Gennadius of Massilia

Gennadius of Marseilles ( † about 496 ), also known as Gennadius Scholasticus or Gennadius of Massilia, was a Christian priest and historian.

His most famous work is De Viris Illustribus (over famous men ), biographies of more than ninety major contemporary Christians, with whom he continues an eponymous work of Jerome.

Life

Gennadius was a priest in Marseille ( Massilia back then ) and a contemporary of Pope Gelasius I. about his life except what he himself wrote in the last of his biographies, nothing is known. "I, Gennadius, presbyter of Massilia wrote eight books against all heresies, five books against Nestorius, Eutyches against ten books, three books against Pelagius, a treatise on the thousand years of the Apocalypse of John, this work and a letter about my faith that I sent to the blessed Gelasius, Bishop the city of Rome. " Gelasius reigned 492-496, so that Gennadius must have lived at the end of the 5th century.

Writings

Gennadius knew Greek and was equally at home in East and the West, Orthodox as heretical Christian literature. He was a diligent translator and a competent critic.

De Viris Illustribus

De Viris Illustribus in its most common form was probably published around 495, and includes brief biographies of churchmen from the years 392 to 495, it is a very important source, sometimes even the only one for which more than ninety authors that are presented here.

It is a continuation of Jerome's " De Viris Illustribus " in which for the first time a series of 135 short biographies of famous Christians compiles this, including a list of their most important works. It was the first Patrology and the first reference book on Christian biographies. This book was so useful that it was understandably popular, and many sequels inspired by the same method, including that of Paterius, a student of Jerome, and a Greek translation by Sophronius.

Gennadius ' continued but became the most popular and widely as the second part of Jerome's accepted work: it was always written or printed together with him. Gennadius ' part contains about a hundred lifetimes reports that are designed by Jerome template. Various editions and reprints: number, though not consistently; Bernoulli i chose to xcvii with some marked as xciib etc. where is the original cxxxvi to ccxxxii.

The series is arranged more or less chronologically, but there are frequent exceptions. In the biography xc, 92, he says ( in one version), the Theodor von Coelesyria ( Theodule ) " died three years ago, in the reign of Zeno ," from which Czapla concludes that Gennadius 491-494 wrote.

The present form of the work suggests a repeated revision. Other authors have changed it or added ( without reference, as was common in the Middle Ages ), some of. Some researchers, including Richardson and Czapla assume that the chapter xxx ( John of Jerusalem), lxxxvii ( Victorinus ), XCIII ( Caerealis of Africa ) and the final ( xvc - ci) are not authentic. There are doubts about other parts.

Other writings

Gennadius lists a number of other works, most of which have not been preserved:

• Adversus omnes Haereses libri viii, "Against all heresies " in 8 books
• Five books against Nestorius
• Ten books against Eutyches
• Three books against Pelagius
• Tractatus de millenio et de apocalypsi beati Johannis, "Treatise on the thousand years of the Apocalypse of John "
• Epistola de fide, a "good faith letter " to Pope Gelasius.
• Evagrius Ponticus and works of Timothy Aelurus, translated and brought to their original shape - and also lost.

De ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus

The treatise De ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus ( " About Church dogmas ") was formerly attributed to Augustine of Hippo, but today Gennadius.

Some researchers ( Caspari, Bardenhewer, Czapla ) suggest that this is a fragment from Gennadius eight books "against all heresies ", obviously the last part, in which he created after the refutation of all the heretics, a positive system.

Expenditure

De Viris Illustribus was edited by J. Andrew ( Rome, 1468 ), Johann Albert Fabricius in Bibliotheca ecclesiastica (Hamburg, 1718), and EC Richardson in TU, xiv. (Leipzig, 1896). It is also included in many editions of the works of Jerome.

The Liber de ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus was published as an appendix of the Benedictine edition of the writings of St. Augustine.

Sentiments and views

There are many references in " De Viris Illustribus " that the author was a Semi-pelagians. Semi-pelagians be praised ( Fastidiosus, lvi, p 80;. John Cassian, lxi, 81; Faustus of Riez, lxxxv, 89), however, Pelagians ( Pelagius himself, xlii, 77, of Julian Eclanum, xlv, 77) are heretics; Catholics are shabbily treated ( Augustine of Hippo, xxxviii, 75; Prosper of Aquitaine, lxxxiv, 89), and even Popes are called heretics ( Julius I. i, 61).

The same tendency can be seen in the treatise De ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus that is full of semi-Pelagianism, overtly or covertly (the original sin is carefully avoided, persistently drawn to the free will and predestination is rejected, seen grace as a adjutorium in the mildest form, etc. ).

Gennadius considering (such as later writers, such as Thomas Aquinas ), that all people, even those who will live at the judgment must die - a conviction which, although derived from a widespread patristic tradition, as he admits, of both Catholics as is rejected by the Church Fathers.

Of the theories that relate to the soul of man, and which will later be the creationist and the tradutianistische approach called, it chooses the creationist. He does not allow the existence of mind as a third element in man next to the body and the soul, but it considered as a different name for the soul.

In De ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus he gives his views on the following points known:

• A heretical baptism must not be repeated, unless it has been run by heretics who reject the invocation of the Trinity.
• He basically recommends the weekly reception of the Eucharist, except under the weight of mortal sin, in which he demands public penance.
• However, he does not deny that private penance may be sufficient; but just here he keeps visible signs, such as the change of clothes, desirable.
• The daily reception of Holy Communion is not required by or rejected by him.
• Evil is an invention of Satan.
• Although celibacy is a higher monetary value than the marital status, the condemnation of marriage is to be regarded as Manichaeism.
• A twice married Christian should not be ordained.
• Churches should named after martyrs, the relics of the martyrs be honored.
• Only the baptized person obtains eternal life; However, not catechumens, unless they suffer martyrdom.
• Thorough penance benefits the Christians themselves in the last breath.
• The Creator alone knows our secret thoughts. Satan can only learn by our expressions of life.
• Miracles can be in God's name also causes of bad people. On the other hand, may be holy people without such signs.
• The free will of man is steadfast claims assigned to the beginning of all virtue, however, of divine grace.

The language of the Gennadius is not Augustinian here; However, it is not Pelagian.