The Nature of the Apocriticus
It may be stated at the outset that it was originally a work in five books, and claims to represent a dialogue between Macarius and a heathen philosopher, which took place on five successive days. The Athens MS. is mutilated, beginning in Chapter Sveen of Book Two, and ending in the middle of Chapter Thirty of Book Four. A fragment of Book One has been preserved in Nicephorus,1 and I had myself the good fortune to discover a fragment of Book Five in Turrianus.2 The questions are mostly objections to selected verses of the Gospels, Acts, and Pauline Epistles, but one or two concern the Old Testament, and some in the later part are purely doctrinal. There seems some sequence in their subjects, Christ's miracles being first attacked, and then His words, the chief charge being that of inconsistency. There follow like charges of inconsistency against St. Peter and St. Paul, and then objections are brought to such doctrines as the Incarnation, the Monarchy of God, and the Resurrection. The fragment from Book Five suggests, that the latter part dealt with some of the more inward doctrines of Christianity, such as justification by faith. The method of the book is to give about seven objections in a series, and then their respective answers, with a few words of introduction in each case, especially at the beginning of each book.
Footnotes:
1See Nicephorus, Antirrhetici Libri, ap. Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense, tom. i. p. 303 et seq.
2Turrianus, Dogmaticus de Justificatione ad Germanos adversus Luteranos, Romae, 1557, p. 37 et seq.