A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

AMMONIUS. * 1.1

AMMONIUS, a Christian Philosopher, the Master of Plotinus and Origen, a 1.2 flourished in Alexandria, b 1.3 where he publickly taught Philosophy in Alexander Severus's Reign. Porphy∣ry falsly accuses him for having quitted the Christian Religion, in which he had been edu∣cated: for it is certain, as Eusebius and S. Hierom observe, That he always continued sted∣fast in the Doctrine and Precepts of Christianity.

Witness, says Eusebius, those excellent Works that he has left behind him, which are so many authentick Monuments of his Faith and his Ability; as the Book intituled, The Agreement between Moses and Jesus Christ, and all the other Pieces which may be found in the Hands of studious Persons.

In the Number of these Works we may reckon a Gospel composed out of all the Four: which was a kind of Harmony and Concord which he had drawn up with a great deal of Pains and Study, as is testified by Eusebius in his Epistle to Carpianus, placed at the beginning of his Canons upon the Evangelists. Which has given occasion to S. Hierom to affirm, that Ammonius writ Canons like those of Eusebius. But they were not, properly speaking, Canons which Ammonius composed; for the Canons were no more than Indices of the Places of the Gospels, which are contained in One, Two, Three or Four of the Evangelists; whereas Ammo∣nius's Harmony or Concord contained the entire Text of the Four Evangelists, which Eusebius made use of in making his Canons, which referred to this Concord, and were a Table to it. Trithemius likewise attributes Canons to Ammonius, but they are those of Eusebius. We have at present in the Bibliotheca Patrum an Harmony of the Four Evangelists, falsly attributed to Tatianus by Victor of Ca∣pua; which Cardinal Baronius, Father Labbè, and several other Learned Men do ascribe to Ammoni∣us. It is certain, that this was not written by Tatianus, who retrenched the Genealogies of Jesus Christ, which are to be found in this Concord. It bears the Name of An Harmony, and it is ascribed in the Title to an Alexandrian, which made Baronius conjecture that it was written by this Ammoni∣us, who was of Alexandria, and whose Works bore the Title of an Harmony. Zacharias, Bishop of Chrysopolis, who lived in the Twelfth Century, and made Commentaries upon Ammonius's Harmony, has followed this word for Word, which confirms Baronius's Conjecture.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ammo∣nius.
• a 1.2

  Master of Plotinus and Origen.] Porphyry says, in Plotinus's Life, That this Philosopher, when he was twenty years old, came to hear Ammonius; that he was his Disciple for eleven years; and that he had another Disciple named Origen. But, as we shall observe elsewhere, this is a different Person from the famous Origen. Nevertheless, Eusebius assures us, That our Origen was likewise his Scholar, and it seems undeniable, and we must needs confess, that there were two Origens, who were Disciples to Am∣monius.
• b 1.3

  Flourished in Alexandria.] There was another Ammonius, a Philosopher likewise, who lived after the Council of Chalcedon. He was somewhat older than Origen, and a Platonist.