Apollinaris

“ She arose then immediately, whole, from the bed,
and said that there was no God but Jesus, of Whom he preached.
Then wondered the nobleman at his wife's health,
and they all said that He is the true God,
Who doeth such marvels, and Who hath power in battle
to give the victory to those who truly love Him.
He was then baptized, with his wife and children,
and all his household, in the name of Jesus,
and many of the heathen accepted the faith.
Apollinaris then dwelt there with him
in the city of Ravenna, and preached the faith,
and baptized a great multitude of the people. ”

“ Heresiarch. An
Account of him. About this Time, that is, in the Year 377. a great Council was held at Rome, in which the famous Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea in Syria, was condemned and deposed with his Two Disciples Vitalis and Timotheus. Apollinaris was a Man of uncommon Parts, great Penetration, universal Knowlege; and had at first been so zealous a Defender of the Orthodox Faith, that he was looked upon by all, particularly by Epiphanius and Athanasius, as one of the great Champions of that Cause [1060] , and ranked by Philostorgius with Basil, and Gregory Nazianzen [1061] . ”

“ Ep. xxii. chap. 3 “conatus-antiqua impii Valentini” (the adherent of Apollinaris and head of one of the sections of the Apollinarians after his death) “et Apollinaris mala dogmata renovare.” The third dogma of Apollinaris was that “Christ’s manhood was formed out of a divine substance.” Bright, 147.↑ Eutyches had expressly tried to guard himself against this imputation: Ep. xxi. chap. 3, “anathematizans Apollinarium Valentinum, Manem et Nestorium, &c.” ”

“ Why may not Apollinaris have been included among these 'certain others' whom Clement quoted? The same fallacy underlies our author's reference to Irenæus. The work of Irenæus is lost. Eusebius, it is true, preserves some very meagre fragments [244:2] ; but in these not a single writer on either side in the Quartodeciman controversy is mentioned, not even Melito. Irenæus may have quoted Apollinaris by name in this lost treatise, just as he quotes Papias by name in his extant work on heresies, where nevertheless Eusebius does not care to record the fact. ”

“ Apollinaris, father and son, the former presbyter, the latter bishop, of Laodicea. The father was born at Alexandria. He taught grammar first at Berytus and afterwards at Laodicea (about A. D. 335) , where he married, and became a presbyter of the church. Apollinaris and his son enjoyed the friendship of the sophists Libanius and Epiphanius. They were both excommunicated by Theodotus, bishop of Laodicea, for attending the lectures of Epiphanius, but they were restored upon their profession of penitence. ”

“ APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS, CAIUS SOLLIUS (c. 430–487 or 488) , Christian writer and bishop, was born in Lyons about A.D. 430. Belonging to a noble family, he was educated under the best masters, and particularly excelled in poetry and polite literature. He married (about 452) Papianilla, the daughter of Avitus, who was consul and afterwards emperor. But Majorianus, in the year 457, having deprived Avitus of the empire and taken the city of Lyons, Apollinaris fell into the hands of the enemy. The reputation of his learning led Majorianus to treat him with the greatest respect. ”

“ Baronius is certainly mistaken, and so was Ruffinus [1100] , whom he follows, in asserting the Heresy of Apollinaris to have been first condemned by the Council of Rome, since it is manifest, that the Doctrine of that Heresiarch had been condemned long before by Athanasius, Basil, and Epiphanius, in their Writings, and by the Council held at Alexandria in 362. But Ruffinus probably meant no more, than that those Errors were first condemned by the Council of Rome, under the Name, and together with the Person, of Apollinaris; which is undeniable. ”

“ Apollinaris, as well as Rhodon, has been imagined the author of the work (ascribed to Asterius Urbanus) against Montanism, dedicated to Abiricius Marcellus. [4] This is sufficiently refuted by Routh, [5] whose Greek text, with notes, must be consulted by the studious. [6]
Apollinaris was bishop of Hierapolis on the Mæander, and, Lightfoot thinks, was probably with Melito and Polycrates, known to Polycarp, and influenced by his example and doctrine. ”

“ Who is in there?”
“The brother of the maiden for whose sake Caesar—” stammered the wounded man.
“The maiden whom you have to thank for that disfigured face?” cried the legate. “You are true Aurelians, you boys; and, though you may doubt whether I am the man you take me for, I confess with pleasure that you are exactly as I would wish to have you. The praetorians have slain your friend and servant; I give you that man to make amends for it.”
With deep emotion Nemesianus seized his old friend’s hands, and Apollinaris spoke words of gratitude to him from his couch. ”

“ Why not tell me once more, Nemesianus, that a soldier must obey his commander blindly?—And you, Apollinaris, will you dare still to assert that the hand with which Caesar tore your face was guided only by righteous indignation at an insult offered to an innocent maiden? Have you the courage to excuse the murders by Caracalla of his own wife, and many other noble women, by his anxiety for the safety of throne and state? I, too, am a woman, and may hold up my head with the best ”

“ The imperious gaze of Berenike's large eyes so overpowered the simple soldier as to render him speechless for a while. But Caesar had threatened his mistress's life—he must collect himself, and thus he managed to stammer:
"No, lady, no! He will not have you killed assuredly not! On the contrary-they are to let you live when they cut down the others!"
"Cut down!" cried Apollinaris, raising himself up and staring horrified at this messenger of terror; but his brother laid his hand upon the centurion's broad shoulder, and, shaking him vigorously, commanded him as his tribune to speak out. ”

“ To settle the doctrinal disputes raised by the teaching of Apollinaris, Bishop of the Syrian Laodicæa, who held that the Logos in Christ supplied the place of the human soul, and the disputed succession at Antioch, where the Episcopal throne was claimed by the Arian Vitalis, the Trinitarian but Arian-ordained Meletius, and Paulinus the champion of the uncompromising orthodoxy of the West, he summoned the Council of Constantinople, which met in 381. ”

“ He was their faithful friend and patron, and Apollinaris's misfortune had disgusted him no less than the order in the execution of which he was now obliged to take part. Having greeted the brothers affectionately, observed their painful emotion, and heard their complaints over the murder of their slave, he shook his manly head, and pointing to the blood that dripped from his boots and greaves, "Forgive me for thus defiling your apartments," he said. "If we came from slaughtering men upon the field of battle, it could only do honor to the soldier ”

“ That merciless scoundrel must have done something abominable, that even goes beyond what his fellows can put up with. There they have caught a slave with a bundle in his hand, perhaps stolen goods. They will punish him with death, and are themselves no better than he. If you could only see how they come swarming from every side with their costly plunder! The magnificent golden jug set with jewels, out of which the lady Berenike poured the Byblos wine for you, is there too!—Are we still soldiers, or robbers and murderers?”
“If we are,” cried Apollinaris, “I know who has made us so.” ”

“ On the other hand, a few years later, Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop of Claremont, speaks in the 38highest terms of Apollonius. Sidonius translated the Life of Apollonius into Latin for Leon, the councillor of King Euric, and in writing to his friend he says: “Read the life of a man who (religion apart) resembles you in many things; a man sought out by the rich, yet who never sought for riches; who loved wisdom and despised gold; a man frugal in the midst of feastings, clad in linen in the midst of those clothed in purple, austere in the midst of luxury.... ”

“ The prominent members of this school in the first age were Polycarp of Smyrna and Papias of Hierapolis, of whom the former survived beyond the middle of the century, and the latter probably died not many years before. In the next generation the most famous names are Melito of Sardis and Apollinaris of Hierapolis, who flourished in the third quarter of the century. ”

“ Melito, with Claudius Apollinaris and even Polycrates, may have been personally acquainted with Ignatius; [3] of course, one with another. These lived not far from Smyrna; Asia Minor was, in the first century, the focus of Christian activity. ”

“ I., p. 8.↑ In Syriac, Bardaisan (son of Daisan) , so called from his birthplace beside the river above mentioned.↑ See Bickell, Carmina Nisibena, p. 101.↑ Opera Syriaca, Tom. II., p. 554, see also Homily I.↑ The Seven Æons (or Beings) of Bardesan’s heresy; see Opp. Syr. II., p. 550.↑ The heretic Apollinaris seems to have been a younger man than Ephraim, whom he survived by some years. Possibly his father, the elder Apollinaris, is here intended. But he is not recorded as having taught heresy.↑ To this church were translated the bones of St. ”

“ Kayser, præf. ix.) .
20 August., Epp., cxxxviii. Text quoted by Legrand d’Aussy, op. cit., p. 294.
21 Isidorus Pelusiota, Epp., p. 138; ed. J. Billius (Paris; 1585) .
22 See Arnobius, loc. cit.
23 Sidonius Apollinaris, Epp., viii. 3. Also Fabricius, Bibliotheca Græca, pp. 549, 565 (ed. Harles) . The work of Sidonius on Apollonius is unfortunately lost.
24 Amplissimus ille philosophus (xxiii. 7) . See also xxi. 14; xxiii. 19.
25 τι θεῶν τε καὶ ἀνθρώπου μέσον, meaning thereby presumably one who has reached the grade of being superior to man, but not yet equal to the gods. ”

“ Let us now return to Apollonius. After a lapse of fourteen years, he again made his appearance at the house of Stranguilio and Dionysias, in the city of Tharsus: no sooner had the former beheld him, than he strode about like a madman. “Woman,” said he, addressing his wife, “what wilt thou do now? Thou hast said that Apollonius was shipwrecked and dead. Behold, he seeks his daughter; what answer shall we make?” “Foolish man,” returned she, “let us resume our mourning, and have recourse to tears. He will believe that his child died a natural death.” As she said this, Apollonius entered. ”

“ When the rescript came out which forbade the Galileans to teach the classics, they promptly undertook to form a Christian literature by throwing Scripture into classical forms. The Old Testament was turned into Homeric verse, the New into Platonic dialogues. Here again Apollinarius was premature. There was indeed no reason why Christianity should not have as good a literature as heathenism, but it would have to be a growth of many ages. In doctrine Apollinarius was a staunch Nicene, and one of the chief allies of Athanasius in Syria. ”

“ As he spoke this, he beheld a young man opposite, looking earnestly at him. He was a robust, hard-favoured fisherman, clad in a coarse frock. Apollonius, driven by his distresses, humbly besought this man's assistance, even with tears starting from his eyes. "Pity me," said he, "whomsoever thou art; pity a man stripped of all by shipwreck; one, to whom better days have been familiar, and who is descended from no ignoble family. But that you may know whom you succour, understand that I am a prince of Tyre, and that my name is Apollonius. ”

“ I am thy wife, the daughter of King Altistrates; and thou art of Tyre; thou art Apollonius, my husband and Iord. Thou wert the beloved one who instructed me. Thou wert the ship-wrecked man whom I loved with pure and fond regard.” Apollonius awakening at the mention of these well-known circumstances, recollected his long-lost lady. He fell upon her neck, and wept for joy. “Blessed be the Most High, who hath restored me my wife and daughter.” “But where,” said she, “is our daughter?” Presenting Tharsia, he replied, “Behold her.” ”

“ The Lord is something very like us, but he is not one of us. The spirit is surely an essential part of man, and without a true human spirit he could have no true human choice or growth or life; and [Pg 141] indeed Apollinarius could not allow him any. His work is curtailed also like his manhood, for (so Gregory of Nyssa put it) the spirit which the Lord did not assume is not redeemed. Apollinarius understood even better than Athanasius the kinship of true human nature to its Lord, and applied it with admirable skill to explain the incarnation as the expression of the eternal divine nature. ”

“ Your father is called Apollonius, and your mother's name is Arcestrate, the daughter of king Arcestrates. She died the moment you were born; and Apollonius, adorning her with regal vesture, cast the chest which contained her into the sea. Twenty sestertia of gold were placed beneath her head; and whosoever discovered it, were entreated to give her burial. The ship in which your unhappy father sailed, tossed to and fro by the winds which formed your cradle, at last put into this port, where we were hospitably received by Stranguilio and Dionysias, to whom your sire also recommended me. ”

“ Thence sailing to Pentapolis, the old King Altistrates received them with delight. He lived with his son, and daughter, and grandchild, a whole year in happiness. After that, he died, full of years, bequeathing the kingdom to his son and daughter.
As Apollonius walked one day upon the sea-shore, he recollected the kind-hearted fisherman who succoured him after his shipwreck, and he ordered him to be seized and brought to the palace. The poor fisherman, perceiving himself under the escort of a guard of soldiers, expected nothing less than death. ”