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Solomon Bon of God THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 498
tradition about him. Whether he knew the Fourth Gospel, with which he has many ideas and expressions in common, is one of the points that are still in debate. He has occasional points of contact with the Pauline epistles, and even more with the Apocalypse, though it is difficult to establish quotations. His real Gospel appears to have been one of the lost Hebrew or Nazarene Gospels, perhaps the same as that of which Jerome found a copy in Tiberias. To this he owed some details in reference to the baptism, and perhaps one or two sayings of Jesus. It is curious that he has no eschatology, and no day of judgment; immortality is not innate, but acquired. On the ethical. side the most important feature is that the book appears to contain the first Christian prohibition of the purchase of slaves.
The church orders and ritual are almost absent; it is not certain that baptism is alluded to, still less are there traces of a Christian eucharist, as commonly (mown. The only reference to the officials are an allusion: (1) to blessed deacons who carry the water of life, (2) to a priesthood in spiritual things which the writer says he possesses, which is carefully defined as not being of a carnal nature, but consisting of truth and purity in the inmost parts.
The writer shows a strong attachment to the Jewish religion on many sides: he has an affection for the sanctuary at Jerusalem, which must be assumed to have fallen before the time when he was writing; he holds fast to the Old Testament, allegorizes (as do all early Christians) the story in Genesis, imitates the Psalms, and makes evangelical doctrine out of Isaiah (e.g., chap. axxv.).
Though there is much that is still uncertain, as to the place, time, and character of the writer, enough is known to place him as a worthy representative of the first or second generation after the apostles; and the new hymns will exert a wide influence upon the thought of the Church.
SOLOMON, PSALMS OF. See PsauDzPlaRAraA, 0. T., II., 1.
SOLOMON, WISDOM OF. See APocRyPSA, A, iv., 13.
SON, KONRAD. See SAM.SOMASCHIARS, so-mas'ki-ans ("Regular Clerks of St. Majolus "): One of the most important monastic congregations evoked by the Counter-Reformation. They derive their name from the Italian village of Somascho (between Milan and Bergamo), where their founder, Girolamo Miani (or Emiliani), wrote the first rule for them. Miani, who was of senatorial rank, was born at Venice in 1481, and, entering the army, was recognized as a brave but dissolute officer. Captured at the storming of Castelnuovo, near Treviso, in 1508, he was led during his imprisonment to repentance for his past career,
and on his liberation (according to many, through the miraculous aid of the Virgin) he devoted himself to asceticism, prayer, and the care of the sick and poor. At Venice he took orders, being ordained
priest in 1518, and manifested the utmost self-denial and bravery, especially during the famine and plague of 1528. He now made absolute re nunciation of his wealth, and, in the habit of a men dicant friar, gave himself to the care, education, and conversion of orphans and fallen women. With in the year he established an orphan asylum in Venice, which was imitated at Bergamo, Verona, and Brescia, and in 1532 he opened a home for fallen women in his native city. In 1532 or 1533 Miani established his congregation for the care of these institutions and the training of pupils for the same purpose; and Clement VII. gave him the mother house at Somascho, where Miani died Feb. 8, 1537, after having established daughter houses at Pavia and Milan. He was beatified by Benedict XIV., and canonised in 1761 by Clement XIII., his day being July 20.Miani's successor, Angelo Marco Gambarana, secured from Pius V., in 1568, the formal constitution of the congregation under the Augustinian rule, their name being now taken from the church of St. Majolus at Pavia, given them by St. Carlo Borromeo (q.v.). The Somaschians, who were united with the Theatines from 1546 to 1555, and with the French Fathers of Christian Doctrine from 1616 to 1647, exercised deep influence on education through their many colleges, especially the Clementinum, founded at Rome in 1595; while they so increased in numbers that they were divided into the Lombard, Venetian, and Roman provinces, to which was later added the French. The Roman province is now the most important.
The constitutions of the congregation, gradually developed from the autograph draft of the founder, collected by the procurator-general Antonio Paulino in 1626, and confirmed by Urban VIII., have remained practically unchanged to the present day. They prescribe a habit precisely like that of the other regular clerks, strict simplicity of food and furniture, numerous prayers by day and night, fasts and self-castigation, and occupation with manual labor, care of the sick and orphans, and teaching.
Brauoaasmr: The " Life " of the founder is given with commentary in ASB, Feb., ii. 217-274, Ital. trend. by A. Piegadi Venice, 1885 Other lives are by S. Albani, Milan, 1800; A. Stells, Vice, 1805; P. G. de' Ferrari, ib. 1876; an anonymous one, ib. 1767; F. Caaoia, rb. 1822; C. de Rood-Borgogno, Rome, 1867; and W. E. Hubert, Mains, 1895. Consult further, on the order: L. Holeteniue, Codex rqpulanan monaeticarun, ed. M. Brockie, iii. 199-292, Augsburg, 1789; G. Giucci, IconopraJta iatoriea depli ordini relipiosi, vii. 160 sqq., Rote, 1847; E. Gothein, Ipnaa von Loyola and die Gepenrerormation, pp. 193-198, Halle, 1895; Helyot, Ordres monastiques, iv. 223 eqq.; Heimbucher, Orders and Konprepationen, iii. 275-278; %L, :d. 488-487; Ranks, Popes, f. 133-134.
SON OF GOD: A phrase standing for several different meanings in the New Testament. (1) It refers to the divine origination of Jesus by the Holy Spirit (Luke i. 35). (2) In the ethical sense, he is the Son. He is like the Father, perfectly responsive