Another and a still more distinguished author, contemporary with Hippolytus, was ORIGEN.  He was born at Alexandria about A.D. 185; his father Leonides, who was a teacher of rhetoric, was a member of the Church; and his son enjoyed the advantages of an excellent elementary education.  Origen, when very young, was required daily to commit prescribed portions of the Word of God to memory; and the child soon became intensely interested in the study of the sacred oracles.  The questions which he proposed to his father, as he repeated his appointed tasks, displayed singular precocity of intellect; and Leonides rejoiced exceedingly as he observed from time to time the growing indications of his extraordinary genius.  But, before Origen reached maturity, his good parent fell a victim to the intolerance of the imperial laws.  In the persecution under Septimius Severus, when the young scholar was about seventeen years of age, Leonides was put into confinement, and then beheaded.  He had a wife and seven children who were likely to be left destitute by his death; but Origen, who was his first born, afraid lest his constancy should be overcome by the prospect of a beggared family, wrote a letter to him when he was in prison to encourage him to martyrdom.  “Stand steadfast, father,” said the ardent youth, “and take care not to desert your principles on our account.”  At this crisis he would have exposed himself to martyrdom, had not his mother hid his clothes, and thus prevented him from appearing in public.

When Leonides was put to death his property was confiscated, and his family reduced to poverty.  But Origen now attracted the notice of a rich and noble lady of Alexandria, who received him into her house, and became his patron.  He did not, however, remain long under her roof; as he was soon able to earn a maintenance by teaching.  He continued, meanwhile, to apply himself with amazing industry to the acquisition of knowledge; and at length he began to be regarded as one of the most learned of the Christians.  So great was his celebrity as a divine that, more than once during his life, whole synods of foreign bishops solicited his advice and interference in the settlement of theological controversies.

Whilst Origen, by intense study, was constantly adding to his intellectual treasures, he also improved his mind by travelling.  When about twenty-six years of age he made a journey to Rome; and he subsequently visited Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece.  As he passed through Palestine in A.D. 228, when he was in the forty-third year of his age, he was ordained a presbyter by some of the bishops of that country.  He was now teacher of the catechetical school of Alexandria—­an office in which he had succeeded Clement—­and his ordination by the foreign pastors gave great offence to Demetrius, his own bishop.  It has been said that this haughty churchman was galled by the superior reputation of the great scholar; and Origen, on his