ABSTRACT

The reconciliation of thc Christian Church with the Roman State held consequences of the first order for the future of Christianity: "In our days," observes M. Paul Lcjay,2 "people are too much inclined to limit. its importance. Until the peace of the Church, the hostility of the public powers had weighed heavily on the life of the Christian communities. On the day when it had been definitely removed we sec the Church coming forth, as it were, from a long winter, consolidating and developing her ranks, discussing hcr hierarchical powers, defining thc lines of her doctrines, drawing up the formulre of her faith, regulating her worship, surrounding the holy places with public marks of veneration, providing holy retreats for souls desirous of perfection, and giving to the Latin half of the Church a more faithful version of the Bible. All these fruits arc thc harvest of the 1Vth century." This expansion of the spiritual power of the Church and of her material prosperity made itself felt too in the domain of literature. Still we must exclude from our survey the rich output of Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzcll, Gregory of Nyssa, John ChrysostoIn, Synesins, or Ephrem, in order to confine ourselves to works written in Latin. In Biblical exegesis, speculative and moral theology, the hymns of the Church, didactic, epic, and lyric poetry, Christian effort was manifesting itself in every direction. Even art, from this time onward, became a "complete system of instruction, a theology in images, an apologia in sculptured design." 3 We can llleasure the importance of this revival if we consider that profane literature harl no other representatives at that time than men like Libanios, Symmachus, Maerobius, or Claudian.