E
Eckhart [Eccardus], a German, a Dominican, in Peripatetic Philosophy the chief of all the learned men of his age, and most excellent in the knowledge of divine things, of a sharp and subtle genius — some of whose scholastic propositions, on account of the obscurity, ambiguity, and novelty of the terms, were hissed out [rejected] by the Academies of the Theologians — wrote, in the scholastic manner, on Genesis, on Exodus, on the Song of Songs, on the Wisdom of Solomon, on John, on the Lord’s Prayer, [and] on the festal Gospels of the whole year. He flourished under Henry VII the Emperor, in the year of the Lord 1310.
Eckbert [Eckebertus], a Benedictine, the second Abbot of the monastery of St. Florinus, German by nation, brother of Blessed Elisabeth the virgin, abbess of Schönau, wrote little works of not-to-be-despised reading, of which I saw, at the beginning [of the volume], a pious book on the Gospel of John, which begins, The mysteries of the divine discourse.
Edward Lee [Edvardus Leus], an Englishman, wrote annotations against the annotations of Erasmus on the New Testament, which were printed at Mainz in the year of the Lord 1520.
Hegesippus [Egesippus], a Jew by race, simple in life and speech, reduced to the form of a Greek History, in a brief and simple style, all the deeds of the kingdom of Jerusalem contained in the four books of Kings, up to the captivity of the Jews; and the destruction of the wall, and the triumphs of Babylon. Of which labor he himself makes mention in the preface to his five books, On the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem, which are now extant. He flourished near the Apostolic times, and reached down to Antoninus Pius, in the year of the Lord 160.
Einhard [Einardus, who is also called Eginardus], German by nation, master of the epistles [secretary] of Charlemagne Augustus, afterward a Benedictine monk, admirable for his studies of the disciplines and for most holy morals; imitating Bede, with a like zeal he too abridged the Gallican Psalter, gathering out of it meditations, prayers, and thanksgivings, by which the pious petitioner may pour out his heart before God. He flourished under Charles [Charlemagne] and Louis his son, in the year of the Lord 860.
Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus (which afterward, as Jerome testifies, was called Constantia) — or first of Salamis, and afterward of Constantia, as Suidas holds — bishop of various cities of Cyprus, formerly a hermit and a monk of the solitude of Egypt, a man notable for erudition, and, on account of his skill in five languages, called Πεντάγλωττος [Five-tongued] by Jerome; illustrious for sanctity and miracles; a most keen enemy of the heretics, against whom he also published a notable work, called Panarium — that is, The Medicine-Chest. He wrote a most useful book for the understanding of many words and characters [signs] which are found both in the Scriptures and in the ancient editions of the interpreters: in which he treats of the weights and measures used in the divine Letters, of the parts of divine Scripture, of its interpreters, and of the accent-marks and characters which are found here and there among the ancient interpreters of sacred scripture. Whose beginning is, If anyone shall wish to know.
He wrote likewise περὶ λίθων, that is, On Stones [Gems] — especially indeed of those which are mentioned in the sacred Letters — one book, from which Arethas, bishop of Cappadocia, in his Commentaries on the Apocalypse, and Jerome, in his commentaries on the 35th chapter of Isaiah, bring forth testimonies.
He published also On the Life and Death of all the Prophets, from Nathan the prophet down to John the Baptist, one book, not useless for understanding the titles, occasions, and arguments of the prophetic volumes. Whose beginning is, Nathan, about the same times.
He composed also, on the Gospel of Luke, one little book, entitled Of the Pavement [Pavimentum]: in which he confuted all the passages of that gospel corrupted and falsified by Marcion, teaching at the same time certain rules, by whose help, in the sacred volumes, [the passages] of the sincere and catholic Scri[pture]
…the [passages] of the sincere and catholic Scripture may be detected and distinguished from the adulterated scriptures of the heretics, and confuted. And this Pavement he inserted into the first book of his Panarium, in heresy 42. He flourished under Theodosius Augustus, in the year of the Lord 390.
Epiphanius, surnamed Scholasticus, Greek by nation and language (by whose help Cassiodorus, a Roman consul and a monk, put together the Tripartite History out of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, the Greek authors), collected into one chain [catena] of explanations the more notable expositions of the most excellent fathers pertaining to the Psalter: whose beginning is ΕΥΣΕΒΙΟΥ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΙΑΣ, Μακαριότητες μὲν κατὰ φύσιν ἅπαντες ὀρεγόμεθα — “OF EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: We all indeed by nature desire states of blessedness.” And the names of the authors, whose expositions are contained in this work, are these: Origen, Athanasius, Eusebius of Caesarea, Basil of Cappadocia, Asterius of Scythopolis, Theodore of Antioch; Theodore of Antioch, Didymus, Apollinaris, Theodoret, Cyril, Hesychius. [Theodore of Antioch stands both at the foot of the first column and at the head of the second — so printed.] He flourished in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 150.
Ephrem the Syrian [Ephrem Syrus], deacon and monk, published very many sermons — first in the Syriac, and then in the Greek language — upon various passages of divine scripture; of which I have read, on Matthew 17, one homily On the Transfiguration of the Lord, beginning, The joys of the regions of the harvest.
Erhard [Erhardus], a Benedictine monk, a man (so far as appears from his fragments, which are read in the compendium of allegories of Tilmann) piously learned, of subtle genius, and pleasing in eloquence, wrote on the Pentateuch of Moses five books of commentaries of not-to-be-despised reading. He lived in the year of the Lord 1050.
Isaiah of Padua [Esaias Patauinus], an Augustinian canon, brought up in the monastery of the Charity at Venice, composed commentaries in the Italian tongue on the Song of Songs of Solomon, in the year of the Lord 1480.
Evagrius, bishop of Antioch, formerly a monk and disciple of Blessed Macarius the Egyptian, a man skilled in Greek and Latin eloquence, so preserved in his Episcopate the abstinence and austerity of his former life that he was held for a miracle: this man first committed to writing the lives of the holy fathers,1 and wrote various things also upon the sacred letters — of which number are most beautiful commentaries on the Proverbs of Solomon. He flourished under Gratian Augustus, in the year of the Lord 380.
Eucherius, bishop of the church of Lyons, Gaul by nation, a man notable among those who flourished in the glory of piety, erudition, and eloquence, left many monuments of his illustrious genius upon the sacred letters, written in the Latin tongue and most flourishingly adorned with elegant words and pointed sentences; of which Gennadius reviewed a little work, On various and obscure chapters of divine Scripture, to Salonius and Veranius (brothers, and afterward Bishops), divided into two little books. To which Isidore added, on Genesis, and on the books of Kings — [dedicated] to the same Salonius and Veranius, now bishops — a prolix and most learned volume. For which works, indeed, there came out formerly from the Froben press, and lately from the Roman printing-house of Paulus Manutius, under Eucherius’s name: on Genesis, three books of a discontinuous and interrupted exposition of commentaries; on the four books of Kings, four books of an explanation of the same kind; and one book of Spiritual Formulae, useful for understanding the holy scriptures.
Although I confess these to be learned and most worthy to be read, yet I would not dare to affirm that they are Eucherius’s, but rather of some uncertain and more recent compiler, who gathered the work here and there, after the manner of centos, out of the sayings of the Latin fathers — especially from whole sentences of Gregory, Isidore, Bede, and other authors, whom Eucherius preceded by almost two hundred years. For he lived — as he testifies in the epistle to Valerianus — contemporary with Petronius, bishop of Bologna, in the year from the founding of the City 1185, that is, in the year 427 from the redemption of the world.
But if, in so great a crowd of writers, one may divine who heaped this medley of explanations into a pile, I suspect that he was an Englishman, and perhaps even Bede himself, whose especial zeal it was to gather collectanea out of the writings of the ancient teachers — but most of all of Gregory the Pope, whose name is found cited more than once in this work; as, for example, in the first book of the exposition on the book of Kings, toward whose end the reader is referred to the reading of the Morals of Blessed Pope Gregory; and in the third volume of the same explanation, at the twenty-second chapter — in which place, indeed, the author in a way hints that he lived in Britain not long after the times of Gregory, writing thus: In our recent times, Blessed Pope Gregory, strengthened with evangelical eloquence, ruled the Roman church; and the most reverend fathers Augustine, Paulinus, and the rest of their companions, at his bidding, came into Britain, etc. To this conjecture another is added: that a great part of those things which are contained in these commentaries on Kings is read in the same words in the volume of Bede’s Questions upon the books of Kings. I could also, for the surer confirmation of this our judgment, subjoin here an index of the innumerable passages which — both in these [commentaries] of the Spiritual Formulae, and in the commentaries on Genesis and Kings — have been transferred out of Bede and Gregory: but these, consulting brevity, I pass over, thinking I have done enough if I have pointed out to my readers that these things are so.
Eucherius also published, upon various passages of divine scripture, most celebrated sermons; from which the most learned man Claudianus [Mamertus], bishop of Vienne, his contemporary, taking testimony in his books On the State of the Soul, briefly embraced his praise in these words: *By no means would I pass over Eucherius, known to me now living by his doctrine and by present disputations face to face — [a man] who, namely, of green age yet mature in mind, spurning the earth, longing for heaven, humble in spirit, ardent in merit, and likewise most subtle of genius, full of knowledge, flowing in eloquence, by far the greatest of the great Pontiffs of his age, having published, for the benefit of the fai[th] *
…of the faith, many continuous volumes of various works; and he also preached to the people many noble sermons upon the state of the soul.
Eudocia, a most illustrious woman, daughter of Leo [Leontius] the Athenian philosopher,2 wife of Theodosius the Younger Augustus, notable for the exceptional endowments of body and mind, a perpetual cultivator of the Christian religion, zealous of the sacred volumes, and, in the glory of the poetic art, foremost among all the poets of her time, gathered — briefly and summarily, in imitation of Proba, that illustrious woman — out of the Greek verses of Homer, with admirable industry, very many histories of the Old and New Testament, preserving the measure of the feet and the majesty of the Homeric verse: which work, reduced into a compendium, she entitled Ὁμηρόκεντρα, that is, HOMEROCENTONES [Homeric centos].
Yet John Zonaras, a Greek author, asserts that a certain learned patrician man first compiled this work, and afterward left it imperfect and undigested; but that Eudocia at last completed it and reduced it into order — as the Greek inscription, prefixed to the work in heroic verses, declares.
The same author also relates that Eudocia, when at first — on account of her singular chastity and excellent beauty — she was most dear to her husband, fell innocently into his bitter hatred for such a cause as this. An apple, offered to him of unusual size, the Emperor, wondering at it, sent to his wife; she gave it to Paulinus, a learned man, and for that reason familiar to her. He, ignorant of the matter, offers it to the Emperor as a marvelous thing; whereupon he, having recognized it and hidden it, asks his wife where the apple sent to her may be. She, fearing lest her husband suspect that which he already suspected, answered that she had eaten it. But when he pressed more sharply, she affirms with an oath that she had already eaten it. Then the Emperor, moved with anger, produces the apple: thus she, caught in a manifest lie, the husband’s suspicion is confirmed. But Paulinus, though innocent, is put to death. Eudocia, when she perceived that she was hated, asks leave to depart to Jerusalem. Having set out thither with great wealth, she both built churches and gave much to the monasteries of the poor of that place. Returning thence after her husband’s death, she went back there again; and there she died, not without a great reputation for sanctity, in the reign of Marcian Augustus, in the year of our salvation 460.
St. Jerome, in a certain epistle to Paulinus, writes that he had read Homerocentones and Virgiliocentones, but whose, he does not himself indicate. Isidore of Seville reports that a certain Pomponius, a noble poet, with a like zeal, put together many things out of Virgilian verses. Aldus Manutius printed a very ancient volume of Ὁμηρόκεντρα, without the author’s name: whose beginning is Κέκλυτε μυρία φῦλα περικτιόνων ἀνθρώπων, that is, Hear, ye countless tribes of the men dwelling round about.
Eulalius, bishop of Cynopolis, a man nobly learned in the sacred eloquences, and — according to the interpretation of his name — speaking excellently, no less excelling in prose than in verse, wrote on the Song of Songs a prose-verse exposition — that is, composed with verses mingled with loose [prose] speech — whose beginning is:
Ὃς μόνος εἰς αἰῶνα καὶ ἐξ αἰῶνος ἐτέχθης, Χριστέ,
that is, O Christ, who alone both ever art and ever hast been. He flourished in the Council of Constantinople, in the year of the Lord 670.
Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine (which was formerly called the Tower of Strato), surnamed Pamphilus himself, on account of his most close intimacy with Pamphilus the martyr; a disciple of Dorotheus the Eunuch, a most learned man; and, together with Pamphilus, a most diligent investigator of the divine Library; so illustrious among all the bishops of his age for his skill in the secular disciplines and his exercise in the divine Letters, that he deserved to be celebrated by the most noble elogium of the Emperor Constantine.3 For he was often accustomed to say of him: that Eusebius was happy, who was worthy of the Episcopate not of one city, but of almost the whole world.
Yet there were not lacking those who wrote that he was an asserter of the Arian heresy and a corrupter of the Nicene synod — whether deceived by the similarity of the name and dignity, which he had in common with [the other] Eusebius, bishop first of Berytus in Palestine, and afterward of Nicomedia in Bithynia, the standard-bearer of the Arians; or led to believe it because Eusebius of Caesarea, in the Council of Nicaea, was unwilling to assent to the word Ὁμοούσιος [Homoousios, “consubstantial”] proposed [by the fathers], except after a long inquiry and examination of the term. Which was done by him not maliciously, but rather out of a sincere zeal for piety. For since many of the bishops wished the word Homoousios to be received, as excluding the multitude of gods which Arius had introduced, but very many bishops sharply turned away from that same word, as introducing the dogma of Sabellius (who held that there was one person of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) — and since, on account of this diversity of opinions, Eusebius long hesitated to which party he should join himself: Eustathius, bishop of Antioch (who afterward, being accused by Cyrus, bishop of Beroea, was deposed), tore him with revilings as though a favorer of Arius and a defiler of the Nicene faith. Eusebius, on the contrary, [maintained] that he neither favored Arius nor corrupted the Nicene faith, but that Eustathius was introducing the perfidy of Sabellius. At last, when it had been declared by the fathers that by this word Homoousios the distinction of the persons — which were of the same nature and essence — was not taken away, he subscribed to the decree of the Homoousians, and, by the command of the fathers, drew up the Symbol of the Nicene faith, which is now chanted in the Church; and, since he was most zealous of the divine Books, he composed many volumes toward their elucidation, following in these Origen, whose admirer and diligent imitator he was. Of these, the ones which pertain to the understanding of the whole divine scripture are these:
A translation into the Greek language of all the books of the Old Testament which are in the Canon of the Hebrews: which Socrates mentions in book 1 of his History, and Sozomen in book 2.
On Hebrew Places, one book: in which he gathered together the names of all the mountains, forests, rivers, cities, towns, villages, and other places named in the sacred Letters, and arranged them according to the order of the letters [alphabetically],
…[arranged], and expounded. Which work, ill translated by an unskilled interpreter, Jerome made into Latin again, cutting out some things which he judged not sufficiently worthy of memory, and adding a preface to the work, which begins, Eusebius, who by blessed Pamphilus…
Of the Topography of the Holy Land [ΤΟΠΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ τῆς ἁγίας γῆς], that is, A Description of the Places of the Holy Land, one book: in which he depicted, in a geographical map, the division of the twelve tribes with their several towns, and the whole structure of the city of Jerusalem and of its Temple, with a brief explanation added, which set forth the several parts of the whole picture. Jerome mentions this work in the aforesaid preface.
On the Doctrine of the Ancient Men, one book: in which he interpreted innumerable things concerning the life, fortitude, piety, and prudence of the ancient Patriarchs — partly historically, partly allegorically, and tropologically. He himself mentions this work in the seventh book of the Preparation of the Gospel, chapter 3.
Of Eclogae [Selections], or Collectanea of divine Scripture, one book: in which, at the command of Constantine Augustus (who supplied all the costs), he gathered out of the sacred letters especially those passages and sentences which he thought most suited to the edification and use of the Church, and had them multiplied in fifty copies, of the best parchments, by craftsmen skilled in most elegant writing. Theodoret makes mention of these codices in book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 16; and Eusebius himself in book 4 of the Life of Constantine.
On the whole Psalter, most learned commentaries according to the literal and mystical understanding, and especially the meanings of Origen: which Eusebius Sardus [the Sardinian], bishop of Vercelli, having cut out some things which seemed insufficiently sound, presented in Latin for the Western Church to read.
On Isaiah the prophet, books of commentaries according to the historical explanation — as Jerome notes in the preface to his first commentary on Isaiah — fifteen; or, as the same reckons in the book On Illustrious Men, twenty books. Concerning which the same Jerome, in the preface to the fifth commentary on Isaiah, says: Eusebius, promising by his title a historical exposition, sometimes forgets his purpose, and cuts down the allegorical sowings of Origen; and again, in chapter 18 of the same commentary, he adds these words: Eusebius, promising by his title a historical interpretation, wanders off into various senses: when I read his books, I found something far other than what he promised in his index. For wherever the history failed him, he passed over to allegory; and so he joins together things separate, that I marvel at him — joining, by a new fabric of speech, stone and iron into one body.
On both Testaments, assailed by Porphyry in fifteen books, thirty volumes: out of which he wrote three books — namely the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth — for the defense of the whole prophecy of Daniel; against which Porphyry had dictated his twelfth, of the fifteen books which he had put forth against the divine scriptures. Jerome [mentions this] in the preface to his commentary on Daniel.
Of the Evangelical Preparation, fifteen books: in which, although he brings no exposition of the divine volumes, yet he instructs and forms the Gentiles who were to read the evangelical writings, as it were with certain first rudiments.
Of the Evangelical Demonstration, twenty books: in which, chiefly for the sake of the Jews, he demonstrated that nothing is written in the gospel which was not, in the law and the prophets, foretold many ages before. On which occasion he clearly expounds all the scriptures which, in the whole Old Testament, speak of Christ.
Περὶ τῆς τῶν εὐαγγελίων διαφωνίας, that is, On the Dissonance of the Gospels, one book: in which he brought all the passages of the Gospels which seem to conflict in appearance to a stable concord. A fragment of this work — On the controversy over the time of the Lord’s resurrection, between Matthew and Mark — Ambrose of Milan, a monk of Cassino, lately translated into Latin.
Of the Evangelical Canons, one book:4 in which, provoked by the zeal of Ammonius of Alexandria (who had gathered one [gospel] out of the four gospels), he wrote — of a like subject, but by a different method — to Carpianus, ten Canons, for knowing wherein the Evangelists have said either things similar among themselves, or each severally his own proper things. Which work Jerome made into Latin. Its beginning is, Eusebius to Carpianus his brother.
On the first Epistle to the Corinthians, commentaries: which Jerome mentions in the epistle to Pammachius, which begins, Of Christian modesty.
He flourished under Constantine the Great and Constantius, about the year of the Lord 320. His life was committed to writing by Acacius, his successor in the episcopate, and by Eusebius, bishop of Emesa. And Socrates, in book 2 of his History, wove an apology for his doctrine out of his own works.
Eusebius, bishop of Emesa, surnamed the Philosopher, sprung of noble parents at Edessa in Mesopotamia, and from his youth imbued with the sacred letters, then instructed also in the Greek disciplines at Edessa, afterward withdrew to Antioch, to Euphronius, bishop of the same city: by whom, when he was being urged to the priesthood, he fled to Alexandria, and there learned philosophy. Returning thence to Antioch, he remained with Placitus [Flacillus] the bishop, the successor of Euphronius, until, by Eusebius bishop of Constantinople, he was ordained bishop of Alexandria in the place of Athanasius, still living and in exile; which dignity, when he had refused it (fearing the hatred of the Alexandrians, by whom Athanasius was singularly loved), he was sent to the bishopric of the Emesenes. And when they disagreed at his ordination, accusing him that he had practiced mathematics [astrology], he took to flight, and went off to Laodicea, to Gregory, the bishop of that city: who restored him at Antioch, and again had him conducted to Emesa by Placitus and Narcissus. There, being again accused that he held with Sabellius, a little after he was restored as innocent; but at last, when the Emperor Constantine [read Constantius] set out against the barbarians, he was taken along, and there, among the Persians, miracles were done by his hands.
This man, therefore, when he had diligently and accurately searched the divine Books — with Eusebius of Caesarea and Patrophilus, bishop of Scythopolis, as his guides — published many commentaries upon them according to the sense of the letter, but especially on Genesis; in which he discussed not only the translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, but also the Syriac edition. There still survive, in the Greek Catena, fragments of these commentaries, of which Jerome also makes mention in the Hebrew Questions, censuring their author because, in expounding that [text] from the 22nd chapter of Genesis, There was a ram in the thicket Sabech [Gen 22:13], he interpreted by “Sabech” the he-goat, which, with horns erect, is raised aloft to crop the foliage.
He wrote also, on the Epistle to the Galatians, ten books of commentaries, and on the Gospels homilies — brief indeed, but very many. His style, so far as we can conjecture from the fragments which survive in the Catenae of the Greek explanations, and in the Dialogues of Theodoret, displays the same elegance which Jerome attributes to him, writing thus in the book On Illustrious Men: Eusebius, bishop of Emesa, of an elegant and rhetorical genius, composed innumerable books, and such as pertain to the applause of the people; and, having followed rather the history, he is most zealously read by those who wish to declaim.
There came out in recent years, under the name of Eusebius of Emesa, Homilies on the Gospels of the whole year, printed at Paris: yet it appears that these are rhapsodies, [made] by a Latin writer and patched together out of the Latin fathers. The style smacks either of Bede, or of Rabanus [Maurus], or of some other not unlike them both. He dies under Constantius Augustus, buried at Antioch, in the year of the Lord 350.
Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli, a Sardinian by nation, formerly a lector of the city of Rome. When he wished to free his son Dionysius (who afterward was illustrious by martyrdom) from the hands of the Arians — who had so deceived his simplicity that they even retained the pledge of his subscription — he feigned himself to be an Arian. And when they demanded from him a written bond, as it were a hostage of his faith, he, having received the book in which the names of the Arians were written, promptly ascribed his own name; and, immediately turning to them, said that this pleased him which pleased them, but that he was gravely moved because they had set his son Dionysius before himself in the subscribing. “For you,” he said, “who say that the Son of God cannot be equal to God the Father, why have you preferred [my] son to me?” Moved by which reasoning, they immediately erased Dionysius’s autograph, granting the prior place of subscription to Eusebius. But he, chiding and mocking them, said: “Neither do I pollute myself with your crimes, nor do I permit my son to share [them] with you.” And saying this, at the same time he drew his son away by the hand and led him off with him.
For which cause he was banished by the Emperor Constantius, a favorer of the Arians, to Scythopolis, and thence to Cappadocia; and at last, under the Emperor Julian, he returned to his own Church: and there he published commentaries on the whole Psalter, which he gathered from the commentaries of Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea (translated by himself into Latin), passing over many things which seemed to incline to the Arian heresy. He died under Valens and Valentinian, the Augusti, crowned with martyrdom, in the year of the Lord 380. St. Ambrose wrote his encomium in two sermons.
Eustachius, or Eustathius, bishop of Antioch, illustrious in the great Nicene synod, who fought vehemently against Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, for the word Homoousios, and, being accused by Cyrus, bishop of Beroea, was a little after deposed from the episcopate; he wrote most learned commentaries on the Psalter, out of which Theodoret, in the dialogues Immutable and Impassible, cites testimonies against the heretics from the exposition of Psalm 15 and 92. He wrote also, on that [text] from the 8th chapter of Proverbs, The Lord possessed me, etc. [Prov 8:22], one book, cited by Theodoret in the aforesaid dialogues. He flourished in the year of the Lord 340.
Euthalius, a deacon of an uncertain church, Greek by nation, a pious and learned man, described in the Greek tongue a very brief compendium: in which he most strictly compressed the life and martyrdom, and especially the journeying of Paul, and the places and cities which that most illustrious Apostle of Christ traversed. Which is most conducive to the understanding of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. The work begins, Paul the Apostle.
Euthalius of Rhodes, a monk of St. Basil, compiled in the Greek tongue a work of Concordances of the whole Bible, in imitation of Hugh [of St. Cher, “Eugo Carensis”], in the year of the Lord 1300.
Euthymius Zigabenus, a monk of St. Basil, a diligent expositor of the scriptures, gathered — out of the writings of the ancient Fathers, and especially of Chrysostom, whom he often cites by name — elegant, succinct, and openly learned Commentaries: in which, according to the various editions, he followed the fourfold sense, and among these especially the literal, the most difficult of all. The beginning of the work is [in Greek], that is, The author of this present book, indeed… These commentaries the excellent and most learned man Philip Sauli, bishop of Brugnato, first of all made into Latin.
He is also believed to be the author of the Greek Catena which, written, is kept in the Vatican library: in which, from the sayings of the holy Greek fathers arranged alternately, the five books of Moses are most fully explained. By whose help Aloysius [Luigi] Lippomano, bishop of Verona, made use [of it] in the text of his own Catena on Genesis and Exodus. And the names of the Authors, from whose sentences the work was collected, are these:
Philo Judaeus, Origen, Hippolytus, Basil, Gregory the Theologian [Nazianzen], Eusebius of Emesa, Isidore of Pelusium, Eustathius, Gennadius, Theophilus, Serapion, Diodorus Charterius [of Tarsus]; Apollinaris, Acacius, Didymus, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Cyril, Severian, Ephrem, Gregory of Nyssa, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, [and] Philo the bishop [of Carpasia].
The beginning of the [catena] work is: Θεοδωρήτου εἰς τὰ ἄπορα τῆς θείας γραφῆς, that is, Theodoret, on the difficulties [ambiguous places] of the divi[ne scripture]
…of the divine scripture. He flourished under Alexius the Emperor, in the year of the Lord 1180.
The commentaries of Euthymius on the Epistles of St. Paul, John Henten of Nechlin [Hentenius] turned into the Latin tongue — who from a Hieronymite became a Dominican. The same Euthymius wrote on the Evangelists and on all the Psalms.
Ezekiel, a poet of Jewish tragedies, wrote a dramatic work in Greek verses, entitled Ἐξαγωγή, that is, THE LEADING-OUT: in which he elegantly sang the upbringing of Moses, and the leading-out of the people from Egypt accomplished by his power. Clement of Alexandria mentions this work in the first [book] of the Stromata, citing from it nearly fifty verses. He flourished in the year 40 before Christ.