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SALVIAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 103 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SALVIAN , a See also:

Christian writer of the 5th See also:century, was See also:born probably at See also:Cologne (De gub. Dei, vi. 8, 13), some See also:time between 400 and 405. He was educated at the school of Treves and seems to have been brought up as a Christian. His writings appear to show that he had made a See also:special study of the See also:law; and this is the more likely as he appears to have been of See also:noble See also:birth and could describe one of his relations as being " of no smallaccount in her own See also:district and not obscure in See also:family " (Ep. i.). He was certainly a Christian when he married Palladia, the daughter of See also:heathen parents, Hypatius and Quieta, whose displeasure he incurred by persuading his wife to retire with him to a distant monastery, which is almost certainly that founded by St Honoratus at Lerins. For seven years there was no communication between the two branches of the family, till at last, when Hypatius had become a Christian, Salvian wrote him a most touching See also:letter in his own name, his wife's, and that of his little daughter Auspiciola, begging for the renewal of the old See also:affection (Ep. iv.). This whole letter is a most curious See also:illustration of Salvian's reproach against his See also:age that the noblest See also:man at once forfeited all esteem if he became a See also:monk (De gub. iv. 7; cf. viii. 4). It was presumably at Lerins that Salvian made the acquaintance of Honoratus (ob. 429), Hilary of See also:Arles (ob.

449), and Eucherius of See also:

Lyons (ob. 449). That he was a friend of the former and wrote an See also:account of his See also:life we learn from Hilary (Vita Hon., ap. See also:Migne, 1. 126o). To Eucherius's two sons, Salonius and Veranus, he acted as See also:tutor in See also:consort with See also:Vincent of Lerins. As he succeeded Honoratus and Hilary in this See also:office, this date cannot well be later than the See also:year 426 or 427, when the former was' called to Arles,- whither he seems to have summoned Hilary before his See also:death in 429 (Eucherii Instructio ad Salonium, ap. Migne, I. 773; Salv., Ep. ii.). Salvian continued his friendly intercourse with both See also:father and sons See also:long after the latter had See also:left his care; it was to Salonius (then a See also:bishop) that he wrote his explanatory letter just after the publication of his See also:treatise Ad ecclesiam; and to the same See also:prelate a few years later he dedicated his See also:great See also:work, the De gubernatione Dei. If See also:French scholars are right in assigning Hilary's Vita Honorati to 430, Salvian, who is there called a See also:priest, had probably already left Lyons for See also:Marseilles, where he is known to have spent the last years of his life (Gennadius, ap. Migne, lviii.

1099). It was probably from Marseilles that he wrote his first letter—presumably to Lerinsbegging the community there to receive his kinsman, the son of a widow of Cologne, who had been reduced to poverty by the See also:

barbarian invasions. It seems a See also:fair inference that Salvian had divested himself of all his See also:property in favour of that society and sent his relative to Lerins for assistance (Ep. i., with which compare Ad See also:eccles. ii. 9, to; iii. 5). It has been conjectured that Salvian paid a visit to See also:Carthage; but this is a See also:mere inference based on the See also:minute details he gives of the See also:state of this See also:city just before its fall (De gub. vii. viii.). He seems to have been still living at Marseilles when Gennadius wrote under the papacy of See also:Gelasius (492-496). Of Salvian's writings there are still extant two See also:treatises, entitled respectively De gubernatione Dei (more correctly De praesenti judicio) and Ad ecclesiam, and a See also:series of nine letters. The De gubernatione, Salvian's greatest work, was published after the See also:capture of Litorius at See also:Toulouse (439), to which he plainly alludes in vii. 4o, and after the Vandal See also:conquest of Carthage in the same year (vi. 12), but before See also:Attila's invasion (45o), as Salvian speaks of the See also:Huns, not as enemies of the See also:empire, but as serving in the See also:Roman armies (vii. 9).

The words " proximum bellum " seem to denote a year very soon after 439. In this work, which furnishes a valuable if prejudiced description of life in 5th-century See also:

Gaul, Salvian deals with the same problem that had moved the eloquence of See also:Augustine and See also:Orosius. Why were these miseries falling on the empire? Could it be, as the pagans said, because the age had forsaken its old gods?- or, as the semi-See also:pagan creed of some Christians taught, that See also:God did not constantly overrule the See also:world he had created (i. 1)? With the former Salvian will not argue (iii. 1). To the latter he replies by asserting that, " just as the navigating steersman never looses the helm, so does God never remove his care from the world." Hence the See also:title of the treatise. In books i. and ii. Salvian sets himself to prove God's See also:constant guidance, first by the facts of Scripture See also:history, and secondly by the enumeration of special texts declaring this truth. Having thus "laid the See also:foundations " of his work, he declares in See also:book iii. that the misery of the Roman world is all due to the neglect of God's commandments and the terrible sins of every class of society. It is not merely that the slaves are thieves and runaways, See also:wine-bibbers and gluttons—the See also:rich are worse (iv.

3). It is their harshness and greed that drive the poor to join the Bagaudae and See also:

fly for shelter to the barbarian invaders (v. 5 and 6). Every-where the taxes are heaped upon the needy, while the rich, who have the apportioning of the See also:impost, See also:escape comparatively See also:free (v. 7). The great towns are wholly given up to the abominations of the See also:circus and the See also:theatre, where decency is wholly set at nought, and See also:Minerva, See also:Mars, See also:Neptune and the old gods are still worshipped (vi. 11; cf. vi. 2 and viii. 2). Treves was almost destroyed by the barbarians; yet the first See also:petition of its few surviving nobles was that the See also:emperor would re-establish the circus See also:games as a remedy for the ruined city (vi. 15). And this was the See also:prayer of Christians, whose baptismal See also:oath pledged them to renounce " the See also:devil and his See also:works .

. . the pomps and shows (spectacula) " of this wicked world (vi. 6). Darker still were the iniquities of Carthage, surpassing even the unconcealed licentiousness of Gaul and See also:

Spain (iv. 5); and more fearful to Salvian than all else was it to hear men swear " by See also:Christ " that they would commit a See also:crime (iv. 15). It would be the atheist's strongest See also:argument if God left such a state of society unpunished (iv. 12)—especially among Christians, whose See also:sin, since they alone had the Scriptures, was worse than that of barbarians, even if equally wicked, would be (v. 2). But, as a See also:matter of fact, the latter had at least some shining virtues mingled with their vices, whereas the See also:Romans were wholly corrupt (vii. 15, iv. 14). With this iniquity of the Romans Salvian contrasts the chastity of the See also:Vandals, the piety of the Goths, and the ruder virtues of the See also:Franks, the See also:Saxons, and the other tribes to whom, though heretic Arians or unbelievers, God is giving in See also:reward the See also:inheritance of the empire (vii.

9, 11, 21). It is curious that Salvian shows no such hatred of the heterodox barbarians as was rife in Gaul seventy years later. It is difficult to See also:

credit the universal wickedness adduced by Salvian, especially in See also:face of the contemporary testimony of See also:Symmachus, See also:Ausonius and Sidonius. Salvian was a 5th-century socialist of the most extreme type, and a zealous ascetic who pitilessly scourged everything that See also:fell See also:short of an exalted morality, and exaggerated, albeit unconsciously, the faults that he desired to eradicate. Ad ecclesiam is explained by its See also:common title, Contra avaritiam. It strongly commends meritorious almsgiving to the See also:church. It is quoted more than once in the De gubernatione. Salvian published it under the name of See also:Timothy, and explained his motives for so doing in a letter to his old See also:pupil, Bishop Salonius (Ep. ix.). This work is chiefly remarkable because in some places it seems to recommend parents not to bequeath anything to their See also:children, on the plea that it is better for the children to suffer want in this world than that their parents should be damned in the next (iii. 4). Salvian is very clear on the See also:duty of See also:absolute self-denial in the See also:case of sacred virgins, priests and monks (ii. 8-1o).

Several works mentioned by Gennadius, notably a poem " in morem Graecorum " on the six days of creation (hexaemeron), and certain homilies composed for bishops, are now lost (Genn. 67). The Ad ecclesiam was first printed in Sichard's Antidoton (See also:

Basel, 1528) ; the De gubernatione by Brassican (Basel, 1530). The two appeared in one See also:volume at See also:Paris in 1575. Pithoeus added variae lectiones and the first seven letters (Paris, 158o) ; Ritterhusius made various conjectural emendations (Altorf, 1611), and See also:Baluze many more based on MS. authority (Paris, 1663-1669). Numerous other See also:editions appeared from the 16th to the 18th century, all of which are now superseded by the excellent ones of C. See also:Halm (See also:Berlin, 1877) and F. Pauly (See also:Vienna, 1883). The two See also:oldest See also:MSS. of the De gubernatione belong to the loth century (See also:Cod. Paris, No. 13,385) and the 13th (See also:Brussels, 10,628); of the Ad ecclesiam to the loth (Paris, 2172) and the 11th (Paris, 2785); of See also:Epistle IX. to the 9th (Paris, 2785) ; of Epistle VIII. to the 7th or 8th century (Paris, 95,559) and to the 9th or loth century (Paris, 12,237, 12,236). Of the first seven epistles there is only one MS. extant, of which one See also:part is now at See also:Bern (No.

219), the other at Paris (No. 3791). See Histoire litteraire de See also:

France, vol. ii.; Zschimmer's Salvianus (See also:Halle, 1875). Salvian's works are reprinted (after Baluze) in Migne's Cursus patrologiae, set. See also:lat. vol. H. For bibliography, see T. G. Schoenemann's Bibliotheca patrum (ii. 823), and the prefaces to the editions of C. Halm (Monum. Germ., 1877) and F. Pauly (Vienna, Corp. scr. eccl.

Lat., 1883). Gennadius, Hilary and Eucherius may be consulted in Migne, vols. lviii. and 1. See also S. See also:

Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire, pp. 115-120. (T. A.

End of Article: SALVIAN

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