of the apostle John, but is probably later than Papias, or we should have been likely to have heard of it here.
Georgius Hamartolus quotes Papias as saying, in his second book, that the apostle John had been killed by the Jews. That there is some blunder is clear; but Lightfoot has made it very probable from comparison with a passage in Origen that a real saying of Papias is quoted, but with the omission of a line or two. Papias, in commenting on Matt. xx. 22, may very well have said, as does Origen, that John had been condemned by the Roman emperor to exile at Patmos and that James had been killed by the Jews.
In JOANNES PRESBYTER we quote several authorities (including Irenaeus) who speak of Papias as a disciple of John the Evangelist. He is called by Anastasius of Sinai ὁ πάνυ and ὁ πολύς, and passed in the church as an authority of the highest rank. Jerome (Ep. ad Lucinium, 71 Vallars.) contradicts a report that he had translated the writings of Papias and Polycarp, declaring that he had neither leisure nor ability for such a task. He does not, in his writings, shew any signs that he knew more of the work of Papias than he could have learned from Eusebius. The latest trace of the existence of the work of Papias is that an inventory, a.d. 1218, of the possessions of the cathedral of Nismes (Menard. Hist. civil. ecclés. et littér. de la ville de Nismes) contains the entry "Item inveni in claustro—librum Papie librum de verbis Domini." No trace of this MS. has been recovered. The fragments of Papias have been assembled in various collections, e.g. Grabe (Spicilegium), Galland and Routh (Rel. Sac.), but can best be read in Gebhardt and Harnack's Apost. Fathers, pt. ii.; a trans. is in the vol. of Apost. Fathers in Ante-Nicene Lib. (T. & T. Clark). Dissertations on Papias are very numerous; we may mention important articles in the Theol. Studien und Kritiken by Schleiermacher, 1832, Zahn, 1867, Steitz, 1868; an essay by Weiffenbach (Giessen, 1876), a reply by Leimbach (Gotha, 1878), and a rejoinder by Weiffenbach, Jahrbuch f. Prot. Theol. 1877; Hilgenfeld in his Journal, 1875, 1877, 1879; Lightfoot, Contemp. Rev. 1867, 1875 ; Harnack, Chronologie.
Others of the name of Papias are—a martyr with Victorinus (Assemani, Act. Mart. Or. et Occ. ii. 60); a martyr with Onesimus at Rome, Feb. 16; a physician at Laodicea (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vii. 154); and a grammarian Papias in the 11th cent., a note of whose on the Maries of the Gospel was published by Grabe among the fragments of Papias of Hierapolis and accepted as such until Lightfoot established the true authorship.
[G.S.]
Papylus (Papirius or Papyrius, as Rufinus, and Ado after him, write), April 13. In 1881 Aubé brought some new facts to light respecting this martyr from the Greek MSS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Papylus is mentioned by Eusebius (H. E. iv. 15) at the end of his account of Polycarp's martyrdom. Ruinart (p. 27), in his preface to the Acts of Polycarp, says that according to Eusebius Papylus and his companions Carpus and Agathonice suffered about the same time as Polycarp. This is a mistake of the Bollandist Henschenius, arising out of the Latin version of Eusebius, which inserts the words "sub id tempus," which have no equivalent in the Greek original. The Acts of Papylus contained in Metaphrastes assign his martyrdom to the Decian persecution. These Acts, however, Aubé thinks utterly worthless. In the Revue archéologique, Dec. 1881, p. 350, he published a Greek MS. containing Acts which he thinks may be those seen by Eusebius. Aubé seems to agree in placing the martyrdom of Papylus in the Decian persecution. But Lightfoot points out (Ignatius, i. 625) that in the Acts mention is made of emperors in the plural, thence he infers that this rather points to the reign of M. Aurelius or of Severus.
[G.T.S.]
Parmenianus, successor to Donatus the Great, who followed Majorinus as Donatist bp. of Carthage. Optatus calls him "peregrines," i.e. probably not a native of Africa. Having adopted Donatist opinions, he succeeded Donatus c. 350, was banished a.d. 358, and returned under the decree of Julian a.d. 362 (Aug. Retract. ii. 17; Eus. Chron. ap. Hieron. Opp. vol. iii. p. 687). About this time, if not earlier, he published a work, not now extant, in five parts, in defence of Donatism, to which the treatise of Optatus is a reply. About 372 Tichonius, a Donatist, well versed in Scripture, becoming sensible of the narrow and exclusive views of the sect, wrote a book to condemn them, but without abandoning his party. Parmenian replied, condemning the doctrine of Tichonius as tending to connect the true church, that of the Donatists, with the corrupt one, the Catholic, especially its African branch. A council of 270 Donatist bishops was convened at Carthage, which sat for 75 days and at last resolved that "traditors," even if they refused rebaptism, should be admitted to communion (Aug. Ep. 93, 43).
The time of this council is not known. Parmenian died and was succeeded by Primian c. 392; but his book against Tichonius fell into the hands of St. Augustine, who, at the request of his friends, discussed it in a treatise in three books, c. 402–405 (Tillem. xiii. 128 and note 32). For a full account of the treatise, with a list of Scripture quotations, see Ribbek, Donatus und Augustinus, pp. 348–366. (See also Aug. Retract. ii. 17.)
[H.W.P.]
Pascentius (1), steward or controller of imperial property in Africa, comes domus regiae, severe in the execution of his office, an Arian and a bitter opponent of the Catholic faith, very troublesome to the simple-minded and perhaps not very highly educated clergy of Carthage. (Possidius, Vit. Aug. c. 17; Böcking, Not. Dign. c. 11, vol. ii. p. 374–393.) He requested St. Augustine to confer with him at Carthage on the subject of religion, a.d. 406, but refused to allow written notes of the discussion to be made, and asserted that Augustine was afraid to declare his opinions. Augustine therefore wrote two letters in succession to give Pascentius an opportunity of reply. Augustine, compelled by his opponent's repeated evasions to declare his own belief, exhibits this in terms closely resembling the Athanasian Creed, its method of illustration, and sometimes its very words (Aug. Ep. 238, 239). Aug. Opp. vol. ii. App. pp. 1153–1162, ed. Migne; Tillem. Mém. vol.
