Laurentius (15)
Laurentius (15), surnamed
Mellifluus, thought to have been
bp. of Novara c. 507.
A Laurentius, surnamed Mellifluus, from the
sweetness with which he delivered homilies, is
mentioned by Sigebert (Scr. Eccl. c.
120 in Patr. Lat. clx. 572) as the
author of a treatise de Duobus
Temporibus, viz. one period from
Adam to Christ, the other from Christ to the
end of the world. That this Laurentius was
the presbyter who instructed Gaudentius the
first bp. of Novara was maintained by Cotta,
an outline of whose arguments may be seen
in the Acta Eruditorum (suppl. t. ii. pp. 525,
526, ed. Lips. 1696). La Bigne (Max. Bibl.
Pat. t. ix. p. 465, Lugd. 1677) suspects that
Laurentius Mellifluus was bp. of Novara, and
subsequently the 25th bp. of Milan who is
praised by Ennodius in his first Dictio. La
Bigne grounds his opinion on certain allusions
of Ennodius in his second Dictio, which was
sent to Honoratus, bp. of Novara (e.g. Patr.
Lat. lxiii. 269 B). Other
corroborative passages have been adduced by
Mabillon (ut inf.), as
where Ennodius describes Laurentius bp. of
Milan pacifying his haughty brethren by
honeyed words of conciliation
("blandimentorum melle," ib. 267
A). The historians of
literature usually therefore designate Laurentius
Mellifluus bp. of Novara, but he is not
admitted by the historians of the see, as
Ughelli (Ital. Sac. iv. 692) and Cappelletti
(Le Chiese d᾿Ital. xiv. 526). Three extant
treatises
are ascribed to Laurentius Mellifluus, viz. two
homilies, de Poenitentia and de
Eleemosyna, printed by La Bigne in his
Bibliotheca and a
treatise de Mulieye Cananaea, printed by
Mabillon with a note on the author, supporting
the 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) and
the 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 in
the sense of the two dispensations for the
divine pardon of sin. The sin inherited from
Adam is in baptism entirely put away through
the merits of Christ. Christ the second Adam
simply cancelled the sin derived from the
first Adam. Original sin therefore corresponds,
in a manner, with the pre-Christian
period. For actual transgression each person
is himself alone responsible and is to be
released from it by penitence, with which the
treatise is mainly occupied, and so has
received its present title. For other notices see
Ceillier (xi. 95), Dupin (Eccl. Writ. t. i. p.
540, ed. 1722), Tillem. (Mém. x. 259, 260).
[C.H.]