hood," is the judgment of his bitterest enemy. From the first the range of his training was complete. His father Leonidas, after providing carefully for his general education, himself instructed him in Holy Scripture. The boy's nature answered to the demands which were made upon him. His eagerness to penetrate to the deeper meaning of the written Word gave early promise of his characteristic power; and it is said that Leonidas often uncovered his breast-his breast, and not his brow-pectus facit theologum -as he lay asleep and kissed it, as though it were already a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. When Origen had reached his seventeenth year the persecution under Severus broke out. Leonidas was thrown into prison. Origen was only hindered by the loving device of his mother from sharing his fate. As it was, he wrote to strengthen his father with the simple words: "Take heed! let no thought for us alter your purpose." Leonidas was martyred; his property was confiscated; and the young student at once entered on the career of independent labour which closed only with his life. At first Origen supported himself by teaching grammar, the customary subjects of a literary education. But immediately a richer field was opened to him. The Catechetical School in which he had worked under Pantænus and Clement was left without a head, owing to the fierceness of the persecution. For a time Origen gave instruction in Christianity privately to those heathen who wished to learn. His success was such that before he was eighteen he was appointed to fill the vacant post of honour and danger. Martyrs-Eusebius enumerates seven-passed from his class to death. His own escape seemed to be the work of Providence. Marked and pursued, he still evaded his enemies. His influence grew with his selfdevotion, and further experience of his new work stirred him to larger sacrifices. He had collected in earlier times a library of classical authors. This he now sold for an annuity of four obols-sixpence— a day, that he might need no assistance from the scholars, who were grieved that they might not help him.† So he lived for more than fiveand-twenty years, labouring almost day and night, and offering such an example of absolute self-denial as won many to the faith of which he showed the power in his own person. While Origen was thus engaged, his principles were put to a severe test. Ammonius Saccas, the founder of Neo-Platonism, began to lecture at Alexandria. His success showed that he had some neglected forms of truth to make known; and Origen became one of his hearers. The situation was remarkable, and full of interest. The master of Christianity was a learner in the school of Greeks. There can be no doubt that Origen was deeply influenced by the new philosophy, which seemed to him to unveil fresh depths in the Bible; and it is not unlikely that this connexion, which lasted for a considerable time, gave occasion to those suspicions and jealousies on the part of some members of the Church * Euseb. H. E. vi. 2; Hieron. Ep. 84, 58 (ad Pammach. et Ocean.). + Euseb. H. E. vi. 3. Origen, at Alexandria, which at no long interval bore bitter fruit. however, was clear and steadfast as to his purpose, and he found at least some sympathy. For when in later years he was assailed for giving his attention to the opinions of heretics and gentiles, he defended himself not only by the example of Pantanus, but also by that of Heraclas, his fellow-student in the school of Ammonius, who "while now," he writes, "a presbyter at Alexandria, still wears the dress of a philosopher, and studies with all diligence the writings of the Greeks."* An anecdote which is told of the time of his early work may seem in this respect as a symbol of his life.† A heathen mob seized him one day and placed him on the steps of the Temple of Serapis, forcing him to offer palm-branches in honour of the god to those who came to worship. He took the palms, and cried out, "Come, take the palm, not the palm of the idol, but the palm of Christ." 1 The way of Greek wisdom was not the only unusual direction in which Origen sought help for that study of Scripture to which he had consecrated his life. He turned to the Jews also, and learnt Hebrew, a task which overcame the spirit of Erasmus, as he tells us, even in the excitement of the Renaissance. About the same time, when he was now fully equipped for work, he found assistance and impulse from the friendship of Ambrose, a wealthy Alexandrine whom he had won from heresy to the Truth. Origen draws a lively picture of the activity and importunity of his friend. Meals, rest, exercise, sleep, all had to be sacrificed to zeal, which may be measured by the fact that he furnished Origen with seven clerks to write at his dictation.§ This period of happy and incessant labour was at last rudely interrupted. After working publicly at Alexandria for twenty-eight years, with short intervals of absence on foreign missions, Origen was driven from the city to which he was bound by every sacred tie, and never visited it again. There is no need to attempt to unravel the circumstances which led to the catastrophe. It is enough to notice that no word of anger escaped from the great master when he showed after. wards how keenly he felt the blow. Thenceforth the scene, but not the character, of his work was changed; and he was enabled to carry on at Cæsarea for twenty years longer, with undiminished influence, all the tasks which he had begun. Ambrose was still with him, and his reputation even attracted Porphyry for a brief visit. At length the end came. In the persecution of Decius he was imprisoned, tortured, threatened with the stake. From the midst of his sufferings he wrote words of encouragement to his fellow-confessors. His persecutors denied him the visible glory of the martyr's death, but already exhausted by age and toil he sank, three years afterwards, under the effects of what he had suffered (A.D. 253). * Epist. ap. Euseb. H. E. vi. 19. + Epiph. Hær. €4, 1, p. 524. Euseb. H. E. vi. 23. The same He was buried at Tyre;* and his tomb was honoured as long as the city survived. When a cathedral named after the Holy Sepulchre was built there, his body is said to have occupied the place of greatest honour, being enclosed in the wall behind the High Altar.† church received in a later age (A.D. 1190) the remains of Barbarossa ; but the name of the great theologian prevailed over the name of the great warrior. Burchard, who visited Tyre in the last quarter of the thirteenth century (c. 1283), saw the inscription in Origen's memory in a building which was amazing for its splendour.‡ Before the close of the century the city was wasted by the Saracens; but if we may trust the words of a traveller at the beginning of the sixteenth century (c. 1520), the inscription was still preserved on "a marble column, sumptuously adorned with gold and jewels."§ Not long after, at the end of the sixteenth century, the place where Origen lay was only known by tradition. The tradition, however, still lingers about the ruins of the city; for it is said that the natives, to the present time, point out the spot where "Oriunus" lies under a vault, the relic of an ancient church now covered by their huts.|| Origen's writings are commensurate in range and number with the intense activity of his life. They were, it is said, measured by thousands, and yet, as he argued, they were all one, one in purpose and in spirit; and it is almost amusing to observe the way in which he writes to Ambrose, who urged him to fresh labours, pleading that he has already broken, in the letter, the command of Solomon to "avoid making many books." But, he goes on to argue, multitude really lies in contradiction and inconsistency. A few books which are charged with errors are many. Many books which are alike inspired by the truth are one. "If, then," he concludes, "I set forth anything as the truth which is not the truth, then I shall transgress. Now, while I strive by all means to counteract false teaching, I obey the spirit of the precept which seems at first to condemn me." This claim which Origen makes to an essential unity-a unity of purpose and spirit-in all his works is fully justified by their character. Commentaries, homilies, essays, tracts, letters, are alike animated by the same free and lofty strivings towards a due sense of the Divine William of Tyre (c. 1180), Hist., xiii. 1: hæc (Tyrus) et Originis corpus occultat, sicut oculata fide etiam hodie licet inspicere. + Cotovicus (1598), Itin. Hier. p. 121: pone altare maximum magni Originis corpus conditum ferunt. Burchardus, Descript. Terræ Sanctæ, p. 25 (ed. Laurent): Originis ibidem in ecclesia Sancti Sepulcri requiescit in muro conclusus. Cujus titulum ibidem uidi (the edition of 1587 adds et legi). Sunt ibi columpnae marmoreae et aliorum lapidum tam magnae, quod stupor est uidere. § Bart. de Saligniaco, Itin. Hier. ix. 10: In templo Sancti Sepulcri Originis doctoris, ossa magno in honore servantur, quorum titulus est in columna marmorea magno sumptu gem marum et auri. It is not unlikely, I fear, that this statement is a false rendering of Burchard's notice. Burchard's book was very widely known in the sixteenth century. The statements of Adrichonius (Theatr. T. S. Tr. aser, 84), which are repeated by Huet and others, have no independent value whatever. Prutz, Aus Phönicien, 219, 306, quoted by Piper, Ztschr. für Kchgsch. 1876, p. 208. In Joh. v. Præf. Majesty, and the same profound devotion to the teaching of Scripture. It is no less remarkable that in all these different departments of literature his influence was decisive and permanent. In this respect his reputation, however great, falls below the truth. Those parts of his teaching which failed to find general acceptance were brought into prominence by the animosity of Jerome, who himself often silently appropriated the other parts as belonging to the common heritage of the Church. Origen, in a word, first laid down the lines of a systematic study of the Bible. Both in criticism and in interpretation his labours There were homilies before his, but he fixed the type of a popular exposition. His Hexapha was the greatest textual enterprise of ancient times. His treatise on First Principles was the earliest attempt at a systematic view of the Christian faith. marked an epoch. But we must not linger over his writings. Writings are but one element of the teacher. A method is often more characteristic and more influential than doctrine. It was so with Origen; and, in his case, we fortunately possess a vivid and detailed description of the plan of study which he pursued and enforced. Gregory, surnamed Thaumaturgus, the wonder-worker, from his marvellous labours in Pontus, after working under him for five years at Cæsarea, at a later time delivered a farewell address in his presence (c. 239 A.D.)* In this the scholar records with touching devotion the course along which he had been guided by the man to whom he felt that he owed his spiritual life. He had come to Syria to study Roman law in the school of Berytus, but on his way there he met with Origen, and at once felt that he had found in him the wisdom for which he was seeking. The day of that meeting was to him, in his own words, the dawn of a new being; his soul clave to the master whom he recognised, aud he surrendered himself gladly to his guidance. As Origen spoke he kindled within the young advocate's breast a love for the Holy Word, the most lovely of all objects, and for himself, the Word's herald. "That love," Gregory adds, "induced me to give up country and friends, the aims which I had proposed to myself, the study of law of which I was proud. I had but one passion-philosophy --and the godlike man who directed me in the pursuit of it."+ Origen's first care, so his scholar Gregory tells us, was to make the character of a pupil his special study. In this he followed the example of Clement.‡ He ascertained with delicate and patient attention the capacities, the faults, the tendencies, of him whom he had to teach. Rank growths of opinion were cleared away; weaknesses were laid open; every effort was used to develop endurance, firmness, patience, thoroughness. "In true Socratic fashion he sometimes overthrew us by argument," Gregory writes; "if he saw us restive and starting out of the course. The process was at first disagreeable to us, and In the following paragraphs I have endeavoured to give shortly the substance of Gregory's description in his Oratio panegyrica. Comp. Strom. i. 1, 8, p. 320. ́ + Paneg. c. 5. and . prepared us for the painful; but so he purified us reception of the words of truth. ," "by probing us and questioning us, and offering problems for our solution."* In this way Origen taught his scholars to regard language as designed not to furnish materials for display, but to express truth with the most exact accuracy and logic; as powerful, not to secure a plausible success, but to test beliefs with the strictest rigour. This was the first stage of intellectual discipline, the accurate preparation of the instruments of thought. In the next place, Origen led his pupils to apply them, first, to the "lofty and divine, and most lovely" study of external Nature. Here he stood where we stand still, for he made geometry the sure and immovable foundation of his teaching, and from this rose step by step to the heights of heaven and the most sublime mysteries of the universe. Gregory's language implies that Origen was himself a student of physics; as, in some degree, the true theologian must be. Such investigations served to show man in his just relation to the world.† A rational feeling for the vast grandeur of the external order, "the sacred economy of the universe," as Gregory calls it, was substituted for the ignorant and senseless wonder with which it is commonly regarded. The lessons of others, he writes, or his own observation, enabled him to explain the connexion, the differences, the changes of the objects of sense. But physics were naturally treated by Origen as a preparation and not as an end. Moral science came next; and here he laid the greatest stress upon the method of experiment. His aim was not merely to analyse and to define and to classify feelings and motives, though he did this, but to form a character. For him, ethics were a life, and not only a theory. The four cardinal virtues of Plato-practical wisdom, self-control, righteousness, courage-seemed to him to require for their maturing careful and diligent introspection and culture. And here he gave a commentary upon his teaching. His discipline lay even more in action than in precept. His own conduct was, in his scholars' minds, a more influential persuasion than his arguments.‡ So it was that Origen was the first teacher who really led Gregory to the pursuit of Greek philosophy, by bringing speculation into a vital union with practice.§ Gregory saw in him the inspiring example of one at once wise and holy. The noble phrase of older masters gained a distinct meaning for the Christian disciple. In failure and weakness he was enabled to perceive that the end of all was "to become like to God with a pure mind, and to draw near to Him and to abide in Him." Guarded and guided by this conviction, Origen encouraged his scholars in theology to look for help in all the works of human genius. They were to examine the writings of philosophers and poets of every nation-the dogmatic atheists alone excepted-with faithful candour and * Paneg. c. 7. + Id. c. 8. Id. § Id. cc. 11, 12. |