Roger Pearse is discussing Epiphanius and John Chrysostom.
Epiphanius is famed for the Panarium - lit. "breadbasket" but perhaps a colloquialism for "medkit" - which he wrote in Greek to collect all the heresies current in his day and before. It's useful as an encyclopaedia of doctrines which orthodox Christianity had rejected. Byzantine-era Photius, a self-conscious encyclopaedist, although equally opinionated, thought that Epiphanius wasn't all that good at his job. John Damascene thought better of Epiphanius and his second book of Fount of Knowledge is pretty much a Panarium copy (until it gets to Islam obviously). As a result we enjoy a better handle on Epiphanius' text than on many of his contemporaries' work. And it has several translations including into English.
John Chrysostom's (many) enemies, who were proto-Monotheletes mostly in Alexandria, dragged an elderly Epiphanius into Constantinople hoping to snare this pope as that final Panarium chapter. According to Pearse, Epiphanius disappointed the Alexandrines and refused to slander John as a heretic - or at least not as one worth the bother. Epiphanius died on his way to Cyprus; John got fired. Feel free to read Pearse for the gossip around that.
I think the Miaphysites, and the community around Cyril of Alexandria generally, should have let Epiphanius enjoy his retirement and not involved him in the Alexandria / Antioch hissy fit.
No comments:
Post a Comment