THOMAS
369
THOMAS
liberally endowed. See Eadie, Eccles. Cyclop, s. v. ; Far- rar, Eccles. Diet. s. v. See Nestorians.
THOMAS {St.), Day of, a festival observed, Dec. 21, in memory of Thomas the apostle. It was held by the Greek Church on Oct. G.
THOMAS {St.), Writings of. These are as fol- lows:
1. TnoM.E Acta {Acts of Thomas), an Apocryphal work which belongs to a very high antiquity and was greatly esteemed among the Gnostics an(l Manichseans (comp. Euseb. Ilisi. Eccles. iii, 25 ; Kpiphan. Iheres. xlii, 1 ; li, 1 ; liii, 2, etc.). Augustine has undoubtedly referred to them in three places, viz. Cont. Faust, xxii, 79 ; Adi- mant. 17; De Sarmoiie Domini, i, 20. In the I/ist. Apos- iol, A bdiie, ix, 1 (Fabricius, Codex Apocri/ph. i, GS9) these /lets are especially referred to. They were first edited by Thilo, in Codex Apoc.ryphus Nov. Test. (Lips. 1832), vol. i; afterwards by Tischendorf, in Acta Aposiolorum Apoc7-ypha (ibid. 1851), p. 190-234; see also the appen- dix to Apocalypses Apocnjphce (ibid. 185G), p. 156-161. Connected with the Acta is the —
2. Tiio.M.E CoNsuMMATio {ComummaHon of Thom- as), which, like the former, was the source for the Hist. Apost. Abdice. It was edited first by Tischendorf from a cod. Paris, of the 11th century, and published in his A eta Apostolorum, p. 235-2-12. IMore important than these is the —
3. TuoMM EvxyiGKiAvyiXGospel of T/iomas). Next to the Protecunfielium of .fames, it was the oldest and beat known. IreniBus probably knew it (comp. Ado. Jlceres. i, 20), while Origen {Horn. I in Lucam') mentions the same explicitly; Pseudo-Origen. Philosophus (ed. Emm. INliller, Oxon. 1851), p. 101 (comp. p. 94), speaks of its having been used by a Gnostic sect, the Naasenes, in the middle of the 2d century; Euseb. {Hist. Eccles. iii, 25) mentions this gospel also, and Cyrill. Hierosol. {Ca- tech. p. 98, ed. Oxon. 1702; comp. ibid. 4, p. GG) thinks that this Thomas was the disciple of Manes. The ori- gin of this, as well as of most of the Apocryphal gospels, must be sought among the Gnostics, and especially among those who embraced Docetism with regard to the person of Christ; and the very large number of mi- raculous stories menlioned in this gospel, which found so much favor among the Manichajans, points to this Do- cetism. According to Irenjeus, foe. cit., the author must liave belonged to the INIarcosianic sect.
We have no complete text of this gospel, but frag- ments only. Cotelerius first published, in the notes to his Constit. Apostol. vi, 17, a fragment according to the Parisian MS. of the 15th century; a larger portion was published by Mingarelli, Nuova Raccolta d' Opuscoli Sci- eiitijici (Venet. 17G4), xii, 73-155. Tischendorf found a larger number of MSS., but their variations caused him to publish a triple text in his collection — viz. two (ireek and one Latin — with the following titles: QiDpci '\apai]\iTov 0(\o(7ii0oi; p^rn t'lQ to. TraidiKO. rov Kv- piov. This gives us the childhood of Jesus from his fifth to his twelfth year in nineteen chapters. Si'jy- ■ypappa rov ayiov airodToXov Oiupd -irtpi tijq Traici- (C/yt; ava<JTpo(pi]Q rov Kupiou gives in eleven chapters the time from the fifth to the eighth year. Tractatus de Pueri/ia Jesu secundum Thoniam gives in fifteen chapters the time from the Hight into Egypt to the eighth 3'ear of Christ's life. These texts are published by Tischendorf in his Eranyel. Apocrypha (Lips. 1853); see also the LXI Proleyom. of the Apocal. Apocn/ph. A Syriac codex was published by Wright (Lond. 1875), in his Contributions to the Apocryphal lAterature of the New Test., Collected and Edited from Syrian MSS. in the British Museum. (B. P.)
Thomas 1 Becket, or of Canterbury. See Becket, Thomas a.
Thomas 1 Kempis. See Kempis, Thomas 1.
Thomas Aquinas, See Aquinas, St. Thomas.
Thomas of Celano was a native of Celano, in X,— A A
Abruzzo Ultra XL He is noted as having written the earliest biography of Francis of Assisi, and the hymn Dies Irce, (q. v.). Neither the date of his birth nor of his death is known. It would appear from the preface to the biography that he was early associated with Francis, as manj- of the statements are given as based on personal observation or the authority of Francis him- self. Cjesar of Spires, the first provincial of the Order of Franciscans in Germany, appointed him to the office of custos over the Minorite convents of Cologne, May- ence, Worms, and Spires, as early at least as 1221. This statement is questioned by some, because the chronicle of the order compiled by IVIark of Lisbon does not mention him among the twenty-five earlier and more important disciples of the saint, though more obscure names are found in that list. The biography ascribed to him is given, with notes, in the Acta Sanctorum-, Oc- tober, torn. ii. There is no proof either for or against his claim to the authorship, which is nowhere asserted by himself. Nor is the honor of having composed the Dies Jrce secured to him by any better evidence. The F'ranciscans attribute its composition to him, the Do- minicans to one of their own order, a Jesuit to an Au- gustiiiian monk, a Benedictine to (iregory the Great or to St. Bernard. Each of these statements is arbitrary, and some of them cannot be true. Bartholomew Albizzi of Pisa was the first to credit the hymn to Celano, in his Liber Conformitatum (1385); and his statement warrants the conclusions that the hymn was already at that date incorporated with the Missal, and therefore well known, and that Celano was generally held to be its author. Wadding, in Scriptores Ordinis A/inorum, states that Celano composed two additional sequences, the Freyit Victor Virtualis, in honor of St. Francis, and the Sancti- tatis Nova Siyna. See Jlohnike, Kirchen- u. liter ai:- hisf. Sfudien (1825), i, 31 ; Hither, Dreifiche Chronik d. dreifachen Franzisk.-Ordens (JIunich, 1(586), p. 16; Wad- ding, Amiules Minor, tom. ii, ad ann. 1222; Hase, Franz r. Assisi, etc. (Leips. 1856), ]3. 17, note 17; Thohick, Verm. Schriflen, i, 110; Daniel, Thesaur. Ilymnol. i, 103-131. — Herzog, Real-EncyJclop. s. v.