Evagrius

(Εὐάγριος).

1. Of Antioch, was a native of Antioch, the son of a citizen of that place, named Pompeianus, and a presbyter apparently of the church of Antioch.

He travelled into the west of Europe, and was acquainted with Jerome, who describes him as a man "acris ac ferventis ingenii." During the schism in the patriarchate of Antioch, he was chosen by one of the parties (A. D. 388 or 389) successor to their deceased patriarch Paulinus, in opposition to Flavianus, the patriarch of the other party. According to Theodoret, the manner of his election and ordination was altogether contrary to ecclesiastical rule. The historians Socrates and Sozomen state that Evagrius survived his elevation only a short time; but this expression must not be too strictly interpreted, as it appears from Jerome that he was living in A. D. 392. He was perhaps the Evagrius who instructed Chrysostom in monastic discipline, though it is to be observed that Chrysostom was ordained a presbyter by Flavianus, the rival of Evagrius in the see of Antioch. Evagrius had no successor in his see, and ultimately Flavianus succeeded in healing the division. Works Treatises on various subjects

Evagrius wrote treatises on various subjects (diversarum hypotheseon tractatus). Jerome says the author had read them to him, but had not yet published them. They are not extant. Life of St. Anthony

Evagrius also translated the life of St. Anthony by Athanasius from Greek into Latin. The very free version printed in the Benedictine edition of Athanasius (vol. i. pars ii. p. 785, &c.) and in the Acta Sanctorum (Januar. vol. ii. p. 107), professes to be that of Evagrius, and is addressed to his son Innocentius, who is perhaps the Innocentius whose death, A. D. 369 or 370, is mentioned by Jerome. (Epist. 41 ad Rufinum.) Tillemont receives it, and Bollandus (Acta Sanct. l c.) and the Benedictine editors of Athanasius (l.c.) vindicate its genuineness; but Cave affirms that " there is more than one reason for doubting its genuineness ;" and Oudin decidedly denies the genuineness both of the Greek text and the version.

In the library of Worcester Cathedral is a MS. described as containing the life of St. Antony, written by Evagrius and translated by Jerome: there is probably an error, either in the MS. itself, or in the description of it. (Catal. MSS. Angliae et Hib. vol. ii. p. 17.) Editions

The Benedictine edition of Athanasius (vol. i. pars ii. p. 785, &c.) and in the Acta Sanctorum (Januar. vol. ii. p. 107). Confusion with Evagrius of Pontus

Trithemius confounds him with Evagrius of Pontus. Further Information

Tillemont has collected various particulars of the life of Evagrius of Antioch. (Socrates, Hist. Eccles. 5.15; Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. 7.15 ; Theodoretus, Hist. Eccles. 5.23; Hieronymus (Jerome) de Viris Illust. 25; Tillemont, Mémoires, vol. xii. p. 13, &c.; Cave, Hist. Lit. vol. i. p. 283, ed. Ox. 1740-43; Oudin, de Scriptor. et Scriptis Eccles. vol. i. col. 882; Trithemius, de Scriptor. Eccles. 100.85; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 434, vol. x. p. 137.)

2. The Ascetic, instructed Chrysostom in monastic discipline. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. viii. p. 455.) He is perhaps the same as Evagrius of Antioch. [No. 1.]

3. Of Epiphaneia, known also as Evagrius Scholasticus and EX-PRAEFECTUS. He was a native of Epiphaneia on the Orontes, in the province of Syria Secunda, as we gather from the title of his Ecclesiastical History, where he is called Ἐπιφανεύς. (Comp. also his Hist. Eccles. 3.34.) Photius says (Biblioth. Cod. 29), according to the present text, that he was of a celebrated city (πόλεως δὲ ἐπιφανοῦς) of Coele-Syria; but the text is probably corrupt. Nicephorus Callisti (Hist. Eccles. 1.1, 16.31) twice cites him as ὁ ἐπιφανής, "the illustrious;" but this is probably an error, either in the transcription of Nicephorus or in that of his authorities. The birth of Evagrius is fixed by data furnished in his own writings in or about A. D. 536. (Evagr. Hist. Eccles. 4.29, 6.24.) He was sent to school before or when he was four years old, for he was a schoolboy when he was taken by his parents to the neighbouring city of Apameia to see the exhibition of "the life-giving wood of the Cross," during the alarm caused by the capture of Antioch by Chosroes or Khosru I., king of Persia, A. D. 540. Two years afterwards (A. D. 542), he was near dying from a pestilential disorder which then first visited the Byzantine empire, and which continued at intervals for above half a century, if not more, to cause a fearful mortality. Evagrius gives a melancholy catalogue of his own subsequent losses through it. It took off, at different times, his first wife, several of his children (especially a married daughter, who, with her child, died when the pestilence visited Antioch for the fourth time, A. D. 591 or 592, two years before Evagrius wrote his history), and many of his kindred and domestics. Evagrius was a "scholasticus" (advocate or pleader), and is often designated from his profession. It is probable that he practised at Antioch, which, as the capital of the province of Syria, would offer an important field for his forensic exertions, and with which city his writings shew that he was familiar. (Comp. Hist. Eccles. 1.18, 3.28.) He appears to have been the legal adviser of Gregory, patriarch of Antioch; and some of his memorials, drawn up in the name of the patriarch, obtained the notice and approval of the emperor Tiberius, who gave Evagrius, not as some have understood, the quaestorship, but the rank of a quaestorian or ex-quaestor. (Evagr. Hist. Eccles. 6.24, where see the note of Valesius.) On the birth of Theodosius, son of the emperor Maurice (A. D. 584 or 585), Evagrius composed a piece, apparently a congratulatory address, which obtained a farther manifestation of imperial favour in the rank of ex-prefect (ἀπὸ ἐπάρχων), which designation he bears in the title of his own work, and in Nicephorus. (Hist. Eccles. 1.1.) He accompanied the Patriarch Gregory to a synod at Constantinople (A. D. 589), to the judgment of which the patriarch had appealed when accused of incest and adultery. On his return to Antioch, after the acquittal of Gregory, Evagrius (in October or November of the same year) married a second wife, a young maiden. His reputation and influence are evidenced by the fact that his marriage was celebrated by a general festival at the public expense; but the rejoicing was interrupted by a dreadful earthquake, in which, as some computed, 60,000 of the inhabitants perished. This is the last incident in the life of Evagrius of which anything is known, except the death of his daughter, already noticed, and the completion of his history, in A. D. 593 or 594. Works

Evagrius wrote: 1. An Ecclesiastical History

An Ecclesiastical History, which extends, besides some preliminary matter, from the third general council, that of Ephesus, A. D. 431, to the twelfth year of the reign of the Emperor Maurice, A. D. 593-4. He modestly professes that he was not properly qualified for such a work (μὴ δεινὸς ἐγὼ τὰ τοιαῦτα), but says he was induced to undertake it, as no one had yet attempted to continue the history of the Church regularly (κατʼ εἰρμόν) from the time at which the histories of Sozomen and Theodoret close. He has the reputation of being tolerably accurate. His credulity and love of the marvellous are characteristic of the period rather than of the individual. Photius describes his style as not unpleasant, though occasionally redundant; and (as we understand the passage) praises him as being more exact than the other ecclesiastical historians in the statement of opinions: ἐν δὲ τῇ τῶν δογμάτων ὀρθότητι ἀκριβὴς τῶν ἀλλῶν μᾶλλον ἱστορικῶν. Some however interpret the passage as a commendation of the historian's orthodoxy. Nicephorus Callisti (Hist. Eccles. 1.1) notices, that Evagrius dwells much on secular affairs, and enumerates the writers from whom he derived his materials, namely Eustathius the Syrian, Zosimus, Priscus and Joannes, Procopius of Caesarea, Agathias, " and other writers of no mean character." Editions

His history has been repeatedly published. The edition of Valesius (Henri de Valois) which comprehends the other early Greek Ecclesiastical Historians, has a valuable biographical preface, a Latin translation, and useful notes. It was reprinted with some additional " variorum" notes by Reading, 3 vols. fol. Camb. 1720. 2. Memorials, Letters, Decrees, Orations, and Disputations

A volume of Memorials, Letters, Decrees, Orations, and Disputations, including the Memorials and the address which procured for Evagrius his rank of Quaestorian and Ex-praeftect. This volume is mentioned in the Ecclesiastical History, but appears to be now lost. Other Works

Some pieces of little moment have been ascribed to Evagrius, but most or all of them incorrectly. Further Information

Evagrius, Hist. Eccles. 4.26, 29, 6.7, 8, 23, 24; Photius, Biblioth. Cod. 29; Nicephorus Callisti, Hist. Eccles. 1.1, 16.31; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 432.

4. Of Pontus, an eminent ascetic and ecclesiastical writer. The place of his birth was probably Ibora, a small town in Pontus, on the shore of the Euxine near the mouth of the Halys; but the expressions of Nicephorus Callisti would rather imply that he was of the race of the Iberians, who inhabited the modern Georgia, on the southern side of the Caucasus. Palladius, his disciple, says he was of Pontus, of the city (or rather a city) of the Iberians (πόλεῳς Ἰβήρων, or as one MS., according to Tillemont, has it, Ἰβώρων), which is ambiguous. Jerome calls him " Hyperborita," an expression which Martianay, the Benedictine editor of Jerome's works, alters to "Iberita," and which has given occasion to other conjectural emendations. (Cotelerius, Eccles. Graec. Monumenta, vol. iii. p. 543.) His father was a presbyter, or perhaps a chorepiscopus. (Heraclides, apud Tillemont.) He was placed in early life under the instruction of Gregory Nazianzen. There is extant a letter of Gregory to an Evagrius, to whom he expresses his pleasure at the growing reputation of one whom he terms " our son," and of whom he had been the instructor both in literature and religion. If, as is conjectured, this letter refers to our Evagrius, his father and he were of the same name. Gregory also in his will leaves a legacy, with strong expressions of regard, to Evagrius the deacon; but it is not certain that this is our Evagrius. Evagrius was appointed reader by the great Basil, and was ordained deacon either by Gregory Nyssen or Gregory Nazianzen. According to Socrates, he was ordained at Constantinople by Gregory Nazianzen; and Sozomen says, that when Gregory occupied the see of Constantinople, he made Evagrius his archdeacon. If these statements are received, the removal of Evagrius to Constantinople must be placed during or before the short time (A. D. 379 to 381) of Gregory's episcopate at Constantinople. But according to Palladius (whose personal connexion with Evagrius would make his testimony preferable, if the text of his Lausiac History was in a more satisfactory state), Evagrius was ordained deacon by Gregory Nyssen, and taken by him to the first council of Constantinople (the second general council), and left by him in that city, under the patronage of Nectarius, who succeeded Gregory Nazianzen. The age and intellectual character of Evagrius disposed him to polemical discussion; and " he obtained high reputation in controversy," says Palladius, " in the great city, exulting with the ardour of youth in opposing every form of heresy." His popularity was probably increased by the beauty of his person, which he set off by great attention to his dress. The handsome deacon won and returned the affection of a married lady of rank ; but Evagrius, though vain, was not profligate, and struggled hard against the sinful passion. It is doubtful, however, if he would have broken away from the snare, but for an extraordinary dream; in which he dreamed that he took a solemn oath to leave Constantinople. Deeming himself bound by his oath, he at once left the city; and by this step, according to Sozomen, preserved not only his virtue, but his life, which was in imminent danger from the jealousy of the lady's husband. His first sojourn after leaving Constantinople, was at Jerusalem. Here, recovering from the alarm into which his dream had thrown him, lie gave way again to vanity and the love of dress; but a long and severe illness, and the exhortation of Melania Romana, a lady who had devoted herself to a religious life, and had become very eminent, induced him to renounce the world, and give himself up to an ascetic life. He received the monastic garb from the hands of Melania, and departed for Egypt, the cradle of monasticism, where he spent the remainder of his life. Some copies of Palladius are thought to speak of a visit made by him to Constantinople, in A. D. 394; but the passage is obscure, and Tillemont and the Greek text of Palladius, in the Bibliotheca Patrum, refer the incident to Ammonius. Socrates states that he accompanied Gregory Nazianzen into Egypt; but there is no reason to think that Gregory visited Egypt at that time. Evagrius's removal into Egypt was probably late in A. D. 382, or in 383. The remainder of his life was spent on the hills of Nitria, in one of the hermitages or monasteries of Scetis or Scitis, or in the desert " of the Cells," to which, after a time, he withdrew. He was acquainted with several of the more eminent solitaries of the country, the two Macarii, Ammonius, and others, whose reputation for austerity of life, sanctity and miracles (especially healing the sick and casting out daemons) he emulated. He learned here, says Socrates, to be a philosopher in action, as he had before learned to be one in words. He had many disciples in the monastic life, of whom Palladius was one. His approval of the answer which one of the solitaries gave to the person who informed him of the death of his father: " Cease to blaspheme; for my Father (meaning God) is immortal," shews that Jerome's sarcastic remark, that he recommended an apathy which would shew that a man was " either a stone or God," was not undeserved. Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, would have ordained him a bishop; but he fled front him to avoid an elevation which he did not covet. Palladius has recorded many singular instances of his temptations and austerities ; and, besides a separate memoir of him, has mentioned him in his notices of several other leading monks. Evagrius died apparently about A. D. 399, at the age of fifty-four. Works

There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining what were the writings of Evagrius. Some are known to us only from the notice of them in ancient writers, others are extant only in a Latin version, and of others we have only disjointed fragments. As nearly as we can ascertain, he is the author of the following works:-- 1. Μοναχὸς

(perhaps we should read Μοναχικὸς) ἢ περὶ Πρακτικῆς. Editions

Fragments of this work, but apparently much interpolated, are given in the Monumenta Eccles. Graec. of Cotelerius, vol. iii. pp. 68-102, and in the edition of the Dialogus Vita St. Joannis Chrysostomi, erroneously ascribed to Palladius, published by Emmer. Bigotius (4to., Paris, 1680) pp. 349-355.

Possibly the whole work is extant in these fragments (which are all given in the Bibliotheca Patrum of Gallandius, vol. vii.); although a quotation given by Socrates (Hist. Eccles. 3.7) as from this work (but which Cotelerius considers was probably taken from the nextmentioned work) is not included in it. An introductory address to Anatolius, given by Cotelerius, was evidently designed as a preface both to this work and the next. A Latin translation of the Monachus was revised by Gennadius, who lived toward the close of the fifth century. 2. Γνωστικὸς ἢ ποὸς τὸν καταξιωθέντα

(or περὶ τοῦ καταξιωθέντος) γνάσεως, in fifty chapters, and Ἑξακόσια Προγνωστικὰ Προβλήματα. These two pieces, which are by ancient and modern writers noticed as distinct works, are by the writer himself, in the address to Anatolius just mentioned, regarded as one work, in six hundred and fifty chapters. Perhaps the complete work constituted the Ἱερά, one of the three works of Evagrius mentioned by Palladius. The fifty chapters of the Γνωστικός were first translated into Latin by Gennadius. Editions

It is possible that the " paucas sententiolas valde obscuras," also translated by Gennadius, were a fragment of the Προβλήματα: Fabricius thinks that the treatise entitled Capita Gnostica published in Greek and Latin by Suaresius, in his edition of the works of St. Nilus, is the Γνωστικός of Evagrius. 3. Ἀντιρρητικὸς

(or Ἀντιρρητικὰ) ἀπὸ τῶν θείων λραφῶν, πρὸς τοὺς πειράζοντας δαίμονας. This work was translated by Gennadius. It was divided into eight sections corresponding to the eight evil thoughts. Fabricius and Gallandius consider that the fragment given by Bigotius (as already noticed) is a portion or compendium of this work, the scriptural passages being omitted. Editions

But although that fragment, a Latin version of which, with some additional sentences not found in the Greek, appears in the Biblioth. Patrum (vol. v. p. 902, ed. Paris, 1610, vol. iv. p. 925, ed. Cologn. 1618, vol. v. p. 698, ed. Paris, 1654, and vol. xxvii. p. 97, ed. Lyon, 1677) treats of the eight evil thoughts, it belongs, we think, to the Μοναχός rather than the Ἀντιρρητικός. 4. Στίχηρα δύο

Two collections of sentences, possibly in verse, one addressed to Coenobites or monks, the other to a virgin, or to women devoted to a life of virginity. Editions

A Latin version of these appears in the Appendix to the Codex Regularum of Holstenius, 4to., Rome, 1661, and reprinted in vol. i. pp. 465-468 of the Augsburg edition of 1759, and in the Biblioth. Patrium, vol. xxvii. pp. 469, 470, ed. Lyon, 1677, and vol. vii. of the edition of Gallandius. Jerome, who mentions the two parts of these Στίχηρα, appears to refer to a third part addressed " to her whose name of blackness attests the darkness of her perfidy," i. e. to Melania Romana; but this work, if Jerome is correct in his mention of it, is now lost. Gennadius mentions the two parts, not the third: and it is possible that, as Cave supposes, these, not the Γνωστικός, may constitute the Ἱερά of Palladius. 5. Τῶν κατὰ Μοναχῶν πραγμάτων τὰ αἴτια

extant in Cotelerius, Eccles. Graec. Mon. vol. iii., and Gallandius, Bibl. Patrum, vol. vii., are noticed in the Vitae Patrum of Rosweid, and are perhaps referred to by Jerome, who says that Evagrius wrote a book and sentences Περὶ Ἀπαθείας; in which words he may describe the Μοναχός and this work Τῶν κατὰ Μοναχων, both which are contained in one MS. used by Cotelerius. 6. A fragment Εἰς τὸ ΠΙΠΙ ()

Or the tetragrammaton and other names of God used in the Hebrew Scriptures, published by Cotelerius and Gallandius (ll. cc.) 7. Κεφάλαια λγ́ κατ̓ ἀκολουθίαν, 8. Πνευματικαὶ γνῶμαι κατὰ ἀλφάβητον, and 9. Ἕτεραι γυῶμαι

These three pieces are published by Gallandisus as the works of Evagrius, whose claim to the authorship of them he vindicates. They have been commonly confounded with the works of St. Nilus. 10. 11. The life of the monk Pachrom or Pahromius and A Sermon on the Trinity Editions

both published by Suaresius among the works of St. Nilus, but assigned by him, on the authority of his MS., to Evagrius. Gallandius positively ascribes the sermon to Basil of Caesareia. 12. Ὑπομνήματα εἰς Παροιμίας τοῦ Σολομώντος

mentioned by Suidas (s. v. Εὐάγριος). Some understand Suidas to mean not " Notes on the Proverbs," but a "work on the model of the Proverbs of Solomon," and suppose that the Στίχηρα are referred to. Fabricius, however, is inclined to regard it as a commentary. 13. Περὶ Λογισμῶν

and 14. Ἀποφθέγματα περὶ τῶν μεγάλων γερόντων both mentioned by Cotelerius (Eccles. Graec. Mon. vol. iii. pp. 547, 552) as extant in MS. 15. Trithemius ascribes to Evagrius " a work on the life of the Holy Fathers;" but he either refers to one of his works on "the monastic life," or has been misled by passages in Gennadius and Jerome. It is doubtful, however, whether these and several others of his writings extant in MS. and variously entitled, are distinct works, or simply compilations or extracts from some of the above. The genuineness of several of the above works must be regarded as doubtful. There are many citations from Evagrius in different writers, in the Scholia to the works of others, and in the Catenae on different books of Scripture. Jerome attests that his works were generally read in the East in their original Greek, and in the West in a Latin version made "by his disciple Rufinus." Assessment

Jerome appears to have been the first to raise the cry of heresy against Evagrius. The editors of the Bibliotheca Patrum (except Gallandius) prefix to the portions of his works which they publish a prefatory caveat. He is charged with perpetuating the errors of Origen, and anticipating those of Pelagius. Tillemont vindicates him from these charges. Some of his opinions, as coincident with those of Origen, were condemned, according to Nicephorus Callisti, at the fifth general (second Constantinopolitan) council, A. D. 553. Further Information

Socrates, Hist. Eccles. 4.23; Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. 6.30; Palladius, Hist. Lausiac. c. 86, in the Bibl. Patrum, vol. xiii., ed Paris, 1654; Hieronymus, ad Ctesiphontem adv. Pelagianos, Opera, vol. iv. p. 476, ed. Martianay, Paris, 1693; Greg. Nazianz. Opera, pp. 870-71, ed. Paris, 1630; Gennadius, de Viris Illustr. c. 11; Suidas, s. v. Εὐάγριος and Μακάριος; Nicephorus Callisti, Histor. Eccles. 11.37, 42, 43; Trithemius, de Scriptor. Eccles. 100.85 ; Cotelerius, Eccles. Graec. Monum. vol. iii. p. 68, &c., and notes; Tillemont, Mémoires, vol. x. p. 368, &c.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 434, vol. viii. pp. 661, 679, 695, vol. ix. p. 284, &c., vol. x. p. 10; Gallandius, Biblioth. Patrum, vol. vii.; Oudin. Comment. de Scriptor. Eccles. vol. i. p. 883, &c.; Cave, Hist. Lit. vol. i. p. 275, ed. Oxon. 1740-43.

5. Works Altercatio inter Theophilum Christianum et Simeonem Judaeum.

He wrote a work celebrated in its day, called Altercatio inter Theophilum Christianum et Simeonem Judaeum. Editions

It is published by Gallandius. Distinguished from Evagrius of Pontus

This Evagrius is expressly distinguished by Gennadius from Evagrius of Pontus. Further Information

Gennadius, de Viris Illustribus, c. 50; Gallandius, Biblioth. Patrum, vol. ix. Proleg. p. xvii. and p. 250, &c.

6. An Evagrius, supposed by some to be Evagrius of Pontus, but not so if we may judge from the subject, wrote a treatise described as Variarum Considerationum sive de Sermonis Discrimine Capita quinquaginta quatnor, extant in the MS. in the library of the Escurial. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. pp. 338, 367.) [J.C.M]