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| Introductory Notice to Caius, Presbyter of Rome.
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Introductory
Notice
to
Caius, Presbyter of Rome.
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[a.d.
180–217.] During the episcopate of Zephyrinus, Caius, one
of his presbyters, acquired much credit by his refutation of Proclus, a
Montanist. He became known as an eloquent and erudite doctor, and
to him has often been ascribed the Philosophumena of Hippolytus,
and also The Labyrinth. He wrote in Greek, and finally
seems to have been promoted to an episcopal See, possibly among the
Easterns.4950
| 4950
The ingenious conjecture of Wordsworth, who surmises that καὶ ἐθνῶν
ἐπίσκοπον, in
Photius, should be read καὶ
ἑωθινῶν.
Hippolytus, p. 30. Another conjecture is
᾽Αθηνῶν. For the
originals of these Fragments and learned notes, see Routh,
Reliquæ Sacræ, ii. p. 127. | To him
also has been ascribed the celebrated “Muratorian Canon,”
which is therefore given in this volume, with other fragments less
dubiously associated with his name. He has been supposed by some
to have been a pupil of Irenæus, but of this there is no
conclusive evidence. If his reputation suffers somewhat from his
supposed rejection of the Apocalypse, it is apologized for by
Wordsworth, in a paragraph that deserves to be quoted entire:
“Let it be remembered that the church of Rome was not eminent for
learning at that time. It was induced, by fear of erroneous
consequences, to surrender another canonical book,—the Epistle to
the Hebrews. The learning of the Church was then mainly in the
East. It was by the influence of the East, in the West, that the
church of Rome was enabled to recover that epistle. It was also
the influence of the Apocalyptic churches of Asia that preserved the
Apocalypse as an inspired work of St. John to the church of
Rome.” By the deference with which the author of the
Refutation speaks of the Apocalypse, we are able, among other
evidences, to decide that it is not the work of Caius.
In an interesting chapter of his
Hippolytus, Bishop Wordsworth considers the possibility of the
authorship of that work as his, and discusses it with ability and
learning. Nearly all that is known or conjectured concerning
Caius is there condensed and elucidated. But Lardner devotes a
yet more learned chapter to him; and to that the inquirer is referred,
as a sufficient elucidation of all that was known or conjectured about
him before the present century. He is quoted by
Eusebius;4951
| 4951
Eusebius quotes him in several places (book ii. cap. xxv., book iii.
capp. xxviii. and xxxi.), and cites him in proof that St. Peter
suffered on the Vatican, and St. Paul on the Via
Ostiensis. See Lardner, Credib., vol. ii. pp.
394, 410. | and the
traveller is reminded, when he visits the gorgeous Church of St. Paul
on the Ostian Road, that so early an author as Caius may be cited as
evidence that it probably stands very near the spot where St. Paul
fulfilled his prophecy, “I am now ready to be offered, and the
time of my departure is at hand.” We can only conjecture
the time of his birth by the age he must have attained in the time of
Zephyrinus; but of his death, the secret is with the Master in whom he
believed, as we may trust, until he fell asleep.
Here follows, from the Edinburgh series, the
learned editor’s Introductory
Notice:—
Eusebius states that Caius
lived in the time of Zephyrinus.4952
| 4952
Hist. Eccl., ii. 25, vi. 20. | He speaks of him as a member of
the Catholic Church,4953
| 4953
ἐκκλησιαστικὸς
ἀνήρ. | and as being most learned. And he
mentions that a dialogue of his was extant in his time, in which he
argued with Proclus, the leader of the Cataphrygian heresy; and that
Caius in this dialogue spoke of only thirteen epistles of the Apostle
Paul, “not counting the Epistle to the Hebrews with the
rest.”4954
| 4954
Hist. Eccl., vi. 20. |
Eusebius mentions no other work of Caius. He
makes extracts from a work against the heresy of Artemon in the fifth
book of his Ecclesiastical History, but he states distinctly
that the work was anonymous. He evidently did not know who was
the author. Theodoret and Nicephorus affirm that the work from
which Eusebius made these extracts bore the title of The Little
Labyrinth. Photius has the following notice of Caius:
“Read the work of Josephus on the universe, bearing in some
manuscripts the inscription On the Cause of the Universe, and in
others, On the Substance of the Universe.…But I found that
this treatise is not the work of Josephus, but of one Gaius a
presbyter, who lived in Rome, who they say composed The
Labyrinth also, and whose dialogue with Proclus, the champion of
the Montanistic heresy, is in circulation.…They say also that he
composed another treatise specially directed against the heresy of
Artemon.”4955
Photius here ascribes four works to Caius: 1. On the
Universe; 2. The Labyrinth; 3. The Dialogue between
himself and Proclus; 4. The Treatise against the Heresy of
Artemon. He does not say that he read any of them but the
first. This treatise is now assigned to Hippolytus. The
information of Photius in regard to the other three, derived as it is
from the statements of others, cannot be trusted.
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Note by the American Editor.
It is to be observed that
the Fragment of Muratori proves that the Apocalypse was
received in the church at Rome in the times of Pius, a.d. 160. It is quoted in Hermas freely.
Also, see the Epistle of Roman clergy to Cyprian (p. 303, note 5,
supra), about a.d. 250. But the
Fragment aforesaid is the earliest direct evidence on the
subject. Note, that its author says, “We receive the
Apocalypse,” etc. “Some amongst us will not
have,” etc. (see p. 602, infra). Thus, the
comprovincials have a voice, as in the cases cited by Hippolytus.
See (pp. 157, 159, supra) Elucidations VI. and XI. The
Bishop of Rome seems, by this Fragment, to have received the
Apocalypse of Peter (Eusebius, H. E., book iii. cap. 25),
but it was thrown out as spurious by the Church
nevertheless. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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