RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Victor of Cartenna Victorinus
BratiocrapHy: A. Bourgoin, De Claudio Mario Victore, Paris, 1883; S. Gamber, Le Livre de la Genése dans la poesie latine du v. siécle, Marseilles, 1884; A. Ebert, Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters, i. 320-321, 369 saq., Leipsic, 1889; W. 8. Teuffel, Geschichte der rémischen Literatur, pp. 1186-87, Leipsic, 1890; M. Manitius, Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Poesie, pp. 164 sqq., 180 sqq., Stuttgart, 1891; H. Maurer, De exemplis que C. Maurius Victor in Alethia secutus sit, Marburg, 1896; Bardenhewer, Patrologie, pp. 394-395,:Eng. transl., St. Louis, 1908; KL, xii. 909; DCB, iv. 1121-22. VICTORINUS, vic’’to-rai‘nus, OF PETTAU:
Bishop of Poetovio (the modern Pettau, 128 m. s.
of Vienna) and the earliest exegete of the Latin
Church; probably born in Pannonia; martyred
304 (according to the martyrologies, on Dec. 2).
According to Jerome (De vir. ill., Ixxiv.), he was
better acquainted with Greek than with Latin, and
besides many other works wrote commentaries on
Gen., Ex., Lev., Isa., Ezek., Hab., Eccles., Cant.,
and Rev., as well as ‘‘ against all heresies.”” Jerome
states also (ib. xviii.) that Victorinus was a chiliast, and in the eleventh book of his commentary on
Ezekiel he declares that the bishop of Pettau was
an adherent, in his “‘ frequent expositions,” of Jew-
ish fables (MPL, xxv. 339).
In his commentaries Victorinus knew and employed such works as those of Papias, Origen, Irenus, and Hippolytus. Stylistically his writings were awkward and overladen with Hellenisms. Besides the nine commentaries listed by Jerome in the De vir. ill., the same author twice mentions a commentary of Victorinus on Matthew, in which he held that the “ brothers of the Lord” were such ‘“‘ by nearness, not by nature”? (MPL, xxiii. 201, xxvi. 220). Of his exegetical writings the commentary on the Apocalypse alone has survived; for the treatise De fabrica mundi (ed. M. J. Routh, Reliquie sacre, ili. 451-461, Oxford, 1846) is not part of the commentary on Genesis, but an independent work on the week of creation, the ‘‘ queen of all weeks.” Here the number seven is prominent; the true sabbath is the seventh millennium when Christ shall reign with his elect. The original text of the commentary on the Apocalypse, as represented in the Vatican manuscript Codex Ottobonianus Lat. 3288 A, was completely revised by Jerome, the latter text being represented by the editio princeps (Paris, 1543; reprinted in the Maxima bibliotheca veterum patrum, iii. 414-421, Lyons, 1777). Here the chiliasm of Victorinus is expurgated, his harsh Latin is smoothed down, and many minor theological corrections are made. The material substituted by Jerome for the expunged passages was taken largely from the commentary of the Donatist Ticonius on the Apocalypse.
The next stage in the evolution of the text of Victorinus was the addition, frequently in mechanical fashion and with many repetitions, of a fuller, though still incomplete, text of the Apocalypse. Other additions were also made, such as the replacement of 666 as the mystic designation of the -uture name of Antichrist by specific names. This recension, though still unedited, is found in a series of manuscripts and was used by the Spanish presbyter Beatus of Libana in compiling his commentary on the Apocalypse (ed. H. Florez, Madrid, 1770). The final step is represented by the eleventh- or twelfth-
century manuscript cexlvii. of the library of Monte Cassino (ed. in the Florilegium Casinense, pp. 1-12, appended to the Bibliotheca Casinensis, vol. v., Monte Cassino, 1894), this recension also forming the basis of the extremely rare editio princeps (Bologna, 1558), reprinted in MPL, v. 317-344. The editor of this recension constructed a mixed text from the other recensions, removed various sources of confusion, and even departed from the original form of the commentary to bring it into harmony with the running text of the Apocalypse, besides making many additions, some of which imply an African origin.
The commentary on the Apocalypse and the De fabrica mundi are the only works that can certainly be ascribed to Victorinus of Pettau. The Adv. omnes hereses, assigned to him by Jerome and by Optatus of Mileve (De schismate Donatistarum, i. 9) is by some identified with a treatise of the same title appended to the De prescriptione of Tertullian; but the style deviates widely from the genuine writings of Victorinus, and a passage of the Apocalypse (ii. 6) common to the two has a divergent wording. The antimarcionistic character ascribed to the Adv. omnes hereses of Victorinus by Optatus is not borne out by this pseudo-Tertullian work, but rather by the pseudo-Tertullian poem Adversus Marcionem libri quinque. A number of passages in this poem correspond so closely with passages in the commentary on the Apocalypse that the two would almost seem to be by the same author, and it is still a problem whether the assumption that the common source of both is the Greek commentary of Hippolytus on the Apocalypse suffices to explain the resemblance between the two works. It is at least clear that the poem is not by Commodian, as is sometimes maintained. The attempt has also been made to ascribe to Victorinus the Anonym chiliaste in Mattheum cxxiv fragmenta (ed. G. Mercati, Studi e testi, xi. 23-45, Rome, 1903), but it is now recognized that the author of this fragment stands in close relation to the so-called Ambrosiaster. An equally fruitless effort has been made to ascribe to this Victor the following treatises also contained in Codex Ottobonianus A: a treatise on Gen. i. 5 (ef. MPL, viii. 1009-14); Ad Justinum Manicheum contra duo principia Manicheorum (cf. MPL, viii. 999-1010); and De physicis (cf. MPL, viii. 1295- 1310). Both style and matter, however, are totally different from those of Victorinus of Pettau. The first two may belong to Caius Marius Victorinus (q.v.). Whether the De physicis is to be attributed to him is doubtful; at all events, it was not written by Victorinus of Pettau. (J. HAUSSLEITER.)
BrsutiocrRarpuy: The critical ed. of the Opera is in CSEL, vol, xxxix.; Eng. transl. of the ‘‘ Creation” and ‘‘ Commentary on the Apocalypse ” in ANF, vii. 341-360. Consult: Jerome, De vir. ill., lxxiv., Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2 ser., li. 377; ASB, Nov., i. 482-443; J. de Launoy, Opera, li. 1, pp. 634-649, Geneva, 1731; F. Chamard, S. Victorin, évéque et martyr, Poitiers, 1876; Harnack, Litteratur, i. 731-735, ii. 2, pp. 426-432; idem, in ZWT, xix (1876), 114; idem, Dogma, ii. 237, 296, 358, iii. 78, v. 29; J. Haussleiter, in ZKW, vii (1886), 239-257; idem, Der Aufbau der alichristlichen Litteratur, pp. 35-37, Berlin, 1898; idem, in Festreden der Universitit Greifswald, no. 9, Greifswald, 1901; F. Kattenbusch, Das apostolische Symbol, pp. 212-215, Leipsic, 1894; J. R. Harris, in The Expositor, 1895, pp. 448-455; L. Atzberger, Geschichte
Victorinus Vigilantius