Neander, Church History, iii. 258, etc. ed. Bohn; Niedner, Lehrbuch d. Christlichen Kirchengeschichte 324; Robertson, Hist. of the Christian Church, i. 175, etc.; Hagenbach, Kirchengeschichte, i. 547; Ribbeck, Donatus and Augustinus (1858); M. Deutsch, Drei Actenstücke zur Geschichte der Donatismus (Berlin, 1875); Harnack, Dog. Gesch. (3rd. ed.) iii. 36 ff.; Thomasius, Dog. Gesch. (2nd ed.) i. 606 ff.
[J.M.F.]
Dorothea, virgin, martyred with Theophilus the Advocate, and two other women, Christa and Callista, at Caesarea, in Cappadocia. Some doubt is entertained about these names, as they occur in no Greek menology or martyrology; but they are found in ancient Roman accounts; and details are given by the monk Usuard, bp. Ado, and Rabanus. They are celebrated on Feb. 6. Baronius, Bollandus, and Tillemont all place the death of Dorothea in the persecution of Diocletian.
She was a young girl of Caesarea in Cappadocia, famed so widely for Christian piety that when the governor Fabricius, Sapricius, or Apricius arrived he had her brought before him and tortured. Unable to persuade her to marry, he sent her to Christa and Callista that they might induce her to give up her faith. She converted them; whereupon the governor put them to death in a boiling cauldron.
Dorothea was again tortured, and shewed her joy for the martyrdom of Christa and Callista and for her own sufferings. The governor, insulted and enraged, ordered her head to be cut off. On her way to execution an advocate named Theophilus laughingly asked her to send him some apples and roses from the paradise of her heavenly bridegroom. The legend states that these were miraculously conveyed to him, although Cappadocia was then covered with snow. Theophilus was converted, tortured, and decapitated.
Dorothea's body is said to have been taken to Rome, and preserved in the church across the Tiber which bears her name. On her festival there is a ceremony of blessing roses and apples. Migne, Dict. Hagiograph. i. 779; Bollandus, Acta Sanct. Feb. i. p. 771; Tillem. Hist. eccl. p. 497 (Paris, 1702).
[W.M.S.]
Dorotheus (3), a presbyter of Antioch, ordained by Cyril of Antioch (Hieron. Chron.) c. a.d. 290, who with his contemporary Lucian may be regarded as the progenitor of the sound and healthy school of scriptural hermeneutics which distinguished the interpreters of Antioch from those of Alexandria. Eusebius speaks of him with high commendation, as distinguished by a pure taste and sound learning, of a wide and liberal education, well acquainted not only with the Hebrew Scriptures, which Eusebius says he had heard him expounding in the church at Antioch, with moderation (μετρίως) but also with classical literature. He was a congenital eunuch, which commended him to the notice of the emperor Constantine, who placed him at the head of the purple-dye-house at Tyre Eus. H. E., vii. 32; Neander, Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 528, Clark's trans.; Gieseler, Eccl. Hist. vol. i. p. 247, Clark's trans.
[E.V.]
Dorotheus (7), bp. of Martianopolis in Moesia Secunda, and metropolitan; a zealous supporter of the doctrines of Nesturios, and a determined enemy of the title θεοτόκος. Preaching in Constantinople not long before the council of Ephesus, he declared that "if any one asserted that Mary was the mother of God he was anathema" (Ep. Cyrill. ap. Baluz. Concil. col. 402). He attended that council, a.d. 431, signing the appeal to the emperor against the dominant party (Baluz. 701), and joining in the documents warning the clergy and people of Hierapolis and Constantinople against the errors of Cyril, and announcing Cyril's excommunication (ib. 706, 725). He was deposed and excommunicated by Cyril and his friends. This deposition being confirmed by the imperial power, he was ordered by Maximinian's synod at Constantinople to be ejected from his city and throne. His influence, however, with his people was so great that they refused to receive his successor Secundianus, and drove him from the city (Ep. Doroth. ad Cyrill. Baluz. 750), whereupon Dorotheus was banished by the emperor to Caesarea in Cappadocia. Two letters of his to John of Antioch are preserved in the Synodicon (Nos. 78, 115; Baluz. 781, 816), expressing his anxiety at Paul's setting out to Egypt and his distress at hearing that terms had been come to with Cyril, and a third (No. 137; Baluz. 840) to Alexander of Hierapolis and Theodoret, proposing a joint appeal to the emperor.
[E.V.]
Dorotheus (10), bp. of Thessalonica 515-520. He wrote on April 28, 515, to pope Hormisdas, urging him to labour for the peace of the church. He testifies respect for the see of Rome, and wishes to see the heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches everywhere condemned.
But in the spring of 517 we find him a Eutychian schismatic, seeking to exercise over the province of Thessalonica the rights which belonged to its metropolis when in communion with the Catholic church. He persecuted John bp. of Nicopolis, employing the secular arm and persuading the emperor Anastasius to support his faction. Complaints were brought to pope Hormisdas, who pointed out that he might regain his rights if he rejoined the Catholic church; but the papal legates Ennodius and Peregrinus were to bring the affair before the emperor, if bp. Dorotheus should persist. The emperor Anastasius refused the message of the legates, tried to corrupt them, and wrote to the pope saying that he could suffer insults, but not commands (July 11, 517). The death of the emperor almost exactly a year afterwards altered the balance against the Eutychians. Justin I., the Thracian, wrote, on his accession, to the pope, expressing his own wish and that of the principal Eastern bishops for the restoration of peace between East and West. Hormisdas, with the advice of king Theodoric, sent a third legation to Constantinople, Germanus bp. of Capua, John a bishop, Blandus a presbyter, and others. To these men at Constantinople Hormisdas wrote to inquire personally into the doings of the Eutychians at Thessalonica, and to cite bp. Dorotheus and his abettor Aristides the presbyter to Rome, that they might give account of their faith and receive resolution of their doubts. Two days before the arrival of the legates, Dorotheus baptized more than 2,000 people, and distributed the Eucharistic bread in large baskets, so that
