Page:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (1911).djvu/998

 lated into English as an appendix to Mason's Persecution of Diocletian.

[G.T.S.]

Theodotus (11), bp. of Laodicea in Syria Prima, claimed as a zealous advocate of Arian doctrines by Arius in writing to Eusebius of Nicomedia (Theod. H. E. i. 5; v. 7). Eusebius gives him a high character for skill as a physician of both body and soul, remarkable for kindness, sympathy, sincerity, and zeal to help all who needed aid, reinstating the church in its prosperity which had suffered much by the cowardice of its last bishop, Stephen, who seems to have renounced the faith in the persecution of Diocletian (Eus. H. E. vii. 32). Theodotus was at the council of Nicaea in 325 (Labbe, ii. 51); before which he is coupled by Athanasius with the Eusebian party (Athan. de Synod. c. i. § 17, p. 886). On the visit of Eusebius of Nicomedia to Jerusalem in 330 or 331, ostensibly to see the newly built church, he formed one of the Arian cabal which, proceeding to Antioch, succeeded in deposing Eustathius (Theod. H. E. i. 21) and electing Eusebius of Caesarea in his room (Eus. Vit. Const. iii. 62). He also took part in the council of Tyre in 335 (Labbe, ii. 436) and of the Dedication at Antioch in 341 (ib. 560), and is mentioned by Athanasius as having been at Seleucia in 359 (Athan. de Synod. c. i. § 12, p. 880). The two Apollinarii, father and son, were excommunicated by Theodotus for being present at the recitation of a hymn in honour of Bacchus, composed by a sophist of Laodicea with whom he had interdicted an intercourse. He restored them on their repentance (Soz. H. E. vi. 25; Socr. H. E. ii. 46). Gelasius of Cyzicus (bk. iii. c. 3) gives a letter from the emperor Constantine to Theodotus, warning him to return to the orthodox faith (Labbe, ii. 284). It is quoted as genuine by Benignus of Heraclea at the fifth general council (ib. v. 481). According to Gams, Theodotus was bishop 30 years.

[E.V.]

Theodotus (18), patriarch of Antioch, 420–429 (Clinton, F. R. ii. 552). He succeeded Alexander, under whom the long-standing schism at Antioch had been healed, and followed his lead in replacing the honoured name of Chrysostom on the diptychs of the church. He is described by Theodoret, at one time one of his presbyters, as "the pearl of temperance," "adorned with a splendid life and a knowledge of the divine dogmas" (Theod. H. E. v. 38; Ep. 83 ad Dioscor.). Joannes Moschus relates anecdotes illustrative of his meekness when treated rudely by his clergy, and his kindness on a journey in insisting on one of his presbyters exchanging his horse for the patriarch's litter (Mosch. Prat. Spir. c. 33). By his gentleness he brought back the Apollinarians to the church without rigidly insisting on their formal renouncement of their errors (Theod. H. E. v. 38). On the real character of Pelagius's teaching becoming known in the East and the consequent withdrawal of the testimony previously given by the synods of Jerusalem and Caesarea to his orthodoxy, Theodotus presided at the final synod held at Antioch (mentioned only by Mercator and Photius, in whose text Theophilus of Alexandria has by an evident error taken the place of Theodotus of Antioch) at which Pelagius was condemned and expelled from Jerusalem and the other holy sites, and he joined with Praylius of Jerusalem in the synodical letters to Rome, stating what had been done. The most probable date of this synod is that given by Hefele, 424 (Marius Mercator, ed. Garnier, Paris, 1673, Commonitor. c. 3, p. 14; Dissert. de Synodis, p. 207; Phot. Cod. 54). When in 424 Alexander, founder of the order of the Acoemetae, visited Antioch, Theodotus refused to receive him as being suspected of heretical views. His feeling was not shared by the Antiochenes, who, ever eager after novelty, deserted their own churches and crowded to listen to Alexander's fervid eloquence (Fleury, H. E. livre xxv. c. 27). Theodotus took part in the ordination of Sisinnius as patriarch of Constantinople, Feb. 426, and united in the synodical letter addressed by the bishops then assembled to the bishops of Pamphylia against the Massalian heresy (Socr. H. E. vii. 26; Phot. Cod. 52). He died in 429 (cf. Theodoret's Ep. to Diosc. and his H. E. v. 40). Tillem. t. xii. note 2, ''Theod. Mops.''; Theophan. Chron. p. 72; Le Quien, ''Or. Christ.'' ii. 720; Cave, ''Hist. Lit.'' i. 405.

[E.V.]

Theognostus (1), a priest of Alexandria and a writer of about the middle of cent. iii., whom we only know from quotations in St. Athanasius and Photius. He composed a work called Hypotyposes in seven books, still extant when Photius wrote (Cod. 106). He used language in bk. ii. of very Arian sound, speaking of the Son as a creature, and in bk. iii. of the Holy Ghost in a style as little orthodox as that of Origen. In bk. v. he attributed bodies to angels and devils. In bks. vi. and vii. he discussed the doctrine of the Incarnation in a more orthodox manner than in bk. ii. Yet St. Athanasius regarded him as a useful witness against Arianism. Philip of Side says that he presided over the school of Alexandria after Pierius 282 (cf. Dodwell, Dissert. in Irenaeum, p. 488). The fragments of Theognostus are collected in Routh's ''Reliq. Sac.'' t. iii. 407–422, and trans. in ''Ante-Nic. Lib.'' Cf. Migne, ''Patr. Gk.'' t. x. col. 235–242; Ceill. ii. 450; Athan. Ep. 4 ''ad Serap., de Decretis Nic. Syn.''

[G.T.S.]

Theonas (1), 15th bp. of Alexandria (whom Eutychius absurdly calls Neron), succeeded Maximus in 282. His episcopate, says Neale (Hist. Patr. Alex. i. 86), was a time of much suffering to the Egyptians, owing to the revolt of Achilleus. Diocletian besieged Alexandria in 294; and after eight months' siege the city, "wasted by the sword and fire, implored the mercy of the conqueror, but experienced the full extent of his severity" in the form of "promiscuous slaughter" and sentences "of death or of exile" (Gibbon, ii. 76). Yet Theonas has left a very interesting and attractive picture of the relations which the emperor earlier in his reign maintained towards his Christian servants. Eusebius's testimony that those imperial domestics who held the faith (three of whom he afterwards names, Dorotheus, Gorgonius, and Peter) were allowed perfect freedom therein, and were even peculiarly valued by their master (viii. 1), is singularly illustrated by the "letter of Theonas the bp. to Lucian, praepositus cubiculariorum or high chamberlain," published in cent.