ZJLTXH
24
LATIN
texts of this ^up; Hellenisms abounded in them,
and even Semitisms filtered in through the Greek. In
the fourth century, when St. Jerome made his new
Latin version of the Scriptures, the partisans of the
older versions to justify tlieir opposition praised
loudly the harsh fidelity of these inelegant traaslations
(Augustine, "Dedoct. christ.", II, xv,in P. L., XXXIV,
46). These versions no doubt exercised a great influ-
ence upon the imagination and the style of Christian
writers, but it was an influence rather of inven-
tion and inspiration than of expression. The incor-
rectness and barbarisms of the Fathers have been
much exaggerated: profoimder knowledge of the
Latin language and its history has shown that they
used the language of their time, and that in this re-
spect there is no difference worth mentioning between
tnem and their pagan contemporaries. No doubt
some of them were men of defective education, writers
of incorrect prose and popular verse, but there have
been such in every age; the author of the "Bellum
Hispaniense^', the historian Justinus, Vitruvius, are
profane authors who cared little for purity or elegance
of style. TertuUian, the Christian author most fre-
quently accused of barbarism, for his time, is by no
means incorrect. He possesses strong creative power,
and his freedom is mostly in the matter of vocabulary;
he either invents new words or uses old ones in very
novel ways. His style is bold; his imagination and
his passion light it up with figures at times incoherent
and in bad taste; but his syntax contains, it may be
said, almost no innovations. He multiplies construc-
tions as yet rare and adds new constructions, but
he always respects the genius of the language. His
work contains no Semitisms, and the Hellenisms
which his critics have pointed out in it are neitlier
frequent nor without warrant in the usage of his day.
This, of course, does not apply to his express or im-
plicit citations from the Bible. At the other extreme,
chronologically, of Latin Christian literary developH
ment, a pope like Gelasius gives evidence of consider-
able classical culture; his language is novel chiefly in
its choice of words, but many of these neoterisms were
in his time no longer new, and had their origin in the
technical usage of the Church and the Roman law.
In the historical development of Christian Latin literature three periods may be distinguished: that of the Apologists, lasting until the fourth century; that of the Fathers of the Church (the fourth centurj') ; and the Gallo-Roman period. The first period is charac- terized by its dominant tone of apology, or defence of the Christian religion. In fact, most of the earliest Christian writers wrote apologies, e. g. Minucius Felix, Tertullian, Arnobius, Lactantius. In face of pagan- ism and the Roman State they plead the cause of Christianity, and the3r do it each according to his character, and each with his own line of arguments. Minucius Felix represents, in a way, the transition from the traditional philosophy of the cultured classes to the popular preaching of Christianity and in this approaches closely to some of the Greek apologists, converts from philosophy to Christianity, e. ^. Justin, Beekinff at the same time to harmonize their inherited mental culture with their faith. Even the dialogue form they use is meant to retain the reader in that philosophic world with which Plato and Cicero had lamiliarized him. Tertullian, perhaps identical with the jurisconsult mentioned in the '* Digest" of Jus- tinian, lifts out boldly arguments of a legal order and examines the juridical bases of the persecution. Arno- bius, rhetorician and philosopher, is first and foremost A product of the school; he exhibits the resources of amplification and displays the erudition of a scholiast. Lactantius is a philosopher, only more profoundlv penetrated by Christianity than were the earlier apol- ogists. He IS also very particular about the main- tenance of social order, good government, and the State. Hid writings are well adapted to a society that
has recently been shaken by a long period of anarchy
and is in process of reconstruction. In this way the
early Christian Latin literature presents all the varie-
ties of apology. There are here mentioned only those
apologies which formally present themselves as such ; to
them should be added some of St. Cyprian's works —
the treatises on idols, and "ad Donatum", the letter
to Demetrianus, works which attack special weak-
nesses of polytheism, the vices of pagan society, or
discuss the calamities of Rome.
These writers do not confine their activity to con- troversy with the pagans. The extent and variety of the works of Tertullian and St. Cyprian are well known. At Rome, Novatian touches, m his treatises, on questions which more particularly interest the faithful, their religious life or their beliefs. Victorinus of Pettau, in the mountains of Styria, introduced Bib- lical exegesis into Latin literature, and be^an that series of commentaries on the Apocalypse which so in- fluenced the imagination, and echoea so powerfully among the artists and writers, of the Middle Ages. The same visions were embodied in the verses of Com- modianus, the first Christian poet; but in a second work he took his place among the apologists and com- batted paganism. In their other worfi St. Cyprian and Tertmlian kept always in view the apoio^tic interest; indeed, this is the most noteworthy trait of the early Christian Latin literature. We may caU attention here to another characteristic: many Latin writers of this time, Minucius Felix, Tertullian, Cyp- rian, Arnobius, perhaps Commodianus, were Africans, for which peculiarity two causes may be assigned. On the one hand, Gaul and Italy had lone employed the Greek language, while Spain was backward, and Christianity developed there but feebly at this period. On the other hana, Africa had become a centre of profane literature; Apuleius, the greatest profane writer of the ace, was an African; Carthage possessed a celebrated scnool which is called in one inscription by the same name, studium, which was afterwards ap- plied to the medieval universities. There is no doubt that the second was the more potent cause.
The second period of Christian literature covers broadly speaking, the fourth century' — i. e. from the Edict of Milan (313) to the death of St. Jerome (420). It was then that the great writers of the Church flourished, those known pre-eminently as *'the Fath- both West and East. Though the term pcUris-
ers
tic belongs to 'the whole period here under considera-
tion, as contrasted with the term scholastic applied to
the Middle Ages, it may nevertheless be restricted to
the period we arc now describing. Literar>' produc-
tiveness was no longer the almost exclusive privil^e
of one country; it was spread throughout all the
Roman West. Notwithstanding this diffusion, all the
Latin writers are closely related; there are no national
schools; the writers and their works are all caught up
in the general current of church history. There is
truly a Christian West, all parts of which possess
nearly the same importance, and are closely united, in
spite of differences of climate and temperament. And
this West is beginning to stand off from the Greek
East, which tends to follow its own particular path.
The causes of Western cohesion were various, but
it was principally rooted in community of interests
and the similarity of questions arising immediately
after the peace of the Church. At the beginning of
the fourth century Christological problems agitated
the Church. The West came to the aid of the ortho-
dox communities of the East, but knew little of Arian-
ism until the Teutonic invasions. WTien the conflict
concerning the use of the basilicas at Milan arose, the
Aiians do not appear as the people of Milan; they are
Goths (Ambrose, Ep. xii, 12, in P. L., XVI, 997). In
the fourth century the j^at personages of the West
are champions of the faith of Nicaea — Hilary of Poi-
tiers, Lucifer of Oagliari, Phoebadius of Agen, Am-
