GENNADIUS OF MASSILIA: A presbyter of Massilia (Marseilles), contemporary of Pope Gelasius I. (492--496; cf. Gennadius, De vir. ill., xcix. [c.]), who, under the same title, continued Jerome's De viris illustribus, thus furnishing, in spite of many blunders, a very important source and in part the only source of our acquaintance with the ninety-one (ninety-three) authors treated therein. Gennadius knew Greek well and was well read in Eastern and Western, orthodox and heretical literature. He was a diligent compiler and a competent critic. His Semi-Pelagian attitude is evident in his eulogies of Cassian, Faustus of Riez, and others, as well as in his derogatory verdicts on the opposing side--Augustine, Prosper of Aquitaine, and even popes. The date of composition is uncertain. The present form of the text indicates a repeated revision of the entire work. It was edited by J. Andreas (Rome, 1468), by C. A. Bernoulli (Freiburg, 1895), by E. C. Richardson in

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TU, xiv. (Leipsic, 1896), and is reprinted from J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca ecclesiastica (Hamburg, 1718), in MPL, Iviii. 1059-1120. There is an Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2d ser., iii. 385-402. Gennadius also composed Adversus omnes hæreses libri viii.; five books against Nestorius; ten books against Eutyches; three books against Pelagius; a Tractatus de millenio et de apocalypsi beati Johannis; and an Epistola de fide, which he sent to Gelasius. There is also attributed to Gennadius a Liber ecclesiasticorum dogmatum (Hamburg, 1614; reprinted in MPL, Iviii. 979-1054), an abstract of catholic doctrine with a polemical bent. Its composition by Gennadius would appear to confirm his leaning toward Semi-Pelagianism.

(G. Krüger.)

Bibliography: C. H. Turner, in JTS, vii (1906), 78-99; E. Jungmann, Quæstiones Gennadianæ, Leipsic, 1881; A. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters, i. 447-449, ib. 1889; B. Czapla, Gennadius als Litterarhistoriker, Münster, 1898; F. Diekamp, in Römische Quartalschrift, xii (1898), 411-420; DCB, ii. 631-632; H. Hurter, Nomenclator literarius, i. 409, Innsbruck, 1903; H. Koch, Vincenz von Lerin und Gennadius, in T U, xxxi. 2 (1907); Ceillier, Auteurs sacrés, x. 600-606.