
 even the names of things in our dealings with children, 
 and call bread by a word peculiar to them, and pro- 
 nounce drink with another sound than that which 
 we use to them who are of a full age ; a language 
 different from the one we speak with men of the same 
 years as our own, a kind of foreign tongue fit only for 
 infants and for children. Again, when we mention 
 their clothes to children, we set other names upon 
 
 ^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall, viii. 
 276, He says, with regard to the 
 sermons of Cyril, that 'in their 
 effect though not in their compo- 
 sition, they might be compared with 
 the works of the Athenian orators.' 
 But in the same sentence he tells us 
 (from Socrates, vii. 13) that friends 
 were not uncommonly posted to lead 
 or second the applause of the con- 
 gregation. 
 
 2 Socrates, Hist. Eccl. vii. 15. 
 Chapters xiii, and xiv. are also full 
 of information about the character 
 of Cyril. Mr Kingsley 's compiled 
 or imaginary sermon of Cyril is 
 paralleled by one of Cyprian in a 
 work bearing the initials of Dr John 
 Henry Newman. [^Calli&ta.'] 
 
 •^ Cyrilli Horn, in Jer. xviii. It 
 is on the first sixteen verses of Chap. 
 xviii. 
 
passage 
 rum Irericeus 
 ed. .. 
 
 Cyril of Alexandria, Synesius of Gyrene, &c. 185 
 
 tliem too ; and frame a sort of cliildisli name. Do we chap. xi. 
 not then descend from our complete and perfect being? 
 If a man were to hear us, would he not say, " That 
 old man is become a fool ; this man has forgotten his 
 beard, and his manly age"? Just so hear how God 
 speaks to us as to children ; Behold, these are the 
 words of the Saviour, / and the children whom God 
 hath given 7ne. This is just the language of one 
 stricken in age speaking to a child in the manner of 
 children, or, to speak more emphatically, in the man- 
 ner of infants^; for thus didst Thou take the ways of 
 thy sons, and enduredst the custom of an infant, and 
 didst assume to Thyself their condition.' 
 
 I cannot avoid comparing a beautiful passage of Ire- a 
 nseus^ quoted by the Chev. Bunsen in his Hippolytus ^'^'"^'"' 
 (i. 256) : ' Ideo per omnem venit [Christus] setatem, et 
 infantiliter infans factus, sanctificans infantes, in parvulis 
 parvulus, sanctificans hanc ipsam liabentes a?tatem : simul 
 et exemplum illis pietatis effectus, et justitia3 et subjecti- 
 onis; in juvenibus juvenis exemplum juvenibus fiens, et 
 santificans Domino : sic et senior in senioribus, ut sit per- 
 fectus m agister in omnibus, non solum secundum exposi- 
 tionem veritatis, sed et secundum setatem, sanctificans simul 
 et seniores, exemplum ipsis quoque fiens.' In the passage 
 of Cyril we have the condescension of the Saviour towards 
 his children, as exhibited in his thoroughly grasping (so to 
 speak) the idea of their condition, before making com- 
 munications to them of his pleasure ; in this of Irenaeus, 
 He assumes the conditions of younger and elder life into 
 His own nature, that He may second every precept by 
 example. 
 
 § 2. Synesius''^ was born of a rich and noble family in synesius. 
 
 1 j8pe0w5a)s opposed to TratSiKwj. notice is M. Villemain {Tableau de 
 
 2 Irengei Opera, ii. 37. I'Moquence.) 
 2 My chief authority for this brief 
 
186 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. XI. Cyrenaica, about the middle of tlie fourtli century. He 
 received a philosophical education, although Christianity 
 had been long established there ; and became the student 
 of Hypatia, afterwards proceeding to Athens. Shortly 
 after the banishment of Chrysostom, he was sent on an 
 embassy to Arcadius : and he prays, inpne of his addresses \ 
 that the Platonic hope of philosophy sharing the empire 
 miglit be realized in that Emperor. He was plainly not a 
 Christian at this date (about 409). It is hard to fix the 
 year of his baptism, but many years before his election to 
 the bishopric he was married according to Christian usage 
 by Theophilus of Alexandria. 
 
 iiisiifeai After this embassy he lived in Cyren^ in wealthy 
 
 seclusion, occupied with field-sports (which he celebrated 
 successfully in verse), with scientific pursuits, and with the 
 belles lettres generally. His ability, displayed in some 
 political disputes, soon drew the eyes of the Church upon 
 him, and he was importuned on all sides to become Bishop. 
 Synesius did not agree with the Platonists, who strove to 
 perpetuate Paganism ; but neither did he agree with the 
 Christians in the importance which they attached to dog- 
 matic disputes. His independent mind wished to form a 
 faith for itself, giving up the old fables without entirely 
 
 HUein-niion sidiuo: witli thc ucw rcliffion. All this he stated to the 
 
 io thc cjy'tno- ^ ^ 
 
 pate. Bishop. He spoke, too, of his wife. He would not desert 
 
 her, nor live unlawfully with her. He honestly enumerated 
 many points on which he could not agree with the Chris- 
 tians, and many defects which he knew to exist in himself. 
 He added, almost with a tone of affection, an allusion to 
 his sports and his dogs, asking how he could bear to give 
 them up ? 
 
 Still, such was his importance in the eyes of Theo- 
 philus, that he was consecrated, and allowed to retain his 
 wife, while his opinions were left almost wholly out of the 
 
 1 Synesii Opera, Uepl ^aaiXeias. 
 
Cyril of Alexandria^ Synesius of Cyrene^ &c, 187 
 
 question. In a short retirement from the public eye soon chap. xi. 
 after this step, it seemed to him that the beauty of Plato's 
 writings derived an additional lustre in his eyes from a 
 perusal of the gospel pages : and he had had time to per- 
 ceive what a powerful weapon the episcopate might be for 
 the protection of the weak or the unfortunate. 
 
 He entered, therefore, on the office. His life changed 
 but slightly at first. Philosophy, poetry, and field-sports 
 occupied his time : interspersed only with meditation on 
 the Scriptures, the thorny and subtle controversies which 
 then wearied the people being diligently avoided. 
 
 M. Villemain believes that we can trace in the Hymns vuumaws 
 01 oynesms the gradual supplantmg oi reverie by positive nmns. 
 faith; the gradual transformation of the poet-sportsman 
 into the Bishop. Others have thought the same : but, 
 from the few that I have read, it would seem to me rather 
 to be the case, that had we not known from independent 
 sources of the progress of such a transformation, we should 
 hardly have gathered it from the evidence afforded in the 
 Hymns \ 
 
 His courage and ability in the opposition of Andronicus, ^ff^lf^g 
 the Ver7'es of Ptolemais, were truly heroic ; but the issue 
 of the struggle, and the whole of the latter part of Sy- 
 nesius's life, are enveloped in obscurity. Even the date 
 of his death is not preserved ; but it probably must pre- 
 cede 431, since his brother Euoptius appears in that year 
 among the Bishops at the Council of Ephesus, as his suc- 
 cessor in the see of Ptolemais. 
 
 ^ The hymn beginning vfjivQ ere 
 fioLKap has had its opening lines thus 
 translated in a little volume, enti- 
 tled Scraps of Sacred Verse, by the 
 Eev. H. Moule :— 
 * My God, I will address Thee 
 
 With loudest hymns of praise ; 
 Then, too, my soul shall bless Thee, 
 When mute in deep amaze. 
 
 For Thou, who kind receivest 
 
 Each word to Thee addressed, 
 The silent thought perceivest. 
 
 The feeling unexpressed. 
 And while we ne'er can know Thee, 
 
 And all Thy wondrous ways, 
 No songs of ours can shew Thee 
 
 Thy due return of praise.' 
 
188 
 
 The Oratorical Period Projper. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 lUnstration 
 of his prac- 
 tical piety. 
 
 Gaudcntins. 
 
 Seventeen scr 
 mons extant. 
 
 The whole spirit of his ministrations is represented by 
 his behaviour in the following transaction. Theophilus, 
 of Alexandria, had entrusted to Synesius the arbitration in 
 tlie case of a Bishop who had appropriated some land by 
 consecration. Stoutly did he refuse to confound supersti- 
 tion and piety. The former Avas to him a vice with the 
 mask of a virtue ; a third sort of irreligion over and above 
 infidelity and immorality. Nothing to him seemed holy 
 or sacred that was not first just and rightful. The con- 
 secration of the land did not check him ; the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity, he said, was not to draw down the Divine presence 
 by outward ceremonies, but to cause it to become in-dwell- 
 ing in peaceful and God-devoted hearts. And thus did 
 Synesius magnify his ofiice. 
 
 § 3. Of Gaudentius of Brescia we have seventeen 
 sermons remaining, which shew him to have been a man, 
 if not always of strong intellect nor of sound judgment, at 
 any rate of an earnest and active piety. The first ten of 
 these sermons were preached to the newly baptized during 
 Easter-week, and were written out by the Bishop's own 
 hand, at the request of Benevolus, who was so weakened 
 by sickness that he could not be present. The tone of 
 these sermons is sensible and practical. He exhorts the 
 neophytes to lead henceforth a truly Christian life, and to 
 renounce idolatry in all its forms then existing, its enchant- 
 ments, amulets, auguries, lots, observation of dreams, and 
 funeral festivities. 'Be sober,' he says\ 'take heed to 
 assemble together at church, give yourselves watchfully to 
 prayer, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.' In short, 
 they are much what Confirmation Charges are at the pre- 
 sent day, allowing for the clianges of the times. He ad- 
 vises married people^ to a life of continence, and gives 
 advice about domestic economy which may recal a passage 
 
 ^ Gaudentii Sermones, IV. (quoted in Fleury, XX. 14). 
 2 Ibid. VIII. (Fleury, ih.) 
 
Cyril of Alexandria, Synesius of Cyrene, &c. 189 
 
 of Clnysostom quoted above^: ' Wretched are tliose Houses chap. xi. 
 that differ in nothing from theatres : let the house of the 
 Christian be free from anything that is to be found in the 
 
 train of the Devil Let it be sanctified by prayer, and 
 
 psalms. Let the word of God, and the sign of Christ be 
 in your hearts, in your mouths, on your foreheads, at table, 
 in the bath, in your going out and coming in, in your joy 
 and your sorrow ^' 
 
 § 4. Chromatins of Aquileia, Asterius of Amasea, and chromatius. 
 Basil the younger, of Seleucia, demand a few words. The 
 first receives high, but not very discriminating, praise from 
 Duping It will, perhaps, give a more definite notion of 
 him to record that he was one of the three honoured with 
 epistles by Chrysostom when at Cucusus, and when circu- 
 lating among influential bishops a statement of his position. 
 The other two friends of the great exile were Innocent of 
 Home, and Venerius of Milan ^. 
 
 The second is said by Dupin^ to have been in the habit, asicHus. 
 not of exciting his auditors as great orators do, but of in- 
 sinuating into their minds Christian truths, and deterring 
 them from vice, by 'a bare picture lively drawn.' This 
 would be good recommendation, if the extracts cited by the 
 panegyrist served at all to substantiate what he advances. 
 As it is, they do but shew how widely the estimate of the 
 Sorbonne Doctor differed from that of the highest received 
 standards in the present day^. 
 
 The third was present at the Council of Constantinople, Bani the 
 in the year 448, and at Chalcedon in 451. Of his works we 
 have forty Homilies remaining. 
 
 1 P. 158. 5 Dupin, III. 58. 
 
 " Gaudentius was ordained by St ^ It is proper to remark that the 
 
 Ambrose. Fleury, ibid. views of the Amasean Prelate were 
 
 ^ Dupin, III. 57. particularly distinct on the supre- 
 
 ^ Pleury, XXI. 49. Cf. Palladius, macy of St Peter. His eighth ser- 
 
 Yit. Chrys. Chap. IV. [p. 14, ed. mon is a Panegyric on SS. Peter and 
 
 Montfaucon.] Paul. 
 
190 The Oratorical Period Proper. 
 
 CHAP. XI. Photius remarks \ that 'his discourses are figurative 
 and full of fire. He observes as much as any man what- 
 ever an even cadence ; and hath joined clearness and plea- 
 sure together.' But he goes on to add, that the younger 
 Basil is overstocked with tropes and figures, and leaves 
 upon his readers the impression of a man who did not know 
 how to make Art and Nature accord. 
 
 1 Quoted in Dupin, ill. 140. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A few Remarhs on the Christian Preachers of the First Five 
 Centuries, in their relation, (1) to ancient Models, (2) to 
 some Preachers of Modern Europe. 
 
 <PpQVL[JLUiT€pOL cls TTjV 'yeveCW TT]V eavTuu. 
 
 Words of our Lord. 
 iyCi €v avTois /cat ai/ iu i/j.oi, IVa w<xl TereXeiw/x^uot eis ev. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 § 1. npHE unwise extent to which admirers of Patristic chap. xii. 
 JL eloquence have carried their complimentary pa- iia.vA para^ 
 rallels is almost incredible. Thus we find the Abbe Aua'er admirers'o/^ 
 
 , . ^, 1 • 1 /» 9 ^ the Fathers. 
 
 applying to Chrysostom the title of L Homer e des orateurs^ ; 
 a title which goes very far beyond that of the Milton of 
 Prose, applied to Jeremy Taylor. And it is no uncommon 
 thing to find allusions to Demosthenes and Cicero as lumi- 
 naries that have paled before lights such as Lactantius or 
 Basil. Nescio quid 7najus nascitur. 
 
 Now it is not only a debt to truth, but it is a measure The Fathers 
 of obvious policy on the part of those who love the earlv <--on>pariLm 
 
 . . -^ — — ^- ^ •/ with tfie i/reat 
 
 Christian Preachers, at once and entirely to decline any ^5SS'' 
 comparison of their efforts with those immortal ones of 
 Demosthenes and Cicero. Hugh Stuart Boyd 2, the author 
 of a book of extracts selected from the Fathers, of which 
 some use has been made above, has left it on record (p. 294, 
 Selected Passages) that in the school of Dr Charles Burney, 
 Chrysostom' s work On the Priesthood was read as a classic 
 by the boys in the sixth form. The injudiciousness of this 
 proceeding can hardly be too much censured ; and probably 
 there is at the present day no Head Master who would give 
 a moment's thought to such a preference. To read a 
 
 "^ Quoted in the Biogra'phie Universelle, s. v. Chrysostome. 
 2 His book is dated 1S13. 
 
192 Relations of the Early Christian Preachers 
 
 CHAP. XII. Treatise of Cliiysostom wlien the Leptines or the Meidias 
 or the Olynthiacs are at hand, or on the other side the 
 Phoido or the Gorgias, is to pursue the very readiest course 
 towards vitiating a clever boy's taste in Greek. And this 
 is said with a full consciousness of Chrysostom's real 
 beauty, and of his great value as a witness concerning his 
 
 Demofthencs. timcs. But Oil tumiug fi'om his writings to those of 
 Demosthenes, still more than on leaving Lactantius for 
 Cicero, we are reminded of Augustine's remark with regard 
 to some passages in the Scriptures^ ; and, applying it to 
 the great Pagan Orators, we may say that their words seem 
 less to have been chosen by the artist, than to have belonged 
 by a kind of antecedent necessity to the subject. 
 
 ianS^kf' ^^^' Grrote has interspersed among the chapters of his 
 
 eleventh and twelfth volumes many passages containing 
 critiques on the political and oratorical character of Demos- 
 thenes, the excellence of which is in striking contrast 
 to the poverty of Bishop Thirlwall on this subject. Un- 
 qualified praise would seem to be Demosthenes' due as a 
 statesman; and Thirlwall qualifies down to the point of 
 blame ; for it is no kindness to a character to censure it 
 and blacken it, and then excuse it by ' contemporary mo- 
 rality.' Mr Grote, useful and full of information, awards 
 to Demosthenes his full meed of praise. 
 
 Two points more especially may perhaps be regarded as 
 having been the very breath of inspiration to this great 
 orator ; or at any rate as having brought about his won- 
 drous impressiveness ; for, despite of the misleading esti- 
 mate of the rhetor Dionysius^, and our consequent habit of 
 setting XhQ practical residts of the Demosthenic eloquence too 
 high, impressive beyond all comparison he certainly was. 
 These points are, his high moral conception, and his ardent 
 patriotism. Dr Schmitz (in the article in Smith's Biogra- 
 
 1 August. De Doct. Christ, iv. 6. 
 
 2 Grote, History of Greece, xi. 460. 
 
to the Elociuence of other Ages. 193 
 
 2yhical Dictionary) mentions with particular emphasis tlie chap. xii. 
 ' pure and ethical ' tone of his speeches. Thirlwall men- 
 tions the anonymous tradition (given in Plutarch's Vit. 
 Deinosth.) that Demosthenes studied at one time under 
 Plato ; and adds that, be this true or not, Demosthenes' 
 acquaintance, which we may of course assume, with Plato's 
 writings, sufficiently explains, if explanation were needed, 
 his lofty morality : which he seems to have been the first 
 to introduce into Athenian courts and assemblies. These, 
 moreover, were assemblies into which Plato himself would 
 have declined, probably, the introduction of such sublime 
 truths. 
 
 And this brings out the patriotism of Demosthenes, 
 a quality which marks, perhaps more strongly than any 
 other, the contrast of the philosopher with the orator. 
 Plato is wholly unpatriotic ; not only negatively, — as cos- 
 mopolitan — but positively disliking and utterly disapprov- 
 ing of Athens. Demosthenes, on the other hand, was 
 consumed with a flame of patriotism that never burned 
 dim. 
 
 Such were some of the motives that inspired the most 
 vigorous and masterly exercise of the noblest language in 
 the world during its period of greatest purity. And the 
 Greek of Chrysostom is no more like the Greek of Demos- 
 thenes, than is the French of Bossuet, which has been 
 with equally erroneous judgment also brought into the 
 comparison \ 
 
 With regard to Cicero and Lactantius scarcely a sen- ckcro. 
 tence needs to be written ; and it will be remembered that 
 Lactantius must be regarded as the representative of the 
 Latin Fathers in point of style. It is true, as we have Thecampart- 
 
 , '071 of him 
 
 found Niebuhr remarking", that Lactantius did with Cicero 'gi^i'actax- 
 what Q. Curtius did with Livy. But what was that ? Did 
 
 ^ By La Harpe. Cf. Hallam, Literary History, iv. 54. 
 ^ Niebuhr, Lectures on Roman History, iii. 307. 
 
 13 
 
194 Relation of the Early Cltristian Preachers 
 
 CHAP. XII. Curtius ever attain to that ' gentle despotism ' over tlie eyes 
 and ears of his readers, in the exercise of which Livy emu- 
 lates Thucydides? Did he ever reach the indescribable 
 eloquence, the ' lactea ubertas' of which Quinctilian speaks? 
 or luxuriate in that richness of style, which was the result 
 of Livj's Homeric ' repose of intellect^'? And no more did 
 Lactantius approach the beauty or the strength of one, who 
 not only inspired his countrymen with a literary taste, but 
 gave them a language wherewith to indulge it. It is idle 
 to pretend for one moment that Lactantius ever emulated 
 that singular felicity of adaptation to all classes of subjects, 
 whether lofty or familiar, whether philosophical, forensic, 
 or what may be summed up as epistolary, whether, in short, 
 to use Cicero's own expression, they slyq j)arva, modica, or 
 magna, which was exhibited by the only orator who ever 
 realized his own ideal of excellence. As a means of illus- 
 trating these remarks, it may be suggested that a perusal 
 of the 40tli chapter of the Orator, a reflection on the 
 almost completeness with which Cicero answers to his 
 own delineation, and an inquiry into the claims of Lac- 
 tantius to a similar distinction, would be found highly 
 satisfactory. 
 
 The Preach- 8 2. In tumiug now to the Preachers of Modern 
 
 ersofMoiiern ^ '^. -ii tit- 
 
 i.iirope that tiTJiojyQ, i mav DC permitted to remind the reader that this 
 
 hare been se- ^ / *' ■*■ 
 
 lect.cd. Essay is but a sketch : and that, consequently, he must not 
 
 expect in this chapter to meet with a regular and con- 
 secutive critique, especially when the extent of the subject 
 is considered. I must necessarily confine myself to a few 
 preachers only ; but the list will contain some illustrious 
 names, those of Luther, Bossuet, Massillon, Jeremy Taylor, 
 Barrow, Eobert Hall, and Edward Irving. 
 
 LHthcr and ' Luthcr lovcd Augustiuc ; he called him the ' ablest and 
 \ purest of all the doctors'';' and the parallel between the 
 
 ^ Niebuhr, Life and Letters, i. li 
 ^ Luther's Table Talk, % 534. 
 
to the Eloquence of otlier Ages. 195 
 
 two is in some respects a very close one. ' A more inti- chap. xii. 
 mate comparison ' (these are the words of an eminent EmaxhT^ 
 patristic critic^) ' than that which exists between Luther " ""^^'*' 
 and Augustine, can hardly be imagined. Luther cannot 
 be understood without Augustine ; nor the Eeformation in 
 general. Both Augustine and Luther walked through ^ 
 
 many mistaken paths before they attained to the right one 
 
 and found peace They may also be compared as having 
 
 gone through a decisive Crisis which had much similarity 
 in the two cases. It was the spirit of St Paul that existed ' 
 in them again, and his letters were the best for them ; 
 they were their first nourishment and sustenance, and 
 helped them to get over the decisive turning-point of theirl 
 lives. St Paul lived again in Augustine: and Augustine | 
 again in Luther^. It is one chain, one mind, one develop-' 
 ment.' 
 
 Luther, however, resembles Au2:ustine far more in his Practical 
 
 . . . ^ . . . effect an oh- 
 
 mental characteristics, than in the composition of his ser- 
 mons. The plainness is the same in both : but Augustine 
 rarely has the intense energy and almost violence of Luther. 
 Practical effect, however, rather than an exercise or a 
 display of learning, was the object of both preachers. To 
 get at and to influence the wills of their hearers — this was 
 the aim of the writer De 8ervo as well as of the writer 
 De Lihero Ai^hitrio, ' I don't at all like Philip to be 
 present V Luther would say, 'when I preach or lecture; 
 but I make the best I can of it. I put the cross before me, 
 and say to myself, "Philip, Jonas, Pomer, and the rest 
 of them, have nothing to do with the question in hand:" 
 and I try to persuade myself that I am as competent to fill 
 
 ^ Bohringer, Kirchengeschichte in with Neander's likening of Augus- 
 
 Biografhieen [Zurich, 1845] m- i- tine to St John, in my opinion by 
 
 758. I much regret that this book far the most profound comparison, 
 
 came too late into my hands to be though both are true, Cf. Chapter 
 
 used for the chapter on Augustine. on Augustine in this Essay, sub. fin. 
 
 2 It is interesting to compare this ^ Michelet'sZ(feo/i/i</A.er, p. 297. 
 
 13—2 
 
 ject com- 
 mon to both. 
 
196 Relation of tJce Early Christian Preachers 
 
 Lnlhcrs 
 jdainitess of 
 
 CHAP. XII. the pulpit as they.' And again ' If in my discourses I 
 were to be thinking about Melancthon and the other 
 doctors, I should do no good at all ; but I preach in plain 
 
 language to the plain unlearned people If I know the 
 
 Greek, Hebrew, and Latin languages, I reserve them for 
 our learned meetings, where they are of use\' 
 
 On this plainness of speech, as is well known, Mr 
 Hallam gi'ounded a charge against Luther of ' intemperance 
 [of style, &c.], coarseness, inelegance, scurrility, wild para- 
 dox, that menaces the foundations of religious morality,' 
 and some further faults of a grave nature. Tliese remarks 
 occur in his critique on Bossuet's Histoire UniverseUe, 
 that is to say, on that part of it where the Variations of 
 Protestant Churches begin to be treated. Admiring Bos- 
 suet with as much enthusiasm as he depreciates Luther, 
 Mr Hallam speaks in the strongest terms of praise in com- 
 menting on the ' eagle of Meaux, lordly of form, fierce of 
 eye, terrible in his beak and claws.' And the late Arch- 
 deacon Hare'^ has thus animadverted on the attitude of 
 Hallam as contrasted with what appeared in his eyes a 
 
 juster view of the case. 'To me Luther — if we take 
 
 the two masses of his writings, which display different 
 characters of style, according to the persons and objects 
 they are designed for, i7i the highest qualities of eloque7ice, in 
 the faculty of presenting grand truths, moral and spiritual 
 ideas, vividly, clearly, in words which elevate and enlighten 
 men's minds, and stir their hearts and control their wills^, 
 seems to be incomparably superior to Bossuet, almost as 
 superior as Shakspeare to Bacine, or as UllsAvater to tlie 
 
 Archdi'acon 
 Hare. 
 
 ^ Michel et's Life of Luther, p. 
 
 293- 
 
 ^ To whose celebrated Note W, 
 in Vol, II. of Tlie MUsion of the 
 Comforter, I have been indebted for 
 my knowledge of the whole matter, 
 having referred to Hallam for the 
 verification of the Archdeacon's re- 
 
 ferences. {Mission, Vol. II. p. 660 
 of the whole work.) 
 
 ^ How exactly these are the three 
 points which Augustine, after Ci- 
 cero, would have mentioned as the 
 three essential requisites. Perhaps 
 Hare had the De Doctrina, or the 
 Orator, in his mind at the time. 
 
to the Eloquence of other Ages. 197 
 
 Serpentine. In fact, when turning from one to the other, chap. xii. 
 I have felt at times as if I were passing out of a gorgeous 
 crowded drawing-room, with its artificial lights and dizzy- 
 ing sounds, to run up a hill at sunrise.' 
 
 Now it is with Bossuet that M. Yillemain^ classes ^"^•'"/' ':T' 
 
 " — — ■■■ "■ pared with 
 
 Basil the Great. ' Bossuet renewed his [Basil's] vivid ^"*'^' 
 representations at Versailles." And though there is a 
 fervour, a reality, in the preacher of the fourth century 
 which is wanting in his successor, I cannot think that the 
 comparison does any injustice whatever to Basil, still less 
 that it w^ould injure Gregory Nazianzen, if applied to 
 him ^ 
 
 Mas sjlloii is adopted by the same critic as the modern 'lonu-uh^^''' 
 parallel of Chrysostom : and it is a pleasure to turn to the ^'^''■^*'^*''^'«- 
 writings of this great man, as an adequate but not an undue 
 representation in a modern garb of the ' golden ' utterances i 
 from the priest's stall at Antioch, and the Archbishop's 
 throne at Constantinople. I shall translate three extracts 
 from the Paris edition of the Bishop of Clermont's works, 
 published in 1853. But let me first record the warm 
 praises of Niebuhr. Speaking of the Histoire de la Minor- ■§^^]^^/",']'* 
 lie de Louis XV. he says^ 'place it among your books, not 
 beside the writers of his own nation, — except, perhaps,. 
 Diderot and Montesquieu — but beside Thucydides and! 
 Sallust.' And a little before, he alludes in the same letter 
 to Le Petit Cai^eme, ' the sublimity and splendour of which 
 you know.' 
 
 My first extract contains a part of Massillon's Portrait 
 of an Infidel: — ^ 
 
 ' An^ infidel — are you sure that you know what that is ? f£^^f,fj^^l" 
 It is a man without morals, without honesty, without ^-^'^""^'^'^^• 
 faith, without character, who has no rule but his pas- 
 
 * Tableau de r Eloquence. ^ 'Niehnhr, Life and Letters, 1.26^. 
 
 ^ Cf. on Bossuet. the Appendix ^ Massillon, First Shrovetide Ser- 
 
 to Ch. XII. inon. 
 
198 Relation of the Early Christian Preachers 
 
 CHAP. XII. sions, no law but his unholy thoughts, no master but 
 
 his desires, no restraint but the fear of authority, no 
 God but himself. An unnatural child : for he thinks 
 that chance alone has given him fathers ; an unfaith- 
 ful friend, for he looks on men only as the bitter fruits 
 of a wild and fortuitous concourse, and on himself as 
 bound to them only by transient ties : a cruel master, 
 for he is persuaded that he only is strong, he only is 
 happy, who has his full desires. For who henceforth 
 can trust himself to you ? You no longer fear God : 
 you no longer regard man : you look for nothing be- 
 yond the present life : to you virtue and vice appear 
 as the prejudices of childhood, as the results of the 
 credulity of the nations.' 
 
 The downright and uncompromising tone of this pas- 
 sage strongly recals the tone of Chrysostom in some of his 
 outspoken rebukes and vigorous appeals : and we must 
 bear in mind while we read the delineation, what sort of 
 forms Infidelity assumed in Massillon's time\ This, so 
 far from derogating from the strength of the language, will 
 add to it by substantiating its truthfulness. In the same 
 sermon we find a picture of the ' True Christian :' — 
 
 Massiiion on ' But rclio^ion raiscs the Christian above his very virtues. 
 It makes him yet greater in the secret places of his 
 heart, and before the eyes of God, than in the sight 
 of man. He pardons without pride ; he is disinterested 
 without affectation ; he suffers without wishing to be 
 noticed : he moderates his passions without perceiving 
 it himself: he alone ignores the merit and glory of 
 his actions : far from looking on himself with satis- 
 faction, he is more ashamed of his virtues than the 
 sinner of his vices : far from seeking to be applauded, 
 he hides his works of light as though they were works 
 
 1 Massiiion was born in 1663 and died in 1742. 
 
 ViC ' True 
 Christian. 
 
to the Eloquence of other Ages, 199 
 
 of darkness ; love of duty alone enters into liis virtue ; chap, xii. 
 he acts as under the eye of God alone, and as though 
 there were no other man on earth. Oh ! what an ex- 
 altation is this. Find, if you can, something in the 
 universe which shall be rightly called greater^' 
 
 Lastly, we nowhere find that tone of most musical 
 pathos, in which both Chrysostom and Massillon were mas- 
 ters, better illustrated than in the following words on the 
 ' Death of the Just^ :' — 
 
 ' How pleasant, when we have gained the port, to call 3%ejPm<;io/ 
 up the memory of storm and tempest ! How we love, 
 when conquerors in the race, to tread over in spirit 
 our steps again, again to gaze on the points in our 
 career that were most marked by the toils, the ob- 
 stacles, and the difficulties, which have made them 
 famous. 
 
 * At such a time the just man seems to me another Moses, 
 dying on the holy mountain ; who, ere he expires — 
 turning his head from the summit of that sacred place, 
 and casting his eyes over that expanse of peoples and 
 of kingdoms through which he has just run his course, 
 and which he now leaves behind him, — ^looks there 
 again for the innumerable dangers which he has escaped, 
 the combats of so many conquered nations, the weari- 
 ness of the desert, the ambuscades of Midian, the mur- 
 murs and the calumnies of his brethren, the rocks that 
 he has rent, the difficulties of the road that he has 
 surmounted, the perils of Egypt avoided, the waters 
 of the Red Sea opened to his passage, hunger and 
 thirst and weariness combated. And so, reaching at 
 last the blessed term of so many toils, and hailing at 
 last from afar off the land promised to his fathers, he 
 
 1 Massillon, First Shrovetide Sermon. 
 
 2 Id. Sermon on Advent Sunday. 
 
Coleridge's 
 remarks. 
 
 200 Relation of the Early Christian Preachers 
 
 CHAP. XII. sings a song of tlianksgiving, dying in a trance of 
 
 joy, both at the memory of so many dangers escaped, 
 and at the sight of the place of rest, which the Lord 
 shews him from afar, while he looks on the holy hill 
 where he is about to expire, as the recompense of all 
 his toils, and the blessed end of his course.' 
 Jeremy Tivj- Tumiug now to thc Euglisli Diviues, we find Jeremy 
 Taylor preeminent above all; and Taylor was a diligent 
 student of Augustine and of Chrysostom. Coleridge used 
 to call him ' Chrysostom \' Other detached dicta of Cole- 
 I ridge are, 'Taylor's was a great and lovely mind^ ;' 'the 
 most eloquent, and one of the most learned, of our divines^;' 
 ' without any fellow for mere eloquence* ;' and he used to 
 reckon Shakspeare and Bacon, Milton and Taylor, as the 
 four great geniuses of old English literature, four-square, 
 each against each. The following words are taken from 
 the parallel of Milton and Taylor in the ' Apologetic Pre- 
 face^:' 'Whether supporting or assailing, he makes his 
 way either by argument, or by appeals to the affections, 
 unsurpassed even by the schoolmen in subtlety, agility, 
 and logic-wit, and unrivalled by the most rhetorical of the 
 Fathers in the copiousness and vividness of his expressions 
 and illustrations.' 
 
 Barrow studied Chrysostom also, but reproduced him 
 through a wholly different medium : and it has been well 
 remarked^, that we find as few traces of the golden mouth 
 in the ample page of Barrow, as of the gnomic morality of 
 Euripides in the declamation of Burke, or the sparkle of 
 ^ouih. Ovid in the solemnity of Milton. South, called by the 
 
 writer just quoted, the ' theological Junius,' resembled 
 Taylor less even than Barrow did, and Chrysostom least 
 of all. 
 
 1 Coleridge, Table Talk, 91 n. ^ Appended to the first volume of 
 
 2 Id. Table Talk, 91. Coleridge's Poems, 1836. 
 
 ' Coleridge, The Friend, ii. 108. ^ Willmott's Life of Jeremy Tay- 
 
 ^ Id. Table Talk, pin. lor, p. 275. 
 
 Barroii}. 
 
to the Eloquence of other Ages, 201 
 
 In tlie notice of Chiysostom in Chap. ix. of tliis Essay, chap. xii. 
 there was introduced a cahn and beautiful passage of the 
 Archbishop's on drawing down the heavenly presence upon 
 our table. The following extract, from Taylor's Rouse of 
 Feasting, tends to shew how that few desires, and slum- 
 bering passions, and wants easily satisfied, are productive 
 of true happiness, and so as it were prepare the house for 
 Christ. The language is less beautiful than Chrysostom's, 
 in so far as it is more rhetorical : — 
 
 ' For as it is in plants which nature voluntarily thrusts TalhrV''''''' 
 forth, she makes regular provisions, and dresses them Jeasttng: 
 with strength and ornament, with easiness and full 
 stature; but if you thrust a jessamine there where 
 she would have a daisy grow, or bring the tall fir-tree 
 from dwelling in his own country, and transport the 
 orange or the almond-tree near the fringes of the 
 north star: nature is displeased and becomes unna- 
 tural, and starves her sucklings, and renders you a 
 return less than your charge and expectation ; so it is 
 in all our appetites ; when they are natural and proper, 
 nature feeds them, and makes them healthful and 
 lusty ;.... but if you thrust an appetite into her which 
 she intended not, she gives you sickly and uneasy 
 banquets : you must struggle with her for every drop 
 of milk she gives beyond her own needs ; you may 
 get gold from her entrails, and at a great price provide 
 ornaments for your queens, and princely women : but 
 our lives are spent in the purchase: and when you 
 have got them you must have more, for these cannot 
 content you nor nourish the spirit.' 
 
 He presently after points the moral in a noble sentence : 
 
 ' Health is the opportunity of wisdom, the fairest scene 
 of religion, the advantages of the glorifications of 
 God : the charitable ministeries to men : it is a state 
 
202 Relation of the Early Christian Preachers 
 
 ciTAP. XII. of joy and thanksgiving, and in every of its periods 
 
 feels a pleasure from the blessed emanations of a mer- 
 ciful providence^' 
 In his delineations of our Lord's sojourn upon earth, I 
 cannot help thinking that Taylor surpasses any of the early 
 preachers of the first five centuries. One sentence, quoted 
 by his biographer^ is beyond all price : — 
 Extract from ' Therefore He came, not in the spirit of Elias, but with 
 on ^Godiy meekncss and erentle insinuations, mild as the breath 
 
 of heaven, not willing to disturb the softest stalk of a 
 violet.' 
 
 Ilis delinea- 
 tions of Our 
 Lord's 
 earthly so- 
 journ. 
 
 Fear. 
 Part I. 
 
 And again, in the noble discourse on TJie Faith and 
 Patience of the Saints, (part I.), he says: — 
 
 'All that Christ came for was, or was mingled with, 
 
 suffering Presently after the angels had finished 
 
 their Hallelujahs, He was forced to fly to save His life ; 
 and the air became full of the shrieks of desolate 
 mothers of Bethlehem for their dying babes. God 
 had no sooner made Him illustrious with a voice from 
 heaven, and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Him 
 in the waters of baptism, but He was delivered over to 
 be tempted and assaulted by the devil in the wilder- 
 ness. His transfiguration was a bright ray of glory ; 
 but then also He entered into a cloud, and was told a 
 sad story of what He was to suffer at Jerusalem.... For 
 this Jesus was like a rainbow, which God set in the 
 clouds as a sacrament to confirm a promise, and esta- 
 blish a grace : He was half made up of the glories of 
 the light, and half of the moisture of a cloud, -...half 
 triumph, and half sorrow.' 
 Rapid trans- The uaturc of the present sketch compels us to pass 
 earlier years at ouce from tlic Seventeenth century, to a notice of two 
 
 ofthelkh ^ 
 
 century. 
 
 ^ Jeremy Taylor, Serm. xv. House of Fecfstinc/, Part I. 
 
 - Willmott, p. 250, from the Sermon, Of Godly Fear, Part I. 
 
to the Eloquence of other Ages. 203 
 
 preachers of great celebrity in the earlier decades of our chap. xii. 
 own. 
 
 And first, of Eobert Hall. He, like Demosthenes, was Robert iiaii. 
 not gifted by nature with powers of improvisation. But he 
 had a strong dialectical turn ; and, by strenuous cultivation, 
 this faculty became the prominent one in his mental consti- 
 tution, decked out and well relieved by a fair and some- 
 times a splendid employment of imaginative aids. In per- 
 fectly distinct conception and expression of every thought, 
 he may remind us, though very different in other respects, 
 of the acute and able Athanasius. 
 
 The following extract is a good specimen of his 
 best style ; and is taken from the Funeral Sermon on the 
 Princess Charlotte ; with which it is usual to compare 
 Bossuet on Henrietta of Orleans, and Jeremy Taylor on 
 Lady Carbery : — 
 
 ' Is it now any subject of regret, think you, to this ff^f^lfj^^p 
 amiable Princess so suddenly removed, that '' her sun f^^p'^.l^'^g 
 went down while it was yet day?" or that prematurely '^''^"'■^^^• 
 snatched from prospects the most brilliant and enchant- 
 ing, she was compelled to close her eyes so soon on 
 a world of whose grandeur she formed so conspicuous 
 a part ? No ; other objects occupy her mind ; other 
 thoughts engage her attention, and will continue to 
 engage it for ever. All things with her are changed ; 
 and, viewed with that pure and ineffable light for which 
 we humbly hope religion prepared her. The lustre 
 of the diadem is scarcely visible; Majesty emits a 
 feeble and sickly ray ; and all ranks and conditions 
 of men appear but so many troops of pilgrims in 
 different garbs, toiling through the same vale of tears, 
 distinguished only by different degrees of wretched- 
 ness.' 
 * In the full fruition of eternal joys, she is so far from 
 looking back with lingering regret on what she has 
 
204 Belation of the Early Christian Preachers 
 
 CHAP. XII. quitted, that she is surprised it had the power of aifect- 
 
 "T ing her so much ; that she took so deep an interest in 
 
 tlie scenes of this shadowy state of being, while so 
 near to an " eternal weight of glory." As far as 
 memory may be supposed to contribute to our hap- 
 piness, by associating the present with the past, it is 
 not the recollection of her noble birth and exalted 
 prospects, but that she visited the abodes of the poor, 
 and learned to weep with those that weep ; that, sur- 
 rounded with the fascinations of pleasure, she was not 
 inebriated by its charms ; that she resisted the strongest 
 temptations to pride, preserved her ears open to truth : 
 was impatient of the voice of flattery ; in a word, that 
 she sought and cherished the inspirations of piety, and 
 walked humbly with her God, — this is the fruit which 
 survives when the flower withers, the only ornaments 
 and treasures we can carry into eternity \' 
 
 The extract which follows is a very fine specimen of 
 what Augustine calls temperata dictio. It is taken from 
 the famous Sermon entitled Modern Infidelity Considered ; 
 and is a statement of the superiority of the old Pagan 
 myths over utter scepticism : — 
 
 ' False and corrupt, however, as was the religion of the 
 Pagans, (if it deserve the name,) and defective and often 
 vicious as was the character of their imaginary deities, 
 it was still better for the world that the void of know- 
 ledge should be filled with these, than abandoned to a 
 total scepticism ; for, if both systems are equally false, 
 they are not equally pernicious. When the fictions of 
 heathenism consecrated the memory of its heroes and 
 legislators, it invested them for the most part with 
 those qualities which were in the greatest repute. 
 
 1 Kobert Hall, Sermon on the Death of the Princess Charlotte, p. 30. 
 Cf. Appendix to Ch. xii. 
 
 Extract from 
 ' Modern In- 
 Jidelity.' 
 
to the Eloqiience of other Ages. 205 
 
 They were supposed to possess in the highest degree chap. xii. 
 the virtues in whieh it was most honourable to excel ; 
 and to be the witnesses and patrons of those perfec- 
 tions in others, by which their own character was 
 chiefly distinguished. Men saw, or rather fancied they 
 saw, in these supposed deities the qualities they most 
 admired, dilated to a larger size, moving in a higher 
 sphere; and associated with the power, dignity, and 
 happiness of superior natures. With such ideal models 
 before them, and conceiving themselves continually 
 acting under the eye of such spectators and judges, 
 they felt a real elevation ; their eloquence became 
 more impassioned, their patriotism inflamed, and their 
 courage exalted \' 
 
 But, far more interesting to a Patristic student than FAtm-d 
 even Robert Hall, though I have never yet seen the points 
 of interest definitely stated, nor indeed even hinted at, is 
 Edward Irving. 
 
 As far as I am justified in pronouncing an opinion at 
 all, I do not hesitate to record it to the following eifect ; 
 that Edward Irving approached far more nearly to a realiza- Recau the 
 tion of the early patristic character in many of its bearings, ucSJc' 
 than any other English Divine since the reformation. 
 Coleridge '^ has said of him, that ' sometimes he has five J 
 or six pages together of the purest eloquence, and then an; 
 outbreak of almost madman's babble.' AY hat could be a 
 more perfect description of many parts in the great Rhe- 
 torical Church Fathers of the fourth and the early part of 
 the fifth century? in Basil, in Nazianzen, in Jerome, and 
 to a less degree, but still in some measure, in Chrysostom 
 and in Augustine ? 
 
 But a more strongly defined, and perhaps the most 
 striking feature of all in Irving' s character, is the analogy 
 
 ^ Robert Hall, Modern Infidelity, p. S'Z. 2 Talk Talk, 73, 
 
206 Relation of the Early Christian Preachers 
 
 CHAP. XII. which he bears to Tertullian. The ' Unknown Tongues ' 
 Anaioiwhe- wcre to Irving precisely what Montanism was to Tertul- 
 characiers of li^n. The impatient yearning after a palpable manifesta- 
 
 Irvimi and , ,\ / ^ . ^ ,. . 
 
 Tertuuian. tioii 01 the Spiritual, the predominant realistic element, was 
 uppermost in both characters. At this parallel I can but 
 hint ; but it might perhaps be worked out with advantage. 
 
 Extracts I uow procccd to cxtract a specimen of his fervid style, 
 
 from his • t i /> i t • -\t • i 
 
 Sermons. reminding me strongly ot the best parts m ^azianzen, but 
 far surpassing him in chaste expression. The subject is, 
 that ' God can create a fairer world than this :' — 
 
 God can ' Of ^ how many cheap, exquisite joys are these five 
 
 {hanthis^^^ senses the inlets ? And who is he that can look upon 
 
 the beautiful scenes of the morning, lying in the fresh- 
 ness of the dew, and the joyful light of the risen Sun, 
 and not be happy ? Cannot God create another world 
 many times more fair? and cast over it a mantle of 
 light many times more lovely, and wash it with purer 
 dews than ever dropped from the eyelids of the morn- 
 ing ? Can He not shut up winter in his hoary caverns, 
 or send him howling over another domain? Can He 
 not form the crystal eye more full of sweet sensations, 
 and fill the soul with a richer faculty of conversing 
 with nature, than the most gifted poet did ever pos- 
 sess? Think you the creative function of God is 
 exhausted in this dark and troublous ball of earth ? or 
 that this body and soul of human nature are the 
 masterpiece of His architecture ? ' 
 
 The next is on the conduct of the Soul, when brought 
 to a ' knowledge of the truth.' The tone of tender earnest- 
 ness is quite Augustinian ; the langimge more florid than is 
 usual with him : — 
 
 ^ I regret that I have no copy of taken from Irving's works. The 
 
 Irving's works by me to verify these last will be seen to have a separate 
 
 extracts, which were made some authority, 
 time ago from a copy of Selections 
 
to the Eloquence of other Ages. 207 
 
 * Thus the Soul, when she betaketh herself to consult the chap. xii. 
 oracles of the Lord, cometh to love Him at every new ^'Ue &mi 
 step of discovery, and to admire His mercy and for- kmnvledljtof 
 giveness and most disinterested goodness towards her, 
 while she lay enveloped in a darkness of her own 
 
 making Then she beginneth to burst the shell of 
 
 her former darkness, and to open her eyes on light ; 
 her callow nakedness sprouteth with the divine plum- 
 age : she spreadeth her wings and ariseth to heaven : 
 and floateth over the oceans of eternity : slie soareth 
 like the eagle, and looketh steadily into the face of 
 God : she feeleth for the Divine Spirit within her, and 
 setteth her heart upon all excellency. She giorieth 
 evermore in the predictions and promises of God to 
 put her corruptions to death, and to reconcile her unto 
 Himself : to write holiness upon all her members, and 
 holiness upon her inward ; to strike fruits of righteous- 
 ness in her barren bosom ; to take away her hard and 
 stony heart, and give her a heart of flesh, upon the 
 tablets whereof to write His laws, that it may become 
 a temple for his Holy Spirit to dwell in : to hide all 
 her transgressions, and cover all her sins, and give her 
 rest from a clamorous conscience, and accursed fears, 
 that she may have peace, and be refreshed with the 
 full river of joy, which maketh glad the river of God. 
 She comprehendeth the fulness of His grace; she bind- 
 eth herself to holiness with cords of the strongest 
 love, and rejoiceth in her God as all her Salvation and 
 all her joy.' 
 The following most powerful appeal, which, when deli- Thefouowing 
 vered with all Irving's intensity and enforced by his extra- £7/lf o^i"*" 
 ordinary look and manner, must have been full of awe, mminthe^' 
 reminds us on the very face of it of those antithetical smnonr^ 
 series which abound in the Asiatic eloquence of the fourth 
 century : 
 
208 Relation of the Early Christian Preachers 
 
 CHAP. XII. ' Now let us reason together. Is not that as great a 
 Tiieqreat chans^e, when your physician chambers you up, and 
 
 change of . ^ x ./ ^ x 
 
 hi'<irt. restricts your company to nurses, and your diet to 
 
 simples ? Is not that as great a change, when you 
 leave the dissipated city, outworn with its excitements, 
 and live with solitude and inconvenience in your sum- 
 mer quarters? And is not that a greater change, 
 which stern law makes, when it mures up our person, 
 and gives us outcasts to company with ? And where 
 is the festive life of those who sail the wide ocean? 
 And where the gaieties of the campaigning soldier? 
 And how does the wandering beggar brook his scanty 
 life? If for the sake of a pained limb you will 
 undergo the change, will you not for the removal of 
 eternal pains of spirit and flesh? If, for a summer 
 of refreshment amongst the green of earth, and the 
 freshness of ocean, ye will undergo the change, will ye 
 not for the rich contents of heaven? And if at the 
 command of Law ye will, and if again the sailor will, 
 and for honour the soldier will, and for necessity the 
 strolling beggar will ; — men and brethren, will ye not, 
 to avoid hell, to reach Heaven, to please the voice of 
 God, to gain the inheritance of wealth and honour, 
 and to feed your spirits' starved necessities? Oil 
 men, will ye not muster resolution to enterprise the 
 chansre ? ' 
 
 IHx ' terrible' 
 xiyU. 
 
 Of his terrible style — and the terrible of Irving strongly 
 resembles in kind though not in expression the terrible of 
 Tertullian — the next extract will. give an adequate idea: — 
 
 ' But come at length it will, when Revenge shall array 
 herself to go forth, and Anguish shall attend her ; and 
 from the wheels of that chariot Ruin and Dismay 
 shall shoot far and wide among the enemies of the 
 King, whose desolation shall not tarry, and whose 
 
to the Eloquence of other Ages. 209 
 
 destruction, as the wing of the whirlwind, shall be chap. xii. 
 swift — hopeless as the conclusion of eternity and re- Theendofaii 
 version of doom. Then around the fiery concave of ''*"'^*" 
 the wasteful pit the clang of grief shall ring ; and the / 
 flinty heart which repelled tender mercy shall strike 
 its fangs into its proper bosom: and the soft and 
 gentle spirit which dissolved in voluptuous pleasures, 
 shall dissolve in weeping sorrows and outbursting 
 lamentations. And the gay glory of time shall depart, 
 and sportful Liberty shall be bound for ever, in the 
 chain of obdurate necessity. The gTeen earth with all 
 her blooming beauty, and bowers of peace, shall de- 
 part : and the ever-welcome voice of friendship, and 
 the tender whisperings of full-hearted affection shall 
 depart, for the sad discord of weeping and wailing and 
 gnashing of teeth. And the tender names of children, 
 father and mother, and wife and husband, with the 
 communion of domestic love and mutual affection, and 
 the inward touches of natural instinct — which family 
 compact, when uninvaded by discord, wraps the live- 
 long day into one swell of tender emotion, making 
 earth's lowly scenes worthy of heaven itself — all, all 
 shall pass away ; and instead shall come the level lake 
 that burneth, and the solitary dungeon, and the deso- 
 late bosom, and the throes and tossings of horror and 
 hopelessness, and the worm that dieth not, and the 
 fire that is not quenched.' 
 I will close these extracts from Irving by one which 
 stands in strong contrast to the preceding, and yet is mani- 
 festly the outpouring of the same ardent, yearning, impatient 
 soul; a passage quite in the vein of Tertullian's pathos, 
 but as far beyond him in style as it is superior in a delicate 
 and ethereal conception : — 
 
 ' I cannot think of heaven otherwise than as the perfec- 
 tion of every good thing which my mind conceiveth : 
 
 14 
 
210 Relation of the Early Christian Preachers 
 
 the fulfilment of every pious purpose, tlie gratifica- 
 tion of every devout wish, and tlie perfection of this 
 unfinished creature which I feel myself to be. 
 
 * I hope this body will not fail as it now doth, and 
 
 languish, and stop short of the energetic purposes of 
 the mind. I hope that the instruments of thought 
 within the brain will not grow numb, and refuse obe- 
 dience to the will, and that the fountains of feeling 
 within the heart will not subside and dry up, when 
 called upon too much. 
 
 * I hope that time will open its narrow gates, and admit 
 
 a thousand acts and processes which it now strangletli 
 in the narrowness of its porch. And I would fain add 
 the wings of the morning, that I might travel with the 
 speed of thought to the seats of my affections, and 
 gratify them without constraint. 
 
 * And oh ! I hope that in heaven the instability of virtue 
 . will be removed, and that there may be no more 
 
 commonplace talk about the golden mean, but that 
 the heart may drink deep and not be intoxicated with 
 its affections, the head think on, and not be wearied 
 with its cogitations. 
 
 * And I hope there will be no narrowness of means, no 
 
 penury, no want; and that benevolence will be no 
 more racked with inability to bestow \' 
 
 With this complete expression of all heavenly aspira- 
 tion, the foregoing fragmentary review is brought to a 
 close. If I understand rightly a note on p. 283 of Dr 
 Gregory's Life of Robert Hall, Sir James Mackintosh had 
 intended to undertake some review of the sort on a tolerably 
 extended scale ; but the scheme was cut short by his un- 
 
 ^ Of this passage, which must be pers set at Oxford in 1857 during 
 
 familiar to readers of Irving's Ser- the examination for the Ireland 
 
 ■7iions, I am unable to give the refer- Scholarship, 
 ence, having only seen it in the pa- 
 
to the Eloquence of other Ages, 211 
 
 expected decease. A careful work which should, with some uiap. xii. 
 pretensions to completeness, give a comparative estimate of 
 the ancient Christian preachers and their modern European 
 successors, would form a valuable accession to our critical 
 literature. 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAP. XII. 
 
 On Mr Hallam's Note {Literary History, iv. 52), compare tlie 
 
 subjoined extracts : — 
 
 BOSSUET. 
 
 O nuit desastreuse ! O nnit effroyable ! ou retentit toui-a- 
 coup, comme un 6clat de tonnerre, celle etonnante nouvelle ; 
 Madame se meurt ! Madame est morte ! Qui de nous ne se 
 sentit frappe a ce coup, comme si quelque tragique accident 
 avoit desol^ sa famille 1 Au premier bruit d'un mal si Strange, 
 on accourut a St Cloud de toutes parts ; on trouve tout con- 
 sterne excepte le coeur de cette Princesse ; partout on etend des 
 cris : partout on voit la douleur et le desespoir, et I'image de la 
 mort. — Oil Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans. 
 
 Robert Hall. 
 
 Without the slightest warning, without a moment's oppor- 
 tunity of immediate preparation, in the midst of the deepest 
 tranquillity, at midnight, a voice was heard in the palace, not of 
 singing men and singing women, not of revelry and mirth, but 
 the cry. Behold the Bridegroom cometh. The mother in the 
 bloom of youth, spared just long enough to hear the tidings of 
 her infant's death, almost immediately, as if summoned by his 
 spirit, follows him into eternity. 'It is a night much to be 
 remembered.' — Oii Charlotte, Princess of Wales. 
 
CHAPTEK XIII. 
 
 Concerning a conjectural estimate of the literary ranh which 
 the Church-Fatliers of the First Five Centuries might 
 have held^ apart from a connexion with Catholic Chris- 
 tianity : and J also, concerning some Heretical Preachers. 
 
 A Postscript. 
 
 cHAP.xiii. rpHE exception whicli may be taken against the first 
 
 Objection to J_ poi'tion of the inquiry suggested in the heading of 
 
 of 'the in- this chapter, is too obvious to need any special pointing 
 
 out. It is necessarily incident to all inquiries which 
 
 presuppose that which has really happened not to have 
 
 happened. 
 
 I will, however, venture to state what I had proposed 
 to myself to do in this chapter, believing that very much 
 incidental illustration might be thrown upon the early 
 Church Fathers by an undertaking of the sort. A variety 
 of circumstances render it impossible for me to do more 
 than give a bare statement of what had been intended. 
 The sources There are many sources to which we might apply for 
 
 of conjee lire. ^^ formation of such a conjectural estimate as I have in- 
 dicated. We might make a selection of the Pagan authors 
 during the prescribed period, more especially of such of 
 them as have come into direct collision with Christian 
 writers. Thus, we might scan, first of all, what Niebuhr 
 calls the ' heavenly features of M. Am^elius.'' 
 
 M. Aureims. ' Formerly,' he remarks, ' we knew him only in his 
 mature age from his own meditations : a golden book : 
 though there are things in it which cannot be read 
 without deep grief; for there we find this purest of 
 men without happiness or joy. No one who reads 
 
A Postscript. 213 
 
 his work, especially the first book, in which he goes chap.xiii. 
 through all the circumstances of his life, and thanks 
 every one to whom he owes any obligation, can help 
 loving him ; the cases where he retm'ns more than he 
 owes, only shew his extremely amiable nature. 
 ' But we know him now from his correspondence also 
 with Cornelius Fronto : in the happy time of youth 
 bordering upon manhood: in the full bloom of life, 
 when he was very happy \' 
 
 We might next take the other great imperial genius, JuUan. 
 who has made a name in Eoman Literature, Julian. He 
 was ' a man of extraordinary mind, as every one must feel 
 who reads his writings. He was a true x4.ttic ; and since 
 the time of Dion Chrysostomus, Greece had not produced 
 such an elegant author; he stands far above Libanius^.' 
 Libanius himself would undoubtedly form a third on our uhanms. 
 list ; and to him we would add Symmachus. The eloquent symmachus. 
 Symmachus, to whom Heyne assigns the three attributes 
 oi prudentia^ cautio^ and verecundia^, should receive a very 
 especial notice ; and Ammianus Marcellinus should be also Amm. Mar- 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ceUinus. 
 
 added to the list. 
 
 Out of a comparative examination of the writings of these 
 men, we might perhaps provide ourselves with very effec- 
 tive materials for a conjectural estimate of the literary rank 
 which the Fathers might have held, apart from the stimulus 
 with which Christianity furnished them. 
 
 Many, no doubt, we should degrade to the rank of mere probable low- 
 
 -, . , ^ ^ . ^ . ^ ering of lite- 
 
 sophists : to others we should assm'n no literary rank at rary repu- 
 
 ^ o ./ tationinsome 
 
 all. Of all the Ante-Nicene Fathers, however, I can think <^«*^*- 
 of none who would more certainly maintain his right to be 
 considered not only a literary man, but a literary man of TertnUian 
 
 "^ . "^ still eminent. 
 
 eminence, than Tertullian. 
 
 ^ Niebuhr, Lectures on Roman History, in. 247 sq. ^ Ihid. in. 325. 
 ^ Heyne Opusc. quoted by Milman, ill. 169. 
 
Second limb 
 of the in- 
 
 214 A Postscript. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. With regard to the second portion of the design I had 
 entertained for this chapter, it was suggested to me by 
 Augustine's critique on Ambrose, when he heard him at 
 Milan. We must remember, too, that Augustine heard 
 him to great advantage; he was in the first bloom of 
 Christianized religious impression, and he had been greatly 
 moved by the solemn and devotional worship of Milan, 
 particularly by the Cantus Ambrosianus\ 
 
 Faustusmore Yct lie Said, that, tliougli Ambrosc was impressive to 
 
 ^Ambrose. *"" tlic last dcgrcc, hc considered Faustus the Manichee to be 
 more eloquent than the Bishop. In Neander also^, men- 
 tion is made of the ' skilful eloquence and brilliant wit' of 
 Faustus, who is styled ' of Mileve in Numidia.' 
 
 Conclusion. From thcsc and one or two other considerations, I have 
 
 been brought to think that a profitable search might be 
 made into all the fragments or notices we have of the 
 remains of the Heretical Preachers, together with a sum- 
 mary of the historical accounts of the effects produced by 
 their preaching. 
 
 1 Milman, IIist07'y of Christianity, has preserved some important frag- 
 
 III. 523. ments of Faustus in his reply to 
 
 ^ Neander, Church History, iv. his work on the Manichsean doc- 
 
 49 r. He tells us that Augustine trines. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Africa, the coast of Northern, 163. 
 
 Alexandria, catechetical school at, 69. 
 
 Altar, of the Unknown God, 62, 64. 
 
 Ambrose, St, dates of, 108; nature of 
 his eloquence, 109; his mystic side, 
 ib.; extracts from, 112 sq.; Gibbon 
 and Niebuhr on, 114; his remon- 
 strance with Maximus, 113, 
 
 Ancient Christianity, 117, 120. 
 
 Annus Calamitosus, 21. 
 
 Antioch, its situation, 142 ; character 
 of its inhabitants, 143. 
 
 Antiquities, of early preaching, Chap. III. 
 
 Apologists, the Christian, 29. 
 
 Apostolical Fathers, the, 66 — 68. 
 
 Aristotle, Rliet. i. 5, 6, 10. 
 
 Arnobius, dates of, 94 ; extract from, 
 95; the *Varro' of the Fathers, ih.; 
 his character, ih. ; Niebuhr on, 89. 
 
 Asterius, of Amasea, 189. 
 
 Athanasius, dates of, 102 ; practical 
 mind of the first half of the fourth 
 century, ib. ; extracts from, 103 — 
 T07; his Festal Letters, 106; their 
 origin, 108. 
 
 Augustine, De Doctr. Christ. 6, 8, 11; 
 dates of, 162 ; his see of Hippo Re- 
 gius, 163; his characteristics, 165; 
 his tenets before his collision with 
 Pelagius, r&. ; his later system, 166; 
 Niebuhr's remarks on, ib. ; the repre- 
 sentative portions of his works, 167; 
 the occasion of his writing the De 
 Civitate Dei, ib. ; his twofold design 
 in its composition, 168; analysis of 
 his De Doctrind Christiana, iv. 169 — 
 175; his tractive Catechizandis, 175; 
 
 cautions in it concerning preaching, 
 176; on the spiritual conflict, 177; 
 on love to our neighbour, ib. ; on a 
 rational theory of interpretation, 178; 
 a specimen of his more morbid expo- 
 sition, 1 79 ; on the New Year's Fes- 
 tival, 180; other remarkable pas- 
 sages of, referred to, 181 ; concluding 
 remarks on, ib. ; his expressions bear- 
 ing on artistic eloquence, 182 ; com- 
 parison of, with Luther, 195 ; com- 
 pared by Neander to St John, 159. 
 
 Aurelian, 33. 
 
 Aurelius, M., as a persecutor, 21, 36; 
 his beautiful character, 213. 
 
 Auxentius, 125, 
 
 B. 
 
 Barrow, a student of Chrysostom, 200. 
 
 Basil, the Great, dates of, 1 14 ; Milman 
 on, 115; episcopate of, 116; his dis- 
 courses to the poor, and homilies, 
 117; his funeral, 118; on psalmody, 
 ib.; on the duty of praise, 119; com- 
 pared with Bossuet, 197. 
 
 Basil, of Seleucia, 189. 
 
 Blair, his 29th Lecture, 6. 
 
 Blunt, Ditties of a Parish Priest, r, 6; 
 The Church in the First Three Centu- 
 ries, 49. 
 
 Bossuet, compared with Basil, 197; 
 Hallam on, 196; extract of, com- 
 pared with one on a similar subject 
 by Robert Hall, 211. 
 
 Boyd, his charge of plagiarism against 
 Hooker, 118. 
 
 Bunsen, his division of time between 
 A.D. 33 and A.D. 254, 40. 
 
216 
 
 Index, 
 
 C. 
 
 Cantus Amdrosianus, 214. 
 
 Christian Oratory, general remarks on, 
 Chap. I. ; limits of religious and ar- 
 tistic elements in, ib.; no contradic- 
 tion in terms, ib.; not to be judged 
 of by a purely secular standard, ib. ; 
 faults in popular view of, ib.; why 
 kept in the background during the 
 first three centuries, Chap, II. ; anti- 
 quities of. Chap. III. 
 
 Chromatins, of Aquileia, 189. 
 
 Chrysostom, reterred to, 12, 13, 15, 57, 
 58; dates referring to, 13T, 132; his 
 variety and copiousness, 132 ; internal 
 chronological evidence in his dis- 
 courses, 1 33 ;. his mother's entreaty 
 that he would abandon the intention 
 to lead a monastic life {De Sacerd. i. 
 9), 134—137; on St Paul, 138; his 
 remarks on the early believers in re- 
 spect to persecution, 139; a charity 
 sermon of his on behalf of the poor 
 in Antioch, 140; on the right spirit 
 of public worship, 141 ; on the wealth- 
 ier classes, 143; practical theory of 
 almsgiving, T44 ; on the New Year's 
 Festival, 145; his ministry in Anti- 
 och a miniature of his life, ib. ; on 
 the municipal degradation of Antioch, 
 146; on Flavian's procuring the am- 
 nesty, 147; Serniones in Annam, 147, 
 148; extempore allusion to the wea- 
 ther, 149; to the lighting of the 
 lamps, ib. ; on the Theatre and Holy 
 Communion, 150; sermon on Eutro- 
 pius, 151, 152; his tone during the 
 sessions of the Council of the Oak, 
 153 ; gi-atitude on his restoration, 
 T54; on the Priestly Office, 155; on 
 Fasting, 156 ; on the presence of God 
 in the house, 157, 158; compared by 
 Neander to St Paul, 159; his De Sa- 
 cerclotio, 160; his Homilies easily 
 
 rendered into Tamil, ib.; a mistake 
 of his about the authorship of Ps. 
 cxxxvii., 161 n.; compared to Massil- 
 lon, J97. 
 
 Church Music, 114, 127. 
 
 Cicero, Archias, 10; Brutus, ib.; Tusc. 
 Qucest., gg; Orator, quoted by Au- 
 gustine, 171, 172; contrasted with 
 Lactantius, 194. 
 
 Claudian, In Eutrop. II. 75, 151. 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromat. 32, 39 ; 
 dates of, 70; his works, ib.; his Pro- 
 treptic Discourse, 71 — 74; his genius, 
 74. 
 
 Clemens Komanus, his Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, 66 ; his prayer, 68. 
 
 Coleridge, Table Talk, 'j6, 77; on Je- 
 rome, 128; his great praise of Je- 
 remy Taylor, 200; Taylor called 
 'Chrysostom' by, ib.; on Irving, 205. 
 
 Conington, Professor, quoted in refer- 
 ence to the decay of Roman litera- 
 ture, 88. 
 
 Conybeare, his Bampton Lectures, 39, 
 68, 69, 71, 74. 
 
 Cowper, his Conversation contains a 
 parallel passage to one in Chrysostom, 
 
 157- 
 
 Cyprian, his 83rd Epistle, 35 ; dates of, 
 90 ; extracts from, 90 — 93 ; his flight, 
 93 ; TertuUian's influence on, 94 ; 
 admits the decline of literature at 
 the middle of the third century, 89. 
 
 Cyril, of Alexandria, his character, 183; 
 his treatment of Hypatia, 184; ex- 
 tract from his Horn, in Jer. xviii., 
 ih. ; compared with one from Irenasus, 
 185. 
 
 D. 
 
 Decius, 34. 
 
 Delegates' Paniplilet, on the Oxford Exa- 
 mination of those who are not mem- 
 bers of the University, 5. 
 
Index. 
 
 217 
 
 Demosthenes, uses viroaTefXaadaL in St 
 Paul's sense, i6o; contrasted with 
 Chrysostom, 193. 
 
 Domitian, 30. 
 
 Dupin, on Chrysostom's Antioch dis- 
 course, 133 ; on the date of the De 
 Sacerd. 160; on Basil of Seleucia, 
 
 E. 
 
 Ebionism, 39. 
 
 Edinburgh Review, referred to, 75, 106, 
 
 161 n. 
 Edward Irving. See Irving. 
 Elliott, Horce Apoccdypticce of, 97. 
 Empire, the Roman, 19 — 28. 
 Eusebius, referred to, 22, 33, 35, 55. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eaustus, of Mileve, preferred as a 
 preacher by Augustine to Ambrose, 
 ■214. 
 
 Festal Letters of Athanasius, 106 — 108. 
 
 Fleury, referred to on Gaudentius and 
 others, 188, 189. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gaudentius, of Brescia, 188, 189. 
 
 Gibbon, Decline and Fall, referred to, 
 3, 42, 79, 109, no; his sentence on 
 Ambrose, Tertullian, Lactantius, Je- 
 rome, and Augustine, 114 ; on Cyril, 
 184. 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen, dates of, 114; his 
 great ability how qualified, 120 ; his 
 panegyric on Basil, ib. ; his conso- 
 lation of his mother on the death of 
 his father, ib. ; his weak conduct at 
 Sasima, 122 ; his Farewell Sermon 
 at Constantinople, ib. ; his poems and 
 retirement, 123. 
 
 Gregory Nyssen, dates of, 115 ; his 
 theology and the points of his style, 
 119. 
 
 Grote, Historij of Greece, referred to, i, 
 9, 192 ; his critique on Demosthenes 
 compared with that of Bp. Thirlwall, 
 192. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hall, Robert, his small powers of im- 
 provisation, 203; his strong dialec- 
 tical turn, ib.; his vividness of con- 
 ception, ib. ', his Funeral Sermon on 
 the Princess Charlotte, 203, 204 ; 
 his Modern Infidelity, 204, 205 ; ex- 
 tract of, compared with a similar pas- 
 sage of Bossuet, 211, 
 
 Heresies and Schisms, 38 — 43. 
 
 Heretical Preachers, fragments or notices 
 of, should be searched, 214. 
 
 Heyne, his comparative estimate of 
 Ambrose and Sjonmachus, in. 
 
 Hilary, dates of, 123 ; on Toleration, 
 124; against Constantius, ih. ; against 
 Auxentius, 125 ; character of his 
 writings, 126. 
 
 Hippo Regius, 163 ; siege of, ib. ; in- 
 ternal capabilities of the district of, 
 164 ; climate of, ib. ; modern town 
 of, ib. 
 
 Hooker, did not plagiarize from Basil 
 and Gregory, 118. 
 
 I. 
 
 Ignatius, 66. 
 
 Irenseus, referred to, 67, 80, 185. 
 
 Irving, Edward, approaches most nearly 
 to a modem realization of the early 
 Patristic character, 205 ; Coleridge 
 on, ib. ', analogy between him and 
 TertulUan, 206 ; on the creative 
 power of God, ib. ; on the Soul, 207 ; 
 on the great change of heart, 208; 
 on the Last Day, 209 ; the beautiful 
 passage On Heaven, 210. 
 
 15 
 
218 
 
 Index, 
 
 Jeremy Taylor, Coleridge's high praise 
 of, 200 ; called ' Chrysostom ' by 
 Coleridge, ih. ; his House of Feasting, 
 201 ; his Godly Fear, 1. 202 ; his Faith 
 and Patience of the Saints, ih. 
 
 Jerome, dates of, 127 ; Niebuhr on, ih.; 
 Coleridge and Luther on, 128 ; his 
 controversy with Eufinus, ih. ; his 
 correspondence with Augustine, 129 ; 
 his end, ih. ; compared with Augus- 
 tine, 130. 
 
 Julian, 213. 
 
 Juvenal (x. 194), 164. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kaye, on Clemens, 70, 72, 73. 
 
 L. 
 
 Lactantius, Niebuhr on, 89 ; dates of, 
 96 ; what is his representative pas- 
 sage, ih.', extracts from, 97 — 100; 
 his chiliasm, 97 ; his criticism of 
 Plato, 98 ; of other ancient writers, 
 99; the 'Cicero' of the Fathers, 10 1 ; 
 his minor works, ih. ; Gibbon on, 114. 
 
 Luther, compared with Augustine, 195 ; 
 practical effect an object common to 
 both, ih. ; his plainness of speech, 
 
 196 ; Hallam and Hare on, ih. 
 
 M. 
 
 Mani, 42. 
 
 Massillon, compared with Chrysostom, 
 
 197 ; Niebuhr on, ih. ; his Shrovetide 
 and Advent Sermons, 197 — 200 ; his 
 portrait of an infidel, 198 ; on the 
 true Christian, ih. ; on the death of 
 the just, 199. 
 
 Maxirnin, 33. 
 
 Milman, History of Christianity, re- 
 ferred to, 4, 7, 8, 14, 19, 26, 54, 59, 
 94, 103, 109 ; on Basil and the Gre- 
 gories, 115; referred to, 151, 160. 
 
 Montanism, 39 ; of TertuUian, 85. 
 
 Murray's Handbook for Syria and Pales- 
 tine, on Antioch, 143. 
 
 N. 
 
 Neander, his Church History referred 
 to, 20, 22, 31, 32, 35, 41, 44, 47, 
 51—57, 78, 80, 127, 153, 183; his 
 Antignostikus, 29, 39, 82, 87 ; his 
 Life of Chrysostom, 12, 15, 143, 144, 
 180 ; his Planting of Christianity, 
 59 sq., 66. 
 
 Neo-Platonists, 47. 
 
 New- Sceptics, 46. 
 
 Niebuhr, his Life and Letters referred 
 to, 18 ; his remarks in the Lectures, 
 on Tertullian and the African School, 
 81 ; on Arnobius and Lactantius, 89 ; 
 on Ambrose, 114; on Jerome, 127; 
 on Hilary in connexion with Church 
 Music, ih.; on Massillon, 197; on 
 M. Aurelius, 212 ; on Julian, 213, 
 
 Northern Africa, the coast of, 163. 
 
 Obstacles to the early development of 
 Pulpit Eloquence, Chap. III. 
 
 Oratory, See Christian Oratory. 
 
 Origen, dates of, 75 ; his merits and op- 
 ponents, ih. ; his works, 76 ; Cole- 
 ridge's remarks on, 77; his Treatise 
 on Martyrdom, 78, 79 ; a scholar 
 rather than a preacher, 79 ; his dili- 
 gence, 80. 
 
 P. 
 
 Patres Apostolici, 66 — 68. 
 
 Paul, St, his Sermon at Athens, 62 ; 
 
 his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 
 
 65 ; his Greek learning, 65, 66. 
 Paulinus, dates of, 1 30 ; character and 
 
 remains of, ih. 
 Penny Cyclopcedia, popular view of 
 
 Oratory illustrated from, 2. 
 Peripatetics, 45. 
 
Index. 
 
 219 
 
 Persecutions, the, 28—38; number of, 
 29. 
 
 Peter, St, his Pentecostal Address, 59 ; 
 his Sermon after the healing of the 
 Lame Man, 60. 
 
 Poly carp, his prayer, 67. 
 
 Preachers, of the first five centuries, 
 rash parallels drawn by the admirers 
 of, 191 ; cannot compete with the 
 great classical models, 191, 192 ; their 
 relation to some preachers of Modem 
 Europe, 194 — 211; conjectural esti- 
 mate of their probable literary rank, 
 &c, 212, 213. 
 
 Preaching, of Bishops, 54 ; of laymen, 
 55 ; extempore, 58 ; analysis of Au- 
 gustine's treatise on, 169 — 175. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quinctilian, (XII. i), his definition of an 
 orator, 7. 
 
 K 
 
 Piddle, on Christian Antiquities, 53 sq., 
 
 68. 
 Robert Hall, /^ee Hall. 
 
 S. 
 Schlegel, Dramatic Literature, 3. 
 Schools of Thought, Pagan, 43 — 47. 
 School, the African, 81. 
 Sermons, early, length of, 56 ; several 
 
 consecutive at one time, ih. ; posture 
 
 in delivery of, ih. ; applause in, 57; 
 
 shorthand writers of, 58. 
 Socrates, on the date of the De Sacerd., 
 
 160 ; his chapter on Hypatia referred 
 
 to, 184. 
 
 Sophocles, a parallel in his Antigone 
 (834) to a passage in Gregory, 121. 
 
 South, 200. 
 
 Stoics, 44, 63. 
 
 Symmachus, the Prefect, his character, 
 110; Heyne's opinion of, m; ex- 
 tract from his Fp. x. 61, 112. 
 
 Synesius, his early years, 185 ; his life 
 at Cyrene, 186 ; his elevation to the 
 episcopate, ih. ; Villemain's view of 
 his Hymns, 187 ; his later years, ih. ; 
 part of one of his Hymns translated, 
 ih. n. ; illustration of his practical 
 piety, 188. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tacitus, his reference to Christianity in 
 
 the Annals, 20. 
 Tennemann, his Manual of Philosophy 
 
 referred to, 44 — 46 ; on Augustine, 
 
 165. 
 
 TertulHan, Ad Scap., 32 ; dates of, 81 ; 
 Niebuhr on, ih. ; extracts from, 82 — 
 86 ; his Montanism, 85 ; Neander on, 
 87; Lactantius's opinion of, 87n. ; 
 Cyprian's admiration of, 94. 
 
 Tillemont, on the date of Gregory's 
 birth, 114. 
 
 Trajan, 20. 
 
 V. 
 
 Valerian, 35. 
 
 Villemain, his Tahleau de VEloguence, 
 109, 115, 129, 130, 185. 
 
 W. 
 
 Willmott, his Life of Jeremy Taylor, 
 200. 
 
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