clergy generally adhered to Symmachus. The matter was finally settled in the "synodus palmaris," the proceedings of which are supposed to be given under Synod. Romana III. sub Symmacho, the date of which is x. Kal. Novembris. Laurentius is said, in a fragment of a catalogue of the popes printed from a remarkably ancient MS. by Joseph Blanchinus in his ed. of Anastasius, to have retired to a farm of the patrician Festus, and to have died there, "sub ingenti abstinentia." This account evidently emanated from the party of Laurentius, if not from Festus himself (cf. Pagi's note on Baronius, ann. 502 i.).
Authorities.—Anastasius (in Vat. Symmachi); Frag. Cat. Pontif. in Anastas. Bibl. ed. 1718–1835, Rome, t. iv. Prolegom. p. lxix.; Theodorus Lector (lib. ii.), Theophanes (Chron. p. 123, ed. Paris), and Nicephorus (lib. 16, c. 35); Acts of Councils under Symmachus; Libellus Apologeticus of Ennodius written in justification of Symmachus after his final triumph.
[J.B—Y.]
Laurentius (15), surnamed Mellifluus, thought to have been bp. of Novara c. 507. A Laurentius, surnamed Mellifluus, from the sweetness with which he delivered homilies, is mentioned by Sigebert (Scr. Eccl. c. 120 in Patr. Lat. clx. 572) as the author of a treatise de Duobus Temporibus, viz. one period from Adam to Christ, the other from Christ to the end of the world. That this Laurentius was the presbyter who instructed Gaudentius the first bp. of Novara was maintained by Cotta, an outline of whose arguments may be seen in the Acta Eruditorum (suppl. t. ii. pp. 525, 526, ed. Lips. 1696). La Bigne (Max. Bibl. Pat. t. ix. p. 465, Lugd. 1677) suspects that Laurentius Mellifluus was bp. of Novara, and subsequently the 25th bp. of Milan who is praised by Ennodius in his first Dictio. La Bigne grounds his opinion on certain allusions of Ennodius in his second Dictio, which was sent to Honoratus, bp. of Novara (e.g. Patr. Lat. lxiii. 269 B). Other corroborative passages have been adduced by Mabillon (ut inf.), as where Ennodius describes Laurentius bp. of Milan pacifying his haughty brethren by honeyed words of conciliation ("blandimentorum melle," ib. 267 A). The historians of literature usually therefore designate Laurentius Mellifluus bp. of Novara, but he is not admitted by the historians of the see, as Ughelli (Ital. Sac. iv. 692) and Cappelletti (Le Chiese d᾿Ital. xiv. 526). Three extant treatises are ascribed to Laurentius Mellifluus, viz. two homilies, de Poenitentia and de Eleemosyna, printed by La Bigne in his Bibliotheca and a treatise de Mulieye Cananaea, printed by Mabillon with a note on the author, supporting the view of La Bigne, in his Analecta (p. 55, ed. 1723). The homilies are in La Bigne (Max. Bib. Pat. t. ix. p. 465, Lug. 1677) and the three treatises in Migne (Patr. Lat. lxvi.87) with both La Bigne's and Mabillon's notices of the author. Cave mistakenly says (i. 493) that the de Duobus Temporibus is lost, for it is evidently the homily de Poenitentia, which opens with an exposition of the "duo tempora," which terms he employs somewhat in the sense of the two dispensations for the divine pardon of sin. The sin inherited from Adam is in baptism entirely put away through the merits of Christ. Christ the second Adam simply cancelled the sin derived from the first Adam. Original sin therefore corresponds, in a manner, with the pre-Christian period. For actual transgression each person is himself alone responsible and is to be released from it by penitence, with which the treatise is mainly occupied, and so has received its present title. For other notices see Ceillier (xi. 95), Dupin (Eccl. Writ. t. i. p. 540, ed. 1722), Tillem. (Mém. x. 259, 260).
[C.H.]
Laurentius (36), Aug. 10, archdeacon of Rome, and martyr under Valerian, a.d. 258. Cyprian (Ep. 82 al. 80 ad Successum) mentions the rescript of Valerian directing that bishops, presbyters, and deacons should forthwith be punished, and records the martyrdom of Xystus bp. of Rome, in accordance with it on Aug. 6. Laurentius, the first of the traditional seven deacons of Rome, suffered four days afterwards. The genuine Acts of this martyrdom were lost even in St. Augustine's time, as he tells us (Ser. 302, de Sancto Laurent.) that his narration was gained from tradition instead of reciting the Acts as his custom was (S. Ambr. de Off. i. 41). Laurentius suffered by burning over a slow fire, the prefect thinking thus to extort the vast treasures which he believed the Christians to have concealed. He was buried in the Via Tiburtina in the cemetery of Cyriaca by Hippolytus and Justinus, a presbyter, where Constantine the Great is said to have built a church in honour of the martyr, which pope Damasus rebuilt or repaired. Few martyrdoms of the first three centuries are better attested than this one. St Laurentius is commemorated in the canon of the Roman Mass. His name occurs in the most ancient Calendars, as Catalog. Liberianus or Bucherianus (4th cent.), in the Calendar of Ptolemeus Silvius (5th cent.), and in others described under Calender In D. C. A. (cf. Smedt, Introd. ad Hist. Ecclesiast. pp. 199–219, 514). He is commemorated by Prudentius in his Peristeph. (Mart. Rom. Vet.; Mart. Adon., Usuard.; Tillem. Mém. iv. 38; Ceillier, ii. 423; Fleury, H. E. vii. 38, xi. 36, xviii. 33). Cf. Fronton, Ep. et Dissert. Eccl. p. 219 (1720), where, in a note on Aug. 10, in Rom. Kai., an accurate account is given of the churches built at Rome in his honour.
[G.T.S.]
Leander (2), metropolitan bp. of Seville from (?) 575 to 600. His life covers the most important period of Visigothic Christianity, and with LEOVIGILD, HERMENIGILD , and RECCARED he plays an indispensable part in that drama, half-political, half-religious, which issued in the conversion council of 589. All that is historically known of the origin of the famous family, which included his two brothers ISIDORE and FULGENTIUS, and their only sister FLORENTINA, is derived from the opening sentence in Isidore's Life of Leander (de Vir. Ill. c. 41; Esp. Sagr. v. 463) and from the concluding chapter of Leander's Regula, or Libellus ad Florentinam (Esp. Sagr. ix. 355). Their father was Severianus "Carthaginensis Provinciae." At some unknown date, while Florentina was a child, the family left their native place (Libell. ad Florent. c. 21), and settled probably at Seville. It is probable that Leander was born between 535 and 540. He would thus be a youth at the
