RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Enlightenment Ennodius
learned classes, but among the great masses of the population. But as its principles were embraced by members of the higher clergy and by the theological faculties, it became in turn conservative. Slowly, however, the inherent contradiction between its principles and the theological dualism of reason and revelation came to the front. With time the germ of dissolution entered into the body of dogma and the new spirit of the times attacked both the logical substructure and the imposed superstructure of doctrine. The followers of Wolff had attempted a compromise without departing from the paths of orthodoxy, but the Neologues, under the influence of the popular philosophy, broke entirely with dogma and sought to restrict revelation to the Bible, whose contents seemed more in harmony with natural theology than the scholastic subtleties of the Church. Only at the end of the century, however, and primarily under the inspiration of Kant's Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft (1793) did the more radical theologians advance to the position of identifying completely the religion of ethical rationalism with Biblical revelation, though still with purely apologetic purposes. But through this apologetic literature the subjective, analytic, and utilitarian spirit of the Enlightenment penetrated to the very heart of Christian belief, and inevitably led to reactionary movements which made common cause with other forms of reaction aroused by the spirit of the Enlightenment. The theology of the Enlightenment was, therefore, a thoroughly apologetic compromise on the basis of the principles of the Enlightenment. It was a question of the supremacy of the dogma of reason, of the dogma of revelation, or of the identification of the two, and it was the last solution that theology was driven to adopt.
The end of the period of the Enlightenment began in different countries at different times. The mightiest influences that contributed toward
its downfall were the political reac-
12. Close tions aroused in England by the
of the American Revolution and that in
Period. Europe by the French Revolution.
At the same time the revolutionary movement finally destroyed the political structure of the medieval ages and cleared the ground for a new political and social organization. The wars of the Revolution called into being a new factor, the principle of nationality, which came into opposition both with the spirit of enlightened cosmopolitanism and with the spirit of enlightened absolutism of the preceding period. There entered into play at the same time the influence of the new German culture which emancipated itself from the ideas of the Enlightenment in literature, philosophy, and science, created a new attitude toward life, and soon came to cooperate with similar tendencies in other countries. Fancy and sentiment, a love for the humane culture, sympathy for all that is psychologically real, characterized this new conception of life which was at one with the Enlightenment in its opposition to supernaturalism, but differed from it in its positive appreciation of the worth of things. Science, too, lost its character
of abstract subjectivism and militant reform, and restricted itself to the interpretation of reality. Finally reaction entered also the field of economic thought, destroying the individualistic principles of the Enlightenment. Nevertheless the Enlightenment has remained an appreciable influence to the present day, to a minor degree in Germany, to an important extent in France and the Anglo- Saxon world, where the separation between Enlightenment and supernaturalism is as sharp as it was a century ago. (E. Troeltsch.)
Bibliography: E. B. Pusey, Historical Enquiry into the Rationalist Character . in the Theology of Germany, London, 1828; B. Bauer, Geschichte der Politik, Kultur und Aufklarung des 18. Jahrhunderts, Charlottenburg, 1843-44; F. A. Saintes, Critical History of Rationalism in Germany, London, 1849; L. Noack, Freidenker in der Religion, Bern, 1853-55; A. F. Gfrorer, Geschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts, Schaffhausen, 1862-84; F. C. Schlosser, Geschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts, 8 vols., Heidelberg, 1856- 1864; K. R. Hagenbach, German Rationalism in its Rise, Progress and Decline, Edinburgh, 1865; H. T. Buckle, Hist, of Civilization in England, London, 1878 (cf. L. Etienne, Le Positivisme dans Vhistoire, Paris, 1868, a criticism of Buckle); J. Tulloch, Rational Theology in England in 17th Century, Edinburgh, 1872; Kohn, Aufkldrungsperiode, Potsdam, 1873; J. W. Draper, Hist, of the Conflict between Religion and Science, New York, 1874; idem, Hist, of the Intellectual Development of Europe, 2 vols., ib., 1876; J. Cairns, Unbelief in 18th Century, London, 1881; L. Stephen, Hist, of English Thought in 18th Century, ib., 1881; A. Sorel, L' Europe et la revolution, Paris, 1885-92; R. Eucken, Grundbegriffe der Gegenwart, Leipsic, 1893; A. D. White, Hist, of the Warfare of Science with Theology, New York, 1896; W. E. H. Lecky, Hist, of Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, London, 1899; J. F. Hurst, Hist, of Rationalism, New York, 1901; R. Otto, Naturalistische und religiose Weltansicht, Tubingen, 1904, Eng. transl., Naturalism and Religion, New York, 1907.
ENNODIUS, MAGNUS FELIX: Latin author and bishop of Padua; b. at Aries 473 or 474; d. at Padua July 17, 521. His life, until he reached manhood, was secular, and his education was classical. After becoming a convert to Christianity, he delayed making an open profession of faith until attacked by serious illness. With his wife's consent, he separated from her to enter the religious life, and was ordained deacon by Epiphanius of Ticinum at some date previous to 494. In 496 Ennodius went to Milan, where he took an active part in the schism which then convulsed the Church (see Anastasius II.). In connection with this arose the controversy of Pope Symmachus with the antipope Laurentius (see Symmachus), in the course of which Ennodius defended the pope in his Libellus adversus eos qui contra synodum scribere prcesumpserunt, basing the papal power on the privileges of Peter. Remaining at Milan as deacon until 512, he was appointed bishop of Padua in 514. He had already accompanied his predecessor on a mission of Theodoric to the Burgundian king Gundobad, and in 515 and 517 he was sent by Pope Hormisdas to the court of the Byzantine emperor Anastasius in an unsuccessful endeavor to reconcile the Eastern and the Western Churches.
As an author Ennodius represents Latin literature in its period of decline. In theology he was a Semi-Pelagian, and made no attempt to conceal his antipathy to Augustine. In addition to the works already noted, special mention may be
Enoch
Epao, Synod of