Returning to the history of the Roman Empire: Maximinus invaded the Roman Empire by fraud. He was the first man from the military body to be elected emperor by the army without the senate’s authority. According to Eusebius in the Chronicles, he began to reign in the year of the Lord 237 [read: 235] and reigned for three years. He stirred up a persecution against the Christians.
According to Hugh of Fleury, he had three names: Maximinus, Maximus, and Julius. He was killed at Aquileia by the tyrant Pupeianus [read: Pupienus], thus bringing both his persecution and his life to an end.
Pupeianus [read: Pupienus] and Balbinus soon usurpauit [read: usurpauerunt, usurped] the Roman Empire for themselves, but they were immediately killed in the palace. Gordian succeeded them in the year of the Lord 240 [read: 238], according to Eusebius in the Chronicles, and reigned for six years.
When Gordian was killed through the treachery of Philip the praetorian, Philip himself succeeded to the empire with his son Philip. He was the first Christian among the emperors, and according to Eusebius in the Chronicles, they reigned for seven years.
James of Colonna, however, writes more broadly about these men in his history.
[Running head: Seventh Title.]
Concerning Maximinus, who killed Alexander, James of Colonna says that he was born of barbarian parents. As a young man he came to Rome, and, being found conspicuous in arms, he began to gain a name among the soldiers. He was conspicuous in bodily form, renowned for courage, manly and handsome, but savage and harsh in character. He was often exceedingly greedy for food, desirous of wine, and a very great drinker.
After he had served for some time under Emperor Alexander, Alexander placed him over the entire army. But Maximinus, as a most ungrateful man, procured the death of the one who had promoted him to this dignity. He also made his son, likewise named Maximinus, a partner with him in the empire.
Entering Germany beyond the Rhine, he devastated everything with slaughter and fire, took great spoils from the barbarians, and penetrated by slaughter as far as the extremities of Germany, killing a great number of them.
After Germany had been pacified, he came to Smirmum [read: Sirmium] and determined to make war upon the Sarmatians. He fought many battles with the Sarmatian nation and always emerged victorious.
Yet amid these military virtues, for which he seemed deservedly commendable, he was so cruel and inhuman that he defiled his military glory with savagery and cruelty. For he was firmly persuaded that he could neither hold nor secure the empire for himself except through cruelty.
He killed some men by driving them upon crosses. He ordered others enclosed alive inside newly killed animals and consumed by worms. He exposed others to be torn apart by beasts, and killed others with clubs until they breathed out their souls, doing all these things without regard for rank. There was no crueler animal upon the earth.
He killed friends who, from compassion, had contributed something to him during the time when he was poor. Moreover, to conceal his cruelty, he destroyed everyone of his family who knew about it. He allowed no nobleman around him, and therefore killed all Alexander’s ministers with various torments. Next, without distinction, he removed consular men and commanders by various deaths. Finally, he left undone nothing that seemed to serve cruelty.
When reports of his savagery and cruel deeds reached Rome, the people became so afraid that public vows were made in the temples that he might never return to Rome. The senate and Roman people likewise agreed to drive so savage a beast from their necks. Sending different messengers through the provinces, they prepared not only a revolt but armies against him.
In Africa the armies stationed there, by the common wish of everyone, proclaimed emperor a certain Gordian, one of the Roman commanders. He was a most noble man but already advanced in age, and governed Africa with proconsular authority. They did this although he resisted.
He immediately wrote to the senate concerning his rule, indicating that he wished nothing in the matter except insofar as it pleased them. The senate gladly received these letters and called him emperor and Augustus, while judging Maximinus and his son enemies of the empire. They wrote throughout the provinces that the people should favor Gordian as prince of the Roman commonwealth and act against Maximinus.
At Rome and throughout Italy, all the friends, commanders, and officials of Maximinus were killed by common consent. Moreover, the boy Gordian, who was at Rome and was the grandson of Gordian through his daughter, was called Caesar by the senate and people.
When Maximinus, still stationed in Germany, heard these things, his naturally savage disposition became so inflamed that he seemed not a human being but a beast. Consumed by anger, he threw himself against the walls and sometimes cast himself to the ground. He shouted incoherently, repeatedly seized his sword as though he could kill the senate, tore his own clothing, and struck those who met him with blows and fists.
Finally, after holding counsel with his men and giving his soldiers an enormous stipend, he hastened with a great army, full of fury, against the Romans.
While Maximinus was transporting his army into Italy, a certain Capellianus, who governed Mauretania with proconsular authority, gathered a multitude of Moors and Africans together with the garrisons of the Italians. He advanced toward Carthage against the Gordians, the father and son.
When the elder Gordian, who had already prepared to transport his army into Italy, heard this, he determined to try the fortune of war. He therefore sent the forces he had with him against Capellianus. When battle was joined, the younger Gordian was defeated and killed while fleeing from his pursuers, and a great part of his army was captured or slain.
When the elder Gordian, namely the father of the aforementioned man, learned this, and could hope for no protection among the Africans, he wrung his life from himself with a noose. Capellianus, victorious, killed or proscribed all the forces of the Gordians in Africa. When Maximinus heard of Capellianus’s victory, he conceived hope of retaining the empire even against the senate’s will.
At Rome, however, when the death of the two Gordians was heard, the whole senate, terrified by overwhelming fear, assembled in the temple of Concord and began to deliberate about various matters, and especially whom they should oppose to the approaching Maximinus.
After they had spent a long time on this, one of the senators, whose was the right of speaking first, burst forth in these words: “Since Maximinus, whom you previously declared an enemy with me, threatens our necks, and since the two Gordians, who afforded us some protection, have been killed, after whose death we now have no aid by which we may draw breath, act therefore, Conscript Fathers, and name a prince. Why do you delay?”
After he finished speaking, Becius [read: Vectius] Sabinus, of the family of the vulpiorum [read: Ulpiorum], delivered this speech in the senate:
“I know, Conscript Fathers, that in revolutionary circumstances this disposition is accustomed to be present: counsels must be seized, not sought, and, when circumstances press, one must abstain from many opinions.
“Let each person look to his own neck, and think of his wife and children and of his ancestral and paternal fortunes, over all of which Maximinus threatens. Furious by nature, savage and monstrous, with a cause that seems sufficiently just to him, he marches toward the city in a square formation, while you waste the day sitting in deliberation.
“There is no need of a long speech. An emperor must be made—indeed, princes must be made: one to care for domestic affairs in the city and remain there, the other to go with an army to meet Maximinus.
“I shall name the princes; you approve them if it pleases you, or, if not, present better men. I name Maximus Pupienus and Balbinus princes of the commonwealth. One is so great in military affairs that the splendor of his courage compensates for the nobility of birth; the other is so distinguished by nobility of birth, gentleness of character, and holiness of life that he seems to have been given to us by God for the preservation of our commonwealth. You have our judgment, Conscript Fathers.”
When this had been said, everyone acclaimed with one consent: “Maximus and Balbinus, Augusti, may the gods preserve you!”
[Running head: Chapter Two, Folio 232.]
After this, at the people’s demand, the boy Gordian was called emperor and Caesar by them.
The father of this Maximus, as some say, practiced the blacksmith’s art. Maximus himself, however, devoted his whole life to military service and zealously pursued severity. Afterward, when his merits commended him, he attained the prefecture of the city. He exercised this office both prudently and with the greatest severity, and finally, as has been said, came to the empire.
In character he was indeed savage, yet just. Although some regarded him as severe, he was never inhuman in the outcomes of affairs. When asked, he always pardoned and did not become angry when anger was unfitting. Nevertheless, he was so stern that he received the surname “the Gloomy,” and he was always exceedingly grave in countenance. He was greedy for food but most sparing of wine. He was greatly loved by the senate and people, but he was also feared by the populace, for everyone knew his censorial prefecture.
Balbinus, the other emperor, had been consul and governed various provinces with proconsular dignity—namely Africa, Asia, Pontus, the Gauls, and others. He governed all of them with marvelous gentleness and the love of everyone, but was weaker in military affairs. He also possessed a venerable countenance, was renowned for eloquence, and was an outstanding poet.
When these two had attained the empire by the senate’s consent, Maximus, as the man more suited to this war, set out to fight Maximinus. The senate sent messengers to every province, ordering them to bring him aid against Maximinus and, conversely, to regard as an enemy anyone who assisted Maximinus in any way.
When Maximinus heard this, he entered Italy still more fiercely because of the senate’s hatred for him. But as the soldiers ranged about, they found no provisions, for these had been safeguarded and stored in more strongly fortified places. The army of Maximinus began to be driven by hunger, and no small murmuring arose because the soldiers had believed that the army would be refreshed in Italy after crossing the Alps.
Nevertheless, Maximinus besieged Aquileia, the first of the cities of Italy to meet him. The inhabitants defended themselves with all their strength, though they remained doubtful about the outcome. Maximinus sent envoys into the city urging surrender, and the people had now almost consented. But Monophilus [read: Menophilus], a man of consular rank who had undertaken to govern the city by the senate’s command, opposed them. He said that the god Bellenum [read: Belenum] had answered him through soothsayers that Maximinus must be defeated.
Induced by this hope, the citizens prepared to resist and devoted even their lives to the safety of their homeland.
When Maximinus saw that the siege was being prolonged, he killed many of his own men, attributing the delay to their sluggishness. By this deed he strongly stirred many of his soldiers against him. A sedition and tumult arose, and they killed Maximinus and his son as they remained in their tent.
They cut off their heads, fixed them upon lances, and showed them to the people of Aquileia. Although the people had at first doubted, once made certain of the event they opened the gates to the army. Entering, the soldiers, according to Roman custom, swore allegiance to the emperors and adored their images.
Maximus, who was preparing for war near Ravenna, hastened toward Rome without interruption when he learned of the death of Maximinus and his son. But a messenger sent by the people of Aquileia preceded him, hastening with such speed by changing animals that he reached Rome on the fourth day.
Since it was a day of public games, the letters were read in public. When the games had been dismissed because of this event, the senate decreed supplications throughout the whole city and in every temple.
Two days later Emperor Maximus arrived with the praetorian army. Balbinus, himself also emperor, received him together with the boy Gordian and the whole senate with great rejoicing.
The two princes Maximus and Balbinus therefore governed the people with great moderation, enacted excellent laws, showed the greatest deference to the senate, and arranged military affairs most prudently.
But when they were now preparing to make war upon the Parthians, Maximus was to be sent for this purpose by a decree of the senate, and Balbinus against the Germans who were said to be harassing the Gauls. Yet serious disagreements arose between them, though silently, so that they were understood rather than seen. Maximus despised Balbinus as in bellum [read: imbellem, unwarlike], lax, and occupied only with pleasures, while Balbinus looked down upon Maximus as a man of low birth.
The soldiers hated them because they had been elected emperors not by the army but by the senate. Seizing an opportunity from their disagreement, they killed them in the palace.
These emperors, excellent in their character and deeds, met this unworthy end. In that age no one was braver than Maximus Pupienus and no one kinder than Balbinus, but their disagreement was no small cause [supplied: of their ruin]. They reigned for one year.
Other chroniclers relate their history briefly. They did little or nothing notable, and therefore nothing more is said of them.
According to Hugh of Fleury, Julius Africanus, a man most renowned among ecclesiastical writers, flourished at that time, as did Theopompus the historian, whose histories Justin the Martyr [read: Justin the historian] abridged; Victor the sophist at Athens; and Porphyry the philosopher. I do not know whether this last man was the one who composed the Predicables or that Porphyry who, in the time of Constantine, apostatized from the faith and became an enemy of the Christians.
§ I: Gordian
After Maximinus and his son had been killed at Aquileia and the emperors Maximus and Balbinus at Rome, the young Gordian, who had previously been called Caesar, was, with everyone’s favor, made Augustus and emperor by the senate’s judgment. He reigned for six years.
He was a joyful, handsome, lovable young man, pleasing to everyone and, considering his age, most learned in letters, so that nothing at all except age was lacking for his rule. He was loved by the senate, the soldiers, and the people. After he alone obtained the empire, peace between the soldiers and the people was strengthened. A little earlier there had been so great a sedition between them that they came to internal and civil war, and a great part of the city was burned.
While Gordian thus reigned peacefully at Rome with everyone’s approval, certain men in Africa, despising him and his age, attempted under the leadership of Sabinianus to take away his empire. Gordian immediately compelled Sabinianus to die after having him besieged through the governor of Mauretania.
When this conspiracy had been suppressed, Gordian married the daughter of Misicheus, a most illustrious man. Misicheus was most learned in every branch of literature, renowned for eloquence, conspicuous in prudence, and venerable to everyone.
As soon as Gordian married his daughter, he appointed Misicheus prefect of the praetorian guard. Once this was done, the empire no longer seemed childish, for by obeying the excellent counsels of his father-in-law, Emperor Gordian could not go astray.
[Running head: Seventh Title.]
Previously, because he was a gentle boy, Gordian was easily deceived in governing by castrated men and eunuchs. Flattering the boy, these men sold every office and promoted unworthy men to them. But after Gordian began to assent to the words of that excellent man Misicheus, all public and private affairs were changed for the better, as is clearly apparent from their letters.
Misicheus is found to have written to him as follows:
“To the lord and son Gordian Augustus, Misicheus, father-in-law and prefect, sends greetings.
“We have escaped the grievous stain upon our times that came through those castrated men who seemed to be friends but were vehement enemies, who sold everything for pleasure. Thus it is sufficiently clear that, if any faults existed, they were not yours, my son.
“No one could bear the superintendencies, prefectures, governorships, consulships, and other offices of the Roman commonwealth that were granted through the eunuchs’ support. Moreover, at their suggestion rewards were denied to labors, and men who should not have been were either killed or freed through lust and payment.
“The treasury was emptied by those who approached you most treacherously in order to deceive you, and they suggested that you drive away good men and retain the wicked. Thanks therefore be to God that by his will the commonwealth has been corrected.”
Gordian answered him as follows:
“Gordian, emperor and Augustus, to Misicheus, father and prefect, sends greetings.
“Unless the almighty gods protected the Roman Empire, even now we would be sold through purchased eunuchs, as though placed beneath the auction spear. Finally, only now, to confess the truth, do I recognize that many things I did ought not to have been done.
“But let us give thanks to the gods that, through your instruction—you who sell nothing and report to us those things that, shut in by the castrated men, I could not know.
“My father, I wish you to hear the truth: wretched is the emperor from whom true things are concealed. Since he himself cannot walk about in public, he must hear reports or confirm what he hears after it has been corroborated by several people.”
So powerful were the gravity and holiness of Misicheus that he made the boy Gordian an illustrious prince, rendered him lovable to his own people, and made him formidable to his enemies.
Meanwhile Gordian, now powerful in counsel and military preparation, declared war on the Persians and Parthians and set out for the East with great preparations for war. He led so great forces of Romans, Italians, and others—forces— that, in the first conflict fought between trachiam [read: Thrace] and mesiam [read: Moesia], he destroyed, routed, and drove away every enemy there.
From there he came by ship into Syria and besieged Antioch, which was held under Parthian occupation. While he remained there, fighting frequent and serious battles, he defeated and put to flight Sapor, king of the Persians, who had come with innumerable forces to lift the siege.
Not long afterward, when Gordian had recovered Antioch, he crossed the Euphrates with his victorious army and invaded the Parthians within their kingdoms. After storming many of their fortifications, he fought a most difficult battle with their king artharxerse [read: Artaxerxes], defeated him, and put him to flight.
Possessing these victories, Gordian struck such fear into the Parthians, Persians, and the other eastern nations that they voluntarily withdrew their garrisons from all the cities they had occupied, returned all the plunder they had taken from the Romans, and were pursued by him into the innermost parts of Parthia.
But this happiness could not endure long, for Misicheus, by Philip’s contrivances—or, as others hold, from natural disease—died. He had possessed such reverence that he was both loved and feared by all the commanders, tribunes, centurions, and soldiers.
In the place of this one, the man having died [perhaps read: After his death], a certain Philip, an Arab by nationality, born from a humble family and proud in character, was made prefect of the praetorian guard. Immediately ungrateful to his lord, who had advanced him to that office, he began to plot against him and consider how he might take the empire from him.
Being a deceitful and cunning man, Philip accomplished through his arts that the ships carrying provisions from Egypt and Italy should seek another place instead of the port at which they were supposed to land near the army. He then led the army into places where the soldiers could not be provisioned.
For this reason sedition and clamor began to arise in the army, although the soldiers did not understand that Philip had deceived Gordian. Philip then began, through certain commanders whom he had won to himself with gifts, to spread throughout the army that Gordian was a young man less fit to govern the empire. They should seek another man who both could and knew how to assist soldiers already suffering from hunger in so great a crisis.
It came to pass that Philip was now openly called to the empire. Although the friends and supporters of Gordian sometimes resisted this, in the end, under the compulsion of want, the army entrusted the empire to Philip. It was commanded that, as Gordian’s guardian, he should rule together with him as his equal.
After Philip undertook the care of the empire, he began to act with the greatest arrogance toward Gordian. Gordian knew that he himself had been born from a most noble family and could no longer endure the pride of an ignoble man. Hoping to cast Philip down from the empire, he summoned part of the army and complained about Philip’s pride, but the soldiers wished Philip to be preferred over him.
After a few days, seeing that Philip had surrounded him and perceiving that he lacked the strength to resist, Gordian asked at least that they should possess equal rule. He did not obtain it. Next, he asked to be regarded at least in the position of Caesar, but did not secure this either. Finally, he asked to exercise the office of prefect, and this was denied.
At last he asked to hold the position of commander in the army and to be permitted to live. Philip had almost consented to this, but, reconsidering the senate’s and people’s affection for Gordian and fearing that the empire might be restored to himself [read: to Gordian], he suddenly ordered his men to seize Gordian and kill him secretly. He usurped the empire for himself alone.
§ II: Maximinus’s Persecution and the Roman Pontiffs
Maximinus, who succeeded Alexander, as Hugh of Fleury says, stirred up a persecution against the clerics and priests because of the Christian household of Alexander, whom he had succeeded, and of Alexander’s mother Mammaea. Hence at Rome Pope Pontian, who had succeeded Urban, was crowned with martyrdom.
Vincent says in the Historical Mirror, however, that it is read in the deeds of the Roman pontiffs that Pope Pontian died on the same island after being afflicted, wasted away, and beaten with clubs. Antheros was ordained in his place. Blessed Fabian afterward brought him [read: Pontian’s body] with the clergy by ship to the city and buried him in the cemetery of calixti [read: Callistus].
Nothing is said concerning the aforementioned Pope Cyriacus, who is mentioned in the legend of blessed Ursula and who, according to Martin’s chronicle, is said to have lived between Antheros and Pontian. He is also said to have suffered martyrdom with those eleven thousand virgins near Cologne at the hands of unbelievers, joining them with other bishops.
[Running head: Chapter Seven, Folio 233.]
Antheros was a Greek by nationality, held the chair for twelve years, and was crowned with martyrdom. The statement in that legend that Cyriacus substituted Antheros for himself in the papacy seems to mean that, when he himself renounced it, he advised those to whom the election belonged to elect Antheros as a holy man. This was done.
It should be noted that, although the Church solemnly celebrates the martyrdom of Saint Ursula with eleven thousand virgins and very many of their bodies are held at Cologne, it is not clearly established when they suffered martyrdom or under which emperor.
Some say that it was in these times, namely around the year of the Lord 237. They are moved by the fact that Antheros, who is said to have succeeded Pope Cyriacus when Cyriacus went to Cologne with those virgins and was martyred there with them, lived in that time. But it is remarkable that nothing is said about Cyriacus in the catalogue of pontiffs.
Others are moved by the fact that the Huns, by whom the virgins are said to have suffered, were persecuting Christians around those times, namely in the year of the Lord 370 or thereabouts. But nothing is said of a Pope Cyriacus as living in those times. Their martyrdom must nevertheless be believed without doubt, and the rest left to God.
§ III: The Two Philips
Philip, the twenty-fourth emperor of the Romans, therefore reigned and made his son Philip a partner in the empire. They were both Christians and were the first Christian emperors.
During their rule the first thousandth year from the founding of the city was completed. Rome began to be built by Romulus in the time of Ahaz or Hezekiah, kings of Judah, according to Augustine’s City of God. Because of this solemnity the Gentiles offered many sacrifices to the gods, and many theatrical games were held for three days and nights.
When Emperor Philip, now a Christian, wished to attend the vigils of Easter and receive communion, Pope Fabian resisted him, as Haymo says, and did not permit him to do so until he confessed his sins and stood among the penitents.
The two Philips began to reign in the year of the Lord 246 [read: 244] and ruled together for seven years, as has been said. After becoming Christians, they determined to do many good things for Christians, but, being overtaken by a violent death, did not carry them out. Nevertheless, during their reign no persecution was inflicted upon the Christians.
What Philip deceitfully did to Gordian by procuring his death, he himself justly received by the Lord’s judgment from Decius, commander of his own army, by whom he was treacherously killed, as will be related.
§ IV: Saint Pontius
These emperors, as is contained in the history of blessed Pontius, which Vincent reports in Book Twelve, Chapter Thirty-Four of the Historical Mirror, were converted to the faith of Christ through the teaching of Pontius.
This Pontius was the son of a certain senator of the city named Marcus; his mother was Julia. While pregnant, she once traveled around the temples of the idols with her husband, carrying offerings, and came to the temple of Jupiter.
As she entered it, a priest happened to be standing at the altar with his head veiled and an infula upon it. Seized by a demon, he grasped both the veil and the infula and began to tear them into small pieces. Wailing with a marvelous voice, he filled the whole temple with cries, saying: “This woman bears in her womb the one who will overturn this great temple from its foundations.”
When he repeated these words again and again, Marcus and Julia heard them and fled lifeless with fear into a nearby house. Seizing a stone and beating her belly and sides, Julia said: “Would that I had not conceived the one through whom this great temple and its divine powers will be overthrown. It is better that I myself should perish with him.”
When the day of delivery came, she gave birth to a handsome boy without any blemish, though they had believed he would be born dead after being mangled by such blows.
Julia, the boy’s mother, attempted to kill him. His father Marcus said to her: “Leave him; do not kill him. If Jupiter wishes, let him avenge himself upon his own enemy. Let us not begin by laying our hands upon him.” Thus the little child was preserved, and they named him Pontius after one of their own family.
It happened from that time that he was never taken into the temples of the idols. When he reached boyhood, however, he was instructed by great teachers and excelled in the literature of nearly all the philosophers and of the various arts. He retained everything in his memory.
One day, rising at dawn as he went to his teacher, he heard Christians over whom Saint Pontian presided singing the psalm: “Our God is in heaven; whatsoever he has willed he has done in heaven and on earth. The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold,” and so forth.
Hearing this, the boy sighed, was moved by the Holy Spirit, and began to weep. Raising his hands to heaven, he said: “God whose praise these people sing, show me knowledge of yourself.” He began to knock at the door where they were singing psalms.
Then the holy pope, to whom this had been revealed by the Holy Spirit, said: “Open the door and permit the boy to enter, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Leaving his tutors in the street, the boy Pontius entered with a young man named Valerius who studied with him. After he had inquired into the truth of the song he had heard them sing, Saint Pontian soundly instructed him in the faith together with his companion.
They departed joyfully and returned each day to the man of God, hearing the word of salvation. When Pontius returned to his father and was asked whether he had learned anything from his teachers, he said: “I have never heard anything better from my teachers than I heard today or yesterday.”
At last he showed his own father that the idols were nothing. Bringing Saint Pontian to him, he converted him to the faith. Marcus himself, together with Saint Pontian and his son, broke all his idols with his own hands and received baptism with his son and his entire household.
Not long after his father died, the boy Pontius was seized by soldiers and led into the senate house. Unwilling and resisting, he was established there in his father’s place. The Lord granted him such grace that everyone throughout the senate house and palace loved him.
In those days Saint Pope Pontian passed to the Lord by a glorious death. Antheros and then Fabian succeeded him in the papacy. Fabian loved Pontius as a father loves a son.
Saint Pontius, now perfected in God, took all his possessions and handed them to blessed Fabian, who distributed them to the poor.
Pontius was a friend of the two emperors Philip, the father and son. One day, when it was the thousandth year from the founding of the city, they said to him: “Let us go and appease for ourselves the great gods, who have brought us to this cycle of the thousandth anniversary of Rome’s birth.”
When they saw blessed Pontius attempting to avoid them through various excuses, they compelled him, as their friend, to sacrifice. Seeing that the Lord had given him an opportunity, he said:
“Most excellent emperors, since you have been ordained by God as princes of human beings, why do you not bend your necks to the one who has provided you this honor and offer to him alone sacrifices of praise?”
Emperor Philip said: “For this reason I desire to offer sacrifice to the great god Jupiter, who gave me this power.”
Pontius then smiled and said: “Do not err, emperor. There is a true God in heaven, who established all things by his Word, and the Holy Spirit gave them life.”
Why say more? Believing through these and other words, the emperors received baptism from Saint Fabian. Fabian and Pontius destroyed all the idols of the great temple and overthrew the temple itself from its foundations. Many people, hastening to knowledge of the Lord, joyfully received baptism.
As time passed, when Valerian and Gallienus were emperors and persecuted the Christians, blessed Pontius, after the death of the emperors Philip, father and son, crossed the borders of Italy and sought a city situated far away beneath the yoke of the Alps.
A certain governor named Claudius presided in those regions. Hearing of Pontius, he ordered him brought before his tribunal and said: “Are you Pontius, who disturbed the city of Rome through some unknown sedition and, moreover, alienated the minds of the pious princes?”
Pontius answered him: “I disturbed no one and overthrew no one, but converted them from the error of demons to the true God.”
When he could not be induced to sacrifice, the governor said: “Let him be stretched upon the rack so that every torment may run through his limbs. Then let us see whether his God will deliver him from our hands.”
As he was being fitted upon the rack, blessed Pontius said: “Although your unbelief declares our God powerless to deliver me, I nevertheless believe in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that your punishments will be reduced to nothing and will inflict no pain upon my body.”
When he was stretched upon the rack, it broke with a great sound. It was so completely reduced to dust that it could no longer be seen, and the ministers were suddenly rendered lifeless by fulgore [read: fragore, a crash].
Saint Pontius, joyful and fearless, said: “At least now, credule [read: incredule, unbeliever], learn that our God has the power to rescue the pious from temptation and to consign you wicked men to perpetual fire on the day of judgment.”
When the governor was disturbed, his assessor Anabius advised him to send two great bears against Pontius in the arena so that they might devour him. When this was done, the bears emerged from their cages and tore apart and consumed the hunters who provoked them, but did not touch Saint Pontius.
The governor then caused a most abundant fire to be kindled around him there in the arena before the people, but it did not damage even his clothing in any way.
When the governor told him to sacrifice to the god appollini [read: Apollo] so that he might escape other torments, Pontius answered: “I sacrifice my body to the Lord Jesus Christ. Divine vengeance will soon overtake you and your rulers, because you unjustly persecute the servants of Christ.”
Finally the tyrant ordered Pontius to be beheaded. When this had been done, at that same hour Claudius chewed his own tongue and was suffocated by the devil, as was his assessor. Emperor Valerian was captured in battle by Sapor, king of the Persians, and was miserably treated, while Gallienus was pierced with swords by soldiers at Milan.
§ V: Decius and Saint Agatha
Decius, the twenty-fifth emperor of the Romans, reigned for two years and six months, as Eusebius testifies in the Chronicles. He began to reign in the year of the Lord 253 [read: 249]. He was born in Pannonia among the lower Dalmatians.
When Emperor Philip came from the city to Verona to meet Decius as he returned victorious from war and to honor him, Decius treacherously killed him. Usurping the empire for himself, he came to the city and, so that he might seem to have killed his lord out of zeal for the worship of the gods because Philip was a Christian, stirred up a dire persecution against the Christians. He killed very many, and among them Philip, the son of the aforementioned Emperor Philip.
During Decius’s persecution blessed Agatha suffered at Catania, a city of Sicily. She was a virgin noble in birth, beautiful in body, and more beautiful in faith.
When a certain Quintianus governed that province, he heard the report of her nobility, beauty, and riches and ordered her to be presented to him. Hearing from her that she was Christ’s handmaid and was unwilling to sacrifice to the gods, he handed her over to be guarded and induced to worship the gods by a most shameful woman named Aphrodisia. This woman had seven daughters devoted to shameful conduct, just as she herself was.
For thirty days Aphrodisia and her daughters endeavored to persuade Agatha, sometimes with flatteries and sometimes with threats, to assent to the governor. When they labored in vain, Aphrodisia said to the tyrant: “Stones could be softened more easily than this girl’s mind could be moved from its Christian purpose.”
Agatha was therefore brought before Quintilianum [read: Quintianum]. The governor said: “Choose one of two things: either sacrifice to our gods or perish under various torments.”
Saint Agatha answered him: “If you promise me beasts, they will grow gentle when they hear Christ’s name. If you apply fire, saving dew from heaven will minister to me. If you inflict blows and scourges, I have the Holy Spirit, through whom I shall despise every torment.”
Because she confounded him in their exchanges, he ordered her thrust into prison. She went to prison joyfully and with glory, and, as though invited to a banquet, commended her contest to the Lord.
The following day he commanded that she be brought before him and said to her: “What have you considered concerning your salvation?”
She answered: “My salvation is Christ.”
He said: “Do you still dare to name Christ?”
She replied: “I call upon him, and as long as I live I shall not cease calling upon him.”
When she was being tortured upon the rack at the tyrant’s command, she said: “I take such delight in these sufferings as does one who hears good news or one who sees something long desired. For wheat must be beaten before it is placed in the granary.”
Quintianus, enraged, ordered her to be tortured upon her breasts [read: upon one breast] and, after she had been tortured for a very long time, ordered them cut off [read: it cut off].
The saint said to him: “Impious, cruel, and savage tyrant, are you not ashamed to cut from a woman what you yourself sucked from your mother? I have my breasts whole in my soul—namely, understanding and will—which I consecrated to the Lord from infancy.”
[Running head: Chapter Seven, Folio 234.]
After this Quintianus ordered her returned to prison, forbidding physicians to enter or anyone to minister either bread or water to her.
Around midnight, however, a certain old man appeared to her in the form of a physician, carrying medicines with him. He was the apostle Peter, preceded by a young man—that is, an angel who bore a light. He said to her: “Daughter, I was there when you endured those torments, and I have now come to you so that you may receive health through me.”
Agatha answered: “I have never applied carnal medicine to my body, but I have the Lord Jesus Christ, who restores all things by his word alone. If he wishes, he can cure me.”
When she refused the medicine, the old man smiled and said: “The Lord Jesus Christ sent me to you, for I am his apostle. Know that in his name you have been healed.”
When he suddenly disappeared, Agatha gave thanks to God for the visitation and her healing. Because an immense light appeared in the prison, the terrified guards fled and left the prison open. Some therefore urged the virgin to depart, but she said: “Far be it from me to flee, lose the crown of patience, and surrender my guards to punishment.”
After four days Quintianus said to her as she stood before him that she should worship the gods lest she endure further torments.
She answered him: “Wretched man without understanding or sense, how do you wish me to worship images of wood and stone and abandon the God of heaven who healed me?”
Quintianus asked: “Who healed you?”
Agatha replied: “The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
He said: “Now we shall see whether Christ will heal you.”
The tyrant therefore commanded broken potsherds to be scattered, glowing coals to be placed beneath them, and Agatha to be rolled naked upon them. When this was done, a great earthquake occurred. It shook the entire city so violently that part of the wall beside which they stood collapsed and crushed two of Quintianus’s counselors.
The people ran together, crying out that these things were happening because of the unjust torment of Agatha. Quintianus, terrified and afraid of a popular uprising, ordered her returned to prison. Entering it, she prayed to the Lord and rendered her immaculate spirit to him.
When the faithful heard this, they placed her body with spices in a sartophago [read: sarcophago, sarcophagus]. Suddenly an angel in the form of a young man clothed in white brought a marble tablet and placed it at her head. These words were carved upon it: “She had a holy mind; she offered herself voluntarily; she gave honor to God; and she brought liberation to her homeland.”
When they heard of this miracle, many Jews and Gentiles began to venerate her tomb.
Quintianus, meanwhile, went to seek out her possessions so that he might seize them. While he was in a boat, two kicking horses threw him into the river, and he could never be found.
When a year had passed after her martyrdom, the very great mountain beside that city emitted fire. Descending from the mountain like a torrent, it burned stones and earth and was approaching the city. A multitude of pagans therefore ran to blessed Agatha’s tomb, took the cloth with which it was covered, and held it before the fire. The cloth immediately stopped it.
§ VI: The Seven Sleepers
At that time Emperor Decius, persecuting the Christians, came to Ephesus. He commanded temples to be built in the middle of the city so that everyone might join him in sacrifices to the idols.
When he had caused all Christians to be sought out and compelled those who were found either to sacrifice or to die, so great a terror of the punishments seized everyone that friend denied friend, father denied son, and son denied father.
Seven nobles were then found in that city: Maximus, Marcus, Martinianus, Dionysius, Seraphion, Johannes, and Constantinus. Seeing these things, they grieved exceedingly. Because they were among the foremost men in the palace, they hid themselves in their own house, spurned the sacrifices of the idols, and occupied themselves there with fasts and prayers.
Accused and therefore placed before Decius, they were proved to be Christians in truth. They were released after being given until Decius’s return as a period in which to reconsider. Meanwhile they distributed their patrimony to the poor. After taking counsel together, they withdrew to Mount Celion and resolved to hide there more secretly until Decius returned.
While they remained hidden there for a long time, one of them ministered to the others. Whenever he entered the city, he presented himself in the appearance and clothing of a beggar.
Decius returned and caused them to be sought for sacrifice. Marcus, who had entered the city for necessities, heard this, returned in terror to his companions, and made the emperor’s fury known to them. Although they were gravely terrified, Marcus nevertheless offered the bread he had brought so that, strengthened by food, they might be rendered stronger for the contest.
After supper, while they sat conversing in grief and encouraging one another, they suddenly fell asleep, as God willed.
When morning came and they could not be found by Decius, it was at last reported to him that they had bestowed their goods upon the poor and were hiding on Mount Celion while persisting in their Christian purpose. Decius therefore ordered the mouth of the cave on that mountain blocked with stones so that, shut inside and unable to leave, they might die there from hunger and thirst.
When this had been done, two Christians cautiously placed among the stones a written account describing their martyrdom. How they were raised after many years in the reign of Theodosius will be related below.
§ VII: Peter, Dionysia, Trifon, and Raparata [read: Reparata]
During the reign of the same Decius, Peter was seized at the city of Lamosacum [read: Lampsacum] and presented to the proconsul as a Christian. When he steadfastly professed that he was a Christian, the proconsul ordered that handsome young man stretched upon wheels. He caused his whole body to be bound with iron bonds to timbers set around them, and when the apparatus was twisted, his bones were broken little by little. Yet the more he was tortured, the stronger he appeared; mocking the tyrant’s folly, he gave thanks to Christ. Seeing his perseverance, the proconsul ordered him struck with the sword.
When the proconsul proceeded to the city of Troas, three other worshipers of Christ—Andrew, Paul, and Nicomachus—were presented to him. When they freely professed themselves Christians, the proconsul ordered Nicomachus tortured. As he was tortured excessively and was already near to breathing out his spirit, he cried out that he had never been a Christian but would sacrifice to the demons. He was then ordered taken down. When he had sacrificed, a demon seized him, dashed him to the ground, and he died while biting his own tongue with his teeth.
A certain girl named Dionysia, seventeen years old, cried out: “O most unhappy of men! For the respite of a single hour you have acquired perpetual and indescribable punishment.”
When questioned, she confessed that she was a Christian and that she lamented that unhappy man because he had not endured a little longer in order to find perpetual rest. The proconsul ordered her handed over to two young men to be violated and ordered Andrew and Paul confined.
When the young men had taken the virgin to their lodging, they struggled until night to inflict the violence of shame upon her, but their lust withered away. A radiant young man appeared to them by night, illuminating the whole house. Struck with fear, they fell at the virgin’s feet and asked her to intercede for them lest any evil befall them.
Seeing that he could not overcome the constancy of Paul and Andrew, the proconsul had them beaten with scourges and handed them over to the people. The people dragged them by the feet outside the city to stone them.
Hearing this, Dionysia escaped from the hands of her guards, ran to them, and threw herself upon their bodies, saying: “May I too be cut down with you, blessed servants of God, and may I not be found a stranger to your struggle.”
When the proconsul heard this, he ordered her killed with the sword. Paul and Andrew were overwhelmed with stones. Vincent relates this in Book Twelve, Chapter Forty-Six of the Historical Mirror.
The same Vincent, reporting in Chapter Forty-Seven from Trifon’s deeds, says that Saint Trifon suffered under Decius. From his infancy he was renowned for many miracles in the city of Sansaduconia. He was chastely reared by his mother and taught by the Holy Spirit and angels.
A certain blind, half-withered woman beset by demons came to him. The frightened boy placed his hands upon her head and prayed for her. The demons cried through the woman: “By a child of seven years we are sent into Gehenna.”
When Saint Trifon pressed them to leave, the demon cried out: “I must go to Rome because of Trifon, so that there he may be summoned to come to me.” Shaking the woman and foaming at the mouth, the devil departed at his prayer, and the woman was healed.
The demon therefore went to Rome and began gravely tormenting the wife of a certain proconsul and senator. On the third day it called for Saint Trifon. Men were then sent to inquire for this Trifon throughout cities and fortresses. He was at last found tending sheep in the pastures, placed upon a horse, and brought to Rome. While there he freed the woman from the demon’s torment. When this had been done, angels returned him to his homeland of Sansaduconia.
Jurgianus, a great man who had an only daughter at Rome, saw a devil enter and begin to torment her, repeatedly crying out for Trifon Antharius. Jurgianus was exceedingly saddened by his daughter’s torment. His friends urged him to have this Trifon sought out, for the devil, by repeatedly naming him, showed that it feared him.
Many messengers were therefore sent here and there through different places to find him. Many who bore that name were brought in case one of them might be the man for whom the girl called, but she could not be healed by the presence of any of them.
After much searching to obtain him, they at last found the boy Trifon in Sansaduconia, lying beside the bank of a lake and tending geese. Asked whether he was the man, he answered that he was. Receiving him with honor, they led him toward the city.
As he approached it, the devil began to cry through the possessed girl: “I can no longer live here, because in three days that Trifon who has received power against us will come here.” Thus the devil left her. When Trifon arrived on the third day, he found her freed.
The girl’s father asked the boy, if she had been perfectly healed, to show him the demon that had tormented her. When Trifon had fasted and prayed for this, the devil appeared in the form of an exceedingly black and hideous dog with a great tail hanging downward. Seeing it, the girl’s father was terrified and asked that it be removed from his sight. Trifon did so, and angels returned him to his homeland, where he was renowned for many wonders.
Afterward, in the time of Decius, soldiers seized him and brought him into the city of Nicaea before the prefect Aquilinus. When he publicly confessed that he was a Christian, he was asked of what condition he was.
Trifon answered: “Fortune has no place among Christians and never did. But if you wish to know, I am of freeborn condition, and, what is greatest and most excellent, I am a Christian.”
The prefect ordered him suspended and torn with claws. Trifon promptly removed his garment and cast it upon the ground, and with joyful eagerness surrendered himself to be suspended upon the wood. As he was torn, no sound came from him, but his thought remained immovable in the faith of Christ.
After this the prefect ordered him bound to horses and dragged through the fields while the winter was harsh with very heavy snows. Trifon cried out: “Lord God, do not permit this iniquity to rule over me,” and he was immediately freed.
The prefect next ordered him girded and beaten with clubs and burning torches applied to his sides. While they tortured him, they saw a light standing around him from the splendor of the sun and a crown adorned with various stones descending over his head. Falling down in fear, they lay upon the ground. Finally the prefect caused him to be killed with the sword.
At Caesarea in Palestine, under Emperor Decius—who had commanded that all worshipers of Christ, wherever found, be compelled through various torments to sacrifice to idols—a most beautiful virgin of noble birth named Raparata [read: Reparata] was presented before him under a charge of Christianity. She was twelve years old.
Taught by the Holy Spirit, the virgin confounded the emperor in their disputation. She showed that Christ Jesus had suffered and died for human salvation not in his divinity but in the humanity he had assumed, and that by the power of his divinity, because God and man are one person, he rose from the dead. Thus it was not proved from this that God had suffered, as Decius asserted.
When he threatened her with grievous punishments of various kinds if she would not worship his gods, she answered that she would not abandon Christ because of any torments whatsoever.
The tyrant, inflamed with fury, ordered molten lead from a boiling pot poured upon her. It was changed into a most pleasant liquid and did not injure her at all. He next ordered burning torches applied to her breast and then commanded that she be cast into a blazing furnace. The fire did not grieve her; rather, she joyfully sang psalms. Finally she was beheaded on the eighth day of October.
When Emperor Decius had conquered Babylon and other provinces, he brought Christians found in various places to Córdoba and killed them with various torments.
[Running head: Chapter Seven, Folio 235.]
Their bodies were buried by two petty kings, Abdon and Sennes [read: Sennen], who were most devout Christians.
Among the others found in Babylon was a bishop named Policronius [read: Polychronius]. Because he refused to sacrifice, he was shut in prison with his clergy. When he was presented before Decius with other clerics, Decius said: “You are Policronius [read: Polychronius] the sacrilegious man, who does not worship the gods and despises the commands of the princes.”
When he remained silent, Decius said to his clerics: “Your prince has become mute.”
The priest Permenius [read: Parmenius] answered him: “Our father has not become mute, but observes the Lord’s command, which says, ‘Do not cast pearls before swine.’ Does it seem just to you that his holy mouth, which has been purified, should be polluted with dung?”
Decius angrily replied: “Are we dung, then?” He ordered Permenius [read: Parmenius]’s tongue cut out. After it was cut out, Permenius [read: Parmenius] cried aloud, saying: “Blessed Policronius [read: Polychronius], pray for me, for I see the Holy Spirit reigning in you and sealing your mouth, and dripping a honeycomb of honey into my mouth.”
When Policronius [read: Polychronius], admonished again to sacrifice, did not answer, Decius ordered his mouth beaten with stones. Thus he breathed out his spirit.
When Permenius [read: Parmenius] and the other clerics were being led to Córdoba bound in chains, they were found to be free of them. Finally Decius, attributing this to magical art, caused them to be beheaded after many torments, and Abdon and Sennes [read: Sennen] buried them.
Hearing this, Decius had Abdon and Sennes [read: Sennen] captured, bound in chains, and brought to Rome. Brought before the senate, they were ordered either to sacrifice to the gods and enjoy the liberty of their possessions or to be devoured by the bites of beasts.
They despised and spat upon the image and were brought to the theater. As the people watched, two lions and four bears were released to devour them. The beasts did not touch them in any way but instead guarded them. Their captors then killed them with swords, and their bodies were cast before the image of the sun. After three days, however, they were buried by Quirinus.
§ IX: Secundianus, Marcellianus, and Verianus
Under Decius also, as Vincent relates, Secundianus, a man of the toga who held the prefecture together with Verianus, raged against the Christians. This Secundianus began silently to consider within himself why the Christians, fragrant with so great a love, preferred to die harshly for Christ’s name rather than live delicately and assent to the princes’ flattering persuasions.
Because he was most eloquent and most skilled in every branch of knowledge, he invited Marcellianus—who was himself exceedingly wise and a persecutor of Christians—to his house and discussed with him various branches of learning.
At last, when they turned the conversation to the grammatical art, they came to a passage of Virgil. Speaking there about the interpretation of the new age—as though the world were renewed by the Lord’s appearance in the flesh—Virgil describes his books in the time of Octavian for Octavian’s praise, saying that golden ages are born in this manner:
“The great order of the ages is born anew.
“Now the Virgin returns; the reigns of Saturn return.
“Now a new offspring is sent down from high heaven.
“You, now, to the boy being born, through whom the race of iron will first cease and a race of gold arise throughout the world—”
When they inquired of whom Virgil said these things, Secundianus began to speak of the Christians, who burned with so great a love that they preferred to die for Christ’s name rather than worship idols.
“For they say,” he continued, “that there will be a resurrection and judgment after death, and that the life they expect after this one will be perpetual and immortal. There will be no pain or groaning there, but peace and everlasting joy. Christ, their God, utterly abominates the idols that we worship.”
Marveling at these things, Marcellianus asked: “What is Christ?”
Secundianus answered: “Christ means ‘anointed.’ Have you not read what his historians say—namely, that he raised the dead, cleansed lepers, and gave sight to the blind? Giving faith to these signs, Christians desire to be crowned because of their burning love for him. Therefore I too believe that he is God and the Son of God, who, after being crucified and dying, was raised on the third day and ascended into heaven. For when and from whom has it been heard that our gods did such things? We know that they always lived most shamefully.”
By these and other words Marcellianus gave his assent. Verianus, a third friend of them both, did likewise. The priest Timothy therefore baptized these three, and Saint Sixtus the pope confirmed them.
After this Secundianus, having been summoned by the prefect Valerian, entered before him, and his countenance was suddenly changed into something like the face of an angel. Valerian, astonished at the brilliance of so great a light, questioned him. When Secundianus remained firm in his Christian purpose, Valerian ordered him taken into custody.
As soldiers seized him and led him to prison, Marcellianus and Verianus cried out: “Why do you thrust an innocent man into custody? If he suffers this because he confesses Christ’s name, hear it from us: we too are Christians, and for Christ’s love we follow him to martyrdom.”
Valerian, angered, ordered them placed in custody with Secundianus and informed Caesar that Secundianus had become a Christian. Caesar could scarcely believe this. He caused Secundianus to be brought before him and said: “O Secundianus, why has your countenance changed?”
Secundianus answered: “My countenance is now brighter and more joyful than usual because I already stand in mental contemplation in the sight of the eternal king, who has brought me from darkness into the light of his vision.”
Finally, by Decius’s command, the saints were handed over to Quartus Promotus, the consular governor of Tuscany. When they refused to sacrifice at his command, they were stripped and ordered beaten. When they spat upon the image, the image itself fell and was broken.
Promotus then ordered them suspended upon the rack and their sides scraped with claws. As they gave thanks to God amid these things, he caused flames to be applied to their sides.
While they were asserentur [read: assarentur, roasted] for a long time, one of the ministers who had applied himself more fiercely to their torture died. Others, seized by demons, began to cry: “O saints of God, why do you torment us with your prayers? These torments, which we unjustly inflict upon you, torture us beyond remedy, but do no harm to you.”
Seeing this, Promotus ordered them beheaded and their bodies cast into the sea. By God’s providence the bodies reached the shore, and Adeodatus buried them.
Likewise, as is contained in the martyrology, during Decius’s persecution at Arezzo, a city of Tuscany, the feast of the holy martyrs Pergentinus and Laurentinus, brothers, is celebrated on June 3, the third day before the Nones of June. Though they were boys, they were killed with the sword after enduring dire torments and displaying many miracles.
At Alexandria during the same tempest, Hiero, Arsenius, Isidore, and the boy Dioschorus [read: Dioscorus] were seized for the faith of Christ. They were torn apart by various torments. When the judge saw them armed with equal constancy of faith, they were handed over to the fire. Dioschorus [read: Dioscorus], however, after being scourged in many ways, was released by divine will for the consolation of the faithful.
[Running head: Seventh Title.]
At Rome also, during the Decian persecution, the virgin Victoria had been betrothed to a certain pagan. Because she would neither marry nor sacrifice, after many miracles and holy works—among which she had joined very many virgins to God—she was struck with a sword by an executioner at her betrothed’s request.
As the martyrology records, very many others were crowned with martyrdom in different parts of the world during this persecution of Decius. Hugh also says that we cannot recount how great were the multitudes consumed, while the fire of this persecution raged, by hunger, thirst, cold, infirmity, robbers, and beasts as they hid in deserts and mountains.
§ X: Gallus, Volusianus, and the Rebaptism Controversy
Decius, before he had administered the empire for three full years, was killed with his son, whom he had appointed Caesar, in the midst of a host of barbarians. He lost his kingdom together with his life.
After him Gallus Hostilianus gained the kingdom with his son Volusianus [read: Trebonianus Gallus and Hostilian gained the kingdom with Gallus’s son Volusianus] and reigned for scarcely two years. He began in the year of the Lord 254 [read: 251].
At the beginning his reign flourished and everything yielded according to his desire. Yet, as Hugh of Fleury says, he began to persecute the holy men who were supplicating the Lord for the peace and prosperity of his kingdom. Together with them, he drove away his own prosperity and peace.
When persecution arose, vengeance also arose for the violation of the Christian name. As far as the edicts for afflicting the churches spread, so far did a plague of unbelievable diseases extend. There was scarcely any Roman province, city, or house that was not seized and emptied by that general pestilence.
Distinguished by this destruction alone, Gallus and Volusianus were killed while undertaking a civil war against Aemilianus, who was striving after revolution. Aemilianus also died in the third month of his usurped tyranny.
During the same time, Haymo says, a question arose in parts of Africa about whether heretics should be rebaptized. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, held that they ought to be rebaptized. But Cornelius [read: Stephen I] the pope and the other western bishops maintained instead the opinion that, after rejection of their depraved doctrine, they should be purified by the imposition of hands alone. Thus Haymo.
Notice that this latter is the true opinion, confirmed by the Church and therefore to be held: not only baptism but also the other sacraments that are performed and conferred by heretics in the Church’s form are true sacraments as regards their essence. They nevertheless lack their final effect—namely, grace—with respect to those who knowingly receive them from such persons, except for baptism in a case of extreme necessity. This is because of the Church’s prohibition, as is clear in Distinction 32, § “But,” and more fully in Cause 1, Question 1, “Certain Persons,” with the following section.
Cyprian, however, asserted that all the sacraments of heretics were empty and null, and that their conferrals resembled the actions of apes, which mimic human actions although they perform them not truly but only in appearance, as is clear in Cause 1, Question 1, “If Anyone Says.”
He is nevertheless excused by the doctors from sin in this error because this truth had not yet been determined by the Church. The gloss on the said chapter “If Anyone Says” also excuses Cyprian in several ways.
§ XI: Pope Cornelius and the Schism of Novatus [read: Novatian]
When Pope Fabian had been crowned through martyrdom, Cornelius succeeded him during the reigns of Gallus and Volusianus, according to Vincent in the Historical Mirror. Jerome says the same. The Book of the Roman Pontiffs, however, testifies that Cornelius suffered under Decius. It is established that Decius reigned before Gallus and Volusianus, but Helinand says that Gallus was also called Decius. On this account he would have had two names and the aforesaid contradictory statements would agree.
In the time of Cornelius a schism arose. A certain man named Novatus [read: Novatian], made pope—or rather antipope—by some who adhered to him, conducted himself as the Roman pontiff. But he and his accomplices were cast down. Moreover, because he devised a depraved doctrine against Catholic truth, asserting that after baptism there was no place for pardon for those who had fallen, however great their repentance—or at least for those who relapsed after doing penance for a first fall after baptism—he was condemned as a heretic by Pope Cornelius in a council.
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, therefore says concerning them: “Novatus [read: Novatian], a priest of the Roman Church, swollen with a certain pride, completely took away from them the hope of salvation even if they had worthily repented. From him arose the chief of the Novatian heresy. Separated from the Church, the Novatians proudly called themselves Cathars, that is, ‘the pure.’”
For this reason a most celebrated council of priests was held in the city of Rome. Pope Cornelius there decreed that Novatus [read: Novatian] and his followers were strangers to the Church, but that those who had fallen in the contest should be healed with brotherly compassion and treated with the medicines of penance.
Cyprian also published a book about these matters, in which he decreed both that the fallen should be exhorted to penance and that those who contradicted this were strangers to the inward parts of Christ. Augustine also rejects as heretical this proposition—namely, that there is no place for pardon for those who relapse after baptism—in On Penance, Distinction 3, “They Still Insist.”
Cyprian declares how Cornelius was canonically assumed into the papacy, saying in his letter to Antonianus:
“Our dearest Cornelius, while often forewarned [read: having often merited the Lord’s favor in divine administrations], ascended through every grade of religion to the sublime summit of the priesthood. He then neither sought nor desired the episcopate. Because of the modesty of his virginal continence and the humility of the modesty born in him and guarded by him, he did not, as a certain man did, use force so that he might become bishop; rather, he himself suffered force so that he was compelled to receive the episcopate when Fabian’s place—that is, Peter’s place and the priestly chair—was vacant.”
The same Cyprian says in Cause 7, Question 1:
“Cornelius was made bishop by the judgment of God and his Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the vote of the people then present, and by the consent of the ancient priests and good men. This occurred when no one had been appointed before him, when Fabian’s place—that is, Peter’s place and the rank of the chair—was vacant.
“Once this had been received by God’s will and confirmed by the consent of us all, whoever should now wish to become bishop must necessarily be outside. The one who does not hold the Church’s unity does not possess ecclesiastical ordination. Whoever he may be, although boasting much of himself, he is profane, a stranger, and outside.
“Since there cannot be a second after the first, whoever is made after the one who alone ought to be bishop is now not second, but no one.” Thus there.
In the following chapter he adds: “Novatian is not bishop. Cornelius was made bishop in the Church by sixteen fellow bishops; Novatian, an adulterous and alien bishop, endeavors to be made bishop by deserters through ambition,” and so forth. In the chapter “Finally” of the same question, he shows that the crime of schism is detestable.
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, of whom we spoke above, also wrote a letter to Novatus [read: Novatian] in these words:
[Running head: Chapter Seven, Folio 236.]
Dionysius to his brother Novatus, greetings.
“If, as you say, you came into this unwillingly, you will show it if you willingly desist. Indeed, you ought to have suffered everything rather than allow the Church of God to be torn apart.
“The glory of enduring martyrdom so that the Church is not torn apart will be no less than that of enduring it so that one does not sacrifice to idols. Indeed, in my judgment I consider the former martyrdom greater. In the latter, each person endures martyrdom only for his own soul; in the former, he endures it for the whole Church.
“But now, if you can either persuade or even compel the brothers to return to concord, the merit of your correction will be greater than the fault you committed, for the fault will not be imputed to you and the correction will even be regarded as worthy of praise. If they remain in incrudelitate [read: in incredulitate, unbelief], however, you will nevertheless save your own soul. Farewell, desiring the peace that I pray may be yours.”
Pope Cornelius also says in one of his letters: “This Novatus fell into all these evils through the desire for the episcopate that he secretly bore within himself. He was especially elated because, at the very beginning of this error, he had taken to himself certain excellent men from among the confessors. These men had even been confessors of the faith of Christ a second time and had overcome every kind of torment for Christ’s faith.
“But when, by God’s mercy, they examined everything more diligently and perceived that Novatus did all things through frauds, lies, and perjuries, and that he only feigned goodness in order to deceive the ignorant, they returned to the Church with great execration of him.”
Jerome says as follows concerning this Pope Cornelius in his book On Illustrious Men: “Eight letters of Cyprian to Cornelius, bishop of the city of Rome, survive. Cornelius himself also wrote certain letters, among which survive a letter about the Roman and African synod, another about the acts of the synod, and another concerning Novatian. He governed the Church under Gallus and Volusianus for two years and was crowned with martyrdom.”
His martyrdom is related from his deeds as follows. When Caesar Decius heard that Cornelius was converting many people to Christ, he commanded that Christians, wherever they were found, should be punished without a hearing.
Cornelius was therefore seized with his clerics and sent into exile. There he was strengthened through letters by Saint Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and many others. He was afterward brought back and presented to Decius. When he remained immovable, he was beaten with leaded scourges and whips and led to the temple of Mars, where he was ordered either to sacrifice or to be beheaded.
As he was being led to the place, a soldier named Cerealis asked him to turn aside to his house and pray for his wife Salustia, who had been paralyzed for five years. When this was done, the twenty-one men who were with him saw her arise in health. he himself [read: they themselves], with the said Cerealis and his wife, were baptized. They were all led by the emperor’s command to the temple of Mars, and when they spat upon the idol, they were beheaded.
§ XII: Popes Lucius and Stephen; Saint Mellonus
Lucius I, a Roman by nationality, succeeded Cornelius in the pontificate. He sat for three years. At first he was sent into exile, but afterward, by God’s will, he was recalled to his Church. He was beheaded by Emperor Valerian on May 5 [read: March 5], the third day before the Nones of May [read: March], as is contained in the deeds of the pontiffs.
He ordained that two priests and three deacons should never abandon a bishop in any place, for the sake of ecclesiastical testimony. As he went to his passion, he gave authority over the whole Church to Stephen his archdeacon.
After Lucius was crowned with martyrdom, Stephen, a Roman by nationality, was placed in Peter’s chair. He decreed that priests and Levites should not use consecrated garments in daily use, but only in the church. He sat for seven years and was crowned with martyrdom.
As is contained in his deeds, after he had converted many Gentiles by word and example and buried very many bodies of holy martyrs, Valerian and Gallienus, persecutors of the Christian name, caused him to be sought with the greatest diligence so that they might either compel him and his clerics to sacrifice or kill them with various torments. They issued an edict that whoever betrayed them would obtain their riches.
Consequently ten of Stephen’s clerics were seized and beheaded without a hearing. On the following day Pope Stephen was seized with a multitude of clerics. He alone entered before the judge’s tribunal and, remaining immovable, was led to the temple of Mars to worship the god or immediately suffer capital punishment.
When he arrived there, he prayed that God would destroy the temple, and immediately a very large part of it collapsed. While the soldiers fled in fear, Stephen alone went with other Christians to the cemetery of Saint Lucia.
When Valerian heard that Stephen was encouraging the Christians gathered there to endurance for the faith of Christ, he sent more soldiers than before. Arriving, they found him celebrating Mass. He stood fearless and completed what he had begun; thus they decollocaverunt [read: decollaverunt, beheaded] him in his own chair. Sixtus succeeded him in the pontificate of the city.
In the time of this Pope Stephen, while Valerian was emperor, a certain Mellonus, born in Greater Britain, came to Rome to pay the tribute of his homeland, as Vincent relates in the Historical Mirror from Mellonus’s deeds, and to serve the emperor.
According to custom, he was led with his companions to the temple of Mars to sacrifice. Hearing that Pope Stephen was preaching Christ’s Gospel to a few Christians, he went there. Devoutly hearing his words, he was converted to the faith and received baptism.
Instructed by Stephen, he sold everything he had and distributed the price to the poor. The aforementioned pope kept him close and promoted him through every grade as far as the priesthood.
As Mellonus persisted in fasts and vigils, one day, while he was celebrating Mass, he and the pope saw an angel of God standing at the right side of the altar. When Mass was completed, the angel gave Mellonus the pastoral staff he held in his hand and said: “Receive the staff beneath which you will rule the people of the city of Rouen in the borders of Faustria. A place has been prepared for you there by God. Although the labor of an unknown road will be burdensome to you, you must not fear, because the Lord Jesus Christ will protect you under the shadow of his wings.”
Having received a blessing, Mellonus then undertook the journey. When he came to Auxerre holding the staff he had received from the angel, he encountered a man who had been wounded with a two-edged axe and whose foot was divided into two parts. After praying, he immediately healed him.
Remaining there, faithfully fulfilling his ministry, and renowned for many virtues and miracles, Mellonus rested in peace.