Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/660

 CYNIC

582

CYPRIAN

Cook's chief reason for rejecting the bishop's claim, viz. the supposed dependence of some of Cynewulf 's poems on Alcuin's " De Trinitate ", written about 802, is base- less. (See C. F. Brown in Pub's, of Mod. Lang. Ass'n. of N. Am., XVIII, 308.) Apart from conjecture our only certain knowledge about Cynewulf is derived from what he tells us of himself in the four runic pas- sages. He had received gifts in a hall amid scenes of revelry, which may mean that he had been in youth a sort of gleeman or minstrel. He was converted, and had since then devoted himself to sacred song but now in old age he still dreaded the punishMimi i>f |Kist sins. Four poems, the "Christ", the "Eloiii'", llir "Juliana" and the ''Fates of the Apostles" may Ur allriliuted to Cj'newulf with certainty in virtue of their runic signa- tures. The "Christ", as it is preserved in "The Exe- ter Book", the only manuscript containing it, is a glorification of three themes, the Advent of Christ, the Ascension, and His second coming upon Doomsday. As in all the other poems the writer shows literary gifts of a very high order and he must evidently, from his knowledge of earlier writers, especially St. Gregory, have been a man of considerable learning. In the "Christ" he paraphrases several of the anthems, known as the great O's, in the Advent liturgy and in doing so introduces jia-ssages of much beauty breath- ing the most intense devotion to Our Blessed Lady (cf. 11. 33-49, 71-103, etc.), and differing little in feel- ing from the tone of such verses as those of Lydgate, six hundred years later. The poem also contains a re- markable testimony (11. 1307-1326) to the practice of confession. "Juliana", also preserved to us in "The Exeter Book", is a poetical version of the Acts of the martyrdom of St. Juliana. The "Elene", with those next mentioned, became known only in 1836 upon the discovery of the Vercelli codex, an Anglo-Saxon manu- script in prose and verse, which for some unknown reason had found its way to Vercelli in Italy. The "Elene" is generally reputed Cynewulf's masterpiece. It contains a narrative based on earlier Latin legentls of the discovery of the true Cross by St. Helen. The "Fates of the Apostles" is a fragment chiefly impor- tant as forming a connecting link between CynewTilf who signs it, and the kindred poem "Andreas" in the same manuscript. This also is consequently by most authorities assigned to Cynewulf, though Knapp, its latest editor (Boston, 1906), regards it as the work of an imitator and possibly disciple of Cynp^'^^ilf- Of the remaining works conjecturally attril)uted to this poet the beautiful "Dream of the Rood" is the most im- portant. Some verses apparently derived from this allegory and engraved upon the famous Ruthwell Cross have led to much controversy regarding both the date of the monument and the authorship of the poem. Other doulitful works sometimes attributed to Cynewulf are the "Guthlac", the "Phoenix" and certain riddles in "The Exeter Book." It is safe to say that unless fresh evidence comes to light the au- thorship can never be settled.

It is impossible to indicate more IIkui :i fiw "f the imnien.se number of essays and editions wliirl, ,.f hii.- .\,Mr>i h;ive been

consecrated to Cynewulf's poeni~. an i i" il ntmvcrsies

centering round liis name. A L"""i •"■' "'•it ami a full ttitdioj;:- raphy is supplied by the CfTn.,': ' //, ,'j l:,i,ili^h I.il.r.ilure

(Cambridge, 1907). I. 49 li 1 ! ' " ;': • f. als.. Cook, TOc

Christ of Cynev-nli (BcMm,, m, 11,. I>n.„„ „f the

Kood (Oxford, 190,'5); Goi. ' ,'r r;,,, 7 1 1 ..mlon,

1892): KfiKTV, Andreas II,' ' ■ / ' " t ;• - '.' i'.n^ton,

1906); HoLTHAUSEN, €,,„■ I ■ i! ■' " ' ■ "'■•

Trautmann, Kj/TU"wulf iI' ,■ '■ '  ' ' '^iw''

BnooKF.. Ear/;/ Enff/iiiAI/i'' r.r ,, il .lalMii, 1^'.'- : .- i ^ nn>, J he Christ of English Poetry (London. I'.idi.i.

Hekbekt Ihukston.

Cynic School of Philosophy.— Tlie Cynic School, founde<l at .Vthcns alxnit 400 li. c, continued in ex- istence until aliout 'JOO n. i'. It sprang from the eth- ical doctrine of Socrates regarding the necessity of moderation and self-denial. With this ethical ele- ment it combined the dialectical and rhetorical meth-

ods of the Eleatics and the Sophists. Both these influences, however, it perverted from their primitive uses; the Socratic ethics was interpreted by the Cjmics into a coarse and even vulgar depreciation of knowledge, refinement, and the common decencies, while the methods of the Eleatics and the Sophists became in the hands of the Cynics an instrument of contention (Eristic Method) rather than a means of attaining truth. The Cynic contempt for the refine- ments and conventions of polite society is generally given as the reason for the name dogs (icipes) by which the first representatives of the school were known. According to some authorities, however, the name Cyme arose from the fact that the first repre- sentatives of the school were accustomed to meet in the gymnasium of Cynosarges.

The founder of the school was Antisthenes, an Athenian who was born about 436 B. c, and was a pupil of Socrates. The best known among his fol- lowers are Diogenes of Sinope, Crates, Menedemus, and Menippus. Antisthenes himself seems to have been a serious thinker and a writer of ability. In his theory of knowledge he advocated indi\-idualistic sensism as opposed to Plato's intellectualistic theory of ideas; that is to say, he taught that the sense- perceived individual alone exists and that there are no universal objects of knowledge. In ethics he maintained that Anrtue is the only good and that pleasure is always and under all conditions an evil. Self-control, he said, is the essence of virtue, and a wise man will learn above all things to despise mate- rial needs and the artificial comforts in which worldly men find happiness.

Diogenes, generally referred to as "Diogenes the Cynic'', is one of the most strikmg figures in Greek history ; at least, his personality with its eccentricities, its coarse humour, its originality, and its defiance of the commonplace, has appealed with extraordinary force to the popular imagination. His interview with Alex- ander, of which the simplest version is to be foimd in Plutarch, was greatly exaggerated by subsequent tradition. The followers of Diogenes, namely. Crates, Menedemus, and Menippus, imitated all his eccentrici- ties and so exaggerated the anti-social elements in the Cynic system that the school finally fell into disrepute. Nevertheless, there were in the C_ynic philasophy elements, especially the ethical element, which later became a source of genuine inspiration in the Stoic School. This element, combined with the broader Stoic idea of the usefulness of intellectual culture and the more enlightened Stoic concept of the scope of logical discussion, reappeared in the philosophy of Zeno and Cleanthes, and was the central ethical doc-

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trine of the last t

Zeller, .Si 285 fT.; Uebekwi ., M i-.,, // ■ ' ;■' (New York, 1892", I.:i_'~mm: Wimhiihn ophy, tr. TCFTS (.New York. 1901). S2 sqq of Philosophy (Boston, 1903), 87 sqq.

WiLLiAii Turner

hv in Greece.l'

I nndon, lSS.5),tJ

in.slnryof rhihs-i TcRNER, Hisloryi

Cyprian, S.unt, Bishop of Toulon, b. at Marseillesl in 47t); d. 3 Oct., .546. He was the favourite pupil oil St. Ciesarius of Aries by whom he was trained, andjf • who, in 506, ordained him to the diaconate, and, 516, consecrated him Bishop of Toulon. St. Cyp-I rian appears to have been present in 524 at the SynoJ of .\rles and in the following years to have attended £ nunilier of eoimeils. At all the.se iissemblies h< showed himself a \-igorous oi^ponent of Semipelagian isra. Soon after the death of Ciesarius (d. 543) Cy prian wrote a life of his great teacher in two books being moveil to the imdertaking by the entreaty of th< Abl>e.ss('a'saria th" Vounsjer. who had been the hea( of the convent at .\rles since ,")'J9. The life is one o the most valuable biographical remains of the sixtl century. Cyjirian was aided in his task by. the twi bishops, Firminus and Viventius, friends of Csesarius