Scillitan Martyrs

ON THE SCILLITAN HOLY MARTYRS

SPERATUS, NARZALES, CITTINUS, VETURIUS, FELIX, ACYLLINUS, LÆTANTIUS, JANUARIA, GENEROSA, VESTINA, DONATA, SECUNDA,

AT CARTHAGE IN AFRICA.

IN THE YEAR 200.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Speratus, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Narzales, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Cittinus, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Veturius, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Felix, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Acyllinus, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Lætantius, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Januaria, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Generosa, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Vestina, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Donata, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.). Secunda, Scillitan Martyr, at Carthage in Africa (S.).

BHL Number: 2045

BY THE AUTHOR G. C.

§ I. The number, names, and cult of the Martyrs.

Genuine Acts and the most ancient Martyrologies bear witness that these glorious champions of Christ, who are commonly called the Scillitan Martyrs, were twelve in number. Hence Wandelbert in his Metrical Martyrology calls them "a band of twelve." It is shown, against the faulty codices of the Hieronymian Martyrology, Nevertheless Florentinius fears that the proconsular Acts, which the most Eminent Cardinal Baronius brought forth as a truly precious treasure of venerable antiquity, may not really be those of the Scillitan Martyrs, because among the twelve names related in those Acts some are found which in certain codices of the Hieronymian Martyrology are separated from the holy Scillitan company: for the Lucca exemplar reads thus, confusedly: "In Africa, of the holy Aquilinus, Speratus, Chindinus, Biturius, Azardus. At Milan, the birthday of holy Marcellus. At Carthage, the birthday of the holy Generosa, Januaria, and the Scillitans." But the Corbie codex confounds this dozen number of the Martyrs still more, or rather divides it in this way: "XVI Kal. Aug. In Africa, the birthday of the holy Aquilinus, Sperata, Chindinus, Biturius, Azardus, Menelampus, Zosimus. At Milan, the birthday of St. Marcellus, Justinus, Nonnus; at Carthage, the birthday of the holy Generosa, Januaria, and the Scillitans. And elsewhere the birthday of holy Mamma. In Asia, of Nazarius, Veturius, Januarius, Secunda, Donata, Bessia, Maximus, Paulus, Aquilinus, Felicitas, Cutata, Titiana, Bessa, Siriana, Entatus, Justinus."

[2] that these Martyrs were twelve, I confess that there is here so great a confusion that the arenas or the names of these Martyrs cannot easily be reconciled with the proconsular Acts. But that diversity of names and places, corrupted by copyists, everywhere met with in the Hieronymian codices, cannot damage our altogether genuine Acts, especially when the constant consensus of the ancient Martyrologists confirms and asserts that these twelve Martyrs suffered together at Carthage. No one, therefore, can deny the number of twelve of these Martyrs, unless he wishes to take away credence from the ancient Martyrologists and from the proconsular Acts themselves: for that same number is reckoned both in the Baronian and Colbertine manuscripts, edited by Ruinart among the genuine and select Acts of the Martyrs, and in our manuscript, which we shall print from the Toledo codex. "Against all of which," says Ruinart rightly in his preliminary admonition to the Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs, no. 2, "the authority of the Martyrology edited by the most distinguished Florentinius of Lucca cannot prevail, where some of those Martyrs who are mentioned in the Acts seem to be distinguished from the Scillitans; although in the same Martyrology, namely the one attributed to St. Jerome, in very many manuscript codices, as Florentinius himself observes, all those are called Scillitans together."

[3] The names of these Martyrs in the various Acts and Martyrologies are so distorted and diverse, [whose proper names are variously written, among which the name Acyllinus gave Tillemont,] that they can scarcely be distinguished from one another, and the women from the men: for besides other inflections of the names, in some Januarius and Generosus are written for Januaria and Generosa. But these and other discrepancies will easily be observed when, about to treat of their cult, we shall bring forward the various announcements of the Martyrologists. Meanwhile we have written the names in the title in the manner in which they are expressed in the proconsular Acts edited by Baronius. Tillemont, tome 3 of the Memoirs of Church History, page 639, says that in marking the names of these Martyrs he follows the Baronian manuscripts, except for two, namely Acyllinus and Lætantius, for which, following several codices, he substitutes Aquilinus and Lactantius. Then, because Aquilinus is written in Greek Ἀκυλίνος, he scarcely doubts that the name of Acyllinus was taken from Greek Acts, and hence he confirms his opinion, which he had indicated on the preceding page, namely that the original Acts were translated into the Greek language, and that those which we now have proceed from that Greek translation. In a matter so obscure and uncertain it does not please us to divine.

[4] We wonder, nevertheless, that the Greeks, if indeed they had those Acts written in their own idiom, or gave Gualtier a slight occasion for conjecturing about Aquilinus, nowhere in their Menæa, Synaxaria, or Menologies make mention of St. Speratus and the rest of the Scillitan Martyrs. Moreover, what hinders that some African should be called Acyllinus, since, on the testimony of Gruter and Ruinart, Acylla is a city of Africa, of which Hirtius makes mention in the African War, chapter 33, whose words Christopher Cellarius reports in his Notitia of the ancient world, tome 2, book 4, chapter 4. What if the martyr drew the name of Acyllinus from that city, because he was born or long dwelt in it? Yet I affirm nothing from all these things. Whether he be called Aquilinus or Acyllinus, it matters little. This one thing I wished to show, that from the name of Acyllinus a weak argument is drawn to confirm the Greek version of the Acts. No more certain is that which, in the passage soon to be cited, Paulus Gualterius the Calabrian writes from popular tradition concerning the name of the same holy Martyr, namely that St. Aquilinus or Aquilanus—as he falsely asserts he was called by the ancients—was born in Aquilano, a now-destroyed castle of Calabria, and retained his name from this his native place. But since we must now treat of the appellation common to all these Martyrs, I shall refute this writer's opinion in the same operation.

[5] In the most ancient Martyrologies and other manuscript codices these Martyrs are surnamed Scillitan. Peter de Natalibus, bishop of Equilio, These twelve Martyrs, by the general name Scillitan, in his Catalogue of the Saints, book 6, chapter 110, gives this cause for that appellation: "They are called Scyllitans from the Scyllitan island, from which they took their origin." Where in the world this Scyllitan island lies I do not know, since all the cosmographers whom it has been permitted me to see know no island of this name. Perhaps Equilio, little skilled in geography, as I remember I have shown elsewhere, wrongly called the Scyllæan or Scyllitan promontory of Further Calabria an island, because it runs out into the sea toward Sicily in the manner of a peninsula; and thus perhaps he gave occasion to the Calabrian writers to attribute these Martyrs to themselves as fellow-countrymen. Certainly Paulus Gualterius, in his Italian work, to which is prefixed this title, "The Glorious Triumph, or Legendary of the Holy Calabrian Martyrs," book 1, chapter 87, claims them for Calabria.

[6] But concerning their homeland there is a controversy among the Calabrians themselves, some affirming not from a city of Calabria, that they belong to Scylla, commonly Sciglio, a town of Calabria set upon a high rock; but others contending that they pertain to the episcopal city of the same region, commonly called Squillace, whose prelate is called Scyllitanus in Baronius, in the Ecclesiastical Annals, at the year of Christ 562, nos. 8 and 9. There is no need to settle this dispute, since on both sides they have no foundation for their assertion beyond a certain affinity of name. But if attention is to be paid only to the similarity of the appellation, I with the same right—that is, with none—shall assign them as their homeland the Scyllæan promontory of the Peloponnese, which divides the Argolic gulf from the Saronic, and of which Ptolemy, book 3, chapter 16, Strabo, book 8, and others have treated. If it were worth the trouble, I could bring forward other homonymous cities of Greece, and by the same reasoning attribute them to our Saints as native places.

[7] but named from a city of Africa, It is exceedingly likely that these Martyrs were called Scillitan from the homeland or city which they inhabited. Notker indicates this well enough in his Martyrology, where he says that under the prefect Saturninus they were brought from their city of Scylla to Carthage. All the circumstances of the martyrdom of themselves show that this city was situated in Africa. Wherefore I scarcely doubt that Scilla or Scillite was that episcopal city which Charles of St. Paul, in his Sacred Geography, edited with the notes of Holstenius, page 92, places in the Proconsular province, and whose prelate Squillacius is thus mentioned in the Conference of Carthage, in our Labbé, tome 2 of the Councils, column 1393: "Squillacius, bishop of the church of Scillite, established at Carthage, in the presence of the most distinguished man Marcellinus, Tribune and Notary, on the previous day I gave order and subscribed." He who desires to know more of this African city may consult Ruinart in his notes on the History of the Vandal Persecution, page 274. Add that Wandelbert, in his metrical Martyrology, celebrating these twelve Martyrs, signifies that Carthage was the head or metropolis of the Scillitan city in these little verses:

The sixteenth day Carthage beholds with rich vows, gladly thronging the band of twelve of the martyrdom, whom the Scillitan homeland sent together to their CAPITAL.

From these and other arguments which could be brought forward, it becomes manifest that the Scillitan Martyrs drew their surname not from a city of Calabria but of Africa. Now let us establish their cult.

[8] That the memory of these Saints was once most celebrated in Africa, I gather from the venerable monuments of that church: for Victor of Vita, a writer of the fifth century, in book 1 of the Vandal Persecution, no. 3, testifies that they once had a celebrated cult in Africa; that there existed there a basilica … of the Scillitans, which the Vandals, infected with the Arian plague, among the other churches which they had not destroyed, appropriated to their own religion by tyrannical license. St. Augustine seems to have delivered his sermon CLV, otherwise VI on the words of the Apostle, in this very temple: for in an old manuscript codex of the Roman monastery of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, of the Cistercian Order, this title is prefixed to that sermon: "Delivered in the basilica of the Holy Scillitan Martyrs." Possidius in his Index, chapter 9, notes that a discourse was also delivered by St. Augustine on the birthday of the Holy Scillitan Martyrs. But since that sermon nowhere appears among his works, not even the most recently edited, I judge that it has either perished, or is even now struggling somewhere with the dust. The same veneration of the African church is indicated by the Most Ancient Calendar, edited by Mabillon in tome 3 of the Analecta, page 398, in which, among the other saints whom the church of Carthage celebrated with an annual festivity, our Martyrs are thus recorded: "XV Kal. August, of the Holy Scillitans."

[9] Nor did that religious cult remain within the bounds of Africa alone, which afterward passed into Spain, but for many centuries it passed into Spain, where already in the eighth century it is established that there existed a Mass of St. Speratus, from the letter of Elipandus of Toledo, who in it confidently boasted that he had found a patronage for his heresy. But the most learned Alcuin, master of Charlemagne, in book 2 against Elipandus, among his works printed at Paris in the year 1617, column 953, answered him in this manner: "While witnesses failed you, O venerable brother, from the other doctors of the churches of Christ for your infidelity, you suddenly brought forth, as you say, the venerable fathers of Toledo, and took up their prayers in the solemnities of the Masses as an aid to your sect." Then, having resolved some of Elipandus' objections, in the following column he thus proceeds: "That which you say in the Mass of St. Speratus the martyr … is an unfitting expression." This Mass is read to this day on the XVI of November in the mixed or Mozarabic Missal, which the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Francisco Ximénez, archbishop of Toledo, ordered to be committed to the press in the year 1500 for preserving the ancient Mozarabic rite.

[10] In the Mozarabic Breviary, which by order of the same most Illustrious archbishop was printed two years after the Missal, as the hymn bears witness, on the XXI of July the Office of St. Speratus is recited. When in the year 1722 I was at Toledo to search out monuments for our Work, from the single and exceedingly rare edition of this Breviary—which could in no way be obtained, indeed scarcely even lent—I transcribed the following hymn:

Of Speratus the holy martyr the illustrious palm of virtue, in choirs alternating in turn, let us sing in mystic hymns:

Him the pre-eminent city of Africa, Carthage, keeps as her martyr, and the western people, dedicated to Christ, embraces him.

His tomb flourishes with excellent virtues, that miracles may amplify the glory of his passion.

With these [*] holy companions, while he is driven to the sacrifice, he bravely denied that incense should be poured to idols.

For at once he cries out: "I am a minister of Christ; and all the companions whom you see, believe them to be such."

At these words the impious [*] governor, moved with the rage of madness, orders the necks of the holy Martyrs to be struck with the sword.

After this trophy of faith their souls flew forth; seeking the throne of the Father, they receive equal crowns;

And thus, bearing the marks of Christ in their own flesh, they were made conformed to Christ in the heavenly kingdom and reward.

To God the Father be glory, and to his only Son, with the Spirit the Paraclete, reigning through every age. Amen.

[11] and the prayer in the Mozarabic Office I am of the opinion that certain relics of St. Speratus and of the companion martyrs, translated from Africa into Spain, gave cause to this solemn Mozarabic cult, because in the aforesaid Office this prayer is read: "O God, the exultation and palm of thy holy martyrs Speratus and his companions, hear us thy suppliants, and grant that we, who venerate the relics of those whom we cherish in thy love and whose benefits we recall, may deserve by their merits to be freed and preserved from all evils. Amen." Add that those Martyrs are honored by the Mozarabs not on the very day of the martyrdom, but are celebrated in the Breviary on the XXI of July, and in the Missal on the XVI of November, which are perhaps the days on which they received their relics, or publicly proposed them to the people for veneration. But how the cult of the same Martyrs came into Gaul and Italy will afterward appear, when we treat of the translation of the sacred bodies. Now let us enumerate some of the Martyrologists.

[12] The same martyrs in the ancient The Hieronymian Martyrologies and other indications of ancient cult I have already given above. The Little Roman, edited by our Rosweyde, reads thus: "At Carthage, of the Scillitan martyrs, Speratus, Narthalus, Cythinus, Bethurius, Felix, and seven others." Bede or Florus, prefixed to tome 2 of March, announces them with a corrupt text: "At Carthage, of the Scillidans, that is, of Marcialis, Cithius, Vesturius, Felix, Aquilinus, Lactantius, Januarius, Generosus, Vesta, Donata, and Secunda, under the prefect Saturninus, who after the first confession of Christ were sent into prison and crucified on the wood, and beheaded by the sword in the sea." It is plain enough that for "in the sea" one should read "and in the morning," as you have in the lesser Hieronymian codices—the Queen of Sweden's, St. Cyriacus', and the Barberini. There is also lacking in this announcement St. Speratus, the standard-bearer of the band of twelve according to others; which was done by the drowsiness of the transcriber, as you may see in the cited codices. Ado reckons them all thus: "At Carthage, the birthday of the Holy Scillitan martyrs, that is, of Speratus, Narthalus, Cythinus, Bethurius, Felix, Aquilinus, Lethatius, Januaria, Generosa, Bessia, Donata, and Secunda, under the prefect Saturninus. Who, after the first confession of Christ, were sent into prison and fastened to the wood, and beheaded by the sword in the morning. Their relics, with the bones of blessed Cyprian and the head of St. Pantaleon the martyr, translated from Africa into Gaul, are venerated at Lyons in the Basilica of the most holy John the Baptist." We shall afterward discuss this translation of the sacred bodies at length.

[13] Usuard, treading in the footprints of the other Martyrologists, on this day celebrates the same Martyrs thus: and are celebrated in the more recent Martyrologies. "At Carthage, the birthday of the Holy Scillitan martyrs, that is, of Speratus, Nartalus, Cithinus, Beturius, Felix, Aquilinus, Letatius, Januaria, Generosa, Bessia, Donata, and Secunda, under the prefect Saturninus, who after the first confession were sent into prison, and fastened to the wood, then beheaded by the sword." The various reading of the Usuardine codices may be seen in our Usuard, not long since illustrated. It would be superfluous to bring forward here the more recent Martyrologists, since the ancient ones are at hand and suffice to prove the cult. Yet I cannot forbear to subjoin here our manuscript Florarium, written in the fifteenth century, because to the usual elogium of these Martyrs it inserts a certain new narration, found I know not where, thus: "At Carthage, of the Holy Scillitan martyrs, that is, of Speratus, Nartalus, Cyrinus, Beturius, Felix, Aquilinus, Letacius, Januarius, Generosa, Bessia, Donata, and Secunda; who, when first they were in the royal court, seized by the sweetness of Christ, forsaking all things, strove to serve him whose is the kingdom, the power, and the dominion. So great was their constancy that they mocked the torments, and desired that these be done and inflicted upon them, that they might be enrolled in the fellowship of the martyrs. These, under Saturninus the prefect, the greatest persecutor of the Christians, after the first confession of Christ were sent into prison, and fastened to the wood, and at last, beheaded by the sword, completed a glorious martyrdom." I do not know where the writer of the Florarium read of this courtly dignity, which is not expressed in the Acts and the ancient Martyrologies. From what has been said, and further from what is to be said, perhaps those things will be more clearly understood which the most Illustrious and most Reverend Francesco Maria de Aste, archbishop of Otranto, obscurely disputes about these Martyrs in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology, edited at Benevento in the year 1716. Now let us proceed to other things.

Annotations

§ II. The Acts, the Combat, and the Epoch of the Martyrdom.

The most Eminent Cardinal Baronius, in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology on the XVII of July, delivers this judgment concerning the Acts of the Scillitan martyrs: Besides the Acts unearthed by Baronius from manuscripts, "We have the Acts of these holy Martyrs, just as they were taken down by the notaries and set into the proconsular records, described from thence without any coloring or addition, dearer indeed to us than any treasure." He inserted the same entire into the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 202, and before them prefaces thus: "There are extant the proconsular Acts of the Scillitan martyrs, who are held to have suffered under the same consulship of Claudius and the Proconsul Saturninus at Carthage, worthy indeed to be woven in here word for word; that from those things which are held as certain and explored, the Acts of the Martyrs, we may be able to understand the rest, which were either not written, or once entrusted to the memory of writers, though depraved and corrupted, or utterly perished. We have described them from a most ancient codex which is in our possession, known and emended. For from the Vatican library we obtained two other exemplars equally ancient. We have put the variant reading in the margin; but in the text, that which we thought the more faithful." We shall print them from Baronius together with the variant readings in the first place.

[15] Although the Acts of the same Martyrs, somewhat different from the Baronian, and others edited by Ruinart from a manuscript of the Colbertine library, were edited by Ruinart from a manuscript codex of the Colbertine library, yet everywhere they breathe so great a sincerity and so venerable a simplicity that the most severe critics have not dared to pluck at them. Tillemont indeed, as I indicated above, from certain barbarisms and, as he thinks, hellenisms, conjectures that those Acts were first translated from the Latin language into Greek, and afterward again from the Greek into Latin, and hence he suspects that that discrepancy of the Acts arose; but he relies on conjectures so slight that they ought to move us little. As if barbarous and improper phrases could not creep into Latin Acts through the ignorance of transcribers. The judgment of Ruinart pleases us more, who in his Admonition to these Acts speaks thus concerning that diversity, no. 1: "We think, moreover, that this variety of the Acts flowed from this, that since these Acts had been written down by the faithful, who were perhaps present at the questioning, or perhaps compendiously related by the same from the excerpts of the public notaries, they reported in different words what they had heard or read." Now let us review our copies of these Acts.

[16] we have eight manuscript copies of the same, Besides the Baronian Acts, and the others of the Colbertine library, and the fragment unearthed from the manuscript codex of Reichenau, all of which were published by Ruinart, we possess eight manuscript exemplars of the same Acts, of which we shall now note a few things one by one. The first was described in the year 1660 from the Soissons library of the Celestines. That one differs from the genuine Acts chiefly in style, so that it clearly appears that its writer, with the substance of the matter preserved, changed the diction and the dialogues at his own pleasure. Moreover, to those Acts are appended the following words, which I suspect to have been taken from some proper Office of the Holy Martyrs: "O Carthage, head of Africa, sweetly inundated with a bloody, honey-flowing dew, as snow upon the hay, applaud with thy whole heart: for thou possessest Speratus as patron with his companions in the blessed kingdom. If Carthage is adorned with an abundance of blood, what now of Amiens, which possesses the blessed bodies? Let the clergy applaud with canticles and hymns, and the people, on account of such great patrons, whose prayers may give us gifts. Amen." The second manuscript, which is called the Belfort, is altogether like the former, except that after the Acts and the words just cited it adds the narration of the translation, of which we shall treat in its place.

[17] of which seven are briefly enumerated, Our third copy came forth from a parchment Passional of the monastery of Bödeken in the diocese of Paderborn, which here and there is somewhat augmented and altered. At the end, in few words, is narrated the translation of the relics which was made from Africa to Lyons in Gaul. The fourth is from a manuscript of St. Maximin at Trier, which is more genuine than the three preceding, and comes nearest to the original simplicity of the Acts. The fifth exists in a certain codex of our Museum, marked ✠ Ms. 40, whose script indeed is not very ancient; but I judge that it was faithfully transcribed from an older one, because, except for a few variations of lighter moment, it agrees altogether with the genuine Acts. The sixth, which was taken at Rome from a manuscript codex of St. Mary Major, is divided into three Lessons, which contain the entire Acts quite genuinely. Whence I conjecture that proper Lessons about our Martyrs were accustomed to be recited there, but whether that solemn cult still perseveres even now, I have not ascertained. The seventh I myself described in the year 1722 from a parchment Sanctoral of the church of Toledo, when I was staying in Spain to investigate the records of the Saints, especially the Spanish ones. This Toledo manuscript is very close in style and words to those Acts which Ruinart brought to light from the Colbertine library. Wherefore we shall compare these Toledo Acts, never before edited, with the Colbertine, and, having noted the chief variations in the margin, we shall commit them to the press in the second place; but those things which are supplied from the Colbertine manuscript we shall enclose in brackets [].

[18] The eighth, finally, is a Roman manuscript, of I know not what library, and the eighth is especially examined, which before the Acts has such a prologue, omitted in all the other manuscripts: "In the times of the emperor Severus, the persecution growing strong, there presided then over the city of Carthage a bishop by name Speratus, persisting in the precepts of the Lord, having with him eleven others of both sexes, etc." Then, after the Martyrs' names are expressed and their constancy praised, follow the proconsular Acts, whose beginning is interpolated: for the consul Claudius himself is introduced thus interrogating St. Speratus: "Claudius said: Therefore you, who seem to be the elder, tell me, with what dignity are you invested, and what is your name? Speratus said: Though unworthy, I am bishop of this city; if you ask my name, among men I am called Speratus, in religion a Christian." After some interrogations, Claudius is said to have handed over the Holy Martyrs to the Proconsul Saturninus to be examined, and then at last the true Acts begin, though thereafter a little changed in phrasing. Perhaps our Henschenius was induced by the beginning of this manuscript to call St. Speratus, in tome 1 of March, page 632, bishop of Carthage. But I am not so moved by the authority of a single manuscript, especially when all the others are silent, as to dare to assert with certainty the see of Carthage to him; nor yet do I deny to the holy Martyr that or a similar dignity, since from the Acts it appears well enough that he was the chief of this sacred band. And let these things said about the Acts suffice.

[19] It will perhaps seem strange to someone that we here raise a question about the place of the martyrdom, Some writers hold that they suffered at New Carthage in Spain; when all the circumstances of the Acts cry out that those Martyrs suffered at Carthage in Africa. But to that disputation we are compelled by certain writers who, either fallen into error or blinded by love of their homeland, attribute them to New Carthage (which Antoninus and others call Spartaria from the abundance of esparto grass), a maritime city of Tarraconensian Spain. The first, or rather John, bishop of Chalon, who flourished in the year 1450, in his Topography of the Saints arranged in alphabetical order, under the title "New Carthage, a city of Spain," expressly places these twelve martyrs under the prefect Saturninus. And I suspect that he furnished the first occasion of erring to the rest: for Francis Maurolyco, Abbot of Messina, who committed this Topography of John of Chalon to the press, and confesses that he profited much from it, followed him in his error in his own Martyrology, writing thus on the XVII of July: "In Carthage of Spain, the birthday of the holy Scillitan martyrs, namely Speratus, Martalus, Cetinus, Betulius, Felix, Aquilinus, Luctatius, Januarius, Generosa, Bassia, Secunda, and Donata, under the prefect Saturninus, who after the first confession of Christ were sent into prison and fastened to the wood, then beheaded by the sword." To this also Felici lightly gave credence, who in his Martyrology written in Italian calls the arena of these Martyrs "Carthage of Spain." Lorenzo Padilla, Juan de Marieta, Sancho Dávila, and other Spanish hagiologists eagerly embraced the same error, as honorable to their homeland, and what they too ardently desired, they too easily believed.

[20] but Galesinius once ascribes them to Cordoba, and once to Carthage, I do not know what came into the mind of Pietro Galesini, when in his Martyrology on the XIX of July he writes thus: "At Cordoba in Spain, of St. Speratus the martyr and his companions." But on the XVII of the same month he thus contradicts himself: "At Carthage, of the blessed Scillitan martyrs, Speratus, Nartalus, Cythinus, Beturius, Felix, Aquilinus, Letatius, Januaria, Generosa, Bessia, Secunda, Donata; who, inflamed with the ardor of faith, after the first confession of Christ, were cast into prison by the order of the prefect Saturninus and fastened to the wood, in the morning struck with the sword. Their relics, with the bones of St. Cyprian the martyr, and the head of the blessed martyr Pantaleon, brought to Lyons, are religiously venerated in the church of St. John the Baptist." Are these martyrs of Cordoba different from those of Carthage? But that they are the same, Galesinius himself indicates well enough, when in the notations subjoined to his Martyrology, on the XIX of July, concerning Speratus and his companions, whom he had placed at Cordoba, he speaks thus: "Whose birthday, nevertheless, is observed in the church of Lyons on the XVI Kal. August." If these martyrs of Cordoba are the same as those whom the church of Lyons venerates on the XVII of July, it follows that they are also the same as those whom Galesinius himself had affirmed to have suffered at Carthage on that day, unless one should wish this well-worn axiom of the Philosophers to be false: "Things which are the same as one third thing are the same as one another."

[21] whom Ferrari cautiously followed in marking the arena of Cordoba. Ferrari indeed, in his General Catalogue, on the XIX of July, describes the text of Galesinius thus: "At Cordoba in Spain, of the Holy Martyrs Speratus and his companions"; but in his notes on the same day he observes the following: "From the Martyrology of Galesinius; but in the Roman Martyrology on the XVII of this month, they are recorded as having suffered at Carthage in Africa. In which matter I think Galesinius was mistaken, since nothing is read of them in the tables of the church of Cordoba." Hence gather how wrongly Tamayo, in his Spanish Martyrology on the XVII of July, accuses Ferrari in this manner: "Philip Ferrari utterly deviated from the true chorography of the arena of these holy Martyrs, in the General Catalogue of the Saints, on the XIX of July, page 297, when he contends, on the authority of Galesinius, that the Holy Martyrs suffered at Cordoba; because Galesinius left it written that our Martyrs, whom we here depict, truly suffered at Carthage, not at Cordoba." Why did Ferrari here sin rather than Galesinius, whose words he transcribed? How did Ferrari contend, on the authority of Galesinius, that the Holy martyrs suffered at Cordoba, when he thinks that Galesinius was mistaken in that matter, and openly enough rejects his authority? Then Tamayo, by a frivolous explanation, tries to reconcile Galesinius with himself, as if he had only said that those Martyrs were venerated at Cordoba, and suffered at Carthage in Spain. If Galesinius had wished only this, he ought also to have assigned to them Lyons in Gaul, where the veneration of these Martyrs is famous, which city nevertheless he expressly distinguishes from the place of the passion. I am of the opinion that Galesinius, slipping in memory, contradicted himself, since he does not mention the cult of Cordoba even in his notations, and expresses Cordoba in the same manner in which he is accustomed to designate the arenas of other martyrs. But whatever finally may be the opinion of Galesinius on this matter, it makes no difference to the chief point of our controversy, concerning which we shall soon more closely engage Tamayo.

[22] If the authors already mentioned had not blindly followed one another after the manner of sheep, they would doubtless have seen that the genuine Acts, Against the plain truth and Baronius, the ancient Martyrologies, and other ecclesiastical monuments point to the African arena of the martyrdom. Indeed, if they had but attended to the name of the proconsul Saturninus, they could have gathered that he administered not the province of Spain but of Africa: for of him Tertullian, an African and contemporary, most probably makes mention, when some years after the combat of these Martyrs he wrote the book to Scapula, proconsul of Africa, whom he strives thus to deter from persecuting the Christians, chapter 3: "We can equally set before you the ends of certain Governors, who at the close of their life remembered that they had done wrong in vexing the Christians. Vigellius Saturninus, who first drew the sword against us here, lost his eyes." Baronius, on account of these and other arguments, in his notes on the Roman Martyrology on this day, thus roundly pronounces: "They are utterly mistaken who say that these suffered at Carthage in Spain: for from their aforesaid Acts they are convicted of error, and by other monuments of the ancients: for in the Toledo Breviary, according to the rule of St. Isidore, when St. Speratus is treated of, these things are written in the sacred hymn about him:

Him the pre-eminent city of Africa, Carthage, keeps as her martyr, etc."

[23] Tamayo in the Spanish Martyrology on this day, against the plain truth, not only obstinately, Tamayo contends that they underwent martyrdom in Spain, but even fraudulently cavils: "If Baronius," he says, "had weighed the following verses of the same hymn, he would have wholly avoided his error: for Isidore proceeds:

And the western people, dedicated to Christ, embraces him.

His tomb here flourishes with excellent virtues, and miracles amplify the glory of his passion.

Here with his holy companions, while he is driven to the sacrifice, he bravely denied that incense should be poured to idols.

For the sense of the verses is that the city of Carthage in Africa keeps (through the translation of the sacred pledges) the holy Martyr, whom the western people, that is, Spain, embraces (through martyrdom), where his tomb flourishes with excellent virtues, and where miracles amplify the glory of his passion: for here, that is, in Spain, while he is driven to the sacrifice with his companions, he constantly denied that incense should be poured to idols. For the adverb HERE looks universally to the last part of the preceding sentence, and since it was in the Isidorian verse

'the western people,' that is, Spain, the following adverbs 'HERE the tomb,' 'HERE with his holy companions,' are to be referred to Spain, as to the last part of the Isidorian verse and hymn." Thus far Tamayo, to whose absurdities I now briefly reply.

[24] Besides the fact that this interpretation of the hymn is violently twisted, whose cavils are refuted, and the translation of the relics from Spain into Africa altogether gratuitously fabricated, I here again detect the bad faith of Tamayo, by which he changes certain particles of the hymn, and fraudulently distorts them to defend his fiction: for in the Mozarabic Breviary, of which there exists only a single edition, it is not read, as Tamayo craftily put it: "His tomb here flourishes with excellent virtues." But this is the genuine reading: "The tomb of the same flourishes with excellent virtues." Then in the hymn which I myself described at Toledo in the year 1722 from the aforesaid Breviary, it stands thus: "With these holy companions while he is driven to the sacrifice." Meanwhile Tamayo for "these" (his) reads "here" (hic), on which particle he places the greatest force of his argument. But if perhaps by a typographical error, of which this Breviary is full, "his" was printed for "hic," who revealed to Tamayo that the particle "hic" is to be taken adverbially, as the Grammarians speak? Is it not equally easy that "his" was printed with a superfluous aspiration for the pronoun "is"? Especially since Peter Bagembach, a German by nation, and accustomed to the more frequent aspiration of his vernacular tongue, committed this Breviary to the press. If, therefore, this particle be taken as the pronoun "hic" or "is," nothing stands in the way of the African martyrdom, and the sense of the hymn will flow clearly, as will appear to the reader. From what has been said I conclude that the western people, that is, the Spanish, embraced the cult of these Martyrs in their Breviary, just as already for many centuries they recited Offices of St. Cyprian, bishop and martyr of Carthage, and of other foreign Saints; and I judge that it applies to St. Speratus also, what Prudentius, the Spanish poet, sang of the same Cyprian: "He is the proper martyr of his homeland, but ours in love and in tongue."

[25] and his usual frauds are detected, We also complain of the fraud of Tamayo in exhibiting the Acts of these Martyrs, which he boasts to give from the most ancient monuments of Spain, when nevertheless he mingles into them his own dreams, unknown to all antiquity, at his own pleasure: for thus they begin in him: "Speratus, Natalius, Cyrinus, Donata, Secunda, and Bassia, citizens of Carthage Spartaria in Spain, holding the faith of Christ and warring under the standard of the Cross, were brought by Saturninus, proconsul of the Romans in Spain, to his tribunal on account of the confession of Christ." Then he thus concludes the Acts, or rather the compendium of the Acts: "They delivered their blessed souls to the Lord on the XVI Kalends of August, in the year of Christ 290 or thereabouts. Afterward the sacred pledges of Speratus were translated into Africa, then carried over from Africa into Gaul, and were honorably laid at Lyons in the basilica of St. John the Baptist." Finally, after the fictitious translation of the relics from Spain into Africa, and other things inserted into those Acts out of his own brain, he does not blush to write thus, as a faithful editor: "Thus far the Acts, which preserved the memory of the Holy Martyrs, the Office of the Spanish church in the ancient Breviaries, and in the Toledo one according to the rule of St. Isidore."

[26] from Nicolás Antonio, a most bitter hater of the fables of his own nation. Lest anyone be deceived by these magnificent titles of most ancient codices or manuscripts, Nicolás Antonio, a most learned Spaniard, in his posthumous manuscripts, which were most kindly communicated to me at Madrid in the year 1721 by the most ample Lord Adrian Coninck, kinsman of the most learned author, thus forearms everyone against the accustomed fallacies of his fellow-countryman Tamayo, on the occasion of this controversy: "But lest anyone be even now troublesome to us in asserting Spain as the homeland of these Martyrs, having read the Martyrology of Tamayo and in it certain of their Acts, which he says he had from a most ancient Breviary of Seville, in which express mention is made of the martyrdom among us at Carthage, and of all the rest which Tamayo had dreamed; you must be admonished, reader, in this opportune place, that you may know the depraved and perpetual style of Tamayo. Under a specious title he is wont to sell his trifles, just as here under this one: 'The Acts of the Holy Speratus … and of the Carthaginian martyrs in Spain, from the Isidorian hymn and the most ancient Breviaries of Seville and of other churches of Spain': in which venerable monuments of an early age, since not even a word is found about Spanish Carthage, nevertheless he professes to give from these books the Acts of the Martyrs, conceived about Spanish Carthage. Which so little faithful narration of the matter utterly disgraces a historian, and especially a sacred one." Thus that Spaniard, and true lover of his homeland, which, as a fruitful parent and nurse of Saints, has no need of foreign offspring, with which nevertheless Tamayo wished to enrich, or rather to disgrace, it in his Spanish Martyrology.

[27] It remains that we here say something about the year and day of the martyrdom. Probably the Martyrs suffered in the year 200, The glorious combat of these Martyrs seems to have happened in the year of Christ 200, under the consul Claudius; he is doubtless Tiberius Claudius Severus, by some wrongly confused with the emperor Severus himself, whom in this year the more exact consular Fasti record to have been consul together with Caius Aufidius Victorinus. Baronius indeed defers the consulship of both, and consequently the death of our Martyrs, until the year 202, which by an error of two years, now known to all the learned, he supposes to have fallen in the eighth year of the emperor Severus. But now all the more skilled chronologers agree that the eighth year of the emperor Severus is to be reckoned with the two-hundredth of Christ; so that to establish this epoch there is no need of further proof. From these things the reader will easily gather that Tamayo does not deserve a serious response, who inserted these things into the very Acts of the Martyrs: "They delivered their blessed souls to the Lord on the XVI Kalends of August, in the year of Christ 290 or thereabouts": for that they suffered at least under Severus and Antoninus Caracalla, the very proconsular Acts testify, which Baronius edited from three ancient manuscripts.

[28] There occurs in various manuscripts a certain discrepancy concerning the day of the Passion, on the 17th of July they were crowned with the laurel of martyrdom. of which Ruinart discourses excellently in his preliminary Admonition to the Acts of these Martyrs, no. 6; whose words therefore I wish here to be held as my own: "Concerning the day, however," he says, "there seems to be some difficulty: for from the beginning of the Baronian Acts those Martyrs are set before the Proconsul on the XIV Kalends of August, that is, on the XIX of July, and the next day again presented, after the granting of a respite of three days, were condemned to death. Yet at the end of the same Acts they are said to have been consummated on the seventeenth day of the month of July; whence it must be confessed that an error crept into the earlier numbers. The Mabillonian Fragment has at its beginning that those Martyrs appeared on the XVI Kal. August. But even if they refused the respite offered them, they could not complete their martyrdom until the next day, that is, the XVIII of July. No light can be had from the Carthaginian Calendar: for after these letters XV there is some little space worn away by age in the manuscript; nor can it be said whether at last a single I or two were deleted. More certain than all the rest seems the reading of the Colbertine codex, in which those Martyrs are said to have suffered on the XVI Kalends of August; with which not only the Baronian Acts at the end, as we have said, and the Mabillonian in the title, but also all the Martyrologies, as many as it has been permitted to see, agree." I have nothing to add to these, except that in our eight manuscripts mentioned above there occurs a similar diversity of numbers, which I judge is to be attributed to the error of the transcribers: for since in some manuscripts the passion of these Martyrs is placed on the XIV Kalends of August, in others on the XVI Kalends of August, this variety could easily have arisen from the transposition of a single letter, as is plain to one who considers.

§ III. The translation and relics of the Holy Martyrs.

[The relics of St. Speratus, together with others, were translated from Africa to Lyons,] Already in the preceding paragraph I indicated in passing what I think about the relics of St. Speratus translated from Spain into Africa; namely that Tamayo had to invent this evasion, that he might somehow attach the African martyrs to Spain, and at the same time not openly contradict the Isidorian hymn. Leaving aside, therefore, this fictitious translation, we proceed to another, proved by the undoubted testimonies of the ancient writers. Ado in his Martyrology on the XVII of July, after the elogium of our Martyrs cited in no. 12, thus treats of it: "Their relics, with the bones of blessed Cyprian, and the head of St. Pantaleon the martyr, translated from Africa into Gaul, are venerated at Lyons in the basilica of the most holy John the Baptist." And the same Ado in his Chronicle, at the year of Christ 806, has these words on the matter: "At that time the bones of blessed Cyprian were brought from Carthage, with the relics of the blessed Scillitan martyrs, Speratus and his companions, and were placed in the church of blessed John the Baptist in the city of Lyons." I note that Ado here in both places makes mention of the relics of St. Speratus and his companions, whereas elsewhere he himself mentions only St. Speratus. Florus also, deacon of Lyons, who was renowned in the year 837, celebrates St. Speratus with Cyprian and Pantaleon, without the other companions, resting at Lyons, in his verses, which Mabillon edited in tome 1 of the ancient Analecta, page 407. There, after certain little verses composed about the sacred bones of St. Cyprian, the following are read:

To this is added a twin star with radiant light, Speratus the martyr with the martyr Pantaleon; with whose head here flourish the sacred bones of the earlier ones, whom Gaul, rejoicing, together received under Charles, prince of the Franks, enriched with Libyan talents.

[30] Ado in his Martyrology, after he has narrated the martyrdom of St. Cyprian on the XIV of September, as in his Martyrology on the 14th of September, more fully describes the same translation of the relics thus: "But after many courses of years, while the most glorious Charles ruled the Franks, it happened that, as they bore an embassy of the Franks, illustrious legates, circumspect in wisdom, made a passage through Africa. When these, returning from Aaron, king of the Persians—who, except for India, held almost the whole East—had seen Carthage destroyed and the venerable places of the holy martyrs, having easily won the prince over to themselves, and he showing favor in such a matter, they asked as a great gift that he would permit them to carry away the bones of blessed Cyprian. Which he, not esteeming of great account, at once granted their request; and, that they might bear them to the pious Emperor, whose grace he set above the friendships of all kings and princes who were in the whole world, he willingly assented that they should carry them."

[31] Ado narrates at length, "And when the venerable legates were returning, bearing mighty gifts, namely the relics of martyrs (for they had also the members of blessed Speratus the martyr, who was one of those XII most illustrious Scillitan martyrs, the head too of the glorious martyr Pantaleon, together with the blessed bones of Cyprian), using prosperous sails, they came at last to Arles, where, leaving the sacred members of the Martyrs for the time sealed up, they hastened to report their embassy to the glorious Emperor, and, that they might further win the king's mind to themselves concerning the embassy strenuously accomplished, among other things about the Saints'

relics, brought from Africa, they exalt his spirit. Whence he, exceedingly glad, ordered them to be preserved so long at Arles with worthy veneration, until he himself should build in his kingdom a temple with some great work, where he might lay so precious a pledge with mighty cult and adornment. But as causes arose, while the work was constructed rather slowly, Leidrad, the venerable bishop of Lyons, having got the occasion, asked the glorious Emperor that it might be permitted him to carry the blessed bones of the Martyrs to his own city. The Emperor consented. And the pious man the more quickly fulfills his vow. With honor they were carried down into the city of Lyons, and there in the greater church of blessed John the Baptist and of the holy martyr Stephen were guarded for some time, and for the defense of the citizens—God mercifully working this, and the Emperor now transferring his vow concerning the building of the temple to a far different place—the holy bishop laid the most blessed relics of the glorious Martyrs in the aforesaid church behind the venerable and sacred altar in a most fitting sepulcher, and honorably commended them, to profit his fellow-citizens in time to come.

[32] There is then added, in several codices of the Adonian Martyrology, another translation of St. Cyprian, who is also said to mention the Compiègne translation. which is expressed in these words: "But afterward, an interval of time interposed, in the reign of the glorious king Charles, son of the Emperor Louis, again the relics of blessed Cyprian were translated, by his order, to the new monastery which the same King built with august work at Compiègne, his palace." It could be doubted whether this clause was not added to Ado by a more recent hand, since in the Martyrology on the XVII of July and in his Chronicle he makes no word of this translation. However it be, since Ado here mentions the sacred bones of Cyprian alone, that controversy can be discussed when the Acts of St. Cyprian are to be illustrated. Meanwhile, concerning this Compiègne translation, Mabillon may be seen in the Benedictine Annals, tome 3, book 37, no. 94, where nevertheless he errs in this, that he supposes the common Ado to have treated in this translation of the relics of St. Speratus, which he there asserts to be honored thus: "The domestic records, with the common Ado, add the relics of St. Cyprian, and at the same time of the Holy martyrs Speratus and Pantaleon, which had been brought from Africa in the time of Charlemagne to Arles, and thence, on the testimony of Ado, to Lyons. Certainly the relics of Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian are kept in one precious casket in the church of Compiègne, and there in two shrines the relics of the holy Speratus and Pantaleon are preserved." To the domestic records, which reckon the bones of St. Speratus, I willingly give credence, but that they can be confirmed from Ado I deny. Now let us return to the translation made from Africa to Lyons.

[33] Agobard, chorbishop of the church of Lyons, who succeeded Leidrad, Agobard, a contemporary, describes in verse how the bones of St. Cyprian, when he voluntarily deserted that see, about the year 814, and who probably was present at this reception of the relics, expressed the history of the African translation in hendecasyllabic verses, which Pamelius prefixed to the works of St. Cyprian, printed at Antwerp in the year 1568. Then at Paris in the year 1666 Stephen Baluze edited the same among the Works of Agobard, and finally Charles Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 807, number 6. But since Baluze asserts that in editing the works of Agobard he followed trustworthy codices, we give those verses here, collated with the corrections of Le Cointe, from his edition:

The magnificent ruler, and pious prince, Charles, propped by august dignity, was governing the noble Frankish scepter, piously guiding the subject peoples, had ordered chosen men to cut the seas; and now, the Thunderer being propitious to him, after many labors of an over-long journey, seeking the deep on their return voyage, they suddenly entered the Libyan borders, where Carthage, lying in grievous ruin, weeps for the glory of her past youth. Here, while they enter the basilicas dedicated to God, and the revered temples of Christ, they perceive how, O martyr Cyprian, a neglected coffin kept thy bones. Then indeed, moved by exceeding grief, and gazing at heaven with great groaning, they beg the help of the eternal God, for whom, O Saint, thy head was cut off. And soon, praying with bended knees, they open the sarcophagus, and strive to bind the sacred limbs with prepared linens, and commit the body to a sacred [*] little casket.

[34] The bones too of blessed Speratus the martyr, and of Pantaleon, in haste they take up all together, and bind with cloths. [The bones of Sts. Speratus and Pantaleon were first carried to Arles, then to Lyons.] They climb swiftly the prepared raft, nor fear the perils of the savage sea. As they come forth, Arles with rich harbor meets them, with placid and glad bosom receives the weary, and kindly cherishes them. When soon the best priest heard these things— Leidrad, holding the placid see of Lyons, burning with an exceeding ardor for the Saints, and everywhere intent on sacred things, the model and glory of the clergy— he prays, demands, and quickly obtains, that the most holy bones of the pious martyrs be laid within our walls, at Lyons, at the placid altar of John, who watered Christ with the glassy wave. There with thy companions, in bright honor flourishing, O illustrious Cyprian, thou sleepest. But I pray, watch, and watchful attend to our prayers, and become for us a clement and mighty patron of God; loose our crimes, and grant our vows. Let that tongue, I pray, be mindful of us, which, having confessed the eternal Word of God, gave its neck to be cut by the sword; but sang Christ, and knows not to be silent. This tongue Christ, ever kindly, hears, whether rousing the sacred peoples with the pen, or utterly burning up depraved heresies, or false gods, with the thunderbolt of the Word. This tongue too, for our people and our patron, we ever pray he may hear as it entreats; may it cherish the shepherd, propagate the flock; give the gift of faith, the glory of salvation. O sacred Doctor, O blessed Martyr, piously keep the bishop Agobard, who extolled thy name, thy merit, and thy feast with words, and adorned it with [*] honor. O threefold honor, O three-formed height! O three magnificent and pious witnesses! May the sole Trinity, mighty through the ages, be favoring to us with threefold entreaty.

[35] From this poem of a contemporary writer it is plain how far from the true chronology of this translation James Severt wandered, The opinion of Severt is rejected concerning the epoch of the translation, a doctor of Paris, who in the Historical Chronology of the archbishopric of Lyons, printed anew at Lyons in the year 1628, chapter 52, §3, writes thus: "I do not know from what author William Paradin learned that the body of St. Cyprian was brought from Carthage about the year 806 by Ratbert, legate of Charlemagne. Since concerning the same relics carried away we read these things done a hundred and a half years before, in the venerable Bede." Then in chapter 55, §5, he strives thus to reconcile Bede with Ado: "Baronius," he says, "in conformity with Ado of Vienne, whom alone he cites, fixes the translation of the relics about the year 807. But in order to reconcile it with the older Bede, whom he neither alleges nor notices, I would say, with a little distinction, that the relics were snatched from Carthage in the aforesaid year 616 and entrusted to Arles, and afterward translated thence to Lyons by the labor of Leidrad in the year 807, according to the sense of the text thus dividing the places." But that these and the other evasions which he subjoins are altogether vain is clear from Agobard, who expressly testifies that those relics were translated under Charlemagne from Africa to Arles and soon to Lyons. Severt's error arises from this, that he read this translation in a supposititious Bede, which he thought genuine. Meanwhile, not even in our Bede with the supplements of Florus, whom we cited above in no. 12, is any word made of this translation.

[36] There is another dispute among authors concerning the time of the same translation, some following the chronology of Ado, others of Sigebert. and the more probable is established from Ado. Ado, as we saw above, assigns it to the year 806, or as others will have it, 807. But Sigebert in his Chronicle, at the year of Christ 802, speaks thus of it: "The legates of the Emperor Charles, coming from Aaron the Amir, among other gifts, also bring into France the bones of Cyprian, the Carthaginian martyr, and of Speratus, first of the Scillitan martyrs, and the head of Pantaleon the martyr." Baluze in his Notes on Leidrad follows this chronological order of Sigebert. But Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 806, and Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks at the year 807, plainly reject this epoch. I suspect that two embassies of this kind under Charlemagne were confused by Sigebert: for the ancient writers, who left to posterity the deeds of Charlemagne in chronological order, distinguish two embassies of this emperor to the king of the Persians. The first is placed in the year 802, in which Isaac the Jew is said, four years before sent with Lantfrid and Sigimund to the king of the Persians—the other two having died on the journey—to have returned to Charles with many gifts. The other is recorded at the year 807, in which Ratbert, the Emperor's Envoy, who was returning from the East, is said to have died. Then it is narrated that "the legate of the king of the Persians came with monks from Jerusalem … to the emperor, bearing gifts which the aforesaid king had sent to the Emperor." Although in neither place is mention made of these relics, and it cannot be determined for certain in which embassy they were obtained, yet we judge that greater credence in this matter is to be given to Ado, nearer to those times.

[37] Another translation of our Martyrs is indicated by Baronius in his notes on the Roman Martyrology on the XVII of July, where, after assigning the authors Baronius and others assert that the Scillitan martyrs rest at Rome, who wrote of the translated relics of Sts. Cyprian, Speratus, and Pantaleon, he speaks thus of the companions of St. Speratus: "But the relics of the rest were translated to Rome, and laid in the title of Pammachius, that is, in the church of Sts. John and Paul, as the old monuments of the same church indicate, where also an old picture of that translation, representing the history itself, remained uninjured down to our days." Ottavio Panciroli, in the Hidden Treasures of the City of Rome, printed at Rome in the year 1625, page 702, confirms this translation of the Martyrs; but he asserts that St. Speratus, whom Baronius had left to the Gauls, is buried there in the church of St. John and Paul with his companions under the high altar. "Africa had," he says, "a city which was called Scillitana, in which in the year of the Lord 202 suffered one thousand two hundred Martyrs, both men and women; and the head of all was St. Speratus, who rests there (namely in the church of St. John and Paul, of which he treats) with some of his companions." I do not here tarry over the huge number of Scillitan Martyrs, in which Panciroli certainly exceeds. Carlo Bartolomeo Piazza, in the Sacred Calendar of Christian and Gentile Rome, on the XVII of July, enumerates thirteen Scillitan martyrs, of whom, he says, "solemn memory is made in the church of Sts. John and Paul on the Cælian hill, where the greater part of their bodies rests." Nowhere do I find a certain epoch of this translation.

[38] [which assertion the Roman manuscript favors, in which, after the finding and translation of the bodies,] A certain Roman manuscript, after the interpolated Acts of these Martyrs, of which I made mention above in no. 18, describes the finding and translation of the sacred bodies without any note of chronology thus: "In the course of time God manifested the bodies of the holy Speratus and of his companions in this manner, because the hidden treasure could no longer lie concealed. A certain man, having lost the sight of both eyes from pain of the head, having with him a certain little boy as guide, was passing along the road beside the bodies of the Saints; overcome by drowsiness he turned aside a little from the road, and slept in the place in which were buried the bodies of the aforesaid Saints. And while he slept, he saw in a dream a certain old man of angelic countenance standing by him, and saying: 'Arpatius'; who answering said: 'Behold, I am here, lord.' And the holy old man saying: 'Whence this rashness of yours, that it does not shame you to sleep upon our bodies?' To whom Arpatius, terrified by exceeding fear, answered: 'Lord, who are you who speak such things to me?' The old man answered him: 'I am Speratus, bishop of Carthage, who am here buried with my eleven companions; but see that this happen to you no more, that you sleep upon the bodies of the Saints'; and having said these things, he signed the eyes of Arpatius with the sign of the Cross, and after this at once disappeared. Who, waking, at once felt the sight of both eyes restored in him, and, his eyes opened, he saw, praising and glorifying the name of the Lord, who works such great wonders. After these things the aforesaid bodies of the Saints, with hymns and praises, and with great honor, were brought to Rome into the church which St. Pammachius had built in honor of Christ and of the Holy martyrs John and Paul, and were honorably laid there in a porphyry basin within the body of the basilica itself, where great wonders are done to the present day: for there the blind are enlightened, the lame receive their gait, hearing is restored to the deaf, and many other wonders are done there daily."

[39] Then there follows in the same manuscript a miracle wrought by the intercession of these martyrs, a miracle is related, wrought at Rome by the intercession of these Saints. which is narrated in this manner: "But after the bodies of the Saints were laid there, at a certain time a certain man at Rome was full of a demon, who, giving all his goods to physicians, thought he had some other infirmity. At last, forced and compelled by want, because he now had nothing to bestow, since the demon had already possessed him for the space of three years, his kinsfolk took counsel to bring him to the venerable bodies of the Saints, [if] perchance the Lord might there work his mercy in him. They laid hold of him, and began to bring him to the aforesaid church. But he, as is the manner of demoniacs, began to cry out, saying: 'Whither do you wish to bring me? Are you leading me to Speratus? O Speratus, why do you burn me?' At these words all who were present began to weep, bringing him to the church of the holy John and Paul; who, when he drew near to the door of that church, the demon began strongly to vex him: but as they persisted in weeping and prayer, at last they cast him before the basin in which are laid the bodies of the Holy martyrs Speratus and his companions; and at the third hour of the day he was freed from the demon. These and many other signs are shown daily through the intercessions of the many Saints resting there; to the praise of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through infinite ages of ages. Amen." Let the credit of this finding and miracle rest with the anonymous author, who notes no epoch of either.

[40] The Belfort manuscript, cited in no. 16, subjoins to the Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs another translation of the same, The relics of the same martyrs which is narrated in this manner: "The bodies of these holy Martyrs were brought in a storm of wars to Amiens from a certain place near the city, and laid in the monastery of St. Martin ad Gemellos; where in a certain little shrine they long remained in a wooden casket. But now for eight years they are honorably laid in the church of the aforesaid monastery in two gilded caskets. Moreover, a long time ago, the reverend Lord bishop of Amiens, who then presided, willed that concerning the aforesaid Holy Martyrs and their precious relics an exact inquiry should be made, for the knowledge and instruction of the people of Amiens. In which, when the venerable Father of this our monastery of Celestines of Amiens, being summoned, was present, when it was completed, he asked that some of their relics be granted to our monastery; which, the reverend bishop consenting, he obtained. So I heard from the narration of a certain venerable father, conspicuous in faith and erudition; which also I announce to you, I, Brother Charles Regius, the least of the said Congregation, this year 1593." Certainly that our Martyrs were long ago honored at Amiens is plain both from what I brought forward in no. 16, and from the Breviary of the diocese of Amiens, which, printed in the year 1550, prescribes in the Rubrics this common commemoration of Speratus the martyr and his companions under these Antiphons: "They rejoice in heaven" and "They shall shine." But the prayer is recited from the common: "O God, who grantest us, etc."

[41] at Amiens; There must have been many relics of these Martyrs at Amiens in the monastery of St. Martin ad Gemellos, since the abbot of the same monastery in the year 1431 communicated no small part of them to the Reverend Fathers Carthusians of Abbeville, as is plain from the charter, which in the Ecclesiastical History of Abbeville, edited in French at Paris in the year 1646, book 1, chapter 54, is thus related: "Let all cultivators of the Catholic faith know that we, Ralph, by divine permission humble abbot of the monastery of St. Martin of the Twins at Amiens, and the whole convent of the same place, have given and granted, and by these presents do give and grant, to the religious men, the brothers of the house of St. Honoré near Abbeville, of the Carthusian Order, for the adornment of their church, the sacred relics which follow: namely, from the sacred bodies of the holy martyrs Speratus and his companions, to be there cherished and venerated; further spontaneously trusting and acknowledging that, as from the report of several religious of the convent of the same place it has lawfully been established to us, John and William our predecessors, greatly desiring the good and profit of that house, gave other relics of the aforesaid holy Martyrs in times past, the consent and assent of the same convent likewise intervening, and freely granted them for the adornment of the aforesaid church. And it is true that both we and our predecessors, both now and at other times, have given and granted to the aforesaid Brothers two heads of the aforesaid Martyrs, and a small part [*] from all the other heads, with many other bones and relics of those Saints. In testimony of which matter we have caused our seals to be affixed to this present letter, in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred thirty-one, on the second day of the month of March." These letters are furnished with the seal of the abbot and of the abbey of St. Martin ad Gemellos in green wax.

[42] and are honored elsewhere in Gaul. The Benedictines of Compiègne, according to their domestic records, as we said above, assert that the sacred bones of the Scillitan martyrs, together with the relics of Sts. Cyprian and Cornelius, were translated to them from Lyons, and that they, on the testimony of Ruinart, keep them even now in the royal basilica. But the Celestines of Mantes contend that they possess in a silver casket many relics of the same Martyrs, and separately the head of St. Speratus enclosed in a half-statue, as Tillemont relates in tome 3 of the Ecclesiastical Memoirs, page 135. Other Gallic writers testify that these Martyrs are venerated in the diocese of Beauvais and in others of Gaul, at least with a simple Office. But whether this is done on account of some of their relics, neither do they themselves express, nor should I dare to affirm for certain. At Paris, however, in the college of Montaigu, there is said to exist a certain reliquary of St. Speratus or his companions, which perhaps gave occasion to reciting an Office of these holy Martyrs: at least in the Paris Breviary of the year 1680 an Office of St. Speratus and his companion martyrs is made with a simple rite, in which, besides the proper Antiphons to the Magnificat and Benedictus, two lessons are read, taken from the Acts, which contain their synopsis. We have already seen the bodies of the Scillitan martyrs honored in various places; but since daily experience teaches us that in this matter the whole is often named for the part, it is no wonder if the bones of twelve Martyrs are found in several places. Wherefore I leave each one in the possession of his relics, and here subjoin the twofold Acts, which I promised above.

Annotations

a. Otherwise "head."

c. Otherwise "patron."

d. Otherwise "e."

PROCONSULAR ACTS

From the Ecclesiastical Annals of Cardinal Baronius, at the year of Christ 202.

BHL Number: 7531

Claudius [] being [] consul, on the fourteenth day from the Kalends of August, at Carthage the metropolis, a forensic assembly having been appointed, the Magistrates ordered Speratus, Narzales, Saturninus the Proconsul, promising pardon to the Saints, Cittinus, Donata, Secunda, and Vestina to stand before them. And as they stood, Saturninus the proconsul said: "You can earn pardon from our lords the emperors Severus and Antoninus ^b, if with a good disposition you are converted to our gods." Speratus said: "We have never done any evil; nor, following iniquity, have we practiced any working in sins, nor have we ever cursed anyone; but ill-received by you, we have always given thanks. Wherefore we adore the true Lord and King." Saturninus the proconsul said: "We too are chosen, and most gentle is our elegance, and we swear by the genius ^c of our lord the Emperor and intercede for his welfare, which you too ought to have done."

[2] Speratus said: "If you lend me your tranquil ears, first St. Speratus I will tell the mystery of meekness." Saturninus the proconsul said: "As you speak of a mystery, I was not in evil. Only swear by the genius of our king." Speratus said: "I know not the genius of the emperor of the world; but I serve my heavenly God, whom no man has seen, nor can see. For I have never stolen, but whatever I buy, I pay the tribute, for I know him to be my lord: but I adore my Lord, King of kings, and Lord of all nations." Saturninus the proconsul said: "For the rest, cease from the tumult of your chatterings, and, approaching, sacrifice to the gods." Speratus answered: "That is the evil incitement which makes murder and false accusation against anyone."

[3] Saturninus the proconsul, turning to the others, said: then in vain he tries to lead the others away from the Christian religion; "Be not partakers of the folly of this madness, but rather fear our king, obeying his precepts." Cittinus said: "We have no other whom we should fear, except the Lord our God, who is in the heavens." Saturninus the proconsul said: "Let them be thrust into prison, let them be put in the stocks until tomorrow." On the following day Saturninus the proconsul, sitting on the tribunal, orders them to be presented. Who, when they had stood before him, he says to the women: "Honor our king, and sacrifice to the gods." Then Donata said: "Honor indeed to Cæsar as to Cæsar: but to our God we offer honor and prayer." Vestina, standing, said: "And I am a Christian." Secunda likewise said: "And I believe in my God, and I wish to be in him; but your gods we do not serve, nor adore." Saturninus the proconsul, having heard these things, ordered them to be kept [*].

[4] Having summoned the men, he says to Speratus: "Do you persevere in being a Christian?" Speratus said: or after a second trial, the constancy of all being observed, "I do indeed persevere, and hear all of you, that I am a Christian." And those who had been detained with him, hearing this, consented to his confession, saying: "We too are likewise Christians." Saturninus the proconsul said: "Do you wish neither ^d deliverance nor remission?" Speratus answered: "In a just contest there is no remission. Do what you will: for we die rejoicing for Christ." Saturninus the proconsul said: "What are the books which you adore as you read?" Speratus answered: "The four Gospels of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle, and all divinely inspired Scripture." Saturninus the proconsul said: "I grant you a space of three [*] days, that you may come to your senses." Speratus said: "I am a Christian, and all who are with me, and we do not depart from the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do what you will."

[5] he orders them to be beheaded. The proconsul, seeing also the stability of their mind and the firmness of their faith, gave sentence upon them through a recorder ^e, saying thus: "Speratus, Narzales, Cittinus, Veturius, Felix, Acyllinus, Lætantius, Januaria, Generosa, Vestina, Donata, and Secunda, confessing themselves to be Christians, and refusing to give honor and dignity to the Emperor, I order to be beheaded." When these things had been recited from the tablet, Speratus, and all who were with him, said: "We give thanks to God, who deigns today to receive us as martyrs in the heavens for the confession of him." Having said these things, they were led forth; and, their knees bent unanimously, while they again gave thanks to Christ, the heads of each were struck off. The martyrs of Christ were consummated in the month of July, on the seventeenth day, and they intercede for us with the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Otherwise "with him aiding and present."

* Otherwise "Claudianus."

* Otherwise "beginning."

* Otherwise "to be separated."

* Otherwise "thirty."

OTHER GENUINE ACTS

Unearthed from a parchment manuscript codex in the library of the church of Toledo, and collated with the Colbertine manuscript.

BHL Number: 7533

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

In those days, Speratus, Narzalus, Citinus, Donata, Secunda, and Vestigia having been led ^a into the record-room of the contest [] by the office of the apparitors, Saturninus urging the cult of the gods Saturninus the proconsul said to all generally: "You can earn indulgence from our lords the emperors, if you return to a good mind, and observe the ceremonies of our gods." Holy Speratus said: "We are conscious of never having done evil; we have not lent our sense [] to iniquity; we recall never having cursed [us] anyone: but ill-treated and provoked, we have always given thanks to God; for indeed we prayed for those whom we unjustly endured as hostile. For which reason we also give heed to our emperor, from whom this norm of living has been granted to us." Saturninus the proconsul said: "We too are religious, and simple is our religion, and we swear by the genius [*] of our lords, we supplicate for their welfare; which you too ought to do ^b."

[2] Holy Speratus said: "If you lend your tranquil ears, St. Speratus answers freely, I will tell the mystery of Christian simplicity." Saturninus the proconsul said: "To you, beginning to speak evil of our sacrifices, I will not lend my ears; but rather swear by the genius [*] ^c of our lords the emperors, that you may enjoy the gladness of this world with us." Holy Speratus answered: "I do not acknowledge the empire of this age; but rather with faith, hope and charity I serve that God whom no man has seen, nor can see. A crime which is found by the public and divine laws to be damnable, I have not done. But if I do anything in public, I render tribute for [it] to the public collectors ^d. I acknowledge as Emperor of all nations God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I have brought complaints against no one: I ought not to endure them."

[3] Saturninus the proconsul turned his face to the rest, and began [] thus to speak to the companions of Speratus: roused by whose example the companions "Cease to be cultivators of a persuasion of this kind: for Speratus has been enticed []. Because if his profession has you as companions, nonetheless it will have you also for punishment." Holy Speratus said: "It is an evil persuasion to speak false testimony; so surely an evil concession [*] is proved, if one acts against the divine and public laws ^e, by which the order of human life is disposed: but the persuasion of divine worship is rather to be followed than deserted." Saturninus the proconsul said: "In the past I have already admonished you not to consent to be partakers of this madness."

[4] Holy Citinus said: "You ought to hear nothing else from us, they publicly confess the Christian faith. O proconsul, except those things which our companion Speratus has confessed. For know that we have no other whom we should fear, except the one God and our Lord, who is in heaven." Holy Donata likewise added: "We render honor to Cæsar as to Cæsar; but fear and worship we present to Christ the Lord." And venerable Vestigia followed, saying: "This my heart shall ever meditate, and my lips shall pronounce: that I am a Christian." And holy Secunda likewise said: "What Christians are, that I too wish to be; from the profession of my companions I recede on no account ^f."

[5] St. Speratus, a space for deliberating, Saturninus the proconsul said to holy Speratus: "You persevere, as I see, in being a Christian." Holy Speratus said: "This Christian perseverance I trust that I have not by my own strength, but by a divine gift: therefore, if you wish to know the fixed sentence of my heart; because I am a Christian, whatever of tortures you shall wish to inflict on me, I would gladly endure for the name of my Lord Christ." In this confession the other martyrs also consented. Saturninus the proconsul said: "Perhaps you wish to receive a space for deliberating?" Holy Speratus said: "In a matter so good, what will be a second deliberation? For we deliberated then not to desert the worship of Christ, when, renewed by the grace of baptism, we both renounced the devil and followed the footsteps of Christ."

[6] offered by the proconsul, he spurns; Saturninus the proconsul said: "Tell me, what are the matters of your teachings in your cause and religion?" Holy Speratus said: "The books of the Gospels, and the epistles of Paul, the most holy man and Apostle." Saturninus the proconsul said: "Take a delay of thirty days, that you may reconsider the confession of this sect. Perhaps you will return to the sacred ceremonies of the gods." Holy Speratus said: "We do not ask a space of thirty days: for we ourselves shall be after thirty days what we are also today; nor in a delay of thirty days will our profession be able to be changed in anything. But rather I would wish that you take this space for deliberating, that from so base a worship [*] of idols you might become a lover of the Christian religion. But if you are not worthy to receive this, put off the delay: for such as you see us today, doubt not that we shall be after this respite."

[7] wherefore with his companions he is at once slain by the sword. The proconsul Saturninus, perceiving the perseverance of the Saints, recited the decree from the tablet: "Speratus, Narzalus, Citinus, Donata, Secunda, Vestigia, and all who have confessed that they live by the Christian rite, and as many as have obstinately [*] not received the offered opportunity of returning to the worship of the gods, it is my pleasure that they be executed by the sword." Holy Speratus said: "We give thanks to God." Narzalus said: "Today we are martyrs in heaven: thanks be to God." Saturninus the proconsul, through a herald, orders the Saints to be led forth, that is, Speratus, Narzalus, Citinus, Venerius, Felix, Aquilinus, Literatius, Januaria, Generosa, Donata, Vestigia, and Secunda: and so, coming to the place of martyrdom, by the sword they delivered their blessed souls to God. And the Lord Jesus Christ received his Martyrs in peace; to whom be honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Otherwise "of Carthage."

* Otherwise "assent."

* Otherwise "kingdom."

* Otherwise "adorsus."

* Otherwise "inlectus."

* Otherwise "consensio."

* Read "sustinebo" (I will endure).

* Or rather "cultore" (worshipper)?

* Otherwise "obstinare."

Notes

a. Perhaps "Is" or "Hic."

b. Perhaps "governor" (præses).

b. Otherwise "or depraved heresies."

e. Read "small part" (parvam partem).

a. Concerning this day we discoursed in the Preliminary Commentary, no. 28.

b. It is to be read "Antoninus," which name Caracalla bore, the son of Severus, who was taken by his father into the empire.

c. On the testimony of Tertullian, the Christians did not swear by the genius of the Emperor, which in his Apologetic book against the Gentiles, chapter 32, he signifies in these words: "But we also swear, as not by the geniuses of the Cæsars, so by their welfare, which is more august than all geniuses. Do you not know that geniuses are called demons, and hence by a diminutive word 'demonia'? … Moreover, we are accustomed to adjure the demons, that is the geniuses, in order to drive them out of men; not to swear by them, so as to confer upon them the honor of divinity."

d. I think that for "deliverance" (liberatione) one should read "deliberation": for in the Toledo codex Saturninus asks: "Perhaps you wish to receive a space for deliberating?"

e. Recorders (Exceptores) were notaries who wrote down the acts of the courts, and took down the judge's sentence, as is clear from very many Acts of the martyrs.

a. The construction is faulty, of which kind several occur here; let it suffice to have noted it once, provided the sense be understood.

b. In the Toledo manuscript this last reply of the proconsul Saturninus was, by the carelessness of the transcriber, repeated twice, of which it seemed good to admonish the reader, because we have omitted it once.

c. So too the Reichenau manuscript reads, edited by Mabillon and Ruinart. Yet I judge that one should rather read "genium" on account of what we said in the Annotations to the preceding Acts from Tertullian.

d. This sense, disturbed in the Toledo manuscript, had to be thus restored from the Colbertine codex.

e. Faulty syntax again, which is also found in the Colbertine codex.

f. "On no account" (Nullo obstante) I think has here the same force as "for no obstacle"; unless perhaps with Ruinart you prefer to suspect that one should read "with nothing pressing" (nullo instante) or "for a moment."

ON THE SCILLITAN HOLY MARTYRS

SPERATUS, NARZALES, CITTINUS, VETURIUS, FELIX, ACYLLINUS, LÆTANTIUS, JANUARIA, GENEROSA, VESTINA, DONATA, SECUNDA,

AT CARTHAGE IN AFRICA.

IN THE YEAR 200.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

BHL Number: 2045

BY THE AUTHOR G. C.

PROCONSULAR ACTS

BHL Number: 7531

ANNOTATIONS.

OTHER GENUINE ACTS

BHL Number: 7533

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

ANNOTATIONS.

Notes

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