into the Revival of Greek Literature in Italy. 401 



established, by the taking of Ravenna at the termination of the 

 fifth century. THEODOIUC, although of barbarian extraction, had 

 been educated at the Court of Constantinople, and not only him- 

 self, but his secretary CASSIODORUS, and his minister BOETIUS, 

 were famih'arly acquainted with the language and literature both 

 of Rome and of Greece, the cultivation of which appears to have 

 been a very general passion amongst the learned statesmen who 

 surrounded his Court. But Grecian literature, as we have al- 

 ready seen, had, at this period, fallen into a state of melancholy 

 weakness, even on its own soil, and the beautiful language of At- 

 tica was now no longer what it once had been. 



In those dark ages, when beneath the loss of civil liberty, the 

 decay of ancient nations, and the inundation of barbarian hordes, 

 the cause of knowledge and of science was too speedily losing 

 ground ; the noble stand which was made for it by the Fathers 

 of the Christian Church ought not to be forgotten. Infinitely su- 

 perior to their pagan opponents, in the ardour with which they 

 devoted themselves to literary pursuits, and philosophical stu- 

 dies ; the sublimity of their doctrines, and the excellence of their 

 moral precepts, acquired additional strength from the classical 

 purity of their style. In the department of Grecian literature, 

 a lustre is thrown over the third century by the single name of 

 ORIGEN, the theologian *, the philosopher, the grammarian, the 

 adamantine pillar of the Church. Among the Latin Fathers, 

 and in the same century, names of no common eminence are to 

 be found. The dialogue of MINUCIUS FELIX f , a Roman lawyer 

 and Christian convert, is remarkable for the elegance of its La- 

 tinity, and for the interesting picture which it presents to us of 



* OUIGKN was born at Alexandria in the year 186. ; HAIII.ES, p. 644. ; SPAN- 

 IIEIM, p. 248. ; CAVE, Historia Literaria Eccles. p. 112. vol. i. 



{ CAVE, Hist, Literaria, p. 101. vol. i. 



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