4. Details of His Life

ever, his writings were best pre his Life. served in the laura of Sabas, the region where his memory was retained the longest, and since he resided in Asia and his creed is Asiatic and non-Egyptian in character, there is good foundation for the supposition that he sought the Syrian rather than the Egyptian desert. Johannes Moschus, moreover, in his Pra tum spirituale makes certain statements "about Father Marcus the Anchorite," who lived in the Syrian desert. The date of Marcus is approxi-

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mately fixed by the monastic system which was at once developed yet free in form, the mention of the Council of Nic:ea as an event of the past, the development of the doctrine of the three hypostases of the Godhead, his independence of tradition, and his creed in his polemic against the Nestorians, as well as by the omission of all mention of the Antiochian Creed of 433 or of the Chalcedonian Creed.

5. His Theology

As a theologian Marcus was ethical rather than dogmatic, feeling that it was more important to keep the commandments of Christ than to speculate concerning the miracles of God. Convinced that the truth was contained in the apostolic tradition of the Church, and needed only to be guarded against innovations, he never dogmatized except when obliged to do so, and then based his arguments directly on the Bible so far as he could. He accordingly decided Christological controversies by referring the predicates both of exaltation and humility to Christ, guided by his belief in the uncom- bined yet essentially indivisible union of the Logos and the flesh, since the deeds of a mere man could not give salvation. The general theological position of Marcus closely approximates that of Chrysostom, Nilus, Isidore of Pelusium, and, in Biblical doctrine, of Theodore of Mopsuestia. His ethical attitude is in harmony with his theology. His asceticism is practical rather than mystical, and he attaches little value to mere formalism. In his teachings concerning sin and grace Marcus Eremite held that man was mortal since and be cause of the sin of Adam, inasmuch as he, being himself condemned to die, could beget none but mortal offspring. Though this death is termed sin and punishment, he denies original sin in so far as he restricts sin to voluntary acts. Death is de fined as "estrangement from God," which must be obviated by the atonement of Christ, yet the view is nowhere expressed that death is the cause of sin, but the opinion is maintained that the prevalent of sin is the fault of the individual, though all are subject to a captivity and impurity which can be removed only by the grace of Christ. Grace accordingly consists, on the one hand, of the ransom from death by the death of Christ, and, on the other, in the mystic gift of the Holy Ghost through the baptism of the Catholic Church, which thus re stores the perfect freedom of the will hindered by the dominion of sin. The power to fulfil the com mandments of Christ is conferred by grace, though the human will is a necessary condition of the mani festation of grace according to Phil. ii. 13. Never theless, in all good works hidden grace alone is re vealed, and all self-righteousness is thus excluded, while grace so completely annihilates the entire "fault of Adam" that the death of the baptized is traced to their own iniquities. On the other hand, death is necessary for the attainment of complete perfection, for while man remains in the flesh, his human nature renders it impossible for him to be come unchanging.

(Johannes Kunze.)

Bibliography: The works of Marcus are found most handily in MPG, lxv. 903-1140 with prefatorial matter, pp. 893 sqq. One of his hitherto unknown writings (§ 1 above) is printed by P Kerameus in Analekta Hierosolymitikes atachyologias, i. 89-113, St. Petersburg, 1891. For Syriac, translations cf. J. S. Awemani, Bibliotheea orientalis iii. 1, pp. 96, 194, Rome, 1728; W. Wright, Catalogue of Syriac MSS. in the British Museum, London, 1871; E. Sachau, Verzeichnis der syrischen Handschriften . . . zu Berlin, Berlin, 1899. Consult: J. Kunze, Marcus Eremita, sin neuer Zeupe für das allkirchliche Taufbekenntnis Leipsic, 1895; idem, in TLB, xix (1898), 393-398; C. Oudin, Commentaries de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, i. 902-908, Leipsic, 1722; G. C. Hamburger, Zuverldasipe Nachrichten von den vornehmaten Schriftetellern, iii. 1-3, Lemgo, 1780; Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Greca, ix. 267-289, Hamburg; 1804; T. Ficker, in ZHT, xxxviii (1868), 402 sqq.; U. Chevalier, Rgpertoire dee sources historiguw, Paris, 1877-86; J. Fewler, Institutiones lxitrologice, ed. Jungmann ii. 143-146, Innsbruck, 1892; Ceillier, Auteurs sacrés, xi. 634-643; H. G. Floes, Macarii Epvptii epistolm, in MPG, lxv. 877 sqq.; DCB, iii. 826-827; KL, viii. 684.