and bad angels; he does not hesitate to invent a sort of mythology, of which tlie inspiration is Christian, but which in its bold additions to the positive statements of revelation necessarily becomes visionary. Herein is not the strength and beauty of his system. These are found in that bold vindication of liberty which is its central and vital principle. It may be said that the vast theological edifice reared by him is, as it were, the temple of liberty. Liberty is its foundation and its top- stone ; nay, it is more, it is the animating soul of the whole doctrine taught therein. Pantheistic naturalism had struck the whole world with a death chill. Origen reawakened it with the breath of liberty, restored it to life, and snatched it from the petrifying grasp of fatal- ism. In the boldness of his thought he denies the ex- istence of necessity altogether. All the phenomena of the material world are free acts. Bodies owe their ex- istence to the motions of the will. If matter gravitates or ascends, it is not by a simple physical law, but is con- nected with moral action. Liberty is the explanation of all things. The great merit of Origen is his endeavor to trace back all the diversity of things to one and the same idea. Unhappily his conception of liberty was in- complete, and his error on this fundamental point pro- duced residts all the more serious because of the close logical coherence of his system." " But such a man might in such an age," says Schaff, " hold heretical opinions without being a heretic. For Origen pro- pounded his views always with modesty, and from sin- cere conviction of their agreement with Scripture, and that in a time when the Christian doctrine was as yet very indefinite in many points." For this reason even unprejudiced Roman divines, such as Tillemont and Mohler, have shown Origen the greatest respect and le- niency ; a fact the more to be commended, since the Kom- ish Church has steadily refused him, as well as Clement of Alexandria and TertuUian, a place among the saints and the fathers in the stricter sense. See luisebius. Hist. Eccles. bk. vi, 1-6 et pass. ; Hieronymus, Cat. c. liv, and Ep. 29, 41 ; Gregorius Thaumat. Oratio panegyrica in Origenem ; Pamphilus, Apologia Orig. (all in the last vol. of Delarue) ; Huetius, Origeniana (Par. 1G79, 2 vols.) ; Larduer, Credibility, pt. ii, ch. xxxviii ; Thomasius, Origenes, ein Beitrag z. Dogmengeschichfe (Nuremberg, 1837) ; Ritter, Gesch. d. christlichen Philosophie, i, 465 sq. ; Baur, Gesch. d. Dreieinigkeitslehre, i, 186-243, 560- 566; Meier, Trinitdtslehi-e ; Dr. Kahnis, Monographie (1847) ; Mohler, Patrologie ; Alzog, Patrologie, § 33, 3-1 ; and especially Redepenning, Origenes, eine Darstel- lang s. Lebens u. s. Lehre (1841-1816, 2 vols.). See also Schaff, Ch. Hist, i, 501-509 et pass.; Neander, Ch. Hist. i, 693 sq., et pass. ; id. Dogmat, p. 21 sq. ; Pressense, Early Years oj' Christianity {Heresy and Doctrine, bk. ii, ch. iv; Martyrs and Apologists, bk. ii, ch. ii, § ii) ; Kil- len, A nc. Ch. p. 375 sq. ; Hagenbach, Gesch. der ersten 3 Juhrh. ch. xiii, xiv. ; Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. vol. i; Bohringer, Kirchengesch. i, 101 sq. ; Hagenbach, Hist. Doctrines (see Index in vol. ii) ; Schriickh, Kirchen- gesch. iv, 29 sq.; Guericke, Ch. Hist, i, 104 sq. ; Alzog, Kirchengesch. vol. i ; Neale, Hist. East. Ch. {Patriarch- ate of A lexandria, bk. i, § 53) ; Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Biogr. and Mythol. s. v. ; Farrar, Crit. Hist, of Free Thought, p. 50 sq., 285, 404, 457, 460 ; Ueberweg, Hist. Philos. i, 315 sq. ; Donaldson, Literature (see In- dex in vol. ii) ; Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. ; Ceillier, Hist, des Auteurs Eccles. ii, 130 sq.; Rust, Origen and his Chief Opponents ; Vaughn, Life and Writings of Origen; Hampton Lectures, 1813, 1824, 1829, 1839; .4 mer. Bibl. Repos. i v, 833 sq. ; Bib. Sac. iii, 378 sq. ; Bi-it. Qu. Rev. ii, 491 sq. ; Christian Examiner, x, 306 ; xi. 22 ; Meth. Qu. Rev. xi, 645; Lond. Qu. Rev. July, 1851; Amer. Ch. Rev. Oct. 186« ; Afercersburg Eev. Oct. 1871, art. ii; Univ. Qu. April, 1«74, art. vii; April, 1875. art. iv. (J. H. W.)
Origenian Controversy. So distinguished a man as Origen could not fail to have great influence on the Church, not only while living, but even after his
death. As during his lifetime he had opponents as well as partisans, so two parties continued in the Church a long time 'afterwards. As late as the 3d century we find bishop Methodius (d. 311) opposing the doctrine of Origen, and asserting the absoluteness of God, in opposition to Origen, who teaches the creation as hav- ing had no beginning. Methodius also combated Origen's realistic views, particularly his eschatological doctrines, i. e. his spiritualizing tendencies. Many of his arguments, however, like those of other opponents of Origen, were teased on a misunderstanding of his doc- trines. On the other hand, the learned and pious Pam- philus of Cssarea, in Palestine (f 309), in collaboration with his friend Eusebius, wrote in prison an apology for Origen. In this work the writers reveal and oppose the narrow-mindedness which led to the accusations of heresy preferred against Origen. It contains six books: the last is the work of Eusebius alone, being written after Pamphilus's martyrdom, and defended by him against the attacks of IMarcellus of Ancyra. We now possess only the first book, in the incorrect translation of Rufiims, and a few fragments of the Greek text (pub- lished in Delarue's edition of Origen; Gallandi, Bibl. Pat?: ; and Routh, Beliq. sac}-(s).