GetPassage urn:cts:pdlrefwk:viaf88890045.003.perseus-eng1:C.caesarius_1 urn:cts:pdlrefwk:viaf88890045.003.perseus-eng1:C.caesarius_1
Caesarius

a distinguished ecclesiastic of the fifth and sixth centuries.

He was born at Chalons in 468, devoted his youth to the discipline of a monastic life, and was elected bishop of Arles in 502. He presided over this see for forty years. during which period he was twice accused of treason, first against Alaric, and afterwards against Theodoric, but upon both occasions was honourably acquitted. He took an active share in the deliberations of several councils of the church, and gained peculiar celebrity by his strenuous exertions for the suppression of the Semipelagian doctrines, which had been promulgated about a century before by Cassianus, and had spread widely in southern Gaul.

A life of Caesarius, which however must be considered rather in the light of a panegyric than of a sober biography, was composed by his friend and pupil, Cyprian, bishop of Toulon.

Works
Treatises

Caesarius is the author of two treatises, one entitled Regula ad Monachos, and another Regula ad Virgines.

Editions

Together with three Exhortationes and some opuscula, will be found in the 8th volume of the Bibliotheca Patrum, Leyden, 1677; and were printed in a separate volume, with the notes of Meynardus, at Poitiers (Petavium), 1621, 8vo.

Sermons

His chief works, however, consist of sermons or homilies.

Editions

Forty of these were published by Cognatus, at Basle, 1558, 4to., and 1569, fol., and are included in the Monumenta SS. Patrum Orthodoxographa of Grynaeus, Cologne, 1618, fol. p. 1861; a collection of forty-six, together with some smaller tracts, are in the 8th volume of the Bibliotheca Patrum referred to above; and the 11th volume of the Bibliotheca Patrum of Galland (Venice, 1776) contains fourteen more, first brought to light by Baluze (Paris, 1699, 8vo.).

Besides these, upwards of a hundred out of the 317 discourses falsely attributed to Augustin are commonly assigned to Caesarius.

Further Information

Vita S. Caesarii, Episc. Arelatensis, a Cypriano, ejus Discipulo, et Messiano Presb. et Stephano Diac. conscripta duobus libris, in the Vitae SS. of Surius, 27 August. p. 284. See also Dissertatio de Vita ct Scriptis S. Caesarii, Arelatensis Archiep., by Oudin in his Comment. de Scriptt. Eccles. vol. i. p. 1339; in addition to which, Funceius, De Inerti et Decrepita Senectute Linguae Latinae, cap. 6. § viii.; and Baehr, Geschichte der Römischen Literatur, Suppl. vol. ii. p. 425.

[W.R]