§ 163. ATHANASIUS THE GREAT. 89]
Towards the unessential errors of good men, like those of MarceLus of Ancyra, he was indulgent. Of Origen he spoke with esteem, and with gratitude for his services, while Epipha nius, and even Jerome, delighted to blacken his memory and burn his bones. To the suspicions of the orthodoxy of Basil, whom, by the way, he never personally knew, he gave no ear, but pronounced his liberality a justifiable condescension to the weak. When he found himself compelled to write against Apollinaris, wliom-4ie esteemed and loved, he confined himself to the refutation of his error, without the mention of his name. He was more concerned for theological ideas than for words and formulas ; even upon the shil)boleth homoousios he would not obstinately insist, provided only the great truth of the essential and eternal Godhead of Christ were not sacrificed. At his last appearance in public, as president of the council of Alexandria in 362, he acted as mediator and reconciler of the contending parties, who, notwithstanding all their discord in the use of the terms ousia and hypostasis^ were one in tho ground-work of their faith.
No one of all tlie Oriental fathers enjoyed so liigh consideration in the Western churcli as Athanasius. His personal sojourn in Kome and Treves, and his knowledge of the Latin tongue, contributed to this efibct. He transplanted monasticism to the West. But it was his advocacy of the fundamental doctrine of Christianity that, more than all, gave him liis Western reputation. Under his name the Symbolum Quicunque, of much later, and probably of French, origin, has found universal acceptance in the Latin church, and has maintained itself to this day in living use. His name is inseparable from the conflicts and the triumph of the doctrine of the holy Trinity.
As an author, Athanasius is distinguished for theological depth and discrimination, for dialectical skill, and sometimes for fulminating eloquence. He everywhere evinces a triumphant intellectual superiority over his antagonists, and shows himself a veritable malleus hoereticormn. He pursues them into all their liiding-places, and refutes all their arguments and their sophisms, but never loses sight of the main point of the
893 THIKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
controversy, to which he ever returns with .renewed force. His views arc governed by a strict logical connectioti ; but his stormy fortunes prevented him from composing a large systematic work. Almost all his writings are occasional, wrung from him by circumstances ; not a few of them were hastily written in exile.
They may be divided as follows :
1. AroLOGETic works in defence of Christianity. Among these are the two able and enthusiastic kindred productions oi liis youth (composed before 325) : " A Discourse against the Greeks," and " On the Incarnation of the Divine Word," ' which he already looked upon as the central idea of the Christian religion.
2. Dogmatic and controversial works in defence of the Nicene faith ; which are at the same time very important to the history of the Arian controversies. Of these the following are directed against Arianism : An Encyclical Letter to all Bishops (written in 341); On the Decrees of the Council of Nicsea (352) ; On the Opinion of Dionysius of Alexandria (352) ; An Epistle to the Bishops of Egypt and Libya (356) ; four Orations against the Arians (358) ; A Letter to Serai)ion on tlie Death of Arius (358 or 359) ; A History of the Arians to the Monks (l)etween 358 and 360). To these are to be added four Epistles to Serapion on the Deity of the Holy Spirit (358), and two books Against Apollinaris, in defence of the full liumanity of Christ (379).
3. "Works in his own personal defence : An Apology against the Arians (350) ; an Apology to Constantius (356) ; an Apology concerning his Flight (De fuga, 357 or 358); and several letters.
4. ExKGKTicAL works ; especially a Commentary on the Psalms, in wliich he everywhere finds types and prophecies of Clirist and the church, according to the extravagant allegoriz-
' Ao'70? Kara. ''E\\i\v(i'v (or Contra Gentes), and Xl^yA rris fVai'S-pwWja-foiy rov l\6yov, in the first volume, Part 1, of the Bcncd. ed. pp. 1-97. Tlie latter tract (De Incarnationo Vcrbi Dei) against unbelievers is not to be confounded with the fiact written much later (a. n. BG4), and by some consiilcred spurious: Do incamatione Da Verbi et contra Arianos, torn. i. Pars ii. pp. 871-890.