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361 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA g8Q
of another to Pontius and Caricus regarding Montanism; of a treatise warning the church at Rhossus against a Gospel of Peter see (PETER THE APOSTLE, III.); and of other writings to various persons (Eusebius, Hist. ecd., V., xix., VI., xii.; Jerome, De vir. ill., xli. ; Socrates, Hist. eccl., III., vii.).
2-4. Three men of the name were known in the Alexandrian church of the third century. The first wus a martyr under Decius, celebrated Nov. 14. The second of the name in the same persecution sacrificed, but repented and received the sacrament on his death-bed. The third is named by Philip of Side among the leaders in the Alexandrian catechetical school, but his identity can not be more closely determined.
5. Bishop of Thmuis in Lower Egypt, a friend of St. Anthony and also of Athanasius, who directed to him four letters concerned with a form of the Macedonian heresy. The year of his death is unknown. At the Synod of Seleucia, 359, Ptolemmus took part as bishop of Thmuis. The treatise against Manicheanism belonging to him, intruded in part into the work of Titus of Bostra, has been edited by Brinkmann (in SBA, 1894, pp. 479-491). Mai edited two letters to Bishop Eudoxius and to a monk (reproduced in MPG, xl. 923-942). Pitra has edited some fragments (in Analecta sacra, ii. pp. xl., 27-28, iv. 214, 443-144); while some prayers in MS. 149 of the monastery on Mt. Athos are attributed to him (nos. 1, 15), and others (16, 17) are probably his (Wobbermin in T U, xvii. 3b, 1898). An addition to this, an appendix to the same collection in the form of letters "On the Father and the Son," may safely be attributed to him.
6. A monk of the Scetic desert, leader of the anthropomorphite monks (see ORIGENISTIC CONTROVERSIES).
7. Serapion Sindonetes, so called from the linen or cotton clothing which he wore. He is one of the heroes of the Historia Lausiaca, who experienced many adventures in his journeys to Greece and Rome. Nan sees in him the hero of the story of Thais. Leontius of Naples reports in the life of Johannes Eleemon that this Serapion sold his garments and his copy of the Gospels in order to be able to give alms.
8. Bishop of Heraclea. Chrysostom of Conatantinople ordained to the diaconate a person named Serapion and assigned him the duties of archdeacon. He supported the bishop in his disciplinary measures, and by his severity widened the breach between bishop and clergy. While Chrysostom was at Ephesus, he entrusted to Serapion the administration of the diocese; at this time Severian of Gabala was at the capital intriguing against Chrysostom, and Serapion had him expelled. After his return from his first exile, Chrysostom had his supporter made bishop of Heraclea in Thrace. In the subsequent misfortunes of Chrysostom Serapion shared, was deprived of his bishopric and deported to Egypt.
On 5: Bardenhewer, ut sup., pp. 234-235 (where bibliographical matter is furnished confirmatory of that given in the text. On 7: note Nan, in Hiat. de Thais', Annnies du Music Guimd, sxa (1903), 51.
SERGIUS, ser'ji-us: . The name of four popes. Sergius I.: Pope 687-701. Of Syrian ancestry, he himself was born at Palermo, and, coming to Rome in the pontificate of Adeodatus (q.v.), was ordained to the priesthood in 682 or 683. On the death of Conon in 687, he became the candidate of the municipal authorities, the militia, and a large part of the clergy of Rome, with a view to ending the rivalry of the archdeacon Paschalis and the archpriest Theodore, each of whom had seized a portion of the Lateran without being able to dis lodge his antagonist. When Sergius entered the Lateran, Theodore at once renounced his claims, but Paschalis, though compelled to do likewise, summoned his patron, John, exarch of Ravenna, to Rome. When the latter arrived, he recognized the validity of the election of Sergius, though extorting from him the hundred pounds of gold which Pas chalis had promised in return for the exarch's as sistance. Enthroned on Dec. 15, 687, Sergius sought not only to defend the authority of the Curia in the East, but to strengthen relations with the Anglo Saxon church in the West, and to secure connection with the Anglo-Saxon missions to the continent. Both in Britain and with Pippin (see WILLIBRORD, SAINT) he was completely successful. He baptized Ca:dwalla, king of Wessex, at Rome in 689, and a few years later reinstated the deposed Wilfrid of York, but the statement of the Liber pontificalis, that he consecrated Brihtwald, eighth archbishop of Canterbury, probably confuses the sending of the pallium with the consecration, which, according to Bede (Hilt. eccl., v. 8), was performed by the French Metropolitan Goduin, or Godwin. The pope's at titude toward the East was determined by his de cided rejection of the decisions of the Trullan Synod of 692 (see TRULLAN SYNODS), and on his emphatic refusal to subscribe to them, Justinian II. sent the Protospathary Zacharias to bring the pontiff to Rome. But Italy rallied to the pope's defense, and Zacharias escaped death only by throwing himself upon the protection of Sergius, who thus emerged victorious, even while deepening the gulf already existing between the Eastern and the Western Church. The death of Sergius took place Sept. 8, 701, and he is commemorated on that day in the Roman "Martyrology." (A. HAUCK.)BrBLI06RAPHY: L13er pontificalis, ed. L. Ducheane, i. 244, Paris, 1886, ed. T. ilfommsen, in MGH, Gest. Font. Rom., i (1898), 210 aqq.; R. Baxmann, Die Politik der Pdpate, i. 188, Elberfeld, 1868; bf. Heimbucher, Die Papatxaahlen unter den Karolinyern, pp. 15 aqq., Augsburg, 1889; Hefele, Concdliengeschichte, iii. 345 eqq., Eng. transl., v. 239 aqq. Fr. ttansl., iii. 1, pp. 578-591; Bower, Popes, i. 492-496; Plating, Popes, i. 188-172; DCB, iv. 818620: ASS, Sept., iii. 425-445; Ceillier, Auleura aacrla, xii. 984.
Sergius IT.: Pope 844-74. By birth he was a Roman noble, and was educated at the papal court, finally being made archpriest by Gregory IV. On the death of this pontiff, in Jan., 844, a deacon named John was put forward as a candidate for the papal throne by the populace, only to succumb