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 SAMOSATA

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SAMSON

gives a fuller list including two aged bishops, Anas- tasius and George. St. Sabinianus, b. at Samos and martjTed under Aurelian, is venerated on 29 January, at Troves in Champagne; there is also a St. Leo, d. at Samos, venerated on 29 April, but he seems very legendary. At first a suffragan of Rhodes, Samos was an autocephalous archdiocese in 1730; in 1855 it was a metropohtan see as at present, dependent on the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople. In I Mach., XV, 23, the Roman senate makes kno^Ti to Samos (Samus) the decree favourable to the Jews. St. Paul stayed there for a short time (Acts, xx, 15).

Smith, Diet ~ of Greek and Roman Geog., a. v.: Rosen, Reison auf den gricch. Jnseln (Stuttgart, 1843), 139-150; Lacroix, lies de la Grece (Paris, 1853), 2U-5S; Gvtms, Description de Vile de PalmOS et de Vile de Samos (Paris, 1856), 123-324; Guinet, La Turque d'Asie, I, 498-523; Stamatiades, Samiaca (5 vols., in Greek, Samos, 1886) ; Bcrcblner, Das ionische Samos (Amberg, 1892; Munich, 1896).

S. Vailhe.

Samosata, a titular see in Augusta Euphratensis, suffragan of Hierapolis, capital of Commagenum, whose kings were relatives of the Seleucides. The first was Mithridates I Callinicus (d. 96 b. c); his son and successor, Antiochus I, died before 31 B. c, when the country was governed by Mithridates, an ally of Anthony at Actium; then followed his other son, Antiochus II, whom Octavius summoned to Rome and condemned in 29 b. c. In 20 b. c. Mithridates III became king, then Antiochus III, who died in 17 b. c, in which j'ear Tiberius united Commagenum to the province of S^Tia. In 38 Caligula gave the province to King Antiochus IV Epiphancs Magnus, afterwards deposed, later restored by Claudius in 41, and deposed again in 72 by Cajsennius Partus, Governor of Syria. The sons of Antiochus withdrew to Rome and Com- magenum passed under Roman administration. A civU metropolis from the days of Emperor Hadrian, Samosata was the home of the sixteenth Legio Flavia Firma and the terminus of several military roads. The native city of Lucian, the philosopher and satirist, and of Paul, Bishop of Antioch in the third centurj^ it had seven mart3Ts: Hipparchus, Philotheus etc., who suffered under Maximinus Thrax, and whose "Passion" was edited by Assemani ("Acta S8. martjTum orient, et Occident.", II, 124-47; see also Schultess in "Zeitschr. der deutschen morgenland- ischen Gesellschaft", LI (1897), 379. St. Daniel the Stylite was born in a village near Samosata; St. Rabulas, venerated on 19 February, who lived in the sixth century at Constantinople, was also a native of Samosata. A "Notitia episcopatuum " of Antioch in the sixth century mentions Samosata as an auto- cephalous metropolis ("I^chos d'Orient", X, 144); at the Photian Council of 879, the See of Samosata had already been united to that of Amida or Diar- bekir (Mansi, "Conciliorum collectio", XVII-XVIII, 44o^ As in .580 the titular of Amida bears only this title Ha: Quien, "Oriens christianus", II, 994), it must be concluded that the union took place between the seventh and the ninth centuries. Among the earlier bishops may be mentioned Pcperius at Nica;a (325); St. Eusebius, a great opponent of the Arians, killed by an Arian woman, honoured on 22 June; Andrew, a vigorous opponent of St. Cyril of Alexan- dria and of the Council of Ephesus (Le Quien, "Oriens christianus", II, 933-6). Chabot gives a list of twenty-eight Jacobite bi.shops ("Revue de I'Orient chr^;tien", VI, 203). In February, 1098, the emir Baldoukh, attacked by liaudouin of Antioch, cut his army to pieces there. In 1114 it was one of the chief quarters of the Mussulmans ho.stile to the Count of Edessa, to whom it succumbed, but was recaptured by the MuRsulmans about 1149. At present tlu; ruins of Samosata may be seen at Samsat on the right bank of the Euphrates, in the caza of Husni Man.sour and the vilayet of Mamouret-<'l-Aziz; there are remains of a wall towards the south, traces of the ancient wall

dating probably from the first century, and finally the artificial hill on which the fortress was erected.

Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geog., a. v.; Humanx and PrcHSTEiN, Reisen in Kleintsien u. Nord Syrien (1890), 191; Marquardt, Manuel des antiquites romaines, II (Paris, 1892), 340-3; Chapot in Bulletin de correspondance hellenique, XXVI, 203-5; Idem, La frontiere de VEuphrate (Paris, 1907), 269-71.

S. Vailh^.

Sampson, Richard, Bishop of Chichester and sub- sequently of Coventry and Lichfield; d. at Eccleshall, Staffordshire, 25 Sept., 1554. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Paris, and Sens. Having become Doctor of Canon Law, he was appointed by Wolsey chancellor and vicar-general in his Diocese of Tournay, where he lived till 1517. Meanwhile he gained English preferment, becoming Dean of St. Stephen's, Westminster, and of the Chapel Ro3^al (1516), Archdeacon of Cornwall (1517), and prebendary of Xewbold (1519). From 1522 to 1525 he was ambassador to Charles V. He was now Dean of Windsor (1523), Vicar of Stepney (1526), and held prebends at St. Paul's and at Lichfield; he was also Archdeacon of Suffolk (1529). Being a man of no principle, and solely bent on a distinguished ecclesiastical career, he became one of Henry VIII's chief agents in the divorce proceedings, being re- warded therefor by the deanery of Lichfield in 1533, the rectory of Hackney (1534), and treasurership of Salisbury (1535). On 11 June, 1536, he was elected schismatical Bishop of Chichester, and as such furthered Henrj^'s political and ecclesiastical policy, though not sufficiently thoroughly to satisfy Cranmer. On 19 Feb., 1543, he was translated to Coventry and Lichfield on the roj^al authority alone, without papal confirmation. He held his bishopric through the reign of Edward VI, though Dodd says he was deprived for recanting his disloyalty to the pope. Godwin the Anglican wTiter and the Catholic Pitts both agree that he did so retract, but are silent as to his deprivation. He WTote in defence of the royal prerogative "Oratio" (1533) and an explanation of the Psalms (1539-48) and of Romans (1546).

Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII (London, 1884) ; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII (London, 1831-52); Friedmann, Anne Boleyn (London, 1884); Cooper, Athenm Canlabrigienses (Cambridge, 1858-61); Pitts, De illusiribus Anglice Scrip- toribus (Paris, 1619); Dodd, Church History, I (Brussels vere. Wolverhampton, 1739-42); Archbold in Diet. Nat. Biog.

Edwin Burton.

Samson, Saixt, bishop and confessor, b. in South Wales; d. 28 July, 565 (?). The date of his birth is unknown. His parents, whose names are given as Amon of Dyfed and Anna of Gwynedd, were of noble, but not royal, birth. While still an infant he was dedicated to God and entrusted to the care of St. Illtyd, by whom he was brought up in the monas- tery of Llantwit Major. He showed exceptional talents in his studies, and was eventually ordained deacon and priest by St. Dubric. After this he re- tired to another monastery, possibly that on Caldy Island, to i)ract ise greater austerities, and some years later became its abbot. About this time some Irish monks who were returning from Rome haijjiened to visit Samson's monastery. So struck was the abbot by their learning and sanctity that he accompanied them to Ireland, and there remained some time. Dur- ing his visit he received the submission of an Irish monastery, and, on his return to Wales, sent one of his uncles to act as its superior. His fame as a worker of miracles now attracted so much attention that he resolved to found a new monastery or cell "far from the haunts of men", and accordingly retired with a few companions to a lonely spot on the banks of the Severn. II(! was soon discovered, however, and forced by his fellow-countrymen to become abbot of the monastery formerly rulecl by St. (Jermanus; here St. Dubnc cons(H;rated him bishop but without ap- pointment to any particular see. Now, being warned