ON S. IRENÆUS THE MARTYR,
BISHOP OF LYONS IN GAUL.
IN THE YEAR 202 ℣ 7
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Irenæus the Martyr, Bishop of Lyons in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
§. I. The more ancient notices of the Saint: when his name and
how it was inscribed in the copies of the first Martyrology: his cult among the Greeks.
Our Theophilus Raynaudus, about to publish his Index
of the Saints of Lyons,
prefixes four Prolegomena to it,
in the latter two of which he learnedly and copiously describes
a twofold storm, In the earlier persecution at Lyons S. Photinus the Bishop stirred up against the Church of Lyons
by the Gentile Emperors, in which the faith
of both groups of citizens shone forth singularly. The earlier, under
Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Verus, about the year
of the Dionysian era 177, carried off S. Pothinus or Photinus,
Bishop of the city, in the latter S. Irenæus triumphed: together with his Companions; whose
Acta Henschenius set forth at the second day
of this month; the latter, under the Principate of Severus,
[saw] S. Irenæus the Bishop, with almost the whole
people of his city, crowned with glorious martyrdom, as
Ado, Bishop of Vienne, who was nearest
to the diocese of Lyons, writes in his Martyrology.
[2] Almost three centuries more ancient than Ado, S. Gregory
of Tours describes both combats in book 1 of the History of the Franks,
chapters 26 and 27, thus: Gregory of Tours praises both When persecution arose in Asia,
the most blessed Polycarp… is consecrated to the Lord
by fire. But in Gaul also many for
the name of Christ were crowned through martyrdom with
heavenly gems, the histories of whose Passions
are faithfully kept among us even to this day.
Of these, that Photinus was the first
Bishop of the Church of Lyons: who, full of days,
afflicted with various torments, suffered for
the name of Christ. But the most blessed Irenæus, the successor
of this Martyr, who was sent by B. Polycarp to this city,
shone forth with admirable virtue: who
in a short space of time, by his preaching, restored
the city in great part wholly Christian.
But when the persecution came, the devil waged
such wars there through the tyrant, and so great
a multitude of Christians confessing
the Lord's name was slaughtered there, that through the streets
rivers ran with Christian blood, of whom
we could gather neither the number nor the names:
but the Lord inscribed them in the book of life.
The executioner, having afflicted the blessed Irenæus in his
presence with various punishments, dedicated him to Christ the Lord
through martyrdom. Thus far Gregory, deservedly called the Father
of Frankish history, but undeservedly
charged with drowsiness by Theophilus, on account of the carelessness of copyists,
who, what either he himself, or some interpolator
of his, had written in the margin concerning Vettius
Epagathus, who followed his Bishop to the crown; and which
ought to have been inserted at the proper sign, they placed after
the words about S. Irenæus, disturbing the order of time.
[3] But if you excuse this, it will not be difficult in the Gregorian
context to distinguish the storms of the twofold persecution; and from the latter he says the whole city was converted in a short time.
and it will remain to examine the interval between them.
And first beware lest you think that a short space
of time between the two Passions is established by Gregory,
but refer it to the delay which there was between the arrival of Irenæus
and the entire conversion of the city: for that he
suffered under Severus, all agree, and indeed they place
at least 20 or 30 intervening years.
Some more recent writers in Theophilus refer the later tragedy
to the sixth year of that Emperor;
the year of Christ 198, in which Albinus, the competitor for the Empire,
was conquered near Lyons: and the city, being favorable to him,
was given over to plundering: but Tertullian forcefully refutes this,
in chapter 35 of the Apology, He suffered in the year, not 198, confidently extolling the fidelity of the Christians
toward the Cæsars: for with what face would he,
reproaching the Romans, that is the Gentiles, have asked,
whence came the Nigrians and Albinians? or how, in the book to
Scapula, chapter 1, would he have dared to write? Never
could Albinians nor Nigrians be found among the Christians;
if such a city, and almost wholly Christian, had been seen on account of
zeal for Albinus to deserve
to be wholly destroyed, as those wish, Tertullian could
not have been ignorant of it. Therefore Theophilus
deservedly defers the matter either to the year 202, but 202 in which Severus,
beginning from Egypt, began to harass the Christians, against whom
up to that point he had decreed nothing harsher, but rather had even sought out
Proculus the Christian… and kept him in his palace
until his own death; and knowing the most illustrious
men to be of this sect, not only
did he not harm them, but even honored them with his testimony, and
openly resisted to the face the raging people.
[4] What turned his mind, hitherto well-disposed to the Christians,
away from them, or rather 207, the aforesaid Theophilus declares at length from Tertullian and others:
nor yet does he thus prove
that S. Irenæus suffered in the first year of the persecution ordered by Severus,
so that he does not rather incline to some later
year, namely so that the last year of Irenæus was the fifteenth
of the Emperor, of the Christian era 207, in which the same Severus
set out for Britain, to wage war there. For on this
occasion the Emperor could have passed through Lyons;
and because at his presence the city, now almost wholly
Christian, did not pour itself out into all the petulance
and lasciviousness, such as Tertullian graphically describes
as customarily practiced by the Gentiles, it was seen to love the head and
the safety and victory of the Prince less: and that
matter, more invidiously reported to the Emperor by slanderers, with the Emperor Severus present,
could have impelled the man, in both deed and name Severe,
to order that indiscriminate slaughter.
Certainly it is scarcely credible that so great a butchery
could have been carried out at his simple edict or rescript by however
ferocious a Prefect, unless the Emperor himself,
either present or nearby, had commanded it.
[5] Furthermore, among the Histories of Passions which the man of Tours
testifies were faithfully kept up to his own time, No Acta anciently written.
that there was a Passion of S. Irenæus, no one would prudently assert.
For why would the Church of Lyons have preserved this,
not as well as that of S. Photinus, which is to be found in
almost all the Passionaries? and how, if it had been preserved,
would Florus, Presbyter of the same Church,
not have found it, when he was to supply for the first time, from things he had himself discovered,
the days in the Martyrology of Bede
left vacant by the lack of Authors?
And yet already then the name of Irenæus was read in
various copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology, as
I shall show below: nor is it credible that the genuine offspring of Jerome himself,
his book, I mean, on Ecclesiastical Writers,
was then unknown to Florus, whence he could have borrowed
something, if his plan had allowed,
to commemorate others than those whose complete
histories were available. But such a thing not even
long afterward did anyone presume to compose, and to deliver to the Church of Lyons
to be read: for had it been delivered, other Churches, especially the Gallican,
would eagerly have copied it for themselves. Certainly in some hundreds
of Passionaries, which we have examined through Gaul, Italy, Germany,
and Belgium, we have found nothing about
S. Irenæus that was notable for any antiquity or for at least
a moderate length.
[6] S. Basil, in the book on the Holy Spirit, chapter 29, praises Irenæus
he praises Irenæus, as one near to the times of the Apostles. Irenæus is praised by SS. Basil, Jerome,
Jerome, On Illustrious Men, chapter 35: When Photinus, he says,
at nearly ninety years of age was crowned with Martyrdom for Christ,
Irenæus was appointed in his place.
Moreover it is established that he was the disciple of Polycarp,
the Priest and Martyr… He flourished especially under
the Prince Commodus, who had succeeded Marcus Antoninus Verus
in the empire; that is, from the year 180 to
192; but of his death he has nothing, nor even in
the Chronicle; just as neither does Eusebius, whom he rendered into Latin.
Next S. Gregory the Great, in book 9 of the Register,
chapter 50, to Ætherius, Bishop of Vienne; by Gregory.
The deeds and writings, he says, of B. Irenæus, it is now
long since that we anxiously sought: but hitherto from these nothing
could be found. Whence then could
Ado and Usuardus write in nearly the same words?
Ado indeed: At Lyons in Gaul, the birthday
of S. Irenæus the Bishop, [who succeeded in the place of B. Photinus,
crowned at nearly ninety years of age for the martyrdom of Christ:]
whom also it is established to have been the disciple of the most blessed
Polycarp, the Priest and Martyr, Ado and Usuardus seem to have followed
and near to the Apostolic times:
but afterward in the persecution of Severus, with almost the whole
people of his city, he was crowned with glorious martyrdom:
Usuardus indeed, omitting those few things which I have
enclosed in brackets, has all the rest the same.
[7] I judge that Ado, whom Usuardus abridged in his own manner,
was preceded by the commentaries of the second book of the venerable man Florus,
Florus's second book out of his several books on the same Martyrological matter,
which Usuardus declares in his preface that he employed. The second, I say,
book, not the first: for this latter
I think I gave, with the genuine text of Bede, before
the second volume of March, without any mention, as I have already said,
of Irenæus; whence I gather that it was absent from the first book,
and present in the second. But in this Florus placed Irenæus
out of respect for his own Church of Lyons,
although he had as yet no proper Acta of him; gathered from elsewhere than Acta, and that he gathered
the words of SS. Basil and Jerome, and supplied the rest from popular
tradition. And this was the first occasion
that came to me of distinguishing the second book of Florus from
the first; of which distinction I had received merely a bare
notice from Usuardus, but I could not yet divine it,
when we published March. But now I conjecture that in the second
book several were added, whose celebrated cult was established
even from elsewhere than from their own Acta, namely from the holy
Fathers, and from the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius and
Rufinus, from whom eulogies could be composed, just as it appears
that eulogy of S. Irenæus was gathered, copied
by Ado and Usuardus, whom Notker and others
followed.
[8] As concerns the more ancient Martyrologies, I think that from the first
copies of the most ancient of all, ascribed to Jerome,
the name of Irenæus was absent; just as in fact
it is absent in the Corbeian copy, the name omitted in various copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology, and is also lacking
in the less fully excerpted Selection of the parchments, no less
ancient, of Rhinow, Trier,
Augsburg, Monte Cassino, and the Roman parchments of S. Cyriaca:
but it is present in the Epternach copy written
a thousand years ago, in the Lucca and Blume copies; and likewise in the selection drawn
from some such copy in parchments, those of Reichenau,
Barberini, Gellone, Cologne of B. Mary
ad Gradus, Roman of S. Mary in Vallicella, and others;
but it is present in such a way added in others, that it appears that the first instance of adding it
was made merely in the margin of that place where
the Alexandrian Martyrs, soon to be commemorated, are enumerated:
and when it was now read there written, At Lyons,
or, At Lyons in Gaul, of S. Irenæus, Erenæus, Hirenæus,
Hierenæus, or Hyrenæus: for it is written so very
variously, with sometimes the title of Bishop
added, or of Bishop and Martyr. And when it was thus read
in the margin; I think there were those who, transcribing
the Martyrologies, transferred so illustrious a Saint it seems to have passed from the margin into the text,
into the text; especially from that time when S. Patiens, Bishop
of Lyons, between the years 470 and 490,
took up the body of S. Irenæus from the place in which it had lain buried,
or translated it into another church, on this perhaps
day, since nothing certain was established about the proper day of his passion;
granting that Ado calls it his Birthday festival.
[9] But for those who interpolated the context of the Hieronymian Martyrology,
taking up that addition from the margin, the order of the Alexandrian MM. being interpolated,
it fell out unhappily enough that they placed Irenæus among the Alexandrian
Martyrs, before these words, with six or seven others,
of Leonides, Plutarch, Serenus, Potamiæna, Marcella: which names
the Epitomators of Reichenau and Barberini omitting,
wrote only, At Lyons in Gaul, of Erenæus
the Bishop, with six others: which also in the Arras,
Liessies, and Tournai Additions to Bede
is to be read: but the Gellone copy further added only the name
of Marcella: in the Epternach copy, finally, not only
are these inserted, but also in the earlier class of the same Alexandrian
Martyrs, as the eighteenth among them, as if with six companions added. to Ereneus
is added the title of Bishop. Meanwhile
I am altogether of the opinion that no companions, whether by name
or by number, should be joined to Irenæus of Lyons;
but that he should be left alone, just as in Eusebius he is read
as suffering alone, and indeed before the tyrant, the citizens having first
been removed from the midst by indiscriminate slaughter.
[10] Among the Greek Fathers, besides the above-cited Eusebius
and Basil, also praised S. Irenæus,
known from books written in Greek, Epiphanius, in heresy
31, Praise of Irenæus in Epiphanius, which is that of the Valentinians, saying that the Elder
Irenæus, a man altogether adorned with the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
brought forth by the Lord like a noble athlete,
and anointed with heavenly graces of true faith and
knowledge, attacked and overcame all the trifling doctrine of those men.
Theodoret in his first Dialogue adds and other Greeks;
that, enjoying the Doctrine of Polycarp,
he was the light of the Western Gauls. George
Syncellus in his Chronicle, at the times of the Emperor Commodus,
says that he shone with divine words and deeds.
Hence the Collectors of certain more recent Synaxaria,
found at Paris and in the Grottaferrata Crypt,
together with the printed Menaia, on occasion of S. Irenæus,
Bishop of Sirmium, who suffered under Diocletian on
the 23rd of August; also reported S. Irenæus of Lyons,
with a distich of this kind:
Irenæus hastens to leave the earth by the sword,
for he is on fire with longing toward the heavens.
Irenæus strives by the sword to leave earthly things,
For wholly with ardent love of heaven he burns.
The historical eulogy says nothing,
but in the Menaia on the 23rd of August. which we have not
drawn more reliably from elsewhere; nor does it assign any proper place
of cult, given to him at Constantinople or elsewhere; so that
it appears that he was reported merely on the occasion of a Saint of the same name,
whose day no one knew.
§. II. On the deeds and writings of S. Irenæus.
[11] Our Petrus Halloix, among the Lives and documents
of illustrious Writers of the Eastern Church, He is believed to have been born at Smyrna, because a disciple of Polycarp,
who flourished in holiness and likewise in erudition in the second century of Christ,
assigns the third place to S. Irenæus of Lyons:
and extends his Commentary on him through fully
thirty-three Chapters, with added Notes
of nearly equal extent, so that these with the Life fill a third part of one volume.
Let the reader who desires more consult him: for us it is enough from the original sources
to draw those few things which properly pertain to History.
Therefore I would prefer to opine that Irenæus was born at Smyrna in Asia Minor,
for this reason, that from boyhood he had the Bishop of that city
as his master; rather than to confirm it by the authority
of Galesinius, not great in such matters; or from the Topography of Primus, indeed of John,
Bishop of Chalon. Nor will I
labor to refute the modern writers who made him a disciple of S. John the Evangelist,
at the time when he either died or
was translated, perhaps not yet born. To S. Jerome, who was of John the Evangelist, as also Papias,
in Epistle 29 to Theodorus, Irenæus is indeed a man of Apostolic
times; but with the word taken more broadly,
so as to comprehend even the second century,
and this he declares, when he adds, that he was also a disciple of Papias,
the hearer of John the Evangelist. For
as Irenæus was a disciple of S. Polycarp, although he first
attained the crown in the year 169; so it is not proved
that he was unequal in age to Papias, whose successor about the same time,
that is, only under the rule of M. Antoninus and Lucius Verus,
is known to have flourished. He is venerated here, who
was Bishop of Hierapolis, on the 22nd of February, this one Papias
on the 23rd of January, where Bollandus disputes about the age of both.
[12] Irenæus himself, writing to Florinus: I saw thee, he says,
when I was still a boy, in lower Asia with
Polycarp, having heard Polycarp in boyhood; when… thou wast striving to win his approval
how diligently. For those things which were then done
(just as the knowledge which we imbibe from tender years
grows together with our age, and coalesces with the mind
itself) cling much more firmly to the memory
than the things which lately passed by. Indeed the place
is present to me, in which Polycarp, when
he discoursed, used to sit; and his comings
and goings, and his manner of life and form of body:
and I could relate also his discourses, which he held before
the multitude: and how he himself, with
John and with others who had seen the Lord, such things as he had heard from John, faithfully retained,
remembered that he had associated and conversed;
and likewise how the things which were said by him and
related about the Lord himself he had heard in person,
he was wont to narrate: in what manner also the things which about the miracles
and doctrine of the same Lord, from those who
had seen the Word of life with their own eyes, he had received,
he affirmed all to be conformable to the Scriptures, I seem to myself
able to recount. For these things I (which was the divine
mercy toward me, even as to the age of Christ of 33 years.) indeed diligently
then listened to, not inscribing them on paper,
but imprinting them on my heart, which
even now by the grace of God I always sincerely name
and recall in mind. Hence it could seem of great
authority, attributing to Christ from the account of such masters
an age greater, when he was crucified, than the common opinion holds;
and it would in fact be great, if it were genuine; but
that the passage is altogether corrupt, and that in Irenæus's own
opinion, Christ, having begun to preach at thirty,
numbered three Passovers and no more, Pagius learnedly
shows in his Critical notes at the year 32, number 5, and
therefore that such an opinion ought not to be reckoned among the errors of Irenæus.
[13] Brought up among such documents, and excellently instructed in sacred and
profane letters, Irenæus is presumed
by S. Polycarp to have been promoted through all the ecclesiastical grades,
up to the Presbyterate; His book against the Gentiles, and at that time, when he was thus
attached to him, to have written a book, thinks Halloix,
against the Gentiles, in which, having demonstrated the vanity of idols and
of all their superstition, he might call them back from many
false Gods to the one true God. Of
this book Eusebius speaks thus in book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter
25: There is circulated also another book of his against the Gentiles,
very brief indeed, but most
necessary, on discipline; inscribed περὶ
ἐπιστήμης,
which Valesius renders, on knowledge, in chapter 26 of his division:
which passage of Eusebius, reading or understanding otherwise
Jerome below says, He wrote against the Gentiles
a short volume, and another on discipline. But of his works
not even a single fragment survives among the Greek
and Latin Fathers. Happier was the fortune of those books
He does not seem to have written it before the books against the heretics, which he wrote against the heresies in Gaul, and to a friend,
never yet named, sent into Asia:
for almost the whole first book Epiphanius transferred into his own
similar work, and many other things: which, as they do not allow us
to doubt that Irenæus wrote them in Greek,
although Erasmus somewhat doubted it; so they scarcely permit us, without
scruple, to assent to Halloix, that the book against the Gentiles
was the first offspring of Irenæus, since in the preface of those books against heresies
he excuses himself, as one μήτε
συγγράφειν
εἰθισμένον,
μήτε
λόγων
τέχνην
ἐσχηκότα, that is, neither
accustomed to write anything, nor
skilled in the art of oratory. But what occasion Irenæus had for
passing into Gaul, the same Halloix thus explains.
[14] When, in the times of the Emperor Antoninus Pius
and the Pontiff Anicetus, published after his passage into Gaul, (of whom we judge the latter to have sat from the year 153
to 162) the Valentinian heresy
was gaining strength, and had penetrated not only into Asia, but also
into Gaul; it is easy to believe that S. Photinus,
Bishop of Lyons, weary with his grave age,
and now unequal to the labors and vigils against
the prowling wolves, requested by letters sent that aid
be supplied to him by the most blessed Polycarp:
and that this one, having previously received proofs of the erudition
and holiness of Irenæus, judged him
of all the most fit and suitable for such a province,
and destined him to it. Then he adds, that the first
labor for him, on entering the land, and the most necessary,
was that which he himself expended in learning the language of that nation.
And this is understood from the aforesaid preface against the Heresies;
where, excusing to his friend the simplicity of his unadorned style,
and the effort expended on the language, not Celtic, but Latin; Nor indeed wilt thou demand, he says, from us who
dwell among the Gauls, and for the most part labor at a barbarous tongue,
artifice of words; But there I would by no means understand
the old Celtic, since in those provinces the Latin
tongue prevailed, and was then utterly abolished, even among
the rustics, although these used it in corrupt form; but the very
Latin itself, held by the Greeks to be barbarous; who so little
cared to learn it at home, that even at Rome,
where all the more cultivated spoke Greek, they had no great
need of it.
[15] While Irenæus was occupied in these things, Florinus and Blastus, by the testimony
of Theodoret in book 1 of the Heretical Fables, reckoned in the number
of the Roman Presbyters, but he published those works in Greek, declined into the sect
of Valentinus, whose disease the thrice-blessed Irenæus
deploring, is said to have written
against Valentinus. Those men were either Greek by origin,
or (like the rest of the Roman Clergy) well skilled
in the Greek language; so that on this account no one ought to doubt
whether Irenæus first wrote those books of his in Greek.
But what prevents one from thinking that he soon had them
translated by some one of his household into the Latin tongue;
or rather, for the sake of exercise, translated them himself into Latin,
such as S. Augustine afterward had, and
cites in more than one place? and afterward perhaps he himself rendered it into Latin. Certainly I am not moved from this conjecture
by some barbarism of that translation and asperity of style:
for to whom would it seem strange that a man, however
cultivated, but from the cradle a Greek, such as
S. Irenæus was, who in advanced age first
began to apply his mind to the Latin tongue, should, even after diligent
study expended in it, Græcize, and speak
less elegantly? There is one, says Raynaudus, Yet he is not thought to have used the Greek rite in Sacred things, who refers to S. Irenæus
or his predecessor Pothinus the institution
of the Divine Office, to be celebrated in Greek after the rite of the Asians
at Lyons, which he confirms from a very ancient
codex written in Greek on bark, preserved in the archive
of the Church of Lyons; for in that Codex
the Psalms and Hymns and the whole divine
Office are contained… Yet it is hardly persuasive
that this was received by use in a province of Roman law,
to which the Greek idiom was exotic; and to accommodate himself
to which S. Irenæus had need to publish, or to have published,
his work against the Gnostics, Valentinus and his disciples,
in Latin in any case. but only in Latin. Meanwhile
nothing prevents believing, if the book is truly so ancient,
that it was brought from Asia by one or the other of the aforesaid Saints:
and to commit it to the press and make it public
will be the more desirable, the more the order of the divine Office
shall be found to differ from that which afterward SS. Basil
or Chrysostom arranged; just as we rejoice
to see the Gelasian Sacramentary, and to compare it both with
the Gregorian and then with the present Roman.
[16] After the Martyrdom of S. Photinus, sent as legate to Rome, But however much Irenæus wrote more willingly
and better in Greek than in Latin; of this language
he yet knew enough to be able, without an interpreter, to manage the business committed
to him, when, while still Presbyter of Bishop Pothinus,
he was sent as legate to Rome by the Martyrs of the same place
concerning certain questions of the Church,
and carried letters of honor concerning his name to Eleutherus
the Bishop. Eleutherus sat,
according to the ancient Catalogues, expounded by us,
from the year 171 to 185, in whose sixth year,
when S. Photinus and several others had consummated their illustrious martyrdom,
accomplished on the 2nd of June; with letters written on this matter, the servants of Christ
who dwell at Vienne
and Lyons in Gaul wrote letters relating the matter, to the Brethren throughout Asia
and Phrygia: a copy of which, when
they had also given it to Irenæus to be carried to Rome, at the end of them
they thus address the Pontiff: then he was only a Presbyter, We wish thee in all things
and perpetually to fare well, Father Eleutherus.
That he might carry these letters to thee, we have exhorted
our brother and colleague Irenæus; whom
we ask thee to hold as commended, as
an emulator of the testament of Christ. But if it had been
ascertained by us that office confers righteousness on anyone;
we would have commended him to thee in the first place as a Presbyter
of the Church (for this grade he obtains).
But to what end? Perhaps that the Pontiff might consecrate
as Bishop one chosen by themselves? So I think.
[17] Meanwhile that testimony seems so clear,
that I think no room remains for doubting not yet a Bishop; whether Irenæus
was consecrated Bishop, either at Rome, or after
his return from Rome, at Lyons. In vain does Halloix here
cite the passage from the Life of S. Augustine, who was persuaded,
at the request of Bishop Valerius, to be ordained Bishop
for the Church of Hippo, who would not now
succeed to his See, but be added as a fellow-priest,
while it was urged that it was customarily done by all, and
was proved by transmarine and African examples of the Church.
In vain too would Bede be cited to the same effect,
in book 2, chapter 4, narrating yet if old Photinus had made him such, how Laurentius succeeded
Augustine of Canterbury in the Bishopric; whom
he himself had on that account ordained while still living, lest, on his death,
the state of so rude a Church, even for an hour
destitute of a Pastor, should begin to waver: in which
he was also following the example of the first Pastor of the Church,
that is, the most blessed Prince of the Apostles, Peter,
who, having founded the Church of Christ at Rome, is said
to have consecrated Clement as his helper in evangelizing and at the same time
his successor. he would have done a thing then neither forbidden nor unusual. In vain, I say,
would such things be cited to urge an anticipated ordination:
for not as often as it could reasonably be done
would anyone prudently say it was also done:
yet that it could often be done, it seemed to Henschenius, and the authority
of the most ancient Pontifical Catalogue would altogether prove it,
on which he relies, if it were now of as much weight at Rome as
he believed it would be. Although in those cases also he judged
that such Vicars were not ordained with the full
right of succession; but in such a way that, to have a perfect Pontiff,
a new consent of those having the right to election was required.
[18] But S. Irenæus wrote, after having taken up the Episcopate,
and perhaps even before, according to Jerome,
five books against the heresies; Other writings of S. Irenæus: and against the Gentiles
a short volume; and another on discipline; to
Marcianus his brother, on the Apostolic preaching;
and a book of various tracts; and to Blastus,
on schism; and to Florinus, on Monarchy;
or that God is not the author of evils; and
περὶ
τῶν
ὀγδοαστῶν On the Eighth an excellent Commentary,
at the end of which, signifying that he was near to the Apostolic times,
he thus subscribed: I adjure thee,
who transcribest this book, by our Lord
Jesus Christ, and by his glorious
coming, in which he is to judge the living and the dead,
that thou compare it after thou hast transcribed it; and correct
it against the exemplar from which thou hast transcribed, most diligently;
and this adjuration likewise
transfer, as thou hast found it in the exemplar (Which
solicitude of so singular an Author for this his book
makes it The care expended on guarding against schism, the more to be lamented that it has perished). There are also borne about
other writings of his, to Victor, Bishop of Rome,
on the question of the Pasch, Epistles written about the year
196, in which he admonishes him
that he ought not easily to rend the unity of the college: since indeed
Victor had believed that many Bishops of Asia and the East,
who celebrated the Pasch on the fourteenth moon with the Jews,
ought to be condemned; in which opinion
these also, who differed from those Asians, did not
give their hands to Victor.
[19] Therefore the Pontiff tempered his preconceived rigor;
and to Irenæus, truly a Peacemaker according to the force of his name,
it turned out as he wished, that schism was then guarded against:
yet none the less did he approve the opinion of Victor,
that the Pasch should be celebrated not on the 14th moon of the first month, and the observance of the lawful Pasch. but rather
on the Lord's Day, occurring after the 14th moon and the vernal
equinox; as it was handed down by the Apostles
(namely Peter and Paul) to be celebrated. And so the divine and sacred provincial synod,
gathered at Lyons in Gaul by Irenæus,
the most holy Bishop there, and thirteen other
Bishops, likewise decreed concerning the divine mystical Pasch.
But as Irenæus while living preserved the church from schism,
so dead he in a manner checked the Lutheran heresy, The multitude of citizens who suffered with Irenæus,
when (as Florimundus Remundus writes, on the rise and progress of heresies, chapter 7)
King Francis I, by the honeyed discourses of the heretics
and the arts of masked Catholics
nearly driven into the trap, Cardinal Tournon
withdrew from the fraud, and Gaul itself from ruin;
by displaying the volume of his (as he said) predecessor in the See
of Lyons; and shrewdly suggested to the King (who
was most fond of letters and books) what S. Irenæus
in book 3, chapter 3 left written concerning the hatred of the Apostles and Apostolic men
toward the heretics, and their diligent avoidance of them,
whatever appearance of piety they might pretend.
So does he, rendered into Latin by Raynaudus.
§. III. On the martyrdom, burial, and translations of the Saint.
[20] Gregory of Tours, describing the cruelty of the persecution, in which S. Irenæus,
after the flock of the faithful was given over to common
slaughter, himself bore off the crown, anciently estimated at 19,000: singularly
proved through various torments,
says that neither the number nor the names of the slain
could be gathered. Which indeed is not to be wondered at, if truly,
as Ado wrote, the holy Pontiff, with almost
the whole people of his city, was crowned with martyrdom. Yet a most ancient
Ms. of the church of Lyons,
in Severtius, as Halloix calls it in his Notes
to chapter 12; or, the Ms. Codex of the church of S. Irenæus,
as Raynaudus names it in Prologue 4 of the Index;
or, as it is elsewhere called, a Homiliary (by all of which
I suppose nothing more ancient than the 9th or 10th centuries is indicated)
presumes to determine that there were slain there nineteen
thousand of the living, not counting little children and women.
Which number, says Raynaudus, is
also expressed in these verses, which, in the remains
of a once most magnificent Basilica, at the first
entrance of the pavement, may still be partly read,
set forth in mosaic work with small tesseræ inlaid;
but lately, lest by the devouring age of things
they should be utterly consumed, they were inscribed on the front of the door.
Entering places so sacred, strike thy guilty breast;
Groaning ask pardon, here pour out tears with prayer.
Here lies the throng of the companions of the Prelate Irenæus,
Whom an equal martyrdom led to the heights of the poles.
Ten thousand and nine there were under so great a leader.
[21] Halloix on page 684 cites the Author of the book on
the six ages of the world, in the sixth age, folio 116, saying
that Irenæus was placed by Severus between two
hills, when on one he had set a Cross, on the other an idol,
so that he might choose death by the Cross or life by the idol;
yet with his people he came to the cross, these, set between the cross and the idol, are said to have run to it,
and all were crowned with martyrdom on the 4th of the Kalends of July.
I know not of how great authority is the Author, or rather that book,
in Halloix. At least it will not be approved by all,
what he has about the two hills: although the same author was
more prudent than others in not defining precisely the number
of the Martyrs; content to say that Irenæus, with
all his people, set with him between the hills, (for that
seems to be the sense) was crowned with martyrdom. But that
whole people ought not necessarily to be thought very numerous.
from the author on the 6 ages of the world, printed in the year 1493. The book was collected from various writings
in the year 1493, and indeed in a short time,
as the printer confesses, indicating at the same time the name of the collector,
and certain other things at folio 266, in these words:
The Work on the histories of the ages of the world, and the description
of cities, being completed in the most famous city of Nuremberg,
a happy end is set. Collected
in a short time by the help of Doctor Hartmann Schedel,
with what diligence could be, in the year of Christ
one thousand four hundred ninety-three,
on the fourth day of the month of June. So there. We have
also another book of like argument, comprising the six ages,
printed 18 years earlier
at Lübeck; of which, because not very many books
formed in type before the year 1475 are found,
it is well to copy the Conclusion here, perhaps bringing the reader
some utility. Thus it has: In the year according to the flesh
of the Son of God from his nativity 1475, on the very day
of the most holy King and Martyr Oswald, which is the 5th
of August; in the most holy Father in Christ and Lord,
Pope Sixtus the fourth; under the most illustrious of the most renowned
House of Austria, Frederick the third, most invincible
Emperor of the Romans, ever Augustus, and for
the present residing at Cologne; in the noble Imperial
city of Lübeck, Another book more ancient than that by the printing art, by a special divine grace,
invented for the salvation of the souls of the faithful;
this Epitome, divided into six parts, according to the six ages
of the world, not before found elsewhere, which
it pleased to entitle, the Rudiment of the novices; by the help
of God, who powerfully, sweetly, and tranquilly disposes
things above and below; by Master
Lucas Brandis of Schasz, was happily printed
and finished; containing the histories of the Old and New Testaments
and other incidental matters,
from the First-formed Adam not only up to
Christ, as was promised in the Proem; but
also of all the Emperors and supreme Pontiffs,
up to the aforementioned year, with all
the famous Doctors, Poets, and wise men
contemporary with the same ages, printed in the year 1475, with
their more memorable deeds, the rest cut away,
in so far as it was possible to conclude in a single volume;
so that the poor, in which nothing is read about the 2 hills, not able to buy many
books, might yet have one handbook,
in place of many books always at hand. Nor
let such an abbreviation move anyone, since Christ,
the Fount of all wisdom, did many things which
are not written.
[22] In this codex at folio 326 it is read thus: In the tenth
year of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Verus (for so he calls as if
one those who are two) Hirenæus, the disciple of Polycarp,
Fotinus, Bishop of Lyons, having been martyred,
is substituted in his place, as Jerome says,
On Illustrious Men, chapter 35. but only the number 19,000 is retained. This one wrote many things,
as appears there. He is martyred, after many
virtues, with his Clergy. For at Lyons in one
well, on the mountain of the Martyrs, nineteen
thousand bodies of Martyrs rest. And below,
treating of the fifth persecution after Nero, which Severus
carried out in the tenth year of his rule, he adds:
Likewise, in this year suffered Hirenæus the Bishop and
his Clergy, on the 4th of the Kalends of July. But the clerics, who suffered apart
with their Bishop after the slaughter of the rest, were perhaps six
in number; and so by the three Hieronymian copies,
and the other more ancient Martyrologies cited in number 9,
he is said to have suffered with six others, who with the Alexandrians,
with whom they are intermingled, ought by no means to be confounded.
[23] Ado, in his Martyrology, thus ends the eulogy of S. Irenæus:
He was buried by Zacharias the Presbyter,
in the crypt of the Basilica of B. John the Baptist under the altar:
at one side of whom Epipodius, [Ado says nothing more certain, that the burial was attended to by Zacharias the Presbyter] at the other Alexander
the Martyr was entombed. So reverend is the brightness
of this crypt, that it is believed to mark
the merit of the Martyrs. These things were taken from Gregory
of Tours, in book 1 on the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 50, thus
writing; where, when he had treated of S. Fotinus, and had said that
Irenæus succeeded him, worthy of him both in merit and in holiness,
as Bishop, himself also ended by Martyrdom;
he thus continues: This one is buried in the crypt of the Basilica of B. John
under the altar, and on one side indeed
Epipodius, on the other Alexander the Martyr is
entombed: from whose monuments, if dust
is gathered with faith, it forthwith heals the sick.
For a great brightness is contained in that crypt,
which (as I believe) marks the merits of the Martyrs. Prudently
Gregory is silent about Zacharias, in the crypt of S. John: whom [Ado] had reckoned
among the Martyrs crowned from the year 177, that is
30 years before S. Irenæus: but
although this is doubtful, because from the sense of the Martyrial Epistle,
related by Eusebius, there is named there a certain Presbyter
Zacharias, but Vettius Epagathus is understood,
worthy of the same praise which is attributed to the elder Zacharias, father
of John the Baptist, in the Gospel; it does not become
certain, in the silence of the more ancient Writers and
the lack of genuine Acta, that there flourished at Lyons in that age
a certain Presbyter Zacharias, and indeed
such a one, who, as the same Ado maintains in his Chronicle, for others say that he suffered with S. Photinus: in the time
of Paracodes, Bishop of Vienne, surviving
until the rule of Maximinus, that is until the year
235, flourished as Bishop of Lyons.
[24] It is indeed said in the aforecited homily of the Church of Lyons,
in Raynaudus; After S. Irenæus
had spent the night sleepless in prayer,
B. Zacharias the Presbyter making supplication with him; about the middle
space of the night, an Angel of the Lord stood by with great
brightness, and spoke to the holy Priest;
cause Zacharias the Presbyter carefully to be hidden,
who after thy departure, being thy successor,
may confirm the Brethren in Christ. and another Zacharias, the successor of Irenæus It is
also said in certain Acta of S. Benignus of Dijon,
to be examined on the 1st of November, that he and his companions, arriving at Lyons,
which is the metropolitan city
of the Gauls, found there the holy Presbyter Zacharias;
who then, while a most grievous persecution reigned under the Emperor Severus,
hiding among the sepulchres of the Martyrs,
prayed that divine help might come to the wavering Church. But
neither writing is fit to prove with certainty the true existence
of such a Bishop. For this one indeed
(to be silent about others) says that to S. Polycarp
resting, who is established to have died in the year 169,
38 years before S. Irenæus, it is had only from suspect Acta, suddenly with an innumerable
throng of holy Martyrs S. Irenæus appeared;
who, once the pupil and minister of him,
then adorned the Church of Lyons, over which he had sat
as Bishop, a glorious Martyr with triumphal merits:
whom he also began to ask
and admonish, that he should direct the holy Priests Benignus, Andochius,
and at the same time Thyrsus the Deacon into the Gauls.
But the Homily (as Raynaudus confesses in
the Index, at the eulogy of S. Irenæus) says that S. Polycarp
sent him into Gaul, the chief city Lyons being assigned to him,
so that in the place of B. Pothinus, already dead, he might govern the Church
of Lyons; whom however, while
Pothinus was still living, it is established came to Lyons.
[24] However it be, no Zacharias of the time in which S. Irenæus
triumphed could have laid his body
in the crypt of the Basilica of B. John the Baptist under
the altar, since that Basilica before the times of Constantine
was none, much less a crypt of such reverend brightness
as Ado indicates, and Sidonius Apollinaris celebrates
in his verses, book 2, Epistle 10. See Raynaudus treating
of these things in the Index, at the Eulogy of S. Patiens,
and much more distinctly Chiffletius, but at the beginning of the 3rd century there was not yet such a church, equally our own,
in the Claudian Observations, the 6th of June, number 34 and
following. He there teaches that the bodies of the Martyrs indeed in the time
of persecution lay hidden in the subterranean and suburban
cemeteries of the Christians, or in some bramble-covered
depth such as is described in the Acta of SS. Epipodius and Alexander
on the 22nd of April, when it is said that there was
on a hill set above the city a place thickened with dense
tree-trunks, and there in the manner of a cave, a valley enclosed
with thickets and brambles lay hidden; in which
recess the venerable bodies were sunk by religious provision;
because the fury of the Gentiles, denying outward
burial, [but a bramble-covered valley, from which the bodies were raised in the 4th century to the church of S. Justus.] raged even against lifeless bodies:
to which place also that great multitude of citizens,
who suffered under Severus with Irenæus, was carried, the same
Chiffletius teaches: But afterward the worship of the religious preserved the venerable
place, and reverence handed down through posterity revealed it,
until in a neighboring place was built the church of the SS. Maccabees,
afterward called of S. Justus,
into which its founder, whoever he was,
translated the bodies of S. Irenæus and of some others.
§. IV. On the church and crypt built by S. Patiens the Bishop, and the veneration of S. Irenæus in them.
[26] As the 5th century was drawing to its close, S. Patiens, Bishop
of Lyons, These were founded about the year 480 above the entrance of the aforementioned
cave, or bramble-covered depth, into which the bodies of so many thousands of Martyrs
under Irenæus had been buried, two temples
founded under one roof he built, that is a crypt
and, set upon it, a church of S. John, afterward called of Irenæus;
which to be the very one whose majesty Sidonius Apollinaris
adorned with his hendecasyllables, the aforepraised Chiffletius clearly demonstrates.
Receive them here, in their native
Order in which they are had, inserted in book 2, Epistle 10, to
Hesperius; in which he thus prefaces: A church has lately been built
at Lyons, which by the zeal of Pope Patiens
came to the summit of the work begun… On the outermost parts
of this church, therefore, such as Sidonius Apollinaris describes them, at the request of the aforesaid Bishop,
I inscribed a hasty poem, in triple trochees,
still familiar to me. For from the hexameters
of the eminent Poets, Constantius and Secundinus,
the sides of the Basilica adjoining the altar shine forth:
whom to be admitted into this page, our
modesty most of all forbids; which, timidly publishing
its own idleness, the comparison of better poems
oppresses… But to what end
these things? Rather let the poor stalk of the demanded ditty
murmur on.
[27] Whoever here praises the labor of Patiens,
Our Pontiff and Father:
May he, his prayer fulfilled by supplication,
Experience granted what he shall ask.
The lofty church shines, nor to the left
Or right is it drawn: but with the summit of its front
Looks toward the equinoctial rising.
Within the light glistens, and the gilded sun
Is so drawn to the paneled ceiling, set toward the equinoctial Rising,
That, like in color to the tawny metal, it wanders.
Marble distinguished with varied luster
Runs through the vault, the floor, the windows;
And beneath the many-colored figures
A verdant green incrustation bends
Through the leek-green glass its sapphire gems.
To this is also joined a triple portico,
Proud with Aquitanian columns:
To the likeness of which the more remote
Courts close in a second portico; with most splendid work
And the middle field, set far off,
A stony forest clothes, through columns.
Here the embankment resounds, here the Arar Saône echoes back;
Here the foot-traveler and the horseman turn about;
Here the driver of creaking carriages;
Here the chorus of bent tow-haulers, over the Saône,
The banks answering Alleluia,
Lifts to Christ the river-chant.
So, so sing, sailor or traveler:
For here is the place to be sought by all,
Whither the way leads all to salvation.
[28] That the church of S. Justus also then stood with like
majesty, or at least form, the same Sidonius indicates in book
5, Epistle 17, where he says: We had assembled at the tomb of S. Justus
… There had been a procession before dawn, an anniversary
solemnity, an immense people of both sexes,
whom the most capacious basilica could not contain, to which also was near but more ancient the church of S. Justus. and however much
the crypt was girded with wide-spread porticoes. That it was not this,
but that of S. Irenæus, depicted by Sidonius in the verses written above,
designated by Gregory of Tours under the name of S. John,
wrongly carried back by Ado to the age of Zacharias,
Chiffletius demonstrates in the place aforecited; and that in this
the bodies of SS. Alexander, Epipodius, and Irenæus from the time
of S. Patiens rested, until the times of the iconoclasts;
against the opinion of Audoynus the Chorepiscopus,
affirming in the year 908 that they rested in the basilica
of S. Justus, restored by himself. Which controversy, when
in the year 1410 it was revived by the Canons of S. Justus, for the reason
that Peter Cardinal de Thurey, legate of the Apostolic
See, having translated into new chests the bodies of the Saints Irenæus,
Epipodius, and Alexander, In this, not that, the body of S. Irenæus found in the year 908; on the 5th day of April
had invited the faithful into the church of S. Irenæus to the Indulgences, proposed
for that cause. At length two years after, judgment was pronounced
for the Sant-Irenæans: and some other bodies having thereafter
been found in the same place, and the festivity itself having been translated from
the 5th day of April to the first Lord's Day after the octave of the Pasch,
the following Prayer was instituted, to be recited at
the Mass and divine Office: Almighty
eternal God, who on this day didst will thy most blessed
Martyrs Irenæus the Pontiff, Epipodius
and Alexander, with their companions,
to be most gloriously raised up; grant propitiously, the translation made on 5 April
by the help of their intercession, that we be freed from all
evils of mind and body, and from their
society be comforted in eternal beatitude.
[29] There, says Halloix in chapter 12, so great formerly
was the veneration of S. Irenæus, that not even the sacred
Order of the Canons of Lyons themselves dared to approach
that holy pledge to handle it, except with bare feet
and with a soul cleansed in honor of the Saint from the filth of sins;
nor likewise was anyone
of the citizens or pilgrims admitted to visit it,
except with the same religious observance kept. it is observed on the 2nd Sunday after the Pasch.
Furthermore there accompanied the religion so great a grace
of the Martyr, and so great a multitude
of prodigious benefits, that three books written about them
are said to have existed: which books indeed, by that
iniquity of the times, in which the savage rage of the heretics
held sway over affairs, together with many other treasures
perished. So Halloix, from the instruction, That [relic there held most reverently shone with many miracles,] as he professes
in his Notes, of our P. Antonius Grenu, formerly his
fellow-lodger at Douai, and in the year 1620 Professor
of sacred Theology among the people of Lyons; then from
Severtius, in part 1 on the Archbishops of Lyons, number 2,
he adds the following,
[30] It was the year from the Lord's nativity 1562,
when on the 29th day of April the city of Lyons, taken by
the heretics, was the wretched and lamentable spoil of wickedness
and depravity; and the temples,
altars, images, relics, and whatever was holy,
the mockery of the highest impiety. For then indeed also
the venerable body of the most blessed Irenæus, snatched
from the sanctuaries, cast into the crossroads, torn into parts,
partly is scattered in the river, partly
is reserved for outrage. For the cranium of his head
most wicked men, through streets and squares,
like a ball, with pleasure sought from the crime,
drove with their feet; but it was in the year 1562 scattered by the Calvinists, until at length, abandoned in some
little stream as a thing of no value, by a certain surgeon,
a man of remarkable probity, it was secretly carried off,
and so long carefully preserved, until,
the same city being recovered from Charles IX, King of the Franks,
the heretics being driven out, restored to its former honor
by public supplication, the whole
order saw it; the whole people, as over a recovered treasure,
applauded. The aforepraised Antonius Grenu, who
submitted the aforesaid, in other letters to Ambrosius Silvius, whence only the head, recovered, remains in honor.
his and Halloix's former Superior, wished it to be
indicated to him; that there exists even then, that is in the year
1620 on the 15th day of January, the entire cranium of the great Irenæus,
which, he says, yesterday with these eyes
of mine I saw, and embraced with such devotion as is fitting.
Here it is well to annex the historical Account
of the Controversy stirred up at Lyons over the possession
of the holy body of Irenæus and of other Saints, between
the churches of S. Justus and S. Irenæus, composed
by P. Chifletius, of pious memory, and then transmitted to us.
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT
Of the Controversy stirred up between the Churches of Lyons of S. Justus, and S.
Irenæus, over the possession of the sacred bodies of S. Irenæus, S. Epipodius,
and S. Alexander the Martyrs: from the 21st day of June, of the year 1410, until
the ninth day of August, of the year 1413.
Irenæus the Martyr, Bishop of Lyons in Gaul (S.)
FROM MANUSCRIPTS
§. I. The judgment of Peter Card. de Thurey in the year 1410 for the Irenæans.
[1] Of the Churches of SS. Justus and Irenæus The Church of S. Irenæus S. Patiens, Bishop
of Lyons, built: prior to it was the Church
of S. Justus, formerly called of the holy Maccabees,
since in it not only S. Patiens,
but also his predecessors, S. Justus, S. Alpinus,
S. Antiochus, and S. Elpidius were buried.
Of both Churches, formerly one family of S. Justus and S. Irenæus,
there was formerly one family, which into two first
divided Hugh, from Bishop of Die and Legate of the Apostolic
See, Archbishop of Lyons,
to be numbered among the illustrious men of his age: and the Church
of S. Justus indeed by Apostolic authority
he established to be secular and collegiate, endowing it
with many liberties and immunities,
and retaining for himself and his successor Archbishops the name
of Abbot of that Church: it is divided into secular and Regular Canons. whence
also the title of Obedientiary was given to the President of its Chapter.
The Church of S. Irenæus, furthermore, he willed to be regular
under the rule of the Canons of S. Augustine;
whose head should enjoy the appellation of Prior,
whose dignity and authority should be so great that
in the divine Offices he should use a mitre, that he should have the Abbot of Belleville
of the same Augustinian Order subject to himself,
that in the triduum of the Passion, by the blare
of the trumpet he should cause the people to be summoned to his Church;
that finally in the suburb subject to him,
on the twenty-seventh day of the month of June (which was the vigil of S.
Irenæus) he should appoint a fast, on the following
28th (which was the vigil of the Apostles Peter and Paul)
and the same festivity of S. Irenæus by no means
as a matter of obligation to be observed.
[2] In the year 1410, on the 8th of the Ides of April, Peter, Priest Cardinal of the title
of S. Susanna, In the year 1410 Card. de Thurey commonly called de Thurey,
Legate a latere of the Apostolic See,
with Philip de Thurey, Archbishop
of Lyons, his brother, present,
and a great assembly of Clergy and people and Nobles,
in the Church of S. Irenæus, the bodies of the holy Martyrs Irenæus, Epipodius,
and Alexander, taken out of leaden
coffins, into more elegant shrines
he translated: the arrogance of the Canons of S. Justus being condemned,
who boasted that they had the bodies of those Saints in the crypt
of their Church. Hence
Peter the Cardinal gave the rescript which follows.
[3] Peter, by divine compassion, Priest Cardinal of the title of holy
Susanna, of the holy Roman Church, a diploma being given
commonly called de Thurey,
in Lyons and certain other provinces of the kingdom of France,
with full power of Legate a latere,
specially designated Apostolic Nuncio. To all
the faithful of Christ, who shall inspect the present letters,
eternal salvation in the Lord. The glorious
Martyrs of Christ, who for love of him, the terror
of the world overcome, and the punishments of the body despised,
not fearing to pour out their own
blood, were made possessors of heavenly
beatitude, and shine in the choir
of sanctity; it is fitting that they be exalted by the faithful of Christ
with great praises, and honored with solicitous and unwearied
zeal. For they themselves to the same faithful,
when they humbly have recourse to them, show kindly
ears, and for them (as the illustrious
defenders of devout nations) before the King of Kings
by their excellent merits, and devout prayers,
diligently intercede.
[4] Desiring therefore, as the authority of right requires,
and the judgment of reason demands, to bear testimony
to the truth; we will that to the same faithful of Christ it be made known by clear
notice, that lately, namely
in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and ten,
brought to our notice, the illustrious Martyrs of Christ,
the holy Irenæus, formerly second Archbishop of Lyons,
Epipodius and Alexander,
crowned for the orthodox faith with glorious martyrdom,
by blessed Zacharias in the basilica or
Church of the monastery of S. Irenæus of Lyons,
of the Order of S. Augustine, had been entombed in the earth:
and that our beloved in Christ the Prior
and Convent of the said monastery, asserting that the bodies of the said
Saints had been entombed in their church,
in manifold ways desired the bodies of the said Saints
to be exhumed, and in a more notable place
to be raised; although on the part of certain
Canons of the church of S. Justus it was asserted
that the said bodies of the Saints had been entombed not in the basilica of S.
Irenæus, but in the said church of S. Justus.
we, since we had no certain knowledge
of the aforesaid, desiring to be fully informed
about this varied assertion, on the day of the date of the present letters,
together with the Most Reverend Fathers in Christ, all things being diligently inspected
the Lords Philip de Thurey, Archbishop
and Count of Lyons, and Primate
of the Gauls, our brother, Peter de Saluces,
Bishop of Mende; James of Crepy, Bishop of Dijon,
and also John de Archerio, Abbot of Savigny,
Louis de Varambon of Ambronay,
William Malumpsi of S. Ruf of Valence,
Emardus de Cordone of Île-Barbe, Anthony
de Verona of Athanac, Abbots of the monasteries
of Lyons, and the Lord Peter de
Montéocque, Dean of the Church of Lyons, and
many other men both learned and noble
and lay, in a copious multitude; first we went personally
to the church of S. Justus
of Lyons, situated on the mount above the city:
and there the Canons of that church, knowing
that for making such information we had come
principally; to prove that
the said bodies of the Saints Irenæus, Epipodius, and
Alexander rested in their church of S. Justus,
a certain private writing, in
which was contained that the aforesaid bodies of the Saints
rested in their said church of S. Justus,
on parchment they produced before us: then [of S. Justus]
which, read before us and its tenor
understood, we afterward, together with the same Prelates,
learned men, nobles, and others aforesaid, went,
entered and visited, and subjected to the inspection
of our eyes the very crypt of the church
of S. Justus.
[6] This done, subsequently to the said basilica
or church of S. Irenæus we directed our steps,
the said Prior and Convent processionally
and honorably coming out to meet all
of us: and to prove that the aforesaid bodies of the Saints
rested in the same basilica or church
of S. Irenæus, certain ancient books,
called Martyrologies, Legends
of the Saints, and certain other writings, both in the archives
of the monastery itself, then [of S. Irenæus] and of the metropolitan
church of Lyons, and of S. Nicetius, and of the Athanac
churches of Lyons, found, before
us they produced. In which writings indeed,
diligently read through before us, among other things
it was provided that the bodies of the said holy Martyrs
(namely the holy Irenæus, long ago by
blessed Zacharias buried in the said basilica of S. Irenæus,
namely in the crypt of the basilica of S.
John the Evangelist, under the altar; and the holy Epipodius
at the right side of the altar of S. Irenæus, and
the holy Alexander at the left side) had been
entombed. This also an ancient writing placed in the said
crypt, and public report related: and
the crypt itself, which we saw and visited, manifests
itself. To these things also bore witness three
altars in the same church, by the monuments of both churches namely the altar of S.
Irenæus as it were in the middle, and the altars of the Saints
Epipodius and Alexander on the two sides; to
which the college of the Church of Lyons on the individual
days of the festivities of the said saints went
processionally, to celebrate High Mass.
[7] But subsequently, that the matter might be of greater firmness
and approval, we caused to be called
the Chapter of S. Justus aforesaid, that they might come to
the certification and opening of the tombs of the said
Saints, and to the viewing of the writings sculpted
in their said tombs; that concerning this discrepancy,
which they themselves of S. Justus pretended, they might see
us, with a multitude
of Prelates, Doctors, and Licentiates in
both Laws, about to proceed to the raising of the said holy
Bodies. Whence there appearing
before us for the Chapter of S. Justus our beloved
in Christ Amedeus de Thatam, Doctor of Decrees,
Canon, and Gaufridus de
Cholis, Master of the choir of the said church of S. Justus, and mature deliberation having been had with very many
and also Canons of the same, on the one part;
and the aforesaid Prior and Convent of S. Irenæus
on the other: and mature deliberation having been had on these matters
with the said Prelates, and other solemn
Clerics skilled in both faculties; namely
the venerable and religious men Masters John
Bard, and John Ploteti, Masters in the sacred
Page, and also the venerable men, the Lords
John de Burgo, Chamberlain of S. Paul,
Peter Papa, Sacrist of Vienne, and Cantor of S.
Nicetius of the churches of Lyons; Doctors
of Laws Jerome de Balrad, Judge of the Royal Appeals
of Lyons, Anthony Grandis,
Doctor of laws, Anthony de Furano, James
de Meysiaco, Metropolitan Judge, Licentiate
in Decrees, and Peter de Auxilliaco, Licentiate
in Laws; and several other learned and experienced men
being present there: and this matter
being diligently examined by us together with them, He adjudges the body of S. Irenæus and of the others to that church,
we manifestly found it indubitable and
notorious to be, considering the ancient foundation of the said
church of S. Irenæus, and the writings of the Martyrologies,
and the stone sculptures, public report,
and ocular vision, and the other premises, that the bodies of the said
Saints were not in the said church
of S. Justus, but in the church of S. Irenæus had been and
are entombed: and therefore to the raising of the said
Saints we proceeded in this manner.
[8] First to the monument of the said S. Irenæus,
several wax torches being lit, we went;
and the leaden chest in which the body of S. Irenæus
lay, by our beloved in Christ John
de Han, goldsmith, we caused to be opened. Within which
we found the bones of his head, which by the said
Bishop of Mende with great reverence
we caused to be received and raised, and on a white cloth which held
the Abbot of the monastery of Ambronay, and the Dean
of the Church of Lyons, to be placed, and to us
brought. the Relics being revealed Which head within a certain
wooden chest covered with silver we placed; and
the other bones of his body we caused to be replaced in the same.
Then going to the tomb of S. Epipodius;
and his leaden chest being opened by the goldsmith
aforesaid; we found in it the bones of his body:
whose head was upon his right shoulder,
and from the head itself, wounded in the brain,
a flow of blood still appeared. Which head
with the other bones of his body in a certain
wooden chest we replaced. But going afterward
to the tomb of S. Alexander, the chest
itself we caused to be opened; in which chest the body of the said holy
Alexander, as if in the flesh, with the head
entirely hairy found, we caused to be raised and drawn out,
and brought to us, and in a certain other wooden chest
prepared for this to be replaced and laid away;
and by the Prior and Canons of the said monastery
we commanded, as is fitting, the bodies of the said Saints
to be honorably guarded.
[9] And lest henceforth where the said bodies of the Saints
rest may in future be doubted,
the premises for perpetual memory of the deeds
we publicly attest. And therefore desiring that the faithful
of Christ to showing the same holy Martyrs
reverence and honor may be the more devoutly
invited, the more from these gifts of spiritual grace
they shall have perceived themselves more abundantly refreshed; trusting in the mercy
of almighty God, and in the authority of the Blessed Apostles Peter and
Paul, and from
the power delivered to us by the Apostolic See,
to all truly penitent and confessed, he grants indulgences. who on
the festivities of the aforesaid Saints Irenæus, Epipodius, and Alexander,
and in the general sermon
which shall be made there, and on the day of this raising,
namely the sixth day of April, the aforesaid church
and the places in which the bodies of the said Saints
are placed shall have devoutly visited yearly,
namely on the individual days of their festivities and of the raising,
on which they shall have visited the church and the aforesaid places,
and shall have been present at the said sermon,
as aforesaid; three years, and three quarantines
of the penances enjoined on them we mercifully relax;
the present letters, however, as to these indulgences,
after ten years being by no means to be of force. Given
at Lyons at S. Irenæus aforesaid,
on the eighth of the Ides of April, in the first year of the Pontificate of our Lord,
the Lord Pope Alexander the fifth.
[10] The Irenæans erred when they asserted that the holy
Martyrs Irenæus, Epipodius, and Alexander,
by blessed Zacharias in the basilica or
Church of the monastery of S. Irenæus of Lyons,
of the Order of S. Augustine, had been entombed. The error of the Irenæans. For Epipodius and Alexander
had suffered nearly twenty years
before S. Irenæus: nor could these Martyrs be buried in the basilica of S. Irenæus,
which then was none;
but in the crypts or subterranean cemeteries
of the Christians of Lyons. This old error
infected also the Martyrologists, and the authors
of the Sermon on S. Irenæus, who confounded the third
burial of these Saints with the first. Upon the tombs
of the three Saints who in the crypt of S. Irenæus
were raised, they themselves were lying, in most ancient work
depicted, S. Irenæus directly under the altar of the upper
church of S. John, S. Epipodius on the right,
S. Alexander on the left.
[11] In the year 1410, on the 31st of June, a day is appointed to the Irenæans
by the Canons of S. Justus, [The matter being brought to Rome, John, Patriarch of Constantinople, is appointed arbiter.] at the tribunal
of John de Castrolucio, Seneschal of Lyons:
whence appeal is made to the Senate of Paris for
the possession of exposing in public the raised bodies
of the three Saints; then to Rome for the supreme
cause of the matter it is dragged. There is deputed by John
Pope XXII as Judge Henry, Bishop of Sabina,
Cardinal of Naples. The suit being long agitated
both in the Roman Curia, and in the royal court of Paris,
and in the Prefecture of Lyons, at length an arbiter is chosen
in the year 1413, John, Patriarch of Constantinople.
§. II. Testimonies brought forward for the Canons of S. Justus.
[12] In the year of Christ 858 a venerable, and
in every work of piety and religion
strenuous man, The Canons of S. Justus bring forward for themselves by name Audinus, or Audoynus,
under blessed Remigius, Archbishop of Lyons,
and indeed had for the most part changed its structure;
conferred many goods upon it
from his patrimony, and among others the village
of S. Justus, with all the rights pertaining to it;
In honor, he says, of the holy Irenæus
and Justus, resting in the basilica of the said village.
[13] Anschericus, Archbishop of Lyons,
in the year 927, gave the Churches of S. Clement
and of Vallisvanna to the College of the Church of S. Justus, in
honor of S. Irenæus, and of S. Justus, resting in that one basilica.
[14] various ancient Donations, Archandus, Count of Forez, and Lord
of Beaujeu, in the year 993, gave to the Church of S. Justus
the place of Lectra, and the castle of Yreysiac: and chose
his burial before the doors of the Church of S. Irenæus
on the holy Mount, where had been buried a multitude
of Martyrs. But this favors more the Irenæans,
who then constituted a single family with the Canons of S.
Justus.
[15] Verses formerly inscribed in the porch of the crypt of S. Justus.
verses inscribed in the porch of the crypt of S. JustusIdols a vain thing (O people) and profane images.
Irenæus lies here, his fair sepulchre bearing witness.
Holy Alexander, and Epipodius here rest,
And Polycarp, whose good things ever increase.
Having suffered the flower of martyrdom, they shed their gore.
Twice ten thousand of the nobles accompany Irenæus,
But three hundred are wanting: this I know: yet
Thou must except the number of children and women.
[16] These verses the patron of the Irenæans deservedly explodes,
asserting that they were composed scarcely a hundred and twenty years ago:
and certainly they have nothing comparable
with those which to Constantius and Secundinus, the noble
Poets, we noted to be attributed by Sidonius, in the Illustrations
of the Claudian Observations, in the fifth chapter. which make little to the point, Nor
indeed can those poems be reckoned very ancient
which run in Leonine rhythm, the use of which
before the eleventh century of Christ was as rare or
rather none, as it was frequent thereafter. Innocent
Pope IV, in a bull given at Lyons, on the 15th of the Kalends
of January, in the 4th year of his Pontificate, of Christ 1246,
exhorted all the faithful established throughout the provinces of Reims,
Bourges, Lyons, Rouen,
Sens, Tours, Vienne,
and Besançon, that
by their alms they should promote the structure of the Church
of S. Justus: (which, he says, they had begun to build
with a work not a little costly) with the Indulgences of one year proposed.
And of the same argument he gave commendatory letters
on the 6th of the Kalends of September, in the 6th year of his Pontificate,
of Christ 1247, to the faithful dwelling in the provinces of Canterbury The Chronicle of the Saints of his church,
and York.
This is the very new basilica of S. Justus, notable in material,
work, and amplitude, which was still standing
in the year 1410, and at length in the year 1562
by the raging Calvinists was utterly demolished, and plainly
leveled with the ground, and for more than a hundred years lies in its own
ruins.
[17] The Chronicle of the Saints, whose bodies are had in
the Church of S. Justus, which has thus. Likewise
here are had the relics and body of blessed Irenæus.
The Ecclesiastical history relates that holy Irenæus
was the disciple of blessed Polycarp: who, sent into
Gaul by the aforesaid holy Polycarp, together with
Zacharias the Deacon, and two clerics, entering
the sea, as they came to Marseilles, the dawn now reddening, in which
Irenæus, kindled with the fire which the Lord Jesus sent
upon the earth, said to his own; Come, brethren, let us arise,
and as quickly as possible to the city of Lyons, whither by
the holy master we are directed, let us at last proceed.
Entering, moreover, the aforesaid most noble city
of the Gauls, (where, the greater the people given to the worship
of Idols dwelt, the more abundant raged the fury of the enemy
of the human race against the Christians) he found few,
A summary of the Life of S. Irenæus, who on account of the fury of the gentiles in hiding-places and
huts were concealed: to whom, coaxing them with paternal love,
he said; Most beloved brethren, you ought to know
that the Lord said to his disciples, Fear not
those who kill the body, but rather, etc.
What shall I say? The Holy Spirit had so adorned him,
that with whatever plague of disease anyone
of the sick languished, the name of Jesus being invoked,
divine grace came to his aid: to the blind sight, to the lame
gait, to the deaf hearing, the sick to their former health
he restored; to the dead he granted life, the demons
he commanded, etc. After these things, at the request of
the clergy and people, he went to Rome to Pope Eleutherus,
who delivered to him the See of the Pontificate, after
the death of blessed Photinus. Then he returned to his own
see, where he acquired an innumerable people for the Lord.
Hearing these things, the Emperor Severus
ordered the soldiers to surround the city; proposing the condition
that if anyone should release or defend any of the Christians,
he should incur a like sentence
of condemnation. Therefore all were slaughtered
everywhere; and no sex, no age,
no condition was omitted; so great was the effusion
of blood, that the streets flowed with rivers of precious
blood, and the neighboring rivers, infected with the excessive
gore of the slain, grew red. But there were slain
with blessed Irenæus 19 thousand, and 700,
not counting little children and women, etc. and the memorial of the Relics
[18] Likewise here are had the relics of the Innocents,
who suffered under Herod; likewise of the blood
of the Martyrs a marble sepulchre full, beside
the altar of blessed Mary; likewise the Relics of the holy
Maccabees, in whose honor the Church of S. Justus
was founded from the beginning: here moreover is had
the body of blessed Justus, 12th Archbishop of Lyons;
of S. Justus, a man of wondrous humility and prophetic spirit,
and Confessor. This Justus shone in the Church with such purity,
such patience, such care of the poor, such diligence,
that he surpassed the heavenly beings both in the grace
of virtues, and in the observance of the divine law of the commandments.
of S. Viator, Likewise the body of blessed Viator, Count
of S. Justus. Likewise the body of blessed Alpinus, 13th Bishop
of Lyons, of S. Alpinus, who built the Church
of blessed Stephen the Protomartyr, and the baptistery. of S. Antiochus
Likewise the body of blessed Antiochus, 15th Bishop of Lyons;
Likewise the body of blessed Elpidius, 16th Bishop
of Lyons; [of S. Elpidius, S. Patiens, S. Lupicinus, S. Arigius, S. Stephen, S. Remigius, S. Eusebius, Bishops of Lyons.] Likewise the body of blessed Patiens,
21st Bishop of Lyons; Likewise the body of blessed
Lupicinus, 22nd Bishop of Lyons; Likewise
the body of B. Stephen, 24th Bishop of Lyons,
Confessor; Likewise the body of blessed Arigius, 34th Bishop
of Lyons; Likewise the body of blessed
Remigius, 53rd Bishop of Lyons; Likewise
the body of blessed Eusebius, Bishop of Lyons.
For many other bodies of Saints and Relics
are had here, whose names at present
are not had. Likewise the Relics of blessed Peregrinus, first Chaplain
of the Church of old S. Peter of Lyons.
[19] Boniface de Augusta, Canon of Lyons,
in the name of Peter de Augusta, Elect
of Lyons, an instrument of the year 1287, asks William, Archbishop of Vienne,
that he be not loath to translate the body of S. Justus, and of the other Saints
resting in the Church of S. Justus, from
the ancient tombs into prepared shrines on the 7th of the Ides of August, 1287.
This Peter de Augusta has no place among the Archbishops of Lyons,
because he was prevented by death
before he was installed. He had been Archdeacon
in the Church of Lyons, as Severtius notes
under Rudolph II, Archbishop of Lyons.
But a fault crept in with him, where,
while he reports him to have died on the 13th of the Kalends of July 1287,
whereas it is established from the premises that he was still surviving.
We think his death occurred in the year
1288. The instrument we subjoin here.
[20] To the Reverend Father in Christ and Lord,
by the grace of God Archbishop of the holy Church of Vienne, by whom the Archbishop of Vienne was requested,
Boniface de Augusta, Canon of Lyons,
Procurator general of the Reverend in
Christ Father and Lord, by the grace of God Elect of the first Church of Lyons,
himself with all
reverence and honor. Inclined by the devout prayers
of the venerable men, the Obedientiary and Chapter of S. Justus of Lyons,
we require and ask your paternity
on the part of our said Lord;
that, going personally to the Church of S. Justus aforesaid
(if it please), by the person and
authority of our said Lord, the most sacred
body of S. Justus, The body of S. Justus and of the other Saints in his church and the other bodies of the Saints
resting in the said Church, at the request
of the said Obedientiary and Chapter; to other places
of the said Church, to the honor of the said Saints
and their veneration, you may deign to raise and translate by
yourself or by others worthy of trust; as
shall seem to you and the said Chapter fitting to be done. to examine and translate,
In testimony of which thing, the seal of the officialty
of Lyons we have caused to be affixed to the present letters. And
we, Master James Symeonis, Official of Lyons
to the aforesaid Lord Elect, at the command
of the said Lord Boniface, the said seal to the present letters
have affixed in testimony of the premises.
Given on the 7th of the Ides of August: in the year of the Lord
one thousand two hundred eighty-seven.
[21] At his request four Doctors
of the Order of Preachers, which was done by 4 Doctors, and as many of the Order
of Minors, by the command of William, Archbishop of Vienne,
some bodies of the Saints resting in the basilica of S. Justus,
from the ancient sepulchres into new
shrines they translate on the 4th of the Kalends of September
1287, and the following instrument thereupon
they composed.
[22] To the honor of almighty God, and the exaltation
of the name and faith of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who, an instrument thereupon being composed who diffuses the good odor of his knowledge through
the merits of his Saints into the hearts of the faithful.
Be it known to all, that in the year of the Incarnation
of the same our Lord Jesus Christ 1287,
on the 4th of the Kalends of September, we, Brother
Hugh of Lausanne, Lector of the Cloister of Lyons,
Brother Hugh of Vienne, Brother Richard
of Peziaco, and Brother James de Romanis
of the Order of Friars Preachers of the Convent
of Lyons: likewise Brother John de Vivariis,
Lector of the Friars Minor of Lyons,
Brother William de Corbano, Brother Mark
de Sancto Boneto, and Brother John de Mornant
of the Order of Friars Minor of the Convent of Lyons,
at the instance and request of the Obedientiary
and Chapter of the Church of S. Justus of Lyons,
and also at the request and asking,
or even commission of the Reverend in
Christ Father, the Lord G., by the grace of God, of the holy
Church of Vienne Archbishop, to whom concerning the raising
of the most sacred body of S. Justus, and of the other
Saints resting in the said Church of S. Justus
of Lyons, by the aforesaid Obedientiary
and Chapter it had been earnestly supplicated;
we went personally to the aforesaid Church
of S. Justus, the Prior of the Preachers of Lyons,
and Brother John de Tarantasia
of the same Order, and the Gardian of the Friars Minor
aforesaid, who also concerning this had been requested,
being absent and acting in remote parts.
[23] Since therefore, by the testimony of Scripture, to reveal the works
of God is honorable, they testify lest the lamp of the memory
of the Saints longer lie hidden under a bushel, which
for the promotion of the faith, and the enlarging of the devotion
of the Christian people rather was to be exalted upon the candlestick
of the Church, the tomb of holy
Justus being unsealed at the hand of the aforesaid Lord Archbishop,
of the other Saints lying about the same we caused
the sepulchres to be opened, and the sacrosanct
relics found there, in individual chests specially
deputed for this, together with the Sacrist, and several
other Canons of the same place, we replaced, and enclosed
singly: yet of the individual Relics
separately in little sacks we placed, by the will of the Chapter
aforesaid, to show to the peoples, when
it should be opportune: but the names of the aforesaid Saints
are these. In the first tomb we found
the body of blessed Arigius, Confessor and Archbishop
of Lyons, and beside him in the same
tomb the body of blessed Viator, Confessor
and Count of S. Justus, with writings or ancient charters
making express mention of them.
Likewise in another tomb the body of blessed Patiens,
Confessor and Archbishop of Lyons, on which
was inscribed a marble title expressing
his name. Likewise in another tomb the body of blessed
Eusebius, Confessor, whose name the stone placed above
him set forth. Likewise in another sepulchre
we found the body of holy Stephen, Confessor and
Archbishop of Lyons, whose name a round marble stone
demonstrated. Likewise in
another sarcophagus was found the body of blessed Remigius,
Confessor and Archbishop of Lyons,
whose marble sepulchre with verses expressing him
had from of old been adorned.
[24] Likewise in another sepulchre the body of blessed Alpinus,
Confessor and Archbishop of Lyons, was found,
besides other Bodies of the Saints which beside the tomb of the glorious Confessor
S. Justus aforesaid was situated, whose
truth of the sepulchre is also made known through his
epitaph, which manifests his name with his illustrious
merits. Likewise in another tomb was found
the body of holy Antiochus, Confessor and
Archbishop of Lyons, of whose sacred vestments,
with which he had been clothed, as also of several
others, manifest traces still remained,
upon whose tomb also, according to the ancient
custom of the aforesaid Church of S. Justus,
on his feast, which is observed on the Ides of October,
the Priests and Clerics of the same place a candle were wont
to place. Likewise in another sepulchre we found
the body of blessed Helpidius, Confessor and Archbishop
of Lyons, of whose sacred vestments,
with which he had been clothed, as was said above
of blessed Antiochus, manifest traces were still demonstrated,
whose sepulchre's place also the epitaph
set above showed. Likewise under the altar
of the blessed Virgin of the same Church was found
the body of blessed Peregrinus, Presbyter and Confessor,
with a certain charter written in Greek,
beside whom we found the body of blessed Constantine
the Martyr, who was slain for the faith of Christ by the Barbarians,
according to what a certain stone writing
placed above his sepulchre declared. There is found
also a certain stone vessel under the aforesaid
altar of the blessed Virgin, in which much blood
of the Martyrs had been collected. Likewise in another
tomb beside the ancient altar of S. Justus, were found
bones, which are piously and probably believed
to be of blessed Lupicinus, especially in that, according to
the ancient custom of this Church,
as concerning the other Saints resting there
has hitherto been observed, a procession was made on
his feast with a lighted candle placed above
him, [that there too are preserved the bodies of SS. Irenæus, Alexander, and Epipodius:] and a commemoration of the same. Moreover,
beside the aforesaid sepulchre was found a fragment
of marble stone, which contained part of his name, namely
the two first syllables. In the opening
also of the aforesaid tomb a wondrous and sweet
fragrance of odor emanated, with witnesses standing by.
[25] These things accomplished, we proceeded together with the Sacrist
and the Canons of the same Church of S. Justus to
a certain crypt beside the principal door of the same Church,
under the altar of blessed John the Evangelist,
in which crypt the said Canons believed,
as they had received from their ancient Predecessors,
that within a certain most beautiful marble tomb,
upon which Masses were wont to be celebrated,
the body of blessed Irenæus the Martyr was contained.
To have therefore fuller certainty,
the aforesaid sepulchre, the ironwork and cement broken,
with which from of old it had been strongly closed up,
we caused to be opened, and there we found, and with ocular
faith perceived, together with the Canons, and several
Priests and Clerics of the same Church,
the head and the rest of the bones of a human body with a certain
ancient writing, which contained these
words: Here lies holy Irenæus, the second from
blessed Photinus. These things seen, and the charter replaced
in its place, we closed and sealed the tomb
diligently. We found also in two stone tombs,
which were one on the right, and the other on the
left of the aforesaid sepulchre of S. Irenæus, very many bones,
among which are believed to be the bones of holy
Alexander and holy Epipodius, who according to their
legends, are said to be buried beside holy
Irenæus, one on the right, and the other on the left:
but in the left tomb is a certain little wooden
vessel, where is dust with blood
coagulated and hardened, which is believed to be of blessed
Polycarp, according to what from ancient and trustworthy
Predecessors the said Canons relate.
In testimony of all which things we have thought to affix our seals
to the present letters:
I however the aforesaid Brother James de Romanis,
because I had no proper seal of my own, of the seal
of Brother John Seneschal I made use: and
I the aforesaid Brother John de Mornant, because
I had no proper seal of my own, the seal of the Gardian
of Lyons I caused to be affixed. Given in the Chapter
of the aforesaid Church of S. Justus, in the year and
day as above.
[26] After these things William, Archbishop of Vienne,
the body of S. Justus from the ancient tomb into a chest
of marble supported by four marble columns
translates on the 4th of the Nones of September, 1292,
whence the following monument document was composed.
[27] G., by divine compassion of the holy Church of Vienne
Archbishop, then it was made to all who shall inspect the present
letters, salutation and peace in the Lord
eternal. Whereas the venerable man the Lord
Boniface de Augusta, Canon of Lyons,
Procurator general of the Reverend in Christ
Father and Lord de Augusta, by the grace of God Elect of the first
Church of Lyons, at the prayers and
earnest supplications of the venerable men
G. the Obedientiary and Chapter of S. Justus of Lyons,
has required and asked us, that,
going personally to the Church of S. Justus aforesaid,
on behalf and by the authority of the aforesaid
Lord Elect, the most sacred body of S. Justus
of Lyons, and the other bodies of the Saints resting in
the said Church, to other places of the said
Church, by ourselves or by others worthy of trust, we might be willing to raise
and translate. by the Archbishop of Vienne.
[28] We, attending that we could not easily do all the aforesaid
by ourselves; required
and asked the religious men, the Prior
of the Friars Preachers of Lyons; Brother
Hugh of Vienne, Brother John de
Tarantasia, and Brother James de Romanis,
of the same Order of Preachers; and also the religious
men, the Gardian of the Friars Minor of Lyons,
the Lector of the same place, Brother Mark
de Sancto Boneto, and Brother William
de Corbano of the same Order of Friars Minor;
that on our behalf they should go personally to the said Church of S.
Justus, whenever by
the aforesaid Chapter concerning this they should be required:
and the aforesaid bodies of the Saints to be raised, except
the most sacred body of S. Justus aforesaid, in
chests ordained and deputed for this, on our behalf
they should place and enclose faithfully and distinctly.
[29] So also that if all could not be personally present
at the aforesaid business, the others nevertheless
should not cease from this execution.
And whereas the Prior of the same Order of Preachers,
and Brother John de Tarantasia, likewise the Gardian
of the Friars Minor aforesaid, acting in remote
parts, could not be present at the said business; the translation of the Body of S. Justus
the rest, to whom we had given such command,
in place of the absent, Brother Hugh of Lausanne,
Lector of the cloister of Lyons, and Brother Richard
de Piziaco of the Order of Friars Preachers,
likewise Brother John de Marnam of the Order
of Friars Minor with themselves for fuller
caution being taken, to the aforesaid Church of S.
Justus went personally, and according to the command
given to them by us concerning this, the bodies
of the Saints lying there they raised, and in
chests deputed for this faithfully enclosed.
Whose names are these; Namely the body
of Blessed Arigius, of holy Viator, of holy Patiens,
of holy Eusebius, of holy Stephen, of holy Remigius,
of holy Alpinus, of holy Antiochus, of holy Helpidius,
of holy Peregrinus, of holy Constantine, and of holy
Lupicinus; the most sacred body of holy Justus being reserved
for us; as in a certain letter concerning this
composed and sealed by the same brothers more fully
is contained. These things according to our command
duly accomplished.
[30] into a marble chest, We on the feast of the same Saint, which is observed
on the 4th of the Nones of September, to the aforesaid Church
on this account going personally, having taken
nevertheless with us the venerable and
religious men the Abbot of Savigny, the Abbot
of Athanac; the Abbot of Île-Barbe, of the diocese
of Lyons, with very many religious,
ecclesiastical and secular persons present;
with due reverence and solemnity, the reverend
body of the aforesaid S. Justus, from the sepulchre where
hitherto it had lain, we translated to a certain
marble chest upon four marble columns,
behind the high altar, fashioned specially for him;
and there we installed it diligently.
[31] We approached moreover with the aforesaid Abbots
a certain crypt beside the principal door of the said
Church, where the aforesaid Canons
believed, and in the same church according to what from their predecessors
they had received, within a certain marble tomb,
the body or bones of blessed Irenæus the Martyr
to be contained: and to have fuller certainty concerning this,
the aforesaid sepulchre
we caused to be opened personally before us: and there
we found and with ocular faith perceived, the head
with the rest of the bones of the aforesaid Saint, as a certain
ancient charter found by us there contained,
in these words; The Body of S. Irenæus is asserted to be preserved. Here lies holy Irenæus, the second
from blessed Photinus. These things seen, and the old charter
with our own making mention of the same,
being replaced in the same place, the aforesaid sepulchre
again we caused to be closed and made firm diligently.
In testimony of all which things and
for eternal memory we have thought to affix our seal
to the present letters. Given and done
in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred eighty-
seven, on the 4th of the Nones of September.
§. III. Testimonies brought forward for the Church of S. Irenæus, and the sentence for the same.
[32] The Irenæans brought forward for themselves various things from the ancient Martyrologies
of the Churches of Lyons, The Irenæans offer for themselves
which in the same words Ado relates in his
Martyrology. Which shall follow here. On the 10th of the Kalends
of May, at Lyons in Gaul the Birthday of holy Epipodius, who
in the persecution of Antoninus Verus, after the glorious combats of the 48
Martyrs, who suffered in the same city, with
Alexander his most dear colleague was seized, the latter meanwhile
being thrust into prison; first long beaten in the face with blows of fists,
then tormented by the stretching of the rack, at last
he completed his Martyrdom by the cutting off of his head.
[33] On the 8th of the Kalends of May, at Lyons in Gaul the Birthday
of holy Alexander, various things from the ancient Martyrologies of the church of Lyons, who on the third day after the passion
of blessed Epipodius being brought out of prison, first
was so mangled by the cruelty of those scourging him, that, the lattice-work
of his ribs being undone, his viscera laid open, the secrets
of the soul were exposed: then fixed to the gibbet
of the cross, he rendered up his blessed spirit, lifeless.
There suffered with him also others, 34 in number. Both buried
on either side of the altar in the crypt which
on a hill set above the city, with beautiful and ancient
work was built.
[34] which in the same words Ado relates, On the 10th of the Kalends of September at Lyons in Gaul
the Birthday of the holy Martyrs Minervus and Eleazar,
with their eight sons: whose bodies are had buried in the crypt
which towers over the city.
[35] On the 4th of the Kalends of July, at Lyons in Gaul,
the Birthday of holy Irenæus the Bishop, who, blessed
Photinus being near ninety, and crowned with the martyrdom of Christ,
succeeded in his place: whom
it is also established to have been the disciple of the most blessed Polycarp, the Priest and
Martyr, and near to the apostolic
times. But afterward in the persecution
of Severus, with almost the whole people of his city,
crowned with glorious martyrdom, he was buried by Zacharias
the Presbyter in the crypt of the basilica of blessed John
the Evangelist, under the altar: at one side of whom
Epipodius, at the other Alexander the Martyr is entombed.
So venerable is the brightness of this crypt,
that it is believed to mark the merit of the Martyrs.
[36] Then from a homily or sermon wont to be read in the divine
Offices on the festivity of S. Irenæus and
his companion Martyrs. If to the Martyrs of a foreign region
the pious dues of vows, etc. Among other things follows;
The blessed Martyr of Christ Irenæus, therefore, then from the homily
Pontiff of Pontiffs, gem of Martyrs,
light of the Gauls, mirror of the faithful, the holy Church of Lyons,
although it anxiously retains him wholly to itself,
yet has transmitted to the world in blessing, the relics
of his companions being diffused through almost the whole Church
as a monument of true faith and copious blessing.
[37] wont to be read Then about the middle these things are had. Whence
also blessed Irenæus, the excellent Pontiff, and Doctor
eximious, a man wholly full of God, gem
of Martyrs, light of the Gauls, mirror of the faithful,
whose tongue the Holy Spirit everywhere
ruled, on the festivity of S. Irenæus. whose body was ever the possession and dwelling-place
of God, whose glorious Victory over the enemy
of the world today the universal Church with festive
exultation celebrates together; when in the time
of gentilism the persecution of Severus most greatly,
raging madly in the city of Lyons, ran riot,
nineteen thousand men being slain there, not counting
little children and women, of whom the number was greater,
crowned with a long and most glorious
martyrdom, at length was made a victim of Christ.
This athlete of Christ, the flower of all the athletes of Christ,
in the crypt which on a hill set above
the city, with beautiful and ancient work of mosaic and goldwork
was built, by blessed Zacharias the Presbyter
by night was honorably entombed: at one
side of whom Epipodius, at the other Alexander the Martyr
is buried. Beside whom, set Minervus and
Eleazar with their eight sons, like luminaries splendidly
shining, and apart the most holy Relics of the most holy
Polycarp exist. And in this same
crypt, distant by a very small space from those Saints,
is a well of wondrous size and depth, Finally the sentence is delivered
filled with the fragrant blood of the holy Martyrs.
How many and how great the members of the holy Martyrs
in this same crypt are placed, no one
knows, except he who searches the reins and hearts. But of this
crypt, throughout the whole world, so eminent and reverend
is the brightness, that it is believed to mark
the merit of so many Martyrs.
[38] After these things followed this sentence of John,
Patriarch of Constantinople, for the Irenæans
thus delivered in the year 1413, on the 9th day of the month
of August, that it might free the Canons of S. Justus from all
suspicion of bad faith. And it has thus.
[39] John, by divine compassion Patriarch
of Constantinople, to the kingdoms of Castile, Leon,
Aragon, Navarre, and Granada, and also
to the Counties of Armagnac and * Foix, with
full power of Legate a latere and the faculty of exercising it
in the city and diocese of Lyons, and certain
other parts, by John, Patriarch of Constantinople, specially designated
Apostolic Nuncio: arbiter, arbitrator, and amicable
composer, and investigator of the truth of a doubtful matter, commonly
chosen by the parties, and also named,
to all the faithful of Christ present and
future salutation in the Lord, etc.
[40] He recalls the controversy that arose between the Churches of S.
Justus and S. Irenæus, over the sacred bodies of the holy
Irenæus, Epipodius, and Alexander; and first
in the Roman Curia; then for the possession of veneration,
agitated in the royal Curia of Paris. Then he describes
the very documents of the compromise, given in the year of Christ 1413, on the
sixth day of August, by which the litigants declare that they
choose as arbitral Judge of the whole case, the Most Reverend
in Christ Father and Lord, the Lord
John by worthy grace of God Patriarch of Constantinople:
two Counsellors being given to him,
citizens of Lyons, Jerome de Balardis, judge of the royal
Prefecture of Lyons, on the part of the Church of S. Irenæus;
and John Patermi, Licentiate in Laws,
designated by the Church of S. Justus; by whom concerning the rights of each
party he might be more fully informed: and they pledge
a hundred silver marks each, that they will
abide by the judgment of the arbiter. The matter therefore being studiously discussed,
and the weights of the proofs of each party
most diligently weighed, in the same year of Christ 1413, in the sixth Indiction,
in the fourth year of the Pontificate of the Most Holy in Christ Father John by divine
providence Pope XXIII, on the day
indeed of Wednesday, the ninth of August, the Vigil of blessed Lawrence,
in the choir of the Church of Lyons (which place for settling the suit
had been appointed) in a great assembly of grave men
thus the Patriarch decrees.
[41] Whereas a debate, and a great controversy
long ago had arisen between the venerable men,
the Lords Obedientiary and Chapter of the Collegiate
Church of S. Justus, and the honorable and
religious man the Prior and Convent of S.
Irenæus of Lyons, by which it is declared concerning and over the bodies
of the holy Martyrs, Irenæus the second
Archbishop of Lyons, Epipodius, and Alexander;
both asserting that they exist with
them, and reposed in the crypts of their Churches,
as each of them asserted: on whose occasion
in the Roman Curia first, the Canons of S. Justus and at last over
the possession of veneration, in the venerable Curia
of the Parliament suit was introduced. At length the parties
themselves, attending the counsel of the Apostle, who detests
a man given to lawsuits, and that those bound
to divine services should be alien from such things,
even by giving up the cloak to one unjustly asking for the tunic;
but most of all that scandal might be removed from the midst;
upon us as upon an amicable arbitrator
they commonly descended; but also finally
as to an arbiter and arbitrator they relaxed to us plenary power
to endure for a certain time.
[42] We who in that very city from earliest age
received fostering nourishments, and what is brought forward for each
part more easily could imprint on the mind,
both times being granted to us by the parties,
to the crypts of those Churches and of each one
very often, and on divers and sometimes successive
days personally betook ourselves: and with
the turning over of several and divers books,
bulls, ancient instruments on both sides
exhibited, the viewing of characters and letters
sculpted on stones, and verses described on
the walls, the visitation also of the places,
in which the bodies were said to lie, as
diligently as we could, we sought the truth. In a manner
we so found for each party possible proofs,
and resulting presumptions
doubtful, that the party of those of S. Justus had a probable
and just cause of litigating and prosecuting, to have proceeded in good faith:
without suspicion of evil fraud, calumny,
or other machination, undoubtedly,
and could prosecute, nay even it was lawful,
especially from this that (as they asserted by certain
asserted writings, and testimonies of certain ancients,
who reported themselves to have had it from other more ancient predecessors
of theirs) the bodies of those Saints
first in the crypt of the Church of holy
Justus aforesaid were reposed, which afterward by blessed
Patiens to the Church of holy Irenæus
were translated, as they said. Yet that in the crypt
of the same Church of holy Irenæus, directly
under the altar of blessed John the Evangelist (as
certain Martyrologies contained) in the middle
of the vault only, as we caused to be marked out,
and by a cord, first above, and then below
to the sense personally we proved, solemnly
and reverently they had been placed, we found. Therefore
these things being carefully weighed on this side and that, to deliver our
arbitral sentence we proceeded
in this manner.
[43] The name of Christ being invoked, counsel and deliberation
being had with the Counsellors chosen by the parties,
we pronounce, decree, and declare, But that the Bodies are in S. Irenæus,
that the bodies of the aforesaid holy Martyrs,
Irenæus, second Archbishop of Lyons,
Epipodius and Alexander, concerning whom there was contention
between the aforesaid parties, were and are
in the crypt of the Church of holy Irenæus aforesaid:
and that the veneration of those holy Martyrs,
by reason of their bodies, was, is, and
ought to be understood to be, in the aforesaid Church of holy Irenæus:
nor henceforth concerning those bodies, and
their veneration, ought the aforesaid Prior and Convent
of holy Irenæus, and their successors,
by the aforesaid of the Chapter of S. Justus to be molested,
nor ought they to be molested. Not on that account
denying that, if anyone in the Church or crypt
of holy Justus aforesaid wishes or desires to venerate
the said glorious Martyrs for devotion's sake,
it should be lawful to him.
[44] And by the same sentence we pronounce, decree
and declare, that all and singular causes,
suits, controversies, and questions, without prejudice to the church of S. Justus in its goods on occasion
of the premises between the aforenamed parties,
and whatever other persons, emergently or
incidentally, dependently, or otherwise moved, and in whatever
way pending, wherever they be moved or
pending, and which might be hoped or could be moved
under pretext of these in future; rancors, hatreds,
verbal, real, and personal injuries; reproaches,
damages, and interests whatsoever; to cease,
extinguished and perpetually remitted, and remitted, abolished
and to be and to be understood abolished. And that
the aforenamed of holy Justus may, and
it be lawful to them and their successors, in their banners,
seals, oaths, prayers, and also processions,
the image of holy Irenæus; and the goods,
lands, places, villages, castles, possessions,
rights, revenues, values, and rents, which under
the name of the holy Justus and Irenæus, or of either
of them have been given or granted, to bear,
express, name, retain, and also possess,
as in the time of the suit moved they did; since
anciently one of those Churches of the holy
Justus and Irenæus, as the writings hand down,
proceeded from the other; the expenses on this side and that in whatever
way made and sustained, by the same sentence remitting,
and also compensating; and that
also the parties themselves be held and ought this our
pronouncement and sentence, forthwith
the individual persons who are present, and
within the morrow until midday in their
Chapters, to ratify.
[45] He adds, that the aforesaid sentence was praised, approved,
ratified, homologated, and confirmed
by the litigants standing by, an oath also being made upon
the holy Gospels of God: and the next day,
the tenth of August, on Thursday, at the hour of prime, by the Chapters
of each Church with equal consent received and
approved.
[46] Raynaldus, Continuator of the Annals of Baronius,
at the year 1413, number 18, recalls from
the Vatican records, the legation of John, Patriarch of Constantinople,
into Spain this year sent by John
Pope XXIII. Furthermore, John de Rupescissa,
who was both Cardinal and Archbishop of Rouen and
of Besançon, Ciaconius asserts
to have been also Patriarch of Constantinople:
to whose opinion, although neglected by most, willingly
I assent, since in this rescript the Patriarch
confesses that in the city of Lyons from earliest age
he received fostering nourishments, which also to John
de Rupescissa all confess to agree. This
therefore Spanish legation, joined to that shadowy
Patriarchate, paved the way for John to those richer
benefices, which to him in the following years were
conferred.
Noted* or Furi or Turi