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History
and
Literature
of
Patrology.
1.
ST.
JEROME.
‐
We
owe
to
St.
Jerome
the
idea
of
a
Patrology
or
history
of
Christian
theological
literature.
His
work
on
the
Christian
writers
was
composed
at
Bethlehem
in
392
at
the
suggestion
of
the
pretorian
prefect
Dexter
1
.
It
is
modelled
on
the
homonymous
work
of
Suetonius
(ca.
75
‐
160),
and
professes
to
be
a
brief
account
of
all
those
«ecclesiastical
writers»
(«ecclesiae
scriptores»)
who
have
written
on
the
Sacred
Scriptures
(«de
scripturis
sanctis
aliquid
memoriae
prodiderunt»)
from
the
Crucifixion
to
the
fourteenth
year
of
the
reign
of
Theodosius
(392).
The
first
chapters
are
devoted
to
the
books
of
the
New
Testament;
later
on,
even
heretical
writers
are
added
(Bardesanes
c.
33,
Novatian
c.
70,
and
others).
At
the
end
(c.
135)
he
gives
an
account
of
his
own
writings
as
far
as
the
year
392.
The
material
of
the
first
chapters
is
taken
from
the
New
Testament;
the
following
sections,
on
the
Greek
writers
of
the
first
three
centuries,
are
hastily
made
and
inaccurate
excerpts
from
the
Church
History
of
Eusebius
of
Cæsarea.
The
chapters
on
the
Latin
writers
and
on
later
Greek
writers
represent
the
personal
knowledge
and
research
of
St.
Jerome,
and
although
they
do
not
entirely
satisfy
our
just
expectations,
they
are
nevertheless
an
historical
authority
of
the
first
rank.
Erasmus,
who
first
edited
(1516)
the
«De
viris
illustribus»,
published
also
a
Greek
translation
of
the
work
(Migne
1.
c.)
which
he
attributed
to
Sophronius,
a
contemporary
of
St.
Jerome.
It
was
not,
however,
executed
before
the
seventh
century.
In
the
very
numerous
manuscript
of
this
work
of
St.
Jerome
the
continuation
by
Gennadius
(n.
2)
is
usually
found.
It
is
also
printed
in
the
latest
editions,
by
W.
Herding,
Leipzig,
1879;
C.
A.
Bernoulli,
Sammlung
ausgewählter
kirchen
‐
und
dogmengeschichtlicher
Quellenschriften
xi.,
Freiburg
i.
Br.
(1895),
and
E.
C.
Richardson,
Texte
und
Untersuchungen
zur
Geschichte
der
altchristlichen
Literatur,
Leipzig,
1896,
xiv.
I.
These
editions
have
not
rendered
further
improvement
impossible.
O.
v.
Gebhardt
has
given
us
an
excellent
edition
of
the
Greek
translation,
Leipzig,
1896
(Texte
und
Untersuchungen
1.
c.).
Cf.
St.
v.
Sychowski,
Hieronymus
als
Literarhistoriker,
Münster,
1894
(Kjrchengeschichtliche
Studien,
ii.
2);
C.
A.
Bernoulli,
Der
Schriftstellerkatalog
des
Hieronymus,
Freiburg
i.
Br.,
1895;
G.
Wentzel,
Die
griechische
Übersetzung
der
Viri
inlustres
des
Hieronymus,
Leipzig,
1895
(Texte
und
Untersuchungen,
xiii.
3).
2.
CONTINUATORS
OF
ST.
JEROME.
‐
For
more
than
a
thousand
years,
this
little
book
of
the
Hermit
of
Bethlehem
served
as
the
basis
of
all
later
efforts
to
produce
a
history
of
theological
literature.
All
later
compilers
linked
their
work
to
his,
and
even
when
there
was
added
a
name
forgotten
by
him,
or
by
one
of
his
continuators,
the
form
and
divisions
of
the
work
remained
1
De
viris
illustr.:
Migne,
PL.,
xxiii.
601
‐
720.
Otto
Bardenhewer.
History
and
Literature
of
Patrology.
http://plgo.info
2
unchanged.
Between
the
years
467
‐
480
(apparently),
Gennadius,
a
priest
of
Marseilles,
brought
out
a
very
useful
continuation
and
completion
of
the
«De
viris»
2
.
He
was
a
Semi
‐
Pelagian,
a
fact
that
is
responsible
for
occasional
deviations
from
his
usual
impartial
or
objective
attitude.
Otherwise,
Gennadius
was
an
historian
of
extensive
knowledge,
accurate
judgment
and
honourable
purpose.
Isidore,
archbishop
of
Seville
(
Ŧ
636),
added
considerably
to
the
labours
of
Gennadius
3
,
and
his
disciple
Ildephonsus
of
Toledo
(
Ŧ
667)
contributed
a
short
appendix
on
some
Spanish
theologians
4
.
Centuries
were
now
to
pass
away
before
the
Benedictine
chronicler,
Sigebert
of
Gembloux
in
Belgium
(
Ŧ
1112),
took
up
the
task
once
more,
and
carried
the
history
of
ecclesiastical
literature
down
to
his
own
time.
In
his
book
«De
viris
illustribus»
5
he
treats
first,
«imitatus
Hieronymum
et
Gennadium»,
as
he
himself
says
(c.
171),
of
the
ancient
ecclesiastical
writers;
and
next
gives
biographical
and
bibliographical
notes
on
early
mediæval
Latin
theologians,
usually
slight
and
meagre
in
contents,
and
not
unfrequently
rather
superficial.
Somewhat
similar
compendia
were
composed
by
the
priest
Honorius
of
Augustodunum
(Autun?)
between
1122
and
1125
6
,
by
the
«Anonymus
Mellicensis»,
so
called
from
the
Benedictine
abbey
of
Melk
in
Lower
Austria,
where
the
first
manuscript
of
his
work
was
found,
though
the
work
itself
was
probably
composedwin
the
abbey
of
Prüfening
near
Ratisbon
in
1135
7
,
and
by
the
author
of
a
similarly
entitled
work
wrongly
ascribed
to
the
scholastic
theologian
Henry
of
Ghent
(
Ŧ
1293).
These
compilations
were
all
surpassed,
in
1494,
as
regards
the
number
of
authors
and
the
abundance
of
information,
by
the
«De
scriptoribus
ecclesiasticis»
of
the
celebrated
abbot
Johannes
Trithemius
(
Ŧ
1516).
It
contains
notices
of
963
writers,
some
of
whom,
however,
were
not
theologians.
Its
chief
merit
lies
in
the
information
given
concerning
writers
of
the
later
period
of
Christian
antiquity.
For
Trithemius,
as
for
his
predecessors,
St.
Jerome
and
Gennadius
are
the
principal
sources
of
knowledge
concerning
the
literary
labours
of
the
Fathers.
These
literary
‐
historical
compilations
are
to
be
found
together
with
the
work
of
St.
Jerome
(Latin
and
Greek)
in
J.
A.
Fabricius,
Bibliotheca
ecclesiastica,
Hamburg,
1718.
For
the
later
editions
of
Gennadius
by
Herding,
Bernoulli,
Richardson
see
p.
7;
cf.
also
Jungmann,
Quaestiones
Gennadianae
(Programme),
Lipsiae,
1881;
Br.
Czapla,
Gennadius
als
Literarhistoriker,
Münster,
1898
(Kirchengeschichtliche
Studien,
iv.
I);
Fr.
Diekamp,
Wann
hat
Gennadius
seinen
Schriftstellerkatalog
verfaßt?
Römische
Quartalschrift
für
christliche
Altertumskunde
und
für
Kirchengeschichte,
1898,
xii.
411
‐
420.
For
the
two
Spanish
historians
of
Christian
2
Migne,
PL.,
lviii.
1059
‐
1120.
3
Ib.,
lxxxiii.
1081
‐
1106.
4
Ib.,
xcvi.
195
‐
206.
5
Ib.,
clx.
547
‐
588.
6
De
luminaribus
ecclesiae:
Migne,
PL.,
clxxii.
197
‐
234.
7
De
scriptoribus
ecclesiasticis:
ib.,
ccxiii.
961
‐
984.
Otto
Bardenhewer.
History
and
Literature
of
Patrology.
http://plgo.info
3
literature
cf.
G.
v.
Dzialowski,
Isidor
und
Ildefons
als
Literarhistoriker,
Münster
(Kirchengeschichtliche
Studien,
iv.
2).
For
Sigebert
of
Gembloux
cf.
Wattenbach,
Deutschlands
Geschichtsquellen
im
Mittelalter,
6.
ed.,
Berlin,
1893
‐
1894,
ii.
155
‐
162,
and
for
his
literary
‐
historical
work
S.
Hirsch,
De
vita
et
scriptis
Sigeberti
monachi
Gemblacensis,
Berolini,
1841,
330
‐
337.
There
is
an
article
by
Stanonik
on
Honorius
of
Augustodunum
in
the
Kirchenlexikon
of
Wetzer
und
Welte,
2.
ed.,
vi.
268
‐
274.
A
good
edition
of
the
«Anonymus
Mellicensis»
was
published
by
E.
Ettlinger,
Karlsruhe,
1896.
For
the
work
«De
viris
illustribus»
current
under
the
name
of
Henry
of
Ghent
see
B.
Hauréau
in
Mémoires
de
l'institut
national
de
France,
Acad.
des
inscriptions
et
belles
‐
lettres,
Paris,
1883,
xxx.
2,
349
‐
357.
The
work
of
Trithemius
is
discussed
by
J.
Silbernagl,
Johannes
Trithemius,
2.
ed.,
Regensburg,
1885,
pp.
59
‐
65.
3.
THE
XVI.,
XVII.,
AND
XVIII.
CENTURIES.
Since
the
fifteenth
century
the
study
of
ecclesiastical
literature
has
made
unexpected
progress.
The
humanists
brought
to
light
a
multitude
of
unknown
works
of
Latin,
and
especially
of
Greek
ecclesiastical
writers.
The
contention
of
the
reformers
that
primitive
Christianity
had
undergone
a
profound
corruption,
furthered
still
more
the
already
awakened
interest
in
the
ancient
literature
of
the
Church.
In
the
seventeenth
and
eighteenth
centuries,
the
Benedictine
scholars
of
the
French
Congregation
of
St.
Maur
gave
a
powerful
and
lasting
impulse
to
the
movement
by
the
excellent,
and
in
part
classical,
editions
of
texts,
in
which
they
revealed
to
an
astonished
world
historical
sources
of
almost
infinite
richness
and
variety.
New
provinces
and
new
purposes
were
thereby
opened
to
Patrology.
The
Maurists
made
known
at
the
same
time
the
laws
for
the
historical
study
of
the
original
sources;
in
nearly
every
department
of
ancient
ecclesiastical
literature,
it
became
possible
for
scholars
to
strip
the
historical
truth
of
the
veil
of
legend
that
had
hung
over
it.
It
still
remained
customary
for
literary
historians,
to
deal
with
the
ancient
ecclesiastical
literature
as
a
whole.
The
most
distinguished
Catholic
names
in
this
period
of
patrological
scholarship
are
those
of
Bellarmine
(
Ŧ
1621),
Dupin
(
Ŧ
1719),
Le
Nourry
(
Ŧ
1724),
Ceillier
(
Ŧ
1761
),
Schram
(
Ŧ
1797),
Lumper
(
Ŧ
1800).
Among
the
Protestant
patrologists
are
reckoned
the
Reformed
theologians
Cave
(
Ŧ
1713),
and
Oudin
(
Ŧ
1717),
a
Premonstratensian
monk
who
became
a
Protestant
in
1690.
The
Lutheran
writers,
Gerhard
(
Ŧ
1637),
Hülsemann
(
Ŧ
1661),
Olearius
(
Ŧ
1711),
and
others
introduced
and
spread
the
use
of
the
term
«Patrology»,
meaning
thereby
a
comprehensive
view
of
all
Christian
theological
literature
from
the
earliest
period
to
mediæval,
and
even
to
modern
times.
Robertus
Card.
Bellarminus
S.
J.,
De
scriptoribus
ecclesiasticis
liber
unus,
cum
adiunctis
indicibus
undecim
et
brevi
chronologia
ab
orbe
condito
usque
ad
annum
1612,
Romae,
1613;
Coloniae,
1613,
et
saepius.
L.
E.
Dupin,
Nouvelle
bibliothèque
des
auteurs
ecclésiastiques,
Paris,
1686
sq.
The
several
sections
of
this
extensive
work
appeared
under
different
titles.
The
number
of
volumes
also
varies
according
to
the
editions.
Because
of
its
very
unecclesiastical
character
the
work
of
Dupin
was
placed
on
the
Index,
May
10.
1757.
N.
Le
Nourry
O.
S.
B.,
Apparatus
ad
bibliothecam
maximam
veterum
patrum
et
antiquorum
scriptorum
ecclesiasticorum
Lugduni
(1677)
editam,
2
tomi,
Paris,
1703
‐
1715.
R.
Ceillier
O.
S.
B.,
Histoire
générale
de
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