Simeon Metaphrastes.
ONe of those who wrote most was Simeon, Sirnam'd Metaphrastes, so call'd from * 1.1 his turning the Antient Lives of the Saints into another sort of a Stile than that wherein they were formerly written. He was an Officer in the Palace, Lord High Chan∣cellor, and flourish'd in the Tenth Century, chiefly under the Reign of Constantine Por∣phyrogenneta. For tho he had been employ d under the Reign of Leo, yet he writ no∣thing till Constantine's time, as appears by the Life of Saint Theoctista, which is his first Piece, as is observ'd in his Panegyrick written by Psellus, another Psellus than that who liv d in the time of Constantine the Iconaclast, of whom we spoke in another place. He apply'd himself to study, and enquire into the Lives of the Saints, and having made a large Collection of them, those which he did not like he undertook to make over again, not only by casting them into a different stile, but also by adding to, or substracting from them, what he thought Convenient, and running them down into the form of a Panegy∣rick rather than History. We have a great many of them of his Composing, and most under his name, as well in printed Collections as in MSS.; but they are mix'd with seve∣ral others, Compos'd by various Authors. There are some among the Anonymous which may be ascribed to him. It would be very difficult to make the distinction; had not the Inge nious Allatius given himself the trouble of doing it, with a great deal of accuracy, in his Dissertation concerning the Writings of the Simeons; wherein he gives us a Cata∣logue of the Lives of the Saints, which, in Manuscript or Print, belong properly to Metaphrastes, and which of them belong to other Authors. He reckons above an hun∣dred which are Genuin, and almost as many more that are Spurious, whose Authors are unknown; and near four hundred and fifty whose Authors he discovers. They who have the curiosity to search further into this matter, may consult Allatius himself: As for our part, we don't think it worth our while to croud such a tedious and useless Catalogue into our Work. Besides these Lives of the Saints, Metaphrastes has compos'd several Sermons on the solemn Festivals of the year, which are to be met with in Ma∣nuscripts; and a great many Hymns and Prayers which are inserted in the Ecclesiasti∣cal Writings of the Greeks. He likewise digested four and twenty Moral discourses taken from the Works of S. Basil, and Printed together with them, [and likewise publish'd by themselves in Greek at Paris, 1556.] And in the Libraries there are a great many Col∣lections of Moral Sentences taken out of S. Macarius, and an hundred one and thirty Sentences or Rules more, all compos'd by Metaphrastes. Lastly, Leo Allatius has pub∣lish'd nine Letters and several pieces of Poetry of the same Author, together with a Discourse of the Lamentation of the Virgin Mary on the Passion of our Saviour.