Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/323

Rh GREGORIUS. twelfth vol. oi the Bihliotlieea Patrum of Gallandius. Various memorials, drawn up by Evagrius in the name of Gregory, were contained in the lost volume of documents collected by Evagrius. [Evagrius, No. 3.] (Evagr. H. E. v. 6, 9, 1 8, vi. 4—7, 11— 13, 18, 24 ; Niceph. Callist. H. E. xvii. 36, xviii. 4, 12—16, 23, 26 ; Fabric. Bill Gr. vol. xi. p. 102 ; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. i. p. 534, &c. ; Galland. Bill. Pair. vol. xii. Prolog, cxiii.) 6. Of Armenia. The memory of Gregory of Armenia is held in great reverence in the Eastern (i. e. Greek, Coptic, Abyssinian, and Armenian) churches ; and he is one of the saints of the Roman Calendar. His festival is 30th Sept. ; and the Armenians commemorate him also on certain other days. There is every reason to believe that Gregory was the principal agent in the conversion of the Armenians to Christianity, though it is known that others had preached Christianity in the Greater Armenia before him, and had made converts ; but until his labours the bulk of the nation continued to be heathens. We have, however, no authentic ac- count of him. A prolix life, professing to be written by Agathangelus, a contemporary, but which in- ternal evidence shows to be spurious, is given in the Acta Sanctorum of the BoUandists, Sept., vol. viii. An abridgment of this life, by a Latin writer of the middle ages, is given in the same collection. The work of Agathangelus was also abridged by Symeon Metaphrastes, a Latin version of whose account is given in the De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis of Surius. In these accounts Gregory, whose place of birth is not stated, is said to have been educated at Caesareia, in Cappadocia, where he was in- structed in the Christian religion. Having entered into the service of the Armenian king, Teridates or Tiridates (apparently Tiridates III.), then an exile in the Roman empire, he was, on the restoration of that prince, subjected to severe persecution because he refused to join in the worship of idols. A ca- lamity, which was regarded as a punishment for this Persecution, induced Tiridates to place himself and is people under the instruction of Gregory. The result was the conversion of many people, and the erection of churches, and Gregory, after a journey to Caesareia to receive ordination, returned as me- tropolitan into Armenia, baptized Tiridates and his queen and many other persons, built new churches, and established schools. He afterwards quitted the court, and retired to solitude, frequently, how- ever, visiting the Annenian churches. Some mo- dern authorities style him martyr, but apparently without any foundation. The conversion of the Armenians took place about the beginning of the fourth century, and Gregory was still living at the time of tiie first Nicene council, a. d. 325, to which one of Ais sons was sent, apparently as representing the Armenian churches. Many discourses, profess- edly by Gregory, are given in the work of Aga- thangelus : they are for the most part omitted by Symeon Metaphrastes. A discourse, extant in the Armenian tongue, and entitled Encomium^ Sancti Gregcrii Armenorum Illuminatoris, is ascribed to Chrysostom ; but is regarded as spurious by neariy all critics, and among them by Montfaucon, who has, however, given the Latin version of it in his edition of Chrysostom's works, vol. xii. p. 822, &c. In the Biographie Universelle, a pretty full account of Gregory is given, but the sources are not stated. It is there said that there are several homilies extant in the Armenian tongue, ascribed to Gre- GREGORIUS. 809 gory, but in all probability spurious. (Agathan- gelus, Vita S. Gregorii, with the Prolegomena of Stillingus, in the Acta Sanctor. Sept. vol. viii. p. 295, &c. Comp. Sozom. H. E. ii. 8 ; Theophan. Chronog. vol. i. p. 35 ; Cedren. Compend. vol. i. p. 498, ed. Bonn.) 7. Of Armenia. A second Gregory was patri- arch of Armenia about the end of the thirteenth and commencement of the fourteenth century. He was disposed to unite with the Roman rather than the Greek church. A letter of his to Hayton, king of Armenia, is given in the Co?iciliatio Ec- clesiae Armeniae cum Romano of Galenus. (Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. p. 337.) 8. AsBESTAS. [See below, No. 35.] 9. Of Baetica, otherwise of Ii-liberis, so called because he was bishop of llliberis or lUiberi (now Elvira, near Granada), in the province of Baetica (now Andalusia), in Spain, was an eccle- siastical writer of the fourth century. Jerome, who mentions him in his Chronicon {ad Ann. 371), de- scribes him as a Spanish bishop, a friend of Lucifer of Caralis (Cagliari), and a strenuous opponent of the Arians, from whom, in the time of their ascendancy, he suffered much. The emperor Theodosius the Great addressed an edict to Cynegius, praefect of the praetorium, desiring him to defend Gregory and others of similar views from the injuries offered to them by the heretics. Gregory was the author of divers treatises, among which was one De Fide, which Jerome characterises as " elegans libellus." This work is supposed by Quesnel, editor of the Codex Canonum Romanus, to be the third of the " tres Fidei Formulae" contained in that work, and which bears an inscription ascribing it improperly to Gregory Nazianzen. The work De Fide contra Jrianos given in some editions of the Bibliotheca Patrum., under the name of Gregory of Baetica is really by Faustinus. [Faustinus.] The pseudo Flavius Dexter identifies this Gregory of Baetica with Gregory, praefect of the praetorium in Gaul. [See above, Gregorius, historical. No. 3.] (Hie- ronymus, Chronicon, I. c, De Viris Illustr. c. 105; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. i. p. 235 ; Tillemont, A/e- moires, vol. x. 727, &c.) 10. Of Caesareia. Gregory lived about a. d. 940, at the Cappadocian Caesareia: he was a pres- byter, apparently of the church there. He wrote, 1. Vita Sancti Gregorii Nazianze7ii. A Latin version of this life (which is chiefly derived from notices in the works of Nazianzen himself) was made by Billius, and prefixed to his edition of the works of Nazianzen. Billius cites an ancient MS. in the library of St. Denis as an authority for the statement that a Latin version, which he charac- terises as barbarous, was made by a certain Anas- tasius, about A. d. 960 ; and considers that if this statement is correct, the authorship of the work must be ascribed to an earlier Gregory ; but this inference seems hardly necessary. The version of Billius is given in the De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis, of Surius, Mail, p. 1 2 1, &c. Some of our authorities state that the Greek original is given in the Ada Sanctorum of the BoUandists, Maii, vol. ii. p. 766*; but this is a mistake, the piece given there is not the Life by Gregory, but an anonymous panegyric. The author of the Life wrote also, 2. Scholia in Ora- tiones XVL Nazianzeni, which are quoted by Elias of Crete; but the age of Elias himself [Eijas, No. 5], which is variously fixed from the sixth to the twelfth century, is too uncertain to aid in de- x3