FULGENTIUS
- ]i7
FULGENTIUS
Thrasimund seems to have been pleased with this
reply. An Arian bishop named Pinta produced an
answer which, with Fulgentius's refutation of it, is lost
to us. The worlc now entitled "Adversus Pintam" is
spurious. The king wished to keep Fulgentius at
Carthage, but the Arian bishops were afraid of his
influence and his power of converting, and therefore
obtained his exile. He was put on board ship at night,
that tlie people of Carthage might not know of his
dejiurture. But contrary winds obliged the vessel to
remain several days in port, and nearly all the city was
able to take leave of the holy bishop, and to receive
Holy Commimion from his hand. To a religious man
who was weeping he privately prophesied his speedy
return and the liberty of the African Church.
Fulgent ius was accompanied to Sardinia by many of his monastic Ijrethren. Instead, therefore, of proceed- ing to his former abode, he obtained permission from the Bishop of Calaris to build an abbey hard by the Basilica of St. Saturninus, and there he ruled over forty monks, who observed the strictest renmiciation of private property, while the abbot saw to all their wants with great charity and discretion; but if any monk asked for anj'thing, he refused him at once, saj^- ing that a monk should be content with what he is given, and that true religious have renounced their own will, "parati nihil velleet nolle". This severity in a particular point was no doubt tempered by the saint's sweetness of disposition and charm of manner, with which was associated a peculiarly winning and moving eloquence. He wrote much during his second exile. The Scjihian monks, led by John Maxentius at Constantinople, had been trying to get their formula approved at Rome: "One of the Trinity was cruci- fied". At the same time they were attacking the traces of Semipelagianism in the works of Faustus of Riez. On the latter point they had full sjTnpathy from the exiles in Sardinia, who.se support they had asked. Fulgentius wrote them a letter in the name of the other bishops (Ep. 15), and composed a work "Contra Faustum" m seven books, which is now lost. It was just completed when, in 523, Thrasimund died, and his successor, Hilderic, restored liberty to the Church of Africa.
The exiles returned, and new consecrations took place for all the vacant sees. When the bishops landed at Carthage, Fulgentius had an enthusiastic reception, and his journey to Ruspe was a triumphal progress. He returned to his beloved monastery, but insisted on Felix being sole superior; and he, who was consulted first among all the bishops of the province, asked leave in the monastery for the least things from the abbot Felix. He delivered in writing to the abbey a deed by which it was perpetually exempted from the jurisdic- tion of the bishops of Ruspe. This document was read in the Council of Carthage of 5.34. It was in fact the custom in Africa that monasteries should not of neces- sity be subject to the local bishop, but might choose any bishop at a distance as their ecclesiastical superior. Fulgentius now gave himself to the care of his diocese. He was careful that his clergy should not wear fine clothes, nor devote themselves to secular occupations. They were to have houses near the church, to cultivate their gardens with their own hands, and to be particu- lar about correct pronimeiution and sweetness in sing- ing the psalms. He corrected some with words, others with scourging. He ordered fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays for all clergy and widows, and for those of the laity that were able. In this last period of St. Ful- gentius's life he published some sermons, and ten books against the Arian Fabianus, of which only fragments remain. A year before his death he was moved to great compunction of heart; he suddenly quitted all his work, and even his monastery, and sailed with a few companions to the island of Circe, where he gave him- self to reading, prayer, and fasting in a monastery which he had previously caused to be constructed on a
small rock. There he mortified his members and wept
in the presence of God alone, as though he anticipated
a speedy death. But complaints were made of hia
absence, and he returned to his labours. He shortly
fell into a grievous sickness. In his sufferings he said
ceaselessly: "O Lord, give me patience here, and for-
giveness hereafter." He refused, as too luxurious, the
warm bath which the physicians recommended. He
summoned his clergy and in the presence of the monks
asked pardon for any want of sympathy or any undue
severity he might have shown. He was sick for sev-
enty days, continuing in prayer and retaining all his
faculties to the last. His possessions he gave to the
poor, and to those of his clergy who were in need. He
died on 1 January, 533, in the sixty-fifth year of his life
and the twenty-fifth of his episcopate.
Besides the works already mentioned, we still pos- sess of St. I'\ilgentius some fine treatises, sermons, and letters. The best known is the book "De Fide", a description of the true Faith, written for a certain Peter, who was going on a pilgrimage to the schismatic East. The three books "Ad Monimum", written in Sardinia, are addressed to a friend who imderstood St. Augustine to teach that God predestinates evil. St. Fulgentius is saturated with St. Augustine's writings and way of thinking, and he defends him from the charge of makmg C!od predestinate evil. He himself makes it a matter of faith that miliaiJtized infants are punished with eternal fire for original sin. No one can by any means be saved outside the Church ; all pagans and heretics are infallibly damned. " It is to think unworthily of grace, to suppose that it is given to all men", since not only not all have faith, but there are still some nations which the preaching of the Faith has not yet reached. These harsh doctrines seem to have suited the African temperament. His last work against Semipelagianism was written at Ruspe and addressed to the leaders of the Scythian monks, John and Venerius: "De veritate pra?destinationis et gratise Dei", in tliree books. To these we may add the two books, " De remissione peccatorum ' '. He wrote much on the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation : " Liber contra Arianos", " Liber ad Victorem", " Liber ad Scarilam de Incarnatione". To St. Augustine's doctrine of the Trinity, Fulgentius adds a thorough grasp of the doctrine of the Person of Christ as defined against Nestorianism and Eutychianism. His thought is always logical and his exposition clear, and he is the principal theologian of the sixth century, if we do not count St. Gregory. His letters have no biographi- cal interest, but are theological treatises on chastity, virginity, penance, etc. His sermons are eloquent and full of fervour, but are few in niunber.
The chief authority for the life of St. Fulgentius is the biog- raphy by a disciple, almost certainly Ferrandus, the canonist; it IS prefixed to his works, and is also in Acta SS.t I Jan. See REYNOl^Dsin Diet. of Christ. Biog., who refers also foScHRoECKH, KiTchengeschichte, xvii, xviii, and Wiggers, AttgnMinismxis nnd PelagianismuSt II; there is an excellent summary of his works in Fessler-Jungmann, Patrologiat II; Worter, Zur Dogmen- geschichte des SemipdagianismuSt III (Miinster, 1900); Ficker, Zur Wiirdigung des Vita Fulgentii (Zeitschr. /. Kirchcngesch., 1900, 9); Helm identifies St. Fulgentius with the grammarian Fabius Furius Fulgentius Planciades {Rhein. Mus. Philol., 1897, 177; Phitologtis. 1897, 253; see TEuFrEi^ScHWABE, Gcscft. der Tom. Lit., 5th ed., pp. 1238 sqq.) On the collection of SO spurious .sermons appended to St. Fulgentius's works (first publ. by Raynaldus, I^yons, 1652) see G. Morin, Notes sur un MS. des hmnclics du Pseudo-Fulgeiice (in Revue Bened., April, 1909). The best edition of St. Fulgentius is that of Desprez (Paris, 1684), reprinted in Migne. P. L., LXV. Cf. Babden- HEWER, Patrology (tr., St. Louis, 1908).
John Chapman.
Fulgentius Ferrandus, a canonist and theologian of the African Church in the first half of the sixth century. He was a deacon of Carthage and probably accompanied his master and patron, Fulgentius of Ruspe, to exile in Sardinia, when the bishops of the African Church were banished from their sees by the Arian King of the Vandals, Thrasamund. After the death of Thrasamund and the accession of Hilderic, ia
