3 Græc. the tenth of January', and the Latin on the ninth of March. A. D. 394. We find nothing more of St. Amphilochius, whose memory 1 Menolog. the Church honours on the twenty-third of November; Martyrol. St. Gregory of Nazianzus witnesses3 that he used to cure the sick by prayer, and by the oblation of the Holy Sacrifice. He left several writings which were very much esteemed by A.D. 375.] Antiquity, but of which there are now hardly any remains. Carm. 52. p. 1030. 125. A. v. 243. scr. [S. Greg. 2. p. 114.] Among the writings of St. Gregory of Nyssa is a Canonical Epistle' written in his old age to Letoïus, Bishop of Melitine Conc.tom. in Armenia, whom he calls his spiritual son. It seems to be 2. p. 1775. part of a Paschal letter, and the rules for penance which he Nyss. tom. lays down in it are more severe than those of his brother St. Basil, though equally founded on the tradition of the ancients; which shew the difference of these traditions, even in neighbouring Churches. For voluntary apostasy, penance was due throughout life'; the penitent was to be for ever [ p. 117.] excluded from public prayers; he was to pray in private, and was not suffered to receive the communion" till he was [Tàμdying. If he had apostatized through weakness and over- κὰ ἁγιάσ come by torture, he was to undergo the penance due for fornication, that is, for nine years. Those who sought after enchanters and diviners', if they did it through contempt c. 2. of religion, are treated as apostates; but if it was through frailty or weakness of spirit, they are treated as those who [Ko had yielded under torture. 9 ματα.] 7 ψυχίας. Vid. Ono Chrys.tom. 13.] 9 c. 3. [p. 119.] [' ὑποπίπε For fornication there was to be nine years' penancek; mast. S. three years of which the guilty were to be entirely excluded from the prayers, three years to be only Auditors, and three years to be Prostrate'. For adultery double the time was imposed in the same manner, that is, eighteen years. Sins τοντες.] against nature' are ranked with adultery; St. Basil3 im[p. 118.] posed four years' penance' for the sin of fornication, and for bk. 17. ch. adultery, fifteen'. For voluntary homicide" St. Gregory has 15. 4 Ep. [199.] set down three times nine years, that is, twenty-seven; nine ad Amphiyears in each of three conditions, of which the first is en- [etEp.217.] tire exclusion from the Church, the second that of Auditor, Supra, loch. c. 22. c. 80. ibid. c. 4. [5.] A. D. 394. and the third Prostration in prayer; for involuntary homiS. Greg. cide', as in the case of fornication, nine years. St. Basil' imposed ten years for involuntary homicide. St. Gregory Ep. [217.] c. 56, 57. placed robbery by open force3 in the same rank with homicide, c. 5. [6.] but for simple theft he defined no particular time of penance, but obliged the culprit to make restitution by alms, and would have those, who had no possessions, make satisfaction Eph.4.28. by bodily labour, according to the precept of the Apostle'. [ p. 121.] He was himself surprised that by the tradition of the Fathers there were not more severe penalties prescribed to restrain avarice, and far from complaining of their rigour he wonders at their indulgence in many particulars. In general, he pronounced that those who came to confess their sins should be treated with greater gentleness than such as were accused and convicted against their will, and that according to the earnestness of the penitent, the Bishop ought to shorten the time of his penance. He requires, that if to any of these [Toù èpo- the communion is given on supposition that they were dying, they must if they recover, accomplish the time of their penance that remains unfinished. δίου, Viatici. Supr. ch. 18. note x.] LIII. The Dona It was at this time that St. Augustine being still a Priest' tists. began to write against the Donatists'; they had so increased Possid.c.7. their numbers in Africa that they had got there above four [Append. tom. 10. hundred Bishops, and the Catholic Church in those parts p. 262.] seemed to be overwhelmed by their numbers. His first *Retr.lib. 1. piece against them was a hymn in Acrostic verse', folAbece- lowing the order of the alphabet, as a help to the memory. darius.] c. 20. 8 tom.9. p. 1.] 3 21. 4 St. Augustine wrote it in a very simple style without ob- A. D. 394. serving any Latin measure, for fear of being obliged to put in words which the generality would not be able to understand; for he composed this hymn for the instruction of the most uneducated people. This proves that though the Punic language was at that time in use in that part of Africa, there were but few who did not understand Latin. In this hymn' [' Extat. St. Augustine gave a short account of the schism of the Donatists, and sets down the most obvious arguments for confuting them. He did not forget to reproach them with [LiteraL.] the Circumcelliones, and other wicked people whom they suffered among them. He wrote also3, whilst he was a Priest, Retract. 1. another piece which is lost, against the letter of Donatus', s. Aug. the second Donatist Bishop of Carthage. These schismatics Her. 69. [tom. 8. were taken at a great advantage at that time on account of P. 21.] their internal divisions"; for besides the great party whom 3 In Psalm. they styled pure Donatists, there were many other societies 19, &c. less numerous; each believing that they alone had the true [Cardinales.] Baptism, and were the True Church. Amongst these lesser De Bapt. 1.6. [tom.9. schisms of the Donatists there were the Claudianists, and the p. 84.] Urbanists, who existed in a corner of Numidia; the Roga- Contr. tists at Cartenna in Mauritania Cæsariensis, the chief of Crescon. 4. whom was Rogatus' [Bishop of Cartenna,] who had caused [p. 520.] [De unit. a schism about thirty years before. During the war of the c. 3.] tyrant Firmus", that is, about the year 372, they were perse- Petil. 2. 83. cuted by the other Donatists, and on that account they gave Ep. 93. ad [p. 269.] In consequence of the condemnation of the Donatists by the Church, imperial laws were enacted against them. (Contr. Ep. Parmen. 1. 19.) These were openly resisted by the fanatic Agonistici, by the Catholics called Circelliones or Circumcelliones (or Vagrants, circum cellas, hac illac euntes, nusquam sedes habentes. S. Aug. in Ps. 132. Contr. Gaudent. 28.), whose watchword was Deo laudes (c. lit. Petil. 2. 65.) and who, at first with clubs, afterwards with arms, assailed not only the Catholics (Ibid. 1. 17.), but the seceders from the Donatists (De gest. cum Emer. § 9). Their fanaticism led them to suicide, as a kind of martyrdom. (Brev. Coll. cum Don. 31. diei. § 13, 23. Contr. Ep. Parm. 3. § 29.) Those Donatists who did not disclaim them (for some did), alleged against the Catholics the excesses of Macarius (Ps. 7 8 36. Serm. 2. C. 9 1 Cont. lit. Vinc.11,12. c. Donat.) whom Constans sent (A.D. [tom. 2. "The tyranny of Count Romanus, A. D. 394. these last the name of Firmians'. But the greatest scandal Ep.87.ad was the schism of the Maximianists. Emerit. 10. p. 213.] LIV. Maximia nus. 2 de gest. cum Emer. p. 630.] nobilis bk. 2 ch.19. After the death of Parmenian, successor to Donatus, the Schism of Donatists elected Primianus to the Bishopric of Carthage; but the Deacon Maximianus' having been condemned and excommunicated by him, went to the neighbouring Bishops, $9. [tom.9. and formed a party against him, chiefly accusing him of reseniores ceiving unworthy persons to communion with him. The elders' simi. See among them wrote to all the Bishops of their party, entreating Bingham, them to come immediately to check the designs of Primianus; $ 19.] upon this they assembled at Carthage to the number of fortyIn Ps. 36. Serm. 2. 20. three; but Primianus would not appear, and they were [p. 278.] contented with ordering him to justify himself in a more Cresc.4.6.7. numerous Council, which they were afterwards to hold. They ["p. 487. F.] did assemble to the number of above a hundred at Cabarsussi in the province of Bizacena, where Primianus still refusing to [In Ps. 36. appear was condemned as guilty of several crimes, viz. 'of p.279.C.D.] having constituted successors to Bishops that were still living; ["incestos.] of having mingled the wicked with the communion of the 5 Contr. [ abdicare.] saints; of having engaged the Priests in a conspiracy against Maximianus, and three other Deacons; of causing the Priest Fortunatus to be thrown into a common-sewer, because he had baptized some sick persons; of having refused communion to the Priest Demetrius, in order to force him to forsake his son; and of having abused the elders of the Church, because they disapproved of his admitting the Claudianists to communion. To these accusations the Bishops of the Council added: "His having refused to present himself before us in "order to have his cause heard, his having joined with the [multitu- "people and officers' in shutting the door of the Basilicas to officio.] "hinder us from coming in, and his having contemptuously rejected the deputies whom we had sent to him." dine et For these and certain other crimes which they expressed, [p. 280.] besides those which they said shame hindered them from mentioning, they condemned Primianus, and warned all the Bishops, Clerks, and people, to avoid communion with him; allowing them however six months' time to declare in, namely, from the twenty-fourth of June, the day on which they pronounced sentence, to the twenty-fifth of December. These events are thought to have happened in the year 393. They 2 2 3 4 6 Cresc.3. 13. Contr. lit. Petil. 1. 10. Contr. 19, 53. c. 3. Cresc.3.56. et 4. 39. In Ps. 36. [p. 282.] Serm. 2.22. wrote this condemnation in a circular letter called Tractatoria', A. D. 394. signed by them, to the number of fifty-three. Having in [' ibid.] this manner condemned and deposed Primianus, they elected Contr. Maximianus Bishop of Carthage in his stead, the same Deacon whom Primianus had before condemned, and he was ordained by twelve3 Bishops, who laid their hands on him in the presence of the Clergy' of Carthage. Primianus seeing his adversary supported by several Bishops of the proconsular province of Cresc. 3. Bizacena and that of Tripolis", relied upon those of Mauritania De Unit. Ecc. [sive and Numidia, besides those of other provinces, who continued Epist. ad in his party, which was always the more numerous. He Cathol.] therefore assembled at Bagaia in Numidia a Council of three Contr. hundred and ten Bishops on the eighth of the calends of May, under the third Consulship of Arcadius and the second of Honorius, in the year 394, on the twenty-fourth of April. In this Council Primianus, not looking upon himself as condemned, sat with the judges', among whom his name stands second. They there condemned' Maximianus though absent, Emeritus', Bishop of Cæsarea in Mauritania, pronouncing the Mans. sentence in the following terms: "As by the Will of Almighty 857.] "GOD, and His CHRIST, we hold this Council in the city of 3. 53. "Bagaia, it hath seemed good to the HOLY SPIRIT, Which is "in us, to secure continual peace, and to cut off sacrilegious c. 10. p. 631. G.] "schisms." And afterwards: "Maximianus the opposer of c. Cresc. "the Faith, an adulterer' from the Truth, an enemy of our [Emu"mother the Church, a minister of Corah, Dathan and Abiram, veritatis "hath been cast out of the bosom of peace by the thunder- adulte"bolt of our sentence." The rest runs in the same style. They condemn by name the twelve Bishops who had ordained Maximianus, and in general all the Clergy of the Church of Carthage who had been present at his ordination; but as for the other Bishops' who had not laid their hands on him, they [c. 54.] allowed them eight months time to return to them, that is, to the twenty-fifth of December, after which time they were not to be received, but to remain condemned. tom. 3. p. 9 c. Cresc. ['de gest. 2 cum Emer. 3. 19. Ium.] rum.] LV. gustine and It was during the time of St. Augustine's Priesthood, that Friendship he contracted a friendship with St. Paulinus, afterwards of St. AuBishop of Nola, through St. Alypius, who had lately been St. Paulimade Bishop of Thagaste his native place. St. Alypius had us. known St. Paulinus at Milan, when he was baptized there, cum Emer. 6 de gest. $ 1, 5. |