Origen (c. 185-c. 254), a pupil and successor of Clement, and the most learned of all the early Christian Fathers, labored to harmonize the Christian faith with Greek learning and philosophy, and did much to formulate the dogmas of the early Church.
Saint Basil (331-379) tried to allay the rising prejudice against pagan learning, and to show the helpfulness to the Christian life of the Greek literature and philosophy.
Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 330-c. 390) was filled with indignation and protested loudly at the closing of the pagan schools to Christians by the edict of the Emperor Julian, in 362.
[18] Tertullian (c. 150-230) had been well educated in Greek literature and philosophy, and had attained distinction as a lawyer.
Saint Jerome (c. 340-420) was saturated with pagan learning, but later advised against it.
Saint Augustine (354-430), the master mind among the Latin Fathers, was for years a teacher of oratory and rhetoric in Roman schools, and had written part of an encyclopaedia on the liberal arts before his conversion. Many others who became prominent in the Western Church had in their earlier life been teachers in the Roman higher schools.
[19] Dreaming that he had died and gone to Heaven, he was asked, "Who art thou?" On replying, "A Christian," he heard the awful judgment, "It is false: thou art no Christian; thou art a Ciceronian; where the treasure is, there the heart is also."
[20] The knowledge of Greek remained alive longer in Ireland than anywhere else in the western world, being known there as late as the seventh century. Greek was also preserved in parts of Spain for two centuries after it had died out in Italy.
[21] In the West there was no other great city than Rome. At the period of its maximum greatness, in the first century B.C., it was a city of approximately 450,000 people.
[22] After many struggles and conflicts between the Bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Rome, the Bishop of Rome was finally recognized by the second great Church Council, held at Constantinople in 381, as the head of the entire Church (Canon 3), corresponding to the Emperor on the political side of the dying Empire. The separation of the eastern and western churches was rapid after this time. (See Map, p. 103.)