The First Historical Part of Brother Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, of the Order of Preachers. The prologue begins.
“I will speak propositions from the beginning. The things that we have heard and known, and that our fathers have declared to us, recounting the praises of the Lord, His powers, and His wondrous works that He has done; so that they might place their hope in God, not forget the works of the Lord, and seek His commandments.” Psalm 77.
As Augustine says upon the Psalm, propositions, which in Greek are called problemata, are questions containing something that must be resolved through disputation. Although historical assertions do not contain the difficulties and subtleties found in speculative questions, they nevertheless are not without doubts and superficial contradictions, especially those contained in the Law of Moses, the prophets and Psalms, the Gospels, and the opinions of both Catholic and gentile doctors. Histories themselves also vary, at least in their chronology, and a reader must be diligent in bringing them into agreement.
As I am about to treat historical propositions, I shall speak from the beginning—not only from the time when God chose that Jewish people for Himself from among all nations and led them out of Egypt, but from the beginning when God founded and created the earth and placed the first man, Adam, upon it so that through obedience he might pass from earth to heaven. Through the fall of his disobedience, however, heaven was closed to him and all his posterity. Filled here with countless miseries of soul and body, one who departed was received by hell, until the second Adam, heavenly and from heaven, redeemed him by the price of His blood and led him back to possess heaven in sanctification from the punishment of the first transgression. From that transgression follow all the evils in the world. “Adam,” says the prophet, “is my example from my youth.”
I shall speak propositions concerning as many and as great things as we have heard from God inspiring and the incarnate Word preaching; as many things as we have heard from His angels revealing them to the prophets, as to Moses on Mount Sinai and visibly to John the Evangelist on the island of Patmos, and to others in many portions and many ways; as many things as we have heard from the apostles and the doctors of the Church, whose sayings were approved by her as founded upon truth; and as many moral teachings as we have heard even from gentile philosophers and poets. Although they did not possess the Holy Spirit unto grace, they were not therefore wholly without Him, namely with respect to knowing and intimating certain truths. For, according to Ambrose, truth, by whomever it is spoken, is from the Holy Spirit.
Hence Paul himself, the vessel of election and doctor of the gentiles, uses the words of poets in his epistles, such as that saying of Epimenides to Titus: “The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slothful bellies”; and what I think is Terence’s saying: “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” Preaching in the Acts of the Apostles, he also introduces that saying of the philosopher Aratus: “For we are the offspring of God; in Him we live, move, and have our being.” As Augustine says in the Decrees, distinction 37, whatever truth the Sibyl, Orpheus, the other seers of the gentiles, or their philosophers said concerning God is indeed useful for refuting the vanity of the pagans.
Jerome also says in the same distinction, chapter “Who from the table”: “If we are sometimes compelled to recall secular literature and say something from it, it is not by our will but, so to speak, from the gravest necessity, so that we may prove that the things foretold by the holy prophets many ages before are contained in the writings of the Greeks, the Latins, and other nations.” Thus far Jerome. What is more powerful in a contest of refutation than the testimony of enemies? We have heard many and great things, if not from their mouths, then from their writings, from generation to generation.
“And we have known them.” Augustine expounds this as “we have seen.” There is a twofold knowledge or vision, namely sensory and intellectual. Because sight is preeminent among the external senses, making known more differences and properties of things, it sometimes gives its name to all the other sensations. Certainly, many historical events were seen and touched by many people of those times. Although all our knowledge is judged to have its origin in sense, knowledge of the things of faith, which cannot be demonstrated by natural reason, does not begin from the external senses but from divine illumination. We know these hidden things by faith, a knowledge that possesses greater firmness and certainty than natural knowledge because it rests upon divine revelation, which cannot be deceived; human judgment concerning things both deceives and is deceived.
Thus even philosophers who possessed great knowledge of natural things fell away from the truth in many matters, especially concerning divine things and those pertaining to human salvation, as will become evident. Catholic doctors, however, knew the truth in those things that pertain to faith and are necessary for salvation, and did not err in them. Although they sometimes appear to contradict not only others but themselves, if the matter is diligently investigated they walk together in agreement in the house of God, that is, the Church, thinking the same thing among themselves.
“Our fathers have declared to us.” The fathers of the faithful in the Old Testament were the patriarchs and prophets. Hence the apostle says to the Corinthians, “All our fathers were under the cloud,” etc. They announced to us the things that were to come in the New Testament. For, as Augustine says, not only the words of those fathers but all their deeds were a certain prophecy of the state of the New Testament. Therefore the apostle says to the Corinthians, “All things happened to them in a figure, but they were done for our sake.”
The first fathers of the New Testament were the apostles and evangelists, as Augustine says in treating the words, “In place of your fathers, sons are born to you”—that is, to you, the Church—their successors being bishops and prelates. These announced to us that the things foretold in the Old Testament had been fulfilled, and that the things remaining concerning the varied state of the Church, the end of the world, the glory of the good, and the punishment of the reprobate are to be fulfilled in the next life, most especially as told by John in the Apocalypse.
According to Gregory in distinction 96, chapter “Who doubts,” the doctors and prelates of the Church are called fathers of the faithful because by their teaching and example they begot many in the spirit. “For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel,” says the apostle. They announced to us the things that were obscure in sacred oracles, expanded moral teachings, and set down in their books those things that conduce to eternal life.
What they announced he explains by adding after one verse: “Recounting the praises of the Lord, His powers, and His wondrous works that He has done.” The aforesaid fathers recount the praises of the Lord, that is, the things for which God is praised. Nothing is worthy of praise except the good, which all things desire; and the greater the good, the more worthy it is of praise. Because God is supremely good, the highest good, and the source of every good, He is therefore supremely to be praised. Hence the wise man in Ecclesiasticus says, “Exalt God as much as you can, for He is greater than all praise.” If every creature praises God in its own manner—the heavens, the earth, the seas, and the things within them—much more must man, for whose sake all these things were made, praise Him.
God does not seek praise from man so that something may thereby be added to Him who lacks nothing, but for the benefit of the one praising. “The sacrifice of praise,” He says through the Psalmist, “shall glorify Me, and there is the way by which I shall show him the salvation of God,” that is, God the Savior. For if you truly praise God as good and the highest good, you love Him above all things and with intense affection. This is that more excellent way which the apostle shows to the faithful, the way that leads to heaven: charity itself. Therefore the fathers recount the praises of God.
The fathers also recount His powers—not one, but several. First, they recount the power of God in the creation of things, by which they relate that He created all things from nothing, an act of infinite power. They recount His power in giving, taking away, and transferring dominions and kingdoms, so that all may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He wills, and sets the lowliest man over it, as is said in Daniel 4; and that by His own power He has trodden upon the necks of the proud and exalted, as will be shown when governments in different periods and their terrible wars are treated.
They also recount the power of His might in giving the martyrs marvelous constancy to endure every kind of torment for His name, and in giving patience to all the elect in every prolonged adversity. As Augustine says, that we endure evils with equanimity belongs to God and is not our own patience. For the Psalmist says, “You are my strength, O Lord, and my patience,” namely by causing it. They also recount the power of His might to punish the wicked here or in the future.
The fathers recount the power of God’s wisdom in governing the world by an everlasting plan. For God’s wisdom disposes all things sweetly, giving to each what is fitting, establishing and ordering all things by weight, measure, and number so that every single thing holds its proper place. The fathers recount the powers of His wisdom, which transfers itself into holy souls and establishes friends of God and prophets. It opened the mouths of the mute and made the tongues of infants eloquent in the apostles, illuminating by wisdom not only Catholic doctors but gentiles as well to teach peoples; certain sayings of theirs will be included. “For all wisdom is from the Lord God,” Ecclesiasticus 1.
They recount His wisdom accompanying the Church. Just as Moses’s serpent made from a rod devoured the serpents of the magicians, so the wisdom of the Church swallowed up all the errors of philosophers, magicians, astrologers, rhetoricians, and heretics by refuting them, and reduced them to nothing by converting or confounding them—and rightly, because wisdom conquers malice.
The fathers recount the power of God’s goodness and clemency: He deigned to put on our form of a servant and endure the shameful death of the cross to rescue us from the yoke of diabolical servitude. “Above all,” says Bernard, “the cup Jesus drank for us renders Him lovable to us.” The fathers also recount the power of His clemency in waiting long for sinners to repent, and sometimes restoring to those converted, even if late, their first robe, namely the grace and virtues they had lost. “God’s moderation and loving-kindness seek only our return, and by His long goodness He desires us to be saved,” says Jerome.
They also recount the power of His goodness, because according to Augustine He is so good and powerful that He would permit no evil to exist in His works unless He were so powerful that He could draw a greater good from every evil. He makes even the falls of the elect turn to their good so that they rise more cautious, more fervent, and more humble, and instill fear in others so that they may beware.
The fathers recount the virtues He bestowed upon His saints: great faith, most firm hope, most ardent charity, most discerning prudence in action, most constant endurance in adversity, most upright justice in exchanging or distributing things, the most sparing sobriety in food and clothing, most uncorrupted chastity, and most profound humility. These virtues shone especially in the holy anchorites, cenobites or monks, and other religious, as will become evident. “All our works,” that is, our good works, “You have worked in us, O Lord,” says Isaiah. For it is He who works in us both to will and to accomplish according to His good will, according to the apostle, since we are not sufficient to think anything from ourselves as if from ourselves. From these saints let us take examples for living.
The fathers also recount His wondrous works, in which His glory and magnificence are shown, according to the words, “God is glorious in His saints,” that is, He is shown from their works to be wondrous in majesty, working marvels. Certain of these wondrous things are merely from nature, but are nevertheless called wondrous because they are rare and unusual, such as earthquakes, pestilences, famines, monstrous births, the greatest bodily strength, and the like. Certain wondrous things are not done by men but are enacted or procured by demons, such as things done by magicians and answers given through idols. The third kind of wondrous things are those done by saints through divine power above the power of nature, so that the entire power of nature could not do them of itself, such as giving sight to a blind person, raising a dead person, and the like.
Although mention is made in these histories of every one of these three kinds of wondrous things—for they treat earthquakes, plagues, monstrous people, answers of demons foretelling the future, and healings through demons—the principal intention is nevertheless to recount the true miracles worked by saints in both Testaments through divine power, and incomparably more abundantly in the New. By these true miracles, as by probable judgments while God worked, the world, turned away from God through idolatry and various vices, was converted.
Indeed, the Church is said to have begun with righteous Abel, whose righteousness the Lord showed by setting fire to his sacrifice offered from animals, sending fire from heaven to kindle it. Then miracles began to be worked, and they have never ceased in the Church, although at times interrupted. They were performed most abundantly in the primitive Church to spread and confirm the faith of Christ. Hence it is said in the final chapter of Matthew concerning Christ’s disciples after His Ascension: “But they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that followed,” that is, miracles.
Just as a tree whose root is well established and expanded is no longer watered once it has grown enough not to be cast down by winds or withered by the sun’s ray, but remains unshaken and produces fruit, so after faith had been established by miracles, spread abroad, strengthened by the sufferings of the martyrs, and watered by the teachings of holy doctors, it was no longer necessary for miracles to be worked so frequently, so that the merit of faith might grow stronger. Yet the most loving God has never left the Church without true miracles, even in modern times, for the consolation of the faithful. The countless miracles worked by God through His saints will appear in their proper places. Concerning these true miracles the Psalmist says, “You are the God who works wonders.” Although they occur through the saints, they occur only by God’s power. These are what our fathers recount.
For what purpose these things were done—so that the fathers, announcing them to their sons, should recount His praises, powers, and wondrous works—the Psalmist himself assigns the reason, saying, “That they might place their hope in God,” not presuming upon their own strength and virtue, for He humbles those who glory in themselves and their own virtue, but placing hope in God, from whom comes every best gift and every perfect gift.
They are not to place their hope in men, for “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh,” that is, man, “his arm.” Rather, they are to place their hope in God in their actions, awaiting aid and counsel from Him, and in distress and necessity awaiting from Him such relief as will be expedient for salvation. “Consider the generations of men, children, and see that no one has hoped in the Lord and been forsaken, remained in His commandments and been confounded.” Ecclesiasticus 2.
In repenting of sins, they are to place their hope in God and not in their own tears and penances to obtain pardon. In rewards and glory they are to place their hope in God, because the Lord alone, not the world or another, will give grace and glory. But lest they hope in vain, or rather presume, people are not to forget the Lord’s works, which He has done in benefiting them, lest they be found ungrateful. For, as Seneca says, the most ungrateful person is the one who has forgotten a benefit. Ingratitude is a wind that dries up the fountain of divine loving-kindness, the streams of grace, and the dew of mercy, says Bernard. According to Augustine, what God gave freely He took away from the ungrateful.
They are not only to refrain from forgetting, but also to repay Him through good works performed for God’s honor. This is what follows: “And let them seek His commandments,” so that they may know and observe them. “If you know these things,” Christ says to His disciples, “you will be blessed if you do them,” not if you merely know them. From this arises true hope of attaining heavenly beatitude, not only from grace as its principal cause but also, consequently, from the merits of good works. This is the entire intention of this work: that from the things recounted in histories, people may learn through knowledge to live well in the world, so that they may hope in the Lord and attain beatitude.
The fathers who recount these writings are Moses in the Pentateuch, who by prophecy and foretelling related the creation of the world and the first two ages—things hidden from men but revealed to him—as well as many other things done in his own time; and all the canonical scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, so authoritatively confirmed by the Church that it is not lawful to doubt even one iota. After these are the many deeds and sayings of the supreme pontiffs excerpted from the Decrees by Gratian.
Other fathers who announced these things to us in books are Eusebius of Caesarea in the Ecclesiastical History, which Rufinus translated from Greek into Latin and to which he added two books; the same Eusebius in his Chronicles, which Jerome translated into Latin, adding the deeds done afterward down to his own time; Paul Orosius in his book On the Misery of the World; Justin Martyr, epitomizer of Trogus Pompeius; Suetonius in his book On the Twelve Caesars; Augustine in The City of God, with the explanation of Master Thomas the Englishman; Helinand in his compilation of histories; Eutropius; Master Peter Comestor in the Scholastic History; Josephus in the books of Antiquities; Sigebert in his Chronicles; the Tripartite History; Leonardo of Arezzo in the History of Florence; Gregory in the Dialogues; Vincent in the Historical Mirror; and John of Colonna, both brothers of the Order of Preachers; as well as many legends of the saints.
There are also the moral sayings of philosophers and poets, such as Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Tully, Seneca, Virgil, Ovid, and several others. Their writings and sayings are related here, with little or nothing of my own. Because of its length, the work is divided into three parts. The first extends to Emperor Constantine the Great and Pope Sylvester; the second to the times of Emperor Henry VI and Pope Innocent IV; the third from there to such time as life shall accompany me.
First Title: On the First Age of the World
Chapter One
How Adam and Eve were exalted in the state of innocence, corrupted after the fall, and finally condemned to death, according to the words of the Psalm: “Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts and became like them,” under its own sections.
Chapter Two
On the second age of the world, which begins in the time of Noah; the construction of the ark; the flood; the monstrous races of men; the drunkenness of Noah; and the curse of Ham, under their own sections.
Chapter Three
On the sons of Noah who wished to build a tower, how after their languages were confounded they ceased, and how they were dispersed into Asia, Africa, and Europe under different languages, under their own sections.
Second Title: On the Third Age of the World
Chapter One
On the deeds of Abraham.
Chapter Two
On the deeds of Jacob.
Chapter Three
On the deeds of Joseph.
Chapter Four
On the deeds of Moses and his books.
Chapter Five
On the deeds of Joshua and the other judges of the children of Israel.
Chapter Six
On the deeds of Eli, Samuel, and Saul according to the sequence of the First Book of Kings.
Third Title: On the Fourth Age of the World
Chapter One
On the deeds of David according to the sequence of the Second Book of Kings.
Chapter Two
On the deeds of Solomon and his glory shown to the queen of Sheba.
Chapter Three
On the kings who followed, according to the sequence of the Books of Kings and Chronicles.
Chapter Four
On the prophecies of David and Solomon.
Chapter Five
On the prophecy of Isaiah.
Chapter Six
On the prophecy of Jeremiah.
Chapter Seven
On the prophecy of Ezekiel.
Chapter Eight
On the prophecy of Daniel.
Chapter Nine
On the twelve minor prophets and their sayings.
Fourth Title: On the Fifth Age of the World
Chapter One
On the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus king of the Persians, and the others who followed.
Chapter Two
On Alexander the Great.
Chapter Three
On the sages of those times, namely Aristotle and others.
Chapter Four
On the division of the Greek monarchy into several parts.
Chapter Five
On the monarchy of the Romans: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, etc.; and the Punic, Macedonian, Social, and Civil Wars.
Chapter Six
On Octavian and his wars; the sages who flourished in those times, namely Virgil, Ovid, etc.; and the genealogy of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Fifth Title: On the Sixth Age of the World
Chapter One
On Christ’s Incarnation, life, and miracles.
Chapter Two
On Christ’s teaching through parables.
Chapter Three
On Christ’s teaching in rebuking the various vices of men.
Chapter Four
On Christ’s answer to questions asked for the sake of knowing the truth.
Chapter Five
On the keys of the Church conferred by Christ upon Peter: “Whatsoever you shall bind,” etc.
Chapter Six
On the Lord’s Passion.
Chapter Seven
On Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension and the testimony of the gentiles.
Chapter Eight
On the beginning of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word.”
Sixth Title: On the Church Militant
Chapter One
On the mystical body of Christ insofar as Christ is the head of the Church and Christians are the members, according to blessed John’s representation in the Apocalypse.
Chapter Two
On the primitive Church and its deeds, as gathered from the Acts of the Apostles.
Chapter Three
On the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary after Christ’s Ascension.
Chapter Four
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed apostle Peter.
Chapter Five
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed apostle Paul.
Chapter Six
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed apostle and evangelist John.
Chapter Seven
On the life and martyrdom of blessed James the Greater.
Chapter Eight
On the life and martyrdom of blessed James the Less, the Lord’s brother.
Chapter Nine
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed apostle Andrew.
Chapter Ten
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed apostle Thomas.
Chapter Eleven
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed apostle Philip.
Chapter Twelve
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed apostle Bartholomew.
Chapter Thirteen
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed evangelist Matthew.
Chapter Fourteen
On the life and martyrdom of blessed Simon and Jude.
Chapter Fifteen
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed apostle Matthias.
Chapter Sixteen
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed evangelist Mark.
Chapter Seventeen
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed evangelist Luke.
Chapter Eighteen
On the life and martyrdom of the blessed apostle Barnabas.
Chapter Nineteen
On the life of blessed Mary Magdalene.
Chapter Twenty
On the life of blessed Martha.
Chapter Twenty-One
On the emperors reigning in Christ’s time, namely Octavian and Tiberius.
Chapter Twenty-Two
On Claudius, emperor of the Romans.
Chapter Twenty-Three
On Emperor Nero and his wicked deeds.
Chapter Twenty-Four
On the sages of that time, namely Seneca, Juvenal, Persius, and Quintilian, and their writings.
Chapter Twenty-Five
On certain saints who suffered martyrdom under Nero, namely Vitalis, Martial, Savianus, Julian, Saturninus, Lazarus, and the first seven deacons.
Chapter Twenty-Six
On various disciples of blessed Peter who suffered under Nero, namely Fronton, Apollinaris, Lucian, and Romulus.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
On the martyrdom of blessed Nazarius, son of blessed Perpetua, and Saint Menno.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
On the disciples of blessed Paul, namely Dionysius the Areopagite and his companions, Saint Thecla, Timothy, Titus, Praxedes, and Potentiana.
Seventh Title: On the Reign of Vespasian
Chapter One
When and how he obtained the Roman Empire; the destruction of Jerusalem; the reign of his son Titus; Domitian’s persecution; and the benevolence of Emperor Nerva.
Chapter Two
On the supreme pontiffs of those times, namely Linus, Cletus, and Clement.
Chapter Three
On Trajan’s persecution and death, and the sayings of Pliny.
Chapter Four
On Emperor Hadrian Aelius and the philosopher Secundus and his sayings.
Chapter Five
On Pope Alexander, Sixtus, and the martyrs who suffered in that time, namely Eustace, the ten thousand crucified, Saint Sophia and her daughters, the virgin Serapia, the widow Sabina, and others who suffered under Hadrian.
Chapter Six
On Pope Telesphorus, Hyginus, and his successor Pius; the martyrs who then suffered, Polycarp, Justin, Photinus, Felicity with her sons; the marvelous history of the virgin Eugenia; Cecilia; Martina; Quirinus; Popes Callistus and Urban; and the writings of Origen.
Chapter Seven
On Maximinus’s treachery, through which, after Alexander was killed, he seized the Roman Empire; Emperor Philip; the tyrant Decius; and certain martyrs who suffered under him, namely the Seven Sleepers, etc.
Chapter Eight
On Valerian obtaining the Roman Empire with his son Gallienus; Cyprian’s martyrdom and writings; Sixtus; Lawrence; Hippolytus; Apollonia; and Popes Felix, Eutychian, Gaius, Marcellinus, and Marcellus following blessed Sixtus.
Chapter Nine
On the martyrs who suffered under Claudius and Numerian, namely Caesarius, Julian, Savinus, Speusippus, Jonilla, Agapitus, Babylas, Chrysanthus, Daria, Pelagia the prostitute; and on Mani the heretic.
Eighth Title: On the Persecution of Diocletian and Maximian
Chapter One
On the martyrdom of Mauritius with his companions, Victor, the Four Crowned Martyrs, Sebastian, Erasmus, Boniface, Juliana, Cosmas and Damian, Blaise, Dorothy, Januarius, Anastasia, Barbara, Euphemia, Christina, Afra, Julian, Celsus, Cyprian the magician, Vincent, George, Theodore, Cyriacus, Marcellinus, Lucy, Catherine, Agnes, Margaret, Christopher, and others.
Chapter Two
On the cruelty of Galerius and Maximinus and the divine vengeance inflicted upon them for the strengthening of our faith through the triumph of Constantine the Great; and on the historians Pamphilus, Eusebius, and Rufinus, and on Lactantius.