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1and the Alexandi'ine School. xi divine, It promises to transfer our whole selves (I mean souls and bodies, their yoke-fellows), to a perfect life and immortality. Others again do this injustice to bodies, that, after having toiled with the holy souls, they unjustly deprive them of the holy retributions, when they have come to the goal of their most divine course." " For if the man have passed a life dear to God in soul and body, the body which has contended throughout the Divine struggles will be honoured together with the devout soul." To shew that Origen knew the works of Hierotheus, we give an extract from his letter to Gregory : " Would that you might both participate in and continually augment this part, so that you may not only say, ' we are partakers of Christ,' but also partakers of God." Papias % Bishop of Hierapolis (fragment V.) says, " the Presbyters, the disciples of the Apostles, say that this is the gradation and method of those who are saved, and that they advance through steps of this nature, and that, moreover, they ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father ; and that, in due time, the Son will yield up His work to the Father." Who the Presbyters^ the disciples of the Apostles were, we may gather from the three last chapters of the " Book of Hierotheus ^" in which the very same doctrine is taught. Is it not, then, a legitimate inference, that when Photius says "that a c. 140. b Br. Mus. {Ad. Rich. 7189), xii Dionysius the Areopagite Pantasnus was a pupil of the Presbyters who had seen the Apostles ^^'' he designated Hierotheus and Dionysius the Areopagite, generally known under that title ?
2Ammonius-Saccus was born of Christian parents in Alexandria, and died in that city, a.d. 242. Anastasius Sinaita calls him "the Wise," and Hierocles, " the taught of God. Besides being famous for his expositions of Holy Scripture, he wrote the " Diatesseron," or " Harmony of the Gospels, '' contained in the Bib. Patrum. In a.d. 236, he wrote the agreement between Moses and Jesus. He was the great conciliator, who sought the good in every system, and to make all one in Christ. Pressense beautifully describes him as a man who wished to believe and to know — to adore and to comprehend — to conciliate the Greek Philosophy wuth the Mysteries of the East. He wrote a commentary on the golden verses of Pythagoras, which Hierocles published, as well as reproduced his other works. The titles of his books, mentioned by Photius, such as "Providence" and "Free Will," recall those of the lost books of Dionysius, of which we have only a summary in his known works. (Cod. 251 — 214.) Ammonius was surnamed Saccus from having been a corn carrier. Virgil, Shakespere, Milton, were great geniuses in themselves, but when we know the sources from which they drew, we can better understand their achievements. Dionysius was indebted to Hierotheus — Ammonius
3and the Alexandrine School. xiii drew from Dionysius. This we shall shew, not as we might, by his works as described by Photius, but from Plotinus, his disciple, in order that we may have the prevailing proof, to some minds, of testimony not necessarily Christian. Plotinus was born in Lycopolis, a.d. 205, and died in Campagna, a.d. 270. At the age of 29, he began to search for truth, in the schools of Alexandria. He wandered from teacher to teacher, but could fmd no rest until he was persuaded to go and hear Ammonius-Saccus. After listening to him, he exclaimed, *' This is what I sought. Plotinus remained under him eleven years, until the death of Ammonius, a.d. 242. In a.d. 244, Plotinus began to teach in Rome. Plotinus was not a refined scholar. Porphyry, therefore, committed his teaching to writing. Porphyry was regarded as the greatest enemy to the Christian Faith in the early centuries. Persecutors burned the bodies of Christians, but Porphyry sought to undermine their faith in the Holy Scriptures, by quibbles of unbelief, which have been revived to-day as "New Criticism. Porphyry wrote against the Holy Scriptures with a bitterness engendered by a conviction of their truth. Now, it is a startling fact, that though the teaching of Plotinus comes to us through Porphyry, there is not a word in the Enneades, in which the teaching of Plotinus is given, against the Christian Faith. It is true that Eutochius published another version of the teaching of Plotinus, on the ground that his teaching was coloured by Porphyry, but we
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1and the Alexandi'ine School. xi divine, It promises to transfer our whole selves (I mean souls and bodies, their yoke-fellows), to a perfect life and immortality. Others again do this injustice to bodies, that, after having toiled with the holy souls, they unjustly deprive them of the holy retributions, when they have come to the goal of their most divine course." " For if the man have passed a life dear to God in soul and body, the body which has contended throughout the Divine struggles will be honoured together with the devout soul." To shew that Origen knew the works of Hierotheus, we give an extract from his letter to Gregory : " Would that you might both participate in and continually augment this part, so that you may not only say, ' we are partakers of Christ,' but also partakers of God." Papias % Bishop of Hierapolis (fragment V.) says, " the Presbyters, the disciples of the Apostles, say that this is the gradation and method of those who are saved, and that they advance through steps of this nature, and that, moreover, they ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father ; and that, in due time, the Son will yield up His work to the Father." Who the Presbyters^ the disciples of the Apostles were, we may gather from the three last chapters of the " Book of Hierotheus ^" in which the very same doctrine is taught. Is it not, then, a legitimate inference, that when Photius says "that a c. 140. b Br. Mus. {Ad. Rich. 7189), xii Dionysius the Areopagite Pantasnus was a pupil of the Presbyters who had seen the Apostles ^^'' he designated Hierotheus and Dionysius the Areopagite, generally known under that title ?
2Ammonius-Saccus was born of Christian parents in Alexandria, and died in that city, a.d. 242. Anastasius Sinaita calls him "the Wise," and Hierocles, " the taught of God. Besides being famous for his expositions of Holy Scripture, he wrote the " Diatesseron," or " Harmony of the Gospels, '' contained in the Bib. Patrum. In a.d. 236, he wrote the agreement between Moses and Jesus. He was the great conciliator, who sought the good in every system, and to make all one in Christ. Pressense beautifully describes him as a man who wished to believe and to know — to adore and to comprehend — to conciliate the Greek Philosophy wuth the Mysteries of the East. He wrote a commentary on the golden verses of Pythagoras, which Hierocles published, as well as reproduced his other works. The titles of his books, mentioned by Photius, such as "Providence" and "Free Will," recall those of the lost books of Dionysius, of which we have only a summary in his known works. (Cod. 251 — 214.) Ammonius was surnamed Saccus from having been a corn carrier. Virgil, Shakespere, Milton, were great geniuses in themselves, but when we know the sources from which they drew, we can better understand their achievements. Dionysius was indebted to Hierotheus — Ammonius
3and the Alexandrine School. xiii drew from Dionysius. This we shall shew, not as we might, by his works as described by Photius, but from Plotinus, his disciple, in order that we may have the prevailing proof, to some minds, of testimony not necessarily Christian. Plotinus was born in Lycopolis, a.d. 205, and died in Campagna, a.d. 270. At the age of 29, he began to search for truth, in the schools of Alexandria. He wandered from teacher to teacher, but could fmd no rest until he was persuaded to go and hear Ammonius-Saccus. After listening to him, he exclaimed, *' This is what I sought. Plotinus remained under him eleven years, until the death of Ammonius, a.d. 242. In a.d. 244, Plotinus began to teach in Rome. Plotinus was not a refined scholar. Porphyry, therefore, committed his teaching to writing. Porphyry was regarded as the greatest enemy to the Christian Faith in the early centuries. Persecutors burned the bodies of Christians, but Porphyry sought to undermine their faith in the Holy Scriptures, by quibbles of unbelief, which have been revived to-day as "New Criticism. Porphyry wrote against the Holy Scriptures with a bitterness engendered by a conviction of their truth. Now, it is a startling fact, that though the teaching of Plotinus comes to us through Porphyry, there is not a word in the Enneades, in which the teaching of Plotinus is given, against the Christian Faith. It is true that Eutochius published another version of the teaching of Plotinus, on the ground that his teaching was coloured by Porphyry, but we
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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