Theodore was of the Greek church, and had not adopted the tonsure, which he assumed, however, before reaching; England. His name was long remembered in connection with his "Penitential," the first book of the kind that appeared in the west. His system of confession and penance is very different from that sanctioned by the modern Church of Rome. He died in 690. His extant works were published at Paris in 1677, edited by Jacques Petit, in 2 vols. 4to.—(Soames' Latin Church.)—R. H.
THEODORE, Lascaris, Emperor of Nice, was the descendant of an ancient and noble Byzantine family, and in 1198 married Anna, daughter of the Emperor Alexius III. During the anarchy that prevailed at Constantinople after the flight of Alexius V. in 1204, Theodore Lascaris and Theodore Ducas presented themselves as candidates for the imperial crown. Lascaris was chosen; but the capital being shortly afterwards taken by its Latin besiegers, he escaped to the opposite coast of Asia. There, having made himself master of Nice and the greater part of Bithynia, he succeeded, by the heroism and energy that conspicuously marked his character, in establishing a new dominion; and, to use the words of Gibbon, "a victorious reign of eighteen years expanded the principality of Nice to the magnitude of an empire." Beloved by his friends and feared by his enemies, Theodore Lascaris died in 1222.—J. J.
THEODORET, Bishop of Cyrus, was born at Antioch about 386. His parents were wealthy and pious, and he was their only son. Before he was seven years of age he was placed in a neighbouring monastery for education, and remained in it twenty years, having among his instructors Theodore of Mopsuestia. He was first appointed reader, and then deacon, in the church of Antioch; and in 420 left the monastery to become bishop of Cyrus, a city in Syria, near the Euphrates. His conduct in the diocese was most exemplary—piety, benevolence, and moderation characterizing all his actions. He was eminently generous and bountiful, giving all he had to those who were in need, and expending large sums on the city itself. His diocese was poor, and did not enrich him; but the property inherited from his parents he distributed freely. The country over which he presided was then overrun with Arians, Macedonians, and Marcionites, yet he was most successful in converting them to the catholic church, so that in 449 he states he had baptized ten thousand Marcionites. After his friend Nestorius had broached his heresy respecting the person of Christ, and been condemned by Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret was drawn into the controversy. In 430 he wrote a letter to the monks of Syria in reply to the twelve Capitula of Cyril. At the council of Ephesus, 431, he was among the bishops who decreed Cyril's deposition. He was one of the seven delegates of the Eastern party whom Theodosius II. summoned to his presence at Chalcedon to explain the proceedings of the council of Ephesus. The emperor sent him home thence in disgrace. After the death of his great enemy Cyril, Dioscorus, who succeeded the latter, pursued the same bitter course. In 448, through the influence of this prelate, Theodosius commanded Theodoret to confine himself within his own diocese. In 449 he, and other bishops who had condemned Eutyches at the synod of Constantinople, were deposed by the so-called robber synod of Ephesus. He applied to Leo the Great of Rome, who favoured his cause, and absolved him from ecclesiastical censure. After the death of Theodosius in 450, Pulcheria and Marcianus restored him to his see. At the council of Chalcedon (451) he professed his orthodoxy, and was unwillingly brought to curse Nestorius. Returning from the council to his bishopric, he devolved most of the duties on Hypatius, and devoted the remainder of his life to literary works. His death took place in 457. Theodoret was one of the most distinguished ecclesiastics of his age, and presented a striking contrast to the men who opposed and persecuted him with unrelenting spirit. He knew and practised liberty of thought and speech; was mild, tolerant, and good; a noble example of freedom from religious rancour in times of bitter theological controversies. His learning was great, and his abilities good, and he has left some excellent works to posterity. The best of his writings are the commentaries on the Old Testament and Pauline epistles; and his ecclesiastical history in five books, designed to be a continuation of Eusebius'. His religious history, i.e., an eulogy upon thirty monks, is of little value. He also wrote against various heretics, orations, homilies, letters, &c., &c. The best edition of his works is that of Schulze, 5 vols. 8vo, Halle. 1769-74.—S. D.
THEODORIC I., King of the Visigoths, son of the great Alaric, was elected successor of King Wallia in 419. Towards the close of the reign of the Emperor Theodosius II., he invaded Gaul, and immediately after the accession of Valentinian III., he besieged Aries. Aëtius, the Roman commander, relieved the town, and then entering into treaty with the Goths, they turned their united arms against a common enemy, the Vandals. After a while hostilities broke out anew between the Goths and the Romans, and the latter called in the Huns to aid them against their adversaries. In 439, however, at the siege of Toulouse, the arms of Theodoric were successful; but peace was again restored. In 450, Attila at the head of his Huns, invaded Gaul, when the Romans once more united with the Visigoths, and encountered the invaders at Châlons in 451, where in a sanguinary battle, in which one hundred and sixty thousand men were left dead upon the field, Attila was defeated. Theodoric was killed at the beginning of the engagement.—J. J.
THEODORIC, surnamed the Great, King of the Ostrogoths, was the son of King Theodomir, and born in 455. In his youth he had been educated as a hostage at the court of Constantinople, but he returned to his father in 472, and succeeded him on his death in 475. Having formally received the government of Italy from the Emperor Zeno Isauricus, to whom he had rendered some important services, Theodoric crossed the Alps with a large Gothic army in 489, and defeated Odoacer, who then held the Italian kingdom, near the ruins of Aquileia. The victorious Goth followed up his advantage by attacking Ravenna, to which Odoacer, after losing three several battles, had fled with twenty thousand men. After a siege of three years Ravenna was surrendered, and Theodoric, notwithstanding his promise to spare the life of the captive Odoacer, ordered him to be put to death in his own palace. On the death of the latter, Theodoric became king of Italy, and was formally acknowledged as such by the Emperor Anastasius, Zeno's successor. He fixed his residence at Ravenna. During his reign internal tranquillity was preserved, and various additions were made to the Italian kingdom. He restored the walls of Rome, repaired the aqueducts and public baths, built a cathedral at Ravenna, and palaces at Verona and Pavia. Although generally a wise, just, and tolerant sovereign, his conduct was sometimes violent and criminal. The cruel deaths of Symmachus and of the philosopher Boëthius obscure the glory of his reign, and he himself is reported to have sunk, conscience-stricken, to the grave. He died in 526, in the seventy-second year of his age—J. J.
THEODORIC, a bishop and celebrated surgeon of the thirteenth century. He was a pupil of Hugo of Lucca. He held the bishoprics of Bitonti and Cervia successively, and died at Bologna in 1298. Theodoric introduced many improvements in the art of surgery, and left behind him a treatise on that subject, published at Venice in 1490 and 1519.—J. J.
THEODORUS I., Pope, was a Greek by birth, and was raised to the see of St. Peter in 642. He rejected the so-called Typus of the Emperor Constans, by which the latter imposed silence respecting the doctrine of the Monothelltes. Theodore was the first pope to whom was given the title summus pontifex, and the last whom a bishop (Victor of Carthage) called brother. He died in 649.—S. D.
THEODORUS II., Pope, was a Roman by birth. He was elevated to the dignity in 896, but he lived only twenty days after. During his very brief pontificate he was not inactive. It is said that he was generous to the poor and a lover of peace. He recalled the banished bishops whom Formosus had deposed, reinstated them in their offices, and did much to repair the mischief done by Stephen VI.—S. D.
THEODORUS, or more properly Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, belonging to the fourth century, embraced at first an ascetic life, and had among his disciples Chrysostom, Maximus, and Theodore of Mopsuestia. In Athens he studied rhetoric and philosophy. All his time was devoted to study and prayer. He was very poor, possessing no house, table, or bed. During the persecutions of the catholic church under the Arian emperors Constans and Valens, he asserted the Nicene faith most vigorously, preaching in the fields about Antioch when the churches there were closed, 364-378. The Emperor Julian wrote violently against him in an epistle to Photinus, 362. Diodorus assisted at the general council of Constantinople, 381; but the Orientals ceased to hold communion with him because he had ordained Flavian. He died, however, in the communion of the catholic church, leaving a great reputation behind him. He
