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St Photius the Great, tr. Freese, 1920; selections
Codex 1: Theodore the Presbyter, On the Genuineness of the Works of Dionysius the…
Read the treatise of Theodore the Presbyter,1 in which he undertakes to prove the genuineness of the works of St. Dionysius. The following arguments against it are refuted: (1) I. they are genuine, how is it that none of the later Fathers cites them or quotes any passages from them? (2) How is it that Eusebius Pamphili,2 in his list of the writings of the Holy Fathers, does not mention them? (3) How is it that these treatises describe in detail rites and customs which only became established in the Church gradually and after a long time? The great Dionysius, as is clear from the Acts,3 was contemporary with the Apostles [whereas most of the institutions described only became established gradually and in later times]; it is therefore improbable (says the objector), or rather a clumsy fiction, to assert that Dionysius could have undertaken to describe institutions which were not fully developed till long after his death. (4) How is it that a letter of the divinely-inspired Ignatius4 is referred to? for Dionysius flourished in the time of the Apostles, whereas Ignatius suffered martyrdom during the reign of Trajan, and wrote the letter referred to shortly before his death. Theodore endeavours to solve these difficulties and does his best to prove the genuineness of the treatises.5
Notes
- Nothing further is known of his life or writings.
- The famous ecclesiastical historian, Eusebius bishop of Caesarea (c. 260-340), who assumed as his surname the name of his intimate friend, literary adviser and assistant, Pamphilus, presbyter of Caesarea, and martyr (309).
- xvii.
- Bishop of Antioch (c. 70-107).
- These mystical treatises, ascribed to “Dionysius the Areopagite,” were at one time supposed to be the work of the Dionysius mentioned in the Acts, who was subsequently identified by some with St. Denis, the first bishop of Paris and the patron saint of France But it is now generally agreed that they were written about the end of the fifth century, when the writings of the neo-Platonist Proclus exercised great influence, and that the name is an assumed one.