Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/96

 DOCETISM

72

DOCTOR

John, 7) refers to this heresy; so at least it seemed to Dionysius of Alexandria (Eusebius, H. E., VII, xxv) and TertuUian (De carne C'hristi, xxiv). In sub- Apostolic times this sect was vigorously combated by St. Ignatius and Polycarp. The former made a warn- ing agauast Docetists the burden of his letters; he speaks of them as "monsters in human shape" (ditpltav avSpoiTToiiiptpuv) and bids the faithful not only not to receive them but even to avoid meeting them. Pathetically he exclaims: "If, as some godless men [49eoi], I mean unbelievers, say. He has suffered only in outward appearance, they themselves are nought but outward show. Why am I in bonds? ^^"hy should I pray to fight with wild beasts? Then I die for nothing, then I would only be Ijnng against the Lord" (Ad Trail., x; Eph., vii, xviii; Smym., i-vi). In St. Ignatius' day Docetism seems to have been closely connected with Judaism (ef. Magn., viii, 1, X, 3; Phil., vi, viii). Polycarp in his letter to the Philippians re-echoes I John, iv, 2—1, to the same purpose. St. Justin nowhere expressly combats Do- cetic errors, but he mentions several Gnostics who were notorious for their Docetic aberrations, as Basi- lideans and Valentinians, and in his "Dialogue with Trypho the Jew" he strongly emphasizes the birth of Christ from the Virgin. TertuUian wrote a treatise "On the flesh of Christ" and attacked Docetic errors in his "Adversus Marcionem". Hippoh-tus in his "Philosophoumena" refutes Docetism in the different Gnostic errors which he enumerates and twice gives the Docetic system as above referred to.

The earlier Docetism seemed destined to die with the death of Gnosticism, when it received a long lease of life as parasitic error to another great heresy, that of Manichaeism. Manichsan Gnostics started with a twofold eternal principle, good (spirit") and evil (matter). In order to add Christian soteriology to Iranian dualism, they were forced, as the Gnostics were, to tamper with the truth of the Incarnation. Manichees distinguished between a Jesus paiibilis and a Jesus impatibilis or Christ. The latter was the light as dwelling in, or sjmibolized by, or pereonified under, the name of the Sun; the former was the light as imprisoned in matter and darkness; of which light each human soul was a spark. Jesus paiibilis was therefore but a figure of speech, an abstraction for the Good in the world; Jesus impatibilis, the unalloyed Good, the pure hght above. In the reign of Tiberius Christ appears in .ludea, Son of the Eternal Light and also Son of Man; but in the latter expression "man" is a technical Manichsan term for the A670S or World- Soul; both S.v9piinros and irvev/jui are emanations of the Deity. Though Christ is son of man He has only a seeming body, and only seemingly suffers. His passion being called the mystical fiction of the cross. It is obvious that this doctrine borrowed from that of the Incarnation nothing but a few names. Scattered in- stances of Manicha^an Docetism are found as far West as Spain among the Priscillianists of the fourth and the fifth century. The Paulicians in Armenia and the Selicians in Constantinople fostered these errors. The Paulicians existed even in the tenth centurj^, denying the reality of Christ's birth and appealing to Luke, vii, 20. God, according to them, sent an angel to undergo the passion. Hence they worshipped not the cross but the Gospel, Christ's word. Among the Slavs the Bogomila; renewed the ancient fancy that Jesus entered Mary's body by the right ear, and re- ceived from her but an apparent body. In the West a council of Orleans in 1022 condemned thirteen Cathar- ist heretics for denying the reality of Christ's life and death. In modern theosophic and spiritist circles this early heresy is being renewed by ideas scarcely less fantastic than the wildest vagaries of old.

TlXF.noNT. La Tln'olnoir aniiniccmnc (Paris. 1905); Mead. Fraffmcnis of a Faith ForgoUen (London, 1906V Hilgenfeld, KeUeracschichle dca Urdiristcnlhums (Leipzig, 1884); Salmon in Diet. Chrut. Biog., a. vv. Docetcc and Docetism: KOnstle, Anti-

priscilliana (Freiburg im Br., 1905); Dippel, Der neuere Spir' ilismus (Munich, 1897).

J. P. Arendzen. Docetism. See Docet.s;.

Docimium, a titular see of Phrygia in Asia Minor. This city, as appears from its coins where the inhab- itants are called Macedonians, must have been founded by Antigonos Dokimos. Its name is written Dokimeion, Dokimia Kome, Dokimaion, later Doki- mion. It was famous for its marble-quarries, and is now identified with Istcha Kara Hissar, a village north-east of Afion Kara Hissar, in the vilayet of Brusa. On this site have been found many Christian inscriptions, later than Constantine. Docimium was a suffragan of Synnada in Phrygia Salutaris. Six or seven bishops are known, from 344 to 879 (Lequien, Or. Christ., I, 853); another bishop is mentioned in an inscription.

Texier, Description de VAsie Mineure. I, 149; Leake. Asia Minor, 54; R.amsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, passim and 742; Idem in Melanges d'archeologie et d'hisfoire (Rome. 1882), II, 290; Perdrizet in Bulletin de correspondance hel- Unique (1900), XXIV, 291. S. PetRIDES.

Doctor (Lat. docere, to teach), the title of an au- thorized teacher. In this general sense the term oc- curs in the O. T. ; the "doctors" are mentioned with the "princes and ancients" (Deut., xxLx, 10; xxxi, 2S), and Azarias prophesies (II Paral., xv, 3) that " many days shall pass in Israel, without the true God, and without a priest a teacher, anil without the law " (absque sacerdote doctore, et absque lege). It was the duty of these doctors to expound the law, and this they performed at the time of Christ, who was found in the Temple " in the midst of the doctors " (St. Luke, ii, 46). Another meeting of Our Lord with the " doctors of the law" is recorded in St. Luke, v, 17. The later Jewish teachers also received the title (doctor gemari- cus, doctor mi-schniciis — see Talmud). Under the New Law the doctors are those who have received a special gift or charisma (see Charis.mata) such as the " proph- ets and doctors" of the Church at Antioch (Acts, xiii, 1), and of whom St. Paul says that " God indeed hath set some in the church: first apostles, secondly proph- ets, thirdly doctors (I Cor., xii, 28; Eph., iv, 11). St. Paul speaks of himself as a doctor of the Gentiles in faith and truth (I Tim., ii, 7), and Doctor gentium is one of the titles given him in the Liturgy. In the early Church, teachers in the catechetical schools were known as doclores audicntium (Cj'prian, Ep. xxix, cd. Hartel) ; and finally, in the course of time, some of the most illustrious theologians were designated as " Doc- tors of the Church" (q. v.).

The use of Doctor as an academic title dates from the founding of the medieval universities. Before these were regularly organized, any teacher who gath- ered about him a number of students was a doctor, dominus, or magistcr. During the first half of the twelfth century, the title Doctor acquired a more spe- cial significance, though it still implied personal excel- lence rather than official position. The " Four Doc- tors " who succeeded, Irnerius at Bologna were the distinguished jurists, Martinus (d. before 116(5), Bul- garus (d. 1166). Hugo (d. 1168), and Jacobus (d. 1178). But wlien the doctors formed a collegium they prescribed conditions on which other persons might become mcmliers of tlie teaching body, and thus laid the foundation of the system of academic degrees. The doctorate was first granted in civil law (doclores legum), later in canon law (doclores decretorum), and, during the thirteenth century, in medicine, grammar, logic, and philosophy. The doctorate in music was conferred at Oxford and Cambridge in the fifteenth century. For graduates in arts and theology, magis- ter was more generally employed than doctor, but for a long time these titles were synonymous. The English universities, adopting the usage of Paris, at first designated teachers of law as doctors, and pro-