had been accustomed. And when he was placed in prison and wished to maintain that same manner of life, it was revealed to Attalus, after the first contest which he had finished in the amphitheatre, that Alcibiades was not acting rightly or in accordance with order, in that he would not make use of the creatures of God, and was leaving behind a pretext of scandal for others. Alcibiades therefore obeyed, and henceforth began to eat of all foods without distinction, giving thanks to God. For divine grace had not abandoned them with its presence; but they had the Holy Spirit as their counselor. A
APPENDIX
I.
PASSION OF SS. EPIPODIUS AND ALEXANDER
(D. Theod. Ruinart, *Acta martyrum sincera*. Verona, 1731, in-folio. p. 62.)MONITUM
Not long after the slaughter of the holy Pothinus and his companions—whom we have already mentioned as having been crowned with glorious martyrdom in the city of Lyons, following Eusebius—two other Christians were apprehended who adorned the same city with their blood. These are Epipodius and Alexander, whose Acts we here present, collated from the April volume of the Bollandists and Surius with two manuscript codices, one from the Colbertine Library and the other from the renowned arch-monastery of Saint Remigius at Reims. There exists a homily on these same holy martyrs by Eucherius of Lyons, [published] under the name of Eusebius Gallicanus in volume V, part 1, of the Cologne edition of the *Bibliotheca Patrum*.It is evident from their Acts that these holy martyrs did not suffer death on one and the same day. For this reason, since their feast day came to be celebrated on different days (which was already happening in the time of Eucherius, according to the aforementioned homily), their Acts were divided into two parts, with a brief preface added to each part so that they might be more easily read in the divine offices; although no one can deny that they were written together by the same author. The feast of the former—that is, of Epipodius—the more ancient Martyrologies celebrate on the twenty-second day of April, and that of Alexander on the twenty-fourth day of the same month. Whence we conjecture that their martyrdom is to be referred to the year 178, since the other martyrs of Lyons suffered around the month of August of the preceding year. Their sacred bodies, moreover, in the time of Gregory of Tours, were deposited in the crypt of Saint John under the altar along with the relics of the blessed Irenaeus, of whose monuments he says in his *De gloria Martyrum*, cap. 50, that if dust is gathered with faith, it immediately heals the infirm.
Florus and Ado, Archbishop of Vienne, assert in their Martyrologies that on the 24th of April, thirty-four other martyrs suffered together with Alexander, a number of saints which other subsequent writers of Martyrologies have repeated. Concerning these, however, nothing is recorded in the Acts nor in the aforementioned homily of Eucherius.
Beyond these martyrs of Lyons, Marcellus and Valerianus are renowned; fleeing from the city of Lyons when the persecution raged, they met the death they had escaped there a short time later in neighboring cities. Valerianus met it near the town of Trenorchium, commonly called Tournus; Marcellus, however, near Chalon, where he was buried in the earth up to his waist and breathed his blessed soul into heaven on the third day. Gregory of Tours makes mention of both in *De gloria martyrum*, books I and II, chapters 53 and 54. The festival of Saint Marcellus was already established in the time of King Guntram, and as the same Gregory testifies in his *History*, book IX, chapter 3, this prince attended it. The most pious king recognized this martyr as the principal patron of his kingdom, and at his sepulcher he took care to have a basilica built with a monastery, in which place a council of 40 bishops is recorded by the continuator of Gregory (chapter 1) to have been convened by the same king. Moreover, that monastery survives to this day, entrusted to our Cluniac monks.
PASSION OF THE HOLY MARTYRS EPIPODIUS AND ALEXANDER.
A I. If the merits of strong men and deeds for the stimulation of posterity are committed to the annals—those who have fallen for earthly liberty or for a vain intention regarding their homeland, leaving behind brief monuments of carnal virtues while they perish—with what praises should the death of the martyrs be celebrated, who, by an admirable and glorious shortcut, while they stretch out their hands to heaven, leave behind examples of faith and devotion for the earth, propagating the life of men by their own deaths? For they were pouring out their blood not for an earthly emperor, but for the heavenly King; not for the homeland which gives birth and receives, not for the homeland which is possessed and lost, but for that heavenly Jerusalem, the eternal fatherland, which is built by the merits of the saints, the peaks of which reach into heaven, whose inhabitants do not know how to die, whose liberty ignores the yoke of infernal captivity, whose liberty persists with immortal glory and B blessedness. And although few things have been touched upon concerning the rewards of the martyrs, because the sufferings of the present time are not worthy of the magnitude of the heavenly glory which will be perpetual and eternal (Rom. VIII, 18); nevertheless, these are the perpetual triumphs of the saints, which, deservedly committed to writing, are sent to posterity so that, if the opportunity for martyrdom does not occur, they may still attain an immaculate life through the ardor of a soul burning with emulation, through the mortification of the body, and through the imitation of martyrdom. Therefore, we recount the struggles and victories of the most blessed Epipodius and Alexander, with Christ triumphing in them, so that the faith of the believers may both long for and follow the example set before them.
II. Therefore, in the seventeenth year of the Emperor Antoninus Verus, when the fury of the heathens raged C through the provinces—it raged especially in the city of Lyons, in which, according to its size, a more numerous population dwelt, and therefore the madness of the gentiles boiled over all the more; judges, officials, tribunes, soldiers, and the common people vied with one another, and even with no distinction of sex, they mangled the Christians with manifold cruelty: of these, very many, having undergone distinct passions and having achieved renown, reached the memories of those who followed; but the book of heavenly life alone contains those countless ones who were either cut down in indiscriminate slaughter or perished while bound in dungeons. For after the vast slaughter of the martyrs and the cruelty of the raging tortures, concerning which even the servants of Christ, whom the then-illustrious cities of Vienne and Lyons D held, sent writings to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia, when it was believed by the gentiles that the name of Christ was almost entirely extinguished: through domestic betrayal, Epipodius and Alexander were reported to the governor as secretly practicing the worship of the Catholic faith; he, with a searching investigation, desiring to extinguish the remnants of the hated religion in them, ordered them to be sought out.
III. But, having put aside the order of the passion for a little while, it is fitting to set forth briefly who and what sort they were. Alexander was indeed Greek by nation, but Epipodius was a native of the city of Lyons; school-fellowship and a love that was already manly had joined them together in their early youth; and they were so well-educated in literature, and their harmony growing, they were so advanced that, although they were Christians and had been trained by the most distinguished parents, yet, to the religion...
A of self-restraint and discipline, of chastity, faith, and works of mercy, they prepared themselves as worthy sacrifices to God, so that the glory of their martyrdom would redound to the merit of their final attainment. Both were conspicuous in the flower of their youth, and not yet bound by the ties of marriage. When the persecution raged, fulfilling the evangelical precepts, and because they could not go to another or even a third city, they sought a hiding place there. Having gone out secretly beyond the city walls, in that district which is situated near the Incisa-Petra, they hid themselves in the hut of a certain religious and faithful widow, without any companions. And when they had remained there for some time, covered by the faith of the little woman and the humility of the place, finally a sagacious inquisitor found them, whom B the hostile hand seized as they were fleeing through the narrow entrance of their cell; they had rushed in so tremulously that Saint Epipodius was deprived of the footwear of one foot, which the faithful woman later hid, as if it were a treasure found for her.
IV. Therefore, the prison received the captives even before their questioning, because the very name "Christian" was thought to be the title of a manifest crime. Then, after three days, with their hands bound behind their backs, they were set before the judge's tribunal; and as a most savage judge stood by, while the multitude of Gentiles raged, he questioned them about their name and profession. They, however, both declared their names and testified clearly that they were Christians. C The judge is thus inflamed; a popular outcry is raised, and the madness of all rises up at once against the innocent. The authority rebukes them, and testifies to his own fury with such clamor as this: "Does human recklessness even now persist against the immortal gods? Are the decrees of the princes still being defied, and are the emperor and the gods impugned by one and the same crime of majesty? Where are the tortures that we have applied? Where are the crosses? Where the swords? Where the beasts? Where the red-hot plates? Where the rack, applied even beyond the boundaries of death? The men are extinguished; the graves do not exist; and yet the memory of Christ persists. O you who are to be punished, with what boldness have you persisted in a forbidden religion? Now you shall pay the penalties for the recklessness of your presumption." And lest they exhort or warn one another D by word or by signs, Alexander, who is stronger in age, is cast out, and Epipodius is brought forward. The judge, assuming him to be the more tender in spirit because of his conjecture about his age, tries to entice him—using the craftiness of the ancient serpent—with the poisonous art of flattery. "I see," he says, "that you are a youth, and it is a wickedness that you should persist in the intention of your perverse purpose and perish. We worship the immortal gods, whom the whole multitude of nations, and the most holy princes themselves, honor with their own names. We worship the gods with joy, with banquets, songs, games, carousing, and wantonness; but you worship a man who was crucified, who cannot please those who enjoy all these things, who rejects joy, who delights in fasts, who cherishes a sad and barren chastity, though he despises condemned pleasures. What benefit is it worth to anyone to offer favor to him who could not defend himself against the persecution of the vilest men? Indeed, I have woven all this together for you so that, with pleasure and joy, as a young man avoiding austerity, you may enjoy the happiness of this world."
V. To this, the blessed Epipodius replied: "The affection for Christ and for the Catholic faith has not so armed me that the figments of your mercy might move my mind. For this piety of yours is cruelty; to live with you is eternal death; but to perish at your hands is glorious. But you do not know that our everlasting Lord Jesus Christ, whom you remember as having been crucified, has risen, who by an ineffable mystery, being both man and God, has established for his servants a path to immortality, and leads them to the heavenly realms. But let me speak commonly with you, since you do not accept high things; is your mind so blinded that you do not know that man consists of a double substance of soul and body? We use the body in the service of the law of the soul. The indecencies with which you worship your demons delight the members of the body, but destroy the minds. What, in fact, is that life where the detriments of the better part result? We wage wars for the soul against the body; we struggle for the soul against vices; to you the belly is God, and like animals, after wasteful gluttony, you judge the end of the present life to be the sunset of death. But we, whoever of us are put to death by you persecutors, while we desert temporal things, enter into the life of eternity."
VI. The judge, however, stunned by the bitterness and admiration of this reply, and moved by stimulating anger, orders the mouth of the martyr—that home of admirable eloquence—to be smashed with blows of fists. And next, Saint Epipodius, more constant by reason of the pain inflicted, with blood mixed from his teeth, poured forth these words: "I confess Christ, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, to be God, and it is worthy that I should refund my soul to Him, who is both my creator and my Redeemer. For thus my life is not taken away, but changed for the better. And it is of no interest by what end the infirmity of the body is dissolved, provided that the soul, carried to the heavens, returns to its author." When the blessed Epipodius spoke these things with constant assertion, by order of the truculent judge he is suspended on the rack, with the lictors standing about here and there, so that his sides might be furrowed by the driven claws. Then suddenly a terrible clamor of the people arose, demanding that he be given to them, that he might be buried in a shower of stones, or that, torn limb from limb, he might be shredded by the madness of the raging crowd. Thus by the fury
of the judge’s cruelty, it was slow. A Fearing, however, that the president might cause further violence, and that the authority and reverence of the judgment might be disturbed by a riot, he ordered that he be led outside the tribunal and struck down swiftly with the sword, in order to calm the sudden and insane frenzy of the surrounding crowd and to extinguish the cause of the commotion. And so, the more hostile the tumult of the enemies was, the more quickly, by divine disposition, was the consummation of the martyrdom accelerated; so that Christ the rewarder might the more swiftly receive his servant, who was triumphing over passion and persecutors, and who is blessed for ever.
VII. Infancy first joined the blessed martyrs Epipodius and Alexander; then adolescence instructed them in the fear of God; youth confirmed them, until, joined in souls and merits, they arrived at martyrdom, which, by the gift of God, they received together. But while our Lord Jesus Christ so disposes the victorious crowns of his soldiers—that those who were joined to him in temporal confession might be separated in their passing—we rightly judge it granted to us that we might enjoy the solemnity in them doubled. For since their feasts occur on alternate days, and we venerate them with an inseparable affection, we honor both, not on single days, but with joined devotions. B And just as the day before yesterday the solemnity celebrated Epipodius, inserted into heaven, so let us rejoice today, on this holy day, that the blessed Alexander has arrived at the heavenly kingdoms. But let us now return to the history of the passion.
VIII. The martyr Epipodius having therefore been put to death, the persecutor, still splattered with the fresh blood, thirsted for the blood of the blessed Alexander. Having received him from prison, after a deferred examination, one day having passed, he ordered him to be offered to his fury, so that by his torments he might temper not only his own rage but also the insanity of the stirred-up and savage people. Yet he still tempted him even now with this questioning: "It is still in your power to escape the precedents of your predecessors, and to see what you hold. For we have so persecuted the Christians that I think you alone remain. For besides other swarms of those who were slaughtered, your colleague also succumbed to his own folly; and therefore, consulting for you, worship the immortal gods with the burning of incense."
IX. The blessed Alexander said: "I give thanks to the Lord, C that while you unfold the glorious triumphs of the martyrs, and recount the torments brought upon them, you confirm me also in devotion with these examples. Do you therefore think that the souls you have poured out are extinguished? They indeed possess heaven; but in turn, the persecutors perished in that struggle. For your opinion deceives you. The Christian name cannot be extinguished, which is so firmly established by God that the life of men might be guarded, and propagated by deaths. Our God possesses the heavens which He made; He holds the earth, He governs the underworld, and He has received the souls which you judges took away; but as for you, with your gods, the underworld shall retain you. And because I know that my dearest brother, placed in supreme joy, is happy, I enter the path of devotion more securely. I am a Christian, and I have always been, and I shall be for the glory of God. D You, however, exert yourself against the body, which, on account of earthly weakness, seems to be addicted to the fortunes of the world; but as for the rest, He who bestowed our souls will guard and receive them."
X. To these things the president, raging with mixed shame and fury, ordered the holy Alexander to be divaricated and beaten by three strikers; yet he, cast down by no humble response among the torments, always sought the protection of God. And when, after a very long space, he was not broken by the alternating succession of the strikers, the president asked if he still persisted in this confession. To his questioning, he replied with unshakable authority: "That the gods of the gentiles are demons; but that the almighty, invisible, eternal God is the guardian of his own purpose."
XI. Then the judge: "Christians have broken forth into such insanity that they think glory is obtained for themselves by the prolongation of punishments, and judge that they have overcome their own persecutors, whom it is fitting to consume with a swift end. Since, therefore, it is a wickedness to hear or see them in their stubbornness, let Alexander, fixed to the cross, pour out his soul, as he deserves." After which sentence, the savage ministers and executioners received the blessed Alexander, and having extended him in different directions, they bound his arms and hands with the saving sign. Yet the torments of the blessed martyr were not prolonged for long; for his body had been so torn by the cruelty of the beaters that, with the flesh loosed from his ribs and his bowels laid open, the secrets of his soul were revealed. For while he was wholly in Christ, and already weary, he invoked him with his final voices, and, having been examined, he emitted his blessed spirit.
XII. These two, therefore, always concordant and associates—because death had divided them, burial joined them—when the Christians stole them, were secretly led out beyond the city and hidden away. For there was a place on a hill overlooking the city, dense with thickets, and there, in the manner of a cave, a valley lay hidden, closed in by shrubs and thorns; and as it happens, where rain-water is poured out by natural drainage, the wild fertility of the place, in which the venerable bodies were buried by religious care; because the fury of the gentiles, denying them final burial, raged even against the dead bodies. But afterwards, the worship of the religious served the venerable place, and reverence proclaimed it to posterity.
and virtues without number have manifested the power of the saints. A
XIII. For when in the following time the people of Lyons were perishing widespread from a raging disease, a certain youth of noble birth, greatly inflamed by the strength of fevers, was warned in a vision that he should seek a remedy from that woman who possessed the martyr's shoe. She indeed replied that she knew nothing of medicine; but, by the mercy of the Lord, she did not deny that, having been brought by the help of the hospital through the relics of the martyr, she had cured very many. And immediately Lucia brought to him a blessing and the cup of salvation from the hospital. When he took the remedy as a draught for his thirst, he straightway recovered, with his fever extinguished, in such a way that it was said he had been restored to life and health not by human aid, but by the miraculous help of divinity. Which power of faith and of the saints is dispersed throughout the B whole city, and when the innumerable multitude received health of body, it took up the increments of faith, and it became a present and eternal medicine for limbs and souls. But even afterwards, those miracles are shown in those places: the casting out of demons, the healing of infirmities, the restoration of health; which indeed occur so almost daily and are so much greater than these, that credulity, even if it were not spontaneous, is compelled by the miracles that exist. Therefore, it is fitting that faith be applied to words and deeds, because the power, virtue, and dignity—which is a friend of God—just as it loves the faithful and the believing, so it deserts the doubting. Therefore, we do not doubt that things are true which we have gathered from hearsay and manifest sight, while our Lord Jesus Christ reigns, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen.
II.
PASSION OF SAINT SYMPHORIAN
(D. RUINART, *Acta martyrum*, p. 67.)NOTICE
We find the Acts of the blessed martyr Symphorian in many manuscript codices, even very ancient ones, but they are sincere and somewhat pure in only three. Of these, one is of the Abbey of Conches near Évreux in Normandy; the second is that of Rebais, which is now of the monastery of Saint Faron in the suburb of Meaux; the third, finally, is preserved in our library of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. By their effort, we have recalled the style and words—which Surius had changed in many places—to their original state; and thus we present those Acts which Baronius judged to be sincere, having collated them with Mombritius, the fragments of Baronius himself, and manuscript codices (even those in which they are found to be interpolated). We do not doubt that these are the same as those mentioned by Gregory of Tours, Book *De gloria confessorum*, chapter 77.
The cell in which the Acts relate that the blessed Symphorian was buried was changed after some time into a famous basilica, to which, when a monastery had been attached, Saint Germanus was abbot; he, as Venantius Fortunatus testifies in his life, was carried toward this most blessed martyr with such devotion that, as long as he stayed at Autun, he spent almost every night near his tomb. Afterwards, having been made bishop of Paris, he ordered a chapel to be built in honor of the same blessed martyr, in which, as he himself had commanded, his sacred body was buried after his death; and it still stands, attached to the southern part of the lower portion of the great basilica of our monastery of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
But the memory of the blessed Symphorian was not celebrated only among the Aeduans, for his feast-day was ordained to be celebrated—among other things that Perpetuus, bishop of Tours, arranged in the church of Saint Martin—as recorded by Gregory at the end of Book X of his *Histories*. The same author recounts in Book I of *De gloria martyrum*, chapter 52, a miracle that happened to his sacred relics in Auvergne under Theoderic, king of the Franks. His Mass is found in the Gothic Missal, no. 63, which was edited by the most learned Father Mabillon in Book III of *De Liturgia Gallicana*. That a church under the name of Saint Sinsurianus or Symphorian also existed in the district of Meaux under the first lineage of our kings is clear from the testament of Ermentrude, which was published by the same Mabillon in the appendix to Book *De Liturgia Gallicana*, no. 5. Finally, to omit other things, even the more ancient martyrologies recall the memory of this holy martyr on the 22nd day of August, the day on which his feast is still celebrated.
Furthermore, we refer his holy death to about the year 180, since he is said to have been baptized by the blessed Benignus, a disciple of Saint Polycarp. There is no doubt that the name of the emperor Aurelian slipped into the vulgar acts in place of Aurelius [Marcus Aurelius]. Certainly, the codex of S. Faron mentioned above expressly has the name Aurelius in no. 2, where the imperial edict is discussed. Usuardus agrees in his Martyrology. But the author of the Chronicle of Saint-Bénigne of Dijon in Volume I of the *Spicilegium Acherianum*, where he has much to say about Saint Symphorian, refers his martyrdom to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the successor of Macrinus, that is to say, Heliogabalus; though he does not hide that this emperor was commonly called Aurelian by those who wrote about Saint Benignus, the instructor of Symphorian. Others say this same Aurelian was Caracalla. See Bolland, Vol. I, May, where he treats of S. Andeol. Certainly, in manuscript codices, *Aurelius* and *Aurelianus*, *Fabius* and *Fabianus*, *Valerius* and *Valerianus*, and other similar names are frequently confused; which it would be very easy to prove with six hundred examples.
Augustodunum or Aedua, commonly Autun, where Symphorian suffered, was once a most famous city of Gaul under the Romans, and is still famous today, situated on the river Arroux in the duchy of Burgundy, under the metropolis of Lyons, whose bishop, by the concession of Saint Gregory the Great (Book VII, epistle 113, Indiction II), holds the first place in that province and has the right to wear the Pallium, which is now the insignia of metropolitans. Fortunatus acknowledges Saint Symphorian as the special patron of this city (Book VIII, poem 4).
PASSION OF SAINT SYMPHORIAN
A I. Under the emperor Aurelian, when the storm of a cruel persecution was sounding against the Christian name, and he turned the decrees of his empire toward the destruction of the Catholic religion, there was at that time in the city of Augustodunum a man named Symphorianus, son of the nobleman Faustus, well-instructed in letters and morals, such that he surpassed the flourishing years of his early nature by the maturity of an old man, through the sincerity of an immaculate mind. Therefore, as he was growing from childhood into adolescence, and was already happily moving toward the strength of manhood, he gave everyone such great hope of his virtues that all good men already judged him to have a fellowship with heavenly virtues, through their admiration of his merits. For heavenly wisdom illuminated him, and a simplicity adorned with spiritual gems; and holding to the just path of life, preserved by the defense of a happy rudder, he escaped the shipwreck of a wickedly flattering age.
II. The Aeduan city was at that time of ancient nobility, filled with titles and the ceremonies of a sacrilegious religion, and, serving the error of the Gentiles, it was held by the love of diverse temples of idols and of vain superstition. For it venerated the cult of Berecynthia, Apollo, and Diana with special devotion. Therefore, a multitude of people had gathered for the profane solemnity of Berecynthia, the mother of demons. Heraclius, a consular man, residing in the same city in those times, was solicitous in a sagacious investigation to inquire into and examine the Christians; and Saint Symphorianus was present among them. When he refused to adore the statue of Berecynthia, which was being carried on a cart and thronged by hosts of people, he was seized on a charge of public sedition and immediately brought to the consular Heraclius. The consular man Heraclius, sitting on his tribunal, said to the blessed Symphorianus: "Declare your name and your condition." He replied: "I am a Christian; I am called Symphorianus." The judge said: "The profession of this name is not great among us. Why did you refuse to adore the image of the mother goddess, despising it with profane abuse?" Saint Symphorianus replied: B "I have already told you, I am a Christian. I adore the true God who reigns in the heavens: not only do I not adore the simulacrum of a demon, but even, if you permit, I will shatter it with hammers by my own authority." The judge said: "This man strives to be not only sacrilegious but also a rebel; let him declare his office, if he is a citizen of this place." It was stated from the office: "He is from here, and indeed of a noble family." The judge said: "You are joking, Symphorianus of glorious nature; fame had begun to lead you into this ambiguity with a lie. Perhaps you are ignorant of what the decrees of our princes have ordained?" Let it be revealed by the reading of the office. It was read from the office: "Aurelius the Emperor to all his administrators and governors. We have learned from those who in our times call themselves Christians that the precepts of the law are being violated. Seize them, and unless they have sacrificed to our gods, punish them with diverse tortures, so that the severity brought forth may have justice, and vengeance for these crimes may have now reached its end."
III. The imperial precepts having been read, the judge said: "What do you answer to these things, Symphorianus? Can we overturn these decrees? A double crime is brought against you: you appear to commit sacrilege for the despising of the gods, and you exist as a contemner for the abuse of the laws; wherefore, unless you satisfy the precepts, the shedding of your blood will placate all these things." Saint Symphorianus replied: C "I will never judge this image as anything but an ill-omened simulacrum of diabolical persuasion, and an execrable demon of perdition. Into chaos the path always slides when turning, whoever, as a Christian, condemned by the passions of a worse life, has looked back at evil turned behind; and immediately through a devious step the path...
is opened to the nets of the ancient enemy. Our God, as He knows how to reward merits, so He knows how to punish sins. He gives life to those obedient to His name, and slays the rebellious; and in His confession, enduring in firm stability, it is safe for me to hold to the port of the eternal King, rather than to enter the death-dealing shipwreck of the raging devil.
B IV. When the judge saw that Saint Symphorianus did not offer service to his commands, he ordered him to be beaten by the lictors and consigned to prison; and when, after the days of remand had passed, he ordered him to be presented to his sight, the son of light was brought forth from the darkness; from that vestibule of a deadly dungeon, to live forever in eternity with the eternal King. The wasting of his flesh had loosened the tighter knots of his livid arms, and while he lifted his soul toward the joys of heaven with alacrity, it was no less a thing during his blessed sufferings to have shed his blood than to have poured it out. Then the judge said: "How much more rightly would you act, Symphorianus, if, serving the immortal gods, the splendor of a noble military career, rewarded from the public treasury, would raise you up. For unless today, prostrate on your knees, you shall adore the venerable image of the mother goddess; and unless you shall declare yourself a reverent worshiper of Apollo and Diana, the sublime divinities, you will without doubt perish. Wherefore, if you wish, we command you to deck the altars with garlands; fulfill sacrifices worthy of the gods with incense and fragrant odors." Symphorianus said: "A judge, to whom the public affairs are committed, ought not to pronounce sentence subject to the trivial chatter of words. If it is dangerous not to add something daily to the advancement of the soul, how much more dangerous is it, while departing from salvation, to be dashed to pieces in a shipwreck upon the crags of sin?"
V. The judge said: "Sacrifice to the gods, that you may be able to enjoy the honors of the palace." Symphorianus replied: "The judge pollutes his own tribunal who plays the brigand with the swords of the laws in public, and brings the death of perpetual calamity upon his own soul, and whose life is shredded by the curses of eternal disgrace. Why should we not fulfill by a vow the life which we are bound to pay to Christ by debt? C It is a late repentance to have feared when under the gaze of the judge. For your gifts, mixed with the sweetness of painted honey, produce poisons for falsely credulous minds; but our riches are always in Christ, which no perishable age corrupts through the decay of time itself. But your greed, while having all things, possesses nothing, which is delegated to diabolical... D our condition of human frailty, which is destined to fall, takes nothing away from us in this world. Your joys shatter like glass cracking at the splendor of the sun. Whatever the end destroys, misfortune involves, while greedy time cloaks the eternal whirling of the world. Our God alone claims beatitude. Antiquity, because it was not conscious of these things, does not know the beginning of this glory; an inveterate series of ages will not be able to know its end, because it will have none."
VI. The judge said: "For too long a time, Symphorianus, have I endured you disputing of I know not what greatness of Christ, in the exercise of my patience. Unless you sacrifice to the mother goddess, today I will cast you down, mangled by every torture, through the condemnation of a capital sentence." Symphorianus said: "I fear the almighty God who made me, and to Him alone I serve. You indeed have my body in your power for a time, but you do not have my soul. But now do not attend to your monstrous superstition in the worship of this idol which you adore to your own disgrace and destruction; in whose rites, castrated youths, exulting in an ill-omened image, strike against it, and you, sacrilegious priests, account this execrable crime a great sacrifice, so that what is a monstrous wickedness may be veiled by the pretext of religion. Where the drums and flutes give out a clamor, and they are inflated with the madness of fanatical fury, where the Corybantes strike their cymbals. But this Apollo of yours, who does not know that he was the shepherd of King Admetus by the river Amphrysus? Who, recalling the allurements of his own pleasures, delights in crowns of laurel wreaths. Where, through entangled ambiguities, in the bellowing cave of the tripod, he is said to have uttered true things where he had frequently deceived. The industrious study of the saints has also investigated Diana to be a meridian demon, who, running through the crossroads and traversing the hidden places of the forests, sows the thistles of tares in the unbelieving minds of men by the art of her wickedness, and obtained for herself the surname of Trivia, while she lies in wait at the crossroads." On the holy Symphorianus saying these things, the judge, incensed with fury, said: "Symphorianus is guilty of a public crime, who, refusing to sacrifice to our gods, has perpetrated the sacrilege of high treason, and has even inflicted injuries upon the holy altars; let him be struck by the avenging sword; so that while the grievous evils of the crime are cut away, the injury to the gods and likewise to the laws may be avenged."
VII. The sentence having been thus given, the blessed man of God was led to the victim. But his venerable mother, from...
A the wall, noted him and cautioned him with the voice, saying: "Son, son Symphorian, keep in mind the living God. Resume your constancy, my son. We cannot fear death, which without doubt leads to life. Suspend your heart upward, my son, look upon Him who reigns in the heavens. Today life is not taken from you, but is changed for the better. Today, my son, you shall migrate to the life above by a happy exchange." Thus the holy Symphorian, led outside the wall, was struck down by the executioner; suffused by the wave of his purple blood, he was secretly carried away from there by the faithful. VIII. Thus the martyr, carried to the fountain which is outside the public field, and buried there in a small cell, nevertheless always made himself known by his virtues, so that even to the pagans themselves, who were struck with wonder at his miracles and the benefits of his healings, he was held in the greatest honor at that time, not far from his basilica, which, through the highest zeal of the bishop of our church B adorned with the privilege of its own office and filled with the virtues of our patron the martyr Symphorian, he (who, while he triumphed over the devil, excluded the shipwrecks of a fleeting life) became a defender of his own fatherland, while he hastened toward the true fatherland; and he appeared as a tower of strength against the face of a resisting enemy, which he built by the shedding of his own blood. He raises up an impregnable wall by the aid of his own body as a mediator of perennial patronage, and grants innumerable healings through the power of his merits. Finally, through him, a clear way of mercy is opened to us before the Lord Jesus Christ, so that a happy entry may be opened into the fullness of all desires, our Lord Jesus Christ presiding, who is the life of all the saints without end, and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for all ages of ages. Amen.
III. ACTS OF THE SAINTS ANDOCHIUS, THYRSUS, AND FELIX, MARTYRS
At Sidolocus in the territory of Autun in Gaul. BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.
(Acta Sanctorum Bollandistarum, Sept. vol. VI, day 24, p. 663, from a very ancient manuscript codex of St. Benignus of Dijon.)
I. After the glorious Irenaeus, bishop and martyr, had migrated to heaven, appearing almost at the middle of the night with a terrible countenance, C with a peaceful shadow, coming with a multitude of martyrs to the holy Polycarp, he says: "Recognize your son, whom you trained, Father. Holy priest, recognize Irenaeus, who was D your minister." "Behold, we have received the promise which the King of heaven and earth promised to us. Our Redeemer has defrauded us of nothing of His promise. Hear, Father, the words of your son: now send two presbyters, that is, Andochius and Benignus, and Thyrsus the deacon, to the cities of the Gauls, men...
full of virtues and wisdom, whom a similar glorious triumph awaits; so that, because but a few Christians remain there, they may offer the grace of baptism. For let it be known to you, most holy Father, that that people, through the inspiration of the Lord, desires in great abundance to serve Christ." While he was speaking these things, just as he recognized Him, so too did the blessed martyrs in another room hear him, and see him in their sleep. But when he had spoken these things in his holy discourse, they returned to the heavens, chanting and rejoicing again; and in that room there prevailed such an odor of sweetness that they thought themselves placed among the wondrous scents of paradise. A
2. But when morning came, Saint Polycarp called his brothers to him, reporting to them what had happened, and bidding them happily to undertake the journey. Saint Andochius himself, and Benignus, and Thyrsus, filled with great joy at such a holy command of Christ, and in no way tardy in carrying out what they were bidden by the Lord's comfort, spent the night watching, giving thanks to God with psalms and hymns. Leading them as far as the little boat, Saint Polycarp bade them farewell, saying: "May the Angel of the Lord accompany you; may the Holy Spirit be in your inmost parts. A great, heavenly glory awaits you, O most pious brothers. Preach the Word of the Lord to the nations; announce the coming of Christ to all. O how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of peace! 10 You have many helpers and intercessors, who never cease to intercede with the Lord for you. Let not the harshness of a long journey trouble you, nor the distance of the region, nor let your heart be congealed by the longing for your parents. Let not the threats or the impiety of the most wicked Caesar trouble you. Let the saying of the blessed Apostle Paul be in your hearts: 'For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to the saints.' 11 Polycarp said: 'Say farewell to us, brothers'; and weeping, he said to them: 'May the glory of paradise and Christ receive you, bringing with you before His tribunal the fruit of your labor, and may He associate His athletes in that land of the happy and the just, where light remains and life reigns, where the blessed and beatified faith of the ancients radiates from the presence of His—that is, God's—living brightness; may the throng B of the paradise of the nursery and the candidate for the heavens enclose you.'"
3. And ascending into the boat, the wave of the sea quickly brought them to Massilia. Having thus emerged to land, they were directed toward the city of the Lugdunenses, and arriving at Saint Zacharias the presbyter, who was hiding secretly in a crypt among the sepulchers of the martyrs; and meditating with him upon the Word of the Lord, and rejoicing and hoping in Christ that He might direct their steps, they were directed by an angel's warning to the city of Augustodunum. There was at that time a most noble man of praetorian rank, Faustus, who (because of the threats of the most wicked Caesar) secretly worshipped Christ beneath his cloak; having heard of the blessed man's kindness and most full faith, they came to him, as the Angel had warned. When he had seen them, he welcomed them as one welcomes a heavenly treasure; and when he learned that they were presbyters, he supplicated them to grant the grace of baptism to all his friends and family. Therefore, when the most wicked Emperor Severus had died—by the death which he sought and found—and Aurelian had succeeded him, a man yet more wicked, who, as he had obtained the empire, so too had he obtained malice, he similarly everywhere ordered the Christians who had not sacrificed to idols to be worn down by diverse tortures throughout the various provinces, and to be finished by the sentence of the sword. But where there is the most full faith, it neither fears opposition power nor does it revere threats.
4. At that time there was a man of distinction, Faustus, who possessed a son about three years old, by the name of Symphorianus; whom he supplicated to consecrate with the grace of baptism. Rejoicing in this, Saint Benignus baptized him, and Andochius received him from the sacred font. This Symphorianus, filled with the Holy Spirit, when he was nearly twenty years old, merited to receive the glorious and unfading crown of martyrdom; for he always shone forth with virtues by obvious proof. Recently, in that very same time, all the friends and family of the house of Faustus had obtained the grace of baptism through these most blessed martyrs. In them was the wondrous power of Christ; they poured light into the eyes of the blind, they drove demons from possessed bodies, they restored health to the limbs of the weak. C D
A Now an illustrious man named Faustus possessed a sister of his own, a matron of the city of Langres, named Leonilla, whose young grandsons, born of his son—three children of very beautiful appearance, and even more beautiful of soul, namely Joseph, Eleusepphus, and Melasippus—he was instructing in the divine scriptures. They were full of grace, but there was no one present to provide the washing of baptism.
5. Then the most excellent man, Saint Benignus, the presbyter, sent them to the sister as if they were a precious pearl or a heavenly gift; Leonilla received them as if they were heavenly manna or a splendid pearl. Once this was done, these three twin brothers obtained the grace of baptism. Having received the Holy Spirit, when they were twenty-five years of age, they were seized by the persecutors. It is a long task to recount how great a punishment they suffered, but they received a victorious crown. They follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, [Apoc. xiv, 4] and the sincerity of the Lamb Himself crowned them with glorious gems; as their passion has more fully made clear. Which matron likewise consecrated all her house, of both sexes, condition, and age, with the grace of baptism through St. Benignus. The faithful of that most faithful house rejoiced in Christ, and an unambiguous and most full faith was strengthened in them. B Now Aurelian, a most iniquitous Caesar, was established in the farthest reaches of Gaul, and coming to the city of the Senones, data was given by him to all the prefects of the place, that whosoever professed themselves Christians should be macerated with diverse punishments and delivered to tortures; and whoever did not sacrifice to our gods, we command that they be brought to an end by the sword and by capital sentence.
6. Now there was a field belonging to a most noble man, whose name is Saulieu. While the holy Andochius and Thyrsus were coming fearlessly to the aforementioned house, which is on the public road, and were teaching everyone unto salvation by their preaching, a certain merchant residing in the same place, by name Felix, a Christian and an oriental man whose trade was daily distributed to the poor, received the presbyter St. Andochius and the deacon Thyrsus into his office. And when they demonstrated themselves to the people by virtues of manifest tradition, suddenly the Emperor Aurelian, coming from the city to the Senones, where he had approached the aforementioned house, ordered his tents to be pitched. One of the most cruel Caesar's doorkeepers, having entered the hospice of Felix, found the holy Andochius and Thyrsus preaching the word of Christ; he came back in a rage and reported that Christians were residing in the house of Felix. Hearing this, according to the custom of his rabies, he ordered them to be presented in his sight. Felix said to Andochius: "Do not suffer me to be separated from the crown of your piety, which you are about to receive from Christ, Father; but, helped by your prayers, lead me likewise to the precious crown of your martyrdom." And having made a prayer, they went intrepidly. C With their hands bound behind their backs, they were led into the sight of the most iniquitous Caesar.
"What manner of men are you? or what is your name? or what God do you wish to worship?" St. Andochius said: "We are oriental men, sent by our holy Father, Polycarp the bishop. We worship Christ, the creator of heaven, of the sea, and of the earth, and of all that is in them. My name is Andochius, my brethren's are Thyrsus and Felix." Aurelian said: "Have you come the distance of so long a journey to irritate our power and that of our gods and goddesses?" Andochius said: "We come warned by Christ, whose incorrupt word we preach to the nations." Aurelian said: "Have you not known in your regions, or in this province, that the authorities of our predecessor emperors and our own have decreed that those who do not sacrifice to our gods, we command that, afflicted with diverse punishments, they be brought to an end by the sentence of death?" St. Andochius said: "It is a crime, the God and creator...
of the stones and wood, of the mute and deaf idols, to abandon and worship them. Aurelian said: «Do you say that Jupiter, Mercury, and Saturn, who are most invincible, are mute and deaf?» Andochius said: «Those whom you name are proved manifest demons; for their form is perceived to be without sight, without gait, without touch.» A
8. Aurelian said: «Sacrifice to our gods, so that, rewarded from the public treasury, you may be the first in my palace; and do not die miserably for your Christ, who was crucified by men.» At this voice, these three cried out and said: «May your gold and silver be with you in perdition, you rapacious wolf; for you believe that you can buy off the gift of God with money. We would rather die for Christ than depart from Him, where there is more justice, than the sun, [and where we shall] shine in the kingdom of heaven; and to them there shall be eternal light and immortal life, and there shall be given to them there what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love Him.» For those who serve your gods will go into the outer darkness, into unquenchable fire, which has been prepared for your father the devil and his angels. There shall be their weeping and gnashing of teeth; they will desire light, and they shall not see it. For if you wish to believe in Christ, you will not enter [there]. Then the most iniquitous Caesar handed them over to torturers, saying: «If they do not sacrifice today, afflict them with diverse punishments.» Then the blessed martyrs were beaten B and suspended together with hands bound behind their backs upon an elm tree, and wheels loaded with stones were fastened to their feet.
9. And while they had endured such great sufferings for so long, they were psalm-singing, saying: «O God, attend to our aid; O Lord, hasten to help us.» And yet they were as sound as if they had not received a single blow. After these things, the most iniquitous Caesar ordered them to be presented to him on the following day, and said: «Sacrifice to our gods, you who, because of your disobedience, have suffered such punishment.» They answered him, saying: «Acknowledge, wretch, that your threats and torments offer us refreshment. Though beaten, we have not denied the Author of light; though suspended, we have ever confessed Christ. Look upon us; we stand unhurt before the sight of our God; for our Christ, whom you deny, has promised always to protect His servants.» Hearing these things, Aurelian ordered fire to be prepared; and when the fire was kindled, he said: «Either sacrifice to your gods, or I shall order you to be cast into the fire, with hands and feet tied.» At this, all three with one voice, and by C common consent crying out, said: «Behold the flesh, which you have in your power for a time. Do what your malice has dictated to the devil; strike, kill, roast, and eat; for you do not change us from the confession of Christ, who has also to cleanse your perfidy.»
10. And having kindled the fire, he ordered them to be cast into the fire with hands and feet tied; and suffering no harm from all the burning of the fire, their bonds being loosened, standing in the faith, they were singing psalms in the midst of the fire, saying: «You have proven us, O God; You have tested us with fire, as silver is tested; we have passed through fire and water, and You have brought us into a refreshment.» While these things were happening, such a thunder of heaven roared, and a rain shower descended upon the fire, so that no one would have estimated that fire had been kindled there. And they stood fearless and delivered in the presence of Aurelian, saying: «Acknowledge us, wretch; see how great is the power of Christ. You see us gather together again, unhurt in your presence. Believe in Christ, and you will not fear the necessity of that last day; because, as much as man is negligent in sinning, so much is the mercy of the Lord rich in forgiving.» Aurelian said: «Our gods assist you, and you say that you are defended by the aid of Christ.» Andochius said: «You have a heart of stone, so that you do not believe in the Creator of heaven and earth, nor in His wonders.»
11. Then the most impious Caesar, according to his madness, ordered their necks to be struck with rods in the same way, that they might thus end their precious and splendid temporal life, to receive the joys of eternity and an unfading crown. D These things were done concerning the holy martyrs of God, that is, Andochius the priest and Thyrsus the deacon, and Felix, on the eighth day before the Kalends of October. After these things, the Emperor Aurelian was directed to the city of Augustodunum. But Faustus, hearing that the devil had done such things against the holy martyrs of God in his field through the Emperor Aurelian, coming by night with his son Symphorianus, who was even then of the age of about fifteen, buried the holy martyrs of God, where the power of the Lord is daily declared by miracles. There shedding tears, S. Symphorianus, occupying himself in vigils and prayers, would not be removed from that place; until, by the help of the grace of Christ, perfected in the grace of God, and clothed in the breastplate of faith, he hastened to the crown of martyrdom, which he also deserved to receive, by the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and praise and glory and power with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
SAINT VICTOR I, POPE
NOTICE
(From the Liber Pontificalis of Pope Damasus, in Mansi, Concil. I, 698. — The notes and variant readings which the reader has in Patr. Lat. vol. CXXI, col. 1279, in the Collection of Anastasius the Librarian, are omitted.)
Victor, an African by birth, son of Felix, held the see for 10 years, 11 months, and 10 days. He lived in the times of Aelius Pertinax and Severus, from the fifth consulship of Commodus and Glabrio until [the consulship of] Lateranus and Rufinus. He decreed that the holy Pasch should be celebrated on a Sunday, as did Pius. He created the following clergy. He was crowned with martyrdom. And he decreed that if necessity should arise, wherever any person coming from the Gentiles might be found, whether in a river, or in the sea, or in a spring, or in a pond, he should be baptized; provided the confession of Christian belief was declared, he was rendered a full Christian. And he held a council. And, having held a consultation with the presbyters and deacons, and having called [in] Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, he decreed that from the thirteenth moon of the first month until the twenty-first, the holy Pasch should be kept on a Sunday. He performed two ordinations in the month of December: four presbyters, seven deacons, and twelve bishops for diverse places. He was buried near the body of the blessed Peter in the Vatican, on the fifth of the Kalends of August. The episcopate was vacant for 11 days.
CONCERNING SAINT VICTOR, POPE AND MARTYR OF ROME
CHRONOLOGICAL-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY
(Acta SS. Bolland., July vol. VI, day 28, p. 534.)
§ I. The day of Saint Victor’s commemoration, his age, or the duration of his see.
1. Just as we have clear monuments from sacred rosters concerning the sanctity and veneration of Pope S. Victor, his deeds, the time of his see, the day of his death, and almost everything surrounding him are thorny and controversial. Regarding his veneration, there are indeed consistent testimonies from Martyrologies, in which he is frequently asserted to have been a martyr, whatever some may wish to cast into doubt regarding this laurel. But there is much controversy about the day of his death since Florentinius, about which Henschenius, Papebrochius, and others among them have debated long ago; and we therefore touched upon the difficulties in our first observation on Usuard, [the date of] 20 April, on which day, notably, a certain Bishop Victor is commemorated in the Hieronymian codices as having suffered at Rome with three companions. Henschenius did not wish this Victor to be the pope, as others, along with Papebrochius, held the opposite opinion; not that it matters much on which day his memory is honored, but because of the various reasons to which individuals considered more suitable for constructing a series of pontiffs, inasmuch as the duration of his pontificate is so involved and intertwined that, up to now, no one has been found who could place it beyond controversy, as will be more clearly manifest below.
2. A certain author assigned the day of his death or veneration, 20 April, as far as I know, to the *Parvum Romanum*, with these words: “At Rome, of Victor, bishop and martyr,” whom it is not surprising to have had as followers Ado, Usuard, and Notker, with all their progeny. Ado’s entry has it thus: “At Rome, of the holy Bishop Victor, who reigned as the thirteenth after the blessed Peter for ten years, and was crowned with martyrdom under the prince Severus.” Usuard received all these things from him, save for an error which he corrected, when he more rightly asserted him to have been the fifteenth in order. From all these same accounts, copied word for word from Ado, Notker added from another source to the previously mentioned 20th of April in this manner: “He decreed that the holy Pasch should be celebrated on a Sunday, and that it should be observed from the fifteenth moon of the first month up to the twenty-first, whereas until then it was celebrated on the sixth day of the Kalends of April, without any distinction of day: namely, by some Asian bishops, who refused to conform themselves to the Roman rite, as the Brussels Usuardian codex, cited there among the addenda, explains more clearly—which we shall endeavor to explain in § 3 of this commentary.”
3. Whatever follows in Notker is taken from Rabanus, and he repeats the same thing, in the same way that he had written it, in a diverse defle—
xion. From genuine metrical Bede, or Florus published under his name by our ancestors, absolutely nothing is extracted whence a true natal day might be established, so that it must be clearly concluded that Rabanus was the first of all the martyrologists who celebrated the memory of St. Victor on this 28th day of July, with this plain phrasing: “At Rome, of Victor, Pope and martyr, who ordained in the Church that, if necessity arose, where one was found, whether in a river, or in a fountain, or in the sea, provided the confession of Christian faith had been declared, any person whatever coming from the Gentiles might be baptized; and he is buried near the body of the Blessed Apostle in the Vatican”; which items have been drawn from some pontifical catalogue. And so much for the more ancient martyrologies: who among the expanders of Usuard was the first to follow Rabanus in this part is not easy for me to define, nor has Baronius ever indicated from what codex he took it himself: I shall not, however, fear to opine that Belinus suggested to him the whole current announcement concerning St. Victor. Furthermore, that St. Victor is honored with Nazarius, Celsus, and Innocent, in the semi-double rite, is most well-known from the Roman Breviary. A
4. There follows the most complex point, which I mentioned, concerning the saint’s age or rather the duration of his see; in defining which, after inspecting many writers not sluggishly, and weighing everything, I think that the rest can be reduced to two primary opinions; the one which seems to follow Eusebius’s calculations in any way, the other which judges that the pontifical catalogues are to be preferred; yet so that neither do the followers of the former opinion agree among themselves, nor those of the latter, as they all go off in different directions, as if with studied intent. Learned men know that Eusebius is by no means a secure guide in ordering the chronology of Roman pontiffs; and that he is inconsistent on this very point of controversy, I shall make you understand through his own words. Behold the very beginning from his book V, chap. 22: “Meanwhile, while Commodus was in the tenth year of his reign (for them this is most certainly the year of Christ 189), when Eleutherus had administered the episcopate for thirteen years, Victor succeeded in his place.” Concerning Victor, however, the same chapter 28 has this: “Who, when he had administered the priesthood for ten years, Zephyrinus was substituted for him as successor, in the ninth year of the reign of Severus, which is the year of Christ 201,” so that it must be that St. Victor held the see not just for ten years, but for twelve in all, if Eusebius speaks consistently. B
5. Just hear how Cardinal Baronius writes in his *Annals* concerning the duration of St. Victor’s pontificate: “In the year of our Lord 203, in the consulship of Annius Fabianus and Nonius Mucanus, on July 28, Pope Victor, having already begun the tenth year of his pontificate, for one month and twenty-eight days, is crowned with martyrdom.” By whom these consuls, or these determined years, month, and days were suggested to Baronius, I have no source from which to conjecture; I seem able to gather that he did not depart very far from the opinion of Eusebius; but Labbeus adheres to him more closely in his *Chronological Compendium*, when in the ninth year of Severus he places the end of Victor, referring his beginning to the year 192, and circumscribing the whole pontificate to nine years. There is an observation entirely different from this in the collection of councils by Severinus Binius regarding his chronological notes; I would dare to say that all who have read these on that subject are discordant. Consult, I pray, all the other followers of the Eusebian calculations together with Tillemont, and the more recent most learned Constantius in the letters of Roman pontiffs published by him, page 91; I promise that you will discover that, as is commonly said, there are as many diverse combinations as there are heads.
6. But I am much mistaken, or those who recur to the pontifical catalogues or pontifical books think a little more correctly, although a discrepancy not dissimilar to the former intervenes here, while our chronologists struggle to adapt the texts they have cited to a series of pontiffs fixed by themselves, by twisting the neck not a little. Between those two catalogues that Henschenius illustrated before our volume I of April, the second is more distinct than the other; which is commonly attributed to Damasus, and has it in these express terms: “Victor, an African by nation, from his father Felix, sat for ten years, two months, ten days. He was in the times of [Commodus, Pertinax and Severus] Caesar, from the consulship of Commodus V and Glabrio, up to Lateranus and Rufinus”; where, although the praised Henschenius acknowledges some things are disturbed, that is beyond controversy in relation to the present question, and that the years, and months, and days are thus noted in other copies; and no less certain and everywhere conformable is the expression of the consuls, for the entry to the see, Commodus V and Glabrio, for the exit, Lateranus and Rufinus; which computation Henschenius certainly prefers to the rest, remarkably confirmed by many catalogues in the great recent and elegant edition of Anastasius the Librarian, soon to be examined more by us. C
7. I repeat, in the words already cited, two things are generally admitted, at least by those who insist on the catalogues; these must be admitted; first, that St. Victor began to sit from the consulship of Commodus IX and Glabrio, which is most manifestly the year 186, and that he departed from the living under the consulship of Lateranus and Rufinus in the year 197; second, that he sat for ten years, two months, ten days, which twelve codices, cited by the most illustrious Blanchinus in the aforementioned edition of Anastasius, volume II in the Prolegomena page 93, most constantly attribute to him. The distinguished man saw these, Pagius saw most of them, Papebrochius saw our copies, and many others saw them, whose names there is no need to relate here; and nevertheless I dare to demand that, among all these, you assign me even two who conclude the years, or months, or days of the duration of Victor’s pontificate in the same way. To begin with Papebrochius, behold his computation: “Ordained on September 11 on a Sunday, in the year 186, sat 10 years, 7 months, 10 days, deposed on April 20 of the year 197, translated to St. Peter in the Vatican on July 27; and the episcopate ceased for 13 months, 21 days.” But concerning the cessations or interpontificates, both of the predecessor and the successor— D
A he brings forward causes not to be despised, which can be seen by him and by Henschenius under the date of April 26.
8. Notwithstanding all this, Antonius Pagius has entered upon a path completely different in his *Crisi Baroniana*, from whose opinions his nephew Franciscus has not receded in his *Breviary*, or in his uncle’s *Crisi* abridged in the order of the pontiffs. He brings forward the words from the catalogues already cited, and the Palatine codex, which is in full agreement with the others, as well as the catalogue of apostolic names, in which for two months only one is read; then indeed, pronouncing after his own fashion, having in a way trampled upon all authorities, he definitively determines the matter: “Truly,” he says, “since in the death of Eleutherius we have placed the beginning of Victor on June 12, 185 (by mere whim, indeed), it is clear that Victor sat for 12 years, 1 month, 16 days, to be reckoned from the day on which he began to sit, until the day on which he was buried.” Thus, indeed, does Pagius believe that he has correctly ordered his hypothesis, or the pontifical series, while meanwhile he demolishes or distorts all chronological notes at will; for he neither insists upon the designated consuls, nor does he care for the years, months, or days of the catalogues, nor does he admit of interpontificates, finding scarcely a few days in which the see remained vacant.
9. The illustrious Blanchinus believes himself to have accomplished (or settled) a bit more, while among his notes on p. 157, he changes the text of our second catalogue given above in this manner: “Victor sat for 12 years, 10 days; he was in the times of Commodus and Severus, from the consulship of Commodus V and Glabrio, until Lateranus and Rufinus.” He attempts to prove this from p. 156 with the same arguments that confirm the series arranged by himself, having deserted the characters of the catalogues, which nevertheless seem to be preserved inviolate here, if we wish for anything to be established by their authority. It is displeasing, therefore, in him just as much as in Pagius, that for the consuls of the year 186 which are most expressly signified—namely, as we have already inculcated, Commodus V and Glabrio—they roundly thrust upon it the prior year, 185, about which the catalogues did not even dream, as if it were certain that St. Eleutherius died in that year on May 26, and that St. Victor succeeded him after a very few intervening days, which is manifestly to infringe the catalogues; B while these stand, it is absolutely necessary to set the beginning of St. Victor not at the year 185 but at the following year 186, and since Eleutherius ceased to live in the preceding one, in no way to reject some cessation. Certainly, if you wish to keep the principal characters of the catalogues intact, no safer way can be devised.
10. I confess, indeed, that there is no way at all that the Roman Martyrology can be combined with the catalogues, nor is there an approach closer to them than by adhering to those things which Henschenius set forth previously in the account of Eleutherius under May 31, and which Papebrochius arranged above. Let it be determined, therefore, as Henschenius shows there from the Hieronymian codices, that St. Eleutherius died in the consulship of Maternus and Bradua, in the year 185, on the 8th before the Ides, or September 6; and that St. Victor succeeded him first after a full year’s interpontificate, in 186, on September 14, under the consuls Commodus V and Glabrio; and let him have died under another consular note, 197, or April 20 according to the opinion of Papebrochius, so that he sat for 10 years, 7 months, and 10 days, or, if you prefer, before July 28, and let him have sat for ten years, ten months, and eighteen days; which calculation, even if it fails in the designated months and days, preserves the principal substance, so that the marked consuls are saved; but the times of the pontificate should be restricted not to twelve, as Pagius first dared, but to only ten years with the principal chronologers of both classes. Those things which could be objected here will be found abundantly answered by Henschenius and Papebrochius in their proper places. But if this method of explaining and composing the controversy is less pleasing, it is right for you to prefer that which you recognize as more likely.
§ II. Various acts and writings of St. Victor.
11. Beyond what has already been recited, from the second Henschenian catalogue, whether it be Damasus’s pontifical one or that of anyone else, concerning which there has been dispute among the learned for so long—from this, I say, Catalogue those things are to be added here which we have pointed out were in part contracted in Rabanus and Notker, and which are deduced there in this manner: “He ordained that Easter should be celebrated on Sunday, just as Pius. C He made the following clergy: he is crowned with martyrdom. He ordained that out of necessity, wherever he had been found, whether in the sea, or in a spring or pond (provided that the intent of belief was declared by Christian confession), every man coming from paganism should be made a complete Christian so that he might be baptized. He held a council and an interrogation was made concerning Easter, or concerning the first day with Theophilus bishop of Caesarea regarding the moon. He performed two ordinations, four presbyters, five deacons, twelve bishops in various places; who was buried near the body of St. Peter on the 5th before the Kalends of August and the episcopate ceased for eleven days.” Henschenius noted, among other errors, that the Theophilus cited therein was written as being of Alexandria, who certainly was of Caesarea in Palestine.
12. How many things, moreover, are obscured and corrupted by the carelessness of copyists, it is clearer than that they should be observed by me here, or restored, from which, however, I would not shrink, were it not that Holstenius, Ciampinus, Schelstratius and others, and most recently the illustrious Blanchinus, had already offered the text of Anastasius the Librarian, explained by various notes and variant readings, similar enough to this one, so that that material has long since been exhausted. Let us listen now to Anastasius himself: “Victor, by nation an African, from his father Felix,” etc., as above in the Notice from the Book of the Pontiffs. However much these things may be confused and involved, things which have exercised the wits of critics, from them nevertheless the more brilliant D acts of the holy pontiff should be elicited, while meanwhile scarcely a few are recounted, so that for so long [they have been] by Baronius…
Labbe, and very many most learned men of the preceding century, [they] have been illustrated from elsewhere; what here is the first and chief thing, is with such diligence and accuracy, that having only culled a few chapters here and there, he has woven together the whole series of his deeds, having rejected into the following paragraph A the very heated controversy with some Asiatic bishops concerning the celebration of Easter.
14. Among the primary struggles, which are everywhere attributed to the holy pontiff against the heresies emerging at that time, that one is certainly worthy of commemoration, which he stoutly undertook and gloriously carried out against Theodotus, surnamed the Currier, the Byzantine apostate, as we shall endeavor to draw from Eusebius himself and likewise from Epiphanius, ancient and pure sources, intending to remand readers for a longer and clearer elucidation of all these matters to those excellent commentaries, already long since prepared on this whole affair. To this pertains primarily chapter 28 of book V of the [b] *Ecclesiastical History*, where, when he discourses accurately «concerning those who at the beginning followed the heresy of Artemon, what kind of morals they were possessed of, and how they dared to deprave the sacred Scriptures,» and also excellently refutes the enormous calumny against St. Victor, he declares not obscurely what is to be thought of Theodotus, the master of the entire error. Here is a specimen from the book or narrative of that time, in which the impious lies of those sectarians are recorded and convicted. Thus Eusebius narrates there:
15. «For they affirm,» he says, «that all the ancients, and the apostles themselves, both received and taught the things which are now said by them; and that the truth of the preaching was preserved until the times of Victor, who was the thirteenth bishop of the city of Rome from Peter; but that from the times of Zephyrinus, who succeeded Victor, the truth was adulterated.» And perhaps that which they say might seem credible, if they were not gainsaid first by the divine Scriptures, and then by the writings of certain brothers, older than the age of Victor, which they wrote against the Gentiles and against the heretics of their own time for the defense of the truth: I mean Justin, and Miltiades, and Tatian and Clement, and very many others: in the books of all of whom the divinity of Christ is established. For who is ignorant of the writings of Irenaeus and Melito and the rest, in which they preached Christ as God at the same time as man? The psalms also and the canticles of the brothers, long since composed by the faithful, celebrate Christ the Word of God, attributing divinity to Him. Since therefore ecclesiastical doctrine has been preached for so many years, how can it be that all, even up to the times of Victor, have promulgated that doctrine which these men speak of? How are they not ashamed to concoct such a calumny against Victor, when they know for certain that Theodotus the Currier, who was the parent and author of that defection of denying God, and who first asserted that Christ was a C mere man, was driven from the communion of the Church by Victor? For if, as they say, Victor felt the same things as their impiety teaches, why did he remove Theodotus, the author of that opinion, from the Church? And concerning Victor thus the matter stands.
16. That which some might perhaps desire in order at that whole madness of Theodotus, Epiphanius will supply abundantly, from whom it will be enough for us to recount the person, whom he graphically depicts in heresy 54, in these words: «Theodotus, therefore, that man born at Byzantium, which is today called Constantinople, was a currier by trade, a man excellently learned in letters. Who, together with many others, having been captured at the beginning of the persecution (what indeed that persecution was I have not yet discovered), but at that time seized by the prefect of the city with many others, when a question was being held about all concerning the name of Christ, the rest indeed of the servants of God, having brought back the victory, attained the heavenly reward, having finished their martyrdom for Christ. But he, denying Christ, and falling from the scope of truth, became a transgressor. On which account, when he was attacked with the reproach of all, and could not endure the shame, having left his country, a fugitive he hastened to Rome, and there resided. But even at Rome, being recognized by someone, he fell into the same ignominy, when those who knew him for his remarkable learning accused him for that reason, that a man possessed of excellent doctrine had fallen away from the truth. Wherefore for his own excuse he invented a vain dogma, and thus began to boast: I, he says, did not deny God, but man. Being asked, what man after all? Christ, he says, I denied as man. Thence he took the occasion for preaching this false opinion, so that the Theodotians, of whom he stood forth as the author, assert that Christ is a mere man, and born of human seed,» etc.
17. Moreover, the Synod held against this impious man is indicated in the penultimate place in the Labbean Collection, volume 1, col. 602: «A divine and sacred provincial Synod, gathered at Rome under the most holy Pope Victor and fourteen other bishops; which condemned Theodotus, Ebion, and Artemon, who were no less than Jews in faith. For these were the leaders of Paul of Samosata and Nestorius.» The rest are so explained in the *Annals* by Baronius at the year 196 and elsewhere, that it suffices to have touched upon them here according to our plan. Nor indeed were only those monsters rampant in the Church of Christ, otherwise sufficiently afflicted during those times, as you will find in the already noted year under number 17. «But again concerning others,» he says, «who came forth under Victor, heretics and their author Praxeas, Tertullian has these things in the last place: But after all these, a certain Praxeas also introduced a heresy, which Victorinus D took pains to corroborate. This man says that Jesus Christ is God the Father Almighty, and contends that He was crucified and suffered, furthermore that He died, and besides He places Himself sitting at His own right hand, with a profane and sacrilegious authority.» These things Tertullian in the commentary which he wrote against the heresies,