Page:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (1911).djvu/411

 those who suppose there were two or more bearing the same name, "Albanius" is placed in the 5th cent. (425–512, Ussher), and "Badonicus" in the 6th (520–570, Ussher).

The writing ascribed to Gildas was long regarded as one treatise, de Excidio Britanniae; but is now usually divided into the Historia Gildae and Epistola Gildae. The former is a bare recital of the events of British history under the Romans, and between their withdrawal and his own time; the latter a querulous, confused, and lengthy series of bitter invectives in the form of a declamatory epistle addressed to the Britons, and relating specially to five kings, "reges sed tyrannos," named Constantinus, Aurelius, Conan, Vortiporus, Cuneglasus and Maglocunus. Many, though probably without quite sufficient reason, regard the latter as the work of a later writer, and as intended in the ecclesiastical differences of the 7th and 8th cents. for purely polemical purposes, while others would place it even later still. See useful notes on both sides in Notes and Queries, 4th ser. i. 171, 271, 511, and on the side of genuineness and authenticity, ''Hist. lit. de la France'', t. iii. 280 seq. Bolland. Acta SS. Jan. 29, iii. 566–582; Colgan, Acta SS. 176–203, 226–228; Lanigan, ''Eccl. Hist. Ir. i. c. 9; Ussher, Brit. Eccl. Ant.'' cc. 13–17, and Ind. Chron.; Wright, ''Biog. Brit. Lit.'' Ang.-Sax. per. 115–135. See Haddon and Stubbs, Councils, etc. vol. i. pp. 44–107; Th. Mommsen (Mon. Ger.); ''Dict. of Nat. Biog.'' vol. xxi. An Eng. trans. of Gildas's work is in Bohn's Lib. (O. E. Chronicles).

[J.G.]

Glycerius (5), a deacon in Cappadocia, who caused Basil much annoyance by his extravagant and disorderly proceedings c. 374. Being a vigorous young man, well fitted for the humbler offices of the church, and having adopted the ascetic life, he was ordained deacon by Basil, though to what church is doubtful. It is variously given as Venesa, Veësa, Venata, and Synnasa. His elevation turned the young man's head. He at once began to neglect the duties of his office, and gathered about him a number of young women, partly by persuasion, partly by force, of whom he took the direction, styling himself their patriarch, and adopting a dress in keeping with his pretensions. He was supported by the offerings of his female followers, and Basil charges him with adopting this spiritual directorship in order to get his living without work. The wild and disorderly proceedings of Glycerius and his deluded adherents created great scandal and caused him to be gravely admonished by his own presbyter, his chorepiscopus, and finally by Basil himself. Glycerius turned a deaf ear, and having swelled his fanatical band by a number of young men, he one night hastily left the city with his whole troop against the will of many of the girls. The scandal of such a band wandering about under pretence of religion, singing hymns, and leaping and dancing in a disorderly fashion, was increased by the fact that a fair was going on, and the young women were exposed to the rude jests of the rabble. Fathers who came to rescue their daughters from such disgrace were driven away by Glycerius with contumely, and he carried off his whole band to a neighbouring town, of which an unidentified Gregory was bishop. Several of Basil's letters turned on this matter, the further issue of which is not known.

[E.V.]

Glycerius (8), emperor of the West, afterwards bp. of Salona. In Mar. 473, being then comes domesticorum, he assumed the imperial title at Ravenna in succession to Olybrius; but the emperor of the East, Leo I. the Thracian, set up Julius Nepos, who was proclaimed at Ravenna late in 473 or early in 474, and marched against Glycerius and took him prisoner at Portus. (See art. D. of G. and R. Biogr.) Glycerius has been reckoned bp. of Portus, of Milan, and of Salona. The Chronicon of Marcellinus Comes under 474 states that Glycerius "imperio expulsus, in portu urbis Romae ex Caesare episcopus ordinatus est, et obiit" (Patr. Lat. li. 931); on the strength of which he has been named bp. of Portus, as by Paulus Diaconus, who writes: "Portuensis episcopus ordinatur" (Hist. Misc. lib. xv. in Patr. Lat. xcv. 973 ). Cappelletti and Ughelli (who calls him Gulcerius) assign him to that see between Petrus and Herennius (Ug. Ital. Sac. i. 111; Capp. Le Chiese d᾿ Ital. i. 497). Evagrius, on the other hand, relates (H. E. ii. 16) that Nepos appointed Glycerius bp. of the Romans ἐς Σάλωνας, scarcely, however, intending to say, as Canisius understands him, that Glycerius was made bp. of Rome. He must mean (writing as a Greek) that Glycerius was ordained bp. for Salona by the Roman ecclesiastical authorities, and that his see belonged to the Roman or western part of the empire and to that patriarchate rather than the Byzantine. Jornandes likewise states that Nepos "Glycerium ab imperio expellens, in Salona Dalmatiae episcopum fecit" (Jorn. de Reg. Succ. in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. t. i. p. 239 ). It is therefore best to understand with Canisius (note on the passage in Evagrius, vid. Patr. Gk. lxxxvi, pt. 2, p. 2546) that the deposition of Glycerius took place at Portus, where at the same time he was appointed to Salona. Thus also Farlati (Illyr. Sac. ii. I17-I20). The principality of Dalmatia belonged to Nepos independently of the imperial title. Thither he retired before his successful competitor Orestes, and was brought into contact once more with Glycerius. Photius (Biblioth. Cod. 78) mentions the now lost Byzantine History of Malchus the Sophist as stating that Nepos, having divested Glycerius of his Caesarian authority and invaded "the empire of the Romans," ordained him, made him a bishop, and finally perished by his machinations (insidiis petitus), not "was assassinated," as stated by Gibbon. Farlati assigns six years to his episcopate, placing his death in 480.

The supposition that he was bp. of Milan rests on very slender ground. Ennodius, bp. of Pavia, who dedicates short poems to several successive bishops of Milan, inscribes one to Glycerius, whom he places between Martinianus and Lazarus (carm. 82, in Patr. Lat. lxiii. 349); but there is nothing in the verses to identify him with the ex-emperor. Enno-