Page:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (1911).djvu/913

 men of Nero and Antichrist is put into the mouth of St. Martin. The chapter has been expunged in many Italian MSS. (Halm. Sulpic. Sev. Praefatio). Various years between 406 and 429 have been suggested for his death. The principal authorities for his Life are the short biography of Gennadius (de Scriptt. Eccles. xix., Migne, Patr. Lat. lviii. 1071), the letters of his friend Paulinus of Nola, with whom between 394 and 403 he constantly interchanged gifts and letters, though only one letter of Sulpicius, and that probably a forgery, survives (Epp. i. v. xi. xvii. xxii.–xxiv. xxvii.–xxxii., Migne, Patr. Lat. lxi. 153–330; Ceillier, vii. 55 sqq ), allusions in his own writings, esp. the Vita S. Martini, the Epistolae, and the Dialogi; and a panegyric by Paulinus of Périgueux (de Vita S. Martini lib. v. Patr. Lat. lxi. 1052 ). A modern and exhaustive notice is by Jacob Bernays, ''Die Chronik des Sulp. Sev.'' (Berlin, 1861).

His works consist of the Historia Sacra or Chronica, a Life of St. Martin of Tours, 3 letters, and 3 dialogues. An Eng. trans. is in Schaff and Wace's ''Lib. of Post-Nicene Fathers. The Historia, written c.'' 403, was an attempt to give a concise history of the world with dates from the creation to his own times, the consulship of Stilicho in 400. His sources are the LXX, the ancient Latin version of the Scriptures, the Chronicles of Eusebius, and the Historici Ethnici, as he calls the non-Christian authors (Herbert, Notice, p. 7). Bk. i. and part of ii. are occupied with universal history down to the birth of Christ. Then, omitting the period covered by the Gospels and Acts, he adds some details to Josephus's narrative of the siege of Jerusalem, recounts persecutions of the Christians under 9 emperors, and describes the Invention of the Cross by St. Helena, as he had heard it from Paulinus. His account of the Arian controversy (ii. 35–45) is inaccurate and of little value; but of more importance is that of the Priscillianist heresy, which had arisen in his time and with the details of which he was familiar.

The Vita S. Martini, the earliest of his writings, is very important as containing, with the Dialogues and 3 letters, practically everything that is authentic about that popular saint of Western Christendom. He tells us that, having long heard of the sanctity and miracles of Martin, he went to Tours to see him, asked him all the questions he could, and got information from eyewitnesses and those who knew (c. 25). This visit, probably c. 394, was followed by many others. The book was pub. during Martin's lifetime.

In the Dialogi, written c. 405, the interlocutors are his friend Postumianus, just back from a three years' stay in the East, Gallus, a disciple of St. Martin, now dead, and Sulpicius himself. Twenty-two chapters of Dial. i. contain interesting pictures of the controversy at Alexandria between archbp. Theophilus and the monks concerning Origen, St. Jerome at his church in Bethlehem, and the monks and hermits of the Thebaid. Postumianus asks about St. Martin, and bears witness to the enormous popularity of the Life in almost every country. Paulinus had introduced it at Rome, where the whole city had fought for it. All Carthage was reading it, the Alexandrians knew its contents almost better than the author, and it had penetrated into Egypt, Nitria, and the Thebaid. All were clamouring for those further wonders which Sulpicius had omitted (c. 23, cf. Vita, prol.) and with which the remainder of the Dialogues is almost entirely occupied.

The Epistles are also about St. Martin, the first giving the story of his death and burial. Seven more letters have been published under Sulpicius's name; several have been generally suspected (Ceillier, 119–120), but all are pronounced spurious by Halm (Pref. xl.–xiii.).

The best ed. of the collected works is that of C. Halm (Sulpicii Severi Libri qui supersunt, Vindob, 1866). His works have been several times translated into French, e.g. by M. Herbert (Paris, 1847).

Apart from the unique History of St. Martin (which, however, is the worst of his writings from a literary point of view), Sulpicius's chief title to fame rests on his beauty and purity of style, in respect of which he is pre-eminent, if not unique, among ecclesiastical authors, and well merits his appellation of the "Christian Sallust." He seems to have taken this historian as his model, but his writings shew familiarity with Vergil, Livy, Tacitus, and most classical authors. Perhaps his work is somewhat lacking in vigour, and not entirely free from the affectations and bad taste of his time. The credulity and superstition of the narrative had, as regards Martin's Miracles, evidently excited scepticism even among the Christians in Sulpicius's own time (see Dial. iii. 6). []. For an estimate of Sulpicius's works see Ceill. viii. 121–122.

[S.A.B.]

Severus (19), bp. of Mileum or Mileus, a native of the same place as Augustine, and a fellow-student, lifelong friend, and member of the same monastic community. Early in his episcopate, probably in 401, Augustine, Alypius, and Samsucius had to explain their conduct in the matter of Timotheus and to call on Severus to accept their explanation (Aug. Epp. 62, 63), but this temporary misunderstanding did not interrupt his friendship with Augustine, nor cause any ill-will on his part towards Timotheus (Aug. En. Ps. 95. 1; de Civitate Dei, xxi. 4). In a letter somewhat later, perhaps 406, addressed to Novatus, Augustine regrets being not often able to see his old friend, who wrote seldom, and then chiefly on business, not from want of goodwill but from necessity (Aug. Ep. 84). Severus exchanged letters and friendly messages with Paulinus of Nola (ib. 31. 9 and 32. 1), and c. 409 wrote to Augustine expressing his great delight in his writings, as leading him to greater love of God, and begging him to write in return (Epp. 109). Augustine replied, insisting that he himself was the debtor. Severus appears to have joined in the address to Innocentius concerning Pelagianism, 416 (Aug. Epp. 175, 176). He probably died c. 426.

[H.W.P.]

Severus (22), bp. of Minorca, known by his encyclical letter referred to in the book do Miraculis S. Stephani, composed by order of Evodius of Uzalis (Migne, Patr. Lat. xx. 731). Orosius had deposited some recently discovered relics of St. Stephen in the church at Magona (Port Mahon), where there were a large number of Jews, one of whom, the rabbi