§ 163. ATHAJCASIUS THE GREAT, 88ft
and ir.oiiks of Egypt were attached to liim tlirougli all tlie vicissitudes of his tempestuous life with equal fidelity and veneration, Gregory Nazianzen begins his enthusiastic panegyric with the words : " When I praise Athanasius, 1 praise virtue itself, because he combines all virtues in himself," Constantine the Younger called him "the man of God;" Theodoret, "the great enlightener; " and John of Damascus, " the corner-stone of the church of God."
All this is, indeed, very hyperbolical, after tlie fashiop. of degenerate Grecian rhetoric, Athanasius was not free from the faults of his age. But he is, on the whole, one of the purest, most imposing, and most venerable personages in the history of the church ; and this judgment will now be almost universally accepted,'
' The rationalistic historian Hexke (Geschichte der christl. Kirche, 5th ed. 1818, i. p. 212) called him, indeed, a "haughty hard-head," and the "author of many broils and of the unhappiness of many thousand men." But the age of the rationalistic debasement of history, thank God, is past. Quite different is the judg-raent of Gibbon, who despised the faith of Athanasius, yet could not withhold from him personally the tribute of his admiration. " We have seldom," says he in ch. xxi. of his celebrated work, " an opportunity of observing, either in active or speculative life, what effect may be produced, or what obstacles may be surmounted by the force of a single mind, when it is inflexibly applied to the pursuit of a single object. The immortal name of Athanasius will never be separated from the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, to whose defence he consecrated every moment and every faculty of his being. '. . . Amidst the storms of persecution the archbishop of Alexandria was patient of labor, jealous of fame, careless of safety ; and although his mind was tainted by the contagion of fanaticism, Athanasius displayed a superiority of character and abilities which would have qualified him far better than the degenerate sons of Constantine for the government of a great monarchy." Dr, Baur thus characterizes Athanasius (Vorlesungen iiber die Dogmengeschichtc, vol, L ii. p, 41): "His talent for speculative dogmatic investigations, in which he knew how to lay hold, sharply and clearly, of the salient point of the dogma, was as great as the power with which he stood at the head of a party and managed a theological controversy. , . . The devotion, with which he defended the cause of orthodoxy, and the importance of the dogma, which was the subject of dispute, have made his name one of the most venerable in the church. In modern times he has been frequently charged with a passionate love for theological controversy. But the most recent ecclesiastical and doctrinal historians are more and more unanimous in according tc him" a pure zeal for Christian truth, and a profound sense for the apprehension of the same. It is a strong testimony for the purity of his character that his congregation at Antioch adhered to him with tender affection to the last." A. de Broglis ^Ii'egF^e et I'empire romain au IV^ si^cle, vol. ii. p. 25) finds the principal quality
890 THmO PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
He was (and there are few sucli) a theological and chnr jhl} character in magnificent, antiqne style. He was a man of one mould and one idea, and in this respect one-sided ; yet in the best sense, as the same is true of most great men who are borne along with a mighty and comprehensive thought, and subordinate all others to it. So Paul lived and labored for Christ crucified, Gregory YII. for the Roman hierarchy, Luther for the doctrine of justification by faith, Calvin for the idea of the sovereign grace of God. It was the passion and the life-work of Athanasius to vindicate the deity of Christ, which lie rightly regarded as the corner-stone of the edifice of the Christian faith, and without whicli he could conceive nc redemption. For this truth he spent all his time and strength ; for this he suffered deposition and twenty years of exile ; for this he would liave been at any moment glad to pour out his blood. For his vindication of this truth l.e was much hated, much loved, always respected or feared. In the unwavering conviction that he had the right and the protection of God on his side, he constantly disdained to call in the secular power for his ecclesiastical ends, and to degrade himself to an im« perial courtier, as his antagonists often did.
Ao-ainst the Arians he was inflexible, because he believed they hazarded the essence of Christianity itself, and he allowed himself the most invidious and the most contemptuous terms. He calls them polytheists, atheists, Jews, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, spies, worse persecutors than the heathen, liars, dogs, wolves, antichrists, and devils. But he confined himself to spiritual weapons, and never, like his successor Cyril a century later, used nor counselled measures of force. He suflfcrcd persecution, but did not practise it ; lie followed the maxim : Orthodoxy should persuade faith, not force it.
of the mind of Athanasius hi " un rare melange dc droiture de sens et de subtilitS dc raisonnemciil. Dans la discussion la plus compliquec rien ne lui echappait, maia rien nc I'cbranlait. II d6miilait toutes les nuances de la pensoe de son adversaire, eu penetrait tons les detoui-s ; mais il ne perdait jamais de vue le point principal et le but du debat. . . . Unissant les qualitos des detix (koles, il discutait coram* un Grec et concluait nettement comme un Latin. Cette corabinaison oiiginale, relcvce par une Indomptable ('ermet6 de caractere, fait encore aujourd'hui le soul morite qu' i distance nous puissious pleiremeut apprecier dans ses cents,"