His literary faculty, knowledge of Scripture, and repute as a theologian, probably induced Thrasimund to summon him to Carthage, and ten objections to the Catholic faith were presented to him. His reply was his earliest treatise, viz. One Book against the Arians, Ten Answers to Ten Objections. The third objection resembles a common argument of the earlier Arians, viz. that Prov. viii. 22, John xvi. 29, Ps. ii. 7, and other passages imply that the Son is "created," "generated in time," and therefore not of the same substance with the Father, to which Fulgentius replied that they all refer to the Incarnation, and not to the essence of the Son of God. He used the argument of Athanasius, which makes the customary worship of the Son of God verge either on Polytheism or Sabellianism if we do not at the same time recognize the consubstantiality of the Son. To deny, said Fulgentius, the Catholic position, produces the dilemma that the Son of God was either from something or from nothing. To suppose that He was made "out of nothing" reduces Him to the rank of a creature; while to suppose that He was made "from something," in essence different from God, involves a coeternal Being, and some form of Manichean dualism. Fulgentius laid the greatest emphasis on the unity of God's essence, and assumed, as a point not in dispute, that Christ was the object of Divine worship. This throws some light upon the later Arianism. The reply was not considered satisfactory by Thrasimund, who sent another group of objections, which were to be read to Fulgentius. No copy was to be left with him, but he was expected to return categorical answers: a statement vouched for by the opening chapters of the ad Trasimundum Regem Vandalorum Libri tres (cf. Schroeckh, Christliche Kirchengeschichte, xviii. 108). Bk. i. treats "of the Mystery of the Mediator, Christ, having two natures in one person"; bk. ii. "of the Immensity of the Divinity of the Son of God"; bk. iii. "of the Sacrament of the Lord's Passion." In bk. i. Fulgentius displays great familiarity with Scripture, and endeavours to establish the eternal generation of the Logos, and the birth in time of the Christ, when the Logos took flesh, and endeavours to shew that by "flesh" is meant the whole of humanity, body and reasonable soul, just as occasionally by "soul" is denoted not only reasonable soul but body as well. In bk. i. he shews that the whole of humanity needed redemption, and was taken into union with the Eternal Word; in bk. ii. that nothing less than Deity in His supreme wisdom and power could effect the redemption. In many ways he argues the immensity of the Son and of the Spirit of God. In bk. iii. he opposes strongly not only Patripassianism, but all theopathia, Θεοπασχιτισμός and the supposition that the Deity of Christ felt substantialiter the sorrows of the Cross. The dyophysite position is urged with remarkable earnestness, and held to be completely compatible with the unity of the person of Christ. The personality of the Christ the Son of God is distinguished from the personality of the Father, with an almost semi-Arian force, while he holds that the nature and substance of the Father and the Son are one and the same. "Sicut inseparabilis est unitate naturae sic inconfusibilis permanet proprietate personae" (lib. iii. c. 3). (Cf. ";unus omnino; non confusione substantiae; sed unitate personae," of the Athanasian Creed.) Yet though Christ emptied Himself of His glory, He was full of grace and truth. The two natures were united, not confused, in Christ. But as there was taken up into His one personality the reasonable soul and flesh of man, not a human personality, but human nature, He could weep at the grave of Lazarus and die upon the Cross. Chap. 20 shews conclusively that Fulgentius must have read as the text of Heb. ii. 9, χωρὶς Θεοῦ rather than χάριτι Θεοῦ as he lays repeated emphasis on the sine Deo. The author of the Vita assures us that Thrasimund secured the assistance of an Arian bishop, Pinta, to reply to these three books, and that Fulgentius rejoined. The existing work entitled Pro Fide Catholica adv. Pintam Episcopum Arianum, liber unus (Opp. Migne's ed. pp. 708-720) cannot be the work of Fulgentius. The indignation of the Arian party at Carthage led to what is called his second exile. In the dead of night Fulgentius was hurried on board a vessel bound for Sardinia. On reaching Calaris (Cagliari) in Sardinia, he was received by the exiles with great enthusiasm and reverence. Here he remained until the king died in 523, and displayed extraordinary energy in literary, polemical, and monastic work. With the assistance of Brumasius, the "antistes" of the city, he built another monastery, where more than 40 monks lived under a strict rule of community of property. The equity, benevolence, and self-abnegation of these coenobites are extolled in high terms, and Fulgentius is especially commended for his sweetness and gentleness to the youngest and weakest, which was never disturbed except when bound by his office and vows to act with severity towards insubordination or sin. Symmachus, bp. of Rome, wrote a letter of congratulation to these valiant champions of Christ (Anast. in Symmacho, Baron. ann. 504). During this period the majority of his extant letters were penned, for the most part in answer to difficult theological questions, and then also Fulgentius revealed his strong agreement with Augustine on predestination, grace, and remission of sin, at a time when these doctrines were being called in question by the semi-Pelagians of S. Gaul and N. Africa. Cf. Neander, General Church History, Clark's trans. vol. iv. 417 ff.; Shedd, Hist. of Christian Doctrine, vol. ii. 104 ff.; Wiggers, Augustinismus and Pelagianismus, II. Theil, 369-393; Schroeckh, xviii.
The most extended of these dissertations is ad Monimum, libri tres. I. De duplice praedestinatione Dei. II. Complectens tres quaestiones. III. De vera expositione illius dicti: et verbum erat apud Deum. Monimus was an intimate friend of Fulgentius, and, on perusing Augustine's de Perfectione Justitiae Hominis, had thought that that Father taught predestination to sin as well as to virtue. Fulgentius assured Monimus that God does not predestinate men to sin, but only to the punishment merited by sin, quoting Ez. xviii. 30. "Sin," said he, "is not in Him, so sin is not from Him. That which is not His work
