GENNADIUS, Patriarch of CONSTANTINOPLE.
GEnnadius was Chosen Patriarch of Constantinople in the room of Anat••lius, in the Year 458. He Nominated one Marcian, who had been heretofore a M••ntanist, to be Receiver of the * 1.1 Church of Constantinople. This was that Receiver, if we may believe The••dorus, who o••∣dered, That the Clergy of every Church, should distribute among themselves the Oblati∣ons made to their Church, whereas before they belonged to the Patriarchal Church. But it was not only the Receiver of Gennadius, that made this Reformation in the Church of C••••stantinople. This Patriarch also laboured much in it. He held in 459 a Synod, in which he revived the Decrees made against Simoniacal Persons. He made also a Law, that no Priest should be ordained who could not say the Psalter by Heart. 'Twas in his time, that Studius built the Monastery of the * 1.2 Acaemetae at Constantinople, and Dedicated it to S. John [Baptist.] Gennadius dyed in the Year 471. He had been advertised of his Death sometime before by a Ghost, which appeared to him, while he was at Pray∣ers in the Church by Night, and foretold him the great trouble that should befall his Church after his Death. Gennadius, a Priest of Marseille reckons this Patriarch among the Ecclesiastical Writers, and says, that he had an Elegant Style, and a brisk Wit, that he was grown very Learned by R••••d∣ing the Ancients, that he had composed a Literal Comment upon Daniel, and that he had made some Homilies. We have none of his Works, but there are preserved only two fragments of this Ge••••a∣dius, the one recited by Facundus, Lib. 2. c. 4. and the other by Leontius in his Treatise of Common places about the Original of Souls. We do not know out of what Book the first is taken. It is a Declamation against St. Cyril, which seems to be taken out of a Letter written against St. Cyrils 12 Chapters.
Unhappy I, saith he, who live in a time, when the Church is afflicted with so great Evils? Alas! Alas! for from whence doth it proceed but from hence in the time, wherein we ar•…•… How much have I heard of the Blasphemies of Cyril of Aegypt? Wo to the Scourge of Alexandria, This is the Second. Can we sufficiently lament it, that he hath been corrupted himself, and that he hath corrupted others? He hath cast forth all manner of Blasphemies against the Holy Fathers, the Apostles, yea against Jesus Christ himself. He destroys the Humane Nature, that the Word a•…•…∣med from us, and for us, and would make that Nature subject to Sufferings that is impossible.Facundus also recites the beginning of the Confutation of the first of St. Cyril's Chapters, wherein he shews as much passion. Gennadius must needs write this when he was very Young, in the time of those hot contests between Saint Cyril, and the Oriental Bishops.
The second Passage of Gennadius is taken out of the Second Book to Parthenius; it is cited by Le∣ontius in his Common-places about the Original of the Soul. We do not here speak of the Letter a∣gainst Simoniacal Persons, because it is a Synodical Letter, which shall be found among the Acts of the Councils.