ON ST. MARCELLUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR,
AT APAMEA IN SYRIA
IN THE YEAR 389 OR THEREABOUTS.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Marcellus, Bishop of Apamea in Syria (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
§ I. A notice of Apamea; the Saint's fatherland, parents, his secular and perhaps solitary life; his episcopal office administered with great praise; his communication with the Martyrs.
Apamea, a city of Syria, was famous with the highest celebrity of name, on the witness of Ammianus Marcellinus, book 14 of the Deeds, chapter 8, page 33 of the Gronovian edition of the year 1693, Apamea is described where he reports these things: This Syria Antioch ennobles … and Laodicea and Apamea, and likewise Seleucia, most flourishing from their very first beginnings. But after Syria was divided into two parts, Apamea was made the metropolis of Syria Secunda, as may be seen in the sacred Geography of Charles of St. Paul, page 287 of the later edition. Sozomen, illustrated by Henry Valois, book 7, chapter 15, page 725, says: Among the Syrians, the citizens of the city of Apamea, which is situated on the river Axius. Others place it on the river Orontes. Cellarius in the Notitia of the ancient world, book 3, chapter 12, page 255, treating of Seleucia on the Belus, says: Hence toward the east lies Apamea, Ἀπάμεια, near the confluence of the Orontes and the Marsyas.
[2] Then, having said more concerning it, at the words of Sozomen just now brought forward by us, he asks at page 256: Who is this Axius? with various notices: And he answers that it is a name fetched from Macedonia, as of many cities of Syria. According to Strabo the Orontes flows past Apamea: in Pliny the Marsyas is near. It is uncertain which received the name of Axius, which Vaillant would attribute to the Orontes, Harduin to the Marsyas. Nor is it an error of Sozomen: but that name is confirmed also by a coin, whose Greek inscription he subjoins in the same place. Since Strabo is more certain in this, that Apamea is washed by the Orontes — whereas Pliny, who says only that the territory of the men of Apamea is divided by the Marsyas from the tetrarchy of the Nazerini, not signifying how near to the city that river comes — it is more likely that the Orontes was called Axius by the Macedonians, as the nobler river, because this very one was most noble in Macedonia. For ἄξιος among the Greeks is "worthy." And it lies between Antioch to the North and Emesa to the South at 50 (it is set at 65 by Ferrari in the geographical Lexicon) miles, by the reckoning of Baudrand; it is distant 40 miles from the Syrian sea toward the east.
[3] Further, this city St. Marcellus both ruled as bishop, and illustrated with the rays of his virtues, by which he was excellently conspicuous. For indeed by Theodoret in book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 21, how greatly is he praised by this very brief saying, St. Marcellus, successor of John, presided over it as bishop. that he was certainly a Man in every way most excellent; likewise a Man plainly divine, and, according to the precept of the Apostle, fervent in spirit. He succeeded John, who in the year of Christ 381 was present at the ecumenical council of Constantinople, as may be seen in volume 2 of the Councils in Labbe, column 955, where among the bishops who came together to that council and subscribed to it is marked John of Apamea. But Theodoret in the place cited says: John, bishop of the men of Apamea, had already departed from among the living … And in his place Marcellus had been ordained. But these things being premised in passing concerning St. Marcellus, let us draw out from the documents which have come to our knowledge how his life and the deeds done in it stood, beginning from his native soil alone.
[4] The great printed Menæa of the Greeks report that he was born on the island of the Cyprians. His fatherland, his life excellently passed in the world, The Greek Martyrdom from the Ambrosian codex, a transcript of which we have, and concerning which more will be said afterwards, has these words: "This famous man from the land of the Cyprians …", whose lacuna seems able to be supplied thus, "setting out from the island," so that the sense may be: This renowned Man, sprung from the island of the Cyprians. And indeed there he held a civil magistracy, as the said Menæa record, and its administration was entrusted to him, in which he so bore himself that he carried all into admiration, both on account of his piety and on account of the singular zeal with which he governed the commonwealth. But the notable manner of his life both the Ambrosian copy of the Martyrdom and the Ms. Life from the royal library of Paris fetch from further back and describe more fully. For the Ambrosian Ms. reports these words: Being brought up and educated by them, as was fitting, he diligently accomplished every praiseworthy virtue, and not least did he take care for the knowledge of letters. His parents therefore, rejoicing at these things, since they were of the illustrious and abounding in deep wealth, urged him to come to the weight of dignities; yea, even to receive the girdle of a very great worldly office, which, that he might not seem to spurn his father's counsels
he might appear a despiser, he accepted, an imperial command putting him forward to this. And indeed, having excelled well in it, and having practiced in a manner pleasing to God whatever was just, and having weighed this out in balance and measure, and having granted the inclination to the fitting side, he struck all with amazement, and persuaded all to love him exceedingly, and most of all by the purity of his life, and by his mercy, and by the sweetness of his tongue, and by the lowliness of his mind.
[5] Which I thus render into Latin: By whom (I understand his parents, and conspicuous by his virtues. for a lacuna again occurs here) being brought up and likewise instructed, he diligently exercised every praiseworthy virtue, as was fitting: nor indeed did he less cultivate the knowledge of letters. His parents therefore, rejoicing at these things, since they were illustrious and abounded in ample riches, compelled him also to attain to the honor of dignities, nay even to receive the girdle of a very great secular magistracy: which, lest he should seem a despiser of his father's counsels, he took up, the emperor's mandate promoting him thereto. And certainly, excelling admirably in that office, and practicing whatever was just according to the divine prescript, and moreover disposing it in balance and measure, and inclining the weight to that side which agreed with what was becoming, he carried all into amazement and turned them to love of himself, chiefly by the integrity of his life added thereto, and by his mercy and the sweetness of his speech and his lowly estimate of himself. Concerning the virtues by which St. Marcellus shone in the secular life our Paris transcript heaps up more; but let what has been said now suffice.
[6] He was joined in matrimony; and for some time perhaps Our Saint was joined in matrimony; for concerning his sons Sozomen speaks thus at page 726, on occasion of the authors of the slaughter inflicted on him by martyrdom; who, after they had in course of time been detected, the sons indeed of Marcellus desired to avenge their father's death; but the synod of the province forbade it, judging it not fair to avenge that death for which both the dead man himself and his sons and friends ought rather to give thanks to God. But that he embraced the institute of the solitary life, and that even from its very beginnings or rudiments he stirred up no mean praise of commendation for himself among his fellow-ascetics in the doing of things, is argued by this, that by two abbots, although he was a recent solitary, he was sent to St. Epiphanius, as we learn from the Prolegomena to the books of the same holy Epiphanius Against heresies, volume 1 of the Petavian edition — if he who is there named be this our namesake. To assert that this was ours Tillemont had nothing ready to hand, in volume 5 of the History of the emperors, under Theodosius I, article 58, page 327, and in volume 10 of Ecclesiastical Monuments, under St. Epiphanius, article 10, page 507. But although this cannot be hammered out from the name alone, yet, because the reckoning of time favors that identity, so to speak, and because moreover the province of Cyprus, to which he is sent, adds some fitness, since he was said above to be sprung from it, what forbids us to suppose with some likelihood that he was the same man? Proceeding therefore on that supposition, I observe the following. Why, when, and by whom St. Marcellus was sent to him, receive from the letter which is there had, rendered from the Greek into Latin, and prefixed with this title: A letter written in the XCII year of Diocletian, the XII of Valentinian and Valens, the VIII of Gratian, to Epiphanius, a Palestinian of Eleutheropolis, who, having formerly been father of the monastery which is situated in the territory of Eleutheropolis, is at this time bishop of Constantia, which is a city of the province of Cyprus, by Acacius and Paul, priests and archimandrites, that is, superiors of monasteries in the region of Carchedon and of Berœa in Coele-Syria; in which they ask that he would write against the heresies, since he had already besides been asked by many to undertake this, and, so to speak, compelled. But before we proceed to the words of the letter, certain things must be noted concerning the reckoning of time.
[7] he led a solitary life St. Epiphanius undertook the Panarium, or the book against heresies, in the year of Christ 374: for at the beginning of that work, at number 2, is noted the XI year of Valentinian and Valens, the VII of Gratian; which XI year of Valentinian and Valens began in the year of Christ 374 in the month of February, as Pagi observes in the Baronian Critique at the year 375, number 10. Consult Baronius at the year 374, and the Animadversions of Petavius on the work of Epiphanius which he himself published, volume 2, page 4. When therefore St. Marcellus was sent to St. Epiphanius, the latter had then set his hand to his work, as is plain from the marks of time prefixed to the letter mentioned above, which concur with the year of Christ 375. For that was the twelfth of Valentinian the elder and of Valens; beyond which year the embassy of which we speak cannot be deferred, since in the same year, on the XVII day of the month of November, Valentinian closed his last day of life, as is most well known among the chronologers: nor before the XVII day of September of the same year 375, because Diocletian was declared emperor in the year 284, from which epoch the famous Diocletian era took its origin. See Baronius at that year, Tillemont in volume 4 of the History of the emperors, article 2, page 5, and Pagi in the Baronian Critique, volume 1, at the year 284, number 4. Now indeed if from that year you proceed to the year 375, you will have the 91st year of the Diocletian era, completed on the said XVII day of September, and the 92nd year running from that point, agreeably to the inscription of the letter which we gave above.
[8] These things being premised, let us hear what the letter which I was citing contains to our purpose. a solitary life Thus therefore Acacius and Paul the archimandrites write to St. Epiphanius: Wherefore, when Marcellus, the common brother of us all, stirred by the greatness of so great a fame, was drawn to you by desire of your piety, and he was also enrolled in our monastery, having found a man who might discharge our part over so great a length of journey, though still raw and a novice, we charged him to convey to you, the disciple of Christ, this our petition, of all sinners indeed, though a little bolder than became us. Further, the sum of our petition is this, that what you have said to some brethren you would not be unwilling to impart for our instruction, etc. From what has been said therefore it is made out that St. Marcellus was employed in the novitiate of the solitary life in the year of Christ 375, and then discharged his embassy to St. Epiphanius in the months of September, October, or November: but how long thereafter he continued the institute of the ascetic life, although it is not ready to my hand to define precisely, yet what forbids us to suppose that he persevered in it until his bishopric, of which we must presently treat?
[9] Our Ms. from the Ambrosian codex, after it had set forth the dignity Being promoted to the bishopric, with which our Martyr was honored in the world, and of which was said above at number 5, subjoins the following concerning the ecclesiastical one: But this office was succeeded by one altogether greater and worthier. For the Wise man is appointed president and teacher of Apamea, not simply so, nor as is wont to happen to the many, but by the vote and judgment of God. For when his predecessor had measured out his life, one worthy of the throne was sought. And while many said one thing and others another, the word called Marcellus. For great was the talk of Marcellus in the mouths of all; Marcellus was spoken of, Marcellus was heard. This unanimous vote therefore so prevailing, since God also gave his vote with them (for all would not have come together into one mind, had this not been so), the men of the city, sending, bring the Just man, ostensibly for some other need, but in truth for this great one, and for the city of which it was fitting that such a one should be high-priest; they make known to him this business, that it may be committed to execution … They persuade him, however; he is ordained by the elect of the sanctuary; the flock of Christ is entrusted to him, and he becomes its good shepherd and not a hireling; he leads back the flock to the grass of faith, and well guides and nourishes it to the water of rest; he turns aside the spiritual wolves with the sling of the spirit; he puts wholly away the religion of the Greeks; he drags their precincts down to the ground; he ardently raises up divine houses; and altogether he was to the city desired and greatly beloved. But these we render into Latin thus:
[10] But this (secular) magistracy an altogether greater (ecclesiastical one) succeeded, he fulfils all the parts of a best shepherd. and a dignity. For this Wise man is chosen prelate and teacher of Apamea, not in the common manner, nor as is wont to befall many, but by the suffrage and judgment of God. For, his predecessor having measured out his life, it was inquired who should be worthy of the throne. And while many said thus, and others otherwise, report called Marcellus. Indeed in the mouth of all there was much talk of Marcellus; Marcellus was named, Marcellus was heard of. After the citizens had sent men to bring the just Man as it were for some other advantage, but in truth that he might preside over this great city, of which certainly it was fitting that such a one should be pontiff, they make known to him this business, that it may be committed to execution … At the same time they persuade him: he is consecrated by the chosen ministers of the altar: the flock of Christ is committed to him, and he becomes its good shepherd and not a hireling: he leads the flock to the grass of faith, and well conducts it to the water of rest: he wards off the wolves endowed with reason, and with the sling of faith takes away from the midst all the superstition of the heathen: he lays their shrines level with the ground: he raises up divine churches with fervor, and was altogether pleasing and exceedingly beloved to the city. Concerning these things see below at number 13.
[11] He communicates by letters Further, that this most holy Man was not only fervent in spirit, as we said above, but also most desirous of martyrdom, seems able to be gathered from this, that he was affected with a singular zeal toward the Martyrs by writing to them, and by binding himself to them with the bond of intimacy. Let us hear Theodoret, alleged above: For he was accustomed both to write to the most unconquered Martyrs, and to receive letters from them. Tillemont in volume 4 of the History of the emperors, under Theodosius I, article 58, page 327, raises a scruple here, saying that there were indeed many confessors under Valens, but that he knows no Martyrs under him except Eusebius of Samosata. But we answer that, if Tillemont knows only this one Martyr under Valens, he knows none, if we wish to speak strictly: for that Valens died on the IX day of August in the year of Christ 378 he notes in the chronological table at the end of the volume just designated, page 832: but Eusebius of Samosata was indeed sent by him into exile about the year 373, according to what is had in our work, volume IV of June, at the XXII day, page 241; but he was slain after the death of Valens, namely in the year 379, from the same volume of ours at the said day, on which the Acts of that same Saint were published and illustrated.
[12] with the Martyrs. Tillemont therefore knows no Martyr, to say this again, under Valens, if besides this one he knows no other. But we, in volume IV of May, at the XVIII day, page 170, know the holy martyrs of Constantinople Urban, Theodore, Menedemus, and LXXVII men of the ecclesiastical Order, who suffered under Valens, while he was living and by his order, in the year 370. Socrates too knew them before us, in book 4 of the Ecclesiastical History published by Valois, chapter 16, page 227, where he reports the deed which we too copied from his book 4 in the place just alleged. Others knew them, although they did not record them so distinctly as Socrates, as the reader will find in our work in the same place. What of this, that Tillemont himself knows them elsewhere: for under the emperor Valens, in the volume cited, article 10, page 97, he treats of the history of the said eighty ecclesiastical Martyrs whom that same Valens condemned to death, and cites that very passage of Socrates which we designated a little before, adding the day of the cult, the V of September, on which they stand in the Roman Martyrology. And these things are more than enough against the ill-founded scruple of Tillemont.
§ II. His martyrdom and its time; his public veneration from the Greek and Latin Calendars; whether today's Martyr is different from another of the same name; his Acts.
The Saint, while he is occupied in destroying the temple of Jupiter, So great and so inveterate was the superstition of the men of Apamea toward the cult of idols, that there was need of a wholly manly and undaunted breast to abolish it. For, on the witness of Theodoret cited before: There had come … to Apamea Cynegius, prefect of the prætorium of the East, to destroy there the temple of Jupiter, having with him two tribunes, with the soldiers who obeyed them. And the people indeed restrained themselves for fear of the soldiers, so as not to resist the prefect's undertaking. To Theodoret let Sozomen be added, book 7, chapter 15, speaking thus: Yet in some cities the pagans still fought fiercely for their temples. Whom, when he had named, he at last reckons among them the citizens of the city of Apamea, whom indeed, he says, I have learned to have used very often, for the protection of their temples, the help of the Galileans and of rustic men from the villages which are about Lebanon; and at length to have broken out into such audacity that they killed Marcellus the bishop of that place. For when he understood that they could not otherwise easily be turned from their former superstition, he overthrew the shrines which were in the city and in the villages. And when he had heard that there was a very great temple at Aulon, which is a tract of the region of the men of Apamea, taking with him soldiers and gladiators, he went thither. And when he had come nearer, he himself indeed remained outside the cast of the missiles (for he was diseased in his feet, and could neither fight nor pursue nor flee); but while the soldiers and the gladiators were occupied in storming the temple, certain of the pagans, when they had learned that he had been left there alone, went out on that side where the place was free from the fight, and, coming suddenly upon him, seize him, and, casting him upon a pyre, kill him.
[13] And for the present indeed it lay hidden who had been the authors of the slaughter. he obtains martyrdom. But after they were detected in the course of time, the sons indeed of Marcellus desired to avenge their father's death: but the synod of the province forbade it, judging it not fair to avenge that death for which thanks ought to be given to God, both by the dead man himself and by his sons and friends: since indeed he had been held worthy to die for God. And these things indeed were so done. But how so tenacious and fierce a superstition among the men of Apamea agrees well enough with the narration above, which from the Greek Ms. copy of the Ambrosian library set forth the manner and the circumstances of the matter by which St. Marcellus was summoned by the citizens of Apamea to the bishopric, and was said to be exceedingly pleasing and greatly beloved to the city, we do not sufficiently understand; and it appears nearer the truth that the Saint was called thither by the authority of some other person, set upon the see, and gave heroic labor to the rooting out of idolatry and the propagating of divine worship amid the hatreds, the ferocity, and the persecutions of the people of Apamea. Cynegius, named above, will give occasion for a small observation, which we defer to the Annotations on the Compendium of the Acts, at letter b. Concerning the word "gladiators" Tillemont's note under Theodosius I the emperor, at article 59, page 329, may be consulted; but concerning Aulon or Aulocrene it is observed on Nicephorus Callistus's Ecclesiastical History, book 12, chapter 27, page 278 of the Paris edition of the year 1630, that a valley ten miles from Apamea is so called. But now other matters concerning our holy Athlete call us to be weighed.
[14] The time of the same. As regards the time of the martyrdom: Baronius, the history from Sozomen being recited, which we just now brought forward from him, weaves it into the year of Christ 389, and in the notes on the Roman Martyrology fixes the deed to the eleventh year of the emperor Theodosius, which year concurs with the said year 389. Tillemont in volume 5 of the History of the emperors, under Theodosius I, article 58, assigns both those years; although elsewhere he is not consistent with himself: for in volume 10 of Ecclesiastical Monuments, under St. Epiphanius, article 10, page 507, he fixes the martyrdom of our St. Marcellus toward the year 395. Baillet in the collection concerning the affairs of our St. Marcellus, which he inserted into the Lives of the Saints on today's day, dissents from that reckoning of time, saying that his death is placed by others in the year 385 or the following, and that with greater likelihood; but that hypercritic might, in order to gain credit, have added a little word about the reckoning of this time. Theodoret in book 5, chapter 27, page 235, speaking of the piety of the emperor Arcadius and of the ordination of St. John Chrysostom for the see of Constantinople, and also of the various bishops governing various churches about the same time, says: To the divine Marcellus succeeded Agapetus. But in what year Marcellus suffered martyrdom, or in what year Agapetus was substituted for him in the bishopric, who can hammer out from that? But we at the beginning of this our Commentary assigned in the margin to his death the year 389 or thereabouts: which note of time, since it allows some latitude, the above designations of years may be somehow reconciled with it, as also the note of time in Castellanus in the margin of his text of the Roman Martyrology, where "toward the year 386" is marked.
[15] The memory of the Saint in the Greek Calendars The public veneration of our holy Prelate is proved from the Greek, Latin, and other Calendars. For in our Arabic-Egyptian Martyrology on this XIV day of August is marked The memory of St. Marcellus the bishop, the title of martyr being omitted. The great printed Menæa of the Greeks say: On the same day, the memory of the priest-martyr Marcellus, bishop of Apamea. They subjoin a eulogy, in which nevertheless they commit a most gross error, when they write that he was born under the emperor Theodosius. The Menology of Sirleto more rightly, when it subjoins these words to its announcement: He, under Theodosius the great emperor, from the island of Cyprus, administering the government of a worldly magistracy, etc. The said Menæa attend the Saint with this distich, in which allusion is made to the kind of martyrdom which he consummated by fire:
By spiritual savors of sacrifice you drew God down, And him the savor of your flesh draws down, O Father.
By the savor of the flesh the spirit enters heaven: And the savor of the flesh enters not heaven, O Father.
Our Sirmond-Chifflet Supplement indicates the place appointed at Constantinople for his public cult: His assembly is performed in the shrine of the holy prophet John the Baptist in the quarter of Sphoracius. His solemnity is performed in the sacred shrine of the holy prophet John the Baptist in the quarter of Sphoracius: concerning which shrine, Du Cange, book 4 of Christian Constantinople, page 102.
[16] and in the Latin ones; Further, the public veneration of the Martyr passed from the Greek church also to the Latin: for the Roman Martyrology prescribes his yearly memory to be recited in these words: At Apamea in Syria, of holy Marcellus, bishop and martyr; who, when he had destroyed the shrine of Jupiter, was slain by the raging heathen. Ghini also reports and praises him in the Birthdays of the holy canons. Peter de Natalibus had gone before, book 9, chapter 55, where he is said to have been entombed with worthy honor at Apamea on the IV of the Ides of October. Tamayo in the notes to his Spanish Martyrology on this day, page 471, deservedly refutes the follies of Bivar, who by an altogether empty invention thought that this holy Athlete must be reckoned to Spain. Let him be ashamed of the vanity. What was said above from Sozomen and from the Menæa concerning the laurel of martyrdom obtained by him through fire gives occasion for inquiring whether Marcellus, a martyr of the same name marked in the Greek Menæa on another day, be the same as today's, or different from him.
[17] In our volume III of February, in the Passed-over at the XXV day of that month, page 486, the following are noted: Whether today's Martyr is different from another of the same name. St. Marcellus, bishop of Apamea of Cyprus, who, being struck with the sword, obtained the crown of martyrdom, the Menæa and Maximus of Cythera commemorate on this day. We suspect that "of Apamea in Syria" must be read, and that he is the St. Marcellus whom the Roman Martyrology reports on the XIV of August. But that this one must be distinguished from that one seems to us to come nearer the truth, not so much because they are reported on different days, as because they were killed by a different kind of death. For today's was slain by fire, to which in some places arrows are added, as may be seen below in the Annotations; but that other one was beheaded, as we draw from the verses which are subjoined to his announcement on the said XXV day of February in the great printed Menæa, rendered here by us into Latin to this sense:
You pour out to God, Marcellus, with warm longing, Warm drops of blood from your neck.
Marcellus, with fervid vow giving to God fervid Drops of blood poured from your neck.
But whether above in the Menæa "of Apamea in Syria" or "of Apamea in Phrygia" must be read, certainly that "of Apamea in Cyprus" cannot be read is established from this, that we have hitherto known no Apamea to exist there. For indeed Pliny in book 5, chapter 31, enumerates by name fifteen towns in it, but sets no Apamea among them; none does Ortelius set among the various cities of the same name in the geographical Thesaurus at the word Apamia; none do the other geographers whom we have consulted. Now learn, reader, of our Greek transcripts which describe the Acts of St. Marcellus.
[18] One we have with this title: The Martyrdom of the holy martyr Marcellus, bishop of Apamea of Syria. That is: Concerning the copies of the Martyrdom The Martyrdom of the holy martyr Marcellus, bishop of Apamea of Syria. It is noted as taken from the Ambrosian codex N. 152, concerning which see at the Life of St. Maximus the confessor. See concerning it our Commentary preliminary to the Acts of that Saint on the XIII day of this month, §10, number 80. But the aforesaid Martyrdom thus begins: When Theodosius the great held the power of the Roman sceptres, then also Marcellus, wise in divine things, was known as bishop of Apamea of Syria. But it is needful to carry the account back a little from above. Which sound thus in Latin: When Theodosius the great was in possession of the empire of the Roman sceptres, then also Marcellus, endowed with divine wisdom, was known as bishop of Apamea
of Syria became known as bishop. But the account must be fetched a little higher. The narration which follows is indeed quite brief, but gaping in more than one place, because the copy from which it was taken could not be read. Besides those things which we gave above from that transcript, the author narrates that the shrine of Jupiter was destroyed in a wonderful manner (the fact will afterwards be reported from Theodoret), and then briefly indicates his martyrdom by fire.
[19] Another Greek copy concerning the life and martyrdom of our St. Marcellus is at hand, which is noted as taken from the Ms. of the royal library of Paris, 274, and to be extant likewise in the Imperial one, which we have; but in their place we give a compendium. concerning which Lambeck may be consulted in the Commentaries on the Imperial library of Vienna, book 8, page 128. It begins: It has often been thought fitting to honor the tombs of the martyrs with the fair flowers or fruits of the earth; but the only fair thing, as it seems, to be offered to them is words. Which we thus interpret into Latin: It has seemed good very often to honor the sepulchres of the Martyrs with comely flowers and fruits from the earth; but this alone is comely, as is fitting, to bring them discourses. The narration of this Ms. is longer than that of the preceding, and contains a prologue of the writer, praises the Saint from his deeds and virtues, and also from the overthrow of the temple of Jupiter and of others; after which it makes mention of the course of his life consummated by fire. But we forbear to represent these here in Latin from the Greek: let those things suffice which we have set forth in compendium from the Ambrosian codex, and by which Theodoret can in some fashion be supplemented, who affirms indeed that he knew many other things concerning St. Marcellus, but did not report them; and this is the more to be lamented by us, because he both lived near his time and, to use the words of Baronius at the year of Christ 389, being a Syrian, had the things then done well ascertained. It remains that we subjoin.
A COMPENDIUM OF THE ACTS
From Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, book 5 of the Ecclesiastical history, chapter 21, from page 262 of the Valois edition.
Marcellus, Bishop of Apamea in Syria (S.)
From Theodoret.
[Theodosius the great forbids by law the cult of idols, destroyed by other emperors,] After these things the most faithful Emperor turned his zeal against the superstition of the heathen a, and wrote laws by which he ordered the shrines of the idols to be destroyed. For Constantine indeed the great, most worthy of all praise, who first adorned the empire with piety, when he saw the world still mad about the worship of images, had utterly forbidden that sacrifice be made to demons. Yet he had by no means destroyed their temples, but had only commanded them to be shut up. His sons also trod in their father's footsteps. But Julian renewed the impiety and roused up the flame of the ancient error. Afterwards Jovian, having obtained the empire, again forbade the worship of images. Then Valentinian the elder, using the same laws, governed Europe.
[2] permitted by others: But Valens indeed permitted all others to worship as they would, and to exhibit observance to those whom they worshipped. Only upon those who defended the Apostolic doctrine did he never cease to make war. And so, as long as he held the empire, incense was burned upon the altars, and the pagans offered libations and sacrifices to their images, and celebrated public banquets in the market-place. And those initiated in the rites of Bacchus ran about with goatskins, tearing dogs in pieces and raging and revelling, and performing other things by which the festal day of their master is marked. All which, when the most faithful emperor Theodosius found them being done, he utterly took away and covered with perpetual oblivion.
[3] First therefore among the other bishops Marcellus, a man in every way most excellent, fortified by the protection of that law, destroyed the shrines of the city which he had undertaken to rule, by force of which St. Marcellus the bishop first destroys the shrines at Apamea. using for that matter confidence in God rather than the work of men. Which indeed, since it is most worthy of memory, I am about to narrate in this place. John, bishop of the men of Apamea, of whom I made mention before, had already departed from among the living. And in his place had been ordained Marcellus, a plainly divine man and, according to the precept of the Apostle, fervent in spirit. And there had come to Apamea Cynegius b, prefect of the prætorium of the East, having with him two tribunes, with the soldiers who obeyed them. And the people indeed restrained themselves for fear of the soldiers.
[4] The prefect therefore undertook to destroy the temple of Jupiter, which was very ample and adorned with various ornaments. The temple of Jupiter, But when he had found the structure of the work to be exceedingly firm and solid, he judged that the joining of the stones could not be dissolved by any human force. For the stones were vast and most fitly joined to one another, and moreover bound with iron and lead. When the divine Marcellus had seen this trepidation of the prefect, he sent him meanwhile to other cities; but he himself prayed to God that he would show how the building must be destroyed. In the morning therefore a certain man came to him of his own accord, who was neither a builder nor a stonecutter, nor skilled in any other art; but had only been accustomed to carry stones and timbers upon his shoulders.
[5] He, coming to Marcellus, promised that he would destroy the temple with slight trouble. most solid in structure, He asked only the wages of two workmen. Which, when the most holy Pontiff had promised that he would give, that man contrived something of this sort. The temple, set upon a height, had a portico adhering to it on four sides. And the columns were very great, and equalled the height of the temple. The circumference of each was sixteen cubits. And the nature of the stone was most firm, and such as would not easily yield to the instruments of stonecutters. Having therefore dug beneath each of these in a circle, and having propped them with olive timbers placed underneath, he passed from one to another. In this manner, when he had now dug beneath three columns, he set fire to the timbers.
[6] But a certain demon of black color, appearing and restraining the force of the flame, a demon having vainly tried to hinder it, did not suffer the material to be consumed by the fire, as nature bears. When therefore, having attempted this rather often, they perceived that their effort was useless, they indicated the matter to the bishop, who was sleeping after midday. He, at once going to the church, ordered water to be brought in a little vessel: and the water indeed he set beneath the altar; but he himself, with his forehead fixed to the ground, prayed the merciful Lord not to suffer the tyranny of the demon further, but both to show its weakness and to declare his own power, lest perhaps from it an occasion of graver harm should arise for the unbelieving. When he had said these and other such things, and had signed the water with the sign of the cross, he charged a certain deacon Equitius, who was fortified with faith and zeal, to take the water and, hastening quickly to the place, to sprinkle it with faith, and to apply the fire.
[7] [he orders it to be burned in a wonderful manner, and afterwards is crowned with martyrdom.] Which being so done, the demon, not bearing the force of the water, fled away. But the fire, roused by the water contrary to it no otherwise than by oil, both caught the material and in a moment of time consumed it. Thus the columns, the timbers by which they were propped being burned, both fell down themselves, and drew twelve others with them in the same ruin. But the side of the temple also which adhered to the columns, being drawn along at the same time by their force, fell. From which a vast crash following, when it had spread through the whole city, roused all to the spectacle of the thing: who, when they had learned also of the flight of the adversary demon, began to sing hymns in praise of the supreme Governor of all. The remaining shrines also that divine Prelate destroyed in the same manner. Concerning whom, although many other plainly admirable things are available for me to narrate (for he was accustomed both to write to the most unconquered Martyrs and to receive letters from them c; and at length he himself obtained the crown of martyrdom d), I forbear now to report them, lest, drawing out my discourse further, I should weary the readers of this work.