Historical Sketches, Volume I (of 3): The Turks in Their Relation to Europe; Marcus Tullius Cicero; Apollonius of Tyana; Primitive ChristianityNewman, John Henry
HistoryHistory
Historical Sketches, Volume I (of 3): The Turks in Their Relation to Europe; Marcus Tullius Cicero; Apollonius of Tyana; Primitive Christianity
Newman, John Henry
Apollonius, of Tyana; Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600; Cicero, Marcus Tullius; Turkey -- History
"For myself," says Basil, "I never indeed considered Apollinaris as
an enemy; nay, there are respects in which I reverence him;
however, I did not so connect myself with him as to make myself
answerable for his alleged faults, considering, too, that I have a
complaint of my own against him, on reading some of his
compositions. I hear, indeed, that he is become the most copious of
all writers; yet I have fallen in with but few of his works, for I
have not leisure to search into such, and besides, I do not easily
form the acquaintance of recent writers, being hindered by bodily
health from continuing even the study of inspired Scripture
laboriously, and as is fitting."--_Ep._ 244, Sec. 3.
The other passage runs thus:--
"After Eustathius comes Apollinaris; he, too, no slight disturber
of the Church; for, having a facility in writing and a tongue which
served him on every subject, he has filled the world with his
compositions, despising the warning, 'Beware of making many books,'
because in the many are many faults. For how is it possible, in
much speaking, to escape sin?"--_Ep._ 263, Sec. 4.
And then he goes on to mention some of the various gross errors, to
which by that time he seemed to be committed.
Lastly, let us hear Vincent of Lerins about him:--
"Great was the heat and great the perplexity which Apollinaris
created in the minds of his auditory, when the authority of the
Church drew them one way, and the influence of their teacher drew
them the other, so that, wavering and hesitating between the two,
they could not decide which was to be chosen. You will say, he
ought at once to have been put aside; yes, but he was so great a
man, that his word carried with it an extraordinary credence. Who
indeed was his superior in acumen, in long practice, in view of
doctrine? As to the number of his volumes against heresies, I will
but mention as a specimen of them that great and noble work of his
against Porphyry, in not less than thirty books, with its vast
collection of arguments. He would have been among the
master-builders of the Church, had not the profane lust of
heretical curiosity incited him to strike out something new, to
pollute withal his labours throughout with the taint of leprosy, so
that his teaching was rather a temptation to the Church than an
edification."--_Ch._ 16.
It is a solemn and pregnant fact, that two of the most zealous and
forward of Athanasius's companions in the good fight against Arianism,
Marcellus and Apollinaris, fell away into heresies of their own; nor did
the Church spare them, for all their past services. "Let him that
thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall"[missing a "."?]
"Alas, my brother! round thy tomb,
In sorrow kneeling, and in fear,
We read the pastor's doom,
Who speaks and will not hear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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