Telesphorus

ON ST. TELESPHORUS, POPE AND MARTYR.

About the year of Christ 153.

Telesphorus, Pope and Martyr (St.)

The life of the holy Pope and Martyr Telesphorus was written and illustrated with notes by Zegerus Paullus, theologian of the Carmelite Order and Subprior of the Cologne monastery. He is venerated by that sacred Order on the 5th of January, although the martyrologies of Hrabanus, Notker, and certain other manuscripts record his feast on the 2nd of January. The book on the Roman Pontiffs, and another published under the name of Liutprand of Pavia, as well as Abbo of Fleury, write that he was crowned with martyrdom on the 4th day before the Nones of January. Clement VIII restored this feast, or rather instituted its commemoration, as Gavantus testifies in his commentary on the rubrics of the Breviary, section 7, chapter 3.

LIFE, BY THE REVEREND FATHER SEGERUS PAULLUS,

THEOLOGIAN OF THE CARMELITE ORDER.

Telesphorus, Pope and Martyr (St.)

By Segerus Paullus.

Section I. Under the Emperor Antoninus, with the Church in a flourishing state, the ancient monastic institute of the Prophetic, or Elian, Order also flourishes.

[1] When in the year of Christ one hundred and forty, upon the death of the Emperor Hadrian, Antoninus had been raised to the summit of the Roman Empire, the Christian faith throughout the world, which under the Emperor Hadrian had begun to find some respite from the fury of persecution, appeared to enjoy a more ample peace under this same Antoninus. For just as in the time of Hadrian, the blessed Quadratus,^a a Prophet and Bishop of Athens, and St. Aristides,^b a Christian philosopher, had presented apologetic treatises on behalf of the Church to the Emperor, from which he, having learned of the innocence of the faithful, judged that they ought to be spared; so too under the reign of Antoninus, the blessed Justin,^c a Christian theologian formerly a philosopher, teaching at Rome, St. Justin writes an apology for the Christians. deterred the Emperor from tormenting Christians by presenting to him and to the Senate an apologetic book. Nevertheless, not by the Emperor's command but rather by the sentence of the provincial governors and the fury of the pagans, some were recorded as having suffered martyrdom under this same Caesar (as did St. Telesphorus himself, the Pope), namely before Justin delivered his Apology. For Antoninus himself, surnamed Pius, maintained his Empire by goodness, love, and authority, like a second Solomon, in perpetual peace, having waged no war at all, for twenty-two years and more; frequently repeating that saying of Scipio: "It is better to preserve one citizen than to destroy a thousand enemies" (Satius est unum civem conservare, quam mille hostes perdere*); and declaring that a principate ought to begin not with severity but with clemency.

[2] The ancient institute of the Prophet Elijah, or of the Carmelites. Under this peaceful Emperor, therefore, not only did the faithful of Christ behold a happier state of the Church, but the monastic institute of the Prophetic or Elian Order also flourished. This ancient Carmelite religious order, from the time of the great Prophet Elijah to the present, although variously modified, has been continued by hereditary succession,^d as several Roman Pontiffs attest; and in this very age of St. Telesphorus it had no few followers of both sexes in various parts of the world, to such an extent that the fame and name of this ancient religious order had reached even the ears of the pagan Emperor Antoninus himself. For at that time, when men distinguished in learning and writings were held in esteem by the Emperor (who is recorded to have transacted no business without consulting serious men), there flourished Galen, the foremost of physicians, the philosopher Proclus, Aulus Gellius, Balbinus, and many others.

NOTES OF THE SAME REVEREND FATHER SEGERUS PAULLUS ON THE LIFE OF ST. TELESPHORUS.

The life of this Pontiff is found briefly written in an ancient manuscript codex of the Carthusian monastery of Cologne, Those who wrote about St. Telesphorus. also in Petrus de Natalibus, book 2, chapter 46; Cornelius Grasius the Carthusian, volume 1; and Pedro de Ribadeneira of the Society of Jesus. We have made use of these among other authors in composing this life. Furthermore, the following also make mention of this Telesphorus: the Roman Martyrology, and those of Bede, Usuard, Ado, ancient manuscripts, and all later ones. Moreover, among ancient writers, Irenaeus, Epiphanius, Eusebius, Optatus, Tertullian, Augustine, Nicephorus, and others cited by Baronius in his Notes on the Martyrology make mention of him. For more, see below at section 3.

^a That we call St. Quadratus the Bishop (on whom see the Roman Martyrology, May 26) a Prophet above others, St. Quadratus, Bishop of Athens, a Prophet and Carmelite, as were many others. we were taught by Miltiades, an ancient writer (who flourished in the year of Christ 173), as cited by Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 16, where the following is read: "In the same book he recounts the prophets of the New Testament, among whom he numbers a certain Ammias and Quadratus." And shortly after, the aforesaid Miltiades reckons this same Quadratus of Athens and Ammias of Philadelphia among the prophets of the new law, together with Saints Agabus, Judas, Silas, and the daughters of Philip. These are called prophets not merely because they were endowed with the gift or spirit of prophecy, for that was common to many other saints of those times as well, but above all because they were followers of the Prophetic Order, whose members were formerly called "sons of the prophets," that is, disciples, and by St. Jerome are termed monks of the old law. And for this reason the same persons mentioned above -- Agabus, Judas, Silas, and certain others -- are expressly reckoned among the men of the Elian or Prophetic Order by Paleonydorus and Didacus de Coria in their Annals.

^b On the holy Christian philosopher Aristides, see the Roman Martyrology for the 31st day of August.

^c On St. Justin, see the 13th of April.

^d That the Carmelite Order has retained hereditary succession from the time of St. Elijah The Carmelites descend from Elijah. to the present, as stated in this first section, is attested, beyond other more recent Roman Pontiffs, by Sixtus IV in the Bull that begins Dum attenta meditatione, etc., given at Rome in the year of Christ 1476, on the 4th day before the Kalends of December; by Julius II in the year 1504; and by Gregory XIII in the year 1577. All of these with one voice declare, after other things: "And among the other professors of Regular Orders fighting in the firmament of the Catholic faith, shining with special charity as a mirror and exemplar of religion, and holding the hereditary succession of the holy Prophets Elijah, and Elisha, and Enoch, St. Enoch of Anathim, July 7. as well as of other holy Fathers who dwelt on the holy Mount Carmel near the fountain of Elijah, etc." Thus they speak. Let simpler readers know, however, that the aforesaid St. Enoch is not the one who was translated long before the time of Elijah (Genesis 5), but another far younger, a disciple of John the Baptist and of Christ, who was afterward made Bishop of Nicopolis by the Apostles, concerning whom Paleonydorus writes, book 2, chapter 2; the Bibliotheca Tigurina edition of 1583, folio 214, where he is called Enochus de Anathim; and we treat of him more fully elsewhere, in his life at the 7th day of July.

Not a few other religious of this Institute, whom we have stated in this first section to have flourished in the very century of St. Telesphorus, these notes do not allow us to enumerate by name; we shall treat of them more fully in our Annals at the same century, and in the lives of certain saints to be composed separately -- as, among others, of St. Serapion, St. Serapion, Bishop of Antioch, October 30. the eighth Bishop of Antioch, most illustrious for his learning, who from the Carmelite Order was raised to that see in the year of Christ 191, as Eusebius testifies in his Chronicle. The Carmelite Order, by authority of the Apostolic See, celebrates his annual feast as a member of the same Order on the 30th day of October (on which day he is also noted in the Roman Martyrology) with a double office to the present day.

*Rather 138.

Section II. St. Telesphorus was a follower of the Carmelite religious order, which at this time was known even to pagan writers.

[3] Now Balbinus,^a while he was among those familiar to the Emperor, in a certain letter he wrote to him, made mention of this ancient religious order of Mount Carmel, of which we are speaking, in the following manner: "There is a mountain called Carmel, on which there is an ancient religion and venerable holiness. Elijah always offered sacrifices to God there; and even now traces of the altar of sacrifices can be seen." Thus he wrote. And indeed mention of the altar and oracle of this mountain, and consequently of the religious worship practiced there, is found even before these times among pagan writers, such as Cornelius Tacitus,^b the Roman knight, in the year of Christ 110, and Suetonius Tranquillus in the year 120, when each was writing an account of the deeds of the Emperor Vespasian. Cornelius indeed writes in this manner: "Between Judaea and Syria lies Carmel, as they call the mountain. And a god. There is neither image of the god nor temple (so the elders have handed down), only an altar and reverence. When Vespasian was sacrificing there, while he was turning over secret hopes in his mind, Basilides^c the priest, upon inspecting the entrails again and again, said: 'Whatever it is you are planning, Vespasian, whether to build a house, or to extend your fields, or to enlarge your holdings of slaves, a great seat is given to you, vast boundaries, a multitude of men.'" Thus he wrote, among other things. And the words of Suetonius^d concerning Vespasian, chapter Vespasian consults the oracle on Carmel. 5, where he treats of the presages and signs that preceded his rule, are these: "In Judaea, when he consulted the oracle of the Carmelian god, the lots so confirmed him that whatever he thought or wished in his mind, however great, they promised would come to pass." So writes Suetonius. But this oracle of God (says Basilius Augussola, theologian and apostolic orator) was certainly not one of the pagans, who did not dwell there, nor is it evident that he sought it from the Jews, against whom he was marching as enemies; whence it remains to be confirmed that Carmelite religious were dwelling there. Moreover, Suetonius speaks of the confirmation of the lots in the manner of the pagans. So writes he. The same is to be understood of Cornelius Tacitus, when he falsely asserts that Basilides was engaged in sacrifice in the same pagan rite; for this man was a Catholic, preeminent in holiness, and was the rector or abbot of the religious of Carmel.

[4] Moreover, Josephus of Antioch, who was nearly contemporary with them and who flourished as a Catholic writer in the year of Christ 130, in his book entitled On the Perfect Soldiery of the Primitive Church, chapter 12 (on which more below), remembers the religious of Mount Carmel far more clearly and truly than Suetonius and Cornelius. I here pass over Philo the Jew, a contemporary of St. Peter the Apostle, well known to learned men, who commemorates many of the religious men of this institute The Essene religious. under the name of the Essenes. Likewise the chronicle or most ancient history of the Romans, which confirms the foregoing more clearly than daylight, on which we shall speak elsewhere. Having laid these foundations as necessary on account of certain unbelievers and those ignorant of our domestic history, let us turn our discourse to the Acts, albeit brief, of St. Telesphorus, of whom we are treating.

^a Of this letter of Balbinus to the Emperor Antoninus, the following make mention: Balbinus writes of the Carmelite religion. Philippus Ribotus, book 3, On the Particular Deeds of the Carmelites, chapter 5, who flourished in the year of Christ 1395; Arnoldus Bostius, in Patronatus Marianus, chapter 2, in the year 1460; Joannes Paleonydorus, book 1, chapter 6, in the year 1480; Didacus de Coria, Dilucidarium Carmelitanum, book 1, chapter 26, in the year 1570; and others. Moreover, when I inquire who this Balbinus was, certainly a celebrated man and of noted dignity, there comes to hand a manuscript index of the Roman Pontiffs, written in the time of Pope Liberius, which is preserved among the Fathers of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp; from which the following was transcribed: "Telesphorus, eleven years, etc. He lived in the times of Antoninus Macrinus, from the consulship of Titianus and Gallicanus, up to Caesar and Balbinus." So it reads there. It is therefore possible that this Balbinus (otherwise Publius Caelius Balbinus Vibullus Pius, but called by Baronius at the year of Christ 139 simply Vibullus Pius), who is said to have held the consulship in the twentieth year of the Emperor Hadrian, afterward wrote the aforesaid letter to the Emperor Antoninus (who succeeded Hadrian in the Empire). But let these things be said by conjecture, as long as I have nothing else certain about him. I say only this: that the letter seems to have been written rather to Antoninus the First of that name than to the Second, Third, or Fourth. Partly because this Emperor Antoninus is always placed by all cited authors absolutely, without a surname; and in this manner, when we name, for example, Pope Gregory or the Emperor Constantine absolutely, we understand the first of that name rather than another. Partly also because the time of this Balbinus seems to cohere better with this Antoninus. If any adversary nonetheless presses that the Second, Third, or Fourth Antoninus of that name could also be meant, so be it: nevertheless nothing will be derogated from the antiquity of this letter, since all those Antonines lived within only sixty years. For the second of that name, surnamed Verus, succeeded Antoninus the First (who was surnamed Pius) in the year of Christ rather 161, March 6 163. The third, surnamed Caracalla, entered upon the Empire in the year 211, February 4 313; and the fourth, surnamed Heliogabalus, in the year 218, July 7 220, who spent only four years in the Empire living a most foul life. See Sebastianus Verronius, book 6, from chapter 16 to 25; Baronius in the Annals, etc.

^b As to the authority of Cornelius Tacitus, we have adduced from that pagan author here only those things that suited our purpose. We shall discuss his words more fully elsewhere, in the History of the Solemn Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, at the 16th day of July; A temple dedicated to the living Virgin. when we shall prove that the first temple in the whole world was erected and consecrated by the Carmelites to the Virgin Mother of God on Mount Carmel in the year of Christ 38, while she was still living, and not in the year 83, as is erroneously read with the numbers reversed in the Greater Mirror of the Order, whence the book of John, the 44th Bishop of Jerusalem, was drawn, and certain others took occasion to err. Again on Cornelius Tacitus, more below.

^c On the blessed Basilides, a presbyter and rector, or abbot, of this Order on Mount Carmel, among others Didacus de Coria treats, book 7, chapter 3, throughout, and at length Petrus Thomas de Saracenis in the Menologium, part 1, folios 77-81; from which and from other sources it is sufficiently clear that this Basilides was not a pagan and a stranger, but a Catholic priest, a dweller on Carmel, a holy man; and that he sacrificed not in the pagan rite but in the manner of Christians, through the unbloody sacrifice of the altar, not to the gods of the nations but to the living God of heaven, and that on an altar and in a temple sacred to the Virgin Mother of God, in the presence of Vespasian (which occurred in the year of Christ 68, at the very beginning of the Jewish war, five years before the destruction of the city of Jerusalem; see Verronius on Nero). Although Cornelius Tacitus the pagan, out of hatred for Christians and in favor of his own nation, falsely records that the aforesaid events occurred otherwise. Indeed Tertullian, a most ancient man of the most celebrated reputation (who flourished not long after Cornelius, in the year of Christ 197), Tacitus is a liar. says the following about the same man in his Apologeticum, chapter 15: "But indeed this same Cornelius Tacitus, truly the most loquacious of liars, relates in the same history..." Thus Tertullian. And why should we marvel if we convict him of falsehood, when he denies there was a temple on Carmel, but only an altar -- with Josephus of Antioch, of whom below, expressly contradicting him? Much more is to be said about the aforesaid Basilides -- why we call him an abbot, and how that history of the oracle of Carmel then given to Vespasian is found in ancient monuments and paintings, etc. -- which for the sake of avoiding prolixity we defer to another time and place.

^d On the cited passage of Suetonius, Laevinus Torrentius comments thus: "Tacitus and Suetonius call the Carmelian God the god who is without name and who reigns forever." Whence it is clear that he too considered that Christian rites were performed there. Nevertheless, Paulus Orosius, book 7, chapter 9, writes that certain persons, seduced by lots on Mount Carmel that portended that leaders arising from Judaea would hold power, drew that prediction to themselves and burst forth in rebellion. Unless perhaps they also drew the prophecies of the Christians to serve their own purpose.

Section III. The same Telesphorus is created Pontiff of the Roman Church.

[5] He, therefore, a Greek by nation, born in the eastern parts, an anchorite of the Elian or Prophetic Carmelite institute, was one of those of whom Josephus of Antioch,^a a most ancient author and contemporary, writes in the passage cited above, in the following manner: "As helpers of the perfect soldiers of Christ, the Apostles, there arose most valiant men, solitaries and given to contemplation, followers of the holy Prophets Elijah and Elisha, The Carmelites in the beginning of the Church. who, descending from Mount Carmel through Galilee, Samaria, and Palestine, most steadfastly spread the faith of Christ; and who, building an oratory in honor of the Virgin Mary on the slope of Mount Carmel, served the Mother of the Savior with the most special devotion." Thus he writes. From these, I say, these perfect soldiers of Christ and apostolic men, Telesphorus, renowned for his fame of sanctity and distinguished for his outstanding merits toward all, descended. And indeed that he was raised from being an anchorite to the pontificate is openly attested by the Pontifical Book^b inscribed to Pope St. Damasus, which was long ago received by the Church.

[6] Since, therefore, he not only adorned his own Prophetic Order with his extraordinary holiness of life, St. Telesphorus is elected Pontiff. but also illuminated the Roman Church with the most brilliant rays of his virtues and learning, after the hard struggles of the desert he was made the supreme Vicar of Christ on earth. For after the martyrdom of Sixtus the First, a most holy Pontiff of that name, by which he was crowned in the year of Christ 142, when the See had been vacant for only two days, St. Telesphorus, who had already come to Rome from the East for the sake of religion, was raised to that most sacred throne of the supreme priesthood of Peter, ninth in order, by the unanimous applause and votes of all, on the eighth day of April. The character of St. Telesphorus was most similar to that of his holy predecessors the Pontiffs, and altogether such as befitted the most sacred dignity.

^a This authority of Josephus of Antioch, adduced in the present section, is cited by nearly all writers on Carmelite antiquity, both ancient and modern. For besides the authors mentioned in the preceding section -- Ribotus, Bostius, Paleonydorus, Didacus -- the same is cited by the Constitutions of the Carmelite Order, approved by the Apostolic See, part 1, chapter 1, section 1; Joannes de Molinis in the Speculum Historiale, chapter 4, who flourished in the year 1360; Bernardus Olerius, General of his Order, to Pope Urban VI, in the year 1378; Thomas Waldensis, a doctor of most celebrated reputation and a man of outstanding holiness, Doctrinalis Fidei, book 4, article 2, chapter 27, in the year 1420; Thomas Scropaeus, surnamed Bradley, Bishop of Dromore, in a book to Pope Eugene IV, in the year 1440; Baptista Mantuanus, a most famous doctor and poet, in his Apology to Cardinal Sigismund, in the year 1480; and many others, including non-members of the Order.

That Josephus of Antioch flourished in the year of Christ 130 can be seen in the Bibliotheca Tigurina, folio 517, and in Antonius Possevinus of the Society of Jesus, in the Apparatus Sacer.

Moreover, that St. Telesphorus was a professed member of the Carmelite Order is attested St. Telesphorus the Carmelite. partly by the ancient tradition of this Order, together with its domestic writers, especially the theologian Didacus de Coria, book 7 of his Dilucidarium, chapter 11; partly also by the ancient breviaries and manuscript psalters of the Order; and finally, men of no small reputation from outside the Order also subscribe to our assertion, as among others Carolus Tapia, cited in section 9, concerning whom Philippus Metius of Straubing, a Carmelite of Upper Germany, writes in his book On the Lives of Certain More Illustrious Members of the Carmelite Order, chapter 2: "St. Telesphorus the Pope, a Greek by nation, was a monk of the Carmelite institute, as Carolus Tapia testifies in his Chronicle. After many salutary decrees for the Church and a most holy life, having sat for eleven years and three months, he underwent martyrdom for the faith of Christ at Rome in the year 154, and was buried in the Vatican near the body of St. Peter. From the Archive of the Carmelites." Thus Philippus Metius quoted above. Mention of the same Carolus Tapia is also made by Dominicus Gravina of the Order of Preachers, in Vox Turturis, part 2, chapter 15, when he says: "But many who shone with the dignity of Cardinal and Bishop (in the Carmelite Order) are listed by Carolus Tapia, Regent of the Supreme Council, a most learned and most devout man, in his book De Religione, and other writers." Thus writes the Dominican Gravina. There is added Joannes Carthagena the Minorite, cited in section 9, the final section, who says: "But not content with these, I shall now commemorate other no less distinguished saints. These are St. Telesphorus and St. Dionysius the Popes, who were the first to be raised to the pontificate from the monastic state; St. Anastasius the Persian Martyr; and St. Benedict the Pope and Martyr. Concerning all of these, as branches of the vineyard of Carmel, the office is celebrated in the Carmelite Order by apostolic authority, and they have been placed in the Calendar and Breviary under the name of the Carmelites." So writes Carthagena, among many other things.

^b Before the pontificate, an anchorite. Furthermore, in this third section, the words of the Roman Pontifical deserve notice: "Telesphorus, a Greek by nation, from being an anchorite" -- that is, made Pontiff. For this does not mean "from a father who was an anchorite," as Platina and Onuphrius incorrectly explain, as though his father or begetter had been called an Anchorite, but rather "from being an anchorite," that is, one who before the pontificate had led an anchoretic or eremitical life. For the holy Pope Damasus, to whom the same Pontifical Book is inscribed (if indeed he is the author), makes no mention at all of the father of Telesphorus, while in the case of other Pontiffs whose parentage was known to him, he always adds the phrase "from a father," for example: "Linus, an Italian by nation, his father being Herculanus; Cletus, a Roman by nation, his father being Aemilianus; Clement, a Roman by nation, from a father named Faustus; Anacletus, a Greek by nation, from a father named Antiochus." So it reads there, and so on successively. But when he cannot discover the genealogy or the father's name of the supreme Pontiffs, he is accustomed to add their state or condition, as in the case of Dionysius: "Dionysius, from being a monk, whose parentage we have not been able to discover"; in the case of Hyginus, the immediate successor of Telesphorus: "Hyginus, a Greek by nation, from being a philosopher of Athens, whose genealogy I have not found"; which he similarly repeats in the case of Sixtus, the predecessor of Dionysius, saying: "Sixtus, a Greek by nation, from being a philosopher of Athens." But if the interpretation of Platina and Onuphrius were valid, then by equal reasoning I would say that Hyginus and Sixtus were born from a philosopher father, and Dionysius from a monk father (that is, whose parents were or were called philosophers or monks), which both seems ridiculous and is repugnant to the common interpretation of the Fathers and writers. Since neither in Baronius is the phrase "from a father" found added, nor among other more recent authors does that interpretation hold; but rather the one we have given.

Section IV. He restores the neglected Lenten fast: he prescribes for the clergy an abstinence from meat of seven weeks.

[7] Moreover, as a most vigilant pastor he attended to and presided over the propagation, strengthening, and adornment of the Church, and he enacted many useful decrees therein. For having convoked a council of bishops, he first decreed that for seven full weeks before Easter all the clergy should fast from meat and delicacies. For the decretal letter concerning this statute reads as follows: "Wherefore know^a" (he says) "that it has been decreed by us and by all the bishops assembled in this holy and Apostolic See, He commands the clergy to abstain from meat for seven weeks. that for seven full weeks before the holy Easter all clergy called to the Lord's portion should fast from meat; because as the life of the clergy ought to be distinct from the manner of living of the laity, so too in fasting there ought to be a distinction." And further: "And as these are more closely devoted to the divine services and are called familiars of the Lord and Savior, so they ought to be distinguished in character, conduct, and holiness. Therefore let all the clergy fast from meat and delicacies during these seven weeks, and let them strive to cling to the Lord day and night in hymns, vigils, and prayers."

[8] Furthermore, the Lenten fast common to both clergy and laity, He establishes the Lenten fast by law. which indeed flowed from apostolic institution, and which the faithful observed by tradition alone while the custom of the churches varied regarding its observance, and which moreover was neglected in many places on account of the severity of persecution -- this same holy Pontiff was the first to establish permanently by an apostolic constitution. For St. Ignatius, bishop and martyr of the apostolic age, writing to the Philippians, urged the observance of the Lenten fast before the time of Telesphorus in these words: "Do not despise the Lenten fast, for it contains an example of the Lord's manner of life" (Quadragesimale ieiunium ne spernatis; continet enim exemplum conversationis Dominicae). Thus he wrote. Not to mention the sixty-eighth Apostolic Canon prescribing the same thing. Therefore St. Telesphorus confirmed this sacred fast by both example and teaching, with the most holy rite, and decreed it to be observed in such a way that forty days of fasting should suffice for all the laity, but the clergy, for the reason stated, should extend the same fast to seven full weeks.

^a These things are reported in the Decretals, chapter Statuimus, distinction 4.

Section V. He decrees that three Masses be celebrated on the Nativity of the Lord, and that the Angelic Hymn, Gloria in excelsis, and the holy Gospel be recited at Mass.

[9] Three Masses on the Nativity. Moreover, as regards the solemnities of the Mass, St. Telesphorus first instituted that on the sacred night of the Lord's Nativity three Masses should be celebrated: the first at cockcrow, that is, with midnight approaching, when Christ deigned to be born in Bethlehem; the second at the break of dawn, when he was adored in the manger by the shepherds; the third at the very third hour of the day, when there dawned upon us the day of our Redemption.

[10] That the Gloria in excelsis be sung. Then in these and other solemnities of the Mass, he commanded the Angelic Hymn, Gloria in excelsis Deo, to be sung, saying: "On the holy night of the Nativity of the Lord and Savior, let them celebrate Masses and solemnly chant the Angelic Hymn in them." And further: "But by bishops, the same Angelic Hymn is to be celebrated and solemnly recited at the proper time and place in the solemnities of the Mass." To these things he also decreed that the holy Gospel of Christ The Gospel. should be proclaimed at Mass before the Canon, just as the aforesaid Angelic Hymn.

[11] Solemn Masses not to be held before the Third Hour. Finally, he instituted that, except on the night of the Lord's Nativity, Masses should not be celebrated before the third hour of the day, with the following tenor: "At other times also, the celebrations of Masses are by no means to be held before the third hour of the day, because at that same hour Christ was crucified, and the Holy Spirit is recorded to have descended upon the Apostles." Certain authors note, however, that this is to be understood of those Masses that were observed in more frequent use in the Church, since it is otherwise established by many examples that in sacred vigils the sacrifice was customarily offered at night. Nevertheless, even in our own times, the solemn Mass that we call conventual, especially among the religious orders, is commonly not celebrated before the third hour of the day (which for us is the ninth hour), in accordance with this same constitution of St. Telesphorus.

Section VI. He prescribes many other instructions.

[12] As for the remaining most useful instructions of the blessed Pontiff, which he writes in the aforementioned decretal letter for the instruction of the faithful of Christ, and which anyone who wishes may draw thence as from a fountain more abundantly, it will suffice to have noted these few things at present. For he decreed first of all that bishops and priests of God are not to be accused, charged, or stained by any machinations of secular persons. Various things usefully decreed by Telesphorus. Furthermore, that another's servant, or our neighbor, is not to be judged rashly. He then adds who and what sort of accusers are to be admitted in a trial. Moreover, with many testimonies of divine Scripture he demonstrates the malice of those who lie in wait for or accuse the servants of God. And finally, admonishing all with salutary exhortation, he adduces, among others, this fitting statement at the end of his letter for resisting the snares of the devil, saying: "For such are the members of the devil, who, flying up and down, seeks whom he may kill, whom he may separate, whom he may devour. For this reason we must be vigilant and must be fortified with heavenly arms, lest we fall into his fetters or be ensnared in his pits."

Section VII. Bearing solicitous care for the Church, Telesphorus sends heralds of the divine word to diverse parts of the world.

[13] Furthermore, so that this most faithful pastor might diligently tend the flock of the Church entrusted to him far and wide throughout the world, not only by his own writing and teaching but also through suitable ministers, and might feed the hungry sheep with the pasture of evangelical doctrine, and place the straying or wandering sheep back upon the Lord's shoulders, he selected thirty-three men from the whole multitude of the faithful -- according to the number of the years of Christ -- men distinguished for their life and learning; and he chose these, in accordance with the command of their Master, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature" Mark 16:15, He ordains various men and sends them to preach. for a similar office of the evangelical ministry. Of these, in four ordinations held by him, he created thirteen bishops, twelve priests, and eight deacons; as is found written in the Roman Pontifical in these words: "He performed four ordinations in the month of December: twelve Priests, eight Deacons, and thirteen Bishops for diverse places." And these bishops he sent, as stated, to diverse provinces of the world, while the priests and deacons he employed in the ministry of the city of Rome and its neighboring parts. For the ordinations of the clergy are recorded for each Roman Pontiff not only for those who would serve the Roman Church, but also for bishops who would be sent to diverse and far-distant provinces, so that from these it might also be made clear that it was the duty of the Roman Pontiffs to care not only for the city but for the Church of the entire world.

Section VIII. He bravely resists the heresiarchs Valentine and Marcion, who arose in his time, together with other apostolic men.

[14] Telesphorus indeed took counsel for the Church in the manner just described, and not only this, but also when he perceived that the impious Valentinian heresy was being disseminated among the faithful of Christ in his time -- a heresy that was blasphemous both against Christ the Son of God and against his blessed Mother -- armed with apostolic zeal, he undertook to combat it and condemned it with the thunderbolt of anathema. For this heresiarch Valentine, The heresies of Valentine and Marcion. a follower of Plato, during the reign of Antoninus and the fourth year of the blessed Telesphorus's pontificate, began among other perverse doctrines to teach that Christ our Savior was born of the Virgin in such a way that he nevertheless received no flesh from her, but passed through her as through a channel or pipe, and brought his flesh down with him from heaven. He also denied the resurrection of the same flesh, but held that another body would be composed from another source, and indeed that not all would be resurrected. He added that the Creator God had a beginning in time, and other similar things. Furthermore, in the fifth year after this same Pontiff Telesphorus began to sit, there arose, as Tertullian testifies, the heresiarch Marcion, a philosopher of the Stoic school and a disciple of Cerdo, who, like his master, posited two Gods contrary to each other, of whom one was good and the other evil: the one the author of the old law, the other of the new. He held that the world was created by the evil God and restored and redeemed by the good one. He rejected the Old Testament as proceeding from an evil God, and mutilated the New at his pleasure, and added many other absurd and condemned doctrines -- making the devil himself into God, so that not without reason did St. Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle St. John, call him (as the blessed Irenaeus attests) "the firstborn of Satan" (primogenitum satanae).

[15] St. Telesphorus resists these. Therefore, through these heresiarchs Valentine and Marcion and their disciples, the Catholic Church, assailed by marvelous pressures and far more grievously and dangerously beset by their doctrines than harassed by the calamities of persecuting pagans, would have been nearly overthrown and demolished, had it not been founded upon the firm Rock and, in Peter (and in his successor Telesphorus of those times), stabilized by the promises of Christ, always standing unshaken, stronger and more solid against all the blows of enemies and opposing powers. For this most holy Pontiff and the other apostolic men whom that age produced exerted outstanding labor in defense of the truth against so great a flood of impostors. And so it came about that, with truth as teacher, heretical wickedness and Catholic uprightness, each distinguished by its own characteristics, were recognized -- the former indeed condemned, the latter commended.

Section IX. Telesphorus is crowned with an illustrious martyrdom, and his annual feast is celebrated in the Church.

[16] He undergoes martyrdom. At last, this most glorious Pontiff, renowned for the glory of his good works, having sat for eleven years, nine months, less three days, sprinkled with blessed blood, departed to the heavenly homeland amid the great lamentation of all good people, with the palm of martyrdom, in the year of Christ one hundred and fifty-four, on the Nones of January. He was buried in the Vatican, near the body of the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles. The Roman Martyrology commemorates both his illustrious martyrdom and his zeal expended on behalf of the Church at the fifth day of January in this manner: "At Rome, St. Telesphorus the Pope, who under Antoninus Pius, after many labors for the confession of Christ, achieved an illustrious martyrdom." And the blessed Irenaeus says of him: "He achieved a most glorious martyrdom" (Gloriosissime martyrium fecit). Tertullian also, in his poem against Marcion, written when he was younger, says of him in these verses:

"After completing the periods of his lustrum, he hands on To Telesphorus: this man was excellent, and a faithful Martyr."

(Post expleta sui qui lustri tempora, tradit / Telesphoro: excellens hic erat, Martyrque fidelis.)

[17] Moreover, his annual commemoration is found noted not only in the ecclesiastical tables of the Roman Martyrology, He is venerated on January 5. as we have already seen, but also Pope Clement VIII, in our own century, namely in the year of Christ 1602, inserted him into the Roman Breviary as reformed by him. Although the Carmelite Order even before that time had from antiquity celebrated his annual feast on the fifth day of January, on which day we have seen him noted in the ancient manuscript psalters of the Carmelites. This the learned man Joannes de Carthagena of the Order of St. Francis rightly noted for the purpose of establishing Carmelite antiquity, in his Homilies on the feast of the Solemn Commemoration of the Blessed Mother of God Mary of Mount Carmel. And before him Carolus Tapia, Regent of the Supreme Council, a most devout and equally most learned man, in his book De Religione, ascribes the same St. Telesphorus to the Carmelite Order.

^a The Greeks venerate him on the 22nd of February, as is clear from the Menaea.