the fourteen lyrical ballads which are collected under the title Concerning the Crown. They describe the heroic careers of various confessors from Paul and Peter. His dogmatic orthodoxy found voice in a work Against Symmachus, 404, written in verse so that Christian dogma might appear in an attractive form. Even more vigorous was the fiery rhetorical polemic called The Apotheosis. This poem opposed the chief heresies that misunderstood the nature of Christ. Its ambiguous title probably means The Deification or Apotheosis-of Christ's Humanity. O Name most delightful to me, Like a delicate taste to the lips A sweet scent or a lifegiving spring Thou art mine! I Thy praises must sing Spotless Love, Fair Appearance, Pure Joy. An even fiercer invective, The Origin of Evil, was written against MARCION "the blasphemous divider of the gods." This work is much indebted to the thought of TERTULLIAN, and is notable as giving for the first time in Latin poetry a large picture of the devil. The closing prayer may serve as an index to the spirit of the author: Be thou there O Cavern deep When the failing body needs thee May the blaze to languor turn. May my doom fires mildly burn. The Spiritual Combat maintains the plea that as Abraham with his three hundred and eighteen servants freed Lot from the heathen kings, so the Christian, assisted by the Cross of Christ, may deliver his soul, win the Lord's blessing, and work that which is good. In this allegorical poem Faith defeats Idolatry, Modesty triumphs over Lust, Patience beholds Anger destroy itself, Pride is snared by Deceit and perishes leaving Humility unhurt, Self-Restraint puts Luxury to flight, Reason delivers the victims of Avarice, who is slain by Charity, and Discord after wounding Concord is killed by Faith. The most popular work of PRUDENTIUS, Day by Day, includes twelve Hymns; the first six for different hours of the day, the others for various Church seasons. They are skilfully written and are fitting expressions of sincere religious feeling. The Double Food, or Double Testament, "is a wordy collection of forty-nine sets of four verses each on Old and New Testament scenes." PRUDENTIUS was both varied and original, he used twenty different metres of which eleven seem to have been his own creation. He was especially the poet of dogma; his work has real theological value as a reflection of the mind of his age; it has equal literary value, for "he did not shrink from helping forward that great transformation of the Latin language, which it needed to undergo, now that it should be the vehicle of truths which were altogether novel to it." Perhaps the historical value of his work is greatest of all, for it is rich in information concerning social and ecclesiastical usages. John Mason Neale has rendered one popular hymn: Of the Father's love begotten ere the worlds began to be And that future years shall see, evermore and evermore. Edward Caswall has given a familiar translation of another: Earth has many a noble city; Bethlehem, thou dost all excel: Among the writers of prose it will be enough to recall FABIUS CLAUDIUS GORDIANUS FULGENTIUS of Ruspe, 468-533, notorious for literary ability, deep knowledge of Scripture, and theological learning. His bitter experiences at the hands of the Arian Vandals failed to shake his devotion to Catholic doctrine. He wrote first A Book against the Arians, Ten Answers to Ten Objections; then Three Books to Thrasimund King of the Vandals, in which he further assailed the Arian doctrine. During a "second exile" he wrote most of his Letters. These are concerned with weighty theological problems and reveal his cordial agreement with AUGUSTINE on such themes as predestination, grace, and the remission of sin, in opposition to the semi-Pelagians of Southern Gaul and North Africa. Among them is his well known Incarnation and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he wrote on behalf of his fellow exiles in reply to the "brethren who had been sent to Rome from the East in the cause of the Faith." After his return from banishment he wrote his great work An Instrument of the Catholic Faith collected from the Books of Fulgentius against the Works which Fabianus the Heretic Falsely Fabricated against Him. Less important writings were a Little Book on the Trinity, The Sermon of Fastidiosus, a criticism marked by singular passion, a Letter to the Monks of Scythia, and a discussion concerning The Maker of the Lower Creatures. CHAPTER XVIII THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS The life of AUGUSTINE closed amid the barbarian deluge that would have overwhelmed the Church as well as the Empire, had not the Gothic conquerors from Alaric to Theodoric been acquainted with Christianity. In some of the Sermons of MAXIMUS of Turin, fl. 388-455, the dismay and horror caused by the invasions are vividly reflected. But the existence of the Faith was not seriously endangered. The Visigoths had been the objects of the missionary labours of ULPHILAS-Wolf, 313-381, the son of captured Cappadocian Christians. He was brought up in the Arian faith and at the Synod of Antioch in 341 was consecrated bishop of the Goths. His supreme achievement in literature was the translation of the Bible into Gothic, for which he invented the Gothic written characters. To ULPHILAS therefore belongs the honour of being the father of vernacular translation in the Church, and also that of being the first writer to give the dignity of a written language to barbarian speech. "What we possess in the Gothic language beside the Bible of ULPHILAS is insignificant; there is an interpretation of St. John's Gospel founded on Greek commentaries; a fragment of a Gothic Calendar; a few documents attested in Gothic; a Gothic toast in a Latin epigram and a few isolated words in Latin writings." The Gothic Bible of ULPHILAS is the oldest book written in a language like our own to which we can go back, it is also one of the finest extant specimens of ancient language. AUXENTIUS of Milan, fl. 360-374, the Arian disciple and comrade of ULPHILAS wrote an authoritative account of his master's career. SALVIAN of Marseilles, 400-495, gives a useful account of the conquerors' rule in his famous book entitled The Governance of God, or more correctly, Present Justice. This is a frank discussion of the question which AUGUSTINE had already raised in The City of God, viz., whether God ever removes His care from the world. In books one and two SALVIAN offers facts of experience and texts from Scripture to prove that the care of God is constant; in book three he undertakes to prove that the prevailing miseries of the Roman world were due to disobedience and sin. He draws a striking contrast between the luxurious licentiousness of the Romans and the chastity of the Vandals, the piety of the Goths and the virtue of the Franks and Saxons to whom God was then giving the Empire. What is there like this among the barbarians? Where are there any Cirque-Games among them? Where are their theatres? Where is the abomination of all kinds of impurities? But as to us churches of God. We prefer plays before the We despise altars and honour theatres. We love them all. We respect them all. 'Tis only God Almighty who seems little to us in comparison of them all. If at any time it chances, which it often does, that on the same day there is a Church Festival and public plays, I desire to ask of every man's conscience which of the two places has the greater congregation of Christians in it: the seats of the public play, or the court of God, and whether all rather follow the temple or the theatre; and whether they love the word of the Gospel more, or those of the players; the words of |