Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/866

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DIDSKOT


782


DIDOT


use among the Audiani, Syrian heretics. The few ex- tracts he gives do not quite tally with our present text; but then he is notoriously inexact in his quota- tions. Next we find the whole work incorporated into the Apostolic Constitutions, at the end of the foiu-th century, and soon afterwards it is quoted in the Pseudo-Chrysostom's "Opus Imperfectum in Matt. " But the work never had a great vogue, and it was superseded by the Apostolic Constitutions. The place of composition was Syria, though what part can- not be determined. The author was apparently a bishop, and presumably a Catholic. His book is badly put together, without logic, but not without some good sense. It never toucfies upon dogma but concerns itself entirely with practice. It has been called the earliest attempt to compile a Corpus juris canoniei.

A few specimens of the text in German were published in 1843 by BiCKELLin his Gesch. des Kirchenrechts; the whole in Syriac by Lagaroe (under his earlier name of Botticher), Didascalia Apostolorum Syriace (Leipzig. 1854). His at- tempted restoration of the Greek text was published in Bun- sen, Analecta Antcnictrna (London, 1851'. \Mtli tii-^ Ulle Did- ascalia purior, for he gratuitously omitfod a ; 1 <I'mI as inter- polated. Another Syriac ed. from other MS- I i c o h..on, T/ic Didascalia Aj). in Syriac, U.'R.wem.TIk /'</.. i 1 ;- <ii English (both at Cambridge Univ. Press, 1903. a^ / > ■■ r,i , I and II); French tr. by Nah, Ancienne lilt.'r , d-xlrait du Canoniste Contemporain, Feb., UHil M , immj). The Latin version, from a palimpsest at V'pr^-! :, ^v i- pil lulled by Hauler, Didascalia: Apostolorum fragtth ni<r \ ■ nun n ,,i lulinn (Leipzig, 1900). Funk's writings on tli.- >ulij.rt mm h,,|,^ i|,e monograph Die apostotischrn K(m<IUui mn: u ( Ki.i ti nluim, 1891), La dale de la Didascalie des Api'ln-: >!;,<■. .I'Ik i. .,,!., 1891, Oct.), reprinted in German in his A iv/.. i;.,. ,7, 1/,;,.;,,,/- lungen (Paderborn, 1907), III, 13. artifks n, tl,r 77.,-/ tjn.nl.,1- echrift (.IS93, and 1903-4), and the great i.liii.in alr.arl> in.n- tioned, DidascaliaetCffnstitutionesApostol<'ru!fi 'dulrl F.X. Fimk (2 vols., Paderborn, 1906). Harnack's views are found in Texle und Vntersuchungen. II, i, 2 (1S84) and v (1886), IX, ii, 2 (1893), and in Gesch. der altchr. Lit., I, 515. and II, 2 (i. e. ChronoL, 11). 488, where a good bibliography will be found; Hoi.zuey. Die Abhangigkeit der Syr. Didasc. r. .' /' ' '< ' - •' ""', - ' J/i Ume Congr^s sc. intermit, des C<i' I r-'-- 1 /' ' /. sian^nder Ign.Briefeu.dieap.Do! I '7 l^'v. Z80), and Dionys V. Alex, und <h' li"!'<^ 7'. -'/:■-' 1/,,-./- schr.. 1901, 515— he attempts to distinguish three recensions, the first being known to Dionysius, but he has not convinced Funk or Harnack). Achelis and Flemming, Die syrische Did- ascalia iibersetzt und erklart {Texte und Unters., XXV, ii. 1904, an important contribution). See also Bardenhewer, Gesch. der allkirchl. Lit., II, and Ehrhard, Altchr. Lit. bis WOO, for further bibliography. The so-called Arabic Didascalia is merely a ver- sion of the Apostolic Constitutions. Only fragments of it have been published; they will be found in Funk's ed. of the Apos- tolic Constitutions. II (1906), 120, see also p. xxviii, and his earlier monograph (1901), 207; Riedel, Die Kirchenrechts Quellen des Patriarchats Ahx. 1 1900). A variety of this version was found lately in the 1 i .i . , - r , 1 t :il)rary, by Baumstark. He describes it in Ori>;. ' 111,201(1903). On this discovery see Funk in W- , i 1904), 233, reprinted in his Kirchengesch. Abh. (I'.'or \ 111, ■■ in,

John Chapman.

Diderot, Denis. Se* Encyclopedists.

Didon, Henri, preacher, writer, and educator, b. 17 March, 1840, at louvet (Isere), France; d. 13 March, 1900, at Toulouse. At the age of eighteen he left the seminary of Grenoble to enter the Dominican Order at Flavigny. Four years later he went to Rome to complete his studies at the Minerva. Re- turning to France a lector of sacred theology he taught Scripture for a brief time, and began at Paris in 1868 a brilliant career as a preacher. A sincere desire to communicate his faith to others, coupled with ac- complished art,, enabled him to make the most of the qualities of an orator with which nature had endowed him. He had a majestic carriage, strong features, a massive forehead, black eyes, a vibrating voice which he perfectly controlled, and an eiuse in emph.isizing his words by superb gestures. Frank, straiglitfor- ward, and sympathetic, he readily won the hearts of his liearers, whom he dominated by his presence and startled by his boldness. He was essentially a man of his time, an advocate of progress; but withal loyal to the Church whose place in modern civilization he strenuously endeavoured to strengthen. He was at his best when preaching on social subjects. He deliv-


ered the funeral oration of Archbishop Darboy, of Paris, who had been shot by the Communists 24 May, 1871. In the following year he preached Lenten and Advent conferences in the principal churches of Paris, many of which he published. In 1879 he was bitterly assailed by the secular press of Paris for the attitude he took in a series of conferences on the burning ques- tion of the indissolubility of marriage, which he dis- continued at the request of the Archbishop of Paris, but published in book form. A year later he was bit- terly attacked by other critics while delivering Lenten conferences on the Church and modern society, and the accusation was made that he was in contradiction with the Syllabus. Although his preaching was or- thodox, he was sent by the master general of his order to Corbara in Corsica. There for seven years he la- boured at a " Life of Christ", leaving his retreat for an extended Visit in Palestine and again for a sojourn at the Universities of Leipsig, Gottingen, and Berlin. In 1887 he returned to France, where, in 1890, he com- pleted! his "Life of Christ" It m(t with a rem irk ihlt sale and \\ is soon translated mto several languigcs two English trans lations were made in 1891-2

In Janu arj , 1892,Father Dillon reappeared in the French pulpit, when he preached at Bordeaux a reli- gious-political ser- mon in favour of the Republic. He then delivered at the Madeleine in Henri Didon

Paris a series of

Lenten conferences on Jesus Christ (tr. Belief in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, 1894). Thereafter he gave only occasional sermons and lectures, his time and energies being devoted to the education of youth. At the Dominican colleges in and near Paris, cultivating educational theories but little developed elsewhere in France, he did away with compulsion as much as pos- sible, taught the students that discipline is the way to liberty, fostered in them a spirit of self-reliance to- gether with a loving reverence for authority, and checked the development of a critical spirit. Some of his educational theories may be seen in his work "Les Allemands" (tr. The Germans, 1884), which is a study of the German universities with application to France; others may be found developed .at length in his college addresses published in pamphlet form. The deepJy religious character of Father Didon is especially mani- fest in his "Lettres ;"i Mile Th. V. " (Paris, 1900), which quickly went through thirty editions and appeared in English; in his "Lettres a un ami" (Paris, 1902); and "Lettres a Mere Samuel" (Annee Dominicaine, 1907-8). Besides the works mentioned above many of his sermons and addresses have been published in French and some have been done into English.

De Coulanges, Le Ptm Didon. 3d ed. (Paris, 1901); Rey- NAUn, Le Pire Didon; Sa Vic et sonCEuvre (Paris, 1904); Bris- .SDN. L'Kni'crs de la gloire; Engufte de doc. infd. stir Didon (Paris. 190,)); Chapotin, ie Pcrc Dtt/on,- Rodiere, Vn Moiiie .U.«/.';n.- (Paris, 1904); Heihrich. Le Pire Didon ctVAltcmagne in Le CinTe.-^pimdant. Cf. Thieme, Guide liibliographique de la Litleralure Franfaise de 1800-1906 (Paris, 1907) for complete list of books, brochures, and magazine articles on Didon, as well as for an incomplete list of his works.

Arthur L. McMahon.

Didot, iKime of a family of French printers and publishers.

Francois Didot, son of Denis Didot, a merchant.