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DIDYMUS, an ecclesiastical writer and president of the school of
sacred learning in Alexandria, flourished about the same period. He
was acquainted with every branch of science, and was conversant with
poetry and rhetoric, with astronomy and geometry, with arithmetic,
and with the various theories of philosophy. He had acquired all this
knowledge by the efforts of his own mind, aided by the sense of
hearing, for he became blind during his first attempt at learning the
rudiments. When he had advanced to youth, he manifested an ardent
desire to acquire speech and training, and for this purpose he
frequented the teachers of these branches, but learned by hearing
only, where he made such rapid progress that he speedily comprehended
the difficult theorems in mathematics. It is said that he learned the
letters of the alphabet by means of tablets in which they were
engraved, and which he felt with his fingers; and that he made himself
acquainted with syllables and words by the force of attention and
memory, and by listening attentively to the sounds. His was a very
extraordinary case, and many persons resorted to Alexandria for the
express purpose of hearing, or, at least, of seeing him. His
firmness in defending the doctrines of the Nicaean council was
extremely displeasing to the Arians. He easily carried conviction to
the minds of his audience by persuasion rather than by power of
reasoning, and he constituted each one a judge of the ambiguous
points. He was much sought after by the members of the Catholic
Church, and was praised by the orders of monks in Egypt, and by
Antony the Great.
It is related that when Antony left the desert and repaired to
Alexandria to give his testimony in favor of the doctrines of
Athanasius, he said to Didymus, "It is not a severe thing, nor
does it deserve to be grieved over, O Didymus, that you are deprived
of the organs of sight which are possessed by rats, mice, and the
lowest animals; but it is a great blessing to possess eyes like
angels, whereby you can contemplate keenly the Divine Being, and see
accurately the true knowledge." In Italy and its territories,
Eusebius and Hilary, whom I have already mentioned, were
conspicuous for strength in the use of their native tongue, whose
treatises concerning the faith and against the heterodox, they say,
were approvingly circulated. Lucifer, as the story goes, was the
founder of a heresy which bears his name, and flourished at this
period. Aetius was likewise held in high estimation among the
heterodox; he was a dialectician, apt in syllogism and proficient in
disputation, and a diligent student of such forms, but without art.
He reasoned so boldly concerning the nature of God, that many persons
gave him the name of "Atheist." It is said that he was originally a
physician of Antioch in Syria, and that, as he frequently attended
meetings of the churches, and thought over the Sacred Scriptures, he
became acquainted with Gallus, who was then Caesar, and who honored
religion much and cherished its professors. It seems likely that, as
Aetius obtained the esteem of Caesar by means of these disputations,
he devoted himself the more assiduously to these pursuits, in order to
progress in the favor of the emperor. It is said that he was versed in
the philosophy of Aristotle, and frequented the schools in which it
was taught at Alexandria.
Besides the individuals above specified, there were many others in the
churches who were capable of instructing the people and of reasoning
concerning the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. It would be too
great a task to attempt to name them all. Let it not be accounted
strange, if I have bestowed commendations upon the leaders or
enthusiasts of the above mentioned heresies. I admire their
eloquence, and their impressiveness in discourse. I leave their
doctrines to be judged by those whose right it is. For I have not
been set forth to record such matters, nor is it befitting in history;
I have only to give an account of events as they happened, not
supplementing my own additions. Of those who at that time became most
distinguished in education and discourse and who used the Roman and
Greek languages, I have enumerated in the above narrative as many as
I have received an account of.
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