ANF06. Fathers of the Third Century: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius, and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arn - Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Table of Contents

Introductory Notice.

Gregory Thaumaturgus.

Introductory Note.

Acknowledged Writings.

A Declaration of Faith.

A Declaration of Faith.

A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Canonical Epistle.

The Oration and Panegyric Addressed to Origen.

For Eight Years Gregory Has Given Up the Practice of Oratory, Being Busied with the Study Chiefly of Roman Law and the Latin Language.

He Essays to Speak of the Well-Nigh Divine Endowments of Origen in His Presence, into Whose Hands He Avows Himself to Have Been Led in a Way Beyond All His Expectation.

He is Stimulated to Speak of Him by the Longing of a Grateful Mind. To the Utmost of His Ability He Thinks He Ought to Thank Him. From God are the Beginnings of All Blessings; And to Him Adequate Thanks Cannot Be Returned.

The Son Alone Knows How to Praise the Father Worthily. In Christ and by Christ Our Thanksgivings Ought to Be Rendered to the Father. Gregory Also Gives Thanks to His Guardian Angel, Because He Was Conducted by Him to Origen.

Here Gregory Interweaves the Narrative of His Former Life. His Birth of Heathen Parents is Stated. In the Fourteenth Year of His Age He Loses His Father. He is Dedicated to the Study of Eloquence and Law. By a Wonderful Leading of Providence, He is Brought to Origen.

The Arts by Which Origen Studies to Keep Gregory and His Brother Athenodorus with Him, Although It Was Almost Against Their Will; And the Love by Which Both are Taken Captive. Of Philosophy, the Foundation of Piety, with the View of Giving Himself Therefore Wholly to that Study, Gregory is Willing to Give Up Fatherland, Parents, the Pursuit of Law, and Every Other Discipline. Of the Soul as the Free Principle. The Nobler Part Does Not Desire to Be United with the Inferior, But the Inferior with the Nobler.

The Wonderful Skill with Which Origen Prepares Gregory and Athenodorus for Philosophy. The Intellect of Each is Exercised First in Logic, and the Mere Attention to Words is Contemned.

Then in Due Succession He Instructs Them in Physics, Geometry, and Astronomy.

But He Imbues Their Minds, Above All, with Ethical Science; And He Does Not Confine Himself to Discoursing on the Virtues in Word, But He Rather Confirms His Teaching by His Acts.

Hence the Mere Word-Sages are Confuted, Who Say and Yet Act Not.

Origen is the First and the Only One that Exhorts Gregory to Add to His Acquirements the Study of Philosophy, and Offers Him in a Certain Manner an Example in Himself. Of Justice, Prudence, Temperance, and Fortitude. The Maxim, Know Thyself.

Gregory Disallows Any Attainment of the Virtues on His Part. Piety is Both the Beginning and the End, and Thus It is the Parent of All the Virtues.

The Method Which Origen Used in His Theological and Metaphysical Instructions. He Commends the Study of All Writers, the Atheistic Alone Excepted. The Marvellous Power of Persuasion in Speech. The Facility of the Mind in Giving Its Assent.

Whence the Contentions of Philosophers Have Sprung. Against Those Who Catch at Everything that Meets Them, and Give It Credence, and Cling to It. Origen Was in the Habit of Carefully Reading and Explaining the Books of the Heathen to His Disciples.

The Case of Divine Matters. Only God and His Prophets are to Be Heard in These. The Prophets and Their Auditors are Acted on by the Same Afflatus. Origen's Excellence in the Interpretation of Scripture.

Gregory Laments His Departure Under a Threefold Comparison; Likening It to Adam's Departure Out of Paradise. To the Prodigal Son's Abandonment of His Father's House, and to the Deportation of the Jews into Babylon.

Gregory Consoles Himself.

Peroration, and Apology for the Oration.

Apostrophe to Origen, and Therewith the Leave-Taking, and the Urgent Utterance of Prayer.

Dubious or Spurious Writings.

A Sectional Confession of Faith.

On the Trinity.

Fragment from the Discourse.

Twelve Topics on the Faith.

On the Subject of the Soul.

On the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin Mary.

On the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin Mary. Discourse Second.

On the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin Mary.

On the Holy Theophany, or on Christ's Baptism.

On All the Saints.

On All the Saints.

On the Gospel According to Matthew.

Introductory Note.

Extant Fragments.

Containing Various Sections of the Works.

From the Two Books on the Promises.

From the Books on Nature.

In Opposition to Those of the School of Epicurus Who Deny the Existence of a Providence, and Refer the Constitution of the Universe to Atomic Bodies.

A Refutation of This Dogma on the Ground of Familiar Human Analogies.

A Refutation on the Ground of the Constitution of the Universe.

A Refutation of the Same on the Grounds of the Human Constitution.

That to Work is Not a Matter of Pain and Weariness to God.

From the Books Against Sabellius. On the Notion that Matter is Ungenerated.

Epistle to Dionysius Bishop of Rome.

From the First Book.

From the Same First Book.

From the Same First Book.

From the Second Book.

From the Same Second Book.

From the Same Second Book.

From the Third Book.

From the Fourth Book.

About the Middle of the Treatise.

The Conclusion of the Entire Treatise.

The Epistle to Bishop Basilides.

Containing Epistles, or Fragments of Epistles.

To Domitius and Didymus.

To Fabius, Bishop of Antioch.

To Cornelius the Roman Bishop.

Which is the First on the Subject of Baptism Addressed to Stephen, Bishop of Rome.

To Sixtus, Bishop.

To Philemon, a Presbyter.

Against Bishop Germanus.

To the Alexandrians.

To Hierax, a Bishop in Egypt.

From His Fourth Festival Epistle.

Exegetical Fragments.

A Commentary on the Beginning of Ecclesiastes.

The Gospel According to Luke. An Interpretation.

On Luke XXII. 42, Etc.

An Exposition of Luke XXII. 46, Etc.

On John VIII. 12.

Of the One Substance.

On the Reception of the Lapsed to Penitence.

Note by the American Editor.

Julius Africanus.

Anatolius and Minor Writers.

Introductory Notice.

Anatolius of Alexandria.

Alexander of Cappadocia.

Translator's Biographical Notice.

From the Epistles of Alexander.

An Epistle to the People of Antioch.

From an Epistle to the Antinoites.

From an Epistle to Origen.

From an Epistle to Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria.

Note by the American Editor.

Theognostus of Alexandria.

Translator's Biographical Notice.

From His Seven Books of Hypotyposes or Outlines.

Pierus of Alexandria.

Translator's Biographical Notice.

A Fragment of a Work of Pierius on the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians.

A Section on the Writings of Pierius.

Theonas of Alexandria.

Translator's Biographical Notice.

The Epistle of Theonas, Bishop of Alexandria, to Lucianus, the Chief Chamberlain.

Translator's Biographical Notice.

Fragments of the Epistle of Phileas to the People of Thmuis.

The Epistle of the Same Phileas of Thmuis to Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis.

The Beginning of the Epistle of the Bishops.

The Conclusion of the Epistle of the Bishops.

Translator's Biographical Notice.

An Exposition of the Chapters of the Acts of the Apostles.

Translator's Biographical Notice.

The Epistle Written by Malchion, In Name of the Synod of Antioch, Against Paul of Samosata.

Fragments Apparently of the Same Epistle of the Synod of Antioch.

From the Acts of the Disputation Conducted by Malchion Against Paul of Samosata.

A Point in the Same Disputation.

Introductory Notice.

The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes.

A Fragment of the Same Disputation.

Alexander of Lycopolis.

Introductory Notice.

Of the Manichæans.

The Excellence of the Christian Philosophy; The Origin of Heresies Amongst Christians.

The Age of Manichæus, or Manes; His First Disciples; The Two Principles; Manichæan Matter.

The Fancies of Manichæus Concerning Matter.

The Moon's Increase and Wane; The Manichæan Trifling Respecting It; Their Dreams About Man and Christ; Their Foolish System of Abstinence.

The Worship of the Sun and Moon Under God; Support Sought for the Manichæans in the Grecian Fables; The Authority of the Scriptures and Faith Despised by the Manichæans.

The Two Principles of the Manichæans; Themselves Controverted; The Pythagorean Opinion Respecting First Principles; Good and Evil Contrary; The Victory on the Side of Good.

Motion Vindicated from the Charge of Irregularity; Circular; Straight; Of Generation and Corruption; Of Alteration, and Quality Affecting Sense.

Is Matter Wicked? Of God and Matter.

The Ridiculous Fancies of the Manichæans About the Motion of Matter Towards God; God the Author of the Rebellion of Matter in the Manichæan Sense; The Longing of Matter for Light and Brightness Good; Divine Good None the Less for Being Communicated.

The Mythology Respecting the Gods; The Dogmas of the Manichæans Resemble This: the Homeric Allegory of the Battle of the Gods; Envy and Emulation Existing In God According to the Manichæan Opinion; These Vices are to Be Found in No Good Man, and are to Be Accounted Disgraceful.

The Transmitted Virtue of the Manichæans; The Virtues of Matter Mixed with Equal or Less Amount of Evil.

The Destruction of Evil by the Immission of Virtue Rejected; Because from It Arises No Diminution of Evil; Zeno's Opinion Discarded, that the World Will Be Burnt Up by Fire from the Sun.

Evil by No Means Found in the Stars and Constellations; All the Evils of Life Vain in the Manichæan Opinion, Which Bring on the Extinction of Life; Their Fancy Having Been Above Explained Concerning the Transportation of Souls from the Moon to the Sun.

Noxious Animals Worshipped by the Egyptians; Man by Arts an Evil-Doer; Lust and Injustice Corrected by Laws and Discipline; Contingent and Necessary Things in Which There is No Stain.

The Lust and Desire of Sentient Things; Demons; Animals Sentient; So Also the Sun and the Moon and Stars; The Platonic Doctrine, Not the Christian.

Because Some are Wise, Nothing Prevents Others from Being So; Virtue is to Be Acquired by Diligence and Study; By a Sounder Philosophy Men are to Be Carried Onwards to the Good; The Common Study of Virtue Has by Christ Been Opened Up to All.

The Manichæan Idea of Virtue in Matter Scouted; If One Virtue Has Been Created Immaterial, the Rest are Also Immaterial; Material Virtue an Exploded Notion.

Dissolution and Inherence According to the Manichæans; This is Well Put, Ad Hominem, with Respect to Manes, Who is Himself in Matter.

The Second Virtue of the Manichæans Beset with the Former, and with New Absurdities; Virtue, Active and Passive, the Fashioner of Matter, and Concrete with It; Bodies Divided by Manichæus into Three Parts.

The Divine Virtue in the View of the Same Manichæus Corporeal and Divisible; The Divine Virtue Itself Matter Which Becomes Everything; This is Not Fitting.

Some Portions of the Virtue Have Good in Them, Others More Good; In the Sun and the Moon It is Incorrupt, in Other Things Depraved; An Improbable Opinion.

The Light of the Moon from the Sun; The Inconvenience of the Opinion that Souls are Received in It; The Two Deluges of the Greeks.

The Image of Matter in the Sun, After Which Man is Formed; Trifling Fancies; It is a Mere Fancy, Too, that Man Is Formed from Matter; Man is Either a Composite Being, or a Soul, or Mind and Understanding.

Christ is Mind, According to the Manichæans; What is He in the View of the Church? Incongruity in Their Idea of Christ; That He Suffered Only in Appearance, a Dream of the Manichæans; Nothing is Attributed to the Word by Way of Fiction.

The Manichæan Abstinence from Living Things Ridiculous; Their Madness in Abhorring Marriage; The Mythology of the Giants; Too Allegorical an Exposition.

The Much-Talked-of Fire of the Manichæans; That Fire Matter Itself.

Peter of Alexandria.

Alexander of Alexandria.

Introductory Notice.

Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius.

To Alexander, Bishop of the City of Constantinople.

Epistle Catholic.

Epistle to Alexandria and Mareotis.

Epistle to Æglon, Bishop of Cynopolis, Against the Arians.

On the Soul and Body and the Passion of the Lord.

The Addition in the Codex, with a Various Reading.

Introductory Notice.

The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity.

The Difficulty and Excellence of Virginity; The Study of Doctrine Necessary for Virgins.

Virginity a Plant from Heaven, Introduced Late; The Advancement of Mankind to Perfection, How Arranged.

By the Circumcision of Abraham, Marriage with Sisters Forbidden; In the Times of the Prophets Polygamy Put a Stop To; Conjugal Purity Itself by Degrees Enforced.

Christ Alone Taught Virginity, Openly Preaching the Kingdom of Heaven; The Likeness of God to Be Attained in the Light of the Divine Virtues.

Christ, by Preserving His Flesh Incorrupt in Virginity, Draws to the Exercise of Virginity; The Small Number of Virgins in Proportion to the Number of Saints.

Marriage Not Abolished by the Commendation of Virginity.

Generation Something Akin to the First Formation of Eve from the Side and Nature of Adam; God the Creator of Men in Ordinary Generation.

An Ambiguous Passage of Scripture; Not Only the Faithful But Even Prelates Sometimes Illegitimate.

Human Generation, and the Work of God Therein Set Forth.

The Holy Father Follows Up the Same Argument.

God Cares Even for Adulterous Births; Angels Given to Them as Guardians.

The Rational Soul from God Himself; Chastity Not the Only Good, Although the Best and Most Honoured.

Passages of Holy Scripture Compared.

The Digressions of the Apostle Paul; The Character of His Doctrine: Nothing in It Contradictory; Condemnation of Origen, Who Wrongly Turns Everything into Allegory.

Comparison Instituted Between the First and Second Adam.

Some Things Here Hard and Too Slightly Treated, and Apparently Not Sufficiently Brought Out According to the Rule of Theology.

A Passage of Jeremiah Examined.

The Whole Number of Spiritual Sheep; Man a Second Choir, After the Angels, to the Praise of God; The Parable of the Lost Sheep Explained.

The Works of Christ, Proper to God and to Man, the Works of Him Who is One.

The Bones and Flesh of Wisdom; The Side Out of Which the Spiritual Eve is Formed, the Holy Spirit; The Woman the Help-Meet of Adam; Virgins Betrothed to Christ.

The Dispensation of Grace in Paul the Apostle.

The Doctrine of the Same Apostle Concerning Purity.

The Same Argument.

Paul an Example to Widows, and to Those Who Do Not Live with Their Wives.

The Doctrine of Paul Concerning Virginity Explained.

Virginity a Gift of God: the Purpose of Virginity Not Rashly to Be Adopted by Any One.

The Necessity of Praising Virtue, for Those Who Have the Power.

The Protection of Chastity and Virginity Divinely Given to Men, that They May Emerge from the Mire of Vices.

That Passage of David Explained; What the Harps Hung Upon the Willows Signify; The Willow a Symbol of Chastity; The Willows Watered by Streams.

The Author Goes on with the Interpretation of the Same Passage.

The Gifts of Virgins, Adorned with Which They are Presented to One Husband, Christ.

Virginity to Be Cultivated and Commended in Every Place and Time.

The Offering of Chastity a Great Gift.

Abraham's Sacrifice of a Heifer Three Years Old, of a Goat, and of a Ram Also Three Years Old: Its Meaning; Every Age to Be Consecrated to God; The Threefold Watch and Our Age.

Far Best to Cultivate Virtue from Boyhood.

Perfect Consecration and Devotion to God: What It is.

The Vow of Chastity, and Its Rites in the Law; Vines, Christ, and the Devil.

Sikera, a Manufactured and Spurious Wine, Yet Intoxicating; Things Which are Akin to Sins are to Be Avoided by a Virgin; The Altar of Incense (a Symbol Of) Virgins.

The Church Intermediate Between the Shadows of the Law and the Realities of Heaven.

The Double Altar, Widows and Virgins; Gold the Symbol of Virginity.

The Excellence of the Abiding Glory of Virginity; The Soul Made in the Image of the Image of God, that is of His Son; The Devil a Suitor for the Soul.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins.

The Same Endeavour and Effort After Virginity, with a Different Result.

What the Oil in the Lamps Means.

The Reward of Virginity.

What the True and Seemly Manner of Praising; The Father Greater Than the Son, Not in Substance, But in Order; Virginity the Lily; Faithful Souls and Virgins, the One Bride of the One Christ.

The Interpretation of that Passage of the Canticles.

Virgins Being Martyrs First Among the Companions of Christ.

The Passage Explained; The Queens, the Holy Souls Before the Deluge; The Concubines, the Souls of the Prophets; The Divine Seed for Spiritual Offspring in the Books of the Prophets; The Nuptials of the Word in the Prophets as Though Clandestine.

The Sixty Queens: Why Sixty, and Why Queens; The Excellence of the Saints of the First Age.

The Eighty Concubines, What; The Knowledge of the Incarnation Communicated to the Prophets.

The Virgins, the Righteous Ancients; The Church, the One Only Spouse, More Excellent Than the Others.

The Human Nature of Christ His One Dove.

The Virgins Immediately After the Queen and Spouse.

Methodius' Derivation of the Word Virginity: Wholly Divine; Virtue, in Greek--ἀρετή, Whence So Called.

The Lofty Mind and Constancy of the Sacred Virgins; The Introduction of Virgins into the Blessed Abodes Before Others.

The Lot and Inheritance of Virginity.

Exhortation to the Cultivation of Virginity; A Passage from the Apocalypse is Proposed to Be Examined.

The Woman Who Brings Forth, to Whom the Dragon is Opposed, the Church; Her Adornment and Grace.

The Works of the Church, the Bringing Forth of Children in Baptism; The Moon in Baptism, the Full Moon of Christ's Passion.

The Child of the Woman in the Apocalypse Not Christ, But the Faithful Who are Born in the Laver.

The Faithful in Baptism Males, Configured to Christ; The Saints Themselves Christs.

The Son of God, Who Ever Is, is To-Day Begotten in the Minds and Sense of the Faithful.

The Dragon, the Devil; The Stars Struck from Heaven by the Tail of the Dragon, Heretics; The Numbers of the Trinity, that Is, the Persons Numbered; Errors Concerning Them.

The Woman with the Male Child in the Wilderness the Church; The Wilderness Belongs to Virgins and Saints; The Perfection of Numbers and Mysteries; The Equality and Perfection of the Number Six; The Number Six Related to Christ; From This Number, Too, the Creation and Harmony of the World Completed.

Virgins are Called to the Imitation of the Church in the Wilderness Overcoming the Dragon.

The Seven Crowns of the Beast to Be Taken Away by Victorious Chastity; The Ten Crowns of the Dragon, the Vices Opposed to the Decalogue; The Opinion of Fate the Greatest Evil.

The Doctrine of Mathematicians Not Wholly to Be Despised, When They are Concerned About the Knowledge of the Stars; The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac Mythical Names.

Arguments from the Novelty of Fate and Generation; That Golden Age, Early Men; Solid Arguments Against the Mathematicians.

Several Other Things Turned Against the Same Mathematicians.

The Lust of the Flesh and Spirit: Vice and Virtue.

Chastity the Chief Ornament of the True Tabernacle; Seven Days Appointed to the Jews for Celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles: What They Signify; The Sum of This Septenary Uncertain; Not Clear to Any One When the Consummation of the World Will Be; Even Now the Fabric of the World Completed.

Figure, Image, Truth: Law, Grace, Glory; Man Created Immortal: Death Brought in by Destructive Sin.

How Each One Ought to Prepare Himself for the Future Resurrection.

The Mind Clearer When Cleansed from Sin; The Ornaments of the Mind and the Order of Virtue; Charity Deep and Full; Chastity the Last Ornament of All; The Very Use of Matrimony to Be Restrained.

The Mystery of the Tabernacles.

Chastity Alone Aids and Effects the Most Praiseworthy Government of the Soul.

The Allegory of the Trees Demanding a King, in the Book of Judges, Explained.

The Bramble and the Agnos the Symbol of Chastity; The Four Gospels, that Is, Teachings or Laws, Instructing to Salvation.

The Law Useless for Salvation; The Last Law of Chastity Under the Figure of the Bramble.

The Malignity of the Devil as an Imitator in All Things; Two Kinds of Fig-Trees and Vines.

The Mystery of the Vision of Zechariah.

The True and Chaste Virgins Few; Chastity a Contest; Thekla Chief of Virgins.

Thekla Singing Decorously a Hymn, the Rest of the Virgins Sing with Her; John the Baptist a Martyr to Chastity; The Church the Spouse of God, Pure and Virgin.

Which are the Better, the Continent, or Those Who Delight in Tranquillity of Life? Contests the Peril of Chastity: the Felicity of Tranquillity; Purified and Tranquil Minds Gods: They Who Shall See God; Virtue Disciplined by Temptations.

Concerning Free-Will.

From the Discourse on the Resurrection.

The Second Discourse on the Resurrection.

From the Discourse on the Resurrection.

A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words from the Same Discourse.

On the History of Jonah, from the Book on the Resurrection.

Extracts from the Work on Things Created.

From the Works of Methodius Against Porphyry.

From His Discourse Concerning Martyrs.

Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple.

Oration on the Palms.

Oration on the Palms.

Three Fragments from the Homily on the Cross and Passion of Christ.

The Same Methodius to Those Who are Ashamed of the Cross of Christ.

The Same Methodius: How Christ the Son of God, in a Brief and Definite Time, Being Enclosed by the Body, and Existing Impassible, Became Obnoxious to the Passion.

Some Other Fragments of the Same Methodius.

Two Fragments, Uncertain.

Introductory Notice.

The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen. (Adversus Gentes.)

Chapter XXVIII.

Chapter XXXIII.

Chapter XXXVII.

Chapter XXXVIII.

Chapter XLVIII.

Chapter LXVIII.

Chapter LXXIII.

Chapter LXXVII.

Chapter LXXVIII.

Index of Scripture References

Greek Words and Phrases

French Words and Phrases

Index of Pages of the Print Edition

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