orientation is generally observed, but in France and Italy there are many variations. In Scotland it was the custom to fix a pole in the ground over night, and in the morning at sunrise to note the direction taken by the shadow of the pole, which was followed when setting out the axis of the choir; if such a custom had been followed in an early church, when setting out another of later date there should be some difference in the orientation of the two, on account of the variation of the obliquity of the ecliptic in the interval, and this in some cases accounts for the change of the axial line which is found in some churches, either when the east end has been rebuilt, as was constantly the case throughout Europe, or when a nave has been added to an earlier structure. In describing churches it is usual to use the terms east, west, north and south, on the assumption that the altar is at the east end, although this may not be the real bearing of the edifice.
Indirectly also the term is sometimes used in the planning of houses and the relation of the windows of the various rooms to the sunshine and the weather—in other words, to the points of the compass; thus an eastward aspect should be provided for the morning- and dining-rooms, a south-western aspect for the drawing-room, a westward for the library, and north by west for the kitchen, larder, &c. (R. P. S.)
ORIENTE, or La Region Orientale, a large undefined
territory of Ecuador, comprising all that part of the republic lying east of the Andes. Pop. (1887 estimate), 80,000. The territory was formed in 1884 from the older territories of Napo, Canelos and Zamora, but its boundaries with the neighbouring republics of Colombia and Peru are disputed. The territory is covered with great forests, inhabited by wild Indians, and its
climate is hot and exceptionally humid. There are some mission settlements and trading stations in the Andean foothills and on some of the river courses, one of which is Archidona, on a small tributary of the Napo, which is the nominal capital.
ORIGEN (c. 185–c. 254), the most distinguished and most influential of all the theologians of the ancient church, with the possible exception of Augustine. He is the father of the church’s science; he is the founder of a theology which was brought to perfection in the 4th and 5th centuries, and which still retained the stamp of his genius when in the 6th century it disowned its
author. It was Origen who created the dogmatic of the church
and laid the foundations of the scientific criticism of the Old and
New Testaments. He could not have been what he was unless
two generations before him had laboured at the problem of
finding an intellectual expression and a philosophic basis for
Christianity (Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, Pantaenus, Clement).
But their attempts, in comparison with his, are like a schoolboy’s
essays beside the finished work of a master. Like all great
epoch-making personalities, he was favoured by the circumstances
of his life, notwithstanding the relentless persecution
to which he was exposed. He lived in a time when the Christian
communities enjoyed almost uninterrupted peace and held an
acknowledged position in the world. By proclaiming the
reconciliation of science with the Christian faith, of the highest
culture with the Gospel, Origen did more than any other man to
win the Old World to the Christian religion. But he entered into
no diplomatic compromises; it was his deepest and most
solemn conviction that the sacredoracles of Christendom embraced
all the ideals of antiquity. His character was as transparent as
his life was blameless; there are few church fathers whose
biography leaves so pure an impression on the reader. The
atmosphere around him was a dangerous one for a philosopher
and theologian to breathe, but he kept his spiritual health unimpaired,
and even his sense of truth suffered less injury than
was the case with most of his contemporaries. To us, indeed,
his conception of the universe, like that of Philo, seems a strange
medley, and one may be at a loss to conceive how he could bring
together such heterogeneous elements; but there is no reason to
doubt that the harmony of all the essential parts of his system
was obvious enough to himself. It is true that in addressing the
Christian people he used different language from that which he
employed to the cultured; but there was no dissimulation in
that—on the contrary, it was a requirement of his system.
Orthodox theology has never, in any of the confessions, ventured
beyond the circle which the mind of Origen first measured out.
It has suspected and amended its author, it has expunged his
heresies; but whether it has put anything better or more tenable
in their place may be gravely questioned.
Origen was born, perhaps at Alexandria, of Christian parents in the year 185 or 186. As a boy he showed evidence of remarkable talents, and his father Leonidas gave him an excellent education. At a very early age, about the year 200, he listened to the lectures of Pantaenus and Clement in the catechetical school. This school, of which the origin (though assigned to Athenagoras) is unknown, was the first and for a long time the only institution where Christians were instructed simultaneously in the Greek sciences and the doctrines of the holy Scriptures. Alexandria had been, since the days of the Ptolemies, a centre for the interchange of ideas between East and West—between Egypt, Syria, Greece and Italy; and, as it had furnished Judaism with an Hellenic philosophy, so it also brought about the alliance of Christianity with Greek philosophy. Asia Minor and the West developed the strict ecclesiastical forms by means of which the church closed her lines against heathenism, and especially against heresy; in Alexandria Christian ideas were handled in a free and speculative fashion and worked out with the help of Greek philosophy. Till near the end of the 2nd Century the line between heresy and orthodoxy was less rigidly drawn there than at Ephesus, Lyons, Rome or Carthage. In the year 202 a persecution arose, in which the father of Origen became a martyr, and the family lost their livelihood. Origen, who had distinguished himself by his intrepid zeal, was supported for a time by a lady of rank, but began about the same time to earn his bread by teaching; and in 203 he was placed, with the sanction of the bishop Demetrius, at the head of the catechetical school. Even then his attainments in the whole circle of the sciences were extraordinary. But the spirit of investigation impelled him to devote himself to the highest studies, philosophy and the exegesis of the sacred Scriptures. With indomitable perseverance he applied himself to these subjects; although himself a teacher, he regularly attended the lectures of Ammonius Saccas, and made a thorough study of the books of Plato and Numenius, of the Stoics and the Pythagoreans. At the same time he endeavoured to acquire a knowledge of Hebrew, in order to be able to read the Old Testament in the original. His manner of life was ascetic; the sayings of the Sermon on the Mount and the practical maxims of the Stoics were his guiding stars. Four oboli a day, earned by copying manuscripts, sufficed for his bodily sustenance. A rash resolve led him to mutilate himself that he might escape from the lusts of the flesh, and work unhindered in the instruction of the female sex. This step he afterwards regretted. As the attendance at his classes continually increased—pagans thronging to him as well as Christians—he handed over the beginners to his friend Heracles, and took charge of the more advanced pupils himself. Meanwhile the literary activity of Origen was increasing year by year. He commenced his great work on the textual criticism of the Scriptures; and at the instigation of his friend Ambrosius, who provided him with the necessary amanuenses, he published his commentaries on the Old Testament and his dogmatic investigations. In this manner he laboured at Alexandria for twenty-eight years (till 231–232). This period, however, was broken by many journeys, undertaken partly for scientific and partly for ecclesiastical objects. We know that he was in Rome in the time of Zephyrinus, again in Arabia, where a Roman official wanted to hear his lectures, and in Antioch, in response to a most flattering invitation from Julia Mammaea (mother of Alexander Severus, afterwards emperor), who wished to become acquainted with his philosophy. In the year 216—the time when the imperial executioners were ravaging Alexandria—we find Origen in Palestine. There the bishops of Jerusalem and Caesarea received him in the most friendly manner, and got him to deliver public lectures in the churches. In the East, especially in Asia Minor, it was still no unusual thing for
