Laurentius (15)
From Legacyview Dictionary of Biography
Laurentius (15)
Laurentius (15), surnamed Mellifluus, thought to have been bp. of Novara c. 507.A Laurentius, surnamed Mellifluus, from thesweetness with which he delivered homilies, ismentioned by Sigebert (Scr. Eccl. c. 120 in Patr. Lat. clx. 572) as the author of a treatise de Duobus Temporibus, viz. one period fromAdam to Christ, the other from Christ to theend of the world. That this Laurentius wasthe presbyter who instructed Gaudentius thefirst bp. of Novara was maintained by Cotta,an outline of whose arguments may be seenin the Acta Eruditorum (suppl. t. ii. pp. 525,526, ed. Lips. 1696). La Bigne (Max. Bibl.Pat. t. ix. p. 465, Lugd. 1677) suspects thatLaurentius Mellifluus was bp. of Novara, andsubsequently the 25th bp. of Milan who ispraised by Ennodius in his first Dictio. LaBigne grounds his opinion on certain allusionsof Ennodius in his second Dictio, which wassent to Honoratus, bp. of Novara (e.g. Patr.Lat. lxiii. 269 B). Other corroborative passages have been adduced by Mabillon (ut inf.), aswhere Ennodius describes Laurentius bp. ofMilan pacifying his haughty brethren byhoneyed words of conciliation ("blandimentorum melle," ib. 267 A). The historians ofliterature usually therefore designate Laurentius Mellifluus bp. of Novara, but he is notadmitted by the historians of the see, asUghelli (Ital. Sac. iv. 692) and Cappelletti (Le Chiese d᾿Ital. xiv. 526). Three extant treatisesare ascribed to Laurentius Mellifluus, viz. twohomilies, de Poenitentia and de Eleemosyna, printed by La Bigne in his Bibliotheca and atreatise de Mulieye Cananaea, printed byMabillon with a note on the author, supportingthe view of La Bigne, in his Analecta (p. 55,ed. 1723). The homilies are in La Bigne(Max. Bib. Pat. t. ix. p. 465, Lug. 1677) andthe three treatises in Migne (Patr. Lat. lxvi.87) with both La Bigne's and Mabillon's notices of the author. Cave mistakenly says (i. 493)that the de Duobus Temporibus is lost, for it is evidently the homily de Poenitentia, which opens with an exposition of the "duo tempora," which terms he employs somewhat inthe sense of the two dispensations for thedivine pardon of sin. The sin inherited fromAdam is in baptism entirely put away throughthe merits of Christ. Christ the second Adamsimply cancelled the sin derived from thefirst Adam. Original sin therefore corresponds, in a manner, with the pre-Christianperiod. For actual transgression each personis himself alone responsible and is to be released from it by penitence, with which thetreatise is mainly occupied, and so has received its present title. For other notices seeCeillier (xi. 95), Dupin (Eccl. Writ. t. i. p. 540, ed. 1722), Tillem. (Mém. x. 259, 260).
