This faith in the truth of the written Word persisted throughout the Middle Ages and down to our own day. During the earliest Christian centuries the Bible was sometimes regarded as the only source of truth, and the teachings of pagan writers were often looked upon with abhorrence. Lactantius Firmianus (early fourth century), with an inconsistency characteristic of many of the Church Fathers, made use in his _Institutiones divinae_ of the classical authors themselves to prove the supposed fallacies and evils of pagan science.[191] About the fourth century men began to try to amplify and expound the fundamental Biblical truths by appeal to the legacy of classical learning. To effect a reconciliation and combination of Christian teachings with the classics—especially the works of Plato and his followers—became one of the main preoccupations of theologians. Platonic and Neoplatonic influences made themselves felt in the thought of churchmen and scholars, and among the most popular works of the entire period was Chalcidius’ translation of the _Timaeus_ of Plato. Neoplatonism was interwoven into the theological system of Augustine.[192] In the ninth century it appears in the writings of the great Irish scholar, John Scot Erigena.[193] In the tenth and eleventh centuries the Platonic commentary by Macrobius on Cicero’s _Somnium Scipionis_ enjoyed an immense vogue;[194] it was read by the mathematician and astronomer Pope Sylvester II (Gerbert) at the end of the tenth century and on the threshold of our period aroused the protests of the more old-fashioned churchmen like Manegold, who objected to the seeds of heresy which it contained.[195] ENCYCLOPEDIC COMPILATIONS