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Dionysius
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Introductory Note to Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria.
[806] ξυστῆρας.
[807] Here Valesius adds from Rufinus the words καὶ ᾽Αμμωνάριον ἕτερα, “and a second Ammonarium,” as there are four women mentioned.
[808] In Georgius Syncellus and Nicephorus it is given as Aster. Rufinus makes the name Arsinus. And in the old Roman martyrology, taken largely from Rufinus, we find the form Arsenius.—Vales.
[809] In his Bibliotheca, cod. cxix., Photius states that Isidorus was full brother to Pierius, the celebrated head of the Alexandrian school, and his colleague in martyrdom. He also intimates, however, that although some have reported that Pierius ended his career by martyrdom, others say that he spent the closing period of his life in Rome after the persecution abated.—Ruinart.
[810] σύνταγμα στρατιωτικόν. Rufinus and Christophorsonus make it turmam militum. Valesius prefers manipulum or contubernium. These may have been the apparitors or officers of the præfectus Augustalis. Valesius thinks rather that they were legionaries, from the legion which had to guard the city of Alexandria, and which was under the authority of the præfectus Augustalis. For at that time the præfectus Augustalis had charge of military affairs as well as civil.
[811] βάθρον. Valesius supposes that what is intended is the seat on which the accused sat when under interrogation by the judge.
[812] θριαμβεύοντος αὐτούς. Rufinus makes it, “God thus triumphing in them;” from which it would seem that he had read δι᾽ αὐτούς. But θριαμβεύειν is probably put here for θριαμβεύειν ποιεῖν, as βασιλεύειν is also used by Gregory Nazianzenus.
[813] That is, Nilopolis or Niloupolis. Eusebius, bishop of the same seat, subscribed the Council of Ephesus.—Reading.
[814] τὸ ᾽Αράβιον ὄρος. There is a Mons Arabicusmentioned by Herodotus (ii. 8), which Ptolemy and others call Mons Troïcus.—Vales.
[815] This passage is notable from the fact that it makes mention of the Saracens. For of the writers whose works have come down to us there is none more ancient than Dionysius of Alexandria that has named the Saracens. Ammianus Marcellinus, however, writes in his fourteenth book that he has made mention of the Saracens in the Acts of Marcus. Spartianus also mentions the Saracens in his Niger, and says that the Roman soldiers were beaten by them.—Vales. [“The barbarous Saracens:” what a nominis umbra projected by “coming events,” in this blissfully ignorant reference of our author! Compare Robertson, Researches, on the conquest of Jerusalem.]
[816] As to the martyrs’ immediate departure to the Lord, and their abode with Him, see Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, ch. xliii., and On the Soul, v. 55. [Vol. iii. p. 576; Ib., p. 231.]
[817] That the martyrs were to be Christ’s assessors, judging the world with Him, was a common opinion among the fathers. So, after Dionysius, Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria, in his fifth book, Against the Novatians. Photius, in his Bibliotheca, following Chrysostom, objects to this, and explains Paul’s words in 1 Cor. vi. 2 as having the same intention as Christ’s words touching the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south who should rise up in the judgment and condemn that generation.
[818] συνδικάζοντες. See a noble passage in Bossuet, Préface sur l’Apocal , § 28.
[820] Dionysius is dealing here not with public communion, such as was the bishop’s prerogative to confer anew on the penitent, but with private fellowship among Christian people.—Vales.
[821] ἄδικον ποιησώμεθα is the reading of Codices Maz., Med., Fuk., and Savil., and also of Georgius Syncellus. Others read ἄδεκτον ποιησόμεθα, “we shall treat it as inadmissible.”
[822] The words καὶ τὸν Θεὸν παροξύνομεν, “and provoke God,” are sometimes added here; but they are wanting in Codices Maz., Med., Fuk., Savil., and in Georgius Syncellus.
[823] Eusebius introduces this in words to the following effect: “Writing to this same Fabius, who seemed to incline somewhat to this schism, Dionysius of Alexandria, after setting forth in his letter many other matters which bore on repentance, and after describing the conflicts of the martyrs who had recently suffered in Alexandria, relates among other things one specially wonderful fact, which I have deemed proper for insertion in this history, and which is as follows.”
[824] That is, none either of the clergy or of the people were moved by his prayers to consider him a proper subject for absolution; for the people’s suffrages were also necessary for the reception into the Church of any who had lapsed, and been on that account cut off from it. And sometimes the bishop himself asked the people to allow absolution to be given to the suppliant, as we see in Cyprian’s Epistle 53, to Cornelius [vol. v. p. 336, this series], and in Tertullian On Modesty, ch. xiii. [vol. iv. p. 86, this series]. Oftener, however, the people themselves made intercession with the bishop for the admission of penitents; of which we have a notable instance in the Epistle of Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch about that bishop who had ordained Novatianus. See also Cyprian, Epistle 59 [vol. v. p. 355].—Vales.
[825] In the African Synod, which met about the time that Dionysus wrote, it was decreed that absolution should be granted to lapsed persons who were near their end, provided that they had sought it earnestly before their illness. See Cyprian in the Epistle to Antonianus [vol. v. p. 327, this series].—Vales.
[826] ἀφίεσθαι. There is a longer reading in Codices Fuk. and Savil., viz.: τῶν θείων δώρων τῆς μεταδόσεως ἀξιοῦσθαι καὶ οὕτως ἀφιεσθαι, “be deemed worthy of the imparting of the divine gifts, and thus be absolved.”
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