Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/840

Rh 82G LUCIUS. patriarch (Socrat. H. E. iii. 4), who on the death of the emperor Julian and the accession of Jovian, pre- sented a petition to the latter, begging him to annul the re-establishment of Athanasius ; but their peti- tion was contemptuously rejected (Petitio ad Jovian. Imperat. AntiocJiiae facta a Lucio aliisque^ printed with the works of St. Athanasius, vol. i. p. 782, &c. ed. Benedict). When the Arian Valens became em- peror of the East, the hopes of Lucius and his party revived ; but the emperor would not allow him to return to Alexandria during Athanasius' lifetime, though he obtained the bishopric of Samo- eata, where, however, he was insulted even by the children of the orthodox party, in consequence of which he incited the officers of the government to inflict some severities on the orthodox. On the death of Athanasius (a. d. 373) and the ordination of Petrus or Peter, whom he had nominated as his successor, Valens sent Lucius to Alexandria, in company with Euzoius, Aiian patriarch of Antioch, with orders to the authorities of Alexandria, in consequence of which Peter was deposed and im- prisoned, and Lucius forcibly established in his room. A severe persecution of the orthodox then commenced, especially of the priesthood and the nuns, whom Lucius charged with exciting popular disturbances. Peter, who had escaped, fled to Rome, where he was supported by the pope Dama- Bus L, who after some time sent him back to Alex- andria, with letters confimiing his ordination, in consequence of which he obtained possession of the patriarchate, and Lucius in turn was obliged to flee to Constantinople. This was probably in A. D. 377 or 378, not long before the death of Valens. Whether Lucius was ever restored is doubtful ; if he was, he was soon again expelled by the emperor Theodosius. According to some authorities he still remained director of the Arian churches in his patriarchal city. He withdrew from Constantinople at the time of the expulsion of Demophilus, xrian patriarch of that city (a. d. 380), and nothing more is known of him. He wrote, according to Jerome, Solemnes de Paschate EpistolaCy and a few little books {libelli) on various subjects. The acts of the Lateran Council, a. d. G49, contain an extract from his Ets t^ iraaxa Koyos, Sermo in PoscJm. Whether this Sermo was one of what Jerome has described as Solemnes Episiolae, is not certain. (Socrat. //. E. iii. 4, iv. 21, 22, 24, 37 ; Sozomen, H. E. vi. 19, 20, 39 ; Theodoret, H. E. iv. 15, 20—23 ; Hieronym. De Vir. lilustr. c. 118 ; Tillemont, Memoires, vols. vi. vii. viii. passim ; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 371 ; Fabric. Bill. Gr. vol. ix. p. 247, Concilia., vol. vi. col. 313, ed. Labbe, vol. iii. col. 892, ed Hardouin.) 3. Of Britain. Bede in his Historia Eccle- siastical i. 4, states that in a. d. 156, in the reign of the Roman emperors Aurelius and Verus, and in the pontificate of Pope Eleutherius, Lucius, a British king, sent a letter to the Pope, praying for his assistance that he might be made a Christian ; and having obtained his request, was with his people instructed in the Christian faith, which they preserved perfect and uncorrupted, and in peace, till the reign of Diocletian. A statement similar to this is given by Bede in his Chronicon s. de Sex Aetatibus^ and by Ado of Vienne, in his Chronicon. The early Welsh notices and the Silurian Catalogues of Saints state (according to Mr. Rice Rees), that Lleurwg-ab-Coel-ab-Cyllin, called also Lleufer Mawr, " the Great Luminary," and Lies, applied LUCIUS, to Rome for spiritual instruction ; and that in con- sequence four teachers, Dyfan, Ffagan, Medvvy, and EU'un were sent to him by Pope Eleutherius. Lucius is said to have founded the see of LlandafF. To these scanty, but in themselves, sufficiently cre- dible notices, the credulity of the later ages has added many particulars. Lucius is made by Giraldus Cambrensis (apud Usher), king of the Britons ; and the missionaries from Rome effect the conversion of the whole population of the island. Five metro- politan sees are established ; one for each of the five provinces into which the Romans had divided the island, with twelve suffragan bishops to each. Geoffrey of Monmouth makes Lucius the son of Coillus, the son of Marius, the son of Arviragus ; and, though differing in details from Giraldus, agrees with him in making the conversion of the inhabitants and the institution of the hierarchy complete. Some other traditions or legends of the middle ages make Lucius resign his crown, travel as a missionary, with his sister St. Emerita, through Rhaetia and Vindelicia, and suffer martyrdom near Curia, the modern Coire or Chur. Thus distorted by the credulity of a later age, the history of Lucius and his very existence have been by some critics altofjether doubted. But we see no reason to doubt that there was a British regulus or chieftain of the same or somewhat similar name, about the time of Eleutherius ; and that his influence, which he had retained under the Roman dominion, conduced to the establishment and diffusion of Christianity in Britain : and the Welsh traditions, which place him in the territory of the Silures, the present Glamorganshire, are more probable than the suppositions of Spelman, who makes him an Icenian, and of Stillingfleet, who makes him king of the Regni, in Surrey and Sussex. He probably lived in the latter half of the second century ; but there are difficulties about the year of his application to Rome, as to which Bede is in error. A letter is extant, and is given by Usher, professing to be from Pope Eleutherius " to Lucius king of Britain," but it is doubtless spurious. Usher mentions that two coins, supposed to be of Lucius, had been found, one of gold, the other of silver ; having the ira;ige of a king with a cross, and the letters, as far as could be made out, LVC. (Beda, U. cc. ; Ado, I.e. in the Biblioth. Pat rum, vol. xvi. ed. Lyon, 1677 ; Galfrid, Monemut. lib. ii. init. ; Usher, Britannic. Eccles. Antiquitales, c. 3—6 ; Stillingfleet, Afitiq. of the Brit. Churches, c. 2, with the preface of the Rev. T. P. Pantin, the latest editor ; Rice Rees, An Essay on the Welsh Saints, pp. 82, seq. ; Tillemont, Memoires, vol. ii. pp. 62, 63, 615, 616 ; Baron. Annal. ad Ann. 183.) 4. Charinus, an heretical writer of uncertain date. His name is written by Augustin (De Actis cum Felice Manichaeo, ii. 6), and the author of the book De Fide, contra Manichaeos, formerly attri- buted to Augustin, Leucius or Leutius, and in one MS. LocuTius, and in some printed editions Leontius. Photius writes the name Leucius Charinus (Aeu/cios Xaptvos). In the Decretum of pope Gelasius, De Libris Apocryphis, it is written Lenticius. This Leucius wrote a work, entitled, according to Photius, al twv *Airo(TT6wv irepiodoi, Periodi Apostolorum, now lost, containing the Acts of the Apostles, Peter, John, Andrew, Thomas, and Paul. Photius criticises the style as in many places too familiar, and condemns the sentiments as heretical, self-contradictory, and absurd. The writer