Salvianus
Salvianus
A Latin writer of Gaul, who lived in the fifth century. Born of Christian parents, he married a pagan woman named Palladia, who was converted together with her parents; husband and wife resolved to live thenceforth in continence. About 430 Salvianus become one of the ascetics directed by Honoratus of Lerinum. Gennadius speaks of him as a priest of the Church of Marseilles. He lived and wrote in the South of Gaul. He was probably a native of the Roman Germania — of Trier, according to a conjecture of Halm (De gub, VI, xiii, 72). He traveled in Gaul and in Africa. In his extant writings he does not yet know of the invasion of Attila and the battle of Châlons (451).
Of the numerous works mentioned by Gennadius (De viris, lxvii) there remain only nine letters and two treatises: “Ad ecclesiam adversum avaritiam” and “De gubernatione Dei” or “De præsenti judicio”. The fourth is one of his most interesting letters; in it he explains to his recently-converted parents-in-law the decision reached by him and his wife to observe continence. In the ninth he justifies to Solonius his use of a pseudonym in his first writing. He issued the treatise “De ecclesia” under the name of Timotheus; this work exhorts all Christians to make the Church their heir. The “De gubernatione Dei”, in eight books was written after 439 (VII, x, 40). He endeavoured to prove a Divine explanation of the barbarian invasions. With the orthodox but depraved Romans he contrasts the barbarians, infidels or Arians, but virtuous. This thesis places Salvianus in the ranks of the Latin moralists, who from the “Germania” of Tacitus down, show to their corrupt compatriots an ideal of justice and virtue among the Germans. The work, dedicated to Bishop Salonius, a disciple of Lerinum, is unfinished and seems to have appeared in fragments; Gennadius knew only five books.
Salvianus is a careful writer, much resembling Lactantius, but his style is strongly influenced by the rhetoricians, and its prolixity renders it wearisome. The same influence doubtless explains the exaggeration of his ideas on the necessity of giving all his goods to the Church and the antithesis of Roman corruption and German virtue. The “De gubernatione” contains interesting pictures of manners, but all must not be taken literally. Salvianus speaks as an advocate and in doing so forces the tone, palliating what goes against his case and bringing out in the strongest relief all that favours it. To judge the society of the time by his pictures is to risk making mistakes. Apart from his style, Salvianus is not highly cultured. He has some slight knowledge of law; he is ignorant enough to attribute Plato’s “Republic” to Socrates (De gub., VII, xxiii, 101). There are two critical editions of his works: Halm in “Monumenta Germaniæ” (Berlin, 1877) and Pauly in “Corpus script. ecclesiasticorum latinorum” (Vienna, 1883).
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PAUL LEJAY Transcribed by Christine J. Murray
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIIICopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Salvianus
an elegant ecclesiastical writer of the 5th century, was born in the neighborhood of Treves. Whether reared as a Christian is uncertain; but shortly after his marriage with Palladia, a pagan lady of Cologne, they both appear as earnest Christians. After the birth of a daughter, he joined his wife in making a vow of monkish chastity. He now removed to the south of France, and acted as presbyter of the Church at Marseilles. Here he stood in close relations with bishop Eucherius of Lyons, to whose sons he gave instruction. The period of his death is uncertain, but he lived at least until 490, for Gennadius wrote of him in 490-495, Vivit usque hodie senectute bona. Salvianus was a prolific author. Besides various treatises which have perished, the following are still extant: Adversus Avaritiam Libri IV ad Ecclesiam Catholicam (about 440 [it was printed by Sichardus, at Basle, in 1528; its object was to induce the laity to greater luberality to the Church]): De gubernatione Dei et de Justo Proesentique Judicio (451- 455 [it was printed by Frobenius, Basle, 1530; it was written at the time of the ravages of the Northern barbarians, and was designed, like the Civitas Dei of Augustine, to remove the doubts against the providence of God to which those calamities had given rise]): Epistoce IX, which had been addressed to friends on various familiar topics. These letters were first printed, with the author’s collective works, in 1580. The collective works of Salvianus were printed by P. Pithoeus (Paris, 1580, 8vo), by Rittershusius (Altdorf, 1611), and by Balusius (ibid. 1663-69-84). See Heyne, Opuscula Academica, vol. 6; Smith, Dict. of Biog. and Myth. 3, 700, 701; Herzog, Real-Encykl. 13, 342, 343. (J.P.L.)