ON ST. QUADRATUS,
BISHOP OF ATHENS, ECCLESIASTICAL WRITER.
ABOUT THE YEAR CXX.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
Of his doctrine, Episcopate, confession, cultus; and of distinguishing from him the Magnesian & Philadelphian Bishops of the same name.
Quadratus, Bishop of Athens, Ecclesiastical writer (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
The first and that most ancient memory of S. Quadratus stands in Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History: who in the third book, when in chapter 36 he had treated of the martyrdom & epistles of S. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch, Illustrious by the grace of prophecy, in the following chapter 37 writes these things: At the same season, under the emperor Trajan, there flourished also Quadratus: who is commemorated to have been illustrious in the prophetic grace with the daughters of Philip. Besides these, several others also flourished at the same time, holding the chief place among the successors of the Apostles. Who, as disciples of such great men, plainly admirable & divine, by building completed the Churches whose foundations the Apostles had before laid in various places: more & more promoting the preaching of the Gospel, & widely scattering the saving seeds of the kingdom of heaven through the whole orb of the lands. Since most of the disciples of that time, whose minds the divine word had kindled with a desire of a more ardent philosophy, had already before fulfilled the precept of our Saviour, by dividing their goods among the needy. Then, leaving their country, going abroad, they discharged the office of Evangelists; striving to preach Christ & to deliver the books of the sacred Gospels to those who had not yet heard the word of the faith. These things there more studiously: which whether they pertain also to S. Quadratus, will appear from the things to be said below. Of the daughters of Philip we have already said somewhat at the Life of S. Philip the Apostle 1 May. The Acts of S. Ignatius we gave on the I day of February. But Trajan died on the X of August of the year CXVII.
[2] The same Eusebius book 4 chapter 3 says these things again of S. Quadratus himself. When Trajan had held the Principate for twenty years less six months, Ælius Hadrian undertook the Empire. To him Quadratus offered an Oration, he offers an apologetic oration to the Emperor Hadrian. which he had composed for the defense of our Religion for this reason, that certain malevolent men were endeavoring to vex & assail our people. This oration is extant even today among most of the Brethren, which we also have: from which both the genius of that man & the right doctrine of the Apostolic faith may clearly be known. Moreover the same Writer sufficiently declares his own antiquity by these words: But the works, says he, of our Saviour were always conspicuous, inasmuch as they were true: namely those who were freed from diseases, or who had been called back from death to life. Who indeed were seen by all not only while they were being healed, or while they were being recalled to life, but in the time that followed thereafter. Nor only while our Saviour tarried on earth, but even after His departure they remained alive a long time: so that some of them have come even to our times. These things of Quadratus. So Eusebius, whom Georgius Syncellus copies in the Chronography, both without mention of any Episcopal dignity: & besides the related fragment nothing is found concerning the said Apologetic Oration of S. Quadratus.
[3] Finally the same Eusebius book 4 of his Ecclesiastical History at length pursues the things which befell under M. Aurelius Antoninus & L. Ælius Verus, reigning from the year CLX to the year CLXXX, & in chapter 23 has these things: First indeed it must be said of Dionysius, who held the Episcopate of the Church of the Corinthians… & wrote various Epistles to divers Churches… Of these one is written to the Athenians, exciting them to faith & to leading a life by the precept of the Gospel. The Bishop of Athens renews the ardor of the faith: In which matter he charges the negligence of the Athenians: inasmuch as they had almost fallen away from the faith, from the time that Publius their Bishop had undergone martyrdom in the persecutions then stirred up. He mentions also Quadratus, who after the martyrdom of Publius was constituted Bishop of the Athenians, and testifies that by his labor & industry the citizens came together again into the Church, & the revived ardor of the faith was repaired in them. These things there of S. Dionysius, whose remaining Acts we gave on VIII April, as those of S. Publius Bishop & Martyr on XXI January.
[4] S. Jerome asserts that the things hitherto said are to be understood of one & the same Quadratus: & this he could know from the Tablets of the Church of Athens. For in Epistle 84 to Magnus the Roman Orator, he renders a reason why he sometimes added examples of secular letters; & by whose example he does it, he widely shows. he allays a persecution: I will run, says he, through individuals. Quadratus, a disciple of the Apostles, & Pontiff of the Athenian Church, did he not deliver to the Prince Hadrian, visiting the sacred things of Eleusis, a book in behalf of our religion; & was he not of such great admiration to all, that his excelling genius allayed a most grievous persecution of his? The same confirms the same things in the book on Ecclesiastical Writers chapter 19 with these words: Quadratus, a disciple of the Apostles, Publius Bishop of Athens being crowned with martyrdom for the faith of Christ, is substituted in his place: & gathers by his faith & industry the Church dispersed in great terror. And when Hadrian had passed the winter at Athens, visiting Eleusis; & being initiated in almost all the sacred rites of Greece, had given occasion to those who hated the Christians, without the Emperor's command
to vex the believers; he saw those healed & raised by Christ. he offered him a book, composed for our religion, very useful, & full of reason & faith, & worthy of the Apostolic doctrine: in which, also showing the antiquity of his age, he says that very many were seen by him, who under the Lord had been healed of various calamities oppressing them in Judea, & who had risen from the dead. These things S. Jerome, by whom the Eleusinian rites are indicated, wont to be celebrated in Honor of Ceres for the corn received, & named from Eleusis a town of Attica. From Jerome Honorius of Autun in the book on Writers chapter 20 excerpted these things: Quadratus, a disciple of the Apostles, Bishop of Athens, wrote a book for the Christian religion, very useful, worthy of the Apostolic doctrine.
[5] Moreover the sacred memory of this holy Bishop is inscribed here and there in Martyrologies written by hand & struck by the press at the present day XXVI of May, in which Ado has these things: Memory in the Martyrologies. At Athens of B. Quadratus the Bishop, a disciple of the Apostles. The same words being related, Usuard adds these things: Who in the persecution of Hadrian gathered the Church, dispersed in great terror, by his faith & industry. He also published a book for the defense of the Christian religion, full of faith, & worthy of the Apostolic doctrine. Which things are also read in today's Martyrology, and it is added that he offered the said book to the Emperor. More things from S. Jerome Notker copied; the more recent followed. But he who published a Martyrology under the feigned name of Bede has these singular things: At Athens of B. Quadratus the Bishop, a disciple of the Apostles. This man established, that no food should be repudiated by Christians, which is rational & human: which the Catalogues ascribe to S. Eleutherius the Pope.
[6] Finally Peter Halloix, in the first century of the Ancient Fathers & Writers, inserted a sufficiently long Life of S. Quadratus, The Life amplified by Halloix is omitted. distinguishing it into seven chapters, under these titles: Chapter I. Native land, age, education, studies. Chapter II. Advancement to the sacred honors, & the first labors in the function of them. Chapter III. Coming to the city Athens, & the assumption of the Episcopal burden. Chapter IV. For the Christians, whom the persecution of the Gentiles vexed, he offers a book to the Emperor Hadrian, & obtains peace for the Churches. Chapter V. His last labors, & a departure worthy of his past life, & the honors after death. Chapter VI. His writings & the single fragment. These things are widely deduced, the foundation being taken almost from those things which we have brought forth from the ancient Writers: accordingly we remit the reader, who is delighted with such amplifications, to the aforesaid book: where he will also find long notations. In the last Chapter VII the martyrdom of S. Quadratus is set forth from the Menæa of the Greeks, as if it were that of him of whom we here treat: & that eulogy is adduced from the day XXI September: On the same day the memory of S. Quadratus the Apostle. This ancient & much-knowing man announced the Word of the Lord at Athens & at Magnesia, Wrongly held a Martyr & Apostle of Magnesia: and brought many illumined by his teachings to the light of the knowledge of God. Whence also at Athens, far from his flock, he is driven away by the injury of the persecutors, then first attacked with stones, & tried by fire, & by other punishments, at length under Ælius Hadrian bears off the palm of Martyrdom.
[7] But these pertain to another Quadratus: whose Acts of martyrdom in the ancient Menology of Basil Porphyrogenitus the Emperor are thus related at the said XXI September. this is the younger Quadratus Bishop of Magnesia in the year 250. On the same day the contest of the Holy Hieromartyr & Apostle Quadratus, Bishop of Magnesia, & his companions. Quadratus the divine Hieromartyr, Apostle of Christ & Bishop of Magnesia, flourished under the Emperors Decius & Valerian. He, when he had heard that Decius was staying at Cæsarea, having set out from Magnesia to Nicomedia, that he might exhort the Saints assembled by him, who were in chains, to undergo with singular alacrity of mind martyrdom for the name of Christ, is recognized as a Christian by the Proconsul of Nicomedia: before whose tribunal being produced with the rest of the Martyrs, when first he confuted the impostures of the idols, the others being most grievously beaten, & again thrust into prison, he is led to Cæsarea to Decius. By whom, when by no art he could be brought to abjure Christ, being subjected to the question by various torments, & by divine benefit snatched from all, crowned with martyrdom on 21 September, at length he is cast into a furnace vehemently kindled: but having come forth thence also unhurt, condemned to death of the head he died. Thus far the Menology of the Emperor Basil, from the translation of Peter Arcudius & the edition of Ughelli in the 6th Tome of Italia sacra, but wrongly placed at the day XX September, on account of an error begun at the day XVI September, which in the Greek autograph is the day XVII; & because this error is continued even to the day XXX, I see two Eulogies, pertaining to that last day of the month, divided into two days by the Latin translator. These things noted in passing, let us return to S. Quadratus Bishop of Magnesia, of whom one Canon is had in the Menæa at the following day XXII September, and from it Peter Halloix excerpted XXXI eulogies, & published them at once in Latin & Greek, as pertaining to S. Quadratus Bishop of Athens, although in them no mention is made of Athens, nay of Magnesia in the XXIX eulogy these things are had: The casket of thy Relics, like a divine ark, Magnesia obtains, O Quadratus, renowned at Magnesia for the Relics, & from it draws all profit by desire. But the tabernacles of the heavens, which possess thy soul, together with all the Saints exult.
[8] But on the contrary S. Quadratus, of whom we treat this day, sent to Athens to preach the word, after he had evangelized to that city for many years, illustrious in doctrine & life, as the other at Athens rested with a holy end, and there lies buried. So Peter de Natalibus book 5 of the Catalogue chapter 47. Moreover in the cited eulogies no mention also is made of the book or apologetic oration offered to the Emperor Hadrian: of which nevertheless Nicephorus Callistus very honorably makes mention, & extols his virtue, but using almost the words of Eusebius, without any mention of Martyrdom: but we on the contrary from S. Jerome have also said, that by the excelling genius of this Quadratus a most grievous persecution was allayed. Meanwhile, because we see the title of Apostle attributed to the Magnesian Martyr, we believe that both the Quadratus were fused into one person by the compilers of the Synaxaria; since he who is so greatly praised by Eusebius had no name in the Greek calendars, much less a certain day of cultus. But this would give me occasion of suspecting that he died not at Athens, where he had been Bishop; but abroad, and so came into oblivion even to his own Athenians; did I not see also Publius, commended not only by the Episcopate, but even by Martyrdom, in the same Calendars of the Greeks passed over unhonored. Wherefore no other cause of such an omission occurs, than that the proper feasts of the Athenian Church were unknown to the authors of the Synaxaria, the Acts of the Saints being wanting, by an annual memory otherwise most worthy, whence the day of their death might be learned. But how the Latins learned it more certainly than the Greeks, or whether someone chose a day for such great men according to his own judgment, I indeed do not divine.
[9] Furthermore although Eusebius, from the Epistle of Dionysius of Corinth, so clearly teaches that Quadratus was Bishop at Athens; yet there have been found those who would send him off, not indeed to Magnesia, but to another city distant a two days' journey, Philadelphia. Now Magnesia is a city of Caria, distant from Ephesus XXV miles to the east, a second mile from the river Mæander: & hence toward the North is Philadelphia a city of Lydia on the river Caystrus, who was not Bishop of Philadelphia, distant from Magnesia about LX miles, to whose Bishop, under the title of the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia, is directed the sixth Epistle of Christ the Lord in the Apocalypse of S. John chapter 3 verse 7 & following. Peter Halloix in Chapter 2 of the Life of S. Quadratus brings forward this Epistle, & explains it, & asserts it written to S. Quadratus; but in the Notations he adduces those so thinking, Peter Aureolus, Nicholas of Lyra, & Brondus; nay he says, that he found no one who named another then the Angel of Philadelphia, than S. Quadratus. John de la Haye in his Biblia Maxima Tome 17 page 741 adds that the expositors commonly say that this was Quadratus. But on the contrary Gregory Ferrarius in his Commentaries upon the Apocalypse, explaining this sixth Epistle, page 183 objects, since from S. Jerome & others S. Quadratus but another different from both. was Bishop of Athens, not of Philadelphia; deservedly Alcazar, Pierius & others deny this to be the Bishop: who accordingly remained uncertain & unknown. With whom we too assent, vehemently doubting whether he who is venerated today as S. Quadratus, was ever in Asia.
[10] I had finished: but Zegerus Paulus the Carmelite tugs my ear, in the Notes to the Life of S. Telesphorus the Pope composed by him, Whether a Carmelite, lest I forget to add Quadratus to his Elian & Prophetic Order, Eusebius carrying the torch to this, both in the place before cited book 3 chapter 37, and book 5 chapter 16; where from the work of a certain Miltiades against the Montanists, he enumerates the Prophets of the new Testament, Agabus, Silas, the daughters of Philip, Aramia of Philadelphia, Quadratus. This Zegerus, flattering himself & his own; And those, says he, are not so called Prophets only for this, that they were endowed with the gift or spirit of prophecy, but most especially because they were followers of the Prophetic Order, whose Professors were of old the sons of the Prophets… & therefore the same who above Agabus, Judas, Silas, & certain others by Palæonydorus & Didacus de Coria, in their Annals, are expressly reckoned among the men of the Elian or Prophetic Order. Lezana in the Annals at the year 128 relates these things, as piously premeditated, though not certain. Others do not stop there, but R. P. Philip a Visitatione, in his Acies bene ordinata, absolutely & without scruple reckons Quadratus among the Saints of the Carmelite Order, alleging in the Ms. Notes Marianus Scotus & Lezana. Lezana's judgment we have already heard, acknowledging all these to be the inventions of pious meditation alone, & supported by the testimony of no ancient Author, such as the matter would require: yet he alleges Marianus Scotus book 2 of the Chronicle age 6 as if he is to be taken in that sense, when he says, Among the same Prophets there flourished a man equally distinguished Quadratus, who together with the daughters of Philip is reported to have been most celebrated in the prophetic grace. I labored, but in vain, seeking those words in the editions of Marianus which I have. Yet let us grant that they are found in him: they expressly treat of the Prophetic grace, by which Quadratus shone forth; not of any Prophetic Order, nor known among the ancients even so much as by name, in that sense in which the Carmelite Fathers obtrude it upon us.
[11] But not yet enough. Philip a Visitatione, meditating something above that pious meditation of his own, & master of S. Telesphorus the Pope? From a Philosopher, says he, & a Master of the Eliots, made Bishop of Athens, he confirmed the whole Church with S. Telesphorus, his first disciple. Thus into pretty big flocks are compacted
the very finest snows fallen from above through the void.
Telesphorus, in the year CXXVI was made Roman Bishop, from an Anchorite (so the Pontifical Catalogue has it) therefore a Carmelite. By nation a Greek; therefore an Athenian, a disciple of Quadratus. That Quadratus was a Prophet, therefore also a Carmelite: for all those numbered by Eusebius are called Prophets, not so much because they were endowed with the prophetic grace, as because they were followers of the Prophetic Order: but this was the Order of the Carmelites. Is there in this whole progression even a single proposition which has a fitting connection with another? If there is not; who shall justly be angry with us? because, not contemplating phantasms, but collecting the testimonies of the ancient writers, nor asserting anything beyond what these prove, we believe we ought to proceed more cautiously, as often as those things are offered to us which could scarcely be elicited through many inconsequent premises by the meditating Palæonydorus & Coria, & after these by others, following their predecessors without discussion; & doing this only, that they might clothe with some verisimilitude whatever sayings of their elders, so long as no one was brought forward who positively said the contrary: as if the old writers could have refuted, otherwise than by their silence, that which many ages afterward the moderns were going to excogitate.