Proclianites for Proclianists) is the name of the followers of Proclus (q. v.). They were extreme Moiitanists (q. v.), and were spread more especially in Phrygia, where, about the close of the 1th century, they formed a most dangerous sect, and greatly disturbed the peace of the churches.
Proclus, surnamed HiaSajifiQ, i. e. ih. Successor, because he replaced Syrianus i q, v. | as the head of that
Athenian bcI 1 of philosophers who were Neo-Plato-
nists, has been called "the Scholastic among the Greek philosophers." Indeed, according to M. Cousin, Proclus is ///. Creek philosopher; the Bower and crown of all its schools; in whom, says the learned Frenchman, ■'.ne combined, ami from whom shine forth, in no ir- regular or uncertain rays, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle. Zeno, Plotinus, Porphyry, and Jamblichus," and who "had so comprehended all religions in his
mind, and paid them such equal reverence, that he was. as it were, the priest of the whole universe!'' This is
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a compliment, but a compliment ill warranted and be- stowed only because M. Cousin perceived in this Neo- Platonist more of kinship with that extravagant class of philosophizes, of whom Cousin himself is one, whose method consists in putting forth strings of brilliant prop- ositions, careless about either their consistency or co- herence. Indeed, Cousin's adoration for Proclus shows, if we may use the words of one of their own class, " what things men will worship in their extreme need!" (Thomas Carlyle).
With the beginning of Christianity in its aggressive movements, the heathen world saw itself faced with immediate danger of a prostration that could only end in death. Philo the Jew, anxious to revive the power of the old dispensation, rallied all extraneous forces, de- termined to build, by the aid of what antiquity had shaped, a structure that should rival, if not outshine, the simple edifice the Son of the Carpenter of Nazareth and the fishermen of Galilee had reared. What Philo failed to accomplish, Ammonius Saccas, also of Alexan- dria (near the beginning of the 3d century), and aided by Plotinus his pupil, attempted to effect. See Ploti- nus. But both master and pupil left their work ere it was fairly begun, and though Porphyry (q. v.) zeal- ously applied himself to bring out the mystical ration- alism of Plotinus, the six Enneades in which these teachings were set forth failed to show even a marked progress in the work so long attempted, and it remained for Jamblichus (q. v.) in the 4th and Proclus in the 5th century to give any appearance whatsoever to the edi- fice the Neo-Platonists had been so long in construct- ing. If we wish to see Neo-Platonism in its incipiency, we must go to Philo the Jew. But if we wish to see it in its ripest growth, we must study it in the writings of Proclus the Athenian. The Neo-Platonism he presents to us is no longer the outgrowth of Judaism intermixed with Hellenism, but paganism illumined by the spirit and light of the Gospel of Christ — that very religion with which it was struggling for the empire of the world (see Ullmann, Der Einfiuss des Christenthums, in Studien u. Kritiken, 1832, No." 2).
The bewildering conflict of philosophical theories which these five centuries had been fostering had re- sulted in the growth of scepticism, and left no resting- place for minds of a religious turn. The Neo-Platonists of the 4th and 5th centuries most naturally took their refuge in mysticism, where feeling and intuition super- sede the slow and doubtful process of the intellect (comp. Fisher, Beginnings of Christianity, p. 178, 179). Plotinus was the first to take this refuge. So did from this time forth all the successors of the Platonists, of whom Gibbon sneeringly says that "Plato would have blushed to acknowledge them." They discarded phi- losophy, though they claimed to be philosophers. They played upon the superstitious tendencies of their age rather than upon the intellectual strength that still re- mained. They sought to persuade by the aid of magic rather than by the clear force of logic. The}' turned prophets and seers. Though they took part in the higher discussions and conclusions of philosophy, they nevertheless stood opposed to all philosophy, since they did not even profess to rest upon careful inquiries into eternal laws of the Spirit, but claimed to have a reve- lation from God. Thus exalted above all such investi- gations, Neo-Platonism became the poetry as well as the religion of philosophy. It was attached more espe- cially to the system of Plato, and was professed to be an explanation and a development of his views, but it was aimed to bring together the fundamental principles of all philosophical schools, and the ideas which consti- tute the basis of all popular religions. It was the work of man, and, however ambitious the scheme, it failed absolutely in its mission. Superstition was the centre and support; magic and sorcery the basis and top-stone of the new structure. It had both philosophy and relig- ion in its composition, and yet it was neither the one nor the other. "The divinity which it presents is exalted j
above all human apprehension, and was called simply the Self-sufficient One (to tv). From his overflowing fulness proceeded the Divine Intelligence, and from this the World-soul, by which the material universe is per- vaded with divine life. Evil is only that which is im- perfect, and is the most distant reflection of Deity upon matter. The human soul which had been produced by the Divine Intelligence fell, in consequence of its long- ing after earthly things, from its original divine life to its present temporal existence. It therefore belongs to the sensual as well as to the intellectual world. But the souls of the good and wise, even in this world, are in their happiest moments reunited with the Deity, and death is to such a complete restoration to their home. From a pious veneration for an ancestry far back in an- tiquity, the Grecian gods especially were regarded as the personal manifestations of the divine life in nature. Some of them were celestial beings, and some ruled here on earth. These earthly powers were the national gods (fttpiKoi, tSvdpKat), subordinate to the Deity, and exalted above all passion. The myths were therefore, of course, to be explained allegorically. The arts of divination and magic were justified on the ground of the necessary connection of all phenomena by virtue of the unity of the world-principle" (Hase, Church Hist. § 50). While, then, Neo-Platonism was a new power, it was nevertheless a reformation of the old faith. Though it extended itself over the whole Roman em- pire, it embraced within itself contradictory elements, and could maintain its existence only long enough to witness and embellish the downfall of heathenism. The last school to minister to Neo-Platonism in these her last hours was that founded by Proclus.