1 "Delere licebit Quod non edideris: nescit vox missa reverti."-Hor. Art Poet. 389-90.
2 This is a remarkable asseveration in view of the many miraculous accounts which follow. When we remember, on the one hand, how intimate Sulpitius was with St. Martin, and how strongly, as in this passage, he avouches the truth of all he narrates it is extremely difficult to decide as to the real value of his narrative. It has been said (Smith's Dict. II. 967) that Sulpitius' Life of St. Martinus is "filled with the most puerile fables," and undoubtedly many of the stories recorded are of that character. But whether, considering the close relation in which the two men stood to each other, all the miraculous accounts are to be discredited, must be left to the judgment of the reader. The following valuable remarks may be quoted on this interesting question. "Some form years ago," writes Dr. Cazenove, "an audience in Oxford was listening to a professor of modern history (Dr. Arnold of Rugby), who discussed this subject. After pointing out the difference between the Gospel miracles and those recorded by ecclesiastical historians, the lecturer proceeded as follows: `Some appear to be unable to conceive of belief or unbelief, except as having some ulterior object: "We believe this because we love it: we disbelieve it because we wish it to he disproved." There is, however, in minds more healthfully constituted a belief and a disbelief, founded solely upon the evidence of the case, arising neither out of partiality, nor out of prejudice against the supposed conclusions, which may result from its truth or falsehood. And in such a spirit the historical student will consider the case of Bede's and other historians' miracles. He will, I think, as a general rule, disbelieve them, for the immense multitude which he finds recorded, and which, I suppose, no credulity could believe in, shows sufficiently that on this point there was a total want of judgment and a blindness of belief generally existing which make the testimony wholly insufficient; and, while the external evidence in favor of these alleged miracles is so unsatisfactory, there are, for the most part, strong internal evidence against them. But with regard to some miracles, he will see that there is no strong a priori improbability in their occurence, but rather the contrary; as, for instance, when the first missionaries of the Gospel in a barbarous country are said to have been assisted by a manifestation of the spirit of power; and, if the evidence appears to warrant his belief, he will readily and gladly yield it. And in doing so he will have the countenance of a great man (Burke) who in his fragment of English history has not hesitated to express the same sentiments. Nor will he be unwilling, but most thankful, to find sufficient grounds for believing that not only at the beginning of the Gospel, but in ages long afterwards, believing prayer has received extraordinary answers; that it has been heard even in more than it might have dared to ask for. Yet, again, if the gift of faith-the gift as distinguished from the grace-of the faith which removes mountains, has been given to any in later times in remarkable measure the mighty works which such faith may have wrought cannot be incredible in themselves to those who remember our Lord's promise,and if it appears from satisfactory evidence that they were wrought actually, we shall believe them,-and believe with joy. Only as it is in most cases impossible to admit the trustworthiness of the evidence, our minds must remain at the most in a state of suspense; and I do not know why it is necessary to come to any positive decision." 0'-"The Fathers for English Readers": St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. Martin of Tours, p. 191.
On this subject it has lately been said: "Most, if not all, of the so-called miracles which were supposed to surround Martin with a blaze of glow were either absolutely and on the face of them false; or were gross exaggerations of natural events; or were subjective impressions clothed in objective images; or were the distortions of credulous rumor; or at the best cannot claim in their favor a single particle of trustworthy evidence. They cannot be narrated as though they were actual events. Martin was an eminent bishop but half of the wonderful deeds attributed to him are unworthy and absurd."-Farrar's Lives of the Fathers, I. 644.
5 The text is here corrupt and uncertain, but the general meaning is plain to the above effect. Hahn has adopted "divinam servitutem," instead of the common "divina servitute."
6 Sulpitius uses reges instead of the more common expression imperatores.
7 Sulpitius manifestly refers to baptism in these words. However mistakenly, several others of the early Fathers held that regeneration does not take place before baptism, and that baptism is, in fact, absolutely necessary to regeneration. St. Ambrose has the following strong statement on the subject: "Credit catechumenus; sed nisi baptizetur, remissionem peccatorum non potest obtinere."-Libri de his, qui initiantur mysteriis, chap. 4.
8 The place here called by Sulpitius "Ambianensium Civitas" was also known as "Samarobriva," and is supposed to be the modern Amiens.
10 There is a peculiar use of quamdiu in the old Latin rendering of the passage here quoted. It is used as an equivalent for the Greek e0f0 o#son, no doubt with the meaning "inasmuch as."
11 Comp. Tacitus, Agric. chap. 5, "electus, quem contubernio aestimaret."
12 Commonly known as Julian the Apostate.
13 This city was called Borbetomagus, and is represented by the modern Worms.
14 This city of the Pictones (or Pictavi) who are mentioned by Caesar, Bell Gall. iii. 11. Their territory corresponded to the modern diocese of Poitiers.
16 An island near Albium Ingaunum-the modern Allenga, on the gulf of Genoa. The island was so named from abounding in fowls in a half tamed state. It still bears the name of Gallinaria.
17 All this seems to be implied in the words "institui disciplinis."
19 Or "powers" according to the use of the greek word du/namij in Luke viii. 46.
20 Here again it is to be noted what fatal consequences were supposed to flow from dying without receiving baptism.
21 The Turones occupied territory on both sides of the river Loire. Caesar refers to them (Bell. Gall. ii. 35, &c.). Their chief town was named Caesarodunum, the modern Tours.
22 It is clear from this passage that the people at large were accustomed in ancient times to give their votes on the appointment of a bishop.
23 We here adopt Halm's reading "cogitabat," in preference to the usual "cogebat."
25 The word translated "avenger" in the English A. V. is "defensor" in the Vulgate, and thus the man referred to would have seemed to be expressly named.
27 In St Matt. xi. 8, there is a reference to those "that wear soft clothing,"-oi ta\ malaka\ forou=ntej.
28 Perhaps "suam" here stands for "ejus," as in other passages of our author. The meaning will then be, "and to threaten his (Martin's) destruction by falling."
29 It seems better to preserve the parenthesis than to translate the words as they stand in Halm's text, "tum vero-velut turbinis modo retro actam putares-diversam in partem ruit."
30 Literally "a covering made of Cilician goats' hair." It was called cilicium, and was worn by soldiers and others.
31 The Latin word gratia here corresponds to the greek xari/sma. St. Paul says much respecting the various xari/smata in 1 Cor. xii., and speaks, among others, of xari/smata iama/twn (v. 9).
32 The name Treveri at first denoted the people (as often in Caesar, Bell. Gall. i. 37, &c.), and was afterwards applied to their chief city, the modern Treves.
34 "Regni necessitatem" -an awkward expression.
35 There is considerable confusion in this sentence.
36 Halm reads the imperative "videris," "consider."
37 Halm reads "aut sibi nuntiata fratribus indicabat."
38 This is a truly noteworthy passage. It anticipates a wellknown sentiment of Burns, the national bard of Scotland. In his Address to the Deil, Burns has said that if the great enemy would only "tak a thocht an' men'," he might still have a chance of safety, and this idea seems very much in accordance with the opinion of St. Martin as expressed above. Hornius, however, is very indignant on account of it, and exclaims: "Intolerabilis hic Martini error. Nec Sulpicius excusatione sua demit, sed auget. Origenes primus ejus erroris author."
39 "Prece" for the usual reading "prae se."
40 In spite of the combined testimony of Martin and Sulpitius here referred to, few will have any doubts as to the real character of the narrative.
41 "Summus sacerdos": "that is," remarks Hornius, "bishop. They were also in those ages styled Popes (Papae). This is clear from Cyprian, Jerome, and others of a much later age."
42 Lit. "are barking round about."
1 It seems extremely difficult (to recur to the point once more) after reading this account of St. Martin by Sulpitius, to form any certain conclusion regarding it. The writer so frequently and solemnly assures us of his good faith, and there is such a verisimilitude about the style, that it appears impossible to accept the theory of willful deception on the part of the writer. And then, he was so intimately acquainted with the subject of his narrative, that he could hardly have accepted fictions for facts, or failed in his estimate of the friend he so much admired and loved. Altogether, this Life of St. Martin seems to bring before us one of the puzzles of history. The saint himself must evidently have been a very extraordinary man, to impress one of the talents and learning of Sulpitius so remarkably as he did; but it is extremely hard to say how far the miraculous narratives, which enter so largely into the account before us, were due to pure invention, or unconscious hallucination. Milner remarks (Church History, II. 193), "I should be ashamed, as well as think the labor ill spent, to recite the stories at length which Sulpitius gives us." See, on the other side, Cardinal Newman's Esssays on Miracles, p. 127, 209, &c.
4 "magis insignes periculorum suorum": such is the construction of insignis with later writers.
5 This refers to St. Paul, being an echo of the Apostle's own words in Rom. xi. 13-e0w\ e0qnw=n a0po/stoloj.
6 The writer here supposes that St. Paul was sunk for three days and three nights in the sea-a mistaken inference from 2 Cor. xi. 25. The construction of the very long sentence which soon follows is very confused, and has not been rigidly followed in our translation.
7 "ad dioecesim quandam": it seems certain that diocesis has here the meaning of "parish."
8 "in secretario ecclesiae": it is very difficult to say what is here meant by "secretarium." It appears from Dial. II. 1, that there might be two or more secretaria in one church.
9 "pavimento": this word usually means "a floor," or "pavement," but some take it here to be the same as fornax. This, however, can hardly be the case; and the meaning probably is that the church was heated, as the baths were, by means of a hypocaustum, or flue running below the pavement.
2 This salutation is omitted by Halm.
3 "crine purpureo": it is impossible to tell the exact color which is intended.
5 As being peaceful, the imperial power having now passed into the hands of Christians.
6 Roman emperor, a.d.. 249-251; his full name was C. Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius.
7 "equileum ascendisset": lit. "would have mounted the wooden horse," an instrument of torture.
8 Some read "perhibeo confisus testimonium veritati," and others "veritatis"; in either case, the construction is confused and irregular.
9 St. Paul is referred to: tradition bears that he was beheaded.
10 A late use of the verb deputare.
11 i.e. martyrdom, "palmam sanguinis."
2 Instead of "justo loro," Halm reads, "justo delore," i.e. "with just resentment."
3 "notarios": shorthand writers, who wrote from dictation.
4 Halm here reads "obarratos," with what sense I know not: the reading "obaeratos," followed in the text seems to yield a very good meaning.
5 The reading "sine dilectu ullo," adopted by Halm, seems preferable to the old reading, "sine delicto ullo."
6 The identity of Tolosa, mentioned in the text with the modern Toulouse, is uncertain.
7 Of course, this is all jocular, aud shows the best relations as existing between Sulpitius and his mother-in-law.
8 There is clearly some affectation in the horror which Sulpitius expresses in this and other passages at the thought of his writings being published. It is obvious that he derived gratification from the fact of their being widely read.
9 "praestabo his participem": the construction is peculiar, but the meaning is obvious.
10 There were several towns of this name in Gaul. The one probably here referred to was on the road from Augustodunum (Autun) to Paris. It corresponds to the modern Cosne, at the junction of the stream Nonain with the river Loire.
11 "potenti virtute verborum": Halm reads simply "potenti verbo."
12 A singular and obviously corrupt reading is "quis eos a morsibus nostris prohibebit?" Halm's reading has been followed in the text.
13 Lit. "as he always flowed with bowels of mercy in the Lord."
14 "spes" seems here to mean "longing of heart."
16 Or "I am not one to yield," nescius cedere.
17 "nobili illo strato suo"; nobilis in one sense , though so humble in another.
18 There is a great variety of readings here; Halm has been followed in the text.
19 Or, "the pomp of a worldly funeral."
1 Narbona, more commonly called Narbo Martius; the modern Narbonne.
2 "Ad sepulchrum Cypriani martyris adorare."
3 This was probably the Syrtis Minor, a dangerous sandbank in the sea on the northern coast of Africa; it is now known as the Gulf of Cabes. The Syrtis Major lay farther to the east, and now bears the name of the Gulf of Sidra.
4 "Aedificia Numidarum agrestium, quae mapalia illi vocant, oblonga, incurvis lateribus tecta, quasi navium carinae sunt."-Sall. Fug. XVIII. 8.
5 The hut was perhaps built on piles rising slightly above the ground.
6 The term Africa here used in its more restricted sense to denote the territory of Carthage.
7 This took place in the spring of the year B.C.. 47.
9 "Prandium sane locupletissimum": of course there is a friendly irony in the words.
10 "non instrui, sed potius destrui."
11 "in nulla consistere sede sinerentur."
16 It appears impossible to give a certain rendering of these words-"quo videtur abductus."
18 Hornius strangely remarks on this, "Frequens id in Africa. Quin et ferrum nimio solis ardore mollescere scribunt qui interiorem Libyam perlustrarunt."
19 "sub nocte.": this may be used for the usual classical form "sub noctem," towards evening.
20 "Fides Christi adest": lit. "the faith of Christ is present."
21 Also spelt "anchoret": it means "one who has retired from the world" (a0naxwre/w).
22 "monasterium magnae dispositionis."
23 "virtute," perhaps power, as in many other places.
24 The word Gaul here must be taken in its more limited sense as denoting only the country of the Celtae. See the well-known first sentence of Caesar's Gallic War.
25 "Gurdonicus": a word said to have been derived from the name of a people in Spain noted for their stolidity.
27 "Salutationibus vacantes": this is, in the original, a very confused and obscure sentence.
1 Halm edits "tripeccias," which may have been the local patois for "tripetias" (ter-pes), corresponding to the Greek tri/pouj, and meaning "a three legged stool."
2 "Amphibalum": a late Latin word corresponding to the more classical toga.
6 The Carnutes dwelt on both sides of the Loire, and their chief town, here referred to, was Autricum, now Chartres.
8 "adire comitatum": this is a common meaning of comitatus in writings of the period.
9 Halm's text is here followed. The older texts which read "vir omni vitae merito praedicandus," seem hardly intelligible.
10 "Quod mihi liceat separata mysterii majestate dixisse."
11 "adlambunt": perhaps only "touch."
12 Halm has here an unintelligible reading probable a misprint-"quem recens tonsam forte conspexerat."
13 "cingulum": lit. a girdle, or sword-belt, and then put for military service.
14 "brutum pectus": the word seems to refer to the man as yuxiko\j, in opposition to pneumatiko\j.
16 "quemcumque," in the sense of qualemcumque, which is, in fact, found in some of the mss.
17 The original here is very obscure.
2 The text of this sentence is very uncertain, and the meaning somewhat obscure.
3 Here, again, the text is in confusion.
4 Text and meaning both very obscure.
5 "nos pie praestruere profitemur historiae veritatem."
8 "captivum suem." Probably there is here an allusion to the capture of the Erymanthian boat by Hercules, with a punning reference to a secondary meaning of sus as a kind of fish.
10 The text here is very corrupt: we have followed a conjecture of Halm's.
11 "Pseudothyrum": Halm prefers the form "pseudoforum," but the meaning is the same.
12 It is obvious that, in this whole passage, Sulpitius has in his mind the language of St. Paul, Rom. i. 9-12.
1 Halm reads proesentia, instead of the old reading perseverantia`, but apparently without good grounds.
4 Clericus here remarks that "these words clearly teach us that Severus knew of no other purgation than that by which we are cleansed in this life from sin by a change of character and which change if we steadily maintain, then, when life is ended, we are received into the abode of Christ, without any dread of the fire of purgatory."
6 Having led us into sin that we might be condemned along with himself. The meaning, however, is obscure.
7 Abraham lived (in round numbers) about 2000 years B.C.., and assuming the beginning of the world to have been about 4000 years B.C.., he may thus be said to have lived about "the mid-time." The note of Clericus which refers the words to the end of the world seems quite mistaken.
8 The reference is to Gen. xviii.
9 A faith having no regard to either rewards or punishments.
18 The divine omnipresence is here denoted.
19 Or, according to another punctuation, "inconceivable in nature, infinite in power."
20 Clericus thinks this expression unscriptural, and fitted to support heresy. But it may be justified by such a passage as Acts xx. 28, if qeouj can be accepted as the correct reading, which is now generally agreed upon.
22 Ps. xxxiv. 10: the above rendering entirely departs from the Hebrew text.LETTER 2
3 "sopire luxuriam," lit. to put to sleep.
4 "a filiis et filiabus": a mistaken rendering of the Hebrew text.
8 The text is here most uncertain; that adopted by Halm seems unintelligible.
9 "quod sine aeternae vitae merito neminem consequi posse satis certum est."
11 "supra mandatum": Clericus remarks on this, "Non supra, sed proeter, nam ea de re nihil praecepit Christus."
18 The genuineness of this clause is very doubtful, and the text is, at best, exceedingly corrupt.
20 The text is here very uncertain; we have followed that of Halm, but with hesitation.
21 Phil. iv. 8, with the addition of e0pisth/mhj.
26 The text here is most uncertain; Halm's "ut non aurea reticula capillus portet" is "that thy hair may not carry golden nets."
31 1 Thess. v. 15; 1 Pet. iii. 9.
49 1 Tim. ii. 9, 10; chastity is here unwarrantably read in place of godliness.
51 "cerussae": white lead, used by women to whiten their skins.
52 "lomentis": a mixture of bean-meal and rice, used as a lotion to preserve the smoothness of the skin.
54 Only a guess can here be made at the meaning; the text is in utter confusion.
57 Isa. xxvi. 15, after the LXX.
58 Jer. xii. 13, after the LXX.
59 "divini lavacri": referring to baptism.
62 "velut proximi criminis abominationem declina": the text and construction are both very uncertain, so that we can only make a guess at the meaning.
64 "dicis": the reference seems to be singing or chanting.
69 The text and meaning are here somewhat uncertain.
1 "pulmentariis": this word generally means some sort of relish, but here it seems to denote a kind of pottage.
2 Laser was the juice of a plant called laserpitium.
3 Clericus remarks, "Jocosa haec est epistola," but the fun is certainly of a very ponderous kind. We are, by no means, sure of the sense in some parts of the letter.
4 "crudelitati," which, as Clericus remarks, must here be equivalent to severitati.
1 "rectissimum," where rectius might have been expected.
2 There is a play upon the words- "Tutum esse tutissimum."
1 "divinitatis accessu": the context is almost unintelligible.
2 This probably denotes that what follows is the substance of the Master's petition.
3 Clericus, while accepting most of the letters with which we are now dealing, doubts, from the difference of style, whether this is an epistle of Sulpitius. It is certainly very different from his usual clearness and correctness.
4 "exhibitionis formidine"-a strange phrase.
1 The text is uncertain, and the meaning very obscure.
3 We thoroughly agree with Clericus that this letter is, in style, more alien even than the preceding from the genuine epistles of Sulpitius. It is barbarous as regards composition, and in several places not intelligible.
4 Most editions add "Deo gratias, Amen."
1 "carptim": such seems to be the meaning of the word here, as Sigonius has noted. His words are "Carptum-profecto innuit se non singulas res eodem modo persecuturum, sed quae memoratudigniores visae fuerint, selecturum."
1 Sulpitius follows the Greek version, which ascribes many more years to the fathers of mankind than does the original Hebrew.
2 Many of the ancients (among whom our author is apparently to be reckoned) believed that Paradise was situated outside our world altogether.
3 An obvious mistake. The first city was built, not by Enoch but by Cain. Gen. iv. 17.
5 Not of birds only, but other animals also. Gen. viii. 20.
6 This is the Nimrod of the A. V.; he is called Nebrod by the LXX. We have, for the most part, given the proper names as they appear in the edition of Halm.
7 Such is the form of the name as given by Halm, though Abram would be expected.
8 The LXX has xw/ra, instead of Ur.
9 A most improbable statement.
10 In the Greek of the LXX. the name appears as Abraam, so that, as our author says, there is only a change of one letter.
11 "juvinilis aetatis": the meaning is that he ceased to be a mere adolescens, and had reached the flower of his age.
13 This is the meaning of the Hebrew word, Beersheba.
14 "Titulum sibi domus Dei futurum": the rendering of the Hebrew original is here obviously faulty, and the words, as they stand, are scarcely intelligible.
15 ei!dwla is the Septuagint rendering of the Hebrew word Teraphim. Perhaps the original word should simply be transliterated into English as has been done in the Revised Version.
18 "Latitudo": Vorstius says this refers to the broad bone, or broad nerve of the thigh.
19 "In parte turris Gadir": this is a strange rendering of the Hebrew. The LXX. has "beyond the tower Gader": while the Revised English Version has "beyond the tower of Eder."
22 Or perhaps, rather, marriage of a sort, as appears from what follows.
23 A different reading gives, "was born on the following day."
24 The chronology of the LXX is, as usual, here followed.
25 The original is, "quibus benedictis, cum tamen benedictionis merito majori minorem praeposuisset, filios omnes benedictione lustravit."
26 This somewhat remarkable statement by the text of Halm, who reads, "lege naturae." But other editions have "legem naturae," and the meaning will then be "who had learned the law of nature, and the knowledge of God," &c.
28 Such is Halm's reading; another is simply "before."
29 The Hebrew text has "seventy," but our author, as usual, follows the LXX.
31 The text here is uncertain and obscure.
33 This is a somewhat strange description of the manna. Hornius remarks upon it that there may be a reference to the dew in which the Hebrews believed the manna to have been enveloped, but that seems a far-fetched explanation.
34 These words denote what is expressed in the Greek, "rulers of thousands, of hundreds, and of tens."
35 Some words seem to have been lost here.
36 The Hebrew text is here different.
37 Curiously enough, our author here reads, "twenty-three thousand," in opposition alike to the Greek and Hebrew text, both of which have "three thousand."
38 Halm here reads "referetur," but "refertur," another reading, seems preferable.
39 The text here varies: we have followed Halm.
40 "septingenti et xiiii milia."
41 Some words have here been lost, but are conjecturally supplied in the text.
42 "Allophylos": lit. strangers.
43 Many of the proper names occurring in this and other chapters are very different in form from those with which we are familiar in the O.T. But they have generally been given as they stand in the text of our author, and they can easily be identified by any readers who think it worth while to do so.
45 "Infractis viribus": Vorstius well remarks that "infractis" is here used with the sense of the simple "fractis."
46 Simply "osse asini" in text.
47 This is clearly the meaning, and Halm's punctuation, "invocato Deo ex osse, quod manu tenebat, aqua fluxit," is obviously wrong.
48 A clear mistake of memory in our author. The whole narrative is confused.
49 The meaning here is doubtful.
50 The Hebrew text has forty years.
51 No reference to this occurs in the Hebrew text, but it is found in the Greek, and is also noticed by Josephus. See the LXX. 1 Sam. v. 6, and Josephus, Antiq. vi. 1.
52 Called Kirjath-jearim in the English version.
53 Samuel was a Levite, but not a priest.
54 The text here is very uncertain; we have followed the reading of Halm, "lamas," but others have "lacrimas" or "latebras."
55 "Armorum" is here supplied, but some prefer "cotis," according to 1 Sam. xiii. 20.
56 This is a mistake: David was undoubtedly then a grown-up young man.
58 "Reficiendi corporis gratia": different from the Hebrew text.
59 The text is uncertain, but the meaning is clear.
60 The witch of Endor seems here to be referred to as if she had practised ventriloquism, this being regarded as a form of demoniacal possession.
61 See Alford on Acts xiii. 21.
62 Halm here inserts the usual mark of a lacuna in the text: others omit the words "a plerisque autem."
63 He here specially refers to the well-known Chronicles of Eusebius, which were translated into Latin, and supplemented by Saint Jerome.
64 As is often the case with respect to numbers, there are discrepancies in the various accounts given of this census.
65 Here, again, there is much discrepancy in the accounts.
67 The Chronicon of Eusebius is referred to.
68 Many editors here read "maternis," instead of "paternis."
69 It is remarkable, as Hornius has observed after Ligonius, that, while in the kingdom of Judah the sovereignty remained to the same family, in the kingdom of Ephraim the scepter was hardly ever transmitted to son or grandson.
70 "Cum filiis": after the Greek: the Hebrew text speaks of only one son.
71 Such seems clearly to be the meaning of the somewhat strange phrase, "promissorum fidem consecuta est."
74 "Chronicis," i.e. of Eusebius.
75 "Chronicorum," i.e. of Eusebius.
76 There is a reference in these words to the two tribes, or kingdom of Judah.
77 Surely a blunder; for, as has been well asked, how could Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale in the Mediterranean, have been cast out by the fish on the shores of the Ninevites? The Hebrew text has simply "the dryland."
78 After the Greek; the Hebrew has "forty days."
79 Vorstius remarks that this is a totally erroneous statement.
80 "Piaculo": a very old meaning is here attached to the word.
81 Our author is here guilty of omission and consequent inaccuracy. Comp Isa. chap. 37.
1 "mysterio futurorum mirabile."
2 Such is clearly the meaning, but it is strangely expressed by the words "omnibus ante regnis validissimum."
3 The text is here very uncertain and obscure.
4 "resurrectionis," referring probably not to the rising again of the dead, but to the restoration of the Jews. See Ezek. chap. 37.
5 Or, "confessed that he had seen a son of God."
6 "in versum ductae literae": various emendations have been proposed, but the text may stand. The meaning appears to be that the letters were not thrown together at random, but so placed as to form words.
7 "lacum": twice used before in the sense of pit.
8 The reference is to Aen. I. 729, but Sigonius and others have suspected the words as being a gloss. They are, however, probably genuine. Virgil's words are,-
"Hic regina gravem gemmis auroque poposcit Implevitque mero paternam, quam Belus et omnes A Belo soliti; tum facta silentia tectis."
9 Stilico was consul during the lifetime of Sulpitius.
10 "in plerisque exemplaribus": the mss. varying, as they so often do, with respect to numbers.
11 "jamque ad medium machinae processerant."
12 Our author here touches upon a most interesting question-the ultimate destiny of the ten tribes. He seems to imply that none of them returned to Palestine, but were wholly absorbed among the Gentile nations. That, however, cannot be correct, for it was still possible, in the time of Christ, to speak of some as connected with the tribe of Asher, one of the ten tribes. See Luke ii, 36.
13 "patruele patre": words which have much perplexed the editors.
14 "poenam crucis": after the Greek.
15 The text here is uncertain.
16 "historia divina": the writer applies these words to the book of Judith.
17 They did not themselves, for a time, assume the name of king, but, as said above, professed to rule under the authority of king Arridaeus, brother of Alexander.
18 Some add the words, "or of Lysimachus," but this appears to have been a gloss.
19 The text is here in utter confusion; we have followed that suggested by Vorstius.
20 Some words have here been lost, but the critics are not agreed as to what should be supplied.
21 As Vorstius suggests, we have here taken Jonathan as a nominative, but the passage is very obscure.
22 "Introsum," towards home; another reading is "ultrorsum," farther onwards.
23 "vincendi": others read "incendii."
25 Generally spoken of as Simon Magus.
28 How so? Because, according to Drusius, the Christian Jews were thus first taught to cast off the yoke of the law, which they had observed up to this time.
29 These were half-Jews and half-Christians, and were known at a later date under the name of Nazarites. They made use of what was called the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
31 "basilicas": edifices, which, in size and grandeur, had some resemblance to a royal palace.
32 "admota militari manu atque omnium provincialium multitudine in studia reginae certantium."
33 "funus excussum": a singular expression.
34 "ambitu": apparently used here with the meaning which sometimes belongs to "ambitione."
35 The one of these was Arius, the author of the heresy, and the other a presbyter of Alexandria bearing the same name.
36 Both the text and meaning are here obscure, we have read, with Halm, "fecisse" for the usual "factum."
37 Different periods and events are here mixed up by our author.
38 The text is in utter confusion, and we can only make a probable guess at the meaning.
39 It has been remarked that Sulpitius is in error in ascribing the summoning of this council to Constantine the Great, instead of his son Constantine II. The curious thing is that he should have made a mistake regarding an event so near his own time.
40 "qui etiam nostrorum judicio haereticus probatur."
41 As Epiphanius remarks, Sabellius taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were all the same person, only under different appellations.
43 The text is here in utter confusion and uncertainty. Some for "ac tum" read "nec tum," and some, instead of "judicum" read "judicium." The meaning therefore can only be guessed at.
46 Instead of "refertam," some read "infectam."
47 "magistris officialibus": Halm reads "magistri."
49 Of course, the Catholics, or orthodox.
50 "per vicarium ac praesidem": as Vorstius remarks, these were the two magistrates of Phrygia.
51 "trionymam solitarii Dei unionem": Hornius here remarks that "Sabellius believed that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were the same, and differed among themselves only in name."
52 The text is very uncertain; we have followed that of Halm, but the common text inserts a "non," and reads thus: "but the Son of God is not pronounced equal to the Father, and without beginning," etc.
54 "seminarium": lit. seed-plot.
56 "superstitio exitiabilis": the very words which Tacitus employs, when speaking of Christianity itself (Annal. xv. 44).
57 "arcanis occultata secretis": it is impossible to say what is the exact meaning of these words.
60 The text has merely "extra omnes terras."
61 Some read Euchrocia, and so afterwards.
63 This appears to be the meaning, but the text is obscure.
64 "clemens": some read "Clementen," and join it with "Maximum."
66 Halm prefers the form "Sylinancim" to "Sylinam." The reference is probably to the Scilly Isles.
67 The meaning seems to be, that Ithacius being blamed for bringing accusations against his brethren, at first defended his conduct by an appeal to the laws and the public weal, both of which justified the prosecution of heretics; but being at last driven from this position, he turned round and cast the blame upon those for whom he had acted.
68 Some read "solitus," instead of "sollicitus.
1 De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis. Gennadius's work is to be found at the end of the second volume of Vallarsius's edition of St. Jerome's works.
2 Now St. Honorat, so called from St. Honoratus, the founder of the monastery.The monastery seems at first to have consisted of an aggregation of separate cells, each of which, according to the usage of that time, would be called a "monasterium." "Tota ubique insula, exstructis cellulis, unum velut monasterium evasit."-Cardinal Noris, Histor. Pelag. p. 251. "Monasterium potest unius monachi habitaculum nominari."-Cassian. Collat. xvii. 18.
Among its more prominent members, contemporary with Vincentius, were Honoratus and Hilary, afterwards successively bishops of Arles, and Faustus, afterwards bishop of Riez, all of them in sympathy with the neighbouring clergy of Marseilles, opposed to St. Augustine's later teaching, and holding what was afterwards called Semipelagian doctrine. The adjoining islet of St. Marguérite, one of the Lérins group, has acquired notoriety of late, from having been the place to which Marshal Bazaine,the betrayer of Metz, was banished in 1873.
6 De Illustr. Eccles. Scrip c. 84.
8 Cardinal Noris does not hesitate to say of him, "Non modo Semipelagianum se prodit, sed disertis verbis Augustini discipulos tanquam haereticos traducit."-Historia Palagiana, p. 245. See below, Appendix II.
9 See Prosper's letter to Augustine in Augustine's works, Ep. 225, Tom. ii. Ed. Paris, 1836, etc.
11 The Objectiones Vincentianae must have been published at some time between the publication of St. Augustine's Antipelagian Treatises and the death of Prosper. They are to be found in Prosper's Reply, contained in St. Augustine's works, Appendix, Tom. x. coll. 2535. et seq. Paris, 1836, etc.
18 Antelmi, Nova de Symbola Athanasiano Disquisitio. See the note on § 42, Appendix I.
23 §§ 55-60. For instances in point, he might have referred to the enlargement and expansion of the earlier Creed, first in the Nicene, afterward in the Constantinopolitan Formulary. Thus, in the Definition of the Faith of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fathers are careful to explain that they are making no addition to the original deposit, but amply unfolding and rendering more intelligible what before had been less distinctly set forth: "Teaching in its fulness the doctrine which from the beginning hath remained unshaken, it decrees, in the first place that the Creed of the 318 (the original Nicene Creed) remain untonched; and on account of those who impugn the Holy Spirit, it ratifies and confirms the doctrine subsequently delivered, concerning the essence of the Holy Spirit, by the hundred and fifty holy Fathers, (the Constantinopolitan Creed), which they promulgated for universal acceptance, not as though they were supplying some omission of their predecessors, but testifying in express words in writing their own minds concerning the Holy Spirit."
1 Commonitory. I have retained the original title in its anglicised form, already familiar to English ears in connection with the name of Vincentius. Its meaning as he uses it is indicated sufficiently, in § 3, "An aid to memory." Technically, it meant a Paper of Instructions given to a person charged with a commission, to assist his memory as to its details.
2 Peregrinus. It does not appear why Vincentius writes under an assumed name. Vossius, with whom Cardinal Noris evidently agrees supposes that his object was to avoid openly avowing himself the author of a work which covertly attacked St. Augustine. Vossius, Histor. Pelag. p. 246. Ego quidem ad Vossii sententiam plane accessissem, nisi tot delatae a sapientissimis Scriptoribus Commonitorio laudes religionem mihi pene injecissent.-Noris, Histor. Pelag. p. 246.
6 Noris, from this word, "villula," a grange or country house concludes that Vincentius, at the time of writing, though a monk was not a monk of Lérins for there could be no "villula" there then, Honoratus having found the island desolate and without inhabitant, when he settled on it but a few years previously, "vacantem insulam ob nimictatem squaloris, et inaccessam venenatorum animalium metu." Histor. Pelag. p. 251. Why, however, may not the "villula" have been built subsequently to Honoratus's settlementaud indeed, as a part of it ? Whether Vincentius was an inmate of the monastery of Lérins at the time of writing the Commonitory or not, he was so eventually, and died there.
8 "Il dit qu'il l'a voulu écrire d'un style facile et commun, sans le vouloir orner et polir; et je voudrois que les ouvrages qu'on a pris le plus de peine à polur dans ce siecle (le 4me) et dans le suivant, ressemblassent à celui-ci." Tillemont, T. xv. p. 144.
9 There were two persons of this name, both intimately connected with the schism,-the earlier one, bishop of Casa Nigra in Numidia the other the successor of Majorinus, whom in the year 311 the party had elected to be bishop of Carthage in opposition to Cecilian, the Catholic bishop, the ground of the opposition being that the principal among Cecilian's consecrators lay under the charge of having delivered up the sacred books to the heathen magistrates in the Dioclesian persecution, and of having thereby rendered his ministerial acts invalid. It was from the last-mentioned probably that the sect was called.The Donatists affected great strictness of life, and ignoring the plain declarations of Scripture, and notably the prophetic representations contained in our Lord's parables of the Tares, the Draw-net, and others, they held that no church could be a true church which endured the presence of evil men in its society. Accordingly they broke off communion with the rest of the African Church and with all who held communion with it, which was in effect the rest of Christendom, denying the validity of their sacraments, rebaptizing those who came over to them from other Christian bodies, and reordaining their clergy.
The sect became so powerful that for some time it formed the stronger party in the church of North Western Africa, its bishops exceeding four hundred in number; but partly checked through the exertions of Augustine in the first years of the fifth century, and of Pope Gregory the Great at the close of the sixth, and partly weakened by divisions among themselves, they dwindled away and become extinct.
10 The rise of Arianism was nearly contemporaneous with that of Donatism. It originated with Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, a man of a subtle wit and a fluent tongue. He began by calling in question the teaching of his bishop, when discoursing on a certain occasion on the subject of the Trinity. For himself he denied our blessed Lord's coeternity and consubstantiality with the Father, which was in effect to deny that He is God in any true sense, though he made no scruple of giving Him the name. His doctrine may be best inferred from the anathema directed against it, appended to the original Nicene Creed: "Those who say, that once the Son of God did not exist, and that before He was begotten He did not exist, or who affirm that He is of a different substance or essence (from that of the Father), or that His nature is mutable or alterable, those the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematises."
Arianism spread with great rapidity, and though condemned by the Council of Nicaea in 325, it gained fresh strength on the death of Constantine and the accession of Constantius, so that for many years thenceforward the history of the Church is occupied with nothing so much as with accounts of its struggle for supremacy. "Arians and Donatists began both about one time, which heresies, according to the different strength of their own sinews, wrought, as the hope of success led them, the one with the choicest wits the other with the multitude, so far, that after long and troublesome experience, the perfectest view that men could take of both was hardly able to induce any certain determinate resolution, whether error may do more by the curious subtlety of sharp discourse, or else by the mere appearance of zeal and devout affection."-Hooker, Eccles. Pol. v. 62. § 8.
11 The Catholic bishops, in number more than four hundred, who at Ariminum, in 349, after having subscribed the Creed of Nicaea were induced, partly by fraud, partly by threats, to repudiate its crucial terms and sign an Arian Formulary. It was in reference to this that St. Jerome wrote, "Ingemuit orbis, et Arium se esse miratus est." "The world groaned and marvelled to find itself Arian." He continues, "The vessel of the apostles was in extreme danger. The storm raged, the waves beat upon the ship, all hope was gone. The Lord awakes, rebukes the tempest, the monster (Constantius) dies, tranquillity is restored. The bishops who had been thrust out from their sees return, through the clemency of the new emperor. Then did Egypt receive Athanasius in triumph, then did the Church of Gaul receive Hilary returning from battle, then did Italy put off her mourning garments at the return of Eusebius (of Vercellae)."-Advers. Luciferianos, § 10.
12 Constantius, the Emperor of the West.
13 Though Vincentius' account of the Arian persecutions refers to those under Arian emperors, Constantius and Valens, the former especially, yet he could not but have had in mind the atrocious cruelties which were being perpetrated, at the time when he was writing, by the Arian Vandals in Africa. Possidius, in his life of St Augustine, who lay on his death-bed in Hippo while the fierce Vandal host was encamped round the city (c. xxviii.), gives a detailed account of them belonging to a date some four years earlier, entirely of a piece with Vincentius' description in the text. Victor, bishop of Vite, himself a sufferer, has left a still ampler relation, De Persecutione Vandalorum.
14 St. Ambrose. De Fide, l. 2, c. 15, § 141. See also St. Jerome adv. Luciferianos, § 19.
15 Ibid. l. 3, § 128 St. Ambrose speaks of the Gothic war as a judgment upon Valens, both for his Arianism and for his persecution of the Catholics. He had permitted the Goths to cross the Danube, and settle in Thrace and the adjoining parts, with the understanding that they should embrace Christianity in its Arian form They had now turned against him, and Gratian was on the eve of setting out to carry aid to him. St. Ambrose's book, De Fide, was written to confirm Gratian in the Catholic faith, in view especially of the Arian influence to which he might be subjected in his intercourse with Valens Valens was killed the following year, 378, at the battle of Adrianople.
17 "The Apostolic see" (Sedes Apostolica) here means Rome of course. But the title was not restricted to Rome. It was common to all sees which could claim an apostle as their Founder. Thus St. Augustine, suggesting a rule for determining what books are to be regarded as Canonical, says, "In Canonicis Scripturis Ecclesiarum Catholicarum quamplurium auctoritatem sequatur, inter quas sane illae sint quae Apostolicas Sedes habere et Epistolas accipere meruerunt." "Let him follow the authority of those Catholic Churches which have been counted worthy to have Apostolic Sees; i.e., to have been founded by Apostles, and to have been the recipients of Apostolic Epistles."-De Doctr. Christiana, II. § 13. But the title, even in St. Augustine's time, had even a wider meaning "Anciently every bishop's see was dignified with the title of Sedes Apostolica, which in those days was no peculiar title of the bishop of Rome, but given to all bishops in general, as deriving their origin and counting their succession from the apostles."-Bingham, Antiq. II., c. 2, § 3.
18 Agrippinus. See note 4, below.
19 Stephen's letter has not come down to us, happily perhaps for his credit, judging by the terms in which Cyprian speaks of it in the letter in which he quotes the passage in the text.-Ad Pompeian, Ep. 74.
20 The Council held under the presidency of Cyprian in 256. Its acts are contained in Cyprian's works Ed. Fell. pp. 158, etc. An earlier council had been held in the same city in the beginning of the century under Agrippinus. Both had affirmed the necessity of rebaptizing heretics, or, as they would rather have said, of baptizing them. The controversy was set at rest by a decision of the council of Arles, In 314, which ordered, in its Eighth Canon, that if the baptism had been administered in the name of the Trinity, converts should be admitted simply by the imposition of hands that they might receive the Holy Ghost.
21 See Hooker's reference to this passage.-Eccles. Poll. v. 62, § 9.
22 The condemnation of St. Cyprian's practice of rebaptism.
41 Nestorius was a native of Germanicia, a town in the patriarchate of Antioch, of which Church he became a Presbyter. On the See of Constantinople becoming vacant by the death of Sisinnius, the Emperor Theodosius sent for him and caused him to be consecrated Archbishop. He was at first extremely popular, and so eloquent that people said of him (what was much to be said of a successor of Chrysostom), that there had never before been such a bishop. He was condemned by the Council of Ephesus, in 431. The emperor, after ordering him to return to the monastery to which he formally belonged, eventually banished him to the great Oasis, whence he was harried from place to place till death put an end to his sufferings, in 440. Evagrius, I. 7.
42 Photinus, bishop of Sirmium in Pannonia, was a native of Galatia, and a disciple of Marcellus of Ancyra. Bishop Pearson (on the Creed, Art. 11) has an elaborate note, in which he collects together many notices of him left by the ancients. These agree with Vincentius in representing him as a man of extraordinary ability and of consummate eloquence. His heresy consisted in the denial ofour blessed Lord's divine nature, whom he regarded as man, and nothing more, yilo\j a!nqrwpoj, and as having had no existence before his birth of the Virgin. He was condemned in several synods, the fifth of which, a Council of the Western bishops, held at Sirmium, in 350, deposed him. But in spite of the deposition, so great was his popularity, that he could not even yet be removed. The following year however he was by another council, held at the same place, again condemned, and sent into banishment. He died in Galatia in 377. See Cave, hist. Lit., who refers with praise to a learned dissertation on Photinus by Larroque.
43 Apollinaris the younger (a contemporary of Photinus), bishop of Laodicea in Syria, was one of the most distinguished men of the age in which he lived. Epiphanius (Hoer. lxxvii. 2), referring to his fall into heresy, says that when it first began to be spoken of, people would hardly credit it, so great was the estimation in which he was held. His heresy, which consisted in the denial of the verity of our Lord's human nature, the Divine Word supplying the place of the rational soul, and in the assertion that his flesh was not derived from the Virgin, but was brought down from heaven, was condemned by the Council of Constantinople, in 381 (Canon I.). It was in reference to the latter form of it that the clause "of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary" was inserted in the Nicene Creed.
44 This work of which St. Jerome speaks in high terms (de Viris Illustr., c. 104), has not come down to us, nor indeed have his other writings, except in fragments.
45 "Et hoc ipsum non plena fidei sanitate."-The Cambridge Ed., 1687, with Baluzius's notes appended, reads, "et hoc ipsum plena fidei sanctitate."
47 Unum Christum Jesum non duos, eundemque Deum pariter atque Hominem confitetur. Compare the Athanasian Creed, "Est ergo fides recta et credamus et confiteamur, quia Dominus Noster Jesus Christus. Dei Filius, Deus pariter et Homo est."
48 In Trinitate alius atque alius, non aliud atque aliud. In Salvatore aliud atque aliud, non alius atque alius.
49 Aliud atque aliud, non alius atque alius.
50 Quia scilicet alia est Persona Patris, alia Filii, alia Spiritus Sancti sed tamen Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti non alia et alia sed una cadunque natura. So the Athanasian Creed, "Alia est enim Persona Patris, alia Filii, alia Spiritus Sancti, sed Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti una est Divinitas, etc." The coincidence between the whole of this context and the Athanasian Creed is very observable, though the agreement is not always exact to the very letter.
51 Idem ex Patre ante saecula genitus, Idem in saeculo ex matre generatus. Compare the Athanasian Creed, "Deus est ex substantia Patris ante saecula genitus; Homo ex substantia Matris in saeculo natus." See Appendix I.
52 The word "Person" is used in this and the preceding section in a way which might seem at variance with Catholic truth. Christ did not assume the Person of a man; but, being God, He united in his one divine Person, the Godhead and the Manhood. This Vincentius himself teaches most explicitly. But his object here is to show that our blessed Lord, while conversant among us as man, and being to all appearance man, did not, personate man, but was man in deed and in truth. The misconception against which Vincentius seeks to guard arises from the ambiguity of the Latin Persona, an ambiguity which is not continued in our derived word Person. Persona signifies not only Person, in our sense of the word, but also an assumed character. Though however we have not this sense in Person, we have it in Personate.
53 If the Son of God had taken to Himself a man now made and already perfected, it would of necessity follow that there are in Christ two persons, the one assuming and the other assumed; whereas, the Son of God did not assume a man's person unto His own, but a man's nature to His own person, and therefore took semen, the seed of Abraham, the very first original element of our nature, before it was come to have any personal human subsistence. The flesh, and the conjunction of the flesh with God, began both in one instant. His making and taking to Himself our flesh was but one act, so that in Christ there is no personal subsistence but one, and that from everlasting. By taking only the nature of man He still continueth one person, and changeth but the manner of His subsisting which was before in the mere glory of the Son of God and is now in the habit of our flesh.-Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 52, § 3.
54 "A kind of mutual commutation there is, whereby those concrete names, God and man, when we speak of Christ, do take interchangeably one another's room, so that for truth of speech, it skilleth not, whether we say that the Son of God hath created the world, and the Son of man by His death hath saved it, or else, that the Son of man did create, and the Son of God die to save the world. Howbeit, as oft as we attribute to God what the manhood of Christ claimeth, or to man what His Deity hath right unto, we understand by the name of God and the name of man neither the one nor the other nature, but the whole person of Christ, in whom both natures are." -Hooker, Eccl.Polity,v. 53, § 4. This is technically called "The Communication of Properties," Communicatio idiomatum.
58 Sicut Verbum in carne caro, ita Homo in Deo Deus est. Compare the Athanasian Creed, v. 33, in what is probably the true reading, "Unus autem, non conversione Divinitatis in carne, sed assumptione Humanitatis in Deo."
59 Anrtelmi, who ascribed the Athanasian Creed to Vincentius, thought that document a fulfilment of the promise here made. Nova de Symbola Athanasiano Disquisitio.-See Appendix I.
60 Origen was born of Christian parents, at Alexandria, about the year 186. His father, Leonidas, suffered martyrdom in the persecution under Severus, in 202; and the family estate having been confiscated, his mother, with six younger children, became dependent upon him for her support, At the age of eighteen he was appointed by the bishop Demetrius over the Catechetical School of Alexandria, the duties of which place he discharged with eminent ability and success. He remained a layman till the age of forty-three, when he was admitted to priest's orders at Caesarea, greatly to the displeasure of Demetrius, by whose hand, according to the Church's rule, the office ought to have been conferred, and he was in consequence banished from Alexandria. Returning to Caesarea, he taught there with great reputation, and had many eminent persons among his disciples. He suffered much in the Decian persecution in 250, when he was thrown into prison and subjected to severe tortures. His works, as Vincentius says, were very numerous, including among them the Hexapla, a revised edition of the Hebrew Scriptures and of the Septuagint version, together with three other versions, the Hebrew being set forth in both Hebrew and Greek characters. His writings were corrupted in many instances, so that, as Vincentius says, opinions were often imputed to him which he would not have acknowledged. He died in his sixty-ninth year at Tyre, and was buried there.
61 "Quis nostrum," says St. Jerome, "potest tanta legere quanta ille conscripsit."-Hieron. ad Pam. et Occan.
62 He died, as was said in the preceding note, in his sixty-ninth year.
63 Among these were Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of NeoCaesarea in Pontus, and Firmilian, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia.
65 These are St. Jerome's words, from whose book, De Viris illustribus c. 54, Vincentius's account of Origen is taken. The vexed question of Philip's claim to be ranked as a Christian is discussed by Tillemont.-Histoire des Empereurs, T. iii. pp. 494 sqq.
66 Errare malo cum Platone quam cun istis vera sentire.-Cicero, Tuscul. Quoest. 1.
68 "The great Origen died after his many labors in peace. His immediate pupils were saints and rulers in the Church. He has the praise of St. Athanasius, St. Basil, and St. Gregory Nazianzen, and furnishes materials to St. Ambrose and St. Hilary; yet, as time proceeded a definite heterodoxy was the growing result of his theology, and at length, three hundred years after his death, he was condemned, and, as has generally been considered, in an Oecumenical Council."- Newman on Development, p. 85, First Edition.
69 Hardly anything is known of Tertullian, besides what may be gathered from his works, in addition to the following account given by St. Jerome (De Viris Illustribus), which I quote from Bishop Kaye's work on Tertullian and his writings: "Tertullian, a presbyter, the first Latin writer after Victor and Apollonius, was a native of the province of Africa and city of Carthage, the son of a proconsular centurion. He was a man of a sharp and vehement temper, flourished under Severus and Caracalla, and wrote numerous works which, as they are generally known, I think it unnecessary to particularize. I saw at Concordia, in Italy, an old man named Paulus who said that, when young, he had met at Rome with an aged amanuensis of the blessed Cyprian, who told him that Cyprian never passed a day without reading some portion of Tertullian's works, and used frequently to say, `Give me my master, 0' meaning Tertullian. After remaining a presbyter of the Church till he had attained the middle of life, Tertullian was by the cruel and contumelious treatment of the Roman clergy driven to embrace the opinions of Montanus, which he has mentioned in several of his works, under the title of' `The New Prophecy. 0' He is reported to have lived to a very advanced age." He was born about the middle of the second century, and flourished, according to the dates indicated above, between the years 190 and 216.
70 Fidelior, Baluz, Felicior, others.
72 Montanus, with his two prophetesses, professed that he was intrusted with a new dispensation,-a dispensation in advance of the Gospel, as the Gospel was in advance of the Law. His system was a protest against the laxity which had grown up in the Church, as has repeatedly been the case after revivals of religious fervor, verifying Tertullian's apophthegm, "Christiani fiunt, non nascuntur" (men become Christians, they are not born such). Its characteristics were extreme ascetism, rigorous fasting, the exaltation of celibacy, the absolute prohibition of second marriage, the expectation of our Lord's second advent as near at hand, the disparagement of the clergy in comparison with its own Paraclete-inspired teachers. It had its rise in Phrygia, and from thence spread throughout Asia Minor, thence it found its way to Southern Gaul, to Rome, to North Western Africa, in which last for a time it had many followers.
80 For instance, the proper Deity of our Blessed Lord by the word "Homousios," consubstantial, of one substance, essence, nature.
83 Pelagius, a monk, a Briton by birth, resident in Rome where by the strictness of his life he had acquired a high reputation for sanctity, was led, partly perhaps by opposition to St. Augustine's teaching on the subject of election and predestination, partly by indignation at the laxity of professing Christians, who pleaded, ii excuse for their low standard, the weakness of human nature, to insist upon man's natural power, and to deny his need of divine grace.Pelagius was joined by another monk, Coelestius, a younger man with whom about the year 410, the year in which Rome was taken by the Goths, he began to teach openly and in public what before he had held and taught in private. After the sack of Rome, the two friends passed over into Africa, and from thence Pelagius proceeded to Palestine, where he was in two separate synods acquitted of the charge of heresy which had been brought against him by Orosius, a Spanish monk, whom Augustine had sent for that purpose. But in 416, two African synods condemned his doctrine, and Zosimus bishop of Rome, whom he had appealed to, though he had set aside their decision, was eventually obliged to yield to the firmness with which they held their ground, and not only to condemn Pelagius, but to take stringent measures against his adherents. "In 418, another African synod of two hundred and fourteen bishops passed nine canons, which were afterwards generally accepted throughout the Church, aud came to be regarded as the most important bulwark against Pelagianism." The heresy was formally condemned, in 431, by the General Council of Ephesus. Canons 2 and 4.The Pelagians denied the corruption of man's nature, and the necessity of divine grace. They held that infants new-born are in the same state in which Adam was before his fall; that Adam's sin injured no one but himself, and affected his posterity no other wise than by the evil example which it afforded; they hold also that men may live without sin if they will and that some have so lived.Those who were afterwards called semi-Pelagians (they belonged chiefly to the churches of Southern Gaul) were orthodox except in one particular: In their anxiety to justify, as they thought, God's dealings with man, they held that the first step in the way of salvation must be from ourselves: we must ask that we may receive, seek that we may find, knock that it may be opened to us; thenceforward in every stage of the road, our strenuous efforts must be aided by divine grace. They did not understand, or did not grant, that to that same grace must be referred even the disposition to ask, to seek, to knock. See Prosper's letter to Augustine, August. Opera, Tom. x.The semi-Pelagian doctrine was condemned in the second Council of Orange (a.d.. 529), the third and fifth canons of which are directed against it.
91 "Tractatores." St. Augustine's Expository Lectures on St. John's Gospel are entitled "Tractatus."
95 Julian bishop of Eclanum, a small town in Apulia or Campania was one of nineteen bishops, who, having espoused the cause of Pelagius, and having refused to subscribe a circular letter issued by Zosimus, now adopting the decisions of the African Council (see above note p. 147) were deposed and banished. St Augustine at his death left a work against Julian unfinished, "Opus imperfectum contra Julianum," in which he had been engaged till the sickness of which he died put and end to his labours.
96 The Council of Ephesus, summoned by the Emperor Theodosius to meet at Whitsuntide, 431 (June 7), held its first sitting on June 22, in the Church Of St. Mary, where the blessed Virgin was believed to have been buried.
97 See note above, p. 131, n. 3.
98 This marks Vincentius's date within very narrow limits, viz. after the Council of Ephesus, and before Cyril's death. Cyril died in 444.
99 Vincentius's copy of the acts of the Council appears to have contained extracts from no more than ten Fathers. But the Fathers from whose writings extracts were read were twelve in number; the two omitted by Vincentius being Attiicus, bishop of Constantinople and Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. In Labbe's Concilia, where the whole are given, it is remarked that in one manuscript the two last mentioned occupy a different place from the others. Dean Milman (Latin Christianity, vol. 1, p. 164) speaks of the passages read, "as of very doubtful bearing on the question raised by Nestorius." It is true only two, those from Athanasius and Gregory Nazianzen, contain the crucial term "Theotocos" but all express the truth which "Theotocos" symbolises. That the word was not of recent introduction, Bishop Pearson (Creed, Art. 3) shows by quotations from other writers besides those produced at the Council, going back as far as to Origen. The Fathers cited may certainly be said to fulfil to some extent Vincentius's requirement of universality. They represent the teaching of Alexandria, Rome, Carthage, Milan, Constantinople, and Asia Minor; but his appeal would have been more to his purpose if antiquity had been more exprossly represented. With the exception of Cyprian, all the passages cited were from writers of comparatively recent date at the time, though, as Vincentius truly remarks, others might have been produced.Petavius (De Incarn. l. xiv. c. 15), in defending the cultus of the blessed Virgin and of the saints generally, lays much stress on this omission of citations from earlior Fathers at the Counsil, as he does also on similar omissions in the case of the fourth, fifth, and sixth Councils, with what object is sufficiently obvious. Bishop Bull points out Petavius's disposition to disparage or misrepresent the teaching of the earlier Fathers, in another and still more important instance. (Defens. Fid. Nic.) Introd. § 8.
100 The letter of Capreolus is given in Labbe's Concilia, vol. 3, col. 529 sqq. The Emperor Theodosius had written to Augustine, requiring his presence at the Council which he had summoned to meet at Ephesus in the matter of Nestorius. But Augustine having died while the letter was on its way, it was brought to Capreolus, bishop of Carthage and Metropolitan. Capreolus would have summoned a meeting of the African bishops, that they might appoint a delegate to represent them at the Council; but the presence of the hostile Vandals, who were laying waste the country in all directions, made it impossible for the bishops to travel to any place of meeting. Capreolus therefore could do no more than send his deacon Besula to represent him and the African Church, bearing with him the letter referred to in the text. The letter, after having been read before the Council, both in the original Latin and in a Greek translation, was, on the motion of Cyril, inserted in the acts.
101 Sixtus III. See the Epistle in Labbe's Concilia, T. iii. Col. 1262.
102 Celestine's letter will be found in the appendix to Vol. x., Part II., of St. Augustine's Works, col. 2403, Paris 1838. See the remarks on Vincentius's mode of dealing with Celestine's letter, Appendix III.
1 C.F. Basil's Greater Monastic Rules, Q. xxii., from which a considerable portion of this chapter is taken.
6 1 Tim. vi. 8. The Greek is skepa/smata, for which Jerome's version has "quibus tegamur." Sabbatier gives "victum et vestitum" as the rendering of the old Latin, but it is often quoted as "victus et tegumentum" by Augustine. "Alimenta et operimenta" must be Cassian's own rendering from the Greek. "Vestimenta," which he speaks of as being found in some Latin copies, is not given by Sabbatier at all, though Jerome quotes the text with "vestimentum" in Ep. ad Titum, III.
9 Quia nisi insolens sit diversitas non offendit aequalitas (Petschenig). The text of Gazaeus has inoequalitas.
10 The hood, or cowl (cuculla), was anciently worn by children and peasants, and thus was said to symbolize humility. Compare the account of the Egyptian monks given by Sozomen, Hist. III. xiv.: "They wore a covering on their heads called a cowl to show that they ought to live with the same innocence and purity as infants who are nourished with milk and wear a covering of the same form."
12 Colobium (kolo/bion), a tunic with very short sleeves. Cf. Dorotheus (Migne, Patrol. Graeca lxxxviii. 1631). To\ sxh=ma o@ forou=men kolo/bio/n e0sti, mh\ e#xon xeiri/dia, kai\ zw/nh dermati/nh kai\ a0na/laboj kai\ koukou/lion.
13 Col. iii. 5, 3. Gal. ii. 20; vi. 14. Cf. Sozomen l. c.: "They wore their tunics without sleeves in order to teach that the hands ought not to be ready to do evil."
14 Rebracchiatoria. The whole passage is somewhat obscure, and the various synonyms do not help us much in the elucidation of it. 0Ana/laboi is given in Petschenig's text, but a0nabola/i has some ms. authority. 0Ana/laboi is the word used by Sozomen, who also mentions this cord. "Their girdle also and cord, the former girding the loins, the latter going round the shoulders and arms, admonish them that they ought always to be ready for the service of God and their work."
19 Acts xx. 34; 2 Thess. iii. 8,10.
20 The mafors (mafw/rion or mafo/rion) is the monkish scapular, or working-dress. Cf. the Rule of S. Benedict, c. 55: "Scapulare Propter opera." In form it was a large, coarse cape, or hood.
21 The melotes (mhlwth/j), a sheepskin garment hanging down on one side, was the usual dress of monks. S. Anthony bequeathed his at his death, to S. Athanasius. Ath. Vita Anton, 91.
22 Pera can hardly be used here in its ordinary sense of scrip or wallet ph/ra. Gazaeus suggests that it may be a transcriber's error for poenula, while Ducange would read, "quae melotes appellatur, vel pera, et baculus." Mr. Sinker, in the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities (Vol. II. p. 1619), suggests that possibly the word may be Egyptian.
26 Ps. lxi. (lxii.) 5; Jer. xvii. 16 (lxx.).
29 This and the following chapter are altogether omitted in the edition of Gazaeus.
4 Antiphona. In this passage the word appears to mean the actual Psalms sung antiphonally, rather than what is generally meant in later writings by the term. Cf. the Rule of Aurelian, "Dicite matutinarios i.e., primo canticum in antiphona, deinde directaneum, judica me Deus . . . in antiphona dicite hymnum, splendor patudae gloriae." And see the use of the word later on by Cassian himself, c. vii.
5 The third, sixth, and ninth hours were observed as hours of prayer from the earliest days. Cf. Tertullian De Oratione, c. 25; Clem. Alex. Stromata, VII. c. 7, § 40.
6 I.e., that at Tierce there should be three Psalms, at Sext six, and at Nones nine.
7 Castor had founded a monastery about the year 420.
10 The rule of Caesarius also prescribes twelve Psalms on every Sabbath, Lord's day, and festival (c. 25); so also, according to the Benedictine rule, there are twelve Psalms at mattins, besides the fixed ones, iii. and xcv. (see c. 9 and 10), as there are still in the Roman Breviary on ordinary week-days.
11 The custom of having two lessons only appears to have been peculiar to Egypt. Most of the early Western rules give three, e.g. those of Caesarius and Benedict, while in the Eastern daily offices there are no lections from Holy Scripture.
13 Petshenig's text has inedia, others inediam.
14 Cf. Eusebius, Book II. c. xv., xvi. Sozomen, Book I. c. xii., xiii.
16 Cumque . . . undecim Psalmos orationum interjectione distinctos contiguis versibus parili pronunciatione cantassat.
17 So, according to the Benedictine rule, the Psalms at mattins are ended with Alleluia (c. ix.): "After these three lessons with their responds there shall follow the remaining six Psalms with the Alleluia." Cf. c. xi. and xv.
18 This story is referred to in the Eighteenth Canon of the Second Council of Tours, a.d.. 567. "The statutes of the Fathers have prescribed that twelve Psalms be said at the Twelfth (i.e. Vespers), with Alleluia, which, moreover, they learnt from the showing of an angel."
19 Apostolus, the regular name for the book of the Epistles.
20 Cf. the note above on c. v.
21 Totis Quinquagessimoe diebus; i.e., the whole period of fifty days between Easter and Whitsuntide (cf. c. xviii. and the Conferences XXI. viii., xi., xx.). This is the usual meaning of the term Pentecost in early writers, though it is also used more strictly for the actual festival of Whitsunday. Cf. the Twentieth Canon of the Council of Nicaea, and see Canon Bright's Notes on the Canons, p. 72, for other instances.
22 Ad celeritatem missoe. Theword "missa" is here used for the breaking up of the congregation after service, as it is again in Book III. c. vii., where Cassian says that one who came late for prayer had to wait, standing before the door, for the "missa" of the whole assembly. Cf. III. c. viii. "post vigiliarum missam," and the rule of S. Benedict (c. xvii.): "After the three Psalms are finished let one lesson be read, a verse, and Kyrie Eleison: et missoe fiant." A full account of the various meanings given to the word will be found in the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 1193 sq.
23 Colligere orationem. The phrase corresponds to the Greek suna/ptein, but Ducange gives but few instances of its use in Latin. It is found however, in Canon xxx. of the Council of Agde. "Plebs collecta oratione ad vesperam ab Episcopo cum benedictione dimittatur."
24 Antiphona. The word must certainly be used here not in the later sense of "antiphon," but as descriptive of the whole of the Psalmody of the office. Cf. note on c. i.
25 In the Eastern offices the Psalter is divided into twenty sections called kaqi/smata, each of which is subdivided into three sta/seij, at the close of each of which the Gloria is said, and not, as in the West, after every Psalm. This Western custom which Cassian here notices seems to have originated in Gaul, and thence spread to other churches as, according to Walafrid Strabo, at Rome it was used but rarely after the Psalms in the ninth century. See Walafrid Strabo, c. xxv. ap. Hittorp. 688. The earliest certain indications of the use of the hymn itself are found in the fourth century. See S. Basil De Spiritu Sancto, c. xxix.; Theodoret, Eccl. Hist., II. xxiv., Sozomen, Eccl. Hist., III. xx. TheGreek form is Do9ca patri\ kai\ u9i9w[ kai\ a9gi/w pneuma/ti kai\ nu=n kai\ a0ei\ kai\ e0ij tou\j a0iw=naj tw=n a0iwnw=n, a0mhn. The additional words in use in the West, "sicut erat in principio," were first adopted in the sixth century, being ordered by the Council of Vaison, a.d.. 529, "after the example of the apostolic see."
26 Synaxis (su/acij) a general name for the course of the ecclesiastical offices.
28 Cf. Augustine Ep. cxxx. § 20 (Vol. II. 389): "Dicuntur fratres in Aegypto crebras quidem habere orationes, sed eas tamen brevissimas, et raptim quodammodo jaculatas, ne illa vigilantes erecta, quae oranti plurimum necessaria est, per productiores mores evanescat atque hebetetur intentio;" and Hooker, Eccl. Polity, Book V. c. xxxiii.: "The brethren in Egypt (saith S. Augustine) are reported to have many prayers, but every of them very short, as if they were darts thrown out with a kind of sudden quickness, lest that vigilant and erect attention of mind which in prayer is very necessary should be wasted or dulled through continuance, if their prayers were few and long.... Those prayers whereunto devout minds have added a piercing kind of brevity, as well in that respect which we have already mentioned, as also thereby the better to express that quick and speedy expedition wherewith ardent affections, the very wings of prayer, are delighted to present our suits in heaven, even sooner than our tongues can devise to utter them," etc.
29 This plan of dividing some of the longer Psalms (as is still done with the 119th in the English Psalter) was adopted sometimes in the West also. Cf. the Rule of S. Benedict, c. xviii., and the Third Council of Narbonne (a.d.. 589), Canon 2: "Ut in psallendis ordinibus per quemque Psalmum Gloria dicatur Omnipotenti Deo, per majores vero Psalmos, prout fuerint prolixius, pausationes fiant, et per quamque pausationem Gloria Trinitatis Domino decantetur." Further, the rule that prayers should be intermingled with Psalms which was perhaps introduced into the West by Cassian, was, widely adopted both in Gaul and in Spain.
31 Cum rationabili assignatione.
32 Viz.: Ps. civ., cv., cvi., cx., cxi., cxii., cxiii., cxiv., cxv., cxxxiv., cxxxv., cxlv., cxlvi., cxlvii., cxlviii., cxlix., cl., in the LXX. and the Latin.
33 This arrangement by which the Psalm was sung by a single voice, while the rest of the congregation listened, is that which was afterwards known by the name of Tractus.
34 Missoe. The use of this word for the offices of the Canonical Hours, though not common, is found also in the Thirtieth Canon of the Council of Agde, a.d. 506. "At the end of the morning and evening missoe, after the hymns, let the little chapters from the Psalms be said."
36 Exterioris hominis stipendia cum emolumentis interioris exoequant.
37 Post orationum missam. See note on c. vii.
38 Cf. III. vii., and the description of this penance in IV. xvi. 5 1 Cor. v.
40 The rule of S. Benedict is similarly careful that the brethren may not oversleep themselves. See c. xi. and xlvii.
41 Quoe lucescit inm die dominicum. The phrase is borrowed by Cassian from the Latin of S. Matt. xxviii. i.
42 Totis Quinquagesimoe diebus. See above on c. vi.
43 That this was the rule of the primitive Church is shown by Tertullian, De Corona Militis, c. iii. "We count fasting or kneeling in worship on the Lord's day to be unlawful. We rejoice in the same privilege, also, from Easter to Whitsunday." And even earlier, in a fragment of Irenaeus, there is a mention of the fact that Christians abstained from kneeling on Sunday in token of the resurrection. For later testimonies see Ambrose, Ep. 119, ad Januarium. Epiphanius, on Heresies, Book III. (Vol. III. p. 583, ed. Dindorf). Jerome, Dial. Adv. Lucif. c. iv., and the Twentieth Canon of the Council of Nicaea, with Canon Bright's notes (Notes on the Canons of the First Four General Councils, p. 72).
44 Cf. the Conferences XXI. xi.
1 According to S. Jerome, Hilarion was the first to introduce the monastic life into Palestine (Vita Hilar.). His work was carried on bv his companion and pupil Hesycas and Epiphanius, afterwards Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus. In Asia Minor S. Basil was the greater organizer of monasticism, though, as he tells us, there were already many monks, not only in Egypt but also in Palestine, Coelosyria, and Mesopotamia (Ep. ccxxiii.). See also on the early monks of Palestine and the East, Sozomen, H. E., Book VI.,cc. xxxii.-xxxv.
2 The Saturday Communion (in addition to that of Wednesday and Friday, as well as Sunday) is also mentioned by S. Basil (Ep. xciii.), and cf. the Forty-ninth Canon of the Council of Laodicaea (circa 360 a.d..): "During Lent the bread shall not be offered except on Saturday and Sunday." In the West there is no trace of a special Saturday celebration of the Holy Communion.The third hour was the ordinary time for Holy Communion, as may be seen from the decree (falsely) ascribed to Pope Telesphorus (a.d.. 127-138), in the Liber Pontificalis; "Ut nullus ante horam tertiam sacrificium offere praesumeret," and many other testimonies.
3 Ps. liii. (liv.) 8; cxviii. (cxix.) 108.
6 The whole passage is alluding to Col. ii. 14, 15, which runs as follows in the Vulgate: "Delens quad adversum nos erat chirograffum decretis, quad erat contrarium nobis, et ipse tulit de medio, affigens illud cruci, expolians principatus et potestates traduxit confidenter, palam triumphans illos in semet ipso."
10 The belief that by the descent into hell our Lord released some who were there detained was almost, if not quite, universal in the early ages, and is recognized by a large number of the Fathers. It is alluded to by so early a writer as Ignatius (Ad Magn. ix.), and appears in Irenaeus (IV. c. xiii.) as a tradition of those who had seen the Apostles. See also Tertullian, De Anima, c. lv., and a host of later writers.
11 Sacramentum. This word is used by Cassian, as by other Latin writers, as the regular equivalent of the Greek, musth/rion, and as such is applied to sacred truths equally with sacred rites. See Book V. xxxiv.: "Sacramenta scriptorum:" Conferences IX. xxxiv.: "Sacramentum resurrectionis Dominicae." And again and again the word is used of the mystery of the Incarnation in the books against Nestorius.
15 Pss. lxii. (lxiii.) 2,7; cxviii. (cxix.) 147, 8. In both East and West Ps. lxii. (lxiii.) has from very early times been used as a morning hymn. See the Apost. Constitutions II. lix., VIII. xxxvii. In the East it is still one of the fixed Psalms at Lauds, as it is also in the West, according to the Roman use. But in Cassian's time it had apparently been transferred from Lauds to Prime. See below, c. vi.
17 Lucernaris hora; i e., the hour for Vespers, which is sometimes called lucernarium or lucernalis. S. Jerome in Ps. cxix. S. Augustine, Sermo i ad fratres in er.
18 It will be noticed that in this chapter Cassian alludes to five offices: (1) A morning office; (2) the third hour; (3) the sixth; (4) the ninth; and (5) Vespers; and gives the grounds for their observance. Similar grounds are given by Cyprian, De Orat. Dominica sub fine: "For upon the disciples, at the third hour, the Holy Spirit descended, who fulfilled the grace of the Lord's promise. Moreover at the sixth hour, Peter, going up to the housetop, was instructed as well by the sign as by the word of God, admonishing him to receive all to the grace of salvation, whereas he was previously doubtful of the receiving of the Gentiles to baptism. And from the sixth hour to the ninth the Lord, being crucified, washed away our sins by His blood; and that He might redeem and quicken us, He then accomplished His victory by His passion. But for us, beloved brethren besides the hours of prayer observed of old, both the times and the sacraments have now increased in number. For we must also pray in the morning, that the Lord's resurrection may be celebrated by morning prayer.... Also at the sun-setting and decline of day we must pray again. For since Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, as the world a sun and day depart, when we pray and ask that light may return to us again, we pray for the advent of Christ, which shall give us the grace of everlasting light." Cf. also S. Basil, The Greater Monastic rules, Q. xxxvii., where the same subject is discussed, and Apost. Const. BookVIII.c. xxxiv. In later times the Seven Canonical Hours were all connected with the events of our Lord's Passion, and supposed to commemorate His sufferings, as the following stanzas show:-
At Mattins bound, at Prime reviled,Condemned to death at TierceNailed to the Cross atsext, at Nones His blessed side they pierce.They take Him down at Vesper- tide, In grave at Compline lay; Who thenceforth bids His Church observe Her sevenfold hours alway.
19 The allusion is to the monastery at Bethlehem, where Cassian had himself been educated. See the introduction.
20 Trinoe confessionis exemplo. The words appear to mean that the three Psalms used at these offices are significant of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. So somewhat similarly Cyprian (on the Lord's Prayer) speaks of the third, sixth, and ninth hours being observed as a sacrament of the Trinity.
22 This second "Mattins" of which Cassian has been speaking is the service which the later Church called Prime, Cassian's first Mattins corresponding to Lauds, and his Nocturns, or "Vigiliae," to Mattins. Thus the "seven hours" are made up as follows: (1) Nocturns or Mattins, (2) Lauds, (3) Prime, (4) Tierce, (5) Sext, (6 None, (7) Vespers. Compline, it will be noticed, had not yet bee introduced. This appears for the first time in the Rule of S. Benedict (c. xvi.), a century later. By its introduction the "day hours" were made up to seven Nocturns belonging strictly to the night, and answering to the Psalmist's words, "At midnight will I rise to give thanks to Thee." Ps. cxix. 62.
23 The introduction of Prime appears to have been very gradual even in the West, for, though an office for it is prescribed in S. Benedict (c. xix.), yet there is no mention of it in the Rule of Caesarius of Arles for monks nor in that of Isidore of Seville, and it is omitted by Cassiodorus in his enumeration of the seven hours observed by the monks. After Benedict the next to mention it appears to be Aurelius, a successor of Caesarius at Arles, and by degrees it made its way to universal adoption in the West. In the Greek Church the office for it is said continuously with Lauds (to\ o!rqron).
26 I.e., Prime. Some confusion is likely to be caused by the fact that Cassian speaks of both "Lauds" and "Prime" by the Same title of Mattins. Immediately below, where he Speaks of the "Mattin service at the close of the nocturnal vigils" he is referring to Lauds, which always followed immediately (or after a very short interval) after Nocturns, or Mattins. At this service Pss. cxlviii.-cl. have always been sung, indeed, they form the characteristic feature which gives the service its name of "Lauds" (oi\ a\inoi). Of the other three Psalms, 1. (li.). lxii. (lxiii.), and lxxxix. (xc.), which Cassian says had been transferred from Lauds to the newly instituted service of Prime, lxii. has been already spoken of as a morning hymn of the early Church (see the notes on c. iii.), and we learn from S. Basil that in his day Ps. l. (o9 th0j e0comologh/sewj yalmo/j) was regularly sung after Mattins when the day began to break (Ep. ccvii. ad clericos Neo- Coes.), and it is still a Laauds Psalm in both East and West. lxxxix. (xc.) is now one of the fixed Psalms at Prime in the East, but in the West it is, according to the Roman rule, sung at Lauds on Thursdays only. Thus it would appear that the transfer of these three Psalms from Lauds to Prime, of which Cassian speaks, never obtained widely, but that the older arrangement, whereby, at any rate, 1. and lxii. were assigned to Lauds, has generally been adhered to both in the East and West. Cf. the Rule of S. Benedict, according to which Ps l. is sung daily at Lauds, and ixii. as well on Sundays (c. xii., xiii.).
29 The Rule of S. Benedict has similar provisions, allowing a late arrival at Mattins till the Gloria after the Venite (the second Psalm as it is preceded by Ps. iii.), and at the other services till the Gloria after the first Psalm. "If any come later than this he is not to take his usual place in the choir, but stand last of all, or take whatever place the Abbot may have appointed for those who are guilty of a similar neglect, so that he may be seen of all; and in this place he is to remain until he shall have made public satisfaction, at the end of the office. We deem it necessary," the Rule proceeds, "to place such offenders thus apart, that, being thus exposed to the view of all their brethren, they may be shamed into a sense of duty. Moreover, if such were allowed to remain outside the church, they might either sit down at their ease, or while away their time in chatting, or perhaps return to the dormitory and compose themselves to sleep and thus expose themselves to the temptations of the enemy." Rule of S. Benedict c. xliii.
30 Vigilioe is here used as the equivalent of Nocturns.
32 Tria Antiphona. The word is here used (as above, II. c. ii.) not in the modern sense of antiphon but to denote a Psalm or Psalms sung antiphonally.
33 In this chapter Cassian describes two of the different methods of Psalmody employed in the ancient Church: (1) Antiphonal singing where the congregation was divided into two parts, or choirs, which sang alternate verses; (2) the method according to which one voice alone sang the first part of the verse, and the rest of the congregation joined in at the close. Both methods are described in a well-known passage in an Epistle of S. Basil (Ep. ccvii. ad clericos Neocoes), where he tells us that in the morning service, at one time the people divide themselves into two parties and sing antiphonally to each other (a0ntiya/llousin a/llh/loij), while at another time they entrust to one person the duty of beginning the strain, and the rest respond (u0phxou=si). This latter method seems to have been a very favourite one, the Psalms which were thus sung being called Responsoria. See Isidore, De offic., i. 8; and compare the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 1745; and Bingham, Antiquities, Book XIV. c. 1. A third method has been already described by Cassian in Book II. c. xi. ; viz., that called Tractus, where the Psalm was executed by a single voice, while all the rest of the congregation listened.
34 The observance of a vigil for the whole or greater part of the night was a regular part of the preparation for the greater festivals and as such was usual in the East before the Sabbath (Saturday) and Lord's Day, as well as Pentecost and Easter. See Socrates, H. E. VI. viii., where there is an allusion to this.
35 Saturday, as well as Sunday, was long regarded as a festival in the East, and, indeed, originally in most churches of the West as well. See the Apost. Const. II. lix. 1; VIII. xxxiii. 1. Apost. Canons lxvi.; Council of Laodicaea, Canons xvi., xlix., li.
38 The Saturday fast was observed at Rome in very early days, being noticed by Tertullian, who seems to suggest that it originated in the prolongation of the Friday fast (on Fasting, c. xiv). But it seems to have been almost peculiar to Rome, and Milan, in the time of S. Ambrose, the Eastern custom prevailed. See the important letter of Augustine to Casulanus (Ep. xxxvi.), where the whole subject of the difference of usage on this matter is fully discussed. The reason here given by Cassian for the origin of the local Roman custom (viz., that S. Peter's traditional encounter with Simon Magus took place on Sunday, and was prepared for by the apostle with a Saturday fast) is also there alluded to by Augustine as being the opinion of very many, though he tells us candidly that most of the Romans thought it false. "Est quidem et haec opinio plurimorum, quamvis eam perhibeant esse falsam plerique Romani, quod Apostolus Petrus cum Simone Mago die dominico certaturo, propter ipsum magnae tentationis periculum, pridie cum ejusdem urbis ecclesia jejunaverit, et consecuto tam prospero gloriosoque successu, eundem morem tenuerit, eumque imitatae sunt nonnullae Occidentis ecclesiae." Cf. also Augustine, Ep. ad Januarium, liv.
40 Collecta. This word, from which our word "Collect" is possibly derived is used for an assembly for worship in the Vulgate in Lev. xxiii. 36; Deut. xvi. 8; 2 Chron. vii. 9; Neh. viii. 18: and compare the phrase, "Ad Collectam," in the Sacramentary of Gregory for the Feast of the Purification.
41 In sollemnibus prandiis. The phrase must here refer to their dinner on ordinary days (cf. solemnitatem ciborum, "their usual food," Book IV. c. xxi.). Among the early monks it was the custom ordinarily to have but one meal a day on the fast days (viz., Wednesday and Friday); this was at the ninth hour; on other days, at the sixth (i.e., midday). Cf. the Conferences XXI. c. xxiii. On festivals (viz., Saturday Sunday, and holy days), beside the midday meal a supper was allowed as well. And on these days, as we learn from the passage before us, the ordinary grace before and after meat was shortened by the omission of the customary Psalms at other times included in it. On the meals of the monks, cf. S. Jerome's Preface to the Rule of Pachomius and the Rule of S. Benedict, cc. xxxix.-xli., the former of which tells us that, except on Wednesday and Friday, dinner was at midday, and a table was also set for labourers, old men, and children, and (apparently) for all, in the height of summer. For the use of Psalms at grace, see Clement of Alexandria, Poedag. II. iv.44; Stromateis VII. vii. 49.BOOK 4
1 Tabenna, or Tabennae, was an island in the Nile, where was founded a flourishing monastery by Pachomius c. 330 a.d.. Of Pachomius there is a notice in Sozomen H. E. Book III. c. xiv. and his Rule was translated into Latin, with a preface by S. Jerome who mentions his fame in Ep. cxxvii. There is a Life of Pachomius given by Rosweyde (Vitoe Patrum), which is said to be a translation of a work by a contemporary of his.
2 Cf. the Rule of Pachomius c. xxvi.: "If any or comes to the door of the monastery wanting to renounce the world and to join the number of the brethren, he shall not be allowed to enter, but the Abbot of the monastery must first be told, and he shall stay for a few days outside before the gate, and shall be taught the Lord's Prayer and as many Psalms as he can learn, and shall diligently give proof of himself that he has not done any thing wrong and fled in trouble for the time, and that he is not in any one's power, and that he can forsake his relations and disregard his property. And if they see that he is apt for everything, then he shall be taught the rest of the rules of the monastery,-what he ought to do, whom he is to obey," etc.; and, finally, he is to be admitted, See also the Rule of 5. Benedict, c. lviii., which is to much the same effect, and S. Basil's Longer Monastic Rules, Q. x.
3 So the Rule of Pachomius (c. xxvi.) orders that on the admission of a monk "they shall strip him of his secular dress, and put on him the garb of the monks;" and that of S. Bened1ct (c. lviii.), "He shall then be clothed in the religious habit, and his secular clothes deposited in the wardrobe, that if, at the instigation of the devil, he should ever leave the monastery, they may be given back to him, and the religious dress be taken from him."
4 See the quotation from the Rule of S. Benedict in the note on the last chapter.
5 In the same way the Rule of S. Benedict (c. lviii.) directs that the novice is to be placed in the guest house for a few days, while that of S. Isidore is more precise in ordering him to be placed there "for three months," and to wait on the guests there. Two months is the period fixed by other rules, but a few days was all that was ultimately required, and Cassian stands alone in mentioning a full year as the duration of this service, though Sozomen speaks of the monks of Tabenna as having to undergo a probation of three years. H. E., III. xiv.
6 Cf. Exod. xviii. 25. The office of "Dean" (Decanus) which is here spoken of by Cassian, is also referred to by Augustine (De Mor. Ecc. xxxi.) and Jerome (Ep. xxii. ad Eustoch.), and recognized by the Rule of S. Benedict, c. xxi., where directions for his appointment are given.
7 Compare the Conferences, Book II. c. x., where Cassian returns to the same subject. A similar rule that the brethren are to lay bare all the secrets of their hearts to their superior is given, by S. Basil in the Longer Monastic Rules, Q. xxvi., and in the Rule of S. Isaiah (cc. vi., xliii.), printed in Holsten's Codex Regularum, Vol. I.
8 Cf. the Rule of S. Benedict, c. v., where it is said that "the first degree of humility is ready obedience. This is peculiar to those who . . . prefer nothing to Christ, and fulfil the injunctions of their superiors as promptly as if God Himself had given them the command," etc.
9 The Rule of S. Benedict has a chapter to explain what is to be done if A brother is commanded to perform impossibilities (c. lxviii.) "If a brother is commanded to do anything that is difficult, or even impossible, let him receive the command with all meekness and obedience; meanwhile, should he see that he is utterly unequal to the task laid upon him, let him represent the matter to his superior calmly and respectfully, without pride resistance, or contra diction. If the superior, after hearing what he has to say, still insists on the execution of the command, let the junior be persuaded that it is for his spiritual good, and accordingly trusting in God's assistance, let him for His love undertake the work."
10 Labsanion. Cf. below, c. xxiii., where cherlock is mentioned again, together with other delicacies (!) of the Egyptians.
11 Cf. the Rule of S. Benedict, c. v.: "Those who choose to tread the path that leads to life eternal immediately quit their private occupations at the call of obedience, and, renouncing their own will so far as to cast away unfinished out of their hands whatever they may be occupied with, hasten to execute the orders of their superiors," etc.
12 Psiathium. The rush mats which served as a seat by day and a bed by night for the monks. See Book V. xxxv., and the Conferences I. xxiii.; XV. i, XVII iii, XVIII. xi. S. Jerome mentions it in his preface to the Rule of Pachomius as one of the very few articles contained in the cells of the monks of Tabenna. "They have nothing in their cells except a mat and what is described below: two `laebitonari 0', a kind of garment without sleeves which the Egyptian monks use (the colobium, or shirt), one old one for sleeping or working, a linen garment and two hoods, a sheepskin, a linen girdle, shoes, and a staff."
13 Paxamatium, a biscuit. The word comes from the Greek pacama/dion, and is said to be derived from the name of a baker, Pacamo/j (see Liddell and Scott, c. v.) These biscuits formed an important part of the diet of the Egyptian monks, as we see from the Conferences, where they are often mentioned; eg, II. xi, xix., xxiv., xxvi.; XII. xv.; XIX. iv.
15 From this passage we gather that in Egypt two monks were often the joint occupants of a single cell. Cf. II. xii. and Conference XX. i., ii.
16 Many of these faults are noticed in the Rule of Pachomius as deserving censure e.g., unpunctuality at or carelessness in service (c. viii.ix.), breaking anything (c.cxxv.), murmuring (lxxxvii.), taking the hand of another (xliv.). So also in the Rule of S. Benedict (cc. xliii.-xlvi.) similar directions are given, while in c. xliv. the nature of the penance is more fully described. He who in punishment of a grievous fault has been excluded from the Refectory and the Church, shall lie prostrate at the door of the latter at the end of each office, and shall there remain in silence with his forehead touching the ground, until the brethren retiring from church have all walked over him. This penance he shall continue to perform till it be announced to him that he has made due satisfaction. When commended by the Abbot to appear before him, he shall go and cast him self at his feet and then at the feet of all the brethren, begging of them to pray for him. He shall then be admitted to the choir, if the Abbot so order, and shall take there whatever place he may assign him: but let him not presume to intone a Psalm, read a lesson or perform any similar duty, without the special permission of the Abbot. He shall, moreover, prostrate himself in his place in choir at the end of every office, until the Abbot tells him to discontinue this penance. Those who for light faults are excluded merely from the common table, shall make satisfaction in the church according as the Abbot shall direct, and shall continue to do so until he gives them his blessing and tells them that they have made sufficient atonement.
17 It is quite in keeping with what is here said by Cassian that in the Rule of Pachomius there is no mention of reading at meals, but only of the strict silence observed, so that anything wanted might not be asked for but only indicated by a sign (cc. xxx)., xxxiii.), while in the shorter Monastic Rules of S. Basil the custom of reading at meals is distinctly alluded to (Q. clxxx.). It is of course also ordered in most of the later monastic rules, e.g. that of Cesarius of Arles "ad Monachos" c. xlix., "ad Virgines" c. xvi.; that of S. Aurelian, c. xlix. 7 S. Isidore, c. x., and S. Benedict, c. xxxviii. The regulations in the last mentioned are as follows:- "A book should be read in the Refectory while the brethren are at meals. Let no one presume to read of his own accord; but let there be one appointed to perform that duty, who, commencing on Sunday, will read during the entire week. . . Profound silence shall be observed during meals, so that no voice save that of the reader may be heard. The brethren will so help each other to what is necessary as regards food and drink that no one may have occasion to ask for anything; should, however, anything be wanted, let it be asked for by sign rather than word. Let no one presume to make any observation either on what is being read or on any other subject, lest occasion be given to the enemy. The Prior however, should he think fit, may say a few words to edify the brethren."
18 So Pachomius (c. xxix.). While they are eating they shall sit in their right places and shall cover their heads.
19 Similarly we find in the Rule of Pachomius that no one is allowed to keep any food in his cell besides what he receives from the steward (c. lxxix.): and the Benedictine Rule also says: "Let no one presume to take any food or drink out of the regular hours of meals" (c. xliii). Cf. also the Rule of Pachomius cc. lxxv. and lxxviii., S. Basil's longer Monastic Rules Q. xv., Ayato brwma/twn para\ kairo/n; e0pi\ plei=ston th=j h9me/raj a0po/sitoj e!stw, the Rule of Aurelian (c. iii. ), that of Isidore (c. xiii.), etc.
20 The weekly officers here spoken of were termed "Hebdomadarii" (see the next chapter). According to most rules their duties included cooking, serving, and reading at meals. They are mentioned in S. Jerome's preface to the Rule of Pachomius (cf also Ep. xxii. ad Eustochium), but it would appear from what Cassian says below in c. xxii. that in Egypt the office of cook was assigned to some one brother and not undertaken by all in turn. According to Cassian they entered upon office on Monday morning but the Benedictine (c. xxxv.) and other rules speak of them as beginning their duties on Sunday morning. The custom of washing the feet of the brethren, which Cassian here describes, is also mentioned by S. Benedict. 1. c.
22 Xerophagia (chrofagi/a), "dried food," distinguished from what is raw (omophagia) in the next chapter. Cf. for the word Tertullian on Fasting c. i. and xvii.
23 This shows that Cassian is here writing about the monks of Palestine, not those of Egypt, who (according to the next chapter) had a permanent cook. There is a further allusion to and description of this desert in the Conference VI. i.
24 The distinction between the xerophagia and omophagia is shown by the following passage from S. Jerome's Life of Hilarion describing his food: "From his twenty first year to his twenty seventh for three years .... his food was dry bread and water (xerophagia). Further from his twenty-seventh to his thirtieth year he supported himself on wild herbs, and the raw roots of certain plants (omophagia)."
25 Sal frictum, "rubbed salt," i.e., table salt as distinct from rough or block salt.
26 Moenomenia (Petschenig) or Moenidia (Gazaeus). The word comes the Greek Greek maino/mena or maini/dion, dimin. from mai/nh, a small salted fish.
27 Lycon or Lycopolis in the Thebaid is the modern El Syout on the west banks of the Nile, S. E. of Hermopolis ( = Minieh).
28 This John of Lycopolis was one of the most celebrated hermits of the fourth century. Originally a carpenter, he retired at the age of twenty-five into the wilderness, and after the death of his instructor settled near Lycopolis. Here, as Cassian tells us, he received as reward for his obedience the gift of prophecy, and was consulted by crowds who came to him for this purpose and among others by the Emperor Theodosius, to whom he foretold (1) his victory over the usurper Maximus (a.d.. 388), and (2) his success against Eugenius in a.d.. 395. He is mentioned again by Cassian in the Conferences I.xxi., XXIV. xxvi., etc. A full account of him is given by Rufinus n in his history of the monks c. i. and by Palladius in the Lausiac History 43-60; he is also mentioned by Augustine De Civitate Dei Book V. c. xxvi, De Cura pro mortius gerenda, c. xvii., and Jerome Ep. cxxxiii. ad Ctesiphontem, as well as by Theodoret H.E. V. xxiv, and Sozomen H.E. VI.. xxviii.
29 A somewhat similar story is told by Sulpitius Severus (Dialog) I. c. xiii.) of an Egyptian monk, only in that case the story terminates in a more satisfactory manner, as in the third year the stick took root and sprouted!
30 Lenticula; the word used for a cruse of oil in the Vulgate. 1 Sam. x. 1; 2 Kings ix. 1, 3.
31 Patermucius (Petschenig) or Mucius (Gazaeus). probably a different person from the man of this name of whom we read inRufinus, History of the Monks, c. ix., as there is no allusion there to the narrative which Cassian gives here, nor any hint that that Patermucius had a son.
32 Affectionem.... charitatem.- Petschenig. The text of Gazaeus reads the ablative.
33 Cassian repeats this story in the Conferences XX. c. i., as an introduction to the Conference "On the End of Penitence and the Marks of Satisfaction," which he gives as the work of the said Abbot Pinifius.
34 Panephysis is more fully described in the Conferences VII. xxvi.; XI. iii. It is mentioned by Ptolemy (IV.v; § 52) but not by any other ancient writers. It was situated in the Delta between the Champollion with the modern Menzaleh.
35 On Cassian's connection with the monastery at Bethlehem, see the Introduction.
38 Eccl. v. 4 (LXX.); Jer. xlviii. 10 (LXX.).
42 Cf. Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 120, where the Gallican Psalter has "Confige timore tuo carnes meas."
50 All through this chapter Cassian is alluding to Gen. iii. 15: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed; it shalt bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel:" the last clause of which is rendered by the LXX. au0to/j sou thrh/sei kefalh/n kai\ su thrh/seij au0tou= pte/rnan, where the Vulgate has "Ipsa conteret caput tuum et tu insidiaberis calcaneo ejus."
52 Acts xiv. 22; S. Matt. vii. 14.
53 S. Matt. xx. 16; S. Luke xii. 32.
56 With this chapter there should be compared the Rule of S. Benedict c. vii., where a very similar description is given of twelve grades "on the mystic ladder [of humility] which Jacob saw," evidently suggested by the chapter before us.
57 Quarum debilitatum similitudinem suscipere debeat qui in coenobio commoratur.- Petschenig. The text of Gazaeus gives as the title of this chapter: "In congregatione coenobitica constituti quid tolerare ac sustinere debeant."
58 Ps. xxxvii. (xxxviii.) 14, 15.
59 Nec (Petschenig). Gazaeus reads ne.
60 Ps. xxxviii. (xxxix.) 2, 3.
1 Acedia. It is much to be regretted that the old English word "Accidie" has entirely dropped out of use. It is used by (Chaucer and other early writers for the sin of spiritual sloth or sluggishness. See "The Persone's Tale," where it is thus described: "After the sinne of wrath, now wol I speke of the sinne of accidie or slouth: for envie blindeth the herte of a man, and ire troubleth a man, and accidie maketh him hevy, thoughtful. and wrawe. Envie and ire maken bitternesse in herte, which bitternesse is mother of accidie, and benimeth him the love of alle goodnesse; than is accidie the anguish of a troubled herte." The English word lingered on till the seventeenth century, as it is used by Bishop Hall (Serm.V. 140), in the form "Acedy," which is etymologically more correct as being nearer the Latin Acedia and the Greek 0Ahdi/a, a word which occurs in the LXX. version of the Old Testament in Isaiah lxi. 3; Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 28; Baruch iii. 1; Ecclus. xxix. 6 (cf. the use of the verb a0khdiazw in Ps. lx. (lxi.) 2; ci. (cii.) 1; cxlii. (cxliii.) 4; Ecclus. xxii. 14). In ecclesiastical writers the term Acedia is a favourite one to denote primarily the mental prostiation induced by fasting and other physical causes, and afterwards spiritual sloth and sluggishness in general. It forms the subject of the tenth book of the Institutes, and is treated of again by Cassian in the Conferences V. iii. sq., cf. also the "Summa" of S. Thomas, II. ii. q. xxxv. where there is a full discussion of its nature and character.- cf. Dr. Paget's essay "Concerning Accidie" in "The Spirit of Discipline."234
5 S. Antony, the "founder of asceticism" and one of the most famous of the early monks, was born about 250 a.d.. at Coma, on the borders of Egypt, and died about 355, at the great age of 105. He is frequently mentioned by Cassian in the Conferences.
9 See Especially Conferences XVIII. and XIX.
11 Petschenig's text in this passage is as follows: "Facilius vidimus viros qui ab escis corpulentioribus omnimodis temperarent, quam moderate usos pro necessitate concessis, et qui totum sibi pro amore continentiae denegarent, quam qui eas sub infirmitatis occasione sumentes mensuram sufficientiae custodirent.". Gazaeus gives something quite different: "Facilius vidimus victos qui ab escis corpulentioribus omnimodis temperarent, quas moderate usus pro necessitate concedit, et qui totum sibi pro continentiae amore denegarent; quam qui eas sub infirmitatis occasione sumentes mensuram sufficientiae custodirent."
12 Quidquid enim fortitudinis.-Petschenig. Gazaeus has "Quid quid enim fortitudinis causa."
13 Quod pro perfecta continentiae fine esca sumenda sit.-Petschenig. Quomodo cibum appetere, ac sumere liceat is the title as given by Gazaeus.
15 Operis contritione (Petschenig): cordis contritione (Gazaeus).
20 Cf. Dan. iii. 6; and see below Book VI. c. xvii. where Cassian once more speaks of the devil as the Babylonish king.
21 Compare a similar illustration in the Conferences I. v.
24 Mentis robore non quoesito.-Petschenig. Gazaeus omits the negative and reads conquisito.
25 S. Jerome's version. which was certainly know to Cassian (cf. Conferences XXIII. viii.) has "Temptatio vos non apprehendat nisi humana."
27 Quia (Petschenig) Qui (Gazaeus).
29 Properatione, others Proeparatione.
41 Statio. This is properly the term for the weekly fasts on Wednesday and Friday, observed by the early Church in memory of our Lord's betrayal and crucifixion. See Tertullian on Prayer c. xix.; on Fasting c. i. x. In this place the word appears to be used by Cassian for the close of the fast; while elsewhere he uses it for fasting generally (not specially on Wednesday and Friday,) as in c. xxlv. Of the present book, and in the Conferences, II.. xxv.; XXI. xxi. The origin of the word is somewhat uncertain (a) because the fast was observed on stated days (stasis diebus); or (b), as S. Ambrose suggests, because "our fasts are our encampments which protect us from the devil's attacks: in short, they are called stationes, because standing (stantes) and staying in them we repel our plotting foe" (Serm. 25). See Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 1928.
47 The allusion is here to the sparing diet and voluntary fasts of the monks, among whom but one meal a day was usual (see the note on III. xiii.), and though this was ordinarily taken at midday, yet many of the more celebrated anchorites never broke their fast till the evening e.g. S. Antony is said never to have eaten till sunset (Vita Anton.) and S. Jerome gives a similar account of Hilarion (Vita Hill § 4), while other instances of voluntary fasts are given by Cassian in the following chapters, xxv.-xxvii. The "station" days, however, viz., Wednesday and Friday, being of ecclesiastical authority, were strictly observed as a matter of rule, but these other voluntary fasts at other times were to be freely broken through on account of the arrival of visitors. See the Conferences II. xxvi., XXI. xiv., XXIV. xxi., and cf. Rufinus, History of the Monks II. vii., Palladius the Lausiac History, c. lii. So the Rule of S. Benedict (c. liii.) orders that on the arrival of visitors the Superior is to sit at table with them and break his fast, unless it be a special fast day which may not be broken; but the brethren are to observe the regular fasts.
48 S. Matt. ix. 15. The Latin has sponsus in each clause.
49 There is a Paesius mentioned by Palladius in the Lausiac History, but it is not clear whether he is the same man whom Cassian mentions. John is a different person from the one already mentioned in Book IV. xxiii. He is mentioned again below in xl., and the Nineteenth Conference is assigned to him.
50 Rom. xiv. 10, 4; S. Matt. vii. 1, 2.
51 Nothing further is known for certain of this Theodore. He may be the author of the VIth of the Conferences; but must be carefully distinguished from his more celebrated namesake, the friend of Pachomius, and third Abbot of Tabenna, who died before Cassian's visit to Egypt.
53 Diolcos is mentioned again in the Conferences XVIII. i. Sozomen (VI. xxix.) speaks of two celebrated monasteries near there presided over by Piamun and John.
54 Somewhat similar stories are told of others by Palladius(Lausiac History, cc. ii. 1, lxx.); and Rufinus, History of the Monks, I. xxiii.
56 The Mareotic Dome is the district round Lake Mareotis, a lake in the north of the delta bordering upon the Libyan desert (the modern birket el Mariout), and running parallel to the Mediterranean, from which it is separated by a long and narrow ridge of sand.
57 On Paphnutius see the note on the Conference III. i.BOOK 7
58 Socrates (H.E. Book IV. c. xxiii.) gives an account of two monks of the name of Macarius, one of whom was from Upper Egypt, and the other from Alexandria. Compare also Rufinus History of the Monks, cc. xxviii., xxix. It is not certain to which of them Cassian's stories refer, here and in the Conferences V. xii. VII. xxvii., XXIV. xiii. The story told in Conference XV. iii, refers to the "Egyptian" Macarius (cf. Sozomen H. E. III. xiv., where the miracle is expressly assigned to him): that in XIV. iv. evidently belongs to the "Alexandrian" Macarius. The two are mentioned together in Conference XIX. ix., and by various other writers.
4 The the same danger is strongly spoken of by S. Basil in the "Monastic Constitutions" c. xxxiv., a passage which should be compared with the one above.
7 Cur prohibes (Petschenig). Gazaeus omits cur.
8 Pulsarentur (Petschenig). The text of Gazaeus has pulsaremur.
25 Petschenig's text has Syncletium as a proper name. Gazaeus, however, thinks that it should be Syncleticum; i.e. Sugklhtiko/j or Senator and in the saying of S. Basil at the close of the chapter actually reads (apparently without any ms. authority), Et Senatorem, inquit, perdidisti.
28 Negationis (Petschenig). Another reading is necationis.
9 Prov. xxix. 22 (LXX.) 0Anh\r qumw/dhj e0gei/rei nei=koj, a0nh\r de\ o\rgiloj e0cw/rucen a9marti/an. The old Latin as given by Sabatier has "Vir animosus parit zixas: vir autem iracundus effodit peccata." The verse is quoted by Gregory the Great in a passage which seems a reminiscence of Cassian's words with the reading effundit for effodit (Moral V. xxxi.) Jerome's rendering in the Vulgate is quite different: "Vir iracundus provocat zixas: et qui ad indignandum facilis est erit ad peccandum proclivior."
18 On the heresy of the Anthropomorphites see the notes on Conference X. c. ii.
29 On the different senses of Scripture see the note on Conference XIV. viii.
31 Petschenig's text is as follows: Ceterum si usque ad occasuni solis licitur sit irasci, ante furoris satietas et ultrices iroe-commotionem poterunt noxioe perturbationis explere, quam sol iste ad locum sui vergat occasus. That of Gazaeus has "ante perturbationes noxioe poterunt furoris satietatem et ultricis iroe commotionem explere, etc."
37 Reading non innoxia (Petschenig).
42 Et rursum (Petschenig): et Apostolus (Gazaeus).
2 Totidem is used here by Cassian for itidem, as in III. ix.
6 Incuriam (Petschenig): Injuriam (Gazaeus).
8 Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 165.BOOK 10
1 See note on the Bk. V. c. i.
2 Ps. xc. (xci.) 6., where the Latin "et daemonio meridiano" follows the LXX. kai\ daimoniou meshmbrinou=, instead of "the destruction that wasteth at noonday."
3 Velut toetra suppletur caligine (Petschenig); the text of Gazaeus reads terra for toetra.
5 Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 28, where the LXX. has e0nu/stacen h9 yuxh/ mou a0po\ a0khdi/aj.
6 Quousque is used as equivalent to donec, again in Conf. XXIII. xii.
9 Increpationis (Petschenig). Interpretationis (Gazaeus).
13 Permissum (Petschenig). Promissum (Gazaeus).
15 A mistake on Cassian's part: the reference being to 2 Thess. iii. 6.
16 The text of Gazaeus has oratio, but the reading which Petschenig gives, operatio manuum, is clearly so.
21 The reference is probably to Ecclus xxiii. 29, "Idleness hath taught much evil."
36 2 Thess. iii. 11; 6; 1 Thess. iv. 11.
37 The monks of Egypt were famous for their labours, and Cassian's language might be illustrated from many passages in the Fathers; e.g., Epiphanius, in his third book against heresies, compares the monks, and especially those in Egypt, to bees, because of their diligence. So S. Jerome, writing to Rusticus (Ep. cxxv.), says that no one is received in a monastery in Egypt unless he will work, and that this rule is made for the good of the soul rather than for the sake of providing food. Compare also Sozomen H. E. VI. xxviii., where it is said of Serapion and his followers in the neighbourhood of Arsinoe that "they lived on the produce of their labour and provided for the poor. During harvest-time they busied themselves in reaping: they set aside sufficient corn for their own use, and furnished grain gratuitously for the other monks." S. Basil also, in his Monastic Constitutions cc. iv. and v., speaks strongly of the value of labour and the Rule of S. Benedict (c.xlvili.) enjoins that "as idleness is the enemy of the soul, the brethren are to be employed alternately in manual labour and pious reading."
38 This Paul is perhaps the same as the one mentioned in connection with Abbot Moses in Conference VII. xxvi. As he was a contemporary of Cassian he must be carefully distinguished from his more illustrious namesakes, the first hermit and the disciple of S. Antony.
39 Also called the desert of Calamus, Conference XXIV. iv., but its position has not been ascertained.
40 Mansio used here and again in Conference XXIV. iv. for the stage of a day's journey.
41 This Abbot Moses is probably the one to whom the first two Conferences are attributed (cf. also Conference VII. xxvi.); and possibly the second of this name (Moses the Libyan) mentioned by Sozomen, H. E. VI. xxxix. Cf. also Palladius, the Lausiac History. c. xxii.
13 Celebrare velut diaconum catechumenis missam. Missa is here used for the dismissal of the catechumens, which it was the deacon's office to proclaim. The whole service was divided into two parts, (1) the mass of the catechumens, containing the Scripture lessons, sermon, and prayers for the catechumens; and (2) the mass of the faithful, or the Eucharist proper. At the end of the first part the deacon warned the catechumens to depart, in words varying slightly in different churches, but substantially the same in all, both east and west: e.g. in the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom the form is "Let all the catechumens depart: let not any of the catechumens-Let all the faithful-"; in that of S. Mark it is still briefer: "Look lest any of the catechumens." The Roman missal does not now contain this feature, but it was certainly originally found in it for it is alluded to by Gregory the Great (Dial. Book II. c. xxiii.), who gives the form as follows: "Si quis non communicat det locum." It was also customary in Spain and Gaul, as well as in Africa, being alluded to by Augustine in Sermon xlix.: "Ecce post sermonen fit missa catechumenis: manebunt fideles, venietur ad locum orationis."
3 Protoplastum cf. Wisdom vii. 1; x. 1. where Adam is called prwto/plastoj. From these passages the term came to be commonly used as the designation of our first parents. So Clem. Alex. Strom. iii. 17: and in its Latin form it is found in the early translation of Irenaeus. Haer. III. xxi. 20.
4 Cf. Milton's "last infirmity of noble minds." (Lycidas.)
30 Quamvis ferventis et cupientis (Petschenig): Quamvis volentis et currentis (Gazaeus).
35 The language in this chapter is perilously near semi-Pelagianism, on which compare the Introduction p. 190, sq.
36 Ps. lxxxviii. (lxxxix.) 20.
41 Ex persona hominis assumpti. See the note on Against Nestorius, I. v.
42 Ps. cxvii. (cxviii.) 13, 14.
45 Erexit (Petschenig). Gazaeus reads correxit, with the Vulgate.
47 Gazaeus adds cornu after the Vulgate.
54 The allusion is to the Pelagians. Cf. S. Jerome Contra Pelag. I. c. ix.; and in Jerem. c. xxv.; and S. Augustine De Gratia Christi contra Pelag.
55 Viz., that of the priesthood.
56 2 Chr. xxiv. 17, 18; 23-25.
62 Col. iii. 5; 1 Tim. vi. 10.
63 Serietas (Petschenig): Taciturnitas (Gazaeus).
65 Is. lxvi. 2. It is noteworthy that Cassian after giving a rendering which differs but slightly from that of the old Latin, as given in Sabbatier's great work, adds the version of "those copies which express the Hebrew accurately," and thus shows his acquaintance with Jerome's new translation which he quotes. He does the same thing again in the Conferences, XXIII. viii.: and On the Incarnation Against Nestorius IV. iii. V ii., xv. Compare also Institutes VIII. xxi., and Conf. VIII. x.; where he also betrays a knowledge of the Vulgate. As a general rule, however, his translations are taken from the old Latin, or possibly in some cases are made by him from the LXX.
1 On this Moses see the note on Institutes, Book X. xxv.
5 S. Luke x. 40-42. The reading which Cassian here follows is found in )
b.c., 2 but has not much Latin authority. It is however followed by Jerome Ep: ad Eustochium, xxii. 24, though the Vulgate has simply Porro unum est necessarium. For Mary as the type of the contemplative life, and Martha of the practical, compare S. Gregory the Great. Moralia VI. c. xxviii.
36 The punctuation which Cassian here mentions only to reject and which is rightly characterized by Alford as "worse than silly," is also mentioned by Theophylact. Com. in loc.
38 Augustine (De Haeres. e. lix.) speaks of "Seleuciani" or "Hermiani" as denying a visible Paradise, and a future resurrection and again in c. lxxxiii. he speaks of some Arabian heretics, as teaching that the soul died and was dissolved (dissolvi) with the body and that it would at the end of the world be revived and rise again. These were the heretics of whom Eusebius speaks in his Eccl. History Book VI.. c. xxxvii., where he tells us that they were successfully refuted by Origen. It is probably to this last error that Cassian is here making allusion.
39 Cf. 1 Cor. xi. 7; Col. iii. 10.
58 Ps. lxxvi. (lxxvii.) 6, 7. Scobebam (which Petschenig edits from the mss.) = scopebam, which is found in the Gallican Psalter as in the old Latin in this passage. It is merely a Latinized form of skopeisn.
62 Ut efficiamur secundum proeceptum Domini probabiles trapezitoe. The saying to which Cassian here alludes, gi/nesqe trapecitai do/kimoi, is not found anywhere in the Gospels, but "is the most commonly quoted of all Apocryphal sayings, and seems to be genuine." Westcott, Introd. to the Gospels, p. 454. It is quoted among others by Origen in Joann. xix., and Jerome Ep. 152. See these and other reff. in Anger's Synopsis, p. 274; and cf. the note of Gazaeus here.
63 Obrizum. The word occurs in the Vulgate five times for "pure gold." See 2 Chr. iii. 5; Job xxviii. 15; xxxi. 24; Isa. xiii. 12; Dan. x. 5; and is akin to the Greek o!brnzon. Cf. Pliny Nat. Hist. xxxiii. c. 3. and Jerome De Nom. Hebr. s. v. Ophaz.
66 S. Matt. iv. 6; Ps. xc. 11, 12.
71 On this John of Lycon or Lycopolis see the note on Inst. IV. xxiii.
73 Embrimium. The word is possibly of Egyptian origin. It occurs also in Cyril in Vita S. Euthymii Abbatt, n. 90, and in Apophthegm, Patrum num. 7, and is possibly the same word as "Ebymium," which occurs in the Rule of Pachomius, c. xiv. See Ducange, sub voce.
3 Cf. the note on the Institutes, V. iv.
17 Gazaeus thinks that this is a different person from the man of the same name mentioned by Palladius, Hist. Laus. c. xxxii.
18 On Paphnutius see the note on III. i.
19 Pausantium, i. e. those at rest. The word is used for the departed in a similar way in the 6th Canon of the Council of Aurelia (Orleans) a.d.. 511. "Quando recitantur pausantium nomina." And the phrase "Pausat in pace" is occasionally found in sepulchral inscriptions. Inscr. Boldetti Cimeter. p. 399; Inscr. Maff.. Gall. Antiq. p. 55.
20 Mazices: a people of Mauritania Caesariensis, who joined in the revolt of Firmus, but submitted to Theodosius in 373. See Ammianus Marcellinus XXIX. v. § 17.
22 Cf. what is said on this subject in the Institutes, Book IV. c. ix.
23 Probably the author of Conference V., where see the note on c. i.
24 See the note on Conf. xxi. i.
27 Ecclus. xxv. 5; Wisdom iv. 8, 9.
29 Apollos or Apollonius was a most celebrated hermit of the fourth century, who finally became the head of a monastery of five hundred brethren in the Thebaid. Some account of him is given by Palladius (Hist. Laus. c. lii.) and Rufinus (Hist. Monach. c. vii.). Cf. also Sozomen III. xiv.; and VI. xx., whence we learn that his life was written by Timothy, Bishop of Alexandria. Cassian relates another story of him in XXIV. ix.
33 Job v. 18; 1 Sam. ii. 6, 7.
38 It has been thought best to leave the first part of the following chapter untranslated.
39 On the Statio see the note on the Institutes V. xx.
1 Paphnutius. The name is not uncommon in the annals of the fourth century: (1) A Deacon who bore it suffered in the persecution of Diocletian; and (2) Bishop of the same name, who had been a confessor, was mainly instrumental in preventing the rule of celibacy being forced on the clergy by the Council of Nicaea; (3) another was a prominent member of the Meletian schism; while (4) a fourth was present, as Bishop of Sais in Lower Egypt at the Council of Alexandria in 363; and (5) the life of a fifth is given by Palladius (Hiss. Laus, lxxi.-lxv.) and Rufinus (Hiss. Monach. c xvi.). The one whom Cassian here mentions, surnamed the Buffalo, is apparently a different person from the last mentioned. Further details of his history are given in the Institutes IV. c. xxx xxxi. and in Conference X. ii., iii. Cassian tells the interesting story of his share in the Anthropomorphite controversy, and the beneficial influence which he then exercised.
4 The story, to which allusion is here made, is given in the Vita Antonii of Athanasius. We are there told that six months after the death of his parents Antony, then a young man of eighteen, chanced to enter a church just as the gospel for the day was being read: and hearing the words, "If thou wilt be perfect," etc., he took them as addressed specially to himself, and at once proceeded to act upon them, selling, all that he had except a small portion which he reserved for his sister's maintenance. Shortly after he was struck by the words, "Take no thought for the morrow," which he heard in church, and acting upon this, made away with the little property which was left, committed his sister to the care of certain faithful virgins, and betook himself to the ascetic life.
5 S. Luke xiv. 12; S. Matt. xix. 21.
7 Ps. lxxvii. (lxxviii.) 34, 35; cvi. (cvii.) 19.
8 Moses. This Abbot is possibly a different person from the author of the first two Conferences, who had in his youth been a pupil of Antony; whereas the one here mentioned only took the monastic life out of fear of death on a charge of murder. He is mentioned again in Conferences VII. xxvi., X1X. xi., and some account of him is given in Sozomen H.E. VI. xxix.
9 Calamus, mentioned again in the institutes X. xxiv. (where see note), and cf. Conf. VII. xxvi.; XXIV. iv.
19 Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 19; Ps. xxxviii. (xxxix.) 13.
22 Gen. v. 24 (LXX.); Heb. xi. 5; S. John xi. 26.
24 Numb. xi. 18; Exod. xvi. 3; Numb. xi. 5.
43 The mss. vary between visibilibus and invisibilibus.
54 Ps. xxxvi. (xxxvii.) 23, 24.
58 Ps. xxiv. (xxv.) 4; cxviii. (cxix.) 18; cxlii. (cxliii.) 10; xciii. (xciv.) 10.
63 Ps. cxlv. (cxlvi.) 7, 8, 9; cxliv. (cxlv.) 16.
1 Nothing further appears to be known of Daniel than what is here told us by Cassian. There has been some discussion as to the action of Paphnutius in having him raised to the priesthood, as Cassian here narrates. Was Paphnutius really a bishop, or is it a case of presbyterian orders, or do Cassian's expressions merely mean that Paphnutius procured his ordination first to the Diaconate and then to the Priesthood ? Probably the latter, for (1) all the evidence goes to show that presbyters had not the power of ordination; and (2 ) there are many instances, in which it is said even of the laity that they "ordained" men to the ministry when all that can possibly be meant is that they "procured their ordination; "further (3) it will be noticed that it is not even said that Paphnutius ordained Daniel but merely that he "promoted" him to the priesthood; an expression which might equally well be used of nomination as of actual ordination. See the subject discussed in Bingham's Antiquities, Book II. c. iii. § 7, and C. Gore's "Church and the Ministry," p. 374.
19 Suo nos rursum quamvis quieto ac simplici visitans fluxu.
1 Serapion when young was a pupil of Theonas, and an anecdote of his youthful indulgence in good things in secret has been already told in II. c. xi. Another story of him is given in XVIII. xi. One of this name is mentioned by Palladius in the Lausiac History, c. lxxvi., and by Rufinus in the History of the Monks, c. xviii., where we are told that he lived at Arsinöe, and that he had ten thousand monks subject to his rule; a number which Sozemen also gives (H.E. VI. xxviii.). It is however, doubtful whether this Serapion of Arsinöe is the person whose Conference Cassian here gives. Gazet identifies, Tillemont distinguishes the two. Jerome, it should be noticed, speaks in Ep. cviii. (Epitaphium Paulae) as if there was not only one of this name famous among the monks of Egypt at that time.
2 For this word see the note on the Institutes V. i.
9 The following from D. Mozley's profound work on the Augustinian Theory of Predestination may serve to illustrate the remarks in the text: "Scripture says that our Lord was in all points tempted like as we are. But the Church has not considered it consistent with piety to interpret this text to mean that our Lord had the same direct propension to sin that we have, or that which is called by divines concupiscence. Such direct appetite for what is sinful is the characteristic of our fallen and corrupt nature, and our Lord did not assume a corrupt, but a sound humanity. Indeed, concupiscence, even prior to and independent of its gratification has of itself the nature of sin; and therefore could not belong to a perfect Being. Our Lord had all the passions and affections that legitimately belong to man; which passions and affections, tending as they do in their own natures to become inordinate, constituted of themselves a state of trial; but the Church has regarded our Lord's trial as consisting in preserving ordinate affections from becoming inordinate, rather than in restraining desire proximate to sin from gratification "(p. 97).
15 Cf. Gen. iii. 5 with S. Matt. iv. 6, 8.
17 Such is the heading which Gazet gives. Petschenig edits "De ira atque tristitia, quod inter accedentia vitia plerumque [non] inveniantur;" where "non" is his own insertion, and as he frankly tells us, the heading does not suit the chapter.
25 Cf. note on the Institutes V. xli.
27 Pancarpus (pa/gkarpoj). The word originally applied to an offering of all kinds of fruit. Cf. Tertullian ad Valent. xii. It is also used in the general sense "of all sorts" by Augustine, Adv. Secund. xxiii. Cassian here speaks as if it had become the popular name for the conflicts of the gladiators with all kinds of beasts, though there is apparently no other authority for this.
47 Cf. the note on "Against Nestorius" VII. ix.
48 The "ancient tradition" to which Cassian here alludes is given in the Clementine Recognitions I. xxix., xxx.; and in Epiphanius "Heresies," c. lxvi. § 83, sq., where it is given as an answer to the Manichaean objection against the cruelty and injustice of the extermination of the Canaanites by the Israelites.
1 This Abbot Theodore is probably the same person as the one mentioned in the Institutes, Book V. cc. xxxiii.-xxxv.; but nothing further is known of him, there is no reason for identifying him with any of the other monks of this name of the fourth century.
3 Saraceni (Saraknhnoi/) a name given by the classical geographers to a tribe of Arabia Felix, famous for its predatory propensities Jerome speaks of the "mons et desertum Saracenorum quad vocatur Pharan" (Liber de situ et nominibus sub voce Choreb) and elsewhere describes their predatory habits (Liber Heb. Quaest in Genesim) "Saracenos vagos . . . qui universas gentes . . . incursant." By the seventh century the name had become a merely general term equivalent to Arab, and was accordingly adopted and applied indifferently to all the followers of Mohammed by the writers of the middle ages (cf. the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, sub voce).
4 There is no mention of these martyrs in the so-called Martyrologium Hieronymianum, but they are commemorated on May 28, in the Roman Martyrology.
5 Cellae, which was according to the passage before us, between the deserts of Scete and Nitria, apparently derived its name from the cells of the monks who congregated there. This at least is the explanation of the name given by Sozomen (H.E. VI. xxx.) who speaks of a region called kelli/a, throughout which numerous little dwellings (oi0kh/mata) are dispersed, whence it obtains its name. Sozomen also speaks (c. xxix.) of Macarius as priest of Cellae, a fact which gives some ground for conjecturing that Cellae may be identified with Dair Abu Makâr, one of the four monasteries still existing in the deserts of Nitria and Scete, probably founded by the saint whose name it bears (Macarius). See A. J. Butler's "Coptic Churches of Egypt," vol. i. c. vii.
32 Judg. iii. 15, where the LXX. has a0mfoterode/cion.
45 The passage is not from Isiah, but from Jer. x. 24.
74 Very little is known of Serenus but what is here told. Cf. the Vitae Patrum, c. l.
24 Ps. xlii. (lxiii.) 9; cxviii. (cxix.) 31; lxxi. (lxxiii) 28; 1 Cor. vi. 17.
26 Prov. xiv. 23; xvi. 26 (LXX.).
38 Ps. xxxii. (xxxiii.) 15; xliii. (xliv.) 22.
42 Prov. xiv. 6; Deut. xxxii. 31; Prov. xxi. 30 (LXX.).
44 Eph. vi. 12; 1 Cor. ix. 26; 2 Tim. iv. 7.
45 Ps. cxxxix. (cxl.) 10.; vii. 17; xxxiv. (xxxv.) 8.
46 Ps. xii. (xiii.) 4, 5; xxxiv. (xxxv.) 24, 28; 16, 17; ix. (x.) 9; ciii. (civ.) 21.
47 Ps. xxxix. (xl.) 15; xxiv. (xxv.) 26; xxix. (xl.), 15.
54 So centuries later it is told of a Jesuit father that when one wanted to relax the strictness of his fast, he replied, "Eat an ox, but be a Christian."
55 Is. i. 25, 26; Prov. xvii. 3 (LXX.); Ecclus. ii. 5; Heb. xii. 6.
56 On Macarius see the note on the Institutes V. xli.
63 The question whether the Holy Communion should ever be given to those possessed is discussed by S. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa III. Q. lxxx. Art. 9, and answered in the affirmative, the authorities quoted in its favour being this passage from Cassian, and the third Canon of the 1st Council of Orange (a.d. 441).
69 "Planoi/," "Seducers," if the reading be correct: but some mss. have "Fauni."
70 The origin of this term is obscure.
75 Cf. Is. xiii. 21, 22; xxxiv. 13, 15; Ps. xc. (xci.) 13; S. Luke x. 19; S. John xiv. 30. Eph. vi. 12.
77 Cf. Horace, De Arte Poetica, l. 249.
1 S. Luke xii. 35; xxii. 36; S. Matt. x. 38.
3 S. Matt. v. 39; x. 23; xix. 21.
6 See Dan. ix. 27; 2 Macc. vi. 2; S. Matt. xxiv. 15 sq.
29 The reference is to the Pastor or Shepherd of Hermas, a work of the second century. The passage to which Cassian alludes is found in Book II. Commandm. vi.; where it is said that "there are two angels with a man, one of righteousness and the other of iniquity," and suggestions are given how to recognize each of them and to distinguish the suggestions of the one from those of the other. The passage is also alluded to by Origen, De Principiis, Book III. c. ii. and Hom. xxxv. in (Lucam); and Cassian refers to it again in Conf. XIII. c. xii.
31 S. John viii. 44. We find from Augustine (Tract xxiv. in Johan.) that the Manichees interpreted this text as implying that the devil had a father, translating it "For he is a liar, and so is his father." Augustine himself explains it as Abbot Serenus does below in c. xxv.; viz., that the devil is not only a liar himself but the parent of lies.
35 In Gen. vi. 2 the mss.. of the LXX. fluctuate between a!ggeloi tou= qeou= and ui0oi\ tou= qeou=. The interpretation of the passage which Cassian here rejects is adopted by Philo and Josephus, the book of Enoch, and several of the early fathers, including Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius and others. The explanation, which Cassian here gives, taking the "sons of God" of the Sethites, and the "daughters of men" of the line of Cain, is apparently first found in Julius Africanus (oi0 a0po/ tou= Sh\q di\kaioi), and is adopted among others by Augustine, De Civitate Dei, Book XV. xxiii., where the passage is fully discussed.
38 Deut. viii. 3; Exod. xxxiv. 16: cf. 1 Kings xi. 2.
44 Gen. ix. 23; Lev. xviii. 7.
46 Gen. xviii., xix.; cf. S. John xiii. 34.
63 See the Institutes Book II. c. ix.
64 Isaac was, as we gathered from c. xxxi., a disciple of St. Antony, and is mentioned by Palladius Dial. de vita Chrysost. There are also a few stories of him in the Apophegmata Patrum (Migne, Vol. lxv. p. 223); and see the Dictionary of Christian Biography, Vol. iii. p. 294.
1 1 Thess. v. 17; 1 Tim. ii. 8.
6 Sinentes, though the reading of almost all mss. must be an error either of the author or of a copyist for sinentia.
7 1 Thess. v. 17; 1 Tim. ii. 8.
15 S. Matt. xxvi. 39; Ps. xxi. (xxii.) 2.
18 S. Matt. xi. 25, 26; S. John xi. 41, 42.
29 Here Cassian is relying entirely on Jerome's revised text of the Latin, which has supersubstantialis in S. Matt. vi. 11, as the rendenng of e0piou/sioj but translates the same word by quotidianum in the parallel passage in S. Luke xi. 3. It is curious that Cassian should have been thus misled, with his knowledge of Greek, as well as his acquaintance with the old Latin version which has quotidianum in both gospels Cf Bishop Lightfoot "On a Fresh Revision the New Testament," p. 219.
34 Petschenig's text reads "amittat." v. l. emittat.
53 S. Matt. xxi. 22; xvii. 20.
59 Ex persona hominis assumpti. The language is scarcely accurate, but it must be remembered that the Conferences were written before the rise of the Nestorian heresy had shown the need for exactness of expression on the subject of the Incarnation. Compare the note on "Against Nestorius," Book III. c. iii.
61 S. Matt. xviii. 11; xx. 28.
71 "Non" though wanting in most mss. must be read in the text.
72 Reading "curvationis" with Petschenig: the text of Gazaeus has "orationis."
74 Ps. l. (li.) 19, 21; xlix. (l.) 23; lxv. (lxvi.) 15; cxl. (cxli.) 2.
75 The observance of Epiphany can be traced back in the Christian Church to the second century, and, as Cassian tells us here, in the East (in which its observance apparently originated) it was in the first instance a double festival commemorating both the Nativity and the Baptism of our Lord. From the East its observance passed over to the West, where however the Nativity was already observed as a separate festival, and hence the special reference of Epiphany was somewhat altered, and the manifestation to the Magi was coupled with that at the Baptism: hence the plural Epiphaniorum dies. Meanwhile, as the West adopted the observance of this festival from the East, so the East followed the West in observing a separate feast of the Nativity. Cassian's words show us that when he wrote the two festivals were both observed separately in the West, though apparently not yet (to the best of his belief) in the East, but the language of a homily by S. Chrysostom (Vol. ii. p. 354 Ed. Montfaucon) delivered in a.d.. 386 shows that the separation of the two festivals had already begun at Antioch, and all the evidence goes to show that "the Western plan was being gradually adopted in the period which we may roughly define as the last quarter of the 4th and the first quarter of the 5th century." Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Vol. i. p. 361. See further Origines du Culte Chrétien, par L'Abbé Duchesne, p 247 sq.
76 The "Festal letters" (e9rtastikai\ e0pistolai/, Euseb. VII. xx. xxi.) were delivered by the Bishop of Alexandria as Homilies, and then put into the form of an Epistle and sent round to all the churches of Egypt; and, according to some late writers, to the Bishops of all the principal sees, in accordance with a decision of the Council of Nicaea, in order to inform them of the right day on which Easter should be celebrated. Cassian here speaks of them as sent immediately after Epiphany, and this was certainly the time at which the announcement of the date of Easter was made in the West shortly after his day (so the Council of Orleans, Canon i., a.d. 541); that of Braga a.d.. 572, Canon ix., and that of Auxerre a.d.. 572, Canon ii.) but there is ample evidence in the Festal letters both of S. Athanasius and of S. Cyril that at Alexandria the homilies were preached on the previous Easter, and it is difficult to resist the inference that Cassian's memory is here at fault as to the exact time at which the incident related really occurred, and that he is transferring to Egypt the custom with which he was familiar in the West, assigning to the festival of Epiphany what really must have taken place at Easter.
77 Theophilus succeeded Timothy as Bishop of Alexandria in the summer of 385. The festal letters of which Cassian here speaks were issued by him in the year 399.
78 The Anthropomorphite heresy, into which the monks of Egypt had fallen, "supposed that God possesses eyes, a face, and hands and other members of a bodily organization." It arose from taking too literally those passages of the Old Testament in which God is spoken of in human terms, out of condescension to man's limited powers of grasping the Divine nature and appears historically to have been a recoil from the allegorism of Origen and others of the Alexandrian school. The Festal letter of Theophilus in which he condemned these views, and maintained the incorporeal nature of God is no longer extant, but is alluded to also by Sozomen, H. E. VIII. xi., where an account is given of the Origenistic controversy of which it was the occasion, and out of which Theophilus came so badly. On the heresy see also Epiphanies, Haer. lxx.: Augustine. Haer. l. and lxxvi.; and Theodoret, H. E. IV. x.
10 Ps. lxix. (lxx.) 2. It is not impropable that this chapter suggested to S. Benedict the use of these words as the opening versicle of the hour services, a position which it has ever since occupied in the West. See the rule of S. Benedict, cc. ix., xvii., and xviii.
19 On Honoratus and Eucherius, see the Introduction, p. 189.
20 Cf The Preface to Conference I.
21 A group of islands off the coast of France opposite Marseilles; mentioned by Pliny, H. N. III. V., now known as Les Isles d'Hierves.
1 It is very doubtful whether Cassian ever carried out the intention, of which he here speaks, of visiting the Thebaid. So far as we can trace the course of his wanderings, he does not seem to have penetrated farther into Egypt than the desert of Scete.
2 Thennesus, a town at the Tanitic mouth of the Nile near Lake Menzaleh. For the description of the neighbouring country compare Conference VII. c. xxvi.
3 Archebius has already been mentioned in Conference VII. xxvi; and in the Institutes V. xxxvii., xxxviii., two stories are told illustrative of his kindness and goodness of disposition; but he is not known to us from any other source except Cassian's writings.
4 For the situation of Panephysis, see the note on the Institutes, Book IV. c. xxx.
6 Chaeremon is perhaps the same person of whom a short account is given in the Lausiac History of Palladius, c. xcii.
21 Ps. cxv. 7, 8 (cxvi. 16, 17); xciii. (xciv.) 17.
39 Ps. ii. 11; Is. xlix. 6; S. Matt. xxiv. 46.
55 Homo Dominicus. See the note on Against Nestorius, V. v.
1 On the Semi-Pelagianism of this conference and the erroneous passages from it extracted by Prosper, see the Introduction, p. 190, sq.
2 Deut. xxviii. 23; Joel i. 4.
7 The source of these stories of Socrates and Diogenes has not been traced.
9 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9; Rom. viii. 26.
10 1 Tim. ii. 4; S. Matt. xviii. 14; 2 Sam. xiv. 14.
13 S. Matt. xxiii. 37; Jer. viii. 5.
47 Ps. cxlv (cxlvi.) 7; cxv. (cxvi.) 16, 17.
55 Ps. lxvii. (lxviii.) 29; lxxxix. (xc.) 17.
58 Is. xxx. 19; Ps. xlix. (l.) 15.
71 1 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6.
75 Ps. lxxxvii. (lxxxviii.) 14; xcviii. (cxix.) 147, 148.
77 Ps. lxxxvii. (lxxxviii.) 10.
79 Ps. xxxix. (xl.) 2; cxviii. (cxix.) 166.
117 Eccl. ix. 11 (LXX.); 1 Cor. xii. 11.
1 Nesteros. In the Vitae Patrum there are some stories of one or two of this name (for it is not quite clear whether they are distinct persons or one and the same to whom the stories refer). One was known as o9 me/gaj, and was a friend of St. Antony, and is supposed by some to be the same whose Conferences Cassian here relates, but nothing of certain is known of him.
4 It is doubtful whether this is the same John mentioned in the Institutes V. xxviii. and to whom the xixth Conference is assigned. Thmuis is the coptic Thmoui, a little to the south of the Mendesian branch of the Nile. See Rawlinson's note to Herod. ii. c. 166 and cf. Ptolemy IV. v. § 51.
5 On the two Macarii see the note on the Institutes V. xli.
9 The meaning of the four senses of Scripture here spoken of; viz., the historical, tropological, allegorical, and anagogical, is well summed up in these lines: Litera, gesta docet; quid credas, allegoria; Moralis, quid agas; quo tendas anagogia. Or, as the lines are sometime given: Litera scripta docet; quod credas, allegoria; Quod speres, anagoge: quid agas, tropologia. Both Origen and Jerome had spoken of the threefold sense of scripture, referring to the LXX. rendering of Proverbs xxii. 20 (which Cassian quotes below): but in general the Latin Fathers, and the Schoolmen after them, seperated the third of Origen's senses; viz., the spiritual, into two, the allegorical and the anagogical: and so the "fourfold" sense became the established method of interpretation in the West.
22 Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 104; c. (ci.) 1, 2.
29 Instrumentum is a favourite word with Tertullian, who uses it more than once of the two Testaments, eg., Apol. xix.; and, Against Marcion iv. where he speaks of the "Two Instruments, or, as it is usual to speak of the Two Testaments."
59 Prov. xiv. 33; Ecclus. xxxii. 20.
62 Prov. xxiv. 15; xix. 10; xviii. 2; xxix. 19; xxiii. 9 (LXX.).
9 This was the "Egyptian," not the "Alexandrian" Macarius. See the note on the Institutes, V. xli. The story is also given by Rufinus, History of the Monks, c. xxviii.; as well as Sozomen, H.E. III. xiv., and by both of these writers is expressly ascribed to the Egyptian Macarius.
12 Possibly the same person as the author of Conference xxiv., but nothing further appears to be known of him.
13 i.e. the fifty days from Easter to Whitsuntide; cf. the note on the Institutes, II. xviii.
23 Cf. the note on the Conferences III. i.
24 Athera. This is noticed by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxii. 25, 57, § 121) as the Egyptian name for a decoction made from grain.
25 i.e. the sign of the cross.
1 Nothing further appears to be known of this Joseph than what Cassian here states.
2 viz., the first of ths Second Part of the Conferences, i.e., Conference XI.
3 See on Conference XIV. c. iv.
7 Ex persona. See note on VIII. xxxv.
12 Eph. iv. 26; S. Matt. v. 22.
16 Phil. ii. 1-3; Rom. xii. 10.
31 Ps. liv. (lv.) 22; Prov. xxvi. 22; Jer. ix. 8; Prov. xxix. 5; xxvi. 27.
41 Ps. lxxvi. (lxxvii.) 5; xxxviii. (xxxix.) 2, 3.
46 Eccl. vii. 9; Prov. xxv. 8.
3 Compare on the Institutes IV. c. xxxi.
7 Rom. ii. 15, 16; Is. lxvi. 18.
12 S. Matt. v. 37; Col. iii. 9.
14 Ps. v. 7; Prov. xx. 17; Exod. xxiii. 7.
19 1 Cor. x. 24; xiii. 5; 1 Cor. x. 33.
27 Rom. xiv. 3; 1 Cor. viii. 38; 2 Cor. xi. 29; 1 Cor. x. 32, 33.
28 Nudipedalia non exercere. The expression is also used by Jerome of S. Paul's purification in Jerusalem (in Gal. Book II. c. iv.), though there is nothing in the account in the Acts about his going barefoot. Compare also Jerome against Jovinian, Book I. c. viii., and for the word, in connexion with the rites of the Christian Church, see Tertullian Apologeticum, c. xl.
35 On Piamun see the note on XVIII. i.
42 2 Cor. i. 15-17, 23; ii. 1.
47 Jer. xviii. 7, 10; xxvi. 2, 3.
53 Jer. xvii. 13; Ezek. xiii. 9.
57 In this last chapter Cassian certainly makes his own the sentiments of Abbot Joseph on the permissibility of lying; and is therefore not unreasonably attacked for the teaching of this Conference by Prosper. "Contra Collatorem," c. ix.
1 Piamun who has been already spoken of in XVII. xxiv.,is also mentioned by Rufinus (History of the Monks, c. xxxii.), Palladius (the Lausiac History, clxxii.), and Sozomen (H. E. VI. xxix.), all of whom tell, with slight variations, the same story, how that one day while he was officiating at the altar, he saw an angel writing down the names of some of the brethren, and passing by the names of others, all of whom Piamun on subsequent inquiry found to have been guilty of some grievous sin.
2 On Diolcos see on the Institutes V. xxxvi.
5 Acts iv. 32; ii 45; iv. 34, 35.
7 Paul was from very early days celebrated as the first of the anchorites. Indeed S. Jerome, who wrote his life (Works, Vol. ii. p. 13 ed. Migne) calls him "auctor vitae monasticae" (Ep. xxii. ad Eustochium). He is said to have fled to the Thebaid from the terrors of the Decian persecution, and to have died there in extreme old age. Antony has already been several times mentioned by Cassian. See the Institutes V. iv.: Conference II. ii.; III. iv., etc.
8 Heb. xi. 37, 38; Job xxxix. 5-8; Ps. cvi. (cvii.) 2, 4-6; Lam. iii. 27, 28; Ps. ci (cii.) 7, 8.
9 Sarabaites, this third sort of monks whom Cassian here paints in such dark colours, are spoken of by S. Jerome (Ep. xxii. ad Eustochium) under the name of Remoboth. The origin of both names is obscure, but Jerome and Cassian are quite at one in their scorn for these pretended monks. S. Benedict begins his monastic rule by describing the four kinds of monks, coenobites, anchorites, sarabaites, and a fourth class to which he gives the name of "gyrovagi," i e., wandering monks; these must be those of whom Cassian speaks below in c. viii. without giving them any definite name. See further Bingham, Antiquities VII. ii., and the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Art. Sarabaites.
10 Lucius took the lead of the Arian party at Alexandria after the murder of George of Cappadocia in 361, and was put forward by his party as the candidate for the see which they regarded as vacant. In 373, after the death of Athanasius, he was forced upon the reluctant Church of Alexandria by the Arian Emperor Valens, and according to Gregory Nazianzen a fresh persecution of the orthodox party at once began; and to this it is that Piamun alludes in the text.
11 Diaconia. The word is used again by Cassian for almsgiving in Conf. XXI. i., viii., ix., and cf. Gregory the Great, Ep. xxii., and compare e0ij diakoni/an in Acts xi. 29.
12 To work in the mines was a punishment to which the Confessors were frequently subjected in the time of persecution: Cf. the prayer in the Liturgy of S. Mark that God would have mercy on those in prison or in the mines, etc. Hammond's Liturgies, p. 181.
13 On Serapion see the note on Conf. V. i.
14 Orationem Colligere. See the notes on the Institutes III. vii.
19 2 Cor. xii. 9; Jer. i. 18, 19.
20 i.e., the Buffalo. On Paphnutius see the note on Conf. III.
21 Gazet thinks that this Isidore is the same person as the one mentioned in the Lausiac History c. i.; and Sozomen VI. xxviii., but doubts whether he is identical with the person of the same name mentioned in Rufinus: History of the Monks c. xvii., Sozomen VIII.. xii., and Socrates VI. ix.
22 On the Saturday and Sunday celebration of the Holy Communion in Egypt compare the Institutes III. ii. In Gaul it was apparentry received daily: Institutes VI. viii.
25 As Cassian here implies, considerable doubt exists whether the Nicholas from whom the sect of the Nicolaitans (Rev. ii. 15) derive their name was the same person as Nicholas the last of the seven "deacons" mentioned in Acts vi. 5. According to Irenaeus (Haer. I. xxvi.) the Nicolaitans themselves claimed him as their founder, and the claim is allowed by Hippolytus (Philos. vii. § 36), Epiphanius (Haer. I. ii. § 25), and other writers of the fourth century. Clement of Alexandria however disputes the claim (Strom. III. iv. and cf. Euseb. H. E. III. xxix.), as does Theodoret (Haer. Tab. iii. 1).
1 Depositio. A word frequently used for the day of the death (or burial) in Calendars or Martyrologies.
2 On this Abbot John compare the note on the Institutes V. xxviii.
3 The true reading, as given by Petschenig, appears to be the following: Et minus de proesumptoe sublimioris professionis humilitate periculum. It is probably on account of its difficulty that humilitate has been altered into difficultate, as in the text of Gazet (the two humilitate difficultate are found together in some mss.) But the fact appears to be that humilitas is here used for the life of an anchorite, as in Conference XXIV. ix., where Abbot Abraham uses the expression districtionem hujus humilitatis. The word is also used in a similar sense in Conf. I. xx. and XI. ii.
5 In Prochirio id est admanuensi sporta.
7 Phil. ii. 8; S. John vi. 38.
9 Lam. iii. 27, 28; Ps. ci. (cii.) 7, 8.
10 Moses, Paphnutius, and the two Macarii have all been mentioned frequently before. On Moses (to whom the first two Conferences are assigned) see the note on the Institutes X. xxv.; on Paphnutius see on Conference III. i.; and on the two Macarii, the Institutes V. xli.
11 Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 60; xxv. (xxvi.) 2; cxxxviii. (cxxxix.) 23, 24.
1 Cf. Institutes IV. c. xxx., xxi. Nothing further is known of Pinifius than what we gather from these passages of Cassian.
2 On Tabennae or Tabenna see the note on the Institutes IV. i.
7 Ps. l. (li.) 5; xxxvi. (xxxviii.) 19.
8 Ps. xxi. (xxxii.) 5; xli. (xlii.) 4; Jer. xxxi. 16.
12 Acts iii. 19; S. Matt. iii. 2.
16 Ps. xxxi. (xxxii.) 5; Is. xliii. 26.
17 Ps. xxiv. (xxv.) 18; Is. i. 16-18.
22 Ps. cviii. (cix.) 24; ci. (cii.) 10.
1 On Quinguagesima see the note on the Institutes II. vi.
2 Nothing further is known of this Theonas than what Cassian here tells us: he is clearly a different person from the one mentioned by Rufinus, Hist. Mon. c. vi. Cf. Palladius, Lausiac History, c. l.
3 Diaconia. Cf. the note on XVIII. vii.
4 This is noteworthy as being the earliest instance on record of the payment of tithes to a monastery. The language of the Conference, it will be noted, shows that they were not regarded as legally due or in any way compulsory, but as a free-will offering on the part of the faithful. Cf. Bingham, Antiquities, Book VII. ciii. § 19; and the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Vol. ii. p. 1964.
7 Cf. Numb. xviii. 26; v. 9, 10.
20 Exod. xxii. 29; S. Matt. xix. 21.
30 The 20th Canon of the Council of Nicaea (a.d.. 325) alludes to diversities of custom with regard to posture for prayer on Sundays and from Easter to Pentecost, and ordered that for the future prayer should be made standing at these times. Cassian's language in the text would seem to show that in his day the Canon in question, though kept in Egypt, was not strictly observed in Palestine but that the ancient diversity of customs still to some extent prevailed.
32 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4; Rom. xiv. 14.
41 Ps. xxxii. (xxxiii.) 5; Is. lxi. 8.
50 On the different uses in regard to the Lenten fast Socrates (H. E. V. xxii.) writes as follows: "Those at Rome fast three successive weeks before Easter, excepting Saturdays and Sundays. The Illyrians, Achaians, and Alexandrians observe a fast of six weeks, which they call the forty days' fast. Others commencing their fast from the seventh week before Easter, and fasting for fifteen days by intervals, yet call that time the forty days' fast." There are difficulties in the way of accepting the statement about the custom at Rome (see below), but the great variety of customs is fully confirmed by Sozomen (H. E. VII. xix.): "In some churches the time before Easter, which is called Quadragesima, and is devoted by the people to fasting, is made to consist of six weeks: and this is the case in Illyria, and the western regions, in Libya, throughout Egypt, and in Palestine: whereas it is made to comprise seven weeks at Constantinople, and in the neighbouring provinces as far as Phoenicia. In some churches the people fast three alternate weeks during the space of six or seven weeks; whereas in others they fast continuously during the three weeks immediately preceding the festival." The statement here made with regard to the West is true except as regards Milan, where Saturday was kept (as in the East) as a festival: while for the Constantinopolitan practice Chrysostom (Hom. xi. in Gen. § 2) confirms what Sozomen says: while Cassian's language in the text bears witness to the fact that both Egypt and Palestine agreed with the Roman practice. In either case, whether the fast began seven or six weeks before Easter, the number of days observed in the fast was the same, Saturdays (with the exception of Easter Eve which was always regarded as a fast) being excluded in the former case, while they were all included in the latter. Cf below, c. xxvi.
52 Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 147, 148; lxxxvii. (lxxxviii.) 14.
53 Cassian here gives three suggestions why the fast of thirty-six days' duration was called Quadragesima. (1) As roughly corresponding to the forty days fast of Moses, Elijah, and the Lord Himself, (2) because "forty" is the number associated with a time of probation in Scripture, and (3) because of the analogy of a legal tribute of "Quadragesima" paid to the Sovereign. It is certainly a curious and difficult question why the name Quadragesima should have been so universally applied to the fast, when there is no evidence of its having been kept for forty days till sometime after the date of Gregory the Great, when Ash Wednesday and the three following days were prefixed to the six weeks expressly for the purpose of making the number forty. The name however, had as we see from Socrates, Sozomen, Cassian himself, and many other writers, existed long before this; and on the whole it appears probable that it originated in none of the reasons given above by Cassian but that in the first instance it was connected "with the period during which our Lord yielded to the power of death, which was estimated at forty hours; viz., from noon on Friday till 4 A.M. on Sunday." See Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Vol. ii. p. 973; and cf Irenaeus Ep. ad Victor. in Euseb. V. xxiv.; and Tertullian De Orat. c. 18; and De Jejuniis c. ii. and xiii.
56 Statio. Cf. note on the Institutes V. xxiv.
63 S. Luke xxiii. 29; xiv. 26; 1 Cor. vii. 29.
64 Exod. xxii. 29; S. Matt. xix. 21.
65 Exod. xxi. 24; S. Matt. v. 39, 40.
67 Heb. vii. 18, 19; Ezek. xx. 25.
71 Cum deprehenderimus nos sordidi liquoris contagius pertulisse.
7 S. Luke x. 41, 42. Cf. the note on I. viii.
8 Gen. i. 31; Ecclus. xxix. 16.
12 S. Matt. vii. 18; xii. 35; xxv. 21.
16 Gal. iii. 19; Rom. vii. 12.
19 Ezek. xvi. 52, 49; Jer. iii. 11.
20 Ps. xxxiv. (xxxv.) 10; Job xxix. 17.
24 Acts xx. 34; 2 Thess. iii. 8.
29 Anamarteti id est impeccantoe.
34 Hos. vii. 13; ix. 12; Jer. ii. 19; Prov. v. 22.
40 S. John vi. 33; Ps. ciii. (civ.) 15.
53 2 Cor. x. 1; xii. 13, 16; Gal. v. 2; Rom. ix. 3.
54 Ps. cxlii. (cxliii.) 2; Prov. xx. 9; Eccl. vii. 21; Ps. xviii. (xix.) 13.
4 Petschenig's text reads conversione, others conversatione.
5 On the bearing of this passage on the question of Cassian's nationality see the Introd., p. 183.
8 Jer. xvii. 5; Ps. cxlv. (cxlvi.) 2.
19 Prov. xxiii. 35 (LXX.); Hos. vii. 9.
20 Acts xx. 34; 2 Thess. iii. 7, 9.
33 The story is quoted by S. Francis de Sales, The Devout Life, and by Dean Goulbourn, Personal Religion, Part III. c. x.
35 Ps. xvi. (xvii.) 4; 2 Tim. iii. 12.
44 Prov. v. 22; Isa. l. 11; Wisd. xi. 17.
50 Eccl. x. 15 (LXX.); Gal. iv. 26.
55 Jer. vi. 16; Isa. xl. 4; Ps. xxxiii. (xxxiv.) 9.
61 1 Cor. iii. 22; Prov. xvii. 6 (LXX.).
62 The practice alludes to the counting on the fingers, in which all the tens up to ninety were reckoned on the fingers of the left hand, but with the number of a hundred the reckoning began with the same arrangement of the fingers on the right hand. S. Jerome had a similar allusion to the practice in his work against Jovian I. i. and compare also Juvenal Satire. X. l. 247, 248.
68 S. John vi. 38; S. Matt. xxvi. 39.
69 Cf. the note on the Institutes IV. xxiii.
1 Petschenig's text gives no titles to the chapters in this work. They are added here from the text of Gazaeus.
2 The earliest writer to allude to an "Ebion" as the supposed founder of the Ebionites is Tertullian (Praescriptio c. xxxiii. ). He is followed in this by Epiphanius (1. xxx.); Rufinus (In Symb. Apost. c. xxxix.), and others; but the existence of such a person is more than doubtful, and the name is now generally believed to have been derived from the Hebrew "Ebhion"=poor.
4 Cassian's statement here is scarcely accurate, as Eunomius is best known from his bold assertion that the Son was unlike (a0no/moion) to the Father.
5 Photinus, the pupil of Marcellus of Ancyra, appears to have taught a form of Sabellianism, teaching that Christ Himself, the Son of God, had not existed from all eternity but only from the time when He became the Son of God and Christ, viz., at the Incarnation.
6 Et maxima Belgarum urbe (Petschenig). Gazaeus edits: Et maxime Beligarum urbe. The city must be Trêves and the allusion is to the heresy of Leporius, which was an outcome of Pelagianism. Leporius was apparently a native of Trêves who propagated Pelagian views in Gaul, ascribing his virtues to his own free will and his own strength; and going to far greater lengths than his master in that ho connected this doctrine of human sufficiency with heretical views on the Incarnation; thus combining Pelagianism with what was practically Nestorianism, teaching that Jesus was a mere man who had used His free will so well as to have lived without sin, and had only been made Christ in virtue of His Baptism, whereby the Divine and Human were associated so as virtually to make two Christs. He taught further that the only object of His coming into the world was to exhibit to mankind an example of virtue; and that if they chose to profit by it they also might be without sin. For these errors he was rebuked by Cassian and others in Gaul and on his refusal to abandon them was formally censured by Proculus Bishop of Marseilles and Cylinnius (Bishop of Fréjus?). He then left Gaul and came to Africa, where he was convinced by Augustine of the erroneous character of his teaching, and under his influence signed a recantation, which was perhaps drawn up by Augustine himself, and from which Cassian quotes below (c. v.). This recantation was read in the Church of Carthage, and subscribed by four bishops as witnesses (including Augustine). It was then sent to the Gallican Bishops accompanied by a letter from the four attesting bishops (Epp. August. no. ccxxix.) commending the treatment which Leporius had previously received, tent recommending him once more to their favour as having retracted his errors. See further Fleury H. E. Book XXIV. c. xlix. and Dictionary of Christian Biography, Art. Leporius.
8 The after history of Leporius appears to have been this. Having come under Augustine's influence, he was persuaded by him to give up all his property, and renounce the temporal care a monastery which he had previously founded in a garden at Hippo; here also he had begun to build a xenodochium or house of refuge for strangers, partly at his own expense, and partly out of the alms of the faithful. He also at Augustine's suggestion, built a church in memory of the "eight martyrs" (see Aug. Serm. 356). This complete renunciation of the world must have taken place about 425; and in the following year we find that he was present at the election of Eraclius to sueeeed Augustine (Aug. Ep. 213); but subsequent to this nothing is known of his history except that he was still living when Cassian wrote. It is right to mention that doubts have been raised by Tillemont whether the presbyter of Hippo is identical with the quondam heretic, but on scarcely sufficient grounds.
9 The recantation of Leporius may be found in the Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum. vol. vii. p. 14; Labbe, Concilia, ii. p. 1678; and Migne Patrol. Lat. xxxi. p. 1221.
11 Caro and Verbum when used in this way stand for the Humanity and the Divinity of Christ.
12 The meaning of course is not that the manhood was endowed with the properties of Deity, or conversely the Deity with the properties of Humanity, but simply that two whole and perfect natures were joined together in the one Person.
14 This phrase gives some countenance to the idea that the recantation was actually drawn up by Augustine, as the thought which it contains is a favorite one with him, as excluding any notion that Christ ever for one moment ceased to be God. See Serm. 184. "Intelligerent . . . Eum . . . in homine ad nos venisse et a Patre non recessisse." 186 "manens quod erat." Similar language is used by S. Leo, Serm. 18. c. 5. In Natio. 2. C. Z. and S. Thomas Aquinas in the well-known Sacramental hymn "Verbum supernum prodiens, Nec Patris linquens dexteram." Cf. Bright's S. Leo on the Incarnation, p. 220.
15 Homo is here used as frequently by Augustine and other early writers for "Manhood," and not an "individual man." In this way it was freely used till the Nestorian Controversy, after which it went out of favour as capable of a Nestorian interpretation, and gave place to "humanitas" or "humane nature," when the manhood of Christ was spoken of. See the Church Quarterly Review vol. xviii. p. 10; and Bright's S. Leo on the Incarnation, p. 165.
16 Verbum Dei (Petschenig) Verbum Deus (Gazaeus).
18 The allusion is to Ps. xviii. (xix.) 5, where the Latin (Gallican Psalter) has "Exultavit ut gigas, ad currendam viam." The mystical interpretation which takes the words as referring to Christ is not uncommon. So in a hymn "De Adventu Domini" (Mone. Vol. i. p. 43) we have the verse, "Procedit a thalamo suo Pudoris aula regia Geminae gigas substantiae, Alacris ut currat viam," and in another "De natali Domini" (p. 58) "Ut gigas egreditur ad currendam viam."
19 Etsi (Petschenig) Et sic (Gazaeus).
20 The attesting Bishops who subscribed his recantation as witnosses were Aurelius of Carthage; Augustine of Hippo Regius; Florentius of the other Hippo; and Secundinus of Megarmita.
21 Scrobibus (Petschenig): The text of Gazaeus has enoribus.
1 The allusion is to the recantation of Leporius and his companions. They were the immediate predecessors of Nestorius, and Cassian means to say that their recantation of their error ought to have been an example for Nestorius to follow.
3 Curationem (Petschenig): Damnationem (Gazaeus).
4 The Nestorian controversy was originated by a sermon of Anastasius a follower of Theodore of Mopsuestia, whom Nestorius brought with him to Constantinople as his chaplain on his appointment as Archbishop, a.d.. 428. This man, preaching in the presence of the archbishop, said: "Let no one call Mary Theotocos; for Mary was tent a woman, and it is impossible that God should be born of a woman." In the controversy which was immediately excited by these words Nestorius at once took the part of his chaplain and preached a course of sermons in maintenance of his views; refusing to the Blessed Virgin the title of Theotocos, while admitting that she might be termed Christotocos. See Socrates H. E. Book VII.. c. xxxii. Evagrius H. E. Book I. c. ii. and Vincentius Lirinensis Book I. c. xvii. The sermons are still partially existing in the writings of Marius Mercator: and in the second of them the title Xoistoto/koj is admitted. Cf. Hefele's Councils Book IX. c. i. (Vol. iii. Eng. Transl. p. 12 sq.).
5 The subject is dealt with in Book IV. c. ii.; VII. c. ii. sq.
8 On the conception by the Holy Ghost compare Pearson on the Creed. Article III. c. ii.
10 Petschenig's text is as follows: Videlicet ut, quia agi tanta res per humanum officium non valebat, ipsius ad futuram diceret majestatem in conceptu, qui erat futurus in partu; while Gazaeus reads deceret for diceret.
12 Incredule (Petschenig). Increduloe (Gazaeus).
13 Here is an instance of language which the mature judgment of the Church has rejected, as experience showed how it was capable of being pressed into the service of heresy. Homo unitus Deo, in Cassian's mouth evidently means the manhood joined to the Godhead, but the words might easily be taken as implying that a man was united to God, i.e., that there were in the Incarnation two persons, one assuming and the other assumed, which was the essence of Nestorianism. Compare above, the note on Homo to Book I. c. v.
14 lsa. ix. 6 where in the LXX. B reads o#ti paidi/on h\mi=n, u9io\j kai\ e0do/qh h9mi=n, ou= h9 a0rxh\ e0genh/qh e0pi\ tou\ w!mou au0tou= ai\ kalei=ta TO o!noma au=tou= Mega/lhj Boulh=j a!ggeloj a!zw yap k. t. l. To this, however, )
and A add after a!ggeloj, qaumasto\j su/mbouloj Qeo\j (our Qeo\j A) i0sxuro\j e0cousiasth\j a!rxwn ei0rh/nhj path\r tou= me/llontoj a9w=noj and hence in the main comes the old Latin version, which Cassian here follows. Jerome's version has Parvulus enim natus est nobis et filius datus est nobis; et factus est principatus super humerum ejus: et vocabitur nomen ejus admirabilis consiliarius Dens fortis peter futuri saeculi princeps pacis. The Hebrew has nothing directly corresponding to the "angel of great counsel," which seems to be intended as a paraphrase of "Wonderful Counsellor" (Cf. Judg. xiii. 18), while "Father of the world to come" is an interpretation of the Hebrew "Father of eternity."
15 Suscepti hominis. Cf. the line in the Te Deum, which originally ran "Tu ad liberandum mundum suscepisti hominem: non horuisti virginis uterum."
16 See the language of Nestorius himself quoted below in Book VII., c. vi. and cf. V. iii.
17 The text of Gazaeus omits Deus.
18 Malachi iii. 8. Jerome's rendering is almost identical "Si affiget homo Deum, quia vos configitis me," where the Douay version, strangely departs from the literal sense of the word and renders vaguely "afflict." It is clear however that it was intended to be understood literally, as it is here taken by Cassian as a direct prophecy of the Crucifixion. The LXX. has pterniei=. The Hebrew word, which is only found again in Prov. xxii. 23, appears to mean "defraud."
22 Vas Dei (Petschenig): Gazaeus has Vis Dei.
24 Jacobum. So Petschenig, after his authority. It is however an error on Cassian's part, as the words quoted were spoken not by S. James but by S. Peter. (The text of Gazaeus reads apparently with no authority Petrum.)
29 Nestorius maintained that "that which was formed in the womb of Mary was not God Himself . . . but because God dwells in him whom He has assumed, therefore also He who is assumed is called God because of Him who assumes Him. And it is not God who has suffered, but God was united with the crucified flesh." (Fragm. in Marius Mercator p. 789 sq. (ed. Migne.) Thus he made out that in Christ were two Persons, one assuming and the other assumed.
31 There is some doubt whether the words enclosed in brackets form part of the genuine text. Petschenig brackets them, as wanting in some mss.
5 Petschenig's text reads as follows: Ac per hoc et illud ibi Qui est super omnia Deus, hoc dicit: non novimus jam Christum secundum carnem et hic: non novimus jam Christum secundum carnem, hoc ait: Qui est Deus benedictus in soecula. That of Gazaeus has: Ac per hoc et illud ibi qui est super omnia Deus: et hoc dicit, non novimus jam Christum secundum carnem: Quia es Deus benedictus in soecula.
6 The language used in the text by Cassian is scarcely defensible The whole tenour of the treatise shows clearly enough that his meaning is orthodox enough, and that he fully recognizes that the Human nature of Christ is still existing (See especially c. vi.): but the language used comes perilously near to Eutychianism, and might be taken to imply that the human nature had been absorbed in the Divine. Again in Book V. c. vii. he speaks of the Son of man "united to the Son of God" (Cf. also c. viii. ) language which taken by itself might seem to sanction Nestorianism, the very heresy against which Cassian himself is writing. These instances of inaccurate language, which a later writer would have carefully avoided, serve to show one great service which heresies did to the Church in making Churchmen write logikw/teron. Cf. Dorner, Doctrine of the Person of Christ, Vol. i. p. 458 (E. T.).
8 Christum (Petschenig): Jesum (Gazaeus).
10 Inoestimabili majestatem Dei luce fulgentem (Petschenig)Gazaeus edits Inoestimabilem majestatem, Dei luce fulgentem.
11 Quas tibi immensus et ineffabilis pavor mentis augeret (Petschenig): Gazaeus has Quas tibi immensas et ineffabiles angustias pavor mentis augeret ?
20 Mater (Petschenig): Caro (Gazaeus).
3 Exod. iv. 13. Where the LXX. has De/omai, ku/rie, proxei/risai duna/menon a!llo/ o@n a0postelei=j, which was followed by the old Latin. Jerome however rendered the passage correctly from the Hebrew: "obsecro, Domine, mitte quem misurus es." Cf. the note on the Institutes, XII. xxxi.
8 Cf. Hooker Eccl: Polity., Book V. c. liii. § 4. "A kind of mutual commutation there is whereby those concrete names, God and man, when we speak of Christ, do take interchangeably one another's room, so that for truth of speech it skilleth not whether we say that the Son of God hath created the world, and the Son of man by His death hath saved it, or else that the Son of man did create, and the Son of God die to save the world. Howbeit as oft as we attribute to God what the manhood of Christ claimeth, or to man what His Deity hath right unto, we understand by the name of God and the name of man neither the one nor the other nature, but the whole person of Christ, in whom both natures are." The technical phrase by which this interchange of names is described is the Communicatio idiomatum, and in Greek a0nti/dosij. Cf. Pearson on the Creed, Art IV. c. i.
10 De se dicentem (Petschenig): Gazaeus reads descendentem.
13 Tanti mysterii sacramentum.
19 See Hooker as above (V. liii. 4) "When the Apostle saith the Jews that they crucified the Lord of Glory, and when the Son of man being on earth affirmeth that the Son of man was in heaven at the same instant, there is in these two speeches that mutual circulation before mentioned. In the one, there is attributed to God or the Lord of Glory death, whereof Divine nature is not capable; in the other ubiquity unto man which human nature admitteth not. Therefore by the Lord of Glory we must needs understand the whole person of Christ, who being Lord of Glory, was indeed crucified, but not in that nature for which he is termed the Lord of Glory. In like manner by the Son of man the whole person of Christ must necessarily be meant, who being man upon earth, filled heaven with his glorious presence, but not according to that nature for which the title of man is given Him."
20 Ne necesse sit (Petschenig).
25 The passage comes not from Jeremiah, but from Baruch (iii 36-38). It is also quoted as from Jeremiah by Augustine (c. Faustinxii. c. 43): and in the LXX. version the book of Baruch is placed among the works of Jeremiah e.g. In both the Vatican and Alexandrine mss. they stand in the following order: (1) Jeremiah (2) Baruch (3) Lamentations, (4) the Epistle of Jeremy (Baruch c. vi. in A.V.). The passage which Cassian here quotes is constantly appealed to by both Greek and Latin Fathers, as a prophecy of the Incarnation. See e.g. S. Augustine (l.c.) S. Chrysost. "Ecloga" Hom. xxxiv. Rufinus in. Symb. § 5.
44 See above Book 1. cc. ii. iii.
1 See below Book c. xiv. For the the error of Pelagianism cf. a striking article on "Theodore of Mopsuestia and Modern Thought" in the Church Quarterly Review, vol. i. See esp. p 135; where, speaking of Pelagianism, the writer says: "As the hypostatic union was denied lest it should derogate from the ethical completeness of Christ, so the efficacious working of grace must be explained away lest it should derogate from the moral dignity of Christians. The divine and human elements must be kept as jealously apart in the moral life of the members as in the person of the Head of the Church. In the ultimate analysis it must be proved that the initial movement in every good action came from the human will itself though when this was allowed, the grace of God might receive, by an exact process of assessment, its due share of credit for the result."
8 Idem credendus in corpore qui creditur in majestate, quia nasciturus in carne non divisionem, etc., (Petschenig): Gazaeus reads Idem credendus in majestate quia nasciturus in carne. Non divisionem, etc.
14 Dominicus Homo, literally "the Lordly man." The same title is used again by Cassian in Book VI. cc. xxi., xxii. and in the Conferences XI. xiii. It is however an instance of a title which the mature judgment of the Church has rejected as savouring of an heretical interpretation. We learn from Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. 51) that the Greek equivalent of the title o9 kuriako\j a!qropoj, was a favourite term with the Apollinarians, as it might be taken to favour their view that the Divinity supplied the place of a human soul in Christ. It is however freely used by Epiphanius in his Anchoratus and is also found in the exposition of faith assigned to Athanasius (Migne. Pat. Graec. xxv. p, 197). And Augustine himself actually uses the title Dominicus Homo in his treatise on the Sermon on the Mount, Book II. c. vi., though he afterwards retracted the term, see "Retract," Book I. c. xx. "Non video utrum recte dicatur Homo Dominicus, qui est mediator Dei et hominum, homo Christus Jesus cum sit utique Dominus: Dominicus antem homo quis in ejus sancta familia non potest dici ? Et hoc quidem ut dicerem, apud quosdam legi tractores catholicos divinorum eloquiorum. Sed ubicunque hoc dici, dixisse me nollem. Postea quippe vidi non esse dicendum, quamvis nonnulla possit ratione defendi." The question is discussed by S. Thomas, whether the title is rightly applied to Christ and decided by him in the negative. Summa III. Q. vi. art. 3.
17 Isa ii. 22. Cf. the note on the Institutes xii. xxxi.
34 1 S. John iv 2, 3. It will be noticed that Cassian quotes this passage with the reading "Qui solvit Jesum," where the Greek has o9 mh\ o\mologei= to\n 0Ihsou=n. Lu/ei is found in no Greek ms. uncial or cursive, and the only Greek authority for it is that of Socrates who says it was the reading in "the old copies.'" "Qui solvit"probably an early gloss, current in very early days in the West, being found in Tertullian adv. Marc v. 16; De Jejun: i.) and in all Latin mss. whether of the Vetus or Vulgate (with a single exception), and finally becoming universal in the Fathers of the Western Church.Cf. Westcott on the Epp Of S John, p. 156, sq.
35 Non negares (Petschenig). Gazaeus has denegares.
36 The last sentences are placed in brackets by Petschenig.
39 1 Tim. 16. Quod manifestum in carne. The true reading is pretty certainly o#j, see Wescott and Hort, Greek Testament, vol. ii., p. 132. The neuter o# is found in D. and in many Latin Fathers, as well as the Vulgate.
51 Hab. iii. 2, 3, where the Old Latin has "Theman," and the Vulgate "Austro."
52 Ps. xlix. (l.) 3; lxxix. (lxx.) 2.
54 Muneraris, (Petschenig): Gazaeus reads numeraris.
1 Nestorius, who had belonged to the monastery of St. Euprepius near the gate of Antioch before his elevation to the see of Constantinople.
2 This creed is plainly given by Cassian as the baptismal formula of the Church of Antioch; and with almost verbally a fragment of the Creed preserved in a Contestatio comparing Nestorius to Paul of Samosata (a.d.. 429, or 430) which is said by Leontius to have been the work of Eusebius afterward Bishop of Dorylaeum. The form is especially interesting as showing that the Creed of Antioch, in common with several other Eastern Creeds, underwent revision, probably about the middle of the fourth century, from the desire to enrich the local creed with Nicene phraseology. The insertions which are obviously due to the Creed of Nicaea are: non factum, Deum verum ex Deo vero, homoousion petri, or as they would run in the original ou0 poihqe/nta, Qeo\n a0lhqino\n e0k Qeou= a0liqinou=, o9moou/sion tw[ Patri, and it has been suggested that they were probably introduced at the Synod held at Antioch under Meletius in 363. Similar forms of local creeds thus enlarged by the adoption of Nicene phraseology are (1) that of Jenusalem as given by Cyril in his Catechetical Lectures, (a) the Creed of Cappadocia, (3) that of Mesopotamia, and (4) the "Creed of Charisius" preserved in the Acts of the Council of Ephesus (Mansi. IV. 1348). On all of these see Dr. Hort's "Two Dissertations." p. 110 sq. Another interesting feature in the Creed as given by Cassian is that it was in the singular "Credo," I believe; whereas the Eastern Creeds are almost all in the plural pisteu/omen. That however which is found in the Apostolical Constitutions (VII. xli.) has the singular pisteu/w kai\ bapti/zomai, and therefore it is possible that Cassian may have preserved the original form here. It is however more probable that the singular Credo is due to a reminiscence of the form current in the Western church, which has influenced the translation. See further Hahn's Bibliothek des Symbole p. 64 sq.
3 Cassian nowhere quotes the last section of the Creed of Antioch, as it did not concern the question at issue. A few clauses of it may however be recovered from S. Chrysostom's Homilies (In 1 Cor. Hom. xl. § 2); viz, kai ei0j a9martiw=n a@fesin kai\ ei0j nekrw=n a0na/stasin kai\ ei0j zwh\n ai0w/nion.
4 Symbolus, or more commonly and correctly Symbolum (= su/mbolon) is the general name for the creed in the ancient church, met with from the days of Cyprian (who uses it more than once, e.g., Ep. lxix.) onwards. In the account which Cassian gives in the text of the origin, of the name he is certainly copying Rufinus (whose exposition of the Apostles' Creed is directly quoted by him below in Book VII. c. xxvii.). The passage which Cassian evidently has in his mind is the following: "Moreover for many and excellent reasons they determined that it should be called Symbolum. For `Symbolum 0' in Greek may mean both Indicium (a token) and collatio (a collection), that is, that which several bring together into one; for the apostles effected this in these sentences by bringing together into one what each thought good.... Therefore being about to depart to preach, the apostles appointed that token of their unanamity and faith" (Ruf. De Symb. § 2). Cf. also § 1. "In these words there is truly discovered the prophecy which says: `Completing His work and cutting it short in righteousness, because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. 0'" This explanation, however, of the origin of the term labours under the fatal mistake of confusing two distinct Greek words sumbolh/ a "collection," and su/mbolon on a "watchword:" and the true explanation of the word is probably that which Rufinus gives as an alternative, which gives it the meaning of "watchword." It was the watchword of the Christian soldier, carefully and jealously guarded by him, as that by which he could himself be distinguished from heretics, and that for which he could challenge others of whose orthodoxy he might be in doubt.
6 Viz., Constantinople, where Nestorius was Bishop and where Cassian himself had been ordained deacon by S. Chrysostom, as he tells us below in Book VII. c. xxxi., where he returns to the subject of his love for the city of his ordination, and interest in it.
10 Persius Sat. iii. l. 116. . . "quod ipse non sani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes."
11 Petschenig's text is as follows: Ut quid doceas Christianos ? Christum non credere, cum ipsum in cujus Dei templo sint Deum negare. Gazaeus edits: Ut quid doces Christianos, Christum non credens ? Cum ipsum, in cujus Dei templo sunt, Deum neges.
12 Cicero in Verr. Act. II. Book l. xv. 40.
13 Ut, quia tu esse nolis quod omnes sint omnes sins, quod tu velis (Petschenig). Gazaeus has: Et quia tu esse nolis quod omnes sunt quod tu velis: a text which he confesses must be corrupt.
14 The reference is the ceremony known as the Traditio Symboli, which is thus described by Professor Lumby . "The practice of the early church in the admission of converts to baptism seems to have been of this nature. For some period previous to their baptism (the usual seasons for which were Easter and Pentecost) the candidates for admission thereto were trained in the doctrines of the faith by the presbyters. A few days before they were to be baptized ( the number of days varying at different periods) the Creed was delivered to them accompanied with a sermon. The ceremony was known as Traditio Symboli, the delivery of the Creed. At the time of Baptism each candidate was interrogated upon the articles of the Creed which he had received, and was to return an answer in the words which had been given to him. This was known as Redditio Symboli, the repetition of the Creed, and Baptism was the only occasion on which the Creed was introduced into any public service of the Church." History of the Creeds, pp. 11, 12.
18 Homoousios parienti debet esse nativitas.
21 Phil. ii. 7, 8; S. John i. 14; 2 Cor. viii. 9.
22 Cf. Augustine, Tr. 78 in Joan.
35 Dominicus homo, see above on V. v.
41 1 Cor. ii. 8. See the note on IV. vii.
2 Cf. S. Luke x. 19; Ps. xc. (xci.) 13.
6 Onocentauri: the allusion is to Is. xxxiv. 14, 15. Cf. Jerome in Esaiam, Bk. X.
8 Abluto eo (Petschenig): Ab luto eo (Gazaeus).
13 Ex inanimis ex insensibilibus sensibilia nascuntur (Petschenig). The text of Gazaeus has ex atomis animalia nascuntur.
14 Cf. Virgil's Georgics IV. Rufinus, on the Apostle's Creed (c. xi.) gives the same illustration of the Incarnation, and cf. with the passage in the text S. Basil Hom. in Hexaem, IX. ii.
22 Gen. xxxii. 30. The name Israel was in the 4th and 5th centuries commonly explained to mean the "man seeing God" as if it came from #$%)e h)/r/
, and l)'
S. Jerome (Quaest. in Genesim c. xxxii. ver. 27, 28) rejects this interpretation as forced and prefers "a Prince with God." Hence the rendering in the A.V. "For as a Prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed." This however is now generally rejected, and the right interpretation of the name appears to be "He who striveth with God." Cf. R.V. "For thou hast striven with God and men, and hast prevailed." Cf. the Conferences, Pref. and V. xxiii. XII. xi.
23 Isa. xl. 9; xxv. 9; ix. 6, 7.
58 Ille enim; viz., Pelagius. This appears to be the true reading, though one Ms. followed by Gazaeus has Leporius ille enim; a reading which would involve the supposition that there were two persons of the name of Leporius, master and scholar.
63 Tantam Petschenig. Tamen Gazaeus.
65 I nunc Petschenig. The text is however doubtful. One ms. reading is In hunc, and another jam nunc.
67 S. Hilary of Poictiers (ob. a.d.. 368). The reference is of course to his banishment to Phrygia by the Emperor Constantius in 356, because of his resolute defense of the Nicene faith against Arianism.
68 De Trinitate II. xxv., xxvii.; X. vii.
69 This preface to Hilary's work on S. Matthew is now lost, though the commentary itself still exists. See Opera S. Hilarii Pictav: (Verona, 1730). Vol. i. 658.
71 S. Ambrose. De Virg. Lib. i. xlvi.
73 These words are not found in any extant writings of S. Ambrose, but something very like them occurs in S. Augustine's Sixth Sermon in Natali Domini.
79 There is no authority for the reading of Cuyck and Gazaeus "Magnus Sacerdos." On the coldness with which Augustine is here spoken of see the Introduction, p. 191. Note.
80 August. Tract. II. in Johan. xv.
82 Aliud in Deum adsumiter, aliud in Deitatis gratiam proestat. So Petschenig edits. The text of Gazaeus has aliud Deitatis gratia proestat.
83 Greg. Nazianz. Oratio xxxviii. The Greek of the passage which Cassian translates is as follows: proelqw\n de\ Qeo\j meta\ thj proslh/yewj e$n e0k du/o tw=n e0nanti/wn, sarko\j kai\ pneu/matoj. w[n to\ me\n e0qe/wse to\ de\ e0qew/qh, w\ th=skainh=j mi/cewj, w\ th=j parado/cou kra/sewj, o9 w@n gi/netai kai\ o9 a!ktistoj ktizetai kai\ o9 a0xw/rhtoj xwrei=tai dia/ me/shj yuxh=j noera=j mesiteuou/shj qeo/thti kai\ sarko\j paxu/thti, kai\ o9 ploutizwn ptwxeu/ei. Oratio xxxix. Ti/ gi/netai kai\ ti/ to\ mega peri\ h9ma=j musth/rion kainotomou=ntai fu/seij kai\ Qeo\j a!nqrwpoj gi/netai . . . kai\ o9 ui9o\j tou= Qeou= de/xetai kai\ ui9o\j a0nqrw/pou gene\sqai te kai\ klhqh=nai, ou0x o$ h0n metabalw\n, a!treptonu ga\r, a!ll o0 ouk h\n proslabw\n, fila/nqrwpoj ga/r, i!na xwrhqh9 o9 a0xw/rhtoj.
84 See the orations against the Arians IV. The Greek is as follows: Skopo\j toi/nun ou[toj kai\ xarakth\r th=j grafh=j, w9j polla/kij ei#pomen, diplh=n e\nai th\n peri\ tou= swth=roj a0paggeli/an e0n au0th=, o#ti te a0ei\ Qeo\j h\n kai\ e!stin o9 ueo/j, lo/goj w\n kai\ a0pau/gasma kai\ sofi/a tou= patroj, kai\ o#ti u#steron di0 h9ma=j sa/rka labw\n e0k parqe/nou th=j qeoto/kou Maria/j a#nqrwpoj ge/gonen.
85 Ibid. polloi\ gou=n a#gioi gego/nasi kai\ kaqaroi\ pa/shj a9arti/aj. 9Ieremi/aj de\ kai\ e0k koili/aj h\gia/sqh kai\ 0Iwa/nnhj e!ti kuoforou/menoj e0skirthsen e0n a0gallia/sei e0pi\ th= fwnh= th=j Qeoto/kou Mari/aj.
86 The passage has not been identified with any now extant in the writings of S. Chrysostom.
87 S. Chrysostom had been taken from Antioch for the Bishopric of Constantinople: and after the death of Sisinnius in 426, as there was so much rivalry and party spirit displayed at Constantinople, the Emperor determined that none of that Church should fill the vacant see, but sent for Nestorius from Antioch, where he had already gained a great reputation for eloquence (cf. Socrates H. E. VII. xxix.). It is to the fact that both S. Chrysostom and Nestorius came from the same city that Cassian alludes in the text.
88 The reference is to Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Constantinople from 379 to 381 when he retired in the interests of peace to Nectarius who was chosen to succeed him, and occupied the post from 381 to 397; and to his successor, S. John Chrysostom 397 to 404.
