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SOCRATES
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SOCRATES , the name of a famous 5th-See also:century See also: He was See also:born and brought up at See also:Constantinople. The date of his See also:birth is uncertain, but it cannot have been far from 380. Of the facts of his See also:life we know practically nothing, except that he was not a cleric but a " scholasticus " or See also:advocate. Of the occasion, See also:plan and See also:object of his work he has himself informed us in the prologues to his first, second, fifth and See also:sixth books. It is dedicated to one See also:Theodorus, who had urged him to write such a history. He had no thorough preparation for the task, and for the period down to the See also:death of See also:Constantius (361) was practically dependent on Rufinus. After his work was finished he 'became a student of See also:Athanasius' writings and came to see how untrustworthy his See also:guide had been. He accordingly rewrote his first two books (see H. E. ii. I) certainly before 450 and probably before 444 (see Geppert p. 8), and it is only this revision that has reached us. The See also:chief sources from which he See also:drew were: (1) the Church History, the Life of Constantine and certain theological See also:works of Eusebius; (2) the Church History of Rufinus; (3) certain works of Athanasius; (4) the no longer extant 1'uvarywyt) r&,v ovvoSuwv of the Macedonian and semi-Arian Sabinus—a collection of acts of councils with commentaries, brought down to the reign of Theodosius I. (this was a main source) ; (5) the Constantinopolitan Chronicle; (6) possibly a collection of imperial See also:biographies; (7) lists of bishops; (8) collections of letters by members of the Arian and orthodox parties. He also used writings of See also:Gregory Thaumaturgus, See also:Archelaus, Acacius,See also:Didymus,See also:George of See also:Laodicea, Gregory Nazianzen, See also:Timothy of Berytus (see Lietzmann, See also:Apollinaris von Laodicea, p.44), See also:Nestorius, Eusebius Scholasticus, Philip of Side, See also:Evagrius, See also:Palladius, See also:Eutropius, the emperor See also:Julian and orations of See also:Libanius and See also:Themistius; and he was apparently acquainted with some of the works of See also:Origen and with See also:Pamphilus' Apologia See also:pro Origene. (On his sources see Jeep, and especially Geppert.) Jeep alleges (pp. 149 sqq.), but without adequate See also:proof, that he made use of Philostorgius. As regards profane history his materials were exceedingly defective. Thus, for example, he confesses that his See also:reason for not giving an account of the See also:wars of Constantine is his inability to ascertain anything certain about them (v. praef.). His reckonings by Olympiads are generally wrong, the See also:error arising chiefly from carelessness. He is greatly indebted to oral tradition and to the testimony of See also:eye-witnesses, especially of members of the Novatian community in Constantinople; some things also he has set down from See also:personal knowledge. The contents of the closing books are for the most See also:part derived from oral tradition, from the narratives of See also:friends and countrymen, from what was still generally known and current in the See also:capital about past events, and from the ephemeral literature of the See also:day. The theological position of Socrates, so far as he can be said to have had one, is at once disclosed in his unlimited admiration for Origen. All the enemies of the See also:great Alexandrian he regards merely as empty and vain obscurantists; for the orthodoxy of his See also:hero he appeals to Athanasius. Closely connected with his high regard for Origen are his appreciation of See also:science generally and the moderation of his See also:judgment on all dogmatic questions. According to him, 'EXXia ocii 1raibsla is quite indispensable within the Church; many Greek philosophers were not far from the knowledge of See also:God, as is proved by their triumphant arguments against atheists and gainsayers of divine See also:providence. The apostles did not set them-selves against the study of Greek literature and science; See also:Paul had even made a thorough study of them himself. The Scriptures, it is true, contain all that appertains to faith and life, but give no See also:clue to the See also:art of confuting gainsayers. Greek science, therefore, must not be banished from the Church, and the tendency within the Church so to See also:deal with it is wrong. This point of view was the See also:common one of the See also:majority of educated Christians at that period, and is not to be regarded as exceptionally liberal. The same holds true of the position of Socrates in regard to dogmatic questions. On the one See also:hand, indeed, orthodoxy and See also:heresy are symbolized to his mind by the See also:wheat and the tares respectively; he clings to the naive See also:opinion of Catholicism, that contemporary orthodoxy has prevailed within the Church from the first; he recognizes the true faith only in the See also:mystery of the Trinity; he See also:judges heretics who have been already condemned as interlopers, as impudent innovators, actuated by See also:bad and self-seeking motives; he apologizes for having so much as treated of Arianism at all in his history of the Church; he believes in the See also:inspiration of the ecclesiastical councils as much as in that of the Scriptures themselves. But, on the other hand, he takes absolutely no See also:interest in dogmatic subtleties and clerical disputes; he regards them as the source of great evils, and expresses his craving for See also:peace: " one ought to adore the ineffable mystery in silence." This attitude, which was that of most educated Byzantine laymen, has in particular cases made it possible for him to arrive at very See also:free judgments. Even granting that some feeble remains of See also:antique reserve may have contributed to this, and even although some of it is certainly to be set down to his disposition and temperament, still it was his religious passivity that here deter-See also:mined the See also:character of Socrates and made him a typical example of the later Byzantine See also:Christianity. If Socrates had lived about the See also:year 325, he certainly would not have ranked himself on the side of Athanasius, but would have joined the party of See also:mediation. But—the b iooGows has, been laid down, and must be recognized as correctly expressing the mystery; only one ought to See also:rest satisfied with that word and with the repudiation of Arianism. Anything more, every new distinction, is mischievous. The controversy in its details is a vuKroµaXta to him, full of misunderstandings. Some-times he gives prominence, and correctly, to the fact that the disputants partially failed to understand one another, because they had See also:separate interests at See also:heart—those on the one side desiring above everything to guard against polytheism, those on the other being most afraid of Sabellianism. He did not fail, however, to recognize also that the controversies frequently had their See also:root in See also:mere emulation, See also:slander and sophistry. Not unfrequently he passes very See also:sharp judgments on whole See also:groups of bishops. In the See also:preface to his fifth See also:book he excuses his trenching on the region of See also:political history on the ground of his See also:desire to spare his readers the disgust which perusal of the endless disputes of the bishops could not fail to excite, and in that to his sixth book he prides himself on never having flattered even the orthodox bishops. This attitude of his has given him a certain measure of impartiality. Constantius, and even Julian—not See also:Valens, it is true—are estimated very fairly. The Arian Goths who died for their See also:religion are recognized as genuine martyrs. His characterizations of See also:Cyril and Nestorius, and his narrative and See also:criticism of the beginnings of the Christological controversy, are See also:models of candour and See also:historical conscientiousness. In frequent instances, moreover, he acknowledges his own incompetency to give an opinion and hands the question over to the See also:clergy. For the clergy as a whole, in spite of his criticism of individuals, he has the very highest respect, as also for the monks, without himself making any inordinate religious professions. In a See also:special excursus of considerable length he has paid a See also:tribute of the highest See also:order to monachism, and in his characterization of Theodosius II. also (where he has made use of the brightest See also:colours) he does not fail to point out that in piety the emperor could almost compete with the monks. But, apart from these two chapters (iv. 23, vii. 22), it is but seldom that one could learn from the pages of Socrates that there was such a thing as See also:monasticism in those days. To his mind the See also:convent is not far removed from the church, and as a layman he is not at all inclined to accept the principles of monachism as applying to himself or to square his views of history in accordance with them. He has even gone so far as formally to See also:express his sympathy with Paphnutius, the See also:champion of the right of bishops to marry. As a source for the period within which he wrote, the work of Socrates is of the greatest value, but as " history " it disappoints even the most modest expectations. Eusebius, after all, had some conception of what is meant by " church history," but Socrates has none. " As See also:long as there is peace there is no material for a history of the church "; but, on the other hand, neither do heresies by rights come into the See also:story. What, then, is See also:left for it? A collection of anecdotes and a See also:series of episodes. In point of fact this is the view actually taken by Socrates. His utter want of care and consistency appears most clearly in his vacillation as to the relations between ecclesiastical and political history. At one See also:time he brings in politics, at another he excuses himself from doing so. He has not failed to observe that Church and See also:State See also:act and react upon each other; but he has no notion how the relation ought to be conceived. Nevertheless, his whole narrative follows the See also:thread of political—that is to say, of imperial—history. This indeed is characteristic of his Byzantine See also:Christian point of view; church history becomes metamorphosed into a history of the emperors and of the state, because a special church history is at bottom impossible. But even so one hardly hears anything about state or See also:court except great enterprises and anecdotes. Political insight is wholly wanting to Socrates; all the orthodox emperors See also:blaze forth in a See also:uniform See also:light of dazzling splendour; even the miserable See also:Arcadius is praised, and Theodosius II. figures as a See also:saint whose exemplary piety turned the capital into a church. If in addition to all this we See also:bear in mind that in his later books the historian's See also:horizon is confined to the See also:city and patriarchate of Constantinople, that he was exceedingly See also:ill informed on all that related to See also:Rome and the West, that in order to fill out his pages he has introduced narratives of the most unimportant description, that in not a few instances he has evinced his credulity (although when compared with the majority of his contemporaries he is still entitled to be called See also:critical), it becomes sufficiently clear that his History, viewed as a whole and as a See also:literary See also:production, can at best take only a secondary See also:place. One great excellence, however, cannot be denied him, his honest and sincere desire to be impartial. He tried also, as far as he could, to distinguish between the certain, the probable, the doubtful and the untrue. He made no pretence to be a searcher of See also:hearts and frequently declines to analyse motives. He has made See also:frank See also:confession of his nescience, and in certain passages his critical judgment and sober sense and circumspection are quite striking. He writes a See also:plain and unadorned See also:style and shuns superfluous words. Occasionally even there are touches of See also:humour and of trenchant See also:satire—always the sign of an honest writer. In See also:short, his learning and knowledge can be trusted little, but his See also:goodwill and straightforwardness a great deal. Considering the circumstances under which he wrote, it can only be See also:matter for See also:con-gratulation that such a See also:man should have become our informant and that his work has been preserved to us. Finally, it looks as if Socrates was either himself originally a Novatianist who had afterwards joined the See also:Catholic Church, or stood, through his ancestors or by See also:education, in most intimate relations with the Novatianist Church. In his History he betrays great sympathy with that See also:body, has gone with exactness into its history in Constantinople and See also:Phrygia, and is indebted for much of the material of his work to Novatianist tradition and to his intercourse with prominent members of the See also:sect. Both directly and indirectly he has declared that Novatianists and Catholics are See also:brothers, that as such they ought to seek the closest relations with one another, and that the former ought to enjoy all the privileges of the latter. His efforts, however, had only this result, that he himself afterwards See also:fell under suspicion of Novatianism. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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