specially contributed to the spread of the doctrine of the merit of works.[79] § 31.12. =Various Ecclesiastical Writers using the Latin Tongue.= a. The Roman attorney =Minucius Felix=, probably of Cirta in Africa, wrote under the title of _Octavius_ a brilliant Apology, expressed in a fine Latin diction, in the form of a conversation between his two friends the Christian Octavius and the heathen Cæcilius, which resulted in the conversion of the latter. It is matter of dispute whether it was composed before or after Tertullian’s Apologeticus, and to which of the two the origin of thoughts and expressions common to both is to be assigned. Recently Ebert has maintained the opinion that Minucius is the older, and this view has obtained many adherents; whereas the contrary theory of Schultze has reached its climax in assigning the composition of the _Octavius_ to A.D. 300-303, so that he is obliged to ascribe the Octavius as well as the Apologeticus to a compiler of the fourth or fifth century, plagiarizing from Cyprian’s treatise _De idolorum vanitate_! b. =Commodianus= [Commodus], born at Gaza, was won to Christianity by reading holy scripture, and wrote about A.D. 250 his _Instructiones adv. Gentium Deos_, consisting of eighty acrostic poems in rhyming hexameters and scarcely intelligible, barbarous Latin. His _Carmen apologeticum adv. Jud. et Gent._ was first published in 1852. c. The writings of his contemporary the schismatical =Novatian= of Rome (§ 41, 3) show him to have been a man of no ordinary dogmatical and exegetical ability. His _Liber de Trinitate s. de Regula fidei_ is directed in a subordinationist sense against the Monarchians (§ 33). The _Epistola de cibis Judaici_ repudiates any obligation on the part of Christians to observe the Old Testament laws about food; and the _Epistola Cleri Romani_ advocates milder measures in the penitential discipline. d. =Arnobius= was born at Sicca in Africa, where he was engaged as a teacher of eloquence about A.D. 300. For a long time he was hostilely inclined toward Christianity, but underwent a change of mind by means of a vision in a dream. The bishop distrusted him and had misgivings about admitting him to baptism, but he convinced him of the honesty of his intentions by composing the seven books of _Disputationes adv. Gentes_. This treatise betrays everywhere defective understanding of the Christian truth; but he is more successful in combating the old religion than in defending the new.