ON ST. JUSTINUS THE MARTYR.
ABOUT THE YEAR 167.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Justinus, Martyr at Rome (St.) Chariton, Martyr at Rome (St.) Charito, Martyr at Rome (St.) Euelpistus, Martyr at Rome (St.) Hierax, Martyr at Rome (St.) Peon, Martyr at Rome (St.) Valerianus, or Liberianus, Martyr at Rome (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
§ I. Whether this is the same as Justin the Philosopher, and beheaded with his Companions?
[1] The Greeks so assign the whole Office of this day in their Menaea to these seven Martyrs, that concerning them alone there are Stichera or Verses, both "Assimiles" and "Similes" (which they call Prosomoia and Homoia), and Troparia and all the Odes of the Canon; The Greeks make two Justins, which indeed, that they are from the older writers, composed by the Saints John of Damascus, Sophronius, or their Colleagues, is proved by the lack of the elegances commonly observed by the later Hymnographers, who both composed Hymns nearly always Acrostic, and either inserted or appended their own name to the Acrostic itself. But that the same Greeks, at least after that Office was composed and arranged, believed Justinus, the leader of this sacred troop, to be different from the famous Philosopher of that name, in the Menaea and the Typicon: who by his Apologies for the Christian cause earned an immortal name on earth and the laurel of Martyrdom deservedly in heaven; the twofold Eulogy from the Synaxaria does not permit one to doubt, with distichs fitted to each, expressing a different kind of death; by which the one is said to have been given hemlock (κωνείῳ, cicuta) to drink; the other beheaded by the sword (ξίφει, gladio): as I have set forth more fully on April 13, on which the Philosopher is venerated by the Latins. The Typicon also, formed from the titles of the Synaxaria, confirms that very estimation of difference, and Chapter κδ' i.e. 24, comprising the Rule of the divine Office for the month of June, is thus believed: Εἰς τὴν α', On the first day, Τοῦ ἁγίου Μάρτυρος, Ἰυστίνου τοῦ Φιλοσόφου, καὶ ἑτέρου Μάρτυρος, Ἰουστίνου, καὶ τῶν σὺν αὐτῷ, Of the holy Martyr Justin the Philosopher, and of another Justin and his Companions. Indeed the Slavo-Russian Menology, which the Swedish Baron Sparwenfeld brought to us from Muscovy, rendered by himself into Latin (as will be said below, concerning the two proper Saints of that nation) adds that the Philosopher indeed suffered in the year 200, under Severus; but the Other in the year 123, under Hadrian: which years, whether they are numbered in the Greek manner, so that with eight years added they ought to be brought back to the reckoning of the common era, and to correspond to the years 208 and 131: or in the Muscovite manner, the use of which for the common era I shall show on the following day. Although in the present case it matters little to have noted this: since Severus reigned from the year of the common era 194 to 211; Hadrian from the year 117 to 138: and in both cases the Chronology of the Muscovites equally errs, because to the reign of Antoninus, who succeeded Hadrian, Justin the Philosopher is known to belong.
[2] With these Menaea thus printed and the Typicon, and also the Menology of the Muscovites, agree all the manuscript Synaxaria, as many as we have seen and it would be long to enumerate, differing in this from the Menaea, that, omitting the other parts of the Office pertaining to the Saints, they indicate only their synaxes or festivities, with a brief eulogy of each one. but in the Synaxaria another to the Philosopher, Here it will be enough to designate the most ancient of all, taken from a Manuscript of Grottaferrata, and distinguished by the name of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, because collected by him or by his order, where it is read thus: Μηνὶ Ἰουνίῳ α'. Ἄθλησις τοῦ ἁγ. Μάρτ. Ἰουστίνου τοῦ Φιλοσόφου· In the month of June, on the 1st day. The Contest of the holy Martyr Justin the Philosopher: and there is subjoined a Eulogy, which, omitted on the aforesaid April 13, it pleases here to present in Latin; such as we shall give below in Greek, with the remaining Eulogies of the Saints of this month; and it is of this kind: Justinus, the most wise Martyr of Christ, was from Neapolis of Syria, a Philosopher and having much knowledge. This man, loving Christ, and turning away from those who hated him, was daily kindled more and more by divine zeal. Wherefore also coming to Rome, under the reign of Antoninus, and writing a book, partly indeed against the error of idolatry, partly about the faith in Christ, he handed it to the Emperor: who, admiring his wisdom and knowledge, not only did not kill him, but even praised him. But since also in his disputations among the idolaters he demonstrated that the worship of idols was pernicious, and established the religion of the Christians by written explanations; he incurred the hatred of Crescens the Philosopher, who, stimulated by these things, did not cease to plot against him until he had removed him from their midst. The Menaea more distinctly (I know not whether also more truly) thus end the period: Then, by the envy of Crescens the Philosopher, having endured many torments, he is put to death; then they add, no less certainly than truly: By purity of life and innocence he reached the summit of virtue; and full of all knowledge, both divine and human, he left behind books most learned indeed and most useful to all the faithful, which bring to their readers a knowledge of exceptional things by no means common. Now Neapolis, or (as the Menaea) Flavia of Syria, is a city of Samaria, called Sichem by the ancients.
[3] Hence, moreover, to the other, as the Eulogy of the other Justinus and his Companions, they write another eulogy for these 7 Martyrs. the same Synaxarium of the Emperor Basil thus proceeds: Καὶ Ἄθλησις τοῦ ἁγ. Μάρτ. Ἰουστίνου καὶ τῆς συνοδίας αὐτοῦ.. And the Contest of the holy Martyr Justinus and his Company: then it subjoins: These Saints also were dwelling at Rome, teaching in the name of Christ; but, seized by the Prefect of the City, they were first shut up in prison; then after many days they were ordered to be presented before him. The Prefect examined Justinus, and after many and various interrogations: Tell me, said he, Justin, whether you altogether believe that, beaten and beheaded, you will ascend into heaven. And Justinus answered: I hope to obtain the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, if I endure such torments with a ready spirit. To whom the Prefect: Do you then suppose that you will ascend into heaven, and there receive some retribution of good things? And Justinus: I do not only suppose, said he, but I hold it with most certain persuasion. Then by the Prefect's order he was beheaded, as also the Saints who were with him. The printed Menaea have nearly the same things; but the names of the Companions, passed over in the Eulogy, they set forth thus in the title: Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ On the same (namely the first) day, τῶν ἁγίων Μαρτύρων, Ἰουστίνου, Χαρίτωνος, Χαριτοῦς, Ἐυελπίστου, Ἱέρακος, Πέωνος, καὶ Βαλεριανοῦ, of the holy Martyrs, Justinus, Chariton, Charito, Euelpistus, Hierax, Peon, and Valerianus.
[4] To each of these the Synaxarium of Dijon, more accurate than the rest in assigning to each Saint his proper distichs, and they say all were beheaded. applauded in its own manner: but it erred when it placed Justus, as if different from Justinus, in the first place after him in the title, Μνήμη τῶν ἁγ. Μαρτ. Ἰουστίνου, Ἰούστου, &c., The memory of the holy Martyrs Justinus, Justus, &c.; to which error the following distich seems to consonate thus:
Οὔπω τεμεῖν Ἰοῦστον ἐφθη τὸ ξίφος, Καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἦν κλίνων Ἰουστῖνος.
Not yet was the sword at hand to cut off Justus' head, when Justinus was bending his neck. But perhaps the Author used that word Ἰοῦστον not appellatively, but adjectivally, so that he might play on the meaning of the name; and in the verse, though Greek, employed a Latin epithet; in which sense he wished it to be written with a small letter, ἰοῦστον, "just," understanding "man": but the remaining distichs sound thus.
Θεῖος Χαρίτων, καὶ Χαριτὼ Παρθένος, Τμηθέντες εὐμυροῦσι θείων Χαρίτων.
They are fragrant with the heavenly ointment of the divine Graces (Charites), Chariton diminished by the head, and Charito the virgin. The Acts translated into Latin call her only "Woman" (Mulier), whence it is permissible to suspect, not without foundation, that in Greek was written Γυνὴ: but the Poet, knowing that the Charites or Graces are always portrayed as Virgins, believed there would be more elegance in the allusion designated to the etymology, if he said "Virgin": just as the same Poet, serving the verse, preferred to say the Martyrs slain "by the sword" (ξίφει, gladio), where Sirletus, putting in the Acts "by the axe" (securi), makes one believe he found written in Greek πελέκει.
[5] But just as the Poet played on the names of Justus, Chariton, and Charito; so, going on to the rest, he says: and they sing to each a proper epigram.
Εὔελπις Εὐέλπιστος ἐστὶν εἰκότως, Ὡς κληρὸν ἕξει τὸν Θεὸν, τμηθεὶς κάραν.
Rightly was he called Euelpistus, the well-hoping, to whom, his head cut off, the Godhead fell as his portion.
Ὁρμᾶ πρὸς ἄθλους Ἱέραξ ὡς ἵεραξ, Τμηθεὶς δὲ θηρᾷ ψυχικὴν σωτηρίαν.
Hierax leaped to the contest like a hawk (accipiter): and, cut down, he hunted the salvation of his soul.
Παίων ὁ Παίων δυσσεβῶν πίστιν λόγοις, Χειρὶ ξιφήρει παίεται κάτ᾽ αὐχένος.
Striking the faith of the impious with his own voice, Pæon is struck on the neck by the sword-bearing right hand. So also through the diphthong this name is written in the title of the Acts, although in the text and in the title of the Menaea it is said Πέων: but this has no etymology: but from Παίω, "I strike, I smite," is made the participle Παίων, οντος, on which this Epigram plays. Nothing such occurred in the name of Liberianus, which the Poet found written in the Acts, not "Valerianus"; he played, then, on the words Μέλος "Member" and Μελῶν. Carefully seeking, in this way:
Δείξεις τί καὶ σὺ τῷ Θεῷ τμηθὲν μέλος, Μελῶν τὸ κρεῖττον, Λιβεριανὲ; Κάραν.
What restored member will you too offer to God, Liberianus, seeking what is best? Your head.
[6] But, although the first inventor of the Synaxaria set forth two Justins, each with distinct Eulogies; The Canon of that day seems to acknowledge only one Justin, and the Poet followed him, who preluded each eulogy with his own Epigram; yet one may rightly doubt about the author of the Canon, whether he acknowledged here more than one Justinus, and that the Philosopher; inasmuch as, praising different things in different places, namely confidence of mind, generosity, constancy, and fortitude, he specially commends Justinus for Wisdom. Thus he who in the second "Similar" Verse had been called ὁ θεῖος Ἰουστῖνος, the divine Justinus; in Ode ε' is praised as Πνεύματος θείου πλησθεὶς, filled with the divine Spirit; but Ode στ' thus begins: Οὐρανόθεν τὴν κλῆσιν δεξάμενος, ὥσπερ ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος, θεόσοφε, and him the Philosopher: εὐθυδρόμησας ἄριστα. Having received your calling from heaven (as is read in the whole first chapter of the Life, taken from his own works, on April 13) you held the right course most excellently, O Martyr wise in God, just as also the venerable Paul. But Ode ζ' has its second Strophe of this kind: Σοφίᾳ Θεοῦ Ἰουστῖνος ὁ σοφὸς κεκοσμημένος, τὴν τῶν ἑλλήνων ἀπομώρανε φιλοσοφίαν, ἐν χάριτι πείσας προσκυνεῖν Τριάδα. Justinus the wise, adorned with the wisdom of God, made foolish the Philosophy of the Gentiles, and persuaded them to adore the Trinity in love.
[7] Considering these things, and turning my mind to the Acts to be given below; I think that the Prefect's interrogations indeed, and the answers of the Saints with the sentence that followed, nor do the Acts certainly prove the distinction; could have been taken word for word (as also they seem to have been taken) from the judicial Acts, written down before the tribunal, and so are thus far to be reckoned most certain; but that the execution of the sentence, as well as the opening, must have been added by him who wished to reduce the aforesaid to a historical form, and therefore are not of equal authority with the rest. Certainly the edicts proposed throughout the several cities and regions against the Christians, from which the beginning is taken, were nothing new at the time when these Martyrs suffered; but only by cruel and avaricious Prefects, against the mind of the Emperors, were the old ones pressed, and almost, though not absolutely, revived. Hence Tertullian, not only in Latin by himself, in the Apology chapter 5; but also in Greek in Eusebius book 5 chapter 5, inasmuch as they have been augmented by additions at the beginning and end: around the end of this second century in which we are engaged, thus wrote: What sort, says he, are those laws, which only the impious, the unjust, the base, the savage, the vain, the demented execute against us? which Trajan in part frustrated, by forbidding Christians to be sought out? which no Hadrian, although an explorer of all curiosities; no Vespasian, although the subduer of the Jews; no Verus, or Severus (as some would prefer to read), enforced? But as here the Author is caught having stumbled, in that which he added of himself; why can we not fear lest the same befell him also in the other; and lest he did not know with sufficient certainty whether and how the sentence was carried out into execution; which could have been suspended by the Emperor Marcus, a man of mild disposition and most fond of Philosophers, at least as regards Justinus. For Aponius, and Aponius says the Philosopher was secretly killed. a writer of by no means contemptible antiquity, and whom our Labbe approves as having flourished around the year 680, near the end of book 1 on the Song of Songs, on that little Verse, "The sons of my mother fought against me," says these things: As history relates was done concerning the great man Justin the Philosopher: who, when from his most vain Philosophy he is converted to the true Philosophy of Christ, and, converted, fights for the true religion against the Gentiles, and refutes certain Philosopher sons of his mother (I would prefer to read "of Philosophy") who were blaspheming, being craftily summoned in secret, was killed by those Masters: where the last words, wrongly read through the fault of the copyists or of faded writing, I think can thus be restored to the mind of the author: being craftily killed in secret by them, he was made a Martyr of Christ. But why not by hemlock given in drink, as the Menaea have it? Nor does Eusebius oppose this opinion in book 4 chapter 16, when he says that Justinus was crowned with sacred martyrdom by the fraud and machinations of Crescens the Philosopher, or, as it is read in Greek, Φιλοσόφου Κρίσκεντος τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν αὐτῷ καταρτύσαντος, Crescens the Philosopher contriving the plot against him: which the Author of the Alexandrian Chronicle renders Κρίσκεντος αὐτὸν ὑποβάλλοντος, Crescens informing against him. For what forbids us to believe that the Cynic used first a crafty denunciation, then poison?
[8] Whence are the Acts here published? Therefore, whatever I disputed to the contrary in April, let the reader so take it, and let it be free for him, as far as I am concerned, here to follow the Baronian opinion, and to fit the following Acts to the Philosopher himself; not indeed because the passage of Epiphanius persuades it, rightly emended by us there, and restored to a sound sense, and under that correction making nothing to the purpose here; but because the Acts fit the Philosopher excellently, truly genuine (as Baronius says) and sincere, and surrounded with no paraphrases, but as they were written down from the public Acts. But it no longer seems a wonder to me that in those Acts nothing is read about Justinus' earlier life, nothing about the machinations of Crescens: because, namely, the Author's only care was to render faithfully into Greek the confession of the Martyrs which he found so authentically written down; with only a few lines added at the beginning and end, by which, as I said, the form of history might be introduced. And would that we had the original Latin! These being lacking, we give the Greek from the same Grottaferrata Manuscript Codex, whence Lipomanus received it and sent it to Sirletus, to be rendered again into Latin. But we give it by the kindness of the Most Illustrious Emmanuel Schelstrate, Prefect of that Library, under this title: * Μαρτύριον τῶν ἁγίων Ἰουστίνου, Χαρίτωνος, Καριτοῦς, Παίωνος καὶ Λιβεριανοῦ, μαρτυρισάντων ἐν Ῥώμῃ. προ ιέ εἰδῶν Ἰουλίου. Μηνὶ Ἰουνίου πρώτῃ Μαρτύριον &c. (The Martyrdom of the holy Justinus, Chariton, Charito, Paeon, and Liberianus, who suffered martyrdom at Rome, on the 15th before the Ides of July. In the month of June, on the first, the Martyrdom &c.) and with this Greek text we have Sirletus' version reprinted, although already very often reprinted among the Lives collected by Lipomanus and Surius; and with new Annotations we remove the scruples which seemed to stand in the way of believing that one and the same Justinus was, by the first Compiler of the Synaxaria, and the others who followed him, wrongly split into two.
§. II. On the year of his death, the day of his cult, and the span of his life.
[9] Q. Junius Rusticus, Ordinary Consul in the year 161, The Prefect of the City, named in the Acts as Rusticus, before whose tribunal the Saints, having been interrogated, are said to have brought upon themselves the capital sentence, has nothing by which such a splitting is proved necessary; but his entitled Prefecture can be excellently composed with those times in which Eusebius writes, in book 4 chapter 16, that Justinus offered his second Apology, that is (as is said at the end of chapter 14) when, Antoninus Pius being dead, Marcus Aurelius his son succeeded with Lucius his brother. He succeeded, moreover, in the year 161, and they reigned together until 169. But that Rusticus meanwhile held the Prefecture of the City becomes most certain from the Rescript of the Divine Brothers now named, which Ulpian in book 1 on Appeals cites, then Prefect of the City and it is referred to in book 49 of the Digest, Title 1 number 3; the words of the Rescript are these: Since you say it was done by error, that from a Judge whom by our rescript you had received from the most ample Consuls, you appealed to Junius Rusticus our friend, Prefect of the City &c. Rusticus, therefore, was Prefect of the City: but in what year of the nine foretokened? Not the first: because then he held the ordinary Consulate with Vettius Aquilinus; nor even many years after; since Eusebius himself ascribes the Martyrdom of Saints Polycarp and Pionius, related in chapter 15, in his Chronicle to the 7th year of the aforesaid Emperors, which was the year of Christ 167: but the Chronicle ascribes the second Apology offered by Justinus to the 6th, or rather 5th, year of those Emperors; for the first of those years is wrongly doubled in the said Chronicle together with the Consulate, which however they held jointly only once: around the year 166, and this 5th year agrees with the 13th Indiction and the Consulate of Pudens and Orphitus, wrongly composed with the 6th year; but all these together mark the year of Christ 165. And since the same Chronicle says that Justinus οὐ μετ᾽ οὐ πολὺ, not after much time, was adorned with the divine laurel of martyrdom, it will be said not incongruously that this was done in one of the years soon following, namely 167 or 168, or even 166. For although the persecution is noted to have been more vehement in the year 167; yet since it was not by edict of the Princes, but stirred up popularly; it can have begun somewhat earlier, and given Justinus occasion of coming from Asia to Rome a second time. Nor let it seem a wonder to anyone that he who is said to have been Consul at the beginning of the said reign, afterward held the Prefecture of the City. For how familiar it was in that age, that from Prefects of the City, Consuls; and those who had discharged the annual or trimestrial Consulate, again became Prefects of the City; and soon again designated Consul. the Series of both will teach, set out from the year 254 in Bucher page 236, where down to the reign of Diocletian nothing is more frequent. But that Rusticus was first in place with Marcus Aurelius. For, as Julius Capitolinus writes in this man's Life, the Emperor especially both followed and revered him, most skilled in the Stoic discipline: he was powerful at home and in war: with whom the same Emperor shared all public and private counsels; to whom also, before the Praetorian Prefects, he always gave a kiss, whom he both designated Consul a second time, and for whom after his death he requested statues from the Senate. But that death, and the second Consulate snatched away through it, can be seen as God's vengeance, on account of the unjust sentence against the Saints, which followed soon in the same year.
[10] [The day of April 13 seems chosen for the Philosopher at the discretion of Usuard,] As for the day, I have already said on April 13; that to Usuard, who first inserted the name of Justin the Philosopher into the Latin calendars, no other cause seems to have existed for marking such a day, than that perhaps on that day the memory of Sts. Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonicus had been noted in some copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology, to whose histories Eusebius subjoined the narration about Justinus. I judge that the cause of joining them still subsists; nor, since another cause of doing this on such a day is not easily to be found, can I doubt any longer; because, after I proposed this by conjecture, there came into our hands that very Hieronymian Martyrology, taken by Francesco Maria Florentini of Lucca from a double copy, and collated with the Epternach, Corbie, and Blume copies; in all of which no trace of those Martyrs appears on such a day, which Usuard could have followed. But with so many copies at once agreeing in such an omission, that some other existed, where those were written down, can scarcely now any longer be held by any reasonably conjecture whatever. It remains, therefore, that we confess that Usuard ventured something beyond Bede and Florus, who inscribed something only on those days on which they had found some Saint either anciently venerated, as also on June 1 by the Greeks. or to have suffered or died. But what did he venture? That which afterward Baronius in the Roman Martyrology, Arthur du Monstier in the Franciscan; namely, that those whom they judged altogether worthy of an annual memory, with no day of passion or death added, they chose this for them at their own discretion; so that they may now seem more excusable, who thought it lawful for themselves, which Usuard, so much more ancient, did not in similar cases consider unlawful. The same I would say of the Synaxaria of the Greeks, and the Hymnographers of the Saints to be venerated through the year; namely that Justinus and his Companions were referred by them to this June 1, not from any certain knowledge (for this is drawn neither from the Acts nor from elsewhere) but from good pleasure; because on such a day no other was found worthy of the honor of a special Office. But that Lipomanus found the Acts of these same ascribed in the Grottaferrata Codex to the 12th day; since this is found nowhere else, I know not to what cause or error it ought to be imputed.
[11] The same Lipomanus ascribed the Acts to Metaphrastes, Metaphrastes did not write the Acts; and from him Surius and others; led by this error, as if all the collections whatever that exist of Greek Lives were by him. This error Leo Allatius refuted in a whole and learned work on the writings of the Simeons, restoring very many of them to their own Authors; adjudging others to Metaphrastes, by the characters of his own proper style known to himself; but leaving not a few without an author, which yet certainly are not of Metaphrastes, and among others these very Acts; to which the name of the Greek Interpreter, even if distinctly known, could never give so much authority as their own proper character gives them, because it makes them be esteemed as transcribed from judicial Acts. That such things were collected into one great work, which now does not exist, by Eusebius of Pamphilus, our Bollandus indicates in the General Preface to the Lives of the Saints, before January Chapter 1, §. 3; and the same Florentini demonstrated more fully in the 3rd Admonition prefixed to his Martyrology. but some older writer made the Greek from the Latin. Both cite places of Eusebius, referring the reader in his Ecclesiastical history to a special work, in which the confessions of each one there reviewed are contained singly, the freedom of speech, the apologies for the faith, before the people and the judges: such things, since in these Acts they are read explained without any disguise, why will it not be permissible to suppose that they are one part of that aforesaid greater Eusebian work, accustomed first to be ascribed by the Greeks to the Apologies of Justinus himself for the faith; and then, with a few things added at the beginning and end, transferred into the books on the Lives of the Saints, without the designation of any day, which afterward the institutor of the Synaxaria chose? Moreover, since I have set out on April 13 all the earlier life of St. Justin the Philosopher, omitting his and his Companions' confession, which I was then persuaded was of another; it remains now that I at least exhibit it, leaving the Readers free, having weighed on both sides the weights of the reasons, to choose whether they prefer to admit two Justins or one.
[12] Meanwhile let it please to read again the passage of Epiphanius about him, from the Panarion, Heresy 26 or 46, as I judge it must be emended by transposition; The passage of Epiphanius about Justin corrected, for that it is enormously faulty no one fails to confess. I would thus read it. Οὗτος ὁ Ἰουστῖνος Σαμαρείτης ἦν τὸ γένος, [ἐπὶ τῆς ἡγεμονείας Ῥουστίκου καὶ Ἀδριανοῦ Βασιλέως, ἕτων τριάκοντα ὑπάρχων ἐν καθεσθάσῃ ἡλικίᾳ] εἰς Χριστὸν πεπιστευκὼς καὶ μεγάλως ἐξασκηθεὶς, ἀρετῆστε βίον ἐνδειξάμενος, τὸ τέλος ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ μαρτυρίσας, τελείου στεφάνου καταξιοῦται, ἐπὶ τῆς Ῥωμαίων πόλεως. This Justinus, being Samaritan by race, [under the governorship of Rusticus and the Emperor Hadrian, being thirty years of age, in his settled prime] believed in Christ, and being greatly exercised and leading a life with virtue, finally suffering martyrdom for the name of Christ, was held worthy of a perfect crown, it makes him a thirty-year-old in the year 119, in the city of the Romans. The text of Epiphanius, as it is otherwise held, placing at the end of the whole period the line enclosed by me in a parenthesis, and transferred to the beginning, is convicted of a twofold error; in that it makes Justinus conceived to be only thirty years old when he underwent Martyrdom; and that this happened under Rusticus and Hadrian as Consuls, who mark the year of Christ 119 in the calendars. Epiphanius was not so dull, that, having read Justinus' Apologies, he would not have considered how far that year is distant from the age of those to whom the Saint offered them: but whether the same writer wished there to be added at the end of the period, ἐπὶ Ῥουστίκου Ἐπάρχου τῆς πόλεως, "under Rusticus Prefect of the City," and this fell out by the fault of the copyists, I would not assert by divining; since it is enough to have made the sense clear, and (as I think) truthful, by that modest transposition; and since Epiphanius could have read the Acts of the Roman Confession.
[13] Eusebius, in book 4 chapter 8, enumerating the Writers who flourished under Hadrian; when he had named Hegesippus; about the same time, says he, also Justinus, converted to Christ at almost fifty, a genuine lover of true Philosophy, still exercising himself in the sciences of the Gentiles, was wearing out his age. But perhaps the same writer, in some one of his Writings, which Epiphanius saw, and which is hidden from us, left the thirtieth year of his age marked by the aforesaid Consulate of Rusticus and Hadrian. Yet I would not say he was then converted. For although manly age often begins to be named from the 29th year, yet more rightly Macrobius, on the Dream of Scipio chapter 6, says: It is to be noted and so to have undergone martyrdom in the 76th or 77th year of his age. that the number seven, multiplying itself, that is in the 49th year, makes the age which is both held and called perfect. If Justinus had this when converting himself to Christ; he remained in heathenism during the whole time that Hadrian reigned, that is until the year 138; and offered his first Apology for the Christians to Antoninus, Hadrian's successor, being 60 years old; in the fifteenth or sixteenth year after he suffered martyrdom, nearer to eighty than seventy. Peter Halloix, prefixed to the Life of St. Justin published separately, which was for him a prelude to a greater work, from an old picture found I know not where, the effigy of the man himself, in the Philosophical Pallium, with this motto of Tertullian: Rejoice, O Pallium, and exult, a better Philosophy has now deemed thee worthy, since thou hast begun to clothe a Christian. He is represented, however, as you see here, of full age and verging on old age, but of robust bodily habit; with fingers flashing in the manner of one disputing; The effigy of the same in the philosophical Pallium. and proving by syllogistic demonstration, signified by the three first fingers of the left hand, the truth of the one God, which the extended index of the right marks; unless you prefer that by that reasoning the God one in Essence, triune in Persons, be expressed, as if Justinus were saying this, which in the first sermon to the people of Antioch St. Meletius, with a similar confirmation of the fingers, is reported by Theodoret to have said, cited on February 12 number 11: There are three things that are understood, but we speak as it were of one.
ST. JUSTIN THE PHILOSOPHER AND MARTYR.
§. III. The Confession of the Martyrs before the Prefect Rusticus. From the judicial Acts once translated into Greek, but from the Greek Manuscript rendered again into Latin by Guillaume Sirleto, and published by Lipomanus and Surius.
FROM THE GREEK MANUSCRIPT.
In the time when the lawless champions of idolatry set forth impious decrees throughout city and country against the pious Christians, so that they should be compelled to pour libations to the vain idols. The holy men, therefore, being seized, were brought before the Prefect of Rome, named Rusticus; and when they had been brought before the tribunal, Rusticus the Prefect said to Justinus: First obey the gods, and submit to the Emperors. Justinus said: It is blameless and beyond reproach to obey the commands of our Savior Jesus Christ. Rusticus the Prefect said: What kind of teachings do you practice? Justinus said: I have tried to learn all teachings, but I have agreed with the true teachings of the Christians, even if they do not please those of false opinion. Rusticus the Prefect said: Do those teachings please you, you utterly wretched man? Justinus said: Yes; since I follow them with right doctrine. Rusticus the Prefect said: What sort is the doctrine? It is that which we piously hold concerning the God of the Christians, whom we reckon to be one, the maker and creator from the beginning of all creation, both visible and invisible, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the child of God, who was also foretold by the Prophets, about to come to the race of men, a herald of salvation and a teacher of good disciples; and I, being a man, think I say little compared with his boundless divinity, confessing a certain prophetic power; since it was foretold concerning this one, who, I said, is now the Son of God; for I know that from of old the Prophets foretold concerning his coming, which took place among men.
Rusticus the Prefect said: Where do you assemble? Justinus said: Where each one has the choice and the means; for surely you suppose that we all assemble in the same place? But it is not so; because the God of the Christians is not circumscribed by place; but, being invisible, he fills heaven and earth, and is everywhere adored and glorified by the faithful. Rusticus the Prefect said: Tell me, where do you assemble, or into what place do you gather your disciples? Justinus said: I dwell above the bath of a certain Martinus, son of Timotinus, and during all this time; but I have come to the city of the Romans this second time, and I know no other gathering except his, and if anyone wished to come to me, I shared with him the word of the truth. Rusticus said: Are you not then, after all, a Christian? Justinus said: Yes, I am a Christian. Rusticus the Prefect said to Chariton: Tell me, Chariton, are you too a Christian? Chariton said: I am a Christian, by the command of God. Rusticus the Prefect said to Charito: What do you say, Charito? Charito said: I am a Christian by the gift of Christ. Rusticus said to Euelpistus: And who are you? Euelpistus, a slave of Caesar, answered: I too am a Christian, set free by Christ, and I share the same hope, by the grace of Christ.
Rusticus the Prefect said to Hierax: And are you a Christian? Hierax said: Yes, I am a Christian; for I worship and adore the same God. Rusticus the Prefect said: Did Justinus make you Christians? Hierax said: I was a Christian, and I will be. And Peon, standing by, said: I too am a Christian. Rusticus the Prefect said: Who taught you? Peon said: From our parents we received this good confession. Euelpistus said: I indeed heard the words of Justinus gladly, but I too received from my parents to be a Christian. Rusticus the Prefect said: Where are your parents? Euelpistus said: In Cappadocia. Rusticus says to Hierax: Where are your parents? And he answered, saying: Our true father is Christ, and our mother the faith in him; but my earthly parents have died; and I, dragged away from Iconium of Phrygia, have come here. Rusticus the Prefect said to Liberianus: What do you too say? do you too not worship piously? Liberianus said: I too am a Christian; for I worship piously and adore the only true God.
The Prefect says to Justinus: Listen, you who are said to be learned and think you know the true teachings, if, having been scourged, you are beheaded, are you persuaded that you are going to ascend into the heavens? Justinus said: I hope to have his decrees, if I endure these things; I know also that the divine gift abides for all who have so lived, until the fulfillment of the whole world. Rusticus the Prefect said: Do you then suppose this, that you will ascend into the heavens, to receive some recompenses? Justinus said: I do not suppose, but I know and am fully assured. Rusticus the Prefect said: Let us then come to the matter at hand which presses; assembling together, then, with one accord sacrifice to the gods. Justinus said: No one who is right-minded falls from piety into impiety. Rusticus the Prefect said: If you do not obey, you will be punished without mercy. Justinus said: We hold it as our prayer to be saved through being punished for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; because this will become for us salvation and confidence before the terrible and universal tribunal of our Master and Savior. And likewise the rest of the Martyrs also said: Do what you wish, for we are Christians, and we do not sacrifice to idols.
Rusticus the Prefect gave his judgment, saying: Let those who have refused to sacrifice to the gods and to yield to the command of the Emperor, having been scourged, be led away, paying the penalty of death, according to the sequence of the laws. The holy Martyrs, glorifying God, having gone out to the customary place, had their heads cut off, and completed their martyrdom in the confession of the Savior. And certain of the faithful, secretly taking their bodies, laid them in a fitting place, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ working with them, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages, Amen.
[14] The Saints having been brought before Rusticus, Most Excellent Man, At the time when the nefarious champions of the superstition of idols reigned; they set forth impious edicts against the Christians who kept piety and religion, throughout the several cities and regions, a so that whatever Christians were caught should be compelled to sacrifice to idols. Those holy men, therefore, having been seized, were brought to the Prefect of the City of Rome, Rusticus by name. When they had been set before the tribunal b, Rusticus the Prefect said to Justinus: Come, be obedient to the gods themselves, and to the Imperial edicts. To him Justinus answered: No one can ever be reproved or condemned for having obeyed the precepts of our Savior Jesus Christ. Then Rusticus c the Prefect: In what kind, said he, of learning and disciplines are you engaged d? To whom Justinus: first he is interrogated by him, Justinus: I have indeed tried to learn every kind of discipline, but I have adhered to the true discipline of the Christians; although it does not please those who are led by the error of false opinion. Then Rusticus said: Do you, most wretched man, delight in that learning? Most of all, said Justinus; because with right doctrine I follow the Christians themselves. But the Prefect: What sort is that doctrine? Justinus answered: That which we Christian men keep with piety, this is, that we esteem one God the maker and creator of all things which are seen and which are not discerned by bodily eyes; and that we confess the Lord Jesus Christ, and Justinus praising the doctrine of the Christians; the Son of God, of old foretold by the Prophets, who will also come as judge of the human race e, the herald of salvation and master to those who shall have learned well from him. I indeed, as a man, am weak, and far too small to be able to say anything great about his infinite Deity: I confess that this is the office of the Prophets: for I know that the coming into the world of this very one, whom I said to be the Son of God, was foretold by divine inspiration many ages before.
[15] The Prefect asked into what place the Christians assembled f. To whom Justinus answered that each one assembled where he wished and could. Do you, and to lodge at their church, said he, suppose that we are all accustomed to assemble in the same place? The matter is by no means so, since the God of the Christians is not circumscribed by place; but, being invisible, he fills heaven and earth, and is everywhere adored and glorified by the faithful. Then the Prefect: Come, said he, tell me, into what place you assemble, and gather your disciples. Justinus answered: I dwell, during all the time that I am here, above the house of a certain Martinus near the bath, surnamed Timotinus g: but I have now come to the city of Rome h a second time; nor do I know any other place, except the one I have said i: and if anyone wished to come to me, I shared with him the doctrine of truth. Are you then a Christian? and confessing himself to be such also; said Rusticus. But Justinus: Most of all, I am a Christian. Then the Prefect said to Chariton: Tell me, are you too a Christian? To whom Chariton: I am a Christian, with God himself helping. Rusticus asked from k Charito the woman, whether she too followed the faith of Christ. To whom she answered, that she too, by God's gift, was a Christian. Then Rusticus said to Euelpistus: But who are you? Euelpistus, a slave of Caesar: I too, he answered, am of the Christians: but this man was, by Christ himself endowed with freedom, and by his benefit and grace made a partaker of the same hope.
[16] After these things the Prefect asked from Hierax, whether he too was a Christian. To whom Hierax said: Certainly I too am a Christian: the rest also are interrogated. for I worship and adore the same God. Did Justinus, said the Prefect, make you Christians? I, said Hierax, both was and will be a Christian. And Pæon, standing by, said: I too am a Christian. And who, said the Prefect, taught you? He answered: From my parents I received this good confession. After this Euelpistus said: I too indeed heard the discourses of Justinus with great pleasure, but yet from my parents I too learned to be a Christian. Then the Prefect: And where are your parents? In Cappadocia l, said Euelpistus. The Prefect asked also from Hierax, in what nation his parents were. To whom Hierax answered: Our true father is Christ, and our mother the faith by which we believe in him: but my earthly parents are dead. Moreover I, dragged away from Iconium m of Phrygia, came here. The Prefect asked from n Liberianus, what he too would say: whether he was a Christian, or pious toward God? To whom Liberianus: I too, said he, am a Christian: for I worship and adore the only true God.
[17] Then the Prefect, turning to Justinus, said: Listen, you who are said to be eloquent, and think you hold the true discipline; but with all offering themselves to torments and death, if you are beaten with the scourge from head through your whole body, are you persuaded that you will ascend into heaven? To whom Justinus: I hope, said he, that I shall have what they have who have kept the doctrines of Christ, if I suffer these very things which you say: for I know that for all who have so lived the divine grace is preserved, until the whole world is consummated. To this Rusticus the Prefect: Do you then suppose that you will ascend into the heavens, to receive some reward? I do not suppose, said Justinus, but I know; and I hold this so certain that I doubt nothing. Rusticus said: Let us come next to that which is proposed, and presses us. Assemble together, and with one and the same mind sacrifice to the gods. To this Justinus: No one, said he, who is rightly minded deserts piety, to slip into error and impiety. Rusticus the Prefect said: Unless you are willing to obey our commands, you will suffer tortures o without any mercy. But Justinus: We hold it most of all in our prayers, the capital sentence is pronounced against them. to endure tortures for our Lord Jesus Christ, and to be saved: for this will procure for us salvation and confidence, before that terrible tribunal of the same our Lord and Savior, at which the whole world will stand by divine command. The same said also all the rest of the Martyrs, adding this: Do quickly what you wish: for we are Christians, and we do not sacrifice to idols.
[18] Hearing these things, the Prefect pronounced such a sentence: Let those who have refused to sacrifice to the gods, and to obey the edict of the Emperor, be beaten with the scourge and led away to capital punishment, as the laws prescribe p. And so the holy Martyrs, praising God, led to the accustomed place, after the beatings q were struck with the axe, and completed their martyrdom in the confession of the Savior r. After these things certain faithful ones secretly took up their bodies, and laid them in a fitting place; the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ cooperating, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.
p The words that follow are those of him who added the beginning and end to the original Acts of the trial.
q By the punishment customary to the Romans, that rods preceded the beheading, the bundles (fasces) of which were therefore borne before the supreme Magistrates together with the axes, from the very founding of the City: and therefore this pleases more than the Sword, which the Epigrams prefer.
r The Author did not presume to add the day of his own; as most of those did who wrote the Acts of Saints long after, long famous for public cult; which makes not a little for the commendation of sincerity.