Severian in the Encyclopedia
The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 16 Oct 1998
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1196

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Alex David Groce — 16 Oct 1998, 12:44

	Well, there may be some question as to which Severian Wolfe was
thinking of.  The heretic sect Severians (who are indeed in the online Catholic
Encyclopedia at www.knight.org/advent) are better known as the Encratites, and
it is under that name that you will find them online.
	However, there is also an entry for Severian.  The Severians are
actually named after a man named Severus mentionied in Eusebius' Hist. Eccl.
(and a mention is all he gets in the article on the Encratites, and he doesn't
appear to have an article of his own).
	Severian was a bishop who battled with St. John Chrysostom, but doesn't
appear to have been a heretic (he was noted as a good preacher, and apparently
good at church politics).  Assuming Wolfe didn't play around with the names
(not neccessarily a safe bet) it looks like this is our Severian's namesake.
I'll type up the article and send it to the online encyclopedia and to the
mailing list.  I may go ahead and also transcribe and post the article on
Severus, the Roman emperor, which given the Claudian connections might also be
relevant.

	Just an amusing side note--the facing pages in the CE with the entries
on Severian and Severus end with an entry relevant to Wolfe's perennial
favorite, Proust--an article on Madame de Sevigne!

  --
  "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." - John 8:32
  --
  Alex David Groce (adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu)
  Senior (Computer Science/Multidisciplinary Studies in Technology & Fiction)
  '98-99 NCSU AITP Student Chapter President
  608 Charleston Road, Apt. 1E (919)-233-7366
  http://www4.ncsu.edu/~adgroce

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