Theodoret of Cyrus

(1) (TxEopoRbUs), Oct. 23, presbyter of Antioch and martyr at the hands of count Julianus, uncle of the emperor Julianus. He had charge of the treasures of the church, and kept up the services when the rest of the clergy had fled away. He reproached count Julianus for his apostasy, was tortured and beheaded. The emperor was very angry with his uncle for his violence, recognising that the church was only strengthened by martyrdoms. Count Julianus soon after perished by a terrible death, (Ruinart, AA. Sinc. p. 658-662; Soz. H. H. y. 8; Theod. H. LZ. iii, 12, 18.) _ Chrysostom often refers to count Julian's conduct on this occasion. (Cf. Homil. iv. de Laud. S. Pauli, Exposit. Psal. cx., Homil. iv. in St. Matth.) (JuLranus (102).] [G..T.S.]

(2), bishop of Cyrrhus, or Cyrus, in the province of Euphratensis, one of the most conspicuous of the theologians of the fifth century, "' facile princeps 'among his brethren. for varied learning and persuasive church oratory of a richly versatile type " (Dr. Bright, Later Treatises of St. Athanas. Libr, of Fathers, p- 149). He presents himself to posterity as at the same time "a grent and holy bishop," an accomplished man of letters, an acute and ace

eurate scientific theologian, a sound and skilful eontroyersialist,—a commentator on Holy Seripture, if not distinguished by originality, which indeed he modestly lays no claim to, yet remarkable for terseness, good sense, and appreciation of his subject,—a church historian learned, and generally impartial,—an eloquent and persuasive preacher, almost rivalling in his celebrity and his power over his hearers his great fellow-townsman, John Chrysostom, with ''a place of his own in the literature of the first centuries, and a place in which he has no rival." (Newman's Hist. Sketches, vol. iii. p. 326. Lightfoot, Ep. to Galatians, p. 220.) He also exhibits a Jarge loving human heart, which draws out not only our interest but our affection for one who found it so hard to believe anything but what was good of friends he had long known and loved, or to give them up when theological consistency demanded it of him, and, in Dr. Bright's appreciative words, '' enables us to feel towards him as (St. Augustine excepted) we can hardly feel towards any of his contemporaries in east or west" (/. c.). Deeply as we must regret the polemical bitterness which disfigures some of his undisputed writings, and his toleration of pious fraud, there is on the whole no name in ecelesiastical history which more commands at once our admiration, our respect, and our affection, than that of "the Blessed Theodoret." From his lower rank in the hagiology of the ehurch, in claims to real saintliness, he towers above many canonized saints, especially his own mighty rival and antagonist St. Cyril of Alexandria. Theodoret was born at Antioch, towards the end of the fourth century. The exact date of his birth is nowhere given, and is only to be gathered from internal evidence which admits of different conclusions. Garnier places it in 386, Ceillier about 387. This, however, appears too early, and Tillemont is probably nearer the truth in placing it about 393. The arguments for and against the earlier date are carefully marshalled by Tillemont (mote ii.), and his conclusions in