Fathers
THE, a name applied to _ those writers who have given us acthat prevailed in the early Church. The counts of the traditions, practices , etc., term is mostly confined to those who lived during the first six centuries of the with the title of father who wrote later Christian era, and no writer is dignified than the 12th century. They are frequently divided into the Greek and Latin fathers; and those who flourished before the Council of Nice, in 325, are called the ante-Nicene fathers. The chief fathers of the first six centuries were as follows:
In the 1st century flourished Clement, Bishop of Rome, and Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch; in the 2d century we have Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Justin Martyr, Hermias, Dionysius of Corinth, Hegesippus, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, Irenæas, Bishop of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian; in the 3d century, Minucius Felix, Hippolytus, Origen, Cyprian, Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, Gregory (Thaumaturgus); in the 4th century, Arnobius, Lactantius, Eusebius, Julius Firmicus, Maternus, Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Athanasius, Basil, Ephraim the Syrian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, Epiphanus, Bishop of Salamis, Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, Ruffin, Presbyter of Aquileia; in the 5th century, Jerome, Theodorus, Bishop of Mopsuestia, Augustine, Cyril of Alexandria, Vincent of Lerins, Isidore of Pelusium, Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus in Syria, Leo I., surnamed the Great, Virgilius, Bishop of Thapsus; in the 6th century, Procopius of Gaza, Aretas, Gregory, Bishop of Tours, and Greg FATIMIDES ory I., surnamed the Great, Bishop of Rome. The last of the fathers is Bernard of Clairvaux, who died about the middle of the 12th century.
Learned men and theologians differ very much in opinion as to the value that is to be attached to the writings of the fathers. By some they are looked on as nearly of equal authority with the sacred Scriptures themselves, and as the most excellent guides in the paths of piety and virtue. Others regard them as unworthy of the least attention. The right we believe lies between these two extremes; and while the Roman Catholics exalt too highly the opinions of the fathers, yet by Protestants generally they are too much disregarded. Their writings contain many sublime sentiments, judicious thoughts, and things naturally adapted to form a religious temper, and to excite pious and virtuous affections; on the other hand, they abound still more with precepts of an excessive and unreasonable austerity, with stoical and academical dictates, with vague and indeterminate notions, and, what is still worse, with decisions absolutely false and in manifest opposition to the character and commands of Christ. Of the character and doctrines of the primitive Church they are competent witnesses, and, living within a comparatively short period of the apostles, there are many things which they relate regarding apostolic times, which had come down to them by tradition, and which are therefore not to be altogether rejected.