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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: TAV-THE |
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THEODORET , bishop of Cyrrhus, an important writer in the domains of exegesis, dogmatic theology, church history and ascetic theology, was born in Antioch, Syria, about 386. At an early age he entered the cloister; and in 423 he became bishop of Cyrrhus, a small city in a wild district between Antioch and the Euphrates, where, except for a short period of exile , he spent the remainder of his life. The date of his death is uncertain, but it must have been at least six or seven years later than the council of Chalcedon (451). Although thoroughly devoted to the ideals of monasticism, he discharged his episcopal duties with remarkable zeal and fidelity. He was diligent in the cure of souls, labouring hard and successfully for the conversion of the numerous Gnostic communities and other heretical sects which still maintained a footing within the diocese. He himself claims to have brought more than a thousand Marcionites within the pale of the church, and to have destroyed many copies of the Diatessaron of Tatian, which were still in ecclesiastical use; and he also exerted himself to improve the diocese, which was at once large and poor, by building bridges and aqueducts, beautifying the town, and by similar works.As an exegete Theodoret belongs to the Antiochene school, of which Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia were the heads. He was not actually the personal disciple of either, but he adopted their methods, though without the consistency and boldness of the first-named. His extant commentaries (those on Canticles, on the Prophets, on the book of Psalms and on the Pauline epistlesthe last the most valuable) are among the best performances of the fathers of the church. They are brief, yet not wanting in that element of practical edification on which Chrysostom lays special
special
Theodoret's chief
formulae (Owi.6.sos, Evwais KaO' inrharaacv, la &ir6araacs, ;moats Ova-mil, and the like), and taught that in the person of Christ we must strictly distinguish two natures (hypostases), which are united indeed in one person (prosopon), but are not amalgamated in essence. For these years his history coincides with that of the Eastern Church from 430 to 451, and for this very reason it is impossible to sketch it even briefly here (see Hefele, Conc.-gesch., vol. ii.). The issue was not unfavourable to Theodoret's cause, but melancholy enough for Theodoret himself: the council of Chalcedon condemned monophysitism, but he unhappily yielded to pressure so far as also to take part in pronouncing ' anathema upon Nestorius, and upon all who call not the Holy Virgin Mother of God, and who divide the one Son into two." As Theodoret had previously been a constant defender of Nestorius it was impossible for him to concur in this sentence upon his unfortunate friend with a clear conscience, and in point of fact he did not change his own dogmatic position. It is painful, therefore, to find him in his subsequent Epitome classing Nestorius as a heretic, and speaking of him with the utmost hostility. Some of Theodoret's dogmatic works are no longer extant: of his five books IIEpi EvapOpuin aEWs, for example, directed against Cyril after the council of Ephesus, we now possess fragments merely. A good deal of what passes under his name has been wrongly attributed to him. Certainly genuine are the refutation ('Avarporit) of Cyril's twelve avaBEparoroi of Nestorius, and the 'Epastssns, or IIoXimopoos, (written about 446), consisting of three dialogues, entitled respectively "ArpErros, 'Aotvy uros, and 'AraBits, in which the monophysitism of Cyril is opposed, and its Apollinarian character insisted on. Among the apologetico-dogmatic works of Theodoret must be reckoned his ten discourses IIEpi rpovotas. Theodoret gives a valuable exposition of his own dogmatic in the fifth book of his AiperLKcs KaropwOiae tor,TOpn, already re- ferred to.' This, the latest of his works in the domain of church history (it was written after 451), is a source of great though not of primary importance for the history of the old heresies. In spite of the investigations of Volkmar and Hilgenfeld, we are still somewhat in the dark as to the authorities he used. The chief
recognition. The 'E).A71PLK&P BEpa7rcVTLKh raO7iparon' (De Curandis Graecorum Affectionibus)written before 438is of an historical and apologetic character, very largely indebted to Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius; it aims at showing the advantages of Christianity as compared with " the moribund but still militant " Hellenism of the day, and deals with the assaults of pagan
On this side of his character, however, Theodoret can best be studied in the thirty ascetic biographies of his 'LA60Eos kropia. This collection, which has been widely read, is a pendant to the Historia Lausiaca of Palladius and the monkish tales of Sozomen. For the East it has had the same importance as the similar writings of Jerome, Sulpicius Severus and Cassian for the West. It shows that the " sobriety " of the Antiochene scholars can be predicated only of their exegesis; their style of piety was as exaggerated in its devotion to the ideals of monasticism as was that of their monophysite opponents. Indeed, one of the oldest leaders of the school, Diodorus of Tarsus, was himself among the strictest ascetics. 181 letters of Theodoret have come down to us, partly in a separate collection, partly in the Acta of the councils, and partly in the Latin of Marius Mercator; they are of great value not only for the biography of the writer, but also for the history of his diocese and of the church in general. The edition of Sirmond (Paris, 1642) was afterwards completed by Garnier (1684), who has also written dissertations on the author's works. Schulze and Nosselt published a new edition (6 vols., Halle
series ii., vol. iii.; the translation including also the dialogues and letters.Besides the earlier labours of Tillemont, Ceillier, Oudin, Du Pin and Fabricius and Harless, see Schrockh, Kirchengesch., vol. xviii.; Hefele, Conc.-gesch., vol. ii.; Richter, De Theodoreto Epp. Paul. Inter prete ( Leipzig
' Roman Catholic writers vary greatly in their estimate of Theodoret's christology and of his general orthodoxy. On Bertram's essay on this subject (Theodoreti, Episcopi Cyrensis, Doctrina Christologica, Hildesheim, 1883), see Theol. Lit.-Ztung. (1883), 563 seq.u. Theodoret v. Cyrus (Munich, 187x); Roos, De Theodoreto Clementis et Eusebii Compilatore ( Halle
g Christian Biography; also Bardenhewer's Patrologie, p. 345 if. On the sources of Theodoret's church history see Jeep, Quellenuntersuchungen z. d. Griech. Kirchenhistorikern ( Leipzig
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