Schleier

much influenced by the spirit of true Christianity. macher even questions "whether Boëthius ever was in earnest about Christianity;" Geschichte der Philosophie, s. 175. F. Nitzsch (Das System des Boëthius, 1860) shows that Boëthius must be for ever struck out of the number of Christian and ecclesiastical writers. The doctrinal writings ascribed to him, which are certainly not without significance for the history of doctrine (1. De Trinitate; 2. Utrum pater et filius ac Spiritus de divinitate substantialiter prædicentur; 3. De persona et natura, contra Eutychem et Nestorium; 4. Fidei Confessio s. brevis fidei Christianæ complexio), are by other authors, who are distinct from each other in time, but may possibly all belong to this period.

(29) Gregory the Great (Bishop of Rome, A.D. 590) died A.D. 604. Protestants commonly, but arbitrarily, regard him as closing the patristic period. Opp. Par. 1675, Venet. 1768-1776.-Wiggers, de Gregorio Magno ejusque placitis anthropologicis, Comment. 1, 1838, 4to. G. J. Th. Lau, Gregor I. der Grosse, nach seinem Leben und seiner Lehre, Leipz. 1845. Böhringer, i. 4, s. 310 ff. [G. Pfahler, Gregor d. Grosse und seine Zeit, Bd. i. Frankf. 1852. Neander in his History, and in his Memorials of Christ. Life (Bohn), p. 386 ff. Markgraf, De Greg. Mag. Vita, Berol. 1845. Gregory's Augustinianism, Wiggers in Zeitschrift, f. d. hist. Theol. 1854. V. Luzarche, Vie de Grég. le Grand, Paris 1857. G.'s Morals on Job, in Oxf. Libr. of Fathers, 18, 21, 23, 31. King Alfred transl. Gregory's Pastoral (in Alf. Regis Res Gestæ), Lond. 1574.-Opera Omnia, ed. Migne, 5 vols. imp. 8vo, Paris 1849.]

(30) Isidore of Seville (Hispalensis) died A.D. 663; he attempted previously to the time of John Damascene to arrange the doctrines of the Church in the form of a system, but his work is only a compilation: Sententiarum sive de Summo Bono, libri iii. Opp. ed. Faust Arevalo, Rom. 1797, 7 vols. 4to. He wrote, moreover, some independent works on doctrinal subjects: Liber Quæstionum sive Expositionis Sacramentorum-De Natura Rerum-Exhort. ad Pœnitentiam-De ecclesiasticis officiis-and also several historical, canonical, and practical treatises, particularly Originum sive Etymologiarum libri xx. (ed. Otto, Lips. 1833). Oudin,

Comment. vol. i. p. 1582-1596. [Isid. Hisp. De Natura Rerum, recens. G. Becker, Berol. 1857; comp. Gersdorf's Rep. Oct. 1857.]

§ 83.

The Eastern Church from the Fourth to the Sixth Century.

The Schools of Alexandria and Antioch.

F. Münter, über die antiochenische Schule, in Staüdlins and Tzschirners Archiv, i. 1, s. 1 ff. [Niedner, Kirchengeschichte, p. 317 ff.] Baur, Dg. i. 2, s. 10 ff.

During this period an important change took place in the theological position of the school of Alexandria. Formerly it had been the representative of a spiritual and living Christianity, and of that idealistic theology which did not rest satisfied with the popular and sensuous apprehension of truth: during the present period the dogmatic tendency of the school of Egypt reacted into a compact realism. As it had once been the task of the Alexandrian school, so it became now the office of the School of Antioch, to defend a more liberal theology against rude and narrow polemics. The consequence was, that the teachers of that school shared the same fate with

Origen in being treated as heretics. The school of Antioch, however, so far from resembling the earlier Alexandrian school in giving countenance to the arbitrary system of allegorical interpretation, adopted the grammatical interpretation, to which, as well as to biblical criticism in general, they thus rendered signal service. But on this account they have also sometimes been charged with a want of spirituality.

The change of opinions respecting classical literature, which many thought irreconcilable with the spirit of the gospel (the dream of Jerome in his Epist. ad Eustachium, comp. Ullmann, Gregor von Nazianz. s. 543), could not but exert a prejudicial influence upon the critical judgment of commentators. But where this last was wanting, only a limited gain could accrue

to Christian theology from speculation, even when strengthened by Christian principles.

§ 84.

The Western Church-Augustinianism.

About the same time a new epoch in the History of Doctrines begins with the appearance of Augustine. From the dogmatic point of view, the West now assumes a higher degree of importance than the East, which exhausted itself in the controversies respecting the nature of Christ and the worship of images. The Carthaginian and Roman realistic tendency (a tendency earlier represented in the western Churches) gradually gained the ascendency over the Hellenistic idealism of past ages; the philosophy of Aristotle supplanted that of Plato. Augustine embraced in his theology the germs of two systems, which more than a thousand years afterwards were to wage open war against each other. The Roman Catholic system was based on his doctrine of the Church (in opposition to the Donatists); the system of evangelical Protestantism rests upon his doctrine of sin, of grace, and predestination (in opposition to the Pelagians). But both these systems appear organically conjoined in his own person, and have a basis not only in his personal career and experience, but also in the position which he occupied in relation to the Church and to his opponents.

Comp. Neander, Church History, and Dg. s. 272 ff.

§ 85.

The Heresies.

[Baur, Epochen d. kirchlichen Geschichtsehreibung, 1852; Die Christl. Kirche, vom 4n. bis 6n. Jahrh. 1859.]

Among the natural heresies which prevailed during the first period, the Ebionitic (Judaizing) may be considered as

entirely suppressed (1). The Gnostic (anti-Judaizing) tendency, on the contrary, was more firmly established in the system of Manes (Manichæism), which, as a complete dualism, planted itself by the side of Christianity, from its very nature belonging to that form of oriental and pagan philosophy which had not yet disappeared (2). The system of the followers of Priscillian must be regarded as a continuation of Gnosticism, though modified by Manichæism; it spread in the West in the course of the fourth century, but was suppressed by violent persecutions (3). The Paulicians, too, manifested a leaning towards Gnostic and Manichæan notions, though they at first appear to have been impelled by a practical necessity to attempt a return to the simplicity of apostolical Christianity (4). These heresies, that are, as it were, the younger branches, which the old stock of Gnosticism continued to shoot forth, and which attained a higher importance in the next period, are to be carefully distinguished from the heresies which arose in consequence of dogmatic controversies; the latter, by the antagonisms which were called forth, had an essential influence upon the doctrinal definitions of the Church, and, in fact, evoked these definitions to mediate between opposite extremes. To this period belong the heresies which arose in the struggle respecting a dialectic treatment of the separate doctrines, and which essentially contributed to the doctrinal statements made in this period, viz. :—1. The heresies of Sabellius and Paul of Samosata, with their opposites, the Arian, Semi-Arian, and Eusebian heresies (which continued to prevail among the Goths, Burgundians, and Vandals long after they had been condemned). 2. The heresy of the Pelagians, who never were able to form a distinct sect, but by means of a modified system (Semi-Pelagianism) kept a backdoor open to creep now and then into the Church, from which they had been excluded by the more strict doctrinal decisions. 3. The Nestorian heresy, with its opposites, the Monophysite and Monothelite heresies. The Nestorians, after having been defeated in Europe, succeeded in winning over to their party

the Chaldees and the Thomas-Christians in Asia. Monophysites prevailed among the Jacobites and Copts, and the Monothelites have dragged out a wretched existence even to the present day among the Maronites in Syria (5).

(1) A Judaizing view lies at the basis of Sabellianism, just as a heathen tendency is manifested in Arianism; but the Jewish element is no longer bound to what is national, as it was in Ebionitism. Yet the whole conflict strikes rather into the sphere of dialectic thought, than into that of primitive religious opinions. The notions of the Pelagians concerning the meritoriousness of works bore some resemblance to Judaism, but they did not in the popular mind originate with it.

(2) Manichæism is distinguished from Gnosticism by a more complete development of the dualistic principle; this also accounts for its rigid and uniform appearance, while Gnosticism is divided into many branches, and admits of more variety. There is far less of historical Christianity in Manichæism than in Gnosticism: it rests on its own historical foundation, which is here and there an imitation of Christianity, and hence it forms (like Mohammedanism at a later period) a separate system of religion rather than a sect. Comp. Beausobre, Histoire de Manichée et du Manichéisme, Amst. 1734, 2 vols. 4to. *Baur, das manichäische Religionssystem, Tüb. 1831, and Dg. i. 2, s. 33 ff. F. Trechsel, über den Kanon, die Kritik, und Exegese der Manichäer, Bern. 1832. F. E. Colditz, die Entstehung des manichäischen Religionssystems, Leipz. 1837 (where Manichæism is compared with the Indian, Zoroastrian, and other systems of religion). [On the Manichæans, see Note F to Pusey's edition of Augustine's Confessions.]

(3) On the history of the Priscillianists, which is of more importance for the history of the Church than for the History of Doctrines, because they were the first heretics persecuted with the sword, comp. Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacr. ii. 46–51. Neander, Kg. ii. 3, s. 1486 ff. Baumgarten-Crusius, i. s. 292 ff. J. H. B. Lübkert, De Hæresi Priscillianistarum, Havn. 1840. +Mandernach, Geschichte des Priscillianismus, Trier. 1851. Vogel in Herzog's Realencyclop. xii. s. 194.

(4) Further particulars may be found in Fr. Schmid, Historia Paulicianorum Orientalium, Havn. 1826; in an