Page:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (1911).djvu/27

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AGATHA
AGNOETAE
9

the war; Justinian had already incurred such expense as to be unwilling to turn back (Liberat. quoted by Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, vii. p. 314), and as a matter of fact Belisarius took Rome within the year. In 535 Anthimus, who was suspected of Monothelitism, had been appointed patriarch of Constantinople by the influence of Theodora. Agapetus, on his first arrival, refused to receive Anthimus unless he could prove himself orthodox, and then only as bp. of Trebizond, for he was averse to the practice of translating bishops. At the same time he boldly accused Justinian himself of Monophysitism; who was fain to satisfy him by signing a "libellus fidei" and professing himself a true Catholic. But the emperor insisted upon his communicating with Anthimus, and even threatened him with expulsion from the city if he refused. Agapetus replied with spirit that he thought he was visiting an orthodox prince, and not a second Diocletian. Then the emperor confronted him with Anthimus, who was easily convicted by Agapetus. Anthimus was formally deposed, and Mennas substituted; and this was done without a council, by the single authority of the pope Agapetus; Justinian of course allowing it, in spite of the remonstrances of Theodora (Anast. vol. i. p. 102; Theophanes, Chronogr. p. 184). Agapetus followed up his victory by denouncing the other heretics who had collected at Constantinople under the patronage of Theodora. He received petitions against them from the Eastern bishops, and from the "monks" in Constantinople, as the Archimandrite coenobites were beginning to be called (Baronius, vii. p. 322). He died on April 21, 536 (Clint. F. R. p. 765). His body was taken to Rome and buried in St. Peter's basilica, Sept. 17. Five of his letters remain: (1) July 18, 535, to Caesarius, bp. of Arles, about a dispute of the latter with bp. Contumeliosus (Mansi, viii. p. 856). (2) Same date, to same, "De augendis alimoniis pauperum" (ib. 855). (3) Sept. 9, 535, Reply to a letter from African bishops to his predecessor Johannes (ib. 848). (4) Same date, reply to Reparatus, bp. of Carthage, who had congratulated him on his accession (ib. 850). (5) March 13, 536, to Peter, bp. of Jerusalem, announcing the deposition of Anthimus and consecration of Mennas (ib. 921). Hefele, Konz. Gesch. Bd. ii.

[G.H.M.]

Agatha, a virgin martyred at Catana in Sicily under Decius, Feb. 5, 251, according to her Acta; but under Diocletian according to the Martyrol. and Aldhelm (de Virgin. 22); mentioned by Pope Damasus A.D. 366 (Carm. v.), and by Venantius Fortunatus c. 580; inserted in the Canon of the Mass by Gregory the Great according to Aldhelm (u.s., and see also S. Greg. M. Dial. iii. 30); and commemorated in a homily by Methodius, c. 900. Her name is in the Carthag. Calendar of c. 450; in Ruinart, p. 695; and in the black-letter calendar in our Prayer-book. Churches at Rome were dedicated to her by pope Symmachus c. 500; by Ricimer A.D. 460, enriched with her relics by Gregory the Great; and by Gregory II. in 726. She is the patroness of Malta (Butler's Lives of Saints). See also the homily against Peril of Idolatry, p. iii.

[A.W.H.]

Agnes, M. a virgin, 12 or 13 years old, beheaded at Rome under Diocletian, celebrated by Ambrose (de Offic. i. 41; de Virg. ad Marcell. i. 2), Jerome (Ep. 97 ad demetriad.), Augustine (Serm. 273, 286, and 354), Sulp. Sever. (Dial. ii. 14), Prudentius (περὶ Στεφάνων, xiv.), Venant. Fortunatus (Poem. vii. iii. 35), Aldhelm (de Virgin.); and by her Acta in Syriac in Assemani, Act. Mart. ii. 148 seq.; besides Acta falsely attributed to St. Ambrose, a doubtful homily of St. Maxim. Taurin., and some verses questionably assigned to pope Damasus. Her name is in the Carthag. Cal. of c. 450, Jan. 21; in Ruinart, p. 695. A church at Rome, in her honour, said to have been built under Constantine the Great, was repaired by Pope Honorius, A.D. 625‒638, and another was built at Rome by Innocent X. (Assemani, Act. Mart. ii. 154, 155). See also Act. SS. Jan. 21, on which day her name stands in the black-letter calendar of our Prayer-book. Baeda and Usuard place it on Jan. 23; the Menolog. and Menaea on July 5.

[A.W.H.]

Agnoëtae (from ἀγνοέω, to be ignorant of), a name applied to two sects who denied the omniscience either of God the Father, or of God the Son in His state of humiliation.

I. The first were a sect of the Arians, and called from Eunomius and Theophronius "Eunomio-heophronians" (Socr. H. E. v. 24). Their leader, Theophronius, of Cappadocia, who flourished about 370, maintained that God knew things past by memory and things future only by uncertain prescience. Sozomen (H. E. vii. 17) writes of him: "Having given some attention to the writings of Aristotle, he composed an appendix to them, entitled Exercises of the Mind. But he afterwards engaged in many unprofitable disputations, and soon ceased to confine himself to the doctrines of his master. [ Eunomius.] Under the assumption of being deeply versed in the terms of Scripture, he attempted to prove that though God is acquainted with the present, the past, and the future, his knowledge on these subjects is not the same in degree, and is subject to some kind of mutation. As this hypothesis appeared positively absurd to the Eunomians, they excommunicated him from their church; and he constituted himself the leader of a new sect, called after his own name, ' Theophronians.' "

II. Better known are the Agnoëtae or Themistiani, in the Monophysite controversy in 6th cent. Themistius, deacon of Alexandria, representing a small branch of the Monophysite Severians, taught, after the death of Severus, that the human soul (not the Divine nature) of Christ was like us in all things, even in the limitation of knowledge, and was ignorant of many things, especially the day of judgment, which the Father alone knew (Mark xiii. 32, cf. John xi. 34). Most Monophysites rejected this view, as inconsistent with their theory of one nature in Christ, which implied also a unity of knowledge, and they called the followers of Themistius Agnoëtae. The orthodox, who might from the Chalcedonian dogma of the two natures in Christ have inferred two kinds of knowledge, a perfect Divine and an imperfect human admitting of growth (Luke ii. 52), nevertheless rejected the view of the Agnoëtae, as making too wide a rupture between the two natures, and generally understood the famous passage in Mark of the official