Paulinus of Nola

“ It was used in France and probably other countries.
To the same fifth century belongs Paulinus, Bishop of Nola (353-431) , who has many better claims to remembrance than his hymns. He was one of those men of whom their contemporaries cannot speak without enthusiasm, and as Augustine, Jerome, and Ambrose are among his eulogists we may assume that the praise was not undeserved. He came of a noble Gallic stock; he inherited wealth and acquired from the teaching of the poet Ausonius all the culture of his time; he filled high office in Italy and Spain ”

“ Paulinus of Nola several times described in the churches which he built.... St. Leo the Great built one at the gate of St. Paul’s Church which was celebrated by Ennodius of Pavia in eight verses.... The same was the practice of the Greek Church; for Eusebius tells us with commendation how Paulinus, Bishop of Tyre, placed in the porch of a splendid church which he built, the symbols of sacred purification, that is, fountains [148] which gave, by their abundant supply, means of washing themselves to those who entered the temple. ”

“ The summary of Fronto the famous rhetorician, Marcus’ tutor and friend, reproduced in the discourse of Cæcilius in the Dialogue of Minucius Felix, repeats too clearly the same disparaging view coloured with contempt and scarcely veiled hatred.
Nowhere is the pagan conception of the misery and wretchedness of the Christian life more clearly expressed than in the picturesque and graphic poem of Rutilius Namatianus, [91] a contemporary of Paulinus of Nola in the first years of the fifth century. ”

“ In Paulinus of Nola we are reminded of the earliest Western monasteries, and the Franciscan friars represent for us the thirteenth-century revival of the religious spirit in Italy. What more? In the red-gowned confraternity of the island we are put in touch with an institution which seems to be as old as human history, with those burial guilds, sanctioned by Roman law, under shelter of which the first Christians obtained a legal footing for themselves and their cemeteries long before their religion was tolerated. ”

“ His friend, S. Paulinus of Nola, tells us he had a brilliant position in the world, and was universally applauded for his eloquence; but converted in the very flower of his life, he severed all human ties and retired into solitude. He is said to have founded the first monastery in Aquitaine, supposed to be that of S. Sever-Rustan, where he gave himself up to literary labors that have perpetuated his name. The Huguenots burned down this interesting monument of the past in 1573, and massacred all the monks. ”

“ Syricius, instead of protecting Jerom, as his Predecessor Damasus had done, against the Roman Clergy, whom he had provoked with his Writings, gave him, in a manner, up to their Resentment; which obliged him to abandon Rome, and return into the East, as I have related above. The Name of Paulinus, afterwards Bishop of Nola, is famous in the History of the Church, and celebrated by Jerom, Ambrose, Austin, and all the Writers of those Times. He had abandoned the World, and the immense Wealth he possessed, to lead a retired Life ”

“ In order to appeal to the intellectual classes the Christian writers were bound to follow the pagan models, and so a virtue was made of necessity: for amid the distraction of the failing Empire it was the Church alone that could have saved the form and content of the ancient culture by providing scribes for the one and thinkers for the other. It would have been interesting to have Paulinus of Nola’s Panegyric on Theodosius. ”

“ The city of Beneventum had, however, it is supposed, palmed off on the emperor the body of Saint Paulinus of Nola which rests in the church dedicated to the apostle by the side of that of Saint Adelbert the apostle of the Slavs. The Franciscans came to the isola sacra in the sixteenth century, and one of the friars of Saint Bartholomew's is the popular dentist of the poor from all quarters. ”

“ URA'NIUS, a Gaul by birth, a presbyter of the church at Nola, is known to us as the author of a biography of his friend Paulinus Nolanus, at whose death he was present. His work, entitled De Vita et Obitu Paulini Nolani, was first published by Surius in his Vitae Sanctorum (fol. Colon. Agripp. 1572) under the 22nd of June. ”

“ XL. But since I am engaged against these fond and fruitless customs, the proper effects and delights of vain and proud minds, let me yet add one memorable passage more, as it is related by the famous Casaubon, in his discourse of Use and Custom, where he briefly reports, what passed between Sulpitius Severus and Paulinus, bishop of Nola, (but such an one as gave all to redeem captives; whilst others of that function, that they may show who is their master, are making many both beggars and captives, by countenancing the plunder and imprisonment [120] of Christians, for pure conscience to God) ”

“ This circle being horizontal, we cannot but think, as it would necessarily be read from outside, that Gruterus was mistaken in putting the bottom of the letters toward the centre; we have therefore reversed this in our figure. The words “Wash thy sins, not thy face only,” almost certainly refer it to a phiale. Eusebius, for instance, speaking of one of these fountains, says, “it is not meet for an unclean foot to step on the sacred place within the temple,” and Paulinus tells us that at Nola those who entered the church washed [Pg 191] their hands in a similar place. ”

“ Felix”was transferred from the metrical legend of Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, by Bede, into a prose narrative; and the compiler is therefore not responsible for the miraculous facts recorded, his office having been merely that of a faithful translator.
“The Letter to Abbot Albinus” relates to our Author’s Ecclesiastical History, whilst the important “Epistle to Bishop Egbert” has left us a deplorable picture of the demoralized state of Monachism in the eighth century. ”

“ Neither conservative haughtiness towards the provinces (as far as it survived) nor the hatred of religious zeal could ignore the fact. More than once Jerome in his Chronicle uses the word florentissime in this connexion, [254] and to Rusticus he writes that he has heard of his education at Rome, ‘post studia Galliarum quae vel [43] florentissima sunt’. [255] Paulinus of Pella and his namesake of Nola, whom Ausonius taught, together with men like Prosper of Aquitaine, [256] leaders in the Christian world, all owed their early training to the flourishing pagan schools of Gaul. ”

“ Paulinus, the illustrious Bishop of Nolo, who died in 431 at the age of eighty, after having for forty years fed, clothed, and comforted the poor of his diocese, after having released the insolvent debtors from prison, ransomed the captives, and allowed himself to be sold as a slave to the barbarians in order to rescue from their hands the son of an unfortunate widow, is the most perfect type of the prelates of this remarkable epoch. ”

“ In this last age he is esteemed an uncivil man, who will not either to his inferior or equal subscribe himself Servant. But Sulpitius Severus was heretofore sharply reproved by Paulinus, bishop of Nola, because in his espistle he had subscribed himself his Servant, saying, Beware thou subscribe not thyself his Servant, who is thy Brother; for flattery is sinful, not a testimony of humility to give those honours to men, which are only due to the One Lord., Master, and GOD. ↑ Concerning the title Paul gave to Festus. ”

“ Eustathian party at Antioch Paulinus, biographer of Ambrose Paulinus, bishop of Nola Paulinus of Pella Paulinus of Périgueux Paulinus, missionary to Northumbria Paulus of Samosata, patriarch of Antioch Paulus II, patriarch of Antioch Paulus, the Black Paulus of Asia Paulus I, bishop of Constantinople Paulus Edessenus Paulus, bishop of Emesa Paulus, St. called Thebaeus Paulus the Silentiary Pegasius, bp. of Troas Pelagia, surnamed Margarita Pelagianism and Pelagius Pelagius I., bishop of Rome Pelagius II., bishop of Rome Peregrinus, called Proteus Perpetua, Vibia Perpetuus, St., archbp. ”

“ Much, too, had those slaves to tell of all the splendid scenes which were hourly taking place in Constantinople, and the high favour and honour of their master, Paulinus, at the imperial court. Each feeling his importance increased by the honours and virtues of his lord, exalted in no measured terms the power and dignity of Paulinus; and to have heard the praises of his menials, one might believe that he excelled in learning and in talents the greatest men of literature's most golden days, and rivalled in the field the most renowned warriors of either Greece or Rome. ”

“ When the last moment was at hand, Honoratus, the bp. of Vercellae, who was lying down in another room, thought he heard himself thrice called, and came to Ambrose, and offered him the Body of the Lord; immediately after receiving which he breathed his last breath—a man, Paulinus says well, who for the fear of God had never feared to speak the truth to kings or any powers. He died on Good Friday night, 397, and was buried in the Ambrosian Basilica, in the presence of a multitude of every rank and age, including even Jews and pagans. ”

“ The preaching of Paulinus, so long resultless, now seemed to be bearing abundant fruit. Up in remote Bernicia, where the royal villa of Yeavering nestled under a hill, an outlying sentinel of the Cheviots which still bears the name of Yeavering Bell, Paulinus was engaged for twenty-six consecutive days catechising and baptising in the river Glen the multitudes who flocked to him. Returning to Deira, to the Roman station of Cataractonium, he there baptised many converts in the river Swale, no church or oratory having yet been erected for Christian worship. ”

“ Æthelburh and her children sought shelter in Kent, [Pg 6] and Paulinus fled with them. Only one Roman clergyman, the deacon James, remained in Northumbria to labour on in faith that God’s cause would yet triumph there. Ignorant of the calamity that had befallen the Church, the Pope, in pursuance of Gregory’s scheme, sent the pall to Paulinus. ”

“ This, it is suggested, was the motive of Otho's generals in advising delay, and Paulinus in particular had high hopes, since he was the senior ex-consul, and a distinguished general who 146had earned a brilliant reputation by his operations in Britain. For my own part, while I am ready to admit that a few people may have tacitly wished for peace instead of civil war, or for a good and virtuous emperor instead of two who were the worst of criminals, yet I imagine that Paulinus was much too wise to hope that in a time of universal corruption the people would show such moderation. ”

“ In 61 A.D., seventy thousand persons, "all Romans or confederates of Rome," were destroyed by the Iceni, under Queen Boudicca, in the Romanized towns of Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulam (Colchester, London and St. Albans) .
Paulinus returned hastily to the rescue, and "the fortunes of a single battle restored the country to its ancient submissiveness." So says Tacitus; but it was only a surface submission; the fire was smouldering, not quenched.
A milder governor succeeded Paulinus, and under him and his successors Roman civilization and Roman vices began to spread among the Britons. ”

“ Paulinus (the lengthened form) became in Welsh, Pewlin, and also named three saints—among them our first Northumbria, bishop of York; but it has not been followed, except in Italy, by Paolina, and there is, perhaps, a mere diminutive of Paulus. Yet the feminine is far more fashionable; and Paulina, Pauline, Paolina, are the favourite forms everywhere occurring. Perhaps Pauline became the more popular in France for the sake of that favourite grandchild whose Christian name is almost the only one mentioned in Madame de Sévigné’s letters. It was the only form commonly recognized in France ”

“ During the civil war he fought on the side of Otho against Vitellius, and obtained a considerable success against Aulus Caecina Alienus (one of the Vitellian generals) near Cremona, but did not follow it up. When Caecina had been joined by Fabius Valens, Paulinus advised his colleagues not to risk a decisive battle, but his advice was disregarded, and Otho (q.v.) was utterly defeated at Bedriacum. After Vitellius had been proclaimed emperor, Paulinus asserted that it was in consequence of his own treachery that Otho's army had been defeated. ”

“ If the episcopal chair of this city be to us a matter of contention, let us place the holy gospel upon it, and let us seat ourselves on each side of it. If I die first, thou, O friend, wilt become the only ruler of the flock; but if your death occur before mine, I will, as far as I am able, tend the flock alone.' Paulinus, however, refused to comply with the offer so kindly and affectionately made by Meletius. ”

“ CREDIBLE information has reached me that Paulinus, the lustre of whose birth was inferior to none in the region of Aquitania, has sold both his own possessions and those of his wife, and entered upon a course of life which enables him to bestow upon the poor the property which has been converted into money; while he himself having become poor instead of rich, as one relieved of a heavy burden, has bid farewell to his home his country and his kindred, in order to serve God more diligently ”

“ He promised Paulinus also, that if his God were sufficiently potent to give him a victory over Cuichelm, he would, on his return, take into serious consideration the question of embracing Christianity and proclaiming it the religion of Northumbria. At the close of their conversation, Paulinus placed his hand on the King's head, and said, "You have been restored to your kingdom, you have extended its limits, and become the greatest of the Saxon kings of England—the Bretwalda—know you this sign?" Eadwine replied that he did. ”