"Though the prophet is speaking of Sennacherib he has a covert reference to Satan."

Among his disciples who were also Syriac writers, ISAAC THE ELDER, deserves remembrance. He is the author of a work on the three Persons of the Trinity, "a book of very dark disputation and involved discourse." It is entitled A Book of the Faith of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation of the Lord.

The Syriac Doctrine of the Apostles, generally called the Edessene Canons, 350, a form of Church Order, is a genuine reflection of the ecclesiastical conditions of the age; but the so-called Apostolical Constitutions, 375, although written in Syriac is really a Greek work.

A fourth great name belonging to this School is that of RABBULA, bishop of Edessa, 412-435, whose energy and zeal earned for him the title of "the common master of Syria, Armenia, Persia, nay of the whole world." His Canons or Commands and Admonitions to Priests and to Sons of the Covenant Living in the Country, registers the breakdown of the sacerdotalism of APHRAATES. A fragment of a dogmatic sermon shows his hostility to Nestorianism, as does also a Letter to Cyril in which RABBULA denounces THEODORE of Mopsuestia as the author of the heresy. He translated a book by CLEMENT entitled The Right Path as a further aid to the cause of orthodoxy.

RABBULA'S chief literary distinction, however, is that he displaced the Diatessarion of TATIAN from its place of honour in Syriac Christianity, by preparing a version of the Gospels in the vernacular. This version was known as The Separate Gospels and, in its revised form, is known as The Peshitta.

Some six hundred and forty Letters are ascribed to his pen, and it is known that he wrote a number of liturgical Hymns addressed to the Mother of God; to Saints and

Martyrs; and extolling Repentance, the Cross, the Resurrection, the Foot-Washing, the Eucharist, etc.

RABBULA was succeeded in the headship of the School by IBAS, bishop of Edessa, 435-457, whose theological views were in stout opposition to those of his master. He was a translator rather than an original writer, and to his zeal in spreading the works of Nestorian writers is largely due the permanent hold which that heresy kept upon the Christianity of those regions.

ISAAC of Antioch, d. 460, called "the Great," and "the Elder," has left material that is most useful as a help to an understanding of the sectaries of the time. His many works in Syriac have been praised as among the best in that language. He was the author of some descriptive Poems and of at least one hundred and four metrical Discourses, which deal for the most part with the life of ascetics.

Two doctrinal Discourses deal with the subjects of the Person of Christ and the Incarnation. The former makes striking use of the figure that Ezekiel saw in his vision of the chariot (Ezekiel chap. i.):

From the appearance of his middle upward,
He was like unto fire devouring;

From the appearance of his middle downward,
He was like the Bow in the clouds.

For Messias it was who was shown

In the chariot mystically

His Godhead and His Manhood

Appeared in the likenesses:

Two aspects, one Person: two Natures, one Saviour.
In the chariot His likeness and His mystery,

In His Gospel His sureness and His truth;

His shadow in the chariot-His body behold in the Gospel!

JACOB of Sarug, 452-521, of whom the Syriac liturgies speak as "the most eloquent mouth and pillar of the Church," is reported to have employed seventy writers in making copies of his works. He was the author of a Liturgy, an Order of Baptism, an Order of Confirmation, and a number

of Epistles. His poetical works include seven hundred and sixty Homiletic poems, some Hymns and Psalms. "In wealth of words and ease of expression he ranks next to Ephraim."

JOHN of Ephesus or of Asia, 505-590, deserves to be mentioned as the first Syrian Church historian, although he stands apart from the Catholic tradition as a Monophysite. His History of the Church "originally consisted of three parts of which the third only is known to be extant." In this third part he claims to have begun the story in "the times of Julius Caesar"; the record ends about the year 585.

PHILOXENUS, 460-525, also a Monophysite, was responsible for the Philoxenian Syriac Version; a rendering that is extremely literal. He was the writer of many books, and of many Letters. The Incarnation of the Word of God, and The Trinity and the Incarnation, maintained that the divine and the human elements were separate in the nature of Christ, in whom, PHILOXENUS asserted, there was but one nature and one will.

CHAPTER XII

THE SCHOOL OF CAPPADOCIA

When ORIGEN left Alexandria in 231, he settled at Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he established a school. There he won over to Christianity, THEODORUS, who is known to history as GREGORY THE WONDER-WORKER (Thaumaturgus), 210-270. GREGORY is not one of the great lights of Christian literature, but he has left a Panegyric on Origen, which gives a vivid picture of the great scholar and of his methods of teaching.

In true Socratic fashion he sometimes overthrew us by argument, if he saw us restive and starting out of the course. The process was at first disagreeable to us, and painful; but he so purified us . . . . and prepared us for the reception of the words of truth by probing us and questioning us, and offering problems for our solution. there was no subject forbidden to us; nothing hidden or inaccessible. We were allowed to become acquainted with every doctrine, barbarian or Greek, or things spiritual or civil, divine or human..

GREGORY'S Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes was useful in its day. It is a "singularly modest and sensible commentary" that may still be read "for its sound ethical wisdom." He also wrote an Outline of the Faith, and a Canonical Letter.

GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR, 257-332, the "Sun" of Armenia, was most probably a disciple of this school; but his career is enveloped in mystery.

The fervent GREGORY of Nazianzen, 329-389, was a really representative Cappadocian. His friendship with BASIL was a vital influence in his life; but the teaching of ORIGEN had an even stronger power over his mind. He and BASIL made a collection of extracts from the writings of ORIGEN, to which they gave the name of the Philocalia; GREGORY also shared in the work of compiling the famous Rules which BASIL drew up for the regulation of monasteries. Julian, "the apostate," had been a fellow student with GREGORY at Athens; but this fact did not prevent the theologian issuing two Invectives against the emperor's antiChristian policy, 365. In one of his Orations he thus mockingly describes the visit of Julian to Eleusis:

as my fine fellow proceeded in the rites, the frightful things assailed him, unearthly noises as they say, and unpleasant odours, and fiery apparitions, and other fables and nonsense of the sort. Being terror-struck at the novelty, . . . . he flies for help to the Cross, his old remedy, and makes the sign thereof against his terrors and makes an ally of him whom he persecuted. And what follows is yet more horrible.

The seal prevailed: the demons are worsted: the terrors are allayed. And then, what follows? The wickedness revives: he takes courage again: the attempt is repeated, the same terrors return: again the sign of the Cross, and the vanishing demons: the neophyte in despair (Oration iv.).

After the accession of Theodosius, 379, GREGORY delivered his Words of a Theologian, or Five Orations on the Trinity. These Orations were defences of the Nicene creed against the Eunomian and Macedonian heresies. They are the finest expositions of Trinitarian doctrine produced by the Eastern Church. His other forty Orations are either eulogies of saints, or Sermons. These still retain part of