ls (Migne, _Pat. Lat._
tome 76, col. 1254). They did not, however, become generally known in
the Western church till after the year 827, when the Byzantine emperor
Michael the Stammerer sent a copy to Louis the Pious. It was given over
to the care of the above-mentioned abbot Hilduin. In the next generation
the scholar and philosopher Joannes Scotus Erigena (q.v.) translated the
Dionysian writings into Latin. This appears to have been the only Latin
translation until the 12th century when another was made, followed by
several others.

Thus, the author, date and place of composition of these writings are
unknown. External evidence precludes a date later than the year 500, and
the internal evidence from the writings themselves precludes any date
prior to 4th-century phases of Neo-platonism. The extant writings of the
Pseudo-Areopagite are: (a) [Greek: Peri tes ouranias hierarchias],
_Concerning the Celestial Hierarchy_, in fifteen chapters. (b) [Greek:
Peri tes ekklesiastikes hierarchias], _Concerning the Ecclesiastical
Hierarchy_, in seven chapters. (c) [Greek: Peri theion onomaton],
_Concerning Divine Names_, in thirteen chapters. (d) [Greek: Peri
mystikes theologias], _Concerning Mystic Theology_, in five chapters.
(e) Ten letters addressed to various worthies of the apostolic period.

Although these writings seem complete, they contain references to others
of the same author. But of the latter nothing is known, and they may
never have existed.

The writings of the Pseudo-Areopagite are of great interest, first as a
striking presentation of the heterogeneous elements that might unite in
the mind of a gifted man in the 5th century, and secondly, because of
their enormous influence upon subsequent Christian theology and art.
Their ingredients--Christian, Greek, Oriental and Jewish--are not
crudely mingled, but are united into an organic system. Perhaps
theological philosophic fantasy has never constructed anything more
remarkable. The system of Dionysius was a proper product of its
time,--lofty, apparently complete, comparable to the _Enneads_ of
Plotinus which formed part of its materials. But its materials abounded
everywhere, and offered themselves temptingly to the hand strong enough
to build with them. There was what had entered into Neo-platonism, both
in its dialectic form as established by Plotinus, and in its
magic-mystic modes devised by Iamblichus (d. c. 333). There was Jewish
angel lore and Eastern mood an