ON ST. PIUS I, POPE
AT ROME.
In the Year 156.
SYLLOGE
On his cult, age, and deeds.
Pius I, Pope and Martyr, at Rome.
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
It is remarkable that the illustrious memory of St. Pius I, Pope, was neglected and passed over in the more ancient Fasti, being marked by Ado alone and by his transcriber Notker, and indeed on a different day; for in the former it is placed on this XI, Marked by Ado, in the latter on the following day, unless perchance that transposition crept into Notker through the negligence of the copyists. The Hieronymian codices, at least the larger ones, Bede, the Little Roman, Wandelbert, Rabanus, and Usuard keep deep silence about St. Pius; into some supplements of the last it passed from Ado, whose words I here set down first: At Rome in the Vatican, of St. Pius the Pope, who sat in the episcopate eighteen years. In his time Hermes wrote the book which is called The Shepherd, because an angel appeared to him in the guise of a shepherd. These things are received from the Pontifical or Catalogue of the Roman Pontiffs, under the name of Damasus, chapter 12, in Anastasius, Henschenius, and others, with a somewhat longer elogium, in which you would scarcely find anything that has not long since been called into controversy, as will appear below. Whoever wishes may consult the supplements of Usuard; to me it does not seem worth the effort to transcribe all these here, nor the longer elogium of the Hagenau codex, nor that which Galesinius, Ghinius, and others patched together out of writings mostly of not sufficiently certain trustworthiness. In the Little Hieronymian of Augsburg it is read simply: Of Pius the Martyr. His sacred body, buried in the Vatican, seems to have remained there, some part of which may have been translated to St. Pudentiana, and some also to Bologna, if we believe Masini. But let this be enough said about his cult; by what rite his feast is celebrated today in the Church, the Breviary teaches.
[2] But without the title of martyr. It may be asked whether, for the confession of the faith, St. Pius was carried off by a violent death, and so was granted the true and strict laurel of martyrdom. In Ado the title of Martyr is altogether absent; it was absent also from the first edition of Molanus, and from other augmented Usuardine codices, but in some it is attributed to the Saint: yet these are of more recent stamp than that anything certain could be deduced from them, amid the silence of all the ancients. The announcement of Bellinus is simple: At Rome, Blessed Pius, Pope and Martyr, to which Baronius added, who was crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Of this epoch we shall soon see: for the martyrdom Baronius contends both in the Annals and in the Notes on the Martyrology; but—be it said with the good leave of that most eminent man—the ancient ecclesiastical monuments, the Missals, Breviaries, and all the Martyrologies, which he there roundly names, others before me have sought in vain. I have already said that no Martyrologist older than Ado made mention of St. Pius, and that he indeed abstained from the title of Martyr. As to what antiquity the Breviaries and Missals savor of, it is commonly known; I could wish he had definitely alleged some ancient Calendars or Sacramentaries, from which we might establish something more certain, in favor of the true palm of martyrdom, which it would be strange for St. Irenaeus to have been ignorant of; so that at last we must have recourse to that to which we have often turned elsewhere, namely that some of the first supreme Pontiffs are called martyrs for this reason, that even if not the shedding of blood, at least many other things they suffered under the pagan Emperors, even pious and peaceful ones. Moreover this is not the only doubt that occurs concerning St. Pius; for his age, the time of his See, his deeds, his writings, and almost whatever pertains to him, has long since been a matter of controversy.
[3] The Catalogues of the Roman Pontiffs are so entangled, or rather corrupted, The succession is disputed, that from them the certain age or succession of this holy Pontiff cannot plainly be had. Irenaeus, Hegesippus, and other most ancient authors make him the successor of Hyginus, whether he be arranged with predecessors or successors by ascending or descending: so that he must have preceded Anicetus. But on the contrary Optatus, Augustine, and those who follow them, together with the said Catalogues, place St. Pius after Anicetus, as may be seen in the preliminary Diatribe of Henschenius before the first volume of April, page 23; where he tries to untie various and most intricate knots, which Papebroch too wished to expedite, or in a manner to cut, with such success, to speak frankly, as things mutually inconsistent are usually connected with one another. I confess that I do not yet plainly perceive by what means all those things, often hypothetical, can be sufficiently reconciled with the historical truth so eloquently asserted by the ancient writers. Baronius seems to judge rightly, at the year 158, number 3, when, having brought forward those ancient writers Eusebius, Epiphanius, and others, he thus adds: So that it is now plainly to be reckoned folly not to acquiesce in those who, at the same time when those same Pontiffs (Hyginus, Pius, Anicetus, etc.) flourished in the Church, such as Hegesippus, Irenaeus, and he who comes closest to these, Tertullian: who all, as I had begun to say, testify that St. Pius is to be placed after Anicetus; supported by whose authority, we deem erroneous the consular reckonings of the Catalogues, whenever they are found to differ from these fathers of history.
[4] But who will define for us the years of St. Pius's pontificate? Baronius, praised now more than once, nor is the time when he sat and died less uncertain, in order to bring Pius down to the times of Marcus Aurelius, and thus to make it more probable that the Saint was crowned with martyrdom, fixes his beginning at the aforesaid year 158, but his end at the year 167, in which manner the full ten years are not found, which neither did Labbe find, beginning from the year 156 to 165, in which Brietius subscribes to him. Ciaconius, Henschenius, Oldoinus, Papebroch, and others differ so, that here it may truly be said, as many heads, so many opinions, all of which to discuss anew, or to cook up the same cabbage again, does not please me. After tedious labors devoured in vain, and good hours spent to no purpose, at last with Pagi at the year 165 (with Baronius 167) I am compelled to confess that in what year of his life Pope Pius migrated to heaven is altogether uncertain. But here, in order to weave the whole pontificate of Anicetus into the times of Antoninus Pius, he is compelled to draw back the beginnings of St. Pius to the year 141, and to place his death in the year 151, after ten years and some months of his See, whereas the Catalogues, together with Eusebius, more commonly assert that he prolonged his pontificate to fifteen years; and this pleases me all the more, because when I find Eusebius as my guide, I am not so easily moved from him, as I have so often attested in the Treatise on the Alexandrian Patriarchs before the fifth volume of June. In the Chronicle the year of Anicetus's ordination is indeed wrongly noted as 154, but that is plainly to be corrected from the fifteen years which Eusebius expressly ascribes to him, both in the Chronicle itself and in the Ecclesiastical History, book 4, chapter 11: When at Rome Pius, in the fifteenth year of his episcopate, had exchanged life for death. That the Chronicle has been more than once corrupted, I have already often warned elsewhere. This therefore appears to us more probable, that St. Pius was substituted for Hyginus in the Chair of Peter in the year 142, and held it until the year 157.
[5] Doubtful also are the things that are related of him, That the deeds of many of the first Pontiffs remained in obscurity has been observed by Baronius in various places, which suits St. Pius as well as the rest. The Catalogues reviewed by Henschenius record these things in summary: Pius, fifteen years, four months, twenty days. He was in the times of Antoninus Pius, from the consulship of Clarus and Severus, up to the two Augusti. Under his episcopate his brother Hermes wrote a book, in which is enjoined and contained what the angel commanded him, when he came to him in the guise of a Shepherd. But these things in Anastasius somewhat more fully: Pius, an Italian by nation, of his father Rufinus, brother of the Shepherd, of the city of Aquileia, sat nineteen years, four months, three days. He was moreover in the times of Antoninus Pius, from the consulship of Clarus and Severus. Under his episcopate Hermes wrote a book, in which is contained the commandment which the Angel of the Lord enjoined him, when he came to him in the guise of a Shepherd; and he commanded him that holy Easter should be celebrated on the Lord's Day. He appointed that a heretic coming from the heresy of the Jews should be received and baptized; and he made a decree concerning the Church. He made five ordinations in the month of December, nineteen presbyters, twenty-one deacons, bishops
through diverse places to the number of twelve: who was also buried next to the body of Blessed Peter in the Vatican on the fifth day before the Ides of July, and the episcopate was vacant twelve days. At the request of Blessed Praxedes he dedicated a church, the Baths of Novatus in the district of Patricius, in honor of his sister St. Potentiana, where he also offered many gifts; where, often offering sacrifice to the Lord, he ministered; nay, he even caused a font of Baptism to be set up, blessed and consecrated it with his own hand, and baptized many coming to the faith in the name of the Trinity.
[6] then his deeds, In the lesson of the Roman Breviary fitted to St. Pius, this is singularly observed; namely that he established a penalty against the priest through whose negligence something of the Blood of the Lord should have been spilled. For let them do penance, he says, for forty days if anything falls to the ground; if upon the altar, three days; if upon the upper cloth, four; if it flows onto the lower one, nine days; if it reaches the fourth, twenty days. Wherever it has fallen, if it can be recovered, let it be licked up; if otherwise, let it either be washed or scraped: whatever is washed or scraped, let it be burned, and the ash placed in the sacrarium. And these things thus far we know to have been written about the deeds of St. Pius, arranged somewhat more orderly by Ciaconius and Oldoinus, which Baronius had explained in several places before, especially at the year 167, mentioning nothing indeed about the penance of priests, but adding other things which are no more admitted by the learned, whether they be received from the Decretals or from the Catalogues or Pontificals. And the censure of these you have in the very preface to Anastasius: but concerning the Decretals before the times of Pope Siricius it has been disputed so often that that question seems today exhausted. Concerning the writings of St. Pius Pagi separately has this, at the place and year cited above: Two Decretals of Pius are in circulation, which are believed by learned men to be supposititious. Nor, says Labbe, are the two letters of Pope Pius to Justus, Bishop of Vienne, any more approved, which Baronius, taken from the archive of Vienne, inserted into the Annals.
[7] Whoever desires to know those writings, of whatever kind, more distinctly, then his writings, let him consult Labbe himself, in the first volume of the Councils from column 579, where also about the book of Hermes under the name of The Shepherd, which Baronius examines in the year 159 from number 5; and perhaps we shall have to treat of it again on July 26. Moreover St. Pius is mentioned in the Acts of St. Concordius on January 1, page 9, and on May 19 in the Acts of St. Pudentiana, page 300, in which may be seen the things that pertain here. The discourse will recur again on the 21st of this month, when St. Praxedes is venerated, where also some deeds of St. Pius are interwoven. More certain are the things that Eusebius hands down, in the book and chapter cited above, enumerating the heretics with whom without doubt the holy Pontiff must have struggled in defending the integrity of the Catholic dogmas: but what was done or truly defined by him against those pests, Eusebius must have been ignorant, nor do we know it recorded by any of the ancient writers. But indeed, amid so many machinations of most wicked men, it must be believed that St. Justin, the excellent vindicator of the Christian faith and most valiant martyr, was a consolation to St. Pius, concerning whom consult the Acts on April 13 and on June 1. And here we put a brief end to the Sylloge, since nothing else remains greatly to be added or illustrated.