FATHERS OF THE CHURCH

The early Christian writers whose works have thrown light upon the history, doctrines, and observances of the primitive church, and who are thereby entitled to be looked up to by us to a certain extent as guides and instructors. The period to which the list may be extended is, of course, arbitrary. St. Bernard in the 12th century is generally styled the last of the Fathers. The writers of the 1st century, or who were cotemporary with the first disciples, are distinguished by the term Apostolic Fathers. The general character of the writings of these celebrated men, their trustworthine as witne es, their authority as judges in matters of doctrine and discipline, and the utility of studying their works, have been, unfortunately, discu ed by divines of different parties with far more of prejudice and the spirit of system than the love of truth. It has been sometimes the fashion to exalt and sometimes to depreciate them: seldom have they been used by learned men of any church for the simple and serious purposes of edification. A voluminous controversy was carried on upon this subject between some Protestants, chiefly of the Calvin ist churches, who attacked the Fathers, and others, both Protestant and Catholic, who defended them, towards the end of the 17th century. On the former side, two works of some notoriety were produced, —Daille's Treatise on the Use of the Fathers; and Barbeyrac, Morale des Peres de VEglise. Among many answers, may be cited that of Cellier to Barbeyrac, 1718. In England, Burnet, Hill, Peter Allix, Reeves {Apologies of the Early Fathers, with Di ertations, 1709), took part in it. The Benedictines of Paris, in the 17th century, published valuable editions of the principal Fathers, both Greek and Latin. Nourry, a learned member of that order, published an Apparatus to Despont's great collection, the Bibliotheca Fatrum, in which much information is coltected. Of late years Mr. Collins on, by his Bampton Lectures (1817), raised anew a spirit of controversy on the subject. At Oxford and at Paris, new editions of an extensive and valuable character of the Fathers are now in progre . [s. 454]