ON SS. EUSEBIUS AND PONTIANUS AND VINCENTIUS AND PEREGRINUS, ROMAN MARTYRS,
Under Commodus.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Eusebius, M. at Rome (St.) Pontianus, M. at Rome (St.) Vincentius, M. at Rome (St.) Peregrinus, M. at Rome (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. S.
§ I. Worship: knowledge of the Acts.
Most Martyrologies announce on this day four holy Martyrs who suffered at Rome under the emperor Commodus, The name in the martyrologies: namely Eusebius, Pontianus (some call him Potentianus), Vincentius, and Peregrinus. The Little or Old Roman briefly dispatches the matter in these words: At Rome, of four martyrs, Eusebius, Pontianus, Peregrinus, and Vincentius. But Ado: On the same day at Rome, the birthday of the four holy martyrs Eusebius, Pontianus, Peregrinus, and Vincentius, Commodus reigning, Vitellius being judge. After which he subjoins a compendium of the Acts, which, because it agrees with the Acts to be published below, I here pass over. The torments by which these Martyrs were tortured Usuard gives more briefly, who thus records them: At Rome, the birthday of the holy martyrs Eusebius, Pontianus, Vincentius, and Peregrinus, under the emperor Commodus, who were first raised upon the rack, and stretched also by cords, and then beaten with cudgels, flames being applied about their sides; but when they remained most faithful in the praise of Christ, they were slain with leaded scourges until the giving up of the spirit. With Usuard the modern Roman agrees. The other martyrologists I do not adduce, since no doubt can arise about the worship of these Martyrs.
[2] The Acts of these Martyrs have been variously received by various men. Acts approved by some, assailed by Tillemont: Baronius, who at the year of Christ 192, num. 2, testifies that he read them in manuscript, seems by no means to have held them suspect; nor did any writer of that time or of the preceding centuries, that I know, doubt their credit. But certain more recent critics, wont to examine each particular more rigidly, seem to have held the credit of those Acts suspect, since they abstain from relating them. But Tillemont openly assails them, yet with reasons which do not seem sufficiently to prove what he intends. Those things certainly which he objects are of small moment for this, as I shall afterwards show. But since all the manuscripts of those Acts do not altogether agree among themselves, and some contain greater difficulties than others, Tillemont may have lighted upon that manuscript which has annexed the translation of the relics into Gaul, and contains certain things by no means agreeing with the history of the time in which these Martyrs are read to have suffered. Wherefore, that I may show that the Acts of these martyrs, although less certain, cannot at least be convicted of open falsity, I have thought that the matter must be traced a little further back.
[3] The emperor Marcus Aurelius having died in the year of Christ 180 according to Pagi, the manners of the emperor Commodus, and the state of religion his son Commodus took the helm of the Roman empire; a man, as the writers agree, of monstrous cruelty, and of such baseness of manners that under his reign we read that very many things were done which no one would believe could have been done. Hence, if in the Acts of these Martyrs we read of things done which seem less consonant with the manners of the Romans, we ought not to wonder, since in Dio, Herodian, Lampridius, and others, we find many other things which are more abhorrent from Roman gravity, as we shall note at each particular which occurs as wonderful in the Acts. Now let us see from Eusebius how the affairs of the Christians stood while this monster of a man was reigning. In book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 20, he thus writes: While Commodus was governing the Roman empire, our religion was brought over to a peaceful and tranquil state, and peace, by the bounty of divine grace, took possession of all the churches in the whole round of the earth. At which time indeed the saving word of God so drew the minds of men of every sort to the pious religion and worship of God the Maker of all things, that now at Rome very many, both illustrious in birth and exceedingly enriched with abundance of goods, together with all their household and kindred, betook themselves to the embracing of their own salvation. But that seemed by no means to be borne by the devil, the enemy of virtue, and boiling with envy by his own nature: and therefore he set about craftily framing various engines anew against us.
[4] under his reign. What these engines of the devil were he declares by the single example of Apollonius, a Christian senator. He, when he had been accused by a slave of the Christian religion, the slave's legs are broken, Apollonius's head is cut off, each according to the laws passed by the preceding emperors. From which we learn that the laws passed against the Christians retained their force under Commodus, although he himself abstained from promulgating new laws against them, nor took pains to search them out. And so the emperor and his prefects could act against the Christians, either that they might seize their goods, or that they might remove those otherwise hated; as under other emperors, who otherwise did not care to persecute the Christians, it is established to have happened not rarely. These things it was needful to note beforehand, that we may understand which Acts of these Martyrs are in some measure tolerable, and which are certainly interpolated by fables afterwards added.
[5] Of five Mss., three agreeing among themselves are not altogether to be rejected: I have five manuscript copies of these Acts, of which two, distributed into nine lessons, fitly agree with one another. One of these Mss. is noted as taken from a codex of the basilica of St. Peter, the other is anonymous. A third Ms., transcribed from a parchment Passionary of the monastery of Böddeken, of the order of Regulars of St. Augustine, of the diocese of Paderborn, our elders received from Fr. Johann Gamans. But this agrees not ill with the preceding, except that certain facts which are read in those are in this passed over; and that this has annexed the translation of the bodies of SS. Eusebius and Pontianus into Gaul, from which I gather that it is later than the two mentioned. But what is omitted in this I shall tell the reader in the notes to the preceding. But now what in these Acts, as they are read in the aforementioned Mss., ought so greatly to have displeased Tillemont, I really do not perceive. For it must be remembered that the Acts of the martyrs were sometimes drawn up by men less learned; and therefore, even if they were written both in good faith and truly, there occur in them certain things which, because circumstances are omitted from which the truth of the matter would shine out, seem either doubtful or false, or even altogether incredible. Let us hear therefore whether Tillemont's objections are so effectual as to take away all credit from these Acts; for one must stand for the truth where falsity is not shown.
[6] Many things, he says, tom. 3 of the Monuments, page 59, occur in them an answer is made to Tillemont's objection, which he does not perceive how he could uphold: even if there were nothing else besides what they say, that St. Julius the senator was so beaten with cudgels that he met death. That St. Apollonius the senator was not so treated Eusebius teaches, namely he who was cited above. This objection of Tillemont Sollier has already washed away in the Acts of St. Julius, tom. III of August, page 701, in the following words: I do not see, he says, why Tillemont rages so greatly against those things which are recorded about St. Julius's martyrdom, as though various punishments could not be inflicted upon Christian senators as well as upon the rest; especially under the insane emperor Commodus. I admit indeed that it is true that there was not such raging against Apollonius the senator, about whom our elders long since treated at the XVIII of April; but this prefect is described as most worthy of Commodus's insanity, namely fierce in mind, cruel in deed, and beset with all vices, so that it may easily be granted that that monstrous Vitellius raged with cudgels against St. Julius the senator, hateful to him. I add that St. Apollonius was condemned by the senate for this cause only, that he was a Christian: For, says Eusebius, there was an old law among them, that Christians who had once appeared in judgment, unless they changed the sentence of their profession, were by no means to be dismissed free. But St. Julius, by answering freely, had exasperated against himself the mind both of the emperor and of Vitellius.
[7] That there was raging even more cruelly against noble Christians under various emperors, and it is shown the aforementioned Sollier has already taught by examples alleged. But this is less to be wondered at under Commodus, the enemy and persecutor of the senate. For how greatly he both hated and despised the senate Herodian and Dio abundantly teach. His hatred, and the cause of his hatred against the senate, thou wilt understand from Herodian, book 1. He narrates there a conspiracy of certain senators against Commodus, the business of killing him being given to Quintianus, a young man of senatorial order: He, he says, halting at the entrance of the amphitheatre, since in an obscure place he hoped he would easily be hidden, at once, his dagger being bared, and crying out with a loud voice: This the senate sends thee: while he speaks and displays the bared dagger, being seized by the soldiers, he paid the penalty of his madness … This therefore was the first and greatest cause of hatred in the youth (Commodus) against the senate. For those words had so wounded his mind that he held all as enemies, and that voice of the young man rushing upon him ever clung to his memory.
[8] Hear his contempt of the senate from the Epitome of Dio, an eyewitness, that the scruple is altogether empty. thus relating in Commodus the cruelty of this beast: All, he says, who in the city, through disease or another cause, lacked feet, he had brought together into one place, and when he had bound their knees with certain things most like serpents, and had given them sponges to throw in place of stones, he struck and killed them all with a club, just as if they were giants. That fear was common to us with the rest: for he did this to us senators also; for which cause we looked for a most certain destruction. For, the head of an ostrich which he had killed being cut off, he came where we were sitting: and while with his left hand he held out that head, and with his right a bloody sword, he said nothing; only he moved his own head fiercely, to show that he would do the same to us. Shall we then wonder that a senator was beaten with cudgels unto death under a man to whom human blood was a sport, to whom the name of senator was an execration, so that we should judge this alone sufficient for repudiating the Acts of the Martyrs? So far indeed am I from wondering at it that I should rather wonder if a senator had been more mildly dealt with while Commodus was reigning. These things I have judged sufficient utterly to pluck out Tillemont's empty scruple. He says likewise that certain discourses displease him: but since he designates none, whatever occurs we shall observe in the notes. These Acts therefore I shall publish from the said Ms., not indeed as most approved, yet as not unworthy of credit.
[9] Another Ms. interpolated: The fourth manuscript which I have our Chifflet once transmitted, found in various libraries of Gaul. But that it was indeed compounded from the former ones, yet enlarged and interpolated, we easily understand, because it has a preface prefixed, and the translation of the relics into Gaul subjoined, and at the beginning agrees little with the history of Eusebius. Hear how after the preface it sets about narrating the matter: In the times of king Commodus a fierce persecution of the Christians became known to the world; so that on every side Christians were sought out, and punished with a most shameful death, if they were unwilling to sacrifice to idols. Which is plain to be false from Eusebius, cited at num. 3. To which certain like things follow, and Pontianus is always in this Ms. called Potentianus. Wherefore I have thought it must be abstained from, even though as to the rest it agrees well enough with the others: yet if at any time it must be adduced for the translation of the relics, I shall cite it under the name of the Gallic Ms. That Vincent of Beauvais had this Ms. seems manifest. First, because he records a persecution raging against the Christians under Commodus. Secondly, because he changes the name of Pontianus into Potentianus, both of which I find in this Ms. alone. Further, from Vincent of Beauvais Surius published his own at the XXV of August: which Vincent had given in book 10 of the Speculum Historiale, from chapter 119.
[10] another still more corrupted, The fifth Ms., received from the monastery of St. Pontianus at Lucca, Ferdinando Ughelli gave to our museum. It has annexed the history of the translation of the body of St. Pontianus to Lucca, made, as they will have it, in the X century. This manuscript Cesare Franciotti used in the History written in Italian about the miraculous images, and the lives and bodies of the Saints kept at Lucca, from page 276, where he treats of St. Pontianus's martyrdom and translation: this is plain from a comparison of the two, although Franciotti did not insert all the fables of this manuscript into his history. Further, the said Ms. is far more corrupt than the rest: for both the history of the martyrdom and that of the translation contain certain open fables; and the whole relation of the translation is so ill-composed and discordant that the true cannot be separated from the false. Receive a few out of many. The death of the Martyrs being narrated, he subjoins this: Then Vitellius the vicar went away, and announced all these things to the emperor Commodus, who found him at that very hour strangled in the house of Vestalianus. But Vitellius began at that very hour to cry out: O holy Martyrs, why have ye bound me with fiery chains; and saying this he expired. Beautifully indeed, and neatly. Nay, a little after he says that Commodus was found strangled by a demon. Nor are the things better which he says he had undoubtedly learned about the translation, and found in truth by seeing.
[11] I subjoin a few for a specimen. He relates the body of St. Pontianus received from John, the supreme Pontiff, [to which is annexed a relation of the translation of St. Pontianus, full of fables.] Whose, he says, dignity of prelacy stood ninth in place from blessed Gregory, namely the great; which fits John IV, whose chief deeds also he describes. Yet at the end of the narration he affirms that the translation happened in the year 904 (others from the same have said 926), namely when John IV had already been dead nearly three hundred years. Could he have written these things who had undoubtedly learned the matter, who had found it in truth by seeing? Fabulous also seems, and is certainly contrary to the Acts, what he narrates, That the head of St. Pontianus, which was cruelly cut off by the impious, was found so entire and uncorrupted as though it had then been cut off from the body itself: and that a little book was found in which among other things it was contained that the tongue of St. Pontianus had been cut off. For neither about the cutting off of the head, nor about the cutting off of St. Pontianus's tongue, do the Acts record anything. Yet this pleased Franciotti, as also what he relates, that Hugh, count of Arles or of Provence, king of Italy (whom he will also have crowned emperor), at the tomb of St. Pontianus, when he was contracted in his whole body, was restored to health; which I should prefer to read narrated by an author more worthy of credit, that I might give credit. He relates besides very many miracles, but altogether unfittingly for producing belief. Wherefore I have not judged this narration of the translation worthy to be inserted into our Acts; but of the translation itself I shall treat in the following §.
§ II. The bodies of the holy Martyrs translated; the relics.
[The bodies of SS. Eusebius and Pontianus are said to have been translated into Gaul:] Ado in the Martyrology at the VIII Kalends of September, after the eulogy of the Martyrs, subjoins the following: Long afterwards the limbs of the blessed martyrs Eusebius and Pontianus (by the bounty of Pope Nicholas, the first, namely) being translated to the Gauls, are venerated, reverently entombed in monasteries bestowed by religious vow upon St. Peter the apostle. Sigebert in the Chronicle places this deed at the year of the Lord 865, in this manner: The bodies of the holy martyrs Eusebius and Potentianus, by the gift of Nicholas the Pope, being translated to the Gauls, are honorably entombed in monasteries bestowed by the vow of religious men upon holy Peter. With these the Gallic Ms. agrees, in which St. Pontianus is likewise called Potentianus. In the Böddeken Ms., of which at num. 5, the matter is thus narrated: Then, much time having passed, the bodies of the blessed martyrs Eusebius and Pontianus, by the bounty of Pope Nicholas, being translated to the Gauls, and reverently placed in a certain monastery dedicated in honor of blessed Peter the apostle, shine with signs and powers. Thus they. Tillemont in the place assigned before, speaking of these four Martyrs, says that their bodies were given by Pope Nicholas to monasteries of Gaul, and cites as witness Ado and a manuscript. But we have already seen that this is affirmed not of all four, but only of two.
[13] but it is uncertain to which monasteries they were given; But to which monasteries of Gaul the sacred bodies of these Martyrs were given the authors hitherto adduced do not say. The Monk of Auxerre in his Chronology at the year 865 narrates the matter more distinctly: In the year, he says, DCCCLXV count Gerard of Roussillon, by the bounty of Pope Nicholas, translated the bodies of the holy martyrs Eusebius and Pontianus from the city of Rome into the Gauls, and honorably laid B. Eusebius at Pothières, but Pontianus at Vézelay, namely in the monasteries which he himself had founded in the diocese of Langres, where today they rest. Against this stand the monks of Prüm in the diocese of Trier, who think that the bodies of SS. Eusebius and Pontianus were carried from Rome to themselves. For in the Sacrary of their church, which I have in manuscript and in print, chapter 5, they thus write: Marcuard, count and abbot of the monastery of Prüm, the third, desiring that the church of St. Saviour be adorned and fortified with the patronages of the Saints, having received an imperial letter from the most glorious emperor Lothair (he died in the monastery of Prüm in the year 855), setting out for Rome, received from Pope Sergius (namely the II) forty-six bodies of Saints. Among these are numbered The bodies of the holy martyrs Eusebius and Pontianus, … who suffered at Rome under the emperor Commodus and Vitellius the judge … together with SS. Vincentius and Peregrinus, whose feast is the day after that of St. Bartholomew.
[14] The monks of Prüm think they were given to them, If these things are true, then neither in the year 865, as Sigebert writes, nor by the gift of Pope Nicholas, were the bodies of these Martyrs carried into Gaul. Being consulted on this matter, Matthäus Kleffer, a monk of Prüm, on the X of April 1623 wrote back thus, among other things: It is altogether certain that the bodies of SS. Eusebius and Pontianus, before the time assigned by him (Sigebert), with the rest, which were forty-six in number, were translated from Rome to Prüm by the third abbot of the monastery of Prüm, under the emperor Lothair and Pope Sergius, by whom they were given to the reverend abbot Marquard, when he was in the retinue of the lord Louis, son of Lothair the emperor … when, being sent by his father, he was there anointed king. This happened in the year 844, as Pagi witnesses there, num. 2, where thou wilt also find that many bishops and abbots set out for Rome with Louis. For, as he goes on, since not all the bodies of the Saints are known by their names, yet these are: those of SS. Marius, Martha … Eusebius, Pontianus &c. Whence, he says, that testimony of Sigebert I suppose to proceed either from some knowledge or from an obscure notice, or must be understood as to a part, namely that certain remaining relics of the said Saints were handed over for bodies. The matter I leave to be decided at the reader's discretion, since to Sigebert's testimony there have been added the other things mentioned above, which are repugnant to the men of Prüm.
[15] and they say the body of St. Eusebius was translated to Arnhem. The same Kleffer narrates how the body of St. Eusebius was translated in the year 1451 from the monastery of Prüm to Arnhem, a city of Guelders, situated on the Rhine. But the translation, he says, of St. Eusebius, which was made under our XLI abbot, the lord John of Eps, in the year of the Lord MCDLI, is thus described, and is found described among us: The body of St. Eusebius, at the instance of Arnold, duke of Guelders, the supreme Pontiff consenting, being translated hence to Arnhem, shone with countless miracles, and, being set in a silver tomb, on the feast dedicated to him was borne about in procession and honorably by four priests before the sect of Calvin. But now it is kept at Deventer. It is a city on the Ijssel, the chief of the province of Overijssel. The translation of the sacred body to Arnhem is confirmed by a German instrument, given in the year 1453 on the feast day of St. Remigius, by which the consuls and the other magistrates of the city of Arnhem willed to make it known to all. So much about the relics translated into Gaul or Germany.
[16] But, as regards the body of St. Pontianus, the people of Lucca vehemently cry out against these things, The body of St. Pontianus translated to Lucca who contend that it rests in their own city. The history of the translation indeed, as we have it in manuscript, we said above seems stained with many fables: but thence we are unwilling to infer that the body of St. Pontianus was not carried to Lucca. For that the feast of St. Pontianus is celebrated at Lucca on the XXV of August, and that there is there a church marked with the name of that same Saint, is sufficiently established; and this we believe was not done rashly nor without reason. Ughelli certainly, tom. 1, in the catalogue of the bishops of Lucca, col. 803 of the Venetian edition, thus writes about this translation: Nor does it seem it should be passed over that under the episcopate of that same Peter there was carried to Lucca the body of St. Pontianus the martyr by James, archdeacon of the cathedral, in the year CMXXVI. He is the very one who after Peter obtained the see of Lucca as bishop: which venerable relic he had received as a gift from Pope John X. But the feast of St. Pontianus is kept together at Lucca on the XXV day of the month of August. Hence correct Tillemont, who asserts that Ughelli in the history of the bishops of Lucca does not speak of this translation. With Ughelli as to the translation having been made agrees, but as to the time disagrees, Florentinius in the Older Martyrology at the XXV of August, where he has thus: That the bodies of St. Pontianus and Eusebius were translated into Gaul in the time of Pope Nicholas Ado affirms in the Martyrology: which I should believe must be taken of a part only of the relics, at least as regards St. Pontianus. For Sigebert writes in the Chronicle that this happened in the year DCCCLXV, when the body of that same St. Pontianus M. had already been translated to Lucca by James the deacon, who was afterwards bishop in the year DCCCII, as is established from the records of the church of St. Pontianus and from the more secret registry of the bishopric of Lucca.
[17] Each attributes the translation to James the deacon, approved authors believe; but it is uncertain in what year. who afterwards was bishop: but since two deacons of the same name are read to have been made bishops in Ughelli's catalogue, the matter remains equally uncertain. About the first Ughelli writes this, col. 797: They substituted James, archdeacon of Lucca, for his brother John, deceased, in the year DCCC. Which epoch, if it be right, makes it impossible that in the year 802 he should have translated the body of St. Pontianus while still a deacon. But Ughelli's editor notes in the margin the year DCCCIII; which correction, if it be true, makes it possible that, according to Florentinius's mind, he could have accomplished it in the year 802. The other James, to whom Ughelli reports the body of St. Pontianus was received, he says was created bishop in the year 934, so that he could have done it as deacon in the year 926, when John X was Pontiff. The manuscript relation of the translation, if it ought to have any authority, and Franciotti who followed it, favor Ughelli, since they say the body was received from Pope John; for no John was Pontiff in the year 802, but there was in 926: yet Florentinius followed other instruments. Wherefore we leave the matter to be decided at the reader's judgment. From what has been said the reader will gather that the body of St. Pontianus is ascribed to three places by different authors; but whose rights are the stronger is altogether ambiguous. Each may have a notable part, unless perhaps other bodies of Martyrs have been taken for others.
[18] [Certain relics of St. Vincentius are reported to have been translated into Spain:] About the sacred relics of St. Vincentius translated into Spain Juan Tamayo de Salazar in tom. 4 of the Spanish Martyrology, page 587, writes this: Afterwards the sacred pledges of Vincentius the martyr were brought to Spain, and assigned to the college of Alcalá of the Discalced friars of the Most Holy Trinity, where they are honorably laid up and venerated. To which he subjoins: As to the translation of the sacred remains of St. Vincentius the martyr from Rome to Spain, and that with the same the R. Fr. F. John of the Annunciation, of the order of the Discalced of the Most Holy Trinity, was presented by Urban VIII, Supreme Pontiff, together with other bodies of the Saints, we have said much above in divers places, and have proved it by authentic diplomas, and we have related that these were assigned to the college of Alcalá, tom. II, fol. XLV. Thus far he. I read from page 45 those authentic diplomas, but I could not find in them even the name of St. Vincentius: whence Tamayo's relation becomes not a little suspect, since his name ought not to have been passed over, if the body itself had been translated. Nevertheless, since besides the bodies of the Saints related in them certain relics of others are said to have been present, there could also have been present certain remains of St. Vincentius, who suffered at Rome, which were given to the college of Alcalá, although it does not have this in the same place.
[19] a conjecture about the body of St. Peregrinus: Henschen in the Passed-over at the day XVI of May, or tom. III of that same month, page 560, brings forward the following conjecture about the body of St. Peregrinus: The body of St. Peregrinus in the Vatican church, because it has lately begun to be believed to be that of the bishop and martyr of Auxerre, brought by Charlemagne to Rome to St. Pope Leo III, is therefore today honored there with the office of a martyr pontiff: but because the oratory of St. Peregrinus existed at Rome before the times of this Leo, I altogether believe him to be one of the Roman martyrs, and likely him whose glorious passion at Rome is inscribed in the Martyrologies at the day … XXV of August. Further, Ottavio Panciroli in the Hidden Treasures of the city of Rome, page 516, and Fioravante Martinelli in Roma sacra, page 279, say indeed that that oratory was built by Leo III and dedicated to St. Peregrinus: but the contrary is proved from Anastasius the Librarian, whom they cite: for he in Leo III, page 203, thus writes: But also in the oratory of St. Peregrinus, which is set in the Lord's hospital at the Naumachia, he made hanging baskets of silver of five pounds and one ounce. Whence, since he is said to have honored the said oratory with gifts, but is not said to have built it, it is gathered that it had already been built before. For this cause Henschen, in St. Peregrinus bishop of Auxerre, page 563 of the said tome, again suspects that that oratory was of St. Peregrinus the martyr, one of the four of whom we are treating: which if it is true, he seems to be the same who is honored in the Vatican church of St. Peter, under whose right the praised Martinelli affirms this oratory to be. But, I confess, the conjecture appears to me not certain enough to decide the matter.
[20] For the rest, notwithstanding these things which we have already disputed about the translation of the bodies, the praised Panciroli, page 438, writes that the bodies of these four Martyrs are kept at Rome in the church of St. Laurence in Lucina, [the bodies likewise are said to be kept at Rome, but this is not sufficiently proved.] translated thither, as he will have it, in the year of Christ 1112 under Paschal II as Pontiff, and that by a certain Benedict, a canon, and certain laymen, from the church of St. Stephen, fallen through age. All which he digs out from the inscription of a stone of that same church; but I should wish a surer testimony of the matter, before I should invalidate the aforesaid. Yet if the things which Panciroli records are true, it could have happened that of the bodies translated elsewhere certain bones were kept at Rome, and that these were translated into the said church in place of the bodies themselves, as in such cases frequently happens. More about the sacred relics of these Martyrs I do not add, although elsewhere I find sacred pledges of Martyrs of the same name, since I cannot discern whether they are to be ascribed to these or to other Martyrs of like name.
ACTS
by an anonymous author. From a Ms. codex of the Basilica of St. Peter, collated with other Mss.
Eusebius, M. at Rome (St.) Pontianus, M. at Rome (St.) Vincentius, M. at Rome (St.) Peregrinus, M. at Rome (St.)
BHL Number: 2742
BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.
Occasion being taken from the insanity of Commodus Lesson 1. In the reign of the most wicked a Commodus, by his order it was thus published abroad, that on the day of his birth all the common folk should come together to the games b; and this he declared in the assembly c, saying that the whole body of the people of the Roman company should acclaim in the praise of mighty Hercules d or of Jove; so that Commodus himself had put on a lion's skin, and, taking his headband [e], before his seat a golden image of Jove [f], and in the games before all this company, sitting, he swayed to and fro. To whom all the people acclaimed, saying: Hercules, protector of the commonwealth, and defender of the liberty of Roman boldness, which was cried out seventy-five times.
[2] At the same time there were Christian men, in a certain place, The Saints preaching the faith, in the street which is called [g] Lannarius; among whom were religious men, Eusebius, Vincentius, Peregrinus, and Pontianus, servants of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had bestowed their goods upon the poor and had betaken themselves to serving the Lord. These, when they had heard what Commodus had done, mocked, and throughout the whole city preached to the people, saying: Give honor to the Lord Jesus Christ, and withdraw from the devilish deceit, and believe in the God of heaven, the Father almighty, and in Jesus Christ his Son, our one Lord; and do penance, and be baptized in his name, that your sins may be blotted out, lest ye perish together with Commodus your lord.
[3] Lesson II. A certain senator, by name Julius [h], hearing them thus publicly preaching, they convert the senator Julius, whom Commodus called them into his house, and, earnestly hearing their preaching, believed; and began to distribute his goods to the poor by their hands: and when he had bestowed all, he asked to come to him a certain presbyter, by name Rufinus, and sought to be baptized; and, baptism being received with all his household, he too began publicly to preach the name of the Lord, and to give all his revenue and distribute it to the poor. When this had been announced to Commodus, being angry he ordered him to be seized. Who, when he had been presented to him, said to him: Julius, how hast thou been made mad, that thou shouldst forsake the god Jove and Hercules, and seek [i] an empty madness? To whom he answered manfully: Mayest thou perish together with them [k], who with the mouth alike liest.
[4] [answering freely, delivers to Vitellius, by whose command he is killed with cudgels.] Lesson III. At the same time he handed him over to a certain Vitellius, former master of the foot, whom he charged that he should require all his goods, and should compel him to sacrifice to the god Hercules: and that if he should not comply and sacrifice, it should not be permitted l him to live longer. Vitellius the vicar at length, taking him, caused him to be shut up in ward, and after three days ordered a tribunal to be prepared for himself upon [m] the ground, and him to be presented before his sight. And when he had been presented, he addresses him with these words, saying: We command Julius the accused to be brought in naked [n], secured with chains. And, turning to him, Vitellius said: Dost thou know the commands of the princes, who have ordered that thou lay aside thy obstinacy and adore and sacrifice to the god Hercules and to Jove? Julius answered freely and said: Mayest thou and thy prince perish together [o]. Vitellius the vicar said: In whom nevertheless dost thou presume, since thou art already condemned? Julius answered: In our Lord Jesus Christ, who condemns thee and thy princes to eternal destruction. Hearing this, Vitellius ordered him to be beaten with cudgels, and while he was being beaten [p] he gave up the spirit. Whose body he ordered to be cast before the amphitheatre. But by night Eusebius, Pontianus, Peregrinus, and Vincentius gathered his body and buried it in the cemetery of Calepodius, on the fourteenth day of the Kalends of September, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[5] The four Saints, being taken, are questioned, Lesson IV. At the same time also, Vitellius, hearing this — that Eusebius, Pontianus, Peregrinus, and Vincentius had gathered the body of blessed Julius — ordered that they be seized and brought before his sight. And when they had been presented, he said to them: Ye have plundered the goods of Julius, since it is established that ye also gathered his body. Eusebius answered: We did it, and because [q] we deserved. Vitellius said: Truly ye have deserved to plunder other men's treasures, and to carry off goods [r] not handed over to you. Give up the goods of Julius, lest ye perish as he perished. Eusebius answered, saying: So we desire. Vitellius said: Give up the goods of Julius, and sacrifice to the gods. Vincentius answered and said: They are not gods, but demons, who are to be tormented with you for ever.
[6] and are tortured with various torments: Lesson V. At that same hour he ordered that they be raised on the rack face to face, and be stretched with cords, and beaten with cudgels, saying by the herald's voice: Blaspheme not the gods and the princes. And he ordered the torments to cease: and Vitellius says: Spare your own selves, and sacrifice to the gods. Eusebius answered: Wretch, do what thou dost, cease not; for if thou hopest that we shall be separated from the brotherhood of our lord Julius, thou losest thy hours. Vitellius said: These men trust in magic, that they may rejoice amid torments. Vincentius answered: We both rejoice and exult in our Lord Jesus Christ. But he, full of wrath, ordered that flames be applied to their sides; but they with a clear voice said: Glory be to thee, Lord, who visitest us.
[7] [Antonius the executioner, seeing their blood wiped away by an angel, is converted.] But one of the executioners [s] saw with his own eyes a young man standing with a sponge and wiping their sides, and began to cry with a clear voice: Truly Christ, whom these men preach, is God. But I see an angel standing and washing them. Vitellius answered with a shout, saying: O
seducers! O magic art! Who have seduced a most illustrious man, approved of the commonwealth. At that same hour an executioner by name Antonius believed, who yet fled secretly to holy Rufinus the presbyter, whom blessed Rufinus, receiving, baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[8] Lesson VI. Then Vitellius took them down from the rack, [The tongue of St. Eusebius being cut out, he speaks: Antonius is crowned with martyrdom:] and said to them: Why are ye cruel to your own selves, and lay not aside your false madnesses, and adore the gods with sacrifices, and live? Vincentius answered: Wretch, thou art cruel, who sparest not [t] thyself: and sayest to us, Cruel? Vitellius said: How? — Because thou forsakest the God of heaven and earth and seekest perpetual death; both thou and those who are set in this condemnation. Vitellius said: Do I seek perpetual death, or ye, who suffer these torments? Eusebius said: We are set in glory, but thou in condemnation with thy prince the devil, with whom thou art to perish in eternal Gehenna. Vitellius, being angry, ordered the tongue of Eusebius to be cut out: and, the tongue being cast out of the mouth of blessed Eusebius, behold, Antonius, running, cried out: Wretched Vitellius, what dost thou to holy men? Then Vitellius [u] began to vomit blood through his mouth. But Eusebius without a tongue cried with a clear voice: Glory be to thee, Lord Jesus Christ, who hast deigned that I should come to glory with thy servants. At that same hour a certain Christian, by name Faustus, gathered up the tongue of blessed Eusebius, and put it into his tunic in his bosom, and fled. At that same hour Vitellius ordered Antonius to undergo sentence of the head, who, being led on the Aurelian way beside the aqueduct [x] of Trajan, was beheaded on the eleventh of the Kalends of September: through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[9] Lesson VII. But blessed Eusebius, Vincentius, Peregrinus, a blind priest of the Capitol visits the Martyrs and asks for baptism, and Pontianus, worn out with stripes, he ordered to be shut up in prison. And being shut up, they began every day and night to give thanks to God in hymns: to whom came many Christians, and were strengthened by them. But after three days blessed Julius [y], coming to them as though in the body, visited them, and, as they looked on, said: Save the keeper of the prison. And afterwards there were brought to the blessed Martyrs the blind also and the sick, and by their prayers they were made whole. But there came a certain blind priest of the Capitol, asking to be baptized. To whom they said: If thou believest with thy whole heart, thou shalt both be enlightened and shalt enjoy eternal life. Lupulus the priest answered and said: I believe, and therefore I have fled to you; and I desire also with you to be bound in these chains.
[10] Lesson VIII. Then they asked holy Rufinus to come to them, [who, baptism being received, recovers his sight; by which miracle the keeper of the prison is converted.] who, coming to the prison, asked Lupulus the blind man: Dost thou believe with thy whole heart? But he cried out, saying: I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father, whom I knew in the sacrifice when the demons confessed him; and he catechized him, and, blessing water, poured it into a basin, and baptized him. To whom he said thus: Dost thou believe in God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in Christ, and in the Holy Spirit? To whom Lupulus answered: I believe, lord. And he said: If thou believest, be it done to thee as thou desirest. Then with a clear voice he cried out: I believe; enlighten me, Lord Jesus Christ. And as he cried out, the keeper of the prison ran up, and saw Lupulus enlightened, who had been blind for four years, and cast himself at the feet of the Saints, that he might be baptized; whom blessed Rufinus at that very hour baptized by the name of Simplicius: at that same hour Simplicius, after his baptism, with tears declared where the body of Antonius the martyr lay. But after the sixth day blessed Rufinus the presbyter carried off the body, found sound and unhurt, and buried it in the cemetery of Calepodius in a crypt on the eighth day [z].
[11] the death and burial of the martyrs. Lesson IX. Vitellius made known all the deeds to the emperor Commodus about the Saints, and how Eusebius spoke without a tongue. To whom he thus gave command, saying: Destroy them. And on that same day he ordered a tribunal to be prepared for himself at the Tellus, and Eusebius, Vincentius, Peregrinus, and Pontianus to be brought to him: by the herald's voice [aa] they were brought in. Vitellius said: Let the accused be brought in. Who, coming into his sight, Vitellius says: Bring the tripod, that they may sacrifice. But they, spitting, mocked him. Eusebius answered: O wretch, whose heart the devil has filled. At that same hour he gave sentence, saying: Before the amphitheatre let them breathe out their life under the leaded scourges. Who, being led to the accursed rock [bb] with leaded scourges [cc], were slain at the herald's voice. Whose bodies — of the blessed martyrs, namely Eusebius, Vincentius, Peregrinus, and Pontianus — blessed Rufinus gathered, and buried not far from the city of Rome at the sixth milestone, in a sandpit between the Aurelian way and the Triumphal way, [dd] on the eighth of the Kalends of September. Whom a certain matron conveyed, set upon a two-wheeled [ee] vehicle, where their prayers flourish unto the present day, unto the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns now and always for ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
x. Aringhi in Roma subterranea, book 2, chapter XI, describes the Aurelian way and gate: in which he teaches that there was the aqueduct of Trajan, about which thus: Indeed in the Acts of the blessed Martyrs there is very frequent mention of a certain Trajanic form, namely of aqueducts which stood there. Nay, even on a certain ancient stone, and in Publius Victor, mention of the Trajanic water occurs. Wherefore it becomes likely to us that the emperor Trajan restored aqueducts of this kind, and the way together with them, and, these being restored, imposed his own name upon each: namely upon the way, which he had said was more commonly called the Aurelian, that it should also be called Trajanic, and upon the form or aqueducts. In chapter 12 he fully describes the cemetery of St. Calepodius, situated on the same Aurelian way, where above St. Julius is said to have been buried, and teaches that it took its name from St. Calepodius, presbyter and martyr. About St. Antonius we have spoken at letter s. y. This apparition is passed over in the Böddeken Ms. z. On the eighth day, namely from his martyrdom. aa. At the herald's voice, or of the crier, namely that the cause might be made known to all.
bb. The accursed rock, says the praised Martinelli, page 39, was a place in the City, whence the punishments to be taken of the accused were expressed by the voice through a herald, that the cause might be known to all, although sometimes this was also done by an inscription. That it was near the amphitheatre becomes clear from the same, page 27, and is confirmed from these Acts. That a certain rock, which they believe to be this very one, on which many Martyrs were slain, is religiously kept in the Vatican crypts, Aringhi, just mentioned, writes, book 2, chapter 4, who judges that the name Accursed was imposed on that rock by the heathen out of hatred of the Christians. Nor does Baronius differ much from these things at the year 192, num. 5. cc. From Antonio Gallonio, On the instruments of Martyrdom, page 47: Leaded scourges are thongs of several cords, bound together above in a knot, to which below leaden balls are knit, like acorns: with these they used to strike the neck and shoulders. The author notes that with these only ignoble men were struck, and that, although it was forbidden by the laws that this should be done unto death, yet for various causes it was not rarely done. dd. About the Triumphal gate and way Aringhi may be consulted, book 2, chapter 3. Between this and the Aurelian way, in a sandpit or underground crypt, the bodies of the Saints were buried. ee. A birotum is a vehicle consisting of two wheels. Another Ms. has birotis vehiculis, for several seem to have been employed.