Magnus Felix Ennodius

Magnus Felix Ennodius
Magnus Felix Ennodius
    Magnus Felix Ennodius
     Catholic_Encyclopedia Magnus Felix Ennodius
    Rhetorician and bishop, b. probably at Arles, in Southern Gaul, in 474; d. at Pavia, Italy, 17 July, 521. When quite young he went to Pavia, where he was educated, was betrothed, and eventually became a priest, his fiancee at the same time becoming a nun. It does not appear certain that he ever married. Shortly after the death of his benefactor, Epiphanius (496), he received minor orders at Milan, attracted thither no doubt by his uncle Laurentius, bishop of that city. Soon he was ordained deacon ( see Deacons ) and taught in the schools. About this time (498) two popes were elected simultaneously, the deacon ( see Deacons ) Symmachus and the archpriest Laurentius. King Theodoric was in favour of the former, and convened a council at Rome in 501, the famous Synodus Palmaris, to settle this question and put an end to much Scandal. On this occasion Ennodius acted as secretary to Laurentius of Milan, who was the first to sign the decrees of the council. The adherents of the archpriest Laurentius, who was rejected by the council, wrote against the decisions of the latter. Ennodius answered them and defended the synod in a still extant work entitled "Libellus adversus cos qui contra synodum scribere praesumpserunt". After referring to the objections urged against the incompetency and irregularity of the council, he attacks the enemies of Symmachus and proclaims the inability of human judges to decide matters pertaining to popes: "God no doubt consented to the affairs of men being settled by men; He reserved to Himself the passing of judgment upon the pontiff of the supreme see" (Libellus, sect. 93). In 513 Ennodius was still at Milan, but shortly afterwards he was made Bishop of Pavia. In 515 and 517 he headed two successive embassies which Pope Hormisdas sent to Emperor Anastasius at Constantinople, both of which, however, were barren of results. The unrelenting enmity of the emperor endangered the lives of the envoys in 517. Of the remaining years of his episcopate nothing is known. His epitaph, found by accident, gives the date of his death.
    The works of Ennodius comprise poems for special occasions and epigrams, particularly inscriptions for churches or other religious monuments. His defence of the synod of 502, often known as "Libellus pro Synodo", his autobiography (Eucharisticum), his panegyric on King Theodoric, and the biographies of his predecessor Epiphanius of Milan, and a monk, Antonius of Lérins, are interesting from an historical point of view; the first four especially. As much can be said of his numerous letters, addressed to various correspondents. Notwithstanding their verbosity, they contain much useful information concerning the addresses and the customs of the time. Ennodius is the last representative of the ancient schools of rhetoric. His "Paraenesis didascalica" (511) celebrates the wonderful power of that foremost of the liberal arts, by which a guilty man is made to appear innocent, and vice versa. He illustrates his own method in a few declamatory exercises called "Dictiones"; they deal with themes once the delight of pagan rhetoricians, e.g. grief of Thetis on beholding the corpse of Achilles; Menclaus contemplating the ruins of Troy; the lament of Dido forsaken by Æneas, etc. Again, with all the resources of his rhetoric he denounces a man who placed a statue of Minerva in a place of ill-repute; a player who gambled away the field in which his parents lay buried; etc. He shared the popular fallacy of his contemporaries who saw in the reign of Theodoric a revival of the Roman Empire under the control of men of letters. Ennodius remained to the end faithful to the academic traditions of the Roman schools, whose mythological apparatus he was the last to retain; thus in an epithalamium he describes the beauty of the nude Venus, and makes love argue against virginity. Nevertheless, he refutes elsewhere the fables of the poets and points out that the understanding of the Christian Scriptures is the highest intellectual ideal. In him are visible the two tendencies whose conflict is never quite absent from Christian life; outwardly he remains true to classic tradition. His diction is exuberant and florid, but occasionally manifests vigour. The best editions of his writings are those of Hartel, in the sixth volume of the "Corpus ecclesiasticorum latinorum" (Vienna, 1881), and of Vogel in "Monumenta Germaniae Hist.: Auct." (Berlin, 1885), VII.
    PAUL LEJAY
    Transcribed by Gerald M. Knight

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII. — New York: Robert Appleton Company. . 1910.


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  • Magnus Felix Ennodius — (* 473 oder 474 wahrscheinlich in Arles; † 17. Juli 521 in Pavia), auch Ennodius von Pavia, war Bischof von Pavia und verfasste eine Vielzahl von christlichen Schriften in lateinischer Sprache. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Schriften 3 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Magnus Felix Ennodius — Saint Magnus Felix Ennodius Born 474 Arles Died July 17, 521 Honored in Roman Catholic Church Feast July 17 Magnus Felix Ennodius (473 or 474 – July 17, 521) was Bishop of Pavia in 514, and a Latin …   Wikipedia

  • Felix Ennodius — (400 ndash; before 461) was a Proconsul of Africa in ca 420 or 423.His father, born ca 380, might have been the son of Ennodius, Proconsul of Africa. He might have been Flavius Constantius Felix (380 ndash; 430), Consul of Rome in 428, who… …   Wikipedia

  • Ennodius, Magnus Felix — • Rhetorician and bishop, b. probably at Arles, in Southern Gaul, in 474; d. at Pavia, Italy, 17 July, 521 Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006 …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Ennodius, Magnus Felix — ▪ Italian bishop and writer born 473/4, Arelate, Gaul died 521, Ticinum, Pavia       Latin poet, prose writer, rhetorician, and bishop, some of whose prose works are valuable sources for historians of his period.       A member of the important… …   Universalium

  • Ennodius — Magnus Felix Ennodius (* 473 oder 474 wahrscheinlich in Arles; † 17. Juli 521 in Pavia), auch Ennodius von Pavia, war Bischof von Pavia und verfasste eine Vielzahl von christlichen Schriften in lateinischer Sprache. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ennodius von Pavia — Magnus Felix Ennodius (* 473 oder 474 wahrscheinlich in Arles; † 17. Juli 521 in Pavia), auch Ennodius von Pavia, war Bischof von Pavia und verfasste eine Vielzahl von christlichen Schriften in lateinischer Sprache. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ennodius (Proconsul) — Ennodius (355 ndash; after 395) was a Proconsul of Africa in 395. He was maybe the father of a son, born in 380 and married to ..., born in 385 and daughter of Flavius Julius Agricola, Consul of Rome in 421 and the father of Avitus, who were the… …   Wikipedia

  • Ennodius — Ennode de Pavie Magnus Felix Ennodius a été évêque de Pavie en Italie, et légat à Constantinople au 6e siècle. Sommaire 1 La vie d Ennodius de Pavie 2 L œuvre 3 Notes …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Magnus Maximus — Maxen redirects here. For other uses, see Maxen (disambiguation). Magnus Maximus Emperor of the Western Roman Empire …   Wikipedia

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