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Patrology — Topic 8

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Patrology — Topic 8

8.1 Minucius Felix

His work ‘Octavius’, written in the genre of apology, is a record by Minucius Felix (he worked as a lawyer in a Roman forum) of a conversation between two of his friends, the Christian Octavius and the pagan Caecilius (possibly both from North Africa), near Rome at Ostia during a walk by the sea. After Octavius rebukes Caecilius for worshipping a statue of the pagan god Serapis, there is an exchange of views in which Octavius refutes the common vulgar accusations made by Caecilius against Christians, successfully criticizes paganism, and Caecilius gladly accepts Christianity.

‘Octavius’ is a vivid apology, with many original ideas in refutation of paganism. The author points to the truth of Christianity as a monotheistic religion in that even some ancient philosophers came to the doctrine of one God, so “either the present Christians are philosophers, or the philosophers of that time were Christians.” The author proves monotheism from expediency and rational order in the makeup of the world, speaking of its one Lord, and man’s innate and unconscious knowledge of the one God, the distortion of which became the notions of pagan gods. The nature of God is spiritual - He is Mind and Spirit, self-sufficient, invisible, intangible, unnamed and unknowable.

There is no triadology in this work, except to acknowledge that Christians regard Christ as God. Man’s special place among other creatures is indicated by his erect posture and upward gaze toward heaven, in contrast to other living creatures, whose gaze is directed toward the earth.

The “philosophical” character of this apology is also expressed in the reference to the spiritual and immaterial character of the veneration of God (God does not need sacrifices, temples, images, or even the veneration of the Cross). God receives sacrifices in kindness, justice of soul and purity of thought and conscience, an inner prayer in spirit (“he who is more godly is he who is more just”). The wealth of Christians is not material, but is present in God. This is why Christian assemblies are characterized by chastity, moderation in all things, and sobriety. The Christian is a warrior of God, struggling against the inner evil in himself and fearless before external threats, for whom adversity itself is a school of virtue.

8.2 Tertullian

Tertullian was born between 155 and 160 in Carthage, the son of a Gentile family and a centurion (commander) in a pro-consular cohort that reported directly to the governor of North Africa. He became a Christian only at the age of about 30. From his youth, he had been involved in pagan youth life, typical for that society - amusement, gladiatorial fights, etc. He went to Rome to study and could afford a fundamental education in the fields of rhetoric, literature, languages (he knew Greek well), law and even medicine. Tertullian stayed in Rome for some time and worked as a lawyer. He returned to Carthage at the age of about 30 and there converted to Christianity, married a Christian woman and, according to some reports, became a presbyter.

Tertullian is the author of many works of various genres: apologetic, polemical against Gnostics, dogmatic and moral. He was the most outstanding Latin theologian of the pre-Nicaean period, the author of 42 treatises, of which 31 have survived. In his theological work, he was the closest among the other pre-Nicaean Latin authors toformulating the dogma of the Holy Trinity (one essence, three Persons); in the field of Christology (the doctrine of the two natures of Christ with their qualities and actions united inseparably in one Person). Like Minucius, Tertullian was a lawyer, which determined the legal character of the argument and the further style of Western theology.

His works were written about various occurences: on attacks and persecutions of the Church by pagans. This is the subject of such works of apologetic content as Apologeticus, To the Nations, On the Spectacles, etc. The work “Against the Jews” is dedicated to the polemic with Judaism. At the same time Gnostic heresies began to infiltrate the Church, especially the Marcionites in North Africa, so Tertullian wrote several books of anti-Gnostic character: “Against Marcion,” “Against Valentinian,” “Against Hermogenes”; “On the Flesh of Christ,” “On the Resurrection of the Flesh”. Tertullian devotes the following works to moral, ecclesiastical and sacramental aspects of Church life: “On Prayer”, “On Baptism”, “On Patience”, “On the Spectacles”, “On the Dress of Women”.

Tertullian’s character, however, demanded a more elevated and more spiritual life both for himself and for the Church. He gradually begins to rethink his attitude toward the Church and to depart from it - in the period of c. 202-212, particularly on the question of the continuation of the prophetic revelation of the Holy Spirit. Around 213 AD he joined the Montanist sect.

Montanus was a Phrygian (Phrygia was a region in Asia Minor where the cult of the pagan goddess Cybele flourished - ecstatic dancing with self-inflicted ritual wounds). Montanus had been a priest of Cybele and later became a Christian, a presbyter, but he preserved a desire for mystical ecstasy, which he lacked in Christianity. So he and his supporters split from the Church and put forward the doctrine of a new era of the Comforter of the Spirit (Paraclete), bringing with him two prophetesses who prophesied from the Spirit in ecstatic form, etc. The Montanists advocated stricter moral and canonical discipline, longer and stricter fasts, rejected second marriages, and considered themselves higher - spiritual Christians. Tertullian’s restless spirit finds new application. He says, “If the devil every day finds something new to harm, how will God not discover something new for the benefit of the Church?”. Finding himself in Montanism, Tertullian also begins a sharp critique of the Orthodox Church for spiritual and moral weekness.

With the Montanists Tertullian does not cease his literary activity and writes more works: “An Exhortation to Chastity,” “On the Veil of Virgins,” “On Fleeing in Time of Persecution”, “On Celibacy,” “On Fasting,” “On Modesty,” etc. There are also works of a dogmatic character: “Against Praxeus” (which contains mainly Tertulian teaching on the Holy Trinity. Praxeus was a monarchist who, on coming to Rome, began to attack Montanism); of anthropological content, “On the Soul”.

Around 220 he breaks with the Montanists and forms his own sect. Not
long after he dies.

Tertullian distinguishes between two ways of the knowing of God, the natural way and the revelatory way. The natural way of knowing God must be in harmony with the revelation of God.

Faith has, in Tertullian’s view, a dual character - both as a living impulse, the striving of the heart toward God, and, on the other hand, it also has a rational aspect, an intellectual trust in God and a determination to seek God through nature.

Faith precedes knowledge (a reference to Isaiah 7:10 – “if you do not believe, you will not understand”) - otherwise knowledge would be defective. All knowledge leads to knowledge of God. Despite the natural character of faith, its main manifestation is as a religious faith. Faith takes us beyond the bounds of reason, of natural knowledge – for God is external to this world by His being, and our rationality is limited to this world. And there must be something that connects us to God that transcends this world. This is faith, manifested in the paradoxical expressions of Tertullian: “Credo, quia absurdum est” - “I believe because it is absurd, contradictory”. Or - “The Son of God is crucified, but I am not ashamed of Him, for it is worthy of shame.” “The Son of God died. This is undoubtedly true, for it is ridiculous. The buried rose again - this is undoubtedly true, for it is impossible”. That is, faith makes a kind of an epistemological “leap”. Faith overturns the logic of carnal reason.

Tertullian, on the other hand, denies philosophy any status other than the negative - that it turns man away from the truth, alienates him from God. He says: “What do Jerusalem and Athens, the Academy and the Church, have in common?”

Still, Tertullian appears to be more tolerant of Stoic philosophers among other schools of philosophy, for some Stoicist influences are noticeable in his teaching (see, for example, his saying “Seneca is often ours”).

Tertullian proved to be a passionate apologist for Christianity and a critic of paganism. He observes that the way the authorities deal with Christians violates all norms of legal procedure and the principles of Roman jurisprudence. Christians are forced to renounce the name, that is, their crime, as if the crime consisted in the name alone. Hence, if Christians are not treated as guilty, then they are found innocent. He argues that pagan gods are deified men or demons.

As for the Gnostics - Tertullian formulates three prescriptions (a legal term, a strong argument of one side against the other, asking for a trial of one of the sides).

These prescriptions defend the teaching of the Church without resorting to Scripture.

  1. “Prescriptio veritatis” - the prescription of truth. If we believe that Christ was on Earth, that he was the Son of God (the Gnostics agreed on this), and that he founded the Church, then the teaching of the Church is true, and in every local Church as well. Therefore, no doctrine other than that of the Church should be accepted.

  2. “Prescriptio principitatis” - the prescription of primacy. It is a question of primacy and the right of antiquity. The Church is older than all the heretical schools. Although we see from the Scriptures of the apostles that there were some heresies even then (Simon the magician, other heretics), but Tertullian says - because these heresies contained the seeds of all other heresies, and they were condemned by the apostles, and they condemned thus all the others, including the present heresies.

  3. “Prescriptio proprietatis” - the prescription of propriety. It is related to the previous two. Only the Church possesses the right to use the Scriptures. Scripture is its property. And since heretics have no relationship to the Church, they have no right to refer to Scripture either.

Tertullian’s trinitary formula is perfectly Orthodox: una substantia - tres Personae (one essence - three Persons) and Each is God. Despite this, Tertullian is a subordinationist, for he says that the Son is less than the Father (“the Father is all substance and the Son is derivative and part”).

Christ, according to Tertullian, is a “mixed God-man” (homodeus mixtus). Of the three options for combining substances from Stoic physics (1. mechanical connection (heterogeneous grains in one pile); 2. mixing (fire and iron; water and wine); 3. fusion (alloy of gold and silver)), Tertullian chooses mixing, because it gives a close connection of the two natures of Christ, deity and humanity, but does not allow a fusion in which Christ would no longer be both God and man, but something in between.

Tertullian stands on the position of Chiliasm. At the end of the world there will be a first resurrection - the saints and the righteous (and above all the martyrs) who will live in heavenly Jerusalem, which will descend from heaven and reign with Christ. Then at the end of 1,000 years the Last Judgment will come, all other people will receive bodies. The righteous will receive eternal life, and the sinners who are not cleansed in hell will receive eternal torment. The property of the fire of hell is that it will destroy the bodies of sinners and at the same time restore them to endless torment afterwards.

Although Tertullian ended his life in schism and made some controversial points in his writings, his importance for Christian theology and church writing is nevertheless enormous.

8.3 Cyprian of Carthage

He was born Fascius Cyprian ca. 200-210 in North Africa to a wealthy and

noble pagan family. He received a good education - literary and rhetorical. He gained great fame in Carthage with his gift of eloquency, evidently even before his conversion to Christianity. He began to seek something higher than an empty pagan life, met the priest Caecilius, and was baptized in 246. He wrote in a letter to Donatus about his conversion and the effect of divine grace on his heart:

“When I was in darkness and deeply blinded, when, filled with indecision and doubt, I was carried about and wandering on the sea of this turbulent age, when I was not conscious of the very manner of my life and was alien to light and truth; then, according to my former way of thinking, and considered very difficult and even impossible that which the goodness of God had promised me for salvation, namely, that a man could be born again and, animated for a new life by the waters of saving Baptism, could set aside all that he was before and, with the same physical composition, become another man in mind and heart. …

But when the waters of regeneration washed away the stains of my former life, and the light of heaven poured into my purified and justified heart; when, having received the Spirit of heaven, I was made a new man by the second birth, then, in a strange way, doubts were resolved into certainty.”

St. Cyprian adds the name Caecilius to his own name. He gives away all his wealth to the poor, takes the presbyter’s ministry, and around 248 he is elected bishop of Carthage. However, he also met with some opposition in the form of the venerable older presbyters, who later became opposed to Cyprian, and they apparently had their own candidates for this pulpit. One of these was Novatus, who later organized a schism.

In 250 the persecution of Decius, when all the inhabitants of the empire had to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods according to lists, came upon the Church everywhere. The congregation persuaded St. Cyprian to retire to a deserted place and save himself, and he complied with this request. He wrote a large number of epistles from his refuge, continuing to lead the Church. Then the persecution came to an end, and there was conflict in the Carthaginian church. There were many apostates (lapsi) who, because of torture, threats, unwillingness to lose possessions, etc., agreed to offer pagan sacrifices.

Confessors, that is, people who had been tormented, often deformed by tortures but who had survived, had great prestige in the Church. Confessors often felt entitled to strongly advise the bishop on what to do, because they had a certain right to intercede before the bishop on behalf of certain people. In this case, however, the Carthaginian confessors began to abuse this right; in the absence of St. Cyprian, they began to hand out so-called “letters of reconciliation” (libelli pacis) to all the apostates, so that they could be in communion with the Church again, and they demanded in an almost ultimatum that the bishop accept their own apostates in eucharistic communion. According to the thought of St. Cyprian, because of the varying degrees and conditions of fallen away, there is a different measure of repentance for different people. Then a certain Deacon Felicissius organized a group of opposition from the confessors, who formed a schism headed by Presbyter Novatus.

After arriving in Carthage, Cyprian excommunicated this group from the Church (Novatus left for Rome, where he joined the schism of Novatianus), and wrote works “On the Departed” and “On the Unity of the Church”. The Council of Carthage, which convened in 251 (that same spring), affirmed the decisions of St. Cyprian and stipulated, that all apostates should be received into the Church and admitted to Communion, but after passing a certain period of penance, which could also be shortened in case of danger of death.

A new persecution by the emperor Valerian began in 257. St. Cyprian was arrested and spent about a year in exile and then under house arrest.

Thereafter St. Cyprian was last interrogated at his trial on September 14, 258, in the presence of the people: “Are you Fascius Cyprianus?” asked the proconsul Galerius Maximus. “I am”, answered Cyprian. “Have you been the Pope to ungodly men (i.e., Christians)?” - “Yes”. - “The emperors have commanded you to offer sacrifice to the gods,” the proconsul continued. “I will not,” replied the saint. “Think it over,” said the proconsul again. “Do as you are instructed,” answered Cyprian. He then had his head cut off by the executioner.

The works of Cyprian of Carthage address disciplinary, ecclesiological and moral themes. He does not deal specifically with theological themes (on the Trinity, Christian anthropology, the world, the soul).

“On the Departed” and “On the Unity of the Church” are perhaps the most important works of Cyprian, written after the persecution of Decius in 250. Cyprian explains the options for a Christian’s conduct during persecution and regulates repentance in connection with the various degrees of apostasy during persecution. The second treatise deals with the topic of schisms. It affirms the unity of the Church as one of its fundamental characteristics.

“On the Lord’s Prayer” is an interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer; it is based on Tertullian’s “On Prayer”. It speaks of the importance of this prayer in the life of the Christian, as well as of the conditions for its efficacy.

Apologetic works are represented by a number of treatises: “On the vanity of idols”; in the treatise “To Demetrius” St. Cyprian refutes the charges of the pagan Demetrius that Christians are allegedly to blame for disturbances in the world, calamities, illnesses, etc. Cyprian speaks about the old age of the world - the world suffers these disasters because it is old enough, it is in decrepitude, which did not exist at the beginning of the world. And all the diseases are due to the iniquity, sin, and immoral life of the Gentiles themselves. The only way to prevent this sin is to convert to Christianity from paganism.

The treatise “On Mortality” was written about the plague in Carthage after the persecution of Decius in 250-251. St. Cyprian exhorts the faithful not to fear death, and not to grieve over their dead brothers, for they went to their long-awaited encounter with Christ before those who remained on earth.

“On the Goodness of Patience” (see a similar work in Tertullian, “On Patience”), in which Cyprian examines this virtue and sees it as one of the properties of God and manifested in the earthly life of Christ the Savior as its source and an ideal for man to imitate.

“On Jealousy and Envy” - on what medicine jealousy and envy should be treated, denouncing these passions, their perniciousness and viciousness. He shows the way out of this grave spiritual state: “Fall in love with those whom you hated before, imitate the good, and if you cannot follow them, rejoice in them”.

St. Cyprian also wrote about 65-70 letters, many of which were quite sharp and acute, and some letters addressed to Cyprian by eminent Church dignitaries of his time: Popes Stephen and Cornelius, Novatianus and others.

The central theme of Cyprian’s writings is ecclesiology, and above all the unity of the Church, and the assessment of the Church as the only way leading man to salvation. “One God, one Christ, one His Church, one faith, one people, united in the unity of society by the union of concord.” In this connection we can find in St. Cyprian expressions that have long since become winged in ecclesiastical usage: “salus extra Ecclesiae non est” - “outside the Church there is no salvation”, or - “we cannot have God as Father unless we have the Church as mother”; “He is not a Christian who is not in Christ’s Church”.

The sin of schism, behind which the devil stands, cannot be atoned for even by martyr’s blood. Schismatics and heretics do not have the grace of God, and therefore they have no valid Sacraments.

The unity and indivisibility of the Church rests above all on the authority of the bishop. And each bishop, being in alliance with other bishops, is thereby also under common episcopal judgment and control. The Council of Bishops is the ultimate authority that determines what to do in disputed cases. Thus the bishops are not only responsible each for his own diocese, but all together for the whole Church.

In the workd of Cyprian we also find statements that refute the primacy of Rome. Cyprian says that, before resurrection, the Lord gave the power to bind and decide only to apostle Peter. After all, Peter himself agreed with Paul on the issue of circumcision, i.e., he did not feel he had absolute authority in all matters. Therefore, each bishop has complete authority in his own area, and the Roman church is not superior to all other churches.

8.4 Novatianus

Novatianus is an original theologian. There is information that Novatianus, who lived in Rome, at first was a pagan and Stoic philosopher, and then fell seriously ill and on his deathbed received Holy Baptism, but recovered and became a zealous Christian. Eusebius of Caesarea, in Book VI of his Ecclesiastical History, talks about Novatian (calling him Novat by misunderstanding) on the basis of documents from the time of Novatian’s life, namely the letters of the Pope Cornelius. Despite the protests of many members of the Roman Church, he was ordained a priest by Pope Fabianus. At the same time, “the whole clergy and many laymen objected, because he who had been baptized for illness by sprinkling in bed”.

Having become a presbyter of the Roman Church, Novatian behaved unworthy of this dignity during pagan persecutions.

Novatian became the leader of the schism in the Roman Church, leading its most rigorist, i.e., morally strict, wing. The fact is that after the total persecution of the Christians by the Emperor Decius in 250, there were many who fell away in the Church, that is, who could not stand the persecution. Novatian argued that those who fell during the persecution as well as those who committed other grave sins like murder and adultery could not be forgiven.

In spite of the Church’s synodic decrees against him and his supporters, this schism did not cease, but expanded even further and spread not only throughout the West and Africa, where Novatian communities existed up to and including the 5th century, but also to the East - Egypt, Asia Minor, and even Constantinople. Here the Novatians existed until the end of the seventh century. The Novatians in the empire offered a kind of “alternative Church” - “untainted by compromises with the world” and characterized by a stricter moral discipline and asceticism than the Orthodox Church. Novatianism in its dogma and theology was no different from the Orthodox Church; its main errors lay in the field of ecclesiology - the doctrine of the Church. The traditionally recognized holiness of the Church was represented as the holiness of its members, and the Church itself was regarded as a community of saints. When an Orthodox would convert to them, they would demand that he be baptizes with their new, Novatian baptism, believing that the sacrament of baptism was invalid in the Orthodox Church.

Jerome mentions nine works of the Novatian. The following have survived. “On the Trinity,” a treatise on the triadic theme, dealing with such points of Christian teaching as the Persons of the Holy Trinity, the creation of the world and man, the power of God over the world, the Incarnation of God, and the refutation of heresies. The treatise “On the Jewish Food” contains an allegorical interpretation of Jewish ceremonial regulations and a critique of the Jewish - literalistic understanding of them. The treatises “On the Spectacles” and “On the Good of Chastity” are of a moral character.

In theological teaching Novatian in many ways follows his predecessors, the Greek apologists, as well as Irenaeus and Tertullian. God is the highest Being, and therefore incomparable to no one. There can be no two such supreme and infinite beings, and therefore He is one. Novatian is an opponent of a literal understanding of anthropomorphic expressions about God and rather a proponent of an apophatic approach in presenting the doctrine of the divine nature. This God is the Father. The Father has a Son (the Word) who, because he is of the Father, does not violate the unity of God.

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is not elaborated in Novatian and speaks rather of the role of the Holy Spirit in the Housekeeping of salvation as God’s power rather than as the Person of the Trinity (by the way, the term “Trinity” itself is not mentioned in the treatise).

Novatian also polemicizes against the Docetists, defending the truth of the flesh of Christ. The Incarnation was necessary so that men could become sons of God and be resurrected. In ecclesiology Novatian’s views underwent the same changes as Tertullian’s, from the early - ecclesiastical - moderate (allowing the repentance of grave sins), to the late - rigoristic - schismatic (denying such repentance).

8. Early Latin Christian Literature

At the beginning of the spread of the Gospel in the western territories of the Roman Empire, and especially in the large cities and in the capital city of Rome, the Greek language was widespread (especially among the Christians from the East), which is the reason why many texts in the West were written in Greek in the early period, e.g. the “Shepherd of Hermas” and the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians of St. Clement of Rome etc. The language of ecclesiastical literature in the West in the 2nd-3rd centuries was both Greek (St. Irenaeus, Hippolytus) and Latin (Tertullian, Cyprian of Carthage, Victorinus of Petau, Minucius Felix, Commodianus, Arnobius, Lactantius, etc.). The center of Latin Christian writing was North Africa. It was from here that most of the pre- Nicaean Western Church Fathers and Church writers emerged.

He was born Fascius Cyprian ca. 200-210 in North Africa to a wealthy and

noble pagan family. He received a good education - literary and rhetorical. He gained great fame in Carthage with his gift of eloquency, evidently even before his conversion to Christianity. He began to seek something higher than an empty pagan life, met the priest Caecilius, and was baptized in 246. He wrote in a letter to Donatus about his conversion and the effect of divine grace on his heart:

  • 8. Early Latin Christian Literature
    • 8.1 Minucius Felix
    • 8.2 Tertullian
    • 8.3 Cyprian of Carthage
    • 8.4 Novatianus

Early Latin Christian Literature

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