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 496 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 arose the controversy of Pope Symmachus with the antipope Laurentius (see SYMMACHUS), in the course of which Ennodius defended the pope in his Libellus adversus eos qui contra synodum scribere præsumpserunt, basing the papal power on the privileges of Peter. Remaining at Milan as deacon until 512, he was appointed bishop of Padua in 514. He had already accompanied 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 Anastasius 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 made of his numerous, but unimportant, letters, the Vita Epiphanii episcopi Ticini (valuable for its biography of his predecessor), the Vita beati Antonii (very legendary, in the taste of the period), the Panegyricus dictus clementissimo regi Theodorico, the Eucharisticum de vita (autobiographical), and many dictiones on subjects of minor interest.

(T. FÖRSTER †.)

 

Bibliograpry: The works of Ennodius, except the Carmina, are in MPL, lxiii. The Carmina, Epistolæ, and Panegyricus, ed. F. Vogel, are in MGH, Auct. ant., vol. vii., 1885. A list of editions and literature is given in Potthast, Wegweiser, pp. 407-408, 1291, with which cf. Wattenbach. DGQ, i (1885), 47, 70, 404, ii. 480, i (1893), 48, 72. Consult: Fertig, Magnus Felix Ennodius und seine Zeit, Passau, 1855-60; F. Piper, in ZKG, i (1877), 239-256; B. Hasenstab, Studien zu Ennodius, Munich, 1890; 8. Léglise, S. Ennodius et la suprématie au 6. siècle, Lyons, 1890; W. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, ii. 19-20; DCB, ii. 123-124.