Pagan Origin of Partialist DoctrinesPitrat, John Claudius
Religion
Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines
Pitrat, John Claudius
Catholic Church -- Controversial literature; Future punishment; Universalism
Pamphile Eusebe obtained the bishopric of Cesarea in 313. He wrote the
Panegyric, and the Life of Constantine; a Chronicle, viz: a compilation
of Pagan authors, and several other works, whose fragments have
remained. His principal work is his Ecclesiastical History, which we
have studied in our theological school. If the dogma of endless hell had
been the belief of the first Christians, and had been generally believed
in his age, he would have certainly mentioned it therein: however, he
has not. Therefore, the first Christians, and those of his age, did not
hold the dogma of endless hell.
Athanase succeeded to Alexander on the episcopal see of Alexandria, in
326. His works are: Defense of Trinity and of Incarnation; apologies;
letters; and treatises against the Arians, the Melecians, the
Apollinarists, and the Macedonians. In these works there is not a word
concerning the dogma of endless hell being believed by the first
Christians, or by his contemporaries. The famous symbol which is headed
symbol of Athanase, which the Romish priests read every Sunday in the
Psalms-Breviary, is not from his composition nor from his pen; every one
of the Catholic theologians and authors confesses it.
Basile, bishop of Cesarea, was born in 329. He has left several letters,
homilies, treatises of morals, and sermons on the six days of the
creation. We have examined the Latin edition of his works, or rather of
the fragments of his works, for they are not entire, by Don Gamier and
Don Prudent; but though in many passages he speaks of salvation, of
eternal bliss, and of the punishment of the wicked hereafter, he does
not positively declare that the punishment will be endless; and he does
not say that the first Christians believed it, nor that it was a dogma
of the Church in his age. Theodor of Mopsueste, who wrote in the fifth
century, is charged by the Catholic writers to have taught that future
punishment will not be endless.
Since that time, down to the sixth century, the question of the eternal
duration of the punishment of the wicked in a place called hell, was
discussed by the ecclesiastical writers, who, nevertheless, did not
assert that it was the belief of the first Christians. Ambrosius
supposed that it would be infinite in duration; so Augustine, his
disciple, wrote in his work, De Civitate Dei, book 21; St. Fulgence; the
pope Gregorius, etc. The opinion of those leading doctors was preached,
and, little by little, it became the belief of a large number of
Christians. They even designated the place where hell was: some thought
it was in the profundities of the earth; Augustine opposed them; then he
recanted himself, and agreed that it was there. Finally, in 553, a
general council was held in Constantinople, and it was decided that the
dogma of endless hell shall be henceforth an article of faith. It was
only many years after that this council was considered oecumenical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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