UBOMTIUS
180
XAOHTIUB
of this bishop is inseparably united to that of Bono-
ratus, the founder of the monastery, and ho seems to
have played an important part in the development of
the monastic life in the south-east of Gaul. Honoratus
called him his superior and his father, whilst Cassian,
who i^ovemed the numerous religious of the Abbey of
St. Victor at Marseilles, dedicated most of his "Con-
ferences '* to him.
The relations of the monastery of L^rins to the diocesan bishop were most cordial and liberal. Some writers believe that this was due merely to the com- mon custom of the age, but others hold, and not with- out reason it would seem, that it was the result of special privileges granted by Leontius to Honoratus, with whom he was intimately united in the bonds of friendship. Be that as it may, these regulations, which, while safeguarding the episcopal dignity, as- sured the independence of the monastery, and were confirmed by the Third Council of Aries, seem to have been the beginning of those immunities, which hence- forward were enjoyed in an increasing degree by the religious communities. Moi-eovcr, the most conlial relations existed between the saint and the sovereign pontiffs. This is proved by the fact that St. Leo I, after his memorable quarrel with St. Honoratus, Bishop of Aries, deprived the latter of the preroga- tives which j^ave him a kind of primacy over the district of Vienne, and bestowed tncm on L<jontius. It is true that this important event took place only in 445, whilst Leontius had been succeeded in the epis- copate by Theodore in 4'Xi. That is why some author- ities have held that these prerogatives were granted to another Bishop of Frt5jus, likewise named leontius, who would have been a successor of Theodore. To this the supporters of a loved tradition reply that St. Leontius abandoned his see in 432 to go and preach the Gospel to the Teutonic tribes, and returned to his diocese in 442, dying only in 445 or even 448. Un- fortunately no very solid proof of this apostolat« can be adduced. Consequently it is still quite uncertain whether or not the Diocese of Fr^ius had more than one bishop called Leontius. Another tradition, mak- ing St. Leontius a martyr, does not seem older than the beginning of the thirteenth centurv, and merits no credence. Earlier and better authenticatoil docu- ments give him the title of confessor, which alone is accurate.
Antelmi, De initna Ecclcaia ForojultcnHis (Aix, 1080), «')a- 128; BouciiE, Deacription de /«i Frovcncr, I (Aix, 1664), 578-9; DlSDiER, Recherches hiatorifiUfa sur Saint Lroncr, vvfqtie tie Fri- jua rt jHitron du diociae in bull, dc In Soc. d'rtiuU-a acirnt. arvfuol. de Draguignan (DraKiii«iian, 1S02-1.S65), IV, 204. 307: V. 71. 138; DU Four, S. Lconliua epiacopua et martur auia Forojulicntfi- bua reatitutua (Aviffnon, 16158); Girardiv, lliatoire de la vxlle et de ViglUe de Frcjua. II (Pans, 172U), 40-88. 131-152; Tillk- MONT, Mem. pour aervir a Vhiatoire ecclea., XII (Paris, 1707;, 468-70. 476-77, 676-79.
L£oN Clugnet.
Leontiiis Byzantiniis (\e6mot Bu^it^iof), an im- portant theologian of the sixth century. In spit« of nis deserveil fame there are few Christian writers whose lives have been so much dlscusse<l. Till quite lat<jly even his period was not considered certain. Bellar- mine and Labbe placed him before the fifth general council (Constantmoi)le a. d. 553; cf. "Scriptores ec- des.", Venice, 1728, VII, 204). He has been assigned to the time of Gregory the Great (590-604; Mineus, "Bibl. eccl.", Antwerp, 1639, 211); identified with
Origenist Leonti
of St. Sabas " by Cyril of Scythopolis (Canisius-Bas-
nage, "Thesaurus monum. eccles.", Antweri>, 1725, 529
and 533) . There is, or was, the same uncertainty about
his works; the authenticity of many books under his
name has been discussed continually. In short, Fa-
bridus said with some reason that (at his time) it was
Impoesible to come to any clear conception of who
Leontius really was, or what he really wrote (Fabriciua-
Harles, *'Biblioth. Graca"^ Hamburg, 1802, VIII,
310). In his account of hmiself, in a work whose
authenticity is undisputed (Contra Nest, et Eutych.),
he says that in his youth he had belonged to the
Nestorian sect, but was converted by "holy men who
cleansed his heart by the works of true theoloi;;ian8 "
(P. G., LXXXVI, 1358 and 1360). Other ^rorks
("Adv. Nest.", and "Adv. Monoph.") describe him In
their title as a monk of Jerusalem (P. G., LXXXVL
1399 and 1769). Friedrich Loofs has made a special
study of his life and works. As far as the Life is con-
cerned, his conclusion is accepted in the main by £hr-
hard and Krumbacher (Byzant. Litt., 55), Barden-
hewer (Patrologie, 50&-508), and to some extent
Riigamer.
According to Loofs, Leontius was the monk of that name who came with others (Scythians) to Rome in 519, to try to persuade Pope Hormisdas (514-^523) to authorize the formula (suspect of Monophysitism) "One of the Trinity suflferea ", and was also the Ori- genist Leontius of the " Vita S. Sabs ". He was bom, probably at Constantinople, about 485, of a distin- guished family related to the imperial general Vitalian. He then joinc<l the Xestorians in Scythia, but was con- verted and became a stanch defender of Ephesua. Early in his life he became a monk. He came to Con- stantinople in 519, and then to Rome as part of the embassy of Scythiim monks. After that he was for a time in Jerusalem. In 531 he took part in public dis- putes arranged by Justinian (527-565) between Catb- olics and the Monophysite followers of Sevenis of Antioch (538). He stayed at the capital till about 538, then went back to his monastery at Jerusalem. Later he was again at Constantinople^ where he died, apparently before the first Edict agamst the "Three Chapters (544). Loofs dates his death at "about 5-1.'] . His change of residence accounts for the va- rious descriptions of him as "a monk of Jerusalem" and "a monk of Constantinople". This theory, ex- plained and defended at length by Loofs, supposes the identification of our author with the "Venerable monk Leontius and Legate of the Fathers (monks) of the holy citv (Jerusalem) " who took part in Justinian's controversy (Mansi, VIII, 818; cf. 911 and 1019); with the Scythian monk Leontius who came to Rcnne in 519 (Mansi, VIII, 498 and 499); and with the Ori- genist Leontius of Byzantium, of whom Cyril of Scy- thopolis writes in his "Life of St. Sabas" (Cotclerius, "Ecclesiie gra>ci© monumenta", Paris, 1686).
Riigamer admits the period of Leontius's life de- fende* i l)y Ix)ofs (this may now be considered accepted), and the identification with the disputant at Constanti- nople (Tjcontius von Byzanz, 56-58). He thinks his identity with the Scythian monk to be doubtful. Leontius himself never mentions Scythia as a place where he has lived; he does not defend the famous sentence "One of the Trinity suffered" with the ar- dour one would expect in one of its chief patrons (ibid., pp. 54-56). Riigamer altogether denies the identifi- cation with the Origenist Leontius. Had he been an Origenist his name would not be so honoured in B^ zantine tradition, where he appears as "blessed , "all-wise", and "a great monk^' (ibid., pp. SS-GS). According to Rugamer, Leontius spent his youth and became a Nestorian at Constantinople at the time of the •Henoticon schism (482-519). lie went after his conversion to Jerusalem and became a monk there. He had never been a public orator, as some authors (Nirschl, "Lehrbuch der Patrologie und Patristik", Mainz, 1S85, p. 553) conclude from the title trxoXatfriipfc (the common one for such persons; it is often given to him). On the contrary, he shows no special legal or forensic training, and never refers to such a career in his youth . So a-xo\a(mKln in his case can only mean a learned man. He came to Constantinople for the dis- putation, went back to Jerusalem, was superior of •
