Waymarks in Church .History. By William Bright, D.D.
for which Canon Bright supplies these " waymarks," may appear sufficiently long, for it extends, though with large omitted spaces, from St. Irentaus and his anti-Gnostic polemic as far as Archbishop Laud. The essay on Laud, however, is really outside the main purpose of the volume, which concerns itself with earlier Christianity, an essay entitled "An Appeal to Bede" being practically the conclusion. One of the most interesting and valuable of the chapters—they are twelve in number with as many supplementary appendices—is the seventh, .dealing with Cyril of Alexandria. It concludes—R. propos of the Nestorian controversy which occupied so large a share of Cyril's energy—with some judicious remarks on "Mother of God" as the 'equivalent of the Greek Theotokos and the Latin Deipara. It can hardly be questioned that an unlearned person, without any heretical tendency, would be startled by the phrase. In " Papalism and Antiquity" Canon Bright argues against the attempt which ilea been made to claim for the Papacy of the third and fourth centuries the preroptives assumed by the Popes of the nine- teenth. "One is inclined," he remarks with much force, "to wonder that a Papalist should venture to name Nicesa at all." 'That at such a supreme crisis of the Church, when " the faith once -delivered to the Saints" was assailed more fiercely than ever it had been before, the depositary of infallible truth should have done -so little, is incredible. Why should it have been " Athanasius .contra mundum " rather than " Roma contra mundum" P Among -the other essays, we may mention "The Episcopate of St. Basil" and " Pelagianism."
for which Canon Bright supplies these " waymarks," may appear sufficiently long, for it extends, though with large omitted spaces, from St. Irentaus and his anti-Gnostic polemic as far as Archbishop Laud. The essay on Laud, however, is really outside the main purpose of the volume, which concerns itself with earlier Christianity, an essay entitled "An Appeal to Bede" being practically the conclusion. One of the most interesting and valuable of the chapters—they are twelve in number with as many supplementary appendices—is the seventh, .dealing with Cyril of Alexandria. It concludes—R. propos of the Nestorian controversy which occupied so large a share of Cyril's energy—with some judicious remarks on "Mother of God" as the 'equivalent of the Greek Theotokos and the Latin Deipara. It can hardly be questioned that an unlearned person, without any heretical tendency, would be startled by the phrase. In " Papalism and Antiquity" Canon Bright argues against the attempt which ilea been made to claim for the Papacy of the third and fourth centuries the preroptives assumed by the Popes of the nine- teenth. "One is inclined," he remarks with much force, "to wonder that a Papalist should venture to name Nicesa at all." 'That at such a supreme crisis of the Church, when " the faith once -delivered to the Saints" was assailed more fiercely than ever it had been before, the depositary of infallible truth should have done -so little, is incredible. Why should it have been " Athanasius .contra mundum " rather than " Roma contra mundum" P Among -the other essays, we may mention "The Episcopate of St. Basil" and " Pelagianism."
Previous page
