PATROLOGY
O.BARDENHEWER
Coll. Chriati
BIBL THEO
PATROLOGY
THE LIVES AND WORKS OF THE
FATHERS OF THE CHURCH.
PATROLOGY
THE LIVES AND WORKS OF THE
FATHERS OF THE CHURCH
BY
, b
OTTO BARDENHEWER, D. D., PH. D.
PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH
TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND EDITION
BY
THOMAS J. SHAHAN, D. D.
PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
WITH THE APPROBATION AND RECOMMENDATION OF THEIR LORDSHIPS THE
ARCHBISHOPS AND BISHOPS OF COVINGTON, FREIBURG, MILWAUKEE,
OGDENSBURG, ST. LOUIS, SIOUX FALLS AND SPRINGFIELD
Coll. CtrUti Regie
BIBL. THEOL.
TORONT.
FREIBURG IM BREISGAU AND ST. LOUIS, MO. 1908
B. HERDER
PUBLISHER TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE
BERLIN, KARLSRUHE, MUNICH, STRASSBURG, VIENNA
Imprimatur.
Friburgi Brisgoviae, die I Mail 1908.
4: THOMAS, Archiepps.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
B. HERDER, Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany).
APPROBATIONS.
Milwaukee, Wis., Jan. 10., 1907.
My dear Dr. Shahan,
Allow me to congratulate you upon the happy thought of giving us an
English translation of Dr. Bardenhewer 's excellent Manual of Patrology.
You know that I have been long wishing for just such a book which is a
real desideratum for educated Catholic Americans, especially the clergy
and our candidates for the priesthood. Protestantism, Anglican and German,
is trying to find in the primitive Church the historic foundation for its
sectarian tenets, while Rationalism seeks in the early Christian writings for
weapons with which to attack the credibility of the Gospels and the apo-
stolicity of Catholic Dogma. How can the Catholic student successfully
meet the enemies of the Church if he has no more knowledge of the
Fathers and Doctors of the Church, those early authentic custodians and
exponents of the Depositum fidei , than what he has gathered from a few
disjointed texts or patristic quotations in a Manual of Dogmatic Theology,
or from the short sketches of the lives and writings of the Fathers found
in a Manual of Church History?
Yet, this is only what may be called the apologetic view of the study
of the Fathers, suggested by the contemporary struggle of the Church
defending her claim to be the original Church of Christ. There are many
other valuable advantages of thorough patristic studies. A close acquaint
ance with the Fathers of the Church will furnish those who « search the
Scriptures » with a fuller and clearer understanding of the manifold and
often hidden meaning of Holy Writ. It will provide the Christian teacher,
called to preach the word, with an inexhaustible supply of solid and at
tractive material. To the student of Church History, it will furnish a better
and more correct insight into the true causes and character of events by
throwing a wonderful light upon many questions of early Church dis
cipline and law. Nor shall we overlook the precious gems of poetry and
oratory, of narrative and description, found in early Christian literature,
which compare quite favorably with the jewels of the pagan classics.
Dr. Bardenheiver' s Manual is an excellent key to the rich and varied
literature of the «Beginnings of Christianity* of which you have given us
such interesting accounts. By your translation you have placed that key
I
in our hands. It is now the duty of priest and seminarian to open the
door to the treasury of our early classics. May the « Manual* have all the
success that it so richly deserves!
Yours very sincerely in Christo,
:£• S. G. MESSMER,
Archbishop of Milwaukee.
St. Louis, Mo., Jan., 20., 1907.
My dear Dr. Shahan,
I wish to congratulate you on the appearance of your translation of
Bardenhewer' s Patrology. I have heard much of the original, and am
sure that in your hands it has lost none of its value. I bespeak for it a
large circulation and shall take pleasure in commending it when oc
casion offers.
With best wishes, I am
Sincerely yours in Christo,
4- JOHN J. GLENNON,
Archbishop of St. Louis.
Springfield, Mass., Jan. 15., 1907.
My dear Dr. Shahan,
The appearance of Bardenhewer' s Patrology in an English translation
will elicit a scholar's welcome from all professors and students of Patristic
Theology and Church History*
The excellency of the work in the original, and the well known fitness
of the translator make our approval and recommendation an easy and
willing evidence of our pleasure and satisfaction in its publication.
It should easily find space upon the library shelf of every seminarist
and every priest.
f THOMAS D. BEAVEN,
Bishop of Springfield.
Sioux Falls, S. D., Jan. 12., 1907.
My dear Doctor,
I rejoice to learn that you have translated into English Bardenhewer' s
«The Lives and Works of the Fathers of the Church», and that Herder
will publish the translation within the coining year. This is the best
Manual of Patrology that I know ; it will be a boon to our seminaries and
our priests. In these days, when the historical aspect of Theology, its
development and evolution, are becoming as prominent and necessary as
the Scholastic exposition of revelation, our seminarians and priests ought
to have in hand the very best that has been done on the lives and works
of the Fathers of the Church, since they are the exponents and witnesses
of the growth of theology.
I remain, dear Doctor,
Fraternally yours,
f THOMAS O' GORMAN,
Bishop of Sioux Falls.
Covington, Ky., Jan. 15., 1907.
My dear Dr. Shahan,
The clergy of America ought to be deeply grateful to you for the
translation of Dr. Bardenhewer' s Manual of Patrology. The lives and
works of the Fathers are not sufficiently known amongst us. Whilst few
priests have the leisure to study them thoroughly, they should be ac
quainted in a general way with the teachings of the Fathers of the
Church. They are the fountain heads of Tradition, the keys to the under
standing of the dogmas of the Faith; they supply the most effectual
armory in defence of Christian truth which the Catholic Church alone has
kept in its apostolic purity of doctrine.
Hoping that both yourself and your publication will receive adequate
recognition of your labors,
Devotedly yours in Christo,
f CAMILLUS P. MAES,
Bishop of Covington.
Ogdensburg, N. Y., Jan. 20., 1907.
My dear Dr. Shahan,
The reading public of America is deeply indebted to you for under
taking to present to it in an English dress the great work of Dr. Barden
hewer on the Lives and Works of the Fathers of the Church. A Patro
logy of that thoroughness was still a want among us. Hereafter no one
will be excusable for misreading or misquoting those indispensable sources
of the history of religion. You have my best wishes for a wide diffusion
of your translation.
Faithfully yours in J. C.,
t H. GABRIELS,
Bishop of Ogdensburg.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST GERMAN EDITION.
In the year 1883, I was requested by the publisher Herder
to undertake a new edition of J. Alzogs Manual of Patrology
(3. ed., Freiburg i. Br., 1876). External circumstances prevented me
from accepting this flattering offer at once ; the new sphere of labor
to which I was called claimed for a long time nearly all my leisure
and strength. The publisher entrusted to another the preparation
of an improved edition of Alzog (Freiburg, 1888). On the other
hand, as soon as circumstances permitted, I undertook the prepara
tion of an entirely new work.
This work, which I now offer to the public, undertakes to present
in a very concise and comprehensive manner the actual condition
of patrological knowledge and research. It also aims, through its
bibliographical paragraphs, to interest and guide a larger number of
students in the investigation of special problems. It has been my
purpose to quote from the earlier patrological literature only what
seems most important, and similarly, to omit nothing that is impor
tant among the numerous later researches. As the subject-matter is
very extensive, I have found it necessary to confine myself often to
mere indications and suggestions, to omit too close specific discussion,
and to leave aside what seemed of minor value. The nature of the
work seemed also to impose a mere reference apropos of countless
disputed points and questions. At some later time, I hope, God
willing, to follow up this outline with a m'ore thorough investigation
of the entire field of patrology.
My colleague, Dr. C. Weyman, kindly undertook to share with
me the labor of correcting the proofs of this work. I find it dif
ficult to decide whether I owe more to the patience and accuracy of
my friend in the revision of the printed pages, or to the solid eru
dition of the savant in his concern for the correctness of the text.
Munich, September, 1894.
THE AUTHOR
X PREFACE TO THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION.
The first edition of this book met with a very kindly reception.
It was judged worthy by Godet and Verschaffel of being put into
French J, and by Angel o Mercati of translation into Italian 2. I was
less pleased, personally, with the result of my labors. Had time
and strength sufficed, I would have undertaken the preparation of
an entirely new book. The first third of the book, the outline of
the Ante-Xicene literature, was its weakest part; it appears now in
an entirely new, and I hope more satisfactory presentation. This sec
tion of the work has caused a quite disproportionate amount of labor
on my part, owing to the fact that I was preparing the same material
in two forms: the first demanded a lengthy and exhaustive research
for the comprehensive History of early ecclesiastical literature an
nounced in the preface to the first edition, the second called for the
concision and comprehensiveness of a manual. The remaining sections
of the work, the defects of which are less manifest in the detail
of description than in orderly disposition, could not receive at my
hands so thorough a revision as would otherwise have been bestowed
upon them.
The contents of the work are notably increased by the insertion
of numerous writers and works omitted in the first edition or dis
covered since its appearance. At the same time the publisher de
sired to keep the work within its original limits. This could only
be done by omitting what seemed unimportant, by simplifying quo
tation-methods, and by the use of more compact type for the biblio
graphical paragraphs. In this manner it has been possible to reduce
the size of the book by some thirty pages.
I am indebted to several scholars, particularly to Fr. Diekamp,
A. Ehrhard, Fr. X. Funk, J. Haussleiter, G. Krilgcr, and C. Wey-
man for many useful hints and suggestions. I am again especially
indebted to Dr. Weyman for his careful correction of the printer's work.
Munich, April, 1901.
THE AUTHOR.
1 Les Peres de 1'Eglise , leur vie et leurs ceuvres , par O. Bardenhewer. Edition
franchise, par P. Godet et C. Verschaffel, de 1'Oratoire , 3 vols., Paris, 1898 — 1899,
Bloud et Barral.
2 Patrologia, per il Dr. O. Bardenhewer, Professore di Teologia all' Universita di
Monaco. Versione Italiana sulla seconda edizione Tedesca, con aggiunte bibliogranche, per
il Sacerdote Dr. Prof. Angelo Mercati, Voll. i — iii, Roma, 1903, Desclee, Lefvre et Cie.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
The need of a reliable manual of Patrology in English has been
so long felt by teachers of that science that little excuse is needed
for the present attempt to place one within reach of all concerned.
During the nineteenth century much patristic material, both new and
important, has been discovered, East and West. In the same period
there has come about a notable perfection of the methods and in
struments of scholarly research, while literary criticism has scored
some of its remarkable triumphs in the province of early ecclesiastical
literature. Above all, the intense and crucial conflict concerning the
genuine nature and actual History of the primitive Christian teaching
has perforce attracted the combatants to one great armory of
weapons: the writings of the Christian Fathers. Excavation and
research among the ancient monuments of Roman imperial times
have naturally quickened interest in all contemporary literary material.
An intelligent study of the early middle ages has made clear the
incalculable influence exercised upon the barbarian world by the
Christianized civilization of the fourth and fifth centuries; the manners,
politics, and tongues of the ancestors of the modern Western world
can no longer be studied scientifically apart from a sound knowledge
of what our earliest Christian masters were. At this distance, such
knowledge must, of course, be gathered, to a great extent, from
their literature, or rather from the remnants of it that survive.
It is to the credit of German Catholic scholarship that for a
hundred years it has upheld the necessity of a solid academic forma
tion for ecclesiastics, at least, in the science of the Christian Fathers.
The names of Lumper and Permaneder , Dreiv and Moehler, Hefele
and Fessler, to speak only of the departed, come unbidden to the
memory of every student. German Catholic centres of study, like
the Catholic Theological Faculty at Tubingen, have won imperishable
fame by long decades of service in the cause of primitive Christian
literature. Scholars like Probst and v. Funk have shed renown upon
their fatherland and earned the gratitude of a multitude of toilers
XII TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
in this remote department of knowledge. Only those who attempt
to cultivate it, know what a lengthy training it exacts, and to what
an extent it calls for all the virtues and qualities of the ripest
scholarship. It is not, therefore, surprising that the best Manual of
patristic science should come to us from that quarter of Catholicism
in which our most ancient literature has long been studied with a
devotion equalled only by the critical spirit that feeds and sustains it.
When such competent judges as the modern Bollandists agree
that the «Patrologie» of Dr. Bardenhewer has no superior, for ab
undance of information, exactness of reference, and conciseness of
statement, we may take it for granted that the work is well fitted
to introduce all studious Christian youth into the broad and pleasant
sanctuary of patristic science. The experience of ecclesiastical teachers
confirms this judgment; for the work has already been translated,
into both French and Italian. The English translator has added
nothing to the text, being well contented if he has reproduced with
substantial accuracy the already highly condensed doctrine of the
author. However, a few slight additions and bibliographical items
have been incorporated from the French and Italian translations. The
translator has also added a few bibliographical references to patristic
works and treatises that have appeared quite lately. It may be
pleaded that he is dispensed from very finical completeness by
the exhaustive study of Ehrhard (Die altchristliche Literatur und
ihre Erforschung seit 1880 [1884] bis 1900), the second edition of
Chevaliers Bio-Bibliographie (1905), and the admirable patristic
Comptes-rendus of the Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique of Louvain.
The translator is much indebted to Very Rev. ReginaldWalsh, O. P.,
who has kindly consented to correct the proofs; to the author,
Professor Bardenhewer , for various services, and to others for wel
come hints and suggestions.
THOMAS J. SHAHAN.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
Page
§ i. Notion and Purpose of Patrology . . I
§ 2. History and Literature of Patrology . 7
§ 3. Literary collections relative to the Fathers of the Church. Collective
editions of their writings. Principal collections of translations . 1 1
FIRST PERIOD.
FROM THE END OF THE FIRST TO THE BEGINNING
OF THE FOURTH CENTURY.
FIRST SECTION.
PRIMITIVE ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE.
§ 4. Preliminary Remarks ... *5
§ 5. The Apostles' Creed (Symbolum Apostolicum) . *7
§ 6. The Didache or Teaching of The Twelve Apostles . 19
§ 7. The so-called Epistle of Barnabas . . 22
§ 8. Clement of Rome ..... 25
§ 9. Ignatius of Antioch
§ 10. Polycarp of Smyrna .... -35
§ ii. The Shepherd of Hermas ..... 3^
§ 12. Papias of Hierapolis ....
SECOND SECTION.
THE APOLOGETIC LITERATURE OF THE SECOND CENTURY.
§ 13. Preliminary Observations . • 44
§ 14. Quadratus .... 46
§ 15. Aristides of Athens ... 46
§ 1 6. Aristo of Pella 4$
§ 17. Justin Martyr .... -49
§ 1 8. Tatian the Assyrian ....
§ 19. Miltiades. Apollinaris of Hierapolis. Melito of Sardes . 61
§ 20. Athenagoras of Athens .... -64
§ 21. Theophilus of Antioch -65
§ 22. The Letter to Diognetus
§ 23. Hermias -69
§ 24. Minucius Felix
XIV CONTENTS.
THIRD SECTION.
THE HERETICAL LITERATURE OF THE SECOND CENTURY
AND THE NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA.
Page
§ 25. Gnostic Literature .......... 72
§ 26. The Judaistic Literature ......... 81
§27. The Montanist Literature ......... 85
§ 28. The New Testament Apocrypha ........ 85
§ 29. Apocryphal Gospels .......... 90
§ 30. Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles ....... 97
§ 31. Apocryphal Letters of the Apostles . . . . . . . no
§ 32. Apocryphal Apocalypses . . . . . . . . . 113
FOURTH SECTION.
THE ANTI-HERETICAL LITERATURE OF THE SECOND
CENTURY.
§ 33. Anti-Gnostics. Their lost works . . . . . . . 116
§ 34. Irenseus of Lyons . . . . . . . . . . 118
§ 35. Anti-Montanists ........... 123
§ 36. Writings of Ecclesiastical Authorities and Synods, chiefly concerning
Heresies and Schisms . . . . . . . . . 124
FIFTH SECTION.
ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE DURING THE GENESIS OF
CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIENTALS.
§ 37. General Considerations ....... .126
A. THE ALEXANDRINES.
§ 38. Clement of Alexandria 127
§ 39- Origen !36
§ 40. Dionysius of Alexandria 153
§ 41. The later headmasters of the catechetical school of Alexandria . . 157
§ 42. The so-called Apostolic Church-Ordinance 160
B. SYRO-PALESTINIANS.
§ 43. Julius Africanus ... 162
§ 44. Paul of Samosata, Malchion of Antioch, Lucian of Samosata . . 165
§ 45. Pamphilus of Csesarea and the Dialogus de recta in Deum fide . . 166
§ 46. The Didascalia apostolorum ....... 168
C. WRITERS OF ASIA MINOR.
§ 47. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus (the Wonder- Worker) . . . . 170
§ 48. St. Methodius of Olympus ....... 175
CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER II.
THE WESTERN WRITERS.
Page
§ 49. General Considerations ....... 178
A. AFRICAN WRITERS.
§ 50. Tertullian 179
§ 51. St. Cyprian .... . . 190
§ 52. Arnobius ........ . 201
§ 53. Lactantius .......... . 203
B. ROMAN WRITERS.
§ 54. Hippolytus 208
§55. Novatian . . .'.,.. . . . . . . . 22O
§ 56. Papal Letters .... .... 223
C. OTHER WESTERN WRITERS.
§ 57. Commodian . . . 225
§ 58. Victorinus of Pettau and Reticius of Autun . 227
APPENDIX.
§ 59. The Acts of the Martyrs 228
SECOND PERIOD.
FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE FOURTH TO THE
MIDDLE OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
FIRST SECTION.
GREEK WRITERS.
§ 60. General conspectus .......... 234
§ 61. Arianism, Macedonianism, Sabellianism, Apollinarianism . . . 238
§ 62. Eusebius of Caesarea ......... 245
§ 63. St. Athanasius ... • 253
§ 64. The representatives of Egyptian Monachism ..... 264
§ 65. Anti-Manichaean writers . . 268
§ 66. St. Cyril of Jerusalem ... 271
§ 67. St. Basil the Great 274
§ 68. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, the Theologian ...... 286
§ 69. St. Gregory of Nyssa ........ 295
§ 70. Didymus the Blind ...... ... 307
§ 71. St. Epiphanius ... 310
§ 72. Diodorus of Tarsus ... -3*5
§ 73. Theodore of Mopsuestia .318
§ 74. St. John Chrysostom .... 323
§ 75. The so-called Apostolic Constitutions . 349
§ 76. Synesius of Cyrene .... . 358
XVI CONTENTS.
Page
§ 77. St. Cyril of Alexandria . . , 36°
§ 78. Theodoret of Cyrus . 37°
§ 79. Other writers of the first half of the fifth century . 37°"
SECOND SECTION.
SYRIAC WRITERS.
§ 80. Preliminary observations . . 3°4
§ 81. Aphraates ... 385
§ 82. St. Ephrsem Syrus . 3^7
§ 83. Later writers . 393
THIRD SECTION.
LATIN WRITERS.
§ 84. General conspectus • 397
§ 85. Firmicus Maternus ... . . 401
§ 86. St. Hilary of Poitiers . 4°2
§ 87. Other opponents of Arianism . . . . . . . • 412
§ 88. Poets and Historians ...... 4*9
§ 89. Schisms and heresies; their defenders and opponents . . . 425
§ 90. St. Ambrose . 431
§ 91. Prudentius and Paulinus ......... 444
§ 92. St. Sulpicius Severus and Tyrannius Rufinus .... 45 l
§ 93- .St- Jerome . . 455
§ 94. St. Augustine ........... 473
§ 95. Friends and disciples of St. Augustine ...... 508
§ 96. Gallic writers . 515
§ 97. Pope St. Leo the Great and other Italian writers . . . . 522
THIRD PERIOD.
FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTH CENTURY TO THE
END OF THE PATRISTIC AGE.
FIRST SECTION.
GREEK WRITERS.
§ 98. General conspectus .......... 529
§ 99. Writers of the second half of the fifth century 531
§ 100. Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita . . . . . . . 535
§ 101. Procopius of Gaza and Aeneas of Gaza . . . . . . 541
§ 102. Leontius of Byzantium and the emperor Justinian . . . . 544
§ 103. Historians and Geographers . . . . . . . . 552
§ 104. Hagiographers ..... 557
§ 105. Poets . . . . . . . . . . 562
§ 106. Exegetes. Canonists. Ascetics ........ 569
§ 107. Dogmatic and polemical writers . . . . . , . ' . . >. 574
§ .Io8- St. John of Damascus . . 582
CONTENTS. XVII
SECOND SECTION.
ARMENIAN WRITERS.
Page
§ 109. Sketch of the early Armenian ecclesiastical literature . . . 589
THIRD SECTION.
LATIN WRITERS.
§ no. General conspectus ........ . 597
§ in. Faustus of Reji . . . 600
§ 112. Other Gallic writers . ....... 605
§ 113. Irish, Spanish, and African writers ....... 613
§ 114. Italian writers . . . . . . . . . . 620
§ 115. Boethius and Cassiodorius ........ 628
§ 116. Writers in the Three Chapters controversy ..... 638
§ 117. St. Gregory of Tours and Venantius Fortunatus .... 643
§ 1 1 8. Pope St. Gregory the Great^ ........ 650
§ 119. St. Martin of Bracara and St. Isidore of Seville .... 658
Index ....... ..... 665
INTRODUCTION.
§ i. Notion and Purpose of Patrology.
I. THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH. The word Patrology (xarpo-
Ao-fio.) dates from the seventeenth century, and denoted originally
the science of the lives and writings of the Fathers of the Church.
«Fathers of the Church» or simply «Fathers» was the title of honour
mven to the ecclesiastical writers in the first' era of the Church.
o
Its use can be recognized as far back as the fifth century. In
modern times the explanation of the term has been sought in the
similarity of the relationship existing between a teacher and his dis
ciple to that which is found between father and son; an inter
pretation apparently confirmed by such biblical parallels as the «sons
of the prophets » in the Old Testament, and by passages in the New
like I Cor. iv. 14. It fails, however, to do justice to the historical
development of the name « Fathers ». In reality, this was trans
ferred from the bishops of the primitive Church to contemporaneous
ecclesiastical writers. In the earlier centuries, by a metaphor easily
understood, the bishop, in his quality of head or superior, was ad
dressed as «Father» or «Holy Father» (e. g. Mart. S. Polyc. 12, 2:
o 7zarf]f) ro>y %ptaTta.va)v ; and the inscription «Cypriano papae or
papati» , Cypr. Ep. 30 31 36). The authority of the bishop was
both disciplinary and doctrinal. He was the depositary of the
teaching office of the Church, and in matters of doubt or of contro
versy it was his duty to decide, as Avitness and judge, concerning
the true faith. Since the fifth century, however, this function began
to devolve (in learned discussions and conciliar proceedings) on the
ecclesiastical writers of the primitive Church. Most of them, and
those the more eminent, had, indeed, been bishops; but non-episcopal
writers might also bear reliable witness to the contemporaneous faith
of the Church, and when such testimonies dated from the earliest
Christian period, they naturally enjoyed special respect and authority.
The more frequently the consciousness of the primitive Church in
matters of faith was appealed to in the course of doctrinal disputes, the
more rapidly must so prevalent a term as « Fathers » have undergone a
certain alteration. It was used to denote the witnesses to the faith
BARDENHEVVER-SHAHAN, Patrology. I
2 INTRODUCTION.
of the primitive Church, and since such witnesses were rather its
writers than its bishops, the term passed from the latter to the former.
The change of meaning just alluded to will be made evident by the
following instances. According to St. Athanasius (Ep. ad Afros, c. 6), the
bishops of the Council ofNicsea (325) appealed to the testimony of the «Fathers»
(ex ~a-£pu>v e/ovte? TYJV jiapTUpiav) in defence of the consubstantiality of the
Son with the Father; especially prominent among these «Fathers» were two
early bishops (fafoxoirot dpyatbt), Dionysius of Rome (f 268) and Dionysius of
Alexandria (f 265), both of them defenders of the consubstantiality of the Son.
«How can they now reject the Council ofNicaea», says Athanasius, « since even
their own fathers (xal 01 ~at£p£? auttov) subscribed its decrees?* He had just
mentioned the name of the Arianizing bishop Eusebius of Caesarea. « Whose
heirs and successors are they? How can they call those men Fathers (Xe^eiv
-ocTspa?) whose profession (of faith) they do not accept?* Apparently Atha
nasius understands by « Fathers » only bishops, especially those of the primi
tive Church. The bishops, and they alone, had inherited the teaching office
of the Apostles. St. Augustine, in his dispute with the Pelagian Julianus of
Eclanum (Contra Julian. I. 34 ; II. 33 36), appeals to St. Jerome as a witness
for the ecclesiastical teaching concerning original sin ; at the same time he
is conscious of having overstepped a certain line of demarcation. To
forestall his adversary's refusal to accept the evidence of Jerome, he insists
that, though the latter was not a bishop, his extraordinary learning and the
holiness of his life entitled him to be held a reliable interpreter of the faith
of the Church. At the first session of the council of Ephesus (431), testi
monies were read from the « writings of the most holy and godfearing fathers
and bishops and other witnesses* (pi-fti'a TU>V aYitorartov xal 63iu>ta-iov Tra-eptov
xal ITTWXOTWUV xal Siacpoptov jjuxpTUpwv, Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., iv. 1184). The
«writings» quoted are exclusively those of early bishops. In his famous
Commonitorium (434) St. Vincent of Lerins recommends with insistence
(c- 3 33 sai-) tnat the faithful hold fast to the teaching of the holy Fathers;
at the same time he makes it clear that he refers, not so much to the
bishops, as to the ecclesiastical writers of Christian antiquity.
2. FATHERS OF THE CHURCH, ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS, DOCTORS
OF THE CHURCH. All the ancient ecclesiastical writers were not
trustworthy witnesses of the faith ; hence it is that posterity has not
conferred on all without distinction the title of « Fathers of the Church ».
St. Vincent of Lerins says that, in order to try the faith of Christians,
God permitted some great ecclesiastical teachers, like Origen and
Tertullian, to fall into error. The true norm and rule of faith, he
adds, is the concordant evidence of those Fathers who have remained
true to the faith of the Church in their time, and were to the end
of their lives examples of Christian virtue: «Eorum dumtaxat patrum
sententiae conferendae sunt, qui in fide et communione catholica sancte,
sapienter, constanter viventes, docentes et permanentes vel mori in
Christo fideliter vel occidi pro Christo feliciter meruerunt. » * Pope
Hormisdas2 refuses to accept appeals to the Semi-Pelagian Faustus
of Riez and other theologians, on the plea that they were not «Fa-
1 Common, c. 39; cf. c. 41.
- Quos in auc tori la tern patrum non recipit examen : Ep. 124, c. 4.
§ I. NOTION AND PURPOSE OF PATROLOGY. 3
thers». Later Councils often distinguish between theological writers
more or less untrustworthy and the « approved Fathers of the Church ». *
The earliest descriptive catalogue of « Fathers » whose writings merit
commendation, as well as of other theological authors against whose
writings people are to be warned , is found in the Decretal De re-
cipiendis et non recipiendis libris, current under the name of Pope
Gelasius I. (492 — 496). Modern patrologists indicate four criteria of
a «Father of the Church »: orthodoxy of doctrine, holiness of life,
ecclesiastical approval, and antiquity. All other theological writers
are known as «ecclesiastici scriptores», «ecclesiae scriptores» 2. The
Fathers were not all held in equal esteem by their successors ; both
as writers and theologians they differ much as to place and im
portance in ecclesiastical antiquity. In the West four « Fathers of the
Church » have been held as pre-eminent since the eighth century:
Ambrose (f 397), Jerome (f 420), Augustine (f 430), and Gregory
the Great (f 604); Boniface VIII. declared (1298) that he wished
these four known as Doctors of the Church par excellence, and
their feasts placed on a level with those of the apostles and evange
lists 3. Later popes have added other Fathers to the list of Doctors
of the Church, either in liturgical documents or by special decrees.
Such are, among the Latins, Hilary of Poitiers (f 366), Peter
Chrysologus (f ca. 450), Leo the Great (f 461), Isidore of Seville
(f 636). Among the Greeks, Athanasius (f 373), Basil the Great
(t 379)' Cyril of Jerusalem (f 386), Gregory of Nazianzus (f ca. 390),
John Chrysostom (f 407), Cyril of Alexandria (f 444), John of Da
mascus (f ca. 754), are honoured as Doctors of the Church. Some later
theological writers thus distinguished are: Peter Damian (f 1072),
Anselm of Canterbury (f 1 109), Bernard of Clairvaux (f 1153), Thomas
Aquinas (f 1274), Bonaventure (f 1274), Francis of Sales (f 1622),
and Alphonsus Liguori (y 1787). In 1899 Leo XIII. declared the
Venerable Bede (f 735) a Doctor of the Church. The liturgical books
of the Greek Church make mention of only three « great ecumenical
teachers» (olxou/jisvtxol fie^d^ot diddaxaXot)'. Basil the Great, Gregory
of Nazianzum, and John Chrysostom. The patrological criteria of a
« Doctor of the Church » are: orthodoxy of doctrine, holiness of life,
eminent learning, and formal action of the Church: «doctrina ortho-
doxa, sanctitas vitae, eminens eruditio, expressa ecclesiae declaration
y. Fessler, Instit. Patrol, ed. B. Jungmann (Innspruck 1890), i. 15 — 57.
On the earliest Latin Doctors of the Church cf. C. IVeyman in Historisches
Jahrbuch (1894), xv. 96 sq., and Revue d'histoire et de litte'rat. relig. (1898),
iii. 562 sq. On the «great ecumenical teachers» of the Greeks cf. N. Nilles
1 Probabiles ecclesiae patres : Cone. Lat. Rom. (649) can. 18 (Mansi x. 1157);
ol If/.piroi 7tardf)sg: Cone. Nic. II (787) act. 6 (Mansz xiii. 313).
- St. Jerome, De viris illustr., prol.
3 Egregios ipsius doctores ecclesiae: c. un., in vi., de reliquiis 3, 22.
I*
4 INTRODUCTION.
in Zeitschrift fur katholische Theologie (1894), xviii. 742 sq.; E. Bondy,
Les Peres de 1'Eglise in Revue Augustinienne (1904), pp. 461 — 486.
3. THE PATRISTIC EPOCH. As late as the fifth century even very
recent writers could be counted among the «holy Fathers*. Among
the «most holy and godfearing Fathers » whose writings were read in
the first session of the Council of Ephesus (June 22., 43 1)1 were Theo-
philus of Alexandria (f 412) and Atticus of Constantinople (t 425).
In the list of patristic citations, «paternae auctoritates», appended by
Leo the Great to his Letter to Flavian of Constantinople (June 13., 449) 2
there are passages from Augustine (f 430) and from Cyril of Alex
andria (f 444). The later Christian centuries tended more and more
to confine this honourable title to the ecclesiastical writers of anti
quity. It was applied to them not so much on account of their
antiquity as on account of their authority, which , in turn , had its
root in their antiquity. The « Fathers » of the first centuries are and
remain in a special way the authentic interpreters of the thoughts
and sentiments of the primitive Christians. In their writings were set
down for all time documentary testimonies to the primitive conception
of the faith. Though modern Christian sects have always denounced
the Catholic principle of « tradition », they have been compelled,
by the logic of things, to seek in ecclesiastical antiquity for some
basis or countenance of their own mutually antagonistic views. The
limits of Christian antiquity could not, of course, be easily fixed;
they remain even yet somewhat indistinct. The living current of
historical , and particularly of intellectual life , always defies any im
movable time-boundaries. Most modern manuals of Patrology draw
the line for the Greek Church at the death of John of Damascus
(j- ca. 754), for the Latin Church at the death of Gregory the Great
(f 604). For Latin ecclesiastical literature the limit should be
stretched to the death of Isidore of Seville (f 636). Like his
Greek counterpart, John Damascene , Isidore was a very productive
writer, and thoroughly penetrated with the sense of his office as a
frontiersman between the old and the new.
The teachings of the Fathers of the Church are among the original
sources of Catholic doctrine. On the reasons for the same and the extent
to which the patristic writings may be drawn upon for the proof of
Catholic teaching cf. Fessler-Jungmann, op. cit., i. 41 — 57.
4. PURPOSE OF PATROLOGY. Though the science of Patrology
takes its name from the Fathers of the Church, it includes also the
ecclesiastical writers of antiquity. Thereby, the field of its labours
is enlarged, and it becomes possible to deal with ecclesiastical litera
ture as a whole. The purpose of this science is to produce a
history of the early ecclesiastical literature, that is, of such ancient
1 Mansi, iv. 1184 — 1196. 2 Ib., vi. 961 — 972.
§ I. NOTION AND PURPOSE OF PATROLOGY. 5
theological literature as arose on the basis of the teachings of the
Church. In the peculiar and unique significance of this literature,
Patrology finds the justification of such a narrow limitation of its
subject-matter. Though this science does not ignore the distinction
between the human and the divine in the books of the New Testa
ment, it confides the study of these writings to Biblical Introduction,
convinced that it would otherwise be obliged to confine itself to such
a treatment of the same as would be unjust to inspired documents that
contain revelation. Patrology might, strictly speaking, ignore the
anti-Christian and anti-ecclesiastical, or heretical, writings of antiquity ;
nevertheless, it finds it advantageous to pay constant attention to them.
At the proper time, it becomes the duty of the patrologist, in his
quality of historian of Christian doctrine, to exhibit the genetic growth
of his subject. The development of early ecclesiastical literature was
conditioned and influenced in a notable degree by the literary conflict
against paganism, Judaism and heresy. The earliest ecclesiastical
writers enter the lists precisely as defenders of Christianity against
formal literary assaults. We do not accept as accurate a modern
definition of Patrology as «the literary history of early Christianity ».
From that point of view, it would have to include even the profane
works of Christian wrriters, and become the Christian equivalent of
heathen and Jewish literature. Moreover, it is not so much the pro
fession of Christianity on the part of the writer as the theologico-
ecclesiastical character of his work that brings it within the range of
Patrology, and stamps upon it for all time something peculiar and
distinctive. If we must no longer use the word Patrology, the science
may well be defined as the history of early ecclesiastical literature.
The considerations that affect the selection of the material, and the
limitations of Patrology affect also the treatment of the subject-matter.
Stress is laid more on the theological point of view, on the contents
of the patristic writings, than on mere literary form. It is true that
literary history has a distinctly artistic interest. In general, however,
the writings of the Fathers are not literary art-work; they expressly
avoid such a character. Until very lately a distinction was drawn
between Patrology and «Patristic». To the latter, it was said, be
longed the study of the doctrinal content of the early Christian writers.
The word « Patristic » comes from the «theologia patristica» of former
Protestant manuals of dogmatic theology that were wont to contain
a special section devoted to the opinions of the Fathers. This
was called «theologia patristica», and distinguished from «theo-
logia biblica» and «theologia symbolica». In the latter half of the
eighteenth century this «theologia patristica» gave way among Pro
testants to a specific history of dogma, destined to illustrate the con
stant development and evolution of the original apostolic teaching.
Thereby, the special office of «Patristic» was exhausted. There
O INTRODUCTION.
remains, therefore, no longer any good reason for withdrawing from
Patrology the description of the doctrines of the Fathers, and con
fining it to an account of their lives and deeds. With the loss of
its subject-matter, the raison d'etre of «Patristic» disappears. - - In
the last few decades, all former expositions of Patrology have suf
fered severe reproaches both from friend and foe. Broadly con
sidered, such reproaches were both reasonable and just. It is proper
that in the future Patrology should develop along the line of scienti
fic history, should grasp more firmly and penetrate more deeply its
own subject-matter, should first digest, and then exhibit in a scienti
fic and philosophic way, the mass of literary-historical facts that
come within its purview. In other words, its office is no longer
limited to the study, in themselves alone, of the writings of individual
Fathers, or of individual writings of the Fathers; it must also set
forth the active forces that are common to all, and the relations of
all to their own world and their own time.
Fr. Nitzsch, Geschichtliches und Methodologisches zur Patristik: Jahr-
biicher fur deutsche Theologie (1865), x. 37 — 63. Nitzsch uses the term
Patristic as identical with Patrology. Fr. Overbeck , Uber die Anfange
der patristischen Literatur: Historische Zeitschrift (new series) (1882), xii.
417 — 472. A. Ehrhard, Zur Behandlung der Patrologie: Literarischer
Handweiser, 1895, 601 — 608. J. Haussleiter, Der Aufbau der altchristlichen
Literatur: dotting. Gelehrte Anzeigen (Berlin, 1898).
5. MODERN HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE. Modern
Protestant and Rationalist scholars have created in the place of Patro
logy a history of early Christian literature, the purpose of which is
to investigate and criticize, independently of its theological or eccle
siastical aspects, the entire intellectual product of Christian antiquity
from a purely literary standpoint. They have been led to this trans
formation, or rather rejection of Patrology, not so much by general
scientific principles, as by the hypotheses of modern rationalistic
Protestantism, foremost among which is the denial of the supernatural
origin of Christianity and the Church. According to them, the so-
called Catholic Church was not founded by Jesus Christ. It was
only after a long evolutionary period, during which the Gospel of
Christ underwent steadily a number of profoundly modifying influences
in the sense of paganism , and particularly of hellenism , that the
Catholic Church appeared among men toward the end of the se
cond century. Since that time, both this Church and its doctrines
have been at all times the subject of the most far-reaching changes
and the most inconsistent innovations. The so-called Fathers of the
Church represent only their own personal and very mutable opinions.
There is no more objective difference between ecclesiastical and non-
ecclesiastical, orthodox and heretical teaching, than between the in
spired and non-inspired books of the Scriptures, etc.
§ 2. HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF PATROLOGY. 7
It is this view of early ecclesiastical literature (in the first three
centuries) that predominates in the works of A. Harnack and G. Kriiger
(Cf- § 2, 4).
§ 2. History and Literature of Patrology.
1. ST. JEROME. - - We owe to St. Jerome the idea of a Patro-
logy or history of Christian theological literature. His work on the
Christian writers was composed at Bethlehem in 392 at the sug
gestion of the pretorian prefect Dexter 1. It is modelled on the
homonymous work of Suetonius (ca. 75 — 1 60), and professes to
be a brief account of all those « ecclesiastical writers » («ecclesiae
scriptores») who have written on the Sacred Scriptures («de scripturis
sanctis aliquid memoriae prodiderunt») from the Crucifixion to the
fourteenth year of the reign of Theodosius (392). The first chapters
are devoted to the books of the New Testament; later on, even
heretical writers are added (Bardesanes c. 33, Novatian c. 70, and
others). At the end (c. 135) he gives an account of his own writ
ings as far as the year 392. The material of the first chapters is
taken from the New Testament; the following sections, on the Greek
writers of the first three centuries, are hastily made and inaccurate
excerpts from the Church History of Eusebius of Caesarea. The
chapters on the Latin writers and on later Greek writers represent
the personal knowledge and research of St. Jerome, and although
they do not entirely satisfy our just expectations, they are never
theless an historical authority of the first rank. Erasmus, who
first edited (1516) the «De viris illustribus», published also a Greek
translation of the work {Migne 17 c.) which he attributed to Sophro-
nius, a contemporary of St. Jerome. It was not, however, executed
before the seventh century.
In the very numerous manuscripts of this work of St. Jerome the con
tinuation by Gennadius (n. 2) is usually found. It is also printed in the
latest editions, by W. Herding, Leipzig, 1879; £"• ^- Bernoulli, Sammlung
ausgewahlter kirchen- und dogmengeschichtlicher Quellenschriften xi., Frei
burg i. Br. (1895), and £. C. Richardson, Texte und Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, Leipzig, 1896, xiv. i. These editions
have not rendered further improvement impossible. O. v. Gebhardt has
given us an excellent edition of the Greek translation, Leipzig, 1896 (Texte
und Untersuchungen 1. c.). Cf. St. v. Sychowski, Hieronymus als Literar-
historiker, Minister, 1894 (Kirchengeschichtliche Studien, ii. 2); C. A.
Bernoulli, Der Schriftstellerkatalog des Hieronymus, Freiburg i. Br., 1895;
G. Wentzel, Die griechische Ubersetzung der Viri inlustres des Hieronymus,
Leipzig, 1895 (Texte und Untersuchungen, xiii. 3).
2. CONTINUATORS OF ST. JEROME. — For more than a thousand
years, this little book of the Hermit of Bethlehem served as the
basis of all later efforts to produce a history of theological litera
ture. All later compilers linked their work to his, and even when
1 De viris illustr. : Migne, PL., xxiii. 601 — 72°-
8 INTRODUCTION.
there was added a name forgotten by him, or by one of his con-
tinuators, the form and divisions of the work remained unchanged.
Between the years 467 — 480 (apparently), Gennadius, a priest of Mar
seilles, brought out a very useful continuation and completion of the
«De viris» *. He was a Semi-Pelagian, a fact that is responsible for
occasional deviations from his usual impartial or objective attitude.
Otherwise, Gennadius was an historian of extensive knowledge, accurate
judgment and honourable purpose. Isidore, archbishop of Seville
(f 636), added considerably to the labours of Gennadius 2, and his
disciple Ildephonsus of Toledo (f 667) contributed a short appendix
on some Spanish theologians 3. Centuries were now to pass away before
the Benedictine chronicler, Sigebert of Gembloux in Belgium (f 1112),
took up the task once more, and carried the history of ecclesiastical
literature down to his own time. In his book «De viris illustribus» 4
he treats first, «imitatus Hieronymum et Gennadium», as he himself
says (c. 171), of the ancient ecclesiastical writers; and next gives
biographical and bibliographical notes on early mediaeval Latin theo
logians, usually slight and meagre in contents, and not unfrequently
rather superficial. Somewhat similar compendia were composed by
the priest Honorius of Augustodunum (Autun?) between 1122 and
H255, by the «Anonymus Mellicensis», so called from the Bene
dictine abbey of Melk in Lower Austria, where the first manuscript
of his work was found, though the work itself was probably composed
in the abbey of Priifening near Ratisbon in 1 135 6, and by the author of
a similarly entitled work wrongly ascribed to the scholastic theologian
Henry of Ghent (f 1293). These compilations were all surpassed,
in 1494, as regards the number of authors and the abundance of
information, by the «De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis» of the celebrated
abbot Johannes Trithemius (t 1516). It contains notices of 963
writers, some of whom, however, were not theologians. Its chief
merit lies in the information given concerning writers of the later
period of Christian antiquity. For Trithemius, as for his predecessors,
St. Jerome and Gennadius are the principal sources of knowledge
concerning the literary labours of the Fathers.
These literary-historical compilations are to be found together with
the work of St. Jerome (Latin and Greek) in y. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca
ecclesiastica , Hamburg, 1718. For the later editions of Gennadius by
Herding, Bernoulli, Richardson see p. 7 • cf. also Jungmaim, Quaestiones
Gennadianae (Programme), Lipsiae, 1881 ; Br. Czapla, Gennadius alsLiterar-
historiker, Minister, 1898 (Kirchengeschichtliche Studien, iv. i); Fr. Diekamp,
Wann hat Gennadius seinen Schriftstellerkatalog verfaBt ? Romische Quartal-
schrift fur christliche Altertumskunde und fur Kirchengeschichte, 1898, xii.
1 Migne, PL., Iviii. 1059 — 1120. - Ib., Ixxxiii. 1081 — 1106.
3 Ib., xcvi. 195—206. 4 Ib., clx. 547—588.
5 De luminaribus ecclesiae : Migne, PL., clxxii. 197 — 234.
6 De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis : ib., ccxiii. 961 — 984.
§ 2. HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF PATROLOGY. 9
411 — 420. For the two Spanish historians of Christian literature cf. G.
v. Dzialowski, Isidor und Ildefons als Literarhistoriker, Miinster (Kirchen-
geschichtliche Studien, iv. 2). For Sigebert of Gembloux cf. Wattenbach,
Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter, 6. ed., Berlin, 1893 — 1894, ii.
155 — 162, and for his literary-historical work S. Hirseh, De vita et scriptis
Sigeberti monachi Gemblacensis , Berolini, 1841, 330 — 337. There is an
article by Stanonik on Honoritis of Augustodunum in the Kirchenlexikon
viWetzer \m.^Welte) 2. ed., vi. 268 — 274. A good edition of the «Anony-
mus Mellicensis» was published by E. Ettlinger, Karlsruhe, 1896. For the
work «De viris illustribus» current under the name of Henry of Ghent see
B. Hatireau in Memoires de 1'institut national de France, Acad. des in
scriptions et belles-lettres, Paris, 1883, xxx. 2, 349 — 357. The work of Tri-
themius is discussed by J. Silbernagl, Johannes Trithemius, 2. ed., Regens-
burg, 1885, pp. 59—65.
3. THE XVI., XVII., AND XVIII. CENTURIES. Since the fifteenth
century the study of ecclesiastical literature has made unexpected
progress. The humanists brought to light a multitude of unknown
works of Latin, and especially of Greek ecclesiastical writers. The
contention of the reformers that primitive Christianity had undergone
a profound corruption, furthered still more the already awakened interest
in the ancient literature of the Church. In 'the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, the Benedictine scholars of the French Congrega
tion of St. Maur gave a powerful and lasting impulse to the move
ment by the excellent, and in part classical, editions of texts, in which
they revealed to an astonished world historical sources of almost
infinite richness and variety. New provinces and new purposes were
thereby opened to Patrology. The Maurists made known at the
same time the laws for the historical study of the original
sources; in nearly every department of ancient ecclesiastical litera
ture, it became possible for scholars to strip the historical truth of
the veil of legend that had hung over it. It still remained customary
for literary historians, to deal with the ancient ecclesiastical literature
as a whole. The most distinguished Catholic names in this period
of patrological scholarship are those of Bellarmine (f 1621), Dupin
(f 1719), Le Nourry (f 1724), Ceillier (f 1761), Schram (f 1797),
Lumper (f 1800). Among the Protestant patrologists are reckoned the
Reformed theologians Cave (f 1713), and Oudin (f 1717), a Premon-
stratensian monk who became a Protestant in 1690). The Lutheran
writers, Gerhard (f 1637), Hulsemann (f 1661), Olearius (f 1711), and
others introduced and spread the use of the term « Patrology », meaning
thereby a comprehensive view of all Christian theological literature
from the earliest period to mediaeval, and even to modern times.
Robertus Card. Bellarminus S. J., De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis liber unus,
cum adiunctis indicibus undecim et brevi chronologia ab orbe condito
usque ad annum 1612, Romae, 1613; Coloniae, 1613, et saepius. L. E.
Dupin, Nouvelle bibliotheque des auteurs ecclesiastiques , Paris, 1686 sq.
The several sections of this extensive work appeared under different titles.
The number of volumes also varies according to the editions. Because of
10
INTRODUCTION.
its very unecclesiastical character the work of Dupin was placed on the
Index, May 10. 1757. N. Le Nourry O. S. B., Apparatus ad bibliothecam
maximam veterum patrum et antiquorum scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Lug-
duni (1677) editam, 2 tomi, Paris, 1703—1715- &• Ceillier O. S. B., Histoire
generate des auteurs sacres et ecclesiastiques, 23 vols., Pans, 1729—1763;
a new edition was brought out atParis, 1858—1869, 16 vols. D. Schram O. S. B.,
Analysis operum SS. Patrum et scriptorum eccl. , 18 tomi, Aug. Vind.,
I78o— 1796. G. Lumper O. S. B., Historia theologico-critica de vita, scriptis
atque doctrina SS. Patrum aliorumque scriptorum eccl. triura primorum
saeculorum, 13 tomi, Aug. Vind., 1783— 1 799.
G. Cave, Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia litteraria a ,Christo nato
usque' ad saec. XIV, Lond. , 1688. C. Oudin , Commentarius de scripto-
ribus eccles., 3 tomi, Lipsiae, 1722.
Joh. Gerhardi Patrologia, s. de primitivae ecclesiae christianae doctorum
vita ac lucubrationibus opusculum posthumum, Jenae, 1653; 3. ed., Gerae,
1673. J. Hillsemann, Patrologia, ed. J. 'A. Scherzer, Lipsiae, 1670.^ J. G.
Oharius, Abacus patrologicus, Jenae, 1673. Idem, Bibliotheca scriptorum
eccles., 2 tomi, Jenae, 1710 — 1711.
Many ancient ecclesiastical writers are treated at much length by
L. S. le Nain de Tillemont, Memoires pour servir a 1'histoire ecclesiastique des
six premiers siecles, 1 6 tomes, Paris, 1693—1712, often reprinted-, cf. also
J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca seu notitia scriptorum veterum Grae-
corum, 14 voll., Hamburgi, 1705 — 1728. A new, but unfinished edition of
Fabricius was published by G. Chr. Harks, 12 voll., Hamburg, 1790—1809.
C. Tr. G. Schoenemann , Bibliotheca historico-literaria Patrum latinorum,
2 tomi, Lipsiae, 1792 — 1794.
4. PATROLOGY IN MODERN TIMES. During the nineteenth century,
the materials of ancient ecclesiastical literary history have steadily
increased. Not only have many new Greek and Latin texts been
discovered, notably by such scholars as Cardinal Mai (f 1854) and
Cardinal Pitra (f 1889), but entirely new fields have been thrown
open, particularly in the domain of the ancient Syriac and Armenian
literatures; the elaboration of this material has called forth, especially
in Germany, England, and North America, a zeal that grows ever
more active and general. Protestant theologians paid particular atten
tion to the problems of Christian antiquity, and classical philologians
learned to overcome their former attitude of depreciation of theo-
logico-Christian literature. The press poured forth patristic mono
graphs in such numbers that their ever-growing flood became at
times almost a source of embarrassment. Among the comprehensive
works published by Catholic authors were those of Mohler (f 1838),
Permaneder (f 1862), Fessler (f 1872), Alzog (f 1878), Nirschl, and
others. In the latter half of the eighteenth century the custom
arose of dividing the later from the earlier Fathers, and making
these latter the subject of a separate branch of literary and historical
study. Within the last few years, Protestant theologians have made
exhaustive studies on the writers of the first three centuries. In the first
part of his monumental work, Adolf Harnack has presented with an
unexampled fulness the entire material of pre-Eusebian Christian literature.
§ 3- LITERARY COLLECTIONS. I I
y. A. Mohler , Patrologie oder christliche Literargeschichte, edited by
F. X. Reithmayr , vol. i (the first three Christian centuries), Ratisbon
1840. The work was not continued. M. Permaneder, Bibliotheca patristica,
Landishuti, 1841 — 1844, 2 tomi. J.Fesskr, Institutiones Patrologiae, Inns-
pruck, 1850 — 1851, 2 tomi; denuo recensuit, auxit, edidit B.Jungmann, ib.,
1890 — 1896. y. Alzog, Gnindrifi der Patrologie oder der alteren christ-
lichen Literargeschichte, Freiburg, 1866, 4. ed. , ib. 1888. J. Nirschl,
Lehrbuch der Patrologie und Patristik, Mainz, 1881 — 1885, 3 vols.
y. Rezbdnyay , Compendium patrologiae et patristicae, Quinqueecclesiis
[i. e. Fiinfkirchen], 1894. B. Swete, Patristic Study, London, 1902.
Ch. Th. Cruttwell, A literary history of early Christianity, including
the Fathers and the chief heretical writers of the Ante-Nicene period,
London, 1893, 2 vols. A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Lite-
ratur bis auf Eusebius, I. Part : Die Uberlieferung und der Bestand, Leipzig,
1893. II. Part: Die Chronologic, i. vol.: Die Chronologic der altchrist
lichen Literatur bis Irenaus, Leipzig, 1897 ; 2. vol. : Die Chronologic der
Literatur von Irenaus bis Eusebius, ib., 1904. G. Krilger, Geschichte der
altchristlichen Literatur in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, Freiburg, 1895 ;
with supplement, 1897: English transl. by Gillet, History of Early Christian
Literature, New York and London, 1897.
P. Batiffol, La litterature grecque, Paris, 1897 (Bibliotheque de 1'enseigne-
ment de 1'histoire ecclesiastique. Anciennes litteratures chretiennes). The
Greek theologians of the Byzantine period (527 — 1453) are treated by A. Ehr-
hard in K. Krumbacher , Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur, 2. ed.,
Munich, 1897, pp. 37 — 218. For the Greek hymnology of the same period cf.
ib. pp. 653 — 705. The histories of Roman literature, by Bdhr , Teuffel-
Schwabe, and Schanz , devote attention to the Latin theological writers:
y. C/ir. F. Bdhr, Geschichte der romischen Literatur, vol. iv: Die christ-
lich-romische Literatur, Karlsruhe, 1836 — 1840; W. S. Teuffel, Geschichte
der romischen Literatur, neu bearbeitet von L. Schwabe, 5. ed., Leipzig, 1890,
2 vols.; M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Literatur, 3. Part: Die Zeit
von Hadrian (117) bis auf Konstantin (324), Munich, 1896, 2. ed. 1905.
4. Part, i. Half: Die Literatur des 4. Jahrhunderts, 1904. Cf. especially
A. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abend-
lande, vol. i: Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Literatur von ihren An-
fangen bis zum Zeitalter Karls des Groften, Leipzig, 1874, 2. ed. 1889.
Much less satisfactory is the work of M. Manitius , Geschichte der christlich-
lateinischen Poesie bis zur Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart, 1891.
In the proper place will be mentioned the descriptions of ancient Syriac
and Armenian literature. The work of Smith and Wace is very useful,
relatively complete and generally reliable : A Dictionary of Christian Bio
graphy, Literature, Sects and Doctrines, edited by W. Smith and H. Wace,
London, 1877 — 1887, 4 vols. O. Bardenhewer , Geschichte der altkirchl.
Literatur, I. — II. torn.: Bis zum Beginn des 4. Jahrhunderts, Freiburg,
1902—1903.
§ 3. Literary collections relative to the Fathers of the Church. Collective edi
tions of their writings. Principal collections of translations.
i. S. F. W. Hoffmann, Bibliographisches Lexikon der gesamten Litera
tur der Griechen, 2. ed. , Leipzig, 1838 — 1845, 3 vojs- ^ Engelmann,
Bibliotheca scriptorum classicorum, 8. ed. , containing the literature from
1700 — 1878, revised by E. Preufl, Leipzig, 1880—1882, 2 vols. Ulisse
Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen age, vol. i: Bio-
Bibliographie, Paris, 1877 — 1886, with a supplement, Paris, 1888, 2. ed.
1904. E, C. Richardson, Bibliographical synopsis, in the Ante-Nicene
12 INTRODUCTION.
Fathers, Supplement, Buffalo, 1897, pp. i — 136 (see n. 3). A. Ehrhard,
Die altchristliche Literatur und ihre Erforschung seit 1880. Allgemeine
Ubersicht und erster Literaturbericht (1880 — 1884), Freiburg (Straftburger
theol. Studien i, 4 — 5). Id., Die altchristliche Literatur und ihre Erforschung
von 1884 bis 1900. I: Die vornicanische Literatur, Freiburg, 1900 (Straft-
burger theol. Studien, Supplem. I). Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirch-
lichen Literatur, Freiburg, 1902 — 1903, vol. i — ii. The literary compilations
descriptive of the Syriac patristic literature are discussed in § 80—83.
2. The principal editions of the Fathers are the following: M. de la
Bigne, Bibliotheca SS. Patrum supra ducentos, Paris., 1575, 8 voll., with
an appendix, ib. 1579; 6. ed., ib. 1654, 17 voll.
Magna Bibliotheca veterum Patrum et antiquorum scriptorum eccle-
siasticorum, opera et studio doctissimorum in Alma Universitate Colon.
Agripp. theologorum ac professorum, Colon. Agr., 1618, 14 voll., with a
Supplementum vel appendix, ib. 1622.
Fr. Combefis , Graeco-Latinae Patrum Bibliothecae novum auctarium,
Paris., 1648, 2 voll.; Id., Bibliothecae Graecorum Patrum auctarium no-
vissimum, ib. 1672, 2 voll.
L. d' Achery , Veterum aliquot scriptorum qui in Galliae bibliothecis,
maxime Benedictinortim, supersunt Spicilegium, Paris., 1655 — 1677, 13 voll. ;
new edition by L. Fr. J. de la Barre , Paris, 1723, 3 voll. It has been
proved lately that d' Achery included, in good faith, several documents
forged by the Oratorian Jerome Vigmer (f 1661); the proof is clearest for
just those pieces that were held to be the special pride of the collection.
Cf. y. Havet, Les decouvertes de Jerome Vignier : Bibliotheque de l'£cole
des Chartes, Paris, 1885, xlvi. 205 — 271.
Maxima Bibliotheca veterum Patrum antiquorumque ecclesiae scripto
rum, Lugduni, 1677, 27 voll.
y. B. Cotelier, Ecclesiae Graecae monumenta, Paris 1677 — 1686, 3 voll.
In some copies the Analecta Graeca of B. de Montfaucon (Paris, 1688)
are called the fourth volume of the Cotelier collection.
A. Gallandi , Bibliotheca veterum Patrum antiquorumque scriptorum
ecclesiasticorum, Venetiis, 1765 — 1781 et 1788, 14 voll. Index alphabeticus
Bibliothecae Gallandii, Bononiae, 1863.
M. y. Routh, Reliquiae Sacrae seu Auctorum fere jam perditorum se-
cundi tertiique saeculi fragmenta quae supersunt. Accedunt epistolae syn-
odicae et canonicae Nicaeno concilio antiquiores, Oxonii, 1814 — 1818, 4 voll.,
ed. altera, 1846 — 1848, 5 voll.
A. Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova Collectio e Vaticanis codicibus
edita, Romae, 1825 — 1838, 10 voll. Id., Classici atictores e Vaticanis co
dicibus editi, ib. 1828 — 1838, 10 voll. Id., Spicilegium Romanum, ib.
1839—1844, 10 voll. Id. , Nova Patrum Bibliotheca, ib. 1844 — 1854,
7 voll.; torn, viii — ix, ed. y. Cozza-Luzi, ib. 1871 — 1888.
Patrologiae cursus completus. Accurante J. P. Mignc, Paris., 1844 ad
1866. It consists of a Greek and a Latin series. The Latin Fathers were
published between 1844 and 1855, and come down to Innocent III.
(t 1216), in 217 vols., with Indices in four vols. (218 — 221). The Greek
Fathers were published from 1857 to 1866 and reach to the Council of
Florence (1438 — 1439). Tne latter series is without Indices. D. Scholarios
published at Athens, 1879, a Catalogue of the Greek writings in the Migne
edition, and of those in the Corpus scriptorum historiae Byzantinae (Bonn,
1828—1855, 48 vols.), also some fascicules of a broadly conceived index
to both these series of Greek writers, Athens, 1883 — 1887. A short catalogue
of the authors printed in the Migne series of Greek Fathers may be found
in A. Potthast, Bibliotheca historica medii aevi, 2. ed., Berlin, 1896, ci — cvi.
§ 3- LITERARY COLLECTIONS. 13
y. B. Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense complectens SS. Patrum scripto-
rumque ecclesiasticorum anecdota hactenus opera, Paris, 1852 — 1858, 4 voll.
Id., Juris ecclesiastici Graecorum historia et monumenta, Romae, 1864 — 1868,
2 voll. Id., Analecta sacra Spicilegio Solesmensi parata, Paris, 1876 — 1891,
6 voll. Id., Analecta sacra et classica Spicil. Solesm. parata, ib. 1888. His
Analecta novissima (ib. 1885 — 1888, 2 voll.) contain, with the exception
of some papal letters in the first volume, only mediaeval documents.
Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum, editum consilio et im-
pensis Academiae Litterarum Caesareae Vindobonensis, 1866 sqq.
SS. Patrum opuscula selecta ad usum praesertim studiosorum theologiae.
Edidit et commentariis auxit H. Hurter S. J., Innspruck, 1868 — 1885, 48 voll.
Most of the volumes went through several editions. Series altera, ib.
1884—1892, 6 voll.
Monumenta Germaniae historica. Inde ab anno Christi quingentesimo
usque ad annum millesimum et quingentesimum edidit Societas aperiendis
fontibus rerum Germanicarum medii aevi. Auctores antiquissimi , Berol.
1877 — 1898, 13 voll. This section of the Monumenta, formerly edited by
Mommsen , includes the Latin writers of the transition period from the
Roman to the Teutonic era.
Sammlung ausgewahlter kirchen- und dogmengeschichtlicher Quellen-
schriften, als Grundlage fiir Seminariibungen herausgegeben unter Leitung
von G. Kriiger, Freiburg, 1891 sq.
G. Rauschen, Florilegium patristicum. Digessit, vertit, adnotavit G. R.
Fasc. i: Monumenta aevi apostolici. Fasc. ii: S. Justini apologiae duae.
Fasc. iii: Monumenta minora saeculi secundi. Bonnae, 1904—1905.
Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte,
herausgegeben von der Kirchenvater-Kommission der konigl. preuftischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften, Leipzig 1897 ff.
Two editions now in progress of select works by Fathers may be
mentioned. One is the «Cambridge Patristic Texts». Of this series two
volumes have appeared, viz. : «The five Theological Orations of Gregory
of Nazianzus« , ed. Mason, 1899; «The Catechetical Oration of Gregory
of Nyssa», ed. Srawley, 1903. «The Letters and other Remains of Dio-
nysius of Alexandria », ed. Feltre, 1904.
The other collection is «Bibliotheca Sanctorum Patrum, theologiae
tironibus et universe clero accommodata», Vizzini etc., Romae, 1901 sqq.
Thirteen vols. of this series have been issued. It should be observed that
in it all Greek works are accompanied by a Latin translation.
For more detailed information as to the contents of the older collec
tive editions of the Fathers cf. Th. Ittig, De Bibliothecis et Catenis Patrum
variisque veterum scriptorum ecclesiasticorum collectionibus, Lipsiae, 1707.
y. G. Dowling, Notitia scriptorum SS. Patrum aliorumque veteris ecclesiae
monumentorum, quae in collectionibus Anecdotorum post a. Chr. 1700 in
lucem editis continentur, Oxonii, 1839. The collective editions of the
Syriac Fathers are described in §§ 80 — 83.
3. COLLECTIONS OF TRANSLATIONS. Among the principal col
lections of translations the following deserve mention:
Bibliothek der Kirchenvater. Auswahl der vorziiglichsten patristischen
Werke in deutscher Ubersetzung unter der Oberleitung von Fr. X. Rcith-
mayr, fortgesetzt von B. Thalhofer, Kempten, 1860 — 1888, 80 voll.
Library of the Fathers, edited by Pusey, Keble and Newman, Oxford,
1838 — 1888, 45 voll. The Ante-Nicene Christian Library. Translations of
the writings of the Fathers down to A. D. 325, edited by A. Roberts and
14 INTRODUCTION.
y. Donaldson, Edinburgh, 1866—1872, 24voll, with a supplementary volume,
ed. by A. Menzies, ib. 1897. This collection of translations was reprinted
at Buffalo, 1884 — 1886, under the direction of A. Cleveland Coxe, 8 voll.
with a supplement, 1887 (New York, 1896, 10 voll.). For the bibliography
of English translations of the Ante-Nicene Fathers see Ernest C. Richardson
(ib. vol. x): Bibliographical Synopsis, passim.
Ph. Schaff and H. Wace, A select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers of the Christian Church. In connection with a number of patristic
scholars of Europe and America. Buffalo and New York, 1886 — 1890,
14 voll. Second Series, New York,
FIRST BERIOD.
FROM THE END OF THE FIRST TO THE BEGINNING
OF THE FOURTH CENTURY.
FIRST SECTION.
PRIMITIVE ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE.
§ 4. Preliminary Remarks.
The primitive Christians were in general disinclined to literary
composition. The Gospel was preached to the poor (Mt. n, 5), and
»not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in shewing of the
spirit and power » (i Cor. 2, 4). The Apostles wrote only under the
pressure of external circumstances; even in later times living oral in
struction remained the regular means of transmission and propagation
of the Christian truth.
Apart from the books of the New Testament, we possess but very
few literary remains of the apostolic and sub-apostolic period. Among
the most ancient are the Apostles' Creed, and the « Doctrine of the
Twelve Apostles» discovered in 1883; both owe their origin to the
practical needs of the primitive Christian communities. There are,
moreover, some Letters, at once the outcome of the pastoral zeal of
the ecclesiastical authorities and echoes of the apostolic Epistles.
The authors of these Letters, and a few other ecclesiastical writers
of the second century, are usually known as the Apostolic Fathers.
J. B. Cotelier (f 1686) was the first to give the title of «Patres
aevi apostolici» to the .author of the so-called Epistle of Barnabas,
Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius of Antioch, and Polycarp. Later
on Papias of Hierapolis and the author of the Epistle to Diognetus
were included in the series. There is really no intimate relationship
between these writings. The work of Hermas is an exhortation to
penance in the shape of a vision. Of the work of Papias only meagre
fragments have reached us, quite useless for any clear intelligence
of its original form; while the author of the Epistle to Diognetus, in
view of its tendency and form , more properly belongs to the
apologists.
Among the collective editions of the writings ot the Apostolic Fathers
the following are the most important. Patres aevi apostolici sive SS. Patrum,
1 6 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
qui temporibus apostolicis floruerunt, Barnabae, dementis Rom., Hermae,
Ignatii , Polycarpi , opera edita et inedita , vera et supposititia , una cum
dementis, Ignatii et Polycarpi actis atque martyriis. Ex mss. codicibus
eruit, correxit versionibusque et notis illustravit J. B. Cotelerius, Paris., 1672,
2 vol. A new edition was issued by J. Clericus , Antwerp, 1698, and
Amsterdam, 1724, and was reprinted, with the fragments ofPapias and the
Epistle to Diognetus added, in Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., i — m, Venetiis,
1765 — 1767; also in Migne, PG. i. n v, Paris., 1857. - - Opera Patrum
apostolicorum ed. C. J. Hefele, Tubingen, 1839, 4. ed. 1855. Opp. Patr.
apostol. , textum recensuit , adnotationibus criticis, exegeticis, historicis il
lustravit, versionem latinam, prolegomena, indices addidit P. X. Funk. Ed.
post Hefelianam quartam quinta. Vol. i : Epistulae Barnabae , dementis
Romani, Ignatii, Polycarpi, Anonymi ad Diognetum, Ignatii et Polycarpi
martyria, Pastor Hermae, Tubingen, 1878; ed. nova Doctrina duodecim
Apostolorum adaucta. 1887. Vol. ii: dementis R. epistulae de virginitate
eiusdemque martyrium, epistulae Pseudo-Ignatii, Ignatii martyria tria . . .,
Papiae et seniorum apud Irenaeum fragmenta, Polycarpi vita, 1881. A
second edition ®i Funk's work appeared at Tubingen 1901, 2 voll. (Patres
Apostolici, i: Doctrina duodecim Apostolorum, Epistulae Barnabae, de
mentis Romani, Ignatii, Polycarpi huiusque martyrium, Papiae, Quadrati,
presbyterorum apud Irenaeum fragmenta, Epistola ad Diognetum, Pastor
Hermae ; ii : dementis Romani epistulae de virginitate eiusdemque mar
tyrium, Epistulae Pseudo-Ignatii, Ignatii martyria, fragmenta Polycarpiana,
Polycarpi vita). F. X. Funk, Die apostolischen Vater (Sammlung aus-
gewahlter kirchen- und dogmengeschichtl. Quellenschriften , ed. Krilger,
2. series I), Tubingen, 1901. — Patrum apostolicorum opera ed. A. R. M.
Dressel, Lipsiae, 1857, 2. ed. 1863. — • Patrum apostol. opera, textum recen-
suerunt, commentario exeg. et histor. illustraverunt , apparatu critico, ver-
sione lat, prolegg. , indicibus instruxerunt O. de Gebhardt , Ad. Harnack,
Th. Zahn, ed. post Dresselianam alteram tertia. Ease, i : Barnabae epist.
Graece et Lat., dementis R. epp. recens. atque illustr., Papiae quae stiper-
sunt, Presbyterorum reliquias ab Irenaeo servatas, vetus Ecclesiae Rom.
symbolum, ep. ad Diognetum adiecerunt O. de Gebhardt et Ad. Harnack,
Lipsiae, 1875. Fasc. i, part, i, 2. ed. : dementis R. epp., textum ad fidem
codicum et Alexandrini et Constantinopolitani nuper inventi rec. et ill.
O. de Gebhardt et Ad. Harnack, 1876. Fasc. i, part, ii, 2. ed. : Barnabae
epist., Papiae quae supersunt etc. adiec. O. de Gebhardt et Ad. Harnack,
1878. Fasc. II: Ignatii et Polycarpi epistulae, martyria, fragmenta rec. et
ill. Th. Zahn, 1876. Fasc. iii: Hermae Pastor graece, addita versione
latina recentiore e cod. Palatino, rec. et ill. O. de Gebhardt et Ad. Harnack,
1877 (Patrum apostol. opp. rec. O. de Gebhardt, Ad. Harnack et Th. Zahn,
ed. minor, Lipsiae, 1877, 1894, 1900, 1902). — Novum Testamentum extra
canonem receptum (I. Clemens R., II. Barnabas, III. Hermas. IV. Evangelio-
rum sec. Hebraeos, sec. Petrum, sec. Aegyptios, Matthiae traditionum, Petri
et Pauli praedicationis et actuum, Petri Apocalypseos etc. quae supersunt),
ed. Ad. Hilgenfeld, Lipsiae, 1866, 2. ed. 1876—1884. -- S. Clement of
Rome. The two Epistles to the Corinthians. A revised text with intro
duction and notes. By J. B. Lightfoot, Cambridge, 1869. S. Clement of
Rome. An Appendix containing the newly recovered portions. With intro
ductions, notes and translations. By J. B. Lightfoot, London, 1877. The
Apostolic Fathers. Part ii: St. Ignatius, St. Polycarp. Revised texts with
introductions, notes, dissertations and translations. By J. B. Lightfoot,
London, 1885, 3 voll., 2. ed. 1889. The Apostolic Fathers. Part, i: St. Cle
ment of Rome. A revised text with introductions, notes, dissertations and
translations By the late J. B. Lightfoot, London, 1890, 2 voll. (The
§ 5- THE APOSTLES' CREED (SYMBOLUM APOSTOLICUM). 17
Apostolic Fathers, text and translation, by Lightfoot and Harmer, i vol.,
London, 1890.)
German translations of the Apostolic Fathers were made by Fr. X.
Karker, Breslau, 1847 \ H. Scholz, Glitersloh, 1865 ; J. Chr. Mayer, Kempten,
1869, with supplement containing the newly discovered fragments of the
so-called Two Epistles to the Corinthians, Kempten 1880 (Bibliothek der
Kirchenvater). The Apostolic Fathers were translated into English by
J. Donaldson (The Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. i, Edinburgh,
1866); Ch. H. Hook, London, 1872; Dr. Burton, ib. 1888—1889.
Among the writers on the Apostolic Fathers are : Ad. Hilgenfdd, Die
Apostolischen Vater, Untersuchungen liber Inhalt tmd Ursprung der unter
ihrem Namen erhaltenen Schriften, Halle 1853. Ch. E. Freppel , Les
Peres apostoliques et leur epoque, Paris 1859. 4. ed. 1885. J. Donaldson,
A Critical History of Christian Literature and Doctrine from the death
of the Apostles to the Nicene Council. Vol. i: The Apostolical Fathers,
London, 1864, 2. ed. 1874. C. Skworzow, Patrologische Untersuchungen.
Uber Ursprung der problematischen Schriften der Apostolischen Vater, Leipzig,
1875. J. Sprinzl, Die Theologie der Apostolischen Vater, Wien, 1880.
§ 5. The Apostles' Creed (Symbolum Apostolicum).
1. THE TEXT. According to an ancient tradition1 the Apostles'
Creed, i. e. the baptismal profession of faith of the Roman liturgy,
is of apostolic origin, not only in contents, but textually. The subject
of this tradition is not, however, the Creed in its present form, but
in a much older one, whereof the text, both in Greek and Latin, can
be reconstructed with almost absolute certainty. The oldest authority
for the Greek text is a letter of Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra, to
Pope Julius I., written in 337 or 338 2. The Latin text is first
met with in the commentary on the Creed written by Rufinus of
Aquileia (f 410). The Latin text is certainly a translation from the
Greek. The extant text of the Creed differs from these ancient
texts chiefly by reason of a few not very important additions
(descendit ad infer os, sanctorum communionem, vitam aeternam).
The circumstances under which the present text came into use are
shrouded in obscurity; it is first met with in Southern Gaul about
the middle of the fifth century.
2. ITS ANTIQUITY. Caspari has demonstrated, by profound and
extensive researches, that the ancient baptismal creed of the Ro
man Church is the common basis and root of all the primitive
baptismal creeds of the West. Following in his footsteps, Katten-
busch holds that the Roman creed was also the archetype of all
Eastern creeds or symbols of faith. Tertullian expressly asserts that
the African Church received its baptismal creed from Rome 3. He
outlines frequently what he calls a Rule of Faith 4, i. e. a sketch of the
1 Tradunt maiores nostri, Rufinus, Comm. in Symb. apost., c. 2.
2 Epiph., Haeres. 72, 2 — 3. 3 De praescr. haeret., c. 36.
4 Regula fidei, lex fidei, regnla. Cf. De praescr. haeret., c. 13; De virgin, vel.
c. i ; Adv. Prax., c. 2.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 2
1 8 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
universally taught ecclesiastical belief; it is simply a paraphrase of
the Old-Roman baptismal creed. It was a baptismal creed that served
Irenseus as a criterion in his description of «the faith, that the Church
scattered through the whole world had received from the Apostles
and their disciples» 1. If the creed he describes be not that of the
Roman Church, it is surely one that resembled it very much. The
writings of St. Justin show that in the first half of the second century
the Roman Church possessed a fixed and definite baptismal creed2.
We possess no historical authorities older than those mentioned.
3. APOSTOLIC ORIGIN OF THE CREED. It is certain that the con
tents of the Old-Roman Creed are apostolic, i. e. it reproduces in an
exact and reliable way the teaching of the Apostles. From what has
been said in the preceding paragraph it will be seen that it is not
possible to demonstrate the traditional belief in the apostolic origin
of its phraseology; on the other hand it is still more difficult to
overthrow the same. All objections to the contrary repose on
untenable historico-dogmatic hypotheses. It is certain, on the one
hand, that from the earliest days of the Church the need of some
kind of a profession of Christian faith before the reception of baptism
was felt; the convert must in some way express his faith in the
fundamental facts and doctrines of Christianity 3. On the other hand,
it must be admitted, with Caspari, that the ancient Roman Creed
«with its primitive seventy, its extreme simplicity and brevity, its highly
lapidary style, impresses us as a document that has come down, word
for word, from the most remote Christian antiquity ».
4. LITERATURE. The traditional forms or recensions of the Apostles'
Creed are collected in
H. Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum et definitionum , 9. ed., aucta
et emendata ab J. Stahl, Freiburg, 1900, pp. i — 8; with greater fulness in
A. Plahn, Bibliothek der Symbole und Glaubensregeln der alten Kirche,
3. ed. by G. L. Ha/in, Breslau, 1897, pp. 22 f. All modern investigations
of the ancient baptismal creed of the Church date from the fundamental
labours of Caspari (f 1892): C. P. Caspari, Ungedruckte, unbeachtete und
wenig beachtete Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der Glau-
bensregel, Christiania, 1866 — 1875, 3 v°ls- Id-> Alte und neue Quellen zur
Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel, ib. 1879.
Kattenbusch availed himself of the scholarly work of Caspari: F. Katten-
busch, Das Apostolische Symbol, seine Entstehung, sein geschichtlicher Sinn,
seine urspriingliche Stellung im Kulttis und in der Theologie der Kirche.
Vol. i: Die Grundgestalt des Taufsymbols, Leipzig, 1894. Vol. ii: Verbreitung
und Bedeutung des Taufsymbols, 1897—1900. Cf. also M. Nicolas, Le
symbole des Apotres. Essai histor. Paris, 1867. C. A. Heurtley , A His
tory of the Earlier Formularies of Faith of the Western and Eastern
Churches, London, 1892. We can cite but a few of the writings called forth
in Germany since 1892 by the «Kampf um das Apostolikum» , a conflict
that centred rather about the contents than about the text of the Creed.
1 Adv. haer., i. 10, n ; cf. iii. 4, i — 2; iv. 33, 7.
2 Apol., i. 61. * Acts viii. 37; cf. Mk. xvi. 16.
§ 6. THE DIDACHE OR TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 19
The chief opponent of the «Apostolikum» was A. Harnack , Das
Apostolische Glaubensbekenntnis, Berlin, 1892, 25. ed. 1894. Among its
Protestant defenders Th. Zahn , Das Apostolische Symbolum, Erlangen,
1893, 2. ed., was easily prominent. Catholic scholarship was represented by
xS. Bdumer, Das Apostolische Glaubensbekenntnis, Mainz, 1893, and C. Blume,
Das Apostolische Glaubensbekenntnis, Freiburg, 1893. Cf. B. Dor holt, Das
Taufsymbolum der alten Kirche nach Ursprung imd Entwicklung. Parti:
Geschichte der Symbolforschung, Paderborn, 1898. Cf. also J. Kunze,
Glaubensregel, Heilige Schrift und Taufbekenntnis, Leipzig, 1899. Other
writers on the Apostles' Creed are O. Scheel in Getting. Gelehrten Anzeigen,
1901, clxii. 835 — 864, 913 — 948; A, A, Hopkins, The Apostles' Creed,
a Discussion, New York, 1900. We may also note the discussion between
Dom Fr. Chamand and A. Vacandard in the Revue des questions histo-
riques, for 1901. W. Sanday , Further Research on the History of the
Creed, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1901), iii. i — 21. G. Semeria, II Credo
in Studi Religiosi 1902, ii. i — 21, and in Dogma, Gerarchia e Culto
nella Chiesa primitiva, Rome, 1902, 315 — 336; G. Voisin, L'origine du
Symbole des Apotres, in Revue d'hist. eccles., 1902, iii. 297- — 323; A. C.
McGiffert, The Apostles' Creed, its Origin, its Purpose and its Historical
Interpretation, London, 1902; W. W. Bishop, The Eastern Creeds and the
Old Roman Symbol in American Journal of Theology, 1902, 518—528;
A, G. Mortimer, The Creeds, an Historical and Doctrinal Exposition of
the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, London, 1902 ; A. Cusham,
The Apostles' Creed, its Origin, its Purpose, and its Historical Inter
pretation, Edinburg, 1903 ; V. Ennoni, Histoire du Credo, le Symbole des
Apotres, Paris, 1903 ; D. F. Weigand, Das Apostolische Symbol im Mittel-
alter, eine Skizze, Gieften, 1904. Burn, The Textus Receptus of the
Apostles' Creed, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1902), iii. 481 — 500.
§ 6. The Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.
I . ITS CONTENTS. This is the title of one of the oldest documents
of Christian antiquity, discovered in 1883 by Philotheos Bryennios.
In the only manuscript yet known, written in 1056, the little work
is called Awayy xvpiou dta TOJV dcbdsxa dnoffroAwy TO"IQ e&vsffiv, while
in the table of contents it is simply Aida'/y TWV ocofexa diroaToXatv.
The former is not only an older title than the latter, but is most
probably the original. By it the anonymous author meant to suggest
a compendious presentation of the teaching of Jesus Christ as
preached to the gentiles by the Apostles. In length it about
equals the Epistle to the Galatians, and is divided into two parts.
The first (cc. I — 10) contains an ecclesiastical ritual. In it are found
instruction in Christian ethics (cc. I— 6), in the shape of the descrip
tion of the Two Ways, the Way of Life (cc. I — 4) and the Way of
Death (c. 5)- This is expressly set forth as a guide for the instruc
tion of those who seek baptism (c. 7, i). The author then treats of
baptism (c. 7), of fasting and prayer (c. 8), and of the Blessed Eu
charist (cc. 9 — 10). These liturgical precepts are completed in the
second part by instruction concerning the mutual relations of the
Christian communities (the scrutiny of wandering Christian teachers,
Aot xai npopyTat, c. 1 1, the reception of travelling brethren c. 13,
2 *
2O FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
the support of prophets and teachers who settle in the community,
c. 13), the religious life of each community, e. g. divine service on
Sundays (c. 14), and the superiors of the communities, iTricrxoTrot, xal
dtdxovot (c. 15, i — 2). The work closes with a warning to be
vigilant, for the last day is at hand.
2. TIME AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION. It was probably composed
in the last decades of the first century, most likely in Syria or Palestine.
It is undoubtedly of the highest antiquity; one meets no longer in
the second Christian century with such conditions as are taken for
granted in its references to the rite of baptism (c. 7), of the Blessed
Eucharist (cc. 9 — 10), the ministers of the divine mysteries (exiaxoxot
xai dtdxovot, c. 15, i), and the ministers of the divine word (dnooTokoi
xai 7Tf>o(p'7jTat, c. 11, 3). The description of the Ways of Life and
Death is so strikingly similar to that of the Ways of Light and
Darkness in the Epistle of Barnabas (cc. 18 — 20), itself probably com
posed at the end of the first century, that one of these two authors
must have copied from the other, or both must have used a common
original. Apart from this latter hypothesis, Funk, Zahn, and SchaiT
have shown, as against Bryennios, Harnack, Volkmar and others, that
in all probability it is not the Didache which is dependent on the Epistle
to Barnabas, but the contrary. An older model is not to be
postulated. Especially, is there no good reason for subscribing to the
hypothesis of Harnack, Taylor, Savi and others, that the basis of the
first chapters of the Didache is a Jewish work, some ancient cate
chism for proselytes. On the one hand, the existence of such a
work is purely hypothetical, and on the other, the first chapters of
the Didache exhibit a specific Christian character by reason of the
many phrases, turns of thought and reminiscences that they borrow
from the New Testament. Nor is there any sufficient reason to adopt
the hypothesis of a still older Christian Didache (Urdidache) that
was improved and enlarged in the work before us. With some ex
ceptions (cc. i, 3 — 2, i) the extant manuscript of the Didache re
presents, quite probably, its original form.
3. ITS HISTORY. In some of the churches of the East, particularly
those of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, the Didache was once highly
esteemed. Clement of Alexandria cites it as «Scripture» *; Athanasius
places it among writings suitable for catechumens alongside with some
books of the Old Testament 2 ; Eusebius places it among the apocrypha
of the New Testament, i. e. among those books that had wrongly been
placed by some in the canon3. The so-called Apostolic Church-
Ordinance, composed probably toward the end of the third century
in Egypt, contains (cc. 4 — 14) a description of the Two Ways, or rather
eiprtrat\ Strom., i. 20, 100.
xaAoL>/j.£>-q ttbv dnoffToAwv: Ep. festal, 39.
al Asyofisvat. dida/ai: Hist, eccl., iii. 25, 4.
§ 6. THE DIDACHE OR TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 2 1
of the Way of Life, in which it is easy to recognize a slight paraphrase
of the first four chapters of the Didache. Similarly, a more exten
sive overworking of the entire Didache is met with in the first part
of the seventh book of the Apostolic Constitutions (cc. I — 32), a
work that was very probably compiled about the beginning of the
fifth century in Syria. Among the Latins the work is first met with
in the pseudo-Cyprianic homily «Adversus aleatores» 1. There is still
extant an ancient Latin version of the first six chapters.
The editio princeps of the Didache is entitled : AIOGT/Y] TWV owSexa a~o-
OToXtoV , EX TOU tSpOJOAUpUTT/.OU yfclpoypacpoi) VUV 7:pU>TOV £7.6l8o}Jl£VY] [ASTO, TpO-
\z^rj\Livu>v xai urjpLstojJSwv . . . UTTG dHAoftsou Bpusvviou }JiYjTpoTcoXiTou Ntxo|jirj6£ia£.
'Ev KtovstavTivouTioXst, 1883 (cxlix. 75 pp.). The « Codex Hierosolymitanus» is
a parchment manuscript, written in 1056, probably in Palestine. In 1883
it was in the library of the Hospice of the Holy Sepulchre Church at
Constantinople, whence it was soon transferred to the library of the Greek
Patriarchate at Jerusalem. Those pages of the manuscript that contained
the Didache were photographed by y. Rendel Harris for his edition of
the text: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Baltimore and London,
1887. A lively interest was at once aroused, especially in England and
America, with the result that a rich and varied literature has grown
up about this work. Cf. F. X. Funk, Doctrina duodecim apostolorum,
Tubingen, 1887, pp. xlvi — lii, for the literature previous to that year2; a
lengthier list is found in Ph. Schaff, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,
3. ed., New York, 1889, pp. 140 — 158, 297—320. Among the many edi
tions of the Didache those of Bryennios, Schaff, Funk, and Rendel Harris
are especially meritorious by reason of their wealth of information. See
A. Harnack, Die Lehre der zwolf Apostel (Texte und Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur ii. i — 2), Leipzig, 1884, stereotyped
1893. All these editions contain, beside the text of the Didache, older
adaptations of the Doctrine of the Two Ways, especially the Apostolic
Church-Ordinance (entire or in part) and the first part of the seventh book
of the Apostolic Constitutions. An Arabic adaptation of t|he first six chapters
of the Didache, taken from a Coptic source, was discovered and published
by Z. E. Iselin and A. Heusler, Eine bisher unbekannte Version des ersten
Teiles der Apostellehre (Texte und Untersuchungen xiii. i), Leipzig, 1895.
Harnack followed up his larger edition with a smaller one, in which he
undertook to reproduce the supposed Jewish prototype of the Didache:
Die Apostellehre und die jiidischen beiden Wege, Leipzig, 1886, 2. ed.
1896. Contemporaneously with his edition of the Didache, Funk brought
out a new edition of the first volume of his « Opera Patrum apostolico-
rum» and included in it the newly-found text « Didache, sen Doctrina xii
Apostolorum». In a Munich manuscript of the eleventh century J. Schlecht
found an old Latin version of the first six chapters of the Didache; a
short fragment of the same (Did. i , i — 3 ; 2, 2 — 6) had already been
edited by B. Pez in 1723 from a Melk codex of the ninth or tenth cen
tury. Schlecht , Die Lehre der zwolf Apostel in der Liturgie der katho-
lischen Kirche, Freiburg, 1900; Id., Doctrina XII apostolorum, Freiburg,
1900. The literature of the subject is very copious; it may suffice to indi
cate several essays of Funk, written 1884—1897 on the date of the origin
of the Didache and on its relations to similar texts ; they may be found
1 In doctrinis apostolorum, c. 4.
2 This list has been brought -up to date in his new edition, Tubingen, 1901.
22 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
in his Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen, Paderborn, 1899, ii. 108 — 141 ;
cf. Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentl. Kanons und
der altkirchl. Literatur, Erlangen and Leipzig, 1884, iii. 278 — 319. A. Kra-
wiitzcky, Uber die sogen. Zwolfapostellehre, ihre hauptsachlichsten Quellen
und ihre erste Aufnahme, in Theol. Qnartalschrift (1884), Ixvi. 547 — 606.
K. Miinchen, Die Lehre der zwolf Apostel, eine Schrift des i. jahrhun-
derts, in Zeitschrift fiir kath. Theologie (1886), x. 629-676. C. Taylor,
The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, with Illustrations from the Talmud,
Cambridge, 1886. Id. , An Essay on the Theology of the Didache, ib.
1889. G. Wohlenberg , Die Lehre der zwolf Apostel in ihrem Verhaltnis
zum neutestamentlichen Schrifttum, Erlangen, 1888. J. M. Minasi , La
dottrina del Signore pei Dodici Apostoli bandita alle genti (translation,
notes and commentary), Rome, 1891. P. Savi, La «Dottrina degli Apo
stoli », ricerche critiche sull' origine del testo con una nota intorno al' eu-
caristia, Roma, 1893, reprinted in «Litteratura cristiana antica». C. H.
Hoole, The Didache, London, 1894. Studi critici del P. Paolo Savi barna-
bita raccolti e riordinati dal can. Fr. Bolese, Siena, 1899, 47 — 119. Osser-
vazioni sulla Didache degli Apostoli in Bessarione vol. ii (1897 — 1898),
12 — 17 vol. iii. U. Benigni , Didache coptica «duarum viarum» recensio
coptica monastica per arabicam versionem superstes, ib. vol. iii (1898 and
1899); iv. 311 — 329 (also in separate reprint). E. Hennecke, Die Grund-
schrift der Didache und ihre Rezensionen, in Zeitschrift fur die neutesta-
mentliche Wissenschaft (1901), ii. 58 — 72. F. X. Funk, Zur Didache, die
Frage nach der Grundschrift und ihren Rezensionen, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1902), Ixxxiv, 73 — 88-, cf. R. Mariano, La dottrina dei Dodici Apostoli
e la critica storica in «I1 Cristianesimo nei primi secoli» (Scritti vari, iv),
Florence, 1902, 357 — 394. Liidwig , Zur Lehre vom Kirchenamte in der
Didache, in Hist.-polit. Blatter (1901), cxxviii. 732—739. P. Ladeuze,
L'Eucharistie et les repas communs des fideles dans la Didache, in
Revue de 1'Orient chretien (1902), vii. 341 — 359. W. Scherer , Der
Weinstock Davids (Did. 9, 2) im Lichte der Schrifterklarung betrachtet,
in Katholik (1903), i. 357 — 365. B. Labanca, La dottrina degli Apostoli
studiata in Italia, Roma, 1895, in Rivista italiana di nlosofia x, 1895. Th.
Schermann , Eine Elfapostelmoral oder die X-Rezension der beiden
Wege, Munich, 1902 (Veroffentlichungen aus dem kirchenhistor. Seminar
ii. 2). P. Batiffol, L'Eucharistie dans la. Didache, in Revue biblique
(1905), pp. 58 — 67. Bigg , Notes on the Didache, in Journal of Theol.
Studies (July 1904), v. 579 — 589. J. V. Bartlet , (art.) «Didache» in
Hastings' Diet, of the Bible (extra vol.) (1904), pp. 438 — 451.
§ 7. The so-called Epistle of Barnabas.
I . ITS CONTENTS. The Letter current under the name of St. Bar
nabas gives the names neither of the author nor of the recipients;
they are called «sons and daughters» (c. I, i) or «brothers» (cc. 2, 10;
3, 6, and passim} or « children » (cc. 7, I ; 9, 7). Though the author
of the Letter had preached the Gospel among those to whom it is
addressed, he nowhere indicates their dwelling-place. Apart from the
exordium (c. i) and the conclusion (c. 21) the Letter is divided into
two parts of very unequal length (cc. 2 — 17 and 18—20). The first
part of the Letter undertakes to appreciate properly the value and
the meaning of the Old Testament. The author is not satisfied
with the teaching of the New Testament, that the Old has been an-
§ 7- THE SO-CALLED EPISTLE OF BARNABAS. 23
nulled and the Mosaic Law abrogated. He goes farther and asserts
that the Old Testament was never valid, that Judaism with its pre
cepts and ceremonies was not ordained of God, but was a work
of human folly and diabolical deceit. Deceived by the devil, the
Jews had understood the Law in the literal sense, whereas they
should have interpreted it, not according to the letter but according
to the spirit. God asked not for external sacrifices, but for a con
trite heart (c. 2) ; not for corporal fasting, but for good works (c. 3) ; not
for circumcision of the flesh, but for that of the ears and the heart (c. 9) ;
not for abstinence from the flesh of certain animals, but from the
sins that are represented by these animals (c. 10). In truth, the
Old Testament in its entirety was a mysterious foretelling of the New
Testament; throughout its pages are everywhere suggested or prefigured
the truths of Christian revelation or facts of the Gospel history.
Thus, in the circumcision of the three hundred and eighteen servants
of Abraham (Gen. xvii. 27; cf. xiv. 14) there is a mystical allusion
to the death of our Lord on the cross: 18 = cy = Jesus, and 300
= r = the Cross (c. 9). In the eighteenth chapter the author passes
to « another knowledge and doctrine ». He describes minutely two
opposite Ways, the Way of Light (c. 19) and the Way of Darkness
(c. 20). It is highly probable, as has been already observed (§ 6. 2),
that the introduction to the Didache was here his source and model.
There can be no doubt of the unity and homogeneity of the Letter
in the form in which it has come down to us : the hypotheses of
retouches and interpolations, suggested by Heydecke and Weiss, are
without foundation. The author's literary incapacity is evident, a fact
that explains the absence of connected and consecutive thought.
2. ITS NON- AUTHENTICITY. With one voice Christian antiquity
indicated as author of this work St. Barnabas, the travelling com
panion and fellow-labourer of the Apostle Paul ; he is himself called an
Apostle (Acts xiv. 4, 14; I Cor. ix. 5 f; cf. Gal. ii. 9). The oldest
writer in whom are found express citations from the Letter is Clement
of Alexandria; he frequently attributes the authorship of it to St. Barna
bas1. This was also the belief of Origen2. The latter even calls it
a xa$o/>ix~q ImoroXfy probably because even then it bore no special
address. Both of these Alexandrine doctors held the Letter in
very great veneration. Eusebius places it 3 among the non-canonical
writings, the vofta. or flyrdefofjisvat fpa(po.i\ St. Jerome among the apo
cryphal writings *. Both, however, seem firmly persuaded of the author
ship of St. Barnabas. In general, throughout the patristic literature
there is no expression to the contrary. But modern opinion judges
differently. There may be yet an occasional defender of the authorship
1 Strom., ii. 6, 31 ; 7, 35. 2 Contra Celsum, i. 63.
3 Hist, eccl., iii. 25, 4; vi. 13, 6.
4 De viris illustr., c. 6 ; Comm. in Ezech. ad 43, \<).
24 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
of St. Barnabas, but the great majority of scholars have declared the
Letter non-authentic. A very decisive argument is its teaching concerning
the Old Testament; it is quite opposed to the teaching of the Apostles,
especially of St. Paul, and cannot therefore be attributed to St. Bar
nabas. Moreover, the indications of the author concerning the epoch
in which he lived do not permit us to believe in the authenticity of
this Letter. It is sufficiently certain that Barnabas did not survive
the destruction of Jerusalem (70), a date that for the author of
the Letter is already in the past (c. 16). It is also an undoubted
fact that St. Barnabas was no longer alive in the time of the Emperor
Nerva, when, according to the most approved conjectures, the Letter
was composed.
3. TIME AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION. Two passages in the Letter
are relied on to determine with some precision the date of its com
position. In one (c. 4) the author maintains the proximity of the end
of the world. This will come about in the time of an eleventh king
who, according to the prophecy of Daniel (vil. 8, 24) has humiliated
three of the ten kings who preceded him, and that, adds the author
of the Letter, at the same time (utp iV c. 4. 4, 5). It seems certain
that the time of the reign of this eleventh king was the period in which
the Letter was composed. But who is this eleventh king? According
to the most plausible opinion (Hilgenfeld, Funk) it is the Emperor
Nerva (96—98). His three predecessors belong to the same family,
and in and with Domitian (the last representative of the family of the
Flavii) all three in a certain sense may be said to have been dethroned.
It is true that, counting in Augustus, Nerva is not the eleventh but
the twelfth emperor; we may admit, however, that the author has
torgotten in his enumeration one of the three ephemeral emperors
(Galba, Otto, or Vitellius), predecessors of Vespasian, and who were
not all recognized in every part of the empire. The second passage con
cerning the Temple (c. 16) cannot be relied on for chronological pur
poses. The words «now the Temple is being rebuilt » (c. 16. 4)
have been recently interpreted by Harnack of the building of
the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus under Hadrian (about 130) and
on the site of the Temple of Jerusalem. It is highly probable,
however, from the context, that the author is speaking not of a
pagan temple of stone, but of a spiritual temple in the hearts of the
(nvevpaTtxbQ vauo, o!xodofjto6fjtevo£ rw xopiw , c. 16. 10). The
place of composition is usually understood to 'be Alexandria; the
allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures to which the author is very
much addicted was a special characteristic of that city. The Letter's
immediate circle of readers might well be a mixed community of
Judaeo-Christians and Gentile converts in the vicinity of Alexandria.
4. MANUSCRIPTS AND EDITIONS. The « Letter of Barnabas» is found com
plete ID two manuscripts. The older and more important is the Greek biblical
§ 8. CLEMENT OF ROME. 25
codex of the fourth century, discovered in 1859, by C. Tischendorf, and
known as the Codex Sinaiticus. It contains, as an appendix to the biblical
books, the Letter of Barnabas and a part of the Shepherd of Hermas.
The other manuscript is the Codex Hierosolymitanus of the year 1056, dis
covered by Ph. Bryennios (fol. 33r — 5iv). There are also several manu
scripts of this Letter that come down from a single archetype, but in
which are lacking the first four chapters and half of the fifth: their text
begins (c. 5. 7) with the words TOV Xaov TOV xaivov. An additional means of
controlling the text of the Letter is found in an old Latin version, very faulty
however and incomplete, preserved in a St. Petersburg codex of the ninth
or tenth century; it contains the text of cc. 1 — 17. The Letter was
first printed, together with the Letters of St. Ignatius, by J. Ussher, the
Anglican archbishop of Armagh, in 1642. Cf. J. H. Backhouse, The Editio
Princeps of the Epistle of Barnabas by Archbishop Ussher, Oxford, 1883.
A second and separate edition was published by the Maurist Benedictine
Hugo Menard, or rather, since his death in 1644 prevented his issue
of the work, by his confrere J. L. d'Achtry, Paris, 1645. A third edition
that included the Ignatian Letters and was based on a wider collation of
manuscripts, was prepared by the Leyden philologian J. Voss, Amsterdam,
1646, 2. ed. London, 1680. Many of the later editions are indicated (§ 4)
among the editions of the Apostolic Fathers: J. B. Cotelier, Paris, 1672;
Antwerp, 1698; Amsterdam 1724 (reprinted in Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr.
t. i; Migne, PG. ii.) ; C. J. Hefele, Tubingen 1839, 4- ed- l855; A.M.
Dressel, Leipzig, 1857, 2. ed. 1863; A. Hilgenfeld, ib. 1866, 2. ed. 1877.
O. von Gebhardt and A. Harnack, ib. 1875, 2- ed- l878i ^r- X. Funk,
Tubingen, 1878, 1887, 1901. — Translations of and works on the Apostolic
Fathers are mentioned in § 4. Among the special studies on the Letter
of Barnabas cf. C. J. Hefele, Das Sendschreiben des Apostels Barnabas,
aufs neue untersucht, iibersetzt und erklart, Tubingen, 1840. y. Kayser,
Uber den sog. Barnabasbrief, Paderborn, 1866. J. G. Midler, Erklarung
des Barnabasbriefes, Leipzig, 1869. Chr. J. Riggenbach, Der sogen. Brief
des Barnabas, Ubersetzung, Bemerkungen, Basel, 1873. C. Heydecke, Disser-
tatio qua Barnabae Epistola interpolata demonstratur , Brunsvigi, 1874.
O. Braunsberger, Der Apostel Barnabas. Sein Leben und der ihm beigelegte
Brief, wissenschaftlich gewurdigt, Mainz, 1876. W. Cunningham, The Epistle
of S. Barnabas. A Dissertation including a Discussion of its date and
authorship, London, 1877. Two dissertations by Funk, on the date of
authorship of the Epistle, are reprinted in his Kirchengeschichtliche Abhand-
lungen und Untersuchungen (1899), ii. 77 — 108. C. Fr. Arnold, Quaestionum
de compositione et fontibus Barnabae epistolae capita nonnulla (Dissert,
inaug.), Regiomonti, 1886. J. Weifl, Der Barnabasbrief, kritisch untersucht,
Berlin, 1888. A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur (1897),
ii. 410 — 428. A. Ladeuze, L'fipitre de Barnabe, in Revue d'histoire ecclesia-
stique (1900), i. 31 — 40, 212 — 225. On the formal or artistic execution of
the Epistle cf. T. M. Wehofer, Untersuchungen ziir altchristlichen Epistolo-
graphie, Vienna, 1901. A. van VeldJwizen , De Brief van Barnabas, Gro-
ningen, 1901. A. Di Pauli, Kritisches zum Barnabasbrief, in Histor.-polit.
Blatter (1902), cxxxi 318—324. J. Tunnel, La lettre de Barnabe', in
Annales de philos. chretienne, 1903, juillet, 387 — 398.
§ 8. Clement of Rome.
I. ins LIFE. According to St. Irenseus1, he was the third successor
of St. Peter in the Roman See. The later opinion that Clement
1 Adv. haer., iii. 3, 3.
26 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
was the immediate successor of St. Peter * is probably derived from the
so-called Clementine Literature (§ 26, 3) and certainly is unhistorical.
Eusebius himself looked on Clement as the fourth pope, and reckoned
his pontificate at nine years (92- — 101), from the twelfth year of
Domitian to the third of Trajan 2. For his early life we are reduced
to conjecture. The Clementine statement that he belonged to the
imperial family of the Flavii deserves no credence. Recent writers
have wisely abandoned the hypothesis, closely related to the Cle
mentine view, that Clement is identical with the consul Titus Flavius
Clemens, a cousin of Domitian, put to death (95 or 96) as guilty
of atheism and Jewish practices, i. e. very probably as a Christian 3.
The general impression produced by his Epistle to the Corinthians
seems favourable to the thesis that Clement was of Jewish, not
Gentile, parentage. The relatively very late narratives of his martyr
dom can hardly claim to be more than poetry and saga. Origen4
and Eusebius 5 identify our writer with that Clement whom St. Paul
names and praises as one of his « fellow-labourers » 6.
The «testimonia» of antiquity concerning Clement are discussed at
length in Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, part I, London, 1890, i. 14—103,
104—115, 201 — 345. For his place in the catalogue of popes see Duchesne,
Liber Pontificalis, I, Paris, 1886, Ixxi. — Ixxxiii, and for the consul Titus
Flavius Clemens, Fr. X. Funk, Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen und Unter-
suchungen, Paderborn, 1897, i. 308 — 329.
2. THE LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS. Clement is the author
of a long Letter to the Christian community at Corinth, that has
reached us in the Greek original and in a Latin and a Syriac version.
In that city a few bold and presumptuous men (c. i, I, cf. 47. 6)
had risen against their ecclesiastical superiors and driven them from
their offices; Clement desires to put an end to the confusion. In
the exordium of his Letter he depicts in lively colours the former
flourishing state of the Church of Corinth ; after a brief notice of the
very deplorable actual condition of the community, he goes on to
the first part of the Letter (cc. 4 — 36). It contains instruction and
exhortation of a general character, warns the Corinthians against
envy and jealousy, recommends humility and obedience, and appeals
continually to the types and examples of these virtues offered by
the Old Testament. The second part (cc. 36 — 61) deals more
directly with the situation at Corinth. He treats here of the eccle
siastical hierarchy and exhibits the necessity of subjection to the
legitimate ecclesiastical authorities. In conclusion (cc. 62 — 65) he
1 St. Jer., De viris illustr., c. 15.
2 Hist, eccl., iii. 15, 34; cf. Chron. ad an. Abrah. 2 no.
3 Dio Cassius, Hist. Rom., Ixvii. 14; cf. Suet., Domit., c. 15.
4 Comm. in Jo., vi. 36. 5 Hist, eccl., iii. 15.
6 Phil. iv. 3.
§ 8. CLEMENT OF ROME. 27
summarizes what he has already said. Long ago Photius recognized1
the simplicity and clearness of his style. The name of Clement does
not appear in the Letter; it presents itself, formally, as a writing of
the Christian community at Rome. There can be no doubt, however,
that it is the work of Clement, who wrote as the head and represen
tative of the Roman community 2. Quite decisive are the words of
Dionysius of Corinth in his reply to a letter of Pope Soter 3 written
about 170: «To-day we have celebrated the Lord's holy day, in
which we have read your Letter. From it, whenever we read it,
we shall always be able to draw advice, as also from the former
Letter which was written to us by Clement» : COQ xal rqy rcporipav
Tjtuv dia KkrjiJLZVToc, fpayzlaav, sc. imffToj^Vf Without naming him,
St. Polycarp quotes Clement in his own Letter to the Philippians.
The Letter of Clement was probably composed towards the end of
the reign of Domitian (Si — 96) or the beginning of that of Nerva
(96 — 98). From the lost work of Hegesippus, Eusebius learned that
the agitation and discord at Corinth which gave occasion to the
Letter, arose in the time of Domitian4. In the history of Christian
doctrine this communication to the Church of Corinth is very import
ant as a «de facto » witness to the primacy of the Roman Church.
The hypothesis that the Corinthians solicited the intervention of the
Roman Church is incompatible with certain passages in the Letter
(cc. i. i ; 47, 6 — 7). It may be added that the primitive authority
of that Church shines out all the more clearly if it be accepted
that it dealt unasked with the affairs of the Corinthian Church, in
the conviction that the restoration of order was a duty incumben
upon it.
The Letter to the Corinthians, and the so-called Second Letter to the
same, have come down to us in two Greek manuscripts, the Codex Hiero-
solymitanus of 1056 (§ 6, 4; 7, 4) and the so-called Codex Alexandrinus,
the latter being the well-known fifth-century biblical codex of the British
Museum at London. In the latter manuscript the text of both Letters,
particularly that of the second, has reached us in a very imperfect condition.
The Codex Alexandrinus has been reproduced in photographic facsimile:
Facsimile of the Codex Alexandrinus, vol. IV. New Testament and Cle
mentine Epistles, London, 1879. A similar photographic reproduction
of the text of Clement as found in the Codex Hierosolymitanus (fol.
5iv — 76r) may be seen in Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, part I (1890),
i. 421 — 474. A very old and very literal Latin version of the first Letter
was edited by G. Morin from a codex of the eleventh century, Mared-
sous, 1894 (Anecdota Maredsolana, ii). Cf. A. Harnack in Sitzungsberichte
der kgl. preufi. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1894, pp. 261 — 273,
601 — 621; E. Wolff lin in Archiv fiir latein. Lexikographie und Grammatik
(1894), ix. 81 — 100 ; H. Kihn in Theol. Quartalschrift (1894), Ixxvi.
1 Bibl. cod., p. 126.
2 Ens., Hist, eccl., iii. 38, I. St. Jer., De viris illustr., c. 15.
3 Ens., ib., iv. 23, n. 4 Ib., iii. 16; iv. 22, I.
28 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
540 — 549. An ancient Syriac version of both Letters is met with in a
Cambridge manuscript of 1170; the more important readings were publish
ed by Light f o ot , St. Clement of Rome, an Appendix, London 1877,
pp. 397 — 470; cf. Id., The Apostolic Fathers, parti (1890), i. 129 — 146.
The complete text was published by R. L. Bensly, or rather after his death,
by R. H. Kennet, London, 1899. The editio princeps of both Letters is
that of P. Junius (Young), Oxford, 1633, 2. ed. 1637, whence Cotelier
took them for his edition of the Patres aevi apostolici, Paris, 1672. Since
then they are found in every edition of the Apostolic Fathers (§ 4). Philo-
theos Bryennios was the first to publish from the Codex Hierosol. the full
text of both Letters. The most valuable edition is that of Lightfoot (f 1889),
in the second edition of the first part of his Apostolic Fathers published
at London, 1890, after his death. The first Letter was also edited by
R. Knopf, Leipzig, 1899 (Texte und Untersuchungen, new series, v. i.) and
in the first volume of the first series of the Bibliotheca Sanctorum Patrum
edited by S. Vizzini, Rome, 1901. German translations of both Letters
have been published recently by Karger, Schalz, and Mayer (§ 4). Among
the English translations see that of Lightfoot , St. Clement of Rome, An
Appendix (1877), 345 — 390; cf. The Apostolic Fathers, i (1890), ii. 271 — 316.
From the literature on the First Epistle to the Corinthians we quote : R. A,
Lipsius , De dementis Romani epistola ad Corinthios priore disquisitio,
Leipzig, 1855. A. Briill , Der erste Brief des Clemens von Rom an die
Korinther und seine geschichtliche Bedeutung, Freiburg, 1883. W. Wrede,
Untersuchungen zum ersten Clemensbrief, Gottingen, 1891. L. Lemme, Das
Judenchristentum der Urkirche und der Brief des Clemens Romanus, in Neue
Jahrbiicher fur deutsche Theol. (1892), i. 325—480. G. Courtois, L'fipitre
de Clement de Rome (These), Montauban, 1894. J. P. Bang, Studien iiber
Clemens Romanus, in Theol. Studien und Kritiken (1898), Ixxi. 431 — 486.
Cf. Ad. Harnack, in Texte und Untersuchungen, xx, new series, v. 3 (1890),
70 — 80. B. Heurtier, Le dogme de la Trinite dans 1'Epitre de St. Clement
de Rome et le Pasteur d'Hermas (These), Lyon, 1890. A. Stahl, Patristische
Untersuchungen, i. Der erste Brief des romischen Clemens, Leipzig, 1901.
W. Scherer , Der erste Clemensbrief an die Korinther nach seiner Bedeu
tung fur die Glaubenslehre der kathol. Kirche am Atisgang des i. Jahrhun-
derts, Regensburg, 1902. For_the style and diction of the Letter cf. Wehofer
op. cit. (§ 7, 4). E. Dor sch, Die Gottheit Jesu bei Clemens von Rom, in
Zeitschrift fur kath. Theol. (1902), xxvi. 466—491. J. Tunnel, Etude sur
la Lettre de St. Clement de Rome aux Corinthiens, in Annales de philos.
chretienne (1903), Mai, 144—160. A. van Veldhuyzen, De tekst van z. g.
eersten Brief van Clemens aari de Korinthiers, in Theol. Studien (1903), i.
i — 34. B. Schweitzer, Glaube und Werke bei Clemens Romanus, in Theol.
Quartalschrift (1903), Ixxxv. 417—437, 547—575-
3. THE SO-CALLED SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS. In
the manuscripts (Greek and Syriac), likewise in the printed editions,
the Letter to the Corinthians is followed by another work, usually called
the Second Letter to the Corinthians. The character of its contents is
very general: the Christian must lead a life worthy of his vocation,
must prefer the promises of the future to the joys of the present, must
be conscious of the necessity of doing penance etc. It is first mention
ed by Eusebius^ as purporting to be the Second Letter of Clement.
Since the fifth century it circulated among the Greeks and Syrians as
1 Hist, eccl., iii. 38, 4; cf. St. Jer., De viris illustr., c. 15.
§ 8. CLEMENT OF ROME. 2Q
the Second Letter of Clement to the Corinthians. Eusebius himself had
some suspicion that it could not be the work of Clement. It is now
generally admitted that internal and external criteria make it clear that
the document belongs to the middle of the second century, if not to
a somewhat later date. When the full text was published in 1875, it
became evident that it was not a letter, but a sermon (cf. cc. 15. 2;
17. 3; 19. i). This fact is enough to refute a former hypothesis,
recently defended by Harnack, that in this writing we possess the
Letter of Pope Soter (166—174) to the community of Corinth, other
wise known to us only through the fragments of the reply of Dio-
nysius, bishop of that city1. It is probable, moreover, that this
sermon was preached, not at Rome but at Corinth (c. 7. I — 3).
For the manuscript-tradition, editions, and versions of the so-called Se
cond Letter to the Corinthians, see above, p. 26. H. Hagemann , Uber
den zweiten Brief des Clemens von Rom, in Theol. Quartalschrift (1861),
xliii. 509 — 531. Ad. Harnack, Uber den sog. zweiten Brief des Clemens
an die Korinther, in Zeitschr. fiir Kirchengesch. (1876 — 1877), i. 264 — 283,
329 — 364. Id., Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, ii. i 438 — 450. Funk, Der
sog. zweite Clemensbrief, in Theol. Quartalschr., Ixxxiv. (1902) 345 — 364.
R. Knopf, Die Anagnose zum zweiten Clemensbriefe, in Zeitschrift fiir die
neutestamentl. Wissensch. 1902, iii. 266 — 279.
4. THE TWO LETTERS TO VIRGINS. Two Letters in Syriac have
come down to us under the name of Clement. Both are address
ed to Virgins, i. e. to unmarried persons or ascetics of both sexes;
their purpose is to demonstrate the excellence of the state of vir
ginity, and also to furnish rules of conduct whereby to avoid the
perils of that condition. Cotterill discovered (1884) in the « Pandects »
of the Palestinian monk Antiochus (c. 620) lengthy fragments of a
Greek text of both Letters. There is every probability that the Greek
text is the original from which the Syriac version was made. The
earliest traces of the Letters are in Epiphanius -. Their evident op
position to the «Subintroductae» makes it probable that they were
written in the third century, perhaps in Syria or Palestine. It is
clear from Epiphanius (1. c.) that in the fourth century they were
held there in great esteem. As the conclusion is lacking to the
first and the introduction to the second, it is very probable that
originally the two Letters were one document.
The Syriac text of the two Letters was found by J. ?. Wetstein in a
Peschitto-Codex of the New Testament, of the year 1470, and edited by him
at Leyden in 1752 with a Latin version. A reprint of the Syriac text of
Wetstein is found in Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., i., and in Migne , PG., i.
P. Zingerle published a German translation at Vienna, 1827. The Syriac
text was re-edited, with a Latin version, by J. T/i. Beelcn, Louvain, 1856.
This Latin translation is found, with corrections, in Funk, Opp. Patr.
Apostol., ii. i — 27. Cf. J. M. Cotterill, Modem Criticism and Clement's
1 FMS., Hist, eccl., iv. 23, 10 — 12; ii. 25, 8.
- Haer., xxx. 15; cf. St. Jer., Adv. Jovin., i. 12.
3O FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
Epistles to Virgins (first printed 1756) or their Greek version newly dis
covered in Antiochus Palaestinensis, Edinburgh, 1884. Ad. Harnack, Die
pseudo-clementinischen Briefe De virginitate und die Entstehung des Monch-
tums, in Sitzungsberichte der kgl. preuft. Akad. der Wissensch., Berlin,
1891, pp. 361 — 385. D. Volter, Die Apostolischen Vater neu untersucht.
Part i. : Clemens, Hennas, Barnabas. Leyden, 1904. -
§ 9. Ignatius of Antioch.
I. TRADITION OF THE SEVEN EPISTLES. - - Ignatius, called also
Theophorus, the second or (if we include St. Peter) the third bishop
of Antioch1, was exposed to wild beasts at Rome2 under Trajan,
i. e. between 98 and ii/3. He was taken from Antioch to Rome
in the custody of soldiers, and on the way wrote seven Letters to
the Christians of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia,
Smyrna, and to Polycarp, bishop of the latter city. The collection
of these Letters that lay before Eusebius* has been lost; but later
collections of Ignatian Letters have been preserved, in which much
scoria is mixed with the pure gold. The oldest of these, usually
called the Long Recension, contains seven genuine and six spurious
Letters, but even the genuine ones do not appear in their original
form; they are all more or less enlarged and interpolated. The spurious
Letters are those of a certain Maria of Cassobola to Ignatius, his reply,
and Letters from him to the people of Tarsus, Philippi, Antioch, and
to the deacon Hero of Antioch. This recension is extant in the original
Greek, and in an ancient Latin version. It seems certain that we
owe to one and the same hand the forgery of the spurious Letters,
the interpolation of the genuine ones, and the union of all in the Long
Recension. The forger was an Apollinarist, for he twice denies that
the Redeemer possessed a human soul (Philipp. v. 2. Philad., vi. 6).
According to the researches of Funk, he is very probably identical with
the compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions that were put together in
Syria early in the fifth century. Later on, a «Laus Heronis» was added
to this collection, i. e. a panegyric of Ignatius in the form of a prayer
to him made by Hero, very probably written in Greek; it has reached
us only in a Latin and a Coptic (Lower Egyptian or Memphitic) text.
Somewhere between this Long Recension of the Ignatian Letters
and the collection known to Eusebius is a third collection that has
also reached us in Greek and Latin. It contains the seven genuine
Letters in their original form, and also the six spurious ones, with the
exception of the Letter to the Philippians; it has been recently called
by Funk, and not improperly, the Mixed Collection. In this collection
the (genuine) Letter to the Romans is incorporated with the so-called
1 Orig., Horn. vi. in Luc. ; Eus., Hist, eccl., iii. 22.
2 Orig., ib. ; Eus., ib. iii. 36, 3.
3 Eus., Chron. post an. Abr. 2123.
4 Hist, eccl., iii. 36, 4 ff.
§ 9- IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 3!
Martyrium Colbercinum, a document that closes the collection, and
pretends to be the account given by an eye-witness of the martyrdom of
St. Ignatius. Closely related to this collection is another that has reached
us only in Armenian; it too has the seven genuine and the six spurious
letters. Its original is a Syriac text now lost. Similarly, there has
been preserved in Syriac an abbreviated recension of the three genuine
Letters to the Ephesians, the Romans, and to Polycarp. Finally we
must mention four Letters preserved in Latin : two from Ignatius to
the Apostle John, and one to the Blessed Virgin, with her reply.
These four Letters may be traced back to the twelfth century; very
probably they are of Western origin.
It is clear from the preceding that the authentic text of the seven
genuine Letters must be gathered from the Mixed Recension ; whose Greek
original is represented in a single codex that is, moreover, incomplete -
the Mediceo-Laurentianus of the eleventh century, preserved at Florence.
The Letter to the Romans is lacking in this manuscript, but is found (as
a part of the Martyrium Colbertinum) in the tenth century Codex Colberti-
nus (Paris). Two other codices are now known, but they present no sub
stantial variation; cf. Funk, Patres Apostolici, 2. ed., torn. ii. Ixxii sq.
However, even the ancient Latin translation in the Mixed Recension may
lay claim to the value of a Greek text. In addition, the text of the
Syro-Armenian collection and that of the Long Recension merit conside
ration. There are several Greek codices of the latter; among which the
Codex Monacensis (olim Augustanus) of the tenth or eleventh century
must be regarded as the chief. J. Voss was the first to edit the original
text of the genuine Letters, with the exception of that to the Romans,
Amsterdam, 1646. Th. Ruinart published the text of the latter from the
Martyrium Colbertinum, Paris, 1689. The text in Migne, PG., v. 625 — 728
is taken from Hefele, Opp. Patr. apostol. (3. ed. Tiibingen, 1847). The
most recent and best editions are those of Zahn, Ignatii et Polycarpi
epistulae, martyria, fragmenta (Patr. apostol. opp. Rec. O. dc Gebhardt,
Harnack , Zahn, fasc. ii), Leipzig, 1876; Funk, Opp. Patr. apostol., i.,
Tiibingen 1878, 1887, 1901; Ligktfoot , The Apostolic Fathers, Part ii:
St. Ignatius, St. Polycarp, London 1885, 1889, 2 vol. Lightfoot's
edition presents most fully all ancient ecclesiastical tradition concerning
the Letters. (Ignatii Antiocheni et Polycarpi Smyrnaei epistulae et mar
tyria, edidit et adnotationibns instruxit A. Hilgenfdd , Berlin, 1902.
Cf. also Ignatii et Polycarpi Epistulae in the Bibliotheca SS. Patrum of
Vizzini, series I, vol. II, Roma, 1902.) See § 4 for the latest English and
German versions of the genuine Letters. There is an English version in
Lightfoot, ib. ii. 539—570, and in J. H. Srawley, London, 1900, 2 vol.
A. Hilgenfeld, Die Ignatiusbriefe und die neueste Verteidigung ihrer Echt-
heit, in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theologie (1903), xlvi. 171 — 194. Id.,
ib. 499—505. T. Nicklin, Three Passages in SS. Ignatius and Polycarp,
in Journal of Theological Studies (1902 — 1903), iv. 443. A. N. Jannaris,
An Ill-used Passage of St. Ignatius (ad Philad. viii. 2), in Classical Review
(1903), xviii. 24- — 35. J. Drdseke , Fin Testimonium Ignatianum, in Zeit-
schrift fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1903), xlvi, 506 — 512. The Greek text
of the Long Recension was first edited by V. Hartung (Frid), Dillingen,
1557. The text of Migne , op. cit. v. 729—941 is taken from Cotelerius,
Patres aevi apost. t. ii. For new editions cf. Zahn, op. cit. pp. 174 — 296;
Funk, op. cit. ii. 46 — 213; Lightfoot, op. cit. ii. 709 — 857.
32 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
For the author of the Long Recension, his theological tendencies, and
his identity with the compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions, see Funk,
Die Apostolischen Konstitutionen, Rottenburg, 1891, pp. 281—355. Id.,
Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (1899), ii. 347
to 359 i C' Hohhey , in Theol. Quartalschr. (1898), Ixxx. 380 — 390;
A. Amelungk, in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1899), xlii. 508 — 581;
(to the contrary: F. X. Funk, Theologie und Zeit des Pseudo-Ignatius, in
Theol. Quartalschr. [1901], Ixxxiii. 411 — 426, and Id., Le Pseudo-Ignace,
in Revue d'hist. ecclesiast. [1900], i. 61 — 65). A. Sta/it, Patristische Unter
suchungen, II: Ignatius von Antiochien, Leipzig, 1901. The Latin text of
«Laus Heronis» is in Migne, PL. v. 945 — 948; cf. Zahn p. 297; Funk ii.
214; Light/cot ii. 893. Light foot gives the prayer in a Lower Egyptian
or Memphitic version (p. 88if.), and attempts a reconstruction of the
Greek text (p. 893 f.). For the Latin version of the Long Recension see
Zahn p. 175 — 296; Funk ii. 47 — 213. The Latin version of the Mixed
Recension is in Funk,, Die Echtheit der Ignatianischen Briefe aufs neue
verteidigt, Tubingen, 1883, p. 151 — 204, and in Lightfoot ii. 597 — 652.
P. de Lagarde published both Latin versions at Gottingen, 1882. The
Lightfoot edition contains (ii. 659 — 687) the Syriac abbreviated recension
of the three Letters to Polycarp, the Ephesians, and the Romans, first
made known in 1845 ^7 ^ Cureton; it also contains some stray Syriac
fragments of the genuine Letters in their original form, edited by W. Wright.
For earlier editions and recensions of these Syriac texts see E. Nestle,
Syrische Grammatik (Berlin, 1888), ii. 54, s. v. Ignatius Antiochenus. The
Armenian version, derived from the Syriac, was first published at Con
stantinople in 1783. It also appeared at Leipzig in 1849, in y. H. Peter-
manris edition of the Ignatian Letters. The four Letters extant in Latin
only are found in Migne, PL., v. 941 — 946; Zahn pp. 297 — 300; Funk
pp. 214 — 217; Lightfoot, ii. 653 — 656. (Ad. Harnack , Zu Ignatius und
Polycarp, in Miscellen [Texte und Untersuchungen, new series, v. 3]
[Leipzig, 1900], pp. 80 — 86.)
2. CONTENTS OF THE LETTERS. — On his way to martyrdom Ignatius
probably embarked at Seleucia for some port in Cilicia or Pamphylia;
thence, as his Letters bear witness, he was taken by land through
Asia Minor. At Smyrna there was a somewhat lengthy halt, and he
met there the envoys from several Christian communities of Asia Minor
come to express their veneration for the confessor of the faith. To
the representatives of Ephesus, Magnesia, and Tralles, Ignatius gave
Letters for those communities, in which, after making known his gra
titude, he warned them to beware of heretics (Judaizers and Docetae,
or rather, perhaps, Judaizing Docetae). He also exhorts them to be
joyfully submissive to the ecclesiastical authorities. «Be ye careful to
do all things in divine concord flv opowia rou tisouj. This, because
the bishop presides in the place of God, 'and the priests are as the
senate of the Apostles, and the deacons . . . have confided to them
the ministry of Jesus Christ » (Magn., 6. i). «Let all reverence the
deacons as Jesus Christ, and also the bishop ; for he is the image of
the Father, but the priests as the senate of God and the college
of the Apostles. Without these (ecclesiastical superiors) one cannot
speak of a church » (Trail, 3. i). A fourth Letter was sent by Ignatius
§ 9- IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 33
from Smyrna to the Christians ,of Rome, to induce them to abandon
all attempts to prevent the execution of his death-sentence. «I fear
that your love will cause me a damage » (i. 2). «For I shall not
have such another occasion to enter into the possession of God» (2. i).
«I am the wheat of God, and I must be ground by the teeth of
wild beasts that I may become the pure bread of Christ» (4. i).
The preamble of this Letter offers many difficulties. However, when
he calls the Roman community (ixxtyaia) the npoxa&yplvy TTJQ dfaTrqe,
it is clear that these words do not signify « first in charity » or in the
exercise of love, but rather « presiding over the society of love », i. e.
the entire Church. The word d-fairy often signifies in Ignatius the
entire community of Christians. - - From Smyrna he went to Troas
where he was met by a messenger of the Church of Antioch with
the news that the persecution of the Christians had ceased in that
city. From Troas he wrote to the Christians of Philadelphia and
Smyrna, and also to Polycarp, the bishop of the latter city. In the first
two Letters he expresses his thanks for the evidences of their love,
recommends the sending of messengers to congratulate those of Antioch
on the restoration of peace, and exhorts and warns them against the
heretical ideas already mentioned. «I cried out (at Philadelphia) with
a loud voice, with the voice of God : hold fast to the bishop, to
the presbytery, to the deacons» (Philad., 7. i). « Wherever the bishop
is, there let the people be, as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the
Catholic Church» (Smyrn., 8. 2; it is here that we first meet with the
words « Catholic Church » in the sense of the entire body of the
faithful). Ignatius meant to request the other communities of Asia
Minor to express, by messenger or letter, their sympathies with the
Christians of Antioch, but was prevented by an unexpected and hasty
departure from Troas; he therefore asks Polycarp to appeal in his
name to those communities of Asia. From Troas he \vent to Neapolis,
crossing on his way Macedonia and Illyria. It was probably at Dyr-
rhachium (Durazzo), or at Apollonia, that he began his sea-voyage.
From Brindisi he travelled afoot to Rome, where according to the
unanimous evidence of antiquity he reached the goal of his desire.
His literary remains are the outpouring of a pastoral heart, aflame
with a consuming love for Jesus Christ and His Church. The style
is original and extremely vivacious, the expression sonorous and often
incorrect, while the strong emotions of the writer interfere frequently
with the ordinary forms of expression. Very frequently he reminds
us of certain epistles of the Apostle of the Gentiles.
Th. Dreher, S. Ignatii episc. Antioch. de Christo Deo doctrina (Progr.),
Sigmaringen, 1877. J. Nirschl , Die Theologie des hi. Ignatius, Mainz,
1880. y. H. Newman, The Theology of St. Ignatius, in Hist. Sketches I
(London, 1890), v. 222 — 262. E. Freiherr v. d. Goltz, Ignatius von An-
tiochien als Christ und Theologe, Leipzig, 1894 (Texte und Untersuchungen,
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. •}
34 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
xii. 3). E. Bruston , Ignace d'Antioche, ses epitres, sa theologie, Paris,
1897. The term KpoxafhjjievT) TTJ* aya-^c, in the inscription of the Letter to
the Romans, is discussed by Ad. Harnack , in Sitzungsberichte der kgl.
prenft. Akad. der Wissensch. (Berlin, 1896), in — 131; J. Chapman, in
Revue Bene'dictine (1896), xiii. 385 — 400; Funk, Kirchengeschichtliche
Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (Paderborn, 1897), i. i — 23. (Cf. also
the superficial and antiquated sketch of R. Mariano, II Primato del
Pontefice romano istituzione dtvina ? and L' Epistola ai Romani d' Ignazio
d' Antiochia, in his II Cristianesimo nei primi tre secoli [Scritti vari, iv — v.],
Firence, 1902, pp. 390 — 403.)
3. AUTHENTICITY. — For centuries the authenticity of the Ignatian
Letters has been disputed. The successive discovery and publication
of the collections and recensions described above caused the question
to pass through many phases, while the incomparable value of the
evidence that the Letters, if authentic, give concerning the constitu
tion and organization of the primitive Christian communities continually
fed the flame of discussion. Although it cannot be said that there
is at present an absolute harmony of opinion, the end of the contro
versy is at hand, since even the principal non-Catholic scholars, Zahn,
Lightfoot, Harnack, unreservedly maintain that the Letters are
authentic. The evidence for their authenticity is simply overwhelming.
Irenaeus himself refers to a passage of the Letter to the Romans
(c. 4. i) in the following words1: «Quemadmodum quidam de nostris
dixit propter martyrium in Deum adiudicatus ad bestias». The ro
mance of Lucian of Samosata, De morte Peregrini, written in 167,
agrees to such an extent with the Letters of Ignatius, both as to
facts and phraseology, that the coincidence seems inexplicable
except on the hypothesis that Lucian made a tacit use of these
Letters. A significant phrase in the Letter of the Church of Smyrna,
apropos of the death of Polycarp (c. 3) , has always recalled an
expression in the Letter to the Romans (c. 5. 2). Polycarp him
self says in his Letter to the Philippians: «The Letters of Ignatius
that he sent to us, and such others as we had in hand, we have
sent to you, according to your wish. They are added to this Letter.
You will find them very useful; for they contain faith and patience
and much edification relative to Our Lord.» These words, written
shortly after the death of Ignatius, are so final and decisive that the
opponents of the authenticity of the Ignatian Letters are obliged to
reject the Letter of Polycarp as a forgery, or at least to maintain
that the passages concerning Ignatius are interpolated. They have
sought to counterbalance external evidence by objections drawn from
the Letters themselves. They argue that the portrait of the bishop
of Antioch as presented in these Letters, has been disfigured by the
addition of impossible features; that heresy was neither so important
a matter nor so fully developed in the time of Ignatius; above all,
1 Adv. haer., v. 28, 4.
§10. POLYCARP OF SMYRNA. 35
that the ecclesiastical constitution exhibited in the Letters has at
tained a maturity which is really met with only in a later period. It
is true that in these Letters the bishop is exhibited, in language of
almost surprising precision, as distinct from the presbyters; that the
monarchical, and not the collegiate or presbyteral, constitution of
the Church is set forth as an accomplished fact. But if Irenaeus
could compile a catalogue of the bishops of Rome that goes back to
the Apostles1, it becomes impossible to maintain that the episcopate
began only with the second century. Nor can it be said that the
Letters were forged in the interest of episcopal power; the episcopate
is set forth in them as something well-established and accepted, of
whose legitimacy no one doubts. Still less can an argument be
drawn from the history of heresy; the heretic Cerinthus flourished
in the life-time of the Apostle John. All search for the traces of a
polemic in these Letters against the Gnosis of Valentinian has
proved fruitless. Finally, the pretended lack of naturalness in the
person of Ignatius would become a positive mystery if such a figure
had been created by a forger.
Not long after the discovery of the Mixed Recension the Anglican
y. Pearson successfully vindicated the authenticity of the Seven Letters.
(Vindiciae epistolarum S. Ignatii, Cambridge, 1672, Oxford, 1852; Migne,
PG., v. 37 — 473) against the Reformer jf. Dallaeus (De scriptis quae sub
Dionysii Areop. et Ignatii Antioch. nominibus circumferuntur , Genevae,
1666). After editing (1845) the Syriac text of the three abbreviated
Letters to the Ephesians, Romans, and Polycarp, W. Cureton published a
quite untenable apology for them as the genuine Letters of Ignatius. He
maintained that the longer form of the same in the Mixed Recension
was the work of an interpolator, and the remaining four simply forgeries
(Vindiciae Ignatianae, London, 1846). For the more recent literature cf.
J.Nirschl, Das Todesjahr des hi. Ignatius von Antiochien und die drei orien-
talischen Feldzlige des Kaisers Trajan, Passau, 1869. Th. Zahn, Ignatius von
Antiochien, Gotha, 1873. In his Geschichte der altchristlicnen Literatur,
ii. i, 381 — 406, Ad. Harnack abandoned, as antiquated, the hypothesis of
his earlier work: Die Zeit des Ignatius (Leipzig, 1878), in which he had
attempted to place the death of Ignatius about 138. F. X. Funk, Die Echt-
heit der Ignatianischen Briefe aufs neue verteidigt, Tubingen, 1883. W. D.
Killen, The Ignatian Epistles entirely spurious, Edinburgh, 1866. R. C.
Jenkins, Ignatian Difficulties and Historic Doubts, London, 1890. D. Volter,
Die Ignatianischen Briefe, auf ihren Ursprung untersucht, Tubingen, 1892.
y. Rtville, Etudes sur les origines de 1'episcopat. La valeur du temoignage
d'Ignace d'Antioche, Paris, 1891. Id., Les origines de 1'episcopat, Part, i
(Paris, 1894), 442—520. L. Tonetti, II Peregrinus di Luciano e i cristiani
del suo tempo, in Miscellanea di storia e coltura eccles. (1904), 72 — 84. /c/.
r y
§ 10. Polycarp of Smyrna.
I. HIS LIFE. -- Irenseus has preserved some precious details con
cerning Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, to whom Ignatius wrote one
of his seven Letters. Irenaeus had listened, as a boy, to the dis-
1 Adv. haer., iii. 3, 3.
36 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
courses of the old bishop, and had « heard him tell of his relations
with John (the Apostle) and with others who had seen the Lord, and
how he quoted from their language, and how much he had learned
from them concerning the Lord and His miracles and teaching» J. At
the end of 154 or at the beginning of 155 Polycarp visited Rome,
in the hope of coming to an understanding with Pope Anicetus
concerning the manner of the celebration of Easter, «but neither could
Anicetus move Polycarp to give up his custom, which he had always
observed with the Apostle John, the disciple of Our Lord, and with
the other Apostles with whom he had conversed, nor could Polycarp
move Anicetus to adopt that custom, the latter declaring that he was
bound to keep up the customs of his predecessors (rwv -po adroo
TcpsafiuripcDv). Nevertheless, they preserved communion with one
another, and in order to do him honour, Anicetus caused Polycarp to
celebrate the Eucharist in his church, and they parted in peace » 2.
Not long after this incident Polycarp died the death of a martyr
at Smyrna in his eighty-sixth year. In an Encyclical Letter the com
munity of Smyrna made known to all Christians his death and the
circumstances of his martyrdom. From its context (c. 21; cf. 8, i)
we can ascertain with approximate certainty that Polycarp died Fe
bruary 23., in 155.
Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons und der
altkirchl. Literatur (1891), iv. 249—283; (1900), vi. 94—109. (K. Bihl-
meyer, Der Besuch Polykarps bei Anicet und der Osterfeierstreit, in Katholik
[1902], i. 314 — 327.) Concerning the date of Polycarp's death, cf. Harnack,
Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur (1897), ii. i, 334 — 356. P. Corssen , Das
Todesjahr Polykarps, in Zeitschr. fiir neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1902), iii.
6 1 — 82. For the encyclical letter of the community of Smyrna, cf. § 59, 2.
2. LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS. -- Irenaeus speaks of Letters sent
by Poly carp •« partly to neighbouring communities to confirm them (in
the faith), partly to individual brethren to instruct and exhort them3.»
On another occasion he writes: « There is a very excellent fixavcoTdrq}
letter of Polycarp to the Philippians, from which the form of his faith
and the teaching of truth can be seen by those who are of good will
and intent on their salvation » 4. Only fragments of the original Greek
have reached us, but we possess the entire text in an old Latin trans
lation. It is a word of comfort written at the request of the com
munity of Philippi in Macedonia, and encourages all its members to
constancy ; it inculcates, moreover, the special duties of married people,
of widows, deacons, youths, virgins, and the clergy. This Letter of
Polycarp is full of imitations and reminiscencies of the Letter of
St. Clement to the Corinthians (c. 9, 2; 13, 2). As late as the end
1 Iren., Ep. ad Florin., in Eus., Hist. eccl. v. 20, 6.
2 Iren., Ep. ad Viet., in Ens., Hist, eccl., v. 24, 16 sq.
a Hist, eccl., v. 20, 8. 4 Adv. haer., iii. 3, 4.
§ 10. POLYCARP OF SMYRNA. 37
of the fourth century some communities af Asia Minor were wont
to read it during divine service *. Some recent writers have disputed
its authenticity or denied its integrity, but only with the object of
crippling its value as an evidence of the authenticity of the Ignatian
Letters (cf. § 9, 3). Its authenticity is guaranteed by Irenaeus; nor
can the .distinction between a genuine nucleus and later accretions
be upheld, in view of the striking unity of its style, and its constant
dependence on the Letter of St. Clement.
The Greek codices of the Letter to the Philippians are all, directly or
indirectly, copies of one exemplar; all end at c. 9, 2, with the words xai
6t' Tjfj-a? 6r:6. The rest of the Letter (cc. 10 — 14) is taken from an old
Latin translation, itself very carelessly made. However, the Greek text of
chapters 9 and 13 has been preserved in the Church History of Eusebius 2.
The Latin translation was edited by y. Faber Stapulensis, Paris, 1498. The
Greek text (c. i — 9) was first edited by P. Halloix, Douai, 1633. The
Greek text in Migne (PG. , v. 1005—1016) is taken from Hefele, Opp.
Patr. apost. , Tubingen, 1847. The most important recent editions are
those of Zahn, Leipzig, 1876; Funk, Tubingen, 1878, 1887, 1901 ; Light foot,
London, 1885, 1889; (Hilgenfeld, Berlin, 1902; Vizzini, in the Bibliotheca
Sanct. Patrum, series ii, vol. ii, Rome, 1901; cf. § 4; 9, i). Zahn re
translated into Greek the part that has reached us in Latin only. His
translation has been improved by Funk in some places. Lightfoot executed
a new re-translation. New editions of the old Latin version (PG. , v.
1015 — 1022) are found in Zahn 1. c., also in Funk, Die Echtheit der
Ignatianischen Briefe, Tubingen, 1883, pp. 205 — 212. Cf. A. Harnack, Zu
Polycarp ad Philipp. ii. , in Miscellen (Texte und Untersuchungen , new
series, v. 3), pp. 86—93. For new versions of the Letter to the Philippians
see § 4. (T. Nicklin, Three Passages in SS. Ignatius and Polycarp, in
Journal of Theological Studies [1902 — 1903], iv. 443.) Funk, Die Echtheit
der Ignat. Briefe, 14—42: «Der Polykarpbrief». The hypothesis of an
interpolation proposed by A. Ritschl (Die Entstehung der altkath. Kirche,
2 ed., Bonn, 1857, 584—600), was accepted by G. Volkmar, in his Epist.
Polyc. Smyrn. genuina, Zurich, 1885, and in Theol. Zeitschrift aus der
Schweiz (1886), iii. 99—111, also by A. Hilgenfeld , in Zeitschrift fur
wissenschaftl. Theologie (1888) , xxix. 180—206. J. M. Cotterill found
citations from this Letter in the « Pandects* of the Palestinian monk Anti-
ochus (c. 620) whereupon he declared Antiochus to be the author of the
Letter of Polycarp ; cf Journal of Philology (1891), xix. 241—285. This
discovery did not merit the honour of the solid refutation from the pen of
C. Taylor, ib. (1892), xx. 65—110. (J. Turmel, Lettre et martyre de Saint
Polycarpe, in Annales de philosophic chret. [i904[ 22 — 33.)
3. LATIN FRAGMENTS. -- Five small Latin fragments, current under
the name of Polycarp, treat of certain Gospel texts; they are, according
to all appearances, spurious.
These fragments were published by Fr. Feuardent in the notes to his
edition of Irenaeus (Cologne 1596, reprinted 1639). They were taken by
him from a Latin Catena on the four Gospels. The compiler of the Ca
tena, now lost, had found these fragments in a work of Victor, bishop of
Capua (f 554). Other recensions of these fragments are in Migne (1. c.
1 St. Jer., De viris illustr., c. 17. 2 iii. 36, 13 — 15.
38 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
v. 1025 — 1028), Zahn (1. c. 171 — 172), and Lightfoot (1. c. 1001 — 1004),
Funk, Patres apostolic! (1901), ii. 288 sq. In his Geschichte des neu-
testamentl. Kanons, i. 782 f., Zahn undertook to defend their authenticity,
with the exception of one phrase.
§ ii. The Shepherd of Hernias.
I. CONTENTS. The longest, and for form and contents the most
remarkable of the writings of the so-called Apostolic Fathers, is the
Shepherd (notp.ijv, Pastor) of Hennas. It contains five Visions (bpd-
aeiq, visiones), twelve Commandments (ivroXai, mandata), and ten
Similitudes (xapapoXai , similitudines). This triple division is only
external, and does not affect the contents. Hermas himself, or the
angel who speaks to him, seems in the last Vision (v, 5) to
distinguish two parts : the preceding Visions (i — iv) that the Church,
in the guise of a Matron, exhibits to the author, and the subsequent
Mandates and Similitudes expounded to Hermas by an angel of penance
in the garb of a Shepherd. The true sign of demarcation is the organ
of revelation, first the Matron and then the Shepherd (Sim. ix. i,
i — 3). It is the prominence of the latter in the second part of the work
that justifies its peculiar title. It is true that he also appears in the
first part of the book, but in a subordinate role and not in the
Shepherd's guise (cf. Vis. ii. 4, i; iii. 10, 7). All the revelations
made to Hermas end with exhortations to penance, directed first to
himself and the members of his family, then to the Roman Church,
and to all Christians. This call to the penitential life is justified
throughout by the imminent persecutions of the Church, and the near
coming of Christ in Judgment. The general outline of the work is
found in the first four Visions. The Matron, representative of the
Church, grows constantly younger, until she appears in the fourth
Vision as a bride who comes forth in splendour from the nuptial
chamber. Both the manner of the Matron's appearance, and the re
creations and instructions that she gives, exhibit a steady progress
of penitential exhortation. The third Vision is by far the most
important. It presents the Communion of Saints, i. e. those who
are baptized and remain faithful to the grace of baptism, whether
yet living or already departed, under the image of a great tower
rising from the water and built of square and shining blocks. Those
who through sin have lost their baptismal grace, are represented by
the stones that lie scattered about, and which must be trimmed and
polished before finding a place in the tower. The Mandates and
Similitudes to which the fifth Vision serves as an introduction are
destined to realize and explain the first part (cf. Vis. v. 5 ; Sim. ix.
i, i — 3). The Mandates have for object faith in one God (i), simpli
city (ii), truthfulness (iii), chastity both in and out of matrimony (iv),
mildness and patience (v), the discernment of suggestions made by
39
the good and the bad angels (vi), fear of the Lord (vii), temperance
(viii), confidence in God (ix), forbearance from sorrowfulness (x),
avoidance of false prophets (xi), and warfare against evil desires (xii).
The figurative diction of the Similitudes recalls the Visions. The
first is a warning against excessive solicitude for temporal goods;
the second is an exhortation to charity; the third and fourth exhibit
good and evil, dwelling together for the present, to be separated at
the end of time; the fifth extols the merits of fasting; the sixth
the necessity of penance ; the seventh explains the uses of tribulation ;
in the eighth and the ninth the branches of the willow tree and the
stones of the tower serve as illustrations of the truth that through
penance the sinner may once again come into living communion with
the Church, and thereby secure a place in the glorified Church of
the future. The tenth ends with these words: « Through you the
building of the tower has been interrupted; if you do not make
haste to do good, the tower will be finished, and you will remain
without» (Sim. x. 4, 4). In diction and exposition the book is diffuse
and minutely circumstantial; at the same time it is popular and
picturesque. Its chief characteristic is its apocalyptic form and tone.
The dogmatic interest of the work lies chiefly in its teaching con
cerning the possibility of forgiveness of mortal sins, notably adultery
and apostasy (cf. Vis. iii; Sim. viii — ix). It is only during the
period of grace announced by him that the Shepherd admits a for
giveness of sins by penance (i^ru.voiav ajuapucov, Mand. iv. 3, 3); in
all future time there shall be but one forgiveness of sins through
baptism (IJLZTU.VOW. /jtta, Mand. iv. I, 8; 3, 6). The still open way of
penance is said to be long and difficult (Sim. vi — viii). The Shepherd
is the earliest witness to the « Stations » or degrees of penitential
satisfaction (Sim. v, I, I. 2).
2. ITS ORIGIN. The author of the Shepherd frequently calls
himself Hermas (Vis. I. I, 4; 2, 2), nor does he add to that name
anything more definite. He lived in very modest circumstances at
Rome where he cultivated a field in the vicinity of the city (Vis. iii.
i, 2; iv. i, 2). It was there, on the road from Rome to Cumse,
that he received the revelations of the Matron. At the end of the
second Vision, there is a statement of especial interest. Hermas is
commissioned by the Matron to make known her revelations to all
the elect. «Make ready », she says, «two copies, and send one to
Clement, and one to Grapte. Clement will send it (the little book)
to the cities that are without; Grapte will instruct the widows and
the orphans; but thou wilt read it in this city to the priests who
are placed over the Church» (Vis. ii. 4, 3). Grapte seems to have
been a deaconess. Clement is represented as Pope; he is the head
of the Roman Church, and it is his duty to conduct its communi
cations with other churches. Hermas is certainly speaking of Cle-
4O FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
ment of Rome (§ 8), and refers very probably to the Letter of
Clement to the Corinthians that was highly esteemed by the primitive
Christian churches. Hennas presents himself, therefore, as a con
temporary of Clement. Now, the author of the Muratorian Fragment
says (in Zahn's recension): «Pastorem vero nuperrime temporibus
nostris in urbe Roma Hermas conscripsit, sedente (in) cathedra urbis
Romae ecclesiae Pio episcopo fratre ejus; et ideo legi eum quidem
oportet, se publicare vero in ecclesia populo neque inter prophetas
completes numero neque inter apostolos in finem temporum potest. »
However difficult and obscure these words may be, it is very clear
that the author of the Fragment wishes to exclude the Shepherd
from the canon of biblical writings, because he is no other than the
brother of Pope Pius I (c. 140 — ^55). Modern critics are practically
unanimous in agreeing with the author of the Fragment; there is,
indeed , no good reason for rejecting his evidence. It is true that
the author of the Shepherd is thereby declared guilty of a deceit;
he was not a contemporary of Clement, for he did not write his
work before 140 — 155. That the Shepherd was written about the
middle of the second century, though not absolutely certain, is
highly probable, and certain intrinsic evidence confirms it. The
special predilection of the author for the question of forgiveness of
mortal sins, and his diffuse treatment of the subject, suggest that
he was aware of the Montanist movement, at least in its beginnings.
He is an opponent of the Gnostics (Vis. iii. 7, I ; Sim. viii. 6, 5 ;
ix. 22, I : DiAovrsc, Tidvra ftvcocrxsw xal oudsv 0X0)0, fwaHrxouffi). The
persecution of the Christians to which he several times refers as
having ceased, cannot be that of Domitian (81—96); it must there
fore be that of Trajan (98 — 117). The subsequent long period of
peace, during which the zeal of many Christians grew deplorably
cold (Vis. ii. 2 — 3), was surely the reign of Antoninus Pius (138 — 161).
Finally, the Christianity to which Hermas addresses himself, has al
ready grown old; laxity and secularism have set in; it is clearly
necessary to renew ecclesiastical discipline, particularly as to the
restoration of apostates to the communion of the Church. In these
dismal traits it is impossible to recognize the Church of the first
century. Some modern scholars have denied that the Shepherd is
from the hand of one author. De Champagny postulates two, Hilgen-
feld three; their hypotheses have found few followers. The constant
similarity of style and vocabulary, of tendency and situation, bears
evidence to the original unity of the work. We must not, however,
look on it as composed at one sitting; rather was it put together
piecemeal, and grew to its present size by the gradual juxtaposition
of smaller writings (Vis. v. 5; Sim. ix. i, i ff; x. I, i). Funk has
shown that there is no foundation for Spitta's imaginary discovery
of a Jewish work as the basis of the Shepherd.
§ II. THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS. 4!
3.- HISTORY OF THE WORK. Irenaeus introduces1 a quotation
from the Shepherd with the significant formula sixey '/] TPa(P'^- Cle-
ment of Alexandria made considerable use of the work and seems
to have appreciated it highly. Origen thought the author identical
with the Hermas of Romans xvi. 14, and says expressly that he con
siders it a divinely inspired work2: «quae scriptura valde mihi utilis
videtur et, ut puto, divinitus inspirata». Yet he was aware that it
was not generally admitted as such 3, and that some treated it with
contempt 4. Therefore, he adds to his quotation the qualifying phrase :
«si cui tamen scriptura ilia recipienda videtur». Even in the fourth
century it was looked on in Egypt and in Palestine as a manual
quite suited to the instruction of the catechumens 5. Its reputation
passed aw-ay quicker in Italy and Africa. In the former country
the author of the Muratorian Fragment is very positive in his rejection
of it (see above p. 38). About the end of the second century, it must
have been widely held in the Western Church that the work had no
canonical authority, and deserved only limited confidence. Only
thus can wre find some explanation for the attitude of Tertullian who
held the Shepherd to be «scriptura» while he was a Catholic6, but
when he became a Montanist, could thus address Pope Callixtus:
«Cederem tibi, si scriptura Pastoris, quae sola moechos amat, divino
instrumento meruisset incidi, si non ab omni concilio ecclesiarum,
etiam vestrarum, inter apocrypha et falsa iudicaretur. » 7 Thenceforward
interest in the Shepherd dwindled away in the west, and it passed
so thoroughly out of general use that St. Jerome could say that
it was almost unknown among the Latins; «apud Latinos paene
ignotus est» 8.
4. TEXT-TRADITION AND EDITIONS. — The first to discover a codex of
the Greek text of the Shepherd was the well-known forger C. Simonides
(f 1867). The manuscript was discovered by him at Mount Athos and dates
from the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Three folios of this codex, and a
very untrustworthy copy of the remainder, made by Simonides, belong
since 1856 to the University of Leipzig. The conclusion of the \vork is
lacking (Sim. ix. 30, 3 — x. 4, 5). This manuscript, or rather its Lipsian
copy, was edited by Tischendorf in Dressel's edition of the Apostolic
Fathers (Leipzig, 1857, 1863) and separately ib. 1856. (Simonides had sold
to the Leipzig Library, not a correct copy of the manuscript, but one
interpolated by himself, with the help of an old Latin version of the
Shepherd known as the Vulgata, and some quotations from the Greek
Fathers. His text was published as genuine, Leipzig, 1856, by R. Anger
and W. Dindorf. The deceit was at once laid bare , and in the same
year the Library acquired a correct copy of the manuscript.) The Codex
Sinaiticus (§ 7 , 4) contains the first part of the Shepherd (about one
1 Adv. haer., iv. 20, 2. - Comm. in Rom., x. 31.
3 Comm. in Matth., xiv. 21. 4 De principiis, iv. 1 1.
5 Athan., Ep. fest. 39 an. 365 ; Eus., Hist, eccl., iii. 3, 6.
6 De oratione, c. 16. 7 De pudic., c. 10; cf. c. 20.
8 De viris illustr., c. 10.
42 FIRST PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
fourth; as far as Mand. iv. 3, 6). With the aid of the Leipzig manuscript,
the Codex Sinaiticus, and a more or less thorough use of such other
helps as translations and citations, several editions of the Shepherd soon
appeared: Hilgenfeld, Leipzig, 1866, 2. ed. 1881 ; v. Gebhardt and
Harnack , Leipzig, 1877; Punk, Tubingen, 1878, 1887, 1901; cf. § 4.
y. Drdseke published in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1887), xxx.
172 — 184, the conclusion of the Shepherd, from Sim. ix. 30, 3 to the end,
in a Greek text that was based on a work of Simonides: 'Opftooo'^ov CEX-
XTQVWV deoXoftxal ypacpa! Tsssapsj, London, 1859. Hilgenfeld soon followed
with an edition of the entire Greek text, Leipzig, 1887. Unfortunately
this Greek conclusion of the Shepherd is a forgery of Simonides, as Funk
has demonstrated in Theol. Quartalschrift (1888), Ixx. 51 — 71. A more exact
knowledge of the Athos codex can be found in Lambros and Robinson:
A collation of the Athos Codex of the Shepherd of Hennas by Spyridion
P. Lambros; translated and edited by J. A. Robinson, Cambridge, 1888.
Lambros reproduced two pages of the Codex, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift
(1893), ii. 609 if. Two small (very imperfect) fragments of the Greek text
(Sim. ii. 7, 10; iv. 2 — 5) are preserved in a papyrus-roll belonging to the
Berlin Museum. For a fac-simile of the text cf. U. Wilcken, Tafeln zur alteren
griechischen Palaographie , Leipzig, 1891, Plate iii. See also JDiels and
Harnack, in Sitzungsberichte der kgl. preuft. Akad. d. Wissensch., Berlin,
1891, 427 — 431 ; A. Ehrhard, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1892), Ixxiv, 294 — 303.
Until 1856, only one ancient Latin translation was known, published at
Paris in 1513 by J. Faber Stapulensis. It is usually called the «Vul-
gata», to distinguish it from the one mentioned below. The last edition of
it was published by Hilgenfeld, Leipzig, 1873. Its numerous codices are
described by v. Gebhardt and Harnack in their edition of the Greek text
(Leipzig, 1877), pp. xiv — xxii; cf. H.Delehaye, in the Bulletin critique (1894),
pp. 14—16, concerning a new manuscript of the same. J. van den Gheyn,
Un manuscrit de 1'ancienne version latine du Pasteur d'Hermas, in Museon,
new series (1902), iii. 274 — 277. A second Latin translation, the so-called
«Palatina», was published by Dressel'm his edition of the Apostolic Fathers,
Leipzig, 1857 (1863), from a Codex Palatinus mine Vaticanus, of the four
teenth century. It was incorporated, with important corrections, in Gebhardt
and Harnack 's edition of the Greek text, Leipzig, 1877. As to the text of this
version cf. Funk, in Zeitschrift fiir die 6'sterreich. Gymnasien (1885), xxxvi.
245 — 249. It is generally admitted that the Vulgata version dates from the
second century, and that the Palatina was made with the aid of the Vulgata
in the fifth. For a different opinion cf. J. Haussleiter , De versionibus
Pastoris Hermae latinis (Diss. inaug.), Erlangen, 1884. An Ethiopic trans
lation derived from the Greek, made probably in the sixth century, was
published by A. d'Abbadie, Leipzig, 1860 (Abhandlungen fiir die Kunde
des Morgenlandes, ii. i). G. H. Schodde, Herma Nabi: The Ethiopic version
of Pastor Hermae examined, Leipzig, 1876 (Diss. inaug.), is a superficial
and unreliable work.
5. RECENT LITERATURE. — For German and English translations of the
Shepherd, cf. § 4. There is an English translation by Fr. Crombie in
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Am. ed. 1885), ii. 323—435. E. Gadb, Der Hirt
des Hernias. Ein Beitrag zur Patristik, Basel, 1866. Th. Zahn, Der Hirt
des Hermas untersucht, Gotha, 1868. G. Heyne, Quo tempore Hermae
Pastor scriptus sit (Diss. inaug.), Regiomonti, 1872. H. M. Th. Behm,
Uber den Verfasser der Schrift, welche den Titel «Hirt» fiihrt, Rostock,
1876. J. Nirschl, Der Hirt des Hermas. Eine historisch-kritische Unter-
suchung, Passau, 1879. A- Brilll , Der Hirt des Hermas nach Ursprung
und Inhalt untersucht, Freiburg, 1882. R. Schenk, Zum ethischen Lehr-
§ 12. PAPIAS OF HIERAPOLIS. 43
begriff des Hirten des Hermas (Programm), Aschersleben, 1886. A. Link,
Christ! Person und Werke im Hirten des Hermas (Diss. inaug.) , Mar
burg, 1886. Id. , Die Einheit des Pastor Hermae, ib., 1888. P. Baum-
gartner , Die Einheit des Hermas-Buches , Freiburg, 1889. E. Hilckstadt,
Der Lehrbegriff des Hirten. Ein Beitrag zur Dogrnengeschichte des
2. Jahrh., Anklam, 1889. C. Taylor, The Witness of Hermas to the Four
Gospels, London, 1892. F. Spitta, Zur Geschichte und Literatur des Ur-
christentums. Vol. ii. Der Brief des Jakobus: Studien zum Hirten des
Hermas, Gottingen, 1896. Against Spitta cf. Funk, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1899), Ixxxi. 321 — 360. D. Volter, Die Visionen des Hermas, die Sibylle
und Clemens von Rom, Berlin, 1900. H. A. v. Bakel , De Compositie
van den Pastor Hermae (Proefschrift) , Amsterdam, 1900 (the latter two
maintain with Spitta a Jewish basis of the Shepherd). U. Benigni , II
Pastore di Erma e 1' ipercritica , in Bessarione, IV (1899 — 19°°)> v°l- vl-
pp. 233 — 248. B.Heurtier, Le dogme de laTrinite dans 1'epitre de S. Clement
de Rome et le Pasteur d'Hermas, Lyon, 1900. J. Reville, La valeur du
temoignage historique du Pasteur d'Hermas, Paris, 1900. A. Stahl, Patri-
stische Untersuchungen, vol. i. — iii. Der «Hirt» des Hermas, Leipzig, 1901.
P. Batiffol, Hermas et le probleme moral au second siecle, in Revue biblique
(1901), x. 337 — 351. y. Leipoldt, Der Hirt des Hermas in saidischer Uber-
setzung, in Berliner Sitzungsberichte (1903), pp. 261 — 268. J. Benazech,
Le prophetisme chretien, depuis les origines jusqu'au «Pasteur» d'Hermas
(These), Cahors, 1901. Batiffol, fitudes d'histoire et de theologie positive,
Paris, 1902, pp. 45 — 68. Funk, Zum Pastor Herma, in Theol. Quartalschr.,
(1903), Ixxxv. 639- — 640. The Christology of Hermas is treated by Funk
in his second edition (1901) of the Apostolic Fathers, i. cxxxix — CXLIII.
V. Schweitzer, Der Pastor Hermae und die Opera supererogatoria, in Theol.
Quartalschr. (1904), Ixxxvi. 539 — 556.
§ 12. Papias of Hierapolis,
Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, «a hearer» of the Apostle John and
friend of Polycarp of Smyrna \ wrote, apparently about 130, « Expla
nations of the sayings of the Lord» (AO^'KOV xup'.axcov i^r^ff^tQ) in
five books 2. Some small fragments of them have reached us through
citations and narrations of later writers as Irenseus and Eusebius.
Prescinding from the hypothesis (postulated by the opening words in
Eusebius)3 that these sayings were taken not only from the Gospel-
text but also from oral tradition, the character of the work cannot
be determined with certainty. Eusebius is surely wrong when from
these same words he concludes, against Irenseus , that Papias did
not know the Apostles, and that the « presbyter* John, whose con
temporary he declares himself to be, was another than the Apostle
John. The traditions handed down by Papias concerning the origin
of the first two Gospels are well-known and have given rise to much
controversy4. Eusebius believed Papias to be a man of very limited
mental powers, who accepted many things that pertained to the
domain of fable (poftixwrspa) , especially a millenarian reign of Christ
1 Iren., Adv. haer., v. 33, 4. 2 Eus., Hist, eccl., iii. 39, i.
3 Ib., iii. 39, 3—4. 4 Ib., iii. 39, 15—16.
44 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
on earth beginning with the resurrection of the just, a belief that he
acquired through incapacity to comprehend the figurative expressions
of the apostolic writers 1.
For the latest trace of the work of Papias cf. G. Bickell, in Zeitschrift
fur kath. Theol. (1879), m'- 799 — 803. The fragments of Papias may be
found in M. J. Routh , Reliquiae sacrae, 2. ed. (Oxford, 1846 — 1848), i.
3 — 44 (Migne, PG., v. 1255 — 1262); Hilgenfeld, in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl.
Theol. (1875), xviii. 231 — 270; Gebhardt and Harnack, Earnabae epist.
(1878), pp. 87 — 104; Funk, Opp. Patrum apostol. (1881), ii. 276 — 300.
Cf. Pitra, Analecta sacra (1884), ii. 155 — 161 ; C. de Boor, in Texte und
Untersuchungen (1888), v. 2, 165 — 184; E. Preuschen, Antilegomena (Gieften,
1901), pp. 54 — 63. The English translation of Roberts and Donaldson is
in Ante-Nicene Fathers (Am. ed. 1885), i. 153 — 155. — Zahn, Papias von
Hierapolis, in Theol. Studien und Kritiken (1866), xxxix. 649 — 696. Id.,
Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, i. 2, 849 — 903; ii. 2, 790 — 797. Id.,
Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (1900), vi. 109 — 157.
W. Weiffenbach, Das Papias-Fragment bei Eusebius (Kirchengeschichte, iii.
39, 3 — 4), Giefien, 1874. Id. , Die Papias-Fragmente liber Markus und
Matthaus, Berlin, 1878. C. L. Leimbach, Das Papias-Fragment (Bus., Hist,
eccl.; iii. 39, 3 — 4), Gotha, 1875. A. Hilgenfeld, Papias von Hierapolis
und die neueste Evangelienforschung, in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol.
(1886), xxix. 257 — 291. A. Baumstark, Zwei syrische Papiaszitate, in Oriens
Christianus 1902, pp. 352 — 357. Th. Mommsen, Papianisches, in Zeitschr.
fiir die neutestamentl. Wissenschaft (1902), iii. 156 — 159. Ad. Harnack,
Pseudo-Papianisches, ib. pp. 159 — 166.
SECOND SECTION.
THE APOLOGETIC LITERATURE OF THE SECOND
CENTURY.
§ 13. Preliminary Observations.
If the ecclesiastical literature of the second century wears an ex
clusively apologetic air, this results, quite naturally, from the circum
stances of that period. «The Christians are opposed by the Jews as
strangers (dXX6<pu)iot), and are persecuted by the heathens»2. Calumnies
of every kind (concubitus Oedipodei, epulae Thyesteae, Onocoetes),
and the ridicule and mockery of eminent writers like Lucian and
Celsus, prejudiced and irritated public opinion against the Christians.
The mob was stirred to violent outbreaks of hate by the heathen
priests, magicians of every kind, and Jews. The antique state, with
whose framework polytheism was intimately interwoven, saw itself
daily more and more impelled by the instinct of self-preservation to
undertake a campaign of extermination against the Christians.
It was amid these conditions that the writings of the Apologists
arose. It is true that they are also more or less positive attacks
on heathenism, in so far as they employ not only defensive but offen-
1 Ib., iii. 39, ii — 13. 2 Ep. ad Diognetum, 5, 17.
§ 13- PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 45
sive weapons. In their exposition of the nature and contents of the
Christian religion, they generally furnish only so much explanation
as seems necessary to defend themselves from the calumnies and pre
judices of their opponents. But since they also aim at setting forth
the relations of Christianity to paganism, and appeal frequently to
the germs of truth contained in the latter, they offer the first con
tributions to the establishment of an harmonious fusion of the teachings
of reason and those of revelation; thereby they prepared the way
for theology or the science of faith. Although originally addressed
to a heathen society, it was in Christian circles that from the beginning
the apologists sought and found the majority of their readers. For
mally, they usually imitate contemporary discourses, such as were
then carefully worked out according to the rules of Greek rhetoricians
or sophists, \vhose art had entered upon a kind of renaissance of fame
and glory in the century of Hadrian and the Antonines.
The writings directed against the Jews are much fewer in number.
Those that have reached us are in the form of dialogues, and are
less intent on the refutation of Jewish accusations against the Chris
tians than on the confirmation of the latter in their conviction that
the Law of Moses had only a temporary purpose and authority. The
blossoms of the Old Law had reached their full fruitage in the New
Dispensation.
Complete editions of the Greek Apologists were brought out by F. Morellus,
Paris, 1615 (reprinted Paris, 1636; Cologne 1686); the Benedictine Pru-
dentius Mar anus, Paris, 1742 (reprinted Venice, 1747); J. C. Th. de Otto,
Corpus apologetarum christianorum saec. II, 9 voll. , Jenae, 1847 — 1872
(the first five volumes, containing the works of St. Justin Martyr, were re-
published 1876—1881). The text of the Apologists in Gallandi, Bibl. vet.
Patr., i. — ii., and in Migne, PG., vi., is taken from the edition of Maranus.
A valuable contribution to the textual criticism of these writings, from the
pen of J. H. Noltes, is found in Migne (col. 1705 — 1816).
Ad. Harnack, Die Uberlieferung der griecmVchen Apologeten des 2. Jahr-
hunderts in der alten Kirche und im Mittelalter, in Texte und Unter-
suchungen, etc. (Leipzig, 1882), i. 1—2. O. von Gcbhardt, Zur handschrift-
lichen Uberlieferung der griechischen Apologeten, ib. 1883, i. 3, 155
to 196. Harnack and von Gebhardt have shown that, with the exception
of the writings of St. Justin, the three books of Theophilus ad Autolycum,
and the «Irrisio» of Hermias, the greater part of the manuscripts of the
second and third century Greek Apologists that have reached us come
down, directly or indirectly, from one (no longer perfect) prototype, the
Arethas-Codex of the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris (cod. Par. gr. 451),
written in the year 914, by commission of Arethas, bishop of Caesarea. This
discovery has opened up a new horizon to the textual criticism of the
Apologies. In the fourth volume of the Texte und Untersuchungen (1888
1891 1893) are to be found editions of the Apology of Tatian by
E. Schwartz , of the writings of Athenagoras by the same, and of the
"Apology of Aristides by E. Hennecke. -- J. Donaldson, A Critical History
of Christian Literature and Doctrine from the death of the Apostles to
the Nicene Council, vol. ii.— iii, The Apologists, London, 1866. //. Dem-
46 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
bowski, Die Quell en der christlichen Apologetik des 2. Jahrhunderts, Part i:
Die Apologie Tatians, Leipzig, 1878. G. Schmitt, Die Apologie der drei
ersten Jahrhunderte in historisch-systematischer Darstellung, Mainz, 1890.
y. Zahn, Die apologetischen Grundgedanken in der Literatur der drei
ersten Jahrhunderte systematisch dargestellt, Wiirzburg, 1890. Cf. R. Ma
riano, Le apologie nei primi tre secoli della Chiesa : le cagioni e gli effetti,
in II Cristianesimo nei primi tre secoli (Scritti vari, v.), Florence, 1902,
pp. 7 — 83. On the anti-Judaizing literature of the primitive Church , cf.
Harnack, in Texteund Untersuchungen (1883), i. 3, 56 — 74; A. C.McGiffert,
A Dialogue between a Christian and a Jew, New York, 1889, pp. i — 47.
§ 14. Quadratus.
The most ancient Apology known to us is that of Quadratus,
a disciple of the Apostles. It was written about 124, and was
presented to the Emperor Hadrian on the occasion of a persecution
of the Christians1. Quadratus is rightly identified with that disciple
of the Apostles who was endowed with the gift of prophecy and was,
to all appearances, a resident of Asia Minor 2. St. Jerome errs when
he identifies him3 with Quadratus, bishop of Athens, who lived in
the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161 — i8o)4. The sole extant fragment
of the Apology of Quadratus is a citation in Eusebius5.
For Quadratus and his Apology cf. Routh, Reliquiae sacrae, 2. ed., i.
69 — 79; de Otto, Corpus apologetarum christ. (1872), ix. 333 — 341. See also
Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, etc. (1900),
vi. 41 — 53; Funk, Patres App. i. 376; Harnack , Gesch. der altchristl.
Literatur, i. 95 f. ; ii. i, 269 — 271 ; Bardenhewer in Kirchenlexikon viWetzer
and Welte, 2. ed., x. 645—647.
§ 15. Aristides of Athens.
Until 1878 the Apology of Aristides of Athens mentioned by Eu
sebius6 was looked upon as hopelessly lost. In that year the Mechi-
tarists of San Lazzaro (near Venice) published a fragment of an Ar
menian translation of the same. In 1891 a complete Syriac trans
lation was made known by Rendel Harris; contemporaneously a
Greek revision of the text was edited by Armitage Robinson. The
latter text, which has reached us in the seventh-century romance
of Barlaam and Joasaph (cc. 26 — 27) 7, offers many corrections,
especially abridgments of the original. The Syriac translation has
been accepted as a faithful and reliable witness of the original con
cept of the Apology. The Armenian translation was also made from
the Greek, although it deals quite freely with the original, as may
1 Ens., Chron. ad a. Abrah. 2140: Hist, eccl., iv. 3, I — 2.
- Ib., iii. 37, i ; v. 17, 2.
3 De viris illustr., c. 19: Ep. 70 ad Magnum, c. 4.
4 E^^s., Hist, eccl., iv. 23, 3. 5 Ib., iv. 3, 2
c Chron. ad a. Abrah. 2140: Hist, eccl., iv. 3, 3; cf. Hieron., De viris illustr.,
c. 20; Ep. 70, 4.
7 Migne, PG., xcvi. 1108 — 1124.
§15- ARISTIDES OF ATHENS. 47
be seen from the two chapters (i — 2) of the preserved fragment.
From the inscription of the Syriac translation it seems fairly certain
that the original was offered to the Emperor Antoninus Pius (138 — 161).
Eusebius, who seems not to have read it, believed that the Apology
had been presented to Hadrian. The scope of the work is to prove
that the Christians alone possess the true knowledge of God. After
a brief exposition of the idea of God, as it is forced on the human
mind by the study of nature (c. i), the author invites the Emperor
to look out upon the world and examine the faith in God exhibited
by the different races of humanity, Barbarians, Greeks, Jews, and
Christians (c. 2). The Barbarians adore God under the form of
perishable and changeable elements (cc. 3 — 7): earth, water, fire,
the winds, the sun ; the Greeks attribute to their gods their own
human frailties and passions (cc. 8 — 1 3) ; the Jews believe in one only
God, but they serve angels rather than Him (c. 14). The Christians
rejoice in the possession of the full truth, and manifest the same in
their lives (cc. 15 — 17). The beautiful and highly emotional descrip
tion of the Christian life closes1 with a reference to their « writings*.
The work of Aristides offers only rare echoes of the biblical
writings, to which may be added some more or less clear traces of
the Didache (§ 6) and of the Preaching of Peter (§ 30, i). Specific
Christian teachings are touched on very slightly, e. g. the Incarnation
of the Son of God through a Hebrew Virgin (c. 2, 6) and the Second
Coming of Christ in Judgment (c. 17, 8). There are extant in Ar
menian two other fragments that bear the name of Aristides : a homily
«on the appeal of the (Good) Thief and the reply of the Crucified
One» (Luke xxiii. 42 f.), and some lines of «a Letter to all philosophers
by the philosopher Aristides». In spite of the favourable opinion
of Zahn and Seeberg, the homily is not to be accounted authentic,
while the pretended epistolary fragment seems no more than an
enlarged citation from the Apology.
The Armenian fragment of the Apology and the Armenian homily
were published by the Mechitarists under the title: S. Aristidis philosophi
Atheniensis sermones duo, Venice, 1878. Both pieces were translated into
German by Fr. Sasse, in Zeitschrift fur kath. Theol. (1879), m'- 6l2 — 6l8
(cf. p. 816), and by Fr. v.Himpel, in Theol. Qtiartalschr. (1880), Ixii. 109 — 127.
A new edition of these Armenian texts, including the fragment of the Letter,
was brought out by P. Martin in Pitra, Analecta sacra, torn, iv., Paris, 1883,
Armenian text pp. 6 — n, Latin translation pp. 282 — 286; cf. Proleg.
pp. x — XT. J. Rendel Harris and J. Armitage Robinson published the Syriac
version of the Apology from a codex of the sixth or seventh century, found
in the monastery of St. Catharine on Mount Sinai , also the Greek re-
cension, in Texts and Studies edited by J. A. Robinson, i. i, Cambridge
1891, 1893. From another manuscript Harris translated into English (ib.
pp. 29—33) the Armenian fragment of the Apology. See D. M. Kay,
The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher, translated from the Greek and from
1 c. 16, 3, 5 ; cf. 15, i; 17, i.
48 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
the Syriac Version in Ante-Nicene Fathers (Am. ed 1885), ix. 263 — 279.
German translations of the Syriac version were made by R. Raabe, in Texte
imd Untersuchungen (Leipzig, 1892), ix. i, and by J. Schonf elder , in Theol.
Quartalschr. (1892), Ixxiv. 531 — 557. Attempts to reconstruct the Greek
original of the Apology have been made by R. Seeberg, in Zahn's Forschungen
zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (Erlangen, 1893), v. 159 — 414 (con
tains comprehensive and thorough researches), and by Hennecke, in Texte
imd Untersuchungen (Leipzig, 1893), iv. 3. Cf. Hennecke, Zur Frage nach der
urspriinglichen Textgestalt der Aristides-Apologie, in Zeitschrift fur wissen-
schaftl. Theol. (1893), ii. 42 — 126. Seeberg published, Erlangen 1894, a
complete edition of the writings of Aristides. L. Lemme , Die Apologie
des Aristides, in Neue Jahrbiicher fur deutsche Theol. (1893), ii. 303 — 340.
F. Lauchert, Uber die Apologie des Aristides, in Internat. Theol. Zeitschrift
(1894), ii. 278 — 299. P. Fetter, Aristides-Citate in der armenischen Literatur,
in Theol. Quartalschr. (1894), Ixxvi. 529 — 539. In his Forschungen zur
Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (Erlangen, 1893), v. 415 — 437, Zahn
defends the authenticity of the homily and the fragment of the Letter.
P. Pape, in Texte und Untersuchungen (Leipzig, 1894), xii. 2, holds both
to be spurious.
§ 16. Aristo of Pella.
The earliest Christian participant in the literary conflict with
Judaism seems to have been Aristo of Pella (a town of the Decapolis
in Palestine). Between 135 and 175 he published a small treatise
entitled «A Disputation between Jason and Papiscus concerning Christ »
(Idaovoo, xal Hantcrxo'j avrdofca xspl Xptaroo) *. In this work Jason, a
Jewish Christian, proved so conclusively the fulfilment of the Messianic
prophecies in Jesus of Nazareth that his opponent, the Jew Papiscus,
begged to be baptized. There are traces in Origen (1. c.) of the con
tents of the work (now lost to us), also in the extant introduction or
Epistola nuncupatoria of an ancient Latin translation that has also
perished2. The time of its composition may be approximately
fixed: Celsus cites it (Origen 1. c.) in his work against the Christians,
written about 178. On the other hand, in a work whose title and
contents are unknown to us, but which was very probably our Dia
logue, Aristo of Pella makes mention of the issue of the Barkochba
rebellion (132—135)8. The first to claim this work for Aristo of
Pella was Maximus Confessor *.
The «testimonia antiquorum» and the fragments are found in Routh,
Reliquiae sacrae, i. 91—109; de Otto, Corpus apolog. christ., ix. 349
ad 363. Cf. Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i. 92—95 ; ii. i, 268 f.
P. Corssen and Th. Zahn treat of the Dialogue of Aristo in their re
searches on the sources of the «Altercatio Simonis Judaei et Theophili Chri-
stiani», by Evagrius, in which text Harnack saw (1883) a translation or
revision of the Dialogue of Aristo; cf. § 96, i. In two Greek dialogues of
1 Orig., Contra Celsum, iv. 52.
- Ad Vigilium episcopum de iudaica incredulitate, in Opp. S. Cypr. (ed. Hartel],
iii. 119 — 132.
3 Eus., Hist, eccl., iv. 6, 3.
4 Scholia in Dion. Arcop., De myst. theol., c. I.
§ 17. JUSTIN MARTYR. 49
the fourth or fifth century, first edited by him, Conybeare believes that
he can recognize a recension of the work of Aristo : Fr. C. Conybeare,
The Dialogues of Athanasius and Zachaeus and of Timothy and Aquila,
Oxford, 1898 (Anecd. Oxon., classical series, viii). For the text of the latter
dialogue cf. D. Tamilia , De Timothei Christian! et Aquilae ludaei dia-
logo, Rome, 1901.
§ 17. Justin Martyr.
1. HIS LIFE. - - The habitual title of «philosophus et martyr » was
first applied to Justin by Tertullian1. He calls himself «the son of
Priscus, the son of Bacchius, of Flavia Neapolis» , i. e. the ancient
Sichem (modern Nablus) in Palestine2. He may have been born in
the first decade of the second century; his parents were heathens3.
He relates of himself that in his youth he was devoured by the
thirst of knowledge and went from one philosophical school to
another, visiting in turn the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans,
and the Platonists. After a lengthy stay with the latter he eventually7
found in Christianity the object of his desires4. His conversion took
place before the last Jewish War (132 — 135), perhaps at Ephesus5.
As a Christian he clung to his peripatetic life, continued to wear
the philosopher's mantle 6, and defended Christianity, by his speech
and his writings, as «the only reliable and serviceable philosophy 7».
He spent considerable time at Rome, founded a school there, and
convicted of ignorance the philosopher Crescens 8. In the same
city most probably he sealed his faith with his blood. According
to the Acts of St. Justin his death took place under Junius Rusticus,
Prefect of the City, between 163 and 167.
C. Semisch, Justin der Martyrer. Eine kirchen- und dogmengeschicht-
liche Monographic, Breslau, 1840 — 1842, 2 voll. y. C. TJi. Otto, in Encyclo
pedia of Ersch and Gruber, Sect, ii., part 30, Leipzig. 1853, pp. 39 — 76.
Ch.E.Freppel, St. Justin, Paris, 1860, 3. ed. 1886. Th. Zahn, in Zeitschr.
fur Kirchengesch. (1885—1886), viii. 37 — 66. For the Acta SS. Justini et
sociorum cf. § 59, 4. C. Bertani , Vita di S. Giustino, Monza, 1902.
A. Z. Feder S. J., Justins des Martyrers Lehre von Jesus Christus, dem
Messias und dem menschgewordenen Sohne Gottes. Eine dogmen-
geschichtliche Monographic, Freiburg, 1906.
2. ins WRITINGS. — Justin is the most eminent of the apologetic
writers of the second century. Indeed, he is the first of the Fathers
to develop a comprehensive literary activity. He opposed with zeal
not only heathenism, but also Judaism and heresy. The manuscript-
tradition of the writings he has bequeathed us exhibits many defects
and gaps. Most of his writings are lost, while many writings that
1 Adv. Valent., c. 5. 2 Apol., i. I.
3 Dial, cum Tryphone, c. 28. 4 Ib., c. 2—8; cf. Apol., ii. 12.
5 Dial, cum Tryph., c. I 9 ; cf. Eus.. Hist, eccl., iv. 18, 6.
c Ib., iv. n, 8; cf. Just., Dial. c. I. 7 Dial. c. 8.
8 Acta S. Justini, c. 3; Eus., Hist, eccl., iv. ii, ii; Apol., ii. 3.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 4
5<3 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
falsely bear his famous name have been preserved. Only three of
the works current under his name have withstood the touchstone of
criticism : the two Apologies, and the Dialogue with the Jew Trypho.
The Arethas-Codex (§ 13) contains only the spurious Epistola ad Zenam
et Serenum (see below p. 54) and the equally spurious Cohortatio ad Gen
tiles (p. 53). Two other independent collections of the writings of Justin
have reached us: the former Codex Argentorat. 9 (saec. xiii. or xiv.)
destroyed in the siege of Strasburg (1870), and the (more copious but
very much damaged) Codex Par. 450 (of the year 1364). All other
copies of works of Justin, in so far as they have been studied , are re
ducible to these three manuscripts; cf. Harnack , Die Uberlieferung der
griechischen Apologeten des 2. Jahrh. (§ 13), pp. 73 if. The first editor
of the works of Justin, R. Stephanus (Paris, 1551), followed closely the text
of Cod. Par. 450. The second editor, Fr. Sylburg (Heidelberg, 1593),
changed the order of the writings , and added to them the Oratio ad
Gentiles (p. 51) and the Letter to Diognetus (p. 52) both having been
in the meantime made known to the learned world by H. Stephanus (Paris,
1592) from Cod. Argent. 9. The reader will find, in § 13, mention of the
editions of Morellus, Mar anus (Gallandi, Migne), and de Otto. The latter
edition appeared at Jena, 1842 — 1843, in three octavo volumes, and later, as
part of the Corpus apologetarum, voll. i — v. 1847 — 1850, and 1876 — 1881.
3. THE TWO APOLOGIES. - - In the Paris Codex (Gr. 450) of the
year 1364, on wThich is based the text of the two Apologies, the
shorter, now known as the second, holds the first place. However,
its repeated references to a prior Apology (ii. 468) show that it
is really the second. — Concerning the composition of the first Apo
logy there has been no little discussion. Wehofer maintains that it
is an oration disposed according to all the rules of contemporary
rhetoric, notwithstanding an occasional wandering from the theme. Thus,
there is a prooemium followed by a propositio, viz., that the name
« Christian » cannot be condemned, since no evil can be proved against
the Christians as such. In the first part of the dialogue (cc. 4 — 13),
the refutatio, the author combats the accusations of impiety and civil
enmity. In the second part (cc. 14 — 67), the probatio proper, he main
tains that Christ, the founder of the Christian doctrine, is the Son of
God; his principal arguments are drawn from the Jewish prophecies. In
the peroratio he appeals to the imperial sense of justice and invokes as
an example the edict of Hadrian to Minucius Fundanus concerning the
treatment of the Christians (c. 68). Rauschen denies any intentionally
artistic construction, but admits a division into two parts. The first
(cc. 4— 12) is chiefly negative, and aims at rebutting anti-Christian
calumnies; the second (cc. 13—67) is more positive, and consists
of an exposition and justification of the contents of the Christian
religion. We learn from the uncertain and obscure inscription of
the first Apology that it was dedicated to Antoninus Pius (138 — 161),
his adoptive sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, the Sacred
Senate, and the entire Roman people. It describes as a philosopher
§ 1 7. JUSTIN MARTYR. 5 I
and a « friend of knowledge », not only Marcus Aurelius, but also
Lucius Vertis, born in 130. It would seem from several indications
that this work was composed between 150 and 155. Thus Marcion
is described (cc. 26 58) as an apostle of the demon; Felix is
mentioned as prefect of Egypt (c. 29), and it is stated (c. 46) that
Christ was born one hundred and fifty years ago.
The second or shorter Apology owed its origin to a very recent
event (%&eq dk xai -pcor^ c. i). Three Christians had been put to
death by Urbicus, the Prefect of Rome, merely for their profession of
the new religion. The fact is related by Justin, who adds to his story
certain paragraphs of an apologetic character, and concludes by asking
the Emperors (c. 1 5 ; cf. c. 2) to publish the writer's previous Apo
logy and to command the observance of justice in dealing with the
Christians. It has been found impossible to discover any dominant
idea or rhetorical order in this document, which is certainly no more
than a supplement or appendix of the first Apology, written also very
shortly after the composition of that work (cf. the references 4 6 8).
Urbicus was City-Prefect between 144 and 160; we must be content
for the present with this approximate knowledge, it is impossible to
ascertain the exact date.
The two apologies were edited separately by J. W..J. Brann, Bonn,
1830, 1860, 3. ed. by JR. Gutberlet, Leipzig, 1883; by G. Kriiger, Freiburg,
1891 (Sammlung ausgewahlter kirchen- und dogmengeschichtlicher Quellen-
schriften, i.), 2. ed. 1896. German translations of both have been made by
P. A. Richard, Kempten, 1871 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater), and H. Veil, Stras-
burg, 1894 (with explanatory notes). For an English translation see Dods,
Reith and Roberts, in Ante-Nicene Fathers (Am. ed. 1885), i. 163 — 302.
For the date of composition and the relations between the two apologies
cf. G. Kriiger, in Jahrb. fur protest. Theol. (1890), xvi. 579 — 593; J. A.
Cramer, in Theol. Studien (1891), Ixiv. 317—357, 401 — 436; B. Grundl,
De interpolationibus ex S. Justini phil. et mart. Apologia secunda expungen-
dis (Progr.), Augustae Vindel. , 1891. The hypercriticism of Grundl is
refuted by F. Emmerich, De Justini phil. et mart. Apologia altera (Diss.
inaug.), Minister, 1896. Th. M. Wehofer, Die Apologie Justins des Phil,
u. Mart., in literarhistorischer Beziehung zum erstenmal untersucht, Rome,
1897 (Romische Quartalschrift, Supplement 6). G. Rauschen, Die formale
Seite der Apologien Justins, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1899), Ixxxi. I88 — 206.
A. Lebentopulos , II a xal (3' 'AroXoYia UTilp yptrrtavtov 'louativou cpiXoso'^ou
•/.at [AdcpTUpo? xal 6 xata TkiAXi^vcov AG^OC 'Aftavaariou TOO jisYaXou (Dissert.),
Erlangen, 1901.
4. THE DIALOGUE WITH THE JEW TRYPHO. This work too, has
come down to us only in the Paris Codex of 1364, and is moreover
in an imperfect state. It wants the introduction, and the dedication
to a certain Marcus Pompeius (c. 141). Also from chapter 74
a considerable fragment has dropped out. The work sums up a
disputation held at Ephesus 1 (a fact very probably learned by Eusebius
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., iv. 18, 6.
4*
52 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
from the lost introduction) during the then recent Jewish War (132
to 135: Dial. i. 9). The interlocutors were Justin and the JewTrypho;
the dialogue lasted for two days, and it is supposed that, correspondingly,
the original work consisted of two books. With an artistic skill, that Zahn
has finely brought out, the work includes both truth and fiction ; it is
in part made up of real discussions between Justin and learned Jews,
and is in part a free and original study. It is quite probable that
the Trypho who represents Judaism is none other than the celebrated
contemporary Rabbi Tarpho. In the introduction (cc. 2—8) Justin
describes the genesis of his own philosophico-religious opinions; in
the first part (cc. 10 — 47) he proves from the Old Testament that
the ritual Law of Moses has been abrogated in favour of the new
Law of Christ; in the second part (cc. 48 — 108) he makes it clear
from the prophecies of the Old Testament that the adoration of
Jesus does not conflict with the fundamental doctrine of Monotheism,
the adoration of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; in the third
part (cc. 109 — 141), he seeks to prove that the true Israel is to be
found in all those who have accepted Christianity, since the days of
the Apostles at Jerusalem ; to them belong the promises of the Old
Covenant. In the Dialogue reference is made to the first Apology
(c. 120); it must, therefore, have been composed after 150 — 155.
Th. Zahn, in Zeitschr. fiir Kirchengesch., viii. 37 — 66.
5. LOST WORKS OF JUSTIN. In the Sacra Parallela of St. John
Damascene are preserved three lengthy fragments of a work of Justin
on the Resurrection (xepi u.vaaTu.az.toc,), in which are refuted Gnostic
objections against the resurrection of the body, and the proofs and
guaranties of this ecclesiastical doctrine set forth. There are also
other fragments bearing the name of Justin, but they are too brief and
disconnected to permit a judgment as to their authenticity and right
to a place among the writings of Justin. He refers himself (Apol. i. 26}
to a previous work against heretics (aw-cawa xara xaffwv TCOV ^c-
yqpivtov alpsffeeavj ; as to its content we are reduced to conjectures
based on other statements of Justin concerning heretics. St. Irenseus
knew and used i a work of Justin against Marcion (ffuvrar/jta xpoQ Map-
xiotva) ; according to some it was a fragment of the above-cited work,
according to others a special treatise. Eusebius 2 is the earliest witness
to the authorship of the following writings: a Discourse against the
Greeks (MyoQ TupoQ "I'lMyyag) «in which he discusses at length most of
the matters that are treated by us and by the Greek philosophers, and
examines carefully the nature of the demons»; another work addressed
to the Greeks under the title « Refutation* ftrepov xpo^EUrpaq o'jr
~/pa/2aa, ?, xai Ixifpwpsv lter/w)\ a work on the unity of God faspl
povapxiag) « based not only on our own writings but also on
1 Adv. haer., iv. 6, 2. * Hist, eccl., iv. 18, 3 ff.
§ 17. JUSTIN MARTYR. 53
those of the Greeks »; a work entitled « Psalter » ((paArr^) ; a doctrinal
treatise on the soul (ffjrohxnv xspi ^vyr^), «in which he describes
various researches concerning the problem of the soul and gives the
views of the Greek philosophers, with his promise to refute them in
another work wherein his own views shall be set forth ». The titles
of the first three of these writings are identical with those of three
works preserved in the manuscripts of the writings of St. Justin:
Oratio ad Gentiles (xpbc, ^EXkqvaQ), Cohortatio ad Gentiles (MfOQ
TrapawsTtxoQ JtpoQ "EXXr/vaQ), and De monarchia (rcep} fteou tiovapyiat;).
The five short chapters of the Oratio ad Gentiles, devoted to a very
energetic and efficient refutation of the unreasonable and immoral
mythology of Homer and Hesiod, cannot be attributed to Justin;
the style of the work differs from his too widely. Yet the little
treatise may possibly belong to the second century. At a later date
a certain Ambrosius revised it; this revision has reached us in a Syriac
translation. The Cohortatio ad Gentiles, a work in 38 chapters, under
takes to demonstrate, in an elegant, smooth and flowery style,
that whatever truth is found in the writings of the Greek sages,
poets and philosophers, was taken by them from the sacred books
of the Jews. Both in form and content this work offers a striking
contrast to the genuine writings of Justin. Very probably, however,
it was composed at the end of the second or the beginning of the third
century, though at present opinions differ very widely as to its origin.
The author of the six chapters De monarchia undertakes to prove
the unity of God and the inanity of the gods, mostly by forged
citations from the Greek poets, and with no reference to the Scrip
tures. As the work is apparently complete in itself, it can hardly be the
second part of the homonymous work of Justin referred to by Eusebius.
Moreover, its diction differs notably from that of Justin. Possibly
these three works were erroneously attributed to Justin by reason of
above-mentioned statements of Eusebius. Possibly, too, Eusebius had
before him works that wrongly bore the name of Justin. He says,
expressly, that apart from the works mentioned by him «very many
other works » circulated under the name of Justin. *. St. John Da
mascene, Maximus Confessor, and Photius quote, indeed, still other
works of Justin, but the sources of Christian literary tradition were by
that time very deeply troubled 2.
Fragments that seem to have some claim to authenticity are collected
in de Otto, Corpus apolog., iii. 210 — 265. On the fragments of De resur-
rectione re-edited by K. Holl , in Texte und Untersuchungen (1899), xx.
36—49, new series, v. 2, see Zahn, in Zeitschr. fur Kirchengesch. , viii.
20 — 37 i W- Bousset y Die Evangeliencitate Justins des Mart., Gottingen,
1891, pp. 123 — 127. A later revision of the Oratio ad Gentiles was edited,
1 Hist, eccl., iv. 18, 8.
2 Sacra Parallela ; Migne, PG., xci. 280; Bibl. Cod. 125.
54 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
in Syriac and English, from a seventh-century manuscript by W. Cureton,
Spicilegium Syriacum, London, 1855, pp. 38 — 42, 61 — 69. In Sitzungs-
berichte der kgl. preuft. Akad. der Wissensch., Berlin, 1896, pp. 627 — 646,
Harnack made known a German translation of the Syriac version, by
F. Baethgen , and added the original text of the Oratio, with corrections.
The author of the Cohortatio ad Gentiles , according to E. Schurer
(Zeitschr. fur Kirchengesch. [1877 — l878], ii. 319 — 331) borrowed from the
«Chronography» of Julius Africanus; he, therefore, belongs to the second
quarter of the third century. D. Volter on the contrary, in Zeitschr. fiir
wissensch. Theol. (1883), xxvi. 180 — 215, is of opinion that it was written
about 1 80, and presumably by Apollinaris of Hierapolis. J. Draseke, in
Zeitschr. fiir Kirchengeschichte (1884 — 1885), vii. 257 — 302, and Texte und
Untersuchungen (1892), vii. 3 — 4, 83 — 99, thinks that its author was Apolli
naris of Laodicea (f ca. 390), and that its original title was u-sp dX7}deiac T,
Xo-yoc TcapaivsTtxoc ~pos "EXXrjvac. This line of thought was adopted by J. R.
Asmus , in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1895), xxxviii. 115 — 155;
(1897), xl. 268 — 284, and Zeitschr. fiir Kirchengesch. (1895 — 1896), xvi.
45- — 71, 220 — 252 ; he contends that in the Cohortatio Apollinaris of Laodicea
is attacking the infamous scholastic ordinance of Julian the Apostate, made
in 362 ; in turn, the Emperor was aiming at the Cohortatio in his work
against the Christians. A, Puech, in Melanges, Henri Weil, Paris, 1898,
395 — 406, places the date of the Cohortatio between 260 and 300. W. Wid-
mann, Die Echtheit der Mahnrede Justins des Martyrers an die Heiden
(Forschungen zur christl. Literatur und Dogmengeschichte), Mainz, 1902,
iii. i (the Cohortatio is a genuine work of Justin). W. Gaul, Die Ab-
fassungsverhaltnisse der pseudo-justinischen Cohortatio ad Graecos, Berlin,
1902. For false accounts of the discovery of the work of Justin on the
soul (~spl <!>o/rj?), mentioned by Eusebius, cf. H. Diels, in Sitzungsberichte
der kgl. preuft. Akad. der Wissensch,, Berlin, 1891, pp. 151 — 153.
6. SPURIOUS WRITINGS. Apart from the three works mentioned
above (p. 52), several other works have reached us that are erroneously
ascribed to Justin. We shall speak in § 22 of the Letter to Diognetus.
The Expositio fidei sen De Trinitate is a doctrinal exposition of
the Trinity and of Christology that has reached us in two recensions
of unequal length. Funk has shown, against Draseke, that the ori
ginal recension is the longer one, and that it belongs to the fifth
century, not to the time of Apollinaris of Laodicea. There exist at
present some fragments of a revision of this work in Syriac and
in Old-Slavonic. The Epistola ad Zenam et Serenum is an exhor
tation and guide to Christian asceticism; according to a conjecture
of Batiffol, it was written in the time of St. John Chrysostom by
Sisinnius, the Novatian bishop of Constantinople. The Quaestiones
et responsiones ad orthodoxos, a collection of 146 questions and answers
of a miscellaneous theological nature, are a work of the fifth century
(cf. Quaest. 71). Of the same date, perhaps, are the Quaestiones
Christianorum ad Gentiles, apologetical studies concerning God and
His relations to the world, and the Quaestiones Gentilium ad Christi
anas, equally metaphysical and theological in contents, and supposed
to be from the same hand. The Confutatio dogniatum quorundam
Aristotelicorum is directed chiefly against some principles of Aristo-
§ 17. JUSTIN MARTYR. 55
telian physics. There are also a few other small fragments of works
wrongly attributed to St. Justin.
y. Draseke has several times attempted to prove that the short recen
sion of the Expositio fidei is a work of Apollinaris of Laodicea, in Zeitschr.
fur Kirchengesch. (1883 — 1884), vi. i — 45, 503 — 549; also Jahrb. fiir
protest. Theol. (1887), xiii. 671 ff. He finally edited it under the latter's
name, in Texte und Untersuchungen, vii. 3—4, 353 — 363, cf. 158 — 182.
The thesis is utterly untenable ; as Funk has shown, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1896), Ixxviii, 116 — 147, 224 — 250. These articles are reprinted in Funk,
Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (1899), ii. 253 — 291.
In Pitra's Analecta sacra, iv.; Paris, 1883, P. Martin made known fragments
of a Syriac revision of the Expositio fidei (Syriac text, pp. n — 16, and
Latin translation, pp. 287—292). For the Old-Slavonic recension of the same,
cf. N, Bonwetsch, in Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Lit., i. 892 f. For the
Epistola ad Zenam et Serenum cf. P. Batiffol , in Revue Biblique (1986),
v. 114 — 122. The Quaestiones et responsa ad orthodoxos were edited once
more by A. Papadopulos-Kerameus, St. Petersburg, 1895, from a tenth-century
codex, in which they are attributed to Theodoret of Cyrus. Cf. on them
W. Ga/3, in Zeitschr. fiir die historische Theologie (1842), xii. 4, 35 — 154.
Draseke ', in Jahrb. fiir protest. Theol. (1884), x. 347—352, believes that there
are fragments of the writings of Apollinaris of Laodicea in the Fragmenta
Pseudo-Justini published by de Otto, Corpus Apolog., v, 368 — 375. A. Harnack
has vindicated for Diodorus of Tarsus the authorship of the « Quaestiones et
responsiones ad orthodoxos » ; cf. his Diodor von Tarsus, Vier pseudojusti-
nische Schriften als Eigentum Diodors nachgewiesen (Texte und Unter
suchungen, new series, vi. v), Leipzig, 1901. This work contains a German
version of the first three writings and of the more important portions of the
fourth: Quaestiones et responsiones ad orthodoxos, Quaestiones Gentilium ad
Christianos, Quaestiones Christianorum ad Gentiles, and Confutatio dogmatum
Aristotelis. If Harnack' s arguments do not furnish a splendid and ir
refutable demonstration, as F. Diekamp thinks, in Theologische Revue (1902),
i. 53, they create at least a very strong probability in favour of Diodorus
of Tarsus. Funk , Le pseudo-Justin et Diodore de Tarse, in Revue d'his-
toire eccle'siastique (1902), iii. 947 — 971, thinks that the «Quaestiones et
responsa » attributed by Harnack to Diodorus are not earlier than the
middle of the fifth century. The statement which ascribes them to Theo
doret of Cyrus needs closer investigation.
7. THE AUTHENTIC WRITINGS OF JUSTIN. The notable dis
agreement concerning the contents and structure of his writings is owing,
in part at least, to a peculiar defect in the same: there is wanting in
them an orderly movement of thought. Justin is an impressionist.
He rarely tarries long enough to exhaust an idea, preferring to take
up other threads before returning to his original theme. Thus, cor
related subjects are scattered, and ideas which have little mutual
affinity are brought together. Moreover, he pays slight attention to
beauty of diction. His writings abound in solecisms and neologisms ;
he delights in long periods and frequent participial construction; at
times he falls into a rigid monotony that is positively fatiguing.
At times, however, especially in dialogue, his diction takes on more
life, exhibits a certain power and emotion, and even rises to a certain
56 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
sublimity. As already indicated (p. 49), Justin continued to follow,
after his conversion, the profession of philosopher. He is the first, and
among the most eminent, of those Fathers who undertook to bring about
a reconciliation between Christianity and pagan science. At the same
time, it is only by a partisan distortion of his teaching that some modern
writers, like Aube and von Engelhardt, find in it a strange mixture
of Christian and pagan-philosophical elements, to which Platonism
rather than Christianity, has lent both form and colouring. Justin is
a Christian philosopher, thoroughly conscious that with his faith in the
Son of God he has entered a new sphere of truth, has come to
possess the fulness of truth. For him Christianity is the rule by
which he measures the data of philosophy; it is, m all simplicity,
the truth itself; hence in turn all truth is Christian (Apol. ii. 13).
The same Word (Logos) who was manifested fully in Christ, is
germinally (as Aofoq a^spfjLartxoq) in every human soul. In the measure
of their participation in this Word of God, the philosophers and poets
of antiquity were able to know the truth (Apol. ii. 8, 13). All those
who have lived with the Word (o\ fjLzra. Myou ftiwffayreQJ were
Christian, even though they were held to be atheists; such e. g. were
Socrates, Heraclitus, and their peers among the Greeks; Abraham,
Ananias, Azarias, Misael, Elias, and many others among the Barbarians
(Apol. i. 46). It is through the Old Testament that other germs of
truth (ffTtipfj-ara d/^ttziacj were made known to the Greeks. Plato
borrowed from Moses the doctrine of moral freedom ; similarly it was
from the Hebrew prophets that the Greek writers obtained such
knowledge as they had concerning the immortality of the soul,
future retribution, heaven, and the like (Apol. i. 44). Thereby the
relation of pagan culture to Christianity was at least distinctly out
lined. The faith of Christians, according to Justin, is found in the books
of the Old Testament, particularly in the prophets : their words are for
him the words of God, or the Logos, or the Holy Spirit (Apol. i. 33
36 61). The Gospels he cites usually as «memoirs of the Apostles»
(dxofjtv/jfjioyzufjLaTa ~cov &7toor(')hov) ; thereby he, at least, suggests that
Christians held them for inspired and canonical books (dyafwatcrxsTai
Apol. i. 67 ; -(•iypa.-Ta.i Dial. c. 49). The Apocalypse is declareo^to be
a divinely revealed book and written by the Apostle John (Dial. c. Si).
There are also in Justin echoes of the Acts of the Apostles, of all
the Pauline Epistles (excepting the Epistle to Philemon) , of the
Epistle of St. James, the two Epistles of St. Peter, and the first
Epistle of St. John. The account of Christian liturgical customs
furnished by Justin (Apol. i. 61 ff.) is of very great importance; he
oversteps in these paragraphs the limits of the Discipline of the Secret,
and describes with much detail both baptism and the celebration of the
Eucharist. No other Christian apologist imitated him in this disclosure
of the greatest of Christian mysteries.
§ 1 8. TATIAN THE ASSYRIAN. 57
B. Aube, Essai de critique religieuse. De 1'apologe'tique chretienne ail
IIe siecle. St. Justin phil. et mart., Paris, 1861, 1875. £*• Weizsacker, Die
Theologie des Martyrers Justinus, in Jahrb. fiir deutsche Theol. (1867), xii.
60 — 119. M. v, Engelhardt, Das Christentum Justins des Martyrers. Eine
Untersuchung liber die Anfange der katholischen Glaubenslehre. Erlangen,
1878. Cf., against Engelhardt, A. Stahlin , Justin der Martyrer und sein
neuester Beurteiler, Leipzig, 1880. J. Sprinzl, Die Theologie des hi. Ju
stinus des Martyrers. Eine dogmengeschichtl. Studie, in Theol.-prakt. Quartal-
schrift (1884 — 1886). C. Clemen, Die religionsphilosophische Bedeutung
des stoisch-christlichen Eudamonismus in Justins Apologie, Studien und
Vorarbeiten, Leipzig, 1890. F. Bosse , Der praexistente Christus des Ju
stinus Martyr, eine Episode aus der Geschichte des christologischen Dogmas
(Dissert, inaug.), Greifswald, 1891. W. Flemming, Zur Beurteilung des Christen-
tums Justins des Martyrers, Leipzig, 1893. K. L. Grube, Darlegung der
hermeneutischen Grundsatze Justins des Martyrers (reprinted from Katholik),
Mainz, 1880. Th. ZaJin , Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (1889), i. 2,
463 — 585: «Justinus Martyr und die Apostolischen Schriften». W. Bousset,
Die Evangeliencitate Justins des Martyrers in ihrem Wert fiir die Evangelien-
kritik von neuem untersucht, Gottingen, 1891. A. Baldus, Das Verhaltnis
Justins des Martyrers zu unseren synoptischen Evangelien, Miinster, 1895.
W. Bornemann , Das Taufsymbol Justins des Martyrers, in Zeitschr. fiir
Kirchengesch. (1878 — 1879), iii. 1—27. J. Wilpert, Fractio panis, Freiburg,
1895, PP- 42~65 : «Die eucharistische Feier zur Zeit des hi. Justinus
Martyr». The extraordinary assertion ofHarnack, in Texte und Untersuch.
(1891), vii. 2, 115 — 144, that Justin taught bread and water to be the
«matter» of the Blessed Eucharist has met with no acceptance. Cf. Th. Zahn,
Brot undWein im Abendmahl der alten Kirche, Erlangen and Leipzig, 1892;
Funk, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1892), Ixxiv. 643 — 659, and again in Kirchen-
geschichtl. Abhandl. und Untersuch. (1897), i. 278 — 292; A. Jiilichcr , in
Theol. Abhandl. C. v. Weizsacker gewidmet, Freiburg, 1892, pp. 215 — 250.
E. Lippelt , Quae fuerint Justini martyris i^OfiyTjuoveujj-aTa quaque ratione
cum forma Evangeliorum syro-latina consenserint (Diss.), Halle, 1901. J. A.
Cramer, Die Logosstellen in Justins Apologie kritisch untersucht, in Zeit-
schrift fiir die neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1901), ii. 300—338. Cramer
maintains that the passages relative to the Logos are not from the pen
of Justin, but were interpolated through the combination of the Apology
with a Judseo-Christian work of Alexandrine origin. Id., De Logosleer
in de Pleitreden von Justins, in Theol. Tijdsscrift (1902), xxxvi. 114 — 159.
W. Liese , Justinus Martyr in seiner Stellung zum Glauben und zur Philo
sophic, in Zeitschr. fur kath. Theol. (1902), xxvi. 560—570.
§ 18. Tatian the Assyrian.
I. HIS LIFE. - Tatian, «born in the land of the Assyrians », be
longs to the Syrian race. He had travelled extensively, and had
earned the reputation of a philosopher and a writer, before he became
a Christian at Rome. This must have taken place previous to the death
of Justin (163 — 167). Irenaeus is witness that Tatian was a « hearer »
of Justin, and belonged to the Christian community at Rome until
the latter's death. Later, probably in 172, Tatian abandoned the
Church, joined the Gnostics, more particularly the Encratites, and
returned to the East. Antioch (Syria), Cilicia, and Pisidia are
58 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
mentioned as the scenes of his activity. We are quite ignorant of
the time and place of his death1.
H. A. Daniel, Tatianus der Apologet, Halle, 1837. Th. Zahn, Tatians
Diatessaron, in Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, Er-
langen, 1881, i. 268 ff. Ad. Harnack, Die Uberlieferung der griechischen
Apologeten (cf. § 13), pp. 196 — 232. In his Gesch. der altchristl. Lite-
ratur, ii. i, 284 ff., Harnack has more or less completely withdrawn his
earlier views concerning the date of Tatian. F. X. Funk, Zur Chronologic
Tatians, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1883), Ixv. 219 — 233, and again in his
Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (1899), ii. 142 — 152 e
2. THE APOLOGY. — Only one work of Tatian has been preserved,
an Apology for Christianity or rather a criticism of Hellenism, entitled
IIpoQ vEMr.va<; (Oratio ad Graecos). It begins brusquely with a re
futation of the prejudices of the Greeks (cc. i — 4), and proceeds to
establish two lines of argument in favour of Christianity : its sublime
doctrine (cc. 4 — 31), and its very great antiquity (cc. 31 — 41). In
the first part he combines with his exposition of Christian teaching
concerning God and the world, sin and redemption, a satire of the
opposite errors of the Greeks; at the end (cc. 22 — 29) he quite gives up
the role of an apologist to enter upon that of a polemical writer.
The second part of his work is devoted to proving that, though
Homer marks the beginnings of Greek civilization, art, and science,
Moses antedates him by four hundred years. Therefore, even those
«wise men» of Greece who preceded Homer are more modern than
Moses. As a disciple of Justin his apologetic coincides in many points
with that of his master, while in other points there is a notable dif
ference. Justin treats the thinkers and poets of Greece with great
respect ; his disciple Tatian goes out of his way to belittle and insult
them. He abounds in bitter and excessive denunciation, and ignores
entirely all the praiseworthy features of Greek culture. In his Apology
there is revealed, even more clearly than in his own career, a character
harsh and passionate, and inclined to extreme measures. His style,
likewise, is generally rough and disjointed, though occasionally, owing
to the strength and ardour of his conviction, it assumes a poetic lofti
ness. The purpose of his Apology was to justify his conversion to Chris
tianity, shortly after which event it was published, probably outside
Rome (c. 35), and about 165, when Justin had already passed away
(cc. 1 8. 19). His doctrinal thought is markedly influenced by Stoicism;
it also abounds in phrases and turns of expression capable of being
interpreted as contrary to the doctrines of the Church. Christ, how
ever, is emphatically declared to be God (cc. 13 21). In a very
difficult passage however (c. 5) on the procession of the Word, he
clearly teaches subordinationism.
1 Tat., Orat, cc. I 42 29 35; Clem. Al. , Strom., iii. 12, 81 ; Epipti., Haer.,
xlvi. i; Iren., Adv. haer., i. 28, i; Eus., Chron. ad a. Abraham 2188.
§ 1 8. TATIAN THE ASSYRIAN. 59
We owe the preservation of the Apology to the Arethas-Codex (§ 13).
Unfortunately the quaternions of this codex which contained it were torn
out between the twelfth and the fourteenth century ; in their place we only
have three copies of the codex made in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
The editio princeps is that of J. Frisius (C. Gessner), Zurich, 1546. On the
editions viMorellus, Maranus (Gallandi, Migne~), de Otto (Corpus apolog. vi.),
cf. § 13. The most recent edition is that of Ed. Schwartz (Texte und Unter-
suchungen, iv. i), Leipzig, 1888. Recent German versions are those of
F. Grone, Kempten, 1872 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater), and of Harnack in a
Programme of the University of Gieften (Aug. 25., 1884). There is an English
translation of the Oratio by J. E. Ryland in Ante-Nicene Fathers (Am.
ed. 1885), ii. 65 — 83. G. Dembowski, Die Quellen der christl. Apologetik
des 2. Jahrh., part I: Die Apologie Tatians, Leipzig, 1878. B. Ponschab,
Tatians Rede an die Griechen (Progr.), Metten, 1895. R. C. Kukida,
Tatians sog. Apologie, Leipzig, 1900. P. Fiebig, in Zeitschr. fur Kirchen-
geschichte (1901), xxi. 149 — 159. W. Steuer, Die Gottes- und Logoslehre
des Tatian, Giitersloh, 1893. A. Kalkmann, Tatians Nachrichten iiber Kunst-
werke, in Rheinisches Museum fur Philol., new series (1887), xlii. 489 — 524.
R. Kukula , Altersbeweis und Kiinstlerkatalog in Tatians Rede an die
Griechen (Progr.), Wien, 1900. A. Puech, Recherches sur le discours aux
Grecs de Tatien suivies d'une traduction du discours, avec notes, Paris, 1903.
If. U. Meyboom, Tatianus en zijne Apologie, in Theol. Tijdschrift (1903),
xxxvii. 193 — 247.
3. THE DIATESSARON. — There is extant, at least in fragments,
a second work of Tatian, the so-called Diatessaron. It was a Gospel-
harmony, or story of the life and works of Our Lord compiled from
the four canonical Gospels. The Greeks 1 called it TO dia reaadpcov
eua'jr'jrl/^o^j by the Syrians it was entitled the «Evangelion da Mephar-
reshe» 2. Its chronology was framed on that of the fourth Gospel, the
first verses of which served as an introduction. The genealogies were
left out3, and in their place a few apocryphal additions were inserted.
This work is an important witness to the authority of the four canonical
Gospels, and was composed by Tatian in the last years of his life, after
his apostasy, probably not in Greek but in Syriac, though it was based
on the Greek text of the Gospels. During the whole third century, this
harmony was the only Gospel text in use throughout many Christian
communities of Syria, particularly at Edessa. It was only after the
middle of the fourth century that the «Gospel of the Mixed» gradually
gave way, perforce, to the « Gospel of the Separated », i. e. to the
four Gospels. Between 360 and 370, St. Ephraem Syrus wrote a
commentary on the Diatessaron of Tatian ; Theodoret of Cyrus, who
died about 458, found it necessary to remove from the churches
of his diocese more than two hundred copies of this work, in the
place of which he put the Syriac version of the four Gospels (Theod. 1. c.).
It is possible to partially reconstruct the Diatessaron by means of
the commentary of St. Ephraem, whose original Syriac text, however,
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., iv. 29, 6 ; Theodor., Haeret. fab. coinp., i. 20.
- i. e. Gospel of the Mixed. 3 Mt. i. i ff. ; Lk. iii. 23 ff.
6O FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
is lost, and is represented by an Armenian version. For this pur
pose some Syriac fragments are also accessible, together with two
later revisions of the Diatessaron: one in Latin, preserved in the
Codex Fuldensis of the Vulgate, written at Capua about 545, and one
in Arabic, more recent in date, it is true, but decidedly nearer to
the original text.
The reconstruction of the Diatessaron in Zahn, Tatians Diatessaron,
1881, pp. 112 — 219, is based chietly on the Latin version of the commentary
of Ephraem made by J. B. Aucher and published by G. Mosinger, Venice,
1876. Cf. § 82, 5 for the more recent contributions to our knowledge of this
commentary made by J. Rendel Harris and J. H. Hill. The Latin version
is the work of an anonymous writer who lived about 500 and used the
Latin text of the Gospels, revised by St. Jerome about 383. Victor, bishop
of Capua, who died in 554, caused this recension to be inserted in the
Codex Fuldensis of the New Testament Vulgate, written under his supervision;
it there took the place of the four Gospels. In the preface Victor speaks of
the data furnished by Eusebius concerning the Diatessaron of Tatian (Hist.
eccl., iv. 29, 6) and of the attempts of Ammonius of Alexandria (Ens., Ep.
ad Carpianum) to compile a harmony. This explains why this Latin Gospel-
harmony is sometimes printed under the name of Tatian, and again (Migne,
PL., Ixviii. 251 — 358) under that of Ammonius. There is an excellent edition
of the Codex Fuldensis by E. Ranke, Marburg and Leipzig, 1868. Fr. P. A.
(later Cardinal) Ciasca edited the Arabic revision, Rome, 1888, from two
manuscripts, and added a Latin translation. Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Hogg
translated the Arabic text into English in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library
(additional volume), Edinburgh, 1897, pp. 33 — 138. Some new Syriac frag
ments were published by H. Goussen, in Studia theologica, Leipzig, 1895,
i. 62—67. Amid the copious literature on the Diatessaron the book of Zahn,
cited above, is especially worthy of mention. Cf. the continuation of Zahn's
own studies, in his Forschnngen zur Geschichte des neutestamentl. Kanons
(1883), ii. 286 — 299, and in his Geschichte des neutestamentl. Kanons (1888),
i. i, 369—429; (1892), ii. 2, 530—556. Cf. also J. P. P. Martin, in Revue
des questions historiques (1883), xxxiii. 349 — 394; (1888), xliv. 5- 50. On
the Arabic version the reader may consult E. Sellin in Zahn, Forschungen
zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (1891), iv. 225 — 246. « Zur Geschichte
von Tatian's Diatessaron im Abendland» cf. Zahn, in Neue kirchl. Zeitschr.
(1894), v. 85 — 120. M. Maker, Recent Evidence for the Authenticity of
the Gospels: Tatian's Diatessaron, London, 1893. A. Hjelt, Die altsyrischen
Evangelien-Ubersetztmgen und Tatians Diatessaron, besonders in ihrem
gegenseitigen Verhaltnis tmtersucht, Leipzig, 1901. H. Gressmann, Studien
zum syrischen Tetraevangelium, i., in Zeitschr. fiir die neutestamentl. Wissen-
schaft (1904), pp. 175, 248—252. F. Crawford Burkitt , Evangelion da
Mepharreshe, The Curetonian Version of the Four Gospels, with the read
ings of the Sinai Palimpsest and the Early Syriac Patristic Evidence, etc.,
Cambridge University Press, 1904, i. xix, 556; ii (introduction and notes)
vii, 322. J. F. Stenning, (art.) «Diatessaron» v& Hastings' Diet, of the Bible
(extra vol., 1904) pp. 451 — 461.
4. LOST WRITINGS. - Other works of Tatian have entirely
perished. He mentions in his Apology (c. 15) a work «On animals»
(Trspt £w(ovj, and another (c. 16) in which he treated of the nature
of demons. He promised a book (c. 40) « Against those who have
treated of divine things* fapuQ TOUQ dito^T^a^ivo^ ™ nspl &souj, per-
§ I Q. MILTIADES. APOLLINARIS OF HIERAPOLIS. MELITO OF SARDES. 6 1
haps a refutation of heathen anti-Christian calumnies. Rhodon, a
disciple of Tatian, mentions1 a «Book of problems» (irpoftfajpLdTotv
fUtfiMov), in which Tatian undertook to demonstrate the existence of
errors and antilogies in the Sacred Scriptures (of the Old Testament).
Clement of Alexandria mentions and refutes2 a work of Tatian «On
perfection according to the precepts of the Saviour » (Ttspl TOO xara.
TOV (jcorr^oa. xarapTifffiouJ. We learn from Eusebius3 that « Meta
phrases » or corrections of certain sayings of St. Paul were attributed
to Tatian.
The « testimonial relative to the lost writings are to be found in
the current editions of the « O ratio »; de Otto, pp. i64sq. , and Schwartz,
pp. 48 sq.
§ 19. Miltiades. Apollinaris of Hierapolis. Melito of Sardes.
1. MILTIADES. - - Miltiades of Asia Minor was a contemporary
of Tatian, and perhaps also a disciple of Justin4. He defended
the Christian truth against pagans, Jews and heretics, but all his
writings have fallen a prey to time. We know from later writers
that he composed a work against the Montanists 5 in which he sought
to prove that a prophet should not speak in ecstacy fas pi TOO fiy
0£?y npoyyrqv ev Ixardffet AaAewJ, and another against the Valentinian
Gnostics (Tert. 1. c.), also a work in two books against the heathens
/Jyvaq), another in two books against the Jews (r.pbc, 'loo-
and an Apology for « Christian philosophy)) addressed to
« temporal rulers » 6.
The « testimonial relative to Miltiades are given by de Otto, Corpus
Apolog. , ix. 364 — 373; cf. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristl. Literatur,
i. 255 ff. ; ii. i, 361 if.
2. APOLLINARIS. - - Claudius Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis,
in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, left a number of works. Eusebius
mentions7 a «Defence of the Christian faith » presented to Marcus Au
relius, apparently in 172, five books against the Pagans (-pb$'t])j.rtva.z)t
two books on Truth faspl dAy&eiasJ, a Circular Letter against the Mon
tanists with the « subscriptions)) or opinions of other bishops, a work
On Easter8 (nspl TOL> 7rdff%aj, and one on Religion frrspl suffsftztaQj^,
identical perhaps with the «Defence of the Christian faith». All of
these writings have perished.
1 Ens., Hist, eccl., v. 13, 8. 2 Strom., iii. 12, 81.
3 Hist, eccl., iv. 29, 6.
4 Tertull., Adv. Valent, c. 5; Hippolytus in Eus., Hist, eccl., v. 28, 4.
5 Anonym, apud Ens. 1. c., v. 17, i. 6 £us. 1. c., v. 17, 5.
7 Ib., iv. 26, i; 27; Chron. ad a. Abraham 2187: Hist, eccl., iv. 27; ib., v. 19.
8 It is twice cited in the Chronicon Paschale, ed. Dindorf, pp. 13 — 14.
9 Phot., Bibl. Cod. 14.
62 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
The «testimonia» and fragments are in Routh, Reliquiae Sacrae, 2. ed.,
i. 155 — 174; de Otto 1. c., ix. 479—495. Cf. Harnack 1. c., i. 243 — 246;
ii. i, 358 sq. ; Zahn , Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons,
(1893), v. 3sq.
3. MELITO. - - Still more extensive and varied was the literary
activity of a third native of Asia Minor, Melito, bishop of Sardes in
Lydia. He died before 194 — 195 «a eunuch» (i. e. unmarried), and «in
all his life and works filled with the Holy Spirit », widely honoured also
as a prophet1. Eusebius and Anastasius Sinaita were acquainted with
the following works of Melito: a) a brief Apology for the Christian
faith, presented to Marcus Aurelius perhaps in 172, some fragments
of which are extant2; b) two books on Easter (nepl TOO izdaya) com
posed during the proconsulate of Servilius Paulus, or rather, as Ru-
finus states, in that of Sergius Paulus, perhaps 166 — 167 (Bus., Hist,
eccl. iv. 26, 2 — 3); c) On the Right Way of Living and the Pro
phets (xspl xoAtTsiac; xal xpoyr/Tcov, id. 1. c. iv. 26, 2; Hier. 1. c. :
De vita prophetarum), probably a work against Montanism; d) On
the Church fas pi sxx/ymaq, Eus.; e) On Sunday (xspl xupiax9JQ id.)\
f) On the Nature of Man fas pi (poczcoq, al. TziarecoQ, avftpconoo, id.)\
g) On the Creation of Man fnspl xAdaecoQ, id.) ; h) On the Obedience
of Faith fjrspl bnaxor/Q TiictTZtoQ, id.) ; i) On the Senses fxspl oiiaxo^c,
rriffTEd)^ alaftTjTqp'uov, id.). According to other text-witnesses this title
is corrupt , and contains really two titles ; k) On Baptism (xspl Aoo-
Tpoo, id.)\ 1) On Truth (izepl aArfteiac,, id.)] m) On the Creation and
Birth of Christ (xzpl xriasoiQ xal "fzviazcoc, Xpiarou, id.); n) On Pro
phecy (xspl -poprjTslaZi id.; Rufinus, Prophetia eius; Hier., De pro-
phetia sua, probably against Montanism) ; o) On Hospitality fnspl <ptAo-
Q, Eus.) ; p) The Key f'H zAeic, id.) ; q) On the Devil (mpt TOO
id.) ; r) On the Revelation of John fnepl TOO diaftbXoo xal
oG 'Icodvvoo, id. ; Rufinus , De diabolo, De revelatione
loannis; Hier., De diabolo, De apocalypsi loannis); s) On the Cor
poreity of God (ftepl IvGcu/jLaTou #£oo, Eus. ; nspl TOO syffat^aTov slvat
TOV fts/w, Orig., Sel. in Gen. ad i. 26); t) Extracts ("ExXofat, Eus.),
i. e. « Extracts from the Law and the Prophets concerning our Saviour
and our entire faith » in six books. Eusebius gives (1. c. iv. 26, 12 — 14)
the preface of the work ; u) On the Passion of the Lord (elq TO xdttoQ,
Anast. Sin., Viae dux, c. 12, a short citation); v) On the Incarnation
of Christ (nspl aapxaxjecoc, XpioToo), an anti-Marcionite work, in at least
three books, id. 1. c. c. 13, a rather long citation. All these works are
lost. Besides the already cited fragments there remain four scholia on
the sacrifice of Isaac as a type of the Crucifixion of Christ. They were
taken, probably, from the « Extracts » mentioned by Eusebius, but were
1 Polycr. in Eus., Hist, eccl., v. 24, 5. Tertull. in Hier., De vir. ill. c. 24.
2 Eus., Hist, eccl., iv. 13, 8; 26, I — 2; 5 — 11; Chron. ad a. Abr. 2187; Chron.
Pasch. ed. Dindorf, 483.
§ IQ. MILTIADES. APOLLINARIS OF HIERAPOLIS. MELITO OF SARDES. 63
already corrupted by spurious additions. There is also an interesting
fragment on the baptism of the Lord in the Jordan, very probably
from the homonymous work in the catalogue of Eusebius. Four
fragments, preserved in Syriac only, ought to be considered as be
longing to Melito: ex Tractatu de anima et corpore, ex Sennone de
cruce, De fide, Melitonis episcopi urbis Attic ae ; in other codices, it
is true, they bear the name of Alexander of Alexandria (f 328). On
the other hand, Melito is not the author of an Apology that has come
down to us in Syriac, entitled Oratio Melitonis p kilos op hi quae habita
est cor am Antonino Caesar e. It is an energetic polemic against polytheism
and idolatry, akin to the Apology of the Athenian Aristides, very pro
bably of Syriac origin, and belonging to the end of the second or the be
ginning of the third century; and the Syriac text is probably not a
translation but the original. An Armenian fragment of four lines, ex Me
litonis epistola ad Eutrepium, and several Latin treatises, De passione
S. Joannis Evangelistae, De transitu B. Mariae Virginis, Clavis Scrip
turae, Catena in Apocalypsin, are wrongly ascribed to him. Cardinal
Pitra, the editor of the extensive Clavis Scripturae, tried to recognize
in it a translation or rather a revision and enlargement of the «Key»
of Melito, mentioned in Eusebius. In reality it is a biblical glossary
compiled from Augustine, Gregory the Great, and other Latin Fathers.
At the present it cannot be more precisely dated ; we know however
that no attempt was made to identify it with the «Key» before the
eleventh century.
The «testimonia» and the fragments are in Routh 1. c., i. in — 153;
de Otto 1. c., ix. 374 — 478, 497 — 512. Cf. Harnack 1. c., i. 246 — 255; ii.
i, 358 if., 517 ff., 522 if. C. Thomas, Melito von Sardes, Osnabriick, 1893.
The Greek fragment «on Baptism » was edited by Pitra, Analecta Sacra
(1884), ii. 3 — 5; for its textual criticism see J. M. Mercati , in Theol.
Quartalschr. (1894), Ixxvi. 597 — 600.
The Syriac Apology and the four Syriac fragments were first edited
by W. Cureton, Spicilegium Syriacum, London, 1855. All these fragments,
Syriac and Latin (with exception of the fourth), as edited by E. Renan,
are to be found in Pitra, Spicil. Solesm. (1855), ii. de Otto gives (1. c.)
all the Syriac fragments (pp. 497 — 512), also the Latin (pp. 419—432); cf.
pp. 453 — 478. There is a German version of the Apology (from the Syriac)
by B. Welte, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1862), xliv. 384 — 410, and another from
the Latin version of v. Otto, by V. Grone, in Bibliothek der Kirchenvater,
Kempten, 1873. For tne Apology cf. Harnack 1. c., ii. i, 522 ff., and the
literature there indicated. On the four fragments see G. Kruger, in Zeitschr.
fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1888), xxxi. 434 — 448; Thomas 1. c., pp. 40 — 51.
The four Armenian lines ex Melitonis epistola ad Eutrepium are in Pitra,
Analecta Sacra (1883), iv. 16 292. The Clavis Scripturae was twice edited
by Pitra: in its longer form in Spicil. Solesm. (1855), ii — iii. i, and in the
shorter, more original form, in Analecta Sacra (1884), ii. For more
specific information see O. Rottmanncr, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1896), Ixxviii.
614 — 629. For the other Latin writings mentioned above cf. Harnack 1. c.,
i. 252 — 254. H. Jordan, Melito und Novatian, in Archiv fur latein. Lexiko-
graphie imd Grammatik (1902), xii. 59—68.
64 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
§ 20. Athenagoras of Athens.
1. HIS LIFE. --In the title of his Apology, whose manuscript-tradi
tion can be traced to the year 914, Athenagoras is called the « Christian
philosopher of Athens » ('A&yvcuoG, (cO.oaoyoQ, xptanavoq). Very unreliable,
however, are the data that an anonymous writer on the Alexandrine
teachers pretends to have found in the « Christian History » of Philippus
Sidetes (§ 79, 2). According to them Athenagoras presented an Apo
logy to Hadrian and Antoninus (Pius), and was the first master of the
Alexandrine catechetical school. The introduction to the Apology is
a proof that it was addressed to Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, and
was, therefore, composed between November 176 and March 1 80
- probably in 1 77. It is possible that the hypothesis of Zahn is correct :
he identifies our Athenagoras with another of the same name to
whom, after 1 80, Boethus of Alexandria dedicated his book « on the
difficult expressions in Plato »1.
Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i. 256 — 258; ii. i, 317 — 319
710. A. Eberhard, Athenagoras (Progr.)j Augsburg, 1895.
2. HIS WORKS. — The purpose of his Apology or « Supplication » for
the Christians (xpeafida Kepi /piffrtavwv, Supplicatio seu legatio pro Chri-
stianis) is to show the absurdity of the calumnies current against them,
viz. atheism, Thyestean banquets, Oedipean incest (c. 3). The first accu
sation is very solidly refuted by a splendid exposition and demonstration
of the Christian doctrine concerning God (cc. 4 — 30). The other two
imputations are disproved by a brief resume of the principles of Chris
tian morality (cc. 32 — 36). It is only en passant that the Apology deals
polemically with heathenism; otherwise in contents it closely re
sembles the Dialogue of Minucius Felix, though it cannot be shown
that the latter made use of the work of Athenagoras. The only certain
traces of its presence in ancient Christian literature are found in
Methodius of Olympus 2, and in Philippus Sidetes, as described above.
Still less attention was paid in antiquity to his work «On the Resurrection
of the dead» (Hspl dvaardazwc, vzxp&y). In the Arethas-Codex of 914
it follows the Apology and is attributed to the same author. No other
witness to this work is forthcoming ; nevertheless, there is no reason
to deny the assertion of the manuscript, all the more as Athenagoras
himself, at the end of his Apology (c. 36, al. 37), promises a discussion
of the doctrine of the resurrection. The work is divided into two
parts. In the first the objections against the possibility of the re
surrection are refuted (cc. i — 10); in the second (cc. n — 25) the
author undertakes to prove the reality of the resurrection : a) from the
destination of man, and of every rational creature, to be and live without
end; b) from human nature, a synthesis of soul and body (cc. 14 — 17);
1 Phot., Bibl. Cod. 155.
2 De resurr., i. 37, i. (ed. BonwetscJi).
§ 21. THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH. 65
c) from the necessity of a retribution, not alone for the soul but for
the body (cc. 1 8 — 23); d) from the last end (riXoQ) of man, that is
unattainable in this life (cc. 24 — 25).
All the known codices of the Apology and the treatise on the Resurrec
tion are based on one archetype, the Arethas-Codex (§ 13). The treatise
on the Resurrection was first edited by P. Nannius (Louvain, 1541), and
the Apology by C. Gesner (Zurich, 1557). For the editions of both by Morelli
and Maranus (Gallandi, Migne) , de Otto (Corpus apolog. vii.) cf. § 13.
The most recent edition is that by Ed. Schwartz, Leipzig, 1891 (Texte und
Untersuchungen , iv. 2). Both works were translated into German by
Al. Bieringer , Kempten, 1875 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater). There is an
English translation by B. P. Pratten , in Ante-Nicene Fathers (Am. ed.
1885), ii. 129—162. C. y. Hefele, Beitrage ztir Kirchengesch. , Archao-
logie und Liturgik, Tubingen, 1864, i. 60 — 86: «Lehre des Athenagoras
und Analyse seiner Schriften.» R. Forster, Uber die altesten Herabilder,
nebst einem Exkurs liber die Glaubwiirdigkeit der kunstgeschichtl. An-
gaben des Athenagoras (Progr.), Breslau, 1868. L. Arnould, De Apologia
Athenagorae, Paris, 1898.
3. CHARACTERISTICS. Athenagoras is a very attractive writer. In
originality of thought he yields, possibly, to his predecessors Justin
and Tatian, but he far surpasses them in felicity of expression, purity
and beauty of diction, simplicity and lucidity of arrangement. He is
well acquainted with the Greek classics. His Apology even betrays
a certain fondness for the citation of poets and philosophers. In
accord with Justin, and in opposition to Tatian, he exhibits a friendly
attitude toward Greek philosophy, especially Platonism. Out of the
treasure of Christian doctrine he selects only such principles as seem
best adapted to blunt the edge of heathen calumny. For him
the witnesses and guarantors of Christian faith are the prophets,
« Moses, Isaias, Jeremias, and the others » whose mouth acted as an
organ of the Holy Spirit, even as the flute is the organ of the flute-
player (Supplic. cc. 7 9). The rational proof of the unity of God
(c. 8) merits attention, as it is the first scientific attempt of the Chris
tians to justify their monotheism. He bears witness to the Blessed
Trinity with almost startling clearness and precision (see especially c. 10).
F. Schiibring, Die Philosophic des Athenagoras (Progr.), Berlin, 1882.
A. Joannides, UpaYjxaTeia rep! rrj? Trap' 'A»>Y]va70pa cpiXasocpixyjc Yvwaeuc (Dissert,
inaug.), Jena, 1883. J. Lehmann, Die Auferstehungslehre des Athenagoras
(Inaug.-Dissert.), Leipzig, 1890. P. Logothetes , CH UeoXoyia TOO 'A^va-fopou
(Dissert, inaug.), Leipzig, 1893. A. Pommrich, Des Apologeten Theophilus
von Antiochien Gottes- und Logoslehre, dargestellt unter Beriicksichtigung
der gleichen Lehre des Athenagoras von Athen, Dresden, 1902.
§ 21. Theophilus of Antioch.
I. HIS LIFE. Theophilus is the sixth or, including St. Peter, the
seventh bishop of Antioch 1. Eusebius relates that Theophilus became
1 Eus., Chron. ad a. Abraham 2185; Hist, eccl., iv. 20. St. Jet:, De viris illustr.,
c. 25; Ep. 121, 6.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. c
66 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
bishop of that see in 169, and his successor Maximinus in 177*. The
latter date conflicts with the fact that the last of the three books
Ad Autolycum, which Eusebius himself says 2 were written by Theo-
philus, must have been composed some little time after the death
of Marcus Aurelius (March 17, 180; op. cit. cc. 27 — -28). Taking
the contradiction for granted, it is better to assume with Harnack
that the second date is erroneous than to admit with Erbes another
and a later Theophilus as author of the books Ad Autolycum. From
internal evidence it appears (i. 14) that the author had reached a
mature age when he abandoned heathenism for Christianity; that his
home was not far from the Euphrates and the Tigris, and that he
was probably born in that neighbourhood (ii. 24) ; that he had received
the training of an Hellene, but possessed also a certain knowledge
of Hebrew (ii. 12, 24; iii. 19).
C. Erbes, Die Lebenszeit des Hippolytus nebst der des Theophilus von
Antiochien, in Jahrbticher fiir prot. Theol. (1888), xiv. 611 — 656. Harnack)
Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i. 496—502; ii. 208 — 213 319 ff. 534 ff.
2. THE THREE BOOKS AD AUTOLYCUM. The three books xpOQ
A'jroXoxov are held together by a slender thread. If it be true that
the third book was composed about 181 — 182, the other two may
well have been written at a much earlier date. In the first book,
apropos of a conversation with his heathen friend Autolycus, the
author treats of the faith of Christians in an invisible God (cc. 2 — n)
and of the name « Christian » (c. 12). As a complement and illustration
of the first book, the second discusses the folly of heathen idolatry
(cc. 2 — 8) and offers a comprehensive view of the teachings of the
prophets, «men of God and representatives of the Holy Spirit »
(cc. 9 — 38). The third book shows the futility of the anti- Christian
calumnies (Thyestean banquets and Oedipean incest, cc. 4 — 15), and
offers proof that the Sacred Scriptures of the Christians are much older
than the beginnings of Greek history and literature, older even than the
mythological epoch of the Greeks (cc. 1 6 — 29). The style of Theophilus
is smooth and unembarrassed, vigorous and lively ; a characteristic trait
is his recognition of the subjective conditions of faith and the depen
dence of religious knowledge on purity of mind (i. 2 ff ). He attributes
an identical authority to the writings of the Evangelists (ii. 22; iii. 12),
to the Epistles of St. Paul (iii. 14), and to the Prophets (ii. 9; iii. 12).
He is the first to use the term rpiac, to indicate the distinction of
persons in the Godhead (ii. 1 5)
The books Ad Autolycum have come down to us in the eleventh-century
Codex Marcianus 496, and of others that depend upon it. J. Frisius
(C. Gesner) published the editio princeps, Zurich, 1546; for later editions
see § 13. The most recent is that of de Otto, Corp. apolog., viii. A German
1 Chron. ad a. Abraham 2185 2193. 2 Hist, eccl., iv. 24.
§ 21. THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH. 6/
version was made by J. Leitl (Bibl. der Kirchenvater), Kempten, 1873. There
is an English translation by M. Dods , in Ante-Nicene Fathers (Am. ed.
1885), ii. 89 — 121. For the concept of faith in this work of Theophilus
cf. L. Paul, in Jahrbiicher fur prot. Theol. (1875), i- 546 — 559- The eyi'
dence of Theophilus to the Canon of the New Testament is treated by
Harnack, in Zeitschr. fur Kirchengesch. (1889 — 1890), xi. i — 21. For his
teaching concerning God cf. G. Karabangeles, Leipzig, 1891 (Dissert, inaug.),
and O. Gross, Chemnitz, 1896 (Progr.). A. Pommrich, Des Apologeten
Theophilus von Antiochien Gottes- und Logoslehre, etc. , Dresden, 1902.
O. Clausen, Die Theologie des Theophilus von Antiochien, in Zeitschr. fur
wissenschaftl. Theol. (1902), xlv. 81 — 141; (1903), xlvi. 195 — 213.
3. LOST WRITINGS. Theophilus often refers to a previous work
of his, the first book of which was entitled "K£p\ iaropicov; it dealt
with the earliest history of mankind (ii. 30). The citations of John
Malalas (ed. Dindorf 2^ al. 59) from a «Theophilus chronographer»
are very probably not from this work. — Eusebius mentions * a work
of Theophilus, Against the heresy of Hermogenes (npoQ ~yv alpemv
'Ep/iofevovgj, some catechetical writings (TWO. xarqyrjTtxa ftifitiaj men
tioned also by St. Jerome2, and a work against Marcion fxara Map-
XIWVOQ). St. Jerome mentions also (ibid.) two works current under the
name of Theophilus : Commentaries on the Gospel 3, and on the
Proverbs of Solomon (in Evangelium et in Proverbia Salomonis com-
mentarii). De la Bigne published (1575) under the name of Theo
philus a Latin Commentary on the Gospels, an unorderly collection
of allegorical scholia on excerpts from the four Gospels. It ought
not to be identified, as is done by Zahn, with the Commentary
described by St. Jerome, nor should it be attributed to Theophilus.
It is rather, what Harnack has proved it to be, a compilation from
Cyprian, Jerome, Ambrose, the pseudo-Arnobius Junior, and Au
gustine, put together by a Latin compiler, probably in Southern Gaul,
and toward the end of the fifth century. In three ancient manuscripts,
unknown to Zahn, there is a prologue to the work in which the an
onymous author says that his labours are an anthology from earlier
expositors (tractatoribus defloratis opusculum spiritale composui).
Editions of the pseudo-Theophilus-commentary on the Gospels are found
in De la Bigne, Bibl. SS. Patrum, Paris, 1575, v. 169 — 192 ; de Otto, Corpus
apolog., viii. 278 — 326; Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl.
Kanons (1883), ii. 29 — 85. For the three codices discovered since that
date cf. Harnack, in Texte und Untersuchungen (1883), i. 4, 159 — 175;
Pitra, Analecta Sacra (1884), ii. 624 — 634, 649 — 650; Zahn 1. c., ii. (Der
Evangelienkommentar des Theophilus von Antiochien), also (1884), iii.
198 — 277; Harnack 1. c., pp. 97 — 176 (Der angebliche Evangelienkommen
tar des Theophilus von Antiochien), and Theol. Literaturzeitung, 1886,
pp. 404 f. A. Hauck, in Zeitschrift fiir kirchl. Wissenschaft und kirchl.
1 Hist, eccl., iv. 24.
2 De viris illustr., c. 25: breves elegantesque tractatus ad aedificationem ecclesiae
pertinentes.
3 Cf. also Ep. 121, 6; Comm. in Matth., praef.
5*
68 FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECJION.
Leben (1884), v. 561 — 568; W. Sanday, in Studia Biblica, Oxford, 1885,
pp. 89 — 101 ; W. Bornemann, in Zeitschr. fur Kirchengesch. (1888 — 1889),
x. 169 — 252, also took part in the controversy.
§ 22. The Letter to Diognetus.
Under the name of Justin Martyr there has been handed down
in a codex of the thirteenth or fourteenth century a Letter to Dio
gnetus (TTOOC, AwyvriTov), which purposes to reply to certain questions
asked by a heathen much interested in Christianity. These questions
deal with the specific nature of the Christian adoration of God in
contradistinction to the pagan and the Jewish worship, the sur
prising change of life and the remarkable love for their neighbour
that the Christians exhibit. It is further asked why this new
religion should have appeared now, and not at an earlier period.
The replies to these questions are distinguished for elevation of
tone, profound grasp of the Christian ideas, magnificence and
splendour of exposition. The portrait of the daily life of the Chris
tians is positively fascinating (cc. 5 — 6). The theme is exhausted in
the tenth chapter; what is read in cc. u — 12 of the codex does
not belong to the original Letter. Nor does the codex deserve
credence as to the author of the document, whose fine classical dic
tion is quite irreconcilable with the unstudied, unornamented and
unimpassioned style of Justin. Regarding the letter we have no
information from extrinsic sources. Donaldson attempted to show that
it was an academic exercise in style or declamation, belonging to the
fifteenth or sixteenth century. But the date of the codex suffices to
discredit this hypothesis. Internal evidence would show that the work
belongs to the era of the persecutions (cc. 5 7). It does not belong,
therefore, to the post-Constantinian period, as Overbeck asserts, but
rather to the second or third century. In the absence of more posi
tive evidence it is difficult to assign a more precise date, though the
earlier one seems preferable. In this case the recipient of the Letter
might have been Diognetus, the well-known preceptor of Marcus
Aurelius. The authorship has been variously attributed; by Bunsen
to Marcion, by Draseke to Apelles, the disciple of Marcion, by
Doulcet, Kihn, and Kriiger to Aristides of Athens. The latter hypo
thesis alone merits attention. There is an undeniable relationship
between the two documents ; but something more is needed to
render probable an identity of authorship or even a contemporaneous
composition of both works.
The Letter to Diognetus reached us in only one manuscript, the Codex
Argentoratensis 9 (§ 17, 2). It was destroyed by the fire of Strasburg in the
siege of 1870. The editio princeps is that of H. Stephanus , Paris, 1592.
Later it was printed among the works of Justin (§ 17, 2) by de Otto, Corpus
apolog. (1879), »i- 158 — 211, and more recently among the works of the
Apostolic Fathers by von Gebhardt and Harnack, Barnabae epist. (1878),
§ 23. HERMIAS. 69
pp. 142 — 164, and by Funk, Opera Patr. apostol. (1878, 1887, 1901),
i. 310 — 333. The latter editor was the first to make use (1901) of an
ancient copy of Codex Argentoratensis 9, preserved at Tubingen. The
Letter has been often translated into modern languages. We are indebted
for a new German rendering to W. Heinzdmann, Erfurt, 1896. There is an
English translation by Roberts and Donaldson, in Ante-Nicene Fathers (Am.
ed. 1885), i. 25 — 30. Cf. y. Donaldson, A Critical History of Christian
Literature and Doctrine, London, 1866, ii. 126 — 142. Fr. Overbeck, Uber
den pseudo-justinischen Brief an Diognet (Progr.) , Basel, 1872, reprinted
with additions in the same author's Studien zur Gesch. der alten Kirche,
Schloft Chemnitz, 1875, i. i — 92. J. Draseke , Der Brief an Diognetos,
Leipzig, 1 88 1 , a reprint from Jahrbticher fur prot. Theol. (1881), vii.
H. Kihn, Der Ursprung des Briefes an Diognet, Freiburg, 1882. G. Kriiger
defended, in Zeitschr. far wissenschaftl. Theol. (1894), xxxvii. 206 — 223, the
authorship of Aristides, but later he abandoned this opinion of Kihn , in
his Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, appendices, Freiburg, 1897. For the
relations between the Letter and the Apology of Aristides cf. R. Seeberg,
in Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (1893), v.
239 — 243. Kihn, Zum Briefe an Diognet, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1902),
Ixxxiv. 495 — 498. G. N. Bonwetsch has shown that cc. i — 12 of the
Letter to Diognetus belong to Hippolytus. F. X. Funk, Das Schluftkapitel
des Diognetenbriefes, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1903), Ixxxv. 638 — 639.
§ 23. Hermias.
Under the title, «A Mockery of Heathen Philosophers by the
Philosopher Hermias* CEpp.siou <f>do06<pou dtaffupfjt&Q TWV £$a) <ptXo~
at'upwy, Irrisio gentilium philosophorum), a small work has come down
that sets forth, in a satirical way, the contradictory opinions of Greek
philosophers concerning the human soul (cc. I — 2) and the funda
mental principles of the universe (cc. 3 — 10). The author exhibits
wit and ability, but is superficial, inasmuch as he constantly fails to
seize or to realize the respective cohesion of the theses of the philo
sophers. This work is never mentioned in Christian antiquity, and in
the text itself there are no clear traces of its actual date. However, the
author does not belong, as Diels thinks, to the fifth or sixth century,
but rather to the second or third. Hermias bears the title of «philo-
sopher» in common with several apologists of the second and third
centuries: Aristides, Justin, Athenagoras, and the pseudo-Melito. The
attitude and tendency of his work, its polemical bitterness and lively
diction, point, apparently, to the period of the earliest intellectual conflict
of youthful Christianity with Hellenic philosophy. Certain indications
that the writer made use of the Cohortatio ad Gentiles of the pseudo-
Justin1, do not justify the opinion that the work was of a later
date than we have indicated.
For the manuscript-tradition cf. Harnack , Gesch. der altchristl. Lite
ratur, i. 782 f. The cditio princcps is that of J. Oporinus , Basel, 1553.
1 Compare respectively Irris., cc. I 5, with Cohort., cc. 7 31. In the latter pas
sages, however, it seems better to admit the use, by both writers, of a third source :
i. e. Pseudo-Pint., De placitis phil., i. 7, 4.
J7Q FIRST PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
Other editions are those of Morelli and Maranus (Gallandi, Migne), v. Otto,
Corpus apolog., ix. i — 31; cf. xl. — li. and § 13. The most recent edition
is that of H. Dieh , Doxographi Graeci, Berlin, 1879, PP- 649 — 656, cf.
pp. 259 to 263. A German version by J. Leitl is found in the Bibl. der
Kirchenvater, Kempten, 1873.
§ 24. Minucius Felix.
I. THE DIALOGUE «OCTA\TUS». This Latin apology for Chris
tianity is in every way worthy to rank with the preceding Greek works
of the same nature. It is-thrown into the form of a Dialogue between
the Christian Octavius Januarius and the heathen Caecilius Natalis,
both friends of the author Minucius Felix, a Roman lawyer (causidicus) .
It opens in a very lively manner : the disputants are seated by the sea
at Ostia, having chosen Minucius Felix as arbiter of their controversy
(cc. I — 4). Caecilius advocates the teaching of the Skeptics, yet de
fends the faith of his fathers as the one source of Roman greatness ;
Christianity is an unreasonable and immoral illusion (cc. 5 — ^-3}-
Octavius follows closely the arguments of Caecilius, makes a drastic
expose of the follies of polytheism , and refutes the usual anti-
Christian calumnies (adoration of the head of an ass, of the genitalia
of the clergy, Thyestean banquets, Oedipean incest, atheism) and
closes with a touching portrait of the faith and life of the Christians
(cc. 1 6 — 38). No arbiter's judgment is needed, as Caecilius admits
his defeat. For artistic composition and graceful treatment of the
given theme none of the second or third century Christian apologies
can be compared to the «Octavius». The De natura deorum of Cicero
was apparently the author's model. He certainly made use of this
work of Cicero and of his De divinatione, likewise of the De pro-
videntia and De superstitione of Seneca. A generous humanitarian
tone pervades the entire work. The monotheistic character of Chris
tianity is constantly insisted on (c. 18). Its most important feature
is the practical morality it inculcates (c. 32, 3). The author does
not mention the Christian mysteries, nor does he make use of the
Sacred Scriptures (cf. however c. 34, 5). At the same time we
cannot admit with Kiihn that Minucius furnishes no more than «an
ethnico-philosophical concept of Christianity ». His work is an ex
position of the genuine Christian truth, but executed in a manner
suitable to impress the philosophical circles of heathenism.
The Dialogue has reached us only through Codex Parisinus 1661 of
the ninth century (and a copy of the sixteenth century), in which it appears
as the eighth book of Arnobius' Adversus nationes. The first editors were
F. Sabaeus, Rome, 1543, and Fr. Balduin, Heidelberg, 1560. Later it was
edited or reprinted by C. de Muralt, Zurich, 1836; Migne } PL., iii. (Paris,
1844); J. B. Kayser, Paderborn, 1863; C. Halm, Vienna, 1867 (Corpus
script, eccles. lat. , ii.); J. J. Cornelissen , Leyden, 1882; E. Bdhrens,
Leipzig, 1886. The best of these editions is that by Halm. It is reprinted
§ 24. MINUCIUS FELIX. 7!
in Bibliotheca Ss. Patrum, Rome, 1901. For new contributions to the
textual criticism of « Octavius » cf. Teuffel-Schwabe, Gesch. der romischen
Literatur, 5. ed., pp. 931 1317, and J. Vahlen, in Index lect. Berol. per
sem. aest. a (1894), also in Hermes (1895), xxx- 3^5 — 39°- C. Synnerberg,
Randbemerkungen zu Minucius Felix, Berlin, 1897. Translations into German
have been made by A. Bieringer, Kempten, 1871 (Bibliothek der Kirchen-
vater) ; B. Dombart, Erlangen, 1875 — 1%fl6'i 2- ed- (text oi Halm], 1881 ;
H. Hage.n, Berne, 1890. There is an English translation by R. E. Wallis, in
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Am. ed. 1885), iv. 173 — 198. E. Behr, Der Octavius
des M. Minucius Felix in seinem Verhaltnis zu Ciceros Blichern De natura
deorum (Dissert, inaug.), Gera, 1870. Concerning the models and «fontes» of
the Dialogue cf. Th. Keim, Celsus' Wahres Wort, Zurich, 1873, pp. 151 — 168 ;
G. Losche, in Jahrb. fur prot. Theol. (1882), viii. 168—178; P. de Ftlice,
Etude sur 1'Octavius de Minucius Felix (These), Blois, 1880. R. Kiihn, Der
Octavius des Minucius Felix, eine heidnisch-philosophische Auffassung vom
Christentum, Leipzig, 1882. Against Kiihn cf. O. Grillnbcrger , in Jahrb.
fur Philos. u. spekul. Theol. (1889), iii. 104 — 118, 146—161, 260 — 269;
B. Seiller, De sermone Minuciano (Progr.), Vienna, 1893. There is an ex
haustive bibliography of «Octavius» in J. P. Waltzing, Bibliographic raisonnee
de Minucius Felix, in Museon beige (1902), vi. 216 — 261. Minucius Felix,
Octavius, in usum lectionum suarum, ed. J. P. Waltzing, Louvain, 1903.
Octavius, rec. et praefatus est H, Boenig, Leipzig, 1903. Cf. O. Boiler o,
«L' Octavius » de M. Minucio Felice e le sue relazioni con la coltura classica,
in Rivista filosofica, 1903; C. Synnerberg, Randbemerkungen zu Minucius
Felix, Helsingfors-Berlin, 1903, ii; G. Bossier, L'Octavius de Minucius Felix,
in La fin du paganisme, 3. ed., Paris, 1898, i. 261 — 289; F. X. Burger, Uber
das Verhaltnis des Minucius Felix zu dem Philosophen Seneca (Dissert.),
Miinchen, 1904; G. Thiancourt, Les premiers apologistes chretiens a Rome
et les traites philosophiques de Ciceron, Paris, 1904.
2. AUTHORSHIP AND DATE. We know no more of the events of
the author's life. He tells us himself (cc. 1—4) that in his later years
only had he come forth «from deepest obscurity into the light of wis
dom and truth ». Lactantius1 seems to suppose that Minucius preceded
Tertullian ; Jerome 2, on the contrary, is surely of the opinion that
Tertullian wrote previously to Minucius. There is indeed a close
resemblance between the «Octavius» and the «Apologeticum» of
Tertullian, written in 197. We believe with Ebert, Schwenke, Reck,
and others that it is Tertullian who made use of Minucius, and not,
as earlier writers (and recently Massebieau) have held, Minucius who
used the writings of Tertullian. Still less tenable is the theory of
Hartel and Wilhelm that we must suppose a third source common
to both, but no longer discoverable. There are other evidences of
the priority of Minucius. Pronto of Cirta, who died after 175, must
have been alive, or at least a very well-known personality, at the time
of the composition of «Octavius» (cc. 9, 6; 31, 2). A reliable terminus
ad quern is the tractate of Cyprian Quod idola dii non sint, written
perhaps in 248, and in which the work of Minucius is copiously drawn
1 Div. inst., v. i, 22; cf. i. n, 55.
2 De viris illustr., cc. 53, 58; Ep. 70, 5.
72 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
upon. The «Octavius» may have been written at the beginning of the
reign of Commodus (180 — 192). There is no reason for admitting
with de Felice and Schanz, an earlier date, e. g. the reign of An
toninus Pius. On the other hand, Neumann is quite arbitrary when
he brings down the date of composition to the reign of Philippus
Arabs (244 — 249); still more so is Schultze when he attributes it to
the beginning of the fourth century. The use of the work by
Cyprian is sufficient to exclude both of these hypotheses.
For the date of composition cf. A. Ebert, in Abhandlungen der phil.-
hist. Klasse der kgl. sachs. Gesellsch. der Wissensch. (1870), v. 319 — 420;
W. Hartely in Zeitschr. fur die osterreich. Gymnasien (1869), xx. 348 — 368;
V. Schultze, in Jahrb. fur prot. Theol. (1881), vii. 485 — 506; P. Schwenke,
ib. (1883), ix. 263—294; F. X. Reck, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1886), Ixviii.
64—114; Fr. Wilhelm, in Breslauer philolog. Abhandlungen (1887), ii. i;
M. L. Massebieau, in Revue de 1'hist. des religions (1887), xv. 316—346;
K. J. Neumann, Der romische Staat und die allgemeine Kirche, Leipzig,
1890, i. 241 if. 250 if. ; M, Schanz y in Rhein. Museum fur Philol., new series
(1895), L. 114 — 136; E. Nor den y in Index lect. Gryphiswald. per sem. aest.
a. 1897 ; H.Boenig, in a programme of the Gymnasium of Konigsberg, 1897.
3. THE TREATISE «DE FATO». Jerome was acquainted with a
work current under the name of Minucius, entitled De fato vel contra
mathematicos. He doubted its authenticity because of the diversity
of style1. It is true that in the «Octavius» Minucius does promise
(c. 36, 2) a work De fato. Possibly his own words caused an
homonymous work of some other writer to be fathered upon him.
THIRD SECTION.
THE HERETICAL LITERATURE OF THE SECOND CENTURY
AND THE NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA.
§ 25. Gnostic Literature.
I. INTRODUCTION. The apologetic literature was one result of
the conflict between heathenism and Christianity. But even while
the Apostles lived, the Church came in contact with another formi
dable enemy known as heresy. It did not dispute with her the
right to exist, but it threatened the purity and integrity of her apo
stolic faith. It is of importance, therefore, that a brief summary of
the literary labours of heretics should precede an account of the anti-
heretical literature.
The most influential of the primitive heresies was Gnosticism.
It aimed at undermining the entire structure of Christian faith, since,
in spite of the contradictions of its multiform systems, it was based
on the hypothesis of a dual principle and rejected the doctrine of
creation. Nevertheless, it made much headway in the East and West,
1 Ib.
§ 25. GNOSTIC LITERATURE. 73
especially among the cultured classes, and brought forth a literature
of more than ordinary variety and richness. With the exception of
a few works preserved, for the most part, in Coptic, this literature
has perished, and is known to us only from the few fragments that
the ecclesiastical writers inserted in their polemical writings for the
purpose of confuting their heretical opponents.
The principal authorities for the study of Gnosticism and its literature
are the Adversus haereses of Irenaeus , the Philosophy wena of Hippolytus,
the Panarion or Haereses of Epiphanius , and the Liber de haeresibus of
Philastrius. For critical researches on the sources of these and similar
works cf. R. A. Lipsius, Zur Quellenkritik des Epiphanies, Vienna, 1865;
Die Quellen der altesten Ketzergeschichte neu untersucht, Leipzig, 1875.
Ad. Harnack, Zur Quellenkritik der Geschichte des Gnostizismus, Leipzig,
1873; Zur Quellenkritik der Gesch. des Gnostizismus, in Zeitschr. fur die
histor. Theol. (1874), xliv. 143—226. A. Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzergeschichte
des Urchristentums urkundlich dargestellt, Leipzig, 1884; Judentum und
Judenchristentum, Leipzig, 1886. J. Kunze, De historiae gnosticismi fon-
tibus novae quaestiones criticae, Leipzig, 1894. Collections of Gnostic
fragments are found in J E. Grabe, Spicilegium Ss. Patrum ut et haereti-
corum saec. p. Chr. n. i. ii. et iii., Oxford, 1698 — 1699; 2. ed. 1714, 2 voll.,
passim ; in R. Massuet's edition of the Adversus haereses of Irenaeus, Paris,
1710, pp. 349 — 376 (Migne, PG., vii. 1263 — 1322); in A. Stiereris edition
of Irenaeus, Leipzig, 1848 — 1853, i. 899—971; in Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzer
geschichte des Urchristentums, passim. For the most complete index of
Gnostic writers and writings cf. Ad. Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur,
i. 143 — 205; ii. i, 289 — 311, 533—541; R. Liechtenhahn, Untersuchungen
zur koptisch-gnostischen Literatur, in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol.
(1901), xliv. 236—252; Id., On the apocryphal literature of the Gnostics,
in Zeitschr. fur neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1902), iii. 222—237 ; E. de Faye,
Introduction a 1'etude du gnosticisme au 2e et 3° siecle, in Revue de 1'histoire
des religions (1902), and Paris, 1903.
2. BASILIDES AND ISIDORUS. It would seem that the earliest
chiefs of the Gnostic sects, Dositheus, Simon Magus, Cleobius, Men-
ander, Cerinthus, Nicolaus (?), Satornilus, left no writings, though
at an early date certain works were attributed to them by their
followers. Origen * is aware of pretended « books of Dositheus » ;
Hippolytus2 bases his account of the teachings of Simon Magus on
a supposed « Great revelation » (dmxpaaiq ^sfdtyj current, we may sup
pose, under the name of Simon. Other ecclesiastical writers were of
the same view. Basilides, who taught at Alexandria about 120 — 140,
wrote a Gospel, a Commentary on the same, also Psalms or Canticles
(Odes). His Gospel is often mentioned by name 3, first by Origen,
but not analysed or described. It was probably no more than a com
pilation made for his own purposes from the four Gospels. According
to Agrippa Castor the Commentary of Basilides consisted of twenty-
four books4. Some fragments of it are quoted by Clement of Alexandria,
1 Comm. in Joan. xiii. 27: pift^ouq TOU Aoa&iou. ' Philos., vi. 7 — 20; al.
3 Orig., Horn. I in Lucam. 4 Eus., Hist, eccl., iv. 7, 7.
74
FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Origen, and the author of the Acta Archelai et Manetis. Concerning
the Psalms or Odes we merely know the fact that they once existed 1.
The nature of teachings of Basilides is variously represented by an
cient writers ; the Basilides of Irenseus 2 seems to be a dualist and
an emanationist, while, according to Hippolytus 3, he seems to be an
evolutionist and a pantheist. In order to reconcile these descriptions
of the Basilidian system it is customary to admit two phases of the
same: a primitive form and a later transformation. It still remains
doubtful whether the prior stage of the heresy were that set forth
by Irenaeus or the one described by Hippolytus. Salmon and
Stahelin have recently maintained that, in his account of Basilides,
Hippolytus was deceived, as he was on other occasions (§ 54, 3),
by Gnostic forgeries ; but this hypothesis offers too violent a solution
of the problem. Isidore, degitimate son and disciple» of Basilides 4,
left at least three works. Their titles, according to Clement of
Alexandria , were : On an adherent soul 5 (rcspi TrpocrpuouQ fiufflQ 5
Isidore distinguished between a rational and an « appended » soul);
Ethica (ijfttxd) 6 , perhaps identical with the xapaweTixd that Epi-
phanius attributes to him7, and an Exposition of the prophet Parchor8
(iqr^Ttxa TOO xpoyyTou Ilapywp). Parchor was one of the prophets
invented by Basilides and invoked as authorities. Agrippa Castor
(1. c.) says that he deliberately chose barbarian names for them.
The fragments of the works of Basilides and Isidore are collected in
Grabe (see p. 73, Oxford, 1699), ii. 35 — 43, 64 — 68; Massuet (see p. 73)
pp. 349 ff . , 351 ff . ; Stieren 1. c. , pp. 901 flf . , 907 ff . ; Hilgenfeld 1. c.,
pp. 207 ff . \ 213 ff. They have received special attention from the latter
and from Th. Zahn , Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (1888 — 1889),
i. 763 — 774. J. Kennedy, Buddhist Gnosticism. The System of Basilides,
London, 1902. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
3. THE OPHITES OR « GNOSTICS*. The Ophites, or « Brethren of
the Serpent», were the first to take the name of Gnostics (fvcoartxoi).
Even in the second century they had branched out quite extensively.
Some were frankly antinomian in their principles , committed the
gravest excesses, and indulged in abominable orgies, while others
embraced, theoretically at least, Encratite doctrines. The ancient heresio-
logists are unanimous in declaring that several of these sects had them
selves composed, or used and esteemed highly, very many works,
chiefly apocryphal, but current under the name of biblical characters.
St. Irenaeus made use of several such writings for his account of
ancient heresies ; but he mentions the name of only one — the Gospel
of Judas, a book of the Cainites9. Hippolytus is wont to indicate more
1 Fragm. Murat., c. fin. ; Orig. in Job xxi. 1 1 sq.
2 Adv. haer., i. 24, 3 — 7, etc. 3 Philos., vii. 20 — 27; al.
4 Ib., vii. 20. 5 Clem. AL, Strom., ii. 20, 113. 6 Ib., iii. i, 2.
7 Haer., 32, 3. * Clem. Al. 1. c., vi. 6, 53.
9 Adv. haer., i. 31, i.
§ 25. GNOSTIC LITERATURE. 75
particularly the sources of his narrative, and Epiphanius has preserved
the titles of a long series of Ophitic writings. In recent times some
Ophitic works of Encratite tendencies have been discovered in Coptic
translations. The Pistis Sophia, edited in 1851 by Schwartze and
Petermann from a fifth or sixth century Coptic codex (Askewianus)
in the British Museum, is a specimen of such heretical literature. It
relates, in the form of a conversation between the risen Saviour and
his male and female disciples, among whom Mary Magdalen is pro
minent, the fall and the redemption of Pistis Sophia, a being from
the world of the ./Eons. The vicissitudes of her story prefigure the
way of purification for mankind through penance. Numerous psalms
(odes) are scattered through the text; apart from five « Solomonic »
psalms, that are placed on a level with the psalms of David, they
seem to be the work of the author. In its present form the Pistis
Sophia is made up of four books, and was very probably put
together in the second half of the third century, in Egypt. It was
formerly erroneously attributed to Valentine (see p. 76) or to some
later member of his school. At present the first three books are
by many identified with the « Little Questions of Mary» (epwr^ffsn;
Mapiaq fuxpai) that Epiphanius quotes1 as a book of the «Gnostics»;
the fourth book is apparently of an earlier date. A Coptic papyrus-
codex of Oxford (Brucianus), belonging to the fifth or sixth century,
has saved from loss two Ophite works. Their content was made known
in 1891 by Amelineau, and in 1892 by Schmidt. In the larger one
our Lord expounds to his male and female disciple certain cosmogonic
speculations and gives them theologico-practical instructions. In the
smaller one he illustrates the origin and evolution of the world. The
text of both codices, however, is disfigured by gaps and breaks.
According to Schmidt, the larger codex was written among the
Severians 2, about the middle of the third century, and is identical
with the two « Books of Jeu» cited in Pistis Sophia*. The smaller
one appears to be of very remote antiquity, and is held by Schmidt
to be a book of the Sethians or Archontici4 written about the
middle of the second century. His arguments, however, are open to
objections. — A Coptic papyrus of the fifth (?) century, acquired in 1896
for the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, includes three fragments of Gnostic
origin. They are, according to the provisory description of Schmidt:
a « Gospel according to Mary» (sdaffehov xara j\lo.ptdfj., with the sub
title: axoxpixpov 'Icodwou, containing mostly revelations to John); a
« Wisdom of Jesus Christ* (oo<pia "Ir^aolj Xptarou , revelations of our
Lord after His death); and an «Act of Peter» (xpastQ IHrpou, a
miraculous healing of Peter's own daughter). St. Irenaeus seems
1 Haer., 26, 8. 2 Epiph., Haer., 45.
3 Ed. Sch-warlze and Petermann, p. 245 sq., 354.
4 Epiph., 1. c., 39 — 40.
76 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
to have known and used the « Gospel according to Mary», in his
description of the Barbelo-Gnostics 1 ; a clearer knowledge will be pos
sible only when the text is published.
Pistis Sophia. Opus gnostictim Valentino adiudicatum e codice manu-
scripto Coptico Londinensi descripsit et latine vertit M. G. Schwartze. Edidit
y. H. Petermann, Berlin, 1851. K. R. Kostlin, Das gnostische System des
Buches Pistis Sophia, in Theol. Jahrbiicher (1854), xiii. i — 104, 137 — 196.
Ad. Harnack, Uber das gnostische Buch Pistis Sophia, in Texte und Unter-
suchungen (1891), vii. 2, i — 114. Cf. also the writings of Schmidt (mentioned
below) on the Papyrus Brucianus. The edition and translation of this codex
by AnUlineau (Paris, 1891) was not a success; the same may be said of
his Comptes-rendus concerning the contents of the codex. E. Andersson,
Compte-rendu critique: Amelineau: fhVn? 2ocpta, ouvrage gnostique de
Valentin, traduit du copte en franc, ais, in Sphinx, 1904, pp. 237 — 253.
The editio princeps is, we may remark, that of C. Schmidt, Gnostische
Schriften in koptischer Sprache, aus dem codex Brucianus herausgegeben,
iibersetzt nnd bearbeitet (Texte und Untersuchungen, viii. i — 2), Leipzig, 1892.
Cf. Schmidt, in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1894), xxxvii. 555 — 585.
For the Berlin papyrus cf. C. Schmidt , Ein vorirenaisches gnostisches
Originalwerk in koptischer Sprache , in Sitzungsberichte der kgl. preuft.
Akad. der Wissensch., Berlin, 1896, pp. 839 — 847.
C. Schmidt, Koptisch-gnostische Schriften: I. Die Pistis Sophia; II. Die
beiden Biicher des Jeu; III. Unbekanntes altgnostisches Werk, Berlin, 1905.
(Griechisch-christliche Schriftsteller.) For an English translation of Pistis
Sophia, made from the German of C. Schmidt 3 see E. R. S. Mead, Frag
ments of a Faith Forgotten, London and Benares, 1900, pp. 459 — 479;
cf. ib. pp. 605 — 630, a full bibliography of works on Gnosticism.
4. CARPOCRATIANS. — The followers of Carpocrates of Alexandria 2
consigned to various works their peculiar «Gnosis» which was closely
related to that of the antinomian group of the Ophites. Clement of
Alexandria furnishes some particulars concerning one of these works 3.
He tells us that about the middle of the second century Epiphanes,
son of Carpocrates, though only seventeen years of age, wrote a work
«On justice» (nept dtxatoavvyq) in which, as is evident from the cita
tions of Clement, he advocated a thorough communism, even of women.
U. Benigni, I socialisti alessandrini del II. secolo, in Bessarione (1896
to 1897), i. 597 — 601.
5. VALENTINE AND VALENTINIANS. -- Valentine is held to be the
most intellectual champion of the hellenizing Gnosis, which followed
in the footsteps of Plato and taught a parallelism between the ideal
world above (ittyp&fjiaj and the lower world of phenomena (xlvw/jta,
botipyfjLa) . The connecting link is the xdrco ao<pia or Achamoth,
a being fallen from the avto aowia , last of the /Eons, into the
visible world. At the moment of his baptism the /Eon Soter (or Jesus)
descended upon the Christ who had been promised and sent by the
Demiurge or World-Creator. Valentine was an Egyptian and had been
1 Adv. haer., i. 29. 2 Ib., i. 25, 4 5. 3 Strom., iii. 2, 5—9.
§ 25. GNOSTIC LITERATURE. JJ
initiated into Greek science at Alexandria. From 135 to 160 (approxima
tely) he sojourned at Rome, and there took place his final apostasy
from the Church. Wounded in his pride at being an unsuccessful can
didate for the papacy, in revenge he took up the role of an arch-
heretic. The date of his death is uncertain. Clement of Alexandria has
preserved some fragments of his Letters and Homilies l. Hippolytus 2
has saved a remnant of the Psalms of Valentine 3. The Sophia
Valentini in Tertullian 4 is not a work of this Gnostic, but rather his
/Eon Sophia. According to Irenaeus, the Valentinians made use of a
« Gospel of Truth », which had nothing in common with the canonical
Gospels5. - - During his life, apparently, the school of Valentine
divided into two branches: known respectively as the Italian or
Western and the Eastern branch. The Italici declared the body of
the Saviour to be of a psychic character, while the Easterns main
tained that is was pneumatic. The principal writers of the Italian
school were Heracleon and Ptolemy, both personal disciples of Valen
tine. Heracleon composed a Commentary on St. John, from which
Origen, in his Commentary on that evangelist, has taken about fifty
citations, partly verbal and partly paraphrased. Two other exegetical
passages of Heracleon are cited by Clement of Alexandria6. As a rule
the exegesis of Heracleon is not only very arbitrary, but also absurd.
Some extracts from Ptolemy are found in Irenaeus 7, including an ex
position of the prologue of the Gospel of John. We owe to Epi-
phanius 8 the preservation of the complete text of a Letter of Ptolemy
to Flora, a Christian lady, in which he undertakes to prove that the
Law of the Old Testament was the work not of the Supreme God,
but of the World-Creator or Demiurge. The Syriac fragment of a
Letter of St. Irenaeus to Pope Victor exhibits a certain Florinus,
at one time a priest of the Roman Church, in the character of a
Christian writer (cf. § 34, 4). The chief literary remains of the
Eastern branch of the Valentinians are the Excerpta ex scriptis
Theodoti : ex TCUV Osodoroo xal TTJQ dvarohxrjQ xaAouuevyQ dtdavxaXiac,
xara robe, O&afavrfoou ypovo'jQ imrofiai. They have come down
under the name of Clement of Alexandria, and are an account of
the teachings of the Oriental Valentinians, together with excerpts
from the writings of an otherwise unknown Theodotus and some
anonymous Valentinians.
The fragments of the writings of Valentine may be seen in Grabe
1. c., ii. 43—58; Massuct 1. c., pp. 352— 355; Stieren 1. c., pp. 909—916;
1 Strom., ii. 8, 36; iv. 13, 896".; al. 2 Philos., vi. 37.
3 Terl., De came Christi, c. 17, 20; al. 4 Adv. Valent., c. 2.
5 Veritatis evangelium, in nihilo conveniens apostolorum evangeliis : Adv. haer..
iii. 1 1, 9.
6 Strom., iv. 9, 70 ff. ; Eclog. proph., c. 25. 7 Adv. haer., i. 1—8, 5.
8 Haer., 33, 5—7.
78 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Hilgenfeld 1. c., pp. 292 — 307. The fragments of Heracleon are in Grabe,
pp. 80 — 117, 236; Massuct, pp. 362 — 376; Stieren, pp. 936 — 971 ; Hilgenfeld,
pp. 472 — 505; cf. A. E. Brooke, The Fragments of Heracleon (Texts and
Studies, i. 4), Cambridge, 1891. On Heracleon see G. Salmon, in Diet, of
Christian Biography, London, 1880, ii. 897 — 900. The Letter of Ptolemy to
Flora is in Grabe, pp. 68—80; Massitet, pp. 357 — 361; Stieren, pp. 922 — 936;
Hilgenfeld, in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1881), xxiv. 214 — 230; cf.
Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzergesch. des Urchristentums, p. 346, note 580. An
unsuccessful attempt was made by Stieren to disprove the authenticity and
the unity of the Letter of Ptolemy to Flora. A. Stieren, De Ptolemaei Valen-
tiniani ad Floram epistola, Part. I, Jenae, 1843. Cf. Ad. Harnack , Der
Brief des Ptolemaus an die Flora. Eine relig. Kritik am Pentateuch im
2. Jahrhundert, in Sitzungsberichte der kgl. preuft. Akad. der Wissensch.,
Berlin, 1902, pp. 507 — 545. G. Heinrid, Die valentinianische Gnosis und
die Heilige Schrift, Berlin, 1871; Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons,
i. 718 — 763: «Der Schriftgebrauch in der Schule Valentins» ; cf. ii. 953 — 961;
F. Torm, Valentinianismen, historic og laere, Copenhagen, 1901 ; G. Mer-
cati , Note di litteratura biblica e cristiana antica (Studi e Testi, Rome,
1901), v. 88 sq. In this work is cited from a certain Anthimus a passage
of an otherwise unknown work of Valentine (-spl TU>V Tpioiv cpujcwv).
6. BARDESANES AND HARMONIUS. According to Oriental writers
the Syrian Bardesanes (Bar Daisan) was born of noble parents at
Edessa, July ii., 154, proclaimed himself founder of a new religion
1 80 — 190, fled to Armenia in 216 or 217, after the conquest of
Edessa by Caracalla, returned later to his native land and died there
222 — 223. He was originally a Valentinian of the Eastern type,
but soon developed a religious system of his own that is rightly
looked on as a foreshadowing of Manichaeism. Certain hymns of
Ephraem Syrus show that Bardesanes devoted himself particularly
to astrological and cosmogonic speculations *, and that he maintained
against Marcion (see p. 79) the unity of God ; \vhile at the same time
he introduced a plurality of gods. His son Harmonius, according to
Sozomen2, added to the teachings of his father the opinions of
Greek philosophers concerning the soul, the origin and end of the
body, and the second birth. Ephraem Syrus relates 3 that Bardesanes
wrote 150 Psalms and composed the melodies for the same, but
Sozomen (1. c.) says that Harmonius was the parent of Syriac hymno-
logy. Probably the latter collected and edited his father's poetical
works, and added thereto something of his own. It is possible that
some fragments of the Psalms of Bardesanes are yet to be seen in
the poetical remnants of the apocryphal «Acts of Saint Thomas »
(cf. § 30, 8). Polemical and apologetic works of Bardesanes were
known to Eusebius, Epiphanius, and Theodoret4. The polemical
works were dialogues, written against Marcion, and were translated
from Syriac into Greek. The dialogue «On (or Against) Fate» (xep}
or y.a-ca eipapfiivyq) is mentioned by the three Greek writers just
1 Serm. adv. haer., i — 56. 2 Hist, eccl., iii. 16. 3 L. c., sermo 53.
4 Ens., Hist, eccl., iv. 30. Epiph., Haer., 56, i. Theodor., Haeret. fab. comp. i. 22.
§ 25. GNOSTIC LITERATURE. 79
quoted; Eusebius took from it1 two long passages. It is yet ex
tant in Syriac under the title «Book of the Laws of the Countries».
In this work Bardesanes, the chief interlocutor, proves that the
peculiar characters of men are not affected by the position of the
stars at their birth, since various countries have the same laws,
customs, and usages. However, the dialogue does not pretend to be
written by Bardesanes, but by his disciple Philip. In later Oriental
works we meet mention of other books of Bardesanes. Moses of
Chorene2 attributes to him a history of the kings of Armenia. Ibn
Abi Jakub, in his literary history known as «Fihrist», attributes to
Bardesanes a work on light and darkness , another on the spiritual
nature of truth, and a third on the movable and the immovable.
A. Merx, Bardesanes von Edessa, nebst einer Untersuchung liber das
Verhaltnis der clementinischen Rekognitionen zu dem Buche der Gesetze
der Lander, Halle, 1863. A. Hilgenfeld, Bardesanes, der letzte Gnostiker,
Leipzig, 1864. Cf. also the articles of F. J. A. ffort, in the Dictionary
of Christ. Biography, i. 250 — 260, of J. M. Schonf elder , in the Kirchen-
lexikon of Wetzer and Welte, 2. ed., i. 1995 — 2002, and of G. Kriiger, in
the Realenzykl. fur prot. Theol. und Kirche, ii. 400 — 403. For the «Book
of the Laws of Countries » (Syriac and English), cf. W. Cureton, Spicilegium
Syriacum, Lond., 1855, pp. i — 21, 21 — 34. There is a German translation
in Merx 1. c., pp. 25 — 55. It has also been translated from Syriac into
French by F. Nau , Bardesanes, astrologue, Le livre des lois des pays,
Paris, 1899.
7. MARCION AND APELLES. Marcion was the son of a bishop of
Sinope in Pontus. About the year 140 he appeared in Rome as a
wealthy navigator. Though he had been excommunicated by his father
for licentious conduct, he managed to secure a reception among the
Christians of that city. A few years later (about 144), he was no
longer in communion with the authorities of the Roman church, and
was bent on founding a church under his own auspices. Owing to
his success in this undertaking, the Pontic skipper affected both his
contemporaries and posterity more profoundly than any heresiarch of
the second century. Beginning with a strict adherence to the Syrian
Gnostic Cerdon, then resident at Rome, he excogitated a doctrinal
system based upon the irreconcilability of justice and grace, the law
and the gospel, Judaism and Christianity. Because of this irrecon
cilable antithesis, two principles must be admitted, both eternal and
uncreated, a good God and a just but wicked God; the latter is
the Creator of this world3. Moreover, not only should we reject
the Old Testament as promulgated by the just and wicked God,
but we must look on the New Testament as corrupted by the
primitive apostles, who interpolated it with their Jewish ideas. Only
Paul, the enemy of Judaism, and his disciple Luke, were faithful
interpreters of the teachings of the Lord. Consequently, Marcion
1 Praep. evang., vi. 10. 2 Hist. Arm., ii. 66. 3 Tert., Adv. Marc., i. 6.
8O FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
gave to his disciples a new Sacred Scripture in two parts: an
stiaffsAioy and an d.noaro)dy.ov. This Marcionite «Evangelium» was
a mutilated and variously disfigured production. The «Apostolicum»
included ten manipulated letters of St. Paul: Galatians, First and Second
Corinthians, Romans, First and Second Thessalonians, Laodiceans =
Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon. With the aid of
several opponents of Marcion it is possible to reconstruct in large
measure the original text of this Marcionite Bible1, which enjoyed
canonical authority among the followers of the sect. Ephraem Syrus
is witness to a Syriac version of it; by the time of Tertullian it had
already been frequently « reform ed » 2. To justify his recension of the
Bible, Marcion composed a large work known as Antitheses (dvn-
MOSIQ) in which he arranged, in parallel columns, sentences of the
Old and the New Testament, and from their pretended antilogies con
cluded that the two component parts of the Bible of the Church were
irreconcilable. «Hae sunt», says Tertullian, « antitheses Marcionis, id
est contrariae oppositiones , quae conantur discordiam evangelii cum
lege committere, ut ex diversitate sententiarum instrumenti diversi-
tatem quoque argumententur deorum» 3. According to other state
ments of Tertullian and of Ephraem Syrus the work of Marcion con
tained not only an exposition of the principles of Marcionitic Chris
tianity, but also a more or less detailed commentary on his own
Bible. It seems that Marcion discussed in a Letter the reason of
his abandonment of the Church4. - - Among his disciples Apelles
was prominent as a writer. He turned from the dualism of Marcion
to a certain monism, maintaining that the World-Creator was himself
created by the good God. In his «Syllogisms» fffMo^iff/Jiol) he
undertook to prove that in the books of Moses there was nothing
but lies; hence they could not have God as their author. It was
an extensive work, as may be imagined from the fact that the
criticism of the biblical account of the fall of the first man was
found in its thirty-eighth book5. In his « Manifestations » (tpavs--
POMJ&Q) Apelles described the pretended revelations of Philumena, a
Roman female visionary6. The « Gospel of Apelles» first mentioned
by Jerome 7 was probably nothing more than a later elaboration or
a new recension of the Gospel of Marcion.
A. Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzergeschichte des Urchristentums, Leipzig, 1884,
pp. 316 — 341: «Cerdon und Marcion »; pp. 522 — 543: «Marcion und Ap-
pelles». A. Harnack, De Appellis gnosi monarchica, Leipzig, 1874. H. U.
Meyboom, Marcion en de Marcionieten, Leyden, 1888. For earlier tenta-
1 Especially Tert., 1. c., v. Epiph., Haer., 42, and the author of Dialog. Adamantii
de recta in Deum fide.
2 Tert., 1. c., iv. 5; cf. De praescr. haeret., c. 42. 3 Adv. Marc., i. 19.
4 Tert., 1. c., i. I ; iv. 4 ; De came Christi, c. 2. 5 Ambros., De parad., v. 28.
6 Tert., De praescr. haeret., c. 30 ; De carne Christi, c. 6 ; al.
7 Comm. in Matth., prol.
§ 26. THE JUDAISTIC LITERATURE. 8 1
tive reconstructions of the Gospel of Marcion cf. A.Hahn, 1823 and 1832;
Hilgenfeld, 1850; G. Volckmar, 1852; also the work of W. C. van Manen
(1887) on the reconstruction of Galatians according to Marcion. All such efforts
are more or less antiquated since the work of Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl.
Kanons, ii. 409 — 529, «Marcions Neues Testament» (an essay in text-
reconstruction); cf. ib. , i. 587 — 718, a criticism of the Bible of Marcion.
A. Hahn, Antitheses Marcionis gnostici, liber deperditus, nunc quoad eius fieri
potuit restitutus, Konigsberg, 1823. A. Harnack, Sieben neue Bruchstiicke
der Syllogismen des Apelles (from Ambros., De parad., vi. 30—32; vii. 35;
viii. 38, 40, 41), in Texte und Untersuchungen (1890), vi. 3, in — 120; cf.
Harnack, ib., xx.; new series (1900), v. 3, 93 — 100. F. J. J. Jackson,
Christian Difficulties in the Second and Twentieth Centuries. Study of
Marcion and his relation to modern thought, London, 1903. See G. Salmon,
Marcion, in Diet, of Christian Biography, London, 1880, iii. 817 — 824.
8. THE ENCRATITES. These heretics rejected as sinful both ma
trimony and the use of meat and wine. The chief spokesmen of their
doctrines in the second century were Tatian (§ 18) and Julius Cas-
sianus. About the year 170 the latter published at least two works:
one entitled Ifyrynxd in several books1, and the other «On con
tinence or celibacy» (x£pi lyxparzcaQ rj its pi ZLtvo'jyiaq) 2.
Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzergesch. des Urchristentums, pp. 546 — 549. Zahn,
Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, ii. 632 — 636, 750.
§ 26. The Judaistic Literature.
1. THE EBIONITES. The heretical group known as Ebionites saw
in Jesus a son of Joseph, and denied His birth of the Blessed
Virgin and the Holy Ghost3. Several of their authoritative books
are mentioned by Epiphanius4, among others «the so-called Journeys
of Peter » (see below) and the Gospel of the Ebionites (§ 29, 3).
Toward the end of the second century the Ebionite Symmachus,
known also for his translation of the Old Testament into Greek,
wrote an exegetical work in which he attacked the Gospel of
St. Matthew 5. It is supposed that this work is identical with that
known to the Syrian writer Ebed Jesu (f 1318) as Liber Symmachi
de distinctione praeceptorum.
G. Mercati, L' eta di Simmaco 1' interprete e S. Epifanio, Modena, 1892.
2. THE ELKESAITES. These heretics, known also as Sampsaei,
professed an odd mixture of Judaism, Christianity and Heathenism.
Epiphanius tells us 6 that they possessed two symbolic books, one
under the name of Elxai, founder of the sect, and another under
the name of his brother Jexai. Both Epiphanius7 and Hippolytus8
quote several passages from the Book of Elxai. The date of its
1 Clem. Al., Strom., i. 21, 101 ; cf. Hier., Comm. in Gal. ad vi. 1 8.
2 Clem. Al., Strom., iii. 13, 91—92.
3 Iren., Adv. haer., iii. 21, I ; v. I, 3. 4 Haer. 30.
5 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 17; cf. Hier., De viris illustr., c. 54.
6 Haer. 53, i. 7 Haer. 19, I ff . ; 53, i. 8 Philos., ix. 13 — 17.
BARDKNHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 6
82 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
composition would be about the year 100, according to Hilgen-
feld ; others locate it, more accurately, about the year 200.
The fragments of the Book of Elxai are collected in Hilgenfeld, Novum
Testamentum extra canonem rec., 2. ed., Leipzig, 1881, fasc. iii. 227 — 240;
cf. Id., Judentum und Judenchristentum, Leipzig, 1886, pp. 103 ff.
3. THE SO-CALLED CLEMENTINES (CLEMENTINE LITERATURE).
Under this title (KtyfiivTia) are usually collected certain writings
that treat of the life of St. Clement of Rome, and pretend to have
been written by him. They are the Recognitions of Clement, the
Homilies, and two Letters. The ten books of the Recognitions are
no longer extant in the original Greek, but only in a Latin version
made by Rufinus of Aquileia, and in a Syriac revision. According
to the Latin version Clement was much troubled in his youth by
doubts concerning the immortality of the soul, the origin of the
world, and similar matters. Hearing that the Son of God had
appeared in Judaea he made a journey to the East, where he met
the Apostle Peter, from whom he received the desired enlightenment.
Thereupon he became his disciple and accompanied him on his
journeys. At Caesarea he was witness to the dispute of St. Peter
with Simon Magus (Recog. ii. 20 — iii. 48). Somewhat later, Cle
ment made known to the Apostle the circumstances of his early life.
When he was five years of age, his mother, Matthidia, a relative of
the Emperor, had fled from Rome as the result of a dream, taking
with her his two elder brothers, the twins Faustinus and Faustus.
They were sought for in vain ; indeed, his father Faustinianus never
returned from the toilsome and fruitless journey he undertook in search
of wife and children (vii. 8— 10). But the long separated family was
now to be re-united. During an excursion from Antharadus to the
island of Aradus, St. Peter discovered in a beggar woman the mother
of his disciple. Two other disciples and companions of the Apostle
made themselves known as Faustinus and Faustus, the brothers of
Clement. Finally the father Faustinianus was discovered by St. Peter.
It is to this happy ending of the story that the work owes its
peculiar title: Recognitiones = dvcrfvcoaeu;, dvafvwptffjuol. It was also
known to antiquity by other titles, among them Uspiodot Uirpou or
A/^ucvrtfC, Itinerarium, Historia, Gesta Clementis. The chief scope
of the work, however, was not the story of the vicissitudes of
St. Clement, but rather the recommendation of certain teachings of
St. Peter that are interwoven with the narrative. The book is really
a religious romance. In the Latin version the didactic exposition of
the original is reproduced in a very incomplete way. In a preliminary
remark Rufinus says that there were current two recensions of the
Greek text (in graeco eiusdem operis dvaYvwaecov, hoc est recogni-
tionum, duas editiones haberi), and that in both were found theological
§ 26. THE JUDAISTIC LITERATURE. 83
discussions (quaedam de ingenito Deo genitoque disserta et de aliis
nonnullis), that he had thought it proper to omit. By a second
recension of the workRufinus doubtless means the Homilies (bfiiXiat), the
Greek text of which we possess. They are twenty in number, and are
prefaced by two Letters of Peter and Clement, respectively, to James
of Jerusalem. In the first letter Peter requests James to keep rigorously
secret the discourses he has sent him (T&V IIJLOJV xypufjutdTcoV ac,
HnefA<l>d GOI JcfiAovQ, c. ij. In the second Clement informs James that
he had received episcopal consecration from Peter a little before the
latter's death. He had also been instructed to send to James a
lengthy report concerning his past life; he performs this duty by
sending him an extract of the discourses that Peter had already sent
to James. The work pretends therefore to have been sent to James
under the title of « Clement's Epitome of the Sermons made by Peter
during his journeys» (K^/JLSVTOQ rcov Ilirpoo iittdrjfiiwv xrjpi>YfJ.drwv
entropy, c. 20), a title that recalls at once the pretended «Journeys
of Peter written by Clement » (rale, neptodotg xaXoufiivatg IHrpoi> rale,
dta KATJ/JLSVTOG rpavsicraicj, which Epiphanius (Haer. 30, 15) tells us
was an Ebionite work. The story of Clement, as told in the Ho
milies, is again a cover for the doctrinal teaching of Peter. With
the exception of a few insignificant details (Horn. xii. 8) the story
tallies in all essentials with that related in the Recognitions. The
doctrinal ideas exhibit close conformity with those of the Elkesaites.
The heathen elements of the Elkesaite teaching are no longer ap
parent, but the essential identity of Christianity and Judaism is very
energetically maintained. It is the same prophet who revealed himself
in Adam,, Moses and Jesus. As it fell to Moses to restore the primitive
religion when obscured and disfigured by sin, so the new revelation
in Jesus had become necessary by reason of the gradual darkening
and alteration of the original Mosaic revelation (Horn. ii. 38 ff.).
Finally, the two Epitomes or Compendia omit the theological dis
cussions, recapitulate the narrative of the Homilies, and relate the
doings of St. Clement at Rome, together with his martyrdom. While
both Recognitions and Homilies certainly antedate the Epitomes, the
question of priority raised by the similarity of the subject matter
of the Recognitions and the Homilies is not an easy one. It has
been answered in so many contradictory ways, that there is an
urgent need for a new examination of the problem. Hilgenfeld
believes that the Recognitions are the earlier work, of which the
Homilies offer us an enlargement. Uhlhorn maintains the priority of
the Homilies, and Lehmann finds in the Recognitions two distinct
sections, the first of which (Book I — III) is older than the Homilies,
while the second (Book IV — X) is posterior to them. Langen
places the composition of the Homilies at Caesarea toward the end
of the second century, that of the Recognitions at Antioch about
6*
84 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
the beginning of the third century. Both works, however, he declares,
are merely revisions, or rather polemical refutations of a still earlier
work, written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 135, with the purpose
of establishing at Rome the supreme ecclesiastical primacy. While it
is likely enough that older writings have been embodied in the
Clementines, as we now read them, the hypothesis of a primitive
work of this character and tendency is both arbitrary and untenable.
On the other hand, it is probably true that, in their traditional shape,
the Clementines exhibit a Judaizing tendency, in so far as they desire
to see the primacy transferred from Peter (and Clement) to James,
from Rome to Jerusalem (or Caesarea and Antioch).
The first printed edition of the Recognitions from the Latin version of
Rufinus was published by J. Faber Stapulensis (Lefevre d'Estaples), Paris, 1504.
An improved text was published by Cotelerius, Patres aevi apostolici, i.,
Paris, 1672. For other editions cf. Schoenemann , Bibl. hist.-litt. Patrum
lat., i. 633 ff. The most recent is that of£. G. Gersdorf, Leipzig, 1838 (Bibl.
Patr. eccles. lat. sel., i; Migne, PG., i). dementis Romani Recognitiones
syriace P. A. de Lagarde edidit, Leipzig and London, 1861.
The Homilies were first edited by Cotelier (1. c.), but this edition did
not go beyond the middle of the nineteenth Homily, where the manuscript
ended from which the text was taken. Similarly the edition of A. Schwegler,
Stuttgart, 1847. The complete text is reproduced in Migne (PG., ii), from
the edition of A. R. M. Dressel, dementis Romani quae feruntur homiliae
viginti mine primum integrae, Gottingen, 1853. P. de Lagarde was the
first to publish (the Greek text without translation) an edition answering in
all essentials to modern requirements : Clementina, edited by P. de Lagarde,
Leipzig, 1865; the introduction (pp. 3 — 28) was reprinted by him in his
Mitteilungen, Gottingen, 1884, pp. 26 — 54. A remark of Lagarde's is worth
quoting: «I think we shall not make any substantial progress without a
proper and continuous commentary on the Clementine Recognitions and
Homilies» (Clementina, p. n). Rufinus' version of the Letter of Clement to
James, which even in the time of Rufinus was prefixed to the Recognitions,
was edited anew by 0. F. Fritzsche, Epistola dementis ad Jacobum (progr.),
Zurich, 1873. Dressel published both Epitomes: Clementinorum Epitome
duae, Leipzig, 1859. A. Hilgenfeld, Die clementinischen Rekognitionen und
Homilien, Jena, 1848. G. Uhlhorn, Die Homilien und Rekognitionen des
Clemens Romanus, Gottingen, 1854. J. Lehmann, Die clementinischen
Schriften, Gotha, 1869. G. Frommberger, De Simone Mago. Pars prima:
De origine Pseudo-Clementinoruni (Dissert, inaug.), Breslau, 1886. H. M.
Tan Nes, Het Nieuxve Testament in de Clementinen (Dissert, inaug.), Amster
dam, 1887. y. Langen, Die Clemensromane, Gotha, 1890. Cf. A. Brilll
in Theol. Quartalschr. (1891), Ixxiii. 577 — 601 ; C. Bigg, The Clementine
Homilies, in Studia biblica et ecclesiastica, Oxford, 1890, ii. 157 — 193;
F. Hort, Notes introductory to the study of the Clementine Recognitions,
London, 1901 ; J. Chapman, Origen and the Date of Pseudo-Clemens, in
Journal of Theol. Studies (1902), iii. 436—441 ; J. Franko, Beitrage aus
dem Kirchenslavischen zu den Apokryphen des Neuen Testaments. I: Zu
den Pseudo-Clementinen , in Zeitschr. fur die neutestamentl. Wissensch.
(1902), iii. 146—155. For another and a later Clementine apocryphal
writing cf. G. Mercati, Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana antica (Studi
e Testi, v), Rome, 1901, 80 — 81, 238 — 241. J. Bergmann, Les elements juifs
dans les pseudo-Clementines, in Revue des etudes juives, 1903, pp. 59 — 98.
§ 27. THE MONTANIST LITERATURE. § 28. THE NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA. 85
H. U. Meyboom , De Clemens-Roman. Part I: Synoptische Vertaling van
den Tekst, Groningen, 1902. Part II, Groningen, 1904. A. Hilgenfeld, Ori-
genes und Pseudo-Clemens, in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1903), xlvi.
342 — 351. Chapman (1. c., p. 441) places the Clementines in early part of the
fourth century; cf. Kellner, in Theol. Revue (1903), ii. 421— 422. H, Waitz,
Die Pseudo-Clementinen, Homilien und Rekognitionen. Eine quellenkritische
Untersuchung (Texte und Untersuchungen [Leipzig 1904], x. 4). A. Hilgen-
feld, Pseudo- Clemens in moderner Fac,on, in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl.
Theol., 1904, pp. 545 — 567. A. C. Headlam, The Clementine Literature, in
Journal of Theol. Studies (1901), iii. 41 — 58. F. H. Chase, The Clementine
Literature, in Hastings' Diet, of the Bible (1900), art. «Peter», p. 775.
§ 27. The Montanist Literature.
Montanism arose in Phrygia and called itself « the new prophecy »,
the completion of the revelation made by God to man. In their
ecstatic exaltation or delirium Montanus and his female companions,
Priscilla (Prisca) and Maximilla, pretended to be the organs of the
Paraclete ; they were to be its voice, not so much for the communi
cation of new truths of faith as for new and higher demands upon
Christian life. Certain collections of oracles of the prophetic tri-
folium -- « countless books », says Hippolytus 1 - - were held by the
Montanists as equal in authority to the books of biblical revelation.
They were held to be «new Scriptures », says the Roman priest
Gains 2. They had also for use in their meetings new spiritual
chants or Psalms 3. The work of the Montanist writer Asterius Ur-
banus, cited4 by an anonymous Antimontanist in 192 — 193, was
probably a collection of oracular replies. The Antimontanist work
of the apologist Miltiades (§ 19, i) gave his opponents an occasion
to reply5. Themison, prominent among the Montanists of Phrygia,
«imitated the Apostle and wrote a Catholic Letter, i. e. addressed to
all Christians » 6. Early in the third century a certain Proclus wrote in
defence of Montanism at Rome 7. The most brilliant convert to the
«new prophecy » was Tertullian of Carthage (§ 50).
G. N. Bonwetsch, Die Geschichte des Montanismus, Erlangen, 1881.
A. Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzergeschichte des Urchristentums , Leipzig, 1884,
pp. 560—601 : «Die Kataphryger». Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch.
des neutestamentl. Kanons und der altkirchl. Literatur, Erlangen and Leipzig,
l893; v- 3 — 57 : «Die Chronologic des Montanismus*.
§ 28. The New Testament Apocrypha.
I. GENERAL NOTIONS. The term, New Testament Apocrypha,
is given to a widely ramified class of writings that imitate those
1 Philos., viii. 19. 2 Apud Ens., Hist, eccl., vi. 20, 3.
3 Tert., Adv. Marc., v. 8; De anima, c. 9.
4 Eus., Hist, eccl., v. 16, 17. 5 Ih., v. 17, i.
6 Apollonius apud Eus., \. c., v. 18, 5.
7 Gaius apud Eus., \. c., iii. 31, 4.
86 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
of the New Testament. The subject-matter is the same, and usually
these works are attributed to the authors of the New Testament.
In view of their form and plan they may be divided like the canon
ical Scriptures into Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Letters of the
Apostles, and Apocalypses. In origin and tendency they are partly
works of heretical and partisan authors, and partly works of edi
fication written with good intentions. Indeed, the silence of the New
Testament concerning the youth of our Lord, the life of His Mother,
and the later history of the Apostles, seemed especially destined to
excite pious imaginations ; in this way sprang up about the trunk of
the historico-canonical Scriptures a wild and luxurious vegetation of
legends. But the majority of the Apocrypha, especially the Gospels
and Acts of the Apostles, were written for the purpose of propagating
the doctrines of some particular heresy. Among the Gnostics especially
this kind of literature spread with almost unearthly rapidity. All
those Apocrypha that affect more or less an historical form are
characterized especially, from a literary point of view, by a certain
weirdness, extravagance and absurdity. It has been often and rightly
remarked that the relations of the apocryphal historiography to
the historical books of the New Testament are such as to bring
out very clearly the purity and truth of the canonical narratives.
Withal, the apocryphal legends and romances have played a pro
minent role in history. Their subject-matter was very attractive;
hence in many lands they furnished the material for pious reading
or conversation, and were in a way the spiritual nourishment of the
people. Not only did harmless legends meet with acceptance and
approval, but several distinctly heretical works, revised and stripped
of their errors, continued to affect Christian thought long after the
disappearance of their original circle of readers.
The most important of the older collections of New Testament Apo
crypha is that of the well-known literary historian y. A. Fabridus , Codex
apocryphus Novi Testament!, 2 voll., Hamburg, 1703—1719. The first
volume was reprinted in 1719, the second in 1743. J. C. Thilo planned
as his life-work a complete critical collection ; apart from separate editions
of several apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, he prepared only the first
volume of his projected work ; it offers an entirely new, and in every way
admirable, recension of many apocryphal Gospels : Codex apocryphus Novi
Testament!, Leipzig, 1832, i. A work of much less value is the edition
brought out by W. Giles , containing chiefly apocryphal Gospels : Codex
apocryphus Novi Testament!, 2 voll., London, 1853. Since then there
have appeared only collective editions of specific groups of New Testament
Apocrypha, Gospels, Acts, etc. (cf. pp. 87 ff.). H. Hilgenfeld , Novum
Testamentum extra canonem receptum, fasc. iv, Leipzig, 1866, 2. ed., 1884.
M. Rh. James, Apocrypha anecdota, Cambridge, 1893 (Texts and Studies,
ii. 3). Id., Apocrypha anecdota, 2. series, Cambridge, 1897 (Texts and
Studies, v. i). P. Lacan , Fragments d'Apocryphes coptes de la Biblio-
theque Nationale, publics dans les Memoires de la Mission franchise
d'archeologie orientale, Le Caire, 1904.
§ 28. THE NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA. 8 7
The editions of the Syriac Apocrypha of the New Testament are in
dicated by E. Nestle, in his Syrische Grammatik , 2. ed., Berlin, 1888,
Litteratura, 27 ff . ; cf. Nestle, in Realencykl. fiir prot. Theol. und Kirche,
Leipzig, 3. ed., 1897, iii. 168. R. Duval, La litterature syriaque, Paris, 1899
(Biblioth. de 1'enseignement de 1'histoire ecclesiastique. Anciennes littera-
tures chretiennes, ii.), pp. 95 — 120, with corrections and additions, Paris,
1900, pp. 20 — 21. For the Apocrypha in Old-Slavonic cf. N. Bonwetsch
apud Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i. 902 — 917. For the Coptic
Apocrypha cf. C. Schmidt apud Harnack 1. c., i. 919 — 924. R. Basset, Les
Apocryphes ethiopiens traduits en franc, ais, Paris, 1893 ff. Cf. James, Apo
crypha anecd., 2. series, pp. 166 ff. Recent collections of versions: K. Fr.
Borberg, Bibliothek der neutestamentl. Apokryphen, Stuttgart, 1841, vol. i.
(the only volume printed). Migne, Dicdonnaire des Apocryphes, 2 voll., Paris,
1856—1858. -- Movers (Kaulen) , Apokryphen und Apokryphenliteratur,
in Kirchenlexikon of Wetzer and Welte, 2. ed., Freiburg, 1882, i. 1036 to
1084, a profoundly erudite study. R. Hofmann, Apokryphen des Neuen
Testamentes, in Realencykl. fur prot. Theol. und Kirche, Leipzig, 3. ed., 1896,
i. 653 — 670. H. J. Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der hist.-krit. Einleitung in das
Neue Testament, 2. ed., Freiburg, 1886, pp. 534 — 554: «Die neutestament-
lichen Apokryphen ». E. Preuschen, Die Reste der aufterkanonischen Evan-
gelien und urchristlichen Uberlieferungen, Gieften, 1901. B. Pick, The
Extra-Canonical Life of Christ, New York, 1903. James de Quincy Donehoo,
The Apocryphal and Legendary Life of Christ, New York, 1903. E. H.
Chase, Encyclopedia Biblica.
2. APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. By far the greater part of the Apo
cryphal Gospels that have been preserved, or are in any way known
to us, were written in the first three centuries by Gnostics, with the
purpose of lending an apostolic sanction to their doctrines. Not a
few of these works enjoyed in particular Gnostic sects or group of
sects an authority identical with or similar to that of the canonical
Gospels in the Catholic Church. We have mentioned the Diatessaron
ofTatian (§ 18, 3), the Gospel of Basilides (§ 25, 2), the Valentinian
Gospel of the Truth (§ 25, 5), the Gospel of Marcion and Apelles
(§ 25, 7) etc., and shall have occasion to mention others. If we
look at the structure and content of the apocryphal gospels we see
that some are based on the canonical books whose material they
develop under the influence of their own doctrines; others invent their
stories quite freely. The latter treat of the youth of our Lord or of
His actions after the Resurrection. As early as the time of St. Irenaeus,
the Gnostics were wont to lament the silence of the Gospels about
the life of Jesus Christ before His Baptism and after His Resurrection ;
they also relate that, after the latter, He spent eighteen months on
earth in order to initiate more profoundly some privileged disciples
in the mysteries of His teaching *. The Gospel according to the
Hebrews, and the Ebionite Gospel, belong to other heretical or
sectarian communities; the Protevangelium Jacobi is the product of
ecclesiastical circles.
1 Adv. haer., i. 30, 14; cf. i. 3, 2.
88 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Evangelia apocrypha, edidit C. Tischendorf, Leipzig, 1853, 2. ed.,
1876. F. Robinson, Coptic Apocryphal Gospels, Cambridge, 1896 (Texts
and Studies, iv. 2). M. N. Speranskij , The Slavonic Apocryphal Gos
pels (Russian), Moscow, 1895. E. Preuschen , Antilegomena. Die Reste
der aufterkanonischen Evangelien und urchristlichen Uberlieferungen,
Gieften, 1901.
R. Clemens, Die geheim gehaltenen oder sog. apokryphischen Evange
lien, ins Deutsche iibertragen, Stuttgart, 1852. B. H. Cowper, The Apo
cryphal Gospels and other Documents relating to the history of Christ,
translated from the originals, 6. ed., London, 1897. C. Tischendorf, De
evangeliorum apocryphorum origine et usu, The Hague, 1891. R. A. Lipsius,
Apocryphal Gospels, in Diet, of Christ. Biogr. (London, 1880), ii. 700 — 717.
A. Tappchorn, Aufierbiblische Nachrichten oder die Apokryphen liber die
Geburt, Kindheit und das Lebensende Jesu und Maria, Paderborn, 1885.
Th. Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, Erlangen and Leipzig, 1892,
ii. 621 — 797: «Uber apokryphe Evangelien». J. G. Tasker, (art.) «Apo-
cryphal Gospels» in Hastings' Diet, of the Bible (extra vol.), 1904, pp. 420
to 438. Battifol, (art.) «Evangiles Apocryphes» in Vigour oux, Diet, de la
Bible. Tome II, col. 2114 — 2118.
3. APOCRYPHAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. The ancient traditions
concerning the lives and deaths of the Apostles were soon enriched,
for many reasons, with an abundance of fabulous tales ; according
as this narrative-material was committed to writing, there took place
a still stronger colouring of these stories. The Apocryphal Acts of
the Apostles are in reality religious romances. Some of them seek
merely to satisfy a pious curiosity. Most of them, however, under
the cover of marvellous and pleasure-giving tales, tend to create an
opening for heretical doctrines that are artfully insinuated in them.
In his commentary on the apocryphal Third Letter to the Corinthians,
Ephraem Syrus reproaches the followers of Bardesanes with having
changed the missionaries of the Lord into preachers of the impiety
of Bardesanes. Later, especially since the beginning of the fifth
century, a certain Leucius, or, as Photius writes it 1, Leucius Charinus,
is very often mentioned as the writer of heretical Acts of the Apostles,
especially of Acts of St. John. The earliest traces of this very
dubious personality are found in Epiphanius 2 and Pacianus 3. It is
probable that in the introduction to the Acts of John, which have
reached us only in a very fragmentary state, the author made himself
known as Leucius, a disciple of the Apostle. Probably the same
hand wrote the equally Gnostic Acts of Peter and perhaps the no
less Gnostic Acts of Andrew. Many Gnostic Acts were « worked
over» at a later date by Catholics, in such a way as to retain, with
more or less consistency, the tales about the journeys and miracles
of the Apostles, while the heretical discourses and teachings were
cut out. The original Gnostic texts have generally perished, while
the Catholic revisions of the same have been preserved, at least
1 Bibl. Cod. 114. 2 Haer. 51, 6.
3 Ep. i. ad Sympr., c. 2.
§ 28. THE NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA. 89
in fragments. Of the Acts of the Apostles written originally by
Catholics only a few remnants have reached our time.
Foremost and epoch-making among the works on the Apocryphal Acts
of the Apostles is that by R. A. Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten
und Apostellegenden, 2 voll., Braunschweig 1883 — 1890, with a supplemen
tary fascicule. Acta Apostolorum apocrypha, edidit C. Tischendorf, Leipzig,
1851. Cf. Additamenta ad Acta Apostolorum apocrypha in Tischendorf,
Apocalypses apocryphae, Leipzig, 1886, xlvii — 1. 137 — 167. Acta Aposto
lorum apocrypha, post C. Tischendorf denuo ediderunt R. A. Lipsius et
M. Bonnet. Pars prior, Leipzig, 1891. Partis alterius vol. i., 1898. Supple-
mentum codicis apocryphi i: Acta Thomae. Edidit M. Bonnet, Leipzig,
1883. Suppl. cod. apocr. ii: Acta Andreae. Ed. M. Bonnet, Paris, 1895.
For similar apocryphal material in Syriac, cf. W. Wright, Apocryphal
Acts of the Apostles, 2 voll., London, 1871. /. Guidi has edited (Rendi-
conti della Regia Accademia dei Lincei, 1887 — 1888) and translated into
Italian (Giornale della Societa Asiatica Italiana [1888], ii. r — 66) some
Coptic fragments of Acts of the Apostles. Other fragments were published
in 1890 by O. von Lemm. For further detail cf. Lipsius, Die apokryphen
Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden, Supplement, pp. 98 ff., 259 if.
Id., Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, in Diet, of Christ. Biogr., London,
1880, i. 17 — 32. S. C. Malan translated into English (1871) an Ethiopic
collection (from the Coptic through the Arabic) of Acts of the Apostles,
under the title « Conflicts of the Apostles». E. A. W. Budge began the
publication of the Ethiopic text with an English translation, vol. i, London,
1899, vol. ii (the last), 1901. A. v. Gutschmid , Die Konigsnamen in den
apokryphen Apostelgeschichten (Rhein. Museum fur Philol. , new series
[1864], xix. 161 — 183, 380 — 401, reprinted inKleine Schriften vonA. v. Gut
schmid, herausgeg. von Fr. Riihl, Leipzig, 1890, ii. 332 — 394. Zahn, Gesch.
des neutestamentl. Kanons (1892), ii. 2, 797 — 910: «Uber apokryphe Apo-
kalypsen und Apostelgeschichten ». Duchesne , Les anciens recueils des
legendes apostoliques (Compte rendu du III. Congres scientifique internat.
des Catholiques, section v (Bruxelles, 1895), pp. 67 — 79.
4. APOCRYPHAL LETTERS OF THE APOSTLES. In comparison with
the long series of Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, there are but few
similar documents in the shape of special Letters, unconnected with
larger works. During the first three or four centuries we come across
only a few Letters or Collections of Letters current under the name
of St. Paul. The apocryphal third Letter to the Corinthians, ori
ginally a part of the apocryphal Acta Pauli, enjoyed for a time
canonical authority in the churches of Syria and Armenia.
There is no special edition of all the Apocryphal Letters of the Apostles.
Cf. Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, ii. 2, 565 — 621: «Unechte
Paulusbriefe».
5. APOCRYPHAL APOCALYPSES. An Apocalypse of Peter has reached
us in fragments. It belongs to the first half of the second century;
all other apocryphal Apocalypses bearing New Testament names are
of a later date.
Apocalypses apocryphae. Maximam partem nunc primum edidit C.
Tischendorf, Leipzig, 1866. Zahn, 1. c., ii. 2, 797 — 910: «Uber apokryphe
Apokalypsen und Apostelgeschichten*. R. A. Lipsius, Apocryphal Apo
calypses, in Diet, of Christ. Biogr., London, 1880, i. 130 — 132.
9<3 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
§ 29. Apocryphal Gospels.
1. A PAPYRUS-FRAGMENT. A small fragment of a third-century
papyrus-codex discovered at Fayum in Middle Egypt treats of certain
prophecies of the Lord concerning the scandal of his disciples and
the denial of Peter. It offers a parallel to Mt. xxvi. 30 — 34 and
Mk. xiv. 26 — 30. Bickell and others look on it as one of those lost
evangelical narratives of which Luke speaks in the prologue of his
Gospel. It is possible, however, that it is merely a loose quotation
from Matthew or Mark, and has drifted down as a relic from some
homily or other writing.
The fragment has been several times edited and commented on by
G. Bickell, first in Zeitschr. fur kath. Theol. (1885), ix. 498 — 504, and finally
in Mitteihmgen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer (1892),
v. 78 — 82. Cf. Ad. Harnack, in Texte und Untersuchungen (1889), v. 4,
481 — 497. He thinks it a Gospel-fragment. Th. Zahn, Gesch. des neu-
testamentl. Kanons, Erlangen and Leipzig, 1892, ii. 2, 780 — 790: in his
opinion it is a loose quotation from the Gospels. P. Sam, in Revue Biblique
(1892), i. 321—344, and in Litterattira cristiana antica, Studi critici del
P. Paolo Savi barnabita, raccolti e riordinati dal can. Fr. Polese , Siena,
1899, pp. 123 — 145, thought that it looked more like a fragment of a
Gospel than a loose quotation from one.
2. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS. Since Lessing
(f 1781) there is frequent mention in modern Gospel -criticism of
the Gospel according to the Hebrews (TO #«#' ^Eftpalooc, edaffshov,
Evangelium secundum sen juxta Hebraeos). It is known to us only
through stray references in ancient ecclesiastical writers such as
St. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, St. Epiphanius,
St. Jerome, and others. A decisive authority attaches to the statements
of St. Jerome. To the evidence of earlier writers that the Gospel
according to the Hebrews had been written in Hebrew, he added
the specific information: «chaldaico quidem syroque sermone, sed
hebraicis litteris scriptum est», i. e. it was composed in Aramaic,
but transliterated in Hebrew *. About 390 Jerome translated it 2 from
Aramaic into Greek and Latin; both versions together with the
original have fallen a prey to the ravages of time. Perhaps the
quotations in Clement of Alexandria and Origen are proof that long
before St. Jerome there existed a Greek version of this Gospel. As to
its contents, we may gather from St. Jerome and the other witnesses
that it was closely related to the canonical Gospel of Matthew,
though not identical with it. They were alike in their general dis
position and in many more or less characteristic details; the dif
ferences consisted in numerous minor additions which in the Gospel
according to the Hebrews amplified and completed the subject-matter
of Matthew. Apart from the original language of the former, it
1 Dial. adv. Pelag., iii. 2. 2 De viris illustr., c. 2.
§ 29. APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 9!
was the unanimous opinion of the entire ancient Church that the
Gospel of Matthew had been composed in Aramaic. Hence it is
not easy to avoid the hypothesis that the Gospel according to the
Hebrews was merely a revision and enlargement of the Gospel of
Matthew. It cannot have been composed later than about the middle
of the second century, since Hegesippus knew it and made use of
it *. The Aramaic-speaking Judaeo-Christians of Palestine and Syria
were known as «Hebrews». Jerome always uses the term «Nazaraei»
for those who read and venerate the Gospel according to the Hebrews ;
on one occasion he calls them Nazaraeans and Ebionites 2 ; Epiphanius
distinguishes 3 the Nazaraeans , generally orthodox, from the clearly
heterodox Ebionites. The title TO xatf lEf)paioo£ &jo.f~(ihov was
evidently fashioned after the formula sdaffehov xara Marftatov; it
very probably meant no more than the exclusive use of that Gospel
in Hebrew circles.
E. B. Nicholson, The Gospel according to the Hebrews, London, 1879.
Hilgenfeld , Nov. Test, extra can. rec., fasc. iv (2. ed. , Leipzig, 1884),
5 — 31; cf. Id., in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1884), xxvii. 188 — 194;
(1889), xxxii. 280 — 302. E. Preuschen, Antilegomena, Gieften, 1901, pp. 3 — 8;
D. Gla, Die Originalsprache des Matthausevangeliums, Paderborn and Miinster,
1887, pp. 101 — 121 • R. Handmann, Das Hebraerevangelium (Texte und
Untersuchungen, Leipzig, 1888, v. 3); Th. Za/m, Gesch. des neutestamentl.
Kanons, ii. 2, 642 — 723 (an excellent investigation); Harnack, Gesch. der
altchristl. Literatur, ii. i, 631 — 651.
3. THE GOSPEL OF THE TWELVE AND THE GOSPEL OF THE
EBIONITES. Under the name of « Gospel of the Twelve » (which
we meet first in Origen)4, as translated by St. Jerome: «Evangelium
iuxta duodecim Apostolos», we are not to understand the Gospel
according to the Hebrews5, but rather the Gospel of the Ebionites,
i. e. of those Judaeo-Christians who held Jesus for no more than the
son of Joseph. This Gospel has also perished ; according to St. Epi
phanius 6 it was a compilation made for their purpose from the
canonical Gospels. The twelve Apostles seem to have been intro
duced in the role of narrators7. It certainly was written in Greek,
probably about 150 — 200.
Hilgenfeld, Nov. Test, extra can. rec., fasc. iv, 2. ed., Leipzig, 1884,
pp. 32 — 38. Preuschen, Antilegomena, pp. 9 — n. Zahn, Gesch. des neu
testamentl. Kanons, ii. 2, 724 — 742. Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Lite
ratur, ii. i, 625 — 631. Zahn in Neue kirchliche Zeitschr. (1900), xi. 361 — 370,
believes that some Coptic fragments edited by A. Jakoby (Ein neues Evan-
geliumfragment, Straftburg, 1900) and by him assigned to the Gospel of
the Egyptians (see below), are really fragments of the Gospel of the Twelve.
1 Riis., Hist, eccl., iv. 22, 8.
2 Comm. in Matth. ad xii. 13. * Haer. 29 — 30.
4 Horn. i. in Lucam : TO i~i~ftypo.ij.tj.ivov TWV dwds~/.a
5 Hier., Dial. adv. Pelag., iii. 2. 6 Haer. 30.
1 Epiph., Haer. 30, 13.
92 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Despite the similarity of title, the latter has no relation with the text pub
lished by y. Jtendel Harris, The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles, together
with the Apocalypses of each one of them, edited from the Syriac ms., etc.,
Cambridge, 1900. Cf. Bessarione VIII (1903—1904), vol. v. 1421, 157 — 176,
for a French translation by E, Revittout of some unedited Coptic frag
ments that he thinks belong to the Gospel of the Twelve.
4. THE GOSPEL OF THE EGYPTIANS. Clement of Alexandria is
the first to mention1 a Gospel of the Egyptians (TO XO.T AlfUTtriotx;
edaffshovj, with the observation that it contained a dialogue of the
Lord with Salome, quoted by the Encratites (Julius Cassianus) to
show that marriage should be abolished. Hippolytus says2 that
the Naassenes made use of expressions from the Gospel of the
Egyptians (TO Ixifpayopsvov XUT AlfonriooQ etiaffehovj in defence
of their theories on the soul (and the transmigration of souls?).
Epiphanius3 says that the Sabellians established «their entire error»
and in particular their Modalistic doctrine of the Trinity, on the
Egyptian Gospel (TO xa/M'jjLtzvov Al-foxTtov etjafflfaovj. In the so-
called Second Letter to the Corinthians (12, 2) there is a reference
to the above-mentioned dialogue of Salome with the Lord. It is
doubtful whether this author used the Egyptian Gospel and indeed
whether he drew from any written Gospel. That the Gospel was
an heretical one is proven by the circles in which it was most wel
come — Encratites, Naassenes, Sabellians; in the words addressed to
Salome the Lord is made to preach the Pythagorean theory of numbers.
The work was very probably composed in Egypt about 150. — In
the territory of ancient Oxyrhynchus, in Lower Egypt, among the
debris of a mound of ruins, there was recently found a papyrus folio
containing seven Sayings, or mutilated fragments of Sayings, that
all begin with the formula )Afe.i 'lytrouQ. Some of these Sayings are
quite similar, in their entirety or in part, to words of our Lord in
the canonical Gospels ; most of them are quite foreign to the canonical
tradition and could never have been pronounced by our Saviour.
The folio probably belongs to a book of excerpts from some^ apo
cryphal Gospel. The most natural suggestion, owing to the place
of its discovery and the Encratite tendency of some of the Sayings,
is that they were taken from the Gospel of the Egyptians.
Hilgenfeld, Nov. Test, extra can. rec., 2. ed., 1884, fasc. iv, pp. 42 — 48.
Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, ii. 2, 628—642. Harnack, Gesch.
der altchristl. Literatur, ii. i, 612 — 622. — B. P. Gr en fell and A. S. Hunt,
A«fya 'ITJSOU, London, 1897. They are also found in Grenfell and Hunt,
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, London, 1898, i. E. Preuschen, Antilegomena,
pp. 43 — 44. For the discussions raised by the finding of these « Sayings*, cf.
Holtzmann inTheol. Jahresbericht (1897), xvii. 115 sq. ; (1898), xviii. 148 sq.,
also Harnack, Uber die jiingst entdeckten Spriiche Jesu, Freiburg, 1897.
G. Esser in the Katholik (1898), i. 26—43, 137 — 151- Ch. Taylor, The Oxy-
1 Strom., iii. 9, 63; 13, 93. 2 Philos., v. 7. 3 Haer. 62, 2.
§ 29. APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 93
rhynchus Logia, Oxford, 1899. A. von Schoh in Theol. Quartalschr. (1900),
Ixxxii. i — 22. A. Chiapelli in Nuova Antologia, 4. series (1897), Ixxi.
524 — 534. U. Fracassini in Rivista Bibliografica Italiana (1898), iii. 513 — 518.
G. Semeria, Le Parole di Gesu recentemente scoperte e 1' ultima fase della
critica evangelica, Genova, 1898. For an extensive collection of extra-
canonical «Sayings» of Jesus, cf. A. Resch, Agrapha, Leipzig, 1898 (Texte
und Untersuchungen, v. 4), and J. H. Ropes, Die Spriiche Jesu, die in
den kanonischen Evangelien nicht iiberliefert sind, 1896 (ib., xiv. 2).
C. G. Griffinhoofe, The Unwritten Sayings of Christ, Words of Our
Lord not recorded in the four Gospels, including those recently discovered,
Cambridge, 1903. A new series of Logia from the papyri of Oxyrhynchus
is promised.
5. THE GOSPEL OF PETER. Until 1892, the Gospel of Peter was
known to us only through a few references in ancient writers. The
most important of these was found in Eusebius J, in a fragment of a
letter of Serapion, bishop of Antioch (about 200), to the Christians of
the neighbouring Rhossus or Rhosus on the coast of Syria. He forbids
therein the reading of a pseudo-Petrine Gospel (ovopart IHrpoo sfj-
affihov), which by certain additions (npoadtsffra^fJLiva) to the genuine
teaching of the Saviour was made to favour Docetism, and had been in
use among Docetic-minded Christians of Antioch and Rhossus. It is very
probable that to the same text belongs a Gospel-fragment edited in 1892
by Bouriant from an eighth-century codex, which contains the principal
part of the Lord's Passion, together with an account of the Resur
rection, very diffuse and highly embellished with quite curious mira
culous tales. The work bears internal evidence of being a remnant
of a pseudo-Petrine writing («But I, Simon Peter », v. 60; «But I,
with my companions» v. 26). Doceto-Gnostic ideas are also visible
in it («But he was silent as one who felt no grief at all» v. 10,
in reference to the Lord upon the Cross; cf. v. 19). Von Schubert
has proved that the author had before him the four Gospels, and
took certain features of his story now from one and now from another,
transforming at the same time the canonical narratives in the interest
of his own peculiar tendencies. His particular aim is to make the
Jews alone responsible for the death of the Lord, and to present the
Roman authorities in a light favourable to Christ and the Christians.
It was very probably composed, about the middle of the second
century, at Antioch in Doceto-Gnostic circles. There is no foundation
for the attempt to identify it with the work referred to by St. Justin
Martyr as dxofjwyfjLOvetifJLaTa flsTpo'j2. The work referred to under
that title in the Dialogue with Trypho (c. 1 06), is the canonical
Gospel of Mark, not the Gospel of Peter. According to Eusebius3
this Gospel was used more or less exclusively by heretics.
The codex discovered by U. Bouriant in a Christian tomb at Akhmim,
the ancient Panopolis, in Upper Egypt, contains, besides the above men-
1 Hist, eccl., vi. 12, 3-6. z Just., Dial. c. Tryph., c. 106.
3 Eus., Hist, eccl., iii. 25, 6 — 7; cf. iii. 3, 2.
94 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
tioned text, an Apocalypse of Peter (§ 32, i) and important remnants of
the Greek Book of Enoch. The discoverer was the first to publish these
texts in Memoires publics par les membres de la Mission archeologique
franchise au Caire, Paris, 1892, ix., fasc. i, pp. 91 — 147, with a facsimile
of the whole codex and an introduction by A. Lods, ib.; ix., fasc. 3 (Paris,
1893). A facsimile of the pages containing the Petrine fragments, and an
accurate recension of the same/ were soon after published by O. von Geb-
hardt, Das Evangelium und die Apokalypse des Petrus, Leipzig, 1893. The
text is also in Preuscheu, Antilegomena, pp. 14—18; cf. pp. 13 — 14. The
remnants of the Gospel of Peter, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Kerygma Petri,
were edited by E. Klostermann and H. Lietzmann, in Kleine Texte fiir theol.
Vorlesungen und Ubungen, Apocrypha i, Bonn, 1903. An English trans
lation was made by y. Armitage Robinson, in Ante-Nicene Fathers (Am.
ed. 1885), ix. 7 — 8. For the «literary deluge» that followed the dis
covery of these fragments cf. H. Liidemann, in Theol. Jahresbericht (1892),
xii. 171 — 173; (1893), xiii. 171 — 181; (1894), xiv. 185 ff. It will be enough
to indicate the following: Ad. Harnack, Bruchstiicke des Evangeliums und
der Apokalypse des Petrus (Texte und Untersuchungen, ix. 2), Leipzig,
1893; 2. ed., ib., 1898. Funk, Fragmente des Evangeliums und der Apo
kalypse des Petrus, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1893), Ixxv. 255—288. Th. Zahn,
Das Evangelium des Petrus, Erlangen and Leipzig, 1893. H. von Schubert,
Die Komposition des pseudopetrinischen Evangelienfragments (with a syn
optical table), Berlin, 1893. D. Volter , Petrusevangelium oder Agypter-
evangelium? Tubingen, 1893. He is of opinion that the fragment belongs
to the Egyptian Gospel (see p. 92). E. Piccolomini, Sul testo dei frammenti
dell' Evangelic e dell' Apocalissi del Pseudo-Petro, Rome, 1899. S. Minocchi,
II Nuovo Testamento tradotto ed annotato, Roma, 1900, pp. 385 — 391, a
partial version of the Gospel of Peter. V. H. Stanton, The Gospel of Peter :
Its History and Character considered in relation to the history of the re
cognition in the Church of the canonical Gospels, in Journal of Theo
logical Studies (1900), ii. i — 25. Stocks, Zum Petrusevangelium, in Neue
kirchl. Zeitschr. (1902), xiii. 276 — 314; ib. (1903), pp. 515—542. H.Usener,
Eine Spur des Petrusevangeliums (in the Acts of St. Pancratios of Taor-
mina), in Zeitschr. fiir die neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1902), iii. 353 — 358.
F. H. Chase, (art.) «Peter» 10. (i) «The Gospel of Peter », in Hastings
Diet, of the Bible (1900), vol. Ill, p. 776.
6. THE GOSPELS OF MATTHIAS, PHILIP, AND THOMAS. The Gospel
of Matthias1 seems to have been identical with the « Traditions of
Matthias » 2 often cited by Clement of Alexandria, a Gnostic work,
especially favoured by the Basilidians3 and probably used by Ba-
silides himself and his son Isidore4. The Gospel of Philip was also
of Gnostic origin. The name is first found in Epiphanius5, and it
was probably known to the Gnostic author of Pistis Sophia 6, between
250 and 300. The Gospel of Thomas was also a Gnostic product. It
is mentioned by Hippolytus 7 and Origen 8 and very probably existed
before the time of Irenaeus9. In its actual forms, Greek, Latin,
Syriac, Slavonic, it is only an abbreviated and expurgated copy of
1 Orig., Horn. I in Luc. Ens. 1. c , iii. 25, 6—7.
* Clem. Al., Strom., ii. 9, 45; vii. 13, 82: Ttapaduatiq Mar&iou.
3 Ib., vii. 17, 108. 4 Hippol., Philos., vii. 20.
5 Haer. 26, 13. 6 Cf. the edition of Schwartze-Fetertnann, pp. 69 ff.
7 Philos., v. 7. 8 Hoin. I in Luc. 9 Adv. haer., i. 20, i»
§ 29. APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 95
the original work; the longer and perhaps the older of the various
recensions bears in Tischendorf the title : 0(o/j.a 'lapayttToo (pdoaoyoo
faro, dc, ra xaidr/M. TOO xopiou. It is addressed to the Christians
converted from heathenism (c. i) and relates a series of miracles said
to have been performed by Christ from the fifth to the twelfth year
of His youth. The Divine Child is presented to us utterly without
dignity, and is made to exhibit His miraculous powers in a manner
at the very best quite puerile. The style is vulgar, and the diction
is as common as the content is disgusting.
For the Gospel and Traditions of Matthias cf. Th. Zahn, Gesch. des
neutestamentl. Kanons, ii. 2, 751 — 761; Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl.
Literatur, i. 17 f . ; ii. i, 595—598. For the Gospel of Philip cf. Zahn, 1. c.,
ii. 2, 761 — 768; Harnack, 1. c., i. 14 f. ; ii. i, 592 ff. The longer of the
two Greek recensions of the Gospel of Thomas was edited by J. A. Min-
garelli, in Nuova Raccolta d' opuscoli scientifici e filologici, Venezia, 1764,
xii. 73 — 155-, by y. C. Thilo, Codex apocryphus Novi Testamenti, Leipzig,
1832, i. 275 — 315 (cf. LXXII— xci); by C. Tischendorf, Evangelia apo
crypha (2. ed., Leipzig, 1876), pp. 140 — 157 (cf. xxxvi — XLVIII). Tischen
dorf^. c., pp. 158 — 163) added a shorter Greek recension to the longer one
and (pp. 164 — 1 80) a Latin Tractatus de pueritia Jcsu secundum Thomam.
W. Wright translated and published a Syriac version in Contributions to
the Apocryphal Literature of the New Testament, London, 1865, pp. n — 16
for the Syriac, pp. 6 — IT for the Flnglish text. For the Slavonic recensions
cf. Bonwetsch, in Harnack, 1. c., i. 910. A German version of the longer
Greek recension in Thilo is found in K. Fr. Borberg, Bibliothek der neu
testamentl. Apokryphen, Stuttgart, 1841, i. 57 — 84; L. Conrady, Das Thomas-
evangelium, in Theol. Studien und Kritiken (1903), Ixxvi. 378 — 459. For
the Gospel of Thomas cf. Zahn, 1. c., ii. 2, 768 — 773; Harnack, 1. c., i
15 — 17; ii. i, 593 — 595. E. Kuhn attempted, unsuccessfully, to prove the
Buddhistic origin of the stories in the Gospel of St. Thomas concerning
the marvellous knowledge shown in the village school by the Divine Child a.
Festgabe zum fiinfzigjahrigen Doktorjubilaum of A. Weber, Leipzig, 1896,
pp. 116 — 119.
7. THE PROTEVANGELIUM JACOBI. A much better impression is
created by the so-called Protevangelium Jacobi, which gives an
account of the life of the Blessed Virgin until the Slaughter of the
Innocents at Bethlehem. The names of her parents are here given
for the first time as Joachim and Anna. The diction is chaster, the
whole tone of the narrative more noble, and the contents more inter
esting and important than in most other apocrypha. The author calls
himself «Jacobus», and his book a «History» (jLOTopia, c. 25,1). The
title of Protevangelium (TCptoTSuaffiXiov)) i. e. primum evangelium,
was given the work by G. Postel (f 1581). There are difficulties in
the way of admitting a single authorship for the text as found in
the manuscripts. In the narrative of the birth of the Lord (cc. 1 8, 2;
19, i 2) there is no introduction, and Joseph appears suddenly on
the scene speaking in the first person. The closing chapters (22 — 24),
1 Cf. cc. 6 and 14 of the longer Greek recension, and Iren., Adv. haer., i. 20, I.
96 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
in which are related the persecution of John the Baptist on the
occasion of the Slaughter of the Innocents, and the execution of
his father Zacharias by order of Herod, seem to be later ad
ditions. The first express mention of the work (at least of its original
nucleus) is by Origen 1, but traces of it are found with sufficient cer
tainty in the writings of Justin2. Its composition is, therefore,
generally referred to the first decades of the second century. The
author was certainly a Judseo-Christian, not from Palestine, perhaps,
but from Egypt or Asia Minor. There is no sufficient foundation
for the hypothesis of Conrady that the Greek text is a translation
of a Hebrew original. In so far as it deals with biblical material,
the Gospel is based on the narratives of Matthew and Luke; the
features relative to the time before the espousals of Joseph and
Mary tend to glorify the Mother of God, but have no historical value.
The edifying tendency of the book is responsible for its wide diffusion
and the great influence it has exercised.
The editio princeps of the Greek text is that of M. Neander , Basle,
1564. The best editions are those of Thilo, Codex apocr. Novi Test.,
Leipzig, 1832, i. 159 — 273 (cf. XLV — LXXII), and Tischendorf, Evang. apocr.
(2. ed., Leipzig, 1876), pp. i — 50 (cf. xn — xxn). In a work entitled An
Alexandrian Erotic Fragment and other Greek Papyri, chiefly Ptolemaic,
Oxford, 1896, pp. 13 — 19, B. P. Grenfell published a fifth- or sixth-century
papyrus fragment (cc. 7, 2 — 10, i), of the Protevangelium. A fragment
of a Syriac version (cc. 17 — 25), with an English translation, is found in
Wright, Contributions to the Apocryphal Literature of the New Testament,
London, 1865. - - The Protevangelium Jacobi and Transitus Mariae, with
texts from the Septuagint, the Coran, the Peschitto and from a Syriac
hymn in a Syro-Arabic palimpsest of the fifth and other centuries, edited
and translated by A. Smith Lewis, Cambridge, 1902 (Studia Sinaitica, n. XI).
E. Nestle, Ein syrisches Bruchstiick aus dem Protoevangelium Jacobi, in
Zeitschr. fur die neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1902), iii. 86 — 87. In the Ame
rican Journal of Theology (1897), i. 424 — 442, F. C. Conybeare made known
an Armenian version, and translated it into English. For the Slavonic
versions cf. N. Bonwetsch, in Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i.
909 ff. ; for Coptic and Arabic versions Thilo, 1. c., Proleg. pp. LXVII ff.
There are German versions by Borberg (after Thilo), Bibliothek der neu
testamentl. Apokryphen (Stuttgart, 1841), i. 9 — 56, and by F. A. v. Lehner
(after Tischendorf} , Die Marienverehrung in den ersten Jahrhunderten
(2. ed., Stuttgart, 1886), pp. 223 — 236. L. Conrady , Das Protevangelium
Jacobi in neuer Beleucntung, in Theol. Studien und Kritiken (1889), Ixii.
728—784. Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, ii. 2, 774 — 780. Id.,
Retractiones, iv, in Neue kirchl. Zeitschr. (1902), xiii. 19 — 22. Harnack,
1. c., ii. i, 598—603.
8. THE GOSPELS OF ANDREW, BARNABAS, AND BARTHOLOMEW.
In the so-called Decretal of Gelasius, De recipiendis et non re-
cipiendis libris, we meet with the titles of Apocryphal Gospels : nomine
Andreae, nomine Barnabae, nomine Bartholomaei. Probably under the
1 Comm. in Matth., x. 17: ^ pit3koq 'laxatfioo.
2 Dial. c. Tryph., cc. 78, 100; Apol., i. 33.
§ 30- APOCRYPHAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 97
name of Gospel of Andrew are meant the Acts of St. Andrew (§ 30, 6)
mentioned by Pope Innocent I. * and by St. Augustine 2. No Gospel
of Barnabas is mentioned in ancient ecclesiastical literature ; at a later
period we meet with but one mention of it in the (Greek) Catalogue
of the Sixty Canonical Books. A Gospel of Bartholomew is spoken
of by St. Jerome 3, but no more precise knowledge of it has reached us.
The Catalogue of the Sixty Canonical Books has been lately edited
anew by Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, ii. i, 289 — 293. A frag
ment of the Gospel of Bartholomew is said to exist in a codex of the
Vatican Library: A. Mai, Nova Patr. Bibl., Rome, 1854, vii. 3, 117.
W. E. A. Axon, On the Mahommedan Gospel of Barnabas, in Journal of
Theol. Studies (1902), iii. 441 — 453.
9. ORIGINS OF THE PILATE-LITERATURE. Apropos of the mi
racles of the Lord and His crucifixion, Justin Martyr refers the
Roman Emperors to the Acts of the trial under Pilate (TO. ITT}
Uovrwu nddroo ys.vbfi.zva axra)*. It is probable that he had not in
mind any published document current under that title, but took it
for granted that the acts of the trial of Jesus wrere to be found in
the imperial archives at Rome. The extant Acta or Gesta Pilati,
or Evangelium Nicodemi, relate the interrogatory before Pilate, the
condemnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. They are of
Christian origin, and are not older than the fourth century. Ter-
tullian mentions5 a report of Pilate to Tiberius on the death and
resurrection of our Lord. The Letter of Pilate to Emperor Claudius,
in the Acts of Peter and Paul (§ 30, 4), might be a revision of
of this report; it is, in any case, of Christian origin.
R. A. Lipsius , Die Pilatusakten kritisch untersucht, Kiel, 1871.
If. v. Schubert , Die Komposition des pseudo-petrinischen Evangelienfrag-
ments, Berlin. 1893, pp. 175 ff. Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur,
ii. i, 603 ff. The Anaphora Pilati etc., in Syriac and Arabic, Studia
Sinaitica (1890), v. 15 — 66, with English translation, i — 14. E. v. Dobschiitz,
Der Prozeft Jesu nach den Acta Pilati, in Zeitschr. fur die neutestamentl.
Wissensch. (1902), iii. 89 114. G. F. Abbott, The Report and Death of
Pilate, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1902), iv. 83 — 88. T/i. Mommsen,
Die Pilatusakten, in Zeitschr. f. neutest. Wissenschaft (1902), iii. 198 — 205.
T. H. Bindley, Pontius Pilate in the Creed, in Journal of Theol. Studies
(1904), vi. 112—113.
§ 30. Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles.
I. THE PREACHING OF PETER AND THE PREACHING OF PAUL.
Clement of Alexandria cites frequently6 a « Preaching of Peter» (IHrpou
x-qp'j-flULa), and treats it as a trustworthy source of teaching of the
prince of the Apostles. Similarly we learn from Origen 7 that the
1 Ep. 6 ad Exsup., c. 7. 2 Contra adv. leg. et proph., i. 20, 39.
3 Comm. in Matth., prol. 4 Apol., i. 35, 48 ; cf. c. 38.
5 Apol., c. 21 ; cf. c. 5. ° Strom., i. 29, 182; ii. 15, 68, etc.
7 Comm. in Joan., xiii. 17.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 7
98 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Gnostic Heracleon (ca. 160 — 170) invoked the authority of this
work. Origen himself doubts (1. c.) its authenticity, and Eusebius
rejects it quite decidedly as an apocryphal writing 1. Nevertheless,
it found acceptance as late as the time of John of Damascus; for
the « Teaching of Peter » (IliTpov didaaxati.a) that is quoted by him2,
is very probably the same as the « Preaching of Peter » 3. The lost
original probably contained no continuous didactic exposition but a
series of discourses pretending to be the work of Peter; both xypo-ftjia
and dtdaaxaXia usually indicate teaching of a collective character.
The meagre fragments that have reached us treat of the mission
of the twelve Apostles by the Lord, of the true, i. e. the Christian
adoration of God, and show no traces of heretical teaching. It was
probably composed between 100 and 125 (cf. § 15), perhaps by
reason of a misunderstanding of II Pet. i. 15. - - The only mention
of a « Preaching of Paul » (Pauli praedicatio) is in the pseudo-Cyprianic
writing De rebaptismate (c. 17); very probably, however, it is the
«Acts ofPaul» that are quoted (seep. 100). There seems to be no
sufficient reason for the hypothesis of Hilgenfeld, according to which
the Preaching of Peter and the Preaching of Paul were originally
one work under the' title IHrpo'j xal IIai>Aoi> xypuffia.
Extant fragments of these works are collected and put in order by
A. Hilgenfeld, in his Nov. Test, extra can. rec. (2. ed., Leipzig, 1884),
iv. 51 — 65; for the fragment of the x^ou-f^a IHrpoo cf. also Preuschen,
Antilegomena, Gieften, 1901, pp. 52 — 54. The single fragments are discussed
in much detail by E. von Dobsckntz , Das Kerygma Petri kritisch unter-
sucht, Leipzig, 1893 (Texte und Untersuchungen, xi. i). Cf. Hilgenfeld,
in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1893), ii. 518 — 541, and Zahn, Gesch.
des neutestamentl. Kanons (1892), ii. 2, 820 — 832, 881 — 885. Apart from
their title, the IKtpou xrrjpuffJiaTtt, that pretend to be the basis of the Cle
mentines (cf. § 26, 3), have nothing to do with the above-mentioned text.
The « Doctrine of Simon Cephas in the City ofRome», a Syriac text of which
was published by W. Cureton, Ancient Syriac Documents, London, 1864,
pp. 35 — 41 , is not older than the latter half of the fourth century. Cf.
Lipsius , Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden (1887),
ii. i, 206 sq. -- A. Smith Lewis , The mythological Acts of the Apostles
translated from an Arabic manuscript in the Convent of Deyr-es-Suriani,
Egypt, and from mss. in the Convent of St. Catherine of Mount Sinai, and
in the Vatican Library. With a translation of the palimpsest fragments of
the Acts of Judas Thomas from Cod. Sin. Syr. (Horae Semiticae, iii. iv
[London, 1904] xlvi, 265 ; viii, 228 pp.). y. G. Tasker, Mythological Acts
of the Apostles, in Expository Times (1904), pp. no — in.
2. THE ACTS OF PETER. In their original form the Acts (itpdfeiQ)
of Peter are an extended Gnostic narrative of the doings and suf
ferings of the prince of the Apostles, composed shortly after the
middle of the second century; the story has reached us in a respect-
1 Hist, eccl., iii. 3, 2 ; cf. Hier., De viris illustr., c. i.
- Sacra Parallela: Migne, PG., xcv. 1157, 1461.
3 Cf. Orig., De princ. praef. n. 8 : Petri doctrina.
§ 30- APOCRYPHAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 99
able number of fragments. The account of the martyrdom of the
Apostle, which certainly formed the conclusion of the work, is extant
in the original Greek (fjLapTUpwv TOO ay'iou dizoGToXou Ilirpoo) and in
a rhetorically enlarged Latin version (Martyrium Beati Petri a Lino
episcopo conscriptum)'. there can be no doubt that in this inscription
it is Linus, the first successor of Peter, who is meant. A revised
text is also found in Old -Slavonic, Coptic (Sahidic), Arabic, and
Ethiopic. Of the two Greek codices hitherto known, one has pre
served, together with the account of the martyrdom, a small frag
ment of the preceding narrative. A larger fragment is attached to
the martyrdom in a rudely-executed Latin version known as Actus
Petri cum Simone. This text, as just said, represents the most im
portant of the extant fragments of the ancient Acts of Peter. In it
are told the labours of St. Peter at Rome, his triumph over Simon
Magus in the performance of miracles, the wretched end of the
magician in consequence of his attempted flight to heaven, and
at great length the glorious martyrdom of the Apostle who was
crucified head downward. That it is a work of Gnostic origin and
nature is plain from its Docetism, its prohibition of sexual inter
course even among married persons, and its celebration of the
Eucharist with bread and water. The first certain evidence of it is
in Commodian1, though the actual title is first mentioned by Eusebius2
who says that it was an heretical work. According to Lipsius and
Zahn it was written about 160 — I/O, and by the author of the Acts
of John (see p. 105), if similarity of ideas and diction are enough to
prove the identity of authorship. Pope Innocent I. (401 — 417) de
clared3 that the afore-mentioned Leucius (cf. § 28, 3) was the author
of both the Acts of Peter and the Acts of John.
The fragments of the Acts of Peter are found in Acta apostolorum
apocrypha, edd. R. A. Lipsius et M. Bonnet, part I, Leipzig, 1891. In this
work were first published from a Cod. Vercellensis (saec. vii) the Actus Petri
cum Simone, pp. 45 — 103. Lipsius had already published, in Jahrbiicher
fiir prot. Theol. (1886), xii. 86 ff. (cf. p. 175 ff.), the jj-ap-rupiov TOU dfi'ou
aTrocjToXou IIsTpou that is found, pp. 78—102, in Lipsius and Bonnet; cf.
ib., proleg., pp. xiv ff., for an account of some earlier unserviceable editions
of the Martyrium Beati Petri apostoli a Lino episcopo conscriptum, pp. i — 22.
For the Old-Slavonic, Coptic, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions of the martyr
dom, cf. Lipsius and Bonnet, proleg., pp. LIV. ff. We have already men
tioned (§ 25, 3) a Coptic Ilpacjis llsrpou of Gnostic origin.
An Armenian version of the martyrdom of Peter was published by
P. Vetter , Die armenischen apokryphen Apostelakten , i. Das gnostische
Martyrium Petri, in Oriens christianus (1901), i. 217 — 239. The Acts of
Peter are more fully treated by Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten
und Apostellegenden (1887), ii. i, 85 —284, and in the supplement (1890),
1 Carm. apolog. 626, ed. Dombarl.
" Hist, eccl., iii. 3, 2; cf. Hier., De viris illustr., c. i.
3 Ep. 6 ad Exsup., c. 7.
CHRIST!
8J8, MAJ.
IOO FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
pp. 34 — 47. Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, ii. 2, 832 — 855.
J. Frankoy Beitrage aus dem Kirchenslavischen zu den Apokryphen des
Neuen Testaments, ii: Zu den gnostischen rrspioooi fU-rpou, in Zeitschr. fiir
die neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1902), iii. 3157-335. A. Baumstark , Die
Petrus- und Paulusakten in der literarischen Uberlieferung der syrischen
Kirche, Leipzig, 1902, and P. Peeters , in Analecta Bolland. (1902), xxi.
121 — 140. A. Hilgenfeld, Die alten Actus Petri, in Zeitschr. fiir wissen-
schaftl. Theol. (1903), xlvi. 322 — 341. K. Schmidt, Die alten Petrusakten
im Zusammenhang der apokryphen Apostelliteratur, nebst einem neuent-
deckten Fragment untersucht, in Texte und Untersuchungen , new series,
ix. i. G. Picker, Die Petrusakten, Beitrage zu ihrem Verstandnis, Leipzig,
1904. It is strange that Harnack (Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, ii. i,
449 f.) should reject the Gnostic origin and tendency of the Acts of Peter,
and refer them to the middle of the third century. James , on the other
hand, has lately defended the identity of the author of the Acts of
Peter with the second century writer of the Acts of John. Cf. Apocrypha
Anecdota, 2. series (Cambridge, 1897), pp. xxiv flf. ; also Harnack, Texte
und Untersuchungen, new series (1900), v. 3, 100 — 106.
3. THE ACTS OF PAUL. About the time (160 — 170) of the
publication of the Gnostic Acts of Peter, Catholic Acts (npasstt;) of
Paul were put in circulation. Eusebius1 places them among the
dvTde^ofjieva of the New Testament ; Origen 2 cites them twice in a
friendly and approving way; Hippolytus3 treats them, without specific
mention of their title, as a well-known and accepted historical book.
It is very probable that the Preaching of Paul mentioned in the De
rebaptismate (see p. 98) is none other than these Acts of Paul.
In the so-called Catalogus Claromontanus, an index of the biblical
books made about 300, the length of these Acts is put down as
3560 verses or lines. In the Stichometria attributed to Nicephorus,
patriarch of Constantinople (806 — 815), they are set down as containing
3600 lines. It is only lately that more light has been thrown on such
high figures by the discovery that the Acts of Paul and Thecla (see p. 102)
and the apocryphal Correspondence of Paul and the Corinthians (§3.1, 3)
are in reality parts of the original Acts of Paul, although at a very
early date these two sections took on an independent form. The proof
of this was furnished in 1897 by Schmidt's discovery at Heidelberg, in
a papyrus-roll, of fragments of a Coptic version of the Acts of Paul.
Confirmation was soon forthcoming from the so-called Caena Cypriani,
a biblical cento, probably of the fifth century, for the composition of
which, as Harnack saw (1899), not only were the biblical writings used,
but also the Acts of Paul in their complete form. Besides these two
larger sections of the Acts of Paul, there has also been preserved
the conclusion of this lengthy work, its martyrdom-narrative, both in
the Greek original (fiaproptov TOO afiou dxoaToko'j IlauXov) and in
1 Hist, eccl., iii. 3, 5; 25, 4.
2 Comm. in Joan., xx. 12; De princ., i. 2, 3.
3 Comm. in Dan., iii. 29, 4, ed. Bonwelsch.
§ 30. APOCRYPHAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. IOI
several translations: Latin, Slavonic, Coptic (Sahidic), Arabic, Ethiopic.
Hitherto only fragments of the Latin translation, in its original form,
have been recognized and published ; its complete text has reached
us in a later recension. In the more recent manuscripts of this
text it is ascribed to Pope Linus (see p. 99), while the earlier manu
scripts present it as an anonymous work : Passio Sancti Pauli apostoli.
According to this narrative Paul preached at Rome with great suc
cess concerning the Eternal King, Jesus Christ, and thereby irritated
Nero who issued edicts of persecution against the « soldiers of the
Great King». By the Emperor's order Paul was beheaded. That
these Acts were of Catholic origin is proven by the evidence of those
who first mention them : Hippolytus, Origen, and Eusebius. Moreover
no traces of heresy, especially of Gnosticism, have been found in
the extant fragments.
For the Greek and the two Latin texts of the martyrdom of Paul, of.
Lipsius, in Acta apost. apocr., edd. Lipsius et Bonnet, part L, 1891 ; Lipsius
had already made known the Greek text (ib. 104 — 117) and the earlier
Latin text (ib. 105 — 113) (passionis Pauli fragmentum), in Jahrbiicher fur
prot. Theol. (1886), xii. 86 ff. (cf. 175 ff.) and 334 sq. (cf. 691 ff.).
The later Latin text (Lipsius and Bonnet, 23 — 44) was already well-
known; cf. Lipsius, proleg. , pp. xiv ff. , and ib., pp. LVI ff.. for the Sla
vonic, Coptic, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions. The Acts of Paul are dis
cussed in detail by Lipsius s Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostel-
legenden, ii. i, 85 — 284, and in the Supplement, pp. 34 — 47. Zahn, Gesch.
des neutestament. Kanons, ii. 2, 865 — 891. On the original form and the
remnants of the Acts of Paul cf. C.Schmidt, in Neue Heidelberger Jahrbiicher
(1897), vii. 117 — 124; Harnack, in Texte und Untersuchungen, xix, new
series (1899), iv. 3b; P. Corssen, Die Urgestalt der Paulusakten, in Zeitschr.
fur die neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1903), iv. 22 — 47 ; C. Schmidt, Acta Pauli,
aus der Heidelberger koptischen Papyrus-Handschrift , n. i, Ubersetzung,
Untersuchungen und koptischer Text, Leipzig, 1904, LVI, 240, 80 pp. A
photographic facsimile of the Coptic text was published by Schmidt (ib.,
1904). See Shahan, Cath. Univ. Bulletin (Washington, 1905), x. 484 — 488.
4. THE ACTS OF PETER AND PAUL. The origin of these Acts is
very obscure. Unlike the two preceding, they contain the later
history of both the Apostles and tend to show a close homogeneity
and a continuous concord between the two Apostles. Lipsius be
lieves that they also were composed in the second century. There are,
however, only very obscure traces of them before the fifth century,
in Hippolytus1, Cyril of Jerusalem2, Asterius ofAmasea3, and Sulpicius
Severus 4. The work was surely of Catholic origin, and probably
compiled with the purpose of withdrawing from the hands of the
faithful the heretical Acts of Peter (see p. 98). All extant fragments
show evidence of a later revision. The Greek texts, usually entitled
1 Philos., vi. 20. 2 Catech. 6, c. 15.
3 Horn. 8 in SS. Apost. Petr. et Paul., sub fine; cf. Migne, PG., xl. 297 ff.
* Chron. ii. 28.
IO2 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
rcbv ayicov diiocrTohoy IHrpoo YJU IlaoXoo, relate the journey
of St. Paul to Rome and the martyrdom of both Apostles. One
Greek codex (Marcianus , saec. xvi) relates only the martyrdom
fft&pTijptov rwv afiajv dxoaroXcov IHrpoo xal ffafikooji and is silent as
to the Roman journey; even in its account of the former it offers
a text that differs much from the other Greek codices, while it
presents a close affinity with an early Latin version, which also
omits the journey to Rome and is likewise entitled Passio sancto
rum apostolorum Petri et Pauli. There are extant also an Old-
Slavonic and an Old -Italian version. It seems certain that the
basis of the journey-narrative is found in the story of St. Paul's journey
from the island of Cauda to Rome described in the canonical Acts
of the Apostles (cc. xxvii — xxviii). In its account of the martyrdom
of the Apostles this work profited much by the similar narrative in
the Acts of Peter.
The Greek text of the martyrdom of both Apostles and of the journey to
Rome was edited by J. C. Thilo, in two programmes of the University of Halle,
1837 — 1838; by C. Tischendorf, in his Acta apostol. apocrypha, pp. i — 39;
by Lipsius, in Acta apost. apocr., edd. Lipsius and Bonnet, i. 178 — 222.
In addition Lipsius reprinted (ib., pp. 118 — 176) the second recension of
the Greek text, minus the journey-narrative (codex Marcianus saec. xvi), also
the early Latin version of the martyrdom (pp. 119 — 177), and a later Latin
compilation on the martyrdom of the two Apostles (pp. 223 — 234). For
the early-Slavonic and Italian versions cf. ib., proleg. pp. LXXXIX ff., and
Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden, ii. i, 284
to 390. Supplement, pp. 47 — 61. P. Vetter, Die armenischen apokryphen
Apostelakten, ii : Die Akten der Apostel Petrus und Paulus, in Oriens Christi-
anus (1903), pp. 16—55.
5. THE ACTS OF PAUL AND THECLA. These Acts have come to us
down in their Greek text, likewise in several Latin translations and in
Syriac, Armenian, Slavonic, and Arabic recensions. In the manu
scripts the Greek text bears the title Kpd&iq DaoXoo xai Oextys, also
fjLapTijpiov TTjQ frficLQ npoTOfidpTUpOQ OsxtyQ , or the like. Jerome
calls it Ttepiodot Pauli et Theclae1. The object of the very simple
and unpretending tale is the story of Thecla, a noble virgin of
Iconium in Lycaonia. Fascinated by the preaching of St. Paul she
resolves on abandoning her betrothed to serve God in the state of
virginity. For this decision she suffers many torments and persecutions.
After her miraculous liberation she devotes herself to the preaching of
the Gospel, with the consent and by the commission of the Apostle.
There is probably an historical nucleus to the narrative — the conver
sion and martyrdom of a Thecla of Iconium, the portrait of St. Paul
(c. 3), the meeting of Thecla with Queen Tryphaena (cc. 27 ff, 39 ff).
But the truth is overlaid with much that is fanciful ; in general these
Acts are a highly romantic work of imagination. The historical frame-
1 De viris illustr., c. 7.
§ 3°- APOCRYPHAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. IC>3
work of the narrative is furnished by the so-called first journey of
St. Paul, described in the canonical Acts (cc. xiii — xiv), and many of
the characters that figure in it are drawn from the Second Epistle to
Timothy. Since the third and fourth centuries, the Thecla-legend,
originally vouched for by these Acts of Paul and Thecla, spread
widely throughout the whole Church. Tertullian relates 1 that they
were composed by a priest of Asia Minor who was possessed by
a fanatical admiration for St. Paul. For this action the priest was
deposed from his office. Jerome repeats (1. c.) the statement of Ter
tullian, with the addition that the judgment of the priest took place
in the presence of the Apostle John (apud Joannem), an assertion
which is surely erroneous. It has been lately shown (see p. 100) that
the Acts of Paul and Thecla are only a fragment of the Acts of
Paul; hence they were composed about 160 — 170. It is quite cre
dible that the Acts of Paul were written by a Catholic priest; he
was punished, not so much because he put forth unecclesiastical
doctrine, as because he gave currency to historical falsehoods.
The Greek text of the Acts of Paul and Thecla is found in J. E. Grabe,
Spicilegium SS. Patrum ut et haereticorum, Oxford, 1698, i. 95 — 119 (and
thence in Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., Venice, 1765, i. 177 — 191); Tischen-
dorf3 Acta apost. apocr., pp. 40 — 63. Lipsius, Acta apost. apocr. , edd.
Lipsius et Bonnet, i. 235 — 272. There are in print three ancient Latin
versions of the Acts, one in the collection of Legends of the Saints,
published at Milan in 1476 by B. Mombritius (without title or pagination), a
second in Grabe 1. c., pp. 120 — 127 (Gallandi\. c.), the third in Bibliotheca
Casinensis iii, (1877), Florileg. 271 — 276. O. v. Gebhardt, Passio S. Theclae
virginis. Die lateinische Ubersetzung der Acta Pauli et Theclae, nebst
Fragmenten, Ausziigen und Beilagen (Texte und Untersuchungen , new
series, vii. 2), Leipzig, 1902. W. Wright published and translated the Syriac
version of these Acts in his Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, London,
1871, i. 127 — 169 (Syriac); ii. 116 — 145 (English). The Armenian version
was translated into English by F. C. Conybeare, The Apology and Acts
of Apollonius and other Monuments of Early Christianity, London, 1894;
2. ed. 1896. For a Slavonic and an Arabic translation of the Acts cf.
Lipsius 1. c., proleg., p. en. C, Schlau , Die Akten des Paulus und der
Thekla und die altere Thekla-Legende, Leipzig, 1877. Lipsius, Die apo-
kryphen Apostelgeschichten, ii. i, 424 — 467; Supplement, pp. 61 sq. 104.
A. Rey , £tude sur les Acta Pauli et Theclae et la le'gende de The'cla,
Paris, 1890. Zahn , Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, ii. 2, 892 — 910.
Harnack , Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i. 136 — 138 (Preuschen)\ ii. i,
493 — 505. W. M. Ramsay , The Church in the Roman Empire before
A. D. 170, 2. ed., London, 1893, pp. 375 — 428. Id., A Lost Chapter of
Early Christian History (Acta Pauli et Theclae), in Expositor, 1902,
pp. 278 — 295. Cf. J. Gwynn, Thecla, in Diet, of Christ. Biogr. (London,
1887), iv. 882—896.
6. THE ACTS OF ANDREW. Eusebius2 is the first to mention Acts
(irpd£etgj of the Apostle Andrew, observing that they were used only
by «heretics», Gnostics perhaps, or Manichseans according to other
1 De bapt., c. 17. ~ Hist, eccl., iii. 25, 6.
IO4 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
writers *. The work was held in high esteem by the Priscillianists 2. Pope
Innocent I. says3 that its authors were the « philosophers » Nexocharides
(Xenocharides?) and Leonidas. Possibly he may have found this state
ment in the Acts themselves, though some have seen in these names
a distortion of the name of Leucius Charinus (§ 28, 3). The Acts are
certainly of Gnostic origin and were probably written in the latter half
of the second century, according to Lipsius by the author of the Gnostic
Acts of Peter (see p. 98) and the Gnostic Acts of John (see p. 105).
Some fragments of the original Acts of Andrew have been preserved
in citations and narratives of ecclesiastical writers, e. g. the story of a
certain Maximilla related by Evodius of Uzalum*, and the prayer of
Andrew upon the Cross related by the pseudo- Augustine 5. Lengthy
fragments of this work, which was apparently an extensive one, have
reached us in recensions executed by Catholic hands. Among the
printed fragments is a Greek text entitled Tcpd&u; 'Avdpiou xal
Mar&sia slg ryv nbfav TOJV dvfypcoTtocpdftov. It is also found in several
translations: Syriac, Coptic (Sahidic), Ethiopic, and Anglo-Saxon.
Andrew frees miraculously his fellow- Apostle Matthias who was held in
prison by the Anthropophagi. After suffering grievous torments he
preaches the Gospel successfully to his captors. Here the narration
breaks off quite abruptly, only to be resumed and carried on in a
second Greek fragment entitled xpdqztQ rwv a^iaj^ aTtoaToAcoy IHrpou
xai Avdpia, preserved also in Slavonic and Ethiopic. Its subject is
the happy issue soon vouchsafed to the mission of the two Apostles
(at once companions and brothers) in the « city of the Barbarians » (iv
T7j iroAet TOJV flapftdpcuv). Both « Anthropophagi » and «Barbarians»
are to be looked for about the shores of the Black Sea. The
ancient Acts make Andrew go into Pontus from Greece (Philastr.
1. c.) and narrate his death on the cross at Patrae in Achaia. His
death is the theme of the [jtapropiov TOO afiov dito0T6Aov 'Avdplou,
which we possess both in a Greek and a Latin text. It pretends to
be the work of his personal disciples and eye-witnesses of the facts,
i. e. of « priests and deacons of the churches of Achaia », but is
probably not older than the fifth century. Lipsius is of opinion
that the Greek text is the original and the Latin a translation,
but Bonnet is doubtless right in maintaining that the Latin is the
original, and he distinguishes two Greek versions.
The «Acts of Andrew and Matthias in the City of the Anthropophagi »
were edited in Greek by Thilo, in a program of the University of Halle
in 1846, and by Tischendorf, in Acta apost. apocr., pp. 132 — 166; cf. the
Appendix in Tischendorf, Apocalypses apocr., pp. 139 — 141. For the various
1 Epiph., Haer., 47, I ; 61, i; 63, 2. Philastr., De haeres., c. 88.
2 Turib., Ep. ad Idac. et Cepon., c. 5. 3 Ep. 6 ad Exsup., c. 7.
4 De fide contra Manichaeos, c. 38.
5 De vera et falsa poenitentia, c. 8, 22.
§ 30. APOCRYPHAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. IC>5
versions cf. Lipsius , Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten , i. 546 ff., and
Supplement, pp. 259 ff. The «Acts of the holy Apostles Peter and Andrew »
were published in Greek by Tischendorf , Apocal. apocr. , pp. 161 — 167.
For the versions cf. Lipsius, \. c., i. 553. The « Martyrdom of the holy
Apostle Andrew» was published in Greek by C. Chr. Woog, Leipzig, 1749
(Gallandi , Bibl. vet. Patr., Venice, 1765, pp. 152 — 165), and by Tischen
dorf, Acta apost. apocr., pp. 105 — 131. An Italian version from the Greek
was brought out by M. Mallio, Venice, 1797, and Milan, 1882. The Latin
text of these Acts was already printed by Mombritius (see p. 103), in his
Leggendario, and has since been often reprinted (cf. Gallandi, 1. c.). All
the aforenamed Greek and Latin texts, with some new pieces, including
a long Greek fragment «Ex actis Andreae» (38 — 45) were edited by
Bonnet, in the Acta apost. apocr. of Lipsius and Bonnet (1898), ii. i, i
to 127. In Lipsius, 1. c., i, 545 ff . , there is a discussion of more recent
recensions of the legend of Andrew. Three works quoted by Lipsius
from the manuscripts have since been published by Bonnet, in Analecta
Bollandiana (1894), xiii. 309 — 378, and separately in Supplementum codicis
apocryphi, Paris, 1895, ii; Acta Andreae cum laudatione contexta (Greek);
Martyrium Andreae (Greek); Passio Andreae (Latin). For the Slavonic
version of the Acts of Andrew cf. M. N. Speranskij , The Apocryphal
Acts of the Apostle Andrew in the Old-Slavonic texts (Russian), Moscow,
1894. On the Acts of Andrew in general cf. Lipsius, 1. c., i. 543 — 622,
and Supplement, pp. 28 — 31.
7. THE ACTS OF JOHN. With the Acts of Andrew Eusebius
couples1 certain Acts (npdqsiq) of the Apostle John, he also places
them among the heretical works forbidden by the Church. Other
writers say that both the Acts of John and the Acts of Andrew
were in use among the Gnostices, Manichaeans, and Priscillianists 2.
Very probably the writer is identical with the author of the Acts
of Peter (see p. 98), perhaps of those of Andrew (see p. 103).
They are surely of Gnostic origin, and are as old as the second
century; for Clement of Alexandria cites them3. Their original
text has been lost, but the substance of their contents has reached
us through later Catholic recensions of the Johannine Legend.
The principal subject of these Acts seems to have been the journey
of John into Asia (Minor) and the miracles performed by him at
Ephesus. They pass lightly over his (three years') exile in Patmos,
are very diffuse as to the Apostle's second sojourn at Ephesus, and close
with the story of the peaceful death of their hero. We really have little
information about the Gnostic Acts of John. In the Acts of the Second
Council of Nicaea (787) are preserved three genuine fragments of
their original text. One of them refers to a portrait of St. John,
and was quoted by the iconoclastic synod of Constantinople (754)
against the veneration of images. The other two were quoted at the
above mentioned Council of Nicaea as proof of the heretical origin
1 Hist, eccl., iii. 25, 6.
2 Epiph., Haer. 47, I. Philastr., De haeres., c. 88. Aug., Contra adv. legis et
prophet., i. 20, 39. Turib., Ep. ad Idac. et Cepon., c. 5.
3 Adumbr. in I lo. i. I.
IO6 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
and character of the Acts of John, the source of the pretended apo
stolic testimony. These latter excerpts are met with in a still longer
fragment, first published by James under the title: « Wonderful Nar
ration (diy-pjfftQ $ai>naaTYj) of the deeds and visions which the holy
John the Theologian saw through our Lord Jesus Christ ». It sets
forth with insistency, and in a tasteless way, the doctrine of a merely
docetic body in Jesus Christ. Other lengthy fragments may be attribut
ed, with more or less probability, to the Gnostic Acts of St. Andrew,
especially a narration of the death (^rdoraotc,) of the Apostle. It is
extant in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and other languages.
Collections of the fragments of the Gnostic Acts of John were made
by ThilOy in a programme of the University of Halle 1847. Cf. Zahn, Acta
Joannis, Erlangen, 1880, pp. 219 — 252 (LX — CLXXII) ; Bonnet, in Acta apost.
apocr., edd. Lipsius et Bonnet (1898), ii. i, 151 — 216. The fragment men
tioned is edited by James in his Apocrypha Anecdota, 2. series, pp. i — 25 \
cf. ix — xxviii. The greater part of the Acta Joannis in Zahn is taken up
with a new edition of the Greek narrative of the deeds of the Apostle
John, current under the name of Prochorus (cf. the canonical Acts, vi. 5),
composed probably in the first half of the fifth century. For two Latin
recensions of the Johannine legend that are much closer a kin to the
Gnostic Acts than the Greek text is, see Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostel-
geschichten , i. 408 — 431. In his Monarchianische Prologe zu den vier
Evangelien, Leipzig, 1896, pp. 73 — 91 (Texte und Untersuchungen, xv. i),
P. Corssen has constructed out of the writings of Jerome, Augustine, and
others an Historia ecclesiastica de Johanne apostolo et evangelista, which he
claims was current in the third century. It probably never existed, at least
in the proposed shape. On the Acts of John in general cf. Zahn 1. c.,
Einleitung, pp. m — CLXXII; Lipsius 1. c., i. 348 — 542, and Supplement,
pp. 25 — 28, also Zahn, in Neue kirchl. Zeitschr. (1899), x. 191 — 218.
8. THE ACTS OF THOMAS. The Acts (xpd&iq) of the Apostle Thomas
have been handed down in a better text and a more complete condition
than any of the other Gnostic legendary histories of the Apostles. It is
true that the original text is lost, but two of the Catholic recensions,
in Greek and Syriac, date from a very early period, and present a
relatively clear vision of the Gnostic framework common to all. The
Syriac text was published by Wright in 1871, the Greek by Bonnet
in 1883. The principal difference between them consists in the larger
number of Gnostic features that have faded from the Syriac, but
have been preserved in the Greek. The theme of the Acts is
the missionary preaching of St. Thomas in India. The Greek text
is divided into twelve Acts (npdSstQ) that are followed by the
martyrdom, while the Syriac has but eight Acts and the martyr
dom ; the contents are substantially identical, however, as Acts 7 — 8
in the Syriac correspond to Acts 8 — 12 in the Greek text. They are
filled with many kinds of odd and vulgar miracles, and aim mostly
at dissuading their readers from all sexual intercourse. Von Gut-
schmid has shown that the narrative contains both legendary and
§ 3°- APOCRYPHAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. IO/
historical traits. The Indian king Gundaphorus, for whom, in the
second Act, Thomas builds a palace in heaven, is the Indo-Parthian
king Gondophares, of the first century of the Christian era, otherwise
known only by coins and inscriptions. The hypothesis of von Gut-
schmid that the entire Thomas-Legend is only a story of Buddhistic
missionary preaching, worked over in a Christian sense, still remains
a pure conjecture. Some poetical pieces scattered through the nar
rative deserve attention, notably an Ode to Sophia, said to have been
sung by Thomas in Hebrew (i. e. Aramaic) at Andrapolis on the
occasion of the wedding of the king's daugther (Bonnet, 8 ff.); also
two solemn prayers said to have been uttered by Thomas when
baptizing and wrhen celebrating the Holy Eucharist (Bonnet, 20 36);
finally a beautiful, but often very enigmatic and rather irrelevant, hymn
on the fate of the soul. The latter is found only in the Syriac text
(Wright , 274 ff.). All these poetical compositions are decidedly
Gnostic in character, and were doubtlessly written in Syriac, perhaps
by Bardesanes. It seems, therefore, certain that the Acts were not
originally composed in Greek but in Syriac, and in the first half of
the third century at Edessa, by some disciple of Bardesanes. We
know already (see p. 87) from Ephraem Syrus (cf. § 28, 3) that the
followers of Bardesanes were wont to circulate apocryphal Acts of the
Apostles. The Thomas-Legend, therefore, found its readers in those
circles which loved to read the Acts of Andrew and the Acts of John,
i. e. among Gnostics, Manichaeans, and Priscillianists1.
The Syriac text of the Acts was published with an English translation
by Wright, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, i. 171 — 333; ii. 146 — 298.
The Greek text was edited by Bonnet , Supplementum codicis apocryphi,
i. i — 95. Some fragments of the Greek text were first edited by Thilo,
Acta S. Thomae apostoli, Leipzig, 1823. A larger number appeared in
Tischendorf , Acta apost. apocr., pp. 190 — 242, and in Apocalypses apocr.,
pp. 156 — 161. In Rhein. Museum fur Philologie, new series (1864), xix.
161 — 183 (Kleine Schriften von A. v. Gutschmid, Leipzig, 1890, ii. 332 — 364)
A. von Gutschmid discussed the facts of Indian history that are referred to in
the Thomas-Legend. On King Gondophares in particular, cf. A. von Sallet,
Die Nachfolger Alexanders des Grofien in Baktrien und Indien , Berlin,
1879, PP- T57 — Z66. On the metrical pieces in the Acts cf. K. Macke, in
Theol. Quartalschr. (1874), Ivi. i — 70. A separate edition of the Hymn
on the Soul was prepared by A. A. Bevan, Cambridge, 1897, and printed in
Texts and Studies, v. 3. M. Bonnet, Le poeme de 1'ame, version grecque
remaniee par Nicetas de Thessalonique , in Analecta Bollandiana (1901),
xx. 159 — 164. For the Acts in general cf. Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostel-
geschichten, i. 225 — 347, and Supplement, pp. 23 — 25, also Harnack,
Gesch. der altchristl. Literattir, ii. i, 545 — 549. Later recensions of the
Legend are treated by Lipsius 1. c., i. 240 ff. Bonnet (1. c.) re-edited two
later Latin forms of the Legend: De miraculis B. Thomae apostoli (pp. 96
to 132), very probably by Gregory of Tours, and Passio S. Thomae apostoli
1 Epiph., Haer., 47, I ; 61, I ; Aug., Contra Faustum, xxii. 79, w\& passim. Turib.,
Ep. ad Idac. et Cepon, c. 5.
IOS FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
(pp. 133 — 1 60). For a later Greek recension cf. James, Apocrypha anec-
dota, 2. series, pp. 27 — 45, and pp. xxxn — XLIV. Bonnet brought out the
definitive edition : Acta Philippi et Acta Thomae, accedunt Acta Barnabae,
etc., ed. M. Bonnet, Leipzig, 1903 (Acta apost. apocr., edd. Lipsius et
Bonnet, ii. 2). A. Mandni, Per la critica degli «Acta apocrypha Thomae»,
in Atti della R. Accad. di scienze di Torino (1904), xxxix. 11 — 13.
9. THE ACTS OF PHILIP. The Acts of Philip are very seldom men
tioned in antiquity. We meet them for the first time in the so-called
Gelesian Decretal De recipiendis et non recipiendis libris under the title
Actus nomine Philippi apostoli apocryphi. Of the original fifteen Acts
of the Greek text faepiodot fttXiitnoo TOV dTtoaroXou) we possess only
fragments, the first nine and the fifteenth Act. The latter contains the
martyrdom of the Apostle. The description they offer of the missionary
travels of the Apostle is very obscure and confused. In the second
Act, Philip reaches the «city of the Athenians called Hellas »; in the
third Act he goes from Athens to Parthia, thence into the land of the
«Candacii» and to Azotus. In the fifth, sixth, and seventh Acts we find
him again in Hellas at Nicatera. In the eighth Act he goes to the
land of the serpent-worshippers fsiQ ryv '/wpav TWV Vy>tava)vj, i. e. to
Hierapolis in Phrygia, where, in the fifteenth Act, he meets with
death. There is in these Acts a confusion of the Apostle Philip with
Philip the Deacon. The imaginary journey to the land of the Can-
dacii, and the action of the Apostle at Azotus, are based on an ignorant
misinterpretation of the canonical Acts (viii. 27, Queen Candace) and
the sojourn of the Apostle Philip at Azotus (Acts viii. 40). A Syriac
legend concerning the doings of the Apostle Philip distorts still more
gravely the truth of these chapters, when it makes the Apostle preach
in «the City of Carthage that is in Azotus ». In the opinion of Lipsius
we have in the Greek text of these Acts a Catholic revision of a lost
Gnostic original composed during the third century. Zahn holds them
to be original compositions, made, at the earliest, about the end of
the fourth century.
The Greek text of the second and the fifteenth Acts of Philip are in
Tischendorf, Acta apost. apocr., pp. 75 — 104. The first Act and the Acts 3 — 9
were edited by P. Batiffol, in Analecta Bollandiana (1890), ix. 204 — 249.
In his Apocalypses apocr., pp. 141 — 156, Tischendorf published two later
Greek recensions of the fifteenth Act (the martyrdom). Cf. James , Apo
crypha anecdota, pp. 158—163. For the Syriac text of the Acts of Philip
cf. Wright, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, i. 73 — 99; ii. 69 — 92. In
general cf. Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten, ii. 2, i — 53; and
Supplement, pp. 64 — 73 94 260. H. O. Stolten and Lipsius, in Jahrbiicher
fiir prot. Theol. (1891), xvii. 149 — 160 459 — 473. Zahn, Forschungen
zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (1900), vi. 18 — 24.
10. THE ACTS OF MATTHEW. Of these Acts only the conclusion
or martyrdom-narrative has reached us. At Myrne, the city of the
Anthropophagi, Matthew closed his glorious career in the service of
§ 30- APOCRYPHAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
the Gospel by a martyrdom of fire, at the order of King Fulbanus.
During the martyrdom, and after the death of the Apostle, astounding
miracles took place that shook the obstinacy even of the king, who
was converted and became a bishop. Apparently, the narrative is
only a fragment; Lipsius deems it the remnant of an old Gnostic
tale concerning Matthew, revised in the third century by Catholics.
However, both the date and the Gnostic origin of the legend are still
doubtful. No ecclesiastical writer of antiquity mentions these Acts.
For the Greek text of the Martyrium of Matthew cf. Tischcndorf, Acta
apost. apocr., pp. 167 — 189. Bonnet has added an ancient Latin recension,
in Acta apost. apocr., edd. Lipsius et Bonnet (1898), ii. i, 217—262. In
general cf. Lipsms , Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten , ii. 2, 109 — 141,
and Supplement, p. 76.
1 1 . THE LEGEND OF THADD^US. The famous Thaddaeus-Legend
is deserving of mention, though its hero, Thaddaeus or Addaeus, was
originally held to be one of the 70 or 72 disciples (Luke x. i) and
only at a later date was confounded with the Apostle (Judas) Thad
daeus. The earliest form of the Legend appears in Eusebius l, who
avers that he found it in the archives of Edessa2. Some of the do
cuments in these archives he copied word for word, and translated
from Syriac into Greek3. They were the correspondence between
Abgar, toparch of Edessa, and Jesus, together with an account of
the mission of Thaddaeus to Edessa. In his Letter to Jesus, Abgar
(Abgar V. Ukkama, or «the Black» ca. 13 — 50) begs the Lord to
visit him in Edessa and cure his illness. But the Lord refuses, since
He must accomplish His work in Palestine and ascend thence to
Heaven. After that event, however, He will send one of His disciples
who will free Abgar from his illness.
The narrative goes on to relate that, after the Ascension of the
Lord, «Judas who was also called Thomas», sent Thaddaeus, one of
the seventy, to Edessa. Thaddaeus cured the king and many other
sick persons, and began to preach the Gospel to the people of
Edessa. In 1876 a lengthy Syriac narrative was given to the public in
which there was question of the conversion of Edessa to the Christian
faith. It claims to have been composed by a certain Labubna and
is entitled « Doctrine of the Apostle Addaeus». Almost contempor
aneously an Armenian version of the Syriac original was published. In
this work the documents cited by Eusebius re-appear in almost verbal
agreement, the only difference being some minor additions. According
to the newly discovered work the answer of the Lord to Abgar was not
given in writing, but orally. Moreover, before mentioning the mission
to Edessa of Addaeus, one of the Seventy- Two, this work interpolates
a short account of the portrait of Christ said to have been painted
1 Hist eccl., i. 13. 2 Ib., i. 13, 5; cf. ii. i, 6. 8.
3 Ib., i. 13, 5 22.
IIO FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
by Ananias, the messenger of Abgar. Finally, there is added a
lengthy narrative of the missionary preaching of Addaeus in Edessa.
The short Greek Acts of Thaddaeus, certainly not written before
the fifth century, insert Thaddseus or Lebbaeus (one of the Twelve),
instead of Thaddseus or Addaeus (one of the Seventy or Seventy-
Two). It is not true, as Zahn (1881) contended, that the Doctrina
Addaei represents the complete text of the Acta Edessena quoted
by Eusebius. It is rather a later enlargement and improvement of
that legend. According to Tixeront (1888), in its present form it
cannot be earlier than 390 — 430. At the same time, it is not pos
sible to fix more exactly the date of the Acta Edessena. Lipsius
believes that the legend of the correspondence between Abgar and
Jesus arose about the time of the first known Christian king of Edessa,
Abgar VIII. (Bar Manu), ca. 176 — 213. There is no doubt of the
non-authenticity of the correspondence. A sufficient refutation of its
claims is the statement of St. Augustine that genuine Letters of
Christ would have surely been most highly esteemed from the be
ginning in the Church of Christ l. It was the contrary that happened,
for this very correspondence was declared apocryphal in the so-called
Gelasian Decretal De recip. et non recip. libris 2.
W. Cureton published extensive fragments of the Syriac Doctrina Addaei,
in Ancient Syriac Documents, London, 1864, pp. 5 (6) — 23. Later G. Phil
lips edited the complete text : The Doctrine of Addai the Apostle, London,
1876. Editions of the Armenian version appeared, 1868, at Venice and at
Jerusalem. For the Armenian version cf. A. Carriere, La legende d'Abgar
dans Fhistoire d' Armenia de Mo'ise de Khoren, Paris, 1895. For the Greek
ActaThaddaei cf. Tischendorf, Acta apost. apocr., pp. 261 — 265, and Lipsius,
Acta apost. apocr., edd. Lipsius and Bonnet, i, 273 — 278; Acta Thaddaei, in
Giornale Arcadico iv. (1901), vol. vii, 55 — 63. R. A. Lipsius, Die edesse-
nische Abgarsage kritisch untersucht, Braunschweig, 1880. Id., Die apo-
kryphen Apostelgeschichten, ii. 2, 178 — 200; Supplement, pp. 105 — 108.
Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, Erlangen,
1881, i. 350 — 382. W. A. Wright, Abgar, in Diet, of Christian Biogr.,
London, 1877, i. 5 — 7. K. C. A. Matthes, Die edessenische Abgarsage auf
ihre Fortbildung untersucht (Dissert, inaug ), Leipzig, 1882. L.J. Tixeront,
Les origines de 1'eglise d'fidesse et la legende d'Abgar, Paris, 1888.
A. Buffa, La legende d'Abgar et les origines de 1'eglise d'Edesse (These),
Geneva, 1893. J. Nirschl, Der Briefvvechsel des Konigs Abgar von Edessa
mit Jesus in Jerusalem oder die Abgarfrage , in Katholik (1896), ii. 17 if.
97 ff. 193 ff. 322 ff. 398 ff. E. v. Dobschntz, Christusbilder, Leipzig, 1899
(Texte und Untersuchungen, xviii, new series, iii), pp. 102 ff. 158 ff. 29 ff.
Id., in Zeitschr. ftir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1900), xliii. 422 — 486.
§ 31. Apocryphal Letters of the Apostles.
I. THE LETTER TO THE LAODICEANS. The reference of St. Paul
(Col. iv. 1 6) to an epistle written by him to the Laodiceans has
1 Contra Faust. Man. xviii, 4; cf. De cons, evang., i. 7, ii ff.
2 Epistola Jesu ad Abgarum regem apocrypha, Epistola Abgari ad Jesum apocrypha.
§ 31. APOCRYPHAL LETTERS OF THE APOSTLES. Ill
been variously interpreted in the past. It furnished the occasion for
the forgery of a so-called Epistle of St. Paul, Ad Laodicenses, which
from the sixth to the fifteenth century found welcome in many Latin
biblical manuscripts. The Latin text exhibits a very inelegant and
obscure diction and seems to be a translation from the Greek, although
all the other texts of the Epistle discovered up to the present are
derived from the Latin. This curious little Letter is entirely com
posed of words and phrases excerpted from the genuine Epistles of
St. Paul, and impresses the reader as a very childish and harmless
composition, without the slightest trace of heretical doctrine. The
first certain mention of it is in a quotation from a work falsely
attributed to St. Augustine, composed, however, very probably, in
the fifth century J. Possibly it is the same as the Epistola ad Laodi
censes mentioned by St. Jerome 2, in which case our Epistle would
date from the fourth century at least. An Epistola ad Laudicenses,
mentioned in the Muratorian Fragment as a forgery in the interest of
Marcion, was probably the canonical Epistle to the Ephesians revised by
Marcion for the purpose of his teaching, and entitled Ad Laodicenos 3.
Cf. R. Anger , Uber den Laodicenerbrief (Beitrage zur hist.-krit. Ein-
leitung in das Alte und Neue Testament, i), Leipzig, 1843. J. B. Light-
foot, St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 2. ed., London,
1876, pp. 281 — 300. Th. Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (1892),
ii. 2, 566 — 585. Anger, Lightfoot and Zahn exhibit also new recensions of
the text. Anger makes known (pp. 166 if.) two Old-German and two Old-
English versions, also one Old-Bohemian version, and a re-translation from
the Latin into the Greek. Lightfoot gives two Old-English translations into
Greek. Carra de Vaux published an Arabic translation, in the Revue
Biblique (1896), v. 221 — 226.
2. THE LETTER TO THE ALEXANDRINES. In the Muratorian Fragment
the title of the last mentioned document is followed by that of a pseudo-
Pauline and Marcionite Epistle Ad Alexandrines. We have no other
knowledge of this Letter which some have erroneously supposed to be the
canonical Epistle to the Hebrews. A lesson of the seventh-century Sacra-
mentarium et Lectionarium Bobbiense, entitled Epistola Pauli apostoli
ad Colos., would be, in the opinion of Zahn, a fragment of the Epistola
ad Alexandrines. But his hypothesis is over-bold, and very questionable.
Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, ii. 2, 586 — 592. Harnack,
Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i. 33.
3. THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN PAUL AND THE CORINTHIANS.
In the Syriac biblical manuscripts of the fourth century the two canonical
Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians were followed by a third. A letter
of the presbyters of Corinth to Paul served as an introduction to this
latter Epistle. In his commentary on the Pauline Epistles Ephraem
1 Liber de divinis scripturis (ed. Weihrich, p. 516).
- De viris illustr., c. 5. 3 Tert., Adv. Marc., v. ii, 17.
112 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Syrus treats this third Epistle, with its introductory note, as quite equal
in authority to the genuine ones. In the fifth century it was translated
from Syriac into Armenian and into Latin, and for centuries held its
place in the biblical manuscripts of the Armenian Church. One Armenian
and two Latin versions are extant; the Syriac text has not yet been
discovered. Zahn and Vetter conjectured that the Syrian text must
have been a translation or a recension of a Greek text that was itself
only a part of the apocryphal Acta Pauli ; their conjecture was destined
to be borne out by the discovery mentioned in § 30, 3. The contents
of the correspondence are as follows : Stephen and his co-presbyters
at Corinth make known to Paul that two men, Simon and Cleobius,
had been preaching at Corinth false doctrines; they denied the divine
creation of the world and of man, the divine mission of the prophets,
the virginal birth of Jesus, and the resurrection of the body. Their
deceitful and perilous discourses had shaken severely the faith of
some Christians. In the Armenian text (but not in the Latin) there
is here inserted a document by which it appears that Paul was a
prisoner at Philippi when he received the letter of the Corinthians,
and that he was greatly troubled thereby. In his reply he insists
again and urgently on the doctrine which he had always preached to
the Corinthians, more particularly on that of the resurrection of the
body. The idea of such a correspondence seems to have been
suggested by I Cor. vii. I and v. 9.
On the subject of this correspondence there are two exhaustive mono
graphs: W. Fr. Rinck, Das Sendschreiben der Korinther an den Apostel
Paulus und das dritte Sendschreiben Pauli an die Korinther, Heidelberg,
1823, and P. Vetter, Der apokryphe dritte Korintherbrief, Vienna, 1894.
Rinck made a German translation of the Letters from eight Armenian
manuscripts, and pursued at great length the history of their diffusion and
of their use, in the strange hope of proving them to be genuine. Vetter
gives a literary-historical introduction to the problem and presents a new
edition of all hitherto known texts ; he also makes some additions to them.
The Armenian text (with a German version, in Vetter) pp. 39 — 57) was first
published in 1715 by D. Wilkins. Of the two Latin translations one
(Vetter, pp. 58 — 64) was edited by S. Berger (1891), and the other Better,
pp. 64 — 69) by E. Bratke (1892). Vetter gives (pp. 70 — 79) a German
version of the Commentary of Ephraem Syrus (in Old- Armenian) on these
Epistles; the original Syriac has been lost. Cf. Zahn, Gesch. des neutesta-
mentl. Kanons, ii. 2, 592 — 611, 1016 — 1019; Vetter, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1895), Ixxvii. 622 — 633; A. Berendts, in Abhandlungen Al. von Ottingen
gewidmet, Miinchen, 1898, pp. i — 28.
4. THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN PAUL AND SENECA. There
is extant in Latin a Correspondence between Paul and Seneca, made
up of eight short Letters of the Roman philosopher L. Annaeus Seneca
(f 65) and six, mostly still shorter, replies of the Apostle. They
are remarkable for poverty of thought and content, rude diction and
unpolished style. Seneca admires (Ep. i. 7) the Epistles of Paul, but
§ 32- APOCRYPHAL APOCALYPSES. 113
is offended at the antithesis between their noble contents and the
wretched style (Ep. 7) ; he advises him to pay more attention to
expression and to acquire a better Latin diction (Ep. 13; cf. Ep. 9).
This correspondence is first mentioned by Jerome 1 and probably
was not extant before the fourth century. There is no foundation
for the hypothesis that the correspondence mentioned by Jerome has
disappeared, while the extant Letters are mediaeval fiction ; the Latin
text is original, not a translation. It is possible that the author
desired to popularize among the higher classes of Roman nobility a
broader view of the Epistles of St. Paul. The legend of Seneca's
conversion to Christianity, on which this correspondence is based,
owes its origin to the ethico-theistic character of the Stoic philosopher's
writings.
This correspondence is found in many editions of the works of Seneca,
notably in the stereotyped edition of his prose-writings by Fr. Haase,
Leipzig, 1852 — 1853; 1893 — 1895, iii. 476 — 481 ; L. A. Senecae opera quae
supersunt. Supplementum, ed. Fr. Haase, Leipzig, 1902. Separate editions
of the correspondence were brought out by Fr. X. Kraus , in Theol.
Quartalschr. (1867), xlix. 603—624, and E. Westerburg, Der Ursprung der
Sage, daft Seneca Christ gewesen sei, Berlin, 1881, pp. 37 — 50. For a
criticism and commentary on the Letters cf. J. Kreyher, L. Annaus Seneca,
Berlin, 1887, pp. 170 — 184; Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, ii. 2,
612 — 621. On the relations of Seneca to Christianity cf. IV. Ribbeck, L. Annaus
Seneca, der Philosoph, Hannover, 1887; Light foot, Epistle to the Philippians,
London, 1890: St. Paul and Seneca, pp. 271 — 333; J. R. Mozley, in Diet,
of Chr. Biogr., London, 1887, Seneca, p. 610. M. Baumgarten , Lucius
Annaus Seneca, Rostock, 1895 ; L. Friedlander, Der Philosoph Seneca, in
Histor. Zeitschr. (1900), Ixxxv. 193 — 249.
§ 32. Apocryphal Apocalypses.
i. THE APOCALYPSE OF PETER. The eighth century-manuscript
to which we owe the fragment of the Gospel of Peter (§ 29, 5) has
preserved also a long fragment of the Apocalypse of Peter. It
begins in the middle of a speech of the Lord and relates at length
a number of visions. Two departed brothers, clothed in celestial
glory, appear upon a mountain to the Twelve Apostles. The narrator,
one of the Apostles, who speaks of himself in the first person, is
permitted to behold a glimpse of heaven, «a very great space
outside this world ». Directly opposite heaven, but hidden from
the gaze of the narrator, is the place of punishment for sinners;
the description of the tortures endured there, depicted in glowing
colours, takes up the remainder of the narrative. Although the narrator
does not name himself, it is clear from intrinsic evidence that he wishes
to be recognized as the prince of the Apostles. The identification of
the work is made through a quotation from it in Clement of Alexandria.
He introduces part of a passage (verse 26) with the words: nirpoQ
1 De viris illustr., c. 12.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 8
114 FIRST PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
iv rrt d7iOxaA6</>£i (pycri1. In many places during the earlier centuries,
even in ecclesiastical circles, this work enjoyed great popularity.
Not only is it often quoted by Clement of Alexandria, but in his
Hypotyposes he judged it worthy of a commentary 2. In the Muratorian
Fragment (according to the traditional and well-founded exposition
of the text) this Apocalypse is held to be canonical, although it is
admitted that some Christians do not share that opinion (quam quidam ex
nostris legi in ecclesia nolunt). Though Eusebius 3 and Jerome4 rejected
it as non-canonical, it continued to be read on Good Friday in some
of the churches of Palestine as late as the middle of the fifth
century 5. It was probably composed in the first half of the second
century; the place of its origin cannot be determined. It has some
points of contact with the Second Epistle of Peter ; hence it is sup
posed that pseudo-Peter had it before him, and that he drew from
it the impulse to pose in the person of the prince of the Apostles.
Antique-heathen ideas of Hades are traceable in its descriptions of
the pains of hell, particularly Orphic -Pythagorean traditions. But
their presence in the author's mind is probably explained by the use
of Judaistic literary sources, and not of heathen works.
This fragment was published in 1892. The most important editions,
translations, and recensions of it are quoted in § 29, 5. Cf. besides
A. Dieterich, Nekyia, Beitrage zur Erklarung der neuentdeckten Petrus-
apokalypse, Leipzig, 1893; Harnack , in Texte und Untersuchungen, etc.
(1895), xiii. i, 71 — 73. As far as we can now judge, there is no relation
between this ancient Greek apocalypse and the Apocalypsis Petri per
Clementem (containing explanations alleged to have been given by St. Peter
to St. Clement of Rome about revelations alleged to have been made by
Christ to Peter himself), preserved in Arabic and Ethiopic manuscripts, a
miscellaneous collection scarcely older than the eighth century ; cf. E. Bratke,
in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1893), i. 454 — 493. There is an
English translation of the latter by Andrew Rutherford, in Ante-Nicene
Fathers (Am. ed. 1885), ix. 145 — 147.
2. THE APOCALYPSE OF PAUL. In contents the Apocalypse of Paul
is close a kin to the Apocalypse of Peter. On the other hand, it has
reached us complete, not only in the original Greek, but in a series of
translations and recensions. There exists, however, no reliable edition
of this work, and there is yet uncertainty as to the mutual relations
of the texts that have reached us. Very probably it will be found
that the Latin translation, first published by James in 1893, is a much
truer witness to the original than the Greek text published in 1866
by Tischendorf. Important service is rendered to the critical study
of the Greek text by an ancient Syriac version. In this Apocalypse
we are introduced to the mysteries that Paul beheld when he ascended
to the third Heaven, «and was caught up into Paradise and heard
1 Eclog. proph., c. 41. 2 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 14, i. 3 Ib., iii. 3, 2; 25, 4.
4 De viris illustr., c. i. 5 Sozom., Hist, eccl., vii. 19.
§ 32. APOCRYPHAL APOCALYPSES. 115
secret words which it is not granted to man to utter » (2 Cor. xii. 2 ff.).
It pretends to be the work of Paul, but not to be destined for the
general public. It opens with a brief statement to the effect that
in the days of Theodosius, and by the direction of an angel, the
work had been discovered beneath the house in which Paul lived
while at Tarsus. Through the Prefect of the city this book was
delivered to the emperor, and by him either the original or a copy
was sent to Jerusalem. In the company of an angel, Paul leaves
this world, beholds on his way the departure of the souls of the
just and the sinful, and arrives at the place of the just souls, in the
shining land of promise, on the shore of the Acherusian Lake, out
of which the City of God arises. Thence he is led to the place of
the godless and beholds the manifold sufferings of the damned.
Finally he is allowed to visit Paradise, where Adam and Eve had
committed the first sin. The narrative exhibits a fertile imagination,
and considerable power of invention. It cannot be shown that it is
in any way dependent on the Apocalypse of Peter. The work itself
suggests that it was composed in or about the time of Theodosius
(379 — 395)> and in or near Jerusalem. Traces of it first appear in the
Tractates or Homilies of St. Augustine on the Gospel of John (98, 8)
delivered about 416, and in the Church History of Sozomen (vii. 19)
written about 440. St. Augustine judges with severity the deception
practised by the writer, but Sozomen is witness that in other circles,
especially among the monks, the work met with approval. During
the Middle Ages its popularity was great, as is seen from the many
versions preserved: Latin, German, French, and English.
The Greek, or rather a Greek text was published by C. Tischendorf,
in Apocalypses apocryphae, Leipzig, 1866, pp. 34 — 69 (cf. pp. xiv — xvm).
He used two late manuscripts, one of which was a copy of the other. The
ancient Latin version was edited from an eighth-century manuscript, by
James, Apocrypha anecdota, Cambridge, 1893, pp. i — 42. The ancient
Syriac versions have reached us only in translation of the same. An English
translation was printed by J. Perkins, in Journal of the American Oriental
Society (1866), viii. 183 — 212. Cf. Andrew Rutherford, in Ante-Nicene
Fathers (Am. ed. 1885), ix. 151—166. From another manuscript P. Zingerle
published a German translation, in Vierteljahrsschrift fiir deutsch- und englisch-
theologische Forschung und Kritik (1871), iv. 139 — 183. For later Latin and
German recensions cf. H. Brandes, Visio S. Pauli, ein Beitrag zur Visions-
literatur, mit einem deutschen und zwei lateinischen Texten, Halle, 1885.
He has also treated of French and English translations, in Englische Studien
(1884), vii. 34 — 65. For Slavonic texts, manuscripts and printed works cf.
Bonwetsch , in Harnack , Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i. 910 f. - - The
Apocalypse of Paul is to be carefully distinguished from the 'AvafiaTix&v
HauXou, or Ascension of Paul, a second- or third-century work mentioned
only by Epiphanius (Haer., 38, 2). Like the former it claims to contain the
unspeakable words of 2 Cor. xii. 2 if. But it was replete with abominable
things (dppTjToopfCac IjinXecov) and was used exclusively by Cainites and
« Gnostics ». The so-called Decretum Gelasii de recip. et non recip. libris
mentions in connection with this Apocalypse two others of which we know
8*
Il6 FIRST PERIOD. FOURTH SECTION.
nothing more: Revelatio quae appellatur Thomae apocrypha; Revelatio quae
appellatur Stephani apocrypha (Thiel , Epist. Rom. Pont., Brunsberg, 1868,
i. 465). The so-called Catalogue of the Sixty Canonical Books mentions
Zor/aptoo a~oxak>^. The so-called Stichometria of St. Nicephorus also makes
mention of an apocryphal work Za/apiou Tratpoc 'Icoavvou. Berendts is of
opinion that in both places there is question of a work on the father of
John the Baptist, written in Palestine in the third or fourth century, for
the purpose of explaining the words of our Lord concerning the blood
of Zachary, the son of Barachias (Mt. xxiii. 35; cf. Luke xi. 51). Cf.
A. Berendts, Studien iiber Zacharias-Apokryphen und Zacharias-Legenden,
Leipzig, 1895. Under the first of these titles we may probably recognize
a spurious Apocalypse current under the name of the prophet Zachary.
P. Macler , L' Apocalypse arabe de Daniel, publiee, traduite et annotee,
Paris, 1004.
FOURTH SECTION.
THE ANTI-HERETICAL LITERATURE OF THE SECOND
CENTURY.
§ 33. Anti-Gnostics. Their lost works.
1. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Against the heresies indicated in the
preceding pages, the representatives of the Church undertook to de
monstrate that she alone was in exclusive possession of the truth and
that only her teachings were justifiable. The doctrines most directly
threatened or imperilled were naturally those defended with the greatest
warmth ; thus in the conflict with Gnosticism the belief in the unity of
God because at once the most important of the ecclesiastical doctrines.
At the same time the sources and criteria of the teachings of the Church
were naturally a matter of discussion. The anti-heretical was therefore
destined to greatly surpass the apologetic literature as a propaedeutic,
and a foundation for theology or the science of faith. The anti-
Gnostic writings of the apologists Justin Martyr, Miltiades, Melito,
and Theophilus of Antioch have been lost; indeed, that has been
the general fate of the greater part of the anti-Gnostic literature.
2. AGRIPPA CASTOR. A writer of this name, otherwise unknown
work to us, wrote during the reign of Hadrian (117 — 138) a polemical
against Basilides. Eusebius makes mention of it and praises it highly1.
For the «testimonia antiquorum» cf. Routh, Reliquiae Sacrae, 2. ed.,
Oxford, 1846—1848, i. 83—90 (Migne, PG., v. 1269—1272).
3. HEGESIPPUS. We possess more copious remains of the « Me
morabilia » of Hegesippus. He was an Oriental, born in Syria or in
Palestine and of Jewish origin, according to Eusebius2; at least he
was acquainted with Aramaic. An interest in the true Christian
teaching (b opDoQ MYOQ) led him to the West, and as far as Rome,
1 Hist, eccl., iv. 7, 6 — 8; Hieron., De viris illustr., c. 21.
2 Hist, eccl., iv. 22, 8.
§ 33- ANTI-GNOSTICS. THEIR LOST WORKS. I I/
where, from his own words (though there is a dispute as to their
proper translation), we learn with certainty l that he sojourned under
Pope Anicetus (about 155 — 166) and even survived the reign of Pope
Eleutherus (about 174 — 189). On his return to his native land he
wrote five books that Eusebius sometimes calls xivre auffpdfjLOLTa.
(1. c. iv. 8, 2) and again Trsyre itTtofjLvfjp.aTa (1. c. iv. 22, I ; cf. ii. 23, 3).
The latter title is used by Hegesippus himself (ii. 23, 8). Though
the fragments in Eusebius are mostly historical in character, it does not
seem possible to reconcile his excerpts with the judgment of Jerome2,
according to wrhich the work of Hegesippus resembled a history of
the Church. It must have been more like a polemical treatise against
Gnosticism, with the purpose of setting forth the evidence of eccle
siastical tradition , particularly its close dependency on the uninter
rupted episcopal succession. Indeed, Eusebius places the venerable
Oriental first among the orthodox opponents of the new Gnostic
heresy, and adds that he had set up a memorial in the simplest
form to the pure tradition of the Apostolic preaching (frnXouardrfl
ffuvrdsst fpcuprfi) 3. Short fragments of Hegesippus are found also
in Philippus Sidetes and Stephen Gobarus.
For the last traces of the complete text of the Memorabilia cf. Th. Zahn,
Der griechische Irenaus und der ganze Hegesippus im 16. und im 17. Jahr-
hundert, in Theol. Literaturblatt, 1893, pp. 495 — 497; E. Bratke, ib. 1894,
pp. 65 — 67. The fragments extant are found in Routh, 1. c., i. 203 — 284;
Migne, 1. c., v. 1307 — 1328; A. Hilgenfeld, Hegesippus, in Zeitschr. fur
wissenschaftl. Theol. (1876), xix. 177 — 229; Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur
Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, etc. (1900), vi. 228 — 273. For the hypo
thesis of Lightfoot that the Papal catalogue in Epiphanius (Haer.-, 27, 6)
is taken from the work of Hegesippus, see Funk, Kirchengeschichtl. Ab-
handlungen und Untersuchungen (1897), i. 373 — 390; Zahn, 1. c., pp. 243
to 246; y. Flamion, in Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique (1900), i. 672 — 678-,
y. Chapman, in Revue Benedictine (1901), xviii. 410 — 417; (1902), xix.
13—30, 144—170 (for Lightfoot). — Th. Jess, Hegesippos nach seiner kirchen-
geschichtlichen Bedeutung, in Zeitschr. fur die histor. Theol. (1865), xxxv.
3—95. K. F. Nosgen, Der kirchliche Standpunkt Hegesipps, in Zeitschr.
fur Kirchengesch. (1877 — 1878), ii. 193 — 233. A. Hilgenfeld, Hegesippus
und die Apostelgeschichte , in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1878),
xxi. 297 — 330. H. Dannreuther , Du temoignage d'Hege'sippe sur 1'eglise
chretienne aux deux premiers siecles, Nancy, 1878. H. S. Laivlor, Two
notes on Eusebius, in Hermathena (1900), xi. 10 — 49.
4. RHODON. During the reign of Commodus (180 — 192) this writer,
born in Asia Minor and subsequently a disciple of Tatian at Rome,
developed an apparently manifold literary activity. He wrote a work
against the sect of Marcion, and a Commentary on the Hexaemeron
(etQ TTjv k$afjfjL£poy faofjivyfjiaj, perhaps against Apelles (§ 25, 7) 4. In
his work against Marcion, from which Eusebius has quoted interesting
1 Ib., iv. 22, 2—3. 2 De viris illustr., c. 22.
3 Hist, eccl., iv. 8, i — 2. 4 Eus., Hist, eccl., v. 13.
Il8 FIRST PERIOD. FOURTH SECTION.
paragraphs, Rhodon made known his intention to write a reply to the
« Problems » of Tatian, under the title 7ipo^^p.drco^ ixducreiQ. Jerome
has wrongly 1 attributed to him an anonymous work against the Mon-
tanists (§ 35, 2) mentioned in Eusebius.
Routh, 1. c., i. 435—446 (Migne, 1. c., v. 1331 — 1338).
5. PHILIPPUS OF GORTYNA, MODESTUS, MUSANUS. To the same
period belong Philippus, bishop of Gortyna in Crete, who wrote
against Marcion 2, Modestus who exposed the same errors with special
skill 3, and Musanus who addressed a very grave Letter to some brethren
who had apostatized to the sect of the Encratites *. At a later date
other writings circulated under the name of Modestus5.
6. HERACLITUS AND OTHERS. In evidence of the industry of « eccle
siastical men» at the end of the second century Eusebius 6 mentions
«the work of Heraclitus on the Apo^lle (Paul), and that of Maximus
on the origin of evil and the creation of matter, questions much dis
cussed by heretics, the work of Candidus on the Hexaemeron and
that of Apion on the same subject, also a work of Sextus on the
resurrection, and a work of Arabianus on another subject». Jerome
made some additions to this passage of Eusebius7.
The mention of Maximus as a Christian writer must be an error \ else
where (Praep. evang., vii. 22) Eusebius quotes a lengthy passage from
the supposed work of Maximus: Routh, 1. c., ii. 75 — 121; Migne, 1. c., v.
1337 — 1356. The whole paragraph appears, word for word, in the work
of St. Methodius of Olympus on free will : Bonwetsch , Methodius von
Olympus, Schriften, 1891, i. 15 — 38. Probably Eusebius was misled into
attributing the work of St. Methodius to an older, real or imaginary,
writer named Maximus. Cf. Th. Zahn , in Zeitschr. fiir Kirchengesch.
(1887—1888), ix. 224—229. y. A. Robinson, The Philocalia of Origen,
Cambridge, 1893, pp. XL — XLIX.
§ 34. Irenaeus of Lyons.
I. HIS LIFE. Irenseus was born in Asia Minor, about 140, in
or near Smyrna, it is supposed. He was wont to repeat8 that he
listened, as a child, to the discourses of Poly carp, the aged bishop
of Smyrna. He is said, on later evidence, to have been at Rome
when Polycarp died (Febr. 23., 155). He was certainly a presbyter
of the Church of Lyons during the persecution of its members by
Marcus Aurelius. On that occasion the clergy of Lyons and Vienne,
most of whom were in prison, sent Irenseus (177 — 178) to Pope Eleu-
therus at Rome, with a letter that treated of the Montanist troubles,
and in which they styled Irenaeus «one who was zealous for the
1 De viris illustr., cc. 37, 39.
2 Eus., Hist, eccl., iv. 25; cf. iv. 21, 23, 5. 3 Ib., iv. 25; cf. 21.
4 Ib., iv. 28; cf. 21. 5 Hieron., De viris illustr., c. 32.
6 Hist, eccl., v. 27. 7 De viris illustr., cc. 46 — 51.
8 Eus., Hist, eccl., v. 20, 5 ; Iren., Adv. haer., iii. 3, 4, ed. Massuet.
§ 34- IRENAEUS OF LYONS. I IQ
Testament of Christ » 1. On his return he was made bishop of Lyons
in succession to the martyred Pothinus, and as such devoted his
energies mainly to the overthrow of the false Gnosis. During the
reign of Pope Victor I. (189 — 198/199) he took a leading part in
the discussions that arose about the Easter celebration, « doing
honour to his name (Elpyvaws) and bearing himself as a peacemaker
(slpyvoTtoifaz)* i says Eusebius2. The date of his death is unknown.
According to a tradition first met with in Jerome3 he suffered
martyrdom under Septimius Severus (193 — 211).
Ch. E. Freppel, St. Irenee, Paris, 1861 ; 3. ed. 1886. H. Ziegler, Irenaus,
der Bischof von Lyon, Berlin, 1871. R, A. Lipsius, Die Zeit des Irenaus
vonLyon, in Histor. Zeitschr. (1872), xxviii. 241 — 295. A. Gouilloud, St. Irenee
et son temps, Lyon, 1876. E. Montet , La legende d'Irenee et 1'intro-
duction du christianisme a Lyon, Geneve, 1880. J?. A. Lipsius, Irenaeus, in
Diet, of Christ. Biogr., London, 1882, iii. 253 — 279. Zahn, Forschungen
zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, etc. (1891), iv. 249 — 283; (1900),
vi. 27 — 40. Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur (1897), ii. i, 320 — 333.
2. THE « AD VERSUS HAERESES». The most important legacy of
Irenaeus is an extensive work against Gnosticism, entitled « Detection
and Overthrow of the pretended but false Gnosis » fs^ey/OQ xal
dvarpoKT] TTJQ (^eodoj^ofjLO'j yvajoza)^) , usually known as «Adversus
Haereses» 4. It is unfortunate that we no longer possess the ori
ginal Greek of this work, which has been handed down, however,
in a Latin translation that was executed shortly after the composi
tion of the original, and exhibits a most conscientious fidelity, even
a slavish literalness. Fragments of the Greek text, notably the
greater part of the first book, have reached us through citations
from it made by later writers, Hippolytus, Eusebius, Epiphanius, and
others. There are also some short fragments preserved in a Syriac
translation. According to the introduction to the first book the
work was begun at the request of a friend, probably a bishop, who
wished to know more about the heresy of Valentine, with a view
to its refutation. In the execution of his enterprise the plan seems to
have grown larger as the author advanced; it is also supposed that
a considerable period of time elapsed between the composition of
the first book and the completion of the fifth. We have no means
of fixing more definitely the periods of composition of the separate
books of this work; in the third book (iii. 3, 3) Eleutherus is designated
as the contemporary bishop of Rome (about 174 — 189). Methodical
disposition of the material, consecutiveness of thought, and pro
gressive exposition are to a great extent wanting in the «Adversus
Haereses». The first book is mostly taken up with the «detection»
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., v. 4, 2. 2 Ib., v. 24, 18.
3 Comm. in Is. ad 64, 4 ff.
4 Hieron., De vir. illustr., c. 35, after Eus., Hist, eccl., ii. 13, 5; iii. 28, 6: Ttpbq
raq aipdastg.
I2O FIRST PERIOD. FOURTH SECTION.
or exposure of the Gnostic doctrines; the other four are devoted to
their « refutation ». In the second book dialectico-philosophical ar
guments predominate, while in the third it is principally ecclesiastical
tradition and the Holy Scripture that the author invokes. The main
scope of the work is to disprove the Gnostic thesis that the Creator
of the world is another than the Supreme God ; this teaching is ex
pressly declared (ii. i, i) to be the blasphemous foundation of all
Gnosis. The fourth book rounds out the scriptural proofs, confirming
with the sayings of the Lord (per Domini sermones, iv. praef.) the
previous teaching of the Apostles (sententia apostolorum). Among
the sayings of the Lord are understood also the words of the prophets
(cf. iv. 2, 3). The fifth book is eschatological in character. The
doctrine of the resurrection ot the body is variously defended, and
at the end (cc. 32 — 36) are developed the Chiliastic theories peculiar
to Irenaeus. His description of the Gnostic systems is based almost
entirely on his own reading of their writings (§ 25, 3). He is also
well-acquainted with such other ecclesiastical writers as Ignatius,
Polycarp, Papias, Justin Martyr, and Hegesippus.
For the latest traces of the Greek text of the «Adversus haereses» cf.
the study of Zahn (§ 33, 3). Fr. Loofs, Die Handschriften der lateinischen
Ubersetzung des Irenaus und ihre Kapitelteilung, in Kirchengesch. Studien,
H. Renter zum 70. Geburtstag gewidmet, Leipzig, 1888, pp. i — 93, se
parately printed, Leipzig, 1890. G. Mercati, Di alcuni miovi sussidii per
la critica del testo di S. Cipriano, Rome, 1899, pp. 100 — 107. Id., Note
di litterature biblica e cristiana antica (Studi e Testi, v.), Rome, 1901,
pp. 241 — 243. The following editions are based on an independent study
of the manuscripts: D. Erasmus, Basle, 1526; Fr. Feuardent , Cologne,
1596 (reprinted in 1639); ?• E- Grabe, Oxford, 1702; R. Massuet, Paris,
1710 (reprinted Venice, 1734); A. Stieren, Leipzig, 1848 — 1853; W. W.
Harvey , Cambridge, 1857. It is admitted that by far the best edition
is that of Massuet, reprinted in Migne, PG., vii (1857). Some new frag
ments of the Greek text were published by A. Papadopulos-Kerameus , in
'AvaXexra fepoaoXufMTixrjc aTa^uoXo-yi'ac, St. Petersburg, 1891, i. 387 — 389; cf.
y. Haussleiter , in Zeitschr. fur Kirchengesch. (1893 — 1894), xiv. 69 — 73.
For the Syriac and Armenian fragments see Harvey 1. c., ii. 431 — 453,
and P. Martin, in Pitra , Analecta Sacra, Paris, 1883, iv. 17 sq. 292 ft.
There is a German translation by H. Hayd, in Bibliothek der Kirchen-
vater, Kempten, 1872 — 1873. There is an English translation of the
writings of Irenaeus by Roberts and Rambaut , in Ante-Nicene Fathers
(Am. ed. 1885), i. 315—578.
3. THE « AD VERSUS HAERESES» CONTINUED. For Irenaeus the
source and standard of faith is the self-identical apostolic tradition that
is continuous in the Church. The unbroken succession of the bishops,
the representatives of the ecclesiastical magisterium in the churches
founded by the Apostles, guarantees and proves the apostolicity of
the doctrine taught in these churches; the Apostles appointed as
their successors only «very perfect and blameless men», and these
in turn handed down to their successors the doctrine of the Apostles
§ 34- IREN.EUS OF LYONS. 121
pure and undefiled *. As it would be too tedious to enumerate
in such a work the official succession of all the churches (omnium
ecclesiarum enumerare successions), he holds it sufficient to prove
that «the greatest and the oldest church, the one well-known to all
men, founded and established at Rome by the two most glorious
Apostles Peter and Paul», can trace back the list of its bishops to
the days of the Apostles ; its teaching can, therefore, rightly lay claim
to the character of apostolicity : «Ad hanc enim ecclesiam propter
potentiorem (potiorem) principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire
ecclesiam, hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles, in qua semper ab
his qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae est ab apostolis traditio»
(III. 3, 2). These words may be rightly translated as follows: «With
this church, because of its higher rank, every church must agree,
i. e. the faithful of all places, in which (in communion with which)
the apostolic tradition has been always preserved by the (faithful) of
all places «. Heretics wrongly maintained that the Jesus born of
Mary was another than the Christ who descended from Heaven.
« Otherwise, Matthew could well have said (i. 18): 'The generation
of Jesus wras in this wise.' Foreseeing, however, the perverters of
faith and forestalling their deceit, the Holy Spirit said through Matthew
(Spiritus Sanctus per Matthaeum ait) : 'the generation of Christ was
in this wise (i. 18), and they shall call his name Emmanuel' (i. 22 f),
that we might not consider him a mere man, and believe that he
was another than the Christ, but rather know that He is one and the
same» (iii. 16, 2). He must be God and Man in the same person,
«for if it were not a man who had overcome the opponent of man
kind, the enemy would not have been vanquished in the right way
fdcxaiajQj. And again, if it were not God who gave to us our sal
vation, it would not have been firmly assured to us (flsjSatWQ, iii. 18, /)».
«The Word of God became man in order that man, taking on the
Word and receiving the Sonship, might be the Son of God» (iii. 19, i ;
the text is somewhat uncertain). Irenseus, like Justin2, recognizes that
the Virgin Mother also has her place in the work of salvation. «As Eve,
the wife of one man (Adam), though herself yet a virgin, was through
her disobedience the cause of death to herself and the entire human
race, so Mary, the wife of one man (foreordained for her), and yet
herself a virgin, was through her obedience the source of salvation
(causa salutis) for herself and the whole human race» (iii. 22, 4).
«If the former had been disobedient to God, the latter was persuaded
to obey Him, that the Virgin Mary might be the advocate (advocata)
of the Virgin Eve. And as the human race fell into the slavery of
death through a virgin, so should it be saved by a virgin ; the balance
is made even \vhen virginal obedience is weighed against virginal
disobedience (v. 19, i).
1 Adv. haer., iii. 3, i. 2 Dial. c. Tryph., c. 100.
122 FIRST PERIOD. FOURTH SECTION.
V. Courdaveaux, St. Irenee, in Revue de 1'hist. des religions (1890), xxi.
149 — 175. F. Cabrol, La doctrine de St. Irene'e et la critique de M. Cour
daveaux, Paris and Lyons, 1891. J. Kunze, Die Gotteslehre des Irenaus
(Dissert, inaug.), Leipzig, 1891. L. Duncker, Des hi. Irenaus Christologie,
im Zusammenhange mit dessen theologischen und anthropologischen Grund-
lehren dargestellt, Gottingen, 1843. G. Molwitz, De dcvaxs^oXawoaewc in
Irenaei theologia potestate (Dissert, inaug.), Dresden, 1874. E. Klebba,
Die Anthropologie des hi. Irenaus, Miinster, 1894 (Kirchengesch. Studien,
ii. 3). H. Hagemann, Die romische Kirche ... in den ersten drei Jahr-
hunderten, Freiburg, 1864, pp. 598 — 627: « Irenaus iiber den Primat der
romischen Kirche. » Acta et decreta ss. concil. recent. Collectio Lacensis,
Freiburg, 1873, iv. v — xxxiv: S. Irenaei de ecclesiae Romanae principatu
testimonium. Cf. ^4d. Harnack, in Sitzungsberichte der kgl. preuft. Akad.
der Wissensch., Berlin, 1893, pp. 939 — 955; J. Chapman, in Revue Bene
dictine (1895), xii. 49 — 64; Funk, in Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen und
Untersuchungen (1897), i. i — 23-, L. Hopfenmiiller , S. Irenaeus de Eucharistia
(Dissert, inaug.), Bamberg, 1867; J. Koerber, S. Irenaeus de gratia sancti-
ficante (Dissert, inaug.), Wiirzburg, 1865 ; L. Atzberger, Gesch. der christl.
Eschatologie innerhalb der vornican. Zeit, Freiburg, 1896, pp. 219 — 263;
J. Werner, Der Paulinismus des Irenaus, Leipzig, 1889 (Texte und Unter
suchungen, etc., vi. 2); Gry, Le millenarisme dans ses origines et son
developpement, Paris, 1904.
4. OTHER WRITINGS. Irenaeus wrote many other works that have
perished, with the exception of a few insignificant fragments. He
says (Adv. haer. i. 27, 4; Hi. 12, 12) that he intended to write a
special refutation of Marcion; we do not know whether he carried
out his intention. To the Roman priest Florinus, who leaned toward
the teachings of Valentine, he addressed a work on the Monarchy (of
God), or to the effect that God is not the author of evil (its pi /lovap/taQ
7] Kepi TOO fj.7) elvai rbv $zbv 7iotY]TT^ xaxojvj. Later, when Florinus
had abandoned the Church, Irenaeus wrote a treatise «On the
Ogdoad» (ntp\ dydoddoQJ, probably on the Valentinian cycle of yEons.
Eusebius quotes a passage from each of these works *. We gather
from a Syriac fragment that Irenaeus wrote to Pope Victor entreating
him to withstand Florinus and to suppress his writings. Irenaeus
also wrote to the same Pope apropos of the Paschal celebration,
likewise to «many other heads of churches » 2. From one such letter
Eusebius made a lengthy excerpt 3. It was perhaps the same question
that he treated in a letter «On Schism » (mpt a^iffp.aTOQ) written
to Blastus, a Roman Quartodeciman 4. Eusebius mentions 5 a brief
work of Irenaeus against the heathens, entitled: xpbc, "EXtyvaq XO^OQ
nep\ inter f/fjiyc, eTT^e^oa^syog, which Jerome incorrectly reads 6 : Con
tra gentes volumen breve et de disciplina aliud. Eusebius gives
also the titles of some other works : a demonstration of the apostolic
preaching (elq eTtidetgw TOO dxociTohxoo vqpUffjLa'Coq), and «a book
of miscellaneous discourses)) (fttftAlov rt dta^i^ecov diaybpwv), probably
1 Hist, eccl., v. 20. 2 Ib., v. 24, 18. 3 Ib., v. 24, n ff.
4 Ib., v. 20, I. 5 Ib., v. 26. c De viris illustr., c. 35.
§ 35- ANTI-MONT ANISTS. 123
a collection of homilies. Maximus Confessor quotes * some phrases
from a work of St. Irenaeus on faith (nepi TrlffrsajQ X6fot). Little
credit is to be given to the inscription of a Syriac fragment pur
porting to be the work of «St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, (taken)
from his exposition of the first (chapter?) of the Canticle of Canticles ».
The four Greek fragments, known from their editor, Chr. M. PfafT
(1714), as the Pfaffian Fragments, were until quite lately an object of
erudite dissension. Harnack has proved them to be forgeries of PfarT.
The fragments of other writings are found in the already cited editions
of Adversus haereses , e. g. in Massuet, Paris, 1710, pp. 339 — 348; Migne,
PG., vii. 1225 — 1264; Stieren , i. 821 — 897; Harvey, ii. 454 — 511. Cf.
Pitra, Analecta Sacra, Paris, 1884, ii. 194 — 210. The Syriac and Armenian
fragments are in Harvey, ii. 454 — 469, and somewhat increased in Martin-
Pitra, 1. c. , iv. 26 ff. 299 ff. ; cf. Preuschen , in Harnack, Gesch. der
altchristl. Literatur, i. 266 ff. ; Harnack, 1. c., ii. i, 518 ff. For the fragments
of the letter or letters to Pope St. Victor, see Zahn, 1. c., iv. 283 — 308.
The question of the Pfaffian Fragments is treated by Harnack, in Texte
und Untersuchungen, xx, new series (1900), v. 3, i — 69. Cf. P. Batiffol,
in Bulletin de litte'rature ecclesiast. (1901), ii. 189 — 200.
§ 35. Anti-Montanists.
1. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. The most prominent element in the
controversy between the Montanists and the Catholics were the ec
static discourses of the prophets of Montanism. These ecstasies,
whether in the shape of swoonings or _delirium, were put forward
by the Montanists as evidence of the purity and truth of their re
velations. The Catholics denounced them as deceitful signs of pseudo-
prophecy 2. We have already mentioned the anti-Montanist letters
of Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis, and the work of the apologist
Miltiades (§ 19, i 2). The statement of the author of Praedestinatus
(i. 26; cf. 86) that Pope Soter (f ca. 174) wrote a book against the
Montanists, is subject to caution.
2. THE ANONYMOUS OF 192/193. We have to regret the loss of
a polemical work against Montanism from which Eusebius made se
veral excerpts 3. Its three books included not only a refutation of
the Montanist teaching, but also detailed information concerning the
history of the Montanist prophets. From internal data it must have
been published not later than the early part of 193. The author was
a priest of Asia Minor; his name is not given by Eusebius. Jerome 4 has
too hastily identified him with the anti-Gnostic Rhodon (§ 33, 4).
The Eusebian fragments of the « Anonymous » are in Routh, Reliquiae
Sacrae (2. ed.), ii. 181 — 217; also in Migne, PG., x. 145 — 156. Cf. G. N.
Bonwetsch, Die Geschichte des Montanismus, Erlangen, 1881, pp. 27 — 29;
Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, etc. (1893),
v. 13—21.
1 Migne, PG., xci. 276. - Tertull., Adv. Marc., iv. 22.
8 Hist, eccl., v. 16 17. 4 De viris illustr., cc. 37. 39.
124 FIRST PERIOD. FOURTH SECTION.
3. APOLLONIUS. The anti-Montanist work of the « ecclesiastical
writer » Apollonius was another important historical authority used by
Eusebius in his description of the Phrygian heresy t. This work
of Apollonius was very probably written in 197, and contained ab
undant historical material. Apollonius was also a native of Asia
Minor, and is said in Praedestinatus (i. 26 27 86) to have been
bishop of Ephesus.
The Eusebian fragments are collected in Rottth , 1. c., i. 463 — 485;
Mignc , 1. c., v. 1381 — 1386. Cf. Bonwetsch , 1. c., 29 ff. ; Zahn, 1. c., v.
21—28.
4. CAIUS. In the reign of Pope Zephyrin (199 — 217) the Roman
Caius, an « ecclesiastical » and «very learned » man2 published a
polemical dialogue against the Montanist Proclus. Eusebius gathered
a few phrases from it for his history3. In 1888, J. Gwynn published,
with a commentary, some new fragments of this dialogue taken from
the «Capitula» of St. Hippolytus against Caius. In this work Hippo-
lytus defended the Apocalypse of St. John against Caius who had
declared in his dialogue that it was the work of Cerinthus. The
information concerning Caius found in Photius4, when not based on
Eusebius, is untrustworthy; he confounds Caius with Hippolytus or
rather with the author of the »Philosophoumena».
The Caius fragments are collected in Routh, 1. c., ii. 123 — 158; Migne,
1. c., x. 25 — 36. For the fragments of the «Capitula» of Hippolytus against
Caius cf. § 54, 3. For Cains consult especially Zahn, Gesch. des neu-
testamentl. Kanons, etc., ii. 985 — 991. G. Salmon, in Diet, of Christian
Biogr., London, 1877, i. 384 — 386.
5. AN UNKNOWN WRITER. Epiphanius knew and used an ancient
work that criticized very severely the prophecy of the Montanists,
especially their ecstatic utterances5. Voigt believed that this was a
work by Rhodon ; RolfTs held it to have been written by Hippolytus.
Both opinions are subject to grave objections.
H. G. Voigt, Eine verschollene Urkunde des antimontanistischen Kampfes.
Die Berichte des Epiphanius liber die Kataphryger und Quintillianer unter-
sucht, Leipzig, 1891. E. Rolffs, Urkunden aus dem antimontanistischen
Kampfe des Abendlandes, in Texte und Untersuchungen, Leipzig, 1895, xii.
99 ff. 122 ff.
§ 36. Writings of Ecclesiastical Authorities and Synods, chiefly concerning
Heresies and Schisms.
I. WRITINGS OF POPES. Pope Soter (ca. 166—174) wrote a
Letter to the Christians of Corinth in the name of the Roman com
munity (§ 8, 2 3); he is also said to have written a work against
1 Hist, eccl., v. 18. 2 Eus., Hist, eccl., ii. 25, 6; vi. 20, 3.
3 Ib., vi. 20; ii. 25, 6—7; iii. 28, i — 2, 31, 4. 4 Bibl. Cod. 48.
5 Haer., 48, 1 — 13.
§ 36. WRITINGS OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITIES AND SYNODS. 125
the Montanists (§35, i). The Roman bishop who, according to
Tertullian *, gave letters of communion to the Montanist communities
in Asia Minor, but soon withdrew them, was either Pope Eleutherus
(ca. 174 — 189; cf. § 34, i) or his successor, Pope Victor I. (189 to
198/199). During the great controversy concerning the time of
the Easter celebration, Pope Victor wrote several Encyclical Letters,
it is supposed to all the churches ; among them were a Letter which
urged the holding of synods for the settling of these troubles2, a
Letter in promulgation of the decision of a Roman synod 3, and a
Letter which excluded the refractory churches of Asia Minor from
ecclesiastical communion on the ground that their stubborn retention
of the Quartodeciman custom proclaimed them heretics *. Victor was
a native of Roman Africa, and according to St. Jerome 5 wrote some
theological treatises in Latin (mediocria de religione volumina 6j.
For this reason he is reckoned by St. Jerome the first of the Latin
ecclesiastical writers. According to Optatus of Mileve Pope Zephyrin
(199 — 217), wrote a work against heretics7.
For the «testimonia» concerning Pope Victor, cf. Caspar i, Quellen zur
Gesch. des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel, Christiania, 1875, iii. 413 f.
432 ff . ; Harnack, Der pseudocyprianische Traktat De aleatoribus, in Texte
und Untersuchungen , Leipzig, 1888, v. i, no ff. For the tractate De
aleatoribus that Harnack adjudicated to Pope Victor, cf. § 51, 6 g. J. Turmel,
L'£glise romaine jusqu'au pape Victor, in Revue catholique des figlises,
1905, 3—21.
2. DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH. Dionysius, bishop of Corinth and con
temporary of Pope Soter (see p. 123), was highly esteemed in his time,
and his judgment sought for by many churches in matters of contro
versy. There was extant in the days of Eusebius a collection of
his seven « Catholic » Letters written to as many communities, together
with a private letter of Dionysius8. The last of these « Catholic »
Letters was written in grateful response to a letter of the Roman
community; Eusebius has preserved for us four interesting and valuable
passages 9. He says also 10 that the Letter to the Nicomedians was
directed against the heresy of Marcion. Apropos of the Letter to
the community of Cnossus in Crete, Eusebius tells us n of a reply
to Dionysius, written by Pinytus, bishop of Cnossus. What Jerome
relates 12 about Dionysius and Pinytus is taken from Eusebius.
Cf. Routh , Reliquiae Sacrae (2. ed.), i. 175 — 201: BB. Dionysius et
Pinytus.
1 Adv. Prax., c. i. 2 Polycrates, in Eus., Hist, eccl., v. 24, 8.
3 Eus., 1. c., v. 23, 3. 4 Ib., v. 24, 9.
5 De viris illustr., c. 53 ; cf. c. 34.
6 Hier., Chron. ad a. Abr. 2209.
7 De schism. Donat., i. 9. 8 Eus., Hist, eccl., iv. 23.
9 Ib., iv. 23, 10—12; ii. 25, 8. 10 Ib., iv. 23, 4. ll Ib., iv. 23, 7—8.
12 De viris illustr., cc. 27 — 28.
126 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
3. SERAPION OFANTIOCH. Serapion, bishop of Antioch (199 — 211),
wrote many Letters, the addresses of some of which are made known
to us by Eusebius *, e. g. one to a certain Domninus, who had fallen
away from the Christian faith during a persecution and become a
Jew ; another to Pontius and Caricus against Montanism 2, also a Letter
to the Christians of Rhossus warning them not to read the Gospel
of Peter (§ 29, 5).
Cf. Routh, 1. c., i. 447 — 462; Migne, PG., v. 1371 — 1376. For other
details concerning Serapion see de Buck , in Acta SS. Oct. (xm), Paris,
1883, pp. 248—252.
4. SYNODICAL WRITINGS IN THE PASCHAL CONTROVERSY. As
a result of the Encyclical Letter of Pope Victor I. (see p. 125)
synods were held in several places, to discuss the celebration of
Easter, and the decisions of the Fathers were communicated to the
Pope. Eusebius gives a list of such synods, and quotes some frag
ments from their writings3.
These fragments are two passages from the Letter which a synod ot
Asia Minor sent to the Pope through Polycrates of Ephesus in justification
of the Quartodeciman practice (cf. Eus., Hist, eccl., v. 24, 2 — 8; iii. 31, 3;
Hier., De viris illustr., c. 45), and the conclusion of a Letter sent to the
Pope by a synod of Palestine that was presided over by Theophilus,
bishop of Caesarea, and Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem. It decided for the
Western (Roman) practice (cf. Eus., 1. c., v. 25; Hier., 1. c., c. 43). The
latter fragment is in Routh., 1. c., ii. i — 7; Migne,, 1. c., v. 1365 — 1372;
for the other two see Routh, ii. 9—36; Migne, v. 1355 — 1362. The
Letter of Bacchyllus, bishop of Corinth, was a private missive (cf. Eus.,
1. c., v. 23, 4), erroneously stated by Jerome (1. c. , c. 44) to have been
a synodical writing.
FIFTH SECTION.
ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE DURING THE GENESIS
OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIENTALS.
§ 37. General Considerations.
Since the end of the second century the need of a scientific
treatment of the teaching of the Church was felt with increasing
force. History, exegesis, and philosophy put forward their claims as
auxiliaries of Christian truth. Ecclesiastical literature thus entered
upon new lines of development; new aims and new paths were
opened up. The older apologists and anti-heretical writers had created
a literature of defence and attack; henceforth there was to be,
within the Church herself, a peaceful growth of literary activity. This
1 Hist, eccl., vi. 12; cf. Hier on., De viris illustr., c. 41.
2 Hist, eccl., v. 19. 3 Ib., v. 23—25.
§ 38. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
scientific tendency was liveliest in the Christian East where the
catechetical school of Alexandria soon became known as a famous
centre and nursery of ecclesiastical science. Its origin is shrouded
in obscurity. About 180, it appears in full operation, but as an
institution long-since established *. It was probably at first only a
school for catechumens , but when Pantaenus took charge of it,
about 1 80, it must have already acquired the character of a Chris
tian academy in which all Greek science was studied and made
to do apologetic service in favour of the Christian cause. Under
Clement and Origen it reached the acme of its renown that however
began to fade in the fourth century. The devotion to scientific labours
now spread from Alexandria to Palestine. Alexander, a disciple of
the catechists Pantaenus and Clement, began, as bishop of Jeru
salem, a theological library in the Holy City itself2. A little later,
about 233, when Origen sought a new home in Palestine, he opened
a school at Caesarea in which the scientific element was even more
strongly emphasized than at Alexandria. In the second half of the
same century the learned presbyter Pamphilus laboured actively at
Caesarea for the academical interests of the Church. He is usually
credited with having founded there the famous library that was so
serviceable to Eusebius and Jerome ; there can be no doubt, however,
that the beginnings of this most valuable of all the ancient Christian
libraries were owing to Origen 3. The Christian masters of Alex
andria extended their vigorous and efficient influence as far as Asia
Minor. Of the two most important ecclesiastical writers that we
meet there in the third century, Gregory Thaumaturgus was a
disciple of Origen, bred in his school at Caesarea , while Methodius
of Olympus made it his life-work to oppose the theology of that
master.
H. E. F. Guerike , De schola quae Alexandriae floruit catechetica,
Halle, 1824 — 1825, i — ii. C. F. W, Hasselbach, De schola quae Alexandriae
floruit catechetica, Stettin, 1826 — 1839, i — n- Ch> Bigg '> The Christian
Platonists of Alexandria, Oxford, 1886. F. Lehmann, Die Katechetenschule
zu Alexandria kritisch beleuchtet, Leipzig, 1896 (of small value). A. Ehr-
hard , Die griechische Patriarchalbibliothek von Jerusalem , in Rom.
Quartalschr. fiir christl. Altertumskunde und fur Kirchengesch. (1891), v.
217—265 329—331 383—384; (1892), vi. 339—365-
A. THE ALEXANDRINES.
§ 38. Clement of Alexandria.
I . HIS LIFE. Titus Flavius Clemens was born about 1 50, probably
at Athens 4, it is supposed of heathen parents. After his conversion
to Christianity he travelled extensively through Southern Italy, Syria
1 £c &p%aiou £$oy?, Etts., Hist, eccl., v. 10, i. 2 Ib., vi. 20, I.
3 Hieron., De viris illustr., c. 113. 4 Epiph., Haer., 32, 6.
128 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
and Palestine, finally through Egypt, seeking everywhere the society
and instruction of Christian teachers l. At Alexandria he fell
under the spell of the catechist Pantaenus. As a result, he took
up his permanent residence in that city, apparently a little before
1 80, and became a presbyter of that church2. Since about 190 he
was the associate and assistant of Pantsenus in the \vork of the
school; after the death of the latter, about 200, he took up the
head-mastership of the same 3. As early as 202 or 203 he was
obliged to quit Alexandria because of the persecution that broke
out under Septimius Severus. We meet him , about 2 1 1 , in Asia
Minor in the company of his former disciple Alexander, the future
bishop of Jerusalem 4. A letter of Alexander to Origen, written in
215 or 216, speaks of Clement as a father gone to his rest5.
y. H. Reinkens, De Clemente presbytero alexandrine, homine, scriptore,
philosophic, theologo liber, Breslau, 1851. E. Freppel , Clement d'Alex-
andrie, Paris, 1865; 3. ed. Paris, 1886. B. F. Westcott, Clement of Alex
andria, in Diet, of Christ. Biogr., London, 1877, i. 559 — 567. F. Bohringer,
Die griechischen Vater des 3. und 4. Jahrhunderts. i. Clemens und Ori-
genes (Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen, i. 2, i, 2. ed.), Zurich, 1869.
Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, etc. (1884),
iii. 156 — 176.
2. CLEMENT AS A WRITER. He is an epoch-making figure in the
history of the growth of early Christian literature. He differs from
his teachers inasmuch as they had confined themselves to oral in
struction, while he added thereto the use of the written page as
an academical means of forming the minds of his pupils 6. His
purpose is the scientific establishment of the teachings of the
Church; he is desirous of furnishing it with a good basis of philo
sophy and of reconciling it with contemporary thought. The source
of his frequent slips and errors is to be found in the fact that he
is better equipped to appreciate the ideal content of Christian truth
than to expound the positive theology of redemption. To the cause
of Christianity, which he espoused with a generous zeal, he brought
a highly gifted nature and an encyclopedic knowledge. Clement
is well-acquainted with the profane writers of Greece, and particularly
with the works of Plato. Much of the earlier ecclesiastical literature
was also well-known to him. His diction is relatively pure, and his
exposition « flowery and exuberant and very agreeable » 7. Of the
extensive « Introduction to Christianity » to which he devoted many
years of his life, nearly all has been preserved (Protrepticus, Paed-
agogus, Stromata). He wrote another important work, the Hypotyposes,
of which only insignificant fragments have come down to us. Similarly,
out of a series of minor writings only one Homily has been preserved.
1 Strom., i. i, n. 2 Paed., i. 6, 37. 8 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 6.
4 Ib., vi. n, 5 — 6. 5 Ib., vi. 14, 8—9.
6 Strom., i. i, 11—14; cf. Eclog. 27. 7 Phot., Bibl. Cod. no.
§ 38. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
The first editions of his works were brought out by P. Victorius, Flo
rence, 1550, and by Fr. Sylburg , Heidelberg, 1592. The best and most
complete edition is that of J. Potter, Oxford, 1715 (Venice, 1757), 2 voll.,
often reprinted, e. g. by Fr. Oberthiir, Wiirzburg, 1778 — 1779, 3 voll.;
£. Klotz, Leipzig, 1831—1834, 4 voll.; Migne, PG., viii— ix. 1857. The
edition of TV. Dindorf, Oxford, 1869, 4 voll., failed to meet the reasonable
expectations of many. Cf. P. de Lagarde, in Gotting. gelehrte Anzeigen,
1870, pp. 801 — 824, and Id., Symmikta, Gottingen, 1877, pp. 10 — 24.
Valuable contributions to these editions of Clement are found in Zahn,
Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, etc. (1884), iii: Supple-
mentum Clementinum. O. Staehlin , Observationes criticae in Clementem
Alexandrinum (Dissert, inaug.), Erlangen, 1890. Id., Beitrage zur Kenntnis
der Handschriften des Glemens Alexandrinus (Progr.), Niirnberg, 1895.
Id., Untersuchungen liber die Scholien zu Clemens Alex. (Progr.), Niirn
berg, 1897. Preuschen, in Harnack , Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i.
296 — 327. O. Staehlin, Zur handschriftlichen Uberlieferung des Clemens
Alex., Leipzig, 1901 (Texte und Untersuchungen, new series, v. 4).
3. PROTREPTICUS. PAEDAGOGUS. STROMATA. These three treatises
are parts of a complete whole 1 designed to act as a graduated or
progressive introduction to Christianity. The first part or « Exhortation
to the Heathen » (npoTpsirTixoQ xpbc, °EXX^vaq) is closely related, in
form and contents, to the earlier apologetic literature of the second
century. It opens with an eloquent invitation to listen no more to
the mythical chants about the gods of heathendom, but to the new
song of which the Logos that went forth from Sion is at once singer
and theme (c. i). Thereupon it exposes the folly and worthlessness
of the heathen religious beliefs and practices (cc. 2 — 7), and praises
the truth made known by the prophets (cc. 8 — 12). The three
books of the Paedagogus (iratdaftofogj are meant as a training in the
new Christian life for the reader who has already turned away from
heathenism2. The first book treats of the educational purpose of the
Logos, of the children (^aidsq) to be educated, and of the educational
method, a combination of love and mildness with wrathful and puni
tive justice. The other two books contain detailed instruction con
cerning food and drink, dwellings and furniture, feasts and amuse
ments, sleep and recreation, the relations of the sexes, dress and
ornament, and the like. Apart from a few chapters, especially
at the beginning and close of the third book, the text does not rise
above the level of a sprightly «causerie». It often assumes a facetious
tinge and occasionally runs over, especially in polemic, into broad
humour. In some later manuscripts two Hymns are added to the
Paedagogus, a Hymn to Jesus Christ (UJUVOQ TOO aatrr^poQ XpLaroo)
attributed to Clement and perhaps written by him, or at least added
by him to the text, and a Hymn to the Paedagogus (slq rov
natdafaiyov), by some unknown reader of the work. - - In the only
manuscript that has reached us of the third and crowning section of
1 Paed., i. i; Strom., vi. i, i. 2 Cf. Paed., i. i.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 9
I3O FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
this introduction, it is entitled a^ocojuars^ or « Miscellanies » (strictly,
« Tapestries »). Internal evidence shows that the original title was xara
T7]v dtyd-rj <pikoao<pta.v fywa-wwy bitopvyftaTtov arpoifjLarstQ9 i. e. « Ta
pestries of scientific commentaries according to the true philosophy » *.
It was his intention to present in this work a scientific account of
the revealed truths of Christianity2. The contents however cor
respond very imperfectly to our just expectations. The Stromata
are ever relapsing into the propaedeutic tone of the Protrepticus and
the Paedagogus, or entering upon lines of apologetic discourse, or
taking up questions of practical morality; thus they repeatedly put
off the treatment of the theme announced in their opening para
graph. The first book deals chiefly with the importance of philo
sophy and its utility for Christian knowledge. In the second book
the author insists strongly on the superiority of revealed truth to
all the works of human reason. In the third and fourth books he
calls attention to two practical criteria that differentiate, in striking-
contrast, the Catholic from the heretical Gnosis - - they are the
striving for moral perfection visible in virginal and married chastity,
and the love of God as made manifest in martyrdom. The fifth
'book returns to the relations of the true Gnosis and faith, deals
with the symbolical presentation of the truths of religion, and enu
merates the elements of truth borrowed by the Hellenic from the
so-called barbarian (Jewish and Christian) philosophy. The sixth
and seventh books offer a faithful portrait of the true Gnostic; he
is the personification of all Christian perfection. Clement excuses
the lack of order and unity in the Stromata and accounts for it by
recalling to the attention of the reader the peculiar purpose of the
work3. In the preface of the fourth book he confesses that he had
hoped to finish the subject in one book, but the abundance of material
was so great (TLO Tr/^tisc TCOV Trpa^fjtdrco^) that he was carried far
beyond his original plan 4 ; yet at the end of the seventh book he
has not mastered it, and feels bound to promise other books5; he
seems, indeed, to have written an eighth book6. The above-mentioned
manuscript offers an eighth book, but it is only a small tractate,
mutilated at beginning and end, on the strictly logical process to be
followed in the search for truth. Then follow excerpts from the
writings of Theodotus and other disciples of the Oriental school of
Valentine, usually known as Excerpta ex scriptis Theodoti (§25, 5),
also selected passages from the Prophets, known as Ex scripturis pro-
pheticis eclogae (ex TOJV TcpoipTjTtx&v sx^o^aij. Zahn holds that these
three fragments are selections from the original contents of the eighth
book, while von Arnim maintains that they represent rough sketches
1 Strom., i. 29, 182; iii. 18, 1 10, al. 2 Paed , i. i; Strom., vi. I, I.
3 i. I, 18; iv. 2, 4, al. 4 iv. I, I. 5 vii. 18, ill.
6 Ens., Hist, eccl., vi. 13, i; Phot., Bibl. Cod. in.
§ 38- CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. 13!
and preliminary studies of Clement, perhaps for the eighth book of the
Stromata ; probably, however, for other writings. The Protrepticus may
have been written before 189, the Paedagogiis about 190, the Stromata
about 200- — -202/203. Many of the numerous authors quoted by Cle
ment were very probably known to him only through anthologies.
In the acceptance and use of those Judaistic-Alexandrine forgeries
which pretend to establish the intellectual priority of the Hebrews as
compared with the Greeks, he showed himself credulous and uncritical.
Wendland is of opinion that lengthy passages of the Paedagogus
and the Stromata were borrowed from the Stoic Musonius, the teacher
of Epictetus, or at least from the lectures of Musonius as represented
by the notes of some student of that master. On the other hand
Arnobius and Theodoret of Cyrus made extensive use of the writings
of Clement.
The Protrepticus and the Paedagogus have reached us through the Arethas-
Codex (§ 13) of A. D. 914, and some copies of the same; the Stromata
through the Cod. Flor. Laurent. V 3 (saec. xi), and a copy of it. On the
plan and nature of the entire work cf. Overbeck, in Histor. Zeitschr., new
series (1882), xii. 454 ff. D. Dragomeros , KA^JXSVTOC 'AXs£avop£u>€ 6 7:90-
Tpsmxo? irpoc f'EXXT)va; 7,070;, Bucarest, 1890. O.Staehlin, Clemens Alexandri-
nus, i; Protrepticus und Paedagogus (Die griechischen christlichen Schrift-
steller), Leipzig, 1905. £. Taverni, Sopra il -aioVfor/o; di Tito Flavio Cle-
mente Alessandrino, Rome, 1885.
For a German version of the Protrepticus and Paedagogus cf. L. Hopfen-
muller and J. Wimnier, Kempten, 1875 (Bibliothek der Kirchenvater). The
first of the two Hymns at the end of the Paedagogus was published in a
carefully revised text by W. Christ and M. Paranikas , Anthologia graeca
carminum christianorum , Leipzig, 1871, pp. 37 ff. ; cf. xvm ft". For the
chronological chapter in the Stromata (i. 21, 101 — 147) cf. the classical
recension of P. de Lagarde, in Abhandlungen der k. Gesellsch. der Wissen-
schaften in Gottingen (1891), xxxvii. 73 ff. V. Hozakowski , De chrono-
graphia dementis Alexandrini (Dissert, inaug.), Minister, 1896 (see n. 9).
On the eighth book of the Stromata (Excerpta ex Theodoto, Eclogae pro-
pheticae) cf. Zahn , Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons
(1884), iii. 104 — 130; P. Ruben, Clementis Alexandrini excerpta ex Theo
doto (Dissert, inaug.), Leipzig, 1892; J. von Arnim, De octavo Clementis
Stromatorum libro (Progr.), Rostock, 1894; O. Clausen, Zur Stromateis
des Clemens Alex, und ihrem Verhaltnis zum Protrepticos und Paedagogos,
in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1902), xlv. 465- — 512. There is an
English translation , by W. Wilson , of the writings of Clement in Ante-
Nicene Fathers (Am. ed. 1885), ii. 171 — 604. The hymns are translated by
W. Alexander. F. J. A. Hort and J. B. Mayor , Clement of Alexandria,
Miscellanies, book 7, Greek text with introduction, translation, notes,
dissertations, and indices, London, 1903; J. Bernays , Zu Aristoteles und
Clemens, 1864, reprinted in Gesammelte Abhandlungen von J. B., heraus-
gegeben von H. Usener, Berlin, 1885, i. 151 — 164; P. Wendland, Quae-
stiones Musonianae. De Musonio stoico Clementis Alexandrini aliorumque
auctore, Berlin, 1886; Id., in Beitrage zur Gesch. der griech. Philosophic
und Religion von P. W. und O. Kern, Berlin, 1895, PP- 68 ff • ; ^-* Phil°
und Clemens Alexandrinus, in Hermes (1896), xxxi. 435 — 456; Ad. Scheck,
De fontibus Clementis Alexandrini (Progr.), Augsburg, 1889; W. Christ,
132 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
Philologische Sttidien zu Clemens Alexandrinus, Miinchen, 1900 (Abhand-
lungen der kgl. bayr. Akad. der Wissensch.) ; H. Jackson, Notes on Cle
ment of Alexandria (Stromata), in Journal of philology (1902), xxvii.
I31 — 135-
A. Rohricht, De Clemente Alexandrino Arnobii in irridendo gentilium
cultu deorum auctore (Progr.), Hamburg, 1893. C. Roos, De Theodoreto
dementis et Eusebii compilatore (Dissert, inaug.), Halle, 1883. F. Schwartz,
Zu Clemens' Tfe 6 tJci>C6fievoc rXoujio;, in Hermes (1903), xxxviii. 75 — 100.
4. IIYPOTYPOSES. The work entitled oTioror.coaetc (outlines, sketches)
contained in eight books a brief commentary on the Scriptures,
including the Letter of Barnabas and the Apocalypse of Peter. It
was interspersed with excursus of a dogmatic or historical nature 1.
There are some Greek fragments of it in Eusebius, Photius, Oecumenius,
and others, also in the so-called Adumbrationes Clementis Alexandrini
in epistulas canonicas. This latter text is a Latin version of the
commentary of Clement on the First Epistle of Peter, the Epistle
of Jude, First and Second of John, made by order of Cassiodorus
and cleansed of dogmatically offensive passages.
Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, iii. 64 — 103
130 — 156; Prenschen (see n. 2), pp. 306 f.; collated with a later codex Zahris
edition of the Adumbrationes (1. c., pp. 79 — 93); G. Mercati, i: Un fram-
mento delle ipotiposi di Clemente Alessandrino ; ii: Paralipomena ambro-
siana, con alcuni appunti sulle benedizioni del cereo pasquale, in Studi e
Testi, Rome, 1904, n. 10.
5. QUIS DIVES SALVETUR. This little work (Who is the rich man
that is saved?: TIQ o (T(oC6fj.evoQ TtAotimog), highly prized even in anti
quity, is a Homily on Mk. x. 17 — 31. The Lord, says Clement, does
not intend to exclude any rich man from the kingdom of heaven;
he only commands us to mortify in spirit our attachment to the goods
of this earth and to make good use of our possessions 2. It must have
been written shortly after the publication of the Stromata3.
The editio princeps is that of M. Ghisler , Leyden, 1623; recent se
parate editions are owing to W. Br. Lindner, Leipzig, 1861; K. Rosier,
Freiburg, 1893 (Sammlung ausgew. kirchen- und dogmengeschichtl. Quellen-
schriften, vi) ; P. M. Barnard, Cambridge, 1897 (Texts and Studies, v. 2).
Former editions were based on a Codex Vatican, (saec. xv); but Barnard
discovered the archetype of this manuscript in Codex Scorial. (saec. xi).
A German version of the Homily was made by L. Hopfenmilller, Kempten,
1875 (Bibl- der Kirchenvater). It was translated into English by P. M.
Barnard, London, 1900.
6. WORKS KNOWN ONLY FROM QUOTATIONS AND FRAGMENTS.
Clement had intended to write special works on various themes; we
do not know that he was able to execute them. Thus it was his
purpose to write on the resurrection: Trepl dvaardaetoQ^; on prophecy:
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 13, 2; 14, i; Phot., Bibl. Cod. 109.
2 Cf. Paed., ii. 3; iii. 6. 3 Cf. c. 26 and Strom., iv. i, 2—3.
4 Paed., i. 6, 47; ii. 10, 104.
§ 38. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. 133
i npo<f>7)T£iaq, in defence of the inspiration of the biblical books
and in opposition to Montanism1; on the soul: nep} ^oyj/Q, against
Basilidians and Marcionites 2 ; perhaps on Genesis, or the Creation:
SIQ ryy fivzoiv^. In the Paedagogus^ he refers to a former work on
continence: xspl efxpaTeiaQ; in the Quis Dives (c. 26) to his dis
cussion on First Principles and on Theology (dpywv xai fteoXoyiac,
ssy-fYjatQj. Wendland holds that in the first passage Clement has
merely copied, and rather carelessly, the title of a work of the
Stoic Musonius. It is true, however, that he announced in the
Stromata5 a work on the dpyai and on fteoXoyia. Eusebius mentions
four other works 6 : a) on Easter (nepi TOO Tidaya), occasioned by the
homonymous work of Melito of Sardes and directed against the
Quartodecimans of Asia Minor 7 ; b) an Ecclesiastical Canon, against
Judaizers: xavcoy ixxArjma.cm.xbc, y rrpoQ robq loudat£ovra£& ; c) Homilies
on fasting and on calumny: diaMzstQ Kepi vqarsiaq xat irepl xara-
; d) an Exhortation to perseverance, or to the newly baptized:
O TrpOTpSTTTtXOQ TtpOQ 'JTtOfJLOyqV 'fj TZpOQ TOUQ VSOiffTt ftsftaTZTCff/llvOUC; 10.
Some texts of the first two are found in later writers. Barnard believ
ed (1897) that he had discovered a fragment of the fourth. -
Palladius is the first to make mention 11 of a work on the prophet
Amos: slg rov Tcpopynqv 'dfjtatQ. A work on Providence: xspl Ttpo-
voiac, is first mentioned by Maximus Confessor, Anastasius Sinaita,
and later writers.
Zahn, ]. c.; pp. 32 — 64; Preuschen, 1. c., pp. 299 — 301 308 — 311 316;
Barnard, Clement of Alex., «Quis dives salvetur», pp. 47 — 52.
7. DOCTRINE OF CLEMENT. From the initial words of the Stromata
(i. I, ii — 14) one might be tempted to believe that the whole work was
nothing more than a written elaboration of the teaching that in former
years Clement had heard from his instructors, and especially from Pan-
tsenus. It is very probable, however, that such words are only an
exaggerated expression of his own modesty and of veneration for his
earlier masters. Clement is frequently in conflict with ecclesiastical
tradition, with which he undertakes to combine elements that are
foreign to it. From Greek philosophy he borrows some far-reaching
principles, first from the Stoics, and then from Plato, frequently
through Philo/ He is of opinion that philosophy, though its elements
of truth are drawn from the Old Testament, should occupy an im
portant role in the divine plan of redemption. As the Jews were
1 Strom., i. 24, 158; iv. I, 2, al. 2 Ib., ii. 20, 113; iii. 3, 13, al.
3 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 13, 8; cf. Strom., iii. 14, 95; vi. 18, 168.
4 ii. 10, 94; cf. ii. 6, 52; iii. 8, 41. 5 iv. i, 2 — 3; cf. iii. 3, 13, al.
6 Cf. Hier., De viris illustr., c. 38.
7 Ens., Hist, eccl., iv. 26, 4; vi. 13, 39. 8 Ib., vi. 13, 3.
9 Ib. 10 Ib. ll Hist. Lausiaca, c. 139.
134 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
led to Christ through the Law, so should the Gentiles come to Him
through philosophy: iTiaidafwyzi yap xat atiry (q <pdoao<pia) TO 'E/J^-
MXOV, we (> wpoz TOUQ 'EftpaiouQ s?c Xpurctw 1. Only by means of philo
sophy can the Christian advance from faith to knowledge, from 7ri<mc
to fvajaiQ. Faith is, so to speak, a concise knowledge of what is
necessary: ffwro/jio^ TCOV xaTSxetfovTcov fvojm<;, while science is a strong
and assured demonstration of those truths that have been accepted
by faith: dnodet&q TCOV oca TicffTsojQ napetty/jifjieMov layupb. xat filftatoQ2.
To acquire knowledge without philosophy is like hoping to harvest
grapes without caring for the vines 3. How far Clement, under the
guidance of philosophy, had fallen away from ecclesiastical doctrine,
may be gathered from the severe judgment ofPhotius4 on \htHypo-
ty poses (§ 38, 4), a work in which Clement seems to have plunged
more deeply into speculation than in any of his extant writings.
-In some places», says Photius, «he holds firmly to the correct doc
trine ; elsewhere he is carried away by strange and impious notions.
He asserts the eternity of matter, excogitates a theory of ideas from
the words of Holy Scripture, and reduces the Son to a mere crea
ture. He relates fabulous stories of a metempsychosis and of many
worlds before Adam. Concerning the formation of Eve from Adam
he teaches things blasphemous and scurrilous , and anti-scriptural.
He imagines that the angels held intercourse with women and begot
children from them , also that the Logos did not become man in
reality but only in appearance. It even seerns that he has a fabulous
notion of two Logoi of the Father, of which the inferior one appeared
to men; indeed, not even this one.»
V. Hebert-Duperron, Essai sur la polemique et la philosophic de Clement
d'Alexandrie, Paris, 1855. J. Cognat , Clement d'Alexandrie, sa doctrine
et sa polemique, Paris, 1859. H. Preische, De -yvcosst dementis Alexandrini
(Dissert, inaug.), Jena, 1871. Knittel , Pistis und Gnosis bei Clemens von
Alexandrien, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1873), Iv. 171 — 219 363 — 417. C.
Merk, Clemens Alexandrinus in seiner Abhangigkeit von der griechischen
Philosophic (Dissert, inaug.), Leipzig, 1879. ^- de Faye, Clement d'Alex
andrie , Etude sur les rapports du Christianisme et de la philosophic
grecque an 2e siecle, Paris, 1898. H. Laemmer, dementis Alexandrini de
Xo^to doctrina, Leipzig, 1855. G. T/i. Hitten, dementis Alex, de SS. Eucha-
ristia doctrina (Dissert, inaug.), Warendorp, 1861. G. Anrich , Clemens
und Origenes als Begriinder der Lehre vom Fegfeuer (in Abhandlungen
fur H. J. Holtzmann), Tubingen, 1902. P. Ziegert , Zwei Abhandlungen
•iber T. Flavius Clemens Alexandrinus. Psychologic und Logoschristologie,
Heidelberg, 1894. V. Pascal, La foi et la raison dans Clement d'Alexandrie,
Montdidier, 1901. Funk, Clemens von Alexandrien liber Familie und
Eigentum, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1871), liii. 427—449, and in Kirchen-
geschichtl. Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (1899), ii. 45 — 60. Fr. J,
Winter , Die Ethik des Clemens von Alexandrien, in Studien zur Gesch.
1 Strom., i. 5, 28; cf. vi. 17, 159. Cf. Gal. iii. 24.
2 Strom., vii. io; 57. 3 Ib., i. 9, 43- * Bibl. Cod. 109.
§ 3$. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. 135
der christl. Ethik , i, Leipzig, 1882. G. Basilakes , KXiqjAsvro? rou 'AXs;-
ocvopsoK ~<] y;ihxrj SiSajxaXta (Dissert, inaug.) , Erlangen, 1892. A'. Ernesti,
Die Ethik des Titus Flavins Clemens von Alexandrien oder die erste zu-
sammenhangende Begriindung der christlichen Sittenlehre, Paderborn, 1900.
Markgraf , Clemens von Alexandrien als asketischer Schriftsteller in seiner
Stellung zu den natiirlichen Lebensgiitern , in Zeitschr. fur Kirchengesch.
(1901 — 1902), xxii. 485 — 515. N. Capitaine, Die Moral des Clemens von
Alexandrien, Paderborn, 1903. W. Wagner, Der Christ und die Welt nach
Clemens von Alexandrien, ein noch unveraltetes Problem in altchristlicher
Beleuchtung, Gottingen, 1903. H. Eickhoff , Das Neue Testament des
Clemens Alexandrinus (Progr.), Schleswig, 1890. P. Dausch, Der neutesta-
mentliche Schriftkanon und Clemens von Alexandrien, Freiburg, 1894.
H. Kutter, Clemens Alexandrinus und das Neue Testament, Gieften, 1897.
P. M. Barnard, The Biblical Text of Clement of Alexandria in the Four
Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, Cambridge, 1899 (Texts and Studies,
v. 5). O. Staehlin , Clemens Alexandrinus und die Septuaginta (Progr.),
Niirnberg, 1901. Bratke , Die Stellung des Clemens Alexandrinus zum
antiken Mysterienwesen , in Theol. Studien und Kritiken, (1887), Ix. 647
to 708, and P. Ziegert , ib. (1894), Ixvii. 706 — 732. W. Wagner., Wert
und Verwertung der griechischen Bildung im Urteil des Clemens von
Alexandrien, in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1902), xlv. 213 — 262.
V. KranicJi, Qua via ac ration e Clemens Alex, ethnicos ad religionem chri-
stianam adducere studuerit, Braunsberg, 1903.
8. PANT.ENUS. He was born in Sicily according to Clement (Strom.,
i. i, n), became a Christian missionary in the East (India and Arabia),
and was for many years president of the catechetical school of Alexandria
(Eus., Hist, eccl., v. 10). He died shortly before 200, and left no writings
(Clem., Strom., i. i, 11—14; Eclog. 27). It is very probable that the as
sertion of Eusebius (Hist, eccl., v. 10, 4), that Pantaenus had left books of
his own composition (suyypajjifjiaTa), and similar statements in more recent
writers (Maximus Confessor, Anastasius Sinaita) are only a hasty inference
from the fact that Clement often quotes expressions from Pantasnus. Jerome
attributes to him many Commentaries on Scripture, but he is doubtless
re-iterating Eusebius (cf. De viris illustr., c. 36; Ep. 70, 4). The <'.testimonia»
of the ancients concerning Pantaenus are met with in Routh , Reliquiae
sacrae, i. 373 — 383, and are reprinted in Migne, PG. , v. 1327 — 1332,
more fully in Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i. 291 — 296; cf.
particularly Zahn, Forschungen, iii. 156 — 176.
9. JUDAS. A certain Judas, otherwise unknown, probably an Alexan
drine from what Eusebius says (Hist, eccl., vi. 7 ; cf. Hier., De viris illustr.,
c. 52), wrote a work on the seventy weeks of Daniel: si? ra; ~apa no AavifjX
spoojAaoac, in which he presented chronological reckonings as far as the
tenth year of the reign of Septimius Severus (203) and announced the
coming of Antichrist as imminent. Similar prophecies were made during
the persecution of Septimius Severus (cf. Hipp., Comm. in Dan., iv. 18 19).
We only need mention the quite unsuccessful attempt ofSchlatter who under
took to find in Clement (Strom., i. 21, 147) and in other writers traces of
a Christian chronography made in the tenth year of Antoninus Pius (148).
He hoped, by rejection of the dates of Eusebius, to identify this chrono
graphy with the above-mentioned work of Judas. — A. Schlatter, Der Chrono
graph aus dem zehnten Jahre Antonins (Texte und Untersuchungen, xii. i),
Leipzig, 1894. Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i. 327 755 f . ;
ii. i, 225 flf. 406 ff.
136 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
§ 39. Origen.
I . HIS LIFE AND WORKS. In the sixth book of his Church History,
Eusebius relates at length the life and labors of Origen; of the great
« Apology for Origen » composed in common by Eusebius and Pam-
philus, we possess but a few small remnants. Similarly, the correspon
dence of the great theologian has perished, with the exception of a
few pieces. He was born of Christian parents in 185 or 186, appa
rently at Alexandria. Probably it was only at a later period that
the soubriquet Adamantius (?Adajy.dvTtO£ = Man of steel) was applied
to him1. He owed his first training to his father Leonides, parti
cularly an excellent religious formation2. At an early age he fre
quented the catechetical school of Alexandria, where he profited by
the teaching of Clement3. Leonides suffered martyrdom in the per
secution of Septirnius Severus, 202 or 203 ; the ardent desire of Origen
to share his father's fate was frustrated only by his mother's ingenuity*.
Having lost its patrimony by confiscation, the family, a large one,
was reduced to poverty. In the meantime Origen had attracted
the attention of Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, and in 203, when
scarcely eighteen years of age, was called to the head-mastership of
the catechetical school, as successor to Clement5. Until 215 or 216
he worked on at this calling, a tireless and influential man. So far
as we know his teaching was at this time uninterrupted, save for a
short time by journeys to Rome and to Arabia 6. It was during these
years that ascetic zeal, roused by meditation on Mt. xix, 12, moved
him to emasculate himself7. To gain leisure for his own studies he
took in as an associate teacher his former disciple Heraclas. He retain
ed, however, the direction of the more advanced pupils8. Origen
had probably reached his twenty-fifth year when he began to attend
the lectures of Ammonius Saccas, the famous founder of Neoplatonism 9 ;
at the same time his zeal for biblical studies urged him to acquire a
knowledge of Hebrew 10. To this period also belong his first writings.
The Alexandrine massacre perpetrated by Caracalla in 215 or 216,
was the cause of Origen' s flight to Palestine. Here Alexander, bishop
of Jerusalem, and Theoctistus, bishop of Csesarea, received him most
honourably, and, though he was yet a layman, induced him to preach
in their churches. Demetrius of Alexandria was dissatisfied with their
conduct, and requested Origen to return without delay. The latter
obeyed and once more took up his calling as teacher and writer11.
Seven skilled amanuenses were placed at his disposal by Ambrose,
a former disciple; they relieved one another in taking down the
1 Pamphilus-Etts , in Phot., Bibl. Cod. 118; Iher., Ep. 33, 3.
- E^is., Hist, eccl., vi. 2, 7. 3 Ib., vi. 6. 4 Ib., vi. 2, 5.
5 Ib., vi. 3, 3. 6 Ib., vi. 14, 10; 19, 15. 7 Ib., vi. 8. 8 Ib., vi. 15.
9 Ib., vi. 19. 10 Ib., vi. 1 6, I. n Ib., vi. 19, 19.
§ 39- ORIGEN. 137
master's dictation. As many copyists and some female calligraphers
were also occupied in his service, - - in a way this corps did duty as
an Alexandrine press for the publication of his works1. About 230 he
undertook, with a written recommendation from Demetrius2, a journey
to Athens in order to confer with certain heretics; on the way he
stopped at Csesarea in Palestine, where he was ordained priest3 by his
friends Alexander and Theoctistus; this without the knowledge of his
bishop and in spite of his act of self-emasculation, for which step,
on his return, Demetrius called him to account. He was deposed
from his office as head-master by two synods held at Alexandria
(231 — 232), because of his irregular ordination and his unecclesiastical
teaching; he was also expelled from the city and degraded from the
priesthood4. Shortly afterwards Demetrius died and Heraclas was
chosen his successor, whereupon Origen returned to Alexandria, only
to be again condemned and excommunicated by Heraclas for un
ecclesiastical teaching5. He now took up his permanent residence at
Csesarea, and established there a theological school that soon reached
a high degree of efficiency 6. One of its pupils, St. Gregory Thaumat-
urgus, has left us an interesting account of the method of instruction
and the course of studies carried on by Origen at Caesarea7. With
the exception of a few journeys to Athens8 and Arabia9, in the
service of the Church, he seems to have lived on in Csesarea, con
stantly busy as teacher, writer and preacher, to the time of the
Decian persecution. During that storm he was cast into prison, pro
bably at Tyre, and underwent many tortures10. Not long after he
died at Tyre11, in 254 or 255, having completed his sixty-ninth
year 12.
P. D. Huetius , Origenis in S. Scripturas commentaria, Rouen, 1668,
i. i — 278: Origeniana (on the life, doctrine, and writings of Origen, three
books), often reprinted, cf. Migne , PG., xvii. 633—1284. E. R. Rede-
penning, Origenes. Eine Darstellung seines Lebens und seiner Lehre, Bonn,
1841 — 1846, 2 voll. E. Freppel, Origene, Paris, 1868. 2 voll. , 2. ed.
l875; 3- ed. 1886. Fr. Bohringer , Die griechischen Vater des 3. und
4. Jahrhunderts. i: Klemens und Origenes (Die Kirche Christi und ihre
Zeugen, i. 2, i) 2. ed. Zurich, 1869. B. F. Westcott, Origenes, in Dictio
nary of Christ. Biogr. (1887), iv. 96—142. For Origen and Heraclas cf.
J. Dollinger, Hippolytus und Kallistus, Ratisbon, 1853, 261 ff. Preuschen,
Bibelzitate bei Origenes, in Zeitschr. fur die neutestamentl. Wissensch.
(1903), iv. 79— 87. F. A. Winter, Uber den Wert der direkten und in-
direkten Uberlieferung von Origenes' Biichern Contra Celsum (Progr.),
Burghausen, 1903, i. D. Genet , L'enseignement d'Origene sur la priere,
Cahors (1903).
1 Ib., vi. 23, 2. 2 Hier., De viris illustr., cc. 54 62.
a Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 8, 4. 4 Phot., Bibl. Cod. 118.
5 Phot., Collect, et demonstr., c. 9. 6 Ens., Hist, eccl., vi. 30.
7 Paneg. in Orig. cc. 7 — 15. 8 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 32, 2.
9 Ib., vi. 33, 37. 10 Ib., vi. 39, 5. 11 Ib., vii. i.
12 Hier., De viris illustr., c. 54.
138 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
2. THE WORKS OF ORIGEN. The story told to Epiphanius1 about
the 6000 books (ftiflJiouQj written by Origen was surely an exaggeration.
The catalogue of his works given by Eusebius in his lost life of
St. Pamphilus2, did not contain, if \ve believe St. Jerome3, 2000 titles,
and the catalogue made by Jerome himself4, most probably from
that of Eusebius, does not mention in its actual shape more than
800 titles; it is, however, very defective, and perhaps does not ex
hibit a continuous text. It is certain that no ecclesiastical writer
of the Ante-Nicene period equalled Origen in literary productivity.
We possess to-day but a small remnant of his works; and of these
fully one half have reached us, not in the original Greek, but in
Latin versions. Eminent writers like Jerome and Rufinus were his
translators, while Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus co-operated
in producing an elegant florilegium of his works known as the Philo-
calia or ('Qprfivou^ <pdo%a)da). Whole classes of his writings perished
as the result of the inimical edict of Justinian (543), the adverse
judgment of the Fifth General Council (553)> anc^ the attitude of the
so-called Gelasian Decretal de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis.
Origen cultivated with special zeal the field of biblical text-criticism
and exegesis; he wrote commentaries, not once, but often and in
various forms, on the greater part of the Scriptures. At the same
time he wrote a series of apologetic, polemical, dogmatic and asceti-
cal works - - in a word, he outlined the entire field of theology.
He was the first to construct a philosophico-theological system, at once
uniform and comprehensive. All the theological movements and
schools belonging to the patristic period of the Greek Church are
grouped about Origen as about a common centre of union or diver
gency. He does not belong to the first rank of stylists, being not
only very prolix in the treatment of his subject, but also diffuse
and pedantic in expression; • defects that are probably owing
to his uninterrupted oral teaching. Many of his writings were not
genuine literary labors, but ephemeral performances, dictations5, or
oral discourses copied by his hearers6.
Preuschen , in Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Lit., i. 332 — 405. The
existing editions of St. Jerome's works give Ep. 33, only in fragmentary
form (cf. Migne, PL., xxii. 446 ff.). The catalogues of the works of Varro
and Origen were first published by Fr. Ritschl in 1848, and again in 1849.
It is on his labors that the attempts of Redepenning and Pitra to re
construct Ep. 33 Jerome are based. For Redepenning , see Zeitschr. fur
die histor. Theol. (1851), xxi. 66 — 79, and for Pitra, Spicil. Solesm. (1855),
iii. 311 — 317. With the help of new codices E. Klostermann, in Sitzungs-
berichte der k. preuft. Akad. der Wissensch. , Berlin 1897, pp. 855 — 870,
undertook to reconstruct the catalogue of the works of Origen. The Greek
text of the Philocalia Origenis of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus
1 Haer. 64, 63. 2 EMS., Hist, eccl., vi. 32, 3. 3 Adv. Rufin., ii. 22.
4 Ep. 33. 5 Ens., Hist, eccl., vi. 23, 2. 6 Ib., vi. 36, i.
§ 39- ORIGEN. 139
was first edited by y. Tarinus, Paris, 1619, and recently by y. A. Robinson,
Cambridge, 1893. It is also to be found in the editions of Origen (e. g.
in Migne , PG., xiv. 1309—1316). The first complete editions of Origen,
those of y. Merlin, Paris, 1512, and G. Genebrard, Paris, 1574, both of
which have often been reprinted, furnish only a Latin version, even for
those writings the Greek text of which has reached us. The Maurist sa
vants, Charles de la Rue and his nephew Charles Vincent de la Rue, were
the first to bring out a complete edition of Origen, with the exception of
the fragments of the Hexapla, Paris, 1733 — 1759, 4 voll. It was reproduced
in abbreviated form by Fr. Oberthilr, Wiirzburg, 1780 — 1794, 15 voll. The
edition of C. H. E. Lommatzsch , Berlin 1831 — 1848, 25 voll., is a much
more original and complete work. The Maurist edition, with numerous
additions (Hexapla, Philosophumena, Supplementum ad Origenis Exegetica)
is reprinted in Migne, PG., xi — xvii. A new edition of the works of
Origen is now appearing in the Berlin Collection of early ecclesiastical
Greek writers: Origenes' Werke i — ii, herausgegeben von P. Koetschau,
Leipzig, 1899. Cf. Koetschau, Kritische Bemerkungen zu meiner Ausgabe
von Origenes' Exhortatio, Contra Celsum, De oratione, Leipzig, 1899,
also Koetschau, in Zeitschr. fiir wissensch. Theol. (1900), xliii. 321 — 377;
vol. iii., edited by E. Klostermann, contains the homilies on the Prophecy
of Jeremiah, the commentaries on the Lamentations, and the exposition
of the Book of Kings, Berlin, 1901 ; vol. iv. Origenes' Johannes-Kommentar,
edited by E. Prenschen, Berlin, 1903.
3. CRITICAL WORKS ON THE BIBLE. In the gigantic enterprise
known as the Hexapla, now lost, Origen set himself the task of
making clear at a glance the relation of the Septuagint to the original
Hebrew text; he thereby hoped to establish a solid foundation for
his theological interpretation of Scripture, and particularly for his
polemic against the Jews 1. For this purpose he copied in parallel
columns, first the Hebrew text in Hebrew letters, then the Hebrew
text in Greek letters. Then followed in four other columns the
Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus, the Septuagint, and Theo-
dotion. In the text of the Septuagint he marked with an obelus or
cancel the words, verses or chapters that were lacking in the original
Hebrew. The < lacunae » or gaps in the Septuagint text which were
indicated by an asterisk were filled up from one of the other versions,
mostly from Theodotion's. For some books of the Old Testament
he added a fifth version, and for the Psalms a fifth, sixth and seventh2.
From its six columns the work was known as Hexapla (kqanXa, sc
fpdp.p.ara) or six-fold writing. This great enterprise, begun at Alex
andria, is said to have been finished at Tyre; therefore, towards the
end of his life3. Very probably no second copy was ever made
of the entire work. The fifth column (Hexaplar recension of the
Septuagint) was often copied, and we still possess some fragments
of its Greek text. The greater part of it has also reached us in a
Syriac version, slavishly literal, made in 616 or 617, by Paul, bishop
1 Orig., Comm. in Matth., xv. 14.
2 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 16; Hicr., Comm. in Titum ad iii. 9.
3 Epiph., De mens. et pond., c. 18.
I4O FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
of Telia. Origen prepared also a work known as the Tetrapla *,
a collation of the four principal Greek versions of the Old Testa
ment, those namely of Aquila, Symmachus, the Septuagint, and
Theodotion. It has utterly perished. There is no foundation for the
opinion of Hug that Origen undertook a revision or recension of the
text of the New Testament.
The fragments of the Hexapla were collected by B. de Montfaucon,
Paris, 1713, 2 voll. (cf. Migne, PG., xv — xvi) and Fr. Field, Oxford, 1867
to 1875, 2 voll. More important than the appendices of J. B. Pitra (1884)
and £. Klostermami (1894) is the yet unpublished discovery by G. Mercati
of a Hexapla fragment of the Psalms. G. Mercati, Un palinsesto ambro-
siano dei Salmi Esapli, Turin, 1896, in Atti della R. Accademia delle Scienze
di Torino. The same writer has also made important contributions to the
history and text of the Hexapla, in Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana
antica (Studi e Testi v), Rome, 1901, i (pp. i — 7): Una congettura sopra
il libro del Giusto ; ii (pp. 8 — 16): Sul testo ebraico del Salmo 140 (141);
iii (pp. 17 — 27): Sul canone biblico di S. Epifanio; iv (pp. 28—46): D'alcuni
frammenti esaplari sulla va e via edizione greca della Bibbia (there is laid
claim, for the Hexapla, by interior and exterior reasons, to some few lines
of this iv. part ; they are entitled zspl TTJ? e' xal r Ixooaewc aAXaK : Migne,
PG., Ixxxiv. 29); v (pp. 47 — 60): Sul testo et sul senso di Eusebio, Hist,
eccl., vi. 1 6. J. Hallvy, L'origine de la transcription du texte hebreu en
caracteres grecs dans les Hexaples d'Origene, in Journal asiatique, ser. ix
(1901), xviii. 335 — 341. Hale'vy was opposed by J. B. Chabot, ib. 349 — 350;
and replied ib. (1902), xix. 134 — 136 140 — 144; C. Taylor, Hebrew-Greek
Cairo Genizah Palimpsests from the Taylor-Schechter collection, including a
fragment of the 22. Psalm according to Origen's Hexapla, Cambridge, 1901.
The Syriac version is of very great importance for the reconstruction of the
Hexaplar text of the Septuagint ; the second half of a complete copy of that
version was published in photolithograph by A. M. Ceriani (Monum. sacra et
prof. ex. codd. praes. bibl. Ambrosianae, Milan, 1874, vii.); the other extant
fragments were published by P. de Lagarde, Bibl. Syriaca, Gottingen, 1892,
pp. i — 256. In general, for the history of the Hexapla, see the intro
ductions to the Old Testament. The theory of Hug is refuted by Hund-
hausen, in Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexikon, 2. ed., ii. (1883), 700.
4. BIBLICO-EXEGETICAL WRITINGS. His exegetical writings may
be divided into three groups: scholia, homilies and commentaries.
The scholia (a%bha. or ay/jtstaHretQJ, called excerpta by Jerome and
Rufinus, are brief notes on the more difficult passages or the more
obscure words. The homilies (ofidiat, homiliae, tractatus), are ser
mons on select chapters of the Bible. The commentaries (TU/JLOI, volu-
mina, libri) are detailed and often exhaustive studies, illustrative of
the biblical text. Unlike the more popular homilies, they contain
philosophico-theological disquisitions, by means of which the more
intelligent readers may discover the deeper truths of Scripture 2. Origen
wrote scholia on Exodus and Leviticus3, also on Numbers4. Some
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 16, 44; Epiph., De mens. et pond., c. 19.
2 Hier., Interpr. horn. Grig, in Ezech., prol. 3 Cf. Catal. in Hier. Ep. 33.
4 Rufin., Interpr. horn. Grig, in Num., prol.
§ 39- ORIGEN. 141
fragments of these may yet be discovered in the Catenae. Some
fragments of the scholia on Exodus are met with in the Philocalia
(c. 27) !. His scholia on Numbers were, partially at least, included
by Rufinus in his translation of the homilies of Origen on Numbers2.
Origen also wrote homilies on all the books of the Pentateuch3,
after 244 on the first four books, on Deuteronomy about 233. Of
their Greek text only fragments remain4, though they might be
considerably increased by a more careful search in the Catenae. In
the meantime there are extant in the version or paraphrase of Ru
finus seventeen homilies on Genesis5, thirteen on Exodus6, sixteen on
Leviticus7, twenty-eight on Numbers8. It was also the intention of
Rufinus to translate those on Deuteronomy, of which the catalogue
numbers thirteen9. Beside the seventeen homilies on Genesis the
catalogue of his works mentions mysticarum homiliamm libros 2,
which also dealt with Genesis10, but of which \ve have no more
exact knowledge. It is possible that the homily on Melchisedech
quoted by Jerome n was one of them. Finally he composed a com
mentary on Genesis, probably in thirteen books, the first eight of
which were written at Alexandria, the others at Csesarea 12. He did
not get beyond Gen. v. I 13. Only a few fragments of it are extant 14,
mostly citations in the Philocalia (c. 14 23) from the third book.
It seems that on the historical books of the Old Testament Origen
delivered or wrote only homilies. Rufinus translated 15 twenty-six
homilies on Josue that \vere probably delivered during the persecution
of Decius 16. A Greek fragment of the twentieth homily is found in
the Philocalia (c. 12); in 1894, Klostermann discovered notable re
mnants of the first four and the last eleven in the Octateuch-Catena
of the sophist Procopius of Gaza. There exists a Latin version
made by Rufinus17 of nine homilies on Judges18 mentioned about
235 by Origen himself. Between these nine and the four on the
first book of Kings the Catalogue places eight homilies De pascha,
a title that seems enigmatic if only by reason of its position. Two
homilies on the first book of Kings have been preserved, one on
I Kings i. — ii., in a Latin version of unknown origin19, the other
in the original Greek, on I Kings xxviii., or concerning the witch
of Endor (nepl TYJQ IfraffTptfjtuftoui)20. Cassiodorus mentions21 a homily
1 Migne, PG., xii. 263 — 282. 2 Rufin., 1. c.
3 Orig., Horn. 8 in Luc. 4 Migne, PG., xii. 161 — 168 353 — 354, al.
5 Ib., xii. 145—162. 6 lb,, xii. 297—396.
7 Ib., xii. 405 — 574. 8 Ib., xii. 583-806. ° Rufin., 1. c.
10 Rufin,, Apol., ii. 20. u Ep. 73, 2. 12 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 24, 2.
13 Orig., Contra Gels., vi. 49; cf. Hier., Ep. 36, 9.
14 Migne, PG., xii. 45—92. 15 Ib., xii. 823—948.
16 Horn, in los., ix. 10. 17 Migne, PG., xii. 951 — 990.
18 Orig., Prolog, in Cant., in Migne, PG., xiii. 78. 19 Ib., xii. 995—1012.
20 Ib., xii. 1011 — 1028. 2I Inst., i. 2.
142 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
on 2 Kings, one on the second book of Paralipomenon 1 , a homily
respectively on the first and second book of Esdras; all translated2
by his friend Bellator. The twenty-two homilies on Job found a
Latin epitomator in Hilary of Poitiers3, but of this epitome only
two small fragments remain4, and remnants of the Greek text seem
to be still found in the Catenae. - - Origen treated the Psalms in
all three of the above-mentioned ways5. The Catalogue mentions
scholia on Psalms I — 15, and on the whole Psalter, also homilies
on various Psalms. In all he wrote 120 homilies on 63 Psalms. He
also wrote forty-six books of commentaries on forty-one Psalms.
Elsewhere Jerome speaks6 of a commentary on Ps. 126, and a
tractatus Phe liter ae , probably an explanation of the verses of
Psalm 118 that began with the Hebrew letter D. Eusebius mentions
an explanation of Psalms I — 25 written when Origen was still resi
dent in Alexandria 7. Apart from an endless lot of fragments in
the Catenae there is extant but very little of the Greek text of his
various writings on the Psalms. There exist, however, in a Latin
version of Rufinus, nine homilies, five on Psalm 36, two on Psalm 37,
and two on Psalm 38; they date approximately from 240— 245 8.
In his own commentary on the Psalms, Hilary of Poitiers made an ex
tensive use of the labors of Origen9. In his above-mentioned Cata
logue Jerome sets down seven homilies on Proverbs, a commentary
in three books, a De proverbiorum quibusdam quaestionibus librum I ;
fragments of which have reached us almost only through the Ca
tenae. It seems that the scholia and eight homilies on Ecclesiastes
are altogether lost. An elegant version of St. Jerome 10 has preserved
the two homilies on the Canticle of canticles. In the Philocalia
(c. 7, i) has been saved a fragment, taken from some otherwise
unknown youthful work of Origen on the Canticle of canticles11.
Besides some Greek Catenae-fragments of his commentary on the
latter book, we possess the prologue, the first three books and a
part of the fourth , in a Latin version by Rufinus 12. This com
mentary was originally in ten books; five of them he wrote at
Athens about 240, and the others shortly after, at Caesarea 13. Of
these commentaries Jerome said 14 : Origenes , cum in celeris libris
omnes vicerit, in Cantico canticorum ipse se vicit. On the prophet
Isaias he also wrote scholia, homilies and a commentary15. The
homilies were apparently twenty-five in number16; nine of them
1 Cass., Inst., i. 2. 2 Ib., i. 6.
3 Hier., Ep. 61, 2; De viris illust., c. 100. 4 Migne, PL., x. 723 — 724.
5 Hier., Comm. in Psalm., prol. G Ep. 34, I.
7 Eus., Hist, eccl, vi. 24, 2. 8 Migne, PG., xii. 1319 — 1410.
u Hier., Ep. 61, 2; De viris illustr., c. 100. 10 Migne, PG., xiii. 35—58.
11 Ib., xiii. 35—66. '2 Ib., xiii., 61 — 198.
13 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 32, 2. u Interpr. horn. Orig. in Cant., prol.
15 Hier., Comm. in Is., prol. 1G Ib.
§ 39- ORIGEX. 143
have reached us in a Latin translation by Jerome, who purged them
of heterodox sentiments 1. The commentary on Isaias was composed
at Csesarea about 235, and dealt in thirty books with the text to
Is. xxx. 5 2. A few small fragments of it are found in the text of
Pamphilus3. Two books on the vision in Isaias xxx. 6 ff. were held
by Jerome to be spurious4. - - An Escurial codex of the twelfth
century has preserved for us the Greek text of nineteen homilies
on Jeremias5, delivered by Origen after 244; also fourteen, in a
Latin version by Jerome6. Twelve of the Latin homilies (i 24
8 — 14 1 6 17) are found also in Greek. The other two (20 21) are
wanting in the Greek text of the manuscript. Cassiodorus was ac
quainted with forty-five homilies on Jeremias7, and the Philocalia
contains (cc. I 10) two fragments of the thirty-ninth homily on that
prophet8. - - Origen composed at Alexandria a commentary on the
Lamentations, five books of which were known to Eusebius 9. Maxi-
mus Confessor cites a tenth book of the same 10, but the only frag
ments saved are apparently those in the Catenae. Of the homilies
on Jeremias, delivered after those on Ezechiel ] *, fourteen have reached
us in a Latin version of Jerome, who removed from them the
doctrinal errors12. Origen also began at Csesarea and finished at
Athens, about 240, a commentary on Ezechiel in twenty-five books13.
A fragment of the 20. book is met with in the Philocalia (c. n)14.
The ancients say nothing of any work on Daniel. After 244, Origen
wrote at Csesarea a commentary on the twelve minor prophets, of
which Eusebius15 could find «only twenty-five books » 16. The Cata
logue of Origen' s works mentions commentaries on all the minor
prophets, with the exception of Abdias. The only known fragment
preserved is from the commentary on Osee in Philocalia c. 8 17. He
wrote a special opuscule on the pretended mystic sense of the
word «Ephraim» in Osee18. The Gospel of St. Matthew was illu
strated by Origen with scholia, twenty-five homilies and a commen
tary in twenty-five books 19. The commentary was composed at Cae-
sarea20 after 244. The original Greek is still extant in part (books 10 to
17, on Mt. xiii. 36 to xxii. 33) 21. A still larger portion (Mt. xvi. 13
1 Migne, PG., xiii. 219 — 254. 2 E^^s., Hist, eccl., vi. 32, i.
3 Apol. pro Orig., cc. 5 7; Migne, PG., xiii. 217 — 220.
4 Hier., Comm. in Is., prol. 5 Migne, PG., xiii. 256 — 526.
6 Ib., xiii. 255 — 542. 7 Inst., i. 3.
3 Migne, PG., xiii. 541 — 544. 9 Hist, eccl., vi. 24, 2.
10 Schol. in Dion. Areop., in Migne, PG., iv. 549.
11 Orig., Horn, in Kzech., xi. 5. 12 Migne, PG., xiii. 665—768.
ia Ens., Hist, eccl., vi. 32, 1—2. u Migne, PG., xiii. 663 — 666.
15 Hist, eccl., vi. 36, 2. 1G /Her., De viris ill., c. 75.
17 Migne, PG., xiii. 825 — 828. l8 Hier., Comm. in Hos., prol.
19 Hier., Comm. in Matth., prol. 20 Etts., Hist, eccl., vi. 36, 2.
-1 Migne, PG., xiii. 835 — 1600.
144 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
to xxvii. 63) exists in an ancient anonymous Latin recension *.
There are also a few scattered fragments of the commentary on
St. Matthew2. Nothing is known of Origen's labors on St. Mark.
Jerome translated thirty-nine homilies on St. Luke, that may have
been delivered shortly after 233 3. The Catenae have preserved
numerous fragments of these homilies, that apparently numbered
more than thirty-nine4. He wrote also a commentary on St. Luke
in five books, but it is lost with the exception of some Catenae-
fragments5. - - For St. John the Catalogue enumerates scholia and
a commentary in thirty-two books6; of this commentary, besides
small fragments of various books , the Greek text of the following
books I 2 6 10 13 19 (incomplete) 20 28 32 has been saved for
us by a Munich Codex of the twelfth or thirteenth century7. The
first five books were written at Alexandria, it is thought before the
year 228 8; but in the time of the persecution of Maximinus (235
to 238) the work was still unfinished9; very probably it originally
consisted of more than thirty-two books 10. - - Of the seventeen
homilies on the Acts of the Apostles we know only one fragment
of the fourth preserved in the Philocalia (c. 7, 2) n. We possess
the fifteen books of the commentary (written after 244) on the Epistle
to the Romans, but in a Latin recension in ten books, made by
Rufinus 12. His copy of the original Greek of this commentary con
tained a text both incomplete and corrupt; moreover it was on a
Latin version of the Epistle to the Romans that Rufinus based his
exposition. The Catalogue mentions eleven homilies on the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians, but probably we ought to read the First
Epistle13; there are Catenae -fragments of homilies on the latter.
On the Epistle to the Galatians he wrote scholia u , seven homilies
and five books of a commentary ; fragments of the first book of the
commentary are quoted by Pamphilus15. In his commentary on
this Epistle /St. Jerome follows Origen closely16. He made a still
more copious use of the text of Origen in his commentary on the
Epistle to the Ephesians 17. Origen had written a commentary on the
latter in three books; Greek fragments, of which some are lengthy,
1 Migne, PG., xiii. 993— 1800. 2 Ib., xiii. 829 — 834.
3 Ib., xiii. 1799 — 1902.
4 Orig., Comm. in Matth., xiii. 29 ; Comm. in Io., xxxii. 2.
5 Hier., Interpr. horn. Orig. in Luc., prol. -- The Catalogue mentions 15 books.
6 Hier., Interpr. horn. Orig. in Luc., prol. — In Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 24, I, for 22
it should be read 32.
7 Migne, PG., xiv. 21 — 830. 8 Comm. in Io. i. 4; vi. I.
9 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 28. 10 Orig., Comm. in Matth. ser., c. 133.
11 Migne, PG., xiv. 829—832. 12 Ib., xiv. 831— 1294.
13 Hier, Ep. 49, 3.
14 Cf. the Catalogue, and Hier., Comm. in Gal., prol.; Ep. 112, 4.
15 Apol. pro Orig., c. 5; Migne, PG., xiv. 1293—1298. l6 Hier., 11. cc.
17 Hier., Comm. in Epiph., prol.; Adv. Rufin., i. 16, 21; iii. 11.
§ 39- ORIGEN. 145
are met with in the Catenae, also a Latin fragment in Jerome *. Ac
cording to the Catalogue he wrote a commentary in one book on
the Epistle to the Philippians, and one in two books on the Epistle
to the Colossians, while Pamphilus2 quotes a passage from a third
book of that commentary. Similarly, the Catalogue mentions a com
mentary in three books on the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, a
long fragment of which is quoted by St. Jerome3. He also wrote
a commentary in one book on the Second Epistle to Thessalonians.
The same Catalogue indicates two homilies on Epist. ad Thess. without
distinguishing to which one they belong. He wrote a homily and
a commentary in one book on the Epistle to Titus; Pamphilus4
cites five fragments from it. The same writer has also preserved5 a
fragment of a commentary in one book on the Epistle to Philemon.
It would seem that the only remnants of the eight homilies on the
Epistle to the Hebrews are two quotations in Eusebius6. Though,
strangely enough, the Catalogue says nothing of a commentary on
Hebrews; Pamphilus7 quotes four passages from it. There is no
indication in the Catalogue of any treatises on the Catholic Epistles
or on the Apocalypse. It is certain, however, that Origen intended
to write a commentary on the latter8.
A new edition of the exegetical works of Origen will need to sift
with more care than has hitherto been used the Catenae-fragments fre
quently referred to in the preceding pages. There must be a sifting of
the genuine from the spurious; as far as possible, each genuine passage
must also be traced back to its proper source. Many such fragments are
found in the De la Rue edition (Migne, xii — xiii, passim). Additions were
made by Gallandi and Mai (Migne, xvii. 9 — 370: Supplementum ad Ori-
genis Exegetica). In his Analecta sacra, ii. 335 — 345 349—483; iii. i to
588, Pitra published recently from Vatican Catenae lengthy fragments on
the Old Testament (Octateuch, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, the Prophets). Cf
Fr. Loofs in Theol. Literaturzeitung 1884, pp. 459 — 463. For fragments
of New Testament Catenae see especially J. A. Cramer, Catenae graeco-
rum Patrum in Nov. Test., Oxford, 1838 — 1844, 8 voll. On the Catenae
in general cf. Prcuschen in Harnack , 1. c., 403 — 405 835 — 842. On the
extracts from the homilies on Josue found in Procopius of Gaza see
E. Klostermann in Texte und Untersuchungen , Leipzig, 1894, xii. 3, 2.
The homily on i Kings, c. xxviii (the Witch of Endor) , was re-edited
(1886) with the reply of St. Eustathius of Antioch by A. Jakn, 1. c., ii. 4.
Origen's commentary on the Canticle of canticles is dealt with by W. Riedel,
Die Auslegung des Hohenliedes, Leipzig, 1898, pp. 52 --66. The text-
tradition of the homilies on Jeremias is illustrated by E. Klostermann, in
Texte und Untersuchungen (1897), xvi., new series, i. 3. For the ideas of
Origen on the Book of Daniel as gathered from writings, extant or lost,
in the commentary of St. Jerome on Daniel, cf. J. Lataix, Le commen-
1 Hier., Adv. Rufin., i. 28. z Apol. pro Orig., c. 5.
3 Ep. 119, 9 — 10 ; cf. Orig., Contra Gels., ii. 65.
4 Apol. pro Orig., cc. 19. 5 lb., c. 6.
6 Hist, eccl., vi. 25, 11 — 14. 7 Apol. pro Orig., cc. 3 5.
3 Comm. in Matth., ser. c. 49.
BARDFNHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. IO
146 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
taire de St. Jerome stir Daniel ii, opinions d'Origene , in Revue d'hist.
et de litterat. religieuses (1897), ii. 268—275. On the Greek fragments of
the homilies on St. Luke edited by A. Thenn in Zeitschr. fur wissensch.
Theol. (1891 — 1893) cf. y. Sickenberger , in Theol. Quartalschr. (1896),
Ixxviii. T 88 — 191. For a new edition of the remnants of the commentary
on St. John we are indebted to A. E. Brooke, Cambridge, 1896, 2 voll.
y. A. P. Gregg, The commentary of Origen upon the Epistle to the Ephe-
sians, in Journal of Theological Studies (1902), iii. 233 — 234 398—420
554 — 576, began a republication of that commentary; its fragments had
already been collected by Cramer from the Catenae. For the Tractatus
Origenis de libris SS. Scripturarum edited by Batiffol and Wilmart in
1900 cf. § 55, 4. Concerning the canon of the Old Testament in Origen
see y. P. van Kasteren, in Revue biblique (1901), x. 412 — 423. E. Preu-
schen, Bibelzitate bei Origenes, in Zeitschr. fiir die neutestamentl. Wissensch.
(1903), iv. 79 — 87. The general character of his homilies is discussed
by Rcdepenning, Origenes, ii. 212 — 261. Cf. Westcott, in Diet, of Christ.
Biogr., iv. 104 — 118, where the reader will find a good index of the con
tents of the homilies and commentaries. There is a German version ot
some homilies by E. A. Winter, in G. Leonhardi, Die Predigt in der Kirche,
Leipzig, 1893, xxii. C. yenkins, The Origen-Citations in Cramer's Catena
on i Corinthians, Journal of Theological Studies (1904), vi. 113 — 116.
5. GENERAL ESTIMATE OF HIS BIBLICAL WRITINGS. --It is prin
cipally the mystic sense of the Scriptures that Origen seeks to ex
hibit in his exegetical works; the historical sense he almost entirely
neglects1. Guided by the analogy of Plato's trichotomous division
of man he felt obliged to distinguish in the Scriptures a triple sense :
somatic, psychic and pneumatic2. Practically, his theory would not
work. And so, in view of the division of the Cosmos into flesh and
spirit (alfffhjTa, and vor^d), he was wont to distinguish in the Scrip
tures a carnal and a spiritual sense3. His fatal error was the total
abandonment or denial , in many places, of the literal or historical
sense, in favor of the spiritual sense4. There are, he maintained,
in the Holy Scriptures repulsive and scandalous and impossible sayings
fffxdvda/M xai Ttpoffxo/jifJiaTa xac douvaraj , the carnal interpretation
of which is intolerable; when interpreted spiritually, however, they
are seen to be only the integuments of deep mysteries5. Even
the Evangelists frequently set forth pneumatic truth in somatic false
hood 6 (ffO)£ofJl£VOU "OAAV.XIQ T0[) dtyftoUQ TTVSUfJtaTtXOtJ SV TCO (TCOfJ.V.TCXW,
WQ (iv sl'noc. TtQ, ^z'jdzi). It must be admitted that Origen pos
sessed a certain knowledge of Hebrew, though it did not excede
very modest limits7. For the comparison of the Septuagint and
the original Hebrew he was always dependent upon the authority
of others. Indeed, the dominant idea of the Hexapla is their apo-
1 Hier., Comm. in Mai., prol.
2 De princ., iv , ii ; Horn, in Levit., v. I 5.
3 Horn, in Levit., i. I ; Comm. in Jo., x. 4.
4 Horn, in Gen. ii. 6; De princ, iv. 12. 5 De princ., iv. 15.
6 Comm. in Jo., x. 4. 7 Horn, in Gen., xii. 4; Horn, in Num.^ xiv. I,
§ 39- ORIGEN. 147
logetic usefulness, rather than the gain of textual criticism. He was
all the less inclined to entertain the idea of a critical study of the
Septuagint translation on the basis of the original Hebrew, since
he was persuaded that the text of the Septuagint was divinely in
spired l. Its obscurities and solecisms are to him signs of special my
steries. When he detects a variation from the Hebrew text or from
New Testament quotations, he prefers to admit falsification of the
original Hebrew by the Jews , or a corruption of the manuscripts
of the New Testament, rather than to acknowledge an error on the
part of the Septuagint.
Redepenning, Origenes, i. 232 — 324; cf. ii. 156 — 188. A. Zollig , Die
Inspirationslehre des Origenes. Ein Beitrag zur Dogmengeschichte (Straft-
burger theolog. Studien, v. i), Freiburg i. Br. 1902.
6. WORKS AGAINST PAGANS AND JEWS. - - An apologetic work
in eight books against Celsus (xara Kilao'j, contra Celsunt) has been
preserved in a Vatican codex of the thirteenth century2; the Philo-
calia has also preserved lengthy fragments of it, equal in size to
about one seventh of the whole work. Celsus, a Platonic eclectic,
had published about 178 a work entitled « Veracious Demonstration*
(dtyttyQ AofOQJ. From Origen's refutation of the work we gather
that in the first part the author attacked Christianity, in the person
of a Jew who took his stand upon the racial faith in the Messias;
in the second part he undertook to show the hopelessness of the
Messianic idea and thereby to overthrow the cornerstone of Christia
nity; in the third part he assailed certain specific Christian doctrines,
while in the fourth he defended the state-religion of the heathens.
As is stated in the preface, the refutation of this work was written
by Origen at the request of his friend Ambrose, during the reign
of Philippus Arabs3, probably in 248, and follows sentence by sen
tence the text of the » Demonstration ». It falls, therefore, pre
scinding from the long introduction (i. I — 27), into four parts that
correspond with the division of the work of Celsus (i. 28 to ii. 79;
iii to v; vi. i to vii. 61; vii. 62 to viii. 71). Both in ancient4 and
modern times, it has been pronounced the most perfect apologetic work
of the primitive Church. At least, Origen has nowhere exhibited
greater learning. His calm attitude and dignified diction, the natural
outcome of a sense of intellectual superiority, affects the reader favo
rably when compared with the passionate invectives of his opponent.
In this same work5 Origen refers to a discussion with some learned
Jews in presence of several legal arbiters. It was probably reduced
to writing, but we have no more accurate knowledge concerning it.
1 Comrn. in Cant. i. ; Migne, PG., xiii. 93. * Migne, PG., xi. 641 — 1632.
3 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 36, 2. 4 E^ts., Adv. Hierocl. c. i.
5 Contra Celsum i. 45.
148 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
P. Koetschau, Die Uberlieferung der Biicher des Origenes gegen Celsus,
in Texte und Untersuchungen, Leipzig, 1889, vi. i ; cf. F. Wctllis in The
Classical Review (1889), iii. 392 — 398; J. A.Robinson in The Journal of
Philology (1890), xviii. 288 — 296. The editio princeps (Greek text) is that
of D. Hoschel, Augsburg, 1605. A new edition has been prepared by
Koetschau, Leipzig, 1899 (Die griech. christl. Schriftsteller der ersten drei
Jahrh., Origenes I — II ; see § 39, 2). A German translation was made by J. Rohm,
Kempten, 1876 — 1877, 2 voll. (Bibl. der Kirchenvater). K. J. Neumann,
Der romische Staat und die allgemeine Kirche, Leipzig 1900, i. 265 — 273
(treats of the time and occasion of its composition). J. Patrick, The apo
logy of Origen in reply to Celsus, London, 1892. See also the literature
relative to the work of Celsus: Th. Keim , Celsus' Wahres Wort, Zurich,
1873. B. Aubt , Hist, des persecutions de 1'Eglise, ii. La polemique
pa'ienne a la fin du IP siecle, 2. ed., Paris, 1878. E. Pdagaud, Celse,
Paris, 1879. P- Koetschau, Die Gliederung des fltXijIH)? Xoyoc des Celsus, in
Jahrb. fur protest. Theol. (1892), xviii. 604 — 632. J.Fr. S.Muth, DerKampf
des heidnischen Philosophen Celsus gegen das Christentum, Mainz, 1899.
F. A. Winter, Uber den Wert der direkten und indirekten Uberlieferung
von Origenes' Biichern « Contra Celsum» (Progr.), Burghausen, 1903, i.
7. WORKS AGAINST HERETICS. - - His writings against heresy,
and the records of his oral controversies with heretics, are known
to us only through citations ; thus, Julius Africanus mentions * a dis
putation on an unknown subject with a certain Agnomon (?) Bassus.
Origen himself tells us of a discussion with the Valentinian Candidus
(in the Catalogue it is called Dialogus adversus Candidum Valenti-
nianum), probably at Athens about 240 , on the origin of the Son
from the Father, and the possibility of the devil's conversion 2. Euse-
bius narrates the fact of his colloquy with Berillus, bishop of Bostra
in Arabia, on the subject of Monarchianism, about the year 244 3.
The tradition in Epiphanius (Haer. 66, 21) that Origen refuted the
Manichaeans, and that he wrote against Menander, Basilides, Hermogenes
and others, took its origin, very probably, in the fact that incidentally his
works abound in anti-heretical polemic. Cf. Theodoret., Haer. fab. comp.
i. 2 4 19 25; ii. 2 7; iii. i. For the authorship of the Philosophumena
cf. § 54, i 3, and on the Dialogus de recta in Deum fide cf. § 46, 2.
8. DOGMATIC WRITINGS. - - The original text of all the doctrinal
writings of Origen is lost. The most important of these works was
the De Principiis, 7izp\ dpyuw. It treated in four books of the funda
mental doctrines or principles of Christian faith. Only some meagre
fragments of the original have been preserved, mostly in the Philo-
calia Origenis (cc. I 21). The whole work has reached us in a
translation, or rather a free paraphrase, by Rufinus4; on the other
hand the translation of St. Jerome, that aimed at literal correctness,
1 Jul. Afr., Ep. ad Orig. c. I ; Orig., Ep. ad Afr. c. 2.
"2 Orig., Ep. ad quosdam caros sues Alexandriam, in Rufin., De adult, libr. Orig. ;
Migne, PG., xvii. 624 ff. ; Hier., Adv. Rufin., ii. 18 — 19.
3 Hist, eccl., vi. 33, 3 ; Hier., De viris ill. c. 60.
4 Migne, PG., xi. in — 414.
§ 39- ORIGEN. 149
has shared the fate of the original. Only a few fragments of it are
extant1. On the foundations of the apostolic preaching, as roughly
outlined by him at the beginning of his work, Origen undertakes to
construct a consistent system of doctrine. The first book treats dif
fusely of God and the world of spirits; the second of the world and
man, their renovation by means of the Incarnation of the Logos, and
their end or scope; the third discusses human freedom and the final
triumph of the good ; the fourth is devoted to a theory of scriptural
interpretation. This work was composed at Alexandria2, about 230,
and is the earliest attempt at a scientific exposition of Christian doc
trine. By reason, however, of its departure from the lines of eccle
siastical tradition it aroused in equal measure both opposition and
admiration. It was at Alexandria also3 (before 231) that he wrote
his ten books of « Miscellanies » (arpcoparelq; cf. § 38, 3), on the aim
and contents of which the few extant fragments 4 throw no clear light.
From the philosophical doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, Numenius
and Cornutus, he drew proofs of the truth of Christianity 5. Various
scriptural texts, e. g. of Daniel and Galatians, were explained by
means of scholia*. Before writing the De principiis he had composed
at Alexandria two books on the resurrection, ^spl dvaGrdascoQ1 . The
Catalogue of his works mentions two dialogues on the same subject
dedicated to his friend Ambrose8. Some fragments of his work on
the resurrection (De resurrectione) 9 of the body are preserved in the
homonymous work of Methodius of Olympus; others in a treatise
of St. Jerome10. Methodius defended against Origen the material
identity of the risen body with that we now possess.
A separate edition of the De principiis was published by E. R. Rede-
penning, Leipzig, 1836. C. Fr. Schnitzer had already undertaken a recon
struction of it in German, Stuttgart, 1835. For an English translation of
the fragments of the «De principiis» see Ante-Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe,
1885, iv. 239 384). The libellus de arbitrii libertate mentioned by Origen
(Comm. in Rom., vii. 16) is identified with De principiis, iii. i. The little
work «On the sin against the Holy Spirit» in Athanasius (Ep. 4 , 9 ad
Scrap.) corresponds to De principiis, i. 3. E. Riggenbach, Der trinitarische
Taufbefehl Mt. xxviii. 19 bei Origenes, Giitersloh, 1904.
9. ASCETIC WORKS AND HOMILIES. - Two of his works on
practical asceticism have reached us, and their text is fairly well-
preserved. Though not exempt from the influence of heterodox
1 Hier., Ep. 124. 2 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 24, 3. 3 Ib.
4 Migne, PG., xi. 99—108.
5 Hier., Ep. 70, 4 ; see the remarks of Eusebius concerning Origen's critical com
mentaries on the writings of pagan philosophers, in Hist, eccl., vi. 18, 3.
6 Hier., Comm. in Dan. ad iv. 5; ix. 24; xiii. i ; Comm. in Gal., prol. ; ad v. 13
7 Orig., De princ., ii. 10, I ; Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 24, 2.
8 Cf. Theoph. Alex., in Hier., Ep. 92, 4.
<J Migne, PG., xi. 91 — 100. I0 Hier., Contra lo. Hieros, cc. 25—26.
!50 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
ideas, they breathe a spirit of genuine piety. The work on Prayer
fasp} stiff?) 1 was composed after the commentary on Genesis (c. 23),
probably after 231, and was dedicated to Ambrose and Tatiana,
the latter's wife or sister. It treats in the first part of prayer in
general (cc. 3 — 17) and in the second (cc. 18—30) of the Lord's
Prayer. The Exhortation to Martyrdom (elq imprvptov nporpemtxbq
MfOQJ2, written some years later, appeals with powerful eloquence
to Ambrose and to Protoctetus, a presbyter of Caesarea, who had
encountered3 grave perils in the persecution of Maximinus Thrax
(235 238). In his Catalogue of the works of Origen St. Jerome
mentions, beside the exegetical homilies, other homilies, of which so
far as is known, there is now no trace: De pace horn, i, Exhorta-
toria ad Pioniam, De ieiunio . De monogamis et trigamis horn, ii,
In Thar so horn. ii.
The work on Prayer was first printed at Oxford in 1686. The Ex
hortation to Martyrdom was edited by J. R. Wetstein, Basle, 1674. A new
edition of both has been brought out by P. Koetsehau, Leipzig, 1899 (Die
griech. christl. Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrh. , Origenes i— ii). For
a German version of the same cf. J. Kohlhofer , Kempten, 1874 (Bibl.
der Kirchenvater). F. A. Winter, liber den Wert der direkten und in-
direkten Uberlieferung von Origenes' Biichern « contra Celsum» (Progr.),
Burghausen, 1903, i.
10. THE LETTERS OF ORIGEN. - - Origen must have kept up a
very extensive correspondence. The Catalogue of his works makes
mention of several collections of letters: Epistolarum eius ad diver sos
libri ix, Aliarum epistolarum libri ii, Excerpt a Origenis et diver-
sarum ad eum epistolarum libri ii (epistolae synodorum super causa
Origenis in libra secundo). Of all these only two complete letters
have reached us, one to Julius Africanus4 and one to St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus 5. The first was written at Nicomedia (cc. I 15)
about 240. It defends with much erudition the genuineness and cano-
nicity of the history of Susanna (and of the other deutero-canonical
parts of the Book of Daniel) against objections of Julius Africanus
in a letter addressed to Origen himself6. The second letter, pro
bably written in the same year, contains fatherly advice to his former
disciple Gregory: he should not allow his interest in the Holy
Scriptures to flag, and should look on the study of the profane
sciences only as a means towards the higher end of the knowledge
of the Scriptures. Several other letters are known to us through
citations in Eusebius, Rufinus, Jerome and others, e. g. one in reply
to the reproach of too great attachment to Hellenic science7, another
1 Migne, PG., xi. 416—561. 2 Ib., xi. 564—637.
3 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 28. 4 Migne, PG., xi. 48—85.
5 Ib., xi. 88—92. 6 Ib., xi. 41—48.
7 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 19, 12 — 14.
§ 39- ORIGEN. 151
to the Emperor Philippus Arabs, and one to his consort, the Em
press Severa 1, letters to Pope Fabian and to very many other bishops
«in the matter of his orthodoxy » 2.
For the letter to St. Gregorius Thaumaturgus see J. Drdseke , in
Jahrb. f. prot. Theologie (1881), vii. 102 — 126. It is published as an
appendix to P. Koetschau's edition of the panegyric of St. Gregory on Origen
(pp. 40 — 44, cf. xv — xvii), Freiburg i. Br., 1894.
11. WORKS OF UNCERTAIN AUTHORSHIP. - - In the preface to
his Liber inter pretationis hebraicorum nominum , St. Jerome says
that it is a Latin version of a lexicon of proper names of the Old
Testament made by Philo, and of a similar New Testament lexicon
made by Origen. The author of the Quaestiones et Responsa ad
Orthodoxos, attributed to St. Justin, makes Origen the author of Ex
position of names or measures that recur in the Sacred Scriptures
(qu. 86; cf. 82). The work in question may be some compilation
by a later writer of etymologies of biblical proper names, proposed
at different times by Origen. It seems certain that in their actual
shape the Greek Onomastica, first edited by Martianay (1699), and
recently by de Lagarde (1870 1887), are much more recent than
the lexica compiled by Jerome. Victor of Capua3 cites fragments
ex libro tertio Origenis TTS/K <p6ffecov and ex Origenis libro primo
De pascha. There is no other mention of a work by Origen mpl
<p6(jsa>v. A libel his Origenis De pascha is mentioned in the Liber
Anatoli de ratione paschali (c. i)4.
On the lexicon of the proper names in the New Testament see
O. Bardenhewer, Der Name Maria, Freiburg, 1895 (Bibl. Studien, i. i),
pp. 23 — 26; Redepenning, Origenes, i. 458 — 461; Zahn, Gesch. des neu-
testamentl. Kanons, ii. 948 — 953.
12. PHILOSOPHICO-THEOLOGICAL IDEAS OF ORIGEN. — It was with
the purest intention of contrasting the false Gnosis with true science,
and of winning over to the Church the educated circles of Hellenism,
that Origen undertook the combination of Hellenic philosophy with
the faith of the Church. Nevertheless, his doctrinal system, that he
imagined to be both Christian and ecclesiastical, bears the marks of
Neoplatonism and Gnosticism. According to him it is a necessary
consequence of the goodness of God that He should reveal or
communicate Himself. It follows likewise, from His immutability,
that this revelation should be from all eternity. Its organ is the
Logos, other than the Father5, not only in person but in sub
stance (y.ar oijoiav xat bnoxstfjisvov : De orat. 1. c.). It is through
1 Ib., vi. 36, 3.
2 Ib., vi. 36, 4; for the letter to Pope Fabian see Hier., Ep. 84, 10.
3 Schol. vet. Patr., in Pitra, Spicil. Solesm., i. 268.
4 Migne, PG., x. 210.
5 De orat. c. 15: erspog rou xarpdg: Contra Gels., v. 39: deorspoq &eog.
I $ 2 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
the Logos that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father; He is
inferior to the Logos, as the latter is inferior to the Father1.
The next degree in the development of the divine unity into multi
plicity is the world of spirits, to which belong the souls of men.
They were all created from eternity and in equal perfection. They
are not, however, essentially good ; it is only by the exercise of their
free will that they choose goodness. In the past they abused their
freedom in manifold ways. In consequence, this sensible world was
created as a place of purification for spirits expelled by God from
their original home, enveloped in matter of divers kinds, and exiled
in more or less gross material shapes, to which class our human
bodies belong. In the end, however, all spirits must return to God.
It is true that some must continue to undergo a process of purification,
in the other world, but eventually all shall be saved and transfigured.
Evil is then overcome ; the world of the senses has fulfilled its purpose ;
all the non-spiritual elements sink or fade into nothing ; the original unity
of God and of all spiritual being is restored. Withal, this final restitution
of original conditions (drroxaTdcrTamc;, restitutio) cannot be truly called
the end of the world ; properly speaking it is only the precarious
term of an evolution that moves on endlessly between apostasy from
God and return to Him. — Soon after his death the famous Origenistic
controversies broke out, and found an echo even in the far-away West.
In 543 the Synod of Constantinople condemned in fifteen «anathema-
tisms» an equal number of propositions from Origen2, and in 553
the Fifth General Council ranked him with « heretics » in its eleventh
«anathematism» 3.
G. Thomasius, Origenes. Ein Beytrag zur Dogmengeschichte des 3. Jahr-
hunderts, Ntirnberg, 1837. G. Ranters, Des Origenes Lehre von der Auf-
erstehung desFleisches (Inaug.-Diss.) , Trier, 1851. F. Harrer, Die Trinitats-
lehre des Kirchenlehrers Origenes (Progr.), Regensburg, 1858. J. B. Kraus,
Die Lehre des Origenes liber die Auferstehung der Toten (Progr.), Regens
burg^ 1859. Al. Vincenzi, In S. Gregorii Nysseni et Origenis scripta et
doctrinam nova recensio, cum appendice de actis synodi V. oecum., Romae,
1864—1869, 5 voll. Knittel, Des Origenes Lehre von der Menschwerdung
des Sohnes Gottes, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1872), liv. 97 — 138. H. Schultz,
Die Christologie des Origenes im Zusammenhange seiner Weltanschauung,
in Jahrb. fur protest. Theol. (1875), i. 193—247 369—424. J. Denis,
De la philosophic d'Origene. Memoire couronne par 1'Institut, Paris,
1884, vii. 730. A. Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, Freiburg,
1888, i. 2, 559—604. M. Lang, Uber die Leiblichkeit der Vermmft-
wesen bei Origenes (Inaug.-Diss.), Leipzig, 1892. L. Atzberger, Gesch.
der christl. Eschatologie innerhalb der vornicanischen Zeit, Freiburg, 1896,
\\T\ 9 \~\\\ 4 C* r\ f-r iSfhi-ffiiAna ~\~\c± C\*-\ <^-^.-^> \ ^4-"U I -.«. A /T 'I _ O _ O ^V 'T"1. . -- -- „ 7
pp. 366—456.
L'eschatologie
d'hist. et de litterature religieuses (1900), v. 99—127. °W. Fairweather ,
>p. 366—456. G. Capitaine, De Origenis ethica, Minister, 1898. J. Turmel,
L'eschatologie a la fin du 4* siecle. i : L'eschatologie orige'niste, in Revue
1 De princip., i. 3, 5. - Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., ix. 395—400.
3 Ib., ix. 384.
§ 40. DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. 153
Origen and Greek Patristic Theology, London, 1901. G. Anrich, Clemens
und Origenes als Begriinder der Lehre vom Fegfeuer (Abhandlungen fur
H. y. Holtzmann), Tubingen, 1902. F. Nau, Le concile apostolique dans
Origene, in Bull. crit. (1904), pp. 435—438.
13. AMBROSE. - - This oft-mentioned friend and protector of Origen
had been a high official of the imperial court (Epiph. , Haer. 64, 3).
Through Origen he became a convert from Gnosticism (Eus. , Hist, eccl.,
vi. 18, i). He left a correspondence with Origen (Hier., De viris ill., c. 56).
Short fragments of two letters of Ambrose are preserved in Orig., De orat,
c. 5; Hier., Ep. 43, i.
14. TRYPHO. — Besides some letters this disciple of Origen wrote many
tractates (multa opuscula) , among them one on the sacrifice of the red
cow (Nm. xix) and another on the sacrifice of Abraham (Gen. xv. 9 if).
See Jerome, De viris ill., c. 57. So far as is known, no fragment of his
writings has reached us.
15. AMMONIUS. — In his Church History Eusebius has confounded the
Neoplatonist philosopher Ammonius Sakkas with a Christian of the same name.
Among other books the latter wrote one on the accord between Moses
and Jesus (-spl TYJ? Mwuj£u>c xal 'Irjjou aufjuptoviac : Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 19, 10).
He is probably identical with the « Ammonius of Alexandria » who com
piled a synopsis of the gospels (ota Tsaaapwv suay/eAiov) based on St. Matthew
(Eus., Ep. ad Carpianum; Hieronymus is inexact in De viris ill., c. 55).
It is supposed that Ammonius was a contemporary of Origen. For the
Latin gospel-harmony printed under his name see § 18, 3.
§ 40. Dionysius of Alexandria.
i. HIS LIFE. - - He was born, apparently, before the end of
the second century \ of heathen parents. Through diligent reading
and earnest investigation he was led to the Christian faith2, and
began to frequent the school of Origen3. From 231 — 232 he
was the successor of Heraklas as head-master of the Alexandrine
catechetical school 4 and retained the office, it would seem, even after
he had succeeded Heraklas (247 — 248) as bishop of Alexandria5.
The rest of his life was a series of conflicts and sufferings. In 250 — 251,
he escaped by flight from the persecution of Decius6. During the
persecution of Valerian in 257 — 258 he was banished to Kephro
in Libya, and later to Colluthion in the Mareotis, «a still more savage
and Libya-like place»7. He does not seem to have returned to
Alexandria before March 262. There he found awaiting him a con
dition of civil war, famine and pestilence8. He was too ill to take
part in the Synod that met at Antioch in 264 — 265 in order to de
cide concerning Paul of Samosata9; he passed away during the de
liberations of the Synod 10.
Dittrich, Dionysius der Grofie von Alexandrien, Freiburg 1867. Cf.
Th. Forster, in Zeitschr. fur die histor. Theol. (1871), xli. 42 — 76.
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 27, 2. ° Ib., vii. 7, 3.
3 Ib., vi. 29, 4. 4 Ib. 5 Ib., vi, 35. 6 Ib., vi. 40.
7 Ib., vii. II. 8 Ib., vii. 21 — 22. a Ib., vii. 27, 2.
10 Ib., vii. 28, 3.
154 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
2. WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. - - He was honored by Eusebius with
the title of Great1, and Athanasius called him a Doctor of the
Catholic Church2. His greatness, however, was more in the man
than in the teacher. He bore with energy and success the part that
fell to him in the ecclesiastical difficulties of his time, and showed
himself no less eloquent and firm in dealing with error, than he was
mild and sagacious in his treatment of those who had gone astray.
His writings are all occasional, dictated by the need of the hour.
His diction is clear and lively, and while in doctrinal exposition he
is not free from obscurity, he is always dominated by the noblest
and most self-sacrificing spirit of zeal for the salvation of souls. Only
a few fragments of his writings have reached us; most of them and
those of chief importance, owe their preservation to their insertion
into the Church History of Eusebius.
These fragments are found in Migne, PG., x. 1233 — 1344, 1575 — 1602,
but in a very imperfect condition. A better edition is that of S. de Magi-
stris, Rome, 1796, overlooked by Migne. For a list of the fragments missing
in the edition of Migne see Pitra, Analecta Sacra iii. 596. Some Syriac and
Armenian fragments current under the name of Dionysius were collected
and translated into Latin by P. Martin, in Pitra, 1. c. , iv. 169 — 182,
413 — 422 (cf. xxiii ff.). See Harnack, Gesch. der altchristlichen Literatur,
i. 409 — 427; TJi. Forster, De doctrina et sententiis Dionysii M. ep. Alex.
(Dissert, inaug.), Berlin, 1865; C/i. L. Feltoe, AIOVUJI'OU Xsfyava. The Letters
and other remains of Dionysius of Alexandria, in Cambridge Patristic
Texts (1904), xxxv. 283.
3. HIS PRINCIPAL WORKS. - - In the Books on Nature, ol xsp}
yjffscoQ Aofoi 3, as the fragments in Eusebius 4 show, he composed a
solid and thorough polemic against an Epicureanism or materialism
based on the atomic system of Democritus. The work was probably
composed previous to 247 — 248. We know only the title of the
Book on Temptations (o xspl nstpaafjL&v AofOQJ5. Through a later
Catena there have come down some copious fragments, generally
speaking authentic, of his commentary on Ecclesiastes 6, written
supposedly before 247—248. They cover Ecclesiastes I, I to 3, II7.
The Catenae-fragments on the Book of Job are not genuine. Two
Books on the Promises (itzp\ Ena-ffSAtaw duo ffUffpafJi/jtaTaj, written
probably in 253 — 257, are directed against a « Refutation of the
Allegorists» (%faf%oq (DJ^opiGicov), composed by a certain Nepos,
bishop in the district of Arsinoe8. In opposition to Origen the latter
undertook to defend the historical interpretation of the Scriptures, and
maintained that in the Apocalypse there was promised after the Re-
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., vii., praef. 2 Ep. de sent. Dion., c. 6.
3 Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 26, 2.
4 Praep. Evang., xiv. 23—27; Migne, PG., x. 1249—1268.
5 Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 26, 2. 6 Ib., vii. 26, 3.
7 Migne, PG., x. 1577—1588. 8 Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 24, I.
4°- DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. I 55
surrection a millennial reign of the just on this earth. In the first book
of his work Dionysius argued against these Chiliastic dreams, while in
the second he commented on the authority of the Apocalypse. Ac
cording to him it was composed by a «holy and divinely inspired
man», though not by the Evangelist John *. His own orthodoxy
was the subject of a controversy that broke out apropos of some
letters he wrote, after 257, in reference to Sabellianism 2. In order
to emphasize very plainly the personal distinction between the Father
and the Son, Dionysius had made use of expressions and similes that
implied a distinction in substance and reduced the Son to the rank
of a creature3. For this a complaint was laid against him before
Pope Dionysius (259 — 268), and he was invited by the latter to ex
plain his words. This he did in a reply4 to the Pope, and more
fully in the four books of his « Refutation and Defence » f^ef^oQ
xat djcoXoyia.) 5. They contain an exposition of his thoroughly orthodox
teaching concerning the Trinity, and seem to have quite satisfied the
Pope. The extant fragments have come down to us chiefly through
citations in Athanasius and Basil the Great.
The first and most complete collection of the fragments of the work
on Nature is in Routh , Reliquiae sacrae, iv. 393—437. The fragments
preserved by Eusebius were translated into German and illustrated at
length by G. Roch , Die Schrift des alexandr. Bischofs Dionysius d. Gr.
«tiber die Natur» (Inaug.-Diss.), Leipzig, 1882. There is an English
translation of the literary remains of Dionysius by Salmond, in Ante-Nicene
Fathers (ed. Coxe, 1896), vi. 81 — 120. For the spurious Catenae-frag
ments on Job see Routh, 1. c., iv. 439 — 454, and ib.; iii. 390 — 400 (Migne,
PL., v. 117 — 128) for the remnants of the « Refutation and Defence», taken
from Athanasius, Basil the Great, and other authors. We ought probably to
add a fragment from «the first book of the work against Sabellius (~poj 2a-
psXXtov), mentioned by Eusebius (Praep. evang., vii. 19). For his teaching
concerning the Trinity see H. Hagemann, Die romische Kirche ... in den
ersten drei Jahrhunderten, Freiburg, 1864, PP- 411 — 432, and Dittrich,
1. c., pp. 91—115.
4. HIS LETTERS. -- Apropos of the schism of Novatian and the
question of the treatment of the Lapsi, Dionysius wrote, after 251,
a serie-: of letters, in which he urged Novatian and his followers to
submit to the legitimate Pope Cornelius (251- — 253) and advocated
the mildest possible treatment of those who had fallen during the per
secutions. His Letter to the anti-pope Novatian is a noble and memo
rable document6. He wrote also a letter to Fabius, bishop of Antioch,
some fragments of which are preserved in Eusebius7. After 256 he
1 Fragments of the second book in Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 24 — 25; Migne , PG.,
x. 1237—1250.
2 Eiis., Hist, eccl., vii. 6, 26, I. 3 Athan., Ep. de sent. Dion., c. 4.
4 Ib., c. 18. 5 Ib., c. 13; cf. Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 26, i.
6 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 45.
7 Ib., vi. 41 — 42 44; for other letters cf. ib., vi. 46.
1^6 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
acted as peacemaker in the conflict concerning the validity of heretical
baptism, though he does not seem to have thoroughly grasped the
full meaning of the controversy. Only Eusebian excerpts of the
latter correspondence have reached us1. Apropos of the teachings
of Paul of Samosata he wrote in 264 — 265 a condemnatory letter
to the Church of Antioch2. The letter to Paul, found in the col
lections of the councils3, is an Apollinarist or Monophysite forgery.
It was an ancient custom of the bishops of Alexandria to send
an annual letter to the churches of their dioceses. Such communi
cations were known as Festal Letters (imaroXat kopraanxai) and
were usually issued after Epiphany. They announced the date of
Easter and the beginning of the preparatory fast ; they also contained
instructions concerning the Easter festival or other matters. From
a few of these Festal Letters of Dionysius, Eusebius has saved
some historical data4. In a Festal Letter to Domitius and Didymus,
written in the reign of Decius, before the Easter of 25 15, Dionysius
promulgates an eight-year paschal cycle, and orders that the feast
shall always be celebrated after the Spring Equinox6. He wrote
in his own defence to the Egyptian bishop Germanus who had
reproached him for flying from the persecution7. In a letter to
Hermammon and the brethren in Egypt, Dionysius « related much
concerning the iniquity of Decius and his successors and then made
mention of the peace under Gallienus» 8. A letter to Basilides,
bishop of the churches of the Pentapolis9, has been preserved
in its entirety, by reason of its incorporation among the canonical
documents of the Greek Church. It treats principally of the precise
time of the Resurrection of Our Lord, and therefore of the time
when the fast of preparation should cease and the paschal festivities
begin10. Stephen Gobarus mentions a letter of Dionysius to Theo-
tecnus, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, written after the death of
Origen, and dealing favorably with his memory11.
The Epistola canonica ad Basilidem is in Routh, 1. c. , iii. 219 — 250,
also in Pitra, luris eccles. Graecorum historia et monumenta, Romae, 1864,
J- 54* — 545; cf. 548 f. For two letters in a Codex Vaticanus bearing the
name of Dionysius but belonging to Isidore Pelusiota, see G. Mercati,
Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana antica (Studi e Testi, v. 2—86),
Rome, 1901. G. Holzhey, in Theol. - praktische Monatsschrift (1901), xi.
5J3 -525> concludes from the relations between the Didascalia Apostolorum
? 46) and the works of Dionysius that towards the end of his literary
career he recast the original nucleus of the Didascalia -} probably it was
done by one of his disciples, shortly after his death. At a later date this
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 4—9. "- Ib., vii. 27, 2.
J Mansi, i. 1039 — 1088. * Eus., Hist, eccl.', vii. 20—22.
Ib., vii. ii, 20-25. 6 Ib., vii. 20. T Ib., vi. 40; vii. ii.
8 Ib., vii. 22, 12; fragments ib., vii. i, 10, 23. 9 Ib., vii. 26, 3.
10 Migne, PG., x. 1271—1290. u Phot., Bibl. God. 232.
§41- LATER HEADMASTERS OF THE CATECHET. SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA. l^'J
revised Didascalia was enlarged to its present shape. In the Revue
d'Histoire ecclesiastique (1901), ii. 808 — 809, F. X. Funk, expresses grave
doubts concerning this theory of Holzhey.
5. ANATOLIUS. - - This writer appears about 262 as a respectable and
influential citizen of Alexandria. We meet him later as coadjutor of Theo-
tecnus, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. From 269 he was bishop of Lao-
dicea in Syria. He was well-skilled in philosophy, the natural sciences
and mathematics, and he wrote some works : on Easter (-spl TOO -rcaj/a), an
introduction to arithmetic (dptBfxr)Tixal £177.7(077.1) in ten books, and «spe-
cimens of his erudition and ability in theology» (Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 32, 6;
Hier., De viris ill., c. 73). His theological writings are lost. Of very
doubtful authenticity are certain mathematical fragments under the name
of Anatolius (Fabricius-Harles, Bibl. Gr., iii. 461 462 — 464; Migne, PG.,
x. 231 — 236). Of his work on Easter, Eusebius has preserved a long
fra'gment (Hist, eccl., vii. 32, 14 — 19). As to the Liber Anatoli de ratione
paschali printed with a commentary (Migne, PG. , x. 209 — 232), we may
believe with Zahn (Forschungen [1884], iii. 177 — 196) that it is not a
translation of the work of the hishop of Laodicea, although in the second
chapter, almost the entire Eusebian paschal-fragment is cited. Br. Krusch
maintains (Studien zur christlich-mittelalterlichen Chronologic, Leipzig, 1880,
pp. 311 — 316) that it is a sixth-century forgery, made in England during
the Brito-Roman controversy on the manner of celebrating Easter. We
owe to Krusch a new edition of the Liber Anatoli (ib. , pp. 316 — 327).
Cf. A. Anscombe and C. H. Turner, in The English Historical Review (1895),
x. 515 — 535 699—710: T. Hicklin, The date and origin of the Pseudo-
Anatolius «de ratione paschali», in Journal of Philology (1901), xxviii.
137 — 151. He finds in the work traces of an original composition about
300, and of a version made about 410. There is an English translation
by Salmond, of the fragments of Anatolius, in Ante-Nicene Fathers (ed.
Coxe, 1896), vi. 146 — 153.
§ 41. The later headmasters of the catechetical school of Alexandria.
I . THEOGNOSTUS. — In an anonymous excerpt from Philippus Sidetes
(§ 20, i), it is said that Pierius was the successor of Dionysius in the
catechetical school of Alexandria, and that Theognostus succeeded
Pierius. In all probability, however, Theognostus preceded Pierius 1 ;
this writer is not mentioned by either Eusebius or Jerome. He
left seven books of «Hypotyposes» (uxoToxwasu;, cf. § 38, 4). Ac
cording to the description of them by Photius-, they contained a
dogmatic system disposed in a strictly orderly manner, but also
strongly influenced by Origenistic theories. The first book treated of
God the Father, the second of the Son, the third of the Holy Spirit,
the fourth of angels and demons, the fifth and sixth of the Incarnation
of the Son, the seventh of the divine creation of the world (n^pi
$eo'j drjfJLtoupYiaQ). Certain citations from Theognostus in works of
Athanasius and Gregory of Nyssa were very probably taken from
the « Hypotyposes» .
1 Athan., Ep. 4 ad Scrap, c. 9; Ep. de deer. Nic. Syn., c. 25.
* Bibl. Cod. 106.
158 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
For the «testimonia» concerning Theognostus and the editions of the
fragments of the Hypotyposes see Migne, PG., x. 235 — 242, and Routh,
Reliquiae sacrae (2), iii. 405 — 422. For an English translation of the frag
ments of Theognostus see Salmond , in Ante-Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe,
1890), vi. 155 — 156. - - A. Harnack , Die Hypotyposen des Theognost
(Texte und Untersuchungen, new series, ix. 3), Leipzig, 1903. Fr. Diekamp,
Ein neues Fragment aus den Hypotyposen des Alexandriners Theognostus,
in Theol. Quartalschr. (1902), Ixxxiv. 48 — 494.
2. PIERIUS — He was a priest of Alexandria, in the time of Theonas,
bishop of that city (281 — 300), and was distinguished as an ascetic,
a writer and a preacher1. His ability as a Christian orator caused
him to be known as «the younger Origen»2. Philippus Sidetes (see
§ 41, i) and Photius3 assert that he was head-master of the cate
chetical school at Alexandria. They also say (Philip in an extract
first edited by De Boor) that he was a martyr. They probably do
not mean that he actually died a martyr's death, but that he publicly
confessed Christ. He certainly survived the persecution of Diocletian,
for we meet him at Rome after the persecution of Diocletian 4. Photius 5
speaks of a work (pif-Mov) of Pierius in twelve treatises (MyotJ containing
Origenistic errors on the subordination of the Holy Spirit and the pre-
existence of souls. Eusebius and Jerome may be interpreted as meaning
that it was a book of sermons 6. According to Photius, one fragment
of the work was entitled «on the gospel of St. Luke» fstQ TO xara
Aouxavj, another «on Easter and Osee» (sl^ TO Tidayo. xac rbv "Qarti).
St. Jerome says7 that the latter work was a long Easter sermon
on the beginning of the prophecy of Osee. The titles of three other
works are mentioned in the excerpts found in Philippus Sidetes; the
first of a series of paschal sermons (b rrpwwQ ti>?oc, rwv SCQ TO ndaya)
on the ideas of St. Paul concerning virginity and matrimony8; on
the Mother of God (mp\ TY,Q &ZOTOXO<J) ; on the life of St. Pamphilus
(dq TOV fiiov TOO afiou IIa.fj.<piXov), the friend of Eusebius and disciple
of St. Pierius 9.
For the fragments of Pierius see Routh, 1. c. , iii. 423—435, and
Migne, PG., x. 241—246. Some new fragments were published by C. de Boor,
in Texte und Untersuchungen (1888), v. 2, 165—184. For an English
translation of the fragments of Pierius see Salmond, in Ante-Nicene Fathers
(ed. Coxe, 1896), vi. 157. -- Until recently the above-mentioned bishop,
Theonas of Alexandria, was usually identified with the homonymous bishop
under whose name had long been current a Latin letter ad Ludanum cubi-
culariorum praepositum, first published by d'Achery in 1675, whence it pas
sed unchallenged into the Bibliothecae patrum (Routh, 1. c., iii. 437—449;
Migne, PG., x. 1567—1574). This letter pretends to instruct Lucian, chief
of the imperial chamberlains , and the other Christian officers at court as
Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 32, 26 f. 30. * Hier., De viris ill., c. 76.
Bibl. Cod. 118 119. 4 Hier^ De yiris m<) c 76_
5 Bibl. Cod. 119. e £us t } c . ifiet\, 1. c.
7 L. c. and Comm. in Hos., praef. 8 Hier En 49 3
9 Phot., Bibl. Cod. 118 119.
§41- LATER HEADMASTERS OF THE CATECHET. SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA. 159
to the manner in which they shall act in order to preserve and strengthen
the favorable sentiments of the still pagan emperor (Diocletian?) towards
Christians. After the researches of P. Batiffol, in Bulletin Critique (1886),
vii. 155 — 1 60, and Harnack, Theol. Literaturzeitung (1886), xi. 319 — 326,
there can be no doubt that the letter is a forgery of late date, perhaps
from the pen of the Oratorian Jerome Vignier (f 1661): cf. § 3, 2. -
A. Harnack, Der gefalschte Brief des Bischofs Theonas an den Ober-
kammerherrn Lucian, in Texte und Untersuchungen, new series, Leipzig,
1903, ix. 3. There is an English translation of the Letter of Theonas by
Salmond, in Ante-Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe, 1896), vi. 158 — 161.
3. PETER OF ALEXANDRIA. - - According to the afore-mentioned
«excerpts» from Philippus Sidetes, Theognostus was followed by
Serapion in the headship of the Alexandrine catechetical school, and
Serapion by Peter. It is no longer possible to identify Serapion.
Peter, on the other hand, was bishop of Alexandria and «a splendid
model of a bishop » from the year 300 until his death as a martyr
in 3 1 1 1. We still possess in a Latin version a brief letter addressed
by Peter to his people shortly after the outbreak of the persecution
of Diocletian (Febr. 303), in order to warn them against Meletius,
the intruded bishop of Lycopolis 2. There is extant also an epitome
of a treatise on penance (-zp\ peravoiaQ), of the year 306, both in
Greek and in a Syriac version. Its fourteen canons regulate the con
ditions on which those who had fallen in the persecution might
return to ecclesiastical communion. It is usually called Epistola canonica 3.
In several of the Greek manuscripts a fifteenth canon is added from
a work of St. Peter on Easter (SIQ TO -xdaya, xspt TOO Ti(j.oya), known
to us also from other sources. In the Acts of the Council of Ephesus
(431) there appear three citations from a work of Peter on the Divi
nity (xepl ftzoTYjToc) 4. Two other citations, extant in Syriac only, are
apparently spurious. A fragment of his work on the Coming of the
Savior (nsp\ TTJQ acorrjpo^ rjfj.atv ^ntdiq/jtiaGj is quoted by Leontius
of Byzantium5. In his work against the Monophysites this latter
writer quotes two fragments from the first book of a work of Peter
written against the pre-existence and the antecedent sinfulness of the
soul (nepl Toil ftr^ds. n pound p%£tv ryv fiuffiv fJLTjds. afAaprqaaaav TOOTO
slg ffdj/jia ftkqftyvat). They are especially interesting, since they show
that Peter opposed with energy, not only in preaching but in writing,
the errors of Origen. This is also proved by seven Syriac fragments
of a work De resurrectione, which rigorously defends the material
identity of the post-resurrection body with that we now possess.
Routh, 1. c., iv. 19 — 82, and Migne, PG., xviii. 449 — 522. The best
edition (Greek and Syriac) of the Epistola canonica is that of P. de La-
gar de , Reliquiae iuris eccles. antiquissimae , Leipzig, 1856, Greek text
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., ix. 6, 2, cf. viii. 13, 7; vii. 32, 31.
2 Migne, PG., xviii. 509—510. 3 Ib., xviii. 467 — 508.
4 Ib., xviii. 509 — 512. 5 Contra Nestor, et Eutych., 1. I.
I6O FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
pp. 63 — 73, Syriac text pp. 99 — 117. See also Greek text, pp. xlvi — liv.
In Pitra, Analecta sacra, iv. 187 — 195 425 — 430, P. Martin collected and
translated other fragments (Syriac and Armenian). For an English trans
lation of the Acts of Peter, the Canonical Epistle and some fragments see
Hawkins, in Ante-Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe, 1896), vi. 261 — 285. — W. E.
Crum, Texts attributed to Peter of Alexandria, in Journal of Theological
Studies (1903), iv. 387 — 397. See Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur,
i. 443 — 449. In his Fragment einer Schrift des Martyrerbischofs Petrus
von Alexandrien, Leipzig, 1901 (Texte und Untersuchungen , new series,
v. 4, 2) Karl Schmidt has made known a Coptic text (with German trans
lation) of a fragment of a rigid exhortation to the observance of the Sunday
rest. He attributes it to Peter, who is clearly indicated in the text. The
fragment itself is certainly of a later date ; it is perhaps the source of the
famous Letter of Christ that was alleged to have fallen from heaven (Ana
lecta Bollandiana (1901), xx. 101 — 103).
4. PHILEAS OF THMUIS. -- From his prison in Alexandria, where he
died a martyr about 307, Phileas, bishop of Thmuis in Lower Egypt, ad
dressed a letter to his church. Eusebius extracted from it a long passage
concerning the conflicts and triumphs of the martyrs at Alexandria (Hist.
eccl., viii. 10; cf. Hier., De viris ill., c. 78). We possess also, in a Latin
version, a letter written in common by the imprisoned bishops Hesychius,
Pachomius, Theodorus and Phileas, addressed to Meletius, bishop of Lyco-
polis, who had been conferring orders outside his own diocese, in contra
vention of the ecclesiastical canons (Routh, 1. c., iv. 83 — in; Migne, PG.,
x. 1559 — 1568). There is an English translation of the literary remains of
Phileas by Salmond, in Ante-Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe, 1896), vi. 1 6 1 — 164.
5. HESYCHIUS. — An Egyptian Hesychius, who may have lived towards
the end of the third century, undertook a critical revision of the Septuagint
(Hier., Praef. in Paral. ; Comm. in Is. ad 58, n), also a recension of the
New Testament or at least of the Gospels (Hier., Praef. in Evang.). We
cannot say that he is identical with the Hesychius just mentioned (cf. Eus.,
Hist, eccl., viii. 13, 7, and the Introductions to the New Testament).
6. HIERAKAS. - - This writer lived about 300 at Leontopolis in the
Nile Delta, where he gathered about himself a large community of ascetics.
He wrote commentaries on the Scriptures in Greek and Egyptian (Coptic),
a work on the Hexaemeron, many new Psalms (^OCAJJIOUC TtoAXoo? vsoTepixotk),
and perhaps some special works on marriage and on the Holy Spirit.
He carried to the last extreme the allegorism and spiritualism of Origen,
rejected marriage, denied the resurrection of the body, claimed that the
Holy Ghost had manifested Himself in Melchisedech, and excluded from
the kingdom of heaven those children who died before attaining the use
of reason, even if they had been baptized. Our only source of information
concerning Hierakas is the account in Epiphanius (Haer. 67 ; cf. Haer.
55, 5; 69, 7).
§ 42. The so-called Apostolic Church-Ordinance.
This is the title given by its first editor, J. W. Bickell (1843), to
a little work which announces itself as emanating from the twelve
Apostles. The complete Greek text has reached us in only one
manuscript, probably of the twelfth century. The title it offers is:
a: dia.ra.fai at dia KtytjLs.vToc, xal xavovsQ ixxfymaaTixot TCOV afitov
The first words, al ocara^al at oca KtypevTOQ xa\, are
§ 42- THE SO-CALLED APOSTOLIC CHURCH-ORDINANCE. l6l
surely a later addition, borrowed from the so-called Apostolic Con
stitutions (§ 75, i). Apart from the introduction (cc. I- — 3) and the
conclusion (c. 30) the work falls into two parts, the first of which
(cc. 4 — 14) presents moral rules, while the second (cc. 15 — 29) contains
legal ordinances. The moral rules are thrown into the form of a
description of the Way of Life and the Way of Death, or rather of
the Way of Life. The legal ordinances deal with the qualities of a
bishop (c. 1 6), the presbyters (cc. 17 18), the lector (c. 19), the deacons
(cc. 20 22), the widow-deaconesses (c. 21), also the proper conduct of
the laity (c. 23), and the question of the participation of women in
the liturgical service (cc. 24 — 29). In both parts each phrase or
chapter is placed in the mouth of an Apostle (e. g. 'fwdyvyg etTrsv,
Marftaioz, etxsy). The entire first part or description of the Way of
Life is no more than a slightly modified revision of the Two Ways
(§ 6) in the Didache (cc. I, I to 4 8). Harnack attempted to identify
in the second part fragments of two earlier canonical documents.
But Funk has shown that this is impossible. The work was probably
composed towards the end of the third century, and with equal pro
bability in Egypt. In that land it seems to have found a more general
acceptance and diffusion, and to have attained the dignity of a local
Canon Law. With it begins the Corpus iuris canonici of the Coptic,
Ethiopic and Arabic churches of Egypt. An ancient Syriac version
and a fragment of an ancient Latin version have reached us. Jerome
mentions1 a pseudo-Petrine work known as Liber iiidicii (i. e. Petri),
and Rufinus knew2 a Liber ecclesiasticus, entitled Duae viae vel
Indicium secundum Pet rum (al. Indicium Petri]. In both places there
is probably question of the Apostolic Church-Ordinance. The title
Duae viae was easily suggested by the contents of the first part;
that of ludidum Petri came probably from the fact that Peter is
introduced as speaker oftener than the other apostles and has the
last word (c. 30).
For editions of the Greek text of the Apostolic Church-Ordinance see
J. W. Bickell, Geschichte des Kirchenrechts, Giessen, 1843, i- I07 — I32i
A. P. de Lagarde, Reliquiae iuris ecclesiastic! autiquissimae graece, Leipzig,
1856, pp. 74 — 79; Pttra , Iuris ecclesiastic! Graecorum historia et monu-
menta, Romae, 1864, i. 75—88; A. Hilgenfeld, Novum Testamentum extra
canonem rec. , fasc. iv, Leipzig, 1866, pp. 93 — 106; 2. ed. 1884, pp. no
to 121. It. is also reprinted or re-edited in the editions of the Didache
(§ 6, 4) by Philotheos Brycnnios, Constantinople, 1883; Harnack, Leipzig,
1884 and 1893; Ph. Schaff, New York, 1885 1886 1889 (the latter gives'
only cc. i — 13 of the Apostolic Church-Ordinance); F. X. Funk, Tubingen,
1887; y. Mendel Harris, Baltimore and London, 1887. -- An Ethiopic
text, with a Latin version, had already been edited by y. Ludolfus, Ad suam
Historian! Aethiopicam antehac editam Commentarius, Frankfurt, 1691,
314—323. In his Apostolic Constitutions, London, 1848, pp. i — 30,
H. Tattam published a North-Egyptian (Memphitic, Bohairic) text, with an
1 De viris ill., c. i. 2 Comm. in Symb. Apost., c. 38.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. I i
FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
English version. On the basis of the edition of Tattam, P. Botticher
(P. de Lagarde) undertook to re-translate this text into Greek, in Chr. C.
J. Bunsen, Analecta Ante-Nicaena, London, 1854, ii, 451—460. A South-
Egyptian (Theban, Sahidic) text was published by P. de Lagarde, Aegyptiaca,
Gottingen, 1883, pp. 239 — 248 (without a translation), and by U. Bouriant,
in Recueil de travaux relatifs a la philol. et a 1'archeol. egypt. et assyr.,
Paris, 1883 — 1884, v. 202 — 206 (also without a translation). It has been
shown that the North-Egyptian text is a version of the South-Egyptian;
it is still doubtful whether it be also the parent of the Ethiopic text.
An Arabian text, preserved in manuscript, is not yet published. In his
Stromation Archaiologikon , Rome, 1900, pp. 15—31, A. Baumstark pu
blished a Syriac text; similarly J. P. Arendzen, An Entire Syriac Text of
the Apostolic Church-Order, in Journal of Theological Studies (1901), iii.
^_g0< jror the conclusion of a very ancient Latin text see E. Hauler,
Didascaliae apostolorum fragmenta Veronensia Latina, Leipzig, 1900, i.
QJ — IOI ^ Krawutzky , Uber das altkirchliche Unterrichtsbuch «Die
zwei Wege oder die Entscheidung des Petrus», in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1892), Ixiv. 359 — 445. A. Harnack, Die Quellen der sog. apostolischen
Kirchenordnung, Leipzig, 1886 (Texte und Untersuchungen ii. 5). Funk,
Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (1899), ii. 236—251.
Th. Schermann, Eine neue Handschrift der apostolischen Kirchenordnung,
in Oriens Christianus (1902), pp. 398 — 408.
THE LETTER OF PSENOSiRis. - - This is perhaps the place to insert,
among the writings of the Alexandrines, the letter that the priest Pseno-
siris wrote to Apollo, his brother in the Lord, notifying him that a female
fellow-citizen (iroXmxrjv), exiled by the city-prefect to the Oasis, had been
placed by him (Psenosiris) in the hands of good and faithful fossores or
grave-diggers. This letter was discovered among other papyri that came
from Kysis (Diisch-el-Kala) in the Great Oasis and are now in the British
Museum. They bear dates varying from 242 to 307. It is coniectured
that the woman was a Christian exiled for her faith to the Great Oasis, in
which case it must be question either of the persecution of Valerian or
that of Diocletian. Most of those who have written about this document
decide for the latter date.
The Letter of Psenosiris was edited by A. Deissmann , Ein Original-
Dokument aus der diokletianischen Christenverfolgung , Papyrus 713 des
British Museum, Tubingen and Leipzig, 1902 ; Id., The Epistle of Pseno
siris, an Original Document from the Diocletian Persecution, London,
1902 ; P. Franchi de' Cavalieri , Una lettera del tempo della persecuzione
diocleziana, in Nuovo Bullet, di archeologia cristiana (1902), viii. 15 — 25;
A. Mercati, in the Italian translation of the present work, Rome, 1903, iii. ix.
B. SYRO-PALESTINIANS.
§ 43- Julius Africanus.
I . HIS LIFE. - - Sextus Julius Africanus, a Lybian \ seems to
have been an officer in the expedition of Septimius Severus against
the Osrhoenes (195). He enjoyed intimate relations both with the
royal house of Edessa and the imperial family. About 211 — 215 he
visited Alexandria and attended the lectures of Heraclas (§ 39, i)2.
During the reign of Alexander Severus (222- 235) he held an office
1 Suidas, Lex. s. v. Africanus. - Ens., Hist, eccl., vi. 31, 2.
§ 43- JULIUS AFRICANUS. 163
of distinction at Emmaus-Nicopolis in the plain of Philistia1. Later
Syriac writers have been misled into making him a bishop of Em-
maus; he does not seem to have been even a presbyter. He died
after 240 (cf. § 39, 10).
H. Gelzer, Sextus Julius Africanus und die byzantinische Chronographie,
Leipzig, 1880 — 1898, i. i — n.
2. THE CHRONOGRAPHIA. THE KsaroL - - His most important
work was a universal chronicle in five books completed in 221 and
entitled Ckroncgraphia (ypovoypatpiai) 2. Though none of its five books
is intact, more or less lengthy fragments of all have reached us.
The purpose of Africanus was to correlate and harmonize Jewish and
Christian history with the history of the Gentile world. He found in
the biblical dates the sure criterion by which to judge the historicity
of the profane dates offered in the current manuals of chronology.
The entire history of the world, according to Africanus, covers a
period of six thousand years; the first three thousand are closed by
the death of Phaleg, « because in his days the earth was divided »
(Gen. x. 25). The next three thousand years will close with the end
of the world; half-way in the last millennium, i. e. in the year 5500,
the Son of God became man. This first of Christian world-chronicles
has never lacked zealous admirers, and industrious use .has con
stantly been made of it. It rendered substantial service to the Father
of Church History; in modified and often even in corrupted forms
it has dominated all Byzantine historiography. - - He dedicated to
Alexander Severus 3 an extensive encyclopaedia of the natural sciences,
medicine, magic, agriculture, naval and military warfare, and gave
it the curious title of « Embroidered Girdles » fxsffroij. Photius
says4 that it included fourteen books, but Suidas5 gives the number
of books as twenty-four. Of this encyclopaedia many fragments, some
of them not unimportant, have reached us, especially through later
and more special works, e. g. the collection of Greek tacticians, the
compilation of excerpts from writers on agriculture known as Geoponica,
and the manual of veterinary science known as Hippiatrica. While
the vulgar superstition they exhibit, and the obscenities that swarm
in the fragment on Aphrodisiac secrets, are well-calculated to lessen
our respect for Africanus, they do not justify us in suspecting the
authenticity of his works, or attempting to divide the authorship of
the xsffToi and the Chronographia.
The existing collections of the fragments of the Chronographia (Mignc,
PG., x. 63 — 94; Routh , Reliquiae Sacrae [2] ii. 238 — 309) are unsatis
factory. A new collection is expected from If. Gelzer (1. c.). The first
1 Sync. Chronogr. ed. Dindorf, i. 676. * Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 31, 2.
3 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 31, i; cf. Geoponica, 1. i, praef. : xsffTol ^ i:a.pddo$a,
4 Bibl. Cod. 34. 5 Lex., 1. c.
1 1 *
FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
part of this work of Gelzer deals with the Chronography of Africanus (supple
mentary matter injahrb. f. prot. Theologie [1881], vii. 376— 378); the second
part (1885 — 1898) treats of his Greek and Latin, Syriac and Armenian
successors. There is no satisfactory collection of the fragments of the «Em-
broidered Girdles ». They are enumerated by Gelzer ; 1. c., i. 12 — 17, and
Preuschen, in Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Lit., i. 508—511. There is
an English translation of the literary remains of Africanus by Salmond, in
Ante-Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe, 1886), vi. 146 — 153.
3. LETTERS. DOUBTFUL AND SPURIOUS WORKS. — An entire letter
of Africanus to Origen has been preserved, in which he opposes the
genuineness and canonicity of the history of Susanna in the Book of
Daniel (§ 39, 10), also fragments of another to a certain Aristides1 in
which, on the basis of ancient traditions, he undertakes to harmonize
the apparent antilogies in the genealogies of Our Lord as given in
St. Matthew and St. Luke. He makes Jacob (Mt. i. 16) the natural
father, and Heli (Lk. iii. 23) the legal father of Joseph. Both letters
are mentioned by Eusebius2, and are eloquent monuments of an
acute and searching criticism far beyond the ordinary contemporary
level. It is very doubtful that he wrote commentaries on the Gospels
or on the New Testament, as the Syriac writers (Dionysius Bar Salibi
and Ebedjesu) maintain. It is owing to an interchange of names
(Africanus for Aphroditiamus) that a ridiculous story of miraculous
occurrences in Persia at the time of the birth of Christ has been
attributed to our chronographer 3. Nor can he be the author of the
Passio S. Symphorosae et septein filiorum eius 4.
Both letters of Africanus are in Routh, 1. c., ii. 225 — 237. See Fr.
Spitta, Der Brief des Julius Africanus an Aristides, kritisch untersucht und
hergestellt, Halle, 1877. For the writings falsely attributed to Africanus
see in particular Gelzer, 1. c., i. 18 f. (Jahrb. f. prot. Theol. vii. 376 f.);
Preuschen, 1. c., p. 513. There is an English translation of the letter to
Origen in Ante-Nicene Fathers, (ed. Coxe, 1896), vi. 385 f.
4. ALEXANDER OF JERUSALEM. -- Alexander, the founder of the theo
logical library of Jerusalem (§ 37), was for a brief period bishop in Cappa-
docia (Eus., Hist. eccl. vi. n, r — 2). About 212 he became coadjutor to
the aged bishop Narcissus of Jerusalem (ib. vi. 8, 7), and succeeded him
shortly after in that office which he held until his glorious death as a martyr
in 250 (ib. vi. 39, 2 — 3). Eusebius mentions many of his letters; one
was written from his prison in Cappadocia to the Christians of Antioch,
congratulating them on the choice of their new bishop, Asclepiades (ib. vi.
n, 5 — 6). Another was written at Jerusalem, in the life-time of Narcissus,
as an exhortation to the Christians of Antinonia in Egypt (ib. vi. n, 3).
A third letter was written to Origen (ib. vi. 14, 8 — 9). Both Alexander
and bishop Theoctistus of Csesarea wrote to bishop Demetrius of Alex
andria in defence of lay-preaching (ib. vi. 19, 17 — 18). St. Jerome (De
viris ill., c. 62) seems to have known another letter of Alexander to Demetrius
concerning Origen's ordination to the priesthood. For the «testimonia»
concerning Alexander see Migne, PG., x. 203 — 206 and Routh, 1. c. , ii.
1 Migne, PG., x. 51 — 64. 2 Hist, eccl., vi. 31, i 3.
3 Migne, PG., x. 97—108. 4 Ib., x. 93—98.
§ 44- PAUL OF SAMOSATA, MALCHION OF ANTIOCH, LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA. 1 6$
159 — 179; Harnack, 1. c., i. 505 — 507: cf. ii. i, 221 — 223. For an English
translation of the fragments of Alexander see Salmoitd , in Ante-Nicene
Fathers (ed. Coxe, 1896), vi. 153 — 154.
5. BERYLLUS OF BOSTRA. -- About 244 Origen converted this bishop
from Monarchianism to the teachings of the Church (§ 39, 7). Beryllus
left letters and treatises (Eus., Hist. eccl. vi. 20, 2), also letters to Origen
(Hier., De viris ill., c. 60).
§ 44. Paul of Samosata, Malchion of Antioch, Lucian of Samosata.
i. PAUL OF SAMOSATA. - - He was a «ducenarius» of Zenobia,
queen of Palmyra, and from 260 held the see of Antioch. Apparently
he committed to writing his teaching that Christ was by nature only
an ordinary man1. Vincent of Lerins2 was acquainted with «Opu-
scula» of Paul, and a later Greek writer has left us some Christo-
logical fragments of his discourses to Sabinus (npbs Sajftvov
Mai, Script, vet. nova coll. (1833), vii. i 68 sq. ; Routh, Reliquiae Sacrae
(2) iii. 329 f. See G. D. Rossini , L'impresa di Palmira e Paolo Samo-
sateno, in Miscellanea di Storia Eccles. (1902 — 1903), i. 109 — 133.
2. MALCHION OF ANTIOCH. - - In consequence of the heresy of
Paul three synods were held at Antioch from 264 — 269. It was only
in the last of these synods that Malchion, a presbyter of Antioch and
a famous teacher of rhetoric in that city, was able to convict the
cunning sophist and to tear the mask from him. We have still some
fragments of the discussion between Paul and Malchion, taken down
by shorthand writers3. Paul was deposed and excommunicated; in a
long encyclical letter the synod made known to the entire Catholic
Church the history and the conclusion of the whole affair. This
encyclical letter, according to Jerome4, was the work of Malchion;
some fragments of it are extant in Eusebius5 and in other writers.
, For the remnants of the encyclical and the discussion see Migne, PG.
x. 247 — 260, and Routh3 1. c. iii. 300 — 316. Another fragment of the
discussion is in Pitra, Analecta sacra iii. 600 f. ; cf. the Syriac fragments,
ib. iv. 183- 1 86 423 — 425. There is reason to doubt the genuineness of a
letter written to Paul «before his deposition*, by six bishops: Hymenaeus
(of Jerusalem), Theophilus, Theotecnus (of Csesarea in Palestine), Maximus
(of Bostra), Proclus and Bolanus (Mansi, Ss. Concil. Coll. i. 1033 — 1040;
Routh, 1. c. , iii. 289 — 299). These six bishops are mentioned by Eu
sebius (Hist, eccl., vii. 30, 2) among those who forwarded the encyclical
letter. Cf. P. Pape , Die Synoden von Antiochien 264 — 269 (Progr.),
Berlin, 1903. For an English translation of the fragments of Malchion see
Salmondy in Ante-Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe, 1896), vi. 168 — 172.
3. LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA. -- Lucian, a native of Samosata, pres
byter of Antioch and founder of the Antiochene exegetical school,
shared the views of Paul and was probably excommunicated at the
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 27, 2. 2 Common, c. 25, al. 35.
3 Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 29, 2. 4 De viris ill., c. 71.
5 Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 30.
1 66 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
same time as the latter. Although he returned to the communion
of the Church, he did not cease to teach a decidedly subordinationist
theology, and is the true father of Arianism. His martyrdom at
Nicomedia (Jan. 7., 312) made reparation for his want of conformity
to the teachings of the Church1. Like Hesychius (§ 41, 5) Lucian
made a critical revision of the Septuagint and a recension of the
text of the New Testament, or at least of the Gospels2. In the
fourth century this revision of the Septuagint was still in general
use through all the churches from Antioch to Constantinople 3 ; manu
scripts of it have survived to our day. Jerome4 had read other
works of Lucian : De fide lib e Hi and Breves ad nonnullos e pistol ae.
The Chronicon Paschale* cites the conclusion of a letter of Lucian
sent from Nicomedia to the Christians of Antioch. The statement
of Athanasius6 and others that a profession of faith adopted by an
Antiochene synod in 341 was the work of Lucian, is very questionable.
The edition of the Pentateuch and the historical books of the Jewish
canon, published at Gottingen in 1883 by P. de Lagarde , was based on
codices that C. Vercellone had recognized as correlated, and that A. M.
Ceriani and Fr. Field had shown to be copies of Lucian's revision of the
Septuagint. The Septuagint text in the Complutensian Polyglot is based
on two of these codices. For more special information see the manuals
of Introduction to the Old and New Testament. The fragments of other
works of Lucian are in Routh, 1. c., iv. i — 17. Among them are an
Apology for Christianity, prepared at Nicomedia on the eve of his death,
and taken from Rufinus' paraphrase of the Church History of Eusebius
(ix. 6); also an oral exposition of Job ii. 9 — 10, taken from the commen
tary on Job by Julian of Halicarnassus. The hypothesis of F. Kattenbusch
(Das apostolische Symbol, Leipzig, 1894, i. 252—273 392—395) that the
baptismal symbol of the Apostolic Constitutions (vii. 41) is the work of
Lucian, is most probably untenable. For Lucian see in general, Acta
SS. Jan., Venice, 1734, i. 357—365, and Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl.
Lit. i. 526—531; cf. Stokes, in Diet, of Christ. Biography, London, 1882,
iii. 748 — 749, also (Cardinal) Newman's «History of the Arians».
§ 45. Pamphilus of Csesarea and the Dialogus de recta in Deum fide.
i. PAMPHILUS. - - The biography of St. Pamphilus in three books,
by his disciple and friend Eusebius, has perished; only references
to it and some quotations are known7. But in his Church History
and in his two works on the martyrs of Palestine, Eusebius has handed
down to posterity tributes of affectionate remembrance for Pamphilus.
He was born of noble parents at Berytus in Phoenicia, studied theo
logy § at Alexandria under Pierius (§41, 2), took up his permanent
residence at Caesarea in Palestine, was ordained priest, opened in
1 Eus., Hist, eccl., viii. 13, 2; ix. 6, 3. 2 Hier> praef- in Evangi
* Hier., Praef. in Paral. * De viris ill., c. 77.
Migne, PG., xcii. 689. 6 Ep. de syn. c. 23.
Eus., De mart. Palestinae, c. II, 3; Hier., Adv. Rufin., i. 9.
8 Phot., Bibl. Cod. 118 119.
§ 45- PAMPHILUS OF C^SAREA AND THE DIALOGUS DE RECTA IN DEUM FIDE. l6/
that city a theological school, and in the persecution of Maximinus
suffered martyrdom there by decapitation (309), apparently after a
long and tedious imprisonment. The greatest of his literary merits
is the zeal he displayed for the enrichment and enlargement of the
library of Csesarea (§ 37). While in prison he wrote, with the help
of his friend Eusebius, an apology for Origen (aTroAofia bxkp "Qptyivouc,)
in five books to which, after the martyr's death, Eusebius added
a sixth. The work was dedicated to the confessors in the mines or
quarries of Palestine, and was an attempt to defend the theology of
the Alexandrine from the charge of heterodoxy that many brought
against it. Only the first of its six books has been preserved, and
that in a not very reliable version by Rufinus of Aquileja. Pho-
tius speaks about the whole work 1. The latter says quite posi
tively that Pamphilus composed the first five books2. In view of
this testimony the statement of St. Jerome3 that the Arian Eusebius
was the true author of the work, is manifestly inexact and awakens
a suspicion of bias. Gennadius wrongly says 4 that Rufinus translated
a work of Pamphilus Adversum mathematico s ; he simply misunderstood
the reasons given by Rufinus5 for his translation of the first book
of the Apology. Finally, in his biography of Pamphilus, Eusebius
made mention of letters of Pamphilus to his friends6.
For the «testimonia antiquorum» concerning Pamphilus see Preuschen,
in Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Lit. i. 543 — 550. The Passio Ss. Pamphili
et sociorum (Migne, PG. x. 1533 — 1550) is a fragment of the larger work
of Eusebius on the Martyrs of Palestine, and has been re-edited by H. De-
lehayc, in Analecta Bollandiana (1897), xvi. 129 — 139. The translation by
Rufinus of the first book of the Apology for Origen is found in the edi
tions of Origen (Migne , PG., xvii. 521 — 616). It is also (incomplete) in
Routh , Reliquiae Sacrae (2) iii. 485 — 512; iv. 339 — 392. For traces of
biblical manuscripts written or corrected by Pamphilus cf. W. Bousset, in
Texte und Untersuchungen (1894), xi. 4, 45 — 73.
2. DIALOGUS DE RECTA IN DEUM FIDE. — There have come down
to us in Greek and Latin texts, under the name of Origen, five dia
logues against the Gnostics. Their Greek title is dial^ic, 'Ada/jtavTtou
roil) xai 'Qptflvoug xspi r^c SIQ ttsov opftiJQ "xiGizto^, while in the only
manuscript that has reached us of the Latin version made by Rufinus
they are called Libri Adamantii Origenis adversus haereticos numero
quinque. In these dialogues Adamantius appears as the protagonist
of Christian faith. In the first two he attacks the doctrine of three
(or two) principles (apyjj.i) as held by the Marcionites, Megethius and
Marcus. In the last three dialogues he combats the theses of Marinus,
a follower of Bardesanes. Marinus had maintained that the devil or
1 Bibl. Cod. 1 1 8.
2 Cf. Ens., Hist, eccl., vi. 33, 4, and Hier., De viris ill., c. 75.
3 Adv. Rufin., i. 8 ; al. 4 De viris ill., c. 17.
5 Apol., i. ii. 6 Hier., Adv. Ruf., i. Q.
1 68 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
evil could not have been created by God, that the Logos could not
take a human body, that the body could not rise again. In the
fourth dialogue he interrupts for a while the discussion with Marinus,
in order to dispute with Droserius and Valens, followers of Valentinian,
concerning the origin of evil. The Christian disputants had chosen as
arbiter Eutropius, a learned heathen philosopher; he considers him
self obliged to yield the palm of victory to Adamantius. The author
of these dialogues is evidently very well-skilled in dialectic and theo
logy. Zahn has shown by a comparison of the Greek with the Latin
text that in general the latter, though a translation, represents with
fidelity the original work, while very plainly the Greek text has been
worked over quite thoroughly. Internal evidence shows that the work
was composed about 300 — 3 1 3 ; the revision must have taken place
between 330 and 337. The author can no longer be recognized, but
it is probable that he lived at or near Antioch. The erroneous
attribution of the work to Origen, accepted by Basil the Great and
Gregory of Nazianzus1, is owing to a confusion of the Church's
theological protagonist with the author of the dialogue. Very pro
bably, indeed, the latter meant to indicate by the name Adamantius
no other but Origen (cf. § 39, i). At the same time his inten
tion was to put forth the famous Alexandrine only as sponsor for
the doctrine of the dialogue, not to designate him as the author of
the work.
The Greek text has come down in seven (according to von Bakhuyzen]
codices that go back to a single archetype. The editio princeps is that
of J. R. Wetstein, Basle, 1674, reprinted in later editions of Origen (Migne,
PG.. xi. 1711—1884). The Latin version was first published by C. P.
Caspari, Kirchenhistorische Anecdota, Christiania, 1883, i. 1 — 129 (cf. iii— iv).
For further details see Th. Zahn, in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1887 — 1888),
ix. 193 — 239, and Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (1892), ii. 2, 419—426.
There is a new edition by W. H. van dc Sande Bakhuyzen, Leipzig, 1901,
in Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte.
§ 46. The Didascalia apostolorum.
Even before the Apostolic Church-Ordinance (§ 42) had been
adopted in Egypt, there circulated in Syria or Palestine a pseudo-
apostolic work of similar character, but much larger in size. Its
subject-matter was, likewise, Christian morality, the constitution of
the Church, and Christian discipline. The original Greek text has
apparently perished. In 1854 P. de Lagarde edited an ancient
Syriac version, and recently Hauler has made known notable frag
ments of an early Latin version. These fragments confirm the con
clusion of Funk that in general the Syriac version, apart from its
peculiar division into chapters, faithfully represents the original Greek.
The title (lacking in the Latin version) reads in Syriac: « Didascalia,
1 Philocal. Orig. c. 24, 8.
§ 46. THE DIDASCALIA APOSTOLORUM. 1 69
i. e. the Catholic Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles and holy disciples
of our Redeemer ». It opens with general exhortatory advice to Christ
ians (c. I in Syriac) and more particularly to those in certain states,
especially married persons (cc. 2 — 3). Then follow provisions con
cerning the qualifications for the office of bishop, his duties and his
rights (cc. 4 — 9), on lawsuits among Christians (cc. 10 — n), on the
liturgical assemblies (cc. 12 — 13), on widows, deacons and deacones
ses (cc. 14 — 1 6), on the care of the poor and in particular of
orphans (cc. 17 — 18), on the martyrs (cc. 19 — 20), on fasting (c. 21),
on the discipline of children (c. 22). The last chapters contain a
warning against heresies (cc. 23 — 25) and against Jewish or Judaiz-
ing practices (c. 26). There is no inner cohesion between the
chapters; even in each chapter the thought of the writer does not
progress in an orderly way. According to c. 24 the work was
composed by the Apostles at Jerusalem , on the occasion of the
apostolic council and during the first days after the same. Funk
has shown that it was written in Syria or Palestine during the first
half of the third century. The sources at the disposition of the
writer were the Holy Scriptures (in c. 7 he even quotes the story of
the woman taken in adultery, John vii. 53 to viii. n), the Didache,
the collection of the Ignatian Epistles , the Dialogue of Justin the
Martyr, the apocryphal Gospel of Peter, the fourth book of the
Sibylline Oracles, and perhaps the « Memorabilia » of Hegesippus. The
work was highly esteemed and much used in Syria and Palestine.
Early in the fifth century it was worked over in Syria at considerable
length, and took its actual shape in the first six books of the Apo
stolic Constitutions (§75, i).
The Syriac version was edited from a codex of the ninth or tenth
century by P. Botticher (P. dc Lagardc), Didascalia Apostolorum syriace,
Leipzig, 1854. At the same time, in the work of Chr. C. J. Bunsen,
Analecta Ante-Nicaena, London, 1854, ii, Botticher undertook to recon
struct the original Greek of the Didascalia (225 — 338: Didascalia purior).
For this purpose he used the Syriac version and the first six books of the
Apostolic Constitutions ; the six books were so printed as to distinguish by
different kinds of type the original text from the additions to it (45 — 2245.
In many details, however, both these recensions of Botticher are untrust
worthy- cf. Funk, Die Apostolischen Konstitutionen , Rottenburg, 1891,
pp. 40 — 50. On Didascaliae apostolorum fragmenta Veronensia Latina
ed. E. Hauler, Leipzig, 1900, i, see Funk, 1. c. , pp. 28—75. For tne
dependence of the Didascalia on the Didache see C. Holzhcy, in Compte
rendu du IVe Congres scientifique internat. des Catholiques, Fribourg
(vSwitzerland), 1898, Section I, 249—277; on its relations to the Ignatian
Epistles see Holzhey , in TheoJ. Quartalschr. (1898), Ixxx. 380—396.
F. X. Funk, La date de la Didascalie des Apotres, in Revue d'histoire
ecclesiastique (1901), ii. 798 — 809; here he assigns it to the second half
of the third century. P. Corssen , Zur lateinischen Didascalia Aposto
lorum, in Zeitschr. fur neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1900), i. 339—343.
In the Canoniste Contemporain (1900 — 1902) F. Nau gives a French
FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
version of the Didascalia (reprinted, Paris, 1902). A. Jakoby , Ein bisher
unbeachteter apokrypher Bericht iiber die Taufe Jesu, nebst Beitragen
zur Geschichte der Didascalia der zwolf Apostel, und Erlauterungen zu
den Darstelhmgen der Taufe Jesu, Straftburg, 1902; C. Holzhey , Dio-
nysius der Grofte und die Didascalia, in Theol.-praktische Monatschr.
(1901), xi. 515—523; cf. § 40, 4. The Didascalia Apostolorum, edited
from a Mesopotamian manuscript with various readings and collations from
other mss. by M. Dunlop Gibson, I: Syriac text; II: an English version
(Horae Semiticae), Cambridge, 1903. See the critique of Funk, in Theol.
Quartalschr. (1903), Ixxxv. 195 — 202. A. Baumstark , Die Urgestalt der
arabischen Didascalia der Apostel, in Oriens Christianus (1903), pp. 201
to 208. For a German translation and commentary see Achelis and Flem-
ming, Die syrische Didascalia, iibersetzt und erklart, in Texte und Unter-
suchungen, Leipzig, 1904, x, 2, vm — 388. Funk has also published what
will in all likelihood ever remain the standard edition of the « Didascalia
et Constitutiones Apostolorum », 2 voll., Paderborn, 1905.
C. WRITERS OF ASIA MINOR.
§ 47. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus (the Wonder- Worker).
I. HIS LIFE. — In his panegyric on Origen (cc. 5 — 6) St. Gregory
gives us reliable information concerning his own early life. Other
details are gathered from Eusebius, St. Basil the Great, St. Jerome,
Rufinus and other writers. His life in Greek by St. Gregory of
Nyssa * is of little historical value because of its highly legendary
character. Untrustworthy, too, is an ancient anonymous life in
Syriac, that has come down to us in a sixth-century manuscript,
and is in its contents very closely related to the Greek life. Both
these lives may go back to an earlier Greek original (Ryssel), or
both may represent the same stage of oral tradition (Koetschau).
Gregory, in youth called Theodore2, was born about 213 at Neo-
caesarea in Pontus, of a very noble heathen family. He devoted
himself to the study of rhetoric and Roman law. In order to
perfect themselves in the latter study, both he and his younger
brother Athenodorus were on the point of entering the law schools
of Berytus in Phoenicia, when domestic circumstances altered per
force their resolution, and they betook themselves to Csesarea in
Palestine. Here, very probably in 233, they became acquainted with
Origen, and were fascinated by his teaching. Gradually all thought
of Berytus and jurisprudence vanished from the minds of the im
pressionable youths. They clung thenceforth to the admirable teacher
who had won them over to the studies of philosophy and theology,
and at the same time converted them to Jesus Christ. Eusebius
tells us3 that Gregory and his brother spent five years at Caesarea.
On their separation from Origen, in 238, the former delivered a
public panegyric or formal profession of gratitude in the presence of
1 Migne, PG., xlvi. 893-958- 2 Ens., Hist, eccl., vi. 30. 3 Ib.
§ 47- ST- GREGORY THAUMATURGUS (THE WONDER-WORKER). I/ 1
his master1. Shortly afterwards they were both made bishops in
Pontus 2 ; Gregory in particular, became the first bishop of his native
city of Neoc^esarea. The two biographies already referred relate
a long series of miraculous happenings, to which Gregory owes his
later title of Wonder-Worker (o ftaufjLatoupfOQ). This very early growth
of legend testifies more forcibly than any historical document could
to his uncommonly superior personality and his far-reaching successful
labors. Gregory and Athenodorus took part in the Antiochene synod
(264 — 265) that condemned Paul of Samosata3; they may also have
been present at the two following synods held for the same purpose4.
Suidas says5 that Gregory died in the reign of Aurelian (270 — 275).
Before his death he had completely converted his native city, and all
Pontus continued to reverence his memory6.
The Syriac biography of Gregory was first published in a German
version by V. Ryssel } in Theol. Zeitschr. aus der Schweiz (1894), xi. 228
to 254. Later, the Syriac text was published from the same codex, by
P. Bedjan, in Acta martyrum et sanctorum (1896), vi. 83 — 106. For the
relations between the Greek and Syriac text see P. Koetschau, in Zeitschr.
fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1898), xli. 211 — 250, and H. Hilgcnfeld, ib.,
452 — 456. For the latest researches on the life of Gregory cf. Ryssel,
Gregorius Thaumaturgus, Leipzig, 1880, pp. i — 22, and Koetschau, in his
edition of the Panegyric on Origen , Freiburg, 1894 (Sammlung ausgew.
kirchen- und dogmengeschichtl. Quellenschriften 9), pp. v— xxi.
2. LITERARY LABORS. - - Taken up with pastoral cares, Gregory
wrote but little, as far as we know; what remains from his pen is
mostly of an occasional character, and was called forth by practical
needs. However, even in antiquity the labors of others were attributed
to him and sometimes with fraudulent purpose.
The collected writings of Gregory were first edited by G. Voss, Mainz,
1604; then by Fronton du Due, Paris, 1622. They are in Gallandi, Bibl.
vet. Patr. iii. 377 — 469 (cf. iii. Proleg. , xxv— xxix; xiv. app. 119), and in
Migne, PG. , x. 963 — 1232. Several writings and fragments, partly un
known, have been recently edited by P. de Lagarde and P. Martin, from
Syriac and Armenian sources; they bear the name of Gregory, and an
account of those printed before 1880 may be read in the careful study of
Ryssel, Gregorius Thaumaturgus (cf. additional material in Jahrb. f. protest.
Theol. 1881, vii. 565 sq.). There is an English translation of the literary remains
of Gregory by Sahnond, in Ante-Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe, 1896), vi. 9 — 74.
3. GENUINE WORKS. - The following works may and ought to
be recognized as genuine writings : a) The Panegyric on Origen, deliver
ed at Caesarea in 238, at the time of his leave-taking. It is entitled
in the editions7: SIQ 'Qptfiwqv 7Zf)OG<pcovrjTLy.bc, xa} Tiavyfupixb^ /.oyoQ,
but is called by the author (c. 3, 31; 4, 40) AO^OQ yaptaTypioQ, or
« discourse of thanksgiving ». The thanks of the speaker are directed
1 Hier., De viris ill., c. 65. 2 Eus., Hist, eccl., vi. 30.
3 Ib., vii. 28, i. 4 Ib., vii. 28, 2. 5 Lexicon, s. v. Gregor.
r> Basil. M., De Spir. Sancto, c. 29, 74. 7 Migne, PG., x. 1049 — 1104.
1/2
FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
first to God, the Giver of all good, then to the guardian angel who
accompanied Gregory and Athenodorus to Csesarea, and finally to
the great teacher who inspired both with a love for (Christian) philo
sophy. A strong current of living and affectionate emotion pulsates
through the entire discourse. Its diction is comparatively pure and
noble, in spite of "a certain straining after rhetorical effect, b) The
Creed of Gregory (sx&emQ rye, mffrscj^J *. According to the legendary
life by St. Gregory of Nyssa 2 this formula of faith was revealed to him
in a vision by the Apostle John, at the command of the Mother of
God. Caspari has shown that it was composed between 260 and 270.
It is a brief but clear and precise exposition of the Christian doctrine
of the Trinity, c) The so-called Canonical Epistle (intaroM] xavovcxy ;
with the scholia of the canonists Balsamon and Zonaras) 3. It was
written to solve the doubts of a bishop as to the proper treatment of
those Christians who had been guilty of infractions of Christian discipline
and morality during the raids of the Goths and Boradi (Borani) into
Pontus and Bithynia. The document is of importance first for the
history of ancient ecclesiastical discipline, then as affording evidence
of the mildness and tact of Gregory. Draseke thinks it was com
posed in the autumn of 254. d) The Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes
(perdypamQ sl^ rbv ixxhjmaarqv HO^O/JLW^TOQJ 4 , a paraphrastic ren
dering of the Greek text of the sacred book. The manuscripts
usually attribute it to St. Gregory of Nazianzus, but St. Jerome5
and Rufinus6 declare it to be a work of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus.
e) The work «To Theopompus on the divine incapacity and capa
city of suffering », extant in Syriac only, a philosophical colloquy as
to whether the divine immunity from suffering carries with it neces
sarily an indifference to the affairs of mankind. The contents of
this work suggest no reason to doubt its genuineness; it was pro
bably composed before his consecration as bishop of Neocsesarea.
Theopompus, otherwise unknown, is described (c. 6) as a follower
of «Isocrates», whom Draseke identifies with Socrates, a Gnostic
and a Marcionite-. The latter taught that from all eternity God
was essentially in a state of absolute quietude and nowise con
cerned himself about mankind, f) Lost writings, especially a dialogue
with ^Elianus (npbz Alhavbv dtdX^iq) intended to win over the latter
to the Christian faith; it seems to have dwelt particularly on the
Christian teaching concerning God 8; also some lost epistolae* of
which we have no further knowledge.
1 Migne, PG., x. 983—988.
2 Greg. Nyss., Vita S. Thaumat. ; Migne, PG., xlvi 909 ff
Migne, PG., x. 1019-1048. * Ib., x. 987-1018
De viris ill., c. 65; Comm. in Eccl. ad iv. 13 ff.
6 Hist. eccl. Eus., vii. 25.
" Dial, de recta in Deum fide, sect, i ; Migne, PG., xi. 1729.
Basil. Magn., Ep. 210, 5. o Hier^ De viris m ; c
§ 47- ST- GREGORY THAUMATURGUS (THE WONDER-WORKER). 1/3
a) The «Discourse of Thanksgiving » has reached us only by means of
the manuscripts in which it is joined to the work of Origen against Celsus
(§ 39» 6). For excellent separate editions we are indebted to y. A. Bengel,
Stuttgart, 1722, and P. Koetschau. A German version of the Panegyric, the
Creed and the Canonical Epistle was made by J. Margraf, Kempten, 1875
(Bibl. der Kirchenvater). - - b) The Creed has come down to us in Greek
through a work of Gregory of Nyssa (1. c.), and in many manuscripts ; we
possess it also in a Syriac version and in two early Latin versions, one by
Rufinus of Aquileja, the other anonymous. For all these texts and an
exhaustive demonstration of the genuineness and integrity of this Creed
see C. P. Caspari, Alte und neue Quellen zur Gesch. des Taufsymbols
und der Glaubensregel, Christiania, 1879, PP- 1—64. The Syriac text is
also in Pitra , Analecta sacra (1883), iv. 81 345 f. -- c) The Canonical
Epistle is found in Routh , Reliquiae Sacrae (2) iii. 251 — 283; in Pitra,
luris eccles. Graecorum historia et monumenta, Rome, 1864, i. 562 — 566,
and in Drdseke , Jahrb. f. protest. Theologie (1881), vii. 724 — 756. -
d) For the Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes cf. Ryssel, Gregorius Thaumaturgus,
pp. 27 — 29. - - e) The work «To Theopompus» is printed, in P. de La-
garde, Analecta Syriaca, Leipzig and London, pp. 46 — 64, from a Syriac
codex of the sixth century; a German version is given by Ryssel, 1. c.,
pp. 71 — 99 (cf. pp. 118 — 124 137 f. 150 — 157). Another edition of the
Syriac text is that of P. Martin, in Pitra, Analecta sacra, iv. 103—120
363 — 376. Cf. Drdseke, Gesammelte Patrist. Untersuchungen, Altona and
Leipzig, 1889, pp. 162 — 1 68. -- f) The Arabic fragment of a Sermo de
Trinitate (Migne, PG., x. 1123 — 1126; Ryssel, 1. c., 43 — 46), in which Mai
thought he saw a fragment of the dialogue with /Elianus, is spurious.
4. DUBIOUS WORKS. — Other writings or fragments await a more
thorough study of their contents and character: a) The brief treatise
on the soul addressed to Tatian (/Jrfoc, xspaAauodqQ xepl <p'J7Jj±
Tipoc, Tanavuv) 1. It discusses the existence and nature of the soul,
and expressly prescinds from scriptural proof. In modern times it
has been customary to look on it as spurious, even as of mediaeval
origin. Recently a Syriac version has been discovered in a codex of
the seventh century; it is also possible that Procopius of Gaza (about
465 — 528) cites the Greek text as a work of our Gregory, b) We owe
to P. Martin the knowledge of five homilies, preserved only in Armenian
and attributed to Gregory. They are : Homilia in nativitatem Christi.
Sermo de incarnatione , Laus S. Dei genitricis et semper Virginis
Mariae, Panegyricus sermo in S. Dei genitricem et semper Virginem
Mariam, Sermo panegyricus in honorem S. Stephani protomartyris.
The last four are certainly products of a much later age. Loofs
concedes the first to be a genuine work of Gregory, moved by-
numerous points of contact with the work «To Theopompus».
Conybeare translated into English, also from the Armenian, a sixth
homily, and holds it to be a genuine discourse of Gregory, c) A multi
tude of loose fragments, mostly spurious and insignificant; here and
there, however, a genuine phrase may lie hidden among them.
1 Mig?ie, PG., x. 1137 — 1146.
174 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
a) See A. Smith Lewis, in Studia Sinaitica, London, 1894, i. 19 — 26,
for a Syriac version of the treatise «on the soul». It lacks only the intro
duction; the codex is of the seventh century. A German version is given
by Ryssely in Rhein. Mus. f. Philol., new series (1896), li. 4 — 9, cf. 318—320.
The "testimony of Procopius is treated by Draseke, in Zeitschr. fiir wissen-
schaftl. Theol. (1896), xxxix. 166 — 169, and Zttr Gregor von Neocaesareas
Schrift iiber die Seele, in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1901), xliv.
87 — 100. — b) The five Armenian homilies are in Pitra, Analecta sacra, iv.
134 — 145 156 — 169 (Armenian); 386—396 404 — 412 (Latin). Cf. Loofs,
in Theol. Literaturzeitung (1884), pp. 551- — 553. The Armenian homily was
translated into English by F. C. Conybeare , in The Expositor (1896), i.
161 — 173. S. Haidacher , Zu den Homilien des Gregorius von Antiochia
tind des Gregorius Thaumaturgus, in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol. (1901), xxv.
367 — 369. -- c) For the scattered fragments of the writings of Gregory
see Ryssels Gregorius Thaumaturgus, pp. 43 — 59, and for the Greek and
Syriac fragments, in particular, see Pitra, 1. c., iii. 589 — 595; iv. 133 386,
and Loofs, 1. c., 550 f.
5. SPURIOUS WORKS. — A number of works have been erroneously
attributed to Gregory, a) The Syriac work «To Philagrius on con-
substantiality » is simply, as was seen by Draseke, the Letter npbq
E'jdfpiov fjLOva%bv ^spl $£0rjyn>£, published among the works of St. Gre
gory of Nazianzus1 and St. Gregory of Nyssa2, and probably not
written before 350—400. b) The «Sectional Confession of Faith, y xard
/jtlpoQ xlffrtQ3, an exposition of doctrine concerning the Blessed Trinity
and the Incarnation of the Son, is not a work of Gregory. Caspari has
proved that it was composed by Apollinaris of Laodicea (about 380),
and circulated by the Apollinarists under the safe cover of Gregory's
reputation, c) The « Twelve Chapters on Faith », xspdlata xepl nla-sctx;
dcodsxa*. This little work proposes to expound the orthodox faith
concerning the Incarnation. It is anti-Apollinarist (cc. 10 — n) and
was probably not written before the end of the fourth century.
d) Five Greek homilies — three on the Annunciation 5, one on Epi
phany6 and one on the Feast of All Saints7 - - are all spurious.
a) The Syriac text of the work «To Philagrius » is found in de Lagarde,
Anal. Syr. pp. 43-46, and Pitra, Analecta sacra, iv. 100—103. A German
version is given in Ryssely Gregorius Thaumaturgus, pp. 65 — 70 (cf. pp. 100
to 118 135 ft". 147 ff.), and a Latin version in Pitra, 1. c., iv. 360 — 363.
For the origin of that work see (in opposition to Ryssely in Jahrb. fur
protest. Theol. [1881], vii. 565 — 573) Draseke, Gesammelte Patrist. Unter-
suchungen (1889), pp. 103—162. b) The «Sectional Confession of
Faith » may also be found in de Lagarde' s Edition of the Greek work of
Titus Bostrensis «Against the Manichaeans», Berlin, 1859, pp. 103 — 113.
For a literal Syriac version see de Lagarde, Analecta Syriaca, pp. 31 -42,
and Pitra, I. c. , iv. 82—93 346—356 (Syriac and Latin). Cf. Caspari,
Alte und neue Quellen, pp. 65—146. -- c) For fragments of a Syriac
1 Migne, PG., xxxvii. 383. 2 Ib., xlvi. 1 101 — 1108.
3 Ib., x. 1103—1124. * Ib., x. 1127—1136.
5 Ib., x. 1145—1178. e Ib ; x II77_I190>
7 Ib., x. 1197 — 1206.
§ 48. ST. METHODIUS OF OLYMPUS. 1/5
version of the Twelve Chapters etc. cf. de Lagarde , 1. c. , pp. 65 — 67,
and Pitra , 1. c., iv. 95 — 100 357 — 360. Concerning these «Chapters»
consult (against Drdseke, 1. c. pp. 78 — 102) Funk, Kirchengeschichtl. Ab-
handlungen und Untersuchungen (1899), "• 329 — 338; ^r- Lauchert , in
Theol. Quartalschr. (1900), Ixxxii. 395 — 418. -- d) The first of the «Five
Homilies» is extant also in Syriac (Pitra, 1. c., iv. 122 — 127 377—381) and
in Armenian (ib., pp. 145 — 150 396 — 400), the second also in Armenian
(ib., pp. 150—156 400—404); there is also (ib., pp. 127—133 381—386)
a Syriac text of the fourth homily. The arguments of Drdseke, in Jahrb.
fiir protest. Theol. (1884), x. 657 ff., in favor of the authorship of Apol-
linaris of Laodicea for the first two and the fourth homilies are not
conclusive.
6. ATHENODORUS. - - In his Sacra Parallela St. John Damascene attri
butes without further identification three fragments of a work irepl ejJpaifffiou
to a certain Athenodorus. It may have been written by Athenodorus, the
brother of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. Cf. K. Holl, in Texte und Unter
suchungen, xx, new series (1899), v- 2> l6i-
7. FIRMILIAN OF c^ESAREA (Cappadocia). -- About the middle of the
third century he appears as one of the most highly esteemed bishops of
the East (Em., Hist, eccl, vii. 30, 3—5). His death is placed in 269. We
have from his pen a long letter to St. Cyprian of Carthage relative to the
Western controversy concerning the baptism of heretics, in a Latin version.
It is printed among the letters of Cyprian (no. 75, ed. Hartel, ii. 810 to
827). In this letter he gives his unreserved approval to the position of
St. Cyprian, declares invalid all baptism by heretics, and denounces with
passionate invective the judgment of Pope Stephen. J. Ernst has shown,
in Zeitschrift fiir kath. Theol. (1894), xviii. 209—259; (1896), xx. 364—367,
that it is impossible to defend the interpolation-hypothesis put forward by
O. Ritschl , in Cyprian von Karthago und die Verfassung der Kirche,
Gottingen, 1885, pp. 126 — 134. St. Basil the Great mentions (De Spir.
Sancto, cc. 29 74) other works (AOYOI) ofFirmilian. Cf. B. Bossue, in Acta
SS. Oct. (1867), xii. 470—510.
§ 48. St. Methodius of Olympus.
I. HIS LIFE. — It is hidden in almost complete obscurity. In his
Church History, Eusebius does not' honor with a mention this enemy
of Origen. We know only that he was bishop of Olympus in Lycia
and that he died about 311 a martyr's death in the persecution of
Maximinus Daza1. The rumor in St. Jerome2 that he was at first
bishop of Olympus and was then translated to Tyre (in Phoenicia),
also the later tradition in Leontius of Byzantium3 that he was bishop
of Patara (in Lycia), are apparently the results of a misunderstanding.
A. Pankow, Methodius, Bischof von Olympus, in Katholik (1887), ii.
i — 28 113—142 225 — 250 (reprint, Mainz, 1888). Concerning the episcopal
see of Methodius see Th. Zahn , in Zeitschr. fiir Kirchengesch. (1885 to
1886), viii. 15 — 20. C. G. Lundberg, Methodius, biskop of Olympos, en
Studie i de fornicenska patristiken, Stockholm, 1901.
1 Hier., De viris ill., c. 83; cf. Socr., Hist, eccl, vi. 13.
2 L. c. 3 De sectis, iii. i.
176 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
2. WRITINGS OF METHODIUS. - - Unlike St. Gregory Thaumat-
urgus Methodius considered that literary labors were one of the most
important phases of his life-work. Of his writings, however, only
one has reached us in its complete Greek text. Others have come
down, in abbreviated shape, through an Old-Slavonic version of the
eleventh century. Though diffuse, he is judged by St. Jerome1 to
be a pleasing and elegant writer. He is remarkable for formal beauty
of diction and delights in imitating Plato , even to the choice of
dialogue as the medium of his thoughts. His dogmatic-historical im
portance is principally due to his energetic and successful fight against
Origenism.
His writings, entire and fragmentary, were collected by Fr. Combefis,
Paris, 1644; they are reprinted in Gallandi , Bibl. vet. Patr. (1767), iii.
663 — 832 (cf. Proleg., li. — liv.), and in Migne, PG., xviii. 9—408, also in
A. Jahn, S. Methodii opera et S. Methodius platonizans, Halle, 1865.
A German version of the Old-Slavonic Corptis Methodianum and a new
edition of most of the Greek fragments were made by G. N. Bonwetsch,
Methodius von Olympus, i: Schriften, Erlangen and Leipzig, 1891. There
is an English translation of the works of Methodius by W. R. Clark , in
Ante-Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe, 1896), vi. 309 — 402. See Preuschen , in
Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Lit., i. 468 — 478; G. Fritschel, Methodius
von Olympus und seine Philosophic (Inaug.-Diss.), Leipzig, 1879. L. Atz-
berger, Gesch. der christl. Eschatologie innerhalb der vornicanischen Zeit,
Freiburg, 1896, pp. 469—490; G. N. Bonwetsch, Die Theologie des Metho
dius von Olympus untersucht (Abhandlungen der k. - Gesellschaft der
Wissensch. zu Gottingen), Berlin, 1903.
3. WORKS OF METHODIUS IN GREEK. - - «The Banquet or on
Virginity» (auunumov r/ Ttspl a^siaQj2 is an imitation of the «Ban-
quet» of Plato. The virgin Gregorium relates to the author Eubulius
(i. e. Methodius) the story of a banquet in the gardens of Arete at
which ten virgins glorify chastity in lengthy discourses upon that sub
ject. At the end Thecla, the eighth speaker, to whom Arete had given
the prize, intones a hymn to the bridegroom Christ and to His bride
the Church. The dialogue of Methodius «on the Freedom of the
will» faspl TO~J atJTSsoufflouj is almost completely extant in the original
Greek. We have already mentioned (§ 33, 6) a very important frag
ment; there is extant also a somewhat defective version in Old-Slavonic.
In this work an orthodox Christian attacks the Gnostic dualism and
determinism represented by two followers of Valentinian. He denies
the eternity of matter as a principle of evil ; the latter is rather the
result of the free will of rational creatures. The Greek text of the
prolix dialogue, in three books, on the Resurrection, originally per
haps entitled 'A?Xao<pa>v % xepi dvaffraffsco^ has mostly perished; some
fragments of the original are yet extant. There exists, however, in
31d-Slavonic, a complete version, save that the second and third books
1 Hier., De viris ill., c. 83. * Migne, PG., xviii. 27—220:
48. ST. METHODIUS OF OLYMPUS. 1/7
have suffered abbreviation. The scene of the dialogue is at Patara,
in the house of the physician Aglaophon ; the subject of the dis
cussion is the problem « whether after death this body will rise again
to incorruptibility » (I, I, 8). Aglaophon and Proclus side with Origen
in denying the identity of the risen body with that of our present
state, while Eubulius (Methodius) and Memianus defend the ecclesia
stical teaching. Methodius1 was unable to finish this work on the
lines of his original plan ; it merited and enjoyed, nevertheless, the
esteem of many.
The «Banquet» was first edited by L. Allatius, Rome, 1656. E. Carel,
S. Methodii Patarensis convivium decem virginum (These), Paris, 1880. On
the hymn at the end of the «Banquet» cf. Krumbacher, Gesch. der byzant.
Liter. (2) pp. 653 697. For the dialogue on «Free Will» in Greek and
Slavonic (also a German version) cf. Bonwetsch, \. c., pp. i — 62 •, cf xiv — xxii.
The dialogue on the Resurrection is found ib., pp. 70 — 283; cf. xxiii — xxx.
349. Syriac fragments of this dialogue are printed in Pitra, Analecta sacra,
iv. 201—205 434—438.
4. WRITINGS PRESERVED IN OLD-SLAVONIC. --In addition to the
dialogues on Free Will and the Resurrection there are four other
tractates in the Old-Slavonic Corpus Methodianum: «On life and
rational activity » (De vita), an exhortation to contentment with the
present life and to hope for the future; .«On the difference of foods
and the young cow mentioned in Leviticus » (rather in Numb, xix)
(De cibis), an allegorico- typical interpretation of the food-ordinances
of the Old Testament and the law of the sacrifice of the red cow
(see § 39, 14) addressed to two women, Frenope and Kilonia; To
Sistelius on leprosy (De lepra), a dialogue between Eubulius (Metho
dius) and Sistelius on the spiritual sense of the legislation concerning
leprosy in Lev. xiii ; «On the bloodsucker mentioned in Proverbs,
and on the words 'the heavens shew forth the glory of God'» (De
sawguisuga), an exposition of Prov. xxx. 1 5 ff. (cf. xxiv. 50 ff.) and
Ps. xviii. 2 (Septuagint). It was addressed to a certain Eustachius.
The Old-Slavonic text of these tractates is given in a German version
by Bonwetsch, 1. c. The Greek fragments of the work on leprosy printed
by Bonwetsch (pp. 311 — 325) prove conclusively that the Slavonic text has
been abbreviated and mutilated. For the contents of these treatises see
Abhandlgn., Al. v. Ottingen zum 70. Geburtstag gevvidmet, Munich, 1898,
PP- 29—53.
5. LOST WRITINGS. - - In the De sanguisuga (10, 4) Methodius
announces to his friend Eustachius a work «On the body». St. Jerome
mentions2 four works that no longer .exist: Adversum Porpkyriunt
libri, an extensive refutation of the fifteen books written against the
Christians by that Neoplatonist philosopher3; Adversus Origenem de
1 De cibis, c. i, i. 2 De viris ill., c. 83.
;{ //«?/-., Ep. 48, 13; 70, 3; al.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 12
1^8 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
pythonissa, or on the Witch of Endor, in opposition to the homily
of Origen on the same subject (§ 39, 4); In Genesim et In Canticum
canticorum commentarii. Theodoret of Cyrus mentions1 a « discourse
on the martyrs* (nsp\ rtov napT'jpcov Ai'rfoq). It is probable that the
dialogue entitled Xenon, mentioned by Socrates2 is identical with the
work «On created things» (nepi TWV ^svTjTwv)t fragments of which
have been preserved by Photius3, against the work of Origen «On
the eternity of the world » defended, as it seems, by Xenon. Some
fragments of the scholia of Methodius on the book of Job are met
with in the Catenae.
For the fragments of the work against Porphyry see Bomvetsch, 1. c.,
pp. 345 — 348. To the same work must belong the pretended excerpta tria
ex homilia S. Methodii de cruce et passione Christi, in Migne , PG. , xviii.
397 — 404. See Preuschen , 1. c. , i. 478, for the fragments of the com
mentary on Genesis and the Canticle of canticles. Two sentences of the
work «On the Martyrs* are printed in Bonwetsch, 1. c., p. 349. Cf. ib.,
pp. 349 — 354, the fullest collection of the scholia on Job.
6. SPURIOUS WORKS. - The orations De Simeone et Anna*, In
ramos palmarum 5 and In ascensionem Domini Nostri lesu Christi.
are spurious; the last exists only in Armenian and in a fragmen
tary state.
The last of these orations is found in Pitra , Analecta sacra, iv.
207—209 439—441.
CHAPTER II.
THE WESTERN WRITERS.
§ 49. General Considerations.
As early as the third century the ecclesiastical literature of the
West exhibits certain native peculiarities. Its organ is the Latin, not
the Greek tongue, and a distinctly Roman spirit dominates its contents.
There reigns throughout its products a sober and practical spirit.
The idealism of the Greek writings, their tendency to speculation and
dialectic are not entirely foreign to .this Latin Christian literature;
yet its direct purpose is the immediately necessary or useful. Withal,
it exhibits versatility and variety in a degree that almost astonishes
the reader. Owing to the circumstances of the times the apologetic
element is supreme. In the writings of Tertullian and in the (Greek)
writings of Hippolytus anti-heretical polemic abounds. Exegesis is
represented chiefly by Hippolytus and Victorinus of Pettau. Com-
modianus leads the procession of Christian poets in the Latin tongue.
is worthy of note that the Western writers are few, and that of
the small number the majority comes from Northern Africa.
Dial.
; opp. ed. Schnltze, iv. 55. 2 Hist ecd ^ yj
§ 50. TERTULLIAN.
A. AFRICAN WRITERS.
§ 50. Tertullian.
1. HIS LIFE. — Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus was born,
it is usually believed, about the year 160 at Carthage, where his
father was serving as a centurion (centurio proconsularis) in the service
of the proconsul of Africa 1. He received an excellent academic
training and probably entered upon the career of an advocate2.
There are in the Pandects some excerpts from the writings of a jurist
Tertullian (Quaestianum libri viii, De castrensi peculio) whom many
historians are inclined to identify with our ecclesiastical writer About
193, certainly before 197, he became a Christian, was ordained also a
priest according to St. Jerome3, and began a long literary career in
the service of the new faith. About midway in his life (ca. 202) he
openly joined the sect of the Montanists, and began to attack the
Catholic Church with a violence scarcely inferior to that which he
had manifested against heathenism. Within the Montanist fold he
founded a special sect known as Tertullianists 4. He is said to have
lived to a very advanced age5.
C. E. Frcppd, Tertullien, 2 voll., Paris, 1864; 3. ed. 1886. F. Boh-
ringer, Die Kirche Christ! und ihre Zeugen, 2. ed., iii. — iv: Die lateinisch-
afrikanische Kirche. Tertullianus, Cypriantis (Stuttgart, 1864); 2. ed. 1873.
A. Hauck, Tertullians Leben und Schriften, Erlangen, 1877. & Noldechen,
Tertullian, Gotha, 1890. Cf. Noldechen, Die Abfassungszeit der Schriften
Tertullians, Leipzig, 1888 (Texte und Untersuchungen, v. 2). In these two
books Noldechen collected the results of investigations previously published
in several theological and historical reviews. -- Schanz , Geschichte der
rom. Literatur (1896), iii. 240 — 302. P. Monceaux, Histoire litteraire de
1'Afrique chretienne. I: Tertullien, Paris, 1901. H. Kellner and G. Esscr,
in Kirchenlexikon, 2. ed., xi. 1389 — 1426. -- On the Jurist Tertullian cf.
Schanz, 1. c., iii. 182.
2. HIS LITERARY LABORS. - Tertullian is the most prolific of
all the Latin writers; he is also the most original and personal.
Ebert says well that perhaps no author has ever more fully justified
than Tertullian the phrase of BufTon that the style is the man; for
there never was a man that spoke more from his heart. He lives
habitually in an atmosphere of conflict with others and with himself.
He is quite conscious of this weakness. « Unhappy me!» he cries
out on one occasion, «always burning with the fever of im
patience » - - miser rimus ego semper iiror caloribus impatientiae6.
All his .extant writings, it may be said, are polemical. They fall
easily into three groups : apologetic, in defence of Christianity or
1 Hier., De viris ill., c. 53. 2 Eus.. Hist, eccl., ii. 2, 4.
3 De viris ill., c. 53. 4 Aug., De haer., c. 86.
5 Hier., \. c. : fertur vixisse usque ad decrepitam aetatem.
6 De pat. c. I.
12 *
I SO FIRST- PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
against heathenism and Judaism; dogmatico-polemic, in refutation
of heresy in general and of certain heretics; practico-ascetical, dealing
with various questions of Christian morality and discipline. Even in
these writings the polemical element, or a highly personal note, is
always present, whether he writes as a Catholic carried away with
holy zeal yet harshly rigoristic, or as a Montanist overflowing with
passionate rage against the pretended laxity of the Catholic Church.
Tertullian is ever a powerful adversary, a man of burning eloquence,
biting satire, compact and forcible logic. As a rule he over-shoots
the mark , and fails to attain his immediate purpose *. As a writer
he is without moderation, contemptuous of all compromise, proving
frequently more than is needed; the reader is carried away rather
than persuaded by his argument; he is hushed by the fine display
of wit, but remains unconvinced and antagonistic.
In expression Tertullian is concise and bold, solid and rugged,
involved and obscure. He has no sense for beauty of form; he
deliberately scoffs at the refined diction of a Minucius Felix (§ 24).
He seizes with pleasure on popular expressions; in a moment of
embarrassment he is daringly creative and suddenly enriches the
vocabulary of the Latin tongue. The theology of the Western
Christians is indebted to him for many of its technical terms.
The manuscript tradition of the writings of Tertullian is very im
perfect. Only the Apologeticum has come down in numerous codices,
some of them quite ancient; a whole series of his other writings has
been preserved only through the Codex Agobardinus (Parisiensis) of the
ninth century. The works De baptismo, De ieiunio and De pudicitia
are now without any manuscript evidence or guarantee. His writings,
as far as we possess them, must have appeared between 195 and 218.
For each of them the actual date is doubtful or much disputed;
there are no certain points of comparison. However, it is usually
possible to say whether a given work belongs to his Catholic or his
Montanist period.
For the manuscripts of the writings of Tertullian see Preuschen , in
Harnacky Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur, i. 675-677, and E. Kroymann,
Die Tertullian-Uberlieferung in Italian, Wien, 1898 (Sitzungsberichte der
phil.-histor. Kl. der kgl. Akad. der Wissensch. zu Wien, cxxxviii. —
Complete editions of his works were published by B. Rhenanus, Basle,
1521, and often since (cf. A. Horawitz, in the above-mentioned Sitzungs-
benchten, 1872, Ixxi. 662—674); J. Pamelius, Antwerp., 1579; N. Rigaltius,
Pans, 1634; y. S. Semler, Halle, 1769—1776, 6 voll. ; Migne, PL., Paris,
1844, i.— ii.; Fr. Ohler, Leipzig, 1851 — 1854, 3 voll., and also (editio
minor) Leipzig, 1854 (cf. Klussmann, in Zeitschr. fur wissensch. Theol.
[1860], m. 82-100, 363 — 393, and Ohler, ib. [1861], iv. 204—211). An
ition corresponding to modern scientific needs and conditions was under
taken by A. Reifferscheid, and continued after his death (1887) by G. Wis-
1 De virg. vel., c. i.
$ 50. TERTULLIAN. iSl
sowa: Pars I, Vienna, 1890 (Corpus scriptorum eccl. Lat. , xx.). Cf. W-
von Hartel , Patristische Studien, Wien, 1890, i. — iv. (reprint from the
just-mentioned Wiener Sitzungsberichten , cxx. — cxxi.). For other contri
butions to the textual criticism of Tertullian cf. M. Klussmann , Curarum
Tertullianearum partic. i. — iii., Halle, 1881, Gotha, 1887- Excerpta Ter-
tullianea in Isidori Hispalensis Etymologiis (Progr.), Hamburg, 1892. J. van
der Vliet , Studia ecclesiastica : Tertullianus. I. Critica et interpretatoria,
Leiden, 1891. Aem. Kroymann , Quaestiones Tertullianeae criticae, Inns
bruck, 1894; H. Gomperz, Tertullianea, Vienna, 1895; Kroymann., Kritische
Vorarbeiten ftir den dritten und vierten Band der neuen Tertullian- Ausgabe,
Vienna, 1900 (Sitzungsberichte, clxiii.). -- JFr. A. von Besnard, Tertullian.
Samtliche Schriften iibersetzt und bearbeitet, 2 voll., Augsburg, 1837 — 1838.
H. Kellner, Tertullians ausgewahlte Schriften iibersetzt, 2 voll., Kempten
1870 — 1871 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater). Id., Tertullians samtliche Schriften
aus dem Lateinischen iibersetzt, 2 voll., Cologne, 1882. — For an English
translation of the writings of Tertullian see Holmes and Thidnall, in Ante-
Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe), iii. 17 — 697, 707 — 717; iv. 3 — 121.
On the style and diction of Tertullian the reader may consult G. R.
Haus child , Die Grundsatze und Mittel der Wortbildung bei Tertullian
(Progr.), I, Leipzig, 1876; II, Frankfurt, 1881. J. P. Condamin , De Q.
S. Fl. Tertulliano vexatae religionis patrono et praecipuo, apud Latinos,
christianae linguae artifice (These), Bar-le-duc, 1877. H. Hoppe, De ser-
mone Tertullianeo quaestiones selectae (Dissert, inaug.) , Marburg, 1897.
E. Nor den, Die antike Kunstprosa, Leipzig, 1898, ii. 606 — 615. H. Hoppe,
Syntax und Stil des Tertullian, Leipzig, 1903. See also for the illustration
of the text C. Cavedoni , Luoghi notevoli di Tertulliano dichiarati coi ris-
contri dei monument! antichi, in Archivio dell' Ecclesiastico (1864), ii. 409
to 431. H. Kellner, Organischer Zusammenhang und Chronologic der
Schriften Tertullians, in «Katholik» (1879), n- 56z — 589^ ^V- Chronologiae
Tertullianeae supplementa (Progr.), Bonn, 1890. G. N. JBonwetsch , Die
Schriften Tertullians nach der Zeit ihrer Abfassung untersucht, Bonn, 1878.
A. Harnack, Zur Chronologic der Schriften Tejtullians , in Zeitschr. fur
Kirchengesch. (1877 — 1878), ii. 572 — 583. E. Noldechen, Die Abfassungszeit
der Schriften Tertullians, Leipzig, 1888 (see above). J. Schmidt, Ein Bei-
trag zur Chronologic der Schriften Tertullians und der Prokonsuln von
Afrika, in Rhein. Museum fiir Philol., new series (1891), xlvi. 77 — 98.
y. P. Knaake, Die Predigten des Tertullian und Cyprian, in Theol. Studien
und Kritiken (1903), Ixxvi. 606 — 639. -- - Works on the doctrine of Ter
tullian : y. A. W. Neander, Antignostikus. Geist des Tertullianus und Ein-
leitung in dessen Schriften, Berlin, 1825; 2. ed. 1849. £*• £• Leimbach,
Beitrage zur Abendmahlslehre Tertullians, Gotha, 1874. G. Caucanas,
Tertullien et le montanisme, Geneve, 1876. G. R. Hauschild, Die rationale
Psychologic und Erkenntnistheorie Tertullians, Leipzig, 1880. G. Ludwig,
Tertullians Ethik in durchatis objektiver Darstellung (Inaug. - Diss.),
Leipzig, 1885. G. Esser, Die Seelenlehre Tertullians, Paderborn, 1893.
K. H. Wirth, Der «Verdienst»-Begriff in der christl. Kirche. I: Der «Ver-
dienst»-Begriff bei Tertullian, Leipzig, 1893. y. Stier, Die Gottes- und
Logoslehre Tertullians, Gottingen, 1889. G. Schwelowsky , Der Apologet
Tertullian in seinem Verhaltnis zu der griechisch-romischen Philosophic,
Leipzig, i go i. C. Guignebert, Tertullien. Etude sur ses sentiments a 1'egard
de 1'empire et de la socie'te civile, Paris, 1901. -- J. F. Bethune- Baker,
Tertullian's use of Substantia, Natura, and Persona, in Journal of Theol.
Studies (1902 — 1903), iv. 440 — 442. J. Leblanc, Le materialisme de Ter
tullien, in Annales de philos. chretienne, Juillet, 1903, pp. 415 — 423.
H. Ronsch , Das Neue Testament Tertullians aus dessen Schriften mog-
1 82 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
lichst vollstandig rekonstruiert , Leipzig, 1871. J. Kolberg , Verfassung,
Kultus imd Disziplin der christlichen Kirche nach den Schriften Tertullians,
Braunsberg, 1886. A. Harnack, Tertullian in der Literatur der alten Kirche
(Sitzungsberichte der kgl. pretiftischen Akad. der Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1895,
pp. 545 — 579). A. J. Mason, Tertullian and Purgatory, in Journal of Theol.
Studies (1902), iii. 598 — 601. J. Tixeront , Histoire des dogmes. I: La
Theologie ante-Niceenne, Paris, 1904. A. d'Ales , La Theologie de Ter-
tullien, Paris, 1905. y. Turmel, Tertullien, in La Pense'e chretienne, Textes
et etudes, Paris, 1905, xlviii. 398.
3. APOLOGETIC WRITINGS. — Foremost among these is the Apo
logeticum or Apologeticus (the most ancient text-witnesses do not agree),
a defence of Christianity, composed in the summer or autumn of 197,
and addressed to the provincial governors of the Roman Empire. It
opens with a request, couched in words of great beauty and force,
that the truth, being forbidden to defend itself publicly, may reach
the ears of the rulers at least by the hidden paths of dumb letters.
The Apology itself falls into two parts, in so far as it treats first of
the « secret » and then of the « public » crimes of the Christians (pcculta
facinora, c. 6; manifestiora, cc. 6 9). He makes short work of the
first class of accusations: infanticide, Thyestsean banquets, incest
(cc. 7 — 9); all the more lengthy and detailed is his treatment
(cc. 10 — 27 28 — 45) of the «public» crimes: contempt of the religion
of the fatherland (intentatio laesae divinitatis, c. 27), and the still
more reprehensible crime of high treason (titulus laesae augustioris
maiestatis, c. 28). He closes with an assertion of the absolute
superiority of Christianity ; it is a revealed religion and is beyond the
rivalry of all human philosophy (cc. 46 — 50). The special characteristic
of the work lies in the boldness with which the politico-juridical
accusations against the Christians are brought to the front. Its relations
to the Octavius of Minucius Felix have already been indicated (§ 24, 2).
An ancient Greek version has perished ; we know of it only through
citations in Eusebius1. A second Apology, Ad nationes libri ii, is
partly illegible in the only manuscript known to us, the Codex Ago-
bardinus. In the first book he demonstrates that the accusations launched
against the Christians are really true of the heathens ; in the second
book he draws on Varro's Rerum divinarum libri xvi in order
to cover with ridicule the heathen belief in the gods. The tone of this
work is more animated and acrimonious, than that of the Apologeticum.
Its process of reasoning is also less orderly and the diction less chaste.
It was also written in 197, a little while before the Apologeticum, the
appearance of which it frequently announces (i. 3 7 10; al). The golden
booklet De testimonio animae is an appendix to the Apologeticum,
destined to illustrate the meaning of the phrase testimonium animae
naturaliter christianae (Apol. c. 17). Even the heathen, by his in-
1 Hist, eccl., ii. 2, 4 — 6; al.
§ 50- TERTULLIAN. 183
voluntary exclamations and his ordinary modes of speech, gives ex
pression to a natural religious knowledge of God, to belief in His
existence and unity, the reality of malevolent spirits, and a life beyond
the grave. All this corresponds admirably with the teachings of the
Christians. In his treatment of these ideas Tertullian reveals the
touch and temper of the poet. The brief letter Ad Scapulam, written
probably some time after Aug. 14., 212, was intended as an ad
monition to Scapula, proconsul of Africa, an especially fierce per
secutor of the Christians. Tertullian reminds him of the divine
judgments that had fallen upon the persecutors of former days. The
Adversus ludaeos, called forth, as the opening words show, by a
discussion between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte, was written
to prove that the grace of God, voluntarily rejected by Israel, has
been offered to the Gentiles. In place of the ancient law of retri
bution there has come the new law of love. In Jesus of Nazareth
the prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled. The last chapters,
9 — 14, which deal with the Messianic office of Jesus, are clearly an
unskilful excerpt from the third book of Tertullian's « Against Marcion».
Some passages, nevertheless, not found in the latter work seem to
indicate by their style and vocabulary the personality of Tertullian.
It is probably true that Tertullian left the work incomplete; a later
and unskilful hand has compiled the last chapters. Chapters I — 8
are surely the work of Tertullian ; both internal evidence and citations
by St. Jerome make it certain *.
The best of the separate editions of the Apologeticum is that of
S. Haverkamp , Leyden, 1718. Later editions or reprints are those by
y. Kayser, Paderborn, 1865; H. Hurter, Innsbruck, 1872 (Ss. Patr. opusc.
sel., xix); F. Leonard, Namur, 1881 ; T. H. Bindley, London, 1889. Vizzini,
Bibliotheca Ss. Patrum, Rome, 1902 — 1903, series iii, voll. i ii iii iv v,
has edited the Apologeticum (according to Havercamp's text), De prae-
scriptione haereticorum, De testimonio animae, De baptismo, De poeni-
tentia, De oratione, De pudicitia, Adversus Marcionem, Adversus Valenti-
nianos. P. de Lagarde published a new recension of the Apologeticum, in Ab-
handlungen der k. Gesellsch. d. Wissensch. zu Gottingen, 1891, xxxvii. 73 ff.
C. Callcvaert, Le codex Fuldensis, le meilleur manuscrit de rApologeticum
de Tertullien, in Revue d'hist. et de liter, religieuses (1902), vii. 322 — 353.
For the ancient Greek version see Harnack, in Texte und Untersuchungen
(1892), viii. 4, i — 36. The relation between the Apologeticum and the Ad
nationes is treated by v. Hartel , Patristische Studien, ii. The letter Ad
Scaptdam, with the De praescriptione and the Ad martyres, were edited anew
by T. H. Bindley, Oxford, 1894. For the Adversus ludaeos see P. Corssen,
Die Altercatio Simonis ludaei etTheophili Christiani, Berlin, 1890, pp. 2 — 9;
E. Noldechen, in Texte und Untersuchungen, (1894), xii. 2; j. M. Ein-
siedler , De Tertulliani adv. ludaeos libro (Dissert. Inaug.), Vienna, 1897.
Noldechen maintains the genuineness and unity of the work ; Einsiedler, on
the contrary, holds that with a few exceptions the second part is owing
to a later compiler.
1 Comm. in Dan. ad ix. 24 IT.
184 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
4. DOGMATICO-POLEMICAL WORKS. - - Apart from its local and
immediate purpose, the defence of Catholic doctrine in general, or
the refutation of heresy as such, was the theme of Tertullian in his
imperishable work De praescriptione haereticorum, a title vouched for
by the oldest and best manuscripts. Praescriptio is a form of de
fence in civil procedure based on length of possession; its result is
to exclude the accuser at the very opening of the process. It is
admitted by all that the Lord confided to the Apostles the preaching
of His doctrine; therefore only the churches founded by them, and
not heretics, can be admitted to testify in regard to Christian truth.
This is a consequence of the principalitas veritatis et posteritas
mendacitatis (c. 31). Catholic doctrine is that which existed from
the beginning, and is therefore the true one; every heresy is an
innovation and as such necessarily false. The appeal of heretics to
the Holy Scriptures is clearly unjustifiable, for they are the property
of the Catholic Church, which received them from the Apostles.
Previous to his discussion and demonstration of the thesis of pre
scription by possession (cc. 15—40), Tertullian treats at some length
of the origin and nature of heresy (cc. I — 14); in conclusion he calls
attention to the lack of moral gravity and of religious earnestness visible
among heretics; they manifest themselves thereby as followers of
falsehood (cc. 41 — 44). This work stands as a classic defence of the
Catholic principle of authority and tradition. It is a development of
the theory of St. Irenaeus1, set forth with the skill of a jurist.
Tertullian wrote it while still a Catholic, probably before any of his
writings against individual heretics (cf. c. 44).
Among the latter works the Adversus Marcionem libri v is easily
pre-eminent; he revised it twice before it reached its present form
(i. i). The first book in its third (and surviving) form was edited
in 207, «in the fifteenth year of the emperor Severus» (i. 15); it is
not possible to determine more closely at what- intervals the other
four books followed. In the first two he refutes Marcion's doctrine of
a good God and a Creator-God, the latter at once just and wicked.
There cannot be a good God other than the Creator of the world
(book i); the Creator is rather the one true God, to whom belong
all the attributes with which the Marcionites clothe their good God
(book ii). In the third book he proves that the historical Christ is
the Messias foretold in the Old Testament. The two remaining books
are a critique of the New Testament according to Marcion; in the
fourth he discusses the «evangelium», in the fifth the «apostolicum»
(§ 25> 7)- Adversus Hermogenem was probably written after De prae
scriptione; in it he attacks with philosophical and scriptural weapons
the dualism of the Gnostics. It was called forth by the teaching of
~ Adv. haer., iii. ; cf. § 34, 3.
§ 50- TERTULLIAN. 185
the painter Hermogenes (at Carthage?) that God had not created the
world. He only fashioned it out of matter that had existed from all
eternity. Hermogenes claimed also for his teaching the authority of
Scripture. Tertullian is already a Montanist in the Adversus Valen-
linianos (c. 5). Its composition is posterior (c. 16) to that of the work
against Hermogenes ; in it he is content to describe the doctrine of his
adversaries according to St. Irenaeus * and to cover them with ridicule.
We do not know that he ever published the scientific criticism of the
Valentinian Gnosis promised in this work (cc. 3 6). He composed the
De baptismo while still a Catholic, in order to solve the doubts raised
among the Christians of Carthage by the rationalistic objections that
a certain Quintilla (the proper reading, c. i) was urging against the
ecclesiastical teaching concerning baptism. He declared all heretical
baptism invalid (c. 15). The Scorpiace, or antidote against the bites
of the scorpion, is a booklet against the Gnostics whom he compares
to scorpions. Its purpose is to show the moral worth and meritorious
nature of martyrdom ; it was very probably published after the second
book against Marcion (c. 5). The De came Christi is a polemical
work against the Gnostic Docetism of Marcion, Apelles, Valentinus,
and Alexander ; he proves that the body of Christ was a real human
body, taken from the virginal body of Mary, but not by the way of
human procreation. It is here that we meet (c. 9) his eccentric
notion, otherwise in keeping with his extreme realism, that the appear
ance of Christ was unseemly. He cites in this work among other
Christian sources his own fourth book against Marcion (c. 7). The
large work De resurrectione carfiis, also against the Gnostics, seems
(c. 2) to have been published immediately after the De carne Christi.
It reviews (cc. 3 — 17) the arguments furnished by reason in favor of
the resurrection of the body, illustrates at length the pertinent texts
of the Old and New Testaments (cc. 18 — 55), and discusses the
nature and qualities of the risen body (cc. 56 — 63). In the closing
chapters he lays especial stress on the substantial identity of the
risen with the actual body. Adversus Praxeam, probably the last
of his anti-heretical writings, certainly written long after his definitive
exit from the Church, defends the ecclesiastical teaching concerning
the Trinity against Patripassian monarchianism. In his defence of
the personal distinction between the Father and the Son he does
not, apparently, avoid a certain subordinationism. Nevertheless in
many very clear expressions and turns of thought he almost forestalls
the Nicene creed.
New editions, or reprints of old editions, of the De praescriptione have
been made kyH.Hurter, Innsbruck, 1870 1880 (SS. Patr. opusc. sel. ix);
E. PreuscJmi, Freiburg, 1892 (Sammlung ausgewahlter kirchen- und dogmen-
geschichtl. Quellenschriften , iii); T. H. Bindley, Oxford, 1894. Vizzini's
1 Adv. haer., i.
1 86 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
edition is mentioned on p. 183. L. Lehanneur } Le traite de Tertullien
centre les Valentiniens, Caen, 1886. De baptismo is also in Hurter, 1. c.,
Innsbruck, 1869, vii. R. A. Lipsius , Uber Tertullians Schrift wider
Praxeas, in Jahrb. fiir deutsche Theol. (1868), xiii. 701 — 724. — Th. Scher-
mann , Lateinische Parallelen zu Didimus (in De baptismo), in Rom.
Quartalschr. fiir christl. Altertumskunde und fiir Kirchengesch. (1902), xvi.
232 — 242. E. Heintzel, Hermogenes, der Hauptvertreter des philosophi-
schen Dualismus in der alten Kirche, Berlin, 1902. E. von der Goltz, Die
Traktate des Tertullian und Cyprian iiber das Gebet, in «Das Gebet in
der altesten Christenheit», Leipzig, 1901, pp. 279 — 287.
5. PRACTICO-ASCETICAL WRITINGS. - The spirited treatise De
patientia especially interests all readers of Tertullian , because in a
sense addressed to its own impatient author. He was to find a
certain consolation in speaking of the beauty and sublimity of patience,
even as the sick delight in speaking of the value of health (c. i).
The book surely belongs to the Catholic period of his life, as does
also De oratione destined for the Catechumens. In the latter he
undertakes to explain the Lord's Prayer (cc. 2 — 9), gives various in
structions on the value of prayer in general (cc. 10 — 28) and ends
with a moving description of its power and efficacy (c. 29). In De
paenitentia he treats of penance at length, of the penitential temper,
the practice of penance, and of two kinds of penance peculiar to the
early Church : that which an adult was expected to perform before
baptism (cc. 4 — 6) and the so-called canonical penance that the
baptised Christian had to undergo after the commission of such grave
sins as homicide, idolatry and sins of the flesh, before being reconciled
with the Church (cc. 7—12). In his Montanist work De pudicitia he
directly contradicts the teaching of this Catholic work on penance.
His change of attitude was occasioned by the decree of Pope Callixtus
(217 — 222) that henceforth sins of adultery and fornication would be
remitted those who had fulfilled the canonical penance (c. i). In
this work Tertullian laments with bitterness the decadence of virtue
and righteousness, attacks violently the «psychici», a name given to
the Catholics in opposition to the «pneumatici» or Montanists, and
undertakes to show that the Church cannot remit such grave sins as
adultery and fornication (c. 4). The beautiful letter Ad martyres,
written certainly (c. 6) in 197, contains words of consolation and
exhortation to a number of Christians who had been suffering a long
imprisonment for their faith, and were in daily expectation of the
final summons. Among his writings are several on Christian marriage,
especially on second marriages. The earliest and most attractive is
his work Ad uxorem in two books. In it he advises his wife Esther
not to remarry after his death, or else to marry no one but a Christian.
As a Montanist, however, he rejects second marriage unconditionally.
In the tractate De exhortatione castitatis addressed to a widowed
friend, he declares that a second marriage is simply fornication (non
TERTULLIAN. 187
aliud dicendum erit secundum matrimonium quam species stupri, c. 9).
In De monogamia, written somewhat later, about 217, he maintains
the same opinion with even less reserve (unum matrimonium novimus
sicut unum Deum, c. i). The De spectaculis is devoted to an ex
haustive study of a question that had then become very serious:
Can Christians frequent the public games and theatres (spectacula) of
the heathens? His answer is that all such plays are intimately cor
related with the idolatrous worship of the times (cc. 4 — 13) and
necessarily constitute an immediate peril for Christian morality by
reason of the savage passions they arouse (cc. 14 — 30). He pours
out against heathenism all the hatred of his soul in a flaming de
scription of the greatest spectacle the world shall ever behold, the
Second Coming of the Lord or the Last Judgment (c. 30). In De
idololatria, posterior (c. 13) to De spectaculis, and written very pro
bably while he was still a Catholic, he illustrates in every sense the
duty of Christians to avoid idolatry; the fine arts and public life are
entirely permeated with it and cannot therefore offer any opening
for Christian activity. Quite similar are the contents of De corona,
written probably during August or September of 211, apropos of
the act of a Christian soldier who had refused to put on a crown of
flowers, in keeping with a heathen custom. As the wearing of such
a crown was among the specific rites of idolatry (c. 7) it followed
that a Christian soldier could not, on principle, accept military service
(c. n). In the two books De cultu feminarum, written while he was
still a Catholic, he thunders against female vanity in the matter of
dress and ornament. It is only in the Codex Agobardinus that the
first book bears the title De cultu feminarum ; in all other manuscripts
it is known as De habitu muliebri; moreover, it has reached us in
a very imperfect state. The second book pursues the same theme,
and is composed in a calmer and milder spirit. In the De oratione
(cc. 21 22) he had maintained that Christian virgins should always
be veiled in the Church. Some dissented from his views, and he
returned to the subject in a special treatise, De virginibus velandis,
in which he appealed to the Paraclete, the Holy Scriptures and the
discipline of the Church, and went beyond his former demand by
insisting that these virgins, once they had reached the age of ma
turity, should be always and everywhere veiled. De fuga in per-
secutione is a Montanist work , written towards the close of 212;
it forbids as absolutely illicit flight of any kind during the stress
of persecution. De ieiunio adversus psychicos is one of the most
offensive of his Montanist writings; in it he denounces (c. i) the
Catholics as gluttons because they observe a certain moderation in
fasting.
De patientia is printed in Hurter, SS. Patr. opusc. selecta, iv; also
ib.) De oratione, ii; De paenitentia, v. De paenitentia and De pudicitia
FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
were edited apart by E. Preuschen, Freiburg, 1891 (Sammlung ausgewahlter
Quellenschriften, ii), and by P. de Labriolle, with a French translation (Coll.
Hemmer et Lejay), Paris, 1906, Ixvii. 237. Cf. Preuschen, Tertullians Schrif-
ten De paenitentia tmd De pudicitia mit Riicksicht auf die Buftdisziplin
untersucht (Inaug.-Diss.), Tiibingen, 1890; also E. Rolffs, Das Indulgenz-
edikt des romischen Bischofs Kallist, Leipzig, 1893 (Texte und Unter-
suchungen, xi. 3). G. Esser, De pudic. c. 21 und der Primat des rom.
Bischofs, in «Katholik» (1903), 3, 193 — 220. -- Ad martyres is found in
Hurtcr, 1. c., iv; there is also an edition by T. H. Bindley, Oxford, 1894.
- On the De monogamia see Rolffs, in Texte und Untersuchungen
(1895), xii. 4, 50 — 109: «Tertullians Gegner in De monogamia» ; cf. § 35, 5.
E. Klussmann has published an excellent separate edition of De specta-
culis, Leipzig, 1876. See his Adnot. crit. ad Tert. libr. de spectac., Rudol-
stadt, 1876. For the purpose and the sources of the De spectaculis cf.
E. Noldcchen, in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1894), xxxvii. 91 — 125;
Neue Jahrb. fiir deutsche Theol. (1894), iii. 206 — 226; Zeitschr. fur Kirchen-
gesch. (1894 — 1895), xv- *6i — 203^ Philologus3 Suppl. (1894), vi. 2, 727
to 766. K. Werber, Tertullians Schrift De spectac. in ihrem Verhaltnis
zu Varros Rerum divinarum libri (Progr.), Teschen, 1896. On the De
ieiunio see Rolffs, 1. c. (1895), xii. 4, 5- — 49: «Tertullians Gegner in De
ieiunio».
6. THE «DE ANIMA» AND «DE PALLIO». - Two works of Ter-
tullian do not fall into any of the above-mentioned groups ; they merit
therefore a distinct mention. De amma belongs to his Montanist
period (cc. 9 45 58) and was written after the second book against
Marcion (c. 21). It is the first Christian psychology, though less a
manual of philosophy than of theology, its purpose being (c. I — 3)
to describe the doctrine of the soul according to Christian revelation
and to refute the philosophic or rather Gnostic heresy that hid itself
beneath the cloak of philosophy. The first section (cc. 4 — 22) deals
with the nature and the faculties of the soul. While he does not
deny the immaterial character of the latter, he believes himself bound
to maintain a certain degree of corporeity; for a condition of pure
spirituality was unintelligible to him1. In the second section (cc. 23
to 41) he investigates the problem of the specific origin of each soul,
rejects the theories of pre-existence and of metempsychosis, and
opposes to creatianism the crassest generatianism or traducianism.
In the act of generation man reproduces his whole nature, body and
soul. The third section (cc. 42 — 58) treats of death, sleep, the world
of dreams, the state and place of the soul after death. The curious
little work De pallia, written between 209 and 21 1 (cf. c. 2), owes its
origin to a personal circumstance. For some unknown reason Ter-
tullian had put off the toga and taken to wearing the pallium, an act
that drew down on him the satire of his fellow-citizens. In this booklet
he justifies his conduct with playful art and biting sarcasm.
Concerning the source of De anima, a work on the same subject
an. c. 6) by Soramis , a physician of Ephesus, see H. Diels , Doxo-
1 De came Christi, c. 1 1 ; Adv. Praxeam, c. 7.
§ 50- TERTULLIAN. 189
graph! Graeci, Berlin, 1890, pp. 203 ff. We owe to Cl. Salmasius an ex
cellent separate edition of the De pallio, Paris, 1622, Leyden, 1656. This
latter treatise is illustrated by H. Kellner, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1870),
Hi. 547 — 566, and by G, Boissier, La fin du paganisme, Paris, 1891 (3. ed.,
Paris, 1898), i. 259—304.
7. LOST WRITINGS OF TERTULLIAN. — Three of his extant Latin
works, he tells us, were written also in Greek: De spectaculis1, De
baptismo or on the invalidity of heretical baptism (c. 15), De virginibus
velandis (c. i). The Greek text of these writings has perished; and
similarly the Latin text of a still larger number of writings. We
know from his own statement that he published works entitled De
spe fide Hum, De paradiso, Adversus Apelleiacos (?), De censu animae
adversus Hermogenwn, De fato. De spe fide Hum'2' promoted Chiliastic
views 3. In De paradiso 4 he discussed many questions concerning Para
dise 6 ; among other things he maintained the thesis that all departed
souls, except those of the martyrs, must wait in the under-world
« until the day of the Lord»6. Adversus Apelleiacos was directed
against the followers of Apelles (§ 25, 7) who held that not God,
but a superior angel had created this world and was afterwards seized
with regret for -his act7. In De censu animae §, «on the origin of
the soul», he refuted the doctrine of Hermogenes that the soul was
material in its origin, and there was in man no such thing as free
will 9. De fato was written against the teachings of the philosophers
concerning fate and chance 10. Through St. Jerome we know of three
(or rather, perhaps, five) other works of Tertullian. One of them was
entitled De ecstasi, or rather xspi ixaraGzcoQ^, perhaps a Greek work
in defence of Montanism or the ecstatic speech of the Montanist
prophets. It was originally in six books, but when he had read the
anti-Montanistic work of Apollonius (§ 35, 3) he added a seventh
book against the latter. A work on marriage, Ad amicum p kilo-
sop hum de angustiis nuptiarum, is mentioned twice by St. Jerome 12.
Another lost work was entitled De Aaron vestibus, on the liturgical
garments of the High Priest in the Old Testament 13. It is supposed
that he wrote two other works: De circumcisione and De mundis
atque immundis animalibus u. The index of the Codex Agobardinus
shows that it once contained three works of Tertullian entitled : De
carne et anima, De animae submissione, De superstitione saeculi;
nothing is known of them beyond these titles.
I Tert., De corona, c. 6. 2 Adv. Marcion., iii. 24.
* Hicr., De viris ill., c. 18; Comm. in Ezech. ad xxxvi. I ss.
4 Tert., De anima, c. 55. 5 Id., Adv. Marc , v. 12.
6 Id., De anima, c. 55. 7 Id., De carne Christi, c. 8.
8 Id., De anima, c I. ° Ib., cc. I 3 n 21 22 24.
10 Ib., c. 20 ; see the citation in Planciades Fulgentius: Tertull. opp. (ed. Ohler}, ii. 745.
II Hier., De viris ill., c. 53; cf. c. 40 and also c. 24. 12 Hier., Ep. 22, 22.
13 Hier., Ep. 64, 23. " Id., Ep. 36, i.
FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
8. SPURIOUS WRITINGS. — In the manuscripts and editions there
is commonly added to De praescriptione, as an appendix, a Libellus
adversus omnes haerescs, containing a list of heretics from Dositheus
to Praxeas. The work is surely not from Tertullian's pen, but rather
from that of Victorinus of Pettau (§ 58, i). The principal source
used by its author was the so-called Syntagma of Hippolytus
(§ 54, 3). The works De Trinitate and De cibis Judaicis , pu
blished in the editions of Tertullian, were written by Novatian
(§ 55> 2 3)- A fragment De execrandis gentium diis, proving from
the example of Jupiter that the heathens entertain unworthy notions
of the divinity, is of unknown origin ; the diversity of style shows that
it cannot belong to Tertullian. Neither is he the author of the poem
Adversus Marcionem or Adversus Marcionitas in 1302 hexameters
and five books. It is not only devoid of poetical merit, but frequently
violates the rules of grammar and prosody. Hiickstadt and Oxe
agree in attributing it to the latter half of the fourth century, the
former to a writer in Rome, the latter to one in Africa, while Waitz
maintains that it was composed by Commodianus (§ 57).
For the Libellus adversus omnes haereses (OeJiler, 1. c., ii. 751 — 765)
see the literature on the Syntagma of Hippolytus (§ 54, 3). E. Hiickstadt,
liber das pseudo - tertullianische Gedicht Adv. Marcionem (Inaug.-Diss.),
Leipzig, 1875. A. Oxt, Prolegomena de carmine Adv. Marcionitas (Dissert,
inaug.), Leipzig, 1888; also Oxt, Victorini versus de lege Domini, em un-
edierter Cento aus dem Carmen Adv. Marcionitas (Progr.), Krefeld, 1894.
H. Waitz, Das pseudo -tertullianische Gedicht Adv. Marcionem, Darm
stadt, 1901. For the poems DC gcnesi cf. Oehler, 1. c., ii. 774—776
(§ 88, 2), De Sodoma and De lona ib., ii. 769 — 773 (§ 88, 2). See § 116, 5
for the poem De iudicio Domini (Oehler, 1. c. , ii. 776—781), also found
amidst the works of Cyprian (ed. Hartel, iii. 308-325) where it is entitled
Ad Flavin m Fclicem de resurrectione mortuorum.
§ 51. St. Cyprian.
I. His LIFE. - One of the most attractive figures in early eccle
siastical literature is the noble bishop of Carthage, Thascius Csecilius
Cyprianus. The Vita Caccilii Cypriani, which describes his con
version to the Christian faith, was written soon after his death by
one closely related to him and thoroughly informed1 according to
St Jerome by his deacon and companion Pontius. From his own
writings, however, especially from his correspondence, we acquire a
better knowledge of his life both private and public. He was born
about the year 200 in Africa, of wealthy heathen parents, embraced
the career of a rhetorician and as such won brilliant renown at
Carthage2 About 246 he was converted to Christianity by C&-
cilianus (Vita c. 4) or Caecilius3, a priest of Carthage, soon after
1 Hier., De viris ill., c. 68. * Lact., Div. Inst., v. i, 24.
'•' Hier., De viris ill., c. 67.
§ 51- ST. CYPRIAN. IQI
which he was admitted among the clergy. At the end of 248 or
early in 249, he was made bishop of Carthage and metropolitan of
proconsular Africa. He discharged the duties of this office during
ten stormy years with indefatigable zeal and great success. In the
sanguinary persecution of Decius (250 — 251), during which he fled
from Carthage and kept himself in concealment, many renounced
the Christian faith and were known as sacrificati or thurificati,
libellatici, acta facientes. The question regarding the treatment of
these lapsi or rather the conditions of their reconciliation with the
Church led to a schism at Carthage as well as at Rome. The
deacon Felicissimus became the leader of a party which reproached
Cyprian with his great severity, while at Rome a part of the com
munity ranged itself under the banner of Novatian and withdrew
from communion with Pope Cornelius because of his excessive mildness
in the treatment of similar « fallen » brethren. The controversy on
the validity of heretical baptism was the occasion of other grave
disorders. Cyprian held with Tertullian (§50, 47) that baptism
administered by heretics was invalid; he therefore baptized anew
all who returned from an heretical body to the communion of the
Church. In this he was sustained by several councils that met
at Carthage under his presidency in 255, in the spring of 256, and
Sept. I., 256. But Pope Stephen I. rejected their views and de
clared: Si qui ergo a quacumqiie Jiaeresi venient ad vos , nihil
innovctur nisi quod tradition est, nt manus illis imponatur in paeni-
tentiam1. The ensuing persecution of Valerian and the death of the
Pope prevented a formal conflict between Stephen and Cyprian. The
latter was beheaded, September 14., 258, in the gardens of the pro
consular Villa Sexti, not far from Carthage; the Acta proconsul aria,
or official record of his execution, are still extant.
The Vita Caecilii Cypriani and Acta proconstdaria are usually published
with the works of Cyprian (ed. Hartel, iii [1871]. xc — cxiv). - - C. Suys-
kenus , De S. Cypriano, in Acta SS. Sept., Arenice, 1761, iv. 191 — 348.
Fr. IV. Rettberg, Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, Gottingen, 1831. Fr. Boh-
ringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen, 2. ed., iii— iv. Die lateinisch-
afrikanische Kirche : Tertullianus, Cyprianus, Stuttgart, 1864, reprinted 1873.
C. E. Freppel , St. Cyprien , Paris, 1865; 3. ed. 1890. J. Peters, Der
hi. Cyprian von Karthago, Ratisbon, 1877. -B- Fechtrup, Der hi. Cyprian,
I, Minister, 1878. E. Wh. Benson, Cyprian, London, 1897. P. Monceaux,
Histoire litteraire de 1'Afrique chretienne. II: St. Cyprien et son temps,
Paris, 1902. Cf. H. Grisar, Cyprians «Oppositions-Konzil» gegen Papst
Stephan, in Zeitschr. ftir kathol. Theol. (1881), V. 193 — 221 (He holds
that the decision of Stephen was issued not before, but after the council of
September i. 256). - - y. Ernst, War der hi. Cyprian exkommuniziert ?
Ib., 1894, xviii. 473—499 (he was not). Id., Der angebliche Widerruf des
hi. Cyprian in der Ketzertauffrage, ib., 1895, xix- 234~ 272- F- Kemper,
De vitarum Cypriani, Martini Turonensis, Ambrosii , Augustini rationibus
(Dissert.), Mlinster, 1904.
1 Cypr., Ep. 74, I (ed. Hartel}.
192
FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
2. HIS WRITINGS. -- The writings of Cyprian, collected at a very
early date, were read with diligence and zealously multiplied. Pontius
himself possessed a collection of the treatises of Cyprian and has
left us a rhetorical paraphrase of their titles or themes (Vita c. 7).
It is both interesting and suggestive to note that in an ancient and
anonymous Catalogue of the Libri Canonici of the Old and New
Testaments (derived from a copy of the same made in 359) the
writings of Cyprian, both treatises and letters, are also indicated,
with the number of lines contained in each (cum indiculis versuum).
St. Jerome felt that he was not bound to furnish a catalogue of the
writings of Cyprian: Huius ingenii superfluum est indie em texere,
cum sole clariora sint eiits opera1. These works are still extant
in almost countless manuscripts, some of which reach back to the
sixth century. So far as we know, only a few of his letters have
been lost.
His writings fall spontaneously into two groups: treatises (sermones,
libelli, tractatus) and letters. The voice that resounds in both groups
is that of a bishop and a shepherd of souls. He is a man of prac
tice and not of theory, a man of faith and not of speculation. When
he takes up the pen, it is in behalf of practical aims and interests;
thus, where oral discourse is insufficient, he hastens to succour the
good cause with his writings. He does not go far afield in theoretical
discussion, but appeals to the Christian and ecclesiastical sentiments
of his hearers, and bases his argument on the authority of the Sacred
Scriptures. He exhibits on all occasions a spirit of moderation and
mildness and a remarkable power of organization. He never loses
himself in pursuit of intangible ideals but follows consistently the
aims that he has grasped with clearness and decision. St. Augustine
outlined his character correctly when he called him a Catholic bishop
and a Catholic martyr (catholicum episcopum, catholicum martyr em)*.
The central idea of his life is the unity of the Catholic Church; it
has been rightly said that this concept is like the root whence issue
all his doctrinal writings. Indeed, he is nowhere so independent and
original as in his work De catholicae ecclesiae unit ate. In his other
works he very frequently borrows from Tertullian3; we learn from
the same source that he read the works of that writer every day. It
was his wont when calling on his secretary for a book of Tertullian
to exclaim: Da magistrum^. At the same time, whatever the degree
of his literary dependency, his own personality is apparent in every
one of his writings. The thoughts of Cyprian may be close akin to
the thoughts of Tertullian, but the form in which the bishop of
Carthage clothes these thoughts differs widely from the style of
Tertullian. The diction of Cyprian is free and pleasing, and flows
1 De viris ill., c. 67. 2 Aug., De bapt., iii. 3, 5.
3 Hur., Ep. 84, 2. -1 Hie?:, De viris ill., c. 53.
§ 51- ST. CYPRIAN. 193
in a tranquil and clear, almost transparent stream 1. His language is
at all times enlivened and exalted by the warmth of his feelings.
Quite frequently the page is colored by images and allegories chosen
with taste and finished with skilful attention to the smallest detail;
not a few of them became more or less the common places of later
ecclesiastical literature.
The Catalogue of the Libri Canonid and the works of Cyprian, be
longing to the year 359, was first edited by Th. Mommsen , in Hermes
(1886), xxi. 142 — 156; cf. (1890), xxv. 636 — 638. On the same theme see
W. Sanday and C. H. Turner, in Studia biblica et ecclesiastica , Oxford
1891, iii. 217 — 325. K. G. Gotz, Geschichte der cyprianischen Literatur bis
zu der Zeit der ersten erhaltenen Handschriften (Inaug. -Diss.), Basle,
1891. -- On the manuscripts of Cyprian cf. Hartel, in his own edition
(1871), iii. i — LXX; also Harnack, Geschichte der altchristl. Literatur, i. 697
to 701. C. H. Turner, The original order and contents of our oldest
Ms. of St. Cyprian, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1902), iii. 282 — 285; A
newly discovered leaf of a fifth-century manuscript of St. Cyprian, ib., iii.
576 — 578; Our oldest manuscripts of St. Cyprian: The Turin and Milan
Fragment, ib. , iii. 579 — 584. Dom Ramsay, Our oldest manuscripts of
St. Cyprian, ib., iii. 585 — 594.
The complete works of Cyprian were first published by J. Andreas,
Rome, 1471. Then followed the editions of D. Erasmus, Basle, 1520; J. Pa-
meliuSj Antwerp. 1568 ; M. Rigaltius, Paris, 1648 ; J. Fell and J. Pearson, Ox
ford, 1682; Stephen Baluzius and Pr. Maranus, Paris, 1726. The edition of
Migne (PL. iii — v) reproduces, very incorrectly, the text of Baluzius and
Maranus. The most recent and the best edition of the works of St. Cyprian
is that of W, von Hartel , Vienna, 1868 — 1871, in three parts (Corpus
scriptorum eccl. Lat. , iii, pars i — iii). For a criticism of the Hartel
edition cf. P. de Lagarde, in Gottinger Gelehrten Anzeigen (1871), pp. 521
to 543 (reprinted in P. de Lagarde , Symmikta, Gottingen, 1877, pp. 65
to 78). -- G. Mercati, D'alcuni nuovi sussidii per la critica del testo di
S. Cypriano, Rome, 1899. A German version of most of the treatises was
published by U. Ukl, Kempten, 1869, and all the letters by J. Niglutsch
and A. Egger, ib. , 1879 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater). - - Le Provost, Etude
philologique et litteraire sur St. Cyprien, Pans, 1889. E. W. Watson, The
style and language of St. Cyprian, in Studia bibl. et eccles., Oxford, 1896,
iv. 189 — 324. L. Bayard, Le latin de St. Cyprien, Paris, 1902. E. de
Jonghe , Les clausules de Saint Cyprien, in Muse'e Beige (1902), vi. 344
to 363.
For the doctrine of St. Cyprian cf. J. Peters , Die Lehre des hi. Cy
prian von der Einheit der Kirche, Luxemburg, 1870. J. H. Reinkens,
Die Lehre des hi. Cyprian von der Einheit der Kirche, Wiirzburg, 1873.
De Leo , In librum S. Cypr. De imitate ecclesiae disquisitio critico-theo-
logica, Naples, 1877. O. Ritschl , Cyprian von Karthago und die Ver-
fassung der Kirche, Gottingen, 1885. J. de la Rochclle, L'idee de 1'eglise
dans St. Cyprjen, in Revue d'histoire et de litterature religieuses (1896),
i. 519 — 533. P. v, Hoensbroech, Der romische Primat bezeugt durch den
hi. Cyprian, in Zeitschr. fiir kathol. Theol. (1890), xiv. 193 — 230; Id., Zur
Auffassung Cyprians von der Ketzertaufe, ib. (1891), xv. 727 — 736. J. Ernst,
Zur Auffassung Cyprians von der Ketzertaufe, ib. (1893), xvii. 79 — 103.
K. G. Gotz, Die Bufilehre Cyprians, Konigsberg, 1894. K. Miiller, Die Buli-
1 Lact., Div. Inst., v. i, 25; liter., Ep. 58, 10.
BARDENHEV/ER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 13
194
FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
institution in Karthago unter Cyprian, in Zeitschr. fur Kirchengesch. (1895
to 1896), xvi. i — 44, 187 — 219. K. G. Gotz, Das Christentum Cyprians, Gieften,
1896. K. H. Wirth y Der «Verdienst»-Begriff in der christl. Kirche nach
seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung dargestellt; II: Der «Verdienst»-Begriff
bei Cyprian, Leipzig, 1901. A. Melardi, S. Cypriano di Cartagine: con
tribute all' apologetica latina del 3. secolo, Potenza, 1901. --- P. Corssen,
Der cyprianische Text der Acta apostol. (Progr.), Berlin, 1892. J. Heiden-
reich, Der neutestamentliche Text bei Cyprian verglichen mit dem Vulgata-
text, Bamberg, 1900. A. Harnack, Cyprian als Enthusiast, in Zeitschr. fur
die neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1902), iii. 177 — 191. P. St. John, A dis
puted point in St. Cyprian's attitude towards the Primacy, in American
Ecclesiastical Review (1903), xxix. 162 — 182. J. P. Knaabe , Die Pre-
digten des Tertullian und Cyprian, in Theol. Studien und Kritiken (1903),
Ixxvi. 606 — 639.
3. TREATISES. - Pontius mentions1 eleven or twelve treatises
of Cyprian in the following, perhaps also the chronological, order:
a) Ad Donatum, an outpouring of his heart addressed to an other
wise unknown friend, for whom he depicts the new life entered on
by baptismal regeneration; it was probably composed shortly after
his conversion. The poetical form and the style of the treatise betray
the former rhetorician2, b) De habitu virginum (in the Catalogue
of 359: Ad virgines], a pastoral letter to women, especially to those
virgins who had dedicated themselves to the service of the Lord.
Cyprian calls them «the blossoms on the tree of the Church » (c. 3).
He puts them on their guard particularly against vanity in dress.
This treatise resembles very much the De cultu feminarum of Tertullian.
c) De lapsis, composed in the spring of 251, immediately after the
persecution of Decius and his own return to Carthage. In it he
laments most touchingly the apostasy of so many brethren ; their recon
ciliation must depend on a good confession and the performance of
a corresponding penance, d) To the same year belongs the immortal
work De catholicae ecclesiae imitate, a forcible exposition and defence
of the Church, to which alone were made the promises of salvation,
and not to the schisms at Rome and Carthage. Christ founded His
Church on one, on Peter ; the unity of the foundation guarantees that of
the edifice. Schism and heresy are the weapons of Satan. That person
cannot ha.ve God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother
(habere non potest Deum patrem, qui ecclesiam non habet matrem,
c. 6). e) The treatise of Cyprian De dominica oratione, written about
the beginning of 252, is similar in its contents to Tertullian's De
oratione, and is important chiefly for its lengthy exposition of the Lord's
Prayer (cc. 7—27), a feature that made it much beloved in Christian
antiquity3, f) Ad Demetrianum, probably composed early in 252, and
markedly apologetic in tendency. The sufferings of these unhappy
times, war, pestilence and famine, which the heathen to whom he
Vita c- 7- 2 Aug., De doctr. christ., iv. 14, 31.
'•' ////., Comm. in Matth., v. i.
§ 51- ST. CYPRIAN. 195
writes attributed to the Christian contempt of the gods, are really
divine punishments, inflicted on account of the obstinacy and wickedness
of the heathens, and in particular of their persecution of the Christians.
g) The De mortalitate owes its origin to a pestilence that raged at
Carthage and in the neighborhood, especially from 252 — 254. It is
such a discourse of consolation as a bishop might deliver, and breathes
in every line a magnanimity of soul and a power of faith that are
most touching. The fact that the pestilence carried off both the
faithful and the unbelievers ought not to surprise the former, since
by word and example the Scripture makes known to all Christians
that it is their especial destiny to suffer trial and tribulation. Temptation
is only the prelude of victory, trial an occasion of merit, and death
the transit to a better life, h) The De op ere et eleemosynis, an ex
hortation to efficacious charity towards our neighbor, owes its origin,
probably, to similar circumstances. Almsgiving is, in a certain sense,
a means of obtaining grace; it appeases the divine wrath and atones
for our postbaptismal faults and entitles us to a higher degree of
celestial happiness, i) De bono patientiae was written during the
conflict concerning heretical baptism *, very probably in the summer of
256 in the hope of calming the irritation and anger of his opponents,
and as a pledge of the author's own anxiety for the restoration of
peace. It draws largely on the De patientia of Tertullian. k) De
zelo et livore was probably meant to complete the preceding treatise;
it is at once the work of a reconciling arbiter and a deciding
judge. Envy and jealousy are poisonous growths that often strike
deep roots in the soil of the Church, and bring forth the most de
plorable fruits: hatred, schism, dissatisfaction, insubordination. 1) Ad
Fortunatum is a collection of passages from Holy Writ put together
at the request of the recipient, and likely to confirm the faithful soul
in the tempest of persecution, which we assume to be that of Valerian,
that had been raging since the middle of 257. Thirteen theses
relative to this grievous trial are set forth ; each of them is con
firmed by quotations from the Bible, m) Pontius appears to have
been acquainted with another treatise that encouraged confessors to
be brave unto the end; but it has not been possible to identify it
with any certainty.
J. G. Krabinger published excellent editions of the DC catholicae ec-
clesiae imitate, De lapsis, De habitu virginum, Tubingen, 1853, also of the
other treatises, Ad Donatum , De dominica pratione , De mortalitate , Ad
Demetrianum, DC opere et eleemosynis, De bono patientiae, De zelo et livore,
Tubingen, 1859. // Hwter, Ss. Patr. opusc. select., contains in vol. I:
Ad Demetr. and De cath. ecd. unit. ; in vol. II : De dom. orat. \ in vol. IV :
De mortal., De op. et eleem. and De bono pat.; in vol. V: DC lapsis. On
the De opere et eleemosynis cf. E. W. Watson, in Journal of Theol. Studies
(1901), ii. 433 — 438. K. G. Gotz has tried to show, but without success, in
1 Cypr., Ep. 73, 26.
13*
ICj6 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
Texte und Untersuchungen, xix, new series (1899) iv. ic. , that the brief
letter Donatus Cypriano (ed. Hartel, iii. 272), hitherto held to be spurious,
is really the beginning of the treatise Ad Donatum. Dom Ramsay, An
Uncial Fragment of the Ad Donatum of St. Cyprian, in Journal of Theol.
Studies (1902), iv. 86—89. Concerning De hab. virg. cf. J. Haussleiter,
in Commentationes Woelfflinianae, Leipzig, 1891, pp. 377— 389. B. Aube,
L'Eglise et 1'Etat dans la seconde moitie du me siecle. Paris, 1885, PP- 3°5 n~>
calls in doubt, without any good reason, the genuineness ot Ad Demetrianum.
In the Revue Benedictine (1902), xix. 246 — 254, J. Chapman began a
study on the well-known interpolations in De catholicae ecdesiae unitate in
favor of the Roman Church, hitherto never submitted to a close exami
nation ; Id. , The interpolations in St. Cyprian's De unitate ecclesiae , in
Journal of Theol. Studies (1904), v. 634—636; cf. E. W. Watson, The
interpolations in St. Cyprian's De unitate ecclesiae, ib. , v. 432 — 436. -
P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Un nuovo libello originale di libellatici della per-
secuzione deciana, in Miscellanea di storia e cultura eccles. (1904). L. Cha-
balier, Les lapsi dans 1'Eglise d'Afrique au temps de Saint Cyprien (These),
Lyon, 1904.
4. TREATISES (CONTINUED). - - The work Ad Quirinum in three
books, known formerly as Testimoniorum libri adversus Judaeos,
contains a demonstration of the rejection of the Jews and the vocation
of the Christians (book i), a sketch of Christology (book ii), and an
introduction to a Christian and virtuous life (book iii, probably a later
addition). At the beginning of each book are several theses, each of
which, after the manner of the treatise Ad Fortunatum, is in its turn
proved by a series of citations from Holy Writ. The first express mention
of the work is found in the afore-mentioned Catalogue of the year 359.
Before that date several ancient writers (Pseudo-Cyprian Adversus
aleatores, Com median, Lactantius, Firmicus Maternus) had already
made good use of its Scriptural treasures. The work is certainly
authentic. The tractate Quod idola dii non sint is largely a com
pilation from the Octavius of Minucius Felix and the Apologeticum
of Tertullian. It is first mentioned by St. Jerome1. The authorship
of Cyprian is uncertain. Haussleiter maintains, but without success,
the authorship of Novatian.
B. Dombart, Uber die Bedeutung Commodians fur die Textkritik der
Testimonia Cyprians, in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1879), xxii. 374
to 389. For the genuineness of the third book Ad Quirinum cf. J. Hauss
leiter, in Comment. Woelfflin. (1891), pp. 377 ff. Dom Ramsav, On early
insertions in the third book of St. Cyprian's Testimonia, in Journal of Theol.
Studies (1901), ii. 276—288. See also C. H. Turner, Prolegomena to the
Testimonia of St. Cyprian, ib. (1905), vi. 246—270. Concerning the origin
of Quod idola dii non sint see Haussleiter, in Theol. Literaturblatt (1894),
xv. 481—487.
5. THE LETTERS OF CYPRIAN. - The collection of the Letters
of Cyprian contains, in the latest editions, eighty-one pieces or
numbers, sixty-five of which are from his hand ; the others are mostly
1 EP- 70, 5-
§ 51. ST. CYPRIAN. 197
letters addressed to him. By reason of its very copious contents this
collected correspondence of Cyprian is a primary source of authori
tative information concerning the life and discipline of the primitive
Church. All the letters date from the period of his episcopal rule in
Carthage (248/249 — 2 5 8). In the Vienna or Hartel edition of 1 87 1 , they
are numbered according to the Oxford recension of 1682; but later
researches render necessary certain modifications in the accepted order
of the correspondence. The letters may be divided into the following
groups: a) Letters whose dates cannot be ascertained; they are I — 4
and 63 (ed. Hartel); they contain no references to contemporary
persons or events, and probably were all composed before the per
secution of Decius. Letter 63, entitled in the manuscripts ZV sacra-
mento dominici calicis , is a precious confirmation of the traditional
Catholic doctrine concerning the sacrificial character of the Eucharist.
b) Letters sent to Carthage in the first period of the Decian per
secution (250); they are 5 — 7 and 10 — 19, and were addressed from
his hiding place to the clergy and the faithful of the city. They
contain exhortations to prudence, to perseverance on the part of the
confessors, to care of the poor, and also some reproaches and de
cisions in the matter of the lapsi (15 — 19). c) The correspondence
of Cyprian (representing the clergy of Carthage) with the Roman
clergy in whose hands lay the government of the Church during the
vacancy between the death of Fabian and the succession of Cornelius
(Jan. 250 to March 251). In all there are twelve of these letters:
8 9 20 21 22 27 28 30 31 35 36 37. In letter 20 Cyprian justifies
his flight and explains his manner of dealing with the lapsi; he
returns to the same subject in letters 27 and 35. In letters 30 and 36,
the Roman clergy, by the hand of Novatian, assure Cyprian that
they are in full agreement with him as to the treatment of the lapsi.
d) Letters sent to Carthage in the last period of the Decian per
secution (250 — 251); they are 23 — 26 29 32 — 34 38 — 43. Of these
fourteen letters twelve were written by Cyprian; with the exception
of two they were addressed to the clergy and the faithful of Carthage.
The last three (41 — 43) deal with the schism of Felicissimus.
e) Letters of the years 251 — 252, relative to the troubles occasioned
by the schism of Novatian, and numbered 44—55. Scarcely had
Cyprian been accurately informed of what was occurring at Rome,
when he came out with decisive energy in favor of the legitimate
pope Cornelius; he could not, however, check the spread of the
schism into Africa. Among the twelve letters of the group are six
from Cyprian to Cornelius and two replies from the latter (49 50).
f) Letters of the years 252 — 254, numbered 56 — 62 64 — 66,; the
contents of which are of a miscellaneous nature. Letter 57 was sent
by a Synod of Carthage 253 (?) to Pope Cornelius apropos of the lapsi;
letter 64 was written by a Carthaginian provincial Synod in 252 (?) to
198 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
a certain bishop Fidus, and treats mostly of the baptism of children,
g) Letters of the years 254 — 256, numbered 67 — 75. Letter 67 is a
sy nodical letter in the matter of Basilides and Martial, Spanish bishops,
who had been deposed as lapsi; while letters 69 — 75 deal with the
validity of heretical baptism. Letter 70 represents the opinions of the
Synod of Carthage held in 255, and letter 72 the decision of the spring
Synod of 256, both dealing with the subject of heretical baptism.
There has also been preserved an extract from the minutes of the
Synod of Carthage, September i. 256, in which the invalidity of
heretical baptism was again asserted (Sententiae episcopormn numero
LXXXVII de Jiaercticis baptizandis). It is usually placed not among
the letters, but among the treatises of Cyprian. Letter 74 reveals in
all its fulness the difference of opinion between Cyprian and Pope
Stephen. Concerning letter 75 cf. § 47, 7. h) Letters written during the
persecution of Valerian (257- 258) and numbered 76 — Si. In letter 76
we have an admirable message of consolation from the exiled bishop
to the martyrs in the mines. In letter Si the shepherd of Carthage,
while awaiting a martyr's death, sends to his flock a final salutation.
For the chronology of the Letters of Cyprian see O. Ritschl , De
epistulis Cypriani-cis (Dissert, inaug.), Halle, 1885. Id., Cyprian von Kar-
thago und die Verfassimg der Kirche, Gottingen, 1885, pp. 238 — 250.
P. Monceaux, Chronologic des oeuvres de St. Cyprien et des conciles Afri-
cains du temps, in Revue de Philologie (1900), xxxii, also the larger work
of Monceaux quoted above (i of this §). L. Nelke, Die Chronologic der
Korrespondenz Cyprians und der pseudo-cyprianischen Schriften Ad No-
vatianum und Liber de rebaptismate (Dissert.), Thorn, 1902. - - For the
correspondence of Cyprian and the Roman clergy during the year 250 see
A. Harnack, in Theol. Abhandlungen, C. v. Weizsacker gewidmet, Frei
burg, 1892, pp. 1—36. Concerning letter 8 see J. Haussleiter, Der Auf-
bau der altchristl. Literatur, Berlin, 1898, pp. 16—33. Letters 8 21 22
and 23 24 are written in popular Latin; they have been edited anew by
A.Miodotiski, Anonymus adv. aleatores, Erlangen and Leipzig, 1889, pp. 112
to 126. On Letter 42 cf. E. Watson, Cyprianica, in Journal of Theol. Studies
(1902—1903), iv. 131, and J. Chapman, The order of the Treatises and
Letters m the Mss. of St. Cyprian, ib., iv. 103—123.
The Sententiae episcoporum are found in Hartel , 1. c., i. 433—461.
Nelke, 1. c., locates their composition about 255. The synodal letters 57
64 67 70 72 and the Sententiae are also found in Routh, Reliquiae sacrae
(2) in. 93 — 131; for the annotationes see pp. 132 — 217.
A Greek version of the Sententiae was first published (complete) by
P. de Lagarde, Reliquiae iuris eccles. antiquissimae graece, Leipzig, 1856,
PP- 37— 55- The lost letters of Cyprian are discussed by Harnack, Gesch.
altchristl. Litteratur, i. 692. Id. , Uber verlorene Briefe und Akten-
sich aus der cyprianischen Briefsammlung ermitteln lassen, in
lexte und Lntersuchungen, new series, Leipzig, 1902, viii. 2. Fr. v. Soden,
cypriamsche Briefsammlung. Geschichte ihrer Entstehung und Uber-
heferung, ib., new series, Leipzig, 1904, x. 3.
6. SPURIOUS WRITINGS. - The glorious name of Cyprian was
on invoked to cover many an supposititious composition, a) The
§ 51. ST. CYPRIAN.
De laude martyrii, a bombastic sermon in praise of martyrdom,
reminding one of Vergil rather than of Holy Writ, must be looked on
as spurious, if only because of its style. Nevertheless, it figures among
the works of Cyprian in the Catalogue of 359. Harnack's ascription
of the authorship to Novatian has been refuted by Weyman.
b) Adversus Judaeos, also a sermon, which in vigorous rhetorical
diction exhorts Israel to enter into itself and do penance ; it is likewise
quoted as a work of Cyprian in the Catalogue of 359. It was formerly
supposed that the Latin text was a translation from the Greek, but
it is itself the original. The author must be sought for, with Harnack
and Landgraf, among the friends of Novatian ; possibly it was written
by Novatian himself, c) De montibus Sina et Sion, written in popular
Latin, contains some obscure remarks on the relations of the Old
and New Testaments. Harnack refers it to the first half of the third
century, d) De spectaculis , against the frequentation of heathen
plays and theatres, is based on the homonymous work of Tertullian.
The introduction shows that it was written by a bishop living at
some distance from his flock. Wolfflin holds it to be a genuine
work of Cyprian; Weymann and Demmler maintain that it belongs
to Novatian. e) De bono pudicitiae, written very probably by the
author of De spectaculis, is a spirited elogium of chastity. Matzinger
failed to establish the authorship of Cyprian, while Weymann and
Demmler argue well for the authorship of Novatian. f) Ad Nova-
tianum, against his rigoristic views; internal evidence (c. 6) shows
that it was written shortly after the persecution of Gallus and Volusian
(251 — 253). Harnack maintains, without sufficient proof, that it is from
the pen of Pope Sixtus II. (257 — 258); however, there is not sufficient
evidence to show even that it was written in .Rome, g) De aleatoribiis,
rather Adversus aleatores, a sermon against dice-playing as an invention
of the devil, written in popular unpolished Latin but with vigor and
boldness. Harnack believed it to be a work of Pope Victor I. (§ 36, i),
and therefore «the oldest Christian work in Latin ». It was soon
observed, however, that the author knew and used writings of Cyprian,
especially Ad Quirinum. In the introductory phrases (c. i) the author
does not call himself pope, but rather only a bishop, and there is no
positive proof that he occupied an Italian see. h) De rebaptismate is
a polemical work in favor of the validity of heretical baptism and
against the theory and practice of Cyprian. The author was a bishop,
gifted with a taste for speculation ; possibly his name was Ursinus 1.
In his excellent researches, Ernst has shown that it was composed
in Africa, very probably in Mauritania, and in 256, a little before
the Synod of September I. of this year. Schiiler also agrees that it
was composed in that year, but in Italy, he thinks, and after the
1 Gennad, De viris ill., c. 27.
2QO FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
synod just mentioned. Nelke inclines to a date between 255 and 258;
probably the earlier figure, i) De pascha computus. In Hufmayr's
opinion it was written in the fifth year of Gordian, before the Easter
of 243 (c. 22), for the purpose of correcting the sixteen-year paschal
cycle of Hippolytus (§ 54, 6), by a cleric resident outside of Rome,
a) A. Harnack, Eine bisher nicht erkannte Schrift Novatians vom
Jahre 249 — 250 (« Cyprian », De laude martyrii), in Texte u. Untersuchungen,
Leipzig, 1895, xiii. 4b; cf., against Harnack, C. Weyman, in Lit. Rund
schau (1895), pp. 331 — 333. -- b) G. Landgraf, Uber den pseudo-cypria-
nischen Traktat «Adversus Iudaeos», in Archiv fur latein. Lexikographie
und Grammatik (1898), xi. 87 — 97; cf. Harnack, in Texte und Unter
suchungen, xx, new series (1900) v. 3, 126 — 135. - - c) For De montibus
Sina et Sion see Harnack, ib., 135 — 147. — d) and e) Ed. Wolff tin, Cyprianus
de spectaculis, in Archiv fur latein. Lexikographie und Grammatik (1892),
vii. i — 22. S. Matzinger, Des hi. Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus Traktat
De bono pudicitiae (Inaug.-Diss.), Niirnberg, 1892. Against Wolff lin and
Matzinger tf. Weyman, in Histor. Jahrb. (1892), xiii. 737 — 748; (1893), xiv.
330 f. , and A. Dcmmler, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1894), Ixxvi. 223 — 271.
- f) A. Harnack, Eine bisher nicht erkannte Schrift des Papstes Sixtus IT.
vom Jahre 257/8, in Texte und Untersuchungen, Leipzig, 1895, xiii i, i
to 70; cf. ib., xx, new series (1900), v 3, 116 — 126. Against Harnack
see Julichcr, in Theol. Literaturzeitung (1896), pp. 19 — 22; Funk, in Theol.
Quartalschr. (1896), Ixxviii. 691 — 693; Benson, Cyprian, London, 1897, pp. 557
to 564. According to A. Rombold , in Theol. Quartalschr. (1900), Ixxxii.
546 — 60 1, Ad Novatianum was written by Cyprian in 255 or 256. L. Nelke
maintains (see no. 5 of this §) that very probably Pope Cornelius was its
author and wrote it about 252. • g) New separate editions of Adv.
aleatores were published by A. Miodonski , Erlangen and Leipzig, 1889
(with a German version), and by A. Hilgenfeld, Freiburg, 1889. A. Harnack,
Der pseudo-cyprianische Traktat De aleatoribus etc., in Texte und Unter
suchungen, Leipzig, 1888, v. i; cf. ib., xx, new series (1900), v 3, 112
to 116. Against Harnack see Funk, in Histor. Jahrb. (1889), x. i — 22,
and Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (1899), ii. 209
to 236; Haussleiter, in Theol. Literaturblatt (1889), pp. 41 — 43, 49 — 51,
and in Commentationes Woelfflinianae, Leipzig, 1891, pp. 386 — 389; Etude
critique sur 1'opuscule «De aleatoribus» par les membres du seminaire
d'histoire ecclesiastique etabli a 1'Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain,
1891, with appendix: Une lettre perdue de Saint Paul et le «De aleatori-
bus», Louvain, 1893. -- h) For De rcbaptismate see J. Ernst, in Zeitschr.
fur kathoL Theol. (1896), xx. 193—255 360—362; (1898), xxii. 179—180;
(1900), xxiv. 425—462; also in Histor. Jahrb. (1898), xix. 499—522 737
to 771. Cf. W. Schiller, in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1897), xl.
555 — 608; A. Beck, in «Katholik» (1900), i. 40—64. Id., Kirchl. Studien
und Quellen, Hamburg, 1903, pp. i — 58, makes Sixtus II. author of De re-
bapttsmate, but doubts somewhat the genuineness of cc. 16— 18. — i) E. Huf-
mayr, Die pseudo-cyprianische Schrift «De pascha computus » (Progr.), Augs
burg, 1896.
Many other pseudo-cyprianic works were written after the time of
Constantine. For Ad Vigilium episcopum de iudaica incredtditate see § 16.
The De duodecim abusivis saeculi (ed. Hartel, iii. 152 — 173) still awaits an
investigator of its literary history. The De singularitate clericorum (Hartel, iii.
173—220) is identical (according to Dom Morin, in the Revue Benedictine
[1891], viii. 236 f.) with the Ad confessor es et virgines of the priest Macrobius,
§ 52. ARNOBIUS. 2O I
and was written about the middle of the fourth century (Gennad., De vir. ill.,
c. 5). A. Harnack, Der pseudocyprianische Traktat De singularitate cleri-
corum, ein Werk des donatistischen Bischofs Macrobius in Rom, in Texte
und Untersuchungen , new series, Leipzig, 1903, ix. 3, accepts and con
firms the thesis of Dom Morin. The De duplici martyrio ad Fortunatum
(Hartel, iii. 220 — 247) was unmasked by Fr. Lezius, in Neue Jahrb. fur deutsche
Theol. (1895), iv. 95 — no 184 — 243, and shown to be a daring forgery of
its first editor, Erasmus. - - For the poems, current also under the name
of Tertullian, De Genesi , De Sodoma and De lona , also for Ad Flavium
Felice 'm de resurrectione mortuorum cf. § 50, 8 ; for the poem Ad senator em
§88, 7; for De pascha § 87, 8. The Exhortatio de paenitentia , lacking
in Hartel's edition, and recently edited by A. Miodoriski (Cracow, 1893)
is a collection of scriptural texts made for the purpose of refuting the
rigorism of Novatian, and dates, according to C. Wunderer, Bruchstiicke
einer afrikanischen Bibeliibersetzung in der pseudo-cyprianischen Schrift
«Exhort. de paenit.» (Progr. , Erlangen, 1889), from about the year 400.
For other apocryphal works, lacking in Hartel, cf. Harnack, Gesch. der
altchristl. Literatur, i. 722 f. The Caena Cypriani (cf. § 30, 5) and two Ora-
tione.s {Hartel, iii. 144 — 151) are located by Harnack about the beginning
of the fifth century, and attributed to Cyprianus. Gallus (§ 88, 2), in Texte
und Untersuchungen, xix new series (1899), iy- 3^- Michel, Gebet und Bild,
Leipzig, 1902, pp. 77 ff., differs from Harnack. — On all the works in the
Appendix to Cyprian cf. P. Monceaux, Etudes critiques sur 1'appendice de
St. Cyprien, in Revue de Philol. (1902), xxxvi. 63 — 98, and also his Cyprien
in i of this §.
§ 52. Arnobius.
St. Jerome remarks1 that his name suggests a Greek origin. He
flourished in the reign of Diocletian (284 — 305) at Sicca in Africa
Proconsulates, where he was known as a distinguished professor of
rhetoric. By a dream (somniis) he was led to become a Christian.
In order to overcome the diffidence of the bishop to whom he applied
for reception into the Christian community, he published a polemical
work against heathenism which Jerome calls 2 Adversus gentes, but in
the only (ninth-century) manuscript that has reached us is entitled
Adversus nationes. Internal evidence shows that it was composed
during the persecution of Diocletian (303 — 305) or shortly afterwards
(cf. i. 13; ii. 5; iv. 36). The contents of the work fall into two
parts : the first two books are mostly taken up with an apology for
Christianity, while the other five are a polemical attack on heathenism.
In the first part he refutes the trite accusation that the Christians
are responsible for the actual evils of the time because they had
roused the anger of the gods. The religious spirit of the Christians
is guaranteed by their faith in a chief and supreme God (Deus prin-
ceps, Deus summus) and in Christ who died on the Cross as man,
but by His miracles proved Himself to be God. That the Christian
religion is the true one is proved by its rapid spread, by its influence
on the manners of barbarian peoples, and by its harmony with the
1 Chron. ad a. Abr. 2343 = A. D. 327. - De viris ill., c. 79.
2O2 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
opinions of the greatest philosophers. The mention of Plato, as in
many things a herald of Christian truth, furnishes the occasion for a
long and remarkable excursus on the soul (ii. 14 — 62). Passing thence
to his polemic against heathenism, he undertakes to show that the
heathen teaching concerning the divinity is both contradictory and
immoral (iii — v). In the sixth book he describes with caustic
severity the forms of heathen worship, the temples and the statues;
in the seventh book he treats of the sacrificial rites and ceremonies.
(The latter book seems really to close with c. 37. The following
chapters 38 — 51 are apparently sketches for some new work against
heathenism.) The work of Arnobius did not meet with warm ad
miration in later Christian times. The declamatory pathos of the old
rhetorician, his affected and involved phraseology, the multiplicity of
interrogations, become at length very wearisome to the reader 1, all the
more so as in Arnobius warmth of conviction and clearness of thought
are not prominent. He seems to have hastily put together his apology
for Christianity before he had got rid of remnants of heathenism.
His religious opinions offer a curious mixture of Christian and heathen
ideas : Christ is not equal to the Dcus summits. In the supposition
that the heathen gods really exist, they must be gods of a second
order, owing their existence and divine character to the God of the
Christians, to whose family they in a sense belong (i. 28; iii. 2 — 3;
vii. 35). The human soul is not the work of God, but of some other
celestial being. It is something half divine and half material (mediae
qualitatis, anceps ambiguaque natura), in itself perishable, but capable
by the grace of God of receiving an imperishable character (ii. 14 if.).
He draws from the didactic poem of Lucretius (De rerum natura)
his arguments against an absolute eternity, and from the Platonists
and Neoplatonists his arguments against the annihilation of the soul.
The second part of the work, especially books iii — v, has always at
tracted the attention of philologists because of its very copious mytho
logical information. He appears to have studied the Roman mythology
in the (lost) works of the Neoplatonist Cornelius Labeo, and Greek
mythology in the Protrepticus of Clement of Alexandria (§ 38, 3).
The text of Arnobius is based exclusively on Cod. Paris. 1661, of the
ninth century; cf. § 24, i. The Editio princeps is that of F. Sabaeus,
Rome, 1543. For later editions cf. Schoemmann , Bibliotheca historico-
literaria Patrum Latinorum, i. 160—175. NCW editions or reprints were
brought out by J. C. Orelli , 3 vols. , Leipzig, 1816—1817; Migne , PL.,
Paris, 1844, v; G. F. Hildebrand, Halle, 1844; Fr. Oehkr, Leipzig, 1846
(Gersdorf, Bibl.Patr. eccles. Lat. sel., xii). The best is that of A. Reifferscheid,
Vienna, 1875 (Corpus script, eccl. Lat., iv). Cf. Id., in Indices scholarum
Vratislav. 1877—1878, pp. 9—10; 1879 — 1880, pp. 8— 10. M. Bastgen,
Quaestiones de locis ex Arnobii Adv. nat. opere selectis (Dissert, inaug.),
Miinster, 1887. "~ German versions of Arnobius were made by Fr. A.
1 Hicr., Ep. 58, 10.
§ 53- LACTANTIUS. 2O3
v. Besnard, Landshut, 1842; J. Alleker, Trier, 1858. -- E. Freppel, Com-
modien, Arnobe, Lactance, Paris, 1893, pp. 28 — 93. On the diction of
Arnobius see C. Stange, De Arnobii oratione (Progr.), Saargemiind,, 1893;
J. Scharnagl, De Arnobii maioris latinitate (2 Progr.), Gorz, 1894 — 1895,
i — ii; P. Spindler, De Arnobii genere dicendi (Dissert. }, Strassburg, 1901.
- For the «sources» of Arnobius see G. Kettner, Cornelius Labeo (Progr.),
Naumburg, 1877 ; A. Rohricht , De Clemente Alex. Arnobii in irridendo
gentilium cultu deorum auctore (Progr.), Hamburg, 1893. F. Dal Pane,
Sopra la fonte di un passo (v. 18) di Arnobio, in Studi Italiani di Filo-
logia Classica (1901), ix. 30. -- For the doctrine of Arnobius see K. B.
Francke, Die Psychologic und Erkenntnislehre des Arnobius (Inaug.-Diss.),
Leipzig, 1878; A. Rohricht, Die Seelenlehre des Arnobius, Hamburg, 1893;
E. F. Schulze, Das Ubel in der Welt nach der Lehre des Arnobius (Inaug.-
Diss.), Jena, 1896; E. Vorontzow , Apologet Arnobii Afrikanei (Russian),
Kharkon (1904), ii. 319—338.
§ 53. Lactantius.
1. HIS LIFE. -•- Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius, for such was
probably his full name, was, according to St. Jerome *, a disciple of
Arnobius, and unquestionably a native of Africa, though local
Italian patriotism, without any evidence, claims the honor of his birth
for Firmum (Fermo), in the territory of Picenum. His parents were
heathens, and the date of his conversion to Christianity is unknown.
It is probable that he had already won fame in Africa as a rhetorician
when Diocletian made him professor of Latin rhetoric at Nicomedia,
the new capital of the empire. The persecution of Diocletian com
pelled him to quit this office; his subsequent life was probably one
of much privation. At an advanced age he appears in Gaul as the
tutor of Crispus, the son of Constantine. The time and place of his
death are unknown.
S. Brandt, Uber die dualistischen Zusatze und die Kaiseranreden bei
Lactantius. Nebst einer Untersuchung liber das Leben des Lactantius und
die Entstehungsverhaltnisse seiner Prosaschriften (four Essays), in Sitzungs-
berichte der phil.-histor. Klasse der kgl. Akad. der Wissensch. , Vienna,
1889—1891, cxviii — cxxv; cf. T. E. Mecchi , Lattanzio e la sua patria,
Fermo, 1875. P. Meyer, Quaestionum Lactahtiarum partic. i. (Progr.),
Jiilich, 1878. R. Pichon, Lactance. Etude sur le mouvement philosophique
et religieux sous le regne de Constantin, Paris, 1901.
2. HIS LITERARY LABORS. — Lactantius, like his master Arnobius,
wras more skilful in his onslaught upon heathenism than in his defence
of Christianity. Utinam, says Jerome 2, tarn nostra affinnare potuisset
quam facile aliena destruxit! Withal, he accomplished more than
Arnobius. He is more comprehensive and versatile in his literary
work, while his style is more chaste, natural and pleasing than that
of any of his contemporaries, vir omnium suo tempore eloquentissimus,
quasi quidam fluvius eloquenliae Tullianac^. The humanists called
1 De viris ill., c. 80; Chron. ad a. Abr. 2333. 2 Ep. 58, 10.
3 Hicr., Chron, ad a. Abr. 2333; Ep. 58, 10.
2O4 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
him the Christian Cicero, and in general exhibited an exaggerated
admiration for his writings. As early as the fifteenth century his
writings, extant in numerous and ancient codices, went through a
long series of editions. The real strength of Lactantius is in his
formal grace and elegance of expression; like his heathen model he
lacks solidity and depth. He had read extensively, and retained and
assimilated with great ease the learning of others, which he reproduced
in correct and polished phraseology. If we except St. Jerome, and
perhaps St. Augustine, no Christian writer of antiquity was so deeply
versed in Latin and Greek literature; but conversely his knowledge of
ecclesiastical literature, and still more so of the Scripture, was equally
meagre and imperfect. St. Jerome accuses him of downright imperitia
scripturarum, for failing to recognize a third person in the Divinity,
or the personal distinction between the Holy Spirit and the Father
and the Son 1. He leaned towards Chiliasm 2, and his entire doctrinal
and ethical teaching is suffused with a peculiar dualism, best formu
lated in his thesis that evil is of necessity presupposed to good3.
The manuscript-tradition of the works of Lactantius is the subject of
an exhaustive study by Brandt in the prolegomena of his edition. The
oldest manuscripts are a Cod. Bononiensis of the sixth or seventh cen
tury (Div. inst., De ira Dei, DC opif. Dei, Epitome div. inst.) and a
Cod. Sangallensis rescriptus of the sixth or seventh century (Div. inst.).
The editio princeps appeared at Subiaco in 1465, it is the first dated
book printed in Italy. During the eighteenth century appeared the com
plete editions of Chr. A. Neumann, Gottingen, 1736; J. L. Buenemann,
Leipzig, 1739- J- B- Le Brun and N. Lenglet du Fresnoy, 2 vols., Paris,
1748; F. Eduardus a S. Xaverio, u vols., Rome, 1754 — 1759. The edition
of Le Brun and du Fresnoy is reprinted in Migne , PL. , Paris , 1 844 , vi
to vii). Brandt was the first to make a comprehensive and critical use
of the extant manuscripts : L. C. F. Lactanti opera omnia, rec. S. Brandt
et G. Laubmann, 2 vols., Vienna, 1890—1897 (Corpus script, eccles. Lat.
xix xxvii). - P. Bertold, Prolegomena zu Lactantius (Progr.), Metten,
1 86 1. Freppel, Commodien, Arnobe, Lactance, Paris, 1893, pp. 94 — 148.
- H. Limberg, Quo iure Lactantius appellatur Cicero christianus r (Dissert.
inaug.), Minister, 1896. H. Glacscncr, Several grammatical and philological
articles, in Musee Beige (1901), v. 5—27. S. Brandt, Lactantius und Lu
cretius, in Neue Jahrb. fur Philol. und Padag. (1891), cxliii. 225—259.
P. G. Frotscher, Des Apologeten Lactantius Verhaltnis zur griechischen
Philosophic (Inaug.-Diss.), Leipzig, 1895. -- E. Overlach , Die Theologie
des Lactantius (Progr.), Schwerin, 1858. M. E. Heinig, Die Ethik des Lac
tantius (Inaug.-Diss.), Grimma, 1887. Fr. Marbach, Die Psychologic des
Firmianus Lactantius (Inaug.-Diss.), Halle, 1889.
3. DIVINAE INSTITUTIONES. - His most important work is a
series of religious instructions in seven books , Divinarum institutio-
num libri VII, at once an apology and a manual of theology. The
purpose of the author is first to put to silence all the opponents
1 Comm. in Gal. ad iv. 6; Ep. 84, 7. * Div. inst., vii. 14 ff.
3 Cf. De ira Dei, c. 15.
§ 53- LACTANTIUS. 2O5
of the Christian faith. Proceeding then from the negative to the af
firmative, he undertakes to describe «the whole contents of the Chris
tian doctrine» (v. 4). The title itself is instructive; he borrowed
it from the current manuals of legal science1. The first two books,
De falsa religione and De origine err or is , are devoted to the
refutation of the superstitions of polytheism and to the demonstra
tion of monotheism as the only true religion. The third book,
De falsa sapientia, attacks the philosophy of the heathen, as being,
next to their false religion, the source of their errors. From the
mutually destructive systems of philosophy one turns with satisfaction
to God's revelation of Himself, which concept furnishes the transit
to the fourth book, De vera sapientia et religione. True wisdom
consists in the knowledge and worship of God ; these have been
given to mankind through Christ, the Son of God. The fifth book,
De iustitia , treats of that justice to which men return through
Christ. Its basis is that piety (pietas) which is rooted in the know
ledge of God , and its essence is that equity (aequitas) which sees
in all men children of God. The sixth book, De vero cultu, goes
to show that in the exercise of this justice lies the true worship of
God. Hereupon he explains the two essential qualities of all justice,
religio and misericordia vel humanitas. In the seventh book, finally,
he crowns his work with a description of heaven (De vita beata),
the reward of all true worship of God. Lactantius is the first among
the Western Christians to exhibit in a connected system the Chris
tian views of life and man. He knows and uses the works of
earlier apologists such as Minucius Felix, Tertullian, Cyprian and
Theophilus of Antioch. He quotes the Scripture occasionally from
St. Cyprian's so-called Testimonia adversus ludaeos , but abounds
still more in quotations from classic authors. This work was written
during the persecution of Diocletian and Galerius (305 — 310) in part
at Nicomedia and in part elsewhere (v. 2, 2; u, 15). The so-called
dualistic phrases found in some manuscripts, to the effect that God
willed and created evil (ii. 8, 6; vii. 5, 27) 2 are interpolations, but
according to Brandt inserted as early as the fourth century. Brandt
attributes to this interpolator certain more or less lengthy discourses
to Constantine, that are found in the same manuscripts (i. I, 12; vii.
27, 2 etc.); others hold them to be genuine elements of a second
edition of the work.
Brandt , Uber die dualistischen Zusiitze und die Kaiseranreden (see
§ 53, i). In favor of the genuineness of the dualistic additions see J. G. Th.
Miillcr, Quaestiones Lactantianae (Dissert, inaug.), Gottingen, 1875, and of
the discourses to Constantine J. Reiser, in Theol. Quartalschr. (i8gS), Ixxx.
548 — 588. — For the Scriptural quotations see the edition of Brandt, \. c.
(1890), i. xcvn ff. The date of composition is discussed by Lobmullcr,
in «Katholik» (1898), ii. i — 23.
1 Institutiones civilis iuris, i. i, 12. " Cf. De opificio Dei, c. 19, 8.
2O6 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
4. EPITOME DIV. INST. DE OPIFICIO DEI. DE IRA DEI. — At
the request of a certain Pentadius, whom he addresses as Pentadi
f rater, Lactantius prepared , about 315, a summary of his large
work and entitled it Epitome divinarum institutionum. It is really
a new, but abbreviated recension of the work. The suspicions oc
casionally manifested concerning its genuineness are nowise justified.
In the treatise De opificio Dei, addressed to Demetrianus, a former
disciple, and written before the Institutiones (about 304 ; cf. c. 6, 15;
15, 6; 20), Lactantius maintains against the Epicureans, that the
human organism is a « creation of God», a work of Providence.
After an anatomical and physiological description of the human body
and a teleological commentary on its constitution (cc. 5 — 13), he dis
cusses in the second part some psychological questions (cc. 16 — 19);
the dualistic addition in c. 19, 8 are discussed above (§ 53, 3).
Brandt is of opinion that Lactantius composed the first part of this
work on the basis of some Hermetic book. The treatise De ira
Dei, addressed to a certain Donatus, and written after the Institu
tiones (c. 2, 4 6; n, 2)1 is directed against the Epicurean doctrine
of the absolute indifference (apathia) of the divinity; from the very
nature of religion Lactantius deduces the necessity of a divine wrath.
The Epitome was translated into German by P. H. Janscn, Kempten,
1875 (Bibl- der Kirchenvater) ; the De ira Dei by R. Storf , ib.; the De
opificio Dei by A. Knappitsch , Graz, 1898. For the sources of the De
opif. Dei cf. Brandt, Wiener Studien (1891), xiii. 255 — 292.
5. DE MORTIBUS PERSECUTORUM. --In this work are narrated the
wretched deaths of the imperial persecutors of the Christians ; indeed,
its purpose is to show that the God of the Christians has truly
manifested his power and greatness against the enemies of His name
(c. i, 7). In the introduction it treats briefly of Nero, Domitian, Decius,
Valerian, and Aurelian. The closing days of Diocletian, Maximian,
Galerius, Severus and Maximinus are described with greater fulness.
The narrator writes from personal experience ; in the years 3 1 1 and
313 he was resident in Nicomedia (cc. 35 48; cf. c. i), where the
book was probably written in 314. The entire story breathes an
atmosphere of vivid personal impressions received during those days
of horror; it has not yet been proved that the narrator has any
where consciously perverted the truth of history. Only one (eleventh
century) manuscript of the work has reached us. It is entitled:
Lucn Caecihi liber ad Donatum confessoretn de mort. persec. In
many manuscripts Lactantius is called Lucius Caelius or Lucius Cae-
cilius, and we have seen already that he dedicated his treatise De
ira Dei to a certain Donatus. According to Jerome2, Lactantius
left a work De persecution which universal consent identifies with the
1 Cf. Div. inst., ii. 17, 5. 2 De viris ilLj c go
§ 53- LACTANTIUS. 2O/
De mortibus persecutorum. Finally there is a minute correspondence
of style and diction between this work and the other writings of
Lactantius. Its fundamental concept appears also in the Institutiones
(v. 23). Even the peculiar features of the work, its irritated senti
ment and impassioned tone are easily understood from the nature of
the subject-matter. The most recent editor, Brandt, stands almost
alone in maintaining that Lactantius is not the author of the De
mortibus persecutorum. There is no solid basis, however, for his
hypothesis that Lactantius spent the time from 311 to 313 in Gaul.
This work was first edited by Stephen Baluze, Paris, 1679 ; f°r new separate
editions we are indebted to Fr. Dilbner, Paris, 1863, 1879; Brandt, Vienna,
1897. It is reprinted in Hurtcr, SS. Patr. opusc. sel. , Innsbruck, 1873,
xxii. It was translated into German by P. H. Jansen , Kempten, 1875
(Bibl. der Kirchenvater). The question of authorship is discussed by Ad.
Ebert, in Berichte iiber die Verhandlungen der kgl. sachs. Gesellsch. der
Wissensch. , Leipzig, 1870, xxii. 115 — 138 (for Lactantius); Brandt, Uber
die Entstehungsverhaltnisse der Prosaschriften des Lactantius (see § 53, i)
pp. 22 — 122 and in Neue Jahrb. fiir Philol. und Padag. (1893), cxlvii.
121 — 138 203 — 223 (against Lactantius); J. Belser, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1892), Ixxiv. 246 — 293 439 — 464; (1898), Ixxx. 547 — 596 (for Lactantius);
O. Seeck, Gesch. des Untergangs der antiken Welt, Berlin, 1895, i. 426 — 430
(for Lactantius). -- J. Rothfuchs, Qua historiae fide Lactantius usus sit in
libroDe mort. persec. (Progr.), Marburg, 1862. Belser, Grammatisch-kritische
Erkliirung von Lactantius' «De mort. persec. » c. 34 (Progr.), Ellwangen,
1889. For minor articles of A. Crivellucci , A. Mantini and Brandt see
Studi Storici (1893), ii. 45— 48 374— 388 444—464; (1894), iii. 65 — 70;
(1896), v. 555 — 571. y. Kopp, Uber den Verfasser des Buches «De morti
bus persecutorum » (Dissert.), Munich, 1902 (for Lactantius).
6. DE AVE PHOENICE. SPURIOUS POEMS. - - The poem De av'e
Phoenice relates in eighty-five distichs the myth of the miraculous
bird that dwelt in the sacred grove of the Sun- God as his priest,
whence every thousand years it came on earth to mount its own
funeral pyre, and from its own ashes rose to a new life. There is
a long series of witnesses, beginning with Gregory of Tours 1, for the
authorship of Lactantius ; most modern critics admit it, even Brandt,
though he ascribes it not to the Christian but to the heathen period
of his life. Nevertheless, the work has a specific Christian color,
and both in matter and style exhibits many Christian peculiarities.
The Phoenix was looked on as a symbol of the resurrection. The
poem De resurrectione (De pascha) is not a work of Lactantius,
but rather of Venantius Fortunatus 2. The poem De passione Domini
belongs to the end of the fifteenth century.
De are Phoenice in Brandt's edition (1893), ii. i, 135 — 147; cf. xviii
to xxii. On the origin of the myth see H. Dechent , in Rhein. Mus. fiir
Philol., new series (1880), xxxv. 39 — 55; R. Loebe, in Jahrb. fiir protest.
Theol. (1892), xviii. 34 — 65; Brandt, in Rhein. Mus. fiir Philol., new series
1 De cursu stellarum, c. 12. ~ Cann., iii. 9.
2O8 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
(1892), xlvii. 390 — 403; A. Knappitsch, De L. C. F. Lactanti «ave Phoe-
nice» (Progr.), Graz, 1896 (with a German metrical version). The De
passione Domini is in Brandt, 1. c.; pp. 148 — 151; cf. xxii — xxxiii. C, Pas
cal, Sul carme «De ave Phoenice» attribute a Lattanzio, Napole, 1904.
For a collection of metrical enigmas see below § 53, 7 a.
7. LOST WRITINGS. FRAGMENTS. - - Lactantius intended to pu
blish a work against all heresies1, and another against the Jews2,
but he seems not to have carried out his purpose. Several other works
have perished : a) Symposium quod adolescentulus scripsit Africae *,
perhaps a discussion of grammatical or rhetorical questions in the
form of a banquet-dialogue. The title of Symposium may have been
the occasion for attributing to him one hundred metrical enigmas,
each in three hexameters, that are otherwise adjudged to a certain
Symphosius; b) Hodoeporicum (bdotxopixov) Africa usque Nicomediam
hexametris scriptum versibus^\ c) Grammaticus^ ; d) Ad Asclepiadem
libri duoQ; the recipient is probably identical with the homonymous
author of a work addressed to Lactantius , De providentia summi
Dei1 ; e) Ad Probum epistolarum libri quattuor^. This is perhaps
the collection of letters to which pope Damasus refers when he tells
us9 that Lactantius wrote letters in which he dealt mostly with
metre, geography and philosophy, but rarely touched on matters of
Christian theology; f) Ad Severum epistolariim libri duo^ ; g) Ad
Demetrianum (§ 53, 4) auditor em suum epistolarum libri duo^. The
letters treated of the Holy Ghost, and of other subjects (cf. § 53, 2).
h) In a codex of the eighth or ninth century there is a fragment on
divers passions — hope, fear, love, hatred etc. - - with the marginal
note Lactantius de motibus animi. It may be genuine, but cannot
be definitely assigned to any of his writings.
The collection of metrical enigmas is in Migne , PL., vii. 289—298.
It is not in the edition of Brandt; cf. Teuffel-Schwabe , Gesch. der rom.
Literatur, 5. ed. , pp. 1152 f. For the other works mentioned see the
quotations and fragments in Brandt, 1. c. (1893), ii. i, 155 — 160, with the
pertinent literature.
B. ROMAN WRITERS.
§ 54. Hippolytus.
i. His LIFE. - The authorship of the «Refutation of all Heresies»,
xara xaocov alpiazcov I'/^/oc, or Philosophumena (see § 54, 3), a large
and important work discovered in 1851, awakened much interest at
Since then the authorship of the work has been extensively,
but so far inconclusively, discussed. The first of its ten books was
' Div. inst, iv. 30, 14; De ira Dei. c. 2, 6. » Div inst ^ vii> 26
De viris ill., c. So. * Ib. 5 Ib 6 Ib
* Div. inst, vii. 4, 17. s Hier> L c ^ '
10 Hier., De viris ill., c. 80 ; cf. c. in. n Ib.
§ 54- HIPPOLYTUS. 2O9
long current under the name of Origen. That it could not be 'from
his pen was wellk-nown from the title of bishop (dpytepareia) which
the author gives himself in the preface, that being an office that
Origen never filled. In 1842 Mynoides Mynas brought to Paris from
Mount Athos a fourteenth-century manuscript containing books iv — x
of the work. They were edited by E. Miller in 1851, curiously enough
as a work of Origen. The second and third books are still lacking.
The authorship of Origen was at once rejected on all sides and five
other possible authors suggested. These were Hippolytus, Beron,
Cajus, Novatian and Tertullian. The preponderance of opinion was in
favor of Hippolytus, for whom Dollinger (1853) and Volkmar (1855)
pleaded with special success. It was easy to show that Beron,
against whom Hippolytus was said to have written (xara Bypawoq),
belonged at the earliest to the fourth century, nor could the claims
of the Anti-Montanist Cajus be maintained in face of the critical argu
ments opposed to it. In the course of the controversy the names
of Novatian and Tertullian were gradually abandoned. In a general
way the name of Hippolytus stands for the Philosophumena, as often
as it becomes necessary to refer to some definite person as author
of the work. It is true that this work is not mentioned in the ancient
catalogue of the writings of Hippolytus (§ 54, 2. But other writings
claimed as his by the author in the preface to the Philosophumena,
e. g. the so-called Syntagma (Philos. prooem.), the Chronicon (x. 30), and
the work on the nature of the Universe (x. 32), are otherwise known to
be works of Hippolytus. There is also a striking similarity between the
Philosophumena and other acknowledged writings of Hippolytus, e. g.
the work against Noetus, and DC Antichristo. Finally, the meagre
and contradictory information concerning Hippolytus that antiquity
has bequeathed us is placed in an entirely new light by the details
furnished in the Philosophumena concerning the life and times of its
author. Not only are the known facts of Hippolytus's life notably
increased, but the former accounts of him are rendered now for the
first time intelligible. In Western tradition Hippolytus had become the
centre of a legendary cycle, through the mazes of which it was difficult
to reach the kernel of historical truth. The Philosophumena put an
end to the almost unexampled confusion that hitherto had surrounded
his person. - - The Oriental tradition was right, according to this
work, in maintaining that Hippolytus, a disciple of St. Irenaeus1,
had really been a bishop of Rome. He was the rival of Pope Cal-
lixtus (217 — 222), the head of a schismatical party, and therefore
one of the first anti-popes known to history. It is true that our
only account of this situation comes from the Philosophumena itself
(ix. 7 ii 12), but we cannot therefore accuse its author of a de-
1 Phot., Bibl. Cod. 121.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 14
2IO FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
liberate intention to calumniate his adversary. Nevertheless, we must
carefully distinguish between the facts which are related and the coloring
that the narrative puts upon them. Callixtus appears in ecclesiastical
history as one of the most worthy among the popes. His adversary
was a subordinationist in doctrine, and in church discipline he held
a sectarian rigorism. Callixtus had softened the severe penitential dis
cipline by permitting those guilty of adultery or of fornication to be
again received into ecclesiastical communion, after performance of
the penance enjoined1. In other matters also he had shown himself
disposed to gentler measures, e. g. with regard to the reconciliation
of those who returned from heresy or schism, the treatment of un
worthy bishops, the advancement of bigamists to the higher ec
clesiastical offices, and the like. To Hippolytus all this savoured of
unprincipled levity (Philos. ix. 12), though he does not undertake to
justify his passionate denunciation of it. In so far as his views are
not the result of personal opposition to Callixtus, they can only
represent an erroneous concept of the nature and scope of ecclesiastical
authority, and a lack of sympathetic intelligence for the needs of
the time. He describes himself frequently as the most decided ad
versary of the Patripassian doctrine, of the Novatians, and of Sa-
bellius. But his own theology aroused criticism, and was declared by
Callixtus a pure ditheism (Philos. ix. 12). According to Hippolytus the
Logos existed first impersonally in the Father, undistinguished from
Him in substance; he was the unspoken word of the Father, kofOQ
TOQ; later, when the Father willed it, and as He willed it,
tyffev, xa&coc; -/jttltyffsy2, the Word came forth from the Father,
zpcxpopixoc, , as another than He, zrzpoQ. Only in the Incar
nation did He become the true and perfect Son of the Father. The
alleged relation between the Father and the Son is therefore strictly
subordinationist in character. Hippolytus does not hesitate even to say
(Philos. x. 33) that God, had He so willed, might have made God
also any man (or the man), instead of the Logos (el yap $zov ae
jj&etyae xotyaat, iduvaro- s/stQ TO~J M^oo TO TTapddeirfjtaj. The reproach
of ditheism is therefore in so far true that Hippolytus recognized a
distinction of substance between the Father and the Logos; the
latter was only genetically God. But when Hippolytus says of Callixtus
(Philos. ix. 12) that «he falls sometimes into the error of Sahellius
and sometimes into that of Theodotus», he can only mean that on
the one hand Callixtus maintained the equality and unity of nature
in the Father and the Son, without denying, as did Sabellius, the
distinction of persons; and on the other maintained the perfect hu
manity of the Redeemer, without denying His divinity, as did Theo-
dotus. The schism of Hippolytus did not spread ; even in Rome
Tert., De pudicit., c. I. 2 c i$oet., c. 10.
§ 54- HIPPOLYTUS. 211
his faction seems to have been short-lived. There are many reasons
for supposing that Hippolytus himself, shortly before his death,
put an end to the schism. In 235 he was banished to Sardinia
in the company of St. Pontianus, the second successor of Callixtus.
There, if not earlier and at Rome, Pope and Anti-pope appear to
have become reconciled. There, too, both succumbed to the suffer
ings and privations of their lot. Their bodies were finally interred
at Rome on the same day, August 13. in 236 or 237; the same
date was also chosen for the commemoration of both.
y. Dollinger, Hippolytus und Kallistus, Ratisbon, 1853. G. Volkmar,
Die Quellen der Ketzergeschichte bis zum Nicanum. i : Hippolytus und
die romischen Zeitgenossen, Ziirich, 1855. Hergenr other , Hippolytus oder
Novatian? in Osterreich. Vierteljahresschr. fur kathol. Theol. (1863), ii. 289
to 340 (be defends the authorship of Hippolytus). C. de Smedt S. J., Disser-
tationes selectae in primam aetatem historiae eccles., Gand, 1876, pp. 83
to 189 (for Hippolytus). Grisar, Bedarf die Hippolytusfrage einer Re
vision? in Zeitschr. fiir kathol. Theol. (1878), ii. 505—533 (for Novatian).
Funk, Uber den Verfasser der Philosophumenen , in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1881), Ixiii. 423 — 464; Id., Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen und Unter-
suchungen (1899), ii. 161 — 197 (for Hippolytus). y. B. de Rossi , in Bul-
lettino di archeologia cristiana, Ser. 3, a. vi (1881), 5 — 55; Ser. 4, a. i
(1882), 9 — 76, a. ii (1883), 60 — 65, maintains that Hippolytus did not die
in Sardinia but returned to Rome in the reign of Philippus Arabs (244 to
249) and took part in the schism of Novatian. In the persecution of Va
lerian (253 — 260) he was condemned as a Christian, and on his way to
death recognized the error of his ways and besought his friends to
return to the unity of the Church. C. Erbes , Die Lebenszeit des Hippo
lytus, in Jahrbticher f. protest. Theol. (1888), xiv. 611 — 656 (Hippolytus died
Jan. 29. /3O., 251). y. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, part I (S. Cle
ment of Rome), London, 1890, ii. 317 — 477: Hippolytus of Portus (Hippo
lytus was a bishop of the floating population in the maritime town of
Portus, but resident at Rome). G. Picker, Studien zur Hippolytfrage, Leipzig,
1893 (supports the theses of Dollinger as against the objections of de Rossi
and Lightfoot). — The most important «testimonia antiquorum» concerning
Hippolytus are found in H. Achelis, Hippolytstudien, in Texte und Unter-
suchungen, Leipzig, 1897, xvi. 4, i — 62. K. J. Neumann, Hippolytus von
Rom in seiner Stellung zu Staat und Welt. Neue Funde und Forschungen
zur Geschichte von Staat und Kirche in der romischen Kaiserzeit, Leipzig,
1892, fasc. i. y. Drdseke, Zum Syntagma des Hippolytus, in Zeitschr. fiir
wissenschaftl. Theol. (1902), xlv. 58 — 80; Id. , Noe'tos und die Noetianer
in der Hippolytus-Refutatio ix. 6 — 10, ib. (1903), xlvi. 213 — 232.
2. HIS LITERARY LABORS. — Shortly before or after his death,
a marble statue was erected at Rome in honor of Hippolytus by
his schismatical followers. In 1551, during the progress of certain
excavations, it was discovered intact, with the exception of the head.
On either side of the chair in which the saint is seated his paschal
cycle has been inscribed , while on the rounded surface that unites
the back of the chair with the left side of the same are likewise
inscribed the titles of many of his works. This catalogue is com-
14*
212 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
pleted and illustrated by the accounts given in Eusebius1, St. Jerome2,
and other writers. The works of Hippolytus fill us with astonishment,
so extensive and varied are they, while for erudition no Western
contemporary can approach him. On occasions, however, he was
content to repeat himself, as is evident from a comparison of his
commentary on Daniel with his previous work De Antichristo. The
better and greater part of his labors was in the field of exegesis.
Photius praises3 the simplicity and clearness of his style, without
pronouncing it really Attic. At present, with the exception of a fe\v
imperfect works, we possess only fragments of Hippolytus, in Greek,
Latin , Syriac , Coptic , Arabic , Ethiopic , Armenian , and Slavonic.
The manuscript tradition of his writings could scarcelly be more
broken and fragmentary; their remnants turn up in the remotest
parts of the antique world. Often, indeed, these fragments must be
re-shaped and their text cleansed from foreign scoria ; only here and
there can the original text be restored with comparative freedom
from gaps and breaks.
The statue is reproduced in F. X. Kraus, Real-Encyklopadie der christl.
Altertiimer, Freiburg, 1882—1886, i. 660 — 664; cf. J. Picker, Die alt-
christlichen Bildwerke im christlichen Museum des Laterans, Leipzig, 1890,
pp. i66ff. Marucchi, Guida del Museo Cristiano Lateranense, Roma, 1898,
pp. 79 ff. -- His writings and their fragments (except the Philosophumena)
were collected by J. A. Fabricius, S. Hippolyti episc. etmart. opp. Gr. etLat.,
2 vols., Hamburg, 1716—1718; Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr. (1766), ii; Migne,
PG. (1857), x; P. A. dc Lagarde , Hippolyti Rom. quae feruntur omnia
graece, Leipzig and London, 1858. A new edition of the entire works of
Hippolytus is appearing in «Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der
drei ersten Jahrhunderte» : Hippolytus' Werke, i: Exegetische und homi-
letische Schriften, herausgegeben von G. N. Bonwetsch und H. Achelis,
Leipzig, 1897; cf. Catholic University Bulletin, Washington, 1900, vi. 63
to 76. Collections of Syriac fragments are met with in de Lagarde,
Analecta Syriaca, Leipzig and London, 1858, pp. 79—91, also in Pitra,
Analecta sacra (1883), iv. 36—64 306-331. Armenian fragments, in
Pitra, \. c., n. 226—239; iv. 64—71 331—337. For Old-Slavonic texts
cf. Bonwetsch, in Harnack, Gesch. der altchristlichen Literatur, i. 893 — 897.
- Brief studies on all the literary labors of Hippolytus, in C. P. Caspar i,
Ungedruckte Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, Christiania, 1875,
.377—409; Lightfoot, 1. c. (§ 54, i), ii. 388-405, and Harnack, 1. c.,
i. 605—646; Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de 1'figlise, 2. e'd., Paris 1006
tome i, c. xvii.
3. THE PIIILOSOPIIUMENA AND OTHER POLEMICAL WORKS. -- As
we have already remarked (§ 54, i) the Philosophumena are not men
tioned, neither on the statue of Hippolytus nor in the catalogue of his
works by Eusebius and Jerome. Photius calls them * «the labyrinth»,
rbv Xaftijpw&ov, and Theodoret of Cyrus 5 calls the work of Hippo
lytus against Artemon «the little labyrinth», <> aptxpbq Xa^pt^oq. It is
1 Hist, eccl., vi. 22. 2 De viris ilL> c 6l 3 B.bl Cod I2i 2Q2
Bibl. Cod. 48. 5 Haeret. fabul. comp. ii. 5.
§ 54- HIPPOLYTUS. 213
not improbable that the author called himself his work «the labyrinth
of heresies» (cf. x. 5 : roy hapopivftoy ra)v alplffscov'). In the course
of the work (ix. 8) he refers to the first four books as follows : Iv role,
<pdoffo<poufi.iyotQ sc. dSfpafftv, i. e. «in the description of philosophical
doctrines». The traditional extension of the title «Philosophumena»
to the whole work rests on no intrinsic evidence. In the preface he
proposes to convince heretics that they have not taken their teach
ings from the Holy Scriptures or the Tradition but from the wisdom
of the Hellenes, Ix TTJQ *EXM)va)v ffopiaQ. Hence the comprehensive
account of Hellenic philosophy to which the first four books are
devoted. In the first book there is an outline-sketch of Greek philo
sophy, based, however, on very unreliable sources. From the con
clusion of the first book it seems certain that the second book dealt
with «the mysteries and all the curious fancies of individuals about
the stars or spaces*. The contents of the third book must have
been similar, for at the beginning of the fourth (in the beginning
mutilated) he is still combating astrology and magic. This fourth
book is doubtless identical with his work « Against the Magi»
fxara judfcwj that he refers to elsewhere (vi. 39). The second part
of the work opens with the fifth book, the description of the he
resies, and the proof of their heathen origin. Besides the accounts
of such earlier heresiologists as Irenaeus he made use of a number
of works that he took for genuine writings of the heretics , but
which, in the hypothesis of some modern writers like Salmon and
Stahelin, were only clever forgeries. The tenth and last book con
tains a summary recapitulation of the whole work. The work was
probably composed towards the end of his life. He seems to refer
(x. 30) to the Chronicle of Hippolytus. In any case the pontificate
of Callixtus is described (ix. n — 13) as a thing of the past. -- A
smaller work against all heresies 1, published long before the com
position of the Philosophumena (see the preface of the latter), is
usually known since Photius2 as the « Syntagma ». The latter writer
tells us that it contained the refutation of thirty-two heresies, G>JV-
Taf/jta xara aiplffsatv Aft', beginning with the Dositheans and ending
with the Noetians. It is now lost, but its contents have been incor
porated with the writings of such later heresiologists as Pseudo-
Tertullian (Libellus adversus o nines haereses), Epiphanius (Haereses),
and Philastrius (Liber de haeresibus). The fragment of a work
against the Patripassian Noetus, known in the manuscripts as 'Opdia
£t£ nyy atpeGw NOYJ~O>J ~wb& is no homily, but the ending of a com
prehensive anti-heretical work, either the Syntagma or a work other
wise unknown to us. Of a work against Marcion , known to Eu-
1 Ens., Hist, eccl., vi. 22; Hier., De viris ill., c. 61.
2 Bibl. Cod. 121.
214
FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
sebius ! and St. Jerome 2, only the title has been preserved ; perhaps
it is identical with a work mentioned in the statue-catalogue as
7t£p} ttlfaftoi) xdc xoftev TO xaxov. Another lost work, the famous
Anonymus adversus Artemon, an Ebionite Monarchian, used by
Eusebius3 and Theodoret of Cyrus4 was very probably written by
Hippolytus5. His work in defence of the Gospel and the Apo
calypse of St. John, mentioned in' the statue-catalogue, (r)a orczp TOU
xara 'hodvyv efuaJ^e^oD xat dxoxaktyscoQ, has perished; not even
a fragment of it has reached us. It was probably written against
the so-called Alogi who wished to banish from the Church all the
writings of St. John. Some very interesting fragments of a Syriac
version of another work of Hippolytus on the Apocalypse, known to
Ebedjesu (f 1318) as Capita adversus Caium (in Greek probably
xeydAaia xard Fato>j), were published by J. Gwynn (1888 — 1890).
The Anti-Montanist Caius had pronounced the Apocalypse to be a
work of Cerinthus. It taught, he said, a millenarian kingdom of carnal
joys, and was therefore contradictory of the recognized canonical
and apostolical writings. Principally Anti - Montanistic also, in all
probability, was the work entitled on the statue xspl yapKrudrcov
dxoorohxrj xapddoaiQ, unless we aught to read two titles : mp} %aptff-
fj-drcov and d~oaToXt.xr] xapdooaic,. There is good reason to believe
that the same work is the basis of that section of the Apostolic Con
stitutions wrhich treats of the «charismata» (viii. I — 2).
Editions of the Philosophumena were published by E. Miller, Oxford,
1851; L. Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, Gottingen, 1859; P. Cruice,
Paris, 1860. The Duncker and Schneidewin edition is reprinted in Migne,
PG., xvi. 3, among the works of Origen. The first book of the Philosophu
mena is accessible in a new recension in H. Diets, Doxographi Graeci, Berlin,
1879, PP- 551— 576; cf. pp. 144—156. For the literature of the subject
cf- § 54> i' G. Salmon, The Cross-References in the « Philosophumena », in
Hermathena (1885), v- 389—402; J. Drdscke, Zur «refutatio omnium hae-
resium» des ^Hippolytus , in Zeitschrift f. wissenschaftl. Theol. (1902), xlv.
263 — 289. The latter, following a hypothesis of Bunsen, attributes to Hippo
lytus chapters n and 12 of the Epistle to Diognetus (§ 22); they were
taken, he thinks, from the Philosophumena. Without specifying the work
whence they were taken, it has been shown by grave intrinsic arguments
mat they are really from the hand of Hippolytus ; cf. G. N. Bonwetsch,
Der Autor der Schluftkapitel des Briefes an Diognet (Nachrichten der
Akad. derWissensch., phUol.-hist.Kl., Gottingen, 1902, fasc. II). H. Stdhelin,
Die gnostischen Quellen Hippolyts in seiner Hauptschrift gegen die Hare
tiker (Texte und Untersuchungen, vi. 3), Leipzig, 1890, pp. i — 108. Con
cerning the Syntagma and the fragment of Contra Noetum see R. A. Lip-
sius , Die Quellen der altesten Ketzergeschichte neu untersucht, Leipzig,
1875, PP- 91—190. The fragments of the Capita adversus Caium were
published m Syriac and in English by J. Gwynn, Hippolytus and his
Heads against Caius», in Hermathena (1888), vi. 397—418; Hippolytus
1 EMS., Hist, eccl., vi. 22. 2 Hie).^ De yiris ^ c 6j
:; Eus., Hist, eccl., v. 28. * Haeret. fabul. comp. ii c
5 Phot., Bibl. Cod. 48.
§ 54- HIPPOLYTUS. 215
on St. Matth. xxiv. 15 — 22, in Hermathena (1890), vii. 137 — 150. There
is a German version of these fragments in the Berlin edition of Hippo-
lytus, i. 2, 241 — 247, where the two fragments on Mt. xxiv. 15 ff. , that
Gwynn attributed to the commentary of Hippolytus on Matthew, are rightly
adjudged to the Capita adversus Caium. For the other five fragments on
passages of the Apocalypse see T/i. Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons,
ii. 2, 973 — 991: «Hippolytus gegen Caius» (an excellent dissertation).
4. APOLOGETIC AND DOCTRINAL WRITINGS. - - Towards the end
of the Philosophumena (x. 32) the author refers to an earlier work
TTspl rye, TOO TMVTOC, ooGtaQ, doubtless the one entitled on the statue-
catalogue Tipbc, 9EXXiqva£ xai xpbc, IlAdTcova TJ xal Tispl TOO XUVTOQ.
A fragment of it survives under the title 'IcoayTioo Ix TOO (xpbc, C'EA-
hjvaq) Xofoo TOO exifsfpa/j./jfivoo XO.TO. IJAaTcovoQ (IlXdTcoyo.) r.zpt TTJQ
TOO KCWTog acTtaQ. It treats of Hades, the joys of the just and the
sufferings of the wicked ; in its traditional form it contains hetero
geneous and spurious elements. Photius was acquainted 1 with a
work in two books known as 'loMrqnou its pi TOO XOLVTUQ, written
against Plato and the theories of the Platonist Alcinous'on the soul,
matter and the resurrection. It undertook also to prove that the
Jewish people was more ancient than the Hellenes. The fragment
entitled dirodsixTixy xpbg 'looda'woQ deals with the misfortunes of the
Jews and traces them to their crime against the Messias. It is of
doubtful authenticity; none of the ancients mentions any large work
of Hippolytus against the Jews. - The work De Antichristo* is
unique among the writings of Hippolytus, being the only one of which
the complete text has come down to us. It purposes to describe
fully, according to the Scriptures, the person and the works of Anti
christ. It is dedicated to a certain Theophilus , a friend of the
author, and was written about 202. The statue-catalogue mentions a
work K£p\ #(eo)o xal aapxbc. dvaardffe&z', and St. Jerome3 was ac
quainted with a work of Hippolytus De resurrectione. Some frag
ments of a treatise of Hippolytus «To the Empress Julia Mammsea
on the resurrection » are preserved in Syriac; she was the mother of
the Emperor Alexander Severus (222 — 235). Perhaps two fragments
of Hippolytus sx TYJQ rcpb^ ftaadida TWO. ima'o'kr^ preserved in Theo-
doret of Cyrus, and a fragment in Anastasius Sinaita sx TOO r.£p\
xal dp&apffiaQ Aofoo , belong to this work. The ~po-
Tipbc, 2efir]p£tvo.y, mentioned in the statue-catalogue, is other
wise unknown, and apparently it has utterly perished. The same
fate has befallen the work De dispensatione (nepl olxovojuiac, the Incar
nation) mentioned by the Syrian Ebedjesu.
For the fragment of «the Origin of the Universe* cf. Harnack, Gesch.
der altchristl. Lit., i. 622 f. ; J. Drdseke , Zu Hippolytus' «Demonstratio
adversus Iudaeos», in Jahrb. f. protest. Theol. (1886), xii. 456 — 461. The
1 Ib. 2 Hie,:, De viris ill., c. 6 1. 3 Ib.
2l6 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
work «On Antichrist*, was edited by Achelis in the Berlin edition of
Hippolytus, i. 2, 3 — 47, with the aid (for the first time) of a Jerusalem
codex of the tenth century and of a Slavonic version translated (1895) into
German by Bonwetsch. For earlier editions and the manuscript-tradition
cf. Achelis, Hippolytstudien , pp. 65—93. The edition of Achelis is dis
cussed by P. Wendland , in Hermes (1899), xxxiv. 412—427. V. Grone
made a German version of the De Antichristo, Kempten, 1873 (Bibl. der
Kirchenvater). Some profound researches on the same book are due to
Fr. C. Overbeck , Quaestionum Hippolytearum specimen (Dissert, inaug.),
Jena, 1864. The fragments of the work «On the Resurrection » are in the
Berlin edition, i. 2, 251 — 254.
5. EXEGETICAL AND HOMILETIC WRITINGS. - - Eusebius was ac
quainted1 with writings of Hippolytus SCQ rlrp k^ar^spov and SJQ TO. JUBTO.
rrjv sgayfjispoy (probably on Gen. ii — iii). St. Jerome describes them2
as in k^arjfispov , in Exodum, in Genesim , and elsewhere3 refers to
scholia of Hippolytus on the Ark of Noah and on Melchisedech. He
describes minutely4 the exposition of Hippolytus on the Blessing of
Jacob (Gen. xxvii). The principal remnants of his Genesis Commen
taries are copious scholia on the Blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix), pre
served in the Octateuch-Catena of the sophist Procopius of Gaza.
There are no fragments extant of Hippolytus on Exodus and Levi
ticus. Leontius of Byzantium quotes a few lines from Hippolytus
on Numb, xxiii or xxiv, under the title Ix rwv edXo?uov TOO Ba-
Aadfj.. and Theodoret of Cyrus has saved three small fragments ecQ
rrtv MOT^ rr/v psfatyy , i. e. on the so-called Canticle of Moses
(Deut. xxxii). A late Pentateuch-Catena in Arabic contains both
genuine and spurious scholia to Genesis, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
In 1897 Achelis discovered a Greek fragment «From the exposition
of the Book of Ruth». Theodoret of Cyrus quotes four short pas
sages £* ro\) XofO'j TO~J sis ?bv 'Ehavav xa\ slq TTJV "Away. The statue-
catalogue mentions a work on the Witch ofEndor, (slq l^/^rr/^j^ov,
that is called by St. Jerome 5 De Said et Pythonissa. It seems to be
lost. The fragment of the nocturnal scene at Endor published by
De Magistris in 1795 under the name of Hippolytus is apparently
spurious. The work on the Psalms (slq TOLJQ $)aXjjLo6<; or (slg <p)alfj.ooc,
mentioned in the statue -catalogue, and called De p salmis by Je
rome 6 was only an opiisculum in paucos Psalmos, as Jerome expressly
states elsewhere7. Theodoret quotes three fragments of Psalm-com
mentaries: Ps. ii. 7; Ps. xxii. i (Septuagint, with a remarkable passage
on the sinlessness of Mary) and Ps. xxiii. 7 (Septuagint). Achelis
proved in 1897 that all other fragments of Hippolytus-commen-
taries on the Psalms in Greek and Syriac , as found in the printed
editions, are, with the exception of a few insignificant ones, spurious.
In the same year Bonwetsch was able to add some Slavonic, Ar-
Hist. eccl., vi. 22. 2 De viris m^ c> 6l 3 Ep 4g) I9; ^ 2>
Ep. 36, 16. - De yiris ni c> 6l c Ib 7 i
§ 54- HIPPOLYTUS. 217
menian and Syriac fragments to the remnants of the commentary on
the Canticle of canticles, SIQ TO affjua, mentioned by Eusebius1 and
Jerome 2. Of the commentary on Proverbs 3 only Catenae-fragments
have come down to us; the commentary on Ecclesiastes * has appa
rently perished. Theodoret quotes a passage of Hippolytus on Is. ix, I
as ex TO~J Aoyo'j TOO sic, TTJV &P%yv T0^ *H0aloo. There is no evidence
to show that Hippolytus wrote a commentary on Jeremias. He did
write on Ezechiel, according to Eusebius5, slg pipr] TOO 'IzZexiyA;
at least one Syriac fragment on Ez. i, 5 — IO (the Symbols of
the Evangelists) must be looked on as genuine. - - The best-known
and the longest of the exegetical works of Hippolytus is his com
mentary on the book of Daniel. In 1897 Bonwetsch was able to
publish the greater part of it in Greek, and the whole, or nearly
the whole of it, in Sclavonic or Old-Sclavonic, together with a German
translation. Besides the proto-canonical book of Daniel the com
mentary treats the story of Susanna and the Hymn of the Three
Children in the fiery furnace ; in the text of Bonwetsch the narrative
of Bel and the Dragon is lacking. The work is divided into four
books, was written about 204, after the treatise on Antichrist (iv.
7, i), and is the oldest of the extant exegetical writings of the
Christian Church. His commentary on Zacharias was known to St. Je
rome6. The latter was also acquainted with an Hippolytus-com-
mentary on Matthew 7 ; in certain Oriental Catenae (Coptic , Arabic
and Ethiopic) there are Hippolytus-scholia to Mt. xxiv. The frag
ment in Theodoret ix TOO Xofoo TOO elq TTJV TWV raMvTcuv diavofji'qv
must have been taken from a homily on the parable of the talents
(Mt. xxv. 14 ff); similarly the three fragments in Theodoret on the
two thieves (S!Q TOUQ 060 tyjardq: Lk. xxiii. 39 ff). An Armenian trans
lation of the homily in quatriduanum Lazaruni II is found among the
spurious works of St. John Chrysostom 8. The two recensions of this
Armenian text, bearing the name of Hippolytus, are taken from «the
commentary on the Gospel of John and the resurrection ofLazarus».
From later ecclesiastical writers we learn something about the nature
of his commentary on the Apocalypse (de apocalypsi)^ particularly
from a thirteenth-century Arabic commentary of an unknown author
on that book. - - Hippolytus was the first Christian writer to com
pose lengthy commentaries on books of the Old Testament. He
does not follow closely the sequence of the biblical narrative, nor
dissect the text minutely, it is rather the principal ideas that he
selects and discusses in a large and free manner. It is well to recall
the fact that his contemporary Origen is likewise a commentator of
the Scriptures. But while Origen is intellectually the superior of
1 Hist, eccl., vi. 22. *- De viris ill., c. 61. 3 Ib. 4 Ib.
5 Hist, eccl., vi. 22. '5 De viris ill., c. 61 ; Comm. in Zach., praef.
1 Comm. in Matth., praef. s Migne, PG., Ixii. 775 — 778. 9 Hier., De viris ill., c. 61 •
2l8 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
Hippolytus, and a more profound thinker, the latter possesses a fund
of exegetic principles more clear and solid than those of Origen.
Hippolytus is more sober in his exposition and his principles more
like those of the later Antiochene school. He loves, indeed, to
allegorize and makes much use of typology. But there is in him
a certain moderation; he gives evidence of tact and taste, and of a
mind open to the historical view of scriptural things. Many fragments
published as remnants of his commentaries have really drifted down
from his homilies. A sermon, De laude Domini Salvatoris, that he
preached in the presence of Origen *, has perished. From the ex
tant fragments we should judge that the work on Easter (r^p} TOO
xdaya) mentioned by Eusebius2 and by St. Jerome3 was a paschal
sermon. The sermon «on the Epiphany » , slg ra afta ftsoyavsta,
extant complete, both in Greek and Syriac, is full of movement and
strength, but is most probably a spurious discourse on baptism.
The best collection of the exegetic and homiletic works and fragments
of Hippolytus is found in the first volume of the Berlin edition. We owe
to Bonwetsch the edition of the commentary on Daniel and the frag
ments of the commentary on the Canticle of canticles ; and to Achelis the
« minor exegetical and homiletic texts ». The Slavonic, Armenian, Syriac and
other texts are given in German translation. See Bonwetsch, Studien zu
den Kommentaren Hippolyts zum Buche Daniel und Hohen Liede, in Texte
u. Untersuchungen , Leipzig, 1897, xvi. 2; Achelis, Hippolytstudien (ib.,
Leipzig, 1897, xvi. 4). All the fragments of Daniel known previously
to 1877 were published and commented by O. Bardenhewer , Des
hi. Hippolytus von Rorn Kommentar zum Buche Daniel, Freiburg, 1877.
In 1885—1886, B. Georgiades published in several fascicules of the
'ExxXY)<jta<mxf) 'AX^sia (Constantinople) the Greek text of the fourth and
last book of the commentary on Daniel vii— xii. Cf. Bonwetsch, Die
handschriftliche Uberlieferung des Danielkommentars Hippolyts, in Nach-
richten von der k. Gesellsch. der Wissensch. zu Gottingen, Philol.-hist.
Klasse (1896), pp. 16 — 42. For a spurious passage of this commentary
(iv. 23, 3) on the date of the Savior's birth (Dec. 25.) see Bonwetsch,
ib. (1895), pp. 515—527, and the literature referred to there on p. 515.
The Greek text of the Slavonic fragment on Apoc. xx. 1—3 (Berlin ed.,
i. 2, 237 f.) was edited by Fr. Diekamp , in Theol. Quartalschr. (1897),
Ixxix. 604—616, and shown to be spurious. G, N. Bonwetsch, Hippolyts
K^ommentar zum Hohenlied auf Grund von N. Marrs Ausgabe des grusini-
schen Textes herausgegeben, in Texte und Untersuch., new series, Leipzig,
1902, vin. 2. There are in the Codex used by Marr other quite unknown,
and as yet unedited, Hippolytean texts. E. Violard, Etude sur le commen-
taire d'Hippolyte sur le livre de Daniel (These), Montbeliard, 1903. Batiffol
holds that Nestorms is the author of the Sermon «On the Epiphany »,
Revue Biblique (1900), ix. 341—344; G. Chalatiantz, Uber die armenische
V ersion der Weltchronik des Hippolytus, in Wiener Zeitschr. fur d. Kunde
. Morgenl. (1903), pp. 182—186; G. N. Bonwetsch, Drei Georgisch er-
haltene Schnften von Hippolytus: Der Segen Jakobs, Der Segen Moses',
Erzahlung von David und Goliath (Texte und Untersuchungen, xi. i),
Leipzig, 1904; O. Bardenhewer, Neue exegetische Schriften des hi. Hippo
lytus, in Biblische Zeitschrift (1905), pp. 1—17.
1 flier., De viris ill, c. 61. * Hist, eccl, vi. 22. » De viris m>> c. 6l
§ 54- HIPPOLYTUS. 219
6. CHRONOLOGICAL WRITINGS. CANON LAW. ODES. - - Accord
ing to Eusebius 1 and St. Jerome 2 a work of Hippolytus , entitled
on the statue-catalogue dTiodet&g ypovcov TOO ndaya contained chrono
logical disquisitions and a paschal cycle of sixteen years beginning
with the year 222. The most important relic of this work is visible
in the paschal tables for the years 222 — 233 engraved on either
side of the chair in which the figure of Hippolytus is seated. His
«Chronicle», called %povtxwv (sc. /9«/?>l0£?), on the statue-catalogue
and very probably identical with the work mentioned in Philosophu-
mena (x. 30), is a compendium of chronology from the creation of
the world to 234. Lengthy fragments of it have survived in Greek;
it has also reached us in Latin , through three distinct recensions
of the so-called Liber generationis (mundi). - - From a remark of
St. Jerome 3 we may conclude that Hippolytus wrote also on ec
clesiastical law and customs. There is no evidence, however, for
ascribing to him the authorship of such late collections of apostolic
ordinances as the Constitute ones per Hippolytum . the Egyptian
Church-Ordinance and the Canones Hippolyti (§ 75, 6 f). — Accord
ing to the statue-catalogue he also wrote Odes, wdai, but nothing-
more is known of them.
The fragments of the work on Easter and the Chronicle are indicated
by Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Lit., i. 625 ff. The different recensions
of the Liber generationis were edited by Th. Mommscn , in Chronica
minora saec. iv v vi vii, vol. i (Monum. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss., ix.),
Berlin, 1892, pp. 78 ff. ; by C. Frick , Chronica minora, vol. i, Leipzig,
1892, pp. iff.; cf. v. ff. Frick maintains that in the Liber generationis
the Chronicle of Hippolytus is used only as a source, not translated or
revised ; but his thesis seems untenable. On the Chronicle see H. Gelzer,
Sextus Julius Africanus, Leipzig, 1885, ii. i, i — 23; H. Achelis , Uber
Hippolyts Oden imd seine Schrift «Zur groften Ode» (§ 54, 5), in Nach-
richten von der k. Gesellsch. der Wissensch. zu Gottingen. Philol.-histor.
Klasse, 1896, pp. 272—276.
7. SPURIOUS WRITINGS. - - Among the writings falsely ascribed
to Hippolytus two may be mentioned : the Trsp} TYJQ aovreteiaQ TOO
xoff/wj, compiled from his work on Antichrist (§ 54, 4) and from
writings of St. Ephraem Syrus, but not earlier than the ninth century,
also a work xara BypatvoQ y.ai e'HhxoQ TCOV alpSTtxwv xepi fteoAoytag
xat Gapxwazcoc,, written perhaps in the sixth century and surviving
only in meagre fragments.
The work De consummatione mundi is found in the Berlin edition, i. 2,
289 — 309. In his Gesammelte Patristische Untersuchungen, Altona, 1889,
pp. 56 ff. y. Drdseke has undertaken to vindicate for the Pseudo-Dionysius
the Areopagite the authorship of the work against Beron and Helix, but
his attempt is unsuccessful.
1 Hist, eccl., vi. 22. 2 De viris ill., c. 61.
3 Ep. 71, 6.
22O FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
8. THE MURATORIAN FRAGMENT. - - The Muratorian Fragment, so-called
from its discoverer, L. A. Muratori (j i75°)> and extant in an eighth cen
tury codex, is a catalogue of the writings of the New Testament, mutilated
at the beginning and perhaps at the end. Intrinsic evidence goes to show
that it was composed in the West (Rome?) about the year 200. The very
incorrect and difficult Latin text is perhaps a version from the original
Greek. Lightfoot attempted, but without success, to claim its authorship
for Hippolytus. Th. Zahn } Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (1890), ii.
If 1 — 143, and G. Kuhn, Das Muratorische Fragment, Zurich, 1892, contain
the most recent and exhaustive commentaries on this document. For more
precise details see the manuals of Introduction to the New Testament, and
in particular Westcott, On the Canon, Appendix C., 7. ed., 1896, pp. 530
to 547. -- A new edition, with a proposed restoration of the Latin text,
was brought out by H. Lietzmann, Kleine Texte fur theolog. Vorlesungen
und Ubungen, Bonn, 1902; A. Harnack, Miscellen, in Texte und Unter-
suchungen, new series, v. 3, Leipzig, 1900, pp. 107 — 112.
§ 55. Novatian.
I . HIS LIFE. - - The schism of Hippolytus was perhaps forgotten
when Novatian1 began another that was destined to an almost uni
versal extension and a life of centuries, especially in the East. In 250
Novatian was a very distinguished member of the Roman clergy;
two of the letters addressed by that body to Cyprian of Carthage2
after the death of Pope Fabian (Jan. 20., 250) were written by No
vatian (§ 51? 5)- Both letters represent the praxis of the Roman
Church relative to the lapsi; the writer and those who commissioned
him to write are in full harmony with the opinions of Cyprian. No
vatian abandoned the Roman traditions and betrayed his own prin
ciples when in 251 he took up at Rome the leadership of a rigorist
party in opposition to Pope Cornelius (from March 251), and de
manded with them the perpetual exclusion of all apostates from
ecclesiastical communion3. Concerning his later life and his end
nothing certain is known. There are grave reasons for doubting the
statement, first met with Socrates4 that Novatian died a martyr's
death in the persecution of Valerian (257 — 260).
On the schism of Novatian see v. Hefele, in Kirchenlexikon , 2. ed.,
ix. 542 — 550; Harnack, in Realencyklopadie fiir protest. Theol. und Kirche,
2. ed., x. 652 — 670. For the Cyprianic epistles 30 and 36 see Harnack, in
Theol. Abhandlungen , C. v. Weizsdcker gewidmet, Freiburg, 1892, pp. 14
to 20. Forged acts of Novatian's martyrdom were current in the sixth
century; see Eulogius of Alexandria in Phot., Bibl. Cod. 182 208 280.
Ammundsen, Novatianus og Novatianismen etc. , Kopenhagen, 1901;
F. Torm, En Kritisk Fremstilling of Novatianus' Liv og Forfatter-
virksomhed etc., Kopenhagen, 1901; 7. O. Anderson, Novatian, Kopen
hagen, 1901.
1 The Latin sources usually speak of him as Novatianus; the Greeks write mostly
y«ro?, Naudros, Naftdrog.
- Ep. 30 and 36, ed. Hartel. 3 Socrates, Hist, eccl., iv. 28. 4 Ib.
§ 55- NOVATIAN. 221
2. HIS LITERARY LABORS. The two letters to Cyprian
(§ 55> 0 are quite sufficient to prove the superior ability of Novatian
as a rhetorician and a philosopher. It is admitted also by his earliest
adversaries, Pope Cornelius l and Cyprian 2. Jerome is the first to
inform us about his writings : Scripsit autem de pascha, de sabbato,
de circumcisione , de sacerdote, de oratione, de cibis iudaicis, de in-
stantia, de Attalo multaque alia et de trinitate grande volumen, quasi
eTCLTOfr/jV operis Tertulliani faciens, quod plerique nescientes Cypriani
existimant3. The Epistolae Novatiani that Jerome mentions else
where4 are perhaps the letters sent by him in 251 to many bishops
in order to gain them over to his cause5. Only two of the works
mentioned by St. Jerome have reached us, De Trinitate and De
cibis iudaicis, though the manuscripts attribute them to Tertullian
instead of Novatian. A number of works formerly current under
the name of Cyprian have recently been claimed for Novatian. Among
them the De spectaculis and De bono pudicitiae (§ 51, 6 d — e) are
rightly adjudged to him; not so, however, Quod idola dii non sint
(§51, 4) and the sermons De laude martyrii and Adversus ludaeos
(§ 51, 6 a — b). Weyman holds that he is the author of the Trac-
tatus Origenis de libris SS. Scripturarum, disovered in 1900.
The De Trinitate and De cibis Iudaicis were first printed in the edition
of Tertullian at Paris in 1545 by M. Mesnartius (J. Gangneius). They
were also printed , apart from the works of Tertullian, by E. Welchman,
Oxford, 1724, and J. Jackson, London, 1728. The latter edition is re
produced in Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., Venice, 1767, iii. 285 — 323 (cf. xvi
to xix), and in Migne, PL., iii. 86 1 — 970.
3. DE TRINITATE. DE CIBIS JUDAICIS. - - In contents and form
the De Trinitate is a work of superior merit. In close adherence to
St. Irenaeus of Lyons the author treats of God the Omnipotent Father
(cc. i — 8), at greater length of the Son, of His divinity, His humanity,
and His personal distinction from the Father (cc. 9 — 28), and very briefly
concerning the Holy Ghost (c. 29). Though it was soon afterwards
held to be a work either of Tertullian or of Cyprian G, it certainly came
from the hand of Novatian 7, nor is it an extract from the Adversus
Praxcain of Tertullian 8. It was probably composed before the out
break of his schism and even before the persecution of Decius. The
De Cibis Iudaicis is a work addressed to the Novatian community
in Rome, for the purpose of showing how certain foods were de
clared unclean by the Mosaic law in order to withdraw the Jews
from the sins and vices symbolized by those animals. The Christian,
however, apart from the precept of temperance, is bound only to
1 Ens., Hist, eccl., vi. 43. 2 Ep. 55, 16 24.
8 Hier., De viris ill., c. 70; cf. Ep. 36, I. 4 Ep. 10, 3.
5 Socr., Hist, eccl., iv. 28. 6 Rufin., De adult, libr. Orig.
7 Hier., Contra Ruf., ii. 19. 8 Hier., De viris ill., c. 70.
222 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
avoid the use of meats sacrificed to idols. Occasional reminiscences
of Seneca are worthy of note. We learn from the writer (c. i) who,
probably because of some persecution by Gallus and Volusianus or
by Valerianus, dwelt far from (Rome), that in two former letters
he had expressed his opinions on the true circumcision and the true
sabbath *.
For the DC Trinitate see H. Hagemann, Die Romische Kirche und ihr
Einflufi auf Disziplin und Dogma, Freiburg, 1864, pp. 371 — 411 (according
to Hagemann the work is not from the pen of Novatian) ; J. Quarry, in
Hermathena (1897), no. 23, pp. 36 — 70, thinks that it is a version from
the Greek and that the original was written by Hippolytus; G. Landgraf
and C. Weyman , in Archiv f. latein. Lexikogr. u. Gramm. (1898 — 1900),
xi. 221 — 249, have given us an excellent edition of De cibis ludaids.
Th, M. Wehofer, Sprachliche Eigentiimlichkeiten des klassischen Juristen-
lateins in Novatians Briefen, in Wiener Studien (1901), xxiii. 269 — 275.
4. TRACTATUS DE LIBRIS SS. SCRIPTURARUM. -- Under the name
of Origen twenty homilies have reached us in an Orleans manuscript
of the tenth and in another of St. Omer belonging to the twelfth
century. Their subject-matter, with the exception of the last (on
the miracle of Pentecost, Acts ii), is taken from the Old-Testament.
Batiffol, who discovered and edited them, accepted the evidence of
the manuscripts; according to him the homilies were really com
posed or delivered by Origen , and Victorinus of Pettau (§ 58, i),
translated them into Latin, and perhaps revised them. When con
fronted with the vigorous refutation in the seventeenth homily of
Origen's peculiar denial of the resurrection of the body, Batiffol re
plied that the translator had simply interpolated the text of the
original, using for that purpose the De resurrectione carnis of Ter-
tullian. Weyman has shown that the Latin text is original and not
a version. A close similarity of style and diction suggests Novatian;
on the other hand the Trinitarian doctrine of these homilies (ed.
Batiffol, 33 67 157) seems to indicate a post-Nicene composition.
Dom Morin suggests as author the Luciferian Gregory of Eliberis
(§ 87, 4)-
Tractatus Origenis de libris SS. Scripturarum detexit et cdidit P. Batiffol
sociatis curis A. Wilmart , Paris, 1900; C. Weyman, in Archiv fur latein.
Lexikogr. u. Gramm. (1898—1900), xi. 467?. 545—576; G. Morin, in
Revue d'histoire et de litterature relig. (1900), v. 145—161; Batiffol, in
Bulletin de litterature ecclesiastique (1900), pp. 190—197 (against Morin) ;
283—297 (against Weyman); Funk, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1900), Ixxxii.
534—544; E- C.Butler, The New Tractatus Origenis, in Journal of Theol.
Studies (1901), ii. 113 — 121 254 — 262 (non liquet, written by an anonymous
hand in the fifth or the sixth century); J. Haussleiter , Novatians Predigt
iiber die Kundschafter (n. 13) in direkter Uberlieferung und in einer Be-
arbeitung des Casanus von Aries, in Neue kirchl. Zeitschrift (1902), xiii.
1 19— 143; P- Batiffol, in Civilta Cattolica, series XVIII (1902), v. 589, is
Cf. the titles De sabbato and De circumcisione, in Hicr., De viris ill., c. 70.
§ 56. PAPAL LETTERS. 22$
now of opinion that it was written by a follower of Novatian towards the
end of the persecutions (ca. 300 — 313). In the Revue Benedictine (1902),
xix, 226 — 245, G. Morin gives up Gregory of Eliberis, but only to look
for a still later author, somewhere in the fifth century. H. Jordan, Die
Theologie der neuentdeckten Predigten Novatians, Greifswald, 1902;
P. Batiffol, in Revue Biblique (1903), xii. 81 — 93; H. Jordan, Melito und
Novitian, in Archiv fur latein. Lexikogr. und Grammatik (1902), xii. 59
to 68; y. Baer , De operibus Fastidii etc. (cf. § 94, 16); E. C. Butler,
An Hippolytus-Fragment and a Word on the Tractatus Origenis, in Zeit-
schrift fur die neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1903), iv. 79 — 87. The so-called
Tractatus Origenis, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1905), vi. 587 — 599.
§ 56. Papal Letters.
1. ST. CALLIXTUS (21 7 — 222). — Out of the references in the De
pudicitia of Tertullian (§ 50, 5) Rolffs undertook, with doubtful
success, to restore the text of the penitential or indulgence edict in
which Pope Callixtus promised forgiveness and reconciliation to
adulterers and fornicators, conditionally on the performance of public
penance. It is uncertain whether and to what extent the other
decrees of this pope in matters of discipline and dogma (§ 54> 0
were reduced to writing.
E. Rolffs, in Texte und Untersuchungen (1893), xi. 3; P. Batiffol, Le
decret de Calliste, in Etudes d'hist. et de theol. positive, Paris, 1902,
pp. 69 — no.
2. ST. PONTIANUS (230—235). -- A Roman synod of 231 or 232 con
firmed the decrees of the two Alexandrine synods condemnatory of Origen
(Hier.j Ep. 33, 4). It is probable that Pope Pontianus communicated the
action of the Roman synod in a letter to Bishop Demetrius of Alexandria.
3. ST. FABIANUS (236 — 250). - - This pope wrote a letter (litteris)
in approval of the action of a great Numidian synod concerning
Privatus, bishop of Lambesa in Numidia1.
For letters of the Roman clergy during the vacancy of the see from
Jan. 250 to March 251 cf. § 51, 5c; § 55, i.
4. ST. CORNELIUS (251 — 253). -- Amidst the letters of St. Cy
prian 2 are two from Cornelius addressed to the former concerning the
schism of Novatian. At least five letters of Cornelius to Cyprian are
lost3. Three letters to Fabius, bishop of Antioch4, and one to
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria5, dealt with the same schism, but
were certainly written in Greek. Eusebius6 has saved for us some
excerpts from the third letter to Fabius.
P. Constant, Epist. Rom. Pont., Paris, 1721, i. 125 — 206; Ronth,
Reliquiae sacrae, 2. ed. , iii. n — 89. For genuine and spurious material
1 Cypr,, Ep. 59, 10. 2 Ep. 49 50.
3 Cypr., Ep. 45, i; 48, i; 50; 59, i — 2.
4 £us., Hist. eccl. , vi. 43, 3 — 4; incorrectly given as four letters, in Hier., De
viris ill., c. 66.
5 Ens., 1. c., vi. 46, 3. 6 Ib , vi. 43, 5—22.
224 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
cf. Migne, PL., iii. 675 — 848; G. Mercati, D'alcuni miovi sussidii per la
critica del testo di S. Cipriano, Rome, 1899, pp. 72 — 86: «Le lettere di
S. Cornelio Papa» and (pp. 84 — 86) a new edition of the same according
to important readings of the Verona Codex. It has been mentioned above
(§ 51, 6) that L. Nelke holds Cornelius to be the author of Ad Novatianum.
5. ST. LUCIUS i. (253 — 254). -- St. Cyprian mentions (Ep. 68, 5) one
or more letters of St. Lucius concerning the treatment of those who had
apostatized in the persecutions.
6. ST. STEPHEN I. (254 — 257). — Stephen wrote to the churches
in Syria and Arabia1, also in consequence of the controversy on
heretical baptism to the bishop of Asia Minor2, and to Cyprian3.
It has been conjectured from passages in Cyprian4 and Firmilian of
Caesarea5 that he wrote other letters. We possess only his famous
decision on the baptism of heretics in the letter addressed to Cyprian 6
(cf. § Si, i).
Constant, 1. c. , i. 209 — 256; Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Lit., i.
656—658.
7. ST. SIXTHS ii. (257—258). — It is very probable that Sixtus also wrote
letters on the question of heretical baptism. Concerning the thesis of
Harnack that Sixtus is the author of the pseudo-Cyprianic Ad Novatianum
see § 51, 6 f. In the fourth century a collection of moral apophthegms,
translated into Latin by Rufinus of Aquileja, were believed by many to
be the work of Pope Sixtus. They are a later adoptation by some Chris
tian of a work of Sextus the Pythagorean (not so Hier., Ep. 33, 3). For
recent editions of Rufinus' version see J. Gildemeister , Sexti sententiarum
recensiones, Bonn, 1873; A. Elter, Gnomica, Leipzig, 1892, i. For the
other works attributed to Sixtus see Harnack, in Texte und Untersuchungen
(1895), xm- I> 64 f-
8. ST. DIONYSIUS (259—268). — On the subjects of Sabellianism
and Subordinationism (Arianism) pope Dionysius addressed two letters
to Dionysius of Alexandria 7 (cf. § 40, 3). St. Athanasius has pre
served8 a precious fragment of the first letter, or more properly
dogmatic Encyclical. The pope also wrote a letter of consolation to
the church of Caesarea in Cappadocia9.
Constant, 1. c., i. 269—292; Routh, 1. c., iii. 369-403. Genuine, and
spurious material in Migne, PL., v. 99—136. For the doctrinal letters to
Dionysius of Alexandria see H. Hagemann , Die Romische Kirche Frei
burg, 1864, pp. 432—453-
9. ST. FELIX i. (269—274). — The letter of St. Felix to Maximus, bishop
Alexandria, and his clergy, a passage of which was read at the council
of Ephesus in 431 (Mansi, SS. Concil. Coll., iv. 1188) was very probably
the work of an Apollinarist forger.
1 Dion. Alex., in Eus., Hist, eccl., vii. 5, 2.
' Ib., vii. 5, 4; Cypr., Ep. 75, 25. s Cypr., Ep. 74 75.
Ep. 67, 5; 68. * Ib-; 75; 25 e ^ ^ ^
r Athan., Ep. de sent. Dionys., c. 13.
8 Ep. de deer. Nyc. syn., c. 26. 9 Basil. Magn., Ep. 70.
§ 57- COMMODIAN. 225
Constant, 1. c., i. 291 — 298, defends this fragment as genuine; it is
pronounced spurious by Caspari , Alte und neue Quellen zur Gesch. des
Taufsymbols, Christiania, 1879, PP- IIT — 123- See Harnack, Gesch. der
altchristl. Lit., i. 659 f.
10. ST. MILTIADES (311 — 314). — Either Miltiades, or the Roman
synod of Oct. 313, wrote a letter to Constantine concerning the
Donatist schism; it is referred to in a letter of the Emperor1.
C. OTHER WESTERN WRITERS.
§ 57. Commodian.
1. His LIFE. - - Only his own works make this writer known to
us ; even the account of him in Gennadius 2 is taken from his writings.
He was brought up as a heathen, but embraced the Christian faith
after reading the Scriptures, especially the Old Testament; he had
probably been a Jewish proselyte at an earlier date. The eighth-cen
tury codex of his Carmen apologeticum calls him sanctus episcopus.
His language shows that he had lived in the Latin West, though he
was probably born at Gaza in Palestine3. His extant works, it is
conjectured, were written about 250 or a little later.
G. Boissier , Commodien, Paris, 1886; Freppel, Commodien, Arnobe,
Lactance, Paris, 1893, pp. i — 27. His two works were edited by E. Ludwig,
Leipzig, 1877 — 1878, and B. Dombart (1887), Vienna, (Corpus script,
eccles. Lat. , xv). The preparatory labors of Dombart are found in the
following reviews: Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1879), xxn- 374 — 3^9;
Blatter fiir das bayer. Gymn.- und Realschulwesen (1880), xvi. 341 — 351;
Sitzungsberichte der phil.-hist. Kl. der k. Akad. der Wissenschaft zu Wien
(1880), xcvi. 447 — 473; (1884), cvii. 713 — 802. H. Brewer, in Zeitschr. fiir
kath. Theol. (1899), xxm- 759 — 763, defended a singular opinion con
cerning the date of the writings of Commodian («about 458 to 466)));
G. S. Ramundo , in Archivio della Soc. Romana di Storia Patria (1901),
xxiv. 373 — -391, and in Scritti vari di nlologia a Ernesto Monaci, Rome,
1902, pp. 215 — 229 (about the time of Julian the Apostate).
2. INSTRUCTIONES. - The Instructiones per litter as versuum
primas are a collection in two books of eighty acrostic poems, un
equal in length. The first book is written againsfc Jews and heathens,
scoffs at the heathen mythologies, reprehends the depraved manners
of the heathens and the stubbornness of the Jews, and closes with
a threatening reference to the Last Judgment4. The second book
is addressed to the Christians, with the intention of urging all, cate
chumens and faithful, lay and cleric, poor and rich, to the fulfilling
of their duties and the avoidance of sin. The text has come down
in a very corrupt condition, the diction is extremely popular, and
1 Rouih, Reliquiae sacrae, 2. ed., iv. 297. 2 De viris ill., c. 15.
3 Gascus, Instr., ii. 39.
4 In spite of the manuscripts Acrostics 42 — 45 belong not to the second, but to
the first book.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 15
226 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
the metre, a very peculiar hexameter, governed alternately by quan
tity and by accent. All the poems are acrostic (i. 28, is both
acrostic and telestic), i. e. the initial letters of the successive verses
form words expressive of the theme and the title of the poem. The
result of so fantastic a plan was necessarily a stiff and cramped
diction, almost wooden in its rigidity. His biblical quotations are
taken from St. Cyprian's Testimonia adversus Judaeos. He seems
also to have been acquainted with Minucius Felix, Tertullian, and
the « Shepherd » of Hermas.
Editio princeps, by N. Rigaltius, Toul, 1649 (Migne, PL., v). For the
editions of Ludwig and Dombart see § 57, i. Fr. Hanssen , De arte
metrica Commodiani, in Dissert, philol. Argentorat. sel. (1881), v. 1—90;
W. Merer, Der Versbau Commodians, in Denkschriften der k. bayer. Akad.
der Wissensch., Abhandlungen der philos.-philol. Kl. (1885), xvii. 2, 288
to 307.
3. CARMEN APOLOGETICUM. - - Quite similar in its scope to the
first book of Instructiones is the poem that its original editor entitled
Carmen apologeticum. It contains 1060 verses, several of which are
either fragmentary or illegible, and it is known to us through a
single eighth-century manuscript. A prolix introduction (vv. I — 88)
is followed by instructions on the nature of God, the beginnings of
redemption (89 — 276), the person of the Savior and the significance
of the names of Father and Son (277 — 578). Then come stern warn
ings to the heathens (579 — 616) and to the Jews (617 — 790). In
its closing lines the poem rises to its highest perfection in a formal
description of the Last Judgment (791 — 1060). The author is not
mentioned in the codex, but intrinsic evidence points to the author
of the Instructiones. The mention of the seventh persecution and of
the passage of the Danube by the Goths (vv. 808 ff.) suggests the
fifth decade of the third century. The metre is that of the Instruc
tiones, though the diction, freed from the bonds of the acrostic,
is more fluent and lively.
The editio princeps is that of J. B. Pitra , Spicil. Solesm. (1852), i. ;
cf. (1858), iv. 222 — 224. It was also edited by J. ff. Ronsch, in Zeitschr.
fur die hist. Theol. (1872), xlii. 163 — 302. For the editions of Ludwig and
Dombart see § 57, i. A. Ebert, Commodians Carmen apol., in Abhand
lungen der k. sachs. Gesellsch. der Wissensch. phil.-hist. Kl. (1870), v. 387
to 420; C. Leimbach , Uber Commodians «Carmen apol. adv. Gentes et
Iudaeos» (Progr.), Schmalkalden , 1871; B. Aube, L'Eglise et 1'Etat dans
la seconde moitie du IIP siecle [249—284], Paris, 1885, pp. 517—544.
4. RETROSPECT. - - There is little to attract us in the first Christian
poet, from the standpoint of literary form. The verse clings prosaical
ly to the earth; only occasionally, especially in the eschatological
parts, does it manifest a certain afflatus and develop a degree of
majesty. The contents of his writings betrays a practical and sagacious
ecclesiastic, filled with benevolent zeal, but endowed with slight
§ 58. VICTORINUS . OF : PETTAU AND RETICIUS OF AUTUN. 22/
theological culture. A very gross form of Chiliasm is exhibited in both
works1. His doctrine on God, on the Trinity, or rather his theo-
dicea, scarcely outlined in the Instructiones, appears in the Carmen
apologeticum (vv. 89 ff. 277 ff. 771 ff;) as downright Monarchianism
or Patripassianism.
For the teaching of Commodian on the. Trinity see J. L. Jacobi, in
Zeitschr. fur christl. Wissensch. und christl.. Leben (1853), iv. 203 — 209.
His eschatology is discussed by L. Atzbcrger, Gesch. der christl. Eschato-
logie, Freiburg, 1896, pp. 555—566.
§ 58. Victorinus of Pettau and Reticius of Autun.
I . VICTORINUS OF PETTAU. - - Victorinus, the earliest exegete of
the Latin Church, was bishop of Petabio or Petavio (Pettau in Steier-
mark) in the closing years of the third century, and died a martyr
in : the persecution of Diocletian2. The statement of Cassiodorus3
that Victorinus was a rhetorician before he became a bishop, is the
result of his confounding our writer with C. Marius Victorinus Afer,
a .Roman rhetorician of the fourth century. Victorinus of Pettau
was probably a Greek by birth4, though, so far as is known, he
wrote only in Latin. He left commentaries on the first three books
of-" the Pentateuch, on Ecclesiastes and the Canticle of canticles,
Isaias, Ezechiel and Habacuc, St. Matthew and the Apocalypse, also
&~WQj&J3ldversum omnes haereses*. These works do not exhibit
either a cultivated Latin style or extensive erudition6. In his exegesis
Victorinus is a faithful disciple of Origen, though he gives proof of
independence and good judgment7. Of his exegetical labors only
the commentary on the Apocalypse is known to us; as early as
the sixteenth century it was edited in two recensions. Though the
shorter recension is the basis of the larger one, it is not itself the
original text, but only a revision of the same by St. Jerome. The con
clusion of this commentary, repudiated by Jerome because of its
decidedly Chiliastic doctrine, was re-discovered in 1895 by Haussleiter.
Gave discovered in 1688 a Tractatus Victor ini de fabrica mundi. It
may:be, the work of our Victorinus, but if so it belongs neither to
the commentary on Genesis nor to that on the Apocalypse. The
work -Adversum omnes haereses has been identified , but wrongly,
with fosyL&hcllus adversus omnes haereses printed with the works
of Tertullian (§ 50, 8).
y. de Launoy , De Victorino episc. et mart, diss., Paris, 1653; 2: ed.
1664. Complete editions: A. Rivinus , Gotha, 1652; Gallandi, Bibl. vet.
Patr. (1768), 'iv;; -49 — 64; Mignc, PLV v. 281 — 344. The Jonger recension
1 Gctinad., De viris ill., c. 15. 2 Hier., De viris ill. ,"''€.-'74-. -'
3 Instit., i. 5 7. 4 Hier., 1. c.
5 Hier:, • 1. c. ; Transl. horn. Orig. in Luc., praef.
d Hier., Ep. 58, 10; 70, 5. 7 Ib., 61, 2; 84, 7.
15*
228 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
of the commentary on the Apocalypse is in Gallandi and Migne, also in
the Bibliotheca Casinensis (1894), v. i, Floril. 1—21; the shorter one
e. g. in Max. Bibl. vet. Patr., Lyons, 1677, iii. 414—421. On the Chili-
astic conclusion see J. Haussleiter, in Theol. Literaturblatt (1895), xvi. 193
to 199, and Zeitschr. fur kirchl. Wissensch. und kirchl. Leben (1886), vii.
239 — 257; cf. Haussleiter, Der Aufbau der altchristl. Liter., Berlin, 1898,
pp ^ — 37 ; Beitrage zur Wiirdigung der Offenbarung des Johannes und
ihres altesten lateinischen Auslegers Victorinus von Pettau, Greifswald, 1900.
For the De fabrica mundi with copious annotationes cf. Routh , Reliquiae
sacrae, 2. ed., iii. 451 — 483. In general see Preuschen, in Harnack, Gesch.
d. altchristl. Liter., i. 731 — 735. The De monogram-mate edited by G. Morin,
in Revue Benedictine (1903), xx. 225 — 226, is by some connected with
St. Jerome's revision of the commentary on the Apocalypse. G. Mercati
published from an Ambrosian codex, and annotated, some fragments of a
Latin commentary on Mt. xxiv., by an anonymous Chiliast, very probably
Victorinus of Pettau. G. Mercati, Varia sacra (Studi e Testi n), Rome,
1903, pp. 3 — 49; C. H. Turner, An Exegetical Fragment of the Third
Century, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1904), v. 218; A. Souter , The
authorship of the Mercati-Turner Anecdoton, in Journal of Theol. Studies
(1904), v. 608 — 621; Dom G. Morin, Notes sur Victorin du Pettau, in
Journal of Theol. Studies (1906), vii. 456 — 459.
2. RETICIUS OF AUTUN. - - Reticius, in the reign of Constantine
bishop of Augustodunum (Autun), the city of the Aedui, was highly
esteemed by all his contemporaries in Gaul. He wrote a commentary
on the Canticle of canticles and a large work against Novatian 1. While
the diction of the commentary was choice and pleasing, it contained
many singular and foolish opinions2. It is perhaps in the work
against Novatian that St. Augustine found the remark of Reticius
on baptism frequently cited by him3.
Histoire litteraire de la France, Paris, 1733, i. 2, 59 — 63. Acta SS. Jul.,
Venice, 1748, iv. 587 — 589; Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Liter., i. 751 f.
APPENDIX.
§ 59. The Acts of the Martyrs.
i. PRELIMINARY REMARK. - - Narratives of martyrdom have at
all times specially fascinated the hearts of the faithful. It was custo
mary, at a very early date, to celebrate with a liturgical service the
anniversary of the martyr's death4; it was also customary on such
occasions to read to the Christian community a narrative of the
events that culminated in so glorious a sacrifice5. In the first
quarter of the fourth century Eusebius made a collection of ancient
«Acts of the martyrs» now known to us only by quotations6. Those
accounts of the earliest Christian martyrdoms which have reached us
1 Hier., De viris ill., c. 82. 2 flier., Ep. 37; cf. Ep. 5, 2.
Aug., Contra lulian, i. 3, 7 ; Opus imperfectum contra lulianum, i. 55.
Mart. S. Polyc., c. 18, 3. 5 Acta SS. Perp. et Felic., cc. i 21.
6 Eus., Hist, eccl., iv. 15, 47; v., prooem., 2, al.
§ 59- THE ACTS OF THE MARTYRS. 22Q
may be divided into three groups. Some are official documents,
records (acta, gesta) made by the notaries of the civil court, but
handed down in a form calculated to edify the Christian reader.
The second group is made up of the narratives of those who saw
and heard the details of the martyr's death (passiones). They are
lacking in official authenticity, but merit the closest attention of the
historian. The third group is composed of accounts of martyrdom,
put together at a later period, some of them enlarging partly and
partly ornamenting the original story, while others are purely literary
figments. We mention here only such very ancient Acta as have
always been held to be genuine and trustworthy.
The collections of Lives of saints and Acts of martyrs published by
B.Mombritius (about 1476 at Milan), by AL Lipomanus (1551 — 1560 at Venice
and Rome), and by L. Surius (Cologne, 1570 — 1575, and often since) were
all surpassed by the Acta Sanctorum of the Jesuit J, Bolland (f 1665),
and his colleagues known as the Bollandists. This noble enterprise has
reached its sixtieth volume, and is not yet complete. Since 1882 it is sup
plemented by a periodical publication, the Analecta Bollandiana. Cf. Biblio-
theca hagiographica graeca seu elenchus vitarum sanctorum graece typis
impressarum, edd. Hagiographi Bollandiani , Brussels, 1895. Bibliotheca
hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis, edd. Socii Bollandiani, Brus
sels, 1898 ff. (now complete in two volumes and a supplement 1898 — 1899,
1900 — 1901). A compendious translation, and a continuation «Les Petits
Bollandistes« which is complete (seventeen volumes, with Appendix in three
volumes) has been published, Paris, 1888. A critical sifting of the Acts of
the martyrs of the first four centuries was undertaken by the Benedictine
Th. Ruinart: Acta primorum martyrum sincera et selecta, Paris, 1689 ; 2. ed.,
Amsterdam, 1713; often reprinted, e. g. Ratisbon, 1859. ~~ E. Le Blant,
Les Actes des martyrs, in Memoires de 1'Inst. Nat. de France, Acad. des
inscriptions et belles-lettres (1883), xxx. 2, 57 — 347. K. J. Neumann, Der
romische Staat und die allgmeine Kirche bis auf Diokletian, Leipzig,, 1890,
i. 274 — 331 : «Zur Kritik der Acta Sanctorum». Preuschen } in Harnack,
Geschichte der altchristl. Literatur, i. 807 — 834. — H. Achelis, Die Martyro-
logien, ihre Geschichte und ihr Wert (Abhandlungen der kgl. Gesellsch.
der Wissensch. zu Gottingen, Berlin, 1900). O. v. Gebhardt, Acta marty
rum selecta. Ausgewahlte Martyrerakten und andere Urkunden aus der
Verfolgungszeit der christlichen Kirche, Berlin, 1902. R. Knopf, Aus
gewahlte Martyrerakten, Tiibingen and Leipzig, 1901 (Sammlung ausgewahlter
kirchen- und dogmengeschichtlicher Quellenschriften , ed. by Kruger,
series ii. 2). H. Leclerq, Les martyrs. Recueil des pieces authentiques sur
les martyrs depuis Forigine du Christianisme jusqu'au xxe siecle, Paris, 1902
to 1904. i— iii. B. Alasia, Atti autentici di alcuni santi martiri scelti e
tradotti, 2 voll., Torino, 1863.
2. MARTYRIUM S. POLYCARPI. --The oldest Acts that we possess
are found in the encyclical letter of the Church of Smyrna concerning
the martyrdom, at the age of eighty-six, of its bishop Polycarp. He
suffered with other Christians of Smyrna, February 23., 155. The
narrative is so straightforward, lively and emotional that there can
be no suspicion of forgery. Eusebius incorporated the greater part
of it (cc. 8 — 19, i) in his Church History (iv. 15). It was composed
230
FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
before the first anniversary of the death of Polycarp (c. 18, 3). In
the manuscripts the original text (cc. 1 — 20) has been enriched with
additions (cc. 21 — 22) by later hands. An ancient Latin version has
also reached us, but is paraphrastic and carelessly executed.
y. Ussher was the first to publish the Greek text, London, 1647. It is
best edited in the recent editions of the Letter to the Philippians of St. Poly-
carp by Zahn , Leipzig, 1876; Funk y Tubingen, 1878 1887 1902 (in the
last edition a Jerusalem Codex S. Sepulchri was first used) ; Lightfoot,
London, 1885 1889 (cf. § 10, 2), and v. Gebhardt, Acta etc. There is
also in Zahri s edition a new recension of the ancient Latin version; cf.
A. Harnack, Die Zeit des Ignatius, Leipzig, 1878, pp. 75 — 90. For the
letter itself see E. Egli, Altchristliche Studien, Zurich, 1887, pp. 61 — 79.
3. ACTA SS. CARPI, PAPYLI ET AGATHONICES. — 111 the reign of
Marcus Aurelius (161 — 180), very probably while Lucius Verus was
still his colleague (161 — 169), Carpus, bishop ofThyatira, and Papylus,
deacon of Thyatira (?), were condemned to the stake, after a steadfast
confession of their faith. A Christian woman, Agathonice, who stood
by, threw herself voluntarily into the flames. The narrative is very
simple and touching, and was evidently composed by an eye-witness.
It is also mentioned by Eusebius 1. A longer recension that goes
back to Simeon Metaphrastes in the tenth century wrongly places
the martyrdom in the time of Decius.
The longer recension is in Migne, PG., cxv. 105 — 126. The original
text was first published by B. Aube from a twelfth-century (?) manuscript,
in Revue archeologique , new series (1881), xlii. 348 — 360, and again in
1'Eglise et 1'Etat dans la seconde moitie du III6 siecle, Paris, 1885, pp. 499
to 506. A new edition of the same manuscript with commentary by Harnack
is to be found in Texte und Untersuchungen (1888), hi. 3 — 4 433 — 466;
and another edition was made by v. Gebhardt, Acta etc.
4. ACTA SS. JUSTINI ET SOCIORUM. — Between 163 and 167 the
Apologist Justin and six other Christians were cast into prison at
Rome, because of their Christian faith, by order of Junius Rusticus,
prefect of the City; they were scourged and beheaded. Apart from
the beginning and the end, these brief acts, apparently unknown to
Eusebius, are a copy of the official records.
The Greek text was first published in the Acta Sanctorum Jim., Ant
werp, 1695, Venice, 1741, i. 20—21; later among the works 'of Justin,
in Migne, PG., vi. 1565 — 1572; cf. 1795 f., and better in v. Otto, Corpus
apol. Christ., Jena, 1879, "i. 3, 266—279; <* xlvi— 1; also in 7*. Gebhardt,
Acta etc. P. Franchi de' Cavalier i , Note agiografiche. I: Gli Atti del
martirio di S. Ariadne. II: Gli Atti di S. Giustino, in Studi e Testi, Rome,
1902, viii.
5. EPISTOLA ECCLESIARUM VIENNENSIS ET LUGDUNENSIS. - - In
the seventeenth year of Marcus Aurelius (177—178) the Christian
1 Ens., Hist, eccl., iv. 15, 48.
§ 59- THE ACTS OF THE MARTYRS. 231
community of Lyons was tried by a severe persecution 1. When its
fury had been spent, the Christians of Lyons and Vienne sent to the
brethren in Asia Minor a minute and picturesque narrative of the
terrible events they had survived. Lengthy fragments, all too brief
to satisfy our curiosity, have been saved for us in the Church History
of Eusebius (v. I — 4).
These fragments may also be found in Routh, Reliquiae sacrae, 2. ed.,
Oxford, 1846, i. 293 — 371, and in v. Gebhardt , Acta etc. -- O. HirscJi-
feld, Zur Geschichte des Christentums in Lugdunum vor Konstantin, in
Sitzungsberichte der kgl. preussischen Akad. der Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1895,
381—409.
6. ACTA MARTYRUM SCILITANORUM. - The first fruits of the
martyrs of Africa were twelve men and women of Scili in Numidia.
They appeared before the proconsul, P. Vigellius Saturninus, at Carthage
July 17., 1 80, and were condemned as Christians to die by de
capitation. Their Acts have reached us in three Latin and one Greek
recension. The shortest of the Latin texts offers the substance of the
court-records of the trial, while the other two give evidence of later
changes and additions. The Greek text is a version of the Latin.
For the three Latin recensions cf. Ruinart, 1. c. (§ 59, i), 2. ed., pp. 84
to 89, the shortest and oldest one is given there in fragmentary condition.
H. Usener first published the Greek text, in Index Schol. Bonn, per menses
aest. a. 1881. All previously (to 1881) known texts are printed by B. Aube,
Etude sur im nouveati texte des Actes des martyrs Scillitains, Paris, 1881.
The shortest and oldest Latin text is found complete, in Analecta Bolland.
(1889), viii. 5 — 8; cf. (1897), xvi. 64 f. A complete collection of all re
lative texts is given by J. A. Robinson, in Texts and Studies (1891), i. 2,
104 — 121, also in v. Gebhardt, Acta etc. Cf. Neumann, 1. c. (see § 59, i),
i. 71 — 74 284 — 286; Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons (1892), ii. 2,
992—997.
7. ACTA S. APOLLONH. — Eusebius relates in his Church History
(v. 21) that during the reign of Commodus (180 — 192) a highly
cultured and esteemed Christian of Rome, named Apollonius, was
beheaded after an eloquent defence of his faith before the praefectus
praetor io Perennis (180 — 185) and the Roman Senate. It was easy
to recognize mere conjecture in the additional details given by
St. Jerome2. Very doubtful, in particular, seemed the statement that
Apollonius had read before the Senate an excellent work (insigne
volumen) in defence of his faith. It was therefore a matter of general
surprise when Conybeare discovered (1893) an Armenian text of the
« Martyrdom of S. Apollonius the Ascetic ». Shortly after the Bol-
landists made known a Greek text of the « Martyrdom of the holy
and celebrated apostle Apollos» (sic). Both texts contain the Acts
of Apollonius as known to Eusebius, though more or less disfigured
by later changes and additions. Given the actual state of the Acts,
1 Ib., v., prooem., i. ~ De viris ill., c. 42 53; Ep. 70, 4.
232 FIRST PERIOD. FIFTH SECTION.
it is not easy to unravel with clearness the course of the trial, nor to
discern the role which fell to the Senate. The d.xo'koft.a referred to
by Eusebius must have been made up of the questions of the judge
Perennis and the replies of Apollonius. The martyr outlines broadly
the teachings of Christian faith and morality. His exposition is re
markable for its firmness and dignity as well as for the candor of
mind and the tranquillity of spirit that it reveals.
The Armenian «Martyrium» is found in the Armenian collection of
the Acts of the Martyrs published at Venice in 1874 by the Mechitarists
(i. 138 — 143). F. C. Conybeare published an English version in The Guar
dian, June 1 8., 1893, and again in his « Apology and Acts of Apollonius
and other monuments of early Christianity, London, 1894; 2. ed. 1896.
A German version by Bur char di was communicated by Harnack , in
Sitzungsberichte der kgl. preussischen Akad. der Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1893,
pp. 721 — 746. The Bollandists published the Greek text of the «Mar-
tyrium» from a cod. Paris, (saec. xi vel xii), in Anal. Bolland. (1895), xiv.
284 — 294. E. Th. Klette published a new edition (with a German version
from the same Greek codex, together with Bur char dz s translation of the
Armenian text, in Texte und Untersuchungen (1897), xv. 2, 91 ff. ; Max Prinz
von Sachsen, Der heilige Martyrer Apollonius von Rom, historisch-kritische
Studie, Mainz, 1903; R. Seeberg, in Neue kirchl. Zeitschr. (1893), iv. 836
to 872; Th. Mommsen y in Sitzungsber. , Berlin, 1894, pp. 497 — 503;
A. Hilgenfdd, in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1894), xxxvii. 58 — 91;
(1898), xli. 185 — 250; R. Seeberg, in Theol. Literaturblatt (1900), xxi. 225 f . ;
y. Gcffckcn, Die Acta Apollonii, in Nachrichten von der kgl. Gesellsch.
der Wissensch. in Gott., phil.-hist. Kl. (1904), iii. v. Gebhardt gives in his
«Acta» the Greek text and the version of Burchardi.
8. ACTA SS. PERPETUAE ET FELICITATIS. — On March 7., 2O2 or
203, probably at Carthage in Roman Africa and not at Thuburbo,
five catechumens died for their faith. They were Vibia Perpetua,
a youthful matron of good social standing, Saturninus and Saturus,
and two slaves Felicitas and Revocatus. With the aid of the auto
graph notes left by St. Perpetua and St. Saturus an eye-witness com
posed a forcible and animated narrative of their martyrdom that
has always been looked on as the pearl of this species of literature.
We possess, in addition to the original Latin, the text of an ancient
Greek version ; a second, considerably shorter, Latin text is notably
a later excerpt, probably taken from the Greek version. While it
is true that the author or editor of these Acts belonged to the
party of the Montanists (cc. i 21) and was probably none other
than Tertullian1, there is no evidence to show that the martyrs
themselves were Montanists. As late as the fifth century these Acts
where still read at Hippo on the anniversary of the martyrs, in natali
martyrum Perpetuae et Felicitatis*.
w. For ^e ori.ginal Latin text see Ruinart , 1. c., 2. ed., pp. 90—119;
Itgne, PL., in. 13—60; cf. pp. 61—170. The shorter Latin text was
Tert., De anima, c. 55. 2 Aug ^ germ 2go_282t
§ 59' THE ACTS OF THE MARTYRS. 233
edited by B. Aube, in 1881 ; the ancient Greek version by J. R. Harris
and S. K. Gifford, in 1890. A good edition of all three texts is that of
y. A. Robinson, The Passion of St. Perpetua, Cambridge, 1901, in Texts and
Studies, i. 2. Equally good is the edition of the two longer texts by
P. Franchi de' Cavalieri , Passio Ss. Perpetuae et Felicitatis, Rome, 1896
(Romische Quartalschr., Supplement 5). In the introduction to this study
Franchi has exhibited the evidence in favor of the priority of Latin text.
A. Fillet, Les martyrs d'Afrique: Histoire de S. Perpe'tue et de ses com-
pagnons, Paris, 1885; Neumann, 1. c. , i. 171 — 176 299 f. Cf. v. Geb
hardt' s «Acta» for both Greek and Latin texts.
9. ACTA S. PIONII. — Eusebius1 has left us an account of the
martyrdom of St. Pionius and other Christians at Smyrna. The
narrative has reached us in various recensions. While Eusebius places
their martyrdom in the time of the Antonines, and more particularly
in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Acts in their present state in
dicate, with every appearance of truth, the year 250 and the reign
of Decius.
They were published by Ruinart, 2. ed., pp. 137 — 151, from an ancient
Latin version. The Greek text was made known by O. v. Gebhardt from
a cod. Ven. Marc. 359, in Archiv fiir slavische Philologie (1896), xviii.
156 — 171, and in his «Acta». He has also promised a larger edition of
this text with the Latin, Slavonic and Armenian versions. B. Aub6,
1'Eglise et 1'Etat dans la seconde moitie du III6 siecle, Paris, 1885, pp. 140
to 154. Zahn, Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons
(1891), iv. 271 f. y. A. F. Gregg, The Decian Persecution, Edinburgh,
1897, pp. 242 — 261 264 — 266.
10. ACTA DISPUTATIONIS S. ACHATII. — Achatius (Acacius), pro
bably bishop of Antioch in Phrygia, but not to be confounded with
Acacius, bishop of Melitene in Asia Minor, underwent an interesting
interrogatory before the consular magistrate Marcianus; after examining
the records of which Decius allowed him to go free.
The Latin text of the official records is in Ruinart, 2. ed., pp. 152 to
155. It is certainly a version from the Greek; cf. Aubt, 1. c. pp. 181 to
194, and the «Acta» of Gebhardt.
1 Hist, eccl., iv. 15, 46 — 47.
SECOND PERIOD.
FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE FOURTH TO THE
MIDDLE OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
FIRST SECTION.
GREEK WRITERS.
§ 60. General conspectus.
I. THE CHANGE IN THE EXTERNAL CONDITION OF THE CHURCH. -
The edict of toleration issued by the Augusti in January or February
of 313 restored peace to the Christian Church. At the same time
it was only a lame attempt at concealing the complete overthrow
of the heathen state ; there could be but one step more from toleration
to frank preference of Christianity. In 337 Constantine received the
baptism that he had long put off. His sons assumed at once a
hostile attitude towards heathenism. Julian the Apostate (361 — 363)
attempted to infuse new life into the moribund polytheism, but his
efforts only made more manifest the incompatibility between the old
religion and the exigencies of the new times. In 392 the worship
of the gods was declared high treason (crimen maiestatis) 1 ; and as
early as 423 heathenism was looked on in the East as defunct2.
During the campaign against the Persians in which he met his death,
Julian wrote three books against the Galilaeans, xorca FaXtXaitov, of which
only some fragments remain. The work began with the words: «I hold
it proper for me to expose to all men the motives which have persuaded
me that the mendacious teaching of the Galilasans is a malicious invention
of men.» Most of the extant fragments are found in the first book of the
(only partially preserved) work of St. Cyril of Alexandria against Julian
(§ 77> 3)- They have been carefully collected by K. J. Neumann, Scrip-
torum graecorum qui christianam irnpugnaverunt religionem quae super-
sunt, fasc. in, Leipzig, 1880. The same writer has also translated them
into German: Kaiser Julians Biicher gegen die Christen, Leipzig, 1880.
Cf. P. Klimek, Coniectanea in lulianum et Cyrilli Alexandrini contra ilium
libros (Dissert, inaug.) , Breslau, 1883; Th. Gollwitzer, Observationes cri-
ticae in luliani imperatoris contra Christianos libros (Dissert, inaug.),
Erlangen, 1886. For a new but small fragment see Neumann, in Theol.
Literaturzeitung (1899), pp. 298 — 304; G. Negri , L'imperatore Giuliano
1 Cod. Theodos., xvi. 10, 12. £ lb., xvi. 10, 22.
§ 6o. GENERAL CONSPECTUS. 235
1'Apostata. Studio storico, Milano, 1901 ; P. Attar d, Julien et les Chretiens:
la persecution et la polemique (third and last volume of his Julien 1'Apostat),
Paris, 1902.
2. DEVELOPMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL DOCTRINE. - - Though the
Church was now free from external oppression, she suffered all the
more from domestic enemies. Both in the East and the West she
was obliged to defend the purity of her faith against the attacks
of heresy. It is the development and determination of ecclesiastical
doctrine that lend to this epoch its distinctive character. To the
East particularly falls the special task of abstract crystallization and
speculative illustration of theological truths in their strict significance.
During a first period which closes with the Second Ecumenical
Council of Constantinople (381) the true divinity and the perfect
humanity of the Redeemer are established against Arianism , Mace-
donianism, Sabellianism and Apollinarianism. In the second period
which ends with the fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451)
the relation of the human and the divine in the God-Man is rigorously
defined to mean that the two natures are united in one person, but
without confusion and without change.
For the literary history of Arianism, Macedonianism, Sabellianism and
Apollinarianism cf. § 61.
3. THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS AND TENDENCIES. - - Under these
circumstances ecclesiastical science grew with great rapidity. A general
peace offered favorable opportunities for its free and varied develop
ment, while the conflict with heresy opened new sources of intellectual
growth. Within the limits of ecclesiastical theology schools and
tendencies arose that assumed more definite outlines than in earlier
times, and through assertion of their special characteristics soon
became quite opposed one to another. It is quite easy to distinguish
at once three such tendencies. The Neo-Alexandrine school,
having freed itself from the subordinationist errors of Origen in
his Trinitarian teaching, continues to follow, along new paths, the
impulse of its great master. It aims at a speculative knowledge of
the truths already grasped by faith, but acknowledges expressly
that the Pistis (Faith) is the immovable norm of all true Gnosis
(Knowledge). The head of this new school is Athanasius ; its most
brilliant disciples are the three* Cappadocians : Basil the Great, Gre
gory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa. It is true that Gregory of
Nyssa defends the Origenistic Apocatastasis, while somewhat later Didy-
inus the Blind and Evagrius Ponticus, also Origenists, maintained
both the pre-existence of souls and the Apocatastasis; both were
condemned. Synesius of Cyrene can become a Christian bishop,
yet remains a Hellene «from the tip of his toe to the crown of his
head». Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria, becomes heir to both the
office and the influence of an Athanasius. The Antiochene school
236 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
continues to oppose the main tendency of the Alexandrine, and by
reason of its activity in the interpretation of Scripture is known as
the exegetical school. It beholds in the allegorical interpretation of the
Scripture, as taught with predilection by the Alexandrine, the deadly
enemy of all sane exegesis and it lays great stress on an objective, i. e.
historico-grammatical, rendering of the text. It follows with apprehen
sive criticism the flight of Alexandrine speculation. Instead of depth
and warmth of sentiment the Antiochene offers an extremely sober
intellectual attitude, quite hostile to all extravagance of thought. The
founder of this school is the martyr Lucian (§ 44, 3), the teacher
of Arius. Its best-known representatives are Diodorus of Tarsus,
St. John Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Polychronius, and
Theodoret of Cyrus. By reason of their rationalizing tendencies, most
of them, particularly Theodore of Mopsuestia, came into conflict with
the traditional teachings of the Church. Precisely at the height of
its fame (370 — 450) almost the entire school was Nestorian in doc
trine. Indeed, the struggle between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius
was really the hostile embrace of the Alexandrine and Antiochene
tendencies. Another intellectual movement is traceable in the fourth
century and may be described as an excessive Traditionalism. It is
first tangible in the Anti-Origenistic troubles, and later on rejected
all scientific knowledge and criticism. As early as the third century
some writers, notably Methodius of Tyre, had protested with justice
against certain theses of Origen. However the fourth-century re
action against that master's influence, as headed by Epiphanius, was
more a matter of personal interests than of ecclesiastical and scientific
opposition, and not unfrequently made use of very unworthy means.
These Origenistic controversies are the first herald of the crisis on
which Greek theology was entering - - after the middle of the fifth
century its vitality begins to ebb and weaken.
C. Hornung, Schola Antiochena de S. Scripturae interpretatione quo-
nam modo sit merita, Neustadt, 1864; H. Kihn , Die Bedeutung der anti-
ochenischen Schule auf dem exegetischen Gebiete, nebst einer Abhandlung
liber die altesten christlichen Schulen, Weissenburg, 1866; Ph. Hergenrother ,
Die antiochenische Schule und ihre Bedeutung auf exegetischem Gebiete,
Wurzburg, 1866.
4. ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE. —"During this period ecclesiastical
literature reaches its highest standard of perfection. In almost every
department a tireless activity reigns; fields hitherto unworked are
now cultivated with zeal. -- Apologetics. Apologetic literature con
forms to the changed conditions and assumes a new character. It
was usually only in self-defence that the earlier apologists had made
positive attacks on heathenism; henceforth all the apologies for
Christianity take up a polemical attitude. The defenders of the new
religion against the attacks of Julian are Gregory of Nazianzus, John
§ 60. GENERAL CONSPECTUS. 237
Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Philippus Sidetes ; against the
writings of Porphyrius, Eusebius of Caesarea, the younger Apollinaris
and Macarius Magnes ; Eusebius also enters the arena against Hierocles
(or rather Philostratus). The apologies with more general tendency
of Eusebius, Athanasius and Theodoretus are of use rather in attack
than in defence. Specially anti-Jewish works were composed by Gre
gory of Nyssa (?), Diodorus of Tarsus, and John Chrysostom. Numerous
champions arose against the rapid and widespread growth of the
system of the Persian Mani (f about 277), which propagated under
a Christian garb ideas that were essentially Persian dualism, with
its two kingdoms of light and darkness and their corresponding series
of aeons. Polemics and Systematic Theology. The doctrinal
writings are mostly occupied with the burning questions of the time,
and are usually strictly polemical in character. In the fourth century
the principal opponents of heresy are Eusebius of Caesarea, Atha
nasius, the three Cappadocians (Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great,
and Gregory of Nyssa), Didymus the Blind and Epiphanius; in the
fifth century Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret of Cyrus are most
prominent. The « Epitome of Divine Teachings », #etW doffidTcov
sxtTO/jty, added by Theodoret to his « Compendium of Heretical
Fables » is a noteworthy attempt at a systematic theology. Special
points of doctrine were treated in a markedly positive manner by
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nyssa , and Epiphanius. - - Biblical
Theology. No attention was paid to textual criticism. Epiphanius alone
was acquainted with Hebrew ; he also made remarkable progress in the
department of introductory sciences or biblical antiquities, though it had
been cultivated before him by Eusebius of Caesarea. Gregory of Nyssa
undertook occasionally to illustrate and defend the hermeneutical prin
ciples of the Neo-Alexandrines, while Diodorus of Tarsus and Theo
dore of Mopsuestia upheld the principles of the Antiochene school.
The work of Adrianus, entitled « Introduction to the Sacred Scrip
tures », may be considered as an Antiochene manual of Hermeneutics.
In Christian circles, outside of Antioch and its territory, the alle
gorizing method maintained its supremacy, and wras represented by
such men as Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa,
Didymus the Blind, and Cyril of Alexandria. On the other hand,
the writers of the Antiochene school were remarkable for their lite
rary productiveness; the commentaries of Theodoret of Cyrus exhibit
the highest degree of perfection, both in form and contents, although
the homilies of John Chrysostom are not inferior as specimens of
exegetical skill. - - Historical TJieology. Church History, unknown
to the first three centuries, reached a very high standard. The
creator of this science is Eusebius of Caesarea. His labors were
continued by Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret. The Eunomian Philo-
storgius wrote a history of the Church, in the interests of Arianism.
338 SECOND"PERIOD." FIRST SECTION.
Other ecclesiastical histories written in this period have been lost,
e. g. those of Philippus Sidetes, Hesychius of Jerusalem, Timotheus
of Berytus and Sabinus of Heraclea. The latter's work was the first
known history of the " Councils. Histories of heresy were published
by Epiphanius and Theodoret. — Practical Theology. The ascetico-
moral literature of the time was the outcome of Christian monasticism
whose institutions appeared first in Egypt, and were then transplanted
into Palestine by Hilarion, whence Basil the Great brought them to
Asia Minor. Ascetical manuals for ecclesiastics, more particularly
for monks, were written by Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus,
and Chrysostom. To a similar purpose we owe the Life of Saint
Anthony by Athanasius, and the collections of monastic biographies
by Timotheus of Alexandria and Palladius. Cyril of Jerusalem was a
brilliant catechetical expounder, and John Chrysostom a homilist and
preacher of great renown. The so-called Apostolic Constitutions, that
undertake to regulate the whole course of Christian and ecclesiastical
life, belong to the beginning of the fifth century, and were probably
the work of Syrian Apollinarists.
5. ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE (CONTINUED). POETRY. — Similar
ly, in poetry and song the Church enters upon a rivalry with the
dying heathenism of the period, though in this department of litera
ture the Greek Church failed to keep pace with the Syrian and the
Latin Churches. Arius attempted, indeed, to render his heresy po
pular by means of folk-songs. The elder and the younger Apol-
linaris of Laodicea, Nonnus (?), and the Empress Eudocia, attempted
with doubtful success to cast Christian thought into the forms of
antique poetry. Pre-eminent as Christian poets during the fourth
century were Gregory of Nazianzus and Synesius of Cyrene, both of
whom were habitually faithful to the laws of antique metre, though in
Gregory we meet already new forms of literary art, destined to awaken^
by the use of nobler harmonies, a more universal echo in the heart
of the people. Henceforth rhythmic verse, with its accentuation of
certain words, tends to suppress the antique quantitative metre.
§ 61. Arianism, Macedonianism, Sabellianism, Apollinarianism.
I. ARIANISM. - - We possess very insufficient knowledge of the
Christology of the martyr Lucian (§ 44, 3); it was, however, decided
ly subordinationist , and was the basis on which Arius, a pres
byter of Alexandria (f 336), began to teach that the, Logos or Son
of God was a creature of God ' (xTiapa, : nutria), called into being
out of nothing fi~ 0>j% uycwy), before the "creation of 'the world, by
a free act of divine will, in order to serve ' God as instrument for
the creation of the other beings. The Son did not always exist (odx
aet rp o '/cue); there was a time when he was not '(yy XOTS ore oi>%
rjy)\ before he was created he was nothing; like all other creatures
§ 6l. ARIANISM, MACEDONIANISM, SABELLIANISM, APOLLIXARIANISM. 239
he too had a beginning by creation (otiz yv xplv jivr^ai, d/JJ dpyr/v
TOV xTiZeaftai loyz xa} a'jTogj1. The Son is, therefore, by nature
entirely distinct from the Father (b Mrfoc, d)JMTpioQ takv y.at dvopoiOQ
xa~d TidvTa TTJQ TOO 7tv.rpoc, ouaiac, xal Idwrr^roq £0T«y2; sivoc, TOU olou
YJJ.-C o>jai.o.» b TiaTyp, on dvapyoc, UTidpyet) 3. He is called the Son of
God in the same sense as men are called the children of God, and
if the Scriptures say he was begotten, that « begetting » 'is identical
with the creative act. The second creature of God, after the Logos,
is the Holy Spirit; only the Father is true God. — The first ecu
menical Council at Nicaea (325) condemned the teaching of Arius
and declared that the Son of God was of the same nature or sub
stance with the Father (rbv 'jibv -co~j tizoo . - . opooumov TW xarpi).
It was only after long conflicts, in which the very existence of the
Church was apparently at stake, that the decision of the Council was
universally accepted. The chief literary champions of Arianism were
the sophist Asterius (f about 330?), the Antiochene deacon Aetius
(f about 370), the bishops Acacius of Csesarea (f 366) and Eu-
nomius of Cyzicus (f about 395). Catholic orthodoxy was represented
principally by Athanasius, and the three Cappadocians : Basil the
Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa.
Some fragments of the writings of Arius under the title of «A Banquet»
(9a/.£ia) are preserved in the writings of Athanasius (Orat. c. Arian., i.
2 — 10 ; De synodis, c. 15). There are also letters of Arius to Eusebius,
bishop ofNicomedia (Theodoret., Hist, eccl., i. 4), to Alexander, bishop of
Alexandria (Athan., De synodis, c. 16; Epiph., Haer. 69, 7), and a pro
fession of faith (Socrates, Hist, eccl., i. 26; Sozomenus, Hist, eccl., ii. 27).
According to Athanasius the « Banquet » contained also poetical passages.
Philostorgius says (Hist, eccl., ii. 2) that Arius wrote «songs for sailors and
millers and travellers, and other similar chants », destined to spread his teach
ings among the people. See (Cardinal) Newmans History of the Arians.
Le Bachelet , Arianisme, Diet, de la Theol., Paris, 1903, i. 1779 — 1863.
Eusebius of Nicomedia (f 341 or 342), the «Syllucianist» or fellow-disciple
of Arius in the school of Lucian (see the end of Arius' letter to Eusebius),
defended at once in a series of letters the views of his school-mate. One
letter, that to Paulinus of Tyre, has reached us through Theodoret (Hist,
eccl., i. 5); a fragment of a letter to Arius has come down through Atha
nasius (De synodis, c. 17), where there are also excerpts from letters written
to Arius by other friends. The sophist and «Syllucianist» Asterius wrote in
defence of Arius \ fragments of his writings are quoted by Athanasius (Orat.
c. Arian., i. 32; ii. 37; iii. 2; De synodis, cc. 18 — 19, and elsewhere).
Many other writings of this sophist have perished (scripsit in Epistolam ad
Romanes et in Evangelia ct Psalmos commentaries et multa alia, says St. Jerome,
De viris ill., c. 94). For further details of the life of Asterius cf. Th. Zahn,
Marcellus von Ancyra, Gotha, 1867, pp. 38 flf. A little work of Aetius has
been preserved by Epiphanius (Haer. 76, n); it defends in 47 theses the
motto of the Arians avofioio? (sc. 6 uio- T<O -a-roi). Acacius of Ccesarea defended
his fellow-heretic Asterius against an attack of Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra
1 Arius , Thalia, in Athan., Orat. c. Arian., i. 5.
2 Athan., Orat. c. xVrian., i. 6. 3 Athan., De synodis, c. 15.
240
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
(§ 61, 3); fragments of this apology may be seen in Epiphanius (Haer. 72,
6 — I0). There is also a Semiarian confession of faith laid by Acacius
before the Synod of Seleucia in 359 (Epiph., Haer. 73, 25). Many other
of the writings of Acacius have disappeared (Hier. , De viris ill., c. 98;
Socrates, Hist. eccl. , ii. 4). In imitation of the sophistical dialectic of
Aetius, his disciple Eunomius called theology «a technology » (-s/voAojiav,
Theod., Haer. fab., iv. 3). We still have a work of Eunomius, entitled
'A-oXoY^Tiy.oc , composed about 360, to which Basil the Great wrote an
answer (Migne, PG., xxx. 835 — 868 among the works of Basil the Great;
cf. Goldhorn, S. Basilii opera dogm. sel. , Leipzig, 1854, pp. 580—615).
In the work of Gregory of Nyssa against Eunomius (cf. Rettberg, Marcel-
liana, Gottingen, 1794, pp. 125—147) some brief^ fragments are pre
served of the counter-reply of Eunomius entitled u-£p irjs aroAoYiac «~o-
Xoyt'a, written probably in 378, as an answer to the work of St. Basil.
For a formal profession of faith made by Eunomius before the Emperor
Theodosius, about 381 or 383, and severely criticised by Gregory of Nyssa
in the second book of his work against Eunomius, see Rettberg, 1. c., pp. 149
to 169, and Goldhorn, 1. c., pp. 618 — 629. We know only the title of a
commentary by Eunomius on the Epistle to the Romans, mentioned by
Socrates (Hist, eccl., iv, 7); there existed once a collection of forty letters
of Eunomius mentioned by Photius (Bibl. Cod. 138). Eunomius was not
so much an advanced disciple of Arianism as a logical student and teacher
of its consequences; cf. C. R. W. Klosse , Geschichte und Lehre des Eu
nomius, Kiel, 1833; Fr. Diekamp, Die Gotteslehre des hi. Gregor von Nyssa,
Miinster, 1896, i. 122 ff; Mason, The Five Theological Orations of Saint
Gregory of Nazianzus (the first four are against Eunomius), Cambridge,
1899. Fragments of a Commentary on Isaias written by the Arian bishop
Theodore of Heraclea (f about 355), were published by Mai (Migne, PG.,
xviii. 1307 — 1378). St. Jerome mentions (Ep. 112, 20) commentaries of
Theodore on the Psalms and (Comm. in Matth., praef.) on the Gospel of
Matthew. Batiffol has shown that the Arians were very active in distri
buting the acts of their martyrs and biographies of their prominent mem
bers: P. Batiffol, Etudes d'hagiographie arienne. La passion de S. Lucien
d'Antioche, in Compte Rendu du congres scientif. internat. des Catho-
liques, 1891, 2. section, pp. 181 — 186; Id., Etudes d'hagiographie arienne :
Parthenius de Lampsaque, in Rom. Quartalschr. fiir christl. Altertumskunde
u. fiir Kirchengesch. (1892), vi. 35 — 51; cf. ib. (1893), vii. 298 — 301;
Id., Un historiographe anonyme arien du 4. siecle, ib. (1895), ^x- 57 — 97-
On the Ecclesiastical History of the Eunomian Philostorgius see § 79, 2.
2. MACEDONIANS!. -- During the main struggle between Catholic
orthodoxy and Arianism, divergent doctrines were being taught among
the Arians themselves. The Semiarians rejected the dvojuotot; of the
extreme Arians, and put in its place, some an O/WIOQ, some an bpoioumoQ.
Nevertheless, whenever the former drew near to the Catholic doc
trine fofiooumoQJ concerning the Son of God, they fell away pro
portionately by insisting that the nature of the Holy Spirit was a
created and not a divine nature ; hence they were known as Pneumato-
machi. It was Macedonius , bishop of Constantinople (t after 360),
the esteemed head of the Semiarians of Thrace, who maintained that
the Holy Spirit was a being subordinate to the Father and the Son,
a creature like the angels. The Second Ecumenical Council (Con-
§ 6l. ARIANISM, MACEDONIANISM, SABELLIANISM, APOLLINARIANISM. 24!
stantinople, 381) condemned Macedonius and proclaimed the divinity
of the Holy Spirit (TO 7iveu{j.a TO ayiov ... TO obv KOLTO} xal oiw
aojUTcpoffXDvo'jfjisvov xat G!}ydo~a^6ii.£yov). Throughout this controversy
Athanasius, the three Cappadocians, and Didymus the Blind were
the theological defenders of the traditional faith of the Church.
It is not known whether Macedonius left any writings. Among the writers
of his party are Eusebius of Emesa (f ca. 359), Basil of Ancyra (f after
360), and George of Laodicea (f after 360). The greater part of the
works of Eusebius of Emesa, declared <tinnumerabiles» by St. Jerome (De
viris ill., c. 91) have perished. The Greek homilies and fragments col
lected by Augusti: Eusebii Emeseni quae supersunt opuscula graeca, ad
fidem codd. Vindobonensium et editionum diligenter expressa et adnotatio-
nibus hist, et phil. illustrata ab /. Chr. G. Augusti, Elberfeld, 1829 (cf. Migne,
PG. , Ixxxvi. i, 463 ff.), belong to Eusebius of Alexandria, Eusebius of
Caesarea and others: see J. C. Thilo , Uber die Schriften des Eusebius
von Alexandrien und des Eusebius von Emesa, Halle, 1832.
Two large collections of Latin homilies were formerly attributed with
out reason to Eusebius of Emesa: a) Homiliae 56 ad populum et mon-
achos, in reality the work of various ecclesiastical writers of Gaul (Hila-
rius of Aries, Faustus of Reji, Caesarius of Aries), first collected, appa
rently, by Eusebius Bruno, bishop of Angers (f 1081). They are printed
in Max. Bibl. vet. Patr., Lyons, 1677, vi. 618 — 675. b) Homiliae 145 (or
rather 142) in evangelia festosque dies totius anni, taken, and for the
most part verbally, from the gospel-commentary of Bruno of Segni (f 1123).
They are in Migne, PL., clxv. 747 — 864, among the works of Bruno of
Segni. Cf. for these two collections of homilies Eefller-Jungmann, Institt.
Patrol. , ii. i, 3 — 4, and for more details concerning the first collection
§ in, 2 — 3. On the other hand, of the fourteen opuscula or homilies
extant in Latin only and published by J. Sirmond (1643), under the
name of Eusebius of Caesarea (Migne, PG., xxiv. 1047 — 1208), at least
the first two (De fide adversus Sabellium, i. e. against Marcellus of Ancyra,
cf. § 61, 3) are the work of Eusebius of Emesa. A still unedited discourse
«On resting from labor on the Lord's Day» that Zahn inclines to con
sider the work of Eusebius of Emesa, is printed by Zahn, in Skizzen aus
dem Leben der alten Kirche, Erlangen, 1894, pp. 278 — 286. Basil of
Ancyra and George of Laodicea were joint authors, in the name of their
party, of a doctrinal memorial that Epiphanius has preserved (Haer. 73,
12 — 22). Other works of Basil of Ancyra have perished (Hicr., De viris
ill., c. 89) ; cf. y. Schladebach, Basilius von Ancyra (Inaug.-Diss.), Leipzig,
1898; F. Cavallera, Le «De virginitate» de Basile d'Ancyre, in Revue
d'histoire ecclesiastique (1905), pp. 5 — 15. The works of George of Lao
dicea have also perished; cf. J. Draseke , Gesammelte patristische Unter-
suchungen, Altona, 1889, pp. 14 — 24. On the ecclesiastical history of the
Macedonian Sabinus of Heraclea see § 79, 2.
3. SABELLIANISM. — In order to emphasize more forcibly the
unity of nature of the Father and of the Son, Marcellus, bishop of
Ancyra in Galatia (f ca. 374), went so far as to suppress the dis
tinction of persons in the divine nature. According to him the Logos
is the eternal indwelling power of God, which manifests itself in
creation of the world as operative power (svspYsta dpaffTixfJ, and
dwells in Christ for the purpose of redeeming and perfecting the
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 1 6
242 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
human race. This God-Man is called and is Son of God. The Logos
is not begotten; before the Incarnation there was no Son of God.
Because of its affinity with the modalistic Monarchianism of the pres
byter Sabellius (first half of the third century) this teaching of Mar-
cellus was known in the East as Sabellianism. Owing to the op
position of Eusebius of Caesarea and Athanasius it met with but few
adherents.
In his Contra Marcellum and De eccksiastica theologia Eusebius of Cae-
sarea has preserved some fragments of the work of Marcellus De subiec-
tione Domini Christi (-sot ~r^ TOO uiou OTtoTa-pjc ; cf. i Cor. xv. 28) written
against the Arian Asterius (§ 61, i). Epiphanius quotes (Haer. 72) a letter
of Marcellus to Pope Julius of the year 337 or 338 and the already (§ 61, i)
mentioned fragments of the work of Acacius against Marcellus, also a pro
fession of faith made by the followers of Marcellus. Other writings of
Marcellus, unknown to us, are mentioned by St. Jerome (De viris ill., c. 86).
All that remains is to be found in Chr. H. G. Rettberg, Marcelliana, Got-
tingen, 1794; the so-called Legatio Eitgenii diaconi ad S. Athanasium pro
causa Marcelli is in Migne, PG., xviii. 1301 — 1306. C. R. W. Klose, Ge-
schichte und Lehre des Marcellus und Photinus, Hamburg, 1837; FT- -A.
Willenborgy Uber die Orthodoxie des Marcellus von Ancyra, Miinster, 1859;
Th. Zahn, Marcellus von Ancyra, Gotha, 1867; Fr. Loofs, Die Trinitats-
lehre Marcells von Ancyra und ihr Verhaltnis zur alteren Tradition, Sitzungs-
berichte der k. preuft. Akad. der Wissensch., Berlin, 1902. -- Photinus,
bishop of Sirmium (f ca. 376), was an Asiatic like Marcellus, and his dis
ciple. Taking for granted that there was in God but one person, he taught
that our Lord was a man miraculously born , who had attained the divine
dignity by reason of his high moral development. The numerous Greek
and Latin writings of Photinus (Hier., De viris ill., c. 107 ; Vine. Lerin., Com-
monit, c. 16) have all perished; cf. Zahn, 1. c., p. 189 ff.
4. APOLLINARIANISM. — Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea in Syria
(f ca. 390), believed that the true divinity of the Redeemer could
be saved only by the sacrifice of his perfect humanity; otherwise
the union of true divinity and perfect humanity would lead to the
admission of two Sons of God , one by nature and the other by
adoption because, he says, two beings, perfect in themselves, can
never unite in one being (3>jo rs/sta ev ^Aa^o.t oo d Marat)1.
Moreover, a perfect humanity would include a human will, and
therefore the possibility of sin on the part of the Redeemer (07:00
Yap rlhtoQ av&pcoTtos , sxst xcu apapria) 2. The Son of God did
really assume a living flesh (caps), an animated body, but it was
the divinity itself that took the place of the human VOOQ or of
the human wet pa. This doctrine was opposed among others by
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and in particular
by St. Athanasius, or the author (or authors) of the two books
against Apollinaris that appear among the works of St. Athanasius.
The Second Ecumenical Council (Constantinople, 381), condemned
(in its first canon) the heresy of the Apollinarists. Apollinaris was
1 Athan., Contra Apoll., i. 2. 2 Ib.
§ 6l. ARIANISM, MACEDONIANISM, SABELLIANISM, APOLLINARIANISM. 243
one of the most fertile and versatile ecclesiastical writers of his
day. He was primarily an exegete, and according to St. Jerome1
wrote countless volumes on the Holy Scriptures. The fragments of
his writings are scattered through many Catenae, where they await
collection and critical study. There is extant 2 a complete paraphrase
of the Psalms in hexameters, richly interwoven with reminiscences
of the old Hellenic poets. Precisely for that reason the peculiar
color and spirit of the ancient Hebrew chants are lost. There is so
far no good reason for admitting the hypothesis of Draseke that the
famous metrical paraphrase of St. John's Gospel3 written about the
end of the fourth century and attributed to the famous heathen poet
Nonnus of Panopolis, is really the work of Apollinaris. His Father,
the elder Apollinaris, a priest of Laodicea, had already attempted to
clothe the Christian Scriptures in the garb of antique Hellenic poetry,
but none of his works have reached us. Both father and son enter
tained the hope that by such labors they would be able to compensate
the Christians for the loss of the heathen classics and to win over the
heathens to the religion of Christ. Also the thirty books of the
younger Apollinaris against the Neoplatonist Porphyry (f ca. 304) that
merited special praise from St. Jerome 4 have not reached us. Other
works not mentioned by Jerome, relating to the Trinity and to
Christology, seemed also lost, with the exception of some fragments
especially from his « Demonstration of the Incarnation of God in the
image of Man » (dnodet&Q xsp\ TTJQ ft stag aapxwascoc, TTJQ xaft' ojutolaMTw
dv&pwTtouJ, that appear in the refutation of this work by St. Gregory
of Nyssa (see § 69, 3). It is worthy of note that Leontius of Byzantium
or the author of Adversus fraudes Apollinaristarum 5 maintained
that Apollinarists and Monophysites had put in circulation certain
writings of Apollinaris (TWSQ ra>v *Anohvapioo Xdfwv) under the authori
tative names of SS. Gregorius Thaumaturgus, Athanasius, and Julius
(of Rome). The researches of Caspari (1879) have made it certain that
the work -q yjj.ro. pipoq nianc, that went under the name of Gregorius
Thaumaturgus (§ 47, 5) is really a work of Apollinaris. The pro
fession of faith 7csp\ TTJC, ffapxaxrewQ TOO ftsou Mfou , attributed to
Athanasius (§ 63, 3), is also very probably from the pen of Apol
linaris. Similarly several letters were sent abroad under the name of
Pope Julius I. (§ 63, 14) that were very probably written by Apol
linaris or one of his earliest disciples. Draseke claims for Apol
linaris a number of other works, namely the Cohortatio ad Gentiles
and the Expositio fidei , printed among the works of St. Justin
Martyr (§ 17, 5 — 6), also three homilies ascribed to Gregory Thaumat
urgus (§ 47, 5), the fourth and fifth books of St. Basil's work
1 De viris ill., c. 104. 2 Migne, PG., xxxiii. 1313 — 1538.
3 Ib., xliii. 749 — 1228. 4 Hier., De viris ill., c. 104.
5 Migne, PG., Ixxxvi. 2, 1948.
16*
244 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
against Eunomius (§ 67, 4), and the first three of the seven dia
logues De Trinitate current under the name of Theodoret of Cyrus
(§ 78, 8). The arguments of Draseke are very general and would
probably collapse after a serious study of any one of these works
y. Drdseke, Apollinarios von Laodicea. Sein Leben und seine Schriften.
Nebst einem Anhang: Apollinarii Laodiceni quae stipersunt dogmatica
(Texte und Untersuchungen), Leipzig, 1892, vii. 3 — 4. This work includes
the results of many special researches published in preceding years. The
appendix contains a correct reprint from former editions of Antirrheticus
contra Eunomium (= Pseudo-Basilius M. , Adv. Eun., iv — v), Dialog! de
S. Trinitate (== Pseudo-Theodoretus, Dialogi de Trinitate, i — iii), De Trini
tate (= Pseudo-Justinus M. , Expositio fidei), Fidei expositio (= Pseudo-
Gregorius Thaumat., YJ xata jjispoc -iVuis), De divina incarnatione libri frag-
menta, and many smaller remnants. A. Spasskij has reached quite op
posite conclusions in his (Russian) work on Apollinarios of Laodicea,
Sergiev, 1895; see the remarks of Bonwetsch, in Byzant. Zeitschr. (1897),
vi. 175 — 177. For exegetical fragments on Proverbs, Ezechiel and Isaias,
attributed to Apollinaris, see A. Mai, Nova Patr. Bibl., Rome, 1854, vii.
part. 2, 76 — 80 82—91 128—130. Specimens of a critical edition of the
paraphrase of the Psalms mentioned above were published by A. Ludwich,
Konigsberg, Psalms i — 3 (1880, Progr.), 4 — -8 (iSSi, Progr.). The very
extensive interpolation of the text may be traced back to the noted forger
Jacob Diassorinos (f 1563). See A. Ludwich, in Byzant. Zeitschr. (1892), i.
292—301 ; y. Draseke, Die Abfassungszeit der Psalmen-Para phrase des Apolr
linarios von Laodicea, in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1889), xxxii.
1 08 — 120. Id., Zu Apollinarios von Laodicea, «Ermunterungsschrift an die
Hellenen», in Zeitschr. f. wissenschaftl. Theol. (1903), xlvi. 407 — 433. For
new editions of the paraphrase of the Gospel of Saint John, usually attributed
to Nonnus of Panopolis, we are indebted to Fr. Passow, Leipzig, 1834,
and A. Scheindler, Leipzig, 1881 (in both the text of the Gospel is in
cluded). Janssen, Das Johannesevangelium nach der Paraphrase des Non
nus Panopolitanus , mit einem ausfiihrlichen kritischen Apparat, Leipzig,
1903, in Texte und Untersuchungen, viii. 4. The hypothesis of the author
ship of Apollinaris was put forward by Draseke, in Theol. Literaturzeitung
(1891), p. 332, and in Wochenschrift fur klass. Philol. (1893), p. 349.
On the merit of this hypothesis, the character of the paraphrase and the
most recent literature, cf. Bardenhewer, art. Nonnus, in Wetzer and Welte,
Kirchenlexikon , 2. ed. , also G. Voisin , L'Apollinarisme , Paris, 1901;
cf. Id,, Revue d'hist. eccl. (1902), iii. 33 — 55 239 — 252; J. Flemming and
H. Lietzmann, Apollinaristische Schriften, syrisch mit den griechischen
Texten und einem syrisch-griechischen Wortregister, in Abhhandl. der k.
Gesellsch. der Wissensch. zu Gottingen (1904). We have lost the Pro
fession of faith of Vitalis, bishop of Antioch, one of the earliest and most
active of the disciples of Apollinaris. It is mentioned by St. Gregory of
Nazianzus (Ep. 102, ad Cledon.).
After the death of their master the Apollinarists divided into two
parties, the followers of Polemon (or Polemius] and those of Valentinus ;
'. C. Z. Gieseler, Commentat. qua Monophysitarum veterum variae de
:i persona opiniones illustrantur partic. II (Progr.), Gottingen, 1838,
pp. 1 8— 21, where the extant fragments of Polemon's writings are found
-20). The author of the Adv. fraudes Apollinaristarum (Migne, PG.,
<xvi. 2, 1948—1969) has saved a few fragments of the writings of Valen-
tmus, the adversary of Polemon, and of those of his disciple and follower,
§ 62. EUSEBIUS OF C^ESAREA. 245
Timotheus, bishop of Berytus ; cf. Fr. Loofs, Leontius von Byzanz, Leipzig,
1887, pp. 84 ff. For the Ecclesiastical History of Leontius see § 79, 2.
Valentinus quotes the Christological profession of faith of an Apollinarist
bishop Job (Migne, 1. c., 1952 3320; cf. Caspari, Alte und neue Quellen
zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, Christiania, 1879, P- 24-)- Tne forger
of the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, in all probability identical w^ith
the compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions, leaves no doubt as to his
Apollinarian tenets (§ 9, i). H. Lietzmann, Apollinaris von Laodicea und
seine Schule, Tubingen, 1904.
§ 62. Eusebius of Csesarea.
I . HIS LIFE. - - The golden age of patristic literature opens with
the splendid productions of Eusebius Pamphili, bishop of Csesarea in
Palestine (ca. 265 to ca. 340). This land was at once his home and
the scene of his literary activity. It was in Csesarea, which later
became his episcopal see, that he received his intellectual training.
In this city he enjoyed for many years the society of the learned
priest Pamphilus, whose name he assumed as a token of veneration
and gratitude; hence he was known as Eusebius Pamphili, i. e. the
spiritual son of Pamphilus. When the latter was thrown into prison
during the persecution of Maximinus Daza, Eusebius accompanied
him and worked with him at an Apology for Origen (§ 45, i). In
309 Pamphilus died as martyr; at a later date Eusebius honored his
memory by a biography in three books (§ 45, i). He escaped
further dangers in the persecution by his flight from Csesarea to
Tyre, and thence into Egypt. Here he was seized and imprisoned,
but it is uncertain how long he suffered as a witness to the Christian
faith. At the close of the persecution he returned to Csesarea, pro
bably in 313, became its bishop, and a very influential one, for he
enjoyed in a special degree the favor of Constantine. His defects are
henceforth no less manifest than his good qualities : we behold in him
a lack of personal independence and of clearness in his doctrinal ideas,
that very seriously affect his work as a Christian bishop. He does
not grasp the importance and drift of the controversy about the
Trinity. He is constantly in the field as a peace-maker, with sug
gestions of mutual concessions on the basis of a recognition of the
true divinity of the Redeemer in simply biblical terms. He believed
that the Homoousian doctrine of Athanasius led logically to Sabel-
lianism; this phantom was ever before his eyes and was the motive
which drew him ever more deeply within the orbit of Arianism. At
the Council of Nicsea (325) he sought to take up a conciliatory at
titude, but at the express wish of the Emperor signed the profession
of faith drawn up by the Council. It is significant, however, that the
term o/jtooumoQ never occurs in his writings, not even in those com
posed after the Council of Nicaea. He held communion with the
Arians and may have influenced the imperial measures against the
orthodox bishops. He certainly took a prominent part in the
246 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
Council of Antioch (330) which deposed Eustathius, bishop of that
city and an active opponent of Arianism; he was also a member
of the Synod of Tyre (335) that meted out a similar treatment to
Athanasius, the head of the orthodox party. More than once Eu-
sebius composed public laudations of Constantine. On the occasion
of the Emperor's «tricennalia» or thirtieth anniversary of the as
sumption of the reins of government (July 25., 335), he delivered a
panegyric on Constantine (elq KajvcravTuov TOV fiaauia TptaxovTa-
svqptxuQj1. When the emperor died (May 22., 337) he dedicated to
his memory a lengthy eulogium remarkable for declamation rather
than for genuine eloquence (SLQ rov KwvoTavclvoo TOO ^aadlcoQ ftiov
Xofoi 3') 2.
2. HISTORICAL WORKS. - - Among his numerous writings none
have received such unqualified approval, dating from his own time, as
the great historical works known as the «Chronicle» and the « Eccle
siastical History ». They have earned for him such titles as the
« Christian Herodotus » and « Father of Church History ». The Chroni
cle3 bears the name of « Divers Histories » (TtavTodaTrq iawpia) and
is divided into two parts: the %povofp<upla. and the xavcov ypovtxoq.
He says in the preface that it is his purpose to furnish an ethno
graphic chronology based on the historical monuments of the nations
(I. part), and then to attempt (II. part) a synchronistic co-ordination
and concordance of these historical data. Before him Julius Afri-
canus had attempted to harmonize the historical traditions of the
Gentiles and the Jews (§ 43, 2); it is to the credit of Eusebius that
he accomplished this task and that his calculations were accepted
as successful. Throughout his work runs the dominant idea of a
close relation between the most remote history and the history of his
own time; the influence that these views of Eusebius exercised
on all later historiography is simply incalculable. Eusebius wrote
this work for Orientals, but St. Jerome transplanted to the West
the historical ideas of the « Chronicle », by translating the 2. part of
it into Latin, and continued it to 379 (a. Abr. 2395; cf. § 93, 6)
i. e. he added fifty-four years to the historical text of Eusebius, who
had stopped at 325 (a. Abr. 2341). The first part of the Chronicle
was unknown to us until the publication of the Armenian version.
The Greek text of both parts has perished, save for some fragments.
In its first edition the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius (sxxtyma-
ffrtxvj toropia) 4 described the vicissitudes of the Church from its foun
dation to the victories of Constantine over Maxentius (October 28., 312),
and of Licinius over Maximinus Daza (April 30., 313), both of which
victories are treated by Eusebius as the triumph of Christianity over
paganism. These victories are the subject of the last chapter in the
1 Migne, PG., xx. 1315—1540. 2 lb-> xx 9o5_ I23O>
3 Ib., xix. * Ib., xx.
§ 62. EUSEBIUS OF C.ESAREA. 247
ninth book of the History, and the concluding words are evidently
written as a suitable ending to the whole work. At a later date Eusebius
added a tenth book, which brings the history of the Church down to the
defeat of Licinius (July 3., 323) i. e. to the sole rulership of Constantine.
The Ecclesiastical History is a very rich collection of historical facts,
documents, and excerpts from a multitude of writings belonging to the
golden youth of the Christian Church. The value of these materials
is beyond all calculation , although the text in which they are in
corporated, can lay claim neither to completeness of narrative net-
to an evenly distributed 'treatment of events, much less to an orderly
and genetic exposition of its store of historical information. On the
other hand, it is a « source-book » in the fullest sense of the word.
Eusebius has been reproached with deliberate falsification of facts,
but the reproach cannot be proved, although here and there his
personal feelings of favor or of dislike may have influenced his judg
ment or hindered breadth of view. We owe to Rufmus (§ 92, 3)
a Latin paraphrase of the Church History. It is easier to defend
the historical value of this work than that of the statements con
cerning Constantine (see § 62, i) wherein he has been often reproached
with intentional alteration of the facts of history. In them Eusebius
is less a historian than a panegyrist, who now palliates and now
exaggerates. In opposition to contemporary pagan writers he aims at
setting in a clear light the Christian and ecclesiastical sentiments of
the emperor. - - We have lost a collection of ancient Acts of the
martyrs compiled by Eusebius (§ 59, i); on the other hand, we
possess still a little work written by him on the contemporary martyrs
of Palestine. It has reached us in two recensions: a shorter one in
Greek, usually printed as an appendix to the eighth book of the
Church History, and a longer one, the complete text of which is
extant only in a Syriac version.
3. EXEGETICAL WORKS. — Besides his superior gifts as a historian
Eusebius possessed a great aptitude for exegetical studies. He is lack
ing, however, in sound and clear hermeneutical principles; it is sub
stantially the manner and method of Origen that predominate in his
exegetical writings. He must have written continuous commentaries
on an entire series of biblical books. The commentary on the Psalms
edited by Montfaucon 1 had numerous gaps, and ends with Psalm 118.
Mai discovered in several Catenae fragments of the commentary on
the following Psalms 2 ; Pitra was able to add other remnants of the
commentary on preceding Psalms which show Eusebius to have been a
plagiarist of Origen. The greater part of the commentary on Isaiah 3
has been saved ; in it he promises an historical exposition but often
ends in arbitrary allegorism. Of his commentaries on New Testament
1 Ib., xxiii. 2 Ib., xxiv. 9 — 76. 3 Ib., xxiv. 89 — 526.
248 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
books very considerable fragments have reached us, chiefly of those on
the Gospel of Saint Luke 1. Other works of Eusebius may be described
as introductory to the study of the Bible. Thus, he wrote a kind of
Gospel Harmony2 which makes evident in ten tables those statements
of the Four Gospels which are common to all, to three, or to two -
or which are found only in one Gospel; also Biblical Questions and
Answers (nspl rcbv iv sdaffsMoic; CyTyfiaTcov xai MffseovJ 3 concerning
the Gospels, extant only in excerpts and fragments. They undertake
to reconcile apparent antilogies in the Gospels, such as affect the
genealogies of the Savior, His burial, resurrection, etc.- Of more im
portance is a (fragmentary) alphabetical list of the place-names of the
Old Testament, with description and name of each site as it was in
his day (nspt rcov To~txa>y dvo/Jtdrcov rwv ev rrj fteia fpo.wr^ not printed
in Migne). Eusebius constructed it from an ancient topography of
Palestine and Jerusalem ; Jerome translated it into Latin and added to
its contents (§ 93, 5). Only a fragment has reached us of his work
«On Easter » (nspt rrjc, TOO T.a.ayo. kopriJQ)*, written on occasion of
the discussions at the Council of Nicaea (325) concerning the feast,
and well-known because of its beautiful testimony to the holy sacrifice
of the Mass.
4. APOLOGETIC WORKS. - - He took up his pen on many oc
casions, and always with success, in defence of the Christian religion
and against paganism. The chief characteristic of his apologetical
writings is the vastness of their historical erudition. The Evangelical
Preparation (sdaffehxy TrpoTrapaffxeuTjJ ° in fifteen books demon
strates the incomparable superiority of Christianity, and even of
Judaism , over all the religious and philosophical systems of the
heathens. The Evangelical Demonstration (etjaffsfaxy dnodstqif) ex
pounds in twenty books the thesis that Christianity is the divine
development of Judaism ; only ten books of this work have reached
us 6. He drew up a compact abridgment of these two large works
in the five books of a treatise «On the appearance of God among
men* fnspl TTJQ $soy>avsiaQj. Its Greek text is extant only in frag
ments7. Quite similar must have been the work entitled «A general
elementary Introduction » (y xoMXou oror/ziwor^ zloa^fq). Almost
the only extant fragments of it are the four books of his « Prophetic
sayings » (sxAofal xpopyTtxalj 8, in which he expounds the Messianic
prophecies of the Old Testament. His large work against Porphyry
(f ca. 304) in twenty-nine or thirty books, twenty of which were known
to Saint Jerome 9, has perished. His little work against Hierocles, pro
curator of Bithynia (ca. 303), is a critique of the portrait of Apollonius
1 Migne, PG., xxiv. 529—606. 2 Ib., xxii. 1275—1292.
3 Ib., xxii. 879—1016. 4 Ib., xxiv. 693—706. 5 Ib., xxi.
6 Ib., xxii. 13—794. 7 Ib., xxiv. 609—690. 8 Ib., xxii. 1021 — 1262.
9 Hier., De viris ill., c. Si.
§ 62. EUSEBIUS OF C^SAREA. 249
of Tyana as drawn by Philostratus. Hierocles had plagiarized in order
to establish a parallel between Apollonius and Christ fnpot; ra 07:0
(IhAoGTpdrou S!Q 'AnoXAat&iov rbv Tuavia dt.a rr/v ^Ispoydzl Ttapatytpdsiaay
a'jrou rz xal rou Xptaroo ffufxpurw) 1. Eusebius shows with sarcastic
acumen that the true source of the work of Hierocles was the highly
idealized portrait of the Neo-Pythagorean and magician Apollonius,
or merely fables and legends put together by Flavius Philostratus ; in
particular, the alleged miracles of Apollonius were either forgeries
of the historian or demoniac imitations of the miracles of Christ.
5. DOCTRINAL WRITINGS. LETTERS. HOMILIES. - - Two of his
doctrinal works belong to the history of Arianism. In the two books
« Against Marcellus» (xara MapxiXXoo)* he undertakes to prove that
Marcellus of Ancyra (§ 61, 3) was justly deposed by the Arians at
the Council of Constantinople (336), on account of the identity of his
Trinitarian teaching with Sabellianism which was condemned in the
third century. The three books of his work On ecclesiastical theology
(nspt T'7jQ sxxtymaffTtxjJG &so^iaQJs are an exposition and defence
of the true doctrine of the Logos. Socrates4 and Theodoret5 have
preserved for us a letter of Eusebius to the people of his diocese
in which he explains his attitude at Nicaea and the meaning of o/wouffcoQ.
Nicephorus of Constantinople (f 826) inserted in his Antirrhetica and
criticised sharply the principal passages of a letter of Eusebius to
Constantia, the sister of Constantine, in which he speaks in a hostile
sense concerning portraits of Christ. Of the fourteen homilies, extant
only in Latin, and attributed to him6, some, at least, are certainly
not from his pen.
6. COLLECTED WORKS OF EUSEBIUS. TRANSLATIONS. LITERATURE ON
EUSEBIUS. — The manuscript-tradition of the writings of Eusebius is de
scribed by Preuschen, in Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Lit., i. 551 — 586.
The only complete edition or reprint of the works of Eusebius is that by
Migne, PG., xix— xxiv. A handy edition of some of his writings is that
by W. Dindorf : Praepar. evang. , Demonstr. evang. , Hist. eccl. , Leipzig,
1867 — 1871, 4 vols. \ cf. A. C. Headlam, The Editions and Mss. of Euse
bius, i., in Journal of Theolog. Studies (1902), iii. 93 — 102. Nearly all
the works of Eusebius were translated into Syriac, many of them also into
Armenian. Selected works have appeared in German versions, e. g.
M. Stigloher (Church History, Martyrs of Palestine), Kempten, 1870, and
y. Molzberger (Life of Constantine), ib., 1880 (Bibl. d. Kirchenvater). An
English version of the Church History, with a commentary, was edited by
McGiffert, and one of the two works on Constantine by E. Richardson, in
Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church,
ser. II, New York, 1890, i. Fabridus, Bibl. Gr. ed. Harles, vii. 335—518:
De Eusebio Caesareensi et aliis historiae ecclesiasticae atque chronicorum
scriptoribus graecis. F. J. Stein, Eusebius, Bischof von Casarea, nach
seinem Leben, seinen Schriften und seinem dogmatischen Charakter, Wiirz-
1 Migne, PG., xxii. 795 — 868. * Ib., xxiv. 707 — 826.
3 Ib., xxiv. 825 — 1046. 4 Hist, eccl., i. 8. 5 Hist, eccl., i. n.
6 Migne, PG., xxiv. 1047 — 1208.
2CJO SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
burg, 1859; Salmon, in Dictionary of Christian Biography, London, 1880,
ii. 308 — 355: Eusebius of Cassarea; Van den Gheyn, S. J., in Vigouroux,
Dictionnaire de la Bible, Paris, 1899, ii. 2051 — 2056: Eusebe.
7. SEPARATE EDITIONS AND SPECIAL RESEARCHES. — Historical Writings.
Eusebii Pamph. Caes. episc. Chronicon bipartitum mine primum ex arme-
niaco textu in latinum conversum, adnotationibus auctum, graecis fragmentis
exornatum, opera P. I. B. AucJier, Venice, 1818, 2 vols. Eusebi Chronicorum
libri duo. Edidit Alfred Schoene, Berlin, 1866 — 1875, 2 vols. Eusebi Chroni
corum liber prior. Ed. A. Schoene. Armeniacam versionem latine factam ad
libros manuscriptos recensuit H. Petermann. Graeca fragmenta collegit et
recognovit, appendices chronologicas sex adiecit A. Schoene, 1875. (Eusebi
Chronicorum Canonum quae supersunt ed. A. Schoene. Armeniacam versio
nem latine factam e libris manuscr. rec. H. Petermann. Hieronymi ver
sionem e libris manuscr. rec. A. Schoene. Syriam epitomen latine factam
e libro Londinensi rec. E. Roediger, 1866.) Eusebii Canonum epitome ex
Dionysii Telmaharenis Chronico (syriace) petita, sociata opera verterunt
notisque illustrarunt C. Siegfried et H. Gelzer, Leipzig, 1884. Cf. A. v. Gut-
schmid, Unterstichungen liber die syrische Epitome der Eusebischen Canones
(Progr.), Stuttgart, 1886 (A. v. Gutschmid, Kleine Schriften, herausgegeben
von Fr. Riihl, Leipzig, 1889, i. 483 — 529); A. Schoene, Die Weltchronik des
Eusebius in ihrer Bearbeitung durch Hieronymus, Berlin, 1900; C. H.
Turner, The Early Episcopal Lists, i : The Chronicle of Eusebius, in Journal
of Theol. Studies (1900), i. 181 — 200; H. Montzaka, Die Quellen zu den
assyrisch-babylonischen Nachrichten in Eusebius Chronik, in Beitrage zur
alten Geschichte (1902), pp. 351 — 405.
The editio princcps of the Church History and of the two works on
Constantine (with the continuations of the Church History of Socrates,
Sozomen, Theodoret, Evagrius, Philostorgius, Theodorus Lector) was issued,
by commission from the French episcopate, by Henri de Valois (Valesius,
t 1676), Paris, 1659 — :^73, and again in 1677, 3 vols. It was reprinted at
Frankfort, 1672 — 1679, and Amsterdam, 1695; W. Reading published an
improved edition at Cambridge, 1720, 3 vols. New recensions of the text
of the Church History have been made by F. A. Heinichen, Leipzig, 1827
to 1828, 3 vols. ; E. Burton, Oxford, 1838, 2 vols; H. Laemmer, Schaffhausen,
1859 — 1862, 6 fasc. In 1830 Heinichen edited the two works on Constantine
and in 1840 (on the appearance of Burton's edition) he added Supplementa
to his own edition of the Church History. The Latin paraphrase of Rufinus
was edited anew by Th. Mommsen , in the Griechische christliche Schrift-
stellerdererstendreijahrhunderte, Eusebius, Leipzig, 1903, ii. i (Booki— v);
cf. A. Harnack, in Berlin. Sitzungsberichte (1903), pp. 300—307. There
are also handy editions of the Church History by A. Schwegler, Tubingen,
1852, and W. Dindorf, Leipzig, 1871 (§ 62, 6). One to form part of Nizzini's
«Bibliotheca Sanctorum Patrum» is announced. A very old Syriac version
of the Church History was published by P. Bedjan , Leipzig, 1897, also
by W. Wright and N. McLean, Cambridge, 1898; E. Nestle, Die Kirchen-
geschichte des Eusebius, aus dem Syrischen ins Deutsche ubersetzt, in
Texte und Untersuchungen, new series, Leipzig, 1901, vi. 2 ; Id., in Zeit-
schrift d. d. Morgenl. Gesellsch. (1902), Ivi. 335—564. A fifth-century
Armenian version from the Syriac was published at Venice, 1877. Eu
sebius' Kirchengeschichte, Buch VI und VII. Aus dem Armenischen von
E. Preuschen, in Texte und Untersuchungen, new series, Leipzig, 1902,
vii. 3. In the edition of Wright and McLean the Syriac text is followed
by a comparison between it and the Armenian. The works on Constan
tine have been recently edited by Ivar A. Heikel, in the Griechische christ-
§ 62. EUSEBIUS OF CASAREA. 25!
liche Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte, Leipzig, 1902, i. Fr. Over-
beck, Uber die Anfange der Kirchengeschichtschreibung (Progr.), Basel,
1892 ; Id., Die Bischofslisten und die apostolische Nachfolge in der Kirchen-
geschichte des Eusebius (Progr.), Basel, 1898; A. Halmel, Die Entstehtmg
der Kirchengeschichte des Eusebius von Casarea, Essen, 1896; P. Meyer,
De vita Constantini Eusebiana (Progr.), Bonn, 1882.
The following works treat of special questions and problems connected
with the Church History : H. S. Lawlor, Two notes on Eusebius in Herm-
athena (1900), xi. 10—49 (cf. § 33, 3); G. Mercati, Sul testo e sul senso
di Eusebio, Hist, eccl., vi. 16, in Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana
antica (Studi e Testi), Rome, 1901, pp. 47 — 60; W. E. Crum , Eusebius
and Coptic Church Histories, London, 1902 (cf. § 99, i); P. Corssen,'Z\i
Euseb., Hist, eccl., iii. 39 und iii. 15 , in Zeitschr. fur die neutestamentl.
Wissensch. (1902), iii. 242—246; E. Schwartz, Zu Eusebius' Kirchen
geschichte: I. Das Martyrium Jakobus des Gerechten, II. Zur Abgar-
legende, in Zeitschr. fur die neutestamentl. Wissensch. (1903), iv. 48—66;
Fr. Herklotz, 'QpXi'a? (Eus., Hist, eccl., ii. 23), in Zeitschrift fur kath. Theol.
(1903), xxvii. 572 — 574; A. Crivellucci, Delia fede storica di Eusebio nella
vita di Costantino, Livorno, 1888; V. Schultze, Quellenuntersuchungen zur
«Vita Constantini » des Eusebius, in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1893- — ^94),
xiv. 503 — 555. Concerning the genuineness of the documents, edicts and
letters, and of a discourse of the emperor in the Vita Constantini, see O. Seeck,
in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1898), xxviii. 321 — 345 (they are genuine),
and A. Crivellucci, in Studi storici (1898), vii. 411 — 429 453 — 459 (some
documents are not genuine) ; also jr. A. Heikel, in the edition mentioned
above, pp. LXVI — LXXXIII (genuine ; but he denies the genuineness, or even
the composition by Eusebius, of the Oratio in sanctorum coetum, sometimes
printed as the fifth book of the Vita Constantini). C. Weyman, Eusebius
von Casarea und sein Leben Konstantins, in Histor.-polit. Blatter (1902),
cxxix. 873 — 892 ; y. Viteau, De Eusebii Caesariensis duplici opusculo Tispi
Ttov Iv IIaXa'.cmv7j jxaptuprjaavrtov (These), Paris, 1893; Br. Violet, Die palesti-
nensischen Martyrer des Eusebius von Casarea, ihre ausftihrlichere Fassung
und deren Verhaltnis zur kiirzeren, in Texte und Untersuchungen -- new
series, Leipzig, 1896, xiv. 4; A. Halmel , Die palastinensischen Martyrer
des Eusebius von Casarea in ihrer zweifachen Form, Essen, 1898; G. Mer
cati, I martiri di Palestina d'Eusebio di Cesarea nel codice Sinaitico, in
Rendiconti del R. Istituto Lombardo di scienze e lettere, ser. II, Milan,
1897, xxx.
8. SEPARATE EDITIONS AND SPECIAL RESEARCHES (CONTINUED). -
Exegetical works. His commentaries on the Psalms are printed in B. de
Montfaucon, Collectio nova Patrum et scriptorum graecor. , Paris, 1706,
2 vols; supplements in A. Mai, Nova Patrum Bibl. , Rome, 1847, iv.
part. I, 65 — 107; additions in Pitra, Analecta sacra, Paris, 1883, iii. 365
to 520. New and notable fragments of commentaries on the Psalms in
Mercati, Alcune note di letteratura patristica, Milan, 1898. The exposition
of the Canticle of canticles, edited by J. Meursius (Eusebii, Polychronii,
Pselli in Canticum canticorum expositiones graece, Leiden, 1617, pp. 1 — 74)
is not only not the work of Eusebius, but contains nothing from his pen.
Its proemium, (apparently) attributed to Eusebius, was printed by Pitra
(1. c. pp. 529 — 537) because it had been left out by Migne. For more de
tailed information concerning this commentary on the Canticle of can
ticles, see T/i. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons
und der altlkirchl. Lit., Erlangen, 1883, ii. 238 ff. Mai (1. c.) gives a frag
mentary Commentarius in Lucae evangelium (pp. 159 — 207) and very in-
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
significant fragments on the Epistle to the Hebrews (p. 207), Daniel (pp. 314
to 316), and Proverbs (p. 316). The same author published copious re
mains of the three books of Quaestiones et solutiones evangelicae, i. e.
a) an Epitome selecta ex compositis ab Eusebio ad Stephanum circa evan-
^elia quaestionibus ac solutionibus , from the first two books (Greek and
Latin, pp. 217 — 254, 16 questions), and an Epitome selecta ex eiusdem
Eusebii ad Marinum quaestionum evangelicarum libro, i. e. from the third
book (Greek and Latin, pp. 255 — 267, 4 questions); b) fragments of the
same work, from the two first books (pp. 268—282; 279 — 282 are Syriac
fragments) and from the third book (pp. 283—303); c) Ex quaestionibus
Eusebii excerpta apud SS. Ambrosium et Hieronymum (pp. 304 — 309).
An eleventh-century codex of the Gospel Harmony (in ten tables) was
published in photographic facsimile , with commentary , by A. Valentini,
Brescia, 1887. Eusebii Pamph. Onamasticon urbium et locorum S. Scrip-
turae. Graece cum lat. Hieronymi interpretatione ediderunt F. Larsow
et G. Par they, Berlin, 1862. The same works (of Eusebius and Jerome)
are edited by P. de Lagarde , Onamastica sacra, Gottingen, 1870, 2. ed.
1887; P. Thomsen , Palastina nach dem Onamasticon des Eusebius, in
Zeitschr. d. d. Palastinavereins (1903), xxvi. 97 — 142 145 — 188; E. Kloster-
mann, Eusebius' Schrift Trspl TWV TOTUXWV <5vojxaTa>v sv T/J tjfsia 7pa<p7J, in Texte
und Untersuchungen, new series, Leipzig, 1902, viii. 2b. Klostermann has
edited anew the Onamasticon of Eusebius, in Die Griech. christl. Schrift-
steller etc., Leipzig, 1904, iii. i. The fragment of the De solemnitate pa-
schali was first published by Mai, 1. c., pp. 208 — 216.
Apologetic writings. The Praeparatio evangelica was edited by F. A.
Heinichen, Leipzig, 1842 — 1843, 2 vols., and by T/i. Gaisford, Oxford, 1843,
4 vols. ; cf. y. A. Heikel, De Praeparationis evangelicae Eusebii edendae
ratione quaestiones, Helsingfors, 1888. Gaisford also edited the Demon-
stratio evangelica, Oxford, 1852, 2 vols.; Mai discovered and published
in Nova Patrum Bibl., iv., pars I, a small fragment of the fifteenth book
of the Demonstratio. A new edition of the Demonstratio, with an English
version, has been brought out by C. H. Gifford, London, 1903, 4 vols. A
Syriac version of the De theophania was edited by S. Lee from a Codex
of the year 411, London, 1842, with an English translation, Cambridge,
1843. Important fragments of the Greek text were discovered by Mai and
published, 1. c., pp. 108—159 3IQ— 312. H. Gressmann , Studien zu Eu
sebius' Theophanie, in Texte und Untersuchungen, Leipzig, 1903, viii. 3.
Th. Gaisford also edited the Eclogae propheticae, Oxford, 1842; cf. Nolte,
in Theol. Quartalschr. (1861), xliii. 95 — 109. Some small fragments of other
books of the Generalis elementaria introductio are in Mai, 1. c., pp. 316
to 317. The Adversus Hieroclem, Contra Marcellum and De ecclesia-
stica theologia were published by Gaisford, Oxford, 1852. The Adversus
Hieroclem is also found in the edition of Flavius Philostratus by C. L.
Kayser, Leipzig, 1870—1871, 2 vols. (i. 469—413); M. Faulhaber , Die
griechischen Apologeten der klassischen Vaterzeit: I. Eusebius von Ca-
sarea, Wiirzburg, 1895; cf. A. Seitz , Die Apologie des Christentums bei
den Griechen des 4. und 5. Jahrhunderts, Wiirzburg, 1895.
Doctrinal Writings. We have already mentioned Gaisford 's editions of
the Contra Marcellum and the De ecclesiastica theologia. See Pitra,
Spicil. Solesmense, i. 338 ff., for extracts from the Letter to Constantia
in the Antirrhetica of Nicephorus. For the fourteen Latin homilies see
§ 61, 2.
9. EUSTATHIUS OF ANTiocH. — St. Eustathius of Antioch (§ 62, i) who
died in exile in 360 at Trajanopolis in Thrace, left many dogmatic and
§ 63. ST. ATHANASIUS. 253
exegetical writings, only one of which, it seems, has reached us : his treatise
on the Witch of Endor and the apparition to Samuel (i Kings, xxviii.
Septuagint) written against Origen (Migne, PG. , xviii. 613 — 674). Eusta-
thius denies the reality of the apparition (cf. St. Gregory of Nyssa, § 69, 2)
while at the same time he vigourously refutes the arbitrary allegorizing of
Origen. A. Jahn brought out a new edition of this treatise, together with
the homily it refers to, in Texte und Untersuchungen , Leipzig, 1886,
ii. 4. The so-called Commentarius in Hexaemeron (Migne , PG. , xviii.
707 — 794) and Allocutio ad imperatorem Constantinum in Concilio Nicaeno
(ib., 673 — 676) are spurious. To the previously known fragments of his lost
works Pitra and Martin have added three Greek and ten Syriac fragments
in Analecta sacra ii., Prolog, xxxviii — xl, and iv. 210 — 213 441 — 443.
§ 63. St. Athanasius.
1. HIS LIFE. - - The life and labors of St. Athanasius presents a
complete antithesis to the weak and vacillating character of Eusebius
of Caesarea. The former is the steadfast champion of the true faith,
«the pillar of the Church », o aroXoq TTJQ ExxtyfftaQ, as St. Gregory
of Nazianzus calls him *. He is , at the same time , the God-given
physician of her wounds, larpbq TO>V Iv raiq, ixxhjaiatc, dfifKOffrqftdrcov,
says St. Basil the Great2, truly one of the most imposing figures in
all ecclesiastical history. His life and sufferings are most closely
connected with the history of Arianism. Athanasius was born about
295 at Alexandria and while quite young attracted the attention of
Alexander, bishop of that city. As a youth he was for a con
siderable period under the direction of the great Saint Anthony, the
patriarch of the Cenobites. The other circumstances of his child
hood and youth are unknown to us. In 319 Alexander ordained
him deacon and made him his secretary and counsellor. He accom
panied Alexander to the Council of Nicaea in 325, and proved him
self a powerful adversary of the Arians 3. Alexander died April 17.,
328, and Athanasius was unanimously chosen by the people to be
his successor4. At once the most hateful accusations were brought
against him by the Arians, all of which he conclusively disproved.
Nevertheless he was condemned by the Arians at their Synod of
Tyre in 335 and banished by Constantine to Trier, whence he re
turned to Alexandria in 338 after the Emperor's death. But the hatred
of the Arians was not satisfied ; Constantius sided with them, and in
340 Athanasius was again obliged to take refuge in flight. The
Arian Pistus, and afterward his fellow heretic George of Cappa-
docia, took possession of his see amid many bloody excesses. Pope
Julius (337 — 352) pronounced Athanasius an innocent man, and the
great Synod of Sardica in Moesia (843 or 344) declared him the
rightful occupant of the see of Alexandria. However, it was only in
346 (Oct. 31.) that he was enabled to return to his native city. After
1 Or. 21, r,. 26. 2 Ep. 82. 3 Socr., Hist, eccl., i. 8.
4 Athan., Apol. c. Arian, c. 6.
254
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
the death of his brother Constans (350) the emperor Constantius
was again moved by Arian intrigue to oppress the orthodox believers.
Yielding to imperial behests the Synods of Aries (353) and Milan
(355) deposed Athanasius from his see, into which his old enemy, the
Arian George, violently intruded himself (356), while Athanasius fled
to the monks in the deserts of Egypt. Julian the Apostate recalled
the banished bishops (362); by doing so he hoped to increase the
discords of the Christians. But the conciliatory attitude of Athanasius,
particularly at the Synod of Alexandria (362), opened a way to the
return of many Semiarians. For this he was banished again in 362,
on the pretext that he was a disturber of the peace. He was allowed
to return by the orthodox Jovian (363 — 364) who treated him with
much distinction. Valens, the successor of Jovian (364 — 378), was
a bigoted Arian and a cruel persecutor both of the orthodox and the
Semiarians. A fifth time Athanasius was compelled to quit the city
and to travel on (in the middle of 365) the road of exile. So
great, however, was the resistance offered by his flock that at the
end of four months Valens allowed him to return to Alexandria, where
the faithful shepherd was henceforth permitted to live in peace until
his death (May 2., 373). He had become the standard bearer of all
the Catholics of the East, while in the whole West, Trdffy TY; doasi,
says St. Basil *, no one was held in more general esteem.
2. APOLOGETIC WRITINGS. --In the Benedictine edition the series
of his works opens with two apologetic treatises : Oratio contra gentes
(kb-foo, xa~a 'EMrjvcov)2 and Oratio de incarnatione Verbi (MyoQ Kepi
TijQ lva.vftpa)7ri)0ea)Q nti Ao?o>j)3, titles that are found apparently in
all the manuscripts. They are in reality parts of a homogeneous
work known to St. Jerome4 as Adrcrsum gentes duo libri. The
first book lays bare in all its nudity and nullity the pagan pantheism
and establishes Christian monotheism as the reasonable and necessary
religion. The second book defends the Christian faith in -the In
carnation of the Divine Word against the objections of Jews and
pagans. The work was written before the Arian controversies, about
320. It is a genuine work of Athanasius ; the efforts of Schultze and
Draseke to prove the contrary have utterly failed.
3. DOGMATICOPOLEMICAL WRITINGS. - - Nearly all his doctrinal
works are devoted to the overthrow of Arianism. The longest and
most valuable of them is the Orationes IV contra Arianos (xara
\4petavwv Mfot o)5. The first book sets forth and develops the
Catholic doctrine of the eternal origin of the Son from the Father
and the substantial unity of both ; the second and the third books are
devoted to a detailed exposition of the pertinent scriptural texts ; the
fourth deals with the personal distinction of the Son from the Father.
1 Ep. 66. 2 Migne, PG., xxv. 3 — 96. 3 Ib., xxv. 95 — 198.
4 De viris ill., c. 87. 5 Migne, PG., xxvi. 11—526.
§ 63. ST. ATHANASIUS. 255
This work was written in the deserts of Egypt during his third exile
(356 — 362). About the same time he wrote the four letters to
Serapion, bishop of Thmuis (rrpoQ Sspaniowa inurcolai o')1 in refutation
of those who admitted the divinity of the Son, but maintained that the
Holy Spirit was a creature. Quite akin to the latter work is the treatise
on the Trinity and the Holy Ghost (Liber de Trinitate et de Spiritu
Sancto)2. It was written about 365 and is extant only in Latin. Some
writers treat as spurious the work «On the Incarnation of the Divine
Word and against the Arians» (iztfti TTJQ ivadpxou iirupavstaQ TOO ft sou
XofO'j xa\ xa-a yApetava>v)B. Brief outlines of the «Faith of the Catholic
Church» are found in the letter of the year 363 to the Emperor Jovian
(irpoQ '/copiavby nspi -xiaTzcoq) 4 and the mutilated Sermo maior de fide
(itepi KiGTecoQ MyoQ o ftsi^wyj 5. Hoss and Stiilcken have attacked in
vain (1899) the genuineness of the last two works. Caspari was inclined
(1866) to attribute to one of Athanasius' immediate successors, Peter
or Timothy, the Interpretatio in symbolum (kpfjL-qvsia SCQ TO fftippoJiov} 6.
The question about the genuineness of the profession of faith known
as De incarnatione Dei Verbi (nspt rTjc, Gapxcorrzcoc, rou fteou Mfou) 7
is as old as the fifth or sixth century. Caspari declared (1879), and
rightly, that it belongs to Apollinaris of Laodicea (§ 61, 4). The
so-called Athanasian Creed, known also as the Symbolum Quicumque
from its first word 8 is an admirable resume of the doctrine of Atha
nasius, but is not his work. It is rather of Western origin, and was
thought to have been composed during the fifth century in Southern
Gaul. Burn inclined at first (1896) to the authorship of Honoratus of
Aries, but later (1900) accepted with Turner the authorship of Eu-
sebius of Vercelli; Ommaney declared (1897) for Vincent of Lerins.
All these conjectures are now set aside by Kiinstle's researches. In
his Antipriscilliana he shows that the Athanasian Creed was written
in Spain and was directed against Priscillianism. This Creed was
known in the Orient only at a later date and never found a place in
the liturgy ; in the West it was recited at Prime since the ninth century,
was used by the clergy in giving popular instruction as a summary of
Christian doctrine, and was held in particular esteem as a basis and
criterion of ecclesiastical faith. — A treatise, written before the year
343, on Matt. xi. 27 : « All things are given to me by the Father» 9, a
text much misused by the Arians, is apparently only a fragment of the
original. Very important are three letters about Christological doctrine
written about 371: the first to Epictetus, bishop of Corinth (rrpoQ
*Kxix~r]Tov ixiaxoTcov Kopivftou xara riov aipsrixcov) 10; a second to Adel-
phius, bishop and confessor (npvQ 'AdiXtptov ixiaxoxov xat o/
1 Ib., xxvi. 529 — 676. 2 Ib., xxvi. 1191 — 1213. 3 Ib., xxvi. 983 — 1028.
4 Ib., xxvi. 813 — 820." 5 Ib., xxv. 199—208. 6 Ib., xxvi. 1231 — 1232.
7 Ib., xxviii. 25 — 30. 8 Ib., xxviii. 1582 — 1583.
y Ib., xxv. 207—220. 10 Ib., xxvi. 1049—1070.
256 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
xara \4psiavwv) *; a third to the philosopher Maximus (-pbq
<pdo0o<pov)*. The letter to Epictetus was highly esteemed by the
contemporaries of Athanasius ; it was copied in full by St. Epiphanius
in his work against heresies3. The Nestorians interpolated it, but
St. Cyril of Alexandria4 was able to convict them of fraud by means
of ancient manuscripts ((Ivrifpaya xaXatd) of the letter. The so-called
«T\vo books against Apollinaris» fxara 'Axokhvapwu Xoyot ft'j5 are
referred by the Benedictine editors to the last years of Athanasius.
The name of Apollinaris does not appear in the work itself, and
there are reasons for doubting its authenticity. Draseke holds (1889)
that these two books were composed at Alexandria soon after the
death of the Saint, but by two distinct persons, the first (probably)
by Didymus the Blind, and the second (probably) by Ambrosius of
Alexandria, a disciple of Didymus6. The following works and others
are rightly regarded as of dubious parentage: Testimonia ex Sacra
Scriptura de naturali comnmnione similis essentiae inter Patrem et
F ilium et Spiritum Sanctum1 , Epistola cat ho lie a*, Refutatio hypo-
crisis Meletii et Eusebii Samosatensis adv. consubstantialitatem^.
The Disputatio habit a in concilio Nicaeno contra A Hum 10,, Doctrina
ad Antiochum ducem n, Qiiaestiones ad Antiochum ducem 12, and several
other works, are known to be spurious.
4. IIISTORICO-POLEMICAL WRITINGS. - - In his conflicts with the
Arians, Athanasius often found himself compelled to appeal to the
truth of history. Three apologies were written by him, with a view to
justify his conduct: the Apology against the Arians (d.TioAo^rtxoQ
xara 'Apztavcb^j13, written about 350 and as an historical authority
of primary importance; the Apology to the Emperor Constantius
(npbc, TOV ftaadia Kcovaravriov u.xolo^'ia)^, written in 356; and the
Apology for his flight (d-oXofia xzpl r^c (purfc afaou) 15, written in
357 °r 358. Two encyclical letters hold up to public scorn the
unworthy conduct of his enemies: one written in 341 to all the
bishops (k-t<jro):rt spwx/w-J 16, and another in 356 to the bishops of
Egypt and Libya (~poQ robq ITHCIXOTIOD^ 'Ar^Tirou xat AtfrjyjQ ixtarofy
srx'jxhoQ xara \-\p*iavS)\>) 17. The letters on the decrees of the Council
of Nicsea 18 and on the doctrine of Dionysius 19, bishop of Alexandria,
belong to the years 350— 354 (§40, 3). The letter to the monks2o,
mutilated at the beginning, gives a history of Arianism from 335—357,
and is usually entitled Historia Arianorum. The brief letter to the
1 Migne, PG., xxvi. 1071 — 1084. 2 Ib>> xxvi- IO85_ 1090.
3 Haer. 77. 4 Ep. 40 and 45. * Migne, PG., xxvi. 1093—1166.
Hier., De viris ill., c. 126. 7 Migne, PG., xxviii. 29—80.
Ib, xxviii. 81 — 84. 9 Ib., xxviii. 85-90. 10 Ib., xxviii. 439—502.
Ib., xxviii. 555 — 590. 12 Ib-j xxviji 597_7o8 13 Ib<> xxy 247 — 410.
Ib., xxv. 595—642. is Ib) xxv> 643-680. I6 Ib., xxv. 221—240.
Ib, xxv. 537—594- 18 Ib., xxv. 415 — 476. 19 Ib., xxv. 479—522.
!0 Ib., xxv. 691 — 796.
§ 63. ST. ATHANASIUS. 257
bishop Serapion1, written soon after, 358, relates the terrible death of
Arius. A letter of the year 359 reviews the history of the doings of
the Councils of Rimini in Italy and of Seleucia in Isauria of the same
year2. Two letters to Lucifer3, bishop of Cagliari, extant in Latin
only and probably written in Latin, perhaps in 360, give lively expres
sion to his admiration for the firm resistance of Lucifer to the at
tacks of the Arians. The synodal letter to the people of Antioch
(o TTpoq TOVQ 'AvTto^stQ TotjLOQ) 4 and the letter to Rufinianus 5 treat of
the measures taken at the Council of Alexandria (362) with regard to
the reception of the Arians to ecclesiastical communion. The letter
to the bishops of (Western) Africa 6 warns them against the intrigues
of the Arians, and may have been written about 369.
5. EXEGETICAL WORKS. - - We possess, apparently, only frag
ments of his exegetical writings. They have come down in Catenae
or Catenae-like compilations, and their respective authenticity is not
free from suspicion. The most important of them belong to a com
mentary on the Psalms7, and have reached us through the Catenae
of Psalms of Nicetas of Serrae (end of the eleventh century). This
compiler usually draws his literal interpretation of the Scripture
text from Theodoret of Cyrus and the mystical exposition mostly
from Athanasius, who manifests, here at least, a decided predi
lection for allegorical exegesis and application of the biblical text.
In the Benedictine edition these fragments of Psalm-commentaries
are preceded by a long letter to a certain Marcellinus8 in which
Athanasius expresses his great joy at the interest his correspondent
takes in the Psalms; the latter is assured that a profound study of
them will prove very instructive and useful. While the authenticity
of this letter is beyond doubt, it is not at all certain that it is in
any way related to the commentary which follows. In 1746, a second
commentary on the Psalms was published by N. Antonelli under the
name of St. Athanasius9; it confines itself to the exposition of the
titles of the Psalms and to a simple paraphrase of the text. At present
this commentary is not considered to be by our Saint, but is attributed
to Hesychius of Jerusalem. St. Jerome mentions10 among the works
of the Saint a Liber de Psalmorum titulis , but the identity of this
work with the Antonelli commentary is very doubtful. Photius had in
his hands a commentary of Athanasius on Ecclesiastes and the Can
ticle of canticles 11. Fragments of a commentary on Job are printed in
the Benedictine edition 12. In the same collection are found fragments
1 Ib., xxv. 685 — 690. " Ib., xxvi. 681 — 794.
3 Ib., xxvi. 1181 — 1186. 4 Ib., xxvi. 795 — 810.
5 Ib., xxvi. 1179 — 1182. 6 Ib., xxvi. 1029 — 1048.
7 Ib., xxvii. 55 — 590; some new fragments were published, in 1888, by Pitra.
8 Ib., xxvii. 11—46. <J Ib., xxvii. 649 — 1344. 10 De viris ill., c. 87.
11 Bibl. Cod. 139.
12 Migne, PG., xxvii. 1343 — 1348; other fragments were^added by Pitra, in 1888.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 17
258 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
of a commentary on the Canticle of canticles1, St. Matthew2,
St. Luke3 and on I Corinthians4. All these exegetical materials
have been drawn from the Catenae. The so-called Synopsis Scrip-
turae Sacrae (auvotyu; IXITO/JIOG TTJQ ft stag fpapqcj 5 , a work that de
scribes the contents of all the scriptural books, in many places with
much acumen and fulness, was not written by our Saint.
6. ASCETICAL WORKS. - - In 357 (365?) Athanasius composed a
biography of St. Anthony (/Hog xal TioMreia TOO bo'iou 7:o.Tpbc, fyicijy
'AvTcovtou GJ as the model of a life consecrated to the service of God.
It was translated into Latin by Evagrius of Antioch (f 393) and con
tributed much, both in East and West, to the growing enthusiasm
for the ascetic and monastic life. In the Benedictine edition the Latin
translation is joined to the Greek text. It is an authentic and trust
worthy work ; the attacks made on it in these respects by Weingarten
(1877) have been successfully refuted by Eichhorn and Mayer (1
The genuineness of the Syntagma doctrlnae ad monachos
dtdaaxaUaQ xpbq [jLovdZovraQ1 ) , that uses tacitly but extensively the
Didache (§ 6), is open to doubt, likewise that of the De virginitate
sive de ascesi (nspi xap&svtaQ TJTOL Tispl dffx^crstoQ^J. On the other
hand, there is no reason to suspect the authenticity of several letters
written to monks, among them one to the abbot Dracontius 9, two to
the abbot Orsisius or Orsiesius10, one to the monk Amunis11, and one
to the monks of Egypt 12.
7. FESTAL LETTERS. — Mention has already been made (§ 40, 4)
of the so-called festal letters of the bishops of Alexandria. The
original text of those composed by Athanasius has been lost, apart
from some fragments13. In 1847 a collection of these letters in
Syriac was found in a monastery of the Nitrian desert; they were
edited by Cureton in 1 848 H. The manuscript of Cureton was a
mutilated one, and contained only fifteen entire Letters, of the years
329—348 (in 336 337 340 343 344 Athanasius issued no Festal
Letters). These Letters have rendered valuable service to the modern
historians of Arianism. Some fragments of the Saint's Festal Letters
have lately been discovered in a Coptic version.
8. TEACHING OF ATHANASIUS CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE
TRINITY. The Christology of Athanasius is all in the phrase:
«God became man in order to deify men», i. e. in order to raise
men to the rank of adoptive sons of God fodx apa avttpcoTTOQ tov
1 Migne, PG., xxvii. 1347 — 135°; cf. 1349 — 1362. 2 lb-> xxvii 1363— 1390.
Ib., xxvii. 1391 — I4o4; with new fragments published by Mai, in 1844.
Ib., xxvii. 1403—1404. s Ib ^ xxviii 283_438
Ib., xxvi. 835—976. ^ Ib ; xxviH 835_846> s Ib> xxviii 25I_282.
Ib., xxv. 523-534. 10 Ib-; xxvi 977-980. 11 Ib., xxvi. 1169—1176.
lb., xxvi., 1185—1188. is Ib<> xxvi> I43I__I
Migne, PL., xxvi. i35i_I444) jn a Latin version.
§ 63. ST. ATHANASIUS. 2$ 9
yiyovz #£0£* a.Ma tizbc, cbv oaTzpov yiyovzv avdpioTioc, Iva
tt £07io rf cry j 1. Inasmuch as we have a part in the Son, we have
also, according the words of Holy Scripture, a part in God (aOToo yap
TOO oloo fisri^ovreQ TOO fteoo fiere^etv Asfojusfla2 , TOOTOO yap IJLS.TO.-
Q TOO -xarpbc, fjt£T£/otuzv, did TO TOO TraTpoQ zlvai "tdtov TOV
Unless Christ were true God, He could not fulfil his office as
Redeemer. « If He were the divinity and the image of the Father only
by participation fix /jte~o>jfftagj , and not essentially and by Himself,
fe£ O.OTOO), He would not have been able to deify others, since Himself
must first have been made like unto God. For it is not possible
that anyone should share with another that which himself has only
through participation, since that which he has is not his own pro
perty but the property of him who gave it, and what he has received
suffices only to satisfy his own need of grace. » 4 «If the Son were a
creature, man would none the less remain mortal, because not united
with God. For a creature cannot unite creatures with God, since himself
must be united with God through another creature, and no member
of creation can redeem creation, because itself is in need of redemption.)) 5
It is quite impossible that there should be a middle something
between the Creator and the creature. The thesis of Arius that in
order to create the world God needed a middle being is very easily
shown to be false. God is neither so impotent that He could not
have created all things Himself, nor so arrogant that He would have
disdained to create them 6. Christ is therefore true God. God is cer
tainly a unity fpovdgj, but in this unity is included a trinity (rptdg).
There is one divinity in this trinity fula fteorqg IffTw iv Tptddi.1, did TO
xal fjtiay elvat i» TYJ dyia rptddt #loTrjTa)s. The very name Father sup
poses the existence of a Son (itaripa ?dp oox av rig etiroi JUYJ
uiou®, o ok TOV #£ov r:a.Tipa Asycov e'jftbz, iv WJTW xal TOV vlbv
The Son however is not from nothing, nor from the will of the Father,
but from the substance of the Father (ix TYJQ oumaQ TOU xaTpoc, 11/), and
this origin of the Son from the nature of the Father is essentially
different from the origin of creatures from the will of the Father
(oao> ouv TOO XTicr/jtaTOQ b DCOQ unlpxeiTat, TOGOOTOJ xal TYJQ ^ooAr^aeojc,
TO XC/.TO-. <p6aw 12J. The Son is co-eternal with the Father, and there
was never a time when the Son was not (COQ $eou TOO del OVTOQ
"tdtoQ aw oibc, d'idiwQ brjipyzi 13/ The Son shares with the Father the
entire plenitude of the divinity (TO icMjpaifJLa TTJQ TOO xaTpbc, fteoryroQ
IffTt TO elyai TOO oloo xal o),oc, fteoq IGTIV b oioQ 14). Generation as
predicated of the Son, does not mean the act of being made, but
signifies participation in the entire substance of the Father (TO yap
1 Or. c. Ar., i. 39. 2 Ib., i. 16. 3 De synodis, c. 51. 4 Ib.
5 Or. c. Ar., ii. 69. « Ib., ii. 24 25. 7 Ib., i. 18.
8 Ep. ad lov., c. 4. <J Or. c. Ar., iii. 6. 10 De deer. Nic. syn., c. 30.
11 Ib., c. 19. 12 Or. c. Ar., iii. 62. 13 Ib., i. 14. 14 Ib., iii. 6.
17*
26O SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
oXa)Z {Jtsre/sff&at rbv dsbvlffou eeri U^stv on xac yswa 1. They are two,
Father and Son, but their nature is one, and that unity is indivisible
and inseparable (860 fiiv stffw, on o narrjp xarfjp ion xal ouy o
moQ ion* xa\ o mbq oioz ion xal ouy b wjrbq xarqp ion- fua 3k y
coffTS duo /j.kv zlvat naripa %ui Mv, /Jtovdoa dk
%at ao%toTov*). The Spirit of God shares the same divinity and the
same power (TTJQ adr/jq ftsoryTOQ ion xat TTJQ adrrjc, ISOUOIOLQ*). The
Source (rt T^rty 5 °f the Holy Spirit is the Son who is with the Father.
The Holy Spirit is inseparable from the substance of the Father and
the Son (TO dk aytov nvsu/jta od xriop.0. oodk £;ivov, a)J? fdtov xal
ddtatpsTov TTJC, oocfiaQ TOU oiou xal TOLJ 7ra.Tp6c,Q). He is of one and the
same substance with the Father and the Son (TOO hoyou SVOQ OVTOC
I'diov xal roi> &BOU svbc, OVIOQ tdiov xat bfj.oo6oibv eon1). There is,
therefore, but one divinity and one God in three persons (p.ia yap
xai SIQ &eo£ iv rioiv
9. COMPLETE EDITIONS. TRANSLATIONS. CRITICAL STUDIES. — The
first complete edition of the original text of the writings of St. Athanasius
appeared at Heidelberg, 1600 — 1601, ex officina Commeliniana, 2 vols.
A second edition was brought out by J-. Piscator, Paris, 1627, 2 vols., and
reprinted at Cologne in 1686. The best edition is that of the Benedic
tines of St. Maur (Maurists), y. Lopin and B. de Montfaucon, Paris, 1698,
3 vols. The reprint of this edition, at Padua, 1777, by N. A. Giustiniani,
bishop of that city, has still a fourth volume, in which are included
many hitherto unprinted writings of Athanasius, most of them discovered
by de Montfaucon. The Giustiniani edition is reprinted with additions in
Migne, PG., xxv— xxviii, Paris, 1857. We owe to J. C. Thilo a selection
of the dogmatico-polemical and historico-polemical writings of St. Athana
sius reprinted from the Benedictine edition (Bibl. Patrum graec. dogm.
edendam curavit Thilo, vol. i), Leipzig, 1853. Cf. F. IVallis , On some
Mss. of the writings of St. Athanasius, in Journal of Theological Studies
(1901 — -1902), iii. 94 — 109 245 — 258. Lake, Some further notes on the
Mss. of the writings of St. Athanasius, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1903
to 1904), v. 108—114. German translations of selected works were made
by j. Fisch and P. A. Richard, Kempten, 1872 — 1875, 2 v°ls- (Bibl. der
Kirchenvater). There is an English version of the most important works
of St. Athanasius by A. Robertson (J. H. Newman), in Select Library of
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, New York, 1892,
series II, iv. Select treatises of St. Athanasius in controversy with the
Arians (Cardinal Newman], 2 vols. E. Fialon, St. Athanase, etude litteraire,
Paris, 1877. K- Hoss, Studien liber das Schrifttum und die Theologie des
Athanasius auf Grund einer Echtheitsuntersuchung von Athanasius contra
gentes und De incarnatione , Freiburg, 1899. A. Stillcken , Athanasiana.
Literar- und dogmengeschichtliche Untersuchungen , Leipzig, 1899, in
Texte und Untersuchungen, xix, new series, iv. 4. X. Le Bachelet, S. J.,
Dictionnaire de la Theologie Catholique, Paris, 1903, i. 2144—2178:
St. Athanase.
1 Or. c. Ar., i. 1 6. '-' Ib., iii. 4. s HO., iv> I
De incarn. et c. Ar., c. 9. * Ib. * Tom. ad Ant,, c. 5.
7.Ep. ad Scrap., i. 27. » De incarn. et c. Ar., c. 10.
§ 63. ST. ATHANASIUS. 26 1
10. SEPARATE EDITIONS AND VERSIONS. SPECIAL RESEARCHES. APQ-
LOGETICAL WORKS. A separate edition of the Oratio de incarnatione Verbi was
published by A. Robertson , London, 1882 1893. The authenticity of the
two apologetic treatises was first called in question by V. Schultze, Geschichte
des Untergangs des griechisch-romischen Heidentums, Jena, 1887, i. 118,
afterwards decidedly denied by J. Draseke, in Theol. Studien und Kritiken
(1893), Ixvi. 251 — 315. The Athanasian authorship was sustained by Hoss,
1. c. (see above no. 9), pp. i — 95, and Stulcken,\. c. (above no. 9), pp. i — 23.
For the Oratio contra gentes see the work of A. Lebentopulos , quoted in
§ 17, 3. - - DOGMATICO-POLEMICAL WORKS. Drdseke , in Zeitschr. fiir
wissenschaftl. Theol. (1893), xxxvi. i, 290 — 315, Hoss, 1. c., pp. 123 — 127,
and Stillcken, 1. c., pp. 50 — 58, call the fourth and last of the Orationes IV
contra Arianos spurious. The Liber de Trinitate et Spiritu Sancto is also
found as the last of twelve books de Trinitate among the writings of Vigilius,
bishop of Tapsus (Migne, PL., Ixii. 237 — 334). T. H. Bentley brought out
an edition of the De incarnatione Dei Verbi et contra Arianos , London,
1887, 2. ed. , ib. , 1902. The authenticity of the Expositio fidei and of
the Sermo maior de Jide has been denied by Hoss, 1. c., pp. 104 — 123, and
by Stulcken, 1. c., pp. 23 — 40. The Interpretatio in symbolum (IpjxYjveia si?
TO (jufij3oXov) is commented on with great learning by C. P. Caspari, in his
Ungedruckte Quellen zur Gesch. des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel,
Christiania, 1866, i. i — 72, where there is also (i. 143 — 160) a critical
edition of the Greek text (with an ancient Syriac version) of the profession
of faith known as De incarnatione Dei Verbi (uspl TTJ? jap%u>7£u>» TOO Osou
Ao-you); for its origin see Caspari, Alte und neue Quellen etc., Christiania,
1879, PP- I02 ff- Tne Maurists edited the Symbolum Athanasianum, in the
Latin original, four Greek versions and two Old-French versions (Migne,
PG., xxviii. 1581 — 1596). Two other Greek versions are found in Cas
pari, Ungedruckte Quellen, iii. 263 — 267. For a series of commentaries
on the Athanasianum see A. E. Burn, The Athanasian Creed and its
early Commentaries, Cambridge, 1896, in Texts and Studies, iv. i. Id., An
Introduction to the Creeds and to the Te Deum, London, 1899. G. D. W.
Omrnaney , A critical dissertation on the Athanasian Creed, its original
language, date, authorship, titles,, text, reception and use, Oxford, 1897.
G. Morin, Le symbole d'Athanase et son premier temoin Cesaire d'Arles, in
Revue Benedictine (1901), xviii. 338 — 363. A. E. Burn, On Eusebius of
Vercelli, in Journal of Theological Studies (1900), i. 592 — 599. F. N. Oxenham,
The Athanasian Creed, London, 1902. K. Kiinstle, Antipriscilliana, Frei
burg, 1905. On the «Two Books against Apollinaris» see }-. Drdseke,
Gesammelte Patristische Untersuch., Altona, 1889, pp. 169 — 207, also
StUlcken, 1. c. (see above, no. 9), pp. 70 — 75. The spurious Doctrina ad
Antiochum ducem (Migne , PG., xxviii. 555 — 590), noteworthy for its reference
to the «Shepherd» of Hermas, was edited anew by W. Dindorf, Athanasii
Alexandrini praecepta ad Antiochum. Ad codices duos recensuit G. D.,
Leipzig, 1857. In this work (pp. vi — xii and 63 — 77) Dindorf reprinted
from a Cod. Guelpherbytanus (saec. x.) a copious varietas lectionis relative to
the spurious Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem (Migne, PG., xxviii. 597 — 708),
a compilation from ancient works, among them some of Athanasius, made
by various utterly unknown hands. For the seven Dialogues on the Trinity
(Migne, PG. , xxviii. 1115 — 1338: Dialogi v de Trinitate and Dialogi ii
contra Macedonianos] and the Confutations quarumdam propositionum (Ib.,
xxviii. 1337 — 1394) see § 78, 8. F. Wallis, On some Mss. of the writings
of St. Athanasius, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1902), iii. 245 — 258.
11. SEPARATE EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS. SPECIAL RESEARCHES (CON
TINUED). -- Historico- Polemical writings. For a refutation of some doubts
262 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
concerning the authenticity of the Historia Arianorum ad monacJios see
A. Eichhorn, Athanasii de vita ascetica testimonia collecta, Halle, 1886,
PP- 57 — 62. — Exegetical writings. The genuineness of the second Psalm-
commentary (Migne, PG., xxvii. 649 — 1344) was denied by H. Strdter, Die
Erlosungslehre des hi. Athanasius, Freiburg, 1894, pp. 29 — 35, and by
M. Faulhaber, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1901), Ixxxiii. 218 — 232. The latter
attributes it to Hesychius of Jerusalem (§79, 3), and corroborates the thesis
of G. Mercati , in Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana antica (Studi e
Testi v), Rome, 1901, pp. 144 — 179: «I1 commentario di Esichio Gero-
solimitano sui salmi». Cardinal Mai published (Nova Patrum BibL, Rome,
1844, ii, part 2) under the name of Athanasius In Lucac evangelium com-
mentariorum excerpta (pp. 567 — 582), and fragmenta alia (pp. 583 — 584);
the latter are reprinted in Migne, PG., xxvi. 1291— -1294, though I have
sought there in vain for the excerpta. Pitra , Analecta sacra et classica
(1888), part i , made known under the name of Athanasius some frag
ments ex commentario in Psalmos (pp. 3 — 20) and ex commentario in Job
(pp. 21 — 26). On the Synopsis Scripturae Sacrae see Charteris } Canoni-
city, Edinburgh, 1880; Th. Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons,
Erlangen, 1890, ii. i, 302 — 318; cf. E. Klostermann, Analecta zur Septua-
ginta, Hexapla und Patristik, Leipzig, 1895, pp. 75 ff. -- Ascetic writ
ings. A handy edition of the Vita S. Antonii was brought out by A. F.
Maunoury , Paris, 1887 and 1890. The authenticity and credibility of
this work were attacked by H. Weingarten, Der Ursprung des Monch-
tums im nachconstantinischen Zeitalter, Gotha, 1877. Weingarten was
refuted by A. Eichhorn, Athanasii de vita ascetica testimonia collecta
(Inaug.-Diss.) , Halle, 1886, and by J. Mayer, in Der Katholik (1886), i.
495 — 5l6 619—636; ii. 72 — 86 173 — 193. Dom Cuthbert Butler, The
Lausiac History of Palladius, i, in Texts and Studies, Cambridge, 1898,
vi. i, 215 — 228. The Latin version of Evagrius may also be found in
the Bollandists, in the Acta SS. Jan., Antwerp, 1643, ii. 120 — 141. In his
Acta martyrum et sanctorum, Paris, 1895, v. 1 — 121, Bedjan made known
an ancient Syriac version of the work ; cf. Fr. Schulthess, Probe einer sy-
rischen Version der Vita S. Antonii (Inaug.-Diss.), Leipzig, 1894. P. Batiffol
edited anew (and pronounced spurious) the Syntagma doctrinae ad mon-
achos, in Studia patristica, Paris, 1890, ii. 117—160. Id., On the De
virginitate seu de ascesi, in Romische Quartalschr. ftir christl. Altertums-
kunde u. f. Kirchengesch. (1893), vii. 275 286. - - The Festal Letters.
The Festal Letters of Athanasius, discovered in an ancient Syriac version,
and edited by W. Cureton , London, 1848. The Syriac text is reprinted,
with a Latin version, in Mai, Nova Patrum BibL, Rome, 1853, vi, part i
(Migne, PG. , xxvi. 1351 — 1444). A German translation of the Festal
Letters was made by F. Larsow , Die Festbriefe des hi. Athanasius, Bi-
schofs von Alexandria, Leipzig, 1852. Th. Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl.
Kanons, Erlangen, 1890, ii. i, 203—212: Der Osterfest-Brief des Atha
nasius vom Jahre 367 (Migne, ^G., xxvi. 1435—1440). Id. (apropos of this
Festal Letter), Athanasius und der Bibelkanon, Leipzig, 1901. Concerning
some Coptic fragments of the same letter and its biblical canon cf. C. Schmidt,
in Nachrichten von der k. Gesellsch. der Wissensch. zu Gottingen, Phil.-hist.
Kl. (1898), pp. 167 — 203; Id. , Ein neues Fragment des Osterfest-Briefes
des Athanasius vom Jahre 367, ib., 1901. For Coptic fragments of other
Festal Letters see H. Achelis, in Theol. Literaturzeitung (1899), pp. 663 f.
W Riedel and W. E. Crum , The Canons of Athanasius of Alexandria.
1 he Arabic and Coptic Versions edited and translated (Text and Translation
Society), London, 1904. — Other spurious works. The Fides Nicaena (Migne,
PG., xxviii. 1637 — 1644) was edited again by P. Batiffol, in Didascalia
§ 63. ST. ATHANASIUS. 263
cccxviii Patrum pseudepigrapha, e graecis codicibus recensuit P. Batiffol,
Coptico contulit H. Hyvernat, Paris, 1887. E. Rcvillout had already made
known two Coptic texts of this small work. For more explicit details see
A. Eichhorn, in Theol. Literaturzeitung (1887), pp. 569 — 571. The Tractatus
S. Athanasii de ratione paschae (Migne, PG., xxviii. 1605 — 1610), extant in
Latin only, is a recasting of the De pascha by Martin of Bracara (§ 119, i).
Cf. F. Piper, tiber den Verfasser der dem Athanasius beigelegten Schrift
«De paschate», Berlin, 1862. For the Historia imaginis Berytensis (Ib., xxviii.
797 — 824) in two Greek and two Latin recensions, see Wildt, in Kirchen-
lexikon (1882), 2. ed., i. 1543—1547; v. DobscJmtz, Christusbilder, Leipzig,
1899, pp. 280 ff. H. E. Taiezi published at Venice (1899) an ancient
Armenian translation of Athanasiana, treatises, sermons, letters and spurious
matter ; also some fragments unknown in the Greek, among them a discourse
that is also extant in Coptic (F. Rossi, I papiri copti del Museo Egiziano
de Tarmo, Tarmo, 1888, ii. i). There is in Taiezi a fragment of the letter
of Athanasius to his disciple and successor Timotheos ; cf. § 63 , 3
and 79, 4.
12. WORKS ON ATHANASIUS. — To the ancient authorities for the life
of the Saint we may now add some fragments of a Coptic eulogium edited
by O. v. Lemm , Koptische Fragmente zur Patriarchengeschichte Alexan-
driens, Petersburg, 1888. Cf. J. A. Mohler, Athanasius der Grosse und die
Kirche seiner Zeit, besonders im Kampfe mit dem Arianismus, Mainz, 1827,
2. vols., 2. ed. 1844. Fr. Bohringer, Die griechischen Vater des 3. und
4. Jahrhunderts. 2. Halfte: Athanasius und Arius (Die Kirche Christi und ihre
Zeugen oder die Kirchengeschichte in Biographien, vol. i., sect. 2., half 2.,
ed. 2.), Stuttgart, 1874. G. Kriiger, Die Bedeutung des Athanasius, in Jahrb.
f. protest. Theol. (1890), xvi. 337 — 356. Contributions to the chronology
of the life of Athanasius were made by A, v. Gutschmid, Kleine Schriften,
herausgegeben von Fr. Riihl, Leipzig, 1890, ii. 427 — 449. H. Voigt, Die
Lehre des Athanasius von Alexandrien oder die kirchliche Dogmatik des
4. Jahrhunderts auf Grund der biblischen Lehre vom Logos, Bremen, 1861.
C/i. Vernet, Essai sur la doctrine christologique d'Athanase-le-Grand (These),
Geneve, 1879. L. Atzberger, Die Logoslehre des hi. Athanasius, Miinchen,
1880. G. Voisin, La doctrine christologique de Saint Athanase, in Revue
d'histoire ecclesiastique (1900), i. 226 — 248. G. A. Pell, Die Lehre des
hi. Athanasius von der Siinde und Erlosung, Passau, 1888. H. Strdter, Die
Erlosungslehre des hi. Athanasius, Freiburg, 1894. K. Bornhauser , Die
Vergotterungslehre des Athanasius und Johannes Damascenus, Giitersloh,
1903. F. Lauchert , Die Lehre des hi. Athanasius d. Gr., Leipzig, 1895.
H. Lietzmann, Chronologic der ersten und zweiten Verbannung des Atha
nasius, in Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Theol. (1901), xliv. 380 — 390. Gwatkin,
Studies on Arianism, Cambridge, 1900.
13. ALEXANDER OF ALEXANDRIA. - - Two letters about the heresy of
Arius from the pen of this bishop of Alexandria (see no. i) are extant,
both written before the Council of Nicsea, one to Alexander, bishop of
Constantinople, and the other to all the bishops (Migne, PG. , xviii. 547
to 582). It is clear from these letters that Alexander grasped at once the
true significance of the teaching of Arius. He does not use the term
6[ioo6<noc, but he does call the Blessed Virgin 73 fhoroxo? (Ep. i., c. 12).
Some Greek fragments current under his name are collected in Migne,
PG., xviii. 581 — 584, also a Syriac Sermo de anima et corpore deque pas-
stone Domini (ib. , 585 — 608, Syriac and Latin) and several short Syriac
fragments edited by Martin, in Pitra, Analecta sacra, iv. 196 — 200 430 to
434 (Syriac and Latin). For the Syriac sermon and the Syriac fragments
cf. G. Kriiger, in Zeitschr. fiir wissensch. Theol. (1888), xxxi. 434 — 448;
264 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
C. Thomas, Melito von Sardes, Osnabriick, 1893, pp. 40—51. See also
§ i9> 3-
14. POPES JULIUS i. AND LiBERius. — Julius I. (33?— 352) wa§ the sole
support in troublous times of the bishops persecuted for their opposition
to Arianism (see no. i). We possess two Greek letters from his hand: Ad
Antiochenos and Ad Alexandrines (Migne, PL., viii. 897 — 912). Other writ
ings current under his name are Apollinarist forgeries (§ 61, 4), among
them the four letters in Greek, Apollinarist or Monophysite in tendency, in
Migne, PG., viii. 873—877 929—936 953—961; also m P. A. de Lagarde,
Titi Bostreni quae ex opere contra Manichaeos edito in cod. Hamburg,
servata sunt graece, Berlin, 1859, pp. 114—124. A Syriac version of
these letters is in de Lagarde, Analecta syriaca, Leipzig and London,
1858, pp. 67 — 79, and in J. Fr. A. Veith, Epistolae nonnullae sub lulii I
nomine divulgatae (Diss. inaug.), Breslau, 1862. The seven Syriac frag
ments attributed to Julius I. are also in G. Mosinger, Monumenta Syriaca,
Innsbruck, 1878, ii. i — 5. - - There are extant under the name of Pope
Liberius (352 — 366) several letters in Latin and a letter in Greek Ad uni-
versos orientis orthodoxos episcopos (Migne, PL., viii. 1349 — 1358 1372
to 1373 1381 — 1386); cf.Jafft, Regesta Pontificum Rom., 2. ed., Leipzig,
1885, i. n. 208 — 216 223 228. Saint Ambrose (De virginibus, iii. i — 3)
has handed down the discourse pronounced by Liberius on the occasion
of the religious consecration of Marcellina, the sister of Ambrose. Theo-
doret (Hist, eccl., ii. 13) has saved for us the declarations in which Li
berius resisted at Milan (355) the demands' of the emperor Constantius. It
is probable that Liberius subscribed the third Sirmian formula and thereby
sacrificed, not orthodoxy, but the term ojAoouaios ; cf. H. Grisar, in Kirchen-
lexikon, 2. ed. , 1891, vii. 1951—1959. The four Latin letters that are
quoted as proof of the pope's lapse into Arianism are now recognized as
forgeries (Migne, PL., viii. 1365—1372 1395); cf. also Jaffe, 1. c., n. 217
to 219 and 207; the same is true of the Greek letter to Athanasius and
the reply of the latter (Migne, PL., viii. 1395 — 1440, and PG., xxviii. 1441
to 1446; Jafft, n. 229), likewise of other writings ascribed at different
times to Liberius (Jaffe, n. 222 224—247). L. de Feis, Storia di Liberio
papa e dello scisma dei Semiariani, Rome, 1894.
§ 64. The representatives of Egyptian Monachism.
I. SAINT ANTHONY. — Saint Anthony the Great, who found his
first biographer in St. Athanasius (§ 63, 6), passes for the founder
of the cenobitic life. He died in 356, at the age of one hundred
and five, on Mount Colzim near the Red Sea. St. Athanasius in
serted in his «Vita Antonii» (cc. 16 — 43) a long discourse of the
Saint to his monks, translated from «Egyptian» (Coptic). St. Jerome1
was acquainted with seven letters apostolici sensus sermonisque ad
dressed by Anthony to several monasteries, and translated from
Egyptian into Greek; the most important (praecipua est) was a letter
ad Arsenoitas. There are grave difficulties against the identification
of these letters with the cpistolae septcm S. Antonii still current in
Latin. Discourses and thoughts of this «father of the monks» were
set down in writing by some of his disciples. Some ascetical works
have been falsely attributed to him.
1 De viris ill., c. 88.
§ 64. THE REPRESENTATIVES OF EGYPTIAN MONACHISM. 26$
There are some Coptic fragments of letters, under the name of An
thony, Ad S. Theodorum and Ad S. Athanasium, in y. A. Mingarelli,
Aegyptiorum codicum reliquiae Venetiis in bibliotheca Naniana asservatae,
Bologna, 1785, pp. cxcviii — cciii. A short letter to Theodortis, translated from
the Egyptian, in Epistola Ammonis episc. ad Theophilum papam Alexandriae,
is found in the Bollandists, in the Acta SS. Mai, iii. 70 (p. 355, in Latin),
and is reprinted in Migne, PG., xl. 1065. Migne (1. c., 961 — 1100) contains
also the following Latin writings attributed to Saint Anthony: Sermo de
vanitate mundi et de resurrectione mortuorum, Sermones XX ad filios suos
monachos, Epistolae VII ex Graeco Latine redditae interprete Valerio de
Sarasio, Epistolae XX ex Arabico Latini iuris factae ab Abrahamo Ecchellensi
Maronita e Libano, Regulae ac praecepta ad filios suos monachos, Spiri-
tualia documenta, Admonitiones et documenta varia, Sententiarum quarum-
dam S. Antonii expositio facta a quodam sene, Interrogationes quaedam a
diversis S. Antonio factae eiusque ad easdem responsiones, Dicta quaedam
S. Antonii. The seven letters have been also published (Latin text) by
A. Erdinger , Innsbruck, 1871. A. Verger, Vie de St. Antoine-le-Grand,
patriarche des cenobites, Tours, 1890. B. Contzen, Die Regel des
hi. Antonius (Progr.), Metten, 1896. y. Besse, Diet, de la Theologie Catho-
lique, Paris, 1903, i. 1441 — 1443: St. Antoine.
2. ST. PACHOMIUS. - - If Anthony was the father of the monks,
his disciple Pachomius was their first legislator. The scene of his life
and labors was Tabennesus, north of Thebes, on the right bank of
the Nile, where the monastic colony grew until it counted thousands
of members. He died in 345 according to Griitzmacher, in 346
(May 9.) according to Ladeuze. His rule was probably the out
growth of time and was written originally in Coptic. Ladeuze thinks
that the short Greek text in Palladius1 is by no means the oldest
form of the rule; the Latin text in Saint Jerome2 is a translation
from the Greek and represents the condition of the rule about the
year 400. There are added to this version some exhortations and
several letters of Pachomius3.
The historical authorities for the life and labors of Pachomius are : a
Greek biography of the Saint and of his disciple Theodoras, some Coptic
and Arabic documents published by E. Amilineau in 1889 and 1895 , a
Syriac History of Pachomius edited by P. Bedjan in 1895, and other docu
ments; cf. G. Griitzmacher, Pachomius und das alteste Klosterleben, Frei
burg, 1895; P- Ladeuze, Etude sur la cenobitisme Pakhomien pendant le
IVe siecle et la premiere moitie du Ve, Paris, 1898. The oldest Life of
Pachomius was written in Greek, soon after 386 according to Ladeuze, and
in the form in which it appears in the Bollandists, in the Acta SS. Mai.,
iii. 25 ff. There is a Greek recension of Pachomius's rule in Palladius
(1. c.), also in Sozomenus, Hist. eccl. , iii. 14. A longer Greek recension
(50 rules) is found in Acta SS. Mai., iii. 62 — 63 (Latin pp. 346—347), and
in Migne, PG., xl. 947—952. A still longer Greek recension (60 rules) was
published by Pitra , Analecta sacra et classica (1888), i. 113 — 115. The
Latin text in St. Jerome (1. c.) includes as many as 194 rules. For Ethiopic
Regulae Pachomii cf. A. Dillmann, Chrestomathia Aethiopica, Leipzig, 1866,
1 Historia Lausiaca, c. 38. - Migne, PL., xxiii. 61 — 86.
3 Ib., xxiii. 85 — 99.
266 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
pp ^7_69- this text has been translated into German by E. Konig, in
Theol. Studien und Kritiken (1878), li. 323— 337. Some Coptic sermons
attributed to Pachomius were published by E. Amelineau, with a French
version, in the Memoires publics par les membres de la mission archeo-
logique franchise au Caire (1895), iv. 2, 483 if. E. Preuschen 3 Monchtum
und Serapiskult, Giessen, 1903. On St. Pachomius and his monks see
M. Heimbuchcr, Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche,
Paderborn, 1896, i. 36 ff.
3. ST. ORSISIUS (ORSIESIUS) AND ST. THEODORUS. - - PetroniUS,
the successor of Pachomius in the government of his monastic com
munity, survived him but a few days. His place was filled by
Orsisius or Orsiesius (§ 63, 6), who chose as his assistant the monk
Theodorus. The latter died in 368 ; the death of Orsisius took place
about 380. Jerome1 has added to the letters of Pachomius (§ 64, 2)
a brief letter of Theodorus Ad omnia monasteria de pascha. Gen-
nadius2 knew several letters of Theodorus. Orsisius wrote a Doc-
trina de institutionc monachorum* that won warm praise from Gen-
nadius 4 ; it was probably written in Coptic , but is known to us
only in a Latin version which is very probably the work of Saint
Jerome. A Libellus de sex cogitationibus sanctorum 5 in Latin goes
under the name of Orsisius.
On Orsisius and Theodorus the reader may consult the works of Griitz-
macher and Ladeuze quoted above (no. 2). With the Coptic Sermons
of Pachomius, Amelineau published (1. c.) Coptic Sermons of Theodorus
and Coptic Letters of Orsisius, with a French version.
4. SS. MACARIUS THE EGYPTIAN AND MACARIUS THE ALEXANDRINE.
- Rufinus 6 and Palladius 7 dwell with special pleasure on the wonder
ful deeds of Macarius the Egyptian and Macarius the Alexandrine.
The former was born about the year 300, and when about thirty
years of age, retired to the solitude of Scete, where he dwelt for
sixty years. At the end of his first decade in the desert he was
ordained priest, and because of his rapid progress in virtue was
soon known as «the aged youth », xaidapiofipcov. His sanctity was
made evident by remarkable gifts of prophecy and by power over the
demons and by the healing of the sick. These gifts were possessed
in a still higher degree by his somewhat younger contemporary,
Macarius of Alexandria. He was also a priest and had charge of
a monastery (or the monasteries?) in the Nitrian desert, then the
principal centre of Egyptian monasticism. He died about 395, and
was henceforth known as «the Alexandrine » 8 or also «the town's
man» 9 from the place of his birth and to distinguish him from his
1 Migne, PL., xxiii. 99 100. • De viris ill., c. 8.
3 Migne, PG., xl. 869—894. 4 De viris ill., c. 9.
5 Migne, PG., xl. 895—896. 6 Vitae Patrum, cc. 28 29.
7 Hist. Lausiaca, c. 19 20. 8 Socr.t Hist. ec.cl., iv. 23.
n Sozom., Hist, eccl., iii. 14.
§ 64. THE REPRESENTATIVES OF EGYPTIAN MONACHISM. 267
illustrious namesake who was born in Upper Egypt. It is only in our
own time that he came to be known as «Macarius Junior». In So-
zomen 1 and Nicephorus Callistus 2 it is another Egyptian monk 3 who
is called «the younger » (b vioq). The ancient biographers are silent
about any writings of the two Macarii. Gennadius4 mentions only one
didactic letter of «the celebrated Egyptian monk Macarius» to younger
monks: Macarius monachus ille Aegyptius. . . . unam tanttim ad
iuniores professionis suae scripsit epistolam . At a later date we
meet with a great number of works attributed to one or other of
these holy men. Fifty « spiritual » homilies i. e. dealing with the
spiritual life, bear the name of Macarius the Egyptian (bfidiat 7ivB>jfj.a-
Tixat5}, also an Epistola magna et periitilis^ first edited by Floss
(1850). The homilies, the authenticity of which we have no reason to
suspect, were much admired at a later period ; their author ranks as
a foremost representative of the earliest ecclesiastical mysticism. The
following treatises : De custodia cordis, De perfectione in spiritu, De
oratione, De patientia et discretions, De elevatione mentis, De charitate,
De libertate mentis1, published by Possinus (1683) as works of
Macarius the Egyptian, are really excerpts from the « Spiritual homilies »,
made probably in the tenth century by Simeon Logotheta. There
is also current under the name of Macarius an apparently spurious
Sermo de exitu animae iustorum et peccatorum, qnomodo separantur
a cor pore et in quo statu manent*. Several short collections of
« sentences » (apophthegmata)^ are usually attributed to « Macarius the
Egyptian abbot ». A short prayer10, three Latin letters11 and a
Latin Regula ad monachos 12, are ascribed in the manuscripts to « Saint
Macarius ». A Latin discourse that bears the name of Macarius the
Alexandrine is probably spurious.
In Migne (PG.; xxxiv) several «Dissertationes» are added to the works
described in the preceding paragraph, among them the «Quaestiones cri-
ticae et historicae de Macariorum Aegyptii et Alexandrini vitis», in Floss,
Macarii Aegyptii epistolae, homiliarum loci, preces, primus edidit FL,
Cologne, 1850, pp. i — 1 88. M. Jocham published (Sulzbach, 1839, 2 vols.)
a German translation of the works of «St. Macarius the Great». Another
translation was published at Kempten, 1878 (Bibliothek der Kirchenvater).
The spiritual doctrine of Macarius is discussed by Th. Forster, Makarius
von Agypten, in Jahrb. f. deutsche Theol. (1873), xviii. 439 — 501. The
two fragments which Floss published at Bonn (Universitatsprogramm zum
3. Aug. 1866) under the name of Macarius (the Egyptian) belong, as was
pointed out by Gildcmcister, to a work printed among the writings of Saint
Ephraem, in the Greek section of the Roman edition of Kphnem (1732
1 Ib., vi. 29. 2 Hist, eccl., xi. 35. 3 Pallad., Hist. Laus., c. 17.
4 De viris ill., c. 10. 5 Migne, PG., xxxiv. 449 — 822.
6 Ib., xxxiv. 409—442. 7 Ib., xxxiv. 821 — 968.
8 Ib., xxxiv. 385 — 392. '•' Ib., xxxiv. 229 — 264.
10 Ib., xxxiv. 445 — 448. n Ib., xxxiv. 405—410 441—446.
12 Ib. xxxiv. 967 — 970.
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
to 1746) i. 4iB— 6iF). 7. Gildemeister, Uber die an der k. preuss.
Universitat Bonn entdeckten neuen Fragmente des Makarius, Leipzig, 1866.
H. J Floss, T. Gildemeister und das Bonner Universitatsprpgramm zum
•/Aug 1 866," 'Freiburg, 1867. J. Gildemeister, Uber die in Bonn ent
deckten neuen Fragmente des Makarius, zweites Wort, Elberfeld, 1867.
R. Lobe, Makarius von Agypten, in Kirchl. Jahrb. fur das Herzogtum
Sachsen-Altenburg (1900), vi i, 37— 78.
5. ST. ISATAS. An abbot Isaias, who lived according to the
common opinion in the fourth century and in the desert of Scete, is
held to be the author of twenty-nine Orationes the text of which has
reached us only in a Latin version1; some fragments of the Greek
text are in the Capitula de religiosa exercitatione et quiete 2. Sixty-
eight Praecepta sen consilia posita tironibus in monachatu 3 are extant
only in Latin. Some fragments are found in Migne4.
According to G. Krilger (Ahrens und Kriiger } Die sog. Kirchen-
geschichte des Zacharias Rhetor, Leipzig, 1899, pp. 385 f.), the author
of the above-mentioned works was the ascetic Isaias who died between 485
and 490, and found a biographer in the rhetorician Zacharias (§ 103, 2).
§ 65. Anti-Manichsean writers.
I. HEGEMONIUS. — Towards the end of the third century Mani-
chaeism began to make its way from Persia into the Greco-Roman
world and to popularize its system of two eternal principles, one
good the other evil, and of the origin of the works of creation from a
commingling of light and darkness. The literary opposition of the
Christians began, apparently, with the author of the Acta disputationis
Archelai cpiscopi Mesopotamiae et Manetis haeresiarchae, a work
that has reached us only in an ancient Latin translation made from a
Greek text. This Greek text some fragments of which are extant,
probably represent its primitive form; others maintain that it was
originally written in Syriac ; at all events it belongs to the first half
of the fourth century. According to the trustworthy evidence of
Heraclian of Chalcedon5 the author was a certain Hegemonius.
The work contains the narrative of a dispute between Archelaus,
bishop of Charchar (probably Carrhae-Harran) in Mesopotamia, and
the founder of Manichseism, held in presence of learned arbiters who
decided in favor of Archelaus; a second dispute likewise ended in
a splendid victory for the bishop. These disputes are doubtlessly
imaginary events, a literary form invented for the purpose of ex
hibiting the arguments of the author against Manichaeism. There is
no evidence for the historical reality of this bishop Archelaus or of
any of the personages brought forward, with the sole exception of
Mani. The work is nevertheless a valuable source of information
1 Migne, PG., xl. 1105 — 1206. 2 Ib., xl. 1205 — 1212.
J Migne, PL., ciii. 427 — 434. * Migne, PG., xl. 1211 — 1214.
5 Phot., Bibl. Cod. 85.
§ 65. ANT1-M ANIGHT AN WRITERS. 269
to historians and dogmatic theologians; the writer had before him
genuine Manichaean writings parts of which he quotes, and his de
scription of the Manichrean system is the common source of all later
Greek and Latin works on that subject.
A complete Latin text of the Acta disputationis was first edited by
L. A. Zacagni , Collectanea monumentorum veterum eccles. gr. ac lat,
Rome, 1698, pp. i — 105 ; often reprinted since, as e. g. in Migne, PG., x.
1405 — 1528. H. v. Zittwitz, Acta disputationis Archelai et Manetis, unter-
sucht, in Zeitschr. f. die hist. Theol. (1873), xliii. 467 — 528. Ad. Oblasinski,
Acta disputationis Archelai et Manetis (Diss. inaug.), Leipzig, 1874.
K. Kessler , Mani, Berlin, 1889, i. 87 — 171: «Sprache und Komposition
der Acta Archelai». Th. Noldeke, in Zeitschr. der deutschen Morgenland.
Gesellschaft (1889), xliii. 537 — 541, contested Kessler 's theory of a Syriac
original. C. Salemann, Ein Bruchstiick manichaischen Schrifttums im asia-
tischen Museum, in Memoires de 1'Acad. imp. des sciences de St. Peters-
bourg, Leipzig, 1904.
2. ALEXANDER OF LYCOPOLIS. - - In the first half of the fourth
century a certain Alexander Lycopolites, from Lycopolis in the The-
bais, wrote a work against the Manichseans. Notwithstanding its
brevity and its rude and obscure diction it has always been esteemed
as helpful evidence to the character of Manichaean teaching. Photius 1
calls him a bishop of Lycopolis; he was probably neither a bishop
nor a Christian, but a heathen and a Platonist.
The work of Alexander is edited by Fr. Combefis, Bibl. Graec. Patr.
auctarium novissimum, Paris, 1672, ii. 3 — 21, and reprinted in Migne,
PG., xviii. 409 — 448. A. Brinkmann has published a very accurate edition
of the text, Leipzig, 1895; on the personality and date of this writer
see Brinkmann in his edition, Praef., pp. xii ff.
3. ST. SERAPION OF THMUIS. — According to St. Jerome2 Serapion,
bishop of Thmuis in Lower Egypt and a faithful companion of Atha-
nasius in his conflicts and sufferings who for his learning was known
as Scholasticus (died after 362), wrote Adversum Manichaeum egregium
librum ct de Psalmorum titulis a Hum et ad diversos utiles epistolas.
Two of these letters were published by Cardinal Mai : one a short con
solatory letter to the bishop Eudoxius, the other a letter of encourage
ment to some monks of Alexandria. Wobbermin discovered and edited
a dogmatic letter «on the Father and the Son» fas pi -arpoq xai oloTj).
The work of Serapion on the titles of the Psalms seems to have
perished. His treatise against the Manichseans is extant, and fragments
of it have been reprinted from time to time. We owe to Brinkmann
(1894) the restoration of the original form of the work. In this shape
it is really an excellent composition ; the most important propositions
of Manichaeism are refuted not only with vigor but with much spirit
and acumen.
1 Contra Manichaeos, i. n. ~ De viris ill., c. 99.
2/0
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
The work of Serapion against the Manichseans and the similar work
of Titus of Bostra (see no. 4) have reached us through one (Genoese)
manuscript of the eleventh century; cf. Pitra, Analecta sacra et classica
(1888), part i, pp. 44—46. There is a copy of this codex in the City
Library of Hamburg; cf. de Lagarde, Titi Bostreni quae ex opere contra
Manichaeos edito in codice Hamburgensi servata sunt graece, e recogn.
P. A. de L., Berlin, 1859, iii. By reason of the blundering insertion of a
4to leaf in this codex, and consequently in the copy, three fourths of the
work of Serapion were made to pass as the production of Titus. De Lagarde
(1. c.) was the first to separate this interpolation from the book of the bishop
of Bostra, while Brinkmann was the first to recognize this part as belonging
to the work of Serapion (Sitzungsberichte der k. preuss. Akad. d. Wissensch.
zu Berlin, 1894, pp. 479 — 491). Previously J. Drasekc (Gesammelte Patrist.
Untersuchungen, Altona and Leipzig, 1889, pp. i — 24) fancied he saw in
this interpolated text the remnants of a work by the Macedonian George of
Laodicea (§ 61, 2). J. Basnage, Thesaurus monumentorum eccl. et hist.,
Antwerp, 1725, i. 35 — 55, edited the work from the Hamburg manuscript,
and his edition was reprinted in Migne , PG.; xl. 899 — 924. We owe to
Pitra, 1. c., pp. 48 — 49 , a collation of this manuscript with the Genoese
codex. The two letters edited by Mai (see no. 3) are reprinted in Migne,
PG., xl. 923 — 942. The dogmatic letter and thirty liturgical prayers, the
first and fifteenth of which are the work of Serapion, were edited by
G. Wobbermin, in Texte und Untersuchungen, Leipzig, 1898, xvii, new
series, ii. 3b. This Euchologium was also studied by P. Drews, in Zeit-
schrift f. Kirchengeschichte (1900), xx. 291—328 415—441. A new edition
was published by F. E. Brightman , in Journal of Theological Studies
(1899—1900), i. 88 — 113 247 — 277. It is given with a Latin translation
in Funk, Didascalia, ii. («Testimonia») 158 — 195. There are a few words
«from the twenty- third letter of Saint Serapion » , in Pitra, Analecta sacra
(1884), ii. Proleg. XL; Analecta sacra et classica (1888), part i, p. 47.
In .Pitra, Analecta sacra (1883), iv. 214—215 443—444, P. Martin
published three brief Syriac fragments attributed to Serapion, ex homilia
de virginitate, ex epistola ad episcopos confessores and a sentence
«incerti
4. TITUS OF BOSTRA. Titus , bishop of Bostra in Arabia
(Hauran), and well-known for his relations with Julian the Apostate,
(t ca- 374) 1, was a younger contemporary of Serapion of Thmuis.
He has left us a work in four books against the Manichseans, that
became deservedly famous at a later date. The first two books are
a philosophico-dialectic attack on the Manichaean dualism, while
in the other two books he uses biblico-theological arguments. The
work has a special historical value by reason of the numerous literal
quotations from Manichaean writings. The only extant codex of the
Greek text contains but the first two books and a small portion of
the third. The work has reached us entire in a Syriac version,
published (1859) by de Lagarde from a manuscript of the year 411.
Some homily-like fragments of a commentary on St. Luke have
also been preserved. The genuineness of an Oratio in ranws pal
mar um is very doubtful.
1 Sozom., Hist. eccl. v. 15.
§ 66. ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM. 2/1
For the manuscript-tradition of the Greek text of the work against
the Manichaeans see no. 3. All former editions were made from the Ham
burg copy: Basnage , 1. c., i. 56 — 162; Migne , PG., xviii. 1069 — 1264;
de Lagarde, 1. c. Pitra printed a collation of the Genoese manuscript, in
Analecta sacra et classica (1888), part, i, pp. 50 — 63. With the aid of
the Syriac version Lagarde proved (1. c., iii.) that a long section (from the
work of Serapion against the Manichees) had erroneously been inserted in
the first book of the work of Titus: Titi Bostreni contra Manichaeos libri
quatuor syriace, P. A. de Lagarde ed., Berlin, 1859. The commentary on the
Gospel of Saint Luke, edited as a work of Titus by Fronto Ducasus in 1624
(reprinted in Magna Bibl. vet. Patr., Paris, 1644, xiii. 762 — 836) is only
a Catena-like compilation that cannot be of an earlier date than the sixth
century. The fragments of the genuine commentary were edited by J. Sicken-
berger, Leipzig, 1901, in Texte und Untersuchungen , new series, vi. i.
Id., Titus von Bostra, Studien zu dessen Lukashomilien (Inaug.-Diss.), Leipzig,
1900; Uber griechische Evangelienkommentare, in Biblische Zeitschrift
(1903), i. 182 — 193. The Oratio in ramos palmarum is in Migne, 1. c.,
1263 — 1278. For a Syriac fragment of a sermon on the Epiphany attributed
to Titus of Bostra see de Lagarde, Anmerkungen zur griechischen Uber-
setzung der Proverbien, Leipzig, 1863, pp. 94 — 95.
5. OTHER ANTI-MANICHy£AN WRITERS. - - To this period belong also
the anti-Manichaean writers Basil the Great (§ 67, 4), Didymus the Blind
(§ 70, 2 ; cf. § 69, n), and Diodorus of Tarsus (§ 72, 2).
§ 66. St. Cyril of Jerusalem.
i. HIS LIFE. -- The birthplace of St. Cyril (ca. 315) is unknown;
he was educated at Jerusalem. About 345 he was ordained priest
by Maximus II., bishop of Jerusalem, and in that capacity delivered
in 347 or 348 his famous catechetical instructions to the candidates
for baptism and the neophytes. After the death of St. Maximus he
was chosen (350 or 351) to succeed him. His latest biographer
Mader (1891) contends that Cyril was already a bishop in 347 or 348,
and as such delivered the Catechetical discourses in 348. For a long
time Cyril displayed an attitude of reserve towards the contemporary
dogmatic controversies. In his « Catecheses » he frequently opposes
Arianism, but without speaking of Arius or the Arians, and without
once mentioning the brwoumoc; although he decidedly taught the
consubstantiality of Father and Son. Nevertheless, he was later on the
object of much hostility and persecution on the part of the Arians.
They began with a conflict that arose between Cyril and Acacius,
the Arian bishop of C?esarea (§ 61, i) apropos of the seventh canon
of the Council of Nicaea which acknowledged in the bishop of
Jerusalem a primacy of honor, without detriment of the metropolitan
rights of C?esarea. It was really the confessor and defender of the
Nicene faith whom the Arians attacked on this occasion. He was
three times expelled from his see ; the third exile lasted eleven years
(367 — 378). In 381 he assisted at the (Second Ecumenical) Council
of Constantinople. It is generally believed that he died March 18., 386.
272 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
2. THE CATECHESES. — .They are 23 (24) in number1 and present
a complete body of doctrine. The first 18 (19) are addressed to
the candidates for baptism, vcoT&'>fj.evot, and were delivered during
the Lenten season. The introductory discourse, xpoxar/jffiaiQ, treats
of the greatness and importance of the grace about to be bestowed
upon his auditors. The first catechesis is a short and summary re
petition of the principal truths of the procatechesis. The second
treats of sin and penance, the third of the meaning and effects of
baptism, the fourth of the outlines of Christian faith, and the fifth
of the nature and origin of the theological virtue of faith. The
following catecheses (6 — 18) contain a continuous exposition and
demonstration of every word and every sentence in the Creed as
recited at baptism according to the Jerusalem ritual. At Easter the
catechumens were baptized, they also received Confirmation and the
Holy Eucharist. It is to the newly baptized Christians, vsopcoTtffTot,
that the five concluding catecheses are addressed ; they were delivered
in Easter week and are much shorter than the preceding instructions.
They aim at making known to all hearers the mysteries of Christianity,
hence they are called xaTy%7}0et£ ^jaTa.jco^7.a'i^ and offer complete in
struction, based on the liturgical ceremonies, concerning Baptism ( 1 9 — 20),
Confirmation (21) and the Holy Eucharist (22 — 23). These catecheses
have always been considered models of their kind. Their diction is
simple and clear, and the entire exposition is mildly grave, tranquil and
cordial. Their subject-matter causes them to be looked on as one of
the most precious treasures of Christian antiquity ; the five mystagogical
catecheses, in particular, are of incalculable value for the history of
doctrine and the liturgy. The doubts once entertained by Protestant
scholars as to the genuineness of all or, at least, the mystagogical
catecheses, were suggested by sectarian narrowness and have long-
since disappeared. Cyril bears witness to the Real Presence of
Christ in the Blessed Eucharist in the following words «In the figure
of bread, i\t TUXW aprov, is given to thee the Body, and in the figure
of wine the Blood, so that, when tliou receivest the Body and Blood
of Christ, thou mayest become of one body and one blood with
Him, (T'jffffco/j.o^ xai awaifjLOQ WJTOO ; for thus we shall become Christ-
bearers, yptoToyopoi, when His Body and His Blood are distributed
in our members* (Cat. xxii. 9). «What appears to be bread is not
bread, although it seems thus to the taste, but it is the Body of Christ,
and what appears to be wine is not wine, although the taste judges
thus, but it is the Blood of Christ* (Cat. xxii. 9). This Real Presence
is brought about by a changing (ns-capdtisiv) of the substance of the
bread and the wine into the substance of the Body and Blood of
Christ. «At Cana in Galilee He once changed water into wine which
is akin to blood: and shall not we believe Him when He changes
1 Migne, PG., xxxiii.
§ 66. ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM. 2/3
wine into blood?* (Cat. xxii. 2). «We beseech the good God to
send down the Holy Spirit upon the gifts that lie before us fro.
xpoxeifjtevaj, and thereby make the bread the Body of Christ and
the wine the Blood of Christ; for whatever the Holy Spirit touches
is completely sanctified and changed » (Cat. xxiii. 7). We select
the following words from his description and explanation of the
sacrifice of the Mass: « After the completion of the spiritual sacri
fice of the Mass, after the completion of the unbloody worship
(i. e. after the consecration) we pray to God over this oblation of
propitiation for the general peace of the churches . . . we all pray and
offer this sacrifice for every one who is in need of help. We
remember those who have already gone before us, first the patriarchs,
the prophets, the apostles and the martyrs, so that through their
prayers and intercession God may look graciously upon our petitions ;
thereupon we pray for the deceased holy fathers and bishops, and
indeed for all our departed , since w'e believe that our prayers
offered in the presence of this holy and worshipful sacrifice will be
of the greatest utility to these souls . . . we offer up Christ slain for
our sins in order to obtain pardon from the good God for them
(the departed) and for ourselves » (Cat. xxiii. 8 — 10).
3. OTHER WRITINGS. -- We possess, moreover, from the pen of
Cyril, a homily on the paralytic (John v. 5) delivered about 345 *,
a letter to the Emperor Constantius on the miraculous apparition at
Jerusalem of a great shining cross (May 7., 35 1)2, and three brief
homiletic fragments3. A homily on the feast of Hypapante, or
Purification of the Blessed Virgin 4, and other writings, are wrongly
attributed to him.
4. LITERATURE. - - The best edition of the works of Cyril is that of
the Benedictine A. A. Touttte (f 1718), Paris, 1720; Venice, 1763 (Migne,
PG., xxxiii). The edition of W. K. Reischl and J. Rupp (Munich, 1848
to 1860, 2 vols.) is excellent and handy. Nolte contributed some pages
of text- criticism, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1862), xliv. 308 — 316. The latest
edition is that of Photius Ahxandrides , with notes by Dionysius Kleophas,
Jerusalem, 1867 — 1868, 2 vols. See Risi , Di una nuova edizione delle
opere di S. Cirillo Geros., Rome, 1884. An Armenian (incomplete) edition
of the Catecheses was published at Vienna in 1832. They were trans
lated into German by J. Nirschl, Kempten, 1871 (Bibliothek der Kirchen-
vater). There is an English translation of the Saint's writings by E. H.
Gifford , in «A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the
Christian Church», New York, 1894, sect. II, vol. vii. J. Th. Plitt, De
Cyrilli Hierosolymitani orationibus quae exstant catecheticis , Heidelberg,
1855. Ph- Gonnet , De S. Cyrilli Hierosolymitani archiepiscopi catechesi-
bus, Paris, 1876. J. Marquardt , S. Cyrilli Hierosolymitani de contentio-
nibus et placitis Arianorum sententia, Brunsberg, 1881 ; Id. , S. Cyrillus
Hierosolymitanus baptismi , chrismatis, eucharistiae mysteriorum interpres,
1 Ib., xxxiii. 1131 — 1154. - Ib., xxxiii. 1165 — 1176.
3 Ib., xxxiii. 1181 — 1182. 4 Ib., xxxiii. 1187 — 1204.
BARDKNHE\VER-SHAHAN, Patrology. iS
274 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
Leipzig, 1882. V. Schmitt, Die Verheissung der Eucharistie (St. John c. vi)
bei den Antiochenern Cyrillus von Hierusalem tmd Job. Chrysostomus,
Wiirzburg, 1903. A. Knappitsch , S. Cyrilli episc. Hierosol. catechesibus
quae principia et praecepta moralia contineantur (Progr.), Graz, 1899.
G. Delacroix, St. Cyrille de Jerusalem, sa vie et ses ceuvres, Paris, 1865.
y. Mader, Der hi. Cyrillus, Bischof von Jerusalem, in seinem Leben und
seinen Schriften, Einsiedeln, 1891.
5. GELASIUS OF CJESAREA. sopHRONius. — Gelasius, bishop of Caesarea
(ca. 367—395), son of a sister of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, left some writ
ings that have perished. See E. Venables, in Smith and Wace, A Dictionary
of Christian Biography, ii. 621. - - The writings of Sophronius, a resident
in Palestine perhaps at Bethlehem, and a friend of St. Jerome (De viris ill.,
c. 134), have also perished (cf. § 2, i). Papadopulos-Kerameus published
in the 'AvocXsxTa ispoaoXujJUttxrfc srayjoAoyta^ v, St. Petersburg, 1898, a Greek
life of the famous monk St. Hilarion ; he considers it an enlargement of
Sophronius' Greek translation of Jerome's Vita beati Hilarionis (§ 93, 6).
§ 67. St. Basil the Great.
I. THE YOUTH OF BASIL. — SS. Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and
Gregory of Nyssa are a splendid constellation in the heaven of the
Church of Cappadocia. «In this trinity », it has been said, «are
concentrated all the rays of that brilliant epoch of Christianity ». Basil
was born at Caesarea in Cappadocia, probably in 331, in a family no
less renowned for its Christian piety than for its nobility and riches.
From earliest youth his heart and mind were cultivated with watchful
care. He was an object of particular solicitude to his grandmother
Macrina, a woman of rare refinement and profoundly religious spirit.
She took charge of him almost in infancy, and accustomed him gra
dually to the restraints of a wise discipline, while she planted deep
in his heart the teachings of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus 1. His
elementary training he received from his father Basil , a highly re
spected rhetorician of Neocsesarea in Pontus. The talented youth
sought higher education, first in his native Caesarea, then at Con
stantinople, and afterwards at Athens. In this last city he entered
into intimate relations with Gregory of Nazianzus whom he had al
ready known at Caesarea. The two young friends were industrious
and persevering, hence they made rapid progress in rhetoric, grammar
and philosophy. But that Athens which failed, even in the beginning,
to satisfy thoroughly the heart of our Basil, could not hope to make
a deeper impression on him as time went by. After a stay of four or
five years he returned to his native city in 359. Before long he had
resolved to abandon his home, to renounce the brilliant career that
lay before him at Cassarea and Neocaesarea, and to embrace a life of
asceticism. «I had wasted much time on follies », he wrote in 375,
<and spent nearly all my youth in vain labors, and devotion to the
teachings of a wisdom that God had made foolish (i Cor. i. 20).
1 Basil., Ep. 204, n. 6.
§ 67. ST. BASIL THE GREAT. 275
Suddenly I awoke as out of a deep sleep; I beheld the wonderful
light of the Gospel truth, and I recognized the nothingness of the
wisdom of the princes of this world that was come to naught (i Cor.
ii. 6). I shed a flood of tears over my wretched life, and I prayed
for a guide who might form in me the principles of piety 1.»
2. BASIL AS MONK AND PRIEST. — After his baptism by Dianius,
metropolitan of Caesarea, Basil journeyed through Syria and Egypt in
order to see with his own eyes the life of the monks in those lands.
His travels gave him ample opportunities of studying at first hand
the dogmatic questions that were then rending the Christian East.
On his return he divided his fortune among the poor and began, not
far from Neocaesarea, a life entirely devoted to God. He preferred
the cenobitic system or the cloistered life in common 2, to the ancho
rite or hermit life; his teaching and example were so powerful that
Rufinus could feel justified in saying 3 that in a short time all Pontus
had put on another appearance : Brevi permutata est totius provinciac
fades,
Gregory of Nazianzus was often a sojourner in this Pontic desert,
and aided Basil in the formation of a rule for the monasteries that
soon arose on all sides. They also published a selection from the
works of Origen , *Qptfivoo$ (ptXoxaXia , the result of their common
industry (§ 39, 2). About 364 Eusebius, metropolitan of Caesarea,
the successor of Dianius, persuaded Basil to enter the priesthood
and to return to the episcopal city. With the elevation of Valens
to the imperial throne (July, 364), Arianism got a fresh lease of
life; attempts were soon made to win over the faithful of Csesarea,
whose bishop was not only metropolitan of Cappadocia, but also
exarch of the Pontic « diocese », one of the five « dioceses » or chief
political divisions of the Roman East (praefectura Orientis). These
were days of danger for Eusebius who was not a skilled theologian ;
and what the services of Basil meant, is well-expressed by Gregory
of Nazianzus 4 : «He was all in all to him, a good counsellor, a skilful
helper, an expounder of the Scriptures, an interpreter of his duties,
the staff of his old age, the prop of his faith, more trustworthy than
all his clerics, more experienced than any layman. » For the rest,
Basil led at Caesarea the same ascetic life as in his Pontic cloister.
In 368 a great famine visited Cappadocia, and Basil devoted to the
support of the poor the fortune that had fallen to him on the death
of his mother Emmelia.
3. BASH,, METROPOLITAN OF CAESAREA. -- Eusebius died in 370,
and Basil was chosen to succeed him, an election strongly favored
by Gregory of Nazianzus and his father, the bishop of that city.
Basil justified their faith in him. His first care was to reform cer-
1 Ep. 223, n. 2. - Basil., Regulae fusiores, n. 7.
3 Hist, eccl., ii. 9. 4 Orat. 43, in laudem Basil. M., n. 33.
18*
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
tain abuses in the life of his clergy, to arrange and improve the
liturgy, and to open places of refuge for suffering humanity. In 371
the province of Cappadocia was divided and two capitals were created,
Csesarea and Tyana, whereupon grievous discord arose between Basil
and Anthimus, bishop of Tyana, concerning the limits of their juris
diction. He had to put up with suspicion and reproach for his
mildness and patience during many years in dealing with the double-
tongued Eustathius, bishop of Sebaste. He attempted frequently,
but in vain, to heal the Meletian schism at Antioch. His chief con
cern, however, was the overthrow of Arianism. Amid all the dark
storms of the time he towered like a beacon-light showing the haven
of safety to all who were of good will. All the onslaughts of he
resy fell powerless before him, whether they came as violence and
threats, or as flattery and deception, or as cunning dialectic and
delusive exegesis. After Athanasius, it was to Basil that the East
owed the restoration of peace, as soon as external conditions permitted
it. He lived to see at least the dawning of better days. On January i.,
379, his soul quitted its bodily tenement, which had long been
withering and wasting away.
4. DOGMATICO -POLEMICAL WRITINGS. — Basil left many writings,
dogmatic, exegetic and ascetic, together with homilies and letters.
The extant dogmatic writings are devoted to the overthrow of
Arianism. The work against Eunomius (§ 61, i) 'AvarpsxTixbc; TOI)
'A^oloffjTiY.oTj TOTJ d'jffffsftout; E'jvofito'j l must have been composed about
363 or 364. He begins by calling attention to the fact that the
very title of his adversary's work, 'AnoAoryTixos, bewrays a deceitful
purpose; he is desirous to appear as writing in self-defence, whereas
he himself is the attacking party. Thereupon, he deals in the first
book with two principal contentions of Eunomius, viz., that not to
be begotten, TO dfewqTov zlvai, is the very essence of God, and that
in this concept of unbegotten being the nature of God is known
(comprehended) in a perfectly adequate manner. Basil maintains that
unbegotten being, in the sense of uncreated being, is only an at
tribute of the divinity: ifco ok TTJV ftkv oixj'ta^ TOV fteoo d.'fivvr^ov elvai.
xal WJTOQ av pairjv o>j fj.rjv TO dflvvrjTov TYJV odffiay2. He maintains,
moreover, that the comprehension of the divine nature surpasses not
only human capacity, but all created capacity whatsoever: o1aai
3k o'jx dvftpanrovQ [JLOVOV , d.A/,d xai TJJ.GO.V Aofixyv <p6at.v [)~£pflaweu
auT7J£ - - sc. TTJc, o'jmaQ TOI> &£oo — Tyv xaTatyfiw 3. The second
book is devoted to the defence of the consubstantiality of the Son.
The essential attribute of uncreatedness is not annulled by generation
from the 'Father which is the proper distinctive mark of the person
of the Son. Although begotten, the Son has never had a begin-
1 Migne, PG., xxix. 497—773. 2 Ady E j „ 3 Ib ; j I4
£ 67. ST. BASIL THE GREAT. 277
ning; it is from all eternity that He receives from the Father His
divine nature, hence is He consubstantial with the Father and co-
eternal. In the third book Basil refutes the objections of Eunomius
against the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The two following books
are also devoted to the defence of the consubstantiality of the Son
and the Holy Spirit, but they have reached us in an incomplete
state, or as excerpts ; very probably they do not belong to St. Basil
but to Didymus the Blind (§ 70, 2). The work on the Holy Spirit
xspi TOO afiou Trvs'j/jiaTOQ1, written about 375, treats also of the con-
substantiality of the Son and the Holy Spirit with the Father. In
public worship Basil had made use of the doxology: Glory be to
the Father with the Son together with the Holy Spirit (pera rou
mo~j ffbv -w Trvs'j/jtaTt. TOJ a^ico}2, maintaining that it was no less
orthodox than the usual formula : Glory be to the Father through the
Son in the Holy Spirit (dta TOO moo ev TW aflco ^vevjuaTij. In this
work, dedicated to Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, he justifies the
former expression on the ground that equal honor with the Father
belongs to both the Son and the Holy Spirit, because they are of
one and the same nature with the Father. He wrote also, according
to Saint Augustine3, a Liber adversus Manichaeos , but it has not
reached us.
5 . EXEGETIC WRITINGS. — The place of honor among his exegetic
writings belongs to the nine homilies on the Hexaemeron4 (Gen. i.
i — 26) and the fifteen homilies on particular Psalms 5. The former were
highly esteemed, even in antiquity, by both East and West. Although
his diction is very elaborate, he nowhere departs from the literal sense
and eschews all allegory. It does not appear that he ever published
the treatise announced at the end of this work 6, namely : On man as
the image of God. Two other homilies entitled De hominis structiira
and a third De paradiso 7, formerly attributed to Basil and held to
be a part of those nine homilies, are spurious. The homilies on the
Psalms were meant by the author to furnish, not so much an ex
egesis of the text as a moral application of the same to the needs
of the hearer or reader. They begin after the following manner
(Horn, in Ps. i, n. i): «The prophets teach one thing, the historical
books another, still another is taught in the Law, and something
else in the Sapiential Books. The Book of Psalms brings together
what is most serviceable in all the others; it foretells the future, it
recalls the past , it lays down the laws of life , it teaches us our
duties, - - in a word, it is a general treasury, rafju&ov, of excellent
instructions. » There is no doubt as to the authenticity of the ho
milies on Psalms i 7 14 (two homilies) 28 29 32 33 44 45 48 59
1 Migne, PG., xxxii. 67 — 218. - De Spir. S., c. i, n. 3.
3 Contra lulianum, i. 16. 4 Migne, PG., xxix. 3 — 208.
5 Ib., xxix — xxx. 6 Horn. 9, n. 6. 1 Migne, PG., xxx.
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
6 1 114 115 (according to Greek numeration)1, some other homilies
on the Psalms2 are spurious or doubtful3. The publication by Pitra
(1888) of short fragments of Psalm-homilies attributed to Basil con
firms the opinion that Basil wrote homilies on many, perhaps on all
the Psalms. The diffuse commentary on Is. I — 164 is very im
perfect in form and contents; though its origin is doubtful, yet it
must be looked on as a contemporary work. Basil wrote also a com
mentary on Job which has perished; some of his exegetic homilies
are in the collection referred to below (no. 7).
6. ASCETIC WRITINGS. -- A group of writings attributed to Basil
that has only gradually reached its actual size, is known as 'Affxrjnxd5.
It opens with three short treatises (discourses or fragments of dis
courses), on the sublimity of the militia Christi , the excellency of
the monastic life, ftioQ TWV /wya/wv, and the duties of a monk. Two
other treatises on divine judgment, nepl xplpaTOQ flsou, and on faith,
xspl mcsTzcoQ, are introductory to certain moral instructions, ra yttixd,
or eighty rules, Spot. Each instruction is usually made up of several
phrases, and each phrase is accompanied by pertinent passages of
the New Testament. Basil insists first on the general Christian duties,
and then on those of particular states in life. Two Myot daxynxoL
of doubtful origin , serve as a link between these instructions and
the two monastic rules of St. Basil: fifty-five longer rules, opot
xard ~/MTOQ, in number, and 313 shorter rules, Spot XC/.T sntTofjL'qy.
Both are drawn up in the shape of questions and answers. In the
former rules the principles of the monastic life are set forth; in
the latter the main object is their application to the daily life of
the monk. No higher praise can be given to these rules, undoubt
edly Basil's own work, than the fact of their universal reception
in the East, and their survival to the present time as the principal
monastic rule of the Greek Church (Basilians). The last two pieces
in this group are punishments, intrifjita, for monks and nuns who
violate the rule, and ascetic constitutions, daxyrixai dtaTd^etq. i. e.
comprehensive directions and suggestions for monks; neither is any
longer accepted as genuine. The beautiful tractate on baptism, nzpl
fianTtff/jiaTOQ, in two books 6, is more ascetic than doctrinal in its con
tents, and is likewise of doubtful origin. Altogether inferior and
certainly spurious is the work on the true purity of virgins: xepi TYJQ
sv xap&svia dlrfiooc, dtpftopiaQ1. To the Latin West and a later time
belong the following texts, extant in Latin only: DC consolation? in
adversis*, De laude solitariae vitae, and Admonitio ad filium spiri
tual em.
1 Migne, PG., xxix. 2 lb ; xxx>
3 Among them in Migne, PG., xxx. 104—106, also the homily to Ps. 115.
1 Migne, PG., xxx. * lb., xxxi. 619—1428. 6 Ib., xxxi. 1513—1628.
1 Ib., xxx. 669—810. § Ib., xxxi. 1687 — 1704.
§ 67. ST. BASIL THE GREAT. 2/9
7. HOMILIES. LETTERS. « LITURGY*. — The genuineness or spurious-
ness respectively of some « Homilies » attributed to Basil is a difficult
question. It maybe said at once that a collection of 24 homilies1,
dogmatico-exegetic, theologico-moral and hagiographical in contents, is
looked on in a general way as authentic. Basil is reckoned among the
greatest ecclesiastical orators of antiquity. Perhaps the most brilliant
specimen of his eloquence is the homily against usurers, xara TOXI^OVTCOV.
printed among his exegetic homilies (see no. 5) as the second homily
on Psalm 14*. None of the 24 homilies has attracted more universal
attention and approval than the discourse (work) «to youths, as to how
they shall best profit by the writings of the pagan authors», xpbg TO'JQ
vioix; oTtfoQ av is sAAyvtxwv co<p£Ao~LVTO Aoycov 3. The twenty -four
«Moral discourses», ijdixoi //r^ot*, are a tenth-century compilation by
Simeon Metaphrastes from the writings of Basil. The authenticity of
the homily on mulieres subintroductae, xsp} TOW ffuvetffdxTcov 5, is
disputed ; but many other discourses , e. g. De Spiritu Sancto (in
sanctum baptisma), Hom. dicta in Lacizis . In S. Christi genera-
tionem etc.6 are very probably spurious. - The correspondence of
Basil was highly esteemed. Gregory of Nazianzus tells us that he
collected for a young friend (the) letters of St. Basil 7. In the Bene
dictine edition8 there are 365 of these letters. Two thirds of them
(47 — 291) belong to the period of his episcopal career, from 370 to
378. The chronological order of the Benedictine edition of the letters
was challenged by Ernst (1896) but victoriously defended by Loofs
(1898). Most of the letters describe in detail, from one stand-point
or another, events and conditions in the Eastern Church, particularly
in that of Cappadocia, and have always been looked on as a copious
and important store of original materials for the history of that
troubled period. Some of the letters deal directly with points of
Trinitarian doctrine, and are occasionally so long that they ma)*
be regarded as treatises. The three so-called « Canonical letters »
(188 199 217) addressed to Amphilochius , bishop of Iconium (see
no. 4), and wrongly denied to be Basil's by some modern critics,
contain minute ecclesiastical regulations concerning the penitential
discipline; at a later date they acquired canonical authority through
the entire East. The letters of Basil to his famous contemporary,
the teacher and rhetorician Libanius, are undoubtedly spurious, as
well as those of Libanius to Basil (335 — 359); the same may be
said of the correspondence of the Saint with the emperor Julian
(39 40 41 360). Draseke holds the authenticity of the correspon
dence of Basil with Apollinaris of Laodicea (361 — 364), while Loofs
1 lb., xxxi. 163—618. 2 Ib., xxix. 263—280.
3 Ib., xxxi. 563 — 590. 4 xxxii. 1115 — 1382.
5 lb., xxx. 811 — 828. 6 Ib., xxxi. 1429 — 1514.
"' Greg. Naz., Ep. 53. 8 Migne, PG., xxxii. 219 — inc.
28O SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
rejects the letters as forgeries. - - The so-called « Liturgy of Saint
Basil » * has reached us in the Greek text , and a Coptic translation
of the same. It may be looked on as certain that Saint Basil did
reduce to a fixed form and order the usual prayers and ceremonies
of the Church of Csesarea, and that in this process he curtailed and
enlarged with more or less freedom. But it is no longer an easy
matter to decide with what measure of exactness the actual « Liturgy »
reproduces the dispositions and order of the holy bishop, all the
more as the manuscripts of the « Liturgy », and even the earliest
versions of the same, exhibit notable variations.
8. GREATNESS OF ST. BASIL. HIS RULE OF FAITH. - - Basil was
styled the Great even by his contemporaries, and he deserved the
title for many reasons. He was great as an exponent of Christian
doctrine and as a homilist, greater, however, in practical life, as a
prelate of the Church and a man of deeds. We may justly say that
of the three great Cappadocians Basil was the practical man, Gregory
of Nazianzus the speaker and writer, Gregory of Nyssa the thinker.
We have already referred to the merits and success of this great
Saint as standard-bearer of the true faith, as patriarch of Oriental
monasticism, and as ecclesiastical legislator. His writings against
the heresies of his time are all devoted to the establishment of the
traditional teachings of the Church. The formula Fides praecedit
intellcctum is occasionally stated by him as follows: «In all discus
sions concerning God it is faith that should lead the way (nicrtc,
jjfsiff&a) TWV 7:£f)} deoo AofwvJ, faith and not evidence, faith that
compels the intellect to assent with more power than the conclusions
of reason, that faith which is the result of no geometrical necessity
but of the workings of the Holy Spirit » 2. It is tradition that fixes
for us the contents of our faith. «We accept no new faith written
out for us by others, nor do we proclaim the results of our own
cogitation , lest mere human wisdom should be accounted the rule
of faith; we communicate to all who question us that which the holy
fathers have taught us» 3. Only a portion of this tradition is found
in the Scriptures. «With regard to the objection that there is no
evidence for the doxology 'with the Holy Spirit' (abv rw xveunan,
see no. 4) and that it is not found in Scripture, we answer as fol
lows: in case nothing must be accepted except what is found in
Scripture, this too must be rejected ; but if it be true that the greater
part of the mysteries, TO. r.A^ara TCOV pjauxaw, are accepted by us,
though they are not found in the Scriptures, we shall do well to
accept this also with so many other elements of our belief. I main
tain as apostolic teaching that we should hold fast to our traditions,
1 Migne, PG., xxxi. 1629—1678. 2 Horn, in Ps. 115, n. I.
3 Ep. 140, n. 2.
§ 67. ST. BASIL THE GREAT. 28 1
even if they be not stated in the Scriptures ». He then adduces the
text of I Cor. xi. 2 and 2 Thess. ii. 1 5 *.
9. HIS TRINITARIAN DOCTRINE. The Trinity is, naturally
enough, the chief subject of the dogmatic writings of Basil. Against
the Arians he maintains the unity of God, and against the Sabellians
the trinity of persons in the Godhead: pia oiima, Tpztc, bTzoa-daetq.
«In God», he writes to his brother Gregory2, « there are at once a
certain ineffable and incomprehensible community and distinction : the
distinction of persons does not exclude the unity of nature, nor does
the unity of nature destroy the proper and characteristic marks of
distinction. » In the homily that he delivered against the Sabellians
and Arius and the Anomoeans 3 he says still more pointedly: «It is a
shocking folly not to accept the teaching of our Lord who makes
known to us with all clearness the distinction of persons (in the Trinity).
'For, when I go', says he4 'I will ask the Father, and He will give
you another Paraclete'. Therefore the Son prays, He prays to the
Father, the Paraclete is sent. Is it not preposterous to hear T predi
cated of the Son, 'He' of the Father, and 'Another' of the Holy Spirit,
and yet to confound all three, to commingle them all, and to attribute
to one thing, kvi 7tpdffJ.an9 all these qualifications? Do not imagine,
on the other hand, that you may carry off as an impious booty the
separation of the persons. Though they are two in number, they
are, nevertheless, not different in nature, and he who speaks of two,
does not thereby assert that they are separate. There is one God
who (instead of on the text should read oc) is also Father, one God
who is also Son; there are not two Gods, for the Son is identical
in nature with the Father finely rauToTr^ra eyei o UCOQ xpoq rbv
Traripa). For I do not behold one divinity in the Father and another
in the Son, nor different natures in both. In order therefore to
make clear the distinction of persons, count the Father apart and the
Son apart ; but in order to avoid polytheism , confess that in both
there exists absolute unity of nature. In this way Sabellius is cast
down and the Anomcean is routed. » - - Basil undertook repeatedly
the defence of the otwooaia or true divinity of the Holy Spirit, in
forcible language and at much length, especially in the third book
of his work Adversus Eunomium and in his work De Spiritu Sancto.
The circumstances of the time were however very favorable to the
Pneumatomachi , and this made Basil refrain for the most part from
calling the Holy Spirit God; some of his fellow-Catholics were con
cerned about this and raised their voices in accusation against him.
But he was defended by Gregory of Nazianzus5. «It is better», he
says, «to exercise prudence in dealing with the truth, olxovo/jLew rqv
fiXfjftstav. and to look upon the circumstances as a kind of overhanging
1 De Spir. S., c. 29, n. 71. 2 Ep. 38, n. 4. 3 Horn. 24, n. 3.
4 John xiv. 1 6. 5 Ep. 58.
282 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
cloud, than to do harm, xaraMeiv, to the truth by an open profession
of it. » He defended Basil elsewhere , after the same fashion *. -
The procession of the Holy Spirit is described , after the prevalent
Greek manner of comprehension and expression, as a procession from
the Father through the Son (Hv dk xat TO a?tov Kveupa . . . dt zvbc
mob TOJ k\>\ xaTpl wvaxTo/jtsvov2, and rb fiaadtxbv ds'tcoaa ex na.rpoz
dta TOO uovoflvo'jQ ITU TO xveo[J.a Styxet) 3. In the fifth book of his
work Adv. Eunomium he says repeatedly that the Holy Spirit is ex
fteoi) dt morj^. In the same work Adv. Eunomium, books I — 3, he even
stands for the filioque, and not as a theological opinion but as cer
tainly being a point of Christian revelation. Eunomius attributed to
the Son alone, TW /wvo^svst povq), the origin of the Holy Spirit,
whereas Basil protested strongly, but readily granted that the Holy
Spirit proceeds also from the Son5. A vigorous controversy arose
between Greeks and Latins during the Council of Florence over the
famous words of Basil6, to the effect that the Spirit has His place
after the Son, « because He holds from Him His being, and re
ceives from Him and communicates to us, and depends completely
from that origin » : nap' aoTOU TO £tvat £%ov xat Trap' O.OTOL) Xa^dvov
xat dyafflttov T^UV xa\ oAcoc, TTJQ ahiaQ exsiv/jQ Ifyufjisvov. That these
are the genuine original words of Basil is proved by good arguments,
extrinsic and intrinsic. But even were they the words of a forger,
their meaning is true : and the entire argument of Basil presupposes
it as something logical and indispensable.
10. HOW SHALL WE KNOW GOD? — Eunomius also gave Basil
occasion to treat of the manner in which man can know God.
The former declared that the nature of God consisted in being un-
begotten, dfEwycria; he insisted that this alone was expressive of
the true nature of God (see no. 4). Basil insists that our knowledge
of God is not immediate but mediate. «We contend that we know
our God from His works, but we do not flatter ourselves that we
understand His very nature ; for His works descend to us from above,
while His nature remains ever inaccessible. » " « Creatures show us the
power and the wisdom and the skill of their Creator, but they cannot
enable us to understand His nature. Indeed, they do not necessarily
represent the extent of His might, for it may very well happen when
the divine Artist produces a work, that He does not manifest all
His power, but manifests it only in a limited way. But even though
He did display it to the full, from His works we should know only
His omnipotence and not the nature of His innermost being. » s
Our human knowledge of God is therefore imperfect, but it is not
a false knowledge of Him. It is easy to see that the principle of
1 Orat. 41, n. 6; 43, n. 68. 2 De Spir. S., c. 18, n. 45. 3 Ib., n. 47.
1 Migne, PG., xxix. 732 737. 5 Adv. Eim. 2, 34. 6 Ib., 3, i.
7 Ep. 234, n. I. 8 Adv. Eun. 2, 32.
§ 67. ST. BASIL THE GREAT. 283
Eunomius : either we know God or we do not know Him, is by no
means a correct statement of the question. If perfect comprehension
and true knowledge were identical, we should have no true know
ledge even of earthly things 1. Even after His revelations of Himself
we know God only after the manner in which the finite is able to
grasp the infinite, co^ O>JVO.TOV fvwpi&a&at rbv d-sipojueflttiq 01:0 TOL>
fjuxpordrou2. Even in Paradise we shall not fully comprehend the
nature of God. «Our knowledge of the divine nature is therefore
nothing more than our realization of its incomprehensibility :
apa TYJQ flzlac odaiaQ T] <uff8yat$ cwroo r^
11. COMPLETE EDITIONS OF THE WORKS OF ST. BASIL. - The first
complete edition of the original text was published at Basle in 1532 (re
printed Venice 1535, Basle 1551), and Paris, 1618, 3 vols., reprinted 1638.
The Paris edition was the work of Pronto Ducceus (Fronton Du Due, S. J.)
and F. Morellus ; critical notes were added to it by Fr. Combefis, O. Pr.;
in his: Basilius M. ex integro recensitus, Paris, 1679, 2 yols. By far the
best edition is that of the Benedictines, Paris, 1721 — 1730, 3 vols. The
first two volumes were edited (1721 and 1722) by J. Gamier; after his
death (June 3., 1725) the third was edited by Pr. Mar an, in 1730. The
Latin version (not the Greek text) of this edition was reprinted at Venice,
I75° — I75I> 3 vols.; at Bergamo, 1793, 6 vols.; at Paris, 1835 — 1840,
3 vols. A second edition of the Benedictine text was published by L. de
Sinners, Paris, 1839, 3 v°ls- (editio Parisina altera, emendata et aucta); some
critical notes to the first vol. of this edition were contributed by A. Jah-
niusy Animadversiones in S. Basilii M. opera, supplementum editionis Gar-
nerianae secundae, fasc. I: continens animadversiones in torn, i, Berne,
1842 (the Benedictine edition, with appendices, is found in Migne, PG.,
xxix — xxxii, Paris, 1857. The Migne text was reprinted at Athens, 1900 f.,
by Kaplanides. The two spurious Orationes de hominis structura (Migne, PG.,
xxx. 9—61) are found also among the works of Gregory ofNyssa (Migne,
PG., xliv. 257 — 298) under the title: Orat. in Scripturae verbal Faciamus
hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram; they cannot, however,
belong to that author. For the treatise De consolatione in adversis, see
§ 113, 3. The treatise De laude solitariae vitae is identical with Opusc.
xi, c. 19 (Laus eremiticae vitae) among the works of St. Peter Damian,
in Migne, PL., cxlv. 246 — 251. The Admonitio ad filium spiritualem is
found among the works of St. Benedict of Aniane (ib., ciii. 683 — 700),
but it is an extract from the Liber exhortationis, vulgo de salutaribus do-
cumentis (cc. 20—45) written by St. Paulinus of Aquileja (f 802 ; Migne,
1. c., xcix. 197 — 282); it is also found among the spurious works of St. Au
gustine (Ib., xl. 1047 — 1078).
12. SUPPLEMENTS TO THE COMPLETE EDITIONS. -- Ckr. Fr. Mdttkcei ,
in Glossaria Graeca minora, Moscow, 1774, also in his loannis Xiphilini
et Basilii M. aliquot orationes, ib., 1775, published three homilies under
the name of St. Basil. The first, De perfectione vitae monachorum,
is identical with Ep. 22 (with the same title) of our Saint (Migne, PG.,
xxxii. 287 — 294); the second, De misericordia et iudicio, is at least of
doubtful origin ; the third, Homilia consolatoria ad aegrotum , is certainly
spurious. The first and third are found in Migne, PG., xxxi. 1705 — 1722.
1 For proof of this see specially Epp. 233 — 235. - Ep. 233, n. 2.
3 Ep. 234, n. 2.
234 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
A.Mai published in his Nova Patrum Bibl., Rome, 1845, iii. part I, 449;
part II, 281 282, an Epistola ad Urbicium monachum de continentia,
that had escaped the Benedictines (Migne, PG., xxxii. 1109—1112), also
fib 1853 vi, part II, 584) a Sermo de sacerdotum mstructione [Migne,
PG! xxxi ' 1685—1688). An exposition of the Symbolum Nicaenum wrongly
attributed to our Saint, was published by C. P. Caspari, Ungedruckte, un-
beachtete und wenig beachtete Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und
der Glaubensregel, Christiania, 1869, ii. 4— 7 ; cf. 13—30; it has not «the
slightest resemblance», says Caspari (p. 27), to the symbol found m Basil's
treatise -spl TTWTSWC (no. 4, Migne, PG., xxxi. 685-688). Extracts from some
letters of Basil, according to recently discovered papyri codices, were published
by H. Landwehr, in Griechische Handschriften aus Fayyum: Philologus
(1884), xliii. 110—136; see ib. (1885), xliv. 19—21. Cardinal Pitra (Ana-
lecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888, part I) published as writings of Basil
certain Fragmenta in Psalmos (pp. 76—103), Ascetica (pp. 104—108), and
Epitimia (pp. 108 — no).
13. SEPARATE EDITIONS AND SPECIAL RESEARCHES. — S. Basilii Caesa-
reae Cappad. archiep. et S. Gregorii Theol. vulgo Nazianz. archiepisc.
Constantinop. opera dogmatica selecta (S. Bas. Adv. Eun. i— iii, and De
Spir. Sancto). Edenda curavit J. D. H. Goldhorn , Leipzig, 1854 (Bibl.
Patrum graec. dogmatica. Edendam curavit J. C. Thilo , vol. ii). The
books Adv. Eun. iv— v are also found in J. Drdseke, Apollinarios von
Laodicea, Leipzig, 1892, pp. 205—251, but these two books are, however,
by no means the work of Apollinaris of Laodicaea, as Draseke maintains
(§ 61, 4) but very probably the work of Didyrnus the Blind, see v. Funk,
Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (1899), ii. 291—329,
and Theol. Quartalschr. (1901), Ixxxiii. 113—116. A new edition of De
Spiritu Sancto was brought out by C. F. H. Johnston, Oxford, 1892. The
same work is printed (Latin text) in H. Hurter, SS. Patr. opusc. selecta
(series I), xxxi. C. A. F. Fremion published (Paris, 1819) an excellent edition
(with a French version) of the discourse or treatise, On the reading of pagan
authors (reprinted in Migne, PG., xxxi. 563 — 590; cf. 1831 — 1844). Recent
annotated editions of the same work were brought out by E. Sommer,
Paris, 1894, and J. Bach, Minister, 1900; cf. J. Clericus , S. Basilii M.
oratio ad iuvenes de Hbris profanis cum fructu legendis. Textum editionis
monachorum O. S. B. ad ms. cod. Taurinensem recensuit, variis lectionibus
instruxit, interpretationem italicam et notas adiecit, Turin, 1870. For the
chronology of the letters of St. Basil see V. Ernst, in Zeitschr. f. Kirchen-
gesch. (1895 — 1896), xvi. 626 — 664, and Fr. Loofs, Eustathius von Sebaste
und die Chronologic der Basiliusbriefe , Halle, 1898. J. Drdseke under
took, in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1885 — 1886), viii. 85 — 123, the defence
of the genuineness of the letters 361 — 364 (correspondence of St. Basil
with Apollinaris of Laodicea). The pretended Ep. 16 Adv. Eunomium
haereticum (Migne, PG., xxxii. 280 — 281) is not a letter, nor it is the work
of Basil, but a chapter from the tenth book of Gregory of Nyssa, Contra
Eunomium; cf. Fr. Diekamp, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1895), Ixxvii. 277 to
285, also E. Mercati, Varia sacra (Testi e Studi) , Rome, 1903, xi. 53
to 56; for a brief letter of Basil in reply to one of Gregory of Nazianzus
ib. (pp. 57 — 70); letter 189 of Basil is adjudged to Gregory of Nyssa, and
is re-edited (pp. 71—82) with the addition of hitherto unknown fragments.
Recent editions of the so-called Liturgy of St. Basil are to be found in
H. A. Daniel, Codex liturgicus ecclesiae orientalis (Cod. lit. eccl. univ. iv),
Leipzig, 1853, pp. 421—438; C. A, Swainson, The Greek Liturgies chiefly
from original authorities, Cambridge, 1884, pp. 75 — 87 149 — 171; and
F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western, Oxford, 1896, i. Con-
§ 67. ST. BASIL THE GREAT. 28 5
cerning this liturgy the reader may consult F. Probst, Liturgie des 4. Jahr-
hunderts und deren Reform, Minister, 1893, PP- 37 7 ~ 412- ^- Vandepittc,
Saint Basile et 1'origine de Complies, in Revue Augustinienne (1903),
pp. 258 — 260. Renz, Die Geschichte des Messopferbegriffs , Freising,
1901, i. 340—376: Die drei grossen Kappadozier; 603 — 619: Die byzan-
tinische Liturgie.
14. VERSIONS. -- Rufinus of Aquileja tells us (Hist, eccl., ii. 9) that
he translated into Latin about ten discourses of St. Basil and as many of
St. Gregory of Nazianzus (denas ferme singulorum oratiunculas). The Bene
dictine edition ot Basil's works contains (Migne, PG. , xxxi. 1723 — 1794)
eight homilies in the version of Rufinus ; the seventh, however, is only the
Ep. S. Basilii 46 ad virginem lapsam (ib., xxxii. 369—382). The two
monastic rules of Basil (instituta monachorum , Hist. eccl. , ii. 9), were
also translated by Rufinus i. e. he made extracts from them which he
embodied in one rule composed of 203 questions and answers. For the
editions of this rule that the reader will not find in Migne (PG. , xxix to
xxxii, op.p. S. Basilii), nor among the works of Rufinus (ib., PL., xxi.) see
v. Schoenemann, Bibl. hist. -lit. Patrum lat. i. 619 — 622 (cf. Migne, PL., xxi.
35 — 37). The nine homilies on the Hexaemeron were translated into l.atin
(about 440) by a certain Eustathius Afer for the deaconness Syncletica
(Migne, PG., xxx. 86q — 968). An ancient Latin version of the commen
tary on Isaias is found in Bibliotheca Casinensis (1880), iv. 390 — 424.
An Armenian version of the homilies appeared at Venice in 1830.
There is also an Armenian version of the thirteenth of the «twenty-four
homilies» (see no. 7) known as Exhortatoria ad s. baptisma: J. B. Auchcr,
Severiani s. Seberiani Gabalorum episc. Emesensis homiliae, Venice, 1827,
PP- 37° — 401- ?• G- Krabinger , Basilius d. Gr. auserlesene Homilien.
Aus dem Griechischen iibersetzt und erlautert, Landshut, 1839 (fourteen
homilies from the Benedictine text, corrected from other manuscripts).
V. Grone, Ausgewahlte Schriften des hi. Basilius d. Gr., Bischofs von Ca-
sarea und Kirchenlehrers, nach dem Urtext iibersetzt, Kempten, 1875 — 1881,
3 vols. (Bibl. der Kirch envater) ; the first volume contains the (9) homilies
on the Hexaemeron and (21) selected discourses, the second the three
treatises introductory to the Ascetica and the two Rules , and the third
(97) selected letters. Selected discourses of St. Basil were also translated
into German by F. J. Winter, in G. Leonhardi , Die Predigt der Kirche,
Leipzig, 1892, xix. English translations of some of the works of St. Basil
are found in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the
Christian Church, series II, New York, 1895, vni- *
15. WORKS ON SAINT BASIL. — A. Rocchi has made known two ancient
Greek hymns in honor of St. Basil; see vol. x (Cozza-Luzi), of continuation
of Mai's Nova Patrum Bibliotheca, Rome, 1905, part II, pp. 177 — 204.
C. R. IV. Klose, Ein Beitrag zur Kirchengeschichte. Basilius d. Gr. nach
seinem Leben und seiner Lehre, Stralsund, 1835. J- Schermann > Die
Gottheit des Heiligen Geistes nach den griechischen Va'tern des 4. Jahr-
hunderts, in Strassburger Theol. Studien , iv. 4 — 5. J. Habert (1647),
Theologiae Graecorum Patrum vindicatae circa universam materiam gra-
tiae libri tres, reprinted, Wiirzburg, 1863. Fr. Bohringcr , Die Kirche
Christi und ihre Zeugen, oder die Kirchengeschichte in Biographien,
2. ed., vii: Die drei Kappadozier, i. Basilius von Casarea, Stuttgart, 1875.
E. Fialon, Etude historique et litteraire sur St. Basile, suivie de 1'Hexa-
emeron, traduit en franc,ais, Paris, 1869. P. Allard, S. Basile, Paris, 1899
(Les Saints). Id. , Diet, de la Theologie Catholique, Paris, 1905, ii.
c. 441 — 455: Basile. H. Weiss, Die grossen Kappadozier Basilius, Gregor
von Nazianz und Gregor von Nyssa als Exegeten. Ein Beitrag zur Ge-
286 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
schichte der Exegese, Brunsberg, 1872. E. Scholl, Die Lehre des hi. Ba-
silius von der Gnade, Freiburg, 1881. A. Kranich , Der hi. Basilius in
seiner Stellung zum «Filioque», Brunsberg, 1882. Id., Die Aszetik in ihrer
dogmatischen Grundlage bei Basilius d. Gr., Paderborn, 1896. M. Berger,
Die Schopfungslehre des hi. Basilius d. Gr. (2 Progr.), Rosenheim, 1897 to
1898. Funk, Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (1899),
ii^ 25I_253: «Ein angebliches Wort Basilius' d. Gr. liber die Bilder-
verehrung». K. Unter stein, Die natiirliche Gotteserkenntnis nach der Lehre
der kappadozischen Kirchenvater Basilius, Gregor von Nazianz und Gregor
von Nyssa (Progr.), Strassburg, 1903. H. Weiss, Die Erziehungslehre der
drei Kappadozier. Ein Beitrag zur patristischen Padagogik, in Strassburger
Theol. Studien, Freiburg, 2903, v. 3—4. Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de
1'Eglise, 2. ed., Paris, 1906, ii. c. xi: Basile de Cesaree.
1 6. EUSTATHIUS OF SEBASTE. AMPHILOCHIUS OF ICONIUM. — EllStathlUS
of Sebaste (see no. 3) circulated a pretended letter of St. Basil to Apol-
linaris of Laodicea, in which heretical doctrines were set forth. The letter
was published by B. Sebastiani, Rome, 1796. Cf. Ft: Loofs, Eustathius
von Sebaste, Halle, 1898. — St. Amphilochius (see no. 7), who ( was conse
crated bishop of Iconium in 374 and metropolitan of Lycaonia (j after 394),
was a prominent ecclesiastical figure in the controversies of his time. He
is quoted as an ecclesiastical writer by later writers and by councils, but
the works current under his name (homiliae, epistola iambica ad Seleucum etc.)
are probably all spurious, with the exception of an excellent synodal letter
on the true divinity of the Holy Spirit, written in 377 in the name of a
synod of his suffragans of Lycaonia, apparently to the bishops of Lycia.
The works of Amphilochius, spurious and authentic, are found in Gallandi,
Bibl. vet. Patr., vi. 457—514 (Migne, PG., xxxix. 13—130). The Epistola
synodalis is also in J. D. H. Goldhorn , S. Basilii opp. dogm. sel.,
Leipzig, 1854, pp. 630—635; cf. Fessler-Jungmann, Institt. Patrol., i. 600
to 604. A hitherto unedited homily on the barren trees was published
lately by B. Z., Amphilochios von Ikonion. Rede iiber die unfruchtbaren
Baume, zum erstenmal herausgegeben, Jurjew in Livland, 1901. K. Holl,
Amphilochius von Ikonium in seinem Verhaltnis zu den grossen Kappa-
doziern, Tiibingen, 1904.
§ 68. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, the Theologian.
I . GREGORY, BEFORE ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. — Gregory
of Nazianzus was^ born about 330, a little before Basil the Great, on
the estate of Arianzum near Nazianzus, a city of south-western Cappa-
docia. He was like Basil educated in a spirit of Christian piety.
The latter had been guided in the path of virtue by his holy
grandmother Macrina; similarly, Gregory owed to his holy mother
Nonna the first impulse to a religious life. He was sent as a youth
to the most celebrated schools of his time, to Csesarea in Cappa-
docia where he became acquainted with Basil, to Caesarea in Pale
stine, also to Alexandria and Athens, where his former acquaintance
with Basil grew into the intimate attachment that he still cherished
with all the enthusiasm of boyhood when in 381 he was called on
to deliver the funeral oration over the body of his friend *. About
the year 360 he left Athens, was baptized at home, and lived partly
1 Orat. 43, in laudem Basilii M.
§ 68. ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, THE THEOLOGIAN. 28/
at Arianzum and partly in monastic retirement with Basil in Pontus.
This life seemed to him the supreme ideal, even while yet a student
at Athens. At Arianzum, in the bosom of his family, he continued
to cherish his early longings for a life dedicated in solitude to the
service of God. In 360 or 361, he appeared publicly for the first
time, and in the quality of peacemaker. His father Gregory was
bishop of Nazianzus, and as such had signed the semiarian formula
of Rimini (359) giving thereby grave scandal to the monks of Na
zianzus who were firm adherents to the Nicene faith. Gregory
caused his father to make in public an entirely orthodox profession
of faith, and thereby appeased the monks (others place these events
in 363 and 364).
2. GREGORY AS PRIEST AND BISHOP. --It was probably in 361,
at Christmas, that Gregory was ordained a priest, against his will,
and by his father, in deference to the insistence of the people of
Nazianzus. In his displeasure at the violence done him, he fled to his
friend in Pontus, but soon returned, probably by Easter 362, and
continued thenceforth to aid his father in the administration of the
diocese. When Basil was engaged in his controversy with Anthimus,
bishop of Tyana (§ 67, 3), he established several new sees in the
smaller cities of Cappadocia, and placed his friend Gregory over one
of them. This was Sasima, a poor and insignificant place in the terri
tory to which Anthimus was laying claim as metropolitan. It was only
after much resistance that Gregory was consecrated bishop by Basil at
Nazianzus, but he soon withdrew into solitude; indeed, it is very doubt
ful whether he ever took possession of the see of Sasima. Yielding
only the urgent requests of his father he returned to Nazianzus in 372,
and took up the burden of diocesan administration again. His father
died early in 374, and soon afterwards his mother breathed her last.
About 369 his younger brother Caesarius and his sister Gorgonia had
passed away. In 375 Gregory who also had to endure great bodily
sufferings laid down his charge as administrator of Nazianzus and
entered upon a life of retirement and contemplation at Seleucia in
Isauria. The sad news of the death of his friend Basil reached him
here (379) and strengthened him in his resolution utterly to, renounce
all secular interests.
3. GREGORY AT CONSTANTINOPLE. — He was not, however, to enjoy
the repose he so much desired. During the reign of Valens, the
orthodox Catholics of Constantinople had dwindled to an almost im
perceptible nucleus. When, however, Theodosius mounted the imperial
throne (Jan. 19., 379), a happier future seemed to dawn for them, and
they turned to Gregory with an urgent prayer to come to their aid
and to reorganize the affairs of their church. He came (379) to the
Capital of the East and commenced there a beneficent revival of re
ligion. The various Arian parties put obstacles in his way and even
288 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
fomented discord in the ranks of the orthodox; more than once the
life of Gregory was imperilled. His holy zeal knew no fear, and his
marvellous eloquence won all hearts. His fame was so great that
St. Jerome, though a man of mature age, was not ashamed to betake
himself to Constantinople in order to listen to the preaching of Gregory
and to profit by his special instruction in the interpretation of the
Scriptures. The cathedral of the city had hitherto been held by the
Arians, but when Theodosius made his triumphal entry (Dec. 24., 380)
he caused it, probably the church of the Apostles, to be restored
to the Catholics. The latter now insisted on having Gregory as
their bishop, but he resisted with stubbornness until the meeting of
the Second Ecumenical Council convoked by Theodosius and opened
in May 381. The fathers declared him bishop of the city. It was
with deep sorrow that he beheld the failure of his efforts to end
the Meletian schism at Antioch, owing chiefly to the opposition of
the younger members of the synod. When, therefore, the bishops of
Egypt and Macedonia disputed the regularity of his nomination to
the see of Constantinople, on the ground that it had been made
before their arrival, he laid down the burden and dignity. In a
splendid discourse delivered in the Cathedral before the episcopal
assembly he bade them adieu and departed, probably in June 381.
He retired to Nazianzus, and guided and protected the community
of that city which had lost in his father its bishop, until, about 383,
according to the desire of Gregory, it received in Eulalius a new
pastor. Thenceforth he lived at Arianzum, devoted to his ascetical
practices and his books. It was here, at his birthplace, that he
died, probably in 389 or 390.
4. THE ORATIONS OF GREGORY. -- His writings fall naturally into
three groups: Orations, Letters, and Poems. The 45 Orations are
the most important1; among them those numbered 27 — 31 have
always been considered the most perfect of his compositions. He de
signated them himself2 as ol rr^ &so tafias to^oi, and it is to them
that he owes the surname of «the theologian ». They were delivered
at Constantinople in defence of the ecclesiastical doctrine of the Trinity,
and against the Macedonians and Eunomians. After treating in the
first oration certain preliminary questions he proceeds in the second
to treat of the existence, nature, and attributes of God, in so far as
the human intellect can grasp them and human speech make them
plain. In the third he demonstrates the unity of nature in the three
Divine Persons, more particularly the divinity of the Son, while in
the fourth he replies to the objections of the Arians against the di
vinity of the Son, by interpreting correctly the scriptural passages
abused by them. The fifth oration is devoted to a refutation of the
1 Migne, PG., xxxv. xxxvi. 2 Orat. 28, n. I.
§ 68. ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, THE THEOLOGIAN. 289
objections against the divinity of the Holy Spirit. In many ways similar
are the orations no. 20 «on the order and establishment of bishops » and
no. 32 «on moderation and purpose in controversies », both of which
were delivered at Constantinople. The two invectives fanyjiereHtwo£;l
against the emperor Julian (no. 4 5) were composed after that emperor's
death (June 26., 363) and probably were never delivered in public. In
these discourses he intended to exhibit the person of the apostate,
whom he had personally known at Athens, to the general contempt of
his contemporaries and of posterity. Nevertheless, it is heat of passion
that glows in them rather than true Christian enthusiasm. The oration
no. 2 in which he explains and defends his flight after his ordination
to the priesthood (dnoAo-^nxbt; rTjq dq rbv Ubvrov (p'r^c, svexsv) is too
long to have ever been delivered in its present form. Possibly he may
have preached in 362 the first or apologetic part of the discourse,
and enlarged it, at a later date, until it became the treatise that we
now possess on the excellence of the ecclesiastical state. It is the
model and the source of the six books of Chrysostom's xspi lepcoa'jvrjC
(§ 74, 8). The other orations of Gregory are devoted to some
ecclesiastical feast, some article of faith or duty of Christians, the
commemoration of celebrated martyrs, of relatives and friends, or
some important event of his own life. Among the commentators of
his discourses the most famous is Elias of Crete, who probably lived
in the tenth century.
5. GREGORY'S LETTERS AND POEMS. - - At the request of his
youthful relative, Nicobulus, our Saint made a collection of the greater
part of his letters1. Most of the letters that have reached us — • 243
in the Benedictine edition — date from the period of his final retirement
at Arianzum (383- — 389), and appertain to personal occurrences in his
life, or in those of his friends and relatives; only a few deal with
theological questions. The 243 d letter, often referred to in later times
fxpbg Eddyptov jwvayjw rrspl ^eoT^rocJ 2 undertakes to present, with
the aid of comparisons, an idea of the relation of the Son and the
Holy Spirit to the Father, within the unity of the divine nature,
that itself suffers no separation by reason of such distinctions. As
works of literary art, the letters of Gregory are admirable. They are
quite laconic and short, replete with « thoughts » and «points», fre
quently written with a painstaking industry that is evident, and often
meant for an audience beyond the immediate recipient. — Most of his
poems were composed within the same period as the letters. He
sought to make headway, by means of poetical propaganda, against
certain heresies, particularly that of Apollinaris, which did not hesitate
to clothe their teachings in poetical garb in order to secure the ad
hesion of the people. Moreover, his poems were meant to supply
1 Ep. 52 53; Migne, PG., xxxvii. 108 — 109.
- Migne, PG^ xlvi. 1101 — 1108, inter opp. S. Greg. Nyss. ; cf. xxxvii. 3S3.
BARDENHE\VER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 19
290
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
in some measure the loss of the pagan writings that were only too
often open sources of immorality for the Christian reader. In the
poem entitled In sues versus *, Gregory explains in detail the reasons
which moved him in his old age to abandon the use of prose for
metre. His poetry, however, is nothing more than versified prose,
rather weak also and prolix. There is an occasional spark of poetic
fire in his elegiac and satirical verses; otherwise, he is at his best
in gnomic maxims and moral aphorisms, and in compact didactic
instructions replete with Christian wisdom. The longest (1949 w.) of his
poems is entitled De vita sua 2] it is also the principal historical source
for the history of our Saint. The metrical form of his poems is very
manifold, and in particular he exhibits a perfect mastery of trimeter,
hexameter, pentameter, iambic and anacreontic verse. Occasionally
he abandons the quantitative metre, as in the rhythmic Hymnus
vespertinus and the Exhortatio ad virgines*. The tragedy Christus
pattens ^ is a spurious work, written at a much later date, probably
in the eleventh or twelfth century. Cosmas the Singer (§ 105, 6)
composed scholia on the poems of Gregory. The Greek Anthology
includes some epigrams of Gregory on Basil, Nonna, Caesarius and
others 5.
6. CHARACTER OF GREGORY. — A certain irresoluteness appears
in the whole life of Gregory; he yearns for solitude and quiet con
templation, and yet the prayers of his friends and his own sense of
duty call him back to the active life, to a share in the movements
and conflicts of his time. In this sphere he owes his success chiefly
to his powerful eloquence. Though he is not a great ecclesiastical
ruler like his friend Basil, he surpasses him in his command of the
resources of persuasive rhetoric. He is beyond doubt one of the
greatest orators of Christian antiquity, and that in spite of the tribute
he had to pay to the taste of. his own time which demanded a florid
and grandiloquent style. In his didactic discourses he appears as an
exponent and defender of the tradition of Christian faith. For him
it is a matter of pride that he holds , unmodified and unadapted to
the changing circumstances of his day, the faith that he has learned
from the Scriptures and the holy fathers : xara Tidvra xatpbv opoiax;,
o'j aup.jj.op(po6n^oc, rolq xatpolQ** ; elsewhere he insists that he teaches
(especially concerning the Trinity) after the manner of (Galilaean)
fishermen, and not after the manner of Aristotle : &XtsuTtxwQ9 «/U' OL>%
'ApioroTehxatQ 7. Gregory is not a profound thinker like his namesake
ofNyssa; independent speculation was foreign to his genius. Yet it
may be said of him that he is in a higher degree than his famous
contemporary and associate, the representative of the common faith
Poem, ii, i, 39; Migne, PG., xxxvii. 1329—1336. 2 Ib., ii, I, n.
* Ib., i, I, 32 and 2, 3. * Mign€j PG) xxxviii. 133—338.
' Anthologia Palatina viii. 6 Or. 33, n. 15. 7 Or. 23, n. 12.
§ 68. ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, THE THEOLOGIAN. 2QI
of the Greek Church toward the end of the fourth century. As early
as the following century his dogmatic teaching was looked on with
respect as a rule of Christian faith. Manifestum namque indicium
est non esse rectae fidei hominem qui in fide Gregorio non concordat,
says Rufinus of Aquileja in the preface to his Latin translation of
some of Gregory's orations *. Later theological writers among the
Greeks, e. g. St. John Damascene, quoted with special satisfaction
the works of «the Theologian ».
7. HIS TRINITARIAN DOCTRINE. - - Gregory's exposition of the
ecclesiastical teaching concerning the Trinity deserves a careful study.
His own mental tendency and a certain intimate relish, not less than
the immediate needs of the faithful , led him to devote almost his
whole life to the defence and illustration of that doctrine. He returns
to the theme in nearly every discourse. The following passage 2
presents an accurate summary of his belief in the Trinity: «I give thee
this profession of faith as a life-long guide and protector: One sole
divinity and one power, which exists in three together and includes
in itself the three distinct, not differing in substance or nature, neither
increased by addition nor lessened by subtraction, in every respect
equal, absolutely one, even as the single and undivided beauty and
grandeur of the firmament, an infinite unity of three infinite persons,
each being God as considered apart, God the Father and God the Son
and God the Holy Ghost, each being distinct by His personal property
[proprietas] \ all three together being God: that on account of identity
in nature (ofjtooofftoTiQQ), this on account of one sovereignty (fjLOvap%ia).
When in my mind I consider one, I am illuminated round about by the
three, and scarcely have I distinguished the three when I am again led
back to their unity. When I look upon one of the three, I hold it to
be the whole ; my eye is overcome by the excess of light whose fulness
escapes my powers. I am unable so to grasp the grandeur of this
one, as to accord the plentitude (of vision) to that which remains;
when, however, I comprehend all three in my contemplation, I see
but one ray, and am unable to distinguish or to measure the united
light. » - - With regard to the divinity of the Holy Spirit, while he
defended the reserve and the prudence of Basil in setting forth this
truth (§ 67, 9), he was himself less cautious. About 372 he asks
himself publicly3: «How long must we keep our light under the
bushel and defraud others of the perfect divinity (of the Holy Spirit) ?
The light should rather be placed on the candlestick that it may
shine through all the churches, and in every mind, and over the whole
earth, no longer as in an image and in shadowy outline presented to
the intellect, but clearly set forth. » 4 In his panegyric on his friend
Basil 5 he relates how amid the cruel pressure of the times (rov xatpou
1 Migne, PG., xxxvi. 736. 2 Or. 40, n. 41. 3 Or. 12, n. 6.
4 Cf. Ep. 58. 5 Or. 43, n. 69.
19*
20,2 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
Basil had adopted for himself, in view of his
exposed position, a prudent reserve (ryv olxovopiavj, while to the much
less imperilled Gregory he left full freedom of speech (TTJV nappymavj.
_ The filioque is not found in the writings of Gregory as clearly
and openly as in those of Basil. He takes it, however, for re
cognized and granted, that the Son also is principle or origin of the
Holy Spirit. When he says *• in his discourse before the Second
Ecumenical Council (381) that the Father is avap%oQ, the Son dpjfi
and the Holy Spirit TO pera rijg dpjtfjs, he implicitly affirms between
Holy Spirit and Son the mutual relation of the Proceeding and of the
Principle from Whom He proceeds. Moreover, he expressly says that
the Holy Spirit is TO ££ dfipow ffuvy/jt/jtlyoy2 or «composed of both»,
i. e. he proceeds equally from the Father and the Son3. The poem
entitled Praecepta ad virgines ends with these words: One God,
from the Begetter through the Son, to the great Spirit (SCQ &SOQ ex
fsvsTao df ulsoQ IQ [ji^fa Trvsujuia — the so-called xlvyotg TTJC, ftovddoQ
sig TptddaJ, since the perfect divinity subsists in perfect persons. »
0
8. COMPLETE EDITIONS. - - The most valuable of the early editions is
that of y. Billius and F. Morellus , Paris, 1609 — 1611, 2 vols., reprinted
at Paris in 1630 and at Cologne (Leipzig) in 1690. The best edition is
that of the Benedictines. Its history is rather unique. The first volume
containing all the orations was delayed by the death of several co-workers,
and was published by Ph. Clemencet, Paris, 1778. The second volume was
delayed by the French Revolution and appeared as late as 1840, post
operam et studium monachorum O. S. B. edente et accurante D. A. B.
Caillau. It contains the complete collection of the poems and letters of
Gregory. In the edition of Billius and Morellus the numbering of the
orations, poems, and letters differs from that adopted by the Benedictines;
a comparative list of the contents of both editions is found in Fessler,
Instit. Patrol. (1850 — 1851), i. 747 — 762. The Benedictine edition is reprint
ed, with many additions, in Mignc, PG., xxxv— xxxviii, Paris, 1857 — 1858.
9. NEW EDITIONS. SEPARATE EDITIONS. — S. Basilii Caesarcac Cappad.
archiep. et S. Gregorii Theol. vulgo Nazianz. archiepisc. Constantinop.
opera dogmatica selecta (S. Greg. Orat. de dogmate et constitutione episco-
porum, Orat. theologicae, Epist. ad Cledonium , Epist. ad Nectarium).
Edenda curavit J. D. H, Goldhorn, Leipzig, 1854 (Bibl. Patrum graec.
dogmatica. Edendam curavit J. C. Thilo. ii). A new edition of the Ora-
tiones quinque de theologia was brought out by A. J. Mason, Cambridge,
1899; cf. Miser, Les manuscrits Parisiens de Gregoire de Nazianze, in
Revue de Philologie (1902), xxvi. 44—62, and (1903), xxvii. 125—138
37 8 — 39 1- E- Bouvy , Les manuscrits des discours de St. Greg, de Naz.,
in Revue Augustinienne (1902), pp. 222 — 237. A separate edition of the
Orat. apologetica de fuga sua was issued by J. Alzog , Freiburg, 1858
1868; one of the Orat. in fratrem Caesarium by E. Sommer, Paris, 1875
1885 1898; one of the Orat. in laudem Machabaeorum by E. Sommer,
Paris, 1891 1900. A diligently edited text of some epic and didactic poems
1 Or. 42, n. 15. 2 or. 31, n. 2.
D. Lenain maintains, in the Revue d'histoire et de litterature religieuse (1901),
vi. 533 , that by these words Gregory means no more than that the formula Holy
Spirit is composed of two words «Holy» and « Spirit*.
§ 68. ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, THE THEOLOGIAN. 293
of Gregory is found in W. Christ and M. Paranikas , Anthologia graeca
carminum christianorum, Leipzig, 1871, pp. 23 — 32; cf. Prolog, xii — xv.
The two metrical pieces Exhortatio ad virgines and Hymnus vespertinus
were last edited by W. Meyer, Anfang und Ursprung der lateinischen
und griechischen rhythmischen Dichtung, in Abhandlungen der k. bayer.
Akad. d. Wissensch., I. KL, xvii. 2, 400—409, 1885; cf. pp. 313 — 315;
cf. Fr. Hanssen , in Philologus (1885), xliv. 228 — 235, and Edm. Bouvy,
Poetes et Melodes, Nimes, 1886, pp. 133 — 138. The poems of Gregory
generally have been the subject of numerous works : M. Schubach , De b.
patris Gregorii Nazianzeni Theologi carminibus commentatio patrologica,
Coblenz, 1871; P. Stoppel, Quaestiones de Gregorii Nazianzeni poetarum
scaenicorum imitatione et arte metrica (Diss. inaug.), Rostock, 1881. Cf.
A. Ludwich, in Rhein. Museum f. Philol., new series (1887), xlii. 233 — 238;
G. Knaack, in Neue Jahrb. f. Philol. und Padag. (1887), cxxxv. 619 — 620.
E. Dubedout , De Gregorii Nazianzeni carminibus (These), Paris, 1901.
W. Ackermann, Die didaktische Poesie des Gregorius von Nazianz (Dissert.),
Leipzig, 1903. — Christus patiens. Tragoedia Christiana quae inscribi solet
XpiTro; ~acr/wv Gregorio Nazianzeno falso attributa. Rec. J. G. Brambs,
Leipzig, 1885. Id., De auctoritate tragoediae christianae quae inscribi solet
Xpircos 7car/(ov Gregorio Nazianzeno falso attributa, Eichstatt, 1883. A
German version of that tragedy which preserves the original metre was made
by E. A. Pullig, Bonn, 1893 (Progr.). For a more detailed discussion of
this drama, the only survival of its kind in the Byzantine period, cf. Krum-
bachcr , Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur, 2. ed., Miinchen, 1897,
pp. 746 ff.
10. ANCIENT COMMENTARIES ON THE ORATIONS AND POEMS OF GREGORY. —
The following mediaeval commentaries on the orations of Gregory are
found in Migne, PG., xxxvi: Eliae metropolitae Cretae commentarii in S. Gre
gorii Naz. orationes 19. E codice ms. Basileensi excerpsit A. lahnius.
Accedunt Basilii aliorumque scholia in S. Gregorii orationes e codicibus
Monacensibus excerpta (ib. , 737 — 932); Nicetae Serronii commentarius
in orat. i et n. Accedunt duorum anonymorum scholia. Ex edit. Chr.
Fr. Matthaei (ib., 933 — 984) ; Nonni abbatis commentarii in orationes II
contra lulianum imp. ex edit. Montacutii , in laudem funebrem S. Basilii
et in orationem in sancta lumina ex edit. Mali (ib., 985 — 1072); Basilii
Minimi scholia in orationem duplicem contra lulianum imp., et de Herone
philosopho, edente Boissonadio , et ad orationem funebrem in Caesarium
fratrem, edente L. de Sinner (ib. , 1073 — 1206); Anonymi scholia in
easdem orationes contra lulianum imp., ex edit. Montacutii (ib., 1205 — 1256,
xxx). A supplement to these commentaries is printed in Migne, PG.,
cxxvii. 1177-— 1480: Nicetae Serronii Heracleensis metropolitae Expositio
in oratt. 38 39 40 45 44 41, but only in the Latin version of Billius. For
the commentaries of «Abbot Nonnus» cf. E. Patzig , De Nonnianis in
IV orationes Gregorii Naz. commentariis , Leipzig, 1890 (Progr.). Patzig
is of opinion that the author of these commentaries lived in Syria or Pale
stine, in the early part of the sixth century; the name of Nonnus is not
vouched for by any contemporary evidence. A. Maraudiau (Nonnos),
Die Scholien zu fiinf Reden des Gregor von Nazianz, Marburg, 1903,
Armenian scholia attributed to the philosopher and translator David. See
§107, 3 for commentaries of Maximus Confessor on various orations.
Other scholia were published by E. Piccolomini, Estratti inediti dai codici
greci della Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, Pisa, 1879, pp. 1—45; cf.
Pref. iii — xlii, and by E. Norden , Scholia in Gregorii Naz. orationes in-
edita, in Hermes (1892), xxvii. 606 — 642; Id., in Zeitschr. fiir wissensch.
Theol. (1893), ii. 441 — 447. — Migne, PG., xxxviii, contains the following
294 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
commentaries on the poems of Gregory : Cosmae Hierosolymitani commen-
tarii . . . (see § 105, 6); Nicetae Davidis Paraphrasis carminum arcanorum,
cura E. Dronke e codice Cusano edita (ib., 681 — 842); Anonymi Para
phrasis carminis de libris canonicis (ib., 843 — 846) ; the Prooemium to the
Paraphrasis of Nicetas David is found in Migne, PG., cv., 577 — 582.
11. VERSIONS. -- Rufinus of Aquileja translated into Latin ten of the
orations of Gregory (§ 67, 14) and Basil. Eight orations in the trans
lation of Rufinus were published at Strassburg in 1508; cf. Fessler, Instit.
Patrol. (1850 — 1851), i. 570, and Schoenemann, Bibl. hist.-lit. Patrum lat.,
i. 627 — 628 (Migne, PL., xxi. 39 — 49). The version of Rufinus was not
reprinted in Migne, with the exception of the preface (PG., xxxvi. 735 to
736). The Syriac version of the letter Ad Evagrium monachum de divi-
nitate (see no. 5) has already been mentioned (§ 47, 5). It was edited
by de Lagarde and Martin and translated into German by Ryssel. The
Carmina iambica of Gregory were published in Syriac by J. Bollig and
H. Gismondi , Beirut, 1895 — 1896, 2 vols. There is a Syriac version of
the Orat. in laudem Machabaeorum, in Bensly- Barnes, The Fourth Book of
Maccabees, Cambridge, 1895, pp. 55 — 74. Selections from Gregory were
translated into German by J. Rohm (25 orations), Kempten, 1874 — 1877,
2 vols. (Bibliothek der Kirchenvater), and by F. J. Winter (who follows
closely in the footsteps of Rohm), «Ausgewahlte Reden», Leipzig, 1890
(G. Leonhardi , Die Predigt der Kirche, x); G. Wohlenberg translated the
Apology (see no. 4), Gotha, 1890 (Bibl. theolog. Klassiker, xxix). An
English version of selected orations and letters by Ch. W. Browne and
J. E. Swallow appears in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers of the Christian Church, ser. 2, New York, 1894, vii.
12. WORKS ON GREGORY. - - C. Ullmann , Gregorius von Nazianz, der
Theologe, Darmstadt, 1825, 2. ed., Gotha, 1867. Fr. Bohringer , Die
Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen, oder die Kirchengeschichte in Biographien,
viii: i. Die drei Kappadozier. 2. Gregor von Nyssa. 3. Gregor von
Nazianz. Stuttgart, 1876. A. Benoit , St. Gregoire de Nazianze, arch-
eveque de Constantinople et docteur de 1'Eglise, Paris, 1876, 2. ed. re
vue, 1885, 2 vols. C. Cavallier, St. Gregoire de Nazianze . . . par 1'abbe
A. Benoit, etude bibliographique, Montpellier, 1886. J. Hergenrother , Die
Lehre von der gottlichen Dreieinigkeit nach dem hi. Gregor von Nazianz,
dem Theologen, Ratisbon, 1850. Schwane , Dogmengeschichte, Freiburg,
1895, n> § 18: Die Trinitatslehre des hi. Gregor von Nazianz. H. Weiss,
Die grossen Kappadozier Basilius, Gregor von Nazianz und Gregor von
Nyssa als Exegeten, Brunsberg, 1872. J. Draseke, Quaestionum Nazianzena-
rum specimen (Progr.), Wandsbeck, 1876. Id., Gregorius von Nazianz
und sein Verhaltnis zum Apollinarismus , in Theol. Studien und Kritiken
(1892), Ixv. 473 — 512. Fr. K. Hummer, Des hi. Gregor von Nazianz, des
Theologen, Lehre von der Gnade, Kempten, 1890. J. R. Asmus , Gre
gorius yon Nazianz und sein Verhaltnis zum Kynismus, in Theol. Studien
und Kritiken (1894), Ixvii. 314 — 339. K. Unterstein, Die natiirliche Gottes-
erkenntnis nach der Lehre der kappadozischen Kirchenvater Basilius, Gregor
von Nazianz und Gregor von Nyssa (Progr.), Strassburg, 1902 — 1903.
K. Weiss , Die Erziehungslehre der drei Kappadozier. Ein Beitrag zur
patristischen Padagogik, in Strassburger Theol. Studien, Freiburg, 1903.
Duchesne, Hist, ancienne de 1'Eglise, 2. ed., Paris, ii, c. xii: Gregoire de
Nazianze.
13. C^ESARIUS OF NAZIANZUS. -- Caesarius, a younger brother of Gre
gory (see no. 2), held a high and honorable office as physician in the im
perial court under Constantitis and Julian, and was also honored by Jovian
and Valens. He died just as he was about to retire to private life, in
§ 69. ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA.
368 or the early part of 369, after a brief illness. The collection of (197)
miscellaneous questions and answers, chiefly theological, divided into four
dialogues and current under the name of Ccesarius (Dialogi IV s. Quae-
stiones et responsiones : Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., vi. i — 152, and thence
reprinted in Migne , PG. , xxxviii. 851 — 1190), is declared spurious by
nearly all critics.
§ 69. St. Gregory of Nyssa.
i. HIS LIFE. - - Gregory of Nyssa was a brother of Basil the
Great, younger, it is thought, by several years, though the exact date
of his birth is not known. His whole youth, indeed, is shrouded in
obscurity. Basil apparently took charge of his education; at least
Gregory often speaks of him to their younger brother Peter in terms
of respect and gratitude ; he calls him the beloved father and teacher
of both: xarqp xa\ diddaxaXot; s. xo&^npg *. He was already an
«anagnostes» or reader in the Church when he was seduced by the
charms of a worldly career, and embraced the calling of a teacher of
rhetoric; Gregory of Nazianzus says2 that he would then rather be
called a rhetorician than a Christian. It is very probable, though many
deny it, that he was married. Eventually he yielded to the prayers of
his friends, principally of Gregory of Nazianzus, and entered the ec
clesiastical state. He gave up his office as teacher, withdrew for some
time into solitude, and in the autumn of 371, much against his will,
was consecrated bishop of Nyssa, an insignificant town under the juris
diction of St. Basil. He met with violent opposition from the Arians
of this place; in 375 he was deposed from his see by a synod of Arian
bishops convened by Demosthenes, governor of Pontus. For several
years he led a wandering life, being likened by Gregory of Nazianzus 3
to a bit of drift-wood tossed hither and thither by the waves. The
death of Valens, at the end of 378, brought about a change in the
politico-ecclesiastical situation. The return of Gregory to his people
assumed the character of a triumphal procession. In the autumn of 3 79
he took part in a synod at Antioch specially convoked for the purpose
of healing the Meletian schism. In 381 he attended the Second Ecu
menical Council at Constantinople, and took a prominent part in the
proceedings as one of its principal theologians. In execution of the
second canon of the Council the emperor Theodosius issued a de
cree (July 30., 38 1)4 that all those should be expelled as heretics from
the churches of Pontus who did not communicate with Helladius,
bishop of Caesarea (in Cappadocia) and successor of Basil, Otrejus
of Melitene in Armenia, and Gregory of Nyssa. Gregory visited the
capital on other occasions; the last time he appeared there was in
394, when he assisted at a synod held by the patriarch Nestorius
for the purpose of reconciling some Arabian bishops. After this his
1 De hominis opificio, prol. ; In Hexaemeron, prol. et epil. ; Ep. ad Petrum.
2 Ep. ii. 3 Ep. 81. 4 c. 3, C. Th. xvi, i, De fide cath.
296 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
name disappears from history; it is believed that his death took
place about this time. We learn from one of his letters1 that his
declining years were troubled by paltry annoyances on the part of
Helladius of Csesarea.
2. EXEGETICAL WORKS. — Gregory of Nyssa is one of the most
diligent and versatile ecclesiastical writers of his day. The greater
part of his works deal with scriptural exegesis although it was not
here that his genius shone most brightly. He was a great admirer
of the erudition and acumen of Origen; hence, in most of his own
exegetical writings he betrays the influence of the hermeneutical
principles of the Alexandrine doctor. He delights in seeking and
finding beneath every word of the biblical text a fund of moral
instruction. The result is that under this treatment the literal sense
runs great danger of evaporating, or of being sacrificed completely,
e. g. at the beginning of his homily on the Canticle of canticles.
He is most sane and temperate in his interpretation of the Creation-
narrative concerning the endowment of man (nepi xaraaxeorjc, dvftpcoxoo) 2
and on the work of the six days CAxoXofqTixbt; nepl rr^ kqa^jiipo'}) 3.
Both of these works were written in 379 at the request of his brother
Peter, the bishop of Sebaste. The former, also the first written, was
meant to complete the homilies of Basil on the work of the six days
(§ 67, 5); the second was written in order to remove some misunder
standings of both the Scripture text and Basil's exposition of it. Through
out this work Gregory follows in the footsteps of Basil in his homilies
and pays special attention to the literal sense; towards the end he
asserts, not without a certain satisfaction, that he has never distorted
the literal sense of Scripture into figurative allegory, elg TpoTztxyv
dtirrfopiay. Yet in later years, when he exhibits before a certain
Caesarius the figure of Moses as a model and criterion for one's own
life (itepi TOO fliou McovaicoQ ~ot> vofj.o&irou TJ irep} TTJQ xar dpsTTjv
TSAstitTijTosJ* he indulges in the boldest and most fine-spun allegorizing.
In the two tractates usually entitled : gfe ryy entrpapyy TUV faApwy*,
he yields still more, were it possible, to his penchant for allegory.
On the hypothesis that all Psalms contain precepts for a virtuous life,
he seeks to demonstrate, in the nine chapters of the first tractate, that
the Psalms as found in our collection are distributed according to a
consistent plan, and that the division of the collection into five books
represents five steps or levels of an educational ladder by which we
gradually reach the summit of perfection. In the sixteen chapters
of the second tractate he discusses mostly the Septuagint titles of
the Psalms; according to him they exist for the sole purpose of lead
ing to something good (TO npoq rt TWV dratta)v xajhirqffaa&at, c. 2).
In the editions of his works there is added a homily on the sixth
Greg. Nyss., Ep. i. 2 Migne , PG., xliv. 125—256.
Ih, xliv. 61-124. 4 Ib, xliv. 297-430. 5 Ib., xliv. 432—608.
§ 69. ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA.
Psalm1. The eight homilies on Eccl. i. I to iii. I32, aim at proving
that this « truly sublime and divinely inspired » book has for its pur
pose «the uplifting of the spirit above the senses. The former will
then lead the latter into a region of peace, through its renunciation
of all that is apparently great and splendid in the things of this
world » (TO UTZZptteivat. TOV voi>v TYJQ alattf/aetoc, xat KWJGO.L xo.TaAi7cbvTa
rtav oTiTcip ioTiv jj.ifa TS xal AafjLTtpov iv role, ouaiv (po.wofj.evov) 3. The
fifteen homilies on the Canticle of canticles (i. I to vi. 8) develop in a
bold and free manner the idea that under the preparations for a human
wedding the writer depicts the union of the human soul with God
(TO jLtkv L)7cofioa<po[j.evov smttaAa/jitoc TIC, iariv xapaaxBofj, TO o' ivvooo-
IJLBVOV T7JQ dvdpcomvTjQ ^^/'^ ''] TTpoc, TO ftelov kaTLv dvdxpamcj *. In
his brief tractate on the Witch of Endor faepl TYJQ iffatrrptfjivjfavj*,
he says that the woman (i Kings xviii. 12 ff.) did not see Samuel but
a demon who put on the figure of the prophet. Among Gregory's
interpretations of the New Testament are five homilies on the Lord's
Prayer fslg TTJV r.poo&jyrjv)^, and eight homilies on the beatitudes (elq
Touq fjLaxaptafjLO'jQ) 7, practical and exhortatory commentaries that have
always been highly esteemed. The authenticity of the exposition of
i Cor. xv. 28 8 is disputed by some.
3. DOGMATICO-SPECULATIVE WRITINGS. - The dogmatico-specu-
lative writings of Gregory of Nyssa surpass in value his exegetical
writings. The most important of them is his large «catechesis»
(Aofoc xar/j%7}Tixbc o ju.lfa.QJ 9, an argumentative defence of the prin
cipal Christian doctrines against heathens, Jews, and heretics. It is,
according to the Prologue, formally dedicated to Christian teachers,
and its purpose is to instruct them in detail how best to seize the
opponent's point of view, and to proceed from his own admissions.
Hence, the course of the argument varies between biblio-theological
and philosophico- speculative considerations. Foremost among the
Christian doctrines are the Trinity, the Redemption of mankind by
the Incarnate Logos, and the application of the grace of Redemption
through baptism and the Eucharist. The most extensive of his
extant works , likewise one of the most important refutations of
Arianism, is that against Eunomius in twelve (or thirteen) books,
TrpoQ Euvofjitov dvTLppr)Tt.xo\ Xo-foi^. It was undertaken at the request
of his brother Peter, of whom only this letter to his brother Gregory
has been preserved n, as a reply to the bxkp TY^Q diroAofiac; 0.7:0 Aofia
with which Eunomius had answered the writing of St. Basil against
himself (§ 67, 4), probably a short time before the death of St. Basil,
with the double purpose of defending the latter against the accusations
1 Ib., xliv. 608—616. 2 Ib., xliv. 616—753. 3 Horn, i to i. i.
4 Horn. i. 5 Migne, PG., xlv. 108 — 113. 6 Ib., xliv. 1120 — 1193.
7 Mt. v. i — 10: Ib., xliv. 1193 — 1301. 8 Ib., xliv. 1304 — 1325.
9 Ib., xlv. 9 — 105. 10 Ib., xlv. 237 — 1121. n Ib., xlv. 241 — 244.
298 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
of Eunomius in his reply to Basil, and of fully expounding the
teaching of Basil concerning the divinity of the Son and the Holy
Ghost. The internal disposition of the books into which it is divided,
and their order of succession , are not yet sufficiently clear ; in the
text of all editions up to the present the connection and progress
of the writer's thought appear interrupted and uncertain. Gregory wrote
also two works against Apollinaris of Laodicea. The first dvTtfipyTtxbc
xpoQ TO. 'AitoMiwapioi)\ is an answer (written probably before 383) to
the work of Apollinaris entitled « Demonstration of the Incarnation
of God in the image of man» (§ 61, 4). It is devoted to the re
futation of the heresy of Apollinaris, viz. that the body of Christ
came down from heaven, and that in it the divine Logos took the
place of the human soul (VOOQ). An appendix to this work is the small
tractate XO.T *AitoXhvapiov 2 dedicated to Theophilus, patriarch of Alex
andria. Other works of Gregory are devoted to the defence and
illustration of the Trinitarian teaching of the Church. Among them
are a treatise entitled : How we must not believe that there are
three gods (xsf)} TOO fiy oieaftai Xiyew rpzic, ftzo'jc,)^ addressed to a
certain Ablabius ; a similar work entitled : Against the heathens on
a basis of common sense (tipbc, "EXArjvac, ex TCOV xotvcov kvvoicov)^',
On faith, to the tribune Simplicius (nep} TrtffTsajc)5 in defence of the
divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit; On the Trinity and that
the Holy Spirit is God, printed among the works of St. Basil (-jiep}
TYfi a^iac Tptddoc, xou on ftsbc; TO Trvsu/jta TO aywv) 6. It is addressed
to Eustathius of Sebaste, and is by some ascribed to Basil. Mai
discovered two orations of Gregory of Nyssa against Arius and Sa-
bellius7 and another (incomplete) against the Macedonians8. — An
especial interest attaches to the Dialogue of Gregory with his sister
Macrina on the soul and the resurrection (xepl ^oyyQ xa\ avaaTdaecoz)*.
He was still grieving over the loss of his brother Basil when, on
his homeward journey from a synod at Antioch, he visited (379)
his sister Macrina, to whom he was no less devoted than to his
brother. She was then resident on an estate of the family situated
on the river Iris in Pontus, as the superior of a pious sisterhood with
whom she led a life of entire consecration to the divine service.
Gregory found her in immediate danger of death ; their conversation
naturally turned on their future reunion in heaven. This dialogue,
composed shortly after the death of Macrina , puts into her mouth
the views of Gregory on the soul, death, resurrection and the final
restoration of all things. Macrina appears as a teacher, hence the
work is entitled TOL Maxpivia. In the treatise against Fate, xaTa
Aligns, PG., xlv. 1124—1269. 2 Ib., xlv. 1269—1277.
Ib, xlv. 116—136. 4 Ib ( xly I76— 185. * Ib; xly 136—145.
Ib., xxxii. 684—696, inter opp. S. Bas. M. ' Ib., xlv. 1281 — 1301.
8 Ib., xlv. 1301—1333. 9 Ib., xlvi. 12—160.
§ 69. ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA.
he defends the freedom of the will against astrological
fatalism. The treatise on children who die prematurely (nepi ~a>v
vyxicov Ttpb ffjpaq d<papno£ofj.iva>v)* undertakes to explain to Hierius,
prefect of Cappadocia, why God permits such untimely deaths. The
work « Selected arguments against the Jews », sxlofal fj.apT'jpicov xpbq
'fofjdaiofjQ8, is probably spurious and certainly interpolated.
4. ASCETICAL WORKS. - - More or less ascetic in tendency are
the little works : On the meaning of the Christian name or profession
faepl TOU Tt TO zpuTTtavebv ovo/jta r] IndiffeJifia)*) written to a certain
Harmonius; On perfection and what manner of man the Christian
should be (mpl TE^ECOTT^TOQ xac OTTOIOV ypy elvat rbv xpurrtavov)5, to
the monk Olympius; On the end (of creation) according to the di
vine will (nspl TOO XO.TO. ftebv 0xono>j)G, written especially for monks.
The admirable book; On virginity fnepl xap&Eviaq)1 or the state of
perfection was written during his retirement, about 370. Its purpose,
as stated in the preface, is to strengthen in all who read it the de
sire for a virtuous life, -yc, xaT dpsTyv ZOJYJQ. Elsewhere the practico-
moral view-point often asserts itself in his discourses and letters.
5. DISCOURSES AND LETTERS. - - The former are not numerous,
but they exhibit the contemporary fondness for superfluous ornament
and magniloquence, to which even Gregory of Nazianzus fell a
victim (§ 68, 6), although the latter is far superior as an orator both
to St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa. Among the moral writings
of our Gregory may be mentioned the discourses : Against those who
put off their baptism, xpbc, robe, ppaoovovTaq ei$ TO ftdTTTifffjta] Against
the usurers, xaTa TCUV TOXI&VTCOV] Against those who mourn ex
cessively for their dead, xpbq Tobq nzMftovvTuq km Tolc, dxb TOL> r.ap-
OVTOI; ftiou Tipbq TOV d'idtov /jiettt(TTafjtlvoi(;. The discourse on the
divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit and on the faith of Abraham,
Ttspi tieoT'/jTOQ otoo xat xvstjfmToc, AoyoQ xa\ Ifxcojuwv slg TOV dixatov
'Aflpadfji, delivered probably in 383 at Constantinople, is often men
tioned with esteem in later Greek literature. It is the same subject
that recurs in the discourse usually entitled «On his own delegation »,
SCQ T7]v kwjroi) ystpoToviav, delivered probably at Constantinople in
381, when he was charged, in company with Helladius and Otrejus,
with the ecclesiastical supervision of the province of Pontus. He
wrote also a few other discourses for feasts of the Church, panegyrics
on the protomartyr Stephen (two), on the martyr Theodore, on the
forty martyrs of Sebaste (two), on St. Ephraem Syrus and on St. Basil.
We possess also from his pen three funeral sermons, on Meletius of
Antioch, the princess Pulcheria, and the empress Flaccilla; the first
was probably delivered in 381 during the Council; the other two
1 Ib., xlv. 145 — 173. 2 Ib., xlvi. 161 — 192. 3 Ib., xlvi. 193 — 233.
4 Ib., xlvi. 237—249. 5 Ib., xlvi. 252—285. 6 Ib., xlvi. 288—305.
7 Ib., xlvi. 317 — 416.
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
in close succession, during 385 and at Constantinople. Gregory has
given in the form of an encomium also his biography of St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus (§ 47, i) and that of his sister Macrina. — There are
twenty-six of his letters in Migne *. Special mention may be made of
two letters that led to lively controversies between Catholics and Pro
testants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They are no. 3
to the sisters Eustathia and Ambrosia, and no. 2 on those who go as
pilgrims to Jerusalem, nspl rcov dnwvrwv etc, 'fepoaoAoim. At the re
quest of the Synod of Antioch (379), but according to others^ at that
of the Second Eucumenical Council (381), Gregory made a journey
to Arabia in order to restore ecclesiastical peace in that country, on
which occasion he also visited the holy places of Palestine. In the
first of the letters referred to, he relates the vivid impressions made
on him by the sight of the holy places and speaks with sorrow of
the unhappy ecclesiastical conditions of Palestine; in the second he
condemns severely the abuses that were springing up apropos of
pilgrimages and utters a warning against exaggerated notions of their
religious value; in his zeal against abuses he may have failed to
appreciate justly the intrinsic value of this pious practice.
6. GREGORY'S PLACE IN THEOLOGY. - The ecclesiastical impor
tance of Gregory consists in his power of philosophical defence and
demonstration of the Christian faith. He was a man of erudition, both
as a philosopher and a theologian, but less adapted to and competent
for the office and works of a pastor of souls and an ecclesiastical
administrator. At least St. Basil complains frequently of the ex
cessive amiability and simplicity (-/pyawrrfa axMrys) of his brother 2.
On a later occasion3 he declared him thoroughly inexperienced in
ecclesiastical affairs, TzavrzXcoc, axetpov TWV xara TO.Q ixxtyeiag, and
quite unsuited to deal with a person so conscious of his office and
position as Pope Damasus. However, all the more praise was be
stowed on the scientific accomplishments of Gregory, which he put
to the best use in his speculation on the doctrines of the Trinity
and of the resurrection of the body.
7. THE TRINITY IN GREGORY'S WRITINGS. — It is clear from the
preceding account of Gregory's writings (no. 3; cf. no. 5) that he was
an indefatigable defender of the divine nature. He is not so happy in
his attempts to reconcile the Trinity and the Unity. He seems to anti
cipate, in a measure, the extreme realism of the Middle Ages, and to
admit, even in finite things, the numerical unity of essence or nature.
«We begin by stating », says he in the opening paragraph of the treatise
De eo quod non putandum sit tres Deos did oportere 4, « that it is a
prevalent abuse to bestow the name of nature in the plural on those
things which do not differ in nature, to speak for example of many
1 Migne, PG., xlvi. - Ep. 58 60 100. 3 Ep. 215.
4 Migne, PG., xlv. 117 120.
§ 69. ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA. 3OI
men. It is the same as if we spoke of many human natures. . . .
There are many indeed who share the same nature. . . . But in all
of them man is one (COGTS xoAAoug jukv e~ivai TOUQ /jtsTZffffxoTa:; dye
(puffsco^ . . . zva dk ev Tracriv TOV avttpwTrov), because, as we have said,
the term man indicates not the individual but the common nature. . . .
It would be far better to correct this faulty expression of ours and
cease to cover a plurality with the name of nature; we should then
be no longer tempted to project our error of speech into theological
doctrine. » This confusion of the abstract idea that excludes plurality
with the concrete idea that exacts a plurality, comes out even more
plainly in the treatise Adv. Graecos ex communibus notionibus l : SCTTM
dk xat IlirpoQ xal 77«5/0£ xac BapvaflaQ XOLTO. TO avftpto—oq zlq av-
ftpcoxoc, xal xara TO auro TOVTO, xara TO avttpcoxoc, iroAAoi o>j dwavrat
slvat , XifovTat ok rroMol av&pcoxoi xara%pi]0Tix&Q xat o'j x'jpicoq. It
is all the more necessary, he goes on to say, to hold fast to the
unity of God or the divinity, because the word fteoc, expresses an
activity rather than a nature (it comes from thaaftat, and means to
look down upon all things), and this activity can only be one,
although the divine persons have it in common. What is true of
the Trinity differs essentially from what holds good in the case of
the activity of three philosophers or rhetoricians. « Every activity that
proceeds from God, which relates to creatures, and is designated
according to the variety thereof, takes its origin from the Father, pro
ceeds through the Son, and is perfected in the Holy Spirit, ex r.arpbc,
d(fopjJLaTai xat dec/. TO~J oio^ Ttpoztatv xat iy TW KveofJtaTt TW ay'iio
T£Asioi)Tat. Hence we cannot speak of several activities, though wre
predicate plurality of the active persons. The activity of each is not
divided and separate; but whatever is done, be it God's providential
love for us or His government and direction of the world , is done
by the three, nor are the things done threefold, oi> {j.yv Tpia £<TTII<
TO. rwojusya.2.* There is a difference, therefore, between the manner in
which the three divine persons respectively have the one divine activity
ad extra, and their immanent mutual relations. Gregory often refers
to this 3. He lays all possible stress on one point : the distinction of
three divine persons consists in their immanent relations. He ex
plains with amazing clearness and precision the relations of the
Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son. «Should any one», he says
toward the end of the treatise addressed to Ablabius4, « object against
our teaching that by the denial of any difference in nature we con
fuse and commingle the hypostases, we reply that, while firmly ad
hering to the identity of nature (TO dxapdJiAaxTov r^c (fvazioz,)* we
1 lb., xlv. 1 80. 2 Ib., xlv. 125.
3 Ep. 5 ad Sebastenos : Migne, PG., xlvi. 1032; Serm. adv. Macedonianos, n. 19:
ib., xlv. 1325.
4 Migne, PG., xlv. 133.
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
do not deny the distinction between the principle and what pro
ceeds from it. We find this distinction between them; we believe
that the one is the principle and that the other is from the principle,
and in what is from the principle we find another distinction. For
the one is from the first immediately (npoffez&gj , the other only
mediately and through that which is immediately from the first, so
that the characteristic note of Only-begotten, TO povorsvsg, belongs
undoubtedly to the Son. On the other hand it is certain that the
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, for, while the mediation of
the Son requires for Him the character of Only-begotten, it does so
without taking from the Holy Spirit his natural relation to the Father. »
In the Sermo adv. Macedonianos, n. 2 *, he states the ecclesiastical
faith as follows: «We confess that the Holy Spirit is co-ordinate,
<wyT£Td%ttai , with the Father and the Son, so that between them
there is" absolutely no difference as regards all things that can be
thought and said in a God-fearing way concerning the divine nature,
save that the Holy Spirit is a distinct hypostasis, xaff bnoaraaiv
Idta&vTwq ftecop£l(jdai, because He is from God, Ix TOO ttsov, and is
of Christ, TOO XptaToo, as it is written (John xv. 26; Rom. viii. 9;
Phil. i. 19; Gal. iv. 6), in this way that He does not share either
with the Father in the property of not proceeding (TO dyivvijTov), or
with the Son in the property of the Only-begotten. » He frequently
calls the Son the glory, oo^a, of the Father, and the Holy Spirit
the glory of the Son2. Gregory never treats of such questions as
the manner in which the three persons proceed in the one divine
nature or from the divine intellect and will, nor what it is that con
stitutes the three hypostases three distinct persons.
8. GREGORY'S VIEWS ON THE RESURRECTION AND THE FUTURE
LIFE. — In his works on the creation of man, and on the soul and
the resurrection (De hominis opificio, De anima et resurrectione etc.).
Gregory teaches that man is the link between two distinct and
mutually opposed worlds, the focus in which the world of the spirit
and the world of the senses meet. The soul is not prior to the
body, as Origen maintained , nor does it begin to exist after the
body, as now and then some have inferred from the biblical ac
count of creation3; the two constitutive elements of human nature
come into existence at one and the same moment 4. Thenceforward
they are and remain most intimately united ; even death does not inter
rupt completely their mutual relations; their temporary separation is
followed fyy an indissoluble reunion. He explains as follows5 the eccle
siastical doctrine of the identity of the present body with that of
1 Migne, PG., xlv. 1304.
- Contra Eunom., lib. i: Migne, PG., xlv. 372; Serm. adv. Maced. , n. 20: ib.,
xlv. 1328.
3 De horn, opif., c. 28. 4 Ib., c. 29. 5 Ib., c. 27.
§ 69. ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA. 303
the resurrection: « Since the soul is possessed of a certain natural
inclination and love towards the body that once was its own, there
continues to dwell (in the departed soul) a secret fondness for and
a knowledge of its own property, TOO olxeioo a'/imc, re xat impninn^,
Now in every such body there are inherent certain natural signs
by reason of which the common matter remains distinct, and distin
guishable by these peculiarities. ... It is not, therefore, unreasonable
to believe that in the resurrection our bodies will separate themselves
from the common matter and return to their special forms of being.
This will appear more clearly if we observe more closely our own
nature. Our essence, TO yfj.iTs.pov, is not entirely subject to motion
and change ; it would be perfectly unintelligible if there were not in
it something essential that never changed. Closer observation shows
that there are in us a changeable and a permanent element. The
body changes through growth and decay . . . but its form, TO eldo^
remains unchanged. . . . Now, since this form remains with the soul
like the impress of a seal, that (portion of matter) which has already
left upon the soul the impress of its image (form), can never be un
known to the soul ; on the contrary, in the hour of final restoration
of all things, TY/Q dvaffToyztwcrscoc, the soul takes again to itself what
corresponds to the image of the form; but what was originally
stamped with the form certainly corresponds to this image. » In
the treatise on the soul and the resurrection1 and in the discourse «on
the dead» 2 he treats more particularly of, the body of the resur
rection. For a long time there has been much opposition to his
views concerning the great difference that will exist among the
arisen and its final cessation. «Not everything)), says he3, «that
returns to existence by the resurrection will enter upon the same life
as before. Rather is there a great difference between those who have
been purified and those who still stand in need of purification. . . .
Those who have been cleansed from the filth of iniquity through
the water of the sacrament, did TOU udaToc TOO /i.U(TTtxotj, need no
other purification, TOO eTepoo TWV xaftapmcov sl'douQ, while those
who have never received that sacramental cleansing , ol TW'JT^C,
dfjLorjWi. TTJQ xattdpaecoQ, must necessarily be purged through fire.»
Finally, however, all nature must, by an unavoidable necessity,
return to its original happy and divine and painless condition , yy
site TO fjtaxdpwv re xdt frewy xac TidarjQ xaTTjipsiaQ xe%a>f)tfffji£vov
dKoxardfframs*. When after long ages, the evil which now in all
creatures has permeated nature, has been extirpated from it, and
the restoration to their original condition takes place, 7; SIQ TO
dpya~tov dxoxaTaaTaGic, TWV vvv iv xaxia xst/Jtsycw 9 of all those who
1 De an. et resurr. : Migne, PG., xlvi. 148 ff.
2 Or. de mortuis: lb., xlvi. 529 ft".
3 Or. catech., c. 35: Ib., xlv. 92; cf. c. 8. * lb., c. 35.
304 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
now lie sunk in evil, then shall every creature intone a chant of
thanksgiving to the Redeemer; even the inventor -of evil, b supe-crg
rob xaxov, will have a part in this hymn of thanksgiving *. In such
phrases he maintains, apparently, a general restoration (Apocatastasisj
to divine favor of all sinful creatures; the pains of hell have,
therefore, only a medicinal significance, and are not eternal but
temporary. Indeed, he repeats these views in his dialogue De an.
et resurr. At the end of time, he says in this dialogue, all without
exception will enjoy the divine bounty i. e. will live in God2; the
distinction between a virtuous and an evil life will then consist chiefly
(ftdXutra) in the more or less rapid (ftarrov rt ayoka.u'tTepov) realization
of the hapiness that we hope for3. In his discourse De mortuis he
says that the sinner must be purified in this life «by prayer and philo
sophy » or in the life to come by the wray of purging fire4. When
all shall have been finally cleansed from evil, then shall be resplendent
in all the one divine beauty5. Nevertheless he often speaks of the
pains of hell as eternal. Thus, in the Oratio catechetica, c. 40 6,
he says expressly that its fire is inextinguishable and speaks of the
immortality of «the worm», and of an eternal sanction, rt alcovia
avcwoaiQ,; in his Or. c. usurarios7 he threatens them with eternal
suffering, eternal punishment, alwvtoQ bjTrq, y altovtot; xoAamz: in
De castigatione* he speaks of unceasing and inconsolable lamen
tation through eternity, rov atyxrov dduppibv xai dnapajj.6^rov sic
alwvaQ. But this « eternity » is elsewhere interpreted by himself in
such terms as raiq fmxpalq xsptodotQ^, TO~CQ xa&yxovmv xpovoio,, paxpaic
xoT£ neptoSoiQ10. The hypothesis of Germanus of Constantinople
(§ I07> 5) tnat the writings of Gregory had been interpolated at a
later date is therefore both useless and gratuitous. Gregory could
not imagine an eternal estrangement from God of his intellectual
creatures. God cannot completely alienate himself from them. By
an intrinsic necessity they must one day turn away from evil and
cling to the good and the divine with which their own nature stands
in such close kinship u.
9. EDITIONS OF HIS WRITINGS. - - The writings of Gregory of Nyssa
have hitherto been rather strangely neglected. There is no complete edi
tion that satisfies even the most modest demands. In modern times G. H.
Forbes %&& Fr. Oehler undertook the task of producing such an edition;
. N. Gregorii Nysseni Basilii M. fratris quae supersunt omnia, in unum
corpus cpllegit, ad fidem codd. mss. recensuit, latinis versionibus quam accura-
tissimis instruxit et genuina a supposititiis discrevit Gregorius H. Forbesius,
1 Or. catech., c. 26. 2 Migne, PG., xlvi. 152.
Ib., xlvi. 152 157—160. * Ib., xlvi. 524 525.
Ib., xlvi. 536. 6 Ib., xlv. 105. ' Ib., xlvi., 436 452.
8 Ib., xlvi. 312. » Or. catech., c. 26: ib., xlv. 69.
•° De an. et resurr.: ib., xlvi. 152 157.
[1 De horn, opif., c. 21: ib., xliv. 201.
§ 69. ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA. 305
Burntisland, 1855 I86i, but only two fascicles of the first volume of this
edition were printed containing; pp. i — 95 : Apologia in Hexaemeron; pp. 96
to 319: De conditione hominis; pp. 320 — 350: De vita Moysis (a part only),
with an extensive critical apparatus. Of Oehler's edition only the first
volume was printed : S. Gregorii episc. Nysseni opera, ex recensione Francisci
Oehler, tomus I, continenslibrosdogmaticos, Halle, 1865, pp. i — 454: LibriXII
contra Eunomium; pp. 455 — 595 : Confutatio alterius libri Eunomii [?] ; pp. 597
to 673 : Adnotatio. The text-criticism is defective. The best of the earlier
editions is that of Pronto Ducaeus, S. J. , Paris, 1615, 2 vols. An ample
appendix, compiled by J. Gretser, S. J., Paris, 1618, was incorporated in
the second edition of Ducaeus (f Sept. 25., 1624), Paris, 1638, 3 vols.
Other «inedita» of Gregory of Nyssa were made known by L. A. Zacagni,
Collectanea monumentorum veterum ecclesiae graecae ac latinae, Rome,
1698, i; by J. B. Caracdolo , S. P. N. Gregorii episc. Nyssae epistolae
septem, Florence, 1731, and by A. Mai, Script, vet. nova coll. viii, Rome,
1833, part 2, and Nova Patr. Bibl. iv, Rome, 1847, part i. Some already
known writings were re-edited by y. G. Krabinger , with the aid of new
codices: the dialogue De anima et resurr., Leipzig, 1837; the Orat. catech.
(and the Orat. funebris in Miletium ep., Antioch, xlvi. 852 — 864), Munich,
1838; the five homilies on the Lord's Prayer, Landshut, 1840. For the Or.
catech. see J. H. Srawley , The Mss. and Text of the Or. Catech. of
Gregory of Nyssa, in Journal of Theological Studies (1902), iii. 421 — 428;
Id., New ed. of Orat. Catech., Cambridge, 1903. G. Mercati, Varia Sacra
(Testi e Studi n), Rome, 1903, pp. 57 — 70, claims Ep. 189 among the
letters of Basil. Magn. as the work of our Gregory. He also edited it anew,
ib., pp. 71 — 82, with the aid of hitherto unknown texts. The most com
plete collection of the writings of Gregory is in Migne , PG., xliv — xlvi,
Paris, 1838, but these volumes have no critical value. For extracts from
the De vita Moysis taken from newly discovered papyrus - codices see
H. Landwehr, Griechische Handschriften aus Fayyum, in Philologus (1885),
xliv; cf. pp. 19 — 21.
10. TRANSLATIONS. - - In the sixth century Dionysius Exiguus trans
lated into Latin the work of Gregory on the constitution of man (De con
ditione hominis, in Migne, PL., Ixvii. 345 — 408). A Syriac version of the
Explanation of the beginning of the Lord's Prayer was edited by P. Zingerle,
in Monumenta syriaca ex romanis codicibus collecta, Innsbruck, 1869, i.
in — 116. A German version of several important writings was published,
with the Greek text, by Fr. Oehler , in his Bibliothek der Kirchenvater,
Leipzig, 1858 — 1859, part I (the only one). A German recension with
critical notes, of the treatise De anima et resurrectione, is owing to
H. Schmidt, Halle, 1864. There appeared, in the Kempten Bibliothek
der Kirchenvater, German translations of the following: Life of St. Ma-
crina, his sister ; Great Catechesis ; Treatise on the constitution of man ;
Dialogue with his sister Macrina on the soul and the resurrection (trans
lations of H. Hayd, 1874); the moral discourses, Panegyrics, and funeral
orations were translated by J. Fisch , ib. , 1880. Selected discourses in
German version by F. J. Winter, in Leonhardi-v.Langsdorjf, Die Predigt
der Kirche, Leipzig, 1895, xxix. Many of his writings are translated
into P^nglish by Schaff , A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers of the Christian Church, New York, 1893, series II, v.
11. SPURIOUS WORKS. ASTERIUS OF AMASEA. NEMESIUS OF EMESA. -
The two spurious Orationes in Scripturae verba: faciamus hominem ad
imaginem et similitudinem nostram (Migne, PG., xliv. 257 — 298) are found
under another title in the editions of the works of St. Basil (§ 67, n).
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 2O
306 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
The Or. II de resurr. Domini (Ib., xlvi. 627 — 652) belongs to the Mono-
physite Severus of Antioch (§ 102, 2). Cf. A. Baumstark , in Rom.
Quartalschr. fur christl. Altertumskunde (1897), xi. 32. The treatise or
fragment De eo quid sit ad imaginem Dei et ad similitudinem (Ib., xliv.
I32g — 1345) seems to be spurious. Cf. J. B. Kumpf mutter, De Anastasio
Sinaita, Wurzburg, 1865, pp. 150 — 151. The ten syllogisms against the
Manichteans (Contra Manichaeos Oratio: Ib. , xlvi. 541) are, as Fessler
(Instit. Patrol., 1850 — 1851, i. 595) saw, taken literally from the treatise of
Didymus the Blind against the Manichaeans (§ 70. 2). On the Ep. 26 ad
Evagrium monachum de divinitate (Migne, PG., xlvi. noi — 1108), which
probably belongs to the works of Gregory of Nazianzus, see § 47, 5 and
68, 5. Two homilies, Adhortatio ad poenitentiam and In principium
ieiuniorum, formerly attributed to our Saint (Ib., xlvi. 539), are now known
to be works of his contemporary, St. Asterius, metropolitan of Amasea in
Pontus about the end of the fourth century. To the same Asterius (Migne,
PG., xl. 164 — 477) are ascribed 21 homilies -- among them the above-
mentioned 13 and 14 -- most of which are devoted to interpretation of
Scriptural passages (e. g. Horn. 6 in Danielem et Susannam) or to the
glorification of the Saints. On earlier editions of these homilies cf. Fessler-
Jungmann, Instit. Patr., i. 624. L. Koch, Asterius, Bischof von Amasea, in
Zeitschr. f. die histor. Theol. (1871), xli. 77 — 107. For a Sylloge historica
on Asterius see V. de Buck, in Acta Ss. Oct., Paris, 1883, xiii. 330—334.
The treatise on the soul printed among the works of Gregory of Nyssa
(-£pl <|>u-/7js: Ib., xlv. 188 — 221) is only a fragment (cc. 2 and 3) of the work
of Nemesius «On the nature ofman» (uepl cpuuewc dvftpu>7too: Ib., xl. 504 — 817).
Nemesius, it is generally believed, was bishop of Emesa in Phoenicia in the
early part of the fifth century. His work belongs really to the history of
philosophy ; in it he chiefly discusses psychological questions and is strongly
influenced by Neoplatonist thoughts. In the Middle Ages it was much read
and was translated into several languages. Its manuscript tradition is dis
cussed by K. J. Burkhard, in Wiener Studien (1888), x. 93 — 135; (1889), xi.
143—152 243 — 267; cf. (1893), xv. 192 — 199. Migne (1. c.) reprints the
latest edition, that of Chr. Fr. Matthaei, Halle, 1802. A Latin version, made
probably by Alfanus, archbishop of Salerno (f 1085), was published by
C. Holzinger, Leipzig and Prague, 1887; cf. Cl. Bdumker, in Wochenschr.
f. klass. Phil. (1896), pp. 1095 — 1102. Another Latin version, made in
1159 by the Pisan jurist Johannes Burgundio, was edited (in part) by K. J.
Burkhard, Vienna, 1891—1896 (two progr.), and 1901 (Progr.). Cf. M.
Evangelides, Nemesius und seine Quellen, Berlin, 1882. B. Domanski, Die
Psychologic des Nemesius, Mimster, 1900 (Beitrage zur Gesch. der Philo
sophic des Mittelalters, iii. i). J. Drdseke , in Zeitschr. f. wissenschaftl.
Theol. (1901), xliv. 391 — 410, attributes to Nemesius the rspl too xata-
9pov£iv TOV }}«'VGCTGV, current under the name of Demetrius Cydonius (Migne,
PG., cliv, 1169—1212) and re-edited by H. Weckelmann, Leipzig, 1901.
12. WORKS ON GREGORY OF NYSSA. - - J. Rupp , Gregors, des Bi-
schofs von Nyssa, Leben und Meinungen, Leipzig, 1834. St. P. Heyns,
Disputatio historico-theologica de Gregorio Nysseno, Leyden, 1835. &'*
Bdhringer, Die Kirche Christ! und ihre Zeugen oder die Kirchengeschichte
in Biographien, 2. ed., viii : i. Die drei Kappadozier, 2. Gregor von Nyssa,
3. Gregor von Nazianz. Stuttgart, 1876. E. G. Hotter, Gregorii Nysseni
doctrinam de hominis natura et illustravit et cum Origeniana comparavit
E. G. M., Halle, 1854. J. N. Stigler , Die Psychologic des hi. Gregor
von Nyssa, Ratisbon, 1857. L. Kleinheidt , S. Gregorii episc. Nysseni
doctrina de angelis, Freiburg, 1860. Al. Vincenzi, In S. Gregorii Nysseni
et Origenis scripta et doctrinam nova recensio, cum appendice de actis
§ 70. DIDYMUS THE BLIND. 307
synodi V. oecum., Rome, 1864 — 1869, 5 vols. H. Weiss, Die grossen Kappa-
dozier Basilius, Gregor von Nazianz und Gregor von Nyssa als Exegeten,
Brunsberg, 1872. A. Krampf , Der Urzustand des Menschen nach der
Lehre des hi. Gregor von Nyssa, Wiirzburg, 1889. Fr. Hilt, Des hi. Gregor
von Nyssa Lehre vom Menschen systematise?! dargestellt, Cologne, 1890.
J. Bauer, Die Trostreden des Gregorius von Nyssa in ihrem Verhaltnis
zur antiken Rhetorik (Inaug.-Diss.). Marburg, 1892. Fr. Diekamp , Die
Gotteslehre des hi. Gregor von Nyssa, Mtmster, 1896, i. A. Reiche, Die
kiinstlerischen Elemente in der Welt- und Lebensanschauung des Gregor
von Nyssa (Inaug.-Diss.), Jena, 1897. W. Vollert, Die Lehre Gregors von
Nyssa vom Guten und Bosen und von der schliesslichen Uberwindung des
Bosen, Leipzig, 1897. H. Kocli, Das mystische Schauen beim hi. Gregor
von Nyssa, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1898), Ixxx. 397 — 420. E. Michaud,
St. Gregoire de Nysse et 1'Apocatastase, in Revue Internationale de Theo-
logie (1902), pp. 37 — 52. K. Unter stein , Die natiirliche Gotteserkenntnis
nach der Lehre der kappadozischen Kirchenvater Basilius, Gregor von
Nazianz und Gregor von Nyssa (Progr.), Strassburg, 1902 — 1903. K. Weiss,
Die Erziehungslehre der Kappadozier etc., Freiburg, 1903.
§ 70. Didymus the Blind.
I. HIS LIFE. — Didymus, surnamed «the Blind», is one of the
most notable men of an age that abounded in great personalities.
He was born at Alexandria about 310, and lost his sight while yet
young, at the age of four according to Palladius 1 ; after his fifth year
(post quintum nativitatis suae annum), says St. Jerome2, Rufinus
writes as follows 3 concerning Didymus :
Miscebat tamen precibus studia ac laborem et iuges continuatasque
vigilias non ad legendum, sed ad audiendum adhibebat, ut, quod aliis visus,
hoc illi conferret auditus. Cum vero post lucubrationis laborem somnus, ut
fieri solet, legentibus advenisset, Didymus silentium illud non ad quietem vel
otium datum ducens, tamquam animal ruminans cibum quern ceperat ex
integro revocabat et ea quae dudum percurrentibus aliis ex librorum lectione
cognoverat memoria et animo retexebat, ut non tarn audisse quae lecta
fuerant quam descripsisse ea mentis suae paginis videretur. Ita brevi Deo
docente in tantam divinarum humanarumque rerum eruditionem ac scien-
tiam venit, ut scholae ecclesiasticae doctor exsisteret . . . sed et in ceteris
sive dialecticae sive geometriae, astronomiae quoque vel arithmeticae dis-
ciplinis . . . esset paratus. . . .
He was president of the catechetical school of Alexandria for
more than a half century; Rufinus and Jerome were among his dis
ciples. He remained a layman, and was married ; his death probably
occurred about 395. Didymus was strongly influenced by his great
predecessor Origen, not only in his exegetical method, but in his
doctrinal views. In later times he was anathematized as an Origenist,
i. e. a believer in the pre-existence of the soul and in the Apo-
catastasis. In March or April 553 the bishops who had gathered at
Constantinople for the fifth General Council (May 5. to June 2. 553)
1 rsT/^s-nys, in Hist. Laus., c. 4. " Chron. ad a. Abr. 2388.
3 Hist, eccl., ii. 7.
20*
308 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
condemned Origen and the Origenistic doctrines of Didymus the
Blind and the deacon Evagrius Ponticus (f about 399). Other General
Councils (sixth, • seventh, and eighth) repeated the anathema of the
fifth against Origen, Didymus and Evagrius.
2. WRITINGS OF DIDYMUS. -- The extant works of Didymus are
partly dogmatic and partly exegetical. The most important is his work
on the Trinity, ;re/>« rptddo^\ in three books found by J. A. Min-
garelli in a somewhat incomplete and very faulty codex of the ele
venth century, and published by him in 1769. This work was written
(after 379) against Arianism. St. Jerome, who knew well the Origenistic
tendency of the author2, says rightly that in this treatise he is un
doubtedly orthodox (certe in trinitate catholicus est) 3. An earlier work
on the Holy Spirit (De Spiritu Sancto) is considered a supplement of
the work on the Trinity, principally of the second book of it. It has
reached us only in the sixty-three brief chapters of St. Jerome's Latin
translation 4. When Pope Damasus requested the latter to compose a
work on the Catholic doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit, he pre
ferred, as he says in the preface, alieni operis interpres ex sister e quam,
ut quidam faciunt, alienis se coloribus adornare. This work is, in
deed, one of the best of its kind in Christian antiquity. Less important
is the tractate against the Manichaeans, xara Mavr/aicov*. Its eighteen
chapters have reached us in the original text, but apparently in an
imperfect condition. He is very probably also the author of the last
two books of the alleged work of St. Basil's Adversus Eunomium; for
they seem to be a compendium 6 of the two books of Didymus' De
dogmatibus et contra Arianos (cf. 67, 4, 13). He wrote many other
works, dogmatic, polemic, and apologetic in character, that have been
lost or still await discovery. Among these is a work devoted to the
exposition and defence of Origen's xzp\ dpyfov (onop.^p.ara d$ ~a 7iep\
dpywv 'Qptfivotx;). In his exegetical writings Didymus was a slavish
follower of Origen in his allegorico-mystical method of interpretation;
but only a few fragments, however, have been saved from his
many prolix commentaries. The most complete of them is the ex
position of the canonical Epistles (In Epistolas canonicas enar ratio'1);
and even that has reached us only in the Latin version and recension
of Epiphanius the Scholastic, undertaken at the suggestion of Cassio-
dorus. The genuineness of this commentary, though denied, has been
defended with success by J. A. Cramer in his edition of the Catena of
Greek on the Canonical Epistles (Oxford, 1840). It is here that
the Origenism of the author reaches its frankest expression. Mai found
1 Migne, PG., xxxix. 269—992. °- Adv. Rufin., i. 6; ii. n.
3 lb., ii. 16; cf. iii. 27.
4 Migne, PG., xxxix. 1031—1086; PL., xxiii. 101 — 154.
Migne, PG., xxxix. 1085—1110. « Hier., De viris ill., c. 109.
7 Migne, xxxix. 1749 — 1818.
§ -JO. DIDYMUS THE BLIND. 309
in a Catena and published (1847) numerous scholia of Didymus to
Second Corinthians1; he also found and published (1854) remnants
of scholia on all the Psalms2 attributed to Didymus, and probably
remnants of a complete commentary on the Old Testament. In
detail, however, the genuineness of these Mai fragments is still open
to discussion. It may be said that their author was certainly an
Alexandrine, that he is a pronounced allegorist, and seeks in most
of the Psalms a Messianic sense and a mystico-ascetic teaching. Mai
also published at the same time some fragments of the Commen
tary on Proverbs 3.
3. WORKS ON DIDYMUS. -- For details of the ecclesiastical condem
nation of Didymus and Evagrius cf. Fr. Diekamp , Die origenistischen
Streitigkeiten im 6. Jahrhundert etc., Miinster, 1899, pp. 131 f. Ferd. Min-
garellius , Veterum testimonia de Didymo Alexandrine Coeco, ex quibus
tres libri de Trinitate nuper detecti eidem asseruntur. Cum animadv.,
Rome, 1764. Didymi Alex, libri tres de Trinitate. Nunc primum graece
et lat. ac cum notis ed. y. Aloys. Mingarellius , Bologne, 1769; the
« Veterum testimonia» printed at the beginning of this, edition were all col
lected by Mingarelli's brother. Didymi Alex, praeceptoris S. Hieronymi in
omnes Epist. canon, enarratio, nunquam antehac edita. Ace. eiusdem de
Spiritu S. ex Hieron. interpr., Cologne, 1531. A critical edition of the
very corrupt text of this «Enarratio», with addition of a new original frag
ments, was issued by G. Chr. Fr. Lucke, Quaestiones ac vindiciae Didy-
mianae, Gottingen, 1829 — 1832 (4 Univ. progr.). The scholia to Second
Corinthians are in Mai, Nova Patr. Bibl., iv 2, 115 — 146, where there is
an appendix (pp. 147 — 152) of commentary-fragments by Didymus on the
fourth Gospel, not edited by B. Corderius, S. J. , in his Catena on that
Gospel, Antwerp, 1630. J. Chr. Wolf edited from a Catena some frag
ments of a commentary on the Acts of the Apostles: Anecdota Graeca,
Hamburg, 1724, iv. For the scholia on the Psalms cf. Mat, vii 2, 131
to 311 (note the fragment on the title of Ps. iv. in Mai, 1. c., iii i, 456;
2, 284). The fragments on Proverbs are in Mai, 1. c. , vii 2, 57 — 71.
Corderius had already printed some fragments of a Didymus-commentary
on the Psalms, Antwerp, 1643 — 1646; J. A. Mingarelli published others
at Bologna, 1784. P. Junius (Patrick Young) made known some frag
ments on Job: Catena Grace. Patr. in beatum Job, London, 1637. Other
fragments on Genesis, Exodus, and 2 Kings became known by the
publication at Leipzig, 1772 — 1773, of the Catena of Nicephorus on the
Octateuch and the Books of Kings. All these editions are found in
Migne, PG., xxxix. A Latin scholion to Gen. i. 27, in Pitra, Spicilegium
Solesm. , i. 284, is attributed to Didymus. According to Draseke, Didy
mus was also the author of the first of the two books against Apollinaris
printed in the editions of Saint Athanasius: J. Draseke, Zu Didymus von
Alexandriens' Schrift «iiber die Trinitat». Mitteilungen aus Albert Jahns
Nachlass, in Zeitschr. f. wissenschaftl. Theol. (1902), xlv. 410 — 416. Th.
Schermann, Lateinische Parallelen zu Didymus, in Rom. Quartalschr. (1902),
xvi. 232—242 (see also § 63, 3 10).
4. EVAGRIUS PONTICUS. - - Evagrius called Ponticus , perhaps from his
native province, was born in Pontus about 345, and about 380 was ordained
1 Ib., xxxix. 1679 — 1732. - ib., xxxix. 1155 — 1616.
3 Ib., xxxix. 1621 — 1646.
3IO SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
deacon by Gregory of Nyssa, whom he accompanied to the Second Ecu
menical Council of Constantinople (381), where he remained for some
years with the patriarch Nectarius (381 — 397). He was moved to leave
that city by the dangers which his virtue encountered ; after a short stay
in Jerusalem he betook himself to Egypt, where he followed the monastic
rule, first in the Nitrian Desert, and then in the great monastery known
as ra xeUi'a. He is said to have steadfastly refused an episcopal see offered
him by Theophilus of Alexandria. He died in the desert at the age of 54,
highly esteemed both as an ascetic and a writer (cf. Pallad. , Hist. Laus.,
c. 86). Evagrius was well-known already during his life as an Origenist.
Jerome reproaches him with Origenistic opinions, and calls him a forerunner
of Pelagius (Ep. 133 ad Ctesiphontem, n. 3; Dial. adv. Pelag., prol. ; Comm.
in Jer., iv, prol.). We have already stated (see no. i) that at a later date
he was condemned as an adherent of the pre-existence of the soul and
of the Apocatastasis. His writings were put into Latin by Rufinus (Hier.,
Ep. 133, 3) and by Gennadius (Gennad., De viris ill., c. n), and perhaps
about the same time translated by others into Syriac. Only a few brief
and broken fragments have reached us. Gallandi was the first to make a
critical collection of them, in Bibl. vet. Patr. vii. 551 — 581 (cf. xx — xxii).
His edition is reproduced in Migne, PG., xl., and begins with the works
first discovered (1686) by J. B. Cotelier : JJLOVOT/OC T] rapt TrpaxrixTj? (Monachus
seu de vita activa), and the T«V xata jxovayoiv Trpa-yixaTouv ra atria xal f(
xaft' rjau^iav TOUTCDV irapafhcri? (Rerum monachalium rationes earumque iuxta
quietem adpositio). Both Cotelier and Gallandi give only fragments and
excerpts of the jxova/o?. Another corresponding work mentioned by
Socrates (Hist, eccl., iv. 23) : YVWS-IXO? \ zspi twv -/ata^wiHvTwv -yvcosscoc (?)
has perished. Then follow various collections of apophthegms, rules of life
and aphorisms, which are only partly extant in Latin ; while in the Greek
text they are also current under the name of St. Nilus. The tractate -spl
Tuiv OXTOJ XoYiafxtov (De octo vitiosis cogitationibus) is obviously a remnant of
the collection of scriptural texts made by Evagrius in self-defence against
various (8) temptations as recorded above by Socrates (1. c.) and Gennadius
(1. c.); for a new edition of it cf. A. Elter, Gnomica, Leipzig, 1892, i. In
an appendix to Zockler' s Evagrius Ponticus (Munich, 1893), Fr. Baethgen
published a German translation of a Syriac fragment from a (lost) larger work
of Evagrius on the eight evil thoughts. If Evagrius did not invent the theory
of the eight vices, he is at least the first known representative of it, and
was thereby the forerunner of the doctrine of the seven capital sins. It
is very doubtful that the scholion si? TO II I 111 (in Gallandi and Migne at
the last place) belongs to Evagrius • its latest editor is P. de Lagarde, Ona-
mastica Sacra, Gottingen, 1870, i. 205 — 206 (2. ed. 1887). It treats of the
ten Jewish names of God and in particular of the sacred tetragram ; 111111
(in some codices TUTU), is a reproduction of the Hebrew letters mrr (read
from left to right). Cf. E. Nestle, in Zeitschr. der deutschen Morgenl.
Gesellschaft (1878), xxxii. 465 ff. O. Zockler, Evagrius Pontikus, Munich,
1893 (Zockler, Biblische und kirchenhistorische Studien, fasc. iv). Cf. J.
Draseke , Zu Euagrios Pontikos, in Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Theol. (1894),
xxxvii. 125 — 137.
§ 71. St. Epiphanius.
i. HIS LIFE. - Epiphanius was born about 315 in a hamlet near
Eleutheropolis in Judsea, and devoted himself from early youth to the
study of the sacred sciences. At the same time he took up with
special zeal the study of foreign languages, and according to St. Je-
§ yi. ST. EPIPHANIUS. 311
rome * became a master of Greek, Syriac, Hebrew and Egyptian
(Coptic), to some extent also of Latin. The holy monk Hilarion
exercised much influence over the Palestinian youth, and it was pro
bably his exhortations that led Epiphanius to visit Egypt in search
of more advanced instruction. He frequented there the society of
the most famous monks, and came also into contact with the Gnostics,
who made vain efforts to win him over to their heresy. When about
twenty years of age he returned to his native land and founded a
monastery near Eleutheropolis over which he presided for some thirty
years, in the course of which time he was ordained to the priesthood.
The fame of his learning and piety induced the bishops of Cyprus
to choose him in 367 as their metropolitan and bishop of Con-
stantia, the ancient Salamina. In this capacity he became distinguished
for his mortified and holy life, for his activity in the spread of
monasticism, and for his fiery zeal in defence of the purity of eccle
siastical doctrine. Indeed, this zeal is the distinguishing mark of Epi
phanius. It is true that it was not always coupled with calmness
and moderation nor with a deep knowledge of the world and of
men; hence the troubles that darkened the latter years of his life.
He had always been a strong opponent of Origenism, both in his
writings and his discourses. It was with the intention of pursuing,
to one of its principal centres, a heresy which seemed to him ex
ceedingly dangerous that in 394 he visited Jerusalem, the home of
Origen's most determined and influential admirers. Among them
were John II. , bishop of the city, Jerome who lived in Bethlehem,
and Rufinus, their friend and guest. In presence of the bishop and
a great multitude assembled in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
Epiphanius delivered a discourse against Origen and his errors.
When John refused to condemn the Alexandrine, Epiphanius broke
off ecclesiastical communion with him. Rufinus sided with John,
while Jerome took the part of papa Epiphanius Tievrd^/MTTOQ2 whom
he held in great veneration. Fresh fuel was added to the flame
when Paulinian, brother of St. Jerome, was ordained a priest by
Epiphanius, at a place not far from Eleutheropolis, in the diocese
of Jerusalem, and against the will of the bishop. It was several years
before a reconciliation was effected through the efforts of Theophilus,
patriarch of Alexandria, at that time very Origenistic in his views.
Shortly after, in 399, the artful Theophilus declared himself to be
strongly opposed to Origenism and took violent measures against
those Egyptian monks who adhered to the cause of Origen. When
thereby he became involved in difficulties with St. Chrysostom , he
called on Epiphanius as an ally against the bishop of Constantinople
whom he held up as a defender of Origen. It was probably in 402
that Epiphanius summoned to a synod the bishops of Cyprus, and
1 Adv. Rufin., ii. 22. 2 Ib., iii. 6.
3I2
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
condemned Origen and his writings. Soon after, despite his advanced
age, he listened to the suggestions of Theophilus and went to Con
stantinople, in order to wage war in person against the Origenists
of that city. The well-meaning but short-sighted old man was very
active in the beginning against Chrysostom; soon, however, he was
convinced of his error, and recognized that he had been used as a
tool by Theophilus. Without waiting for the Council of the Oak
(§ 74, 4) he took ship for Cyprus and died at sea, May 12., 403.
2. POLEMICAL WRITINGS. The writings of Epiphanius are
nearly all devoted to the refutation of heresy. He had often been
requested by admirers from Syedra in Pamphylia, to write a large
work in which they might find explained the true and sound faith
concerning the holy Trinity and particularly the Holy Ghost, and
he yielded in 374 and wrote the dyxupcorog* i. e. «the firmly-
anchored man». Its purpose, from which it often wanders very
widely, is to afford a solid anchorage to those of the faithful who
are cast about on the waves of Arian and Semiarian conflict. The
two Professions of faith with which the work ends were addressed
to the community of Syedra, to be used in baptism, and deserve great
attention. Caspari has shown that the second and longer profession
(c. 120) was composed on this occasion by Epiphanius himself, while
the first and shorter one (c. 119) is a baptismal creed of earlier
origin and was introduced as such into the metropolitan see of Con-
stantia, not long before the election of St. Epiphanius. It was then
accepted with a few modifications by the Second Ecumenical Council
of Constantinople (381) and became thereby the Profession of faith
of the Universal Church, indeed the baptismal creed of the whole East.
Two readers of the dfxuptoTos, Acacius and Paulus, found it so
interesting and useful that they begged the author for a more detailed
and exhaustive work on the systems of the heretics. It was thus
that he came to write (374 — 377) the «medecine-chest», navdptov or
navdpia, against eighty heresies'2, usually cited as Haereses. The
work proposes to furnish an antidote to those who have been bitten
by the serpent of heresy and to protect those whose faith has re
mained sound. Epiphanius reckons among the heresies also the Greek
philospohical schools and the religious sects of the Jews, so that
twenty of the above-mentioned heresies belong to a pre-Christian
period. He is indebted to SS. Justin, Irenaeus and Hippolytus for
his description of the earlier heresies, and often for the very words
he uses. His accounts of the later heresies are drawn from many
scattered sources and offer rich historical materials, although his cre
dulity and lack of critical acumen are often only too patent. He pro
bably borrowed the number of «eighty» heresies from the «four
score concubines» in the Canticle of canticles (vi. 7). The work
1 Migne, PG., xliii. 17—236. 2 lb xli xlii<
§ 71- ST. EPIPHANIUS. 313
closes with a synoptic exposition of the Catholic and Apostolic
Church (auvTOftOQ dty&i)G Au^oc, n:ep\ nlffre&Q xahofaxr/Q xai dTtOffroXtxvJQ
sxxtyffiasj. We must perhaps attribute to a later hand an epitome
of this work, dvaxeyaAaiwmQ 1, containing the text of passages that
seemed especially important.
3. BIBLICO - ARCHAEOLOGICAL WRITINGS. SPURIOUS WRITINGS.
LETTERS. - - Very valuable for the science of introduction to the
Sacred Scriptures is the work on Weights and Measures, nept nirpcw
xai ffTaftfjtajv, that he composed at Constantinople in 392 for a Persian
priest. The first part treats of the canon and versions of the Old
Testament, the second describes the biblical weights and measures, and
the third treats of the geography of Palestine. The title, therefore, does
not correspond with the contents ; and the entire work looks more like
a collection of notes ad sketches rather than a finished composition.
Of the Greek text only the first twenty-four chapters are extant2;
sixty other chapters were found in a Syriac version edited by de
Lagarde and translated by him into German (and Greek). The treatise
on the Twelve precious stones, nep\ rcov tfl' Ai&tov, in the breast
plate of the high priest3 of the Old Testament, is dedicated to
Diodorus of Tarsus and has reached us in two recensions, a shorter4
and a longer one5 which latter has reached us only in Latin.
Other biblico-exegetical writings of Epiphanius have perished. A com
mentary on the Canticle of canticles, extant in a Latin version and
formerly attributed to Epiphanius, is now known not to be his; the Greek
text of the work, edited by Giacomelli, claims to be from the hand
of Philo, bishop of Carpasia (or Carpasium) in Cyprus who flourished
in the early part of the fifth century, and is now generally held
to be a work of the latter. A little work on the birth and burial
places of all the prophets, preserved in two different recensions6,
filled with impossible fables, is certainly spurious. Similarly, the Physio-
logus (or a recension of it), SIQ TOV <puaioMfov , the mediaeval lexi
con or thesaurus of the natural sciences7; seven homilies8, the last
of them extant in Latin only, and several other writings are un
doubtedly spurious. Of his numerous letters only two have reached
us, and those in a Latin version9, one to John of Jerusalem, the other
to St. Jerome, both pertaining to the Origenistic controversies. Pitra
published in 1888 Greek fragments of a third letter. The style of
Epiphanius is careless, languid, and most verbose.
4. WORKS ON EPIPHANIUS. - - There is more legend than history in
the life of Epiphanius said to have been written by his disciples Johannes
and Polybius (Migne , PG., xli). B* Eberhard , Die Beteiligung des Epi-
1 Ib., xlii. 833—886. - lb., xliii. 237—293.
3 Ex. xxviii. 17 — 21 ; xxxix. 10 — 14. 4 Migne, PG., xliii. 293 — 304.
* lb., xliii. 321 — 366. ° Ib., xliii. 393 — 413 415 — 428.
~ lb., xliii. 517 — 533. s lb., xliii. 428—508. 9 lb., xliii. 379 — 392.
314 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
phanius an dem Streite iiber Origenes, Trier, 1859. AL Vincemi, Historia
critica quaestionis inter Theophilum, Epiphanium et Hieronymum, Ori-
genis adversaries, et inter Job. Chrysostomum , Theotimum, Ruffinum et
monachos Nitrienses, Origenis patronos (In S. Gregorii Nysseni et Origenis
scripta et doctrinam nova recensio), Rome, 1865, iii.
5. EDITIONS, COMPLETE AND SPECIAL. TRANSLATIONS. - - The Original
text of the Ancoratus, the Panarium and its Epitome, with the De men-
suris et ponderibus was first published by J. Oporinus , Basel, 1544. The
best complete edition, though in many ways rather faulty, is that of D. Pe-
tavius (Petau) , S. J. , Paris, 1622, 2 vols. An enlarged reprint of this
edition appeared at Cologne (thus in title, really at Leipzig, 1682). It is
reprinted with corrections and additions iuMigne, PG., xli — xliii, Paris, 1858.
In the edition of W. Dindorf, Epiphanii episc. Constantiae opera, ed. G. D.,
Leipzig, 1859 — 1862, 5 vols., the Greek text has been somewhat improved,
but no Latin translation is given ; of the spurious writings it contains only
the seven homilies and the tractate De numerorum mysteriis (Migne, PG.,
xliii. 507 — 518). The « Ancoratus » and the «Epitome of the Panarion» were
translated into German by C. Wolfsgruber (1880), in the Kempten Bibliothek
der Kirchenvater. -- Separate Editions, a) Polemical works: S. Epiphanii
episc. Constantiensis Panaria eorumque Anacephalaeosis. Ad veteres libros
recensuit et cum latina Dion. Petavii interpretatione et integris eius animad-
versionibus edidit Fr. Oehler, Berlin, 1859 — 1861 (Corporis haereseologici
ii. i 23; iii. i). Portions of the Panarium (Epiphanii varia de Graecorum
sectis excerpta) are printed in H. Diels, Doxographi graeci, Berlin, 1879,
PP- 585 — 593; cf. pp. 175 — 177. An old Armenian recension of the
Anacephalaeosis was edited with commenta by A. Dashian, Kurze biblio-
graphische Studien, Untersuchungen und Texte, Vienna, 1895, i. (modern
Armenian), 76—146. R. A. Lipsius , Zur Quellenkritik des Epiphanios,
Vienna, 1865. Id., Die Quellen der altesten Ketzergeschichte neu untersucht,
Leipzig, 1875. The two Creeds published by Caspari at the end of the
« Ancoratus » were discussed by him in some Danish articles whose contents
he summarizes in his Ungedruckte Quellen zur Gesch. des Taufsymbols
und der Glaubensregel i, Christiania, 1886, p. vii; cf. ib., pp. 8— 16. -
b) Biblico-archaeological works etc. : Metrologicorum scriptorum reliquiae.
Collegit recensuit partim nunc primum edidit Fr. Hultsch, Leipzig, 1864
to 1866, 2 vols. I. (Script. Graeci), pp. 259 — 267 : Excerpta ex Epiphanii
libro de mensuris et ponderibus. II. (Script. Romani), pp. 100—106: Vetus
versio tractatus Epiphaniani de mensuris et ponderibus. P. de Lagarde,
Symmikta, Gpttingen, 1877, pp. 209 — 225: Epiphaniana (TOU 0:7100 'Eni-
cpaviou -spl [j.£7ptov xal ara.Vwv). Id., Veteris Testament! ab Origene re-
censiti fragmenta apud Syros servata quinque. Praemittitur Epiphanii de
mensuris et ponderibus liber nunc primum integer et ipse syriacus. P. de
Lagarde edidit, Gott, 1880. P. de Lagarde, Symmikta, Gottingen, 1880,
ii. 149 — 216: Des Epiphanius Buch liber Masse und Gewichte zum ersten-
mal vollstandig. Lagarde translated into German (and Greek) those portions
of the text that have reached us only in the Syriac version. G. Mercati,
L'eta di Simmaco 1'interprete e S. Epifanio, Modena, 1892 ; Id., Sul canone
biblico di S. Epifanio (De mens. et pond., c. 23), in Note di letteratura
biblica e cristiana antica (Studi e Testi v), Rome, 1901, pp. 17 — 27. The
Latin version of the treatise «On the twelve precious stones» is found at
the end of the Collectio Avellana (§ 114, 7), ed. Gilnther, pp. 743—773.
T\yo recensions of the Greek text of the little work on the prophets are
printed in E. Nestle, Marginalien und Materialien, Tubingen, 1893, part II,
pp. 1 — 64; and the Syriac text (e tribus codicibus Musei Britannici), in
E. Nestle, Syrische Grammatik, Berlin, 1888, Chrestomatie, pp. 86—107.
§ 72. DIODORUS OF TARSUS. 3!$
For a critical edition of the Physiologus see Fr. Lauchert , Geschichte
des Physiologus, Strassburg, 1889, pp. 229 — 279. The pertinent «literature»
of the Physiologus may be found in K. Krumbacher (Gesch. der byzantini-
schen Litteratur, 2. ed., Miinchen, 1903, pp. 874 ff.). Two fragments of
an otherwise unknown letter were edited by Pltra, in Analecta sacra et
classica (1888), part I, pp. 72 — 73. A. Condamin , Saint Epiphane a-t-il
admis la legitimite du divorce pour adultere? in Bullet, de lett. eccles.
(1900), iii. 1 6 — 21 (negatively).
6. JOHN (ll.) OF JERUSALEM. THEOPHILUS OF ALEXANDRIA. — For John
(see no. i), bishop of Jerusalem (about 386 — 417), see C. P. Caspari, Un-
gedruckte Quellen zur Gesch. des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel,
Christiania, 1866, i. 161 — 212: «Ein Glaubensbekenntnis des Bischofs Jo
hannes von Jerusalem (386-417) in syrischer Ubersetzung aus einer nitri-
schen Handschrift des British Museum, samt allem, was uns sonst von Jo
hannes iibrig geblieben». - • Theophilus (see no. i), 385 — 412 patriarch
of Alexandria, is characterized by Gibbon (c. 28) as «the perpetual enemy
of peace and virtute; a bold, bad man whose hands were alternately
polluted with gold and with blood (The history of the decline and fall of
the Roman Empire. By E. Gibbon. Edited by W. Smith, London, 1854,
iii. 418). He wrote some festal letters (§ 63, 7) and other ecclesiastical
documents, also an extensive (lost) work against the Origenists and Anthropo-
morphites. For the fragments see Gallandi (Bibl. vet. Patr. vii. 60 1 to
652) and the excerpts therefrom in Migne, PG., Ixv, 33 — 68. Cf. Pitra,
Juris eccles. Graecorum hist, et monum., Rome, 1864, i. 646 — 649: Theo-
phili Alexandrini canones. A few additions to Gallandi and Migne are
found in Zahn , Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons und
der altkirchl. Literatur, Erlangen, 1883, ii. 234 ff.
7. PHILO OF CARPASIA. -- Philo (see no. 3), usually known as bishop
of Carpasia (or Carpasium, in Cyprus), according to others bishop of Car-
pathus (an island between Crete and Rhodus) , has hitherto enjoyed but
slight repute as a Christian writer. The Greek text of his Enarratio in
Canticum canticorum was first published by M. A. Giacomelli , Rome,
1772 (reprinted in Gallandi, 1. c., ix, and in Migne, PG., xl). For some
other fragments attributed to Philo see Fabricius-Harles, Biblioth. Gr., iv.
751 — 752 ; x. 479. An ascetical letter of Philo was edited by A. Papadopulos-
Kerameus , in "AvaXexta tepoaoXojMTarjc atayj oXo'/iac , St. Petersburg, 1891,
PP- 393—399-
§ 72. Diodorus of Tarsus.
i. LIFE OF DIODORUS. — Diodorus, made in 378 bishop of Tarsus
in Cilicia, where he died before 394, belonged to one of the noblest
families of Antioch. The highly gifted and industrious youth acquired
in the schools of Athens and his native city a solid training in every
branch of human and sacred science. At the same time he strove to
reach the ideal of Christian perfection by a life of ascetic severity.
According to Socrates1 and Sozomen2 he divided with Carterius the
government of a monastic community (dffxyrqptovj in Antioch or in
the neighborhood of that city. The highest tribute to the merits
of Diodorus was paid in a letter written by Julian the Apostate and
1 Hist, eccl., vi. 3. 2 Hist, eccl., viii. 2.
316 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
published at a later date (545—551) by Facundus of Hermiane1:
Diodorus, he said, had equipped his malevolent tongue against the
ancient gods with the wisdom of Athens herself; in return, his gaunt
figure and pale face, together with his wretched health, were so many
evidences of the anger of the Olympians. The emperor's hate had for its
source the active and self-sacrificing labors of Diodorus in defence of
the Christian faith, notably of the Nicene Creed. The circumstances of
the time imposed, at Antioch, on the writings of Diodorus a strongly
polemic and apologetic character. Here, the Arians and the orthodox
Catholics stood arrayed one against the other in sharp conflict, the
former enjoying the imperial favor, first under Constantius (337 to
361), and then under Valens (364 — 378). In his short reign Julian
did all in his power to restore the abandoned worship of the gods.
As his winter quarters were at Antioch, during the unfortunate Per
sian campaign, his influence was proximate and perilous. In all these
years, especially during the administration of the Arian bishop Leontius
(f about 357), and still more during the exile of the patriarch Meletius
(360 — 378), it was Diodorus and his friend Flavian (elected in
381 successor of Meletius) who, amid many sacrifices and dangers,
cared for the spiritual welfare of the Syrian metropolis. « Flavian
and Diodorus », writes Theodoret2, «rose like two great rocks in the
ocean, on the firm sides of \vhich the towering waves broke in vain. . . .
Diodorus, wise and strong, was like a broad, clear river, the waters of
which slaked the thirst of his own people, but swept away the blas
phemies of his enemies. He esteemed as of no account the splendor of
his own origin, and for the sake of the faith bore tribulation with joy».
In 372 he had to fly from Antioch, and sojourned for a time with
Meletius in Armenia. There he entered into relations with Basil the
Great3. When Meletius returned to his see (378), the veteran soldier of
the faith was made bishop of Tarsus. In this capacity he took part
in the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople (381). In the im
perial edict confirmatory of the Council's decrees, Pelagius of Lao-
dicea and Diodorus of Tarsus are mentioned as the reliable arbiters
of orthodoxy.
2. HIS WRITINGS. — ^Diodorus was a very copious writer ; indeed,
as a rule all the Antiochene theologians displayed great industry in
biblical exegesis. According to Leontius of Byzantium4 he wrote
commentaries on the entire Bible (see the catalogue of his commen
taries by Suidas] 5. Apparently only a few remnants of these labors
have reached us. At least it is only from the Catenae that the
more or less abundant scholia on the Septuagint text principally
of Genesis and Psalms li — Ixxiv, Ixxxi— xcv have been rescued.
Diodorus was a strenuous opponent of the mystico-allegorical inter-
Pro defens. trium capitum, iv. 2. - Hist, eccl., iv. 22.
Basil., Ep. 135. -t De sectis, iv. 3. '•> Lex. s. v. Diod.
§ 72. DIODORUS OF TARSUS.
pretation peculiar to the Alexandrines and endeavored to establish
firmly the historico-grammatical method. His treatise «On the dif
ference between theory and allegory» (T'IQ dta<popa ftecopiaQ xa\
dMyfopiag) is unhappily known to us only through the mention
of its title *. He certainly developed therein his hermeneutic prin
ciples, and very probably refuted the Origenistic exegesis (fWy-
fopia.) , which denied or pared away the literal sense. In oppo
sition to this tendency he developed the prophetico-typical exposition
of Scripture (ftewpia), in which the literal sense is always presup
posed and preserved , while the historical foundation of Scripture
is never abandoned. He wrote other works of a dogmatic, po
lemic and apologetic nature. Suidas2 mentions writings xspt TOU
ev rptddt, xara Mstyiffeosxirwv, xara 'loudataw, xspi vsxptbv
WQ, 7tep\ tyy/rfc xara dtapoptav, xep\ a'jrrJG acpsffstav, and
others. Most of these works are known to us only by their titles.
His extensive work against Fate, yjj.ru. &ifjLOpp.ivq£, known to Suidas
as xara darpovoucov xa\ dffTpoAoj'CJV xal sluapuivrjQ, was* extensively
quoted and described at length by Photius 3. Elsewhere 4 Photius also
mentions a work against the Manichaeans not found in the list of
Suidas; from another work, likewise overlooked by Suidas, against
the Synousiasts or Apollinarists, some excerpts have been saved by
Leontius of Byzantium 5.
3. HIS DOCTRINE. - - During the Christological controversies of
the fifth and sixth centuries, Diodorus acquired an unenviable noto
riety. While living he was esteemed a pillar of orthodoxy, but after
his death was himself accused of heresey. There is no doubt that
his teachings contain the germs of those errors that his disciple
Theodore was one day to nourish and develop until they became
that Nestorianism which the Church rejected. In his efforts to defend
against the Arians the true divinity and against the Apollinarists the
true humanity of Christ, he so weakened the union of the divine and
the human in Our Lord, that it became a mere indwelling, ivoixyatQ,
of the Logos in a man (as in a temple or in a garment). While
his actual opinions cannot now be stated with certainty, it remains
true that he taught the existence of a double hypostasis in Christ;
he must not, however, be accused of formal heresy. As early as
438 Cyril of Alexandria wrote three books (of which some fragments
are extant) against Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodorus of Tarsus
whom he accused of being the originators of the teaching of Nestorius.
Leontius of Byzantium makes Diodorus the founder and father of the
depravity and impiety of Theodore of Mopsuestia 6. Photius remarks
that in his discussion of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Kep\ TOD
w'j{i.aroc, dtd(popa im^etp^fjiaTa, Diodorus bewrays already the
1 Suidas, 1. c. 2 L. c. 3 Bibl. Cod. 223. 4 Ib. 85.
5 Adv. Nest, et Eut., iii. 43. 6 Ib., iii. 9.
gig SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
taint of Nestorianism1. Photius must err, however, when he says2
that Diodorus was anathematized by the Fifth General Council in 553.
4. LITERATURE ON DIODORUS. - - The exegctical fragments of Diodorus
are found in Migne, PG., xxxiii: Fragmenta in Genesim (1561 — 1580), in
Exodum (1579 — 1586), in Deuteronomium (1585—1586), in librum ludi-
cum (1587—1588), in Regum primum (1587—1588), all taken from the
Catena of Nicephorus on the Octateuch and the Books of Kings, Leipzig,
I7y2_l773- finally Fragmenta in Psalmos li— Ixxiv lxxi~xcv (Migne,
1. c. 1587 — 1628), from Mai, Nova Patrum Bibl, vi 2, 240—258, and from
the Catena on the Psalms, published by B. Corderius, Antwerp, 1643 to
1646. 23 Latin scholia to Exodus which are, however, both insignificant
and of doubtful authenticity, were overlooked by Pitra , Spicilegium
Solesmense, Paris, 1852, i. 269—275. Nevertheless, the fragments in
Migne are much in need of criticism. For the treatise ^ TIC otacpopa
ihwpt'a? xal iXXTrftopiac see H. Kihn , Uber ftswpia und aAAYj-yopia nach den
verlorenen hermeneutischen Schriften der Antiochener, in Theol. Quartal-
schrift (1880), Ixii. 531-582. For dogmatic fragments of Diodorus in
Syriac see P. de Lagarde , Analecta Syriaca, Leipzig and London, 1858,
pp. 91 — 100. It is to be regretted that de Lagarde was never able to
carry out his promise (1. c., p. xix) to execute a complete edition of all the
fragments of the writings of Diodorus. Cf. Harnack, Diodor von Tarsus.
Vier pseudojustinische Schriften als Eigentum Diodors nachgewiesen, in
Texte und Untersuchungen , new series, Leipzig. 1901, vi. 69 — 230, with
a German translation of nearly all the four Pseudo-Justin writings that he
ascribes to Diodorus ; F. X. Funk, Le pseudo-Justin et Diodore de Tarse,
in Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique (1902), hi. 947 — 971 (rejects Harnack's
thesis of the authorship of Diodorus).
5. FLAVIAN OF ANTiocH. — Flavian (see no. i), who was made in 381
Patriarch of Antioch, died in 404. He left some writings that are now
known to us only by occasional mention in later works. Theodoret of
Cyrus quotes from his homilies (Dial. i. 66, ed. Schulze; ii. 160; iii. 250 f.)
and mentions a commentary on the Gospel of Luke (ib., ii. 160) and perhaps
(i. 46) a commentary on the Gospel of John. For other quotations that
might be easily multiplied, cf. E. Venables, in Smith and Wace, A Diet, of
Christian Biography, ii. 531.
§ 73. Theodore of Mopsuestia.
I. HIS LIFE. - Theodore, whom we have frequently mentioned
as a disciple of Diodorus, was also born at Antioch, about 350, of
rich and noble parents. He studied rhetoric and literature under the
famous sophist Libanius ; among his fellow disciples was the somewhat
older John, known to later ages as Chrysostomus. It was the ambition
of Theodore to become a lawyer and in that way to acquire both
honors and wealth. But the example and the advice of his friend
induced him, before his twentieth year, to retire to the monastery
of Diodorus and Carterius. Here he magnanimously gave up all
worldly attractions and pleasures, and turned with earnestness to
a life of ascetism and the study of the Scriptures. Soon, however,
his zeal relaxed. He abandoned his solitude for the noisy clamor
1 Bibl. Cod. 102. 2 Ib. 1 8.
§ 73- THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA. 319
of the forum, and also wished to exchange his monastic vows for
the married state. It was only the eloquent letter of St. Chryso-
stom that induced him to abandon this purpose and return to
his monastery1. About 383 he was ordained priest by Flavian,
bishop of Antioch, and for the next ten years was occupied in his
native city as a worker in the pastoral ministry and a learned writer.
He had long been known as a vigorous defender of the doctrines
of the Church against the current heresies when, about 392, he was
consecrated bishop of Mopsuestia in Cilicia. Here, as far as we can
learn from the extant sources of information, he took an active part
in all the movements and events that make up the contemporary
history of the Church in the East. Chrysostom himself tells us
that the bishop of Mopsuestia was a staunch defender of the friend
of his youth2. He died about 428 after a pastoral activity of 36 years,
as Theodoret expressly states3.
2. HIS EXEGETICAL WRITINGS. HERMENEUTIC PRINCIPLES. LIMI
TATION OF CANON. - - Theodore was scarcely twenty years of age
when he had composed a commentary on the Psalms. There are
still extant in manuscript Syriac and Latin epitomes of this com
mentary; not a few large fragments of the Greek text have also
reached us. In this work he set himself to illustrate with all pos
sible precision the grammatico-historical method of scriptural inter
pretation; all allegorizing was sternly put aside, and the titles of
the Psalms declared posterior additions. He «held to the Davidic
authorship of all the Psalms, but admitted only four as directly Mes
sianic in their import (Ps. 2 8 45 no, Septuagint text); nineteen
referred to David and his time, one to Jeremias, twenty-five to the
Assyrian and sixty-seven to the Chaldaic period, seventeen to the age
of the Maccabees; for seventeen others he was unable to furnish
an historical exposition, and looked on them as didactic poems.
Such a treatment of the Psalms was calculated to call forth sharp
remonstrances and lively hostility. In later writings he explicitly retracted
some of his views, yet not so as to satisfy the necessary demands
of the Church in matters of faith. In 553 the Fifth General Council4
rejected his indirect (typical) exposition of Psalms 16 22 69 (Sep
tuagint text) ; it was taken, however, not from his Psalm-commentary
but from a (lost) dedicatory letter prefixed to his commentary on
the twelve minor prophets. In the Psalm-commentary he had not
recognized in the last mentioned Psalms even a typical reference to
1 Cf. the two books or letters of St. Chrysostom Ad Theodorum lapsum (§ 74, 8),
and the reply of Theodore {Migne, PG., xlviii. 1063 — 1066; the authenticity of this
reply is doubted.
2 Ep. 112; cf Fac^^nd•us Herm., Pro defens. trium. capitum, vii. 7.
3 Hist, eccl., v. 39.
4 Coll. iv, n. 21 — 24: Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., ix. 211 — 213.
320
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
the Messiah. This commentary on the twelve minor prophets de
dicated to a certain Tyrius (Martyrius?) is the only one of the writ
ings of Theodore (the dedication excepted) that has reached us in
the original text, probably because it gave less offence than his
other writings. The Fifth General Council anathematized1 his ex
position and criticism of Job and the Canticle of canticles , also his
theory on the authority of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (according to
others of Ecclesiasticus). The book of Job, he declared, was the
work of an ambitious Jew, desirous of imitating the dramas of the
pagan poets; the Canticle of canticles was an epithalamium composed
on the occasion of Solomon's wedding with an Egyptian princess.
He denied that the author of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes possessed
the gift of prophecy, and recognized in them only a lower degree
of inspiration. Leontius of Byzantium asserts 2 that Theodore refused
to accept as canonical not only Job, the Canticle of canticles and
the Psalm-titles, but also the third and fourth Books of Kings, with
Esdras and Nehemias; he also excluded from the Canon of the
New Testament the Epistle of St. James and «the subsequent Ca
tholic epistles of other writers». He wrote commentaries after the
example of Diodorus on the entire Scripture3: rrtv otyv fpayrjv un-
•sfjLvqfJLdTtaav. Indeed, there are still extant under his name fragments
of commentaries on the whole New Testament. The commentary on
the shorter epistles of St. Paul (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colos-
sians, First and Second toThessalonians, First and Second to Timothy,
Philemon) has reached us in its entirety, not, however, in the original
Greek, but in a Latin version, probably made in Africa about the
middle of the sixth century. His commentary on the Gospel of
St. John is extant in Syriac. As early as the fifth century the writ
ings of Theodore were translated into Syriac; since then they have
always been highly esteemed by the Nestorians of Syria. During
the sixth and seventh centuries their synods anathematized all those
who dared in any way to differ from the scriptural interpretations of
«The Exegete», an honorable title that still clings XV.T i&jrqv to his
name in the Nestorian communities.
3. OTHER WRITINGS. CHRISTOLOGY. DOCTRINE ON GRACE. -
Theodore wrote many other works, and among them several of a
dogmatico-polemical character. We still possess from the hand of
the Nestorian metropolitan Ebedjesu (f 1318) a list which contains
besides the exegetical works, those writings of Theodore acknowledged
as genuine by Syrian Nestorians. They are the following : a Book on
the mysteries, one on the faith (very probably the symbolum 4, a book
on the priesthood, two on the Holy Spirit, one on the Incarnation (nsp\
1 Coll. iv, n. 63 — 71: Mansi, 1. c., ix. 223—227.
2 Adv. Nest, et Eut., iii. 12 — 17. 3 Leant., De sectis, iv. 3.
4 Migne, PG., Ixvi. 1015^ — 1020.
§ 73- THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA. 321
Q) 1, two against Eunomius (xar Eftvofiiou)*t two
against those who maintained that sin is a part of our nature3
(xpoQ ra'jg XiyovTu.o, <pt'}G£i, xal ou fvaj/jffi, Trracsw TOUQ dvtiptoTiooQ), two
against magic, one to the monks, one on the obscure language (of
Scripture?), one on the perfection of works, five books against the
Allegorists (very probably the book De allegoria et historia contra
Origiriem*, one in favor of Basil (bnzp Baadsio'j xara EfoofjLtmj)*
perhaps identical with the two books against Eunomius already men
tioned, one De assumente et assumpto (very probably the work against
Apollinaris often referred to elsewhere), a «book of pearls » i. e. a
collection of letters of Theodore 6, and a treatise on legislation7. We
possess at present only isolated fragments of these works but enough,
however, to make it certain that Theodore was a Nestorius before
Nestorius. Like Diodorus he taught that in Christ there were two
persons (duo UTcoardastQ) . The divine nature is a person, and the
human nature is a person. The unity of the two natures (ffuwfystaj
consists in the community of thought and will. The Christian adores
one sole Lord because the man who was joined to the Logos in
a moral union was raised, in rewrard of his perseverance, to a divine
dignity (ycopi^co raq (puazic,, kvto rrp Ttpoffxuvyffwj. But the properties
and the activity (as well as the suffering of the humanity) of both
natures are to be carefully kept apart. Only the man was born and
died. It is absurd and blasphemous to say that God suffered, trem
bled, shuddered. Mary cannot, therefore, be called the Mother of
God, or, if so , only in an improper sense. In its eighth and last
session, the Fifth General Council condemned Theodore and his im
pious writings, and in its anathematisms also individually many Christo-
logical theses of Theodore. Theodore also met with contradiction
for his anthropological doctrine and his teaching concerning grace.
Marius Mercator is unjust towards Theodore when he accuses him 8
of being the father of Pelagianism. Nevertheless, the doctrine of
Theodore substantially is Pelagian; for he denies original sin, as may
be seen from his work against the defenders of that doctrine , ex
cerpts from which can be read in Marius Mercator and Photius.
4. EDITIONS OF HIS WRITINGS. - - The Mignc edition of Theodore of
Mopsuestia (PG., Ixvi, Paris, 1859 — 1864) includes the following : Commen-
tarius in xii prophetas minores (105 — 632), and Fragmenta in Genesim
(633 — 646), in Exodum (647 — 648), in Psalmos (647 — 696), in Jobum
(697 — 698), in Canticum canticorum (699 — 700); Commentarii in Novum
Testamentum i. e. Fragmenta in Matth. (703 — 714), Marc. (713 — 716),
Luc. (715—728), lo. (727-786), Acta (785—786), Ep. ad Rom. (787—876),
1 Cynll. Alex., Ep. 70. * Phot., Bibl. Cod. 177. 3 Ib.
4 Facundus Ilenn., Pro defens. trium capit., iii. 6. 5 Phot., Bibl. Cod. 4.
6 Ib., Cod. 177.
7 The catalogue is in J. S. Assemani, Bibl. Orient., iii I, 33 — 35.
8 Comm. adv. haeresim Pelagii, praef. ; Refut. symboli Theod. Mops., praef., n. 2.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 21
322 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
T Cor. (877—894), 2 Cor. (893—898), Gal. (897—912), Eph. (911—922),
Phil. (921—926), Col. (925—932), i Thess. (931—934), 2 Thess. (933—936),
i Tim. (935—944), 2 Tim. (945—948), Tit. (947—950), Philem. (949—950),
Hebr. (951—968); finally Fragmenta dogmatica (969—1020). — Since
Migne's time the number of fragments has considerably increased. For
unedited Syriac excerpts from the Psalm-commentary cf. Fr. Baethgen, in
Zeitschrift f. die alttestamentl. Wissenschaft (1885), v. 53 — 101. New Greek
fragments on seventeen Psalms taken from the Psalm-catena of B. Corderius,
Antwerp, 1643 — 1646, may be seen in Baethgen, 1. c. (1886), vi. 261 — 288;
(1887), vii. i — 60. For a Latin translation of the Psalm-commentary and
other Greek fragments in manuscripts of the Ambrosian library at Milan
see G. Mercati, Un palimpsesto Ambrosiano dei Salmi Esapli, Turin, 1896;
Alcune note di letteratura patristica, Milan, 1898. This Latin version
was edited (in large part) by G. Ascoli from the Codice Irlandese dell'
Ambrosiana, in Archivio glottologico italiano, v.) See also H. Leitzmann, Der
Psalmenkommentar Theodors von Mopsuestia, in Sitzungsberichte der kgl.
preuss. Akad. der Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1902, pp. 334 — 346. This scholar
discovered the original Greek of the commentary on Psalms 32 — 60. The
Latin version of the commentary on the shorter epistles of St. Paul was
first published, but with many gaps, by Pitra (Spicilegium Solesmense,
Paris, 1852, i. 49 — 159), who also erroneously attributed it to Hilary of
Poitiers. This edition was reproduced with additional Greek fragments
and various corrections by H, B. Swete, Cambridge, 1880 — 1882, 2 vols.,
who also reprinted in an appendix (ii. 289 — 339) the Fragmenta dogma
tica. y. B. Chabot edited (Paris, 1897) the Syriac version of the Commen
tary on the Gospel of St. John ; he also promised a Latin version of the
same. Exegetical and dogmatical fragments in Syriac and Latin were
published by E. Sachau (Leipzig, 1869), especially Fragmenta commentarii
in Genesim, and Fragmenta libri de incarnatione. In the American Journal
of Theology (1898), ii. 353 — 387, E. v. Dobschutz published the Greek
prologue of a Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles that is probably
the work of Theodore.
5. WORKS ON THEODORE. - - O. Fr. Fritzsche , De Theodori Mop-
suesteni vita et scriptis commentatio historica theologica, Halle. 1836
(Migne, PG., Ixvi. 9 — 78). Fr. A. Spec/it, Der exegetische Standpunkt des
Theodor von Mopsuestia und Theodoret von Kyros in der Auslegung
messianischer Weissagungen aus ihren Kommentaren zu den kleinen Pro-
pheten dargestellt, Munich, 1871. H. Kihn , Theodor von Mopsuestia
und Junilius Afrikanus als Exegeten, Freiburg, 1880. H. B. Swete, Theo-
dorus of Mopsuestia, in Dictionary of Christian Biography (1887), iv. 934
to 948. Th. Zahn, Das Neue Testament Theodors von Mopsuestia, in
Neue kirchl. Zeitschr. (1900), xi. 788—806. See also W. Wright, Syriac
Literature, London, 1894. R, Duval, La litterature syriaque, Paris, 1899.
6. POLYCHRONIUS. — Theodoret ends his notice on Theodore of Mop
suestia (Hist, eccl., v. ^39) with the words: «His brother Polychronius was
an excellent pastor (iiroi'ftaivsv) of the church of Apamea and was dis
tinguished for the charm of his discourse as well as for the splendor of
his virtuous life.» Apamea, without any qualification, is the well-known
city in Syria, and the word -oijxaivsiv indicates, of course, the office and
dignity of a bishop , while the imperfect tense 1-oijj.aivsv must mean that,
when Theodoret wrote (about 428), Polychronius was still alive, in other
words, was bishop of Apamea. Polychronius was a very prolific writer,
and, like his brother, principally in the field of exegesis. Up to the present,
only scattered Scholia, from the Catenae, have reached us under his name,
§ 74- ST- JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 323
particularly some on the Book of Job (edited principally by P. Junius, Catena
Graecorum Patrum in beatum Job, London, 1637), on the Book of Daniel
(by Mai, Scriptorum vet. nova coll., Rome, 1825, part 2, i. 105 — 160), and
on Ezechiel (by Mai, Nova Patr. BibL, 1854, part 2, vii. 92 — 127). The
Scholia on Daniel and Ezechiel are in Migne , PG., clxii. In as far as
can be judged from these fragments, Polychronius must be ranked among
the greatest exegetes of Antioch and of Greek antiquity in general, though
his exposition bewrays throughout a rationalizing tendency that vividly
recalls his brother Theodore. Only little light is thrown upon his doctrinal
views by the extant fragments, which, however in no way, justify the
not unnatural suspicion of Nestorianism. See O. Bardenhewer, Polychronius,
Bruder Theodors von Mopsuestia nnd Bischof von Apamea, Freiburg, 1879.
§ 74. St. John Chrysostom.
I. HIS LIFE BEFORE HIS ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. -
John, surnamed Chrysostom (Golden Mouth), was born at Antioch,
probably in 344, though the date of 347 is possible. He was brought
up amid surroundings of splendor and wealth * , but lost his father
Secundus while still an infant2; his education was cared for by his
pious mother Anthusa. He sought and found a more advanced
training from the philosopher Andragathius and especially the rhe
torician Libanius, the famous apologist of decadent heathenism. His
inseparable friend was a certain Basil. «We pursued the same
sciences», he writes himself3, «and listened also to the same teachers.
Our devotion and our enthusiasm for the studies that we followed were
the same, our aspirations were alike and they arose from the same
motives. For this concord of sentiments was made plain not only
while we were at school, but even after we had left it and gone
forth to decide on our future career. » His own inclination and the
example of his friend moved Chrysostom to renounce both theatre
and forum, and to devote himself in retirement to prayer and the
study of the Scriptures. He made a profound study of Christian
doctrine under the guidance of Meletius , patriarch of Antioch , by
whom he was baptized about 369, it being customary at that time
to put off baptism to a mature age. He had also for masters Dio-
dorus, afterwards bishop of Tarsus, and Carterius. It was his purpose
to quit the paternal roof and take refuge in the desert with his
friend Basil, but he yielded, however, to the prayers of his mother,
who begged him not to make her again a widow. Nevertheless, he
withdrew completely from the world and led a life of strict morti
fication4. It must have been about 373 that by reason of their
virtues the two friends were selected for the episcopal office. Basil
yielded, but only, as he believed at least, after securing from Chryso
stom the promise that he too would accept the same burden -
this Basil is generally identified with Basil of Raphaneia, who assisted
1 De sacerdotio, ii. 8. 2 Ib., i. 5 ; cf. Ad viduam iun., c. 2.
3 De sacerdolio, i. i. 4 Ib., i. 4 — 6.
21*
324
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
at the Council of Constantinople (in 381) and whose name appears
among those of the last Syrian bishops to sign its decrees1; but
Chrysostom, filled with distrust of himself, took refuge in flight. His
six splendid books on the priesthood (see no. 8) were written to justify
himself in the eyes of the friend whom he had so grievously de
ceived. His own desire was to free himself from all worldly cares
and to withdraw to the desert. After the death of his mother, appa
rently, he retired to the mountainous region near Antioch where he
spent four years under the guidance of an aged monk, and, after
wards passed two years in a cave, in the practice of ascetic exercises
and the study of the Book of Books2. His delicate and weakly
body was, however, unequal to this strain, and he was forced by
sickness to return to Antioch.
2. CHRYSOSTOM AS PREACHER AT ANTIOCH. - - In 381 Chryso-
stom was ordained deacon by Meletius, and early in the year 386
he was raised to the priesthood by Flavian, the successor of Meletius.
Flavian entertained for him a special affection , kept him constantly
at his side, and soon entrusted to him the duty of preaching in the
principal church of the city. For more than ten years Chrysostom
discharged this office with ardent zeal and great success. The most
famous of his homilies were delivered between 387 and 397. Antioch
heard his discourses with enthusiasm and admiration, and the fame
of the illustrious preacher spread far and wide.
3. CHRYSOSTOM, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE. CHRYSOSTOM
AND EUTROPIUS. - Nectarius , patriarch of Constantinople, died
September 27., 397. At the suggestion of the emperor Arcadius,
Chrysostom was chosen by the clergy and people as successor to
Nectarius. It was only by cunning and violence that the newly-
elected bishop was brought from Antioch to the capital. Theophilus,
patriarch of Alexandria , raised some futile objections against the
election; he was compelled himself to consecrate Chrysostom, Fe
bruary 26., 398. From that day Chrysostom considered it his sacred
duty to preach to the people the word of God. At the same time
he began a war of extermination against the abuses that had crept in
among the clergy of the city and the patriarchate. In the beginning
he was aided by the imperial court, but ere long could recognize
the growth of a strong opposition. The weak and narrow-minded
emperor, always at the mercy of his advisers, was entirely in the
hands of the eunuch Eutropius who abused his great influence to
satisfy his insatiable avarice. Chrysostom alone dared to oppose the
all-powerful favorite. His warnings were heard with contemptuous
unconcern, but his threats of divine vengeance had not to wait long
for their fulfilment. The accounts of the fall of Eutropius vary con-
1 Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., iii. 568.
2 Pallad-, Dial, de vita S. loan. Chrys., c. 5.
§ 74- ST- JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 325
siderably. In the beginning of 399, the favorite escaped death only
by a hasty flight to the church where he claimed the right of asylum,
the same privilege that shortly before he had violated because it
stood between him and his own victims. His fate was already
sealed, had not Chrysostom interfered and, for the sake of the guilty
wretch, defended a privilege held sacred from time immemorial.
4. CHRYSOSTOM AND EUDOXIA. - - After the fall of Eutropius,
the imperial authority passed rapidly into the hands of the empress
Eudoxia, with the result that soon there broke out a still graver
conflict between the court and the patriarch. Very probably this
new rupture was the work of some high-placed ecclesiastics who left
no opportunity untried of prejudicing the empress against Chrysostom.
Early in 401, Chrysostom wrote to John archbishop of Caesarea, and
to Porphyry bishop of Gaza that he was unable to further their
suits with the emperor, since all his relations with the court were
broken off by the anger of the empress, on account of his grave
remonstrances against the empress by reason of her unjust seizure
of other people's property1. A still greater tension arose during
the next year between the two patriarchs Chrysostom and Theo-
philus, when the former welcomed, with reserve indeed, but still
with much charity, the Nitrian monks whom the latter had driven
from their native land and continued virulently to pursue even outside
of Egypt. For a while, it is true, the affair of the Nitrian monks
threatened unpleasant and even dangerous consequences not to Chryso
stom but to Theophilus who was called to Constantinople to give an
account of his proceedings before a synod presided over by Chryso
stom; but the order was not enforced, and soon the conditions were
reversed. It has already been made clear (§ 71, i) how Theophilus
was able to turn to good account the interest of Chrysostom in the
Origenist monks, so that he roused against Chrysostom the intemperate
zeal of Epiphanius. Hardly had the latter quitted the capital, when
Chrysostom delivered a discourse (unfortunately lost) against the
luxury of women and their inordinate love of ornaments. It was at
once interpreted as an insidious attack on the weak point in the
character of the empress who lost no time in urging Theophilus to
come at once to the capital and to hold a synod there for the pur
pose of deposing Chrysostom. Theophilus arrived at Chalcedon early
in August, 403, with some twenty-five Egyptian suffragans, blindly
subservient to the wishes of their metropolitan, and he was joined
by some suffragans of Constantinople, for one reason or another
inimical to their patriarch. In this way thirty-six bishops met, at a
villa near Chalcedon, known as «The Oak», whence their synod has
been called the «Synod of the Oak» (auvodoQ ITT} o/?5v, ad quercum).
1 Marcus Diaconus, Vita S. Porphyrii episc. Gaz., c. 37.
326 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
The affair of the Egyptian monks was utterly ignored, and a long
series of charges trumped up against Chrysostom, charges that Photius
declares do not deserve to be mentioned *. Though Chrysostom had
gathered about him in a synod of his own some forty bishops, he
agreed to appear before the synod of «The Oak», on condition that
four bishops, his declared enemies, were excluded from the number
of his judges — first and foremost, Theophilus. Because of his non-
appearance the con till abulum declared him deposed from the see of
Constantinople, and referred to the emperor the charge of high treason,
as being beyond its jurisdiction. According to the statement of Pal-
ladius 2 this charge consisted in the designation by Chrysostom of the
empress as a Jezabel 3. Though no evidence was offered by the accusers
of the patriarch, the emperor confirmed the decree of the synod and
condemned Chrysostom to banishment. Thereupon a feverish agita
tion spread among the people of the capital to whom their spiritual
shepherd was an object of profound love and veneration. Chryso
stom undertook to pacify the multitude by a splendid discourse on
the invincibility of the Church and the inseparable union of the
head and members4; on the third day after his condemnation he
placed himself at the disposal of the civil authority and was led into
exile. The excitement assumed threatening dimensions. In the follow
ing night the capital was shaken by a violent earthquake, whereupon
Eudoxia was seized with such fear and anguish that she requested
from the emperor the immediate recall of Chrysostom. She also
wrote to the patriarch a letter of regret in which she asserted her
innocence of the wrong done him and called on God to witness
her tears5. The imperial messengers came up with the exile near
Prenetum in Bithynia. When he reached again the shores of the
Bosphorus, an indescribable joy filled the hearts of the whole popula
tion. But Chrysostom still hesitated to enter the city and resume his
episcopal functions on account of the fourth and twelfth canons of
the Council of Antioch (341), according to which a bishop deposed
in one synod could not re-enter his see, unless he were re-instated
by a larger synod; violators of these canons were to be for ever
dispossessed of their sees 6. He desired, therefore, a greater synod
to take cognizance of what was done, and to examine the charges
of the synod of «the Oak» against him, but the popular impatience
was irresistible. With loving violence, Chrysostom was again inducted
into his see, the return journey was turned into a triumphant pro
cession; the empress herself made haste to assure him of her joy at
the fulfilment of her prayers and earnest wishes 7. The following day
1 Bibl. Cod. 59. 2 Dial, de vita S. Joan. Chrys., c. 8. 3 Apoc. ii. 20.
Migne, PG., lii. 427*— 430. & Chrys., Horn, post reditum, n. 4.
6 Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., ii. 1309 1313.
' Chrys., Horn, post reditum, n. 4.
§ 74- ST- JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 32 J
Chrysostom entered the pulpit of his cathedral and spoke of the
empress in terms of the highest praise1.
5. PROGRESS AND END OF THE CHRYSOSTOM-TRAGEDY. - - This
peaceful condition of affairs was not destined to last. Some two
months after these events, during the autumn of 403, a statue of the
empress was erected in the capital quite close to the cathedral
church. At its dedication there were the usual ceremonies lasting
several days, with games, dances and other amusements. The popular
dissipation was unquestionably excessive, and went so far as to
disturb the ecclesiastical services. Chrysostom requested the city-
prefect to put an end to these disturbances in the vicinity of the
church. Thereupon the prefect reported to the empress that the
patriarch objected to the honors paid her statue by the people.
Wounded in her vanity, the empress resolved to rid herself of the
intrepid disciplinarian, and applied anew to Theophilus. Socrates2
and Sozomen3 relate that, when Chrysostom heard of her extreme
resolution, he too proceeded to extremes, and , on the feast of the
Beheading of St. John the Baptist, began his sermon with the fol
lowing words: « Again doth Herodias rave, again doth she rage,
again doth she dance (?) , again doth she ask for the head of John
(the speaker also was John!) on a trencher. » The correctness of
the statement is open to grave suspicions; ostensibly the words are
to be found in the above-mentioned Horn, in decoll. S. loan. Bapt. 4
that really does open with these words, but is not, however, a ho
mily of Chrysostom; on the contrary, it was probably forged by
his enemies for the persual of the empress. In the meantime the plan
of Eudoxia ripened. Theophilus, however, could not resolve on
another visit to the capital, but through his envoys caused the afore
said canons of Antioch to be invoked against Chrysostom. The
legitimacy and validity of these canons, it is true, was not universally
admitted ; but even if it were granted, they had no reference to
Chrysostom in the eyes of those who denied the legality of the
sentence passed by the «Synod of the Oak». In the East, however,
all justice was, in those days, trampled on by the will of the emperor
or the empress. The tragedy of Chrysostom, as Isidore of Pelusium
remarks5, furnishes the most disgraceful proof of the fact that it was
Christian bishops who constantly made broader and easier the way
of imperial absolutism and caesaropapism. The emperor ordered
Chrysostom to cease performing ecclesiastical functions which he re
fused to do, whereupon he was forbidden to quit his residence. On
Holy Saturday, 404, he entered the Cathedral in order to baptize with
his own hand the catechumens whom he had instructed in the preced
ing year. The ceremonies were interrupted at nightfall by armed
1 Ib., n. 3 4. 2 Hist, eccl., vi. 18. 3 Hist, eccl., viii. 20.
4 Migne, PG., lix. 485—490. 5 Ep. i. 152.
^28 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
soldiers, the faithful driven with violence from the church ; even the
baptismal water was stained with blood, and the Holy Eucharist pro
faned. When an attempt was made to gather the faithful in another
place where the sacred function might be completed, fresh violence
and greater cruelties were committed. A few days after Pentecost
(404) the emperor, yielding to the insistence of the patriarch's en
emies, gave him strict orders to leave the city at once. In order to
avoid a popular sedition , Chrysostom placed himself (June 20.) se
cretly in the hands of those who were appointed to take him to
his place of exile. He learned at Nicaea, where they stayed a
few days, that his destination was Cucusus in Lesser Armenia, «the
most abandoned spot in the world » (TO xdo-qc, TYJQ olxou/jtlyrjQ epy/jiv-
TOLTOV -/copiov) 1. As the party wound its way inland, the surround
ings grew more inhospitable, the trials greater, and the privations
more numerous. His «weak and spiderlike» body2 was worn out by
fever and ailments of the stomach. From the bishops of the cities
through which he passed, he received a treatment that caused him
afterward to write: «with exception of a few, it is the bishops whom
I fear most» 3. At the end of seventy days he reached Cucusus,
where he was welcomed with affection and attentively cared for. In
the meantime another persecution had begun at Constantinople. Its
victims were the friends and adherents of John , called Johannites,
and its violence recalled the days of Nero and Domitian; it spread
quickly through the neighboring provinces and finally to every
part of the empire. The Johannites were made to bear the blame
of a conflagration which had broken out immediately after his exile,
and by which the cathedral (Sancta Sophia) with the adjoining
edifices (among them the splendid palace of the Senate) had been
destroyed. As a judicial investigation led to no result, the origin
of that fire has always remained unknown. Chrysostom was at
once succeeded by Arsacius, a brother of the preceding patriarch
Nectarius; when Arsacius died, Nov. n. 405, he was followed by
Atticus. But the great majority of the Johannites, in spite of mani
fold violence, refused to recognize either Arsacius or Atticus, and
conducted their church services apart. Extraordinary natural pheno
mena, in which the hand of God seemed visible, strengthened the
Johannites in their resistance. Eudoxia had triumphed over her ad
versary, but she sickened and died, a few months afterwards, in the
flower of her age. Pope Innocent I., to whom both parties had ap
pealed, sided with Chrysostom, but did not break off communion
with Theophilus. The ecumenical council proposed by the pope never
met, and the mediation of the western emperor Honorius, proffered
at the request of the pope, was rejected with much contumely by
1 Ckrys., Ep. 234; cf. 194 235. 2 chrys., Ep. 4 ad Olymp., n. 4.
a Ep. 14 ad Olymp., n. 4.
§ 74- ST- JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 329
Arcadius or his counsellors. The entire West broke off communion
with Atticus. The conflict with the patriarch and the empress had
now become a schism between the East and the West. During these
proceedings a period of tribulation had opened for Chrysostom. At
Cucusus he suffered equally from the cold of winter and the heat
of summer; the raids of Isaurian marauders caused the entire popula
tion of the wretched place to wander about constantly in ravines
and forests. But no suffering could bend Chrysostom ; he remained
constantly in close touch with his flock in the capital and with his
friends in the less distant Antioch by means of frequent visits and
an extensive correspondence. His tireless zeal found a new object
in the mission-stations that he was enabled to establish among the
Goths in Cilicia and Phoenicia. On the other hand , his enemies
were not inactive. Palladius tells us, in his dialogue on the life of
Chrysostom1, that they could not tolerate «the sight of the entire
Antiochene community going in pilgrimage towards Armenia, whence
in turn resounded through the church of Antioch the echoes of the
sweet philosophy of Chrysostom ». At their petition Arcadius ordered
Chrysostom to leave Cucusus and to go to Pityus, a wild spot near
the eastern extremity of the Black Sea. It was probably towards
the end of June, 407, that Chrysostom began the journey to Pityus;
on Sept. 14., he yielded up his spirit at Comana in Pontus, broken
by the hardships of the way. His last words were his habitual ex
pression or motto: « Glory be to God for all (doqa rw ttsa> xdvrcoy
li>sx£vj, and a last Amen 2. - - Atticus and his friends were received
into the communion of Rome only on condition that they should
recite in the diptychs the name of the deceased patriarch. It is said
that the last of the Johannites were reconciled only when, in the
beginning of the year 438, the earthly remains of the Saint were
brought back to Constantinople and interred in the Church of the
Apostles. Theodoret3 tells us that the emperor Theodosius II., a
son of Eudoxia, went out to meet the funeral train, and bending
low over the body of the martyr « begged that he would intercede
with God for his parents who had sinned through ignorance ».
6. EXEGETICAL HOMILIES. — No other writer of the Greek Church
has left so extensive a literary legacy as Chrysostom. Most of his
genuine and undoubted writings are scriptural expositions
in the form of homilies. First in the series are 67 homilies on
Genesis4 delivered at Antioch, probably in 388. They take up the
book by sections, and exhibit, though in homily-form, a complete
commentary on the text. Then follow Homiliac p in Genesin* all
of which, excepting the last, deal with the first three chapters of the
book. Some chapters of the Books of Kings are commented on in
1 Dial., c. II. * Ib. 3 Hist, eccl., v. 36.
4 Mignc, PG., liii— liv; cf. Ixiv. 499 — 502. 5 Ib., liv. 581 — 630.
330 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
his Homiliae 5 de Anna^, preached at Easter 387, and Homiliae j
de Davide et Saule2, delivered in the summer of 387; we have not
from his pen a continuous commentary on Kings. He seems to have
explained all the Psalms in a long series of homilies; we possess
so far only his exposition of about 60 Psalms (4 — 12 43 — 49 108
to 117 119 — I5o)3. It remains uncertain whether he wrote on any
other poetical books of the Old Testament; there are important
fragments of a commentary on Job4 and on Proverbs5 that bear his
name, but to establish their genuineness will require more study and
better proof. On the prophetic books we have the two homilies De
prophetiarum obscuritate^, composed at Antioch about 386. The
commentary on the beginning of Isaias (i. I to viii. io)7 is probably
an excerpt from homilies (of the year 387?) which the compiler
stripped of their oratorical garb and worked into a continuous ex
planation of the text. Besides this commentary on Isaias there are
six other homilies8, delivered in 386. Many scholia on Jeremias
bear the name of Chrysostom9; and the so-called commentary on
Daniel 10 is only a compilation of scholia from the Catenae. — His ex
position of the New Testament begins with 90 homilies on Matthew 1J.
They were written and delivered at Antioch about 390, and exhibit
him not only as a great preacher but as a great expounder of
Scripture. Suidas speaks12 of commentaries of St. Chrysostom «on
Matthew and Mark and Luke» ; but this is probably an error, for
there is no other mention of commentaries on Mark and Luke. The
nearest approach to one is the series of Homiliae 7 de Lazaro™,
and the single homily on this same parable14. But on the other
hand, we possess the commentary on the Gospel of John, also men
tioned by Suidas15; its 88 homilies are much shorter than those
on Matthew, and were delivered at Antioch, probably about 389.
About 400 or 401 Chrysostom illustrated the text of the Acts of
the Apostles in 55 homilies16; their language is less polished than
that of other discourses of Chrysostom, probably because they have
reached us only in an uncorrected tachygraphic report. The four
homilies on the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles17, and the
four on the change of name in the case of St. Paul and other bi
blical personages18, were delivered during the Eastertide of 388. Chryso
stom wrote and delivered homilies on all the Epistles of St. Paul :
32 on the Epistle to the Romans in 391 19; 44 and 30, respectively,
1 Migne, PG., liv. 631—676. 2 Ib., liv. 675—708. 3 lb., Iv.
4 Ib., Ixiv. 503—656. 5 Ib., Ixiv. 659—740. 6 Ib., Ivi. 163—192.
Ib., Ivi. 11—94. 8 Ib., Ivi. 97—142. » Ib., Ixiv. 739—1038.
' Ib., Ivi. 193—246. 11 Ib., Ivii. Iviii. 12 Lex. s. v. loan. Antioch.
. xvi. 19-31; Migne, PG., xlviii. 963—1054. 1( Migne, Ixiv. 433—444.
Ib., lix; the episode of the adulterous woman, John vii. 53 to viii. II is wanting.
17 Ib., li. 65-112. 18 lb, li. H3—I56.
19 lb., lx; cf. the supplement Ixiv. 1037.
§ 74- ST- JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 331
about 392, on the two Epistles to the Corinthians1; and 3 homilies
on marriage in explanation of I Cor. vii. I ff. 2, and three others on
2 Cor. iv. 13 3; a commentary on Galatians4, which must have been
originally in homily- form , like the exposition of Isaias mentioned
above ; also 24 on Ephesians , 1 5 on Philippians , 1 2 on Colossians,
1 1 on I Thessalonians , 5 on 2 Thessalonians , 1 8 on I Timothy,
10 on 2 Timothy, 6 on Titus, 3 on Philemon5, and 34 on Hebrews6.
The last 34 homilies were not published until after the death of
Chrysostom and then from the notes of the tachygraphers. Some
scholia to the Catholic Epistles have been edited under the name
of Chrysostom7. We may add a great number of homilies, which
deal, in one way or another, with isolated texts of the Scripture. -
Among the expositions of the Old Testament, his homilies on the
Psalms have always been held in special esteem. The best of his
New Testament commentaries are, by common consent, the homilies
on Romans. Isidore of Pelusium 8 said of them that «the treasures
of the wisdom of the learned John are especially abundant in his
exposition of the Epistle to the Romans. I think (and it cannot
be said that I write to flatter any one) that if the divine Paul wished
to expound in the Attic tongue his own writings, he would not have
spoken otherwise than this famous master; so remarkable is the
latter's exposition for its contents, its beauty of form, and propriety
of expression ». In later ages the judgment of the Pelusiot (f ca. 440)
has often been quoted with approval.
7. OTHER DISCOURSES. - - Chrysostom preached, besides the
exegetical homilies, many other sermons on miscellaneous sub
jects. Not a few, however, are of doubtful or disputed provenance.
The Homiliae 8 adversus Judaeos* preached in the years 387 — 389,
not so much against the Jews as against those Christians who followed
the Jews in their feasts or their fasts, and especially against the Proto-
paschites (Horn. 3); the Homiliae 12 contra Anomoeos de incomprehen-
sibili1^ delivered partly at Antioch and partly at Constantinople and
treating of the incomprehensibility of God and the essential unity of
the Son and the Father; also a Homilia de resitrrectione mortuorum^^
are usually classed as dogmatico-polemical discourses. — His ascetico-
moral homilies are more numerous. Some of them form connected
groups, thus the Cateclieses 2 ad illuminandos™ addressed to the
catechumens early in the Lent of 387; the Homiliae 3 de diabolo
tentatore™ concerning temptations to sin (the second of these homilies
in Montfaucon and Migne should have been put in the third place);
1 Ib., Ixi. * Ib., li. 207—242. 3 lb., li. 271—302. 4 Ib., Ixi.
5 Ib., Ixii. 6 lb., Ixiii. " Ib., Ixiv. 1039 — 1062. 8 Ep., v. 32.
9 Migne, PG., xlviii. 843—942. 10 Ib., xlviii. 701— 812.
11 Ib., 1. 4i7ter— 432. la Ib., xlix. 223—240.
13 Ib., xlix. 241 — 276.
332
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
the Homiliae p de poenitentia* the last three of which, if not more,
are of somewhat doubtful genuineness. Most of these homilies, however,
are complete treatises, each one of them treating its subject ex
haustively. Some of them are quite well-known in Greek homiletic
literature, thus: the discourse In Kalendas*, a rebuke of the super
stitious excesses with which the New Year was celebrated; the dis
coursed elecmosyna*, a detailed interpretation of I Cor. xvi. I — 4;
the discourse Contra cir censes ludos et theatra*. Of his festal dis
courses the following have been preserved: two on Christmas5, the
first of which was preached Dec. 25., 388, while the second is of
doubtful genuineness ; a discourse on the Epiphany or on the Baptism
of our Lord6; three discourses on the treason of Judas, for Holy
Thursday7; the second discourse is only a recast of the first either
by the author or by a later writer, while the third is of doubtful
origin; three Good Friday discourses on the Sepulchre and on the
Cross and on the Good Thief8, the second and third of which re
present probably the same sermon; two discourses on Easter9, the
second of doubtful genuineness; two discourses on the Ascension10,
the second is of doubtful origin; three discourses on Pentecost11.
Among his panegyrics of Saints the Homiliae 7 de laudibus S. Pauli
Ap.™ delivered at Antioch, have always been the most admired;
the old Latin translator Anianus believed that in them the great
Apostle of the Gentiles was not only depicted, but in a certain sense
awakened from the dead, so that he might exhibit an example of a
perfect life13; since then it has often been said that the praises of
St. Paul were never sung more nobly than by St. John Chrysostom.
He delivered other panegyrics on the Saints of the Old Testament
(Job, Eleazar, the Macchabees and their mother), on the martyrs in
general and on several Saints of a later time, finally on Diodorus,
bishop of Tarsus, and on the emperor Theodosius the Great. A
special interest attaches to the discourses delivered at Antioch on
the holy bishops of that city: Ignatius, Babylas, Philogonius, Eusta-
thius and Meletius 14. The most famous of his occasional discourses
are the Homiliae 21 de statuis ad populum Antiochenum^. When
Theodosius the Great imposed, early in 387, extraordinary taxes
on the provinces of the East, resentment and embitterment spread
1 Migne, PG., xlix. 277—350. z Ib., xlviii. 953 — 962.
3 Ib., li. 261—272. 4 Ib., Ivi. 263 — 270.
5 Ib., Ixix. 351 — 362 and Ivi. 385 — 396. 6 Ib., xlix. 363 — 472.
7 Ib., xlix. 373—392 and 1. 715 — 720. 8 Ib., xlix. 393—418.
0 Ib., 1 433—442 and lii. 765—772. 10 Ib., 1. 441—452 and lii. 773—792.
11 Ib., 1. 453—470 and Ixiv. 417—424. 12 Ib., 1. 473—514.
13 Ib., 1. 471*— 472*.
4 The discourse on Philogonius is Horn. 6 contra Anomoeos: Ib., xlviii. 747 — 756;
the other four: Ib. 1.
15 Ib., xlix. 15 — 222.
§ 74- ST- JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 333
through Antioch to such a degree that among other acts of violence
the statues of the emperor, his father, his sons and his deceased
wife Flaccilla, were overturned, barbarously defaced and mutilated.
The outraged emperor was disposed to wreak exemplary vengeance
on all Antioch. An embassy, headed by Flavian, the bishop of the
city, hastened at once to the capital. The discourse of Flavian to
the emperor Theodosius, doubtlessly the work of Chrysostom *, has
always been accounted a model of ancient Christian eloquence.
Theodosius could not restrain his tears as he listened to it. In the
meantime (it was the Lenten period) Chrysostom delivered at Antioch
the famous « statue-homilies » : in them he undertakes first to calm the
agitated and despairing population; then he profits by the good
dispositions of his audience to reprove them earnestly for the domi
nant vices of their city, notably the habit of frivolous swearing;
finally he announces the success of the embassy and the magnanimity
of the emperor. These homilies must have made the young orator
master for ever of the ears and hearts of the Antiochenes. To the
first years of his sojourn at Constantinople belong two other famous
discourses, viz. the homilies on Eutropius2: in the first the orator
makes plain the uncertainty of human felicity by the example of Eu
tropius who was visible to the audience as he clung pitifully to the
altar; the second dealing with the same subject was delivered after
some days, when Eutropius had left the church and fallen into the
hands of justice. Other famous homilies are that on the occasion of
his ordination to the priesthood, which was his first sermon3, the one
delivered on the eve of his first exile4, and the discourse delivered
on the day after his return from the exile5.
8. APOLOGETIC AND ASCETI CO-MORAL WRITINGS. — It is pos
sible that even these writings may have been partly homiletic in
their origin. Two of them are apologetic in tendency and character:
the one in honor of Saint Babylas and against Julian and the heathens
(XofOQ EIQ TOV juaxdptov BaftoAav YJU xara 'louXtavou xal npo^Ektyvaq)*
written about 382, and the demonstration of the divinity of Christ
against the Jews and the heathens (xpuz TS 'JovoatouQ xai "EX/yva-
dnodet£t£ on iari. MSOQ o Xptaro^)1 written perhaps in 387. In both
compositions he aims at establishing the divinity of Jesus Christ;
the second lays special stress on the fulfilment of the Old Testament
prophecies as well as on the fulfilment of Christ's own prophecies
(especially those concerning the irresistible growth of the Church and
the destruction of the Temple), whereas in the first work it is the
miracles of Christ and those done by Christians in his name that
afford the basis of his argument. After many references to the past,
1 Cf. Horn. 21 de statuis, n. 3. 2 Migne, PG., lii. 391 — 414.
3 Ib., xlviii. 693 — 700. 4 Ib., lii. 427* — 430. 5 Ib., lii. 443 — 448.
6 Ib., 1. 533—572. 7 Ib., xlviii. 813-838.
334
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
the author calls the present before the bar of history, and, «to con
firm an already more than complete victory» (c. 4), appeals to the
miracles that had taken place on the occasion of the translation of
the remains of the holy bishop and martyr Babylas (f 250); Julian,
as the audience remembered, had ordered these remains to be taken
away from the grove of Daphne near Antioch, with the intention of
restoring to that site the ancient worship of Apollo and Diana. The
other writings of Chrysostom are all ascetico-moral in their contents,
and most of them date from the time when Chrysostom was still an
anchorite; the earliest of them, in the form of epistles, are the success
ful exhortation «to the fallen Theodore (Aufog napaweTtxbq ECQ Oeodwpov
sx-sffov-a and TT^OQ rov aurov Bzodcopov XuyoQ ft'j 1, his friend and com
panion (subsequently bishop of Mopsuestia), who had yielded to the
charms of Hermione and grown weary of the ascetic life. The lively
and energetic tone which marks this work, is also characteristic of his
two books on penance fTrspl xaTa^u^scoQj^, written about 375 or 376
for two friends (the first addressed to Demetrius, the second to Ste-
lechius) on the necessity of genuine penance and the nature of the same.
Rauschen has shown that Chrysostom was probably only a deacon
when he wrote (381 — 385) the three books against the enemies of
monasticism (xpoc, robe, Trote/jtouvTac; role, ITT} TO povdfetv ivdyovaw) 3:
the first book aims at exhibiting the heinous guilt of the enemies of
monasticism by a description of the sublime and holy nature of this
state; the second book is addressed to a pagan father in the hope
of persuading him to allow his son, already a Christian, to enter the
monastic state ; the third, a much more extensive, book is addressed,
with the same purpose, to a Christian father. In the second book
Chrysostom occasionally draws (c. 6) a parallel between a monk and
a king, and the same thought is more fully developed in a little
work entitled: « Comparison of the power, wealth and authority of
a king with the state of a monk who lives in conformity with true
•and Christian philosophy4 fy xara Xpiarov <ptAoao(pia i. e. the life of
perfection). Chrysostom was only a deacon when he wrote the three
books to Stagirius (~pbz ZTa.fzipi.ov daxyryv datfjtovwvTaj bt a treatise
of consolation addressed to a sorely tried and quasi-despairing friend,
that he might recognize in his sufferings the loving purpose of divine
Providence; the second and third books are largely devoted to a
review of sacred history from Adam to St. Paul, with the purpose
of proving that it is precisely the beloved of God who have always
undergone the greatest tribulations. The six books on the priesthood
'xepi tepcoait^q) 6 were written to explain and justify his conduct on
the occasion of his election as bishop about 373. As already narrated,
1 Migne, PG., xlvii. 277 — 316. -' Ib., xlvii. 393—422.
Ib, xlvii. 319-386. * Ib., xlvii. 387-392. * Ib., xlvii. 423—494.
>J Ib , xlvii. 623 — 692.
§ 74- ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 335
he fled from the burden, but kept his purpose secret and induced
his intimate friend Basil to accept the preferred office. The first part
of the apology (i. I to ii. 6) is devoted to proving that this stratagem
and dissimulation merited praise rather than blame, since thereby a
Christian flock obtained so good a shepherd ; he goes on to explain
in the second part (ii. 7 to vi. 13) that he refused the episcopal office,
because he had not the requisite qualities and felt himself unequal
to its responsibilities and perils. The work is thrown into the form
of a dialogue between the two friends ; Chrysostom is usually some
what lofty and grave in his speech; but here he exhibits a peculiar
depth of feeling, a melting tenderness, a delicacy and elegance of
style that are not visible elsewhere. This dialogue has always been
looked on as a Christian classic, by reason of the incomparable picture
it offers of the dignity and grandeur of the priesthood. Internal
evidence would suggest that it was written shortly after 373, did not
Socrates assert1 that it was written after the ordination of Chryso
stom as deacon (381). The brief work «to a young widow » (elq
vztoripav yypz'jaaaav)2, probably written in 380 — 381, seeks to con
sole her for the loss of her spouse, and the treatise on the state
of widows fyrspl [Jtova*8pia<;) 3 is supposed to be contemporaneous
with the preceding, and is often printed as its second book, or as an
appendix; it recommends in general that all widows remain as they
are, with reference to I Cor. vii. 40. Quite closely related is another
work on the virginal state faep} xapfteviaq)* written probably after
381, in which he expounds, in a warm and often glowing style, the
word of the Apostle (i Cor. vii. 38) that marriage is good but virgi
nity better. The work might justly be considered as a commentary
(cc. 24 — 84) on i Cor. vii. so much so that when, at a later date,
in the course of his homiletic preaching, he came to that chapter,
respectively to the virginal state, he was able to refer his hearers to
this work: «in which I have set forth at length and with all possible
precision (the Christian doctrine); hence I hold it superfluous to return
now to that subject >5. He had scarcely entered on his office at Con
stantinople when he issued two pastoral letters, closely related in
contents : one to the clerics who retained in their houses virgins con
secrated to God (icpoQ TO'JQ ^iyovra.^ 7tap$evoi><; auvztadxTooQj^, another
concerning the unlawful custom of these virgins according to which
they permitted men to dwell with them in their houses (xspi TOU
TUQ xavoMxaQ fjLTj awoixstv dydpdmv)1. A holy zeal breathes from
these documents, often expressed in harsh and biting diction ; it is
scarcely to be wondered at that in certain circles they aroused per-
1 Hist, eccl., vi. 3. - Mjgne, PG., xlviii. 599—610.
3 Ib., xlviii. 609 — 620. 4 Ib., xlviii. 533 — 596.
5 Horn. 19 in i Cor., n. 6. 6 Migne, PG., xlvii. 495 — 514.
7 Ib., xlvii. 513 — 532.
336 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
manent dislike and opposition. Two other works date from the period
of his second exile : in one he undertakes to show that no one can
harm any man apart from his own co-operation (du rbv ZWJTOV
fjLT] ddtxouvTa o'joe'iQ Kapaf$/M<pat duvarat) 1, in the other he addresses
those who are scandalized at the sad and gloomy outlook of the
present (xpbc, robe, (txavdahaftivTa^ sm rale, duarjfjLepiatc, role, *f£vo-
fjilvatc)2. It is always and everywhere in a man's own power to
permit or to repel that which alone can harm him ; the sorrows and
the contradictions that now, as in much earlier days, fall to the lot
of the just, ought not to raise doubts regarding an overruling Pro
vidence, even if the ways of God be not clear to us. Thus did the
holy man encourage his loyal friends at home, while for himself
he ate the bread of exile, and was often on the brink of the grave,
often in want of the necessaries of existence3.
9. LETTERS.- There are extant about 238 letters of St. Chryso-
stom4, most of them quite brief, and nearly all dating from his
second exile. Many of them are mere answers to correspondents in
various quarters who seek to know something about his condition.
Others give touching evidence of his pastoral zeal which embraced
not only his own flock, but also the inhabitants of far barbarian
lands. Most of them are consolatory in tone, addressed some to
clerics or laymen involved in the sufferings of the Johannites, some
to other followers and friends overwhelmed by the hopeless state of
religion at Constantinople or by the increasing wretchedness of Chryso-
stom's own condition. The seventeen letters to Olympias, widow and
deaconess, deserve special mention. They are both numerous and
long, are exceptionally cordial and frank, and never weary of ex
patiating on the utility of sorrow and trial. In many of these letters
there shines a soul so magnanimous as to be no longer accessible
to external sorrow or wrong, so closely united with God as to seem
long since ravished from the life of earth.
10. SPURIOUS WRITINGS. - - To no other Greek ecclesiastical writer
have so many works been falsely attributed. His homiletic fame
caused a multitude of discourses to court popularity under his name.
In almost every volume (of the De Montfaucon and Migne editions)
there is a selection of spurious pieces, small in each volume, but
large as a whole. The extraordinary authority of the holy doctor led,
at a very early date, to the habit of extracting his utterances on a
certain subject from various homilies and combining such excerpts
into a new homily on the same subject. Of such ixAofai or Flori-
legia, belonging materially but not formally to Chrysostom, there
are 48 in the Migne edition5. It is highly probable not only that
1 Migne, PG., Hi. 459—480. 2 Ib., lii. 479—528.
3 Cf. Ep. 4 ad Olymp., c. 4. * Migne, PG., lii.
5 Ib., Ixiii. 567- — 902.
§ 74- ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 337
his genuine homilies were mutilated during his lifetime, but that
downright forgeries were sent out under his name. The Horn, in de-
coll. S. loan. Bapt. is a case in point (see no. 5)- The so-called liturgy
of St. Chrysostom1 can lay no claim to his name, except on the
supposition that in later times it has undergone many and important
changes. The occasional remarks of a liturgical character in his
writings are not applicable to this liturgy, nor are its formulae in
mutual agreement. The Ethiopic liturgy of St. Chrysostom, edited
in 1866 by A. Dillmann, has no more in common with the Greek
liturgy of Chrysostom than with any other liturgy. There are very
strong reasons to suspect the genuineness of the Synopsis veteris et
novi Testamenti2, a kind of introduction to the Scripture, in which
the contents of each biblical book is briefly described, and its im
portance and place in the history of revelation made clear. So far
only the part that deals with the Old Testament is known, and even
that is not quite complete. A careful investigation is needed of the
relations of this synopsis towards the one falsely attributed to Atha-
nasius (§ 63 , 5). The Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum printed in
the editions of the works of Chrysostom3 is a commentary on Mat
thew, whose text, though fragmentary, is very remarkable; it is
now known to be the production of some Latin Arian of the fifth
or sixth century.
1 1 . CHRYSOSTOM AS HOMILIST. - - About the middle of the tenth
century, Suidas wrote in his Lexicon concerning «John of Antioch
surnamed the Golden Mouth » : «His words resounded more loudly
than the cataracts of the Nile. Since the world began, no one else
has ever possessed such gifts as an orator; he alone, it may be said,
possessed them all in their fulness, and alone merited rightly the
name of Golden Mouth and divine orator. » In the later ecclesiastical
literature, perhaps so far back as the fifth century, the name of John
gave way to that of Chrysostom. Even to this day the Golden-Mouth
is reckoned the prince of Eastern orators, with whom in the West
only Augustine can compare. The pulpit is the peculiar province
of Chrysostom who sought and found therein, far more than did
Augustine, the scene of his labors. He is, in fact, cast in another
mould. It is not theory but practice, not science but life, that
attracts and fascinates Chrysostom ; his discourse is dialectic and
speculative only when external considerations obtrude themselves on
him; otherwise he is entirely occupied with the solicitudes and duties
of an every-day pastoral ministry. Augustine, moreover, deals with
the theory of sacerdotal eloquence (§ 94, 9), while, apart from an
occasional brief remark, and some chapters in the fourth and fifth
books of his De sacerdotio on the grandeur and difficulties of the
1 Ib., Ixiii. 901—922. 2 Ib., Ivi. 313—386. 3 lb., Ivi. 611—946.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 22
338 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
homilist's office, Chrysostom has nowhere commented on or explained
his homiletic principles. There was, indeed, no difference between
their principles, neither contradiction nor opposition ; only in practice
they worked out differently. To consider only the length of their
discourses, how different is the breviloquium of Augustine from the
fjiaxpoXofia of Chrysostom! The latter can often hardly finish in
two hours, the former is often content with fifteen minutes; but the
preaching of Augustine makes other demands on the mind of the
hearer than that of Chrysostom. The former loves a well-defined
theme, in the treatment of which he moves on with steadiness, his
eyes fixed on the conclusion which he pursues along a strictly dia
lectic line; his manner is often so abstract that his audience must
have followed him with difficulty. The latter is very diffuse, and
easily abandons his theme, for the momentary pleasure of gathering
the wayside flowers; he is less wearisome and more entertaining;
many of his sermons are really mosaics of small independent com
positions. Chrysostom is also less fatiguing in the exposition of a
particular doctrine. While Augustine very rarely interrupts the flow
of his thought by examples and similes, Chrysostom is convinced
that he can accomplish more by lively images than by theoretical
arguments; indeed, he is a past master in the art of individualizing,
and makes all things subservient to that end. It is true that Augu
stine compensates, in a way at least, his more intelligent hearers
by his splendid antitheses, his brilliant jeux (T esprit, and his endless
playing upon words ; tricks of rhetoric that are quite secondary in
the discourse of Chrysostom. The latter is also (in a good sense)
more the impromptu speaker than Augustine; in the exordium and
the peroration of his discourse he often seizes happily on some fact
or interest quite recent and actual, and thus enlists into his service
even the transient events of the day. By far the greater part of
the extant discourses of Chrysostom are homilies. Augustine also
wrote, in addition to his Sermones, many Enarrationes and Trac-
tatus on biblical texts. In their exegesis the two orators also follow
divergent methods. Augustine seldom checks his allegorizing tendency,
while Chrysostom, educated in the theological school of Antioch, is
usually faithful to its historico-philological method and principles. He
aims first at establishing the literal sense, and, with this end in view,
often prefixes an historical introduction, or will even stop to clear
up grammatical difficulties. In his comment on Is. i. 22 * he remarks
that, while he will not reject the allegorical interpretation, he holds
the literal sense to be the truer one (dty&effrepav stvai <prtfn); on
Is. v. 7 2 he says that Holy Scripture itself indicates when and where
the tropical interpretation is admissible or obligatory »: if it allegorizes,
1 Migne, PG., Ivi. 23. 2 Ib., Ivi. 60.
§ 74- ST- JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 339
it also gives an interpretation of the allegory (TcavTa%oiJ rTJQ fpo.^o,
OVTOQ o vofJLOQ, £7T£ioay dltyfopfy Xiyziv yju dXtyfOpiaz rr}v kpp.7jvs.iav)',
commenting on Is. vi. 6 if. J he mentions first the figurative interpreta
tion but adds: «we hold fast, however, to the historical sense» (r^elq
ok TBCOQ TYJQ iaropiac, £%6fji£&ct). In a word, Chrysostom is a decided
and consistent disciple of the great masters of Antiochene exegesis,
though never so extreme as Theodore of Mopsuestia ; indeed, he is
himself one of the foremost masters of which that school can boast.
His distinctive characteristic is the ease with which, not only in
exegesis, but in pulpit oratory, he unites and reconciles science and
life, mind and heart; no one has ever interpreted Holy Scripture so
successfully as Chrysostom, with such thoroughness and prudence,
one might say, with such sobriety and accuracy, yet again with so
much depth and comprehensiveness. If we add to all these qualities
a certain delicacy and refinement, we shall understand why in his
hands the Scriptures became such a source of living progress in
every province of religious life.
12. THE DOCTRINE OF CHRYSOSTOM. - - His hermeneutical prin
ciples make him the very antithesis of Origen; no accusation is
more groundless than that of Origenism made by Theophilus of
Alexandria (see no. 4) against the great exegete. It may be looked
on as certain, though positive evidence is wanting, that, with regard
to the origin of the human soul, Chrysostom was a firm believer in
Creatianism and not in the pre-existence doctrine of Origen. Hence
the doctrine of Apocatastasis or « general restoration » in the sense
of Origen (and Gregory of Nyssa) was quite foreign to his principles ;
one need only listen to what he says concerning the pains of the
damned: «Hell is not sufficient, although eternal, to wash away the
stains of sin; for that reason it is eternal (dta TOOTO yap xal alwviog
IffTtv)2. His teaching on original sin brought about a controversy
between Augustine and Julian of Eclanum. In an apparently lost
homily De baptizatis, Chrysostom had said apropos of an enumeration
of the effects of baptismal grace: « there fore do we baptize also little
children (TV. naio'w.) although they have no sins (xairoi auaprqua-ca
ouy £%OVTO).» Julian imagined3 that these words were equivalent
to the Pelagian negation of original sin. Augustine rightly replied4
that Chrysostom meant actual sins (propria peccata), as the plural
afiaprTj^ara and the context prove. Elsewhere, on several occasions,
Chrysostom openly taught the existence of original sin, especially in
the following five passages: Ep. 3 ad Olymp., c. j5; De resuscitat. *
Lazari (:); Horn. 9 in Gen., n. ^6; Horn, de baptizatis (?) ; Horn. 10
in Rom., n. i 2 4. 7. In all these quotations, nevertheless, so far as
1 Ib., Ivi. 72. 2 Horn. 17 in Hebr., n. 5 {Migne, PG., Ixiii. 133 — 134).
3 Libri iv ad Turbantium episc. 4 Contra lulianum, i. 22.
5 Migne, PG., Hi. 574. 6 Ib., liii. 78—79. 7 Ib., Ix. 475—476 479 — 480.
22*
340
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
we can now identify them, especially in the quotation from the com
mentary on Rom. v. I2ff., the interpretation of Chrysostom does not
coincide exactly with the ideas of Augustine on the nature of original
sin. He frequently repeats that the consequences or penalties of the
first sin affect not only our first parents, but^ also their descendants,
but he does not, however, say that the sin itself was inherited by
their posterity and is inherent in their nature. In general, to ap
preciate the homiletic teaching of Chrysostom apropos of sin it is
well to remember that he had in mind Manichsean adversaries with
their denial of free-will and their doctrine of physically irresistible
concupiscence, an error that cut away the foundations of all mora
lity, and one he opposed with all his might. As to his relations
with Pelagianism, the rule that St. Augustine formulated on another
occasion 1 may well be recalled : Quid opus est, ut eorum scrutemur
opuscula qui, priusquam ista haeresis oriretur, non habuerunt necessi-
tatem in hac difficili ad solvendum quaestione versari? quod procul
dubio facerent, si respondere talibus cogerentur. - - The fact that
Theodore of Mopsuestia was the father of Nestorianism naturally
raises a question as to the attitude of Chrysostom toward the teaching
of his friend. Our Saint insists with earnestness on the reality and
integrity of the two natures in Christ : Christ was of the same nature
as the Father (TTJQ WJTTJG ovaiac, TW 7ia.rpi)\ Horn. I in Matth., n. 22;
Horn. 4 contra Anomoeos, n. ^3; He had also a human body
(Rom. viii. 3), not sinful like ours, but in nature identical with ours
(ffdpxa . . . dva/jt.dpT7]Toy . . . T% (poazt TTJV adr^v yfjLiv)'. Horn, ij in
Rom., n. j4; Horn. 7 in Phil., n. 2 — j5. Despite the duality of
natures, there is but one Christ: « Remaining what He was, He
assumed what He was not, and though He became man, remained
God the Word (sfjtsvs ftsbz MfOQ cov) . . . He became that which He
assumed, but He was the other. Thus there is no confusion, but also
no separation. One God, one Christ, the Son of God (i Tim. ii. 5)!
But when I say one (one Christ), I mean thereby a union and not a
commingling (zvwatv Xifto, ou Goyyuaiv), not that one nature is trans
muted into another, but is united to that other (Horn. 7 in Phil.,
n. 2 3)6. He does not anywhere undertake a more exact and precise
determination of the meaning of the words (S:Q XptaroQ). Theodore
seeks to prove that in Christ there could be only a moral, not a
physical, union of the two natures; Chrysostom confined himself to
general and rather popular terms and phrases. Even in the absence
'• of such a mental attitude, no special stress should be laid on the
fact that Chrysostom, like Theodore, makes the Logos dwell in the
man Christ as in a temple (In Ps. xliv. 3)7 and in the commentary
1 De praedest. sanctorum, c. 14, n. 27. 2 Migne, PG., Ivii. 17.
3 Ib., xlviii. 732 f. * Ib., lx. 515. 5 Ib., Ixii. 229—232.
6 Ib., Ixii. 231 232. 7 Ib., lv. 186.
§ 74- ST- JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 341
(of doubtful authenticity) on Prov. ix. I A. It is true, however, that
the unique personality of the God-Man does not strike the reader
with absolute distinctness in the writings of Chrysostom; in his
presentation of our Lord the divinity and the humanity appear in
a way as apart from and external to one another; nowhere does the
one and sole personal principle or subject of the life and sufferings
of Christ stand forth in unmistakable outline. Our author continues
to pay homage to an academical opinion of the Antiochene school,
i. e. the notion more or less consciously entertained that there could
not be in Christ a perfect and complete human nature without a
proper (and purely human) personality. - - Historians of the dogma
of the Holy Eucharist have always held Chrysostom in high repute,
so that he is called the doctor eucharistiae, because of the numerous
clear, positive and detailed statements that he makes concerning this
doctrine. Pointing to the altar, he says: « Christ lies there slain »
(£ff<pafalvoQ irpoxsiTat o XptffTogj2. «His body lies before us now» 3.
«That which is in the Chalice is the same as what flowed from the
side of Christ». «What is the Bread? The Body of Christ» 4. «Reflect,
O man, what sacrificial flesh (d-uaia) thou takest in thy hand!» (it
was then the custom to place the Host in the right hand of the
communicant), to what table thou wilt approach. Remember that,
though dust and ashes, thou dost receive the Blood and the Body
of Christ » 5. In order to make as clear as possible the truth and
reality of the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, Chryso
stom loves to transfer to the substance of the Body and the Blood
what is strictly true of the accidents of bread and wine. «Not only
ought we to see the Lord», he says, «but we ought to take Him
in our hands, eat Him, set our teeth upon His flesh (lux^ac TOVQ
ddovraq TYJ aapxi) and most intimately unite ourselves with Him»6.
»What the Lord did not tolerate on the Cross », i. e. the breaking
of His legs, «He tolerates now in the sacrifice (lm TTJQ Ttpoayopaq)
through love of thee; He permits Himself to be broken in pieces
(dve/erat diaxXa>fj.evoQ) that all may be filled to satiety » 7. More
over, Chrysostom reads in I Cor. xi. 24: TO bnep r^fiwv xAwpevoy,
and he maintains also that even at the Last Supper the Lord was
broken in parts ftxMff&iqJ*. His frequent statements that now the
altar and now the tongue of the communicant are stained (y>ot-
by the Blood of the Lord may be explained by the use
1 Ib., Ixiv. 680.
° Horn, i and 2 de prodit. ludae, n. 6: Migne, PG., xlix. 381 390.
3 Horn. 50 in Matth., n. 2 : Ib., Iviii. 507.
4 Horn. 24 in I Cor., n. i, 2: Ib., Ixi. 200.
5 Horn, in diem nat. D. N. I. C., n. 7: Ib., xlix. 361.
r> Horn. 46 in loan., n. 3: Ib., lix. 260.
7 Horn. 24 in I Cor., n. 2 : Ib., Ixi. 200.
8 Horn. 27 in I Cor., n. 3 — 4: Ib., Ixi. 228—229.
342 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
of red wine in the Mass1. The Body and Blood of the Lord are
therefore sacrificed, and eaten, or drunk. But the sacrificial priest
and the host at the banquet is none other than the Lord Himself,
« Believe that there takes place now the same banquet as that in
which Christ sat at table, and that this banquet is in no way
different from that (ouokv disvjjvo%£v). For it is not true that this
banquet is prepared by a man while that was prepared by Himself,
but both this banquet and that one are prepared by Himself»2.
«To-day as then, it is the Lord who worketh and offereth all» 3.
The priest at the altar is only an instrument in the hand of the
Lord. «We assume the role of servants; it is He who consecrates and
transmutes (the bread and wine) (o dk &ftd^(ov aura xa\ neraaxsud^cov
ati-cbo,)^. «It is not man who causes what is present to become the
Body and Blood of Christ, but Christ Himself who was crucified for
us. The priest is the representative when he pronounces those words
(of consecration) (ayrjfjia nhrjp&v, rd prjfj.ara y&sj^ofjtevoQ ixslvo.) ; but
the power and the grace are those of the Lord. He says: 'This is
my Body'. This word changes the things that lie before us» (TOOTO
TO f)5jfj.a fJt5Tafipu$fjtt£st TO. npoxsi/ieva)5. For the terms jmsTaaxsud^siv
and fjieTafipt)&fi.i&w the so-called Liturgy of St. Chrysostom substitutes
fieTaftdXXetv*. On the strength of a letter ad Ccesarium monachum,
Chrysostom has often been quoted, curiously enough, in behalf of
consubstantiation. That letter, however, of which the Greek text is
lost, is very probably spurious. The words in question are that after
the consecration the Bread is called dominicum corpus, etiamsi natura
panis in ipso permansit1 . But here natura panis clearly means the
external appearance of the Bread as distinguished from its substance.
13. COMPLETE AND PARTIAL EDITIONS. - - The writings of Chrysostom
were so highly esteemed and so widely diffused that we possess very abund
ant and excellent materials for the reconstruction of his text, partly Greek
codices and partly ancient versions from the Greek. So far only a small
portion of these manuscripts has been drawn upon. We owe complete
editions of his works to the labors of the Jesuit Fronton du Due (Fronto
Ducaeus), of the Anglican H. Savile, and of the Benedictine B. de Montfaucon.
The edition of Fronto Ducaeus was published at Paris, 1609 — 1633 in
12 vols. (Greek and Latin) and reprinted ib., 1636; Frankfort, 1697 — 1698
1723; Mayence, 1702. The Savile edition was brought out at Eton in
8 vols., 1612 (Greek text only). The edition of de Montfaucon was publish
ed at Paris, 1718 — 1738 in 13 vols., and reprinted at Venice, 1734 to
1741 in 13 vols.; again 1780 in 14 vols. It was reprinted also at Paris,
with a few corrections 1834—1840 in 13 vols. The same edition, with a
1 Horn. 24 in i Cor., n. I : Ib. , Ixi. 200; De sacerd., 3, 4: Ib. , xlviii. 642;
Horn. 82 in Matth., n. 5: Ib., Iviii. 743; Catech. 2 ad ilium., c. 2: Ib., xlix. 234.
2 Horn. 50 in Matth., n 3 : Ib., Iviii 507.
3 Horn. 27 in I Cor., n. 4: Ib., Ixi. 229.
4 Horn. 82 in Matth., n. 5 : Ib., Iviii. 744.
5 Horn, i and (almost identical) Horn. 2 de prodit. ludae, n. 6 : Ib., xlix. 380 and 389.
6 Migne, PG , Ixiii. 916. ? Ib., lii. 758.
§ 74- ST- JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 343
large supplement, is in Migne , PG. , xlvii — Ixiv. It is worthy of note
that in Migne the 90 homilies on Matthew are not given in the text of
de Montfaucon, but according to the later edition of Field (see below).
Modern scholars agree that the best text is that given by Savile, and that
to the Paris edition de Montfaucon probably did no more than lend the
authority of his name, at least so far as text-criticism goes ; much certainly
remains to be done. Cf. P. de Lagarde, Ankiindigung einer neuen aus-
gabe der griech. iibersezung des alten testaments, Gottingen, 1882, p. 50.
A systematic collection of all the Chrysostom-manuscripts was inaugurated
by y. Paulson, in his Symbolae ad Chrysostomum Patrem i — ii, Lund, 1889
to 1890, and Notice sur un manuscrit de St. Jean Chrysostome utilise par
Erasme et conserve a la bibliotheque royale de Stockholm, Lund, 1890. -
Since the Montfaucon edition some works of Chrysostom have undergone
a new critical text-revision. J. A. Bengel (f 1752) did much for the text
of the De sacerdotio; his edition (Stuttgart, 1725, Greek and Latin) was
widely diffused through the stereotyped edition of Tauchnitz (Leipzig, 1825
1865 1872 1887, Greek only). The Bengel edition is also the basis of
the separate editions (Greek only) of De sacerd. of E. Leo, Leipzig, 1834,
and C. Seltmann, Minister and Paderborn, 1887 (Greek only). D. Euelpides
undertook a new recension of the text; so far as I know, only the « first
part» of his edition, an introduction and the first book, have appeared,
Athens, 1867. A. Cognet , De Chrysostomi dialogo qui inscribitur rspi
tepoxjovTjc Xoyoi it, Paris, 1900 (These). J. A. Nairn's edition of the De
sacerdotio of St. John Chrysostom (in Cambridge Patristic Texts) appeared
in 1906. Chr. Fr. Matthaei paid special attention to the reclassification
of some homily-texts, first edited by de Montfaucon; there is a catalogue
of his contributions in Fabricius- Harles , Bibl. Gr., viii. 575. A thorough
examination of the text of the 90 homilies on Matthew and all the
homilies on the Pauline Epistles was undertaken by Fr. Field; the text of
the 90 homilies was published at Cambridge, 1839, 3 v°ls. (Greek only),
and that of the Pauline homilies at Oxford, 1849 — 1855, 5 vols. (Greek
only). The Field edition passed quite unnoticed in Germany. Single
homilies have also been edited with more or less text-revision; thus the
(dubious or spurious) Horn, de beato Abraham (Migne, PG., 1. 737 — 746)
by L. de Sinner, Paris, 1835; tne Horn, in Flavian! episc. reditum
(— Horn. 21 de statuis: ib., xlix. 211—222) by L. de Sinner, Paris, 1842,
and by E. Ragon , Paris, 1887 1893; the Horn, in Eutropium (Ib., lii.
391 — 396) by Fr. Diibner and E. Lefranc, Paris, 1855, and by E. Sommer,
Paris, 1889 1890 1893, by E. R. Maloney, Boston, 1900; the Horn. 20
in i Cor. (Ib., Ixi. 159 — 170) by A. R, Alvin, Linkoping, 1885; L'Eloge
des saints martyrs et homelie apres le tremblement de terre, by E. Ragon,
Paris, 1903. Fr. W. Lomler published at Rudolstadt (1840) a small se
lection of the works of the Saint: loannis Chrysostomi opera praestantis-
sima (Greek and Latin, 4°, and 8° Greek only). The collection of Fr.
Diibner, S. loannis Chrysostomi opera selecta graece et latine vol. i (the
only one published), Paris, 1861, contains more and is based on a better
study of the manuscripts. Brief but remarkable additions to the text-
criticism of some works, especially homilies, were made by S. Haidacher,
in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol. (1894), xviii. 405 — 411 762 — 764; (1895) xix.
162 — 165 387—389; (1897) xxi. 398—400; (1901) xxv. 365—367; (1902)
xxvi. 190 — 194 380 — 385 and lately in Studien liber Chrysostomus-Eklogen,
Vienna, 1902, in Sitzungsberichte (1902), cxliv. J. Cozza-Luzi has edited
the Horn, de vita functis, with an introduction and a Latin translation, in
the Nova Patrum Bibliotheca, part I, Rome, 1905, x. 167 — 194. The
homily on the words «Hic est filius meus dilectus» (Migne, PG., Ixiv. 33
344 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
to 38) belongs to Gregory, a priest of Antioch (Ib., Ixxxviii. 1871 f.). -
A. Hilgenfdd, Des Chrysostomos Lobrede auf Polykarp, in Zeitschr. fur
wissensch. Theologie (1902), xlv. 569— 572; J. Bidez , Description d'un
manuscrit hagiographique grec palimpseste avec des fragments d'un pan-
e'gyrique de S. Polycarp attribue a Saint Jean Chrysostome, in Bulletin de
la Classe des Letters etc. of the Royal Academy of Brussels, 1900, pp. 577
to 624 (Ib., Ixiv. 505—656).
The latest editions of the so-called Liturgy of Chrysostom are those
by H. A. Daniel, Codex liturgicus ecclesiae orient. (Cod. lit. eccl. univ. iv),
Leipzig, 1853, pp. 327 — 420; C. A. Swainson, The Greek Liturgies, chiefly
from original 'authorities , Cambridge, 1884, pp. 88—94 99—148; F. E.
Brightman , Liturgies Eastern and Western, Oxford, 1896, i. J. Cozza-
Liizi has published the Antiochene Liturgy from a Vatican Ms., in the
Nova Patrum Bibliotheca, part II, x. 30—116. On this liturgy the reader
may consult F. Probst, Liturgie des 4. Jahrhunderts und deren Reform,
Mimster, 1893, pp. 412-455. The liturgy published by Dillmann under
the title Oratio eucharistica S. loannis Chrys. in his Chrestomathia
aethiopica, Leipzig, 1866, pp. 51—56, differs notably from the Chrysostom-
Liturgy. A German version of Dillmann's text was made by A. Schulte,
in Der Katholik (1888), i. 417—425. In his edition of the Didache,
from the same manuscript of the year 1056, Constantinople, 1883, Proleg.,
pp. 109 — 147, Ph. Bryennios contributed some new readings to the text
of the Synopsis Vet. et Nov. Test. (Migne, PG. , Ivi. 3J3— 386)> as also
an unedited fragment of the work (The synopsis of the last five minor
prophets). See § 63, n for the views of Zahn and Klostermann apropos
of the Pseud o-Athanasian Synopsis, and C. P. Caspari, Ungedruckte, un-
beachtete und wenig beachtete Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols
und der Glaubensregel , Christiania, 1869, ii. 225 — 24.4: Zwei Chryso-
stomus beigelegte Homilien liber das Symbol (Latin homilies of the end of
the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century, already edited, but not
published in the Montfaucon edition). - - The reader will have already
noticed that many writings of Chrysostom were discovered after the edition
of Montfaucon, while others previously published were not reprinted by
him. The Catena on Jeremias published by M. Ghisler in his commentary
on that prophet (Lyons, 1623, 3 vols.) contains many scholia under the
name of Chrysostom (Migne,¥G., Ixiv. 739—1038). In the Catena on Job
edited by P. Junius (Patrick Young), London, 1637, there is often question
of Chrysostom (Ib. , Ixiv. 505 — 656), A. M. Bandini (Graecae Ecclesiae
vet. rnonumenta, Florence, 1762—1763, ii. 182 — 184) published a small
Specimen expositionis S. loannis Chrys. in lobum (Ib. , Ixiv. 503 — 5°6)-
A. Mai (Nova Patr. Bibl. iv 2, 153 — 201) published from a Proverb-Catena
several scholia under the name of Chrysostom (Ib. Ixiv. 659 — 740). Simi
larly, y. A. Cramer edited (Oxford, 1840) several Chrysostom-scholia from
a Catena on the Catholic Epistles (Ib., Ixiv. 1039 — 1062). The conclusion
of the eighteenth homily on Genesis, wanting in earlier editions, was
published by J. A, Mingarelli (Graeci codices mss. apud Nanios patricios
asservati, Bologne, 1784, pp. 53 — 54; Migne, PG., Ixiv. 499 — 502). Ban-
dim published (1. c., ii. i — 23) a non-exegetical discourse of doubtful au
thenticity: Horn, in poenitentiam Ninivitarum (Ib., Ixiv. 423 — 434). Gallandi
printed, in Bibl. vet. Patr. xiv, App. 136 — 140, a Horn, de eleemosyna
et in divitern ac Lazarum (Ib. , Ixiv. 433 — 444) , declared spurious by
S. Haidacher , in Zeitschr. f. kathol. Theol. (1901), xxv. 366. Chr. Fr.
Matthaei, Gregorii Thessalon. x orationes, Moscow, 1776, pp. 126 — 135,
made known a Horn, in decem millia talenta et centum denarios et de
oblivione iniuriarum (Ib., Ixiv. 443 — 452). From a Dresden codex of the
§ 74- ST- J°HN CHRYSOSTOM. 345
ninth century M. Guil. Theod. Maur Becker edited loannis Chrys. ho-
miliae v, Leipzig, 1839, miscellaneous in contents and of doubtful genuine
ness (Ib. , Ixiv. 451 — 492). Haidacher has shown (l.-c. , 367) that one
of them, the seventh among the spurious homilies on the words «omne
peccatum» etc. (Ib., Ixiv. 465 — 473), is a homily of Gregory ofNyssa (Ib.,
xlvi. 490 — 498). In the Spicil. Rom. iv, pp. Ixviii — Ixxvi, Mai made known
a Horn, de s. Pentecoste (Ib., Ixiv. 417 — 424). A Coptic homily of
Chrysostom is printed in Rossi, i. papiri Copti del Museo Egizio di Torino,
Turin, 1888, ii. i.
14. VERSIONS. — Among the ancient versions of the works of Chryso
stom the Syriac, Latin and Armenian are most helpful for the textual
criticism of his writings. De Lagarde has described (Ankiindigung etc.,
p. 51) the unedited Syriac versions in the sixth-, seventh- and eighth- cen
tury codices of the British Museum. So far as I know only one Syriac
version has been printed, that of the spurious or at least very doubtful Horn,
de eleemosyna (Migne, PG., Ix. 707 — 712) under the title Sermo S. loannis
de divitiis et paupertate, in Monumenta syriaca. Praefatus est P. Zingerle,
Innsbruck, 1869, i. 117 — 123. -- A certain Anianus (Annianus), probably
the deacon of that name from Celeda who wrote (ca. 418) a polemical
pro-Pelagian work against Jerome (Hier. , Ep. 143, 2), translated several
works of Chrysostom into Latin. On Anianus see Schoenemann, Bibl. hist.-
litt. Patrum lat., ii. 473 — 480. Montfaucon's edition contains the version
by Anianus of the first eight homilies on Matthew (Migne, PG., Iviii. 975
to 1058) and of the seven panegyrics on Saint Paul (Ib. , 1. 471 — 514).
The earlier editions of Chrysostom contain a Latin version of 25 homilies;
cf. G. Mercati, Note di letteratura bibl. e crist. antica (Sttidi e Testi, v),
1901 , pp. 140 — 144. W. Schmitz is of opinion that Anianus made the
translation or paraphrase of the two books on penance attributed to Chryso
stom: Monumenta tachygraphica codicis Parisiensis lat. 2718, transcripsit,
adnotavit, edidit Guil. Schmitz, Hannover, 1882 — 1883, fasc. 2, S. Johannis
Chrys. De cordis compunctione libros ii latine versos continens. The 34
homilies on Hebrews were translated into Latin at the suggestion of Cassio-
dorus (Instit. i. 8) by a certain Mutianus ; they are included in the Montfaucon
edition (Migne, PG., Ixiii. 237 — 456); cf. Looshorn, Die lateinischen Uber-
setzungen des hi. Joh. Chrysostomus im Mittelalalter , nach den Hand-
schriften der Mtinchener Hof- und Staatsbibliothek , in Zeitschr. f. kath.
Theol. (1880), iv. 788 — 793. — Many Armenian versions have been edited
by the Mechitarists of San Lazzaro near Venice. They published in 1818
two quarto volumes with «Orations» of Chrysostom, in 1826 three octavo
volumes followed containing the Matthew- (and some other) homilies.
The Encomium S. Gregorii Armenorum Illuminatoris (Migne, PG. , Ixiii.
943 — 954), non extant in Greek and of doubtful authenticity, was published
in Armenian (1853), in Armenian and Latin (1878). In 1861 there ap
peared another volume of « Orations », and in 1862 two volumes entitled
»Exposition of the Epistles of Paul» (cf. de Lagarde, 1. c., pp. 52 — 54 for
the contents of these three volumes). Finally in 1887 they printed an
octavo edition of the Exposition of Isaias in a defective Latin version
made from the Armenian. The Mechitarists published also (Venice, 1839)
an Armenian commentary on the Acts of the Apostles compiled from the
works of Chrysostom and St. Ephrem and (Vienna, 1849, Armenian and
Greek) a « collection of ancient versions from the original Greek» that
begins with some Matthew-homilies of Chrysostom. -- Among the most
recent German versions are the following: Chrysostomus-Postille. Eine
Auswahl des Schonsten aus den Predigten des hi. Chrysostomus. Fiir
Prediger und zur Privaterbauung. Ausgewahlt und aus dem Grundtexte
346 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
iibersetzt von C. J. Hefele, Tubingen, 1845 l85° l857- Fr. Knors, Ho-
milien liber die sonntaglichen Episteln des kath. Kirchenjahrs, nach Chryso-
stomus, Schaff hausen , 1854; Id., Des hi. Joh. Chrysostomus Homilien
liber das Evangelium des hi. Matthaus. Aus dem Griechischen Iibersetzt,
Regensburg, 1857, 2 vols. ; Id., Die Homilien des hi. Joh. Chrysostomus
liber das Evangelium des hi. Johannes, Paderborn, 1862. J. Fluck began
a version of the ascetical works of our Saint, Freiburg, 1864, i. Ten
volumes of the Bibliothek der Kirchenvater (1869 — 1884) are devoted to
the versions of selected works of Chrysostom : the six books on the priest
hood, the work on virginity, the (first) letter to Theodore, and the nine
homilies on penance were translated by J. Chr. Mitterrutzner and J. Rupp
(vol. i)-, the 21 homilies on the statues by Mitterrutzner (vol. ii) ; selected
discourses with the letters to Pope Innocent and to Olympias by M. Schmitz
(vol. in); all the homilies on the Pauline Epistles by J. Wimmer, Mitter
rutzner, A. Hartl, J. Schwertschlager , N. Liebert, B. Sepp (vol. iv — x). -
An English version of many writings of Chrysostom is published in the
select Library 01 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church
(series I), edited by Ph. Schaff (vol. ix— xiv), New York, 1888 — 1890. —
A French version of all writings of the Saint was brought out under the
direction of M. Jeannin, Bar-le-Duc, 1861 — 1867, and reprinted, Arras,
1887 — 1888, in eleven volumes.
15. WORKS ON CHRYSOSTOM. -- J. Stilting, De S. loanne Chrys. com-
mentarius historicus, in Acta SS. Sept., Antwerp, 1753, iv. 401 — 709.
Fabricius-Harles, Bibl. Gr., viii. 454 — 583 : De S. loanne Chrys. J. de Rubeis,
De peccato original! tractatus theologicus, c. xxv. Vindiciae loannis Chryso-
stomi (reprinted, Wlirzburg, 1857). J. Habert, Theologiae Graecorum Patrum
circa materiam gratiae libri tres, c. xxiv: De mente S. Chrysostomi etc.
(reprinted, Wiirzburg, 1863). A. Neander, Der hi. Joh. Chrysostomus und
die Kirche, besonders des Orients, in dessen Zeitalter, Berlin, 1821 — 1822,
2 vols., 2. ed. 1832, 3. ed. 1848 1858. Villemain, L'eloquence chretienne,
Paris. Fr. Bohringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen oder die Kirchen-
geschichte in Biographien, part IV, Zurich, 1846, i. i — 160: Chrysostomus;
161 — 169: Olympias. Fr. and P. Bohringer, Johannes Chrysostomus und
Olympias, 2. ed., Stuttgart, 1876. E. Martin, S. Jean Chrysostome, ses
oeuvres et son siecle, Montpellier, 1860, 3 vols. Rochet, Histoire de S. Jean
Chrysostome, patriarche de Constantinople, Paris, 1866, 2 vols. A. Thierry,
S. Jean Chrysostome et 1'imperatrice Eudoxie, Paris, 1874. Fr. X. Funk,
Joh. Chrysostomus und der Hof von Konstantinopel, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1875), ivii- 449 — 480, and in Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen und
Untersuchungen (1899), ii. 23 — 44. F. Ludwig, Der hi. Joh. Chrysostomus
in seinem Verhaltnis zum byzantinischen Hof, Brunsberg, 1883. A. Puech,
St. Jean Chrysostome, Paris, 1900 (Les Saints). P. Ubaldi, La Sinode ad
Quercum dell' anno 403, in Memorie della R. Accademia delle scienze di
Torino, ser. II (1902), lii. 33 — 97. A. Caldana, S. Giovanni Crisostomo.
Studio storico letterario, Vicenza, 1899. J. Lutz , Chrysostomus und die
iibrigen beriihmtesten Redner alter und neuer Zeit, Tubingen, 1846, 2. ed.,
1859. P. Albert, St. Jean Chrysostome considere comme orateur populaire,
Paris, 1858. L. da Volturino, Studii oratorii sopra S. Giovanni Crisostomo
rispetto al modo di predicare dignitosamente e fruttuosamente, Quaracchi,
1884. Matthes, Der Unterschied in der Predigtweise des Chrysostomus und
Augustinus, in Pastoralblatter f. Homiletik, Katechetik und Seelsorge (1888),
xxx. 40 — 71. L. Ackermann, Die Beredsamkeit des hi. Joh. Chrysostomus,
Wlirzburg, 1889. Th. Forster , Chrysostomus in seinem Verhaltnis zur
antiochenischen Schule, ein Beitrag zur Dogmengeschichte, Gotha, 1869.
F. H. Chase, Chrysostom: a Study in the History of Biblical Interpreta-
§ 74- ST- JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 347
tion, London, 1887. S. Haidacher , Die Lehre des hi. Joh. Chrysostomus
iiber die Schriftinspiration, Salzburg, 1897. S. K. Gifford, Pauli epistolas
qua forma legerit Joh. Chrysostomus, Halle, 1902. P. Batiffol , Quelques
homilies de St. Jean Chrysostome et la version gothique des ecritures, in
Revue biblique (1899), viii. 566 — 572. A. Ndgele , Die Eucharistielehre
des hi. Joh. Chrysostomus, Freiburg i. Br., 1900 (Strassburger theol. Studien,
iii. 4 — 5). F. Renz } Die Geschichte des Messopferbegriffs, i. 391 — 415:
Joannes Chrysostomus, Freising-Miinchen , 1901. E. Michaud , St. Jean
Chrysostome et 1'Eucharistie, in Revue internat. de Theol. (1903), pp. 93 to
in. y. Chapman, St. Chrysostomus on St. Peter, in Dublin Review (1903),
pp. 73 — 99. V. Schmitt, Die Verheissung der Eucharistie (St. John, c. vi)
bei den Antiochenern Cyrillus von Jerusalem und Joh. Chrysostomus, Wiirz-
burg, 1903. In Religionsgeschichtl. Untersuchungen, Bonn, 1889, i. 215 to
240, H. Usener touches on the date of some of the homilies of Chryso-
stom. In Jahrbiicher der christl. Kirche unter dem Kaiser Theodosius d. Gr.,
Freiburg i. Br., 1897, pp. 565 — 574, G. Rauschen describes the literary
labors of Chrysostom in the period that preceded his appearance as
public preacher at Antioch. E. Michaud, L'Ecclesiologie de St. Jean Chryso
stome, in Revue Internat. de Theologie (1903), pp. 491 — 530. Dom Baur,
S. Chrysostome et ses ceuvres dans 1'histoire litteraire, Louvain, 1907.
G. Bareille, S. Jean Chrysostome. A series of articles in the Revue Tho-
miste. The first article appeared in 1907 (pp. 561 — 583). - - The letters
of Chrysostom have been studied by P. Ubaldi , in Bessarione: Di una
lettera (n. 125, ad Ciriacum) di S. Gio. Crisostomo (v. 1900 — 1901; viii.
244—264; it is not the work of Chrysostom); La lettera 233 al vescovo
di Antiochia (ib., ser. ii. i, 1901 — 1902, 69—79; it is not the work of
Chrysostom) ; Gli epiteti esornativi nelle lettere di S. Gio. Crisostomo (ib.,
304—332).
1 6. NECTARIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. MARCUS DIACONUS. — NectariuS
(see no. 3) left a Sermo de festo S. Theodori et de ieiunio et eleemosyna
(Migne, PG., xxxix. 1821 — 1840). -- The Vita S. Porphyrii (see no. 4),
written about 420 by Marcus Diaconus and historically useful in several
ways, was formerly known to us only through a very defective Latin ver
sion of Gentianus Hervetus (t 1584), in Gallandi , Bibl. vet. Patr. ix;
Migne, PG., Ixv ; the Greek original was edited by M. Haupt, in Abhand-
lungen der k. preuss. Akad. der Wissensch. zu Berlin (1874), pp. 171 — 215,
and separately in 1875. A new edition was brought out by the Sodales
societatis philologae Bonnensis, Leipzig, 1875. See A. Nuth, De Marci Dia-
coni Vita Porphyrii episc. Gazensis (Dissert, inaug.), Bonn, 1897. From
395 — 416 Porphyry had been the bishop of Gaza, once the capital of the
Philistines, and after a long and vigorous conflict had dealt a deathblow
to the ancient and stubborn heathenism of that city. The deacon Marcus
was his inseparable companion and has left us a vivid and reliable narra
tive of this conflict with dying paganism. No trace has yet been found
of the work quoted in c. 88, in which Marcus had collected the pro
ceedings between Porphyry and the female Manichasan, Julia.
17. ACACIUS OF BEROZA. SEVERIANUS OF GABALA. ANTIOCHUS OF
PTOLEMAIS. - - These three and Theophilus of Alexandria were the four
bishops whom Chrysostom refused to accept as his judges (see no. 4). It
is probable that Acacius had been deceived by the intrigues of the patri
arch's enemies. He was for some fifty years bishop of Beroea (or Aleppo)
in Syria and died in 432 at the age of no (100?) years. We have from
his pen three letters and a profession of faith (Migne, PG. , Ixxvii. 1445
to 1448). Cf. G. Bickell, Ausgewahlte Gedichte der syrischen Kirchen-
vater Cyrillonas, Balaus, Isaak von Antiochien und Jakob von Sarug,
348 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
Kempten, 1872 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater) , pp. 83—89. - - Severianus,
bishop of Gabala near Laodicea in Syria (f post 408), had already abused
the confidence of Chrysostom in a very shameful way ; cf. F. Ludwig,
Der hi. Joh. Chrysostomus in seinem Verhaltnis zum byzantinischen Hof,
Brunsberg, 1883, pp. 51 — 54. He was well-known as a preacher; Gen-
nadius (De viris ill., c. 21) calls him in horniliis declamator ad-
mirabilis. He has left homilies and biblical commentaries (Gennadius,
1. c.; Theodoret, Dial., i ii iii ; Migne, PG., Ixxxiii. 80 210 308)-, Cosmas
Indicopl. , Topogr. christ. vii x (Migne, PG., Ixxxviii. 373 417 if.). Some
of the former are extant, but in the manuscripts are usually attributed
to Chrysostom, while external testimonies and internal evidences point
to Severianus as their true author. Of the following discourses some are
now looked on with certainty, and some with probability, as fragments of
his writings: Orationes sex in mundi creationem (Migne, Ivi. 429 — 500),
Oratio de serpente quern Moyses in cruce suspendit (Ib., Ivi. 499 — 516),
In illud Abrahae dictum Gen. xxiv. 2 (Ib., Ivi. 553 — 564), De ficu arefacta
(Ib., lix. 585 — 590), Contra ludaeos (Ib., Ixi. 793 — 802; cf. Ixv. 29!".), De
sigillis librorum (Ib., Ixiii. 531 — 544), In Dei apparitionem (Ib., Ixv. 15 — 26),
De pace (Ib., lii. 425 — 428). The latter homily is found in Migne in Latin
only and in a fragmentary shape ; the original and complete Greek text
was edited by A, Papadopulos-Kerameus, 'AvaXsxta tsposoAofMtixYJs crca/uoAoYia?,
St. Petersburg, 1891, i. 15 — 26. The Latin homily De pythonibus et
maleficiis (Migne, PG., Ixv. 27—28) is not by Severianus but by St. Peter
Chrysologus (cf. Fr. Liver ani , Spicilegium Liberianum, Florence, 1863, i.
192 — 193). An ancient Armenian version of 15 homilies under the name
of Severianus was published by Aucher : Severiani sive Seberiani Gabalo-
rum episc. Emesensis homiliae mine primum editae, ex antiqua versione
armena in latinum sermonem translatae per J. B. Aucher, Venice, 1827.
The reader will find there the homilies already mentioned : In illud Abrahae
dictum Gen. xxiv. 2, and De ficu arefacta (Horn. 7, 250 — 293, and Horn.
13, 414 — 427). The tenth homily in this collection (370 — 401), on baptism,
is the Horn. 13 of St. Basil M., in Migne, PG., xxxi. 423 — 444; cf. § 67, 14.
There is in Pitra, Analecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888, part I, 71 f., a
little fragment without a title attributed to Severianus ; Pitra holds it to be
a fragment of his homily Contra haereticos quoted in Sacra Parallela
(Migne, PG., xcvi. 533). — Antiochus, bishop of Ptolemais (Acco) in Phoeni
cia, seems to have passed away shortly after the death of St. Chryso
stom. His writings have perished (Gennad., De viris ill., c. 20). Quota
tions from him are found in Theodoret of Cyrus and Leontius of Byzan
tium (Migne, PG., Ixxxiii. 205; Ixxxvi i, 1316; Ixxxvi 2, 2044).
1 8. PALLADIUS. ATTICUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. CONSTANTIUS OF AN-
TIOCH. - - The oft-quoted name of Palladius is found among those of the
bishops who refused to communicate with the intruders Arsacius and At-
ticus, and were compelled to fly from their sees (see no. 5). He is perhaps
identical with the Palladius who wrote the Historia Lausiaca (§ 79, 4).
His Dialogus de vita S. loannis Chrysostomi (Migne, PG., xlvii. 5 — 82),
the result of a conversation (about 408) with the Roman deacon Theodore,
is looked on as one of the principal sources for the last period of the life
of Chrysostom, particularly after his elevation to the patriarchate. The
editions of this work and its relative « literature* may be seen in Fessler-
Jungmann, Institt. Patrol, ii i, 54 209. — Atticus (see no. 5) died October 10.,
425, and is honored as a saint by the Greeks on Jan. 8. Under his name
there appear in Migne, PG., Ixv. 637—652, a notitia (from the Acta SS.),
a Letter and references to three other Letters; cf. v. Hefele, in Wetzer
and Welte's Kirchenlexikon, 2. ed., i. 1564—1566. Also C. Verschaffel, in
§ 75- THE SO-CALLED APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS. 349
Vacant-Mangenot's Dictionnaire de la The"ol. Catholique, Paris, 1903, i.
2220—2221. — Among the 242 letters in the correspondence of Chrysostom
(Migne , PG.; Hi; see no. 9) the numbers 237 — 241, and probably 233,
are from his friend Constantius, a priest of Antioch.
§ 75. The so-called Apostolic Constitutions.
I. COMPOSITION. CONTENTS. SOURCES. - - « Constitutions of the
Holy Apostles» (dia.-a.fai or dtard£etQ rwv ay'icoy diroffTdA&v) is the
name given to a compilation of ecclesiastical law that may be divided
into three parts. The first part includes the first six books and is
only an enlarged recension of the Didascalia Apostolorum (§ 46).
In the details of his work the unknown editor was guided by the
nature of the materials that lay before him. While he found no reason
to modify seriously the moral prescriptions of the Didascalia, the
important changes in ecclesiastical conditions suggested a thorough
modification in all that appertained to the constitution, worship, and
other interests of the Church. The fiction of apostolic authorship
was retained, but it was added that Clement of Rome had sent the
work in the name of all the apostles to the bishops and the other
priests (vi. 18; cf. the so-called Clementina § 26, 3). The second
part of the work is taken up by the seventh book which in its first
half(cc.i — 32) is only a paraphrase and enlargement of the Didache
(§ 6); in the second half (cc. 33 — 49) are found various prayer- for
mulae (cc. 33 — 38 47 — 49), rules for the instruction of catechumens
and the administration of baptism (cc. 39 — 45), and a list of the
bishops consecrated by the apostles (c. 46). Even in this second
half, ancient material has been more or less worked over and adapted.
The third and last part of the work, the eighth book, is also its
most valuable portion ; it is divided into three sections : on the charis
mata (cc. i 2), the ecclesiastical orders (cc. 3 — 26), and the canons
(cc. 27 — 47). The short section on the scope and salutary nature
of the charismata is probably taken from the xspi yju.ptap.uxtM of
Hippolytus (§ 54, 3), a work known to us, however, only by its
title. The second section regulates the ordination-services for the
various ecclesiastical grades of the clergy, the bishop (cc. 4 5), the
priest (c. 16), the deacon (cc. 17 18), the deaconess (cc. 19 20),
the sub-deacon (c. 21), the lector (c. 22). As the newly made bishop
was obliged to offer up the holy sacrifice immediately after his con
secration , the rubrics of the consecration rite are followed by a
complete explanation of the liturgy of the Mass (cc. 6 — 15); finally
other ecclesiastical grades are conferred without imposition of hands :
they are the confessors (c. 23), the virgins (c. 24), the widows (c. 25),
the exorcists (c. 26). In this second section the compiler probably
followed the ecclesiastical writings before him less closely than the
custom of his own time* and province. In the third section which
350 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
treats of the ecclesiastical canons, instructions and prayers for divine
service, rules for the various ecclesiastical grades, criteria for the
examination of proselytes, and regulations for ecclesiastical solemnities
are rather promiscuously collected. The collection closes with 85
« ecclesiastical canons of the holy apostles» (c. 47) that correspond,
in form, to the ordinary canons of the ancient councils; their con
tents also reflect the life of the clergy, the manner of its selection
and ordination, its morality and official duties. Of these canons 20
are taken from the decrees of the Synod of Antioch, in 341. The
last canon enumerates the books of the Old and the New Testament,
with the exception of the Apocalypse, but includes among the Catholic
Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles «two letters of Clement and
the Constitutions (al dtara^ai) proposed (-npoar^ywvrjiJLivai) to you
bishops by me, Clement, but which, because of the secret things they
contain (TO. iv a'jraic, {j.oa~txd) ought not to be made known to all.»
2. UNITY OF ORIGIN, TIME AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION. - The
monograph of Funk (1891) has cast much light not only on the
sources but also on the origin of the Apostolic Constitutions. One
of his most important discoveries is that from beginning to end the
whole work is the product of one hand, and not a compilation from
various writings of uncertain and different dates. Apart from the
manuscript tradition, the identity of authorship is vouched for by the
close connexion of the different parts, the literary relationship of all
the books, and various clear indications of identity of time and place
of composition. The eighth book, it is true, offers a peculiarity of
structure (after the fourth chapter the apostles speak in their own
names), but this results from the special nature of the subject-matter
that easily falls into separate sentences. The eighth book does contra
dict in detail certain regulations of the preceding books, but we
must remember that from compilations of this kind one cannot demand
the perfect unity proper to an independent work. Until lately, the date
of compilation, of the first six books at least, was placed about the
middle of the fourth century; it was taken for granted that Epiphanius,
writing about 375, had known and used at least this portion of the
Apostolic Constitutions. But Funk has shown that the expressions of
Epiphanius in question J refer to the Didascalia Apostolorurn and not
to the Constitutions of the Apostles. It is clear from internal evidence
that the latter were compiled in Syria at the end of the fourth or at the
beginning of the fifth century. The chief positive indications of their
date are the celebration of Christmas on December 25. (v. 13; viii. 33)
and the equalization of the Sabbath with the Sunday as an ecclesiastical
holiday (v. 20; vii. 23; viii. 33 47, can. 66). On the other hand, the
fact that no knowledge of the Nestorian controversy is shown, hinders
1 Haer. 45; 4; 70, 10 n 12; 75, 6; 80, 7.
§ 75- THE SO-CALLED APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS. 35 I
us from assigning the work to a period later than the commencement
of the fifth century. That Syria was the home of the compiler appears
partly from the Syrian calculation of the months, but still more from
the liturgy of the Mass (viii. 6 — 15), which very much resembles,
both in fundamental structure and also in the language of the prayers,
the liturgy of Antioch about the year 400, such as it appears e. g.
in the works of Chrysostom. Important external testimony confirms
the conclusions based on internal evidence : thus, the interpolator
of the letters of Saint Ignatius of Antioch not only quotes1 the
Apostolic Constitutions but makes an extensive use of them. Still more :
a surprising parallelism both of thought and of diction which occurs,
makes it highly probable that this Apollinarist interpolator of Saint
Ignatius is also the compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions (§ 9, i).
At the same time he does not seem to have had in view any special
purpose; he was content with combining and amplifying ancient
ecclesiastical writings.
3. ITS LITERARY HISTORY. - The assertion of the compiler was
believed; for over a thousand years his work was accepted as the
work of the apostles or of Clement writing in their name. The so-
called Quinisext Council of the year 692 declared (can. 2) that «the
holy synod decrees that the 85 Canons handed down under the
name of the holy and venerable apostles . . . shall also in the future
remain immutable. In these canons, indeed, it is stated that we must
accept their constitutions as drawn up by Clement (TUQ dia KAyuevToq
dtard^eiq). But because heterodox hands, to the detriment of the
Church, have long ago added things spurious and foreign to (Catholic)
piety..., we have thought it opportune to reject the afore-said Con
stitutions ». In this way a binding force in the canons was acknowledged
while the apostolic origin of the Constitutions was, in a general way,
asserted. The influence of the latter, however, was always very
slight and almost imperceptible in the Greek Church. Nevertheless,
versions and epitomes of them were to be found throughout the
Christian East, while in the West, with exception of a part of the
canons, they remained utterly unknown throughout the Middle Ages.
4. EDITIONS. VERSIONS. RESEARCHES. — The first edition of the Apo
stolic Constitutions, and in its way an excellent one, was brought out by
Fr. Turrianus, Venice, 1563; he also published a Latin version of the work
at Antwerp, 1578. Both Ph. Labbe (Paris, 1662) and J. D. Mansi (Florence,
1759) reprinted the Turrianus edition, each in the first volume of his col
lection of the councils. Similarly, J. B. Cotelier, in the first volume of
his edition of the Patres Apostolici (Paris, 1672), has reprinted the Tur
rianus edition, but added a new Latin version and- illustrated the text with
a copious commentary in which he made known some variant readings
from hitherto unused manuscripts. Other new readings were added by
y. Clcricus in the second of his reprints of the work of Cotelier, Amsterdam,
1 Trail., vii. 3.
352
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
1724. It is from the latter two works that the text printed in Gallandi,
Bibliotheca vet. Patrum, Venice, 1767, iii, and Migne, PG., i, Paris, 1857
has been taken (Migne has not the canons of the Apostles). With the
aid of the above-mentioned variant readings a new edition was undertaken
by W. Ueltzen, Constitutiones Apostolicae, Schwerin and Rostock, 1853.
We owe to Bunsen a recension of the Canons of the Apostles, in Analecta
Ante-Nicsena. Collegit, recensuit, illustravit Chr. C. ./• Bunsen, London,
1854, ii. i — 32. In the same work P. Botticher (de Lagarde) edited the
eight books of the Apostolic Constitutions, pp. 33—224 339—448 (cf. § 46).
Eight years later de Lagarde brought out again the Apostolic Constitutions
(without the Canons), in what may be called the first critical edition : Con
stitutiones Apostolorum. P. A. de Lagarde edidit, Leipzig and London,
1862. Cardinal Pitra published the Apostolic Constitutions in his luris
ecclesiastic! Graecorum Historia et Monumenta, Rome, 1864, i. 110—422,
i — 44 ; but his text-recension is in no way remarkable. The Apostolic
Canons (Constit. Apost. viii. 47) were printed so far back as 1531 by
Gr. Haloander , and afterwards incorporated in most editions of the
Corpus iuris civilis and the Corpus iuris canonici, also in the greater
collections of the councils. They may be found too in de Lagarde, Re
liquiae iuris eccles. antiquissimae graece, Leipzig, 1856, pp. 20—35,
and in Hefele , Konziliengeschichte (2. ed.), Freiburg i. Br., 1873, i. 793
to 827. - - The first part of the seventh book of the Apostolic Constitu
tions (cc. i — -32) was also reproduced in various editions of the Didache
(§ 6, 4) by Ph. Bryennios, Constantinople, 1883; by A. Harnack, Leipzig,
1884 1893; by Ph. Schaff, New. York, 1885 1886 1889; by Fr. X. Funk,
Tubingen, 1887, and by J. R. Harris, Baltimore and London, 1887. -
A German version from the Cotelier edition of the Constitutions (with the
Canons) was published by F. Boxler , Kempten, 1874 (Bibliothek der
Kirchenvater). — J. S. v. Drey , Neue Untersuchungen liber die Konstitu-
tionen and Kanones der Apostel, Tubingen, 1832; Fr. X. Funk, Die Apo-
stolischen Konstitutionen, Rottenburg, 1891; Id., Das achte Buch der apo-
stolischen Konstitutionen und die verwandten Schriften, Tubingen, 1883,
also in Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (1899), ii.
359 — 372. A. Baumstark, Die nichtgriechischen Paralleltexte zum achten
Buch der apostolischen Konstitutionen, in Oriens Christianus (1891), i. 98
to 137. Funk, Zum achten Buch der apostolischen Konstitut. und den
verwandten Schriften, in Theol. Quartalschrift (1902), Ixxxiv. 223 — 236;
Id., Ein Fragment zu den Apostolischen Konstitutionen, in Theol. Quartal
schrift (1903), Ixxxv. 195 — 202. R. H. Cresswell, Liturgy of the Eighth
Book of the Apostolic Constitutions commonly called the Clementine
Liturgy, London, 1900. After his preliminary essays on the subject, Funk
published a critical edition, vol. i: Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum:
vol. ii: Testimonia et Scripturae propinquae, Paderborn, 1905, which bids
fair to remain the standard one. The Greek text of the Didascalia is
not extant. Funk gives a new Latin translation of the Syriac version of
the Didascalia and adds the lectiones variantes of the Oriental versions of
the Didascalia, as well as those of the Greek text of the Constitution.
5. DIDASCALIA ARABICA AND ^THIOPICA. -- There is extant, in
an Arabic and an Ethiopic version, a later recension of the first six
books of the Apostolic Constitutions, really an interpolated Didas
calia; in these versions the latter title is sometimes corrupted into
«Dascalia». The greater part of the Ethiopic version has been print
ed; of the Arabic only fragments have seen the light, partly in
§ 75- THE SO-CALLED APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS. 353
Arabic, partly in German. It seems certain that the Ethiopic text
comes from the Arabic, not immediately, but by means of a Coptic
version of the latter. Most of the manuscripts of the Arabic version
contain five chapters (35 — 39) that are found also in the « Testament
of Our Lord» (see no. 7), whence they were certainly borrowed. They
treat of the bishop, his election, ordination, consecration, and his
duties of prayer and fasting.
The Ethiopic Didascalia was edited and translated into English as far
as c. 22 (i. e. as far as Const. Apost. iv. 13) by Th. Pell Platt, The Ethiopic
Didascalia, London, 1834. The Ethiopic text is preceded (pp. xiii — xiv)
by the introduction to the Arabic text and the first chapter of the same
(without translation). With the help of Socin, a German version of the
introduction, the chapters immediately following, the table of contents, and
chapters 35 — 39 of the Arabic text, were published by Fr, X, Funk, Die
Apostolischen Konstitutionen, Rottenburg, 1891, pp. 207 — 242. Cf. A. Baum-
stark, in Rom. Quartalschr. (1900), xiv. 12 f.
6. THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS. THE
« CONSTITUTIONES PER HIPPOLYTUM». THE EGYPTIAN CHURCH-
ORDINANCE. - - What is known as the «Constitutiones per Hippo-
lytum» exists only in fragmentary shape; with the exception of a few
passages, it corresponds verbally with a considerable part of the
eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions. Each of its five frag
ments bears a special title : dtdaaxaXia rwv dficov d7toa~6X(ov xzp\
yapiaiw.rcov (Const. Ap. viii. I — -2), dtardzstQ TOJV adra>v d^lwi> (LKO-
GToAcov Tispl yetpoTovuov oca 'IxxokjTO'j (Const. Ap. viii. 4 — 5 J6 — 18
30 — 31), HarjXo'j TOU ayiou dnoffToXoo dtardfetQ Ttspl xavovcov ix-
wv (Const. Ap. viii. 32), Her poo xa\ IlaoXoo TCOV dfUov dxo-
rd^scQ (Const. Ap. viii. 33—34 42 — 45), x£p\ e'jTa^iaq
xdvrcov tow dflcuv dxooToAcov (Const. Ap. viii. 46). Hence, it
is only the title of the second fragment, «On ordinations», that contains
the words did V/r/rfl/'Jroy, thereby pretending to be the work of Hippo-
lytus of Rome, for there can be no question of another Hippolytus.
The whole work, however, is clearly nothing more than an epitome
of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions, and is done, too,
so carelessly that the writer has preserved the four references in the
eighth book to preceding books of the Constitutions. Achelis and
Harnack maintain that the writer made use, not of the eighth book of
the Apostolic Constitutions, but of an older and closely related work,
which they suppose to have been also the model and source of the
Constitutions ; but their thesis rests on no solid foundation, and Funk
has shown that it offers many difficulties and irreconcilable contra
dictions. « Egyptian Church-Ordinance » is the name given by Achelis
(1891) to the second part of an archaic Corpiis iuris canonici, that
opens with the Apostolic Church-Ordinance (§ 42). The latter includes
thirty canons, while the Egyptian Church-Ordinance contains more
(31 — 62). By reason of its reception into the afore-mentioned canonic-
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 23
354
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
al collection the Egyptian Church-Ordinance has reached us in
several Oriental versions or recensions: Coptic, Ethiopic, and Arabic.
The original Greek text is apparently lost. On the other hand, frag
ments of a Latin version, more faithful and trustworthy than the
Oriental versions, have lately been discovered. The original title
was probably: Canones sanctorum apostolorum per Hippolytum.
The work treats of ordinations and ecclesiastical grades, proselytes
and catechumens, women, baptism, fasting, the Agape and the
Blessed Eucharist, oblations, church services, urials, band times of
prayer. The first third of these canons (31 — 42) corresponds sub
stantially with cc. 4 — 32 of the eighth book of the Apostolic Con
stitutions; and some even of the other canons are found in the same
eighth book. The canons differ, however, in some details from the
Apostolic Constitutions, but on such occasions they are found to
agree with the Constitutiones per Hippolytum. Throughout the work
there is evident a tendency to condensation that betrays the intention
of the writer to abbreviate, for which reason and others as well Funk
sees in the Constitutiones per Hippoiytum the basis of the Egyptian
Church-Ordinance: if the former are to be dated about 425, the latter
must be referred to about 450 Achelis and Harnack reverse this
order of dependency; according to them the shorter text (Egyptian
Church-Ordinance) is the older one and was compiled about the year
300, while the Constitutiones per Hippolytum belong, approximately,
to the year 390.
The « Constitutiones per Hippolytum » are printed in the editions of
Hippolytus by J. A. Fabridus, Hamburg, 1716—1718; A. Gallandi, Venice,
1766 (Bibl. vet. Patr. ii); P. de La garde, Leipzig and London, 1858. They
are also found in de Lagarde , Reliquiae iuris eccl. antiquissimae graece,
Leipzig, 1856, pp. i— 18, and in Pitra , Iuris eccles. Graecorum historia
et monumenta, Rome, 1864, i. 45—75. - ' The first three canons of the
Ethiopic recension of the Egyptian Church- Ordinance were published by
y. Ludolfus, Ad suam historiam Aethiopicam antehac editam commentarius,
Frankfort, 1691, pp. 323 — 328; he also added a Latin version of them.
A German version of the Ethiopic text (according to Ludolf] was
made by J. Bachmann, and is found in H. Achelis , Die altesten Quellen
des orientalischen Kirchenrechts , Leipzig, 1891, i. 39 if. The North-
Egyptian (Memphitic, Bohiric) recension of the Egyptian Church-Ordinance
was published (with an English translation) by H. Tattam, The Apostolical
Constitutions, London, 1848, pp. 31—92. Botticher (de Lagarde) under
took to re-translate into Greek the Coptic text of Tattam, in Bunsen,
Analecta Ante-Niraena, London, 1854, ii. 461—477. The South-Egyptian
Theban, Sahidic) text, whence the North-Egyptian text is derived", was
edited by de Lagarde, Aegyptiaca, Gottingen, 1883, pp. 248—266 (without
a translation), and by U. Bouriant , in Recueil de travaux relatifs a la
philol. et a 1'archeol. egypt. et assyr., Paris, 1883—1884, v. 206—216
(without a translation). A German version of the South-Egyptian recen
sion was made, from the edition of de Lagarde, by G. Steindorff, and is
found m Achelis, 1. c. , 39 ff. In the Theol. Quartalschrift (1893), Ixxv.
664—666, Funk published a brief fragment of the original Greek of the
§ 75- THE SO-CALLED APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS. 355
Egyptian Church-Ordinance (canon 47 in Coptic). The fragments of a
Latin version are in E. Haider, Didascaliae apostolorum fragmenta Vero-
nensia Latina, Leipzig, 1900, i. 101 — 121. -- H. Achelis, Die altesten
Quellen des orientalischen Kirchenrechtes , i: Die «Canones Hippolyti»,
Leipzig, 1891, in Texte und Untersuchungen, new series, vi. 4. Id., in
Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1894 — 1895), xv. i — 43. Cf. Harnack, in Theol.
Studien u. Kritiken (1893), Ixvi. 403 — 420. On the other side see Funk,
Die Apostolischen Konstitutionen, Rottenburg, 1891, pp. 142—150 253 to
280. Id., Das achte Buch der Apostolischen Konstitutionen und die ver-
wandten Schriften, Tiibingen, 1893 (against Harnack). Id., in Hist. Jahr-
buch (1895), xvi. i — 36 473—509 (against Achelis). Id., Das Testament
unseres Herrn und die verwandten Schriften, Mainz, 1901. The order of
the dependency established by Achelis is defended by H. de Jongh, Le
Testament de Notre Seigneur et les ecrits apparentes, in Revue d'hist.
eccle's. (1902), iii. 615— 643. He writes, however, independently concern
ing the actual date and origin of the various texts in question. G. Homer,
The Statutes of the Apostles or Canones Ecclesiastici ; cf. Funk, Theol.
Quartalschrift (1906), pp. i- — 27. F. Nau, « Constitutions Apostoliques», in
the Dictionnaire de The'ologie Catholique, Paris, 1907 (1520 — 1536). Id.,
«Canons Apostoliques», ib. (1605- — 1626).
/. THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS (CON
TINUED). THE TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD. THE CANONS OF HIPPO-
LYTUS. - - Through the medium of the Egyptian Church-Ordinance
two other works are affiliated to the eighth book of the Apostolic
Constitutions. The Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, composed
originally in Greek, has reached us in Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic
versions; short Latin fragments of the introduction are also extant.
The complete Syriac text was edited in 1899 by the Syrian patriarch
Rahmani; de Lagarde had already made known (1856) some scattered
fragments of the work. The introduction contains prophecies of our
Lord concerning the last days, and probably was at first an inde
pendent work. It is followed by a very lengthy ecclesiastical ordi
nance, placed also in the mouth of our Lord, and by an exposition
of the liturgy. There is a close and substantial parallelism between
the verbose text of this Church-Ordinance or «Testament» and the
more compact text of the Egyptian Church-Ordinance. From this
Rahmani concluded that the « Testament » was older than the Egyptian
text, the latter being an excerpt from the former; the « Testament » could
be dated back to the second century, while the Egyptian Church-
Ordinance would belong to the third century. These conclusions
have been universally rejected. Funk has shown, by an exhaustive
research, that the « Testament » is an amplification, and that the
Egyptian Church-Ordinance is no compendium. The latter cannot
have been compiled in the third century, and the former exhibits
abundant evidence, constitutional, liturgical and dogmatic, of a later
ecclesiastical period. There is mention of this « Testament* in a Greek
theosophy of the end of the fifth century (diaiHjxqq TWOQ TOO xup'wj)\
so it may have been written about 475 in some circle of Syrian Mono-
23 *
356 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
physites. The Canones Hippolyti have reached us in an Arabic and
an Ethiopic version. The former was published in 1870 by von
Haneberg and in 1890 by Riedel. The contents of this work are
so similar to those of the Egyptian Church-Ordinance that the one
is certainly a recension of the other. According to Achelis the
priority belongs to the Canons of Hippolytus. He recognizes in the
Arabic version numerous later additions and transformations, but
maintains that the original Greek text was the work of Hippolytus
of Rome, about 218 — 221. Funk holds the priority of the Egyptian
Church-Ordinance: the Canons of Hippolytus were constructed from
this document, and they did not appear before the end of the fifth
century, in the East at least: the arguments of Funk seem quite
irresistible. More or less conclusive arguments against the authorship
of Hippolytus are found in all the passages that Achelis inclines to
consider as later additions; they form about one third of the entire
work. As the latter stands in the manuscripts, it is clearly of Oriental
origin and cannot have been compiled before the end of the fifth
century. The Canones Hippolyti cannot be the source and foundation
of the Egyptian Church-Ordinance, because in the former work there
is wanting in the suitable place (can. 2) a reference to earlier matter
that the compiler of the Egyptian Church-Ordinance makes in his
thirty-first canon. Indeed, the Canones Hippolyti assert quite expressly
that they are a recension of the Apostolic Constitutions : hi sunt -
the text begins thus - - canones ecclesiae et praecepta quae scripsit
Hippolytus, princeps episcoporum Romanorum, secundum mandata
apostolorum.
The Syriac version of the «Testament» was published, with a Latin
translation, by Ignatius Ephraem II. Rahmani, patriarch of Antioch, Mainz,
1899; fragments of it had been previously edited by de Lagarde, Reliquiae
iuris eccles. antiquissimae, Leipzig, 1856, pp. 2 — 19 (Syriac), pp. 80 — 89
(Greek text, i. e. a re-translation from Syriac into Greek). Two short
fragments of a Latin version of the introduction to the « Testament » were
published by M. Rh. James, Apocrypha anecdota, Cambridge, 1893, in
Texts and Studies, ii 3, 151 — 154. For details concerning the manuscript
tradition of the work cf. Baumstark , in Rom. Quartalschr. (1900), xiv.
I— 45 i the Arabic texts are also treated ib., pp. 291—300. — See v. Funk,
Das Testament unseres Herrn und die verwandten Schriften, Mainz, 1901,
in Forschungen zur christlichen Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte, ii. i — 2 ;
cf. Harnack, in Sitzungsberichte der k. preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaft,
Berlin, 1899, pp. 878—891; G. Morin, in Revue Bened. (1900), xvii. 10—28;
P. Batiffol, in Revue Bibl. (1900), ix. 253—260. For other studies see
Funk, 1. c. Text-Studies on the work were published by J. P. Arendzen,
A new syriac Text of the apocalyptic part of the «Testamentum» of the
Lord, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1901), ii. 401 — 416; F. Nau , Frag
ment inedit d'une traduction jusqu'ici inconnue du Testamentum Domini
nostri lesu Christi, Paris, 1901. A passage of this version suggests that
the apocalyptic fragment was written about 351. L. Guerrier, Le Testa
ment de N. S. Jesus Christ. Essai sur la partie apocalypsique (These),
Lyon, 1903. U. Benigni, L'Apocalisse del Testamentum Domini, in Bes-
§ 75- THE SO-CALLED APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS. 357
sarione (1900 — 1901), iv, vol. vii. 33 — 41 ; cf. Funk, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1902), Ixxxiv. 159 — 160 223 — 236, and H. de Jongh , in Revue d'hist.
eccles. (1902), iii. 615 — 643. J. Cooper and A. J. Maclean, The Testa
ment of Our Lord translated into English from Syriac. With Introduction
and Notes, Edinburg, 1902. - - The Canones Hippolyti were edited in
Arabic and Latin by D. B. v. Haneberg, Munich, 1870; his version was
revised from the Arabic by H. Vielhaber and L. Stern, and reprinted in
Achelis , Die altesten Quellen des orientalischen Kirchenrechtes (1891), i.
38 ff. The Latin text of Haneberg is in L. Duchesne, Origines du culte
chretien, 2. ed., Paris, 1898, pp. 505 — 521. F. C. Burkitt, On the Bap
tismal Rite in the Canons of Hippolytus, in Journal of Theol. Studies
(1900), i. 279. _
Other Arabic manuscripts were used for the German translation of the
Canones by W. Riedel, Die Kirchenrechtsquellen des Patriarchats Alexan-
drien, Leipzig, 1900, pp. 193 — 230; his work is, therefore, in some sense
equivalent to a new edition of the Arabic text. The most important works
on the Canones Hippolyti are mentioned immediately above no. 6. The
following offer a special value: Funk, Das Testament unseres Herrn,
pp. 213 — 291; de Jongh, 1. c. ; Funk, Das Osterfasten und die Canones
Hippolyti, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1901), Ixxxiii. 639 — 640; A. Baumstark,
Kanones des Hippolytos oder Kanones des Julius, in Oriens Christianus
(1952), ii. 191 — 196; J. P. Arendzen, The XXXIId Canon of Hippolytus,
in Journal of Theolog. Studies (1902 — 1903), iv. 282 — 285; W. Riedel,
Bemerkungen zu den Canones des Hippolytus, in Theol. Studien u. Krit.
(1903), Ixxvi. 338—342.
8. RECENSIONS OF THE APOSTOLIC CANONS. — Towards the year
500, Dionysius Exiguus translated into Latin the first fifty of the
eighty-five Apostolic Canons with which the Apostolic Constitutions
end (viii. 47); they were placed by him at the beginning of his
collection of ancient canons. There is no reason to doubt that
Dionysius took them immediately from the Apostolic Constitutions
or that he was acquainted with all eighty-five canons. Gradually
these fifty canons translated by Dionysius acquired juridical authority
in the Latin Church; Pseudo-Isidore made a place for them in his
collection, and Gratian certainly incorporated in his Decretum some
extracts from them. — At the end of the above-mentioned Corpus
iuris canonici of different Egyptian Churches (see no. 6) there is also
found a recension of the Apostolic Canons. The various recensions
of this canonical collection differ both as to the number and the form
of the Canons; frequently several canons of the Greek text are
welded into one canon. Also two Syriac translations of the Apostolic
Canons, quite identical with the Greek text, have been published.
For Dionysius Exiguus and his collections of canons cf. § 114, 3. His
version of the fifty Apostolic Canons is usually printed with the Greek
text of the same (see no. 4) also in Hefeh, 1. c., pp. 800 — 816. Diony
sius made another version of the Apostolic Canons, that remained long
unedited, until it was published, together with the Vulgata and another
recension of the same, by C. H. Turner, Ecclesiae Occidentalis monu-
menta iuris antiquissima, Oxford, 1899, i. i — 32. -- The North-Egyptian
text of the Apostolic Canons, 85 in number as in the Greek, is found in
358 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
Tattam, 1. c. (see no, 6), with an English version, pp. 173 — 214; the South-
Egyptian text (71 canons) together with the North-Egyptian is in de La-
garde, Aegyptiaca, pp. 209 — 238, and (without the North-Egyptian) in
Bourianty I.e., Paris, 1885, vi. 109 — 115 (both untranslated). The Ethiopia
text (57 canons), with a Latin version, may be seen in W. Fell, Canones
Apostolorum aethiopice (Diss. inaug.), Leipzig, 1871. For a Syriac text
(83 canons) with a Latin version cf. A. Mai, Script, vet. nova coll. (1838),
x i, 175 — 184, 8 — 17. Another Syriac text (82 canons, untranslated) is in
de Lagarde, Reliquiae iuris eccles. antiquissimae syriace (1856), pp. 44 — 60.
§ 76. Synesius of Cyrene.
I. HIS LIFE. - - Synesius was born between 370 and 375, at
Cyrene in Libyan Pentapolis, the so-called Cyrenaica, of an ancient
and noble family that still clung to its ancestral paganism. With
his brother Euoptius he betook himself to Alexandria, the seat of
all higher studies in Egypt. There he became acquainted with the
gifted Hypatia, the intellectual daughter of the mathematician Theon,
and by her was initiated into the mysteries of the Neo-Platonist
(Plotinist) philosophy. On his return to his native town, though still
quite a young man, the oppressed cities of the Pentapolis sent him
(397) to the imperial court as their representative, in the hope that
he might obtain a remittal of the excessive taxes levied on them.
He returned successful in 400, and thenceforth lived chiefly for his
beloved study of philosophy. In 409 the clergy and people of
Ptolemais requested him to become their bishop and metropolitan
of the Pentapolis, though he does not seem to have been at the time
a Christian. The entire region, threatened by the marauding hordes of
barbarians (Macheti), placed its sole hope in this youthful descendant
of an estimable patrician family, who had already given evidence of
good abilities. He was consecrated by Theophilus, patriarch of Alex
andria, but on two conditions, viz. that he should not be compelled
to dismiss his wife, and should not be forced to abandon his philo
sophical opinions, some of which were not consistent with ecclesia
stical teaching, e. g. the pre-existence of the soul, the eternity of
creation, the allegorical concept of resurrection (cf. his letter to
Euoptius, n. 105). His mental attitude and dispositions do not seem
to have been at any time fully Christian. The points of contact
between Platonism and Christianity obscured in his mind the antithesis
of their fundamental principles. He was a Christian at heart, but in
the things of the mind remained a follower of Plato. Nevertheless,
as a bishop he stood out manfully and successfully, amid difficult
circumstances, for justice and peace. His career was not destined
to be a long one; his letters exhibit no date later than 413. With
his eloquent discourse the history of the Libyan Pentapolis comes to
an end; even now it is his writings that act as our guide in the
labyrinth of grandiose monuments that continue to arouse the ad
miration of the traveller in the Pentapolis.
§ 76. SYNESIUS OF GYRENE. 359
2. WRITINGS OF SYNESIUS. - There are three distinct periods,
as Kraus has well shown, in the mental development and the literary
labors of this distinguished man. To the first period belong those
of his writings1 that are especially heathen and Platonic and exhibit
nothing that is pronouncedly Christian. They are the discourse on
Royalty fnep} ^aadeiaq), a manly speech made in 399 at Constantino
ple in presence of the emperor Arcadius; the little work uxkp
TOO dcopo'j darpoXaftiou, which he dedicated to a certain Pseonius at
Constantinople with the gift of a fine astrolabe; the Egyptian dis
courses on Providence (Alffariot Aufot r) xspl TrpovotacJ, begun at
Constantinople but finished in Egypt, in which under the native myth
of Osiris and Typhos he described the conditions and events at the
imperial capital ; the praise of Baldness (paAdxpag sj-xatfjttovj, a satire
on those sophists who speak for no higher purpose than the pleasure
of speech; Dio or a life ordered according to him (A'uav r) xep\ TTJC
Y.O.T WJTOV dia^oif^q)t a defence of the scientific occupations of the
author, as justified by the life of the philosopher and rhetorician
Dio Chrysostomus ; the tractate on the causes and meaning of dreams
(ire pi ivunvicay)', some hymns and a collection of letters. The latter
number 156 (in Migne), and have always aroused a lively interest,
partly because of the perfection of their style and partly because they
are a rich source of information concerning the history and the geo
graphy of the Pentapolis. They seem to have been written between
399 and 413. The ten hymns, preserved to us, are all in the Doric
dialect and composed according to the laws of ancient prosody.
The first four, lyrical outpourings of a profoundly religious soul,
belong probably to the first period of his life. Some other hymns
point to a period of transition, perhaps from 404 to 409; in these
writings the author seems to waver between Christianity and paganism.
No important work, however, belongs to this period. From his
consecration to the see of Ptolemais dates a third period of his life
in which the Christian element is uppermost, though the pagan thought
and sentiment are not quite overcome. Many of his letters belong
to this period, also two (fragmentary) homilies, and two orations
(xaraffrdffstQj. The first of these orations is a splendid example of
eloquence, descriptive of the renewed invasion of the Pentapolis (411)
by the barbarians; the second is a panegyric of Anysius, the prefect
(dux) of Pentapolis. To this period also must be referred the com
position of the seventh or eighth hymn which is specifically Christian
in character.
3. LITERATURE ON SYNESIUS. -- A complete edition of his writings,
with Latin translation and notes, was made by Dionysius Petavius, Paris,
1612 1631 1633 and 1640 (the best). A new edition of the hymns was
brought out by *. Fr. Boissonade, Paris, 1825 (Poetarum graecorum sylloge xv :
1 Migne, PG., Ixvi.
360 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
Lyrici graeci, pp. 97 — 160). y. G. Krabinger collated many codices for
a new edition of Synesius; he published editions of several writings: the
discourse on Royalty, Munich, 1825; the praise of Baldness, Stuttgart,
1834; the Egyptian discourses, Sulzbach, 1835, all three with German ver
sions. A complete edition was begun by Krabinger , but only the first
volume appeared, Landshut, 1850; it contains the Greek text with a simple
critical apparatus of the longer works (except the letters and hymns). The
Petavius edition (1633) is reprinted in Migne, PG., Ixvi, Paris, 1859 1864,
though the text of the praise of Baldness is taken from the Krabinger
edition. For a new edition of the letters of Synesius cf. R. Hercher,
Epistolographi graeci, Paris, 1873, pp. 638—739. New editions of the ten
hymns were brought out by W. Christ and M. Paranikas, Leipzig, 187 1 (Antho-
logia graeca carminum christianorum, Leipzig, 1871, pp. 3 — 23; cf. Proleg.
pp. ix— xii), and J. Flach, Tubingen, 1875. E. Gaiser, Des Synesius von
Gyrene agyptische Erzahlungen oder iiber die Vorsehung, Wolfenbuttel,
1886 (Inaug.-Diss.). O. Seek, Studien zu Synesios, I. Der historische Gehalt
des Osirismythos. II. Die Briefsammlung : Philologus (1893), lii. 442 — 483.
W. Fritz, Die Briefe des Bischofs Synesius von Kyrene, Leipzig, 1898.
Fr. X. Kraus, Studien iiber Synesios von Gyrene, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1865), xlvii. 381—448 537—600; (1866), xlviii. 85 — 129. R, Volkmann,
Synesius von Gyrene, Berlin, 1869. E, Gaiser, Synesius von Gyrene, in
Theol. Studien aus Wurttemberg (1886), vii. 51 — 70. C. M. Dreves, Der
Sanger der Kyrenaika, in Stimmen aus Maria-Laach (1897), lii. 545 — 562.
y. R. Asmus, Synesius und Dio Chrysostomus, in Byzantin. Zeitschr. (1900),
ix. 85 — 151; W. S. Crawford, Synesius the Hellen, London, 1901; A. y.
Kleffner, Synesius von Gyrene, der Philosoph und Dichter, und sein an-
geblicher Vorbehalt bei seiner Wahl und Weihe zum Bischof von Ptole-
mais, Paderborn, 1901. H. Koch, Synesius von Gyrene bei seiner Wahl
und Weihe zum Bischof, in Hist. Jahrbuch (1902), xxiii. 751 — 774. C. Valley,
Etude sur les hymnes de Synesius de Gyrene, Paris, 1905.
§ 77. St. Cyril of Alexandria.
I. HIS LIFE BEFORE 428. - We know but little concerning
St. Cyril before his elevation to the patriarchal see of Alexandria,
in 412. He was probably born in that city and was a nephew of
its patriarch Theophilus. His extensive theological knowledge was
certainly acquired in its Christian schools. From the four very frank
letters of St. Isidore Pelusiota to the patriarch Cyril1 we learn that
Cyril lived for a time in the desert with the monks and received
from them a training in Christian ascetism. He went with his uncle
to Constantinople in 403, and took part in the « Synod of the Oak»
near Chalcedon at which Chrysostom was deposed (§ 74, 4). Theo
philus died October 15., 412, and two days afterwards Cyril was
elected patriarch, but not without opposition. We know but little of
the beginnings of his administration, and that little is colored by the
partisan temper of the narrative of Socrates2. - - The youthful patri
arch's treatment of the Novatians and the Jews of Alexandria may have
been characterized by a certain precipitation and a want of feeling3.
1 S. hid. Pel., Ep. i. 310 323 324 370. 2 Hist, eccl., vii. 7 u 13 ff.
J Cf. the relative Letters of Isidore.
§ 77- ST- CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. 361
It is impossible to obtain a clear knowledge of the dissensions
between Cyril and the imperial city-prefect Orestes at Alexandria;
Socrates insinuates1, without proof, that the patriarch was responsible
for the murder by the Christians (March, 415) of the female philo
sopher Hypatia, a close friend of the prefect. It was only after a
long resistance that Cyril caused (about 417) the name of St. Chryso-
stom to be replaced in the diptychs of the Alexandrian church. After
429 the sources of our information multiply; thenceforth Cyril is a
prominent factor in the great problems of ecclesiastical and dogmatical
history. Amid perils and trials his spirit and character shine as in a
noonday splendor and exhibit in him an instrument specially chosen
by God.
2. THE CONFLICT WITH NESTORIANISM. - - In 428 Nestorius be
came bishop of Constantinople, and at once began to disseminate by
means of his sermons the Christological teaching of Diodorus of Tarsus
(§ 72, 3) and Theodore of Mopsuestia (§ 73, 3). He denied the unity
of person in Christ, asserted that the Blessed Virgin could not be
called Mother of God (ftsorozocj and that to speak of a God in
swaddling clothes and crucified was only a heathen fable. As early
as the spring of 429 Cyril gave a general reply to these false theses
and defended the orthodox teaching in his Festal Letter of Easter
of that year and in an Encyclical Letter to the monks of Egypt.
It was not the divine nature, but the Incarnate Word that was born
of Mary; the human nature in Christ does not belong to any human
person but to the Divine Word. After fruitless efforts to arrive at an
understanding, both Cyril and Nestorius appealed to pope Celestine,
with the result that at a Roman synod, held in 430, Nestorius was
declared a heretic and threatened with deposition unless within ten
days from the receipt of the synodal decision he retracted his errors.
Cyril was charged with the duty of communicating this decision to
Nestorius and, in the name of the pope, of excommunicating him,
in case he proved rebellious; he added to the pope's letter a pro
fession of faith approved by an Alexandrine synod of 430, in which
he developed more fully the doctrine that Nestorius was to accept,
and also twelve «anathematisms» that described the errors which
Nestorius was to reject. Nestorius replied with twelve counter-ana-
thematisms, and by that the rupture was completed. Some days
before the reception of Cyril's anathematisms at Constantinople, the
emperor Theodosius had yielded to the instances of Nestorius and
convoked (Nov. 19., 430) a council at Ephesus for the Pentecost of
431. The pope delegated Cyril as his representative. In its first
session (June 22., 431), the council deposed Nestorius and confirmed
both the profession of faith and the twelve anathematisms of Cyril.
1 Hist, eccl., vii. 15.
362 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
Throughout its sessions the latter was the soul of the council, and
fulfilled his mission, amid many difficulties, with prudence, courage
and perseverance. The bishops of the Antiochene province, under
the leadership of John of Antioch, had separated from Cyril and
the other bishops, and taken part more or less openly with Nestorius.
It was not until 433 that a reconciliation was effected: in that year
Cyril signed a profession of faith (very probably drawn up by Theo-
doret of Cyrus, the most learned of the Antiochenes) that was cap
able of an orthodox interpretation and acknowledged in particular
the divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin. Although in this manner
a schism was formally avoided, Cyril was obliged to devote the
remainder of his days to its final extermination. His death took place
June 27., 444. If we except Athanasius, none of the other Greek
Fathers exercised so far-reaching an influence on ecclesiastical doc
trine as Cyril; and if we except Augustine, there is none among all
the other Fathers whose works have been adopted so extensively by
ecumenical councils as a standard expression of Christian faith.
3. HIS APOLOGY AGAINST JULIAN. -- We may place first among
his writings the work «For the holy religion of the Christians against
the books of the impious Julian » (fakp TTJQ rcbv XpiaTtav&v e>ja?ouc,
ftpyaxsiaQ 7if)VQ TO, TOO sv dftlotQ 'lovAtavouJi-, composed in 433 and
dedicated to Theodosius II. The three books of Julian « Against the
Galileans » (of the years 362 — 363) must have been still very popular
in anti-Christian circles. It is probable that the work of Cyril originally
included thirty books ; only the first ten have reached us entire, while
of books xi — xx only Greek and Syriac fragments have been preserved.
The first ten books are a reply to the first book of Julian and deal
with the relations of Judaism to heathenism, and of Christianity to both
Judaism and heathenism. Julian asserted that Christianity was only
a debased Judaism with an admixture of heathenism. Cyril follows
his adversary step by step, and always places before the reader the
text of Julian's own arguments; Cyril's work is, therefore, the prin
cipal source of our knowledge concerning the (lost) anti-Christian
work of the unfortunate emperor. In this work, as elsewhere, Cyril
lays more stress on precision of statement and closeness of argument
than on fluency and elegancy of diction.
4. DOGMATICOPOLEMICAL WRITINGS. — The polemical note domi
nates in all his dogmatic writings. The earliest of them are his two
great works on the Trinity: rt ftipAoQ TWV ^aaopatv xzp\ rr^
xat bpoooaiou rpiddoq2, in 35 theses (Mfot, assertiones), and
afiac, re xal 6/jLOOUffiou rptdoo^ in the form of seven dialogues
dialogi) of the author with his friend Hermias. Both works were
written against the Arians, and treat principally of the true divinity
1 Migne, PG., Lxxvi. 503—1064. - Ib., Ixxv. 9—656.
3 Ib., Ixxv. 657—1124.
§ 77« ST- CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. 363
of the Son. When compared with the later Christological writings
of Cyril they exhibit a certain imperfection and obscurity in the
concept and exposition of the doctrine of the union of the two natures
in Christ. A brief and popular work on the Trinity (yrspl TTJC, dftac
xa\ Zwor.oioo rpiddoQ)1, first edited by Cardinal Mai, is regarded as
spurious. It is clearly the first part of a larger work, the second
part of which treated of the Incarnation and which was also discovered
by Mai: xspl TTJQ TO~J xopioo iyav&p&TcfjascoQ*. Ehrhard has shown
(1888) that it is the work ofTheodoret of Cyrus. Shortly after the
beginning of the Nestorian conflict, 429 — 430, Cyril remitted to the
imperial court three memorials on the true faith : TcpoayajvrjTtxo} 7tep\
TTJC, opdrjc, xiffrewQ, the first of which was addressed to the emperor
Theodosius II.3, the second to his two younger sisters Arcadia and
Marina4, and the third to Pulcheria, the elder sister of the emperor,
and to his wife Eudocia5. To the same period belongs the work
against the blasphemies ofNestorius: xard ~cov Nzaropioo du0<pT}fJLt5)v
Tcsv-dptpAoQ dvTifipr)atQ*t in five books, directed against a collection
of the heresiarch's sermons, and distinguished for solidity of argu
mentation and cutting sarcasm. The twelve «Anathematisms» of 430
were defended by Cyril in an « apology » against the attacks of the orient
al, i. e. the Syrian, bishops: ditofofqTtxoQ uxkp TCOV dwdsxa xetpaXaicov
rrpoQ TOLK; TT£ dvaroAYjC, i-iaxuriOOQ1 ; in a rejoinder to the reply of
Theodoret of Cyrus: i-xiGroArj npbc, Eoonriov xpbc, rqv Ttapd Oeodwpiroo
xara TCOV dwdzxa x£<f>aXaicov dyTiftoymv8 ; and in a brief commentary:
inttufftQ TIOV dwdexa xepaAauov9, which was written in 43 1 during his
imprisonment at Ephesus. Immediately after the council he justified
his actions, both before and during its sessions, in an « apology » to
the emperor Theodosius : Mfos diroAop]TtxbGlQ. He wrote also on the
Incarnation of the Divine Word : Tiep} TTJQ ivavftpwTryffscDQ TOO $£03
/Mfoull\ on the unity of person in Christ: fct £?Q o Xptaro^] the
treatises (first edited by Mai) against Nestorius: dtuAs^tQ xpoQ Xearopiov1*,
and against those wrho do not acknowledge Mary to be the Mother
of God : xard Tajy fr/j flooAofjiivwy b/jioAofziv fteoroxov TT^ u.~fW-v xap-
ftivov1^, and finally and especially the so-called Scholia de Incarna-
tioneUnigeniti: nzp\ T^Q ivavttpcoxfjac.cDQ TOO povo^vouQi5, highly prized
in antiquity but now extant for the most part only in a Latin version.
The dialogue on the Incarnation of the Only-begotten 16 is but another
1 Ib., Ixxv. 1147 1190.
2 Ib., Ixxv. 1419—1478, see only the beginning of this writing.
3 Ib., Ixxvi. 1133 — 1200. 4 Ib., Ixxvi. 1201 — 1336.
6 Ib., Ixxvi. 1335—1420. 6 Ib., Ixxvi. 9- — 248.
7 Ib , Ixxvi. 315 — 386. 8 Ib., Ixxvi. 385 — 452.
9 Ib., Ixxvi. 293 — 312. 10 Ib., Ixxvi. 453 — 488.
11 Ib., Ixxv. 1413 — 1420. 12 Ib., Ixxv. 1253 — 1362.
13 Ib., Ixxvi. 249 — 256. 14 Ib., Ixxv. 255^ — 292.
15 Ib., Ixxv. 1369 — 1412. 16 Ib., Ixxv. 1189 — 1254.
364 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
edition of his treatise on the true faith addressed to Theodosius. The
genuineness of the work against the Anthropomorphites: xara dv$pa>~o-
tjiopyiTwv 1 , or those who attributed to God a human figure, is de
nied, and justly so. Many of his dogmatico-polemical works have
perished. He wrote one book against the Synousiasts (Apollinarists),
three books against Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodorus of Tarsus
(§ 72> 3)» one book on the true faith, and other writings, of which
only fragments have reached us2. Photius gives a brief summary3
of a work written by Cyril against the Pelagians and addressed to
the emperor Theodosius II.
5. EXEGETICAL WRITINGS. - - In the complete editions of his
writings the exegetical works take up the greater part of the volumes.
The 17 books on the adoration and worship of God in spirit and
in truth: xspi r^c, iv xveufjiaTi xat dty&sla npoaxovqascoQ xai XatpeiaQ*,
undertake to prove that the law was abrogated only in the letter and
not in the spirit, and that spiritual adoration was typically prefigured
in the institutions of the Old Testament. This work is completed
by the thirteen books of « elegant comments »: ^a<popd^t devoted to
a typical exposition of select Pentateuch passages. He wrote detailed
and continuous commentaries on Isaias6, and on the twelve minor
prophets7. There are also extant fragments or catenae-scholia on
the books of Kings8, on Psalms9, on some Canticles, on Proverbs,
and the Canticle of canticles 10, and on the prophets Jeremias, Baruch,
Ezechiel, Daniel11. He wrote also on the New Testament; and among
other works, a large and valuable commentary on the Gospel of
St. John, that has not reached us in its entirety12. We possess also
fragments on Matthew13, on Luke14, on Romans, First and Second
Corinthians, and Hebrews15. An ancient Syriac version, though not
without several gaps, exhibits a text of the commentary on Luke
more complete and trustworthy than the remnants of the original
Greek. His commentaries on the New Testament must have been
written after 428, since the Commentary on the Gospel of St. John,
the earliest of these writings, refers to the Nestorian heresy. His
labors on the Old Testament were completed at an earlier date. His
intellectual progress is visible in the distinctness with which the literal
sense is grasped and adhered to in the New Testament commen
taries. But even in his writings on the Old Testament the historico-
1 Migne, PG., Ixxvi. 1065—1132. 2 lb ? ]xxvi I423_
Bibl. Cod. 54. * Migne, PG., Ixviii. 133—1126.
Ib., Ixix. 9—678. 6 Ib., Ixx. 9—1450.
Ib., Ixxi and Ixxii. 9—364. 8 Ib., Ixix. 679—698.
Ib, Ixix. 717—1274. 10 Ibi) ]xjx I273__I294<
Ib, Ixx. 1451 — 1462. 12 Ib, Ixxiii and Ixxiv. 9—756.
Ib, Ixxii. 365—474. i* Ib, Ixxii. 475—950.
15 Ib, Ixxiv. 773—1006.
§ 77- ST- CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. 36$
philological exposition is not neglected, e. g. in the commentary on
the twelve minor prophets.
6. HOMILIES AND LETTERS. - - Only a small number of his dis
courses have been preserved * : of the Homiliae paschales or Festal
Letters (see § 63, 7) 29 have come down, quite miscellaneous in
their contents. Among the Homiliae diversae the most interesting
are those delivered at the Council of Ephesus in 431, especially the
fourth2, famous among all the Marian panegyrics of antiquity. The
Encomium in S. Mariam Deiparam 3 is only a much later edition,
re-touched and enlarged, of this fourth Ephesine homily. — 88 Letters
of Cyril are published 4, but among them are several addressed to
him by others. The earliest, and also the most important letters,
are those addressed to Nestorius5, the latter two were read and
accepted at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and again at Chalcedon
in 451, and at Constantinople in 553. Most of the letters, however,
were written after the Council of Ephesus, and deal especially with
the relations between himself and the schismatic Antiochenes. The
letter to John of Antioch 6 known also as the Symbohnn Ephesimtm
was approved and accepted by the Council of Chalcedon.
7. HIS CHRISTOLOGY. - - Nestorius had maintained that in Christ
there were two personalities united only in a moral sense. It fell to
Cyril to maintain and defend the traditional doctrine of the unity of
person in Jesus Christ. We have already called attention (see no. 4)
to the difference between the concept and exposition of this truth
in the earlier as compared with the later writings of Cyril. We have
here to describe only the doctrine as found in his writings after
the beginning of 429. The Word became man, he teaches, but did
not assume a man: y-iyovev avftpcoitoq, oux avfrpajnov dveAaftsv7: He
humbled Himself, but did not raise to Himself a man; He made
His own our human nature: loiav inoiTjaaro TT^V adpxa: He united
Himself with our human nature in a substantial or personal union :
XO.T o&ffiav, wca <f>6mv, xa& bitdaraatv. He is after the Incarnation
what He was before, SIQ xat o OLIJTOQ; He remained what He was,
/jie/jtevyxe: oTrep TJV; He only assumed our human nature to the unity
of His own being, and is now both God and man, one in two natures :
sx duolv reAeiotv, ex duow xpaffjidTow, Ic d[JL(poiv. This one divine
not human person is sometimes called fy, sometimes 'iv
and again p.ia oxoaTamc, or fj.la <f>6oic, TOU ttsov hoyou
It is to be noted that Cyril uses as if equivalent the terms b
and (poaiQ. The phrase p.ia <PLHHQ roi> fteou Aoyov (jzoapYMuAvr^ taken
from the profession of faith xep\ TTJQ capxwaewc, TOU fteoZ Aufou, among
the works of St. Athanasius (§ 63, 3), caused Cyril to be accused of
1 Ib., Ixxvii. 401 — 1116. 2 lb., Ixxvii. 991 — 996.
3 lb., Ixxvii. 1029 — 1040. 4 lb., Ixxvii. 9 — 390.
5 Ep. 2 4 17. 6 Ep. 39. 7 Ep. 45 ad Succ.
366 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
teaching a commingling of the two natures in Christ. We must note,
therefore, his frequent insistence that he believes the two natures to
be united dff'jr/uTatQ, drpinrcoq, dvattoia)T(o$, dfjtsTaflk/jT<o<;, without
commingling or confusion (aufyuai^ fftifxpamq, aovoooicoau;) of any
kind. The phrase that he frequently uses after the reconciliation with
the Antiochenes, caused a certain surprise: he says that before the
union there were two natures, pvffstQ, and after it but one wumq. By
this phrase, however, Cyril intends only to admit for an ideal moment
the conceptual distinction of two individual entities; in other words,
he teaches the union of the Logos with a perfect human nature, com
posed of a body and a (rational) soul; this nature, however, does
not subsist independently in itself but in the Logos. He declares
elsewhere: «We say that two natures, d>jo (poaztQ, are united, but
that after the union there is no longer a division into two (natures) ;
we believe, therefore, in one nature of the Son, fiiav eivat 7ttars6ofj.sv
rrjv rou oloTj 0'jffw, because He is one, though become man and
flesh*1. Here as elsewhere Cyril expresses the union of both natures
in Christ by the word Zvcomq, a term of Christian origin, to which
he often adds a more specific qualitative: sycomQ puffixy, xard y>u0w,
xaff uxoffTamy, xar otifflav. He often rejects, as a Nestorian term,
the word hoixyffu; which seemed to diminish the Incarnation to a
mere indwelling of the Logos in the man Jesus. Still more positively
does he reject another beloved term of Nestorius, the word auvd<peta
(moral union): « we reject the term auvd(p£t.a», he writes to Nestorius,
« because it is not fitted to express the union » (svtofftQj2. As a con
sequence of this union of the two natures, whatever is proper to the
human nature may and ought to be predicated of the one divine
person (communicatio idiomatum). It was God who suffered and
was crucified ; the Logos Himself underwent all the sufferings of His
human nature because that which suffered was His humanity, His
body and His soul. Especially it was also God who was born, and
Mary is truly the Mother of God, for the man whom she bore was
God. In the word ttzoroxoQ as opposed to the Xpiaroroxoc, or dvd-pwxo-
TOXOQ of the Nestorians , he found the formula of the true doctrine.
He saw clearly that this word was a kind of compendium of the
ecclesiastical Christology inasmuch as it presupposes the unity of
person and the duality of natures in Christ. He says: «A correct,
sufficient, and irreproachable profession of faith is found in the as
sertion of the divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin : dpxst Toifapouv
~pb<; dpftyv xat ddidfUXyrov TTJQ TriffTcWQ i/paw b/ioAoyiav TO ttsorbxov
ASfStv xal bfjiohoifsiiv rr^ d~fiav
SPURIOUS WORKS. - - Many works have been erroneously attributed
to him. Migne (PG. , Ixxvii) mentions the following as dubia et aliena:
1 Ep. 40 ad Acac. 2 Ep. 17 ad Nest.
3 Horn. 15 de Incarn. Dei verbi.
§ 77- ST- CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. 367
De sacrosancta trinitate liber (1119 — 1174), Collectio dictorum Veteris
Testament! anagogice expositorum (1175 — 1290), Liturgia S. Cyrilli (trans
lated from Coptic into Latin, 1291 — 1308). On these and other obviously
spurious works cf. Eessler-Jungmann, Instit. Patrol, ii 2, 78 — 80. A Coptic
homily on death was published under the name of Cyril and translated
into French by E. Amelineau , Monuments pour servir a 1'histoire de
1'Egypte chretienne aux IVe et Ve siecles (Memoires publics par les mem-
bres de la Mission archeologique franchise au Caire iv), Paris, 1888,
pp. 165 — 195. In order to confirm the doctrine of papal supremacy,
Thomas Aquinas quoted in his Opusculum contra errores Graecorum ad
Urbanum IV. several passages from a work of St. Cyril of Alexandria
entitled : In libro thesaurorum. He says himself that he took these citations
from the anonymous Libellus de processione Spiritus Sancti (in which Li-
bellus they were said to occur in secundo, according to annother reading
in tertio libro thesaurorum). From the Opusculum these passages made
their way into works of other Western theologians. These quotations
cannot be verified as words of St. Cyril ; they are, therefore, and also for
intrinsic reasons, to be looked on as spurious, probably forged by the
author of the Libellus. Cf. F. H. Reusch, Die Falschungen in dem Traktat
des Thomas von Aquin gegen die Griechen, in Abhandlungen der kgl.
bayer. Akad. der Wissensch., Munich, 1889.
9. COMPLETE EDITIONS. SEPARATE EDITIONS. TRANSLATIONS. - - The
first and only complete edition of the works of Cyril in the original text
is due to a canon of Paris, J. Aubert, Paris, 1638, 6 vols. For other
editions, complete Latin collections, and earlier Graeco-Latin editions of
separate works, cf. Fabricius- Harks , Bibl. Gr., ix. 454 — 457; Hoffmann,
Bibliograph. Lexikon, Leipzig, 1838 — 1845, i. 484 — 494. --In modern
times Mai in particular published many writings of Cyril whole and frag
mentary, unknown to Aubert, and thereby enriched considerably the Migne
edition of Cyril (PG., Ixviii — Ixxvii), Paris, 1859. Valuable preliminary
work was accomplished by Ph. Ed. Pusey in his critical editions of diffe
rent works of Cyril. For some lately-discovered Coptic papyrus-fragments
of the De adoratione in spiritu et veritate (of the books vii and viii) see
J. H. Bernard, On some fragments of an uncial Ms. of S. Cyril of Alex
andria written on papyrus , in The transactions of the Royal Irish Aca
demy, part 18, Dublin, 1892, xxix. 653 — 672. - - We have already men
tioned (§ 60, i) the new edition of the remnants of the work of Julian by
K. J. Neumann. It contains (pp. 42 — 63): Cyrilli Alexandrini librorum
contra lulianum fragmenta syriaca, edidit E. Nestle, and (pp. 64 — 87):
Cyrilli Alex, librorum contra lulianum xi — xx fragmenta graeca et syriaca
latine reddita, disposuit C. J. Neumann. -- Dogmatico-polemical works : In
the Analecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888, part i, pp. 38 — 46, Pitra com
municated some manuscript-excerpts of the Liber thesaurorum de sancta
et consubstantiali trinitate. -- S. P. N. Cyrilli archiepisc. Alex. Epistolae
tres oecumenicae, Libri quinque contra Nestorium, XII Capitum explanatio,
XII Capitum defensio utraque, Scholia de incarnatione Unigeniti, edidit
post Aubertum Ph. Ed. Pusey, Oxford, 1875. S. P. N. Cyrilli archiepisc.
Alex. De recta fide ad Imperatorem, De incarnatione Unigeniti dialogus,
De recta fide ad Principissas, De recta fide ad Augustas, Quod unus Chri-
stus, Dialogus Apologeticus ad Imperatorem, edidit post Aubertum Ph. Ed.
Pusey, Oxford, 1877. In the dialogue De incarnatione Unigeniti (Migne,
PG., Ixxv. 1189 — 1254) Pusey sees a second edition made by St. Cyril
himself of the De recta fide ad Imperatorem. Pusey added to the Greek
text of these two works a Syriac version of Rabbulas, bishop of Edessa
($ 83, 4); he also published in his edition of the commentary on the Gospel
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
of St. John (Oxford, 1872, iii. 476—607) some Greek and Syriac fragments
of lost dogmatico - polemical works and of the lost work against the
Anthropomorphites (Tractattts ad Tiberium diaconum duo). The latter work
is an unsuccessful compilation from the genuine writings of S/. Cyril, De
Dogmatum solutione and Responsio ad Tiberium, with additions from the
spurious homily of St. Gregory of Nyssa In diem natalem Christi; cf. Pusey's
edition of the 'commentary on the Gospel of John, iii. 545 f. On a new
fragment of the De dogmatum solutione in which the author refers to the
Glaphyra and to the commentary on Osee, cf. G. Mercati, Varia Sacra,
Rome, 1903, pp. 83 f. — Exegetical works : The Glaphyra were translated into
Syriac by Moses of Aghel (second half of the sixth century) ; two fragments
of that version are found in J. Guidi, Rendiconti della R. Accademia dei
Lincei (1886), ii. 397—416 545—547. — S. P. N. Cyrilli archiepisc. Alexand.
In XII prophetas. Post Pontanum et Aubertum edidit Ph. Ed. Pusey, Oxford,
1868, 2 vols. S. P. N. Cyrilli archiep. Alex. In D. loannis evangelium.
Accedunt fragmenta varia necnon tractatus ad Tiberium diaconum duo.
Edidit post Aubertum Ph. Ed. Pusey, Oxford, 1872, 3 vols. In Pusey's
edition of the commentary on the Gospel of St. John the text is followed
(iii. 173 — 440) by fragments of the commentaries on Romans, i. and
2. Corinthians, and Hebrews, also (441—451) by a criticism of the frag
ments in Migne (PG. , Ixxiv. 757 — 774 1007 — 1024) relative to the Apo
calypse, the Epistle of James, the i. and 2. of Peter, the i. of John,
and the Catholic Epistle of Jude. — Homilies and Letters : Homiletic frag
ments are extant in Pusey's edition of the commentary on the Gospel of
John (iii. 452—475). The Epistolae tres oecumenicae, already mentioned,
are (in Pusey) the second and third letters to Nestorius and the letter
to John of Antioch (see no. 6). Letter 80 attributed to Cyril by the
Chronicon Paschale is only a part of letter n. 260 of Basil the Great;
cf. G. Mercati, Varia Sacra, Rome, 1903, p. 60, n. i. Many works of
Cyril were translated into Latin during the life of the author by Marius
Mercator (§ 95, i), in particular the three letters to Nestorius, the two
apologies for the «anathematisms» , and the Scholia de incarnatione Uni-
geniti (among the works of Marius Mercator; Migne, PL., xlviii). In
addition to the works and fragments edited by Pusey and Nestle, con
siderable remnants of a commentary on Luke have been preserved in
an ancient Syriac version: S. Cyrilli Alexand. archiep. Commentarii in
Lucae evang. quae supersunt Syriace e manuscriptis apud Museum Britan-
nicum edidit R. Payne Smith, Oxford, 1858. A Commentary upon the
Gospel according to St. Luke, by S. Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria. Now
first translated into English from an ancient Syriac version by R. Payne
Smith, Oxford, 1859, 2 vols. Fragments of the homilies of Cyril of Alex
andria on the Gospel of St. Luke, edited from a Nitrian MS. by W. Wright,
London, 1874. An Armenian version of his works was published at
Constantinople, in 1717.
10. NEW VERSIONS. RECENSIONS. WORKS ON CYRIL. — A German trans
lation of select works of Cyril was published by H. Hayd, in the Biblio-
thek der Kirchenvater, Kempten, 1879. An English anonymous version
of the Commentary on the Gospel of John was published at London, 1880
to 1886, 2 vols. A. Ehrhard, Die Cyrill von Alexandrien zugeschriebene
Scrift ~£pl TYJ? TOO xuptou ivavHp(o-r]c7£(oc, ein Werk Theodorets von Cyrus
(Inaug.-Diss.), Tubingen, 1888. Id. , Eine unechte Marienhomilie des
hi. Cyrill von Alexandrien (i. e. the Encomium in S. Mariam Deiparam:
Migne, PG., Ixxvii. 1029—1040), in Rom. Quartalschr. f. christl. Altertums-
kunde und f. Kirchengesch. (1889), iii. 97—113. J. Kohlhofer, S. Cyrillus
Alexandrinus de sanctificatione (Diss. inaug.), Wiirzburg, 1866. J. Kopallik,
§ 77- ST- CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. 369
Cyrillus von Alexandrian, Mainz, 1881. N. Oa-yiSac, KopiXXoc 6 'AX&£av$peig;
dp/isTu'sxo-o; , Leipzig, 1884. F. Loofs, Leontius von Byzanz, Leipzig,
1887, i. 40 — 49. /r. Schdfer, Die Christologie des hi. Cyrillus von Alex-
andrien in der romischen Kirche, pp. 432 — 534, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1895), Ixxvii. 421 — 447. E. Weigl, Die Heilslehre des hi. Cyrill von
Alexandrien, Mainz, 1905. Cf. Hefele, Konziliengeschichte , 2. ed., ii.
141 — 288: «Die dritte allgemeine Synode zu Ephesus im Jahre 431. »
A. Rehrmann , Die Christologie des hi. Cyrillus von Alexandrien, Hildes-
heim, 1902. As to the responsibility of Cyril for the death of Hypatia,
cf. Fr. Schafer, in The Catholic University Bulletin (1902), viii. 441 — 453.
He denies it and lays the blame at the door of Orestes. E. Michaud,
St. Cyrille d'Alexandrie et 1'Eucharistie, in Revue internationale de The'o-
logie (1902), pp. 99—614 675—692.
11. NESTORIUS. - - The homilies and letters of Nestorius (f after 439)
were committed to the flames by order of Theodosius II. ; some fragments
of them are found in the Acts of the Council of Ephesus and in the
writings of Cyril (especially in the 5 books against the blasphemies of
Nestorius, see no. 4) and principally (see no. 9) in the versions of Marius
Mercator (Sermones 5 Nestorii adv. Dei genitricem Mariam, Nestorii ser-
mones 4 adv. haeresim Pelagianam etc.). The twelve counter-anathema-
tisms (see no. 2) have been saved only through the version of Mercator.
Some Greek homilies attributed to Chrysostom, Basil of Seleucia, and
other homilies delivered in Greek are more or less probably the work of
Nestorius, cf. P. Batiffol, in Revue Biblique (1900), ix. 329 — 353. F. Loofs,
Die Uberlieferung und Anordnung der Fragmente des Nestorius (Progr.),
Halle, 1904.
12. FRIENDS AND ALLIES OF CYRIL. -- One of the first opponents of
Nestorius was Proclus, in 426 made bishop of Cyzicus in the Propontis, and
in 434 made patriarch of Constantinople (f 446). There are attributed to
him 25 homilies (Migne, PG., Ixv. 679 — 850), the three last of which have
been translated from Syriac into Latin, a tractate or rather a fragment of one
on the tradition regarding the Holy Mass (-sp! -apaoojsto? TYJ? ftstaj XeitoupYiac)
(ib., 849 — 852), of very doubtful authenticity, and some letters (ib., 851
to 886) and fragments (ib., 885 — 888). A Syriac version of the last three
homilies is published by J. B. Chabot, in Rendiconti della R. Accademia
dei Lincei, Cl. di Scienze morali etc., ser. v. 5 (1896), 178 — 197. For the
celebrated Oratio I, De laudibus S. Mariae (Migne , PG., Ixv. 679 — 692),
cf. v. Lehner, Die Marienverehrung in den ersten Jahrhunderten , 2. ed.,
Stuttgart, 1886, pp. 8 1 213—217. -- A new letter of Proclus, that re
sembles a profession of faith and is addressed Ad singulos occidentis epi-
scopos, is found in Spicilegium Casinense i. 144 — 147. Another letter to
Isaac the Great is found in the Book of letters, ed. J. Ismireanz, Tiflis,
1901. --In 430 some monks of Constantinople, among them Basilius and
Thalassius, wrote to the emperor Theodosius complaining of ill-treatment
by the patriarch Nestorius and asking for the convocation of an ecumenical
council (Migne, PG. , xci. 1471 — 1480). - - At the Council of Ephesus
Memnon , bishop of that city, was a valiant ally of Cyril ; we have from
his hand one letter addressed in 431 to the clergy of Constantinople (ib.,
Ixxvii. 1463 — 1466). - Among the clergy of Constantinople none was
more energetic and influential at Ephesus in favor of Cyril than the archi
mandrite Dalmatius; two letters and a so-called apology bear his name
(ib. , Ixxxv. 1797 — 1802). • Theodotus, bishop of Ancyra in Galatia
(f before 446), defended the teaching of Cyril bravely at Ephesus ; he has
left us also an exposition of the creed of the 318 Fathers of the Council
of Nicaea (ib., Ixxvii. 1313 — 1348), six homilies (ib., Ixxvii. 1349 — 1432), and
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 24
370 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
some fragments (ib., Ixxvii. 1431—1432). — E. A.Wallis Budge, The martyr
dom and miracles of St. George of Cappadocia. The Coptic text edited
with an English translation (Oriental Text Series I), London, 1888. This
work contains besides an account of the martyrdom and miracles of
St. George, two panegyrics on the Saint, the first of which (pp. 38 — 44
236—241) is attributed to Theodosius, Monophysite patriarch of Jerusalem
(t after 453); the second and the much longer one (pp. 83—172 274—331)
is said to be the work of Theodotus, bishop of Ancyra. — Firmus, bishop
of Csesarea in Cappadocia, left 45 short letters (Migne, PG., Ixxvii. 1481
to 1514); Acacius, bishop of Melitene, left one homily and two letters
(ib., Ixxvii. 1467 — 1472); also two letters in Armenian, one to Isaac the
Great, the other «to the Armenians*, cf.Ismireanz, 1. c. Of Amphilochius,
bishop of Side in Pamphylia, one fragment of a letter (ib., Ixxvii. 1515 to
1516) has survived. All three bishops were very prominent at Ephesus in
support of Cyril.
13. ADVERSARIES OF CYRIL. --At the beginning of the conflict, John,
patriarch of Antioch (f 441), took the side of Nestorius (see no. 2), but
in 433 was reconciled to Cyril and accepted his view of the heresiarch;
a few letters of John are extant (Migne, PG., Ixxvii. 1449 — 1462). --At
Ephesus, Paul, bishop of Emesa, had been an adherent of the Antiochenes,
but later on was mediator between John and Cyril ; two or three homilies
and a letter bear his name (ib., Ixxvii. 1433 — 1444). -- Andrew, bishop
of Samosata, attacked in the name of the bishops of Syria the anathema-
tisms of Cyril ; some large fragments of his work are extant in the apology
of Cyril (see no. 4), also a few letters (ib., Ixxxv. 1611 — 1612). — For the
writings of Theodoret of Cyrus against Cyril see § 78, 7. There is also extant
a letter of the priest (later on a bishop) Ibas of Edessa (f 457) to Maris,
bishop of Hardaschir in Persia (Mansi , SS. Cone. Coll. vii. 241 — 250),
written probably in 433, in opposition to the anathematisms of Cyril; it
obtained a deplorable celebrity during the controversy of the Three Chapters,
14. EUSEBIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. -- According to an ancient biography
of him, claiming to be the work of a certain John, notary of the Church
of Alexandria (Mignc , PG. , Ixxxvi i, 297 — 310), Eusebius was a monk
famed for his virtue, whom Cyril himself consecrated as his successor,
and who governed the Alexandrine community for seven (elsewhere John
says twenty) years. As a matter of fact it was Dioscurus (§ 78, 12) who
succeeded Cyril on the see of Alexandria. So far it has been impossible
to throw any light on the personality of this alleged bishop Eusebius.
A goodly number of homilies bear the name of Eusebius of Alexandria.
Augusti maintained (1829) that they were the work of Eusebius of Emesa,
but Thilo showed (1832) that some at least are ascribed in the manuscripts
to Eusebius of Alexandria (§ 61, 2). A. Mai discovered and published
several other discourses under the name of Eusebius of Alexandria, but
intrinsic evidences indicate that they were composed during the fifth cen
tury. In Migne (PG., Ixxxvi i, 313—462) may be found 22 (21) Sermones
Eusebii Alexandrini Episcopi.
§ 78. Theodoret of Cyrus.
i. HIS LIFE. - This the most learned of the adversaries of Cyril
was born at Antioch about 386 (393?), and received his early train
ing in the monastic schools of that city. Chrysostom and Theodore
of Mopsuestia were his masters, Nestorius and John of Antioch his
fellow-students. In 423 he was made bishop of Cyrus, a small town
§ 78- THEODORET OF CYRUS. 3/1
of Syria about two days' journey from Anttoch, but subject to the
metropolitan of Hierapolis. Cyrus was the capital of the territory of
Cyrestica, a wild and mountainous but thickly populated region. In
this office Theodoret displayed tireless zeal, also much generosity
and self-sacrifice. He was especially successful in restoring the unity
of faith among his diocesans. He could write in 449 to Pope Leo:
«With the aid of divine grace I have cleansed more than a thousand
souls from the virus of Marcion, and from the party of Arius and
Eunomius. I have led back many others to Christ the Lord1.)) It
was his interest in the purity of traditional doctrine that led him to
enter the lists against Cyril and his anathematisms ; he was himself
deeply imbued with the theological ideas of the Antiochene school,
and believed that the heresy of Apollinaris was lurking in the teach
ings of Cyril. He maintained these views even after the decisions
of the council of Ephesusx and refused to give his adhesion to the
terms of reconciliation between Cyril and the bishops of the East in
433. The Union-Creed that Cyril then accepted was probably the
work of Theodoret, who saw in this act of Cyril a withdrawal of the
error contained in his anathematisms; moreover, Theodoret was thereby
strengthened in his refusal to condemn Nestorius, the friend of his
youth. It was only in 435, apparently, that he joined the « Union »,
after John of Antioch had renounced his demand for a formal re
cognition of the condemnation of Nestorius. During the later Mono-
physite controversies this attitude of Theodoret was the source to
him of many and great sufferings. Eutyches, archimandrite of Con
stantinople, asserted that there was in Christ but one nature, fj.ia
<P>JGIQ, not in the sense of one individual person, as Cyril had taught
(§ 77^ 7)> Dut in tne sense of a compound nature, in which both
divinity and humanity had been fused together. Thereby Eutyches
affirmed the contrary error or the opposite extreme to Nestorianism,
and Dioscurus, patriarch of Alexandria, a rude and uncultured man,
sympathized with the ideas of Eutyches ; so at the Robber- Synod of
Ephesus (449) Dioscurus deposed, without a hearing, Theodoret and
other friends of Nestorius. Theodoret appealed to Pope Leo, but
was compelled to yield to Monophysite violence and to go into
exile. In the following year emperor Marcian recalled him and
Pope Leo re-instated him in his see. He assisted at the Council of
Chalcedon (451) though Dioscurus and the Monophysites did their
best to exclude him ; this time he concurred in the anathema against
Nestorius and was thoroughly rehabilitated. Thenceforth he lived in
peace, concerned only with the business of his diocese and his literary
labors. He died (458) in communion with the Church.
2. APOLOGETIC WRITINGS. - - Theodoret is the author of the last
and most perfect of the early Graeco-Christian apologies. It is entitled
1 EP. 113-
24*
372 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
« Healing of the heathen ailments, or knowledge of the Gospel truth
by way of Hellenic philosophy » : sAtyvix&v ftepax&jTtxr} na^ftdrtov
y eitarrzhrfq dtyMaq e$ kMyvtxrfi <pdoao<piat; Impxafftg, known also
as «Graecarum affectionum curatio» *. The preface shows that this title
is original ; the second half of the title indicates the plan and the spirit
of the work. He begins (book i) by the explanation and refutation
of the heathen objection that the apostles were not men of scientific
culture; thereupon he compares (books 2 — 12) the answers given
respectively by Christians and heathens to various fundamental
questions of philosophy and theology: origin of the world, world
of spirits, matter and cosmos, nature of man etc. In this way the
light of truth shines with an enhanced splendor in contrast to the dark
ness of falsehood. In this work he made large use of all preceding-
apologies, especially the «Stromata» of Clement of Alexandria and
the « Evangelical Preparation » of Eusebius of Caesarea. It was com
posed, according to Gamier, in 427. The ten long and beautiful
discourses : xepl xpovoiaq Xoyot t 2, on God's Providence in the govern
ment of the world (Theism versus Deism), are also apologetic in cha
racter; they were delivered at Antioch very probably about 432.
3. DOGMATICO-POLEMICAL WRITINGS. — To the year 430, apparent
ly, belongs the famous « Refutation (dvarponTj) of the twelve ana-
thematisms of Cyril. In his answer, the latter reproduced it, most
probably in its entirety3, thereby saving its text for posterity. Theo-
doret wrote also a Pentalogium (five books) against Cyril and the
Council of Ephesus, but it has perished with the exception of a
few fragments4. The two books «On the holy and vivifying Trinity »
and «On the Incarnation of the Lord» 5 that Ehrhard has success
fully restored to Theodoret, were written between 431 and 435. In
both of them Cyril and the Fathers of Ephesus are depicted as
heirs of the Apollinarist heresy. Theodoret wrote, about 447, an
extensive work against Eutychianism or Monophysitism, entitled «The
Beggar or the Polymorph» : IpaviaiyQ yroi nokjfj.op<po<;*. He explains
in the preface that the title is justified by the conduct of the Mono-
physites, whose heresy is nothing more than an ancient miscellaneous
folly collected, beggar-wise, from Simon Magus, Cerdo, Marcion,
Valentinus, Bardesanes, Apollinaris, Arius and Eunomius. It is
divided into four books, in three of which he sets forth by way of
dialogues between a Beggar and an Orthodox (believer) the un
changeable farpsTTTOQj character of the divinity of Christ, the non-
mixture (dffUfxuTOQJ of the divinity and humanity, and the im
passibility (dxaftycj of the divinity; the fourth book is a syllogistic
1 Migne, PG., Ixxxiii. 783—1152. 2 Ib., Ixxxiii. 555 — 774.
3 Ib., Ixxvi. 385—452; cf. § 77, 4. 4 Ib> lxxxiv 65_88.
Ib., Ixxv. 1147—1190 1419—1478; cf. § 77, 4.
6 Ib., Ixxxiii. 27 — 336.
§ 78. THEODORET OF CYRUS. 373
summary (dxodsisstQ ota ffuUo^ff/jtco^J of the preceding argument.
He wrote other dogmatico polemical works that have perished.
4. EXEGETICAL WRITINGS. - - They are partly treatises on Bible-
texts, partly continuous scripture-commentaries. He wrote treatises
of the first kind on the Octateuch (Pentateuch, Josue, Judges, Ruth) *,
on the 4 Books of Kings and also on the 2 Books of Paralipomenon2;
both of these works proceed by way of question and answer, and
were composed toward the end of his life. There are also extant
commentaries on the Psalms3, on the Canticle of canticles4, on all
the prophets 5, on the Epistles of St. Paul 6. Theodoret is held to be
the greatest exegete of Graeco- Christian antiquity. Indeed, his com
mentaries are both copious and excellent in contents, also incomparable
models of exegetical style, by reason of their compactness, brevity,
and transparent lucidity of diction. His hermeneutical principles are
those of the Antiochene school, yet he never falls into the excessive
literalness of Theodore of Mopsuestia, as may be seen in the preface
to his commentary on the Psalms7, or in his defence of the alle
gorical significance of the Canticle of canticles in the preface of his
commentary8 on it. He does not pretend to originality, though he
is not content with being merely a compiler of other men's thoughts9.
It may be said that with Theodoret the golden age of the Antio
chene school closes; it fell to him to hand over to posterity its
highest achievements, and right nobly did he perform his task.
5. HISTORICAL WRITINGS. -- His historical writings are also very
valuable. His Church History Ixxkqmaarticq iaTOpia 10, written about
450, takes up the narrative where Eusebius (§ 62, 2) left off, and
treats in five books the vicissitudes of the Church from the beginning
of the Arian controversies to the outbreak of Nestorianism (323
to about 428). The narrative centres chiefly about the patriarchate
ofAntioch. He made use not only of Eusebius, but also of Socrates,
Sozomen, and probably of Rufinus. His History of the Monks, <pdo-
ttsoQ iaropia YJ daxTjTtTcq TtoAireia n, written about 444, is a very inter
esting account of the life of celebrated Christian ascetics in the
East; it closes with a treatise on the love of God (7tep\ TTJQ ttsiaQ
xat a^'iaq d-ydirygj as exhibited in the ascetic life12. The « Compen
dium of Heretical Fables », alperiXTJg xaxofjiuftiag imrofi't)^, composed
certainly after the Council of Chalcedon (451), develops in 4 books
1 Ib., Ixxx. 75—528. 2 Ib., Ixxx. 527—858.
3 Ib., Ixxx. 857 — 1998; cf. the supplements, ib., Ixxxiv. 19—32.
4 Ib., Ixxxi. 27 — 214.
5 Ib., Ixxxi. 215 — 1988; the collection of scholia (ib , 215 — 494) represents the
original text of the commentary on Isaias.
6 Ib., Ixxxii. 35—878. 7 Ib., Ixxx. 860. 8 Ib., Ixxxi. 29 ff.
•} Cf. preface to Daniel : ib., Ixxxi. 1257, and to the minor prophets: ib., Ixxxi. 1548.
0 Ib., Ixxxii. 881 — 1280. 1J II)., Ixxxii. 1283—1496.
12 Ib., Ixxxii. 1497—1522. 13 Ib., Ixxxiii. 335—556.
374
SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
and in a very concise way the history of heresies since the time of
Simon Magus; in the fifth book he confronts the «variations of error»
with a sketch of dogmatic and moral faith as found in the Church.
The chapter on Nestorius, toward the end of the fourth book, is
considered spurious by some scholars.
6. HOMILIES AND LETTERS. - - Most of his homilies have perished.
The authenticity of the homily on the Nativity of St. John the Bap
tist1 is very doubtful. Photius has preserved2 some passages of the
five highly laudatory orations on Chrysostom. There are also extant
some homiletic fragments in Latin3. His (ten) discourses on Provi
dence already mentioned (see no. 2] are not genuine homilies. -
Many of his letters have been preserved 4. Not to speak of their value
for the history of dogma and the history of the Church, these letters
of Theodoret have always been prized for the polish and grace of
their style, their felicitous diction, and the unpretentious learning
that they display. The 48 letters first made known by Sakkelion
(1885) exhibit the great bishop principally in his practical relations
with the citizens of his episcopal city and the imperial magistrates
at Constantinople.
7. CHRISTOLOGY OF THEODORET. -- In his book against the ana-
thematisms of Cyril, the Nestorian thesis of a double hypostasis in
Christ is accepted and defended by Theodoret. The Fifth Ecumenic
al Council of Constantinople (553) condemned this work, together
with the Pentalogium, and some letters and homilies in which Theo
doret had manifested his opposition to Cyril and the Council of
Ephesus and his sympathies for Nestorius. In his work on the In
carnation of our Lord he begins by rejecting expressly any polemic
al tendency, but proceeds neverthele'ss to defend Nestorian doctrine.
He accepts the term -dsoroxoq only in an improper sense and main
tains that the term uvftpcanoruxos is (at least) as justifiable. «The
Blessed Virgin», he says at the end, «is called by the masters of
piety both Mother of God and Mother of Man, the latter because
she bore in reality one like unto herself (coc, (poaet TOM eotxora yzv-
rfaaffaj; the former because the figure of the slave is united with
the figure of the divinity (wq TTJQ TO~J dooAo'j [j.op<p7J<; xat tieou nyi/
poptpty yyconivyv iyooar^: c. 35)*. It was only at a later date and
gradually that Theodoret gre\v reconciled to the anathematisms of
Cyril and accepted formally and professed the ecclesiastical doctrine
of one person in two natures. Though there are some difficulties in
the way of this statement, as defended after others by Bertram
(1883), it remains true that in the eighth session of the Council of
Chalcedon (Oct. 26., 451) Theodoret pronounced « anathema to Ne
storius and to whoever does not call the Blessed Virgin Mary the
1 Migne, PG., Ixxxiv. 33—48. 2 Ib., Ixxxiv. 47—54.
3 Ib., Ixxxiv. 53—64. 4 Ib., Lxxxiii. 1173 — 1494.
§ 78. THEODORET OF CYRUS. 3/5
Mother of God and divides into two the only Son, the only-Begotten ».
Thereupon he was solemnly recognized as an « orthodox teacher »
by all the Fathers of the Council1.
8. SPURIOUS WRITINGS. — Seven dialogues, De trinitate adversus Anomoeos,
Macedonianos, Apollinaristas (Migne, PG., xxviii. 1115 — 1338, among the
works of St. Athanasius: Dialogi V de trinitate and Dialogi II contra
Macedonianos) were defended as genuine works of Theodoret by y. Gamier,
Dissertatio de libris Theodoreti App. (ib., Ixxxiv. 367 — 394), but are now
generally considered spurious. According to J. Draseke the first three of
these seven dialogues were composed by Apollinaris ofLaodicea (§ 61, 4);
this is denied by G. Voizin, in Revue d'hist. eccles. (1901), ii. 40 — 55, who
refers them to an unknown author of the fifth century. The little work,
Gontra Nestorium ad Sporacium (ib., Ixxxiii. 1153 — 1164) was recognized
as spurious by J. Gamier. The 17 treatises, Adversus varias propositiones
i. e. against expressions of Cyril and his orthodox sympathizers (ib., xxviii.
1337 — 1394, among the works of St. Athanasius under the title: Confuta-
tiones quarumdam propositionum) are probably, as Garnerius suggests,
the work ofEutherius ofTyana, a Nestorian sympathizer, deposed in 431.
For the last two and other spurious works see Gamier , 1. c., c. 8 (ib.,
Ixxxiv. 351 — 362). The Quaestiones et responsiones ad orthodoxos of tl>e
pseudo-Justinus (cf. § 17, 6) were also erroneously attributed to Theodoret,
and published as his by A. Papadopulos-Kerameus , St. Petersburg, 1895;
cf. A. Ehrhard, in Byzant. Zeitschr. (1897), vi. 609 — 611.
9. COMPLETE EDITIONS. VERSIONS. — A complete edition of the works
of Theodoret, with a Latin version (B. Theodoreti episc. Cyri opera omnia),
was brought out by J. Sirmond, S. J., Paris, 1642, 4 vols. An appendix
{B. Theodoreti episc. Cyri auctarium sive operurn t. v) was made by y. Gar-
nier (f 1681), Paris, 1684. This appendix contains among new works and
fragments the following very erudite, but very prejudiced studies : Historia
Theodoreti, De libris Theodoreti, De fide Theodoreti, de v. Synodo gene-
rali, De Theodoreti et Orientalium causa. The edition of Sirmond (and
Gamier), was reprinted with improvements and additions by J. L. Schuhe
(and y. A. Nosselt), Halle, 1769 — 1774, 5 vols. (Migne, PG., Ixxx — Ixxxiv,
Paris, 1860). Select works of Theodoret were translated into German
by L. Kiipper, Kempten, 1878 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater).
10. SEPARATE EDITIONS AND RECENSIONS. -- Apologetical works : A se
parate edition of the Graecarum affectionum curatio was brought out by
Th. Gaisford, Oxford, 1839. The relations of the «Stromata» of Clement
and of the «Praeparatio evangelica» to the apologetical writings of Theo
doret are illustrated by C. Roos, De Theodoreto Clementis et Eusebii com-
pilatore (Diss. inaug.), Halle, 1883. As to whether and how far Theodoret
intended his apology to be a reply to the three books of Julian, cf. J. R.
Asmus, in Byzant. Zeitschr. (1894), iii. 116 — 145, 23\&J.Raeder, De Theo
doreti Graecarum affectionum curatione quaestiones criticae, Kopenhagen,
1900; Id., Analecta Theodoretiana, in Rhein. Museum, new series (1902),
Ixvii. 449 — 459 (on a new codex, one of the oldest and most important
for the text of Theodoret). - - For a Bodleian Psalm-catena containing
unedited fragments of Theodoret cf. M. Faulhaber, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1901), Ixxxiii. 218 — 232. — Eccegetical works : Fr. A. Spccht, Der exegetische
Standpunkt des Theodor von Mopsuestia und Theodoret von Kyros in der
Auslegung messianischer Weissagungen aus ihren Kommentaren zu den
kleinen Propheten dargestellt, Munich, 1871. -- Historical works: The
1 Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., vii. 189.
376 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
editio princeps of his Church History was published by H. Valesius, Paris,
1673, et saepius (§ 62, 7); the latest edition is that of Th. Gaisford, Oxford,
1854. A. Giildenpenning, Die Kirchengeschichte des Theodoret von Kyr-
rhos. Eine Untersuchung ihrer Quellen, Halle, 1889. Cf. G. Rauschen,
:pu>TOv
Athens, 1885. "
11. WORKS ON THEODORET. — Late^studies of a general character are:
Ad. Bertram, Theodoreti episc. Cyreiisis doctrina christologica , Hildes-
heim, 1883. N. Glubokowski , The Blessed Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus
(Russian), Moscow, 1890, 2 vols. ; cf. Harnack, in Theol. Literaturzeitung
(1890), pp. 502—504.
12. DIOSCURUS. -- Under the name of Dioscurus (see no. i), the suc
cessor of Cyril, who occupied the see of Alexandria from 444 to 45 1 and
died in exile at Gangra in Paphlagonia (Sept. 4., 454), there was made
public and translated into French by E. Amtlineau , in the Monuments
pour servir a 1'histoire de 1'Egypte chretienne aux IVe et Ve siecles, Paris,
1888 (cf. § 77, 8), pp. 92 — 164, a Coptic panegyric on Macarius of Tkhou.
This panegyric exhibits a discourse on the Council of Chalcedon addressed
to an Egyptian embassy, charged with making known to the former patri
arch in his exile at Gangra the death of the aforesaid Macarius. It is
neither a genuine nor a trustworthy work. Cf. F. Nau, Histoire de Dios-
core, patriarche d'Alexandrie, ecrite par son disciple Theophiste, Syriac
and French, in Journal Asiatique, series X (1903), i. 5 — 108 241 — 310.
It has also been edited from the Coptic by W. E. Crum , in Proceedings
of the Society of Biblical Archeology (1903), xxv. 267 — 276.
§ 79. Other writers of the first half of the fifth century.
i. MACARIUS MAGNES, APOLOGIST. - - Macarius Magnes (i. e. of
Magnesia) is the author of an extensive apologetic work, first made
known by Blondel, in 1876, but in a very defective and incomplete
manner. The work relates in five books an (imaginary) dispute of
five days' duration between the author and a pagan philosopher. The
latter attacks or caricatures certain passages of the New Testament,
especially the Gospels and the Acts, while the former defends and
expounds the biblical text, not unfrequently with far-fetched refine
ment. The philosopher's objections are mostly taken from the (lost)
books of the Neoplatonist Porphyry (f ca. 304) «Against the Christ
ians ». The original title of the « Apology » was probably «Uni-
genitus, or a reply to the heathens» : /JLOVO^S^Q y dxoxptTtxbc, xpo<;
"E/Jyvaq: it is possible that in the (lost) prologue of the work we
should recognize the motive for the principal title. Intrinsic evidence
makes it probable that the work was composed after 410. It is al
most certain that the author was Macarius, bishop of Magnesia (in
Caria or in Lydia), who, according to Pkotius1, in 403 stood forth
at the « Synod of the Oak» (§ 74, 4) as the accuser of Heraclides,
1 Bibl. Cod. 59.
§ 79- OTHER WRITERS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE FIFTH CENTURY. 377
bishop of Ephesus and friend of Chrysostom. Under the name of
the same Magnes are current also some fragments of an exposition
of Genesis.
Maxapiou Ma'-fVYj-co? 'Airoxpitixos r, MOVOYSVTQC. Macarii Magnetis quae
supersunt ex inedito codice edidit C. Blondel, Paris, 1876. L. Duchesne,
De Macario Magnete et scriptis eius, Paris, 1877. Cf. Th. Zahn, in Zeit-
schrift f. Kirchengesch. (1877 — 1878), ii. 450 — 459; Wagenmann, in Jahrb. f.
Deutsche Theol. (1878), xxiii. 269 — 314; C. J. Neumann, Scriptorum grace,
qui christianam impugnaverunt religionem quae supersunt, fasc. Ill, Leipzig,
1880, pp. 14 — 23 245. The Genesis-fragments are found in Duchesne, De
Macario Magnete, pp. 39 — 43, and mPitra, Analecta sacra et classica, Paris,
1888, part i, pp. 31 — 37. Additional fragments were published by A. Sauer,
in Festschrift zum elfhundertjahrigen Jubilaum des deutschen Campo Santo
in Rom, Freiburg i. Br. , 1897, pp. 291 — 295. On a quotation from Ma-
carius (ii. 22) relative to the presence of St. Peter at Rome, and taken
from a heathen writer, cf. A. Harnack, in Theol. Literaturzeitung (1902),
pp. 604 — 605. y. If. Bernard, Macarius Magnes, in Journal of Theol.
Studies (1901), ii. 610 — 6n. — De sancta trinitate, De effectu baptismi,
De cruce (Migne, PG., xl. 847—866) in the form of dialogues, were said
to belong to Jerome , a priest of Jerusalem , about the end of the fourth
century, but it appears that the work from which they are taken must have
been written in the eighth century. Cf. P. Batiffol, Jer6me de Jerusalem
d'apres un document inedit, in Revue des questions historiques, Paris, 1886,
xxxix. 248 — 255. The same Jerome is quoted in a Psalm-catena, cf. Ehr-
hard, in Krumbacher, Gesch. der byzant. Literatur (2. ed.), p. 214.
2. CHURCH HISTORIANS. — About 430 the priest Philippus Sidetes
(of Side in Pamphylia) published a « Christian History » (ypKrciavwrj
iarop'ia), that is described by Socrates 1 as a very extensive but
rambling work, and without chronological sequence. This work and
the same author's reply to the three books of Julian « Against the
Galilaeans» 2 have been lost, with the exception of a fragment and
some anonymous extracts. A similar fate befell three other ec
clesiastical histories more or less of the same period: the Church
history (ixxtyataanxr] wTopiar) of Hesychius, a priest of Jerusalem
(see no 3), the IxxtyataaTixYj \aropia of Timotheus, Apollinarist bishop
of Berytus, and the collection of the acts of the councils (auvayaiffj
TOJV cr'jyodixojvj, made by Sabinus, Macedonian bishop of Heraclea in
Thrace. The work of Hesychius furnished the Fathers of the fifth
General Council (553) with a portrait of Theodore of Mopsuestia3.
Timotheus, according to Leontius of Byzantium 4, had no other pur
pose than to glorify Apollinaris ; with that end in view he collected
a multitude of letters between the heresiarch and his contemporaries.
Sabinus dealt with the Eastern synods from that of Nicasa to the time
of Valens (364 — 378); Socrates5 accuses him repeatedly of deliberate
alteration and falsification of facts in the interest of the Semiarians.
1 Hist, eccl., vii. 26 — 27; cf. Phot., Bibl. Cod. 35.
'2 Socr., Hist, eccl., vii. 27. 3 Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., ix. 248 — 249.
4 Adv. Nest, et Eut., iii. 40. 5 Hist, eccl., i. 8 9; ii. 15 17, etc.
378 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
The ecclesiastical history (IxxtyffiaGTCxy laropia) of Philostorgius, Eu-
nomian bishop in Cappadocia, was more widely read than the preceding
ones, although it was also, according to Photius1 «less a history than
an eulogy of the (Arian) heretics and a defamatory onslaught on the
orthodox*; it treated in twelve books the period from the first
appearance of Arius to 423. Photius made a considerable extract from
it, and some small fragments also have been preserved2. About the
middle of the fifth century three other ecclesiastical histories that
have reached us in their entirety were produced. Socrates, an advocate
((jyoAacfTixoQ) of Constantinople, announces formally that he intends
to continue the Church History of Eusebius (§ 62, 2). In the seven
books of his Church History (ixxArjaiacnxT] iaToptaJ3, he treats the
period from the abdication of Diocletian (305) to 439. His diction
is more plain and simple than that of Eusebius, and he is also more
sincere and upright in his narrative; in Socrates there is also mani
fest a capacity to examine the sources of his historical information
and to trace out the relations of cause and effect in the events that
he relates. In the first half of his work he made use of Eusebius
and Rufinus, also of Sabinus and the historico-polemical writings of
St. Athanasius. Less important is the production of another advocate
of Constantinople, Hermias Sozomenus Salaminius. His work (sxxhqmd-
(jTtxrj iaropia)* is divided into nine books and reaches from 324 to
425. The frequent parallelism of narrative in these two writers had
always awakened a suspicion of literary dependency on one side : it
is now ascertained that Sozomen frequently copies the text of So
crates, though he often consults the latter's authorities and then
enlarges his precedessor's narrative with materials borrowed directly
from them. Sozomen also wrote a compendium of ecclesiastical
history5 from the Ascension to 323, the year of the overthrow of
Licinius, but it has perished. For the ecclesiastical history of Theo-
doret cf. § 78, 5.
C. de Boor, Zur Kenntnis der Handschriften der griechischen Kirchen-
historiker. Codex Baroccianus 142, in Zeitchr. f. Kirchengesch. (1883 to
1884), vi. 478 — 494 (a critical description of the fourteenth- or fifteenth-
century Oxford codex (Barocc. 142) that contains a collection of extracts
from the Greek ecclesiastical historians, made probably in the seventh or
eighth century. This codex furnishes the extracts from Philippus Sidetes:
An extract on the masters of the Alexandrine schools is found in H. Dod-
well, Dissertationes in Irenaeum, Oxford, 1689, p. 488; several small ex
tracts and fragments of Papias, Hegesippus and Pierius are to be seen in
de Boor, Texte und Untersuchungen (1888), v 2, 165 — 184. For a frag
ment of Philippus of Side cf. Neumann, 1. c. (see no. i), p. 34. For Timo-
theus of Berytus cf. § 61, 4. Fr. Geppert , Die Quellen des Kirchen-
histonkers Sokrates Scholasticus, Leipzig, 1898, in Studien zur Gesch. der
1 Bibl. Cod. 40. 2 Mignft pG ^ jXVt 459_638- 3 Ib-> kvii> 39—842.
4 Ib., Ixvii. 843—1630. 5 Sozom., Hist, eccl., i. i.
§ 79- OTHER WRITERS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE FIFTH CENTURY. 379
Theol. und der Kirche, iii. 4, attempted a reconstruction of the history of
the Councils by Sabinus; cf. P. Batiffol, in Byzant. Zeitschrift (1898), vii.
265 — 284, and (1901), x. 128 — 143. The editio princeps of the fragments
of Philostorgius and of Socrates and Sozomen is due to H. Valesius,
Paris, 1673 et saepius; cf. § 62, 7. The Valesius-Reading edition (Cam
bridge, 1720) is reprinted in Migne, PG., Ixv — Ixvii. A separate edition
of Socrates was brought out by R. Hussey, Oxford, 1853, 3 vols., and one
of Sozomen by the same, ib., 1860, 3 vols. An Armenian version of So
crates, by Philo Tirachazi (seventh century), was edited by M. Ter. Mosesean,
Valarschapat, 1897. — L. Jeep, Quellenuntersuchungen zu den griechischen
Kirchenhistorikern, Leipzig, 1884. P. Batiffol, Quaestiones Philostorgianae
(Thesis), Paris, 1891; Jeep, Zur Uberlieferung des Philostorgius, Leipzig,
1898, in Texte und Untersuchungen , xvii, new series, ii. 3b. Geppert,
1. c. -- On June 30., 446, Hypatius, the spiritual father of all the monks
in and around Constantinople, died in the monastery of Rufinianae near
Chalcedon, at the age of eighty. He was held in high esteem by the
emperor Theodosius II. and the royal family. His eventful and highly bene
ficent career was described in a plain and popular style about 447 — 450
by his disciple and companion Callinicus. The defective edition of this
extensive biography in the Acta SS. Jun. , Venet. 1743, iii. 308 — 349, is
now replaced by a complete edition published at Bonn, 1895, by the
members of the Philological Seminar of that university.
3. EXEGETES. - The monk and priest Adrian, or Hadrian, who
must have lived about the first half of the fifth century and belonged
to the circle of Antiochene exegetes, wrote an introduction to the
Sacred Scripture: slaafwpy e«£ rac, ftsiaq fpapaQ1, in which he ex
plained the origin and meaning of the figurative expressions of
Scripture, principally those of the Old Testament. The term « Intro
duction to Scripture » appears for the first time in this work, and
indicates what was afterwards known as hermeneutics. - - The ex-
egetical principles of the Antiochene school were developed much
more clearly and definitely by St. Isidore, priest and abbot of a
mountain monastery near Pelusium in Egypt (f ca. 440). Though he
did not compose, as far as we know, any considerable exegetical
work, the greater part of his correspondence, about 2000 letters in
five books2, deals with exegetical subjects. As a disciple of St. Chryso-
stom, he follows the grammatico-historical method of the Antiochene
school, but without rejecting allegorical interpretations when they
serve the purpose of edification. In this copious collection of letters
there are many that deal with dogmatic or ascetico-moral matters,
even with personal affairs. They illustrate the author's own principle
of unaffected elegance3 and are praised by Photius as models of
epistolary style4. Two treatises of Isidore, casually mentioned in his
letters, on the non-existence of Fate (tofidtov xspi TOO iirt slvai
eifjLapfjLSvqv)6 and Against the heathens (Myoq Tcpoq "Ektyvas)*, are
not really lost to us; they are extant in the long letter addressed
1 Migne, PG., xcviii. 1273 — 1312. 2 Ib., Ixxviii. 177 — 1646.
3 Ep. v. 133. 4 Ep. ii. 44. 5 Ep. iii. 253. 6 Ep. ii. 137 228.
380 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
to the sophist Arpocras J. - The literary remains of the monk and
priest Hesychius of Jerusalem (f 433) await more thorough research.
Much of what has been current under his name belongs to writers of
the same name that lived at a later period. Other works, probably
written by him, have perished, at least in part, e. g. his ecclesiastical
history (see no. 2), while some of his writings remain still unedited.
In Migne he is credited with a diffuse and allegorical exposition of
Leviticus extant in Latin versions only, with some Greek Psalm-
fragments, and some scholia to Ezechiel, Daniel, Acts of the Apostles,
Epistle of James, First Peter, Jude 2. He is also the reputed author
of a so-called arr/ypov of the twelve minor prophets and of Isaias3
i. e. an analysis of the contents of these books, with a division of
the text into (jr'r/ot or chapters, and a collection of objections and
solutions: <TL>vaf(op] diioptwv xas sTttJjjffsojv*, a kind of harmony il
lustrating by way of question and answer 61 Gospel-problems. Finally,
there are extant under his name some homilies and fragments of ho
milies5, a collection of spiritual maxims entitled Directions for con
flict and prayer (uLVTifipyTtxa xal suxrixdj6, also a: MartyriumS. Longini
centurionis 7. Besides new specimens of his gloss on the minor pro
phets, the complete text of his gloss on Isaias has been lately
published by Faulhaber. Hesychius belongs to the school of the
allegorists.
Adrian's ajcqw"^ si? -a? fkias Ypacpa?, aus neu aufgefundenen Hand-
schriften herausgegeben, ubersetzt und erlautert von Fr. Gossling, Berlin,
1888. P. B. Glueck , Isidori Pelusiotae summa doctrinae moralis, Wiirz-
burg, 1848. Z. Bober, De arte hermeneutica S. Isidori Pelusiotae, Cracow,
1878. E. L. A, Bouvy , De S. Isidore Pelusiota libri iii, Nimes, 1885.
See also V. Lundstrom , De Isidori Pelusiotae epistolis recensendis prae-
iusiones, in Eranos (1897), ii. 68—80. N. Capo, De S. Isidori Pelusiotae
epistularum locis ad antiquitatem pertinentibus, in Bessarione, vi (1901—1902),
series II, i. 342 — 363 ; Id., De S. Isidori Pelusiotae epistolarum recensione
ac numero quaestio , in Studi italiani di filologia (1901), ix. 449—466;
| 40, 4- C. H. Turner, The Letters of St. Isidore of Pelusium, in Journal
of Theol. Studies (1904), vi. 70—86. E. K, Lake, Further Notes on the Mss.
of Isidore of Pelusium, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1905), vi. 270—282. -
For glosses of Hesychius on Abdias and Zacharias see M. Faulhaber, Die
Prophetenkatenen nach romischen Handschriften , Freiburg i. Br. , 1899
Jibhsche Studien, iv. 2—3), pp. 21—26 32—33. Hesychii Hierosolymi-
mterpretatio Isaiae prophetae, nunc primum in lucem edita a M. Faul
haber , Freiburg i. Br., 1900; Faulhaber, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1901),
i. 218—232, and G. Mercati, in Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana
itica (Studi e testi v), Rome, 1901, have shown that the Psalm-commen-
ary printed among the works of St. Athanasius (Migne, PG., xxvii. 649
to 1344) belongs to Hesychius. B. Sargisean, in Compte-rendu du IVe Congres
scientifique mternat. des Catholiques (Freiburg in Switzerland, i;
EP' "'• '54- * Migne, PG., xciii. 787—1180; 1179—1340; 1385—1392.
Ib., xciii. i339_I386. * Ib, xciii. 1391 — 1448.
Ib., xciii. 1449— I48o. e Ib; xdi
} Ib., xciii. 1545 — 1560.
§79- OTHER WRITERS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE FIFTH CENTURY. 381
pp. 216 — 218, mentions an Armenian version of a commentary on Job
said to be the work of our Hesychius.
4. ASCETIC WRITERS. - - A certain Palladius, disciple of the Ori-
genist writer Evagrius Ponticus and later on a bishop in Asia Minor,
compiled about 420 a number of monastic biographies (y rcpbc, AO.IHJO^
iGTOpia xepiiyouaa ftlouQ baicov -xaripcov) 1, knowrn as Historia Laustaca
(Aaufftaxov, Aauffa'ixov) from the name of Lausus, a prominent official
to whom the work \vas addressed. This Palladius is easily identified
with the biographer of Chrysostom (§ 74, 1 8) and must not be con
founded with the contemporary Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis in
Bithynia. During two journeys he had seen with his own eyes the
monastic life principally in Egypt and Palestine, he also probably
had access to special works on the subject. Sozomen2 tells us that
Timotheus, patriarch of Alexandria (380 — 384), had already published
a (lost) collection of monastic biographies. The Historia Lausiaca
is a reliable and valuable authority for the history of primitive
monachism. It was a beloved work of edification in the monasteries,
and was, therefore, often translated and arbitrarily re-arranged.
Preuschen and Butler have shown that it is possible to reconstruct
the original text. The usual text3 is interpolated through the in
corporation with it of a Greek: Historia monachorum in Aegypto,
Preuschen maintains that the incorporated text is a Greek translation
of the Latin : Historia monachorum, of Rufinus of Aquileia, while
Butler concludes that the interwoven text is the Greek original itself,
translated into Latin by Rufinus. - - Prominent among the ascetic
writers of this period is St. Nilus, who resigned a high office at the
imperial court, and with his son Theodulus took refuge with the
monks of Mount Sinai among whom he died ca. 430. His works
may be divided, apart from a few fragments, into treatises, letters,
and apophthegms4. The treatises deal partly with the principal virtues
of the Christian life and the contrary vices: Peristeria seu tractatus
de virtutibus excolendis et vitiis fugiendis, De oratione, De octo
spiritibus malitiae, De vitiis quae opposita sunt virtutibus, De diversis
malignis cogitationibus, Sermo in effatum illud Lk. xxii. 36 ; and partly
with the monastic life in particular: Oratio in Albianum, De monastica
exercitatione, De voluntaria paupertate, De monachorum praestantia,
Tractatus ad Eulogium monachum. The: Narrationes de caede mon
achorum in monte Sinai, treat of events in the life of the author,
his son and the monks of Mount Sinai. Other treatises are generally
considered spurious ; but even as regards the above-mentioned there is
some uncertainty and confusion. Of the 1061 letters that Leo Allatius
published (1668) under the name of St. Nilus, only a very few can claim
1 Ib., xxxiv. 995 — 1287: columns 177 — 208 offer a r»e\y text-recension.
2 Hist, eccl., vi. 29. 3 Migne, 1. c. 4 Ib., Ixxix.
2 82 SECOND PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
to be original in their present shape ; all the others are clearly extracts
from letters or other writings. - - Marcus, known as Eremita (fjLoya%6(;,
aaxrjTTjq), was, according to Nicephorus Callistus *, a contemporary of
St. Isidore of Pelusium and St. Nilus, and also a disciple of St. Chryso-
stom. Kunze says (1895) that he was abbot of a monastery at Ancyra
(in Galatia) in the first half of the fifth century and withdrew in his
old age to the desert, probably the desert of Juda. Nicephorus
says2 that he left at least forty ascetic treatises (M?oi). There are
now extant under his name the ten following: De lege spirituali,
De his qui putant se ex operibus iustificari, De poenitentia, Responsio
ad eos qui de divino baptismate dubitabant, Praecepta animae salu-
taria, Capitula de temperantia, Disputatio cum quodam causidico,
Consultatio intellectus cum sua ipsius anima, De ieiunio, De Melchi-
sedech 3. Photius had already quoted 4 and criticized individually the
afore-said treatises , with exception of the : Capitula de temperantia ;
the latter text is not genuine, since it is clearly put together from the
works of Macarius the Egyptian and Maximus Confessor. Papadopulos-
Kerameus edited (1891) a work of Marcus, Adversus Nestorianos.
The treatise De Melchisedech is not an ascetical but a dogmatico-
polemical work. - The Egyptian Arsenius (f ca. 449) left two dis
courses : Doctrina et exhortatio 5, and : Ad nomicum tentatorem 6 ; the
latter was discovered and published by Mai (1838). — Diadochus,
bishop of Photice in Epirus, about the middle of the fifth century,
left : Capita centum de perfectione spirituali 7 , and a : Sermo de
ascensione D. N. Jesu Christi8, first published by Mai (1840).
All earlier works on the Historia Lausiaca are now superseded by
E. Preuschen , Palladius und Rufinus, Giessen, 1897, and C. Butler, The
Lausiac History of Palladius, i — ii, Cambridge, 1898 1904, in Texts and
Studies, vi. i 2. The work of Preuschen contains also the text of the
Greek Historia monachorum in Aegypto (published completely for the first
time) and the most important chapters of the Historia Lausiaca in their
original form. C. H, Turner, The Lausiac History of Palladius, in Journal
of Theol. Studies (1905), vi. 321—355. On Nilus see Fessler-Jungmann,
Instit. Patrol. (1896), ii 2, 108—128. J. Kunze, Markus Eremita, ein neuer
Zeuge fur das altkirchliche Taufbekenntnis , Leipzig, 1895; Kunze uses
an improved recension (pp>. 6 — 30) of the Adversus Nestorianos, edited by
A. Papadopulos-Kerameus ('AvoXexToc tspojoAujju-axYJ? ator/uoXoYia?) , St. Peters
burg, 1891, i. 89—113; apropos of the baptismal creed mentioned in this
work Kunze has made extensive researches on the life and writings of
Marcus Eremita. Cf. Kunze, in Theol. Literaturblatt (1898), xix. 393—398.
On Arsenius cf. Fessler-Jungmann, 1. c., ii 2, 293 f., on bishop Diadochus,
ib., 147 f. The codices attribute to a Marcus Diadochus a Sermo contra
Arianos (Migne, PG., Ixv. 1149—1166) but the author apparently lived in
the fourth century and is not identical with the bishop of Photice. E. A.
1 Hist- eccl-> xiv- 30 53 54- 2 Ib., xiv. 54. s Migne, PG., Ixv.
Bibl. Cod. 200. 5 Migne, PG., Ixvi. 1617—1622.
Ib., Ixvi. 1621—1626. 7 Ib., Ixv. 1167—1212.
8 Ib., Ixv. 1141 — 1148.
§ 79- OTHER WRITERS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE FIFTH CENTURY. 383
Wallis Budge, The Book of Paradise, being the Histories and Sayings of
the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian Desert by Palladius, Hieronymus
and others. The Syriac Texts, according to the Recension of 'Anan-Isho
of Beth-'Abhe, edited with an English translation, 2 vols., London, 1904,
Ixxviii, 1095 -and 768 pp.
5. POETS. — Evagrius mentions1 two Christian poets of the time
of Theodosius II. (408 — 450): Claudianus and Cyrus. Under the
name of Claudianus there are2 seven Greek epigrams, two of which
are addressed to our Lord, and two fragments of a Greek Giganto-
machia. It is generally believed that this Claudian is no other than
the celebrated Latin poet Claudius Claudianus (f ca. 408) under \vhose
name there are also current some brief Latin poems of a Christian
character: De Salvatore or Carmen paschale, Laus Christi, Miracula
Christi3. Claudius Claudianus did certainly write also some Greek
poems. But it is doubtful whether his mind was sufficiently Christian,
or rather sufficiently de-paganized, to permit us to look on him as
the author of any Christian poetry.
Th. Birt, in the recent edition of the Carmina of Claudius Claudianus,
Berlin, 1892 (Monum. Germ, histor. Auct. antiquiss. x) holds (Proleg.,
pp. Ixiii — Ixviii) that the first of the three Latin pieces (De Salvatore,
33°~33I) is genuine, the other two (411 — 413) spurious (Proleg., pp. clxx
to clxxii), and the two Christian epigrams in Greek (421 — 422) dubious
(Proleg., p. Ixxiv). Arens treats the De Salvatore as spurious; cf. Ed. Arens,
Quaestiones Claudianae (Diss. inaug.), Minister, 1894, pp. 22 — 42, and
Histor. Jahrb. (1896), xvii. i — 22. The Greek pieces attributed to Clau
dian were edited anew, together with the poems of the empress Eudocia,
\syA.Ludwich, Leipzig, 1897. — Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II. (married
June 7., 421), enjoys the reputation of a poetess; we have from her pen
one verse of an encomium on Antioch in 444, two verses of a paraphrase
of the Octateuch, some long fragments of an epic poem in three parts
on the martyrdom of St. Cyprian of Antioch based on the Confessio
Cypriani in prose, and other long fragments of an rOjJ.7)p6xsvTpa or Homer-
Cento, a counterpart to the Vergil-Cento of Proba. We hear also of a
poem written by Eudocia on a victory of Theodosius II. over the Per
sians (422) and of a paraphrase of the prophets Daniel and Zacharias.
The remnants of the epic on St. Cyprian are in Mignc, PG. , Lxxxv. 831
to 864. As stated above all her poetic remains were edited by A. Ludwich,
Leipzig, 1893 1897. — For the Greek hymnographers of the fifth century
cf. § 105, i.
1 Hist, eccl., i. 19.
2 Migne, PL., liii. 789, among the works of Claudianus Mamertus.
3 Ib., liii. 788—790.
384 SECOND PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
SECOND SECTION.
SYRIAC WRITERS.
§ 80. Preliminary observations.
It is uncertain whether there existed in Syria a pre-Christian national
literature. The second century saw the beginnings of a Christian
national literature, of the oldest monuments of which only a few
remains survive (§ 18, 3; 19, 3, etc.). From that time the theo
logical school of Edessa was not only a seminary for the Persian
clergy, but also the centre of all the academic and literary activity
of Syria. Its highest development was reached in the course of the
fourth century, when Ephrsem appears as at once its greatest doctor
and the best representative of its peculiar characteristics. The school
of Edessa is intimately related to the school of Antioch (§ 60, 3) ;
like the latter it is devoted to the literal interpretation of the Scrip
tures and opposed to the allegorizing method of the Alexandrines.
The East-Syrian school is decidedly Oriental as compared with the
West-Syrian school: it is more mystic and contemplative, and pro
duced more poetical works, at the same time it exhibits a lack of
speculative power and a strong aversion to all change or evolution.
The Christological heresies of the fifth century inflicted deep and
irreparable wounds on the Church of Syria. The last prop and
refuge of Nestorianism within the limits of the Roman empire was
the school of Edessa; it was, therefore, closed by the emperor
Zeno in 489. From its ruins arose, in Persia, the Nestorian school
of Nisibis. Monophysitism found also many sympathizers in the
Syrian Church ; the efforts of Justinian to suppress that heresy were
rendered futile by the tireless activity of the monk Jacob Baradaeus
(since 541 bishop of Edessa, y 578), from whom the Syrian Mono-
physites take the name of Jacobites From the middle of the fifth
to the end of the twelfth century, when the united Maronites (1182)
began to manifest a literary activity, nearly all prominent Syriac
writers are either Nestorians or Jacobites.
The first satisfactory introduction to the treasures of Syriac literature
was afforded Western scholars by the Marionite J. S. Assemani (f Jan. 14.,
1768, at Rome) in his Bibliotheca Orientalis: J. S. Assemani, Bibliotheca
Orientalis Clementino-'Vaticana, Tomus I: De Scriptoribus Syris Orthodoxis.
Tomus II : De Script. Syris Monophysitis. Tomi III pars i : De Script.
Syris Nestorianis. Tomus IV seu tomi III pars 2: De Syris Nestorianis,
Rome, 1719 — 1728, 4 vols. Graf fin was the first to begin a complete
collection of the Syriac Fathers: Patrologia Syriaca complectens opera
omnia Ss. patrum, doctorum scriptorumque catholicorum, quibus accedunt
alionrm acatholicorum auctorum scripta quae ad res ecclesiasticas pertinent,
quotquot syriace supersunt, accurante R. Graf fin. Pars prima ab initiis
usque ad annum 350. Tomus I (Aphraatis Demonstrationes i— xxii), cuius
§ 8l. APHRAATES. 385
textum syriacum vocalium signis instruxit, latine vertit, notis illustravit
y. Parisot, Paris, 1894. The original texts of the Fathers and other Syriac
writers, with Latin versions, are also included in the new collection:
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum orientalium curantibus J. B. Chabot,
Ign. Guidi, H. Hyi^ernat, B. Carra de Vaux. The Conspectus rei Syrorum
litterariae by G. Bickell , Minister, 1871, is a very useful account of the
printed Syriac literature. A very accurate and approximatively complete
catalogue of all the printed editions of Syriac texts is found in E. Nestle,
Syrische Grammatik, Berlin, 1888, ii. i — 66. Sketches of the history of
Syriac literature were written by W. Wright, A Short History of Syriac Lite
rature, London, 1894; R. Duval, La litterature syriaque (Bibliotheque de
1'enseignement de 1'histoire ecclesiastique, Anciennes litteratures chretiennes),
Paris, 1899, 2. ed. 1900. -- Patrologia orientalis, publiee sous la direction
de 'R. Graffin et F. Nau, vol. ii, tome i, fasc. i : Le livre des mysteres
dti ciel et de la terre, texte e'thiopien, public' et traduit par J. Perruchon
avec le concours de J. Guidi, xii — 97 ; fasc. 2 : History of the Patriarchs
of the Coptic Church of Alexandria I: Saint Mark to Theonas (300).
Arabic text edited, translated and annotated by B. Evett. Vol. ii, tome ii,
fasc. i : Vie de Severe, par Zacharie le Scholastique ; texte syriaque, public,
traduit et annote par M. A. Kugener ; fasc. 2: Les apocryphes I: Les
evangiles des douze apotres et de Saint Barthelemy. Texte copte, traduc-
tion franchise par Rivellont, Paris, 1904.
§ Si. Aphraates.
I . HIS LIFE. — Jacob Aphraates, bishop of Mar Matthaeus, known
as «the Persian sage», is rightly called the oldest of the Syrian
Fathers. As early as 1756 Nicolo Antonelli published an Armenian
text and a Latin translation of 19 homilies or tractates of «the
Persian sage». Following the authority of his manuscripts Antonelli
attributed the homilies to Saint Jacob (James) of Nisibis, the friend
and patron of Ephraem (§ 82, i), and held that they had been
addressed to Saint Gregory Illuminator, the Apostle of Armenia
(§ 109, 2). A century later all doubt was cleared away when in
1869 W. Wright discovered the Syriac original text of 23 homilies
of «the Persian sage». It was then seen that they were addressed
to a monk, possibly an abbot, named Gregory, who had besought
the author for spiritual instruction in the Catholic faith. Jacob is the
name which, according to Syrian custom, was taken by Aphraates
when he was made bishop. So far as is known Jacob of Nisibis left
no writings. The date of Aphraates' literary activity is fixed for us
by his own statements: the first ten homilies were composed in the
year 648 of the Alexandrian era (A. D. 336 — 337), the following
twelve in 655 of the same era (A. D. 343 — 344), and the last homily
in 656 (A. D. 345, August). Aphraates was a monk, later on a
bishop in the Persian monastery of Mar Matthaeus (= St. Matthew),
somewhat to the east of Mosul. Quite probably he was even then
a bishop of some importance in the Mesopotamian hierarchy. The
monastery of Mar Matthaeus became at a later date the see of the
Jacobite metropolitan of Ninive, next in importance to the Maphrian
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 25
386 SECOND PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
or primate of the Oriental Jacobites. Since the twelfth century the
titular of Mar Matthaeus is also known as Maphrian.
2. WRITINGS OF APHRAATES. - - With exception of the last, the
above-mentioned homilies are alphabetically arranged, in the order
of the 22 letters of the Syrian alphabet ; thereby they proclaim them
selves a complete work. The longest of them is the last, entitled
«the Cluster», i. e. the blessed cluster because of which the vine is
not destroyed (Is. Ixv. 8). Aphraates takes occasion of the great
sufferings of the Persian Christians (August 345) in order to encourage
his timid disciple and friend. He depicts for him the small number
of the elect, and compares them to the solitary cluster on the vine,
for whose sake the entire people, though an ungrateful vineyard, are
spared by God, as the history of Israel from Adam to Jesus Christ
makes manifest. Because of its historical contents Gennadius1 called
it a Chronicon. The other homilies are entitled: I. On faith. 2. On
love. 3. On fasts. 4. On prayer. 5. On wars, i. e. on the campaign
of Sapor II., king of Persia, against Constantine the Great. 6. On
the monks. 7. On penance. 8. On the resurrection of the dead,
9. On humility. 10. On the shepherds i. e. on the works and duties
of the pastoral charge. II. On circumcision. 12. On Easter. 13. On
the sabbath. 14. On admonition, an encyclical letter composed by
Aphraates at the suggestion of some otherwise unknown Council,
possibly that of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (344) and incorporated with these
instructions to his friend. 15. On the distinction of foods. 16. On
the (Gentile) nations which have taken the place of the (Jewish)
people. 17. On the proof of the Divine Sonship of Christ. 18. Against
the Jews and on virginity and sanctity. 19. Against the contention
of the Jews that they shall be brought together again. 20. On the
support of the poor. 21. On persecution. 22. On death and the last
things. - The style of Aphraates is clear and simple, but rather
diffuse. The philological value of his writings is very great, they are
of fundamental importance for Syriac syntax. His diction is throughout
pure and original, uncontaminated by foreign words or phrases, above
all free from Grecisms. - - His Christological ideas are those of the
Nicene Fathers, though his expression of them is wanting in precision.
This is partly owing to the practical and ascetical tendency of his
mind, but chiefly to his remoteness from the scene of Western
ecclesiastical difficulties and to his ignorance of the Arian contro
versies. He touches very often on the sacraments of Penance and
the Blessed Eucharist. In his writings a peculiar theory quite common
among the later Nestorians of Syria frequently occurs viz. that during
the period from the bodily death to the moment of resurrection the
soul is in an unconscious or dormant condition2.
1 De viris ill., c. i. - Horn., vi. 13; viii. 8.
§ 82. ST. EPHR^M SYRUS. 387
__-•*
3. LITERATURE. — Nic. Antonelli, S. Patris N. lacobi episc. Nisibeni
sermones, cum praefatione, notis et dissertatione de ascetis, Rome, 1756.
W. Wright, The Homilies of Aphraates, the Persian Sage, edited from
Syriac manuscripts of the fifth and sixth centuries in the British Museum,
with an English translation. Vol. i: The Syriac text, London, 1869; the
promised English version never appeared. — G. Bickell published a German
version of the Homilies i — 4 7 12 18 22, in Ausgewahlte Schriften der
syrischen Kirchenvater Aphraates, Rabulas und Isaak von Ninive, Kempten,
1874 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater), pp. 7 — 151. All the homilies were trans
lated into German by G. Bert, Leipzig, 1888, inTexte und Untersuchungen,
iii. 3 — 4. A new edition of the Syriac text, with a Latin version, was
published by J. Parisot, in the Patrologia Syriaca I of Graffin (cf. § 80).
J. Parisot, Aphraates: Dictionnaire de la Theologie Catholique, Paris,
1903, i. 1457 — 1463. Cf. C. J. Fr. Sasse, Prolegomena in Aphraatis Sa-
pientis Persae sermones homileticos (Diss. inaug.), Leipzig, 1878. J. M.
Schonf elder , Aus und iiber Aphraates, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1878), Ix.
195 — 256 (i. e. the interpretation of the seventy weeks and the four
empires of Daniel and the Christology of Aphraates). J. Forget, De vita
et scriptis Aphraatis Sapientis Persae, dissertatio historico-theologica, Lou-
vain, 1882. S. Funk, Die haggadischen Elemente in den Homilien des
Aphraates, des persischen Weisen, Frankfort, 1891. E. Hartwig , Unter
suchungen zur Syntax des Afraates, I : Die Relativpartikel und der Relativ-
satz (Inaug.-Diss.), Leipzig, 1893. If. Hyvernat, Aphraates, in Catholic Uni
versity Bulletin, Washington, 1905, i. 314 — 318. J. Labourt, Le Christia-
nisme et 1'Empire perse sous la dynastie Sassanide (224 — 632), Paris, 1904.
Dom Connolly , Aphraates and Monasticism, in Journal of Theol. Studies
(1905), vi. 522 — 539. F. C. Burkitt, Aphraates and Monasticism, a reply,
in Journal of Theol. Studies (1905), vii. 10 — 15. Burkitt treats of Aphra
ates and the Syriac versions of the Gospels, pp. 109 — in 180 — 186, of
his edition of the Evangelion Da Mepharreshe (2. vol.), Cambridge, 1904.
4. PAPA OF SELEUCIA. -- A pretended correspondence of the Catholi-
cus (patriarch) Papa of Seleucia (about 266 — 336) was edited in a German
translation and minutely investigated by O. Braun, in Zeitschr. fur kath.
Theol. (1894), xviii. 163 — 182 546—565.
§ 82. St. Ephraem Syrus.
i. HIS LIFE. - The most important writer of the Syrian patristic
age is Saint Ephrsem (Ephraim; very probably pronounced Afrem
by the Syrians). Much of his history is still obscure. The best
accessible authorities, Syrian and Greek biographies and the con
fessions of the Saint (preserved only in Greek), are often mutually
contradictory, and exhibit, in part at least, an undeniable legendary
coloring. He was born at Nisibis in the reign of Constantine, there
fore not earlier than 306. His parents were probably Christian and
trained him from youth in the fear of the Lord. He resolved to
devote himself without reserve to the divine service, and so chose
the life of a hermit, dividing his time between study and prayer. His
bishop, Jacob of Nisibis, who died probably in 338, placed much
confidence in the young man, and is said to have taken him to the
Council of Nicrea, and eventually to have made him head-master of
the school of Nisibis. The latter city was besieged by Sapor II. in
25*
2 88 SECOND PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
the years 338, 346, and 350 on which occasions Ephraem displayed
a holy zeal as counsellor and instructor of his fellow-citizens. The
peace made by the emperor Jovinian in 363 with the king of Persia
left Nisibis in the hands of the latter. Thereupon, following the
example of the majority of the Christian inhabitants, Ephrsem with
drew to Roman territory and took up his abode permanently at
Edessa, in which city most of his writings were composed, He
seems to have led a hermit's life on a mountain quite close to the
city, whither, however, his disciples followed him and whence he
came occasionally to preach in the city churches. There is grave
reason to doubt the story that he visited Egypt and conversed with
the monks of that land. On the other hand, it is certain that about
370 he travelled as far as Caesarea in Cappadocia, in order to make
the acquaintance of Basil the Great, then famous throughout the
Christian world; it is said that he received deacon's orders from
Basil, though he was probably never ordained to the priesthood. His
death took place in 373, probably on June 9.
2. THE TRADITION OF HIS WRITINGS. - - Ephraem left after him
an extraordinary number of works. Several ancient writers assert
that he composed commentaries on the entire Scripture. He also
treated in metrical works a great many points of ecclesiastical doc
trine and discipline. Sozomen heard1 that Ephrsem had written
about three hundred myriads of lines: Tptaxoaia^ fj.opta.dac, ITZOJV.
Even in his lifetime these writings were looked on as highly authori
tative. The Syrians called him the « eloquent mouth », the « prophet
of the Syrians», the « doctor of the world», the «pillar of the Church»,
the «lyre of the Holy Spirit*. Several of his hymns were adopted
into the Syrian liturgies, Orthodox, Nestorian, and Jacobite. Com
paratively few specimens of his prose-writings or Bible-commentaries
have been saved. At a very early date his works were translated
into Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Arabic and Ethiopic; these versions
cover to some extent the gaps in the Syriac tradition of his writings,
a tradition that was soon dimmed by the very splendor of his repu
tation. Many Syriac texts are erroneously attributed to Ephraem;
many others exhibit some genuine fragments or kernels but overlaid by
later foreign material. This is more particularly the case in the very
numerous Greek versions, prepared with a view to the edification of
contemporaries, for which reason the translators enlarged, abbreviated,
cut up and re-arranged the Syriac text as seemed most suitable
to them.
3. PROSE -WRITINGS OR BIBLE-COMMENTARIES. — His commentaries
on Scripture were written in plain prose ; his other writings, at least
in the form exhibited by the Syriac original text, were with very
1 Hist, eccl, iii. 16.
§ 82. ST. EPHR^M SYRUS. 389
few exceptions written in metre. The original Syriac of only a few
commentaries is known: Genesis, and Exodus (to xxxii. 26). His
commentaries on the other biblical books are known to us only in
fragments, e. g. short introductions and disjointed scholia. They
have been gathered from an Old and New Testament Catena made
in 851 — 86 1 by the monk Severus of Edessa out of the works of
various Greek and Syriac writers. These fragmentary comments refer
to Pentateuch, Josue, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Job and all the prophets,
including Lamentations. The commentaries on Ruth, Paralipomenon,
Esdras, Nehemias, Esther, the Psalms, Proverbs, Canticle of canticles
and Ecclesiastes, seem to be lost in the original text. Though
Ephrsem is said to have written commentaries on the entire Scripture,
we may well doubt whether this statement includes the deuterocanonical
books of the Old Testament. Apparently none of Ephraem's Syriac
commentaries on the New Testament have reached us. There are
extant Armenian versions of his commentary on Paralipomenon, the
Diatessaron of Tatian (§ 18, 3), and the Epistles of St. Paul (in this
Armenian version no mention is made of the Epistle to Philemon);
on the other hand, apropos of the commentary on Second Corinthians,
there is added a commentary on the apocryphal correspondence
between St. Paul and the Corinthians. The fragments of Ephrsem's
commentaries scattered through the Greek Catenae have not yet
been collected by any investigator. - - It is well-known that the
N. T. text which Ephrsem comments is not the Syriac version of the
Bible, known as the Peschittho (probably the equivalent of Vulgata) ;
the Gospel-text was taken from the Diatessaron of Tatian. Ephrsem
lends a willing ear to Jewish traditions. It is highly probable,
however, that he was ignorant of Hebrew and also of Greek. He
does occasionally refer to the Hebrew text, and to the Septuagint
version of the Old Testament, but he was probably dependent for
his knowledge on marginal glosses of the Syriac version and on
help orally given by competent scholars. Ephrsem's method of
exposition is excellent. As a rule he develops the ideas of the
Antiochene school, particularly those of Theodoret of Cyrus. It is
only rarely that he admits prophecies as directly Messianic; on the
other hand, he is very unreserved in his acceptance of typical pro
phecies. His homilies and hymns are characterized by an extensive
use of allegorism, both in interpretation and application.
4. METRICAL WRITINGS OR DISCOURSES AND HYMNS. - The
metrical writings of Ephraem are extremely numerous; they are
usually divided into homilies (Memre, Mimre) and hymns or chants
(Madrasche). Even the homilies or discourses run into verse i. e.
equi-syllabic lines, most frequently the seven-syllable line, usually
known as the Ephrsemic metre. In the hymns these lines are dis
posed in strophes of very unequal length, ranging from four to
SECOND PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
twelve verses. Many hymns are also acrostichs. Rhyme is rarely
attempted and then without attention to any fixed rules; usually
not even the assonance is intentional. Formerly it was believed
that Syriac metre was entirely based on the number of syllables.
However, H. Grimme has lately demonstrated that it is verbal accent,
the quality of the syllable, that dominates all Syriac metre, particularly
that of Ephrsem; likewise, as was already suspected by W. Meyer,
that the accentuation of Byzantine and later Latin poetry is owing
to Syriac metrical influences. Ephrsem is the greatest poet of Syria.
The Syriac poetry, however, is generally feeble and prolix; hence
Ephrasm is frequently so diffuse as to weary the reader; he also
repeats himself quite vexatiously. Certain of his more delicately-
worked poerns, like the elegiac verses and the funeral chants, abound
in poetical thoughts and suggestions; he is also particularly touching
and skilful in describing the felicity of divine faith and the love of
God. In the Old Testament, however, as in a garden, he finds the
loveliest flowers of poetry. Noldeke says with truth that «we should
appreciate more fully the splendor of S. Ephraem's verse, if we
could acquire, even approximately, an intimate sense (ein lebendiges
Sprachgefiihl) of the language as then spoken in Syria». - - The
subjects of St. Ephraem's poetry are many, and are generally identical
in both homilies and hymns. His moralizing discourses, monitory or
penitential, make up the greater part of his works. Many of them
seem to have been designed for public penitential processions, whence
we may conclude that the latter were an institution of the Eastern
churches long before they were introduced in the West. Another
group of his discourses and hymns is dogmatico-apologetic or dog-
matico-polemical in contents. They are addressed respectively to
heathens, Jews and Manichaeans , to Gnostics (Marcionites, Barde-
sanites), Novatians, Arians, Sabellians, and other kinds of heretics.
He was no doubt moved to this by the fact that the metrical works
of the earlier Syrian Gnostics, Bardesanes and his son Harmonius,
had helped greatly to disseminate their heretical teachings through
out Syria (§25, 6). In 1865 Overbeck published four poems (Ma-
drasche) of Ephraem against Julian the Apostate. — Strictly doctrinal
poems are rare in the works of Ephraem; dogmatic speculation is
foreign to his mind; he very often speaks or sings of the dangers
consequent on an over-curious scrutinizing of the mysteries of faith.
Even in his apologetic and polemical poems, he is less of a doctrinaire
exponent than of an exhortatory preacher, urging an acceptance in
firm faith of the ecclesiastical teaching. Many of discourses and hymns
on the feasts of our Lord and the Saints were first made known
by Lamy (1882—1889). His praises of our Lord are entirely in
accordance with the Nicene faith. He insists strongly on the true
divinity, the perfect humanity, and on the uncommingled union of
§ 82. ST. EPHR^EM SYRUS. 39!
the two natures. His harp resounds to the praises of Mary more
frequently than that of any other poet or orator of Christian anti
quity; he loves to sing of her stainless virginity, her truly divine
maternity, her freedom from sin. In a poem of the year 370 he
makes the Church of Edessa say to our Lord: Thou and Thy
Mother are the only ones who are in every way perfectly beautiful,
for in Thee, O Lord, is there no stain; no stain, also, in Thy Mother!1
Among his hymns on the Saints we may mention the verses in which
he has immortalized his hermit friends, Abraham of Kidun and Julianus
Saba. Many of his discourses are true homilies, being frequently
based on biblical texts, chiefly those of the Old Testament. One
of his poems deals in twelve books with the history of Joseph in
Egypt. The so-called Carmina Nisibena, edited by Bickell in 1866,
are most probably a collection made by Ephrsem himself from his
own numerous hymns. They deal with events in the siege of Edessa
in 350 and during the Persian war (359 — 363) and in the lives of
the bishop Jacob of Nisibis and others.
5. THE ROMAN EDITION OF THE WORKS OF SAINT EPHR^M. SUPPLEMENT
TO THE SAME. GERMAN VERSIONS. — The publication of the works of
St. Ephrasm has been in progress since the end of the fifteenth century.
But there exists no single complete edition. The best hitherto is the
Roman edition of 1732 — 1746 in six folio-volumes, three of which contain
Syro-Latin and three Greco-Latin texts. It was brought out by the
famous Maronite Joseph Simon Assemani } aided to some extent by Peter
Mobdrek (Petrus Benedictus) , S. J., and by Stephen Evodius Assemani (nephew
of Joseph Simon). The Syriac texts used in this edition are taken, mostly,
from manuscripts found in the monasteries of the Nitrian desert in Egypt ;
in these manuscripts there are several writings wrongly attributed to
Ephraem. The Latin version is the work of the two above-mentioned col
laborators of Assemani, it is very paraphrastic and in some places unreliable
and arbitrary. The Greco-Latin volumes offer the text of Greek manuscripts
not older than the tenth century, and reprinted without any critical
examination; that such a critical study is necessary has been shown by
y. Gildemeistcr in his controversy with Floss (§ 64, 4). - - In the mean
time the Roman edition has been variously supplemented and improved. -
a) Bible Commentaries: Critical contributions to the text of the commen
taries, entire or fragmentary, have been made by A. Pohlmann, S. Ephraami
Syri commentariorum in Sacrarn Scripturam textus in codicibus Vaticanis
manuscriptus et in editione Romana impressus. Commentatio critica, parts
i 2, Brunsberg, 1862 — 1864. Th. J. Lamy , St. Ephraam Syri hymni et
sermones, Malines, 1886, ii. 103 — 310, published new commentaries and
fragments of commentaries by Ephraem taken from the Catena of Severus;
Lamy also published, in the Revue Biblique (1897), vi. 380 — 395 535 — 546;
(1898), vii. 89 — 97, a French version of the Scholia on the prophet Zacha-
rias. The Mechitarists published at Venice 1836 (4 vols. ) the commen
taries extant in Armenian only (see no. 3). The commentary on the
Diatessaron was translated into Latin by y. B. Aucher and published in
this form by G. Mo singer , Venice, 1876 (cf. § 18, 3). J. R. Harris
1 Cann. Nisib., n. 27, ed. Bickell 40.
392 SECOND PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
published some Syriac fragments of the commentary on the Diatessaron,
London, 1895; cf. J. H. Hill, A dissertation on the Gospel commentary
of S. Ephraem the Syrian, Edinburgh, 1896. The Mechitarists have also
made a Latin version of the commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul:
S. Ephraem Syri commentarii in epistolas D. Pauli, nunc primum ex
Armeno in Latinum sermonem a patribus Mekitharistis translati, Venice,
1893. The commentary on the apocryphal correspondence between St. Paul
and the Corinthians, translated from Armenian into German, was edited
by P. Vetter, Der apokryphe dritte Korintherbrief, Vienna, 1894, pp. 70
to 79. An Armenian « Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles compiled
from the works of the ancient fathers Chrysostom and Ephrsem« was
published at Venice, 1839. In Pohlmann the reader will find an Arabic
fragment of a commentary on Genesis and Exodus, bearing the name of
Ephraem (1. c., i. 27 ff.). -- b) Discourses and hymns: Apart from minor
editions, new discourses and hymns have been published by Overbeck, Bickell
and Lamy : S. Ephraemi Syri, Rabulae episc. Edesseni, Balaei aliorumque
opera selecta. Primus edidit J. J. Overbeck, Oxford, 1865 ; he gives only
the Syriac text ; the promised Latin version never appeared. In the Zeitschr.
f. kath. Theol. (1878), ii. 335 — 356, G. Bickell, published a version of the
poems (3 — 20) against Julian the Apostate. The tractate against the
Manichseans (59 — 73) was edited and translated into German by K. Kessler,
in Mani, Berlin, 1889, i. 262 — 302. The letter to the «Brethren of the
mountain* (the anchorites near Edessa, 113 — 131) was translated by
C. Kayser, in Zeitschr. f. kirchl. Wissenschaft und kirchl. Leben (1884),
v. 251 — 266. S. Ephraemi Syri Carmina Nisibena, additis prolegomenis
et supplemento lexicorum syriacorum. Primus edidit, vertit, explicavit
G. Bickell, Leipzig. 1866; Bickell added some Corrigenda in his Conspectus
rei Syr. litt., Minister, 1871, pp. 28 — 34. S. Ephraem Syri hymni et ser-
mones. Edidit, latinitate donavit, variis lectionibus instruxit, notis et pro
legomenis illustravit Th. J. Lamy, Malines, 1882 — 1889, 3 vols. ; cf. the
review of the first two volumes of this work by Th. Noldeke, in Gott.
Gel. Anzeigen (Nov. 29., 1882), pp. 1505—1514 (and Febr. i., 1887),
pp. 8 1 — 87. In 1902 appeared a fourth volume of the work of Lamy,
containing new hymns and discourses from manuscripts of Mount Sinai,
Mossul, the Vatican and the British Museum. J. Guidi , La traduzione
copta di un' omelia di Efrem (resembles the Greek text of the Roman
edition, iii. 385), in Bessarione (1902 — 1903), vii. series II, iv. i — 21.
Five of the fifteen hymns addressed to Abraham ofKidun (Lamy, iii. 749
to 836) had been already translated into German by P. Martin, in Zeit-
schrift f. kath. Theol. (1880), iv. 426—437. The hymn on the Maccabee
brethren (Lamy, iii. 685—696) was re-edited in Syriac and English by
Bcnsly- Barnes, The fourth Book of Maccabees, Cambridge, 1890, pp. 117
to 124, xliv— xlviii. S. Ephraemi carmina rogationum primus ed. vertitque
latine Ign. Ephr. Rahmani, in Bessarione (1903), vii. 165—185; (1903 to
1904), viii. 1 — 13. The poem on Joseph in Egypt hitherto known only
in fragments was published completely by Bedjan, St. Ephrem. Histoire
complete de Joseph. Poeme en 12 livres, 2. ed. , Paris, 1891; the last
two books are now to be found, in Syriac and Latin, in the fourth volume
of Lamy. A homily on the pilgrim life was edited in Syriac and German
by A. Haffner, Vienna, 1896. C. P. Caspari published (in Briefe, Ab-
landlungen und Predigten aus den zwei letzten Jahrhunderten des kirch-
ichen Altertums und dem Anfang des Mittelalters , Christiania, 1890,
pp. 208— 220) a very remarkable and interesting (Latin) sermon on Anti-
and the end of the world, attributed to Ephraem Syrus and Isidore
Seville. Caspari is of opinion (1. c., pp. 429 ff.) that the sermon was
§ 83. LATER WRITERS. 393
not written before the year 600, while W. Bousset , Der Antichrist, Got-
tingen, 1895, pp. 21 ft. , thinks it was composed in Greek about 373.
Duncan Jones, A Homily of St. Ephrem, in Journal of Theol. Studies
(1904), v. 546 — 552. — Great praise is due to P. Zingerle for his German
versions of the writings of Ephraem. Apart from some minor publications
he has edited two large collections: Ausgewahlte Schriften des heiligen
Kirchenvaters Ephram, aus dem Griechischen und Syrischen iibersetzt,
Innsbruck, 1830 — 1838, 6 vols. ; a new edition appeared in 1845 — 1846,
in which volumes 4 and 5, entitled: «The Holy Muse of the Syrians»
and « Hymns against the hair-splitters of the divine mysteries » present
(German) metrical versions of the text of Ephraem. Ausgewahlte Schriften
des hi. Ephram von Syrien, aus dem Syrischen und Griechischen iiber
setzt, Kempten, 1870 — 1876, 3 vols. (Bibl. der Kirchenvater). C. Macke,
Hymnen aus dem Zweistromeland. Dichtungen des hi. Ephrem des Syrers,
aus dem syrischen Urtext metrisch ins Deutsche iibertragen und mit er-
klarenden Anmerkungen versehen, Mainz, 1882. -- A French version of
the «Testament» of Ephraem was published by Lamy, in Compte rendu
du IVe Congres scientifique international des Catholiques, Sect. I (Frei
burg, 1898), pp. 173 — 209. R. Duval , Le testament de St. Ephrem, in
Journal Asiatique, new series (1901), xviii. 234 — 419. A new recension
of this text is found in P. Bedjan , Thomas von Marga: Liber superio-
rum etc., Paris and Leipzig, 1901. E. Bouvy, Les sources historiques de
la vie de St. Ephrem, in Revue Augustinienne, 1903, fevr., pp. 155 — 164.
6. WORKS CONCERNING ST. EPHR/EM. — C. a Lengerke , Commentatio
critica de Ephraemo Syro S. Scripturae interprete, Halle, 1828; De
Ephraemi Syri arte hermeneutica, Konigsberg, 1831. A. Haase, S. Ephraemi
Syri theologia, quantum ex libris poeticis cognosci potest, explicatur (Diss.
inaug.), Halle, 1869. P. de Lagarde, Uber den Hebraer Ephraims von
Edessa (i. e. on the interpretation of Gen. i— xxxviii referred by Ephraem
to a certain «Hebraeus»), in Orientalia, Gottingen, 1880, ii. Th. J. Lamy,
Etudes de patrologie orientale: Saint Ephrem, in 1'Universite Catholique,
new series (1890), iii. 321 — 349; (1890), iv. 161 — 190. Lamy, L'exegese
en Orient au IVe siecle ou les commentaires de St. Ephrem, in Revue
Biblique (1893), ii. 5 — 25 161 — 181 465 — 486. Le Camus, Saint Ephraim.
Dictionnaire de la Bible, Paris, 1899, n- rSSg — 1891. F. C. Burkitt,
S. Ephraim's Quotations from the Gospel collected and arranged, in Texts
and Studies, Cambridge, 1901, vii. 2, an important study for the sepa
ration of the genuine from the spurious in the manuscripts of the Ephraemic
writings, and for the conclusion that the Peschittho of the New Testament
is posterior to Ephraem and the works of Rabbulas of Edessa (§ 83, 4).
Burkitt returns to this subject in his edition of the Evangelion Da Mephar-
reshe, Cambridge, 1904, ii. 112 — 149. C. Eirainer, Der hi. Ephram der
Syrer. Eine dogmengeschichtliche Abhandlung, Kempten, 1889. H. Grimme,
Der Strophenbau in den Gedichten Ephrams des Syrers, Freiburg in Switzer
land, 1893. Cf. Grimme, Grundziige der Syrischen Betonungs- und Vers-
lehre, in Zeitschr. der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft (1893),
xlvii. 276 — 307. Dom Connolly, St. Ephraim and Eucratisus, in Journal of
Theological Studies (1906), viii. 41 — 48.
§ 83. Later writers.
I. ACTS OF THE MARTYRS. — Several fourth-century Acts of Syrian
martyrs have reached us, notably of the martyrs under Diocletian,
Licinius and Sapor II. of Persia. Wright published (1865 — 1866) a
Syriac martyrology of the year 411, at once the most ancient and
394 SECOND PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
the most precious of all known martyrologies. In its first part it is
dependent on a still older Greek source now lost. About 410 Ma-
ruthas, bishop of Maipherkat, collected the acts of the martyrs under
Sapor II. , and wrote a history of the Nicene Council.
W. Wright's edition (with English version) of the above-mentioned
martyrology was published in the Journal of Sacred Literature, Oct. 1865
to Jan. 1866. For the Syriac text with a Latin version and a commentary
cf. G. B. de Rossi and L. Duchesne , in Acta SS. Nov. ii. i (Brussels,
1894), 1 — Ixix. Cf. H. Achelis, Die Martyrologien, Berlin, 1900, pp. 30 — 71.
A school-edition was published by H. Lietzmann, Die drei altesten Martyro
logien, Bonn, 1903. The collection of Acts of the martyrs by bishop
Maruthas was first brought out by £. E. Assonant, Acta Ss. Marty rum
orientalium et occidentalium , Rome, 1748, 2 vols. The Syriac text is
found in P. Bedjan, Acta martyrum et sanctorum, Paris, 1891, ii. 57 — 396;
on his history of the Nicene Council cf. O. Broun t De S. Nicaena synodo,
Miinster, 1898, in Kirchengeschichtl. Studien, iv. 3. Cf. Harnack, Der
Ketzerkatalog des Bischofs Maruta von Maipherkat, Leipzig, 1899, in Texte
und Untersuchungen xix, new series iv. i b. The work of P. Bedjan, Acta
martyrum et sanctorum (Syriac acts of martyrs and lives of saints, un
translated) has already reached its seventh volume, Paris, 1890 — 1897;
cf. E. Nestle, in Theol. Literaturzeitung , 1893, pp. 3 — 6 45 — 48 (on
vols. i — iii); 1895, pp. 213 — 215 312 — 315 (on vols. iv — v) ; 1896, pp. 419
to 421 (on vol. vi).
2. CYRILLONAS. -- The name of this writer has reached us only
through six Carmina composed by him and preserved in a sixth-
century manuscript of the British Museum. Bickell, their editor and
translator, entitled them : A prayer for All Saints' feast of 396, con
cerning the plague of locusts and other afflictions, especially the
invasions of the Huns; Hymn on the conversion of Zachseus; Hymn
on the washing of feet; two Hymns on the Pascha Christi; a Carmen
on wheat. Bickell says that after Ephraem this writer is the greatest
of the Syriac poets.
G. Bickell published the Syriac text, in Zeitschr. der deutschen morgen-
landischen Gesellschaft (1873), xxvii. 566—598; with corrections, ib. (1881),
xxxv. 531 — 532; he had already translated the six hymns into German,
in Ausgewahlte Gedichte der syrischen Kirchenvater Cyrillonas, Bala'us,
Issak von Antiochien und Jakob von Sarug, Kempten, 1872, pp. 7 — 63,
in Ausgewahlte Schriften der syrischen Kirchenvater Aphraates, Rabulas
und Isaak von Ninive, Kempten, 1874, he added (pp. 410—411) some notes
on Cyrillonas, and (pp. 414 — 421) metrical excerpts from the writings of
Cyrillonas.
3. BAL/EUS. - - Less attractive than the works of the foregoing
writer, but very important from a dogmatico-historical point of view
are the writings of the chorepiscopus or rural bishop Balseus (Balaj)
edited by Overbeck (1865). The time and place of his labors are
known with some certainty; thus he composed five panegyrical
hymns on Asacius, bishop of Aleppo or Beroea (§ 74, 17) whom
he calls «our father » and who died in 432. The longest of his
§ 83. LATER WRITERS. 395
poems is one on the history of Joseph in Egypt, written in seven-
syllable verse; it is, however, attributed by others to St. Ephraem
(§ 82, 4). Most of his genuine metrical writings are in five-syllable
verse, known as the Balaeus-metre. His writings abound in evidences
of ecclesiastical doctrine, notably concerning the Blessed Eucharist
and the veneration and invocation of the Saints.
y. y. Overbeck, S. Ephraemi Syri, Rabulae episc. Edesseni, Balaei alio-
rumque opera selecta, Oxford, 1865, pp. 251 — 336 (untranslated). A se
lection of the Syriac works of Balaeus was published in a German version
by G. Bickell, Ausgewahlte Gedichte etc., pp. 65 — 108; cf. Bickell, Aus
gewahlte Schriften etc., pp. 421 — 422. The Syriac original of a carmen
De Faustino et de Metrodora (Mattidia) tribusque eius filiis, based on the
story in the Clementine Recognitions (§ 26, 3) and lacking in Overbeck's
edition, was published by Bickell, in Zeitschr. der deutschen morgenland.
Gesellschaft (1873), xxvii. 599 — 600, in Latin in Conspectus rei Syr. litt.
46, n. 5. -- K. V. Zettensteen, Beitrage zur Kenntnis der religiosen Dich-
tung Balais, nach den syrischen Handschriften des Britischen Museums,
der Bibliotheque nationale in Paris und der konigl. Bibliothek zu Berlin.
The poem on the history of Joseph, known to Overbeck only in fragments
(270 — 230), was published entire by Bedjan under the name of Ephraem
(§ 82, 5).
4. RABBULAS OF EDESSA. -- Rabbulas wrote also in metre, but his
extant works are mostly in prose. His life is known to us in some
detail and from rather trustworthy accounts. At the death of Dio
genes, bishop of Edessa, in 412, Rabbulas was chosen his successor,
and retained this office till his death (Aug. 7. or 8., 435). He was
prominent in the Nestorian controversies , and at the Council of
Ephesus took sides with the Antiochene party (§ 77, 2), but some
time during the winter of 431 to 432 he withdrew from Nestorius,
adhered to Cyril and thenceforth was very active in bringing about
a reconciliation between the latter and the Antiochenes. He translated
into Syriac also the Greek text of Cyril's De recta fide ad Impera-
torem (§ 77, 4), and was especially active in the suppression of the
writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia. Overbeck edited the greater
part of his extant works; they deal with the discipline of the clergy
and religious men and women, or are hymns written for the liturgy
and the divine office (partly translations from the Greek); one sermon
and some fragments of letters are also attributed to him. Though
his other writings are in Syriac, the letters are written in Greek; in
a panegyric on Rabbulas delivered at Edessa soon after 435, mention
is made of a collection of these letters, 46 in number'. It is a matter
of regret that only fragments of them, in Syriac and Latin, have
reached us.
The Syriac works or fragments of Rabbulas are found in Ovcrbeck, 1. c.,
pp. 210 — 248 362 — 378, the panegyric is published ib. , pp. 159 — 209.
The Syriac version of the De recta fide of Cyril, not found in Overbeck,
was published by Ph. Ed. Pusey , Oxford, 1877 (§. 77, 9). In his Aus-
396 SECOND PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
gewahlte Schriften etc. Bickell translated (pp. 153—271) all the texts edited
by Overbeck with the exception of a few hymns; he also added Latin
fragments to the Syriac remnants of the correspondence of Rabbulas, and
published, moreover, an account of the conversion of Rabbulas, taken from
a life of St. Alexander, founder of the Acoimetae (f ca. 430), and written
about the middle of the fifth century. We have already said (§ 82, 6)
that Burkitt interprets the statement of the biographer of Rabbulas (Over-
bccky 1. c., p. 172) that the latter translated the New Testament into Syriac
as meaning that he is the author of the Peschittho version of the New
Testament.
5. ST. ISAAC OF ANTIOCH. — The literary legacy of Isaac of Antioch,
known also as Isaac the Great, is much more extensive, likewise
more poetical in form. The details of his life are not known to us
with sufficient certainty. He was probably born at Amida in Meso
potamia in the second half of the fourth century, but came in early
youth to Edessa where he received instruction from a certain Zenobius,
a disciple of Ephraem. He travelled much, and even visited Rome,
after which he took up his residence at Antioch; Gennadius calls
him 1 presbyter Antiochenae ecclesiae, while Syriac texts declare him
an abbot of a monastery in the vicinity of Antiocb. He died at an
advanced age between 459 and 461. Zingerle was the first to make
known some interesting pages from Isaac of Antioch; we owe to
Bickell a complete edition of his writings. Most of them are in seven-
syllable metre, some have reached us only in an Arabic version.
By far the greater part of his works are ascetico-moral in character,
exhortations to a life of virtue or reprobations of sin and vice;
very often they are addressed directly to his fellow-monks. There
are, however, some Carmina devoted to a very minute defence of
articles of faith, especially the Trinity, the Incarnation, and free will.
Others are found to be most valuable because of their incidental
references to the contemporary wars with the Huns, the Arabs, and
the Persians. There does not seem to be any reason to doubt his
orthodoxy; two hymns, in which it is asserted that in Christ there is
only one nature, were probably interpolated by Monophysite copyists.
The following judgment of Bickell, quite in accord with that of Zingerle,
applies to the literary merits of Isaac: « Apart from a few passages
in which the sublimity of the subject-matter and personal inspiration
lend to his speech a certain higher flight, he remains always languid,
verbose and tedious. He is capable of so attaching himself to a
given subject that he dwells upon it at great length and with the
most wearisome tautology. It would seem at times as if he purposely
avoided the pleasing and agreeable side of his theme in order to
pursue some subordinate line of singular and bizarre thoughts. »
, Isaaci Antiocheni, Doctoris Syrorum, opera omnia ex omnibus,
quotquot exstant, codicibus manuscripts cum varia lectione syriace arabi-
1 De viris ill., c. 66.
§ 84. GENERAL CONSPECTUS. 397
ceque primus edidit, latine vertit, prolegomenis et glossario auxit G. Bickell,
Giessen, part I, 1873; part II, 1877; these two volumes contain 37 hymns,
or fragments of hymns, in Syriac and Latin. Six of them : De fide et in-
carnatione Domini (i), De fide (6), De potestate diaboli in homine ten-
tando (10), De s. ieiunio quadragesimali (13), De ieiunio (14), De vigiliis
Antiochenis et de eo quod bonum est confiteri Domino (15), were already
known in a German version by Bickell, in his Ausgewahlte Gedichte, pp. 109
to 191; cf. Ausgewahlte Schriften, pp. 411 — 412 422 — 424. P. Zingerle
published the Syriac text of the hymns De amore doctrinae (Monumenta
Syriaca, Innsbruck, 1869, i. 13 — 20) and De pueris defunctis (Chrestomathia
Syriaca, Rome, 1871, pp. 387—394), also extracts from the De crucifixione,
De perfectione fratrum, De Adam et Eva, De Abelo et Caino (Chrestom.
Syr. pp. 299 — 306 395 — 416). He made known, also in a German version,
extracts from six hymns on the Crucifixion, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1870),
Hi. 92 — 114. All the texts published by Zingerle have not been published
in the Bickell editions. Some poems of Isaac were wrongly attributed to
St. Ephrsem in the Roman edition of his works (§ 82, 5). Isaac, syrus
antiochenus. Homiliae ed. P. Bedjan (Syriac), Leipzig, 1903, i. M. Besson,
Un recueil de sentences attribue a Isaac le Syrien, in Oriens Christianus
(1901 — 1902), i. 288 — 298. Our Isaac must not be confounded with Isaac,
bishop of Ninive and anchorite in the seventh century, author of several
ascetical sermons preserved in the 'original Syriac and in Greek and Latin
versions (Migne , PG. , Ixxxvi i, 811 — 886), also in an unreliable Arabic
version, and an Ethiopic version derived from the same. — For Isaac of
Ninive cf. J-. B. Chabot , De S. Isaaci Ninivitae scriptis et doctrina,
Louvain, 1892.
THIRD SECTION.
LATIN WRITERS.
§ 84. General conspectus.
I. THE ROLL OF THE CHRISTIAN WEST IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF DOGMA. - - The great trinitarian and christological conflicts that
had been fought out principally on Oriental soil (§ 60, 2), could
not fail to affect the Western Church. One of her most eminent
writers, Hilary of Poitiers, found the work of his life precisely in the
refutation of Arianism. There comes now to the surface, however, and
much more markedly, a distinction already noticed (§ 49) between
the intellectual temperament of the East and that of the West.
The Western Christian is less concerned with a speculative grasp of
the idea of God than with the practical duty of man. During this
whole period only one noteworthy doctrinal conflict broke out in
the Western Church ; it concerned the necessity of divine co-operation
with the personal efforts of man to attain his last end. It is, there
fore, ecclesiastical anthropology, that is developed and cultivated in
this period, in opposition to Pelagianism and Semipelagianism. In
addition, the nature and constitution of the Church became an object
of frequent discussion and exposition apropos of the Novatian and
Donatist schisms.
398 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
2. THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS AND TENDENCIES. — The above-
mentioned Hilary does not fear to lose his independence and origin
ality of thought by drawing on Greek sources in defence of the
Christian faith. His writings may rightly be described as a channel
through which the approved results of Oriental Christian theology
were made accessible to the West. At a later date a similar role
fell to St. Jerome and Rufinus, as mediators between the Greek and
the Latin theology. The former is certainly the most intellectual
and erudite among the Western Christian writers. Like Rufinus, once
his friend and later his enemy, he is especially interested in biblico-
historical questions, while the strength of St. Hilary lies all in dog
matic speculation. These three authors to whom we might add Marius
Mercator and John Cassian, have been called, not without reason, the
«Grecizing Westerns. » - - Specifically Western and untrammelled by
Oriental thought is the position taken by Ambrose, Augustine and
Leo the Great. It is highly illustrative of this mental attitude that
Ambrose, following in the steps of Cicero, should be the first to
attempt a complete expose of the teachings of Christian morality as
apart from Christian faith. At the same time, in exegesis also Am
brose followed Greek models and even passed through Origen and
Hippolytus back to the Jew Philo; it is also true that in dogmatic
exposition this « Emperor among the bishops of the West» sought
his model in St. Basil the Great, a man quite akin to him in cha
racter and mental bent. - - In the person of the African Augustine
theological supremacy, even in the province of speculation, was trans
ferred from the East to the West. In Pelagianism and Semipelagian-
ism, Augustine found himself confronted by quite new questions amid
the difficulties of which his incomparably acute and profound spirit
had to clear a way for itself. He breathed a new life into nearly
all branches of ecclesiastical science, labored at them with creative
vigor, and set before them new tasks and aims. - - Leo I. bears
rightly not only the title of the «Great» pope, but also that of
« Doctor of the Church ». Quite worthy of the mighty energy with
which he governed and directed the ecclesiastical situation of his
time is the intellectual pre-eminence which he held throughout the
Eutychian or Monophysite conflict. — A specifically theological school
appears early in the fifth century in the newly founded monasteries
on the Isle of Lerins and in the vicinity of Marseilles. Its bond of
u^ion is a common opposition to the teaching of Augustine, i. e.
Semipelagianism, to call it by its later name. The most remarkable
theologians of this school are John Cassian and Vincent of Lerins.
3. THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. - - Apologetic: It is only natural
that henceforth the Latin apologetic literature of the Christians should
quit the defensive and assume rather an aggressive character (§ 60, 4).
Firmicus Maternus attacks the mysteries of the pagans. Ambrose
§ 84. GENERAL CONSPECTUS. 399
and Prudentius denounce the last manifestations of decadent heathenism
in public life and the pretentions of the old Roman senatorial ele
ment under the leadership of Symmachus. Augustine and Orosius
refute the charge that the miseries of the present ceaseless horrors
of war, and the collapse of the empire, are the results of Christianity.
The reply of Augustine to these reproaches is the great and noble
work on the City of God, the first attempt at a philosophy of his
tory. It is Augustine again who leads the Christian defence against
the Manichaeans, doubly qualified for this office by reason of the
long years (374 — 383) that he had spent in the service of Mani.
Several Spanish writers refute the heresy of Priscillian which is close
akin to Manichaeism — among them Prudentius (?), and besides them
Augustine, at the suggestion of the Spaniard Orosius. — Polemic and
systematic theology: We have already seen that the refutation of
Arianism in the West and the exposition of Catholic doctrine con
cerning the Trinity fell to the lot of Hilary of Poitiers. Other parti
cipants in the conflict were Lucifer of Calaris, Phobadius of Agennum,
Ambrose and Augustine. John Cassian and Marius Mercator wrote
against Nestorianism, Leo the Great against Monophysitism. Pacianus
of Barcelona and Ambrose defended the power of the keys against
its persistent denial by Novatianism. The great and perilous schism
of the Donatists in Africa called forth the efforts of Optatus of Mileve
and Augustine, who made clear the essential elements of the Church
and the objective efficacy of the sacraments. The most important and
most difficult problem of Western polemical theology is connected
with the name of the British monk Pelagius. The refutation of Pe
lagian naturalism earned for Augustine the immortal title of Doctor
gratiae. He was bravely aided by Jerome, Orosius and Marius Mer
cator. The doctrine of Augustine was attacked by the Semipelagians,
but found well-equipped defenders in Prosper of Aquitaine and the
anonymous author of the De vocatione omnium gentium. At this
period we meet, in both East and West, with very few attempts at a
systematized theology; Augustine wrote a compendium of ecclesiastical
doctrine, Vincent of Lerins a precise exposition of the Church's rule
of faith, i. e. the principle of tradition. - - Biblical theology: It is
to St. Jerome that we owe the best work in this province. He alone
among all the Western theologians understands, and understands pro
foundly, the Hebrew tongue. He gave to the Western Church a
translation of the Holy Scriptures, which is far superior to all
previous attempts of the kind. Biblical Introduction and Biblical
Archaeology are also deeply indebted to him. On the other hand,
his abundant commentaries on many books of the Old and New
Testament fall below our just expectations ; they were, for the most
part, written hastily and exhibit repeatedly a lack of clear and correct
hermeneutic principles. Other ecclesiastical exegetes are Hilary of
4<DO SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Poitiers, Ambrose and Augustine, all of whom cherish the allegorical
method of interpretation. And though on this point the Latin and
the Greek exegesis are in accord, there is a characteristic dif
ference: the Latins, and particularly Ambrose, are usually hortatory,
while among the Greeks it is the doctrinal point of view that pre
dominates. Augustine made also a notable contribution to Gospel-
criticism in his work De consensu evangelist arum. Biblical geography
was illustrated by the authors of the Itinerarium a Burdigala Hieru-
salem usque and the Peregrinatio ad I oca sancta. The Donatist
Tichonius and Eucherius of Lyons established principles for the inter
pretation of the figurative expressions of Holy Scripture. A com
prehensive theory of biblical hermeneutics is found in the De doc-
trina Christiana of Augustine. -- Historical theology: In this depart
ment the Latins accomplished much less than the Greeks. Jerome
translated into Latin and continued the second part of the Chronicle
of Eusebius. Similarly, Rufinus paraphrased and continued the Church
History of Eusebius. The Chronicle of St. Jerome was continued by
Prosper of Aquitaine. Sulpicius Severus wrote a well-known history
from the Creation to A. D. 400. Less important, though covering
more ground, is the work of the Spanish priest Orosius. Philastrius
and Augustine (De haeresibus) wrote histories of heresies. Jerome
composed the first history of Christian literature. The same writer
compiled edifying biographies, as did Sulpicius Severus, Rufinus and
Paulinus of Milan. - - Practical theology: There is now a great
abundance of ascetico-moral literature ; the best writers in this depart
ment are Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine. We have already mentioned
the manual of Christian morality drawn up by Ambrose; it was
specially destined for the clergy. John Cassian wrote two ascetical
works for the edification of monks. Augustine prepared the first
manual of homiletics in the fourth book of his De doctrina Christiana
and the first manual of Catechetics in his work De catechizandis
rudibus. He is also the chief master of practical pulpit eloquence.
For copiousness of thought and force of logic, he has never been
surpassed, though Ambrose reaches a higher level of oratorical sub
limity and brilliancy. After these masters of oratory, Leo the Great,
Peter Chrysologus, and Maximus of Turin merit a place among the
great Christian preachers.
4. THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE (CONTINUED). POETRY. - The
Latins, like the Syrians, are far more productive in the field of
Christian poetry than the Greeks. Didactic poems, after the manner
of Commodian, the first Christian poet, were written by Prudentius,
Paulinus of Nola, Augustine, Prosper of Aquitaine, Orientius, and
others; among them Prudentius has always been recognized as a
master. Still greater is the number of poets who attempted to excel
in the epic properly so-called. Proba tried to put the entire biblical
§ 85. FIRMICUS MATERNUS. 4OI
history into a Cento ; Cyprian of Gaul, Claudius Marius Victor (Alethia),
the authors of the poems De Sodoma, De Jona, De martyrio Mac-
cabaeorum and others treat Old Testament themes ; Juvencus, Sedulius
(Paschale carmen) and others take up the life of our Lord. Pope
Damasus, Prudentius, Paulinus of Nola left panegyrical poems on
Christ and the Saints. This Christian Latin poetry is based on the
old Roman epic, and follows closely the laws of its technic; it
offers nothing new except the subject-matter and the personal treat
ment of the same. It is otherwise with the lyric poetry that begins
henceforth to flourish among Latin Christians, or the peculiarly new
species of poetic form known as the hymn. Poems of this kind,
distinguished for boldness and sublimity of thought as well as for
depth and tenderness of sentiment, were written by Hilary of Poitiers,
Ambrose, Prudentius and Sedulius. All this lyric poetry in its inmost
nature is a flower of Christian life, however attired it may be in the
antique poetical forms in the beginning. It could never have grown
on a heathen soil because the conditions were wanting, notably moral
purity and solidity of religious conviction. During this period, both
among Latins and Greeks, we perceive the beginning of an entirely
new form of poetical activity. The popular ecclesiastical poetry frees
itself gradually from the bonds of antiquated metrical laws, and
takes refuge in rhythmic versification based on the accentuation of
certain words. The first Latin poem in which the arsis of the verse
is placed on accentuated syllables is the Psalmus contra par tern Donati
of Augustine.
§ 85. Firmicus Maternus.
Julius Firmicus Maternus is the name, vouched for by the only
extant manuscript (cod. Vaticano-Palatinus, saec. x.), of the author
of a work De err ore prof ana rum religionnm in which the emperors
Constantius (337 — 361) and Constans (337 — 350) are urged to deal
a death blow to decadent heathenism. Our knowledge of the author
is confined to what we can glean from the solitary manuscript of
his work, mutilated moreover at the beginning, where the two outer
leaves of the first quaternio are wanting. It was very probably com
posed about 347, if we are to judge from the reference (c. 29, 3) to
the illsuccess of the Persians in their war against Rome; it is also
possible that the vicinity of Henna in Sicily was the home or re
sidence of the author, at least he shows a rather exact knowledge
of that place. There is a growing inclination to attribute the work
to a certain Julius Firmicus Maternus Junior Siculus, author of a
heathen astrological work entitled Mathesis; since Mommsen settled
the date of this latter heathen compilation, the above-mentioned view
is gaining ground. A very strong argument in favor of identity of
authorship is found in the striking similarity of style. We should
BARDENHEWKR-SHAHAN, Patrology. 26
4Q2 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
have to suppose, of course, that after the composition of his pagan
work (334 — 337) Firmicus Maternus was converted to the Christian
religion. The Christian work is a direct attack on the «mysteries»
in which heathenism was making its last stand ; the crass superstition
and the unnatural immorality often exhibited in them are laid bare
(cc g — 17). The author attempts to prove that the pass-words, signa
vel symbola, by which the initiated recognized one another, are only
diabolical imitations of biblical expressions, more particularly of the
sayings of the prophets (cc. 18 — 27). At the end (cc. 28 29) the
duty of both emperors is laid down with emphatic appeals to the old
Testament: they must root out the remnants of heathenism; in return
God will reward them by new proofs of His mercy, which has
otherwise been so largely vouchsafed to them because of their faith.
The little work exhibits a certain fanaticism, and does not hesitate
to urge violent measures. Nevertheless, the author is concerned for
the true interest of the heathens: once the sick man is restored to
health, he recognizes gratefully the useful character of remedies
otherwise disagreeable and painful (c. 16, 4 — 5). The heathenism of
the fourth century was probably never described in a more true and
reliable manner than in this work. From a dogmatico-historical
point of view, the long passage on the Blessed Eucharist (c. 18) is
especially important. The style of the work is very lively and em
phatic, and the diction quite pure, though not free from plebeian
expressions.
The famous Codex Vaticano-Palatinus is described by A. Reifferscheid,
Bibl. Patrum Lat. Italica, i. 268—269. The first edition is that of M. Fla-
cius Illyricus , Strassburg, 1562, often reprinted with more or less exactness ;
it is found also in Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., v. 21 — 39, and in Migne, PL.,
xii. 971 — 1050. New editions based on fresh collations of the Codex are
due to C. Bursian, Leipzig, 1856, and C. Halm, Vienna, 1867 (Corpus
script, eccles. lat. ii). Cf. CL H. Moore, Julius Firmicus Maternus, der
Heide und der Christ (Inaug.-Diss.), Munich, 1897. A new edition of the
pagan work (a complete theory of astrology) was undertaken by W. Kroll
and F. Skutsch: Julii Firmici Materni Matheseos libri viii, fasc. i, Leipzig,
1897. For the date of composition of this latter work cf. Th. Mommsen,
in Hermes (1894), xxix. 468 ff., and Moore, 1. c. , pp. 2 ff. C. Weyman,
1'astrologie dans le De errore de Firmicus (c. 17, i), in Revue d'hist. et de
litterat. religieuses (1898), iii. 383—384- A. Becker, Julius Firmicus Maternus
und Pseudo-Quintilian, in Philologus, new series (1902), xv. 476—478.
§ 86. St. Hilary of Poitiers.
I. HIS LIFE. The Arian discords were far-reaching enough to
disturb profoundly even the Western Church. Jerome could write
apropos of the results of the double synod of Seleucia-Rimini (359):
Ingemuit totus orbis et Arianum se esse miratus est*. When Arianism,
1 Alterc. Lucif. et orthod., c. 19.
§ 86. ST. HILARY OF POITIERS. 403
or rather Semiarianism, was at the acme of its career, a brilliant star
arose in Gaul and began to diffuse its sweet and tranquil light amid
the storms of that sad time ; this was St. Hilary of Poitiers, a theo
logian of wonderful profundity of thought, of cogent and forcible
diction, but also gentle and affectionate in sentiment and of kingly
courage. He is often called «the Athanasius of the West», a title
that belongs more appropriately to Hosius of Cordova (§ 87, i).
Certainly Hilary was one of the principal instruments of divine Pro
vidence in the extirpation of Arianism from Gaul, and in the pre
servation of the true Christian faith. Born of a noble heathen family
of Poitiers (Pictavi in Aquitania), probably between 310 and 320, he
devoted all his attention from childhood to the study of Latin and
Greek. As he grew up, it seemed to him that the heathen philosophy
furnished no sufficient answer to the problem of human destiny; it
was almost by accident that he was led to the Holy Scriptures
wherein he was to find the object of his longing. In the opening
lines of his greatest work1 he has discussed the manner in which
he was made to see the truth and become a Christian. It is pro
bable that shortly after his baptism, which he did not long delay,
the clergy and people of Poitiers chose him unanimously for their
bishop. By the year 355 he had been a bishop already for some
time (aliquantisper) 2. Though he did not take part in the synod of
Milan (355) at which the emperor Constantius effected in so harsh
and despotic a way the condemnation of Athanasius, he was destined
to suffer the consequences of this step. Saturninus, bishop of Aries,
an Arian sympathizer, was desirous of profiting by this victory in
order to consolidate in Gaul the standing of Arianism. He found in
Hilary a vigorous opponent and a man capable of rallying around
the standard of orthodoxy all the right-minded bishops of Gaul;
they renounced the communion of the Arians. Saturninus replied by
accusing Hilary and his friends of political intrigues against the
emperor. The mendacious report of a synod convoked by Saturninus
at Biterrae (Beziers in Languedoc), in the spring of 356, caused the
emperor to banish Hilary from Gaul to Asia Minor. He was allowed,
however, to retain a certain personal freedom, and seems to have
spent most of his exile in Phrygia. Here he became more thoroughly
acquainted with the writings of the Greek Fathers, through the study
of which his powers of speculative thought rapidly matured. It was
in this exile that he wrote the most important of his works; he
also found there the inspiration for his hymns. In 359 he assisted
at the synod of Seleucia Aspera, the provincial capital of Isauria;
thence he accompanied to Constantinople the deputies of the synod.
The Arians now caused him to be sent home to Gaul as «a disturber
1 De trin., i. I if. 2 De syn., c. 91.
26*
404 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
of the peace of the East»: quasi discordiae seminarium et pertur-
bator Orientis redire ad Gallias iubetur, absque exilii indulgentia *.
Early in 360 he returned to his fatherland by way of Italy and was
everywhere received with great joy. His immediate concern was the
healing of the grave wounds inflicted on the Church of Gaul, chiefly
by Saturninus. Many bishops had accepted the Arian creed either
through ignorance or through fear; the mild and considerate policy
of Hilary made it easy for them to return to the Catholic fold. At
the national council of Paris (361), that had been preceded by several
provincial councils, he was able to unite nearly all the bishops of
Gaul on the basis of the Nicene Creed and to bring about the de
position of Saturninus. Sulpicius Severus closes his account of this
event with the following words: Illud apud omnes constitit unius
Hilarii beneficio Gallias nostras piaculo haeresis liberatas2. The in
fluence of the great bishop was felt even throughout Italy. He pre
sided over the synod of Milan in 364, at which there was question of
the orthodoxy of Auxentius, the Arian bishop of that city. The
latter, however, was able to deceive the emperor Valentinian, and
Hilary was compelled to quit Milan. He died in his native city «in
the sixth year after his return»3, i. e. in the year 366. Posterity has
been unanimous in its admiration for this great Christian. St. Jerome,
writing in 384, sums up in the following words4 the judgment of
his contemporaries: «The merit of his confession (of the faith), the
activity of his life, and the splendor of his eloquence will be cele
brated wherever the name of Rome is heard (ubicumque Romanum
nomen est).
2. HIS WORK DE TRINITATE. THE STYLE OF ST. HILARY. - - The
principal work of our author is entitled: De trinitate libri xii5, a
superscription current since the sixth century; the original title was:
De fide or De fide adversus Arianos. The work was composed
during 356 — 359 in Asia Minor; its purpose is to define and establish
in a scientific way against Arianism the ecclesiastical teaching con
cerning, the God-Man. In the first book are set forth the necessity
and the happiness of a true knowledge of God; then follows a
summary of all twelve books. The second book takes as its basis
the baptismal formula and describes the mystery of the divine gene
ration of the Son: sacramentum edocet divinae generationis (i. 21).
In the third book he undertakes to illustrate, apropos of John x. 38:
ego in Patre et Pater in me, the consubstantiality of the Son and
the Father. The following four books attack the teachings of the
heretics and refute their objections against the divinity of the Son.
In the eighth book he proves that the dogma of monotheism is not
affected by the recognition of the Son of God : octavus liber totus
1 Sulp. Sev., Chron., ii. 45, 4. 2 Ib ^ ^ ^ 7> 3 j^ ii. 45, 9.
4 Ep. 34, 3. * Migne, PL., x. 25—472.
§ 86. ST. HILARY OF POITIERS. 405
in unius Dei demonstratione detentus est (i. 28). The ninth book
refutes the objection of the heretics against the eternal birth of the
Son from the Father: nonus liber totus in repellendis iis quae ad
infirmandam Unigeniti Dei nativitatem (not: divinitatem) ab impiis
usurpantur, intentus est (i. 29). The tenth book undertakes to re
concile with Christian faith in the true divinity of the Son the evidences
of pain on the part of Christ; the eleventh book treats of the sub
ordination of Christ referred to in John xx. 17 and I Cor. xv. 27 — 28.
In the twelfth book, finally, he undertakes to illustrate as far as
human reason may do, how completely different is the eternal birth of
the Son from that of any temporal being. The entire work is a
sustained and intensely enthusiastic plea for the faith of the Church.
In the domain of early ecclesiastical literature it is certainly the most
imposing of all the works written against Arianism. It is true that
he bases his arguments on the speculative thought of the Greek
Fathers, but he does not, therefore, cease to be a writer of inde
pendence and originality. He was the first to act as an intermediary
between the theology of the East and that of the West; thereby
he contributed to the latter many new germs of thought and method
the influence of which was afterwards visible in the admirable de
velopment of Latin theology. The peculiarities of his christological
doctrine will be touched on below (no. 6). Hilary paid very great
attention to the literary finish of his work. In the prayer for divine
aid with which the first book (i. 38) closes he says: Tribue ergo
nobis verborum significationem, intelligentiae lumen, dictorum hono-
rem, veritatis fidem. His diction is always pithy and dignified. In
his judgment on the style of the great bishop of Poitiers, Jerome
betrays1 e certain narrowness: « Saint Hilary », he says, « paces so
lemnly along clothed in the Gallic buskin, he adorns himself with
the flowers of Hellas and frequently becomes involved in his long
periods; hence he is a writer not at all suited to the needs of the
less cultured among our brethren ». What lends a certain solemnity
and sublimity to the language of Hilary is not a love of rhetorical
pomp, but the sincerity and warmth of his convictions. Robust vigor
and a stout unyielding heart, intellectual force and solidity of cha
racter are visible all through his work. If we miss in his style the
qualities of delicacy and grace, their absence is amply compensated
for by his powerful personality and his charming originality. It is
true that the average reader of Hilary finds his language difficult,
but this, however, is to be attributed not to obscurity of style, but
to the depth and the boldness of the ideas he is expressing.
3. HISTORICO-POLEMICAL WRITINGS. - - He was often compelled,
like Athanasius, to defend the truth of history against the falsifications
1 Ep. 58, 10.
406 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
and misrepresentations of Arian writers. In the first treatise addressed
(355) to tne emperor Constantius (Ad Constantium Augustum, lib. i.)1
he defended with the eloquence of a clear conscience his political
innocence from the malicious insinuations of Saturninus and his fellow-
Arians. In a memorial addressed (360) to the same emperor (Ad
Constantium Augustum, lib. II) 2, he petitioned for an audience with
the ruler of the Roman world in the presence of Saturninus; he
offered to compel the latter to confess then and there his mendacity
and his intrigues (ad confessionem falsorum quae gessit, c. 3). His
confidence in the emperor was soon shaken; the latter turned a
willing ear to the Arians alone. Hilary gave vent to the pain and
wrath of his soul in an attack on the emperor (Contra Constantium) 3,
written at Constantinople in 360, but not published until after the
death of the emperor (Nov. 3., 361). It is at once a cry of anguish
and a note of alarm forced from the depths of his spirit by the
imminent peril of the faith. In the very first chapters (cc. I ff.) he
denounces Constantius as Antichrist; later on he compares him to
Nero, Decius and Maximian (cc. 7ff.)- When Constantius convoked
the double synod of the East at Seleucia and of the West at Rimini,
Hilary wrote in the spring of 359 his: De synodis seu De fide Orien-
talium*. It is addressed primarily to the Western bishops, but is
meant likewise for their brethren in the East, its object being to
ensure harmonious co-operation of all defenders of the Nicene Creed
during the impending synods. Hilary saw in the ignorance of the
Western bishops concerning the history of the Eastern synods since
the gathering at Nicsea (325) the chief cause of the existing tension;
he, therefore, describes at length what took place in the subsequent
synods. Many other letters of St. Hilary written during his exile to
the bishops of Gaul are lost5. He was obliged to defend the con
ciliatory letter just described from the attacks of the quarrelsome
Lucifer, bishop of Calaris (§ 87, 2); this he did in a special work
that is now known to us only through insignificant fragments : Apo-
logetica ad reprehensores libri de synodis responsa 6. — In his memorial
to the bishops of Italy (365): Contra Arianos vel Auxentium Medio-
lanensem7, he warns them not to hold communion with the latter.
Jerome mentions 8 two polemical works of Hilary that have not reached
us: Liber adversum Valentem et Ursacium, historiam Ariminensis et
Seleuciensis synodi continens, and : Ad praefectum Sallustium sive
contra Dioscorum. The: Fragmenta (15) ex op ere historico^, which
the defenders of their authenticity usually describe as remnants of
the first mentioned of these two works, are, with the exception of
1 Migne, PL., x. 557—564. 2 Ib., x. 563—572.
3 Ib., x. 577—606. 4 Ib., x. 479—546. 5 De syn<j c j
6 Migne, PL., x. 545—548. 7 Ib., x. 609—618.
3 De viris ill., c. 100. 9 Migne, PL., x. 627—724.
§ 86. ST. HILARY OF POITIERS. 407
the first fragment, probably spurious in their entirety. Of the second
of these works Jerome says1: Hilarius brevi libello, quern scripsit
contra Dioscorum medicum, quid in litteris possit, ostendit.
4. EXEGETICAL WRITINGS. — Hilary is a pioneer in the field of
scholarly exegesis in the West. Before him the Western Church
possessed but few commentators: Victorinus of Pettau, Reticius of
Autun (§ 58), and Fortunatianus of Aquileia2. The commentaries
of the rhetorician Marius Victorinus belong probably to a later period
(§ 87, 8). The earliest work of St. Hilary is a commentary on
Matthew3, composed about 355, at a time when he had not yet
become involved in the Arian conflict. The textual exposition is
based on the theory that all Scripture offers a prophetic or typical
character: typica ratio xvii. 8, xix. i; causae interiores xii. 12; caele-
stis intelligentia xx. 2. It is the duty of the commentator to recognize
and set forth this profounder meaning of the sacred text. Hilary
does not consider it necessary to treat of the historico-grammatical
meaning, nor does he take into consideration the Greek text of the
Scripture. Somewhat different is his attitude in the commentary on
the Psalms: Tractatus super Psalmos4, written probably in the last
years of his life. It is always the celestial sense, the prophetic contents
of the text, that he aims at disengaging from the letter; nevertheless
he recognizes the claims of the literal sense, and frequently compares
various Greek and Latin translations. He also makes mention of
earlier commentators5. When St. Jerome remarks6 that Hilary imitated
Origen, but added something of his own, he is certainly unjust to
the former. It is very probable that this commentary once included
all the Psalms, but in the shape in which it was known to St. Jerome
the commentary treated only of Psalms I 2 51 — 62 118 — 150. The
later editions (Migne, Zingerle) offer commentaries on Psalms 129
13 14 51 — 69 91 118 — 150, also an appendix of fragmentary or
spurious treatises on some other Psalms. Both these commentaries
of Hilary were highly esteemed in later ages and contributed greatly
to spread throughout the West the allegorizing method in the inter
pretation of Scripture. Only two small fragments7 are extant of his
Tractatus in Job, which was according to St. Jerome8 only a trans
lation of Origen. St. Jerome had also heard 9 from others of the existence
of a commentary of Hilary on the Canticle of canticles. Some modern
writers, trusting to later indications, attribute to Hilary a (lost) com
mentary on the Pauline Epistles. The Liber mysteriorum cited by
St. Jerome10 belongs, according to the fragments published by Ga-
1 Ep. 70, 5. 2 Hier., De viris ill., c. 97; Comm. in Matth., praef.
3 Migne, PL., ix. 917 — 1078. 4 Ib., ix. 231 — 908.
5 Instr., c. i ; In Ps. liv. 9; In Ps. cxxiv. i.
6 De viris ill., c. 100; cf. Ep. 61, 2. 7 Migne, PL.,' x. 723 — 724.
8 De viris ill., c. 100. 9 Ib. 10 Ib.
408 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
murrini in 1887, to the exegetical writings; it must have been a
treatise on prophetical types of the Old Testament and not a liturgy,
as was formerly thought. Mai published in 1852 treatises on the
beginning of the first and the beginning of the fourth Gospels, also
on the man sick of the palsy * ; though attributed to Hilary, they
are spurious.
5. HYMNS OF HILARY. -- St. Jerome says2 that Hilary composed
a hymn-book (Liber hymnorum), and according to St. Isidore of
Seville 3 he was the first to excel in the composition of hymns :
hymnorum carmine floruit primus. In the eleventh- century manuscript
whence Gamurrini took his fragments of the «Book of Mysteries»
(see no. 4), there are remnants of the «Book of Hymns» i. e. of
three hymns, in an incomplete and mutilated condition. All three
hymns celebrate the redemption of the human race by the God-Man.
The second hymn is not, as Gamurrini imagined, composed by a
woman, but rather by Hilary for a woman. Each of the three hymns
exhibits a distinct metre; the first two are in acrostichs i. e. each
strophe begins with a letter of the alphabet; errors of prosody abound.
Other hymns have long been current under the name of Hilary, e. g.
the lovely morning song Lucis largitor splendide, and the vesper
song Ad caeli clara non sum dignus sidera. Their genuineness,
however, has been much disputed. In any case the discovery of
Gamurrini shows that one must not ask from St. Hilary too rigorous
an adhesion to the fixed rules of classic prosody. Hilary caught
from the Greeks of Asia Minor his love of hymns ; for he had frequent
occasion during his exile to hear the hymns of the Christians sung
in their churches. His hymns (either all, or some) were written
for the public liturgical service, a fact quite reconcilable with the
opinion of Christian antiquity that made St. Ambrose the father of
Christian hymns in the West (§ 90, 8). After all, the efforts of
Hilary to introduce the hymn-service proved almost fruitless ; he was
obliged to admit4 that his fellow-citizens of Gaul were not desirous
of knowing more about his hymns : in hymnorum carmine indociles.
6. CHRISTOLOGICAL DOCTRINE. - - The writings of Hilary are
dominated by one leading thought: the defence and illustration of
the faith of Christians in the divinity of Jesus Christ. He looks
upon this doctrine as the very corner-stone of the Church5: Haec
fides ecclesiae fundamentum est, per hanc fidem infirmes adversus
earn sunt portae inferorum, haec fides regni coelestis habet claves6.
In his speculative argument he dwells with especial interest on
the eternal generation of the Son by the Father: Quis dubitat
quin indifferentem naturam nativitas consequatur? Hinc enim est sola
Mt. ix. 2 ff. -De viris ill., c. 100. 3 De eccl. off., i. 6.
Hier., Comm. in Gal., lib. ii., init. 5 Mt. xvi. 13 ff.
15 De trin., vi. 37.
§ 86. ST. HILARY OF POITIERS. 409
ilia quae vere esse possit aequalitas1. The unity of the divine nature
is not affected by the personal properties of fatherhood and sonship
respectively, for they are essentially connected with the act of gene
ration : Licet paternae nuncupationis proprietas differat, tamen natura
non differt : natus enim a Deo Deus non dissimilis est a gignente
substantia2. Though the Son is God from all eternity, He became
man in time: Hunc igitur assumpsisse corpus et hominem factum
esse perfecta confessio est . . . ut sicut Dei filium, ita et filium hominis
meminerimus: quia alterum sine altero nihil spei tribuit ad salutem3.
He often reminds his readers that God the Son took the two essential
elements of our human nature, a body and a soul: Naturam in se
universae carnis assumpsit4; nostri corporis atque animae homo5; carnis
atque animae homo ac Deus, habens in se et totum verumque quod
homo est et totum verumque quod Deus est 8. This incarnation of
the Logos is explained in two ways. The Son of God had to put
off the forma Dei: In forma servi veniens evacuavit se ex Dei
forma, nam in forma hominis exsistere manens in Dei forma qui
potuit ? 7 Theologians have asked themselves what Hilary meant by the
cvacuatio ex Dei forma. The commentary on the sixty-eighth Psalm
shows with sufficient clearness that Hilary speaks of the voluntary
renunciation by the Logos, during His life on earth, of the public
manifestation and splendor that belong by right to Him as God:
Aboleri Dei forma, ut tantum servi esset forma, non potuit. Ipse
enim est et se ex forma Dei inaniens et formam hominis assumens,
quia neque evacuatio ilia ex Dei forma naturae caelestis interitus est,
neque formae servilis assumptio tanquam genuinae originis conditionis-
que natura est8. To the self-debasement of the Son of God cor
responds, however, an elevation of human nature. The manhood of
Jesus Christ is of heavenly origin: Primus enim homo de limo terrae;
et secundus Adam in huius limi profundum de caelis descendens se
ipsum tamquam ex alto veniens defixit9. Through His own power
the Logos took His own body from the Virgin Mary, and created
His own soul out of nothing: Ut per se sibi assumpsit ex virgine
corpus, ita ex se sibi animam assumpsit 10. The body of the Lord
is a celestial body (caeleste corpus)11, and therefore endowed with
extraordinary excellencies. It is true, according to Hilary, that it
shares whatever is essential to our human bodies: there can be no
question of the reality of the sufferings and death of Christ. Never
theless, by its constitution the body of Christ was in every way superior
to all human needs (of food and rest) and to all sense of pain and
sorrow; it was only by a voluntary act of self-humiliation that the
1 Ib., vii. 15. 2 In Ps. cxxxviii. 17. 3 In Mt. xvi. 5.
4 In Ps. li. 1 6. 5 In Ps. liii. 8. 6 De trin., x. 19.
7 In Ps. Ixviii. 25; cf. Phil. ii. 6—7. 8 In Ps. Ixviii. 25.
9 In Ps. Ixviii. 4. 10 De trin., x. 22. n Ib., x. 18.
4IQ SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Lord took on Him the conditions of our enfeebled state. According
to Hilary, therefore, the transfiguration on Tabor and the walking
on the waves of Genesareth are not miracles, as is usually said, but
forms of life and self- revelation natural to the body of the Lord.
Christ was not only free, at any moment, to exhibit His body trans
figured in glory and to withdraw it from all contact with suffering
and the law of death, but it always required a special interference
of His divine will to divest His body of its natural immunity from
all human weakness, and subordinate it to the influences of inimical
forces: Naturae enim propriae ac suae corpus illud est, quod in
caelestem gloriam conformatur in monte, quod attactu suo fugat
febres, quod de sputo suo format oculos 1, and again : Non ambiguum
est in natura eius corporis infirmitatem naturae corporeae non fuisse,
cui in virtute naturae merit omnem corporum depellere infirmitatem2.
There can be no doubt that this teaching puts in a new light the
free and meritorious character of the sufferings of Christ; at the
same time it is also true that such teaching « makes a very sharp
turn around the headland of Docetism».
7. COMPLETE AND PARTIAL EDITIONS. VERSIONS AND RECENSIONS.
The first complete editions of Hilary were published by D. Erasmus, Basel,
1523 (1526 1553); L. Miraeus, Paris, 1544; M. Lipsius, Basel, 1550 (1570).
The Benedictine P. Constant (f 1721) opened a new epoch in the critical
study of the writings of Hilary. His edition (Paris, 1693) merits a place
of eminence among all the Maurine editions ; an improved edition was made
by the Marchese Scipione Maffei , Verona, 1730 (Venice, 1749 — 1750),
2 vols. Maffei owed to new manuscripts his emendations of the text of
De Trinitate and of the commentary on the Psalms. The Migne edition
of Hilary (PL., ix — x, Paris, 1844 — 1845) contains additions to the reprint
of Maffei but is otherwise very faulty. G. Mercati , Un foglio dell' Ilario
papiraceo di Vienna (Bibliotheca Barberiniana on the text of De Trin.,
iv. 1 6 17), in Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana antica (Testi e
studi v), Rome, 1901, pp. 99 — 112. Selected works of St. Hilary have
been translated into German by J. Fisch, Kempten, 1878 (Bibliothek der
Kirchenvater), and into English: A select Library of Nicene and Post-
Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, series II, vol. ix, New York,
1899. - - The De Trinitate is reprinted in H. Hurter , Ss. Patr. opusc.
sel., series II 4, Innsbruck, 1888; cf. y. Stix , Zum Sprachgebrauch des
hi. Hilarius von Poitiers in seiner Schrift De Trinitate (Progr.), Rottweil,
1891. The De Trinitate is part also of the Bibliotheca Sanctorum Patrum
(series V, vol. i— iv), Rome, 1903 — 1904. In the Vienna codex the De
Trinitate is followed by a mutilated text entitled contra Arianos. It was
edited by M. Denis , Codd. Mss. theologici latini bibliothecae Palatinae
Vindobonensis, Vienna, 1799, ii i, 1102 — mi (not printed in Migne),
and attributed by him to Hilary. On a new edition of the same see H. S.
Sedlmayer, Der Tractattis contra Arianos in der Wiener Hilarius-Handschrift,
in Sitzungsberichte der k. Akademie der Wiss. zu Wien, philol.-hist. Klasse
(1903), cxlv. G. Morin, in Revue Benedictine (1903), xx. 125 — 127, at
tributed it to the Ambrosiaster whom he identifies with Hilarianus Hilarius
(§ 90, 10). U. Manned has edited the Adversus haereses (i — iii) in the
1 De trin., x. 23. 2 Ib., x. 35.
§ 86. ST. HILARY OF POITIERS. 411
Bibliotheca Sanctorum Patrum (series II, vol. iii), Rome, 1907. — A. Zingerle
published an excellent edition of the commentary on the Psalms, Vienna, 1891
(Corpus script, eccl. lat. xxii) ; unfortunately he missed a very ancient text-
witness, the Cod. Lugd. 381 saec. vi; consult, however, Zingerle' s study, Der
Hilarius-Codex von Lyon, Vienna, 1893, in Sitzungsberichte der phil.-hist.
Klasse der k. Akad. der Wissensch. zu Wien, cxxviii. — Rationem afferendi
locos litterarum divinarum, quam in tractatibus super Psalmos sequi videtur
S. Hilarius, illustravit Fr. Schellauf , Gratz, 1898. The commentary on
the minor epistles of St. Paul, published by Pitra in 1852 under the name
of St. Hilary, is the work of Theodore of Mopsuestia (§ 73, 4). For the
spurious treatises on Matt, i, John i, and Matt, ix, 2 if. cf. A. Mai, Nova
Patrum Bibl., part I, Rome, 1852, i. 477 — 490. Pr. Liverani, Spicilegium
Liberianum, Florence, 1863, pp. 113 — 114, published a spurious homily
of Hilary. The pretended letter of St. Hilary in Migne, PL., x. 733 — 750,
is discussed by G. Morin , in Revue Benedictine (1898), xv. 97 — 99. -
S. Hilarii tractatus de mysteriis et Hymni et S. Sylviae Aquitanae Per-
egrinatio ad loca sancta. Quae inedita ex codice Arretino deprompsit y. F.
Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, in Biblioteca dell' Accademia storico-giuridica iv ;
cf. § 88, 10 for the Peregrinatio S. Sylviae. F. Cabrol , Le manuscrit
d'Arezzo. Ecrits inedits de Saint-Hilaire et Pelerinage d'une dame gauloise
du IVe siecle aux lieux saints, Paris, 1888 (reprint from the Revue du
monde catholique). -- G. M. Dreves , Das Hymnenbuch des hi. Hilarius,
in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol. (1888), xii. 358 — 369. The hymns current
under the name of Hilary are critically discussed by B. Hoelscher , De
Ss. Damasi Papae et Hilarii Episc. Pictaviensis qui feruntur hymnis sacris
(Progr.), Minister, 1858; J. Kayser, Beitrage zur Geschichte und Erklarung
der altesten Kirchenhymnen , 2. ed., Paderborn, 1881, pp. 52 — 88. On
a new edition of the hymn Ad caeli clara non sum dignus sidera cf. Pitra,
Analecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888, part i, pp. 138 — 141, also Zeitschr.
f. kath. Theol. (1889), xiii. 737 — 740. The verses Hymnum dicat turba
fratrum are wrongly attributed to Hilary ; cf. W. Meyer, Das Turiner Bruch-
stiick der altesten irischen Liturgie, in Gottinger Nachrichten, philol.-hist.
Klasse (1903), pp. 204 — 208. A. jf. Mason, The First Latin Christian
Poet, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1904), v. 413 — 432; Id., The Text of
the Hymn of Hilary, ib. , v. 636. A. S. Walpole , Hymns attributed to
Hilary of Poitiers, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1905), vi. 599 — 603.
8. WORKS ON SAINT HILARY. -- Ad. Viehhouser , Hilarius Pictaviensis
geschildert in seinem Kampfe gegen den Arianismus, Klagenfurt, 1860.
j. H. Reinkens , Hilarius von Poitiers, Schaffhausen , 1864. Dormagen,
St. Hilaire de Poitiers et I'Arianisme (These), Paris, 1864. V. Hansen,
Vie de St. Hilaire, cheque de Poitiers et docteur de 1'eglise, Luxemburg,
1875. Largent, St. Hilaire, Paris, 1802 (Les Saints). J. B. Wirthmiiller ,
Die Lehre des hi. Hilarius von Poitiers iiber die Selbstentausserung Christi,
verteidigt gegen die Entstellungen neuerer protestantischer Theologen,
Ratisbon, 1865. Baltzer , Die Theologie des hi. Hilarius von Poitiers
(Progr.), Rottweil, 1879. Id., Die Christologie des hi. Hilarius von Poitiers
(Progr.), ib., 1889. A. Beck, Die Trinitatslehre des hi. Hilarius von Poitiers,
in Forschungen zur Litt.- und Dogmengeschichte, Mainz, 1903, iii. 2 — 3.
Id. , Kirchliche Studien und Quellen, Amberg, 1903, pp. 82 — 102: Die
Lehre des hi. Hilarius von Poitiers iiber die Leidensfahigkeit des Leibes
Christi. Th. Forster , Zur Theologie des Hilarius, in Theol. Studien und
Kritiken (1888), Ixi. 645 — 686. J. A. Quillacq , Quomodo latina lingua
usus sit S. Hilarius Pictav. episc. (These), Tours, 1903. R. de la Broise,
Saint Hilaire, in Dictionnaire de la Bible, Paris, 1903, iii. 707 — 712.
412 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
9. ARIAN LITERATURE. - - Under the name of Potamius, Arian bishop
of Olisipo (Lisbon) , the author of the second formula of Sirmium of the
year 357, concisely denned as a blasphemia by Hilary, there are current
three brief writings: Tractatus de Lazaro, Tractatus de martyrio Isaiae
prophetae, Epistola ad Athanasium (Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., v. 96 — 99;
Migne, PL., viii. 1411 — 1418). The letter to Athanasius, however, pro
fesses the faith of the latter, and must have been written while Potamius
still adhered to the Nicene faith ; cf. Schoenemann, Bibl. hist.-litt. Patr. lat,
i. 307 — 309. P. B. Gams, Die Kirchengeschichte von Spanien, Ratisbon,
1864, ii i, 315—317. - - The Arian Candidus left a treatise De genera-
tione divina, and a letter, both addressed to the rhetorician Marius Victo-
rinus (§ 87, 8), and published among the works of the latter (Migne, PL.,
viii. 1013 — 1020 1035 — 1040). Clearly Arian in origin and tendency are the
fragments of a commentary on Luke (pp. 191 — 207) and dogmatic treatises
(pp. 208—237) found by Mai, in codices rescript!, and published by him
(Script, vet. nova Coll., Rome, 1828, part 2, iii. 186 — 237: reprinted in
Migne, 1. c., xiii. 593 — 628). It is probable that the commentary on Luke
was composed about 370 by Ulfilas, the apostle of the Goths (f 383), and
the dogmatic treatises by his disciple Auxentius, bishop of Dorostorum
(Silistria). Cf. G. L. Krafft , Commentatio historica de fontibus Ulfilae
arianismi ex fragments Bobiensibus erutis (Progr.), Bonn, 1860. G. Mer-
cati, Antiche reliquie liturgiche (Studii e testi vii), Rome, 1902, pp. 47 — 71.
A fifth-century Paris manuscript, written by a later hand on the margins
of some loose leaves, contains a Dissertatio Maximini contra Ambrosium
and a correlated text, known as Epistola Auxentii Dorostorensis de fide,
vita et obitu Ulfilae. These texts were partially made known by G. Waitz,
tiber das Leben und die Lehre des Ulfila, Hannover, 1840; they are
printed entire, as far as legible, by Fr. Kauffmann , in his Texte und
Untersuchungen zur altgermanischen Religionsgesch., Strassburg, 1899, i.
Cf. L. Saltet, Un texte nouveau: la Dissertatio Maximini contra Ambrosium,
in Bulletin de litte'rature ecclesiastique (1900), ii. 118 — 129. H. Boehmer-
Romundt, Der literarische Nachlass des Wulfila und seiner Schule, in Zeit-
schrift f. wissensch. Theol. (1903), xlvi. 233—269 361—407; Id., Ein neues
Werk des Wulfila? in Neue Jahrb. f. das klass. Altertum (1903), viii. 272
to 288. St. Augustine gives in his reply to an anonymous Quidam sermo
Arianorum a brief exposition to the Arian doctrine (cf. § 94, 7). - - We
have already said (§ 74, 10) that the so-called Opus imperfectum in Mat-
thaeum is of Arian origin, as is likewise the Anonymus in Job (cf. the
works of Origen, Migne, PG., xvii. 371—522) and § 61, i to which section
mention of it properly belongs.
§ 87. Other opponents of Arianism.
I. HOSIUS OF CORDOVA. - - He was one of the most famous,
but also one of the most persecuted, among the Western champions
of the Catholic faith during the conflict with Arianism. This great
Christian, who was probably president of the Council of Nicsea, was
bom about 256, and became bishop of Corduba (Cordova in Southern
Spain) in 296, and died Aug. 27., 357. He may be justly called the
Athanasius of the West (§ 86, i). He labored for the faith more by
word and deeds than by his writings. In his Historia Arianorum^
1 Migne, PG., xxv. 744—748; cf. PL., viii. 1327 — 1331.
§ 87. OTHER OPPONENTS OF ARIANISM. 413
Athanasius made known a letter in Greek of the brave old martyr
of the faith, written in 354 or 355 to the emperor Constantius, frank
and bold in its confession of the Catholic faith, but moderate in form.
Isidore of Seville says * that he wrote an : Epistola ad sororem suam
de laude virginitatis, and an : Opus de interpretatione vestium sacer-
dotalium quae sunt in Veteri Testamento. Pitra published in 1888
49 short sentences under the title : Doctrina Hosii episcopi de ob-
servatione disciplinae Dominicae.
The Doctrina is found in Pitra, Analecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888,
part i, p. 117. P. B. Gams, Die Kirchengeschichte von Spanien, Ratisbon,
1864, ii i, 137 — 309: Hositis von Corduba.
2. LUCIFER OF CALARIS. - - Lucifer, bishop of Calaris or Caralis
(Cagliari in Sardinia), was sent in 354 by Pope Liberius on an em
bassy to the military quarters of the emperor Constantius at Aries.
At the Synod of Milan (355) he refused to condemn St. Athanasius
or, as St. Jerome2 puts it: sub nomine Athanasii Nicaenam fidem.
Consequently he was banished by Constantius to the East, whence
he did not return until the reign of Julian (361 — 363). During his
exile (§ 86, 3) and especially after his return, Lucifer became involved
in conflicts with his former friends and allies in the episcopate. By
the consecration of a new bishop (Paulinus) of Antioch he not only
failed to heal the existing schism, but increased its bitterness. The
mild and conciliatory measures of the Synod of Alexandria (362)
with regard to the penitent Arians were so little to his taste that
he seems to have broken off communion with the members of that
Synod. It is certain that those who after his death (370 or 371)
advocated the exclusion of former Arians from all church offices
adopted the name of Luciferians ; their schism, however, was of short
duration. -- During his exile (356 — 361), Lucifer composed several
works, and addressed them to the emperor Constantius. They were
probably written in the following order: De non conveniendo cum
haereticis 3, in proof of the thesis that the orthodox must avoid all
communion with the Arians; De regibus apostaticis 4 , against the
assertion of Constantius that the felicity of his reign was a proof
of divine approval, for many an impious and God-forgetting king of
Israel had enjoyed long life and great prosperity; De Sancto Athanasio
(originally perhaps entitled: Quia absentem nemo debet iudicare nee
damnare) liber I — II5, written to demonstrate the supreme injustice
of the imperial order to the bishops at Milan to condemn Athanasius
unheard. Apropos of these three works arose very probably the
correspondence between Lucifer and Florentius, an officer of the
emperor's household6. Through the latter the emperor asks Lucifer
1 De viris ill., c. 5. 2 De viris ill., c. 95.
3 Migne, PL., xiii. 767 — 794. 4 Ib., xiii. 793 — SiS.
5 Ib., xiii. 817—936. ° Ib., xiii. 935—936.
414 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
if he be the author of the said invectives, and Lucifer replies with
pride in the affirmative. Perhaps there is some connexion between this
correspondence and the: De non parcendo in Deum delinquentibus1,
in which Lucifer essays a justification of his language toward the
emperor; he quotes principally the examples of the prophets of the
Old Testament. Finally, not earlier than 360, and perhaps in 361,
he wrote the: Moriendum esse pro Dei filio2, in which he manifests
his great desire for the death of a martyr. Several letters have been
lost. A baptismal discourse entitled: Exhortatio S. Ambrosii episc.
ad neophytos de symbolo, attributed to Lucifer, and edited (1869)
by Caspari, is of doubtful provenance. - The chief characteristic
of Lucifer is his very discourteous language toward the emperor.
His vocabulary is largely taken from the current language of the
people; at the same time any connexion of thought is entirely lacking.
There is no better representative of the Latin folk -speech of his
day; by reason, moreover, of the very great copiousness of his
scriptural quotations, he is an important witness to the pre-Hiero-
nymian Bible-text.
The certainly genuine works of Lucifer have come down by means of
a single manuscript (cod. Vat. 133, saec. ix or x). The editio princeps is
owing toy. Tilius, bishop of Meaux, Paris, 1568 (Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr.
[1770], vi. 153 — 260). A better edition was brought out by the brothers
J. D. and y. Coleti, Venice, 1778, reprinted in Migne , PL., xiii. 1845.
The most recent and best edition is that of W. Hartel , Vienna, 1886
(Corpus script, eccles. lat. xiv). Cf. Hartel, Lucifer von Cagliari und sein
Latein, in Archiv fur lat. Lexikogr. u. Gramm. (1886), iii. i — 58, also
G. Kriiger, Lucifer, Bischof von Calaris, und das Schisma der Luciferianer,
Leipzig, 1886. The baptismal discourse is in C. P. Caspari, Ungedruckte
Quellen zur Gesch. des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel, Christiania,
1869, "• J32 — 140, and also in Alte und neue Quellen, Christiania, 1879,
pp. 186—195. Kruger undertakes (1. c., pp. 118—130) to prove against
Caspari in his first work (pp. 175—182) that the real author of the baptis
mal discourse is Eusebius of Vercellae (see no. 9).
3. FAUSTINUS AND MARCELLINUS. - - A priest named Faustinus,
of the party of the Luciferians, but otherwise unknown to us,
presented to the emperor Theodosius at Constantinople, probably in
the autumn of 383, a profession of faith, in order to free himself
from the charge of Sabellianism : Fides Theodosio imp. oblata3.
Together with another priest and sympathizer named Marcellinus, he
presented to Valentinian II., Theodosius and Arcadius, a memorial in
favor of the persecuted Luciferians : Libellus precum ad imperatores 4.
At the request of the empress Flaccilla he also wrote about 384 an
anti-Arian exposition of the Catholic Trinitarian faith: De trinitate
sive de fide contra Arianos5.
1 Migne, PL., xiii. 935—1008. 2 Ib., xiii. 1007—1038.
3 Ib., xiii. 79—80. 4 Ib., xiii. 83—107.
5 Ib., xiii. 37 — So.
§ 87. OTHER OPPONENTS OF ARIANISM. 415
The Migne text of these writings is taken from Gallandi (Bibl. vet.
Patr., vii. 439 — 474). The Libellus precum, probably called by its authors
De confessione verae fidei et ostentatione sacrae communionis et persecu-
tione adversantium veritati is also found in the Collectio Avellana, ed.
O. Gucnther (Vienna, 1895 — 1898: Corpus script, eccles. lat. xxxv), pp. 5
to 44; cf. Guenther , Avellana-Studien (Vienna, 1896), pp. 69 — 86. For
the history of Faustinus and Marcellinus see G. Kriiger , Lucifer, Bischof
von Calaris, pp. 62 — 63 82 — 86 94 — 96.
4. GREGORY OF ELIBERIS. — After Lucifer the principal leader
of the Luciferian faction was Gregory, bishop of Eliberis in Baetica
(Elvira near Granada), f after 392. St. Jerome says1 that he composed:
diversos mediocri sermone tractatus et de fide elegantem librum.
The latter work is probably identical with : De fide orthodoxa contra
Arianos2, a polemic against the decision of the Synod of Rimini
(359), by others attributed to Phoebadius, bishop of Agen (see no. 6).
For Gregory of Eliberis see Gams , Die Kirchengesch. von Spanien,
Ratisbon, 1864, ii i, 310 — 314; Kriiger, Lucifer etc., pp. 76 — 80. In the
Revue d'histoire et de literature religieuses (1900), v. 145 — 161. G. Morin
not only defends Gregory's authorship of the De fide orthodoxa contra
Arianos, but also attributes to him the first seven of the twelve books De
trinitate (Migne, PL., Ixii. 237 — 334) among the wrorks of Vigilius of Tapsus,
and the Tractatus Origenis de libris SS. Scripturarum, published in 1900
by P. Batiffol (§ 55, 4). Against Morin cf. Batiffol, in Bulletin de littera-
ture eccle'siastique (1900), pp. 190 — 197, and for Morin s reply the Revue
Benedictine (1902), xix. 225 — 245. In this latter study Morin abandons
the Gregorian authorship of the De Trinitate, and identifies it with the
Libri septem de fide et regulis fidei, current under the name of Syagrius
(§ 89, 3). The De fide orthodoxa contra Arianos is also printed among
the works of Vigilius of Tapsus (Migne , PL., Ixii. 466 — 468 449 — 463)
and among those of St. Ambrose (Ib., PL., xvii. 549 — 568).
5. HILARY OF ROME. — Hilarius, a Roman deacon (f before 379),
surpassed Lucifer in his extreme views ; he would rebaptize all Arians
and wrote on the subject certain: Libellos de haereticis rebaptizandis,
known to St. Jerome3, through whose pages alone we know these
details of the writer's life.
For Hilarius of Rome cf. Kriiger ', 1. c., pp. 88 — 89.
6. PHOEBADIUS OF AGEN. - This writer was no less strong in
character than Lucifer of Calaris, but more calm and self-possessed.
He was bishop of Agennum in Aquitania Secunda (Agen in Guyenne)
and died after 392. He wrote a very severe criticism of the second
Sirmian formula of the year 357: Liber Contra Arianos4. The: De
fide orthodoxa contra Arianos 5, goes also under his name ; we have
seen, however, that it is probably the work of Gregory of Eliberis
(see no. 4). Phoebadius also left a Profession of faith6.
1 De viris ill., c. 105. z JMignc, PL., xx. 31 — 50.
3 Hier., Altercatio Luciferiani et orthodox!, c. 27.
4 Migne, PL., xx. 13 — 30. 6 Ib., xx. 31 — 50. *j Ib., xx. 49 — 50.
416 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
For the text of these works cf. Migne (1. c.) who reprints them from
Gallandi (Bibl. vet. Patr. [1769], v. 250—265). The contents of the Liber
contra Arianos is discussed by J. Drdseke, in Zeitschr. f. kirchl. Wissen-
schaft u. kirchl. Leben (1889), x. 335—343 391" 4Q7> also in Zeitschr. f.
wissenschaftl. Theol. (1890), xxxiii. 78—98 (contributions to the criticism
of the text). G. Mercati, Antiche reliquie liturgiche ambrosiane e romane
(in Studi e Testi vii), Rome, 1902, p. 68, n. i.
7. AN ANONYMOUS. — Highly interesting is the: Altercatio Heracli-
ani laici cum Germinio episcopo Sirmiensi de fide synodi Nicaenae
et Ariminensis Arianorum, first edited by Caspari, in 1883. In tms
work the layman Heraclianus makes a brilliant defence of the Nicene
faith against Germinius, the Arian bishop of Sirmium (f ca. 370).
The dialogue is not a bit of tendentious theological fiction, but the
summary of a real historical colloquy, written about 366 by a lay
man, and in a style quite fresh and spontaneous.
The Altercatio is published in C. P. Caspari, Kirchenhistorische Anec-
dota, Christiania, 1883, i. 131 — 147; cf. pp. v — viii.
8. MARIUS VICTORINUS. — Caius Marius Victorinus, born in Africa,
was one of the most famous of the Roman rhetoricians in the reign
of Constantius; his statue was erected in the Forum of Trajan as a
mark of the popular esteem. He was \vell-advanced in years when
he became a Christian. In his heathen days he had written many
works: grammatical, metrical, rhetorical, and philosophical. St. Jerome
tells us * that as a Christian he wrote : Adversus Arium libros more
dialectico valde obscures, qui nisi ab eruditis non intelleguntur, et
commentarios in apostolum. There are current under his name three
anti- Arian works : Adversus Arium libri iv. 2, De generatione divini
Verbi3, and De itpoovmo) recipiendo4; the first two are addressed
to a certain Candidus (§ 86, 9), an Arian friend of the author. None
of these works are in any way important. Some of his commentaries
on St. Paul's Epistles have been preserved; those on Galatians5,
Philippians6, and Ephesians7, apropos of which St. Jerome remarks
that the learned rhetorician was entirely lacking in theological train
ing: quod occupatus ille eruditione saecularium litterarum scripturas
omnino sanctas ignoraverit 8. Two of his writings are anti-Manichsean
in character: Ad Justinum Manichaeum, contra duo principia Mani-
chaeorum et de vera carne Christi9 and De verbis scripturae «Factum
est vespere et mane, dies unus10. The treatise De physicis^, in defence
of the biblical account of creation, is spurious. Three hymns: De
trinitate™, and three other Christian poems must also be considered
I De viris ill., c. 101. 2 Migne, PL., viii. 1039—1138.
3 Ib., viii. 1019—1036. 4 Ib., viii. 1137—1140.
5 Ib., viii. 1145 — 1198. 6 Ib ; viij II97_I236.
7 Ib., viii. 1235—1294. s Comm. in Gal., praef.
9 Migne, PL., viii. 999—1010. "> Ib., viii. 1009—1014.
II Ib., viii. 1295—1310. i2 Ib., viii. 1139—1146.
§ 87. OTHER OPPONENTS OF ARIANISM. 41 7
spurious; the poems: De pascha seu De ligno vitae sen De cruce
(69 hexameters), an enthusiastic description of the Cross as the tree
of life; De Jesu Christo Deo et homine (137 hexameters), on the
earthly life of our Lord; De martyrio Maccabaeorum (394 hexa
meters), an attempt at a panegyrico - rhetorical dramatization of the
scriptural narrative in the seventh chapter of the second book of
Maccabees.
According to H. Usener, Anecdoton Holderi, Bonn, 1877, PP- 59 — 66,
the work De definitione among the writings of Boethius on logic (Mignc,
PL., Ixiv, 891 — 910) was composed by Marius Victorinus. A critical edition
of it is owing to Th, Stangl, Tulliana et Mario-Victoriniana (Progr.), Munich,
1888, pp. 12 — 48. On Marius Victorinus as rhetorician see Teuffel-Schwabe,
Gesch. der rom. Lit., 5. ed., pp. 1031 — 1034. — For the hymns and other
poems attributed to him cf. M. Manitius, Gesch. der christlich-lateinischen
Poesie, Stuttgart, 1891, pp. 113 — 119. The De pascha is found in the
Hartel edition of the works of Cyprian (part III, pp. 305 — 308). The De
martyrio Maccabaeorum and two other poems, In Genesin ad Leonem
papam (a paraphrase in 204 hexameters of the story of the creation) and
De Evangelic (114 hexameters on the birth of Christ), were edited recently
by R. Peiper, Cypriani Galli poetae Heptateuchos, Vienna, 1891 (Corpus
script, eccl. lat. xxxiii) 231 — 274; they are attributed in this work to a
certain Hilarius said to have lived in Gaul during the fifth century, but
certainly not identical with Hilary of Aries (§ 96, 3).
For the poem In Genesin cf. St. Gamber, Le livre de la Genese dans
la poesie latine du Ve siecle, Paris, 1899. — Among the writers on Victo
rinus are G. Koffmane, De Mario Victorino philosopho christiano (Dissert,
inaug.), Breslau, 1880; G. Geiger , C. Marius Victorinus Afer, ein neu-
platonischer Philosoph (2 Progr.), Metten, 1888 1889; R. Schmid , Marius
Viktorinus Rhetor und seine Beziehungen zu Augustin (Inaug. -Diss.), Kiel,
1895. Muehlenstein t Philosoph. Vorfragen liber die mittelalterlichen An-
schauungen vom Schonen und vom Rhythmus, in Gregorianische Rund
schau (1902), pp. 72—75.
9. EUSEBIUS OF VERCELLvE. Eusebius, in 340 bishop of
Vercellae (Vercelli), was requested by Pope Liberius to accompany
Lucifer of Calaris on his embassy to the emperor Constantius. After
the synod of Milan (355) he, too, was exiled to the East whence
he returned under Julian and thenceforth labored actively to uproot
Arianism in his diocese. He died in 371, highly esteemed, and is
honored by the Church as a martyr (confessor, Dec. 16.). Only
three letters of Eusebius have reached us 1. His Latin version of the
commentary of Eusebius of Caesarea on the Psalms, often mentioned
by St. Jerome2, has perished (§ 62, 3).
For the baptismal sermon attributed to our Saint by G. Kriiger see
above no. 2. A long profession of faith attributed to him (De s. Trinitate
confessio; Migne. PL., xii. 959 — 968) is spurious. The archives of the
Cathedral of Vercelli contain a Gospel-codex, said on the authority of old
and trustworthy witnesses to have been written by the hand of St. Eusebius ;
1 Migne, PL., xii. 947—9545 x. 713 — 714.
2 De viris ill., c. 96; Ep. 61, 2.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 27
SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
it is one of the most important witnesses to the pre-Hieronymian Latin
text (Cod. a) ; cf. the new edition of Belsheim : Codex Vercellensis. Quat-
tuor evangelia ante Hieronymum latine translata ex reliquiis codicis Ver
cellensis saeculo ut videtur iv. scripti et ex editione Iriciana principe denuo
edidit J. Belsheim, Christiania, 1894. In the Journal of Theological Studies
(1900 — 1901), i. 592 — 599, E. A. Burn attributes to our Eusebius the
Quicumque (§ 66, 3), and the De trinitate of the pseudo-Vigilius of Tapsus.
On Eusebius and the authorities for his life see F. Savio , Gli antichi
vescovi d' Italia (Piemonte) , Turin, 1899, pp. 412 — 420 514 — 554. For
the title of the letter forged by Meyranesio cf. F. Savio , Le origini della
diocesi di Tortona, in Atti della R. Accademia delle scienze di Torino
(1903), xxxviii. 10 — 19.
10. ZENO OF VERONA. - - We know but little concerning St. Zeno,
and that little needs to be critically sifted and studied. In their
works: De viris illustribus both Jerome and Gennadius ignore him.
According to the prevailing opinion established by the Ballerim
brothers (1739), Zeno was a native of Roman Africa, and eighth
bishop of Verona (362 — 380). He lived in a period of continuous
conflict with the last representatives of paganism, fearlessly defended
the doctrine of the Church against the Arians, and spent his life
in the charitable service of the poor and the sick. The Tractatus
or sermons current under his name have provoked much criticism.
The latest editors1 acknowledge 93 as genuine: 16 long and 77 short
treatises; the latter, however, are often so brief that they look like
mere outlines or summaries of sermons. Nevertheless, in several of
these Tractatus are preserved precious evidences of the faith of the
Church concerning the Trinity and the Blessed Virgin, others con
tain details of value for the science of Christian archaeology. His
style is strikingly personal and offers no little resemblance to that
of Apulejus of Madaura.
For the earlier editions of the Tractatus cf. Schoenemann , Bibl. hist.-
lit. Patr. lat. i. 3141!. (Migne, PL., xi. 244 if.). The edition of the brothers
Pietro and Girolamo Ballerim was published in 1739 at Verona, and was
reprinted in Gallandi , Bibl. vet. Patr. v. 105 — 158, and in Migne, 1. c.
Another edition based on new manuscripts was brought out by Count
y. B. K. Giuliari, Verona, 1883, 2- ecU ib., 1900. A German version is
owing to P. Leipelt, Kempten, 1877 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater). -- Fr. A.
Zenonis episc. Veron. doctrina Christiana, Leipzig, 1854. L. jf.V.
Jazdzewski, Zeno Veron. episc. Comment, patrologica, Ratisbon, 1862.
A. Bigdmair, Zeno von Verona, Mtinster, 1904, On the numerous re
miniscences from writings of the rhetorician Apulejus of Madaura in the
sermons of Zeno cf. C. Weyman, in Sitzungsberichte der philos.-philol. u.
der hist. Klasse der kgl. bayer. Akad. d. Wissensch. (1893), ii. 350—359. -
Under the name of the bishop Petronius of Verona there are current two
brief Sermones in natali S. Zenonis and in die ordinationis vel natali
episcopi ; the text may be read in the study of G. Morin, in Revue Bene
dictine (1897), xiv. 3—8. Gennadius (De viris ill., c. 41) mentions a Pe
tronius, bishop of Bologna, in the first half of the fifth century, to whom
: Migne, PL., xi. 253—528.
§ 88. POETS AND HISTORIANS. 419
were attributed Vitae patrum monachorum Aegypti and a Tractatus de
ordinatione episcopi. Cf. Czapla, Gennadius als Literarhistoriker, Minister,
1898, pp. 94 ff.
§ 88. Poets and Historians.
1. JUVENCUS. - Gajus Vettius Aquilinus Juvencus, a Spanish
priest of very noble origin, wrote about 330 a kind of Gospel-
harmony in hexameter verse ; he entitled it : Evangeliorum libri quat-
tuor (formerly known as Historia evangelic a)1. In the beginning he
follows Luke, but throughout the rest of the work adopts almost
exclusively the text of Matthew as his guide, and seems occasionally
to compare the original Greek with the Latin version. His diction
imitates the biblical language very closely. In spite of the restriction
thus imposed on himself, his verse is generally easy and fluent, and
shows an excellent grammatical training and no small share of poetical
gifts and skill. His work was highly esteemed throughout the entire
of the Middle Ages, and was frequently imitated.
The best editions of Juvencus are those of F. Arevalo, Rome, 1792
(Migne, 1. c.); C. Mar old, Leipzig, 1886, and J. Huemer, Vienna, 1891
(Corpus script, eccles. lat. xxiv). -- J. T. Hatfield, A Study of Juvencus
(Dissert, inaug.), Bonn, 1890. C. Marold , Uber das Evangelienbuch des
Juvencus in seinem Verhaltnis zum Bibeltext, in Zeitschr. f. wissenschaftl.
Theol. (1890), xxxiii. 329 — 341. F. Vivona, De Juvenci poetae amplifica-
tionibus, Palermo, 1903. For the Liber in Genesim (following in Migne,
PL., xix. 345 — 380 the Historia evang.) see below no. 2. The hymn (Ib.,
xix. 379 — 386; cf. Ixi. 1091 — 1094) De laudibus Domini glorifies our
Lord as Creator of the world and Redeemer of mankind. Its 148 hexa
meters were probably composed before the time of Juvencus, by a rheto
rician of Augustodonum (Autun). A new edition of it, with learned
apparatus, is to W. Brandes , Uber das friihchristliche Gedicht «Laudes
Domini» (Progr.), Brunswick, 1887. For other works on Juvencus
cf. M. Manitius, Gesch. der christlich-lateinischen Poesie, Stuttgart, 1891,
pp. 42—44-
2. CYPRIANUS GALLUS. - Formerly Juvencus was credited by
many with a metrical recension of the historical books of the Old
Testament; it is now recognized that this work belongs to a much
more recent date. The author lived in Gaul at the beginning of
the fifth century, and the manuscript tradition is sufficient proof
that he was called Cyprian and that the name is not fictitious but
historical. The original work seems to have included all historical
books of the Old Testament; so far only the paraphrases of the
Pentateuch, Josue and Judges, are known to us, with a few insignificant
fragment of the other books; the text of the portions preserved is
not free from gaps and breaks. As a rule Cyprian follows faithfully
his scriptural model ; only occasionally does he abbreviate or enlarge.
His narrative is somewhat cold and dry; we often miss even the
1 Ib., xix. 53—346-
27*
420
SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
original vivacity of the biblical text. He also violates very often the
rules of Latin metre.
It was only in 1560 that some verses (165 hexameters on the begin
ning of Genesis) of this extensive work were made known (also in Oehler's
Tertullian II. 774—776, and mHartel's Cyprian III. 283—288). In 1733
E. Martene published the entire text of the paraphrase on Genesis (with
the exception of verses 325 — 378). It was reprinted in Arevalo's edition
of the Historia evangelica (Migne, PL., xix. 345 — 380 ; see no. i). The
rest of Cyprian's remains were published by J. B. Pitra, Spicilegium
Solesmense, Paris, 1852, i. 171—258', Analecta sacra et classica, Paris,
part i, pp. 181 — 207.
An excellent complete edition is due to R. Peiper, Cypriani Galli poetae
Heptateuchos, Vienna, 1891 (Corpus script, eccles. lat. xxiii); cf. H. Ph.
Best, De Cypriani quae feruntur metris in Heptateuchum (Diss. inaug.),
Marburg, 1891. Best distributes the authorship of the work between two
writers: Cyprian who wrote the Genesis-paraphrase in Italy about 410,
and an anonymous writer who composed the paraphrase of Exodus-Judges
in Gaul early in the fifth century. A. Stutzenberger, Der Heptateuch des
gallischen Dichters Cyprianus, Zweibriicken, 1903 (against the theory of
Best). -- Cf. St. Gamber, Le livre de la Genese dans la poesie latine du
Ve siecle, Paris, 1899. For other works attributed to our Cyprian
cf. § 51, 6.
3. ANONYMOUS. - The two poems De Sodoma and De Jona,
very probably the work of a contemporary and fellow-citizen of
Cyprian, show that their author possessed the poetical faculty in a
greater degree. The first relates in 167 hexameters the downfall of
Sodom; the second, only partially (the beginning is in 105 hexa
meters) preserved, describes the salvation of Ninive. Its proper title,
therefore, should have been De Ninive; doubtless the actual title
indicates only the biblical source of the poet's inspiration. In this work
the scriptural narrative is reproduced in an original and attractive
manner; the diction is polished, and the verse correct and graceful.
In the manuscripts and in the printed editions these two poems are
usually found among the (spurious) works of Tertullian (Oehler, ii. 769 to
773) and Cyprian (Hartd, iii. 289—301). The best and latest edition of
them is that of Peiper, Cypriani Galli poetae Heptateuchos, pp. 212 — 226.
On De Sodoma cf. Gamber, 1. c.
4. PROBA. - - Vergil furnished the poetical model for the works
hitherto described ; his own words were now used by the lady Proba
to construct a Cento Virgilianus or « variegated pattern » of 694 hexa
meters *, taken entirely or in part from the Aeneid and other works
of the poet, and so arranged as to reproduce (partially) the scriptural
narrative. From the Old Testament she selects for long description
only the Creation, the Fall of Adam and Eve, and the Deluge.
Thereon directly follows the Gospel-history from the Birth of Christ
to the Ascension. It is unnecessary to insist farther on the oddity
1 Migne, PL., xix. 803—818.
§ 88. POETS AND HISTORIANS. 421
of biblical ideas in the mouth of Vergil. This Proba was formerly
supposed to be Anicia Faltonia Proba, but now we know that she
was the grand-daughter of this lady and the wife of Clodius Celsinus
Adelphius, city-prefect (praefectus urbi) of Rome in 351. Before her
conversion to Christianity she had written a (lost) epic poem on the
war between Constantius and the usurper Magnentius.
Probae Cento. Rec. K. Schenkl: Poetae christiani minores, part i,
Vienna, 1888 (Corpus script, eccles. lat. xxi), 511 ff. J. Aschbach , Die
Anicier und die romische Dichterin Proba, Vienna, 1870 (Sitzungsberichte
der phil.-hist. Klasse der kgl. Akad. der Wissensch. Ixiv). In the edition
of Schenkl will be found three other Centones Virgiliani composed by
Christians: Versus ad gratiam Domini (pp. 609 — 615), an instruction on
the Christian religion in the shape of a dialogue between the shepherd
Tityrus and Meliboeus, the work of a certain Pomponius; De Verbi incar-
natione (pp. 615 — 620), wrongly attributed in the past to Sedulius (§ 91, 5);
De ecclesia (pp. 621 — 627). All three are later than the work of Proba.
For other details concerning this kind of literary work cf. Teuffel-Schwabe,
Gesch. der rom. Lit., 5. ed. , pp. 41 1216 — 1217 1228; Manitius} Gesch.
der christl.-latein. Poesie, pp. 127 — 130.
5 . AUSONIUS. — The accomplished and erudite rhetorician Decimus
Magnus Ausonius, of Burdigala (Bordeaux), born about 310 and de
ceased about 395, has his place rather in the general history of
Roman literature. Nominally he was a Christian. In his writings
however (Ephemeris, Domestica, Parentalia, Commemoratio profes-
sorum Burdigalensium, Epitaphia heroum qui bello Troico inter-
fuerunt, Eclogarum liber etc.), generally it is heathen thought and
style that predominate. In some of his poems, however, versified
Christian prayers are found : Ephemeris iii. oratio (ed. Peiper, pp. 7
to n); Domest. ii. versus paschales (pfL 17 — 19); ib. iii. oratio
versibus rhopalicis, i. e. verses in which each word is a syllable
longer than the preceding word (pp. 19 — 21).
Most of the writings of Ausonius are found in Migne, PL., xix. 817 ff.
The most recent complete editions are those of K. Schenkl, Berlin, 1883
(Mon. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss., v. 2), and R. Peiper, Leipzig, 1886.
Cf. Teuffel-Schwabe, 1. c., pp. 1062 — 1070, and on his Christian poetry
Manitius, 1. c., pp. 105 — in.
6. DAMASUS. - - St. Damasus (366 — 384) was one of the most
celebrated of the fourth-century popes and cultivated the epigram
with especial success. We owe to him many metrical epitaphs (tituli),
also metrical inscriptions for churches and chapels, all of which were
executed in a calligraphy of special artistic perfection by his friend
and admirer Furius Dionysius Philocalus (Damasene letters). Some
specimens of the work of Philocalus are still preserved on the original
marble, but the greater part of these poems is known to us in tran
scriptions only. They abound in errors of prosody, but also in dog
matic allusions of very great value. Damasus wrote other short non-
422 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
inscriptional poems on martyrs and holy persons ; the largest of them
(carmen 7)1 relates the conversion and martyrdom of St. Paul in 26
hexameters. Two hymns : one (carmen 8) to the apostle St. Andrew,
and the other (carmen 30) to St. Agatha, are now known to be spurious.
St. Jerome remarks2 that Damasus wrote on virginity both in verse
and in prose (versu prosaque). An ancient catalogue of manuscripts
mentions: Damasi papae liber de vitiis3. Apart from his epigrams
and poems only some letters of Damasus have reached us4.
The folio edition of A. M. Merenda (Rome, 1754) is reprinted in
Migne, PL., xiii. 109 if.; ib., Ixxiv. 527 — 530, a Carmen Damaso papae ad-
scriptum is found. An excellent edition of the epigrams and poems, con
siderably increased especially by the discoveries of G. B. de Rossi (f 1894)
is due to Ihm : Damasi Epigrammata. Accedunt Pseudodamasiana alia-
que ad Damasiana inlustranda idonea. Rec. et adnot. M. Ihm, Leipzig,
1895 (Anthologiae latinae supplementum i). Cf. Id., in Rhein. Museum
f. Philol., new series (1895), 1. 191—204; C. Weyman, in Revue d'hist. et
de litter, relig. (1896), i. 58 — 73, also M. Amend, Studien zu den Gedichten
des Papstes Damasus (Progr.), Wiirzburg, 1894. J. Wilpert discovered
another epigram of Damasus in four hexameters, dedicated to his mother ;
cf. Lorenza, Nuovo Bullett. di Archeol. crist. (1903), ix. 50 — 58. — B. Hoel-
scher , De SS. Damasi papae et Hilarii episc. Pictaviensis qui feruntur
hymnis sacris (Progr.), Miinster, 1858. J. Kayser, Beitrage zur Geschichte
und Erklarung der altesten Kirchenhymnen , 2. ed. , Paderborn, 1881,
pp. 89 — 126. — For the letters of Damasus (genuine and spurious) cf. Jaff6,
Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, 2. ed., Leipzig, 1885, i- 37 — 4°> n- 232
to 254. - - There is a German version of the letters in Wenzlowsky, Die
Briefe der Papste (Bibl. der Kirchenvater) , ii. 265—406. G. Picker, Be-
merkungen zu einer Inschrift des Papstes Damasus, in Zeitschr. f. Kirchen-
geschichte (1901 — 1902), xxii. 333 — 342; G. Mercati , II carme damasino
«De Davide» e la falsa corrispondenza di Damaso e Girolamo riguardo
al Salterio, in Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana antica (Studi e Testi v),
Rome, 1901, pp. 113 — 126; y. Wittig, Papst Damasus I. Quellenkritische
Studien zu seiner Geschichte und Charakteristik, Rome, 1902, in Romische
Quartalschr., fasc. supplem. 14). In the Journal of Theol. Studies (1900
to 1901), i. 556 if., C. H. Turner brought out a new edition of the de
crees of the Roman Synod of 382, republished with additional decrees by
Gelasius I. (§ 114, i). E. Ch. Babut, La plus ancienne decretale, Paris, 1904.
7. TWO POLEMICAL POEMS. - - The famous Paris manuscript of
Prudentius (Cod. Puteaneus saec. vi.) has handed down a Carmen
adv. paganos which satirizes with caustic wit the old heathen belief.
Its 122 hexameters were probably composed about 394, apropos of
the hopeless overthrow of polytheism which for a while had begun
to lift its head again under the usurper Eugenius (392 — 394) and
the city prefect of Rome, Nicomachus Flavianus. This historical back
ground lends interest to an otherwise insignificant work. To the same
time and circle belongs the poem: Ad quendam senatorem ex Chri
stiana religione ad idolorum servitutem conversum (85 hexameters),
1 Migne, PL, xiii. 379—381. 2 Ep. 22, 22.
3 L. Delisle, Les manuscrits du Comte d'Ashburnham, Paris. 1883, p. 87.
4 Migne, PL., xiii. 347—376.
§ 88. POETS AND HISTORIANS. 423
in which a Christian senator, now become a worshipper of Cybele
and Isis, is made the butt of some not insipid satire.
The Carmen adversus paganos was first edited entire by L. Delisle,
in the Bibliotheque de 1'Ecole des Chartes, series 6 (1867), iii. 297 — 303.
Th. Mommsen edited it anew in Hermes (1870), iv. 350 — 363. G. Dobbel-
stein, De carmine christiano codicis Parisini 8084 contra fautores paganae
superstitionis ultimos (Diss. inaug.), Louvain , 1879. Other editions are
noted in Teuffel-Schwabe , 1. c. , p. 1121, and Manitius , 1. c. , p. 146.
See/elder, Abhandlung liber das Carmen adv. Flavianum (Progr.), Gmiind,
1901. - - The second poem was last edited by Peiper , Cypriani Galli
poetae Heptateuchos, pp. 227 — 230, and is found also in HartePs Cyprian,
hi. 302—305.
8. THE CHRONOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 354. - - Under this name
historians are wont to speak of the unknown author or compiler of
a guide or manual for the City of Rome, written in 354 and contain
ing a copious variety of historical material. Most of its quite miscel
laneous contents may rightly claim an official character, and are, there
fore, historical authorities of the first order. It contains : a) an official
Roman municipal calendar of the middle of the fourth century, tran
scribed in 354 by Philocalus (see no. 6), and adorned with numerous
figures and epigrams; b) the consular lists from the beginning of the
consulate to the year 354; c) an Easter table for the years 312 — 411
(410); d) a catalogue of the City Prefects from 254 to 354; e) a cata
logue of the annual commemorations of popes (depositiones episco-
porum romanorum) from Dionysius (f 268) to Julius I. (352); 0 a
calendar of the feasts of the Roman Church with special mentions
of the anniversaries of martyrs (depositiones martyrum) ; g) a catalogue
of the popes from Peter to Liberius (elected pope in 352), it forms
the basis of the oldest part of the so-called Liber pontificalis (§ 1 18, 7);
h) a description of the quarters or wards of the City of Rome (re-
giones urbis Romae), composed about 334; i) a general Chronicle
reaching to 334, being a recension and a continuation of the Chronicle
of Hippolytus (§ 54, 6); k) a chronicle of the City of Rome as far
as 324. It is to be noted that the manuscripts through which this
work has reached us have received various additions at later periods.
Some parts of this large compilation were published as early as the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The work was edited entire, with
exception of the city-calendar a) and the description of the regiones h)
by Th. Mommsen, in Abhandlungen der philolog.-histor. Klasse der kgl.
sachs. Gesellsch. der Wissensch., Leipzig, 1850, i. 547 — 693. The same
savant re-edited the work, with exception of the city-description h), in
Monumenta Germ. hist. Auct. antiqu., Berlin, 1892, ix i, 13 — 196. For the
editions of the calendar and the description of the city- wards cf. Teuffel-
ScJnvabe, 1. c., pp. 119 1041 f.
9. HEGESIPPUS. - - This name was long borne by the Latin trans
lator or editor of the (Greek) «History of the Jewish War » of Josephus
Flavius. The Latin name was the result of a misunderstanding: out
424 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
of 'Icoor^o^ was made losippus, which gave way to Egesippus and
finally to Hegesippus, so that Hegesippus was only the disfigured
name of the author. Critical considerations, both internal and external,
compel us to assign the translation to the latter half of the fourth
century. Whether it be a youthful work of St. Ambrose or the
production of another is still perhaps an open question, although
at present most critics, in view of the testimony of the manuscripts
and the resemblance its style bears to that of his known works,
agree in attributing it to the great bishop of Milan. The translator,
whoever he may be, abbreviated in some places the original work;
thus, the last three books (v — vii) have been condensed into one
book (v). Elsewhere he enlarged his text, either by means of supple
ments drawn from other quarters or by rhetorical additions; more
over, he imparted a Christian character to the entire work.
The original Benedictine edition of St. Ambrose (Paris, 1686 — 1690)
did not contain the so-called Hegesippus; cf. t. ii, praef. iv — v. Gallandi
printed it in Bibl. vet. Patr. vii. 653 — 771, whence it passed into the Venice
reprint of the Benedictine Ambrose (1781 — 1782) ii, Appendix (with special
pagination), and into Migne, PL., xv. 1961 — 2224. A separate edition was
brought out by C. Fr. Weber and J. Caesar, Marburg, 1864. On this edition
is based the Hegesippus-text found in the Ballerini edition of St. Ambrose,
Milan, 1875 — 1883, vi. i — 276. Fr. Vogel, De Hegesippo qui dicitur, losephi
interprete (Diss. inaug.), Erlangen, 1880. Vogel, Ambrosius und der Uber-
setzer des Josephus, in Zeitschr. fiir die osterreich. Gymnasien (1883), xxxiv.
241 — 249 (Vogel does not admit that Ambrose is the translator). H. Ronsch,
Die lexikalischen Eigentiimlichkeiten der Latinitat des sogen. Hegesippus,
in Romanische Forschungen (1883), i. 256 — 321, reprinted in Ronsch,
Collectanea philologa, herausgegeben von C. Wagener, Bremen, 1891,
pp. 32—89 (Ambrose is the translator). E. Klebs , Das lateinische Ge-
schichtswerk liber den judischen Krieg, in Festschrift zum sojahrigen
Doktorjubilaum L. Friedlander dargebracht, Leipzig, 1895, pp. 210—241
(Ambrose is not the translator). After a profound comparative study of
the grammatical and stylistic peculiarities of the pseudo-Hegesippus and
the works of Ambrose, the latter is declared by G. Langraf, Die Hegesippus-
Frage, in Archiv. f. latein. Lexikogr. (1902), xii. 465—472, to be the trans
lator of the work in question.
10. PILGRIM-NARRATIVES. - - There is extant a work under the
title of: Itinerarium a Burdigala Hierusalem usque, that is not precisely
the description of a journey, but a very concise narrative of a pil
grimage from Bordeaux to Jerusalem, and thence to Milan by way
of Rome. The earliest account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land
is the: Peregrinatio ad loca sancta, written by a woman, and first
discovered by Gamurrini. The text, unfortunately quite imperfect,
seems to indicate that the author was a nun in southern Gaul.
Gamurrini came to the conclusion that she was St. Sylvia of Aquitaine,
a sister of Runnus, prime minister of the Eastern Empire under
Theodosius the Great and Arcadius. The travels of the pious and
erudite pilgrim took place probably in the years 380—390 (385—388?).
§89. SCHISMS AND HERESIES ; THEIR DEFENDERS AND OPPONENTS. 425
It was at Constantinople that she prepared for her cloistered sisters
in Gaul this simple and plain narrative of all she had seen and ex
perienced. The work possesses a manifold interest; to the theo
logian it is especially important for the description of the liturgical
services at Jerusalem, particularly during Holy Week and at Easter.
The Itinerarium Burdigalense opens the series of Itinera Hierosolymitana
et descriptiones Terrae Sanctae, edited by T. Tobler and A. Molinier,
Geneva, 1879, i- z~25i ^ ^s a^so nrst among the Itinera Hierosolymitana
saeculi iv — viii edited by P. Geyer, Vienna, 1898 (Corpus script, eccles.
lat. xxxix), pp. i — 33. — S. Hilarii Tractatus de mysteriis et Hymni et S. Silviae
Aquitanae Peregrinatio ad loca sancta. Quae inedita ex codice Arretino
deprompsit J. F. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887. Gamurrini brought out in 1888
a second and improved edition of the Peregrinatio. The most recent and
best edition is that of Geyer (1. c., pp. 35 — 101). — C. Weyman, Uber die
Pilgerfahrt der Sylvia in das heilige Land, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1888),
Ixx. 34 — 50. L. de Saint- Aignan, Le pelerinage de Sainte Sylvie aux lieux
saints en 385, Orleans, 1889. F. Cabrol, Les eglises de Jerusalem, la
discipline et la liturgie au IVe siecle. -Etude sur la Peregrinatio Silviae,
Paris-Poitiers, 1895. -^ ^- Bechtel, Sanctae Silviae peregrinatio, the text
and a study of the Latinity, London, 1902. M. Ftrotin, Le veritable auteur
de la Peregrinatio Sylviae, in Revue des questions historiques (1903),
Ixxiv. 381 — 397 ; the pilgrim in question is Etheria, a Spanish nun mention
ed by the monk Valerius, in Migne, PL., Ixxxvii. 421.
§ 89. Schisms and heresies ; their defenders and opponents.
I. NOVATIANISM. - The followers of Novatian (§ 55) survived
for some centuries, East and West, as a rigorist and schismatic faction.
In Spain they were refuted by St. Pacian, bishop of Barcelona (about
360 — 390). St. Jerome says of him1 that he was: castigatae eloquentiae
et tarn vita quam sermone clarus. Of his three letters to the Novatian
Sympronianus the first two2 treated particularly of the term « Catholic »,
as the special characteristic of the Church3. The third and somewhat
longer letter is devoted to the Catholic teaching concerning penance.
Pacian also wrote a short Paraenesis ad poenitentiam * and a Sermo
de baptismo*. A little work entitled «The Fawn» (Cervulus) in oppo
sition to certain heathen excesses practised in Spain at the New Year
has perished (see Paraenesis, c. i).
The first to edit the writings of Pacian was Tilius, Paris, 1538. This
edition is correctly reprinted in Gallandi (Bibl. vet. Patr. vii, 255 — 276),
and in Migne, 1. c. A new but unsatisfactory edition was published by
Ph. H. Peyrot, Zwolle, 1896; cf. C. Weyman, in Berliner philol. Wochen-
schrift 1896, pp. 1057 — 1062 1104 — 1108. P. B. Gams, Die Kirchengesch.
von Spanien ii. i, Ratisbon, 1864, 318 — 324. A. Grubcr , Studien zu
Pacianus von Barcelona, Munich 1901. R. Kauer, Studien zu Pacianus,
Vienna, 1902. --It was to Dexter, a son of Pacian, that St. Jerome de
dicated his De viris illustrious (cf. § 2, i). Jerome says of Dexter (De
viris ill., c. 132): Fertur ad me omnimodam historiani texuisse, quam necdum
1 De viris ill., c. 106. 2 Migne, PL., xiii. 1051 — 1082.
3 Ep. i. 4 : Christianus mihi nomen est, Catholicus vero cognomen.
4 Migne, PL., xiii. 1081 — 1090. 5 Ib., xiii. 1089 — 1094.
426 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
legi The historical work here mentioned was never published. The
Chronicon Dextri (Migne, PL., xxxi. 55—572) covering the period from
the birth of Christ to 430, that the Spanish Jesuit Hieronimo Roman de
la Higuera (f 1611) pretended to have discovered, is a forgery. Cf. Gams,
1. c., pp. 334—336, and Bdhr, Die christl. Dichter und Geschichtschreiber
Rorns, 2. ed., Karlsruhe, 1872, pp. 223—225. -- St. Jerome mentions (I.e.,
c. in) the autobiography (tarn prosa quam versibus) of the Spaniard Aquilius
Severus, who died during the reign of Valentinian I. (364—375)- It was
entitled xatacrrpocpr, or -sTpa and has perished.
2. DONATISM. - - In the Donatist controversy the African Church
encountered a problem in every sense vital and one in which the
Novatians made common cause with the African heretics, it being
laid down as a thesis that no unholy person could be a member of
the Church of Christ. The Donatists in particular maintained that
the efficacy of the sacraments depended on the subjective dispositions
of the minister. They held this doctrine not only as regards ortho
doxy in which they were one with the opponents of heretical baptism
(§51,1), but also as regards personal morality. They abandoned there
by the concept of the Church as an external and visible society and
ascribed the fact of justification by sacraments to the condition of
the minister. The author of this false teaching was Donatus, bishop
of Casae Nigrae in Numidia about the year 313. No works are
current under his name. The first literary champion of the sect
was Donatus the Great, schismatic bishop of Carthage (f ca. 355).
According to St. Jerome1 he wrote many works (multa ad suam
haeresim pertinentia opuscula et de Spiritu Sancto liber Ariano
dogmati congruens). They have all perished, together with those
of his successor Parmenianus; the latter, however, inspired the anti-
Donatist writings of St. Optatus and St. Augustine. - Optatus,
bishop of Mileve in Numidia, about 370, wrote a large work in six
books usually known as Contra Parmenianum Donatistam*. About
385 he returned to the task, corrected and completed his work
(hence the mention : of pope Siricius ii. 3), and added a seventh
book3. The first book outlines the history of the Donatist schism
(Schisma . . . confusae mulieris iracundia peperit, ambitus nutrivit, avaritia
roboravit: i. 19). The second demonstrates that there is but one
Church, and indicates where it may be found and recognized (Negare
non potes scire te in urbe Roma Petro primo Cathedram episcopalem
esse collatam, in qua sederit omnium apostolorum caput Petrus, unde
et Cephas est appellatus, in qua una cathedra unitas ab omnibus
servaretur: ii. 2). In the third book he explains in detail why the
Catholics are not to be blamed for the severe measures of the
imperial government against the Donatists. The fourth book is a
refutation of the false exegesis of Parmenian who twisted against
the holy mass and the sacraments of the Catholics the words of
1 De viris ill., c. 93. 2 Migne, PL., xi. 883 — 1082. 3 Ib., xi. 1081 — 1104.
§ 89. SCHISMS AND HERESIES; THEIR DEFENDERS AND OPPONENTS. 427
Isaias Ixvi. 3 : Sacrificium peccatoris quasi qui victimet canem (iv. 6),
and Psalm cxl. 5 : Oleum peccatoris non ungat caput meum (iv. 7).
The fifth book is devoted to baptism and develops the so-called
opus operatum theoiy (Sacramenta per se esse sancta, non per
homines. . . . Deus lavat, non homo : v. 4). In the sixth book he
depicts the odious and sacrilegious conduct of the Donatists who
broke all altars and chalices used by Catholics: Quid est enim altare
nisi sedes et corporis et sanguinis Christi? (vi. i); fregisti etiam calices,
Christi sanguinis portatores (vi. 2). Finally, in the seventh book, he
made some additions and corrections. The entire work is animated by
an intense desire for re-union with his separated brethren. The language
of Optatus is bold and impressive, but also somewhat coarse and rude.
We owe the first (folio) edition of Optatus to y. Cochlaeus, Mainz, 1549.
Specially famous is the excellent folio edition of L. £. Dupin, Paris, 1700,
reprinted in Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr. v. 459 ff., in Migne, 1. c., and Hurtcr,
Ss. Patr. opusc. sel., Innsbruck, 1870, x. The latest and best edition is
that of C. Ziwsa, Vienna, 1893 (Corpus script, eccles. lat. xxvi). Cf. Id.,
Beitrage zu Optatus Milevitanus, in Eranos Vindobonensis, Vienna, 1893,
pp. 168 — 176 (treats of the palaeographical tradition, text-criticism and style
of Optatus). -- Optatus often mentions (i. 14 20 26 27) a collection of
acta that he had appended to his work in justification of his expose of
the history of the Donatist schism. This collection of documents has reached
us in only one manuscript (Cod. Parisinus saec. xi) and even that is im
perfect (ed. Ziwsa, pp. 183 — 216). Lately much critical labor has been
extended on this collection, with varying results : D. Volter, Der Ursprung
des Donatismus, Freiburg im Br. and Tubingen, 1883; O. Seeck, Quellen
und Urkunden liber die Anfange des Donatismus, in Zeitschr. f. Kirchen-
gesch. (1888 — 1889), x. 505 — 568; L. Duchesne, Le dossier du donatisme,
in Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire (1890), x. 589 — 650. In this study
Duchesne defended triumphantly against Volter and Seeck the genuineness
of the documents used by Optatus and the credibility of the statements
made by him. — Cf. W. Thilmmel, Zur Beurteilung des Donatismus, Halle,
1893. The pseudo-Cyprianic treatise De singularitate clericorum (ed. Hartel,
app., pp. 173 — 210) is now attributed, after G.Morin, to Macrobius, Donatist
bishop in Rome, (ca. 363 — 375). This is the opinion of Harnack, Der
pseudocyprianische Traktat De singularitate clericorum, in Texte und Unter-
suchungen, new series, (1903), ix. 3. The latter sees also in Macrobius
the author of the Passio Maximiani et Isaiae donatistarum (Migne, PL.,
viii. 767 — 774). F. Martroye, Une tentative de involution sociale en Afrique.
Donatistes et Circoncellions, in Revue des questions historiques, 1904, i.
354 — 416. For the Donatist Tychonius cf. § 93, 13.
3. PRISCILLIANISM. - There exists as yet no sufficiently clear
account of the origin and nature of the Priscillianist heresy that
afflicted so severely the Church of Spain. The writings of the
heresiarch Priscillian, first edited by Schepss (1889) contradict in
various ways the received accounts of the heresy, particularly those
of Sulpicius Severus *. At the same time, by reason of their imper
fect manuscript-tradition and the obscurity of their diction, these
newly found writings contain what are at present insurmountable dif-
1 Chron. ii. 46 — 51; Dial. ii. (iii.) n ff.
/j.28 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
ficulties. It is certain, however, that Priscillian put forth Gnostic-
dualistic speculations vividly reminiscent of Manichaeism , and
propped up, apparently, a system or framework of mythological
and astrological ideas. Their adversaries maintained that the Priscil-
lianists joined a gross immorality with a public show of asceticism.
Priscillian himself belonged to a noble Spanish family, and entered
upon life highly endowed with gifts both of mind and fortune. In
380 a synod of Caesaraugusta (Saragossa) excommunicated both
himself and his disciples. It was then, according to Sulpicius Severus *,
that his friends made him bishop of Abila in Lusitania. Violent
conflicts followed, in which the Catholics had for leaders Hydatius
(Idacius) of Emerita and Ithacius of Ossonoba, bishops of whom
Sulpicius Severus speaks in no flattering terms. In the end Priscillian
and several of his adherents were decapitated at Trier in 385 by order
of the usurper Maximus, and in spite of the strong protest of St. Martin
of Tours. The crime for which they were juridically tried and executed
was magic. We knew from St. Jerome 2 that Priscillian had written
many small works (opuscula). Schepss discovered eleven of these
writings in a fifth- or sixth- century manuscript belonging to the
University of Wiirzburg. The author is not formally named in this
codex; nevertheless, most of the treatises show by their contents
that they come from the hand of the leader of the Priscillianists.
The first three are devoted to his own defence. The: Liber Apo-
logeticus (ed. Schepss pp. 3 — 33) is addressed to the beatissimi sacer-
dotes whom Schepss identifies as the 380 bishops of the synod of
Saragossa. In it the writer defends himself from the charges of
sacrilegious acts and heretical teachings (incidentally, he quotes
[p. 6] the Comma Johanneum). The: Liber ad Damasum episcopum
(PP- 34 — 43) contains an appeal to that pope expressly based on
historical grounds. The: Liber de fide et de apocryphis (pp. 44—56)
maintains that it is lawful to read orthodox apocryphal writings. Then
follow seven discourses in which Priscillian nowhere appears as an
accused person but speaks as a teacher to a circle of confiding dis
ciples: Tractatus paschae (pp. 57 — 61), Tractatus Genesis (pp. 62—68),
Tractatus Exodi (pp. 69—81), Tractatus primi Psalmi (pp. 82—85),
Tractatus Psalmi tertii (pp. 86—89), Tractatus ad populum I (pp. 90—91),
Tractatus ad populum II (pp. 92 — 102). These writings close with
a prayer entitled: Benedictio super fideles (pp. 103 — 106) in which
the author praises the omnipotence and goodness of God. Four of
the eleven treatises are mutilated, 3 and 9 at the beginning, 8 and 1 1
at the end. The Schepss edition is followed by an appendix:
Priscilliani in Pauli apostoli epistulas Canones a Peregrine episcopo
emendati (pp. 107—147), and: Orosii ad Augustinum Commonitorium
de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum (pp. 149—157). The
1 Chron. ii. 47. 2 De viris m ^ c J2I
§89. SCHISMS AND HERESIES ; THEIR DEFENDERS AND OPPONENTS. 429
first of these works, published by Mai in 1843, but in an incomplete
state, is an outline of the Pauline theology in 90 sentences (canones),
each of which, however, is followed by the relevant texts or passages
from the Epistles of St. Paul. The original of this work has perish
ed; what we have now is an orthodox recension (sanae doctrinae
redditum est: Prooem.) made before 821 by an otherwise unknown
bishop Peregrinus. In the afore-mentioned memorial of Orosius to
Augustine (§95, 2) he quoted (ed. Schepss, p. 153) a passage from
a letter of Priscillian.
Priscilliani quae supersunt, maximam partem nuper detexit adiectisque
commentariis criticis et indicibus primus edidit G. Schepss. Accedit Orosii
Commonitorium de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum. Vienna, 1889
(Corpus script, eccles. lat. xviii). — Cf. A. Puech , in Journal des savants
(Febr., May, June, 1891); H. Leclerc (follows Puech), in his L'Espagne
chretienne, c. iii, Paris, 1906. Fr. Paret , Priscillianus , ein Reformator
des 4. Jahrhunderts, Wtirzburg, 1891. A. Hilgenfeld, Priscillianus und seine
neuentdeckten Schriften, in Zeitschr. f. wissenschaftl. Theol. (1892), xxxv.
i — 85. Schepss, Pro Priscilliano, in Wiener Studien (1893), xv. 128 — 147
(against those who doubt the genuineness of the treatises). S. Merkle, Der
Streit liber Priscillian, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1896), Ixxviii. 630 — 649.
y. Dierich, Die Quellen zur Geschichte Priscillians (Inaug.-Diss.), Breslau, 1897.
Kilnstle, Das Comma Johanneum, atif seine Herkunft untersucht, Freiburg,
1905. The same author has written «Antipriscilliana» (Freiburg, 1905),
the best work on Priscillian's errors and their condemnation. A. Laver-
tujon , Sulpice Severe edite etc., (1899), ii. 548 if. G. Mercati , I due
trattati al popolo di Priscilliano , in Note di letteratura biblica e cri-
stiana antica (Studi e testi, v. 5), Rome, 1901, pp. 127 — 136. £. Edling,
Priscillianus och den aldre priscillianismen, Upsala, 1902, i. -- Several
other works written during the original controversies have perished. Priscil
lian himself speaks at the beginning of his Liber Apologeticus (p. 3)
about a Libellus fratrum nostrorum Tiberiani, Asarbi et ceterorum, cum
quibus nobis una fides et unus est sensus. St. Jerome says (De viris ill.,
c. 123), that this Tiberianus tried to justify himself in a turgid and pre
tentious apology (apologeticum tumenti compositoque sermone). He was
afterwards exiled as a follower of Priscillian. Cf. G. Morin, in Revue
Benedictine (1898), xv. 97 — 99. St. Jerome says (1. c., c. 122) that the
Latronianus executed with Priscillian was a very learned man and a
distinguished poet, (valde eruditus et in metrico opere veteribus com-
parandus . . . extant eius ingenii opera diversis metris edita). — The Priscil-
lianist writer Dictinius, bishop of Astorga, before his conversion in 400,
composed at an earlier date a work entitled Libra in defence of a white lie
(mendacium necessarium) ; it is possible to reconstruct it from the refuta
tion published by St. Augustine in his Contra mendacium (§ 94 , 9) ;
cf. Fr. Lezius, in Abhandlungen, Al. v. Oettingen gewidmet, Munich, 1898,
pp. 113 — 124. — As to the adversaries of Priscillian the words of Isidore
of Seville (De viris ill., c. 15) are worthy of note: Itacius Hispaniarum
episcopus, cognomento et eloquio clarus, scripsit quendam librum sub
apologetici specie, in quo detestanda Priscilliani dogmata et maleficiorum
eius artes libidinumque eius probra demonstrat. This Itacius is sometimes
identified with Idacius of Emerita, and again with Ithacius of Ossonoba.
In 1528 Sichard made public under the name of Idacius Clarus Hispanus
a work Contra Varimadum Arianum which Chifflet (1664) wrongly entitled
43O SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Contra Marivadum Arianum, and printed among the works of Vigilius of Tapsus
(Migne, PL., Ixii. 351 — 434); cf. G. Picker, Studien zu Vigilius von Tapsus,
Leipzig, 1897, pp. 46 ff. -- Anti-Priscillianist likewise, in all probability,
was the work of Olympius, a Spanish bishop of the fourth century: Ad-
versus eos qui naturam et non arbitrium in culpam vocant (Gennad.} De
viris ill., c. 23 ; cf. Augustinus, Contra Julianum, i. 8); cf. Kilnstle, Anti-
priscilliana, pp. 162 168. - - Towards the middle of the fifth century the
bishops Pastor and Syagrius (in Gallecia in the North-West of Spain) under
took a campaign against Priscillianism , the former in a compendium of
ecclesiastical doctrine (Gennad., 1. c., c. 76), the latter in a dogmatico-
speculative work De fide (Gennad. , 1. c. , c. 65). Morin who made the
discovery, is of opinion that the anti-Priscillianist Profession of faith errone
ously attributed to a Council of Toledo (Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum
et definitionum, 7. ed., n. 113 — 131, following Hefele, Konziliengeschichte,
2. ed., ii. 306 — 308) is in reality the work of Pastor. Kunstle, in his Anti-
priscilliana, § iv (pp. 40 — 45): Der «Libellus in modum symboli» desBischofs
Pastor aus Gallazien, proves this to be the fact. The work of Syagrius
might also be recovered, he thought, through a more careful study of the
manuscripts; cf. Revue Bene'dictine (1893), x. 385 — 394; (1895), xn- 3&8;
(1902), xix. 237- — 242, where Morin shows that in the days of Gennadius
Syagrius was accounted the author of the pseudo-Vigilian treatise De Tri-
nitate (§ 87, 4). On Syagrius see Kilnstle, Antipriscilliana, pp. 126 — 128,
and 142 — 159. On the treatise «De Trinitate» see Kilnstle, ib., p. 184. -
There is still extant a letter of Turibius, bishop of Astorga, written to
his fellow-bishops Hydatius (Idacius) and Ceponius about 446, in which
he denounces the blasphemous contents of the Priscillianist apocrypha. It
may be read among the works of Leo the Great (Migne, PL., liv. 693 to
695). For the life of St. Turibius see V. de Buck, in Acta SS. Oct. (Paris,
1883), xiii. 226 ff., and for the editions of his letter, Schoenemann, Bibl.
hist.-lit. Patr. lat. ii. 1060 ff. See also Kilnstle, Antipriscilliana, passim.
4. PHILASTRTUS. - - About the year 383 probably, the literature
of the Latin Church was enriched by a modest counterpart of the
Haereses of Epiphanius (§71, 2). This was the Liber de haeresibus*
composed by Philastrius, bishop of Brixia (Brescia), who died before
397. Instead of the 80 heresies of Epiphanius our author enumerates
156, of which 28 are pre-Christian, the other 128 are Christian heresies.
In Philastrius, even more than in Epiphanius, we note the absence
of any clear definition of the essentials of a heresy 2. The relationship
between the two works does not result from the use of Epiphanius
by Philastrius, but from their mutual dependence on the Syntagma
of Hippolytus (§ 54, 3).
Philastrius was first edited by J. Sichard, Basel, 1528. Gallandi, Bibl.
vet. Patr. vii. 475— 521, and Migne, 1. c., reprint the edition of P. Galeardi,
Brescia, 1738. The last edition is that of Fr. Marx, Vienna, 1898 (Corpus
script eccles. lat. xxxviii). Cf. Th. Zahn, Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons
1890), ii i, 233 — 239: «Aus Philaster von Brescia. » The sources of
Philastrius are discussed by R. A. Lipsius, Zur Quellenkritik des Epiphanios,
Vienna, 1865, 4 ff; Id., Die Quellen der altesten Ketzergeschichte neu
untersucht, Leipzig, 1875, PP- 91 #• Fr. Marx, Uber die Trierer Handschrift
?ilastrius, 1904, pp. 44—105. P. C. Furet, Etude grammatical sur le
1 Migne, PI,, xii. 1111 — 1302. 2 Aug> Kp> 222> ad Quodvultdeum, c. 2.
§ 9°. ST. AMBROSE. 43 I
latin de S. Filastrius (Dissert.), Erlangen, 1904. — Gaudentius, successor of
Philastrius in the see of Brescia, (f 410 or 427), composed at the request
of a certain Benivolus a little collection of his homilies (Migne, PL., xx.
827 — 1002), in all 21 tractatus; the last one treats De vita et obitu B. Phil-
astrii. The Carmen ad laudem B. Philastrii (Migne, PL. xx. 1003 — 1006)
is a spurious work. Gaudentius is the subject of an extensive treatment at
the hands of Nirschl, Lehrbuch der Patrologie und Patristik ii. 488 — 493.
For the diction of his tractatus cf. K. Paucker, in Zeitschr. f. die oster-
reich. Gymnasien (1881), xxxii. 481.
§ 90. St. Ambrose.
I. HIS LIFE. - - Auxentius, the Arian bishop of Milan, owed it
to the favor of Valentinian I., in spite of such opponents as Hilary
of Poitiers (§ 86, I 3) that he was able, to maintain himself in office
until his death in 374. The choice of a successor led to scenes of
violence between Arians and Catholics. In order to calm the agita
tion, Ambrose, the newly appointed consularis or governor of Emilia
and Liguria (Northwestern Italy), appeared in the church, whereupon
both parties as though yielding to higher inspiration, immediately
united in choosing him. He was the son of noble Christian parents,
born probably at Trier about 340, where his father (also called
Ambrose) was praefectus praetorio Galliarum. His father died while
Ambrose was still young, and the mother returned with her three
children to Rome. Ambrose was the youngest, and according to
the family traditions was destined for political life. His superior
abilities brought about his rapid advancement; in 374, at the latest,
he was governor of Northern Italy, having his residence at Milan.
He was also still a catechumen, i. e. unbaptized, when chosen bishop
of that city. All his resistance was in vain: Quam resistebam ne
ordinarer ! postremo cum cogerer, saltern ordinatio protelaretur ! sed
non valuit praescriptio, praevaluit impressio *. He was baptized at his
own request by an orthodox Catholic priest, Nov. 30., 374, but it
is not known who consecrated him bishop, Dec. 7., 374. One of his
first cares was to perfect his theological education : Factum est ut
prius docere inciperem quam discere; discendum igitur mihi simul et
docendum est, quoniam non vacavit ante discere2. Under the direc
tion of the priest Simplicianus, afterwards his successor, he devoted
himself to the study of the Christian writings, principally the works
of the Greek Fathers : among the earlier ones Clement of Alexandria
and Origen, among his contemporaries Basil and Didymus the Blind.
His own writings show that he must have read very diligently also
the works of the Jew Philo. On accepting the burden of the episcopate
he distributed among the poor his great riches, and was thenceforth
a model of unselfish and devoted pastoral charity. He was easily
accessible to all men : non enim vetabatur quisquam ingredi aut ei
1 Ambr., Ep. 63, 65. 2 Ambr., De offic., i. I.
432
SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
venientem nuntiari mos erat1, unless, indeed, the crowd of his peti
tioners prevented access to him : secludentibus . . . catervis negotiosorum
hominum, quorum infirmitatibus serviebat2. He was ever gladsome
with the glad, and sorrowful with the sorrowful: gaudens cum
gaudentibus et flens cum flentibus3. His own tears drew tears from
his penitents: ita flebat ut et ilium flere compelleret 4. Ambrose
was highly gifted as an orator, whence the remarkable influence
exercised by his homilies and discourses. No less a judge than Augu
stine has written: Verbis eius suspendebar intentus . . . et delectabar
suavitate sermonis5; per illius os potissimum me Dominus ab errore
liberavit 6. The words of Ambrose were eagerly listened to elsewhere
than in the Cathedral of Milan. His episcopal action forms an essential
part of the history of his time. The rulers of the empire were under
his all-powerful influence. The young emperor Gratian (375 — 383)
exhibited a filial devotion towards the great bishop, whose impress
is clearly marked on all the principal events of that reign. Through
Justina, the mother and guardian of the youthful Valentinian II.,
Arianism had again lifted its head. But the fearless and firm Ambrose
opposed with success all the intrigues of this powerful and vindictive
princess. At the same time he gave proof of his loyalty to the
reigning house by interceding, at the request of Justina, with Maximus,
the assassin of Gratian and usurper of his throne. He went twice
to Trier for this purpose, in 383 — 384, and again in 386 — 387.
After the death of his mother, in 388, Valentinian became still more
intimate with Ambrose. It was the influence of the bishop of Milan
that caused the young emperor to resist with firmness the petition
of the Roman Senate for the restoration of the Altar of Victory to
its ancient place in the Senate-House, whence in 382 Gratian had
caused it to be removed. Valentinian was murdered, May 15., 392
by Arbogast at Vienne in Gaul ; Ambrose had already received his
appeal for help, and was hastening to his royal friend and disciple
when he heard mid-way in his journey the sad news of the emperor's
death. Theodosius the Great (379—395) was also very friendly and
trustful towards Ambrose; it was only for a brief time that the in
timacy of their relations seemed threatened. Even in the presence
of Theodosius, Ambrose maintained the absolute independence of
the Church, both internal and external. As a member of the Christian
community the only privilege of the emperor should be to lend his
strong right arm to the Church, and to protect her rights. In 388
the Christians of Callinicum in Mesopotamia had destroyed a Jewish
synagogue, for which act Theodosius took severe measures against
the citizens of that place ; at the request of Ambrose the emperor
withdrew his edict. It was also at the instance of Ambrose that the
1 Aug., Conf., vi. 3. 2 Ib 3 pailiinuS) Vita S Ambros. c 39
4 Ib. *
§ 90- ST. AMBROSE. 433
emperor did public penance for the massacre of Thessalonica in 390,
the citizens of which had been guilty of the murder of several
imperial officials: stravit omne quo utebatur insigne regium, deflevit
in ecclesia publice peccatum suum . . . gemitu et lacrymis oravit
veniam1. Theodosius died Jan. 17., 395, and was soon followed by
Ambrose, April 4 , 397-
2. AMBROSE AS A CHRISTIAN WRITER. — There would be reasonable
cause to marvel at the great number of works left us by St. Ambrose,
in spite of his extensive and manifold cares as bishop and statesman,
were it not for the fact that most of these writings are the mature
expression of his official life and labors. It is true that, so far as
we know, very few of his homilies or discourses have reached us in
their original form, or precisely as he delivered them. At the same
time it has been observed that most of his « books » are really homilies,
somewhat altered for publication, but even still easily recognizable
as what they were. They are nearly all practical and exhortatory in
contents and method. The thoughts are usually taken from Holy
Scripture, particularly the Old Testament, but in the mouth of Ambrose
these sacred texts are made to reflect every phase of the religious
and moral life of man. Even in works that are not the outcome
of his homiletic preaching, Ambrose loves to dwell on the moral
side of Christian life and teaching; he is a genuine Roman in whom
the ethico-practical note is always dominant. He has neither time
nor taste for philosophico-dogmatic speculations. In all his writings
he aims at some practical purpose. Hence he is often content to
reproduce what has been already treated, to turn over for another
harvest a field already worked. He often draws abundantly from
the ideas of some earlier writer, Christian or pagan, but adapts these
thoughts with tact and intelligence to the larger public of his time
and his country. In formal perfection his writings leave something
to be desired; a fact that need not surprise us when we recall the
demands made on the time of such a busy man. His diction abounds
in unconscious reminiscences of classical writers, Greek and Roman ;
he is especially conversant with the writings of Vergil. His style is
in every way peculiar and personal, and is never wanting in a certain
dignified reserve. When it appears more carefully studied than is
usual with him, its characteristics are energetic brevity and bold
originality. Those of his writings that are homiletic in origin and
form naturally show the great oratorical gifts of Ambrose; in them
he rises occasionally to a noble height of poetical inspiration. His
hymns are a sufficient evidence of the complete mastery that he pos
sessed over the Latin language.
3. EXEGETICAL WRITINGS. - - More than half of his writings are
exegetical, in the sense that their text is biblical (see no. 2) without
1 Ambr., De obitu Theodosii oratio, c. 34.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 28
434
SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
however any specific intention of formally commenting the scriptural
passages under consideration. We shall briefly describe these writings,
according to the sequence of the biblical books and as they are
found in the current editions of Ambrose. There is still much un
certainty as to their chronological sequence. The history of creation,
as told in Genesis, is the subject of: Hexaemeron libri sex1, one of
the most important of the writings of Ambrose, made up from nine
homilies delivered on six consecutive days, perhaps in 389, certainly
after 386. De paradiso2, De Cain et Abel libri duo3, De Noe et area4,
were probably written in close chronological order, perhaps about
376 — 3/9. Kellner attributes De Noe et area to the end of 386.
Its text presents a number of hiatus. The history of the patriarchs
is treated in the works : De Abraham libri duo 5, De Isaac et anima G,
De bono mortis7, De fuga saeculi8, De Jacob et vita beata libri duo9,
De Joseph patriarcha 10, De benedictionibus patriarcharum n. All these
writings seem to belong to the years 388 — 390. The De Isaac et
anima is thus entitled because the story of Isaac and Rebecca is
expounded as typical of the relations of Christ to the human soul.
De bono mortis is a continuation of the former work, as the author
himself declares, and aims at demonstrating that death is no evil,
but rather a benefit. In the De fuga saeculi he discusses the flight
of Jacob into Mesopotamia. The blessing given by Jacob to his sons
is the subject of the Benedictiones patriarcharum. The Lenten fast
of forty days is the subject of the homilies collected in: De Elia et
ieiunio 12. In De Nabuthe lezraeiita™ he thunders against the avarice of
the rich (3 Kings xxi), and in De Tobia 14 against usury. The historian
of contemporary Roman life finds an abundant harvest in these three
works, the first and second of which were certainly written after 386.
In the: De interpellatione Job et David libri quattuor15, written accord
ing to the Maurine editors about 383, he discusses the doubtings
and complainings of Job and David in the matter of the misfortunes
of the good and the happiness of the impious. In the : Apologia
prophetae David ", written about 383 — 385, he undertakes to diminish
the scandal of David's double sin (adulterium et homicidium). The:
Apologia altera prophetae David17, written with a similar intention,
is very probably spurious. Quite unlike the preceding works are the:
1 Migne, PL., xiv. 123—274. 2 ib-) xiv> 375—^14.
Ib., xiv. 315—360. * Ib., xiv. 361—416.
lb., xiv. 419—500. e lb; xiy 501—534.
Ib., xiv. 539—568. s lb., xiv. 569—596.
9 Ib., xiv. 597—638. ™ lb.-, xiv. 641—672.
1 lb-> xiv- 673—694- 12 Ib., xiv. 697—728.
Ib., xiv. 731 — 756. " Ib., xiv. 759—794.
r° Ib., xiv. 797—850.
Ib., xiv. 851—884; the additional ad Theodosium Augustum is not original.
17 Ib., xiv. 887—916.
§ 9°- ST- AMBROSE. 435
Enarrationes in duodecim Psalmos Davidicos (Ps. I 35 — 40 43 45 47
4861)!, written at different times, and: Expositio in Psalm um n82,
written probably about 386 — 388. In both works there is a stricter
application of the exegetical method. The: Commentarius in Cantica
canticorum 3 was compiled from scattered utterances of Ambrose,
and also from long excerpts of a formal commentary on the Can
ticle of canticles, by the Cistercian monk Wilhelm of St. Theodorich
near Reims (f 1148). The: Expositio Esaiae prophetae has perished;
the fragments of it collected among the writings of St. Augustine may
be read in the Ballermi edition (ii. 895 — 898). The: Expositio Evangelii
secundum Lucam libris decem comprehensa 4, the longest work of
St. Ambrose, was not written before 388, though composed from earlier
homilies. Since the sixteenth century the origin of the: Commentaria
in tredecim epistolas B. Pauli5 has been much discussed; it is a
remarkable work both in contents and form. The still uncertain
author declares, apropos of I Tim. iii. 15, that St. Damasus (366 — 384)
was then (hodie) the reigning pope. In one of his works 6 St. Augu
stine quotes some words of this commentary (Rom. v. 12) under the
name of Sanctus Hilarius; at the same time it can be the work
neither of Hilary of Poitiers nor of Hilary of Rome (§ 87, 5). In
the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries the work was attributed to
St. Ambrose. In deference to the objections of Erasmus, the author
has since then been known as Ambrosiaster or Pseudo-Ambrosius,
nor has any progress been made in our knowledge of his personality.
Apropos of the exegetical works of Ambrose, mention may be made
of the: Lex Dei sive Mosaicarum et Romanarum legum collatio (not
found in the editions of St. Ambrose), a work in which an attempt
is made to exhibit the Mosaic legislation concerning the more com
mon delinquencies as the basis of the Roman legislation. Mommsen,
the latest editor (1890), rejects the Ambrosian authorship of the
work. We have already described the Pseudo-Hegesippus (§ 88, 9).
4. EXEGETICAL WRITINGS (CONTINUED). - The peculiar coloring
of the exegetical writings of St. Ambrose is owing to his allegorico-
mystical interpretation of the Scripture-text. He is wont not to stop
at the letter, but proceeds at once to recognize a certain deeper or
higher sense to which he devotes all his attention. Under his hand
the slightest external details, circumstances apparently the most in
significant in a biblical event are transformed and made to offer most
profound and valuable instruction for the faith and the life of Christians.
He does not undertake to justify or elaborate his method ; only
occasionally does he insist on its value and its necessity. He distin
guishes a double scriptural sense (littera and scnsus altior). Accord-
1 Ib., xiv. 921 — 1180. 2 Ib., xv. 1197 — 1526.
:i Ib., xv. 1851 — 1962. 4 Ib., xv. 1527—1850.
5 Ib., xvii. 45—508. u Contra duas epistolas Pelagianorum, iv. 14.
28*
436 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
ing to its contents or subject-matter, the scriptural sense is triple:
sensus naturalis (natural truths), sensus mysticus (mysteries of faith),
and sensus moralis (moral precepts). St. Jerome long ago took
note of the relation of dependency between Ambrose and Origen
(§ 39> 5)- Concerning the Hexaemeron of the former, Jerome says1
that he so worked over (sic compilavit) the Hexaemeron of Origen,
ut magis Hippolyti sententias Basiliique sequeretur. He means that
Ambrose took the work of Origen as his model, but in many details
of the execution rather inclined to the views of Hippolytus and Basil;
this he did because he knew how unreliable the great Alexandrine
often was. It is also homilies of St. Basil that were used by Ambrose
for the: De Elia et ieiunio, De Nabuthe Jezraelita, and De Tobia.
At the same time it may be said that the principal source of his
allegorico-mystical interpretation of the Old Testament is the Jewish
writer Philo; the tractates of the latter are the unmistakable basis
of the Ambrosian writings : De paradise, De Cain et Abel, De Noe
et area, De Abraham, and others. So numerous are the echoes and
reminiscences of Philo scattered through these writings that very
often successful attempts have been made to reconstruct from the
works of Ambrose the much corrupted text of Philo. It is to be
noted, however, that Ambrose never abandons his Christian stand
point. From the Jew he has merely learned how to read into the
narrative of Genesis a doctrinal sense that he has first acquired else
where. He applies the same method to the New Testament. In the
commentary on St. Luke the biblical text is made to serve purposes
of instruction and edification, but with a thorough ignoring of all
the rules of hermeneutics, and frequently in so forced and artificial
a manner as to make it hard to follow with any ease the mental
process of the interpreter.
5. ASCETICO-MORAL WRITINGS. - The most important, though
not the earliest of the moral treatises of Ambrose, is his work in
three books: De officiis ministrorum2, a counterpart of Cicero's three
books De officiis. It was written after 386. Cicero had composed his
work for his son Marcus; even so Ambrose composed his treatise
for his spiritual sons, the ecclesiastics or ministers (ministri) of the
Church: sicut Tullius ad erudiendum filium, ita ego quoque ad vos
informandos filios meosa. Like Cicero also, he had in view a far
wider circle of readers. It was his purpose to prepare a manual of
morality for all Christians. In the order and disposition of his doctrine
he follows the great Roman very closely; nevertheless, the antithesis
between the philosophical morality of the pagan and the morality
of the Christian churchman is remarkably striking. In his exhortations,
particularly, Ambrose shows an irresistible power. He also wrote a
2 Mignc, PL., xvi. 23—184. 3 De offic., i. 7-
§ 90. ST- AMBROSE. 437
series of works concerning virginity or relating to the state of con
secrated Christian virgins. Indeed, he treated this theme so often and
with such effect that not a few protested with tears and remon
strances: Virginitatem doces et persuades plurimis . . ., puellas nubere
prohibes1. In 377, at the request of his beloved sister Marcellina, he
collected a number of these discourses into three little books dedicated
to her : De virginibus ad Marcellinam sororem suam 2. The first book
treats of the dignity and excellency of virginity, the second offers
the consecrated virgin suitable instructions on her holy state, and the
third contains some particular instructions for his sister. Of this little
book, probably the first of all written by St. Ambrose, Jerome says :
Tanto se effudit eloquio, ut, quidquid ad laudes virginum pertinet, ex-
quisierit, expresserit, ordinarit3. The same subject-matter recurs in:
De viduis4, written in 377 or 378; De virginitate5, probably written
also in the year 378; De institutione virginis et S. Mariae virginitate
perpetua ad Eusebium6, written in 391 or 392; Exhortatio virginitatis7,
composed in 393 or 394. As to the work or discourse: De lapsu
virginis consecratae 8, Dom Morin thinks that it is really a work of
Ambrose, but that owes its actual form to some one of his auditors.
6. DOGMATIC WRITINGS. — The five books : De fide ad Gratianum
Augustum9, were composed at the request of the young emperor.
They contain a thorough and convincing defence of the true divinity
of the Son against the objections of the Arians ; the first two books
were written in 378, the other three in 379 or 380. At the emperor's
request he also composed, in 381, the three books: De Spiritu Sancto
ad Gratianum Augustum 10. In them he defends the consubstantiality
of the Holy Ghost; his masters and guides are Athanasius, Basil the
Great, and Didymus the Blind. Arianism and the circle of Arians
about Gratian gave rise, probably in 382, to another work: De in-
carnationis Dominicae sacramento n. He is not the author of a work
often attributed to him: De fide orthodoxa contra Arianos12 (cf. § 87, 4).
In the second book of his Eranistes or Polymorphus, Theodoret of
Cyrus has preserved a long excerpt from the Expositio fidei of Am
brose13. The: Explanatio symboli ad initiandos, is also genuine14;
another recension of it may be seen elsewhere15. We have already
referred (§ 87, 2) to the spurious: Exhortatio S. Ambrosii episcopi
ad neophytes de symbolo. There is no sufficient reason to doubt
the genuineness of his De mysteriis 16, though the date of its composi
tion is still uncertain. It is addressed to the newly baptized and
1 De virginitate, c. 5. 2 Migne, PL., xvi. 187 — 232.
3 Ep. 22, 22. 4 Migne, PL., xvi. 233 — 262. 5 Ib., xvi. 265 — 302.
15 Ib., xvi. 305—334. 7 Ib., xvi. 335—364. 8 Ib., xvi. 367—384.
;) Ib., xvi. 527—698. 10 Ib., xvi. 703—816. u Ib., xvi. 817—846.
12 Ib., xvii. 549—568. 13 Ib., xvi. 847—850. 14 Ib., xvii. 1155—1160.
15 Ib., Ivii. 853—858. 16 Ib., xvi. 389—410.
438 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
treats of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist. A close kinship
of contents exists between the De mysteriis and the six books or
discourses De sacramentis*. It is probable that the latter work is
not a later imitation or recension of the De mysteriis, but the same
work indiscreetly and in an imperfect form published by some auditor
of Ambrose. In the two books De poenitentia 2, composed according
to the Benedictine editors in 384, he refutes the teachings of the
Novatians ; the work abounds in valuable proofs of the power of the
Church to remit sins, of the necessity of confession, and of the
meritorious character of good works. St. Augustine frequently quotes
from a lost work of Ambrose: De sacramento regenerationis sive
de philosophia. Another work: Ad Pansophium puerum, written in
393 — 394> is known to us only by its title. He is not the author
of the work published by Caspari in 1883: Altercatio S. Ambrosii
contra eos, qui animam non confitentur esse facturam, aut ex traduce
esse dicunt.
7. SERMONS AND LETTERS. - - In the two books: De excessu
fratris sui Satyri 3, he left to posterity a worthy memorial of his
beloved brother and intimate companion who died suddenly in 379.
The first book contains the sermon preached by Ambrose at the
funeral of Satyrus; the second book, entitled: De fide resurrectionis,
is a consolatory discourse preached at the tomb of his brother on
the eighth day after the burial. More famous still are the funeral
discourses on Valentinian II. and Theodosius the Great: De obitu
Valentiniani consolatio4, delivered in August 392, at the burial of
the murdered emperor, and : De obitu Theodosii oratio 5, delivered
Feb. 26., 395, during the solemn obsequies of the great emperor.
Both of these discourses are held to be models of rhetorical com
position, and are likewise historical authorities of prime importance.
The : Sermo contra Auxentium de basilicis tradendis 6, belongs to the
trying but glorious days of 386. A Scythian priest Mercurinus had
been made bishop of Milan by the Arians under the name of Auxentius,
whereupon Valentinian II., or rather his mother Justina, demanded
the cession of a Catholic church for the use of Auxentius and the
Arians, which request was energetically refused by Ambrose. About
the same time he had the happiness to discover the bodies of the
holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius; in a letter to his sister Mar-
cellina he inclosed two short discourses that he delivered on this
occasion7. Very insignificant in contents, and of doubtful authenti
city, are three discourses on Lk. xii. 33: Vendite omnia quae
possidetis et date eleemosynam. They were first made known in
1 Migne, PL., xvi. 417—462. 2 Ib. xvi. 465—524.
3 Ib., xvi. 1289 — 1354. 4 Ib., xvi. 1357—1384.
5 Ib., xvi. 1385 — 1406. 6 Ib., xvi. 1007 — 1018.
7 Ep. 22: ib., xvi. 1019 — 1026.
§ 90- ST. AMBROSE. 439
1834 by De Corrieris, and are found in the Ballerini edition1 of Am
brose. Mention has already been made of many other exegetical,
dogmatic, and ascetico-moral discourses. — The Benedictine editors
o
enumerate (1690) 91 letters of Ambrose2 and believed themselves justi
fied in affixing a date to most of them (i — 63). Though the number
of the letters has not grown, very useful work was done by Ihw
in 1890 in order to ascertain their chronology. Some of these
letters are confidential in nature and personal in character; most of
them , however , are official communications , memorials on public
affairs, synodal reports, and the like. They are entitled to a place
among the most important of contemporary historical authorities,
and they afford abundant evidence of the distinguished position and
great influence that the writer had in Church and State.
8. HYMNS AND OTHER POEMS. - - The hymns deserve a special
notice. The example of his Arian rivals moved him to compose
religious chants which he caused to be sung by the people during
divine service. The earliest and most important reference to these
hymns dates from the year 386, when in reply to a reproach of the
Arians he wrote as follows: Hymnorum quoque meorum carminibus
deceptum populum ferunt. Plane nee hoc abnuo. Grande carmen
(= a great charm) istud est quo nihil potentius. Quid enim potentius
quam confessio Trinitatis quae quotidie totius populi ore celebratur!
Certatim (— alternatively?) omnes student fidem fateri, Patrem et
Filium et Spiritum Sanctum norunt versibus praedicare. Facti sunt
igitur omnes magistri, qui vix poterant esse discipuli 3. By this intro
duction of the hymns into the liturgical service Ambrose enriched
and developed it according to the manner of his Oriental contempora
ries. The pious custom spread from Milan through all the Western
churches. A new kind of religious chants arose known as «Ambro-
sian Hymns » -- they were composed after the manner of his hymns,
or rather (to be more precise) they were sung in the churches after
the Ambrosian manner. St. Isidore of Seville says of them : Hymni
ex eius [Ambrosii] nomine Ambrosiani vocantur. . . . Carmina autem
quaecumque in laudem Dei dicuntur hymni vocantur *. Four Am
brosian hymns are vouched for as authentic by historical evidence,
and in particular by the testimony of St. Augustine. They are:
Aeterne rerum Conditor, Deus Creator omnium, lam surgit hora
tertia, Veni Redemptor gentium. These hymns are composed in
iambic dimeters and arranged in strophes of four verses each. The
meter is scrupulously correct and the laws of quantity rigorously
observed; the diction is at once lucid and simple, elevated and
grave. A fifth hymn, to Saints Gervasius and Protasius, exhibits
intrinsic evidence of the authorship of Ambrose; the writer calls
1 v. 195 — 222. z Migne, PL., xvi. 876 — 1286.
3 Sermo contr. Aux., c. 34. 4 hid. Hisp., De eccl. off., i. 6.
440 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
himself the repertor (see no. 7) of their bodies. Milanese tradition,
as sifted and verified by Biraghi (1862) and Dreves (1893), guarantees
the Ambrosian authorship of another series of hymns. — It used to
be believed that, on the occasion of the baptism of St. Augustine by
St. Ambrose in 387, they were divinely inspired to sing alternately the
canticle known as the Te Deum laudamus. It is certain that this hymn
is not the work of these writers, but early in the sixth century, however,
it was already a well-known hymn. Dom Morin attributes it to Nicetas
of Remesiana (see no. 12). Ambrose composed also some metrical
inscriptions for churches and for the tombs or monuments of departed
friends (tituli). A cycle of 21 distichs composed in explanation of a
series of paintings on the walls of the Cathedral of Milan and first
edited by Juretus in 1589, is declared spurious by some; but Biraghi
(1862) and Merkle (1896) maintain that these distichs are genuine.
9. COMPLETE EDITIONS. VERSIONS OF SELECT WRITINGS. — Among the
earlier editors of the writings of Ambrose, the most successful, admittedly,
were J. du Frische and N. Le Nourry. Their edition appeared at Paris,
1686 — 1690, 2 vols. The second volume contains a large Appendix with
separate pagination, in qua post triplicem eiusdem S. Doctoris vitam con-
tinentur varii tractatus suppositii. This edition was twice reprinted at
Venice, 1748— 1751, 4 vols. ; 1781 — 1782, 8 vols. It is reprinted in Migne,
PL., Paris, 1845 and 1866, xiv — xvii. With the aid of Milanese manuscripts
a new edition was brought out by P. A. Ballerini, Milan, 1875- — 1883,
6 vols. M. Ihm is correct when he writes, Studia Ambrosiana (see no. 1 1) p. 13 :
Plane Maurinorum studiis subnititur, quorum diligentiam et acumen in sua
ipse editione assecutus non est. So far only three volumes of the Vienna
edition have appeared (Corpus script, eccles. lat. xxxii). They are edited
by K. Schenkl and contain exegetical writings of Ambrose. The third
volume is entitled : Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam. Rec. K. Schenkl.
Opus auctoris morte interruptum absolvit H. Schenkl, Vienna, 1902. -
Select writings of St. Ambrose were translated into German by Fr. X.
Schulte, Kempten, 1871 — 1877, 2 vols. (Bibl. der Kirchenvater), into English
by H. de Romestin, A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,
series II, vol. x, New York, 1896.
10. SEPARATE EDITIONS. TRANSLATIONS. INVESTIGATIONS. -- ExegCtlCCll
works: In Studia Ambrosiana (see no. n) pp. 95 — 119, M. Ihm has
contributed emendations to the text of Expositio in Ps. 118, with the aid
of an eleventh-century Trier codex. Batterini has lately (iii. 349 ff.) defended
the Ambrosian authorship of Ambrosiaster. J. Langen, De commentariorum
in epist. Paulinas qui Ambrosii, et quaestionum biblicarum quae Augustini
nomine feruntur scriptore (Progr., Bonn, 1880), is of opinion that the latter
work belongs to the Luciferian Faustinus (§ 87, 3): he would likewise be
the author of Qtiaestiones Veteris et Novi Testament! (Migne, PL., xxxv.
12 13— 2416; the latter work is found among the writings of St. Augustine).
Anonymi, vulgo Ambrosiastri, commentaria in epistolas Pauli ex codice
Casin. n. 150, saec. vi, omnium vetustissimo , in Spicilegium Casinense
(1901), iii ii, 383 f. A. Souter, The Genuine Prologue to Ambrosiaster
on 2 Corinthians, in Journal of Theological Studies (1902—1903), iv, 8910
92. C.Marold(mZeitec\K. f. wissenschaftl. Theol., 1884, xxvii. 415—470)
maintains that the author known as Ambrosiaster is not identical with
the author of the Quaestiones, but he does not attempt to solve the problem
§ 90- ST. AMBROSE. 441
of the former's personality. In the Revue d'hist. et de litte'rat. religieuses,
1899, iv. 97 — 121, G. Morin proposes as the author of both works the
converted Jew Isaac, who lived in the latter half of the fourth century
and is known as the author of a very insipid Liber fidei de sancta trinitate
et de incarnatione Domini (Migne, PG., xxxiii. 1541 — 1546, cf. Gennad.,
De viris ill., c. 26). A later article of Morin, Hilarius 1'Ambrosiaster, in
Revue Benedictine (1903), xx. 113 — 124, suggests as author of both works
Decimus Hilarianus Hilarius, an illustrious layman of the latter part of
the fourth century; he would also be the author of Contra Arianos (§ 86, 7).
F. Cumonty La polemique de 1'Ambrosiaster contre les pa'iens, with an
appendix: L'Ambrosiaster et le droit romain, in Revue d'hist. et de litt.
religieuses (1903), viii. 417 — 440. C. H. Turner., Niceta and Ambrosiaster,
in Journal of Theol. Studies (1906), vii. 203 — 2iq 355 — 372; Id., Am
brosiaster and Damasus, ib., vii. 281 — 284. To Isaac are also attributed
the Expositio fidei, by C. P. Caspari, in Kirchenhistorische Anecdota,
Christiania, 1883, i. 304 — 308, and Gesta inter Liberium et Felicem epi-
scopos, in the Collectio Avellana, edited by O. Gunther (Corpus script, ec-
cles. lat. xxxv), pp. i — 5; cS.J.Wittig, Papst Damasus L, Rome, 1902, passim.
Th. Mommsen prepared an edition of the Collatio legum Mosaicarum et
Romanarum, in Collectio librorum iuris anteiustiniani, edd. P. Krilger,
Th. Mommsen, G. Studemund, Berlin, 1890, iii. 107 — 198. The pertinent
litterature is in Teuffel-Schwabe, Gesch. der rom. Litt.,, 5. ed., p. 1124. -
Ascetico-moral books: De officiis ministrorum was edited separately by
J. G. Krabinger, Tubingen, 1857. It was translated into German by
C. Haas, Die Pastoralschriften des hi. Gregor d. Gr. und des hi. Am-
brosius von Mailand, iibersetzt, Tubingen, 1862, pp. 27 iff., also by ScJmltc,
Kempten, 1877 (see no. 9); cf. F. Hasler, Uber das Verhaltnis der heid-
nischen und christlichen Ethik auf Grund Vergleichung des Ciceronianischen
Buches De officiis mit dem gleichnamigen des hi. Ambrosius, Munich, 1866.
P. Ewald, Der Einflufi der stoisch-ciceronianischen Moral auf die Dar-
stellung der Ethik bei Ambrosius (Inaug.-Diss.), Leipzig, 1881. R. Thamin,
St. Ambroise et la morale chretienne au IVe siecle, Paris, 1895. Th. Schmidt,
Ambrosius, sein Werk De officiis libri iii, und die Stoa (Inaug.-Diss.), Got-
tingen, 1897. On the De lapsu virginis consecratae see no. 12. Th. Chiuso,
Gli scritti di S. Ambrogio sopra la verginita messi in lingua italiana, 2. ed.,
Turin, 1885. — Dogmatic writings : G. Mercati, Le titulationes nelle opere
dogmatiche di S. Ambrogio, in Ambrosiana (see no. n). Th. Schermann,
Die Kapiteliiberschr. der dogmatischen Biicher des hi. Ambrosius, in Rom.
Quartalschr. (1902), xvi. 353 — 355; Id., Die griechischen Quellen des hi. Am
brosius in Lib. iii de Sp. Sancto, Munich, 1902. Some of the dogmatic
writings of Ambrose were reprinted by H. Hurter in his Ss. Patr. opusc.
sel. (series I) : De poenitentia t. v ; De mysteriis t. vii ; De fide ad Gra-
tianum Augustum t. xxx. The last named work is contained also in the
Bibliotheca Sanctorum Patrum, series V, vols. v vi, Rome, 1905 1906. For
the history of the Explanatio symboli ad initiandos see C. P. Caspari,
Ungedruckte Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der Glaubens-
regel, Christiania, 1869, ii. 48 — 127. For the De mysteriis and De
sacramentis cf. F. Probst, Liturgie des 4. Jahrhunderts und deren Reform,
Miinster, 1893, PP- 232 — 239- Th. Schermann, Die pseudo-ambrosianische
Schrift «De Sacramentis». Ihre Uberlieferung und Quellen. In Rom.
Quartalschr. (1903), xvii. 36 — 55 237 — 255. The booklet on the origin
of the soul is found in Caspari, Kirchenhistorische Anecdota, Christiania,
1883, i. 225 — 247; cf. ib. , pp. xi — xiii. -- Sermons: K. Schenkl , Sancti
Ambrosii de excessu fratris liber prior, in Ambrosiana (see no. n). In
his Spicilegium Liberianum , Florence, 1863, pp. 3 — 4, Fr. Liver ani
442 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
edited a spurious Tractatus in Phil. iv. 4, under the name of Ambrose.
Selections from the sermons of Ambrose were translated into German by
T/i. Kohler, Leipzig, 1892, in G. Leonhardi, Die Predigt der Kirche, xx. -
Hymns: The metrical writings of Ambrose are discussed by L. Biraghi,
Inni sinceri e Carmi di S. Ambrogio, vescovo di Milano, Milan, 1862.
G. M. Dreves, S. J., Aurelius Ambrosius, der Vater des Kirchengesanges.
Eine hymnologische Studie (Supplement 58 of Stimmen aus Maria-Laach),
Freiburg, 1893. An Italian version of the hymns was made by G. Breta,
Milan, 1841. P. Franchi de' Cavalieri denies in his Sant' Agnese nella
tradizione e nella leggenda, Rome, 1899 (supplement of the Rom. Quartal-
schrift) the Ambrosial! authorship of the hymn Agnes beatae virginis. It
is defended by G. M. Dreves, in Zeitschrift f. Kath. Theologie (1901),
xxv. 356 — 365. A. Steier, Untersuchungen iiber die Echtheit der Hymnen
des Ambrosius, in Jahrb. f. klass. Philologie 1903, xxviii. For a study on
six of the Ambrosian hymns and the Te Deum laudamus cf. y. Kayser,
Beitrage zur Geschichte und Erkla'rung der altesten Kirchenhymnen, 2. ed.,
Paderborn, 1881, pp. 127 — 248 and 435—458. On the Te Deum see
no. 12. The metrical inscriptions and the distichs are discussed by Biraghi,
1. c. ; the latter are the subject of a study by S. Merkle, in Rom. Quartal-
schrift f. christl. Altertumskunde u. f. Kirchengesch. (1896), x. 185 — 222.
In Analecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888, part i, pp. 121 — 124, Pitra
edited certain Ambrosiani qui dicuntur versus de naturis rerum. M. Magi-
stretti, Monumenta veteris liturgiae Ambrosianae, I: Pontificate in usum
ecclesiae Mediolanensis necnon et Ordines Ambrosiani ex codicibus saec.
xi — xv. II et III: Manuale Ambrosianum. Milan, 1897 — 1905.
11. WORKS ON ST. AMBROSE. — C. Locatdli, Vita di S. Ambrogio, Milan,
1875. Fr. Bohringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen oder die Kirchen-
geschichte in Biographien, 2. ed., vol. x: Ambrosius, Erzbischof von Mai-
land, 2. reprint, Stuttgart, 1877. Th. Forster, Ambrosius, Bischof von Mai-
land. Eine Darstellung seines Lebens und Wirkens, Halle, 1884. Le Due
de Broglie, St. Ambroise (340 — 397), Paris, 1899 (Les Saints); 4. ed.,
1901. -- M. Ihm, Studia Ambrosiana, in Jahrb. f. Idass. Philol., Suppl.,
Leipzig, 1890, xvii. 1 — 124, also printed separately; cf. Ihm, Philon und
Ambrosius, in Neue Jahrb. fiir Philol. und Padag. (1890), cxli. 282 — 288.
- Ambrosiana, Scritti varii pubblicati nel xv. centenario della morte di
S. Ambrogio, con introduzione di A. C. Card. Ferrari, Milan, 1897. J. E.
Pruner, Die Theologie des hi. Ambrosius (Progr.), Eichstatt, 1862. W. Balken-
hol, Die kirchenrechtlichen Anschauungen des hi. Ambrosius, Bischofs von
Mailand, und seiner Zeit, in Der Katholik, 1888, i. 113 — 140 284 — 296
337 — 381 484—511; reprinted separately. J. B. Kcllner, Der hi. Ambrosius,
Bischof von Mailand, als Erklarer des Alten Testamentes, Ratisbon, 1893.
H. Dacier, La femme d'apres Saint Ambroise, Paris, 1900. M. Magistretti,
II sacramento della confessione secondo S. Ambrogio, in Scuola Cattolica,
I9°3> PP- 493 — 512. A. Largent, Saint Ambroise, in Diet, de Theologie
Catholique, Paris, 1903, i. (col. 942 — 951); P. Lejay , Rit Ambrosien, ib.
(col. 954 — 968); F. Niederhuber, Die Lehre des hi. Ambrosius vom Reiche
Gottes auf Erden (in Forschungen z. christl. Litt.- u. Dogmengesch., iv. 3 — 4),
Mainz, 1904; F. van Ortroy, Saint Ambroise et 1'empereur Theodose, in
Analecta Bollandiana, 1904, pp. 417 — 426. N. Ermoni, Saint Ambroise,
hymnographe (col. 1347 — 1352); H. Leclercq, Compositions epigraphiques
de Saint Ambroise (col. 1352—1353); A. Galard, Chant Ambrosien (col.
.I353~7I373)i -P- Lejay, Rit Ambrosien (col. 1373—1442), these four articles
in: Diet, d' Archeologie chretienne et de Liturgie, Paris, 1906, i.
12. NICETAS OF REMESIANA. — Nicetas, bishop of Romatiana or Remesiana
in the heart of Dacia, lived towards the end of the fourth century, and
§ 9°- ST. AMBROSE. 443
must not be confounded with the bishop of Aqtiileia of the same name in
the second half of the fifth century. According to Gennadius (De viris ill.,
c. 22) he left an instruction for baptismal candidates written in simple and
pleasing style : Competentibus ad baptismum instructionis libellos sex, and a
work : Ad lapsam virginem libellum. The contents of the books of bap
tismal instruction were as follows: Continet primus (libellus) qualiter se de-
beant habere competentes . . . secundus est de gentilitatis erroribus . . . tertius
liber de fide unicae maiestatis, quartus adversus genethliologiam (astrology),
quintus de symbolo, sextus de agni paschalis victima. This work does not
seem to be preserved in its entirety. The fifth book (De symbolo) is certainly
identical with the Explanatio symboli habita ad competentes (Migne, PL.,
lii. 865 — 874), first edited by Cardinal Borgia (Padua, 1799), a very beauti
ful work and very important for the history of the baptismal creed. It
has been re-edited by Caspari (Kirchenhistorische Anecdota, Christiania,
1883, i. 341 — 360), and by Pitra (Analecta sacra, Paris, 1883, m- 584 — 588).
Other remnants of this instruction were edited by M. Denis (Vienna, 1802)
and by Cardinal Mai (Rome, 1827 1833). Denis made known six short
fragments (Migne, PL., lii. 873 — 876), and Mai three brief treatises, (ib., lii.
847 — 866), entitled: De ratione fidei, De Spiritus Sancti potentia, De diversis
appellationibus D. N. Jesu Christo convenientibus. The first two treatises
are certainly parts of one book, and probably identical with De fide unicae
maiestatis, the third book of the Instruction. Textual emendations of the De
diversis appellationibus are found in G. Mercati, Note di letteratura biblica
e cristiana antica (Studi e Testi, v), Rome, 1901, pp. 137 — 140. For more
details on various other fragments and especially the Explanatio symboli
cf. E. Hiimpel, Nicetas, Bischof von Remesiana (Inaug.-Diss.), Erlangen,
1895. F. Kattenbusch does not admit that these fragments, especially the
Explanatio symboli, belong to the bishop of Remesiana. They were written,
he thinks, in Gaul or in Spain in the early part of the fifth century;
cf. Theol. Literaturzeitung, 1896, pp. 297 — 303. Gennadius vouches for
a work of Nicetas entitled Ad lapsam virginem; in the past it was often
identified with the De lapsu virginis consecratae among the works of
Ambrose (see no. 5). Dom Morin discovered lately a hitherto unknown
Epistola ad virginem lapsam, which is more likely to be the work attributed
by Gennadius to Nicetas (Revue Benedictine, 1897, xiv. 193 — 202). Morin
undertook also to show that the data in Gennadius concerning the literary
labors of the bishop of Remesiana are incomplete. On the other hand,
there is scarcely any reason to doubt that Nicetas of Remesiana is identical
with Nicetas, bishop in Dacia, and friend of St. Paulinus of Nola (Katten
busch, 1. c., does not think so). Paulinus often makes mention of him
in his poems and letters as a missionary bishop and a well-known hymno-
grapher; cf. Paulinus of Nola, Poema 17: ad Nicetam redeuntem in Daciam.
A. Souter, Notes on the De lapsu virginis of Niceta, in Journal of Theol.
Studies (1905), vi. 433—434. From a close study of the words of Paulinus
Morin has been able to render it most probable that Nicetas is the author
of the Te Deum Laudamus (see no. 8 10), as well as of two hymnological
treatises De vigiliis servorum Dei and De psalmodiae bono (Migne, PL.,
Ixviii. 365 — 376). On the history of the Te Deum cf. Morin, in Revue
Bened. (1894), xi. 49—77 337—345; A. E. Burn, An Introduction to the
Creeds and to the Te Deum, its structure and meaning, its musical setting
and rendering, together with a revised Latin text, notes and translations,
London, 1902; G. Semeria, Gli Inni della Chiesa, iii: L'Inno della fide.
W. Meyer, Das Turiner Bruchstiick der altesten irischen Liturgie, in the
Gottinger Nachrichten, philol.-hist. Klasse, 1903, pp. 208 — 214. For the
two hymnological treatises see Morin, in Revue Biblique (1897), vi. 282
444 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
to 288, and in Revue Benedictine (1897), xiv. 385 — 397, where the entire
text of De psalmodiae bono was first made known.
13. CONTEMPORARY EPISCOPAL WRITERS. — Pope SiriciuS (384 398) IS
known to us through seven letters (Migne, PL., xiii. 1131 — 1196), the first
of which is addressed to Himerius, bishop of Tarragona in Spain (ib.; xiii.
1131 — 1147)- It is rather long and is also the oldest known of the
decretal letters of popes; cf. Jafft, Regesta Pontif. Rom., 2. ed., Leipzig,
1885, i. 40 — 42, n. 255 — 272. For a German version of these letters
see S. Wenzlowsky, Die Briefe der Papste (Bibl. der Kirchenvater), ii. 407
to 488. -- St. Simplicianus, the friend of St. Ambrose and his successor
in the see of Milan, left many letters (Gennad., De viris ill., c. 36), among
them several to St. Augustine. They have all perished. Among the letters
of St. Augustine there is a very nattering letter ad Simplicianum, written
about 397 (Ep. 37: Migne, PL., xxxiii. 151 — 152). He also wrote a work
De diversis quaestionibus ad Simplicianum libri duo (Ib., xl., 101 — 148).
Among the prominent theologians of the time was Chromatius, bishop
of Aquileia (ca. 387 — 4°?); eighteen of whose treatises have reached us.
They are homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew (Ib., xx. 323—368);
among them the treatise on the eight beatitudes (Ib., 323 — 328) has always
been highly esteemed. These treatises deal with three chapters (iii. 15
to 17 and v vi) of the said Gospel, and appear to be fragments of an
entire series of homilies on Matthew. — Vigilins, bishop of Trent, died a
martyr about 405 ; we have from his pen a work De martyrio SS. Sisinnii,
Martyrii et Alexandri (Ib. xiii. 549—558). -- Victricius, bishop of Rouen,
died about 407 ; one of his sermons (De laude sanctorum ; ib. xx. 443
to 458) has reached us. A new edition was brought out by Sauvage and
Tougard, Paris, 1895. E. Vacandard, Saint Victrice, eveque de Rouen,
Paris, 1903 (Les Saints); Id., in Revue des questions historiques (1903),
Ixxiii. 379—441.
§ 91. Prudentius and Paulinus.
i. PRUDEXTIUS. — Aurelius Prudentius Clemens is easily the fore
most among the Latin poets of Christian antiquity. In the Praefatio
of his complete poems he describes for us summarily his life and
his writings. Prudentius was born in Spain in 348, very probably at
Cassaraugusta (Saragossa), of a very illustrious Christian family. His
youth was not free, he tells us, from «the stains and mire of sin»:
nequitiae sordibus ac luto i. He chose the career of public office,
which he entered as procurator, and was twice named rector or
president of a province, his native province, it is conjectured. Finally,
through the favor of Theodosius, he was given a military office, or
rather was admitted among the highest imperial officers -- the exact
value of the words militiae gradu evectum used by him in the Prae
fatio, vv. 19—20, is not certain. His « whitening locks » (nix capitis,
Praefatio, v. 27) moved him to exchange the splendor of the imperial
court for a peaceful solitude that he might live in closer communion
with God and save his soul. Early in the fifth century he made a
journey to Rome. His death must have taken place a few years
after his return to Spain. - In his fifty-seventh year (404 or 405),
1 Praef., v. 12.
§ gi. PRUDENTIUS AND PAULINUS. 445
Prudentius published a collection of his writings that has come down
to us in numerous manuscripts. Towards the end of the Praefatio
he indicates as follows the contents and tendency of his works:
«The sinful soul should at last put away its folly, and glorify God
in accents of praise if not by meritorious actions. The soul should
spend its days in the singing of hymns, and let no night go by
without praising the Lord. It should wage war against heresies,
preach the Catholic faith, overthrow the altars of the demons, break
down thy idols, O Rome, consecrate pious canticles to the martyrs,
and sing to the Apostles discourses filled with praise ». The collec
tion is divided into seven books, six of which bear Greek titles. The
first book contains a number of daily hymns and is known as
Cathemerinon (xadrtfiepwcov) liber; seven of its twelve hymn- like
canticles (in nine metres) are devoted to as many hours of the day
and to the regulation of daily actions, while five are destined for
certain days of the week or year. The sixth book is also lyrical in
character and is known as the Peristephanon (nept Grztpdvcov) liber,
because its fourteen canticles celebrate in divers metres the praises
of Christian martyrs of Spain and Italy (Rome). Both works follow
closely the old Spanish liturgy, and it is on them that the fame
of the poet rests. His song, enhanced by a rich and imaginative
diction, springs from the very depths of his soul and rises on the
wings of firm faith and tender affection. If we except Claudian,
he is as consummate an artist in verse as any of his pagan con
temporaries* Prudentius is rightly reproached with excess and crudeness
of detail in the pictures of martyrdom met with in the Peristephanon.
He wrote three other metrical works of a didactico-polemical cha
racter. Of these, the Apotheosis (diiodlcoaiQ) defends the true divinity
of Jesus Christ against the Patripassians, the Sabellians, and the Jews.
The Hamartigenia (a/jiapTtflveiaJ fixes the origin of evil in the free
will of the creature as against the Gnostic, and particularly the
Marcionite dualism. The Libri duo contra Symmachum are devoted
to an attack on idolatry and the proceedings of the pagan party in
the Roman Senate as represented by Symmachus (f ca. 405). This last
work was composed at Rome in 402 — 404; it glows with enthusiasm
and by modern critics has frequently been declared the most perfect
work of the poet. Our ignorance of the circumstances that gave
birth to the Apotheosis and the Hamartigenia makes it difficult to
appreciate them properly. Rosier is of opinion (1886) that both of
them were written principally against Priscillianism (§ 89, 3); Rosier
sees a similar polemical purpose in the Psychomachia (^uyoiJLayia),
a lively and highly-colored description of the « struggle for the soul»
between Christian virtues and pagan vices. The poem is written in
hexameters, and is sometimes described as a didactic work, and again
as an epic, because of the fulness in its manner of treating its sub-
446 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
ject. It is the first Western example of a purely allegorical poem
and exercised a profound influence on all mediaeval symbolism.
Merkle (1894) does not admit the anti-Priscillianist tone of these
three works. Kiinstle (1905) maintains that all were written against
Priscillianism. The last poem of the collection is known as the
Dittochczon , and describes forty-nine biblical scenes , twenty-four
from the Old and twenty-five from the New Testament, each of
them in 4 hexameters. It is quite probable that all these Tetrasticha
are explications or even inscriptions that graced corresponding pic
torial scenes on the walls of the Church (at Saragossa?) The term
«Dittochseon» is still obscure; it is usually, but not satisfactorily
explained as « double nourishment*, from otrroc, and tr/ft i. e. from
the Old and the New Testament.
2. WRITINGS ON FRUDENTius. - - The oldest and best, codex of Pru-,
dentius is Cod. Paris. 8084, saec. vi. (cf. § 88, 7) in uncial capitals. The
Italian codices are described by A. Dressel in his edition of Prudentius
(Leipzig, 1860), pp. xlvi — Ixi. E. O. Winstedt , The double Recension of
the Poems of Prudentius, in Classical Review (1903), xvii. 203 — 207. The
illuminated manuscripts of the Psychomachia are described by R. Stettiner,
Die illustrierten Prudentius-Handschriften , Berlin, 1895. - - The various
editions of Prudentius are enumerated by Dressel, 1. c. , pp. xxv — xlvi.
Among the earlier editions that of the Jesuit F. Arevalo (Rome 1788 to
1789, 2 vols.) deserves mention because of its copious and learned com
mentary. It is reprinted in Migne, PL., lix — Ix, Paris, 1847. — Lanfranchi,
Aurelii Prudentii dementis opera, ad Bodonianam editionem exegit,
variis lectionibus et adnotatiunculis illustravit, Turin, 1896 1902, 2 vols.
The Apotheosis is reprinted also in Hurter , SS. Patr. opusc. sel. xxxiii.
Excellent complete editions of Prudentius are due to Th. Obbarius,
Tubingen, 1845, and A> Dressel, Leipzig, 1860. The eleventh hymn of
the Peristephanon (Passio Hippolyti) was edited separately with an Italian
version by Fr. Felli, Viterbo, 1881. Dressel indicates (pp. Ixii— Ixiv) the
various vernacular versions of our poet. A good German version is found
in the work of Cl. Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1872. Selected poems were trans
lated into English by Francis St. John Thackeray, Translations from Pru
dentius, London, 1890. CL Brockhaus y Aurelius Prudentius Clemens in
seiner Bedeutung fur die Kirche seiner Zeit, Leipzig, 1872. Ad. Ebert,
Allgem. Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande (2. ed.,
1889), i. 251—293. J. Kayser , Beitrage zur Geschichte und Erklarung
der altesten Kirchenhymnen , 2. ed. , Paderborn, 1881, pp. 249—336.
A. Rosier, Der katholische Dichter Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, Freiburg,
1886. Aime Puech, Prudence, Paris, 1888. G. Boissier , La fin du paga-
nisme, Paris, 1891, ii. 123—177 (3. ed. [1898], pp. 105—151). M. Ma-
mhus, Gesch. der christlich.-latein. Poesie, Stuttgart, 1891, pp. 61—99.
A. Tonna Barthet, Aurelio Prudencio Clemente. Estudio biografico crftico,
in Ciudad de Dios (1902), Ivii — lix. -- Fr. Krenkel , De Aurelii Prudentii
Clementis re metrica (Diss. inaug.), Rudolstadt, 1884. H. Breidt , De
Aurelio Prudentio Clemente Horatii imitatore (Diss. inaug.), Heidelberg,
1887. A- Melardi, Quid rationis Prudentii Psychomachia cum Cebetis
tabula habere videatur, Potenza, 1901. E. B. Lease, A syntactic, stylistic
and metrical study of Prudentius, Baltimore, 1895. G- Sixt > Die tyri-
schen Gedichte des Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (Progr.), Stuttgart, 1889.
§ 91- PRUDENTIUS AND PAULINUS. 447
V. Both, Des christlichen Dichters Prudentius Schrift gegen Symmachus
(Progr.), Rastatt, 1882. S. Merkle , Prudentius und Prisciilian, in Theol.
Quartalschr. (1894), Ixxvi. 77 — 125; Id. , Neue Prudentius-Studien , ib.
(1896), Ixxviii. 251 — 275; Id., Prudentius' Dittochaeum, in Festschrift zum
elfhundertjahrigen Jubilaum des dentschen Campo Santo in Rom, Frei
burg, 1897, pp. 33 — 45. y. P. Kirschy Le «Dittochaeum» de Prudence
et les monuments de I'antiquite chretienne, in Atti del II congresso di
archeol. crist., Rome, 1902, pp. 127 — 131. A. Melardi, La Psychomachia
di Prudenzio, poema eroico-allegorico del v. secolo, Pistoia, 1900. P. Cha-
vanne, Le patriotisme de Prudence, in Revue d'hist. et de litte'r. rejigieuses
(1899), iy- 332 — 352 385 — 4!3- — The remaining «literature» on Prudentius
is listed and criticised by C. Weyman, in Jahresbericht iiber die Fortschritte
der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft (1895), Ixxxiv. 297 — 300; (1897), xciii.
205 — 208; (1900), cv. 84 f. F. Maigret , Le poete chretien Prudence, in
Science Catholique (1903), xvii. 219 — 227 303 — 313. K. Kunstle shows
that Prudentius wrote against Prisciilian, in Antipriscilliana, Freiburg, 1905.
3. PAULINUS OF NOLA. Contemporary with Prudentius, but
quite different in character, was another poet, Pontius Meropius Anicius
Paulinus, born in 353 at Burdigala (Bordeaux) of a wealthy senatorial
family. He was a disciple of the rhetorician Ausonius (§ 88, 5), and
through life remained bound to him by ties of reverent love and
friendship. Paulinus owed it to the powerful influence of his friend
that after the death ofValens (Aug. 9., 378), though scarcely twenty-
live, he was made consul subrogatus for the remainder of that year.
He seems to have soon retired from public life to devote himself
to a literary dilettantism more pleasing to his tastes. However, his
soul found true peace only when he listened to the voice of divine
grace and stripped himself of all his earthly possessions. It was only
gradually that he formed this resolution; grave trials had nourished
and confirmed it; in the meantime he had to overcome the prayers
and reproaches of his master. He had long deferred baptism, but
in 389 he received it from the hands of Delphinus, bishop of Bor
deaux, after which he lived some years on his estates in Spain. In
393, after much resistance, he was ordained priest by Lampius,
bishop of Barcelona, and the following year (394) retired to Nola
in Campania. It was the resting-place of the holy martyr Felix,
whom in his early youth Paulinus had chosen as his protector, and
to whom he believed himself indebted for his escape from an accu
sation of fratricide. Hither he came with his pious wife Therasia to
lead a life of prayer, mortification, and voluntary poverty. When
the see of Nola fell vacant in 409, he was chosen to be its bishop,
and thenceforth, to his death in 431, gave an admirable example of
self-sacrifice and disinterested devotion to works of Christian charity.
- Paulinus has not the fire and strength of Prudentius; his poetry
betrays a milder and gentler nature. He lacks the creative force of
the Spaniard, his bold flights of imagination, the splendor of his
diction. The style of Paulinus is more simple and calm, also more orna-
448 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
mental and pleasing, and manifests at all times a cultivated sense
of beauty. From the earlier period of his life we possess but a few
insignificant poems. A special interest attaches to the correspondence
of Paulinus and Ausonius, especially the letters that belong to the
period of the former's conversion (389 — 393). In these letters both
authors reached the acme of their poetical inspiration. Ausonius
strives to shake the resolution of his disciple to enter upon a new
life, while the latter, in spite of the inevitable discrepancy between
sound jfaith and unreflecting frivolity, manifests a dignified attachment
to his old master and friend. Among the poems of the latter part
of the life of Paulinus the most important, both in length and contents,
are the panegyrical effusions in honor of St. Felix. For at least
fourteen consecutive years, beginning with 394, Paulinus honored
each feast-day of his Saint (January 14.) with such a composition in
hexameters. We have still thirteen of these Carmina natalitia in which
Paulinus celebrates the day of the Saint's death, considered as the
day of his birth to eternal life; a fourteenth carmen has reached us
in fragmentary condition. Of his three paraphrases of Psalms (Ps. i
ii cxxxvi, in the Vulgate) the first is in iambic trimeters, the second
and third in hexameters; i,n them he created a new form of Christian
poetry, destined to be thenceforth much cultivated both in mediaeval
and modern times. The Epithalamium Juliani et Jae is an interesting
Christian nuptial poem in 120 distichs, and contains much historical
material of value for the manners and habits of his time. The letters
of Paulinus are less pleasing than his poems ; their style is somewhat
labored and pedantic, and they are overrich in biblical quotations
and allusions. About 50 of them have reached us; thirteen of them
are addressed to his oldest and dearest friend Sulpicius Severus;
six to Amandus, a priest of Bordeaux, to whom he tells us he was
particularly indebted for the grace of conversion; five to Delphinus,
bishop of the same city; four to Augustine, and one each to most
of his other correspondents. Several prose-works of Paulinus have
perished, notably a panegyric on Theodosius: Super victoria tyran-
norum, eo maxime quod fide et oratione plus quam armis vicerit,
also a: Liber de poenitentia et de laude generali omnium martyrum1.
4. WORKS ON PAULINUS. — Complete editions of his works were publish-
by the Jesuits Fronton du Due and Heribert Rosweyde , Antwerp,
1622; J. B. Le Brim des Marettcs, Paris, 1685, 2 vols. ; L. A, Muratori,
Verona, 1736 (in Migne, PL., Ixi), and lately by W. v. Hartd , Vienna,
1894, 2 vols. (Corpus script, eccl. lat, xxix— xxx) ; cf. Hartel, Patristische
adien, Vienna, 1895, v vi. -- Muratori added to the former editions
• unknown works, three of them being Carmina natalitia in S. Felicem
and one a poem of two hundred and fifty-four hexameters against the
>llies of idolatry, addressed to a certain Antonius. In Gallandi, Bibl.
vet. Patr., iii. 653—661 (cf. xlviii— xlix) this Carmen ad Antonium follows
1 Gennad., De viris ill., c. 48.
§ 91- PRUDENTIUS AND PAULINU5. 449
the Instructiones of Commodian, under the title: Antonii carmen ad-
versus gentes. Gallandi took for granted that the first line; Discussi,
fateor, sectas, Antonius, omnes , was equivalent to a claim for authorship
by Antonius ; Muratori showed quite clearly that it is the vocative and
not the nominative which occurs here, also that St. Paulinus is the real
author of these verses, which are reprinted in Migne, PL., v. 261 — 282,
under the title and after the order of Gallandi , as an appendix to the
Instructiones of Commodian and as Antonii Carmen adversus gentes. The
work is especially important for classical mythology and archaeology, and
has been twice edited separately, by Fr. OeJiler, in Gersdorf, Bibl. Patr. eccl.
lat. sel., Leipzig, 1849, xm- I21 — J32> anc^ ^7 C- Btirsian , in Sitzungs-
berichte der philos.-philol. und histor. Klasse der kgl. bayer. Akad. der
Wissensch., Munich, 1880, fasc. i, pp. i — 23. Both of these editors accept
the authorship of Paulinus. -- A polymetric poem of 130 verses, inter
pretative of some paintings, and entitled Obitus Baebiani, was published as
early as the sixteenth century, but has only lately been shown by W, Brandes
to be a work of Paulinus of Nola ; cf. the excellent new edition of Brandes,
in Wiener-Studien (1890), xii. 280 — 297. There ought no longer to be
any doubt of the authorship of Paulinus; cf. Manitms, 1. c., pp. 298 — 300.
O. Bardenhewer , in Katholik (1877), i. 493 — 510, and C. Weyman , in
Histor. Jahrb. (1895), xvi. 92 — 99 (cf. ib., 423 f.), made known a new
letter of St. Paulinus; it is really a continuation of the one numbered 25
in his correspondence. — For Paulinus in general cf. Ad. Buse , Paulin,
Bischof von Nola, und seine Zeit (350 — 450), Ratisbon, 1856, 2 vols.
F. Lagrange, Histoire de St. Paulin de Nole, Paris, 1877, 2. ed., 1882,
2 vols. M. Lafon, Paulin de Nole, pp. 353 — 431. Essai sur sa vie et
sa pensee (These), Montauban, 1885. G. Boissier, La fin du paganisme,
ii. 57 — 121 (3. ed., pp. 49 — 103). Manitius, 1. c., pp. 261 — 297. A. Huemer,
De Pontii Meropii Paulini Nolani re metrica, Vienna, 1903. — For the cor
respondence of the poet see A. Puech, De Paulini Nolani Ausoniique epi-
stularum commercio et communibus studiis (These), Paris, 1887. A. Ban-
drillart , Saint Paulin, eveque de Nole, 1904. M. Phillip , Zum Sprach-
gebrauch des Paulinus von Nola (Diss.), I. Teil, Munich, 1904. — Uranius,
a disciple of Paulinus, has left us a letter entitled De obitu Paulini ad
Pacatum (Migne, PL. , liii. 859 — 866) ; the recipient Pacatus is probably
identical with the Latin rhetorician Drepanius Pacatus of Aquitania ( Teuffel-
Schwabe, Gesch. der rom. Litt., 5. ed., pp. 1085 ff.) ; in any case he in
tended to write a metrical life of Paulinus (vitam eius versibus illustrare:
Ep. Uranii, c. i).
5. OTHER POETS. - - Toward the end of the fourth century the Gallic
rhetorician, Severus Sanctus Endelechius, a friend of St. Paulinus of Nola
(Ep. xxviii, 6), wrote in thirty-three asclepiadic strophes a graceful eclogue
De mortibus bourn {Migne, PL., xix. 797 — 800), under the title De virtute
signi crucis Domini. The poet imagines that a cattle-pest carries oft" in
two days the entire herd of Bucolus ; Tityrus had made the sign of the
cross on the forehead of each of his beasts, and thus saved them all.
Bucolus and his friend Aegon are moved by this marvel to embrace
Christianity. The latest edition is that of Bilcheler and Riese, in Antho-
logia Latina, Leipzig, 1869 — 1897, i 2, 314 — 318. -- - The Greek title of
an hexameter poem Alethia (£/oqftsia), in three books, based on the
Genesis-account of creation and reaching to the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrha (Gen. xix. 28), reminds us of Prudentius. It amplifies the biblical
narrative extensively, and in so doing gives evidence of literary ability
and good taste. It has reached us in only one manuscript, Cod. lat.
Par' 7558 saec. ix. , in which the author is frequently called Claudius
BAKDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 29
450 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Marius Victor (Victorius) orator Massiliensis; he is certainly the same as
Victorius (Victorinus) rhetor Massiliensis mentioned by Gennadius (De
viris ill., c. 60) who died after 425. The first editor J. Gagnejus (Lyons,
*536; Paris, 1545) entitled the work Commentarii in Genesin, and most
capriciously altered the text by additions, suppressions and the like; all
other reprints are based on this edition, even Migne, PL., Ixi. 937—970.
The latest and best edition is that of K. Schenkl, in Poetae christiani minores,
Vienna, 1888 (Corpus script, eccl. lat. xvi), i. 335 — 498 (the text of Gagnejus
is found at pp. 437—482). In the same codex the Alethia poem is followed
by a S. Paulini epigramma, a satirical dialogue in one hundred and ten
hexameters descriptive of contemporary manners. It is probable that the
author may be Paulinus of Biterrae (Beziers) who flourished about 400
to 419 (cf. Hydatii Chronicon ad a. 419). Gagnejus gave the work an
utterly unsuitable title : Claudii Marii Victoris oratoris Massiliensis de per-
versis suae aetatis moribus liber quartus ad Salmonem (Migne, PL., Ixi. 969
to 972). The latest and best edition is that of K. Schenkl , 1. c., pp. 499
to 510. — Claudius Marius Victor is the subject of several works: A. Boitr-
goin, De Claudio Mario Victore, rhetore christiano quinti saeculi (These),
Paris, 1883. St. Gamber, Un rheteur chretien au Ve siecle, Claudius Marius
Victor, Marseilles, 1884; Id., Le livre de la Genese dans la poesie latine
au Ve siecle, Paris, 1899. H. Maurer, De exemplis quae Claudius Marius
Victor in Alethia secutus sit (I)iss. inaug.), Marburg, 1896. — About 430
the priest Caelius (?) Sedulius, concerning whom we possess very insufficient
data, composed an hexameter poem entitled Paschale carmen (Migne, PL.,
xix- 533 — 754) dealing with the wonderful deeds of our Lord. In the dedi
cation to a certain priest Macedonius he explains this title in conjunction
with the words of the New Testament: quia pascha nostrum immolatus
est Christus (i Cor. v. 7). It is divided into five books, the first of which
is introductory and explains certain miracles of the Old Testament ; in the
other four the Gospel-narrative, in particular the text of St. Matthew,
furnishes the material for a description of the miracles of Christ from His
Incarnation to His Ascension. Unlike his predecessor Juvencus (§ 88, i),
Sedulius relates only the miraculous elements of the life of Christ, which
again he prefers to illustrate by his comments rather than to narrate. The
work of Sedulius was highly appreciated and was very popular throughout
the Middle Ages by reason of its pronounced ecclesiastical tone, its
peculiar exegesis, and the simplicity and vigor of its diction. At the re
quest of the same Macedonius, another work, Paschale opus (ib., xix. 545
to 574), was composed by Sedulius; it is a kind of amplification in rhe
torical prose of the foregoing work ; the strained and affected style of this
prose work contrasts strangely with that of the metrical composition. Se
dulius also wrote two hymns to our Lord (ib. , xix. 753 — 770); portions
of the second hymn have been adopted into the liturgy of the Church :
the Christmas hymn: A solis ortus cardine, and the Epiphany hymn: Cru-
delis Herodes Deum; cf. J. Kayser , Beitrage zur Gesch. und Erklarung
der altesten Kirchenhymnen, 2. ed., Paderborn, 1881, pp. 337 — 385. For
the spurious cento De Verbi incarnatione (ib., xix. 773—780) cf. § 88, 4.
The best and latest complete edition of Sedulius is that of J. Huemer,
Vienna, 1885 (Corpus script, eccles. lat. x). In the edition otJ.Looshorn
(Munich, 1879) tne Paschale opus is lacking. On the Paschale carmen
see also Hurter , SS. Patr. opusc. sel. xxxiii; cf. J. Huemer, De Sedulii
poetae vita et scriptis commentatio, Vienna, 1878. C. L. Leimbach, Patri-
stische Studien, i: Caelius Sedulius und sein Carmen paschale (Progr.),
Gpslar, 1879. Cf. on Sedulius also A. Bellesheim, Die Geschichte der kath.
Kirche in Irland, Mainz, 1890, i. 285—291. Cf. also Manitius, 1. c., p. 303.
§ 92. ST. SULPICIUS SEVERUS AND TYRANNIUS RUFINUS. 45 1
y. Candel, De clausulis a Sedulio in eis libris qui inscribuntur Paschale opus
adhibitis, Toulouse, 1904. — About 430, apparently, Orientius of Gaul (bishop
of Auch?) wrote a Commonitorium (ib., Ixi. 977 — 1000) or exhortatory poem
in favor of a Christian life ; its two books are composed in an unaffected
but earnest style. Some minor poems are current under his name (ib.,
Ixi. 1000 — 1006); most of them are of doubtful authenticity. The newest
and best edition of Orientius is that of R, Ellis, in Poetae christiani
minores, Vienna, 1888, i. 191 — 261. Cf. Manitius, 1. c., pp. 192 — 201.
L. Havet, Orientiana, in Revue de Philologie (1902), xxvi. 146 — 157.
R. Ellis, The Commonitorium of Orientius, Oxford, 1903, p. 120.
L. Bellanger, Le poeme d'Orientius. Edition critique. Etude philologique
et litte'raire, Paris, 1903; Id., Recherches sur S. Orens, eveque d'Auch
(1903), i. 6. — The so-called Amoenus is not a poet at all, not even a
person; all the poems attributed to him (ib. , Ixi. 1075 — 1082) belong to
others. Cf. Teuffel-Schwabe, Gesch. der romischen Lit., 5. ed., p. 1218.
§ 92. St. Sulpicius Severus and Tyrannius Rufinus.
i. SULPICIUS SEVERUS. - - This youthful friend of Paulinus of Nola
was one of the most polished and refined prose-writers of his time.
He was born about 363, of a noble Aquitanian family1. In one of
his letters (v. 5 — 6) Paulinus tells us that Sulpicius had been an
eloquent lawyer and had married into a rich consular family. His
wife died quite unexpectedly, and her loss so affected him that he
suddenly (repentino impetu) abandoned the law-courts and his wealth
for monastic solitude and poverty. Sulpicius himself tells us2 that
it was St. Martin of Tours, the great apostle of Western monasticism,
who exhorted him to withdraw from the « adulation and the vices »
of the world and to follow Paulinus in his total change of sentiments
and manner of life. The statement of Gennadius 3 that Severus was a
priest, has been doubted but without good reason ; there is also some
historical evidence for the other story that in his old age our writer
was caught in the toils of Pelagianism, but recognized eventually
that he had been the victim of an over-loquacious tongue, whereupon
he condemned himself to the penance of a life-long silence. His
death is said to have occurred about 420 — 425. The most useful
of his writings is a Chronicle: Chronicorum libri duo, finished not
earlier than 403, in which he narrates summarily the history of the
Old Testament, but omits the New Testament, «in order that the
dignity of its subject-matter may not suffer from scantiness of nar
ration » (ii. 27, 3). He adds a compendium of ecclesiastical history
as far as the year 400; its chief interest lies in the description of
the Priscillianist controversies (ii. 46 — 51). In this work Sulpicius
furnished the cultivated Christian public with a book of historical
readings ; at the same time he gave proof of an historico-critical sense
and imitated with great success the historical style of such writers as
1 Gennad., De viris ill., c. 19. 2 Vita S. Martini, c. 25.
3 De viris ill., c. 19.
29*
452
SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Sallust and Tacitus. Nevertheless, the work did not commend itself
to the taste of succeeding generations; it is seldom quoted in the
Christian literature of a later period, and has reached us in a single
manuscript. On the other hand, several works written in honor of
St. Martin of Tours met with a more general welcome. His Vita
S. Martini was written during the life-time of the Saint though not
published till after his death (f 397). Three letters: Ad Eusebium,
Ad Aurelium diaconum, Ad Bassulam parentem (his mother in law),
may be looked on as appendixes to the Life of Martin ; in the latter
two his death is described. Two Dialogi, the first of which is usually
but wrongly separated into two, are devoted to a comparison of the
miracles of St. Martin with those of the Egyptian monks and complete
(Dial, ia, 23) the account given in the Vita. These writings were
originally intended for popular circulation, and obtained at once a
wide circulation ; all later descriptions of the life and miracles of
Martin draw largely on them (§ 112, 3; 117, 3); as literary com
positions they are far inferior to the Chronica. Through fanatical
admiration for his hero our author becomes an over-credulous
miracle-hunter; moreover, in these writings the author has been
negligent in his style 1. Seven letters that bear his name are generally
rejected because of the difference of style which they exhibit; it would
be more prudent to admit as genuine the first two of these letters,
which are also the longest: Ad Claudiam sororem suam, De ultimo
iudicio and De virginitate. Gennadius tells us2 that he wrote many
edifying letters to his sister. The letters to Paulinus of Nola referred
to by Gennadius have perished.
2. WORKS ON SULPICIUS SEVERUS. JULIUS HILARIANUS. - - Complete
editions of the works of Sulpicius Severus were brought out by Victor
Giselinus, Antwerp, 1574; Girolamo de Prato, Verona, 1741 — 1754, 2 vols. ;
C. Halm, Vienna, 1866 (Corpus script, eccles. lat. i). — J. Filrtmr, Text-
kritische Bemerkungen zu Sulpicius Severus (Progr.), Landshut, 1885.
Mignc reprints (PL., xx. 95 — 248) the de Prato edition, with the addition of
the seven letters, but without the praefationes, dissertationes and observa-
tiones of de Prato. A separate edition of the Chronicle was issued by Fr.
Dilbner, Paris, 1851. An acute and learned criticism of the Chronicle
was written by J. Bernays, Uber die Chronik des Sulpicius Severus, Berlin,
1 86 1, and reprinted in Gesammelte Abhandlungen von J. Bernays , heraus-
gegeben von H, Usener, Berlin, 1885, "• 81—200. Cf. H. Gelzer, Sextus
Julius Africanus, Leipzig, 1885, n' I> 107—121. The Vita S. Martini cum
epistulis et dialogis was edited by Fr. JDiibner, Paris, 1859 and 1890; the
same works are found in Hurter, SS. Patrum opuscula selecta, xlviii. They
were translated into German by A. Bieringer, Kempten, 1872 (Bibl. der
Kirchenvater). A French translation of the Vita S. Martini was made by
R. Viott 2. ed., Tours, 1893. Cf. A. Lavertujon, Sulpice Severe edite, tra-
duit et commente, Paris, 1896 1899, 2 vols. (the Chronicle). For a biblio
graphy of St. Martin see J. H. Reinkens, Martin von Tours, der wunder-
tatige Monch und Bischof, Breslau, 1866, pp. 258 — 274. Trie Latin of
1 Cf. the preface of the Vita. 2 De viris ill., c. 19.
§ 92. ST. SULPICIUS SEVERUS AND TYRANNIUS RUFINUS. 453
Severus is discussed by H. Goelzer , Grammaticae in Sulpicium Severum
observationes potissimum ad vulgarem latinum sermonem pertinentes (These),
Paris, 1883. j. Schell, De Sulpicio Severe Sallustianae, Livianae, Taciteae
elocutionis imitatore (Diss. inaug.), Munster, 1892. For a general chronicle
to 511 (Epitoma chronicorum Severi cognomento Sulpicii) lacking in the
editions of Sulpicius , but falsely attributed to him , cf. Teuffel-Schwabe ,
Gesch. der rom. Lit., 5. ed., pp. ii38f. The Carmina Sulpicio Severo
tributa in Migne , PL., Ixxiv. 671 — 674, are also spurious. — Quintus
Julius Hilarianus, a bishop of proconsular Africa, composed toward the
end of the fourth century a little work entitled De mundi duratione (ib.,
xiii. 1097 — 1106) and a treatise De die paschae et mensis (ib., xiii. 1105
to 1114). Writers on historical chronology praise the boldness and in
dependent research of the first work ; cf. H. Gelzer, Sextus Julius Afri-
canus ii i, 121 — 129. A new edition of De mundi duratione or De cursu
temporum was published by C. Frick , Chronica minora, Leipzig, 1892,
i- 153— 174.
3. TYRANNIUS RUFINUS. - This writer shares with Sulpicius
Severus a reputation for classical culture, without equalling the original
ity of the latter or the perfection of his style. He was born about
345 near Aquileia, and there in a monastery he received his early
theological training, and it was also at Aquileia that he met with
St. Jerome and learned to appreciate that learned man. The monastic
life exercised a strong fascination over him, and in 371 he accompanied
the Roman lady Melania on a journey to Egypt, the fatherland of
monasticism. He dwelt for some time with the hermits of the Nitrian
desert, and afterwards at Alexandria frequented the lectures of the
blind Didymus who filled him with enthusiasm for the Greek Fathers,
particularly for Origen. In 377 he followed his friend Melania to
Jerusalem and took up his residence in a hermit's cell on Mount
Olivet. About 390 he was ordained priest by John, bishop of
Jerusalem. In the meantime Jerome had taken up his residence at
Jerusalem. The friendly relations existing between them were soon
interrupted by the Origenist controversies (§ 71, i), Rufinus being
unwilling to take sides against Origen. This was soon followed,
however, by a reconciliation, and in 398 Rufinus returned to Italy.
He translated at Rome the first book of the Apology for Origen
written by Pamphilus (§ 45, i), likewise the work of Origen Trspl
fjLp%wv (§ 39, 8). In his preface to the latter work he deemed it
right to mention among the disciples and admirers of the great
Alexandrine the name of Jerome as of one well-known to the entire
West and universally respected. This act led to an bitter literary
feud between the former friends. Jerome insisted that he had held
in honor the exegetical works of Origen , but by no means his
dogmatic writings. He brought out at once a new translation of
the nspt uto/a> v, in which he set aside the free paraphrase of Rufinus
for an exact and literal translation of the most offensive passages
of the original. Rufinus now defended his own orthodoxy (400 — 401)
454 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
in: Apologiae in Hieronymum libri duo, written in a somewhat em
bittered and even hostile temper. In the meantime Pope Anastasius
called Rufinus to account for his defence of Origen, but seems to
have been easily satisfied by the short: Apologia ad Anastasium
Romanae urbis episcopum. After his departure from Rome (398)
Rufinus busied himself at Aquileia with literary labors, until the
Visigothic invasion compelled him to hasten southward. He died at
Messina in Sicily, in 410. - - Rufinus is best known as a translator
of a number of Greek works into Latin. Several Christian Greek
writings, among them the above-mentioned works of Origen and Pam-
philus, have come down to us only in his translations. We have
mentioned elsewhere his translations of the Clementine Recognitions
(§ 26, 3), numerous biblico-exegetical writings and spurious dialogues
of Origen (§ 39, 4; 45, 2), the Sententiae of Sextus (§ 56, 7), the
Church History of Eusebius (§ 62, 2), several discourses and the
monastic rules of St. Basil (§ 67, 14), several discourses of Gregory
of Nazianzus (§ 68, 11), and several writings of Evagrius Ponticus
(§ 70, 4). We may mention here the translation of Josephus' work
on the Jewish War; it is not at all certain, however, that this trans
lation is really his work. Rufinus translates with great freedom; he
deals with his original, not only as a literary critic of its form but
as a theological censor of its contents. Thus the Church History of
Eusebius became in his hands a new work: he compressed the ten
books of the Greek text into nine, and added two books that dealt
with the events of 324 — 395- This Historia ecclesiastica thus con
structed by Rufinus in the years 402 — 403 was the first WTestern
attempt at a history of the Church; for depth of thought and ac
curacy of treatment it is far inferior to the Chronicle of Sulpicius
Severus. The writings of the latter on St. Martin find a counter
part in the Vitae Patrum of Rufinus, a work that was afterwards
better known as Historia eremitica or Historia monachoruin. This
collection of biographies of Egyptian monks was made between 404
and 410. By some it is held to be an independent work based on
the personal knowledge and reminiscences of Rufinus; by others it
is said to be merely a version or a recasting of an earlier Greek
work on the same subject (§ 79, 4). The: Vita S. Eugeniae virginis
et martyris, attributed to Rufinus, is a spurious work. He wrote, at
the request of Paulinus of Nola, an interpretation of the blessing of
Jacob (Gen. xlix) ; according to Gennadius * it was an exposition of
the patriarchal blessings in their triple sense: triplici i. e. historico,
morali et mystico sensu (De benedictionibus patriarcharum libri duo).
He has wrongly been credited with commentaries on the first seventy-
five Psalms and on Osee, Joel and Amos. From a very early period
his exposition of the Apostles' Creed (Commentarius in symbolum
1 De viris ill., c. 17.
§ 93- ST. JEROME. 455
apostolorum) was highly esteemed; it is of considerable importance
for the history of all ancient baptismal creeds. The two works De
fide, one of which is extant only in twelve short anathematisms,
were by mistake reckoned among his writings. His extensive corre
spondence, known to Gennadius1, has perished.
4. WORKS ON RUFINUS. POPE ANASTASius. — There is no complete
edition of Rufinus, i. e. of his translations and his own writings. The
latter were first edited by D. Vallarsi, Verona, 1745 (the second volume
that was to contain the Latin translations by Rufinus did not appear).
This edition contains all the works mentioned above, but of the Historia
Ecclesiastica only the last two books i. e. the continuation of Eusebius
(Migne, PL., xxi, Paris, 1849). A new edition of the text of the Historia
ecclesiastica has been brought out by Ed. Schwartz and Th. Mommsen.
Die Kirchengeschichte (des Eusebius) mit der lateinischen Ubersetzung des
Rufinus, part I, books i—v, Leipzig, 1903 (Griech.-christl. Schriftsteller). The
Libellus de fide is in Migne, PL., xxi. 1123 — 1124 and xlviii. 239 — 254,
among the works of Marius Mercator. J. Klein, Uber eine Handschrift
des Nikolaus von Cues, Berlin, 1866, pp. 131 — 141, edited a collation of
the Migne text of the Commentarius in symb. apost., with a codex Cusanus
saec. xii., and published (pp. 141 — 143) from the same codex a profession
of faith: Eiusdem (Rufini) dicta de fide catholica. The authorship of the
Historia monachorum is fully discussed by Dom Cuthbert Butler , The
Lausiac History of Palladius, University Press, Cambridge, 1898, i. 6 — 77.
The Commentarius is discussed by H. Bruell, De Tyrannii Rufini Aqui-
leiensis commentario in symbolum apostolorum i — ii (2 Progr.), Diiren,
1872 — 1879-, Bruell also translated it into German, Kempten, 1876 (Bibl.
der Kirchenvater). Pfoulkes raised some doubts (1872) concerning the
genuineness or the integrity of this work of Rufinus, which were shown
to be groundless by F. Kattenbusch, Beitrage zur Geschichte des altkirch-
lichen Taufsymbols (Progr.), Giessen, i8q2, pp. 27 — 32; Id., Das aposto-
lische Symbol, Leipzig, 1895, i. 102 f. On the spurious commentary on
Psalms i — Ixxv see § in, 6. — Not to speak of spurious fragments, three
letters of Pope Anastasius deal with the Origenist controversies ; they are
addressed to the bishops John of Jerusalem , Simplicianus of Milan , and
Venerius of Milan. The first two are printed among the works of Rufinus
in Migne, PL., xx. 65 — 76; the letter of John is also ib., xxi. 627 — 632
(among the works of Rufinus) , and again among the works of Marius
Mercator (ib., xlviii. 231—240); the letter to Simplicianus is also among
the works of St. Jerome (ib., xxii. 772 — 774). The letter to Venerius was
first edited by C. Ruelens, in Bibliophile Beige (1871), pp. 123 — 129, and
again by J. van den Gheyn , in Revue d'histoire et de litter, religieuses
(1899), iv. i — 12. For a German version of the letters of Anastasius,
genuine and spurious, cf. S. Wenzloivsky , Die Briefe der Papste (Bibl. der
Kirchenvater), ii. 489 — 512.
§ 93- St. Jerome.
i. LIFE OF ST. JEROME TO 379. — Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus
was born at Stridon, a border city of Dalmatia and Pannonia, accord
ing to some in 331, according to others not before 340. He tells
us himself2 that he has been nourished from his cradle on Catholic
1 L. c. " Ep. 82, 2.
456 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
milk. When about twenty years of age he was sent to Rome for the
purpose of receiving a better education in its schools. Here he became
an enthusiastic auditor of the discourses of the grammarian Aelius
Donatus on the Latin classics, particularly Terence and Vergil. He
learned Greek also, and read many writings of the Greek philosophers.
He was particularly attracted to the study of rhetoric ; its command
ing influence is noticeable in all his works. He was already a savant
in the best sense of the word, and devoted much time and labor
(summo studio ac labore)1 to the creation of a library. He did not
entirely escape the immoral contagion of the great city; nevertheless,
his naturally deep piety withdrew him from these youthful errors,
and he was baptized by Pope Liberius, though it was then the
custom to put off baptism to a more advanced age. From Rome
he betook himself to Trier, one of the best universities in the West;
it was here that he first experienced an attraction to the study of
theology. We meet him later at Aquileia in a circle of youthful
friends, who exercised no little influence on the pious inclinations of
his heart and his eagerness for learning. For reasons unknown to
us he left Aquileia and Italy, and began, with some friends, a long
journey through the East visiting on the way Thrace, Bithynia,
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Cilicia. Late in the summer of 373,
he arrived at Antioch. In this city a fever carried off a very dear
friend of Jerome : ex duobus oculis unum . . . partem animae meae 2.
He tells us in the same place that he fell a prey himself to several
diseases: quidquid morborum esse poterat, that brought him to the
edge of the grave. Wearied of the world and sighing for rest, he
gave up his original design of reaching Jerusalem, and betook himself
to the desert of Chalcis, «the Thebais of Syria », where for the next
five years he was to lead a hermit's life. In the practice of the
most severe penance he found the peace of mind he had been seeking;
with his own hands he procured the necessaries of lifes and gradually
took up again his learned occupations and literary enterprises. He
was perhaps the first Western Christian to undertake the study of
Hebrew under the guidance of a baptized Jew: «I alone know, and
those who were then my companions, what labor this study cost me,
how often I lost courage, how often I abandoned and again took
up my purpose, moved by the thirst of knowledge. I thank God
that I now enjoy the sweet fruits of the bitter seeds of my studies».3
2. JEROME AT CONSTANTINOPLE AND ROME (379 — 385). — The
dogmatic controversies of this period profoundly agitated the Christians
of Antioch, and their echoes reached even the depths of the Chalcis
desert. It was apropos of them that the Saint wrote4, about 378,
to Pope Damasus requesting his opinion on the use of the words
1 Ep. 22, 30. 2 Ep> ^ 3> 3 £pi I25> I2
4 Ep. 15 16.
§ 93- ST. JEROME. 457
ooaia and bTcoaramq. In the meantime he grew weary of the conflict,
and without awaiting the reply of Damasus returned from his solitude
to Antioch where he was reluctantly ordained a priest, on condition
that he might remain a monk i. e. be held free from pastoral cares1.
It would seem that in the desert he had recognized his calling as
that of an ecclesiastical scholar. From Antioch he journeyed to
Constantinople, probably in 379, attracted by the reputation of Gregory
of Nazianzus, from whom he received instruction in the science of
biblical exegesis. In the imperial city he also met Gregory of Nyssa,
and doubtless other Greek theologians of the East. At the same
time he threw himself with enthusiasm into the study of the earlier
Greek Fathers, especially Origen and Eusebius. Ecclesiastical business
(ecclesiastica necessitas)2 interrupted this period of leisure and drew
him to Rome where a Council was being held (382) in the hope of
terminating the Meletian schism at Antioch. Jerome took part in it
by invitation, and remained at Rome in order to aid the pope in his
replies to synodal communications of Eastern and Western churches3.
While the synod in question seems to have had no appreciable
results, this sojourn at Rome was of great importance for the future
career of St. Jerome. Throughout Italy, and especially at Rome,
complaints had long been heard of the innumerable differences in
the current Latin biblical texts. Jerome was therefore requested by
the pope to prepare a text that should thenceforth be the normal
one ; it was this commission that gave fixity of purpose and character
to his studies in the following decades. He enjoyed the unbounded
confidence of Damasus, and his position was now one of influence
and dignity. All upright men held in high esteem the counsellor of
the pope, the ecclesiastical savant whose vast learning was then un
equalled, the ascetic who appeared in his writings as the apostle of
self-renouncement and self-consecration to God. Noble ladies of the
highest rank declared themselves his disciples, among them Marcella
and Paula, both of ancient patrician race, both widows entirely
devoted to the service of God and their neighbor, and both leaders
in a social circle that shared their thoughts and views. He could
scarcely hope to escape the banter, enmities, and insinuations of the
opposite extreme of Roman society; indeed, public opinion gradually
became unfavorable to him. Among the Roman clergy not a few
had been deeply irritated by the pitiless criticism of their moral life
that the Saint had expressed, even in his writings. It is likely, also, that
his influence with Damasus roused envy; his admiration for Origen
was moreover a cause for scandal. It came about that, although
in the beginning of his sojourn at Rome he was quite unanimously
held to be the proper successor of Damasus4, public opinion had
1 Contra loannem Hieros., c. 41. 2 Ep. 127, 7. 3 Ep. 123, 10.
4 Ep. 45, 3.
458 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
been considerably modified before that pope's death (Dec. 10., 384).
Siricius was chosen his successor, and Jerome began to think seriously
of « returning from Babylon to Jerusalem » *.
3. JEROME AT BETHLEHEM (386 — 420). - - He began his journey
in the August of 385; toward the end of autumn Paula followed
him, with her (third) daughter Eustochium. From Antioch, where
they met early in the following winter, they travelled together to Pale
stine, in order to satisfy their piety at the sites made holy by the
life and sufferings of the Redeemer; thence they went to Egypt where
they visited Alexandria and the monastic city in the Nitrian hills.
On their return to the Holy Land they took up their residence at
Bethlehem in the autumn of 386. In a few years a monastery of men
and another of women arose, close to the manger in which Christ
was born, the former under the guidance of Jerome, the latter governed
by Paula. Shelters for pilgrims were also erected along the imperial
highway that led to Bethlehem. Jerome began again at great expense
and amid great difficulties the collection of a library; he also devoted
himself anew to the study of Hebrew (and Aramaic) in which he
took lessons, usually at night, from learned rabbis. In turn he taught
the elements of Hebrew to others, particularly Paula and Eustochium,
taught also theology to his own monks, and opened a school for
the children of his more comfortable neighbors in which he did not
disdain to explain the elements of grammar, and read with his pupils
the Latin classics, especially Vergil. In the meantime his literary
occupations multiplied. Sulpicius Severus, an eye-witness, thus de
scribes2 the life of Jerome: «He is for ever immersed in his studies
and his books; neither day nor night does he take any rest; he is
for ever occupied with reading or writing*. Jerome had now reached
a haven of peace, he had found what was lacking to him at Rome,
and his correspondence at this period gives evidence of the deep
satisfaction of his soul, notably his letter: Ad Marcellam, de sanctis
locis3. The deplorable Origenist controversies of 398 — 404 were
destined to disturb the peace of this paradise of Christian scholars.
Until then Jerome had been a very ardent admirer of Origen; the
authority of St. Epiphanius now caused him to abandon his former
opinions concerning the great Alexandrine (§ 71, i), and to come
forth as a leader of the anti-Origenists. He felt it necessary to de
scribe his former devotion to Origen as a very limited and conditional
approval of his writings: Laudavi interpretem, non dogmatisten,
ingenium, non fidem, philosophum, non apostolum; si mihi creditis,
Origenistes numquam fui; si non creditis, nunc esse cessavi4. At
the same time he entered into a polemical correspondence with John,
bishop of Jerusalem, and with the friend of his youth, Rufinus (§ 92, 3).
1 Ep. 45, 6; cf. 46, ii. 2 Dial>) L ^ 5> 3 Ep> 46>
4 Ep. 84, 2 3.
§ 93- ST. JEROME. 459
The point at issue was less the teaching of Origen in those matters
where he was at variance with the orthodox faith, than the personal
question \vhich of the disputants could rightly be accused of Origenism.
The Pelagian troubles were another source of annoyance and conflict
for the indefatigable champion of the Christian faith. The defenders
of Pelagius replied with violence to the attacks of Jerome. Early in
416 a number of them, including monks and ecclesiastics, broke
into his monastery, set fire to it, and maltreated the inmates; Jerome
escaped by a hasty flight. He was now weary of life, though ever
alert in mind and ready for the fray. Many cares and sorrows
filled his declining years; he quitted this world for eternal peace
September 30., 420.
4. HIS TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. - - Any account of the
writings of St. Jerome may well begin with his translation of the
Holy Scriptures into Latin. It is at once the most important and
the most meritorious of his works, a ripe fruit of the most painstak
ing studies, a) We have already said that about 383 he was charged
by Pope Damasus with the formation of a serviceable and trust
worthy Latin text of the Bible. What the Pope wanted was not a
new translation, but a restoration of the so-called Itala to its original
state, so far as that was possible; except for grave reasons Jerome
was to make no changes or corrections. The Itala had long been the
usual ecclesiastical text in Italy, but in the course of time had suffered
much alteration. At first Jerome revised the text of the four Gospels,
and then that of the other books of the New Testament. He added
a revision of the Psalter based on the xotvy Ixdomq of the Septuagint;
this latter task, however, as he tells us in his preface, was in great
part done with haste and imperfectly: cursim, magna ex parte1.
This revised text, by order of Pope Damasus, was henceforth used
in the Roman liturgy2. In other churches the revised Psalter of
Jerome was known as Psalterium Romanum, in contradistinction to
the older text which was henceforth known as Psalterium Veins.
Until Pius V. (1566 — 1572) this revised Psalter was used in all the
Roman churches; it is still the text used at St. Peter's in the recita
tion of the canonical hours; fragments of this old Psalterium Romanum
are still found in the Roman Missal and the Roman Breviary. The
New Testament in the revision of St. Jerome was willingly received,
not only at Rome and in Italy, but gradually throughout the whole
West, and has, since that time, always remained in general use in
the Latin Church, b) Jerome had scarcely reached the Holy Land
when he found in the library of the Church of Csesarea the Hexapla
of Origen, not a copy but the original (§ 39, 3). Once settled at
Bethlehem, he began the revision of the Latin text of the Old Testa-
1 Praef. in Ps. 2 Migne, PL., xxix.
SECOND. PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
ment in accordance with the Hexaplar text, always keeping in view
the original. He began with the Psalms, and emended the Itala text
in exact conformity to the Hexaplar text of the Septuagint ; he also
made use in his manuscript of the critical signs (asterisci and obelisci)
of Origen. This Psalter text was first received and widely used in
Gaul, whence its name of Psalterium Gallicanum 1; at a later date
it was accepted throughout the West, with the above-mentioned ex
ceptions; it is to-day in common use as a part of the Vulgate and
the Breviary. In the same way Jerome also revised most of the
other books of the Old Testament. The greater part of these revised
texts unfortunately disappeared, fraude cuiusdam2, before he could
publish them ; only his text of Job which he completed shortly after
the revision of the Psalter3 has reached us. c) He had scarcely
finished this work of revision when he decided to translate from the
original (hebraica veritas) the entire Old Testament, so far as it was
then extant in Hebrew or in Aramaic. He translated first, certainly
about 390, the four books of Kings, then the book of Job, after
wards the Prophets, and at the same time the Psalms. A tedious
spell of illness interrupted his labors. He began again towards the
end of 393, and translated the three Solomonic books, then (394
to 396) Esdras and Nehemias, Paralipomenon and Genesis, and by
405 the four other books of the Pentateuch, with Josue, Judges,
Ruth, Esther, Tobias and Judith. The latter two books he trans
lated from the Aramaic, while he took from the Greek the deutero-
canonical parts of Daniel and Esther4. He did not translate, perhaps
because he doubted their canonicity, the books of Baruch, First and
Second Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom, nor did he make
another translation of the New Testament. He translated the Gospel
of the Hebrews into Greek and Latin (ca. 390; § 29, 2), but this
double translation has perished. — The purpose of Jerome was to
reproduce the original text, with fidelity and accuracy, but not with
servility; he was desirous also of preserving the traditional language
of the Itala, in so far as it was possible to do so without offending
against the canons of literary taste. The best versions are those of
the historical proto-canonical books; the least meritorious are those
of Tobias done in one day and Judith done in one night, as he
tells us in the prefaces to these works. At the same time it must
be admitted that his version of the Solomonic books is an excellent
one, although he states in his preface that it was done in a space
of three days (tridui opus). It is true that he can be reproached
with both inexact renderings and positive errors in all these books;
nevertheless, among all the ancient Latin versions not one can even
remotely compete with his, so conscientiously did he strive to fulfil
1 Migne, PL., xxix. 2 Ep. 134, 2. 3 Migne, PL., xxix.
4 Ib., xxviii — xxix.
§ 93- ST- JEROME. 461
the highest duty of a good translator. It was slowly, however, and
very gradually, that his versions superseded the earlier ones in general
ecclesiastical use. Since the seventh century they have been generally
adopted throughout the Latin Church, and since the twelfth century
they have inherited from the older translation the title of Vulgate.
The text of the Psalterium Gallicanum was, however, so deeply
rooted in popular use and affection that the new version of our Saint
was powerless to supersede it. Also those deuterocanonical books which
Jerome did not translate continued to be read in the Old-Itala text.
5. OTHER EXEGETIC LABORS. -- They are partly translations from
the Greek exhibiting a greater or lesser degree of recension, and
partly independent works, a) To the first category belong trans
lations of a series of homilies of Origen: 14 on Jeremias and 14 on
Ezechiel (translated at Constantinople about 3 So)1; 2 on the Canticle
of canticles, translated at Rome about 383 2; 39 on Luke, translated
at Bethlehem about 3893; 9 on Isaias, probably also translated at
Bethlehem4; Liber interpretationis hebraicorum nominum5, written
about 390, an attempt at an etymological interpretation of the proper
names in the scriptural books (§ 39, n); finally his: De situ et
nominibus locorum hebraicorum liber6, written also about 390, and
much superior, as a scientific work, to the preceding composition;
it was a revision of the biblical topography of Eusebius of Caesarea,
with many omissions, but also with some additions and corrections
that are valuable because of the personal knowledge of the author.
b) In 392 he drew up7 a catalogue of his own exegetical writings.
The order is probably chronological : Scripsi . . . de Seraphim (a hasty
treatise on Is. vi. usually found among the letters of Jerome)8, de
Osanna9 et de frugi et luxurioso filiis10; de tribus quaestionibus legis
veteris11; ... in epistolam Pauli ad Galatas comtnentariorum libros iii12,
item in epistolam ad Ephesios libros iii13; in epistolam ad Titum
librum unum 14 ; in epistolam ad Philemonem librum unum 15 ; in Ec-
clesiasten commentaries 16 ; quaestionum hebraicarum in Genesim librum
unum 17, a series of difficult and important passages from the Old
Itala version critically discussed in the light of the Hebrew text and
the various Greek versions ; ... in Psalmos x — xvi tractatus vii (a lost
and otherwise unknown work) . . . ; scripsi praeterea in Michaeam ex-
planationum libros ii18; in Sophoniam librum unum19; in Nahum librum
1 Ib., xxv. 583 — 786. 2 Ib., xxiii. 1117 — 1144.
3 Ib., xxvi. 219 — 306. 4 Ib., xxiv. 901 — 936.
5 Ib., xxiii. 771—858. e Ib., xxiii. 859 — 928.
7 De viris ill., c. 135. 8 Ep. 18: Migne, PL., xxii. 361 — 376.
9 Ep. 20: ib., xxii. 375—379. 10 Ep. 21: ib., xxii. 379 — 394.
11 Ep. 36: ib., xxii. 452—461. 12 Ib., xxvi. 307 — 438.
13 Ib., xxvi. 439 — 554. 14 Ib., xxvi. 555 — 600. 15 Ib., xxvi. 599—618.
16 Ib., xxiii. 1009 — 1 1 16. 17 Ib., xxiii. 935 — 1010.
18 Ib., xxv. 1151 — 1230. 19 Ib., xxv. 1337 — 1388.
462 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
tmum1; in Habacuc libros ii2; in Aggaeum librum unum3, multaque
alia de opere prophetali quae nunc habeo in manibus et necdum
expleta sunt. ... At a later date, Jerome composed copious com
mentaries on the twelve minor and the four greater prophets4; only
that on Jeremias remained unfinished. He omits in this catalogue
an allegorical exposition of the prophet Abdias, composed by him
about 370, and later (about 396) 5 judged by himself in the preface
to Abdias to be a juvenile production, doubtless not meant for the
public, and therefore allowed to perish. He also omits the Commen-
tarioli in Psalmos which he later recognized as his own 6 ; these brief
scholia on all the Psalms, supplementary to Origen's Psalm-scholia,
were long supposed to be lost, but were discovered lately owing
to the industrious research and the good fortune of Dom Morin.
Mention must also be made, not only of a number of exegetical
letters and replies, but also of a commentary on the Gospel of
St. Matthew7 written in 398, and of another on the Apocalypse. The
last work was supposed to have perished but was recognized, as it
seems, by Haussleiter in the Summa dicendorum, prefixed by Beatus,
an eighth-century abbot of Libana, to his commentary on the Apo
calypse. This Summa dicendorum is, however, scarcely more than
an extract from the commentary of the Donatist writer Tichonius
(see no. 13) which had already been used by Jerome for his recen
sion of the commentary of Victorinus of Pettau (§ 58, i). Certain
exegetical works attributed to Jerome are spurious: Breviarium in
Psalmos8; Quaestiones hebraicae in libros Regum et in libros Paralip.9;
Expositio interlinearis libri Job10; Commentarii in Evangelia11; Com-
mentarii in epistolas S. Pauli 12, and others. - - From the standpoint
of philological and historico-archaeological knowledge, as well as of
the vast extent of his reading - - in other words, from the stand
point of erudition — , these expository writings of St. Jerome are
easily the first among all similar products of Western ecclesiastical
literature. On the other hand, they are not, however, faultless : many
of them are doubtless only hasty outlines, or were rapidly dictated
to his scribes. When he was writing his commentary on Ephesians
he was wont to turn out daily a thousand lines13; he dictated his
commentary on St. Matthew in fourteen days14; he often dictated
whatever thoughts were uppermost in his mind (dicto quodcumque
in buccam venerit)^. Such haste, often the result of external causes,
1 Migne, PL., xxv. 1231 — 1272. « Ib., xxv. 1273—1338.
3 Ib., xxv. 1387—1416. * Ib ? xxiy xxy>
5 Comm. in Abd., praef. 6 Apol. adv. Ruf., i. 19.
7 Migne, PL., xxvi. 15—218. 8 Ib., xxvi. 821 — 1270.
Ib., xxiii. 1329—1402. I" Ib., xxiii. 1407—1470.
1 Ib., xxx. 531—644- 12 Ib., xxx. 645—902.
Comm. in Ephes., lib. 2, praef. " Comm. in Matth., praef.
15 Comm. in Gal., lib. 3, praef.; Comm. in Abd., etc.
§ 93- ST- JEROME. 463
is responsible for occasional shortcomings of St. Jerome as an exegete:
imperfection of form, poverty of contents, waverings and contra
dictions, and in difficult places a mere repetition of the ideas of
earlier exegetes, Christian and Jewish, whereby the reader is left to
select and judge for himself. However, it is precisely this tendency
to compilation that lends a special value to the expository works of
St. Jerome. They are a real mine of important exegetical materials,
and are occasionally very helpful in the study of the earlier history
of ecclesiastical exegesis and doctrine. Valuable exegetical fragments
of Origen, Apollinaris, Didymus and several other writers, otherwise
little known or utterly lost, have survived in the pages of Jerome,
mired up with Jewish traditions of exegesis that are often also very
interesting and precious. Another defect of Jerome, possibly more
blameworthy than the hurry of his work, is a lack of hermeneutical
method, an uncertain and inconsistent attitude towards the fundamental
principles of scriptural exegesis. In general, Jerome seems thoroughly
convinced that it is necessary to fix and explain the historico-gram-
matical sense of Scripture. At the same time, he feels himself free
to seek for a deeper mystic sense, or as he rhetorically puts it : super
fundamenta historiae spirituale exstruere aedificium; historiae Hebraeo-
rum tropologiam nostrorum miscere; spiritualis postea intelligentiae
vela pandere1. Occasionally, his exposition is as capricious and un
natural as that of Origen; he adheres to the Alexandrine theory of
a triple sense of Scripture, and agrees with Origen that the literal
sense of the biblical narrative might be ridiculous or unworthy or
even blasphemous, in which cases scandal could be avoided only by
use of the allegorical method2. The controversy between Jerome
and Augustine apropos of Gal. ii. 1 1 ff . is well-known. In his com
mentary on that Epistle, written in 387 or 388, Jerome had adopted
an earlier idea of Origen, afterwards maintained by Chrysostom, viz.,
that the disagreement of the two Apostles was not real but feigned;
they really thought alike concerning the binding force of the Law;
St. Peter, however, so bore himself externally as to permit St. Paul
publicly to correct him (in appearance, xara 7ip6acoxov) and thus
ensure general recognition of the truth. In a number of letters
St. Augustine undertook to convince St. Jerome that such an ex
egesis would utterly destroy the authority of the Sacred Scriptures,
by placing them in the attitude of apologists for deceit and trickery,
and it seems that St. Jerome afterwards admitted3 the correctness
of the observations of Augustine.
6. HISTORICAL WORKS. - - In his own days Jerome was known
as an historian. Foremost in the catalogue of his writings, written
1 Comm. in Is., lib. 6, praef. ; Comin. in Zach., praef. ; Ep. 64, 19.
- Ep. 21, 13 ; 52, 2.
3 Dial, contra Pelajr., i. 22.
464 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
in 392 *, is the Vita Pauli monachi, or life of St. Paul of Thebes 2
about 376, a real folk-narrative of the legend of this hermit which
had long been current in popular oral tradition. About 391 he wrote
two other lives of Saints: the short Vita Malchi captivi monachi*
in which he narrates the life of a monk of the desert of Chalcis,
taken down by himself from the lips of the narrator, and the Vita
beati Hilarionis*, the history of the first Palestinian hermit (f 371),
gathered from oral and written sources, and rightly entitled to be
called a biography. Jerome never executed the plan mentioned in
the first chapter of the life of Malchus i. e. an ecclesiastical history
from the Apostles to his own time, as exhibited in the lives of mar
tyrs and other holy men and women. The so-called Martyrologium
Hieronymianum^ is a copious compilation from martyrological ca
lendars belonging to various churches, brought to a close about 530
in Northern Italy, perhaps at Aquileia, but enriched with various
additions at a still later date. The known manuscripts all belong
to a Gallic archetype written in 627 or 628 at Luxeuil or Auxerre.
We may also mention here certain necrologies, or, as he was wont
to call them, Epitaphia, of his friends, thrown into epistolary form 6.
Mediaeval scribes used these compositions as models precisely in the
manner in which they used his Vitae for their own hagiographical
writings. More important are two other historical works: one a ver
sion or rather an improved Latin recension and continuation of the
chronological tables that formed the second half of the Chronicon
of Eusebius7, and the work De viris illustribus*. The former work-
was composed at Constantinople about 380, and the latter at Beth
lehem in 392. In the first of these works, Jerome furnished the West
with a chronological synopsis of universal history. Though it would
scarcely satisfy the exigencies of modern science, at that period it
was a highly prized contribution and greatly furthered all kinds of
historical labors. The latter part of the work is an addition to the
text of Eusebius covering the years 326—379. Though only a col
lection of miscellaneous historical information with no insistence on
the relative importance of the details, it was nevertheless destined
to be the guide and model of mediaeval chroniclers. We have al
ready described (§ 2, i) the De viris illustribus of our Saint.
7. DOGMATICO- POLEMICAL WRITINGS. - - By calling and gifts,
Jerome was rather an historian than a dogmatic writer. His doc
trinal writings are all occasional. Most of them aim at repelling
attacks on ecclesiastical tradition, and in all it is the polemical inter-
1 De viris ill., c. 135. 2 Migne, PL., xxiii. 17 — 28.
Ib, xxiii. 53-60. * Ib-| xxiij 29_54- 5 lb-j xxx 435—486.
Ep. 60, on Nepotian: Ib., xxii. 589—602; Ep. 108, on Paula: Ib., xxii. 878
> 906: Ep. 127, on Marcella: Ib., xxii. 1087—1095.
7 Ib., xxvii; cf. § 62, 2. s Ib> xxiji 6oi_720
§ 93- ST- JEROME. 465
est that predominates. He made some translations from the Greek,
but they have perished in part at least. Thus, of his translation of
the four books of Origen Trepi v-p/&v (§ 39, 8), made about 399,
only a few insignificant fragments have reached us1. On the other
hand, his translation or recension of the work of Didymus the Blind
(§ 70, 2) on the Holy Ghost has reached us; Jerome began it at
Rome, and finished it at Bethlehem ; it is, in its way, a very success
ful piece of literary composition 2. The earliest known of his dogmatic
writings is a dialogue against the schismatic faction of the Luciferians
(§ 87, 2): Altercatio Luciferiani et orthodoxi3, composed at Antioch,
probably in 379. About 383 he wrote at Rome, in defence of the
perpetual virginity of Mary, his: Liber adv. Helvidium de perpetua
virginitate b. Mariae4, a work inspired by virtuous indignation and
remarkable for robust vigor of diction. Closely related, in its first
part at least, is the work Adversus Jovinianum^, probably written in
392. In the first book of this work he extols, not without exagge
ration, the dignity and merit of virginity as compared with the mar
ried state; in the second book he attacks the teaching of Jovinian that
baptized persons could not sin, that fasting was of no avail, and
that the reward of all true Christians would be an absolutely equal
one. The works: Contra loannem Hierosolymitanum 6, written in 398
or 399) tne: Apologiae adv. libros Rufini libri ii7, written in 402,
and the: Liber tertius s. ultima responsio adv. scripta Rufini8, written
shortly after the preceding work, are a sad result of the Origenistic
controversies, and betray a high degree of personal irritation. In
the little work Contra Vigilantium^, written in 406 in one night, he
breaks a lance for the ecclesiastical cultus of the martyrs and the
Saints, the voluntary poverty of monks, and the celibacy of the
clergy. Finally, towards the end of 415, he appeared as the de
fender of the ecclesiastical doctrine of grace, against the teaching
of Pelagius. The three books of this: Dialogus contra Pelagianos 10,
are famous for their literary perfection.
8. LETTERS AND HOMILIES. — From the beginning of the mediaeval
times the letters of Jerome have been accounted the most charming
of his writings. Indeed, both as to contents and style, they are at
tractive and fascinating compositions. Jerome found a letter the most
suitable channel for the development of his thoughts; he delights
in throwing an entire treatise into epistolary form. He tells us him
self that he was for a long time accustomed to write every day a
number of letters of the ordinary kind. In the catalogue of his
1 Ep. 124 ad Avitum, quid cavendum in libris -Ks.pl dpyu>v : lb., xxii. 1059 — 1072.
2 Ib., xxiii. 101 — 154. 3 Ib., xxiii. 155 — 182. 4 Ib., xxiii. 183—206.
5 Ib., xxiii. 2TI — 338. 6 Ib., xxiii. 355 — 396.
1 Ib., xxiii. 397—456. 8 Ib., xxiii. 457—492.
<J Ib., xxiii. 339—352. 10 Ib., xxiii. 495—590.
BARDEN HEWER-SHAH AN, Patrology. 30
466 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
works1 drawn up in 392 he mentions some letters that for one reason
or another appeared important to him : Ad Heliodorum exhortatoriam
^epistolam), De Seraphim, and others. He also mentions two collec
tions of his letters: Epistolarum ad diversos librum unum, Ad Mar-
cellam epistolarum librum unum, and adds: Epistolarum autem ad
Paulam et Eustochium, quia quotidie scribuntur, incertus est numerus.
We possess at present about one hundred and twenty letters of
Jerome. They cover a period of a half century and are a mirror of
his varied life, being directed to persons of all sorts and conditions
and dealing with widely divergent matters ; they are also an accurate
mirror of manners and events of Roman life in that period. It is
worthy of note that while many of our Saint's writings betray a
hurried composition amid distracting occupations, several of his letters
were evidently written with great care; some of them, especially
those of his youthful period, were no doubt written for effect. It is
in his letters that he exhibits most fully his many literary gifts: his
sense of beauty and elegance, his originality and vigor of expression,
in a word his skill in bold and warm coloring. We have already
mentioned (see no. 5 and 6) two special groups of his letters: ex-
egetical and necrological in contents. W7e may refer here briefly to
a series of letters that recommend the ascetic life, or aim at the
guidance of those who have adopted it. Many of them were originally
intended for a wider circle of readers than was represented by their
immediate recipients. In this circle of similarly minded contemporaries
they met not only with approval but with admiration, and have ever
since been looked on as most precious gems of works in the literature
of ecclesiastical piety. Among them are the Ep. 14 2 in which he
beseeches his intimate friend Heliodorus to go back to the desert
of Chalcis that he had abandoned ; Ep. 22 '6 in which he exhorts
Eustochium to remain loyal and courageous in her pursuit of the
ideals of a virginal spouse of God; Ep. 52* in which he replies to
the request of the young priest Nepotian, and instructs him in the
way of acquiring and preserving that sanctity of life which became
his state. We may add those letters in which after the death of
Paula (Jan. 26., 404) he translated the monastic rule of St. Pachomius
and some letters of Pachomius and Theodorus 5. — It was again the
good fortune of Dom Morin to discover certain homilies of St. Jerome,
and to silence all opposition to their genuineness. He published
in 1897 fifty-nine homilies on the Psalms, ten on the Gospel of
St. Mark, and ten on other subjects; the preface to his edition of
these homilies describes the discovery of another hitherto unknown
series of homilies on the Psalms. The newly published homilies are
1 De viris ill., c. 135. 2 Migne, PL., xxii. 347—355.
lb., xxii. 394—425. * Ib., xxii. 527—540.
5 Ib., xxiii. 61 — 100 ; cf. § 64, 2 3.
§ 93- ST- JEROME. 467
not finished works destined for publicity, but improvised discourses,
probably sermons of the year 401, either delivered on Sundays or on
week days in presence of his monks, and taken down by his hearers.
This serves to modify a certain disappointment caused by the reading
of these homilies; some of them, however, contain passages of great
oratorical perfection.
9. JEROME AS A SCHOLAR. -- He is one of those Fathers honored
by the Church with the title of Doctor, and in so far as this title
stands, among other things, for a recognition of rare erudition, there
is scarcely one among the Fathers to whom it is given with more
justice. During his own life -time he was hailed as the greatest
polyhistor of the age. Orosius assures us * that the entire West
thirsts for the words of the priest of Bethlehem as the dry fleece
thirsts for the dew of heaven ; John Cassian tells us 2 that his writ
ings shine in the Christian world like the stars of the firmament.
Sulpicius Severus says3 that there is no other writer so well-versed
in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew learning ; he has no rival in any branch
of knowledge: ut se illi in omni scientia nemo audeat comparare;
Augustine is witness * that Jerome had read all or nearly all (omnes
vel paene omnes) previous theological writers of the East and West.
While he was deservedly recognized as among the first in every
branch of theology, he was held by all to be pre-eminent in the
biblical sciences. They were his especial delight, and in this depart
ment he produced his greatest works. Even to-day, he deserves
our sincere admiration as a capable exegete, or rather a skilful
philologist, a trained critic, and a translator of genius. No other
Latin writer of his time was so well acquainted with Greek, and he
stands alone among his contemporaries in his knowledge of the Old
Testament languages. It is not hard to pick flaws in his knowledge
of Hebrew, since he esteemed too highly the Jewish or Rabbinical
traditions of his time, but it is also unjust to apply our modern
criteria to the conditions of his day. A simply irresistible proof of
his skill and readiness in the use of Hebrew is found in his own
narrative of the translation of the book of Tobias from Aramaic into
Latin in the year 405 : « Since Chaldaic (Aramaic) is close akin to
the Hebrew, I sought out a scholar who knew both languages well
(no doubt a Jewish rabbi), and with severe labor I dictated in Latin
during one day to a hired tachygrapher what that scholar had dictated
to me in Hebrew » 5. Nor was he entirely unacquainted with Aramaic,
Several years earlier when occupied with the translation of Daniel
(ca. 391), he had devoted much time to the study of Aramaic; he
was able to describe6 the result of his hard labor in the following
1 Liber apol. contra Pelag., c. 4. 2 De incarnatione, vii. 26.
3 Dial. i. 8. 4 Contra lulianum, i. 7, 34.
5 Praef. in lib. Tob. 6 Praef. in lib. Dan.
468 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
words: «Even to this day I can read and understand Chaldaic better
than I can pronounce it.» In a word, the philological attainments
of St. Jerome were such as to indicate him, and him alone among
all the Christian savants of his time, as the one man prepared for
and called to a task at once so important and so difficult as a
translation of the Holy Scriptures.
10. JEROME AS WITNESS TO THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH. — He
is not only a miracle of learning, but also a pillar of the true faith.
Cassian had already called him1 «a man of most extensive knowledge
and of thoroughly approved and pure doctrine». Sulpicius Severus
says2: « The heretics hate him because he ceases not from attacking
them, and ecclesiastics hate him because he is inimical to their
way of life and their vices (see no. 2). But all good men admire
and love him ; for those who call him a heretic, are bereft of reason
(insani sunt). I speak the truth when I say: the thoughts of this
man are Catholic, his teaching is sound. » Severus hints that Jerome
was not spared from charges of heresy; he has in mind, perhaps,
the accusation of Origenism made against him by Rufinus. There
is no reason to suspect the judgment of Cassian because of his
own leaning towards Semipelagianism. The occasional expressions
of St. Jerome on the priority of grace or on free-will are in some
details inexact; but in his commentary on Jeremias, composed during
the Pelagian controversy and one of his maturest writings, he often
presupposes, apparently at least, the necessity of gratia praeveniens;
thus, on Jer. xviii. I ff. : Ita libertas arbitrii reservanda est, ut in omni
bus excellat gratia largitoris ; at xxiv. I ff. : Non solum opera, sed
et voluntas nostra Dei nititur auxilio; at xxxi. 18 — 19: Hoc ipsum
quod agimus poenitentiam, nisi nos Dominus ante converterit, nequa-
quam implere valemus, and this remark throws light on what he
says at iii. 21 — 22: Quamvis enim propria voluntate ad Dominum
revertamur, tamen nisi ille nos traxerit et cupiditatem nostram suo
roboraverit praesidio, salvi esse non poterimus. The Pelagian Julianus
admitted3 that the « Dialogue against the Pelagians* was written
«with marvellous elegance » : mira venustate, and the chronicler Hyda-
tius* accounts it a special merit of the author that at the end of
his life «he broke in pieces the sect of the Pelagians together with
its author, by means of the steel hammer of truth*. It is true, of
course, that the theological contents of the polemic of Jerome are far
inferior to those of the anti-Pelagian writings of Augustine, as in general
the bishop of Hippo is far superior to the priest of Bethlehem in
depth and solidity and independence of thought; the gift of specula
tion in Jerome is by no means as prominent as his vast erudition.
Hence, he has not influenced the development of theology in the
1 De incarnatione, vii. 26. 2 Dial. i. 9, 4 5.
1 Aug-> ^Pus imperfectum contra luiianum, iv. 88. 4 Chron. ad a 415.
§ 93- ST- JEROME. 469
same measure as St. Augustine. Among the testimonia to the doc
trine of the Church that are scattered through his works, his defence
of the Catholic rule of faith has always been praised. The doctrinal
authority of the Church as a proximate source of Christian faith,
especially the magisterium of the successor of St. Peter, had no more
energetic defenders among the Christians of antiquity. About 378 he
wrote from the desert of Chalcis to Pope Damasus: « While the sons
of iniquity have consumed their inheritance, it is only among you
(apud vos solos) that the inheritance of the Fathers has been pre
served intact . . . while I follow in the first place only Christ I keep
in communion with your Holiness i. e. with the see of Peter. I know
that upon this rock the Church is established . . . Therefore decide,
I implore and conjure you, and we shall unhesitatingly confess three
hypostases. If you will so order, let a Creed be drawn up in place
of the Nicene, and we of the true faith shall confess it in terms
similar to those of the Arians 1. » Also in other and later letters he
emphasizes again and again the fact that the faith of the Roman
Church, long since praised by St. Paul, must always be held as the
supreme rule and decisive standard of Christian faith2. - In his
commentaries he insists that Scripture must be understood in the
sense of the Church. The sense which the Church teaches is the
sense intended by the Holy Ghost, the author of Scripture. Whoever
interprets Scripture against the sense of the Church or the intention
of the Holy Ghost, is a heretic; interpreted in such a way, the
Gospel of Christ becomes a gospel of man or rather of Satan 3. Out
side the Church there is no salvation. « Whoever eats the Lamb
outside that house, is unholy (profanus). Whoever is not in the Ark
of Noah, will perish in the flood »4. « Whoever is saved, is saved in
the Church » 5. «W7hoever is outside the Church of the Lord, cannot
be pure» 6. It is owing to this conviction that the entire life of Je
rome was consumed in endless conflicts with the enemies of the
Church. «I have never spared heretics », he wrote not long before
his death, «but have always held with great zeal that the enemies
of the Church were also my enemies » 7.
1 1 . JEROME AS MASTER OF CHRISTIAN PROSE. — In order not to
omit all reference to the literary character of the writings of Jerome,
it may be said that, with the exception of Lactantius, no Christian
prose-writer of antiquity laid so much stress on formal elegance as
our Saint; and no Christian writer, with the exception of Tertullian,
stamped so strongly upon his writings his own very original per
sonality. None of the Christian Latin writers has exercised, even
1 Ep. 15, i 24; cf. 16, 2. 2 Ep. 46, ii ; 63, 2; 130, 16.
3 Comm. in Gal., i. 11—12; v. 19—21; in Mich., i. ioff.; in ler., xxix. 8 — 9.
4 Ep. 15, 2. 5 In loel, iii. i ff. 6 In Ezech., vii. 19.
7 Dial, contra Pelag., praef.
4/0
SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
approximately, so marked an influence on the ecclesiastical Latinity
of a later period ; in this respect his translation of the Bible and
many of his letters were authoritative. He has been rightly called
the master of Christian prose for all later centuries. In his style
and diction, it is the rhetorician that stands out most prominently,
but a rhetorician highly gifted by nature and thoroughly trained in
good schools. It must be admitted that his rhetorical culture is not
all made up of excellencies; his earlier writings especially betray
a love of florid language, a tendency to hyperbole and to the de
clamatory and sensational.
12. COMPLETE EDITIONS. TRANSLATIONS. - - The first complete edition
of St. Jerome was brought out by D. Erasmus, Basel, 1516 — 1520, 9 vols.
Other editions were brought out by Marianus Victorius, bishop of Rieti, Rome,
1565 — 1572, 9 vols.; by the Benedictines J. Martianay and A. Pouget,
Paris, 1693 — 1706, 5 vols. ; D. Vallarsi, Verona, 1734 — 1742, n vols., and
Venice, 1766 — 1772, n vols. (reprinted in Migne , PL., xxii— xxx).
A. Reifferscheid (Bibl. Patr. lat. Ital., i. 66; cf. ib., pp. 90 278) says of the
Vallarsi edition: « Although the revision of the Benedictine edition by
Vallarsi and his confreres has often been praised, the text of St. Jerome
still remains a neglected text, and the manuscript tradition is but imper
fectly known. » — Some writings of St. Jerome were translated into Greek
by his friend Sophronius (De viris ill., c. 134). Selections from his writings
were translated into German by P. Leipelt, Kempten, 1872 — 1874, 2 vols.
(Bibl. der Kirchenvater). B. Matongues , CEuvres de St. Jerome, Paris,
1858 (xxxii and 683 pp.), offers a French translation of copious excerpts,
and even whole works. A still larger selection is found in the English
translation of W. H. Frcmantle, in Select Library of the Nicene and Post-
Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, series II, vol. vi, New York, 1893.
13. EDITIONS, VERSIONS, AND RECENSIONS OF SEPARATE WORKS. -
Translations of the Scripture : A critical edition of St. Jerome's revision of
the New Testament was undertaken by Wordsworth and White: Novum
Testamentum D. N. lesu Christ! latine secundum editionem S. Hieronymi.
Ad codicum mss. fidem rec. J. Wordsworth et H. J. White, part I, Quat-
tuor Evangelia, Oxford, 1889—1898. For the Hieronymian version of the
Greek text of Job cf. P. de Lagarde , Mitteilungen , Gottingen, 1887, ii.
189—237, and C. P. Caspari, Das Buch Hiob (i. i to xxxviii. 16) in Hiero-
nymus' Ubersetzung aus der alexandrinischen Version nach einer St. Gallener
Handschrift saec. viii, Christiania, 1893. The best edition of S. Jerome's
version of the Psalms, not in ecclesiastical use as described above, is that
of Lagarde, Psalterium iuxta Hebraeos Hieronymi e recognitione Pauli
de Lagarde, Leipzig, 1874. Cf. de Lagarde , Probe einer neuen Ausgabe
.temischen Ubersetzungen des Alten Testaments, Gottingen, 1885
Psalms i— xvii, according to twenty-six text-witnesses. For other
jrorks on the Hieronymian versions of the Bible and the actual Vulgate
e reader is referred to the current manuals of Introduction to Biblical
; cf. P. Corsscn, in Jahresbericht iiber die Fortschritte der klass.
Altertumswissenschaft (1899), ci. i— 83 : «Bericht iiber die lateinischen Bibel-
- Other exegetical labors: Onomastica sacra. P. de La-
garde (ed. Gott., 1870) alterum ed., Gott., 1887, pp. 25—116: Hieronymi
• interpretations hebraicorum nominum; pp. 117—190: Hieronymi de
situ it nomimbus locprum hebraicorum liber. Concerning the last work see
. garner, Exegetische Beitrage zti Hieronymus' Onomastikon, Ma^de-
§ 93- ST- JEROME. 471
burg, 1896; Id., Nachtrage und Berichtigungen (to the previous essay),
ib., 1898. E. Klostermann, Eusebius' Schrift irspl ruiv TOTTIXCOV dvofitmov.
pp. 1 6 — 21, in Texte und Untersuchungen, new series, viii. 2 b. Hiero-
nymi Quaestiones hebraicae in libro Geneseos e recognitione Fault de La-
garde , Leipzig, 1868. S. Hieronymi presb. qui deperditi hactenus puta-
bantur commentarioli in Psalmos, ed. G. Morin, Maredsous, 1895 (Anecdota
Maredsolana, iii. i). S. Hieronymi Stridonensis presbyteri tractatus contra
Origenem de visione Isaiae (vi. i f.) , quern nunc primum ex codd. mss.
Casinensibus A. M. Amelli in lucem edidit et illustravit, Montecassino,
1901 ; Id., in Studi Religiosi (1901), i. 193 — 204. The authorship of Jerome,
but at a later date, is defended by G. Morin, in Revue d'hist. eccles. (1901),
ii. Sio — 827, against G. Mcrcati, in Revue Biblique (1901), x. 385 — 392;
cf. the reply of Morin, ib. (1897), iii. 164 — 173. See also J. Lataix, Le
commentaire de St. Jerome sur Daniel , in Revue d'hist. et de litter, reli-
gieuses (1897), ii. 164 — 173 268 — 277. G. Morin, Sancti Hieronymi pres
byteri tractatus sive homiliae in Psalmos quatuordecim (Anecdota Mared
solana, 1903, iii. 3). — The commentary on the Apocalypse of the Donatist
Tichonius, foundation and source of the commentary of Jerome, has perished,
but it might be reconstructed in large measure from the works of later
commentators on whom Tichonius exercised a great influence, particularly
from the commentary of Beatus of Libana, composed about 776. See
Haussleiter 3 $ 58, i, and the important remarks of F. Ramsay, Le com
mentaire de 1'Apocalypse par Beatus de Libana, in Revue d'histoire et de
litterature religieuses (1902), vii. 419 — 447. For other works of Tichonius
see Gennad., De viris ill., c. 18. There is still extant Tichonii Afri liber
de septem regulis (Migne, PL., xviii. 15 — 66); it contains seven rules for
the explanation of passages in the Scripture made difficult by the figurative
speech of the sacred writer. These rules might have perished, had they not
been incorporated by St. Augustine into his work De doctrina Christiana,
iii. 30 — 37: Migne, xxxiv. 81 — 90. For a critical edition see f. C. Burkitt,
Cambridge, 1894, in Texts and Studies, iii. i. T. Hahn, Tyconius-Studien,
Leipzig, 1900, in Studien zur Gesch. der Theol. und der Kirche, vi. 2.
A. B. Sharpe , Tychonius and St. Augustin, in Dublin Review (1903),
pp. 64 — 72. G. Morin published, in Rev. Be'ned. (1903), xx. 225 — 236,
a little work entitled De monogrammate (Apoc. xiii. 18), in some way
connected with the treatment of the commentary on the Apocalypse of
Victorinus of Pettau by St. Jerome (§ 58, i). As to the author of the pseudo-
Hieronymian Quaestiones Hebraicae in libros Regum et in libros Para-
lipomenon (Ib. , xxiii. 1329 — 1402) cf. S. Berger , Quam notitiam linguae
hebraicae habuerint christiani medii aevi temporibus in Gallia (These),
Nancy, 1893, pp. i — 4. It seems that the pseudo-Hieronymian Expositio
interlinearis libri Job (Ib., xxiii. 1407 — 1470) was composed by the priest
Philippus, an optimus auditor Hieronymi (Gennad., De viris ill., c. 62), and
later worked over and enlarged by Venerable Bede ; cf. O. Zockler, Hiero-
nymus, Gotha, 1865, p. 471. For the spurious Commentarii in epistolas
vS. Pauli (Ib. , xxx. 645 — 902) cf. § 94, 16. The exegetical labors of
St. Jerome are discussed by M. Rahmer , Die hebraischen Traditionen in
den Werken des Hieronymus, durch eine Vergleichung mit den jtidischen
Quellen kritisch beleuchtet, i: Die « Quaestiones in Genesin», Breslati, 1861.
The second part of this work, on the «commentaries», did not get beyond
those to Osee and Joel, and appeared in Monatschrift f. Geschichte und
Wissenschaft des Judentums 1865 1867 1868 1898. Since \hznM.Rahmer
has again taken up his labors: Die hebr. Traditionen, etc. Die commen-
tarii zu den 12 kleinen Propheten, first and second half, in two fascicules,
Berlin, 1902. C. Siegfried , Die Aussprache des Hebraischen bei Hiero-
4/2
SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
nymus, in Zeitschr. ftir die alttestamentl. Wissensch. (1884), iv. 34 — 83.
}V. Nowack, Die Bedeulung des Hieronymus fiir die alttestamentl. Text-
kritik, Gottingen, 1875. ^- Backer, Eine angebliche Liicke im hebr.
Wissen des Hieronymus, in Zeitschr. f. die alttestamentl. Wissensch. (1902),
pp. 114 — 116. y. A. Mohlers Gesammelte Schriften und Aufsatze, heraus-
gegeben von J. J. J. Ddllinger (Ratisbon, 1839—1840), i. i— 18: Hiero
nymus und Augustinus im Streit iiber Gal. ii. 14. Cf. Fr. Over beck, Uber
die Auffassung des Streites des Paulus mit Petrus in Antiochien (Gal. ii.
n ff.) bei den Kirchenvatern (Progr.), Basel, 1877. ^- Rohrich, Essai sur
St. Jerome exegete (These), Geneva, 1891. L.Sanders, Etudes sur St. Jerome,
sa doctrine touchant Finspiration des livres saints et leur veracite, 1'auto-
rite des deuterocanoniques, la distinction entre 1'e'piscopat et le presbyterat,
I'origenisme, Paris, 1903. G. Hoberg, De sancti Hieronymi ratione inter-
pretandi, Freiburg i. Br., 1903. J. van den Gheyn, Saint Je'rome, in Dic-
tionnaire de la Bible, Paris, 1903, iii. 1305 — 1316.
14. EDITIONS AND RECENSIONS OF SEPARATE WORKS (CONTINUED). -
Historical works: Eusebi Chronicorum libri duo, ed. A. Schoene , Berlin,
1866 — 1875, v°l- n: Hieronymi versionem e libris manuscripts recensuit
A. Schoene. Cf. § 62, 7. Hieronymi chronicorum codicis Floriacensis frag-
menta Leidensia, Parisina, Vaticana phototypice edita. Praefatus est
L. Traube, Leyden, 1902. A. Schoene , Die Weltchronik des Eusebius in
ihrer Bearbeitung durch Hieronymus, Berlin, 1900. For De viris ill. see
§ 2, i. y. ff. Reinkens, Die Einsiedler des hi. Hieronymus in freier Be
arbeitung dargestellt, Schaffhausen, 1864 (a re-arrangement of the lives of
Paul, Hilarion and Malchus , also the necrologies of Marcella, Paula, and
Fabiola. The Vita Pauli monachi is the source of all other accounts of
Paul of Thebes; cf. J. Bidcz , in the introduction to his edition of two
Greek lives of St. Paul, Ghent, 1900. F. Nau, Le texte grec original de
la vie de St. Paul de Thebes, in Analecta Bolland. (1901), xx. 121 — 157;
against his views A. M. Kugener, S. Jerome et la vie de Paul de Thebes,
in Byzant. Zeitschr. (1902), xi. 513—517. For the Vita Beati Hilarionis,
see O. Zockler , in Neue Jahrb. f. deutsche Theol. (1894), iii. 146—178.
Cf. also § 66, 5. For the Vita Malchi see P. van den Ven, St. Jerome et
la vie du moine Malchus le Captif, Louvain, 1901. -- Martyrologium
Hieronymianum ad fidem codicum adiectis prolegomenis ediderunt J. B.
de Rossi et L. Duchesne (Acta SS. Nov. ii), Paris, 1894. Concerning this
martyrology cf. H. Achelis < Die Martyrologien , Berlin, 1900, pp. 71 fF.
ff. Grisar, in Analecta Romana, Rome, 1899, i. 243—258, and y. Chap
man, in Revue Benedictine (1903), xx. 285 — 291. -- Dogmatics-polemical
works: For the date of composition of Altercatio Luciferiani et orthodoxi
see G. Griitzmacher, in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1901), xxi. i— 8 (written
«about 382*). The Adversus Helvidium is also in H. Hurter , SS. Patr.
opusc. sel., ser. I, p. xii. A minute analysis of this work, with a sensible
appreciation of its merit, is given by F. A. v. Lehner , Die Marienver-
ehrung in den ersten Jahrhunderten, 2. ed., pp. 104—112. W. Haller, Jovi-
nianus, die Fragmente seiner Schriften, die Quellen zu seiner Geschichte,
sein Leben und seine Lehre, Leipzig, 1897, in Texte und Untersuchungen,
xvn, new series, ii. 2. E. Gaebel, Jovinianus und seine Ansicht vom Ver-
haltnis der Wiedergeborenen zur Siinde (Progr.), Posen, 1901. W.Schmidt,
Vigilantius, Miinster, 1860. G. Nijhoff, Vigilantius (Diss. inaug.), Groningen,
1897. H. Reville, Vigilance de Calagurris. Un chapitre de 1'histoire de
ascetisme monastique, Paris, 1902. The pseudo-Hieronymian Indiculus
haeresibus was last edited by Fr. Oehler (Corpus haereseologicum,
Berlin, 1856, i. 281—300; cf. xii— xiv). - - Letters and homilies: For
Lp. 33 ad Paulam see g 39, 2. The Ep. 46 (according the title: Paulae
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 473
et Eustochii ep.), ad Marcellam, de sanctis locis, also in Itinera Hierc-
solymitana et descriptiones Terrae Sanctae, edd. T. Tobler et A. Molinier,
Geneva, 1879, i- 41 — 47 i tne Peregrinatio S. Paulae auctore S. Hiero-
nymo (Ib., pp. 27 — 40) is taken from Ep. 108, ad Eustochium (epitaphium
Paulae matris). C. Paucker considers genuine, in Zeitschr. f. d. 6'sterreich.
•Gymnasien (1880), xxxi. 891 — 895, the two letters Ad amicum aegrotum,
rejected as spurious by former editors (Migne, PL., xxx. 61 — 104). The
genuineness of the Ep. ad Praesidium de cereo paschali (Ib.. xxx. 182 — 188)
is defended by Dom Morin, in Revue Benedictine (1891), viii. 20 — 27;
(1892), ix. 392 — 397. For the spurious letter or treatise De septem ordi-
nibus ecclesiae (Ib. , xxx. 148 — 162) see § in, 3. — S. Hieronymi epi-
stolae selectae, in Hurter, SS. Patr. opusc. sel. (series I), xi. S. D' Amico,
Girolamo di Stridone e le sue epistole, studio letterario, Acireale, 1902.
S. Hieronymi presb. tractatus sive homiliae in Psalmos, in Marci Evan-
gelium aliaque varia argumenta, ed. G. Morin, Maredsous, 1897, in Anec-
dota Maredsolana, iii. 2 ; cf. Morin, in Revue d'histoire et de litter, relig.
(1896), i. 393 — 434; Id., Quatorze nouveaux discours ine'dits de St. Jerome,
in Revue Be'ne'd. (1902), xix. 113 — 144.
15. WORKS ON SAINT JEROME. — F. Z. Collombet, Histoire de St. Jerome,
pere de 1'eglise au IVe siecle; sa vie, ses ecrits et ses doctrines, Paris et
Lyons, 1844, 2 vols. This work was translated into German by Fr. Lauchert
and A. Knoll, Rottweil, 1846 — 1848, 2 vols. O. Zockler, Hieronymus. Sein
Leben und Wirken aus seinen Schriften dargestellt, Gotha, 1865. A. Thierry,
St. Jerome, la socie'te chretienne a Rome et 1'emigration romaine en Terre-
Sainte, Paris, 1867, 2 vols., 2. ed., 1875, 3- ec^ 1876. C. Martin, Life
of Saint Jerome, London, 1888. Largent, Saint Jerome, Paris, 1898 (Les
Saints). G. Griitzmacher , Hieronymus. Eine biographische Studie zur
alten Kirchengeschichte. I. Sein Leben und seine Schriften bis zum Jahre
385, Leipzig, 1901, in Studien zur Geschichte der Theol. und der Kirche,
vi. 3. L. Sanders, Etudes sur Saint Jerome, Paris, 1903. -- Divum Hiero-
nymum oppido Stridonis in regione interamna (Murakoz) Hungariae anno
331 p. Chr. natum esse propugnat J. Danko, Mainz, 1874. For the site
of Stridon cf. F. Bulic, in Festchrift f. O. Benndorf, Vienna, 1898, pp. 276
to 280. Hieronymus quos noverit scriptores et ex quibus hauserit, scripsit
Aem. Luebeck , Leipzig, 1872 (by scriptores Luebeck means the classical
writers, Greek and Latin). C. Paucker, De latinitate beati Hieronymi ob-
servationes ad nominum verborumque usum pertinentes, Berlin, 1870;
editio adiecto indice auctior, 1880. H. Goelzer, Etude lexicographique et
grammaticale de la latinite de St. Jerome (These), Paris, 1844 (xn' and
472 pp.). B. Labanca, Le Idee pedagogiche di S. Girolamo, Milan, 1901.
Asenstorfer, War der hi. Hieronymus Kardinal? in Theol. prakt. Quartal-
schrift (1904), pp. 976—977.
§ 94. St. Augustine.
I. HIS PRE-BAPTISMAL LIFE (354 — 387). - - Aurelius Augustinus
was born November 13., 354, at Tagaste, an insignificant town of
Numidia. His father, Patricius, one of the respectable men of the
town, was a heathen and became a Christian only a short while
before his death (371). But his mother, Monica, came from a Chris
tian family, and was herself a model of Christian virtue. In the
first nine books of his Confessions, Augustine himself has described
(about the year 400) his intellectual and moral development from
474 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
his earliest childhood to the death of his mother (387). The extra
ordinary capacity of the boy was seen already in the school of
Tagaste. His father intended him for the career of a rhetorician,
and with this view made great sacrifices to keep him in the schools,
first at the neighboring Madaura and afterwards (371) at the university
of Carthage. He was an ardent youth and very susceptible to the
impressions of the senses; consequently, he fell into a loose manner
of living. Of his union with a concubine was born his son Adeodatus
(372). At the age of nineteen, Augustine was deeply moved by
reading the Hortensius of Cicero, and felt himself seized with a
burning love for the immortal beauty of wisdom (373). His grateful
admiration for the work of Cicero was troubled by one consideration :
quod nomen Christi non erat ibi1. With his mother's milk he had
imbibed the consciousness that the name of Christ was synonymous
with true wisdom. In the meantime he began to read the Holy
Scriptures, but they failed to please him; he was discontented with
their style and diction; as yet he was unable to appreciate their con
tents2. In 374, he joined the sect of the Manichaeans, attracted by
their assertion that, while Catholicism proposes to humiliate reason
by making it subject to faith, Manichseism, on the contrary, leads
men first to the study and the knowledge of truth : nos superstitione
terreri et fidem nobis ante rationem imperari . . . se autem nullum
premere ad fidem nisi prius discussa et enodata veritate3. Monica
wept for the error of her son «more bitterly than mothers weep for
the corporal death of their children »4. A bishop consoled her with
the words: fieri non potest ut films istarum lacrymarum pereat5.
After finishing his studies at Carthage, Augustine began in his native
town of Tagaste his career as a teacher of rhetoric. In the same
year, apparently, he went up to Carthage, where greater opportunities
awaited him. His abilities as a teacher of rhetoric were recognized
on all sides, and his ambition was gratified in several ways. The pro
consul Vindicianus publicly adjudged him the prize of poetry, and
honored him thenceforth with his friendship. Gradually he ceased to
be convinced of the truth of Manichaeism. The study of astrology
was the cause of grave doubts; and on the other hand, he was shock
ed by the immorality of the so-called electi among the Manichseans.
It was only in 383 that he could gratify his long-cherished desire to
meet Faustus of Milevi, the bishop of the Manichseans, who was
looked on by his followers as an oracle of wisdom. But Faustus
was not only unable to remove the doubts of Augustine, he betrayed
himself a charlatan ignorant of the liberal arts and especially ignorant
)f astrology. The spell was broken; internally at least Augustine was
no longer a Manichaean. Soon after this event he left Africa and
' Conf., iii. 4, 8. 2 Ib>> jii 5; 9< 3 De utilit credendi> K 2-
Conf., in. n, 19. 5 ib. ji
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 475
journeyed to Italy. After a few months spent at Rome, he obtained,
through the good offices of the city-prefect Symmachus, a chair of
rhetoric in the city of Milan. The personality of its bishop, Am
brose, made a profound impression on him, and, to the discourses
of the bishop he owed it that henceforth many of his prejudices
against Catholic doctrine began to disappear (§ 90, i). He determined
to enrol himself among the catechumens: statui ergo tamdiu esse
catechumenus in Catholica ecclesia mihi a parentibus commendata,
donee aliquid certi eluceret quo cursum dirigerem1. Certain Neo-
platonist treatises, translated into Latin by Marius Victorinus (§ 87, 8),
contributed to diminish the power of his evil passions, and to direct
his thoughts to higher ideals. The splendor of divine truth began
already to shine for him from the pages of St. Paul, but although
the dawn had broken along the summit of his intelligence, a long
and painful conflict was going on in the depths of his heart between
the law of the spirit and the law of the flesh. One day (August, 386),
while deeply troubled in spirit, he heard a mysterious voice: Tolle,
lege; tolle, lege2. He took up the Epistles of St. Paul, and his eye
rested on Romans xiii. 13 — 14: non in comessationibus et ebrieta-
tibus. ... At once the dart of divine love entered his heart3; the
bonds of human love were broken; all doubts ceased, and he was
filled with calm and peace. He gave up his teaching, and in the
autumn of 386 retired with his mother (who had followed him across
the sea), his son Adeodatus and some other friends, to an estate
called Cassiciacum near Milan. Here he made ready for the reception
of baptism. He was baptized by Ambrose at Milan, during the night
of April 24. — 25., 387, together with his son Adeodatus and his friend
Alypius. A few months later, he bade adieu to Milan and set out for
Africa. Midway, at Ostia, his mother closed her mortal career. As
late as the year 400 the memory of her death still plunged him into
bitter-sweet sorrow, and drew from him touching accents of praise
and gratitude; had not the dear departed mother begotten him both
for earth and for heaven? «Me parturivit et carne, ut in hanc tempo-
ralem, et corde, ut in aeternam lucem renascerer4.
2. HIS LIFE AFTER BAPTISM (387 — 430). - - His mother's death
caused a delay in his return to Africa. He spent nearly a year at
Rome in learned studies, and landed at Carthage only in the autumn
of 388. For the story of the remaining years of his life we are
indebted to his friend and disciple, Possidius, bishop of Calama,
who wrote about 432 a Vita Sancti Augustini that begins where the
Confessions leave off5. Some friends and disciples accompanied
Augustine to Tagaste where he took up his residence on a small
estate he had inherited. Here, for about three years (ferme triennio)6,
1 Ib., v. 14, 25. 2 Ib., viii. 12, 29. 3 Ib., ix. 2, 3. 4 lb.f ix. 8, 17.
5 Migne, PL., xxxii. 33 — 66. 6 Possid., Vita Augustini, c. 3.
476 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
he led a life of ideal retirement, dividing his time between the care
of his little monastic community, religious meditation, and literary
labors. During this period Adeodatus died. Early in 391, Augustine
made a journey to Hippo Regius, an important city on the Numidian
coast. It was an eventful journey, for he was destined never to enjoy
again his rustic solitude. The fame of his piety and learning had
already spread far and wide. When Valerius, the aged bishop of
Hippo, made known to the people in his presence the necessity of
ordaining a new priest, they turned at once towards Augustine, and
demanded of him that he should accept that office. It was with
great reluctance and after much opposition that he yielded. He
justified abundantly the hopes that had been placed on him. In
order to bind him permanently to the Church of Hippo, Valerius
had him consecrated (394 or 395) as coadjutor-bishop, by the Nu
midian primate, Megalius of Calama. Shortly after, 395 or 396,
Valerius passed away, and Augustine became bishop of Hippo in his
place. He did not change his previous manner of life, and kept up
with the clerics of his household the habits of a monastic community.
He was especially zealous in preaching, and often discoursed to the
people on five successive days, sometimes twice in one day. He
was also tireless in the service of the poor. Like Ambrose, he broke
up and sold the Church plate in order to succour the needy and to
redeem captives1. Withal, he was strongly drawn towards literary
labors. From his early youth such occupations had become a second
nature to him; he now found in them a change and a recreation
amid his official duties and solicitudes. The great ecclesiastical
questions of the time appealed constantly to him; his conflict with
heresy and schism closed only with his life. There were still in Africa
and in Hippo itself many Manichseans, a circumstance that caused him
to continue with energy the literary refutation of Manichaeism that he
began at Rome after his baptism. The following noble words from
an anti-Manichaean work of 396 or 397 furnish the key-note of these
controversies: «Let those rage against you who know not what toil
it takes to discover the truth, and how difficult it is to free one's
self from error. I must show you as much patience as my friends
exhibited to me when I wandered about foolishly and blindly in the
errors that you now cherish»2. Another grave problem of the time
was the Donatist schism, a source of profound suffering for the
African Church (§ 89, 2). Since his ordination to the priesthood,
Augustine had opposed its progress with great energy, in his sermons,
and also by public disputations and correspondence with the heads
of the schism. It was only in view of the increasing violence of the
sectaries, and after much hesitation and reluctance, that he yielded
1 Possid., Vita Augustini, c. 24.
Contra ep. Manich. quam voc. fund.,
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 477
to the decision of his fellow-bishops to appeal to the secular arm
for the suppression of the schism or the restoration of ecclesiastical
unity. In June, 411, he gained a splendid victory for the faith in
the famous disputation held at Carthage in which two hundred and
eighty-six Catholic and two hundredand seventy-nine Donatist bishops
took part. Augustine was the soul of the Catholic party; he over
threw with success all the arguments of his opponents, and laid
bare all their artifices. In the following year (412), a new enemy,
Pelagianisrn, appeared on the scene; he was destined to consume
the remainder of his days in the conflict that was then opening up
before him; indeed, it is to this conflict that he owes his foremost
place in the history of Catholic doctrine. His contemporaries re
cognized at once that he was a God-given interpreter and defender
of the teachings of the Church concerning divine grace. When Pope
Zosimus, at the request of the African episcopate, had condemned
Pelagianisrn (418), the aged Jerome, himself the author of an anti-
Pelagian work (§ 93, 7), wrote as follows to St. Augustine: «Hail
to thee! The world resounds with thy praise. The Catholics admire
and honor thee as the restorer of the ancient faith (conditorem an-
tiquae rursum fidei)» J. In the last years of his life, Augustine was
destined to drink again of the chalice of sorrow. The Roman empire
began to fall apart on all sides; Roman Africa in particular was
visited with unspeakable afflictions. The proconsul Boniface uplifted
the standard of revolt and called to his aid the Vandals of Spain.
These barbarians turned the granary of Italy into a howling desert.
It was in vain that Boniface repented and took the field against his
pretended friends and allies ; he was routed by them and compelled
to take refuge with the remnant of his army in the fortress of Hippo.
In the third month of the siege, and amid all its horrors, Augustine
fell sick of a violent fever. He prayed to God : ut aut hanc civi-
tatem ab hostibus circumdatam liberare dignetur, aut, si aliud ei
videtur, suos servos ad perferendam suam voluntatem fortes faciat,
aut certe ut me de hoc saeculo ad se accipiat2. The latter prayer
was heard; God freed His petitioner from earthly woes, Aug. 28., 430.
He was seventy-six years of age, and his death took place in the
presence of his friends and disciples.
3. RETRACT ATIONES AND CONFESSIONES. PHILOSOPHICAL WRIT
INGS. - The Benedictine edition of the writings of Saint Augustine
(Paris, i6/9ff.), the basis of all later editions, rightly begins with:
Retractationum libri duo, a and : Confessionum libri tredecim *. In the
former work written toward the end of his life, about 427, he sur
veys with a critical eye the entire field of his literary labors since
his conversion in 386. He draws up a chronological list of all his
1 Ep. 195, inter Epp. S. Aug. 3 Possid., 1. c., c. 29.
3 Migne, PL., xxxii. 583—656. 4 Ib., xxxii. 659—868.
47 S SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
writings, with the exception of his letters and discourses: opera
nonaginta tria in libris ducentis triginta duobus *. He frequently adds
valuable information concerning the occasion and purpose, the concept
and the composition of his writings, and sometimes contributes cor
rections of the same, especially where he thought himself inexact
in doctrinal matters. Of this work he wrote as follows to a friend:
Retractabam opuscula mea, et si quid in eis me offenderet vel alios
offendere posset, partim reprehendendo, partim defendendo, quod
legi deberet et posset operabar2. Naturally this work is of funda
mental importance for the so-called higher criticism of his literary
legacy. It must be read in connection with the: Indiculus librorum,
tractatuum et epistolarum S. Augustini, attached to his life (see
no. 2) written by Possidius. The Confessiones, written about 400,
is one of his most famous works. Its first nine books were com
posed in order to prove by his personal experience the truth of a
principle laid down at the beginning: Fecisti nos ad te (Domine),
et inquietum est cor nostrum, donee requiescat in te. In these nine
books he depicts with fulness the story of his mental development
until the death of his mother in 387. The tenth book exhibits him
as he was at the time of its composition (quis adhuc sim, ecce in
ipso tempore confessionum mearum)3. The last three books contain
meditations on the creation-narrative in Genesis. Formally, the work
is an outpouring of his heart before the all-knowing God; it is to
his Maker that he constantly addresses himself throughout the work.
He describes as follows its contents and purpose: Confessionum
mearum libri tredecim et de malis et de bonis meis Deum laudant
iustum et bonum atque in eum excitant humanum intellectual et
affectum 4. These and other expressions make it clear that Augustine
understood by the word «confessiones» not so much the manifestation
of his thoughts and deeds as the praise of God. There is positively
no foundation for the suspicions expressed by Harnack and Boissier
concerning the historical reality of this account of the conversion
of St. Augustine. - - In the first volume of the Benedictine edition
these works are followed by his philosophical writings. They are
among the earliest efforts of his pen, and belong nearly all to the
period before his baptism. A work: De pulchro et apto, written
while he was still a professor of rhetoric at Carthage and a Manichsean,
has perished; he mentions it in the Confessions5. Immediately after
his conversion he wrote at Cassiciacum three books: Contra Acade-
micos 6, in refutation of the scepticism of the Neo-Academicians 7 ; a
dialogue: De beata vita 8, in proof of the truth that the only true
1 Retract., ii. 67. 2 Ep. 224, 2. 3 Conf., x. 3, 4.
4 Retract., ii. 6, i. 5 iv. 13 — 15 20 — 27.
t; Migne, PL., xxxii. 905—958. ' Retract., i. i.
* Migne, PL., xxxii. 959 — 976.
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 479
happiness is the knowledge of God1; a dialogue: De ordine, in two
books2, dealing with the place and office of evil in God's dealing
with the world3, and two books of: Soliloquia or monologues4, on
the means of attaining to super-sensible truths with special reference
to the immortality of the soul5. The pious works known as: Soli
loquia, Meditationes, Marfuale, and widely accepted as writings of
Augustine, are of mediaeval origin6. Early in 387, on his return
from Cassiciacum to Milan and before his baptism, he undertook to
continue and complete the genuine Soliloquia7; at the same time he
began an encyclopaedic treatise on the Seven liberal arts8. The con
tinuation just mentioned is known as: De immortalitate animae9, and
remained an unfinished sketch; the work on the seven liberal arts
also was never finished. Only the section De grammatica was then
written; it has reached us in two compendia: the longer one is in
Migne 10. Later on, he completed in Africa the section De musica, or
at least the chapter De rhythmo: De musica libri sex11. Of the other
five sections: De dialectica, De rhetorica, De geometria, De arith-
metica, De philosophia, only the first outlines and concepts were
prepared. His: Principia dialecticae 12, and his: Principia rhetorices 13,
have reached us; the: Categoriae decem ex Aristotele decerptae14,
are probably spurious. His philosophical writings include also the
dialogue : De quantitate animae 15, in proof of the immateriality of the
soul, and: De magistro lfi, an interpretation of Matt, xxiii. 10: Unus
est magister vester, Christus. He wrote both these dialogues after
his baptism, the first at Rome, the second in Africa17.
4. APOLOGETIC AND DOGMATIC WRITINGS. - - The most important
of all the writings of Augustine is his : De civitate Dei 18, in twenty-
two books, composed in the years 413 — 426 and published piece
meal (cf. v. 26, 2). It owes its origin to a renewal of pagan accusa
tions against the Christians. Thus, the responsibility for the sack
of Rome by Alaric (410) was laid at the door of the latter: the
overthrow of polytheism, it was said, had irritated the gods under
whose protection the eternal city had grown to be the mistress of
the world. This reproach was not a new one; it had been current
since the days of the apologists. Augustine is not contented with
a refutation of this calumny ; he undertakes to establish, for all time,
the true relationship of Christianity to paganism ; his view embraces
not only the present but also the past and the future; the whole
1 Retract., i. 2. 2 Migne, PL., xxxii. 977 — 1020. 3 Retract., i. 3.
4 Migne, PL., xxxii. 869 — 904. 5 Retract., i. 4.
6 Migne, PL., xl. 863—898 901 — 942 951 — 968. 7 Retract., i. 5.
8 Ib., i. 6. 9 Migne, PL., xxxii. 1021 — 1034.
10 Ib., xxxii. 1385 — 1408. u Ib., xxxii. 1081 — 1194; Retract, i. n.
1 Migne, PL., xxxii. 1409—1420. 13 Ib., xxxii. 1439 — 1448.
14 Ib., xxxii. 1419 — 1440. 15 Ib., xxxii. 1035 — 1080.
16 Ib., xxxii. 1193—1220. " Retract., i. 8 12. 18 Migne, PL., xli.
480 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
course of human history lies open before him, and from the beginning
to the end he interprets it with power and insight. His apology
for Christianity rises at once to the dignity of a magnificent philosophy
of history, a work that towers dike an Alpine peak» over all the
other apologies of Christian antiquity. He tells us himself1 that the
work is divided into two parts. In the first part (books i — x) he
follows an apologetico-polemical purpose: books i — v refute the
popular pagan opinion that polytheism was necessary for earthly
felicity; books vi— x are directed against the thesis of the (Neo-
platonist) philosophers that the worship of the gods was useful for
the future life. The second part containing the other twelve books
is speculative and metaphysical. In these books he treats of the
two great kingdoms (civitates) in and through which goes on the
development of life and humanity : the kingdom of God and the
kingdom of this world. The kingdom of God is made of His sub
ject angels and men; the sign of the kingdom of this world, its
essence at once and its sum total, is apostasy from God. It is only
in this time (in hoc saeculo) that these two kingdoms interpenetrate
and overlap one another (perplexae invicemque permixtae)2, because
the citizens of the former (the just) still move as pilgrims among the
citizens of the other (the wicked). In the first four books of the
second part (xi — xiv) he describes the origin of both kingdoms (ex-
ortum duarum civitatum), as it is constituted by the creation of the
angels and the fall of the apostate angels. In books xv — xviii, he
treats of the development and progress of the two kingdoms (ex-
cursum earum sive procursum), and in books xix — xxii, their definite
purpose and end (debitos fines). The work is specially valuable for
the historical and archaeological excursus in which it abounds and
for which he drew largely on Cicero, Varro and the Hieronymian
recension of the Chronicon of Eusebius. Thus the chapters on
ancient mythology in the sixth book furnish us with a more ac
curate knowledge of the contents of the lost work of Varro : Anti-
quitates rerum humanarum et divinarum. In the little work: De
divinatione daemonum", written between 406 and 411, he examines
the knowledge of the demons concerning the future and compares
their predictions with the language of the prophets4. The sermon
(tractatus): Adversus Judaeos5, illustrates the justice of God in the
rejection of the Jews. The works against the Manichaeans will be
described in no. 5. - - Dogmatic works: His only systematic account
of Catholic dogma is the : Enchiridion ad Laurentium sive : De fide,
spe et caritate liber unus6 written about 421. It was written in
reply to the request of Laurentius, a Roman layman, who had asked
1 Retract., ii. 43. 2 De civ Dei> j ^. xj l
3 Migne, PL., xl. 581 — 592. * Retract, ii. 30.
5 Migne, PL., xlii. 51—64. G Ib., xl. 231—290.
§ 94- ST. AUGUSTINE. 481
him for a correct and handy compendium of Catholic teaching1.
The work: De doctrina Christiana properly belongs to his exegetical
writings (see no. 8); the: De vera religione is mostly an anti-Manichsean
work (see no. 5). In the: De fide et symbolo2, written in 393, he
gave an exposition of the Apostles' Creed3. Quite similar in con
tents is his discourse (sermo): De symbolo ad catechumenos 4. In
the: De fide rerum quae non videntur, a work or rather a sermon
composed after 399, he demonstrates the reasonableness of belief
in the invisible and the supernatural5. In the: De fide et operibus6,
written early in 413, he shows that faith alone without good wrorks
is not sufficient for salvation7. The longest and most important of
his dogmatic works is the: De Trinitate8, begun about 410 but not
finished until after 416 9. It consists of two parts: in the first seven
books he develops the true doctrine of the Trinity according to Holy
Scripture, while in the other eight he undertakes a scientific illustra
tion and defence of this doctrine. The human mind, an image of
God, furnishes him with numerous analogies to the Trinity: mens
et notitia qua se novit et amor quo se notitiamque suam diligit;
memoria et intelligentia et voluntas, and the like (cf. xv. 3, 5). He
is conscious, however, that it is impossible to demonstrate philo
sophically the truth and necessity of this mystery. Of these fifteen
books he says himself: Nimis operosi sunt et a paucis eos intelligi
posse arbitror10. The two books: De coniugiis adulterinis11, written
about 419, defend the indissolubility of Christian marriage, and the
invalidity of a second marriage of one party during the life-time of
the other 12. In the treatise : De cura gerenda pro mortuis 13, written
about 42 1 , he answers a question of St. Paulinus of Nola concerning
burials in the basilicas of the martyrs: such a custom is useful in so
far as it reminds the faithful of the duty to pray for the dead, and
thereby procures the intercession of the martyrs14. In three works
entitled : Quaestiones, he treats a number of dogmatic and exegetical
problems: De diversis quaestionibus Ixxxiii liber unus15, begun at the
end of 388 16; De diversis quaestionibus ad Simplicianum libri duo17,
written about 397 18; De octo Dulcitii quaestionibus liber unus 19, written
probably in 422 or 42520.
5. DOGMATICO-POLEMICAL WRITINGS. - At the request of the
deacon Quodvultdeus of Carthage he composed towards the end of
1 Retract., ii. 63. 2 Migne, PL., xl. 181—196. 3 Retract., i. 17.
4 Migne, PL., xl. 627—636. 5 Ib., xl. 171—180.
6 Ib., xl. 197 — 230. 7 Retraot., ii. 38.
8 Migne, PL., xlii. 819 — 1098. 9 Retract., ii. 15. 10 Ep. 169, I, I.
11 Migne, PL., xl. 451—486. 12 Retract., ii. 57.
13 Migne, PL., xl. 591 — 610. u Retract., ii. 64.
15 Migne, PL., xl. n — 100. 16 Retract., i. 26.
17 Migne, PL., xl. 101 — 148. 18 Retract., ii. I.
19 Migne, PL., xl. 147 — 170. 20 Retract., ii. 65.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 3 \
482 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
his life, about 428, a compendium of the history of heresies entitled :
De haeresibus l. In this work Augustine shows his acquaintance with
similar treatises of his predecessors Epiphanius and Philastrius (§ 89, 4)
and makes use of them; he is content, however, with exhibiting the
original source and the fundamental ideas of each heresy; from
Simon Magus to Pelagius he enumerates eighty-eight heresies. He
never finished the second part of this work, though he says in the
preface: in posterioribus autem partibus quid faciat haereticum dis-
putabitur. -- Anti-Manic hcs an works: Some of the heresies described
in the above-mentioned work were the occasion of many other writings
of our Saint who incessantly opposed all heresy both by voice and
pen; for several decades he was the vigorous opponent of Manichaeism,
Donatism and Pelagianism. To the dualism of the Manichseans who
looked on good and evil as being equally necessary, he opposes
the monism of the good principle. Even the Old Testament is a
revelation of the one true God. There is no contradiction between
the Old and the New Testament, as the Manichseans pretended; on
the contrary, the most perfect harmony exists between them: quan-
quam et in Vetere Novum lateat et in Novo Vetus pateat2. The
cause of evil is the free will of the creature ; evil is not a substance,
but an accident of good, a negation, a privation, a harm suffered
by nature, a damage done to her integrity. Hence there can exist
purely good things, but purely evil things cannot exist: sola ergo
bona alicubi esse possunt, sola mala nusquam3. Evil cannot disturb
the order and the beauty of the universe, nor can it escape the laws
by which divine Providence rules the world ; on the contrary, it must
also serve the divine purpose. It seemed better to God that He
should bring good out of evil than not to permit the existence of
evil: potentius et melius esse iudicans etiam de malis bene facere
quam mala esse non sinere4. If we add that when occasion offers,
he holds up to scorn the immoral life and manners of the Manichaeans,
we shall have indicated with sufficient clearness the circle of ideas
within which his anti-Manichaean writings move. The earliest of them
are: De moribus ecclesiae catholicae et de moribus Manichaeorum
libri duo5, and: De libero arbitrio libri tres6, both of them begun
at Rome in 388 after his baptism, but finished in Africa, the first
about 389, the second in 3957. Two other works were written
during his retirement at Tagaste in 389—3908; for De Genesi see
no. 8; they are: De Genesi contra Manichseos libri duo9, and: De
vera religione ™ While still a priest in Hippo, he wrote, apparently
' Migne, PL., xlii. 21—50. 2 Quaest. in Heptateuchum, ii. 73.
'e civ. Dei, xii. 3. * Ib., xiii. i, 2; Enchiridion 27.
Migne, PL., xxxii. 1309 — 1378. 6 lbt> xxxii I22I_,3IO.
Retract., i. 7 9. « Ib., i. 10 13. » Migne, PL., xxxiv. 173-220.
10 Ib., xxxiv. 121 — 172.
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 483
in 391 : De utilitate credendi ad Honoratum1, and: De duabus animabus
contra Manichaeos2, also (392) the: Acta seu disputatio contra For-
tunatum Manichaeum, the proceedings of a public controversy held
at Hippo Aug. 28. — 29., 392 3; also, about 394: Contra Adimantum
Manichaei discipulum4. In 396 or 397 he wrote the: Contra epistolam
Manichsei quam vocant fundamenti 5 ; about 400 the : Contra Faustum
Manichaeum libri triginta tres6. The: De actis cum Felice Manichaeo
libri duo7, represent a public controversy of Dec. 7. and 12., 404.
De natura boni contra Manichaeos8 was written after 404; Contra
Secundinum Manichaeum9; Secundini Manichaei epistola ad Augu-
stinum was written about 405 10. His treatise: Ad Orosium Contra
Priscillianistas et Origenistas n, was written in 415, in refutation of the
Spanish heresy that was based on Manichaean principles (§ 89, 3).
The assertion that the Old Testament is the work of evil spirits and
not the work of God was thoroughly refuted by him in two books :
Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum 12, written early in 420. The :
Commonitorium quomodo sit agendum cum Manichaeis qui con-
vertuntur 13, is considered to be spurious by the Benedictine editors.
The : De fide contra Manichaeos 14, is very probably the work of
Evodius, a friend of Augustine, who in 396 or 397 became bishop
of Uzalum in proconsular Africa (f Oct. 16., 424).
6. DOGMATICO- POLEMICAL WRITINGS (CONTINUED). Anti-
Donatist writings: Augustine himself has defined the issues of the
Donatist controversy: Duo mala vestra vobis obiicimus, unum quod
erratis in baptismi quaestione, alterum quod vos ab eis qui de hac
re verum sentiunt separatis15. The Donatists maintained that the
validity, power, and effect of baptism depended on the subjective
conditions of the baptizing and baptized persons. According to
Augustine, baptism is a means of grace that produces its effect ob
jectively. There is no baptism of Donatus or Rogatus or any such,
but only the one baptism of Christ that of and by itself transmits
grace by reason of innate divine po\ver, independently of all human
merit or demerit16. Similarly the other contention of the Donatists
is wrong, viz. that they are the only true Church of Christ, which
1 Ib., xlii. 65 — 92. 2 Ib., xlii. 93 — 112. 3 Ib., xlii. in — 130.
4 Ib., xlii. 129 — 172; cf. Retract., i. 14 15 16 22.
5 Migne, PL., xlii. 173 — 206; Retract., ii. 2.
6 Migne, PL., xlii. 207 — 518; Retract., ii. 7.
7 Migne, PL., xlii. 519 — 552; Retract., ii. 8.
8 Migne, PL., xlii. 551—572; Retract., ii. 9.
9 Migne, PL., xlii. 577—602.
10 Migne, PL., xlii. 571 — 578; Retract., ii. 10.
11 Migne, PL., xlii. 669 — 678; Retract., ii. 44.
12 Migne, PL., xlii. 604 — 666; Retract., ii. 58.
13 Migne, PL., xlii. 1153 — 1156. u Ib., xlii. 1139 — 1154.
15 Contra Cresconium, iii. 3. 16 Ep. 93, u, 46 — 49.
31 •
484 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
can have for its members only the perfectly just or those who are
without sin. The Church of Christ is that Church, and that one
only, which has the testimony of Holy Scripture, which has been
ever growing and spreading since the time of Christ, and is now
the Catholic Church that includes all the peoples of the world. In
her temporal development this Church is a mixed society, in which
dwell both the good and the bad, a net in which are found both
good and bad fish, a flock in which the sheep and the goats are
close together, a house with vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor,
a field in which the grain and the chaff grow side by side *. Finally
Donatism raised the .question of the relations of Church and State,
or rather the relations of the civil power to liberty of conscience
and faith. We have seen (no. 2) that, when pacific means had
failed, the Donatist schism was suppressed by force. Augustine
justifies this policy by reference to the parable of the banquet. The
householder gives the order : Exite in vias et sepes et quoscumque
inveneritis cogite intrare 2, and Augustine expounds this text as follows :
Hi qui inveniuntur in viis et in sepibus, id est in haeresibus et
schismatibus, coguntur intrare3. His earliest anti-Donatist work is a
rhythmic poem written towards, the end of 393, entitled: Psalmus
contra partem Donati, or: Psalmus abecedarius, because its twenty
strophes each begin with a letter of the alphabet in regular order
from A to V4. Its object was to explain to the simple faithful the
history and the ideas of the Donatists; for that purpose it was to
be sung by the people in the churches5. A contemporaneous work :
Contra epistolam Donati, has perished 6. He composed about 400 the
works: Contra epistolam Parmeniani libri tres7, and: De baptismo
contra Donatistas libri septem8. A somewhat earlier work in two
books: Contra partem Donati9, and a somewhat later one: Contra
quod attulit Centurius a Donatistis 10, have not reached us. He began
in 400 and finished in 402 : Contra litteras Petiliani Donatistae.
Cirtensis episcopi, libri tres n. To the same period is usually ascribed
a rather long circular: Ad Catholicos epistola contra Donatistas,
vulgo: De unitate ecclesiae liber unus12; its genuineness, however, is
not admitted by all. He wrote about 406 the: Contra Cresconium
grammaticum partis Donati libri quatuor13. Three other works of
the same period have perished : Probationum et testimoniorum contra
Donatistas liber, Contra nescio quern Donatistam liber, Admonitio
Donatistarum de Maximianistis14. The: Liber testimoniorum fidei
1 Ep. 93, 9, 34; 12, 50 etc. 2 Lk. xiv. 23. 3 Ep. 185, 6, 24.
4 Migne, PL., xliii. 23 — 32. 5 Retract., i. 20. 6 Ib., i. 21.
7 Migne, PL., xliii. 33—108. 8 Ib., xliii. 107 — 244; Retract., ii. 17 18.
9 Retract., ii. 5. 10 Ib., ii. 19.
1 Migne, PL., xliii. 245—388; Retract., ii. 25.
1 Migne, PL., xliii. 391—446. l3 Ib., xliii. 445—594; Retract., ii. 26.
14 Retract., ii. 27 28 29.
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 485
contra Donatistas, edited by Pitra (1888) as a work of Augustine,
does not belong to him ; nor was it written against the Donatists,
but against the Arians and Macedonians. Augustine devoted a special
work to the Maxim ianists, a rigorist faction of the Donatists: De
Maximianistis contra Donatistas1, but it has perished. He wrote
probably about 410: De unico baptismo contra Petilianum, ad Con-
stantinum, liber unus2. The: Breviculus collationis cum Donatistis, is
an extract from the acts of the colloquy on religion held at Carthage
in 41 13. The work: Ad Donatistas post collationem liber unus, was
written in 41 2 4. Mention must also be made of his: Sermo ad
Cassareensis ecclesiae plebem Emerito praesente habitus5, Ad Eme-
ritum Donatistarum episcopum post collationem liber unus6, De
gestis cum Emerito Caesareensi Donatistarum episcopo liber unus,
written in 41 8 7, and: Contra Gaudentium Donatistarum episcopum
libri duo, written about 420 8. In the disputation at Carthage
Emeritus, bishop of Gesarea Mauretania (Algiers), and Gaudentius
of Tamaguda (Timgad) had been the leaders on the Donatist side.
The: Sermo de Rusticano subdiacono a Donatistis rebaptizato et in
diaconum ordinato 9, is a spurious work.
7. DOGMATICO-POLEMICAL WRITINGS (CONTINUED). — Anti-Pelagian
works: The error to the refutation of which Augustine consecrated
the evening of his life took its name from the British monk Pelagius,
whose teaching was developed and formulated more definitely by
Caelestius, a man of obscure origin. The most zealous defender of
this error was Julianus, bishop of Eclanum, a writer of eminent dia
lectical skill, combative spirit and remarkable self-reliance. We cannot
outline more clearly the nature of the Pelagian error than by repro
ducing the summary notice which Augustine consecrates to it in the
last chapter of his De haeresibus (see no. 5). In this compendium
of Pelagianism he states, briefly at once and clearly, its fundamental
concepts and his own reasons for rejecting them. The Pelagians, he
says, are so inimical to divine grace through which we have escaped
the power of darkness and are raised to the dignity of children of
God, that they believe men capable of fulfilling the divine command
ments without its help. Our Lord, on the contrary, has said : Nemo
venit ad me, nisi fuerit ei datum a Patre meo 10, and again : Sine me
nihil potestis facere11. When the brethren reproached Pelagius that
he eliminated divine grace from our lives, he replied that grace was
given to men only in order that they might accomplish more easily
1 Retract., ii. 35. 2 Migne, PL., xliii. 595 — 614; Retract., ii. 34.
3 Migne, PL., xliii. 613 — 650; Retract., ii. 39.
4 Migne, PL., xliii. 651 — 690; Retract., ii. 40. 5 Migne, PL., xliii. 689 — 698.
6 Known only from Retract., ii. 46. 7 Migne, PL., xliii. 697 — 706; Retract., ii. 51.
8 Migne, PL., xliii. 707 — '752; Retract., ii. 59.
9 Migne, PL., xliii. 753 — 758 10 John vi. 66. n John xv. 5
486 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
what, in its absence, they were still competent to accomplish by
nature. Pelagius contended, therefore, that man could fulfil all the
commandments of God without the grace of God, although it would
be more difficult for him to do so. According to the Pelagians, that
divine grace without which we can do no good is simply the free
will of man, the natural gift of God bestowed on man without any
previous merit on his part. God does aid us, but through His law
and His doctrine, by which means we learn what we ought to do
and what we ought to hope for. There is no such thing, however,
as a gift of the Spirit of God by which we are enabled to do that
which we otherwise have recognized it to be our duty to do. The
Pelagians also reject the prayers which the Church offers up, either
for unbelievers and the conversion of those who resist divine teach
ing, or for the faithful that their faith may increase and they may
be preserved therein; these gifts, they say, are not imparted by
God to men; they are in our own power, for that grace of God
which frees us from our sins is given to us according to the mea
sure of our own merits. It is true that Pelagius denied this principle
in presence of his judges, the bishops of Palestine (Synods of Jeru
salem and Diospolis, in 415), but he did so only in order to escape
condemnation; he continued to advocate this teaching in his later
writings. They also maintain that the life of the just here below is
quite free from sin, and that it is such just souls who constitute the
Church of Christ on this earth; in this way the Church is, indeed,
without spot or stain *. As though it were not the Church of Christ
throughout the entire world which prays to God : Dimitte nobis
debita nostra!2 The Pelagians deny also that little children are sub
ject to the old death by reason of their descent from Adam; on
the contrary, they are born free from all taint of original sin, so
that there is in them nothing that a second birth could remit;
through baptism they merely acquire membership in the kingdom
of God, but no internal renovation or freedom from guilt and its
punishment; even if not baptized, they would nevertheless have a
life of eternal felicity, though not in the kingdom of God. Adam
himself, they said, would have died, even if he had not sinned;
when his death did occur, it was not a punishment (of his sin) but
a result of nature. -- Augustine began his long conflict against this
heresy with a work in three books written in 412: De peccatorum
meritis et remissione et de baptismo parvulorum ad Marcellinum3.
It is in the first of these books that are found the loci classici for
the teaching of Augustine on the nature of sanctifying grace. At
the end of 412 followed: De spiritu et littera ad Marcellinum liber
1 Cf. Eph. v. 27. 2 Mt. vi. 12.
3 Migne, PL., xliv. 109—200; Retract, ii. 33.
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 487
unus *, in which he defends the necessity of internal grace (spiritus)
as distinguished from the external grace of the law (littera), in order
to facer e et perficere iustitiam*. In: De natura et gratia, adTimasium
et Jacobum, contra Pelagium liber unus, written in 415, he refuted
the work of Pelagius De natura 3. Ad episcopos Eutropium et Paulum
epistola sive Liber de perfectione iustitiae hominis4, was written at
the end of 415, against the work entitled Definitiones and current
under the name of Caelestius. The: De gestis Pelagii, ad Aurelium
episcopum, liber unus, written at the end of 417, summarizes the dis
cussions of the Synod of Diospolis (415) in the matter of Pelagianism5.
De gratia Christi et de peccato originali, contra Pelagium et Caelestium,
libri duo6, were written in 418; in the beginning of 419 he wrote:
De nuptiis et consupiscentia, adValerium Comitem, libri duo7; towards
the end of the same year: De anima et eius origine libri quatuor8;
in 420 or a little after : Contra duas epistolas Pelagianorum ad Boni-
facium Romanae Ecclesiae episcopum, libri quatuor9; in 421 or a
little after: Contra Julianum haeresis Pelagianae defensorem libri sex10.
This work is a very close refutation of the Libri IV ad Turbantium
episcopum adversus Augustini librum primum de nuptiis et con-
cupiscentia, published by Julian of Eclanum in 419 or 420 (§ 74, 12).
Apropos of a letter of Augustine written in 41 S11 some monks of
Adrumetum began, about 424, a controversy concerning the relations
of divine grace and the free will of man. For their instruction and
pacification Augustine wrote about 426 or 427 two works: De gratia
et libero arbitrio ad Valentinum et cum illo monachos liber unus12,
and : De correptione et gratia ad eumdem Valentinum et cum illo
monachos Hadrumeticos liber unus 13. These discussions at Adrumetum
were the prelude of Semipelagianism, which soon found a home in
Southern Gaul, especially in the isles of Lerins and in the vicinity
of Marseilles, where its defenders were both numerous and energetic.
Augustine was informed of this movement by two Gauls, Prosper and
Hilarius; his two works addressed to these correspondents in 428
or 429 are really one, and contain a complete description and defence
of his teachings concerning divine grace: De praedestinatione sanc
torum liber ad Prosperum et Hilarium primus 14, and : De dono per-
severantiae liber ad Prosperum et Hilarium secundus 15. He was
1 Migne, PL., xliv. 201 — 246. 2 Retract., ii. 37.
3 Migne, PL., xliv. 247 — 290; Retract., ii. 42.
4 Migne, PL., xliv. 291—318. 5 Ib., xliv. 319 — 360; Retract., ii. 47.
6 Migne, PL., xliv. 359 — 410; Retract., ii. 50.
7 Migne, PL., xliv. 413 — 474; Retract., ii. 53.
8 Migne, PL., xliv. 475 — 548; Retract., ii. 56.
9 Migne, PL., xliv. 549 — 638; Retract., ii. 61.
10 Migne, PL., xliv. 641 — 874; Retract., ii. 62.
11 Ep. 194, ad Sixtum Romanian. 12 Migne, PL., xliv. 88 1 — 912.
13 Ib., xlix. 915 — 946; cf. Retract., ii. 66 — 67.
14 Migne, PI/., xliv. 959—992. ir> Ib., xlv. 993 — 1034.
488 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
compelled to enter the arena once more by a new work of Julian :
LibriVIII ad Florum episcopum adversus Augustini librum secundum
de nuptiis et concupiscentia. The exhaustive reply of our Saint
follows Julian step by step ; it was destined, however, to remain un
finished: Contra secundam Juliani responsionem imperfectum opus
sex libros complectens *. In the tenth volume of the Benedictine
edition there were published as an appendix to these anti-Pelagian
writings of Augustine three works entitled : Hypomnesticon contra
Pelagianos et Caelestianos2, probably written by Marius Mercator
(§95,1), De praedestinatione et gratia suspecti auctoris liber3, and:
De praedestinatione Dei libellus ignoti auctoris4. Anti- Arian
writings: In 418 an anonymous summary of Arian doctrine (quidam
sermo Arianorum sine nomine auctoris sui) was sent by a friendly
hand to Augustine with a request for its refutation5. His criticism,
to which he prefixed the entire text of the Arian work, is entitled:
Contra sermonem Arianorum liber unus6. In 427 or 428 a public
disputation between Augustine and Maximinus, an Arian bishop, took
place at Hippo. We have the outcome of Augustine's part in its
proceedings in the: Collatio cum Maximino Arianorum episcopo7.
The Arian bishop consumed the allotted time with his lengthy dis
course, so that Augustine could only reply by the publication of his
work : Contra Maximinum haereticum Arianorum episcopum libri duo 8.
8. EXEGETICAL WRITINGS. - - Among the exegetical works of
St. Augustine the most important is his : De doctrina Christiana, begun
about 397 and finished about 426 9. He tells us in the beginning
of the first book that he wrote it in order to elucidate two questions
that were the foundations of all biblical science, i. e. how to in
vestigate the meaning of the Scriptures, and how to make it known
to the faithful: Duae sunt res quibus nititur omnis tractatio Scrip-
turarum, modus inveniendi quae intelligenda sunt et modus proferendi
quae intellecta sunt. The three books of the first part may, therefore,
be called Biblical Hermeneutics ; in the fourth book, or second part,
he deals with the principles of Christian Homiletics. Already before
his ordination to the priesthood he had begun a controversial ex
position of Genesis: De Genesi contra Manichseos (see no. 5). At
a later date he grew dissatisfied with this production; it seemed to
him that he had paid too little attention to the literal sense of the
biblical text: quoniam secundum allegoricam significationem Scrip-
turae verba tractaveram, non ausus naturalium rerum tanta secreta
ad litteram exponere 10. About 393 he undertook to treat the same
Migne, PL., xlv. 1049—1608. 2 Ib ? xlv 1611 — 1664.
3 Ib., xlv. 1665-1678. ^ Ib., xlv. 1677-1680. * Retract., ii. 52.
Migne, PL., xlii. 677—708. ' Ib., xlii. 709—742.
8 Ib., xlii., 743—814. » Migne, PL., xxxiv. 15 — 122; Retract., ii. 4.
0 Retract., i. 18.
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 489
subject in a new work but gave it up in consequence of the great
difficulty of the subject: in Scripturis exponendis tirocinium meum
sub tanta sarcinae mole succubuit J. He did not get beyond the
rough sketch which he entitled : De Genesi ad litteram imperfectus
liber2. About 400 he devoted the last three books of the Con-
fessiones to the creation-narrative of Genesis (see no. 3). Finally,
during the years 401 — 415, he produced: De Genesi ad litteram
libri duodecim3; this work does not get beyond the expulsion of
Adam from Paradise, and contains more questions than answers:
Plura quaesita quam inventa sunt et eorum quae inventa sunt pauciora
firmata, cetera vero ita posita velut adhuc requirenda sint*. To the
exposition of the Heptateuch (the five books of Moses, with Josue
and Judges) he dedicated about 419 two works: Locutionum libri
septem5, and: Quaestionum in Heptateuchum libri septem6; the first
illustrative of unusual terms or phrases in the Latin text of Scrip
ture, the second explanatory of such passages as contain a difficulty 7.
The: Adnotationum in Job liber unus8, contains disconnected marginal
notes of the Saint on the book of Job, unintelligently compiled about
400 by an unknown hand 9. Enarrationes in Psalmos is the title of
a series of very beautiful and deeply spiritual homilies on all the
Psalms, written at divers times : some of them were never delivered
orally; they fill one large folio in the Benedictine edition10. In the:
De consensu evangelistarum libri quatuor, written about 400, he
discusses and explains pretended contradictions in the four Gospel-
narratives n. Separate texts of Matthew (book i) and Luke (book 2)
are explained in : Quaestionum evangeliorum libri duo, written about
the same time12. About 393 he wrote: De sermone Domini in monte
secundum Matthaeum libri duo 13. The: Quaestionum septemdecim in
evangelium secundum Matthaeum liber unus14, is a spurious work.
In Johannis evangelium tractatus CXXIV15, and: In epistolam Johannis
ad Parthos (Ep. I. Joh.) tractatus x16, are homilies delivered about 416
and committed to writing by the author himself. On the epistles
of St. Paul there are extant three brief treatises: Expositio qua-
rumdam propositionum ex epistola ad Romanes17, Epistolae ad
Romanes inchoata expositio18, Epistolae ad Galatas expositio19, all
1 Ib. 2 Migne, PL., xxxiv. 219 — 246. 3 Ib., xxxiv. 245— -486.
4 Retract., ii. 24. 5 Migne, xxxiv. 485 — 546.
6 Ib., xxxiv. 547 — 824. 7 Retract., ii. 54 55.
8 Migne, PL., xxxiv. 825—886. 9 Retract., ii. 13.
10 Migne, PL., xxxvi — xxxvii.
11 Ib., xxxiv. 1041 — 1230; Retract., ii. 16.
12 Migne, PL., xxxv. 1321 — 1364; Retract., ii. 12.
13 Migne, PL., xxxiv. 1229 — 1308; Retract., i. 19.
14 Migne, PL., xxxv. 1365 — 1376. 15 Ib., xxxv. 1379 — 1976.
16 Ib., xxxv. 1977 — 2062. 17 Ib., xxxv. 2063 — 2088.
18 Ib., xxxv. 2087 — 2106. li} Ib., xxxv. 2105—2148.
490 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
three written about 394 1. An: Expositio epistolae Jacobi, has perished2.
The : Expositio in Apocalypsim b. Johannis, current under the name
of Augustine3, is not his work; and the same is to be said of the
diffuse: Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti4. We have already
mentioned (no. 4) three genuine works Quaestiones, partly dogmatic and
partly exegetical. - - Augustine was ignorant of Hebrew, and from
some of his expressions it has often been inferred that he was also
ignorant of Greek : Graecae linguae perparum assecutus sum et prope
nihil 5. Nevertheless, countless other passages of his works show that
he could read and understand Greek texts, perhaps with some diffi
culty and loss of time. In general he uses a Latin version of the
Bible, usually the one long current in Africa; at times he makes
use also of the Hieronymian version, but whenever the meaning of
the Latin text is difficult or dubious, he has recourse to the Greek.
The first principle of his hermeneutics 6 is the necessity of ascertain
ing of the true literal sense, and to this principle he remains faith
ful, particularly in his works of scientific exegesis. In his homilies,
however, e. g. : Enarrationes in Psalmos, Tractatus in evangelium
Johannis, In Ep. I. Johannis, he is thoroughly at home only in the
broader field of mystic and allegorical exegesis. On all points of
Christian faith and morals he finds the Old Testament a witness
only a little less outspoken than the New Testament, and he selects
the texts of his homilies as readily from the Psalms as from the
Gospels. It is Augustine who first put forth the idea of a multiplex
sensus liter alls. He maintains, or at least surmises, that, whatever
truth can be found in a phrase of Holy Scripture, was then and
there intended by the sacred writer or rather by the Holy Spirit7.
Were this true, a scientific exegesis of Scripture would be impossible;
Augustine puts it forth only as his own opinion, and one not shared
by the majority of his contemporaries; very often, moreover, he
tacitly abandons it. In the interpretation of the Scriptures he con
siders the authority of the Church as the highest rule and criterion
both in theory and practice : Consulat (interpres) regulam fidei quam
de Scripturarum planioribus locis et ecclesiae auctoritate percepit8;
quaerendi dubitatio catholicae fidei metas non debet excedere9. In
the Scriptures there can be found no other teaching than that of
the Church: Non autem praecipit Scriptura nisi caritatem . . . non
autem asserit nisi catholicam fidem 10. The heretic interprets incor-
1 Retract., i. 23—25. 2 Ib _ H 32
J Migne, PL., xxxv. 2417—2452. * lb., xxxv. 2213—2416; cf. § 90, 10.
5 Contra litteras Petiliani, ii. 38, 91; cf. De trinit., iii., prooem. i.
6 De doctrina Christiana, i — iii.
7 Conf., xii. 31, 42; De doctrina christ., iii. 27, 38.
De doctrina christ., iii. 2, 2. » De Gen. ad litt. imperf., i. i.
10 De doctrina christ., iii. 10, 15.
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 491
rectly the Scripture because he is a heretic, and not vice versa:
Multi haeretici ad suam sententiam quae praeter fidem est catholicae
disciplinae, expositionem Scripturarum divinarum trahere consue-
verunt1. He insists constantly on the inspired character and canonical
dignity of the biblical books; he defends their inerrancy with special
energy in the De consensu evangelistarum and in the above-mentioned
controversy with St. Jerome (§ 93, 5); in these letters to Jerome are
found the oft repeated words : if once an officious lie is admitted in
the Scripture, no sentence of it will be guarded from a similar ac
cusation (admisso enim semel in tantum auctoritatis fastigium officioso
aliquo mendacio, nulla illorum librorum particula remanebit, quae
non ... ad mentientis auctoris consilium officiumque referatur) 2.'
Apparent errors in the Bible result either from defects in the manu
scripts, or from mistakes of the translators, or from the imperfect
intelligence of the reader: si aliquid in eis ofiendero literis quod
videatur contrarium veritati, nihil aliud quam vel mendosum esse
codicem, vel interpretem non assecutum esse quod dictum est, vel
me minime intellexisse non ambigam 3.
9. WORKS OF MORAL AND PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. - - The popular
instruction: De agone christiano4, was written about 396 or 397, in
order to show the Christian how he might overcome evil by faith5.
Towards the end of his life, perhaps in 427, he made up from the
Old and the New Testament a book of moral precepts ; he intended
it to be a mirror of Christian morality, hence the name of: Speculum;
it begins with the words: Quis ignorat6. In its original form the texts
of Scripture or testimonia were quoted from the Old-Itala version,
but in the extant manuscripts corresponding texts from the Hierony-
mian version have been very frequently substituted. He has been
wrongly credited, even quite recently, with the authorship of another
very similar work, the: Liber de divinis scripturis sive Speculum; it
begins with Audi Israhel, and was first published by H. Vignier in
1654; it is not found in the Benedictine edition and is therefore
lacking in Migne. Two other works, each entitled : Speculum or
Speculum peccatoris7, are universally rejected as spurious. The ap
pendix to the sixth volume of the Benedictine edition contains many
other spurious ascetico-moral writings. The: De Vita Christiana8, is
distinctly Pelagian in tone; perhaps it is a work of Pelagius himself
(see no. 1 6). The: Liber exhortationis, vulgo de salutaribus docu-
mentis9, belongs to St. Paulinus of Aquileia (§ 67, 1 1). In two
genuine works Augustine discusses the nature and the reprehensibility
1 De Gen. ad litt. imperf., i. i. 2 Ep. 28, 3, 3.
3 Ep. 82, i, 3; cf. Contra Faustum Man., xi. 5.
4 Migne, PL., xl. 289—310. 5 Retract., ii. 3.
6 Migne, PL., xxxiv. 887—1040. 7 Ib., xl. 967—984; 983—992.
8 Ib., xl. 1031 — 1046. 9 Ib., xl. 1047 — 1078.
492 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
of lying: De mendacio1, written about 395, and: Contra mendacium2,
written about 420. The former was a hasty composition, and later
on satisfied its author so little that he regretted its publication3. He
expended all the more industry on the second work in which he
teaches ex professo the illicit character of a lie under any circum
stances4. The little treatises: De continentia5, written about 395,
and: De patientia6, written probably before 418, are homiletic dis
courses. De bono coniugali7, and: De sancta virginitate8, were written
about 401, in reply to Jovinian's denunciation of celibacy. It was said
that in his reply to Jovinian (Adversus Jovinianum; §93, 7) Jerome
had exalted virginity at the expense of matrimony: Jactabatur Jovi-
niano responded non potuisse cum laude, sed cum vituperatione
nuptiarum9. To avoid this charge, Augustine begins by placing in
their true light the institution of marriage and its dignity; he is able,
there after, to treat of virginity with more freedom and security10.
The superiority of the widowed estate to matrimony is the subject
of: De bono viduitatis liber seu Epistola ad Julianam viduam11, written
about 414. His work: De opere monachorum12, exercised a very
great influence: in it he maintained that according to the Holy
Scriptures monks should labor with their hands 13. - - The : De doc-
trina Christiana (see no. 8), offers in its second part a treatise of
pastoral theology; the fourth book, as already indicated, is really
the earliest attempt at systematic Homiletics. Similarly, the earliest
theory of catechetic instruction is his: De catechizandis rudibus14,
written about 400 at the request of Deogratias, a deacon of Carthage.
We have to regret the loss of his work : Contra Hilarum, in defence
of the ecclesiastical custom at Carthage : ut hymni ad altare dicerentur
de Psalmorum libro, sive ante oblationem, sive cum distribueretur
populo quod fuisset oblatum 15.
10. SERMONS, LETTERS, POEMS. — Apart from his biblical Enar-
rationes and Tractatus (see no. 8) numerous Sermones have always
been current under his name. The fifth volume of the Benedictine
edition16 contains three hundred and sixty-three Sermones that are
undoubtedly genuine, divided into four groups: Sermones de scrip-
turis Veteris et Novi Testamenti (1 — 183), Sermones de tempore (184
2), Sermones de sanctis (273—340), Sermones de diversis (341
to 363). They were either dictated by Augustine himself after he
had preached them, or were written down in the church by others.
Next in order are certain Sermones dubii (364—395), also: Sermonum
1 Migne, PL, xl. 487-518- ~ Ib., xl. 517-548. 3 Retract., i. 27.
Ib-> "• 6o- 5 Migne, PL, xl. 349—372. 6 Ib, xl. 611—626.
Ib, xl. 373-396. 8 Ib, xl. 397—428. 9 Retract, ii. 22.
11 Migne, PL, xl. 429—450. 12 Ib., xl, 547—582.
Retract, ii. 21. ^ Migne> PL>) xl 3O9__348 . Retract, ii. 14.
15 Retract, ii. u. is Migne, PL, xxxviii— xxxix.
§ 94- ST. AUGUSTINE. 493
quorumdam qui adhuc desiderantur fragmenta, and : Sermones sup-
posititii (1—317). Other discourses (Tractatus, Sermones) are found
elsewhere in the Benedictine edition, among the correlated works of
the Saint; we have already mentioned many of them among his
apologetic, dogmatic, dogmatico-polemical and theologico-moral writ
ings. Since the appearance of the Benedictine edition many new
sermons of St. Augustine have been published, by Denis1, Fontani2,
Frangipane 3, and others, but most of these are either unquestionably
spurious or at least of very doubtful authenticity. Augustine is the
foremost ecclesiastical orator of the patristic epoch, a judgment that
accords perfectly with his personal appreciation of his worth: Mihi
prope semper sermo meus displicet4. He always seeks some better
expression, one that is clearer and larger; the words just spoken
always fail to convey his thoughts and emotions satisfactorily. We
have compared elsewhere (§ 74, n) the oratorical style of Augustine
with that of Chrysostom. It may be added here that the earlier
sermons of Augustine are more rhetorical and polished, while his
later sermons excel in compactness of expression, logical power and
unadorned simplicity. — His letters number two hundred and seventy
in the second volume of the Benedictine edition ; a fragment of a letter
is published at the end of the third Benedictine volume5. Among
these two hundred and seventy letters are fifty-three addressed to
Augustine or some of his friends. It is also to be noted that letters
of Augustine are scattered through the various volumes of the Bene
dictine edition (see nos. 6 7 9), as in the second (Benedictine)
volume letters are found that Augustine himself made public as
treatises6. Two letters unknown to the Benedictine editors were dis
covered and published by Abbot Gottfried von Gottweig (f I749)7,
and Goldbacher published lately two hitherto unknown letters of
Augustine. His correspondence covers a period of more than forty
years (386/387 — 429) , and varies considerably in importance. It
contains but few letters of a purely friendly or intimate character;
most of the letters deal with philosophical and theological problems,
and are usually direct replies to questions sent him; in other letters
he appears as the Christian pastor, urging his correspondents to a
higher moral life, or as their counsellor in matters of conscience, or
again as their consoler in the hour of trial or misfortune; some of
his letters are merely official communications, written in the name
of synods, and often concerning the above-mentioned schisms and
heresies. The Psalmus contra partem Donati has already been men-
1 Ib., xlvi. 813 — 940. - Ib., xlvii. 1113 — 1140.
3 Ib., xlvi. 939 — 1004. 4 Ue catech. rud., 2, 3.
5 Migne, PL., xxxiii ; cf. Ib., 751 — 752.
6 Retract., ii. 31, apropos of Ep. 102.
~ Migne, PL., xxxiii. 789 — 792 929 — 938.
494 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
tioned (no. 6) as a poetical effusion of Augustine; other small and
insignificant metrical pieces have been preserved among his works,
II. REVIEW OF THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTINE. - - None of the
other Latin Fathers has left so many and so large works as Augu
stine; among the Greek Fathers only Chrysostom has contributed so
much to ecclesiastical literature. Possidius, the earliest biographer of
Augustine, says: Tanta autem ab eodem dictata et edita sunt tanta-
que in ecclesia disputata, excepta atque emendata . . ., ut ea omnia
vix quisquam studiosorum perlegere et nosse sufficiat 1. The style
of Augustine is very attractive : he is unusually skilful and ready in
the expression of his thoughts; he positively fascinates us by the
ability with which he depicts the various thoughts and emotions of
his soul. His latinity bears the impress of his own time; usually his
diction is noble and choice, but in his popular sermons and works
he condescends to use the language of the people. Thus in the
Enarrationes in Psalmos he affects an average « barbarism » of speech,
and expressly avoids the purism of the «grammarians» ; here are his
own words: Quid ad nos quid grammatici velint? Melius in barbarismo
nostro vos intelligitis, quam in nostra disertitudine vos deserti estis2;
potui illud dicere cum tracto vobis; saepe enim et verba non latina
dico ut vos intelligatis 3 ; melius est reprehendant nos grammatici
quam non intelligant populi4. In the Psalmus contra partem Donati
he deliberately disregards all metrical laws that he may not be
compelled to use words unfamiliar to the multitude5; the work De
agone christiano was purposely written in the language of the people :
humili sermone6. The versatility of Augustine is evident from the
mere enumeration of the titles of his works; and we have also in
dicated, as occasion offered, their special value and bearing. These
writings mirror a highly-gifted personality, a heart overflowing with
the ardor of life and the warmth of love, a mind unparalleled for
logical acuteness and speculative depth. If Jerome is rightly called
the most erudite of the Fathers, Augustine is certainly the greatest,
the most original and versatile. He unites at once the creative power
of a Tertullian and the ecclesiastical sentiments of a Cyprian; we
find in him the practical tact of the Latins and the intellectual vi
vacity of the Greeks ; his mind is powerfully attracted to the obscure
problems of theological anthropology, such as the relations of man
to God, reparation and re-union, sin and grace. In this department
of theology he towers above all others as an incomparable master.
Nevertheless, he does not develop his ideas in any finished and
rounded system. He tells us himself that the necessities of a cease
less controversy induced, or rather forced him, constantly to develop
1 Vita S. Aug., c. 1 8. - Enarr. in Ps. xxxvi sermo 3, 6.
:i Ib., in Ps. cxxiii. 8. 4 Ib., in Ps. cxxxviii. 20.
5 Retract , i. 20. 6 Ib , ii. 3.
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 495
and reform his opinions on individual questions : Ego proinde fateor
me ex eorum numero esse conari, qui proficiendo scribunt et scri-
bendo proficiunt1; proficienter me existimo Deo miserante scripsisse,
non tamen a perfectione coepisse2. This is why he desires that his
works should be read in the order in which they were written : In-
veniet enim fortasse quomodo scribendo profecerim, quisquis opuscula
mea ordine quo scripta sunt legerit3. He demands likewise that his
teachings should be gathered from his later rather than from his
earlier writings. When the Semipelagians appealed to those earlier
writings, he replied : Non sicut legere libros meos, ita etiam in eis
curaverunt proficere mecum4. This just demand of our Saint was
destined to be more than once ignored in the ages to come. It was
but natural that a man like Augustine should irresistibly attract his
contemporaries and exercise over them a very potent influence. His
personal authority is evident from the collection of his letters; he
seems to dominate the entire Church, or, at least, the entire African
Church, and to guide at will the progressive spirit of his time. People
living at a great distance take the liberty of sending him a multitude
of questions and doubts: Tu me innumerabilium quaestionum turba
repente circumvallandum vel potius obruendum putasti5. The world
looked on him, in the words of a certain Audax, as an oracle of
the law: oraculum legis6, from whom it was possible to learn every
thing. Augustine judged of himself in another manner. He requests
his correspondents not only to read him leniently, but also to criticise
him frankly: In omnibus litteris meis non solum pium lectorem, sed
etiam liberum correctorem desiderem 7. He asks them to follow him
only when they are convinced that he has written the truth: Neminem
velim sic amplecti omnia mea, ut me sequatur, nisi in iis in quibus
me non errasse perspexerit 8. In another work 9 he says: «the errors
of this work are mine; to God, the giver of all good gifts, belongs
what is true and pertinent therein ». Posterity has ratified the judg
ment of his contemporaries; he still passes for one of those mighty
spirits that appear only at great intervals of time, but are destined
to influence very profoundly the destiny of humanity. He has earned
from all later generations the title of a Second Paul, a Doctor gratiae.
No Father of the Church has, even remotely, so magisterially affected
the entire later course of philosophy and theology, as Augustine did.
W7ith princely generosity he scattered along his way ideas in which
later thinkers found the materials for entire systems of doctrine; his
words were often the origin of dogmatic controversies that have
agitated powerfully more than one generation of mankind. Ecclesia-
1 Ep. 143, 2. 2 De dono persev., xxi. 55. 3 Retract., Prol. 3.
4 De praed. sanct., iv. 8. 5 Ep. 118, I, i. 6 Ep. 260.
7 De trinit., iii ; Prooem. 2. 8 De dono persev., xxi. 55.
!l De vera religione, ix. 17.
496 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
stical authority, both conciliar and pontifical, has always reckoned
him among the chief doctors of the Church; it has declared that
particularly in the matters of divine grace, its nature, necessity and
gratuitous character, his writings are a faithful reflection of the teach
ings of the Church. The decrees of the second Council of Orange
(529), condemnatory of Semipelagianism, are nearly all taken verbally
from the writings of Augustine or from the collections of pertinent
«sententiae» extracted from his writings by Prosper of Aquitania
(§ 95 > 3)5 Dut it "lust be noted, however, that the Church has never
made her own the entire teaching of Augustine concerning grace
and predestination.
12. THE PHILOSOPHY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. - - Augustine was a
Platonist, as were most of the Christian thinkers of antiquity; his
Platonism, however, was colored by the new religion and was filled
with its spirit. In his eyes Plato is the foremost of all pre-Christian
philosophers1. In the same place he declares Aristotle a: vir excel-
lentis ingenii et eloquio Platoni quidem impar, sed multos facile
superans2. Among the Neoplatonists he distinguishes Plotinus, Jam-
blichus, Porphyrius, and Apuleius3. It is the Platonists who came
nearest to the true philosophy, which is that of Christianity: Nulli
nobis, quam isti, propius accesserunt 4. Seeking after God they rightly
rose above the world of sense, above the soul and the changeful
realm of spirits: Cuncta corpora transscenderunt quaerentes Deum . . .
omnem animam mutabilesque omnes spiritus transscenderunt quae
rentes summum Deum5. - - His Christian Platonism manifests itself
particularly in his demonstration of the existence of God. He gives
a great many proofs of this doctrine6, sometimes from the external
and visible world, its mutability and its order; sometimes from the
nature of the human soul, the mutability of human intelligence, the
voice of conscience, the desire of happiness; more frequently, however,
and with evident predilection from certain original immutable truths
natural to the soul of man. By these truths he understands those
fundamental principles of reason or intelligence, the absolute necessity
and universality of which show that they have not been derived a
posteriori from human experience, but that they are dialectical,
mathematical, ethical arid aesthetic axioms, which dominate the human
mind with luminous strength and imperious majesty: supreme and
changeless rules, according to which we judge things to be true or
false, good or bad, beautiful or ugly. From these truths Augustine
concludes that God exists; it is true that he frequently seems to
identify them with the divine essence itself. He often uses such
phrases as the following: God is the light in which we see all im
mutable truths, God enlightens all minds, God is the innermost
De civ. Dei, viii. 4 ff . 2 lbi> viii> I2 3 lb
4 Ib-> Vlii- 5- 5 Ib., viii. 6. « Conf., x. 6—27 8—38.
§ 94- ST. AUGUSTINE. 497
teacher of the soul, and the like. These expressions easily lead the
reader to suppose that our mental vision of these immutable truths is
identical with the vision of the divine essence, though of course an
imperfect vision; hence, we need not be surprised to learn that
Augustine has often been quoted as a champion of Ontologism. In
other places, however, our Saint has clearly distinguished between
these ideal truths, and God as the real and original truth; he con
cludes from the truths innate in the human mind that God must
exist as their first and essential foundation. He is, in fact, develop
ing the argument of causality, and this particular demonstration is
only his peculiar way of pressing the so-called cosmological proof
of the existence of God. With the exception of Saint Bonaventure,
that « Second Augustine », the Aristotelian scholastics have generally
abandoned this argument of the bishop of Hippo. Nevertheless, he
conceived in this way the existence of God and demonstrated that
He was beyond all categories of the finite, or without quality or quan
tity or the like : sine qualitate bonum, sine quantitate magnum, sine
indigentia creatorem, sine situ praesidentem, sine habitu omnia con-
tinentem, sine loco ubique totum, sine tempore sempiternum, sine ulla
sui mutatione mutabilia facientem nihilque patientem1. God is, there
fore, at once knowable and unknowable. Augustine avoids such
Platonist and Neoplatonist expressions as super-being, super-life, super-
reason etc. The finite is the' result and the image of the ideas that
illuminate the creative will of the Infinite Being. The Platonic ideas,
therefore, according to Augustine, are identical with the creative
ideas of God. At the same time he teaches that not only the general
essences of things but also all particular things (real and possible)
are ideally pre-existent in the mind of the Creator: Singula igitur
propriis sunt creata rationibus . . . rerum omnium creandarum crea-
tarumve rationes in divina mente continentur2. — By faith in divine
revelation there is opened to man a new world of knowledge, espe
cially of the knowledge of God. In his later or post-baptismal
writings, Augustine illustrates as follows the relations between faith
and knowledge: Intellige ut credas, crede ut intelligas3; alia sunt
enim quae nisi intelligamus non credimus, et alia sunt quae nisi
credamus non intelligimus; proficit ergo noster intellectus ad intel-
ligenda quae credat, et fides proficit ad credenda quae intelligat *.
In one way knowledge precedes faith ; our reason must not only
furnish us the images and concepts through which we grasp and
understand the truths of divine revelation5, but must also furnish
us with knowledge of the objective reality of the latter: Nostrum
est considerare quibus vel hominibus vel libris credendum sit °. Faith
1 I)e trinit., v. i, 2. 2 De div. quaest. Ixxxiii, qu. xlvi. 2.
3 Sermo xliii. 7, 9. 4 Enarr. in Ps cxviii, sermo xviii. 3.
5 De trinit., viii. 4 — 5 6—8. 6 De vera relig. 25, 46.
BARDENHENVER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 32
498 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
is an acquiescence in thoughts that we have previously entertained :
Nullus quippe credit aliquid, nisi prius cogitaverit esse credendum . . .
ipsum credere nihil aliud est quam cum assensione cogitare5. The
motives of this assent are found by reason in the contents of divine
revelation, especially in its miracles and prophecies2. But once we
have grasped by faith the truths of revelation, our reason craves a
deeper intelligence, a more personal comprehension of them. And
in this way faith precedes knowledge, as the prophet had foretold :
Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis 3. In the future life this knowledge
will become the beatific vision : Ilia visio facie ad faciem liberatis
in resurrectione servatur*.
13. THEOLOGY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. REFUTATION OF PELAGIANISM.
- In his conflict with Pelagian naturalism, Augustine was called on
to defend the fundamental truths of Christianity, viz. that in creating
man, God had raised him to a supernatural end and endowed him
accordingly with the gifts of supernatural grace. Among such gifts
of the original state he reckons immortality (posse non mori as
distinguished from non posse mori}, freedom from the disorders of
concupiscence (concupiscentia rebellis), sanctity and justice or that
supernatural likeness to God which fallen man received again by
means of sanctifying grace: Hanc imaginem in spiritu mentis im-
pressam perdidit Adam per peccatum, quam recipimus per gratiam
iustitiae5. Adam, indeed, might have persevered in this state of
grace, not in and by his free will, but by means of the actual grace
which God had promised him: Primo itaque homini . . . datum est ad-
iutorium perseverantiae non quo fieret ut perseveraret, sed sine quo
per liberum arbitrium perseverare non posset 6. But as a consequence
of his sin Adam lost the supernatural gifts of his original state,
was deeply wounded in all the natural and moral forces of his being,
and became liable to eternal damnation. The posterity of our first
father inherited his sin with all its consequences and punishment, so
that all mankind is a mass a perditionis, damnabilis et damnata. This
hereditary character of original sin is explained by St. Augustine,
after St. Paul, as a consequence of Adam's office as the head and
the representative of the human race 7. He does not undertake to
explain the manner in which original sin is handed down. The Pe-
1 De praed. sanctorum ii. 5.
De vera relig. 25, 46—47; De utilit. credendi 16—17 34—35-
3 Is. vii. 9 (Septuagint) ; Ep. cxx. i, 3; Sermo xliii. 6, 7; Enarr. in Ps. cxviii
sermo xviii. 3.
4 Enarr. in Ps. xliii. 5. & De Gen. ad lit. vi. 27, 38.
6 De corr. et grat. 12, 34.
7 He understands the .in quo. of Rom. v. 12 to mean «in Adamo* ; cf. Contra
. 3, 10, and Opus imperfect, c. lul. i. 47, where he quotes approvingly a text
trom St. Ambrose (Comm. in Lk. vii. 234): Fuit Adam et in illo fuimus omnes, periit
Adam et in illo omnes perierunt.
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 499
lagians argued that such a propagation of sin was impossible : sin,
they said, was not inherent in the body, but in the soul, and the
soul was created by God. It was very probably in deference to this
objection that Augustine abstained from pronouncing definitely against
generationism, and in favor of creationism. By the act of genera
tion, he replied, either there is propagated together with the body
a soul contaminated by sin, or the soul, though created by God, is
infected with in the corruption of sin by reason of its union with the
body 1. But this presupposed vitiatio carnis is occasioned and brought
about by sinful concupiscence in the act of generation2. It is in
consequence of these principles that, when Augustine describes the
state of fallen man, he is wont to bring forward in the first place
the corruption of human nature and its unruly concupiscence. He
has not yet made it clear that the essence of original sin is to be
found in the loss of the afore-mentioned supernatural likeness to
God. On the other hand, he loves to depict both the corruption of
human nature and the corrupting influence of an evil concupiscence,
all the more as the Pelagians denied not only the existence of ori
ginal sin, but all consequences thereof as regards human nature.
The reformers of the sixteenth century, likewise Baius and Jansenius,
appealed willingly to the authority of Augustine in favor of their
doctrine concerning the absolute extinction or absence of all natural
moral power in man. However Augustine always proclaims, and
with energy, that fallen man still possesses free will, or the power of
choice in the moral order: liberum arbitrium3. Though fallen, and
groaning beneath tfie yoke of concupiscence , the not yet justified
man cannot only desire what is good, but can also perform some
thing good, praiseworthy and meritorious4. It is true that in his
later writings , we come with increasing frequency on apparently
contradictory statements, e. g. that the infidel can do nothing good,
that the externally good works of the infidels are really sins5. The
context shows, however, that in such phrases he has in view works
that are supernaturally good , meritorious of salvation. Augustine
takes it for granted that even in his fallen state man is destined to
a supernatural end, and that he ought to direct thereto all his moral
activity; this end, however, can be known to him only by faith, and
he can reach it only by the grace 'of the Redeemeer which comes
through faith. Hence, the works of the infidels are sins in the sense
that they are not performed with a proper intention: Homines sine
fide non ad eum finem ista opera retulerunt, ad quern referre debue-
1 Contra lul.. v. 4, 17. - De nupt. et concup., i. 24, 27.
3 Contra duas epist. Pelag., i. 2, 5; ii. 5, 9.
4 De spir. et litt. 27 — 28, 48.
5 Contra duas epist. Pelag., iii. 5, 14; Contra lul., iv. 3, 32; in both places with
reference to Rom. xiv. 23 : omne quod non est ex fide, peccatum est.
32*
5QO SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
runt1; as regards the result, he admits no distinction between infidelity
or the ignorance of our supernatural end that comes from personal guilt,
and that infidelity which is the consequence of the guilt contracted by
original sin : Et ilia ignorantia quae non est eorum qui scire nolunt, sed
eorum qui tamquam simpliciter nesciunt, neminem sic excusat lit sempi-
terno igne non ardeat2. -- We have already seen that by justification
man regains the supernatural likeness of God that he had lost by sin.
In the naturalistic system of the Pelagians there was no place for
the concept of an internal sanctifying grace. In the first of his Anti-
Pelagian works3, Augustine explains minutely and defends sancti
fying grace as something that accomplishes a thorough change and
renewal in man through the infusion of habitual love of God and
the imparting of supernatural strength. By this grace man obtains
the true freedom of his will, i. e. the moral strength necessary to
perform supernaturally good acts, libertas as distinguished from libc-
rum arbitrium: Voluntas quippe humana non libertate consequitur
gratiam sed gratia potius libertatem4. It is the love of God that
renders our human acts truly good, i. e. deserving of eternal happi
ness: Quid autem boni faceremus nisi diligeremus? aut quomodo
bonum non facimus si diligamus?5 It is through actual grace that
man obtains habitual grace with perseverance in the same and the
proper use of it. Without this aid man can neither will nor perform
any (supernatural) good: nisi ipsa voluntas hominis Dei gratia fuerit
liberata et ad omne bonum actionis, sermonis, cogitationis adiuta6;
ipse ut velimus operatur incipiens, qui volentibus cooperatur per-
ficiens7. The merits of the Saints are the gifts of divine grace:
non gratia ex merito, sed meritum ex gratia8; ipsum hominis meritum
donum est gratuitum9. In His elect God crowns His own gifts:
Dona sua coronat, non merita tua . . . coronat autem in nobis Deus
dona misericordiae suae10. In his earlier writings Augustine had
limited much more closely the influence and necessity of actual
grace. In order to correct or explain his inexact assertions he re
peats frequently in the Retractationes that it is truly man who wishes
to do good, but that it is God who gives him the will to do good,
according to the word of Scripture : Praeparatur voluntas a Domino u.
In his Expositio quarumdam proposit. ex epist. ad Rom. our Saint
had put forth the theory that faith is the work of man and not the
gift of God: Fidem, qua in Deum credimus, non esse donum Dei,
sed a nobis esse in nobis12; but he soon corrected this theory tacitly 13,
1 Contra lul, iv. 3, 25. 2 De gratia e(. Hb arb ^ ^
De pecc. mer. et rein. lib. i. * De corr. et grat. 8, 17.
De grat. Chr. 26, 27. e Contra duas epist. Pelag., ii. 5, 9.
De gratia et lib. arb. 17, 33. « Sermo l(>9> 2^ 3
Ep. 1 86, 3, 10. i" In Io. ev. tract. 3, 10.
Prov. viii. 35 (Septuagint) ; Retract., i. 9, 2 ; i. 10, 2 ; i. 22, 4; ii. i, 2.
2 De praed. sanct. 3, 7. is De div. quaest ad Simplic. i; qu_ 2>
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 5OI
and at a later date withdrew it formally1. He believed that for the
first time in De correptione et gratia he had taught positively and
clearly, that perseverance in grace was a gift of God : Donum Dei
esse etiam perseverare usque in finem2. Similarly, he looked on his
theory of predestination as a consequence of his conflict with Pelagian-
ism, and particularly with the assertion of the Pelagians: Gratiam
Dei secundum merita nostra dari3. Predestination, he says, is the
eternal design of God to lead certain men to eternal life by infallibly
efficacious graces : Haec est praedestinatio sanctorum , nihil aliud :
praescientia scilicet et praeparatio beneficiorum Dei, quibus certissime
liberantur quicumque liberantur4; praedestinasse est hoc praescisse
quod fuerat ipse facturus5. No one has any right to be withdrawn
from the massa perditionis , and whoever is withdrawn therefrom
owes it entirely to the gratuitous grace of God. It is without any
regard for the merits of the elect that God saves some from eternal
damnation and predestines them to eternal life: Sola enim gratia
redemptos discernit a perditis6; liberantur . . . gratuita miseratione,
non debita, quos elegit ante constitutionem mundi per electionem
gratiae, non ex operibus vel praeteritis vel praesentibus vel futuris.
Alioquin gratia iam non est gratia. Quod maxime apparet in par-
vulis7. All the non-elect are, or rather remain, the prey of eternal
damnation. But does not the Apostle say8 that God will have all
men to be saved? This difficult text, says Augustine, must be so
explained that it shall not conflict with the evident truth that what
ever God wills is sure to happen 9. Perhaps the Apostle means that
no one is saved if God does not will it10; perhaps by « all men » we
are to understand all classes of men: omne genus humanum per
quascumque differentias distributum, reges, privates . . . n; perhaps he
means that we ought to be ready to aid all men in the matter of
their salvation12. After the year 417 Augustine seems no longer to
admit that God gives to every one grace sufficient for salvation13.
This is no doubt the reason why he no longer insists on the nature
of the efficacious grace reserved to the elect (adiutorium quo), nor
on its relation to the merely sufficient grace (adiutorium sine quo non).
He is content to emphasize the infallible results of efficacious grace,
and loves to insist on the divine omnipotence as the secret of its
irresistible operation. The idea of a divine will, omnipotent, supreme,
the source of all goodness, sustains and dominates all his teaching
concerning divine grace.
1 Retract., i. 23, 2 — 4; De praed. sanct. 3, 7 ; 4, 8.
2 De dono persev. 21, 55. 3 lb., 20, 53. 4 Ib., 14, 35.
5 Ib., 18, 47. 6 Enchir. 99, 25. 7 Contra lul., vi. 19, 59.
8 i Tim. ii. 4. 9 Enchir. 103, 27; Ep. 217, 6, 19.
0 Enchir., 1. c. ; cf. Contra lul., iv. 8, 44.
1 Enchir., 1. c.; De corr. et grat. 14, 44. 12 De corr. et grat. 15, 47, 46.
13 Ep. 185, n, 49; De corr. et grat. u, 32.
EJO2 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
14. COMPLETE EDITIONS. TRANSLATIONS. — The first complete editions
of the works of Augustine were brought out by J. Amerbach, Basel, 1506,
9 vols. (reprinted Paris, 1515); D. Erasmus, Basel, 1528 — 1529, 10 vols.
(often reprinted); Theologi Lovanienses, Antwerp, 1577, n vols. (often
reprinted). The Oratorian H. Vignier published a valuable Supplementum
opemm S. Augustini, Paris, 1654 — 1655, 2 vols. ; see Schoenemann , Bibl.
hist.-lit. Patr. lat. ii. 65 — 70, 84—144. They were all surpassed by the
edition of the Benedictines of St. Maur (Th. Blampin, P, Constant, et al.);
though the latter did not add many inedita, a far purer text of Augustine
was presented by them, while they also separated very successfully the
spurious material from the genuine, especially as regards the letters and
the sermons. This edition appeared at Paris, 1679 — T700> I][ vols., vol. i
to iv and viii — x were reprinted at Paris, 1688 — 1696. With the exception
of vol. iv. (Enarr. in Psalmos), each of the volumes i — x contains a special
ly paginated appendix in which are found the spuria and the adiecta.
Vol. xi contains a very copious life of St. Augustine and a comprehensive
Index in omnia opera S. Augustini. In the preparation of the Vita the
Benedictine editors were able to use the manuscript biography of the Saint
by Tillemont, published later in the latter's Memoires pour servir a 1'histoire
eccles. xiii., 2. ed., Paris, 1710. Very detailed Indices to the works of
St. Augustine were published by the Dominican D. Lenfant in his Con-
cordantiae Augustinianae, Paris, 1656 — 1665, 2 vols. Cf. R. C. Kukula,
Die Mauriner Ausgabe des Augustinus (Sitzungsberichte der k. Akad. der
Wissensch. zu Wien), Vienna, 1890, i — ii. ; 1893, iii. i; 1898, iii. 2;
O. Rottmanner, Bibliographische Nachtrage zu Dr. R. C. Kukulas Abhand-
lung: «Die Mauriner Ausgabe des Augustinus», in the same Sitzungsberichte,
Vienna, 1891; A. M. P. Ingold , Histoire de 1'edition Benedictine de
St. Augustin, Paris, 1903. The Benedictine edition was reprinted, ap
parently at Antwerp, but really at Amsterdam, 1700—1702, n vols.; in
1703 appeared (ib.) a twelfth volume entitled: Appendix Augustiniana by
Phereponus (Jean le Clerc) ; it was also reprinted at Venice, 1729—1735,
ii vols.; 1756 — 1769, 18 vols.; 1797 — 1807, 18 vols.; 1833 — 1866, ii vols.;
another reprint was brought out at Paris, in ii vols. (apud fratres
Gaume, 1836 — 1839), and accurante J. P. Migne, Paris, 1845, I1L vols.;
finally in PL. xxxii — xlvii. 1845 — 1849. A new and complete edition was
undertaken in 1887 for the Corpus script, eccles. lat. of the Vienna Aca
demy of Sciences, so far there have been edited the Speculum (F. Weih-
rich, vol. xii), most of the Anti-Manichsean works (J. Zycha, xxv. 1 — 2), se
veral exegetical works (Zycha, xxviii. 1—3), several moral-theological works
(Zycha, xli), the Confessiones (P. Knoll, xxxiii), a portion of the correspon
dence (A. Goldbacher, xxxiv. i — 2), the De civitate Dei (E. Hoffmann, xl)
and various anti-Pelagian works (C. F. Urba and J. Zycha, xlii), the Re-
tractiones (P. Knoll, xxxvi). The volumes edited by Zycha correspond
but partially with the just demands of modern scholarship. — Ausgewahlte
Schriften des hi. Aurelius Augustinus, Kirchenlehrers, nach dem Urtexte
iibersetzt, Kempten, 1871—1879, 8 vols. (Bibl. der Kirchenvater) ; i: Con
fessiones by J. Molzberger; ii— iii : De civitate Dei by U. Uhl; iv: De
doctrina Christiana by R. Storf, De catechizandis rudibus by Molzberger,
De symbolo ad catechumenos by Storf y De fide et operibus by Storf,
Enchiridion ad Laurentium by Molzberger; v — vi: In Johannis evangelium
tractatus cxxv by H. Hayd; vii— viii: Select letters by Th. Kranzf elder.
There is an English translation of nearly all the works of St. Augustine,
in the Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the
Christian Church, by Ph. Schaff (series I), Buffalo, 1886 ff.
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 503
15. SEPARATE EDITIONS. TRANSLATIONS. RECENSIONS. — Retractdtiones
and Confessiones, Philosophical works: The Confessiones have often been
printed separately. The edition of the Jesuits, H. Sommalius (Douai, 1607)
and H. Wagner eck (Confessionum libri x priores, Dillingen, 1630) circulated
widely. Later separate editions are owing to K. v. Raumer, Stuttgart, 1856,
2. ed., Giitersloh, 1876; P. Knoll, Leipzig, 1898. German translations were
published by W. Bornemann, Gotha, 1889, (Bibl. theolog. Klassiker, vol. xii),
and O. F. Bachmann, Leipzig. 1891. Cf. A, Harnack, Augustins Konfes-
sionen, ein Vortrag, Giessen, 1888. 2. ed. 1894, 3- £d. 1903. G, Boissier,
La fin du paganisme, Paris, i, 3. ed., 1903, pp. 291 — 325: « La conversion
de St. Augustin.» The opinion of Harnack and Boissier that the account
of Augustine's conversion, as told in the Confessions, is not entirely reliable,
has been refuted by Fr. Worter, Die Geistesentwicklung des hi. Aurelius
Augustinus bis zu seiner Taufe, Paderborn, 1892, pp. 62 — 66, cf. C. Douais,
Les Confessions de St. Augustin, Paris, 1893.. — The philosophical works
of St. Augustine are discussed by Worter, 1. c., 67 — 210: « Augustins littera-
rische Tatigkeit bis zu seiner Taufe. » D. Ohlmann, De S. Augustini dia-
logis in Cassiciaco scriptis (Diss. inaug.), Strassburg, 1897. For the Soli-
loquia cf. Matinee, S. Augustinus Aurelius in Soliloquiis qualis philosophus
appareat, qualis vir (These), Rennes, 1864. The spurious Soliloquia, Medi-
tationes, Manuale, were often edited separately, especially by H, Sommalius,
whose first edition of them appeared at Douai, 1613; reprinted by E. W.
Westhoff, Miinster, 1854. For Augustine's treatise on the seven liberal
arts and its surviving fragments cf. Teuffel-Schwabe, Gesch. der rom. Litt.,
5. ed. , pp. 1132 — 1133. W. Ott , Uber die Schrift des hi. Augustinus «De
magistro» (Progr.), Hechingen, 1898. -- Apologetic works: Separate edi
tions of the De civitate Dei were printed by J. Strange, Cologne, 1850,
2 vols., and by B. Dombart, Leipzig, 1863, 2 vols. ; 2. ed. 1877. G. y.
Seyrich, Die Geschichtsphilosophie Augustins nach seiner Schrift «De civi
tate Dei» (Inaug. -Diss.), Leipzig, 1891. G. Boissier, La fin du paganisme,
Paris, 3. ed. 1903, ii. 293 — 337 : La «Cite de Dieu» de St. Augustin.
C. Frick, Die Quellen Augustins im xviii. Buche seiner Schrift «De civi
tate Dei» (Progr.), Hoxter, 1886. J. Drdseke, Zu Augustins «De civitate
Dei» xviii. 42, eine Quellenuntersuchung, in Zeitschr. f. wissenschaftl. Theol.
(1889), xxxii. 230 — 248. y. Biegler, Die «Civitas Dei» des hi. Augustinus,
Paderborn, 1894. E. Hoffmann, Zu Augustins «De civitate Dei», text-
kritische Epilegomena zur Ausgabe im Wiener Corpus, in Sitzungsberichte,
Vienna, 1900. H. Kuhlmann, De veterum historicorum in Augustini De
civitate Dei libro primo, altero, tertio vestigiis (Progr.), Schleswig, 1900. -
Dogmatic works: The Enchiridion ad Laurentium was also often edited
separately; one of the oldest and best editions, with copious notes, is that
of the Jesuit J. B, Faure, Rome, 1755, reprint by C. Passaglia, Naples,
1847. The latest edition, and textually the most critical is that of J. G.
Krabinger, Tubingen, 1861. It is also in Hurter, SS. Patr. opusc. sel. xvi
(vol. vi. has De fide et symbolo, and De fide rerum quae non videntur;
vols. xlii — xliii contain De trinitate). A new edition of the Enchiridion was
published by O. Sc/iecl, Tubingen, 1903.
1 6. SEPARATE EDITIONS. TRANSLATIONS. RECENSIONS (CONTINUED). -
Dogmatico~polemical works: A reprint of the Benedictine edition of De
haeresibus is found in Fr. Oehler, Corpus haereseologicum, Berlin, 1856,
i. 187 — 225. — Anti-Manich<zan works: Most of them were newly edited by
Zycha (see no. 14) together with the (supposed) work of bishop Evodius; con
cerning the correspondence of Evodius with our Saint see Bardenhewer, in
the Kirchenlexicon of Wetzer and Welte (2. ed.) iv. 1061. In Revue Bdned.
(1896), xiii. 481 — 486, Dom Monn published a new letter of Evodius. For
504 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
the history of the Manichaeans of Augustine's time see A. Bruckner, Faustus
von Mileve. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des abendlandischen Manichaismus,
Basel, 1901. -- Anti-Donatist works: In Hurter (SS. Patr. opusc. sel. xxvii)
are reprinted S. Augustini opuscula selecta de ecclesia. For a general
account of the anti-Donatist writings of our Saint see F. Ribbeck, Donatus
und Augustinus oder der erste entscheidende Kampf zwischen Separatisms
und Kirche, Elberfeld, 1857 — 1858, 2 parts. For the Psalmus contra partem
Donati, the oldest monument of Latin rhythmic poetry, see W. Meyer, in
Abhandlungen der k. bayer. Akad. der Wissensch. i. Kl., vol. xvii, part II,
Munich, 1885, pp. 284 — 288. On the pretended Liber testimoniorum fidei
contra Donatistas, in Pitra, Analecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888, part I,
pp. 147 — 158, see § in, 3. -- Anti- Pelagian works: In Hurter (1. c. xxxv
xxxvi) are found S. Augustini et S. Prosp. Aquit. de gratia opusc. sel.
Urba and Zycha have edited (see no. 14): De perfectione hominis, De
gestis Pelagii, De gratia Chr;sti et de peccato originali libri duo, De nup-
tiis et concupiscentia ad Valerium comitem libri duo. For a general study
of his anti-Pelagian writings, see G. Fr. Wiggers, Versuch einer pragma-
tischen Darstellung des Augusfinismus und Pelagianismus nach ihrer ge-
schichtlichen Entwicklung (new ed.), Hamburg, 1833, 2 vols. For the
history of Pelagianism see Fr. Wo'rter, Der Pelagianismus nach seinem
Ursprunge und seiner Lehre, Freiburg i. Br., 1866; 2. ed. 1874. Fr. Klasen,
Die innere Entwicklung des Pelagianismus, Freiburg i. Br., 1882. J. Ernst,
Pelagianische Studien. Kritische Randbemerkungen zu Klasen und Worter,
in Katholik 1884, ii. 225 — 259, 1885, i. 241 — 269. Of the rather numerous
writings of Pelagius some have been preserved : Commentarii in epistolas
S. Pauli (Migne, PL., xxx. 645 — 902), an important exegetical work, and
Epistola ad Demetriadem, written about 412 — 413 (Ib., xxx. 15 — 45, and
xxxiii. 1099 — 1120); it was translated into Italian and attributed to St. Je
rome by the Dominican Zanobi, Naples, 1863. Pelagius wrote also a Li-
bellus Fidei ad Innocentium papam, in 417 (Ib. xlv. 1716 — 1718 and xlviii.
488 — 491). The origin of the Epistola ad Celantiam matronam (Ib. xxii.
1204 — 1220) is still doubtful. In Theol. Quartalschr. (1885) Ixvii. 244 — 317
531— 577, Fr- Klasen denied the Pelagian authorship of the Commentaries
on the Pauline epistles. In their anti-Pelagian works Jerome, Augustine
and Marius Mercator quoted more or less extensively texts from other
works of Pelagius : Eulogiarum (also capitulorum and testimoniorum ?) liber,
De natura, De libero arbitrio, and several letters. Other works are known
only by name, e. g. De trinitate libri tres. For further details see Schoene-
mann, Bibl. hist.-litt. Patr. lat. ii. 433—436; Bahr, Gesch. der rom. Litte-
ratur, Supplement, (1836—1840), ii. 310—314. The text of the Commen
tarii of Pelagius in Migne (1. c.) is not the original; for its sources see
the valuable work of H. Zimmer, Pelagius in Irland : Texte und Unter-
suchungen zur patristischen Litteratur, Berlin, 1902. Caelestius was pro
bably neither British or Scot, nor Irish, but Italian. Apart from the quota
tions found in Augustine, his works Contra traducem peccati, Defmitiones,
Libelli fidei, and others have perished. J. Gamier (f 1681) attempted to
put together the full text of Definitiones from their refutation by St. Au
gustine, also a Libellus fidei to Pope Zosimus; cf. Schoenemann, 1. c., ii.
-472. The two principal works of Julianus of Eclanum: Libri iv ad
lurbantmm and Libri viii ad Florum, can be reconstructed in large mea
sure from their refutations by Augustine. For unimportant fragments of
>tner works of Julianus see Schoenemann, 1. c., ii. 574 ff. Cf. A. Bruckner,
ihan von Eclanum, sein Leben und seine Lehre, Leipzig, 1897, in Texte
Untersuchungen, xv. 3. Anianus, the Latin translator of Chrysostom,
appeared as a defender of Pelagianism and an opponent of Jerome
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 5O5
(§ 74, 14). A Corpus Pelagianum, containing two imaddressed letters, a
treatise De divitiis, and three letters De malis doctoribus et operibus fidei et
de iudicio futuro, De possibilitate non peccandi, and De castitate, was edited
by C. P. Caspari: Briefe, Abhandlungen und Predigten aus den zwei letzten
Jahrhunderten des kirchlichen Altertums und dem Anfang des Mittelalters,
Christiania, 1890, pp. i — 67. All the documents of this collection are
clearly Pelagian, belong to one and the same British author, and must
have appeared between 413 and 430. Caspari (1. c., pp. 223 — 389) thinks
he is the Pelagian Agricola mentioned by Prosper in his Chronicle ad
a. 429: Mon. Germ. hist. Auct. Antiq. ix i, 472, but G. Morin, in Revue
Bened., 1898, xv. 481 — 493 (cf. Kilnstle, inTheol. Quartalschr. 1900, Ixxxii.
193 — 204) thinks that these works were written by the British bishop
Fastidius, of whom Gennadius says (De viris ill., c. 56) that he wrote a
work De vita christiania, and another De viduitate servanda; Morin is
of opinion that the De vita Christiana is identical with the first work in
the Caspari collection, while the second work of Fastidius has been lost.
Following an ancient conjecture, Caspari (1. c., pp. 352 — 375) identified the
De vita Christiana of Fastidius with the pseudo-Augustinian De vita chri-
stiana (Migne, PL. ,xl. 1031 — 1046 and 1. 383 — 402). The Epistola Fastidii
Britannici episc. ad Fatalem, in Pitra, Analecta sacra et classica, Paris,
1888, part I, 134 — 136, is a bold plagiarism from the pseudo-Hieronymian
letter Ad Pamm. et Oc. {Migne, xxx. 239 — 242). J. Baer, De operibus
Fastidii Britannorum episcopi, Niirnberg, 1902, shows the identity of the
Pelagian treatise edited by Caspari with the De vita Christiana; as Fasti
dius certainly wrote the former, he must also be the author of the latter.
17. SEPARATE EDITIONS. TRANSLATIONS, RECENSIONS (CONTINUED). -
Exegetical works: Several exegetical works of Augustine were newly edited
by Zycha (see no. 14). The one hundred and twenty-four homilies on the
Gospel of John are printed in Hurter's Opuscula selecta (series ii. i — 2). For
no. 102 of the pseudo-Augustinian Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti
(Contra Novatianum) see A. Harnack , in Abhandlungen, Al. v. Ottingen
gewidmet, Munich, 1898, pp. 54 — 93. A. Souter, An Unknown Fragment
of the pseudo-Augustinian Quaestiones Veteris Testamenti, in Journal of
Theol. Studies (1904), vi. 61 — 66. On the exegetical writings of Augustine
in general cf. H. N. Clausen, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis S. Scrip-
turae interpres, Kopenhagen, 1827. C. Douais , St. Augustin et la Bible,
in Revue Biblique (1893), ii. 62 — 81 351 — 377; (1894), iii. no — 135 410
to 432. Concerning his ignorance of Hebrew the reader may consult
O. Rottmanner , in Theol. Quartalschr. (1895), Ixxvii. 269 — 276. Id.,
St. Augustin sur 1'auteur de 1'epitre aux Hebreux, in Revue Bened. (1901),
xviii. 257 — 261. Id. , Augustinus als Exeget, in Bibl. Zeitschr. (1904),
pp. 398 — 399. Sancti Aureli Augustini De consensu Evangelistarum libri
quattuor. Recensuit et commentario critico instruxit Franciscus Weihrich
(Corpus scriptorum eccles. latinorum, vol. xxxiii), Vienna, 1904. R. C.
Trench, S. Augustine on the Sermon on the Mount, Dublin, several
editions; Die Erklarung der Bergpredigt aus den Schriften des hi. Augu
stinus, deutsch von E. Roller, Neukirchen, 1904. -- Works on Moral and
Pastoral Theology. We owe to Weihrich (see no. 14) new editions of the
genuine Speculum (Quis ignorat) and the spurious Speculum (Audi Israhel) ;
other works of Augustine on moral theology were edited by Zycha ; cf. F.
Weihrich, Das Speculum des hi. Augustinus und seine handschriitliche Uber-
lieferung, in Sitzungsberichte der kgl. Akad. der Wissensch. zu Wien,
Vienna, 1883. Id. , Die Bibelexcerpte De divinis scripturis und die Itala
des hi. Augustinus, in the same Sitzungsberichte, Vienna, 1893. L. Delisle,
Le plus ancien manuscrit du Miroir de St. Augustin (Extrait de la Bibl.
506 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
de 1'Ecole des Chartes), Paris, 1884, differs from Weihrich and maintains
the genuineness of Audi Israhel. For the works De mendacio and Contra
mendacium see E. Rtcejac, De mendacio quid senserit Augustinus, Paris,
1897. The De catechizandis rudibus is found in Hurter, Ss. Patr. opusc.
sel. (series I), viii, and in A. Wolf hard and G. Kriiger , Sammlung aus-
gewahlter kirchen- und dogmengeschichtl. Quellenschriften, fasc. iv, Frei
burg i. Br., 1892, 2. ed., 1893. F. X. Schoberl , Die «Narratio» des hi. Au-
gustin und die Katechetiker der Neuzeit, Dingolfmg, 1880. P. Reutschka,
Die Dekalogkatechese des hi. Augustinus (Diss.), Breslau, 1904. — Sermons.
Letters. Poems: The Augustini sermones inediti by A. B. Caillau (Paris,
1842) are nearly all spurious, cf. Fessler-Jungmann , Instit. Patrol., ii i,
376, and G. Morin, in Revue Bened. (1893), x. 28 — 36. The Sermones
S. Augustini ex codicibus Vaticanis, in Mai, Nova Patr. Bibl., Rome, 1852,
i. part i, i — 470, are also for the most part spurious ; the same is true of
the nine Homiliae or Sermones edited by Fr. Liverani, Spicilegium Libe-
rianum, Florence, 1863, pp. n — 33. C. P. Caspari edited anew, in Alte
und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel,
Christiania, 1879, PP- 223 — 249> tne Sermo 213, in traditione symboli 2
(Migne, PL., xxxviii. 1060 — 1065); its genuineness should never have been
called in question ; Caspari published also a Homilia de sacrilegiis , a
spurious work, but remarkable for both contents and diction, on the sur
vival of superstitions and pagan usages among Christians: Eine Augustin
falschlich beigelegte Homilia de sacrilegiis, Christiania, 1886. Dom Morin
discovered and published, in Revue Benedictine (1890), vii. 260 — 270 592;
(1891), viii. 417 — 419; cf. (1892), ix. 173 — 177, two new and genuine
sermons of Augustine : Sermo in vigil. S. Joh. Bapt. and Sermo in die
S. Eulaliae ; cf. Morin, Les sermons inedits de St. Augustin dans le manu-
scrit latin 17059 de Munich, in Revue Bened. (1893), x. 481 — 497 529
to 541. A. Regnier , La latinite des sermons de St. Augustin, Paris, 1887.
A. Degert, Quid ad mores ingeniaque Afrorum cognoscenda conferant
S. Augustini sermones (These), Paris, 1894. Mention has already been
made (see no. 14) of the new edition of the letters by Goldbacher who
Wiener Studien (1894), xvi. 72 — 77 in described two newly found letters.
In Revue Bened. (1901), xviii. 241 — 244, Dom Morin published a letter
of St. Augustine and one of a certain Januarianus, both concerning the
monastic troubles at Adrumetum. - - For the poetry of St. Augustine see
M. Manitius, Gesch. der christlich.-latein. Poesie, Stuttgart, 1891, pp. 320 to
323. According to A. Ebner, Handschriftliche Studien iiber das Praeconium
paschale, in Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch fur das Jahr 1893, pp. 73—83,
St. Augustine is the author of the paschal hymn Exultet ; cf. S. Pieralisi,
El preconio pasquale conforme all' insigne frammento del Cod. Barberiniano.
Dell' autore del piu antico preconio pasquale. Due dissert. Rome, 1883.
18. BIOGRAPHIES AND PORTRAITS. — We have already mentioned (no. 14)
the two most important of the older biographies, that of Tillemont and
that of the Benedictines (the latter in Migne, PL., xxxii. 65—578). Among
more recent works the reader may consult Fr. Bohringer, Die Kirche
Chnsti und ihre Zeugen oder die Kirchengeschichte in Biographien, Zurich,
l845» i 3, 99—774- Fr. und P. Bohringer, Aurelius Augustinus, Bischof
von Hippo, Stuttgart, 1877—1878, 2 vols. (Die Kirche Christi und ihre
Zeugen) new ed., xi, i. and 2. half; Poujoulat , Histoire de St. Augustin,
sa vie, ses ceuvres, son siecle, influence de son genie, Paris, 1845—1846,
3 vols., 7. ed., 1886, 2 vols. This work was translated into German from
the first edition by Fr. Hurter, Schaffhausen, 1846—1847, 2 vols. C. Wolfs-
gruber, Augustinus, Paderborn, 1898. J. Martin, St. Augustin, Paris, 1901
(Les grands philosophes). A. Hatzfeld, St. Augustin, 6. ed., Paris, 1901
§ 94- ST- AUGUSTINE. 507
(Les Saints). G. Fr. v. Hertling, Augustin. Der Untergang der antiken
Kultur (Weltgeschichte in Charakterbildern), Mainz, 1901. H. A. Nafuille,
St. Augustin. Etude sur le developpement de sa pensee jusqu'a 1'epoque
de son ordination, Geneva, 1872. Fr. Worter, Die Geistesentwicklung des
hi. Aurelius Augustinus bis zu seiner Tattfe, Paderborn, 1892. Flottes,
Etudes sur St. Augustin, son genie, son ame , sa philosophic, Montpellier,
1 86 1. W. Cunningham , St. Austin and his place in the history of Chris
tian thought, London, 1886. y. McCabc , Saint Augustine and his Age,
London, 1902. E. Portalie, Le role doctrinal de Saint Augustin, in Bul
letin de litterature ecclesiastique (1903), pp. 33 — 37. Ph. Martain, Saint
Augustin et Saint Paulin de Nole. I. Premieres relations. Une ame a
sauver. II. Colloques ascetiques. En face de 1'origenisme. III. Nole en
410. Correspondence scripturaire. IV. En face du pelagianisme : Revue
Augustinienne (1904), pp. 120 — 131 266 — 287 368 383 576—596. Herm.
Frankfurth, Augustin und die Synode zu Diospolis, Berlin, 1904.
19. WORKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. — J. F. NourriSSOn,
La philosophic de St. Augustin, Paris, 1865, 2 vols., 2. ed., 1869. J. Storz,
Die Philosophic des hi. Augustinus, Freiburg i. Br.; 1882. L. Grandgeorge,
St. Augustin et le neoplatonisme, Paris, 1896 For his teaching concerning
cognition see N. J. L. Schittz, Divi Augustini de origine et via cognitionis
intellectuals doctrina ab ontologismi nota vindicata (Diss. inaug.), Minister,
1867. J. Hdhnel , Verhaltnis des Glaubens zum Wissen bei Augustin
(Inaug. -Diss.), Leipzig, 1891. H. Leder , Untersuchungen liber Augustins
Erkenntnistheorie in ihren Beziehungen zur antiken Skepsis, zu Plotin und
zu Descartes (Dissert.), Marburg, 1901. For a discussion of his ideas on
metaphysics see C. van Endert, Der Gottesbeweis in der patristischen Zeit
mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung Augustins, Freiburg i. Br., 1869. K. Scipio,
Des Aurelius Augustinus Metaphysik im Rahmen seiner Lehre vom Ubel,
Leipzig, 1886. E. Meher , Die Augustinische Lehre vom Kausalitats-
verhaltnis Gottes zur Welt, Neisse, 1892. His psychological ideas are dis
cussed by Th. Gangauf , Metaphysische Psychologic des hi. Augustinus,
Augsburg, 1852. W. Heinzelmann, Augustins Lehre vom Wesen und Ur
sprung der menschlichen Seele (ProgrJ, Halberstadt, 1868; Id., Augustins
Lehre von der Unsterblichkeit und Immaterialitat der menschlichen Seele
(Inaug.-Diss.), Jena, 1874. J. Martin, La doctrine spirituelle de St. Augiv
stin, Paris, 1901. K. Werner, Die Augustinische Psychologic in ihrer
mittelalterlich-scholastischen Einkleidung und Gestaltung (Sitzungsberichte
der kgl. Akad. der Wissensch. zu Wien), Vienna, 1882. F. Kolde , Das
Staatsideal des Mittelalters , I. part: Seine Grundlegung durch Augustin
(Progr.), Berlin, 1902. His aesthetical teachings are treated by A. Berthaud,
S. August ni doctrina de pulchro ingenuisque artibus e variis illius operi-
bus excerpta, Poitiers, 1891. P. Martain, Les fondements philosophiques
de 1'harmonie d'apres St. Augustin, in Revue Augustinienne (1902), pp. 529
to 543. E. Nardelli , II determinismo nella filosofia di sant' Agostino,
Turin, 1905, pp. x — 212.
20. WORKS ON THE THEOLOGY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. - - Among modern
writers the reader may consult A. Dorner, Augustinus, sein theologisches
System und seine religionsphilosophische Anschauung, Berlin, 1873. Th.
Gangauf, Des hi. Augustinus spekulative Lehre von Gott dem Dreieinigen,
Augsburg, 1865, 2. ed. 1883. A. Ritschl, Expositio doctrinae Augustini
de creatione mundi, peccato, gratia (Diss. inaug.), Halle, 1843. Fr. Grass-
mann , Die Schopfungslehre des hi. Augustinus und Darwins, Ratisbon,
1889. Fr. Nitsch, Augustinus' Lehre vom Wunder, Berlin, 1865. J. Nirschl,
Ursprung und Wesen des Bo'sen nach der Lehre des hi. Augustinus,
Ratisbon, 1854. J. Ernst, Die Werke und Tugenden der Unglaubigen
508 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
nach St. Augustin, Freiburg i. Br., 1871; Id., in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol.
(1895), x*x> J77 — 185- J- P- Baltzer > Des hi. Augustinus Lehre iiber
Pradestination und Reprobation, Vienna, 1871. A. Kock , Die Auktoritat
des hi. Augustin in der Lehre von der Gnade und Pradestination, in Theol.
Quartalschr. (1891), Ixxiii. 95 — 136 287 — 304 455 — 487. Fr. M. Jaquin, O. P.,
La question de la predestination atix Ve et VIe siecles : Saint Augustin, in
Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique (1904). pp. 265 — 283 725 — 754. O. Rott-
manner, Der Augustinismus (i. e. his doctrine on predestination), Munich,
1892. Cf. Schanz, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1893), Ixxv. 699 — 703, and Die
Lehre des hi. Augustin iiber die Rechtfertigung , ib. (1901), Ixxxiii. 481
to 528. y. Turmel , Le dogme du peche originel dans St. Augustin,, in
Revue d'hist. et de litter, relig. (1901), vi. 235—258 385 — 426, and (1892),
vii. 128 — 146 209 — 230. A. Kranich, Uber die Empfanglichkeit der mensch-
lichen Natur fur die Giiter der iibernaturl. Ordnung nach der Lehre des
hi. Augustin und des hi. Thomas von Aquin, Paderborn, 1892. T/i. Spec/it,
Die Lehre von der Kirche nach dem hi. Augustin, Paderborn, 1892. The
teaching of Augustine concerning the Church is also the subject of the
Augustinian studies of H. Renter, Gotha, 1887. Th. Specht, Die Einheit
der Kirche nach dem hi. Augustinus (Progr.), Neuburg a. D. , 1885.
E. Commer , Die Katholizitat nach dem hi. Augustinus, Breslau, 1873.
0. Rottmanner, «Catholica», in Revue Bene'd. (1900), xvii. i — 9. M. M.
Wilden, Die Lehre des hi. Augustinus vom Opfer der Eucharistie, Schaff-
hausen, 1864. Schanz, Die Lehre des hi. Augustinus liber das heilige
Sakrament der Bufte, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1895), Ixxvii. 448—496 598
to 621; Id., Die Lehre des hi. Augustinus iiber die Eucharistie, ib. (1896),
Ixxviii. 79—115. L. Tarchier , Le sacrement de I'Eucharistie d'apres
S. Augustin (These), Lyons, 1904. O. Scheel, Die Anschauung Augustins
iiber Christi Person und Werke, Tubingen, 1901 ; Kiel, 1902. E. Herzog,
Die kirchliche Siindenvergebung nach der Lehre des hi. Augustin, Bern,
1902. y. Ernst, Der hi. Augustin iiber die Entscheidung der Ketzertauf-
frage durch ein Plenarkonzil , in Zeitschr. fur kath. Theol. (1900), xxiv.
282 f. S. Protin, La Mariologie de St. Augustin, in Revue Augustinienne
(1902), pp. 375—396. E. Blachere, St. Augustin et les theophanies dans
1'ancien Testament, ib., pp. 595—613. E. Nourry , Le miracle d'apres
St. Augustin, in Annales de la philosophic chre'tienne (1903), pp. 375—386.
E. Portalit, St. Augustin, in Dictionnaire de Theol. catholique, Paris,
1903, col. 2268 — 2561.
§ 95. Friends and disciples of St. Augustine.
i. MARIUS MERCATOR. - This writer was certainly not a native
of Italy (Gamier) but of Africa (Gerberon, Baluze). From a letter
of St. Augustine i we gather that about 418 and probably from
Rome, Mercator submitted to the judgment of the bishop of Hippo
two anti-Pelagian works. In 429 Mercator was at Constantinople and
very probably resided there during the next twenty years. It is
also probable that he survived the Council of Chalcedon (451). He
remained a layman, or at least was never ordained to the priesthood ;
nevertheless he took an active part in the conflict with Pelagianism
Nestorianism as a defender of the teachings of St. Augustine
and St. Cyril of Alexandria. His anti-Pelagian writings mentioned by
1 EP. i93.
§ 95- FRIENDS AND DISCIPLES OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 509
St. Augustine1 have perished, though some scholars have identified
the second of them: librum refertum sanctarum testimoniis scriptu-
rarum2, with the Hypomnesticon contra Pelagianos et Caelestianos
printed among the Opera S. Augustini3. A Commonitorium super
nomine Caelestii, written in Greek in 429 and re-edited in a Latin
translation in 431, is extant in Latin4. There is also extant a Latin
Commonitorium or Adversus haeresim Pelagii et Caelestii ve) etiam
scripta Juliani, written in 431 or 43 2 5. The first memorial was
presented by its author to Theodosius II. and contributed in no
small degree to the expulsion (429) of the chiefs of the Pelagian
heresy from Constantinople whither they had gone after their com
pulsory departure from Italy; it helped also to bring about their
condemnation at the Council ofEphesus (431). Mercator wrote also,
early in 43 1 , two other Latin works against Nestorianism : Comparatio
dogmatum Pauli Samosateni et Nestorii6, and: Nestorii blasphemiarum
capitula7; they are a refutation of the twelve counter-anathematisms
of Nestorius with which he had attempted to combat the famous
theses of St. Cyril (§ 77, 2). Mercator translated from Greek into
Latin a number of large works; indeed, his translations are more
numerous than his original writings. He not only prepared trans
lations of anti-heretical works (those of Nestorius against Pelagianism
and of Cyril against Nestorianism), but he also put into Latin many
works and discourses of the Greek heresiarchs themselves (Theodore
of Mopsuestia, Nestorius, and others). His purpose is expressed in
the following words taken from the preface to a collection of ex-
cerpta from the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia: Verbum de
verbo transferre conatus sum , pravum eius . . . sensum . . . latinis
volens auribus insinuare, cavendum modis omnibus, non sequendum 8.
Similarly in the preface to the homilies and works of the « impious
Nestorius » he writes: Blasphemiarum dicta vel scripta . . . curavi trans
ferre, a fidelibus linguae meae fratribus cognoscenda atque vitanda,
in quibus verbum de verbo, in quantum fieri potuit, conatus sum
translator exprimere9. Many documents that have perished in the
original Greek have been saved through the Latin versions of Mer
cator. His own works, though of inferior literary value, are very im
portant for the history of the Pelagian and Nestorian controversies.
A complete edition of the works of Mercator was brought out at
Paris, 1673, by jf. Gamier; the text is not reliable, but copious casti-
gationes, notae and dissertationes are added. Etienne Baluze also edited
the works of Mercator, Paris, 1684. The Baluze edition is reprinted with
some corrections in Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., Venice, 1772, viii. 613 — 738;
that of Gamier, with corrections from Baluze and Gallandi, in Migne, PL.,
1 Ib. 2 Ib., c. i. 3 Migne, PL., xlv. 1611 — 1664.
4 Ib., xlviii. 63—108. 5 Ib., xlviii. 109 — 172.
6 Ib., xlviii. 773 — 774. 7 Ib., xlviii. 909 — 932.
8 Ib., xlviii. 213 — 214 1042 — 1043. 9 Ib., xlviii. 754 — 755.
5IO SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
xlviii, Paris, 1846. The need of a new critical edition has long been felt.
For the writings of St. Cyril and Nestorius, translated by Mercator, see
§ 77, 9. - - The Gallic monk Leporius had defended in his native place
(Trier?) the teachings of Pelagius and Nestorius, but St. Augustine con
vinced him of his errors, whereupon he wrote about 418 in Africa a Li-
bellus emendationis sive satisfactionis ad episcopos Galliae (Ib., xxxi. 1221
to 1230). For other details concerning Leporius see Schoenemann, Bibl.
hist.-lit. Patr. lat., ii. 588 — 597. We have from the pen ofAurelius, bishop
of Carthage (f about 429), a circular letter De damnatione Pelagii atque
Caelestii haereticorum, written in 419 (Ib., xx. 1009 — 1014). Cf. Schoene-
mann, 1. c., ii. i — 7. - There are extant two letters of the successor of
Aurelius, Capreolus: Ad Concilium Ephesinum, written in 431 (Greek and
Latin), and De una Christi veri Dei et hominis persona contra recens
damnatam haeresim Nestorii (Ib. , liii. 843 — 858). Tillemont says that
Capreolus is the author of some sermons in the works of St. Augustine
concerning the devastations of the Vandals; see the article Capreolus in
Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, i. 400 — 4001.
2. OROSIUS. - The Spanish priest Paulus Orosius was probably
born at Bracara in Gallaecia (Braga in Portugal). For reasons un
known to us he left his fatherland and in 413 or 414 betook him
self to Augustine at Hippo. In 414 he dedicated to the latter his:
Commonitorium de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum l (§ 89, 3),
to which Augustine replied in his work : Ad Orosium contra Priscil-
lianistas et Origenistas (§ 94, 5). Orosius was the companion of
St. Jerome during the Pelagian controversy at Jerusalem, a fact that
led to his difficulties with John, bishop of that city, who was on the
side of Pelagius. Towards the end of 415 he wrote a: Liber apo-
logeticus contra Pelagium de arbitrii libertate 2, and shortly afterwards
left the Holy Land for Spain. In Minorca, however, he heard of the
troubled condition of his fatherland, and again took refuge with
Augustine, in whose company he completed (417 — 418) his principal
work: Historiarum adversum paganos libri septem3. Thenceforth all
traces of Orosius disappear; both the time and the place of his
death are unknown. The Historiae were undertaken, according to
the preface, at the request of Augustine, and were meant to be an
appendix to the De civitate Dei (§ 94, 4). In them the reader should
find the historical proofs that before the coming of Christ, mankind
was more subject to wars, misfortunes, and evils of every kind than
since His appearance on earth ; it was, therefore, not the introduction
of Christianity and the overthrow of paganism that were responsible
for the sufferings of the barbarian invasions. It is from this stand
point that Orosius selects his historical material and weaves it into
a chronicle-like sketch from Adam to the year 417. His chief
sources are the Sacred Scripture, several Roman historians, and the
Hieronymian recension of the Chronicle of Eusebius. From the year
1 Migne, PL., xxxi. 1211 — 1216; xlii. 665 — 670. 2 Ib., xxxi. 1173—1212.
3 Ib., xxxi. 663— 1 1 74.
§ 95- FRIENDS AND DISCIPLES OF ST. AUGUSTINE. §11
378 the work possesses a special value; for these decades Orosius
is a contemporary witness. This work was highly appreciated by all
mediaeval writers; the manuscripts that have reached us are in number
about two hundred; king Alfred of England (f 901) translated it into
Anglo-Saxon.
The Historiae and the Liber apologeticus \Migne > PL., xxxi) are re
printed from the edition of-S". Haverkamp, Leyden, 1738 (1767), the Com-
monitorium (lacking in Haverkamp) from Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., ix. 174
to 175. We owe the latest edition of the Historiae and the Liber apo
logeticus to C. Zangemeister (Corpus script, eccl. lat. v), Vienna, 1882. A
smaller edition of the Historiae was published by Zangemeister in the
Bibliotheca Teubneriana, Leipzig, 1889. We have mentioned (§ 89, 3) the
edition of the Commonitorium brought out by G. Schepss, Vienna, 1889.
King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version was published by H. Sweet, London,
1883. Cf. H. Schilling, Konig Alfreds angelsachsische Bearbeitung der
Weltgeschichte des Orosius (Inaug.-Diss.) , Halle, 1886. For an unedited
letter of Orosius to Augustine see A. Goldbacher, in Zeitschr. f. die oster-
reichischen Gymnasien (1883), xxxiv. 104, note i ; S. Bdumer, in Litt. Hand-
weiser (1890), p. 59. Th. de Morner, De Orosii vita eiusque historiarum
libris VII adversus paganos, Berlin, 1844. E. Mejean, Paul Orose et son
apologetique centre les pa'iens (These), Strassburg, 1862. C. Paucker, Vor-
arbeiten zur lateinischen Sprachgeschichte, herausgegeben von H. Ronsch,
Berlin, 1884, part 3, pp. 24 — 53: De latinitate Orosii; cf. pp. 101 — 102.
G. Monod, Sur un passage de Paul Orose (Historiae vii. 40), in Melanges
Paul Fabre, Paris, 1902, pp. 17 — 22. G. Mercati , Varianti d'un codice
milanese al « Commonitorium de errore Priscilliamstarum et Origenistarum»
di Paolo Orosio, in Note di letteratura biblica e cristiana antica (Studi e
Testi v), Rome, 1901, p. 136. -- While Orosius was at Jerusalem, the
body of the holy deacon Stephen was discovered in December 415 by the
priest Lucian of Kaphar Gamala near Jerusalem. The latter made known
the fact in a circular letter written in Greek and addressed to all Chris
tians. It happened that a Spanish priest, Avitus of Bracara, was then
resident at Jerusalem ; he translated into Latin the letter of Lucian (Gennad.,
De viris ill., cc. 46 — 47). The Greek original remains still unpublished,
but there are two recensions of the Latin version ; to both of them is
prefixed a letter of Avitus to Balconius, bishop of Bracara (Migney PL.,
xli. 805—818). A portion of the relics was brought by Orosius to Mi
norca; the conversion of a great many Jews was owing to the vigorous
awakening of religious life that ensued; the history of these conversions
is related by Severus, bishop of Minorca, in a circular letter dated 418: De
virtutibus ad ludaeorum conversionem in Minoricensi insula factis (Ib., xli.
821 — 832; cf. xx. 731 — 746). -- About the same time the monk Bachia-
rius, probably also a Spaniard, wrote two works De fide (Ib., xx. 1019 to
1036) and De reparatione lapsi (Ib., xx. 1037 — 1062); cf. Fessler-Jungmann,
Instit. Patrol., ii i, 418 — 421. See also on the work De fide: K, Kiinstle,
in his Antipriscilliana, Freiburg, 1905. The assertion of Sigebert of Gem-
bloux : Isidorus Cordubensis episcopus scripsit ad Orosium libros quatuor in
libros Regum (De viris ill., c. 51) is an error. There never was an Isidore
of Cordova; cf. Dom Morin , in Revue des questions historiques (1885),
xxxviii. 536 — -547.
3. ST. PROSPER AND HILARIUS. - - In 428 or 429 two zealous
laymen of Provence, Tiro Prosper of Aquitania and Hilarius, wrote
SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
each a letter to St. Augustine informing him of the opposition to
his doctrine on grace and predestination in Southern Gaul. Augustine
replied in the De prae destination* sanctorum and De dono per-
severantiae (§ 94, 7). Apart from this letter1 we have no other
work of Hilarius. On the other hand, the letter of Prosper2 is a kind
of introduction to a long series of prose and metrical writings. The
ascertained dates of the life of Prosper are all relative to his literary
labors. He held it to be his special mission to suppress the above-
mentioned opposition, or rather to attack and overthrow a doctrine
that since mediaeval times has been known as Semipelagianism, and
which maintained that, for the beginning of our salvation and for
perseverance in the state of grace, no divine aid was necessary. In
429 — 430, Prosper laid down the state of the controversy in a long
letter to an otherwise unknown friend Rufinus 3 ; he published against
the Semipelagians a poem of more than one thousand hexameters
entitled ~£f>} d%apiffTwv i. e. De ingratis^\ he wrote also in elegiac
metre two Epigrammata in obtrectatorem Augustini, in reply to the
attacks of an anonymous Semipelagian 5. It is possible that the ob-
trectator was John Cassian (§ 96, i), the head of the Semipelagians.
The term dydptarot or ingrati is applied to the Semipelagians as
being enemies of divine grace. After the death of Augustine (Aug.
28., 430), Prosper and his friend Hilarius went to Rome in order
to obtain from Pope Celestine the condemnation of Semipelagianism.
The pope did not hesitate to write to the bishops of Gaul6 warn
ing them and imposing silence on the innovators, defending in grate
ful terms the memory of Augustine, and recognizing in a very
flattering way the efforts of Prosper and his friend. Thenceforth
Prosper appears as the anti-Pelagian champion specially authorized
by the Apostolic see : Fidem contra Pelagianos ex Apostolicae sedis
auctoritate defendimus7. In 431 — 432, apparently, he wrote: Epita-
phium Nestorianae et Pelagianae haereseon8, an ironical elegy for
the Nestorianism and Pelagianism apropos of the Ephesine decrees
of 43 1 ; Pro Augustino responsiones ad capitula obiectionum Gallorum
calumniantium 9, a refutation of the objections directed against the
Augustinian doctrine of predestination; Pro Augustino responsiones
ad capitula obiectionum Vincentianarum 10, also in defence of the
same doctrine, and probably against Vincent of Lerins (§ 96, 4);
Pro Augustino responsiones ad excerpta Genuensium n, an explana
tion of selected passages from Augustine's De prae destination
1 226 among the letters of Augustine; Migne, PL, xxxiii. 1007—1012.
2 225 among the letters of Augustine; Ib., 1002 — 1007; H- 67 — 74.
3 Ep. ad Rufinum de gratia et libero arbitrio; Ib., li. 77 — 90.
4 Ib., li. 91 — 148. 5 Ib, li. 149—152.
• Ib, 1. 528—530; xlv. 1755 — 1756-
Resp. ad obiect. Vincent, praef. ; Migne, PL, li. 178. 8 Ib., li. 153—154.
9 Ib, li. 155—174. 10 Ib H I77_lg6 i, Ib H l8_202-
§ 95- FRIENDS AND DISCIPLES OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 513
sanctorum and De dono per sever antiae, written at the request of
two priests of Genoa; De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio liber contra
Collatorem *, against Cassian, the author of the Collationes, in the
thirteenth of which it is taught that sometimes divine grace fore
stalls our will and sometimes our will forestalls divine grace (§ 96, i).
It is probable that these works were immediately followed by a
Chronicle in continuation of the Chronicle of St. Jerome. It was
frequently revised and continued by the author himself, and has
reached us in at least three editions, the first of which stops at 433,
the second at 445, and the third at 455. In the last form it is
known as Chronicon integrum2', the edition of 445, the first to be
printed, is known as the Chronicon vidgatum. This work differs from
all previous chronicles in the prominence it gives to the history of
doctrine and heresies. Prosper wrote about 433 the Expositio Psal-
morum a 100 usque ad 150 3 for which he drew on the Enarrationes
in Psalmos (§ 94, 8) of St. Augustine; it is very probably only a
remnant of an entire commentary on the Psalms. Concerning the
activity of Prosper in the years immediately following we have no in
formation. In 440 he seems to have accompanied the newly-elected
pope Leo I. from Gaul to Rome, and to have entered the service of
the papal chancery. Gennadius says4 that he was held to be the
author of letters bearing the name of Leo I. He published at Rome:
Sententiarum ex operibus S. Augustini delibatarum liber 5, a kind of
summa of the Augustinian theology in 392 sentences drawn from
every class of the works of Augustine, also : Epigrammatum ex sen-
tentiis S. Augustini 6, one hundred and six distichs that exhibit as
many «sentences» from the above-mentioned collection. Many other
works were erroneously attributed to him , among them the De
vocatione omnium gentium (see no. 5). It seems that he died in
463 ; the Church has placed him among her Saints, and he was
looked on by his contemporaries as the chief disciple of Augustine.
Devout admiration for the ideas of his master and a thorough study
of them were his principal characteristics. He was capable not only
of penetrating their depth, but of expressing them with elegance
and accuracy. Though he sought to tone down somewhat the
harshness and gloominess of the opinions of Augustine, he clung
with firmness to the antecedent (i. e. independent of divine fore
knowledge of merit) predestination to eternal life of a definite number
of men ; on the other hand, he considered non-predestination or re
probation to be exclusively the result of divine fore-knowledge of
the evil deeds of men.
The best edition of the works of Prosper was issued by the Bene
dictines J. B. Le Brun des Marettes and D. Mangeant , Paris, 1711,
1 Ib., li. 213—276. 2 Ib., li. 535—606. 3 Ib., li. 277—426.
4 De viris ill., c. 84. 5 Mignc, PL., li. 427 — 496. c Ib., li. 497 — 532.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 33
514 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Venice, 1744, 2 vols.; ib., 1782, 2 vols. (Migne, PL., li; most of the writ
ings of Prosper are also ib. , xlv. 1793 — 1898). For earlier editions see
Schoenemann, Bibl. hist.-lit. Patr. lat., ii. 1022 ff. in Migne, PL., li. 49 if. In
Hurter, SS. Patr. opnsc. sel. (vol. xxiv), is reprinted : S. Prosperi Aquitani
carmen de ingratis, also (vols. xxxv xxxvi) : S. Augustini et S. Prosperi de
gratia opuscula selecta. -- A. Franz, Prosper von Aquitanien, in Osterr.
Vierteljahresschr. f. kath. Theol. (1869), viii. 355 — 392 481 — 524. L. Va
lentin, St. Prosper d'Aquitaine, Paris, 1900 (xii. 934 pp.); cf. L. Couture,
in Bulletin de litte'rature eccle'siast. (1900), pp. 269 — 282. The doctrine
of Prosper is discussed by Fr. Worter , Beitrage zur Gesch. des Semi-
pelagianismus, Paderborn, 1898. J. Turmel, La controverse semipelagienne:
I. Saint Augustin et la controverse semipelagienne, in Revue d'hist. et de
litter, religieuses (1904), pp. 418 — 433. A new edition of his Chronicle
was brought out by Th. Mommsen, in Mon. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss.,
Berlin, 1892, ix i, 341 — 485. For later revisions of this Chronicle, Chro-
nicon imperiale (Migne, PL., li. 859 — 866), Prosper Augustanus etc.,
cf. Teuffel-Schwabe, Gesch. der rom. Lit., pp. 1176 — 1177, Wb&Wattcnbach,
Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mi ttel alter , 6. ed., i. 80 — 83. The
Chronicle of Prosper was the basis of the Paschal Table repared in 437
by the Aquitanian Victorius or Victurius, and edited anew by Mommsen,
1. c. , pp. 666 — 735: Cursus paschalis annorum 532 ad Hilarum archi-
diaconum ecclesiae Romanae. For Victorius cf. Teuffel Schwabe , 1. c.,
p. 1208. That Prosper wrote the graceful Poema conitigis ad uxorem
(Migne, PL., li. 611 — 616) is very doubtful; cf. Manitius, Gesch. der christl.-
latein. Poesie, pp. 211 — 212. The long Carmen de providentia divina
(Ib. , PL., li. 617—638) was composed in Southern Gaul about 415 by
some Pelagian or Semipelagian ; cf. Ebert, Allg. Gesch. der Literatur des
Mittelalters im Abendlande, 2. ed., i. 316—320, and Manitius, 1. c., pp. 170
to 1 80. The Hymnus abecedarius against the anti-Trinitarians edited by
A. Boucherie, Melanges latins et bas-latins, Montpellier, 1875, PP- 12—26,
is not a work of Prosper. Similarly the Confessio S. Prosperi (Migne, PL.,
: 607—610) is spurious. The large work De promissionibus et prae-
dictionibus Dei (Ib., li. 753—838) was written about 440 by an African,
perhaps known as Prosper. The so-called Praeteritorum sedis Apostolicae
episcoporum auctoritates de gratia Dei have usually been added, since the
end of the fifth century, as an appendix to the above-mentioned letters of
Celestine to the bishops of Gaul (Ib., li. 205—212; 1. 531—537), but it
cannot be proved that they are the work of Prosper. The popes indicated
in the title as praeteriti sedis Apostolicae episcopi are Innocent I. (401 to
417) and Zosimus (417—418), predecessors of Celestine I. (422—432).
The popes of this time are represented by a number of letters : there are
thirty-eight of Innocent I. (Migne, PL., xx. 463 ff.), fifteen of Zosimus (Ib.,
:. 639 ff.), nine of Boniface I. (418—422; ib., xx. 749 ff.), and sixteen
Celestine I. (Ib., 1. 417 ff.). For more minute details of these letters
cf. Jafft, Regesta Pontificum Rom., 2. ed., Leipzig, 1885, i. 44—57.
Many early papal letters were translated into German by S. Wenzlowsky,
Die Briefe der Papste (Bibl. der Kirchenvater), iii. 7 ff. ; cf. ff. Gebhardt,
Bedeutung Innocenz I. fur die Entwicklung der papstlichen Gewalt
Lssert.), Leipzig, 1901. J. Wittig, Studien zur Geschichte des Papstes
. tind der Papstwahlen des 5. Jahrhunderts, in Theol. Quartal-
schrift (1902), Ixxxiv. 388—439.
4- PAULINUS OF MILAN. - This Milanese ecclesiastic had been
secretary to St. Ambrose, and after his death repaired to St. Augus
tine in Africa. While there he wrote at the suggestion of the latter
S$ 96. GALLIC WRITERS. 515
a Vita S. Ambrosii1, in imitation of the famous Vita S. Martini
(§ 92, i). His purpose, like that of Sulpicius Severus, was one of
piety and edification. Paulinus also wrote Libellus adversus Cae-
lestium (§ 94, 7) Zosimo papae oblatus 2, and : De benedictionibus
patriarcharum libellus 3.
The Vita S. Ambrosii is found in most editions of that Saint's works,
e. g. in the recent edition of P. A. Balkrini (§ 90, 9), vi. 885 — 906. For
the editions of both Libelli cf. Schoenemann , Bibl. hist.-lit. Patr. lat. ii.
599 — 602. A. Papadopulos-Kerameus published in the 'AvoXexta tsposoAujju-
Tixrjc Tc<r/ooXo7i'oK , St. Petersburg, 1891, i. 27 — 88, an old Greek trans
lation of this life of St. Ambrose. E. Bouvy, Paulin de Milan, in Revue
Augustinienne (1902), pp. 497 — 514.
5. ANONYMOUS. - - Special mention is due to a work in two
books written about the middle of the fifth century: De vocatione
omnium gentium4. Unsuccessful attempts have been made to show
that it was written either by St. Prosper or by Leo I. In the work
which was highly esteemed, even by his contemporaries, the author
asks himself whether and in what sense all mankind are called to
be saved, and why only some men are saved. He says in the first
lines of his work (i. i, i) that his purpose is to effect a recon
ciliation between the Semipelagians and the orthodox: inter de-
fensores liberi arbitrii et praedicatores gratiae Dei.
This anonymous writer is usually credited with the authorship of the
equally anonymous Epistola ad sacram virginem Demetriadem seu De hu-
militate tractatus (Migne, PL., Iv. 161 — 180), reprinted in Hurter's Opus-
cula selecta iii. Concerning the question of authorship cf. Ed. Perthel,
Papst Leos I. Leben und Lehren, Jena, 1843, PP- I27 — 134- The teaching
of De vocatione is discussed by Fr. Worter , Zur Dogmengeschichte des
Semipelagianismus, Miinster, 1900, in Kirchengeschichtl. Studien, v. 2.
§ 96. Gallic writers.
i. CASSIAN. --John Cassian, abbot at Massilia (Marseilles), is
usually considered the father of Semipelagianism (§ 95, 3). He was
bom probably about 360, not in Southern Gaul, but in «Scythia»5
i. e. in the Dobrudscha, of educated and wealthy parents. He received
his religious training in one of the monasteries of Bethlehem together
with his somewhat older friend Germanus. Both were desirous of a
closer acquaintance with Egypt, the fatherland of monasticism, and
about 385 journeyed thither; they lived seven years among the her
mits of that land, and then, with the permission of their superiors at
Bethlehem, three years more. On their departure from Egypt (ex
pelled by Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria?) they went to Constan-
1 Migne, PL., xiv. 27 — 46. 2 Ib., xx. 711 — 716; xlv. 1724 — 1725.
3 Gen. xlix; Migne, PL., xx. 715 — 732.
4 Migne, PL., xvii. 1073 — 1132; li. 647 — 722.
5 Gennad., De viris ill., c. 61.
33*
516 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
tinople, where Cassian was ordained deacon by St. John Chrysostom.
In 405 we meet the two friends at Rome charged by the clergy
of Constantinople to recommend to the protection of Innocent I.
the person of St. John Chrysostom who had been exiled in 404
for the second time. Here Cassian seems to have been ordained to
the priesthood. About 415 he opened two monasteries near Mar
seilles, one for men, the other for women. Partly by reason of this
establishment (though it was not the first in the West, see no. 2),
and partly by the works that he now began to compile, he con
tributed very much to the diffusion of the monastic system, especially
throughout Gaul and Spain. He died, the object of universal venera
tion, about 435. In many places, especially at Marseilles, he is honor
ed as a Saint. - — At the suggestion of Castor, bishop of Apta Julia
in Narbonese Gaul, Cassian composed (419 — 428) two large works
that mutually complete one another, and were meant for the instruc
tion, edification and consolation of the monks. The first was finish
ed in 426 and is entitled : De institutis coenobiorum et de octo
principalium vitiorum remediis libri xii1. In the first four books he
treats of the organization and the rules of the monasteries in Pales
tine and Egypt; in the remaining eight he describes and denounces
the eight dominant vices of monastic life: gluttony, incontinency,
love of money, anger, melancholy, weariness (acedia), vain glory
(cenodoxia), and arrogance. The second work: Collationes xxiv2,
describes the conversations of Cassian and his friend Germanus with
the Egyptian hermits. It was written and published in three sections:
Coll. i — x; xi — xvii; xviii — xxiv. The third section was the first
written and contains their latest conversations with the monks and
the very lively impressions made on our authors. Collations i — x
are posterior, by reason of their contents, to Collations xi — xxiv.
The third and last part was completed before 429. Cassian himself
explains that the former work (Instituta) deals with the external life
of the monk, while the latter (Collationes) aims at his internal or
spiritual perfection: Hi libelli ... ad exterioris hominis observantiam
et institutionem coenobiorum competentius aptabuntur, illi vero ad
disciplinam interioris ac perfectionem cordis et anachoretarum vitam
atque doctrinam potius pertinebunt 3. The general excellence of their
contents, their popular style and easy diction won universal approval
for both works; they were highly prized as a manual of monasticism.
Eucherius (see no. 2), a friend of Cassian, seems to have made a
compendium of their contents4. They must also have been soon
translated into Greek5. A Greek excerpt of the Instituta is publish
ed in Migne6. There are, however, in both works some chapters
1 Migne, PL., xlix. 53—476. 2 Ib., xlix. 477—1328.
' Instit., ii. 9. 4 Gennad., De viris ill., c. 63. 5 Phot., Bibl. Cod. 197.
6 PG., xxviii. 849—906, and in Latin, PL., 1. 867—894.
§ 96. GALLIC WRITERS.
that are Semipelagian in character and tendency, and must, there
fore, have scandalized the friends and followers of Augustine (§ 95, 3);
this is particularly the case with Collation xiii: De protectione Dei.
In it are found the following phrases: (Deus) cum in nobis ortum
quendam bonae voluntatis inspexerit, illuminat earn confestim atque
confortat et incitat ad salutem, incrementum tribuens ei quam vel
ipse plantavit vel nostro conatu viderit emersisse (c. 8); ut autem
evidentius clareat etiam per naturae bonum, quod beneficio creatoris
indultum est, nonnunquam bonarum voluntatum prodire principia,
quae tamen, nisi a Domino dirigantur, ad consummationem virtutum
pervenire non possunt, apostolus testis est dicens 1 : velle enim ad-
iacet mihi, perficere autem bonum non invenio (c. 9); sin vero a
gratia Dei semper inspirari bonae voluntatis principia dixerimus, quid
de Zachsei fide, quid de illius in cruce latronis pietate dicemus, qui
desiderio suo vim quandam regnis caelestibus inferentes specialia
vocationis monita praevenerunt ? (c. 1 1 .) The teaching of the Church
with which he is here in evident opposition, was on another occasion
vigorously defended by him. At the request of Pope Leo the Great,
then a Roman deacon, he took up his pen for the third time and
wrote (430 — 431) a work in seven books De incarnatione Domini
contra Nestorium 2.
The works of Cassian were first edited by Al. Gazaeus (Gazet), Douai,
1616, and have often been reprinted from that edition (Migne, PL., xlix 1).
The latest and best edition is that of M. Petschenig, Vienna, 1886 — 1888,
2 vols. (Corpus script, eccles. lat. xiii xvii). The Epistola S. Castoris ad
Cassianum (Migne , PL., xlix. 53—54) made known by Gazaeus, is de
scribed as spurious by Petschenig, i (1888), Proleg. cxi f. K. Wotke began
(Vienna, 1898) a new edition of the above-mentioned excerpt from Cas-
sian's Instituta. Cf. Fr. Diekamp , in Rom. Quartalschr. fiir christliche
Altertumskunde und fiir Kirchengesch. (1900), xiv. 341 — 355. A German
translation of all three works of Cassian was prepared by A. Abt and
K. Kohlhund , Kempten, 1879, 2 vols. (Blbliothek der Kirchenvater) ;
cf. C. v. Paucker , Die Latinitat des Johannes Cassianus, in Romanische
Forschungen, Erlangen, 1886, ii. 391 — 448. For the arguments concerning
the (disputed) birth-place of Cassian see A. Hoch , in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1900), Ixxxii. 43 — 69 (Syria), and .S. Merkle, ib., pp. 419 — 441 (Dobrudscha).
A. Hock, Lehre des Johannes Cassianus von Natur und Gnade, Freiburg
i. Br. , 1895; cf- Fr> Worter , Beitrage ztir Dogmengeschichte des Semi-
pelagianismus, Paderborn, 1898. O. Abel, Studien zu dem gallischen Pres
byter Johannes Cassianus (Diss.), Erlangen, 1904. -- Early in the fifth
century a Gallic priest and monk, Evagrius (Gennad., De viris ill., c. 50;
Sulpic. Sev., Dial. iii. i, 4; 2, 8) published an Altercatio Simonis Judaei
et Theophili Christiani, in which the objections of the Jew are solved by
the Christian interlocutor (Migne, PL., xx. 1165 — 1182); it was more cor
rectly edited (1883) by A. Harnack, in Texte und Untersuchungen, i 3,
i — 136. The work is evidently dependent on the dialogue of Aristo,
«Jason and Papiscus» (§ 16); it is not, however, as Harnack (1. c.) main
tained, a mere translation or revision of that work. Cf. P. Corssen, Die
1 Rom. vii. 18. 2 Migne, PL., 1. 9 — 272.
5 1 8 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Altercatio Sim. lud. et Theop. Christ, auf ihre Quellen gepriift, Berlin,
1890; Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons etc.
(1891), iv. 308—329; P. Batiffol, in Revue Biblique (1899), viii. 337 — 345;
G. Morin, in Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique (1900), i. 267 — 273, and in
Revue Benedictine (1902), xix. 243 — 245. Evagrii Altercatio legis inter
Simonem ludaeum et Theophilum Christianum. Recensuit Eduardus Bratke
(Corpus scriptorum eccles. latinorum, vol. xxxxv), Vienna, 1904.
2. ST. HONORATUS OF ARLES AND ST. EUCHERIUS OF LYONS. -
The second part of the Collationes of Cassian (xi — xvii) is dedicated
to the monks (fratres) Honoratus and Eucherius. Honoratus, a man
of noble birth, had, early in the fifth century, created a flourishing
centre of monastic life in the isle of Lerinum or Lirinum (now
St. Honore), the second largest of the group of islets off the south
eastern coast of Gaul, that had previously been an abandoned solitude
inhabited only by serpents. About 426 he was called to the ancient
and famous metropolitan see of Aries, where (in 428 or early in
429) his beneficent labors were cut short by death. His writings,
the rule of his monastery, and his apparently very extensive cor
respondence are known to us only by quotations and references. —
About 410 Eucherius, also of noble descent and father of a family,
joined the pious brotherhood at Lerinum; he afterwards retired to
the neighboring and larger island of Lero (now Ste. Marguerite).
About 424 he was elected bishop of Lyons, but we know nothing
of his episcopal life. He died, according to Gennadius 3, between
450 and 455- Apart from the above-mentioned (see no. i) excerpt
of the writings of Cassian, Eucherius left two letters laudatory of
the monastic state : De laude eremi ad Hilarium Lirinensem presby-
terum epistola 2, and : Epistola paraenetica ad Valerianum cognatum
de contemptu mundi et saecularis philosophiae 3, also two larger
works introductory to the science of Sacred Scripture: Formularum
spiritalis intelligentiae ad Veranum liber unus4, and: Instructionum
ad Salonium libri duo5; Veranus and Salonius were the sons of the
author. These Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae, explanatory of the
figurative terms and phrases of the Bible, became very popular works.
Eucherius is also very probably the author of the much-disputed
account of the martyrdom of the Theban Legion: Passio Agaunen-
sium martyrum, SS. Mauricii ac sociorum eius6, a martyrdom which
the latest researches have shown to be beyond doubt a real event in
the early period of the persecution of Diocletian. In the small col
lection of homilies7 the genuine and the spurious are found together.
The authenticity of a letter : Ad Faustum s. Eaustinum de situ ludaeae
urbisque Hierosolymitanae (lacking in Migne) is uncertain. A letter
1 Gennad., De viris ill., c. 63. 2 Migne, PL., 1. 701—712.
3 Ib., 1. 711 — 726. 4 Ib., 1. 727—772, an enlarged text.
5 Ib., 1. 773—822. c Ib., 1. 827—832.
7 Ib., 1. 833—868 1207—1212.
§ <)6. GALLIC WRITERS. 519
Ad Philonem 1 and extensive commentaries on Genesis 2 and on the
Books of Kings3 are considered to be spurious.
Our principal authority for the life of St. Honoratus is a funeral dis
course by Hilarius of Aries (see no. 3) ; cf. Bardenhewer, in Wetzer und
Weites Kirchenlexikon , 2. ed. , s. v. Honoratus von Aries. -- For the
editions of the works of St. Eucherius see Schoenemann, Bibl. hist.-lit. Patr.
lat., ii. 775 — 795 (Migne, PL., 1. 687—698). A new edition was under
taken by K. Wotke, part I, Vienna, 1894 (Corpus script, eccles. lat. xxxi).
The Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae are interpolated and falsified in most
of the manuscripts. The original text is given by Wotke, 1. c., pp. i — 62.
For a later excerpt of this text cf. Wotke, Praef., xvi. The Passio Agaunensium
martyrum was also edited by Br. Krusch , in Monum. Germ. hist, script,
rer. Meroving. (1896), iii. 20 — 41 ; on the literature about this martyrdom
see A. Hirschmann, in Hist. Jahrbuch (1892), xiii. 783—798. Cf. R. Berg,
Der hi. Mauricius und die thebaische Legion, Halle, 1895. The letter Ad
Faustinum de situ ludeae is re-edited by P. Geyer, Itinera Hierosolymitana,
Vienna, 1898, pp. 123 — 134. K. Wotke also edited the beginning of the
commentary on Gen. i to iv. i, Vienna, 1897. On Eucherius in general
cf. A. Mellier, De vita et scriptis S. Eucherii Lugdun. episc. (These), Lyons,
1878. A. Gouilloud, St. Eucher, Lerins et 1'eglise de Lyon au Ve siecle,
Lyons, 1881. - - The two sons of our Saint, Salonius and Veranus, were
also bishops, of Geneva and Vence respectively. Salonius wrote Exposi-
tiones mysticae in Parabolas Salomonis (Migne, PL., liii. 967 — 994), and
in Ecclesiasten (Ib., liii. 993 — 1012), in the form of a dialogue hetween
Salonius and Veranus. Among the letters of Leo I. (as no. 68 ; Ib., liii.
887 — 890) is one addressed to this pope by the bishops Ceretius (of Gre
noble), Salonius and Veranus. M. Besson, Un eveque exegete de Geneve
au milieu du Ve siecle: Saint Salone, in «Anzeiger fur Schweizerische Ge-
schichte» (1904), pp. 252 — 265. — There is exstant a letter of the priest
Rusticus to Eucherius, written to thank the latter for the permission to
copy two of his works, probably : Instructionum ad Salonium libri duo (Ib.,
Iviii. 489 — 490; Wotke, S. Euch. Lugd. op., i. 198 — 199). The author of
this letter is identified by some with that Rusticus of Bordeaux who ap
pears in the letters of Apollinaris Sidonius (ii. n; viii. n), and by others
(among them Wotke] with Rusticus, bishop of Narbonne (427—461).
3. HILARIUS OF ARLES. — Hilarius was induced by Abbot Hono
ratus (see no. 2) to embrace the monastic life at Lerins, and was
scarcely thirty years of age when he succeeded (428 or early in 429)
his master in the metropolitan see of Aries. In the letter of Prosper
to Augustine (§ 95, 3) concerning the opponents of the doctrine of
Augustine on grace and predestination, Hilarius is mentioned, but in
a manner very flattering to him : Unum eorum praecipuae auctori-
tatis et spiritualium studiorum virum, sanctum Hilarium Arelatensem
episcopum, sciat beatitude tua admiratorem sectatoremque in aliis
omnibus tuae esse doctrinae4. Among the events of his later life we
may mention the discreditable conflict of Hilarius with Pope Leo L,
in his quality of vicar of the Apostolic See in Southern Gaul. In
consequence he lost for his own person the privileges accorded to
1 Ib., 1. 12I3 — I2I4. 2 Ib., 1. 893—1048.
3 Ib., 1. 1047 — 1208. 4 .S'. Aug.. Ep. 225, 9.
[J2O SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
the metropolitan see of Aries, and even his archiepiscopal office.
He died according to Gennadius l between 450 and 455. Among
his works Gennadius2 praises the Vita S. Honor ati praedecessoris sui^^
a discourse delivered, probably in 430, on the anniversary of the
death of St. Honoratus. The other writings of Hilarius are not in
dividually described by Gennadius; they are according to the Vita
S. Hilarii Arelat. 4 : homiliae in totius anni festivitatibus expeditae,
symboli expositio ambienda, epistolarum vero tantus numerus, versus
etiam fontis ardentis. The editions of his writings contain, beside
the Vita S. Honorati, only a brief letter to Eucherins of Lyons5,
and three opuscula dubia: Sermo seu narratio de miraculo S. Genesii
martyris Arelat. 6, and two poems already mentioned (§ 87, 8) : Versus
in natali Machabaeorum martyrum7 and: Metrum in Genesim ad
Leonem papam8.
The edition of the writings of Hilarius in Migne (PL., 1) is incomplete.
We have already mentioned (§ 61, 2) his homilies; of the Versus fontis
ardentis (St. Barthe'lemy near Grenoble) four are extant, cf. Manitius, Ge-
schichte der christl.-latein. Poesie, Stuttgart, 1891, pp. 188 f. The letter
to Eucherius was re-edited by Wotke > S. Euch. Lugd. op., i. 197 — 198.
The dubious hymns on the Maccabees and the beginning of Genesis were
lately (1891) edited by Pciper (§ 87, 8). The exposition of the seven
Catholic epistles, published in Spicilegium Casinense (1897), iii i, and at
tributed to our Hilarius, is of very doubtful provenance. '-- The above-
mentioned Vita S. Hilarii Arelat. (Migne, PL., 1. 1219—1246) is usually
attributed to Honoratus, bishop of Marseilles, contemporary of Pope Ge-
lasius (492 — 496). This Honoratus did write (Gennad., De viris ill., c. 99)
many homilies and also lives of «holy Fathers* : Sanctorum quoque patrum
vitas, praecipue nutritoris sui Hilarii Arelatensis episcopi. Cf. Barden-
kewer , in Kirchenlexikon of Wetzer and Welte, 2. ed., s. v. Honoratus
von Marseille. -- St. Lupus, a brother in law of St. Hilarius and (427 to
479) bishop of Troyes, seems to have carried on an extensive correspon
dence of which there remains but one letter addressed to Talasius, bishop
of Angers (Migne, PL., Iviii. 66—68), by Lupus in common with Euphro-
bishop of Autun. The letter of Lupus congratulating his friend
Apollmans Sidonius (Ib., Ivii. 63—65) on his election as bishop of Clermont
(about 470), is a forgery of Vignier; cf. § 3, 2.
4. VINCENT OF LERINUM. — A little work of Vincentius, a priest
and monk of Lerinum , met with extraordinary success. In 434 he
composed under the pseudonym of Peregrinus two Commonitoria
(memoranda) destined, he tells us, to aid his weak memory, and to
remind him for ever of the teachings of the holy Fathers. The first
book treats of the marks by which the true Catholic faith may be
stinguished from heretical novelties. The second book applies these
criteria to a concrete example, the condemnation of Nestorianism
' De viris ilL> c- 69- 2 Ib. * MignC) pLj L I249_I2?2
:• n, n. 14; Migne, PL., 1. 1232. * Ib ; 1§ I27I_I27
Ib., 1. 1273—1276. 7 Ib<| j I275_I286
Ib., 1. 1287 — 1292.
§ 96. GALLIC WRITERS. 521
that had taken place at Ephesus «about three years ago» (c. 42).
This second work has perished ; there remains, however, the index
of the contents of both works united (as cc. 41 — 43) at a very early
date, with the first book and making one work with it. The little
treatise is written in simple, clear, and relatively correct style and
develops properly the fundamental principles of positive dogmatic
demonstration. The words : Magnopere curandum est ut id teneamus
quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est; hoc est
etenim vere proprieque catholicum (c. 3), have become a household
word of Catholic theology. Similarly the phrase : Crescat igitur oportet
et multum vehementerque proficiat tarn singulorum quam omnium,
tarn unius hominis quam to tins ecclesiae aetatum ac saeculorum gra-
dibus intelligentia, scientia, sapientia, sed in suo dumtaxat genere, in
eodem scilicet dogmate, eodem sensu eademque sententia (c. 28).
The correctness of these principles is not affected by the inexact
application of them made by Vincentius himself; in some passages
of his work he is out-spokenly Semipelagian. He refers, no doubt,
to Augustine and his followers when he speaks of certain heretics
(haeretici) who dare to teach, quod in ecclesia sua . . . magna et
specialis et plane personalis quaedam sit Dei gratia, adeo ut sine
ullo labore . . . etiamsi nee petant nee quaerant nee pulsent, qui-
cumque illi ad numerum suum pertinent, tamen ita divinitus dispen-
sentur ut . . . numquam possint offendere (c. 37). Augustine had
written1: falluntur qui putant esse a nobis, non dari nobis, ut petamus,
quaeramus, pulsemus. It is very probable that this little work, in
spite of its apparently harmless introductory words, was written as
a controversial reply to the doctrine of Augustine ; the author's use of
a pseudonym is already suggestive of a certain polemical tendency,
while the work of Prosper against Vincentius (§.95, 3) leads us to
suspect that the author of the Commonitoria was still further involved
in the conflict with Augustinism.
The Commonitorium of Vincentius has gone through innumerable edi
tions. The best is that of Etienne Baluzc , in an appendix to his edition
of Salvianus of Marseilles, Paris, 1663 1669 1684 (Migne, PL., 1. 637—686,
and in Hurtcr's Opuscula selecta, ix). A separate edition with many notes
was isued by E. Klilpfel, Vienna, 1809. A new edition for academic use
is that QiA.Jtilichers Sammlung ausgewahlter kirchen- und dogmengeschicht-
licher Quellenschriften, x, Freiburg i. Br. , 1895. It was translated into
German by U. Uhl, Kempten, 1870 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater). Cf. Hefele,
Beitrage zur Kirchengesch., Archaol. u. Liturgik, Tubingen, 1864, i. 145
to 174. W. S. Reilly, «Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus*.
Etude sur la regie de foi de St. Vincent de Lerins (These), Tours, 1903. -
There is no foundation for the hypothesis of Poirel that Vincentius of
Lerinum is identical with Harms Mercator (g 95, i), and that the second
Commonitorium may be reconstructed from the latter's writings : R. M. J.
Poirel, De utroque Commonitorio Lirinensi (These), Nancy, 1895; Vin-
1 De dono persev. 23, 64.
EJ22 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
centii Peregrin! seu alio nomine Marii Mercatoris Lirinensia Commonitoria
duo, Nancy, 1898. See a reply to Poirel by H. Koch, in Theol. Quartal-
schrift (1899), Ixxxi. 396—434.
5. VALERIANUS OF CEMELE. — Twenty homilies of Valerianus,
bishop (about 450) of Cemele, a city near Nice that has long since
disappeared , mostly ascetical in contents , have been preserved * ;
likewise his: Epistola ad monachos de virtutibus et ordine doctrinae
apostolicae 2.
The first of these homilies, De bono disciplinae, was originally printed
among the works of Augustine (Migne, PL., xl. 1219 — 1222). Both the
homilies and the letter were first edited by J. Sirmond, Paris, 1612. For
later editions and the controversy concerning the orthodoxy of Valerianus
cf. Schoenemann, Bibl. hist.-lit. Patr. lat., ii. 814—822 (Migne, PL., Hi. 686
to 690). N. Schack, De Valeriano saeculi v. homileta christiano, Kopen-
hagen, 1814. - The bishop Maximus, whose letter to Theophilus of
Alexandria (385 — 412) was first edited (1871) by A. Reifferscheid and then
(1877) by L. Delisle , Avas probably an inhabitant of South-eastern Gaul.
G. Morin , La iettre de 1'eveque Maxime a Theophile d' Alexandrie , in
Revue Bened. (1894), xi. 274 — -278.
§ 97. Pope St. Leo the Great and other Italian writers.
i. LIFE OF LEO THE GREAT. - - Leo I. takes his place beside
Gregory I. as the greatest of the popes of Christian antiquity. The
time and place of his birth are not known with certainty. As early
as the time of Celestine I. (422 — 432) he was a deacon of the Apo
stolic See, highly esteemed and influential. In the preface to his DC
incarnatione Domini (430 or 431) John Cassian calls him: Romanae
ecclesiae ac divini ministerii decus. During his absence in Gaul on
a delicate political mission, Sixtus III. (432 — 440) died, and Leo was
elected pope. He was consecrated on his return to Rome (Sept. 29.,
440). It was a troublous and a trying hour. On the one hand, the
Roman empire was overrun by hordes of barbarians, and on the
other, the powerful external bulwark of ecclesiastical unity was in
danger of collapsing. In the East Eutychianism or Monophysitism,
the doctrine of one composite nature in Christ, lifted its head threaten
ingly, and together with this new heresy the Byzantine jealousy of
Old Rome grew more bold perhaps than at any previous period.
Leo seemed as though born for the needs of his time. He saw
that the only hope of saving all the interests involved lay in the
full realization and development of the papal primacy, the foundation
of ecclesiastical unity. This idea fills his mind and thoroughly do
minates him. He develops in its service a marvellous energy and a
world-embracing activity. Though he never deviates from his purpose,
he chooses his means with prudence, and in practical matters ex
hibits both equity and moderation; in matters of doctrine he is al-
1 Migne, PL., lii. 691 — 756. 2 Ib , Hi. 755 — 758.
§ 97- POPE ST. LEO THE GREAT AND OTHER ITALIAN WRITERS. 523
ways firm and unchangeable; at the same time he is a dexterous
theologian and a skilful diplomat. It is in his relations with the East
that his greatness is most easily perceived. His letter to Flavian,
patriarch of Constantinople1, (June 13., 449), was the polar star of
the Catholics during the Monophysite controversies. He was the first
to denounce as a latrocinium the Ephesine Synod of 449 2, and the
opprobrious epithet has been sanctioned by posterity. He willingly
sanctioned the doctrinal decrees of the Council of Chalcedon (451),
but he rejected with decision the twenty-eighth canon of that Council
in which the see of Constantinople was guaranteed a superior dignity
at the expense of the other patriarchal sees of the East. He saved
old Rome also from external dangers: he induced Attila (452) to
abandon his designs on Rome and retire, and he persuaded Genseric
(455) to spare at least the lives of the Romans. It was only natural
that by such great deeds the temporal authority and the political
importance of the Holy See should be increased ; and thus it is
that the pontificate of Leo opens a new epoch in the history of the
papacy. Leo died Nov. 10., 461, honored by all for his glorious
sendees to the Church. He was soon venerated as a Saint, and
Benedict XIV. placed him (1754) among the doctor es ecclesiae.
2. THE WRITINGS OF LEO. -- They are partly homilies and partly
letters. Of the former there are one hundred and sixteen in the
classic edition of the Ballerini brothers; of these ninety-six are genuine3
and twenty are either spurious or of doubtful authenticity4. The
genuine homilies belong entirely to the period of his pontificate.
Most of them are festal discourses, delivered on feast days of our
Lord or of the Saints. The first five were preached on the occasion
of the anniversary of his election to the See of Peter, many others
during Lent or the Ember days. They are free from all prolixity, at
times even strikingly brief. Their style is solemn and elevated, and
Latin scholars admire the purity of their diction. Theologians read
them with delight, for they are filled with splendid testimonies to
the papal primacy, its divine establishment, its uninterrupted activity,
and the fulness of authority for which it stands. On one of the anni
versaries of his election, he spoke as follows: In persona humilitatis
meae ille intelligatur, ille honoretur, in quo et omnium pastorum
sollicitudo cum commendatarum sibi ovium custodia perseverat, et
cuius dignitas etiam in indigno haerede non deficit5. On a similar
occasion: De toto mundo unus Petrus eligitur, qui et universarum
gentium vocationi et omnibus apostolis cunctisque ecclesiae patribus
praeponatur, ut quamvis in populo Dei multi sacerdotes sint multi-
que pastores, omnes tamen proprie regat Petrus, quos principaliter
regit et Christus6. On the natal day (i. e. of martyrdom) of the
1 Ep. 28. 2 Ep. 95, 2. 3 Migne, PL., liv. 137—468.
4 Ib., liv. 477 — 522. 5 Sermo 3, 4. 6 Sermo 4, 2.
524 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.-
apostles Peter and Paul Leo thus apostrophizes the Eternal City:
Isti sunt qui te ad hanc gloriam provexerunt, ut gens sancta, populus
electus, civitas sacerdotalis et regia, per sacram beati Petri sedem
caput orbis effecta, latius praesideres religione divina quam domina-
tione terrena. Quamvis enim multis aucta victoriis ius imperil tui
terra marique protuleris, minus tamen est quod tibi bellicus labor
subdidit quam quod pax Christiana subiecit 1. - - The correspondence
of Leo, if we include certain extraneous elements, amounts to one
hundred and seventy-three letters 2. Of these one hundred and forty-
three bear the name of the pope, and cover the period from 442 to
460. They are all official in character; most of them were evidently
not written by Leo himself, but are the product of the papal chancery.
They deal in great part with canonical or disciplinary questions;
some of them are written in defence of the ecclesiastical doctrine
concerning the person of our Reedemeer, against the Monophysites ;
others describe the history of the Robber-Synod of Ephesus, the
Council of Chalcedon, and correlated events; others deal with the
chronology of Easter, especially the paschal dates for the years 444
and 445, in which there was manifest a divergence between the
Roman and the Alexandrine methods of computation. Special men
tion is owing to the above-mentioned twenty-eighth letter to Flavian
of Constantinople, known as the Epistola dogmatica ; it was received
with enthusiastic praise and applause by the Fathers at Chalcedon,
and hailed by them as a faithful expression of the faith of the
Church3. In this letter the pope explains at full length, on the
basis of ecclesiastical tradition, and with incomparable clearness and
precision, the doctrines of the unity of person and of the duality of
natures in the Redeemer, doctrines that had been denied respectively
by Nestorius and Eutyches : Ingreditur ergo haec mundi infima films
Dei, de coelesti sede descendens et a paterna gloria non recedens,
novo ordine, nova nativitate generatus . . . nee in domino Jesu Christo
ex utero virginis genito, quia nativitas est admirabilis, ideo nostri est
natura dissimilis. Qui enim verus est Deus, idem verus est homo, et
nullum est in hac imitate mendacium, dum invicem sunt et humilitas
hominis et altitude deitatis. Sicut enim Deus non mutatur misera-
tione, ita homo non consumitur dignitate. Agit enim utraque forma
cum alterius communione quod proprium est; Verbo scilicet ope-
rante quod Verbi est et carne exsequente quod carnis est. Unum
riorum coruscat miraculis, aliud succumbit iniuriis. Et sicut Verbum
ab aequalitate paternae gloriae non recedit, ita caro naturam nostri
generis non relinquit. Unus enim idemque est, quod saepe dicendum
est, vere Dei films et vere hominis films (c. 4). - - In the editions
of his works the homilies and letters are followed by writings of
1 Sermo 82, i. 2 ^gne> PLtj ]iv> 581 —
3 Cone. Chalc. Act. ii ; Mansi, vi. 972.
§ 97- POPE ST. LEO THE GREAT AND OTHER ITALIAN WRITERS. 525
doubtful provenance; we have already mentioned (§ 95, 5) the DC
vocatione omnium gentium and the letter Ad Demetriadem. TheSacra-
mentarium Leonianum (Liber sacramentorum Romanae ecclesiae) 1 is
the oldest form of the Roman missal or rather the earliest collection
of secret prayers said by the celebrant during the Mass. It is certainly
of Roman origin, but with equal certainty a private work and not
the official publication of any pope. Duchesne is of opinion (1889)
that it was compiled about the middle of the sixth century; Probst
maintains (1892) the traditional opinion according to which this col
lection of Mass-prayers dates from the second half of the fifth cen
tury, and is mostly made up of formulae that belong to the time
of Leo the Great.
3. LITERATURE OF LEO THE GREAT. - - The principal editions of his
writings are those of P. Quesnel, Paris, 1675, 2 vols. (often reprinted), and
of the brothers Pietro and Girolamo Ballerini, Venice, 1753 — 1757, 3 vols.
(Migne, PL., liv — Ivi). For the contents of these editions and all biblio
graphy to 1794, as well as for the manuscripts then known, cf. Schoene-
mann, Bibl. hist. -lit. Patr. lat. , ii. 886 — 1012 {Migne, PL., liv. 64 — 114).
Since the Ballerini edition nothing has been added to the writings of Leo.
The eight homilies published by A. B. Caillau (Ib.; Ivi. 1131 — 1154) are
certainly spurious. So, too, is the Sermo de ascensione published as a
work of Leo by Fr. Liverani , Spicilegium Liberianum, Florence, 1863,
pp. 121 — 123. On the other hand, in his work S. Leone Magno e 1'Oriente
(Rome, 1882; Montecassino, 1890) Don Ambrogio Amelli selected from
a Latin collection of documents dating back to the Eutychian controversies
(§ 114, 3) and published two new letters to Leo, one from Flavian, patri
arch of Constantinople, and the other from Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum ;
both of them are appeals to the pope against the Robber-Synod of Ephesus,
in which these two bishops had been unjustly deposed. For a new edition
of the two letters (from the codex of Amelli) cf. T/i. Mommsen, in Neues
Archiv der Gesellschaft fiir altere deutsche Geschichtskunde (1886), xi.
361 — 368. These two letters were edited again by Lacey , Cambridge,
1903. Two other (Greek and Latin) letters of Flavian to Leo are found
among the letters of Leo (22 26) in Migne, PL., liv. 723 — 732 743 — 751.
There is also a letter of Flavian to the emperor Theodosius II. {Migne, PG.,
Ixv. 889 — 892). We still possess a memorial of Eusebius of Dorylaeum against
Eutyches written in 448 (Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll. vi. 651 ff.) and a petition
to the emperors on the Robber-synod (Ib. , vi. 583 f.). For the palaeo-
graphical (manuscript) tradition of the letters of Leo cf. R. v. Nostitz-
Rieneck, in Hist. Jahrb. (1897), xviii. 117 — 133. An excellent edition of
the letters relative to the paschal computation is owing to Br. Krusch,
Studien zur christlich-mittelalterlichen Chronologic, Leipzig, 1880, pp. 251
to 265. For the genuineness of the letters of Leo and other popes con
cerning the papal vicariate of Thessalonica, as found in the so-called Col-
lectio Thessalonicensis, see v. Nostitz-Rieneck, in Zeitschr. fiir kath. Theol.
(1897), xxi. i — 50. Some of the homilies and letters of Leo are reprinted
from the Ballerini edition in Hurter, SS. Patr. opusc. sel. xiv. and xxv to
xxvi. All his homilies are translated into German by M. M. Wilden,
Kempten, 1876 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater), and all his letters by S. Wenz-
lowsky , Die Briefe der Papste (Bibl. der Kirchenvater), Kempten, 1878,
1 Migne, PI,., Iv. 21 — 156.
'26 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
iv v. There is an English translation of the homilies and sermons by
Ch. L. Fdtoe , in Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,
series ii, vol. xii, New York, 1896. Feltoe also edited the Sacramentarium
Leonianum, Cambridge, 1897. — For this Sacramentarium cf. L. Duchesne,
Origines du culte chretien, Paris, 1889; 2. ed., 1898; 3. ed., 1902. F. Probst,
Die altesten romischen Sakramentarien imd Ordines erklart, Miinster, 1892.
H. A. Wilson, The metrical endings of the Leonine Sacramentary , in
[ournal of Theol. Studies (1904), v. 386—395, and (1905), vi. 381—391. -
For the general history of St. Leo see Ed. Perthel, Papst Leos I. Leben
und Lehren. Ein Beitrag zur Kirchen- imd Dogmengeschichte, Jena, 1843.
Fr. and P. Bohringer , Die Vater des Papsttums: Leo I. und Gregor I.,
Stuttgart, 1879 (Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen. New ed.). C. Ber-
tani , Vita di S. Leone Magno, pontefice massimo, Monza, 1880 — 1881,
3 vols. Ph. Kuhn, Die Christologie Leos I. d. Gr. in systematischer Dar-
stellung, Wiirzburg, 1894. H. Grisar, Geschichte Roms und der Papste
im Mittelalter, I, Freiburg i. Br. , 1898, passim. - There are extant
(Migne, PL., 1. 581 ff.) eight letters of Sixtus III. (432—440) the prede
cessor of Pope Leo I., in German by Wenzlowsky (1. c., iii. 535 if.) and
in English by Feltoe (1. c.).
4. ST. PETER CHRYSOLOGUS. - - Peter, born about 406 at Foro-
cornelium (Imola), became bishop of Ravenna, it is generally believed
about 433. In this Western centre of imperial government he attained
a high reputation as a truly great pastor of souls. It is a contro
verted question whether Ravenna was or was not a metropolitan see
before his time. He enjoyed intimate relations with Leo the Great.
When Eutyches, the father of the Monophysite heresy, was con
demned by the Synod of Constantinople (448), and thereupon sought
to deceive public opinion, Peter was one of those whom he approached,
but was told by the latter that he ought to obey the instructions
of the pope: quoniam beatus Petrus, qui in propria sede et vivit et
praesidet, praestat quaerentibus fidei veritatem; nos enim pro studio
pacis et fidei extra consensum Romanae civitatis episcopi causas fidei
audire non possumus1. Peter died at Imola, probably about 450.
Besides the letter to Eutyches, there are one hundred and seventy-
six homilies bearing his name 2 ; they were collected by Felix, bishop
of Ravenna (707 — 717). It is almost universally admitted that among
them are spurious homilies; on the other hand, besides this collec
tion, some homilies of Peter are current under other names (e. g. the
seven homilies in Migne)3. The homilies of our Saint are not long;
fully one half of them are expositions of biblical texts. The author
develops first the literal sense and seeks then for some deeper mean
ing: quia historica relatio ad altiorem semper est intelligentiam sub-
limanda4. He wrote few doctrinal discourses in the strict sense of
the word. Those extant treat of the mystery of the Incarnation or
denounce the heresies of Arius and Eutyches. Homilies 56 — 62 are
expository of the Apostles1 Creed. A series of homilies is devoted
Ep. 25 among the letters of Leo; Migne, PL., liv. 739—744.
' Ib., Hi. 183—666. 3 PL; Hi 665_68o> 4 Sermo 36
§ 97- POPE ST- LEO THE GREAT AND OTHER ITALIAN WRITERS.
to the honor of the Blessed Virgin and of John the Baptist. In all
of these discourses a pure ecclesiastical spirit breathes. The style is
generally sober and concise: et dicenti et audienti semper generat
lassitudo fastidium * , but occasionally bold and elevated, as in the
oft-quoted phrase : qui iocari voluerit cum diabolo, non poterit gaudere
cum Christo2, and often quite popular, for as he remarks: populis
populariter est loquendum3. Also in the Middle- Ages the homilies of
our Saint, as the large number of manuscripts proves, were much
in vogue. He is first called Chrysologus by Agnellus, the ninth-
century author of the Liber pontificaiis ecclesiae Ravennatis : pro suis
eum eloquiis Chrisologum ecclesia vocavit, id est aureus sermocinator 4,
but there is reason, however, to believe that the epithet is contem
poraneous with our Saint.
His works were edited by D. Mita , Bologna, 1643, and 5. Fault,
Venice, 1775; the latter edition is reprinted m Migne, PL., Hi. Sermo 149
(De pace; Migne , PL., lii. 598 f.) is rather the work of Severianus of
Gabala and is also found among the writings of the latter in Migne, PG.,
lii. 425 — 428; § 74, 17. In his Spicilegium Liberianum, Florence, 1863,
pp. 125 — 203, Fr. Liverani published, from various manuscripts in Italian
libraries, variant readings of several sermons of Petrus Chrysologus; he
also edited nine new sermons. The fourth of these new sermons: Contra
lubrica festa ac pompas (Liverani, p. 192 f.) is erroneously included among
the writings of Severianus of Gabala (Migne, PL., Ixv. 27 — 28; § 74, 17).
Selected homilies of our author were translated into German by M. Held,
Kempten, 1874 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater); cf. H. Dapper, Der hi. Petrus
Chrysologus, Cologne, 1867. Fl. v. Stablewski , Der heilige Kirchenvater
Petrus von Ravenna Chrysologus, Posen, 1871. J. Looshorn, Der hi. Petrus
Chrysologus und seine Schriften, in Zeitschr. f. kath Theol. (1879), iii.
238 — 265. C. Weyman , Zu Petrus Chrysologus, in Philologus (1896), Iv.
464—471.
5. ST. MAXIMUS OF TURIN. -- There is extant under the name of
Maximus, bishop of Turin, a still larger number of homilies. We
know with certainty but little concerning his life. In 45 1 his name
is found among those of the dignitaries in a synod of Milan 5, and,
in November of 465, he assisted at a Roman synod. The acts of
this synod mention among the names of those present, and directly
after the name of Pope Hilarius, that of Maximus before all other
bishops6, whence it has been concluded that he was the oldest of
the bishops present. His discourses were first edited by Bruni in
I7847, and are divided with more or less accuracy into: homiliae,
sermones, tractatus. There are one hundred and eighteen homiliae:
De tempore I — 63, De sanctis 64 — 82, De diversis 83 — 118; one
hundred and sixteen sermones: De tempore I — 55, De sanctis $6
1 Sermo 122. 2 Sermo 155. 3 Sermo 43.
4 Ed. H older- Egg er, p. 310.
5 Migne, PL., liv., 948; Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., vi. 143.
8 Mansi, 1. c., vii. 959 965 f. 7 Migne, PL., Ivii.
[J 28 SECOND PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
to 93, De diversis 94 — 116, and six tractatus: under this latter title
(tractatus vi), however, we actually find expositiones de capitulis evan-
geliorum (i— 23). An appendix contains other writings of uncertain
authenticity: thirty-one sermones, three homiliae, and two long epi-
stolae. It has been elsewhere shown that many writings, considered
by Bruni to be genuine works of Maximus, belong to other writers.
His sermons are usually brief, like those of Chrysologus, whom he
resembles in the energy and robustness of his style, though sometimes
his language is over flowery. In these discourses he appears as a
most zealous shepherd of souls, and especially tireless in his opposi
tion to the survivals of paganism and the inroads of heresy. Northern
Italy was a kind of refuge for a multitude of sects, against which
Maximus defends the teachings of the Church with great clearness
and firmness.
For the editions of the homilies of Maximus and the manuscript tra
dition cf. Schoenemann, Bibl. hist.-lit. Patr. lat., ii. 618 — 669 (Migne, PL.,
Ivii. 184 — 210). The writings and the life of Maximus are described at
length by Fessler-Jungmann, Instit. Patrol, ii 2, 256 — 276. The Sermo vii
in Bruni 's appendix (De die dominicae ascensionis) is the Explanatio sym-
boli ad initiandos of St. Ambrose (§ 90, 6 10); cf. Ferreri, S. Massimo,
vescovo di Torino, e i suoi tempi, 3. ed., Turin, 1868. The episcopate
and life of St. Maximus are described by F. Savio , Gli antichi vescovi
d' Italia (Piemonte), Turin, 1899, pp. 283—294. In this work (pp. 569
to 575) the reader will find an account of the forgeries of Meyranesio, i. e.
compositions which he fathered on Maximus.
THIRD PERIOD.
FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTH CENTURY TO
THE END OF THE PATRISTIC AGE.
FIRST SECTION.
GREEK WRITERS.
§ 98. General conspectus.
I. THE DECAY OF ECCLESIASTICAL LEARNING. — After the middle
of the fifth century Greek theology enters upon a period of decay.
The doctrinal conflicts that centre about the names of Nestorius and
Eutyches, tend more and more to serve ecclesiastico-political aims.
Interest in ecclesiastical knowledge perishes, while the earlier creative
vigor is steadily on the wane. Men are henceforth content with
collections of excerpts, with summaries and compilations; it is held
sufficient to catalogue the intellectual labors of former days. Early in
this period are to be found the still obscure origins of the «Catenae»,
and of the very intricate literature of the «Florilegia» or «Parallela».
Some works of an earlier date, especially homilies, were re-edited
in view of actual needs and circumstances; others were fitted out
with commentaries. Superior minds, however, were not entirely lack
ing; a few such rose above the conditions of their own time and
produced original writings that still excite astonishment and even
admiration. At least one new field of ecclesiastical literature was
cultivated with success in this period : rhythmical hymnography, speci
mens of which we have already met in the fourth and fifth centuries
(§ 60, 5). The growing splendor of divine worship acts henceforth
as a powerful stimulus in this direction, and ecclesiastical literature
is accordingly enriched with productions of the highest merit. It may
be added that at no time during the patristic period did ecclesiastical
literature sink to so low a level , as profane Greek literature did
in the seventh and eighth centuries. While in John of Damascus
the Church found a champion who seemed to recall, both in prose
and verse, the golden age of the fourth century, profane Greek
literature enters upon a desolate period of utter silence. The Da
mascene, however, is only a transient reflorescence of former intel-
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 34
53O THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
lectual strength; after him Byzantine theology enters upon a period
of torpor.
2. DOCTRINAL CONTROVERSIES AND ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE;
DOGMATIC, POLEMIC, AND APOLOGETIC. - - Nestorianisnl, but more
especially Eutychianism, in all their ramifications, furnish henceforth
the subject-matter of Greek theology. Both these heresies found
their ablest opponent in Leontius of Byzantium, a theological heir of
Cyril of Alexandria. Other disputants in these memorable conflicts
were Ephraem of Antioch, the emperor Justinian, Anastasius I. of
Antioch, Eulogius of Alexandria, Georgius Pisides, Anastasius Sinaita,
and John of Damascus. Apollinarianism was again refuted this time
by Antipater of Bostra and Leontius of Byzantium (?). Origenism
called forth the same Antipater and the emperor Justinian, as well
as Barsanuphius and Theodorus of Scythopolis. The Theopaschite
and Tritheist disputes did not get beyond certain narrow limits. On
the other hand, the controversy of the Three Chapters moved the
Church of the West more profoundly than that of the East. Eustratius
of Constantinople opposed the theory that after death the soul was
in a dormant state. The old Monophysite teachings awoke to a new
life in Monotheletism. This new heresy was refuted by Sophronius
of Jerusalem and Maximus Confessor, the latter of whom is reckoned
among the greatest theologians of the Greek church. The theology
of Maximus is based on the writings of the pseudo-Dionysius Areo-
pagita who had undertaken to make the ideas of Neoplatonism sub
servient to the needs of Christian speculation. The last great doc
trinal question to agitate the Greek Church was thrust upon her
by the iconoclastic emperor, Leo the Isaurian; the defence of holy
images was undertaken by German us of Constantinople and John of
Damascus. The latter remains to the present day the classic theo
logian of the Greek Church, all earlier doctrinal material of which
is resumed and systematized by him in his « Fountain of Wisdom ».
Meritorious defenders of Christianity against the attacks of Neo
platonism arose in the persons of Aeneas of Gaza and Zacharias
Rhetor. Leontius of Neapolis, Anastasius Sinaita, John of Damascus,
and others wrote against the Jews. The Damascene writes also against
the Manichaeans (Paulicians) and the Saracens.
3. OTHER BRANCHES OF THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. — Historical
theology. While in the West ecclesiastical history assumes the cha
racter of a lifeless chronicle as early as the fifth century, the Greek
church by its writers vigorously sustains throughout the sixth century
its reputation for ecclesiastical historiography. Theodorus Lector,
Zacharias Rhetor, and Evagrius Scholasticus will always be remember
ed as ecclesiastical historians. The Chronicon Paschale belongs to
the first half of the seventh century. Less valuable is the history
of the Nicene Council by Gelasius of Cyzicus ; Basil of Seleucia has
§ 99- WRITERS OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE FIFTH CENTURY. 53!
left us specimens of biography ; he was followed by Cyril of Scytho-
polis and Leontius of Neapolis; the former wrote for the monks,
the latter for the people, while both aimed at edification and prac
tical results. Cosmas Indicopleustes is remembered as a geographer.
The province of biblical theology was much less cultivated. Biblical
commentaries were composed by Ammonius of Alexandria, Gennadius
of Constantinople, Victor of Antioch, and Andrew of Csesarea. We
owe to Procopius of Gaza lengthy Catena-like compilations on several
books of the Old Testament. In the fifth book of his « Christian
Topography », Cosmas, the Indian traveller, wrote a kind of intro
duction to the Bible; his commentary on the Canticle of canticles
has perished. Practical theology is much more copiously represented.
We find that many ascetical works were produced by John Climacus,
John Moschus, the monk Antiochus, the abbot Dorotheus, Maximus
Confessor, John of Damascus, and others. A widely read and au
thoritative work was the «Ladder» (of heaven) written by John Cli
macus. The « Spiritual meadow » of John Moschus, a collection of
miraculous events and of virtuous lives of contemporary monks, was
particularly beloved among works of edification. Collections of ho
milies are extant under the names of Basil of Seleucia, Sophronius
of Jerusalem, Germanus of Constantinople, John of Damascus ; the
latter three deserve especial mention for their homilies on the Blessed
Virgin. In the sixth century systematic collections of canons were
made by an anonymous writer and by Johannes Scholasticus ; in the
seventh and eighth the Nomocanones or collections of civil and
ecclesiastical laws were compiled. Sacred poetry , as already stated
(see no. i), made wonderful progress. Splendid, and in a way in
comparable, rhythmic hymns were composed by Romanus the Singer,
Sergius of Constantinople, Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus, and
Cosmas the Singer. Georgius Pisides, a gifted and productive poet,
adhered strictly to quantitative metre.
§ 99. Writers of the second half of the fifth century.
I. BASIL OF SELEUCIA. --This writer was bishop of Seleucia in
Isauria. At the Synod of Constantinople (448) held under the pre
sidency of the patriarch Flavian, he voted for the condemnation of
the new heresy of Eutychianism or Monophysitism and for the de
position of the archimandrite Eutyches, but at the Robber- Synod of
Ephesus (449), the violent Dioscurus of Alexandria so intimidated
him that he declared in favor of the rehabilitation of Eutyches and
adhered to the Alonophysite teaching. He was therefore about to
be deposed at the Council of Chalcedon (451), but subscribed the
letter of Leo the Great to Flavian (§ 97, 2), condemned Eutyches
and Dioscurus, and was forgiven; he never afterwards wavered from
orthodox doctrines. There is extant in a Latin translation a letter
34*
C^2 THIRD PERIOD. FfeST SECTION.
of the Isaurian episcopate, written in 458 to the emperor Leo I., and
signed by Basil, in which he declares that the authority of Chal-
cedon must be sustained and the intruded patriarch of Alexandria,
Timothy Aelurus, be deposed1. It is probable that he did not long
survive this act, and that he died in 459. His literary remains con
sist of 41 discourses (lojoi) on passages from the Old and the New
Testament2 and a long life of the so-called protomartyr Thecla
(§ 3°. 5) followed by a description of the miracles that took place
at her sepulchre in Seleucia3. Photius was acquainted with fifteen of
these discourses, and blames their lack of simplicity and naturalness,
the result of excessive rhetorical ornament; he also calls attention
to the affinity between the exegetical method of Basil and that of
Chrysostom 4. The authenticity of most of the sermons has been
called in question (§ 77, n). Photius is witness5 that Basil wrote also
a metrical account (fti-pQiq zvrztvac) of the conflicts and triumph
of St. Thecla.
The attitude of Basil at the above-mentioned councils is described by
Hefele, Konziliengeschichte, 2. ed., ii. 331 ff. 375 ff. 430 ff. On his writ
ings cf. FabriduS'Harles, Bibl. Gr., ix. 90 — 97 (Migne, PG., Ixxxv. 9 — 18).
On his Life and Miracles of St. Thecla cf. Lipsius , Die apokr. Apostel-
geschichten (1887), ii i, 426 432 f. - - The emperor Leo I. (457 — 474)
requested (458) from every bishop of the empire a memorial on the Council
of Chalcedon and on Timothy Aelurus. Many of the answers are still
extant in a Latin translation made by Epiphanitis Scholasticus (§ 115, 3)
at the suggestion of Cassiodorius (Mansi, 1. c., vii. 524 — 662; Hefele, 1. c.,
ii. 420 566). Timothy Aelurus appears to have left many writings, only a
few fragments of them have reached us in the original Greek; there is
much more, however, in the Syriac translation ; cf. Ahrens und Kruger, Die
sogen. Kirchengeschichte des Zacharias Rhetor, Leipzig, 1899, pp. 28 — 31
38 — 54 319 — 322. W. E. Cmim, Eusebius and Coptic Church histories, in
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, London, 1902, xxiv.
1902. Crum recognizes in two manuscripts of a Coptic ecclesiastical
history (in twelve books) a work of Timothy Aelurus, attributed to him by
John of Majuma (§ 100, 5), and in which he had borrowed much from
Eusebius of Csesarea. P. Godet, Basile de Seleucie: Diet, de Theologie,
Paris, 1905, ii, c. 459 460.
2. ANTIPATER OF BOSTRA. -- Antipater was bishop of Bostra in
Arabia, shortly after the Council of Chalcedon, and ranks among
the principal ecclesiastics of the Eastern Church. Little is known
about his life; of his works also but little has reached us: Frag
ments of a large work against the Apology for Origen of Pamphilus
and Eusebius (§ 45, i); a brief fragment of a treatise against the
Apollinarists; two homilies (on the nativity of St. John the Baptist
and on the Annunciation); and insignificant fragments of two other
homilies6.
Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., vii. 559 — 563.
1 Migne, PG., Ixxxv. 27—474. 3 lb ; lxxxv 477_6i8.
4 Bibl. Cod. 168. 5 Ib. e Migne, PG., Ixxxv. 1763—1796.
§ 99- WRITERS OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE FIFTH CENTURY. 533
Cf. Fabridus- Harks y Bibl. Gr., x. 518—519 (Migne, PG. , Ixxxv. 1755
to 1758). The Greek text of the homily on St. John the Baptist and the
homily on the Annunciation was first edited by A. Balkrini, Sylloge mo-
numentorum ad mysterium conceptionis immaculatae Virginis Deiparae
illustrandum, Rome, 1856, ii 2, 5 — 26 445—469. S. Vailht, Antipater de
Bostra: Diet, de Theologie, Paris, 1903, i, c. 1440.
3. AMMONIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. — Ammonius, a priest and ad
ministrator (oeconomus) of the temporalities of the Alexandrine Church,
was the signer of a letter addressed in 458 to the emperor Leo I.
by the bishops of Egypt1. He is very well-known as an exegete,
though only fragments of his commentaries have reached us through
the «Catenae»; they are taken from his writings on the Psalms,
Daniel, Matthew, John, the Acts of the Apostles, and the First of
Peter2. His identity with the Scholiast Ammonius, so often quoted
in the « Catenae », is usually taken for granted, though the matter
demands further investigation and proof. Anastasius Sinaita quotes
twice3 from the works of «the Alexandrine Ammonius » against the
Monophysite Julian of Halicarnassus. This latter Ammonius cannot be
identical with our writer, since Julian belongs to the sixth century.
Julian was bishop of Halicarnassus in Caria, from which about 518 he
fled to Alexandria. In that city he opposed the Monophysite Severus of
Antioch (§ 102, 2), and maintained that even before the Resurrection the
body of Christ was incorruptible, or to speak more particularly that it was
not subject to decay (?9opa) at all. His disciples were named by their
opponents Aphthartodocetae, as teachers of the incorruptibility of the body
of Christ, and Phantasiastae, or teachers of a merely phenomenal body of
Christ. A Latin translation of a Commentary of Julian on Job was edited
by G. Genebrardus in his edition of Origen (Paris, 1574), and has often
since been reprinted; the Greek text also is extant in manuscripts. As to
the sources of this commentary cf. H. Usener, in H. Lietzmann, Katenen,
Freiburg i. Br., 1897, pp. 28 — 34. In the Rhein. Mus. f. Phil., new series
(1900), Iv. 321 — 340, Usener published extracts from the Greek text. Other
fragments are found in Mai, Spicilegium Romanum (1844), x- 2°6 — 211.
For the doctrine of Julian see Fr. Loofs, Leontius von Byzanz, Leipzig,
1887, i- 3°— 32-
4. GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. — Gennadius I., patriarch of
Constantinople (458—471), was, as far as is known, no less sincere an
adherent to the orthodox doctrine and no less earnest an opponent
of Monophysitism, than his predecessor Anatolius (449 — 458). In a
great synod held at Constantinople (probably in 459) he published
an Epistola encyclica against the practice of simony in the conferring
of holy orders4. According to Gennadius of Marseilles5 he was a
rir lingua nitidus ct ingenio acer, also the author of a commentary
on Daniel and of many homilies. Marcellinus Comes asserts 6 that he
1 Mansi, 1. c., vii. 530. 2 Migne, PG., Ixxxv. 1361 — 1610 1823 — 1826.
3 Viae dux, cc. 13 14.
4 Migne, PG., Ixxxv. 1613 — 1622; Mansi, 1. c., vii. 911 — 920
5 De viris ill., c. 90. 6 Chron. ad a. 470.
534 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
wrote an exposition of all the Pauline Epistles. All these writings
have apparently perished. A certain Gennadius appears occasional ly
in several Catenae and is often, though with doubtful accuracy,
identified with our author. He is quoted with special frequency
apropos of Genesis and the Epistle to the Romans1.
The fragments of Gennadius in Migne are all taken from Catenae ; the
fragments on Genesis from the Catena of Nicephorus on the Octateuch and
Kings (Leipzig, 1772 — 1773), and the fragments on Romans from J. A.
Cramer, Catenae Grace. Patr. in Nov. Test., Oxford, 1838 — 1844, iv. 163 ft".
For the Epistola encyclica cf. Hefele, Konziliengeschichte, 2. ed., ii. 584^ -
In union with Peter Mongus, Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria, Acacius
(471 — 489), the successor of the patriarch Gennadius, induced the emperor
Zeno to issue his infamous Henoticon (482). This step , originally calcu
lated to bridge over the chasm between orthodoxy and Monophysitism,
led to a conflict between the Churches of Rome and Constantinople that
lasted for thirty-five years, 484 — 519 (the so-called Acacian Schism). A
correspondence between Acacius and Peter Mongus preserved in Coptic
was published in a French translation by £. Revillout, in Revue des ques
tions historiques, Paris, 1877, xxii. 83 — 134, and, in Coptic and French,
by E. Amtlineau, in Monuments pour servir a Fhistoire de 1'Egypte chre-
tienne aux IVe et Ve siecles, Paris, 1888, pp. 196 — 228. Amelineau is
right, as against Revillout, in maintaining the spurious character of this
correspondence (see § 78, 12). On the other hand, a genuine and com
plete text of these letters exists in an Armenian translation ; cf. Book of
Letters, an Armenian work by y. Ismireanz, Tiflis, 1901, nn. 61 — 78.
5. GELASIUS OF CYZICUS. --This writer composed about 475 in
Bithynia a history (in three books) of the first ecumenical Council
at Nicaea2. It seems strange that up to the present there should
have been published only one fragment of the third book containing
three letters or edicts of Constantine the Great. We know but little
about Gelasius. Photius3 found that in several manuscripts he was
called bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. His work is a mere compila
tion from such earlier Christian historiographers as Eusebius, Socrates,
Sozomen and Theodoret. Where his narrative is not sustained by
these older writers, it is of doubtful value, and at times positively
erroneous.
This history of the Nicene Council is found in the larger collections
of the councils, e. g. in Mansi. The index of the (manuscript) third book
was made known by Fr. Oehler, in Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Theol. (1861),
lv- 439—442. For a general description of the work cf. E. Venables, in
Smith and Wace, A Dictionary of Christian Biography, ii. 621—623.
6. VICTOR OF ANTIOCH. - - It was probably in the fifth century
that Victor, an otherwise unknown priest of Antioch, compiled a
commentary on the Gospel of Mark from older materials of a similar
kind illustrative of the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John. He
1 Migne, PG., Ixxxv. 1621 — 1734.
2 Ib., Ixxxv. 1191 — 1360. 3 Bibl. Cod. 88.
$ 1 0.0. PSEUDODIONYSIUS AREOPAGITA. 535
seems to have made good use of the homilies of St. John Chryso-
stom, and his work proved very serviceable to later interpreters.
His commentary on Jeremias seems to have been similarly constructed;
the Catena on Jeremias, edited by M. Ghisler (Lyons, 1623), draws
largely upon this work of Victor. Judging from the character of
his authorities, Victor evidently belongs to the Antiochene school
of exegesis.
The commentary of Victor on Mark was first edited, in the original
Greek, by P. Possinus, Rome, 1673, later on by Chr. Fr. Matthaei, Moscow,
1775, and by J. A. Cramer, Oxford, 1844 (Catenae Graec. Patr. in Nov.
Test., i. 259 — 447). The edition of Cramer presents the most complete
and relatively the most ancient text, the edition of Matthaei a later re
cension. For the scholia on Jeremias cf. M. Faulhaber, Die Propheten-
Katenen, Freiburg i. Br., 1899, Biblische Studien, iv. 2—3 107 — no 133.
- L. A. Zaccagni was the first to publish (Rome, 1698), under the name
of Euthalius, recensions of the text of the Pauline Epistles, the Acts of
the Apostles, and the Catholic Epistles (Migne, PG., Ixxxv. 619—790; that
of the Acts is also Ib. , x. 1549 — ^558). This Euthalius is said to have
been an inhabitant of Egypt, to have lived in the latter half of the fifth
century, and to have been a deacon , and subsequently a bishop. J. A.
Robinson has shown, in Texts and Studies, Cambridge, 1895, "i- 3> tnat this
work is the result of gradual formation and is owing to several hands. The
work was originally executed in the fourth century, when its biblical texts
were subdivided into verses (ffti/oi) according to the sense ; in the fifth
century were added, apparently, the stichometric division, the collation with
the Pamphilus-codices (§45, i), and other adminicula; cf. E. v. Dobschiltz,
in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1899), xix. 107 — 154. J. Armitage Robinson,
Recent Work on Euthalius, in Journal of Theological Studies (1904), pp. 70
to 87 87 — 90.
§ 100. Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita.
I. THE WRITINGS OF THE PSEUDO-AREOPAGITE. — According to
the unanimous evidence of the manuscripts, Dionysius Areopagita is
the name of the author of a number of theological works that,
generally speaking, appear to be the compositions of a single writer;
this is evident from the identity and continuity of certain fundamental
theological and philosophical ideas, and from quite inimitable peculia
rities of tone and style. The works are fourteen in number: four
large treatises and ten letters, of which most are very short. The
first four of these letters are addressed to the «Therapeuta» Caius,
the fifth to the «Liturgus» Dorotheus, the sixth to the priest (isp&jq)
Sosipater, the seventh to the «Hierarch» Polycarp, the eighth to the
«Therapeuta» Demophilus, the ninth to the «Hierarch» Titus, and
the tenth to the « Theologian » Johannes. The contents of nearly all
the letters is theological; they are answers to questions concerning
Catholic doctrine; some contain practical directions and exhortations
concerning the conduct to be observed towards infidels (Ep. vii), on
mildness and humility (Ep. viii), and on other points. The four large
treatises are all dedicated to his co-presbyter fffOfurpSffftuTepoQ} Timo-
THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION,
theus. The work on «The Divine Names » fft£p} fteitov dvopdrcovj,
the basis of the so-called Areopao-itica, treats of the names of God
that occur in the Scriptures, and illustrates through them the nature
and attributes of the divinity. The work on Mystical Theology faep}
pUHjTtxTJQ freokoTtaq) demonstrates that it is impossible to comprehend
the divine nature and likewise impossible fully to express or to
define it. The work on «The Celestial Hierarchy » (nspt TTJQ oopaviac
ispap/iaQj describes the gradation of the heavenly spirits; it distin
guishes three hierarchies or classes: Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones;
Dominations, Virtues and Powers; Principalities, Archangels and Angels.
The work on «The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy » (xspi TT^Q IxxtyfftaffTixiJQ
iepap%iagj describes the Church as an earthly image of the heavenly
world ; to the above-mentioned three heavenly hierarchies correspond
as many triads on earth: Consecrations (Baptism, Eucharist and Con
firmation) ; Consecrators (Bishop, Priest and Deacon) ; Consecrated
(Monks, Laity, and those in a state of purification). The writer re
peatedly refers to other writings already published by him ; among
them he quotes one on the elements of theology (freotoftxai bxo-
TL>7ra>ff£tcj \ another on the attributes and ranks of the angels fnspe TCOV
dffshxajv Idior/jTcov y.at Tv.z£(ovj2, one on the soul fasp} </>v%yj<;JB, one
on the just and divine judgment faepl dtxalou xal ftslou dtxatwrypiou) 4,
and others. It must be said, however, that these statements of the
author concerning his own writings are both obscure and contra
dictory, and that no other traces of his literary productions have yet
been discovered. The Syriac translation of the Areopagitica made
by Sergius of Resaina (f 536 contains only the four treatises and
the letters, as handed down in the Greek text. There are extant
three letters to Apollophanes, Timotheus, and Titus, that have come
down in other than Greek texts, but they are spurious, i. e. are
falsely accredited to the author of the Areopagitica.
Very little has been done hitherto for the textual criticism of this
writer. Only a few of the (numerous) Greek manuscripts have been con
sulted, while the Oriental translations (Syriac, Armenian, Arabic) await
both the printer and the investigator. The Greek text was published
Florence 1516, Paris 1562, Antwerp 1634, Paris 1644 by B. Corderius, S. ].,
* vols.; Venice, 1755— 1?56> 2 vols. ; this last edition in Migne , PG.,
in— iv. y. G. V. Engelhardt translated all the works of Dionysius into
German, Sulzbach, 1823, 2 vols. The English translation of J. Parker
Oxford, 1897) is a more accurate and trustworthy piece of work. The De
ecclesiastica hierarchia was translated into German by R. Storf, Kempten,
1877 (Bibl, der Kirchenvater). Cf. A. Jahn, Dionysiaca. Sprachliche und
sachliche platonische Bltitenlese aus Dionysius, dem sogen. Areopagiten,
Altona and Leipzig, 1889. — For the statements of the Pseudo-Areopagite
concerning his own literary labors cf. H, Koch, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1895), Ixxvii. 362—371; also Rom. Quartalschr. (1898), xii. 364—367.-
1 De div. nom. i, I 5 al. 2 Ib , 42 3 Ib
4Ibr4, 35-
§ 100. PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS AREOPAGITA. 537
The spurious letter to the philosopher Apollophanes (cf. Ep. 7, 2 — 3) is
found in Latin in Migne, PG., iii. 1119 — 1122. The letter to Timotheus
on the death of the Apostles Peter and Paul is extant in Syriac, Armenian
and Latin translations in Pitra, Analecta sacra, iv. 241 — 254 261 — 276;
cf. Vetter , Das apokryphe Schreiben Dionysius des Areopagiten an Titus
iiber die Aufnahme Maria, ans dem Armenischen iibersetzt, in Theol.
Quartalschr. (1887), Ixix. 133 — 138.
2. AUTHORSHIP OF THE AREOPAGITICA. - - The writer calls him
self Dionysius 1, and apparently desires to pass for Dionysius the
Areopagite, disciple of the Apostle of the Gentiles2 and first bishop
of Athens3. He takes pleasure in declaring that St. Paul is his
master in the mysteries of Christianity4, and addresses his treatises
and letters to disciples of the apostles: Timotheus, Titus, Caius5,
Sosipater 6, and Polycarp. The tenth letter is addressed: «To the
Theologian Johannes, the Apostle and Evangelist, in his exile on
the island of Patmos.» Dionysius was an eye-witness of «the eclipse
of the sun in the redeeming Cross » (T^Q iv TUJ acorypiq) oiwjpw
fs^oyjlaQ IxtetyewQj7 i. e. the solar eclipse that took place at the
death of Christ. He says, he beheld it at Heliopolis, but does not
make clear whether he means the town of that name in Coelesyria
or the one in Lower Egypt. Accompanied by many brethren he
undertook a journey «to behold the life-begetting and God-receiving
body (snt TYjV ttiav TOO Cwapyr/.oi) xat dzoouyo'j ffWfJtaTO^J » ] he means,
apparently, that he assisted at the death of the Mother of God ;
«there were also present James the brother of God (b udstyodso*;) and
Peter, the most eminent and the oldest Chiefs of the theologians » 8.
These and other passages from our author's treatises and letters
led ecclesiastical writers of the sixth century to bestow on him the
title of « Areopagite », « disciple of the apostles », and the like. The
first public mention of his works was made at the religious con
ference that took place in 53 l or 533 at Constantinople between
the orthodox Catholics and the Severiani or moderate Monophysites.
The latter appealed for their doctrine to the writings of Dionysius
the Areopagite ; the Catholic representative, Hypatius of Ephesus,
rejected them as spurious: Ilia enim testimonia, quae vos Dionysii
Areopagitae dicitis, unde potestis ostendere vera esse?9 In spite of
this attitude, the works of our author gradually obtained esteem and
influence even among Catholics, owing particularly to Maximus Con
fessor (y 662) who wrote commentaries on them and defended them
from the charges of Monophysitism. Throughout the mediaeval
period no one doubted that the author was Dionysius the Areo
pagite. In 827 the Greek emperor Michael Balbus presented to
1 Ep. 7, 3. 2 Acts xvii. 34. 3 Eus., Hist, eccl., iii 4, 10.
4 De div. norn. 2, n; 3, 2 al. 5 Rom. xvi. 23; I Cor. i. 14.
6 Rom. xvi. 21. 7 Ep. 7, 2. 8 De div. nom. 3, 2.
9 Mansi, SS. Cone Coll., viii. 821.
538 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
Louis the Pious a copy of these works. A Latin translation executed by
Hilduin, abbot of St. Denis (near Paris), being found unsatisfactory,
Charles the Bald commissioned the Irish monk John Scotus Erigena
to make another. Thenceforth the writings exercised a far-reaching
influence on Western theological science. They were as a lamp to
mystic theologians along the obscure paths of contemplation and
ecstasy ; scholastic writers looked to them for guidance in their
speculations concerning the nature and attributes of the divinity, the
first ideal causes of creation, and the ranks of the heavenly spirits;
ascetic writers were instructed by them concerning the triple way of
purification, illumination and union ; exegetical and liturgical writers
found in them the ideal presentation of scriptural doctrine and ec
clesiastical ritual. With the decay of mediaeval life came also a de
cline in the reputation of the Areopagitica. One of the first mani
festations of the newly awakened spirit of criticism was a renewal of
the protest long before made by Hypatius at Constantinople. Heated
and wearisome controversies followed in the course of which were
brought forth countless hypotheses concerning the true authorship
of these problematic writings: Greek, Syrian, Latin, orthodox and
heretical writers, even pagan priests of Dionysos (i. e. Bacchus) were
each in turn proposed as the author of them; it was always taken
for granted that, if the author were not Dionysius the Areopagite,
he was a forger and a deceiver. The first to modify this alternative
was Hipler; he undertook (1861) to prove that our author himself
did not claim to be the Areopagite; Hipler said it was an error
to seek in Dionysius the person of the Areopagite, it was owing
to this mistaken notion that in course of time the originally ob
scure text continually became more disfigured and corrupted while
in its turn this faulty text served as a prop for other erroneous
hypotheses, there was no reason to suspect what the author says
about himself, he was a teacher in an Egyptian catechetical school,
during the latter half of the fourth century 1 and may probably be
identified with the monk and catechist, Dionysius at Rhinocorura,
mentioned by Sozomen2. Many theological scholars, like Draseke
and Nirschl, were persuaded that the keen reasoning of Hipler had
solved the problem, and agreed with the latter that the qualification
of «Pseudo- Areopagite » was an injustice. Other writers continued
to maintain that the Areopagitica were nothing more than a com
position written under an assumed name, and in reality dating from
about the end of the fifth century. In the last few years the brilliant
investigations of Stiglmayr and Koch have raised this thesis to the
level of certitude, and put an end for ever to a long-lingering
controversy.
1 Cf. Ep. 7, 2 ; De div. nom. 3, 2.
2 Hist, eccl., vi. 31.
§ 100. PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS AREOPAGITA. 539
There exists as yet no complete history of the Areopagitica, their dif
fusion and their influence. Cf. J. Stiglmayr, Das Aufkommen der Pseudo-
Dionysischen Schriften und ihr Eindringen in die christliche Literatur bis
zum Laterankonzil 649 (Progr.), Feldkirch, 1895. N. Nilles , in Zeitschr.
fiir kath. Theol. (1896), xx. 395 — 399. Stiglmayr, in Hist. Jahrbuch (1898),
xix. 91 — 94; (1899), xx. 367 — 388. J?. Foss, Uber den Abt Hilduin von
St. Denis und Dionysius Areopagita (Progr.), Berlin, 1886. J. Draseke,
in Zeitschr. fiir wissenschaftl. Theol. (1892), xxxv. 408 — 418. H. Omont,
Manuscrit des ceuvres de S. Denys 1'Areopagite, envoye de Constantinople
a Louis le Debonnaire en 827, Paris, n pp., with a fac-simile. The earlier
literature is very extensive and may be studied in Chevalier, Bio-Biblio-
graphie, pp. 563 — 565 2549. The most recent works are quoted below
no. 3. The authorship of the Areopagite is still maintained by Josephus
a Leonissa in various articles, in Jahrbuch fur Philosophic und spekulative
Theologie (1902), xvi; (1903), xvii. 419 — 454.
3. ACTUAL STATUS OF THE QUESTION. - - The hypothesis of
Hipler is now looked on as a failure. He sustained it only by means
of many modifications of the text which, as more recent palaeo-
graphical investigations have shown, do violence to the authentic
tradition of our author's text. There is no reason for changing the
words of the passages (no. 2) already quoted. Hipler was wrong in
attempting to make us read exXdfj.(psa)Q, instead of IxAstyscos1 which
is found in all the printed editions; similarly we must read with all
former editors Gci)tj.aro(; and ddetyo&eoQ, not (rr^tjiaroc, and ddsApog2.
It follows at once that the author set up for a contemporary of the
apostles, that he put on a mask for the purpose of deceit. The opinion
that he was really the Areopagite , or any other disciple of the
apostles, was rightly put aside many years ago by Hipler, and has
been even more thoroughly refuted since his time; a result owing
in no small degree to the scientific naivete of its recent defenders
(C. M. Schneider, J. Parker, and others). Internal and external criteria
enable us to fix the date of composition of the Areopagitica between
the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century; the
earliest traces of these are not found, as Hipler imagined, at the
end of the fourth century, but at the beginning of the sixth, as
quotations in the writings of Severus, the Monophysite patriarch of
Antioch about 512 — 518 (although his writings cannot be dated with
absolute exactness), or in the quotations made from the Areopagitica
by Andrew, archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, in his commentary
on the Apocalypse, composed probably about 520. On the other
hand, the Areopagitica cannot have been published before the end
of the fifth century. The author is quite familiar with the works
of the Neoplatonist Proclus (411 — 485), and has greatly profited by
them. Both Stiglmayr and Koch have shown that De div. nom.
iv, 1 8 — 34, is an extract from Proclus' treatise De malorum sub-
sistentia, which has reached us only in a Latin translation. The
1 Ep. 7, 2. - De div. nom. 3, 2.
540 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
author is also acquainted with the liturgical custom of singing the
Credo during the Mass1. This was first done by the Monophysites
at Antioch in 476; the Catholics soon afterwards adopted its intro
duction into the liturgy. The author is also very probably influenced
by the Henoticon of the emperor Zeno (482), the document by which
he hoped to bring about a reconciliation of the orthodox believers
and the Monophysites. A pacifying tone pervades the Areopagitica;
it is evident that they deliberately avoid the disputed terms <j.ia p6<nz
and d'jo (puasiQ: in general the Christology of their author is expressed
in such vague and indefinite phrases that there is no reason to wonder
why both parties laid claim to him as to a witness to the truth of
mutually conflicting doctrines. The expression flsavopixy iyspfsia2
acquired considerable celebrity later on. He was very probably a
native of Syria, not of Egypt. Kriiger called attention to the scho-
lasticus Dionysius of Gaza, a friend of Petrus Iberus, the Mono-
physite bishop of Majuma near Gaza, who died about 487. But
though our writer adopted the name of Dionysius in his writings,
there is no proof that such was really his name. It is conjectured
that in his early youth he must have been a Neoplatonist; he says
of himself3 that he had been bora a heathen. In any case the pe
culiar or distinctive note of his exposition of ecclesiastical teaching
and life is found in his manifold and profound Neoplatonic reminis
cences. He loves to dwell with endless variety on the idea of the
One (£»), the procession of all things from Him (xpoodoq), and their
return to Him (Imarpoyfj). He is not so original an author as has
long been believed. «He stands close by the current of ecclesiastical
tradition from which his extensive erudition permits him to drink in
copious draughts », says Stiglmayr. In his pages, however, the an
cient tradition sparkles and scintillates in new and strange colors.
In his discourse he draws constantly on the terminology of the pagan
mysteries; he delights in capricious formation of new words; the
structure of his sentence is affected and overcrowded. As Stiglmayr
says, «he delights in conscious and intentional artificiality and obscu
rity of diction ».
Fr. Hipler, Dionysius, der Areopagite. Untersuchungen iiber Echtheit
und Glaubwiirdigkeit der unter diesem Namen vorhandenen Schriften,
Ratisbon, 1861. Id., De theologia librorum qui sub Dionysii Areopagitae
nomine feruntur. 4 programs of the Lycaeum Hosianum at Brunsberg,
[871—1885. The often quoted passage from De div. nom. 3, 2 is found in
Synac translation (from three codices) in P. de Lagarde, Mitteilungen,
ttmgen, 1891, iv. 19 f. Cf. H. Gelzer , in Jahrb. fur protest. Theol.
892), xvin. 457—459; for the passage from. Ep. 7, 2 cf. Id., in Wochen-
fur klass. Philol. (1892), pp. 98—100 124—127. J. Stiglmayr, Der
Ncuplatomker Proklus als Vorlage des sogen. Dionysius Areopagita in der
i vomUbel, in Hist. Jahrb. (1895), xvi. 253—273 721—748; Id., Das
1 De eccl. bier., 3. 2. 2 Ep 4 3 De
§ 101. PROCOPIUS OF GAZA AND AENEAS OF GAZA. 54!
Aufkommen der Pseudo-Dionysischen Schriften, see no. 2. H. Koch, Der
pseudepigraphische Charakter der dionysischen Schriften, in Theol. Quartal-
schrift (1895), Ixxvii. 353—420, and (1896), Ixxviii. 290 — 298; Id., Proklus
als Quelle des Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita in der Lehre vom Bosen, in
Philologus (1895), liv. 438 — 454; Id., Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita in seinen
Beziehungen zum Neuplatonismus und Mysterienwesen, in Forschungen zur
christl. Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte, Mainz, 1900, i. 2 — 3. The re
sults of Stiglmayr and Koch were challenged particularly by y. Drdseke
and y. Nirschl. Stiglmayr replied in Byzant. Zeitschr. (1898), vii. 91 — no
(cf. [1899], viii. 263 — 301), and Koch, in Rom. Quactalschr. (1898), xii.
353 — 398- G. Krilger , Wer war Pseudo-Dionysius? in Byzant. Zeitschr.
(1899), viii. 302 — 305. O. Siebert, Die Metaphysik und Ethik des Pseudo-
Dionysius Areopagita (Inaug.-Diss.), Jena, 1894. Stiglmayr, Die Engellehre
des sogen. Dionysius Areopagita, in Compte-rendu du IV. Congres scient.
internat. des Cathol., Freiburg (Switzerland), 1898, sect. I, pp. 403 — 414;
Id., Die Lehre von den Sakramenten und der Kirche nach Pseudo-Dionysius,
in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol. (1898), xxii. 246 — 303; cf. pp. 180—187; Id->
Die Eschatologie des Pseudo-Dionysius, ib. (1899), xxiii- i — 21. For pe
nance in Pseudo-Dionysius see Koch, in Hist. Jahrb. (1900), xxi. 58 — 78;
cf. Stiglmayr, in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol. (1900), xxiv. 657 — 671.
4. HIEROTHEUS. — The author of the Areopagitica refers often with
enthusiasm to a certain Hierotheus as his venerable master; he also men
tions (De div. nom. ii. 9 — 10, and iv. 14 — 17) two works of Hierotheus:
Elements or foundations of theology: OsoXo-ytxat <rrot/Eiws£K (De div. nom.
2, 9 — 10), and Hymns of love: ipumxol UJJLVOI (ib., 4, 14 — 17). His own
works, he says, serve merely to illustrate and complete his master's writ
ings, which are not easily understood by reason of their profundity and
conciseness (De div. nom. 3, 2 — 3 ; De coel. hier. 6 , 2). Is this Hiero
theus an historical person or a fiction of our author? There is extant in
Syriac a «Book of St. Hierotheos on the hidden mysteries of the divinity »,
which A. L. Frothingham jun. (Stephen Bar Sudaili, the Syrian mystic,
and the book of Hierotheos, Leyden, 1886) ascribes to the monk Stephen
Bar Sudaili who lived about 500, and which is held by Frothingham to be the
source whence the writings of the pseudo-Areopagite were drawn. In the
present state of the question it is more natural to think that the asser
tions of the Pseudo-Areopagite suggested to some Syrian writers the com
position of a «Book of St. Hierotheos ».
5. VITA PETRI IBERIS. — About the year 500 a Greek biography of
Petrus Iber was composed. It has been edited in Syriac and German trans
lations by R. Raabe, Leipzig, 1895; cf. J. B. Chabot, in Revue de 1'Orient
latin (1895), iii. 367 — 397. This biography is supplemented by a work
entitled «Plerophoriae», anecdotes gathered about 515 by Johannes, bishop
of Majuma, friend and disciple of Peter. These anecdotes have been
edited in French by F. Nau , in Revue de 1'Orient chretien (1898), iii.
232 — 259 337 — 392, and separately, Les Plerophories de Jean, eveque de
Maiouma, Paris, 1899.
§ 101. Procopius of Gaza and Aeneas of Gaza.
I. FROCOPIUS. - - The sophist-schools of Hellenism were already
on the decline when the schools of the Syrian city of Gaza, favored
by various circumstances, entered upon a brief period of prosperity.
A multitude of noble youths came thither from the remotest quarters
for the study of eloquence, then a usual preliminary to all special
542 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
studies. All the known sophists of Gaza in the fifth and sixth cen
turies are Christian, though their rhetorical works might well have
been written by pagans. Two of them, however, are men of earnest
ness and conviction; we owe to them commentaries on the Holy
Scripture and apologetic works. The most brilliant of these Gazan
sophists is Procopius, whose life falls into the period between 465 and
528. Antioch, Tyre and Caesarea tempted him in vain to abandon
his native town; the famous orator and teacher ignored their seduc
tions and after a brief absence settled permanently in Gaza, where he
devoted himself without interruption to learned studies. His copious
correspondence bewrays the rhetorician in its tendency and coloring1,
similarly his panegyric on the emperor Anastasius (491 — 518), written
between 512 and $i$2. Other writings of this kind have perished or
have not yet been recovered. For chronological reasons he cannot be
the author of a description of the new Sancta Sophia, finished in
537 — 538 3, nor of a lament for its destruction by an earthquake in
5584. Procopius consigned the results of his theological studies to
a series of commentaries on the Old Testament. It is supposed that
we have lost his comprehensive work on the Octateuch, one of the
earliest specimens of the «Catenae». In it he had collected, without
systematic order, a great many quotations from all kinds of authors.
It is highly probable that this work was the basis of the Catena on
the Octateuch (and the four Books of Kings) published at Leipzig,
1772 — 1773, by the Greek Nicephorus, in two folio volumes. An
extract from this larger work, executed by Procopius himself, was
edited in 1555 in a Latin translation; only portions of the Greek
text have hitherto been published5. This extract is also a Catena-
commentary, though it differs from the other works of that kind in
the anonymous character of its quotations, nor does it give the
complete comment of the authors quoted, but only extracts there
from. Eisenhofer has shown that the authors most copiously drawn
on are Cyril of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, and Basil the Great.
Procopius gave also a Catena-like character to his lengthy commen
tary on Isaias6. Theodoret of Cyrus furnishes the greater part of
the scholia to the four Books of Kings and the two Books of Para-
lipomenon 7. Paraphrases of the three Solomonic books, current under
the name of Procopius, are only partially published; they are a
commentary on Proverbs8, a fragment of a Catena on Proverbs9,
a Catena on the Canticle of canticles 10, and a fragment of a commen
tary on the same11. All of them await a closer investigation of their
1 Migne, PG., Ixxxvii 2, 2717—2792 f. 2 Ib ( ixxxvii 3> 2793—2826.
Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 2827—2838. ^ Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 2839—2842.
Ib., Ixxxvii I, 21 — 1080. 6 Ib., Ixxxvii 2, 1817—2718.
Ib., Ixxxvii i, 1079—1220. § Ib., Ixxxvii I, 1221 — 1544.
Ib., Ixxxvii 2, 1779—1800. 10 Ib., Ixxxvii I, 1545—1754.
11 Ib., Ixxxvii I, 1755—1780.
§ 1 01. PROCOPIUS OF GAZA AND AENEAS OF GAZA. 543
origin. A fragment of a polemical work against the Neoplatonist
Proclus 1 is identical with a chapter of Nicholas, bishop of Methone,
against Proclus, written at the end of the twelfth century. We cannot
admit, with Draseke, that we have here a new and unmodified edi
tion of a work of Procopius, and think it probable, with Stiglmayr,
that the fragment is wrongly attributed to our author.
The only complete edition of the works of Procopius is in Migne,
PG., Ixxxvii, parts i — 3. His correspondence was edited anew by R, Hercher,
Epistolographi Graeci, Paris, 1873, pp. 533 — 598; a letter, lacking in
Hercher, is found in Fabricius- Harks , Bibl. Gr., ix. 296. Three other
unedited letters were published by N. Festa, Animadversiones criticae in
Procopii Gazaei epistulas, in Bessarione v (1900 — 1901), vol. viii, 36 — 42;
cf. L. Galante, Contribute allo studio delle epistole di Procopio di Gaza,
in Studi Italiani di filologia classica (1901), ix. 207—236. For recent re
searches on the sources of the exegetical writings of Procopius cf. L. Eisen-
hofer, Procopius von Gaza, Freiburg i. Br., 1897. The Catena on Proverbs
only partially published, is discussed by E. Bratke, in Zeitschr. f. wissen-
schaftliche Theol. (1896), xxxix. 303—312; on the Catena on the Canticle
of canticles see Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons etc.
(1883), ii. 239 ff. ; on the fragment against Proclus cf. D. Russos, TosTc
PaCaToi (Inaug.-Diss.) , Constantinople, 1893, pp. 57 — 69; J. Draseke, in
Byzant. Zeitschr. (1897), vi. 55 — 91 ; J* Stiglmayr, ib. (1899), viii. 263 — 301.
E. Lindi, Die Oktateuchkatene des Prokop von Gaza und die Septuaginta-
forschung, Munich, 1902; this work treats of important manuscript-traces
of the larger work of Procopius on the Octateuch, and discussess its biblical
text. On the life of Procopius see J. Seitz, Die Schule von Gaza (Inaug.-
Diss.) , Heidelberg, 1892, pp. 9 — 21; cf. C. Kirsten, Quaestiones Chori-
cianae (Breslauer philol. Abhandlungen vii. 2), 1895, pp. 8 ff . — The new
church of Sancta Sophia was consecrated Dec. 24., 563, and the solem
nity was celebrated by Paulus Silentiarius in a description of the Church
and the pulpit (ajxfhov), written in fluent hexameters and very precious for
the history of ecclesiastical art (Migne, PG., Ixxxvi 2, 2119 — 2158 2251
to 2264). y. y. Kreutzer, Paulus des Silentiariers Beschreibung der Haghia
Sophia, Leipzig, 1875. Paulus also wrote a lyric carmen on the Pythic hot
springs of Bithynia {Migne, 1. c., 2263 — 2268). For other works of Paulus
see y Merian-Gcnast , De Paulo Silentiario Byzantino Nonni sectatore
(Diss. Inaug.), Leipzig, 1889.
2. AENEAS OF GAZA. - The distinguished and contemporary
rhetorician Aeneas was the magnet that attracted to Gaza a body
of students at once select and numerous. Aeneas seems to have
been born a little earlier than Procopius and to have outlived him.
He owes his medieval fame to an anti-Neoplatonist dialogue written
before 534: «Theophrastus, or on the immortality of the soul and
the resurrection of the body» 2. Twenty-five short letters (lacking
in Migne] are much more attractive as specimens of contemporary
Hellenic literature.
The last separate edition of the «Theophrastus» dialogue is that of
y. Fr. Boissonade, Paris, 1836. The Greek text of this edition is accom
panied by the Latin translation of Ambrosius Camaldulensis (f 1439).
1 Ib., Ixxxvii 2, 27926 — h. 2 Ib., Ixxxv. 871 — 1004.
544
THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
The letters were re-edited by Hercher 3 1. c. , pp. 24 — 32. Cf. D. Russos,
TpsT; Fa^oTo'. (Inaug.-Diss.), Constantinople, 1893. G. Schalkhausser , Aneas
von Gaza als Philosoph (Inaug.-Diss.), Erlangen, 1898.
3. JOHANNES PHILOPONUS. — The theological labors of the Alexandrine
grammarian Johannes were less successful. He was a younger contemporary
and colleague of the above-mentioned sophists, and his untiring activity earned
for him the name of Philoponus (^IAOTTGVOC). His most important work
bears the title of «The arbiter* (oiaiTT)TV)c) ; it is a dialectico-speculative
discussion of the doctrine concerning Christ and the Trinity, and is written
in favor of Monophysitism and Tritheism. Only fragments of the work
have reached us. According to his opponent Leontius of Byzantium (De
sectis; cf. § 102, i) our writer maintained that there were rpsi? jjispixal
oCcjiai in God, and one oujia xotvr4, the latter existent only as an abstrac
tion. He also wrote a (lost) work on the resurrection of the body (irspl
dvaotaaswc), in which he denied the absolute identity of our actual bodies
with those of the resurrection. There are extant a work of Philoponus
on the creation of the world : De aeternitate mundi contra Proclum, last
edited by H. Rabe, Leipzig, 1899; a commentary on the biblical account
of creation : De opificio mundi libri vii, last edited by G. Reichardt, Leipzig,
1897 ; and a Libellus de paschate, edited by C. Walter, Jena, 1899. For
other details concerning his theological writings cf. Stockl, in Wetzer und
Weltes Kirchenlexikon, 2. ed., vi. 1748 — 1754. Concerning his theological
doctrine see y. M. Schonf elder , Die Kirchengeschichte des Johannes von
Ephesus, Munich, 1862, pp. 267 — 311: «Die Tritheiten». Among the cele
brated writers of the Trithe'ists was Stephen Gobarus (about 600), known
to us now only through an excerpt from his principal work preserved by
Photius (Bibl. Cod. 232).
4. ANONYMI HERMIPPUS DE ASTROLOGIA DiALOGUS. — About 500, ap
parently, a Neoplatonist Christian published a dialogue in two books en
titled «Hermippus or concerning Astrology*. In it he maintained that the
latter was compatible with Christian faith. It was edited by O. D. Block,
Kopenhagen, 1830, and by W. Kroll and P. Viereck, Leipzig, 1895. Tne
author is unknown. Cf. A. Elter , in Byzant. Zeitschr. (1897), vi. 164 f. ;
Krumbacher, ib. (1898), vii. 460; J. Drdseke, in Zeitschr. f. wissenschaftl.
Theol. (1900), xliii. 613—625.
§ 102. Leontius of Byzantium and the emperor Justinian.
I. LEONTIUS OF BYZANTIUM. - - Formerly the personality and
literary labors of Leontius of Byzantium were very imperfectly known ;
much light has been thrown on both by the recent researches of
Loofs. Leontius was born apparently about 485, perhaps in Scythia,
but more probably at Byzantium. He was certainly of noble descent,
for he was a relative of the great general Vitalian. His own words1
lead us to think that he put on the monastic habit while quite
young. He tells us in the same place that when a young man he
resolved to acquire a thorough knowledge of the doctrines of the
Church, and that he took a very lively interest in all the dogmatic
discussions of the time. In Scythia he fell into the snares of Nestori-
anism, but was freed from them by his intercourse with the learned
men whom he met during his travels; thenceforth he was a loyal
1 Adv. Nest, et Eut iii.
§ 102. LEONTIUS OF BYZANTIUM AND THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN. 545
defender of the doctrines of the Council of Chalcedon. He appeared
at Constantinople and Rome in 519 in the company of certain
monks of Scythia who maintained the proposition that «one of the
Trinity had suffered in the flesh ». A little later we find him in retire
ment in the so-called New Laura (a village-like colony of hermits
in the vicinity of Jerusalem). In 531 he took part in the conference
that Justinian had arranged at Constantinople between the Catholics
and the Severians, and probably he spent the following years at the
capital. In 558 he appears again in his cloister near Jerusalem.
Once more, perhaps in 542, he returned to Constantinople, where he
died, apparently about 543, and before the first edict of Justinian
against the Three Chapters (see no. 3). His oscillation between
Constantinople and Jerusalem is sufficient to explain the titles of
nionachus Hierosolymitanus and monachus Byzantinus by which he
is frequently designated. — Leontius is the author of «three books
against the Nestorians and the Eutychians: Aofoi / xara Ne(rcopi.o.va)y
YJU fi'jT'JXiavtffTdjy1, composed, according to intrinsic evidence, between
529 and 544. The first book is directed at once against both here
sies; he explains that though mutually contradictory, they may be
refuted simultaneously, since they take their rise from the same false
hypotheses, however far apart the conclusions at which they arrive:
doo {jTioa-dGZ'.q, /jtia (pvGtQ. The second book is devoted to the over
throw of the Eutychian or Monophysite heresy, and more particularly
of the doctrine of the Julianists or Aphthartodocetes (§ 99, 3). A
Catholic and an Aphthartodocete are introduced as the interlocutors
in the dialogue. The entire work is admirably executed, and reveals
at once an acute mind and an extensive knowledge of Christian
literature. In the preface he describes as follows the order and
development of the dispute: «I shall first demonstrate the thesis
that the nature of the divinity of Christ and the nature of His
humanity existed and continued to exist after the Union; after
wards I shall treat of the mutual relations of these two natures and
of their modes of existence ». The third book is written against the
Nestorians and is more historical than polemical in character; in
it he is specially intent on exhibiting the dogmatic and exegetic
heresies of Theodore of Mopsuestia. Loofs is of opinion that he
wrote against the above-mentioned heresies another and no less im
portant work known as : a%oha. The homonymous work current
under the name of Leontius, known as De sectis2, is in Loofs'
opinion only a later edition of the original composition; similarly in
the works commonly entitled Adversus Nestorianos and Contra
Monophysitas* Loofs recognizes only later elaborations of separate
sections of the original aybha. Fragments of the original work are
1 Migne, PG., Ixxxvi i, 1267—1396. 2 Ib., Ixxxvi I, 1193 — 1268.
3 Ib., Ixxxvi I, 1399 — 1768, and Ixxxvi 2, 1769 — 1901.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 35
546 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
also to be recognized , Loofs thinks , in some quotations from
it in the compilation known as : Antiquorum patrutn doctrina de
Verbi incarnatione1; in the « Confutation of the arguments of Se-
verus» : £xi/(ufft± rcov u~u 2ei>7jf)ou TCpofisftAijfjilvcov ffitAAo'ftfffjiwv2 (a
genuine work of Leontius), and in the « Thirty theses against Se-
verus» : Tptdxovra xz<pd),ata xara le^pou^ (likewise a work of Leontius
in substance at least). The existence of such a work of Leontius,
as Loofs has outlined, and bearing the title of ayoAia, is denied by
several critics; their objections, however, do not affect the catalogue
of the writings of Leontius as drawn up by Loofs. - The latter
ascribes to an elder contemporary of Leontius the authorship of
the treatise known as: Adversus fraudes Apollinistarum4. This re
markable little work was written to show that several quotations
from Gregory Tha,umaturgus, Athanasius and Pope Julius L, which
the Monophysite heretics made use of in their disputes with the
Catholics, were really taken from the works of Apollinaris of Lao-
dicea and maliciously attributed to the aforesaid venerable Fathers
by Apollinarists or Eutychians or followers of Dioscurus. Modern
critical research has amply confirmed these assertions (§ 61, 4). -
Most of the above-mentioned writings were first edited by Cardinal
A. Mai in the original Greek; he declared Leontius to be the fore
most theologian of his epoch: in theologica scientia aevo suo facile
princeps. The Christology of Leontius is that of Cyril of Alexandria.
It is in his writings that the term IvD-xnG-v-oc, is first met with.
The human nature of Christ, he says, is not dyjiroararoQ, nor even
'jTioaTaaiQ, but ivuTtuaTo.To^ i. e. sv rw Aufw uxoaraaa6. It is doubt
ful whether our Leontius, as Loofs thinks, should be identified with
a monk of the same name in Jerusalem mentioned in the Vita S. Sabae
(§ 104, i) written by Cyril of Scythopolis. In any case, our Leontius
cannot be accused of Origenism, as the monk in question was.
Leontius of Byzantium never defended the cause of Origen ; he was
even a vigorous opponent of the Origenistic eschatology.
2. WORKS ON LEONTIUS OF BYZANTIUM. SEVERUS OF ANTIOCH. JOHANNES
MAXENTIUS. - - Fr, Loofs , Leontius von Byzanz und die gleichnamigen
Schriftsteller der griech. Kirche (book i: Texte und Untersuchungen etc.,
iii. i — 2), Leipzig, 1887. The only complete edition of his work is in
Migne, PG., Ixxxvi. i 2, Paris, 1865. Concerning this edition cf. Loofs,
I. c., pp. 8— n. W. Rilgamer, Leontius von Byzanz (Inaug.-Diss.), Wiirz-
burg, 1894. V. Ermoni, De Leontio Byzantino, Paris, 1895. There is a
circumstantial account of the religious conference of 531 (not 533) between
the Catholics and the Severians in a letter from one of the Catholic re
presentatives, Innocent, bishop of Maronia (east of Philippi in the Aegean),
to a friendly priest ; unfortunately it has reached us only in a Latin trans-
1 Migne, PG., Ixxxvi 2, 2003 — 2016. 2 lb., 1915 — 1945.
3 Ib., 1901—1916. 4 Ib., 1947—1976.
5 Adv. Nest, et Eut. I: 1277!^.
5 Adv. Argum. Sev. : 19440.
§ 102. LEONTJUS OF BYZANTIUM AND THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN. 547
lation and in a very imperfect shape ; it may be seen in Mansi, SS. Cone.
Coll., viii. 817 — 834 (lacking in Migne). Cf. Hefele, Konziliengeschichte,
2. ed., ii. 747 — 751; Loofs, 1. c., pp. 261 — 268. The compilation of Dio-
nysius Exiguus entitled : Pro controversia de uno e Trinitate in carne passo
(§ 114, 3), contains another letter of Innocent: De his qui unura ex
Trinitate vel unam subsistentiam seu personam Dominum nostrum lesum
Christum dubitant connteri ; cf. Spicilegium Casinense i. 148—154. The
compilation known as Antiquorum patrum doctrina de Verbi incarnatione
(Mai, Scriptorum vet. nova Coll., Rome, 1833, vii i, 1 — 73; lacking in
Migne) was composed, according to Loofs (1. c., pp. 92 ff.), beetween 662
and 679 and is based on earlier works of the kind. Loofs does not agree
with the conjecture of Le Quien that its author was Anastasius Sinaita
(§ 107, 4); cf. D. Serruys, Anastasiana I: Antiquorum patrum doctr. de
Verbi incarnatione, in Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire (1902), xxii.
157 f. -- Severus of Antioch, a celebrated orator and very productive
writer, was made Monophysite bishop of that see in 512, but in 518 was
compelled to seek refuge at Alexandria; there he sustained against Julian of
Halicarnassus (§ 99, 3) that previous to the resurrection the body of Christ
partook of the defects and sufferings common to all human bodies. The
followers of Severus were called Phthartolatres by their Julianist opponents,
i. e. adorers of that which is corruptible. Severus died in Egypt about 539;
cf. y. Eustratios, i'su^po; 6 pavo^umtqc raxTptap^s Avrto^eiac, Leipzig, 1894.
Only fragments of the Greek text of his writings have reached us, partly
in anti-Monophysite works and partly in Catenae. Cardinal Mai began
the editing of these fragments, in Script, vet. nova Coll., Rome, 1837, ix.
725 — 741: fragments of a Catena on Isaias and Ezechiel; in Classici auc-
tores (1838), x. 408 — 473: fragments relative to the Gospel of St. Luke
and the Acts of the Apostles; in Spicilegium Romanum (1844), x i, 202
to 205 : fragments of a Catena on Job. The Oratio ii de resurrectione
Domini published among the works of Gregory of Nyssa (Migne, PG., xlvi.
627 — 652) belongs to Severus and is a remarkable attempt at harmoniz
ing the Gospel-narratives of the apparitions of the Risen Lord (§ 69, n).
Many works of Severus are extant in Syriac versions. The one hundred
and twenty-five Aoyot, iiridp£vtot or ivftpovwtuwH i. e. homilies delivered in
his quality of Antiochene patriarch, were translated from Greek into Syriac
about 525 by Paul of Callinicus and again in 701 by Jacob of Edessa;
both versions have reached us, at least in part, but hitherto only an
insignificant portion of these Syriac translations has been printed ; among
the printed texts are: a baptismal ritual, Antwerp, 1572 (cf. A. Resch,
Agrapha [in Texte und Untersuchungen, v. 4], Leipzig, 1889, pp. 361 to
372); some fragments of homilies, in E. Nestle, Brevis linguae Syriacae
grammatica, Karlsruhe, 1881 (Chrestomathia pp. 79 — 83), the «fifty-second
homily» on the Maccabees is printed in two different translations in
Bensly-Barnes, The fourth book of Maccabees, Cambridge, 1895, PP- 75
to 102 (cf. the English translation of the first version, given ib., pp. xxvii
to xxxiv). Some other fragments of Severus, translated from Syriac into
Latin, may be seen in Mai y Script, vet. nova Coll. ix. 742—759: four
homilies, in Spicil. Rom. x i, 169 — 201: extracts from a work against
Julian of Halicarnassus, and pp. 212—229: a homily on the Blessed Virgin.
On the Syriac versions of the AO-/OI ETriftpovw. see A. Baumstark , in Rom.
Quartalschr. (1897), xi. 32 — 46. A, Kugencr , Allocution prononce'e par
Severe apres son elevation sur le trone patriarcal d'Antioche, in Oriens
christianus (1902), pp. 265 — 282. For a fragment (in French) of a homily by
Severus on St. Barlaam of Antioch see Analecta Bollandiana (1903), xxii.
133 — 134. The doctrine of Severus is treated of by Loofs, 1. c., pp. 30 — 32
35*
548 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
^4__59- -fhe latter made special use of a work entitled: Ad Timotheum
scholasticum de duabus naturis adversus Severum (Migne, PG., Ixxxvi i,
901 — 942), written in the sixth century by a monk Eustathius, otherwise
unknown to us. - - Valuable letters of Severus have lately been edited
(London, 1904) by E. IV. Brooks, The sixth book of the Select Letters of
Severus of Antioch in the Syriac version of Athanasius of Nisibis, Text
and Translation Society, vol. i, part I (Syriac text), vol. ii, part I (English
version). On the life and the works of Severus see various volumes in
the series «Patrologia Orientalis» now being edited by Graf Jin and Nau,
Paris. - The so-called « Scythian monks» appear at Constantinople in
516. Their leader or mouthpiece is a certain John surnamed Maxentius.
They sought to raise a new shibboleth of orthodoxy in the words: «one
of the Trinity has suffered in the flesh », while others insisted that there
should be neither change nor addition in the text of the creed of Chal-
cedon (451). Thus arose what is known as the Theopaschite controversy.
These monks desired also the condemnation of the writings of the lately
deceased Faustus, bishop of Reji (§ in), asserting that they were favorable
to Pelagianism. This demand, likewise, aroused much opposition. The
controversies had already entered a graver phase when the legates of
Pope Hormisdas arrived at Constantinople, March 25., 519, for the pur
pose of reconciling the Churches of Rome and Constantinople, a step
made possible by the death of the emperor Anastasius I. (July 9., 518),
cf. § 99, 4. Maxentius presented to the legates in the name of the « Scy
thian monks» a petition (Epist. ad legatos sedis apostolicae; Migne, PG.,
Ixxxvi. 75—86) that was unsuccessful, whereupon they departed for Rome
in the hope of obtaining from Pope Hormisdas a more favorable reply.
As the pope delayed his decision, they then had recourse to certain
bishops of Africa resident in Sardinia, whither they had been exiled by
king Thrasamund. The African bishops, particularly Fulgentius of Ruspe
(§ 113, 5), sustained with vigor the cause of the monks (see S. Fulg.,
Ep. 17 de incarnatione et gratia, written in reply to the work of Petrtts
Diaconus, De incarnatione et gratia: Migne, PL., Ixii. 83—92. Early in
August 520 the monks left Rome for Constantinople. In the same month
(Aug. 13., 520), the pope wrote to Possessor, an African bishop resident
at Constantinople , condemning in strong terms the conduct of the Scy
thian monks, and especially the attitude of their representatives at Rome ;
as to the works of Faustus, the pope declares , they were not among the
approved works of the Fathers ; the sound doctrine concerning grace and
liberty could be learned from the works of St. Augustine (S. Horm. P.,
Ep. 70). This letter was severely criticised by Maxentius: Ad epistulam
Hormisdae responsio; Migne, PG., Ixxxvi i, 93—112. It is believed that
the priest John to whom St. Fulgentius addressed in 523 his De veritate
praedestinationis et gratiae Dei, and the priest or archimandrite John to
whom, somewhat later, the Epistola synodica of the African bishops (Hefele,
Konziliengesch., 2. ed., ii. 697 — 702) was written, are identical with Johannes
Maxentius. Loofs does not accept this identification (1. c., pp. 260 f.),
and in case the identification is unfounded, there is no trace of the
Scythian monks and their patron Maxentius later than the letter of
Hormisdas and the reply of Maxentius. The latter wrote also dialogues
against the Nestorians (Migne, PG. , Ixxxvi i, 115—158) and a treatise
against the Acephali (Monophysites), ib. , in— 116. All his works have
come down to us in Latin, and it is quite certain that they were originally
written in Latin. The first and only edition of Maxentius is that of
. Cochlaeus, executed from a Nurnberg codex of the writings of St. Ful
gentius; this edition was published as an appendix to the edition of
§ 102. LEONTIUS OF BYZANTIUM AND THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN. 549
St. Cyprian by Erasmus (Basel, 1520) and in the edition of the works of
St. Fulgentius by W. Pirkheimer and Cochlaeus (Hagenau, 1520). The text
of Maxentius in Migne (1. c., 73 — 158) is, according to Loofs, «in more
ways than one a secondhand and, therefore, variously disfigured reprint «
of the Cochlaeus edition. At the best, the works of our author are in a
very tangled condition. Thus, the Professio de Christo (ib., 79—86), printed
as a separate work , is certainly a part of the immediately preceding
Epistola ad legates sedis apostolicae (ib. , 75 — 78). Loofs is the only
modern writer who has studied minutely the history of the Scythian monks
(1. c., pp. 229 — 261).
3. THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN. - - Justinian I., who governed the
Roman empire so long and famously (527 — 565), though amid many
vicissitudes of fortune, claims a place among the ecclesiastical writers
of the sixth century. It is true that most of his so-called theological
writings *, when stripped of their doctrinal accessories, appear as ad
ministrative acts. As such , though always undertaken with the
purest intentions, they represent a perilous interference with the
internal life of the Church. Nevertheless, his ecclesiastical policy
was in close and sympathetic relation with the literary labors of
his above-mentioned contemporary Leontius; hence the Fifth Ecu
menical Council (553) could accept the gist of the imperial edicts as
corresponding substantially with the faith of the Church. In the guise
of a letter to Mennas of Constantinople, Justinian issued (Aug. 6. 536)
a constitution (didraqic) against Anthimus, Severus, Petrus and Zoaras2;
it approves and confirms the anathema pronouncd in 536 by the
Synod of Constantinople against these Monophysite bishops. The
Tractatus contra Monophysitas?*, published in 542 or 543, was ad
dressed to Egyptian monks who had abandoned or were about to
abandon that heresy. He published (January 543) an edict against
Origen (AO?OQ xara QpiylvouQ*; so entitled in the copy sent to the
patriarch Mennas). In it he points out the various errors of the
Alexandrine theologian : subordinationism, pre-existence of the soul,
apocatastasis, multiplicity of worlds, and other errors ; he ends with
ten «anathematisms» against Origen. Diekamp maintains that the
« letter to the Holy Synod » (fpdp.p.a TT^OQ ~rtv ayiav wrjooov) on
Origen and his adherents5 was written in March or April 553. An
edict of the end of 543 or the beginning of 544, unfortunately
lost, contained a long exposition of the true faith, and at the end
declared anathema against the person and the writings of Theodore
of Mopsuestia, the works of Theodoret of Cyrus against Cyril of
Alexandria and the Council of Ephesus (§ 78, 7), and the letter
of Ibas of Edessa against the same parties (§ 77, 13). This is the
first of the so-called edicts against the Three Chapters. As a rule, the
anathemas of an edict were called xsydlaia (capitula); in this case,
1 Migne, PG., Ixxxvi I, 945 — 1152. 2 Ib., 1095 — 1104.
3 Ib., 1103 — 1146. 4 Ib., 945—990. 5 Ib., 989 — 994.
550
THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION:
however, the term Tria capitula, or Three Chapters, served at once
to indicate the persons or writings that were the object of the ana
themas of the edict. In the Western Church the imperial acts that
provoked the controversy of the Three Chapters initiated a series
of wretched misunderstandings (the so-called Controversy of Three
Chapters). Between 551 and 553, probably in the former year, a
second and more severe edict, still extant in its entirety fipdtofia
-{(TTzctJC xara tatv Tptcov xsyaXaiaw) l was published against the Three
Chapters. Similarly, an imperial edict (TUTTOQ xpoQ rr/v afiav ffuvodovj2,
addressed to the Fifth General Council on the day of its opening
(May 5. 553), also treats on Theodore, Theodoret and Ibas. In
reply to an otherwise unknown protest against the condemnation
of the Three Chapters, the emperor wrote a lengthy and acrimonious
refutation (xpoz TWUQ ?pd<f>avTa.Q xa\ ixdtxTjoavra^ Oeodwpov xrL)9,
Hefele thinks it was written after the Council, Loofs is of opinion
that it was written previous to that event. Justinian also wrote a
doctrinal letter to Zoilus, patriarch of Alexandria (542 to about 550);
some fragments of it are preserved4. A Bulla aurea, addressed to the
abbot of Mt. Sinai, closes the list of the imperial theological works
and offers no dogmatic interest 5. Evagrius assures us 6 that shortly
before the emperors's death he issued a (lost) edict in favor of the
Aphthartodocetes, and there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of
this statement. At the same time this solitary act of the aged
emperor stands out in sharp contrast to what he did in the prime
of life.
4. LITERATURE. CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGIANS. — In the Series Latina
of the Migne Cursus there are several Latin letters of Justinian; thus,
among the letters of Hormisdas (Migne, PG. , Ixiii. 367 — 534), John II.
(Ib., Ixvi. 11—32), Agapitus I. (Ib. Ixvi. 35 — 80), and Vigilius (Ib. , Ixix.
15 — 178); also most of the above-mentioned documents are extant in Greek
and Latin (Ib., Ixix. 177 — 328), finally a selection of (Latin) imperial acts
and edicts that seem of importance for ecclesiastical history : novellae ad
religionem pertinentes, leges selectae (Ib., Ixxii. 921—1110). Most of the
writings mentioned no. 3 are also to be found in the collections of the
Councils, e. g. Mansi , viii— ix. The Tractatus contra Monophysitas was
first edited by Mai, Script, vet. nova Coll., Rome, 1833, vii i, 292 — 313.
The Bulla aurea to the abbot of Mt. Sinai was first made known by
C. Tischendorf, in Anecdota sacra et profana, Leipzig, 1855 l86l> PP- 56
to 57. Ancient and reliable witnesses assert that Justinian is the author
f the Troparium, an antiphonal ecclesiastical chant, entitled 6 jjiovo-fsvrjc
owe xat Xifyoc TOO fhou, in W. Christ et M. Paranikas, Anthologia graeca
carminum christianortim, Leipzig, 1871, p. 52; cf. p. xxxii. For the works
of Justinian as described above see Hefele, Konziliengeschichte , 2. ed.,
Freiburg i. Br., 1875, "• 786—789 798—816 836—844, and passim. Fr.
Diekamp , Die orientalischen Streitigkeiten im 6. Jahrhundert, Miinster,
1 Migne, PG., Ixxxvi i, 993_IO36. 2 Ib., 1035—1042.
Ib., 1041 — 1096. 4 Ib., 1145—1150.
5 Ib, 1149—1152. e Hist, eccl., iv. 39—41.
§ 102. LEONTIUS OF BYZANTIUM AND THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN. 55!
1899, pp. 37 ft'. 82 ft".; Id. , Zur Chronologic der origenistischen Streitig-
keiten, in Histor. Jahrb. (1900), xxi. 743 — 757. A. Knecht, Die Religions-
politik Kaiser Justinians I. (Inaug.-Diss.), Wiirzburg, 1896. G. Pfanmilller,
Die kirchliche Gesetzgebung Justinians , hauptsachlich auf Grund der No-
vellen, Berlin, 1902. -- Agapetus, a deacon of Sancta Sophia at Constan-
tinople and the teacher of Justinian, dedicated to the emperor, apparently
in 527 at the beginning of his government, a brief treatise on the duties
of a Christian prince: sxfksij xs^oXauov icapatvsTtx&v ; Migne, PG., Ixxxvi i,
1163 — -1186. This little manual for princes was highly appreciated at a
later date , imitated , and translated into several modern vernaculars ; cf.
Fabritius- Harks, Bibl. gr. viii. 36 — 42 (= Migne, 1. c., 1155 — 1162); Hoff
mann, Bibliographisches Lexikon, 2. ed., i. 101 — 104. - • The writings of
Heraclian, bishop of Ghalcedon early in the sixth century, have perished.
He is remembered for a work against Soterichus, bishop of Caesarea in
Cappadocia, who was inclined to Eutychianism ; for manuscript fragments
(cf. Le Quien, Oriens christianus, i. 602 f.) ; he also wrote another work in
twenty books against the Manichaeans, much praised by Photius (Bibl. Cod.
85 231; C. Manich., i. n). — Ephraem of Antioch (527 — 545) was one of
the most strenuous contemporary defenders of the faith of the Church
against Nestorians and Eutychians. Photius was acquainted with three of
his works ; the first contained ' discourses of a doctrinal character and
panegyrics (Bibl. Cod. 228), the second contained four books of an ex
clusively doctrinal character and was devoted principally to the defence
of the faith of Chalcedon (Cod. 229); of the third work Photius says
nothing specific. A few small fragments of Ephnem were found by Car
dinal Mai in a work entitled: ex apologia pro synodo Chalcedonensi et
epistoia S. Leonis, e tertio libro contra Severum. etc. (Migne, PG., Ixxxvi
2, 2103 — 2110). --In the first half of the sixth century a monk named
Job Avrote a work against Severus, and another entitled sixovoji.'.y.f, ~pa-'|j.a-
7Eia, on the Redemption of mankind by Christ (Phot., Bibl. Cod. 222);
the latter work is described very minutely by Photius (1. c.). A single
fragment of this second work has reached us (Migne, 1. c., Ixxxvi. 3313
to 3320); the fragment which follows it in Migne (3320 ff.) belongs to
another Job, an Apollinarist bishop (§ 61, 4). -- In 540, John, bishop of
Scythopolis, appeared as a defender of the Catholic faith against the Mono-
physites and as an opponent of Severus in particular. Concerning him and
his lost works cf. Loofs, Leontius von Byzanz (1887), i. 269 — 272. -- A
little treatise against the Origenistic doctrines of pre-existence and apo-
catastasis, entitled «The teaching of St. Barsanuphius concerning the opi
nions of Origen, Evagrius, and Didymus» (Migne, PG. , Ixxxvi i, 891 to
902), was probably composed among the Palestinian monks about the
middle of the sixth century. - - A sharp denunciation of the errors of
Origen was composed about 553 by Theodore, bishop of Scythopolis (Ib.,
Ixxxvi i, 231 — 236), and addressed to Justinian and the patriarchs of Con
stantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. For Theodore see Die-
kamp, Die origenist. Streitigkeiten, pp. 125 — 129. — There is current under
the name of St. Gregentius, said to have been bishop of Taphar in the
land of the Homerites (Himjarites in Southern Arabia) during the reign of
Justinian, a collection of the laws of that people: VO»JLOI TCOV 'OjxTQpitSv (Ib.,
Ixxvi i, 567 — 620) and a controversy with a Jew named Herban: oiaXs-fc
j-Lsta 'louiSatou 'Eppav roovopux (Ib. , Ixxvi i, 621 — 784). These two works
follow one another, and are in a certain sense but one work ; it is usually
stated that they are forgeries, though no specific investigation has made
the fact evident. The political and religious conditions of Southern Arabia
are described by W. Fell, in Zeitschr. der Deutschen morgenland. Gesell-
552
THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
schaft (1881), xxxv. i- — 74. The principal source of our knowledge con
cerning these events is a Syriac letter of Simeon, bishop of Betharsam
(510 — 525), concerning the martyrs of the land of the Homerites (cf. Fell,
1. c., pp. 2 ff.) ; it was edited and translated into Italian by J. Guidi, Rome,
1 88 1, in Reale Accademia del Lincei, anno 278. J. Deramey, Les mar
tyrs de Nedjran au pays des Homerites, en Arabic (522 — 525), Paris,
1893. -- Another contemporary of Justinian was the monk Alexander of
Salamina, known as the author of a panegyric (ipctufjuov) on St. Barnabas
(Migne, PG., Ixxxvii 3, 4087 — 4106, only in a Latin version, though the
Greek text was available in Acta SS. Junii, ii. 436 — 453). For a de
tailed account of this discourse see Lipsius , Die apokryphen Apostel-
geschichten, Brunswick, 1884, ii 2, 298— 304. In another discourse Alex
ander took for his theme the finding of the Holy Cross: AOYO? si; -f^v
sypsatv TOU T'.|JLIOO xal CWOTTOIOU ataupou (Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 4015 — 4076, and sum
marized, Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 4077 — 4088).
§ 103. Historians and Geographers.
1, THEODORUS LECTOR. - - This writer held the office of ana-
gnostes or reader (lector) in the church of Sancta Sophia at Con
stantinople, in the first half of the sixth century. We possess from
his pen two works of an ecclesiastico-historical character. The 'first
is an epitome in two books of the ecclesiastico-historical works of
Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret, with an independent continuation
reaching to Justin I. (518—527), also in two books. The second
work is known to us only through a few excerpts that have been
united with others of the same nature, and in the manuscripts are
entitled : ano <pcovrJQ Ntxyyopoo KaMia~ou, but are in reality much
older than the church-historian Nicephorus Callistus in the beginning
of the fourteenth century. The first work is extant in manuscripts
but has not yet been edited.
Valerius thought it useless to publish the compendium of Theodoras in
his edition of the Greek Church-historians (Paris, 1673; § 62, 7); he me
rely inserted variant readings therefrom in his notes to Socrates' text; the
excerpts from the other work were printed by him after the fragments of
Philostorgius (Migne, PG., Ixxxvi i, 165 — 228, from Vale sius- Reading, Cam
bridge, 1730). For the manuscripts and the antiquity of the excerpts see
C. de Boor, in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1883—1884), vi. 489—491; Id.,
Zu Theodorus Lektor (ib., ii. 23): Migne, 1. c., Ixxxvi i, 573—577. We
owe some new excerpts to quotations made by Nicetas, Chartophylax of
Nicaea; cf. Fr. Diekamp , in Hist. Jahrb. (1903), xxiv. 553—558. Nolte,
Zu Theodoras Lector und Eustathios von Epiphania nebst einem noch un-
gedruckten Bruchstucke des letzteren, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1861), xliii.
569—582. Eustathius of Epiphania in Syria was the author of a (lost)
chronicle, that was one of the sources of Theodorus Lector, and reached
from the earliest times to 502. y. V. Sarrazin , De Theodore Lectore
teophams fonte praecipuo, in Commentationes philologae jenenses, Leipzig,
J8i, i. 163—238. For the chronicler Theophanes Confessor (f ca. 817
cf. Krumbacher, Gesch. der byzant. Lit., 2. ed., pp. 342 ff.
2. ZACHARIAS RHETOR. - - Zacharias was originally a lawyer
(ff%oAa<mxo$, rhetor) of Berytus in Phoenicia. At a later date, cer-
§ 103. HISTORIANS AND GEOGRAPHERS. 553
tainly after 536, he was bishop of Mitylene in Lesbos (not Melitene
in Armenia Minor). His death must have taken place before 553-
While still a lawyer, shortly after 491, he composed a work on ec
clesiastical history that covered the period from 450 to 491, but
treated chiefly of matters personal to the author at Alexandria and
in Palestine. The original Greek text has perished, but the work
survives in the twelve books of an anonymous general history in
Syriac that begins at the creation of the wrorld and reaches the
years 568 — 569. The books Hi — vi of this work are a Syriac recension
of the history of Zacharias. Zacharias wrote also at Constantinople,
about 551, a life of Severus (§ 102, 2), the Monophysite patriarch
of Antioch, and a life of the hermit Isaias (§ 64, 5), both of which
are extant only in Syriac versions. In these writings there is certain
and frequent evidence that the author was a Monophysite. On the
other hand, at the Synod of Constantinople in 536, he voted as
bishop of Mitylene for the deposition of Anthimus, Monophysite
patriarch of Constantinople1. He was probably a young man when
he composed the dialogue «Ammonius» still extant in Greek, and
so called from the Neoplatonist Ammonius Hermiae, who resided in
Alexandria about 5°°> and whose teaching concerning the eternity
of matter is opposed by Zacharias in this dialogue.
The Syriac universal history was edited by jf. P. N. Land, Anecdota
Syriaca iii, Leyden, 1870. This edition could be improved. Some
chapters of several books of this compilation had already been edited (in
Syriac and Latin) by Mai (Script, vet. nova Coll., Rome, 1838, x i, 332
to 388; cf. xii— xiv; the Latin version is reprinted in Migne, PG., Lxxxv.
1145 — 1178). The greater part of the entire compilation was edited and
translated into German by K. Ahrens and G. Krilger , Die sog. Kirchen-
geschichte des Zacharias Rhetor, Leipzig, 1899 (Scriptores sacri et pro-
fani iii). Similarly, the greater part of the compilation appeared in an
English translation by F. J. Hamilton and E. W. Brooks, London, 1899.
Both versions, especially the German, are criticized by M. A. Kugener,
in Revue de 1'Orient chret. (1900), v. 201 — 214 461 — 480. The life of
Isaias is also in Syriac, in Land, 1. c., pp. 346 — 356, and in German in
the work of Ahrens and Kriiger, 1. c., pp. 263 — 274. Cf. M. A. Kugener,
Observations sur la vie de 1'ascete Isaias et sur les vies de Pierre 1'Iberien
et de Theodore d'Antinoe par Zacharie le scholastique , in Byzant. Zeit-
schrift (1900), ix. 464 — 470. For the life and works of Severus see § 102, 2.
Migne (1. c. , Lxxxv. ion — 1044) reproduces the dialogue « Ammonius*
(Disputatio de mundi opificio) from the edition of C. Barth, Leipzig, 1654.
y. Fr. Boissonade edited it anew, Paris, 1836. The fragment of the work
against the Manichasans is printed in Latin by Migne, 1. c., Ixxxv. 1143
to 1144, and in Greek by Pitra, Analecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888,
i. 67 — 70. - The Church-history of the Nestorian priest of Antioch,
Basilius Cilix (of Cilicia) has perished, like all the other writings of the
same author. Photius says (Bibl. Cod. 42) that it began with the emperor
Marcian and came down to the death of Justin I. (527). Cf. Fabricius*
Harles, Bibl. gr. vii. 419 to42o; x. 692 710.
1 Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., viii. 926 933 975 976.
554 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
3. EVAGRIUS SCHOLASTICUS. - The writings of Evagrius are
much more important than those of Theodorus and Zacharias. He
was born at Epiphania in Syria, in 536 or 537, and lived as a
lawyer, Gyolaarw'x;, at a later period in Antioch. When Gregory,
patriarch of Antioch, was called to Constantinople in 588 to account
for his conduct, Evagrius accompanied his bishop and defended him
before the emperor and the synod, with the address of a skilful
lawyer and the zeal of a faithful friend. He was made quaestor by
the emperor Tiberius II. (5/8 — 582), and honorary prefect (dno
ixdpycov, ex praefectis) by the emperor Mauricius. He died at Antioch
towards the end of the sixth century. His Church-history, though
comprehensive, touches too often and too extensively on political
history. In the preface the author describes it as a continuation of
the histories of Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret. Its six books
cover the period from 431 to 594. The narrative is based on the
most reliable authorities, and gives evidence of whole-souled devotion
to the truth and of sincerely orthodox faith. Here and there he
exhibits an excessive credulity and a fondness for the miraculous.
The diction of Evagrius has been declared by Photius 1 to be grace
ful, though somewhat prolix. It is to him that we owe, in large
measure, our knowledge of the development of Nestorianism and
Monophysitism. He wrote another work that seems to have perish
ed. According to himself2 it contained « reports, letters, edicts, dis
courses, dialogues, and other things». The «reports» (dvayopai)
were drawn up by him mostly by order and in the name of the
patriarch Gregory. Among the « discourses* (Xofot) was doubtless
the congratulatory address to emperor Mauricius on the birth of his
son Theodosius. Evagrius seems to have projected a monograph on
the Persian campaigns of Mauricius3, but he never executed the work.
The editio princeps of Evagrius is owing to ff. Valesius, Paris, 1673
; 86, 7). It is reprinted in Migne, PG. , Ixxxvi 2, 2415—2886, from
Vaksius- Reading, Cambridge, 1720. There is a new and excellent edition
by J. Bidez and Z. Parmentier , London, 1899 (Byzantine texts, ed. by
. B. Bury]. In his Gesch. der byzant. Lit., 2. ed., pp. 246 f., Krum-
bacher quotes the latest and best works concerning the ecclesiastical history
of Evagrius. - There are extant four sermons of the above-mentioned
>atnarch Gregory of Antioch (570—593- cf. § 107, i). They may be
»und in Migne, PG., Ixxxviii. 1847—1866. The second is known to us
only in a Latin version. Cf. S. Haidacher , Zu den Homilien des Gre-
^orms von Antiochia und des Gregorius Thaumaturgus, in Zeitschr. f. kath.
rheol. (1901), xxv. 367—369.
4. CHRONICLERS. - - The universal history of Hesychius of Miletus,
written about the middle of the sixth century; the popular universal
chronicle of John Malalas of Antioch, written in the second half
the same century, and the chronicle of John of Antioch, written
1 Bibl. Cod. 29. 2 Hist eccl ^ yi 3 lb v 2Q
§ 103. HISTORIANS AND GEOGRAPHERS. 555
at the beginning of the seventh century, do not come within the
scope of this work. To the first half of the seventh century belongs
a diffuse chronological compilation, that began with the creation,
and is usually known as the Paschal Chronicle, Chronicon Paschale,
because it bases Christian chronology on the paschal cycle. The
unknown author was probably an ecclesiastic of Constantinople in
the service or entourage of the patriarch Sergius (610 — 638). His
chronological framework of ancient history is mostly constructed
from Julius Africanus and Eusebius, and is adorned with a number
of miscellaneous historical notices and statements that become reliable
in proportion as the author approches his own time, i. e. the first
decade of the seventh century. About the year 700, John, Mono-
physite bishop of Nikiu, an island in the main Western branch of
the Nile, wrote a universal chronicle. Though written from a Mono-
physite standpoint, it contains copious materials for ecclesiastical
history; for the history of the seventh century, at least, it is an
authority at once independent and excellent. It has reached us in
an ethiopic (Amhara) translation, made in 1601 in Abyssinia from
a very imperfect copy of an Arabic translation. Zotenberg, who
edited and translated the Ethiopic text, is of opinion that the work
was originally composed in Greek, though some sections of it were
written in Coptic; Noldeke thinks it more probable that the entire
work was written in Coptic.
On Hesychius of Miletus, John Malalas (Migne, PG., xcvii) and John
of Antioch cf. Krumbacher, Gesch. der byzant. Lit., 2. ed., pp. 323 ff. -
The editio princeps of the Chronicon Paschale was prepared by L. Din-
dorf, Bonn, 1832, 2 vols. (Corpus scriptorum hist. Byzant.). It is reprinted
in Migne, PG., xcii. Cf. H. Gelzer, Sextus Julius Africanus, Leipzig, 1885,
ii i, 138 — 176, and Krumbacher, 1. c., p. 339; also F. C. Conybeare , in
Journal of Theological Studies (1901 — 1902), ii. 288 — 298, and in Byzant.
Zeitschr. (1902^ xi. 395 — 405. G. Mercati, A Study of the Paschal Chro
nicle, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1906), vii. 397 — 412. -- La Chronique
de Jean, eveque de Nikiou. Notice et extraits par M. H. Zotenberg, Paris,
1879 (Journal asiatique 1877, n. 15). Cf. Th. Noldeke, in Gott. Gel. An-
zeigen (1881), pp. 587 — 594. Chronique de Jean, eveque de Nikiou. Texte
ethiopien publid et traduit par H. Zotenberg, Paris, 1883 (Notices des
Manuscrits xxiv. i). Cf. Noldeke, in Gott. Gel. Anzeigen (1883), pp. 1364
to 1374.
5. COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES. - - Cosmas, surnamed «the Indian
traveller » (n 'fodtxo-/.z6ff~7]t;), was an Alexandrine merchant who under
took about the year 520 long commercial voyages, particularly through
Arabia and Eastern Africa. On his return to Egypt he became a monk
and devoted a great deal of his time to various literary labors, only
one of which has reached us: his Christian Topography (%pt<TTtavtxrt
-o-oYpa<pia)1, composed about 547, in twelve books, the last of which
1 Migne, PG., Ixxxviii. 51 — 470.
556 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
exists only in fragments. There are also extant, under the name of
Cosmas, some fragments on the Psalms. Three other large works, to
which he occasionally refers in the Topography, have perished : a
Cosmography «in which the whole world was described, both on this
side of the ocean and on the other» J, astronomical tables2, and an
« interpretation of the Canticle of canticles 8. The Christian Topography
merits attention for several reasons, in spite of the many singular
and fantastic ideas of its author. In seeming harmony with scriptural
phraseology, he imagines the world to be a great rectangular space
surrounded on all sides by walls that gradually approach one an
other, and by their meeting form the celestial vault. In the first
book he vigorously opposes the theory of the rotundity of the earth ;
in the second book he develops his own theories, while in the third
and fourth books he alleges scriptural proofs in favor of the same.
The fifth book is important for the history of Biblical Introduction:
it contains information on the authors, scope, and contents of the
biblical books. In exegesis, hermeneutics and biblical theology Cosmas
follows the guidance of Theodore of Mopsuestia. His account4 of
the « great island in the Indian Ocean called Sielediva by the Indians,
and by the Greeks Taprobane» i. e. the island of Ceylon, possessed
great attraction for mediaeval readers.
The first edition of the Christian Topography was made from a
seventh-century Vatican manuscript by B. de Montfaucon, Collectio nova
Patr. et Script, graec., Paris, 1706, ii. 113 ff. The pictures with which
Cosmas illustrated his work were reproduced (with a commentary) from
the same manuscript by P. R. Garrucd, Storia della arte cristiana (Prato,
1876), iii. 70 — 83, tables 142 — 153. The great importance of this manu
script for the history of Byzantine art is brought out by N. Kondakojf,
Histoire de 1'art byzantin, Paris, 1886 — 1891, i. 136 — 151. Cf. J. Strzy-
gowski, Der Bilderkreis des griechischen Physiologus, des Kosmas Indico-
pleustes und Oktateuch nach Handschriften der Bibliothek zu Smyrna
(Byzant. Archiv, fasc. ii), Leipzig, 1899. Tne account given by Cosmas
of the monument of Aduli (now Zulla, somewhat south of Massaua in
Abyssinia) and its historically very important inscriptions was edited anew
by de Lagarde, in Nachrichten von der k. Gesellschaft der Wissensch. zu
Gottingen (1890), pp. 418—448; see also the dissertation of de Lagarde,
in the Abhandlungen of the same society (1891), xxxvii, «Register und
Nachtrage», pp. 69—75. An English version of the Christian Topography
was published by J. W. McCrindle, London, 1897. On Cosmas in general
and his works see Jf. Geher , Kosmas der Indienfahrer , in Jahrb. fur
protest. Theol. (1883), ix. 105—141. E. O. Winstedt, Notes from Cosmas
Indicopleustes, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1905), vi. 282—285. E.Mangenot,
in Diet, de Theologie, Paris, 1908, iii. 1916—1917. Other literature con
cerning the cosmological ideas of Cosmas may be found in Krumbacher,
1. c., p. 414. For the fragments on the Psalms see Fabridus- Harks, Bibl.
gr., iv. 261—262 (= Migne, PG., Ixxxviii. 27 — 28).
1 Lib. i, col. 53 A. 2 If 53B. cf-
4 ii, 445 ff-
§ 104- HAGIOGRAPHERS. 557
6. NOTITIAE EPISCOPATUUM. — Under this heading come certain
statistics of the Greek Church, known specifically as TazTtzd. They
are catalogues of the patriarchal sees and of the metropolitan sees
subject to them, together with the autocephalous archiepiscopal sees,
likewise the metropolitan sees and of the episcopal churches subject
to the metropolitans. These lists of episcopal sees were originally
drawn up for administrative purposes, and as they were variously
modified in the course of time, it has become difficult to fix the
original date of their compilation. Some of these «notitiae» certainly
belong to the patristic age.
In the work of G. Parthey, Hieroclis Synecdemus et Notitiae graecae
episcopatuum, Berlin, 1866, pp. 53 — 261, the reader will find a statistical
description of the Eastern Empire previous to 535 ; it contains thirteen
episcopal catalogues as described above. The Synecdemus of the gram
marian Hierocles was edited again, from new manuscripts, by A. Burck-
hardt, Leipzig, 1893. As to the date of the Notitiae cf. H. Gelzer , in
Jahrb. f. protest. Theol. (1886), xii. 337 — 372 529 — 575. The results of
his investigations were verified and completed by C. de Boor, in Zeitschr.
f. Kirchengesch. (1890 — 1891), xii. 303 — 322 519 — 534; (1893 — 1894), xiv.
573 — 599. In vol. xii (pp. 519 — 534) de Boor made known a hitherto un
discovered Notitia of the beginning of the eighth century. In the mean
time Gelzer had republished the Notitia Ia of Parthey (pp. 55 — 94), and
demonstrated that only its first part was of ecclesiastical origin, while the
second part (530 — 1064, Parthey) is a description of the Roman Empire
composed early in the seventh century by an otherwise unknown George
of Lapathus in Cyprus: Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis Romani, ed.
H. Gelzer, Leipzig, 1890. For further information concerning manuscripts
of the Notitiae episcopatuum see Gelzer , Analecta Byzantina, in Index
scholarum Jenens. per sem. hib. 1891 — 1892; cf. Id. , Ungedruckte und
wenig bekannte Bistiimerverzeichnisse der orientalischen Kirche, in Byzant.
Zeitschr. (1893), ii. 22 — 72; Id., LTngedruckte und ungeniigend veroffent-
lichte Texte der Notitiae Episcopatuum. Ein Beitrag zur byzantinischen
Kirchen- und Vervvaltungsgeschichte, Munich, 1901, in Abhandl. der kgl.
bayer. Akad. der Wissensch. For the use made by Epiphanius of these
historical sources cf. Fr. N. Finck, Des Epiphanios von Cypern sxHssii
7tpum>xXY)<Jiaiv -a-ptapyojv TS xal [JisfpOiroXrcaiv , armenisch und griechisch
Herausgegeben von Fr. N. Finck, Marburg, 1902.
§ 104. Hagiographers.
I. CYRIL OF SCVTHOPOLIS. - - Cyril was born at Scythopolis,
the ancient Bethsan * in Galilee, and was still a child when in the
winter of 531 — 532 he became acquainted with Sabas, the famous
hermit-abbot. This event was destined to affect his future; at the
age of twenty he bade adieu (543) to his native town and began
to live the pious life of the desert. The following year (544) he
entered the monastery of St. Euthymius, by the advice of St. John
the Hermit (Hesychastes, Silentiarius). In 555 he appears among the
1 los. xvii. 1 1.
558 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
one hundred and twenty orthodox monks who occupied the New
Laura near Jerusalem, after the violent expulsion of the Origenistic
monks by Anastasius, dux Palaestinae. In 557 he built for himself
a cell in the great Laura of St. Sabas, also in the neighborhood of
Jerusalem. It was probably there that, soon afterwards, he passed
away. Cyril was always deeply interested in the lives and deeds
of the great models of the ascetic life, and, from the time of his
entrance into the monastery of St. Euthymius, had been a diligent
and critical gatherer of bibliographical information, especially con
cerning St. Euthymius (f 473) one of the chief organizers of mona-
sticism in Palestine, and St. Sabas (f 532)- Before his entrance into
the great Laura, he had been encouraged by his friend George,
abbot of Beella near Scythopolis, to compose lives of the afore-said
hermit-monks. The work soon assumed a broader character. In the
life of St. Sabas (c. 21) he refers to a life of St. John the Hermit
(t 558) that he means to write; he begins this third and shorter
biography with the words: «The first place in my narrative I assign
to the abbot John» : Tipcorov TtpoTtihyfJii TW Xoyw TOV dftftav ^IcodwrjV,
whence it is evident that he intended to execute a series of these
shorter biographies. Cyril must have met with some obstacle to
the fulfilment of his purpose, for (apparently) only three other bio
graphies are extant under his name. Moreover, they have reached
us separately, and not in a collection headed by the life of St. John
the Hermit; they are entitled: a life of the abbot Cyriacus (f 556);
a life of St. Theodosius, founder of a monastery of the same name
(t 529)5 a n'fe of St. Theognius (f 522). Theognius had lived forty
years among the monks of Palestine when he was made bishop of
Betelia, near Gaza (494). Cyril devotes but a few pages to Theo
dosius and Theognius. There existed already a long panegyric of
Theodosius, delivered by the monk Theodorus, probably about 530
in the Saint's own monastery, but completed and published about
547 ; Theodorus eventually became bishop of Petra. A funeral
discourse on St. Theognius was also published about 526 by Paul,
abbot of Elusa in Idumaea. Hence, Cyril was content to furnish a
concise sketch of Theodosius and Theognius, exercising at the same
time a covert but modest critique of his predecessor's narratives.
Theodore and Paul are panegyrists ; Cyril is an historian. Though he
is not free from the contemporary predilection for the miraculous,
he writes as one sincerely desirous of arriving at the truth; he
spares no labor in the pursuit of reliable knowledge, and strives
earnestly to correct and complete the information he has collected;
he is, in a particular way, minutely solicitous concerning the accuracy
of his chronological data. His works are an authority of the highest
order on the history of the Holy Land and the Church of Jerusalem
in the fifth and sixth centuries.
§ 104. HAGIOGRAPHERS. 559
The Vita S. Euthymii was edited by B. de Montfaucon , in the Bene
dictine Analecta Graeca, Paris, 1688, i. i — 99; the Vita S. Sabae by J. B.
Cotelerius, Ecclesiae Graecae monumenta, Paris, 1686, iii. 220 — 376, and
N. Pomjalovskij , St. Petersburg, 1900 (Russian), who added an Old-Slavonic
version. On the Vita S. Sabae cf. Fr. Diekamp , Die origenist. Streitig-
keiten im 6. Jahrhundert, Miinster, 1899, pp. 5 ff. The Vita S. loannis
Silentiarii was published by the Bollandists, Acta SS. Maii (iii), 16* — 21*;
in Latin, pp. 232 — 238. The Vita S. Cyriaci is in Acta SS. Sept. (viii),
147 — 159. In Echos d'Orient (1901), iv. 282 f., 6*. Petrides attributes to
this Cyriacus a hymn on Lazarus, the complete text of which has been
edited by K. Krumbacher, Romanos und Kyriakos, Munich, 1901, a re
print from the Sitzungsberichte of the Munich Academy. The two Vitae
S. Theodosii, by Theodorus and by Cyril, were published by H. Usener, in
two university-dissertations (Bonn, 1890), and again in: Der hi. Theodosios,
Leipzig, 1890. Cf. Krumbacher, Studien zu den Legenden des hi. Theo
dosios, in Sitzungsberichte der philos.-philol. und histor. Klasse der kgl.
bayer. Akad. der Wissensch. (1892), pp. 220 — 379. Krumbacher has
shown, with the aid of considerable manuscript evidence, that the edition
of Usener lacks a suitable foundation, being based on a single manuscript,
and that of the eleventh century. The two Vitae S. Theognii, by Paul and
by Cyril, were edited in the Analecta Bollandiana (1891), x. 73 — 118, and
contemporaneously by A. Papadopulos-Kerameus, Petersburg, 1891 (Russian).
Cf. y. van den Gheyn , St. Theognius, in Revue des questions historiques
(1891), 1. 559 — 576. In 'AyoXsxra UpocroAU|j.rrtxTJ? aTayuoAO'j'ta? (1897), iv.
175—184, Papadopulos-Kerameus published a Vita S. Gerasimi, that is pro
bably also the work of Cyril of Scythopolis. Cf. S. Vailht, Diet, de Theo-
logie, Paris, 1908, iii. 2581 — 2582.
2. JOHANNES MOSCHUS AND SOPHRONIUS. — Narratives like those
of Cyril of Scythopolis became so popular, particularly among the
monks, that there grew up a species of ecclesiastical literature that
may be described as « Monastic Memorials ». The best-known speci
mens of such writings are the Historia Lausiaca of Palladius (§ 79, 4)
and the Pratum fpirituale of Johannes Moschus. The latter was a
writer of the end of the sixth century. Wearied of the world, as we
read in an ancient anonymous account, John retired to the monastery
of St. Theodosius at Jerusalem, whence he went at a later date to
the monks who dwelt beside the Jordan and in the New Laura.
He also travelled through Syria, Egypt and Italy. Shortly before
his death, which took place at Rome in 619, he composed a long
account of the extraordinary virtues and miracles of contemporary
ascetics. His information was drawn partly from his personal ex
perience, and partly from oral and written communications of con
temporaries. He dedicated the work to his disciple and companion
Sophronius, and called it «The Meadow » (Astpcbv, Pratum spirituale),
because, as the manuscripts add and the dedication attests, «it offers
a flowery narrative of the life of the heavenly rose garden ». In the
course of time, as often happens to much used books of devotion, the
text underwent many alterations, was either compressed into «com-
pendia», or considerably amplified. Photius says1 that in some of
1 Bibl. Cod. 199.
560 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
the manuscript copies he had read, there were 304 chapters, while
other copies contained 342 chapters or narratives; the printed editions
exhibit 219 chapters. In collaboration with Sophronius, Moschus
wrote a life of John the Almoner (Itey/iav, eleemosynarius), patri
arch of Alexandria (610 — 619), with whom both writers had long
kept up friendly intercourse. A fragment of this biography is still
extant in the first chapter of the Vita S. loannis Eleemosynarii,
current under the name of Simeon Metaphrastes. — The above-
mentioned Sophronius was for several decades a monk of the mona
stery of St. Theodosius and as such was distinguished for knowledge,
piety and zeal. In 634 he was made patriarch of Jerusalem and occupied
the see for four stormy and troublous years (f 638). He owes his
literary reputation chiefly to his homilies and hymns (§ 105, 3). He
also composed some biographies, a full account of the lives of Saints
Cyrus and John, and a life of St. Mary of Egypt. Cyrus and John
had suffered martyrdom under Diocletian at Alexandria and were
held in high honor throughout Egypt. In the first part of his work
Sophronius relates the lives and sufferings of both Saints, their burial
and the subsequent translation of their relics ; in the second part he
describes seventy miracles performed through their intercession, the
last of these ^a^uara being his own delivery from the danger of
loss of sight. St. Mary of Egypt is thought by some to have lived
in the fourth century, but by others in the fifth or the sixth; she
had led a sinful life at Alexandria, but was struck by a ray of di
vine grace in the city of Jerusalem, and thenceforth, for forty-eight
years, led a life of penance in the desert east of the Jordan.
The above-mentioned Vita S. Joannis Moschi precedes in several
manuscripts and editions the «Pratum spirituale» ; thu| in Magna Bibl. vet.
Patr., Paris, 1644, xiii. 1053 — 1055. There is a Latin version in Migne,
PL., Ixxiv. 119 — 122. An Italian translation was printed at Venice as early
as 1475, and again at Vicenza, in 1479; the translation was made from
the Latin version of Ambrogio Camaldolese (f 1439). This Latin version was
reprinted ^at Venice 1558, and often since, also in Migne, PL., Ixxiv. 121
to 240. The Greek text was edited in 1624 by Pronto Ducaeus , com
pleted and corrected in 1681 by J. B. Cotelier, reprinted in Migne, PG.,
Ixxxvii 3, 2851—3112. For the life of St. John the Almoner by Moschus
and Sophronius see H. Gelzer, in his edition of the Vita S. Joannis Elee
mosynarii by Leontius of Naples (see no. 3), Freiburg and Leipzig, 1893,
pp. xv— xvi; the same Vita, under the name of Simeon Metaphrastes, is
in Migne > PG., cxiv. 895—966. S. Vailhe , St. Jean Mosch, in Echos
Orient (1901), v. 107 — 116 356—387. - The most complete edition of
the works current under the name of Sophronius is that of Cardinal Mai]
most of them were first edited by him; they are also in Migne, PG., Ixxxvii
3> 3147—4014- The lives of Cyrus and John (Migne, 1. c., 3379—3676)
are followed by two other short Vitae of the martyrs (Ib. Ixxxvii. 3677 to
3696) ; the latter are wrongly attributed to Sophronius. The Vita S. Mariae
Aegyptiae (Ib. Ixxxvii. 3697—3726) is also in Latin in Migne, PL., Ixxiii.
-690. F. Delmas, Remarques sur la vie de Sainte Marie 1'Egyptienne,
Echos d'Orient (1900), iv. 35—42; (1901), vi. 15—17. An Ethiopia
§ 104- HAGIOGRAPHERS. 561
version of the life was published by F. M. Esteras Pereira, Lisbon, 1903.
For the other writings of Sophronius cf. § 105, 3; L. de Saint- Aignan,
Vie de St. Sophrone, patriarche de Jerusalem, in Acad. de Sainte-Croix
d'Orleans, Lectures et Memoires (1886), v. 229 — 244; Gelzer, in the above-
mentioned edition of the Vita S. Joannis Eleemos. by Leontius (1893),
pp. 118 f. S. Vailht, Sophrone le sophiste et Sophrone le patriarche, in
Revue de 1'Orient chretien (1902), vii. 360 — 385; (1903), viii. 32 — 69.
3. LEONTIUS OF NAPLES AND LEONTIUS OF ROME. - - We are
not informed as to the life of Leontius, bishop of Neapolis (Nemosia)
in Cyprus, during the first half of the seventh century. Several of
his writings, however, have reached us : a biography of St. John the
Almoner, or chapters supplementary to the biography described
above (no. 2); a life of the monk Simeon who became a fool
(TOO aaXoi)), «for the love of Christ» ; some homilies and fragments
of a large controversial work against the Jews. His life of St. Spiri-
dion of Trimithus, the patron of Cyprus, appears to have perished.
These biographies, the author expressly says, were written for the
edification of the people. The life of St. John is founded on evidence
of the best kind, the testimony of contemporary persons and eye
witnesses. Many items in the life of St. Simeon serve to illustrate
the history of contemporary manners and institutions. - - « Leontius,
priest and monk and prior of the monastery of St. Saba at Rome»,
is as he himself tells us the name of the author of a Greek life of
St. Gregory of Girgenti (on the south coast of Sicily). In the intro
duction to this life the author makes known that he was a younger
contemporary of St. Gregory. The latter wrote a copious commen
tary on Ecclesiastes in Greek, which is still extant ; he must have
been bishop of Girgenti at the end of the sixth or at the beginning
of the seventh century.
The works of Leontius of Naples are in Migne, PG., xciii. 1565 ff. In
his Sammlung ausgew. kirchen- und dogmengeschichtl. Quellenschriften (5),
Freiburg i. Br., 1893, H. Gelzer edited the Greek text of the Vita S. Joannis
Eleemos. It is in Migne, 1. c., 1613 — 1668, and also in the Latin version
of Anastasius Bibliothecarius (f about 879) in Migne, PL., Ixxiii. 337 to
392. On Leontius and his writings in general see Gelzer, Ein griechischer
Volksschriftsteller des 7. Jahrh. , in Histor. Zeitschr. , new series (1889),
xxv. i — 38. - - The commentary of Gregory on Ecclesiastes was edited
by St. A. Morcelli, Venice, 1791 (Migne , PG., xcviii. 741 — 1182). Mor-
celli added, as an introduction, the Greek text of the life of Gregory
(Ib., xcviii. 549 — 716). On Gregory see Smith and Wace , A Dictionary
of Christ. Biography, ii. 776 — 777, and on Leontius of Rome, ib., iii.
692. — Eustratius, a priest of Constantinople, narrated in a funeral oration
(Migne, PG., Ixxxvi 2, 2273 — 2390) the life of his master and friend Eu-
tychius, patriarch of Constantinople (552 — 582). The latter left an in
complete Sermo de paschate et de sacrosancta eucharistia (Ib., Ixxxvi. 2391
to 2402), and a letter to Pope Vigilius (Ib., Ixxxvi. 2401 — 2406). Eustra
tius wrote also a polemical work against the theory of the « sleep of the
soul» : Xo-foj avaTpSJTttxoj ~po? TOO; Xryovtac pu] Ivep-ysiv -rac TWV dv&pa»iru>v
<j>'jya? fxsTa TYJV 6',a^so;iv rtov sautaiv aa>|j.atu>v xrX. ; most of it was edited by
BARDENHEWBR-SHAHAN, Patrology. 36
562 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
Leo Allatius, De utriusque ecclesiae, occidentalis atque orientalis, perpetua
in dogmate de purgatorio consensione, Rome, 1655, pp. 319 — 580 (lacking
in Migne). -- George II., patriarch of Alexandria (621—631), left a Vita
S. Joannis Chrysostomi (Migne, PG. , cxiv. 1045 — 1210), that is of little
value. • Nicephorus, a rhetorician of Antioch, said to have lived in
the seventh century , wrote a long panegyric of the younger St. Simeon
Stylites (f 596). It is found in Migne, PG., Ixxxvi 2, 2987 — 3216. A letter
and a fragment of another letter, written by this Saint, are preserved in
the acts of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787): Migne, 1. c., 3215 to
3220). Cf. S. Petrides, in Echos d'Orient (1902), vi. 270 — 274.
§ 105. Poets.
I. ST. ROMAN OS THE SINGER. — In the Greek Church, after the
fifth century, metrical or quantitative versification steadily gave way
to a rhythmic poetry that laid all stress on accent, and paid no
attention to the length of syllables. It soon came about that the
ancient metrical laws were known and observed only by men of
scholarly tastes. The rhythmic form was much favored on account of
the growing splendor of the Greek liturgy and it rapidly attained
an incomparable perfection. The chief representative of the new
school, «the Pindar of rhythmic poetry », is St. Romanos, surnamed
«the singer» (o jueAajooQJ. Curiously enough, the period of his life
cannot be determined with certainty. Our principal source of in
formation is found in the Greek Menaea, at the feast (Oct. i) of
the Saint. There he is said to have been born in Syria; he was
ordained deacon, we are told, at Berytus, and came to Constantinople
under the emperor Anastasius, and was assigned to the service of
the Blachernae Church. The words exl ~tov ypovcov 'Avaaraaioo roi>
fiaadicoQ may be variously interpreted. Christ and others decide in favor
of Anastasius II. Artemius (713—716), while Pitra and others prefer
the reign of Anastasius I. (491 — 518). In the first edition (1897) of
his history of Byzantine literature, Krumbacher was for Anastasius I.,
but since then he has declared (1899) this position to be untenable. De
Boor has lately (1900) rallied to the defence of the reign of Ana
stasius L, as the epoch of the life and work of our Romanos. The
chronological problem can be solved only by a more thorough in
vestigation of the writings of Romanos and of his models and his
imitators, if such there be. The Menaea say (1. c.) that he composed
about one thousand hymns: xo^dxia <OQ ~zp\ TO. yjiha. About eighty
are extant, each made up of twenty-four or more strophes; they
have been only partially published. Later hymnographers filled the
liturgical books of the Greek Church with their writings, and expelled
the works of Romanos, so that of his vast repertoire only a few
strophes remained in ecclesiastical use. Nevertheless, his glorious
Christmas hymn, YJ -apttlvoQ rftjizpov, maintained its place, and as
late as the twelfth century was sung with great ceremony at the
105. POETS. 563
Christmas-eve banquet in the imperial palace. Modern scholars agree
that for poetic gifts, glow of inspiration, depth of sentiment, and
soaring diction, Romanos is easily foremost among all the Greek
liturgical poets. They regret but one defect, common to all By
zantine literature : his rhetorical prolixity. Krumbacher believes that
in the future history of literature, Romanos will be proclaimed the
greatest of all ecclesiastical poets.
Of fundamental importance for the study of the history of Greek
hymnography is the Anthologia graeca carminum christianorum. Adorna-
verunt W. Christ et M. Paranikas, Leipzig, 1871; still more so the Ana-
lecta sacra Spicilegio Solesmensi parata, ed. J. B. Pitra, torn, i, Paris,
1876. Pitra had already published his Hymnographie de 1'eglise grecque,
Rome, 1867. On other collections of Greek ecclesiastical hymns see
K. Krumbacher, Gesch. der byzant. Lit., pp. 656 ff. ; cf. J. L. Jacobi, Zur
Geschichte des griechischen Volksliedes, in Zeitschr. fiir Kirchengeschichte
(1881 — 1882), v. 177 — 250, a very instructive account of the first volume
of Pitra' s Analecta Sacra. W. Meyer, Anfang und Ursprung der lateini-
schen und griechischen rhythmischen Dichtung, Munich, 1885; Id., in
Sitzungsberichte der kgl. bayer. Akad. der Wissensch., philos.-philol. Kl.
(1896), pp. 49 — 66, and in Festschrift zur Feier des hundertfiinfzigjahrigen
Bestehens der kgl. Gesellschaft der Wissensch. zu Gottingen, Berlin, 1901,
pp. 146 f. Edm. Bouvy , Poetes et Melodes. Etude sur les origines du
rhythme tonique dans I'hymnographie de 1'eglise grecque (These), Nimes,
1886. F. Cabrol, L'hymnographie de 1'eglise grecque, Angers, 1893. -
Among the hymnologists of the fifth century are: Anthimus, Timocles,
Marcian, Johannes Monachus, Seta, Auxentius. It is possible that in the
immense collection of Greek hymns by anonymous writers, there may be
many pieces belonging to the fifth century. In the Vita S. Auxentii
(Migne, PG., cxiv. 1377 — 1436), written by a certain George, a disciple
of the Saint, there is a hymn of St. Auxentius, who was archimandrite of
a Bithynian monastery about the middle of the fifth century ; cf. Pitra,
Analecta sacra, i, pp. xxi — xxiv; Bouvy, 1. c., pp. 230 — 234. A shorter life
was lately edited by L. Clugnet, Vie de St. Auxence, in Echos d'Orient
(1903), vii. i — 14. We have already mentioned (§ 102, 4) a hymn of the
emperor Justinian. -- Christ and Paranikas, 1. c., pp. 131 — 138, give but
one hymn of St. Romanos, that on the Apostles; cf. Proleg., pp. li — lii.
Pitra, Analecta sacra, i. i — 241, gives twenty-nine hymns of «the Singer» ;
cf. Proleg., pp. xxv — xxxi. In 1888 Pitra published three other hymns in
a jubilee-offering to Leo XIII. : Al Sommo Pontefice Leone XIII. Omaggio
Giubilare della Biblioteca Vaticana, Rome, 1888. Later discoveries are to be
seen in Krumbacher, Studien zu Romanos (Sitzungsberichte der kgl. bayer.
Akad.), Munich, 1898; Umarbeitungen bei Romanos mit einem Anhang
iiber das Zeitalter des Romanos (ib.), Munich, 1899. The conclusions of
this appendix as to the date of Romanos were opposed by de Boor, in
Byzant. Zeitschr. (1900), ix. 633 — 640. Krumbacher is preparing a com
plete edition of all the extant writings of Romanos. For further infor
mation concerning Romanos cf. Jacobi , 1. c. , pp. 203 — 207 220 — 222;
Bouvy, 1. c., pp. 367 — 375; Krumbacher, Gesch. der byzant. Lit., pp. 663
to 671 ; Id., Romanos und Kyriacos (§ 104, i), Munich, 1901 (reprint from
the Sitzungsberichte). S. I'ailhe, St. Roman le Melode, in Echos d'Orient
(1902), v. 207 — 212 (the poet belongs to the eighth century. P. van den
Yen, Encore Romanos le Melode, in Byzant. Zeitschr. (1903), xii. 153 — 166.
36*
564 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
2. SERGIUS. — Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople (610 — 638), is
the founder of Monotheletism which, as its name indicates, teaches that
there is one will in Christ (sy ftsAy/jLaJ and one divine-human energy
(<iia tisavdpixy ivipyzia), hoping by this concession to win back the
Monophysttes to ecclesiastical unity. It is Sergius and not, as was
formerly believed, Georgius Pisides (see no. 4), who wrote the most
celebrated of all the hymns of the Greek Church, the so-called « Greek
Tc Deum* : (>J<J.VOQ) dxdttiffToc. It is a hymn of thanksgiving to the
Blessed Virgin for the miraculous deliverance, through her intercession,
of Constantinople and the empire from the Avars (626). The name
dxattiaroQ indicates that both clergy and laity remained standing-
while it was sung; other hymns were known as the xadifffjiara.,
because wrhile they were sung the laity and clergy were usually
seated. Jacobi says of this magnificent hymn : All that enthusiasm
for the Blessed Virgin, knowledge of biblical types, and in general
of religious objects and thoughts, could contribute; all that could
be added in the shape of elegant diction, graceful expression, artistic
rhythm and rhyme, has in this hymn been attained in a degree
hitherto unequalled.
There are new editions of the Acathistus hymn in Christ and Paranikas,
Anthologia graeca, pp. 140—147: Pitra, Analecta sacra, i. 250—262.
P. de Meestcr, L'inno acatisto ('Axdcdttrroc ujxvos), in Bessarione, 1904, pp. 134
to 143. For a criticism of the hymn cf. Jacobi, 1. c., pp. 228 — 232. A
second Acathistus hymn: De b. Virginis transitu (Pitra, 1. c., pp. 263
to 272) so closely resembles the hymn of Sergius, that it might well be
attributed to the same period and the same author. Two letters of Ser
gius to Cyrus , bishop of Phasis among the Lazi, and to Pope Honorius,
are found amid the acts of the Sixth Ecumenical Council (Mansi, SS. Cone.
Coll., xi. 525-528 529—537). Sergius is also the author of the Ecthesis
(exposition of faith) issued in 638 by the emperor Heraclius, and preserved
in the acts of the Lateran Synod of 649 (Mansi, 1. c. , x. 991—997). It
prohibited the use of the terms [Ai'a Ivspysia and ouo svepysiai, and declared
that in Christ there was' but one will: ev fMXrjjjia. In both these letters
Sergius appeals to a letter of Mennas, patriarch of Constantinople (1552),
to^Pope Vigilius, in which Mennas taught the doctrine of one will: Sv TO
TOO XpiJtou &eXY][Aa xat ;iiav UOO-O.QV Ivspysiav. This (lost) letter was very
probably spurious, perhaps a forgery by Sergius himself. Cf. Hefele,
Konziliengeschichte, 2. ed., ii. 855 ff . ; iii. 130. The controversy, after all,
had begun before the time of Sergius. For the Monothelite writers see
. Ehrhard, in Krumbacher, Gesch. der byzant. Lit., pp. 60 f. — Between
Romanes and Sergius Pitra (1. c., pp. 224—226; Proleg., xxxiii f.) places
e grandiose funeral hymn (canticum in mortuorum exequiis) of a certain
Anastasius, a poet otherwise unknown. For some partial versions see
I. c., pp. 224— 226. In the Revue de 1'Orient Latin (1901), vi.
444— 45 2> S. Petrides identifies this Anastasius with the Sinaita (§ 107, 4).
3. SOPHRONIUS. - In Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem (634
to 638), Monotheletism found an opponent at once vigorous and
influential (§ 104, 2). Long before his elevation to the patriarchal
see, Sophronius had with much energy defended the creed of Chal-
§ 105. POETS. 565
cedon. The first act of his administration was to issue a long
and learned synodal letter in which he explained and defended
the two wills in Christ. A large work in which he collected, in two
books, six hundred ^testimonia antiquorum* in favor of the two wills
or energies in Christ has perished. Several of his homilies have been
preserved. They treat of ecclesiastical feasts; Christmas, the Annuncia
tion, the Presentation in the Temple (Hypante or Hypapante), and
others. Their doctrinal contents are very remarkable, and also their
oratorical style. The homily on the Annunciation merits attention
because of its length and of its contents. Sophronius can also
claim a place among the Greek ecclesiastical poets. There is extant
a collection of his Anacreontic odes: Mva^oeovr^tt, twenty-three in
number, in praise of the feasts of the Church. They are meditations
of a profound theologian and as such were meant for a restricted
circle of readers. Other poetical effusions are current under his
name, rhythmic hymns for liturgical uses, known as IdtofieXa^ or
hymns sung to a special melody. Paranikas has shown that the
rhythmic hymns edited by Cardinal Mai under the title of Tpupdtov
and attributed by him to Sophronius, are really the composition of
Joseph the Hymnographer, in the ninth century. In general it may
be said that the works current under the name of Sophronius await
a critical revision.
The Epistola synodica of Sophronius is found in Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll.,
xi. 461 — 510; and in Migne, PG., Ixxxvii 3, 3147 — 3200. Cf. Hefele, Konzilien-
geschichte, 2. ed. , iii. 159 — 166. The larger anti-Monothelite work is
mentioned by Stephen, bishop of Dora (in Palestine), in his report to the
Lateran Synod of 649 (Mansi, 1. c., x. 895). Nine homilies of Sophronius
are found in Migne, PG., Ixxxvii 3, 3201—3364); some are given only in
a Latin version; of the IY/OUJXIOV on St. John the Evangelist only two small
fragments are printed (Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 3363 — 3364). The Oratio (Ib., Ixxxvii 3,
4001 — 4004) is clearly only a fragment of an Epiphany homily. H. Usener
has edited the Greek text of two homilies that are (in Latin only) in
Migne: the first is a Christmas homily (Dec. 25., 634; Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 3201
to 3212), and was published by Usener, in Rhein. Museum f. Philol., new
series (1886), xli. 500 — 516; cf. Id., Religionsgeschichtl. Untersuchungen,
Bonn, 1889, i. 326 ff. The second is a homily on the Presentation of
our Lord (Ib. , Ixxxvii 3, 3287 — 3302) and was published as a university
program (Bonn, 1889), with notes on the Greek diction of the writer.
Usener also proved in his edition of the Acts of the Persian martyr Ana-
stasius (Bonn-program, 1894) that the sermon on Anastasius (Ib., xcii. 1679
to 1730) hitherto attributed to Georgius Pisides (see no. 4), is really the
work of Sophronius. In the 'AvaXsxta ispoaoXujMtiXTJc a-a/uoXo-yiac, St. Peters
burg, 1898, v. 151 — 1 68, A. Papadopulos-Keramcus published a new sermon,
of Sophronius on baptism. Apart from his homilies and sermons and the
lives of Saints already mentioned, the following works are printed in Migne
under the name of Sophronius : De peccatorum confessione, ~sp! eSaffsXioiv
(PG., Ixxxvii 3, 3365 — 3372), De baptismate apostolorum (Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 3371
to 3372), Fragmentum dogmaticum (Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 4011 — 4012), an incomplete
commentary on the liturgy or Commentarius liturgicus (Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 3981
566 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
to 4002), and a little work in Latin which is considered to be spurious: De
laboribus, certaminibus et peregrinationibus SS. Petri et Pauli (Ib., Ixxxvii 3,
4011 — 4014). In the (Russian) Annals of the Historico-philological Society
of Odessa (1894), N. Th. Krasnojeljcev investigated the liturgical commentary
and proved it a forgery; cf. Ehrhard, in Krumbacher, Gesch. d. byzant. Lit.,
2. ed., p. 190. The following poems of Sophronius are in Migne: the Ana-
creontica (Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 3733- — 3838), the Triodium (Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 3839 to
3982), the Troparium horarum (Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 4005 — 4010), Epitaphia Eulogii
et Joannis Eleemos., Alexandrinorum praesulum (Ib., Ixxxvii 3, 4009 — 4010).
On the origin of the Triodium see Paranikas , Beitrage zur byzant. Lit.,
Munich, 1870, pp. i — 22. An Anacreontic ode (no. 14) lacking in Migne,
was edited by L. Ehrhard , in a program of the Strassburg Gymnasium
(1887). Three Anacreontic odes were published by Christ and Paranikas,
in Anthologia graeca (pp. 43 — 47 ; cf. Proleg., pp. xxvii f.) under the name
of Sophronius, also two of his Idiomela (pp. 96 — 97 ; cf. p. liii). For a
description and an appreciation of the Anacreontica cf. Bouvy , 1. c.
(see no. i), pp. 169—182. S. Vailht , Sophrone le sophiste et Sophrone
le patriarche, in Revue de FOrient chre'tien (1902), vii. 360 — 363, and
[1903), viii. 32 — 69. -- Modestus, the predecessor (631—634) of Sophro-
to 3312). Photius (Bibl. Cod. 275) has preserved brief excerpts from two
other homilies of Modestus. -- Zacharias, the predecessor (609—631) of
Modestus, taken prisoner by the Persian king Chosroes but liberated by
Heraclius, has left us an encyclical composed during his captivity (Ib.,
Ixxxvi 2, 3227— 3234). He is also credited with the authorship of a work
entitled: De persica captivitate (Ib., Ixxxvi 2, 3235—3268).
4. GEORGIUS PISIDES. — A highly gifted and prolific poet arose
in the person of George of Pisidia, a contemporary of Sergius and So
phronius, deacon and custodian of the Sacristy (skenophylax), according
to others archivist (chartophylax), of Sancta Sophia at Constantinople.
His poetry is composed according to the laws of quantitative metre,
and in iambic trimeter, usually in dodecasyllabic lines. His verse
is fluent and very correct, his narrative simple and easily understood.
Three of his larger poems deal with political events: the victories
of Heraclius (610—641) over the Persians: elg TTJV xara Hspffwv Ix-
arparday 'Hpaiddoo TOO fiaedlcoQ, in 1088 verses; the siege of Con
stantinople by the Avars (626) and their defeat: slq rfv revofievyv
Zyodov TCOV papftdpwv xai SIQ TTJV O.OTWV daroyiav, in 541 verses; and
the final ^victory of the emperor over Chosroes: "Hpaxhaq yroi elq
TsAsiav xTtoffw Xoapooo fiaffdicos Ilepa&v, in 471 verses. Three
other poems are didactic and edifying in character: on the creation
the world, egaypepov rj xoGpoop-fia, in 1910 verses, (in Hercher's
edition, 1894 verses), probably incomplete; on the vanity of human
TOV paratov ploy, in 262 verses (also a fragment), and against
Severus (§ 102, 2), the Monophysite patriarch of Antioch: xara 3»a-
leuypo'j 3AvTio%siaQ, in 726 verses. He is the author also of
hymn: efc rr^ ar'tav dvdaraaiv TOO Xptaroo TOO tisoo fativ, and of
many epigrams and fragments.
§ 105. POETS. 567
A complete edition of his works was published by y. M. Querci, Rome,
1777. The three historical carmina were published by J. Bekker, Bonn,
1837 (Corpus Script, hist. Byzant.). The contents of both editions are re
printed in Migne, PG., xcii. 1161 — 1754. Georgii Pisidae carmina inedita
were edited by L. Sternbach, in Wiener Studien (1891), xiii. i ff. ; (1892),
xiv. 51 ff. The Hexaemeron was edited, with many corrections, by
R. Hercher , in the appendix to his edition of the work of the Sophist
Aelianus (y after 222), Leipzig, 1864 — 1866. An Armenian version of the
Hexaemeron is probably the work of Stephen, bishop of Siuniq (eighth
century); it was edited by J. H. A. Tiroean, Venice, 1900. In Wiener
Studien (1886), viii. 292 — 304; (1887), ix. 207 — 222, j. Hilberg explained
the metre of Georgius Pisides, and contributed to the textual criticism of
his writings. On his merits as a poet, cf. Bouvy, 1. c. (see no. i), pp. 164
to 169. We have seen that the Hymnus Acathistus is the work of Ser-
gius, not of Georgius Pisides (see no. 2), also that Sophronius, and not
our Georgius, is the author of the prose oration on the Persian martyr
Anastasius (see no. 3). L. Sternbach, De Georgii Pisidae apud Theo-
phanem aliosque historicos reliquiis ; De Georgii Pisidae fragmentis a
Suida servatis ; Observationes in Georgii Pisidae carmina historica, Cracow,
1899 — 1900.
5. ANDREW OF CRETE. - The rhythmic poetry of the Greek-
liturgy received a new development through the so-called Canons,
xavovsq, or hymns each of which is made up of nine odes, each
ode being in turn variously subdivided. The invention of these new
hymns is attributed to Andrew, a native of Damascus, who flourished
in the latter half of the seventh century, and was for several years
a monk in Jerusalem and secretary to the patriarch of that town
(Hierosolymitanus). He was made archbishop of Crete before 711
and died about 720. Under Constantine IV. Pogonatus (668—685)
he appears as a defender of the orthodox faith against the Mono-
theletes; under Philippicus Bardanes (711 — 713) he is said to have
gone over to that heresy, but to have returned to the true faith
after the death of that emperor. In the reign of Leo the Isaurian
(717—741) he appears as a defender of the veneration of images.
He is honored as a Saint in the Greek Church. Besides several
comprehensive discourses, we owe to his prolific pen many homilies
on the Mother of God, also numerous Idiomela (see no. 3) and « canons ».
His most renowned composition is the « Great Canon », o [lifac, xayatv,
a hymn of penance and compunction, in no less than two hundred
and fifty strophes. While his interminable prolixity and repetition of
the same thoughts are extremely fatiguing, it must be admitted that
he exhibits genuine emotion and a certain robustness of expression.
In general, his poetry is didactic and reflective; but amid so many
lengthy dogmatic definitions, and innumerable antitheses, metaphors
and verbal juggleries, one misses the natural sublimity of the earlier
melodists.
The printed works of St. Andrew are in Migne, PG., xcvii. 789 — 1444.
Christ and Paranikas republished in their Anthologia graeca the first of
568 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
the four parts of the Great Canon (147 — 157), also a «Canon» of doubtful
authenticity on the feast of the Chains of St. Peter (157—161). A hitherto
unknown sermon of St. Andrew on James, the apostle and brother of the
Lord, was published by A. Papadopulos-Kerameus, in 'AvaXexrot lepoaoXofwtixYJc
3Ta7uoXo7i'ac, St. Petersburg, 1891, pp. 1—14. Cf. J. Haussleiter, in Zeit-
schrift fur Kirchengesch. (1893—1894), xiv. 73— 76. A fragment of a
new homily of St. Andrew is published in the natfiunc?) fJiflXtoO^XT] of the Philo
logical Society of Athens (1890), pp. 330—331; cf. H. Heissenberg, in
Byzant. Zeitschr. (1901), x. 505—514. From an iambic poem of St. Andrew,
published (ib.) by Heissenberg , the latter concludes that our author re
nounced Monotheletism for the orthodox faith. S. Vailht discourses on the
relations of St. Andrew with the Monotheletes and his return to ortho
doxy, and places his death on July 4., 740 : St. Andre de Crete, in Echos
d'Orient (1902), v. 372 — 387. See also E. Marin, in Diet, de Theologie,
Paris, 1903, i. 1182 — 1184.
6. ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS AND COSMAS THE SINGER. — Andrew
found many imitators, though the prolixity of his « canons » was felt
to be intolerable. The nine odes were soon reduced to a smaller
number of strophes. The most celebrated versifiers in the new style
are John of Damascus and his adopted brother Cosmas the Singer.
We shall deal elsewhere at length with the life of the former § 108, 2.
Both Cosmas and John enjoyed the benefit of an excellent education
at the hands of a Sicilian monk, also known as Cosmas, whom the
father of John had freed from captivity among the Saracens , and
who was a profound scholar both in theology and profane science *.
Both John and his brother Cosmas entered the famous monastery of
St. Saba, near Jerusalem; the former was destined to die within its
walls, while the latter became eventually bishop of Majuma in Phenicia
(743); the date of his death is unknown. His sojourn at St. Saba
procured for Cosmas the name of Hierosolymitanus or Hagiopolites
(Hieropolites) , though he is more usually known as «the singer»,
o fji£^a)d(k. Both John and Cosmas agree in sacrificing to an artistic
and ornate versification the imaginative boldness and lucidity of diction
characteristic of the earlier liturgical poets ; they even surpass Andrew
of Crete as masters of refinement, variety, and technical skill in the
treatment of language. The faultless Hellenic verse of Gregory of
Nazianzus was their model. Indeed, Cosmas wrote «scholia» on the
poems of the Nazianzene. His Canons and Odes, like those of his
brother John, celebrate generally the feasts of our Lord. Protest has
lately been entered against the traditional opinion that John com
posed the Octoechos, an official collection of liturgical hymns for
Sunday services still used by the Greek Church. Though in warmth
of sentiment and splendor of diction John is much superior to his
adopted brother, he is no less than Cosmas the slave of a minute
and wearisome stylistic dexterity. He revived the use of quantita-
1 Vita S. loan. Damasc., c. 9, a work probably composed by John VI., patriarch
of Jerusalem (y about 969).
§ 106. EXEGETES. CANONISTS. ASCETICS. 569
live metre; at least of three of his « canons », those on Christmas,
Theophany (Epiphany), and Pentecost , are in iambic trimeters (see
no. 4). At the same time he is faithful to the new technique, for
his verse is also accentuated rhythmically. In their predilection
for clever linguistic artifice the later Byzantines came to admire John
and Cosmas as the princes of Greek hymnography. Suidas asserts 1
that there never was, and never will be, anything comparable to the
«Canons» of John and Cosmas:
(iv, fj.iyptc, o xad^ fjfiaQ fiioq
The poems of St. John of Damascus are collected in Migne, PG., xcvi.
817 — 856 1363 — 1408; the «Canons», printed Ib., xcvi. 1371 — 1408, first
edited by Mai, Spicilegium Romanum, ix. 713 — 739, are certainly spurious,
probably the work of a younger Johannes Monachus; cf. Christ et Para-
nikas, Anthologia graeca, Proleg., p. xlvii; there are (pp. 117 — 121) six
small poems and (pp. 205 — 236) eight «canons» of St. John. The three
metrical «canons» (pp. 205 — 217) were lately revised by A. Nauck , in
Melanges Greco-Romains, St. Petersburg, 1894, pp. 199 — 223. Cf. P.Rocchi,
In paracleticam Deiparae Sanctissimae S. Johanni Damascene vulgo tri-
butam animadversiones, in Bessarione (1902), vi, series II, vol. iii. 22 — 32
194 — 210- vol. iv. 217 — 234; (1903 — 1904), viii. 48 — 55 177 — 186 (very
little belongs to the Damascene). - - The catalogue of the poetical works
of St. Cosmas is not yet fixed with certainty; there is even reason to
doubt the genuineness of some compositions ascribed to him. His master
Cosmas was also a liturgical poet, and it is very often difficult to dis
tinguish to which Cosmas the manuscripts mean to attribute the poems
handed down under that name. Migne gives (PG., xcviii) thirteen hymni
Cosmae Hierosolymitani (459 — 514) and eleven aliae odae Cosmae monachi
(513 — -524). Christ and Paranikas (1. c. , pp. 161 — 204) publish fourteen
«canons» under the name of Cosmas the younger; cf. also Pitra, Analecta
sacra, i. 410 — 412 527 — 529. The scholia of Cosmas Junior on the poems
of Gregory of Nazianzus are reprinted in Mai, Spicileg. Rom., ii 2, i to
373; Migne, PG., xxxviii. 339 — 679. - - Theodori Prodromi commentaries
in carmina sacra melodorum Cosmae Hierosolymitani et-Joannis Damasceni
ad fidem codd. mss. primum edidit H. M. 'Stevenson Senior. Praefatus
est J. B. Pitra, Rome, 1888.
§ 106. Exegetes. Canonists. Ascetics.
I. EXEGETES. - - About 520, as it seems, Andrew, archbishop
of Csesarea in Cappadocia, wrote a commentary on the Apocalypse 2.
It possesses a special interest as being the oldest Greek interpretation
of the Apocalypse that has reached us; it contains, moreover, the
complete Greek text of the book. We know, also, but only from
manuscript-catalogues, that he composed a work on the Book of
Daniel , and another work entitled ftepaneuTtJcq. Olympiodorus , a
deacon of Alexandria in the first half of the sixth century, seems
to have written a number of works illustrative of several biblical
books. A published commentary on Ecclesiastes bears his name 3 ;
1 Lexicon, rec. Bernhardy, i 2, 1029. 2 Migne, PG., cvi. 215 — 458.
3 Ib., xciii. 477 — 628.
570 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
there is also extant a manuscript copy of his commentary on Jere-
mias. Fragments of this commentary are doubtless scattered through
the numerous short scholia attributed to an otherwise obscure Olympio-
dorus in the Greek Catena on Jeremias, Lamentations, and Baruch,
edited by M. Ghisler*. Migne also attributes to an Olympiodorus
some scholia on Job2, on Proverbs3, and a brief fragment on Luke
vi. 23 4. The authenticity of these fragments, or rather the identity
of their author with our Olympiodorus awaits confirmation. — A
certain Peter of Laodicea, said to belong to the seventh century,
composed Catena-like commentaries on the four Gospels, some frag
ments of which have been published5. It may be suspected from
one of these fragments that Peter's commentary on Mark is identical
with the commentary on Mark published by Chr. Fr. Matthad (Moscow,
1775) and attributed by him to Victor of Antioch (§ 99, 6). -
Anastasius III., patriach of Nic?ea about 700, left a commentary on
the Psalms that awaits an editor.
The Greek text of the commentary on the Apocalypse by Andrew of
Caesarea was first published by Fr. Sylburg, Heidelberg, 1596. It is also
printed in A. Cramer, Catena in epistolas catholicas, Oxford, 1840, pp. 497
to 582, under the name of Oecumenius, conjectured to have been bishop
of Tricca in Thessaly. Migne (PG., cvi. 7 — 8) erroneously places Andrew
in the ninth century, cf. Fr. Diekamp, in Hist. Jahrbuch (1897), xviii. i — 36,
cf. pp. 602 f. , and ib., p. 34, for traces of other writings of Andrew of
Caesarea. Since 1901 the personality of Oecumenius has become better
known through Diekamp's discovery of his commentary on the Apocalypse.
Cf. 5. Vailht, Dictionnaire de Theologie, Paris, 1908, iii. 1181. It seems
that this author was a Severian Monophysite, also a partisan of the Orige-
nistic apocatastasis , and that he flourished about 600. Andrew of Crete
is alleged to have been acquainted with his commentary on the Apo
calypse and to have utilized it. If this were true, the date of 520 for the
work of Andrew of Caesarea would have to be abandoned. It follows
also that the other works attributed to Oecumenius cannot belong to him ;
cf. Diekamp , in Sitzungsberichte der kgl. Akad. der Wissensch. , Berlin,
1901, pp. 1046 — 1056; S. Petrides , Oecumenius de Tricca, ses ceuvres,
son culte, in Echos d' Orient (1903), vii. 307—310. — The date of Olympio
dorus, formerly calculated in various ways, is now rendered certain by
the signature of a manuscript of his commentary on Jeremias belonging
to the Barberini Library at Rome: S. de Magistris , Acta martyrum ad
3stia Tiberina sub Claudio Gothico, Rome, 1795, PP- ^S6 f. In this
manuscript Olympiodorus is called «a deacon of Alexandria, ordained by
John Nikiotes (^IXUOTTJC), archbishop of Alexandria». The Monophysite
patriarch of Alexandria John III, called 6 Nixsifcy); or NIXOCMUTTJ; (ofNikiu?)
died in May 516, after administering the see for eleven years; cf. A. v. Gut-
schmid, Kleine Schriften, herausgegeben von Fr. Riihl, Leipzig, 1890, ii.
456 f. The Catena on Job, republished completely in Migne, PG., xciii.
-470, does not belong in its entirety to Olympiodorus, as was imagined
by P. Comitolus who translated the Catena into Latin (Lyons, 1586;
Lyons, 1623; cf. Migne, PG., xciii. 627—780. 2 Ib., 13—470 passim.
Ib., 469—478, in Latin only. * Ib>>
5 Ib., Ixxxvi 2, 3321 — 3336.
§ 106. EXEGETES. CANONISTS. ASCETICS. 57 1
Venice, 1587). It is rather a work ofNicetas, bishop ofSerrae and after
wards metropolitan of Heraclea, in the eleventh century, a discovery owing
to P. Junius, the first editor of the Greek text (London, 1637). — On the
patriarch Anastasius III. of Nicsea cf. M. Le Qvien y Oriens christianus,
Paris, 1740, i. 644. A. Lauriotes describes in 'Exy./.rjS'.arrr/.Y) 'AXijfreia,
June 26., 1892, pp. 134 — 135, a (mutilated) manuscript of his commentary
on the Psalms.
2. CANONISTS. - - As early as the sixth century the Greeks felt
the need of a compendious and systematic collection of ecclesiastic
al legislation. The oldest of the extant canonical collections is that
of Johannes Scholasticus in fifty tituli, compiled, it seems, while he
was still a layman. In 565 Justinian made him patriarch of Con
stantinople, a position which he held until his death in 577, while the
legitimate patriarch Eutychius (§ 104, 3) was obliged to live in exile.
During his term of office John issued a second and enlarged edition
of his collection of canons, and added to it selected enactments from
the Novelise of Justinian in eighty-seven chapters; from the re-arrange
ment and fusion of these two works arose the first so-called Nomo-
canon or collection of civil and ecclesiastical laws; it is worthy of
note that the actual form of the Nomocanon can no longer be at
tributed to the patriarch John as his personal work. Photius had
read l a 7.a^yr^iy}>c, Mfoc, of Johannes Scholasticus on the Trinity,
composed in 566. Another Nomocanon formerly attributed to Pho
tius2, was composed, according to later researches, in the seventh
century, and can only have been re-edited by Photius (f about 891).
- A much older collection of canons, in sixty tituli, is mentioned
by Johannes Scholasticus in the preface to his first work, but it has
perished since then. — After the death of St. Eutychius (582), John IV.,
the Faster (<> vrja-eurrfa ieiunator), was made patriarch of Constan
tinople (582 — 595). He is best known by reason of the controversies
that arose between him and the popes Pelagius II. and Gregory I.,
apropos of his arrogant assumption of the title of « universal patri
arch ». He was formerly accredited with the authorship of a long
Pcenitentiale, or instruction for the presbyter-penitentiary in the ad-
ministration of his office: dxoAou&ia xai rdsiQ £/rr l$ofwtofot)fj.lv(t)v3.
Binterim has shown that it is a spurious wrork and belongs to a
much later period. A Sermo ad eos qui peccatorum confessionem
patri suo spirituali edituri sunt 4 is merely an excerpt from this Pceni
tentiale ; a Sermo de pcenitentia et continentia et virginitate 5 is else
where attributed to St. Chrysostom. Cardinal Pitra published under
the name of John the Faster a Doctrina monialium et pcenae pro
singulis peccatis, together with other minor writings. The : Rescriptum
1 Bibl. Cod. 75. 2 Migne, PG , civ. 975—1218.
3 Ib., Ixxxviii. 1889 — 1918; cf. 1931 — 1936. 4 Ib., Ixxxviii. 1919^-1932.
5 Ib., Ixxxviii. 1937 — 1978.
572 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
de sacramento baptismatis, addressed by the patriarch to Leander
of Seville1, seems to have perished.
The Collection of Canons (second edition) of Johannes Scholasticus
was edited by G. Voelli et H. Justelli, Bibl. itir. can. vet., Paris, 1661, ii.
499 — 602. The excerpts from the Novel lae were first edited by G. E.
Heimbach, 'Avsxoora, Leipzig, 1840, ii. 202 — 234. For supplements to both
editions cf. J. B. Pitra, Juris eccles. Graecorum hist, et monum., Rome,
1868, ii. 368 if., and J. Hergenr other , Archiv f. kathol. Kirchenrecht (1870),
xxiii. 208 ff. The first Nomocanon is printed in Voelli and Justelli, 1. c.,
ii. 603 — 660; a new edition of it is in Pitra, 1. c., ii. 416 — 420. The Nomo
canon formerly attributed to Photius is vbVoetti et Justelli, 1. c., ii. 813 to
1140; a new edition in Pitra, 1. c., ii. 433 — 640; cf. Her genr other , 1. c.,
211 ff. E. Zachariae v. Lingenthal, Die griechischen Nomokanones, St. Peters
burg, 1877; Id., Uber den Verfasser und die Quellen des (pseudo-photia-
nischen) Nomokanon in XIV Titeln, ib., 1885. — The Poenitentiale formerly
attributed to John the Faster is discussed by A. J. Binterim , Die vorziig-
lichsten Denkwiirdigkeiten der christkatholischen Kirche, Mainz,, 1829, v 3,
383 — 390; K. Holl, Enthnsiasmus und Buftgewalt beim griech. Monchtum,
Leipzig, 1898, pp. 289 — 298. S. Haidacher , Chrysostomus-Excerpte in
der Rede des Johannes Nesteutes iiber die Bufte, in Zeitschr. fur kath.
Theol. (1902), xxvi. 380 — 385. Other writings attributed to this author are
found in Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense, Paris, 1858, iv. 416 — 444; Id.,
luris eccles. Graec. hist, et monum. ii. 222 — 237. On his controversies
with the contemporary popes cf. H. Grisar, in Zeitschr. fur kath. Theol.
(1880), iv. 468 — 523; Id. , Storia di Roma e dei Papi del Medio Evo,
Part III, Rome, 1899, pp. 222 — 240, and Hergenrother , Photius, i.
3. ASCETICS. - - St. John Climacus owes his fame and his sur
name to an ascetic work known as «The Ladder (xAtp.a^)2. It de
scribes, under the image of a ladder, the gradual development and
continuous perfection of the soul consecrated to God. In keeping
with the thirty years of our Lord's life it enumerates as many steps
in the way of Christian progress. In the little treatise «To the
Shepherd» (xpbg TOV xot/dvaj*, an appendix to «The Ladder», the
pastoral office is put before the monastic superior as his true
ideal; the previous and larger work was meant for the instruction
of the monks. Both were composed at the request of a friend and
admirer, also named John, superior of a monastery at Raithu on the
shore of the Gulf of Suez, some eighteen miles southwest of Mount
Sinai. To a (contemporaneous) monk of this monastery, a certain
Daniel, we owe what information we possess concerning John Clima
cus. The latter was born about 525, and entered the monastery of
Mount Sinai at the age of sixteen-; later on he retired to a solitary
cell and finally to a cavern at the foot of the mountain. He had lived,
as a hermit for forty years when the fame of his virtue and learn
ing (hence he is known as Scholasticus) induced the monks of Mount
Sinai to choose him for their abbot (hence he is known as Sinaita).
1 hid. Ifispal., De viris ill., c. 39. 2 Migne, PG Ixxxviii. 631—1164.
3 Ib., Ixxxviii. 1165 — 1210.
§ 106. EXEGETES. CANONISTS. ASCETICS. 573
Before his death, which took place about 600, he again retired to the
solitude. His two works became famous in due time. The «Ladder»
in particular attracted the attention of several commentators. The
best work of this kind is the «Scholia» of Johannes of Raithu *. —
About 620, Antiochus, a monk of St. Saba near Jerusalem, made a
collection of moral sentences in one hundred and thirty chapters, drawn
mostly from Scripture and the writings of the Fathers. The Latin
translator erroneously described them as so many homilies. The work
bore the title « Pandects of Sacred Scripture » : TiavdixTyc, TTJQ «^/«c
ypaprjQ2, and was meant to serve as a manual of piety for the monks
of the cloister of Attaline near Ancyra, whom the Persian invasion
had compelled to wander from place to place, and therefore to live
without books. A prayer: xsp} -poaeoyrjc, xal iqofjLoAo^aeax;^^ de
scribes the sufferings of Jerusalem at the time of its conquest by
the Persians (614) and begs God to remove from the holy places
the abomination of their rule. - - Dorotheus, also an abbot in Pale
stine about the beginning of the seventh century, is held to be the
author of twenty-four didactico-ascetic tracts for monks : didaaxa)do.i
tyuyiDyzlzic, dtd(popoL 4 : De renuntiatione , De humilitate , De con-
scientia, De divino timore, Non debere quemquam suae prudentiae
confidere etc. The last treatise: De compositione monachi, is ex
tant in Latin only ; it is followed by the Greek text 5 of eight short
letters containing instructions and counsels for monks.
The editio princeps of both works of St. John Climacus was brought out
by Matth. Raderus, S. J., Paris, 1633; in his Isagoge he included the life of
our author by the monk Daniel. This edition is in Migne, PG., Ixxxviii;
the scholia of Abbot John are ib. , 1211 — 1248, but only in Latin, re
printed from Max. Bibl. vet. Patr., Lyons, 1677, x. 507—520. The Greek
text of both works was edited anew by Sophronios Eremites, Constantinople,
1883. See a German translation in «Leitsterne auf der Barm des Heils»,
Landshut, 1834, vii; 2. ed. (contains only the « Ladder*), Ratisbon, 1874; in
Byzant. Zeitschr. (1902), xi. 35 — 37, F. Nau discusses the chronology of the
life of Climacus and modifies considerably the received dates ; he concludes
that he was born before 579 and died about 649; cf. Fessler-Jungmann,
Instit. Patrol, ii 2, 452—459. - - The Greek text of the «Pandects» of
Antiochus was edited by Fronto Ducaeus, Paris, 1624. Many fragments of
earlier patristic writings were saved by their incorporation into the com
pilation of Antiochus (§ 8, 4) ; on the whimsical theory of Cotterill that
Antiochus was the author of the Letter of Polycarp, see § 10, 2. -- On
Dorotheus and his writings cf. Oudin, Comment, de Script, eccles. i. 1623
to 1636, and Fabririus-Harles, Bibl. Gr., xi. 103 — 108. -- Thalassius, abbot
of a monastery in Libya about 650, left four hundred sententiae distributed
in four «centuriae», in pious imitation of the four Gospels; the work is
known as: De caritate et continentia necnon de regimine mentis ad Pau-
lum presbyterum (Migne, PG., xci. 1427 — 1470). On the letter to the
1 Ib., Ixxxviii. 1211 — 1248. 2 Ib., Ixxxix. 1421 — 1850.
3 Ib., Ixxxix. 1849 — 1856. 4 Ib., Ixxxviii. 1611 — 1838.
5 Ib., Ixxxviii. 1837 — 1842.
574
THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
emperor Theodosius, erroneously printed (Ib., xci. 1471—1480) as eiusdem
Thalassii libellus ad Theodos. imp., see § 77, 12. — It is possible that the
bishop (?) John of Carpathus (an island between Crete and Rhodes), under
whose name two small collections of monastic exhortations are current:
Ad monachos in India, eorum rogatu, capita hortatoria sive documenta
spiritualia, and Alia capita (Ib., Lxxxv. 791 — 812 811—826; both of them
extant in Latin only), belongs to the middle of the seventh century.
§ 107. Dogmatic and polemical writers.
i. ST. ANASTASIUS I. OF ANTIOCH. — He was patriarch of Antioch
(559 — 599), an intimate friend of Gregory the Great, and in trying
times a resolute champion of the faith and liberty of the Church.
He courageously resisted the last dogmatic edicts of Justinian in
favor of Aphthartodocetism A. The emperor Justin II. exiled him in
570 and placed Gregory, a monk of Mount Sinai, in the patriarchal
chair (§ 103, 3). It was only after the death of the latter (593) that
the emperor Maurice, yielding to the repeated and earnest representa
tions of Gregory the Great, permitted Anastasius to return to his
see. He is honored by the Church as a Saint. It would seem that
most of his writings were composed during his long exile. They
have perished in great measure, or have not yet been recognized.
Among them were : letters and homilies, a work against John Philo-
ponus (§ 101, 3), «a demonstration of the great and quasi- angelic
dignity of the priesthood », and others. Under his name there is
extant, but only in a Latin version: De nostris rectis dogmatibus
veritatis orationes quinque2, formally a collection of homilies, but
really a dogmatic instruction concerning the Trinity and the Incarna
tion. These homilies were never orally delivered, but committed to
writing during his exile. There are also extant: Sermones quatuor3,
of doubtful authenticity, a Compendiaria orthodoxae fidei explicatio 4,
and some fragmenta5. Cardinal Pitra added the discourse delivered
by Anastasius, March 25., 593, on the occasion of his restoration
to the Church of Antioch.
This discourse was edited by Pitra, luris eccles. Graecorum hist, et
monum., Rome, 1868, ii. 251—257. On the works of Anastasius in general
cf. Fabridus-Harles , Bibl. Gr., x. 595—600 (= Migne, PG., Ixxxix. 1293
to 1300), and for later manuscript-references Pitra, 1. c.; ii. 243 ff. An
edition of the « Demonstration of the grandeur of the priestly dignity»,
unknown outside of Russia, was described by A. Papadopulos-Kerameus,
in AvaXexta iepoaoXufMTixrjs crTayuoAo-'ta?, St. Petersburg, 1891, i. 15. — The
religious Conference at the Court of the Sassanids, attributed in some
manuscripts to Anastasius, patriarch of Antioch , was certainly composed
during the fifth century by some unknown person in Asia Minor or Syria.
1 Evagr., Hist, eccl., iv. 39 — 41 ; cf. § 102, 3.
2 Migne, PG., Ixxxix. 1309—1362.
1 Ib., Ixxxix. 1361 — 1398, Greek and Latin.
4 Ib., Ixxxix. 1399—1404. 5 Ib., Ixxxix. 1405—1408.
§ 107. DOGMATIC AND POLEMICAL WRITERS. 575
This apologetical romance develops the truth ol the Christian religion in
an imaginary controversial dialogue, supposed to have taken place in
Persia in presence of King Arrhinatus. It has been edited by A. Vas-
siliev, Moscow, 1893; A. Wirth, Aus orientalischen Chroniken, Frankfort,
1894, pp. 143 — 210; E. Bratke, Leipzig, 1899, in Texte u. Untersuchungen,
xix, new series, iv, 3 a. Cf. C. M. Kaufmann, in Revue d'hist. ecclesiast.
(1901), ii. 529 — 548. Cf. S. Vailhe, Diet, de Theologie, Paris 1903, i. 1166.
- Anastasius II., patriarch of Antioch (599 — 609), suffered death at the
hands of the Jews and is venerated by the Church as a martyr. He trans
lated into Greek the Kegula Pastoralis of Gregory the Great (§ 118, 2),
but his version seems to have perished; cf. Pitra, 1. c., ii. 241.
2. ST. EULOGIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. — Quite similar in character was
Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria (580 — 607), likewise a warm friend
of Gregory the Great. The correspondence of the pope contains
many flattering expressions of esteem and admiration for the person
of the patriarch. The latter devoted himself with particular zeal to
the theological refutation of the various Monophysite sects. In the
ninth century Photius was acquainted with six books of Eulogius
against Novatian and concerning ecclesiastical discipline: xara Naud-
ro'j xat x£pi ulxovofiiaQ*-\ two books against Timothy and Severus :
xara Ttuottio'j xal Izvypo'j, that contained an exhaustive defence of
the Epistola dogmatica of Leo the Great to Flavian 2 ; a work
against Theodosius and Severus: xa-ra Beooomou xal Izorhoo'j, also
a defence of the Epistola dogmatica3; a philippic: GTTJMTSO-IXOQ Mfo<;9
against Theodosians and Gaianites 4, and eleven treatises : /.ofoi, mostly
dogmatico-polemical in character5. To-day there are extant only a
sermon «on the Palm-branches and the foal of the ass»6, and several
fragments7, among which may be reckoned the:. Capita septem de
duabus naturis Domini Deique8.
The titles of some of these works become clearer when it is remem
bered that after the death of Timothy, the Monophysite (Severian) patri
arch of Alexandria (536), the opposing sects of Severiani and Julianists
(§ 99> 3i I02> 2) chose each their own patriarch, the Severians Theo
dosius, and the Julianists Gaianus. Thereby Severians and Julianists became
respectively Theodosians and Gaianites. Extracts from a work of St. Eu
logius on the Trinity and incarnation: -spl TTJJ a-;iaj Tpiaoo; xal -*pl trjc
ftsiaj or/.ovofMac, were published by O. Bardenhewer, in Theol. Quartalschr.
(1896), Ixxviii. 353—401; cf. y. Stiglmayr, in Katholik (1897), ii. 93—96.
Photius does not mention this work. A fragment of it (the beginning)
was edited by Mai, and is found in Kligne (1. c., 2939 — 2944). -- Euse-
bius, bishop of Thessalonica and a contemporary of Gregory the Great,
dedicated his refutation of Aphthartodocetism to a certain monk Andrew
who had been misled by this heresy. Photius describes its ten books
(Bibl. Cod. 162). -- Early in the seventh century Timotheus, a priest and
sacristan (skeuophylax) on Constantinople, composed a little treatise on
1 Bibl. Cod. 182 208 280. - Ib., Cod. 225. 3 Ib., Cod. 226.
4 Ib., Cod. 227. '- Ib., Cod. 230.
t; Migne, PG., Ixxxvi 2, 2913 — 2938. 7 Ib., -Ixxxvi 2, 2937 — 2964.
6 Ib., Ixxxvi 2, 2937 — 2940.
576 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
the reconciliation of heretics: -spl TU>V rpojspyojxsvtov -rj
(Migne, PG., Ixxxvi i, n — 68); it offers an instructive view of the activity
of heretics at this time. Timotheus distinguishes three groups of heretics :
the first must be baptized, the second must be confirmed, the third needs
to abjure its erroneous tenets.
3. ST. MAXIMUS CONFESSOR. — Maximus surnamed «the Confessor »,
o o/jLO/iorqrqs, was one of the first to uphold the banner of the
orthodox faith in its conflict with Monotheletism ; his name ranks
high in the patristic annals of the seventh century. His life is
shrouded in some obscurity. The anonymous Vita S. Maximi*,
written by an unknown admirer of the Saint, is very incomplete.
Maximus was the son of noble parents and was born about 580, at
Constantinople. His abilities and learning attracted the attention of
the emperor Heraclius (610—641), who made him first imperial se
cretary: TtpwroQ tJTroppays'Jz Tcov flaathxcbv birofJtvyfjidTan*. About 630
he abandoned his worldly career and withdrew across the Bosphorus
to the monastery of Chrysopolis (now Scutari), where he seems to
have soon reached the dignity of abbot. We meet him at Alexandria
in 633, in the company of the monk Sophronius, afterwards patriarch
of Jerusalem (§ 104, 2; 105, 3). In July 645, he took part in a
colloquy held in Northern Africa, probably at Carthage, in presence
of the imperial procurator Gregory and many bishops. The subject
of this colloquy was Monotheletism, and his principal opponent was
Pyrrhus, the Monothelite ex-patriarch of Constantinople. The acts of
the discussion are extant2, and are accounted among the most im
portant documents regarding the Monothelite heresy. Maximus won
a signal victory over Pyrrhus ; the latter was obliged to acknowledge
his error and to accept the doctrine of two wills in Christ. In con
sequence of this event many diocesan synods were held in Africa and
the adjacent islands (646), in which Monotheletism was categorically
denounced and rejected. From Africa, Maximus went to Rome where
he continued his warfare for the faith of the Church. He it was
who induced Pope Martin I. (649—655) to hold the famous Lateran
Council of 649, in which Monotheletism and all its adherents were con
demned, together with the Ecthesis and the Typus in which edicts,
respectively, Heraclius (638) and Constans II. (648) had taken sides
with the Monothelites. Constans was violently offended, and poured
forth the vials of his wrath both on Pope Martin and his adviser.
In the summer of 653 Maximus was imprisoned at Rome with two
disciples, the monk Anastasius and the apocrisiarius (envoy) Anasta-
sius. Shortly afterward all three were brought as prisoners to Con
stantinople. Their trial took place in 655; its proceedings are still
preserved3. Maximus was exiled to Bizya in Thrace, and his two
1 Migne, PG., xc. 67—110. 2 Ib., xci. 287—354.
3 Ib., xc. 109 — 130; PL., cxxix. 603—622.
§ IO7- DOGMATIC AND POLEMICAL WRITERS. 577
disciples, respectively, to Perberis and Mesembria. It was in vain
that in the following year attempts were made at Bizya to induce
Maximus to accept the Typus1. Early in 662, the three confessors
were brought back to Constantinople and tried before a synod. Their
courage was equal to the occasion; nor did they yield when the
city-prefect was ordered to scourge them and tear their blasphemous
tongues out by the roots and to cut off their right hands. In this
mutilated condition they were led through every ward of Constan
tinople, and then condemned to perpetual exile in Lazica on the
eastern coast of the Black Sea. Maximus died there Aug. 13., 662;
the monk Anastasius had already passed away on July 24., 662 ;
the apocrisiarius Anastasius lingered on until Oct. n., 666. In 680,
the doctrine of the two wills in Christ, so brutally persecuted in
the persons of these martyrs, was formally recognized in the city
of Constantinople by the Sixth General Council. — Despite his
busy and troubled life, Maximus found time to compose a great
many theological works. These writings have always been highly
appreciated both in East and West, notwithstanding the fact that their
contents and their grandiloquent style make it often difficult to under
stand the author's meaning. - - In the edition of Combefis these
works are: a) a long treatise: De variis Scripturae Sacrae quae-
stionibus ac dubiis ad Thalassium2, 65 questions and answers con
cerning difficult scriptural passages. The exegesis is generally alle
gorical or anagogical. Frequently the biblical text is merely a basis
or connective for theologico-mystical considerations. Akin to this
work are others: Quaestiones et Responsiones 3, Ad Theopemptum
scholasticum 4, Expositio in Psalmum lix 5, Orationis dominicae brevis
expositio 6. The Greek Catenae contain fragments of other exegetical
works of Maximus. b) He also wrote commentaries on the writings
of the Pseudo-Areopagite, and on several homilies of Gregory of
Nazianzus: Scholia in opera S. Dionysii Areopagitae 7 , De variis
difficilibus locis SS. Dionysii et Gregorii Theologi8, Ambigua in
S. Gregorium Theologum 9. He esteemed the Areopagitica very
highly, and it is largely to his influence that we must trace the
interest and the admiration of the Middle Ages for these works;
cf. § 100, 2. c) Combefis has collected, under the heading: Opuscula
theologica et polemica, a series of polemico-dogmatic treatises 10 most
of which are anti-Monophysite or anti-Monothelite. One little treatise11
deals with the procession of the Holy Ghost. The: Dialogi v de
1 Migne, PG., xc. 135 — 170; PL., cxxix. 625 — 656.
2 Ib., PG., xc. 243 — 786. 3 Ib., xc. 785—856.
1 1
xc. 1393 — 1400. 5 Ib., xc. 855 — 872. B Ib., xc. 871 — 910.
iv. 15 — 432, and 527 — 576, at ihe end of the Areopagitica.
xc.
1031 — 1060. 9 Ib., xci. 1061 — 1418. 10 Ib., xci. 9—286.
xci. 133—138.
BARDENHEVVER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 3?
578 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
trinitate1 were at one time commonly attributed to Maximus; it is
now known that they were written before his time (cf. § 78, 8). The
treatise: De anima2, discusses anthropological questions, d) Among
his ascetico-moral writings the: Liber asceticus3 is justly famous; it
is a dialogue between an abbot and a young monk on the chief duties
of the spiritual life, and is followed by: Capita de caritate, a kind
of appendix 4, in which are collected four hundred sententiae, mostly
of an ethical character. A similar collection is entitled : Capita alia 5.
The contents of two other collections are at once ethical, dogmatic
and mystical : Capita theologica et oeconomica 200 6, Diversa capita
theologica et oeconomica 500 7. The most extensive of the collec
tions are his: Capita Theologica, or: Sermones per electa, or: Loci
communes8: extracts from the Scripture, the Fathers and profane
writers, an anthology such as the later Greek, especially monastic,
students and writers loved to compile, and to use with much industry
and devotion. It must be added that the origin of this particular
compilation is still problematical and much disputed. Roll is of
opinion that Maximus was really its first compiler, that later -on it was
reconstructed and enlarged by additions to its original biblical and
patristic contents, e) Finally, mention must be made of forty-five
letters 9, some of which might well be placed among the theological
treatises of Maximus; a: Mystagogia, puaiaftofia. 10, or considerations on
the symbolico-mystical meaning of the Church and of specific liturgical
actions; three Hymns11; a Computus ecclesiasticus 12 or instruction for
the calculation of ecclesiastical feasts and on chronology (both biblical
and profane); a Chronologia succincta vitae Christi (lacking in Migne),
really a summary of a larger work. - - Maximus is certainly one of
the most acute theologians and profound mystics of the Greek Church.
In speculative depth and dialectic acuteness he surpasses his master,
the Pseudo-Areopagite. There is reason to regret that he did not
expound his own ideas systematically and methodically, instead of
throwing them out in aphoristic sentences or as supplementary to
the text of other writers. The God-Man is always the centre of his
dogmatic teachings. The Logos is for him the origin and end of
all created beings. The history of the world develops along two
great lines : the first is the Incarnation (adpxaxnc) of God predestined
from the beginning and accomplished historically in the fulness of
time; the second is the deification (tticoatq) of man that begins with
the Incarnation of God and will be finally accomplished through the
1 Migne, PG., xxviii. 1115—1286, among the works of St. Athanasius.
Ib., xci. 353—362. 3 Ib., xc. 911-956.
Ib., xc. 959—1080. 5 Ib., xc. 1401 — 1462.
6 Ib., xc. 1083—1176. 7 Ib., xc. 1177 — 1392.
8 Ib., xci. 721 — 1018. IJ Ib., xci. 363—650.
Ib., xci. 657—718. u Ib., xci. 1417—1424.
2 Ib., xix. 1217—1280, among the works of the ecclesiastical historian Eusebius.
§ 107. DOGMATIC AND POLEMICAL WRITERS. 579
restoration of the divine image in man. As the beginning of the
new life and the second Adam, Christ is necessarily true God and
perfect man. The difference of the natures in Christ does not imply
a division of personality, nor does the unity of the latter imply a
commingling of the natures. On the contrary, given two whole and
perfect natures, there must be also two wills and two natural acti
vities or energies. However, it is only the will in itself, the will as
such, that is essential to a perfect nature; that it should act in one
way or another (fy ~(vu)fj.r}), belongs to the person. «The incarnate
Logos possessed, therefore, as man, the will belonging to human
nature), but it was directed and guided by His divine will* : rw O.UTOU
$£Ar]/jiaTt xwo'jjusvov TS xat TOltoyfjievov 1,
A complete edition of the works of St. Maximus was undertaken by
Fr. Combefis , O. P. , Paris, 1675, 2 vols. The third volume was never
published; it was to have contained the scholia on the works of the
Pseudo-Areopagite. The Combefis edition is reprinted in Migne, PG., xc
to xci, Paris, 1860. The scholia on the Areopagitica may be found in
Migne, PG., iv, reprinted from the Venice edition of the Areopagite, 1755
to 1756 (cf. § 100, i). The two other works of St Maximus on the
Areopagite and St. Gregory of Nazianzus were for the first time com
pletely edited by Fr. Oehler , Anecdota Graeca, Halle, 1857, i, and re
printed in Migne, 1. c., xci. Bratke edited the Chronologia succincta vitae
Christi , in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1892 — 1893), xiii. 382 — 384. On
the Scripta S. Maximi inedita vel deperdita see Fabritius- Harks , Bibl.
Gr., ix. 676 — 677 (Migne, PG., xc. 49 — 50). In the manuscripts and in
the Combefis edition several works of Maximus, e. g. De variis scripturae
sacrae quaestionibus ac dubiis ad Thalassium, Capita de caritate, and
others, are accompanied by brief scholia of unknown provenance. On the
Capita theologica (Sermones per electa, Loci communes) see K. Holl, in
Texte und Untersuchungen (1896), xvi, new series i i, 342 ff . ; cf. ib. (1899),
xx, new series v 2, xviii ff., and A. Ehrhard, Zu den Sacra Parallela des
Johannes Damascenus und dem Florilegium des Maximos, in Byzant. Zeit-
schrift (1901), x. 394 — 415. The role of St. Maximus in the Monothelite
controversies is described by Hefcle, Konziliengeschichte , 2. ed., iii. 189
to 247. The doctrine of our Saint is discussed by the following writers:
H. Weser , S. Maximi Confessoris praecepta de incarnatione Dei et dei-
ficatione hominis exponuntur et examinantur (Diss. inaug.), Berlin, 1869;
J. Bach, Die Dogmengeschichte des Mittelalters vom christologischen Stand-
punkte, Vienna, 1873, i. 15 — 49: «Maximus Confessor »; A. Preuss, Ad
Maximi Confessoris de Deo hominisque deificatione doctrinam adnotationes
(Progr.), Schneeberg, 1894, i. E. Michaud, St. Maxime le Confesseur et
1'apocatastase, in Revue internat. de theol. (1902), pp. 257 — 272. Cf. Wage-
mann, in Herzogs Real-Encyklopadie f. protest. Theol. u. Kirche (1866),
Suppl. II, xx. 114 — 146; 2. ed. (1881), ix. 430—443, an excellent article,
with a copious bibliography of the «Confessor». — The two companions in
martyrdom of St. Maximus have left each one letter, but extant only in the
Latin version. The letter of Anastasius monachus is written to the monks
of Calaris, and treats of the two wills in Christ (Migne, PG., xc. 133 — 136;
PL., cxxix. 623 — 626), while that of Anastasius Apocrisiarius is written to
Theodosius, a priest of Gangra, and describes the sufferings of the three con-
1 Ex tract, de operationibus et voluntatibus : Migne, PG., xci. 48.
37*
580 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
fessors and quotes testimonia of Fathers against the Monotheletism (Migne,
PG., xc. 173 — 194). Cardinal Mai describes, Script, vet. nova Coll. vii i,
2o6b (Migne, PG., Ixxxix. 1191 — 1192), a manuscript-letter of the Apocri-
siarius to the monks of Ascalon against Monophysitism and Monotheletism.
4. ANASTASIUS SINAITA. — Anastasius Sinaita is another of those
Greek ecclesiastics who displayed a truly apostolic activity amid
severe vicissitudes. He was a priest, a monk, and abbot of Mount
Sinai monastery, but quitted his solitude to dispute in Egypt and
Syria against heretics and Jews. Kumpfmiiller has shown (1865) that
before his appearance at Alexandria (640) he had already entered
the arena against Monophysitism, and that he was still living after
700. If his life is shrouded in much obscurity, equally uncertain are
the number and character of his writings. The unedited material is
copious, and awaits some scholar to collect all the manuscripts and to
sift their contents critically. The best edition is that of Migne * and
contains three large works: A Guide (bdr^oc)2 or introduction to
the defence of Christian truth against the errors of the time, especially
the many ramifications of Monophysitism; Questions and answers
ftpajTTjffEiQ xa\ dxoxpiffei$)B, concerning one hundred and fifty-four
theological points (some of them, however, certainly spurious); An-
agogical considerations on the Hexaemeron (elc, TTJV 7zv&j[iaTixrjV dv~
a^wfTjv TT{£ ifayfjtlpou XTICFSCOQ)* in twelve books, the first eleven in
a Latin version only. Then follow a discourse on Holy Communion 5 ;
two on the sixth Psalm6; two treatises on the creation of man to
the image of God7, the first of them being only a fragment and
attributed to a much earlier author; a fragment of a collection of
patristic evidence against heretics8. Finally there are some doubtful
or spurious works 9 and a few small fragments10. Three new works
were published by Pitra: a short account of the heresies that had
arisen since the time of Christ, with the synods assembled to refute
them; a compendious account of the Christian faith; and a treatise
on the liturgical character of Wednesday and Friday.
The person and writings of Anastasius are fully described in J. B. Kumpf-
miiller, De Anastasio Sinaita (Diss. inaug.), Wurzburg, 1865. Cf. S. Vailht, in
Dictionnaire de Theologie, Paris, 1903, i. 1167—1168. Valuable information
concerning the manuscripts of our Anastasius and of other writers of the
same name is found in the preface (pp. 243—249) of Pitra to the three
works of Anastasius, first edited in his luris eccl. Graecorum historia et
monumenta, Rome, 1868, ii. 257—275. In 'Ava'Xsxta isposoXojx'/rixT-; jtayuo-
AoYia: St. Petersburg, 1891, pp. 400-404, A. Papadopidos-Kerameus
dished under the name of the Sinaita a fragment -spi fiAac^rjjj.iac. The
:54) Questions and Replies were first edited in Greek by J. Gretser, S. J.,
1 PG., kxxix. 2 Ib) lxxxix 35_3la 3 Ib| lxxxix 3I1_824.
Ib., lxxxix. 851 — 1078. 5 Ib<> lxxxix< 825_850
Ib, Ixxxix. 1077—1144. 7 Ib> lxxxix II43_II5Q
Ib., Ixxxix. H79—U90. 9 ib>) ixxxix< iI9I_I282.
10 Ib., Ixxxix. 1281 — 1288.
§ 107- DOGMATIC AND POLEMICAL WRITERS. 58 1
Ingolstadt, 1617. The number of the questions varies in the manuscripts.
Four « questions » wanting in the Gretser edition, and taken almost entire
from the commentary on Daniel by Hippolytus were published from a Munich
codex by H. Achelis, Hippolytstudien, Leipzig, 1897, pp. 83 — 88. On the
compilation Antiquorum patrum doctrina de Verbi incarnatione cf. § 102, 2,
and D. Serruys, in Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire (1902), xxii. 157 f.,
who restores it to Anastasius. Kumpfmiiller shows (pp. 147 f.) that for
intrinsic reasons the disputes with the Jews (Migne, PG. , Ixxxix. 1203 to
1282) cannot have been written before the ninth century. They make
use of the « Dialogue of the Jews Papiscus and Philo with a monk» com
posed probably in Egypt, about 700, and published by A. C. McGiffert,
A Dialogue between a Christian and a Jew, entitled: dvri[JoXr( [laicuncoo xal
(friXcovoc looSauov ~pa* jJiovor/ov TIVOC (Diss. inaug.), New York, 1889; cf. E. J.
Goodspeed , in The American Journal of Theology (1900) , iv. 796 — 802.
However, Anastasius himself asserts, in the sixth book of his Hexaemeron
(Migne, PG., Ixxxix. 933; Greek text in Pitra, 1. c., pp. 244 f.), that he
had written treatises against the Jews. F, Nau , Les recits inedits du
moine Anastase. Contribution a 1'histoire du Sinai au commencement du
VII. siecle (French version), Paris, 1902, and Le texte grec des recits du
moine Anastase sur les saints peres du Sinai, in Oriens Christianus (1902),
it. 58 — 89 : historico-ascetical narratives of our Anastasius about the monks
of Mount Sinai. In Revue de 1'Orient chretien (1901), vi. 444 — 452,
S. Pttrides attributes to the Sinaita, said to be the sole hymnographer
from Mount Sinai, the funeral hymn discovered by Pitra at Grottaferrata
(§ 105, 2); cf. D. Serruys, Anastasiana, in Melanges, 1. c. , 157 — 207.
F. Nau, Le texte grec des recits utiles a Tame d' Anastase (Sinaita), in
Oriens Christianus (1903), pp. 56 — 90. — According to Le Quien, Stephen
of Bostra wrote a large work against the Jews, xara 'loodauov, early in
the eighth century; some fragments of it, concerning the veneration of
the images of the Saints, were made known by y. M. Mercati, in Theol.
Quartalschr. (1895), Ixxvii. 662 — 668.
5. ST. GERMANUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. — Germanus was already an
aged man when the Iconoclastic conflict broke out at Constantinople
(726). He had been made patriarch in 715, but was obliged to quit
his see in 730 by order of the Iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian.
He died in 733 at the age of ninety-eight. The Iconoclast concilia-
bulum of 754, convoked by the emperor Constantine Copronymus,
anathematized his memory. On the other hand, the Seventh Ecu
menical Council of Nicaea (787) eulogized not only his holy life and
orthodox doctrine, but also the zeal with which he refuted by his
writings the false teachings of the heretics1. Several of his works
seem to have perished. There are extant: De haeresibus et synodis2,
composed shortly after the first edict of the Isaurian against the
images, i. e. after 726; a dialogue: De vitae termino3; Pro decretis
concilii Chalcedonensis epistola Graecorum ad Armenios4; Epistolae
dogmaticae 5, some of them very important for the history of Icono-
1 Cone. Nic. II., act. 6; Mansi, \. c., xiii. 356 — 357.
2 Migne, PG., xcviii. 39 — 88.
3 lb., xcviii. 89 — 132. 4 Ib., xcviii. 135 — 146; in Latin only.
5 Ib., xcviii. 147 — 222.
THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
clasm; Orationes1, nine in all, seven of which are on the Blessed
Virgin; Rerum ecclesiasticarum contemplatio 2, an exposition of the
liturgy, (of very doubtful authenticity); some liturgical hymns3, and
a few minor writings.
For the life of Germanus cf. Hefele , Konziliengeschichte , 2. ed., iii.
363 ff, 372 if. 380 ff. ; and for his sermons A. Balkrini, Sylloge monumen-
torum ad mysterium conceptionis Immaculatae Virginis Deiparae illustran-
dum, Rome, 1854, ii i, 243 — 283. Three Idiomela (§ 105, 3; lacking in
Migne) are current under the name of Germanus; they were edited by
Christ and Paranikas, Anthologia graeca carminum christianorum, Leipzig,
1871, pp. 98 — 99; cf. Proleg. xliii. Photius describes (Bibl. Cod. 233) a
lost work of St. Germanus entitled 'Avta-oooTixo? \ dvoOsoio? («retributive
or genuine », i. e. genuine retribution). In this work he undertook to prove
that Gregory of Nyssa had never taught, as many asserted, the final sal
vation of all reasonable creatures, even of wicked men and angels; he
maintained that the three works of Gregory in which he appeared to
defend this doctrine, had been interpolated by heretics, viz. the dialogue :
De anima et resurrectione , the greater Catechesis, and the D.e perfecta
vita (?). Cf. § 69, 8. Cozza-Luzi maintains that S. Germanus is the author o£
Historia Mystica Ecclesiae Catholicae. Cf. Nova Patrum Bibl. x. n, i — 28.
One of the earliest Christian apologies against Islam is found in the his
tory of the Armenian Ghevond (eighth century), Tiflis, 1887. It is attributed
to Leo the Isaurian, but is probably the work of Germanus.
§ 108. St. John of Damascus.
I. HIS POSITION AND SIGNIFICANCE. — In John of Damascus the
ancient Greek Church beheld once more a mighty intellectual leader,
one who stood out all the more prominently because of the uni
versal decay into which all contemporary thought was falling. Soon
after him, the Schism begins with Photius. John is above all a ga
therer of the ecclesiastical wisdom of the past; he considers it his
chief duty to construct a large and useful garner in which shall
be found all knowledge, doctrinal, ascetical, exegetical and historic
al. The entire East, it is clear, was conscious that the acme of in
dependent theological production had been reached. It was, there
fore, the labors of an encyclopaedist that John undertook when he
resolved to systematize within fixed limits the formal teachings of
the councils and the doctrinal testimony of the illustrious theologians
of former times. His great masterpiece of theological learning has
been always looked on as a faithful mirror of the traditions of the
Greek Church. Moreover, the decrees of the Sixth General Council
(680) had rounded out, substantially, the development of dogmatic
thought among the Greeks. Henceforth no other master mind arose
in the East that could at all compare with the author of the « Foun
tain of wisdom». This work at once attained a classical reputation
1 Migne, PG., xcviii. 221—384. * Ib., xcviii 383—454.
3 Ib., xcviii. 453 — 454.
§ IO8. ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS. 583
in all the Oriental churches, and has retained the same to the pre
sent day. We have already seen (§ 105, 6) that John was also a
distinguished liturgical poet; his hymns eclipsed the compositions
even of a Romanos and supplanted them in the liturgical books of
the Greeks. To his laurels must also be added the services render
ed by him in the last great doctrinal controversy of the Greek
Church, i. e. the Iconoclastic conflict. From the safe refuge of the
Caliph's court at Damascus he replied to the edicts of Leo the Isau-
rian, and defended with apostolic energy the cause of the sacred
images in writings that continue to attract the admiration of posterity.
2. HIS LIFE. - - But little is known of the life of John of Da
mascus. The oldest Vita * dates from the tenth century, and exhibits
much legendary material. Even the dates of his birth and death
are unknown. It seems certain, however, that he belonged to a
native Christian family in Damascus, engaged in the civil service
of the Caliphs as hereditary administrators of the revenues of Syria.
In token of this honorable origin he bore also the Arabic name
Mansur, which his enemy Constantine Copronymos (741 — 775) dis
torted into Manzeros (MavfypOQ, cf. nt72£ = bastard)2. Both John
and his adopted brother Cosmas were educated by Cosmas, a Sici
lian monk (§ 105, 6). It is not known when he entered the service
of the Caliph at Damascus, or when he abandoned it. It is probable
that he had begun his theological career as early as 726, certainly
before 730. After that date, apparently, he retired with his brother
Cosmas to the monastery of St. Saba at Jerusalem. John V., patri
arch of Jerusalem (f 735), conferred priesthood on him; his remain
ing years were certainly devoted to piety and ecclesiastical learn
ing. He seems to have died also at Jerusalem in the monastery of
St. Saba. The Iconoclastic pseudo-Synod of Constantinople (754)
anathematized the patriarch Germanus (§ 105, 5), a certain George of
Cyprus, and four several times our John under the name of Mansur;
all three were evidently no longer among the living, for the acts
of the Synod state that the Holy Trinity had removed them : rt rptaq
TOOQ rpelq xa&sV.svs. In 787 the Seventh General Council of Nicaea
rehabilitated the outraged memories of these defenders of the faith,
and paid the highest tribute to John as a champion of the holy
images4. Theophanes wrote (813) that in his time John was called
Chrysorrhoas (ypoaoppoaq = gold-outpouring) and rightly « because
of that grace of the spirit which shines like gold both in his doc
trine and in his life» 5.
3. DOGMATIC WRITINGS. - - Among the writings of St. John of
Damascus the most famous is his « Fountain of wisdom »
1 Ib., xciv. 429 — 490. 2 Theophanes, Chronogr. ad a. 734.
3 Cone. Nic. II. act. 6; Mansi, 1. c., xiii. 356. 4 Ib. ; Mansi, 1. c., xiii. 357.
6 Chronogr., 1. c.
584 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
a long work that begins with a philosophical introduction
(xepdlata <pdoffo<ptxd; the titles of the sections are not the work of our
author), usually known as Dialectica, but mostly devoted to Aristo
telian ontology. A second part is devoted to a succinct history of
heresies (nspi alpiascov). As far as the Collyridians (no. 79) he copies
the «Panarion» of Epiphanius (§ 71, 2), and similarly other sources
for the following period; he is an original writer and witness only
in the last chapters (no. 101 — 103: Islam, Iconoclasm, Aposchitae).
In the third and last part he expounds the orthodox Christian faith:
sxdofftQ dxptftrjZ TYJQ op&odosov xlaTcWQ. In all current editions this
part is divided into four books. The first treats of God ; the second
of creation in general, of angels and demons, of the visible world,
of Paradise, of man and his faculties, of divine Providence ; the third
discusses the Incarnation at length, while the fourth (the least orderly
of all) descants on the glory of the God-Man, baptism and the
Blessed Eucharist, the veneration of Saints and relics, the canon of
the Old and New Testaments, the presence of evil in creation, and
the last things. In the Greek manuscripts the third book is not
divided into four parts; such a division was first made in the West,
and probably in imitation of the four books of the Sentences of
Peter Lombard (f 1164). Shortly before the composition of the
latter's Sentences, Burgundio of Pisa (f 1194) had made a barbarous
Latin version of the « Fountain of wisdom ». Hence it is certain that
Peter Lombard borrowed from the Damascene the disposition of
the materials of his «Sententiae». The Damascene, in turn, had
imitated the outline of Christian doctrine of Theodoret of Cyrus2.
The third book is chiefly important as a mirror of the theological
traditions of the Greek Church. The author frequently observes3 that
his intention is merely to repeat, in a summary and final way, the
teachings of former Councils and of the approved Fathers of the
Greek Church, particularly St. Gregory ofNazianzus. The « Fountain
of wisdom » is dedicated to his brother, Cosmas, bishop of Majuma,
and was probably composed in the latter years of the life of John.
He was already the author of several dogmatic works: a long pro
fession of faith : MpeMog xspl opftou <ppovr)fJLaroQ 4, written at Da
mascus, at the request of a bishop Elias, until then probably a Mono-
physite, and offered by the latter to Peter, the metropolitan of Da
mascus, as a proof of his orthodoxy; an elementary introduction to
the study of Christian doctrine: elaaftop] doffJLdrfov aror/etcodyc, 5;
it touches slightly on all the questions that are profoundly treated
in the first part of the « Fountain of wisdom » ; a treatise on the
Holy Trinity: xspl TY^ a^-iag rptddoq*, by way of questions and
1 Migne, PG., xciv. 517 — 1228.
2 Haer. fab. comp. lib. 5 ; cf. § 60, 4; 78, 5. 3 Prol. and Part I, c. 2.
4 Migne, PG., xciv. 1421 — 1432. 5 Ib., xcv. 99 — 112. 6 Ib. xcv. 9—18.
§ I08. ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS. 585
answers, besides the doctrine on Holy Trinity it treats also im
portant points of Christological doctrine; a fuller treatise on the
Trisagion : xepl TOO Tptaa'fioo up-voi)1, written to an archimandrite,
in proof of the assertion that the famous formula : Holy God, Holy
Strong (One), Holy Immortal (One), did not refer to the Son alone,
but to the whole Trinity. Therefore the addition of Peter Fullo
«who wast crucified for us» is inadmissible. Other writings, of doubt
ful authenticity, are attributed to him: a long profession of faith
that has reached us in Arabic only2; a letter and a homily usually
printed together under the title « Concerning the Body and Blood
of our Lord » 3, since both treat of the relation of the Blessed Eu
charist to the natural Body of Jesus Christ. - - The treatise on those
who have died in the faith: rrspl rtov sv raG~zi X£xotfJL7)fiiva>v*\ in
support of the thesis that the faithful departed may be aided by
the Holy Mass, prayers, alms, and other good works, and two frag
ments that reject the use of unleavened bread in the Mass as Judaic
and anti-apostolic : Trepl rwv d&/juoy 5, are without doubt spurious.
The treatise on Confession: mpl iqoftoXofYjOzcoQ^, an affirmative
answer to the question : Can one confess to monks that are not
priests? is the work of Simeon «the new theologian », who flourished
about 966 — 1042.
4. POLEMICAL WORKS. - - His polemical writings are also dog
matic in character. The dialogue against the Manichseans: xara
Mavtjfaicov didkoyoc,1 , is a detailed refutation of the Manichaean dua-
listic system in the shape of a conference between an orthodox
Christian and a follower of Manes; it was probably an attack on
the Paulicians, through whom the Manichseans continued to conta
minate the East in the latter half of the seventh century. Similar
in tone, but less voluminous, is the dispute of the orthodox Christian
John with aManichsean: dtdh&Q 'fwdwou opftodogou ~pbq Mavc/aiov*,
first edited by Mai in 1847. The dispute of a Saracen and a Christian:
didXe£iQ Sapaxrjvou xal Xpianavoo , is mainly devoted to the defence
of the Incarnation and the refutation of fatalism ; it is extant in two
recensions 9. The fragments on dragons and on witches : ire pi dpaxuv-
Ttov, Trepl <JTp>jf"(<~ov 10> are remnants of an otherwise unknown polemic
al work directed against the belief in witches, then prevalent among
the Jews and the Saracens. The anti-Nestorian and anti-Monophysite
arguments of the « Fountain of wisdom » (part III, book 3) are more
extensively treated in the works against the heresy of the Nestorians :
1 Ib., xcv. 21 — 62.
2 Latin version from the Arabic, in Migne, PG., xcv. 417 — 436.
3 Ib., xcv. 401—412. * Ib., xcv. 247—278. 6 Ib., xcv. 387 — 396.
6 Ib., xcv. 283 — 304. 7 Ib., xciv. 1505 — 1584.
8 Ib., xcvi. 1319—1336.
9 Ib., xciv. 1585 — 1598, and xcvi. 1335 — 1348. 10 Ib., xciv. 1599 — 1604.
586 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
xara TTJQ aipsffetog TOJV NsaToptavibv*, and on the composite nature:
xep\ ffuvttsTO'j (puaecoc, 2. At the request of the above-mentioned metro
politan Peter he composed and addressed to a Jacobite bishop:
Tcpbq rbv eniffxoirov drftev ToodapaiaQ (?) TOV 7axojj3iT^ 3 , a work
that was anti-Monophysite in purpose, but in which he yields to his
predilection for positive teaching and expounds the christological
doctrine of the Church at great length. Monotheletism was refuted by
him in a work on the two wills in Christ: K£p} rwy ev TOJ Xptarco
doo ttsArjfjLdrwv*, that manifests a close acquaintance with similar works
of Maximus Confessor. The best of his polemical writings are the
three apologies in favor of the cultus of images: npoQ robe, dta-
ftdMovraQ TO.Q a?ia<; slxovaQ5. The first was written probably in 726,
on the occasion of the first edict of Leo the Isaurian ; the second
about 730, and the third some years later. He teaches that every
mark of honor paid to the images belongs principally to the object
represented by them. He distinguishes clearly between adoration
(XaTpeia) that is properly paid to God alone, and veneration (npoa-
xfoyms) that may be offered to creatures. No representation can
make known to us the essence of the divinity, but the Incarnate
God may be made visible in images of Him : oi> ryv duparov elxovi^to
ftzoT'/jra, «//' elxoviCco fteou rrjv bpaftsiaav adpxaQ. The Mosaic pro
hibition of images was meant to prevent any attempt to represent the
essence of the divinity ; its proper object was to forbid the honoring
of images by way of adoration: y XTJC, Xarpeiac, KpoaxuvTjaiQ. The
educational utility of images is evident: they bring home to us the
facts of our Redemption, and the virtues of God's Saints; they
are the books of all those who cannot read; they act as sermons
for those who gaze upon them. These apologies have ever since
been praised as among the most useful works ever written on the
veneration of images. It need not surprise us to learn that in the
mediaeval Greek manuscripts many dogmatico-polemical works on
the images have been erroneously attributed to our author. In his
edition of the Damascene's writings, Le Quien accepted two such
works: an otherwise noteworthy apology for the images addressed
to Constantine Cabalinos or Copronymos7, and a letter on the cultus
of images addressed to emperor Theophilus and written about 846 8.
The continuators of the Bibliotheca of Gallandi added to this list
a polemical work against the Iconoclasts, composed about 771, and
current under the name of John 9.
5. ASCETICAL WRITINGS. - - He wrote treatises on the sacred
fasts: xsp\ ruy fywv vyaretawi0, dealing mostly with the duration
1 Migne, PG., xcv. 187—224. «~ Ib., xcv. 111 — 126.
Ib., xciv. 1435—1502. 4 Ib., xcv. 127—186.
Ib., xciv. 1231 — 1420. e Or x 4 7 Migne, PG., xcv. 309—344.
8 Ib., xcv. 345—386. 9 Ib., xcvi. 1347—1362. 10 Ib., xcv. 63—78.
§ I08. ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS. 587
of the ecclesiastical fasts ; on the eight spirits of iniquity : 7iep\
rail' dxrco TTJQ novypiaq Ttveo/JLartov 1, or the eight deadly sins, with
special reference to the monastic life; on virtues and vices: Trspl
dpzrwv xal xaxiwv2, closely related to the foregoing treatise, but
meant for a wider circle of readers. - - More ascetic than dogmatic
in contents are the Sacra Parallela, a collection of biblical and
patristic quotations, that easily surpasses in copiousness all similar
compilations. It was originally known as e/e/>a, and was divided into
three books, of which the first dealt with God and divine things,
the second with man and human relations, the third with virtues and
vices. Each book was, in turn, divided into a long series of « titles »
(rirXoL) or rubrics; in the first two books, the key-words or sub
headings were arranged alphabetically, while in the third book a
virtue and a vice were regularly opposed to one another; from this
latter peculiarity, this book obtained its name xapdXh]ka. The first
two books have reached us in their original though somewhat ab
breviated form; the entire work was, moreover, variously recast at
different times and in such a manner as to do away with the ori
ginal division into three books, a step that left only the alphabetical
arrangement of the materials. The most important of these re-
modellings are those known as the so-called « Vatican » recension,
in the edition of Le Quien 3, and the so-called «Rupefucaldina» from
a twelfth- or thirteenth-century manuscript of that collection. Loofs
raised doubts (1892) as to the authorship of the Damascene, but
Roll has shown convincingly (1896) that the Sacra Parallela were
really composed by John of Damascus, although he probably made
use of the Capita theologica of Maximus Confessor (§ 107, 3).
6. EXEGETICAL AND HISTORICAL WRITINGS. - - It is the scrip
tural learning of the theologians of the past that John undertakes
to transmit in his quality of exegete. He wrote a commentary on all
the Pauline epistles4 in which he uses by preference the relevant
homilies of Chrysostom, and occasionally draws on Theodoret of
Cyrus and Cyril of Alexandria. - - He appears as an historian, but
only once, in the second part of the « Fountain of wisdom ». The
«Life of Barlaam and Joasaph: flog BapAad/i xal 'Icod<ja<pb, in which
Robinson has lately discovered the lost Apology of Aristides (§ 15),
is not the work of John of Damascus, but of a monk of the same name
in -the monastery of St. Saba; it was composed probably in the
first half of the seventh century. This famous story relates in a
lively and picturesque way how the hermit Barlaam converted to
Christianity Joasaph, the son of a king of India, in spite of the
latter's opposition; also how he afterwards converted the king him-
1 Ib., xcv. 79 — 86. - Ib. xcv. 85—98.
3 Ib., xcv. 1039 — 1588; xcvi. 9 — 442. 4 Ib., xcv. 441 — 1034.
5 Ib., xcvi. 859 — 1240.
^ 88 THIRD PERIOD. FIRST SECTION.
self and his whole kingdom, and finally died as he had lived, a
pious hermit. The narrative is sheer romance ; Joasaph and Barlaam
are not historical figures, and the substance of this work is taken
with slight changes from an Indian story about the founder of Bud
dhism (cf. Prol.). It is to its aesthetic merit and moral contents
that this monody on the sublime worth of Christianity and the
monastic ideal owed its success as one of the most popular of
mediaeval folk-tales. Many languages, in East and West, are indebted
directly or indirectly, to its Greek text, for the countless prose or
poetical versions that have been constructed from it. Another historic
al Greek text, the life or rather the sufferings of St. Artemius1,
taken mostly from the ecclesiastical history of Philostorgius , was
edited by Mai (1840) as a work of John of Damascus; but modern
critics reject it as spurious.
7. HOMILIES. - Thirteen homilies are current under his name.
Three of them on the «Dormitio» fslg rr^ xoifjtyffw) of the Blessed
Virgin, possess a dogmatic interest2. The orator himself assures us3
that they were delivered on the feast of the Assumption, and all
three on the same day. They present the bodily assumption of the
Mother of God into heaven as an ancient heirloom of Catholic faith,
and declare4 that their sole purpose is to develop and establish
«what in a brief and almost too concise a manner the son has in
herited from the father, according to the common saying». A later
hand has interpolated in the second homily (c. 18) the often-quoted
but very enigmatical account of the dealings of the empress Pulcheria
with Juvenal, patriarch of Jerusalem, in reference to the sepulchre
of Mary. Some critics have doubted the authenticity of the two
homilies on the birth of Mary5, and the two homilies on the An
nunciation6, the first extant in Arabic only, belong certainly to a
later period. The liturgical poetry of John of Damascus has been
described at § 105, 6.
8. LITERATURE. - - The first and only complete edition of the works
of St. John of Damascus is that by Mich. Le Quien, O. P., Paris, 1717,
2 vols.; Venice, 1748, 2 vols. In the Migne reprint (PG., xciv— xcvi,
Pans, 1864) there have been added, as a supplement (supplements vice),
several writings that were only gradually recognized as the property of
our author. H. Hayd translated into German the «Accurate exposition of
the orthodox faith* (see no. 3), Kempten , 1880 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater).
The spurious work on confession (see no. 3) was edited anew with a
commentary by K. Holl , Enthusiasmus und Bufigewalt beim griechischen
Monchtum, Leipzig, 1898. For further details concerning the extensive
Flonlegium described above (no. 5) cf. Fr. Loofs, Studien iiber die dem
Johannes von Damaskus zugeschriebenen Parallelen, Halle, 1892 ; Th. Scher-
mann, Die Geschichte der dogrnatischen Florilegien vom 5.— 8. lahrhun-
1 Migne, PG , xcvi. 1251 — 1320. " Ib., xcvi. 699—762.
3 Horn. iii. 5. 4 Hom - 4
5 Migne, PG., xcvi. 661-698. ° Ib ^ xcyi 643_662>
§ 109. SKETCH OF THE EARLY ARMENIAN ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE. 589
dert, in Texte und Untersuchungen (1904), xii. i. K. Holl, Die Sacra
Parallela des Johannes Damascenus, Leipzig, 1896, in Texte und Unter
suchungen, xvi, new series, i. i ; Id. , Fragmente vornicanischer Kirchen-
vater aus den Sacra Parallela, Leipzig, 1899, &., xx, new series, v. 2-
A. Ehrhard , Zu den Sacra Parallela und dem Florilegium des Maximos,
in Byzant. Zeitschr. (1901), x. 394 — 415. -- The life of Barlaam and
Joasaph was edited in Greek by J. Fr. Boissonade , Anecdota Graeca,
Paris, 1832, iv. i — 365, and again by S. Kechajoglos, Athens, 1884. A
German version was published by Fr. Liebrecht , Minister, 1847. For a
more circumstantial account of this work and its literary history see
E. Kuhn, Barlaam und Joasaph. Eine bibliographisch-literargeschichtliche
Studie, Munich, 1893, in Abhandlungen der k. bayer. Akad. d. Wissensch.,
I. Klass., vol. xx, sect. i. Krumbacher , Gesch. der byzant. Lit., 2. ed.,
pp. 886 — 891; cf. E. Cosquin , in Revue des quest, hist. (1880), xxxviii.
579 — 6o°- On the Vita S. Artemii, edited in Greek by Mai, Spicil. Rom.,
iv. 340 — 397, cf. P. Batiffol, in Rom. Quartalschr. (1889), iii. 252 — 289. -
Among the general writers on John of Damascus are j. Langen, Johannes
von Damaskus. Eine patristische Monographic, Gotha, 1879. J- H. Lupton,
St. John of Damascus, London, 1884. For his Christology cf. J. Bach,
Die Dogmengeschichte des Mittelalters vom christlichen Standpunkt, Vienna,,
1873, i. 49 — 78; K. 'I. Aud^otfvuofrjc, 'IwawYjj 6 Aafxajy.r^/6-, Athens, 1903;
K. Bornhauser, Die Vergotterungslehre des Athanasius und Johannes Da
mascenus. Ein Beitrag zur Kritik von A. Harnacks Wesen des Christen-
tums, Giitersloh, 1903. - - In the Byzant. Zeitschrift (1900), ix. 14 — 51,
Fr. Diekamp speaks of a priest or monk George, three of whose short
treatises he edits , and whom he considers one of the «sources» for the
history of heresies in the second part of the « Fountain of wisdom ». The
same writer edited, with a commentary, in Theol. Quartalschrift (1901),
Ixxxiii. 555 — 599, a manuscript treatise of the Damascene against the Nesto-
rians, also the Greek text of the treatise against the Jacobites that was
hitherto known only in a Latin version made from the Arabic (Migne,
PG. , xciv. 1436 f.). V. Ermoni , Saint Jean Damascene, in La Pense'e
chre'tienne, Textes et Etudes, Paris, 1904.
SECOND SECTION.
ARMENIAN WRITERS.
§ 109. Sketch of the early Armenian ecclesiastical literature.
I. IN GENERAL. - - It is very probable that as early as the first
century, apostolic missionaries penetrated from Asia Minor into Western
Armenia and announced there the good tidings of Christ. The first
germs of the new religion were brutally stifled by persecution. Early
in the fourth century St. Gregory the Illuminator and his convert
king Terdat (Tiridates) won over the whole Armenian plateau to
Christianity with incredible rapidity. The Armenian literature, the origin
of which goes back to the fourth century, is entirely Christian. Early
in the fifth century appear the brilliant names of Isaac the Great
and Mesrop. With the aid of Isaac, Mesrop invented (405 — 406) the
Armenian alphabet, and thereby made a native literature possible.
In the execution of this task he adapted his letters successfully to
590
THIRD PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
the phonetics of the Armenian tongue, one of the Indo-Germamc
languages and closely related to Persian. The first book written
in the new alphabet was the Bible; it was translated about 410 by
Isaac and Mesrop, with the help of other learned men, from the
Syriac Peschittho. About 432 this text was revised and definitively
established according to the Hexaplar Septuagint and the Greek text
of the New Testament. From this version of the Bible sprang the
abundant literature of Armenia, that includes many theological and
historical works, also translations from Greek and Syriac. It was
not long, however, in reaching its acme. While Isaac the Great still
lived, Armenia was stripped of her political independence, never
again to regain it. In the following century the anti-Christian* ad
ministration of her Persian conquerors struck a severe blow at the
organization and life of the Christian Church in Armenia; finally when
it had withstood the stress of persecution and emerged therefrom
victorious, the Armenian Church fell a victim to the Monophysite
heresy. Long before this, however, Armenia had sunk into intellectual
lethargy and sterility.
The first attempt at a history of Armenian literature is owing to PI.
Sukias Somal, Quadro delle opere di vari autori anticamente tradotte in
Armeno, Venice, 1825, and: Quadro della Storia letteraria di Armenia,
Venice, 1829. It is on these works that C. Fr. Neumann based his Ver-
such einer Geschichte der armenischen Literatur, nach den Werken der
Mechitaristen frei bearbeitet, Leipzig, 1836. Cf. C. Fr. Neumann, Bey-
trage zur armenischen Litteratur, fasc. I (the only one), Munich, 1849.
Among the later works on the history of Armenian literature are those
of P. Karekin, History of Armenian literature, Venice, 1865 — 1878, 2 vols.,
2. ed. 1886, 3. ed. 1897 (in modern Armenian). F. Neve, L'Arme'nie
chretienne et sa litterature, Louvain, 1886 (not a comprehensive history
of Armenian literature, but a series of special studies, the most im
portant of which [pp. 46 — 247] is that on Armenian hymnology). There
is a good conspectus of Armenian literature in v. Himpel's article «Arme-
nische Sprache , Schrift und Literatur » , in the Lexikon of Wetzer und
Welte (1882), 2. ed., i. 1344—1353; cf. P. Karekin, Armenian Biography,
Venice, 1883 (in modern Armenian), and Id., Catalogo delle antiche ver-
sioni armene, Venice, 1889. For « Mesrop and his school » see P. Vetter,
in y. Nirschl, Lehrbuch der Patrologie und Patristik (1885), in'- 215—262.
The early Christian history of Armenia is found in the critical work of
S. Weber, Die katholische Kirche in Armenian, ihre Begrundung und Ent-
wicklung. Fin Beitrag zur christlichen und Kulturgeschi elite , Freiburg,
1893. See L. Petit, Armenie. Litterature, in Diet, de la Theologie, i. 1933
to 1944. The Armenian version of the scriptures is described in the special
introductions to the Bible. — During the eighteenth century many ancient
works in Armenian were printed at Constantinople and London. In the
nineteenth century the Mechitarist Congregation of San Lazzaro at Venice
has earned lasting renown by its editions of several classical works of
Armenian literature.
2. ST. GREGORY ILLUMINATOR AND AGATHANGELOS. -- Gregory
was the apostle and the first bishop of Armenia ; he closed his long,
laborious and stormy life about 332. The Armenian Church con-
§ 109. SKETCH OF THE EARLY ARMENIAN ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE. 59 1
tinues to hold in great honor a collection of (23) discourses and
encyclical letters of Gregory. Vetter is of opinion that these docu
ments belong to the first half of the fifth century, and that they
are probably writings of Mesrop. — There is extant under the name
of Agathangelos, whom the Armenians regard as their first national
historiographer, a history of Gregory Illuminator and his apostolic
labors as first missionary to the Armenians. The work exists in
Armenian and in Greek. The Armenian text is entitled: History
of the Great Terdat (Tiridates) and of the preaching of St. Gregory
the Illuminator, while the Greek text has «Martyrdom of St. Gregory ».
The latter work is clearly a version from the Armenian: in the
Armenian work there is a long doctrinal discourse of Gregory, equal
to one half of the whole work; the Greek translator has suppressed
this document. The author calls himself Agathangelos and says he
wrote at the order of king Terdat, not from ancient legends, but
as one who had seen and heard what he narrated. On the other
hand, v. Gutschmid has shown that the original Armenian text of
Agathangelos belongs to the middle of the fifth century and that
it includes fragments of two earlier works: a biography of St. Gre
gory, and a martyrdom of St. Gregory and of St. Rhipsime and her
companions. One can find in Agathangelos reliable historical mate
rial, but he also offers much that is legendary and incredible. The
unknown author seems to have called himself Agathangelos (d.fa$-
v.ffeAoQJ, merely because he related to the Armenians the «good tid
ings » of the introduction of Christianity among them.
The collection of pseudo-homilies of the Illuminator was printed in
Armenian at Constantinople in 1737, and at Venice, 1838. We owe a
German version of the work to J. M. Schmid , Reden und Lehren des
hi. Gregorius des Erleuchters , Patriarch von Armenien, Ratisbon, 1872.
Some of the most remarkable passages are also translated into German by
Vetter, 1. c. (see no. i), pp. 223 — 227; he also discusses (1. c. , pp. 219
to 222) the origin of the homilies. Neve (1. c. , see no. i), pp. 250 if.,
considers them genuine. - The Armenian text of Agathangelos was
published at Constantinople 1709 and 1824; at Venice 1835 and 1862; at
Tiflis 1882. An Italian version, minus the long discourse of Gregory, was
published at Venice, 1843. There is a French version of the work, without
the purely devotional sections, in V. Langlois , Collection des historiens
anciens et modernes de 1'Armenie, Paris, 1867, i. 97 — 193. The Greek
text of Agathangelos was edited from a Florentine manuscript by J. Stil
ting, in Acta SS. Sept., Antwerp, 1762, viii. 320 — 402. Stilting s edition
is reprinted in Langlois (1. c.), and again in P. de Lagarde, Agathangelus
und die Akten Gregors von Armenien (Abhandlungen der kgl. Gesellsch.
cler Wissensch. zu Gottingen, Gottingen, 1887, xxxv. A. v. Gutschmid,
Agathangelos, in Zeitschr. der deutschen Morgenland. Gesellsch. (1877),
xxxi. i — 60. G. Thoumaian, Agathangelos et la doctrine de 1'eglise arme'-
nienne au Ve siecle (These), Lausanne, 1879. B. Sargisean , Agatangelo
ed il suo mistero polisecolare (literary Armenian), Venice, 1890.
3. ISAAC THE GREAT AND MESROP. — Isaac (in Armenian «Sahak»)
surnamed the Great, was Catholicos or patriarch of Armenia during
592
THIRD PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
the years 390 — 440, and rendered incalculable services to the youth
ful church of that country in a period of grave peril and oppres
sion. His prudence and zeal thwarted the attempts of the Persian
kings to introduce the worship of Ormuzd; on the other hand, he
withstood the solicitations of the Nestorians, and caused the Armenian
nation to rally to the defence of the decrees of Ephesus. He was
supported by Mesrop, who shared his labors and his ideas, and con
tributed greatly to the development of ecclesiastical life and the
extinction of paganism and heresy. After the death of Isaac (440),
Mesrop bore the burden of episcopal administration until the nomina
tion of a new Catholicos. He did not long survive his lifelong friend ;
his death took place some six months later, in 441. We have al
ready mentioned the debt owed by the nation to these two great
men for their invention of an Armenian alphabet and their labors
in translating the Scriptures into Armenian. They are also, in a
large measure, the creators of the Armenian liturgy. In the annals
of Armenian literature both are credited with ecclesiastical hymns;
Isaac in particular is said to have written a manual of liturgy. Mes
rop seems to have translated into Armenian several works of Greek
and Syriac ecclesiastical writers; in the absence of exact information,
it is not easy to say how much belongs to Mesrop amid the abun
dant Armenian ecclesiastical translation-literature of the fifth century.
It has been stated above that, according to Vetter, Mesrop is the
author of the homilies attributed to Gregory Illuminator.
On the literary history of Isaac the Great cf. Neumann, Versuch einer
Geschichte der armen. Literatur (see no. i), pp. 28 — 30. Moses of Corene
has incorporated in his History of Armenia Major (iii. 57 ; see no. 6) three
short letters of Isaac; one each to the emperor Theodosius II., Atticus
patriarch of Constantinople, and the prefect Anatolius. There is a German
version of these letters in M. Lauer, Des Moses von Chorene Geschichte
Groft-Armeniens, Ratisbon, 1869, pp. 219—220. In the American Journal
of Theology (1898), ii. 828—848, fr. C. Conybeare translated into English
an ecclesiastical ordinance of Isaac. For two other letters, written con
jointly by Isaac and Mesrop, in reply to Proclus of Constantinople and
Acacius of Melitene, see «The Book of Letters» edited by J. Ismireanz,
lis, 1901 ; in this work are also found many other letters and docu
ments of the ancient Armenian literature not mentioned here. - - The
apostolic labors of St. Mesrop are described with feeling and with classic
elegance in a life written by his disciple Koriun, a bishop in Georgia,
between 445 and 451. It was edited at Venice in 1833, and translated
German (without the diffuse introduction) by B, Welte, Goriuns Lebens-
beschreibung des hi. Mesrop, Tubingen, 1841. Another shorter and later
ecension of the biography was printed at Venice in 1854 and 1895, and
ranslated into French by J. R. Emm, in the collection of Langlois (see
. c., n. i — 16. On the invention of the Armenian alphabet
ct. Mesrob e 1' alfabeto armeno, in Bessarione (1896 1897), i. 807—810 912
For Chosrowig, one of the fifth-century translators of the Bible
o Armenian, see y. Dashian , Short bibliographical Studies, Researches
exts (modern Armenian), Vienna, 1895, *• 49—75- The work ends
§ 109. SKETCH OF THE EARLY ARMENIAN ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE. 593
with a little treatise entitled: «From Chosrowik, the Armenian translator,
to those who say that together with His spiritual and eternal nature God
the Word received from the Virgin human nature. » — There are also
extant some writings of Ananias, another of these early translators, a ho
mily on the mystery of the prophet Jonas, and a sermon on St. John the
Baptist. Ananias is also the reputed translator into Armenian of the works
of Philo of Alexandria; cf. B. Sargisean, Ananias the Translator, Venice,
1899 (modern Armenian). There is an account of the disciples of Isaac
and Mesrop, and of the earliest Armenian translators of the fifth century
in the work of Misadgean, Vienna, 1902.
4. EZNIK. - This disciple of Mesrop was born in the village of
Kolb (Koghb) and is certainly identical with Eznik, bishop of Bag-
revand, who assisted at the synod of Aschtischat, in 449. His high
place in Armenian literature is owing to his work in four books,
entitled: «The Confutation of the sects». In the first book he refutes
the «sect of the pagans », and chiefly their doctrines of the eternity
of matter, and of evil as something substantial, not accidental. In
the second book he challenges the « religion of the Persians», parti
cularly Zerwanitism, a later form ofParseism. In the third book he
turns his weapons against «the schools of the Greek philosophers»,
and particularly their astronomical notions and teaching. In the
fourth he deals with «the sect of Marcion», and its pretended pos
session of a traditional secret doctrine. Vetter says that the whole
is «the first essay of a highly gifted nation which has just risen from
barbarian ignorance to Christian thinking, in order to fight against
the pagan view of life in its principal systems and in its chief ideas,
in a speculative manner. « Eznik displays much acumen and extensive
erudition. His writings are said to offer the most perfect example
of the ancient classic Armenian. Native tradition attributes some
homilies to him, but they have perished. He was also a collaborator
in the translation of the Bible (see no. i), and perhaps of other
works from Greek and Syriac.
The Armenian text of the « Confutation of the sects » was printed at
Smyrna, in 1762, and at Venice, in 1826 and 1863; these editions contain
also a short collection of Sententiae (93) attributed to Eznik. A (very
defective) French version of the Confutation and of this collection was
published by Le Vaillant de Florival, Refutation des differentes sectes etc.,
Paris, 1853. We owe a good German version to J. M. Sc/imid , Eznik
von Kolb, Wider die Sekten, Leipzig, 1900 (Bibliothek der alten armen.
Literatur, i). The date of the composition and genuineness of Eznik's
chief work is discussed by S. Weber, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1897), Ixxix.
367—398; the contents of the Confutation is also described by Weber, in
Katholik (1898), i. 212 — 231 311—326. As to its «sources» see Vetter,
Theol. Quartalschr. (1894), Ixxvi. 529 ft".; Lit. Rundschau (1895), p. 269. -
David the Armenian, who lived in the second half of the fifth century and
translated Aristotelian and Neoplatonist works, belongs to the history of
philosophy ; he was, nevertheless, a champion of the orthodox faith against
the Nestorians. Cf. v. Himpel on David, in Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-
lexikon, 2. ed., iii. 1411 — 1413.
BARDENHEVVER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 38
594
THIRD PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
5. ST. ELISCHE. — More numerous works have reached us under
the name of St. Elische (Elisaeus). He, too, was a disciple of Mesrop,
and in his youth had served under the Armenian general Vardanes
either as soldier or secretary. He is usually identified with Elische,
bishop of the Amatunii, one of the members of the national council
of Aschtischat (449). He died, as anchorite, about 480. The Mechi-
tarist edition of his works contains commentaries on Joshua and
Judges, an explanation of the Our Father, a beautiful letter to the
Armenian monks, rules for the treatment of demoniacs, and many
homilies notably on events in the life of Christ, and a history of
Vardanes and the Armenian War. The genuineness or integrity of
all these writings has been called in question. The story of the brave
struggle for their Christian faith carried on by the Armenians under
Vardanes (449 — 451) against the tyranny and persecution of the
powerful Persian king, Jezdegerdes II., was always a favorite work
among the Armenians. Vetter says of it: «The history of Vardanes
is based on the accounts of eye-witnesses. It is one of the noblest
works of Armenian historiography, whether we consider the grandiose
and dramatic disposition of the material, the severe and dignified style,
or the warm enthusiasm of the writer for Church and fatherland. »
Complete editions of the works of Elische were printed at Venice,
1839 and 1859- The history of Vardanes was printed several times: Con
stantinople 1764; Tim's 1879; Venice 1893. It has been translated into
several European languages: into English by C. Fr. Neumann, London,
1830 (unfinished); into Italian by G. Cappelletti, Venice, 1840; into French
by G. Kabaradji, Paris, 1844 (untrustworthy), and by Langlois, in his Col
lection des historians de 1'Arme'nie, ii. 177—251. Cf. Vetter, 1. c., p. 262,
and .Afotf, 1. c., pp. 299—316. In his dissertation Dei tesori patristici e
biblici conservati nella letteratura armena (Compte-rendu du IV. congres
scientif. internat. des Catholiques, Fribourg [Suisse], 1898, pp. 209—230),
B. Sargisean remarks (pp. 221—222) that in the Vardanes-commentary on
Genesis (saec. XIII) there has been preserved a considerable portion of a
commentary of Elische on the same book ; Sargisean thinks that Elische's
commentary on Joshua and Judges is a translation of some Alexandrine
commentary. - Lazarus of Pharp, a younger contemporary of Elische,
wrote a history of Armenia from 388 to 485. It was printed in Venice
in 1793 1807 1873 1891, and translated into French by S. Ghesarian, in
Langlois (1. c., ii. 253—368). — John Mandakuni (f about 498, as Catho-
licos of Armenia) is the reputed author of a number of homilies edited
at Venice in 1837 and 1860, and translated into German by J. M. Schmid,
Ratisbon, 1871. Cf. B. Sargisean, Critical Researches on John Mandakuni
and his Works, Venice, 1895 (in modern Armenian). He is also credited
with a treatise as to whether the Redeemer is spoken of as in two natures
m one only. It is found in the «Book of Letters» (§ 109, 3).
6. MOSES OF CHORENE. - The most celebrated of the ancient
Armenian writers is Moses of Choren (Chorene), surnamed the « father
of Scholars». Three large works are attributed to him: a History
of Armenia Major, a Geography, and a Rhetoric, also some smaller
§ 109. SKETCH OF THE EARLY ARMENIAN ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE. 595
works, e. g. the life of Saint Rhipsime and her companions, a cor
respondence with the Artsrunic prince Isaac (Sahak), some homilies,
and numerous ecclesiastical hymns. The most important of these writ
ings is the History of Armenia Major. It is divided into three sec
tions: «a Genealogy of Armenia Major» or its history from the
most ancient times to the foundation of the Arsacid dynasty (149
B. C.), «a History of the middle period of our ancestors», i. e. the
story of the Armenian Arsacids to the death of St. Gregory Il
luminator and king Terdat, finally «the End of the history of our
fatherland », in which he relates the events that happened between
the death of Terdat and the extinction of the Armenian Arsacids
(428). In mediaeval times there was extant a fourth book that brought
the history down to the emperor Zeno (474 — 491); this book is
lacking in all known manuscripts. The highly pathetic style of the
work is closely imitated in the fifth-century Armenian version of the
so-called «Book of Alexander», i. e. biography of Alexander by
pseudo-Callisthenes. The author of the history of Armenia Major
calls himself Moses of Chorene and pretends to belong to the fifth
century, to be a disciple of Saint Mesrop, and to have composed
his work at the request of Isaac (Sahak), the Bagratunic prince who
fell in battle in 482. These personal statements are shown to be
untrustworthy, for internal and external reasons. In his account of
his own life the author contradicts such fifth-century writers as
Koriun and Lazarus of Pharp. Carriere has shown recently that he
makes use of historical sources posterior to the sixth and even the
seventh century, e. g. Armenian versions of the Vita S. Silvestri
and the Church history of Socrates. It is only since the ninth cen
tury that traces of his work are found in Armenian literature. This
does not carry with it the negation of the historical personality of
Moses of Chorene, who is one of the venerable fathers of the Ar
menian Church, and who really lived in the fifth century. Lazarus
of Pharp bears witness to the existence in the fifth century of an
Armenian bishop who was named Moses and was a distinguished
writer. We do not know the reason why this eighth- or ninth-century
writer took the name and the mask of Moses of Chorene. He makes
it clear that he intends to glorify the Bagratunid dynasty. From
the end of the seventh century this dynasty surpassed in splendor
all the other noble houses of Armenia; in 885 Aschot L, a de
scendant of that house, was recognized by the Caliph as king of
Armenia. Vetter conjectures that the secret aim of the pseudo-
Moses of Chorene was to prepare the way for the accession of
this house. In spite of its really late date, the author's narrative is,
generally speaking, trustworthy. He draws largely on ancient autho
rities, though occasionally he modifies them in a capricious way and
embodies his own ideas in their context; but it cannot be maintained,
38*
$ 0,6 THIRD PERIOD. SECOND SECTION.
as some have done, that he invented these authorities off-hand. His
witnesses for the ancient history of Armenia, even as late as the
second or third century after Christ, were principally legends and
folk-song, and it is precisely this legendary element that lends to
the work its special charm and value. The Geography and Rhetoric
mentioned above are of course no more genuine works of Moses of
Chorene, than the History. All three works are by the same author,
as is evident both from the testimony of the manuscripts and from
intrinsic criteria. The author's own statement leads us to believe
that the Geography is an extract from the description of the world
(%a)pofpa<pia olxoufisMxy) by Pappus, an Alexandrine author of the
fourth century of our era. The Rhetoric is entitled «Chria» in the
manuscripts, and is executed on such Greek models as Aphthonius
and Theon. The minor writings mentioned above await a more
thorough examination into their genuineness. Vetter has shown that
the correspondence with Prince Isaac concerning the origin of a
miraculous Madonna cannot be earlier than the year looo.
Complete editions of our author's works were printed at Venice in
1843 and 1865. The History of Armenia Major has been republished,
in the original and in versions, more frequently than any other work of
Armenian literature. The first edition appeared at Amsterdam in 1695,
the last at Venice in 1881 (Tim's, 1881). For a critical history of all
editions cf. A. Baumgartner, in Zeitschr. der Deutschen morgenlandischen
Gesellsch. (1886), xl. 482 — 489. There is a new French version in Langlois,
Collection des historiens, ii. 45 — 175. A German version is owing to
M. Lauer, Ratisbon, 1869; and an Italian one to G. Cappelletti, Venice,
1841. A. v. Gutschmid , Uber die Glaubwiirdigkeit der armenischen Ge-
schichte des Moses von Khoren, in Berichte iiber die Verhandlungen der
kgl. sachs. Gesellsch. der Wissensch. , philol.-hist. Klasse (1876), xxviii. i
to 43. A. Carriere, Mo'ise de Khoren et les genealogies patriarcales, Paris,
1891. Id., Nouvelles sources de Mo'ise de Khoren, Vienna, 1893, with a
supplement, Vienna, 1894. Id., La legende d'Abgar dans 1'histoire d'Ar-
menie de Mo'ise de Khoren, Paris, 1895. Id. > Les hints sanctuaires de
1'Armenie pa'ienne d'apres Agathange et Mo'ise de Khoren, Paris, 1899.
Fr. C. Conybeare dissents, in Byzant. Zeitschr. (1901), x. 489 — 504, from
Carriere' s conclusions concerning the late date of Moses of Chorene. The
legends and sagas of Armenia that Moses wove into his History are il
lustrated by Vetter, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1894), Ixxvi. 48—76. Vetter enu
merates, in the Kirchenlexikon of Wetzer und Welte, 2. ed. , viii. 1961,
the editions and versions of the Geography. There is also an edition
with a Russian version and notes by K. P. Patkanov, St. Petersburg, 1877.
'. Marqftart, Evanschahr nach der Geographic des Pseudo-Moses Chore-
Mit historisch-kritischem Kommeritar und historischem und topo-
graphischem Exkurse, Berlin, 1901 (Abhandlimgen der kgl. Gesellsch. der
Wissensch. zu Gottingen). The work on Rhetoric is described by A. Baum
gartner, in Zeitschr. der Deutschen morgenland. Gesellsch. (1886), xl. 457
c> 515. For the correspondence with Prince Isaac see Vetter, in Nirschl,
trologie, iii. 244—246. Cf. also v. Gutschmid on Moses of Chorene, in
Encyclopedia Britannica, 9. ed., xvi. 861 — 863, and Vetter, in Kirchen
lexikon, viii. 1955—1963.
§ 110. GENERAL CONSPECTUS. 597
THIRD SECTION.
LATIN WRITERS.
§ no. General conspectus.
1. DECADENCE OF ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE. - - The decay
of scientific thought and endeavor that characterizes the Greek East
in this period (cf. § 98, i), is visible also in the Latin West. Both
creative power and energetic will have become weak. The best efforts
of ecclesiastical scholars are now directed towards the co-ordination
and practical use of the materials bequeathed by earlier scholarship.
It is the period in which Roman civilization suffers complete wreckage
at the hands of the irresistible Northern and Eastern tribes ; barbarism
with all its accompanying horrors hangs like a dark cloud over the
entire West. But the untutored conquerors are amenable to spiritual
ideas and influences; gradually they begin to look on the Church
with sentiments of joy and gratitude as on their mistress and teacher.
From its contact with the Germanic nations ecclesiastical science ac
quired new objects ; signs of literary activity began again to multiply
(see no. 2). The quasi-total theological decadence visible in the East
since the fifth century, was never quite so complete in the West;
Latin theology continues to offer a series of remarkable names. Chris
tian literature really flourished at the end of the fifth century in
Southern Gaul, while in the sixth century theological science got
new life in Northern Africa, Italy and Spain.
2. SUBJECT-MATTER OF LATIN THEOLOGY. - - Foremost among
the polemico-dogmatic discussions are the questions concerning the
relations of free-will and divine grace. While the Greeks loved to
discuss the problems of Christology (§ 84, i), the Latin theologians
had long since manifested their preference for Christian anthropo
logy and the doctrine of grace. Pelagianism had been overthrown,
but Semipelagianism continued to find valiant defenders, especially
in its native home of Southern Gaul, until it was definitively condemned
(529) in the second Council of Orange, owing to the influence of
Cassarius of Aries. Nor were the Christological questions forgotten by
Latin writers of this period; they found investigators in almost all parts
of the West. The Germanic tribes that had overflowed to the South
and the West were all originally Arian, and their conversion neces
sitated the study and discussion of the ecclesiastical teaching con
cerning Jesus Christ. Chosen instruments of divine Providence de
voted their lives and their learning to the re-union of these misguided
peoples with the Church. In Southern Gaul, Faustus of Reji was
the apostle of the Visigoths, while Avitus of Vienne was that of
Burgundy. In Africa, Vigilius of Tapsus and Fulgentius of Ruspe
entered the lists against Arianism, though all their efforts were made
THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
fruitless by the cruel tyranny of the Vandal princes. Martin of Bracara
begins the conversion of the Suabian tribes in Spain, while Leander
of Seville prepares the way for the return of the Visigoths of Spain
to the unity of Catholicism. In this period the theological science
of the West was wisely mindful of the future. Boethius and Cassio-
dorius devoted themselves unceasingly to preserving for later ages the
substance of contemporary classical culture. Similarly, the writings
of Isidore of Seville, the greatest polyhistor of his time, were parti
cularly helpful in familiarizing the Germanic peoples with Roman
science; they made it possible to create again a civilized existence
in the midst of surrounding barbarism.
3. AWAKENING OF THE THEOLOGICAL SCIENCES. -- The circum
stances of the time did not call for apologetical treatises. Sal-
vianus of Marseilles defended divine Providence against the objections
of many who were scandalized by the horrors of the age. Fulgentius
of Ruspe, the most capable dogmatic theologian of the sixth century,
an opponent of Arianism and a defender of the teaching of St. Augus
tine on grace, wrote a useful compendium of dogmatic theology.
Most of the contemporary theological writings were polemical in
character. Faustus of Reji wrote in favor of Semipelagianism and
against the predestinationism of the priest Lucidus. Other Semi-
pelagian writers were Arnobius Junior, Gennadius of Marseilles, and
the unknown author of the Praedestinatus. Foremost in the conflict
with Semipelagianism stands Fulgentius of Ruspe. Arianism, Mace-
donianism, Nestorianism, and Eutychianism found opponents among
the Latin theologians and among them such men as Faustus of Reji,
Gennadius of Marseilles, Avitus of Vienne in Gaul, Vigilius of Tapsus,
Pope Gelasius and Boethius in Italy, Leander of Seville in Spain.
The first edict of Justinian against the Three Chapters aroused long
and heated discussions, particularly in Italy and Africa. In the latter
province these controversies drew into the arena Fulgentius Ferrandus,
Facundus of Hermiane, Verecundus of Junca, Liberatus of Carthage,
and others, while in Italy Pelagius, archdeacon and pope, the deacon
Rusticus, and others, figured prominently. In exegesis the allegorico-
mystical interpretation attained sole supremacy. Arnobius Junior wrote
commentaries on the Psalms, Primasius of Adrumetum on the Apo
calypse, Cassiodorius on the Psalms and several books of the New
Testament, Justus of Urgel on the Canticle of canticles, Gregory
the Great on the Book of Job. Junilius composed an introduction to
the Scripture that was executed quite in the spirit of Theodore of
Mopsuestia. Cassiodorius wrote a methodology of theological studies
in which he assigned the central position to biblical science. The
exegetical labors of Victor of Capua have perished; on the contrary
many treatises of Isidore of Seville have survived, they deal with
the history, archaeology and exegesis of the Bible. In history
§ 110. GENERAL CONSPECTUS. 599
the chroniclers make their appearance ; each one continues his prede
cessor as far as his own time. Among them are Hydatius, Marcel-
linus Comes, Cassiodorius, Victor of Tunnuna, John of Biclaro, Marius
of Avenches. In his Historia tripartita Cassiodorius prepared a
manual of Church history for the mediaeval world. Valuable special
histories were written in this period. Thus, Cassiodorius wrote a
history of the Goths that has reached us only in extracts, while
Gregory of Tours wrote an ecclesiastical history of the Franks.
Less useful is the history or chronicle of the Spanish Visigoths that
we owe to Isidore of Seville. The modest Vita S. Severini of the
abbot Fugippius throws light on the history of barbarian Germany.
Victor Vitensis wrote a history of the persecutions of African Catholics
by their Vandal masters. The history of heresy owes something to
the works of the author of Praedestinatiis and to Liberatus of Car
thage. In turn, the history of theological literature is indebted to
Gennadius of Marseilles and Isidore of Seville. Gregory of Tours
and Venantius Fortunatus wrote hagiological works. Ecclesiastical
chronology was cultivated and advanced by Dionysius Exiguus.
Practical theology is represented by Salvianus of Marseilles, Julianus
Pomerius, Martin of Bracara, Gregory the Great. In this field the
latter is easily foremost; his Regula pastoralis is a manual of didactic
theology that manifests on every page a profound knowledge of man
and abounds in practical wisdom. His Dialogi met also with uni
versal approval ; they are narratives filled with the miracles of holy
men and were intended to serve as spiritual reading for Christians.
Canon Law owes to Dionysius Exiguus a collection of the ecclesiastic
al canons (the: Dionysiana); he inserted in it not only the synodal
decrees, but also many decretal letters of the popes in their historic
al order. Similarly, his younger contemporaries Fulgentius Ferrandus,
Cresconius, and Martin of Bracara, made systematic collections of
ancient canonical materials and enlarged them. Monastic rules were
drawn up by Benedict of Nursia, Csesarius of Aries, Aurelianus of
Aries, Leander of Seville, Isidore of Seville. Among them the Rule
of St. Benedict alone survived and spread so widely that he became
the acknowledged patriach of all the monks of the West. Gregory
of Tours left some works of a liturgical character. Faustus of Reji
and Caesarius of Aries are known as authors of homilies. The latter
was hailed by his contemporaries as the greatest popular orator of
the ancient Latin Church. In poetry there are some shining names:
Apollinaris Sidonius, Ennodius of Pavia, Venantius Fortunatus, though
the first two can scarcely be called ecclesiastical poets. Epic poetry
was cultivated by Paulinus of Pella and Paulinus of Petricordia. More
important are the didactico-lyrical effusions of the African writer
Dracontius, and the long didactico-epic poem of Avitus of Vienne.
In some of his hymns Venantius Fortunatus surpassed himself.
60O THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
§ in. Faustus of Reji.
1. HIS LIFE. — This writer whom John Cassian (§ 96, i) calls
the most active champion of Semipelagianism in its primitive form,
was born in Britain early in the fifth century. He was still a young
man when he devoted himself to the service of God in the famous
monastery of Lerins (§ 96, 2). In 433 he succeeded the abbot
Maximus on the occasion of the latter's elevation to the see of Reji
(now Riez in Provence), where he was also (452) the successor of
Maximus. His literary labors belong to this period of his life.
About 478 he was exiled by the Visigothic king, Eurich, for the
zeal with which he opposed the Arian heresy in the latter's kingdom ;
at the death of the king (485), however, he was allowed to return to
his see. His subsequent history is unknown to us. Faustus was one
of the most influential and , authoritative bishops of Southern Gaul
between 450 and 500. About 480 Gennadius of Marseilles wrote
of him : 1 viva voce egregius doctor et creditur et probatur. He
had a reputation for eminent sanctity, and amid contemporary contro
versies was honored by all as an oracle of theological wisdom. Never
theless his anthropological principles were vigorously opposed by
several of his contemporaries, and much more so by theologians of
the next generation.
2. HIS WORKS. - - Gennadius2 places first among the writings
of the bishop of Reji his: (liber) De Spiritu Sancto, in quo ostendit
eum iuxta fidem patrum et consubstantialem et coaeternalem esse
Patri et Filio ac plenitudinem Trinitatis obtinentem. This work has
reached us, but in most manuscripts is erroneously attributed to the
Roman deacon Paschasius, who died about 500 and was really the
author of a (lost) treatise: De Spiritu Sancto. Until very lately all
editions of the work attributed it to Paschasius 3. Engelbrecht was
the first to show (1891) that it belongs to Faustus of Reji. Very
similar in contents is another work mentioned by Gennadius as the
third of our author's writings: Adversus Arianos et Macedonianos
parvus libellus, in quo coessentialem praedicat Trinitatem. The iden
tity of this work is disputed. Engelbrecht recognizes it in the De
ratione fidei (lacking in Migne) edited by Sichard in 1528 and by
him attributed to Faustus of Reji. Rehling identifies it with the
first part of a separately circulated letter written by Faustus to an
unknown person, whom, however, he addresses as: reverendissime
sacerdotum 4. Gennadius places second among the writings of Faustus
an: opus egregium de gratia Dei qua salvamur. It is the: De gratia
libri duo 5, a refutation of the predestinationism of Lucidus, a Gallic
priest, among whose teachings those concerning the total extinction
1 De viris ill., c. 85. * L c 3 Cf>
4 Ib, Iviii. 837—845. * Ibi> lviiL 783_8
§ III. FAUSTUS OF REJI. 6OI
of free will as the result of original sin, the limited extent of
the grace of redemption, and predestination to eternal damnation,
were condemned at the synods of Aries (about 473) and Lyons
(about 474). It was in reply to the request of the Fathers of these
councils, particularly of the archbishop Leontius of Aries, for a
theological refutation of Lucidus, that Faustus composed this work.
Here as elsewhere he is a vigorous opponent both of Pelagianism
and of Predestinationism ; his standpoint is the Semipelagianism of
John Cassian. He vehemently denies the necessity of a gratia prae-
veniens in the sense of Augustine. In an earlier letter to Lucidus 1
he admits a gratia praecedens, but he understands thereby only
the external grace of revelation. He writes with some indignation
against the concept of a gratia specialis et personalis, as it is
presented in the Augustinian theory of predestination. Positive op
position to the views of Faustus was not slow in manifesting itself
(§ 102, 2). The little treatise that is next mentioned by Gennadius:
(libellus) Adversus eos qui dicunt esse in creaturis aliquid incorporeum,
is certainly identical with the letter ad reverendissimum sacerdotum,
or with its second part, that was possibly current as a separate
treatise. In it Faustus maintains a certain corporeity of the human
soul, even of angels, as an inevitable result of their existence in
space. To refute these views Claudius Mamertus composed his work:
De statu animae. Gennadius mentions two other letters of Faustus,
one of a dogmatico-polemical character to Graecus, a Nestorian dea
con (written at Lerins before 452), and the other an exhortatory
and ascetic missive to Felix, patricius and praefectus praetorii (written
during his exile and before 480). In all, ten letters of Faustus have
reached us, five of which are addressed to Ruricius, bishop of Li
moges. Gennadius knew the titles of other works (scripta) of Faustus,
but he did not mention them because he had not yet read them.
It is very probable that he speaks of such minor writings as letters
and sermons. Faustus certainly composed many sermons , but they
have reached us in anonymous form or under other names. One
reason of the difficulty experienced in recognizing and describing
the sermons of Faustus comes from the fact that his younger con
temporaries and disciples, particularly Caesarius of Aries, regularly
drew from his sermons, recast them, or embodied them entirely in
their own discourses. Engelbrecht claims as Faustus' property the
pseudo-Eusebian Homiliae 56 ad populum et monachos (§ 61, 2),
also a collection of 22 sermons still unedited. It must be admitted,
however, that the Durlach (now Carlsruhe) manuscript contains other
sermons that do not belong to Faustus, but to Caesarius of Aries.
The style of Faustus is vigorous and lively, but deficient in ease
and grace. He seeks a certain effect in his exposition, and aims at
1 Ib., liii. 683.
6O2 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
rhythmic cadence. His prolixity often renders his thought nebulous
and vague. He loves to repeat himself; the same words and phrases
recur over and over again in his writings.
3. WORKS ON FAUSTUS. PASCHASIUS. LUCIDUS. PAULINUS OF BURDI-
GALA. - The first complete edition of the writings of Faustus was
published by A. Engelbrecht, Fausti Reiensis praeter sermones pseudo-Euse-
bianos opera. Accedunt Ruricii epistulae. Rec. A. E., Vienna, 1891
(Corpus script, eccles. lat., vol. xxi). Engelbrecht had already published as
prolegomena to this edition: Studien iiber die Schriften des Bischofs von
Reii Faustus, Vienna, 1889; cf. Zeitschr. fur die osterreich. Gymnasien
(1890), xli. 289 — 301, and his epilegomena were: Patristische Analekten,
Vienna, 1892. Migne published under the name of Faustus the: De gratia
(PL., Iviii. 783—836), nineteen letters (Ib., 835 — 870); the letter ad Luci-
dum presbyterum (Ib., liii., 68 1 — 683), and eight sermones (Ib., 869 — 890). -
The evidence that Faustus wrote the De Spiritu Sancto was collected chiefly
by C. P. Caspari , Ungedruckte Quellen zur Gesch. des Taufsymbols und
der Glaubensregel, Christiania, 1869, ii. 214 — 224. After new researches
Engelbrecht reached identical conclusions, Studien liber die Schriften des
Bischofs von Reii Faustus (1889), pp. 28 — 46. - There is extant one
letter of Paschasius the Roman deacon (Migne, PL., Ixii. 39 — 40). In the
Katholik (1887), ii. 386 — 406, S. Bdwner undertook to identify the parvus
libellus Adversus Arianos et Macedonianos with the Breviarium fidei ad-
versus Arianos (Migne, 1. c., xiii. 653 — 672); while F. Cabrol , in Revue
des questions historiques (1890), xlvii. 232 — 243, identifies it with the Liber
testimoniorum fidei first edited by Pitra under the name of St. Augustine
(§94, 6 1 6). Engelbrecht thinks otherwise, in Zeitschr. fur die osterr.
Gymnasien, 1. c. ; so again does B. Rehling , De Fausti Reiensis epist.
tertia (epist. ad reverendissimum sacerdotum), Diss. inaug., Minister, 1898.
Among the twelve letters in Eugclbrecht' s edition (pp. 159 — 220) are two
addressed to Faustus, one by the aforesaid Lucidus (pp. 165 — 168), and
the other (pp. 181—183) by a certain Paulinus of Burdigala (Bordeaux).
The latter is perhaps identical with the author (Gennad., De viris ill., c. 68)
of certain treatises or: tractatus de initio quadragesimae, de die dominico
paschae, de obedientia, de poenitentia, de neophytis. An edition of all
the letters of Faustus of Reji and Ruricius of Limoges was brought out by
Br. Krusch as an appendix to the edition of Sidonius Apollinaris by
7. Lutjohann, Monum. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss., Berlin, 1877, viii. 265 if.
In Engelbrecht' s edition are found thirty-one sermons: Sermones codice
Durlacensi servati (i — 22), Sermones varii (23 — 31). The two pseudo-
Fusebian homilies (9—10) treat of the creed, and are surely the work of
Faustus ; they were edited by Caspari, in Ungedruckte Quellen zur Gesch.
des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel, Christiania, 1869, ii. 183—213,
also in his Kirchenhistorische Anekdota, Christiania, 1883, i. 315—341.
In Alte und neue Quellen etc., Christiania, 1879, PP- 250—281, he publish
ed for the first time an anonymous Tractatus de symbolo, that Engel
brecht considers to be a homily of Faustus, and not a compilation from his
homilies, as the editor thinks. Cf. Engelbrecht, Studien etc., pp. 47—102:
r die Predigten des Faustus und ihre Echtheit». G. Morin, in Revue
Benedictine (1892), ix. 49—61 (the reply of Engelbrecht is in Zeitschrift
f. die osterr. Gymn. [1892], xliii. 961—976, and [1893], x. 62-77), differs
,
jv EnZelbrecht in his criticism of the composition of the sermons.
Bergmann, in Studien zu einer kritischen Sichtung der sudgallischen
Iterator des 5. und 6. Jahrhunderts , I: Der handschriftlich be-
zeugte Nachlass des Faustus von Reji, Leipzig, 1898 (Studien zur Gesch.
§ III. FAUSTUS OF REJI. 603
der Theol. und der Kirche, i. 4) agrees substantially with Morin. The
latter attributes also to Faustus the : De septem ordinibus ecclesiae (Migne,
PL., xxx. 148 — 162) found amid the works of St. Jerome; cf. Revue
Benedictine (1891), viii. 97 — 104. Engelbrecht rejects this opinion of Morin,
in Patristische Analekten (1892), pp. 5 — 19. Caspari edited (Briefe,
Abhandlungen und Predigten etc., Christiania, 1890, pp. 202 — 206)
an anonymous sermon on the question: «Why did Christ deliver huma
nity from the power of the devil not by divine power, but by His in
carnation, fulfilment of the Law, passion and death ?» This short and
popular Cur Deus homo of the ancient Latin Church was probably com
posed by some younger contemporary writer in Southern Gaul; cf. Cas
pari, 1. c., pp. 411 — 429. A. Koch , Der hi. Faustus, Bischof von Riez.
Fine dogmengeschichtliche Monographic, Stuttgart, 1895. F. Worter, Zur
Dogmengeschichte des Semipelagianismus (II: Die Lehre des Faustus von
Riez), Miinster, 1900 (Kirchengeschichtliche Studien, v. 2).
4. LEONTIUS OF ARLES. RURicius OF LIMOGES. — A letter of Leontius,
archbishop of Aries (see no. 2), to Pope Hilary in 462 is found amid the
letters of that pope (§ 114, i). Most of Pope Hilary's letters are address
ed to Leontius (Migne, PL., Iviii. 22 — 23); Epist. Rom. Pontif., ed. Thiel,
i. 138 — 139; cf. Hist. litt. de la France, Paris, 1735 1865, ii. 511 — 514.-
Ruricius (see no. 2), bishop of Limoges from 485 (f after 507), left eighty-
two letters (Migne, PL., Iviii. 67 — 124) in two books, without any chrono
logical order. They are of slight importance and are mostly complimentary
epistles to friendly bishops like Faustus and Apollinaris Sidonius, and others.
We have already mentioned (no. 3) the two new editions of these letters by
Br. Krusch (1887) and A. Engelbrecht (1891). Both editions contain also
eight letters of various individuals to Ruricius: in the manuscripts they
are inserted after his letters; cf. Acta SS. Oct., Brussels, 1853, viii. 59
to 76. Engelbrecht, Patristische Analekten, Vienna, 1892, pp. 20 — 83.
5. CLAUDIANUS MAMERTUS. — Claudianus Ecdicius Mamertus, the afore
mentioned opponent of Faustus of Reji, was a priest of Vienne (in Dau-
phine), and the chief support of his brother St. Mamertus, bishop of that
see. He died about 474. His friend Apollinaris Sidonius has left us a
very flattering necrology of him (Epist. iv. n). About 468 or 469 Clau
dianus composed his work: De statu animae (Migne, PL,, liii. 697 — 780)
in three books; in it he defends, against Faustus, the incorporeity of the
human soul. He dedicated the work to Sidonius, who styles it (Epist.
iv. 3 ; cf. v. 2) a work excellent in every way. In spite of some defects
it merits the encomia of Sidonius: the author is evidently a disciple of
St. Augustine, very learned for his time, and a skilful dialectician. Two
of his letters are extant (Migne, 1. c., liii. 779 — 786): one to Sidonius, and
another to Sapaudus, a rhetorician of Vienne. Some hymns were formerly
ascribed to him (Ib., liii. 785 — 790), but his authorship is now partly very
doubtful, partly quite abandoned. Most of them (In Jacobum mag. eq.,
Carmen paschale, two Greek epigrams, Laus Christi, Miracula Christi) are
also current under the name of Claudius Claudianus (§ 79, 5). Sidonius
mentions (Ep. iv. 3) with praise a hymn of Claudian that has not yet
been identified. -- A new edition of the works of Claudianus Mamertus
(minus the traditional poems) was published by A. ' Engelbrecht, Vienna,
1885 (Corpus Script, eccl. lat. , vol. xi). The Migne text (PL., liii) is a
reprint from Gallandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., x. The famous hymn: Pange lingua
gloriosi, ascribed by Gallandi to Claudianus Mamertus, is really the work
of Venantius Fortunatus (§ 117, 3). For the Carmina dubiae auctoritatis
see Teuffel-Schwabe , Gesch. der rom. Lit., 5. ed., p. 1202. M. Schulze,
Die Schrift des Claudianus Mamertus, Presbyters zu Vienne: «De statu
604 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
animae», im Auszuge mit kritischen Untersuchtmgen , Dresden, 1883.
A. Engelbrecht, Untersuchungen iiber die Sprache des Claudianus Mamertus,
Vienna, 1885. R. de la Broise , Mamerti Claudiani vita eiusque doctrina
de anima hominis (These), Paris, 1890.
6. ARNOBIUS JUNIOR. »PRAEDESTINATUS». VINCENTIUS. — Of AmoblUS
Junior, so called to distinguish him from Arnobius of Sicca, we know little
save that he was born in Gaul and that he wrote (about 460) long Com-
mentarii in Psalmos (Migne, PL., liii. 327—570). His exegesis is entirely
allegorical; he is an opponent of St. Augustine's doctrine on grace. He
is erroneously credited with the authorship of: Adnotationes ad quae-
dam evangeliorum loca (Migne, PL., liii. 569—580), a loose collection
of scholia on particular passages in John, Matthew and Luke, freely
pillaged by the pseudo-Theophilus of Antioch in his Gospel-commentary
(§ 21, 3). In the Theol. Quartalschr. (1897), Ixxix. 555—568, B, Grundl
maintains that these Adnotationes were written before the reign of Con-
stantine. G. Morin published in Pages inedites d' Arnobius le jeune: la
fin des «expositiunculae» sur 1'evangile, Revue Benedictine (1903), xx. 64
to 76, a new and distinct recension of the fourth adnotatio on Luke,
together with nine other adnotationes hitherto unknown, also incorporated
with his Gospel-commentary by pseudo-Theophilus. Morin is of opinion
that this Arnobius is probably an Illyrian, who lived at Rome; he main
tains that he is the author of the Adnotationes, the Confiictus, and the
Praedestinatus. The Confiictus Arnobii catholici cum Serapione Aegyptio
(Migne, 1. c., liii. 239—322) affects the form of a dialogue in presence of
arbiters; it is an anti-Monophysite work that aims at proving the perfect
concord of Rome (Leo I.) with the great doctors of the Alexandrine
Church. The unquestioning acceptance by the author of the authority of
St. Augustine prevents us from accepting it as a work of Arnobius ; neither
can -it be attributed with S. Baumer, Katholik (1887), ii. 398—406, to Faustus
of Reji. Grundl thinks (1. c., pp. 529 — 568) that it was composed about
552 by a Roman monk Arnobius. - - The anonymous work Praedestinatus
sive praedestinatorum haeresis et libri S. Augustino temere adscripti re-
futatio (Ib., liii. 587—672) was first edited by J. Sirmond in 1643, and
subdivided by him into three books. In the first are described ninety
heresies from Simon Magus to the Predestinationists ; in this narrative are
many problematical or fabulous statements (this book is also printed in
Fr. Oe/iler, Corpus haereseologicum, Berlin, 1856, i. 227—268); the second
book describes the contents of an apology for Predestinationism current
under the name of St. Augustine , while the third refutes the same from
a Semipelagian standpoint. Intrinsic evidence points to Southern Gaul
and the middle of the fifth century as place and time of composition ; by
reason of similarities of style and' subject-matter the author of the Com-
mentarii in Psalmos (Arnobius junior) may well be and probably is the
author of «Praedestinatus». V. H. v. Schubert, Der sogen. Praedestinatus.
Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Pelagianismus. Texte und Untersuchungen,
new series ix. 4, Leipzig, 1903. This writer rejects the authorship of
Arnobius Junior, and suggests, with much reserve, the name of Anianus
5 74, 14; 94, 6). A. Faure, Die Widerlegung der Haretiker im i. Buche
des Praedestinatus (Dissert.), Gottingen, 1903. The Commentarius in Psal
mos of Vincentius , a priest of Southern Gaul in the second half of the
fth century, mentioned by Gennadius (De viris ill., c. 80), may be identical
with the Commentarius in Ixxv Psalmos, printed among the works of Ru-
finus (Migm, PL., 641—960; cf. 63—66). -- Gennadius mentions (1. c.,
c. 75) ascetical works of Paulus, a priest of Pannonia between 450 and
500; they have perished.
§ 112. OTHER GALLIC WRITERS. 605
§ 112. Other Gallic writers.
I. SALVIANUS OF MARSEILLES. - - Salvianus was born of dis
tinguished parents in Gaul and probably in the neighborhood of Co
logne 1 towards the end of the fourth century. In his youth he led a
rather dissolute life. After his own conversion he succeeded in win
ning over his pagan wife Palladia, not only to the Christian faith, but
to the practice of perfect continency in the married state. We still
possess the touching letter in which Salvianus, his wife and daughter,
justify their conduct to the parents of Palladia, themselves Christian
converts, but incapable of comprehending such a state of continency -,
About 424, apparently, Salvianus was ordained to the priesthood
and entered the monastery of Lerins3. At a later date he was liv
ing at Marseilles (till about 480) , a vigorous old man 4. He wrote
many works, among which Gennadius mentions : De virginitatis bono
ad Marcellum presbyterum libros tres, Adversum avaritiam libros
quattuor, De praesenti iudicio libros quinque et pro eorum prooemio
satisfactionis ad Salonium episcopum librum unum et expositionis
extremae partis libri Ecclesiastes ad Claudium episcopum Viennensem
librum unum, epistolarum librum unum et in morem Graecorum de
principio Genesis usque ad conditionem hominis composuit versu
Hexaemeron librum unum, homilias episcopis factas multas, sacra-
mentorum vero quantas (?) nee recorder. Of these works only the
Adversum avaritiam , the De praesenti iudicio , and nine letters re
main. The first work, written between 435 and 439, is entitled in
the manuscripts: Ad ecclesiam. It begins: Timotheus minimus ser-
vorum Dei ecclesiae catholicae toto orbe diffusae. As a check to
the prevalent avarice that refused its own to God, that is to the
Church and the poor, Salvianus urges on all Christians and parti
cularly on ecclesiastics the duty of bestowing alms and gifts upon
the Church; he insists especially on the obligation of making the
Church one's heir by will. Such doctrine is better appreciated when
we remember that all public care of the poor was then incumbent
upon the Church , and that pauperism was assuming incredible pro
portions. In a letter (Ep. 9) to his disciple Salonius, bishop of
Geneva (§ 96 , 2) , Salvianus explains the reason for his pseudo
nym Timotheus. Gennadius has erroneously connected this letter
(Satisfactionis ad Salonium episcopum librum unum) with the work
De praesenti iudicio. This latter work was finished between 439 and
451 and was dedicated to Salonius; in the manuscripts it is usually
entitled : De gubernatione Dei, and is divided into eight books. Its
aim is the defence and justification of divine Providence. Many were
scandalized at this time by the evils that from all sides befell the
1 Salv., De gub. Dei, vi. 13, 72; Ep. i. z Sato., Ep. 4.
3 Hilar. Arelat., Vita S. Honorati 4, 19. * Gennad., De viris ill., c. 67.
606 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Roman empire and especially by the humiliations that the barbarian
invasions inflicted upon the Romans. Salvianus asserts that almost
the entire society of Christian Romans at the time was a sewer
of iniquity: sentina vitiorum1. The barbarians, pagans and heretics,
are morally superior to the Romans ; the only privilege of the latter
is their Catholic faith, and that can only aggravate their guilt. The
ruin of the empire is a just judgment from God, long since merited;
it is an irrefragable proof that God still governs the world. While
the work Ad ecclesiam is truly a mirror of contemporary morality,
the De gubernatione Dei reflects still more vividly the conditions of
Roman civilization when it was written. These pages suggest at
once Lactantius; they fascinate the reader by the purity of their
diction and their rhetorical elevation, but it must be added that they
are also very prolix and verbose.
The best of the old editions is that of Etienne Baluze , Paris, 1663
1669 1684 (reprinted in Migne, PL., liii). Recent editions are owing to
C. Halm, Berlin, 1877 (Monum. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss., i. i), and
Fr. Pauly, Vienna, 1883 (Corpus script, eccles. lat. , vol. viii). A. Helf
translated into German the De gubernatione Dei, Kempten, 1877 (Biblio-
thek der Kirchenvater). Fr. X. Hirner, Commentatio de Salviano eiusque
libellis (Progr.), Freising, 1869. W. Zschimmer , Salvianus, der Presbyter
von Massilia, und seine Schriften, Halle, 1875. ^- Hammer le, Studien zu
Salvian, Priester von Massilia (3 progrs.), Landshut, 1893, Neuburg, 1897
1899. y. B. Ullrich, De Salviani scripturae sacrae versionibus (Progr.),
Neustadt, 1892. G. Valran, Quare Salvianus presbyter Massiliensis magister
episcoporum a Gennadio dictus sit, Paris, 1899. •&• Woelfflin, Alliteration
und Reim bei Salvian, in Archiv fiir latein. Lexikogr. u. Gramm. (1902),
xiii. 41 — 49. — Certain theological treatises of a practical nature by Musaeus,
a priest of Marseilles (f ca. 460), mentioned by Gennadius (De viris ill.,
c. 79), have perished.
2. APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS. - - Caius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris
Sidonius was born at Lyons about 430, and died about 482 at Cler-
mont. Mommsen and Duchesne2 consider that his epitaph fixes the
date of his death at Aug. 21. or 22., 479. He is the principal re
presentative of that group of Gallic writers who professed Christian
sentiments and even accepted ecclesiastical office, but whose works
still reflected the genius of antique paganism. Sidonius belonged to
one of the noblest families of Gaul, and had already attained dis
tinguished civil honors when, in 469 or 470, he was suddenly and
reluctantly made bishop of the urbs Arverna (now Clermont-Ferrand),
an office that carried with it much political influence and authority.
His literary career is evenly divided by this event. Hitherto he had
indulged in poetical composition ; there is still extant a collection of
twenty-four carmina, among them three long and carefully executed
panegyrics; one on the emperor Avitus his father-in-law, (delivered
1 De gub. Dei, iii. 9, 44.
2 Pastes episcopaux de 1'ancienne Gaule, Paris, 1900, ii. 34—35.
§ 112. OTHER GALLIC WRITERS. 6o/
January i., 456, in the Roman Senate), another on the emperor
Majorian (at Lyons, end of 458), and the third on the emperor
Anthemius (at Rome, Jan. I., 468). The entire collection treats of
profane themes and is pagan in its form ; and it abounds in similes
and metaphors taken from mythology. The models of Sidonius
are Claudius Claudianus, Statius and Vergil, but his imitation of them
does not go beyond the exhibition of rhetorical, dialectical and
metrical skill. After his election to the see of Clermont, Sidonius
abandoned this dilettantism as incompatible with the serious character
of his new vocation *. He devoted himself instead to the composition
of formal epistles, after the style of Symmachus and Pliny. They
grew in number until they formed a collection in nine books, in
cluding letters that had long since got to their destination, and
others composed with the express purpose of reaching the general
public in this way. Both epistles and poetry are as rich in fine
words as they are jejune in thought. The epistles, however, are a
very valuable contribution to the history of contemporary Roman
culture. They are often varied and enlivened by metrical pieces,
sometimes of a spiritual character: inscriptions for new churches,
epitaphs for pious Christians, and the like. Sidonius did not execute
his intention of composing a metrical martyrology for Gaul2. His
contestatiunculae* have perished, also the missae^ composed by him.
Indeed, we do not know what is meant by these titles.
His works have been excellently edited by Chr. Liltjohann, Gai Sollii
Apollinaris Sidonii epistulae et carmina, rec. et emend. Chr. Lutjohann, in
Monum. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss., Berlin, 1887, viii. After Ltitjohanrfs
death (April 8., 1884) Fr. Leo and Th. Mommsen completed his work.
A minor edition of the writings of Sidonius is owing to P. Mohr, Leipzig,
1895. The edition vij. Sirmond, Paris, 1614 1652, is reprinted in Migne,
PL., Iviii. A French version of all the writings of Sidonius (with Latin
text and notes) was made by J. F. Grtgoire and F. Z. Collombet, Lyons
and Paris, 1836, 3 vols. G. Kaufmann, Die Werke des C. S. A. Sidonius
als eine Quelle fur die Geschichte seiner Zeit (Inaug.-Diss.) , Gottingen,
1864. L. A. Chaix, S. SidoineApollinaire et son siecle, Clermont-Ferrand,
1867 — 1868, 2 vols. M. Bildinger, Apollinaris Sidonius als Politiker, Vienna,
1881. M. Midler, De Apollinaris Sidonii latinitate (Diss. inaug.), Halle,
1888. £. Grupe, Zur Sprache des Apollinaris Sidonius (Progr.), Zabern,
1892. For other works and dissertations see Teuffel-Schwabe , Gesch. der
rom. Lit., pp. 1199 — 1200. J. Nicolas, La me'decine dans les ceuvres de
SidoineApollinaire, in Revue medicale du Mont-Dore, Clermont-Ferrand,
1901. K. Weyman, Apollinaris Sidonius und die miracula S. Fidis, in Hist.
Jahrbuch (1899), xx. 53 — 71. P. Ma gaud , Un eveque des Gaules au
V siecle, in Annales de St. Louis-de-Francais (1901), v. 435 — 473. — For
details concerning some contemporary Gallic poets mentioned by our
author : Consentius, Lampridius, Leo, Peter, Severianus, Proclus, and others,
see Teuffel-Schwabe, 1. c., pp. 1191 — 1194, and Manitius, Gesch. der christl.-
1 Ep. 9, 12, and the carmen in Ep. 9, 16.
2 Cf. the carmen in Ep. 9, 16, 61 ff. 3 Ep. 7, 3.
4 Greg. Tur., Hist. Franc., ii. 22.
THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
latein. Poesie, Stuttgart, 1891, pp. 235 — 237. Auspicius, bishop of Toul
(about 470) and a friend of Sidonius, left a metrical Epistola ad Arbo-
gastem comitem Treverorurn (Migne , PL., Ixi. 1005—1008) edited by
IV. Gundlach, in Monum. Germ. hist. Epist. (1892), iii. 135—137; cf. Mani-
tius, 1. c., pp. 232 — 234.
3. PAULINUS OF PELL A AND PAULINUS OF PETRICORDIA. — Both
are Christian poets in the strict sense of the term. The first was
born, probably about 376, at Pella in Macedonia, but came to Bor
deaux at the age of three years, where he was brought up in the
house of his grandfather Ausonius (§ 88, 5). The remainder of his
chequered life was spent in Southern Gaul. In 459, being then eighty-
four years of age, he composed his : Eucharisticos Deo sub eph-
emeridis meae textu, in six hundred and sixteen hexameters; it is
an autobiography in the form of thanksgiving to God. Both prosody
and metre are somewhat neglected in this poem; it is nevertheless
an attractive narrative and faithfully portrays the sentiments of a candid
and pious soul that amid many sufferings clung to its faith in divine
Providence. - - We know Paulinus of Petricordia (Perigueux) only
as the author of an epic poem finished about 470: De vita S. Mar
tini episc. libri vi. The first three books are an expansion of the
Vita Martini of Sulpicius Severus (§92, i); the fourth and fifth
are composed from the two dialogues of Severus (ib.), while the
sixth is taken from an account of the miracles of St. Martin written
after his death by Perpetuus, bishop of Tours (458 — 488). Perpetuus
had induced Paulinus to write the work which is dedicated to him.
Two shorter poems written at a later date are added by way of
appendix: one of eighty hexameters on the miraculous cure of a
little nephew of Paulinus by laying upon him the book of Perpetuus
(Versus Paulini de visitatione nepotuli sui) and an inscription in
twenty-five hexameters for the new basilica built by Perpetuus in
honor of St. Martin (Versus Paulini de orantibus).
The Eucharisticos of Paulinus of Pella was first edited in 1579 by
M. de la Bigne. The most recent editions are those by L. Leipziger,
Breslau, 1858, and W. Brandes, in Poetae christiani minores, part I, Vienna,
1888 (Corpus script, eccles. lat., vol. xvi), pp. 263-334. His writings are
not in Migne. J. Roca.fort , De Paulini Pellaei vita et carmine (These),
Bordeaux, 1890. -- Paulinus of Petricordia was first edited, Paris, 1589,
by Fr. Juretus (Migne, PL., Ixi. 1009-1076). Recent editions are owing
to E. F. Corpet, Paris, 1852, and M. Petschenig , in Poetae christiani rm-
nores, part I, pp. 1 — 190. A. Huber, Die poetische Bearbeitung der Vita
S. Martini des Sulpicius Severus durch Paulinus von Perigueux (Progr.),
Kempten, 1901. The above mentioned account of the miracles of
St. Martin by Perpetuus of Tours has perished. The Testamentum and
Epitaphium Perpetui episc. (Migne, PL., Iviii. 753—756) are forgeries of
Vigmer; cf. Julien Havet (§ 3, 2). There is a letter to Perpetuus among
the aforesaid epistles of Sidonius (vii. 9).
4- GENNADIUS OF MARSEILLES. - - We possess but little exact
information concerning the priest Gennadius of Marseilles, an histo-
§ 112. OTHER GALLIC WRITERS. 609
rian of ecclesiastical literature, who flourished in the latter half of
the fifth century. In an addition to his De viris illustribus (§2, 2)
made by a later hand we read the following : Scripsi adversum omnes
haereses libros viii et adversum Nestorium libros v et adversus Eu-
tychen libros x et adversus Pelagium iibros iii et tractatus de mille
annis, de Apocalypsi beati Johannis et hoc opus et epistolam de fide
mea missam ad beatum Gelasium episcopum urbis Romae. He tells
us himself1 that he translated into Latin some works of Greek
ecclesiastical writers, particularly writings of Evagrius Ponticus (§ 70, 4).
Most of the works of Gennadius have perished. His De ecclesiasticis
dogmatibus, still extant, is usually identified with the Epistola de fide
mea. It is really a kind of profession of faith, though it is not
epistolary in form, nor does it, with one exception (laudo, vitupero,
c. 23) appear as a personal document. Caspari suggests, perhaps
correctly, that it is a remnant of the Libri viii adversus omnes hae
reses, or to speak more particularly, its conclusion. The actual text
is copiously interpolated, but in its original form it was probably
composed in some circle of Semipelagians , then very numerous in
Southern Gaul. Even the De viris illustribus of Gennadius (§ 2, 2)
exhibits traces of Semipelagianism , e. g. in the articles on John
Cassian, Faustus of Reji, and Hilary of Aries, also in the accounts of
St. Augustine, Prosper of Aquitaine, and the popes of the period.
The editio princeps of the De ecclesiasticis dogmatibus was brought
out by G. Elmenhorst, Hamburg, 1614 (Migne, PL., Iviii. 979 — 1054, and
Fr. Oehler, Corpus haereseologicum, Berlin, 1856, i. 335—400). The in
tegrity of the original text is discussed by C. Fr. Arnold , Casarius von
Arelate, Leipzig, 1894, pp. 535 f. C. H. Turner , The Liber Ecclesiasti-
corum Dogmatum attributed to Gennadius, in Journal of Theol. Studies
(1905), vii. 78 — 99. A profession of faith entitled: Gennadius Massiliensis
episc. de fide disputans inter caetera dixit, is discussed by C. P. Caspari,
Kirchenhistorische Anekdota, Christiania, 1883, i. 301 — 304; cf. xix— xxiii.
5. AVITUS OF VIENNE. - - Saint Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, bishop
of Vienne about 490 — 5J8, has been justly called the pillar of Catholic
faith and the soul of ecclesiastical life in the Burgundian kingdom.
His influence brought about the conversion to Catholicism of the
Arian king Sigismund (516 — 523). He was an indefatigable opponent
of all heresy, and especially of Semipelagianism; and at the same
time his zeal for a closer union with the Roman Church contrasts
strongly with the dissentient spirit of the Orientals that culminated
in the Acacian schism. Avitus considered that intimate relations with
the Apostolic See were necessary to ensure and further the welfare
of Christian civilization and the maintenance of religious authority. His
well-known phrase clearly exhibits this point of view : Si papa urbis
vocatur in dubium, episcopatus iam videbitur, non episcopus, vacillare2.
1 De viris ill., cc. n 72. 2 Ep. 34, ed. Peiper.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 39
THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Foremost among his writings is an hexameter poem in five books,
casually described by himself 1 as: Libelli de spiritalis historiae gestis.
The title of each book is as follows : de mundi initio, de originali pec-
cato, de sententia Dei, de diluvio mundi, de transitu maris rubri. The
first three books supplement one another and form within the larger
work a kind of minor cycle, the subject-matter of which is original
sin or the loss of Paradise. The first book depicts what took place
before the Fall, the third book relates its fatal consequences, while
the catastrophe itself is the subject of the second; it is this second
book which exhibits Avitus at his best as a dramatic writer. In
the fourth and fifth books the deluge and the passage of the Red
Sea are described as figures symbolical of baptism. In the first
three books the high poetic genius of Avitus finds full play; they
are characterized by unity of thought and arrangement and by com
plete mastery over the entire scriptural material. His poetical gift
appears to less advantage in his panegyric De virginitate or: De
consolatoria castitatis laude. This poem of six hundred and sixty-
six hexameters was addressed to his sister Fuscina, a virgin dedi
cated to the service of God from her earliest youth, but whose soul
suffered from many grievous temptations. Avitus shows at all times
an intimate knowledge of Vergil and Sidonius (see no. 2). His
versification exhibits few errors in prosody or metre, and the dic
tion is comparatively pure and correct. His prose works, however,
abound in barbarisms ; it is well-known that contemporary Latin prose
was everywhere in a more advanced condition of decay than Latin
poetry. Of these works there still remain : Contra Eutychianam hae-
resim libri ii, written in 512 or 513, and: Dialogi cum Gundobado
rege vel librorum contra Arianos reliquiae. We possess also about
one hundred letters of Avitus, written between 495 and 518, very
valuable for the ecclesiastical and political history of the time. His
homilies were once extant in a collection, but apart from some frag
ments and excerpts only two: Homilia in rogationibus, and: Sermo
die prima rogationum, have been preserved.
The editio princeps of Avitus is that by J, Sirmond, S. J., Paris, 1643;
until lately all editions followed this text, even Migne, PL., lix. The first
to undertake and complete a new edition based on a thorough examination,
of the manuscripts was R. Peiper, Alcimi Ecdicii Aviti Viennensis episc.
opera quae supersunt, Berlin, 1883 (Monum. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss.,
The ktest editor of Avitus is U. Chevalier, CEuvres completes de
St. Avite, eveque de Vienna, Lyons, 1890. The appendix added by Peiper
to the prose writings of Avitus contains among other things an ancient
Aviti (pp. 177 — 181) and a metrical Epitaphium S. Aviti (pp. 185
86; Migm, PL., lix. 197— 198). There is in Peiper, pp. 161-164,
L., lix. 387—392, a narrative of a religious colloquy between
ishops and Arians held at Lyons in 499 before King Gundobad,
1 Ep. 51, ed. Pdper.
§ 112. OTHER GALLIC WRITERS. 6l I
in which Avitus , as the Catholic spokesman , won a splendid victory ;
Havet (§ 3, 2) snowed (1885) that this piece was a forgery of Vignier,
and that he also forged the letter of Pope Symmachus to Avitus (Oct. 13.,
501 : Ep. 33, in the Peiper edition ; Migne, PL., Ixii. 51 — 52). Cf. F. Desloge,
in Universite catholique, new series (1890), iv. 67 — 80. V. Cucheval, De
S. Aviti Viennae episc. operibus commentarium, Paris, 1863. C. Binding,
Das Burgundisch-Romanische Konigreich (443 — 532 A. D.), Leipzig, 1868,
i. 168 — 179 290—297. A. Charaux, St. Avite, eveque de Vienne en Dau-
phine, sa vie, ses oeuvres, Paris, 1876. H. Denkinger , Alcimus Ecdicius
Avitus, archeveque de Vienne, 460 — 526, et la destruction de 1'Arianisme
en Gaule (These), Geneva, 1890. --On the De spiritalis historiae gestis
see S. Gamber, Le livre de la Genese dans la poe'sie latine au Ve siecle,
Paris, 1899. G. Losgar , Studien zu Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus' «Gedicht»
De spiritalis historiae gestis, Neuburg, 1903. F. Vernet, St. Avite, in Diet,
de la The'ologie, Paris, 1903, i. 2639 — 2444.
6. ST. (LESARIUS OF ARLES. — Caesarius, bishop of Aries (503 — 543),
is a type of those active, self-sacrificing prelates of Southern Gaul
who, during the dissolution of the imperial power in the West, saved
Christian civilization from total ruin, by grafting it upon the new
political life of the barbarian conquerors. His episcopal city of Aries,
where he lived and labored for forty years, was admirably adapted
for such a mission, being the political meeting place of Ostrogoths
and Visigoths, Franks and Burgundians. It was here in stirring times,
alive with important social and religious problems, that Csesarius
labored as a shepherd of souls, reformer of ecclesiastical discipline,
and popular preacher of practical Christianity; he is perhaps the
greatest popular preacher of the ancient Latin Church. In all these
departments his influence was both beneficent and durable. The
writings of Csesarius consist mostly of sermons. One of his first bio
graphers tells us that he wrote on many and varied subjects, and
sent his sermons to France, Gaul, Italy and Spain, that they might
be serviceable to the clergy and the people of these countries1. No
critical collection of these sermons has reached us, and it is therefore
a very difficult task to separate the genuine work of Caesarius from the
spurious pieces (cf. § ill, 2). The genuine sermons are distinguished
for simplicity, clearness, and the relative purity of their diction. Most
of them were written for the average Christian, and are remarkable
for the numerous similes drawn from nature and the common daily
life of his time. A more select group of these discourses was meant
for monks. He also composed two monastic rules Ad virgines and
Ad monachos; the former, which is also the longer of the two, was
revised by him in a later rccapitulatio. He left also some letters,
and a last will and testament under the form of a letter to his suc
cessor. Unless his work De gratia et libero arbitrio be identical
with the decrees of the Second Council of Orange (529), it has
1 Vita S. Caesarii, i. 5, 42.
THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
perished. Csesarius presided over this famous synod which gave the
death-blow to Semipelagianism.
There exists as yet no complete edition of the works of St. Caesarius:
such an edition, however, is being prepared by G. Morin, O. S. B. For
former editions of his sermons see Fesskr-Jungmann , Instit. Patrol., ii 2,
438 — 447. Most of his printed sermons are found among the Sermones
supposititii S. Augustini, in the fifth volume of the Benedictine edition of
St. Augustine (cf. § 94, TO), reprinted in Migne, PL., xxxix. 1735 ff. Other
sermons of St. Caesarius are in Migne, PL., Ixvii. 1041 — 1094 1121 — 1125.
Some new sermons were edited by C. P. Caspari, Kirchenhistor. Anekdota,
Christiania, 1883, 213 f. Briefe, Abhandlungen und Predigten etc., ib.,
1890, pp. 200 f. Morin also published others, in Revue Benedictine (1896),
xiii. 97— in 193 — 214; (1899), xvi. 241— 260 289—305 337—344. A
number of sermons were translated into German by C. Fr. Arnold ', in
Leonhardi-v. Lang s dor ff , Die Predigt der Kirche, Leipzig, 1896. In ad
dition to the sermons the reader will find in Migne, PL., Ixvii, the afore
said Vita S. Caesarii (1001 — 1042), Regula ad monachos (1099 — 1104),
Regula ad virgines (1105 — 1121), Epistolae iii (1125 — 1138), Testamentum
(1139 — 1142). The Epistola de humilitate ad monachos was edited by
C. Fr. Arnold, Casarius von Arelate, Leipzig, 1894, pp. 468 — 490, and
the Testamentum by Morin, in Rev. Bened. (1899), xv^ 97 — II2- For a
hitherto unknown Admonitio S. Caesarii to the clergy concerning the
preaching of the Word of God cf. A. Malnory, St. Ce'saire, eveque d'Arles,
Paris, 1894, pp. 294 — 307. G. Morin and Baltus published, in Rev. Bened.
(1869), xiii. 433 — 443 and 486, a little treatise hitherto unknown, con
cerning divine grace. In the Melanges de litter, et d'hist. relig. dedicated
to Mgr. Cabrieres, Paris, 1899, *• I09 — 124> Morin claims for St. Caesa
rius the authorship of a De mysterio sanctae Trinitatis attributed to
St. Augustine and to Faustus of Reji; he also edited it partially (ib.). -
For the writings of Caesarius in general cf. U. Villevieilk , Histoire de
St. Cesaire, eveque d'Arles, Aix in Provence (1884). B. F. Gellert,
Casarius von Arelate (2 progrs.), Leipzig, 1892—1893. Arnold, 1. c. ;
Malnory, 1. c. - - Julianus Pomerius, a priest and rhetorician of Aries,
and master of Caesarius, wrote several works that have perished (Gennad.,
De viris ill., c. 98; hid. Hisp., De viris ill., c. 25); his excellent pastoral
instruction for priests, quite filled with the spirit of St. Augustine, has
reached us; it is generally known as a De vita contemplativa (Migne,
PL., lix. 415 — 520), though only the first book treats of that subject;
the second is devoted to the active life, and the third to the virtues and
the vices. Cf. Histoire litteraire de la France, Paris, 1735, ii. 665 to
675, and Arnold, Casarius von Arelate, Leipzig, 1894, pp. 80—84 124 to
129. -- Under the name of St. Eleutherus (Eleutherius), bishop of Tournay
(486—531), some Sermones have reached us (Migne, PL., Ixv. 82—102)
that are genuine in part only; cf. Streber, in Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-
lexikon, iv. 361. — St. Remigius (ReSmi), the famous apostle of the Franks,
bishop of Reims (459—533), left four letters, a testament and a metrical
inscription for a chalice (Migne, PL., Ixv. 963—975). The letters were
edited anew by IV. Gundlach, in Monum. Germ hist. Epist. (1892), iii.
112—116. In NeuesArchiv der Gesellsch. fur altere deutsche Geschichts-
ximde (1895), xx. 538 ff., Br. Krusch pronounces the «Testamentum» a
forgery of Hinkmar of Reims. Remigius wrote a collection of homilies
(declamationum- volumina Apoll. Sidon. Ep. ix. 7) that have perished. -
Aurelianus, bishop of Aries (546—551 or 553), left a regula ad monachos
and a Regula ad virgines, in which he re-arranged and enlarged the si-
§ 113- IRISH, SPANISH, AND AFRICAN WRITERS. 613
milar works of St. Cassarius ; he wrote also an Epistola ad Theodebertum
regem (Migne, PL., Ixviii. 385 — 408, and in Gundlach, 1. c., pp. 124 — 126).
P. Lejay, Ce'saire d' Aries, in Diet, de la The'ologie, Paris, 1905, 2168 — 2186.
§ 113. Irish, Spanish, and African writers.
I. ST. PATRICK. - - In spite of much scientific investigation, the
details of the life of the Apostle of Ireland are still shrouded in
obscurity. Patricius, or Succat (his original name), is said to have
been born in 373. His birth-place, according to some, was Kilpatrick
near Dumbarton in south-western Scotland ; others maintain that he
was born at Boulogne-sur-Mer in the North of France. He was com
missioned by Pope Celestine I. to go as an apostle to the Irish, and
received from him the name of Patricius. He is said to have died in
493, at the advanced age of one hundred and twenty years. Two
of the works current under his name are usually recognized as
genuine, a Confessio, in the form of an open letter to the Irish, and
an Epistola ad Coroticitm or: ad Christianos Corotici tyranni sub-
ditos. The Confessio does not contain a statement of his faith or
his teachings, but rather an account of his life or missionary labors.
Coroticus was an Irish prince who had attacked a number of newly-
converted Irish, slain some and carried others into captivity. The
genuineness of both works has lately been again denied. There is
much less evidence for the genuineness of other writings attributed
to Patrick.
W. B. Morris, The life of St. Patrick, Dublin, 1878. Archbishop Healy,
Ireland's ancient schools and scholars, Dublin, 1890, pp. 43 — 89. J. Sander
son, The Story of St. Patrick, London, 1902. All earlier editions of the
writings of St. Patrick are described in Schoenemann, Bibl. hist. -lit. Patr. lat,
ii. 849 ff. The reader will find in Migne, PL., liii, not only the Confessio
(801 — 814) and the Epistola ad Coroticum (813 — 818), but the following
pseudo-Patrician writings: Synodus S. Patricii (817—822), Canones alii
S. Patricio adscript! (823 — 824), Synodus episcoporum Patricii, Auxilii,
Issernini (823 — 826), Canones alii S. Patricio attributi (827 — 828), Proverbia
aliqua S. Patricii (827 — 828), Charta S. Patricii (827 — 830), S. Patricii episc.
de tribus habitaculis liber (831 — 838), Hymnus alphabeticus in laudem S. Pa
tricii turn viventis Sectmdino episc. adscriptus (837 — 840). Whitley Stokes
(The tripartite life of Patrick, London, 1887, ii. 269 — 489) edited the follow
ing : Documents from the Book of Armagh, The Confession of St. Patrick,
St. Patrick's Letter to the Christian Subjects of Coroticus, Preface to the
Faed Fiada, Secundinus' Hymn, Preface to the foregoing Hymn, Fiacc's
Hymn, Ninnine's Prayer, Homily on St. Patrick. George T. Stokes and Ch.
H. H. Wright, The writings of St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, with
notes, critical and historical, London, 1887. J. v. Pflugk- Harttung , Die
Schriften St. Patricks, in Neue Heidelberger Jahrbiicher (1893), iii. 71-
to 87, denies against Whitley Stokes the genuineness of the Confessio and
the Epistola ad Coroticum. The bishop Secundinus was a nephew of
St. Patrick. For the Hymnus abecedarius on St. Patrick cf. Manitius,
Gesch. der christl.-lat. Poesie, Stuttgart, 1891, pp. 238 — 240. S. Malone,
Chapters towards a life of St. Patrick, Dublin, 1892. J. B. Bury, The
614 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Life of St. Patrick and his place in History, London, 1905; cf. Catholic
University Bulletin, Washington, 1906, pp. 246 — 255. On St. Patrick's
Purgatory, see H. Delehaye, Le Pelerinage de Laurent de Pasytho au Pur-
gatoire de St. Patrice, in Analecta Bollandiana (1908), xxxii i, 35 — 60.
2. HYDATIUS. — The Spaniard Hydatius (Idacius), born at Lemica
in Gallecia (Jinzo de Lima in Portugal), consecrated bishop in 427,
probably of Aquae Flaviae (Chaves), continued the Chronicle of
St. Jerome (§ 93, 6) to the year 468. From the year 427 he is a
contemporary witness of the events he narrates; hence the value of
his work for Spanish history of the fifth century, particularly that
of his native province of Gallecia.
The Chronicle of Hydatius was first edited by Ludovicus de S. Laurentio
under the pseudonym of Pauhis Profititis, Rome, 1615. It is twice printed
in Migne, PL., li. 873 — 890, from the edition of Sirmond (Paris, 1619) or
rather from the reprint of that edition in Gallandi , Max. Bibl. vet. Pair.
x. 323 ff . ; and again PL., Ixxiv. 701 — 750, from the edition of J. M.
Garzon and F. X. De Ram, Brussels, 1845. ^ was recently edited anew
by Th. Mommsen, Chronica minora saec. iv v vi vii, vol. ii (Monum. Germ,
hist. Auct. antiquiss., Berlin, 1894, xi. 13 — 36). In the same Chron. min.
vol. i (Monum. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss., 1892, ix. 205 — 247), Mommsen
published the Fasti Consulares for the yean 245 — 468 (Migne, PL., li. 891
to 914) appended to the Chronicle in the only extant manuscript, which
Mommsen entitled: Consularia Constantinopolitana ad a. 395 cum addita-
mento Hydatii ad a. 468 (accedunt consularia Chronici Paschalis). The
provenance of these consular lists is discussed, in a sense hostile to
Mommsen, by C. Frick, Die Fasti Idatiani und das Chronicon Paschale, in
Byzantinische Zeitschrift (1892), i. 282 — 291. For the person of Hydatius
cf. P. B. Gams, Die Kirchengeschichte von Spanien, Ratisbon, 1864, ii i,
465 — 47 !• J- Chr. F. Baehr, Die christl. Dicbter und Geschichtschreiber
Roms, 2. ed., Karlsruhe, 1872, pp. 208 — 212.
3. VICTOR OF VITA. -- Victor, bishop of Vita in the African pro
vince of Byzacena, composed in 486 a history of the persecutions
inflicted by the Arian Vandals on the Catholics of Africa. It is
known as : Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae temporibus
Geiserici et Hunirici regum Wandalorum. He owed to others the
material of the first book that covers the reign of Geiseric (427 to
477). The other two books have a much greater historical value,
since in them the author relates the events of his own time, the
reign of Huneric (477—484). He speaks often as an eye-witness,
and furnishes important documents: we owe to him the text of an
exhaustive profession of faith (ii. 56—101) made by the Catholic
bishops at the conference with the Arian bishops held in Carthage,
February i., 484, also the edict of persecution issued by Huneric
(iii. 3 — 14) on February 24., 484. The work was formerly edited
m five books; they have been reduced to three in modern editions.
The narrative of Victor, set down amid the still vivid impressions of
the frightful cruelties of the Vandals, is very boldly colored, and the
style is quite unpolished. To the manuscripts of Victor's work is
§ 113. IRISH, SPANISH, AND AFRICAN WRITERS. 6l5
appended a: Passio beatissimorum martyrum (seven monks) qui apud
Carthaginem passi sunt sub impio rege Hunirico (die vi. Non. Julias
483); from the manuscripts it has passed into the editions of Victor,
though it is not by him, but by some contemporary African. There
is also published in the editions of Victor a : Notitia provinciarum
et civitatum Africae, i. e. a list according to their respective pro
vinces, of the Catholic bishops whom king Huneric convoked at
Carthage for the conference of February I., 484.
The latest and best editions of the works of Victor are those of
C. Halm, Berlin, 1879 (Monum. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss. iii. i), and
M. Pdschenig, Vienna, 1881 (Corpus script, eccles. lat. vii). For a reprint
of earlier editions see Migne (PL., Iviii. 179 — 276) and Hurter (Ss. Patr.
opusc. sel. xxii). German versions were made by M. Zink, Bamberg, 1883
(Progr.), and A. Matty, Vienna, 1884. Cf. W. Potzsch , Viktor von Vita
imd die Kirchenverfolgung im Wandalenreiche (Progr.), Dobeln, 1887.
F. Ferrere, De Victoris Vitensis libro qui inscribitur historia persecutionis
Africanae provinciae (These), Paris, 1898. A. Schonf elder, De Victore Vitensi
episc. (Diss. inaug.), Breslau, 1889. F. Ferrere, Langue et style de Victor
de Vita, in Revue de Philologie (1901), xxv. no — 123 320 — 336. - - The
above-mentioned profession of faith of the Catholic bishops of Africa was
drawn up by Eugenius, bishop of Carthage (480 — 505), to whom we also
owe an: Epistola ad cives suos pro custodienda fide catholica {Migne, PL.,
Iviii. 769 — 771). This heroic confessor of the faith wrote other works
(Gennad., De viris ill., c. 97) that have perished. -- Cerealis, bishop of
Castellum in Mauretania Caesariensis , called Cerealis Castello-Ripensis in
the Notitia, left a short treatise : Contra Maximinum Arianum (Migne, PL.,
Iviii. 757 — 768). Cf. Rausch, in Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexikon, iii. 14.
Antoninus Honoratus, bishop of Constantina (Cirta) in Numidia, wrote a
beautiful letter of consolation and encouragement to a certain Arcadius,
whom Geiseric had exiled for his attachment to his faith {Migne, PL., 1.
567 — 570); cf. Bardenhewer , in Kirchenlexikon, vi. 227 f. — We regret
the loss of several anti-Arian works written by Catholic bishops in the
time of Geiseric and Huneric, e. g. by Asclepius, bishop of a little
place near Vaga in Numidia (Gennad., De viris ill., c. 73; G. Mercati, in
Rivista bibliog. ital. [1897], ii. 58 — 59); Victor of Cartenna in Mauretania
Caesariensis (Gennad., 1. c. , c. 77), and Voconius, bishop of Castellum
(Gennad., 1. c., c. 78). Two works of Victor of Cartenna, mentioned by
Gennadius: De poenitentia publica and Ad Basilium quendam super mor
tem filii, are perhaps still extant, the first in the pseudo Ambrosian De
poenitentia {Migne, PL., xvii. 971 — 1004), and the other in the pseudo-
Basilian De consolatione in adversis {Migne, PG , xxxi. 1687 — 1704). Some
sermons, possibly the work of Voconius, are discussed by G. Morin, in
Revue Benedictine (1893), x. 529.
4. VIGILIUS OF TAPSUS. - - Among those who took part in the
above-mentioned conference at Carthage between Catholics and Arians
(see no. 3) was Vigilius, bishop of Tapsus in the province of Byzacena.
At this conference there was no genuine discussion. Later on most
of the Catholic bishops were exiled. We have no certain knowledge
concerning the fate of the bishop of Tapsus. It has been commonly
maintained that he took refuge at Constantinople, but this seems
6l6 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
now untenable. The researches of Picker (1897) have made clear
a number of facts concerning the literary labors of Vigilius. He is
without doubt the author of the dialogue : Contra Arianos, Sabellianos
et Photinianos (Athanasio, Ario, Sabellio, Photino et Probo iudice inter-
locutoribus), and of the five books: Contra Eutychetem, composed
as an antidote to Monophysitism in view of the needs of readers in
the Eastern empire. In this second work he quotes himself (v. 2)
as the author of the «dialogue», while in the latter he mentions two
other works written by him: a book against the Arian deacon Mari-
badus (ii. 45) and one against the Arian bishop Palladius (ii. 50).
So far it has been impossible to identify these two works ; they seem
to have perished. Chifflet published (1664), and under the name
of our Vigilius: Contra Marivadum Arianum and Contra Palladium
Arianum, but the latter is known to be a spurious work, and there
can be no doubt that such is also the character of the former. As
to the other four works that Chifflet attributes to Vigilius : a dialogue
Contra Arianos (a rudely executed excerpt of the genuine « dialogue »),
twelve books De trinitate, a work Contra Felicianum Arianum, the
short and insignificant Solutiones obiectionum Arianorum and a Col-
latio cum Pascentio Ariano: they are ascribed to our author either
erroneously or with insufficient arguments.
The last complete edition of the works of Vigilius (with those of Victor
of Vita) is owing to P. Fr. Chifflet, S. J., Dijon, 1664 (Mignc, PL., Ixii,
Paris, 1848 1863). The Contra Marivadum Arianum is mentioned in
§ 89, 3, apropos of the anti-Priscillianist Itacius. The first book of the
Contra Palladium Arianum (Ib., Ixii. 433 — 463) contains only the acts of
the Synod of Aquileia (381); cf. Hefele, Konziliengeschichte, 2. ed., ii. 35,
adn. 3; the second book is identical with the De fide orthodoxa contra
Arianos that was apparently composed by Gregory of Eliberis (§ 87, 4).
The twelve books De Trinitate (Ib., Ixii. 237—334) bear in the manuscript
the name of St. Athanasius; Montfaucon was inclined, perhaps rightly, to
see in the twelfth book a genuine work of St. Athanasius (§ 63, 3 10;
87, 4). The work Contra Felicianum Arianum has come down under
the name of St. Augustine (Ib., xlii. 1157—1172), as has also the Collatio
cum Pascentio Ariano (Ib., xxxiii. 1156—1162). Cf. G. Picker, Studien
zu Vigilius von Tapsus, Leipzig, 1897.
5. ST. FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE. -- The African writer Fulgentius
was probably the best theologian of his time. He was an able adversary
of Arianism, while the Augustinian doctrine of grace found in him
a skilful exponent. He was born at Telepte in Byzacena in 468
and died in 533 as bishop of Ruspe in the same province. Our
knowledge of his life is drawn from an excellent historical source,
the Vita S. Fulgentii, composed in 533 — 534, and according to
tradition by Fulgentius Ferrandus, a disciple of the Saint. Our
Fulgentius belonged to a distinguished family and received a very
careful education. The commentary of St. Augustine on the thirty-
:th Psalm (Vulgate) moved the pious youth to embrace the monas-
§ 113- IRISH, SPANISH, AND AFRICAN WRITERS.
tic life. After many sufferings and persecutions on the part of the
Arians, he quitted Africa and lived for a while in Sicily and at
Rome. He was then for many years the abbot of a monastery; in
507 or 508 he was reluctantly made bishop of the little maritime
town of Ruspe. Shortly afterward, together with more than sixty
other Catholic bishops of Byzacena, he was exiled to Sardinia by
king Thrasamund (496 — 523). Somewhat later, about 515, the king
felt the need of his counsel in the course of some doctrinal discus
sions, and recalled to Carthage the famous theologian, whence he
was again banished to Sardinia about 519 by Arian intrigues. The
accession of the lenient Hilderic in 523 made it possible for him
and the other exiled African bishops to return to their native land.
After ten more years of pastoral labors Fulgentius died in 533. -
Most of his writings are either anti-Arian in scope or treat of the
mystery of the Incarnation. His treatise : Contra Arianos, was written
to answer the ten questions proposed to him by Thrasamund about
515. Another work: Ad Thrasamundum regem Vandalorum, was
composed in reply to new objections of the king. The author of
the Vita S. Fulgentii tells us (cc. 23, 47; 24, 48) that this work
was followed by another (opus) : Adversus Pintam , and by a short
treatise (commonitorium parvissimum) : De Spiritu Sancto. The latter
work is now represented by two fragments, while the former work
has perished. The treatise: Pro fide Catholica adversus Pintam epi-
scopum Africanum, printed in the editions of Fulgentius, is spurious.
The following works are apparently of a later date : De Trinitate
ad Felicem notarium, Contra sermonem Fastidiosi Ariani ad Victorem,
De incarnatione Filii Dei et vilium animalium auctore ad Scarilam.
We possess still thirty-nine precious fragments of the ten books:
Contra Fabianum Arianum. — Fulgentius was first drawn into the
discussion of questions concerning grace by the Scythian fnonks
(§ 1 02, 2). In 519 or 520 they submitted their doctrinal opinions
to the judgment of the exiled African bishops in Sardinia, who
through Fulgentius opposed the formula: «one of the Trinity suffered
in the flesh », and took sides with the monks in their conflict with
Faustus of Reji1. During his Sardinian exile Fulgentius wrote: De
remissione peccatorum ad Euthymium libri ii, Ad Monimum libri iii
(i. De duplice praedestinatione Dei, una bonorum ad gloriam, altera
malorum ad poenam; ii. De sacrificii oblatione, de Spiritus Sancti
missione, de supererogatione beati Pauli; iii. De vera expositione
illius clicti evangelici: et Verbum erat apud Deum), Contra Faustum
libri vii. The latter work2 has perished. After his return from exile
(523) Fulgentius wrote in Africa: De veritate praedestinationis et
gratiae Dei ad Joannem et Venerium ; he composed also in the same
year the Epistola Synodica of the African bishops concerning
1 S. Fulg., Ep. 17 de incarnatione et gratia. 2 Vita S. Fulg.,-c. 28, 54.
6l8 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
grace1, and addressed it to the aforesaid John and Venerius (§ 102, 2).
The genuine works of Fulgentius on grace and predestination (De
praedestinatione et gratia) are so true an echo of St. Augustine's
doctrine, even on such points as the special voluntas salvifica of God
and the fate of infants deceased without baptism, that he has been
rightly called «Augustinus abbreviatus». The golden booklet: De
fide seu de regula verae fidei ad Petrum, is a compendium of Catholic
doctrine. He wrote also some letters and sermons.
His works were first edited by W. Pirkheimer and J. Cochlaus, Hagenau,
1520. The best and most complete edition is that of L. Mangeant, Paris,
1684; Venice, 1742 (Migne, PL., Ixv, Paris, 1847 *86i). The De fide ad
Petrum is reprinted by ffurter, in vol. xvi of his SS. Patr. opusc. selecta;
eighteen Epistolae (i — 18) are ib. , in vols. xlv— xlvi, together with the
Vita Fulgentii. The latter work was translated into German by A, Molly,
Vienna, 1885; cf. G. Picker, in Zeitschr. fiir Kirchengesch. (1901), xxi.
9 — 42. In the Rhein. Museum (1899), liv. in — 134, R. Helm maintains
the identity of our Fulgentius with the profane writer Fabius Planciades
Fulgentius; cf. Teuffel-Schwabe, Gesch. der rom. Lit., 5. ed., pp. 12381!. For
a circumstantial and exhaustive study on Fulgentius see Pessle.r-Jungmann,
Instit. Patrol., ii 2, 398 — 432, and F. Wortcr, Zur Dogmengeschichte des
Semipelagianismus (III: Die Lehre des Fulgentius von Ruspe), Minister,
1900 (Kirchengeschichtl. Studien , v. 2). - - Of Fulgentius Ferrandus, a
disciple and perhaps a relative of Fulgentius of Ruspe, we know only that
he was the companion of the latter during his exile in Sardinia and that
in 523 he became a deacon of the Church of Carthage. Factmdus of
Hermiane, who was composing his Pro defensione trium capitulorum in
546, speaks in that work (iv. 3) of Ferrandus as if he were already dead.
Apart from the Vita Fulgentii, Ferrandus left some letters and a Breviatio
canonum. The latter work (Migne, PL., Ixvii. 949 — 962) is a complete rule
of ecclesiastical life compiled from Greek and African canons ; it treats of
bishops (cc. i — 84), of priests (cc. 85 — 103), of deacons (cc. 104 — 120), of
other ecclesiastics (cc. 121 — 142), of councils (cc. 143 — 144), of canonical
offences, and among other things of procedure against heretics, Jews and
pagans (cc. 145 — 198), of baptism (cc. 199 — 205), of Lent (cc. 206—210),
and of other miscellaneous points (cc. 211 — 232). On its literary history
cf. Fr. Maassen, Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des kanoni-
schen Rechts, Graz, 1870, i. 799—802. Seven theological letters of Fer
randus are in Migne (1. c., Ixvii. 887—950); two of his letters to Fulgen
tius are among the works of the latter (Ib., Ixv. 378—380 392 — 394).
One of these seven letters, addressed to Eugippius (§ 114, 4) was first
edited in its entirety by Mai (Script, vet. nova Coll., iii 2, 169—184); the
only fragment hitherto known was in Mign.e (1. c., Ixvii. 908-910), who
took it from Gattandi, Bibl. vet. Patr., xi. 355. The same Codex Casinas,
saec. xi, from which Mai obtained his material, furnished A. Reifferscheid,
Anecdota Casinensia (Supplement to the Index scholarum in universit. litt.
Vratislaviensi per hiemem a. 1871—1872 habendarum) pp. 5—7, with the
text of five other hitherto unedited letters of Fulgentius, short personal notes
of little importance.
6. DRACONTIUS. - - Toward the end of the fifth century a Chris
tian poet again appeared in Africa, Blossius Aemilius Dracontius.
1 EP. 15.
§ 113. IRISH, SPANISH, AND AFRICAN WRITERS. 6 1C)
He belonged to a wealthy family of the landed gentry, and received
the liberal education in grammar and rhetoric suited to his rank and
the legal career to which he devoted himself. Both he and his family
incurred the wrath of king Gunthamund (484 — 496) whereby the
fortunes of the family were ruined. Dracontius was stripped of all
his wealth and cast into prison. He tells us himself, in the Satis-
factio (vv. 93 — 94; cf. vv. 105 — 106), that his misfortunes were owing
to a poem in which he had sung the praises of a foreign master
(probably the Roman emperor) instead of the Vandal lords of Africa.
While in prison, Dracontius composed his Satisfactio, an elegy in
one hundred and fifty-eight distichs or three hundred and sixteen
hexameters, in praise of God's love and goodness; he also exhorts
king Gunthamund to imitate the forgiving spirit and mercy of God,
an advice that was unheeded. This poem was followed by a longer
one entitled Laudes Dei, likewise in honor of the divine graciousness
(pietas). It is divided into three books. The first (seven hundred
and fifty-four verses) glorifies the loving kindness of God in the Crea
tion ; the second (eight hundred and eight verses in the Arevalo,
eight hundred and thirteen in the Glaser edition) treats of its con
tinuance and perfection in the preservation of the world and espe
cially in the mission of Jesus Christ; the third (six hundred and
eighty-two verses in the Arevalo, six hundred and ninety-nine in the
Glaser edition) invites all Christians to repay the divine love by an
invincible confidence in God. It is not known if this work of Dra
contius met with better success than the former. The remainder of
his life is still hidden in obscurity. The didactic gravity of these
poems is varied by their strongly subjective and lyrical tone; they
exhibit at once a pleasing originality and strong personal emotion.
There are extant also some miscellaneous poems of a profane cha
racter, most of which were very probably written at an earlier period
of the poet's life.
The Satisfactio of Dracontius underwent a substantial revision at the
hands of Eugenius II. , bishop of Toledo , in keeping with the wishes of
the Visigothic king Chindaswinth (642 — 649) ; not only were the poetical
form and the theology of the poem affected by this treatment, but pro
bably also its political sentiments. It is this revision that was usually
printed as Dracontii Elegia (Migne, PL., Ixxxvii. 383 — 388), until the edition
of F. Arevalo (Rome, 1791, pp. 367 — 402: Ib., Ix. 901 — 932) made known
the original text. For a new collation of the manuscripts of Arevalo
cf. F. de Duhn } Dracontii carmina minora, Leipzig, 1873, pp. 80 — 90.
The Laudes Dei were first edited, with approximate completeness, by
Arevalo, 1. c. , pp. 117 — 366 (Ib. , Ix. 679 — 902). The last two books of
this poem were edited anew (Breslav, 1843 1847) by £*• £• Glaser, in two
short programs of the Royal Friedrichs-Gymnasmm. For the text-criticism
of Dracontius scholars are much indebted to W. Mayer , Die Berliner
«Centones» der « Laudes Dei» des Dracontius, in Sitzungsberichte der kgl.
preuft. Akad. der Wissensch. zu Berlin (1890), pp. 257 — 296. Cf. J. B.
62O THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Pitra, Analecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888, part I, pp. 176—180. That
part of the Laudes Dei which treats of the creation and original sin, i. e.
the first book from verse 116 to the end of this book, was soon circulated
separately, under the title Hexaemeron creationis mundi (Isid. Hisp., De
viris ill. , c. 24). Bishop Eugenius also edited anew this section of the
poem, and entitled it: Dracontii Hexaemeron; as such it went through
various editions (Ib., Ixxxvii. 371—384 388)- For the profane poems of
Dracontius, particularly the Orestis tragoedia, attributed to him with seem
ingly good reasons, cf. Teuffel-Schwabe , Gesch. der rom. Lit., 5. ed.,
pp. 1220 — 1224, where the reader will also find the most recent literature,
and in particular that concerning the Orestis tragoedia of Dracontius.
J. Camber, Le livre de la Genese dans la poe'sie latine au Ve siecle, Paris,
1899. H. Half ait, De Dracontii poetae lingua (These), Paris, 1902. — The
aforesaid bishop Eugenius II. of Toledo (646—657) left a number of small
poems (Ib., Ixxxvii. 359—368 389—400) and some letters (Ib., Ixxxvii. 403
to 418). Cf. Fr. Vollmer, in Neues Archiv der Gesellsch. fiir altere deutsche
Geschichtskunde (1901), xxvi. 391 — 404.
§ 114. Italian writers.
I. POPES, ESPECIALLY ST. GELASIUS I. - - Among the Popes of
the second half of the fifth century, Hilary (461 — 468), Simplicius
(468—483), Felix III. (483—492), Gelasius I. (492—496), Anastasius II.
(496 — 498), it is Gelasius who has left us by far the greater number
of important letters and decrees. Some years ago, a not unimportant
addition was made to their number by the discovery of ancient papal
letters, known as the British Collection, because found in a manu
script belonging to the British Museum. The most famous of the
official documents current under the name of Gelasius is the : De-
cretum de recipiendis et non recipiendis libris, a series of decrees
said to have been issued by him at a Roman Synod; modern re
searches have shown that it is a spurious compilation. In its tradi
tional form this Decretum is made up of five parts : de Spiritu Sancto,
de canone Scripturae Sacrae, de sedibus patriarchalibus, de synodis
oecumenicis, de libris recipiendis. The fifth part has given the name
to the whole work, probably because it is by far the most extensive
of the five works : it is a catalogue of libri recipiendi (works of the
Fathers) and libri apocryphi qui non recipiuntur (biblical apocrypha
and some patristic writings). The ecclesiastical interest of the work
is very great, since it is the earliest Index librorum prohibitorum.
It was well-known for a long time that the first two parts belonged
to a Roman synod held under Pope Damasus, very probably in the
year 382. The Gelasian authorship of the latter part has provoked
so many objections that it seems more prudent entirely to abandon
the defence of it, than to maintain any hypothesis of interpolation and
text-corruption. In his edition of the letters of Gelasius (1868), Thiel,
following the manuscript-tradition, set aside six of the longer docu
ments among the Epistolae et decreta, and edited them as a special
group of Gelasian writings under the title Tractatus. Most of them re-
. § 114- ITALIAN WRITERS. 621
present the sustained but hopeless attempts of the pope to put an end
to the Acacian Schism at Constantinople (§ 99, 4). These tractatus
are as follows: Gesta de nomine Acacii vel breviculus historiae Eutychia-
nistarum; De damnatione norm'num Petri et Acacii; De duabus naturis
in Christo adversus Eutychen et Nestorium; Tomus de anathematis
vinculo ; Dicta adversus Pelagianam haeresim ; Adversus Andromachum
senatorem ceterosque Romanes, qui Lupercalia secundum morem pri-
stinum colenda constituebant. Other writings of Gelasius have perished.
The Sacramentarium Gelasianum , or collection of prayers at Mass
(§ 97, 2), is declared by Duchesne (1889) to be a compilation of
Gregory the Great; Probst (1892) maintains the authorship of Gela
sius. Even in the latter hypothesis, additions and modifications may
be admitted, since none of the extant manuscripts is prior to the
seventh or eigth century. It seems quite certain that there existed
in the Roman Church previous to Gregory the Great an official
collection of such prayers, also that this collection, with its later
accretions, lies embedded in the Sacramentarium Gelasianum. On
the other hand, such critics as Dom Baumer think that the time has
not yet come when a positive decision can be reached as to the
authorship and proper title of the Gelasian Sacramentary in its pre
sent shape. - - Pope Symmachus (498 — 514) left some ten genuine
letters. Many more letters of his successor, Pope Hormisdas (514
to 523), have survived; it is surmised that the ancient collectors of
papal decretals had direct access to the archives of the Roman Church
for the correspondence of Hormisdas.
Epistolae et decreta S. Hilari P., in Migne, PL., Iviii. u ff. ; S. Sim-
plicii P. : ib., Iviii. 35 ff. ; S. Felicis P. III. : ib., Iviii. 893 ff. ; S. Gelasii P. I. :
ib., lix. 13 ff. (letters of Anastasius II. are lacking); S. Symachi P.: ib.,
Ixii. 49 ff.; S. Hormisdae P.: ib., Ixiii. 367 ff. A new (unfinished) edition
of the early papal letters was begun by A. Thiel, Epistolae Romanorum
Pontificum genuinae et quae ad eos scriptae sunt a S. Hilaro usque ad
Pelagium II. , rec. et ed. A. Thiel, I : A S. Hilaro usque ad S. Hormis-
dam a. 461 — 523, Brunsberg, 1886 (the second volume of this work, though
promised, was never published). Many letters of the aforesaid popes have
reached us only through the Collectio Avellana (see no. 7). For the new,
mostly very brief, letters of Gelasius taken from the British Museum
manuscript cf. S. Loeivenfeld, Epistolae Pontificum Rom. ineditae, Leipzig,
1885, pp. i — 12, also P. Evvald , Die Papstbriefe der Britischen Samm-
lung, in Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft f. altere deutsche Geschichtskunde
(1880), v. 275 — 414 503 — 596. The letters of Popes Hilary, Simplicius,
Felix III., Gelasius I and Anastasius II. were translated into German by
S. Wenzlowsky, Die Briefe der Papste (Bibl. der Kirchenvater) , Kempten,
1879 — 1880, vi — vii. For the chronology of the papal letters from Hilary
to Hormisdas see Jaffe, Reg. Pontif. Rom. (1885), 2. ed., i. 75 — 109, -also
O. Giinther, Avellana-Studien (Sitzungsberichte of Vienna Academy), Vienna,
1896. The letter of Gelasius (Jan. 25., 494) to Rusticus, bishop of Lyons
(Thiel, Ep. Rom. Pontif., p. 359), the letter of congratulation written by
Anastasius II. to Clovis in 497 (Thiel, p. 624), and the letter of Sym
machus (Oct. 13., 501) to Avitus of Vienne (Thiel, pp. 656!".) are for-
622 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
geries of Jerome Vignier, according to Julien Havet (§ 112, 5). The
fetter of Anastasius to Clovis is defended by B. Hasenstab , Studien zu
Ennodius, Munich, 1890, pp. 52 ff. -- A separate edition of the decretal
De recipiendis et non recipiendis libris was published by A. Thiel, Bruns-
berg, 1866. J. Friedrich, Uber die Unechtheit der Dekretale «De re
cipiendis et non recipiendis libris» des Papstes Gelasius L, in Sitzungs-
berichte d. kgl. bayer. Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Miinchen, philos.-philolog.
and hist, series (1888), i. 54 — 86; T/i. Zahn , Gesch. des neutestamentl.
Kanons (1890), ii i, 259 — 267 ; A. Koch, Der hi. Faustus, Bischof von Riez,
Stuttgart, 1895, pp. 57—71. Cf. § 88, 6. J. Hilgers, Der Index der ver-
botenen Biicher, Freiburg, 1904 1907. The Sacramentarium Gelasianum is
in Migne, PL., Ixxiv. 1055 — 1244. A new edition is owing to H. Wilson,
The Gelasian Sacramentary , Liber sacramentorum Romanae ecclesiae,
edited by H. A. Wilson, Oxford, 1894. P. de Puniet, Les trois homelies
cate'chetiques du sacramentaire gelasien. Pour la tradition des evangiles,
du symbole et de 1'oraison dominicale. I: «L'Expositio Evangeliorum» ;
II: «L'Expositio Symboli »; III: «L'Expositio Orationis dominicae», in Rev.
d'hist. eccles. (1904), pp. 505 — 521 755~ 786; (I9°S) > PP- J5 — 32- For
further details concerning this work see the writings of Duchesne and
Probst (§ 97, 3), also ,5. Baumer , in Hist. Jahrb. (1893), xiv. 241 — 301,
and F. Plaine, Le sacramentaire gelasien et son authenticite substantielle,
Paris, 1896; Id. , De Sacramentarii Gelasiani substantiali integritate, in
Studien und Mitteilungen aus dem Benediktiner- und Cisterzienserorden
(1901), xxii. 131 — 147 381 — 389 577 — 588. A. Roux, Le pape Gelase I.
(482 — 496), Paris, 1880. E. Wolfflin, in Archiv fur latein. Lexikogr. und
Gramm. (1900), xii i, i — 10. J. Rohr , Gelasius I. und der Primat, in
Theol. Quartalschr. (1902), Ixxxiv. no — 123. Other details concerning
these popes may be found in H. Grisar, Geschichte Roms und der Papste
im Mittelalter, Freiburg i. Br. , 1901, i, passim, also in the shorter form
of the same work: Roma alia fine del mondo antico, parts I and II,
Rome, 1899.
2. ENNODIUS OF PAVIA. - - Magnus Felix Ennodius was a native
of Southern Gaul, but came at an early age to Northern Italy. He
was very probably a teacher of rhetoric before he received the priest
hood, and at the time of his ordination his bride became a nun.
He was raised to the see of Ticinum (Pavia), apparently in 513, and
as such was twice sent (515 and 517) by Pope Hormisdas to the
emperor Anastasius in the hope of bringing about the union of
the Latin and Greek Churches, separated since the beginning of the
Acacian Schism. He died in 521 at Pavia. Ennodius recalls the
figure of Apollinaris Sidonius (§ 112, 2); like him Ennodius is at
once rhetorician and bishop, prose-writer and poet. His writings,
however, exhibit in a more pronounced degree the Christian and
ecclesiastical elements of contemporary life; he was also a zealous
defender of the papal primacy. In Sirmond's edition of his writings
(1611) they are divided into four groups: Epistolae, Opuscula, Dic-
tiones, Carmina. This division is not taken from the manuscripts
which contain no division into groups, but present the writings of
Ennodius without any order whatever. His Epistolae number two
hundred and ninety-seven, and were arranged by Sirmond in nine
§ 114- ITALIAN WRITERS. 623
books. They were all written before 513, very probably at Milan,
while Ennodius was still a deacon ; in general they are characterized
by poverty of thought and magniloquence of diction. His ten Opus-
cula miscella awaken a stronger interest. Chief among them is his
panegyric on Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king; it is extremely bom
bastic in style and ultra-flattering in contents, but exhibits much
ability on the part of the writer, and ranks among the principal
sources of information on the life of Theodoric. It was delivered in
507 or 508, probably on the festivity kept in honor of some political
event, but it is not true , as is usually stated, that our author pro
nounced this panegyric as an act of gratitude for the services of
Theodoric in silencing the antipope Laurentius. Nevertheless, En
nodius had already been , several years before , a champion of the
rights of the legitimate pope. The charges against pope Sym-
machus had been rejected by a Roman synod in 502 ; the accusers
of the pope continued to complain of this action, and published
an attack on the synod entitled : Adversus synodum absolutionis
incongruae , i. e. against the improper or unbecoming conduct of
the synodal fathers in absolving Symmachus. Ennodius refuted this
libel and defended the synod with skill and success in his: Libellus
adversus eos qui contra synodum scribere praesumpserunt. Other
Opuscula are entitled: Vita S. Epiphanii episcopi Ticinensis, a
celebrated predecessor of the author in the see of Pavia (f 496),
written about 503; Vita S. Antonii monachi Lerinensis; Eucharisti-
cum de vita sua (a title, assigned this work by Sirmond in imitation
of a similar poem of Paulinus of Pella, § 1 12, 3): it is a short
autobiography of the poet in the shape of a prayer and is mo
delled on the confessions of St. Augustine ; Paraenesis didascalica
(also a title of Sirmond), a kind of manual of pedagogy, composed
in 511 at the request of his friends Ambrosius and Beatus. The
(twenty-eight) Dictioncs offer a strange mixture of sacred and profane
elements. They are mostly models of rhetorical exercises on themes
taken from the pagan past of Rome or from ancient mythology.
Finally, the Carmina of Ennodius were divided by Sirmond into
two books, the first of which includes twenty-one short carmina, and
the second exhibits one hundred and fifty-one brief epigrammatic
inscriptions for sepulchres, churches, images and other works of art.
No spark of poetic fire shines in either of the two books.
The edition of Sirmond was published at Paris, 1611 (reprinted in Migne,
PL., Ixiii. 13 — 364). New complete editions were undertaken by W. Hartel,
Vienna, 1882 (Corpus script, eccles. lat., vi), and Fr. Vogel, Berlin, 1885
(Monum. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss., vii). Hartcl preserves the order and
division of Sirmond, while Vogel rejects both and follows the manuscripts.
Cf. Vogel, Chronologische Untersuchungen zu Ennodius, in Neues Archiv
der Gesellsch. fiir a'ltere deutsche Geschichtskunde (1898), xxiii. 51 — 74.
On the panegyric on Theodoric see C. Cipolla, Intorno al panegirico di
624 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Ermodio per re Teoderico, Padova, 1889, reprinted with two other studies,
and entitled Del «Panegyricus» di Ennodio in lode di re Teoderico, in
Per la storia d'ltalia e dei suoi conquistatori, Bologna, 1895, pp. 527 — 573.
Cipolla maintains against Hasenstab that the panegyric was written, not
delivered orally. M. Dumoulin, Le gouvernement de Theodoric et la domi
nation des Ostrogoths en Italic d'apres les ceuvres d'Ennodius, in Revue
historique (1902), Ixxviii. 1—7 241—265; (1903), Ixxix. 1—22. H. Laufen-
berg, Der historische Wert des Panegyricus des Bischofs Ennodius (Diss.),
Rostock, 1902. The Apology for the Synod of 502 is discussed by
St. Ltglise, St. Ennodius et la suprematie pontificate au VIe siecle (499 to
503), Lyons, 1890. P. Rasi, Dell' arte metrica di Magno Felice Ennodio,
vescovo di Pavia, in Bollettino della Societa Pavese di Storia (1902), ii.
87 — 140; Id., Saggio di alcune particolarita nei distici di S. Ennodio, in
Rendiconti del r. Istit. Lombardo di scienze e lettere, ii. Series (1902),
xxxv. 335 — 353. A. Dubois, La latinite d'Ennodius. Contribution a 1'etude
du latin litte'raire a la fin de 1'empire remain d'Occident (These), Paris,
1903. On Ennodius in general cf. M. Fertig, M. F. Ennodius und seine
Zeit, i, Passau, 1855; ii, Landshut, 1860 (Progr.), iii, ib., 1858. Fr. Magani,
Ennodio, Pavia, 1886, 3 vols. B. Hasenstab , Studien zu Ennodius (Progr.),
Munich, 1890. — Between 503 and 506, Ennodius, then a deacon of Milan,
delivered an Eulogium on Laurentius, bishop of that city (490 — 512), on the
occasion of the anniversary of his consecration : Dictio in natale Laurentii
Mediolanensis episcopi (Enn. op. rec. Vogel, pp. i — 4). Several writers see in
this Laurentius the Laurentius Mellifluus, about whom Sigebert of Gembloux
(De viris ill., c. 120) writes: Scripsit librum de duobus temporibus (id est
uno ab Adam usque ad Christum, altero a Christo usque ad finem saeculi) ;
declamavit etiam homilias ore quasi rnellito, unde agnominatur mellifluus.
Others seek this Laurentius in a contemporary bishop Laurentius of No-
vara, whose historical existence seems very doubtful. He is not mentioned
by F. Savio , Gli antichi vescovi d'ltalia (Piemonte), Torino, 1899. This
De duobus temporibus is also found under the title Homilia de poenitentia,
and with two other homilies De eleemosyna and De muliere Chananaea,
in Migne, PL., Ixvi. 89 — 124. -- A panegyric on Christ in one hundred
and forty-nine good hexameters entitled De Christi lesu beneficiis has
reached us under the name of Rusticus Helpidius (Elpidius; Ib., Ixii. 545
to 548), also a collection of twenty-four epigrams of three verses each,
inscriptions for biblical painting?, entitled In historiam testament! veteris
et novi carmina (Ib., Ixii. 543—546). New editions of the aforesaid Car
men on our Lord were prepared by H. Midler, Gottingen, 1868, and by
W. Brandes, Brunswick, 1890 (Progr.). According to Ebert (Allgem. Ge-
schichte der Lit. des Mittelalters , 2. ed. , i. 414 ff.), Rusticus Elpidius is
identical with the deacon Helpidius, physician of king Theodoric, and
highly praised by Ennodius. Others see the poet in Flavins Rusticius
Helpidius Domnulus, known from his signature in manuscripts, and supposed
to be identical with Domnulus the poet-friend of Sidonius Apollinaris
? 112, 2). Brandes (in his edition of the poem) and Manitius (Gesch.
der christl.-latein. Poesie, Stuttgart, 1891, 380 ff.) maintain that the poet
s neither the deacon Helpidius nor the Gallic writer Domnulus, but a
descendant of the Italian Flavii Rusticii in the first half of the sixth cen-
In the Rhein. Museum fur Philologie, new series (1876), xxxi. 94,
note i, E. Bahrcns made known four distichs in praise of the De Trini-
. Augustine, entitled Versus Rustici defensoris S. Augustini P. Rasi,
alcune particolarita, nel metro eroico e lirico di S. Ennodio, Milano,
The poet Arator, left an orphan in childhood, adopted by Lau
rentius, the above mentioned bishop of Milan, later on found a protector in
114- ITALIAN WRITERS. 625
Ennodius and became a subdeacon of the Roman Church under Pope
Vigilius (537 — 555), and as such put the Acts of the Apostles into Latin
hexameters: De actibus apostolorum libri ii (Ib., Ixviii. 63 — 246). This
epic dedicated to Pope Yigilius, was shortly afterwards (544) read publicly
in the Church of S. Petri ad vincula, at the request of the learned circles
of Rome. Arator took Sedulius (§91, 5) for his model, and surpassed him
in the use of the allegorico-mystical method of interpretation (typica ratio)
of the biblical text; on the other hand, he did not attain the elegance
and vigor of style that belong to his model. The Epistola ad Parthenium
in distichs (Ib. , Ixviii. 245 — 252) was sent by Arator to a friend of his
youth together with a copy of his poem. A new edition of both was made
by A. Hubner, Nice, 1850. Cf. C. L. Leimbach, Uber den Dichter Arator,
in Theol. Studien und Kritiken (1873), xlvi. 225 — 270.
3. DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS. - - Dionysius called «the Little » (Ex-
iguus), not on account of his stature, but because of his voluntary choice
of that humble title, was a Scythian by birth. He repaired to Rome
at an early age, about 500, and lived there as a monk until about
540. We are indebted to the warm eulogy of his friend Cassiodorius l
for such knowledge of his life as we possess. His chief literary merit
consists in the services rendered to Latin scholars by his numerous
translations of the treasures of Greek ecclesiastical literature. He
labored also both as a translator and a collector of the materials
of canon law. He published in Latin a collection of the decrees of
Greek and Latin Councils, and in two editions. Of the first edition
only the preface has survived. The second edition, undoubtedly
published in the first decade of the sixth century, has reached us
intact. It begins with the so-called Apostolic Canons (§ 75, 8) and
comes down to the Council of Chalcedon (451). In the reign of
Pope Symmachus (498 — 514), Dionysius drew up a collection of the
papal decretal letters from Siricius (f 398) to Anastasius II. (f 498).
This collection of the papal decretals was afterward united with the
second edition of the collection of canons and formed a wrhole,
thenceforth known as the Dionysiana (collectio). Each of these
canonical collections acquired high authority in the Western Church.
At the request of Pope Hormisdas (514 — 523), Dionysius compiled
in Latin another collection of canons, this time only those of the
Greek Councils; with the exception of the preface, this work has
perished. The name of Dionysius is for ever memorable in the
history of Christian chronology: we owe to him the introduction of
the Dionysian or Christian era. He insisted with energy on the
adoption of the Alexandrine paschal cycle of nineteen years, and in
525 continued for ninety-five years the paschal tables of St. Cyril
of Alexandria. On this occasion he rejected, for the first time, the
use of the Diocletian era, and began his computation from the birth
of Christ. At the same time he miscalculated this date and located
1 Institmiones, i. 23.
BARDENHEWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 40
626 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
it in the year 754 A. U. C., whereas it took place a few years before
toward the end of 749 A. U. C. i. e. 5 B. C.
All these collections are printed in Migne , PL., Ixvii. 9 ff. The first
version in Migne, the Epistola synodica S. Cyrilli et concilii Alexandrini,
of the year 430 (Ib. , Ixvii. n — 18), is not the work of Dionysius, but of
Marius Mercator (§ 77, 9); cf. Fr. Maassen, Geschichte der Quellen und
der Literatur des kanonischen Rechts, Graz, 1870, i. 132 — 136. We have
already mentioned the version by Dionysius of the work of Gregory of
Nyssa on the constitution of man (§69, 10; Ib., Ixvii. 345 — 408). The
Dionysiana collectio is printed in Migne (1. c., Ixvii. 139 — 316. Another
version of the Apostolic Canons made by Dionysius was first edited by
C. H. Tttrner, Ecclesiae Occidentalis monumenta iuris antiquissima, Oxford,
1899, i. 1—32; Id., Nicaeni concilii praefationes, capitula, symbolum, canones,
ib., 1904. For a discussion of the Epistolae duae de ratione paschae (Ib.,
Ixvii. 19—28; the first letter also ib., Ixvii. 483 — 494), the Cyclus decem-
novennalis Dionysii (Ib., Ixvii. 493 — 498), and the Argumenta paschalia (Ib.,
Ixvii. 497 — 508) see L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und techni-
schen Chronologic, Berlin, 1826, ii. 285 ff. Cf. Maassen, 1. c., pp. 422 to
440 960—965. See B. M. Lersch , Einleitung in die Chronologic, Frei
burg, 1899. Ginzel, Einleitung in die Chronologic, Leipzig, 1907. Dom
Ambrogio Ainelli is of opinion that the Latin collection of documents
discovered by him, and pertaining to the Eutychianist controversies, was
compiled by Dionysius the Little in the years 530—535. Cf. Spicilegium
Casinense complectens Analecta sacra et profana (1893), i. i — 189: Dio
nysii Exigui nova Collectio pro controversia de uno e Trinitate in carne
passo; cf. A. Amelli, S. Leone Magno e TOriente, Rome, 1882, Monte-
cassino, 1890, and § 97, 3.
4. EUGIPPIUS ABBAS. - - Eugippius (Eugipius or Eugepius), a na
tive of Africa and a companion of St. Severinus in the neighbor
hood of the Danube (Noricum Ripense, between Passau and Vienna),
embraced the monastic life about 492 and became abbot of a mona
stery at Castellum Lucullianum, near Naples. His Excerpta ex ope-
ribus S. Augustini are an edifying collection of passages selected
from various books of St. Augustine, with an ascetic purpose, and
dedicated to Proba, a virgo Deo consecrata at Rome. The numerous
extant copies of this work are a proof of its medieval popularity.
Modern readers find more pleasure in the perusal of his Vita S. Se-
erini monachi (the fatherly friend of Eugippius, whose death oc
curred in 482 at Favianis (now Mauer near Oeling on the Danube).
The trustworthy and picturesque characteristics of land and people
with which this biography abounds, throw a meteor-like light across
the historical darkness of these decades. Eugippius left also a letter
to the Roman deacon Paschasius (§ in, 2).
For the writings of Eugippius see Migne, PL., Ixii. 559—1088 1167 to
A new edition was brought out by P. Knoll, Vienna, 1885 - 1886
orpus script, eccles. lat., ix. 1—2). The Vita S. Severini has been often
edited separately; the best editions (together with the letter concerning
this Vita) are those of H. Sauppe, Berlin, 1877 (Monum. Germ. hist. Auct.
; and Th. Mommsen, Berlin, 1808. Cf. Mommsen, in Hermes
§ 114- ITALIAN WRITERS.
(1897), xxxii. 454 — 468. It has been often translated into German, e. g.
by K. Rodenberg, Berlin, 1878, Leipzig, 1884 (Die Geschichtsschreiber der
deutschen Vorzeit), and S. Brunner, Vienna, 1879. Cf. VVattenbach, Deutsch-
lands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter, 6. ed., i. 44 — 51.
5. BENEDICT OF NURSIA. - - St. Benedict was born in 480 at
Nursia (Norcia in Umbria) and died in 543 in his monastery of
Monte Cassino. He composed about 529 the monastic rule that
bears his name. The surviving manuscripts are divided into two
families. According to the researches of Traube, three manuscripts
of the ninth century (codices of St. Gall, Vienna, and Munich) re
present the original text as taken from the autograph of the Saint,
while all other manuscripts, even those older than the above, re
present a longer text viz. the rule as interpolated by Simplicius, the
disciple of St. Benedict. Its centralized and comprehensive organisa
tion of the entire monastic life, and its hearty approval by the great
popes of the succeeding period , assured to this document the final
victory over all other Western rules ; from the eighth century to the
beginning of the thirteenth it was almost the only monastic rule in
the Latin Church. It lifted monasticism to its highest level , and
served innumerable holy souls as a guide and mentor in the way
of perfection.
Migne, PL., Ixvi. 215 — 932: S. P. Benedicti Regula, cum commentariis ;
933 — 934 : S. P. Benedicti sermo habitus in discessu S. Mauri et socio-
rum , epistola ad S. Maurum missa. E. Schmidt , O. S. B., published an
edition of the Rule with a copious apparatus of « variant readings », Ratis-
bon, 1880; also (ib.) without the apparatus criticus. JDom Schmidt made
also a German version of the Rule (ib. , 1891 1893 1902). An Italian
version of the «buon secolo» was edited by E. Lisi, Florence, 1855. A
new edition of the Rule was made by E. Wolff lin, Leipzig, 1895; cf. Id.,
in Sitzungsberichte der kgl. bayer. Akad. der Wissensch., philos.-philolog.
and hist, series (1895), pp. 429 — 454, and in Archiv fur latein. Lexiko-
graphie und Grammatik (1896), ix. 493 — 521. Regulae S. Benedicti tra-
ditio codicum mss. Casinensium a praestantissimo teste usque repetita co-
dice Sangallensi 914 nunc primum omnibus numeris expresso cura et studio
monachorum in archicoenobio Casinensi degentium, Montecassino , 1900.
L. Traube , Textgeschichte der « Regula S. Benedicti » , Munich, 1898, in
Abhandlungen der kgl. bayer. Akad. der Wissensch. E. C. Butler , The
text of St. Benedict's Rule (1899), in Downside Review; Id., The Monte
cassino text of St. Benedict's Rule, in Journal of Theol. Studies (1901 to
1902), iii. 458 — 468 (against Traube); cf. J. Chapman, in Revue Bene
dictine (1902), xix. 314 — 317. H. Plenkers , Neuere Arbeiten und Streit-
fragen liber die Benediktinerregel (for Traube), Vienna, 1902, in Zeitschr.
fiir die osterreich. Gymn. (1902), liii. 97—115, and E. Schmidt, in Studien
und Mitteilungen aus dem Benediktiner- und dem Cistercienserorden (1902),
xxiii. 363 — -372 (against Plenkers). Cf. Id., ib. (1903), xxiv. 18 — 33.
H. Plenkers, Untersuchungen zur Uberlieferungsgeschichte der altesten latei-
nischen Monchsregeln (Munich, 1906), in Quellen und Untersuchungen zur
lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters, i. 3. J. Besse, St. Benoit de Nursie,
in Diet, de la Theologie, ii. 709 — 717.
40*
528 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
6. VICTOR OF CAPUA. — Apart from a few fragments, the works
of Victor of Capua (f 554) have perished. They seem to have dealt
chiefly with the interpretation of Scripture. He drew much of his
material from the Greek exegetes.
The so-called Evangelicae harmoniae Arnmonii Alex, interprete Victore
episc. Capuano are m Migne, PL., Ixviii. 251—358; cf. § 18, 3. For the
Fragmenta D. Polycarpi Smyrn. see ib., Ixviii. 359—360; cf. § 10, 3. A
Fragmentum de cyclo paschali ib. , Ixviii. 1097 — 1098. Scholia veterum
Patrum (S. Polycarpi , Origenis , S. Basilii M. , Diodori Tarsensis etc.) a
Victore episc. Capuae collecta, in Pitra , Spicilegium Solesmense, Paris,
1852, i. 265 — 277. An Excerptum e libello reticulo, seu de area Noe,
under the name of Victor, Migne, PL., Ixviii. 287 — 289. For additions and
corrections see Pitra, Analecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888, part I, pp. 163
to 165. In the Revue Benedictine (1890), vii. 416 — 417, G. Morin claims
for Victor the letter to Constans, bishop of Aquino, that in some manu
scripts of the Lectionarius Romanus appears as a letter of St. Jerome
(Migne, PL., xxx. 501—504).
7. COLLECTIO AVELLANA. - This is the name given by the
scholarly Ballerini brothers (1757) to a collection of imperial and
papal letters, made very probably in the latter half of the sixth
century at Rome, and for private use. The name was however not
quite appropriate: we know now that the Codex Avellanus, once the
property of the Umbrian monastery S. Crucis in fonte Avellana (now
in the Vatican), is not, as the Ballerini believed , the oldest and
•best witness to the text; it is, like all other manuscripts, a copy of
the Codex Vaticanus 3787, saec. xi. in. The contents of the col
lection range in date from 367 to 553, and are more ecclesiastico-
historical than canonical in character; most of the various pieces have
been preserved for posterity only through their incorporation in this
documentary compilation.
The Avellana was first edited completely by O. Gunther, Vienna, 1895
to 1898 (Corpus script, eccles. lat, xxxv), cf. Id., Avellanastudien, Vienna,
1896, in the Sitzungsberichte of the Academy of Vienna. -- We owe to
Apponius, an Italian monk of the sixth century (Mai), a noteworthy com
mentary on the Canticle of canticles in twelve books. The first six were
published in 1538 at Freiburg i. Br., and later in Maxima Bibl. vet. Patrum,
Lyons, 1677, xiv. 98 — 128. Mai added, in Spicilegium Romanum, Rome,
1841, v i, 1 — 85, the seventh, eighth and part of the ninth books. The
entire work was edited by Bottino and Martini: Apponii scriptoris vetu-
stissimi in Canticum canticorum explanationis libri xii e codice Sessoriano
nunc primum vulgantur curantibus H. B. et J. M., Rome, 1843. 7- Witte,
Der Kommentar des Apponius zum Hohenliede (Diss.), Erlangen, 1901.
§ 115. Boethius and Cassiodorius.
I. BOETHIUS. - Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius,
a descendant of the famous ancient family of the Anicii that had long
before embraced Christianity, was born at Rome about 480. Though
left an orphan at an early age, he received an excellent education,
§ 115. BOETHIUS AND CASSIODORIUS. 629
particularly in the Greek language and literature. His extraordinary
learning and noble descent, as well as his excellent personal quali
ties, won for him the esteem and good will of the Ostrogothic king
Theodoric. In 510 he was made consul, and in 522 he had the
happiness of seeing his t\vo youthful sons invested with the same
high office. Boethius was destined, however, to experience the cruel
vicissitudes of fortune. He had defended, openly and courageously,
the Senator Albinus who was accused of entertaining a secret cor
respondence with the emperor Justin I. In consequence Boethius was
himself suspected of treasonable relations with the Byzantine court.
He was also accused of magical practices. The friendly relations of
Justin and the pope (John I.) filled the mind of the Arian king with
suspicion regarding the loyalty of the Roman and Catholic popu
lation. In these dispositions he listened to the enemies of his former
favorite, who had meanwhile been accused of treason by a servile senate.
After languishing for some time in prison at Pavia, he was cruelly
put to death between 524 and $26. - - At an early period of his
life Boethius devoted himself to one great task, the translation and
interpretation of the works of Aristotle and the dialogues of Plato,
with the intention of demonstrating that in their principal points both
systems of philosophy really agreed1. He executed but a small
part of this grandiose plan. A number of his versions have reached
us , among them the Analytica priora and posteriora , the Soph.
Elenchi, and the Topica of Aristotle (his commentary on the latter
work has perished). There is also extant his version of the Aristo
telian (?) work De interpretatione, with two commentaries, one for
beginners, the other (more extensive) for advanced students; by
reason of its learning and acumen this latter commentary, composed
between 507 and 509, is the masterpiece of the author. Other ex
tant philosophical labors of Boethius are: his version of the Cat
egories of Aristotle with a commentary (510), his commentary (before
510) on the version of Porphyry's Isagoge by Marius Victorinus
(§ 87, 8), his own version of the Isagoge with a commentary, his:
Introductio ad categoricos syllogismos, De categoricis syllogismis,
De hypotheticis syllogismis, and De divisione. The work De defini-
tione is erroneously ascribed to Boethius (§ 87 , 8). Other works
of Boethius are similar in contents , or correlated , e. g. the long
but incomplete commentary on the Topica of Cicero, the works:
De differentiis topicorum, De institutione musica, De institutione
arithmetica, De geometria; the authenticity of the latter work is
doubted by some. - - During his imprisonment Boethius composed
his famous work : Philosophiae consolatio, or : De consolatione philo-
sophiae, in five books. In the first book a majestic female appears
to the sorrowful and complaining philosopher ; she is Philosophy and
1 Cf. init. of book 2 of his larger commentary on De interpretatione.
630 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
assures him that she has come for the purpose of sharing the burden
that he is bearing for her sake. In the second book she proceeds
to apply healing remedies to his troubled spirit: hitherto he has
lived in the enjoyment of all the favors of fortune, but fortune is
essentially something variable; true happiness is found only within
ourselves; riches, position, power, are things of no value; the love
of fame, in particular, is a great folly. At the beginning of the third
book the philosopher begs for the application of more powerful
remedies, whereupon Philosophy makes known to him that God is
the only source of true happiness. He is, indeed, the last end of
all things; all things tend towards Him, however unconsciously; He
directs all things for the best. The fourth book opens with an ob
jection of Boethius : How can evil be triumphant on earth, if it be
really God, and not chance, that governs the world and directs the
lives of men? Philosophy explains to him that Providence leads the
good man mysteriously towards true happiness, while the good for
tune of the wicked man is only apparent; after death he must meet
with punishment. Happiness and unhappiness are dependent on per
sonal merit or on the lack thereof; the external changes of fortune
are disposed by God after the manner of a physician and with a
view to the conditions of health that each soul exhibits. The fifth
book instructs Boethius on the nature of chance and on the har
mony between the free will of man and the foreknowledge of God.
The whole closes with an admonition to detest vice and to love and
practise virtue. In concept and execution the writing is an admirable
work of literary art. Its diction is always elegant and correct, while
the dialogue lends movement and life to the profound considerations
of the work ; the prose text is interspersed with numerous poems in
many metres. Some of these poems are little masterpieces, while all
of them serve as pleasant halting-places and relieve the mind from
the strain of a close and continuous dialectic. Boethius is an eclectic,
of the Platonist or rather Neoplatonist type. Specific Christian thoughts
are seemingly absent from this work; the name of Christ does not
occur, nor is there any reference to the truths of Christian faith. In
modern times many have wondered that in a work composed in the
presence of death, or at least in close proximity thereto, a Christian
should have called on Philosophy to console him, instead of Theo
logy. It may be said that in the days of Boethius, when there was
not question of strictly theological problems, the teachings of an
hereditary philosophy were more frequently looked on as a source of
consolation than theology. On the other hand, we do not need to
believe that this work manifests the entire spiritual life of its author,
all his thoughts and his whole faith. When we consider that philosophy
was his favorite occupation, we need not wonder that, even amid
the gloomy circumstances of his end, he turned to meditation on
§ 115. BOETHIUS AND CASSIODORIUS. 631
its teachings as a source of spiritual comfort and peace. In tone
and color the work is undoubtedly Christian; Christian views of the
world and life, though not formally set forth, are tacitly maintained;
the purity of the author's ethical principles, and particularly the
decision and vigor with which they are expounded, show him to be
not only a Christian, but one very profoundly convinced of the truth
of his faith. — It was, therefore, rash to conclude from the philo
sophical attitude of the author of the De philosophiae consolatione that
he was not a Christian (an opinion entertained in modern times especially
by Obbarius), or that he was a Christian merely in name and appearance
(as Nitzsch maintained). This false view of the religion of Boethius
was the principal reason some critics had for refusing to recognize his
authorship of certain theological works. The five treatises in question
may be described as an attempt to shape the doctrinal contents of
Christian theology on strictly scientific lines, i. e. to create for Chris
tian doctrine a logical setting and framework. The first of these
treatises is entitled : De Sancta Trinitate ; its six chapters and their
prologue deal with the unity of the divine nature in three persons.
The second is very short and discusses the relation of the three
persons to the divine nature : Utrum Pater et Filius et Spiritus
Sanctus de divinitate substantialiter praedicentur. The third is entitled:
Quomodo substantiae in eo quod sint bonae sint, cum non sint sub-
stantialia bona. The fourth: De fide (De fide Christiana, De fide
catholica) contains a summary of instruction on the principal points of
the Christian religion. The fifth : Liber contra Nestorium et Eutychen,
at once the longest and most important of the five treatises, is a
polemico-doctrinal attack on Nestorianism and Monophysitism. It is
absolutely impossible to maintain that there exists any incompati
bility between the fundamental ideas of these treatises and those of
the Consolatio. Krieg has shown that, though there is still some
reason for doubting the authenticity of the fourth treatise, the evi
dence of the manuscripts makes it certain that Boethius is the
author of the first, second, third, and fifth. Among some extracts
from a lost work of Cassiodorius (see no. 4) discovered by Holder
and edited by Usener (18/7) we read concerning Boethius: Scripsit
librum de Sancta Trinitate et capita quaedam dogmatica et librum
contra Nestorium. It is a contemporary who speaks and one per
fectly well acquainted with the subjects he is describing: he attri
butes to Boethius two works agreeing in contents and title with the
first and fifth of the treatises in question, also other works of a theo
logical character. The fourth treatise is, therefore, the only one the
authorship of which is open to question. - - Boethius survived in
his works in a measure vouchsafed to very few other writers. It was
through his philosophical writings and especially through his trans
lation of the Isagoge of Porphyry, and his commentaries on that
632 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
work, that the Middle Ages mastered the Aristotelian logic; he may,
therefore, be looked on as the founder of mediaeval scholasticism.
There is manuscript evidence to show that as early as the ninth and
tenth centuries his theological treatises found commentators. Some other
commentaries, the work of later writers, have been printed, e. g. those
of Gilbert de la Poree (f 1154) Pseudo-Beda (probably Gottfried of
Auxerre, f 1180), and St. Thomas Aquinas. The mediaeval influence
and diffusion of the Philosophiae consolatio were really extraordinary:
it was everywhere looked on as a beloved heirloom of Christian
antiquity. Its text found a long series of commentators, from Asser,
the teacher of king Alfred at the end of the ninth century, to Mur-
mellius, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Other scholars
translated it into their native tongues: Alfred the Great, king of
England (f 901) into Anglo-Saxon, and Notker Labeo, monk of
St. Gall (f 1022), into German; it was translated several times into
Italian and French. There are also mediaeval translations into Greek
(one) and Hebrew (one). Finally it found frequent imitators : among
these tributes to its fame and influence we may mention three works
entitled De consolatione (or consolationibus) theologiae, by the Do
minican John of Tambach (f 1372), by Matthew of Cracow, bishop
of Worms (f 1410), and by John Gerson, chancellor of the Uni
versity of Paris (f 1429).
2. LITERATURE ON BOETHius. — The works of Boethius, especially the
Consolatio, have reached us in many manuscripts, dating from the ninth
to the sixteenth century. G. Schepss, Handschriftliche Studien zu Boethius
«De consolatione philosophiae» (Progr.), Wiirzburg, 1881 ; Id,, Geschicht-
liches aus Boethiiishandschriften, in Neues Archiv der Gesellsch. f. altere
deutsche Geschichtskunde (1886), xi. 123—140; Id., Zu Boethius, in Com-
mentationes Woelfflinianae , Leipzig, 1891, pp. 275—280. - - Complete
editions of Boethius appeared at Venice, 1492 1499, an^ at Basel, 1546
The best and most complete edition is that in Migne, PL., Ixiii
A. M. S. Boetii Commentarii in librum Aristotelis -spl ipjjLYjvsfac,
rec. C. Meiser, Leipzig, 1877—1880, 2 vols. For the works of Boethius
logic see C. Prantl, Geschichte der Logik im Abendlande, Leipzig,
55, i. 679—722, and Di Giovanni, Severino Boezio filosofo, Palermo,
His commentaries on the Topica of Cicero are discussed by Th.
Mangl, Boethiana (Diss. inaug.), Gotha, 1882. A. M. T. S. Boetii De in-
titutione arithmetica libro duo, De institutione musica libri quinque Acce-
Geometna quae fertur Boetii. E libris mss. ed. G. Friedlein, Leipzig,
67. O. Paul, Boetms und die griechische Harmonik. Des A. M S
ms funf Biicher iiber die Musik aus der lateinischen in die deutsche
bprache ubertragen und mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung der griechischen
larmomk sachlich erklart, Leipzig, 1872. G. Schcpss, Zu den mathematisch-
isikahschen Werken des Boethius, in Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiet der
;chen Altertumswissenschaft, W. v. Christ dargebracht, Munich, 1891.
The spurious work De imitate et uno (Migne, PL., Ixiii.
[075—1078] was edited anew by />. Correns, Die dem Boethius falschlich zu-
chriebene Abhandlung des Dominicus Gundisalvi «de imitate*, Minister,
\ 9Ar( cflt5ige..ZUr Geschichte der Philosophic des Mittelalters , i. i). —
De consolatione philosophiae libri quinque. Ad optim.
§ 115. BOETHIUS AND CASSIODORIUS. 633
libr. mss. nondum collatorum fidem rec. et proleg. instr. Th. Obbarius,
Jena, 1843. A- M. S. Boetii Philosophiae consolationis libri quinque.
Accedunt eiusdem atque incertorum opuscula sacra. Rec. R. Peiper,
Leipzig, 1871. The opuscula sacra (pp. 147 — 218) are the five theological
treatises, of which Peiper accepts only the first three as works of Boethius.
In the prolegomena Peiper discusses such questions as de commentatoribus
Consolationis, de sacrorum operum commentatoribus, de interpretibus, de
imitatoribus Philosophiae consolationis. The Greek version of the Con-
solatio was made about the middle of the fourteenth century by the monk
Maximus Planudes of Constantinople; its poetical pieces were edited by
C. F. Weber, Darmstadt, 1832 — 1833 (cf. Peiper, p. Ivi); the whole work
was edited by E. A. Betant, Geneva, 1871. The Anglo-Saxon version of
king Alfred was edited by IV. J. Sedgefield , London, 1899; tne German
version of Notker Labeo was edited by P. Piper, Die Schriften Notkers und
seiner Schule, Freiburg i. Br., 1882 — 1883, i. N.Scheid, Die Weltanschauung
des Boethius und sein «Trostbuch», in Stimmen aus Maria-Laach (1890),
xxxix. 374 — 392. A. Engelbrecht, Die Consolatio philosophiae des Boethius.
Beobachtungen liber den Stil des Autors und die Uberlieferung seines
Werkes (1902), in Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna Academy. On the
metrical compositions in the Consolatio cf. H. Hiittitiger, Studia in Boetii
carmina collata, parti (Progr.), Ratisbon, 1900; part II (Progr.), ib., 1902.
- The five theological treatises (edited anew by Peiper, as stated above)
are fully discussed by G. Bosisio, Sull' autenticita delle opere teologiche di
A. M. T. S. Boezio, Pavia, 1869. C. Krieg , Uber die theologischen
Schriften des Boethius, in Jahresbericht der Gorresgesellschaft fiir 1884,
Cologne, 1885, pp. 23 — 52. y. Drdseke, Uber die theologischen Schriften
des Boethius, in Jahrb. fiir protest. Theol. (1886), xii. 312—333 (defends
their authenticity, against Nitzsch). K. Kimstle, Eine Bibliothek der Sym-
bole und theologischer Traktate, Mainz, 1900, pp. 51 ff. E. K. Rand, Der
dem Boethius zugeschriebene Traktat «De fide catholica» , untersucht,
Leipzig, 1901, in Jahrb. fiir Philol. (supplem.), xxvi. 405 — 461. S. Brandt,
Entstehungszeit und zeitliche Folge der Werke von Boethius, in Philologus
(1903), Ixii. 141 — 154 234 — 275. — In general on the person and writings
of Boethius: j. G. Suttner, Boethius, der letzte Romer (Progr.), Eichstatt,
1852. Fr. Nitzsch, Das System des Boethius und die ihm zugeschriebenen
theologischen Schriften, Berlin, 1860. L. Biraghi, Boezio, filosofo, teologo,
martire a Calvenzano milanese, Milan, 1865. &• Usener, Anecdoton Hol-
deri. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte Roms in ostgotischer Zeit (Festschrift),
Bonn, 1877, pp. 37 — 66: Boethius. G. Bednarz , De universe orationis
colore et syntaxi Boethii, part I (Diss. inaug.), Breslau, 1883; Id,, De syn-
taxi Boethii, part I (Progr.), Strigau, 1892. A. Hildebrand, Boethius und
seine Stellung zum Christentum, Ratisbon, 1885. G. Boissier, Le christia-
nisme de Boece, in Journal des savants, Paris, 1889. G. Semeria, II cris-
tianesimo di Severino Boezio rivendicato (These), Rome, 1900, from Studi
e Docum. di Storia e Diritto, xxi; C. Cipolla , Per la storia del processo
di Boezio, ib. (1900), xxi. 335 — 346. H. F. Stewart, Boethius, Edinburgh-
London, 1891. P. Godet, Boece, in Diet, de Theologie, ii. 919 — 922.
3. CASSIODORIUS. — Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorius Senator, the con
temporary of Boethius, was a man quite different from him in character,
as practical and realistic as Boethius was idealist and theoretical.
All the literary labors of Cassiodorius were called forth by motives
and circumstances external to himself; by far the greater part of his
writings were meant to provide for the pressing needs of his time
634 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
and generation. Like Boethius, he was a man of extensive erudition,
and he was similarly earnest about sharing his knowledge with a
large circle of his fellow citizens. The Middle Ages were perhaps
more indebted to both these great scholars than were their own
contemporaries. Cassiodorius, or, as he was called in his own day,
Senator, was born at Scyllacium in Bruttium (Squillace in Calabria),
probably about 477. His family was an ancient and honorable one
that for three generations had administered the highest public of
fices. The confidence of Theodoric in the father of Cassiodorius
was inherited by his gifted son. He was scarcely twenty when he
was named questor and at the same time private secretary to the
king, in other words home-secretary for Italy. The usual honors
were rapidly conferred upon him; in 514 he was named consul. In
the meantime he had displayed an unwonted activity as royal counsel
lor; he was the soul of the administration of Theodoric. The king's
death in 526 did not diminish his loyalty nor his influence. He con
tinued to serve the Ostrogothic kingdom with devotion during the
regency of Amalasuntha; he also held exalted positions during the
succeeding reigns. About 540 he bade adieu to the Ostrogothic
court, and retired to the monastery of Vivarium which he had
founded from the resources of his patrimony. There he gave him
self up to the spiritual life and to profound study. Though he had
passed his sixtieth year when he put on the monastic habit, his new
calling was to be far more productive of results than his political career.
He took on himself the personal direction of the monks. Among
the duties inculcated by the rule he placed not only the exercises
of piety but the study of the ecclesiastical sciences. It is to his
personal example and the model set up by his rule, that the Western
monasteries owe their character of refuges of learning amid the bar
barism of the succeeding epoch. He deserves the chief praise for the
preservation of both the earlier classical and the Christian literature
and for the attitude of the clergy as representatives of learning.
Cassiodorius died about 570, in the odor of sanctity. — The earliest
of his extant writings is a Chronicle from Adam to 519, the year
of its composition. It is not so much a universal history as a con
sular list attached to an introduction reaching back to the creation
of the world. Its materials are drawn from earlier chronicles; from
496 it seems to be based on personal knowledge of the author.
The work is dedicated to Eutharic, son-in-law of Theodoric, husband
of Amalasuntha, and consul for the West in 519. It was written
with the avowed purpose of reconciling the Roman population to
their foreign masters. The same purpose moved him to compose a
more extensive and important work, his History of the Goths: De
origine actibusque Getarum, in twelve books; this work was con
tinued, apparently, to the death of Theodoric (526) and was published
§ 115- BOETHIUS AND CASSIODORIUS. 63$
between 526 and 533. There is reason to regret that the original
text has perished, and that we know it only through the cursory
and unskilful compendium made in 551 by the Goth (Alan) Jordanis.
He wrote panegyrics on the kings and queens of the Ostrogoths,
but they have perished, with the exception of a few fragments. Great
historical interest attaches to his: Variae (sc. epistolae), a collection
in twelve books of the official documents that issued from his chan
cery. It was published between 534 and 538. The first five books
contain rescripts made out in the name of Theodoric, the next two
exhibit formulae of nomination to various offices of state, three others
present the text of letters and orders sent out in the name of Atha-
laric, Theodahad, and Witiges, while the last two contain documents
issued in the name of Cassiodorius himself as praefectus praetorio.
This work served as a model to all the early mediaeval chanceries;
their work is formed upon its style. The frequent disquisitions of
all kinds that are met with in these formulae lend a certain color
and freshness to otherwise dry and barren ordinances; they were
added, to some extent, after the completion of the collection. The
Variae were followed by the De anima, a summary of very extensive
philosophical reading, and showing in a marked way the influence
of St. Augustine and Claudianus Mamertus. In this work he gives
frequent expression to his preference for a contemplative existence;
it may be looked on, therefore, as the link that binds his secular
career to his religious life. - The first work composed by Cassio
dorius after his retirement from the world was also the most con
ducive to the intellectual welfare of succeeding ages. It was en
titled : Institutiones divinarum et saecularium lectionum (litterarum),
and is divided into two books. The first book may be described as
methodology of theological sciences, it indicates, in the manner of a
compendium, the ecclesiastical authors who are respectively the safest
guides in studies of the kind; in these sciences the foremost place
is accorded to Biblical exegesis. The second and much shorter
book, usually known as : De artibus ac disciplinis liberalium litterarum,
contains brief sketches of the seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric,
dialectics, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. In the intention
of the author, and according to his express statement, the entire
work was meant to supply in some measure, and particularly for the
monks of Vivarium, the absence of a theological academy in the
West, for the deficiency of which the troubled political conditions
were, of course, responsible. The institutiones (begun about 544)
became one of the most beloved and serviceable manuals of the
mediaeval student. Cassiodorius wrote also the voluminous Com-
plexiones in Psalmos , commenced before the work just mentioned,
but finished at a later date. It is called complexiones = collective
explanations, because in this commentary the verses of each Psalm
636 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
are taken not individually, .but in groups. Like the Institutiones it
became in mediaeval times a very serviceable ecclesiastical manual,
especially of exegesis. Its material is largely drawn from the Enar-
rationes in Psalmos of St. Augustine, and it emphasizes strongly
the allegorical or typical interpretation and the symbolism of numbers.
The mediaeval world was quite unaware that he had also written:
Complexiones in epistolas et acta apostolorum et apocalypsim. On
the other hand, his: Historia ecclesiastica tripartita, in twelve books,
became the ordinary manual of ecclesiastical history for the entire
mediaeval period. His share in this work was really secondary: he
induced his friend Epiphanius Scholasticus to translate from the Greek
the histories of Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret, which he after
ward combined into a single work, wherein now one, now another,
of these historians takes up the narrative that is simultaneously com
pleted from the works of the other two. The Historia tripartita under
takes to complete and continue the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius
as paraphrased by Rufinus ; but both the translator and the redactor
performed their task in a perfunctory manner. Several other Latin
translations of Greek works were made by Epiphanius and other
scholars, at the instigation of Cassiodorius (§ 38, 4; 70, 2; 99, i).
His last work, written, as he tells us himself, in his ninety-third
year, is entitled: De orthographia ; it is a supplement to the In
stitutiones, and a loose and unsystematic collection of excerpts from
earlier orthographers. Several of his writings have perished, notably
a commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans in which
he refuted the errors of Pelagius. He is also credited, but erroneously,
with a commentary on the Canticle of canticles.
4. LITERATURE ON CASSIODORIUS. - The best complete edition of the
works of Cassiodorius is that by J. Caret, Rouen, 1679 (Venice, 1729),
2 vols. A reprint of this edition is found in Migne, PL., Ixix— Ixx, inclusive
of the discoveries of Scipio Maffei and Mai. The latest and most reliable
editions of the Chronica are those by Th. Mommsen, in Abhandlungen der
philol.-histor. Klasse der kgl. sachs. Gesellsch. der Wissensch., Leipzig,
1861 , iii. 547 — 696, and in Chronica minora saec. iv v vi vii, vol. ii
Monran. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss.) , Berlin, 1894, xi. 109—161. On
Mommsen's edition of the compendium of the History of the Goths see
no 5; his long-expected edition of the Variae appeared in Mon. Germ. hist.
Auct. antiquiss., xii (Berlin, 1894), with a triple appendix: I. Epistulae Theo-
dencianae variae, ed. Th. Mommsen; II. Acta synhodorum habitarum Romae
•499 501 5°2, ed. Th. Mommsen; III. Cassiodori orationum reliquiae,
. L. Tranbe. Cf. B. Hasenstab, Studien zur Variensammlung des Cassio-
Senator, part I (Progr.), Munich, 1833. The historical writings of
ssiodorms are more particularly described by W. Wattenbach, Deutsch-
lands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter (6. ed.), i. 65—72, and C. Cipolla,
isideraziom sulle «Getica» di Jornandes e sulle loro relazioni colla
•tona Getarum» di Cassiodoro Senatore, Turin, 1892. The «De anima»
: subject of a special treatise by F. Durand, Quid scripserit de anima
ssiodorus, Toulouse, 1851. The manuscript-tradition of the second
§ 115. BOETHIUS AND CASSIODORIUS. 637
book of the Institutiones is discussed by G. Laubmann, in Sitzungsberichte
der kgl. bayer. Akad. der Wissensch. zu Miinchen, philos.-philolog. and
hist, series (1878), ii. 71 — 96. The chapter of the second book of the
Institutiones devoted to rhetoric was edited by C. Halm, Rhetores latini
minores, Leipzig, 1863, pp. 493 — 504. Cf. Cassiodorii De orthographia
et De arte grammatica excerpta , in H. Keil, Grammatici latini , Leipzig,
1880, vii. 127 — 216. The text of the Complexiones in Psalmos was emended
by Th. Stangl, Zu Cassiodorius Senator, in Sitzungsberichte der k. Akad.
der Wissensch. zu Wien, philos.-hist. series (1887), cxiv. 405 — 413. An
important excerpt, about a page in length, from a hitherto unknown work
of Cassiodorius, and containing a genealogical conspectus of his family with
references to his works and those of his relatives (see no. i), was dis
covered by A. Holder, and edited by H. Usener, Anecdoton Holderi, Bonn,
1877. The text (pp. 3 — 4) of this document is illustrated by an exhaustive
commentary of Usener (pp. 5 — 79). -- For the history of Cassiodorius in
general see A. Thorbecke, Cassiodorus Senator (Progr.), Heidelberg,, 1867 ;
A. Franz, M. A. Cassiodorius Senator (Progr.), Breslau, 1872; G. Minasi,
M. A. Cassiodoro Senatore, Naples, 1895. Other writings on Cassio
dorius are indicated by A. Pott hast , Bibl. hist. med. aevi, i. 197 f. See
also P. Godet, Cassiodore, in Diet, de Theologie, ii. 1830— 1834.
5. OTHER HISTORIANS. -- We have already mentioned (no. 3) the De
origine actibusque Getarum of Jordanis, who also wrote (551) De summa
temporum vel de origine actibusque gentis Romanorum, a compendium of
universal history compiled from such sources as were then available. Jor
danis Romana et Getica. Rec. Th. Mommsen, in Monum. Germ. hist. Auct.
antiquiss., Berlin, 1882, v. i; cf. W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichts-
quellen im Mittelalter, 6. ed., i. 72 — 79, also L. v. Ranke, Weltgeschichte,
iv 2 (i. — 3. ed.), 313 — 327. C. Cipolla, Considerazioni sulle « Getica » di
Jornandes e sulle loro relazioni colla «Historia Getarum » di Cassiodoro
Senatore, Turin, 1892. — Jordanis made considerable use of the Chronicle
of the Illyrian Marcellinus Comes, covering the years 379 — 534, but chiefly
devoted to the affairs of the earlier Empire (Migne, PL., Ii. 913 if.). A
new edition was brought out by Mommsen, Chronica minora saec. iv v
vi vii, (Monum. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss., 1894, xi) ii. 37 if. Cf. Teuffel-
Schwabe, Gesch der rom. Lit., 5. ed., pp. 1253 — 1254. — Victor of Tunnuna
in Northern Africa was a Catholic bishop who suffered much at the hands
of Justinian in his defence of the matter of the Three Chapters ; he died
at Constantinople about 569, probably in a monastery-prison. Victor wrote
a Chronicle from the creation to 567 ; only the latter portion of it has
reached us, beginning with 444, and dealing chiefly with the affairs of the
African Church (Migne, PL., Ixviii. 937 if.); edited anew by Mommsen, 1. c.,
pp. 163 if., cf. Bdhr , Die christl. Dichter und Geschichtschreiber Roms,
2. ed., p. 218. -- John, Abbot of the monastery Biclaro in the foot-hills
of the Pyrenees, a Spanish Visigoth, wrote a continuation of the Chronicle
of Victor covering the period from 567 to 590; his narrative is impartial
and ranks among the most reliable sources of Visigothic history (Migne, PL.,
Ixxii. 859 if.); a new edition by Mommscn, 1. c., pp. 163 if.; cf. F. Gorrcs,
in Theol. Studien u. Kritiken (1895), Ixviii. 103 — 135.- — Marius, bishop of
Avenches (later of Lausanne, f 593), continued the Chronicle of Prosper of
Aquitaine (§ 95, 3) from 455 to 581 (Migne, PL., Ixxii. 791 if.); new editions
by W. Arndt, Leipzig, 1875 1878, and by Mommsen , 1. c. , pp. 225 ft".;
cf. Teuffel-Schwabe, 1. c., pp. 1255. --In his De excidio Britanniae, the
Keltic writer Gildas, surnamed Sapiens, drew (560) a gloomy picture of
the sad condition of Britain since its conquest by the Romans (Migne, PL.,
Ixix. 327 if.); the latest edition is that by Mommscn, 1. c. (Monum. Germ.
638 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
hist. Auct. antiquiss. xiii, 1898), iii. i ff. Cf. A. de la Borderie, Etudes histo-
riques bretonnes, I. series: L'historien et le prophete des Bretons, Gildas
et Merlin, Paris, 1883. -- Brief mention may also be made of certain
itineraries' to the Holy Land. To the years 520—530 belongs De situ
terrae sanctae (edited 1865), written by a certain Theodosius Archidiaconus,
probably a native of Northern Africa. The little Breviarius de Hiero-
solyma, discovered in 1879, belongs probably to the sixth century. They
were excellently edited by J. Gildemeister , Bonn, 1882. The Itinera
Hierosolymitana edited by Pitra , Analecta sacra et classica, Paris, 1888,
part I, pp. 118 — 121, and attributed to a certain fifth-century Vigilius
(Preface p. viii), are really a portion of the work of Theodosius (Gilde
meister , pp. 15 — 21 : Revue biblique x. 93 — 96). -- About 570 a certain
Antoninus of Piacenza made a journey to the East that was afterward nar
rated by an unknown companion : Antonini Placentini Itinerarium (Migne,
PL., Ixxii. 899 — 918). A separate edition with a German version was brought
out by y. Gildemeister, Berlin, 1889; cf. H. Grisar, Zur Palastinareise des
sog. Antoninus Martyr um 580, in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol. (1902), xxvi.
760 — 770. Grisar holds that the Antoninus in question is the holy patron
of Piacenza, a third- or fourth-century martyr, and that the journey was
merely placed under his protection. The real title of the work should
therefore be : Anonymi Placentini Itinerarium • cf. P. Piacenza, De itinerario
Antonini Placentini, in Ephemerides liturgicae (1903), xvii. 338 — 348 (in
favor of the traditional title) and (the reply of) Grisar, in Civilta Cattolica
(1903), series xviii, vol. xi. 600 — 609. H. Grisar, in Zeitschr. fur kath.
Theol. (1903), xxvii. 776—780; P. Piacenza, Iterum de Itinerario Antonini,
in Ephem. Liturgiae (1903), xvii. 388 — 609. L. Bellanger } In Antonini
Placentini itinerarium grammatica disquisitio (These), Paris, 1902. For all
three works cf. P. Geyer , Itinera Hierosolymitana (Corpus script, eccles.
lat. [1898], xxxix. 135 — 218). E. Levesque, in Diet, de la Bible, i. 713714.
§ 116. Writers in the Three Chapters controversy.
I. FACUNDUS OF HERMIANE. — Facundus, bishop of Hermiane, in
the African province of Byzacena, not only withstood the edict of
Justinian against the Three Chapters of the year 543 or 544 (§ 102, 3),
but wrote a voluminous work in twelve books, entitled : Pro defensione
trium capitulorum. It was composed at Constantinople between 546
and 551, or 546 — 548 according to Dobroklonskji, and presented to
the emperor. It is not the Nestorian doctrine, condemned at Ephesus
in 431, that Facundus seeks to defend, but the authority of the
Council of Chalcedon (451) which he believes to be called in question
by the emperor's edict against the Three Chapters. It is the opinion
of Facundus, that the latter document implies a condemnation of
the Fathers of Chalcedon who uttered no censure against Theodore
of Mopsuestia and his writings and formally received into ecclesiastic
al communion both Theodoret of Cyrus and Ibas of Edessa; more
over, it is wrong, he says, to raise again the question of guilt or in
nocence, once death has supervened and removed the person im
plicated. In its last session (June 2., 553), the Council of Constan
tinople condemned the Three Chapters, and after some hesitation this
action was approved of by Pope Vigilius, whereupon Facundus and
§ 1 1 6. WRITERS IN THE THREE CHAPTERS CONTROVERSY. 639
most of the bishops of Africa renounced the communion of the Pope
and the Oriental bishops. Facundus remained obdurate in his re
sistance; in reply to suggestions of a conciliatory character he com
posed (about 571) two polemical treatises: Liber contra Mocianum
Scholasticum, and : Epistola fidei catholicae in defensione trium capi-
tulorum.
The works of Facundus are in Mignc, PL., Ixvii. 527 — 878; cf. A. Do-
broklonskji, The work of Facundus, bishop of Hermiane: «Pro defensione
trium capitulorum», Moscow, 1880 (Russian). - - The views of Facundus
in his first work, concerning the edict of Justinian, were shared by the
Carthaginian deacon Fulgentius Ferrandus (§ 113, 5), in his Epistola ad
Pelagium et Anatolium diaconos urbis Romae (Migne, PL., Ixvii. 921 — 928),
and by the African bishop Pontianus, in his Epistola ad Justinianum imper.
(Ib., Ixvii. 995—998).
2. POPE VIGILTUS. — The Three Chapters controversy attained
an undue celebrity by reason of the personal participation of Pope
Vigilius (537 — 555). He was called by the emperor to Constan
tinople, and at first condemned energetically the imperial edict
against the Three Chapters. Afterwards (April II., 548) he issued
a ludicatum (extant only in fragments) in which he condemned the
Three Chapters, but added certain clausulae in order to save the
authority of the Council of Chalcedon : Salva in omnibus reverentia
synodi Chalcedonensis. Nevertheless, in his Constitution (May 14.,
553)» Vigilius professed the above-mentioned ideas of Facundus (see
no. i), and refused to anathematize the dead, or to violate in any
degree the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon. In the meantime
the Council of Constantinople, opened May 5., 553, anathematized in
its eighth and last session (June 2.) the Three Chapters, a condem
nation to which Vigilius finally gave his assent in two documents, dated
Dec. 8., 553, and Febr. 23., 554. Vigilius wrote also several other
letters concerning this controversy. Though Vigilius was personally
convinced that the Three Chapters merited condemnation, his at
titude with regard to them was at all times uncertain, wavering and
yielding to external pressure.
Epistolae et decreta Vigilii P. (Mignc , PL., Ixix. 15 ff . ; also in the
collections of the Councils, e. g. Mansi , ix; cf. Jaffe, Reg. Pontif. Rom.,
2. ed. 1885, i. 117 — 124). J. Punkes, Papst Vigilius und der Dreikapitel-
streit, Munich, 1864. Hefele, Konziliengeschichte, 2. ed., ii. 798 — 924. In
his work : Vigilii Pontificis Romani, Origenis Adamantii, lustiniani impera-
toris triumphus in synodo oecum. v (In S. Gregorii Nysseni et Origenis
scripta et doctrinam nova recensio, iv), Rome, 1865, Al. Vincenzi entered
upon a new line of defence of the character of Pope Vigilius. He main
tained that many of the contemporary documents are spurious, notably the
Constitutum Vigilii Papae, and thereby exculpated the latter from the
charges of vacillation and irresolution. This line of apology met with
criticism; cf. J. Hergenrother , in Theol. Literaturblatt (1866), pp. 543 — 551,
and L. Duchesne , Vigile et Pelage, in Revue des questions historiques
(1884), xxxvi. 369 — 440; (1885), xxxvii. 579—593. L. Levegue, Etude sur
640 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
le pape Vigile, in Revue des sciences ecclesiastiques , Amiens, 1887.
H. Grisar, Geschichte Roms und der Papste im Mittelalter, Freiburg, 1901,
pp. 574 f. ; Id., in Roma alia fine del mondo antico, part II, Rome, 1899,
pp. 248 f. Cf. Papa Vigilio, in Civilta Cattolica (1903), series xviii, vol. xii,
5 — 26, and II Papa Vigilio (537 — 555), Studio storico-critico , by Fedele
Savio, S. J., Rome, 1904 (Scienza e Religione). -- With the exception of
St. Silverius, the immediate predecessors of Vigilius have left letters of
some importance: Epistolae et decreta S. Felicis P. IV. (526—530; Mignc,
PL., Ixv. ii if.), to which must be added the now famous Decretum, a very
important document for the history of papal elections. Felix designates
therein as his own successor the archdeacon Boniface, who actually reigned
as Boniface II. (530 — 532). This document was made known by Amelli
in 1882, and edited by Mommsen t in Neues Archiv fur altere deutsche
Geschichtskunde (1886), xi. 367; cf. ib. (1885), 412 584, and (1886) 367;
Ewald , Akten zum Schisma des Jahres 530. It was edited anew by
A. Amelli, in Spicilegium Casinense (1888), i. 179 — 180. Duchcsne , La
succession du Pape Felix IV, Rome, 1883. Bonifatii P. II. Epistolae (530
to 532: Migne, PL., Ixv. 31 if.); loannis P. II. (532 — 535: Ib., Ixvi. nff.);
S. Agapiti P. I. (535-536: Ib., Ixvi. 35 if.); cf. Jaffe, 1. c., pp. no- 115,
and Grisar, 1. c.
3. POPE PELAGIUS I. - - As archdeacon of the Roman Church
Pelagius composed at Constantinople (554) a Refutatorium of the
Council of Constantinople, that is extant in manuscript but has never
been printed. This work was withdrawn by him after his elevation
to the papal see (555). Though his reign was short (f March 3.,
560), we possess a relatively large number of his letters, most of
them made known for the first time through the lately discovered
British Collection of papal letters (§ 114, i).
The discovery of an incomplete manuscript of the Refutatorium was
announced by L. Duchesne, in the Bulletin critique (1884), p. 96; cf. S. Reiter*
Eine unedierte Schrift des Pelagius, in Serta Harteliana, Vienna, 1896,
PP- I34—I36, also the essay of Duchesne (see no. 2) on Vigilius. The
Epistolae Pelagii P. I. are in Migne, PL., Ixix. 393 ff . , and in Mansi,
\. c., ix. For the recently discovered (mostly short) letters see 6". Loewen-
fdd, Epistolae Pontificum Rom. ineditae, Leipzig, 1885, pp. 12 — 21; cf. Jaffe,
I. c., pp. 124—136. The history of Pelagius is discussed by H. Grisar,
Geschichte Roms und der Papste im Mittelalter, Freiburg, 1901, i. 580 f.
and passim. Mention is made by Grisar (pp. 707 — 708) of the Latin ver
sion of the » Words of the ancient Fathers» (§ 102, 2) made by Pelagius
before he became pope, in collaboration with the subdeacon John (Mi^ne,
PL., Ixxiii. 851 f.).
4- RUSTICUS. - - This very stubborn defender of the Three Chap-
was a deacon of the Roman Church and a nephew of Pope
Vigilius, who felt obliged to excommunicate and depose him from
his office. In collaboration with Felix, an African abbot, he wrote
at Constantinople a polemical work against the Council of Constan
tinople; it is known to us only through the mention vouchsafed to
by Victor of Tunnuna*1. Rusticus wrote also a work against the
1 Chron. ad a. 553.
§ Il6. WRITERS IN THE THREE CHAPTERS CONTROVERSY. 64!
Monophysites : Contra Acephalos disputatio. It is extant, but only
in part; it takes the form of a dialogue between the author and
a heretic.
The Disputatio is in Migne, PL., Ixvii. 1167 — 1254. For a revision of
the Latin version of the acts of the Council of Chalcedon undertaken by.
Rusticus between 549 — 550 cf. Hefek, Konziliengeschichte, 2. ed., ii. 416 ff.
Cf. y. B. Pitra, Spicil. Solesm., Paris, 1858, iv. 192—221 : Rustici S. E. R.
diaconi (forte et Verecundi) scholia, distinctiones et collationes in acta
Concilii Chalcedonensis. Pitra thinks that Rusticus may have composed
these scholia in union with Verecundus of Junca (see no. 5).
5. VERECUNDUS OF JUNCA. - - Verecundus of Junca, a bishop in
the African province of Byzacena, who died in 552 at Chalcedon,
was also a determined opponent of the imperial edict against the Three
Chapters. His writings were first published by Pitra (1858). They
are a series of extracts from the acts of the Council of Chalcedon
(Excerptiones de gestis Chalcedonensis concilii) , Commentaries on
nine Old Testament canticles (Commentariorum super cantica ec-
clesiastica libri ix), and a Penitential poem (De satisfactione poeni-
tentiae) in two hundred and twrelve hexameters (together with Meyer's
appendix), deeply Christian in sentiment, but very faulty in grammar
and metre.
The writings of Verecundus were first edited by Pitra, Spicil. Solesm.,
Paris, 1858, iv. He published also a second recension of the Excerptiones
that is evidently a compendium of the first (pp. 166 — 185), with some ad
ditions of the deacon Liberatus (see no. 6) : Verecundi et Liberati diaconi
Carthaginiensis Excerptiones e concilio Chalcedonensi (pp. 186 — 191); see
also no. 4. In the Abhandlungen der kgl. bayer. Akad. der Wissensch.,
I. Klasse, Munich, 1885, xvii 2, 431, W. Meyer published eight additional
verses of the poem De satisfactione poenitentiae (pp. 138 — 143). Cf. Ma-
nitius, Gesch. der christl.-latein. Poesie, Stuttgart, 1891, pp. 403 ff. Another
well-known poem : Exhortatio poenitendi, attributed to Verecundus by Pitra
(pp. 132 — 137), is of more recent origin and is only a fragment of a
larger composition; cf. Meyer, 1. c., pp. 431 ff., and Manitius, 1. c., pp. 416 ff.
The poem De resurrectione et iudicio, attributed to Verecundus by Isidore
of Seville (De viris ill., c. 7), is probably identical with the: De iudicio
Domini, or: De resurrectione mortuorum, printed with the works of Ter-
tullian and Cyprian (§ 50, 8). — More recent in date is the poem entitled:
Crisias, appended by Pitra (pp. 144 — 165) to the poems of Verecundus,
and dealing in three books with the appearance of Antichrist, the general
judgment, and the resurrection of the dead.
6. LIBERATUS. -- We owe to this writer a not unimportant historic
al work dealing with the controversy of the Three Chapters, the;
Breviarium causae Nestorianorum et Eutychianorum, a concise out
line of the history of Nestorianism and Monophysitism from the epi
scopal consecration of Nestorius to the Council of Constantinople
(428 — 553). Liberatus was a deacon of the Church of Carthage and
composed his work between 560 and 566; it is somewhat prejudiced
in favor of the Three Chapters.
BARDBNHBWBR-SHAHAN, Patrology. 41
642 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
The text of the Breviarium is in Migne, PL., Ixviii. 969 — 1052. For
earlier editions cf. Fesskr-Jtmgmann , Instit. Patr., ii 2, 542, note. See
also no. 5.
7. PRIMASIUS OF HADRUMETUM. - - This writer also took part
in the Three Chapters controversy. He was bishop of Hadrumetum
in the province of Byzacena, and left a commentary on the Apo
calypse, made up mostly of concise excerpts from earlier Latin com
mentators. His work on heresies has apparently perished. A com
mentary on the Epistles of St. Paul is erroneously attributed to him.
For the text of the Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles and the Apo
calypse see Migne , PL., Ixviii. 413—936. Cf. J. Haussleiter, Leben imd
Werke des Bischofs Prim asms von Hadrumetum (Progr.), Erlangen, 1887,
and Id. , Die lateinische Apokalypse der alten Afrikanischen Kirche, in
Th. Zahn, Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutestamentl. Kanons, Erlangen,
1891, iv. i — 224. The commentary on the Pauline Epistles is an anti-
Pelagian revision of the commentary of Pelagius on the same Epistles, and
was composed in Southern Gaul about 465—500; cf. H. Zimmer, Pelagius
in Irland, Berlin, 1901, and G. Morin , in Revue Be'ne'dictine (1903),
xx. 1 1 8.
8. JUNILIUS. - - At the urgent request of Primasius of Hadru
metum (see no. 7), Junilius composed his Instituta regularia divinae
legis, a work formerly known as De partibus divinae legis, a title
taken from the first chapter of the first book. In its actual shape
this work is a methodical introduction to a profound study of the
Sacred Scripture. The author draws principally upon the teaching
of Paul of Nisibis; at the same time he reproduces in detail the
exegetical principles of Theodore of Mopsuestia, as well as his Christo-
logy and his teaching concerning the biblical canon. Junilius was
born in Africa, but was not a bishop, as is usually asserted ; he held
a high official position (quaestor sacri palatii) at Constantinople.
This account of Junilius is based on H. Kihn, Theodor von Mopsuestia
und Junilius Afrikanus als Exegeten, nebst einer kritischen Textausgabe
von des letzteren « Instituta regularia divinae legis», Freiburg, 1880 (the
text of Junilius appeared also in a separate edition, ib., 1880). On the
editio prmceps by J. Gastius, Basel, 1545, reprinted in Migne, PL., Ixviii.
-42, cf. Kihn (I. c., pp. 229 ff.), who also treats of Paul of Nisibis
G. Mercati, Per la vita e gli scritti di Paolo il persiano, in
i letterature biblica e cristiana antica (Studi e Testi, v), Rome, 1901,
:2o6. Kihn discusses (p. 301) the commentary on the first chapter
i falsely attributed to Junilius. A. Rahlfs contributed to the text-
criticism of the Instituta, in Nachrichten von der kgl. Gesellschaft der
iften zu Gottingen (1891), pp. 242—246. -- Cresconius, author
oncordia canonum, was very probably an African bishop. In this
>rk the greater part of ihe canons and decretals found in both collections
.xiguus (g 114, 3) is distributed under three hundred and one
t without any apparent plan or order (Migne, PL, Ixxxviii. 829
the preface to his work Cresconius mentions the Breviatio
:anonum of Fulgentius Ferrandus (§ 113, 5). Up to the present the only
imus ad quern for the life of Cresconius is the earliest (Verona)
§ Iiy. ST. GREGORY OF TOURS AND VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS. 643
manuscript of the Concordia; it belongs to the eighth century. Cf. Fr.
Maassen, Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des kanonischen Rechts,
Graz, 1870, i. 806 — 813.
§ 117. St. Gregory of Tours and Venantius Fortunatus.
I. GREGORY OF TOURS. - - St. Gregory of Tours, the historian
of the Franks, descended from a very honorable senatorial family
of Gaul. He was born probably Nov. 30., 538, in the Urbs Arverna
(Clermont-Ferrand) and was originally called Georgius Florentius.
Veneration for the holy bishop Gregory of Langres (506/507 to
539/540), the grandfather of his mother Armentaria, induced him,
at a later period, to take the name which he was to render famous.
After the early death of his father Florentius, Gregory was entrust
ed to his uncle St. Gallus, bishop of Clermont (546 — 554) at whose
hands he received a religious training. In those youthful days he
had already resolved to enter the priestly state. After the death of
St. Gallus, he was instructed in the Scriptures by the priest Avitus,
afterwards (571 — -594) bishop of Clermont. In 563 he fell dangerous
ly ill, but was restored to health on the occasion of a pilgrimage
to the tomb of St. Martin at Tours. It is possible that on this
journey he began the relations which were, ten years later, to bring
about his election as bishop of that city. He was thirty-five years
of age when in 573 he succeeded his maternal relative, Euphronius
in the see of Tours. Venantius Fortunatus celebrated his elevation
in stately verse 1, expressive at least of a sincere admiration for Gre
gory; and indeed, the latter did not deceive the expectations of his
poet-friend. Amid difficult circumstances Gregory discharged the duties
of the pastoral office in a spirit of heroic self-denial; we behold
him solicitous not only for the spiritual but also for the temporal
welfare of his flock. Amid the frequent hostilities of the time with
prudence and energy he ever maintained the interests and honor of the
city of Tours. The city of St. Martin was then the religious centre
of Gaul; consequently the influence of its bishop radiated far beyond
the walls of Tours, and was felt throughout the entire kingdom.
This was made evident in 584 when Chilperic, against whose violent
measures he had energetically and successfully defended the interests
of the Church and civilization, was assassinated, and Tours came
(585) under the sceptre of Childebert. Gregory enjoyed the entire
confidence of this king, frequently visited his court, and acted more
than once as his ambassador in affairs of political importance. When
he died (Nov. 17., 593 or 594), he possessed the esteem of all the
inhabitants of Gaul. — Notwithstanding his very active life, Gregory
was an uncommonly industrious and productive writer. It is probable
that he entered on this career only after he was made bishop, and
1 Carm. 1. v, c. 3 : Ad cives Turonicos de Gregorio episcopo.
41 *
644 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
that the original impulse came from his veneration for St. Martin.
He was deeply conscious of his own shortcomings and began his
labors with some hesitation; he knew and confessed that he was
lacking in grammatical knowledge, and that his training in the arts
of expression was defective. In the preface to the history of the
Franks he says that he will speak: incultu '(sic) effatu, quia philo-
sophantem rhetorem intellegunt pauci, loquentem rusticum multi. In
the introduction to the first book of the same work he bespeaks
the forbearance of the reader: si aut in litteris aut in sillabis gram-
maticam artem excessero, de qua adplene non sum imbutus. In the
preface to the In gloria confessorurn he admits that he confuses the
genders and even the cases of substantives, and that he is incapable
of properly applying the prepositions : quas nobilium dictatorum ob-
servari sanxit auctoritas. Nevertheless his diction is very interesting
and worthy of careful study, since it brings before our eyes many
features of the transformation-process through which the Latin gra
dually passed into the Romance, and particularly the French tongue.
The writings of Gregory are theological and historical in contents,
yet so that the ecclesiastic is always visible in the historian, while
his theological writings are markedly historical in character, dealing
as they do with the lives of the Saints and particularly of Frankish
Saints. As an historian Gregory merits in a high degree our respect
and confidence. It is true that he often betrays remarkable credu
lity and has fallen into numerous errors. The latter he might have
avoided, were he less superficial and readier to profit by the re
sources that were accessible to him. On the other hand, it is now
universally admitted that he manifests on all occasions an honest
willingness to state the truth impartially and even critically. — Gre
gory has left us a catalogue of his writings1: Decem libros histo-
riarum, septem miraculorum, unum de vita patrum scripsi; in psal-
terii tractatu librum unum commentatus sum; de cursibus etiam ec-
clesiasticis unum libri condidi. From occasional statements of his
own2 we gather that he compiled a book from the «Masses» (de
missis ab eo compositis) of Apollinaris Sidonius, and that, with the
help of a Syrian interpreter (Siro quodam interpretante), he trans
lated into Latin the Legend of the Seven Sleepers3; the former of
which two works has perished (§ 112, 2). It is odd that this trans
lation of the Passio ss. martyrum septem dormientium apud Ephesum
should often be set down as a lost work, although it was printed
as early as 1476 by Mombrizio (Mombritius). The entire text of the:
De cursibus ecclesiasticis was discovered by Haase in a Bamberg
manuscript and published in 1853; until then only some short frag
ments of it were known; the manuscript-title of the work is: De
1 Hist. Franc., x. 31, ad fin. 2 Ib., ii. 22.
3 In gloria martyrum, c. 94.
§ Iiy. ST. GREGORY OF TOURS AND VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS. 645
cursu stellarum ratio qualiter ad officium implendum debeat observari.
It is a kind of liturgical manual, composed after 575 and before
582, and containing instructions for the distribution of the ecclesiastic
al «officia» or «lectiones» (cursus ecclesiastici) according to the po
sition, or more particularly, according to the rise of the principal
constellations. Only a few sparse fragments of Gregory's commentary
on the Psalms have reached us. The : Septem libri miraculorum are
not one work, as the title might imply, but as many separate com
positions, collected and revised by Gregory shortly before his death,
and published as an hagiographical corpus, together with his : Liber
de vita patrum. The work opens with: In gloria martyrum, written
about 590, a narrative of the miracles of Christ, the Apostles, and
various martyrs of the Church of Gaul. It is followed by the: De
virtutibus (i. e. de miraculis) S. Juliani, written between 581 and 587,
an account of the miracles performed at the shrine of Brivate (Brioude)
by the intercession of St. Julian, a much venerated Gallic martyr who
suffered about 304 in the vicinity of Clermont. The four books De
virtutibus S. Martini (iii — -vi) are described in the preface as a me
morial for posterity of the daily miraculous intercession (praesentes
virtutes) of St. Martin. According to Krusch the first book was
composed before 576, the second not before 581, the third about
587; the fourth was never finished. Seventh among the writings of
Gregory is the : Liber vitae patrum, acknowledged to be the most
interesting and important of the works that make up the hagiographical
collection. It includes twenty lives of Saints, or rather twenty-three,
since in each of three lives two Saints are dealt with simultaneously.
These lives were originally published separately ; some of them were
not written before 592. The eighth and last book of this corpus,
In gloria confessorum, contains brief accounts of miraculous events;
it was finished in 587, but after 590 underwent modification and
enlargement. Hagiographical legends are also the subject-matter of his:
Liber de miraculis beati Andreae apostoli, and his: Liber de mira
culis beati Thomae apostoli, genuine works of Gregory, though not
claimed by him in the list of his writings. - - Gregory's reputation
really rests upon the ten books of his: Historia Francorum. He says
expressly, in the preface, that he writes the work in order to hand
down to future generations a picture of his own times; hence, from
the fifth book inclusive, it assumes in a marked degree the character
of personal memoirs to which the first four books furnish a necessary
introduction. The first book furnishes a chronological background
for his narrative: the history of the world from Adam to the death
of St. Martin in 397. In the second book he treats of Chlodwig
(Clovis), the founder of the Prankish monarchy. In the third book
the history of the Franks is brought down to the death of Theo-
dobert I. (f 548), in the fourth as far as Sigibert (f 575); at this
646 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
point Gregory begins to be in some measure a personal witness and
guarantor of the events narrated. These four books were composed,
according to Arndt, in 575. The next two books, covering the
years 575 — 584, were written between 580 and 585. The last four
books were composed as opportunity offered; they describe at con
siderable length the events of 584 — 585, and in a more compendious
way the history of the next succeeding years to 591. Gregory him
self added to and variously modified the first six books of his History
of the Franks. With the fifth book began his personal share and
interest in the narrative. Henceforth he is relating the history of
his own period ; his personal relations to contemporary history are
constantly in the foreground. He loves to dwell in a diffuse and
circumstantial manner on events and situations in which he was him
self concerned. His narrative runs on in a rather weak and rambling
way; it is not so much a history as a loose suture of unconnected
occurrences. There is no attempt to understand or explain the con
nexion and genesis of events ; the narrator is contented to reveal the
bare facts as he knows them. The work is of course alive with that
interest which belongs to all that is personal and individual, but
apart from this it has always exercised a distinct and peculiar charm.
Gregory's simplicity, naturalness, and artless candor easily fascinate
every reader and cause him to forget for the moment the weak and
defective elements of the work. The proper value of this inestimable
work arises from its peculiarly important subject-matter and is en
hanced by the utter inadequateness of all other historical authorities
regarding the period and peoples that it treats of. Von Giesebrecht
says of the Historia Francorum that «it holds a distinguished place
among the most important works of historical literature».
2. LITERATURE ON GREGORY. - - Until lately the best edition of the
works of Gregory was that of Th. Ruinart, Paris, 1699: Migne, PL., Ixxi.
It is now surpassed by the edition of W. Arndt and Br. Krusch, Gregorii
Turonensis opera (Monum. Germ. hist. Script, rer. Meroving. i), Hannover,
1884—1885, part I, 1—450: Historia Francorum, ed. W. Arndt; part II
(451-881): Miracula et opera minora, ed. Br. Krusch; among the latter
opuscula (821—846): Gregorii episc. Turon. liber de miraculis b. Andreae
apostoli, ed. M. Bonnett (also in a separate reprint). In this edition of
Gregory there are owing to the special industry of Krusch an Index (884 to
911), Orthographica (912—928), Lexica et grammatica (929—963). We
are indebted to these editors for the first successful attempt to reconstruct
the original diction of Gregory. Earlier editions, based on more modern
manuscripts, exhibited a text corrected to resemble in some sense the care
fully polished Latin of the Carlovingian epoch ; Arndt and Krusch went
back to the earliest manuscripts, and, though all of this series are in
complete and abound in gaps and breaks, they reach back as far as the
seventh century, and are almost contemporaneous with Gregory himself;
in them appears in all its original crudeness the linguistic barbarism of
Merovingian society. For the manuscript tradition of the separate works
of Gregory cf. Krusch and Bonnet, in Neues Archiv fur altere deutsche
§ 1 17. ST. GREGORY OF TOURS AND VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS. 647
Geschichtskunde (1886), xi. 629; (1887), xii. 303 — 308 309 — 314; (1894),
xix. 25 — 45. H. Omont , Gregoire de Tours, Histoire des Francs, livres
i — vi. Texte du ms. de Corbie, Bibl. nat. ms. lat. 17655, avec un fac
simile, Paris, 1887. G. Collon , Gregoire de Tours, Histoire des Francs,
livres vii — x. Texte du ms. de Bruxelles', Paris, 1893. The Liber de
miraculis b. Thomae apostoli, lacking in the edition of Arndt and Krusch,
was edited by M. Bonnet, in Acta Thomae (Suppl. cod. apocr. i), Leipzig,
1883, pp. 96—132 (cf. Praef., pp. xiii ff.). Krusch also re-edited the Passio
ss. martyrum septem dormientium (in the edition of Arndt and Krusch,
pp. 847 — 853), in Analecta Bollandiana (1893), xii. 371 — 387. Cf. G. Oster-
hage , Bemerkungen zu Gregor von Tours' kleineren Schriften (Progr.),
Berlin, 1895. An excellent German version of the « ten books ofFrankish
history » was made by W. v. Giesebrecht, Berlin, 1851, 2 vols. ; 2. ed.,
Leipzig, 1878 (Die Geschichtsschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit in deutscher
Bearbeitung, 6. century, iv- — v). — For the life and times of Gregory cf. jf. W.
Loebelly Gregor von Tours und seine Zeit, Leipzig, 1839; 2. ed., enlarged,
with preface by H. v. Sybel, 1869. W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichts-
quellen im Mittelalter, 6. ed., i. 93 — 103. L. v. Ranke , Weltgeschichte
(i. — 3. ed.), iv 2, 328 — 368. M. Bonnet, Le Latin de Gregoire de Tours,
Paris, 1890. For other works on Gregory of Tours cf. A. Potthast, Biol.
hist. med. aevi, 2. ed. , i. 542 — 545. A work of special utility for the
Historia Francorum is that of J. Woisin, Studien zur Geschichte des 4. u.
5. Jahrhunderts , Meldorf, 1901. K. Weimann, Die sittlichen Begriffe in
Gregors von Tours Historia Francorum (Dissert, inaug.), Duisburg, 1900.
3. VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS. -- Venantius Honorius Clementianus
Fortunatus was born about 530 in North-Eastern Italy, near Treviso.
He was educated at Ravenna, where his early tastes inclined him to
the study of grammar, rhetoric, and jurisprudence; philosophy and
theology had little or no attraction for him. Poetry, however, was
a beloved occupation of Venantius, even while still a student at
Ravenna. A disease of the eye, contracted there, was cured by
rubbing the ailing part with oil from a lamp kept burning before
the image of St. Martin in one of the city churches. In gratitude
for this intercession of the Saint, Fortunatus undertook to visit his
tomb at Tours (565). This journey, however, was really more like
the free wanderings of a poet than the pilgrimage of a pious peni
tent. His travels led him from Germany to Austrasia, in which land he
found king Sigibert occupied with the preparations for his marriage
to Brunhilde. Fortunatus won the king's favor, and acquired more
over the reputation of a distinguished poet by the Epithalamium
which he wrote for the wedding of the royal pair. After a two
years sojourn at the court of Sigibert, he continued his journey, but
in no great haste. As he went along , he sought from all persons
of standing, ecclesiastics or laymen, a hospitality that his polished
and agreeable demeanor at once assured him; he repaid his hosts
with flattering panegyrics in verse. He arrived finally at Tours, where
he received a friendly welcome from Euphronius, the bishop of that
city. But neither Euphronius nor St. Martin's tomb were able to retain
him long at Tours; he soon took up his staff and troubadour-like
648 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
travelled afoot from house to house, through all Southern Gaul. A
visit to Poitiers brought his travels to an end. There dwelt in this
city, in the monastery of the Holy Cross, two Thuringian princesses,
Radegunde widow of the Prankish king Chlotar I. (f 561), and her
adopted daughter Agnes. The ideal personalities of these two holy
women wrought so powerfully on the sensitive poet that he aban
doned his travels, renounced his intention of returning to Italy, and
took up his permanent residence at Poitiers. In his friendly, and
even intimate, relations, with Radegunde and Agnes he found a new
country. In deference to their urgent desire he was ordained a
priest by the bishop of Poitiers and took on himself the spiritual
service of the little community of Holy Cross nuns. But even here
he was moved to vary his sojourn by occasional journeys. His re
lations with nearly all the prominent personages of Gaul were very
intimate, particularly with Gregory of Tours. Towards the end of
the sixth century, he was chosen bishop of Poitiers. He does not
seem to have long survived this elevation; his death occurred early
in the seventh century. Venantius is no grave historian like his
friend Gregory; he is a poet with all the vivacity and cheerfulness
of his kind. He is also possessed of eminent ability in his art; no
poet of this decadent period can approach the easy skill with which
he describes in fluent verse the things and events of daily life. On
the other hand, he, too, pays tribute to the degenerate taste of his
contemporaries. In general his diction is over- wrought and affected.
His numerous panegyrical poems exhibit great lack of dignity, and
a morbid delight in exaggeration. Most of his minor poems have
reached us in a collection made up of eleven books, entitled : Carmina
or Miscellanea. In its original shape this collection was undoubtedly
his own work. All extant manuscripts, with one exception, are re
productions of an imperfect copy of these collected poems. That
exception is an eighth- or ninth-century Paris codex which contains
selections from the complete collection and thirty-one other poems
that were lacking in the incomplete copy just mentioned. Most of
the poetical effusions of Venantius come under the head of oc
casional verses. The places visited by him, the people who entertain
ed him, the banquets prepared for him, in a word personal matters
of any kind, furnished him with more or less successful themes for
the exercise of his poetic skill. Naturally these little carmina are a
very accurate mirror of the author and his times. The collection
contains three ecclesiastical hymns, two of which, the: Pange lingua
gloriosi (ii. 2), and the : Vexilla regis prodeunt (ii. 6), are distinguished
not only for the splendor of their new and beautiful imagery, but also
for the depth and intensity of emotion that they manifest. Several
other hymns attributed to Fortunatus, though of doubtful authenticity,
have reached us, but not in the afore-mentioned way. Apart from the
§ Iiy. ST. GREGORY OF TOURS AND VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS. 649
Passion-hymns, three elegies of Venantius composed at the sug
gestion, or to speak more particularly in the name, of Radegunde, are
highly praised as the gems of his collection. Among them is the
touching lamentation for the fall of the royal house of Thuringia :
De excidio Thoringiae. Some prose-compositions were also included
in the original collection of the writings of Venantius, besides letters
e. g. a diffuse exposition of the Pater Noster (x. i) and an exposition
of the Apostles' Creed (xi. i), the latter a neatly-executed abbrevia
tion of the well-known work of Rufinus (§ 92, 3). Independently
of the collected writings of our poet, a long epic poem: De vita
S. Martini, has come down, in four books (two thousand two hundred
and forty-three hexameters). A prefatory letter, addressed to Gre
gory of Tours, says that it was finished within two months: inter
bimestre spatium. In reality it is only a metrical abbreviation of the
writings of Sulpicius Severus on St. Martin (Vita S. Martini and
Dialogues, § 92, i). The corresponding work of Paulinus of Petri-
cordia (§ 112, 3) was also put to good use by Venantius. In this
work Germanus, bishop of Paris (f May 8., 5/6), is mentioned as
still alive (iv. 636) ; Venantius must, therefore, have composed his
epic before that date. He wrote also some lives of the Saints in
prose, for popular edification and in comparatively simple style. Other
such biographies are erroneously attributed to him. The following
are considered genuine: a life of St. Hilary of Poitiers with the:
Liber de virtutibus (i. e. miraculis) S. Hilarii, lives of St. Marcellus,
bishop of Paris (f 436), of St. Albinus, bishop of Angers (f 560),
of St. Paternus, bishop of Avranches (f 563), of the afore-mentioned
St. Germanus of Paris, and a life of St. Radegunde (f 587).
4. LITERATURE ON FORTUNATUS. - - The best of the earlier editions of
Fortunatus is admittedly that of the Benedictine M. A. Luchi, Rome, 1786
to 1787, 2 vols. \Mignet PL., Lxxxviii, inclusive of the carmina since dis
covered). The latest and best edition is that of Leo and Krusch'. V. H.
Cl. Fortunati opera poetica, rec. et emend. F. Leo; opera pedestria, rec.
et emend. Br. Krusch, Berlin, 1881 — 1885 (Momim. Germ. hist. Auct.
antiquiss. iv). Leo was the first to establish a reliable text of the carmina,
based on many manuscripts; in his edition the diction and metre of For
tunatus are learnedly discussed. Ch. Nisard maintains, in Revue historique
(1888), xxxvii. 49—57, (1889), xli. 241 — 252, that the two elegies: De ex
cidio Thoringiae and Ad Artachin, were written by Radegunde herself;
cf. W. Lippert, in Zeitschrift des Vereins fur thiiringische Geschichte und
Altertumskunde (1890), new series, vii. 16 — 38 (against Nisard). On the
hymns of Fortunatus see J. Kaiser , Beitrage zur Gesch. und Erklarung
der Kirchenhymnen, 2. ed., Paderborn, 1881, pp. 386 — 434 and 477. On
the Vita S. Hilarii and Liber de virtutibus S. Hilarii see J. H. Reinkens,
Hilarius von Poitiers, Schaffhausen, 1864, pp. xvi — xxii. — The life and
writings of Fortunatus are treated of at length by F. Hamclin, De vita et
operibus V. H. Cl. Fortunati, Pictaviensis episcopi, Rennes, 1873. A.Schnei
der , Lesefrtichte aus Venantius Fortunatus, Innsbruck, 1882. Fr. Leo,
Venantius Fortunatus, in Deutsche Rundschau (1882), xxxii. 414 — 426.
THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Ch. Nisard, Le poete Fortunat, Paris, 1890. W. Meyer, Der Gelegenheits-
dichter Venantius Fortunatus, Berlin, 1901, in Abhandlungen der kgl.
Gesellsch. der Wissensch. zu Gottingen. This dissertation contains im
portant considerations concerning the dates, nature and occasions of the
Carmina. J. Dostal, Uber Identitat und Zeit von Personen bei Venantius
Fortunatus (Progr.), Vienna, 1901. G. Semeria , Gli inni della Chiesa;
viii: 1'inno della Croce, Milan, 1903. — St. Germanus of Paris, whose life
was written by Fortunatus, is said to be the author of an Epistola ad
Brunichildem reginam, a Privilegium monasterii S. Germani, and an Ex-
positio brevis antiquae liturgiae gallicanae (Migne, PL., Ixxii. 77—98). The
Epistola is certainly genuine; cf. VV, Gundlach , in Monum. Germ. hist.
Epistolae (1892), iii. 122 — 124. For the spurious Expositio liturgiae see
H. Koch, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1900), Ixxxii. 525 ff. -- Nicetius, bishop
of Trier (t ca. 566) and friend of Fortunatus, left t\vo epistolae: Ad Chlodos-
vindam reginam Longobardorum, and Ad Justinianum imper. (Migne, PL.,
Ixviii. 375 — 380, also in Gundlach, 1. c., pp. 118 — 122). For the treatises
De vigiliis servorum Dei and De psalmodiae bono (Migne, 1. c., 356—376)
see § 90, 12. — Of Ferreolus, bishop of Uzes (Depart. Gard), who died in
581, Gregory of Tours writes (Hist. Franc., vi. 7): Libros aliquot epistola-
rum quasi Sidonium (§ 112, 2) secutus composuit. Rewrote also a Regula
ad monachos (Migne, PL., Ixvi. 959 — 976). -- Some homilies are current
(Ib., Ixxii. 771 — 774) under the name of Sedatus, bishop of Biterrae (Beziers).
He died about 589.
§ 118. Pope St. Gregory the Great.
I. HIS LIFE. -- Gregory I., one of the greatest successors of
St. Peter, meets us at the end of the ancient life and order, or
rather, on the threshold of the Middle Ages. With the exception
of Leo I. none of the ancient popes affected so profoundly and in
so many new ways the ecclesiastical and civil conditions of his time.
Gregory was born at Rome, probably in 540, and descended from
a family at once noble and rich. As son of a patrician house he
adopted a public career and became pretor at an early age, certainly
before 57 J- The glory of life and worldly grandeur seem to have
fascinated him for a while. From his youth, however, he had cherish
ed the idea of devoting himself entirely and solely to the service
of God. After much hesitation he followed this impulse of divine
grace, abandoned his earthly pursuits, and sold his inheritance, gave
to the poor a portion of the money, and with the rest built seven
monasteries, six in Sicily and one at Rome in his own palace on
the Hill of Scaurus (Monte Celio). He became a monk in the latter
monastery, and observed the rule of St. Benedict with so much
exactness that he ruined his health, never very robust, and was
near dying. At the end of his life he still recalled with regret these
golden days of monastic peace. Pope Benedict I. drew him from
this quiet haven and made him a cardinal-deacon or regionarius,
and Pelagius II., his successor, sent him as apocrisiarius or nuncio
to the emperor Tiberius at Constantinople. In 584 or 585 he re-
entered his monastery, and was soon chosen to be its abbot. The
§ Il8. POPE ST. GREGORY THE GREAT. 65 I
sight of some Anglo-Saxon youths in the slave market of Rome
awoke in Gregory the desire to go to England and become the mis
sionary of Christianity and civilization to that people. With the good
will of Pope Pelagius he left the city secretly, and began his journey,
but the Roman people compelled the pope to recall their benefactor
and their idol. Pelagius died Feb. 7., 590, and Gregory was at once
elected to succeed him, by the unanimous vote of senate, clergy, and
people. He made every effort to escape the burden of the papacy,
but in vain. On the receipt from Constantinople of his confirmation
by the emperor Maurice, he was accompanied to St. Peter's as in
a triumphant procession by all the people of Rome, and consecrated
Sept. 3., 590. He tells us himself1 that he assumed the direction
of the Church, when it resembled an old ship, flooded on all sides by
the waves, and the timbers of which, battered by unceasing storms,
proclaimed only too loudly that the vessel was on the verge of
shipwreck. Italy was visited by inundations, pestilence and famine;
the Lombards were everywhere burning and slaughtering; the ec
clesiastical province of Milan was still in a state of schism because
of the condemnation of the Three Chapters ; the Greek schism, reserved
for later days, was already casting a menacing shadow; civil order
seemed everywhere shaken to its foundations. By a union of gentle
ness and resolution Gregory succeeded in quieting somewhat this
universal disorder. Few great men in Church or State ever com
bined in so high a degree as Gregory an affectionate and pleasing
deference, towards the civil authority, with firmness of purpose and
energy of execution; perhaps no pope ever conceived so adequate
an idea of his high office or realized it with such breadth and ful
ness. When the patriarch of Constantinople proudly assumes the title
of ecumenical bishop (§ 106, 2), Gregory takes that of servus servo-
rum Dei. His own interests do not concern him, and consequently
he won all men over to the interests of God. In the twelve years
of his pontificate he succeeded in uplifting the fallen ecclesiastical
state, in relieving much social suffering, and in bettering the con
ditions of a great part of mankind. He laid the foundations of the
mediaeval Church and of the political power of the papacy. Gregory
believed, in as far as such belief was compatible with his persuasion
of the near end of the world, that the future belonged to the Teu
tonic peoples. He aided them to establish a new political order
amid the surrounding chaos. Clausier says rightly that Gregory and
the Middle Ages were born on the same day. The holy pontiff, it
seems, prized above all other triumphs the success of Augustine and
his companions, whose mission to England he had conceived and
organized. In the last years of his life he was sorely afflicted by
1 Registrum ep., i. 4.
5C2 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
sickness, and could rise from his bed only to assist at the more
solemn ecclesiastical festivals. He died early in March, 604.
2. WRITINGS OF GREGORY. - - The Registrum epistolarum, or
collection of his official letters, is at once an eloquent monument of
his spirit and a reliable mirror of his pontifical zeal and energy. This
important work, according to the researches of Ewald, has reached
us only in fragments. The original Letter-Book of Gregory is lost,
and is now known to us only in three ancient compendia, each of
which however arose independently of the others. The longest of
these compendia, which alone merits the name of Registrum, was
compiled under Hadrian I. (772 — 795) for Charlemagne. It contains
six hundred and eighty-six or (three letters being repeated) six hundred
and eighty-three letters. It is arranged chronologically according to
the indictions, and includes the entire pontificate of Gregory. The
second collection includes two hundred letters, all of them probably
dating from the second indiction (598 — 599). The third collection
varies in extent : it includes, as a rule, fifty-one letters ; in some manu
scripts more are given ; they are all taken from three non-consecutive
indictions (xiii iv x). The latter two collections are probably older
than the first. As they contain one hundred and sixty-five letters
that are lacking in the first, the total number of Gregory's letters
is eight hundred and forty-eight. Some other letters have reached
us, by different channels, but their authenticity is doubtful. The
famous and much-controverted Answer of Gregory to certain ques
tions of Augustine, bishop of Canterbury1, known only through
Beda's reference to it2, is now generally considered spurious. While
the Letter-Book of Gregory throws a strong light upon his tireless
pastoral zeal, it also reveals in him the great qualities of a statesman
and an administrator. The most minute details engage his attention ;
his vigilant eye rests with earnest affection on the remotest corners
of the known world. The model of a perfect shepherd of souls
that these letters exhibit in practical life, is put before us from a
theoretical standpoint in Gregory's famous Liber regulae pastor -alts,
written about 591 and dedicated to John, archbishop of Ravenna.
The latter had reproached Gregory with his attempted flight on the
eve of his election to the papacy, an act that Gregory undertakes
to justify, after the manner of Gregory of Nazianzus (§ 68, 4) and
Chrysostom (§ 74, 8), by explaining the sublimity and difficulty of
the ecclesiastical office. In the preface to the first section of this
book he describes the requisites for the pastoral office (ad culmen
quisque regiminis qualiter veniat); in the second section the manner
of life incumbent on the shepherd of souls (ad hoc rite perveniens
qualiter vivat); in the third section, at once longer and more important
than the others, the character and manner of pastoral teaching
1 Registrum ep., xi, 4. 2 Hist> eccl gem Angl ^ ^ ^
§ 1 1 8. POPE ST. GREGORY THE GREAT. 653
(bene vivens qualiter doceat); the fourth and last section, consisting
of only one chapter, reminds the ecclesiastical shepherd that he
should practise daily the habit of self-recollection (recte docens in-
firmitatem suam quotidie quanta consideratione cognoscat). This work
of Gregory met with universal approval ; it was translated into Greek
by Anastasius II., patriarch of Antioch (§ 107, i), and into Anglo-
Saxon by king Alfred of England (f 901). Gregory also wrote (593)
in four books a work entitled Dialogi with the sub-title (in many
manuscripts) : de vita et miraculis patrum Italicorum et de aeternitate
animarum. Worn out with worldly cares, the pope had withdrawn
to a lonely place where he gave vent to the unhappiness he felt at
not being able to devote himself to the salvation of his soul in
monastic peace and retirement. In his solitude he is visited by the
deacon Peter, a friend of his youth, to whom he. makes known the
secret cause of his melancholy, by recalling the example of many
holy men in former times who had abandoned all earthly concerns
and sought thenceforth only the perfection of their spiritual life.
Peter professes ignorance of the fact that there had lived in Italy
so many holy men through whom God had performed miracles; at
his request Gregory undertakes to relate something of their lives and
miraculous deeds, partly from his personal recollections, partly from the
evidence of trustworthy witnesses. The first and third book introduce
to us a number of saintly Italians endowed with miraculous powers, all
of them otherwise unknown to us, apart from a few distinguished per
sons like Paulinus of Nola (iii. i). The whole of the second book is
devoted to the miracles of St. Benedict of Nursia. In the fourth book,
Gregory dwells with pleasure on those miracles that prove the survival
of the soul after death. This work, so thoroughly characterized by
the contemporary faith in the miraculous, was transcribed and trans
lated with such rapidity that it was soon a household book in all
parts of the Christian world. A work of far greater importance is
his voluminous: Expositio in librum Job sive Moralium libri xxxv,
begun by Gregory while he was legate at Constantinople, but not
finished until after his election to the papacy. In the dedicatory
epistle to Leander, archbishop of Seville, the author says that he
will expound the Book of Job in a triple sense: the historical,
allegorical, and moral. He is all too brief and sparing in the historic
al elucidation of the text, though the deeper speculative or con
templative sense is treated with some fulness. On the other hand,
the practical application of the text of Job is carried out so ex
haustively that this work was recognized at once as a thesaurus of
moral theology. Several other exegetical works attributed to Gregory
are either of dubious provenance or are certainly spurious : Commen-
tarii in librum I Regum, Expositio super Cantica canticorum, Expositio
in septem Psalmos poenitentiales, Concordia quorumdam testimonio-
654 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
rum S. Scripturae. The: Homiliae xl in Evangelia are probably his
sermons on the Gospels for the Sundays and holidays during 590 — 591 ;
twenty of them were dictated by Gregory to a notary and read by
the latter to the assembled people. The other twenty were deliver
ed by him in the churches of Rome and taken down by tachy-
graphers. They were soon published against his will by admirers
of Gregory, whereupon the pope made a new collection of these
homilies (592 or 593) in two books. To this edition of the 40 ho
milies is usually added a powerful penitential discourse of Gregory
delivered during the pestilence of 590. The: Homiliae xxii in Eze-
chielem, preached in the autumn of 5935 are also divided into two
books, the first of which (Horn, i — xii) deals with Ezechiel i — iv, and
the second (xiii — xxii) with Ezechiel xl. There breathes in all these
homilies an affectionate and fatherly spirit; the diction is at once
simple and vigorous. Biblical texts are interpreted in an allegorical
sense. His homilies on the Gospels furnished favorite reading matter
for the liturgy, as well for the mediaeval monks both in chapter and
in refectory. The so-called Sacramentarium Gregorianum is attributed
by Duchesne (1889) to Hadrian I., and renamed: Sacramentarium
Hadriani. Probst contends (1892) that it rightly bears the name of
Gregory, having been re-arranged and completed by him. It is certain
that the Sacramentarium of the Roman Church underwent a thorough
reform at the hands of Gregory. If now we admit that the Sacra
mentarium Gelasianum belongs to an earlier period (§ 114, i), and
is in no sense a Gregorian compilation, it follows that we must re
cognize in the Sacramentarium Gregorianum the outcome of Gregory's
liturgical reforms. There is also no reason for abandoning the venerable
traditions that assign to Gregory the permanent laws and arrange
ment of the liturgical melodies as sung in the public or choral ser
vice (Cantus Gregorianus) of the Church. Quite recently Gevaert and
others have questioned the accuracy of these traditions which have
been defended by Dom Morin and others. The eight hymns attribut
ed to Gregory are certainly spurious.
3. CHARACTERISTICS OF GREGORY'S WRITINGS. — Gregory is par
ticularly great and deserving of all praise in the province of practic
al ecclesiastical life and administration. His writings are throughout
eminently practical, and make no pretence to artistic disposition
of material, or elegance of expression. The age of Gregory was
marked by a profound intellectual decadence and collapse. The
large and free play of mind, the vigorous creative power of a former
age are henceforth no more than memories; it is enough if men can
rescue from encroaching barbarism the intellectual treasures of a by
gone period. Gregory is not called on to discover and refute new
subtleties of heresy; his duty is to revive the sinking courage of
humanity, to withstand the pressure of despair upon the hearts of
§ 1 1 8. POPE ST. GREGORY THE GREAT. 655
the conquered Romans and to temper the ignorant arrogance of the
conquerors. It is no longer the teaching office, but the healing,
helping and saving ministry of the Christian shepherd that is in de
mand. There was scarcely any one who could better understand the
wounded hearts of men, who could explain more exactly their infirmities
and wants, who could point out more clearly and more fervently the
right remedies, than Gregory. The writings of Gregory contain little
or nothing that is characteristic in the province of Christian doc
trine; his intimate conviction of the imminent end of the world was
shared by many Christians of his time. The new and strange dis
orders of nature and the continuous horrors of the wars of the sixth
century seemed like so many heralds of the last judgment. Gregory
writes: Depopulatae urbes, eversa castra, concrematae ecclesiae, de-
structa sunt monasteria virorum ac feminarum, desolata ab hominibus
praedia atque ab omni cultore destituta, in solitudine vacat terra,
nullus hanc possessor inhabitat, occupaverunt bestiae loca quae prius
multitude hominum tenebat. Et quid in aliis mundi partibus agatur
ignoro. Nam in hac terra in qua nos vivimus finem suum mundus
iam non nuntiat, sed ostendit1. Ecce iam mundus in se ipso aruit . . .
ubique mors, ubique luctus, ubique desolatio . . . finis temporalium
ostendit quam nihil sit quod transire potuit, casus rerum indicat quia
res transiens et tune prope nihil fuit cum stare videretur2.
4. COMPLETE AND PARTIAL EDITIONS. TRANSLATIONS. RECENSIONS. -
Complete editions of the works of Gregory were published by bishop Petrus
Tossianensis of Venusi (Venosa), Rome, 1588 — 1593, 6 vols.; by P. Goussain-
ville (Gussanvillaeus), Paris, 1675, 3 vols., and by the Maurists, Paris, 1705,
4 vols.; the last edition was reprinted at Venice, 1744. Another edition
appeared at Venice, 1768 — 1776, in 17 vols., with some improvements and
additions, by J. B. Gallicioli (Migne, PL., Ixxv — Ixxix). The Maurist edition
of St. Gregory does not rank among the best labors of the Benedictines ;
Sainte Marthe (Sammarthanus) to whom we owe this edition, was no Ma-
billon. -- P. Ewald began, and after his death L. M. Hartmann com
pleted, a new edition of the Registrum Epistolarum that will long remain
the authoritative text: Gregorii I. Papae Registrum epistolarum, i — ii, Berlin,
1891 — 1899 (Monum. Germ. hist. Epist. i — ii). We*owe to Ewald also
the letters of Gregory as arranged in Jaffe, Regesta Pontif. Rom. (1885),
2. ed. , i. 143 — 219. .W. Turchi edited: Sancii Gregorii Magni Epistolae
Selectae, Rome, 1907, vol. i, pars I, Series vii, of the Bibliotheca Sancto
rum Patrum. For other works concerning the correspondence of Gre
gory I. see A. Potthast , Bibl. Hist. med. aevi, 2. ed., i. 539 f. For
the Responsa of Gregory to the questions of the bishop Augustine of
Canterbury (Registr. xi. 64) cf. L. Duchesne , Origines du culte chretien,
Paris, 1889, pp. 93 — 94, also the English translation, London, 1904; Sag-
miiller, in Theol. Quartalschr. (1899), Ixxxi. 160. Th. Kranzfeldcr trans
lated into German select letters of Gregory, Kempten, 1874 (Bibliothek
der Kirchenvater). The Regula pastoralis has often been re-edited and
reprinted, e. g. by E. W. Wcsthoff, Minister, 1860; H. Hiirter , SS. Patr.
opusc. sel. , xx. Recent German versions are owing to C. Haas, Die
1 Dial., iii. 38. 2 Horn, in Evang., ii. 28.
656 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Pastoralschriften des hi. Gregor d. Gr. und des hi. Ambrosius von Mai-
land iibersetzt, Tubingen, 1862, pp. 1—235, and Th. Kranzfelder, Kempten,
1873 (Bibl. der Kirchenvater). A. M. Micheletti, S. Gregorii papae cogno-
mento Magni «Regula pastoralis», Tournai, 1904. B. Sauter, Des heiligen
Papstes Gregorius d. Gr. Pastoralregel, Freiburg, 1904. For a new text-
recension of some extracts ex Gregorii Magni dialogorum libris see G. Waitz,
in Mon. Germ. hist, script, rer. Langob. et Italic, saec. vi — ix, Hannover,
1878 ; in German by Th. Kranzfelder, Kempten, 1873. L. Wiese, Die Sprache
der Dialoge, Halle, 1900 (with an appendix: Sermo de sapientia and mo-
ralium in Job fragmenta). H. Zwirmann, Das Verhaltnis der altlothringi-
schen Ubersetzung der Homilien Gregors liber Ezechiel zum Original und
zu der Ubersetzung der Predigten Bernhards, Halle, 1904. The Greek
version that accompanies the Latin text of the Dialogues (Migne , PL.,
Ixxvii. 149 — 430) was made by Pope Zachary (741 — 752); cf. H. Delehaye,
St. Gregoire le Grand dans 1'hagiographie grecque, in Analecta Bollan-
diana (1904), pp. 449 — 454. A new edition of the life of St. Benedict, in
the second book of the Dialogues (Migne, PL., Ivi. 125 — 204), is owing to
P. Cozza-Luzzi , Rome , 1 880. San GregorioMagno edi monasteri
sublacensi. Contributio dei monaci sublacensi al congresso storico-liturgico
(nel xiii centenario), Rome, 1904. B. Sauter, O. S. B., Der heilige Vater
Benediktus nach St. Gregor dem GroBen. Zum 13. Zentenarium des
hi? Gregor herausgegeben von seinen Monchen, Freiburg, 1904. The Ho-
miliae xl in evangelia are also found in Hurter , SS. Patr. opusc. sel.,
series ii, t. vi, Innsbruck, 1892; cf. G. Pfeilschifter, Die authentische- Aus-
gabe der Evangelienhomilien Gregors d. Gr. , Munich, 1900 (Veroffent-
lichungen aus dem kirchenhistor. Seminar Miinchen, no. 4). For the Sacra-
mentarium Gregorianum see the works of Duchesne and Probst (§ 97, 3),
also Probst, Die abendlandische Messe vom 5. bis zum 8. Tahrhundert,
Minister, 1896. E. Bishop, On some early manuscripts of the Gregorianum,
in Journal of Theological Studies (1902 — 1903), iv. 411 — 426 (the genuine
text of the Registrum sent by Hadrian I. to Charlemagne is represented
by one series of manuscripts based on Cod. Vat. Reg. 327). The relations
of Gregory to plain-chant are discussed by F. A. Gevaert , Les origines
du chant liturgique de 1'eglise latine, Ghent, 1890. Id., La melopee antique
dans le chant de 1'eglise latine, Ghent, 1895. G. Morin, Der Ursprung
des Gregorianischen Gesanges (from the French, 1890), by Th. Elsdsser,
Paderborn, 1892. The origin of the hymns attributed to Gregory is treated
by Manitius, Gesch. der christl.-latein. Poesie, Stuttgart, 1891, pp. 384—388.
5. WORKS ON GREGORY. A hitherto unedited Vita S. Gregorii,
written in England early in the eighth century, is described by F. Ewald,
Die alteste Biographic Gregors L, in Historische Aufsatze dem Andenken
an G. Waitz gewidmet, Hannover, 1886, pp. 17—54; F. A. Gasquct, A
Life of Pope Gregory the Great, written by a monk of Whitby (pro
bably about 713), London, 1904. The Vita S. Gregorii of Pauliis Dia-
conus (Paul Warnefried), written in the second half of the eighth century
L., Ixxv. 41—59)* ^s edited, in its original form, from Italian
manuscripts by H. Grisar, in Zeitschrift ftir kath. Theol. (1887), xi. 158
to 173. Johannes Diaconus wrote a third Vita S. Gregorii at Rome in
872 or 873 (Migne, PL., Ixxv. 59—242). Among the modern lives of
Gregory we may mention: Fr. and P. Bohringer , Die Vater des Papst-
tums: Leo I. und Gregor L, Stuttgart, 1879 (Die Kirche Christi und ihre
ugen, new edition). W. Wisbaum, Die wichtigsten Richtungen und Ziele
?keit des Papstes Gregor d. Gr. (Inaug.-Diss.), Leipzig, 1885.
Clausier, St. Gregoire le Grand, pape et docteur de 1'eglise, Paris,
'86 1891. C. Wolfsgruber, Gregor d. Gr., Saulgau, 1890. The Civilta
§ 1 1 8. POPE ST. GREGORY THE GREAT. 657
Cattolica, series 14, vol. v — ix (1890 — 1891), and series 15, vol. i — v (1892
to 1893) contains a number of articles entitled: II pontificate di S. Gre-
gorio Magno nella storia della civilta cristiana, reprinted in H. Grisar,
Roma alia fine del mondo antico, part III, Rome, 1899. Fr. Gorres,
Papst Gregor der Grofte und Kaiser Phocas, in Zeitschr. flir wissen-
schaftliche Theol. (1901), xliv. 592 — 602. T. Bon sma?m , Gregor I. der
Grofie, ein Lebensbild (1890). R. Sabbadini, Gregorio Magno e la gram-
matica, in Bolletino di filologia classica (1902), viii. 204 — 206 259. T. Hodgkin,
Italy and her invaders, London, 1895, vol. v, cc. 7 — 10. B. Gatta, Un
parallelo storico (Marco Aurelio, Gregorio Magno), Milano, R. Institute
lombardo, 1901. K. Mann, The Lives of the Popes in the early Middle
Ages, London, 1902, i. i — 250. F. Homes Dudden , Gregory the Great,
his Place in History and Thought, London, 1905. H. Grisar, San Gre
gorio Magno (590 — 604), Rome, 1904. J. Doize, Deux etudes sur 1'ad-
ministration temporelle du pape Gregoire le Grand, Paris, 1904. D. E.
Benedetti, S. Gregorio Magno e la schiavitu, Rome, 1904. G. Cappello, Gre
gorio I. e il suo pontificate (540 — 604), Saluzzo, 1904.
6. IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS OF GREGORY i. - - The Epistolae loannis
P. III. (560 — 573: Migne, PL., Ixxii. 13 — 18), also the Epistolae Benedict!
P. I. (574 — 578: Ib., Ixxii. 683 — 686),, are spurious. On the Epistolae et
decreta Pelagii P. II. (578 — 590: Ib., Ixxii. 703 — 760) cf. F. Kaltenbrunner ,
in jfafft, Reg. Pontif. Rom., 2. ed. (1885), i. 137 — 140.
7. THE LIBER PONTIFICALS. - - This is the name usually given to a
series of biographical sketches of the popes beginning with St. Peter and
reaching far into the mediaeval period. The lives are arranged in the order
of the papal succession. Under the name of each pope are given brief
indications of his family, the length of his reign, the disciplinary decrees
issued by him, the ecclesiastical edifices he built, and occasionally accounts
of historico-political events are added. At the end of each vita are always
found some statements concerning the number of ordinations performed
by the pope, the date and place of his burial and the period during which
the see was vacant. The earliest of these papal notitiae are extremely
brief, laconic, and composed in almost lapidary style. After the fourth
century they grow longer. In the eighth and ninth centuries some of these
lives become formal histories of the popes. Since the sixteenth century
it had been customary to ascribe the authorship of this work to Anastasius
Bibliothecarius, a Roman writer who lived in the latter part of the ninth
century. It is now well-known that the work is of much earlier origin,
and that Anastasius had nothing to do with its composition. The book
has grown gradually. The oldest part of it, from St. Peter to Felix IV.
(53°) > was compiled in the reign of Pope Boniface II. (530 — 532) by a
Roman ecclesiastic. His principal historical authority for the earliest times
was the Catalogus Liberianus (§ 88, 8). The so-called Catalogus Felicianus,
however, a short history of the popes to Felix IV. (530), is not, as some
have maintained, a source or the oldest redaction of this first part of the
Liber Pontificalis, but rather a later compendium of the same ; it is the work
of unknown but generally contemporary writers, and was afterwards com
pleted and extended to Hadrian II. (f 872) or Stephen V. (f 891), though
some manuscripts still give a fragment of the latter pope's life and omit
the popes between Hadrian II. and Stephen. This second and later part
of the book covers the period between the sixth and the ninth centuries,
and is in general an historical authority of the highest rank, while the
first and older part of the work, apart from its later lives, is both untrust
worthy and defective in historical contents. Until lately the best edition
P.ARDENHKWER-SHAHAN, Patrology. 42
658 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
of the Liber Pontificalis was that of Fr. Bianchini, Rome, 1718 if., 4 vols.,
(Migne, PL., cxxvii— cxxix). A new edition of this work universally re
cognized as monumental, is owing to L. Duchesne: Le Liber pontificalis.
Texte, introduction et commentaire, Paris, 1886—1892, 2 vols. (Bibliotheque
des Ecoles franchises d'Athenes et de Rome, 2. series, iii). The first
volume of this edition goes as far as 795, the second does not stop at
the end of the ninth century , but exhibits later continuations as far as
1431. Another new edition was begun by Th. Mommsen, in Monum. Germ.
hist. Gesta pontif. Rom., Berlin, 1898, i. Cf. JDuchesne , in Melanges
d'arche'ologie et d'histoire (1898), xviii. 381—417, and H. Grisar, II Liber
Pontificalis fino al secolo ix, in Analecta Romana, Rome, 1899, i. 1—25.
§ 119. St. Martin of Bracara and St. Isidore of Seville.
I . MARTIN OF BRACARA. - - Martin of Bracara (Braga) was born
in Pannonia and became a monk in Palestine, but spent the greater
part of his life in Gallecia or Northwestern Spain. He was for a time
abbot of Dumio, a monastery near Braga, the residence of the Suevic
kings. At the first synod of Bracara (561), he signs as bishop of
Dumio, hence the appellation Martinus Dumiensis. In 5 72, at the second
synod of Bracara, we meet him as metropolitan of Bracara (Martinus
Bracarensis). His mission was the conversion of the Suevic tribes in
Spain from Arianism to Catholicism. He died in 580 and is honor
ed as a Saint. Gregory of Tours is witness 1 that Martin was second
to none of his contemporaries in virtue and learning. Most of his
writings are moral or ascetical in contents. The best known is his :
Formula vitae honestae, as he entitles it himself, or: De differentiis
quattuor virtutum, as Isidore of Seville2 calls it. This work is pre
ceded by a dedicatory epistle addressed to the Suevic king, Miro
(570 — $83), who had frequently besought Martin to address him oc
casionally a word of consolation or instruction. The writer then pro
ceeds to develop the moral precepts of the natural law from the
stand-point of the four platonic cardinal virtues : prudentia, magnanimi-
tas s. fortitude, continentia s. temperantia, iustitia. This exposition
of the natural law was probably borrowed from some lost work of
Seneca. Another little work of Martin is entitled: De ira, and is
now known to be a compendium of the three books of Seneca: De
ira. On the other hand, it is Christian morality that is developed
in the treatises: Pro repellenda iactantia, De superbia, Exhortatio
humilitatis, that form a single group, and were all addressed to
Miro. The sermon: De correctione rusticorum aims at extirpating
the pagan ideas and superstitious customs current among the peasan
try of his diocese, and offers many interesting details of importance
for the history of European culture and Christian preaching: it was
decided by the second council of Bracara that in their pastoral visi
tations the bishops should make every effort to extirpate from Suevic
1 Hist. Franc., v. 37. 2 De ^ris in ^ c 35
§ 119. ST. MARTIN OF BRACARA AND ST. ISIDORE OF SEVILLE. 659
society the err ores idolorum ; for his better instruction Polemius,
bishop of Asturica (Astorga), asked Martin to send him a short in
struction de origine idolorum et sceleribus ipsorum. Martin's reply
was this work; he tells Polemius that it was a sermon, and that he
might make good use of it in the visitation of his diocese. The
two collections: Aegyptiorum patrum sententiae, and: Verba seniorum,
are versions from the Greek; the first was made by Martin while
still abbot of Dumio, the second, at Dumio also, by the monk Pascha-
sius, at the request and with the aid of Martin. A collection of
pious sayings : Libellus de moribus, and a treatise : De paupertate,
containing many quotations from the letters of Seneca, are considered
spurious. In the history of the sources and literature of mediaeval
canon law Martin merits a place by reason of the so-called : Capitula
Martini, a collection of canons, mostly of Oriental but containing
some Western canons (Spanish and African), and compiled after
561. The first part of this collection treats of the clergy and con
tains sixty-eight canons; the second treats chiefly of the duties and
the faults of the laity and contains sixteen canons. The little treatise:
De Pascha, was composed by Martin in order to explain to his people
why Easter is celebrated on variable days the series of which begins
with the xi. Kal. Apr. and ends on xi. Kal. Maii. He says that such
was the custom handed down from his predecessors. The: Epistola
de trina mersione, is addressed to a bishop named Boniface, probably
resident among the Visigoths. In it he decries as Sabellian all bap
tism sub una mersione, a custom that had been adopted in Spain in
a spirit of opposition to Arianism. Finally, we possess still three
short poems or metrical inscriptions composed by Martin. Isidore
of Seville says * that he wrote also a volumen epistolarum, but it
seems to have perished.
2. WORKS ON MARTIN OF BRACARA. OTHER SPANISH WRITERS. — There
is no complete edition of the writings of Martin of Bracara. The following
are found in Gallandi (Bibl. vet. Patr. xii): Formula vitae honestae, Liber
de moribus, Pro repellenda iactantia, De superbia, Exhortatio humilitatis,
De ira, De pascha, and the metrical inscriptions. Migne (PL., Ixxii) re
prints these works from Gallandi, elsewhere he reprints the Verba senio
rum (Ib., Ixxiii. 1025 — 1062), Aegyptiorum patrum sententiae (Ib. , Ixxiv.
381 — 394), Capitula Martini (Ib., Ixxxiv. 574 — 586; cxxx. 575 — 588); there
are lacking in Migne : De correctione rusticorum , Epistola de trina mer
sione, and De paupertate. All editions of Martin's writings are indicated
and described with his usual accuracy by C. P. Caspari, Martins von Bra
cara Schrift «De correctione rusticorum », Christiania, 1883. The work
most frequently printed is the Formula vitae honestae. Among the prose
works of Seneca edited by Fr. Haasc (Leipzig, 1852 — 1853 1893 — 1895)
the reader will find, in an appendix (iii. 458 — 475), the De paupertate,
Liber de moribus, and Formula vitae honestae. The Capitula Martini are
found in several collections of councils and canonical documents; cf. Fr.
1 De viris ill., c. 35.
42*
(56<D THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
Maassen, Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des kanonischen Rechts,
Graz, 1870, i. 802 — 806. For a later recensions of the De pascha, among
the spurious works of St. Athanasius, cf. § 63, n. The three metrical
inscriptions were included in R. Peiper's edition of the works of St. Avitus
of Vienne (Monum. Germ. hist. Auct. antiquiss. vi. 2), pp. 194 — 196. -
Among other works of Apringius, bishop of Pace (Badajoz) about 540,
Isidore of Seville notes (De viris ill., c. 30) a commentary on the Apo
calypse, until recently reputed lost. Quite lately some important fragments
of it were discovered: the explanation of the first five and the last five
chapters of the Apocalypse, in a manuscript of the University of Copen
hagen. They were edited by M. Ferotin: Apringius de Beja. Son com-
mentaire de 1' Apocalypse, Paris, 1900. Cf. H. L. Ramsay , Le commen-
taire sur 1'Apocalypse par Beatus de Libana, in Revue d'hist. et de litter,
religieuses (1902), vii. 419 — 447; F. Fita, Apringio de Beja, in Boletin de
la R. Academia de la Historia (1902), xli. 535 — 616. K. Weyman, Text-
kritische Bemerkungen zum Apokalypsenkommentar des Apringius, in Bi-
blische Zeitschrift (1903), i. 175 — 181. — The Liber responsionum ad quern-
dam Rusticum de interrogatis quaestionibus (doctrinal in contents ; in Isid.
Hisp., De viris ill., c. 33), written by Justinian, bishop of Valencia (f after
546), seems to have perished. A. Helfferich identifies it with the Anno-
tationes de cognitione baptismi (Migne, PL., xcvi. in — 172), current under
the name of St. Ildephonsus of Toledo; cf. P. B. Gams, Die Kirchen-
geschichte von Spanien, Ratisbon, 1864, ii i, 455. -- Justus, bishop of
Urgel (f after 546), and brother of the aforesaid Justinian, left a brief
allegorical commentary on the Canticle of canticles (Migne, PL., Ixvii. 961
to 994) dedicated to his metropolitan, Sergius of Tarragona; cf. Gams,
1. c. , p. 441. Isidore of Seville adds (1. c. , c. 34) the following to his
notice of Justus of Urgel: Huius quoque fratres, Nebridius et Elpidius (also
bishops, ib., c. 33) quaedam, scripsisse feruntur.
3. ST. ISIDORE OF SEVILLE. -- In 585 the Visigothic king, Leovi-
gild, overthrew the Suevic kingdom; thenceforth almost all Spain
was subject to the Visigothic rule. What Martin of Bracara had
done among the Suevi, was now accomplished among the Visigoths
by St. Leander, who was from about 584 till his death (600 or 60 1)
archbishop of Seville. He was at first sent into exile by Leovigild
for the prominent part he had taken in the conversion of the king's
son, St. Hermenegild. He was also the chief agent in the national
conversion of the Visigoths, accomplished (May 589) at the third
council of Toledo in the reign of Reccared, successor of Leovigild.
tsidore of Seville describes his writings *, only fragments of which
have survived. His anti-Arian works have perished, also his numerous
letters, among which were some to Gregory L, with whom he was on
terms of intimate friendship. There are now extant only a monastic
rule for nuns: Ad Florentinam sororem de institutione virginum et
contemptu mundi libellus*, and a discourse delivered at the close of
iforesaid council : Homilia de triumpho ecclesiae ob conversionem
Gothorum; both works are of a character to make us sincerely regret
loss of his other writings. The literary fame of Leander was
1 De viris ill., c. 41. 2 Ib.
§ 1 19. ST. MARTIN OF BRACARA AND ST. ISIDORE OF SEVILLE. 66 1
far surpassed by that of Isidore, his younger brother, and successor
in the see of Seville (f 636). But little is known of his career as
a bishop. The last great event of his life was the fourth national
council of Toledo, in December 633, over which he presided. He
was even then acknowledged to be the most scholarly man of his
age and the restorer of learning in Spain. To his own oft-quoted
work De viris illustribus the following notitia was added after the
death of Isidore, by his friend Braulio, bishop of Saragossa (Prae-
notatio librorum Divi Isidori): quem Deus post tot defectus Hispaniae
novissirnis temporibus suscitans, credo ad restauranda antiquorum
monumenta, ne usquequaque rusticitate veterasceremus, quasi quam-
dam apposuit destinam1. The eighth synod of Toledo (653) says
of Isidore : nostri saeculi doctor egregius, ecclesiae catholiciae novis-
simum decus, praecedentibus aetate postremus, doctrinae comparatione
non infimus, et quod maius est, in saeculorum fine doctissimus 2.
Isidore, indeed, possesses and assimilates all the knowledge of his
time, while in the quality of his literary labors he far surpasses all
Spanish Christian writers of antiquity. He considers it his mission to
counteract the spreading barbarism of his surroundings by the diffusion
of education and learning; his strenuous efforts in this direction en
title him to the affectionate gratitude, not only of Spain but of the
entire West. He felt himself called, like Boethius and Cassiodorius,
to collect the remaining intellectual treasures of Roman antiquity
and hand them down to the new German society. The influence of
Isidore's writings on the European mind during the Middle Ages
is simply incalculable. It must be said that they exhibit but little ori
ginality. Isidore is less concerned with fresh researches than with
the garnering of the scientific inheritance of his intellectual ancestry.
When we consider the circumstances of his age, we may rightly
wonder at the extent of his erudition and the intensity of his zeal
as a compiler. In the following centuries these works, genuine com
pendia of entire libraries, were all the more highly valued because
of the simple and clear style in which they were written. It is only
natural that his pages should frequently reveal that decadence of
taste which is distinctive of epochs of dissolution and transition.
The Latin diction of Isidore is particularly interesting to philologists
because of the many Visigothic elements that it contains. His writ
ings furnish the first chapter in the history of Spanish literature.
The most extensive and influential of his compilations is the : Etymo-
logiae (Origines), finished by Isidore only a short time before his
death , and divided by his friend Braulio , to whom he sent the
manuscript for correction, into twenty books. The work is a com
pendious encyclopedia, in which the subject-matter of universal know
ledge is arranged and described in connection with a very bizarre
1 Migne, PL., Ixxxi. 16 — 17. 2 Mansi, SS. Cone. Coll., x. 1215.
662 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
and fantastic etymology, which circumstance gave the name to the
whole. The books are entitled as follows : i. De grammatica; 2. De
rhetorica et dialectica; 3. De quatuor disciplinis mathematicis (arith
metic, geometry, music, astronomy); 4. De medicina; 5. De legibus
et temporibus (inclusive of a short universal chronicle to 627); 6. De
libris et officiis ecclesiasticis ; 7. De Deo, angelis et fidelium ordinibus;
8. De ecclesia et sectis diversis; 9. De linguis, gentibus, regnis, mili
tia, civibus, affinitatibus ; 10. Vocum certarum alphabetum (etymologies) ;
II. De homine et portentis; 12. De animalibus; 13. De mundo et
partibus; 14. De terra et partibus; 15. De aedificiis et agris; 16. De
lapidibus et metallis; 17. De rebus rusticis; 18. De bello et ludis;
19. De navibus, aedificiis et vestibus; 20. De penu et instrumentis
domesticis et rusticis. Very little has hitherto been accomplished
for the textual criticism of this much used and variously altered and
corrupted work. Modern scholarship has scarcely begun to investi
gate the number and character of the authorities of Isidore and his
o
manner of utilizing them. The work is largely, almost entirely, a
mosaic-like construction, made up of an immense number of excerpts.
It is clear that very many of the later Christian and classical works
quoted by Isidore were read by him at first hand; this is true even
of similar works that are no longer extant. Other earlier writers
were known and quoted by Isidore from compilations current in his
time. To the mediaeval student the Etymologiae, with all their im
perfections, were a real mine of information. They furnished the model
and much of the material for all mediaeval dictionaries. Isidore com
posed several other works of the same general character. Thus, the:
Libri duo differentiarum : De differentiis verborum (a dictionary of
synonyms), and De differentiis rerum (brief explanations of theologic
al notions), are companion- works to the first two books of the Etymo
logiae. In turn, the first book of these Differentiae is further illus
trated by two books of Synonyma, often called : Liber lamentationum,
because of the peculiar manner in which synonyms are set forth.
At the request of the Visigoth king Sisebut, our author composed
an elementary manual of physics which he entitled : De natura rerum.
His work: De ordine creaturarum deals with the phenomena of the
spiritual and the physical order. The short universal chronicle in
the fifth book of the Etymologiae is taken from an earlier Chronicon
that reached to 615; the preface says that it was based on Julius
Africanus, Eusebius-Jerome and Victor of Tunnuna. The: Historia
de regibus Gothorum, Wandalorum et Suevorum is a chronicle of
the Visigoths, with two short chronicle-like appendixes on the history
of the Vandals and the Suevi; it is also substantially a compendium
of earlier historical works on these subjects, and has reached us in
:wo recensions , a shorter one that stops at the death of Sisebut
(621), and a longer one that reaches to the fifth year of his sue-
§ IIQ. ST. MARTIN OF BRACARA AND ST. ISIDORE OF SEVILLE. 663
cessor Suintilas. We have already mentioned (§ 2, 2) a third histo
rical work of Isidore, his continuation of the De viris illustribus of
St. Jerome. Apropos of this well-known and useful work of literary
biography we may enumerate the theological writings of Isidore.
Among them the following are worthy of mention : De ortu et obitu
patrum qui in Scriptura laudibus efferuntur (a history of the persons
prominent in the Old and New Testaments); Allegoriae quaedam Sacrae
Scripturae (on the allegorical significance of important personalities of
Bible history); Liber numerorum qui in Sanctis Scripturis occurrunt (on
the mystical meaning of Scriptural numbers); In libros Veteris et Novi
Testament! prooemia; De Veteri et Novo Testamento quaestiones;
Mysticorum expositiones sacramentorum seu quaestiones in Vetus
Testamentum (in Genesim, in Exodum, in Leviticum, in Numeros,
in Deuteronomium, in Josue, in librum Judicum, in libros Regum,
in Esdram, in libros Machabaeorum). Special mention must be made
of his little apologetico-polemical treatise : De fide catholica ex Veteri
et Novo Testamento contra Judaeos ad Florentinam sororem suam,
which book was early in the Middle Ages translated into several
European vernaculars, among others into German. The: Libri tres
sententiarum, are a kind of manual of dogmatic and moral theology,
constructed from the writings of approved ecclesiastical authorities,
especially St. Gregory the Great. Of the two books into which his
liturgical work: De ecclesiasticis officiis, is divided, the first: De
origine officiorum, treats of the divine worship, while the second: De
origine ministrorum, treats of the clergy. In his Regula monachorum,
Isidore gave proof of his deep concern for the improvement of the
monastic life which he held to be the cradle of all learning and the
refuge of all scholarship. Only a few of his letters have been pre
served. The hymns current under his name are all spurious.
4. WORKS ON ISIDORE OF SEVILLE. OTHER SPANISH WRITERS. — F.
Leander, Bischof von Sevilla, in Zeitschr. fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1886),
xxix. 36—50. The Monastic Rule and the Discourse of Leander are in
Migne, PL., Ixxii. 874—898. - - The best edition of the works of Isidore
is that of Fr. Arevalo, Rome, 1797 — 1803, 7 vols. (Migne, PL., Ixxxi to
Ixxxiv). Teuffel-Schwabe , in Gesch. der rom. Lit., 5. ed. , 1295, gives
a full account of all works relative to the Etymologiae (researches on
manuscript-tradition, special editions of separate sections, and contributions
to the textual criticism of the encyclopedia). H. Dressel, De Isidori Ori-
gintim fontibus (Diss. inaug.), Turin, 1874. G. Mercati, L' eta di Simmaco
1'interprete e S. Epifanio, Modena, 1893, pp. 80 — 87. H. Schwarz, Ob-
servationes criticae in Isidori Hispaliensis Origines (Progr.), Hirschberg,
1895. The De natura rerum was edited separately by G. Becker, Berlin,
1857. The historical writings of Isidore were edited anew by Th. Mommsen,
Chronica minora saec. iv v vi vii, vol. ii (Monum. Germ. hist. Auct.
antiquiss.), Berlin, 1894, xi. 241 — 303; Isidori lunioris episc. Hispal. Hi-
storia Gothorum, Wandalorum, Sueborum ad a. 624 (pp. 304 — 390: various
supplements); pp. 391 — 488: Chronica maiora ed. primum a. 615. Chro-
nicorum epitome ed. a. 627 (pp. 489 — 506: Auctarium chronicorum ma-
664 THIRD PERIOD. THIRD SECTION.
iorum ad a. 624, and other additions). H. Hertzberg, Uber die Chroniken
des Isidorus von Sevilla, in Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte (1875),
xv. 289 — 360. A German version of the Historia de regibus Gothorum,
Wandalorum et Suevorum was made by D. Coste , Leipzig, 1887 (Die
Geschichtsschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit, seventh century, i). K. Wein-
hold, Die altdeutschen Bruchstiicke des Traktats des Bischofs Isidorus von
Sevilla «De fide catholica contra Iudaeos», Paderborn, 1874. G. A. Hench,
Der althochdeutsche Isidor, Strassburg, 1893. For the poems current under
the name of Isidore see M. Manitius, Gesch. der christl.-latein. Poesie,
Stuttgart, 1891 , pp. 414 — 420. Apropos of his De ecclesiasticis officiis
cf. Dom Ferotin, Le Liber ordinum, en usage dans 1'eglise wisigotique
et mozarabe d'Espagne du Ve au XIe siecle. Public pour la premiere
fois, avec une introduction, des notes, une etude sur neuf calendriers
mozarabes etc. (Monumenta Ecclesiae Liturgica, v), Paris, 1904. The life
and writings of Isidore are described in detail by P. B. Gams, Die Kirchen-
geschichte von Spanien, Ratisbon, 1874, ii 2, 102 — 113, and by A. Ebert,
Allgem. Gesch. der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande, 2. ed., i.
588 — 602. - - There are extant (Migne, PL., Ixxii. 689 — 700) three letters
of Licinianus, bishop of Carthagena (Carthago Spartaria) on the south
eastern coast of Spain in the time of emperor Maurice (582 — 602). The
second letter maintains the immateriality of the angelic nature. Cf. Gams,
Die Kirchengeschichte von Spanien, ii 2, 49 — 55. -- Severus, bishop of
Malaga and friend and contemporary of Licinian, is said by Isidore (De
viris ill., c. 43) to have composed a polemical treatise against Vincentius,
the Arian bishop of Saragossa, also a treatise on virginity entitled Annulus
and dedicated to his sister. Both works have apparently perished. —
There are extant two letters of Eutropius, a bishop of Valencia towards
the end of the sixth century (Migne, PL., Ixxx. 9 — 20); cf. Gams, 1. c.,
pp. 57 — 59- --In his dissertation entitled Eine Bibliothek der Symbole
und theologischer Traktate, Mainz, 1900 (in Forschungen zur christlichen
Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte, i. 4), K. Kilnstle made known long ex
tracts from a collection of theological creeds and treatises, that were written
in Spain, towards the end of the sixth century, in opposition to the con
temporary Priscillianism and Arianisin. These documents were preserved
in a ninth-century manuscript of the monastery of Reichenau.
Corrections.
Page 209 line 2 for wellk-nown read : well-known.
» 401 ,j 35 » Hlsuccess read: ill success.
,, 405 ,, 28 ,, betrays e certain read: betrays a certain.
» 5*4 ,, 19 .. spared in 4j7 read: prepared in 4.57.
,, 638 ,, 10 ,, Vz'gilius read: VzVgilius.
INDEX.
(The numbers indicate the pages.)
Abgar, toparch of Edessa 109 251.
Acacius of Beroea 347.
Acacius of Caesarea 239 240.
Acacius of Constantinople 534.
Acacius of Melitene 370.
Achatius (Acacius), Acta disputationis 233.
Acta apostolorum apocrypha, see Apostles
(Acts of).
Acta disputationis Archelai et Manetis 268.
Acta Edessena no.
Acta Martyrum : the oldest genuine Acts
228—233, Martyrium St. Polycarpi 229,
Acta St. Carpi, Papyli et Agathonices
230, Acta St. Justini et sociorum 230,
Epistola Ecclesiarum Viennensis et Lug-
dunensis 230, Acta Martyrum Scillitano-
rum 231, Acta St. Apollonii 231, Acta
St. Perpetuae et Felicitatis 232, Acta
St. Pionii 233, Acta disputationis St. Acha-
tii 233, Eusebius' Collection of Acts of
the Martyrs 228, his work on the con
temporary martyrs in Palestine 247 251,
Syriac Acts of the Martyrs 393. Other
Acts of Martyrs : Acta St. Anastasii Per-
sae 565, St. Gregorii Armeni 591,
St. Longini Centurionis 380, St. Luciani
240 , St. Martyrum Agaunensium (St.
Mauricii et sociorum eius) 518 519,
St. Martyrum Carthaginensium 615,
St. Martyrum Homeritarum 552, St.
Septem dormientium 644 647, St. Pam-
phili et sociorum 167, St. Rhipsimes
et sociarum 591 , De martyrio St. Si-
sinnii, Martyrii et Alexandri 444. See
Vita Sanctorum.
Acta (Gesta) Pilati 97.
Ad Laodicenses ill.
Ad quendam senatorem, poem 422 423.
Adamamius 167 (see Origen).
Addaeus, see Thaddaeus.
Addaeus, Doctrina Addaei no.
Adrian (Hadrian) 379 380.
Adrian II. 657.
Adversus Haereses 119.
Aeneas of Gaza 543.
Aetius 239,
Africanus, see Julius Africanus.
Agapetus of Constantinople 55 1.
Agapitus I., Pope 640.
Agathangelus 590 591.
Agnellus 527.
Agrapha 93.
Agricola 505.
Agrippa Castor 116.
Alcimus Avitus 609 — 6n.
Alexander of Alexandria 253 263.
Alexander of Jerusalem 164, cp. 127 128.
Alexander of Lycopolis 269.
Alexander of Salamina 552>
Alexandrine Catechetical School 127.
Alexandrine Exegetical School 235.
Alexandrines, Epistola ad in.
Alfanus of Salerno 306.
Alfred, King of England 511 632 633 653.
Alliance (Testament), Old and New 23.
Alphonsus Liguori 3.
Altercatio Heracliani cum Germinio 416.
Altercatio Simonis Judaei et Theophili
Christian! 517.
Ambrosiaster 440.
Ambrosius 53.
Ambrosius, friend and patron of Origen
153, cp. 136.
Ambrosius of Alexandria 256.
Ambrosius of Milan, St. 431 — 444: his
life 431, his writings 433, exegetical 433
435, ascetico-moral 436, dogmatic 437,
discourses and letters 438, hymns and
other poems 439 , complete editions,
translations of selected works 440, edi
tions, translations and recensions of se
parate works 440, literature on Ambro
sius 442; vita S. Ambrosii 513.
Ammon 265.
Ammonius of Alexandria (3rd century) 60
153-
666
INDEX.
Ammonius of Alexandria (5th century) 533.
Amoenus 451.
Amphilochius of Iconium 279 286.
Amphilochius of Side 370.
Ananias 593.
Anastasius I., Pope 455-
Anastasius II., Pope 620 621.
Anastasius I. of Antioch, St. 574.
Anastasius II. of Antioch 575.
Anastasius III. of Nicaea 570 571.
Anastasius Apocrisiarius 576 579.
Anastasius Bibliothecarius 561 657.
Anastasius, Hymn-writer 564.
Anastasius Monachus 576 579.
Anastasius Sinaita 133 547 580 581.
Anatolius 157.
Andreas, The Apostle : Gospel of Andreas
96, acts of Andreas 103, later recensions
of the Andreas-Legend 104.
Andreas of Caesarea 569.
Andreas of Crete 567.
Andreas of Samosata 370.
Angels: the nine choirs in Pseudo-Diony-
sius Areopagita 536, corporeal according
to Faustus of Riez 601, incorporeal ac
cording to Licinianus of Carthagena 664.
Anianus (Annianus) of Celeda 345 504
604.
Anicetus, Pope 36 117.
Anonymi Hermippus 544.
Anonymous, Anti-Arian 416.
Anonymous, Anti-Montanist 123.
Anonymous, Anti-Semipelagian 515,
Anonymous, Montanist 85.
Anonymous, Poet 420.
Anonymus Mellicensis 8.
Anthimus 78.
Anthimus 563.
Anthologia Palatina 290 note.
Anthony, St. 253 264 265.
Anti-Gnostics 116 — 118.
Anti-Montanists 123.
Antitheses (of Marcion) 80.
Antiochene Exegetical School 235 236.
Antiochus, Monachus 29 573.
Antiochus of Ptolemais 347.
Antiochus of St. Saba 573.
Antipater of Bostra 532.
Antiquorum Patrum doctrina de Verbi Dei
incarnatione 547 581.
Antonini Placentini Itinerarium 638.
Antoninus Honoratus 615.
Antonius, supposed poet 449.
Apelles 80 117.
Aphraates 385—387 : life 385, works 386,
literature on 387.
Aphthartodocetae 533 545.
Aphthonius 596.
Apion 1 1 8.
Apocalypse: Johannine authorship rejected
by Gaius, defended by Hippolytus 124,
rejected by Dionysius of Alexandria 155.
Apocalypses, Apocryphal 1 13 — 116: Apo
calypse of St. Peter 89 113, Apocalypsis
Petri per Clementem 113, Apocalypse
of St. Paul 114, Visio S. Pauli 115,
Ascension of St. Paul 115, Revelatio
Thomae 116, Revelatio Stephani 116,
Revelatio Zachariae 1 1 6 , Apocalypsis
Danielis 116.
Apocatastasis : in Origen 152, in Gregory
of Nyssa 303 304, in Didymus the Blind
307, in Evagrius Ponticus 308 310, not
in St. John Chrysostom 339. See Ori-
genistic controversies.
Apocrypha, New Testament 85 ff : in ge
neral 85, Apocryphal Gospels 87 90 — 97,
Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles 88
97 — no, Apocryphal Epistles of the
Apostles 89 no — 113, Apocryphal
Apocalypses 89.
Apollinaris of Hierapolis 61.
Apollinaris of Laodicea (Junior) 242 — 244
289; Apollinarism 242 — 244; Apollina-
ristic literature 244.
Apollinaris of Laodicea (Senior) 243.
Apollinaris Sidonius 603 606.
Apollonius, Anti-Montanist 124.
Apollonius, Martyr 231.
Apologetics : the apologetic literature of
the second century 44 — 72, other apo
logists of the primitive patristic period :
Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Diony
sius of Alexandria, in the East 126
127 f. ; Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius,
Lactantius, Hippolytus, Commodian, in
the West 178; apologetic literature of
the second period : among the Greeks
236, among. the Syrians 386, among the
Latins 398 ; apologetic literature of the
third period: among the Greeks 574,
among the Armenians 589 ff, among
the Latins 597 f.
Apostles, The Twelve: the Gospel of the
Twelve 91, the Doctrine of the Twelve
19 — 22. See Didache.
Apostles, Epistles of, Apocryphal 1 1 o — 113:
Epistle to the Laodiceans no, Epistle
to the Alexandrines in, Correspondence
of Paul and the Corinthians in, Cor
respondence of Paul and Seneca 112.
Apostles, Acts of, Apocryphal 97 — no:
the Preaching of Peter and the Preaching
of Paul 97, Acts of Peter 98, Acts
of Paul 100, Acts of Peter and Paul
10 1 , Acts of Paul and Thecla 102,
Acts of Andrew 103 , Acts of John
105, Acts of Thomas 106, Acts of
Philip 1 08, Acts of Matthew 108, Legend
of Thaddaeus 109.
Apostles' Creed 17.
Apostolica Didascalia 168 — 170; Arabica
and Ethiopica 352.
Apostolic Canons 357.
INDEX.
667
Apostolic Church-Ordinance 160 — 162.
Apostolic Constitutions 238 349 — 358 : their
composition , contents , sources 349,
unity of origin, time and place of com
position 350, their history 351 , edi
tions, translations, recensions 351, the
Arabic and Ethiopic Didascalia 352,
recensions of the eighth book of the Apo
stolic Constitutions, the Constitutions
per Hippolytum, the Egyptian Church-
Ordinance 353, the eighth book of the
Apostolic Constitutions (continued), the
Testament of our Lord 35 5> the Ca-
nones Hippolyti 356, the recensions of
the Apostolic Canons 357.
Apostolic Fathers 15.
Apponius 628.
Apringius of Pace 660.
Apuleius of Madaura 418.
Aquilius Severus 426.
Arabianus 1 1 8.
Arator 624.
Archelaus of Carchar 268.
Areopagita, see Dionysius Areopagita.
Arethas of Caesarea 45.
Arethas-Codex 45 64.
Aristides of Athens 46.
Aristo of Pella 48 517.
Arius 238 ; Arianism and Arian literature
238 — 240 257 412; Semiarianism and
Semiarian literature 240.
Armenian literature 589 590.
Arnobius 201 — 203.
Arnobius, another 604.
Arnobius Junior 604.
Arsenius 382.
Asarbus 429.
Asclepiades 164.
Asclepiades 208.
Asclepius 615.
Asser 632.
Asterius of Amasea 306.
Asterius the Sophist 239.
Asterius Urban us 85.
Athanasian Creed 255 261.
Athanasius, St. 253 — 263: life 253, works:
apologetical 254, dogmatic 254, histo-
rico-polemical 256, exegetical 257, as-
cetical 258, festal letters 258, Christo-
logy and Trinitarian doctrine 258, com
plete editions, translations , recensions
260, editions translations, recensions of
separate works 261, works on Athana
sius 263.
Athenagoras of Athens : life 64 , writ
ings 64, characteristics 65.
Athenodorus 17 5-
Atticus of Constantinople 348, cp. 328 329.
Augustine, St. 473 — 508 : life to his baptism
(354—387) 473, after his baptism (387 to
430)475, RetractationesandConfessiones
477; works: philosophical, apologetical
and dogmatic 479, dogmatico-polemical,
Anti-Manichaean 481, Anti-Donatist 483,
Anti-Pelagian 485 , Anti-Arian 488,
exegetic-moral and pastoral-theological
488 — 492, sermons, letters, poems 492,
conspectus of his writings 494, philo
sophy of St. Augustine 496, his theo
logy 498 , opposition to Pelagianism
498, complete editions, translations 502 ;
editions, translations, recensions of se
parate works 502 — 506, biography and
characteristics of Augustine 506, litera
ture on his philosophy 507, on his theo
logy 507.
Aurelianus of Aries 612.
Aurelius of Carthage 510.
Aurelius Prudentius 444 — 447.
Ausonius 421.
Auspicius of Toul 608.
Auxentius, Archimandrite 5^3-
Auxentius of Dorostorum 412.
Avellana Collectio 628.
Avitus of Bracara 511.
Avitus of Vienne, St. 609 — 611.
Bacchyllus of Corinth 126.
Bachiarius 511-
Balaeus 394.
Balsamon 172.
Baptism : according to St. Justin Martyr 56,
Tertullian 185 189, St. Cyprian 191, Op-
tatus of Milevi 399 427, St. Augustine
483 486; controversy on Baptism ad
ministered by heretics, see Heretical Bap
tism; Baptism by single immersion con
demned by St. Martin of Bracara 659.
Bardesanes 78.
Barnabas, The so-called Epistle of: con
tents 22, spurious character 23, time and
place of composition 24; Gospel of Bar
nabas 96.
Barsanuphius, St. 551.
Bartholomew, Gospel of 97.
Basil, St., the Great 274 — 285 : his youth
274, monk and priest 275, metropolitan
of Caesarea 275, his works: dogmatico-
polemical 276, exegetical 277, ascetical
278, homilies, letters, «Liturgy» 2 79, great
ness of Basil 280, his rule of faith 280,
Trinitarian doctrine 281, on the cognos-
cibility of God 282, complete editions
283, editions and recensions of separate
works 284, versions 285, literature on
St. Basil 285.
Basil of Ancyra 241.
Basilides 73.
Basilius Cilix 553.
Basilius Minimus 293
Basilius, Monk 369.
Basilius of Seleucia 531.
Beatus of Libana 462 471.
Bede the Venerable 471 ; Pseudo Beda 632.
668
INDEX.
Bellator 142.
Benedict I., Pope 657.
Benedict of Aniane, St. 283.
Benedict of Nursia 627.
Beron 209 219.
Beryllus of Bostra 165.
Biblical Theology : Biblical text criticism ;
see Origen, Lucius of Samosata, Hesy-
chius the Egyptian ; Biblical commen
taries, for the earliest patristic period,
see those of Origen , Hippolytus and
Victorinus of Pettau ; in the second peri
od it is the representatives of the Anti-
ochene school who are most productive
in works of exegesis, e. g. Diodorus of
Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Poly-
chronius, Chrysostom and Theodoret of
Gaza; among the Syrians Ephraem re
presents similar principles of biblical
exegesis; most other commentators follow
the allegorical method: in the East Eu-
sebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Gregory
of Nyssa, Didymus the Blind, Cyril of
Alexandria ; in the West Hilary of Poi
tiers , Jerome, Augustine. For Bible-
commentaries of the third period see
530 f. 598 f. , also Catenae 529 &c.
Bible - translations : Jerome , Vulgate;
Biblical Hermeneutics see Hermeneutics;
Biblical Introduction, Archaeology and
Geography are represented by Eusebius
of Caesarea, Epiphanius, Jerome, Augu
stine , Cosmas Indicopleustes , Junilius,
Isidore of Seville. See also Pilgrimages.
Bibliothecae Patrum 12.
Blossius Dracontius, see Dracontius.
Boethius 628 — 632; literature 632.
Bolanus 165.
Bonaventure, St. 497.
Bonifatius I., Pope 514.
Bonifatius II., Pope 640.
Braulio of Saragossa 66 1.
Breviarius de Hierosolyma 638.
Burgundio of Pisa 306.
Caelestius 487 504.
Caena Cypriani 100.
Caesarius of Aries, St. 611 — 613.
Caesarius of Nazianzus 294.
Caius 124.
Callinicus 379.
Callisthenes (Pseudo-) 595.
Callixtus, Pope 223, cp. 186 209.
Candidus, Anti-Gnostic 118.
Candidus, Arian 412.
Candidus, Valentinian 148.
Canon, Biblical, according to Theodore of
^Mopsuestia 319 320. See Apocalypse.
Canons, the so-called Apostolic 357 ; col
lections of Canons: Greek 571, Latin
591, Nomocanones 571.
Capitula of St. Hippolytus 124.
Capreolus of Carthage 510.
Carmen adversus paganos 422.
Carmen de providentia divina 514.
Carpus, Papylus and Agathonice 230.
Cassian 515 — 518.
Cassiodorius 132 141 633 — 636; literature
on 636.
Castor of Apta Julia 516 517.
Catalogus Felicianus 657.
Catalogus Liberianus 423 657.
Catechetical School of Alexandria 127.
Catenae 257 529 535 542 570.
Celsus 147 148.
Cerdon 79.
Cerealis of Castellum 615.
Ceretius of Grenoble 519.
Cerinthus 124.
Chiliasm: in Papias 43, in St. Irenaeus 120,
in Nepos 154 — 155, opposed by Dio-
nysius of Alexandria 155, in Lactantius
204, in Commodianus 227.
Chosrowig 592 593.
Christology : of St. Irenaeus 121, St. Atha
nasius 258 f., Diodorus of Tarsus 317,
Theodore of Mopsuestia 321, St. Chryso
stom 340, St. Cyril of Alexandria 317
365, Theodoret of Cyrus 371, Aphraates
386, St. Ephrem 390, St. Hilary 408,
Prudentius 445, St. Leo the Great 524,
Leontius of Byzantium 545 — 546, St.
Maximus Confessor 576 — 577. See Lo
gos, Trinitarian Doctrine.
Christus Patiens 290 293.
Chromatius of Aquileia 444.
Chronicles, see Historical Theology.
Chronicon imperiale 514.
Chronicon integrum 513.
Chronicon paschale 555.
Chronicon vulgatum 513.
Chronographer of the year 354: 423.
Chrysologus, St. Peter 526.
Chrysostom, St. John 323 — 347: life before
ordination to priesthood 323, preacher at
Antioch 324, patriarch of Constantinople
324 , Chrysostom and Eutropius 324,
Chrysostom and Eudoxia 325, continua
tion and end of the Chrysostom-tragedy
327, his works: exegetical homilies
329, other discourses 331, apologetico-
moral and ascetico-moral writings 333,
letters 336, spurious writings 3 36, Chryso
stom as homilist 337, his doctrine
339, complete editions and editions of
separate works 343, translations 345.
literature on Chrysostom 346 , Vitae
S. Johannis Chrysostomi 348 562.
Church, The, concept and essence of: ac
cording to St. Ignatius of Antioch 33,
St. Cyprian 192, St. Pacian of Barce
lona 425, Optatus of Milevi 426, St. Au
gustine 484 f., relations of Church and
State according to St. Ambrose 432,
INDEX.
669
according to St. Augustine 484; Ec
clesiastical Jurisdiction, see Penance;
Ecclesiastical Hierarchy : according to
St. Clement of Rome 26, St. Ignatius of
Antioch 32, Pseudo-Dionysius-Areopagita
536; primacy of the Roman Church : in
St. Clement of Rome 27, St. Ignatius of
Antioch 33, St. Cyprian 193, Optatus of
Milevi 426, St. Jerome 469, St. Leo the
Great 523, St. Peter Chrysologus 526,
St. Avitus of Vienne 609, Ennodius of
Pavia 623.
Church, Doctors of the 2.
Church History, see Historical Theology.
Church, Fathers of the; see Fathers.
Church-Ordinances, the so-called Apostolic
1 60 — 162; the Egyptian 353.
Cicero 204 398 436 474 480 629 632.
Claudianus, Poet 383.
Claudianus Mamertus 603.
Claudius Claudianus 383 445 603 607.
Claudius Marius Victor 450.
Clement of Alexandria 127 — 135: life 127,
writings 128: the Protrepticus , Paed-
agogus. Stromata 129, Hypotyposes 132,
Quis dives salvetur 132, works known
only by citations and fragments 132,
his doctrinal views 133.
Clement of Rome, St. 25 — 30: life 25, Epistle
to the Corinthians 26, the two Epistolae
ad Virgines 29 ; Apocalypsis Petri per
Clementem 114; Apostolic Constitutions
238 349 368 ; Clementinae or Clemen
tines, the so-called 82 — 84.
Cleobius 112.
Climacus, Johannes 572.
Codex Fuldensis 60.
Codex Vercellensis 417.
Codex Arethae, see Arethas-Codex.
Coelestine I., Pope, St. 514.
Cohortatio ad Gentiles 53.
Collectio Avellana 628.
Collectio Dionysiana 625.
Comma lohanneum 429.
Commodian : life 225, Instructiones 225,
Carmen Apologeticum 226, summary
226.
Consentius 607.
Constantius of Antioch 349.
Constitutions, the so-called Apostolic, see
Apostolic Constitutions.
Consubstantial, see YJ/j.ooufftog.
Corinthians, Apocryphal Letter to ill.
Coriun (Koriun) 592.
Cornelius, Pope, St. 200 223.
Corpus scriptorum eccles. latinorum 13.
Cosmas Indicopleustes 555 556.
Cosmas Monachus (Junior) 569.
Cosmas Melodos, St. 568.
Creationism, see Soul.
Creed, the Apostles' 17.
Creed, the Athanasian 255 261.
Crescentius 642.
Crisias, poem 641.
Cyprian, St. 190 — 201: life 190, writings 192,
their Ms. -tradition 193, characteristics
193, treatises 194 — 196, letters 196,
spurious writings 198.
Cyprian of Antioch 383.
Cyprian of Gaul 201 419.
Cyril, St., of Alexandria 360 — 369 : life (to
428) 360, the conflict with Nestorianism
361, his work against Julian 362, dogma-
tico-polemical writings 362 , exegetical
writings 364, homilies and letters 365,
Christology 365, spurious works 366, com
plete editions, editions of separate works,
early translations 367, later translations
and recensions 368, literature on Cyril
368, friends and allies of Cyril 369,
adversaries of Cyril 370.
Cyril of Jerusalem, St. 271 — 273: life 271,
the Catecheses 271, other writings 273,
literature on 273.
Cyril of Scythopolis 557.
Cyrillonas 394.
Cyrus 383.
Dalmatius 369.
Damasus, Pope, St. 421.
Daniel of Raithu 572 573.
David, the Armenian 593.
De Ecclesia, cento 421.
De Evangelio, poem 417.
De lesu Christo Deo et homine, poem 417.
De lona, poem 190 420.
De iudicio Domini (De resurrectione mor-
tuorum), poem 190.
De laudibus Domini, poem 419.
De martyrio Macchabaeorum, poem 417-
De monarchia 53.
De morte Peregrini, romance 34.
De Pascha (De ligno vitae, De cruce),
poem 417.
De rebaptismate 98 100.
De Sodoma, poem 190 420.
De Verbi incarnatione, cento 421.
De vocatione omnium gentium 515-
Demetrius of Alexandria 136.
Dexter 426.
Diadochus of Photice 382.
Dialogus Athanasii et Zachaei 49.
Dialogus de recta in Deum fide 167.
Dialogus Papisci et Philonis ludaeorum
cum quodam monacho 5^1-
Dialogus Timothei et Aquilae 49.
Diatessaron 59.
Dictinius 429.
Didache or Doctrine of the Twelve Apo
stles igf. : contents 19, time and place
of composition 20, history 20, litera
ture on 21.
Didascalia, The so-called Apostolic 168 to
170; Arabic andEthiopic Didascalia 352.
6;o
INDEX.
Didymus the Blind 307—309: life 307,
writings 308, literature on 309.
Diodorus of Tarsus 315—318: life 315,
writings 316, doctrine 317 361, litera
ture on 318.
Diognetus, Epistle to 68.
Dionysiana Collectio 625.
Dionysius of Alexandria 153 — 1$7: ^^e
153, writings 154, principal treatises,
letters 156.
Dionysius Areopagita, The supposed 535
to 541, writings of the Pseudo-Areo-
pagite 535 577, controversy concerning
their authorship 537, actual state of the
question 539.
Dionysius Exiguus 357 625 626.
Dionysius of Corinth 125.
Dionysius, Pope, St. 224, cp. 155.
Dioscurus of Alexandria 371 376.
Doctrina Addaei 109.
Dogma: in general the dogmatic literature
of Christian Antiquity serves an apo
logetic or polemical purpose, and does
not exceed the limits of the doctrine
in question ; see Apologetics. The ear
liest systematization of dogma dates from
Origen, Theognostus of Alexandria and
Lactantius ; a complete system of ec
clesiastical dogma produced by St. John of
Damascus 584 > compendious accounts
of Christian doctrine prepared by Theo-
doret of Cyrus 237 374, St. Augustine
399481, St. Fulgentius of Ruspe 598 617.
Dogma, History of 5.
Domninus 126.
Domnulus 624.
Donatism 426.
Donatus of Casae Nigrae 426.
Donatus the Great 426.
Dorotheus, Abbot 573.
Dositheus 73.
Dracontius 618 — 620.
Duae Viae 161.
Easter Controversies 119 122 125 126;
Brito-Roman Controversy 157.
Ebionites 81.
Ebionites, Gospel of 81 91.
Edessa, School of 384.
Egyptian Church Ordinance 354.
Egyptians, Gospel of 92.
Elkesaites 81.
Eleutherus (Eleutherius), Pope, St. 117 118
119 125.
Eleutherus (Eleutherius) of Tournay, St
612.
Elias of Crete 289.
Elische, St. 594.
Elpidius, Bishop 660.
Elpidius (Helpidius), Poet 624.
Elxai, Book of 81.
Encratites 81 92.
Endelechius 449.
Ennodius of Pavia 622.
Ephraem of Antioch 551.
Ephraem Syrus, St. 387—393: life 387,
works: their preservation 388, prose writ
ings or biblical commentaries 388, me
trical writings or discourses and hymns
389, the Roman edition of the works of
Ephraem, additions to the same, trans
lations into German 391 — 393, literature
on Ephraem 393.
Epiphanes 76.
Epiphanius, St., of Constantia 310 — 314:
life 310, works: polemical 312, biblico-
archeological 313, spurious 313, letters
313, works on Epiphanius 313, edi
tions, translations and recensions 314.
Epiphanius Scholasticus 532 557 636.
Epistola ad Demetriadem 515 525.
Epistola ad Diognetum 68.
Epistola ad Zenam et Serenum 54.
Epitomes, Clementine 83.
Erasmus 7 435.
Eschatology of Origen 152; of St. Gregory of
Nyssa 302—304. See Apocatastasis, Re
surrection, Chiliasm.
Etheria 425.
Eucharist, The Blessed: in St. Justin Martyr
56, in St. Cyprian 197, in Eusebius of
Caesarea 248, in St. Cyril of Jerusalem
272, in St. Chrysostom (Doctor Euchari-
stiae) 341 342, in Balaeus 395, in St.
John Damascene 585.
Eucherius of Lyons, St. 518 519.
Eudocia, Empress 383.
Eudoxia, Empress 325 328.
Eugenius of Carthage 615.
Eugenius II. of Toledo 619.
Eugippius Abbas 626.
Eulogius of Alexandria 575.
Eunomius of Cyzicus 239 240.
Euphronius of Autun 520.
Eusebius of Alexandria 370.
Eusebius of Caesarea 245 — 252: life 245,
works: historical 246 378, exegetical
241 247, apologetical 248. dogmatic,
letters , homilies , complete editions,
translations, literature on Eusebius 249,
editions and recensions of separate
writings 250 252.
Eusebius of Dorylaeum 525.
Eusebius of Emesa 241.
Eusebius of Nicomedia 239.
Eusebius of Thessalonica 575.
Eusebius of Vercellae (Vercelli), St. 417.
Eustathius Afer 285.
Eustathius of Antioch, St. 246 25'2.
Eustathius of Epif>hania 552.
Eustathius Monachus 548.
Eustathius of Sebaste 276 286.
Eustratius of Constantinople 561.
Euthalius 535.
INDEX.
67r
Eutherius of Tyana 375-
Eutropius of Valencia 664.
Eutyches 522 526.
Eutychianism (Monophysitism) 522.
Eutychius of Constantinople 561.
Evagrius of Antioch 258.
Evagrius of Gaul 517.
Evagrius Ponticus 309 310.
Evagrius Scholasticus 554.
Evodius of Uzalum 104.
Exegesis, see Biblical Theology.
Exegetical school of Alexandria 235.
Exegetical school of Antioch 235 236.
Exhortatio poenitendi, poem 565.
Expositio fidei seu De Trinitate 54.
Eznik 593.
Fabian, Pope, St. 223.
Facundus of Hermiane 618 638.
Faith: source and rule of the true Faith
according to St. Irenaeus 120, Faith and
Knowledge according to Clement of
Alexandria 134, Rule of Faith in St.
Basil 280, proximate rule of Faith ac
cording to St. Jerome 469, Faith and
Knowledge according to St. Augustine
497, the Catholic rule of Faith according
to Vincentius of Lerins 531.
Fastidius 5.
Fastidius 505.
Fathers of the Church, Ecclesiastical Writ
ers, Doctors of the Church 2 ; their
period 4 ; repertories of patristic litera
ture 9 — ii ; complete editions of the
Fathers 12; general collections of trans
lations 13.
Faustinus 414.
Faustus of Riez (Regi) 600 — 603 : life
600, writings 548 600, literature on 602.
Felix I., Pope, St. 224.
Felix III., Pope 621.
Felix IV., Pope 640 657.
Felix, Abbot 640.
Ferrandus, see Fulgentius Ferrandus.
Ferreolus of Uzes 650.
Festal Letters 156 258.
Filioque, The: in St. Basil the Great 282,
in St. Gregory of Nazianzus 292. See
Holy Ghost.
Firmicus Maternus 401 402.
Firmilian of Caesarea (Cappadocia) 175
Firmus of Caesarea 370.
Flavian of Antioch 316 318.
Flavian of Constantinople 525.
Flavius Philostratus 249 252.
Florentius 413.
Florinus 77 122.
Fortunatianus of Aquileia 407.
Fortunatus (Venantius) 647 — 650, cp. 599.
Fronto of Cirta 71.
Fulgentius Ferrandus 616 618 639.
Fulgentius of Ruspe, St. 548 616 — 618.
Gaiankes 575.
Gallus, St. 643.
Gaudentius of Brescia 431.
Gelasian Sacramentary 621 622.
Gelasius I., Pope, St. 422 620 621.
Gelasius of Caesarea 274.
Gelasius of Cyzicus 534.
Generationism, see Soul.
Gennadius of Constantinople 533.
Gennadius of Marseilles 8 608 609.
George 563.
George 589.
George II. of Alexandria 562.
George of Laodicea 241.
George of Lapathus 557.
Georgius Pisides 565 566.
Germanus of Constantinople, St. 304 581
582.
Germanus of Paris, St. 650.
Gerson, John 632.
Gesta Pilati 97.
Gilbert de la Porree 632.
Gildas Sapiens 637.
Gnostic literature 72 f. : introductory re
marks 72, Basilides and Isidore 73, the
Ophites or «Agnostics» 74, the Carpo-
cratians 76, Valentine and the Valen-
tinians 76, Bardesanes and Harmonius
78, Marcion and Apelles 79, the Encra-
tites Si.
God, Etymology of, in St. Gregory of Xyssa
301 ; divine unity proved from reason
by Athenagoras 65 ; natural knowledge
of God according to Tertullian 183;
existence of God proved from reason by
St. Augustine 496 497; how man may
know God, according to St. Basil 282.
See Trinity.
Gondophares 107.
Gospel-harmonies: of Tatian 59, of Am-
monius of Alexandria 60, of Eusebius
of Caesarea 248.
Gospels, Apocryphal 87 90; a papyrus-
fragment 90 ; Gospel of the Hebrews
87 90, Gospel of the Twelve and the
Gospel of the Ebionites 81 87 91,
Gospel of the Egyptians 92, Gospel of
Peter 93, Gospels of Matthias, of Philip,
of Thomas 94, The Proto-Gospel (Prot-
evangelium) of James 87 95, Gospel of
Andrew, of Barnabas, of Bartholomew
96, origins of the Pilate-literature 97,
Gospel of Apelles 80 87, Gospel of Ba
silides 73 87, Gospel of Judas 74, Cos
pel of Marcion 80, Gospel according to
Mary (Magdalen?) 75, Gospel of Nico-
demus 97, Gospel of Truth 87.
Gottfried of Auxerre 632.
Grace : according to the Pelagians 485 ;
the doctrine of St. Jerome 465, of St.
Augustine 498 f., of St. Prosper of Aqui-
taine 512, of St. Fulgentius of Ruspe
672
INDEX.
618; the Semi-Pelagian doctrine of Jo
hannes Cassianus 517, of Vincentius of
Lerins 521, of Faustus of Riez (Reji)
601. See Original Sin.
Gratian, Emperor 430 437.
Gregentius, St. 551.
Gregory of Antioch 554.
Gregory of Eliberis (Elvira) 415.
Gregory of Girgenti, St. 561.
Gregory Illuminator, St. 590 591.
Gregory the Great, Pope, St. 650—657:
life 650, writings 652, general view of
his writings 654, complete and partial
editions, translations, recensions 655, li
terature on Gregory 656.
Gregory of Nazianzus, St., the Theologian
286 — 294 : before his ordination to the
priesthood 274 275 286; priest and
bishop 287, at Constantinople 287, his
discourses 288, letters and poems 289,
character 290, Trinitarian doctrine 291,
complete editions of his works 292, new
editions and recensions of separate
works 292, ancient commentaries on his
homilies and poems 293, translations of
Gregory 294, literature on Gregory 294.
Gregory ofNyssa, St. 295 — 306: life 295,
works : exegetical 296, dogmatico-spe-
culative 297, ascetical 299, homilies and
letters 299, theological importance of
Gregory 300, Trinitarian doctrine 300,
Gregory on the Resurrection 302, and
the future life 304, editions of Gregory
304, translations 304, spurious writings
305 306, literature on 306.
Gregory Thaumaturgus , St. 170 — 175:
life 17°* writings 171, works: genuine
171, doubtful 173, spurious 174.
Gregory of Tours, St. 643 — 647.
Gundaphorus 107.
Hadrian, see Adrian.
Harmonius 78.
Hebrews, Gospel of the 87 90.
Hegemonius 268.
Hegesippus 116,
Hegesippus, The so-called 423
Helpidius (Elpidius) 624.
Henry, Pseudo-Henry of Ghent 8.
Heraclas of Alexandria 136 — 137.
Heracleon 77 78 98.
Heraclianus, Anti-Arian 416.
Heraclianus of Chalcedon 551.
Heraclitus 118.
Heresy : rejected as such by Tertullian 184,
histories of heresy by St. Justin Martyr 52,
Pseudo-Tertullian 190, St. Hippolytus 208
213, St. Epiphanius 312, Theodoret 373,
Philastrius 430, St. Augustine 48 1 , Anasta-
sius Sinaita 580, St.Germanus of Constan
tinople 581, St. John of Damascus 584,
the author of Praedestinatus 604, Libe-
ratus of Carthage 64 1. See the work on re
conciliation of heretics by Timotheus
of Constantinople 575. Relation oi Patro-
logy to heretical literature 5.
Heretical Baptism i. e. Baptism admini
stered by heretics : controversy concerning
191 f., invalid according to Tertullian
185 189, and the Donatists 426 483,
S. Cyprian 191 198, valid according to
Pope St. Stephen 191, the author of
De rebaptismate 199, Optatus of Milevi
427, St. Augustine 483. (On Dionysius
of Alexandria 157.)
Hennas, The Shepherd of 38 — 43: con
tents 38, origin 39, history 41, tradition
and editions 41, latest literature on the
«Shepherd» 42.
Hermeneutics, Biblical : manuals by Adria-
nus 237 379> St. Augustine 400 488, ex
position of biblical phraseology by Pseudo-
Melito 63, Tichonius 47 1 , St. Eucherius of
Lyons 518, hermeneutical principles of
Origen 146, of the Alexandrine school
235, of the Antiochene school 235,
Diodorus of Tarsus 317, Theodore of
Mopsuestia 320, St. John Chrysostom
338, Theodoret of Cyrus 373, St. Isi
dore of Pelusium 379, St. Ephraem Sy-
rus 389, St. Hilary of Poitiers 407, St.
Ambrose 435, St. Jerome 463, St. Au
gustine 490, Victor of Antioch 535.
Hermias 69.
Hermippus, dialogue 544.
Hermogenes 184.
Hero of Antioch 30.
Hesychius, bishop 160.
Hesychius of Egypt 1 60.
Hesychius of Jerusalem 238 377 380 381.
Hesychius of Miletus 554 555.
Hexapla 139 140.
Hierakas 160.
Hierarchy, Ecclesiastical, see Church.
Hierocles, Grammarian 557.
Hierocles, Procurator of Bithynia 248.
Hieronymus, St. 455— 473: life (10379) 455>
at Constantinople and Rome (329 — 385)
456, at Bethlehem (386 — 420) 458, trans
lates the Scriptures 459, other exege
tical works 248 461, historical writings
246 463, dogmatico-polemical 464, let
ters and homilies 465, scholarship 467,
witness to Faith of the Ckurch 468,
master of Christian prose 469, com
plete editions, translations 470, editions,
translations, recensions of separate works
470, literature on Hieronymus 473
Hieronymus of Jerusalem 377.
Hierotheus 541.
Hilarianus 453.
Hilarius, Poet 417.
Hilarius, Pope 603 621.
Hilarius of Aries 241 519.
INDEX.
673
Hilarius of Gaul 417.
Hilary of Poitiers, St. 402 — 411 : life 402,
de Trinitate 404, style 404, historico-
polemical works 405, exegetical works
407, hymns 408, Christological doctrine
408, complete editions, editions of se
parate works , translations , recensions
410, literature on Hilary 411, Vita S.
Hilarii Pictav. 649.
Hilary of Provence 511.
Hilary of Rome 415.
Hippolytus, St. 208 — 219: life 208, works:
Philosophumena 212, apologetic and dog
matic 215, exegetical and homiletic 216
581, chronographical , canonical 219,
odes 219, spurious writings 219, Cano-
nes Hippolyti 356, Constitutiones per
Hippolyium 354.
Historia monachorum in Egypto 381.
Historical Theology: a general history of
the Church was unknown to the first
three centuries; first cultivated by the
Greeks : Eusebius of Caesarea, Socra
tes, Sozomen, Theodoret, Philostorgius,
Philippus Sidetes, Hesychius of Jerusalem,
Timotheus of Berytus, Theodorus Lec
tor, Zacharias Rhetor, Evagrius Scho-
lasticus. Much less was accomplished by
the Latin writers : Rufinus, St. Sulpicius
Severus, Orosius, Cassiodorius. Ecclesia
stical history among the Latins soon de
generated into mere chronicles: St. Hiero-
nymus,St. Prosper of Aquitaine, Hydatius,
Marcellinus Comes, Cassiodorius, Victor
of Tunnuna, Johannes of Biclaro, Marius
of Avenches. Greek Chronicles were
written by Eusebius of Caesarea and the
author of the Chronicon Paschale ; Jo
hannes of Nikiu probably wrote in Cop
tic. Ecclesiastical histories of particular
peoples or countries composed by Cassio
dorius, St. Gregory of Tours, St. Isidore of
Seville, Moses ofChorene; Histories of
Councils by Sabinus of Heraclea, Ana-
stasius Sinaita, St.Germanus of Constanti
nople. For histories of heresies see He
resy. Histories of theological literature
by St Hieronymus, Gennadius of Marseil
les, St. Isidore of Seville. For lives of
saints see Vitae Sanctorum. For acts of
martyrs see Acta martyrum. Philosophy
and History treated by St. Augustine
479-
Holy Ghost: His distinct personality denied
by Lactantius 204, divinity denied by
Macedonians 240, denied by Eunomians
277 297, defended by St. Athanasius 255
260, St. Basil the Great 277 281, St. Gre
gory of Nazianzus 288 292, St. Gregory of
Nyssa 298 299 302, Didymus the Blind
308, St. Ambrose 437, St.Jerome465, Fau-
stus of Riez (Reji) 600, Paschasius Dia-
BAKDENHE\VER-SHAHAN, Patrology.
conus 600. Procession of the Holy Ghost
according to St. Athanasius 260, St.
Gregory of Nazianzus 292, St. Gregory
of Nyssa 302.
Homed tes (Himjarites) 551.
Homiletics and Catechetics : manuals of St.
Augustine 400 492, eminent homilists
and catechists 238 400 531 599, com
parison of St. Chrysostom and St. Au
gustine 338.
Homilies, Clementine, see Clementinae.
Homoousia of the Son with the Father,
Honoratus of Aries, St. 518.
Honoratus of Constantia 615.
Honoratus of Marseilles 520.
Honorius of Augustodunum (Autun) 8.
Hormisdas, Pope, St. 548 621.
Hosius of Cordova 412.
Hydatius, chronicler 614.
Hydatius of Emerita 429 430.
Hymenaeus of Jerusalem 165.
Hypatius, Abbot 379.
Hypotyposes of Clement of Alexandria 129.
Ibas of Edessa 370.
Idacius, see Hydatius.
Ignatius of Antioch, St. 30 — 35 : tradition
of Seven Epistles 30, contents 32 33,
genuineness 34, spurious epistles 30 245.
Ildephonsus of Toledo, St. 8 660.
In Genesin ad Leonem papam, poem 417.
Innocent I., Pope, St. 514.
Innocentius of Maronia 546.
Irenaeus of Lyons, St. 118 — 123: life 118,
Adversus haereses 119, other works 122.
Isaac the Great 369 370 591 592.
Isaac, a convert Jew 441.
Isaac of Antioch, St. 396 397.
Isaac of Ninive, St. 397.
Isaias, abbot 268.
Isidore of Cordova 511.
Isidore, a Gnostic 74.
Isidore, St., of Pelusium 379 380.
Isidore of Seville, St. 8 641 660 — 664.
Itacius (?) 429.
Itala Version, Old (Codex Vercellensis)
417.
Ithacius of Ossonoba 429.
Itinerarium a Burdigala Hierusalem usque
400 424.
Itinerarium Antonini Placentini 638.
Jacobus, see Protevangelium Jacobi.
Jacobus of Edessa 542.
Jacobus of Nisibis 385 391.
Jerome, see Hieronymus.
Jeu, Books of 75.
Jexai, Book of Si.
Job, bishop 245 551.
Job, monachus 551.
Johannes, The Apostle, see Apocalypse.
43
6/4
INDEX.
Johannes, Acts of 105; Historia ecclesia-
stica de Johanne Apostolo et Evangelista
106.
Johannes II., Pope 640.
Johannes III., Pope 657.
Johannes, disciple of St. Epiphanius 313.
Johannes of Antioch, chronicler 554 555.
Johannes of Antioch, patriarch 362 370.
Johannes of Biclaro 637.
Johannes Burgundio 306.
Johannes Cassianus 515 — 518.
Johannes of Carpathus 573.
Johannes Chrysostomus, St. see Chrysostom.
Johannes Climacus, St. 572.
Johannes of Damascus, St. 582 — 589: of
fice and importance 582 , life 583,
works: dogmatic 583, polemical 585,
exegetic and historic 587, homilies 588,
literature 588 ; poetry 568.
Johannes Diaconus 656.
Johannes the Faster (Nesteutes) 571.
Johannes II. of Jerusalem 311 315.
Johannes of Majuma 541.
Johannes Malalas 554 555.
Johannes Mandakuni 594.
Johannes Maxentius 548.
Johannes Monachus 563.
Johannes Monachus (junior) 569.
Johannes Moschus, St. 559 560.
Johannes of Nikiu 555 570.
Johannes Notarius 370.
Johannes Philoponus 544.
Johannes of Raithu 572.
Johannes Scholasticus 571.
Johannes of Scythopolis 551.
Johannes Trithemius 8.
John of Tambach 632.
Jordanis 637.
Josephus Flavius 423 454.
Josephus Hymnographus 565.
Jovinian 465 472.
Judaistic Literature 8 1 — 85: Ebionites 81,
Elcesaites 8 1 , the so-called Clementines 82.
Judas 109.
Judas, Gospel of 74.
ludicium secundum Petrum (ludicium
Petri) 161.
Julian the Apostate 234 254 390.
Julian of Eclanum 339 485 486 504.
Julian of Halicarnassus 533.
Julianists (Aphthartodocetae) 533 545.
Julianus Pomerius 612.
Julius I., Pope, St. 253 264.
Julius Africanus 162—164: life 162, Chrono-
graphia 163 246, xserot, « Embroidered
Girdles* 163, letters 164, dubious and spu
rious writings 164 662.
Julius Cassianus 81 92.
Julius Hilarianus 453.
Junilius 642.
Justin Martyr, St. 49~ 57'- life 49, writings
49, the two Apologies 50, Dialogue
with the Jew Trypho 51, lost writings
52, spurious works 54, the genuine
writings 55 ; Acta SS. Justini et Socio-
rum 230.
Justinian, Emperor 549 550.
Justinian of Valencia 660.
Justus of Urgel 660.
Juvencus 419.
Koriun 392. See Moses of Chorene.
Labubna 109.
Lactantius 203 — 208: life 203, works 203,
Divinae Institutiones 204, Epitome div.
inst., De opificio Dei, De ira Dei 206,
De mortibus persecutorum 206, De ave
Phoenice 207, spurious poems 207, lost
writings 208, fragments 208.
Lampridius 607.
Laodicenses, Epistola ad in.
Lapsi, treatment of the 191 197 220.
Latronianus 429.
Laurentius Mellifluus 624.
Laurentius of Milan 624.
Laurentius of Novara 624.
Lazarus of Pharp 595.
Leander of Seville, St. 660.
Leo I., Pope, St. 522 — 526: life 522,
writings 523, literature on 525.
Leo, poet 607.
Leo the Isaurian 582.
Leonidas 104.
Leontius of Aries 603.
Leontius of Byzantium 245 544 — 547.
Leontius of Naples (Neapolis) 561.
Leontius of Rome 561.
Leporius, monk 510.
Leucius (Leucius Charinus) 88 99 104.
Liber Pontificalis 657.
Liberatus of Carthage 641.
Liberius, Pope 264.
Licinianus of Carthagena 664.
Liturgies: Liturgy of St. Basil the Great
280 284, of St. John Chrysostom 337
344, Ethiopic Oratio Eucharistica Sancti
loannis Chrys. 337 344. See Liturgy of
the so-called Apostolic Constitutions
(yiii, 6—15) 349.
Logia lesu 92.
Logos, the : k6foq 0TtCp,u,atixng in St. Justin
Martyr 56, Procession of the Logos in
Tatian 58. See Christology.
Lucian of Samosata, a satirist 34.
Lucian of Samosata, a priest 165 238; Syl-
lucianists 239.
Lucianus of Kaphar Gamala 511.
Lucidus 600 602.
Lucifer of Calaris 413.
Lucius I., Pope, St. 224.
Lucretius 202.
Lupus of Troyes, St. 520.
INDEX.
675
Macarius, St., the Alexandrine 266 267.
Macarius, St., the Egyptian 266 267 382.
Macarius Magnes 376 377.
Macedonianism 240.
Macedonius 240.
Macrobius 427.
Malalas 554.
Malchion of Antioch 165.
Mamertus, Claudianus 603.
Mani 237.
Manichaeism 237 268 482; its Greek op
ponents in the second Patristic period
268 — 271.
Marcellinus 414.
Marcellinus Comes 637.
Marcellus of Ancyra 241 242 249; Sabel-
lianism 241 242.
Marcianus 563.
Marcion 79 117.
Marcus Diaconus 347.
Marcus Diadochus 382.
Marcus Eremita 382.
Maria, The Blessed Virgin : spurious corre
spondence with St. Ignatius of Antioch 3 1
32, Mariology of St. Irenaeus 121, sin-
lessness of Mary, according to St. Ephraem
Syrus 391, virginity of Mary according
to the same 391, according to St. Je
rome 465 , Mary Mother of God ac
cording to St. Ephraem Syrus 344, the
term ftzoroitoq in Pierius of Alex
andria (?) 158, in Alexander of Alex
andria 263 ; Theodore of Mopsuestia re
jects this term 321, likewise Nestorius
361, it is defended by St. Cyril of Alex
andria 361 366, opposed first, but
afterwards accepted by Theodoret of
Cyrus 374; Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin according to Modestus of Jeru
salem 566, according to St. John of
Damascus 588.
Maria of Cassobola 30.
Maria Magdalena (?) : Gospel according to
Maria 75, little Questions of Maria 75.
Marius of Avenches 637.
Marius Mercator 508 626.
Marius Victor 450.
Marius Victorinus 410.
Marriage, second, according to Tertullian
186 187; marriage and virginity: ac
cording to St. Methodius of Olympus
176, St. Ambrose 437, St. Jerome 465,
St. Augustine 492.
Martin of Bracara (Braga), St. 658—660.
Martin of Tours, St. 451 452 608 643 ; Vitae
Sancti Martini 452 608.
Martyrium Colbertinum 31.
Martyrologies, Anonymous Syriac 393, of
Pseudo-Hieronymus 464 472.
Martyrs, Acts of, see Acta Martyrum.
Maruthas of Maipherkat 394.
Maternus, see Firmicus.
Matthew, The Apostle, St., Acts of 108.
Matthew of Cracow 632.
Matthias, The Apostle, St., Gospel of 94 ;
traditions of 94.
Maxentius 54-8-
Maximinus 412.
Maximus, Anti-Gnostic 118.
Maximus, bishop 522.
Maximus of Bostra 165.
Maximus Confessor, St. 123 133 576.
Maximus Planudes 633.
Maximus of Turin, St. 527.
Melito of Sardes 62.
Memnon of Ephesus 369.
Memorabilia of Hegesippus 116.
Menander 73.
Mennas of Constantinople 564.
Mercator 508 — 510.
Mesrop 591 592.
Methodius of Olympus, St. 175 — 178: life
175) works 176, writings preserved in
Greek 176, Slavonic versions I77> l°st
writings 177, spurious writings 178.
Miltiades, Pope, St. 225.
Miltiades, Apologist 61.
Minucius Felix 70 — 72: the dialogue Oc-
tavius 70, author and time of composi
tion 71, the work De fato 72.
Miro 658.
Modestus, Anti-Gnostic 118.
Modestus of Jerusalem 566.
Monophysitism 522 641.
Monotheletism 564.
Montanistic Literature 85, Anti-Montanists
85 123-
Monum. Germ. Hist. (Auct. Antiquiss.) 13.
Moral Theology, see Practical Theology.
Moschus, see St. Johannes Moschus.
Moses of Chorene 594.
Moses of Chorene (Pseudo-) 595.
Muratorian Fragment in 114 220.
Murmellius 632.
Musaeus of Marseilles 606.
Musanus 1 18.
Musonius 131.
Mutianus 345.
Naassenes 92.
Narcissus of Jerusalem 126.
Nebridius 660.
Nectarius of Constantinople 324 347.
Nemesius of Emesa 306.
Nepos 154.
Nestorius 361 f. 369; Nestorianism 361 641.
Nexocharides, alias Xenocharides 104.
Nicephorus of Antioch 562.
Nicephorus Callistus 552.
Nicephorus of Constantinople 249.
Nicetas of Aquileia 443.
Nicetas of Dacia 443. See Nicetas of Re-
mesiana.
Nicetas David 294.
43 *
6;6
INDEX.
Nicetas of Nicaea 552.
Nicetas of Remesiana 440 442.
Nicetas of Serrae (Heraclea) 293 571.
Nicetius of Trier 650.
Nicholas, Bishop of Methone 543.
Nicodemus: Evangelium Nicodemi 97.
Nicolaus 73.
Nicomedians, Letter to 125.
Nilus, St. 381 382.
Noetus of Smyrna 213.
Nomocanones 571 572-
Nonnus, Abbas 293.
Nonnus of Panopolis 244.
Notitia Provinciarum et Civitatum Africae
615.
Notitiae Episcopatuum 557.
Notker Labeo 632.
Novatian 220 — 222: life 220, writings 221,
De Trinitate, De cibis iudaicis 221,
Tractatus de libris St. Scripturarum 222,
Novatianism 191 197 220 425.
Obitus Baebiani, poem 449.
Ode to Sophia 107.
Oecumenius of Tricca 52°-
Olympiodorus of Alexandria 569 570.
Olympius 430.
Vjnoouaiog (6 utog, TUJ xa-pC) : rallying cry
of orthodox Christians in the Arian
controversy 239 240, abandoned by
Pope Liberius 264, is not found in Alex
ander of Alexandria 263, nor in Eu-
sebius of Caesarea 245, nor in St. Cyril
of Jerusalem 271.
Optatus of Mileve, St. 125 426 427.
Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum 337.
Oratio ad Gentiles 53.
Orders, Rules of 265 278 599.
Orientius 451.
Origen : life and labors 136 — 153, writ
ings: biblico-exegetical 140, general
view of his biblical works 146, writings
against pagans and Jews 147, against
heretics 148, dogmatic writings 148,
works of edification and homilies 149,
letters 150, dubious writings 151, phi.lo-
sophico-theological views 151 ; Trac
tatus Origenis de libris SS. Scriptura
rum 222.
Origenistic controversies 127 152 159 236
3ii 3!3 453 458 465 530 549 551 558.
Original Sin : denied by Theodore of
Mopsuestia 321, and the Pelagians 486
498, doctrine of St. Augustine 498 ff.,
controversy between St. Augustine and
Julianus of Eclanum, on the doctrine of
St. Chrysostom 339.
Orosius 510 511.
Orsisius ^Orsiesius) 266.
Pacatus 449.
Pachomius, St., abbot 265.
Pachomius, bishop 1 60.
Pacian of Barcelona, St. 425.
Paedagogus of Clement of Alexandria
129.
Palladius 133.
Palladius 348 381.
Pamphilus of Caesarea 127 166.
Pantaenus 127 128 133.
Papa of Seleucia 387.
Papias of Hierapolis 43.
Pappus 596.
Papyrus Brucianus 75 76.
Papyrus-fragment 90.
Parmenian 426.
Paschal Chronicle 555.
Paschasius Diaconus 600 602.
Paschasius, a monk 659.
Passiones Martyrum, see Acta Martyrum.
Pastor (of Hermas), see Shepherd of Her-
mas.
Pastor, bishop 430.
Pastoral Theology, see Practical Theology.
Patrick, St. 631.
Patripassianism : its defender Praxeas op
posed by Tertullian 185, Noetus of
Smyrna opposed by St. Hippolytus 213,
defended by Commodianus 227. See Sa-
bellianism.
Patristics 5.
Patrologiae Cursus Completus 12.
Patrology : concept and scope I — 7, history
and literature 7 — 10.
Paul, The Apostle, St., Apocryphal Epistles
of: the Epistle to the Laodiceans 1 10, cor
respondence with Corinthians in, with
Seneca 112, Apocalypse of Paul 114,
Visio S. Pauli 115, Ascension of St.
Paul 115, Pauli Praedicatio 98, Acta
Pauli 100, Acts of Paul and Thecla
102, Acts of Peter and Paul 101.
Paul of Samosata 165.
Paulinus of Aquileia, St. 283 491.
Paulinus ,of Biterrae (Beziers) 450.
Paulinus of Burdigala (Bordeaux) 602.
Paulinus of Milan 514.
Paulinus of Nola, St. 447 — 449.
Paulinus of Pella 608.
Paulinus of Petricordia 608.
Paulus of Callinicus 547.
Paulus Diaconus 656.
Paulus of Elusa 558.
Paulus of Emesa 370.
Paulus of Nisibis 642.
Paulus Orosius 510.
Paulus of Pannonia 604.
Paulus of Samosata 165.
Paulus Silentiarius 543.
Paulus of Telia 139.
Pelagius I., pope 657.
Pelagius II., pope 657.
Pelagius, heresiarch 485 491 504 642;
Pelagianism 321 399 495 481; litera-
INDEX.
677
ture on 504 514; Semipelagianism 512 I
515; chiefly in Southern Gaul 398.
Penance , post-baptismal means of salva
tion : in Hernias 39, in Tertullian (Catholic
period) 186, in St. Pacianus 429;
Canonical Penance, penitential stations
in Hernias 39 ; Pope Callistus remits ri
gor of penitential discipline , opposi
tion of Hippolytus 210, of Tertullian
(Montanist period) 1 86; treatment of the
Lapsi 191 197 220.
Peregrinatio ad Loca Sancta 424.
Peregrinus 428.
Perpetua and Felicitas 232.
Perpetuus of Tours 608.
Peter, the Apostle, St. : Gospel 93 , Apo
calypse 113; Apocalypsis Petri per Cle-
mentem 114, Praedicatio Petri 97, Circu-
itus (missionary preaching) Petri 82
83, Preaching of Simon Magus in the
City of Rome 99, ludicium secundum
Petrum 161, Acts of Peter 98, Actus
Petri 99, Acts of Peter and Paul 101.
Petronius of Bologna 418.
Petronius of Verona 418.
Petrus Chrysologus, St. 3 $26.
Petrus Damiani, St. 3 283.
Petrus Diaconus 548.
Petrus Mongus 534.
Petrus, poet 607.
Petrus of Alexandria 159.
Petrus II. of Alexandria 255.
Petrus of Laodicea 570.
Petrus Lombardus 584.
Petrus of Sebaste 295 296 297.
Phantasiastae 533.
Philastrius (Philaster), St. 430.
Phileas of Thmuis 160.
Philip, The Apostle, St. : Gospel 94, Acts
108, Syriac Legend of Philip 108.
Philippus, Gnostic 79.
Philippus of Gortynia 118.
Philippus, Presbyter 471.
Philippus Sidetes 117 238 377 378.
Philo of Alexandria 398 431 436 442.
Philo of Carpasia 313 315.
Philocalus, calligrapher 421 423.
Philoponus 544.
Philosophumena, see Hippolytus 209 212.
Philostorgius 239 378.
Philostratus 249.
Phoebadius of Agen 415.
Photinus of Sirmium 242.
Photius 124 134.
Pierius of Alexandria 158.
Pilate-Literature, origins of 97.
Pilgrim-Narratives 424.
Pinytus of Cnossus 125.
Pionius 233.
Pisides 566 567.
Pistis Sophia 75.
Plinius 607.
Poema coniugis ad uxorem 514.
Poetry, Ecclesiastical, origins of: in Cle
ment of Alexandria 129, St. Hippolytus (?)
219, St. Methodius 176, earliest traces of
Latin Christian poetry in Commodian
178 225 226, principal Christian poets
of the Greeks (second patristic period)
238 529 531, of the Latins 400 599,
of the Syrians 389 390 393 394, the
hymn as expression of the new Christian
lyrical temperament 400 526, the new
rhythmic form of poetry among the
Greeks 238 562, among the Latins 400.
probably borrowed from the Syriac
Church 390.
Polemical poems, Two (Apollinarist) 422
Polemius, bishop 659.
Polemon alias Polemius (Apollinarist) 244.
Polybius 313.
Polycarp of Smyrna, St. 35 — 38: his life
35, Epistle to the Philippians 36, Latin
fragments 37; Martyrium Poly carpi 229.
Polychronius 322.
Polycrates of Ephesus 126.
Pomerius, see Julianus Pomerius.
Pomponius 427.
Pontianus, pope, St. 223.
Pontianus, bishop 639.
Pontius Paulinus 447 — 449, cp. 400.
Porphyrius of Gaza 347.
Porphyrius, Neoplatonist 178 243 248 376.
Possidius of Calama 475 478.
Potamius of Olisipo (Lisbon) 412.
Practical Theology, the moral discipline
of Christianity, as distinct from its teach
ings : first set forth by St. Ambrose 398
400 436, other ascetico-moral-writings
of the second patristic period 238 400,
of the third period 551 599; pastoral
Theology systematized by St. Gregory the
Great 599. See Homiletics and Cateche-
tics, Collections of Ecclesiastical laws,
of Canons, Rules of Orders.
Praedestinatus 123 124 598 599 604.
Praxeas 184.
Predestination, doctrine of: in St. Augu
stine 501, in St. Prosper of Aquitaine
512, in St. Fulgentius of Ruspe 617 618.
Predestinationism, defended by Lucidus
598 600, by Pseudo-Augustinus 604.
Pre-Existence of the Soul, see Soul.
Primacy of the Roman Church 121. See
Church.
Primasius of Hadrumetum 642.
Priscillian 428; Priscillianism 427, its de
fenders and opponents 429.
Proba 420.
Proclus, Montanist 85 124.
Proclus, patriarch 369.
Proclus, poet 607.
Procopius of Gaza 541 — 543.
Prosper (?) of Africa 514.
6/8
INDEX.
Prosper of Aquitaine, St. 511—514. See
Tiro Prosper.
Prosper Augustanus 514.
Protevangelium Jacobi 87.
Protrepticus of Clement of Alexandria 129.
Prudentius Clemens 444 — 447.
Psenosiris, Letter of 162.
Pseudo-Beda 632.
Pseudo-Callisthenes, see Callisthenes.
Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita, see Dionysius
Areopagita.
Ptolemaeus 77.
Quadratus 46.
Quicumque vult 255 261.
Rabbulas of Edessa 395 396.
Recognitions, Clementine, see Clementinae.
Religious Colloquy at court of the Sassa-
nids 574.
Remigius of Rheims, St. 612.
Resurrection of the body : according to
Athenagoras 64, St. Methodius of Olym
pus 176, St. Gregory of Nyssa 302.
Reticius of Autun 228.
Rhodon 61 117 123.
Romanus Melodos, St. 562 563.
Rufinus 512.
Rufinus of Aquileia 82 141 247 250.
Ruricius of Limoges 602 603.
Rusticus of Bordeaux 519.
Rusticus (Rusticius) Diaconus 640.
Rusticus Helpidius (Elpidius), see Helpi-
dius.
Rusticus of Narbonne 519.
Rusticus Presbyter 519.
Sabellius 242; Sabellianism 241. See Patri-
passianism
Sabinus of Heraclea 238 241 378 379.
Sacramentarium : Bobbiense 1 1 1 , Leonianum
525 526, Gelasianum 621 622, Grego-
rianum 654 656.
Sacraments, their objective efficacy de
fended against the Donatists: by St. Op-
tatus of Mileve 427, by St. Augustine
483. See Baptism, Eucharist, Marriage.
Saints, Lives of, see Vitae Sanctorum.
Sallustius 452.
Salonius of Geneva 519.
Salvianus of Marseilles 605 606.
Sampsaei 81.
Satornilus 73.
Sayings of Jesus, see Logia lesu, Agrapha.
Schools and Tendencies: theological 235
398, Alexandrine Catechetical School
127, Neo-Alexandrine School 235, Anti-
ochene Exegetical School 235, School
of Caesarea 127, of Edessa 384, of
Southern Gaul 398.
Scripture, Sacred, see Biblical Theology,
Canon, Testament.
Secundinus, poet 613.
Secundinus, Manichaean 483.
Sedatus of Biterrae 650.
Sedulius 450.
Semipelagianism 512 515; chiefly in
Southern Gaul 398.
Seneca 658.
Seneca, correspondence of Paul and Se
neca 112.
Serapion of Alexandria 159.
Serapion of Antioch 93 126.
Serapion, St., of Thmuis 269 270.
Sergius of Constantinople 564.
Seta 563.
Severianus, poet 607.
Severianus of Gabala 527.
Severus of Antioch 547; Severiani of
Phartolatrae 547.
Severus of Malaga 664.
Severus of Minorca 511.
Severus Sanctus Endelechius, see Ende-
lechius.
Sextus, Anti-Gnostic 118.
Sigebert of Gemblaux 8 624.
Simeon, Bishop of Betharsam 552.
Simeon, «the new theologian » 585.
Simeon Stylites, St. (Junior) 562.
Simplicianus, St. 444 455.
Simplicius, Pope, St. 620 621.
Siricius, Pope, St. 444.
Sisinnius of Constantinople 54.
Sixtus II., Pope, St. 224, cp. 199.
Sixtus III., Pope, St. 526.
Socrates 378.
Sophia lesu Christi 75.
Sophia Valentini 77.
Sophronius, friend of St. Jerome 274.
Sophronius of Jerusalem, 81.560561 564 565.
Soranus of Ephesus 188.
Soter, Pope, St. 123 124.
Soul: corporeal according to Tertullian
1 88, and Faustus of 'Riez 60 1, incor
poreal according to Claudianus Mamer-
tus 601 603; pre-existence of, according
to Origen 152, Didymus the Blind 307,
Evagrius Ponticus 308 310; opposed by
Peter of Alexandria 159, St. Methodius of
Olympus 178, and St. Gregory of Nyssa
302, and St. Barsanuphius 551 (see
Origenistic controversies) ; Tertullian de
fends Generationism or Traducianism
1 88, St. Chrysostom defends Creationism
339, St. Augustine is wavering 499;
the «dormitio» of the soul after death
sustained by Aphraates, opposed by Eu-
stratius of Constantinople 186 561.
Sozomen 378.
Statius 607.
Stephanus, Revelatio Stephani 116.
Stephanus I., Pope, St. 224, cp. 191 198.
Stephanus V., Pope 657.
Stephanus Bar Sudaili 541.
INDEX.
679
Stephanus of Bostra 581.
Stephanus of Dora 565.
Stephanus of Gobarus 117 544.
Stephanus Presbyter 112.
Stephen, Bishop of Siuniq 567.
Stromata of Clement of Alexandria 129.
Subordinationism, in Trinitarian doctrine:
accepted by Origen 152, Dionysius of
Alexandria 155, Tertullian 185, Arno-
bius 202.
Sulpicius Severus, St. 451.
Syagrius 430.
Sylvia, St. 424.
Symbolum Apostolorum 17 18; Athanasia-
num 255 261. See Quicumque.
Symmachus, City-Prefect 445 475 607.
Symmachus, Ebionite 81.
Symmachus, Pope, St. 621.
Symphosius 208.
Synesius of Cyrene 358 — 359: life 358,
writings 359, literature 359.
Syriac writers 384.
Tacitus 452.
Tatian, the Assyrian 57 — 61 : life 57, Apo-
l°gy S^) Diatessaron 59, lost writ
ings 60.
Te Deum 440 442 443.
Tertullian 179 — 190: life 179, works 179,
apologetic 182, dogmatico-polemical 184,
ascetico-practical 1 86, De anima and
De pallio 1 88, lost writings 189, spu
rious writings 190.
Testament, Old and New : according to the
Epistle of Barnabas 23, transitory cha
racter of the Law of Moses according
to the Apologists 45, St. Justin Martyr 52,
Tertullian 183, St. Cyprian 196, the Old
Testament a revelation of the one true
God according to St. Augustine 482.
Testament of Our Lord 355 356.
Tetrapla 140.
Thaddaeus, Legend of 109.
Thalassius, abbot 573.
Thalassius, monk 369.
Theban Legion 518.
Thecla: Acts of Paul and Thecla 102,
Vitae S. Theclae 532.
Themison 85.
Theoctistus of Caesarea 164.
Theodoret of Cyrus 370 — 376: life 370,
works; apologetical 371, dogmatico-pole
mical 372, exegetical 373, historical 373,
homilies and letters 374, Christology
374, spurious writings 375, complete
editions, translations, recensions of se
parate works 375 376 , literature on
376.
Theodorus, abbot 266.
Theodorus, bishop 1 60.
Theodorus of Heraclea 240.
Theodorus Lector 552.
Theodorus of Mopsuestia 318— 322: life
318, exegetical writings, hermeneu-
tical principles, limitation of the Canon
319—320, other writings 320, Christo
logy 320 361, doctrine on grace 320,
editions 321, works on Theodorus 322.
Theodorus of Petra 558.
Theodorus Prodromus 569.
I Theodorus of Scythopolis 551.
| Theodosians 575.
Theodosius, Archidiaconus 638.
Theodosius of Jerusalem 370.
Theodotus of Ancyra 369.
Theodotus, Valentinian 77 130.
Theognostus 156.
Theon 596.
Theonas of Alexandria 158.
Theopaschite controversy 530 547.
Theophanes Confessor 552.
Theophilus of Alexandria 311 315 325
339 360.
Theophilus of Antioch 65 — 67: life 65,
Libri Tres ad Autolycum 66, lost writ
ings 67 116.
Theophilus, bishop 165.
Theophilus of Caesarea 126.
Theophorus, see Ignatius of Antioch.
I Theotecnus 165.
Thomas, The Apostle, St. : Gospel 94, Acts
106, later recensions of the Thomas-
Legend 107, Revelatio Thomae 116.
Thomas Aquinas, St. 367 632.
Three Chapters controversy 530 549 598
637 638—641.
Tiberianus 429.
Tichonius 427 471.
I Timocles 563.
Timotheus, Dialogus Timothei et Aquilae
49-
Timotheus Aelurus 532.
Timotheus of Alexandria 255 381.
Timotheus of Berytus 238 245 377 378.
Timotheus of Constantinople 575.
Tiro Prosper, St. 511 — 514.
Titus of Bostra 270 271.
Tradition, Oral, source of faith : according
to Papias 43, St. Irenaeus 120, St. Ba
sil the Great 280, Vincent of Lerins
521. See Faith.
Trinity, The Holy : term first used by
Theophilus of Antioch 66, doctrine of
Trinity in Athenagoras 65, Tertullian
185, St. Hippolytus 210, St. Athanasius
• 259, St. Basil the Great 281, St. Gre
gory of Nazianzus 291, St. Gregory of
Nyssa 300, Didymus the Blind 308. See
Christology, Holy Ghost, Subordina
tionism.
Tritheists 544, cp. 530.
Trithemius 8.
Trypho 153.
Trypho, The Jew, see St. Justin Martyr.
68o
INDEX.
Turibius of Astorga, St. 430.
Tychonius, see Tichonius.
Tyrannius Rufinus 453.
Ulfilas 412.
Vranius 449.
Valentinus, Apollinarist 244.
Valentinus, Gnostic 76-
Valerianus of Cemele 522.
Varro 480.
Venantius Fortunatus 647—650, cp. 599.
Veranus of Vence 519.
Verecundus of Junca 641.
Versus ad gratiam Domini 421.
Victor I., Pope, St. 77 119 122 125.
Victor of Antioch 57°-
Victor of Capua 628.
Victor of Cartenna 615.
Victor of Tunnuna 637 640 662.
Victor of Vita 614 615.
Victor, see Marius Vicior.
Victoricius of Rouen 444.
Victorinus of Pettau 227, cp. 190.
Victorinus, see Marius Victorinus.
Victorius (Victurius) 514.
Vigilius, Pope 639.
Vigilius of Tapsus 430 615 616.
Vigilius of Trent 444.
Vincent of Lerinum 520.
Vincentius Presbyter 604.
Virgil 199 420 433 607 610; Centones
Virgiliani 420.
Virgilius, The supposed 638.
Vita Barlaam et Joasaph 587 589.
Vita Constantini M. 246 251.
Vitae Sanctorum: St. Albini 649, St. Alex-
andri 396, St. Ambrosii 513, St. An-
tonii monachi Aegypt. 258 262 264,
St. Antonii monachi Lerin. 623, St. Ar-
temii 588 589, St. Augustini 475 478,
St. Auxentii 563, St. Aviti 610, St. Bene
dict! 653656, St.Caesarii6n 6 12, St. Cy-
priani 190 191, St. Cyriaci 558 559, St.
Cyri et loannis 560, St. Epiphanii episc.
Constant 313, St. Epiphanii episc. Ti-
cin. 623, St. Eugeniae-454, St. Eusebii
Alex. 370, St. Euthymii 558 559, St. Eu-
tychii patr. 561, St. Fulgentii 616 617,
St. Gerasimi 559, St. Germani 649,
St. Gregorii Agrigent. 561, St. Gregorii
Armeni 590, St. Gregorii Magni papae
656, St. Gregorii Thaumat. 170 171
300, St. Hilarii Arelat. 520, St. Hilarii
Pictav. 649 , St. Hilarionis 464 472,
St. Honorati Arelat. 520, St. Hypatii
379, St. loannis Chrysostomi 348 562,
St. loannis Climaci 572573, St. loannis
Damasceni 568 583, St. loannis Eleemo-
synarii 560 561, St. loannis Moschi 560,
St. loannis Silentiarii 558 559, St. Isaiae
abbatis 553, St. luliani 645, St. Macri-
nae 300, St. Malchi 464 472, St. Mar-
celli 649 , St. Mariae Aegypt. 560,
St. Martini Turon. 452 608 645, St.
Mauricii et soc. 518, St. Maximi conf.
576, St. Mesropi 592, St. Pachomii 265,
St. Pamphili 166 245, St. Parthenii 240,
St. Paterni 649, St. Pauli monachi 464
472, St. Petri Iberis 541, St. Porphyrii
Gaz. 347, St. Radegundis 649, St. Rhi-
psimes et soc. 591, St. Sabae 546 558
559, St. Severini 626, St. Silvestri 595,
St. Simeonis Sali 561, St. Simeonis Sty-
litae jun. 562, St. Spiridionis 561,
St. Theclae 532, St. Theodosii 558 559,
St. Theognii 558 559, Liber vitae Pa-
trum 645. See Acta Martyrum.
Vitalis of Antioch 244.
Voconius 615.
Vulgate, Latin 459 — 463 470 490 491 ;
Codex Fuldensis 60.
William of St. Theodoric 435.
Xenocharides, alias Nexocharides 104.
Zacharias, Apocrypha 116.
Zacharias, Pope 656.
Zacharias of Jerusalem $66-
Zacharias Rhetor 552.
Zeno of Verona 418.
Zephyrinus, Pope, St. 124 125
Zonaras 172.
Zosimus, Pope, St. 5 I 5.