Like a tree, whose branches multiply and extend as it grows, Christian learning, which had had such small beginnings, now began to broaden out into various Schools, or methods of study and interpretation. These were the Schools of Asia Minor, of Africa, of Alexandria, and of Antioch. The chief characteristic of the School of Asia Minor was devotion to a primitive and uncorrupted orthodoxy of faith; that of the African School, the practical and austere nature of their moral code; that of the Alexandrian, a speculative, philosophical and allegorical spirit; and that of the Antiochian, the sober and literal interpretation of Holy Writ. An example of the School of Asia Minor is Irenaeus (d. 202), who, born in Asia Minor, where he studied under Saint Polycarp, later went to France and became Bishop of Lyons, where he was martyred. His most important work is Against Heresies, in which, as a faithful guardian of the truth, he defends the orthodox doctrines against every corruption, and denounces those who diverge from them. As representatives of the African School, Tertullian (d. 220), a presbyter of Carthage, and Cyprian (d. 258), Bishop of Carthage, may be mentioned. The former, who invented the language of ecclesiastical Latin and always spoke with contempt of secular learning, was the sternest advocate of austere morality and was driven to Montanism by his excessive ascetism. The latter, a perfect type of the Christian pastor, was uncompromising in his hostility towards those who had betrayed the faith in time of persecution, and was beheaded for the sake of his principles under Valerian. Both left us essays, dogmatic, ethical, interpretative or occasional, in which their austere manner of life is mirrored.

Representatives of the Alexandrian School.

   The Alexandrian School was founded by Pantaenus and continued by Clement the Alexandrian and Origen. According to this School, Christianity is the highest form of knowledge, and the perfect Christian is the “gnostic”; that is, he who not only believes, but has knowledge and understanding of his faith. This ideal Clement set before himself in his trilogy Address to the Greeks, The Tutor, and the Miscellanies, in which he gradually leads his pupil from paganism to the height of Christian perfection. The life of Clement was similar to that of Justin; he, too, beginning as a pagan philosopher, later embraced the Gospel as the only satisfactory philosophy. His works are a treasury of Greek wisdom; but, great as he was, he was surpassed in genius, industry and fertility by his successor Origen, who was surnamed the Adamantine.

Origen.

   Origen was the son of Leonidas the martyr, whom, as we have seen, he urged not to fear death for Christ's sake, when he was yet a child. It has been said that the wrote more books than a man could read in a life-time. As an apologist, he wrote his treatise Against Celsus, in which he refutes the idle accusations of that formidable enemy of Christianity. As a writer on dogma, he has left us his work On Principles, the first example of Christian Dogmatics. As a commentator, he composed long commentaries on almost every part of the Bible. As a critic, he labored at the Hexapla, wherein he set out in six parallel columns the original and the translations which existed in his day, in order to determine the original text. Unfortunately, this man, whose great zeal for Christ drove him even into Arabia to preach the Gospel, and who converted Julia Mammaea, the mother of the Emperor Alexander Severus, strayed into certain errors of individual opinion which have made later generations hostile to his memory. But in spite of this, to Origen belongs the glory of having laid the foundations of almost every branch of Theology, and of having been the master of those who followed after; for many of the great Fathers of the Church were educated by his writings. His death was consistent with his life, for he succumbed in 254 to wounds inflicted upon him during the Decian persecution.

Athanasius.

   To the Alexandrian School also belong Saint Athanasius and the three Cappadocians, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus, who bring us to the most glorious epoch of Greek Church Literature. It was the “Golden Age,” which produced spiritual works of such perfection, eloquence, profundity and originality, that not only were they to remain unsurpassed, but were to serve as patterns and models to posterity. Athanasius (d. 373), who was small of stature but mighty of spirit, was the fearless champion of Orthodoxy, for whose sake he fought for forty-five years, and was ten times sent into exile. There were times when he seemed to be abandoned by all and struggling alone against kings and peoples; but he was fighting for truth, and in the end truth triumphed. In the course of his troubled and wandering life he found time to write treatises appropriate to the times, to compose long epistles and apologies and to devote himself to the study of Holy Scriptures. His works are characterized by wealth and depth of meaning and by a severe dialectic method, though they are not always perfectly polished in style; for Athanasius was constantly in want, and wrote more often upon his knee than in the quietness of a study.

The Three Cappadocians.

   The battles waged for Orthodoxy by Athanasius were continued by the three Cappadocians. Basil (d. 379), whose mother, Emmelia, was a most devout woman, studied philosophy in Athens. There he made a life-long friend of his fellow-student, Gregory of Nazianzus, with whom he retired, when their philosophical studies were ended, to a hermitage in Pontus, in order to study the works of Origen, and to prepare himself for a theological career. Basil's learning and virtue soon raised him to the archbishopric of Caesarea, which long remained under his pastoral care. To him is due the credit for having founded the first poor-house in the world, called by his contemporaries the “Basilias,” on which he expended his whole income. His love of Orthodoxy brought him into conflict with the Arian Emperor Valens, before whom he remained undaunted. His interpretative, doctrinal and ethical treatises, like his letters, shine out in the front rank of the world's literature, and justify the title bestowed on him, “torch-bearer of the universe.” In his homilies on the Hexaemeron, he blends religion with natural science for the understanding of the people; and his Advice to the young on how to profit by the writings of the ancient Greek authors is worthy of study. His death was lamented, not by Christians alone, but even by Jews and pagans. His brother, Gregory of Nyssa (d. 394), excels in his works rather as a speculative philosopher and scholar than as a practical moralist. Philosophical speculation also characterizes the work of Gregory of Nazianzus (d. 390), already mentioned as the friend of Basil, whom the people named “the Theologian” on account of the sermons on the divinity of the Logos which he preached against the Arian heresy in the church of Saint Anastasia at Constantinople, in order to draw the current of popular opinion back into the channels of uncorrupted faith. So popular had Gregory become at that time that Theodosius the Great invited him to become Archbishop of Constantinople, a position from which he soon retired when he realized the perpetual machinations of which it was the center. Poet in his poetry and his sermons, Gregory was a poet in his life also, being the opposite to his practical and phlegmatic friend, Basil.