ENNODIUS, MAGNUS FELIX: Latin author and bishop of Padua; b. at Arles 473 or 474; d. at Padua July 17, 521. His life, until he reached manhood, was secular, and his education was classical. After becoming a convert to Christianity, he delayed making an open profession of faith until attacked by serious illness. With his wife's consent, he separated from her to enter the religious life, and was ordained deacon by Epiphanius of Ticinum at some date previous to 494. In 498 Ennodius went to Milan, where he took an active part in the schism which then convulsed the Church (see Anastasius II.). In connection with this arse the controversy of Pope Symmachue with the antipope Laurentius (see Symmachus), in the course of which Ennodius defended the pope in his Libellue adversus ear qui contra
I synodum scribers prcesumpserunt, basing the papal power on the privileges of Peter. Remaining at
I Milan as deacon until 512, he was appointed bishop of Padua in 514. He had already accompanied I~ his predecessor on a mission of Theodoric to the ~~ Burgundian king Gundobad, and in 515 and 517 he was sent by Pope Hormisdas to the court of the Byzantine emperor Anastaeius in an unsuccessful endeavor to reconcile the Eastern and the Western Churches.As an author Ennodius represents Latin literature in its period of decline. In theology he was a Semi-Pelagian, and made no attempt to conceal his antipathy to Augustine. In addition to the works already noted, special mention may be
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Bibliography: The works of Enaodius, except the Carmsna, are in MPL, lxiii. The Carmina, Epistolos, and Panepyricus, ed. F. Vogel, are in MGH, Aud. ant., vol. vii., 1885. A list of editions end literature is given in Potthast, Wepwefiaer, pp. 407-408, 1291, with which cf. wattenbach, D(iQ, i (1885 ), 47, 70, 404, ii. 480, i (1893), 48, 72. Consult: Fertig, Magnus Felix Ennodiw und seine Zeit, Passau, 18550; F. Piper, in ZKO, i (1877), 239-258; B. Hasenstab, Studien zu Ennodius, Munich, 1890; 8. L6glise, S. Ennodiub et la euprEnwtie au B, sidele, Lyons, 1890; w. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, ii. 19-20; DCB, ii. 123-124.
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