Listed 7 sub titles with search on: Religious figures biography for wider area of: "CAMPANIA Region ITALY" .
SANTA MARIA CAPUA VETERE (Town) CAMPANIA
Coelestinus, the friend, associate, and partisan of Pelagius, whose followers were hence termed
indifferently Pelagians or Coelestians, is believed from an expression used by
Prosper to have been born in Campania, although others maintain that he was a
native of Ireland or of Scotland. He commenced his career as an advocate (auaitorialis
scholasticus), but in early life, in consequence perhaps of bodily deformity,
became a monk, and in A. D. 409 accompanied Pelagius to Carthage. Here he soon
excited the suspicions of the restless ecclesiastics of that province, and was
impeached of heresy before the council held in 412. Having been found guilty and
excommunicated, he prepared to appeal to Pope Innocent against the sentence; but,
feeling probably that success was hopeless before such a judge, refrained from
prosecuting the matter farther for the time being, and retired to Ephesus, where
he was raised to the rank of presbyter, and passed five years in tranquillity.
From thence, about the year 417, he passed over to Constantinople, but being speedily
driven out of that city by Atticus, the enemy and supplanter of Chrysostom, he
betook himself to Rome, and laying his whole case before Zosimus, the successor
of Innocent, demanded that the allegations of his enemies should be fairly examined,
and at the same time presented in writing a statement of the articles of his faith.
After a full and formal hearing before all the bishops and clergy then present
in Rome, the council of Carthage was rebuked for precipitation and want of charity,
their decree was reversed, and Coelestius was reinstated in all his privileges,
to the great indignation of the African prelates, who passed a solemn resolution
adhering to their first judgment; and fearing that these proceedings would tend
to promote the extension of Pelagian doctrines, applied for relief to the imperial
court. Accordingly St. Augustin obtained from Honorius an edict, published on
the 30th of April, 418, banishing Coelestius, Pelagius, and their followers, from
Rome and from the whole of the Roman dominions. Notwithstanding these strong measures,
it would appear that Coelestius contrived to keep his ground, for similar denunciations
were issued by Constantius (421) and Pope Coelestinus, and about 429 we find him
expelled from Constantinople by a proclamation of Theodosius, granted in compliance
with the solicitations of Marius Mercator. Coelestius is mentioned in the Acts
of the Council of Rome held in 430, but from that time his name disappears from
ecclesiastical history, and the close of his life is unknown.
Coelestius was younger than Pelagius, and appears to have possessed
a more bold, enthusiastic, and enterprising temperament than his master, and to
have displayed more zeal and energy in the propagation and defence of their peculiar
tenets. while he at the same time, with great acuteness, verbal subtlety, and
dialectic skill, sought to establish these principles by metaphysical and a priori
reasoning, rather than by induction from the observed habits of mankind.
While still a young man, before he had embraced the views of Pelagius,
Coelestius composed in his monastery three Epistolae on moral subjects, addressed
to his parents. These were followed by Contra Traducem Peccati, on the origin,
propagation, and transmission of sin, published, apparently, before the commentary
of Pelagius on the Romans. Augustin, in his De Perfectione Justitiae, replies
to a work which he believes to have proceeded from Coelestius, entitled, it would
seem, Definitiones. or perhaps Ratiocinationes, containing sixteen propositions
to prove that man may be without sin. The Libellus Fidei, or Confession of Faith,
presented to Zosimus, is known to us from the treatise of Augustin, De Peccato
Originali, out of which Garnier has essayed to extract the original document in
its perfect form. Finally, Augustin, De gestis Palaestinis (13, 14), quotes from
several chapters of a piece by Coelestius, without, however, giving it a name.
After his banishment from Rome, he addressed Epistles to his adherents; and, in
like manner, when driven from Constantinople, he wrote to Nestorius, whose reply
is still extant.
Of the above compositions none exist in an entire shape; but, a considerable
portion, if not the whole, of the Ratiocinationes and the Libellus Fidei, as noticed
above, may be extracted from the replies of Augustin.
For the best account of the life and the most complete collection
of the fragments of Coelestius, we are indebted to the Jesuit Garnier, in the
dissertations prefixed to his edition of the works of Marius Mercator, Paris 1673.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Coelestinus, a Campanian by birth, the successor of Pope Bonifacius I., was ordained bishop
of Rome on the 10th of September, A. D. 423, and retained this dignity until his
death, in the month of July, 432. He was distinguished by the activity which he
displayed in seconding the exertions of Cyril for procuring the deposition of
Nestorius and the condemnation of his doctrines at the council of Ephesus in 431,
and by the earnestness with which he strove to root out the Semipelagianism of
Cassianus from Gaul, Italy, and Britain. We must not omit to observe, that during
this pontificate the jurisdiction of the Roman see was formally disowned by the
clergy of Africa, who refused to admit the right of any transmarine ecclesiastic
to interfere with the proceedings or alter the decrees of their synods. According
to Prosper, Palladius, the first bishop of Scotland, which probably means Ireland,
was consecrated by Coelestinus.
Sixteen Epistles of Coelestinus are extant, and being chiefly of an
official character, are considered of importance by the students of church history.
The whole series is given in the "Epistolae Pontificum Romanorum", published by
Coustant, Paris 1721, in the great work of Galland (vol. ix. p. 287), and in all
the larger collections of councils.
POLYKASTRO (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
d.c. 590, feastday: October 26 (Catholic). Confessor and a shepherd known for miracles. He lived at Policastro, Italy, and served as a subdeacon. According to Pope St. Gregory I the Great, he was responsible for the remarkable achievement of raising a man from the dead.
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