puted existence in the latter half of 2nd cent. (c. 170). Epiphanius invented the term (Haeres. 1. I, adv. Al. c. 3), to characterize their rejection of the Divine Word preached by John (ἐπεὶ οὖν τὸν Λόγον οὐ δέχονται τὸν παρὰ Ἰωάννου κεκηρυγμένον, Ἄλογοι κληθήσονται). He traces their origin to Theodotus of Byzantium (Haer. liv. c. 1). According to his representation they denied, in ardent opposition to the Gnosticism of Cerinthus on the one hand, and to the Montanists on the other, that Jesus Christ was the eternal Logos, as taught in John i. 1‒14.; and rejected the Fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse as productions of Cerinthus.[1] Heinichen supposes that the Alogi rejected only the Apocalypse and not the Fourth Gospel; but this is directly contradicted by Epiphanius (l. c. 3; cf. Haer. l. iv. 1). That they attributed these books to Cerinthus, the Docetist and enemy of St. John, shows their utter want of critical judgment. They tried to refute the Gospel of St. John by the Synoptic Gospels, but with very poor arguments. In opposition to the Montanists, they also denied the continuance of the spiritual gifts in the church. It is not clear from Epiphanius whether the Alogi rejected only St. John's doctrines of the Logos, or also the divinity of Christ in any form. He calls them in his violent way (l. c. 3) ἀλλότριοι παντάπασιν τοῦ κηρύγματος τῆς ἀληθείας; and says of their heresy (Haer. liv. c. 1) that it denied the Gospel of St. John and the God-Word taught therein (τὸν ἐν αὐτῷ ἐν ἀρχῆ ὄντα θεὸν λόγον). Yet he clearly distinguishes them from the Ebionites; and their opposition to Cerinthus implies that they believed in the real humanity of Christ. Dorner (Hist. of Christology, i. p. 503, German ed.) thinks it probable that they allowed no distinctions in the Godhead, and thought that the divinity of the Father dwelt in the man Jesus. But this would identify them with the Patripassians. Lardner (Works, iv. 190, viii. 627) doubts the existence of this sect, because of the absence of other data, and the tendency of Epiphanius to multiply and exaggerate heresies. But the testimony of Epiphanius is essentially sustained by Irenaeus, who mentions persons who rejected both the Gospel of St. John and the prophetic Spirit (simul et evangelium et propheticum repellunt Spiritum: adv. Haer. iii. c. ii. § 9).
Epiphanius, Haer. 50, and esp. 54; M. Merkel, Historisch-kritische Aufklärung der Streitigkeit der Aloger über die Apokalypsis (Frankf. and Leipz. 1782); F. A. Heinichen, de Alogis, Theodotianis atque Artemonitis (Leipz. 1829); Neander, Kirchengesch. i. ii. pp. 906, 1003; Dorner, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 500‒503; Harnack, Literatur, ii. 1; Zahn, Neutest. Kanon. i. 220, ii. 967.
Ambrosiaster, or Pseudo-Ambrosius, a name generally employed to denote the unknown author of the Commentaria in xiii Epistolas beati Pauli, formerly ascribed to St. Ambrose and usually printed along with his works. The commentary itself contains no definite indication of its authorship. An incidental remark, however, on 1 Tim. iii. 15, "Ecclesia . . . cujus hodie rector est Damasus," shows that it was written during the pontificate of Damasus (366‒384). It has been suggested that this clause may be an interpolation; but such an interpolation seems difficult to account for. Other marks, negative and positive, point to the same period. The text used is not the Vulgate, but a prior form of the Latin version. The ecclesiastical authors to whom he refers—Tertullian, Cyprian, Victorinus—belong to an earlier date. Among the heresies which he mentions he applies himself more especially to those of the 4th cent.—e.g. those of Arias, Novatian, Photinus—while the absence of allusion to later forms of error points the same way. He speaks of the Marcionites as on the verge of extinction ("quamvis pene defecerint," in Ep. ad Timoth. I. iv. 1). The date thus indicated would be the latter half of the 4th cent.; although, in that case, it is certainly somewhat surprising that Jerome in his treatise de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis should not mention any other Latin commentator on the Pauline Epistles than Victorinus.
It was the generally received opinion in the Middle Ages that our author was Ambrose, bp. of Milan; but this belief, which Erasmus was among the first to question, is now universally admitted to rest on no sufficient grounds, though opinions differ much as to the probable author. From certain expressions which appear favourable to Pelagianism the work has been assigned by some to Julian of Aeclanum; but, as Richard Simon has naïvely remarked, "if the writer does not always appear orthodox to those who profess to follow the doctrine of St. Augustine, it must be taken into account that he wrote before that Father had published his opinions." The expressions in question were probably employed without reference to the Pelagian controversy, and previous to its emergence, and are, moreover, accompanied by others entirely incompatible with a Pelagian authorship (e.g. the statement in Ep. ad Rom. v. 12, "Manifestum est in Adam omnes peccasse quasi in massâ").
The only positive statement as to the authorship is contained in the following passage of Augustine, Contra duas Epistolas Pelagianorum, lib. iv. c. 7: "Nam et sic sanctus Hilarius intellexit quod scriptum est, in quo omnes peccaverunt: ait enim, 'In quo, id est in Adam omnes peccaverunt.' Deinde addidit: 'Manifestum est in Adam omnes peccasse quasi in massâ; ipse enim per peccatum corruptus, quos genuit omnes nati sunt sub peccato.' Haec scribens Hilarius sine ambiguitate commonuit, quomodo intelligendum esset, in quo omnes peccaverunt." As the words cited are found in this commentary, it may be reasonably assumed that the statement applies to it, and that Augustine reckoned Hilarius its author. Of the persons of that name, Augustine elsewhere mentions only Hilarius the Sardinian, deacon of the Roman church, sent by pope Liberius in 354 to the emperor Constantius after the synod
- ↑ This, it may be remarked, is an argument against the criticism of the Tübingen school, which would bring the composition of the Gospel of St. John down to the middle of the 2nd cent.; for Cerinthus was a contemporary of the apostle. Had the Alogi had any idea of the recent origin of St. John, they would have made much account of it.
