The “Catholic” Church in Socrates of Constantinople and Pacian of Barcelona

While this article does not presume to answer the old question “Was Socrates of Constantinople a Novatian?”, it does offer a hitherto-unnoticed observation that may bear on the question. Socrates, as has been noted, is very reticent to use the term “catholic” in describing the church in his Historia ecclesiastica. This is unlikely to be a stylistic quirk, as a comparison to the history of Sozomen shows. No one yet has connected his reticence to the Novatian Sympronian, who objects to the same term on theological grounds in letters exchanged with Pacian of Barcelona. Given Socrates’ reluctance to use the term and a(nother) Novatian’s rejection of the same term, we may well have more evidence suggesting that Socrates was at the very least sympathetic not only to Novatians as a community but to their theological positions as well. In any case, the resistance of both Sympronian and Socrates to the notion of a “catholic” church stands in contrast to the usual interpretation of late antiquity as a period of growing universalism. The article also discusses whether it is even valid to ask whether Socrates was a Novatian or whether this question falls into less useful confessional dichotomies.

Verb-final conjunct clauses in Old English prose

The aim of this study is to analyse intertextual differences in the use of V-final order in Old English conjunct clauses and to determine to what extent the source of these differences may be Latin influence. The analysis reveals that the frequency of V-final order in OE conjuncts is rather limited in most texts, and Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica surfaces as the text in which the frequency of V-final conjunct clauses is exceptionally high. The study shows that the regular use of V-final order in Bede may be interpreted as a translation effect, with Latin inflating the frequency of the pattern in conjunct clauses, which means that the frequency of V-final conjunct clauses in early OE translations may not reflect native tendencies.

Viskolcz Noémi, A mecenatúra színterei a főúri udvarban: Nádasdy Ferenc könyvtára, Szeged, SzTE, Bp., Historia Ecclesiastica Hungarica Alapítvány, 2013

Nádasdy (III.) Ferenc országbíró a 17. századi magyar művelődés és mecenatúra egyik meghatározóalakja volt. A Nádasdy-kutatócsoport (melynek Viskolcz Noémi is tagja: könyvét „a Csapatnak” dedikálta) egyre szaporodó eredményei azt mutatják, hogy a jeles arisztokrata jóval jelentősebb szerepet játszott a hazai gyűjteményezés történetében, mint azt korábban gondolták. Kollekcióinak mérete és minősége, a gyűjtemények rendezettségének igényessége, akkor nagyon is korszerű szempontjai, amit a mecénás nemzetközi kapcsolatrendszere és európai színvonalú ízlése alapozott meg, sok tekintetben felülmúlta a kortárs magyar főúri műgyűjtők kulturáltságának átlagát.

On an Alleged Senatus Consultum against the Christians

A passage in Macarius Magnes’ Apocriticus (2,14 Volp) has recently been adduced to support the long-controverted hypothesis that a senatus consultum was issued against the Christians in the year 35. The note reviews the evidence and finds it wanting. Of the texts usually adduced, Tertullian, Apologeticum 5,1–3 does not describe a senatus consultum, Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica 5,21,4 and the Greek and Armenian Acta Apollonii say nothing about Tiberius, and Jerome, Chronicon 35–36 post Christum appears to be an elaboration from Tertullian. The Macarian passage, in turn, refers to a “common judgment” and describes the condemnation of Christians by all respectable persons, especially the senatus populusque Romanus. It does not describe the promulgation of a formal senatus consultum.

Tres Thomae: Tomás Moro según Alonso de Villegas, Pedro de Ribadeneyra y Fernando de Herrera

En el presente trabajo se analizan tres esbozos biográficos sobre Tomás Moro escritos, respectivamente, por Alonso de Villegas, en la Tercera parte del Flos Sanctorum (1588); Pedro de Ribadeneyra, en la Historia ecclesiástica del scisma del reino de Inglaterra (1588-1595); y Fernando de Herrera, en su Tomás Moro (1592). En la primera parte del trabajo se identifican las fuentes que tuvieron a su alcance Villegas, Ribadeneyra y Herrera y, a continuación, se estudian individualmente las biografías de Tomás Moro de cada uno de ellos con la finalidad de dar cuenta de las notables diferencias que las separan. Como defendemos aquí, dichas diferencias se deben, en parte, a las distintas fuentes empleadas por estos escritores, pero también al tenso clima de controversia religiosa presente en la Europa de la segunda mitad del S. XVI.

Śmierć Galeriusza w Historia adversus Paganos Orozjusza

Orozjusz w Historia adversus paganos, opisując chorobę i śmierć cesarza Galeriusza, przypisał mu popełnienie samobójstwa. Żadne inne źródło nie potwierdza tego faktu. W źródłach, z których korzystał Orozjusz, albo bardzo lakonicznie informuje się o zgonie władcy (Breviarium Eutropiusza, Chronicon Hieronima), albo się o tym milczy (Historia Ecclesiastica Rufina z Akwilei). Prawdopodobnie to sam Orozjusz przypisał popełnienie cesarzowi samobójstwa, gdyż uznał, że tak powinien odejść wróg Boga i chrześcijaństwa. W Biblii samobójstwo ukazane jest negatywnie. Podobnie ojcowie Kościoła potępiali popełnienie samobójstwa.

Death on the altar: The rhetoric of 'otherness' in sources from the early period of the crusades

The article poses a thesis that the chroniclers of the First Crusade were tapping into a preexisting literary tradition of religious conflict in the process of shaping an image of an enemy. It centres on an analysis of the symbolic significance of the particular description of a priest's death at the hands of the Turks on the altar during the celebration of mass found in several sources describing the massacre of Christians in Civetot during the First Crusade (Gesta Francorum, Tudebode's Historia de Hierosolymitano itinere, Baldric of Dol's Historiae Hierosolymitanae libri IV, Guibert of Nogent's Gesta Dei per Francos, Robert the Monk's Historia Hierosolymitana, and Oderic Vitalis' Historia ecclesiastica). The article argues that the presented description could be considered an example of a rhetorical strategy employed in the crusading accounts, used for the purpose of depicting the enemy as religious and cultural 'other'. Furthermore, the article discusses the intertextuality and the potential influence of ancient and scriptural motifs on the literary workshop of the chroniclers in their versions of the story.