THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
founded on Aug. 26, 512 or 513, in a flourishing condition, and to complete a bishopric of forty years.
No collected edition of the works of Caesarius exists as yet, although the Benedictine Germaine Morin has long been preparing one, but the places in which his scattered writings may be found are given by Arnold, 435-450 (cf. 491-496), Malnory, v.-xviii., and Fessler-Jungmann, 438, 452. In addition to the works already mentioned, his most important writings are his sermons. His chief sources, often noted in his manuscript, were Augustine, Rufinus, Faustus, Salvianus, and Eucherius, and his generosity in giving of his treasures to others has resulted in the ascription of many of his sermons to Augustine, Faustus, and similar authors. On the other hand, he prepared homiliaries, represented by Cod. Laon. 121 (ninth century) and Parisin. 10605 fol. 71 (thirteenth century). A similar collection contains forty-two admonitions, and a third is devoted to sermons
for the cloister. A special category Works, is formed by the homilies for the Old
Testament lessons for each fast, and these are supplemented by interpretations of texts of the New Testament. Another group of sermons is eschatological and a third is important for the history of penance. His monastery rules are extremely valuable for the history of asceticism, and his regulations for nuns, based on Augustine's letter Ad sanctimoniales, the so-called rules of Macarius, and his own monastic rules, received their final form in 534 and clearly show the various strata of their development. Of the other writings of Caesarius, only the letters need be considered, for the Testamentum bead Ccesarii (MPL, lxvii. 1139-42) is now recognized as spurious.
(F Arnold.)
Bibliography: Sources for a life are: Epist. Arelatenses, in MGH, Epist., iii. 1-83, ed. W. Gundlach, Hanover, 1891; Concilia cevi Merovingici, in MGH, Leg., sectio iii., part 1, pp. 37-61, ed. Maassen, ib. 1893. The early lives are in MGH, Script, rer. Merovingicarum, iii. 457- 501, ed. B. Krusch, ib. 1896, and in ASB, 27 Aug., vi. 64- 83, -with comment by Stilting, pp. 50-64. Consult: A. Malnory, S. Cesaire eveque d'Arles, Paris, 1894; C. F. Arnold, Casarius von Arelate und die gallische Kirche seiner Zeit, Leipsic, 1894; Histoire litteraire de la France, iii. 190, iv. 1, x., p. xv., xii., p. vii.; J. M. Trichaud, Histoire de S. Cesaire, evique d'Arles, Aries, 1858; U. Villevieille, Histoire de S. Cesaire, Aix-en-Provence, 1884; P. Lejay, Les Sermons de Cesaire d'Arles, in Revue biblique, iv. (1895) 593-610; J. Fessler, Institutiones patrologiat, ed. B. Jungmann, ii. 438-452, Innsbruck, 1896; G. Pfeilschifter, Der Ostgothen Konig Theoderich der Gross'e und die katholische Kirche, pp. 123-136, Miinster, 1896; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii. 68-77, Eng. transl iv 13l' 143 sqq.
CASARIUS OF HEISTERBACH, hois'ter-baH: Monk; b. probably at Cologne c. 1180; d. at Heisterbach (20 m. s. of Cologne) c. 1240. He received an excellent education at Cologne and gained a good knowledge of the Church Fathers and classical writers. In 1198 or 1199 he entered the monastery of the Cistercians at Heisterbach and spent his life there in quiet seclusion. He became master of the novices, and also prior according to Henriquez (Monologium Cisterciense, ad diem 25 Sept.). His literary activity is closely
connected with his monastic duties. Only sixteen of his many writings are extant and most of these are still in manuscript. One of the best known is the Dialogus miraculorum or De miraculis et visionibus sui temporis (ed. J. Strange, 2 vols., Cologne, 1851 ; index, Coblenz, 1857; see bibliography below for title of German select transl.). As master of the novices Csesarius had to acquaint the future monks with the regulation^, opinions, and decisions of the order, and he believed the best way to accomplish this was by means of examples. At the request of his abbot he committed his instructions to writing and the copiousness and variety of hia material, drawn from the recent past as well as more remote antiquity, is surprising. His written sources belong mostly to the Cistercian order, but he also drew from oral communications. Each narrative is intended to have a religious or moral practical application, but Caesarius knew how to include everything under these heads, and thus it happens that his stories contain many points of interest for contemporaneous history and the history of civilization. In a series of pictures he brings before us the life on the Lower Rhine, especially at Cologne, and we often meet with popular beliefs and superstitions in which survivals of old Germanic mythology may still be discovered. The Dialogus is especially important for information concerning ecclesiastical customs and conditions, especially in the monastic life. The regulations of the monasteries, especially among the Cistercians, the chorus-singing and work, the eating and sleeping, the fasting and bloodletting of the monks — all comes before us in living examples. Caesarius is much in earnest about the evils of confession; he suppresses the worst, but what he tells is bad enough and his judgment upon it is severe (cf. iii. 41 and 45). For the rest the dialogue from beginning to end is a witness to the mania for miracles and the belief of the time in the marvelous. One finds everywhere an interference of partly divine, partly demonic powers with earthly happenings, and when it takes place the most incredible becomes credible. Here is the weak point of the book which must not be overlooked, despite the poetic charm of many narratives and the morally pure personality of Caesarius. He contributed his share to cause the belief in witchcraft and sorcery, in incubi and succubi, and all sorts of devilish intervention, to be regarded as a constituent part of Christian belief. The praise bestowed on the Dialogus induced Caesarius to prepare a second work of the kind, not however in the form of dialogue, the Libri VIII miraculorum, of which only three books are preserved (ed. Aloys Meister, Rome, 1901, supplementary vol. to the Romische Quartalschrift). Caesarius's historical works include a Catalogus episcoporum Coloniensium (in J. F Bohmer, Fontes rerum Germanicarum, ii., Stuttgart, 1845, 272-282, and, ed. H.Cardauns, in MGH, Script, xxiv., 1879, 345-347; Germ, transl. by M. Bethany, Elberfeld, 1898) and a Vita sancti Engelberti, an archbishop of Cologne who was murdered by a relative inl225 (in Bohmer, ut sup., 294-329). This work insures to Caesarius a place among the most prominent biographers of the Middle Ages. The first book