Steven Avery
Administrator
TWOGIG
"Epistola seu libellus"
possible author - Bishop Tiberianus Bacticus,
Publlished in
(Sancti Hilarii Epistola seu Libellus, XXII; Migne Latina, PL 10.750) 1844
Sacris Erudiri A Journal of Late Antique and Medieval Christianity - what year?
Sancti Hilarii Epistola seu Libellus (circa 385 AD)
• [Morin] JEAN-Chrysostome Trombelli, canon regular of the Lateran, published in the last century, with preface, annotations, endless dissertations, a small writing in the form of a letter attributed by him to Saint Hilary and reproduced in the appendix of the works of this Father (Migne PL 10, 733-750). ...The pamphlet had been found by Trombelli in a manuscript collection of the works of Saint Jerome. But, judging with reason that it could not belong to this one, the editor set out in search of another ecclesiastical writer to whom he could attribute the authorship of the writing, and his choice fell on Hilaire of Poitiers. Despite the luxury of erudition he displayed on this occasion, he encountered nothing but disbelief and motivated opposition from the critics. In addition, the text published by him is obviously incomplete and faulty in many places. Even so, there is no question that the written word is old, and interesting from different points of view. Trombelli believed that his aim was to provide a newly elected bishop with a model of instruction for his people, because of these words which read towards the end in his manuscript: I ask your most pure Holiness for forgiveness, begging your Holiness... But the real lesson seems to be this, restored with the help of ms. lat. 289 from the Vatican collection (11th / 12th century):
I ask your most pure Holiness for forgiveness, begging your Holiness, whose way has been approved by God as more skilled and holier, to either correct the mistakes or add what is missing in all the places where my mediocrity has either overlooked anything or been unable to explain the findings sufficiently. Should you find this little work to lack nothing as it was begun by me at your request and completed with the help of God, I beg you to remember me both in your own holy prayers and in those of all the brothers. Let my opponents be aware that my faith has been justified, let them recognize that it is in agreement with the Church, and let them take up service the more readily for it; so that I may have the joy not only to have believed but also to have been of some help to my enemies and the believers.
(Sancti Hilarii Epistola seu Libellus, XXII; Migne Latina, PL 10.750)
• [Morin] The impression that these last lines produce, after a careful reading of the entire Epistle, is this. The author’s orthodoxy had been questioned. An important personage, designated by the respectful terms Prudentia vestra, tua Sanctitas, asked him to put in writing, for his justification, the teaching he was giving to his people. Hence this apology, taken by Trombelli for a pastoral mandate. It is true that this is a”unique”(Latin: sui generis) apology: the allusion to the suspicions weighing on the author only becomes evident in the closing lines just quoted. Everything else is written in what you might call a”glorious”style pattern: confidence and pride of thought, use of fancy and bombastic expressions, like subfecundare 737 a. splendificare 738 d. saceradotare Deo 743 b. and above all frequent return of the following two adjectives GLORIOSUS (David gloriosus 733 b. gloriosus evangelista 733 d. glorioso Paulo 742 d. gloriosi Dei testes 749 a. Paulus gloriosus 749 c.) and DEI FICUS (ad aedificationem deificam 743 a. deificum munus 744 b. deifice comparatam 745 b. rebus deificis 745 c. obsequium deificum 749 b.) The nature of the writing, the condition of its author, its strangely characteristic manner, involuntarily bring to mind a certain Spanish bishop at the end of the fourth century, about whom Saint Jerome expresses himself thus in his De viris illustribus, c. 123:
Tiberianus, the Baetican, in answer to an insinuation that he shared the heresy of Priscillian, wrote an apology in pompous and mongrel language. But after the death of his friends, overcome by the tediousness of exile, he changed his mind, as it is written in Holy Scripture the dog returned to his vomit, and married a nun, a virgin dedicated to Christ.
(Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men, c. 123)
• [Morin] The disregard of the simple profession of virginity, devoid of the essential virtues that this state supposes (col. 747 ff.), Does not fit too badly with the determination attributed by Jerome to Bishop Tiberianus.
• G. Morin,”Une epistula ou apologie faussement attribuée à saint Hilaire de Poitiers,”RevBen 15 (1898): 97- 99.
• [Burrus] The accounts of Priscillian and Sulpicius Severus provide an outline of the events that led to the convening of the Council of Saragossa. According to Priscillian's Letter to Damasus (c. 381), he and his companions had lived quiet lives dedicated to God for several years before the council… Severus' Chronicle (c. 403) supports Priscillian's picture of a network of Spanish ascetics that included both laypeople and clergy, and he supplies the names—Instantius and Salvianus—but not the sees of two of the bishops associated with Priscillian during the period before the council. Severus further reports that the first opposition to the ascetics came from Hyginus, bishop of Cordoba in the southern Spanish province of Baetica. Hyginus is described as being ”from the neighborhood” of Priscillian and his episcopal associates (ex vicino), and we furthermore know from Jerome that Tiberianus, one of Priscillian's early lay supporters, was a Baetican —two possible indications that Priscillian and his friends were initially active in Baetica. However, subsequent events suggest that the three were more likely from the nearby western province of Lusitania, and Severus' narrative quickly shifts the scene to that province.
(Burrus, The Making of a Heretic: Gender, Authority, and the Priscillianist Controversy, 1995, p. 27)
• [Severus, Sacred History 2.50] ...the emperor being led astray by Magnus and Rufus, and turned from the milder course which Martin had counseled, entrusted the case to the prefect Evodius, a man of stern and severe character. He tried Priscillian in two assemblies, and convicted him of evil conduct. In fact, Priscillian did not deny that he had given himself up to lewd doctrines; had been accustomed to hold, by night, gatherings of vile women, and to pray in a state of nudity. Accordingly, Evodius pronounced him guilty, and sent him back to prison, until he had time to consult the emperor. The matter, then, in all its details, was reported to the palace, and the emperor decreed that Priscillian and his friends should be put to death.
• [Severus, Sacred History 2.51] Well, a certain Patricius, an advocate connected with the treasury, was then appointed accuser by Maximus. Accordingly, under him as prosecutor, Priscillian was condemned to death, and along with him, Felicissimus and Armenius, who, when they were clerics, had lately adopted the cause of Priscillian, and revolted from the Catholics. Latronianus, too, and Euchrotia were beheaded. Instantius, who, as we have said above, had been condemned by the bishops, was transported to the island of Sylina which lies beyond Britain. A process was then instituted against the others in trials which followed, and Asarivus, and Aurelius the deacon, were condemned to be beheaded, while Tiberianus was deprived of his goods, and banished to the island of Sylina. Tertullus, Potamius, and Joannes, as being persons of less consideration, and worthy of some merciful treatment, inasmuch as before the trial they had made a confession, both as to themselves and their confederates, were sentenced to a temporary banishment into Gaul. In this sort of way, men who were most unworthy of the light of day were, in order that they might serve as a terrible example to others, either put to death or punished with exile. ...Well, after the death of Priscillian, not only was the heresy not suppressed, which, under him, as its author, had burst forth, but acquiring strength, it became more widely spread. For his followers who had previously honored him as a saint, subsequently began to revere him as a martyr. The bodies of those who had been put to death were conveyed to Spain, and their funerals were celebrated with great pomp. Nay, it came to be thought the highest exercise of religion to swear by Priscillian.
• Severus, Sacred History. New Advent. <www.newadvent.org/fathers/35052.htm>
HITS:
VII. But for now we have the Holy Spirit, we must believe in the Holy Ghost, through which he would inspire and sanctify, . . . (maybe one should add: by the sharing) of his substance, all the things that would later come to be. . . . . . 133. However ...the three are one, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. 134. Next, one should believe that there is one baptism by which men are purified, made the sons of God, and established in the faith; by which all the sins either of their birth or of the error of the ancient man are washed away; in which one does not put away the filth of the body:”but, the examination of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (I Pet 3:21)
(Sancti Hilarii Letter or booklet, 7)
o Latin: VII. Sed quia iam mentionem fecimus Spiritus Sancti, dicemus credendum esse in Spiritum Sanctum, per quem universa, quae postmodum fierent, et inspiraret, et sanctificaret, suae substantiae (fortasse addendum communicatione) . . . . . 133. Tamen . . . . tres unum sunt, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus 134. Deinde credendum, unum esse baptismum, quo homines purificati, et Dei filii facti in fide consignentur; quo universa vel nativitatis, vel erroris veteris hominis delicta purgarentur: In quo non corporis deponuntur sordes:”sed conscientiae purae interrogatio est bona in Deum de resurrectione Iesu Christi”(I Petri III, 21)
135. (Sancti Hilarii Epistola seu Libellus, VII; Migne Latina, PL 10.739)
Comment:
• [Timpe] Sancti Hilarii epistola seu libellus ed. Johannes Chrysostomus Trombelli, in Migne, Patrologia Latina, t. X, col. 734-750. The countless inaccuracies often make it difficult to understand the Libellus and, especially at the end, completely spoil the sense. Morin corrected the closing sentences that are most important to us. He accepts Bishop Tiberianus Bacticus, suspected of Priscillianism, as the author, only because the document generally fits him, who, according to Hieronymus (De vir. Ill., C. 123), wrote an Apologeticum demonstrating the orthodoxy and removing the suspicions of Priscillianism.
(Timpe,”Die kirchenpolitischen Ansichten und Bestrebungendes Kardinals Bellarmin”in Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen, vol 3-4, 10 December 1904, p. 41, fn. 1)
"Epistola seu libellus"
possible author - Bishop Tiberianus Bacticus,
Publlished in
(Sancti Hilarii Epistola seu Libellus, XXII; Migne Latina, PL 10.750) 1844
Sacris Erudiri A Journal of Late Antique and Medieval Christianity - what year?
Sancti Hilarii Epistola seu Libellus (circa 385 AD)
• [Morin] JEAN-Chrysostome Trombelli, canon regular of the Lateran, published in the last century, with preface, annotations, endless dissertations, a small writing in the form of a letter attributed by him to Saint Hilary and reproduced in the appendix of the works of this Father (Migne PL 10, 733-750). ...The pamphlet had been found by Trombelli in a manuscript collection of the works of Saint Jerome. But, judging with reason that it could not belong to this one, the editor set out in search of another ecclesiastical writer to whom he could attribute the authorship of the writing, and his choice fell on Hilaire of Poitiers. Despite the luxury of erudition he displayed on this occasion, he encountered nothing but disbelief and motivated opposition from the critics. In addition, the text published by him is obviously incomplete and faulty in many places. Even so, there is no question that the written word is old, and interesting from different points of view. Trombelli believed that his aim was to provide a newly elected bishop with a model of instruction for his people, because of these words which read towards the end in his manuscript: I ask your most pure Holiness for forgiveness, begging your Holiness... But the real lesson seems to be this, restored with the help of ms. lat. 289 from the Vatican collection (11th / 12th century):
I ask your most pure Holiness for forgiveness, begging your Holiness, whose way has been approved by God as more skilled and holier, to either correct the mistakes or add what is missing in all the places where my mediocrity has either overlooked anything or been unable to explain the findings sufficiently. Should you find this little work to lack nothing as it was begun by me at your request and completed with the help of God, I beg you to remember me both in your own holy prayers and in those of all the brothers. Let my opponents be aware that my faith has been justified, let them recognize that it is in agreement with the Church, and let them take up service the more readily for it; so that I may have the joy not only to have believed but also to have been of some help to my enemies and the believers.
(Sancti Hilarii Epistola seu Libellus, XXII; Migne Latina, PL 10.750)
• [Morin] The impression that these last lines produce, after a careful reading of the entire Epistle, is this. The author’s orthodoxy had been questioned. An important personage, designated by the respectful terms Prudentia vestra, tua Sanctitas, asked him to put in writing, for his justification, the teaching he was giving to his people. Hence this apology, taken by Trombelli for a pastoral mandate. It is true that this is a”unique”(Latin: sui generis) apology: the allusion to the suspicions weighing on the author only becomes evident in the closing lines just quoted. Everything else is written in what you might call a”glorious”style pattern: confidence and pride of thought, use of fancy and bombastic expressions, like subfecundare 737 a. splendificare 738 d. saceradotare Deo 743 b. and above all frequent return of the following two adjectives GLORIOSUS (David gloriosus 733 b. gloriosus evangelista 733 d. glorioso Paulo 742 d. gloriosi Dei testes 749 a. Paulus gloriosus 749 c.) and DEI FICUS (ad aedificationem deificam 743 a. deificum munus 744 b. deifice comparatam 745 b. rebus deificis 745 c. obsequium deificum 749 b.) The nature of the writing, the condition of its author, its strangely characteristic manner, involuntarily bring to mind a certain Spanish bishop at the end of the fourth century, about whom Saint Jerome expresses himself thus in his De viris illustribus, c. 123:
Tiberianus, the Baetican, in answer to an insinuation that he shared the heresy of Priscillian, wrote an apology in pompous and mongrel language. But after the death of his friends, overcome by the tediousness of exile, he changed his mind, as it is written in Holy Scripture the dog returned to his vomit, and married a nun, a virgin dedicated to Christ.
(Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men, c. 123)
• [Morin] The disregard of the simple profession of virginity, devoid of the essential virtues that this state supposes (col. 747 ff.), Does not fit too badly with the determination attributed by Jerome to Bishop Tiberianus.
• G. Morin,”Une epistula ou apologie faussement attribuée à saint Hilaire de Poitiers,”RevBen 15 (1898): 97- 99.
• [Burrus] The accounts of Priscillian and Sulpicius Severus provide an outline of the events that led to the convening of the Council of Saragossa. According to Priscillian's Letter to Damasus (c. 381), he and his companions had lived quiet lives dedicated to God for several years before the council… Severus' Chronicle (c. 403) supports Priscillian's picture of a network of Spanish ascetics that included both laypeople and clergy, and he supplies the names—Instantius and Salvianus—but not the sees of two of the bishops associated with Priscillian during the period before the council. Severus further reports that the first opposition to the ascetics came from Hyginus, bishop of Cordoba in the southern Spanish province of Baetica. Hyginus is described as being ”from the neighborhood” of Priscillian and his episcopal associates (ex vicino), and we furthermore know from Jerome that Tiberianus, one of Priscillian's early lay supporters, was a Baetican —two possible indications that Priscillian and his friends were initially active in Baetica. However, subsequent events suggest that the three were more likely from the nearby western province of Lusitania, and Severus' narrative quickly shifts the scene to that province.
(Burrus, The Making of a Heretic: Gender, Authority, and the Priscillianist Controversy, 1995, p. 27)
• [Severus, Sacred History 2.50] ...the emperor being led astray by Magnus and Rufus, and turned from the milder course which Martin had counseled, entrusted the case to the prefect Evodius, a man of stern and severe character. He tried Priscillian in two assemblies, and convicted him of evil conduct. In fact, Priscillian did not deny that he had given himself up to lewd doctrines; had been accustomed to hold, by night, gatherings of vile women, and to pray in a state of nudity. Accordingly, Evodius pronounced him guilty, and sent him back to prison, until he had time to consult the emperor. The matter, then, in all its details, was reported to the palace, and the emperor decreed that Priscillian and his friends should be put to death.
• [Severus, Sacred History 2.51] Well, a certain Patricius, an advocate connected with the treasury, was then appointed accuser by Maximus. Accordingly, under him as prosecutor, Priscillian was condemned to death, and along with him, Felicissimus and Armenius, who, when they were clerics, had lately adopted the cause of Priscillian, and revolted from the Catholics. Latronianus, too, and Euchrotia were beheaded. Instantius, who, as we have said above, had been condemned by the bishops, was transported to the island of Sylina which lies beyond Britain. A process was then instituted against the others in trials which followed, and Asarivus, and Aurelius the deacon, were condemned to be beheaded, while Tiberianus was deprived of his goods, and banished to the island of Sylina. Tertullus, Potamius, and Joannes, as being persons of less consideration, and worthy of some merciful treatment, inasmuch as before the trial they had made a confession, both as to themselves and their confederates, were sentenced to a temporary banishment into Gaul. In this sort of way, men who were most unworthy of the light of day were, in order that they might serve as a terrible example to others, either put to death or punished with exile. ...Well, after the death of Priscillian, not only was the heresy not suppressed, which, under him, as its author, had burst forth, but acquiring strength, it became more widely spread. For his followers who had previously honored him as a saint, subsequently began to revere him as a martyr. The bodies of those who had been put to death were conveyed to Spain, and their funerals were celebrated with great pomp. Nay, it came to be thought the highest exercise of religion to swear by Priscillian.
• Severus, Sacred History. New Advent. <www.newadvent.org/fathers/35052.htm>
HITS:
VII. But for now we have the Holy Spirit, we must believe in the Holy Ghost, through which he would inspire and sanctify, . . . (maybe one should add: by the sharing) of his substance, all the things that would later come to be. . . . . . 133. However ...the three are one, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. 134. Next, one should believe that there is one baptism by which men are purified, made the sons of God, and established in the faith; by which all the sins either of their birth or of the error of the ancient man are washed away; in which one does not put away the filth of the body:”but, the examination of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (I Pet 3:21)
(Sancti Hilarii Letter or booklet, 7)
o Latin: VII. Sed quia iam mentionem fecimus Spiritus Sancti, dicemus credendum esse in Spiritum Sanctum, per quem universa, quae postmodum fierent, et inspiraret, et sanctificaret, suae substantiae (fortasse addendum communicatione) . . . . . 133. Tamen . . . . tres unum sunt, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus 134. Deinde credendum, unum esse baptismum, quo homines purificati, et Dei filii facti in fide consignentur; quo universa vel nativitatis, vel erroris veteris hominis delicta purgarentur: In quo non corporis deponuntur sordes:”sed conscientiae purae interrogatio est bona in Deum de resurrectione Iesu Christi”(I Petri III, 21)
135. (Sancti Hilarii Epistola seu Libellus, VII; Migne Latina, PL 10.739)
Comment:
• [Timpe] Sancti Hilarii epistola seu libellus ed. Johannes Chrysostomus Trombelli, in Migne, Patrologia Latina, t. X, col. 734-750. The countless inaccuracies often make it difficult to understand the Libellus and, especially at the end, completely spoil the sense. Morin corrected the closing sentences that are most important to us. He accepts Bishop Tiberianus Bacticus, suspected of Priscillianism, as the author, only because the document generally fits him, who, according to Hieronymus (De vir. Ill., C. 123), wrote an Apologeticum demonstrating the orthodoxy and removing the suspicions of Priscillianism.
(Timpe,”Die kirchenpolitischen Ansichten und Bestrebungendes Kardinals Bellarmin”in Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen, vol 3-4, 10 December 1904, p. 41, fn. 1)
Last edited: