7. Doctrine edge of being, vision, union, and of the deification. While the sanctions _ of
Church, material spirits secure pure and immediate knowledge of God, man needs symbolic veilings. The hierarchy of Old Testament law educated by means of obscure pictures
Sionysiiis the Areopag'ite Dionysius Exig'uus
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
and riddles for the spiritual service of God, and found its fulfilment hi ecclesiastical hierarchy which stands midway between the heavenly and the legal and is based chiefly upon Scripture and tradition. The apostles were bound to communicate the supersensuous in sensuous pictures because man needs sensuous mediation. In every hierarchic transaction there are to be distinguished (1) the holy consecrations, (2) officiants, (3) candidates for consecration. The consecrating acts are (a) baptism, the symbol of regeneration which consists in cleansing and Ulumination ; (b) communion, the symbol of the fact that Jesus unites us in his original divine unity, for illumination leads to union; (c) unction as completing communion. The estate of the officiants consists of three grades : (a) hierarch (i.e., bishop), (b) hiereus (priest-presbyter), (c) liturgist (i.e., deacon); the last performs the purifying acts of the hierarchy, the second the illuminatmg acts, and the first the completing acts. In the order of the consecrated there are distinguished (a) the lowest who under the supervision of the liturgist are first to be purified; (b) those that are illuminated. Christian laymen, guided by the priests; (c) the therapeutai, i.e., monks who by the hierarchy are guided to perfection and lead a life solely devoted to the One.
Dionysius was of decisive importance in the change of the Anatolian Church into a cult of mysteries in that he created its systematic basis. It was he who first expressed coherently those thoughts which afterward shaped the Christianity of that Church, the characteristic features of which were desire for learning and especially participation in the mysteries. (N. Bonwetsch.)
Bibliography: The editio princeps was issued in Florence, 1516; the whole works, with the Scholia of Maximus and Pachymerus are in MPG, iii.-iv. The " Mystical Theology," best edition by B. Corderius, with notes, Antwerp, 1634, reissued with enlarged notes, 2 vols., Venice, 1755- 1756. The edition by John Colet of " The Heavenly Hierarchy " and " The Eccl. Hierarchy " with Colet's treatises was reissued and translated by J. H. Lupton, London, 1869; the Works were translated by J. Parker, ib.' 1897. The fabulous Acta sancti Dionysii Areopagitce, with commentary, are in ASB, Oct., iv. 696-797.
Consult: J. G. V Engelhardt, De origine scriptorum Areopagitce, Erlangen, 1823; idem, De origine scriptorum Dionysii, ib. 1823; E. von Muralt, Beitrage zur alien Litteratur, Dionysius Areopagita, St. Petersburg, 1844; F. Hipler, Dionysius der Areopagiter, Regensburg, 1861 (an epoch-making work); J. Niemeyer, Dionysius Areopagita, Halle, 1869; J. Fowler, The Works of Dionysius especially in Reference to Christian Art, London, 1872; J. Draseke, in ZWT, 1882, pp. 300 sqq.; C. M. Schneider, Areopagitica, Regensburg, 1884 (defends authenticity); A. L. Frothingham, Stephenbar Sudaili. The Syrian Mystic and the Book of Hierotheos, Leyden, 1886; R. Foss, Veber den Aht Hilduin von St. Denys und Dionysius Areopagita, Berlin, 1886; H. Koch, in TQ, 1895, pp. 353 sqq.; N. Nilles, in ZKT, 1896; Neander, Christian Church, vols.
ii. -iv. passim; Harnack, Dogma, vols, i., iii.-vi. passim, see Index; DCB, i. 841-848 (a noteworthy article); KL
iii. 1789-96.
DIONYSIUS THE CARTHUSIAN (Dionysius van Leeuwen or Leuwis): Monk, ascetic, and theologian; b. at Rickel (40 m. e. of Brussels), Limburg, Belgium, 1402 or 1403; d. at Roermonde (45 m. n.w. of Cologne), Limburg, Holland, Mar. 21, 1471. Before he was twenty-one he obtained the dignity of magister at Cologne, and entered the Carthusian
monastery of Roermonde. Complying with the strictest rules of his order or rather surpassing them, he continued his studies with indefatigable zeal and was highly honored by his contemporaries. Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, when traveling through Germany as legate took him in 1451 as his companion (cf . F. A. Scharpff, Der Kardinal und Bischof Nicolaus von Cvsa, p. 176, Mainz, 1843; J. M. Diix, Der deutsche Cardinal Nicolaus von Cum, ii. 28, Regensburg, 1848). In 1459 Dionysius succeeded in bringing about a reconciliation between Duke Arnold of Gelderland and his rebellious son Adolphus. With great difficulties he founded the Carthusian monastery at Herzogenbusch between 1466 and 1469. The last years of his life he spent at Roermonde.
Dionysius is one of the most serious representatives of the Reformation of religious and ecclesiastical conditions in the fifteenth century. Heart and soul a monk, he practised asceticism and found his highest enjoyment in the ecstatic state. He was also one of the most learned theologians of his time, had an accurate .knowledge of ecclesiastical affairs, and was an author of much versatility and productiveness. The list of his works {Opera, i., l.-lxx.) shows 187 titles, and the complete edition, it is estimated, will fill thirty volumes without the supplements. But he had no creative mind. His scientific labors are mostly rich collections of what others said before him with criticisms. His style is clear and simple. Of least importance are his voluminous exegetical works, which comprise the entire Scriptures. Of greater importance is his commentary on Peter Lombard, though here too the collection and criticism of different opinions is the main object. Without being a Thomist, Dionysius often gives preference to Thomas Aquinas, but he often differs from him where he follows Aristotle in favor of Neoplatonic-Dionysian conception, and shows in general an inclination toward mysticism. An independent exhibition of Christian doctrine is contained in the two books De lumine Christiance theoriw. Other dogmatic and apologetic writings are mentioned by Zockler, 648 sqq. Ethics Dionysius treated not only ui a Summa de virtutibus et, vitiis, but also in a series of writings on the different states. What is here treated separately he collects with special reference to its application in preaching, in the two books De regulis vital christianorum. The many orations which are extant from him show that he was also actively engaged in preaching. Some of his writings are especially given to the devotion to Mary, in which he is as enthusiastic as Thomas a Kempis and others of his contemporaries. His mysticism produced an extensive commentary on Dionysius Areopagita and Johannes Climacus, besides some independent works, as Inflammatorium divini amoris, De meditatione, and others. Not a few of his writings are devoted to ecclesiastic reformatory efforts, as (besides the lost De deformatione et reformatione ecclesice) De reformatione claustralium ; De auctoritate generalium conciliorum ; De doctrina scholarium, etc. His reformatory ideas are on the whole the same as those of Gerson, whom he highly esteems. He is far removed from