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IntMe, Augustine. Nevertheless, the West has errors
of its own: Novatianism, a legacy from the preceding
age; Donatism in Africa; Manichaeism, which came
from the East, but developed cliicfly in Africa and
Cjaul; Priscilhanism, akin to Manicha?ism, and the
tirstfruits of Spanish mysticism. Manichajism has a
complex character, and, in truth, appears to be a dis-
tinct religion. All other errors of the West have a
bearing on discipUne or morals, on practical hfe, and
do not arise from intellectual speculation. Even in
the Manichsean controversy, moral questions occupy
a large place. Moreover, the characteristic and most
important heresy of the Latin countries bears upon a
problem of Christian psychology and life — the recon-
ciliation of human liberty with the action of Divine
grace. This problem, raised by Pela^ius, was solved
by Augustine. Another characteristic of this period
is the universality of the gifts and the activity dis-
played by its ^atest writers; Ambrose, Jerome, and
Augustine are in turn moralists, historians, and ora-
tors; Ambrose and Augustine are poets; Augustine is
the universal genius, not only of his own time, but of
the Latin Church — one of the greatest men of an-
tiquity, to whom Hamack, without exaggeration,
has found none comparable in ancient history except
Plato. In him Christianity reached one of the hign-
est peaks of human thought.
Tnis second period may be again sulxlivided into three generations. First, the reign of Constantino after the peace of the Church (313-37), when Juvcncus composed the Gospel' History (Historia EvaiigeMca) in verse; from the preceding period he had inherited the influence of Hosius of Cordova. Second, the time between the death of Constantine and the accession of Theodosius (337-79). In this generation apologetic assumes an aggressive tone with Firmicus Maternus, and appeals to the secular arm against paganism; Christianity, by many held res|X)nsible for the gather- ing misfortunes of the empire, is defended by Augus- tine in "The City of God; Ambrose and Prudentius protest against the retention of paganism in official ceremonies; great bishops like Hilary of Poitiers, Zeno of yerona, Optatus of Mileve, Lucifer of Cagliari, Eu- sebius of Vercelli, take part in the controversies of the day; Marius Victorinus combines the erudition of a philologian with the subtlety of a theologian. The third generation was that of St. Jerome, mider Theo- dosius and his son (380-420), a generation rich in intellect — Ambrose, Prudentius, Sulpicius Sevcrus, Rufinus, Jerome, Paulinus of Nola, Augustine, the sec- ondary poets Proba, Damasus, Cyprian; the Spanish theologians Pacianus and Gregory of Elvira; Philas- trius of Brescia and Phœbadius of Agen. The long- lived Augustine overlapped this period; at the same time by the sheer force of genius he is both the last great thinker of antinuity in the West and the first great thinker of the Middle Ages.
Early Christian literature in the W'est may \ye re- garded as ending with the accession of Theodoric (408) . Thenceforth until the Carlo vingian renascence there arises in the various barbarian kingdoms a lit- erature which has for its chief object the ^ucation of the new-comers and the transmission of some of the ancient culture into their new civilization. This brings us to the last of our three p>eriods, which may conveniently be called the Gallo-Roman, and com- prises about two generations, from 420 to 493. It is dominated by one school, that of I^rins. but already the splintering of the old social and political unity is at hand in the new barbarian nationalities rooted on pro- vincial soil. In Augustine's old age, and after his death, a few disciples and partisans of his teachings remain: Orosius, a Spaniard; Prosper of Aquitaine, a Gallo-Roman; Marius Mercator, an African. Later, Victor Vitensis tells the story of the Vandal persecu- tion; in him Roman Africa, overrun by barbarians, furnishes almost the only writer of the second half of
the century. To the Ust of African authors must h%
added the names of two bishops of Mauretania men-
tioned by Gennadius — Victor and Voconius. In Gaul
a pleiad of writers and theologians develops at L^ins
or within the radius of that monastery's influence —
Cassian, Honoratus, Eucherius of Lyons, Vincent of
I-.<5rins, Hilarj'^ of Aries, Valerian of Cemclium, Sal-
viaiius, Faustus of Riez, Gennadius. Here we might
mention Amobius the younger, and the author of the
"Praedestinatus". No literary movement in the
West, before Charlemagne, was so important or so
prolonged. Gaul was then truly the scene of manifold
intellectual activity; in addition to the writers of
Ldrins, that country reckons^ one poly^apher, Sido-
nius Apollinaris, one philosopher, Claudian Mamertus,
several poets, Claudius Marius Victor, Prosper, Orienr
tins, Paulinus of Pella, Paulinus of P4rigueux, perhaps
also CcdUus Sedulius. Against tliis array Italy can
offer only two preachers, St. Peter Chrysologus and
Maximus of Turin, and one ^eat pope, Leo I, still
greater by his deeds than by his writings, whose name
recalls a new influence of the Church of Rome on the
intellectual movement of the time, but a juridical
rather than a literary influence. Early in the fifth
century Innocent 1 appears to have been occupied
with a first compilation of the canon law. He and his
successors intervene in ecclesiastical affairs with let-
ters, some of which have the size and scope of veritable
treatises. Spain is still poorer than Italy, even count-
ing Orosius (already mentioned amon^ the disciples of
Augustine) and the chronicler Hydatius. The island
peoples, which in the preceding period had produced
the heresiarch Pelagius, deserve mention at this date
also for the works attributed to St. Patrick.
A first general characteristic of Christian liter- ature, common to both East and W^est, is the space it devotes to bibliographical questions, and the impor- tance they assume. This fact is explained by the very origins of Christianity: it is a religion not of one book, but of a collection of books, the date, source, authen- ticity, and canonicity of which are matters which it is important to determine. In Eusebius's "History of the Church" it is obvious with what care he pursues the inquiry as to the books of Scripture cited and recognized by his Christian predecessors. In this way there grows up a habit of classifying documents ana references, and of describing in prefaces the nature of the several books. The Bible is not the only object of these minute studies; every important and complex work attracts the attention of editors. Let it suffice to recall the formation of the collection of St. Cyprian's letters and treatises, a more or less official catalogue of which, the ** Cheltenham Catalogue ", was drawn up in 359, after a lengthy elaboration, the successive stages of which are still traceable in several manuscripts. Questions of authenticity play a large part in the dis- sensions of St. Jerome and Rufinus. Apocryphal writings, fabricated in the interest of heresy, engen- dered controversies between the Church and the heret- ical sects. Another illustration of the same literary interest is to be found in the inquiry instituted at the end of the fourth century as to the Canons of Sardica, called Canons of Nicaea. The " Retractationes " of St. Augustine is a work unique in the history of an- cient bibliography, not to speak of its psychologjc interest, a peculiar quality of all Christian literature in the West.
In part, therefore, Christian I^atin literatiu*e natu- rally assumes a character of immediate utility. (Cata- logues are drawn up, lists of bishops, lists of martyrs (Depo»iliones episcoporum et marti/rum) , catalogues of cemeteries, later on church inventories, '*Provin- ciales ", or lists of dioceses according to countries. Be- sides these archive documents, in which we recogniie an imitation of Roman bureaucratic customs, certain literary genres bear the same stamp. The accounts of pilgrimages have as much of the guide-book as of the
