Brother-martyrs

ON THE HOLY BROTHER-MARTYRS

JOHN AND PAUL

AT ROME IN THEIR OWN HOUSE, NOW A CHURCH,

LIKEWISE TERENTIANUS AND HIS SON IN THE SAME PLACE.

IN THE YEAR 362.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On their most ancient cult, and Acts, and the Martyrdom of S. Terentianus and his son.

John, Brother and Martyr at Rome (S.)

Paul, Brother and Martyr at Rome (S.)

Terentianus, Field-commander. In the same place (S.)

And his son. In the same place (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

In the Ninth Region of the City, which is commonly

named from the Bank (a Ripa), at the Clivus Scauri

hanging down from the Cælian hill,

among the ruins of the Hostilian Curia and the most ornate

gardens of the Matthei, Their old Church is situated

the church of the aforesaid Saints,

known ever since the age of S. Damasus the Pope under the title

of Pammachius, from the holy Presbyter of this name,

son-in-law of Paula the Roman and friend of Jerome, who

is believed to have founded it, or at least to have raised it

to that magnitude, that it has been held among the Presbyteral titles

of the City up to now. with a Station, Two hundred years afterward S. Gregory

the Great, ordaining the Stations, appointed his own to this church

on the Friday after Ash Wednesday; and for the feast he ordained

Secret is now placed in place of his Super Oblata prayer;

We lay upon thy altars, O Lord, the victims of propitiation,

honoring thy power in the passions of thy Saints,

and through them imploring for ourselves pardon

of our sins. and the proper Gregorian Mass, Also omitted

today is the proper Preface, which in the Gregorian Sacramentary,

after the words, Through Christ our Lord,

proceeds thus: For love of whom the glorious

Martyrs John and Paul did not delay to undergo

martyrdom; whom in the law of birth, brotherhood joined;

in the bosom of Mother Church, unity of faith;

in the bitterness of suffering to be borne, the fellowship of one

faith. Through whom we pray to be helped by their

prayers, whose feasts we are known to venerate.

[2] In composing this Preface, Gregory had before

his eyes another more ancient one, which for his own

church of Milan S. Ambrose thus ordained, and the Ambrosian one:

so that after the words, Almighty eternal God, there should be added,

(as that same Church still keeps it)

For thy blessed Martyrs John and Paul,

whose feasts we proclaim, truly fulfilled

what is sung in the voice of David; Behold how

good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in

one; partners by lot of birth, joined by fellowship

of faith, alike in equality of suffering, in

the one Lord ever glorious: whom alike they confessed,

abiding with the Angels, who thy glory

sing without ceasing, saying,

Holy. Ps. 132. 1. There are present in the same place also proper prayers; Over

the People this: Defend, O Lord, thy people,

trusting in the pardon of thy mercy alone; and

by the intercession of thy Saints John and Paul,

whatever is owed by them for the chastisement of fault,

may pass over into the effect of consolation. Over the Shroud,

May thy Church, O Lord, we beseech thee, devoutly receive

the Birthday-feasts of thy blessed John and Paul,

and become more devout in love of their great glorification; Over

the Offerings. May the gifts of our mystery, we beseech thee,

O Lord, be acceptable to thee; for then do we worthily

present them in the commemoration of thy Saints

John and Paul, if we likewise follow after their acts.

[3] Pope Gelasius, in book 2 of the Sacramentaries (for he had arranged three, just as they are now found published at Rome, Gelasius had also instituted a Vigil with a fast, which Gregory drew together into one;) Gelasius, I say, not content to adorn the birthday of the said Saints with proper Prayers at the Mass, which Gregory retained, willed that the same be preceded also by a Vigil and a fast, with even a proper Mass for that purpose; where the Secret is the same as the Super Oblata of Ambrose, except that in place of "Mystery" it is ordered that "Fast" be said. The first prayer is the same as the Super Sindonem of Ambrose; but the Postcommunion is this special one: Protect, O Lord, thy people, and grant that she whom thou makest devout by the constant festival of thy Martyrs John and Paul may be made ever pleasing to thee by the prayers of the just. But the fast with a Vigil, to be repeated thrice within six days, but Gregory abolished it. perhaps displeased S. Gregory: and therefore, the ancient custom being kept of thus anticipating the nativity of the Baptist and the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, he judged it enough that the Birthday of the Martyrs, interposed between the two, be celebrated without that burden.

[4] The Hieronymian Martyrology mentions them thus in all the copies: At Rome, of John and Paul. Bede, having obtained their Acts, added: The names in the Hieronymian and all the others. Of whom the first was Provost, the second Primicerius of Constantia the Virgin, daughter of Constantine; who afterward under Julian merited martyrdom by the cutting off of their heads, through Terentianus the Campiductor, who thereupon was made a Christian. The same things afterward all the other Martyrologists, both more ancient and more recent, transcribed, except that Usuard, together with the present Roman, is silent concerning Terentianus. Yet that he, not only as a Christian with his son, at the next Easter after the Martyrs' contest, but also as having been made a Martyr, is recorded by the most ancient Acts, which the most diligent Mabillon sent to us from a Corbie codex more than a thousand years old, written in square Roman letters, and preserved at S. Germain des Prés. All the other copies of the same Acts, of which we have four or five collated with three others, are silent on that matter, The Acts as related by Terentianus, just as also concerning the bodies of the Saints, sought out and found by Byzantius, father of Pammachius, at the command of the Emperor Jovinian, and the church soon built; all of which things are contained in the aforementioned Corbie Codex: in which this too pleases, that the passion of the Saints itself is said to have been written down with Terentianus himself reporting it; and not, and from them Ado and the Roman Breviary, as most of the other Acts have, and from them Ado and the Roman Breviary, that that passion of the Saints was written down by Terentianus himself.

[5] Thus those who composed the old Lessons of the Breviary about two hundred years ago had the text corrupted: but the revisers of the same Breviary under Gregory XIII, but not written by him himself, prudently doubting of such an assertion, preferred to put that it is said by Terentianus himself that that passion was written. Baronius touched upon this doubt, at the year 362 number 221; where, having narrated the conversion and baptism of Terentianus, he adds, from the Acts likewise corrupted (as I said); that he commended the contest of the Martyrs, of which he was the author, to the monuments of writers for perpetual memory: which however, he says, we do not at all contend to be those nor without error concerning Julian then present at Rome; which are today at hand; but that out of those some things have been received and others added, which do not seem able to agree with the truth: as when the deed is set at Rome, while the Emperor Julian was present there, who, it is established, in these times of the persecution, in which he reigned alone, never withdrew from the East. But an error of this kind could have crept in even more easily, if there was present at Rome the maternal uncle of the Emperor Julian, himself also called Julian, sent there perhaps with the title of Prefect of the City, and in the nephew's name conducting everything there: who thereafter followed the one acting at Antioch, there left as Count of the East when the same was about to set out against the Persians, and under that title received those Laws which are extant in the Theodosian Code from the 5th day before the Kalends of December and thereafter; he also afflicted holy Artemius with martyrdom on the 20th of October, as is in his Passion, and at length there, persecuting the Christians, perished miserably. Indeed it was an easy thing for both Julians to be fused into one person by those who put into letters perhaps in the sixth century only what was related by Terentianus by word of mouth, and not received immediately from his mouth; adding, both what was afterward done under Jovian, and what before had been done under Constantine with Gallicanus the Duke, converted by S. John and Paul. and with the prefixed Acts of S. Gallicanus converted by them. Hence it comes that in the Naples Codex, whence Beatillus sent the copy to Bolland, the Acts are found in two parts: which same thing perhaps happened to the Corbie one, so that it presents only the last part, as a narration altogether cut off from the former, under this title, Here begins the Passion of the Saints John and Paul. This part alone therefore we here give, content to have given the other on the preceding day.

[6] Now the Passion of the Saints happened in the year 362, when Julian was still acting at Constantinople, The time of the Martyrdom in the year 362 whence the tyrant could write to them, and write back about them to Terentianus: but the Easter of the following year, in which Terentianus with his son was baptized, fell on the 20th day of April, at which time Julian was drawing near to Persia; if the conjecture of Gothofredus is true, indeed most probable, that Law 2 On Weighers, given on the 9th day before the Kalends of May, was given at Sacrona on the border of Assyria and Susiana, in place of whose name is wrongly noted Salona, a city of Dalmatia. I add this, that it may be understood on the 26th of June; that Julian could not have commanded anything concerning Terentianus even by letters, and that his slaughter is to be imputed to the Prefect of the City, or to some similar minister of the Emperor Julian. This man indeed did not for long bear with impunity the blood of SS. John and Paul shed; for on the very anniversary of their day he was wounded unto death by an invisible hand, as the historians relate.

[7] But I would not for this reason doubt concerning the Martyrdom of Terentianus, because the name is inscribed in no Martyrologies; for ignorance of the day could have caused this, if Terentianus suffered in the following year; and the death secretly procured could have caused the day to be unknown, for the same cause for which Terentianus himself took care that SS. John and Paul be killed secretly. Their day (I believe) we would equally not know, unless Terentianus himself were presumed to have handed it down definitely: but if this presumption deceives us; and if the day, ascribed to their Birthday, was taken from the day of the Church consecrated to them; the Saints might be reckoned to have been slain in the month of January or February, and Terentianus baptized in that same year 362, around the Easter celebrated on the 31st of March; and his slaying to have been commanded by Julian while still acting at Constantinople: nay, this would necessarily have to be said, if the same S. Pigmenius the Presbyter buried them, much sooner, if the same man; who is said to have been cast into the Tiber for the faith's sake on the 24th of March while Julian was still reigning, and thus before the Easter of the year following the death of the Saints.

[8] It seemed an outrage to the cobblers-together of the Dextrine fables, if such illustrious Martyrs, whose homeland is nowhere sufficiently expressed, Spanish fictions concerning the homeland of the Saints. (for to be called Romans in the Martyrology did not seem to exclude any other city which had the right of Roman citizenship) should not contribute something to Spanish sanctity. Therefore, intending to supply their omission in the pseudo-Chronicle of Dexter, they made the pseudo-Julian, brought up as a substitute for it, write thus in the Adversaria of equal trustworthiness, number 8: SS. John and Paul, and Ovinus Gallicanus a man of consular rank, of whom the latter suffered at Alexandria, the former at Rome, were Spaniards of Saguntum, and long engaged in the court of the Caesars. Which words a poetaster equally recent, taking them in turn from Higuera, under the name of Cyprian of Cordova, wrote upon a cenotaph, to be set up among the Saguntines, a title constant enough neither in sense nor in meter; which read among Tamayo Salazar in the Notes to the Martyrology. But it fell out for them unhappily, that the Pseudo-Julian at number 399, either forgetful of Saguntum named before, or retracting what he had said, wrote thus: At the same time I learned that the Saints, Ovinus Gallicanus the Martyr, a man of consular rank, and John and Paul his kinsmen, born at Brigantium not very far from Bracara, brought to Rome (namely with Bernard of Toledo equally gratuitously concocted) were most illustrious Martyrs. Could Tamayo copy out both places, and not notice so manifest a contradiction? Georgius Cardosus noticed it in the Lusitanian Hagiology, and thought he could reconcile all things, even the Roman Martyrology itself, where they are called Roman Brothers, by feigning that they were sprung from Saguntum, born at Brigantium, and citizens of Rome; which fiction also pleased other Lusitanians of this age there named.

PASSION.

From the most ancient Corbie Codex, collated with six other Mss.

John, Brother and Martyr at Rome (S.)

Paul, Brother and Martyr at Rome (S.)

Terentianus, Campiductor. In the same place (S.)

And his son. In the same place (S.)

BHL Number: 3242 a

FROM THE MSS.

[1] Therefore after the Emperor Constantine passed to the heavens, b and his daughter Constantina c followed; while the most wicked Julian, made Caesar by Constantius, d the nephew of Constantine, seized with greed of money, e taking away the patrimonies of the Christians, said: Brought before Julian, on account of the wealth left to them by Constantia, Your Christ says in the Gospels: He who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple. For it had come to him that Paul and John every day refreshed a crowd of poor Christians, out of those riches which the most holy Virgin of Christ Constantina had left to them: and he sent men to meet with them, saying that they ought to cleave to him. But they said: Men most Christian, of august memory, Constantine and Constans, and their nephew Constantius, reproach him with apostasy from the faith of Christ, while they adorned the summit of the august dignity, and gloried that they were servants of Christ, we served their empire. For going to the church, having cast off the diadem of their head, adoring God, they prostrated themselves face-down upon the ground. But after the world was not worthy to have such Augusti, f and the heavens received them among the Angels; there remained the nephew g of Constantine, Constantius who, from the time he handed over to thee the throne of empire, h thou hast forsaken the religion full of virtues, and followest those things which thou knowest very well are utterly not possessed by God. For this iniquity we have ceased from thy salutation, and have withdrawn ourselves from the fellowship of your empire: for we are not false Christians, but true ones.

[2] and therefore they refuse to pass over to his service: To whom Julian sent word: I too obtained a Clericate in the Church, and could, if I had wished, have come to the first grade of the Church; but considering that it was vain, having forsaken necessary and useful things, to pursue sloth and idleness, I gave my mind over to warlike things, and sacrificed to the gods my patrons; that I might come to the height of empire. Wherefore you ought to consider, that the Royal court also nourished you: for that reason you ought not to be absent from my side, that I may have you first in my palace. But if I am despised by

you, it will be necessary for me to act in such a way that I cannot be despised. Then Paul and John said: We do not do thee this injury, that we should set before thee any person whatsoever: we set God before thee, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them. For let temporal men fear thy enmities: i we fear lest we incur the enmities of the eternal God. and the truce of ten days given to them, And therefore we wish thee to know, that we will never come either to thy worship or to thy palace. To whom Julian, commanding, said: Ten days' truce are given you by me, that, composing your mind, by more prudent counsel, not compelled but of your own accord, you may hasten to come to me. But if you do not do this, compelled, after these things you will do what you do not care to do willingly. Paul and John said: Reckon now that the ten days' truce have passed: and therefore what after ten days thou threatenest that thou wilt do, this k accomplish today. Julian said: Do you think that the Christians make you Martyrs to themselves? And when he had said these things, angry, he rose up saying, If on the tenth day completed you come to me of your own accord, I will hold you as friends; but if you do not come, I will punish you as public enemies.

[3] Then the holy men John and Paul [sent l and asked to come to them Crispus the Presbyter, and Crispinianus the Cleric, and Benedicta a venerable woman, to whom they narrated all that had been done: they expend their all in distribution, and they offered Sacrifices in their house, and partaking of Communion,] inviting Christians to themselves, they made arrangements concerning all that they could leave behind, and through all the ten days unceasingly day and night persisting in almsgiving, on the eleventh day they were confined within their house. [Hearing this, the blessed Presbyter Crispus, because John and Paul were confined within their house; came to them with Crispinianus and Benedicta, to comfort them. Who, when they had come, were not allowed to enter, or to see, or to speak. Then to the Saints of God at the same hour] there was sent Terentianus the Campiductor m with soldiers at the hour of supper; who, entering, found them praying. To whom Terentianus said: Our lord the Emperor Julian has sent to you a little golden statue of the Jovians, n that you may adore it, and again refusing to obey Julian, and burn incense; but if you do not do it, you both shall straightway be smitten with the sword: for it is not fitting that you, brought up in the hall of the palace, should be killed publicly. John and Paul said, If Julian is thy Lord, have thy part o with thy Lord: but for us there is no other Lord, save one God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, whom he did not fear to deny; and because he has once been cast away from the face of God, he wishes that others also come with him into destruction.

[4] As they were saying these and many similar things to them, Terentianus urged them to adore Jove, secretly they are beheaded: and to burn incense. The third hour of the night having passed, Terentianus, wishing to please Julian, as had been told him, without the noise of report, caused them to be punished: and he ordered a pit to be made within their house; in which, when he had ordered them to be beheaded, he straightway ordered them to be wrapped up and laid away, making this report, that they had been sent into exile by Caesar's command: for no sign even of their slaying was found upon the earth. [p But the blessed Presbyter Crispus, and Crispinianus and Benedicta were lamenting in their house; and they prayed, and on the next day SS. Crispus, Crispinianus and Benedicta. that He would show them some sign concerning the holy Martyrs. And God manifested it to them. * Then Julian, angry, ordered them to be held, and to undergo a capital sentence: whose bodies John and Pimenius the Presbyters, and Flavianus an illustrious man, former Prefect q of the city, secretly carried off: and they buried them in the house of John and Paul, not far from them. r]

[5] Then the only son of Terentianus, who had slain them by night, Terentianus converted came into the house of the holy John and Paul; and a demon began to cry out through his mouth, that Paul and John were burning him. Then Terentianus, coming, prostrated himself face-down, crying out that, not knowing what he had done, a most pagan man, he had fulfilled Caesar's command. Whence it came about that, having given his name, on the next day of Easter, he received the grace of Christ. And when he had done this and had repented; after baptism, praying and weeping continually, at the place where the bodies of the Saints were, his son was healed by the Saints of God.

[6] But with Terentianus himself reporting the Passion of the Saints, it was written. [Which Terentianus not many days after is beheaded by Julian himself together with his son, s whose bodies John and Pimenius the Presbyters carried off, he too is slain with his son, and laid in the same house of John and Paul.] But straightway when Julian marched into the Persian war, and was there slain, t afterward Jovian v took up the empire, most Christian, who himself also was a friend of John and Paul. At the same time the churches were opened, and the Christian religion began to rejoice. x Then the Emperor Jovian sent, and asked to come to him Vizantius the Senator, to whom he spoke thus: The Emperor Jovian orders the bodies to be sought: We have by the grace of God our Lord Jesus Christ sent to thee, because it has now been declared to us concerning the Blessed Crispus the Presbyter and Crispinianus and Benedicta, that Julian killed them too, and that their bodies were buried in the house of the holy John and Paul. Wherefore I ask, that thou diligently seek out the bodies of the holy John and Paul. And when Vizantius with his son y Pammachius had plainly found them, giving thanks to God he reported back to the Emperor Jovian: and a church to be raised in the house of the Saints. to whom, giving thanks, he thus commanded, saying: Almighty God has given us a good gift: take counsel, use worthily the Saints of the Lord, and cause a Church to be made in the house of the Saints. And when Vizantius had begun to do so, the demons began to declare * their holy Passion to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through all ages of ages. Amen.

NOTES OF D. P.

p The following are nowhere else read, except in our larger Ms., where also at the * is added the whole Martyrdom of these Saints, to be given on the next day.

q The same Ms. of ours, from the Praetorium of the City: which pleases less; I would prefer, Ex-praetor.

r In the same place is added, the 5th day before the Kalends of July. But in all the other Mss. there soon follows, And straightway Julian was slain in the war of the Persians, and the conversion of Terentianus is subjoined; which here is more orderly placed first.

s This Martyrdom of Terentianus is nowhere else read, yet it is probable from so old a Ms.

t Our larger one relates the death of Julian thus more fully: Now the Emperor Julian unwillingly (or unjustly? I would prefer that) marched into Persia: where, led by a feigned deserter to the desert places, when with hunger and thirst he had destroyed the apostate's army, and was wandering rather imprudently from the columns of his own men, by a chance horseman of the enemy met along the way,

his flank pierced through with a lance, he is slain. When he had been wounded there, soon he filled his hand with his own blood, and cast it into the air, and began to blaspheme Christ the Lord, saying: Thou hast conquered, O Galilean, thou hast conquered; and in these words the wretch, while he still breathed, is taken alive by the army of the Persians, and is flayed from the very crown of his head down to the nails of his feet: and the skin, dyed with vermilion, the Kings of Persia keeping it at all times, while they had peace, sitting upon it, rejoiced. That this horseman was S. Mercurius has been sufficiently attested: the rest, though variously reported, yet most agree in this, that he received the wound in the very battle, and did not come into the power of the enemy: but that his corpse was carried into Cilicia, and there buried beside Maximian Herculius, Philostorgius writes.

v On the day next after Julian's death, the 27th of June, Jovian was chosen by the army, not consenting to it until he too professed that he was returning to Christ: and thus, peace being concluded with the Persians, he led it back.

x Other Mss. add: But demons were cast out from the bodies of the possessed, within the house of John and Paul, confessing their holy Passion: so that the only son of Terentianus etc. as above: but what follows are had in the Corbie one alone and our Ms.: but in ours at the sign * is placed the conversion of Terentianus, and the martyrdom is passed over in silence, and only at the end is added: Now with Terentianus himself reporting, this passion of the Saints was written down to the praise &c.

y Visantius in our Ms., Vizantius, would better be written Byzantius: and his son Pammachius, whence the church retained the title of Pammachius, seems to be the son-in-law of S. Paula, friend of Jerome, who, his wife Paulina being dead, made Presbyter and Monk, is venerated, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the 30th of August.

APPENDIX OF D. P.

On the Relics of the holy Martyrs John and Paul.

John, Brother and Martyr at Rome (S.)

Paul, Brother and Martyr at Rome (S.)

Terentianus, Campiductor. In the same place (S.)

And his son. In the same place (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

[6] The aforesaid Church of the holy John and Paul, on the testimony of Panciroli, was made Collegiate in the year 1216: but the Canons gradually failing, at length in the year 1454, The Bodies in their Church when Cardinal Latinus Orsini held its Title, at his intercession it was handed over to the Jesuati Friars; under whom, variously reformed and adorned, it persevered up to the year 1668, in which Pope Clement IX suppressed their Order. From these the empty place with the monastery was bought by Cardinal Philip Thomas Howard, adorned with the sacred Purple in the year 1675, of the Order of Preachers, and he gave it to his Friars of the same Order of the English Province; whence Relics were taken and translated, whom he there supported as long as he lived: and dying in the year 1694, he left them his heirs in full. These however, I understand, not much after were translated elsewhere, and yielded the place to other Religious; who, if they wish to number among his Relics (as they justly may) the bodies of SS. John and Paul, it will be necessary that they confess that Relics plucked from there have been shared with several Churches of the kindly City, as Panciroli writes: nor with these only, but also with several Provinces throughout Europe.

[7] Indeed the most noble Lord Richard Joseph de Cambis, Lord of Fargues, of pious memory; (concerning whose remarkable zeal toward sacred Relics we treated at length on the 15th of May, on the occasion of his feast instituted in his house at Avignon, on account of the great treasure of them collected there, and accustomed to be exposed yearly to the public devotion of the citizens) the Lord, I say, de Fargues of Avignon, adding for us in a peculiar Ms. an account of the other Relics which are preserved in the same city, wrote, that the most eminent Cardinal Fabius Chigi, having performed for his uncle Pope Alexander VII a solemn embassy to the King of France in the year 1664, and on the return passing through Avignon, gave to the metropolitan Church there a crystal vessel, sustained by two silver Angels, containing two vertebrae of the neck, from the bodies of the aforesaid Saints, received from the church of the Jesuati: at which same time he himself said that the Venetians also had obtained and received from the Pontiff his uncle certain other bones of the same. to Venice, To which church these came, I have not yet learned. But the Avignon one I understand, because the decapitated Martyrs, in the members which it itself possesses, are reckoned to have suffered, to make for them a double Office.

[8] To these translations of more recent memory, I would add others more ancient, and first of all from S. Gregory of Tours: Tours, who in book 1 On the Glory of the Martyrs chapter 83 relates a miracle of a ship suddenly freed, already on the very point of being dashed upon a rock, in which his Deacon was being carried, bearing Relics received from Pope Pelagius of the Saints, whose sacred footprints were washed by the hands of the Lord (namely of certain Apostles), together with the Relics of Paul, and of Laurence, and of Pancras, of Chrysanthus, and of Daria the Virgin, of John and of another Paul his brother, whose contests and palms of victories the very head of the world, the city of Rome, devoutly celebrates. Paul the Deacon, in book 2 On the deeds of the Lombards chapter 9, mentions a church dedicated to these Saints at Ravenna. Ravenna, But such a dedication makes one presume that some Relics of them were there too, yet the miracle was not theirs, but of S. Martin of Tours, which the historians relate was wrought there, from Venantius Fortunatus. Browerus, in book 2 of the Antiquities of Fulda chapter 8, among the Saints whose Relics are accustomed to be shown at Fulda, to Fulda, names this pair of Brothers, who (the words are of the ancient Author) were translated to the monastery of the New Mount, as is piously believed and openly seen; in some part, namely, of themselves, as Browerus has in the margin, whence too they are called Patrons of the New Mount under the arms, which are seen there painted upon them from the Apocalypse, to Veroli, two palms and two candelabra. Ughelli, in volume 1 column 288, says that at Veroli in the Cathedral is held a great portion from the heads of SS. John and Paul. Pezzina, Dean of Prague, in the Diary of his church, assigns to this day of SS. John and Paul the Martyrs two bones of notable size, brought from Rome by Charles IV in the year 1355. Likewise, he says, two smaller parts brought from Milan by Daniel de Lippa, Bishop of Prague, in the year 1559; and lately found by me, among the other treasures of our church, to Prague, hidden away in a certain larger (as we call it) Reliquary. Here moreover from the same Diary is added a part of the Head of S. Constantia the Virgin, brought by Charles in the year 1370; for this reason I believe, because on the 18th of February, on which she is venerated, and certain other Relics of hers are indicated, that part had escaped the Author. Joannes Pauli Masini, in his Bologna Surveyed, to Bologna. at S. Peter's, S. John on the Mount, and S. Mary of Graces, asserts that certain Relics of the aforesaid Martyrs are held, besides the church once Parochial on the bank of the Savena, dedicated to their name: but I reckon all these Relics to be of small quantity.

[9] A far greater portion of the holy bodies, in the year 1658 in the month of July, P. Theodore Moretus wrote to Bolland that he had seen in the treasury of the Cathedral church of Vienna; and at the same time he transcribed, from the original old parchment, the very diploma with which it was given, of more than three hundred years, of this tenor: Rudolf IV Duke of Austria, We Rudolf IV by the grace of God Archduke of Austria, Styria and Carinthia, Lord of Carniola, Slavonia, and the Port of Naon; Count in Habsburg, of Tyrol, of Pfirt and in Kyburg; Margrave of Burgau, and also Landgrave of Alsace; we signify to all the faithful of Christ, that we … received at Breisach the bodies of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, concerning whom on the 19th of this month number 82; and at Ernstein in the diocese of Strasbourg, the bodies of SS. Felix and Adauctus, concerning whom is to be treated on the 30th of August … After this, Duke Albert being dead, at Reichenau he received a great part in the year 1360, our former begetter, when for the first time we descended to the lands of Germany, in the year of the Lord 1360, on the day of S. Stephen the Protomartyr, in the 20th year of our age, we arrived at Reichenau the greater near Constance; and the religious and venerable in Christ, the Abbot and Convent of the monastery there, of the Order of S. Benedict, of the diocese of Constance, we humbly besought for God's sake, that they would deign to give us the bodies of the holy John and Paul … which had come together there (whence, when, and how, let the men of Reichenau teach, if they can) which we desired to have with great devotion and the whole longing of our heart. Concerning which by the grace of the Holy Spirit we were also heard; and they gave us those same two bodies, for God's sake and our diligent prayers.

[10] Which two bodies indeed, together with the said four bodies of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, Felix and Adauctus, with laudable chant, great prayers, and intent devotion, and he placed it with four other bodies at Vienna at S. Stephen's, and also with exceeding adornment, we reverently brought down by the channel of the Danube into our city of Vienna. And these six bodies, in honor of almighty God, with our own hands we deposited in this sarcophagus, which we caused to be procured of our own substance. And all this we offered and gave purely for God's sake, and in honor of all the Saints, to the church of S. Stephen in Vienna; in which We, the most serene Catherine of Bohemia, daughter of the Lord Charles Emperor of the Romans, our Consort, and also the illustrious Albert and Leopold, our dearest Brothers, after our deaths, the Most High inspiring, shall happily rest, that almighty God, in whose power and will all things subsist, may give and grant to Us, our said Consort and brothers, and all our successors in this life, prosperity and salvation, in the year 1363. and life eternal in the age to come. Amen. These things were done at Vienna on the Vigil of the holy day of Pentecost, in the year of the Lord 1363, in the 24th year of our age, but the 5th year of our rule. And below, in German: ✠ We Duke Rudolf confirm this Brief by the subscription ✠ of our own hand, and the greater seal in red wax was appended, where the word "Bodies" signifies a notable portion of the bodies.