Evagrius
Evagrius
Ecclesiastical historian and last of the continuators of Eusebius of Caesarea, b. in 536 at Epiphania in Coele-Syria; d. after 594, date unknown. He followed the profession of advocate at Antioch (hence his surname) and became the friend of the Patriarch Gregory (569-594), whom he successfully defended in presence of the Emperor Maurice and of the Council at Constantinople (588). Having already been appointed questor by Tiberius II (578-582), he received from Maurice the title of honorary prefect (ex praefectis). Evagrius, a product of the masters of rhetoric, made a collection of the reports, letters, and decisions which he had written for the Patriarch Gregory. Another collection contained discourses of Evagrius, among them a panegyric of the Emperor Maurice and his son Theodosius. These have all been lost. None of his works survive except his “Ecclesiastical History” in six books. In this he proposes to write the sequel of the narrative begun by Eusebius of Caesarea and continued by Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. He begins with the Council of Ephesus (431) and ends with the twelfth year of the reign of the Emperor Maurice (593-594). This work is very important for the history of the religious controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries, Nestorianism, Eutychianism, and the last phases of Monophysitism. Evagrius furnishes details concerning events and persons, and does not neglect works of art (St. Sophia, H.E., IV, 31). To political history he gives an important place; in a word, he is an authority of the first order for this period. He is sincere, and is conscientious in securing information. But he shares the ideas of his environment and of his time. In his defence of Constantine he goes so far as to deny the murder of Crispus and Faustina. He relates wonders and legends, and it is to him we owe the account of the blood that was taken up with a sponge at certain times from the body of St. Euphemia of Chalcedon (II, 3). Among the sources of his information he mentions the chronicle of Eustathius of Antioch, and the works of Procopius, Menander Protector, John of Epiphania, and John Malalas (whom he calls John the Rhetorician). While he relies on these authors, he does so with discretion. In his ecclesiastical attitude he is strictly orthodox and abides strictly by the decrees of Chalcedon; nevertheless, he judges the heretics with moderation. His was an equable mind, and he is a reliable guide.
———————————–
PAUL LEJAY Transcribed by Gerald M. Knight
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VCopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Evagrius (1)
Born about 345, in Ibora, a small town on the shores of the Black Sea; died 399. He is numbered among the more important ascetical writers of the fourth century. Instructed by St. Gregory Nazianzen, he was ordained reader by St. Basil the Great and deacon by St. Gregory of Nyssa (380), whom he accompanied to the Second Council of Constantinople (381). According to Palladius, who differs in his account from Socrates and Sozomen, Evagrius remained for a time as archdeacon in Constantinople, while Nectarius was patriarch (381-397). Leaving the city on account of its spiritual dangers, he went first to Jerusalem and then into the Nitrian Desert, where he began an eremitical life under the guidance of the younger Macarius (383). He steadfastly refused a bishopric offered by Theophilus of Alexandria. He became very celebrated for his ascetical life and writings, though St. Jerome (e.g. Ep. 133 ad Ctesiphontem, n. 3) charges him with Origenistic errors and calls him the precursor of Pelagius. The Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Ecumenical Councils condemn Evagrius together with Origen. Rufinus and Gennadius translated the works of Evagrius into Latin; several of them have been lost or have not thus far been recovered (P.L., XL). The best collections of his works are edited by Bigot (Paris, 1680); Gallandi, “Biblioth. vet. patr.”, VII, 551-581; Migne, “P.G.”, XL; cf. also Elter, “Gnomica” (Leipzig, 1892); Zöckler, “Evagrius Pontikus” (Munich, 1893). We may here name: “Monachus seu de vita activa”; “Rerum monachalium rationes earumque juxta quietem adpositio”; “De octo vitiosis cogitationibus”.
———————————–
A.J. MAAS Transcribed by Gerald M. Knight
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VCopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Evagrius
(1) Orthodox bishop of Constantinople for two months in 370.
(2) Bishop of Antioch, cir. A.D. 388-392.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Evagrius
Evagrius (17), an ecclesiastical historian, who wrote six books, embracing a period of 163 years, from the council of Ephesus a.d. 431 to the 12th year of the emperor Mauricius Tiberius, a.d. 594. He was born at Epiphania in Coelesyria a.d. 536 or 537, but accompanied his parents to Apamea for his education, and from Apamea seems to have gone to Antioch, the capital of Syria, and entered the profession of the law. He received the surname of Scholasticus, a term then applied to lawyers (Du Cange, Glossarium, s.v.), gained great favour with Gregory bp. of Antioch, and was chosen by him to assist in his judgments. He seems to have won general esteem and goodwill, for on his second marriage the city was filled with rejoicing, and great honours were paid him by the citizens. He accompanied Gregory to Constantinople, and successfully advocated his cause when he was summoned to answer there for heinous crimes. He also wrote for him a book containing “reports, epistles, decrees, orations, disputations, with sundry other matters,” which led to his appointment as quaestor by Tiberius Constantinus and by Mauritius Tiberius as master of the rolls, “where the lieutenants and magistrates with their monuments are registered ” (Evagr. vi. 23). This is his own account of his promotion.
His death must have occurred after 594, in which year he wrote his history at the age of 58 (iv. 28). His other works have perished. The history was intended as a continuation of those of Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. He sought all sources of information at his command-the writings of Eustathius the Syrian, Zosimus, Priscus, Joannes Rhetor, Procopius of Caesarea, Agathus, and other good authors-and resolved to bring their scattered information together “that the famous deeds which slumbered in the dust of forgetfulness might be revived; that they might be stirred with his pen, and presented for immortal memory” (Pref. to his Hist.).
Despite his unnecessarily inflated style, he largely attained his end. He is a warm, often an enthusiastic writer, orthodox in his sentiments, and eager in his denunciations of prevailing heresies. Jortin indeed has condemned him as “in points of theological controversy an injudicious prejudiced zealot” (Remarks on Eccl. Hist. ii. p. 120); but Evagrius was a lawyer, not a theologian, and we must look to him for the popular rather than the learned estimate of the theological controversies of his time. His credulous enthusiasm led him to accept too easily the legends of the saints, but in other respects he shews many of the best qualities of an historian. Not a few original documents, decrees of councils, supplications to emperors, letters of emperors and bishops, etc., are preserved in his pages, forming most important authorities for the events to which they relate. Goss (in Herzog) especially praises his defence of Constantine against the slanders of Zosimus. In his general arrangement he follows the reigns of the emperors of the East from Theodosius the Younger to Maurice; but the arrangement of details is faulty. There is often great spirit in the narrative, an excellent specimen of which is his account of the council of Chalcedon (ii. 18). The work is chiefly valuable in relation to the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies, and the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. The first ed. of the History is that of Valesius, with notes (Paris, 1673) reprinted at Camb. in Hist. Eccl. Scriptores cum notis Valesii et Reading, and repub. by the Clar. Press. The latest and best ed. is by Bidez and Parmentier (Lond. 1849) in Byzantine Texts edited by J. B. Bury. See also Krumbacher’s Gesch. der Byz. Lit. 2nd ed. p. 246. There is a fair Eng. trans. by Meredith Hanmer (Lond. 1619) along with a trans. of Eusebius and Socrates, and more recent ones pub. by Bagster in 1847 and in Bohn’s Lib. (Bell).
[W.M.]