RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Synergism Synesius
when he criticized the same as indicative of Manichean error and sophisms.
In the mean time Victorinus Strigel (q.v.) assumed the defense of Melanchthon at Jena. He had successively sought to prevent the severity and the adoption of the Book of Confuta- Support tions, and now Duke Johann Friedof Strigel. rich called for a disputation between Flacius and Strigel, which occurred at Weimar Aug. 2-8, 1560. For Flacius conversion was the awakening in brief time of the sinner to repentance and his endowment with faith, while the will remains passive. For Strigel, conversion was the development of the state of grace continuously through life, embracing the " perpetual repentance, governance, and conservation," the beginning and growth of the spiritual life. According to Flacius a new will is originated by the "gift of faith" capable of spiritual motives. According to Strigel the human will enters into coordinate action with the inception of conversion, and to every spiritual activity there is a corresponding exercise of human will. The disputation was suspended without judgment by the duke, who thought to bring the matter before a synod. The attitude of the court, at first favorable to Flacius, underwent a gradual change, and in spite of Flacius' fanning of the flames and of his increasing clamor to secure the condemnation of his rival the duke simply demanded a declaration of doctrine from both (ut sup., pp. 322 sqq.). Before the end of 1561, Flacius and his associates were driven from Jena. In his Declaratio of Mar. 3, 1562 (ut sup., p. 591), Strigel distinguished between the " power " or " efficacy " (lost in the fall) to consider, will, and execute what is well-pleasing to God, and the " capacity " for the divine calling which marks the rational man from the other creatures, by which he remains capable of assenting to the Word through the Holy Spirit and of retaining the acquired blessing of grace. This was adopted and Strigel was restored to his professorship. The Declaratio meeting with opposition from the clergy, the visitator Johann Stoessel supplemented it by a mitigating Superdeclaratio requiring only conditional signature. This only served to intensify the quarrel, so that the refractory clergy were removed, and Strigel, dissatisfied with the Superdeclaratio, in disgust withdrew from the discussion of free will and retired to Leipsic. See further Strigel, Victorinus; Stoessel, Johann; Flacius, Matthias. With the reign of Duke Johann Wilhelm Gnesio- Lutheranism entered, and with it stress upon the " Book of Confutation " as a doctrinal norm. As the Wittenberg theologians broke off the discussions at the Altenburg Colloquy, Oct. 21, 1568- Mar. 9, 1569, the Jena theologians had to be content with a protest in writing consisting of the old objections. The Formula of Concord (q.v.) cast its decision against the Philippists (q.v.) but rejected the language of Flacius identifying original sin with substance as a Manichean error.
(G. Kawerau.) Bibliogeaph y : Consult the articles in this work on Matthias Flacius, Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Johann Pfeffinger, Philippists, Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg, Johann Stigelius, Johann Stoessel, Victorinus Strigel, and Will, as also the literature given thereunder. In addition XL— 15
to the matter thus indicated, consult: H. Heppe, Geschichte des devtschen Protestantisms 1656-81, 4 vols., Marburg, 1853-59; idem, Dogmatik des deiUachen Protestantismus im 10. Jahrhundert, Gotha, 1857; A. Beck, Johann Friedrich der Mittlere, 2 vols., Weimar, 1858; F. H. K. Frank, Theologie der Konkordienformel, vol. i., Erlangen, 1858; C. E. Luthardt, Die Lehre vom freien Willen, Leipsic, 1863; Flotow, De synergismo Melanthonis, Wratislaw, 1867; E. F. Fischer, Melanchthons Lehre von der Bekehrung, Tubingen, 1905; F. Loofs, Leitfaden zum Studium der Dogmengeschichte, 4th ed„ Halle, 1906.
SYNESIUS, si-ni'shi-us, OF CYRENE: Bishop of Ptolemais; b. at Cyrene in the Libyan Pentapolis between 370 and 375; d. before 415. He prided himself upon his descent from a royal stock, as the descendant of Eurysthenes, one of the Heraclides, who led the Dorians to Sparta. Eager for classical learning, he went to Alexandria to study poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy under Hypatia. After returning home, although still young he became the head of a deputation from the Pentapolis to the Emperor Arcadius to secure release from certain onerous conditions of taxation. About 399 or 400 he traveled to Constantinople, where the eunuch Eutropius was ruling the incompetent emperor and the empire; he remained there three years, waiting a year before he could obtain audience. He then delivered before Arcadius and the court his celebrated oration " Concerning Kingship " (MPG, lxvi. 1053-1108), in which he showed the difference between a tyrant and a king ruled by the fear of God, and portrayed the departure from the old Roman simplicity in affectation of oriental ostentation and ceremony. He uttered a patriotic protest against the entrusting of the empire to irresponsible and dangerous foreigners, just then emphasized by the outbreak of the Goths under Tribigild in Asia Minor, with whom Gainas made common cause soon after and compelled the banishment of three noted statesmen, among them Synesius' friend Aurelian. This situation Synesius described in a historical romance (MPG, lxvi. 1209-1282). By 402 he had achieved the results he sought for his native city, and returned home, describing his journey in a letter (MPG, lxvi. 1328 sqq.). He next visited Athens and Alexandria (402-404) for further study, and then divided his time between his home in Cyrene and his country estate, where he occupied himself in rural occupations and leisurely study, having a distaste for public occupations. At times he was engaged in defense of his estates, against the incursions of tribes from the interior. In 403 he married a Christian woman. He engaged in an extensive correspondence; though bewailing that he was in unphilosophical surroundings, he produced in his " On the Dream " (MPG ut sup., 1281-1320) a statement of his ideal of philosophical culture ; his Dion, 2 peri tes hath! heauton diagoges is a defense of the same.
It is a remarkable fact that such a man should a few years later be called to work in public as a bishop. No trace in his life or writings up to this point suggests that he was a Christian, though he knew Christianity well. He may have witnessed the fanaticism which in 392 destroyed the Serapion at Alexandria, as at Constantinople he did not escape the activities of a Chrysostom. He had sung of the Christian temples as sanctuaries of the serving gods and spirits whom the All-ruler had clothed with
Synesius Synodal Courts