more inflated, and refused to perform those meaner offices to which they once cheerfully submitted. The offices designated by these new titles are in great measure explained by the words themselves. The exorcists owed their origin to the doctrine of the New Platonists adopted by the Christians, that evil spirits have a strong desire after the human body, and that vicious men are not so much impelled to sin by their natural depravity, and the influence of bad examples, as by the suggestions of some evil spirit lodging within them. The copiata were employed in the burial of the dead. § 6. Marriage was allowed to all the clergy, from the highest rank to the lowest. Yet those were accounted more holy and excellent who lived in celibacy. For it was the general persuasion, that those who lived in wedlock were much more exposed to the assaults of evil spirits than others;2 and it was of immense importance that no impure or malignant spirit should assail the mind or the body of one who was to instruct and govern others. Such persons therefore, wished, if possible, to have nothing to do with conjugal life. And this many of the clergy, especially in Africa, endeavoured to accomplish with the least violence to their inclinations; for they received into their house, and even to their beds, some of those females who had vowed perpetual chastity, affirming, however, most religiously, that they had no disgraceful intercourse with them.3 These concubines were by the Greeks called ovvaloarтoi, and by the Latins mulieres subintroducta. Many of the bishops, indeed, sternly 1 See J. Godofredus, ad Codicem Theodosianum, vi. 48. [Several of the Catholic writers, as, e.g. Baronius, Bellarmine, and Schelstrate, believed that these minor orders were instituted by the apostles. But the most learned writers of the Romish communion, and all the Protestants, maintain that they were first instituted in the third century. See Cardinal Bona, Rerum Liturgicar. 1. i. c. 25, § 16, 17. Morin, de Ordinatione, p. iii. Exerc. 14, c. 1, and Bingham's Orig. Eccles. vol. i. Not one of these orders is even named by any writer who lived before Tertullian; nor are all of them named by him. Cyprian, in the middle of the third century, mentions hypodiaconi, acolythi, and lectores. See his Epp. 14, 24, 36, 42, 49, 79, ed. Baluz. And Cornelius, bp. of Rome, contemporary with Cyprian, in an epistle preserved by Eusebius, H.E. vi. c. 43, represents his church as embracing 46 (πρεσβυτέρους) presbyters ; 7 (διακόνους) deacons; 7 (vodiaкóvous) subdeacons; 42 (ἀκολούθους) acolythi; exorcists (ἐξορκιστὰς), and readers (avayváσras), with door-keepers (dua muλwpois), together 52. The particular functions of these inferior orders are but imperfectly defined by the writers of the third century. From the Epistles of Cyprian above cited, it appears that subdeacons and acolythi, singly or together, were frequently the bearers of public letters to and from bishops; and that readers were employed to read the scriptural lessons in time of public worship. The writers and councils of the fourth century describe more fully the duties of all these petty offices. Tr.] Porphyrius, Tepl àwoxñs, lib. iv. p. 417. See H. Dodwell, Diss. tertia Cyprianica; and Lud. Ant. Muratorius, Diss. de Synisactis et Agapetis, in his Anecdota Græca, p. 218, Steph. Baluze, ad Cypriani Epistol. p. 5, 12, and others.-[This shameful practice commenced before this century. Slight allusions to it are found in the Shepherd of Hermas and in Tertullian; but the first distinct mention of it is in Cyprian, who inveighs severely against it in some of his Epistles. It is to be remembered, that none but virgin sisters in the church, and they under a vow of perpetual chastity, became συνείσακτοι. With these some of the single clergy attempted to live, in the manner in which certain married people then lived, -dwelling and even sleeping together, but with a mutual agreement to have no conjugal intercourse. Such connexions they considered as a marriage of souls, without the marriage of bodies. See Mosheim, de Rebus Christianor. &c. p. 599, &c. Tr.] opposed this most shameful practice; but it was a long time before it could be wholly abolished. § 7. Of the writers of this century the most distinguished for the celebrity of his name and for the extent of his writings was Origen,1 a presbyter and catechist of Alexandria, a man truly great, and the common teacher of the Christian world. Had his discernment and soundness of judgment been equal to his genius, piety, industry, erudition, and other acomplishments, he would deserve almost See P. D. Huet, Origeniana, a learned and valuable work; Lud. Doucin, Histoire d'Origène et des Mouvemens arrivées dans l'église au sujet de sa Doctrine. Paris, 1700, 8vo.; and Bayle, Dictionnaire, iii. art. Origène; and many others.-[Origen, surnamed Adamantius (and Xaλkévτepos, from his prodigious powers and habit of sustaining labour, S.), was an Alexandrian Greek, born of Christian parents A.D. 185. His father Leonidas was a man of letters, a devout Christian, and took great pains with the education of his son, especially in the Holy Scriptures, some portion of which he required him daily to commit to memory. His education, begun under his father, was completed under Clemens Alexandrinus, and the philosopher Ammonius Saccas. Origen was distinguished for precocity of genius, early piety, and indefatigable industry. When his father suffered martyrdom, A.D. 202, Origen, then seventeen years old, was eager to suffer with him, but was prevented by his mother. He wrote to his father in prison, exhorting him to stedfastness in the faith, and to be unsolicitous about his family. The whole property of the family was confiscated, and Origen, with his widowed mother and six younger sons, were left in poverty. But the persecution having exterminated or driven away all the Christian schoolmasters, Origen found no difficulty in procuring a school, for which his talents so well qualified him. The next year, A.D. 203, Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, advanced him to the mastership of the catechetic school, though he was then but eighteen years old. His talents as an instructor, his eminent piety, and his assiduous attention to those who suffered in the persecution, procured him high reputation and numerous friends among the Christians; but his great success in making converts to Christianity, and forming his pupils to be intelligent and devoted Christians, rendered him odious to the pagans, who watched about his house, and hunted him through the city, in order to assassinate him. The austerity of his life was great. He fed on the coarsest fare, went barefoot, and slept on the ground. He spent the whole day in teaching, and in active duties, and devoted most of the night to his private studies and to devotion. About this time he sold his large and valu able collection of pagan authors, for a perpetual income of four oboli per diem, which he regarded as a competent support. Construing the passage in Matth. xix. 12, literally, he emasculated himself, in order to avoid temptation in his intercourse with his female pupils. About 212 he made a short visit to Rome. On his return he took his former pupil Heraclas to be his assistant in the school, so that he might devote more time to theology and the exposition of the Scriptures. Many learned persons, pagans and heretics, were converted by him; and among them, Ambrose, a Valentinian, and a man of wealth, who became a liberal patron of Origen, and at last died a martyr. In 215, the persecution under Caracalla obliged Origen to flee from Alexandria. He retired to Cæsarea in Palestine, where he was received with high respect; and though not even a deacon at that time, the bishops of Cæsarea and Jerusalem allowed him to expound the Scriptures publicly in their presence. The next year, Demetrius called him back to Alexandria and to his mastership of the catechetic school. About this time an Arabian prince invited him to his court, to impart to him Christian instruction. Afterwards, Mamma, the mother of the emperor Alexander Severus, sent for him to Antioch, in order to hear him preach. In 228, he was publicly called to Achaia, to withstand the heretics who disturbed the churches there. On his return through Palestine, Theoctistus, bp. of Cæsarea, and Alexander, bp. of Jerusalem, who had before treated him with marked attention, ordained him a presbyter, to the great offence of Demetrius, who was envious of the growing reputation of his catechist. Demetrius had little to object against Origen, except that he was a eunuch, and that foreign bishops had no right to ordain his laymen. Controversy ensued, and in the year 230, Demetrius assembled two councils against him, the first of which banished Origen from Alexandria, and the second deprived him of his clerical office. Demetrius also wrote letters to Rome and elsewhere, to excite odium against this unoffending man. Heraclas now succeeded him in the school at Alexandria, and Origen retired, A.D. 231, to Cæsarea in Palestine. Here he resumed his office of instructor, unbounded commendation. As he is, all should revere his virtues and his merits. The second was Julius Africanus, a very learned and continued to write expositions of the Bible. But in 235, a persecution in Palestine obliged him to flee to Cæsarea in Cappadocia, where he lived concealed for two years. After his return to Palestine, he visited Athens; and about 244, was called to attend a council at Bostra in Arabia, against Beryllus, bp. of that place, who was heretical in respect to the personal existence of Christ previous to his incarnation. Origen converted him to the orthodox faith. Demetrius, his persecutor, died A.D. 232, and was succeeded by Heraclas, a disciple of Origen, after whom Dionysius the Great filled the see of Alexandria from 248 to 265. The persecution of Origen died with his personal enemy Demetrius, and he was greatly beloved and honoured by all around him till the day of his death. His residence was now fixed at Cæsarea in Palestine, but he occasionally visited other places. His time was occupied in an extensive correspondence, in preaching, and in composing books explanatory of the Bible, and in defence of Christianity. Against the more learned pagans and the heretics of those times he was a champion that had no equal; he was also considered as a devout and exemplary Christian, and was, beyond question, the first biblical scholar of the age. He was master of the literature and the science of that age, which he valued only as subservient to the cause of Christ; but he was more skilful in employing them against pagans and heretics, than in the explanation and confirmation of the truths of revelation. In the latter part of his life, during the Decian persecution, A.D. 250, he was imprisoned for a considerable time, and came near to martyrdom, which he showed himself willing to meet. was, however, released; but his sufferings in prison, added to his intense literary labours, had broken down his constitution, and he died, A.D. 254, at Tyre, in the 69th year of his age. His winning eloquence, his great learning, his amiable temper, and his reputation for sincere and ardent piety, gave him immense influence, especially among the well informed and the higher classes in society. No man, since the apostles, had been more indefatigable, and no one had done more to diffuse knowledge and make the Christian community intelligent, united, and respectable, in the view of mankind. He was in general orthodox, according to the standard of that age; but, unfettered in his speculations, and unguarded in his communications, he threw out some crude opinions, which the next age gathered up and blazoned abroad, and He for which he was accounted by some a heretic. The principal errors ascribed to him, are derived from his four books Tepl apxwv (de principiis, on the first principles of human knowledge), and are: 1. The preexistence of human souls, and their incarceration in material bodies, for offences committed in a former state of being. 2. The pre-existence of Christ's human soul, and its union with the divine nature anterior to the incarnation of Christ. 3. The transformation of our material bodies into ethereal ones, at the resurrection. 4. The final recovery of all men, and even devils, through the mediation of Christ.-Origen could number among his pupils many eminent martyrs and divines, among whom Firmilianus of Cappadocia, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and Dionysius the Great, bp. of Alexandria, are best known at the present day. His life and history are best related by Eusebius, H. E. vi.; and by Jerome, de Viris Illustr. cap. 55, and Ep. 41 or 65. The united work of Pamphilus and Eusebius, in defence of Origen, in six books, is unfortunately lost, except the first book, of which we have a translation by Rufinus. Epiphanius, Heres. 64, gives a philippic upon Origen and his followers. Photius, Biblioth. cxviii. affords us some knowledge of his lost works.--Origen was a most voluminous writer. Eusebius says he collected 100 Epistles of Origen, and that when sixty years old, Origen permitted stenographers to write down his extempore discourses.- - Besides these, he composed eight Books against Celsus, in defence of Christianity, which are still extant; four Books περὶ ἀρχῶν, extant in a Latin translation by Rufinus; ten books entitled Stromata, which are lost; his Hexapla and Tetrapla, of which little remains; and tracts on prayer, martyrdom, and the resurrection. But his principal works are expositions of the Scriptures. It is said, he wrote on every book in the Bible, except the Apocalypse. His allegorical mode of interpreting Scripture is described by Mosheim in the next chapter. Origen's expositions are of three kinds : -- 1. Homilies, or popular lectures. 2. Commentaries, divided into books, which are full, elaborate, and learned expositions. 3. Scholia, or short notes, intended especially for the learned. A collection of Origen's Scholia, and scattered remarks on Scripture, compiled by Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, is extant, bearing the title of Φιλοκαλία. A large part of his Homilies and Commentaries is wholly lost, and some of the others have come to us only in the Latin translation of man, most of whose labours and works are lost. The name of Hippolytus ranks very high among both the writers and the martyrs; but his history is involved in much obscurity. The writings now extant bearing the name of this great man are, not without Rufinus.-The earlier editions of Origen's works are chiefly in Latin, and of little value. P. D. Huet, a Benedictine monk, first published, A.D. 1668, in 2 vols. fol. the expository works of Origen, Greek and Latin, with notes, and a valuable introduction entitled Origeniana. Bern. de Montfaucon, another Benedictine, collected and published what remains of his Hexapla and Tetrapla, Paris, 1714, 2 vols. fol. But the best edition of all his works, except the Hexapla, is that of the Benedictines Charles, and Charles Vincent de la Rue, Paris, 1733 -59, 4 vols. fol. The text of this edition, Greek and Latin, without the notes and dissertations, was re-published by Oberthür, Würtzburg, 1780-93, 15 vols. 8vo. The principal modern writers concerning Origen, besides Huet and the De la Rues, are Tillemont, Mém. &c., iii. 216-264. Bayle, Diet. art. Origène, Cave, Hist. Lit. i. 112, &c. Lardner, Credibility, pt. ii. vol. ii. p. 161, &c. Haloix, Defence of Origen. Doucin, Histoire d'Origène, Paris, 1700, 8vo. Mosheim, de Rebus Christ. p. 605-680. Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. iv. 29 145. Neander, Kirchengesch. i. 1172 1214. Milner's account of Origen, Eccl. Hist. cent. iii. ch. 5, 6, 15, is not impartial. Tr. The work entitled Origenis Philosophumena, published at Oxford, 1851, ed. E. Miller, is now shown to belong to Hippolytus. See note 2 below. Ed.] [Julius Africanus, for erudition, and as an interpreter of Scripture, is ranked with Clemens Alex. and Origen by Socrates, H. E. ii. 35. The best account of this distinguished man is derived from Eusebius, H. E. vi. 31, and Jerome, de Viris Illustr. c. 63. He was probably of Nicopolis, once called Emmaus, in Judea, and is supposed to have died, being a man in years, about A.D. 232. Of his life little is known, except that he once visited Alexandria, to confer with Heraclas, head of the catechetic school after Origen; and that, the city of Nicopolis having been burnt, about A.D. 221, Africanus was sent as envoy to the emperor, with a petition that it might be rebuilt. His principal work was Annals of the World, from the Creation down to A.D. 221, in five books. This work, of which only fragments now remain, was highly esteemed by the ancients, and was the basis of many similar works, namely, The Chronicons of Eusebius, Syncellus, Malala, Theophanes, Cedrenus, and others. He was author of A letter to Aristides, reconciling the two genealogies of our Saviour. Of this work we have a long extract in Eusebius, H. E. i. 7, and a Fragment in Routh's Reliquiæ Sacre, ii. 115. Africanus supposed Matthew to give the true descent of Joseph from David by Solomon, and Luke to give his legal descent from the same by Nathan, according to the law for raising up seed to a deceased brother. Jacob and Heli, the two reputed fathers of Joseph, he supposed, were halfbrothers, having the same mother, but different fathers; and Heli dying childless, Jacob married his widow, and begat Joseph, whom the law accounted as the son of the deceased Heli. Another letter of Africanus, addressed to Origen, is still extant in the works of Origen, vol. i. p. 10-12, ed. De la Rue. The object of this letter is, to prove the history of Susanna spurious, and the work of some person much younger than Daniel. His chief argument is, that the writer makes Daniel play upon the Greek words σχίνος and πρῖνος, in verses 54, 55, 58, 59, while examining the witnesses against Susanna. Eusebius and others ascribe to Africanus another and larger work, entitled KeoTol. It is a miscellany, and unworthy of a Christian divine. Valesius thinks Eusebius mistook, attributing the work of some pagan bearing the same name, to this Christian father. Others suppose it might have been written by Africanus, in his youth or before his conversion. Many fragments of it have been collected by Thevenot, and published in his Collection of the Writings of the ancient Greek Mathematicians, Paris, 1693. fol. Tr.] 2 The Benedictine monks have, with great labour and erudition, endeavoured to dispel this darkness. See Histoire Littér, de la France, i. 361, &c. Paris, 1733, 4to. [Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, near Rome, was a disciple of Irenæus, and flourished A.D. 190 -235. He was martyred in 235, being bound hand and foot, and thrown into a pit full of water. His statue was discovered in the Via Tiburtina in 1551. Ed.] Eusebius, vi. 20, gives this account of his writings: 'Besides many other works, he wrote a treatise concerning Easter, in which he describes the succession of events, and proposes a Paschal Cycle of 16 years; the work terminates with the first year of the emperor Alexander.' (Severus, A.D. 222.) His other writings which have reached me are these, on the Hexaëmeron' (Gen. i.); 'on what follows the Hexaëmeron; against Marcion; on the Canticles; on parts of Ezekiel; concerning reason, regarded by many as either entirely spurious, or at least corrupted. Gregory, bishop of New Cæsarea,' was surnamed Thaumaturgus, on account of the numerous and distinguished miracles which he is said to have wrought. But few of his writings are now extant; his miracles are questioned by many at the present day.2 I Easter; against all the heresies.' Besides these, Jerome, de Vir. Ill. c. 61, mentions his Commentaries on Exodus, Zechariah, the Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, the Apocalypse, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes; and tracts concerning Saul and the witch, Anti-christ, the resurrection; his discourse in praise of our Lord and Saviour. Other works are enumerated on the base of his statue; also by Photius, Biblioth. No. 121 and 122; and Ebedjesus, in Assemani, Biblioth. Orient. tom. iii. pt. i. His Paschal Cycle is his only work that has come down to us entire. His known works were edited by Fabricius, in two thin volumes, fol. Hamb. 1716-18.-For a more full account of him and his writings, besides the Histoire Litt. de la France, and Fabricius, ad Hippol. Opera, see Tillemont, Mémoires, iii. 104 and 309, &c. Cave, Hist. Lit. i. 102, &c. Lardner, Credib. pt. ii. vol. ii. p. 69, &c. Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. iv. 154, &c. Neander, Kirchengesch. i. 1147, &c. Tr. He appears to have written two works against heresies, the smaller one of which was known to Photius, and of which a fragment remains; the larger, containing a view of ancient philosophy, and a treatise on all the heresies, the first book of which is printed among the works of Origen; the second and third are lost. Part of the fourth, and the remaining five were found in a MS. at Mt. Athos in 1842, and published at Oxford in 1851, as Origen's Philosophumena. This mistake was almost immediately discovered, and the book proved to belong to Hippolytus. It is of great value, as showing the state of the Roman Church in the third century. Consult, on the whole subject, S. Hippolytus and the Church of Rome, by Dr. Chr. Wordsworth, London, 1853. The book of Hippolytus against heresies was also published at Gottingen in 1859, by Professors Schneidewin and Duncker. Ed.] [In Pontus. Tr.] 2 See Anton. van Dale, Preface to his book de Oraculis, p. 6. [Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. ii. 351, &c. and p. 380-392, and Lardner, Credibility, pt. ii. vol. ii. p. 450, &c. Gregory of New Cæsarea in Pontus, whose original name was Theodorus, was born of heathen parents at New Caesarea near the beginning of this century. His family was wealthy and respectable. After the death of his father, which was when he was fourteen years old, his mother and the children became nominally Christians. But Gregory was a stranger to the Bible, and ambitious to make a figure in the world. About 231, he left Pontus, intending to study law in the famous law school at Berytus, but meeting with Origen at Cæsarea, he was induced to change his purpose. He applied himself to the study of the Bible, was baptized, assumed the name of Gregory, and continued under the instruction of Origen eight years, except that he fled to Alexandria for a short time to avoid persecution. He was now a devoted Christian, and a man of great promise. On leaving Origen, he composed and read in a public assembly an eulogy on his instructor, in which he gives account of his own past life, and of the manner in which Origen had allured him to the study of the Scriptures, and changed all his views. Taking an affectionate leave of his master, he returned to Pontus, and became bishop of his native city, New Cæsarea, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a laborious and successful pastor, and highly respected for his talents and piety, as well as for numerous miracles which he is said to have wrought. When created bishop, he found but seventeen Christians in his very populous diocese. When he died, there was only about the same number of pagans in it. He and his flock endured persecution in 250. He attended the first council of Antioch, against Paul of Samosata, in 264 or 265, and died soon after.-Some account of him is given by Eusebius, H. E. vi. 30, and vii. 14, 28. Jerome, de Viris Illustr. c. 65, and Ep. ad Magnum. But his great eulogists, among the ancients, were the two brothers, Basil the Great, and Gregory Nyssen, whose grandmother heard the ministry of Greg. Thaum. and furnished her grandchildren with an account of him. Basil speaks of him in his Book on the Holy Spirit, and in his Epistles, No. 28, 110, 204, 207, or 62, 63, 64, 75; and Nyssen, in his Life of Gregory Thaum. inter Opp. Gregorii Nys. iii. 536, &c. Among the moderns who give us his history, and enumerate his works, see Tillemont, Mémoires, iv. 131, &c. and Notes sur S. Greg. Thaum. p. 47. Du Pin, Nov. Biblioth. des Aut. Eccles. i. 184, &c. Fabricius, Biblioth. Gr. v. 247, &c. Cave, Hist. Lit. i. Neander, Kirchengesch. i. 12-24, &c. Schroeckh, ubi supra. Lard. ubi supra, and Milner, Eccles. Hist., cent. iii. ch. 18.The only genuine works of Gregory that are extant, are his Eulogy on Origen, which has been mentioned; a Paraphrase on Ecclesiastes; a short Confession of Faith (the |