Maca'rius MAGNES.
14. MAGNES. Some extracts from a work entitled
Apologia adversus Theosthenem Evangeliorum Calumniatorem, by a writer whom he termed MAGNETES, were given in a Latin version by Franciscus Turrianus, in his tract
De Sanctissima Elchlaristia contra Volanumn Polonzhm, Florence, 1575; but nothing was at that time known of the writer, of whom there was not any ascertained notice in the writers of the first eight centuries after Christ. Cave found in a MS. work of Gerimanus of Constantinople (he does not say which Germanus), mention of " one MAGNES, a presbyter of Jerusalem," who was present at the synod of Antioch, A. D. 265, at which Paul of Samcsata was deposed and excommunicated; and he identified this Magnes, but without reason, with the writer of the
Apologia. Tillemont (
Hist. des Empéreurs, vol. iv. p. 308, &c.) has devoted a section to this obscure writer, and Maganus Crusius of Göttingen has most fully discussed the subject in two dissertations,
Notitia Macarii Magnetis, and
De Δεολολουμένοις Macarii Magnetis, 4to. Gottingen, 1737 and 1745.
The name of the author is found in the various forms of MACARIUS MAGNETES (
τοῦ Μακαρίου Μαγνήτου), MACARIUS MAGNES (
τοῦ Μακαριου Μαγνητος), and MACARIUS (
τοῦ ἀγιου Μακαριου), the last showing that Macarius is a name, not a title ("Beatus"); but it is doubtful whether Magnes is to be understood as a name or as a local designation, "the Magnesian;" and this uncertainty existed as early as the ninth century, when both the writer and his work, which was cited by the Iconoclasts, had become obscure.
In a copy of his work, which was found with difficulty by the orthodox of that day, the author was called
ἱεραρχὴς, "bishop," and was delineated in episcopal vestments; but his see appears to have been altogether unknown.
He is thought by Crusius to have lived near the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century.
There was a Macarius bishop of Magnesia, early in the fifth century, who was one of the opponents of Chrysostom; but if Crusius is correct in fixing the age of our Macarius, this must have been a different person.
Works
Macarius wrote,
in five books; inscribed to Theosthenes, and not, as Turrianus and others after him had supposed, written against him, but rather against Porphyry.
The work was formerly extant in the library of St. Mark, at Venice, but is not there now. Some extracts are, however, contained in different MSS., and the unpublished
Antirrhetica adversus Iconomuchos of Nicephorus of Constantinople, contains many passages.
Editions
The extracts given by
Turrianus were
reprinted, but with some omissions, by Fabricius, in his Delectus Argunentorum et Syllabus Scriptorumn de Veritate Religionis Christianae, and by
Galland, in his Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. iii.; and
some of the fragments preserved by Nicephorus were published by Crusius, in his Dissertations already referred to.
Another work of Macarius Magnes,
Sermones in Genesin, or
Commentarius in Genesin, has also perished, with the exception of some fragments.
Editions
a portion of the fragments were also inserted by
Crusius.
Further Information
Tillemont,
l.c.; Cave,
Hist. Litt. ad ann. 265 and 403; Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 296, &c.; Galland.
Biblioth. Patrum, Proleg. ad vol. iii. c. xiii.; Ceillier,
Auteurs Sacrés, vol. 4.181, &c.
