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 hebe