2. Besides these he wrote a series of moral works on the grace of God (246); on the Lord's prayer (252); on mortality (252); against worldly-mindedness and pride of dress in consecrated virgins (De habitu virginum); a glowing call to martyrdom; an exhortation to liberality (De opere et eleemosynis, between 234 and 256), with a touch of the "opus operatum" doctrine; and two beautiful tracts written during his controversy with pope Stephanus: De bono patientiae, and De zelo et livore (about 256), in which he exhorts the excited minds to patience and moderation.

3. Least important are his two apologetic works, the product of his Christian pupilage. One is directed against heathenism (De idolorum vanitate), and is borrowed in great part, often verbally, from Tertullian and Minucius Felix. The other, against Judaism (Testimonia adversus Judaeos), also contains no new thoughts, but furnishes a careful collection of Scriptural proofs of the Messiahship and divinity of Jesus.

§ 132. The other Latin Divines of the Third Century.

Comp. particularly MÖHLER: Patrologie I. 790-808 and 894-933. MARCUS MINUCIUS FELIX, a prominent jurist, but hardly of the celebrated Roman family of the Minucii, and probably of North African descent, a younger contemporary of Tertullian,1 embraced Christianity in adult life, and wrote one of the ablest and most attractive apologies, which was, in part, imitated from Tertullian's Apologeticus, and formed the model of Cyprian's work against idolatry. It is entitled: Octavius, and is clothed in the form of a dialogue between two friendly lawyers, Caecilius Natalis and Januarius Octavius, the former of whom defends heathenism, while the latter advocates Christianity, and

'Jerome (Catal. c. 58) places him between Tertullian and Cyprian. Later writers differ as to the chronology.

2 It well deserves to be read through, and has been often edited, e. g.; by Balduinus, 1560; Gronovius, 1709; Davis, Cambridge, 1712; Lindner, 1773; Lübkert, 1836; de Muralt, 1836; Oehler (in Gersdorf's Biblioth. P. Lat.) Leipz. 1847.

at last gains the victory and brings over his friend. The arguments on both sides are clearly and forcibly stated in a tone of flowing declamation and poignant raillery, as we may expect from an intelligent and well read Roman rhetorician.

The Roman presbyter CAIUS, who died about the year 220, is known to us only from a few Greek fragments as an opponent of Montanism and Chiliasm. Perhaps he was also the author of the corrupted Latin canon, which Muratori has discovered; but he certainly was not the author of the Philosophoumena.1

2

NOVATIAN, the schismatic bishop of Rome and advocate of the strict penitential discipline, was a contemporary of Cyprian, a man of learned education, and well versed in the Greek philosophy. He is the only important writer of this period in the Roman church, except the somewhat older Hippolytus, who wrote, however, as Caius also did, in Greek. We have from him a work on the Trinity, composed about 256, in which he skilfully refutes the error of the Monarchians, especially of Sabellius, and strives to reconcile the divine threeness with unity. In his treatise on the Jewish laws of food," he proves by allegorical interpretation, that those laws are no longer binding upon Christians, and that Christ has substituted temperance and abstinence for the prohibition of unclean animals, with the exception of meat offered to idols, which is forbidden by the Apostolic council. The circular letter of the Roman clergy, which is ascribed to him, contains his earlier milder penitential principles.

VICTORINUS, probably of Greek extraction, bishop of Petavium in the present Styria, who died a martyr in 303, wrote several commentaries on books of the Old and New Testaments; but only some inconsiderable fragments of them have come down to us. Several poems also are attributed to him, but without sufficient grounds.

1 Comp. § 125. 2 Comp. 115. The Greek writers often confound him with the contemporary Novatus of Carthage.

Liber de trinitate, in Gallandi, tom. iii. This book has been attributed also to Tertullian and Cyprian.

4

+ Comp. § 81.

5 De cibis Judaicis Epistola.

COMMODIAN, a layman, who probably lived in Africa in the second half of the third century, was converted from heathenism by reading the Bible, and wrote, in uncouth versification and barbarian hexameter, "Instructions for the Christian Life," in which he seeks to convert heathens and Jews, and gives excellent exhortations to catechumens, believers, and penitents. It is divided into eighty strophes, each of which is an acrostic, the initial letters of the lines composing the title or subject of the section. This book is not unimportant to the history of practical Christianity, and, under a rude dress in connexion with many superstitious notions, reveals an humble and fervent Christian heart. Like Victorinus and most of the ante-Nicene fathers, except the Alexandrians, Commodian was a millenarian.

ARNOBIUS, of Sicca in Numidia, a teacher of rhetoric, was for a long time a decided opponent of Christianity, and embraced it in consequence of a vision in a dream-such visions appear to have been a frequent cause of conversions, especially in Africaand wrote, about the year 304, an apologetic and polemic work, which shows more address in the refutation of heathenism, than in the demonstration of Christianity; never cites the holy scriptures; hardly brings out in any way the specifically Christian element; and with many clever thoughts, propounds also erratic views, such as the destructibility of the soul and the final annihilation of the wicked, without method and in swelling rhetoric, but with a certain freshness and vigor. His own conversion he thus describes: "O blindness! But a short time ago I was worshipping images just taken from the forge, gods shaped upon the anvil and by the hammer. When I saw a stone made smooth and smeared with oil, I prayed to it and addressed it, as if a living power dwelt in it, and implored blessings from the senseless stock, and offered grievous insult even to the gods, whom I took to be such, in that I considered them wood, stone,

3

1 Instructiones adversus gentium Deos, in eighty chapters; first edited by Rigaltius, 1650, and sometimes also as an appendix to the works of Cyprian.

2 Disputationum adversus gentes libri vii. Published by Canter, Antw. 1582; by Salmasius, 1651; Orelli, 1816; Oehler (in the Bibl. P. Lat. vol. xii.) 1846.

L. I. c. 39 (p. 26, ed. Oehler).

and bone, or fancied that they dwelt in the stuff of such things. Now that I have been led by so great a teacher into the way of truth, I know what all that is, I think worthily of the Worthy, offer no insult to the Godhead, and give every one his due." Upon this public confession of faith the bishop of Sicca, who at first did not trust him, administered baptism to him. What afterwards became of him, we know not.

From his rhetorical school proceeded LACTANTIUS († 330), called for his elegant Latin, the Christian Cicero. But, as a contemporary of Constantine the Great, he belongs rather, like Eusebius, to the following period.

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

The writers mentioned in the Bibliographical Apparatus at the head of sections, and in the
notes, are not included in this Index, but may be easily found by referring to the subject. The
figures indicate the page.

Allegorical interpretation, 194, 222 sq., Athenagoras, 197, 201, 333, 486.