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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SAC-SAR |
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SALVIAN , a Christian writer of the 5th century, was born probably at Cologne (De gub. Dei, vi. 8, 13), some time between 400 and 405. He was educated at the school of Treves and seems to have been brought up as a Christian. His writings appear to show that he had made a special
birth
letter in his own name, his wife's, and that of his little daughter Auspiciola, begging for the renewal of the old affection (Ep. iv.). This whole letter is a most curious illustration
It was presumably at Lerins that Salvian made the acquaintance of Honoratus (ob. 429), Hilary of Arles (ob. 449), and Eucherius of Lyons (ob. 449). That he was a friend of the former and wrote an account of his life we learn from Hilary (Vita Hon., ap. Migne, 1. 126o). To Eucherius's two sons, Salonius and Veranus, he acted as tutor in consort with Vincent of Lerins. As he succeeded Honoratus and Hilary in this office, this date cannot well be later than the year 426 or 427, when the former was' called to Arles,- whither he seems to have summoned Hilary before his death in 429 (Eucherii Instructio ad Salonium, ap. Migne, I. 773; Salv., Ep. ii.). Salvian continued his friendly intercourse with both father and sons long after the latter had left his care; it was to Salonius (then a bishop) that he wrote his explanatory letter just after the publication of his treatise Ad ecclesiam; and to the same prelate a few years later he dedicated his great work, the De gubernatione Dei. If French scholars are right in assigning Hilary's Vita Honorati to 430, Salvian, who is there called a priest, had probably already left Lyons for Marseilles, where he is known to have spent the last years of his life (Gennadius, ap. Migne, lviii. 1099). It was probably from Marseilles that he wrote his first letterpresumably to Lerinsbegging the community there to receive his kinsman, the son of a widow of Cologne, who had been reduced to poverty by the barbarian invasions. It seems a fair inference that Salvian had divested himself of all his property in favour of that society and sent his relative to Lerins for assistance (Ep. i., with which compare Ad eccles. ii. 9, to; iii. 5). It has been conjectured that Salvian paid a visit to Carthage; but this is a mere inference based on the minute details he gives of the state of this city just before its fall (De gub. vii. viii.). He seems to have been still living at Marseilles when Gennadius wrote under the papacy of Gelasius (492-496). Of Salvian's writings there are still extant two treatises, entitled respectively De gubernatione Dei (more correctly De praesenti judicio) and Ad ecclesiam, and a series of nine letters. The De gubernatione, Salvian's greatest work, was published after the capture of Litorius at Toulouse (439), to which he plainly alludes in vii. 4o, and after the Vandal conquest of Carthage in the same year (vi. 12), but before Attila's invasion (45o), as Salvian speaks of the Huns, not as enemies of the empire, but as serving in the Roman armies (vii. 9). The words " proximum bellum " seem to denote a year very soon after 439. In this work, which furnishes a valuable if prejudiced description of life in 5th-century Gaul, Salvian deals with the same problem that had moved the eloquence of Augustine and Orosius. Why were these miseries falling on the empire? Could it be, as the pagans said, because the age had forsaken its old gods?- or, as the semi-pagan
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circus and the theatre, where decency is wholly set at nought, and Minerva, Mars, Neptune and the old gods are still worshipped (vi. 11; cf. vi. 2 and viii. 2). Treves was almost destroyed by the barbarians; yet the first petition of its few surviving nobles was that the emperor would re-establish the circus games as a remedy for the ruined city (vi. 15). And this was the prayer of Christians, whose baptismal oath pledged them to renounce " the devil and his works . . . the pomps and shows (spectacula) " of this wicked world (vi. 6). Darker still were the iniquities of Carthage, surpassing even the unconcealed licentiousness of Gaul and Spain (iv. 5); and more fearful to Salvian than all else was it to hear men swear " by Christ " that they would commit a crime (iv. 15). It would be the atheist's strongest argument if God left such a state of society unpunished (iv. 12)especially among Christians, whose sin, since they alone had the Scriptures, was worse than that of barbarians, even if equally wicked, would be (v. 2). But, as a matter of fact, the latter had at least some shining virtues mingled with their vices, whereas the Romans were wholly corrupt (vii. 15, iv. 14). With this iniquity of the Romans Salvian contrasts the chastity of the Vandals, the piety of the Goths, and the ruder virtues of the Franks, the Saxons
Ad ecclesiam is explained by its common title, Contra avaritiam. It strongly commends meritorious almsgiving to the church. It is quoted more than once in the De gubernatione. Salvian published it under the name of Timothy, and explained his motives for so doing in a letter to his old pupil, Bishop Salonius (Ep. ix.). This work is chiefly remarkable because in some places it seems to recommend parents not to bequeath anything to their children, on the plea that it is better for the children to suffer want in this world than that their parents should be damned in the next (iii. 4). Salvian is very clear on the duty of absolute self-denial in the case of sacred virgins, priests and monks (ii. 8-1o). Several works mentioned by Gennadius, notably a poem " in morem Graecorum " on the six days of creation (hexaemeron), and certain homilies composed for bishops, are now lost (Genn. 67). The Ad ecclesiam was first printed in Sichard's Antidoton (Basel, 1528) ; the De gubernatione by Brassican (Basel, 1530). The two appeared in one volume at Paris in 1575. Pithoeus added variae lectiones and the first seven letters (Paris, 158o) ; Ritterhusius made various conjectural emendations (Altorf, 1611), and Baluze many more based on MS. authority (Paris, 1663-1669). Numerous other editions appeared from the 16th to the 18th century, all of which are now superseded by the excellent ones of C. Halm (Berlin, 1877) and F. Pauly (Vienna, 1883). The two oldest MSS. of the De gubernatione belong to the loth century (Cod. Paris, No. 13,385) and the 13th (Brussels, 10,628); of the Ad ecclesiam to the loth (Paris, 2172) and the 11th (Paris, 2785); of Epistle IX. to the 9th (Paris, 2785) ; of Epistle VIII. to the 7th or 8th century (Paris, 95,559) and to the 9th or loth century (Paris, 12,237, 12,236). Of the first seven epistles there is only one MS. extant, of which one part is now at Bern (No. 219), the other at Paris (No. 3791). See Histoire litteraire de France, vol. ii.; Zschimmer's Salvianus ( Halle
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