[22] Ep. VI. 27.
[23] When the Patriarch Nestorius wrote to Pope Celestine his account of the controversy now known under his name, the latter was obliged, before he could reply, to wait till Nestorius’s letter had been translated into Latin. Erat enim in Latinum sermo vertendus. This letter, together with those of Cyril of Alexandria, form part of an interesting correspondence which illustrates very strikingly the pre-eminence then enjoyed in the Church by the Roman bishop, and is found in Hardouin’s Concilia, I. 1302. See also Walch’s Historie der Ketzereien, V. 701.
[24] Even Pope Vigilius himself professes his want of familiarity with the Greek language. See his celebrated Constitutum in Hardouin’s Coll. Concil III. col. 39.
[25] See the original in Labbe’s Concilia, VIII. 835. Both the original and the translation will be found in Leibnitz’s “System of Theology,” p. 52, note.
[26] See Milman’s Latin Christianity, IV. p. 58, and again 367.
[27] The titles of nearly two hundred of his works are still preserved.
[28] Rohrbacher Hist. de l’Eglise, XIX., 569.
[29] He is the author of a History of Spain, in nine books; and besides his very remarkable attainments as a linguist, was reputed among the most learned scholars of his age.
[30] See the account in Labbe, Collect. Concil. VII. 79. The writer observes; Cum ab apostolorum tempore auditum non sit nec scriptum reperiatur, quemque ad populum eandem concionem habuisse tot ac tam diversis linguis cuncta exponendo. The fact is also related by Feyjoo, Teatro critico, IV. p. 400. An interesting account of this remarkable scholar will be found in the Bibliotheca Hispana Vetus II. pp. 149-50.
[31] The Family of Barbaro produced many distinguished linguists, according to the opportunities of the time. Francesco Barbaro, born in 1398, was one of the earliest eminent Greek scholars of Italy. Ermolao, the commentator on Aristotle, was said by the wits of his time to have been such a purist in Greek, that he did not stop at consulting the devil when he was at a loss for the precise meaning of a word—the much disputed ἐντελεχέια of Aristotle!—See Bayle’s Dict. Hist. Art. Barbaro I. 473.