Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Hilarianus (1) Quintus Julius, Latin Chiliast writer

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181415Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature — Hilarianus (1) Quintus Julius, Latin Chiliast writer


Hilarianus (1) Quintus Julius (Hilarion), a Latin Chiliast writer c. 397, author of two extant treatises. The first, Expositum de Die Paschae et Mensis, after having disappeared for several centuries, was printed in 1712, with a dissertation by Pfaffius to prove that it was written A.D. 397. Hilarian supports the Latins against the Greeks, in agreement with pope Victor and the council of Nicaea.

The second treatise, Chronologia sive Libellus de Mundi Duratione, is founded on a dispute about the date of the end of the world. The author counts 5,530 years from the Creation to the Passion; gives the world 6,000; and would therefore end it c. 498.

The following is a sketch of his chronology:

From the Creation to the Deluge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2237 years.
 ";  "; Deluge to the Call of Abraham . . . . . . . 1012 "
 ";  "; thence to the Exodus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430 "
 ";  "; "; Samuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 "
 ";  "; "; Zedekiah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514 "
The Captivity lasted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 "
Thence to the Passion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 887 "

He believes that after the close of the apocalyptic thousand years will come the loosing of Satan, the seducing of the nations Gog and Magog, the descent of fire from heaven upon their armies; then the second resurrection, the judgment, the passing away of the old things and the bringing in of the new heavens and new earth; "impii in ambustione aeterna; justi autem cum Deo in vita aeterna" (c. 19). His style is b arbarous. La Bigne, Biblioth. Vet. Patr. 1609, t. vii.; 1618, t. v. pt. i.; 1654, t. vii.; 1677, t. vii. Migne, Patr. Lat. xiii. col. 1094–1114; Cave, i. 252; Ceillier, vi. 288. A new ed. of de Mundi Duratione was pub. by C. Frisk in Chronica Minora (Leipz. 1892).

[W.M.S. AND J.G.]