OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Victorius of Aquitaine

Victorius (2) of Aquitaine. During the pontificate of Leo the Great in 444 and 453 differences arose between the Western churches headed by Rome, and the Eastern headed by Alexandria as to the correct day for celebrating Easter. Pope LEO yielded on both occasions, but to avoid such disputes in future, directed his archdeacon HILARIUS, who succeeded him, to investigate the question. Hilary referred it to his friend Victorius, who in 457 drew up a cycle to determine the date of Easter in past and future years.
The cycle of 532 years, consisting of 28 Metonic (28 x 19) or rather 7 Calippic (7 x 76) cycles, was adopted or independently discovered by Victorius. He began it with the year of the crucifixion, which he placed on Mar. 26, in the consulship of the two Gemini. As the year in which he composed his cycle, the consulship of Constantinus and Rufus, which corresponds with a.d. 457, was the 430th of his cycle, its first year corresponded with a.d. 28. He made his earliest Easter limit Mar. 22, the same as the Alexandrians; his latest Apr. 24, while theirs was the 25th.
The cycle of Victorius was widely, though not universally, accepted in the West, and especially in Gaul. In 527, however, DIONYSIUS published a new period of the Cyrillian 95-year cycle, which would terminate in 531; and VICTOR of Capua, c. 550, wrote against Victorius's cycle and in favour of the Alexandrian method of computation. Victorius's cycle seems thereafter to have become disused in Italy, but lingered much later in parts of Gaul. It has been edited with elaborate dissertations by Bucherius, de Doctrina Temporum, where all notices of Victorius are collected. The only additional information they give is Gennadius's statement (de Vir. Ill. 88) that he was a native of Aquitaine. As Hilary calls him "Dilectissimus et honorabilis sanctus frater," he was probably in orders. A full account of his cycle is given by Ideler (Handbuch d. Chronol. ii. 275–285), who points out that what Dionysius did was to continue the 95-year cycle, and that there is no evidence that he did anything to the Victorian cycle. The fact that his continuation of the Cyrillian cycle began in 532, which would be the first year of a new period of the Victorian cycle if the latter commenced with the year of Christ's birth, probably suggested the notion that he had thus altered the beginning of the Victorian cycle, and started a new period of it from 532. Victorius is by later writers sometimes called Victorinus and Victor, the last mistake leading to confusion with Victor of Capua.
[F.D.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Victorinus

Victorinus (4), St., of Pettau, bishop and martyr. He was apparently a Greek by birth, and (according to the repeated statement of Cassiodorus) a rhetorician before he became bp. of Pettau (Petavio) in Upper Pannonia. He is believed to have suffered martyrdom in Diocletian's persecution. St. Jerome (our chief authority concerning him) mentions him several times, and with respect even where his criticisms are adverse. He enumerates, among his works (Catal. Script. Eccl. 74) commentaries on Gen., Ex., Lev., Is., Ezek., Hab., Eccles., Cant., Matt., and Rev., besides a treatise "adversus omnes haereses." Jerome occasionally cites the opinion of Victorinus (in Eccles. iv. 13; in Ezech. xxvi. and elsewhere), but considered him to have been affected by the opinions of the Chiliasts or Millenarians (see Catal. Script. 18, and in Ezech. l.c.). He also states that he borrowed extensively from Origen. In consequence, perhaps, of his Millennarian tendencies, or of his relations to Origen, his works were classed as "apocrypha" in the Decretum de Libris Recipiendis, which Baronius (ad ann. 303) erroneously refers to a synod held under Gelasius. Little or nothing is left—nothing; indeed, which can be said to be his with any certainty. Poems are attributed to him with no authority better than that of Bede; while the two lines Bede quotes as his were clearly written by some one with a tolerable knowledge of Latin.
[H.A.W.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Vespasianus, Titus Flavius

Vespasianus, Titus Flavius, emperor July 1, 69, to June 24, 79, and his son Titus, emperor June 24, 79, to Sept. 13, 81. As a great part of the imperial power was exercised by Titus during his father's reign, of which his own short reign may be regarded as the continuation, it seems convenient to treat them together. The influences of these princes on Christianity was wholly indirect. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple tended to hasten the complete separation of Judaism and Christianity. This distinction, however, had not as yet become apparent to the Roman authorities, and as far as they had any knowledge of the existence of Christians, they regarded them as merely a Jewish sect. A long and almost unbroken chain of Christian authorities bear witness to the favourable condition of Christianity under these emperors. Melito of Sardis, writing in the reign of M. Aurelius (Eus. H. E. iv. 26), knows of no imperial persecutors except Nero and Domitian. Tertullian (Apol. 5) expressly denies that Vespasian was a persecutor. Lactantius (Mortes 2, 3) knows of no persecution between Nero and Domitian. Eusebius (H. E. iii. 17) expressly asserts that Vespasian did no harm to the Christians. Hilary of Poictiers, writing after 360, is the first to make any charge of persecution against Vespasian. In a rhetorical passage (contra Arianos, 3, in Migne, Patr. Lat. x. 611), contrary to all previous Christian testimony, he couples Vespasian with Nero and Decius. Sulpicius Severus (H. E. ii. 30 in Patr. Lat. xx. 146), in a passage whose style suggests it was borrowed from one of the lost books of Tacitus, states that the motive of Titus in destroying the temple was to abolish not only Judaism but Christianity, but he does not mention any hostile act on the part of Vespasian or his son against the Christians.
We may consider that the reigns of these first two Flavian emperors were a period of tranquillity for the church. For their relation to the church see Tillemont, Mém. eccl. ii. 102, 152, 555; Aubé, Hist. des persec. c. 4; Görres, Zeitsch. für wissent. Theol. xxi. 492. M. Double (L’Empereur Titus) ingeniously that maintains, contrary to the usual opinion, he was a monster of wickedness.
[F.D.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Vettius Epagathus

Vettius Epagathus. In the early persecutions, the Christians felt it to be a gross injustice that a man should be put to death merely because he acknowledged himself to be a Christian, and without any investigation whether there was anything contrary to morality or piety in the Christian doctrines or practices. It not unfrequently happened [LUCIUS] that a bystander at a trial would press on the judge the necessity of such an investigation, whereupon the magistrate
would say, I think you must be a Christian also yourself, and on the advocate's confessing that he was, would send him to share the fate of those whom he had attempted to defend. This befell Vettius Epagathus, a distinguished Christian citizen of Lyons in the persecution of a.d. 177. He came forward as the advocate of the Christians first apprehended, and in consequence was himself "taken up unto the lot of the martyrs." The word "martyr," as at first used, did not necessarily imply that he who bore witness for Christ sealed his testimony by death; and Renan (Marc Aurèle, p. 307) is of opinion that Vettius had "only the merits of martyrdom without the reality," since no mention is made of Vettius in the subsequent narration of the sufferings of Christians tortured in the amphitheatre, and, what Renan thinks decisive, the epistle of the churches says of Vettius that "he was and is a genuine disciple of Christ, following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." But the addition "following the Lamb, etc." indicates that the "is" does not refer to the life of Vettius in this world, but rather to that which he enjoyed in company with Christ. Vettius was probably a Roman citizen, and as such was simply beheaded instead of undergoing the tortures of the amphitheatre.
[G.S.]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Victor, Claudius Marius

Victor (39) (Victorius, Victorinus), Claudius Marius, the author of three books in hexameter verse, containing the narrative of Genesis down to the destruction of the cities of the Plain; author also of a letter to "Salmon," or Solomon, an abbat, in hexameter verse, on the corrupt manners of his time. He is probably the Victorius, or Victorinus, mentioned by Gennadius (de Vir. Ill. 60) as a rhetorician of Marseilles, who died "Theodosio et Valentiano regnantibus" (i.e. 425–450), and who addressed to his son Aetherius a commentary on Genesis. Gennadius says "a principio libri usque ad obitum patriarchae Abrahae tres diversos edidit libros." This does not accurately describe the work we have under the name of Cl. M. Victor. But there is a diversity of reading in the passage of Gennadius. In Erasmus's ed. of St. Jerome the passage stands "quatuor versuum edidit libros." If this be the right reading, it seems almost certain that the three books we have of Cl. M. Victor, ending as they now do at a point which seems to call for some explanation, are the first three books of those mentioned by Gennadius, and that a fourth book, now lost, carried on the narrative to Abraham's death, where a natural halting-place for the work is presented. The three books correspond very well with what Gennadius says of the work of Victorius; they are written in a pious and Christian spirit, but without depth or great force of treatment. They are, mainly, a paraphrase in verse of part of Genesis with but few reflections; the narrative, with one or two exceptions, keeping closely to that of Scripture. The most notable variation is the introduction of a prayer by Adam on his expulsion from Paradise, which is followed by a strange episode. The serpent is discerned by Eve, who urges Adam to take vengeance on him. In assailing him with stones, a spark is struck from a flint, which sets fire to the wood in which Adam and Eve had taken shelter, and they are threatened with destruction. This mishap is the means of revealing to them metals, forced from the ground by the heat, and of preparing the earth, by the action of the fire, for the production of corn. The style of the poem and its language are in no way remarkable; its versification is generally tolerable, but there are instances of wrong quantities of syllables. The Ep. to Salomon is a poem of about 100 hexameters, and more original, though not of special interest. Both are in De la Bigne's Bibl. Patr. viii. 278, and Appendix; and in Maittaires' Corpus Poetarum Lat. ii. 1567.
[H.A.W]
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Victor Tununensis

Victor (48) Tununensis, an African bishop and chronicler. He was a zealous supporter of the "Three Chapters," enduring much persecution after 556 and till his death c. 567, both in his own province and in Egypt. Of his Chronicle, from the creation to a.d.. 566, only the portion 444–566 remains, dealing almost exclusively with the history of the Eutychian heresy and the controversy about the "Three Chapters." It also gives details about the Vandal persecution, the memory of which must have been still fresh in his youth, and various stories telling against Arianism. The Chronicle is very useful for illustrations of the social and religious life of cent. vi. It is printed in Migne's Patr. Lat. t. lxviii. with Galland's preface. Cf. Isid. de Vir. Ill. c. 38; Cave's Hist. Lit. i. 415. A treatise On Penitence, included among the works of St. Ambrose, is attributed to Victor; Ceill. v. 512; x. 469, xi. 302.
[G.T.S.]
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Hierocæsarea

From volume 7 of the work.
A titular see of Lydia, suffragan of Sardis. This town is mentioned by Ptolemy (VI, ii, 16). Judging from its Coins it worshipped Artemis Persica. The site of Hierocæsarea must have been between the villages of Beyova and Sasova, seven or eight miles south-east of Thyatira, on the left bank of the Koum-Chai, a tributary of the Hermus, and in the vilayet of Smyrna. It is mentioned as an episcopal see in all the "Notitiæ Episcopatuum" until the twelfth or thirteenth century, but we know only three of its bishops: Cosinius, at Chalcedon, 451; Zacharias, at Nicæa, 782; Theodore, at constantinople, 879.
RAMSAY, Asia Minor, 128; LEQUIEN, Or. Christ., I, 891; FOUCART in Bulletin de correspondance hellénique, XI (1887), 93 sqq.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Hieronymus Fabricius

From volume 5 of the work.
(Surnamed ab Aquapendente).
Distinguished Italian anatomist and surgeon, b. in the little town of Acquapendente (Aquæ-Taurinæ), twelve miles from Orvieto, in 1537; d. at Padua, 21 May, 1619. He is known by the name of his birthplace to distinguish him from his contemporary, the great German surgeon Fabricius Hildanus. In English medical literature Fabricius is best known as the teacher of Harvey, who gives him the entire credit for the discovery of the valves in the veins which meant so much for Harvey's own discovery of the circulation of the blood. Some valves in the veins, however, had been seen and described by investigators before this, probably even by Erasistratus in ancient times. It was Fabricius' merit that he recognized the existence of a system of valves.
Sent by his parents to the University of Padua, Fabricius succeeded admirably in Greek, Latin, and philosophy. When he took up medicine he became the favourite pupil of Fallopius, being his demonstrator in anatomy at Padua when scarcely twenty. Though he was only twenty-five when Fallopius died, Fabricius was chosen his successor and a little later became professor of surgery, occupying both chairs for nearly half a century (1562-1609). His abilities were properly appreciated by the Senate of Venice, which built for him at Padua a spacious anatomical theatre bearing his name. He was created a Knight of St. Mark, and his annual salary was a thousand crowns, which was continued for ten years after his resignation. A statue was erected to his memory in Padua after his death. Fabricius was indifferent to money, refused regular fees, and accepted only such presents as wealthy patients forced on him. His work on anatomy (500 fol. pp.) is illustrated by hundreds of figures on sixty-one full-page plates, some of the best ever made. A monograph on the speech of brutes and a study of the comparative anatomy of the appendix are suggestive even for modern readers. His work on surgery is scarcely less valuable than that on anatomy and has gone through twenty editions in many languages. His principal works are: "De visione, voce, auditu" (Venice, 1600); "De brutorum loquelâ" (Padua, 1603); "De formato foetu" (Venice, 1600); "De locutione" (Venice, 1627); "Tractatus anatomicus triplex" (Frankfort, 1614). All his other works were reprinted at Frankfort shortly after this time, and all his works at Leipzig in 1687.
FISHER in Annals of Anatomy and Surgery (Brooklyn, 1880); FOSTER, History of Physiology (New York, 1901); THULIUS, Funus Hieronymi Fabricii (Padua, 1619); ROMITI, Il merito anatomico di Fabrizi in Lo Sperimentale (1883), April; DE RENZI, Storia della Medicina in Italia (Naples, 1845-49).
JAMES J. WALSH
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Hieronymus Medices

From volume 10 of the work.
(DE MEDICIS)
Illustrious as a scholastic of acumen and penetration, b. at Camerino in Umbria, 1569, whence the surname de Medicis a Camerino. He was clothed with the Dominican habit at Ancona. He first distinguished himself as professor of philosophy and theology in various houses of the Province of Lombardy, whence he was advanced to a professorship in the more important theological school at Bologna. He was approved by the general chapter of his Order held at Paris, 1611, and raised to the mastership and doctorate. He was then performing the duties of general censor for the tribunal of the Inquisition established at Mantua, for which reason he is said eventually to have secured the transfer of his affiliation to the convent of that place (1618). His laborious and fruitful career closed in 1622. It had been marked by a studious application to the doctrines of St. Thomas. Just as the Paris chapter was acknowledging his intellectual ability, he completed the first part of the invaluable "Summae theologiae S. Thomae Aquinatis doctoris angelici formalis explicatio". In this work he puts into syllogistic form the whole Summa. Aiming primarily at the enlightenment of beginners, he contributes notably to the instruction of others more advanced. The first part was not published until the first section of the second part was ready (Venice), 1614. Three years later followed the second section, but it was not until 1622 that the third part appeared at Salo, instead of Venice. The supplement had preceded the third part by a year (Venice, 1621); it was not published at Mantels in 1623. Other more correct editions have followed even as late as (Vici) 1858-1862. It is to Jacobus Quétif that credit is due for having improved the original in accuracy. He reproduced the work in five tomes, folio (Paris), in 1657. The chief advantage to be derived from the arrangement of St. Thomas in syllogistic form is a quickness of grasp with an easiness of assimilation not otherwise obtainable. In the Vici edition certain additions have been made which, although raising the value of the work as a manual, are outside the scope of the original. They serve as appendices to each question and, under the caption "Utilitas pro Ecclesia S. Dei", furnish the student with practical applications of the original matter in view of dogmas subsequently developed or contemporary heresy.
QUETIF-ECHARD, Scriptores O. P. (Paris, 1721), II, 425 b; HUNTER, NOMENCLATOR (Innsbruck, 1892) I, 257 b.; MORGOTT in Kirchenlexion (Freiburg im Br., 1893), treats more fully of the new features of the VICI ed. of the "Explicatio".
Thomas A. K. Reilly.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Sts. Primus and Felician

From volume 12 of the work.
Suffered martyrdom about 304 in the Diocletian persecution. The "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (ed. De Rossi-Duchesne, 77) gives under 9 June the names of Primus and Felician who were buried at the fourteenth milestone of the Via Nomentana (near Nomentum, now Mentana). They were evidently from Nomentum. This notice comes from the catalogue of Roman martyrs of the fourth century. In 648 Pope Theodore translated the bones of the two saints to the Roman Church of San Stefano, under an altar erected in their honour (Liber Pontificalis, I, 332), where they remain. Their feast is still observed on 9 June.
Acta SS., June, II, 152 sq.; DUFOURCQ, Les Gesta martyrum romains, I (Paris, 1900), 213; DE ROSSI, Inscriptiones christ., urbis Romae, II, 152; IDEM, I musaici delle chiese di Roma (Rome, 1899), plate XVII with text; MARUCCHI, Les basiliques et eglises de Rome (2nd ed., Rome, 1909), 221 sq.
J.P. KIRSCH
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Sts. Processus and Martinian

From volume 12 of the work.
The dates of these martyrs are unknown. The "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (ed. De Rossi-Duchesne, 85) gives under 2 July their names. The Berne manuscript of the Martyrology also gives their burial-place, viz. at the second milestone of the Via Aurelia. The old catalogues of the burial places of the Roman martyrs likewise mention the graves of both these saints on this road (De Rossi, "Roma sotterranea", I, 182-3). They were publicly venerated in Rome from the fourth or perhaps the third century, although nothing further is known. A legend makes them the keepers of the prison of Sts. Peter and Paul (Lipsius, "Apokryphe Apostelgeschich. u. Apostellegenden", II, Brunswick, 1887, 92, 105 sqq., 110 sq.). It cannot be shown how the legend came to give them this identification. Pope Paschal I (817-24) translated the bones of the two martyrs to a chapel in the old basilica of St. Peter; they still rest under the altar dedicated to them in the right transept of the present St. Peter's. Their feast is celebrated on 2 July.
Acta SS., July, I, 303-4; DUFOURCQ, Les Gesta martyrum romains, I (Paris, 1900), 170 sq., 233, 327 sqq.; MARUCCHI, Les catacombes romaines (2nd ed., Rome, 1903), 46 sqq.
J.P. KIRSCH
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Sts. Nazarius and Celsus

From volume 10 of the work.
The only historical information which we possess regarding these two martyrs is the discovery of their bodies by St. Ambrose. Paulinus relates (Vita Ambrosii, xxxii-xxxiii) that Ambrose, at some time within the last three years of his life, after the death of the Emperor Theodosius (d. 395), discovered in a garden outside the walls of Milan the body of St. Nazarius, with severed head and still stained with blood, and that he caused it to be carried to the Basilica of the Apostles. In the same garden Ambrose likewise discovered the body of St. Celsus, which he caused to be transported to the same basilica. Obviously a tradition regarding these martyrs was extant in the Christian community of Milan which led to the finding of the two bodies. A later legend, without historical foundation, places the martyrdom of these witnesses to the faith during the persecution of Nero, and describes with many details the supposed journeyings of St. Nazarius through Gaul and Italy. He is also brought into relation with the two martyrs Gervasius and Protasius. Paulinus says distinctly (l.c.) that the date on which Nazarius suffered martyrdom is unknown. The discourse eulogizing the two saints, attributed to St. Ambrose (Sermo lv, in P.L., XVII, 715 sqq.), is not genuine. St. Paulinus of Nola speaks in praise of St. Nazarius in his Poema xxvii (P.L., LXI, 658). A magnificent silver reliquary with interesting figures, dating from the fourth century, was found in the church of San Nazaro in Milan (Venturi, "Storia dell' arte italiana", I, Milan, 1901, fig. 445-49). The feast of the two martyrs, with that of Sts. Victor and Innocent, is on 28 July.
Mombritius, Sanctuarium, II, fol. 179 v-184 v; Acta SS., Julii, VI, 503-533; Analecta Bollandiana, II (1883), 302-307; Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, II, 881-882; Dufourcq, Etude sur les 'Gesta Martyrum' romains, II (Paris, 1907), 61 sqq.; Savio, in Ambrosiana (Milan, 1897); Puricelli, De ss. martyribus Nazario et Celso, ac Protasio et Gervasio, Mediolani sub Nerone coesis, deque basilicis in quibus eorum corpora quiescunt (Milan, 1656).
J.P. KIRSCH