ON SS. JULIUS, JULIANUS, VINCENTIUS, AUGURIUS, AND EULODIUS, MARTYRS,
IN SPAIN.
Notice of these Martyrs from the ancient Martyrologies; but their Acts and the time of their martyrdom are uncertain.
Julius, M., in Spain (St.)
Julianus, M., in Spain (St.)
Vincentius, M., in Spain (St.)
Augurius, M., in Spain (St.)
Eulodius, M., in Spain (St.)
G. C.
These names of Saints are announced in the most ancient Hieronymian Martyrology Of these Martyrs, who are commemorated in the ancient Martyrologies, which Francesco Maria Fiorentini published at Lucca in the year 1668, in this manner: In the Spains, the birthday of the holy Julius, and Julianus, Vincentius, Augurius, and Eulodius. Other abridged Hieronymian transcripts, which our Sollier published in volume VI of June, part 2, announce only two of these five Martyrs, namely Vincentius and Julianus, whom also Rabanus and other more recent Martyrologists alone commemorate. But the Martyrology of the Queen of Sweden, in the same place at page 46, having expressed two by name, adds three anonymous ones in this manner: XII Kal. Sept. In the Spains, the birthday of the holy Julius and Julianus with three others. Among our Usuardine Auctaria the codex of Rosweyde celebrates those Martyrs on this day thus: In the Spains, of St. Julianus the martyr with four others. But the Vatican codex there expresses the names of five Martyrs in this manner: In Spain, of the holy Julius, Julianus, Vincentius, Augurius, Fructuosus. I do not know by what transposition the name of Fructuosus was here substituted for Eulodius. We, meanwhile, in expressing the names of these Martyrs have followed the ancient Martyrology of Fiorentini.
[2] Francisco Rus Puerta, in the Ecclesiastical History of the Diocese of Jaén, the deeds which he published in Spanish in the year 1634, in century 1, chapter 17, heaps up various things concerning the native soil of these Martyrs and the time of their martyrdom, which he strives to prove from Liutprand and other fictitious authors. But Juan Tamayo de Salazar, in the notes to his Spanish Martyrology on this day, contends that two different classes of Spanish martyrs were confused by that writer. Since Tamayo also cites Liutprand and other supposititious authors for his own opinion, it is not for us to settle these frivolous quarrels, which have proceeded only from the brain of impostors or of idle men. Further, the frauds or hallucinations of this Spanish Martyrologist have often been detected in our Work, and will hereafter be detected. Wherefore it is not worth the trouble to set forth the Acts of these Martyrs, which Tamayo himself fabricated, and to which nevertheless he confidently, after his manner, prefixes these magnificent words: We, resting upon the autographs of truth, grant from Liutprand that the holy Martyrs suffered at the municipality of Burginas; the rest we are compelled to reject. Hence we contend that their Acts are to be framed thus (for they have not been found elsewhere). By this expression he confesses clearly enough that he composed out of his own genius the Acts of those Martyrs, which have not been found elsewhere.
[3] and their age are uncertain. Hence I also fear that Tamayo himself determined at his own pleasure the time of the martyrdom, which at the end of the Acts he expresses positively in these words: The Young Men, brought to the custody of the prison, after various examinations by the judge, since they could neither offer sacrifices to the gods nor be separated from the name of Christ, being tortured with divers torments, at last vigorously ascended with the crowns of martyrdom to the heavenly kingdom, on the XII of the Kalends of September, in the year of the Lord 95. So indeed he affirms from his own Liutprand. But we no more dare to trust the fictitious Liutprand than Tamayo himself, since his Spanish Martyrology has been stitched together out of so many fables that the true can scarcely be separated from the false: for we are not accustomed to believe a lying man even when he sometimes speaks the truth, as the proverb has it. Wherefore we have cautiously suppressed the year of the martyrdom, and have noted in the margin only the XXI day of August, because we are ignorant of the very century of their glorious contest, although these Martyrs most probably suffered in Spain under the heathen emperors.