RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Victor III Victor of Capua
was the author of three books of dialogues on the miracles of St. Benedict, a poetic epitaph on Abbot Apollinaris, and information concerning two miracles of Leo IX., all written in a clear and simple style (ed. ASM, IV., ii. 425 sqq.; MPL, ecxlix). (H. Boumer.)
Brsitioerapuy: The early Vita from the Chronicon Casinense, book iii., with commentary, is in ASB, Sept., v. 373-435, and in MPL, exlix. 918-962, cf. ASM, vi. 2, pp. 583-625. Other sources are Aimé de Mont-Cassin, L’Ystoire de li Norman, iii. 49, ed. O. Delarc, Rouen, 1892; Peter the Deacon, ed. Muratori, in Scriptores, vi. 32 sqq. Consult further: Jaffé, Regesta, i. 655-656; Mann, Popes, vii. 218-244; L. Tosti, Storia della Badia di Monte Cassino, vol. i., Naples, 1841; J. M. Watterich, Romanorum pontificum ... vite, i. 310 sqq., Leipsic, 1862; F. Hirsch, in Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, vii. 1-103, Gottingen, 1867; A. Caravita, I codici e le arti a Monte Cassino, parts i—iii., Monte Cassino, 1869-71; J. Langen, Geschichte der rémischen Kirche, iii. 162 sqq., Bonn, 1892; L. von Heinemann, Geschichte der Normannen in Unteritalien, i. 172 sqq., Leipsic, 1894; F. Gregorovius, Hist. of the City of Rome, iv. 564-572, London, 1896; Ceillier, Auteurs sacrés, ix. 241, 300-301, 317- 318, xiii. 415-418; Bower, Popes, ii. 410-413; Platina, Popes, ii. 12-13; Milman, Christian Church, iii. 501-508; Hauck, KD, vol. iii. passim; Schaff, Christian Church, v. 1, pp. 65, 70.
Victor IV.: Two antipopes: Gregory Conti (1188) and Octavian (1159-64). The former of these was elected in the middle of Mar., 1138, by the Roman Pierleoni to succeed Anacletus II., but on May 29 of the same year, at the instance of Bernard of Clairvaux, he submitted to Innocent II. and resigned his claims. Octavian, the scion of one of the most powerful Roman families and cardinal of St. Cecilia, was elected to the papal throne Sept. 9, 1159, by four or five cardinals, the clergy of St. Peter’s, and the Roman people. Although he relied largely on the support of Emperor Frederick I., the latter remained neutral until the Council of Pavia in Feb., 1160, when he declared for Victor. But all imperial efforts to gain recognition of Victor in England, France, and even in Germany were fruitless; and after the summer of 1163 Alexander III. sought to gain Germany for himself. During the negotiations Victor died at Lucca Apr. 20, 1164.
(H. B6umer.)
Brpuiograpuy: Jaffé, Regesta, i. 919, ii. 418-426; Moritz Meyer, Die Wahl Alexander III. und Victor IV., 1159, Gottingen, 1871; J. Langen, Geschichte der rémischen Kirche, iii. 439 sqq., Bonn, 1892; Bower, Popes, ii. 470, 503-511; Platina, Popes, ii. 39-42, 50 sqq.; Milman, Latin Christianity, iv. 289; Schaff, Christian Church, v. 1, p. 111; Hauck, KD, vol. iv. passim; and the literature under Innocent II. and Atexanper IIT,
VICTOR OF ANTIOCH: Presbyter and exegete of the middle of the sixth century. The numerous scholia ascribed to him and scattered through the entire catena to Jeremiah show that the author of that catena must have excerpted from the complete commentary on the prophet by Victor (ed. M. Ghislerius in his commentary on Jeremiah, 3 vols., Lyons, 1623). His commentary on Mark (ed. P. Possinus, Rome, 1673; F. C. Matthai, Moscow, 1775; J. A. Cramer, Catene Grecorum patrum, i. 259-447, Oxford, 1840) exists in three recensions, all of which may be traced to a single source. Victor states in the prologue to this work that he endeavored to collect interpretations of the best expounders, and his commentary on Jeremiah con-
tains verbal repetitions from Chrysostom, Jerome, and the scholia of Severus and Olympiodorus. His exegetical method is that of the Antiochian school, primarily grammatical and historical, so that his tendency is practical and ethical, although allegory is not absolutely excluded. (N. Bonwertscu.) BirstioarapoHy: M. Faulhaber, Die Propheten-Catenen nach rémischen Handschriften, pp. 107 sqq., 133, Freiburg, 1899; H. von Soden, Die Schriften des N. Ts. in threr erreichbaren dltesten T extgestalt, i. 574 sqq., 826 saq., 888 sqq., Berlin, 1902.
VICTOR OF CAPUA: Bishop of Capua and harmonist of the Gospels; d. Apr. 2, 554. The only detail known concerning his life is that he was consecrated bishop Feb. 24, 541. On July 27, 1480, his bones were found beneath the high altar of the church of the monastery of Mons Virginis. Of his writings only scanty fragments survive. Bede, in his De ratione temporum, xlix., cites from his De pascha, directed against the Cursus paschalis of Victorius. This must have been written early in 550 to prove that in that year Easter should be celebrated on Apr. 24, not Apr. 17. A number of scholia apparently translated by Victor from a Greek catena, and concerned with Polycarp, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Severianus of Gabala, and a certain Geronticum, have been edited by J. B. Pitra (Spicilegium Solesmense, i. 265 sqq., Paris, 1852) from a Paris manuscript which also contains fragments from a work Reticulus seu de arce Noe (ib., pp. 287 sqq.). The Capitula de resurrectione Domini, apparently extant in the ninth century, is now lost. A catena on the four Gospels which F. Feuardent (Urenei quinque libri, pp. 240-241, Paris, 1639) found in an ancient Verdun manuscript under the name of Victor of Capua is probably identical with the work from which Pitra edited his.scholia, which in the Paris manuscript bears the name of Johannes Diaconus.
Far more important than these writings were Victor’s endeavors to prepare a Latin harmony of the Gospels. The oldest manuscript of this work is preserved at Fulda, ordered from Victor himself and completed at Capua before Apr. 12, 546. This manuscript (ed. E. Ranke, Codex Fuldensis, Mar-
burg, 1868) contains a harmony of the Gospels, the
Pauline epistles, including Hebrews, Acts, the canonical epistles, and the Apocalypse. Of these the first is the most important, since through it the West gained its first knowledge of Tatian’s Diatessaron (see HARMONY OF THE GospPEts, I., §§ 1-4). It is clear, moreover, that the anonymous harmony which Victor says, in his preface, that he found by chance, and which proved to be by Tatian, must have been in Greek, and that Victor translated or revised it. His work consisted essentially in reproducing the Greek original through the Latin translation of Jerome, a task demanding great patience as well as a thorough knowledge of the Bible. But though he termed his work a translation, he actually divided the Vulgate Gospels into portions which he then rearranged according to the model before him. His work was most valuable, and the Germans first learned the Gospel in their own tongue from the Old High German translation of the harmony of Victor. (ERWIN PREUSCHEN.)
Victor of Cartenna Victorinus