ON SAINT CLETUS,
ROMAN PONTIFF, MARTYR.
IN THE YEAR 84.
CommentaryCletus, Roman Pontiff and Martyr (St.)
Marcellinus, Roman Pontiff and Martyr (St.)
By G. H.
CHAPTER I.
SS. Cletus and Anacletus are distinct Pontiffs. The sacred veneration of the former.
[1] How prone various writers have been to stray from the truth on account of the similarity of names, we have often pointed out throughout this whole work of ours, showing how the deeds of several are wont to be attributed to one; or, on the contrary, how, when one man has been forgotten, what he did is found ascribed to various others. Error is often committed on account of the similarity of names Of the first sort, a single example (lest the reader be overwhelmed by many) may be set down in Saint William the Great, the hermit, whose Acts we illustrated on February 10. Upon him were imposed manifold and some very enormous and mutually contradictory deeds, which were committed—though not all of them—by very many men of the same name. So too in the Catalogue of the Kings of the Franks, when Dagobert II, son of St. Sigebert, was not admitted, all that he had done honorably was transferred to other kings, Dagobert I and Dagobert III, and Dagobert II himself was buried in continuous oblivion for almost a thousand years; to whom we formerly assigned 17 years of reign, and now even 19. [As happened between SS. Cletus and Anacletus, and SS. Marcellus and Marcellinus the Pontiffs.] A similar error is incurred by SS. Cletus and Marcellinus, Roman Pontiffs, whose birth into heaven is celebrated on this day, in that they are not distinguished from SS. Anacletus and Marcellus, likewise Roman Pontiffs. This controversy being set forth in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology, Baronius asserts that in matters that belong to the Roman Church, more credit must be given to her own nurslings than to others. We set this rule of that most prudent man before us to be held.
[2] St. Jerome, in On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 15, establishes Clement as the fourth Roman Pontiff after Peter: although most of the Latins suppose Clement to have been the second after the Apostle Peter. Who these "most of the Latins" are, with none of them being named anywhere, Besides Anacletus, St. Cletus is recognized in a 4th-century catalogue. we seem able to reach by some conjecture, if we say they were the ancient Catalogues of the Supreme Pontiffs, one of which St. Jerome sought from St. Damasus, who replied that he was sending him the deeds of the Pontiffs which he could find in the archives of his See. St. Damasus's predecessor was St. Liberius, in whose time an old Index of Roman Pontiffs was composed, as Petavius attests in book 5 of Rationarium Temporum, chapter 5, who had it in his possession. Cuspinianus calls this same Catalogue a very ancient little work, which he translated in his Commentary on Cassiodorus's Consuls. It is to be divided into several parts: so that the first part ends with St. Urban the Pope, who suffered martyrdom in the year of Christ 231, which we suppose was collected by St. Anterus, not yet Pontiff, since he is reported to have diligently sought out the deeds of the Martyrs from the Notaries. In this Catalogue, St. Cletus, the fourth Roman Pontiff, is substituted for Clement in these words: "Cletus, six years, two months, ten days. He was in the times of Vespasian and Titus and the beginning of Domitian, from the consulship of Vespasian VIII and Domitian V, up to Domitian IX and Rufus." And then Anacletus is added. These words, concerning the time of St. Cletus's See and the consuls mentioned, cited under the name of Damasus, Onuphrius Panvinius reports in his Commentary on book 2 of the Fasti, for years 829 and 836 from the founding of the City, and ascribes them to Damasus in the Life of St. Cletus. But, as we said, Damasus wrote no catalogue; yet this ancient one is attributed to him, because he sent to St. Jerome what had been compiled by others.
[3] We have described another Catalogue of the Supreme Pontiffs from an ancient parchment codex of the Most Serene Christina, Queen of Sweden, and in another compiled in the 6th century, in which the eulogies are woven down to Boniface II, created in the year 530. In this Catalogue the name of Cletus is placed between Linus and Clement through the ignorance of some copyist, since even there he is in fact substituted for Clement, and these things are said of St. Cletus: "Cletus, a Roman by birth, of the region Vicus Patricii, son of Aemilianus, sat for 12 years, 1 month, 11 days. He was in the times of Vespasian and Titus and Domitian, from the consulship of Vespasian VII and Domitian V, up to Domitian IX and Rufus the consuls. He is crowned with martyrdom. By the command of Blessed Peter, he ordained 25 Presbyters in the city of Rome in the month of December: he also was buried next to the body of Blessed Peter in the Vatican, on the sixth day before the Kalends of May." Anastasius the Librarian has almost the same, and in Anastasius the Librarian, adding: "And the episcopate was vacant 20 days. The Presbyters ordained are said to be 35," and then after Clement, wrongly placed after him, he treats of St. Anacletus. We have the same in the manuscript Gesta Pontificum brought down to the death of Martin V, i.e., the year of Christ 1431, and in manuscript Gesta and ancient Breviaries, and in ancient Roman Breviaries both manuscript and printed, of which we shall speak below.
[4] A third Catalogue of the Supreme Pontiffs Lucas Holstenius had discovered in the most ancient Palatine parchments of the Vatican library, and in another composed in the 8th century: which we also transcribed at Rome, carried down to the Pontiffs Zacharias and Stephen, who flourished in the eighth century. In it this brief eulogy is found: "Cletus, a Roman by birth, of the region Vicus Patricii, son of Aemilianus, sat for 12 years, 1 month, 11 days. By the command of Blessed Peter, he ordained 25 Presbyters at Rome." But concerning Anacletus these things are said: "Anacletus, a Greek by birth, of Athens, son of Antiochus, sat for 14 years, 2 months, 10 days. He ordained 6 Bishops, 5 Presbyters, 3 Deacons." The same things about Anacletus's country and father are found in the preceding Catalogue and in Anastasius the Librarian, and in the aforementioned manuscript Gesta Pontificum. All who subsequently wrote the Lives of the Pontiffs deal with Cletus and Anacletus likewise as plainly distinct, and in the Writers of the Lives of the Pontiffs. as in the 10th century Luitprand the Deacon of Ticinum, around the year 1000; St. Abbo of Fleury, in the 15th century; Bapt. Platina, in the 16th century; John Stella, a Venetian priest; Onuphrius Panvinius, Alfonso Chacón, and very many others who in this century have followed them.
[5] The name of St. Cletus is inscribed in very many ancient Martyrologies, The name of St. Cletus in the Martyrologies of Bede and Florus, as in the genuine one of Bede published by us from various manuscripts, in these words: "On the sixth day before the Kalends of May, the Birth into heaven of St. Cletus, Pope and Martyr," to which Florus adds: "Who, third after Peter, presided over the Church for twelve years, and suffered martyrdom in the time of Vespasian and Titus." That ancient martyrology of Bede, but supplemented, we also find in a particular library of the Vatican Church of St. Peter: which seems to us a sufficient indication that this very Martyrology was once read there among the Canonical Hours; to which afterwards succeeded the Martyrology of Usuard, Usuard, in which these things are read: "At Rome, the birth into heaven of St. Cletus the Pope, who, second after the Apostle Peter, when he had ruled the Church for twelve years, was crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Domitian." So most of the Martyrologies of Usuard, both in manuscript and printed, and among these there excels Bellini's, that which Bellinus published in the year 1498 according to the usage of the Roman Curia, afterwards often reprinted. In the Martyrology printed at Paris in 1535, instead of Cletus is found Anacletus, as also in a few manuscript codices. In the Hagenau manuscript, once belonging to Nicholas Scheichius, first Cletus, then Anacletus are mentioned, each with his own eulogy. On this day Ado celebrates in his Martyrology St. Anacletus, but on July 12 St. Cletus with this eulogy: Ado's July 12, "Likewise on the same day, St. Cletus the Pope, who sat at Rome for twelve years. By the command of the Blessed Apostle Peter, he ordained twenty-five Presbyters in the city of Rome, and he was buried next to the body of Blessed Peter." In the same manner Notker, Notker's July 13, when he had inscribed St. Anacletus in his Fasts for this day, on July 13 sets forth St. Cletus, on which day in other places St. Anacletus is inscribed in other Martyrologies, and we shall then, with the Roman Martyrology, treat of him. Rabanus's April 29, Rabanus celebrates St. Cletus on April 29 and the author of the printed Bede, and they place him third after St. Peter. The same saint is commemorated on this day too by Wandelbert in his Poetic Martyrology, Wandelbert's April 26, written eight hundred years ago, and he has this verse:
"And the sixth day recalls the contests of Cletus the Pontiff."
[6] Great weight, it seems to us, is brought from the ancient Missals
and Roman Breviaries, which for the past two hundred years, and in the ancient Breviaries and Missals of the Roman Church, after the invention of the art of printing and thereafter, have been printed: in all of which the veneration of SS. Cletus and Marcellinus, Pontiffs, is prescribed on this April 26; and on July 13 that of St. Anacletus. The same is also confirmed by the Breviary written on parchment which we have in our possession, and later authors agree in their Martyrologies for both days—Maurolycus, Felicius, Canisius, Galesinius, Ferrarius, along with the present-day Roman—from whose notes, added by Baronius, we have set before ourselves this rule: that in matters pertaining to the Roman Church, greater credit is to be given to her own nurslings, whom we have hitherto adduced, than to outsiders, whom Peter Halloix extensively brings forward in volume 2 On Ancient Writers in the notes to the Life of St. Irenaeus, chapter 7, page 642 and following, where he attempts to prove that St. Cletus and Anacletus are one and the same. This, however, as also all his other opinions, he willingly submits to Holy Mother Church Catholic, as a good son of the Church.
[7] The arguments for a single Pontiff Cletus and Anacletus are refuted. His first argument is drawn from the Epistles of St. Ignatius of Antioch, for in one of them, to Mary Cassobolita, Clement is said to have succeeded Anacletus; and in another to the Trallians, Anacletus and Clement are said to have rendered service to St. Peter. But those words were inserted into the said epistles by later hands, and are absent in the genuine Greek manuscripts, which we found at Florence in the Medicean library, and which Isaac Vossius published there, collated with an ancient version which James Ussher, from three manuscript codices, published at Oxford—as we have more fully set forth before the Life of St. Ignatius, printed for the first day of February. The second argument is taken from St. Irenaeus, who in book 3 Against Heresies, chapter 3, enumerating the eleven first Roman Pontiffs, lists Anacletus while omitting Cletus: which was done by his example by Eusebius in the Chronicle and Ecclesiastical History, by Nicephorus Bishop of Constantinople in the Catalogue of Pontiffs, by Photius Codex 112, and by the Africans Cyprian in Epistle 74, Optatus of Milevis book 2 On the Schism of the Donatists, Augustine Epistle 165 On the Discord of the Donatists, even St. Jerome On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 15, and finally by Epiphanius, when (which coincides) in Heresy 27 he names Cletus, omitting Anacletus. But, as we said, greater credit is to be given to the nurslings of the Roman Church whom we have produced above, than to outsiders, since these feared lest they should err on account of the similarity of names. The matter is further pressed as if the Chronicle of Lucius Dexter plainly decided the dispute, since it says that St. Anacletus or Cletus succeeded Linus; but it could have been doubtful to the author which sat earlier before Clement, and which succeeded him. To say nothing of the fact that that Chronicle is plainly spurious and stitched together from fabrications, as has been often shown throughout our whole work. Finally, the Martyrology is produced which was published by our Rosweyde together with Ado, and indeed under the name of the Vetus Romanum, which learned men do not admit as such, and which, since Bede and Usuard were unaware of it, does not seem to have been publicly known in their time—by whom we have already said Cletus was inscribed in Martyrologies. Of similar quality may be reckoned the manuscript Breviaries of some churches, since we have shown that the ancient Breviaries and Missals of the Roman Church prescribe worship and veneration on distinct days for both Cletus and Anacletus as distinct Pontiffs.
CHAPTER II.
The time of his ordination as Bishop, and of his Pontificate. His other deeds. Relics.
[8] Cardinal Baronius, having discussed at length in his Annals for the year 69 St. Cletus, along with SS. Linus and Clement, ordained Bishop by St. Peter, the See and Martyrdom of St. Peter, and about to treat of the succession of Linus, Cletus, and Clement, first establishes in no. 36 that the truth of the times is to be sought through the consuls, which we do accurately; and in no. 43 he professes that the said bishops were coadjutors of St. Peter, who, as we have said elsewhere of him, ordained three bishops, Linus, Cletus, and Clement. Anastasius the Librarian, in the Lives of the Pontiffs in the Royal and Mazarine manuscripts, and another of Freher, and in the manuscript Gesta Pontificum brought down to Martin, has these things concerning St. Peter: "He ordained two Bishops, Linus and Cletus, who should personally exhibit every priestly ministry in the city of Rome to the people or to those coming in. But afterwards Peter, perceiving the day of his death to be at hand, consecrated Clement Bishop, and committed to him the Chair or the whole Church to be ordered, saying: As the power of binding and loosing has been given to me by my Lord Jesus Christ, so I also commit it to you, etc." This formula could have been spoken to the other two as well. After St. Linus, That St. Linus was the second Pontiff, all set down universally, consecrated in the year 56 under the consuls Saturninus and Scipio; and they admit that he was then at least made the Vicar and Coadjutor of St. Peter, then, when that Peter suffered martyrdom in the year 65, he succeeded him, and presided over the Church as true Pontiff for two years, two months, and twenty-six days; he attained the palm of martyrdom in the times of Nero, under the consuls Capito and Rufus, in the year of Christ 67, on September 23: as these things are designated, by consuls and the Emperor Nero, in the aforementioned ancient Catalogues, in which St. Clement, the third, is said to have presided over the Church in the times of Galba and Vespasian, and St. Clement, from the consulship of Trachalus and Italicus up to Vespasian VII and Titus, and then, having abdicated the Pontificate, to have lived as Apostolic and private Bishop for several more years, and at length, in the third year of Trajan, the hundredth year of Christ, to have died a Martyr: which is to be deduced more accurately elsewhere. These things being indicated, we proceed to St. Cletus, he was the 4th Pontiff, who, according to the said Catalogues, is to be reckoned the fourth Pontiff. He presided in the times of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, from the consuls Vespasian VII and Domitian, or from the year 76, until Domitian IX and Rufus, from 76, whose consulship falls in the year 83, which was the second year of the Emperor Domitian: and the consuls of the following year, Domitian X and Sabinus, are assigned for the beginning of Pope Anacletus, in whose consulship St. Cletus appears to have lived up to April 26; and so in the year of Christ 84, until the year 84. the third of Domitian, he would have suffered martyrdom. Hence, therefore, the years of his Pontificate are to be reckoned, which are set down as six in the earlier Catalogue, but seven months appear very properly to be added in the ancient Roman Breviaries, both manuscript and printed. In the copies of Anastasius, 12 or even 15 years are found, which in no way agree with the consuls adjoined there, and were inserted through the carelessness of copyists. And since Anacletus succeeded St. Cletus, they could easily have been merged into one and the same person. If any think that Cletus is to be placed before St. Clement, we do not wish to draw a contentious rope with others on that matter, and we are content to have indicated what we have found in the more ancient authors.
[9] Rubi or Rubum, commonly called Ruvo, perhaps Strabo's "not Rudium but Rubium," is a most ancient city, Rubi honors him as its Patron and apostle. the homeland, as they will have it, of the poet Ennius; in that part of ancient Calabria which now takes its name from Bari as its metropolis. This city honors St. Cletus (as Ferdinand Ughelli writes in volume 7 of Italia Sacra, col. 1031) as its Patron with a solemn feast: and it holds that, as having been the first to preach the faith among them, he was consecrated Bishop for them by St. Peter; but that, having firmly strengthened the citizens, he assumed a successor, whose name does not survive, and went to Rome to Peter. I do not think that Cletus was consecrated anywhere other than at Rome, or for any other city than the Roman: yet I would not wish to doubt that several other places were cultivated by his Apostolic preaching, either before or after the death of Peter: so that therefore the tradition of the Rubans may be held sufficiently worthy of credit, as to the main substance of the matter, namely that St. Cletus confirmed the church of Ruvo in the faith. What they add about a church built over a certain crypt outside the walls, and consecrated by Cletus in honor of Saint Peter—I would indeed believe that the first faithful were accustomed to gather in that crypt, and that they had it for an oratory; and that later generations built a little church over it under the name of St. Peter, in order to venerate there the first head of the universal Church after Christ.
[10] Some things attributed, It is reported that St. Cletus was the first of all in his letters to use these words: "Greetings and Apostolic Benediction": which was written by Martin of Poland in the Chronicle, and by John Stella in the Lives of the Pontiffs, is read up to now in the Roman Breviary first published at the command of Pius V. But those letters are extant neither among the Pontifical Epistles nor in the General Councils. But it is not credible that the formula of greeting instituted by St. Cletus should have been abolished with his death. Certainly no one will be found who used it before St. Leo IX; for if any letters of Pontiffs are put forward with this formula, it will be easy to prove from other sources that they are mere fabrications, as has been sufficiently indicated in the Preliminary Apology to Volume 2, chapter 1. Platina writes that he assumed the Pontifical burden unwillingly, although in doctrine, morals, and dignity he prevailed much among his own: and that the best and most holy man omitted nothing that pertained to the increase of the Church of God. Almost all of which was read in the Breviary composed by Cardinal Quignonius. There is also wont to be alleged against the true Pontificate of SS. Linus and Cletus a decretal epistle under the name of Pope John III to the Bishops of Gaul and Germany, which Baronius, for the year 572, in which John III died, or falsely imposed. argues to be an imposture, and demonstrates that it is not of John but from the supposititious wares of Mercator. Almost all the same things are cited by Marianus Scotus, as if they were contained in a decretal epistle of Leo II, who was created in the year 683 and died the following year.
[11] His body in the Vatican Church. The feast of SS. Cletus and Marcellinus, Pontiffs and Martyrs, is celebrated under a double rite in the Vatican Church of St. Peter, because the body of St. Cletus is still preserved there, as is prescribed in the Order of the Divine Office for the year 1665, composed by Joseph de Fide, Master of Ceremonies of the said Church, Relics in the Church of St. Paul, and the Creed is said there in the Mass. Octavius Pancirolus, in the Hidden Treasure of the City of Rome, adds that some of his relics are in the church of St. Paul in the Piazza Colonna. Masinus in Bologna surveyed asserts that some are also at Bologna in the church of St. John on the Mount and in the church of St. Benedict: and at Bologna. and his feast is celebrated in the church of St. Mary del Morello beyond the main bridge, and throughout the whole Order of the Crosiers.