8 The word is civilia, in which Brissonius thinks be sees en allusion either to the opposition between civil law and, proetor's law (to which Anastasius had appealed), or else to the technical meaning of the word in jurisprudence as equivalent to `Legitimate0' or `fair0'. The latter is more likely.
9 Quesnel here accepts Nicopolitanuminstead of metropoltanum (see n. 7 above), but with little reason.
11 . 1 Cor. vii. 29. A reference to this passage will show that S. Paul does not limit himself to the clergy in what he says: for an interesting note on the text (written, of course from the Roman standpoint), the reader is referred to Hurter's edition in loc., who adduces some valuable illustrations from Epiphanius, Jerome, &c.
12 Quartus a Capite, i.e. from Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, or perhaps from the Bishop of Rome, His soi-disant representative on earth (cf. chap. xii, below).
13 This method of electing the metropolitan will at once strike the reader: the electors apparently are (I) the bishops of the province (who are not eligable for the office); (2) the clergy ol the diocese (who alone are eligible); and (3) the laity of the diocese. Only if one remember how limited each diocese was in extent, can one realise the working of the method.
14 The Council of Nicaoe (325) fixed two councils a year, one ante quadragesimam Paschae (ie. before Eastertide), the other circa tempus autumni.
15 Phil. ii. 4, and Rom. xv. 2.
16 1 Cor. xii. 12, &c.: the quotation is loose, cf. Rom. xii. 5.
18 Magna ordinatione provisum est..
1 This Turribius was a man of learning and zeal, Bishop of Astoria (Astorga) in Spain (province of Gallicia): canonized by the Roman Church and commemorated on April 16 (Hurter). The date of the letter is given as 21 Jul., 447.
2 Hurter distinguishes these three documents thus: (1) epistola, the private letter of Turribius to Leo; (2) commonitorium, the detailed statement (under 16 heads) of the Priscillianist errors; and (3) libellus, Turribius' refutation of each head. This heresy was of Spanish origin having been broached by Priscillian about 380. Their views will be seen in the sequel.
3 Priscillianistarum foetidissimam apud vos recaluisse sentinam.
4 Multiplicem sibi foeculentiam miscuerunt.
5 He alludes to the invasion of Spain by the German tribe. (Perthel, p. 38).
6 See above n. 6. Quesnel draws attention to the fact that Leo's refutation of the Priscillianist heresy, which here follows, was adopted (almost) word for word by the first council of Bracara (Braga, in Portugal), held in 563, as a sufficient exposition of their own position.
9 This Pantheistic view was not, of course, a new one, nor pseudo- Christian in its origin, as Leo himself shows. Cf. Virg., Georg. IV. 219-227, and Aen. vi. 724-727.The philosophi quidam to which he makes reference are the Pythagoreans, and following them with modifications the Platonists and the Stoics.
11 The reader need hardly be reminded of the recorded revelation of the great "I am "(Jehovah) to Moses (Ex. iii.).
13 i.e., that evil is not anything positive, but only the negation or absence of good which is positive, just as black is not itself a colour, but only the absence of colour, whereas white is the presence (in due proportions) of all the colours of the spectrum.
15 Plasmationem, a vile hybrid, being the Greek pla/sma. with a Latin ending ( -atio ); for which apparently the Low Latin of the Vulgate is responsible. Cf. Ps.cxix. 73, "et plasmaverunt me " (quoted below, chap. x.).
16 Olim. Perhaps Leo refers to his own action mentioned in Lett. vii. 1.