Writings of Methodius, Alexander of Lycopolis, Peter of Alexandria, and Several Fragments

out less in this than in his works On the Resurrection and On Things Created. The treatise On Free Will is, according to recent critics, of doubtful authorship, although the internal evidence must be said to confirm the ancient testimonies which assign it to Methodius. His writings against Porphyry, with the exception of some slight fragments, are lost, as are also his exegetical writings.

For the larger fragments, we are indebted to Epiphanius (Heresies 64) and Photius (Bibliotheca, 234-37).

Combefis published an edition of his works in 1644, but only as much of the Banquet as was contained in the Bibliotheca of Photius. In 1656, Leo Allatius published for the first time a complete edition of this work at Rome from the Vatican manuscript. Combefis in 1672 published an edition founded chiefly upon this; his work has become the basis of all subsequent reprints.

The following translation has been made almost entirely from the text of Migne, which is generally accurate and whose arrangement has been followed throughout. The edition of Jahn in some places rearranges the more fragmentary works, especially that On the Resurrection; but although his text was occasionally found useful in amending the old readings and in improving the punctuation, it was thought better to adhere in general to the text which is best known.

A writer who was pronounced by St. EpiphaniusEpiph. Hær. 64, sec. 63. to be "a learned man who contended most earnestly for the truth,"Original: "ἀνὴρ λόγιος καὶ σφόδρα περὶ τῆς ἀληθείας ἀγωνισάμενος" and by St. Jerome "a most eloquent martyr,"Original: "disertissimus martyr" who elsewhere speaks of him as one who "composed books of clear and well-ordered speech,"Original: "nitidi compositique sermonis libros confecit" cannot be altogether unworthy the attention of the nineteenth century.