Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/172

 SOPHRONIUS

148

SORBAIT

Jerusalem. In compauy with John Moschus he trav- elled extensively through the East and also went to Rome. He probably became a monk in Egypt about 680 and later removed to Palestine. From the year 633 until his death he was the principal opponent of Monothelitism. Conspicuous lor his learning and piety he became in 634 Patriarch of Jerusalem, and sorrowfully witnessed during his reign the conquest of Palestine by the Arabs and their capture of Jerusa- lem. He must very probably be identified with the Sophronius known as the rhetorician (<ro0«rT^s), and was the author of biographies, homilies, and hymns. Among the first named are: his Life of John the Al- moner, written in collaboration with J. Moschus and only partly preserved in Symeon RIetaphrastes; the lives of Sts. Cyrus and John; and jirobably a Life of St. Mary of Egypt. Ten homilies which have been preserved deal chiefly with ecclesiastical festivals, and are remarkable for their dogmatic contents and ora- torical style. Numerous anacreontic odes entitle him to a place among Greek ecclesiastical poets. A large work in which he collected 600 testimonies of the Fathers in favour of the two wills of Christ has perished.

The most comprehensive collection of the works of Sophronius is found in P. G., LXXXVII. iii, 3147-4014; Venables in Diet. Christ. Biog., a. v. Sophronius(12y, Vailh^. Sophrone h sophi.':le et Sophrone h patriarche in Revue de VOrient Chretien, VII (1902), 360-85; VIII (1903), 32-69, 356-87; Babdenhewer-Shahan, Petrology (St. Louis, 1908), 559-61, 564-66.

N. A. Weber.

Sophronius, Bishop of Constantina or Telia in Osrhoeno, was a relative of Ibas, Bishop of Edessa, and apparently of the same theological tendencj', i. e. strongly anti-Monophysite and liable to be su.s- pccted of Nestorianism. He was pi'esent at a synod held at Antioch in 445 at which Athanasius, Bishop of Perrha, was deposed on charges of misconduct, the chief among which was that he had purloined some silver pillars belonging to the chui'ch. We have no means of judging whether these charges were true; very possibly, if not trumped up, they were too easily credited from partisan motives. Four years later at the Robber Council of Ephesus (q. v.) most extraordinary charges of magic and sorcery were brought against Bishop Sophronius. For some reason or other, perhaps because it was foreseen that the charges would break down, perhaps because he w"as not worth crushing in view of the more important personages being pursued, Sophronius' s case was re- ferred to the new Bishop of Edessa, when one should be appointed in place of Ibas whom the Conciii- abulum had deposed. Sophronius is next heard of at the Council of Chalcedon. At the eighth session, after Thcodoret had anathematized Nestorius, "the most reverend bishops cried out 'Let Sophronius also anathematize'. Sophronius, the most reverend bishop of Constantina, said 'anathema to Nestorius and Eutyches'".

The charges against Sophronius have only been brought to light in recent years bj' the discovery of a SjTiac version of tlie Acts of the Robber Council. They were made by a priest and two deacons of Telia (Constantina), who claimed to represent the rest of the clergy of that citj'. The bishoj), they declared, practised ;istrology and other vaticinative arts of the pagans. The iriiserable heresy of Nes- torius whit^h he had learnt from Ibas was not enough for him, so he threw himself into those other abomina- tions. He once lost some money, and not content with making the suspected persons swear on the Gospels, "he, further testing them by the ordeal of bread .■iiid cheese, compelled them to eat". This not succeeding, he had recourse to the divining cup. He u.sed tlic son of one of his servants as a medium, and with two others, after some incantations, placed the youth before a vessel containing oil and water. In this mixture the youth first saw flames of fire,

then "a man sitting on a throne of gold, and clad in purple and a crown upon his head". After this they put the oil and water in a hole near the door, anci the medium saw the bishop 's son Habib who was returning home from Constantino])le "seated on a black mare-mule that is blind-folded; and behind him two men on foot". The lad confessed these and other like things on oath. He was haunted by seven men di'essed in white and lost his reason, and was with difficulty cured by being brought into holy places and anointed with oil. Many persons, among others the copyists, could testify to Sophronius's astrological writings. A deacon who came to him, to have a ticket of alms signed, found him inspecting a brass sphere. His son Habib introduced a Jew into his father's house and ate with him after the manner of the Jews. "During the week of Lent, when we fast, he feasted with this Jew, and kept him at table till ten o'clock; and even carried his audacity (so far as) to bring him into the Sanctuary of the Apos- tles, at the time that Service was being held. The city and the clergy, shocked by this conduct, chased both the Jew and Habib, who sought refuge in the Prsetorium of the Commandant (Duke) Florus. The impious and pagan Florus rushed upon the city, where (his people) laid violent hands on a great number of men and children — certainly more than a hundred. In despair, these took refuge near the Tabernacle; but the arrows reached their bodies, their blood was shed before the Altar, and many died in the act of embracing it."

The iSecond Synod of Ephesus, from Svriac MSS., ed. Perry (Dartford, 1881), pp. 189-199; see nvt. Sophron. of Constantine in Diet, of Christ. Biog.

Francis J. Bacchus.

Sora. See Aquino, Sora, and Pontecorvo, Dio- cese OF.

Sora, a titular see in Paphlagonia, suffragan of Gangra. Sora must have been an insignificant town; an inscription discovered at Zorah, a village in the vilayet of Castamouni, in which a local era and the worship of Zeus Epicarpios are mentioned, has enabled its exact position to be fixed. (Doublet in "Bull, de correspondance hellcnique", 1889, p. 310.) It was placed later under the government of the Prsetor of Paphlagonia (Novel., 29, 1; Hierocles, 69.5, 7). It is spoken of by Constant ine Porphy- rogenitus, "De themat.", I, 7. Le Quien ("Oriens christ.", I, 5.57), mentions six of its bishops: Theodore, represented by his metropolitan at the Council of Chalcedon (451); Olympius, who signed the letter of the bishops of the pro\-ince to Emperor Leo in 458; John, present at the Council of Constantinople (692); Theophanes, at the Seventh CEcumenical Council of NicEea (787); Phoca-s, at the eighth gen- eral Council at Constantinople (869); Constant ine, at the Photian Council of Constantinople (879). The Greek "Notitiae episcopatuum" mentions the see till the thirteenth century.

Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geog., s. v.; Ramsay, Asia Minor (London, 1890), passim.

S. PfiTRIDfes.

Sorbait, Paul de, physician, b. in Hainault, 1624; d. at Vienna, 19 April, 1691. He went to school at Paderborn, then attended the University of Padua, where apparently he obtained his degree of Doctor of Philo.sophy and Medicine. He practised as a phy- sician at Rome, Cologne, and Arnheim, and in Au- gust, 1652, was made a member of llie medical faculty of the University of Vienna. In l(i.'>.'i he became pro- fessor of theoretical medicine at tlie same university, and in ItUid professor of i)r:ictical medicine. In 1658 he was appointed court-pliysician to the Empress- Dowager Eleonora. In 1676 he rebuilt at his o\\'n ex- pense the students' hall "Goldberg" and added a chapel to it. During the year of the pest (1679), the