Primasius (died around 560) was bishop of Hadrumetum and primate of Byzacena, in Africa. One of the participants in the Three Chapters Controversy, his commentary on the Book of Revelation is of interest to modern scholars for its use of the lost commentary of

Ticonius Ticonius, also spelled Tyconius or Tychonius (active 370–390 AD) was one of the most important theologians of 4th-century North African Latin Christianity. He was a Donatist writer whose conception of the City of God influenced St. Augustine of H ...

on the same book of the New Testament. According to M.L.W. Laistner, his disciples included the African theologian

Junillus Junillus Africanus (''floruit'' 541–549) was Quaestor of the Sacred Palace (''quaestor sacri palatii'') in the court of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. He is best known for his work on biblical exegesis, ''Instituta regularia divinae legis''. ...

Life

Of his early life nothing seems to be known, but in 551, after he had become a bishop, he was called with other bishops to Constantinople and took part in the Three Chapters Controversy. He shared the fortunes of Pope Vigilius and helped to condemn Theodorus Ascidas, bishop of Caesarea, the chief promoter of the controversy, and fled with Vigilius to Chalcedon. He declined to attend the Fifth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in the absence of the pope, and was the sole African to sign the papal '' constitutum'' to Emperor Justinian.

Works

While at Constantinople, Primasius studied the exegesis of the Greeks, and his fame is chiefly due to his commentary on Revelation. This work, divided into five books, is of importance both as a witness of the pre-Cyprian Latin text of the Book of Revelation used by the North African church, and as aiding in the reconstruction of the most influential Latin commentary on Revelation, the exegetical work of the Donatist Ticonius. The text and exegesis of Revelation 20:1-21:6 are taken without attribution from

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...

's '' De civitate Dei'', 20.7-17. The work of Ticonius was considered by Primasius a piece of treasure adrift and belonging of right to the Church, needing only to be revised and expurgated. Ticonius had developed the theory introduced by Victorinus, to examine the different words and imagery used in different passages to convey the same message. Primasius followed this exegetical method very closely, but differed from Ticonius on the greater message of the text. Where Ticonius believed Revelation should be read in terms of the struggle of the Donatists with false brethren and gentiles, Primasius held the conflict properly lay between the Church and the world. Of special interest is a letter of Augustine to the physician

Maximus of Thenae Maximus (Hellenised as Maximos) is the Latin term for "greatest" or "largest". In this connection it may refer to: * Circus Maximus (disambiguation) * Pontifex maximus, the highest priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome People Roman h ...

preserved by Primasius, in which the four philosophical cardinal virtues are combined with the later three so-called theological virtues, making the number seven, in a manner nowhere else known of Augustine. The

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

of Primasius's commentary was by

Eucharius Cervicornus Saint Eucharius is venerated as the first bishop of Trier. He lived in the second half of the 3rd century. Narrative According to an ancient legend, he was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, and was sent to Gaul by Saint Peter as ...

(Cologne, 1535; reprinted, Paris, 1544), but the most complete and still the most valuable is that of Basel, 1544, which is based on a very ancient manuscript of the Benedictine

Monastery of Murbach Murbach Abbey (french: Abbaye de Murbach) was a famous Benedictine monastery in Murbach, southern Alsace, in a valley at the foot of the Grand Ballon in the Vosges. The monastery was founded in 727 by Eberhard, Count of Alsace, and established a ...

Upper Alsace Upper Alsace (southern Alsace) was a landgraviate of the Holy Roman Empire centred on Ensisheim and Landser, north of the County of Ferrette (Pfirt). The counts of Habsburg ruled the territory from the 1130s down to its cession to France in the ...

. The same monastery, according to a manuscript catalogue, possessed a work ''Contra haereticos'', which is no longer extant, and alludes to other works, especially one on Jeroboam. The commentary on the

Pauline epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest extan ...

and on Hebrews ascribed to Primasius by Migne is spurious.''Patrologia Latina'', lxviii. 409-793.

Notes

{{Authority control 6th-century Byzantine bishops 6th-century Latin writers 6th-century Byzantine writers 6th-century bishops in North Africa