{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c007\">These happy years, however, were soon to end. Origen was\r\ncalled to Greece, probably about the year 228,<a id=\"r15\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f15\"><sup>[15]</sup></a> upon what\r\nEusebius vaguely calls “the pressing need of ecclesiastical\r\naffairs,”<a id=\"r16\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f16\"><sup>[16]</sup></a> but which has generally been understood<a id=\"r17\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f17\"><sup>[17]</sup></a> to refer to\r\nthe prevalence of heretical views in the Church there, for the\r\neradication of which the assistance of Origen was invoked.\r\nBefore entering on this journey, he obtained letters of recommendation\r\nfrom his bishop.<a id=\"r18\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f18\"><sup>[18]</sup></a> He passed through Palestine on\r\nhis way to Greece, and at Cæsarea received at the hands of his\r\nfriends Alexander and Theoctistus the consecration to the\r\noffice of presbyter,—an honour which proved to him afterwards\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_xxix\">xxix</span>the source of much persecution and annoyance. No doubt the\r\nmotives of his friends were of the highest kind, and among\r\nthem may have been the desire to take away the ground of\r\nobjection formerly raised by Demetrius against the public\r\npreaching of a mere layman in the presence of a bishop. But\r\nthey little dreamed of the storm which this act of theirs was to\r\nraise, and of the consequences which it was to bring upon the\r\nhead of him whom they had sought to honour. After completing\r\nhis journey through Greece, Origen returned to Alexandria\r\nabout the year 230. He there found his bishop greatly\r\nincensed against him for what had taken place at Cæsarea.\r\nNor did his anger expend itself in mere objurgations and\r\nrebukes. In the year 231 a synod was summoned by Demetrius,\r\ncomposed of Egyptian bishops and Alexandrian presbyters,\r\nwho declared Origen unworthy to hold the office of teacher,\r\nand excommunicated him from the fellowship of the church of\r\nAlexandria. Even this did not satisfy the vindictive feeling\r\nof Demetrius. He summoned a second synod, in which the\r\nbishops alone were permitted to vote, and by their suffrages\r\nOrigen was degraded from the office of presbyter, and intimation\r\nof this sentence was ordered to be made by encyclical letter\r\nto the various churches. The validity of the sentence was recognised\r\nby all of them, with the exception of those in Palestine,\r\nPhœnicia, Arabia, and Achaia,—a remarkable proof of the\r\nposition of influence which was at that time held by the church\r\nof Alexandria. Origen appears to have quitted the city before\r\nthe bursting of the storm, and betook himself to Cæsarea, which\r\nhenceforth became his home, and the seat of his future labours\r\nfor a period of nearly a quarter of a century. The motives\r\nwhich impelled Demetrius to this treatment of Origen have\r\nbeen variously stated and variously criticised. Eusebius<a id=\"r19\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f19\"><sup>[19]</sup></a> refers\r\nhis readers for a full account of all the matters involved to the\r\ntreatise which he and Pamphilus composed in his defence; but\r\nthis work has not come down to us,<a id=\"r20\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f20\"><sup>[20]</sup></a> although we possess a brief\r\nnotice of it in the <i>Bibliotheca</i> of Photius,<a id=\"r21\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f21\"><sup>[21]</sup></a> from which we derive\r\nour knowledge of the proceedings of the two synods. There\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_xxx\">xxx</span>seems little reason to doubt that jealousy of interference on\r\nthe part of the bishops of another diocese was one main cause\r\nof the resentment displayed by Demetrius; while it is also\r\npossible that another alleged cause, the heterodox character of\r\nsome of Origen’s opinions, as made known in his already published\r\nworks, among which were his <i>Stromata</i> and <i>De Principiis</i>,<a id=\"r22\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f22\"><sup>[22]</sup></a>\r\nmay have produced some effect upon the minds of the hostile\r\nbishops. Hefele<a id=\"r23\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f23\"><sup>[23]</sup></a> asserts that the act of the Palestinian bishops\r\nwas contrary to the Church law of the time, and that Demetrius\r\nwas justified on that ground for his procedure against him.\r\nBut it may well be doubted whether there was any generally\r\nunderstood law or practice existing at so early a period of the\r\nChurch’s history. If so, it is difficult to understand how it\r\nshould have been unknown to the Palestinian bishops; or, on the\r\nsupposition of any such existing law or usage, it is equally\r\ndifficult to conceive that either they themselves or Origen\r\nshould have agreed to disregard it, knowing as they did the\r\njealous temper of Demetrius, displayed on the occasion of\r\nOrigen’s preaching at Cæsarea already referred to, and which\r\nhad drawn from the Alexandrine bishop an indignant remonstrance,\r\nin which he had asserted that such an act was “quite\r\nunheard-of before.”<a id=\"r24\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f24\"><sup>[24]</sup></a> To this statement the Cæsarean bishops\r\nhad replied in a letter, in which they enumerated several instances\r\nof laymen who had addressed the congregation.<a id=\"r25\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f25\"><sup>[25]</sup></a> The\r\nprobabilities, therefore, are in favour of there being no generally\r\nunderstood law or practice on the subject, and that the\r\nprocedure, therefore, was dictated by hierarchical jealousy on\r\nthe part of Demetrius. According to Eusebius,<a id=\"r26\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f26\"><sup>[26]</sup></a> indeed, the\r\nact of mutilation already referred to was made a ground of\r\naccusation against Origen; and there seems no doubt that\r\nthere existed an old canon of the Church,<a id=\"r27\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f27\"><sup>[27]</sup></a> based upon the words\r\nin <abbr title=\"Deuteronomy\">Deut.</abbr> <abbr title=\"twenty-three\">xxiii.</abbr> 1, which rendered one who had committed such\r\nan act ineligible for office in the Church. But there is no trace\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_xxxi\">xxxi</span>of this act, as disqualifying Origen for the office of presbyter,\r\nhaving been urged by Demetrius, so far as can be discovered\r\nfrom the notices of the two synods which have been preserved\r\nby Rufinus and Photius; and it seems extremely probable,\r\nas Redepenning remarks,<a id=\"r28\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f28\"><sup>[28]</sup></a> that if Demetrius were acquainted\r\nwith this act of Origen, as Eusebius says he was,<a id=\"r29\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f29\"><sup>[29]</sup></a> he made no\r\npublic mention of it, far less that he made it a pretence for his\r\ndeposition.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","LIFE OF ORIGEN."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-27"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"b1800358c2df1675668479cf3540ce06b991cd67a3291e1090e0f5db46e5b06a","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f28","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1872 English edition; listed translators died 1889 and 1872. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f28","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f28\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r28\">28</a>. </span><abbr class=\"spell\">Cf.</abbr> Redepenning, <abbr title=\"volume\">vol.</abbr> <abbr title=\"one\">i.</abbr> <abbr title=\"page\">p.</abbr> 409, note 2.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f28","text_sha256":"9d4b057c353627f621216142456757a87b8d4a5827bebbfc685e0b95c58bfa06","verified":false,"work_id":null}