224

PAUL'S INNOVATIONS.

divine mind, as reason is in the mind of man. He also taught that Christ was a mere man, beginning to exist when born, but possessed of the wisdom of God, which gave him the character of Son of God; but as he asserted that this wisdom deserted him when he suffered, he made Christ superior to man only in the superior gift with which he was endowed.

In order to erase all impressions of the divinity of Jesus Christ from the church at Antioch, Paul forbid the use of those hymns and spiritual songs, asserting his proper divinity, which had been in use, and confined that part of the church service to the use of the Psalms of David. This man is accused of many innovations, among which, not the least, is the connection of civil office with the ecclesiastical; and he permitted the customs in use at the schools of rhetoricians and theatres, of giving public evidences of approbation by the noisy acclamations and clapping of hands, to approve his teaching and sermons, during divine service.

Many were the efforts made to convict Paul of erroneous doctrines before synods without success, until the year 265, when a presbyter by the name of Malchion, who was also by profession a rhetorician, forced from him a declaration of his opinions before a synod, and he was deposed from office.

These same opinions led to an angry controversy between Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, and their author; but, unfortunately for the latter, in his pastoral letter against Sebellius, (an author of opinions of some

COUNCIL AT ANTIOCH.

225

notoriety, who lived at Ptolmais in Pentapolis,) and Paul of Somosata, he used hard expressions and singular comparisons, which drew forth from the bishop of Rome, Dionysius, a reply. It seem that Sabellius used the Apocryphal Gospels, and contended that there was a supreme unity in God, and that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, were only three forms in which that unity is revealed; he denied to the Redeemer an eternally enduring personality, as his own words evidently show, when he says,* "Just as the Logos was begotten for our sake, so also, does he return back again after us, to that which he was before, so that he may be what he was before, after we have attained to the union with God, to which we are destined." He compares his doctrine to the sun, whose enlightening and warming substances were emblems of the Logos and Holy Spirit. In this controversy, the council at Antioch considered the subject, and condemned the expression ovaior, Homousion, employed against the followers of Paul-an incident which laid the foundation for the controversy which sprang up in the fourth century. But the bishop of Alexandria was not tenacious about a subject which he conceived was incomprehensible, so that the true and important features of his doctrine were admitted; as the bishop of Rome designed to contradict those who placed the Son of God in the grade of a creature, assigning to him a beginning of existence in time. But still, Dionysius of Alexandria, must not be unLib. cit. c. 12. Epiphan. Hæres, 62.

226

DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA.

derstood as departing from the peculiar views of the Alexandrian teachers, which were clearly developed at more recent periods.

NOTE.-On page 221, Noëtus is represented as believing that "God was begotten and underived." Theodoret, who thus represented him, undoubtedly understood this in reference to the generation of the Logos, or Son; and Noëtus intended that "begotten," was one of the methods through which God was visible; especially, as he maintained the unity of God, without any trinity.

CHAPTER XVII.

IRENEUS.

His Birth and Parentage-His Teachers-Church at Lyons and Vienna-The Offspring of Smyrna-Establishment of a Churchly Theology-His Work against the Gnostics-The Controversy with Gnostics and Montanists-Irenæus as a Writer-Montanism in Lyons and Vienna-Visit to Rome-Its Object-Millenarianism-Irenæus and Others upon that Subject-Mileto's Views-Origen's Opposition-Dionysius of Alexandria opposes Irenæus— Rome-Letter to Victor-Confutation of the Gnostics-Letter to FlorinusHis Learning, Industry, and Doctrines-His pupil Hippolytus.

THE most prevalent opinion in relation to the birth-place and parentage of Irenæus is, that he was a Greek, born of Christian parents, in or near Smyrna, in Asia Minor: but there is no certain knowledge in relation to either, as accounts of his origin are inferred either from his own or other productions. His doctrines and spirit prove that he came from the schools of Asia Minor, and we gather that his first instructor was Papias, bishop of Hieropolis; a man who seems to have been of unquestionable piety, but of little abilities, so that he did not continue long as his pupil. We find him next with Polycarp in Smyrna; and as both Papias and Polycarp were pupils of St. John, he may be supposed to have received his instruction from the best authorities of his time.

228

LYONS THE OFFSPRING OF SMYRNA.

The churches of Lyons and Vienna seem to have been the offspring of the church at Smyrna; although French historians claim to have derived their Christianity from Rome. Gregory Tours states that seven missionaries went from Rome at a very early period and founded seven churches. One of these missionaries was said to be Dionysius, of Paris, who introduced Christianity in that city. But without relying upon the uncertain testimony of Gregory, who wrote towards the close of the sixth century, when the most fabulous accounts of the origin of churches were circulated, we have a document much older, which gives an account of Saturninus, who founded the church at Toulouse, where he suffered a most cruel and shameful death. Lyons and Vienna were in constant communication with the church at Smyrna, and when they needed assistance they sent to that city, as in the case of Irenæus; for it seems that when Pothinus, the bishop of Lyons, required aid, Irenæus was sent, when he was either a deacon or presbyter at Smyrna, to co-operate with him. Here he distinguished himself as a faithful Christian minister, a writer, and finally as a martyr.

In the great struggle for the faith once delivered to the saints, against the Gnostic and other speculations of these troublous times, the more spiritual teachers of the church, who attempted to oppose these innovations, concerted the idea of establishing a defined creed, or theology, for the church. This was prominent among the teachers of Asia Minor, or