ORIGEN, a celebrated ecclesiastical writer, and one of the greatest geniuses, as well as most learned men, of the church, during the third century, was born at Alexandria in the year 185. He was surnamed Adamantius, either from his indefatigable application to study, or from the firmness he discovered amidst the torments which he suffered for the faith. Leonidas, his father, trained him with great care, and caused him, from his infancy, to apply to the study of the Scriptures, in which he made surprising progress. The son's inclination and turn of mind suited exactly with the father's design; for he pursued his studies with extraordinary zeal and ardour; and, being endowed with a quick apprehension and a strong imagination, he did not content himself with that sense which at first presented itself, but endeavoured to discover mysterious and allegorical explications of the sacred books. He would sometimes even puzzle his father, by soliciting the latter or recondite meanings; which obliged the good man to apprehend him a little, and withal to advise him not to attempt to penetrate too far in the study of the Scriptures, but to content himself with their clear, obvious, and natural sense. Hence it appears how early he was seized with that furor allegoricus, as a learned modern calls it, that rage of expounding the Scriptures allegorically, which afterwards became a distemper, and carried him to excesses which can never be excused. In philosophy he had the celebrated Ammonius as his teacher, and St Clement of Alexandria for his master in divinity. At eighteen years of age he succeeded the latter in the office of catechist; an important employment, which consisted in teaching divinity, and in expounding the Scriptures. Leonidas his father had suffered martyrdom the year before, during the persecution of Severus, in 202; and Origen had shown such eagerness to follow his father to martyrdom, that his mother was obliged to hide his clothes to prevent him going abroad. Origen had a great number of auditors who attended his school, some of whom were of the faithful, and the others Pagans. He confirmed and strengthened the former in their faith, and converted most of the latter; and there were such a number of martyrs amongst his disciples, that it might be said that he kept a school of martyrdom rather than one of divinity.
He taught the doctrines of Christianity to the women and girls, as well as to the men; and taking in a too literal sense what Christ says of becoming voluntary eunuchs, castigated himself, to prevent his deserving or suffering scandal. He took a voyage to Rome in 211, in the beginning of the reign of Caracalla, under the pontificate of Zepherinus. On his return he published many works, whereby he acquired an extraordinary reputation, which drew to him a great number of auditors. But Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, conceiving a jealousy of him, endeavoured upon various pretences to injure him. At length Origen went to Antioch, whither the Empress Mammaea had sent for him to hear him discourse on the Christian religion. He did not however stay long there, but returned to Alexandria, where he continued to teach till the year 228, when he left that city and travelled into Achaia. He then went into Palestine, and was ordained by the bishops of that province at forty-two years of age. But the circumstance of his being ordained by foreign bishops, without the permission of Demetrius, renewed that prelate's resentment against him; upon which Origen hastily returned to Alexandria, to endeavour to mollify him. Demetrius, however, drove him thence in the year 231, and caused him to be excommunicated, and even deposed, in a council which was held in Egypt. Origen then retired to Cæsarea in Palestine, where he raised a celebrated school, and had St Gregory Thaumaturgus, and a great number of other persons who were illustrious for their virtue and learning, as his disciples. He afterwards travelled to Athens, and, at the desire of Firmilianus, staid some time at Cæsarea in Cappadocia; whence he was invited into Arabia, to convince and bring back to the truth Beryllus bishop of Bostra, who maintained that the Word had no existence before his incarnation. Origen had the happiness to make him sensible of his mistake; and some years afterwards he was sent into Arabia by an assembly of bishops, to dispute against certain persons who maintained that the souls of the dead remained in a state of insensibility till the general resurrection. At length the seventh persecution of the Christians began in the reign of Decius, and none was treated with greater severity than Origen. He supported with incredible constancy the dreadful torments which the persecutors of the Christians invented against them; torments which were the more insupportable, as they were made to continue for a long time, and as the persecutors took the greatest care to prevent his expiring in the midst of his tortures. But in the most excruciating agony he discovered an heroic courage, and suffered nothing to escape him which was unworthy a disciple of Jesus Christ. Origen died at Tyre in the year 254, aged sixty-nine. He was the author of a great number of excellent works. The principal of those which have descended to us are, 1. A Treatise against Celsus, of which a good edition in Greek and Latin, with notes, has been published by Spencer; 2. A number of Homilies, with Commentaries on the Holy Scriptures; 3. Philocalia, and several other treatises; 4. Fragments of his Hexapla, collected by Montfaucon, in two volumes folio. Of all Origen's works, the loss of the Hexapla is most to be regretted. This work was thus named from its containing six columns, in the first of which was the Hebrew text of the Bible; in the second, the same text in Greek characters; in the third, the Greek version of the Septuagint; in the fourth, that of Aquila; in the fifth, that of Symmachus; and in the sixth, Theodosian's Greek version. This admirable work first suggested the idea of our Polyglot Bibles. Of the book of Principles we have only an incorrect Latin version. The most complete edition of the works of Origen is that of Father Delarue, a Benedictine, in Greek and Latin. Montfaucon likewise published, in two volumes folio, some remains and fragments of his Hexapla. He ought not to be
Origenians confounded with another Origen, a Platonic philosopher, and the disciple and friend of Porphyry, who studied philosophy under Ammonius. This Origen was perhaps the founder of the sect of Origenians.