§ 118, B0UECE8 OF THEOLOGY. 6 If
tne free Protestant study of the Scriptures. But on the othei hand he would have as little toleration for new dogmas. He wished to make tradition not an independent source of kuowl edge and rule of faith by the side of the Holy Scriptures, but only to have it acknowledged as the true interpreter of Scripture, and as a bar to heretical abuse. Tiie criterion of the antiquity of a doctrine, which he required, involves apostolicity, hence agreement with the spirit and substance of the JSTew Testament. The church, says he, as the solicitous guardian of that which is intrusted to her, changes, diminishes, increasea nothing. Her sole effort is to shape, or confii'm, or preserve the old. Innovation is the business of heretics, not of orthodox believers. The canon of Scripture is complete in itself, and more than sufficient.' But since all heretics appeal to it, the authority of the church must be called in as the rule of interpretation, and in this we must follow universality, antiquity, and consent.* It is the custom of the Catholics, says he in the Aume work, to prove the true faith in two wa3's: first by the authority of the holy Scriptures, then by the tradition of the Catholic church ; not because the canon alone is not of itself sufficient for all things, but on account of the many conflicting interpretations and perversions of the Scriptures.*
In the same spirit says pope Leo I. : " It is not permitted to depart even in one word from the doctrine of the Evange lists and the Apostles, nor to think otherwise concerning the Holy Scriptures, than the blessed apostles and our fathers learned and taught." *
' Cap. 2 : " Quum sit perfectus Scripturarum Canon et sibi ad omnia satis tuperque sufficiat^'''' etc. Cap. 29.
" " Hoc facere curabant . . . ut divinum canonem secundum universalis ecclesiaa traditiones et juxta catholici dogmatis regulas interpretentur, in qua item catholica et apostoliea ecclesia sequantur neeesse est universitatem, antiquitatem, consen- «ionem." Commonit. cap. 27 (in Migne, vol. 50, p. 6*74). Comp. c. 2-4.
Cap. 29 (in Migne, vol. 50, p. 677): "Non quia canon solus non sibi ad universa sufficiat, sed quia verba divina, pro suo plerique arbitratu interpretantes, varias opiniones erroresque concipiant," etc.
* Epist. 82 ad Episc. Maicianum Aug. (Opera, torn. i. p. 1044, ed. Ballerini, and in Migne, liv. p. 918) :• "Quum ab evangelica apostolicaque doctrina ne uno qiidem veibo liceat diasidere, aut aliter de Soripturia divinid sapere quam beati apostoli ct pstres nostri didicerunt atque docuerunt," etc.
616 THIBD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
The catholic principle of tradition became more and more confirmed, as the authority of the fathers and councils increased and the learned study of the Holy Scriptures declined ; and tradition gradually set itself in practice on a level witli Scripture, and even above it. It fettered free investigation^ and promoted a rigid, stationary and intolerant orthodoxy, which condemned men like Origen and Tertullian as heretics. But on the other hand the principle of ti-adition unquestionably exerted a wholesome conservative power, and saved the substance of the ancient church doctrine from the obscuring and confusing influence of the pagan barbarism which deluged Christendom.
I. — Teinitaeiakt Controveksies.
GENERAL LITERATURE OF THE ARIAN CONTROVERSIES.
I. Sources: On the orthodox side most of the fathers of the fourth century; especially the dogmatic and polemic works of Atiianasius (Orationeg 0. Arianos ; De decretis Nicajnse Synodi ; De sententia Dionysii ; Apologia c. Arianos; Apologia de fuga sua; Historia Arianorum, etc., all in tom. i. pars i. ii. of the Bened. ed.), Basil (Adv. Eunomium), Geegoky Nazianzen (Orationes theologica3), Ghegoky of Nyssa (Conti'a Eunom.), Epipiianius (Ancoratus), Hilary (De Trinitate), Ambrose (De Fide), Adgustine (De Trinitate, and Contra Maximinimum Arianum), Rufinus, and the Greek church historians.
On the heretical side: The fragments of the writings of AEiue (GuXfKi, and two Ei^istolae to Eusebius of Nicomedia and Alexander of Alexandria), preserved in quotations in Athanasius, Epiphanius, Socrates, and Theodoret; com'p. Fab ricius : Bihlioth. gr. viii. p. 309. Fragmenta Aiuanorum about 388 in Angelo Mai : Scriptorum vetorum nova collect. Rom. 1828, vol. iii. The fragments of the Church History of the Arian PniLOsroEGius, a. d. 350-425.
D, Works: Tillemont (R. C): Memoires, etc. tom. vi. pp. 239-825, ed. Paris. 1699, and ed. Ven. (the external history chielly). DioNVSirs Petavius (Jesuit, f 1652) : De tbeologicis dogniatibus, tom. ii., which treats of the divine Trinity in eight books; iiiid in part tom. iv. and v. which treat in sixteen books of the Incarnation of the Word. This is still, thougli incomplete, the most learned work of the Roman church in the History of Doctrines; it first appeared at Paris, 1644-'50, in fiva volumes fol., then at Amsterdam. 1700 (in 6 vols.), and at Venice, 1757 (ed, Zficharia), and lias been last edited by Passaglia and Schrader in Rome, 1857. J. M. Tkavasa (R. C): Storia critica della vitp