Syricius was interred in the Cœmetery of Priscilla, but his Body was translated, about the Latter-end of the Eighth Century, to the Church of St. Praxedes[[1349]], where his Remains (for Baronius will not allow us to call them Relics) still lie unregarded.
| Arcadius, | ANASTASIUS, Thirty-eighth Bishop of Rome. | Honorius. |
Year of Christ 398.
Anastasius writes
to Paulinus.
Syricius was succeeded by Anastasius[[1350]], after a Vacancy of Twenty Days, according to some; and, according to others, of near Two Months. He was no sooner chosen, than he writ a kind and obliging Letter to Paulinus, then at Nola in Campania, and an other in his Commendation to the Bishops of that Province[[1351]]. This he is supposed to have done, in order to efface the bad Impression, which the Treatment Paulinus had met with in the Time of Syricius, might have given him against that See, and the Roman Clergy.
What occasioned the
Quarrel between
Jerom and Ruffinus.
It was in the Time of Anastasius, and soon after his Election, that the famous Dispute arose between Jerom and Ruffinus, which was afterwards carried on with a Warmth on both Sides quite unbecoming Men of their Profession. Of this Quarrel, and the Part Anastasius acted on that Occasion, the Writers of those Times give us the following Account. Ruffinus, a Presbyter of Aquileia, and a great Admirer of Origen, having accompanied Melania, whom he had attended Twenty-five Years at Jerusalem, on her Return to Rome in the Time of Syricius, was received there with extraordinary Marks of Esteem by the Roman Clergy, and Syricius himself, as I have observed elsewhere[[1352]]. |Ruffinus translates
Origen’sPeri-
archon.| Encouraged by the Reception he met with, he continued a whole Year at Rome; and during that Time published, but without putting his Name to it, a Latin Translation of Origen’s Periarchon, or Treatise of Principles, having first removed the Prejudice which some might entertain against that Writer, by the Translation of an Apology, which the Martyr Pamphylus had composed in his Vindication, while he was in Prison. To this Apology he added a Piece of his own, shewing that most of the Errors ascribed to Origen had been maliciously inserted into his Works by his Enemies after his Death[[1353]]. In the Preface to the Periarchon itself he also declared, that, in Imitation of a learned Brother, meaning Jerom, who had translated above Seventy of Origen’s Books, he had either corrected or suppressed such Errors as had appeared to him repugnant to the Articles of the Catholic Faith[[1354]]. |Many at Rome
embrace the Errors
of Origen.| The Work, thus recommended, was received with uncommon Applause at Rome, and the Sentiments of Origen greedily embraced, and warmly maintained, by great Numbers of the Clergy as well as the Laity, to whom Origen had till then been, it seems, utterly unknown. This happened in the Time of Syricius, who, either not suspecting Ruffinus, as he had not put his Name to the Translation, or perhaps not judging him worthy of Censure for barely relating the Sentiments of another, or supposing that, agreeably to his Preface, he had suppressed whatever was wrong in the original Work, gave him Letters of Communion at his Departure from Rome: for he had no sooner published his Translation than he left that City and returned to Aquileia. Syricius died soon after, and Anastasius was no sooner chosen in his room, than the famous Roman Matron Marcella, offended at the new Doctrines that began to prevail in Rome, applied to him, pressing him to put a Stop to the growing Evil, and at the same time accusing Ruffinus as the Author of the Translation, to which alone it was owing[[1355]]. |Errors left in the
Work, notwithstand-
ing the Corrections
made by the Trans-
lator.| To make good this Charge, she produced some Copies corrected with Ruffinus’s own Hand; and several Persons appeared, who, having by her means been reclaimed from the Errors of Origen, owned they had been led into them by the Disciples of Ruffinus[[1356]]. This Jerom cannot relate without launching into the Praises of his Heroine Marcella, crying up her Zeal, extolling her Courage and Resolution, in thus making head against so numerous a Band, meaning the Origenists in Rome, while the Clergy declined that Trouble, or rather promoted the Doctrines they ought to have opposed. But elsewhere he will not allow Women, under any Pretence whatsoever, to concern themselves in religious Controversies. To meddle in Disputes concerning Faith or Religion, is not at all the Province (says he, with the Words of St. Paul) of silly Women, laden with Sins, led away with divers Lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the Knowlege of the Truth[[1357]]. But he speaks here of Melania, who was no less attached to Ruffinus than Marcella was to him.
Jerom’s Charge
against Ruffinus.