Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/653

 PAUL

591

PAULUS

puted by his brethren to ask the saint's blessing. One asks, on the supposition that the Greek is the original, why St. Jerome changes devils into centaurs and satyrs. It is not surprising that stories of >St. Anthony meeting fabulous beasts in his mysterious journey should spring up among people with whom belief in such creatures lingered on, as belief in fairies does to the present day. The stories of the meeting of St. Paul and St. Anthony, the raven who brought them bread, St. Anthony being sent to fetch the cloak given him by "Athanasius the bishop" to bury St. Paul's body in, St. Paul's death before he returned, the grave dug by lions, are among the familiar legends of the Life. It only remains to add that belief in the existence of St. Paul seems to have existed quite inde- pendently of the Life.

Besides the writings of Bidez and Nau, see Butler, Lausiac Hist., etc., pt. i, p. 28.5, where he criti- cises Am*5Iineau's view that the Coptie version published by him was the original (Am6hneau'3 view seems to have found no supporters). and maintains the claim of the Latin. In Journ. of Theolog. Studies. Ill, 1.52, there is a notice concern- ing Bidez where Am^lineau again expres.sea the same opinion; later in a notice concerning Nau {ibid., V, 1.51), while still inclining to his old opinion, he says that after reading Nau he is "unable to arrive at a de- cision." The BoLLANDl8Ts(I, Jan., 602) gave a Latin translation of a Greek version (the original will be found in Analect. BoL, XI. 563), maintaining it was the original. FuHRM\NN in 1750 Ucia Sincera S. Pauli, etc.) published, as the original, another Greek version.

F. J. Bacchus.

Paul the Simple, Saint. —The story of Paul, as Pal- ladius heard it from men who had known St. Anthony, was as follows: Paul was a hu.s- bandman, very simple and guileless. One day, on dis- covering the infidelity of his wife, he set off to be a monk

St. Pai-l t

He knocked at the door of St. Anthony's cell. This is the substance of the dialogue which ensued: A. "What do you want?" P. "To be a monk." A. "It is quite impos- sible for you, a man of sixty. Be content with the hfe of a labourer, giving thanks to God." P. "What- soever you teach me I will do." A. "If a monk you must be, go to a cenobium. I live here alone only eat- ing once in five days." With this St. Anthony shut the door, and Paul remained outside. On the fourth day St. Anthony, fearing lest he should die, took him in. He set him to work weaving a rope out of palm leaves, made him undo what he had done, and do it again. When it was evening he asked him if he was ready to eat. Just as St. Anthony liked, was the re- ply. St. .\nthony produced some crusts, took one himself, and gave the old man three. Then followed a long grace — one Psalm said twelve times over, and as many prayers. When each had eaten a crust Paul was told to take another. P. "If you do, I will; if you don't, I won't." A. "I am a monk, and one is enough for me." P. " It is enough for me, for I am going to be a monk." Then came twelve prayers and as many Psalms, followed by a little sleep till midnight, and then again psalms were recited till it was day. Fi- nally Paul got what he wanted. .4fter he had lived with Anthony some months, the saint gave him a cell for himself some miles from his own. In a year's time the grace of healing and casting out devils was bestowed upon Paul. Then follows a story of how he was able to exorcize a fiend over whom even St. Anthony had no power.

The story of St. Paul in the " Hist, monachorum " is, as regards substantial facts, much the same as that of " Palladius ", but the atmosphere is different. In " Pal- ladius" St. Anthony is living quite alone; in the "His- toria" he is a kind of abbot of hermits. In " Palladius" he is reluctant to accept Paul; in the "Historia" he in- vites him to be a monk. In " Palladius " St. Anthony's purpose is to show Paul just what a hermit's life really was; in the "Historia" he subjects him to the rather conventional kinds of tests which any abbot might ap- ply to any postulant. The difference seems to amount chiefly to this: — "Palladius" apparently places the story in the time before, and the "Historia ' after St. Anthony began to have disciples. For different anecdotes concerning Paul the reader may be referred to Butler's "Lives of the Saints" or to Tillemont.

Butler, Lausiac Hist, of Palla- dius, pt. ii. 69-74, 201; Tillemont, //.£., VII, 144; BuDOE, Paradise 0/ the Holy Fathers. I, 125 sqq. (the story given in the last is a translation of Palladius).

F. J. Bacchus. Paulus Diaconus, also

c;illed C.\SINENSIS, Levita, and Warnefridi, historian, b. at FriuU about 720; d. 13 April, probably 799. He was a descendant of a noble Lom- bard family, and it is not un- likely that he was educated at the court of King Rachis at Pavia, under the direction of Flavianus the grammarian. In 763 we find him at the court of Duke Archis at Benevento, after the collapse of the Lombard kingdom, a monk in the monastery of Monte Cassino, and in 782 in the suite of Charlemagne, from whom he obtained by means of an elegy the release IE nERMiT. pj ^ brother taken prisoner

in 776 in consequence of the Friuli insurrection. After 787 he was again at Monte Cassino, where in all probability he died. His first literary work, evidently while he was still at Benevento, and done at the request of the Duchess Adelperga, was the "Historia Romana", an amplified and extended version of the Roman history of Eutropius, whose work he continued independently in Books XI to XVI, up to the time of Justinian. This compilation, now of no value, but during the Middle Ages diffused in many manuscript editions and frequently consulted, was edited with the work of Eutropius by Droysen in " Mon. Germ. Hist. : Auct. antiq.", II (1879), 4-224. Furthermore, at the instance of Angilram, Bishop of Metz, he compiled a history of the bishops of Metz "Liber de episcopis Mettensibus", or "Liber de ordine ct numero episcoporum in civitate Mettensi" extending to 766, in which he gives a circumstantial account of the family and ancestors of Charlemagne, especially Arnulf (P. L., XCV, 699-722).

The most important historical work which has come down to us from his pen is the history of the Lombards, "Historia gentis Langobardorum. Libri VI", the best of the many editions of this work being that of Beth- mann andWa^z in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script, rerum Langobardaruin", (1878), 45-187; school ed. (Han- over, 1878); Ger. tr. Abel (Berlin, 1849; 2nd ed., Leip- zig, 1878) ; Faubert (Paris, 1603) ; It. tr. Viviani (Udine, 1826). Despite many defects, especially in the chro- nology, the unfinished work, embracing only the period between 568 and 744, is still of the highest importance, setting forth as it does in lucid style and