'Minor' Fathers in the West.

The Eastern Fathers wrote in Greek; the Western Fathers in Latin. After providing us with sketches of the "Greats" in both East and West, Professor Baldwin turns his attention to the "minor" Fathers. In December he perused those writing in Greek; here he looks at those in the West. In the February and March editions he will turn his attention to those writers who veered away from the true teaching by perusing their own preferred opinions.--Editor

Eusebius has little on the West, but he does (Church History 8.4) mention Cyprian as the first to insist repentant heretics be baptised before re-admission. Cyprian (c. 200-14 September 258, Feast Days Sept. 16, 18) was a wealthy and respected rhetorician before his conversion (c. 245), after which he gave his fortune to the poor, vowed celibacy, and was elected Bishop of Carthage by popular acclaim (c. 248). Forced into hiding during the Decian persecution (249-251), he returned to Carthage where in the subsequent one by Valerian he was tried and martyred. His 65 Letters (tr. G.W. Clark, New York 1984-1989) enrich our knowledge of an otherwise dark period in both religious (n. 63, rebaptism; n. 4, role of virgins) and secular (n. 62, barbarian raids). Of his dozen theological treatises, the key one is On the Unity of the Church, with its proclamation "He who does not hold the Church to be his Mother cannot hold God to be his Father." Cyprian's influence spread posthumously, culminating in his inclusion in Rome's Festal Calendar by Pope Damasus (366-384); cf. M.M. Sage, Cyprian (Cambridge 1975). Cyprian, incidentally, may be the author of an anonymous treatise against Gambling (tr. S.T. Carroll, The Second Century 8.2. (1982), 83-95, full of fascinating social history and deserving to be read at all meetings of Gamblers Anonymous today.

Minucius Felix (probably from Africa, 2nd-3rd cent.) composed the Octavius (tr. W. Clark, New York 1974), a dialogue in which the eponymous Christian converts his pagan opponent by force of arguments for monotheism, divine providence, and superior morality against classical mythology. Octavius refutes the other on his own ground, eschewing biblical teachings and quotations. The work has much in common with Tertullian's Apology; there is much debate over which came first; cf. H.J. Bayliss, Minudus Felix and his Place among the Early Fathers of the Church (London 1928).

Arnobius (d. c.327) took a similar tack in his Against the Pagans (tr. G. McCracken, New York 1949), written during the Great Persecution (303-311), relying on classical rather than Christian texts to demonstrate the superiority of the Faith. His demonstration that Christianity was not to blame for secular Roman disasters anticipates those of Augustine and Orosius. "Full of curious learning" (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church), his book is mentioned by Jerome, who liked and imitated its satirical verve, which has been compared to that of Voltaire; cf. M.B. Simons, Arnobius of Sicca (Oxford 1995).

Otherwise, Arnobius was eclipsed by his pupil Lactantius (c.240-c.320), dubbed the "Christian Cicero" by Renaissance humanists. As Cyprian, he was an African rhetorician before his faith cost him his job in the Great Persecution. With Constantine's accession, there came reversal of fortune, appointment as tutor to the new Christian emperor's son. Four major works survive. The Divine Institutes (tr. E.H. Blakeney, London 1950), deliberately appealing to pagans with its classical quotations, sets out "the first systematic account in Latin of the Christian attitude to life"--ODCC. The Workmanship of God argues that the human body's complexity is proof of God's existence--I remember my own English cleric's use of this when preparing us for Confirmation. The Wrath of God deals with divine punishment of human crime. Deaths of the Persecutors (tr. J.L. Creed, Oxford 1984) makes grim reading, but is an understandable celebration of its subject. Lactantius also penned a poem on the phoenix, an occasional Christian art symbol, which left its mark on the Anglo-Saxon one in the 10th-century Exeter Book; cr. R.M. Ogilvie, The Library of Lactantius (Oxford 1978), and J. Fontaine--M. Perrin (eds.), Lactance et son temps (Paris 1978).

The "Gelasian Decree" (text at www.tertullian.org) lists many writers who do not strictly qualify as Fathers, but who in various ways enrich Christian thought and literature, e.g. the hymnographers Commodian (Africa, 3rd-cent., on whom I have written in Illinois Classical Studies 14, 1989, 331-346) and the Spanish-born Prudentius (c.348-c.405) who (tr. H.J. Thompson, Loeb series, Harvard 1949-1953) wrote hymns for daily church use, to celebrate the martyrs, and allegorical visions of Christian asceticism seen as spiritual warfare; cf. B.M. Peebles, The Poet Prudentius (New York 1951). There was also Prosper of Aquitaine (c.390-c.460, Feast Day July 7), never ordained but sanctified for his theological support of Augustine against the Pelagians in prose and verse and his later secretarial work for Pope Leo I; cf. J.R. O'Donnell, Prosper of Aquitaine." Grace and Freewill (Catholic Univ. America 1949).

Rufinus of Aquileia (c.345-410) enriched Western theology with his Latin translations of the Greek Fathers, albeit his predilection for Origen, inspired by studying under Didymus the Blind at

Alexandria, ensured ructions with Jerome, formerly a friend--his On Principles is the only complete text of Origen's First Principles. His Commentary on the Apostles' Creed provides its earliest Latin form, while his version of Eusebius' Church History, extended to his own time, marks the advent of this genre into Latin; cf. F.X. Murphy, Rufinus of Aquileia (Catholic Univ. America 1945).

Rufinus also composed a Commentary on the 12 Patriarchs of Genesis 49 at the behest of Paulinus of Nola (c.353-431, Feast Day June 22), a man who exemplifies the human ability to foresake wordly goods. Born to a rich Bordeaux family, he exchanged his rhetorician's success for baptism and the monastic life, gave his fortune to the poor, was ordained a priest at Barcelona (394--his wife was Spanish-born) then ascended to the see of Nola in Campania, Italy, where husband and wife dwelt near the tomb of St. Felix, enduring the loss of their infant child. Many letters and poems survive (tr. P.G. Walsh, London 1966-1975). Through correspondence, he maintained friendship with Ambrose, Augustine, St. Martin of Tours, and Pope Anastasius I. His devotional poems, deftly combining classical forms with Christian content, are a mine of information for saintly cults and ordinary life. There is a tradition that he was the first to introduce bells into Christian worship, campana and nola being two Italian words for them; cf. C. White, Christian Friendship in the Fourth Century (Cambridge 1992).

Boethius (c.480-c.524) used to be regarded primarily as a Platonist for his famous prose-verse On the Consolation of Philosophy (tr. V.E. Watts, Penguin 1969). However, despite its lack of Christian specifics, it is now regarded as a subtle demonstration of how the soul may achieve a vision of God, also of how Christian and pagan thought were now complementary rather than adversarial. In any case, his belief is now confirmed by verification of his authorship of five theological treatises (tr. E.K. Rand--H.F. Stewart, Harvard 1973), variously upholding the Catholic Faith, Augustinian concepts of the Trinity, Chalcedonian Christology against Nestorian heresy, and the notion that God's goodness makes all things inherently good. Boethius was tortured and executed on trumped-up charges of treason. Being the orthodox victim of a heretic ruler, the Arian Ostrogoth Theodoric, he was granted martyr status and venerated as St. Severinus (one of his earthly names) in Pavia and North Italy; cf. M. Gibson (ed.), Boethius: His Life, Thought, and Influence (Oxford 1981).

This same Theodoric was well served as statesman and scholar by Cassiodorus (c.487-c.580) until his retirement which led him via a trip to Constantinople to found and dwell in the Vivarium monastery on his family's Italian Squillace estate. His secular works include a collection of his official correspondence (Variae), a Chronicle from Adam to 519, and a treatise on Orthography designed to help monkish scribes. The principal Christian texts are The Institutes, much influenced by Augustine's On Christian Doctrine (tr. L.W. Jones, New York 1946), containing a unique ancient monastic book catalogue and advocating the union of sacred and profane literature; a Commentary on the Psalms (tr. EG. Walsh, New York 1990-1991), notable for its allegorical approach and further debt to Augustine; a Tripartite History incorporating translations of Greek church historians Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret; On the Soul, emphasising its spirituality; cr. J.J. O'Donnell, Cassiodorus (Berkeley 1979).

Isidore of Seville (c.560-636, Feast Day April 4), "vital link between the learning of antiquity and that of the Middle Ages" (M.P. McHugh, Encyclopedia of Early Christianity), is commonly regarded as the last great Western Father. Raised after his parents' death in a Seville monastery by his brother, St. Leander, whom he succeeded as Archbishop there c. 600, he devoted his life to the spread of Catholicism through education and writing, a programme manifest in such treatises as Three Books of Opinions, an Augustinian manual for clerics; On the Catholic Faith, intended for Jews; the liturgical Church Offices; a Dialogue between Man and Reason, directed towards repentant sinners. His secular works comprise a Chronicle from Adam to 615, a History of the Goths important for contemporary Spanish affairs, biographical sketches of illustrious men modelled on Jerome's, and above all the Etymologies, a plump encyclopedia of all current knowledge secular and ecclesiastical. It is this work that has promoted the claims of Isidore, already secure through his "Doctor of the Church" title (653, confirmed in 1722, plus his 1598 canonisation), to be the patron saint of the Internet--see www.catholic.org/saints; cf. E. Brehaut, An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville (New York 1912).

Gregory the Great (c.540-March 12, 604, his Feast Day along with Sept. 3), one of few to earn this accolade, was also "Doctor of the Church." The Byzantines dubbed him "Ho Dialogos," piquant in view of his inability to master Greek. He referred to himself as "Servant of the Servants of God."

Born at Rome to a very distinguished family--his St. Peter's epitaph calls him "God's Consul," Gregory was city prefect (572-573) and papal representative at Constaninople (579-586) before his election (Sept. 590) as Pope. He was equally skilled in secular and church affairs, making a truce with the invading Lombards and both consolidating and extending the Church's authority, most notably (Bede, History 1.23-2.1) Augustine's mission to Northumbria, the occasion (Bede 2.1) of his famously punning "Non Angli sed Angeli" (Not Angles but Angels). Gregory also preferred accommodation to confrontation, accepting imperial intervention in church business provided the canons were untouched, and recognising Constantinople as master of its own affairs. His one mistake was to oppose the decent Byzantine emperor Maurice and welcome his murderer Phocas (602).

Many of Gregory's scriptural (mainly Old Testament) works are lost, but his massive Commentary on Job incorporates reflections on many other books. In a happy phrase, he likened the Bible's capacity to attract educated and uneducated alike to "a stream where lambs may paddle and elephants swim." A number of his regular Roman sermons also survive. His Dialogues (tr. O.J. Zimmermann, Catholic Univ. America 1959) commemorate the holy men of Italy, perhaps to achieve parity with those of the East; the one on St. Benedict is of prime importance. His Pastoral Rule (tr. H. Davies, New York 1950) instructs bishops in their duties, comparing them to shepherds. Translated by King Alfred, it became standard for the mediaeval episcopate. He also promoted monasticism, while insisting that its privileges comport responsiblities.

The Carolingians credited him with developing Roman chant and liturgical prayers. His overriding theological influence was Augustine, whose emphases on Original Sin, Purgatory, Salvation, Sacraments, and the significance of History he transmittted both in the above works and his surviving 850 Letters; cf. G.R. Evans, The Thought of Gregory the Great (Cambridge 1986), and R.A. Markus, Gregory the Great and his World (Cambridge 1998).

Barry Baldwin is Emeritus Professor of Classics at the University of Calgary.