§ 116. THE LATIN POETS AND HYMNS. 599
author of some thirty poeins full of devout spirit ; the best are those on the festival of S. Felix, his patron. Prosper Aqui- TANU8 (t 460), layman, and friend of Augustine, wrote a didao tic poem against tlie Pelagians, and several epigrams ; Avrrus, bishop of Yienne (f 523), an epic on the creation and the origin of evil ; Aratok, a court official under Justinian, afterwards a sub-deacon of the Roman church (about 544), a paraphrase, in heroic verse, of the Acts of the Apostles, in two books of about 1,800 lines. Claudianus Mameetus,' Benedio- Tus Paulinus, Elpidius, Okontius, and Draoontifs are unimportant.
^ Not to be confounded with Claudius Claudianus, of Alexandria, the most gifted Latin poet at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century. The Christian Idyls, Epistles, and Epigrams ascribed to hira, were probably the work of Claudianus Mamertus, of Vienne (comp. H. Thompson's Manual of Rom. Lit. p. 204, and J. J. Brunet's Manual du libraire, torn. iii. p. 1351 of the 5th ed. Par. 1862). For Claudius Claudianus was a heathen, according to the express testimony of Paulus Orosius and of Augustine (De civit. Dei, v. p. 26 : " Poeta Claudianiia, qi«wimvi3 a Christi nomine alienus," &c.), and in one of his own epigranas. In Jaer> i'^ti, magisirum equitum, shows his coriempt of the Christian religicu.
CHAPTER IX.
THEOLOGICAL CONTKOVERSIES, AJSTD DEVELOPMENT OF THE ECUMENICAL ORTHODOXY.
§ 117. General Observations. Doctrinal Imfortance of the Period. Irifiuence of the Ancient Philosojphy.
The Nicene and Chalcedonian age is the period of the formation and ecclesiastical settlement of the ecumenical orthodoxy ; that is, the doctrines of tlie holy trinity and of the incai-nation and the divine-human person of Christ, in which the Greek, LatiD, and evangelical churches to this day in their symholical books agree, in opposition to the heresies of Arianism and ApoUinarianism, Nestorianism and Eutychianism. Besides these trinitarian and christological doctrines, anthropology also, and soteriology, particularly the doctrines of sir and grace, in opposition to Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism, were developed and brought to a relative settlement; only, however, in the Latin church, for the Greek took very little part in the Pelagian controversy.
The fundamental nature of these doctrines, the greatness of the church fathers who were occupied with them, and the importance of the result, give this period the first ])hice after the apostolic in the history of theology. In no period, exccjtting the Reformation of the sixteenth century, have there been 60 momentous and earnest controversies in doctrine, and so lively an interest in them. The church was now in possession Df the ancient philosophy and learning of the Roman empire.
§ 117. DOCTEINAL IjVIPOETANCE, ETC. OOl
and applied them to the unfolding and vindicaticu of tlie Christian truth. In the lead of these controversies stood church teachers of imposing talents and energetic piety, not mere book men, but venerable theological characters, men all of a piece, as great in acting and suflering as in thinking. To them theology was a sacred business of heart and life,' and upon them we may pass the judgment of Eusebius respecting Origen : " Their life was as their word, and their word was as their life."
The theological controversies absorbed the intellectual activity of that time, and shook the foundations of the church and the empire. With the purest zeal for truth were mingled much of the odium and rabies theologoruin^ and the whole host of theological passions ; which are the deepest and most bitter of passions, because religion is concerned with eternal interests.
The leading personages in these controversies were of course bishops and priests. By their side fought the monks, as a standing army, with fanatical zeal for the victory of orthodoxy, or not seldom in behalf even of heresy. Emperors and civil officers also mixed in the business of theology, but for the most part to the prejudice of its free, internal development ; for they imparted to all theological questions a political character, and entangled them with the cabals of court and the secular interests of the day. In Constantinople, during the Arian controversy, all classes, even mechanics, bankers, flippers, market women, and runaway slaves took lively part in the questions of Homousion and sub-ordination, of the begotten and the un begotten.'
The speculative mind of the Eastern church was combined
' Or, as Gregory Nazianzen says of the true theologian, contemplation was a prelude to action, and action a prelude to contemplation, 7rpa|is (a religious walk) e7rij3arTi9 ,&6copitts (actio gradus est ad conteraplationem), Oratio xx. 12 (ed. Bened. Paris, torn. i. p. 383).
^ So Gregory of Nyssa (not Nazianzen, as J. H. Kurtz, wrongly quoting fronc Neander, has it in his large K. Gesch. i. ii. p. 99) relates from his own observation: Orat. de Deitate Filii et Spiritus S. (Opera ii. p. 898, ed. Paris, of 1615). He compares hi.s cotemporaries in this respect with the Athenians, who are alwuys wishing to ucar some new thing.