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[German Version] The received text (T, first attested by Pirmin, Scarapsus §§10/12/28) of the creed known in the modern period as the Symbolum apostolicum or Symbolum Apostolorum goes back to the so-called Old Roman creed (R). The great majority of scholars accept the hypothesis of J. Ussher, archbishop of Armagh (1647), that R is first attested in Greek in Marcellus of Ancyra (Epiphanius, Haer. 72.3.1 = BSGR §17) or in the Psalter of Aethelstan (§18); the Latin text can be reconstructed from Rufinus's Explanatio symboli (§19). From 1910–1916 onward,…

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[German Version] officiated from about 351 as bishop of Milan. On account of his bold stance at the synod held there in 355 (Homoeans), Constantius II banished him to Armenia together with Eusebius of Vercelli and Lucifer of Cagliari; he died there. Perhaps …

[German Version] Traditional terminology in the history of dogma and theology distinguishes between “Dynamic” and a “Modalist” Monarchianism. It thereby subsumes under a common generic term (although see A. v. Harnack) the groups that energetically …

[German Version] Ptolemy worked in Rome as a freelance Christian teacher around the middle of the 2nd century; he was active in the “school” of the Roman teacher Valentinus (Iren. Haer. I prol. 2), possibly because he was a personal disciple of Valentinus. Only one text survives that can be ascribed to Ptolemy with assurance: an instructional epistle to the Roman matron Flora, preserved by Epiphanius of Salamis ( Haer. 33.3–7). The epistle deals with biblical interpretation, the Old Testament law, and the theory of principles. A brief discussion of Valentinian Gnosticism (Gnosis) preserved by Irenaeus of Lyon ( …

[German Version] (Jul 31, 1788, Merseburg – May 31, 1843, Jena) studied classical philology and theology in Leipzig. After completing his habilitation in 1809 in the philosophical faculty there, he became associate professor of theology in 1812 and full professor of theology in 1817 in Jena. Baumgarten's erudition is demonstrated by his numerous articles on ancient philology and church h…

[German Version] Together with Montanus, the three women belong to the principal prophetic personalities of what later came to be known as the Montanism of Asia Minor. The variant name form “Prisca” is also attested for Priscilla in the writings of Tertullian. Seven of their prophetic logia have been preserved (nos. 5–11, Heine). Quintilla may well have belonged to a second generation of prophetesses, as her name is not explicitly mentioned in the earliest sources (cf. however Eus. Hist. eccl. V 18.6). How the exact hierarchical and institutional relationship of the origin…

[German Version] (Oct 25, 1800, St.-Fluor, Département Cantal – Oct 2…

[German Version] (c. 1081, Argenteuil – 1151, St.-Denis), was born to a wealthy family; c. 1091 he became an oblate in the royal Frankish abbey of St.-Denis before the gates of Paris. In 1101 he took his solemn vows; in 1107 he defended the exempt status of the abbey before Pope Paschal II. After serving in various political and ecclesiastical…

[German Version] (422–432). As the successor of Boniface I, Celestine attempted to consolidate the Roman primacy, but he encountered the resistance of the West African bishops. Moreover, he opposed Pelagianism (Pelagius) and from 430 Nestorius; the majority of his correspondence relates to this conflict. ¶ …

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[German Version] I. Terminology and Sources – II. History – III. Theology I. Terminology and Sources Since the late 4th century, the adherents of a prophetic movement in early Christianity dating from the 2nd century have been referred to polemically as “Montanists,” and the movement itself was called “Montanism” (e.g Cyril of Jerusalem, …

[German Version] (333/334, Trier – 397) was an importa…

[German Version] The modern term “neo-Niceanism” (Ger. Neunicaenismus), with its variants, is said to go back to F. Loofs. It denotes a specific Trinitarian position of the later 4th century (Arius) that was made normative in 381 at the Second Imperial Council of Constantinople (Constantinople, Council of: IV, 1) and in other confessional documents ( Symbolum Quicumque ). It belongs to the traditional corpus of teaching that shapes the identity of most Christian churches and faith communities. It is true that in the last 100 years the content of the expression “neo-Nicea…

[German Version] The use of water instead of wine in the Lord's Supper is attested esp. in the so-called NT Apocrypha ( Acts Pet. II 2; Acts Paul 7; Acts Thom. 120–21/152/158[?]), but it seems also to have been customary occasionally when wine was unavailable in the mainstream church ( Martyrdom of Pionius 3.1); Irenaeus ascribed a corresponding practice to Jewish Christians ( Haer. V 1.3); Clement of Alexandria to Encratites ( Paedagogus II 32.3–4; Stromata I 96.1); Epiphanius to Marcion ( …

[German Version] According to Eusebius ( Hist. eccl. IV 28, cf. also 21) Musanus wrote a lost, “very elegant” book against people who had gone over to the so-called Encratites. Both the author's date and his place remain unclear. Suggestions, among others, are (because of the statement of Eusebius) t…

[German Version] The Early Church's heresiologies employ this term (derived from Gk ἐγκράτεια/ enkráteia, “self-control,” “abstinence”) to describe a group of ascestics (Asceticism) and date their ori…

[German Version] was one of the three founders of a 2nd-century prophetic movement in Asia Minor (Maximilla, Priscilla and Quintilla), which since the 4th century has been called Montanism after him. As his Phrygian name indicates, he apparently came from Asia Minor. Later heresiology (Heresy: II, 2) in authors of the 4th century transmits further but probably unhistorical details of his life. Thus he is said to have been originally a priest of Apollo ( Disputatio [in Heine, 123]) or Cybele (Jer. Ep. 41,4), and to have hanged himself. Epiphanius of Salamis records four prophe…

[German Version] (Mar 3, 1875, Düsseldorf – Jun 25, 1942, Locarno). After passing his Abitur in Wittenberg, Lietzmann went to Jena in 1893 to study classical philology and theology, but it was his studies at Bonn from 1894 to 1898 that enduringly influenced …

[German Version] of Bēth Ukkāme (Paul the Black, Paulos Melanos; c. 500 Alexandria – 584 Constantinople). In 564 Jacob Baradaeus consecrated Archimandrite Paul, who had grown up in Alexandria, as the anti-Chalcedonian (Jacobite) patriarch of Antioch (Monophysites), a position he held until 577. His tenure was beset by serious church-political conflicts. A temporary flirtation of the patriarch with the creed of Chalcedon affirming the two natures of Christ (c. 571) was followed by an abrupt dissociation and retur…