CHAPTER III. 



PHASES OF UNORTHODOX BELIEFS. 



SjT HE most satisfactory source of information, 

 ^■/ as to the belief of Christendom, on the ques- 

 tion of future punishment, is found in records of the 

 councils, synods, testimonies, and individual 

 opinions of representative men. These sources 

 -of information cover the most of the time from 

 the first century to the present. This mass of in- 

 formation is divided between two general classes: 

 -those for and those against the orthodox opinion. 

 That is, those who believe in future eternal 

 ^conscious suffering and those who do not. 



Among those who do not hold to the orthodox 

 faith are those who are devoted to the apocatas- 

 tasis, but are not to be mentioned as having any 

 .considerable bearing on this question, on account 

 •of the extreme 'minority of their adherents. 

 >Clement and Origen may be mentioned as de- 

 voted to the doctrine of restitution in the first 

 patristic period (A. D. 200-300), but they were 

 regarded by the other fathers as heretical in their 

 opinions. And yet even Origen was not con- 



