Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2045
Augustine, bishop of Hippo (Africa), writes about five problems of the New Testament to Honoratus, presumably a presbyter but in fact a catechume, AD 411/412. Cassiodorus, "Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning", Ravenna, Vivarium, AD 530-560.
Book I
 
Cassiodorus lists Augustine's works, among them the "Questiones V de Novo Testamento ad Honoratum" (letter 140):
 
16.4. [...] scripsit etiam quinque quaestiones de novo Testamento ad Honora­tum presbyterum, et octoginta tres alias mirifica deliberatione formatas. [...]
 
(ed. Mynors 1961: 54)
Book I
 
Cassiodorus lists Augustine's works, among them the "Questiones V de Novo Testamento ad Honoratum" (letter 140):
 
16.4. [...] He also wrote to the presbyter Honoratus about five problems of the New Testament, and he worked out with remarkable intelligence eighty- three other problems. [...]
 
(trans. Halporn 2004: 148, lightly adapted)

Discussion:

Cassiodorus is mistaken when he says that Honoratus was a presbyter. Conversely, he was a catechumen, not yet baptized friend of Augustine (PCBE Afrique, Honoratus 4). Letter 140 to which Cassiodorus alludes was written in 411/412.

Place of event:

Region
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
City
  • Aquileia

About the source:

Author: Cassiodorus
Title: De institutione divinarum litterarum, Institutiones, An introduction to divine and human readings, Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning
Origin: Ravenna (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia), Vivarium (Italy south of Rome and Sicily)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
"Institutions of Divine and Secular Learining" of Cassiodorus is a treatise about Christian education and a sort of catalogue of books (in many respects similar to the genre of the De viris illustribus). It is usually connected with the community of Vivarium and the scholarly and literary pursuits of its members. The work, however, was revised several times and therefore, it is probable that the earlier versions were drafted by Cassiodorus already in the 530s when still at office in Ravenna, at the court of the Ostrogothic king. Mommsen (1894: ix) supposed that Cassiodorus borrowed the title from Junilius, the author of Instituta composed in 542 whose works Cassiodorus certainly knew (I.10.1). Moreover, Cassiodorus mentions Pope Vigilius as if he was already dead, therefore after 555. The composition and revision of the Institutions most probably took several decades, and possibly extended even past the 560s. It cannot be, however, more precisely defined (see Cappuyns 1949: 1371-73, Vessey 2004: 22-24).
Edition:
R.A.B. Mynors ed., Cassiodori Senatoris Institutiones, Oxford 1961
 
Translation:
J.W. Halporn, trans., Cassiodorus: Institutions of divine and secular learning and On the soul, Liverpool 2004.
 
Bibliography:
M. Cappuyns, "Cassiodore", Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. 11, Paris 1949, cols. 1349-1408
Th. Mommsen ed., Cassiodori Senatoris Variae, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores antiquissimi 12, Berlin 1894
S. Ruiz, "Bellator", Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. 7, Paris 1934, col. 828
M. Vessey, "Introduction", in: Cassiodorus: Institutions of divine and secular learning and On the soul, Liverpool 2004, 3-101

Categories:

Writing activity - Correspondence
    Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
      Education - Theological interest
        Devotion - Reading the Bible and devotional literature
          Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2045, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2045