History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590-1073.

(Rick Simeone) #1

upon the new Manichaeans, in which biblical rather than philosophical arguments are relied upon,
and mostly those which had already been used against the Manichaeans.
The works against the Latin Church embrace (1) The Mystagogia, or doctrine of the Holy


Spirit; his most important writing against the Latins.^919 It is a discussion of the procession alone,
not of the personality and divinity, of the Holy Spirit, for upon these latter points there was no


difference between the Latin and Greek Churches. It appears to be entirely original with Photius.^920


It is characterized by acuteness and great dialectical skill. There exists an epitome of this book,^921


but it is doubtful whether Photius himself made it. (2) A collection^922 of ten questions and answers
upon such matters as, "In what respects have the Romans acted unjustly?" "How many and what
true patriarchs are not recognized by the Romans, except compromisingly?" "Which emperor
contends for the peace of the Church?" The collection has great historical interest, since it embraces
materials which otherwise would be entirely lost. (3) Treatise against the Roman primacy. (4)
Tractate against the Franks, from which there are extracts in the Kormczaia Kniga of the Oriental
Slavs, which was extensively circulated in the thirteenth century, and enjoys among the Russians
great authority as a book of canonical law. It has been attributed to Photius, but in its present shape


is not his.^923 (5) His famous Encyclical Letter to the Eastern Patriarchs, written in 867.^924
The genuine works of Photius include besides those already mentioned three books of


letters^925 of different contents, private and public, written generally in verbose style; homilies,^926


two printed entire and two in fragments and twenty unprinted; several poems^927 and moral sentences,
probably a compilation. Several other works attributed to Photius are only of doubtful genuineness.


§ 146. Simeon Metaphrastes.
I. Simeon Metaphrastes: Opera omnia, in Migne, Patrol. Gr. Tom. cxiv.-cxvi.
II. Panegyric by Psellus, in Migne, CXIV. col. 200–208; Leo Allatius: De Symeonum scriptis, in
Migne, CXIV. col. 19–148; and the Preface to Migne’s ed. Cf. Du Pin, VIII. 3; Ceillier, XII.
814–819.
This voluminous author probably lived in Constantinople during the reigns of Leo the Philosopher


(886–911) and Constantine Porphyrogenitus (911–959).^928 He was the Imperial Secretary, High
Chancellor and Master of the Palace. When somewhat advanced in years he was sent by the Emperor
Leo on a mission to the Cretan Arabs for the purpose, which was accomplished, of turning them
from their proposed campaign against the Thessalonians. It was on this journey that he met on the


(^919) Liber de S. Spiritus Mystagogia, first published by Hergenröther at Regensburg, 1857; Comp. his Photius, III. l54-160,
and Migne, CII. 280-400. The wordμυσταγωγίαis used in the same sense asἱερολογίαorθεολογία, sacra doctrina,
(^920) Hergenröther, Photius, III. 157.
(^921) Ibid. 160-165.
(^922) Συναγωγαὶ και ̀ἀπόδειξεις ἀκριβει̑ς, in Migne, CIV. col. 1220-1232.
(^923) Hergenröther, l.c. p. 174.
(^924) See above, p. 314 sq.
(^925) Migne, CII., col. 585-989. They are analyzed by Du Pin, l.c. 106-109.
(^926) Migne, CII., col. 548-576.
(^927) Ibid. col. 577-584.
(^928) Cf.Gassin Herzog 2 IX. pp. 677-679.

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