[1] Considered by Christopher Blunda to be "one of the most theologically learned figures of his day", he was familiar with the lives of authors spanning the previous eight decades.
[3] De Viris Illustribus, in its most commonly accepted form, was probably published c. 495 and contains, in some ten folio pages, short biographies of ecclesiastics between the years 392 and 495.
In that work Jerome had for the first time drawn up a series of 135 short biographies of famous Christians, with lists of their chief writings.
Many people, including a disciple of Jerome named Paterius, wrote similar continuations; Sophronius produced a Greek translation.
Some scholars including Richardson and Czapla consider that chapters xxx (Bishop John II of Jerusalem), lxxxvii (Victorinus), xciii (Caerealis of Africa.
Some scholars (Carl Paul Caspari, Otto Bardenhewer, Bruno Czapla) think that it is probably a fragment of Gennadius's eight books "against all heresies", apparently the last part, in which, having confuted the heretics, he builds up a positive system.
[2] In "De Viris Illustribus" Semi-Pelagians among the Catholics are warmly praised (Fastidiosus, lvi, p. 80; Cassian, lxi, 81; Faustus of Riez, lxxxv, 89), while full Pelagians (Pelagius himself, xlii, 77; Julian of Eclanum, xlv, 77) are called heretics.
While it is generally accepted that his theological sympathies were with the Semi-Pelagians, there is scholarly disagreement over Gennadius' position with regard to Augustine.
Thomas O'Loughlin says Gennadius counted Augustine "among the illustrious teachers" and therefore serves as a witness to his positive reception in the generations immediately after his death,[4] whereas Christopher Blunda interprets him as trying to "counteract [Augustine's] posthumous ascendance as a doctrinal authority" by dedicating a relatively terse entry to him, praising his piety and learning but ignoring most of his writings, and implying that some of his teachings were erroneous or could lead to confusion.
dogmatibus", which is said to be "full of Semipelagianism, either open or implied (original sin carefully evaded, great insistence on free will and denial of predestination, grace as an adjutorium in the mildest form, etc.).