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TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 01 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 21.02.27 Book V Part 2
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56 And, after the scourging, after the wild beasts, after the roasting seat,hyperlink she was finally enclosed in a net, and thrown before a bull. And having been tossed about by the animal, but feeling none of the things which were happening to her, on account of her hope and firm hold upon what had been entrusted to her, and her communion with Christ, she also was sacrificed. And the heathen themselves confessed that never among them had a woman endured so many and such terrible tortures.
57 "But not even thus was their madness and cruelty toward the saints satisfied. For, incited by the Wild Beast, wild and barbarous tribes were not easily appeased, and their violence found another peculiar opportunity in the dead bodieshyperlink
58 For, through their lack of manly reason, the fact that they had been conquered did not put them to shame, but rather the more enkindled their wrath as that of a wild beast, and aroused alike the hatred of governor and people to treat us unjustly; that the Scripture might be fulfilled: `He that is lawless, let him be lawless still, and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still.'hyperlink
59 For they cast to the dogs those who had died of suffocation in the prison, carefully guarding them by night and day, lest any one should be buried by us. And they exposed the remains left by the wild beasts and by fire, mangled and charred, and placed the heads of the others by their bodies, and guarded them in like manner from burial by a watch of soldiers for many days.
60 And some raged and gnashed their teeth against them, desiring to execute more severe vengeance upon them; but others laughed and mocked at them, magnifying their own idols, and imputed to them the punishment of the Christians. Even the more reasonable, and those who had seemed to sympathize somewhat, reproached them often, saying, `Where is their God, and what has their religion, which they have chosen rather than life, profited them?'
61 So various was their conduct toward us; but we were in deep affliction because we could not bury the bodies. For neither did night avail us for this purpose, nor did money persuade, nor entreaty move to compassion; but they kept watch in every way, as if the prevention of the burial would be of some great advantage to them."
In addition, they say after other things:
62 "The bodies of the martyrs, having thus in every manner been exhibited and exposed for six days, were afterward burned and reduced to ashes, and swept into the Rhone by the wicked men, so that no trace of them might appear on the earth.
63 And this they did, as if able to conquer God, and prevent their new birth; `that,' as they said, `they may have no hope of a resurrection,hyperlink through trust in which they bring to us this foreign and new religion, and despise terrible things, and are ready even to go to death with joy. Now let us see if they will rise again, and if their God is able to help them, and to deliver them out of our hands.'"
Chapter II. The Martyrs, Beloved of God, Kindly Ministered Unto Those Who Fell in the Persecution.
1 Such things happened to the churches of Christ under the above-mentioned emperor,hyperlink from which we may reasonably conjecture the occurrences in the other provinces. It is proper to add other selections from the same letter, in which the moderation and compassion of these witnesses is recorded in the following words:
2 "They were also so zealous in their imitation of Christ,-`who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God,'hyperlink -that, though they had attained such honor, and had borne witness, not once or twice, but many times,-having been brought back to prison from the wild beasts, covered with burns and scars and wounds,-yet they did not proclaim themselves witnesses, nor did they suffer us to address them by this name. If any one of us, in letter or conversation, spoke of them as witnesses, they rebuked him sharply.
3 For they conceded cheerfully the appellation of Witness to Christ `the faithful and true Witness,'hyperlink and `firstborn of the dead,'hyperlink and prince of the life of God;hyperlink and they reminded us of the witnesses who had already departed, and said, `They are already witnesses whom Christ has deemed worthy to be taken up in their confession, having sealed their testimony by their departure; but we are lowly and humble confessors.'hyperlink And they besought the brethren with tears that earnest prayers should be offered that they might be made perfect.hyperlink
4 They showed in their deeds the power of `testimony,' manifesting great boldness toward all the brethren, and they made plain their nobility through patience and fearlessness and courage, but they refused the title of Witnesses as distinguishing them from their brethren,hyperlink being filled with the fear of God."
5 A little further on they say: "They humbled themselves under the mighty hand, by which they are now greatly exalted.hyperlink They defended all,hyperlink but accused none. They absolved all, but bound none.hyperlink And they prayed for those who had inflicted cruelties upon them, even as Stephen, the perfect witness, `Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.'hyperlink But if he prayed for those who stoned him, how much more for the brethren!"
6 And again after mentioning other matters, they say:
"For, through the genuineness of their love, their greatest contest with him was that the Beast, being choked, might cast out alive those whom he supposed he had swallowed. For they did not boast over the fallen, but helped them in their need with those things in which they themselves abounded, having the compassion of a mother, and shedding many tears on their account before the Father.
7 They asked for life, and he gave it to them, and they shared it with their neighbors. Victorious over everything, they departed to God. Having always loved peace, and having commended peace to ushyperlink they went in peace to God, leaving no sorrow to their mother, nor division or strife to the brethren, but joy and peace and concord and love."
8 This record of the affection of those blessed ones toward the brethren that had fallen may be profitably added on account of the inhuman and unmerciful disposition of those who, after these events, acted unsparingly toward the members of Christ.hyperlink
Chapter III. The Vision Which Appeared in a Dream to the Witness Attalus.
1 The same letter of the above-mentioned witnesses contains another account worthy of remembrance. No one will object to our bringing it to the knowledge of our readers. It runs as follows: "For a certain Alcibiades,hyperlink who was one of them, led a very austere life, partaking of nothing whatever but bread and water. When he endeavored to continue this same sort of life in prison, it was revealed to Attalus after his first conflict in the amphitheater that Alcibiades was not doing well in refusing the creatures of God and placing a stumbling-block before others.
3 And Alcibiades obeyed, and partook of all things without restraint, giving thanks to God. For they were not deprived of the grace of God, but the Holy Ghost was their counselor." Let this suffice for these matters.
4 The followers of Montanus,hyperlink Alcibiadeshyperlink and Theodotushyperlink in Phrygia were now first giving wide circulation to their assumption in regard to prophecy,-for the many other miracles that, through the gift of God, were still wrought in the different churches caused their prophesying to be readily credited by many,-and as dissension arose concerning them, the brethren in Gaul set forth their own prudent and most orthodox judgment in the matter, and published also several epistles from the witnesses that had been put to death among them. These they sent, while they were still in prison, to the brethren throughout Asia and Phrygia, and also to Eleutherus,hyperlink who was then bishop of Rome, negotiating for the peace of the churches.hyperlink
Chapter IV. Irenaeus Commended by the Witnesses in a Letter.
1 The same witnesses also recommended Irenaeus,hyperlink who was already at that time a presbyter of the parish of Lyons, to the above-mentioned bishop of Rome, saying many favorable things in regard to him, as the following extract shows:
2 "We pray, father Eleutherus, that you may rejoice in God in all things and always. We have requested our brother and comrade Irenaeus to carry this letter to you, and we ask you to hold him in esteem, as zealous for the covenant of Christ. For if we thought that office could confer righteousness upon any one, we should commend him among the first as a presbyter of the church, which is his position."
3 Why should we transcribe the catalogue of the witnesses given in the letter already mentioned, of whom some were beheaded, others cast to the wild beasts, and others fell asleep in prison, or give the number of confessorshyperlink still surviving at that time? For whoever desires can readily find the full account by consulting the letter itself, which, as I have said, is recorded in our Collection of Martyrdoms.hyperlink Such were the events which happened under Antoninus.hyperlink
Chapter V. God Sent Rain from Heaven for Marcus Aurelius Caesar in Answer to the Prayers of Our People.
1 It is reportedhyperlink that Marcus Aurelius Caesar, brother of Antoninus,hyperlink being about to engage in battle with the Germans and Sarmatians, was in great trouble on account of his army suffering from thirst.hyperlink But the soldiers of the so-called Melitene legion,hyperlink through the faith which has given strength from that time to the present, when they were drawn up before the enemy, kneeled on the ground, as is our custom in prayer,hyperlink and engaged in supplications to God.
2 This was indeed a strange sight to the enemy, but it is reportedhyperlink that a stranger thing immediately followed. The lightning drove the enemy to flight and destruction, but a shower refreshed the army of those who had called on God, all of whom had been on the point of perishing with thirst.
3 This story is related by non-Christian writers who have been pleased to treat the times referred to, and it has also been recorded by our own people.hyperlink By those historians who were strangers to the faith, the marvel is mentioned, but it is not acknowledged as an answer to our prayers. But by our own people, as friends of the truth, the occurrence is related in a simple and artless manner.
4 Among these is Apolinarius,hyperlink who says that from that time the legion through whose prayers the wonder took place received from the emperor a title appropriate to the event, being called in the language of the Romans the Thundering Legion.
5 Tertullian is a trustworthy witness of these things. In the Apology for the Faith, which he addressed to the Roman Senate, and which work we have already mentioned,hyperlink he confirms the history with greater and stronger proofs.
6 He writeshyperlink that there are still extant lettershyperlink of the most intelligent Emperor Marcus in which he testifies that his army, being on the point of perishing with thirst in Germany, was saved by the prayers of the Christians. And he says also that this emperor threatened deathhyperlink to those who brought accusation against us.
7 He adds further:hyperlink
"What kind of laws are those which impious, unjust, and cruel persons use against us alone? which Vespasian, though he had conquered the Jews, did not regard;hyperlink which Trajan partially annulled, forbidding Christians to be sought after;hyperlink which neither Adrian,hyperlink though inquisitive in all matters, nor he who was called Piushyperlink sanctioned." But let any one treat these things as he chooses;hyperlink we must pass on to what followed.
8 Pothinus having died with the other martyrs in Gaul at ninety years of age,hyperlink Irenaeus succeeded him in the episcopate of the church at Lyons.hyperlink We have learned that, in his youth, he was a hearer of Polycarp.hyperlink
9 In the third book of his work Against Heresies he has inserted a list of the bishops of Rome, bringing it down as far as Eleutherus (whose times we are now considering), under whom he composed his work. He writes as follows:hyperlink
Footnotes
44 thganon: literally, "frying-pan," by which, however, is evidently meant the instrument of torture spoken of already more than once in this chapter as an iron seat or chair.
45 The Christians were very solicitous about the bodies of the martyrs, and were especially anxious to give them decent burial, and to preserve the memory of their graves as places of peculiar religious interest and sanctity. They sometimes went even to the length of bribing the officials to give them the dead bodies (cf. §61, below).
46 Rev. xxii. 11. The citation of the Apocalypse at this date as Scripture (ina h grafh plhrwqh) is noteworthy.
47 These words show us how much emphasis the Christians of that day must have laid upon the resurrection of the body (an emphasis which is abundantly evident from other sources), and in what a sensuous and material way they must have taught the doctrine, or at least how unguarded their teaching must have been, which could lead the heathen to think that they could in the slightest impede the resurrection by such methods as they pursued. The Christians, in so far as they laid so much emphasis as they did upon the material side of the doctrine, and were so solicitous about the burial of their brethren, undoubtedly were in large part responsible for this gross misunderstanding on the part of the heathen.
48 Namely, Antoninus Verus (in reality Marcus Aurelius, but wrongly distinguished by Eusebius from him), mentioned above in the Introduction. Upon Eusebius' separation of Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Verus, see below, p. 390, note.
49 Phil. ii. 6.
50 Rev. iii. 14.
51 Rev. i. 5.
52 arxhgw thj zwhj tou qeou. Cf. Rev. iii. 14.
53 omologoi. The regular technical term for "confessor," which later came into general use, was omologhthj.
54 teleiwqhnai; i.e be made perfect by martyrdom. For this use of teleiow, see below, Bk. V1. chap. 3, §13, and chap. 5, §1; also Bk. VII. chap. 15, §5, and see Suicer's Thesaurus, s.v.
55 proj touj adelfouj.
56 Compare 1 Pet. v. 6.
57 pasi men apologounto. Rufinus translates placabant omnes; Musculus, omnibus rationem fidei suae reddebant; Valesius, omnium defensionem suscipiebant, though he maintains in a note that the rendering of Musculus, or the translation omnibus se excusabant, is more correct. It is true that pasi apologounto ought strictly to mean "apologized to all" rather than "for all," the latter being commonly expressed by the use of uper with the genitive (see the lexicons s.v. apologeomai). At the same time, though it may not be possible to produce any other examples of the use of the dative, instead of uper with the genitive, after apologeomai, it is clear from the context that it must be accepted in the present case.
58 The question of the readmission of the lapsed had not yet become a burning one. The conduct of the martyrs here in absolving (eluon) those who had shown weakness under persecution is similar to that which caused so much dispute in the Church during and after the persecution of Decius. See below, Bk. VI. chap. 43, note 1.
59 Acts vii. 60.
60 hmin, which is found in four important mss. and in Nicephorus, and is supported by Rufinus and adopted by Stephanus, Stroth, Burton, and Zimmermann. The majority of the mss., followed by all the other editors, including Heinichen, read aei.
61 Eusebius refers here to the Novatians, who were so severe in their treatment of the lapsed, and who in his day were spread very widely and formed an aggressive and compact organization (see below, Bk. VI. chap. 43, note 1).
62 Of this Alcibiades we know only what is told us in this connection. Doubtless Eusebius found this extract very much to his taste, for we know that he was not inclined to asceticism. The enthusiastic spirit of the Lyons Christians comes out strongly in the extract, and considerable light is thrown by it upon the state of the Church there. Imprisoned confessors were never permitted to suffer for want of food and the other comforts of life so long as their brethren were allowed access to them. Compare e.g. Lucian's Peregrinus Proteus.
63 On Montanus and the Montanists, see below, chap. 16 sq.
64 Of this Montanist Alcibiades we know nothing. He is, of course, to be distinguished from the confessor mentioned just above. The majority of the editors of Eusebius substitute his name for that of Miltiades in chap. 16, below, but the mss. all read Miltiadhn, and the emendation is unwarranted (see chap. 16, note 7). Salmon suggests that we should read Miltiades instead of Alcibiades in the present passage, supposing that the latter may have crept in through a copyist's error, under the influence of the name Alcibiades mentioned just above. Such an error is possible, but not probable (see chap. 16, note 7).
65 Of the Montanist Theodotus we know only what is told us here and in chap. 16, below (see that chapter, note 25).
66 On Eleutherus, see above, Bk. V. Introd. note 2.
67 It is commonly assumed that the Gallic martyrs favored the Montanists and exhorted Eleutherus to be mild in his judgment of them, and to preserve the peace of the Church by permitting them to remain within it and enjoy fellowship with other Christians. But Salmon (in the Dict. of Christian Biog. III. p. 937) has shown, in my opinion conclusively, that the Gallic confessors took the opposite side, and exhorted Eleutherus to confirm the Eastern Church in its condemnation of the Montanists, representing to him that he would threaten the peace of the Church by refusing to recognize the justice of the decision of the bishops of the East and by setting himself in opposition to them. Certainly, with their close connection with Asia Minor, we should expect the Gallic Christians to be early informed of the state of affairs in the East, and it is not difficult to think that they may have formed the same opinion in regard to the new prophecy which the majority of their brethren there had formed. The decisive argument for Salmon's opinion is the fact that Eusebius calls the letter of the Lyons confessors to Eleutherus "pious and most orthodox." Certainly, looking upon Montanism as one of the most execrable of heresies and as the work of Satan himself (cf. his words in chap. 16, below), it is very difficult to suppose that he can have spoken of a letter written expressly in favor of the Montanists in any such terms of respect. Salmon says: "It is monstrous to imagine that Eusebius, thinking thus of Montanism, could praise as pious or orthodox the opinion of men who, ignorant of Satan's devices, should take the devil's work for God's. The way in which we ourselves read the history is that the Montanists had appealed to Rome; that the Church party solicited the good offices of their countrymen settled in Gaul, who wrote to Eleutherus representing the disturbance to the peace of the churches (a phrase probably preserved by Eusebius from the letter itself) which would ensue if the Roman Church should approve what the Church on the spot had condemned. ...To avert, then, the possibility of the calamity of a breach between the Eastern and Western churches, the Gallic churches, it would appear, not only wrote, but sent Irenaeus to Rome at the end of 177 or the beginning of 178. The hypothesis here made relieves us from the necessity of supposing this presbeia to have been unsuccessful, while it fully accounts for the necessity of sending it."
68 On Irenaeus, see above, Bk. IV. chap. 21, note 9.
69 omologhtwn. Eusebius here uses the common technical term for confessors; i.e. for those who had beefi faithful and had suffered in persecution, but had not lost their lives. In the epistle of the churches of Lyons and Vienne, the word omologoi is used to denote the same persons (see above, chap. 2, note 6).
70 Cf. §2 of the Introduction to this book (Bk. V.). On Eusebius' Collection of Martyrdoms, see above, p. 30.
71 i.e. Antoninus Verus, whom Eusebius expressly distinguishes from Marcus Aurelius at the beginning of the next chapter. See below, p. 390, note.
72 The expression logoj exei, employed here by Eusebius, is ordinarily used by him to denote that the account which he subjoins rests simply upon verbal testimony. But in the present instance he has written authority, which he mentions below. He seems, therefore, in the indefinite phrase logoj exei, to express doubts which he himself feels as to the trustworthiness of the account which he is about to give. The story was widely known in his time, and the Christians' version of it undoubtedly accepted by the Christians themselves with little misgiving, and yet he is too well informed upon this subject to be ignorant of the fact that the common version rests upon a rather slender foundation. He may have known of the coins and monuments upon which the emperor had commemorated his own view of the matter,-at any rate he was familiar with the fact that all the heathen historians contradicted the claims of the Christians, and hence he could not but consider it a questionable matter. At the same time, the Christian version of the story was supported by strong names and was widely accepted, and he, as a good Christian, of course wished to accept it, if possible, and to report it for the edification of posterity.
73 toutou de adelfon: the toutou referring to the Antoninus mentioned at the close of the previous chapter. Upon Eusebius' confusion of the successors of Antoninus Pius, see below, p. 390, note.
74 It is an historical fact that, in 174 a.d., the Roman army in Hungary was relieved from a very dangerous predicament by the sudden occurrence of a thunder-storm, which quenched their thirst and frightened the barbarians, and thus gave the Romans the victory. By heathen writers this event (quite naturally considered miraculous) was held to have taken place in answer to prayer, but by no means in answer to the prayers of the Christians. Dion Cassius (LXXI. 8) ascribes the supposed miracle to the conjurations of the Egyptian magician Arnuphis; Capitolinus (Vita Marc. Aurelii, chap. 24, and Vita Heliogabali, chap. 9), to the prayer of Marcus Aurelius. The emperor himself expresses his view upon a coin which represents Jupiter as hurling lightning against the barbarians (see Eckhel. Numism. III. 61).
As early as the time of Marcus Aurelius himself the Christians ascribed the merit of the supposed miracle to their own prayers (e.g. Apolinarius, mentioned just below), and this became the common belief among them (cf. Tertullian, Apol. chap. 5, quoted just below, and ad Scap. chap. 4, and the forged edict of Marcus Aurelius, appended to Justin Martyr's first Apology). It is probable that the whole legion prayed for deliverance to their respective deities, and thus quite naturally each party claimed the victory for its particular gods. That there were some Christians in the army of Marcus Aurelius there is, of course, no reason to doubt, but that a legion at that time was wholly composed of Christians, as Eusebius implies, is inconceivable.
75 This legion was called the Melitene from the place where it was regularly stationed,-Melitene, a city in Eastern Cappadocia, or Armenia.
76 Kneeling was the common posture of offering prayer in the early Church, but the standing posture was by no means uncommon, especially in the offering of thanksgiving. Upon Sunday and during the whole period from Easter to Pentecost all prayers were regularly offered in a standing position, as a symbolical expression of joy (cf. Tertullian, de Corona, chap. 3; de Oratione, chap. 23, &c.). The practice, however, was not universal, and was therefore decreed by the Nicene Council in its twentieth canon (Hefele, Conciliengesch. I. 430). See Kraus' Real-Encyclopädie der Christlichen Alterthümer, Bd. I. p. 551 sqq.
77 logoj exei. See above, note 1.
78 Dion Cassius and Capitolinus record the occurrence (as mentioned above, note 2). It is recorded also by other writers after Eusebius' time, such as Claudian and Zonaras. None of them, however, attribute the occurrence to the prayers of the Christians, but all claim it for the heathen gods. The only pre-Eusebian Christian accounts of this event still extant are those contained in the forged edict of Marcus Aurelius and in the Apology of Tertullian, quoted just below (cf. also his de Orat. 29). Cyprian also probably refers to the same event in his Tractat. ad Demetriadem, 20. Eusebius, in referring to Apolinarius and Tertullian, very likely mentions all the accounts with which he was acquainted. Gregory Nyssa, Jerome, and other later Christian writers refer to the event.
79 i.e. Claudius Apolinarius, bishop of Hierapolis. Upon him and his writings, see above, Bk. IV. chap. 27, note 1. This reference is in all probability to the Apology of Apolinarius, as this is the only work known to us which would have been likely to contain an account of such an event. The fact that in the reign of the very emperor under whom the occurrence took place, and in an Apology addressed to him, the Christians could be indicated as the source øf the miracle, shows the firmness of this belief among the Christians themselves, and also proves that they must have been so numerous in the army as to justify them in setting up a counter-claim over against the heathen soldiers.Apolinarius is very far from the truth in his statement as to the name of the legion. From Dion Cassius, LV. 23, it would seem that the legion bore this name even in the time of Augustus; but if this be uncertain, at any rate it bore it as early as the time of Nero (as we learn from an inscription of his eleventh year, Corp. Ins. Lat. III. 30). Neander thinks it improbable that Apolinarius, a contemporary who lived in the neighborhood of the legion's winter quarters, could have committed such a mistake. He prefers to think that the error is Eusebius', and resulted from a too rapid perusal of the passage in Apolinarius, where there must have stood some such words as, "Now the emperor could with right call the legion the Thundering Legion." His opinion is at least plausible. Tertullian certainly knew nothing of the naming of the legion at this time, or if he had heard the report, rejected it.
80 In Bk. II. chap. 2, §4, and Bk. III. chap. 33, §3 (quoted also in Bk. III. chap. 20, §9).
81 Apol. chap. 5.
82 A pretended epistle of Marcus Aurelius, addressed to the Senate, in which he describes the miraculous deliverance of his army through the prayers of the Christians, is still extant, and stands at the close of Justin Martyr's first Apology. It is manifestly the work of a Christian, and no one now thinks of accepting it as genuine. It is in all probability the same epistle to which Tertullian refers, and therefore must have been forged before the end of the second century, although its exact date cannot be determined. See Overbeck, Studien zur Gesch. d. alten Kirche, I.
83 The epistle says that the accuser is to be burned alive (zwnta kaiesqai). Tertullian simply says that he is to be punished with a "condemnation of greater severity" (damnatione et quidem tetriore). Eusebius therefore expresses himself more definitely than Tertullian, though it is very likely that the poor Greek translation which he used had already made of damnatio tetrior the simpler and more telling expression, qanatoj.
84 Apol. ibid.
85 See Bk. III. chap. 12, note 1.
86 Upon Trajan's rescript, and the universal misunderstanding of it in the early Church, see above, Bk. III. chap. 33 (notes).
87 Upon Hadrian's treatment of the Christians, see above, Bk. IV. chap. 9.
88 Upon Antoninus Pius' relation to them, see above, Bk. IV. chap. 13.
89 Whether Eusebius refers in this remark only to the report of Tertullian, or to the entire account of the miracle, we do not know. The remark certainly has reference at least to the words of Tertullian. Eusebius had apparently not himself seen the epistle of Marcus Aurelius; for in the first place, he does not cite it; secondly, he does not rest his account upon it, but upon Apolinarius and Tertullian; and thirdly, in his Chron. both the Armenian and Greek say, "it is said that there are epistles of Marcus Aurelius extant," while Jerome says directly, "there are letters extant."
90 See above, chap. 1, §29.
91 Upon Irenaeus, see Bk. IV. chap. 21, note 9.
92 Cf. Adv. Haer. II. 3. 4, &c., and Eusebius, chap. 20, below.
93 Adv. Haer. III. 3. 3.