MORAL THEOLOGY
575
MORAL THEOLOGY
unnatural severity ; the moral advice of the Gospel was made a command, and extended to all Christians. "With this theory, if it had prevailed, Christian principle would have failed of its mundane victory, and must have ulti- mately perished. In the use, then, of Tertullian's moral- istic writings we must distinguish the ante-IMontanistic period of the author's life from his later. Of the first class are De Patientia, De 0?-atione, De Paniientia, A d Martij7-es, A d Uxorem. Next stands Cyprian. Though in general he shared the strictly moral view of Tertul- lian, highly spoken of by him, and though, in contrast with Alexandrian speculation, he was strenuously attach- ed to practical ecclesiasticism, yet he was never carried away to the rigid, excessive severity of his exemplar, and by his more spiritual manner of contemplation he inclined to the ideal, thus offering points for reconcil- ing the Alexandrian and North African schools. (See, however, this Cyclopmdia, iii, 321, col. 2.) Cj'prian's writings belonging to the department of ethics are De zelo et livore, distinguished by its psychological tenor, the third book of his Libri testimoniorum, which gives an outline of moral rules for life ; De Bono Patientm ; De Opere et J^leoinosynis ; De Oratione Dominica; De Lapsis, etc. We find in his letters also specimens of casuistry — decisions on difKcult cases presented to him by bishops. Next Lactantius (q. v.), the Christian Cic- ero, spreads over the morals of the Gospel the splendor of rhetoric, and proves by comparison the insuflSciency and perversity of pagan ethics. His Institutiones Divi- nes, in which he performs that task, can be looked upon as an exemplar of a development tending to reconcile speculative and practical elements. The Christian re- ligion, which teaches man to find his supreme happiness in God, is pronounced by him the true philosophy of life. If some obliquity and error have crept into his eth- ical statements, they must be attributed to the circum- stance that at the time of his authorship the moral doc- trines of the Church were not yet so fixed as they were after the Pelagian disputes. Of not equal, yet of con- siderable importance, are the writings of Athanasius, the pillar of orthodoxy in the Arian controversy. One would naturally suppose that he, busy with an attempt to solve the great dogmatic problem, had no time for mor- alistic discussion ; nevertheless we find in his niunerous dogmatic writings many moral reflections disseminated. Almost exclusively devoted to moral subjects are the writings of Ephraem (q. v.) the Syrian, whose edify- ing compositions contain a rich store of moral ascetic thoughts. A condign pendant to the writings of the propheta Syrorum are the ethical writings of Macarius (q. v.) ; they are especially important for mysticism, containing as they do the germs of the ecclesiastic tra- ditional form later represented by the great mystics of the Middle Ages. Cyril (q. v.) of Alexandria is too well known as the zealous advocate of Christian ethics against the assaults of Julian to need special considera- tion here. Beside him stands Cyril (q. v.) of Jeru- salem, who distinguishes between the dogmatic and ethic in the later usual manner, designating what con- cerns faith, ouyfia, and what has moral action for its purpose, Ttpa^ig. O ri'ig ^ioaslitiag rponoQ tK Ova Toi'Tojv (jvvi-(7rr]ict, Soyixdrujv ivaijiMV Kai Trpojfwi' ciya^ujv. The dogmas he regards as the roots of moral motives. "We turn next to that bright triple constella- tion of Cappadocia — Basil the Great and the Gregories — those great influential theologians of the 4th century. The sublime moral earnestness which animated them, their warm attachment to the Church, the superior culture which they had gained by industrious study, are mirrored in their literary products, spirit, learning, and eloquence. The main merit about Christian ethics is undoubtedly due to Basil the Great; yet also his brother, Gregory of Nyssa (in his writings on the life of Moses, on perfection, on virginity, as weU as in his homilies), and his theological friend, Gregorj' of Nazi- anzum (in his poems and homilies), labored in the de- partment zealously and successfully. The j/^ticd of
Basil contain the main features of Christian moral doc- trine continuoush' based on sentences of Holy Writ. His citTicTirtKd have the higher morality and the perfec- tion of monastic orders for their principal topic. Three of his letters addressed to Amphilochius, the bishop of Iconium, which contain regulations of Church discipline, have acquired canonical authority in the Roman Cath- olic Church. At the confines of the 4th century we are met by the grave and venerable form of Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, whose writings introduce us into a green and flowery garden of moral meditations. In his three books, De Officiis, he furnishes a counterpiece to Cicero's treatise of the same title. It aims to bring the purity, sublimity, and sanctity of Christian ethics to a conscious and clear recognition. After him we come to three men — (347^07) Chrysostom, Jerome, and Au- gustine— all more or less connected with the Pela- gian controversy. The first of them discourses on the question of free-will and grace, and in a most practical manner. Soon after his death we see the same raised as an issue of controversy full of moral interest by Pe- lagius, a British monk. Until the commencement of the 5th century strictly doctrinal questions had been the topics of ecclesiastical disputes ; now the Pelagian contest, an eminently moral question, engaged public attention. The contrast of liberty and grace must have been recognised at the first awakening of reflection. It found, however, no final equitable solution, and re- mained in continual vacillation, sometimes grace, at other times liberty, preponderating, at the expense of the adverse. (Compare the view of the Grecian fathers of the Church of tKoviyiv, Petavius, De theol. dogm. tom. i, lib. V, cap. 2.) Pelagius, however, asserted the freedom of will to such lengths that the divine influ- ence of grace was nearly reduced to a nullity. Pelagius, in referring man to the power of his will, wished to rouse him to energetic action. This intention is in- genious, and deserving of respect. But, as Neander {Joh. Chrysostormis u. die Kirche, ii, 134 sq.) correctly observes, man should be brought not only to the con- sciousness of his originally divine nature, but at the same time to the recognition of his internal corruption unlike it, and to the ideal of sanctity to be obtained : he ought to have cheered man, bowed down, by proclaim- ing what the infinite love of the Deity has done in Christ to deliver him from this corruption; he ought to have led him to the inexhaustible spring of divine life, by which the faithftd may be renewed in heart, in order to impart to him confidence in moral exertions, not liable to be deceived, but rather confirmed, by self- knowledge and experience, which, according to his needs, humiliate and elevate him. Jerome (q. v.) pre- ceded Augustine in coming forth to the conflict; he had already retired when the latter made his appear- ance, and by the momentum of speculative talent, men- tal profundity, and Christian knowledge and experience, turned and decided the contest. See Pelagiaxisji. Of the three, however, Augustine deserves by far the most important place. Except perhaps Clement of Alexandria and Ambrose, St. Augustme is certainly the ablest mor- alist of all the patristic writers. He was among the first to be distinguished by reduction to principles, by clear statement, dialectic progress of ideas, and system- atic organization in general. The sovereign genius of Augustine, moreover, succeeded best in emancipating himself from classical influences. Nowhere is the Chris- tian vital principle of love (caritas) more exactly de- fined and carried out more consequentially than in his excellent treatise, De moribus ecdesia catholicce et Ma- nichceorum, c. 15, 21-24 (comp. also his De civit. Dei, xiv, 9, p. 54, 167 ; Enchirid. c. 121 ; Defide et operibus, c. 7). It is true he does not exhibit in his writings a strictly ethical system, but wherever and whenever he treats moral subjects, he is always led by a scientific dialectic spirit, and never loses sight of the spiritual ideal unity floating before his clear and comprehensive mind. .Ajnong his ethical works, besides the one men-