§ 31.10. =The Church Teachers of North Africa.=--=Quintus
Septimius Florens Tertullianus [Tertullian]= was the son of a
heathen centurion of Carthage, distinguished as an advocate and
rhetorician, converted somewhat late in life, about A.D. 190,
and, after a long residence in Rome, made presbyter at Carthage
in A.D. 220. He was of a fiery and energetic character, in his
writings as well as in his life pre-eminently a man of force,
with burning enthusiasm for the truth of the gospel, unsparingly
rigorous toward himself and others. His “Punic style” is terse,
pictorial and rhetorical, his thoughts are original, brilliant
and profound, his eloquence transporting, his dialectic clear
and convincing, his polemic crushing, enlivened with sharp wit
and biting sarcasm. He shows himself the thoroughly accomplished
jurist in his use of legal terminology and also in the acuteness
of his deductions and demonstrations. Fanatically opposed to
heathen philosophy, though himself trained in the knowledge of it,
a zealous opponent of Gnosticism, in favour of strict asceticism
and hostile to every form of worldliness, he finally attached
himself, about A.D. 220, to the party of the Montanists (§ 40, 3).
Here he found the form of religion in which his whole manner of
thought and feeling, the energy of his will, the warmth of his
emotions, his strong and forceful imagination, his inclination to
rigorous asceticism, his love of bald realism, could be developed
in all power and fulness, without let or hindrance. If amid
all his enthusiasm for Montanism he kept clear of many of its
absurdities, he had for this to thank his own strong common sense,
and also, much as he affected to despise it, his early scientific
training. He at first wrote his compositions in Greek, but
afterwards exclusively in Latin, into which he also translated
the most important of his earlier writings. He is perhaps not
the first who treated of the Christian truth in this language
(§ 31, 12a), but he has been rightly recognised as the actual
creator of ecclesiastical Latin. His writings may be divided into
three groups.
a. =Apologetical and Controversial Treatises against Jews and
Pagans=, which belong to his pre-Montanist period. The most
important and instructive of these is the _Apologeticus adv.
Gentes_, addressed to the Roman governor. A reproduction of
this work intended for the general public, less learned, but
more vigorous, scathing and uncompromising, is the treatise
in two books entitled _Ad Nationes_. In the work _Ad
Scapulam_, who as Proconsul of Africa under Septimius
Severus had persecuted the Christians with unsparing cruelty,
he calls him to account for this with all earnestness and
plainness of speech. In the book, _De testimonio animæ_
he carries out more fully the thought already expressed in
the _Apologeticus c. 17_ of the _Anima humana naturaliter
christiana_, and proves in an ingenious manner that
Christianity alone meets the religious needs of humanity.
The book _Adv. Judæos_ had its origin ostensibly in a public
disputation with the Jews, in which the interruptions of his
audience interferes with the flow of his discourse.
b. =Controversial Treatises against the Heretics.= In the tract
_De præscriptione hæreticorum_ he proves that the Catholic
church, because in prescriptive possession of the field
since the time of the Apostles, is entitled on the legal
ground of _præscriptio_ to be relieved of the task of
advancing proof of her claims, while the heretics on the
other hand are bound to establish their pretensions. A
heresiological appendix to this book has been erroneously
attributed to Tertullian (see § 31, 3). He combats the
Gnostics in the writings: _De baptismo_ (against the Gnostic
rejection of water baptism); _Adv. Hermogenem_; _Adv.
Valentinianos_; _De anima_ (an Anti-Gnostic treatise,
which maintains the creatureliness, yea, the materiality of
the soul, traces its origin to sexual intercourse, and its
mortality to Adam’s sin); _De carne Christi_ (Anti-Docetic):
_De resurrectione carnis Scorpiace_ (an antidote to the
scorpion-poison of the Gnostic heresy); finally, the five
books, _Adv. Marcionem_. The book _Adv. Praxeam_ is directed
against the Patripassians (§ 33, 4). In this work his
realism reaches its climax at c. 7 in the statement: “_Quis
enim negabit, Deum corpus esse, etsi Deus spiritus est?
Spiritus enim corpus sui generis in sua effigie_,”--where,
however, he is careful to state that with him _corpus_ and
_substantia_ are identical ideas, so that he can also say in
c. 10 _de carne Christi_: “_Omne quod est, corpus est sui
generis. Nihil est incorporate nisi quod non est._”
c. =Practical and Ascetical Treatises.= His pre-Montanist
writings are characterized by moderation as compared with
the fanatical rigorism and scornful bitterness against the
Psychical, _i.e._ the Catholics, displayed in those of the
Montanist period. To the former class belong: _De oratione_
(exposition of the Lord’s Prayer); _De baptismo_ (necessity
of water baptism, disapproval of infant baptism); _De
pœnitentia_; _De idolatria_; _Ad Martyres_; _De spectaculis_;
_De cultu feminarum_ (against feminine love of dress); _De
patientia_; _Ad uxorem_ (a sort of testament for his wife,
with the exhortation after his death not to marry again,
but at least in no case to marry an unbeliever). To the
Montanist period belong: _De virginibus velandis_; _De
corona militis_ (defending a Christian soldier who suffered
imprisonment for refusing to wear the soldier’s crown);
_De fuga in persecutione_ (which with fanatical decision
is declared to be a renunciation of Christianity); _De
exhortatione castitatis_ and _De monogamia_ (both against
second marriages which are treated as fornication and
adultery); _De pudicitia_ (recalling his milder opinion
given in his earlier treatise _De pœnitentia_, that
every mortal sin is left to the judgment of God, with the
possibility of reconciliation); _De jejuniis adv. Psychicos_
(vindication of the fasting discipline of the Montanists,
§ 40, 4); _De pallio_ (an essay full of wit and humour
in answer to the taunts of his fellow-citizens about his
throwing off the toga and donning the philosopher’s mantle,
_i.e._ the Pallium, which even the Ascetics might wear).[78]
§ 31.11. =Thascius Cæcilius Cyprianus= [Cyprian], descended from
a celebrated pagan family in Carthage, was at first a teacher
of rhetoric, then, after his conversion in A.D. 245, a presbyter
and from A.D. 248 bishop in his native city. During the Decian
persecution the hatred of the heathen mob expressed itself in
the cry _Cyprianum ad leonem_; but he withdrew himself for a
time in flight into the desert in A.D. 250, from whence he guided
the affairs of the church by his Epistles, and returned in the
following year when respite had been given. The disturbances that
had meanwhile arisen afforded him abundant opportunity for the
exercise of that wisdom and gentleness which characterized him,
and the earnestness, energy and moderation of his nature, as well
as his Christian tact and prudence all stood him in good stead in
dealing, on the one hand, with the fallen who sought restoration,
and on the other, the rigorous schismatics who opposed them
(§ 41, 2). When persecution again broke out under Valerian in
A.D. 257 he was banished to the desert Curubis, and when he
returned to his oppressed people in A.D. 258, he was beheaded.
His epoch-making significance lies not so much in his theological
productions as in his energetic and successful struggle for the
unity of the church as represented by the monarchical position
of the episcopate, and in his making salvation absolutely
dependent upon submission to episcopal authority, as well
as in the powerful impetus given by him to the tendency to
view ecclesiastical piety as an _opus operatum_ (§ 39). As a
theologian and writer he mainly attaches himself to the giant
Tertullian, whose thoughts he reproduces in his works, with
the excision, however, of their Montanist extravagances. Jerome
relates that no day passed in which he did not call to his
amanuensis: _Da magistrum_! In originality, profundity, force
and fulness of thought, as well as in speculative and dialectic
gifts, he stands indeed far below Tertullian, but in lucidity and
easy flow of language and pleasant exposition he far surpasses
him. His eighty-one Epistles are of supreme importance for the
Ch. Hist. of his times, and next to them in value is the treatise
“De unitate ecclesiæ” (§ 34, 7). His _Liber ad Donatum s. de
gratia Dei_, the first writing produced after his conversion,
contains treatises on the leadings of God’s grace and the
blessedness of the Christian life as contrasted with the
blackness of the life of the pagan world. The Apologetical
writings _De idolorum vanitate_ and _Testimonia adv. Judæos_,
II. iii., have no claims to independence and originality. This
applies also more or less to his ascetical tracts: _De habitu
virginum_, _De mortalitate_, _De exhortatione martyrii_,
_De lapsis_, _De oratione dominica_, _De bono patientiæ_,
_De zelo et livore_, etc. His work _De opere et eleemosynis_
specially contributed to the spread of the doctrine of the merit
of works.[79]
§ 31.12. =Various Ecclesiastical Writers using the Latin Tongue.=
a. The Roman attorney =Minucius Felix=, probably of Cirta in
Africa, wrote under the title of _Octavius_ a brilliant
Apology, expressed in a fine Latin diction, in the form of a
conversation between his two friends the Christian Octavius
and the heathen Cæcilius, which resulted in the conversion
of the latter. It is matter of dispute whether it was
composed before or after Tertullian’s Apologeticus, and
to which of the two the origin of thoughts and expressions
common to both is to be assigned. Recently Ebert has
maintained the opinion that Minucius is the older, and
this view has obtained many adherents; whereas the contrary
theory of Schultze has reached its climax in assigning the
composition of the _Octavius_ to A.D. 300-303, so that he is
obliged to ascribe the Octavius as well as the Apologeticus
to a compiler of the fourth or fifth century, plagiarizing
from Cyprian’s treatise _De idolorum vanitate_!
b. =Commodianus= [Commodus], born at Gaza, was won to
Christianity by reading holy scripture, and wrote about
A.D. 250 his _Instructiones adv. Gentium Deos_, consisting
of eighty acrostic poems in rhyming hexameters and scarcely
intelligible, barbarous Latin. His _Carmen apologeticum adv.
Jud. et Gent._ was first published in 1852.
c. The writings of his contemporary the schismatical =Novatian=
of Rome (§ 41, 3) show him to have been a man of no ordinary
dogmatical and exegetical ability. His _Liber de Trinitate
s. de Regula fidei_ is directed in a subordinationist
sense against the Monarchians (§ 33). The _Epistola de
cibis Judaici_ repudiates any obligation on the part of
Christians to observe the Old Testament laws about food;
and the _Epistola Cleri Romani_ advocates milder measures
in the penitential discipline.
d. =Arnobius= was born at Sicca in Africa, where he was engaged
as a teacher of eloquence about A.D. 300. For a long time he
was hostilely inclined toward Christianity, but underwent a
change of mind by means of a vision in a dream. The bishop
distrusted him and had misgivings about admitting him
to baptism, but he convinced him of the honesty of his
intentions by composing the seven books of _Disputationes
adv. Gentes_. This treatise betrays everywhere defective
understanding of the Christian truth; but he is more
successful in combating the old religion than in defending
the new.
e. The bishop =Victorinus of Pettau= (Petavium in Styria), who
died a martyr during the Diocletian persecution in A.D. 303,
wrote commentaries on the Old and New Testament books that
are no longer extant. Only a fragment _De fabrica mundi_ on
Gen. i. and Scholia on the Apocalypse have been preserved.
f. =Lucius Cœlius Firmianus Lactantius= († about A.D. 330),
probably of Italian descent, but a pupil of Arnobius
in Africa, was appointed by Diocletian teacher of Latin
eloquence at Nicomedia. At that place about A.D. 301 he
was converted to Christianity and resigned his office
on the outbreak of the persecution. Constantine the Great
subsequently committed to him the education of his son
Crispus, who, at his father’s command, was executed in
A.D. 326. From his writings he seems to have been amiable
and unassuming, a man of wide reading, liberal culture
and a warm heart. The purity of his Latin style and the
eloquence of his composition, in which he excels all the
Church Fathers, has won for him the honourable name of the
Christian Cicero. We often miss in his writings grip, depth
and acuteness of thinking; especially in their theological
sections we meet with many imperfections and mistakes.
He was not only carried away by a fanatical chiliasm,
but adopted also many opinions of a Manichæan sort. The
_Institutiones divinæ_ in seven bks., a complete exposition
and defence of the Christian faith, is his principal work.
The _Epitome div. inst._ is an abstract of the larger works
prepared by himself with the addition of many new thoughts.
His book _De mortibus persecutorum_ (Engl. trans. by
Dr. Burnett, “Relation of the Death of the Primitive
Persecutors.” Amsterdam, 1687), contains a rhetorically
coloured description of the earlier persecutions as well
as of those witnessed by himself during his residence in
Nicomedia. It is of great importance for the history of the
period but must be carefully sifted owing to its strongly
partisan character. Not only the joy of the martyrs but
also the proof of a divine Nemesis in the lives of the
persecutors are regarded as demonstrating the truth of
Christianity. The tract _De ira Dei_ seeks to prove the
failure of Greek philosophy to combine the ideas of justice
and goodness in its conception of God. The book _De opificio
Dei_ proves from the wonderful structure of the human body
the wisdom of divine providence. Jerome praises him as a
poet; but of the poems ascribed to him only one on the bird
phœnix, which, as it rises into life out of its own ashes
is regarded as a symbol of immortality and the resurrection,
can lay any claim to authenticity.
§ 32. THE APOCRYPHAL AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHICAL LITERATURE.[80]
The practice, so widely spread in pre-Christian times among pagans
and Jews, of publishing treatises as original and primitive divine
revelations which had no claim to such a title found favour among
Christians of the first centuries, and was continued far down into the
Greek and Latin Middle Ages. The majority of the apocryphal or anonymous
and pseudepigraphic writings were issued in support of heresies Ebionite
or Gnostic. Many, however, were free from heretical taint and were
simply undertaken for the purpose of glorifying Christianity by what
was then regarded as a harmless _pia fraus_ through a _vaticinia post
eventum_, or of filling up blanks in the early history with myths and
fables already existing or else devised for the occasion. They took the
subjects of their romances partly from the field of the Old Testament,
and partly from the field of the New Testament in the form of Gospels,
Acts, Apostolic Epistles and Apocalypses. A number of them are
professedly drawn from the prophecies of old heathen seers. Of greater
importance, especially for the history of the constitution, worship and
discipline of the church are the Eccles. Constitutions put forth under
the names of Apostles. Numerous apocryphal Acts of Martyrs are for the
most part utterly useless as historical sources.
§ 32.1. =Professedly Old Heathen Prophecies.=--Of these the
=Sibylline Writings= occupy the most conspicuous place. The
Græco-Roman legend of the Sibyls, σιοῦ βούλη (Æol. for θεοῦ
βούλη), _i.e._ prophetesses of pagan antiquity, was wrought up
at a very early period in the interests of Judaism and afterwards
of Christianity, especially of Ebionite heresy. The extant
collection of such oracles in fourteen books were compiled in the
5th or 6th century. It contains in Greek verses prophecies partly
purely Jewish, partly Jewish wrought up by a Christian hand,
partly originally Christian, about the history of the world, the
life and sufferings of Christ, the persecutions of His disciples
and the stages in the final development of His kingdom. The
Christian participation in the composition of the Sibylline
oracles began in the first century, soon after the irruption of
Vesuvius in A.D. 79, and continued down to the 5th century. The
Apologists, especially Lactantius, made such abundant use of
these prophecies that the heathens nicknamed them Sibyllists.--Of
the prophecies about the coming of Christ ascribed to an ancient
Persian seer, =Hystaspes=, none have been preserved.
§ 32.2. =Old Testament Pseudepigraphs.=[81]--These are mostly of
=Jewish Origin=, of which, however, many were held by the early
Christians in high esteem.
a. To this class belongs pre-eminently the =Book of Enoch=,
written originally in Hebrew in the last century before
Christ, quoted in the Epistle of Jude, and recovered only in
an Ethiopic translation in A.D. 1821. In its present form in
which a great number of older writings about Enoch and Noah
have been wrought up, the book embraces accounts of the fall
of a certain part of the angels (Gen. vi. 1-4; Jude 6; and
2 Pet. ii. 4), also statements of the holy angels about the
mysteries of heaven and hell, the earth and paradise, about
the coming of the Messiah, etc.
b. The =Assumptio Mosis= (ἀνάληψις), from which, according to
Origen, the reference to the dispute between Michael and
Satan about the body of Moses in the Epistle of Jude is
taken, was discovered by the librarian Ceriani at Milan.
He found the first part of this book in an old Latin
translation and published it in A.D. 1860. In the exercise
of his official gift Moses prophesies to Joshua about the
future fortunes of his nation down to the appearing of the
Messiah. The second part, which is wanting, dealt with the
translation of Moses. The exact date of its composition is
not determined, but it may be perhaps assigned to the first
Christian century.
c. The so-called =Fourth Book of Ezra= is first referred to by
Clement of Alexandria. It is an Apocalypse after the manner
of the Book of Daniel. It was probably written originally in
Greek but we possess only translations: a Latin one and four
oriental ones--Ethiopic, Arabic, Syriac and Armenian. From
these oriental translations the blanks in the Latin version
have been supplied, and its later Christian interpolations
have been detected. The angel Uriel in seven visions makes
known to the weeping Ezra the signs of the approaching
destruction of Jerusalem, the decay of the Roman empire,
the founding of the Messianic kingdom, etc. The fifth vision
of the eagle with twelve wings and three heads seems to fix
the date of its composition to the time of Domitian.
d. In the year 1843 the missionary Krapff sent to Tübingen
the title of an Ethiopic Codex, in which Ewald recognised
the writing referred to frequently by the Church Fathers as
the =Book of Jubilees= (Ἰωβελαῖα) or the =Little Genesis=
(Λεπτογένεσις). This book, written probably about A.D. 50
or 60, is a complete summary of the Jewish legendary matter
about the early biblical history from the creation down to
the entrance into Canaan, divided into fifty jubilee periods.
The name _Little Genesis_ was given it, notwithstanding
its large dimensions, as indicating a Genesis of the second
rank.[82]
§ 32.3. The following Pseudepigraphs are of =Christian Origin=.
a. The short romantic =History of Assenath=, daughter of
Potiphar and wife of Joseph (Gen. xli. 45). Its main point
is the conversion of Assenath by an angel.
b. =The Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs=, after the style of
Gen. xlix., written in Greek in the 2nd cent., and quoted
by Origen. As in the chapter of Gen. referred to parting
counsels are put in the mouth of Jacob, they are here
ascribed to his twelve sons. These discourses embrace
prophecies of the coming of Christ and His atoning
sufferings and death, statements about baptism and the
Lord’s supper, about the great Apostle of the Gentiles,
the rejection of the O.T. covenant people and the election
of the Gentiles, the destruction of Jerusalem and the
final completion of the kingdom of God. The book is thus a
cleverly compiled and comprehensive handbook of Christian
faith, life and hope.
c. Of the =Ascensio Isaiæ= (Ἀναβατικόν) and the =Visio Isaiæ=
(Ὅρασις) traces are to be found as early as in Justin
Martyr and Tertullian. The Greek original is lost. Dillmann
published an old Ethiopic version (Lps., 1877), and Gieseler
an old Lat. text (Gött., 1832). Its Cabbalistic colouring
commended it to the Gnostics. In its first part, borrowed
from an old Jewish document, it tells about the martyrdom of
Isaiah who was sawn asunder by King Manasseh; in its second
part, entitled _Visio Isaiæ_ it is told how the prophet in
an ecstasy was led by an angel through the seven heavens and
had revealed to him the secrets of the divine counsels
regarding the incarnation of Christ.
d. A collection in Syriac belonging perhaps to the 5th or 6th
century in which other legends about early ages are kept
together, is called =Spelunca thesaurorum=. We are here
told about the sepulchre of the patriarch Lamech and the
treasures preserved there from which the wise men obtained
the gifts which they presented to the infant Saviour. The
Ethiopic _Vita Adami_ is an expansion of the book just
referred to. This book is manifestly a legendary account of
the changes wrought upon all relations of life in our first
parents by means of the fall (hence the title: “Conflict
of Adam and Eve”), and Golgotha is named as Adam’s burying
place. A second and shorter part treats of the Sethite
patriarchs down to Noah. The still shorter third part
relates the post-diluvian history down to the time of
Christ.[83]
§ 32.4. =New Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphs.=--The
Gnostics especially produced these in great abundance. Epiphanius
speaks of them as numbering thousands. But the Catholics, too,
were unable to resist the temptation to build up the truth by
these doubtful means.