De Viris Illustribus

Sophro'nius

(Σωφρόνιος). Among the numerous ecclesiastical writers of this name, treated of by Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. bk. v. c. 16.7), there are only two that require any notice here.

Sophro'nius

1. A contemporary and friend of St. Jerome, who gives him a section in his treatise De Viris Illustribus (100.134).

Works

Jerome informs us that Sophronius, a man of distinguished learning, wrote the Praises of Bethlehem (Laudes Bethlehem) while yet a boy, and lately composed an excellent work, De Subversione Serapis; that is, on the destruction of the temple of Serapis at Rome, in A. D. 389 or 390 (see Clinton, Fast. Rom. s. a. 389).

Translations of Jerome into Greek

Jerome also informs us that Sophronius translated into Greek, in an elegant style, my works, De Virginitate ad Eustochium and Vita Hilarionis monachi; also the Psalter and the Prophets, which we translated from Hebrew into Latin. Now, since the Catalogue of Jerome was written in A. D. 392, the date of Sophronius is clearly determined by this passage. We have no information respecting his country or condition in life.

Editions

In the year 1539, Erasmus published at Basel, from what he calls an ancient and corrected MS., a Greek version of the Catalogue of Jerome, purporting to be made by Sophronius. This publication has ever since been a literary stumbling-block. Soon after its appearance there were not wanting persons who accused Erasmus of fabricating the version from motives of vanity.

Isaac Vossius (ad S. Ignatii Epist. ad Smyrn. p. 257), while professing to reject this imputation, but solely on the faith of Erasmus's veracity ("nisi Erasmus haec diceret, multum de ejus fide dubitarem"), strongly contends, on the ground of the badness of the Greek, and on other internal evidence, that Erasmus had been imposed upon by a modern forgery. Stephanus le Moyne (ad Var. Sac. p. 418) replies to the charge against Erasmus by asserting that there are MSS. older than the one used by him, and that the version is quoted by earlier writers; but he does not say where these MSS. and quotations are to be found. Fabricius and Cave defend the genuineness of the version, chiefly on the following ground, which appears decisive, that many articles of Suidas are in the very words of this Greek version. It is true that Suidas does not quote Sophronius by name, any more than he does Jerome; but, if the antiquity of the version be established, there is no reason to ascribe it to any other person than Sophromius. The somewhat remarkable circumstance, that Clinton mentions the translation as the work of Sophronius, without intimating, either in his account of the Catalogue of Jerome, or in his notice of Sophronius, that its genuineness has been questioned, may be taken, we presume, as a proof of its decided genuineness, in the opinion of that great scholar (Fast. Rom. s. aa. 392, 393).

Besides the separate edition of it by Erasmus, the version of Sophronius is contained in the Paris (1623) and Frankfort (1684) editions of the works of Jerome ; and in the Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica of Fabricius (Hamb. 1718) it is printed with Jerome's original, and the passages of Eusebius, which were Jerome's chief authorities, in parallel columns.

In Defence of Basil against Eunomius (ὐπὲρ Βασιλείου κατὰ Εὐνομίου)

To this same Sophronius Fabricius and others ascribe the work in defence of Basil against Eunomius (ὐπὲρ Βασιλείου κατὰ Εὐνομίου), which is very briefly noticed by Photius (Bibl. Cod. v.). There is another small work ascribed to him by Erasmus, which professes to be a Greek version of Jerome's Epistola ad Paulam et Eustochium de Adsumtione Mariae Virginis, but it is most probable that both the Latin epistle and the Greek version belong to an age later than that of Jerome and Sophronius.

Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 158-161 ; Cave, Script. Eccles. Hist. Litt. s. a., 390, p. 285, ed. Basil.; Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 306, ed. Westermann.

Sophro'nius

2. Patriarch of Jerusalem, A. D. 629-638, was a native of Damascus, and at first a sophist, afterwards a monk, and in A. D. 629 he succeeded Modestus as patriarch of Jerusalem. He distinguished himself as a defender of orthodoxy ; and at the Council of Alexandria, in A. D. 633, he openly charged Cyrus with introducing heresy into the church under pretence of peace, and renounced all communion with him. When Jerusalem was taken by Omar, in A. D. 636, he obtained for the Christians the free exercise of their worship. He died, according to some, in the same year; according to others, two years later, in A. D. 638.

Works

There are extant in MS. numerous epistles, discourses, commentaries, and other treatises, by Sophronius, full lists of which are given by Fabricius and Cave. He also wrote hymns and other poems. An Anacreontic poem by him, on the subject of Simeon taking Christ into his arms, was published by Leo Allatius, in his Diatriba de Simeonibus, pp. 5, foll. Three epigrams in the Greek Anthology are ascribed to him.

Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 162-169; Cave, Script. Eccles. Hist. Litt. s. a. 629, p. 579; Vossius, de Hist. Graec. pp. 333, 334, ed. Westermann ; Brunck, Anal. vol. iii. p. 125; Jacob's, Anth. Graec. vol. iv. p. 95. vol. xiii. pp. 619, 954, 955.

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