Martyrs

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS

NEREUS AND ACHILLEUS THE EUNUCHS, FLAVIA DOMITILLA, EUPHROSYNA AND THEODORA, ROMAN VIRGINS, AT TERRACINA IN LATIUM ABOUT THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY.

Nereus, Eunuch, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Achilleus, Eunuch, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Fl. Domitilla, Virgin, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Euphrosyna, Virgin, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Theodora, Virgin, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

[1] Eusebius Pamphili, in book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 17, asserts that the Emperor Domitian was the successor of the Neronian impiety, and of the war and hatred against God, and the second who stirred up persecution against the Christians. Then in chapter 18, having related St. John the Evangelist's banishment to the island of Patmos, he adds these things: The exile of St. Domitilla recorded by heathen writers, Moreover at these very times the doctrine of our faith so greatly flourished, that even writers most alien to our religion did not hesitate to hand down both the persecution and the martyrdoms of our people in their own monuments. These indeed even accurately noted the very time of the persecution. For they write that in the fifteenth year of the Principate of Domitian, Flavia Domitilla, niece by a sister of Flavius Clemens, he who at that time was Consul at Rome, together with very many others, on account of the confession of Christ, was deported to the island of Pontia. Thus far they. One of these writers seems to be indicated by St. Jerome, in the Eusebian Chronicle, in these words: Brutius writes that very many of the Christians under Domitian suffered martyrdom, and named by Brutius: among whom also Flavia Domitilla, niece by a sister of Flavius Clemens the Consul, was relegated to the island of Pontia, because she testified that she was a Christian. The Brutii were among the Romans renowned: of whom Brutius Praesens with the Emperor

Antoninus Pius held the Consulate in the year CXXXIX, and then with Antonius Rufinus in the year CLIII. Again, unless another and perhaps a son of his, Brutius Praesens was Consul in the year CLXXX with Quinctilius Gordianus. Besides, in ancient inscriptions there are mentioned L. Brutius Celer and L. Brutius Primitivus. We judge moreover that among the ancestors of these was Brutius, who described the exile of St. Flavia Domitilla, when she perhaps was still living in the island of Pontia; nor must recourse be had to Erucius or Erycius, as Caesar Baronius or Erycius Puteanus wished to correct.

[2] There flourished in the first, indeed also in the second century of Christ, various writers of Christian matters, The Acts of these Saints presently written in Greek and rendered into Latin, who with most Hagiographers wrote all their things in the Greek tongue. St. Clement the Pope himself (who placed the sacred veil of Virginity upon St. Flavia Domitilla his kinswoman) wrote in the name of the Roman Church an epistle in Greek to the Church of the Corinthians. In which manner also someone composed in the Greek tongue the Acts of St. Flavia Domitilla, and of SS. Nereus and Achilleus the eunuchs, which another, as he testifies in the Prologue, translated from the Greek into Latin. These Acts written with the best fidelity Surius edited, but with the diction for the most part for the reader's favor somewhat polished: which we give in the genuine style, they are edited from Mss. of the best fidelity, from very ancient and most trustworthy parchment codices, namely the Trier one of the monastery of St. Maximinus, the Windberg one of the Premonstratensian Order in Bavaria, the Saint-Omer one of the Cathedral Church, the double Utrecht ones of St. Paul and St. Salvator, the triple ones of the Queen of Sweden number 13, 81 and

482, of Rouge-Cloître near Brussels of the Canons Regular, and the Böddeken one in Westphalia of the same Canons, and what we esteem most especially, from a double and very excellent codex of our own, of which the one appears to have been written eight hundred years ago, the other in large folio is continued in various volumes down to the end of the year. The same are extant in the monastery of St. Hubert among the Ardennes, in the Capuan monastery of the nuns of St. John, and in the Roman libraries the Lateran, the Vatican, the Vallicellan. Nor was it pleasing to note more codices.

[3] We found other Acts much shorter, which in the Church of Terracina (for there five of these Martyrs set at the head of the title suffered), other Acts customarily read at Terracina, were wont at Matins, distributed into Lessons, to be recited, and are kept at Rome in the Archive of St. Mary Major, and thence transcribed in the Vallicellan library of the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory in the volume marked with the letter F. These are drawn in an elegant and fluent style, but can have no commendation from antiquity: wherefore although we have caused them to be transcribed, we did not however think they were here to be given: it is nevertheless worthy not to be omitted, the Prayer or Collect added at the end, which the Cathedral Church of the city of Terracina uses on the ferial days of the whole year and on the semi-double and simple feasts: and it is of this kind. Lend the ears of Thy mercy, O most merciful God, to our prayers, with a prayer concerning the Patrons of that Church. and may we obtain by the merits of Thy Saints Caesarius, Julian, Felix, Eusebius, Eleutherius and Silvinianus, Ansia, Silvia, Rufina, Domitilla, Euphrosyna and Theodora, by whose patronage we trust, that mercy of Thine, which for our guilt we do not deserve. Through our Lord &c. Of these, he who is placed in the first place, Caesarius the Deacon, buried the bodies of SS. Domitilla, Euphrosyna and Theodora related in the last place, and he himself afterwards at Terracina with Julian the Presbyter was crowned with martyrdom on the Kalends of November. The bodies of these two were buried by Felix the Presbyter and Eusebius, and they themselves for Christ's name were beheaded on the Nones of November. Eleutherius seems to be the Bishop of the city of Aeca, now called Troia in Apulia, but at Rome with his mother Anthia, here Ansia, under Hadrian the Emperor suffered on the XVIII of April, on which day we have elucidated the Acts. It is not equally easy for us to indicate what is to be thought of the remaining three, Silvinianus, Silvia, and Rufina. There were SS. Sulpitius and Servilianus, still heathen, betrothed to SS. Euphrosyna and Theodora, and on account of the blind man and the mute woman healed by St. Domitilla, at Terracina to the faith of Christ converted, and under Anianus the Prefect of the City beheaded. Whether then instead of Silvinianus is to be read Servilianus? But then how would the companion in conversion and martyrdom Sulpitius not be present? Finally Rufina and Secunda the sisters under Valerian and Gallienus suffered at Rome on the X of July. Whether then it would be Secunda, who in the prayer is called Silvia? But there is also Silvia the mother of St. Gregory the Great, and Silvia, Virgin and Martyr of Brescia. But let these be left to the Terracinians to investigate, for us the things related suffice, that those second Acts may be shown to have been held in esteem by the Terracinians, and in the Ecclesiastical Office recited.

[4] We edited on the X day of March the Acts of B. Andrew the Abbot of Vallombrosa in Etruria, Some Life of St. Domitilla written by John the Hermit of the Cells: to which we added in §3 the Life of John the Hermit of the Cells who died in the year MCCCLXXXI, in which it is said that he published the Life of St. Domitilla, niece of Domitian the Emperor, not in disordered and tumultuous oration and in unpolished speech, as some did; but in Latin and adorned with the highest dignity, with all things which pertain to the Ecclesiastical offices. But whether it be that Life of which we have treated, escapes us: rather we judge that it was composed several centuries earlier. Illustrious mention also of St. Flavia Domitilla makes St.

Jerome in the Life of St. Paula the widow, which we edited on the XXVI of January, in which at number 6 these things are read: her mention in the Life of St. Paula. Paula was carried with her daughter Eustochium to the island of Pontia, which once the exile of Flavia Domitilla, most illustrious of women, under Domitian the Prince, for the confession of the Christian name, ennobled: and seeing the little cells, in which she had led a long martyrdom, having taken the wings of faith she desired to see Jerusalem and the holy places. Thus far there. The island of Pontia is moreover distant from the shore and the city of Terracina by thirty-two thousand paces; or, as Strabo says, by two hundred and fifty stadia.

[5] The birthday, on which SS. Flavia Domitilla, Euphrosyna and Theodora completed their martyrdom, The sacred cult of SS. Domitilla, Euphrosyna and Theodora on the 7th of May. is not indicated in the ancient Acts; it is nevertheless reckoned to be the VII of May, on which day Usuard has these things: On the Nones of May. At Terracina a city of Campania, the birthday of B. Domitilla the Virgin and Martyr, who, since she was the niece by a sister of Flavius Clemens the Consul, and consecrated by St. Clement with the sacred veil, in the persecution of Domitian with very many others was deported into exile to the island of Pontia, a long martyrdom there she led. At length when by doctrine and miracles she had converted very many to the faith of the Lord, her chamber being set on fire by a certain Judge, in which together with her fellow-virgins, namely Euphrosyna and Theodora, she remained shut up, she consummated the course of her glorious martyrdom. More things from the Acts added Ado and Notker, whom following the author of the Martyrology supposititiously under the name of Bede, and elsewhere other more recent ones, with today's Roman Martyrology, in which at the end is added, and on the 12th of May that there is celebrated also together with the holy Martyrs Nereus and Achilleus on the twelfth day of May: on which day under the semi-double rite in today's Breviary the feast of these is kept, and that Prayer is recited: May the blessed solemnity of Thy Martyrs Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla and Pancratius ever cherish us, we beseech Thee, and render us worthy of Thy service. Besides, in the second Nocturn the fourth lesson is recited concerning SS. Nereus and Achilleus, the fifth concerning St. Flavia Domitilla, and the sixth concerning St. Pancratius, who suffered under the tyranny of Diocletian and Maximian: whose Acts we give below. On the said XII of May moreover the memory of SS. Nereus and Achilleus is celebrated, inscribed also in the ancient apographs of the Hieronymian Martyrology, on which SS. Nereus and Achilleus were slain. and in the genuine Martyrology of Bede and the Martyrology of Rabanus, but without an elogium; which Usuard edited of this kind. On the IV Ides of May at Rome on the Ardeatine Way, the birthday of the holy Martyrs Nereus and Achilleus the brothers: who first at the island of Pontia led a long exile, and afterwards by a certain Judge with most grievous stripes were handled. Then when by the rack and flames they were compelled to sacrifice, and said that they had been baptized by B. Peter the Apostle, and could in no way sacrifice to idols, they were beheaded. Thus Usuard, to which these things adds Ado: Whose bodies seized Auspicius their disciple, foster-father of the holy Virgin Domitilla: who also placed in a little boat brought them away, and in the estate of Domitilla in a sandy crypt buried them on the Ardeatine Way, one mile and a half from the wall of the City. Similar things have Notker and others more recent, with great approbation of the Acts both of St. Domitilla and her companions, and of SS. Nereus and Achilleus.

[6] Among the Roman Pontiffs there flourished in the sixth century St. John I, who died in the year DXXVI, The cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, whose Acts we illustrate on the XXVII day of May, and in them these things are read, as also in the ancient Roman Breviaries: This Pope John completed the cemetery of the blessed Martyrs Nereus and Achilleus on the Ardeatine Way. But for completed there is read in Anastasius the Librarian, made: in the Thuanian and the second Freherian Ms. codex repaired, in the Mazarinian Ms. restored. But as Baronius noted on this XII of May, The Church at Rome, there was an ancient title at Rome in the name of these Martyrs, of which there is mention in the register of St. Gregory the Pope, book 4 epistle 44, where the same Gregory had homily XXVIII on the Gospels. There were buried there the bodies of the same Martyrs and likewise of Flavia Domitilla, to whom he alludes when he says: These Saints, at whose tomb we stand, their bodies and that of St. Domitilla trod down the flourishing world with contempt of mind &c. Which three sacred bodies in this very year, in which we anew strike these things, MDXCVII, on the fifth of the Ides of May, from the Diaconia of St. Hadrian, to which under Gregory the Ninth they had been translated, after various translations and at last under Sixtus V by Augustine the Cardinal of Cusa, then Cardinal Deacon of the same Church, the high altar by himself more magnificently erected, more becomingly placed; we, the title being restored, with our most holy Lord Clement the Eighth granting it, into their pristine place with celebrated pomp brought them back, together with their heads, brought back to it: enclosed in gilded shrines. Thus Caesar Baronius, created by the said Pope Clement in the year MDXCVI Cardinal with the title of SS. Nereus and Achilleus: by whose liberality, says Paulus Aringhus in book 3 of Subterranean Rome chapter 18, the heads in the Vallicellan church. the most worthy heads of the excellent Virgin and her companion Martyrs enclosed in silver, which exhibits their image, in our church of B. Mary and St. Gregory in the Vallicella, namely of the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory, after the manner of trophies most honorifically are preserved. The original history of the translation with the Bulls of Clement VIII we give below.

[7] There are not wanting meanwhile Churches which glory in the patronage of these Saints, Relics of St. Domitilla at Limoges, in that they have their sacred Relics. Saussay in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology on the VII day of May hands down these things: At Limoges in the monastery of St. Augustine, the reception of the Relics of the most holy Virgin and Martyr of Christ Flavia Domitilla, from the city of Terracina in Roman Campania: where after she had led a long martyrdom, in that she converted many by doctrine and miracles to the faith of Christ, by the order of the Judge her chamber being set on fire, where with her Virgins Euphrosyna and Theodora she remained, she consummated the course of her glorious martyrdom. Her sacred pledges, at Limoges in the sacristy of the said monastery reverently laid up, with signs and miracles perpetually shine forth. Thus far there, on the authority of Geoffrey the Prior of Vigeois in a chronicle deduced from Robert the King to the year MCLXXXIV, edited in volume 2 of the Labbean Library, where in chapter 15 there is treated of the Saints more illustrious in the Bishopric, and these words are read: Let us return to our city, the Limousin, after the diocese, and in the monastery of St. Augustine let us venerate B. Asclepius the Prelate (he is venerated here on the XXIII of December) after the Virgin and Martyr Flavia: who, since she was niece by a sister of Flavius Clemens the Consul, by the persecution of Domitian, burnt by flames, triumphs. There makes mention of the said Limousin monastery Thomas de Herrera, the same and of SS. Euphrosyna and Theodora at Ellwangen. in volume 2 of the Augustinian Alphabet page 36. But below in the last chapter is described the conversion to the faith and martyrdom of SS. Sulpitius and Servilianus, whose Acts we illustrated on the XX day of April, and we added the tradition of the Ellwangen people, asserting that the sacred bodies of the said Martyrs, by the grace and help of Adrian I the Pontiff, by Hariolph and Edolph the Bishops of Langres, and the founders of their Church, were brought to it. Besides, as in the year MDCXXXIX our Christopher Strebonus wrote to us, in the same Ellwangen church rest Domitilla, Euphrosyna and Theodora Virgins and Martyrs, secondary Patronesses, and they are celebrated under a double of the second class without an octave. Whose relics by D. Hariolph and his Brother Erlolph Bishops of Langres, to Ellwangen into the collegiate Church of St. Vitus, of which they themselves were the founders, are handed down to have been translated, where even now with pious veneration they are venerated. So from the Lessons there at Matins customarily recited Strebonus.

[8] But Lupus de Morales in the little book on the Finding of the relics of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, in Spain SS. Nereus and Achilleus, Marcellus and Apuleius, chapter 8, among other things writes these things: At the town of Garray, formerly Numantia, are laid up and venerated the relics of the holy Martyrs Nereus, Achilleus and Pancratius: to whose tombs by devout pilgrimage all the inhabitants of that region flow together with offerings and solemn supplications. These things from him cited Tamayus Salazar in his Spanish Martyrology, adding that, as Lupus himself relates, their remembrance is so ancient that it exceeds the memory of men. Hence licence being seized of devising and writing these things in the Pseudo-Chronicle of Julian at number 292: St. Marcellus brought into the Spains the memory of the holy Martyrs Nereus and Achilleus, who suffered at Rome under Lanitius Rufus the Consular, too friendly to Martial, to whom he wrote many things. Thus far there. But they suffered at Terracina, and were handed over to Memmius Rufus, or certainly to Minucius Rufus. Hence Tamayus infers that these Relics into the Spains brought St. Eugenius I Bishop of Toledo, whom they boldly feign to be Marcellus son of Marcus the Consul, the Arians their heads: of whom below in the Acts.

[9] Ughelli in volume 8 of Sacred Italy reckons the Bishops of the Ariano town, distant from its metropolis Benevento XV M. P., where, he says, they believe they hold the heads of SS. Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla and Pancratius. And Fabius Barberius in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Atina, printed at Naples in the year 1635, no mention made of SS. Domitilla and Pancratius, writes these things on page 51. The heads of SS. Nereus and Achilleus with the highest cult in this our age are preserved in the Treasury of the same greater Church, with very many Relics of other Saints. In the Bertinian church also among the people of Saint-Omer are preserved great parts of the bodies of Nereus and Achilleus the Martyrs, elsewhere other relics. testifies Rayssius in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium page 101, who, the testimony being adduced, hands down that at Douai, in the collegiate church of St. Peter, were placed the sacred Relics of SS. Nereus, Achilleus and Pancratius in the year MCCCCXL. Indeed that the Relics of SS. Domitilla, Nereus and Achilleus are at Bologna testifies Masinus, at Cologne Gelenius, at Venice in the church of St. Zacharias Bucelinus, and elsewhere others.

ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM

From very many most ancient Mss.

Nereus, Eunuch, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.)

Achilleus, Eunuch, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Fl. Domitilla, Virgin, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Euphrosyna, Virgin, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Theodora, Virgin, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) BHL Number: 6058, 6059, 6061, 6062, 6063, 6064, 6066

FROM MSS. PROLOGUE.

Unless the studies of Catholics in the slumber of their own security ^a should rest, by no means could the impiety of heresy invade the limits of piety, exulcerating us with its goads to ^b watchfulness. And yet ^c by a certain sluggish watchfulness and fastidious care, ^d meeting the strenuous and solicitous, we neglect the lambs, whom for certain from the fold we lose, to be devoured by the bites of wolves. Whence according to the solicitude of those orthodox who were before us, Others are called upon to write the Acts of the Martyrs. collecting some martyrdoms of our province, I translated them from Greek into Latin: giving this example to the studious of various provinces, that as we in ours, so they in their own provinces may translate the completed martyrdoms: that the peoples cultivating and venerating those whom they acknowledge to have suffered for the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ, may know with what zeal of war, ^e bearing the triumphs of victories, they merited to come to the King exulting and rejoicing.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The disadvantages of marriage and the beauty of virginity, set before St. Domitilla by SS. Nereus and Achilleus.

[2] First therefore for the edification of all, whose study is to please God, let us take Domitilla the most noble Virgin, ^a niece of Domitian the Emperor. She had Nereus and Achilleus the eunuch chamberlains, whom the most blessed and most holy Apostle of God Peter had won for Christ. SS. Nereus and Achilleus dissuade St. Domitilla from marriage, These, while they saw their mistress adorned with jewels, and clad in purple garments and woven with gold, said to her: With how great zeal art thou adorned in body, that thou ^b mayest receive as husband Aurelian the son of the Consul, a mortal man. If with so great zeal thou wert adorned in soul, thou couldst gain as spouse the Son of God, the immortal King; who would also make thee thyself eternal, and would never permit an end or term to come to thee nor to thy ornaments nor to thy joys.

Domitilla answered them, and said: What can be a better charity, than to have a husband; to receive children, through whom a most sweet ^c posterity may be propagated; and to blot out neither the dignity of one's lineage, nor the memory of one's name? Lastly, how harsh it is to despise the delights themselves, and not to enjoy the sweetness of life itself, and as if one were not born into this light, not to love whatever things are sweet to the body?

[3] To these things Nereus answered and said: Thou seest the delights of a single moment, and the perils which follow through the whole year thou seest not. by exaggerating the disadvantages of marriage: For first when thou shalt have separated thyself from the integrity, which was also born with thee; the name of virgin being lost, thou shalt be called a woman: and thou who never sufferedst thy freedom to be lorded over, nor thy parents; thou shalt suffer as lord of thy body a stranger man, who shall abuse thee as if by a most vile command, so that no one's conversation with thee without peril of strife or hazard ^d may pass: not kinsfolk, not nurses, not the household-born raised with thee, shall be affable to thee: speech shall be imperiled, on account of the jealousy of husbands, sight shall be imperiled, hearing shall be imperiled, and whatever thou shalt do simply with evil suspicions shall be constrained. Domitilla answered and said: I know that my mother suffered my father jealous, and in this injury through long times was wearied out, perchance shall I also have such a one? Achilleus said: All bridegrooms, before they receive their brides, feign themselves humble and most meek; but afterwards they betray what they had concealed; and, if luxurious they have been, they love handmaids, and, despising and holding for nothing their own mistresses, and lust, defend them with a proud intention of anger; and these they avenge not only with words, but even with blows: and when the injurious speech said by a pious mother could scarcely be borne, fists sometimes, joined to most hard kicks of heels, are heaped on.

[4] But grant, that he be neither luxurious, nor jealous, and on account of the troubles of pregnant women, but rather be proved gentle and bland; let us see now what disadvantages for certain follow the woman. For the weight conceived in the womb day and night she shall carry unwilling: by which weight she becomes sick, swollen, pale, scarcely able to walk on her own feet; bearing loathing of useful foods, with harmful foods she is delighted: sometimes also the inner bosom itself either by abundance of blood is inflamed, or by excess of humor grows cold, or by leanness of dryness is constrained, or by fatness is constricted: from which causes within the secret places of the womb, the fetus conceived, diseases are born, from which there are wont to be born the weak, the bent and the lame. For the most part also placed in their birth, from the ^e straightness of the way they are turned: and of women in labor, and not only by the eyes of women are their feminine secrets manifested, but also by men unknown for the art of medicine they are laid bare, so that the members of the conceived are wont to be brought forth by arts, who kills his mother before he is ^f born, since he himself begins first to be slain rather than to be born. There is wont also deaf and dumb, or full of wounds, or even with a demon to be procreated, so that it is necessary first to seek an exorcist rather than a nurse.

[5] Nereus also answering said: O how blessed is holy virginity, virginity is praised, which from all these necessities is alien, and is lovable to God, and to all the Angels dear: which whoso has, is like to God; but whoso has not the likeness of God, therefore has it not, because he lost integrity and found corruption: whose guilt indeed a woman through penance can escape, but that integrity itself she can no longer recover. Alas! of how great madness is it to wish to subject oneself to another's lust! Alas! of how exceeding inconsideration is it, that she who was able, with joy and praises of men and Angels, but after losing it not recoverable: to await the reward of integrity and a perpetual crown; with lamentation will have need to seek penance for the very pollution, that she may be able to come to indulgence! For all sanctity, when through any will or necessity it has been lost, to its own state through penance and to its own glory can be recalled: virginity alone to its state utterly cannot be recalled.

But its guilt through tears of penance can be expelled, but the integrity itself, as we have said, utterly cannot be recalled, so that it may attain to the state of pristine sanctity. All things therefore lost can be recovered, virginity alone, once lost, cannot be recovered. For neither through her penance can a woman, when she shall have come to the indulgence of her deed, be able also to add this thereto, that she become a virgin, since once she has lost the integrity with which she was born.

[6] Sufficiently friendly to God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, virginity is proved to be familiar. the first of the virtues and nearest to martyrdom, For as the person of a Queen is set before all both noble and illustrious matrons; so also virginity exceeds the dignity of all virtues: so that it holds the second place after the Martyrs, and is among the other virtues the first. For all the virtues serve it, and as the chamber-maids of an Empress, so they obey its commands. Faith flatters it, hope embraces it, charity kisses it; and all that stand in the sight of the King of heaven, patience, perseverance, constancy, contempt of the world, vigilance, hospitality, mercy, solicitude, knowledge, truth, probity, endurance; all these, which are mentioned, and the virtues which are not mentioned, serve it. Among the foliage of Paradise and the unfading flowers of eternal life, among the groves of the Angels and the ^g shady meadows breathing forth holy odors: where eternal life is [h] taken in through the nostrils, where the air itself has the virtue of a fragrance, so that whoever has taken it in through his nostrils, and to be crowned in heaven: can no longer be sad, nor can any infirmity any longer exercise dominion over him, no grief, no sadness; but the soul will ever be rejoicing, ever exulting, and ever secure of the perpetuity of its life.

ANNOTATIONS

CHAPTER II.

Further incitements to Virginity, the reception of the sacred veil.

[7] To these things Achilleus said: These things which my brother mentions are small; and as if from an immense river he takes one sextarius, and holding it with bosom plunged in, but to gather by computing the measure of the water itself he is not able: so also of that life the joys and delights which are to come no speech can sufficiently explain, no thought find, no disputation comprehend. But I wish also this not to omit, that even here in this world virginity does not lose its freedom, does not fear manly boldness, is not subjected to a corrupting man who defiles the pure, marks the sealed, breaks the whole, captivates the free; and her made free by God, and dear to God Himself and to all the Saints, to his own lust he makes violently a handmaid. The harshness of husbands is inculcated, After these things within the domestic walls as in a private prison he keeps her shut up, suffers her not to be greeted, forbids her even to be seen by her own parents, foster-fathers and nurses and kinsfolk as enemies from consolation and conversation he excludes, nor does he himself freely permit the talk of infants, while he fears through them his injuries which he exercises upon the woman to be recognized by her parents. And these are the most false blandishments which she had had in the virgin. Let me be a liar, if it was never done, and unless I have rather mentioned the smaller evils not enough, than what manly pride is wont to exercise, the holy Angel of God acting, the patron of virginity, in that he permitted this one to be excluded from himself with whom he was born and suckled, and the Angel who is the patron of virginity,

with whom from the cradle he both laughed and wept; this integrity he permitted to be cast out from his estate, which by being born from his Creator he received; and he made the place of it for the enemy corruption to invade, when integrity is cast out thence, which always there from when it was born remained, and corruption is introduced, which never there from when it began to live, came. And since we have said that holy virginity has as Patron the Angel of the Lord, who chides and rebukes the woman that is made; let us make the voice of him reasonably chiding.

[8] Tell me, O man, in what did virginity injure thee, that thou castest her from thee, and into her place admittest the enemy? When from thy mother's womb thou camest forth she was with thee born, he is brought in praising her with thee suckled; with thee she was ever, and from thy fellowship she did not withdraw; with thee she wept the weeping of infancy, with thee amid blandishments and nourishments she was suckled, with thee fed, with thee given drink: with the weariness of thy body with thee she was wearied, with the straits of thy infirmities with thee she was straitened: with thee when thou wakedst she waked, with thee when thou sleptst she slept, with thee rising she rose, with thee standing she stood, with thee sitting she sat: with thee when thou wert clothed she was clothed, with thee when thou wert adorned she was adorned, with thee hungering she hungered, with thee feasting she feasted; with thee she learned letters, with thee by the grammatical mastery she was instructed, with thee imbued with the eloquence of the orator, with thee refreshed with the body of Christ, with thee made a catechumen, with thee was baptized, with thee with the blood of Christ was consecrated: explaining her delights in Christ, together with thee she came to the nuptials of Christ and the Church, where her bridal chamber furnished with the jewels of virtues into the ornaments of pure minds daily grows beautiful, of whose nuptials daily an innumerable multitude is born, so much that the father of those born is Christ, and the mother of the sons the Church; yet the bridal chamber is not injured, because the father Christ ceases not to be the bridegroom, and the Church ceases not to be the bride. For ever Christ is both bridegroom and father, ever the Church is both bride and mother, who ceases not to bring forth, and ceases not to be an immaculate virgin. For in the embrace of Christ integrity is rather enlarged than put to flight, and in the bringing forth of the Church virginity rather grows than decreases. Its ornaments with the varied splendor of jewels shine, from its mouth proceed the honey-flowing eloquences of the law and perpetual blandishments for virgins. O happy and holy virginity! Thou who, still among sinful men placed on earth, in these so great joys dost delight; what dost thou think among the Angels after these things thou shalt have in the heavens, how most dear shalt thou be to the Angels? how better than these falling kingdoms, how more adorned than all the most precious jewels? Every hour thou hast with thee the most beautiful youth Christ, the Son of God Almighty, crowned with comeliness, golden-haired, splendid and shining, glittering rather with the gleaming light of heaven. For since His sun is proved to be His servant and minister, how great can be the beauty of the lord, when so great is the beauty of the servant? He will ever be with thee, O holy virginity, with thee among all the Saints in eternal and spiritual blandishments perseveres, with thee ever among the Angels joyful he exults. Choose now, whom thou wilt: either Him who is eternal with eternal delights; or a man who must die, whose delights themselves are at the same time with him to perish.

[9] These and things like to these Nereus and Achilleus pursuing, Domitilla the most prudent Virgin said: by which St. Domitilla inclined toward it, Would that this knowledge of God had once come to me, and never had I taken the name of a spouse, and could have without labor assumed this title of sanctity; and as baptized I deserted the worship of idols, so instructed I would have despised this carnal commerce. But now, as God has opened your mouth to win my soul; so I believe that He Himself will open to you His counsel, that there may be able through you this which for His love we desire to be fulfilled. Then Nereus and Achilleus proceeded to ^a St. Clement the Bishop, and said to him: Although ^b thy glory is wholly placed in our Lord Jesus Christ, St. Clement invited to it, and thou gloriest not in human, but in divine dignity; we know nevertheless ^c that Clemens the Consul was the brother of thy father: His sister ^d Plautilla acquired us as servants, and then when, hearing the word of life from the Lord Peter the Apostle, she believed and was baptized, she also consecrated us together with herself and with her daughter Domitilla with holy baptism. In the same year the Lord Peter the Apostle hastened to the crown of martyrdom to Christ, and Plautilla left her earthly body. But Domitilla her daughter, since she had Aurelian the illustrious as a spouse, learned from our littleness the discourse, which we learned from the mouth of the Apostle: that a virgin, who for the love of the Lord in virginity shall have persevered, may merit to have Christ as a spouse, with whom in eternal delights and perpetual glories she may persevere. Hearing these and things like to these from us, she desires now the vow of her virginity to be consecrated by thy hands with a veil. To whom Clement the Bishop said: It is time, as I see, in which both my and your and her own calling on this occasion may attain to the palm of martyrdom, but because it is the precept of our Lord Jesus, the veil of virginity being imposed she is consecrated. that we should not fear those who kill the body, let us despise the mortal man, and to the Prince of eternal life with all our strength strive to be obedient. Then St. Clement coming to Domitilla, consecrated her.

ANNOTATIONS

CHAPTER III.

Exile in the island of Pontia. The contest with the disciples of Simon Magus: concerning this the exquisite judgment of a certain Marcellus a Roman.

[10] And because it is long to write out severally in order each thing, what evils her spouse Aurelian exercised about Domitilla full of furies: here let us transfer the section to the issue of the matter. He obtained from Domitian the Prince, that, if she should disdain to sacrifice, she should undergo the exile of the island of Pontia: The exiles in the island of Pontia with St. Domitilla in which exile he thought he could wring it out, that from the purpose of perseverance he might recall the mind of the holy Virgin. Therefore when she was exiled in the island of Pontia, and at the same time there were there with her Nereus and Achilleus, there were exiled there two evildoers, disciples of Simon: one of them was called Furius, the other Priscus. These two then almost the whole island by deceiving with magic signs, had made Simon the magician to be venerated and believed for the Son of God; to refute the followers of Simon the magician, but Peter to have been an enemy without cause. And when Nereus and Achilleus resisted them, and there was a copious multitude which defended them, Nereus and Achilleus said to the peoples: ^a Do you know Marcellus, the son of Marcus the Prefect of the City? They answered: Who would not know him? Nereus and Achilleus say to them: Do you admit his testimony concerning Simon and Peter? They answered, He is very foolish, who does not believe such a person. Who answering said: Provide therefore for your salvation, and until he receive our letters and write back to us, both concerning the blessed Peter the Apostle and also concerning Simon the Magus, withdraw yourselves from their doctrine: but our epistle being made, choose one of you who may bear it to him, which we desire to be recited in your sight: so that while he shall have written, in your sight it may nonetheless be recited. This saying pleased all, and with the letters of the holy Nereus and Achilleus they directed their man.

[11] But the text of the epistles is this: Nereus and Achilleus, servants of Jesus Christ, they send an epistle to Marcellus, to their brother and fellow-disciple Marcellus eternal greeting. In the dungeon of the island of Pontia exiled, for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we rejoice: but our joy is wearied by Furius and Priscus, disciples of Simon, who for magic arts were here exiled. For they assert that Simon was innocent, and the Apostle Peter without cause execrated him. And when we said to all, that no one should believe them; we asserted a fit and illustrious person of thy faith, who could inform them by his writings, what and of what kind his life was. Since since thou wast his disciple, thou hast known all his actions: which we ask that thou delay not to write, so that the innocent may be freed from their fallacies. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with thee. Here end the writings of Nereus and Achilleus. Here begins the rescript of Marcellus.

[12] Marcellus the servant of Christ to the holy Confessors Nereus and Achilleus: Your letters being read with joy I am filled, for I have learned that you are constant both in faith and in work, and solicitously fight for the truth. He answers, And since you mentioned this objected to you, that Simon was innocent, I will recount in some part his life, that from a few all things may be known. For I since I was his disciple, knowing him a malignant and ^b infanticide and a malefic housebreaker, that he had deserted from Simon to St. Peter I deserted him, and clung to my Lord St. Peter the Apostle. Whom when Simon called a magician, and excited the Roman people into hatred of him; suddenly in the place, in which Simon was arguing against Peter, there passed a widow with an immense people and clamorous voices and mourning, carrying out her only son. Then Peter said to the people, who believed Simon: Come to the bier, and set down him who is led out dead: when, the boy being dead, by him alone he had been moved, and whoever shall raise him up, let his faith be believed to be true. Which when the people had done, Simon said: Now, if I raise him up, will you slay Peter? And all the crowd answered: We will burn him alive. Then Simon all the demons being invoked, by their ministry began to act, that the body might be moved. Which the peoples seeing began to cry out in praise of Simon and to the destruction of Peter. Then Peter, silence being scarcely obtained, said to the people: If he lives, let him speak, walk, take food, return to his own house. But if he do not this by Simon, know that you are deceived. To these things the people with one voice cried out saying: If Simon do not this, let him himself suffer the punishment which he set for Peter. But Simon feigning himself angry, sought flight. But the people held him with immense reproach, and guarded him. but truly raised up by St. Peter, Then Peter, spreading his hands to heaven, said: Lord Jesus Christ, who saidst to us thy disciples: Go in my name and cast out demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead; raise up this boy: that all this crowd may know, that thou art God, and there is no other beside thee, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest unto ages of ages. Amen. But the boy rising up adored Peter, saying: I saw the Lord Jesus Christ, commanding the Angels and saying: At the petition of my friend Peter, Simon, however, freed lest he be cast into the fire. let the orphan be restored to the widow his mother. Then all the people with one voice cried out: There is one whom Peter preaches. But Simon transfigured himself into a dog's head, and began to flee. But the people held him: and while they wished to cast him into the fire, Peter cast himself into the midst, and freed him saying: Our Master taught us this, that for evils we should render good.

[13] When therefore Simon had escaped, he came to me, and thinking that I knew not, what had been done, a huge dog, which scarcely a chain of iron bound held, this he tied at the entrance saying: or by a dog which he had brought Let us see if Peter, who is wont to come to thee, will be able to enter. But after one hour Peter came, and the sign of the Cross being made he loosed the dog, and said to it: Go, speak against Simon. Cease by the ministry of demons to deceive the people, for whom Christ shed His blood. But I seeing such great wonders, ran to Peter: and falling at his knees, received him into my house; but Simon I drove out with disgrace. But the dog made bland to all, pursued Simon alone: whom when he had put under himself, Peter ran crying out and saying: I command thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou fasten not a bite on any part of his body. should be slain. But the dog could touch no member of him, but so handled his garments with bites, that no part of his body remained covered. But all the people, and especially the boys, together with the dog ran after him so long, until they cast him with howling as if a wolf outside the walls of the city out.

[14] But after these things, not bearing the reproach of this shame, whom afterwards under Nero Peter conquered, for one year he nowhere appeared. But afterwards he found one, who insinuated him to Nero Caesar: and so it was done, that a malignant man with a malignant, nay a worse than himself, joined himself in friendship. After these things also the Lord appeared to the Apostle Peter, through a vision saying: Simon and Nero, full of demons, against thee plot: fear not, for ^a with thee I am, and I will give thee the solace of my servant the Apostle Paul, who tomorrow shall enter Rome: with whom after seven months together you shall have war against Simon, and after you shall have cast out and conquered him, and laid him down into hell, together to me you shall come both victors. and with St. Paul he was crowned with martyrdom. Which also was done. For on the next day Paul came. But in what order they saw themselves and after seven months had a conflict with Simon, since you were here and saw with your own eyes, [c] superfluous I have held it to teach you what you know, since St. Linus in the Greek tongue wrote the whole ^d text of their passion to the Eastern Churches.

ANNOTATIONS

CHAPTER IV.

The Acts of the life and death of St. Petronilla, and the martyrdom of SS. Felicula and Nicomedes the Presbyter.

[15] Concerning ^a Petronilla indeed the daughter of my Lord Peter the Apostle, what her end was, St. Petronilla since you have asked, solicitously and briefly I will intimate. Petronilla therefore you well know, by the will of Peter made paralytic: for I recall that you were present, when at his house very many of his disciples we were refreshed, and it happened that Titus said to the Apostle: is healed by St. Peter. Since all by thee are saved who are sick, why dost thou permit Petronilla to lie paralytic? The Apostle said: So it is expedient for her. But lest the impossibility of her health should be thought excused by my words, he said to her: Rise, Petronilla, and minister to us. And straightway she rose whole. But the ministry being completed he ordered her to return to her bed. But when in the fear of God she began to be perfect, not only she herself was saved, but also for very many she recovered to the better health by her prayers. And since exceedingly beautiful she was, there came to her Flaccus the Count with soldiers, as a wife by Flaccus the Count, that he might take her to himself as wife. To whom Petronilla said: To an unarmed girl with armed soldiers thou hast come: if thou wilt have me as wife, cause matrons and honest virgins to come to me after three days, that with them I may come to thy house. But it was done that the space of three days received the Virgin in holy fastings and prayers was occupied, having with her the holy Virgin ^b Felicula her foster-sister, in the fear of God perfect. On the third day therefore coming to her St. Nicomedes the Presbyter, celebrated the mysteries of Christ. But the most sacred Virgin, as soon as she received the Sacrament of Christ, reclining herself on the bed, gave up the spirit. And it was done, that all the crowd of matrons and virgins, who had been brought by Flaccus, celebrated the obsequies of the funeral of the holy Virgin.

[16] But Flaccus turning his mind, said to Felicula: Choose for thyself one of two, either be my wife, St. Felicula, consenting neither to marry Flaccus nor to sacrifice to the gods, or sacrifice to the gods. To whom St. Felicula answered: Neither will I be thy wife, because I am consecrated to Christ: nor will I sacrifice to idols, because I am a Christian. Then Flaccus handed her to the Vicar, and made her to be shut up in a dark chamber, without food for seven days, in which there said to her the wives of the guards: Why dost thou wish by an evil death to die? Take a noble husband, rich, young, elegant, a Count and friend of the Emperor. Hearing these things Felicula, after a 14 days' starvation she objected no answer of speech at all, except this: I am a Virgin of Christ, and besides Him I receive none at all. But being cast out after seven days, she was led to the virgins of Vesta, and there for another seven days without food she remained. For by no reason could they bring her to this, that from their hands she should take food. she is hung on the rack: After these things lifted on the rack she cried out, saying: Now I have begun to see my lover Christ, in whom my love is fixed. But all said to her, and they themselves who tortured her: Deny that thou art a Christian, and thou shalt be dismissed. But Felicula cried out: I do not deny my lover, she is cast into a sewer: who for me was fed with gall, given vinegar to drink, crowned with thorns, and affixed to the cross was. After these things she was taken down and cast headlong into a sewer.

[17] But the holy Nicomedes the Presbyter, placed on the watch, secretly lifted up the body, and through the night in a [c] two-wheeled cart conveyed it to his little house, St. Nicomedes for burying her body at the seventh milestone from the City of Rome on the Ardeatine Way, and there her he buried: in which place her prayers fructify unto the present day. But it came to Flaccus that Nicomedes the Presbyter had done this, and he caused him to be held and led to sacrifice. Who when he said: I do not sacrifice, except to God Almighty who reigns in the heavens, not to these gods who in temples as in prisons shut up are guarded. When these and many such things he said, beaten with leaded scourges he died, beaten very long with leaded scourges he passed to the Lord. [d] But his body into the Tiber was cast headlong. But a Cleric of the same Presbyter, by name and work Just, gathered his body, and placed it in his two-wheeled cart, and led it to his [e] little garden near the walls on the Nomentan Way, and there buried it: in which praying to the Lord, they obtain what they ask by the intervention of His Martyr, who suffered for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here end the writings of Marcellus, sent to Nereus and Achilleus. Here begin the rescripts concerning the passion of them.

ANNOTATIONS

CHAPTER V.

The Acts of the martyrdom of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, likewise of SS. Eutyches, Victorinus and Maro.

[18] Eutyches, Victorinus and Maro, servants of our Lord Jesus Christ to Marcellus. As thy letters came to the holy Nereus and Achilleus, SS. Nereus and Achilleus already there had passed thirty days, since they had come to the crown. For Flavia Domitilla the most illustrious Virgin, nay most Christian, when these her eunuchs had taught her to believe in Christ, and themselves their virginity to keep; Aurelian her spouse, despised by her, caused her under the title of Christianity to be banished to this island. But Aurelian himself coming hither, slain by the order of Aurelian, began to attempt the mind of Nereus and Achilleus, thinking through them to move the Virgin's mind. But the Saints execrating his gifts, and rather corroborating the faith of Domitilla, at Terracina they are beheaded, therefore by him with most grievous stripes were handled; and brought down to Terracina, by Memmius Rufus the Consular were handed over. By whom when by the rack and flames they were compelled to sacrifice to idols, and said that they, baptized by B. Peter the Apostle, could in no way sacrifice to idols, they were beheaded. Whose bodies seized ^b Auspicius, their disciple, foster-father of the holy Virgin Domitilla: who also placing them in a little boat brought them away, and in the estate of Domitilla in a sandy crypt buried them, on the Ardeatine Way, and they are buried by Auspicius the disciple. one mile and a half from the wall of the City, near the sepulchre in which had been buried Petronilla, the daughter of the Apostle Peter. These things we have learned from Auspicius himself relating, who their bodies both seized and buried. It will be of thy charity to act solicitously concerning us, and to direct to us some such one, who may make both us concerning thy and concerning our safety more glad. Their birthday is the fourth of the Ides of May.

[19] This writing being received, Marcellus sent his brother to the island: who was with these Confessors of Christ for a year, but afterwards returned to Marcellus and related these things. SS. Eutyches, Victorinus and Maro, When Aurelian after the martyrdom of Nereus and Achilleus was acting, that he might be able to come to the consent of Domitilla; it was said to him by a certain one, that he would have greater charity, with Eutyches and Victorinus and Maro, than he had had with the eunuchs his Nereus and Achilleus, who had taught her to believe in Christ. Whence it was done that from the Prince [c] Nerva he asked them to be given to him, if they should be unwilling to sacrifice. Who when manfully acted [d] Eutyches, Victorinus and Maro, and the threats of Aurelian utterly did not heed, he removed them from the island, relegated to the fields by Aurelian, and as servants through his estates singly he divided them, Eutyches in the sixteenth from the city, on the Nomentan Way; Victorinus in the sixtieth, but Maro in the hundred and thirtieth, on the same Salarian Way: and he ordered them to dig in the earth through the whole day, but at evening to eat [e] coarse bran. But God Almighty gave them grace in foreign places. For Eutyches the daughter of the Lessee of the place from the devil freed; they are renowned for miracles: but Victorinus the Steward of the place a paralytic, for three years from his bed not rising, made by praying whole. But Maro the Procurator of the city of Septempeda laboring with the disease of dropsy freed.

[20] Meanwhile making a discourse to the people they taught many to believe in Christ, and made Presbyters, and made Presbyters they enlarged the people of believers. Then the devil filled with anger the mind of Aurelian, and sent those who by various kinds of punishments might slay them. For Eutyches in the middle of the way he ordered long to be beaten, until he should breathe out the spirit: they are slain: Eutyches long beaten, whose body the people of the Christians seized, and with great honor buried, in the name of Christ over him built a basilica. But Victorinus near that place, which is called Cotiliae, where stinking and sulphurous waters flow forth, in them head downward for three hours he ordered to be held and again to be hung up. This for three days for the name of Christ suffering Victorinus passed to the Lord. But Aurelian ordered his body not to be buried. Victorinus over the sulphurous waters hung, And when for one day at [f] Cotylae he had lain, there came, [g] the Amiternine Christian peoples and seized him, and into their own territory transferred and there buried him. But Maro, his friend being sent, by name Turgius, he ordered to be led and with a huge stone's weight to be crushed. Whence it was done, that a most enormous rock, Maro after the huge rock carried, which scarcely at the pulley seventy men could lift, on his shoulders they placed. But St. Maro himself as if light chaff carried it for two miles whole, and in that place set it, in which he had been wont to pray. And this deed all the people of the province wondering at, believed in Christ, and was baptized. But the Consular, having received from Aurelian power, slew him. But the peoples hollowed out the rock which on his shoulders he had carried, and there buried him, slain. and built a church of Christ, in his name: in which are bestowed the benefits of the Lord, to the glory of His name unto the present day. [h]

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VI.

The martyrdom of SS. Domitilla, Euphrosyna and Theodora the Virgins: likewise of Sulpitius and Servilianus.

[21] But it was done, after Aurelian had taken away all the Saints of God from the solace of Domitilla, he said to Sulpitius and Servilianus, ^a illustrious young men: I know that you have as betrothed the foster-sisters of Domitilla, St. Domitilla brought to Terracina, that is, Euphrosyna and Theodora the most wise virgins. When therefore I shall have caused Domitilla to be brought down from the island to Campania, let these go to her for the sake of visiting, and by their persuasion recall to my favor her mind. When therefore Domitilla had been brought down from the island of Pontia to Terracina, and there had come to her Euphrosyna and Theodora, Euphrosyna and Theodora sent to her, mutually they had great joy. Meanwhile when they had come to a banquet, while they dined Domitilla in fastings and prayers was occupied. Then her foster-sisters said to her: Now since we dine and receive husbands, we cannot worship thy God. Domitilla says to them: Since you have as spouses noble men, what would you do if some ignoble and [b] base persons wished to recall you from the love of them, that they themselves might take you as wives? Answering they said: May God avert this from our minds. To whom Domitilla said: So also from my mind, she instructs them in the Christian faith, because a great spouse I have, the Son of God, who from heaven descended, and promised to those who love virginity, that He is their spouse, who for the love of Him should keep virginity, and to give them eternal life: so that after the departure of their souls He may introduce them into the eternal bridal chamber in the heavens, and make them rejoice with the Angels, and among the flowers of aromatics in the midst of paradise always to give thanks and without end at banquets to feast. When these things promised the Son of God, and no one would believe Him, He began the blind to enlighten, lepers to cleanse, all infirmities to heal, even the dead to raise; and so it was done that He showed and taught Himself the true God, and all in Him believed.

[22] Theodora says to her: I have a young brother, whom thou knowest, Herod: he before this year the eyes' blindness incurred: if thou speakest truth, in the name of thy God heal him. Euphrosyna also says: and when to the mute woman speech Thou a brother at Rome didst leave blind; but I here have a little daughter of my nurse, who in sickness was made mute, hearing indeed entire she has, but voice and speech have fled from her. And saying these things, she caused her into her sight to be brought. Then Domitilla prostrating herself in prayer, very long wept: but rising up she spread her hands to heaven, and said: Lord Jesus Christ, who saidst: Behold I am with you all the days unto the consummation of the world; show my testimony to be true. And when she had said these things, she made the sign of the Cross over the mouth of the mute woman, and said: In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ speak. And straightway she sent forth a great voice saying, True is thy God, Domitilla, and all things are true which from thy mouth thou hast brought forth. Then both cast themselves at her feet, and to the blind man sight had obtained, and believing in the mysteries of Christ they were consecrated. The brother also of Theodora led in blind, by the prayers of Domitilla received light both of mind and of body. But all men and women, who as Pagans from the City had come, she converts them and all present, whether servants or freeborn, seeing these things believed in Christ, and were baptized. And the house, in which she remained, was made as it were a church.

[23] But it was done, and Aurelian came with the two spouses, himself the third with three organists, that as if in one day the nuptials of the three virgins might be made. But Sulpitius and Servilianus seeing the mute woman speak, their spouses Sulpitius and Servilianus also believe, and Herod the brother of Theodora enlightened; hearing moreover all things which had been said and done, believed. Whom when Aurelian instantly exhorted, that on one day together they should receive their spouses, Sulpitius and Servilianus most prudent men said to him: Give honor to God, by whose power the blind man enlightened we behold, and the mute woman speaking we see. But Aurelian not caring about these things which they spoke to him; caused by his power to be shut up in a chamber Domitilla, that secure he might do violence. And the organs being set, after supper, he began joyful to dance among them. And as he danced after the customary manner of nuptials, Aurelian dancing expires, all the others failing, he without ceasing danced so long through two days and two nights, until falling down he expired. But seeing what had happened, all believed.

[24] But the brother of Aurelian, by name Luxurius, asked from the Emperor Trajan, they are beheaded, that he should compel all these to sacrifice: who if they should not consent, with punishments such as he wished he should slay them. Whence it was done that Sulpitius and Servilianus to the Prefect of the City Anianus he handed over. Whom the Prefect, confessing that lately they had been made Christians, being utterly unwilling further to idols to sacrifice, he commanded to be beheaded. Whose bodies the Christians placed in their estate on the Latin Way at the second milestone, in which place their virtue overflows unto the present day.

[25] After these things Luxurius went to the Virgins of Christ at the city of the Terracinians, The three holy virgins are burned and being utterly unwilling to idols to sacrifice, all things which they had being taken away, in the same chamber, in which together they remained, he shut them up, and set fire to it. But on the next day coming a holy Deacon, by name Caesarius [c], found the bodies of the Virgins immaculate: for prostrate on their faces, praying to the Lord, they departed. Whose bodies the holy Caesarius in a new sarcophagus together embalming, burying in the depth of the earth he interred.

ANNOTATIONS

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION

Made by the care of Caesar Cardinal Baronius. From authentic Mss. of the Vallicellan church.

Nereus, Eunuch, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Achilleus, Eunuch, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Fl. Domitilla, Virgin, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Euphrosyna, Virgin, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.) Theodora, Virgin, Martyr at Terracina in Latium (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

The Life of Caesar Baronius, of the Congregation of the Oratory, Presbyter Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, and Librarian of the Apostolic See, and most renowned writer of the Ecclesiastical Annals, Baronius made Cardinal 1596 in the year MDCLI in Roman type published Jerome Barnabaeus, Presbyter of the same Congregation; whom afterwards, the most worthy Provost of it, in the ninth year after we had so favoring our studies, that we think small the thanks, which before volume 2 of March, in words however most ample, we endeavored to render to him and to that most religious assembly of most learned Fathers. He in book 3 chapter 13 of the aforesaid Life, to the matter proposed to us, thus speaks: Scarcely had he, namely Baronius, been assumed to the Cardinalate, (which was done by Clement VIII in the year V of his Pontificate, of Christ MDXCVI, on the Nones of June, in the second Creation) when the titular church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus from the Pontiff he asked, and that one indeed, whose walls collapsed with age, had lost the form of a temple: with this mind, namely, that from the foundation he might restore it. The matter being heard the Pontiff was astonished, and smiling said: To thee namely, as the richest of all the Cardinals, by best right is owed this title, to be at once indeed restored. Finally to him asking and beseeching, he asks for and obtains the title of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, what he wished, was granted. And no delay. Caesar to the work set his hand, and what with great mind he had begun, within a year's space happily completed. But when to him through those days for bestowing there was nothing at hand except the will, he did not hesitate for that matter money at just interest to receive, and to seven thousand of gold, for restoring and adorning the church, liberally he poured forth. This which already, before he was created Cardinal, he had meditated, and as it were in mind had presaged. For when at some time the seven principal Churches of the City for the sake of religion he visited, and beheld the ancient ruins of the temple, the scattered walls, whose restoration he had long ago desired. and all things prostrate and full of rubble, Alas, he said to his companions, to what at last is the most ancient temple of the holy Martyrs Nereus and Achilleus reduced. Here St. Gregory the Great had a homily to the people. Here in those ancient times the Title by the elders was erected and Fasciolae called. What will the heretics say, who daily come to the City, and calumniate us on every side? Tuscis, Lord, what would I do, if for the mind there were strength. Therefore as soon as occasion offered itself, (but it was not yet a month elapsed) the church to be repaired he took care, and nearly from the foundations raised he adorned, and perfected. Thus Barnabaeus.

[2] The next thing after the restoration of the title and church was, that to each its own celebrity should be restored, through the restoration of the annual Station: which at the request of Baronius, through the following Brief was done. Pope Clement VIII for the perpetual memory of the matter. Dispensers of the heavenly gifts of the Church on earth, although unmeriting, by Divine clemency disposing constituted, those things so to dispense we study, that the faithful of Christ allured by them, he likewise asking, to pious and salutary works to exercise, more may be excited; since especially the pious vows of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church require it, and otherwise in the Lord salubriously we see it to be expedient. To the supplications therefore of our beloved son Caesar, called by the title of SS. Nereus and Achilleus Presbyter Cardinal Baronius, to us upon this humbly offered, inclined, and on the mercy of Almighty God, and of the BB. Peter and Paul the Apostles authority confiding, to all and each of the faithful of Christ, who the church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, situated in sight of the church of St. Sixtus, on the day on which in the same church of St. Sixtus, near the gate of St. Sebastian situated, the Station is wont to be, shall have visited, and the other things which for obtaining the Indulgences of the aforesaid Station to be fulfilled are shall have fulfilled, the same Indulgences of the aforesaid Station of the church of St. Sixtus, not privatively as regards the church of St. Sixtus itself, but cumulatively, the Station long intermitted is there restored 1597 perpetually we concede: so that on the same day the station in the same church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus equally as in the church of St. Sixtus aforesaid may be; and so by all to be reckoned, and so by whatsoever ordinary and delegate judges, taken away from them and from any of them all otherwise judging and interpreting faculty and authority, to be judged and defined; and void and vain whatsoever otherwise upon these by anyone by any authority, knowingly or ignorantly, shall happen to be attempted, we decree. Notwithstanding our Rule, concerning Indulgences not to be conceded after the manner, and other constitutions and ordinations Apostolic, even by oath, confirmation Apostolic, or any other firmness corroborated, statutes, customs, and the rest contrary whatsoever. Given at Rome at St. Peter under the ring of the Fisherman the XXII day of January, MDXCVII, of our Pontificate the year V. There prevailed nevertheless the usage in the Missals, at least hitherto printed at Antwerp, that only is noted the Station at St. Sixtus (This is the second of that name and is venerated on the VI of August) on the Feria IV after the III Sunday of Lent.

[3] To this grace was added within a month another, through a Brief to Baronius himself in these words directed. Our beloved son, salvation and Apostolic benediction. [to the same is conceded the faculty of requiring the Relics formerly thence removed,] To thy pious and devout supplications inclined, to thy Circumspection the Relics of SS. Nereus and Achilleus and of Flavia Domitilla, who together suffered martyrdom, from whatsoever Basilicas of the City and outside its walls, churches, monasteries of whatsoever Orders even Mendicant, and pious places in which they shall be found, freely to extract, and to the church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, which is the Title of thy Cardinalate, to transfer the licence and faculty, by Apostolic authority by the tenor of these presents we concede and impart. Commanding in virtue of holy obedience, and under the indignation of us and the privation of active and passive voice and of the offices which they hold, and also other punishments of our arbitration ipso facto to be incurred, to the beloved sons the Presidents, Chapters and Persons of the same basilicas, churches, monasteries and pious places the Superiors or Commendatories respectively, that the said holy Relics, existing among them, to thy Circumspection freely and all delay, tergiversation, exception, or excuse being taken away, they hand over, consign; and to be handed over and consigned with effect take care and cause.

[4] Besides to the same thy Circumspection, that all other whatsoever Relics of the Saints male and female from the Presidents, and others moreover to acquire: Chapters, Persons and all others whatsoever aforesaid to thee spontaneously to be given, from the same Basilicas, churches, monasteries and pious places to extract, and to the aforesaid church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus to be transferred to cause, freely and licitly and without any scruple of conscience thou mayest, by the authority and tenor aforesaid equally we concede and indulge. Notwithstanding &c… Given at Rome at St. Mark under the ring of the Fisherman the XIV day of February MDXCVII. Of our Pontificate the year VI, fifteen days namely before begun. But how, the faculty given to him being used, Baronius, and what Relics from the churches of SS. Hadrian, Sebastian and Sylvester of the head he extracted, is contained in the following instrument.

[5] In the name of God. Amen. By this public instrument to all everywhere let it be open and known, that in the year from the Nativity of the Lord MDXCVII, Indiction X, on the day indeed XX of the month of February, which being used the 20th of February from the Diaconia of St. Hadrian, of the Pontificate of the most holy in Christ Father and our Lord D. Clement by divine providence Pope VIII, in his year VI, in the presence of me the Notary public undersigned, and of the witnesses undersigned to these things specially called, had and asked, present and personally existing the most Illustrious and most Reverend D. Caesar of the title of SS. Nereus and Achilleus Presbyter Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church called Baronius (to whom lately our most holy Lord Clement by divine Providence Pope VIII through his letters in the form of a Brief upon this dispatched, that the Relics of SS. Nereus and Achilleus and of Flavia Domitilla, from whatsoever… to extract, and to the church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus to transfer the licence and faculty conceded) wishing to use the faculty to him in the same Apostolic letters conceded, having taken me the Notary to the church of St. Hadrian betook himself: which having entered, and pious there first to God poured-forth prayers, having called thence to himself the Reverend Fathers Fr. Ferdinand Suarez, Vicar general of the Order of St. Mary de Mercede of the redemption of captives; Fr. Richard Bargas, Vicar of the church of the same St. Hadrian, Fr. Marcellus Leonis, Fr. Dominic of Aragon, Brothers of the same Order in the same church living, the aforenarrated original Apostolic letters, which in his hands he held, into the midst he exhibited, and to me the Notary to the same Brothers to be presented he handed over…

[6] Which letters indeed by me the Notary with clear and intelligible voice having been read aloud, and to the same most Illustrious and most Reverend D. Cardinal restored, he recovers the heads of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, a copy of them retained with me, the aforesaid RR. Brothers having seen and heard the letters aforesaid with that reverence which was becoming, several lights being kindled, a certain chest in the sacristy existing, with several keys unlocked, being opened, to the same Illustrious and Reverend D. Cardinal there standing, three heads of SS. Nereus namely, Achilleus and Flavia Domitilla, in gilded wooden shrines enclosed, with an inscription of the names of the same Martyrs, humbly and reverently they consigned, asserting that in the same the heads of the same blessed Martyrs were laid up. And moreover the same R. Fr. Richard, also by the medium of an oath, his breast being touched after the manner of Religious, affirmed that the bodies of the same Blessed Martyrs by the most Illustrious and most Reverend D. Augustine Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church of Cusa in the year MD LXXXIX with ancient inscriptions in the said Church of St. Hadrian were found, and under the high altar of the same church by the order of the aforesaid Cardinal were placed, and their heads in the said gilded shrines laid up he had seen. Which heads indeed the aforesaid Illustrious and Reverend D. Card. Baronius into his hands piously received, with the mind, according to the form of the aforeinserted letters, to the aforesaid church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus to convey them, and there as honorifically and religiously as could be done to place them, that for the divine cult and the memory of the same holy Martyrs to be retained, to the people venerable they might be set forth to be. Done at Rome in the very church of St. Hadrian, piously to all the aforesaid things also intervening the most Illustrious and most Reverend D. Francis Mary Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Taurusius and very many of the same Lords Cardinals' familiars there standing…

[7] Successively, in the same year, Indiction and Pontificate, on the day indeed XXV of the same month of February… the aforesaid Caesar Cardinal Baronius, having taken me the Notary, [and the 25th of February from the church of St. Sebastian some particles of the same,] to the church of St. Sebastian outside the walls situated betook himself, and entered it, and with the most Reverend D. Angelus Roccha the Sacristan of our most holy Lord the Pope, of the said church the Administrator, there existing, to the high altar of the said church he approached, and in virtue of the aforesaid letters … there were several lights being kindled, before witnesses &c. to the same D. Cardinal by the said D. Administrator consigned two gilded wooden heads, which under key were laid up above the high altar of the said church in a most noble little chapel, as from its inscription was read, at the expense of the most Serene and most Pious Duke of both Bavaria constructed, with an inscription on each of the same heads affixed, on one namely concerning the head of St. Nereus the Martyr, and the other concerning the head of St. Achilleus, and within it was asserted that of the heads of the same holy Martyrs Relics were laid up: which the same D. Cardinal into his hands piously and humbly received, and prayers being repeated to God those with him he carried away, in the presence &c.

[8] Then on the V of March, in the same year, Indiction and Pontificate as above… the aforesaid Cardinal approached to the monastery of St. Sylvester of the head of the city, [and on the 5th of March others unnamed he obtains from the monastery of St. Sylvester.] and having called the most Reverend Sister Hieronyma Maccarana, of the same monastery the present Abbess, and her certified of the faculty conceded to him he entered the choir of the same monastery and with knee bent before the high altar there existing, poured forth prayers to God most good and great; and four white wax torches being kindled, with the presence and consent of the said D. Abbess and of certain other nuns, there for the sake of devotion standing, he had through the hands of R. D. Pompey Paterius Presbyter of the church of St. Mary in Vallicella of the City present, and by the order of the said Sister Hieronyma the Abbess handing them over, six pieces of relics of the Saints male and female, existing in a certain leaden chest, which once stood at the altar of SS. Paul and Nicholas of the church of St. Sylvester; and now on account of the restoration of the said church and altar, above the high altar of the said choir, from a year and before, as the said Abbess affirmed, laid up; and certain other little pieces of relics existing in a certain little casket of white bone enclosed, which was opened and afterwards closed again: of which indeed Saints male and female the names are unknown: and finally three pieces of relics of the Holy Innocents, placed back in a certain silver vessel, spontaneously by the said Nuns offered and conceded. Which all Relics the same Cardinal into his hands humbly receiving, in a certain little casket for now to be placed back and conserved he commanded, to the said his titular church afterwards for the devotion of the faithful to be conveyed…

[9] Afterwards on Wednesday the XII of the month of March, in the year, The same on the 12th of March having obtained possession of his title, Indiction and Pontificate aforesaid… the said D. Cardinal, to whom lately by our most holy Lord the Pope aforesaid concerning the titular aforesaid church it was provided (as in the Apostolic under the date at Rome on the Mount Quirinal the XI of the kalends of February of his Pontificate the year V under lead dispatched letters more fully is contained) wishing according to the faculty to him in the same Apostolic letters conceded, of the same church and of the rights and appurtenances of it whatsoever, actual and corporal possession to obtain both in spiritual and in temporal things; on this present day, on which is the Station at the said church; by many noble and worthy persons accompanied, and for the effect of taking possession of it, into it he entered: and holy water being taken to the high altar of the church itself, at the expense of the said D. Cardinal newly built he approached, and with knees bent devout to God most good and great prayers he poured forth. Then with sacred vestments clothed in the ciborium of the same church Pontifically he sat: and afterwards the Apostolic letters concerning the concession of the same church Titular as above made up he handed to me, that those to the people there standing I might read…

[10] Afterwards the aforesaid D. Cardinal, the obtaining of possession of this kind continuing, the customary prayers being chanted, Mass at the same high altar solemnly celebrated, there he makes a sermon on the holy Patrons, a great multitude of persons hearing: and the holy Mass being completed and the sacred vestments put off, sitting, to the people there standing a sermon he had concerning the praises of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, under whose names the same church is consecrated; and the church round about with holy water he sprinkled and lustrated: and so, the aforesaid and other possessory acts, denoting true, real and corporal possession, doing, performing and fulfilling, of the church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus and of its rights, members and appurtenances, as Cardinal titular of the said church, in virtue of the said Apostolic letters, he took, entered and obtained in the aforesaid and otherwise every better manner: protesting that by departure from the same church he does not intend to relinquish its possession, but it in mind and civilly always and whensoever to retain.

[11] Finally on the IX of May the Illustrious D. Cardinal, using the faculty conceded to him in the letters of which above, being in the aforesaid church of St. Hadrian… assisting the same RR. PP. the Prior and Brothers of the said Church, and their bodies found under the altar of St. Hadrian with that reverence which was becoming, taken up, by the order of the most Illustrious D. Cardinal himself, by Master Bartholomew Bassus the Florentine stonecutter, and D. Gaspar Guerra of Modena the Architect, and others applied to this, the marble stone, beneath which, under the high altar of the said church, were asserted to be laid up the bodies of the holy Martyrs Nereus, Achilleus and Domitilla, there was by the aforesaid D. Cardinal, beneath the said altar, found a certain little leaden chest, in which the bodies of the same holy Martyrs were laid up, as appeared from the inscriptions there found, as they were found in the year 1213, and by me the Notary seen and read, of which a copy taken of the inserted tenor, namely. Here are laid up Relics, namely the half of the bodies of the BB. Martyrs Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla and their companions, whose bodies found, Gregory Abbot of St. Sebastian, and Presbyter Paul of St. Hadrian Cleric, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation MCCXIII, on the day before the kalends of May. But the other of the undersigned tenor, namely. Sixtus V being Supreme Pontiff, in the year of the Lord MDLXXXIX on the XVIII day of the month of July, Augustine Cusanus of Milan, of this church of St. Hadrian of the Holy Roman Church and in the year 1589 there placed Cardinal Deacon found in the confession the half of the bodies of the BB. Martyrs Nereus Achilleus and Domitilla the Virgin, which in this leaden coffer, together with the old leaden inscription he laid up, and at the high altar more becomingly placed, on the XVIII of February, on the Lord's day MDXC.

[12] Which most Illustrious D. Card. Baronius, all these things seen and read, with the presence and intervention of the aforesaid on the 9th of May he carries the translation into a new chest DD. the Prior and Brothers of the said church of St. Hadrian and of the witnesses inserted, the said blessed Martyrs' bodies, from the place in which they were laid up, humbly and devoutly extracted; and in another little casket of wood, with red Damascus silk covered, under key, with the seal of the same most Illustrious D. Cardinal's impression in several places accurately sealed and fortified, with all care and diligence, with his own hands piously and humbly enclosed, and in the sacristy of the same church for now to be kept and faithfully guarded he commanded, to the effect that they thence afterwards with the greatest expense and apparatus that could be solemnly and processionally, to the same SS. Nereus and Achilleus' church, the title of his Cardinalate, to be transferred and carried away; left nevertheless by the aforesaid most Illustrious D. Cardinal to the same RR. a certain particle being left in the old coffer, Brothers, and in the same leaden chest beneath the aforesaid altar in the former place in which they were, some part of the Relics of the bodies of the same blessed Martyrs … Done in the aforesaid church of St. Hadrian, present there the Magnificent D. Fabricius Paulutius and the Magnificent D. John Baptist Picciolottus the aforesaid most Illustrious D. Cardinal's familiars, witnesses to the aforesaid all and singular called and had. I Octavius Cellius of Acquasparta, of the curial causes of the Apostolic Chamber Notary, concerning the aforesaid asked, this public instrument subscribed and signed being required ✠.

[13] and on the 12th of May he conveys them to the church restored by him, No long delay was interposed but that the designated translation was completed: concerning which although no made-up instrument we have received, nor any other history of the performed solemnity, that the day however was the third from the aforesaid, namely the very feast of the Saints, noted John Juvenal Ancina in Barnabaeus, book 3 chapter 2 with this memorable event, and for commending the intervention of the Saints not to be passed over, these words being added. It pleases me, he says, to these to add that Cardinal Baronius (just as he himself with his own mouth narrated to me) with most ardent prayers besought the glorious Martyrs Nereus and Achilleus, on the very day on which their bodies from the Diaconia of St. Hadrian to the ancient church were brought back, that they might deign to be present to the Cardinal of Avignon, in a most difficult matter which he was treating, concerning reconciling between themselves the Princes of Mantua and Parma, that which by human reasons could not be obtained, in the judgment of nearly all the Purpled, was reckoned. But behold on the very day, on which to the Martyrs themselves with solemn office we give thanks, the IV Ides of May, peace unexpectedly made appeared to be. [when by the vow of Baronius between the Prince of Parma and of Mantua peace was knit together.] The Cardinal of Avignon is understood as above named and below to be praised Cardinal Taurusius, nephew of Julius III, from the Congregation of the Oratory to the Archbishopric of Avignon, then to the Cardinalate raised, and to the Archbishopric of Siena translated: concerning whom in the year MDXCVII writes the author of the History of Mantua Hippolytus Donesmundi, that, the mind of the Prince of Parma being known, he came to Mantua on the XXVI of March, and so dexterously handled the mind of the Prince of Modena, that he inclined him to the honorable conditions of peace which he brought, for the sake of which matter he sang Mass on the following Sunday namely the XXX of March, in the Cathedral church of the Holy Spirit; a plenary indulgence being proposed to all who would pray for the confirmation of peace. And this confirmation is understood from Ancina to have been made on the XII of May, as afterwards at Rome to have become known indicates the aforecited author, on the very same day namely on which we think not only the feast of the Saints was celebrated, but their very bodies into the restored church were brought back.

[14] For the preservation moreover of the aforesaid church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus in future times also wishing it provided for, Clement the Pope, in the same year MDXCVII on the III of the kalends of July, through a bull given at St. Peter, That church on the 20th of June Pope Clement, decreed the same to the Congregation of the Fathers of the Oratory to be subjected, thus beginning. Clement Bishop, servant of the servants of God, for the perpetual memory of the matter. Since from the duty of the Pastoral office, on our shoulders by Divine disposition imposed, the care of each church to us is committed: of those however which in this kindly City exist and which to the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church in title have been wont to be conceded, the maintenance and conservation by a special providence and solicitude, the Lord cooperating, to procure and the parts of the same office to interpose it behooves us, as we perceive in the Lord to be expedient. Since therefore the church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, which among the most ancient Titles of the said City is numbered, on account of its antiquity collapsed and almost ruined and to profane uses nearly reduced had been; and which through several years lacked its own Presbyter Cardinal; with the notable commendation of Baronius himself, and which our beloved son Caesar, by the title of the same SS. Nereus and Achilleus Presbyter Card. Baronius called, into the title of his Cardinalate to himself through us to be conceded obtained; and who the church itself by singular piety and not small expense of his restored, and to the pristine state and use of a church restored, and to which the bodies of the same SS. Nereus, Achilleus and Domitilla, in whose honor the church itself was constructed, which before under the Confession of the said church laid up, to the church of St. Hadrian in the time of happy memory Gregory Pope IX our Predecessor had been translated, the said Caesar Cardinal by his pious liberality, by our licence, under the same confession by himself likewise restored, honorifically to be brought back and laid up took care.

[15] That therefore the church itself of SS. Nereus and Achilleus in this becoming state may be conserved wishing to provide, on the greatest piety and charity to us very well known of the beloved sons the Provost and Presbyters of the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Mary in Vallicella of the same City, unites and commits it to the Congregation of the Oratory. with whom anciently while in minor orders constituted we were, as also while with the honor of the Cardinalate we functioned, familiarly we conversed, very much in the Lord confiding, we decreed the church itself of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, with the consent of Caesar the Cardinal himself, to the care, government and administration of the same Congregation to commit and entrust, and it to the same Congregation perpetually to concede and assign. Decreeing then by our own motion, the annual value of the rights and goods whatsoever pertaining to the church in these presents for expressed to be had (for we had decreed otherwise that without this the union of benefices is void) and the same church from anyone's except from the Vicar general's jurisdiction exempting, and whatsoever contrary abrogating, saving that the Presbyter Cardinal Titular to it on the feast and the station and other whatsoever days may approach, and at Mass and Vespers assist, and them as it shall please him celebrate may… the same, he says, church, so as is aforesaid free and exempt, to the same Congregation perpetually we concede and assign, unite, annex and incorporate.

[16] So that the said Congregation's Provost and Presbyters, of the church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus of this kind, and of its buildings, to be freely possessed and governed: rights and appurtenances whatsoever through themselves or another or others, also in their said Congregation's name, by their own authority real and actual possession freely may comprehend and perpetually retain; and whatsoever of the church itself of SS. Nereus and Achilleus and other to it to be given or in any way to be left goods may recover, receive, exact and levy, and their fruits, rents and revenues exact, and into their and the said Congregation's uses and utility convert; and also of the sacred Relics in the same church existing the care and administration perpetually may have, and the Relics movable, which are not under the Confession laid up, in their church of Vallicella keep and preserve, and to the church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus on the feast and Station of it days convey; and to the same church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus in divine things, as it shall seem to them and by their judgment (so that to any burden or service in the said church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus to be undergone or rendered they may by no means be forced or compelled) serve or cause to be served, and the same church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus in spiritual and temporal things govern and rule freely and licitly may and be able, even without the same church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus's Presbyter Cardinal Titular's or the said City's Vicar's or any other's consent or licence, upon this by no means required, to the same by authority and tenor likewise perpetually we concede and indulge.

There follow the formal ordinary and extraordinary cautionary clauses, that to the firmness and inviolability of the present decree it may be provided: which being omitted here we add, the heads conveyed to the Vallicellan church. that according to the power in it made, the heads of SS. Nereus and Achilleus were translated to the Vallicellan church where them this XII of May in the year MDCLXI we venerated, the solemn sacrifice of the Mass there celebrating Ferdinand of Fürstenberg, of Alexander VII Chamberlain and Elect Bishop and Prince of Paderborn. But that Cardinal Baronius unto the end of his life to SS. Nereus and Achilleus was piously devoted, as to his Patrons, not only testifies Barnabaeus book 3 of the Life chapter 4, but also chapter 9 adds, that thinking of his own funeral, [where also Card. Baronius, although he asked to be buried at SS. Nereus and Achilleus,] Francis Zassara he besought, that this favor for him from the Fathers he might obtain, that him in the church of the holy Martyrs Nereus and Achilleus, the pomp of a funeral being omitted, as a poor little man to be buried they would take care: for there he already long before, near the tutelary Martyrs, a sepulchre for himself had prepared, conspicuous by modesty and humility alone. And he indeed died on the day before the kalends of July in the year MDCVII: but in that which he had asked the wish was not granted him; not wishing of the presence of so dear a pledge to be deprived those most religious Fathers, who, as writes the same Barnabaeus book 2 last chapter, on the fourth day after he had died the body in a leaden ark, which a wooden one surrounded, with Card. Taurusius is entombed. enclosed in their common sepulchre on the left side of the high altar they laid up. And when among the same two years after Francis Mary Cardinal Taurusius his last day had closed, and near Caesar buried had been, there a monument being erected an elogium, to each common, on the marble to be engraved they took care, that done professing, lest the bodies should be disjoined in death, whose minds, by divine virtues distinguished, in life most conjoined had been.

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS CYRIACUS, MAXIMUS, GRADUS, SOTHERES VIRGIN, ROTHERES, JOHN, ACHILLES, MOYSEUS, APHRODITUS, AND FOUR OTHER HUNDRED. LIKEWISE ALEXANDER, MOYSETES, LUCIUS, MORE PROBABLY HAVING SUFFERED AT ROME.

Cyriacus, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) Maximus, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) Gradus, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) Soteris, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) Rotheres, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) John, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) Achilles, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) Moyseus, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) Aphroditus, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) Another LIV Martyrs, more probably all suffered at Rome Alexander, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) Moysetes, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.) Lucius, Martyr, more probably suffered at Rome (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

After the related Roman Martyrs Nereus and Achilleus and Pancratius, are related the following Martyrs in four ancient apographs of the Martyrology Hieronymian, no indicated wrestling-place, so that they seem with probable conjecture also to have suffered at Rome, since nowhere that solemn phrase elsewhere is interposed: Whether they suffered at Rome, but there are expressed the names of Cyriacus, Maximus, Gradus, Sotheris Virgin, Rotheres, John, Achilles, Morseus, Afroditus, with others to the number five hundred four, whose names God knows. Of these Cyriacus and Maximus are in the most ancient Ms. of Echternach, are wanting in the other three. But Quiriacus and Maximus are in the Mss. of Tamlacht and Aachen, and at Grevenus in the Auctarium of Usuard. Nay also Quiriacus is in the Mss. of Reichenau and Rheinau. Instead of Gradus, in three apographs and in another of Corbie indicated, is in the Echternach one the name of Gnatus. Then in the Ms. of Blume and some of Corbie not yet printed there is made memory of Sotheris the Virgin and Rotheres, which name is wanting in the Corbie one printed at Paris. In the Lucca apograph is written Rotheres the Virgin and Soteris, as also in the Echternach one. But of Sotheris the Virgin make mention the Mss. of Reichenau, Rheinau and the Paris one of Labbe. Ado and Notker have the Passion of the most sacred Virgin Sotheris, of noble lineage under Diocletian Augustus. Concerning S. Sotheris a Roman Virgin received are these things from the Acts of S. Pancratius already produced: and concerning her more fully we treated on the X day of February; from whom whether here the related Sotheris is to be reckoned different, we cannot certainly assert. Among the following four companions, the names of John and Achilles or Achilleus are everywhere constant: but instead of Moises and Afroditus, is read also Moires or Mores, and Affroditus or Afrotus. In the Ms. of Reichenau is made mention of Quiriacus, Sotheris the Virgin, John, Moseus, Affiolus with others five hundred four. Notker, when of Sotheris, as we said, he had treated, adds these things: Likewise the passion of SS. John, Achilles, Moyseus, Aphroditus, with others to the number five hundred four. In the Ms. of Prague is celebrated the memory of SS. John, Achilles and Afroditus, with others DIII. Which same things are at Grevenus in the Auctarium, but the Companions DV are said. In the Ms. Florarium and the Ms. Ado of the monastery of St. Lawrence at Liège are named John and Achilles, with others five hundred six.

[2] others added After this number of Martyrs indicated are added the names of Alexander and Moysetes in four of the Martyrology Hieronymian's apographs, to which in the Ms. of Corbie printed at Paris is added Julius, whom also at Rome to have suffered judges Florentinius.

[3] Tamayus Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology of S. Soteris on this day these things has: The relics of some Soteris at Madrid. At Rome the birthday of S. Soteris Virgin and Martyr, whose sacred remains in the monastery of the nuns of the most holy Sacrament of Madrid honorifically are venerated and preserved. These things there without any in the Notes mention. Whence that the same be the Virgin and Martyr, who above is related, without foundation we would assert. In the Ms. of Tamlacht, besides Maximus and Cyriacus above indicated, are celebrated Gratius, Rotheres, Moysetes, John, Affroditus, Achilles, Alexander, in the title from others indicated; and Zefanus, perhaps instead of another added. Likewise CCCVI Martyrs, but who suffered with S. Cyriacus, who the Cross of the Lord found, concerning whom it was treated on the IV of May.

ON S. PRACATUS OR PANCRATUS A MARTYR IN AFRICA

Pracatus, or Pancratus, Martyr in Africa (St.)

G. H.

Solitary this Martyr of Africa is mentioned in four apographs of the Martyrology Hieronymian, and under the name of Pracatus is had in the most ancient Echternach one: but under the name of Pancratus in the other three codices of Lucca, Corbie and Blume. The same also Pancratius is said and is related in the Ms. Hibernian of the monastery of Tamlacht, from another Pancratius above related distinct: inasmuch as he at Rome suffered.