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St. CAESARIUS.
CAESARIUS the Brother of St. Gregory Nazianzen, after having finish'd his Studies at Alexandria, came to dwell at Constantinople, and pass'd the greatest Part of his Life at Court * 1.1 in the Quality of Physician to the Emperour. He continued also some time with Julian, but find∣ing himself sollicited to quit the Christian Religion, he retir'd into his own Country. After the Death of this Emperour he return'd to Court and came into Credit again under the Reign of Valens. He was honour'd with the Office of Treasurer of Bithynia. He was like to have perish'd in the Earthquake which happen'd at Nice, where he lost part of his Goods. He died at Court in the be∣ginning of the Year 369, and made the Poor his Heirs.
There is no great probability, that a Man who liv'd as Caesarius did, should compose Dialogues upon the most subtile Questions of Philosophy and Divinity; yet Four of them are attributed to him, which some have thought were written in his Name by St. Gregory Nazianzen; but they can neither be the one's nor the others. For, First, it is not credible, that Caesarius, who spent his Life at Court, and was but a simple Catechumen, should be the Author of those Questions, which suppose the Writer of them to be very well vers'd in the most subtile Parts of Theology. Secondly, The Title of these Dialogues import that the Author of them was Secretary to the Emperour, and that he had taught Twenty Years at Constantinople; which cannot be said of the Brother of St. Gregory Nazianzen, who was not Secretary, but Treasurer, and who did not profess Theology at Constantinople but Physick. Thirdly, St. Gregory Nazianzen in his Funeral Oration says not a Word of his Skill in Theology, nor that he had written about Religion. Fourthly, This Treatise has neither the Stile nor Genius of the Writers of the Fourth Age. Fifthly, It cites St. Gregory Nyssen, who died long after Caesarius, and Maximus an Author of the Seventh Age. All which does plainly show, That it can neither belong to Caesarius nor St. Gregory Nazianzen, whose Stile is as different from the Author's of this Dialogue, as the Stile of Demosthenes is from that of the Declamations of Aphthonius.
Photius says, That 'tis easy to perceive, that the Stile of these Dialogues, is the Stile of a Young Man who had learned some Rudiments of Rhetorick, and was proud of that little Knowledge which he had in Divinity and Philosophy; That his Sallies of Wit are most of them unpleasant; That he often makes use of Poetical Terms, and without any reason varies from the common Construction; That his Stile however is clear enough, and that there are few things to be blamed in his Doctrine. These Dialogues contain 195 Questions and Answers about Matters of Theology and Philosophy, more Subtle and Curious than Useful and Profitable. In Photius's time, there were 220 of them. There are still in many Manuscripts thereabouts more or less, which plainly shows that these Questions were written by some Modern Greeks, who lov'd to busy their Minds with these sort of Questions, and to publish them under the Names of Ancient Authors. Leunclavius was the First who translated these Questions, and his Version was printed at Basle in 1571. Afterwards Elias Elingherus, Library-Keeper of Ausburg publish'd in 1626, 78 of these Questions in Greek and Latin. Last of all, Fronto Ducaeus publish'd the Greek Text and Version of 195 Questions and Answers, divided into Four Books, and those were printed in the Addition to the Bibliotheca Patrum in 1624, and in the Eleventh Volume of the Edition in 1644.