Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/544

 MONOPHYSITES

490

MONOPHYSITES

Under Ecttciiianism somethinp has been said of his thcolog>-, and more will bo found below. Of his works a fr:mmont on the Two Naliin-.s, is in Migno (P. G., LXXXVl, 273). The unpublished Syriac col- lection of his works (in British Mas., MiS. Addit. 12Io, .sixth cent.) contains (a) a treatise against the "Dyophysites" (Catholics) which consists mainly of a collection of extracts from the Fathers against the Two N'atvires, the last of the (Stations being from let- ters of Dioscurus. This is, however, but a summary of a larger work, which has recently been published entire in an Armenian Iran.-ilation under the title of "Refutation of the Council of Chalcedon". We learn from Justinian that the original was written in e.xilc. (b) Extracts from a l(>tter written to the city of Constantinople against the Eutychianizers Isaitis of Hermo[)olis and Theophilus, followed by another florUcgium from "the Eatliors" (almost entirely from ApoUinarian forgeries). This letter is preserved en- tire by Zacharias (in Hist. Misc., IV, xii, where it is followed by the second letter), and also in the "Cliron- icle" of Slichael the Syrian, (c) A second letter against the same, (d) Extracts from two letters to all Egj-pt, the Thebaid, and Pcntapolis on the treat- ment of Catholic bishops, priests, and monks who should join the Monophysites. (e) A refutation of the Synod of Chalcedon and of the Tome of Leo, written between 45-1 and 4G0, in two parts, according to the title, and concluding with extracts from the "Acts" of the Robber Synod and four documents con- nected with it. (f) A short prayer which Blessed Timothy used to make over those who returned from the communion of the Dyophysites. (g) Exposition of the faith of Timothy, sent to the Emperor Leo by Count Rusticus, and an abridged narration of what Bubsequently happened to him. A similar supplica- tion of .Elurus to Leo, sent by the silentiary Diomede, is mentioned by Anastasius Sin. The contents of this MS. are largely cited by Lebon. A translation into Latin of patristic testimonies collected by ^Elurus was made by Gennadius Massil, and is to be identified with the Armenian collection. A Coptic list of Timothy's works mentions one on the Canticle of Canticles. The "Plerophoria" (33, 36) speak of his book of "Narrations", from which Crura (p. 71) de- duces an ecclesiastical history by Timothy in twelve books. Lebon does not accept the attribution to Timothy of the Coptic fragments by which Crum established the existence of such a work, but he finds (p. 110) another reference to a historical work by the patriarch in MS. Addit. 14602 (Chabot, "Docii- menta", 225 sqq.).

Peter Mongus (q. v.) of Alexandria was not a writer. His letters in Coptic are not genuine; though a com- plete Armenian text of them has been published, which is said to be more probably authentic. Peter FuUo (q. V.) of Alexandria similarly left no WTitings. Letters addressed to him exist, but are certainly spuri- ous. Ti-molhy IV, Patriarch of Alexandria (517- 535), composed "Antirrhetica" in many books. This polemical work was lost; but a homily of his remains and a few fragments. Theodosius, Patriarch of Alex- andria (10-11 Februarj', 535, and again July, 535-537 or 538) has left us a few fragments and two letters. The Sevorians of Alexandria were called Theodosians after him, to distinguish them from the Gaianites who followed his IncorruptibiUst rival Gaianus. The lat- ter left no writings.

Severus: The most famous and the most fertile of all the Monophysite writers was Severus, who was Patri- arch of Antioch (512-51S), and died in 5.38. We have his early Ufe written by his friend Zacharias Scholasti- cus; a complete biography was comi)osed soon after his death by John, the superior of the monastery where Severus had first embraced the monastic Ufe. He was born at Sozopolis in I'isidia, his father being a senator of the city, and descended from the Bishop of SozopoUa

who had attended the Council of Ephesus in 431. After his father's deat h he was sent to study rhetoric at Alex- andria, being yd .i r.itccliumen, as it was the custom in Pisidia t(l<lay li.iptism until a beard should appear. Zacharias, wlio was liis fellow-student, testifies to his brilliant talents and the great progress he made in the study cif rhetoric. He was enthusiastic over the an- cient orators, and also over Libanius. Zacharias in- duced him to read the correspondence of Libanius with St. Basil, and the works of the latter and of St. Greg- ory of Nazianzus, and he was conquered by the power of Christian oratory. Severus Vvfent to study law at Berytus about the autumn of 486, and he was fol- lowed thither by Zacharias a year later. Severus was later accused of having been in youth c. worship- per of idols and a dealer in magical arts (so the libellus of the Palestinian monks at the council of 536), and Zacharias is at pains to refute this calumny indirectly, though at great length, by relating interesting stories of the discovery of a hoard of idols at Menuthis in Egypt and of the routing of necromancers and en- chanters at Berytus; in both these exploits the friends of Severus took a leading part, and Zacharias asks tri- umphantly whether they would have consorted with Severus had he not agreed with them in the hatred of paganism anil sorcery. Zacharias continued to influ- ence him, by his own account, and induced him to de- vote the free time which the students had at their dis- posal on Saturday afternoons and Sundays to the study of the Fathers. Other students joined the pious company of which an ascetic student named Evagrius became leader, and every evening they prayed to- gether in the church of the Resurrection. Severus was persuaded to be baptized. Zacharias refused to be his godfather, for he declared that he did not communi- cate with the bishops of Phoenicia, so Evagrius stood sponsor, and Severus was baptized in the church of the martyr, Leontius, at Tripolis.

After his baptism Severus renounced the use of baths and betook himself to fasting and vigils. Two of his companions departed to become monks under Peter the Iberian. When the. news of the death of that famous monk (488) arrived, Zacharias and sev- eral others entered his monastry of Beith-Aphthonia, at the native place of Zacharias, the port of Gaza (known also as Maiuma), where Peter had been bishop. Zacharias did not persevere, but retiu'ned to the practice of the law. Severus intended to prac- tise in his own country, but he first visited the shrine of St. Leontius of Tripolis, the head of St. John Bap- tist at Emesa, and then the holy places of Jerusalem, with the result that he joined Evagrius who was al- ready a monk at Maiuma. The great austerities there did not suffice for Severus, and he preferred the Ufe of a solitary in the desert of Eleutheropolis. Hav- ing reduced himself to great weakness he was obliged to pass some time in the monastery founded by Ro- man us, after which he returned to the laura of the port of Gaza, in which was the convent of Peter the Ibe- rian. Here he spent what his charities had left of his patrimony in building a monastery for the ascetics who wished to Uve under his direction. His quiet was rudely disturbed by Nephalius, a former leader of the Acephali, who was said to have once had 30,000 monks ready to march on Alexandria when, at the end of 482, Peter Mongus accepted the Henoticon and became patriarch. Later on Nephalius joined the more mod- erate Monophysites, and finally the Catholics, accept- ing the Council of Chalcedon. About 507-8 he came to Maiuma, preached against Severus, and obtained the expulsion of the monks from their convents. Se- verus betook himself to Constantinople with 200 monks, and remained there three years, influencing the Emperor Anastasius as far as he could in the sup- port of the Henoticon, against the Catholics on the one hand and the irreconcilable Acephali on the other. He was spoken of as successor to the Patriarch Mace-