ON ST. THEONAS OR TEUNA,
BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA,
The year CCC.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Theonas or Teuna, bishop of Alexandria (St.)
BY G. C.
§ I. The various name of this Saint, his ancient cultus from the Martyrologies, and the church which was formerly built at Alexandria in Egypt in his honor.
This Saint is by Eusebius of Caesarea called Θεωνᾶς, the name of this Saint, by the Ethiopians Teuna, and by others by some name near to this, as we shall see in the course of this Commentary. But I know not why the same Saint in the Alexandrian Annals, which Edward Pococke rendered into Latin from the Arabic idiom, should be called Neron by Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, who in volume 1 of that work, page 399, speaks thus of our Saint through his interpreter: Neron was created patriarch of Alexandria, where he sat nineteen years; [ ] he died. But the Christians of Alexandria used to pray secretly in caves and in houses for fear of the Romans, lest these should slaughter them; nor did the patriarch show himself openly in Alexandria; but when Neron was created patriarch, he showed himself openly, and did not cease to soothe the Romans until he had built at Alexandria the church sacred to the Lady Mary.
[2] The most erudite Renaudot, in the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, page 53, ascribes this unknown change of the name rather to Pococke the interpreter which was wrongly changed by someone, than to Eutychius the patriarch himself, and concerning that new appellation of our Saint observes the following: It remains that we should note that this Patriarch is called by Eutychius by no other name than by others; but that it was done quite ridiculously by Pococke that, following his codices, which he freely confesses were not very ancient, he called him NERO, whereas he himself in the index of the patriarchs, acknowledging the true spelling of the name, restored Theonas. Truly, if anyone should think, by superstition rather than by religion, that all the monstrosities of Arab copyists in proper names are to be reproduced, he will write the history of Utopia, not of the Church. Yet the author, in other things most diligent, observed this perpetually, to the great inconvenience indeed of readers, especially of those who can use only the Latin version. These things being observed concerning the true name of St. Theonas, I proceed to the proving of his cultus.
[3] In the Ethiopic Calendar, on the second day of the month Ter, that is, on the XXVIII day of our December, Theonas patriarch of Alexandria is honored, he is recorded in the Ethiopic Synaxary, and is called by the Ethiopians the pillar of the church, as Ludolf, the editor of the same Calendar, observes in the same place, page 404, in his notes. Our Sollier, in the chronological History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, which is prefixed to volume V of June, page 33, reports the words of an Abyssinian or Ethiopian poet, in which the piety of this holy Prelate of Alexandria is thus praised: I say hail to the patriarch Teuna, who baptized Peter, afterwards his successor;*
and he instituted prayers to be recited by everyone at each hour, and built a tower to the name of the Virgin Mary. By this tower there seems to be understood the church built in honor of the Mother of God, of which Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, made mention above, as we shall say below on another occasion.
[4] In the Coptic Martyrology, which Simon Moses, in the Coptic Martyrologies, a student of the Maronite College at Rome, translated into Latin, on the same second day of the month Tubah, which, like the Ethiopic Ter, answers to the XXVIII day of our December, is announced the yearly memory of St. Tauna, pope, that is, patriarch, of Alexandria, and that excellent Prelate is there adorned with the following eulogy: He was learned and fearing God, and built a church in Alexandria, and ordered the sacred rite to be celebrated in it; before that they used to celebrate in houses on account of the persecution; and he baptized many. In his time sprang up the heresy of Sabellius, who said that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit were one person; whom he anathematized and interdicted. He sat XIX years, and rested in peace. In another Martyrology of the Copts he is found on the fourth day of the month Tubah, or the thirtieth of our December, as the praised Maronite interpreter testifies in the Appendix to the same Martyrology in these words: On this day (namely the fourth of Tubah, as he had premised) is also celebrated the feast day of St. Tauna, and in another Martyrology mention is made of him on the second day of this month. Finally, on the third day of the same month, in another Coptic Calendar, which seems to have been collected by our Kircher, Theodas, patriarch of Alexandria, is announced.
[5] Whatever be the case concerning the true day of the yearly veneration, which perhaps among the Copts is sometimes changed on account of other festivals falling on it, and in the Latin ones, from which his ancient cultus is proved, the Latin Martyrologists constantly commemorate this holy Prelate on the XXIII day of August; among whom the author of the old Roman Martyrology briefly assigns to this day the feast of Theonas the bishop. Ado imitated him, and probably from other ancient monuments added the following eulogy: On the same day, of blessed Theonas at Alexandria, venerable and truly worthy of God, who brought up blessed Peter the bishop, and afterwards martyr, illustrious in all purity and in the virtues of the soul. Mosander punctuates this period somewhat otherwise, and at the end of the same eulogy, after a full stop, reads thus: He as bishop was illustrious in all purity and in the virtues of the soul. That pronoun he ought in this eulogy to be referred rather to St. Peter the martyr and successor of St. Theonas than to St. Theonas himself, if Mosander's reading be genuine. But the reading of our Rosweyde seems preferable, who collated his edition of Ado's Martyrology with many manuscript codices. For the rest, Usuard, omitting the remainder, transcribed the first part of this eulogy from Ado in this manner: At Alexandria, of St. Theonas the bishop, venerable and truly worthy of God. More compendiously the Roman Martyrology which we now use announces at Alexandria the memory of St. Theonas, bishop and confessor, and passes over the rest.
[6] and it is confirmed from a certain church of Alexandria, Although these things suffice to show the immemorial cultus of St. Theonas, yet the veneration of the same Saint, more ancient than all these Martyrologists, is proved from the Apology of St. Athanasius to the emperor Constantius, which is read in the latest Paris edition of his Works, volume 1, page 295 and following: for when the Arians had objected to St. Athanasius that a synaxis had been held in the great church before the building was completed, that great adversary of the Arians dissolves this accusation, and defends that act by the example of other prelates in the same place, page 304, in these words: For the man of blessed memory Alexander (namely the patriarch of Alexandria, whom St. Athanasius succeeded), on account of the narrowness of other places, while he himself was building the church, called Theonas's, which was then thought the greatest of all, nevertheless held assemblies in it on account of the multitude of the people, nor did he meanwhile interrupt the construction of the building on account of the assembly of the people. Here therefore you see that before the middle of the fourth century a church was built by Alexander in honor of St. Theonas.
[7] which formerly took its name from this Saint. In the Acts of SS. Pachomius and Theodore, which have been illustrated in our Work on the XIV day of May, Ammonius the bishop, an author contemporary with St. Athanasius, makes mention of the same church of St. Theonas, when among us, in volume three of May, page 356, he writes thus among other things to Theophilus, prelate of Alexandria: Being therefore permitted to depart from Theodore, and having kissed him, with many tears I prayed him to entreat God for me. Afterwards, when I had met my parents, I betook myself to the mountain of Nitria; and six months later, when the blessed pontiff Athanasius was at that time under Constantius being searched for with fury by the Arians, and when the holy monks and virgins throughout Egypt and in the city of Alexandria, and the more religious laymen, were enduring many hardships and were being worn out with stripes and wounds, and when the bishops were being ordered to depart from all Egypt — Sebastian, the successor of Syrianus, then enjoying the title of Duke of Egypt, by whose command very many virgins devoted to God by chastity had been slain in the very church of St. Theonas the bishop by the weapons of wicked men, etc. This same narration may be read in Greek near the end of the same volume three, page 70*. Moreover St. Epiphanius, in Heresy XLIX, otherwise LXIX, chapter 2, that is, in the edition of our Petavius, volume 1, page 728, enumerating by name several churches of Alexandria, also makes mention of the church of Theonas. Hence the ancient cultus of St. Theonas is abundantly established.
§ II. The chronological beginning of his episcopate, the uncertain deeds of the Saint, and the most probable year of his death.
This Saint, who in the year 282 ascended the chair of Alexandria, Our Sollier, in the Treatise on the Patriarchs of Alexandria before volume V of June, page 33, judges that St. Theonas was raised to the chair of Alexandria in the year of Christ 282. With this chronology Eusèbe Renaudot nearly agrees, when in the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, page 50, he writes thus: To Maximus, when he had departed from this life, Theonas was substituted by the unanimous consent of the Christian people; nor in Severus, Eutychius, Elmacin, Makrizi, or other authors is there mention of a vacancy of the Alexandrian see for a whole year, which the author of the Oriental Chronicle assigns. But all, agreeing with Eusebius, hold that he was ordained immediately after the death of his predecessor, namely in the year of Jesus Christ CCLXXXII or CCLXXXIII. And thus the chronology of Severus will hold good, who binds his beginning to the first year of Aurelius, he says, of CARUS AND CARINUS; namely, he took Aurelius, which was the name of both Carus and Carinus, for the third name of the emperor.* It does not please us here to examine more laboriously the difference of one year, of which Renaudot doubts.
[9] Probably the deeds of St. Theonas were committed to writing and perhaps perished in that terrible persecution of Diocletian, is said there to have built a church which arose after the death of this excellent Prelate. Certainly there are now some things narrated of him which are taken from the Acts of St. Peter, martyr and his successor, concerning which Pagi in the Criticism of Baronius at the year of Christ 310, number 4, passes such a judgment: Further, the vision of the same St. Peter concerning Arius, and the Acts of his martyrdom, as well those which are read in Surius as those which were published in Greek and Latin by Combefis, bear various marks of falsity and forgery. For besides those observed by Baronius, it is said in them that a certain Millius was bishop of Alexandria; that St. Heraclas ruled the church of Alexandria after St. Dionysius and Maximus; and that the faithful wished to lay the body of St. Peter in the church sacred to St. Theonas — all which are foreign to the truth: for that church was not yet built; since Athanasius in his first Apology testifies that St. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, who sat after Theonas, took care to have it built. But those Acts will have to be discussed at length on the XXVI day of November, on which the feast of St. Peter, martyr and prelate of Alexandria, is celebrated in the Roman Martyrology. Meanwhile there may be consulted Tillemont, volume 5 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 755, and Rémi Ceillier the Benedictine, in the General History of Sacred Writers, volume IV, chapter 1, article 5, where more indications of forgery are alleged.
[10] Further, lest anyone be deceived in reading the deeds of St. Theonas under the name of the Mother of God, which are commonly circulated among the Egyptians or Arabs, we shall excerpt them from Eusèbe Renaudot, and for caution's sake shall add to them his censure or our own. That man, then, most skilled in Oriental matters, in the History cited above, page 50, thus begins his narration, drawn together from divers Oriental authors: Very few things are handed down to memory concerning Theonas; this chiefly, that, since hitherto the Christians were compelled to celebrate prayers and synaxes in caves and remote places on account of the savagery of the persecution, he himself built a church under the name of blessed Mary, which he called Tamaoutha; namely θαύματα, as one may conjecture, from miracles. Certainly that there was at Alexandria a most ancient church called MUALLACA, otherwise the Catholic, as we learn from the Coptic Pontifical, and which was consecrated under the title of the Mother of God, all the histories of the Christian Arabs teach us. Whether it be the very one which Severus, Eutychius, and Elmacin write to have been built by Theonas, or that which Athanasius testifies was called by the name of Theonas and was completed by Alexander, we cannot affirm.
[11] Nor indeed does it seem to agree with the reckoning of the times that at that period a sacred building should be raised under the invocation of the holy Virgin. But it may have come to pass that, when by imperial edicts nearly all the churches had been thrown down, which does not seem improbable to us. a new one was raised by Theonas. Of this must be understood the words of the Ethiopic Synaxary, where the Ethiopian, or rather Ludolf, wrote that Theonas built a tower to blessed Mary. Although in this place Renaudot hints that it does not agree with the reckoning of the times that a temple should then be built under the invocation of the Mother of God, yet we here note in passing that this agrees excellently with the first years of Diocletian's reign; concerning which time Eusebius, book 8 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 1, after other things renders this eyewitness testimony: Likewise you would have seen the highest honor, respect, and goodwill paid to each of the prelates of the churches by all, both private persons and governors of provinces. And now, who could describe in full the innumerable crowd of men daily taking refuge in the faith of Christ, who the number of churches in each city, who the illustrious concourses of the peoples in the sacred buildings? Whereby it came to pass that, being no longer content with the ancient buildings, they raised in each city spacious churches from the very foundations. From these things it is at least gathered that in the Coptic Martyrology and the Ethiopic Synaxary nothing improbable is narrated concerning this building of the church. But let us pass on to other things.
[12] According to Renaudot, In the same place, on the following page, the praised Renaudot reports another history from an author of the tenth century in these words: Under this patriarch was born Peter the martyr, who afterwards governed the church of Alexandria most holily and made it illustrious by the shedding of his blood. His birth, obtained by a miracle, Severus narrates in this manner. There was a certain priest
pious, with his wife, a most holy woman; both firm in the faith, and they passed their life in good works according to the precepts of the Christian religion. They lacked offspring, which afflicted them with no small grief. Whence the priest, intent upon continual fastings and prayers and almsdeeds, besought God that he might be able to receive a son. But when the festival of the Apostles Peter and Paul was being celebrated, which the Christian people celebrated with a great concourse at the church, that priest and his wife saw the faithful bringing their sons before the images of the Saints, and anointing them with the oil of the lamp which burned before them, for the sake of obtaining a blessing. Being the more moved by that spectacle, because it renewed the memory of their own childlessness, having received the sacred mysteries, they returned home praising God.
[13] Arab writers That very night they saw in a dream two men in patriarchal array, who said to the woman that she should not be afflicted with sadness; for that, their prayers being heard, God would give them a son, who not only should close their eyes, but should be the father of a great multitude of men, whose fame and sanctity should shine forth like that of the prophet Samuel, because he was to be a son of promise. Therefore when it dawns, say they, go to Theonas the patriarch, and signify all these things to him, that he may bless thee: for God through His mercy will give thee a blessed son. And when the woman had done this, a little after she became pregnant, and through all the time in which she carried her womb she persevered in prayers, fastings, and continence until the feast of the Apostles; and on that very day she bore a boy, to the greatest joy of the parents and of Theonas the patriarch himself. He ordered the name of Peter to be given to the boy. When he had come to the third year of his age, they offered him to the Patriarch, who baptized him. When he was in his fifth year, being delivered to masters for instruction, he profited so much in a short time that in the seventh year of his age he was ordained lector; in the twelfth, Deacon. At last, the seventeenth year being completed, he was ordained priest, since among the Deacons he was eminent in learning and in holiness of manners, and especially since day and night he did not withdraw from the ministry of the church. These things concerning the life of Peter, before he was taken to the episcopate, Severus drew from Acts which have been preserved among the Arabs, such as are extant in many copies, both among the Greeks and among the Latins; and a few things shall be said of them in his history. But in the Latin and Greek Acts in Surius or Combefis those circumstances of the nativity are not found, concerning which judgment will be passed below.
[14] Meanwhile let us pursue other matters pertaining to St. Theonas, certain fabulous deeds, and written by the Arabs, which Renaudot on page 52 thus abridged: While Theonas sat, there arose the heresy of Sabellius, who impugned the Trinity of the divine Persons, and asserted the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be one person. When he had come to Alexandria, many being already led away into his error, he came impudently to the church, when Theonas was in it, and sent men to challenge him to dispute with him concerning the faith, on this condition, that if Theonas could not convict him of error, he should come over to his opinion; but that Sabellius himself would afterwards show before the people how grievously Theonas was deceived in matters of faith. He, despising the heresiarch, sent Peter the priest, charging him to check the man's audacity. Sabellius complained of the pride of Theonas, who sent to him none other than a mere youth. Peter said that, trusting in the help of God, like David against the giant Goliath, he came forth against him, and would confute his blasphemies. And when he had made his address to him, and had refuted his impiety, Sabellius, seized with a dizziness, fell to the ground and died; and at the same time the memory of his heresy was utterly extinguished.
[15] But Renaudot rightly admonishes the reader after this narration in this manner: as is shown, Anyone would in vain undertake to elucidate these things out of Greek or Latin authors, since they manifestly conflict with the truth; nor is anything certain found among the Arabs concerning the deeds of Sabellius. It may have come to pass that he came to Alexandria (for he was from Libya Pentapolitana); but the rest are of that kind of incredible things in which the Orientals greatly delight, so that in this kind they are more attentive to gathering up all sweepings than to illustrating the truth. Add that the origin here assigned to the Sabellian heresy contradicts Eusebius of Caesarea, who in book 7 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 6, testifies that Sixtus II, Roman Pontiff, was informed by Dionysius, prelate of Alexandria, concerning the Sabellian heretics, inasmuch as they were at that time increasing. Eusebius in the same place alleges the very words of Dionysius, and in the twenty-sixth chapter of the same seventh book enumerates other lucubrations of that prelate of Alexandria which he composed against Sabellius. If the impious doctrine of Sabellius had already spread abroad under the episcopate of Dionysius, who began to govern the church of Alexandria in the year of Christ 248, and, dying in the year 264, left it to his successor Maximus, how did this heresy of Sabellius arise while Theonas sat, who first ascended that same chair in the year of Christ 282? It is not worth the labor to assail these and other little narratives of this kind with more arguments.
[16] and other things at least uncertain Nevertheless let us patiently hear the last two facts ascribed to St. Theonas, for the reason that they are thus briefly narrated: At last a miracle is reported concerning a demoniac healed by him; who, when he was raging at the threshold of the church and casting stones at those who met him, Peter was ordered to cast out the demon. But he first offered water in a vessel to Theonas, that he might sign it with the blessing of the cross; then, approaching the man, he freed him. To this he adds a second thus: They say that Theonas, being at the point of death, having called together the faithful, priests and laymen, when he saw them weeping because he was leaving them orphans, said: Ye shall not be orphans; for behold your father Peter, who after me shall be patriarch; and that before he died he ordained him. Whatever be the case concerning the demoniac freed by St. Peter (being destitute of surer documents, we can neither affirm nor deny this matter), we do not easily believe that the same Peter, a youth of seventeen or eighteen years, received episcopal ordination from St. Theonas when dying, as is here handed down: for since Peter is said to have been born under the episcopate of St. Theonas, and since the latter sat in the chair of Alexandria for nineteen incomplete years, on this hypothesis it does not seem probable to us that he, being so young, was raised by his predecessor to that same most celebrated chair of the East.
[17] they narrate concerning our Saint, Whence not undeservedly does Renaudot in the same place, page 53, express his judgment upon that whole narration of Severus and of the other Arabs in these words: Most of the things which Severus reports concerning Theonas about the ordination of Peter to the ministry of the priesthood in the seventeenth year of his age, and other miracles, are read in various books of the Orientals; nor yet are they on that account to be held more certain: for from Severus, Elmacin and others copied. But it does not seem to have been possible that an ordination of this kind should have been made against the authority of the canons. But it is a sufficiently probable conjecture that those who first pieced together the history which we have reported — whether Greeks, or Latins, or Arabs — since they had laid it down that he was born under Theonas, in order to weave the whole series of miracles upon one thread, added that he was ordained in his very boyhood and youth, which the reckoning of the times scarcely allows. And indeed, according to authors whose credit is surer than that of all the Arabs, it seems most certain that Peter was of greater age than that he should have been born under Theonas. Since therefore most of the things which are circulated concerning St. Theonas are uncertain, let us at least assign the more probable year of his death.
[18] who in the year 300 departed to the heavenly places. Concerning the time of the see and the death of St. Theonas, our Sollier, in the Treatise on the Patriarchs of Alexandria, page 32 and following, thus discourses: Since it is certain from the aforecited Eusebius, book 7, last chapter, that Peter, the successor of Theonas, presided XII years, and indeed before the persecution FOR NEARLY THREE YEARS, that is, for about three years, it certainly cannot be doubted that he ascended the throne in the year CCC, as the aforepraised Pagi and Tillemont admit. Whence it follows that the times of Theonas are so to be interpreted that from the month of April CCLXXXII to January CCC he could not have held the see save for nineteen years, incomplete at either end. What moved Labbe to couple the death of Theonas with the year CCXCVIII, I cannot attain even by divining. From this chronology Renaudot does not shrink, who in the work now often praised, pages 50 and 51, thus determines the year of St. Theonas's death out of Severus: From the divine MARK, says Severus, to the third year of the patriarchate of Theonas there flowed CCXIX years. But he died on the second of Tubah, or the Egyptian Tybi, when he had sat XIX years, namely in the year of Jesus Christ CCC, at its close: nor indeed is Jerome's Chronicle to be believed free from fault, when it removes the beginnings of his successor Peter as far as the year CCCII: for he administered the church about three years before the persecution of Diocletian; and the persecution began in the year CCCIII.* From both these reasonings you have the most probable time in which St. Theonas departed to the heavenly ones. But since his deeds are uncertain, as we said above, we shall now in the following paragraph consider whether we cannot claim for this Saint of ours the epistle which we shall afterwards transcribe, and from which we shall at least gather in general his prudent and pious disposition.
§ III. Whether the epistle which bears the name of Theonas is to be ascribed to our Saint.
d'Achery, the epistle published under the name of Theonas, Luc d'Achery, in his Spicilegium of the first edition, volume XII, page 545, brought forth from darkness into light an ancient document, to which this title is prefixed: The Epistle of Theonas the Bishop prescribes Christian and political counsels to Lucianus. The first part of this title, which we have distinguished by capital letters, we judge to be found in the manuscript codex itself, and the other to have been added by the Latin translator or by the editor. But since in that title it is not expressed of what city that Theonas administered the episcopate, d'Achery proposes to the reader in the preface before the twelfth volume of his Spicilegium, page XX and following, various conjectures, which we shall now discuss one by one. Since, however, among those conjectures he openly pronounces that this epistle cannot be attributed to our St. Theonas, we shall endeavor with probability to claim the same for this Saint. Wherefore we shall report each and all of the things which Luc d'Achery wrote on this matter in our adversary's own words, lest we should seem to have changed or diminished anything of his arguments.
[20] In the aforesaid preface to the reader, page XX, he thus begins to reason concerning that epistle: which was rendered into Latin from the Greek idiom. We give the epistle of Theonas the bishop to Lucianus at the beginning of these additions. Further, who that Theonas was must be shown by conjecture rather than by affirmation. You may easily recognize a Greek, both from the name and much more from these words of the epistle: He will endeavor to praise the divine Scriptures, which with wonderful diligence and at most lavish expense Ptolemy Philadelphus caused to be translated into our tongue
— namely the Greek tongue, as indeed all who have handed down that matter to memory have judged; which tongue Theonas not obscurely hints that he used. But who and how great he was, or what interpreter he found, I would by no means dare to define. We willingly admit that this original epistle was written in Greek, and we even freely confess that its Latin translator is unknown to us. But nothing can thence be concluded against our St. Theonas, since the Greek idiom was at that time in most common use in Palestine and Egypt and in the other regions of the East, as is clear from the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea and of Dionysius patriarch of Alexandria, and from innumerable other authors of those regions, who left to posterity polemical or historical lucubrations in the Greek tongue.
[21] denies it to our Saint; More to our controversy pertains what d'Achery in the same place and on the following page subjoins in this manner: For my part, in Eusebius, book VII, chapter XXXI (in our Valois edition it is chapter XXXII of that seventh book), I find one Theonas, a certain predecessor of Peter, who held the see of Alexandria blamelessly from the year CCLXXXVIII (rather from the year CCLXXXII, as has been shown above) even to the year CCC. But this epistle cannot have him for its author, since he lived while Diocletian and Maximian reigned, each of whom persecuted the Christians with implacable hatred, far from permitting them to guard the August person, which our Theonas expressly states concerning the emperor of his own time. But this slight little reason of d'Achery we shall easily refute, and shall show from two contemporary witnesses that those Christian ministers of the court agree excellently with the beginning of Diocletian's reign.
[22] but we, from Eusebius of Caesarea, First let Eusebius of Caesarea be heard, who in book 8 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 1, thus narrates the things done in his own age before that famous persecution of Diocletian: What and how great glory and likewise liberty the doctrine of true piety toward the supreme God, first announced to men by Christ, attained among all Greeks and barbarians alike before the persecution stirred up in our memory, we certainly cannot explain according to its desert. An argument might be the kindness of the emperors toward our people, to whom they even committed provinces to be governed, freeing them from all fear of sacrificing on account of the singular benevolence with which they were affected toward our religion. What need is there to speak of those who were employed in the palaces of the emperors? What of the emperors themselves, who gave to their household servants and to their wives, children, and slaves the power of freely carrying out, both in word and in deed, in their own presence, those things which pertained to their religion; permitting them on account of this liberty of their faith to glory and in a manner to display themselves; and embraced them before all their other ministers with a certain especial love? Of which kind was that Dorotheus, who declared the highest benevolence and fidelity toward them, and on that account earned great honor before all magistrates and governors of provinces. Tillemont, volume 5 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 180, asserts that that Dorotheus was successor to Lucianus in the prefecture of the chamberlains, and surmises that the latter departed from among the living before the general persecution of Diocletian.
[23] a contemporary writer, Then Eusebius sets forth the cause of that horrible persecution, and, describing in the following chapters the more illustrious combats of certain Christian champions, thus begins the sixth chapter of the same eighth book: But before all who ever, whether among Greeks or among barbarians, were worthy of admiration and celebrated for fortitude, that season bore the glorious and illustrious martyrs of God, namely Dorotheus and the rest of the chamberlain servants; who, although they had been adorned by the emperors with the prerogative of the highest honor, and were no less loved by them than sons, nevertheless judged the reproaches borne for piety, and the hardships, and the divers kinds of death devised against them, to be in truth of greater price than the glory and delights of this world. Finally, after having recounted the cruel butchery of a certain minister of the court who had breathed out his soul in torments for the Christian faith, he thus concludes: Of this kind was the martyrdom of one of the emperor's chamberlains, worthy indeed of his name: for he was called Peter. But the martyrdoms of the rest, in no way inferior, we shall here omit for brevity's sake. It will suffice to have reported only this, that Dorotheus and Gorgonius, together with many others who ministered in the palace, after combats of this kind, their throats being crushed by the noose, obtained the reward of the divine victory.
[24] Lucius Caecilius, whom Baluze moreover surnames Firmianus Lactantius, and another contemporary witness a contemporary witness of the same most atrocious persecution, in the little work On the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapter 15, indicates a like fury of Diocletian against the Christian ministers of his court in these few words: The emperor therefore raged now not only against his own household, but against all; and first of all he compelled his daughter Valeria and his wife Prisca to be defiled by sacrifice. The once most powerful eunuchs were slain, by whom the palace and he himself before had stood. The most erudite Nicolas le Nourry, a Benedictine, in the Dissertation in which he illustrates this book of Lucius Caecilius, chapter 8, article 5, that is, page 240, observes the following concerning those eunuchs or courtiers of Diocletian: The sense therefore of Caecilius may be that those eunuchs were then most powerful, inasmuch as they were in the highest favor with Diocletian, and accordingly by them both the same emperor and the palace stood. But if you ask who these were, we shall answer you that to nearly all there seems no room for doubt but that they had given in their names to the Christian religion.
[25] But Baluze judges that one of them was Peter, we refute his slight little reason, whose most celebrated martyrdom is described by Eusebius. Why should not Dorotheus, Gorgonius, and the others be numbered with them, of whom the same historiographer makes mention in the same place, and whom he calls τοὺς Βασιλικοὺς παῖδας, that is, as Rufinus renders it, THE KING'S CHAMBERLAINS, and as Valois, THE CHAMBERLAIN SERVANTS? For who indeed does not know that these chamberlains of kings or emperors were nearly all eunuchs? Wherefore the more erudite critics judge that Caecilius speaks of these chamberlains, of whom the same Eusebius wrote. Why then could not Lucianus, to whom Theonas the bishop gave an epistle filled with Christian admonitions, have been numbered before the persecution of Diocletian among his chief eunuchs or chamberlains, and perhaps have preceded Dorotheus the martyr in that office? Indeed I hope that from the adduced words of Eusebius and Caecilius d'Achery's empty scruple will vanish: for I scarcely doubt that a fair judge of antiquity will, on account of these two testimonies of contemporary writers, easily persuade himself that Diocletian for some years of his reign permitted Christian chamberlains to guard the august person, although he afterwards raged vehemently against them. Whence here, in imitation of the common juridical proverb, it may be said: Distinguish the times, and thou wilt reconcile the history.
[26] Let us now proceed to the other conjectures which d'Achery in the same place, page XXI, proposes in this manner: and after all the conjectures, Again, this epistle is not that of Theonas the Arian; since it not obscurely acknowledges the divinity of Christ, and teaches that it is to be preached to the gentiles. D'Achery rightly judges that the author of this epistle was not Theonas the bishop of Marmarica, who on account of his obstinate defense of the Arian heresy was condemned by name in the Council of Nicaea, as may be seen everywhere in the ecclesiastical historiographers. After he had shut off approach to this suspicion of no moment, he subjoins another conjecture, sufficiently plausible and accommodated to the time, in this manner: Perhaps it is that of that Theonas of Cyzicus, whose name may be seen subscribed in the Council of Nicaea, who might have inscribed it to the provost of the chamberlains of Constantine the Great, when he was as yet indeed not a worshipper of Christ, but a worshipper of the name of Christ.
[27] which he proposes to his readers This opinion would not much displease me, had not the emperor Constantine, at that time in which he had not yet embraced the Christian faith, dwelt for the most part in the Gauls, namely until the year of Christ 311 or 312, when he overthrew Maxentius and publicly professed the faith of Christ. But who, without surer testimony, would straightway believe that between a bishop of Cyzicus on the Hellespont and the courtiers of Constantine in Gaul there passed acquaintance or familiar commerce of letters, especially since the Hellespont and the neighboring regions were subject to Galerius Maximian, who hated Constantine and had often laid snares for his life, as Caecilius and Eusebius testify? Hence it follows that a prelate of Cyzicus could not properly call Constantine his own prince, whereas nevertheless the writer of this epistle begins it with this formula of salutation: Theonas the bishop to Lucianus, provost of the chamberlains of OUR most invincible Prince.
[28] in his preface, I ask moreover how Theonas, bishop of Cyzicus on the Hellespont, could generally and truly say that this epistle was written by him peace being now granted to the churches through a good prince, as is read at the beginning of the same epistle: for before the conversion of Constantine the persecution begun by the emperor Diocletian against the Christians in the year of Christ 303 was still being continued by his successors or colleagues over almost the whole world, as is clear from Ruinart and Tillemont out of the trustworthy Acts of the Martyrs. Moreover Lucius Caecilius renders testimony to this persevering persecution, chapter 16, in these few words: The whole earth therefore was harassed, and, except the Gauls, from the East even to the West three most bitter beasts raged. That peace granted to the churches seems therefore rather to suit the first times of Diocletian's reign, who before the general persecution of the year 303 must be reckoned tacitly to have granted peace to the churches, in that before that time he did not order the edict of Aurelian against the Christians and the other decrees of his predecessors to be rigidly observed or committed to execution. From all these things I conclude that this epistle is more probably to be ascribed to St. Theonas, prelate of Alexandria, who perhaps gave it to Lucianus in the year of Christ 290 or 296, when Diocletian dwelt in Egypt, as may be read in Tillemont, volume 5 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, in the chronological index at the aforesaid years.
[29] D'Achery adds to this conjecture another less probable, and which we discuss one by one, and expresses it in these words: Certainly the transcriber of the codex seems to have looked to the times of Aurelian, that emperor's name being affixed to the margin; nor indeed would Eusebius be against it, who asserts that Aurelian at the beginning of his principate favored the Christians very greatly, although afterwards he raged against them monstrously. But no bishop Theonas of that age appears, to whom it may be permitted to ascribe this exhortation. Wherefore I have thought that the judgment of that matter should rather be left to the judicious reader than that anything should be rashly asserted concerning it. But besides that no bishop Theonas appears in that age, we also nowhere find so many Christian chamberlains of Aurelian, whereas nevertheless the author of that hortatory epistle writes thus below: I do not therefore, my Lucianus, either think or wish that thou shouldst boast that MANY from the palace of the Prince have through thee come to the acknowledgment of the truth. But those many who in the palace of the Prince had come to the acknowledgment of the true faith are rather found in the court of Diocletian, as we have reported above from Eusebius and Caecilius. Wherefore neither the name of Aurelian, which perhaps an unskilled copyist wrote in the margin of the codex, nor the conjecture of d'Achery deduced therefrom
has thus far so moved us that on that account we should deny that venerable instrument of antiquity to St. Theonas, prelate of Alexandria.
[30] Finally d'Achery, weary of divining, sets this coping-stone upon all his conjectures: that venerable monument of antiquity, For the rest, whoever at last that Theonas may be, this epistle can on no ground be brought under suspicion of falsehood: for whether you regard the style or the argument, you will find nothing in it that is not sincere; the style, simple and uncombed, is redolent of Christian simplicity. The argument, further, is nothing at all like those on account of which we have of old heard of obscure pamphlets foisted upon illustrious authors. For what rascal would be of so hardened a brow as to lie gratuitously under the show of piety? Finally, very many things support the antiquity of this lucubration, and this in the first place, that it is clear that it was published under an emperor not yet Christian, that is, at the beginning of the fourth century at the latest; wherefore it ought to be received by us with the greater veneration, as a sacred monument of a holier age. On account of this simplicity of style and the other tokens of sincerity we do not doubt of the authentic credit of that hortatory epistle, and we have therefore claimed it for St. Theonas of Alexandria, that from that sacred monument of the ancient age no small praise of sanctity and prudence might redound upon our Saint of today.
[31] This opinion of ours is favored by those Benedictines who took care to have d'Achery's Spicilegium reprinted, those Benedictines agreeing, and who in the second edition of that work, volume 3, page 297 and following, illustrated the same epistle with notes, and, having reduced d'Achery's conjectures into a compendium, thus delivered their judgment concerning them: It has pleased us to exhibit here these conjectures of d'Achery, because we long ago promised that nothing should be omitted by us from his prefaces. For the rest, that we may dissemble nothing, they had better have been passed over. For what he opines concerning Constantine is worth nothing; nor did any writer of that age think so meanly and so poorly of his piety as to warn the chamberlains that art must be employed for introducing discourse concerning Christ in his presence; especially after, Licinius being conquered, he obtained the empire of those regions in which the Greek tongue flourished: for then, nay, from the time when Maxentius was conquered, he so favored the Christians that he not only allowed but ordered disputations to be held in his presence concerning the faith which they professed.
[32] As concerns Aurelian, he was indeed at the beginning kindly toward our people, and so favored our faith that, when the bishops of the East complained that Paul of Samosata, driven from the see of Antioch by their judgment, was too obstinately retaining it, he wrote back that they must stand by that sentence which the bishop at Rome and the other prelates of Italy assembled had given, as Eusebius hands down, Ecclesiastical History, book 7, chapter 30. who took care of the second edition of d'Achery's Spicilegium, For the rest, since we have known no bishop Theonas in his reign, and likewise since no ancient writer, at least of those who have come down to us, has handed down that that prince set Christians over the services of his palace, we dare affirm nothing concerning him. What then shall we say? That Theonas, bishop of Cyzicus, was indeed the writer of this epistle, but that Lucianus served Licinius, who, though most obstinate in his own superstition, seemed to follow our people with no less love than Constantine? If this pleases anyone, it may certainly be borne.
[33] we more probably ascribe it to our Saint. But that feigned favor of Licinius toward the Christians did not last long, and was afterwards changed into an open persecution of the same. Therefore this last conjecture might be borne, if it were established for us that Theonas presided over the church of Cyzicus before the war which Licinius waged against Constantine in the year 314, and that the city of Cyzicus was then under the dominion of Licinius, since the author of the epistle calls the Prince of whom he writes ours. Since the truth of those conditions is thus far hidden from us, we prefer to attribute this epistle to our St. Theonas; which opinion the praised editors also at last indicate as pleasing them better, in these words: But I prefer this, that the epistle was written by Theonas, bishop of Alexandria, to Lucianus, who ministered in the palace of Diocletian, before that prince, deluded by the depraved arts of Galerius Maximian, declared war upon the Christian faith: for that in the whole empire, before that most atrocious persecution, the condition of the Christians was most happy, and also that the palace was filled with our people, whom the emperor loved as sons, Eusebius is the authority, book 8, chapter 1 and chapter 6. Now nothing remains save that we exhibit this very epistle, and gather from it the serpentine prudence of our Saint and his dove-like simplicity (I use the evangelical similitude), which virtues Christ in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10, verse 16, thus commended to His disciples: Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore prudent as serpents, and simple as doves.
§ IV. The hortatory epistle which was given to a Christian chamberlain of a heathen emperor, and which we think was more probably written by our Saint.
Theonas admonishes Lucianus, prefect of the chamberlains, Theonas the bishop to Lucianus, Provost of the Chamberlains of our most invincible Prince.
I give thanks to almighty God and to our Lord Jesus Christ, who has not ceased to manifest His faith throughout the whole world as the sole remedy of our salvation, and even to enlarge it amid the persecutions of tyrants: nay, by the storms of persecutions it has shone out like gold purified in the furnace, and its truth and loftiness has shone more and more always, so that now, peace being granted to the churches through a good Prince, the works of the Christians may shine even before unbelievers, and thence may be glorified your Father who is God in the heavens; which, as the chief thing, must be sought and desired by us for our salvation, if we desire to be Christians in fact rather than in words. For if we seek our own glory, we are aiming at a vain and perishable thing, and one which leads us ourselves to death: but the glory of the Father and of the Son, who was fixed to the cross for our salvation, makes us safe unto everlasting redemption, which is the greatest expectation of Christians.
[35] I do not therefore, my Lucianus, either think or wish that thou shouldst boast that many from the palace of the Prince have through thee come to the acknowledgment of the truth, that he serve his heathen emperor but it rather becomes thee to render thanks to our God, who has made thee a good instrument unto a good work, and has raised thee up before the Prince, that thou mightest spread abroad the odor of the Christian name unto His glory and the salvation of many. For the more the Prince himself, not yet enrolled in the Christian religion, has entrusted his life and his body to be cared for by Christians themselves, as being more faithful, so much the more does it become you to be the more solicitous, and the more diligent and provident for his safety and care, that thereby the name of Christ may be very greatly glorified, and His faith through you, who cherish the Prince, may daily be increased: for whereas some former Princes once thought us evildoers and filled with every crime, yet now, seeing your good works, they cannot but glorify Christ Himself. Therefore you must strive with the utmost effort that you feel nothing base or dishonorable — not to name anything shameful — lest the name of Christ be blasphemed through your very selves.
[36] Far be it from you that you should sell to anyone for a price access to the Prince; without any vice of avarice or that, overcome either by entreaties or by a price, you should in any wise suggest dishonorable things to the Prince. Let all ardor of avarice depart from you, which works idolatry rather than the religion of Christ. No base gain, no duplicity, can befit a Christian, who embraces Christ, simple and naked. Let no scurrility or foul speech be found among you. Let all things be transacted with modesty, courtesy, affability, and justice, that in all things the name of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified.
[37] Perform your offices, to which you are severally appointed, faithfully, with all fear of God and love of the Prince, and with exact diligence. The command of the Prince, which does not offend God, think to have proceeded from God Himself; fulfill it with love alike and fear, and with all cheerfulness. For there is nothing that so refreshes a man wearied with great agitations as the fitting cheerfulness and the kindly patience of an intimate servant; nor again does any other thing on the contrary so affect and sadden him with disturbance as the sadness and impatience and the muttering of the servant himself. Let these things be far from you Christians, who walk in the zeal of the faith; but that God may be honored in your own selves, suppress and trample down all vices of mind and body. Put on patience and affability; be filled with the virtues and the hope of Christ. Bear all things for the sake of your Creator Himself, suffer all things, conquer and overthrow [*] all things, that you may gain Christ the Lord. Great are these things and full of labors; but he who "strives in the contest abstains from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one."
[38] But since, as I perceive, you are enrolled in divers offices, and he teaches him, and thou, Lucianus, art called Provost of them all, all of whom, by the grace of Christ granted thee, thou art able both to rule and to instruct, I am sure it will not displease thee that I should also report to thee some things in particular and summarily concerning those offices, according as I shall have perceived. For I hear that one of you keeps the private moneys of the Prince; another the imperial garments and ornaments; another the precious vessels; another the books, whom I understand not yet to be of the believers; another other furniture. And how these matters seem to me to be handled, I shall indicate in a few words.
[39] Let him who holds the private moneys of the Prince keep all things under a sure reckoning; how the keeper of the treasury, let him be ready always to render a sure account of all things: let him write down everything, even, if it be possible, before he hands the moneys to another: let him never trust to memory, which, drawn daily in divers directions, easily slips, so that without writing we sometimes affirm out of our heart even things which in no wise were; nor let a writing of this kind be careless, but such as may easily and clearly lay open all things, and leave the mind of the inquirer without scruple or doubt: which will easily be done if what is received be written distinctly and by itself, and at what time, and by whom it was received, and in what place. Likewise also let what is paid out to others, or expended at the Prince's command, be set down by itself in its own order; let that servant be faithful and prudent, that the Lord may rejoice to have set him over His goods, and may glorify Christ in him.
[40] the keeper of the garments, Nor shall his diligence and care be less who holds the garments and the imperial ornaments, all which let him have under a most sure inventory, and let him note what they are, of what sort, in what places laid away, when he received them, and from whom; whether they be stained or without stain: let him preserve all these by his own diligence; let him often review them, often handle them, that they may be the more easily recognized: let all be ready to his hand, all prepared: the mind of the Prince who is always asking, or of his Provost, in every thing asked for, most clear
let him render, yet so that all things be done with humility and cheerful patience, and that the name of Christ be praised even in a small matter.
[41] of the precious vessels, In like manner let him act to whose fidelity are entrusted the vessels of silver, of gold, of crystal, or of murrhine, whether for food or for drink: let him arrange all, note all, and count up by his own diligence how many and of what sort are the precious stones in them; let him consider all things with great prudence; let him bring forth all in their own places and times; to whom he gives, and when, and from whom he receives them, let him most diligently look, lest error and evil suspicion, and that with the greater loss, arise in matters of price.
[42] and of the library But he shall be chief among you and most diligent to whom the Prince shall have entrusted the keeping of the books; him the Prince will choose for himself out of tested learning, a man grave and fit for great matters, and prepared to answer all inquiries — such as Philadelphus chose for himself in this matter, Aristeas his intimate chamberlain, and set him over that most noble library, whom he sent with the greatest gifts as legate to Eleazar for the translating of the sacred Scripture: this same man wrote fully the history of the seventy Interpreters. If therefore it should come to pass that one of the believers in Christ be called to this very office, let him too not despise secular letters and the wits of the gentiles, which delight the Prince. The poets are to be praised for the greatness of their genius, for the keenness of their inventions, for propriety of expression and the highest eloquence: the orators are to be praised, the philosophers are to be praised in their own kind: the historians are to be praised, who explain to us the order of things done, the manners and institutions of our forefathers, who show a rule of living from the deeds of the ancients. And meanwhile he will endeavor to have the divine Scriptures praised also, which with wonderful diligence and at most lavish expense Ptolemy Philadelphus caused to be translated into our tongue: and meanwhile the Gospel too will be praised, and the Apostle, as divine oracles: mention of Christ may arise, His sole Divinity will little by little be explained; all these things might come to pass with the help of Christ.
[43] and the other ministers of the court, Let him therefore know all the books which the Prince has; let him often turn them over, and arrange them handsomely in their own order by an index: but if he shall take care to have new or old ones transcribed, let him strive to have the most correct copyists. But if this cannot be done, let him appoint learned men for the correcting, and let him justly satisfy them for their labors: let him likewise procure that old codices be repaired as need requires, and let him adorn them not so much for superstitious expense as for useful ornament: and so let him not affect to have whole codices written on purple parchments and in golden letters, unless the Prince shall have specially commanded it; yet let him follow out all things pleasing to Caesar with the greatest obedience. Let him suggest to the Prince, so far as he can and with all modesty, that he read, or hear read, those books which befit both his estate and his honor, and are for his profit rather than only for his pleasure: let him himself first know them thoroughly; then let him often praise them in the Prince's presence, and conveniently set forth the testimony and authorities of those who approve them, lest he should seem to rely on his own judgment only.
[44] But those who have to care for the Prince's body, let them be in all things as ready as possible, over whom he presides, with a countenance always cheerful, as we have said; sometimes witty, but always with the greatest modesty, which let him praise in you all above other things, and let him know that it comes from the very religion of Christ. Be ye also all of you clean and neat in body and in garments, yet with no superfluity or affectation to be marked, lest Christian modesty be disfigured. Let all things be prepared in their own times, and arranged in their own order as well as possible. Let there be order among you and diligence, lest confusion in the work, or loss of things, in any way arise. Let convenient places be arranged and adorned according to the capacity and dignity of the places. Let your servants also, moreover, be most honorable, let them be composed and modest, and as suitable as possible to you; whom instruct and teach in true doctrine with all patience and the charity of Christ; but if they neglect and make light of your instructions, cast them off from you, lest their wickedness in any way redound upon you: for we have sometimes seen, and often heard, of masters defamed through the malignity of servants.
[45] If the Prince shall go to the Augusta, or she to him, then be ye also most composed in eyes and gesture and in all words: he ought to instruct, let her see your continence and modesty: let her companions and attendants see, let them see and wonder, and thence praise in your very selves Jesus Christ our Lord. Let your speech be always sparing and modest, and seasoned with religion as with salt. Let there be no envy at all among you, or contention, which would lead you into all confusion and division, and so also would bring you into the hatred of Christ and of the Prince and into the utmost abomination, nor could a stone of your building stand upon a stone. And thou, dearest Lucianus, since thou art wise, gladly bear with the unwise, that they too may become wise.
[46] that all may discharge their office piously and exactly. Bring trouble upon no one, provoke no one to anger. If injury be done you, look unto Jesus Christ, and even as you desire that He Himself forgive you, so do you also forgive them, and then too you shall overthrow all envy, and shall bruise the head of the ancient serpent, who with all craft lies in wait for your good works and successes. Let not a day pass but that at a convenient time given you read something of the sacred readings, that you contemplate something, nor cast off altogether the letters of sacred Scripture; nothing so feeds the soul and enriches the mind as sacred readings do. But from them take chiefly this fruit, that by your patience you discharge your offices justly and piously, that is, in the charity of Christ, and that you despise all transitory things for the sake of His eternal promises, which indeed surpass all human sense and understanding, and will lead your very selves into perpetual happiness. Fare thou happily in Christ, my lord Lucianus.
In these pious admonitions the holy prudence of our Prelate and his prudent sanctity shine forth. Wherefore, to the greater glory of St. Theonas, prelate of Alexandria, we have here represented them to the curious reader, and have before endeavored to claim them for him; and now we set an end to our historical Commentary.
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