§ 137. Christian Platonism and the Pseudo-Dionysian Writings.
Literature.
I. Best ed. of Pseudo-Dionysius in Greek and Latin by Balthasar Corderius (Jesuit), Antwerp, 1634;
reprinted at Paris, 1644; Venice, 1755; Brixiae, 1854; and by Migne, in "Patrol. Gr.," Tom. III.
and IV., Paris, 1857, with the scholia of Pachymeres, St. Maximus, and various dissertations
on the life and writings of Dionysius. French translations by Darboy (1845), and Dulac (1865).
German transl. by Engelhardt (see below). An English transl. of the Mystical Theology in
Everard’s Gospel Treasures, London, 1653.
II. Older treatises by Launoy: De Areopagiticis Hilduini (Paris, 1641); and De duabus Dionysiis
(Par., 1660). Père Sirmond: Dissert. in qua ostenditur Dion. Paris. et Dion. Areop. discrimen
(Par., 1641). J. Daillé: De scriptis quo sub Dionys. Areop. et Ignatii Antioch. nominibus
circumferuntur (Geneva, 1666, reproduced by Engelhardt).
III. Engelhardt: Die angeblichen Schriften des Areop. Dion. übersetzt und mit Abhandl. begleitet
(Sulzbach, 1823); De Dion. Platonizante (Erlangen, 1820); and De Origine script. Dion. Areop.
(Erlangen, 1823). Vogt: Neuplatonismus und Christenthum. Berlin, 1836. G. A. Meyer: Dionys.
Areop. Halle, 1845. L. Montet: Les livres du Pseudo-Dionys., 1848. Neander: III. 169 sqq.;
466 sq. Gieseler: I. 468; II. 103 sq. Baur: Gesch. der Lehre v. der Dreieinigkeit und
Menschwerdung Gottes, II. 251–263. Dorner: Entw. Gesch. der L. v. d. Pers. Christi, II. 196–203.
Fr. Hipler: Dionys. der Areopagite. Regensb., 1861. E. Böhmer: Dion. Areop., 1864. Westcott:
Dion. Areop. in the "Contemp. Review" for May, 1867 (with good translations of characteristic
passages). Joh. Niemeyer: Dion. Areop. doctrina philos. et theolog. Halle, 1869. Dean Colet:
On the Hierarchies of Dionysius. 1869. J. Fowler: On St. Dion. in relation to Christian Art, in
the "Sacristy," Febr., 1872. Kanakis: Dionys. der Areop. nach seinem Character als Philosoph.
Leipz., 1881. Möller in "Herzog"2 III. 617 sqq.; and Lupton in "Smith & Wace," I. 841 sqq.
Comp. the Histories of Philosophy by Ritter, II. 514 sqq., and Ueberweg (Am. ed.), II. 349–352.
The Real and the Ficitious Doinysius.
The tendency to mystic speculation was kept up and nourished chiefly through the writings
which exhibit a fusion of Neo-Platonism and Christianity, and which go under the name of Dionysius
Areopagita, the distinguished Athenian convert of St. Paul (Acts 17:34). He was, according to a
tradition of the second century, the first bishop of Athens.^770 In the ninth century, when the French
became acquainted with his supposed writings, he was confounded with St. Denis, the first bishop
of Paris and patron saint of France, who lived and died about two hundred years after the
Areopagite.^771 He thus became, by a glaring anachronism, the connecting link between Athens and
(^770) Dionysius of Corinth (d. 170) in Euseb., Hist. Eccl. III. 4; IV. 23. So also in Const. Apost. VII. 46. Nothing is said in
these passages of his martyrdom, which is an uncertain tradition of later date. Quadratus, the oldest Christian writer of Athens,
makes no mention of him. Suidas (eleventh century), in his Lexicon, subΔιονύσιοςὁ̓Αρεωπαγίτης(Kuster’s ed, Cambridge,
1705, vol. I. 598-600), says that Dionysius visited Egypt in the reign of Tiberius, witnessed with a friend at Heliopolis the
extraordinary eclipse of the sun which occurred at the time of the crucifixion (comp. the 7th Ep. of Dion.); that he was converted
by Paul and elected bishop of the Athenians; that he excelled in all secular and sacred learning, and was so profound that his
works seem to be the productions of a celestial and divine faculty rather than of a human genius. He knows nothing of the
French Dionysius.
(^771) According to the oldest authorities (Sulpicius Severus, d. 410, and Gregory of Tours, d. 595, see his Hist. Franc. I.
28), the French Dionysius belongs to the middle of the third century, and died a martyr either under Decius (249-251) or under
Aurelian (270-273). Afterwards he was put back to the first century. The confusion of the French martyr with the Areopagite
of the same name is traced to Hilduin, abbot of St. Denis, A.D. 835, who at the request of the Emperor Louis the Pious compiled
an uncritical collection of the traditions concerning Dionysius (Areopagitica). Gieseler (II. 103) traces it further back to the age