Grego'rius9. Of BAETICA, otherwise of ILLIBERIS,
so called because he was bishop of Illiberis or Illiberi (now Elvira, near Granada), in the
province of Baetica (now Andalusia), in Spain, was an ecclesiastical writer of the fourth
century. Jerome, who mentions him in his
Chronicon (ad Ann. 371),
describes him as a Spanish bishop, a friend of Lucifer of Caralis (Cagliari), and a strenuous
opponent of the Arians, from whom, in the time of their ascendancy, he suffered much. The
emperor Theodosius the Great addressed an edict to Cynegius, praefect of the praetorium,
desiring him to defend Gregory and others of similar views from the injuries offered to them
by the heretics.
Works
De FideGregory was the author of divers treatises, among which was one
De
Fide, which Jerome characterises as " elegans libellus." This work is supposed by
Quesnel, editor of the
Codex Canonum Romanus, to be the third
of the " tres Fidei Formulae" contained in that work, and which bears an inscription
ascribing it improperly to Gregory Nazianzen. The work
De Fide contra
Arianos given in some editions of the
Bibliotheca Patrum, under the
name of Gregory of Baetica is really by Faustinus. [
FAUSTINUS.]
The pseudo Flavius Dexter identifies this Gregory of Baetica with Gregory, praefect of the
praetorium in Gaul. [See above,
GREGORIUS, historical, No. 3.]
Further Information
Hieronymus, Chronicon, 1. c., De Viris Illustr. c. 105; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. i. p. 235; Tillemont, Mémoires, vol. 10.727, &c.