RUFINUS, TYRANNIUS, presbyter and theologian, was born at or near Aquileia at the head of the Adriatic, probably be tween 34o and 345. In early manhood he entered the cloister as a catechumen, receiving baptism about 37o. About the same time a visit of Jerome to Aquileia led to a close friendship between the two, and shortly after Jerome's departure for the East Rufinus also was drawn thither (in 372 or 373) by his in terest in its theology and monasticism. He first settled in Egypt. There, if not even before leaving Italy, he had become inti mately acquainted with Melania, a wealthy and devout Roman widow; and when she removed to Palestine, taking with her a number of clergy and monks on whom the persecutions of the Arian Valens had borne heavily, Rufinus (about 378) followed her. While his patroness lived in a convent of her own in Jeru salem, Rufinus, at her expense, gathered together a number of monks in a monastery on the Mount of Olives, devoting himself at the same time to the study of Greek theology. When Jerome came to Bethlehem in 386, the friendship formed at Aquileia was renewed. Another of the intimates of Rufinus was John, bishop of Jerusalem, and formerly a Nitrian monk, by whom he was ordained to the priesthood in 390. In 394, in consequence of the attack upon the doctrines of Origen made by Epiphanius of Salamis during a visit to Jerusalem, a fierce quarrel broke out, which found Rufinus and Jerome on different sides; and, though three years afterwards Jerome and John were reconciled, the breach between Jerome and Rufinus remained unhealed In the autumn of 397 Rufinus embarked for Rome, where he published a Latin translation of the Apology of Pamphilus for Origen, and also (398-99) a somewhat free rendering of the rEpt i)px/.3v (or De Principiis) of that author himself. In the preface to the latter work he referred to Jerome as an admirer of Origen, and as having already translated some of his works with modifications of ambiguous doctrinal expressions. This led to a bitter dispute between Jerome and Rufinus. At the instiga
tion of Theophilus of Alexandria, Anastasius (pope 398-402) summoned Rufinus from Aquileia to Rome to vindicate his i orthodoxy ; but he excused himself from a personal attendance in a written Apologia pro fide sua. The pope in his reply expressly condemned Origen, but left the question of Rufinus's orthodoxy to his own conscience. He was, however, regarded with suspicion in orthodox circles (cf. the Decretunt Gelassu, § 20) in spite of his services to Christian literature. In 408 we find Rufinus at the monastery of Pinetum (in the Campagna?) ; thence he was driven by the arrival of Alaric to Sicily, being accompanied by Melania in his flight. In Sicily he was engaged in translating the Homilies of Origen when he died in 410.
The original works of Rufinus are—(0) De Adulteratione Librotym Origenis—an appendix to his translation of the Apology of Pamphilus, and intended to show that many of the features in Origen's teaching which were then held to be objectionable arise from interpolations and falsifications of the genuine text; (2) De Benedictionibus XII. Patriarcharum Libri II.—an exposition of Gen. xlix.; (3) Apologia s. Invectivarum in Hieronymum Libri II.; (4) Apologia pro Fide Sua ad Anastasium Pontificem; (5) Historia Eremitica—consisting of the lives of thirty-three monks of the Nitrian desert' ; (6) Expositio Symboli, a commentary on the creed of Aquileia comparing it with that of Rome, which is valuable for its evidence as to church teaching in the 4th century. The Historiae Ecclesiasticae Libri XI. of Rufinus consist partly of a free translation of Eusebius (io books in 9) and partly of a continuation (bks. x. and xi.) down to the death of Theo dosius the Great.
See W. H. Freemantle in Did. Chr. Biog. iv. 555-60 ; A. Ebert, Allg. Gesch. d. Litt. d. Mittelalters im Abendlande, i. 321-27 (Leipzig, 1889) ; G. Kruger in Herzog-Hauck's Realencyk. fiir prot. Theol., where there is a full bibliography.