At the darkening close of the patristic period, Gregory the Great was still partially creative in his barbarizing handling of patristic themes.
II The patristic synthesis of emotion passed on entire and authoritative to the Middle Ages.
This ascetic emotionalism of the Neo-Platonic summum bonum was strikingly analogous to the ideal of Christian living pressing to domination in the patristic period.
Quite as impressive, more moving, and possibly more creative, than the intellectual recasting of the ancient patristic matter, were its emotional transformations.
Obviously, for our purpose, which is to appreciate the spiritual endowment of the Middle Ages, it is essential to have cognizance of patristic thought.
But Thomas Aquinas accomplishes a final Catholic presentation of the whole enlarged material, patristic and antique.
Such were the roles of Boethius and Gregory in the transmission of antique and patristic intellectual interests into the mediaeval time.
The patristic attitude toward cosmogony and natural science plainly appears in the Hexaemeron of St. Ambrose.
These examples sufficiently indicate the broad apologetic purpose in the patristic writing of history.
That which was achieved by the close of the patristic period, and was to be passionately approved by the Middle Ages, proceeded partly in the way of exclusion, and partly by adding a quality of boundlessness to the emotional elements admitted.
Church of later times to carry the science of biblical interpretation beyond the point which it had reached at the end of the patristic period.
A record of patristic collections and editions down to 1839 may be found in Dowling's Notitia Scriptorum SS.
For ordinary purposes it is best to make the patristic period conterminous with the life of the ancient Catholic Church.
Satisfactory lexicons of patristic Greek and Latin are still a desideratum: but assistance may be obtained in the study of the Greek fathers from Suicer's Thesaurus, the Lexicon of Byzantine Greek by E.
The term patres apostolici is due to the patristic scholars of the 17th century: see Lightfoot, St Clement of Rome, i.
In this place it is enough to consider the general influence of the patristic writings upon Christian doctrine and biblical interpretation.
Now that the smoke of these controversies has passed away, it is possible to form a clearer judgment upon the merits of the patristic writings.
In the West the Church enters the medieval stage of its history with the death of Gregory, while in the East even John of Damascus is rather a compiler of patristic teaching than a true "father.
Sophocles, and the Lexicon Graecum suppletorium et dialecticum of Van Herwerden; whilst the new great Latin Lexicon, published by the Berlin Academy, is calculated to meet the needs of students of Latin patristic literature.
In these products of the 2nd and 3rd centuries there is much which in its own way was not surpassed by any of the later patristic writings.
Some early Patristic evidence has been added to the stores which the Dean collected by Dr.
The cogency of the considerations involved in the last paragraph becomes even more apparent when Patristic testimony has to be considered.
But besides the general traces of the Traditional Text left inpatristic writings in other districts of the Church, we are not without special proofs in the parts about Syria.
All this quite changes the aspect of the Patristic testimony.
The following engraving from D'Agincourt illustrates the tasteless drapery and coiffure which awakened such intense patristic indignation.
Patristic evidence informs us that both these doctrines were firmly held by the primitive Christians.
The following resumé of the principal patristic evidence on the practice of infant baptism is corroborated by the testimony of the Catacombs.
If we were to measure the criminality of different customs by the vehemence of the patristic denunciations, we might almost conclude that the most atrocious offence of their day was the custom of wearing false hair, or dyeing natural hair.
What explanation of this supreme mystery was publicly ventured on by Simon we cannot know, for the patristic accounts are confused and contradictory.
Footnote 42: This is presumably meant for a grim patristic joke.
The same may be said of all the incidents of Simon's career; they pertain to the region of fable and probably owe their creation to the Patristic and Simonian controversies of later ages.
I shall now endeavour to sift out the rubbish from this patristic and legendary heap, and perhaps we shall find more of value than at present appears.
For in the first place, we do not know that he has been correctly reported by his patristic antagonists, and, in the second, we are even yet too ignorant of the process of the nourishment of the foetus to pronounce any ex cathedrâ statement.
Thus when we are brought face to face with the recital of magical wonders as attributed to Simon in the patristic legends, it is not sufficient to sweep them on one side and ticket them with the contemptuous label of "superstition.
The sentences that the author quotes from Heracleitus in Book IX, are not only obscure enough in themselves, but are also rendered all the more obscure by the polemical treatment they are subjected to by the patristic writer.
I am not to be persuaded that the Church is set in order by imperial edicts, but by patristic traditions, written and unwritten.
For parallel with this patristic explanation came another, which was inherited from the imperial legalists.
Hardly a great scholar or theologian had arisen among them since the Patristic age, with the exception of a few schoolmen like Anselm and Peter Lombard.
He maintained a certain independence of the patristic authority by his "Sic et Non," in which treatise he makes the authorities neutralize each other by placing side by side contradictory assertions.
Two other incidents of no little interest followed this successful voyage: the first was the destruction of Patristic Geography; the second the consequence of the flight of Pinzon's parrots.
It had enthroned patristic theology; now it wrenched from its hand the sceptre.
The obstacles thatPatristic Geography had thrown in the way of maritime adventure were thus finally removed, but Patristic Ethnology led to a fearful tragedy.
The patristic doctrine had been that the earth came into existence but little more than five thousand years ago, and to this a popular opinion long current was added, that its end might be very shortly expected.
In the Patristic Geography the earth is a flat surface bordered by the waters of the sea, on the yielding support of which rests the crystalline dome of the sky.
Sidenote: Decline of the value of patristic learning.
Under this patristic shield, dedicated by permission to Pope Leo, and its copyright secured for four years by the decree of the Emperor Maximilian, the 'Novum Instrumentum' went forth into the world.
The practice of these arts is solemnly denounced as sin in the New Testament and throughout Patristic literature, and the church has in all ages fulminated against it.
Satanic miracles, moreover, are not only recognized throughout the Old and New Testaments, but formed a leading feature of the Patristic creed.
If we turn to patristic literature, we find, everywhere, the same superstitions and the same theories of angelic agency and demoniacal interference in cosmical phenomena.
Other important Biblical and patristiccodices are to be found among the Greek, and Latin MSS.
The latter comprehend some very early Bibles and important codices of patristic and other medieval writings.
The high veneration in which Gundulph held the patristic writings induced him to bestow his attention in a similar manner upon them, he compared copies, studied their various readings and set to work to correct them.
Volumes of patristic eloquence and pious erudition crowd the list; chronicles, poetry, and philosophical treatises are mingled with the titles of an abundant collection of classic works, full of the lore of the ancient world.
In patristic learning the library was unusually rich, embracing the most eminent and valuable writings of the Fathers, as may be seen by the following names, of whose works the catalogue enumerates many volumes: Augustine.
Such was the effect on our national literature of that gushing in of the Norman conquerors, so deeply imbued with learning, so polished, and withal so armed with classical and patristic lore were they.
The library of Ramsey was also remarkably rich in patristic lore.
The works of the Chaldean, Berosus, have long since been lost, all save a few extracts preserved by the Patristic writers.
But this conception, which contains a large amount of truth if applied to the teaching of many Protestants, is either grossly exaggerated or absolutely false if applied to that of the patristic period or of mediaeval Catholicism.
On the other hand, Tertullian very distinctly enunciated the patristic view, "Qui autem primordia hominis novimus, audenter determinamus mortem non ex natura secutam hominem sed ex culpa.
But here again the opinions of the patristic age must be pronounced absolutely worthless.
See, on the patristic notions about Pythagoras, Legendre, Traite de l'Opinion, tome i.
But it is to be remembered that in the early Patristic Age, or before Tertullian, Latin was not used by ecclesiastical writers.
Patristic histories, as indeed all histories, are to be used with critical caution.
But patristic writers from Eusebius downwards furnish us also with formal histories of the Church of both a general and special character.
The patristic was the formative and, in a sense, conclusive period of Christian theology.
Law and regularity, not arbitrary intervention, was the patristic ideal of creation.
We are thus carried back immeasurably beyond the six thousand years of Patristic chronology.
Exposition of the Augustinian philosophy and Patristic science generally.
Above all, I abstain from commenting on the Patristic conceptions of the Almighty; they are too anthropomorphic, and wanting in sublimity.
Patristic chronology founded on the ages of the patriarchs.
Cardinal Angelo =Mai=, as principal Vatican librarian, distinguished himself by his palimpsest studies in old classical as well as patristic literature.
Any one who has studied patristic quotations will know that context counts for very little indeed.
He has set down the impression that a modern might receive, at the first blush, without having given any more extended study to the method of the patristic quotations.
It is a notorious fact, abundantly established by certain quotations from the Old Testament and elsewhere, that the last thing regarded by the early patristic writers was context.
There are sometimes no doubt reasonable grounds for scepticism as to the patristic statements, but none such are visible here.
The reason for this is not far to seek, and is one that throws light also on the motive with which the patristic writers made use of these arguments.
The Eclectic character of the patristic thought is seen also in the frequency with which they use the different forms of the theistic argument in conjunction, or present it in mixed forms.
The apologetic work of the patristic writers was chiefly done in the ante-Nicene age; after that discussion turned more upon questions within the scope of the Christian Faith.
Frequently the patristic writers have occasion to emphasize the inability of man to attain by any of his natural powers to religious truth, and to point to the impotent longings and aspirations of Greek philosophy as an example of this.
The Patristic systems, though weak in their foundations, were extraordinarily wise and comprehensive in their working out; and while they inverted life they preserved it.
Christianity in its Patristic form was an adaptation of Hebrew religion to the Græco-Roman world, and later, in the Protestant movement, a readaptation of the same to what we may call the Teutonic spirit.
Platonic philosophy, to which patristic theology was allied, had made a contrast not less extreme between sense and spirit, between life in time and absorption in eternity.
Such, at least, is the situation in Catholic regions, where the Patristic philosophy has not appreciably varied.
This liturgy, transfused as it is with pagan philosophy and removed thereby from the Oriental directness and formlessness of the Bible, keeps for the most part its theological and patristic tone.
Somewhat in this fashion evolution is understood by the party that wish to combine it with a refreshed patristic theology.
Taken externally, Protestantism is, of course, a form of Christianity; it retains the Bible and a more or less copious selection of patristic doctrines.
A full collection of all the genuine and doubtful extracts appeared in the series of Cambridge Patristic Texts, with introductions and notes by the present editor, in 1904.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "patristic" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
