RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Patristics
Among the Reformed theologians of England, Holland, and France are to be named William Cave (q.v.) with his Historia litteraria scriptorum ecclesiasticorum (2 vols., London, 1688-98); James Ussher (q.v.), who labored upon the Apostolic Fathers, the Apostolic Constitutions, and the apostolic symbol; Johannes Ernst Grabe (q.v.), who produced a Specilegium sanctorum patrum (2 vols., Oxford, 1698) ; John Pearson (q.v.), who illuminated the subject of Ignatius; Henry Dodwell (q.v.) ; Jean Le Clerc (see Clericus, Johannes) dealt also with the Church Fathers; Jean Daille (q.v.) wrote upon Dionysius the Areopagite and Ignatius, among other subjects; Casimir Remi Oudin (q.v.) left a Commentarius de scriptoribus ecclesice (3 vols., Leipsic, 1722). The Lutheran Church was in this direction unproductive during the eighteenth century, its activity touching in this field only upon antiquities in the writings of J. A. Fabricius (q.v.), and C. T. G. Schonemann (d. 1802).
The nineteenth century was in this field comparatively unproductive. The Scriptorum veterum nova collectio of Angelo Mai (q.v.) may be mentioned (10 vols., Rome, 1825-38), and the Nova patrum bibliotheca (9 vols., 1852-88). Jean Baptiste Pitra (q.v.) also requires notice, with his Specilegium Solesmense (4 vols., Paris, 1842-58) and his Analecta sacra (4 vols., 1876-84). The series 4. Nine- of Jacques Paul Migne (q.v.), in themteenth-Cen- selves serviceable, are yet in some sense tury Work, a hindrance because of faulty printing and editing. Roman Catholics and Protestants have produced many worthy books on the subject. Such works are by Johann Adam Mohler (q.v.), Patrologie (Regensburg, 1840); Joseph Fessler, Institutiones patrologice (2 vols., Innsbruck, 1850-59); H. J. Pestalozzi, Grundlinien der Geschichte der kirchlichen Litteratur der ersten sechs Jahrhunderte (Gottingen, 1811). But thelater decades of the century brought about a great revival of interest and work in this department which recalled the classical times of the seventeenth century. Of importance here were the great discoveries which have enlarged knowledge of the ancient sources. Among these may be named the fragments of the Gospel and Apocalypse of Peter, the Didache, the complete text of the letters of Clement, the Apology of Aristides, the Acts of Paul and Apollonius, the Diatessaron of Tatian, the Philosophumena and commentary on Daniel by Hippolytus, the Carmen of Commodian, the Tractatus Origenis, the homilies on the Psalms by Jerome, papyri and ostraca from Egypt, etc. New editions have been issued or begun, like the CSEL (Vienna, 1866 sqq.), the set of Greek writers of the first three centuries under the auspices of the Prussian Academy (1897 sqq.), the Patrologia orientalis under the care of R. Graffin and F. Nau (Paris, 1903 sqq.), the Corpus scriptorum Christianorum orientalium (Paris and Leipsic, 1903 sqq.), [G. Kruger's Sammlung ausgewahlter kirchen- und dogmengeschichtlicher Quellenschriften (Tubingen, 1901 sqq.), and Florilegium patristicum, ed. G. Rauschen (Bonn, 1904 sqq.)]. There are also series devoted to the issue of individual writers and monographs on them, like Harnack and Gebhart's TU (Leipsic, 1882 sqq.), and the
Cambridge Texts and Studies (1891 sqq.). There should be taken into account the numerous periodicals given to this department, as well as the monographs and collections for purposes of instruction like the Bibliothek der Kirchenvater (79 vols., Kempten 1869-88), ANF and NPNF (see vol. i., p. xviii. of this work), and E. Hennecke's Neutestamentliche Apokryphen (Tubingen and Leipsic, 1904). Especial attention has been paid to the first three centuries, and the work has been characterized by a notable impartiality in investigation. The Tubingen school were pioneers in this direction. But the man whose work has been most fruitful and illuminating is Adolf Harnack (q.v.), bringing to the task an unexampled richness of knowledge, keen powers of combination, patience in investigation, and brilliant abilities in the way of exposition. With him were such coworkers as Theodore Zahn, Adolf Hilgenfeld, and Franz Xaver Funk (qq.v.) in Germany, Joseph Barber Lightfoot (q.v.) in England, while in France, Italy, and the United States a renewed activity and industry are being applied to patristic study. It is conceivable that in so restlessly busy and progressive an age leisure would not be found for summarizing, and until recently this was the great need. Not up to the standard were J. Alzog's Grundriss der Patrologie (Freiburg, 1866), O. Zockler's Geschichte der theologischen Litteratur (Nordlingen, 1889), and J. Nirschl's Lehrbuch der Patrologie und Patristik (3 vols., Mainz, 1881-85). J. Donaldson, however, did excellent work in his Critical History of Christian Literature and Doctrine (3 vols., London, 1864-66). The dearth in this respect led to Harnack's Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius (Leipsic, 1893-1904). G. Kr tiger sought lines of development in his Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur (Freiburg, 1895; Eng. transl., Hist, of Early Christian Literature, New York, 1897). O. Bardenhewer in his Patrologie (Freiburg, 1901; Eng. transl., Patrolpgy, St. Louis, 1908), held to beaten paths; in his Geschichte der altkirchlichen Litteratur (2 vols., 1902-04), he showed independence. The Frenchman P. Batiffol in his Anciennes litteratures chretiennes (Paris, 1897) is not independent of German predecessors; while in England C. T. Cruttwell produced his Literary Hist, of Early Christianity (2 vols., London, 1893). In Greece interest is manifest in the Christianike grammatologia of G. J. Derbos (vol. i., Athens, 1903). The department is developing strength along the lines of special grammatical, stylistic, and literary studies of the material available, as is proved by W Christ's Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur bis auf die Zeit Justinians (3d ed., Munich, 1898), W S. Teuffel's Geschichte der romischen Litteratur (5th ed., ed. L. Schwabe, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1890; which yet leaves much to wish for), the work of J. C. F. Bahr, Geschichte der romischen Litteratur, vol. i., part 1 (2d ed., Leipsic, 1889), A. Ebert's Allgemeine Geschichte (vol. i., 2d ed., Leipsic, 1889), M. Manitius' Geschichte der christlichlateinischen Poesie (Stuttgart, 1891), and M. Schanz's Geschichte der romischen Litteratur (7 vols., Munich, 1894-1908).
It is not superfluous to discuss the methodology of what is denominated " Patristics " and " Patrology." These terms took their rise in the con-
Patristics Patronage