Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/748

 SEDULIUS

680

SEDULIUS

dowrj'. WTien no promise of marriage has been given bj- the seducer and the woman has yielded freelj^ to his soheitations, the only obligation devolving on the man is one which he shares with his paramour, viz., to care for the fruit of their sin, if there is any. Strictly speaking, he has done no injury to her; she has accepted his advances. The only duty there- fore which emerges is one that touches, not her, but the possible offspring. It must be observed, however, that if he, by talking about his crime, has brought about the defamation of his partner or her parents, he will be obliged to make good whatever losses they sustain in consequence. Then, however, the im- mediate source of his responsibilitj' is not his criminal intercourse with her, but the shattering of her and her parents' reputation.

Sl.*.ter, Maniuil of Moral Theology (New York, 1908); Lehm- KUHL, Theologia Moralis (Fribourg, 1887); Genicot, Theologim Moralis Institutiones (Louvain, 1898) ; D ' Annibale, Summula Theologice Moralis (Rome, 1908).

Joseph F. Delany.

Sedulius, Christian poet of the fifth century. The name of Caelius, which at times precedes that of Sedulius, finds but little confirmation in the manu- scripts. All our information regarding his personal history comes from two sources. Isidore of Seville in his "De viris illustribus" assigns Sedulius the seventh place, before Possidius, while Avitus and Dracontius have respectively the twenty-third and twenty-fourth places. On the other hand, some manuscripts of Sedulius contain a biographical notice which may have been \\Titten by Gennadius. This account represents Sedulius as a lajinan, who lived at first in Italy and was devoted to the study of philosophy; consequently he probably wrote his works in Achaia during the reign of Theodosius the Younger (d. 450) and of Valentinian III (d. 455).

The principal work of Sedulius is a poem in five books called "Carmen paschale". The first book contains a summary of the Old Testament; the four others a summary of the New Testament. A prose introduction dedicates the work to a priest named Macedonius. The author says that he had given himself at first to secular studies and to the "barren diversions" of secular poetry. The poem Ls .skilfully written and is more original than that of Juvencus. Sedulius takes for granted a knowledge of the story of the Gospels, and this enables him to treat his subject more freely. He gives his at- tention chiefly to the thoughts and sentiments which would naturally arise from meditations on the sacred writings. He pays, however, less care to uniting the various parts ana making of them a coherent recital. He follows usually the Gospel of St. Matthew. His ordinary method of exegesis consists of allegory and eymboli.sm. Thus the four Evangelists correspond to the four sea.sons, the twelve Apostles to the twelve hours of the day and the twelve months, the four arms of the cross to the four cardinal points. The style is a skilful imitation and shows evidences of an extensive reading of Terence, Tibullus, Ovid, Lucan, and above all of Virgil. At times the rhetoric is unfortunately influenced by what he has read, as in the ten lines (V, .59-68) of invective against Judas. It is, however, in the prose paraphra.se of the "Carmen", the "Opus pa.schale", that the most unfortunate impression is produced. In the poem the language of Sedulius is dignified and almost classic, in the prose version it becomes difTuse, pre- tentious, and incorrect. The prose version, the "Opus paschale" was written at the request of the priest Macedonius in order, as it appears, to fill up the gaps of the poem. Facts scarcely indicated in the "Carmen" are treated at length in the "Opus", and the expressions borrowed from the Bible give the work a more ecclesiastical characU^r.

Sedulius also wrote two hymns. One is epanalep-

tic in form, that is, in the distich, the second half of the pentameter repeats the first half of the hexameter. Up to line 48 the author sets in opposition the tj'pes of the Old Testament and the realities of the New, a theme very favourable to epanalepsis. The poem is only of interest for the history of typology. In the sequence of these 110 lines other antitheses are utilized, notably those of the benefits of God and of the ingratitude of man. The other hymn ig abecedarian. It is composed of twenty-tliree strophes, each of which commences with a letter of the alphabet. The strophe is made of four iambic dimeters (eight syllables). The structure of these lines is generally correct, excepting an occasional hiatus and the lengthening of syllables when in difficulties. The poem is a summarj^ of the story of the Gospels, treated very freely, for in 92 lines 40 relate the child- hood of Christ. The diction is at the same time simple and distinguished, the style easy and concise. These qualities led the Church to take parts of this hymn for its offices: "A solis ortus cardine" for Christmas, and "Hostis Herodes impie" under the form of "Crudelis Herodes Deum" for Epiphany. It has also taken two lines of the "Carmen" (II, 63-64) to serve as the Introit in the Masses of the Blessed Virgin, "Salve Sancta Parens".

The best edition of Sedulius is that of J. Huemer in the "Corp. script, eccl. lat." (Vienna, 1885). From a note which is found in several manuscripts we learn that the works of Sedulius were edited as early as the fifth century by Turcius Rufius Asterius (consul in 494), author of a superscription in the Medicean manuscript of Virgil.

Huemer, De Sedulii poetce vita et ncriptis commentatio (Vienna, 1878) ; BoissiER, Le Carmen paschale et I'opus paschale in Journal des savants (Paris, Sept., 1881), 5.53; Idem in Revue de philologie, VI (Paris, 1882), 28.

Paul Lejay.

Sedulius Scotus, an Irish teacher, grammarian, and Scriptural commentator, who lived in the ninth century. Sedulius is sometimes called Sedulius the Younger, to distinguish him from Coelius Sedulius, also, probably, an Irishman, the author of the "Car- men Paschale", and other sacred poems. The Irish form of the name is Siadhal, or Shiel. Sedulius the Younger flourished from 840 to 860. There are, altogether, six Siadhals mentioned in the "Annals of the Four Masters" between the years 785 and 855. Of these, one was present at a council at Rome in 721, and another was Abbot of Kildare, and died in 828. The best known, however, and the most im- portant, was neither of these, but a Siadhal who, during the reign of the Emperor Lothair (840-855), was one of a colony of Irish teachers at Liege. It appears from the manuscript records of the ninth century that there was a teacher at St. Lambert, Li&ge, who was known as Sedulius Scotus, and was a scribe and a poet. He was a student of Greek, and, according to Montfau(,on, it was he who coi)ied the Greek Psalter now no. 8047 in the "Bil)liothoque de TAnsenale", Paris. His poems, to the number of ninety, are published by Traube in the " Poetie ^vi Carolini", which is a portion of the "Monumenta Germania' Ilistorica". It is quite probable that, towards the end of his days, he went to Milan, following (he example of his countryman, Dungal, who established a school at Pavia. When and where he died is unknown. Sedulius's most important works arc his treatise " De Rectoribus Christianis", a commentary on Porphyry's "Lsagoge", or intro- duction to the logic of Aristotle, and a scriptural commentary "Collectanea in omnes beati Pauli Epistolas". The first of these is a noteworthy con- tribution to Christian ethics. It is the first, appar- ently, of a long line of treatises written during the Mid- dle Ages for the; instruction of Christian princes and rulers, a dissertation on the duties peculiar to that