following classical and post-classical models. His "diction is free and pleasing, and flows in a tranquil and clear, almost transparent stream. His language is enlivened and exalted by the warmth of his feelings. Quite frequently the page is colored by images and allegories chosen with taste and finished with skilful attention to the smallest detail".

CYPRIAN poured out his heart in an Epistle to Donatus, for whom he unveiled the world as he had known it in his pre-Christian days:

consider yourself transported to one of the loftiest peaks of some inaccessible mountain, thence gaze on the appearances of things lying below you. . . . Consider the roads blocked up by robbers, the seas beset with pirates, wars scattered all over the earth ..

And now, if you turn your eyes to the cities you will behold a concourse more fraught with sadness than any solitude. The gladitorial games are prepared. . . Living men . . fight with beasts, not for their crime, but for their madness. . . . In the theatres also you will behold what may well cause you grief and shame. .. the Forum echoes with the madness of

A treatise on The Vanity of Idols, showing that the idols are not God, is largely a compilation from the Octavius of MINUCIUS FELIX, and the Apology of TERTULLIAN. In 248 CYPRIAN wrote Testimonies against the Jews for the instruction of his son Quirinius.

After his elevation to the bishopric of Carthage, he turned a fresh page in the literature of Latin Christianity, by writing the earliest Latin-Christian Letters. In these most valuable works he discusses morals, discipline, organisation, and doctrine, with the view of consolidating the episcopal system, and in order to deal both faithfully and leniently with those who had lapsed during persecution. CYPRIAN claimed

and represented the authority of the organised Church; his Epistles are therefore "a primary source of authoritative information concerning the life and discipline" of the Church of his day.

The outstanding questions of his age were the questions of the readmission of the "lapsed" to the peace of the Church. i.e. to the Eucharist, and of the standing of bishops in relation to their dioceses and to Rome. CYPRIAN resisted the policy of Novatus of Carthage and Novatian of Rome, who both favoured strict measures towards the "lapsed". He opposed the arrogance of Stephen of Rome toward the bishops of the Provinces. His Exhortation to Martyrdom, 257, addressed to Fortunatus of Lucca, consists of a collection of Scripture passages likely to confirm the faithful under the stress of persecution. It was commended by his own example in 258 when he suffered death as “a standard bearer of the sect and an enemy of the gods."

In COMMODIAN of Gaza in Syria, f1. 250, Latin Christian poetry had its first exponent. His poems reflect the unrest of the age of the Gothic invasions of the third century, and in more than one instance refer to the events with which CYPRIAN had to deal.

From a literary point of view the work of COMMODIAN is worthless. Hallam speaks of it as "a philological curiosity"; it suffered from the change in Latin "which gradually resulted in the formation of the Romance languages." The two poems bore the titles, Instructions for Christian discipline against the Gods of the Nations, and The Apologetic Song against Jews and Heathen. The Instructions contains eighty acrostic poems, the last of them when read from below upward yields the description, "Commodian one of Christ's poor." The Apologetic Song had for its theme, the coming of Anti-Christ, the end of the world, the Resurrection, and Christian duty in view of the approaching doom. To this North African school also belongs ARNOBIUS

Afer of Sicca, fl. 280-305, a spiritual disciple of TERTULLIAN and CYPRIAN. His Disputations against the Heathen, 303, portrays many features of the current mythology as few other writings have done. It is a work of wide knowledge, and on the whole of clear style although occasionally the meaning is obscure. "As a storehouse of old Latinity, and of allusions to points of antiquity-to heathen mythology and ceremonial, to law, education and amusementshis work is of the greatest interest and importance.'

CHAPTER X

THE SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA

Side by side with the rigorous and austere School of Carthage, the philosophical and speculative School of Alexandria grew to exert deeper and more widespread influence on Christian literature.

As early as 186 a Christian Academy existed in Alexandria under the direction of PANTAENUS, of whose works only two meagre morsels remain. He was followed in 190, by TITUS FLAVIUS CLEMENs-Clement-150-216, one of the greater lights of the Church.

Although the interest of CLEMENT lay with philosophy rather than with literature, he was an "epoch-making figure in the history of the growth of early Christian literature." His wide learning, like that of his contemporaries, was uncritical and dependent upon extracts and compilations. He was credulous and curious but at the same time versatile, liberal-minded, and optimistic.

Five of CLEMENT's works have been preserved. The three major books contain the growing structure of his theology; these are the Exhortation to the Greeks; the Instructor; and the Miscellanies. The two lesser works are entitled Who is the Rich Man who is saved?, and the Outlines, i.e. outlines of expositions of Scripture.

The "three principal extant works form a connected series. The first is an exhortation to the heathen to embrace Christianity, based on an exposition of the comparative character of heathenism and Christianity; the second offers a system of training for the new convert, with a view to the regula

tion of his conduct as a Christian; the third is an introduction to Christian philosophy."1

CLEMENT sought to express the Christian faith in the terms of philosophy, to replace the decadent gnosticism, and to give Christianity possession of the mind of the world. This purpose is constantly before him in the Exhortation or Address, which was written prior to 189.

do not suppose the song of salvation to be new, as a vessel or a house is new. For 'before the morning star it was' and 'in the beginning was the Word.' Error seems old but truth seems a new thing.

Why I beseech you, fill up life with idolatrous images, by feigning the winds, or the air, or fire, or earth, or stones, or stocks, or steel, or this universe, to be gods. ? It is the Lord of the spirits, the Lord of the fire, the Maker of the universe, Him who lighted up the sun, that I long for.

Whom shall I take as a helper in my enquiry? We do not, if you have no objection, wholly disown Plato. How, then, is God to be searched out, O Plato? 'For both to find the Father and Maker of this universe is a work of difficulty; and having found Him, to declare Him fully, is impossible.' Why so? By Himself, I beseech you! For He can by no means be expressed.' Well done, Plato! Thou hast touched on the truth.

The Instructor, or Pedagogus, 190, is a manual of manners in which the whole round of personal life is discussed with an intimacy that leaves nothing to be desired. It "often assumes a facetious tinge and occasionally runs over into broad humour." The first book describes the Tutor, who is the Word Himself, the children whom He trains, and His method of instruction. The second book contains general instructions as to daily life in eating, drinking, furniture, 1 Dictionary of Christian Biography. Vol. I., p. 561.