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Tychonius


Ticonius, also spelled Tyconius or Tychonius (active 370–390 AD) was an African Donatist writer whose conception of the City of God influenced St. Augustine of Hippo (who wrote a book on the same topic).

He appears to have had some influence on Augustine of Hippo. He defended a milder form of Donatism than Parmenianus. He admitted a church outside his own sect and rejected the rebaptism of Catholics. Parmenianus wrote a letter against him, quoted by Augustine. Otherwise almost all we know of him is contained in Gennadius:

"Tichonius an African was learned in theology, sufficiently instructed in history, not ignorant of secular knowledge. He wrote books, De bello intestino and Expositiones diversarum causarum [these are both Donatist apologies]: in which, to defend his side, he quotes ancient synods; from which he is seen to have been of the Donatist party. He composed eight [should be seven] rules for discovering the meaning of the Scriptures, which he arranged in one book. He also explained the whole Apocalypse of John, understanding all of it in a spiritual sense, nothing carnally. In this exposition he said that the body [of man] is the dwelling-place of an angel. He denied the idea of a kingdom of the righteous on earth lasting a thousand years after the resurrection. Nor did he admit two future resurrections of the dead in the flesh, one of the good and one of the bad, but only one of all, in which the misbegotten and deformed will rise too, so that no part of the human race ever animated by a soul shall perish. He showed the distinction of the resurrection really to be that we must believe that there is a revelation of the righteous now in this world, when those justified by faith rise by baptism from the death of sin to the reward of the eternal life, and the second [resurrection] to be the general one of all flesh. He flourished at the same time as Tyrannius Rufinus; in the reign of Theodosius I and his son".

This gives 379–423 AD as extreme dates of his life.

Ticonius's best known work, the Seven Rules of Interpretation (for the Bible), is quoted and explained by St. Augustine in De doctrina christiana and his authority gave them great importance for many centuries in the West. St. Bede too quotes them.


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