able man seems to have been an excessive credulity." Beausobre Hist. de Man. T. i. p. 226. Theodoret's learning and abilities were great, but he wanted the calmness, and moderation, and impartiality which are requisite in an historian. He cannot speak of the Arians, and of the emperor Julian, without losing his temper; he hath given a good character to some worthless men, because he thought them orthodox; and in the point of miracles, he was either credulous beyond all measure, or he judged it expedient to keep up devotion and piety in the common people by feeding them with legends suited to their taste. Whatever was his reason for it, he wrote the lives of the most eminent monks, in which we find a beggar who died suddenly whilst he was acting the dead man to get alms from a saint, and then was raised to life again; an hermit fed by a lion, who used to bring him dates in his pocket; apples sent from heaven. to the monks; a dead man declaring who had murdered him; Jews conducted by lions; the emperor's sick horse cured by a monk, who anointed his belly with holy oil, and made him drink some water sanctified with the sign of the cross; together with the marvellous exploits of Symeon Stylites, &c. A work. how unworthy of Theodoret ! Dans ce sac ridicule où Scapin s'envelope, Je ne reconnois plus l'Auteur du Misanthrope. Du Pin mentions this book and these miracles in a way which shews that he gave little credence to them, and this might help to draw upon him a persecution from those who perhaps believed them no more than he. Amongst the solitary saints celebrated by Theodoret, there was one who wore the same coat all his life, putting a patch where it was torn, from time to time. It would have been a proper subject for a metaphysicotheological debate in the fifth century, whether this continued to be the same coat under all these changes, and it would have furnished a fair opportunity for visions, revelations, and miracles, in confirmation of the identity or diversity of the holy tunic, and then for censures and excommunications. In his writings against heretics of all denominations, he makes no mention of the Origenists, or of the Pe lagians, whence it is probable that he thought them innocent. He himself hath affirmed that infants are without sin; which smells strongly of Pelagianism. He attacked Cyril of Alexandria, and he wrote in defence of Theodorus Mopsuestenus, an honest and a learned man, who had the misfortune to displease boobies; and this is the reason why he is not called St Theodoret. But he is called Maxágos, the blessed Theodoret, which is almost as good; and the title of Saint became insignificant, or rather ridiculous, when it was given to such men as Cyril. Contra Cyrillum scribere, idem pene est quod adversus Synodum Oecumenicam cui præfuit Cyrillus. Itaque Nicephorus-diserte affirmat Theodoritum contra tertiam Oecumenicam Synodum scripsisse. Atque idcirco, tametsi de Ecclesia Catholica optime meritus fuerit, nec natalis ejus dies annua commemoratione honoratus est, nec ipse inter sanctos Patres locum suum habet in Menologio. Valesius Præfat. Here we see one of the bad effects of a superstitious veneration for general councils. The reputation of Theodoret must be blasted, because he dared to oppose Cyril, Cyril who was Lord President of the facrious council of Ephesus, and who disturbed the H 2 whole whole Christian world with his quarrels and his anathematisms. Faucibus ingentem fumum (mirabile dictu) Virgil. Æn. viii. 252. Anathematismi ejus, si verum volumus, et obscuri sunt, et doctrine Nestori peregrini. Eorum et nonnulli, prima quidem specie, pietatem non redolent. S. Basnage, Ann. iii. 337. Theodoret was accused of being a Nestorian; a dreadful accusation in those days, when it was a far greater crime to have thought Nestorius innocent, than to have worshipped Judas Iscariot, or an Egyptian monkey. But the Nestorian controversy was so perplexed on both sides, and involved in so many and so great difficulties, that the contenders should have agreed in tolerating each other. Theodoret was contemporary with Socrates and Sozomen, and seems to have written after them both, for his history often supplies the deficiencies in theirs. Porro de historia Theodoriti optime omnino judicavit Photius in Bibliotheca. Ejus stylum ait præstantiorem esse Socratis et Sozomeni stylo. Perspicuum enim esse et grandem, nec tamen redundantem, sed Historia rerum Ecclesiasticarum aptissime convenientem: nisi quod translationibus interdum utitur audacius, et, ut ita dicam, putide.-Illud præterea in historia Theodoriti reprehendendum mihi videtur, quod in toto opere nullum notam temporum adhibuit. Valesius. Theodoret's character may be found in an epistle which he wrote to a man of quality, and a consul, in which he thought it necessary for his justification to give some account of himself. My parents, says he, before I was conceived, made a vow to God that they would consecrate me to his service, and they educated me according to their promise. After having passed my first days in a monastery, I was ordained bishop against my inclination. For twenty-five years I have so lived in that station, as never to be at variance, never to prosecute any one at law, or to be prosecuted. The same I can say of all the pious clergy who are under my inspection, none of whom was ever seen in any court of justice. Neither I nor my domestics ever received the smallest present from any person, not even a loaf or an egg. My patrimony I gave away long ago to the poor, and I have made no new acquisitions. I have neither house, nor land, nor money, nor a sepulchre where my friends may lay my body when I die. I am possessor of nothing, save the poor raiment which I wear, Out of the Ecclesiastical revenues I have built Portico's, and two very large bridges, and put the public baths in good condition. I found the city without water, and the inhabitants obliged to go to the river to fetch it. I built them an aqueduct, which supplies them plentifully. I found eight villages infected with the heresy of the Marcionites, and one full of Eunomians, and another of Arians. I have converted them all, yet not without incurring much danger, having been often assaulted, wounded, stoned, and reduced to death's door. Epist. 81. et Epist. 113. ad Leon. * Thus Theodoret was extremely poor, and there * Augustin was as poor as Theodoret, and so was Paulinus, bishop of Nola, who had parted with great possessions. * fore not qualified to contend with Cyril, who was rich, and drew over the emperor to his side, by bribing an eunuch who governed his Royal Master. During the Nestorian quarrel, when the emperor sent a letter to Theodoret, to let him know that, if he would not submit, he should be deposed and removed, he laughed at the threatening, knowing that he had nothing to lose, except his garment, and that some friend would give him another, and not let him go naked; but the Christians in his Diocese were all greatly alarmed with the fear of being deprived of him, and earnestly importuned him to come to some accommodation for their sakes. His Diocese was large, and contained eight hundred parishes. Theodoret, speaking of the violent and cruel persecution raised against Chrysostom and his friends, says, Porro quot Episcopi ejus caussâ pulsi sint Ecclesiis, et in extremos imperii Romani fines deportati, quot item Monachi eandem calamitatem perpessi sint, superfluum arbitror commemorare, et prolixam historiam texere : præsertim cum ea quæ tristia sunt, contrahenda esse censeam, et Auctorum qui ejusdem nobiscum sunt fidei, errata obtegenda, v. 34, But if Christians, giving a loose to pride, insolence, and revenge, treat their brethren and their betters with the utmost inhumanity, and do what an honest Pagan would blush to do, is an historian to spare them, and to draw a veil over their iniquities, because they were orthodox? As I cannot commend Theodoret for this remark, so I think him very discreet for saying nothing in his History concerning Cyril, except these few words : Erat eo tempore Episcopus Alexandria Cyrillus, Theo Theodosius Junior. |