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Notion
and
Purpose
of
Patrology.
1.
THE
FATHERS
OF
THE
CHURCH.
The
word
Patrology
(
πατρολογία
)
dates
from
the
seventeenth
century,
and
denoted
originally
the
science
of
the
lives
and
writings
of
the
Fathers
of
the
Church.
«Fathers
of
the
Church»
or
simply
«Fathers»
was
the
title
of
honour
given
to
the
ecclesiastical
writers
in
the
first
era
of
the
Church.
Its
use
can
be
recognized
as
far
back
as
the
fifth
century.
In
modern
times
the
explanation
of
the
term
has
been
sought
in
the
similarity
of
the
relationship
existing
between
a
teacher
and
his
disciple
to
that
which
is
found
between
father
and
son;
an
interpretation
apparently
confirmed
by
such
biblical
parallels
as
the
«sons
of
the
prophets»
in
the
Old
Testament,
and
by
passages
in
the
New
like
I
Cor.
iv.
14.
It
fails,
however,
to
do
justice
to
the
historical
development
of
the
name
«Fathers».
In
reality,
this
was
transferred
from
the
bishops
of
the
primitive
Church
to
contemporaneous
ecclesiastical
writers.
In
the
earlier
centuries,
by
a
metaphor
easily
understood,
the
bishop,
in
his
quality
of
head
or
superior,
was
addressed
as
«Father»
or
«Holy
Father»
(e.
g.
Mart.
S.
Polyc.
12,
2:
ό πατήρ τ
ῶ
ν χριστιαν
ῶ
ν
;
and
the
inscription
«Cypriano
papae
or
papati»,
Cypr.
Ep.
30
31
36).
The
authority
of
the
bishop
was
both
disciplinary
and
doctrinal.
He
was
the
depositary
of
the
teaching
office
of
the
Church,
and
in
matters
of
doubt
or
of
controversy
it
was
his
duty
to
decide,
as
witness
and
judge,
concerning
the
true
faith.
Since
the
fifth
century,
however,
this
function
began
to
devolve
(in
learned
discussions
and
conciliar
proceedings)
on
the
ecclesiastical
writers
of
the
primitive
Church.
Most
of
them,
and
those
the
more
eminent
had,
indeed,
been
bishops;
but
non
‐
episcopal
writers
might
also
bear
reliable
witness
to
the
contemporaneous
faith
of
the
Church,
and
when
such
testimonies
dated
from
the
earliest
Christian
period,
they
naturally
enjoyed
special
respect
and
authority.
The
more
frequently
the
consciousness
of
the
primitive
Church
in
matters
of
faith
was
appealed
to
in
the
course
of
doctrinal
disputes,
the
more
rapidly
must
so
prevalent
a
term
as
«Father»
have
undergone
a
certain
alteration.
It
was
used
to
denote
the
witnesses
to
the
faith
of
the
primitive
Church,
and
since
such
witnesses
were
rather
its
writers
than
its
bishops,
the
term
passed
from
the
latter
to
the
former.
The
change
of
meaning
just
alluded
to
will
be
made
evident
by
the
following
instances.
According
to
St.
Athanasius
(Ep.
ad
Afros,
c.
6),
the
bishops
of
the
Council
of
Nicæa
(325)
appealed
to
the
testimony
of
the
«Fathers»
(
ἐ
κ
[
τ
ῶ
ν
]
πατέρων
ἔ
χοντες τ
ὴ
ν μαρτυρίαν
)
in
defence
of
the
consubstantiality
of
the
Son
with
the
Father;
especially
prominent
among
these
«Fathers»
were
two
early
bishops
(
ἐ
πίσκοποι αρχα
ῖ
οι
),
Dionysius
of
Rome
(
Ŧ
268)
and
Dionysius
of
Alexandria
(
Ŧ
265),
both
of
them
defenders
of
the
consubstantiality
of
the
Son.
«How
can
they
now
reject
the
Council
of
Nicæa»,
says
Athanasius,
«since
even
their
own
fathers
(
και οίπατέρες αύτ
ῶ
ν
)
subscribed
its
decrees?»
He
had
just
mentioned
the
name
of
the
Arianizing
bishop
Eusebius
of
Cæesarea.
«Whose
heirs
and
successors
are
they?
How
can
they
call
those
men
Fathers
(
λέγειν πατέρας
)
whose
profession
(of
faith)
they
do
not
accept?»
Apparently
Athanasius
understands
by
«Fathers»
only
bishops,
especially
those
of
the
primitive
Church.
The
bishops,
and
they
alone,
had
inherited
the
teaching
office
of
the
Apostles.
St.
Augustine,
in
his
dispute
with
the
Pelagian
Julianus
of
Eclanum
(Contra
Julian.
I.
34
;
II.
33
36),
appeals
to
St.
Jerome
as
a
witness
for
the
ecclesiastical
teaching
concerning
original
sin;
at
the
same
time
he
is
conscious
of
having
overstepped
a
certain
line
of
demarcation.
To
forestall
his
adversary’s
refusal
to
accept
the
evidence
of
Jerome,
he
insists
that,
though
the
latter
was
not
a
bishop,
his
extraordinary
learning
and
the
holiness
of
his
life
entitled
him
to
be
held
a
reliable
interpreter
of
the
faith
of
the
Church.
At
the
first
session
of
the
council
of
Ephesus
(431),
testimonies
were
read
from
the
«writings
of
Otto
Bardenhewer.
Notion
and
Purpose
of
Patrology.
2
http://plgo.info
the
most
holy
and
godfearing
fathers
and
bishops
and
other
witnesses»
(
βιβλία τών άγιωτάτων καίόσιωτάτων πατέρων και επισκόπων και διαφόρων μαρτύρων
,
Mansi,
SS.
Conc.
Coll.,
iv.
1184).
The
writings
quoted
are
exclusively
those
of
early
bishops.
In
his
famous
Commonitorium
(434)
St.
Vincent
of
Lérins
recommends
with
insistence
(c.
3
33
sq.)
that
the
faithful
hold
fast
to
the
teaching
of
the
holy
Fathers;
at
the
same
time
he
makes
it
clear
that
he
refers,
not
so
much
to
the
bishops,
as
to
the
ecclesiastical
writers
of
Christian
antiquity.
2.
FATHERS
OF
THE
CHURCH,
ECCLESIASTICAL
WRITERS,
DOCTORS
OF
THE
CHURCH.
All
the
ancient
ecclesiastical
writers
were
not
trustworthy
witnesses
of
the
faith;
hence
it
is
that
posterity
has
not
conferred
on
all
without
distinction
the
title
of
«Fathers
of
the
Church».
St.
Vincent
of
Lérins
says
that,
in
order
to
try
the
faith
of
Christians,
God
permitted
some
great
ecclesiastical
teachers,
like
Origen
and
Tertullian,
to
fall
into
error.
The
true
norm
and
rule
of
faith,
he
adds,
is
the
concordant
evidence
of
those
Fathers
who
have
remained
true
to
the
faith
of
the
Church
in
their
time,
and
were
to
the
end
of
their
lives
examples
of
Christian
virtue:
«Eorum
dumtaxat
patrum
sententiae
conferendae
sunt,
qui
in
fide
et
communione
catholica
sancte,
sapienter,
constanter
viventes,
docentes
et
permanentes
vel
mori
in
Christo
fideliter
vel
occidi
pro
Christo
feliciter
meruerunt.»
1
Pope
Hormisdas
2
refuses
to
accept
appeals
to
the
Semi
‐
Pelagian
Faustus
of
Riez
and
other
theologians,
on
the
plea
that
they
were
not
«Fathers».
Later
Councils
often
distinguish
between
theological
writers
more
or
less
untrustworthy
and
the
«approved
Fathers
of
the
Church».
3
The
earliest
descriptive
catalogue
of
«Fathers»
whose
writings
merit
commendation,
as
well
as
of
other
theological
authors
against
whose
writings
people
are
to
be
warned,
is
found
in
the
Decretal
De
recipiendis
et
non
recipiendis
libris,
current
under
the
name
of
Pope
Gelasius
I.
(492
‐
496).
Modern
patrologists
indicate
four
criteria
of
a
«Father
of
the
Church»:
orthodoxy
of
doctrine,
holiness
of
life,
ecclesiastical
approval,
and
antiquity.
All
other
theological
writers
are
known
as
«ecclesiastici
scriptores»,
«ecclesiae
scriptores»
4
.
The
Fathers
were
not
all
held
in
equal
esteem
by
their
successors;
both
as
writers
and
theologians
they
differ
much
as
to
place
and
importance
in
ecclesiastical
antiquity.
In
the
West
four
«Fathers
of
the
Church»
have
been
held
as
pre
‐
eminent
since
the
eighth
century:
Ambrose
(
Ŧ
397),
Jerome
(
Ŧ
420),
Augustine
(
Ŧ
430),
and
Gregory
the
Great
(
Ŧ
604);
Boniface
VIII.
declared
(1298)
that
he
wished
these
four
known
as
Doctors
of
the
Church
par
excellence,
and
their
feasts
placed
on
a
level
with
those
of
the
apostles
and
evangelists.
5
Later
popes
have
added
other
Fathers
to
the
list
of
Doctors
of
the
Church,
either
in
liturgical
documents
or
by
special
decrees.
Such
are,
among
the
Latins,
Hilary
of
Poitiers
(
Ŧ
366),
Peter
Chrysologus
(
Ŧ
ca.
450),
Leo
the
Great
(
Ŧ
461
),
Isidore
of
Seville
(
Ŧ
636).
Among
the
Greeks,
Athanasius
(
Ŧ
373),
Basil
the
Great
(
Ŧ
379),
Cyril
of
Jerusalem
(
Ŧ
386),
Gregory
of
Nazianzus
(
Ŧ
ca.
390),
John
Chrysostom
(
Ŧ
407),
Cyril
of
Alexandria
(
Ŧ
444),
John
of
DaInascus
(
Ŧ
ca.
754),
are
honoured
as
Doctors
of
the
Church.
Some
later
theological
writers
thus
distinguished
are:
Peter
1
Common.
c.
39;
cf.
c.
41.
2
Quos
in
auctoritatem
patrum
non
recipit
examen:
Ep.
124,
c.
4.
3
Probabiles
ecclesiae
patres:
Conc.
Lat.
Rom.
(649)
can.
18
(Mansi
x.
1157);
οί έγκριτοι πατέρες
:
Conc.
Nic.
II
(787)
act.
6
(Mansi
xiii.
313).
4
St.
Jerome,
De
viris
illustr.,
prol.
5
Egregios
ipsius
doctores
ecclesiae:
c.
un.,
in
vi.,
de
reliquiis
3,
22.
Otto
Bardenhewer.
Notion
and
Purpose
of
Patrology.
3
http://plgo.info
Damian
(
Ŧ
1072),
Anselm
of
Canterbury
(
Ŧ
1109),
Bernard
of
Clairvaux
(
Ŧ
1153),
Thomas
Aquinas
(
Ŧ
1274),
Bonaventure
(
Ŧ
1274),
Francis
of
Sales
(
Ŧ
1622),
and
Alphonsus
Liguori
(
Ŧ
1787).
In
1899
Leo
XIII.
declared
the
Venerable
Bede
(
Ŧ
735)
a
Doctor
of
the
Church.
The
liturgical
books
of
the
Greek
Church
make
mention
of
only
three
«great
ecumenical
teachers»
(
οίκουμενικοί μεγάλοιδιδάσκαλοι
):
Basil
the
Great,
Gregory
of
Nazianzum,
and
John
Chrysostom.
The
patrological
criteria
of
a
«Doctor
of
the
Church»
are:
orthodoxy
of
doctrine,
holiness
of
life,
eminent
learning,
and
formal
action
of
the
Church:
«doctrina
orthodoxa,
sanctitas
vitae,
eminens
eruditio,
expressa
ecclesiae
declaratio».
J.
Fessler,
Instit.
Patrol.
ed.
B.
Jungmann
(Innspruck
1890),
i.
15
‐
57.
On
the
earliest
Latin
Doctors
of
the
Church
cf.
C.
Weyman
in
Historisches
Jahrbuch
(1894),
xv.
96
sq.,
and
Revue
d’histoire
et
de
littérat.
relig.
(1898),
iii.
562
sq.
On
the
«great
ecumenical
teachers»
of
the
Greeks
cf.
Nilles
in
Zeitschrift
für
katholische
Theologie
(1894),
xviii.
742
sq.
;
E.
Bondy,
Les
Pères
de
l’Eglise
in
Revue
Augustinienne
(1904),
pp.
461
‐
486.
3.
THE
PATRISTIC
EPOCH.
As
late
as
the
fifth
century
even
very
recent
writers
could
be
counted
among
the
«holy
Fathers».
Among
the
«most
holy
and
godfearing
Fathers»
whose
writings
were
read
in
the
first
session
of
the
Council
of
Ephesus
(June
22.,
431)
6
were
Theophilus
of
Alexandria
(
Ŧ
412)
and
Atticus
of
Constantinople
(
Ŧ
425).
In
the
list
of
patristic
citations,
«paternae
auctoritates»,
appended
by
Leo
the
Great
to
his
Letter
to
Flavian
of
Constantinople
(June
13.,
449)
7
there
are
passages
from
Augustine
(
Ŧ
430)
and
from
Cyril
of
Alexandria
(
Ŧ
444)
∙
The
later
Christian
centuries
tended
more
and
more
to
confine
this
honourable
title
to
the
ecclesiastical
writers
of
antiquity.
It
was
applied
to
them
not
so
much
on
account
of
their
antiquity
as
on
account
of
their
authority,
which,
in
turn,
had
its
root
in
their
antiquity.
The
«Fathers»
of
the
first
centuries
are
and
remain
in
a
special
way
the
authentic
interpreters
of
the
thoughts
and
sentiments
of
the
primitive
Christians.
In
their
writings
were
set
down
for
all
time
documentary
testimonies
to
the
primitive
conception
of
the
faith.
Though
modern
Christian
sects
have
always
denounced
the
Catholic
principle
of
«tradition»,
they
have
been
compelled,
by
the
logic
of
things,
to
seek
in
ecclesiastical
antiquity
for
some
basis
or
countenance
of
their
own
mutually
antagonistic
views.
The
limits
of
Christian
antiquity
could
not,
of
course,
be
easily
fixed;
they
remain
even
yet
somewhat
indistinct.
The
living
current
of
historical,
and
particularly
of
intellectual
life,
always
defies
any
immovable
time
‐
boundaries.
Most
modern
manuals
of
Patrology
draw
the
line
for
the
Greek
Church
at
the
death
of
John
of
Damascus
(
Ŧ
ca.
754),
for
the
Latin
Church
at
the
death
of
Gregory
the
Great
(
Ŧ
604).
For
Latin
ecclesiastical
literature
the
limit
should
be
stretched
to
the
death
of
Isidore
of
Seville
(
Ŧ
636).
Like
his
Greek
counterpart,
John
Damascene,
Isidore
was
a
very
productive
writer,
and
thoroughly
penetrated
with
the
sense
of
his
office
as
a
frontiersman
between
the
old
and
the
new.
The
teachings
of
the
Fathers
of
the
Church
are
among
the
original
sources
of
Catholic
doctrine.
On
the
reasons
for
the
same
and
the
extent
to
which
the
patristic
writings
may
be
drawn
upon
for
the
proof
of
Catholic
teaching
cf.
Fessler
‐
Jungmann,
op.
cit.,
i.
41
‐
57.
6
Mansi,
iv.
1184
‐
1196.
7
Ib.,
vi.
961
‐
972.
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