Flavianus, being thus at last, in the Seventeenth Year of his Episcopacy, acknowleged by, and united in CommunionCommunion with, all the Bishops of the Catholic Church, spared no Pains to gain over the Eustathians, that, by reuniting them to the rest of his Flock, he might have the Merit and Glory of establishing an intire and lasting Tranquillity in the Church committed to his Care. But his Zeal was not therein attended with the wished for Success. The Glory of completing so great and desirable a Work was, by Providence, reserved for Alexander, one of his Successors, who had the Satisfaction of seeing all Party-Names laid aside, and the whole People of Antioch united in one Flock, under one and the same Shepherd. This Union was made with great Solemnity, in the Year 415. Eleven Years after the Death of Flavianus, and Eighty-five after the Beginning of the Schism. Thus Theodoret, in his Ecclesiastical History^[1328]. But Theodorus the Lector assures us, that there still remained some Seeds of that unhappy Division till the Year 482. when the Body of Eustathius being brought back to Antioch, the few Eustathians, who still continued to assemble apart, joined the rest of the Catholics, and the Name of Eustathian was never more heard of^[1329]. |Flavianus honoured by the Church of Rome as a Saint, tho’ ill used in his Life-time by the Popes.| Flavianus died in the Year 404. the Ninety-fifth of his Age, and Twenty-third of his Episcopacy, and is now honoured as a Saint; a Distinction which none of his Competitors have deserved, though as much caressed and favoured by the Two Bishops of Rome, Damasus and Syricius, as he was opposed and ill used. How fallible have the Bishops of that See shewed themselves, from the earliest Times, in their Judgment of things! How rash in taking Parties, and fomenting Discords! How obstinate and inflexible in maintaining the Cause, which they had once undertaken, let it be ever so bad! The only thing that can be alleged against the Character of Flavianus, is his having accepted the Bishoprick of Antioch, contrary to the Oath he had taken, on Occasion of the Agreement between Meletius and Paulinus, as I have related above^[1330]. That he took such an Oath, is vouched both by Socrates and Sozomen^[1331]. But as he was looked upon by all the East, and extolled by Chrysostom, even in his Life-time, as a Prelate of an unblemished Character, and never reproached, even by his greater Enemies, with such an Oath, in the many Disputes that arose about his Election, I had rather charge those Two Writers with one Mistake more (for they are guilty of many others), than a Man of Flavianus’s Probity with such a scandalous Prevarication.

Syricius did not long enjoy the Satisfaction he had, to see the Schism of Antioch ended in his Days, and a good Understanding settled anew between the East and the West. He died the same Year 398. and, according to the most probable Opinion, on the 26th of November^[1332]. He is said, in his Epitaph, quoted by Baronius^[1333], to have been a Man of a tender, compassionate, and generous Temper; to have studied the Happiness of the People committed to his Care; to have spared no Pains in procuring them the Blessings that flow from Peace and Tranquillity; and to have screened several Persons from the Wrath of the Emperor, to maintain the Rights of the Church^[1334]. |Was once honoured as
a Saint.| He is commended by Ambrose, and the whole Council of Milan, as a vigilant Pastor^[1335], by Isidore of Seville as an illustrious Pontiff^[1336]; and he has even a Place among the other Saints, in most of the antient Martyrologies^[1337]. However Baronius has not thought him worthy of a Place in the Roman Martyrology. It is well known, that the Charge of revising and correcting the Roman Martyrology was committed, by Pope Gregory XIII. to Baronius, with full Power to reject such as he should judge unworthy, and admit others in their room, whom he should declare worthy of the public Worship, and a Place there^[N39]. |Why expunged by
Baronius out of the
Calendar of Saints.| The Keys of Heaven, says a modern Writer, speaking of that Charge, were taken from Peter, and given to Baronius; for it was not by Peter, but by Baronius, that some were excluded from, and others admitted into, Heaven^[1338]. He then shews, that by this Second Minos, as he styles him, several were driven from the Seats they had long held in Heaven, and to which they had a just Claim, to make room for others, who had no Claim. Among the former he names Syricius, whom he thinks Baronius ought to have treated in a more friendly manner, upon the Recommendation of Ambrose, of the Council of Milan, and of Isidore. What thus prejudiced Baronius against him, and outweighed, in his Scales, all the Recommendations that could be produced in his Favour, was his Indifference for Jerom and Paulinus, and the Kindness he shewed to Ruffinus, Jerom’s Antagonist. Syricius, instead of protecting Jerom, as his Predecessor Damasus had done, against the Roman Clergy, whom he had provoked with his Writings, gave him, in a manner, up to their Resentment; which obliged him to abandon Rome, and return into the East, as I have related above. The Name of Paulinus, afterwards Bishop of Nola, is famous in the History of the Church, and celebrated by Jerom, Ambrose, Austin, and all the Writers of those Times. He had abandoned the World, and the immense Wealth he possessed, to lead a retired Life; and, in the Year 395. he passed through Rome, in his Way to Nola, which he had chosen for the Place of his Retirement. The Treatment he met with at Rome, from that Clergy, and Syricius himself, must have been very unworthy of a Man of his Character, since it obliged him, as he himself writes^[1339], to quit the City in great Haste, and pursue his Journey to Nola. Two Years afterwards Ruffinus came to Rome, and there met with a very different Reception. For Syricius received him, tho’ violently suspected of Origenism, with the greatest Marks of Esteem and Affection; and, after having entertained him a whole Year, gave him Letters of Communion at his Departure. Of this Jerom complains, as if Advantage had been taken of the Bishop of Rome’s Simplicity, to impose upon him^[1340]. I will not pretend, as some have done, to justify Ruffinus; but cannot help observing, that such a Charge ought not to be admitted against him, upon the bare Authority of Jerom, or of those, who have only copied what he writ.

Jerom and Ruffinus had lived several Years in close Friendship, and great Intimacy; but, falling out in the Year 393. their former Friendship was turned at once into an open and avowed Enmity. What gave Occasion to this Breach I shall relate hereafter, and only observe here, that Jerom not only quarreled with Ruffinus, but with all the Friends of Ruffinus; nay, and with those too, who, professing an equal Friendship for both, would not break with either, or any-ways interfere in the Quarrel. Among these was the celebrated Roman Matron Melania, so frequently spoken of, and so highly commended, by Austin, by Paulinus, and, above all, by Jerom himself, who has filled his Letters with her Praises, proposing her as a true Pattern of every Virtue becoming her Sex.

Melania had retired with Ruffinus to Jerusalem, Twenty-seven Years before, and continued there practising, under his Direction, those Works of Charity, which Jerom so often admires and extols. It could not therefore be expected that she should discard the Partner of her holy Life, and all her good Works, as Paulinus styles him^[1341], the Minute the other was pleased to dislike him, or, indeed, that she should take any Part at all in the Quarrel. And yet, because she prudently declined taking Part, but continued to shew the same Affection and Esteem for Ruffinus, which she had done before; Jerom, forgetful of the Regard that was due to a Matron of her Birth and Piety, and of the high Encomiums which he had himself bestowed on her, began to inveigh with no less Bitterness against her, than against Ruffinus himself. |His Conduct towards
her.| In one of his Letters, still extant^[1342], after finding Fault with one of Ruffinus’s Friends, thought to be John Bishop of Jerusalem, he adds; “But, after all, he is not so much to blame as his Instructors Ruffinus and Melania, who, with a great deal of Trouble and Pains, have taught him to know nothing.” Ruffinus tells us, that Jerom, finding that Melania, who was a Matron of great Judgment and Penetration, did not approve of his Actions and Conduct, thereupon spitefully erased out of his Chronicle, what he had there written in her Praise^[1343]. But he did not, nor was it, perhaps, in his Power to make such an Alteration in all the Copies; for what he is said to have cancelled, is still remaining in all the printed, as well as manuscript Copies of that Work, which have reached our Times. Melania lived Eighteen Years after, steadily pursuing the same Course of Life, for which Jerom had once proposed her as a Pattern to her whole Sex^[1344]. She died at Jerusalem in the Year 411. and died poor, having spent an immense Estate in relieving the Needy and Indigent, not only of the Countries where she lived, and through which she passed, but those too of the most distant Provinces of the Empire. For Persons in Poverty and Distress, whether in Persia or Britain, says the Author of her Life^[1345], were alike the Objects of her Charity, and felt alike the Effects of her Generosity and Good-nature. She died, but with her did not die the Rancour and Spleen which Jerom had for so many Years harboured in his Breast against her. For, carrying his Resentment even beyond the Grave, while the Poor were every-where bemoaning, with Tears, the Loss of so generous a Benefactress, while the Writers were paying the deserved Tribute of Praise to the Virtues of so pious a Matron, Jerom, instead of joining the rest in the common Grief, strove to dry up their Tears, to drown their Praises, by throwing out several peevish and ill-natured Reflections on the Memory of the Deceased. As the famous Pelagius had inscribed a Book to her before he broached his Opinions, Jerom, in the Letter which he writ to Ctesiphon against the Pelagians, could not forbear bringing her in, and observing on that Occasion, with a malignant Quibble, that the very Name of Melania bespoke (in the Greek Tongue), and sufficiently declared, the Blackness of her Treachery and Perfidiousness^[1346].

Such was the Conduct of Jerom towards that illustrious Matron, in her Life-time, and after her Death. From this Conduct I leave the Reader to judge, whether the Authority of so prejudiced a Writer ought to have been of such Weight with Baronius as to make him exclude her, as well as Syricius, from the Roman Martyrology, or the Calendar of Saints. Should we grant Ruffinus to have really held the Errors which Jerom charged him with, it must still be owned, that Melania acted, as became a Person of her Wisdom, Piety, and Experience, in suspending her Judgment, and not breaking with Ruffinus, till she was otherwise convinced, than by the Invectives of his Antagonist, equally levelled against herself, that he was no longer worthy of her Friendship and Regard. As for Syricius, Jerom rather commends than blames him, even where he complains of his Kindness to Ruffinus. For he only says, that Ruffinus abused the Simplicity of Syricius, who judged of the Spirit of others from his own^[1347]; which was saying, in other Words, that he was a good Man, but mistaken in his Judgment, or not infallible: so that his only Crime, according to Jerom, was want of Infallibility. However, upon the Authority of that Father, Baronius not only condemns the Conduct of Syricius, but, rashly prying into the inscrutable Secrets of Providence, pretends his Days to have been shortened for the Countenance he gave to Ruffinus, and the Remissness he shewed in suppressing the Errors, with which he was charged. It is certain, that Ruffinus was well received, and entertained, in a very hospitable manner, by Syricius, during his Stay at Rome; and that, upon his leaving that City, he received from him Letters of Communion. Now, if Syricius did not know, or did not believe, that Ruffinus held those Errors, how unjust is it to blame him for the Kindness he shewed to a Man of Ruffinus’s Character! If he did know, and yet gave him Letters of Communion, how will Baronius be able to clear Syricius from the Imputation of holding the same Errors^[N40]?

As for the Treatment Paulinus of Nola met with from Syricius, there was, no doubt, a Misunderstanding between them; but, as I am quite in the Dark as to the Cause of it, I will not take upon me to condemn the one rather than the other. Perhaps they were both to blame; perhaps they both meant well, and neither was to blame. However that be, the Misunderstanding between them was soon removed; for, during the remaining Part of Syricius’s Life, Paulinus went constantly to Rome once a Year, as he himself declares, in one of his Letters^[1348]. Syricius, it is true, did not take Jerom into his Protection, as his Predecessor had done, nor shew him the same Kindness; which is the Third Charge brought by Baronius against him, but of no more Weight than the other Two, that is, of none at all. Jerom, prompted by his Zeal, and censorious Temper, could not help inveighing, with great Bitterness, in all his Writings, against the Looseness and Debauchery, which universally prevailed, in his Time, among the Roman Clergy, and the pious Frauds they made use of to extort Legacies and Presents from old Men, from Widows, and from Orphans. Syricius might have been as much offended at the Vices of his Libertine Clergy, as Jerom was, and even studied to reform them; but, at the same time, be glad, without deserving the least Reproach on that score, to get rid of so troublesome a Censor, who thus exposed their Irregularities to the Eyes, and them to the Contempt, of the World^[N41].

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.

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.

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.

In the Periarchon were contained, without all doubt, many unfound and unwarrantable Notions, and Ruffinus corrected those only that related to the Trinity. He corrected, says Jerom, what Origen had impiously written concerning the Trinity, being well apprised it would have given great Offence at Rome. But as to his other Errors, those especially concerning the Fall of the Angels, and the first Man, the Resurrection, the World or Worlds of Epicurus, the Restoration of all Things, &c. he either left them, as he found them in the Original, or confirmed them with Reasons borrowed from the Comment of Didymus, an avowed Defender of Origen. Thus he declared himself a Catholic with respect to the Trinity; that in other Points the Reader might not be aware of him as an Heretic^[1358].

In Answer to this Charge, Ruffinus declared, that it was never his Intention to correct all the Errors that were ascribed to Origen; that the Declaration he had made, in his Preface to the Periarchon, ought to be restrained to those Errors only that related to the Trinity; and that it was very uncharitable to judge of his Faith, from the Faith of the Author he translated, and not from his own Words. He then declares his Sentiments touching some particular Points, in which Origen was thought to differ from the Church; adding, that where Origen differed from the Catholic Church, he differed from Origen.

Anastasius, notwithstanding the Solicitations of Marcella, declined either proceeding against Ruffinus, or censuring his Translation, till Two Years after, when Jerom, in a new Version which he published of the same Work, undertook to prove, that several Opinions of Origen were truly heretical, and as such ought to be condemned by the Church. As to Ruffinus, he inveighed bitterly against him, as if he had translated that Work with no other View but to propagate the Errors it contained. Thus began the famous Quarrel between these Two Writers, which occasioned no small Disturbance in the Church, some siding with Jerom against Ruffinus, and others with Ruffinus against Jerom. Among the former, the most sanguine were Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria, Epiphanius Bishop of Constantia in the Island of Cyprus, and Anastasius Bishop of Rome. Theophilus not only condemned in a Council, which he summoned for that Purpose, the Errors of Origen, but Origen himself, declaring him an Heretic, and forbidding all under his Jurisdiction to read, or even keep his Works by them; which is the first Instance we have of such Prohibitions. |Origen condemned by Anastasius and sev-
eral other Bishops.| His Example was followed by Epiphanius, Anastasius, Venerius Bishop of Milan, Chromatius Bishop of Aquileia, and several others. But some, and among the rest John Bishop of Jerusalem, and Chrysostom then Bishop of Constantinople, disapproving the rash Conduct of their Collegues, could by no means be induced to confirm the Sentence they had pronounced; which Epiphanius resented to such a Degree, that he immediately separated himself from their Communion. Sozomen adds, that he even refused to pray for young Theodosius, while he was dangerously ill, because his Mother Eudoxia would not banish from Constantinople some Monks who had warmly espoused the Cause of Origen^[1359]. Ruffinus ranks Epiphanius among those Plagiaries, who, borrowing from Origen all they said or writ, cried down his Works, in order to deter others from reading them, and consequently from discovering, that what was admired in them was not their own^[1360].

Origen being thus condemned as an Heretic, near 150 Years after his Death, Anastasius, at the Instigation of Marcella, Pammachius, Oceanus, and some other of Jerom’s Friends in Rome, writ to Ruffinus, complaining of his Translation, and summoning him to appear, and give an Account of his Faith. In Answer to this Letter, Ruffinus sent him a Confession of Faith intirely agreeable to that of the Catholic Church, adding, that he held no other; that his Faith had been sufficiently tried in the Persecution of Valens; and that, as to the Translation of Origen’s Work, he had there neither approved nor disapproved, but barely related, the Sentiments of that Writer. He modestly declined complying with the Summons calling him to Rome; and concluded with declaring, that the Faith of the Roman Church and his were one and the same^[1362][N42].