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apology of Pamphilus, Orig. Opp. tom. iv. p. 22, ed. Bened., which have led to very opposite conclusions. These may be seen in Dorner, where the whole question is discussed at length. His views were Monarchian, and are identified by Schleiermacher with those of the Patripassians, and by Baur with those of Artemon and the neo-Ebionites. According to Dorner, Beryllus occupies a middle place, forming a connecting link between the Patripassians and Sabellius. The leading ideas of his teaching as developed by Dorner from Eusebius were as follows: (1) there existed a πατρικὴ θεότης in Christ, but not an ἰδία θεότης: (2) Christ had no independent existence in a circumscribed form of being of His own (κατ᾿ ἰδίαν οὑσίας περιγραφήν), before His Incarnation (ἐπιδημία). (3) Subsequently to His Incarnation, He Who had been identified with the πατρικὴ θεότης became a circumscribed Being possessed of an independent existence; the being of God in Christ being a circumscription of the θεότης of the Father, i.e. of God Himself. According to Eusebius, H. E. vi. 20, Beryllus was the author of epistles and treatises displaying considerable elegance. Hieron. de Script. Eccl. No. lx.; Niceph. H. E. v. 22; Neander ii. pp. 350 ff.; Gieseler, v. p. 219; Dorner, Person of Christ, First Period, Second Epoch, § i. c. 2, div. i. vol. ii. pp. 35‒45, Clark's trans.; Schröckh, iv. 38; Mosheim, de Reb. Christ. ante Constant. p. 699; Ullman, Comment. de Beryll. Bost. (Hamb. 1835); Fock, Diss. de Christolog. Beryll. Bost. (1843). [E.V..] Blandina, martyr, a female slave, reckoned as the chief among the martyrs of Lyons, in that, although weakest in body, she suffered longest and most bravely the most various and prolonged torture. Among other things she was stretched upon a cross and thrown to wild beasts, which, however, refused to touch her; and finally she was tied up in a net and gored to death by a bull. (Eus. H. E. v. 1; Eucher. Lugdun. Hom. inter Hom. Euseb. Emesen. xi.; Greg. Tur. de Glor. Martt. xlix.; Baron. June 2.) [A.W.H.] Boëthius (Βοέτιος, Procop.), Anicus Manlius Severinus.[1] This honourable name, invested by the church for so many centuries with a halo of sanctity, can hardly be excluded from a Dictionary of Christian Biography, though some criticism in modern times has tended to distinguish the Roman senator, the author of the Consolatio Philosophiae, from the writer of certain theological treatises which bear his name, and upon the genuineness of which depends his claim to be enrolled among the martyrs of Christendom. These works, (i.) de Sancta Trinitate, (ii.) Utrum Pater et Filius Substantialiter Praedicentur, (iii.) de Duabus Naturalis et una Persona Christi, contra Eutychen et Nestorium, (iv.) Fidei Confessio seu brevis Institutio Religionis Christianae, based upon the Aristotelian Categories, and compiled in great measure from the writings of St. Augustine, being concerned entirely with abstract questions of dogma, offer but little to compare |
with the Consolatio, into which the mind and heart of its author were manifestly thrown; nevertheless Hand (Encyclopädie, v. Ersch. u. Gruber, in voce) has endeavoured to shew that they are alien in point of philosophy as well as in the method of thought and expression from the undoubted writings of Boëthius. For instance, although philosopher and theologian alike demonstrate the substantial as opposed to the accidental nature of God, Boëthius (ad Arist. Categ. c. 4) maintains Aristotle's distinction of substances, whereas the author of the first theological treatise insists upon the substantial indifference of the three persons in the Trinity. Again, while Boëthius translates the οὐσία of Aristotle by substantia, the author of the third treatise adopts the later rendering essentia, while he also follows ecclesiastical writers in his use of the words substantia (ὑπόστασις) and persona (πρόσωπον). The arguments of Hand have been controverted by Gustave Baur (de Boëth. Christianae Fidei Assertore, c. 1), but the theory of a second Boëthius, whom Hand supposes to have been confounded at an early date with the philosopher, so far from being refuted, has suggested the still more plausible conjecture of Obbarius (Proleg. ad Consol. Phil. p. xxxvii. Jenae, 1843) that another Severinus was the author of the works in question, and that to this person, and not to the author of the Consolatio, belong the honours of martyrdom in defence of the Catholic faith. In support of this conjecture there are the facts: (i.) That no author is known to mention the theological works of Boëthius before Alcuin (de Proc. Spir. Sancti, p. 752), who flourished nearly three centuries after his death. (ii.) That although the tradition was current in the Middle Ages, from Paulus Diaconus (8th cent.) downwards, that Boëthius laid down his life in his zeal for the Catholic faith against the Arian invaders of Italy, this is not his own account of his fall from court favour nor is it supported by any contemporary writer. (iii.) That in the epitaph of Gerbertus, bp. of Ravenna, afterwards pope Sylvester II., inscribed upon the monument raised in his honour by Otho III., A.D. 996, no mention is made of martyrdom or of canonization (Migne, Patr. vol., 139, p. 287). (iv.) That while the church of Rome knows nothing of St. Boëthius, the festival of St. Severinus has been held on Oct. 23 ever since the 8th cent., in the neighbourhood of Ticinum, where Boëthius is popularly believed to have been executed. The double clue runs throughout the history of Boëthius, as derived from various sources; the same twofold character, half secular, half ecclesiastical, pervades the whole; and hence the unusual number of so-called fables mingled with the best authenticated facts—e.g:— (1) The wife of Boëthius was unquestionably Rusticiana, the daughter of the senator Symmachus (Cons. Phil. ii. 3, 4; Procop. Goth. iii. 20), by whom he had two sons, Aurelius Anicius Symmachus and Anicius Manlius Severinus, who were consuls A.D. 522 (Cons. Phil. ii. 3, 4); but tradition makes him to have been also the husband of Elpis, a Sicilian lady and the authoress of two hymns in the Breviary [Elpis], and by her to |
- ↑ The additional name of Torquatus does not occur before the 15th cent. Bertius is the only commentator who gives the praenomen Flavius.
